Group Discussion: Lead by Ashley

Last night we had a wonderful discussion lead by Ashley.  While taking her seat Jade led the group in the "name game" exercise.

To start the evening Ashley read the following quote which expresses the groundlessness of presenting the Dharma to a group of people.

Hearing Words of Wisdom

When we listen to a speaker, we are gathered and expectant. We expect an ideal message or certain edifying ideas from the speaker. Because of our need to satisfy our intellect and emotions and to get some security, we want to hear words of wisdom, and we remold the speaker's words to satisfy that need. We shape them and reshape them, manufacturing fixed and definite impressions from the raw materials of the speaker's words. The result is that we constantly have nothing but ourselves bouncing back on ourselves. That is always a problem. It is very difficult to find both an audience who will sit in no-man's-land and a speaker who speaks from no-man's-land. That kind of attitude is very difficult, extremely hard to find.

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Ocean of Dharma, 365 Teachings on living life with courage and compassion

While being right there with her anxiety around leading discussion, Ashley beautifully lead the group into a social meditation exercise.  The gist was that we partnered up and, with our eyes closed, got in touch with the "face" we put on for others.  Doing our best to project this quality out to our partner, we opened our eyes and felt was it was to be with another person while steeped in it.  We closed our eyes again and dropped it, opening our eyes again to our partner to be with them without pretense.  


As a group, we debriefed and heard many folks different, and similar experiences with the exercise.  A number of folks expressed the first part to have a gross, or sickly sweet quality.  A number of folks described putting on a fake smile or being particularly exuberant as a way they present themselves.  Some describe a physical tension in their bodies.  Most who spoke up described the second half of the exercise to be a relief.  Especially those who had been participating in the group for some time and had experience with this sort of social meditation, and even longed for the sort of direct connection that occurs here.


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