Waking up the innate powers of connection to experience, and integration through practice.

For this written piece I want to assume something, offer something that is true and accessible in its first form, and highlight the principles that are demonstrated as a result.

My assumption is that yours and my senses work in much the same way, only differing in the degree of subtlety and particular detail. I also assume that we share the ability to connect to something, to a phenomena with our attention. By focusing with our attention we entrain ourselves to the object (or subject) of our focus. The connection deepens with repeated practice.

Another very important thing we share is the ability or the potential to be curious. Curiosity is a certain attitude of awareness to the unknown. Without curiosity, we can learn “by rote” and repeat certain patterns, but there is not the spark behind the action to also ignite joy and invigoration: the action is imitation only. Curiosity is fueled by something, propelling us forward effortlessly. We can be curious within repetition and discipline, but we must start with curiosity. It is like planting an orange tree before building a house, we work to construct the scaffold and the structure and so on, whilst knowing that the oranges are on their way. We can know that the house we build will be richer for its shared beginnings with the orange tree. Later in the life practice, the orange tree continues to give, and the life of the home is both structurally sound, and nourishing. In this way curiosity must be part of the foundation of any expedition of transformation practice.

There must be a certain level of innocence within this work: not naivety, but rather a lack of constrictive agenda. Our maps of meaning and value, and the story we tell about our experiences can either amplify or eliminate. An approach to practice that is open enough to allow the unexpected, to allow us to be surprised, is really essential to the process of making meaningful connections and learning through synthesis.

What I'm pointing to here is a certain power or character trait. It may seem an obvious statement, but consider the following: a thread has one loose end, as we follow the thread, we enter the weave, and as we pull and manipulate the thread, we change the weave. Curiosity then, is a way or method of pulling a thread, or following a trail. Using a curiosity with our senses in direct perception practice will have a certain affect on the weave. What we perceive will respond to that particular tone or attitude. It is not the only way to manipulate the weave, but having left gaps for the unexpected to flow through, we end up with a richer pattern, and a subtler experience.

So if the attitude of curiosity is at least somewhat established (or rediscovered), we can become aware of the way or feeling our attention works from that basis. Once the sentiment and practical focus are symbiotic, real change starts to occur.

But what is the weave? What realm do we want to focus our beings on? Assuming we can at least categorize the difference between thinking and feeling, ideas and sensation (or the combinations thereof), we can choose where to focus: thinking or feeling, imagination or sensation. I don't want to make value judgments on the personal practice of individuals, but rather offer a perspective on integration: Self-localization is the ongoing process of connecting to the resources of the present moment. I'm specifically referring to the sensory information presenting to the awareness, that precedes the layering of meaning that comes after. The assumption is that the attitude of curiosity is an open enough map to allow this direct experience to pass the filter.

So if we are practicing to localize the self, and approach deeper and deeper levels of embodied connection through direct perception, curiosity is a great attitude. By extension, trust is the glue of integrity. As the sensory experience within the present moment unfolds, as the weave shifts and shimmers, we slowly establish a deeper connection that is orientated around permission and non-violence; deeper subtlety, more reliable feedback; ongoing trust in the act of practice.

Another way to say this is that the mundane can be nourishing, if we approach our sensory experience with the right attitude, this curious focus. The point is not that we will have some kind of revelation (we likely will have many), but rather that we can begin to redefine success, redefine the feedback relationship with reality to allow the best conditions for simple satisfaction. Integration is moving towards the safety of being interconnected through voluntary practice, accessing resources made available according our own curiosity; personal allegiance with ever-present forces. The orientation around simplicity, localization and the present moment reduces the dynamic tension of transformation to a gentler level; I.e sustainable practice.

There is another assumption within this whole model: that practice can be in any moment, any space. That the living experience itself is one continuous thread within the weave of life. The way we wash the dishes, the way we sit and write, the way we sit and talk with friends, work and play, love and grieve, rest and travel. The way we move with each step, breathe each breath, all of this is the weave, and our particular point of awareness is a thread within the larger pattern.

Improvisation is a process of responding to the moment, making decisions within a state of flow that holds our attention and our sense of purpose. Improvisation allows focus through uncertainty, continuation through variation, and authentic connection to experience. Sensory improvisation then, is directing focus effortlessly in connection to sensory phenomena, relaxing into choice and curiosity in such a way that we nourished by our own awareness.

The way we follow the thread; pulling the string, affects the weave at large. We experience more of what we do; we are the weave, speaking back to ourselves through sensory phenomena.


www.michaelmasoellis.com/mentoring.html

We live in exciting times! Never before have we had such freedom to write and right our own stories. The resources available to the discerning individual are great and varied. We have time to have a good hard look at our experiences and what they mean to us...

And where are most people before they embark on a critical trans-formative process? The strengths of the times are also the challenges. Vast information and conflicting value systems and powerful global forces combine to create a potentially overwhelming context to respond to as a growing individual. Our education system runs on top down industry orientated principles that homogenize and ostracize. Our cultural history is laden with the trauma of world wars, colonialism and the destruction of natural beauty and ancient cultures. The world our parents grew in, and their parents before them, is gone, but the legacy remains. Each generation has thrust upon them the psychic material from the past...

It has been my great pleasure to find myself in service of the Story, that ephemeral realm of character, setting, and process. Stories and storytelling are arguably what makes us human, and a great deal of emphasis is placed on narrative, paradigm and dare I even say it 'truth'. What I find to be particularly significant, is that a story both serves and obscures, it is a map, and a blindfold. Life experiences often impress upon me the importance of a trans-contextual, and indeed integrative approach to stories. It is no secret that there are patterns that shine forth from the apparent chaos. One only has to look with an eye for similarity, rather than difference, and patterns, large enough to encompass the spectrum of human experience, appear. Pattern recognition is that delightful part of human intelligence that showers grace on the fussy beggar of the mind. Here, and in moments like this, there is something that leaps out at us, a cartographer's sense of order. The full territory may not be mapped, but there is enough ink on the page to know, at the very least, that there are indeed dragons, and by god someone else noticed too!

So, having survived a desperate longing for...belonging, in a world of maddening complexity, how can I best transmit that which helped me to settle into a sense of safety? Well, if not safety then at least an invigoration in the face of uncertainty. Determining the difference between the two seems unnecessary, given the effect is the same; a desire to share the wonder and scale of a story that allows for both safety and challenge, that cutting edge of a life that expresses itself in totality, in a present moment that is born of two mothers: the falling and the flying, the speaking and the listening.

Metaphor and symbol could well be thought of as gods. We could erect great statues in honor of the divinity of these fundamental elements of experience itself. Such majesty in seeing through the titanic eyes of these gods. What does a thing represent? What do a few things, in relation to each-other represent? The pattern speaks to us with these voices. And importantly, us, not some abstract sense of what a person is, but to us in our personal experience. Somehow, and this seems miraculous, metaphors and symbols speak from the abstract to the personal in an inclusive way. However, we need to have the courage to allow our personas the required flexibility to be seen! This is to say, omens are many, if we want to hear what they say. Their messages come hidden in plain sight in all experiences.

The liminal zone, that space between worlds, is the comfort of some, and unknown to others. There is, at any moment, a source of importance, a mysterious fuel that feeds a fire in the consciousness of experience. Harnessing this substance, the very feeling of 'emphasis', 'meaningness', 'significance', is the act of connecting to the unknown powers within and without. The shape of the fire is not so important as knowing how to catch this essential spark.

How then do we seize this dragon-fire? The terrible truth is, without facing the fearsome beast itself, ourselves, we don't really know what the fire is. Do we need to be burned in order to understand the power of fire? Challenge is a double edged sword, slaying and discerning. Fear does strange things to one's sense of importance. Avoidance is the other face of fascination...the very thing we turn away from is the gatekeeper to the tunnel through obstruction. Death, disillusion and the void await the courageous explorer.

Rebuilding, reigniting, carrying the torch out of the dark forest, branches scratching ones face maybe, fleeing the wolves of truth maybe, we return by choice or perhaps we fall straight back to the dinner table, and no-one even notices we were gone. How do we know what we found? We found it, nobody else, so it falls to us to speak it. As we hear ourselves tell our travels, we find that we are not so different after all. That lots of dragons have been encountered, and lots of fires reclaimed.

What have you found? Where did you go to find it? How did you get there?

I build a fire, to catch a spark. The spark was thine, by the fire is mine. The wood is hers, and I lay down my furs. A dance of dust, with feet of land, and the breath of light, in wizard's hand.

These are words, for shaping worlds, but tongues that speak long grow weak. Shorter still, the best in town, I laugh and laugh...a shadow clown. Wild dogs run circles nearby. Will you dare come closer? There are seats, one for you and me. Lets share this night, and this burning tree.

Creative Mentoring and Personal Mythology

The philosophy of profound psychological freedom...

Phew that's a bit of  a mouthful! Anyway...what does that even mean? Well the short answer is 'well..what do you think?'

We hear these terms thrown around.. 'thinking outside the box'...'having an open mind' and other such metaphors of what can be thought of as psychological freedom. Freedom is one of those ever seductive and profoundly subjective elements of the human experience. People die for freedom, they kill for freedom, and they make mountains of art all about freedom. Its about as sensitive and powerful topic as you can find, I'm my experience. So what is psychological freedom? How does it differ from regular freedom (if there is such a thing)? Well, freedom can mean unbound or unstuck, experiencing 'liberty'. Absolute freedom in the physical world is elusive...I can't fly unaided...so I cannot experience absolute physical freedom. But what of the freedom of thought? Ideas? Emotions? Indeed of consciousness itself?

Psychological freedom

I'd like to take a moment to note the definition of psychological... and I don't mean this:
adjective: psychological

1. of, affecting, or arising in the mind; related to the mental and emotional state of a person.
   "the victim had sustained physical and psychological damage"
   synonyms:mental, emotional, intellectual, inner, non-physical, cerebral, brain, rational, cognitive, abstract, conceptual, theoretical; More
   rare psychical, mindly, phrenic
   "other drugs can do much more psychological damage"
   • relating to psychology.
     "psychological research"
   • (of an ailment or problem) having a mental rather than a physical cause.
     "it was concluded that her pain was psychological"
     synonyms:(all) in the mind, psychosomatic, emotional, irrational, subjective, subconscious, subliminal, unconscious; More
     imaginary, unreal
     "it was concluded that her pain was psychological"
     antonyms:physical

No that's not what I mean! Instead of taking this definition, (main reason: its so vague, negative and misleading..PLEASE!..synonyms include both emotional and abstract?!), as revealed in a google search, lets engage with...you got it! (drum-roll please!) 'The philosophy of profound psychological freedom...'

Psychology - The Language of the Soul

It is not, I feel, common knowledge that the Greek word 'Psyche' actually means soul... and the suffix 'logical' comes from 'logos' (also Greek) meaning 'word, reason, or plan'. So to me, that means that 'psychological' actually refers to the words, reasons and plans of the soul... (By extension, we can unravel the words psycho-therapy, psycho-social, psycho-spiritual, psycho-somatic and so on and so forth...but I digress!)...We have, ladies and gentleman, all grown up in a world where the original meaning, of these profoundly important words, has been lost...nay DELIBERATELY obscured and commandeered to reflect the world view of the powers that be. Please note that I am not railing on psychologists, people are not their labels (see what I did there?), but I am prodding at the core of 'human psychological wisdom'... so to speak.

Philosophy

Lets look at the word philosophy! 'Philo' meaning love, and 'Sophy' meaning wisdom...Philosophy then is the love of wisdom, not the smarts, not cleverness, or the ability to explain away the truth, but rather that wonderful application of practical knowledge, intelligence grounded in experience.

I don't mind this definition of profound (also courtesy of google):

So by this definition:

'The philosophy of profound psychological freedom' is the 'love of the wisdom of expressing the heartfelt language of the story of the soul'

So what?

...so incredibly awesome!

Yes, the great analytical mind demands tribute. So what indeed? Well, it only takes a little inquiry to discover a deeper and potentially liberating set of concepts to work with. It might not be obvious, but we do have the opportunity to decide what words mean to us personally. Especially words that are about....well, us... I know there are 'experts' and whatnot...but sometimes things just need a bit of a shakeup, you know?

If we can somehow arrive at a relatively 'open mind' in this fashion, perhaps we might be moved to express something of ourselves. Why is that important? Well if that's not obvious, then let me assure you...it is fundamentally important to personal and community well-being (its so obvious I'm not even going to reference anything to prove it)...we need only the courage to risk it!

Perhaps this definition is a good stepping stone...a mere mental stimulus...hopefully empowering, y'knowmsayin?

Honoring the expressive resource is scary as hell, but the treasure is priceless, can't be taught (only encouraged), and is the root of authenticity.

YAY GO HUMANITY!