Hi Mike, I think you had it right the first time.
Becoming centered and remaining at peace amidst huge turmoil does not require that you lose your humanity, though it probably does mean you transcend your current concept of humanity. I think recognizing we're out of balance is good because we become aware we have a lesson to learn. The act of learning the lesson brings us more into balance, helps us recognize more of our inherent centeredness and wholeness, and provides us with the strength and courage we need to meet the next lesson. The point of all the lessons is to help us learn to keep balancing what is imbalanced until we are perfectly balanced. I think that place of perfect centeredness, wholeness and balance is available to all of us, and is the entire reason we're here. Balancing, or resolving our polarities, is good, good, good. In the way we're using terms here, "balance" isn't death, but enlightenment. (Though as I ponder it, there is the death of the ego to contend with, so yes, there is a death.) As for balancing fear/control and letting go/going with the flow... try this. Draw a triangle with a base line at the bottom and two lines moving up to the third point at the top. Write "fear/control" under the left point at the base of the triangle, and write "letting go/going with the flow" under the right point at the base of the triangle. This is the polarity you're trying to resolve. Now you have the remaining point, at the top of the triangle, with nothing written yet. This is the point of the ascended balance, the state of being that transcends this particular duality. Now sit with your polarity and feel into it. What attracts you to each polarity? What repels you from each polarity? Feel into a state that transcends the attraction/repulsion of both, and find that place where you are centered and whole and sure. If you can't find it, stay with it. Ask for help and trust that you will receive it. Now that you've brought this up, I can see so many of my ponderings about OST embedded in this very triangle. Thanks for bringing a bit more light to my understanding. This method of polarity processing is based on Leslie Temple-Thurston's work and especially her book The Marriage of Spirit. Julie -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Mike Copeland Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2003 10:23 AM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Re: Fear and control (waxing lyrical) Thanks Harrison You have just blown my idea of Nirvana. I've always thought there must be a place where I can be centred and remain at peace amidst huge turmoil. But you're right if I was always there I'd lose my humanity; life. I still get angry and you from time to time even let myself feel a little joy! So from where I float in the South Pacific, New Zealand, its far better BEING IN the river than out! Mike Copeland -----Original Message----- From: Harrison Owen [mailto:hho...@comcast.net] Sent: Tuesday, 4 November 2003 2:11 p.m. To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Re: Fear and control (waxing lyrical) Michael wrote: how does one find the balance between fear/control and letting go/going with the flow? I don't think you ever will. And if you did - you would be dead. As the fellow says - when you reach equilibrium in biology, you are dead. So then what? I would guess we are all on a journey up or down the river - replete with all sorts of ebbs and flows. It would be great if it all would just even out (balance out). But it never does. Unless of course you choose to leave the river . . . harrison. -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu] On Behalf Of Mike Copeland Sent: Monday, November 03, 2003 7:19 PM To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Re: Fear and control (waxing lyrical) Beautiful words everyone You have all brought me to the guts of my initial enquiry: Finding that balance comes back to being a co-creator with spirit for me. I am spirit's hands, eyes, ears, mouth piece; yet I am not all of it! Spirit flows regardless of whether I hold its waters tight or with open palms. My experience is enhanced or diminished depending on my stance. This is what open space is teaching me. My co-operation, malleableness, flexibility, ultimately openness to spirit is what life is all about. The four principles, one law and spirit of open space are not just for meetings. They are for living! In trying to live these things out, in the furnace of everyday trials, especially in relationships, open space provides me with a framework to be receptive to spirit; mine and the world's. That's all Mike Copeland -----Original Message----- From: Peggy Holman [mailto:pe...@opencirclecompany.com] Sent: Tuesday, 4 November 2003 9:35 a.m. To: osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Subject: Fw: Fear and control (waxing lyrical) Robyn -- lovely image! This conversation reminds me of one from last January called "self-organization is what consciousness (spirit) does". I pulled this snippet of mine from it: I recently was given a gift of an image around this that I've found quite helpful. A Buddhist priest attended Spirited Work (a learning community that gathers quarterly in OS). He used an image of hands for holding space. Actually, here are Master Chang's words: >Since I left Whidbey Island, I've constantly thought of OS and its spiritual manifestation in earthly conditionings. It's dawn[ed] on me that >we constantly create mental boundaries and then transfigure them into organizational rules, etc., which we call containers. Thus, there are >levels upon levels of containers, depending on levels of minds that we have. What OP[OST] methodology attracts me is the way it can >facilitate and accommodate multi-levels of containers by very few simple rules of gathering and interaction. The challenge for me in >creating an OP[OST] organization is to be able to make available (and to promote) evolutionary & consequential levels of >unfoldment ... so one can evolve from "container/2 hands cupped, facing each other" to "supporter/2 hands open, facing upwards" to >"being/handless gesture" ... I LOVE this picture of hands reflecting the evolution of space, perhaps because it mirrors my own growing comfort with space. (While I aspire to it, I'm not sure I'm ready to hang out in the space of "look ma, no hands!") It reminds me that we are all at different places of comfort with openness. I may go screaming from the room when the space feels too closed and someone else go running to their room because the space is too open. Peggy ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robyn" <p...@iinet.net.au> To: <osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu> Sent: Monday, November 03, 2003 6:22 AM Subject: Re: Fear and control (waxing lyrical) > RE: > If you close those two hands - you end up with two fists. Definitely not > what we want. > > ~ (delighted laughter!) I pictured the closing of two open hands, like > an almond. The result, according to a dear and wise women that I know, > is the mandorla, which has become a very powerful symbol for me in my > journey towards wholeness. > * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html _____ Attention: This e-mail (and attachments) is confidential and may be legally privileged. _____ * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html _____ Attention: This e-mail (and attachments) is confidential and may be legally privileged. _____ * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html