About coming around a full-cycle together in the last semester. Posted by John on November 04, 1999 at 17:40:04:
Well, I guess it's time to start getting on with it, so I'll just ramble
a little for awhile this afternoon. Hello, Kiddees. We seem to have
made it over successfully to our new domain.
"Steady and casual" are my "watch-words" these days. I'm going to try
to be as relaxed as I can during the rest of this semester and on
through 2000. Steady and casual.
Thanks, Jeff, for copying your e-mail technical observations to Brent
and me. That's appropriate. He'll be back in Tucson this weekend.
There are more "adjustments" to make, but we made it over to here
intact! I have lots of blessings to count these days, and this is right
up there.
Mickey on October 31, in response to: THIS CLASS WILL REMAIN ON-LINE...
:
>I was so happy to discover this web that I cried with relief!
I really appreciate your stepping in and sharing that human experience,
Mickey. Welcome! It reminds me that there are some of you out there in
Webland that have come by here and we don't even know about you. And
now, here's Lydia!
>Thanks - I'm a newcomer - a lot of good food for thought...
And you're welcome to whatever nourishment you experience in it, Lydia.
If either of you newcomers have any sharings or questions please feel
free to pipe up with them. The others who have been here already will
enjoy your presence with us too.
During the end-of-the-month transition from late Friday night to the
Monday morning of the move, I noticed that we had 201 hits on the
entrance counter in the Site Map. This seems to suggest that there may
be some more of you people out there in Webland who haven't spoken up in
Classroom Talk so far. If so, I'm happy to extend a warm welcome to
you, as well . . . to just go on being here as you may choose.
>Hooray! You did it! I never had any doubt in my mind that you would pull this all off without a hitch Coach!
Thanks, Suz, for having so much faith in me (and intuition!)—more than I
had, at times, during these powerful transitional times for me. I'm
still nervously getting used to it all, and shaking my head in wonder.
(That's a conversation between two Student/Believers. "Hooray! You did
it!" That's the "cheer-leader" in you. Thankfulness (i.e. saying
"thanks"), not having doubts, trusting, having faith, as well as my own
nervousness and anxiety about it all, my "lack of faith"—all these are
in the province of the Student/Believer's essence and personality.
These phrases and ideas, whenever they come up during the course of
life, are "the music of" the Student/Believer.)
Thinking back awhile, I had posted a class called "How do I know if I am
asleep or awake?" Late in that class I mentioned:
>I can look at the nature of what I'm doing in relating with any other person and catch on fairly quickly to which one of the types I'm doing now, if any. I pick up on the music of the types, like one recognizes the differences between grand opera, country and western, jazz, and rock n' roll.
I was quite fascinated by your response to that thread, Suz:
>I am glad you mentioned something about music in a couple of recent postings as this stands out in high relief for me! I have wanted to mention it before
You went on then with some detailed experience sharing (i.e. good
communication) about your feelings about the field of "music, itself."
I gather you've been "busting" to share this, and it is great to know
about the breadth and depth of your experience of feelings about music.
It's obviously an important part of *who you are*. It's great to know
this much more about you. This is an interest that you share in common
with a number of us here. As dear as this posting was to my old ears,
the thing that I was most struck by, however, was *the music of this
posting, itself*.
This is going to surprise you. I need to say first that discussion
about the field of music is as relevant to mindfulness training as any
other subject that we might discuss here! I'd like to emphasize that.
The actual feelable vibrations of music have been known to be healing,
and music has been used for that purpose by healers in primitive tribes
and throughout human history. To the mindful, music therapy, and dance
therapy are available modern realities for healing. (I still do the
"dancing like nobody's watching" exercise that Sally brought up once in
class to lighten up my tensions). And I sing a little in Hawaiian every
day.
Musfaad and Perk actively use singing as part of their awakening
training. All those Arabic words that they have posted are the
vibrations, not only of Sufi knowledge, but of Sufi awakening itself.
Chanting in awareness appears to be common to all of the spiritual
trainings, from Christian to Jewish to Hawaiian to American Indian. And
when we meditate in sacred places and pick up on the vibe of the "mana
of places," it is in this sacred mindful music that has been sung and
danced to in the sacred place that one may feel it. Perk gave a good
account of this in his journal of visiting Muslim shrines in Morocco
among a group of pilgrims, as did Musfaad in his solitary experiences of
the Oak Goddess in the wilderness. Music is wonderful! What an amazing
thing that we humans have been given it! And, music can both heal and
bring us into awareness.
All that being acknowledged, Suz, I think it will surprise you that the
personality music that I seemed to feel I perceived in hearing that
delightful posting of yours was . . . . . the music of the Dictator.
Can you believe that?
Maybe I'm mistaken, but the music I seemed to hear in that posting was
the music of this other one of your possibly apparent personality types.
the Can-Do Person/Dictator. Can you guess why I seemed to hear it that
way?
Remember that we aren't going so much by the content of what a person is
talking about, for instance, the subject—which in this case is the
subject of music. In attempting to recognize the music of the eight
types, the *first* thing we are doing is trying to get underneath the
subject that's being discussed if we can, and attempting to see the
obvious and apparent context that it is put into. What is the manner in
which the subject is delivered? The easiest way to see this is to ask:
"What is the person doing here?"
If you look at the scorecard in the Personality and Essence Wheel (in
the Playground), you will see that same question is asked. In
attempting to understand the personality types of any person—whether
your own or that of any other—the question to ask is "What is the person
doing here?" (We can consider the subject, or the content of the
message later, and get more clues from that, but *first*, we need to see
the context . . . that is, the *form* that the content of the message is
being delivered in.)
So, when Coach is saying:
>I can look at the nature of what I'm doing in relating with any other person and catch on fairly quickly to which one of the types I'm doing now, if any. I pick up on the music of the types, like one recognizes the differences between grand opera, country and western, jazz, and rock n' roll.
What is the context that holds the subject I am discussing here? What
am I doing? What is the *form* of it? I am lecturing, right? I am
teaching. I am even bragging a little bit on my own abilitites here,
right? I sound a little conceited, even . . . but it *is* real
teaching. This sounds like the music of the Teacher/Con Artist.
And when Suz responds to this thread by saying:
>I am glad you mentioned something about music in a couple of recent
postings as this stands out in high relief for me! I have wanted to
mention it before [and then she goes on to express her feelings about
music in general]
What is she doing here? Read the two quotes one after another. What is
the *form* of what she is doing? Suz did what? What is the nature of
the form of behavior that is shown here? What is happening here?
And how in the World do you suppose that Coach might tie this in with
the Can-Do Woman/Dictator?
Suz, I am "calling on you." I don't remember ever doing that so
directly in Classroom Talk in the past, but "calling on students" is
usually a normal part of real classrooms, so—what the hey?—I am going to
start doing a little of that in the First Grade.
Let me explain—especially for newcomers who might be a little
uncomfortable about the idea of being called on for answers to my
questions—that the rules here say that you DON'T have to make any
response at all when I do this. If you don't feel like it, don't do it!
And I'll drop the question. It will soon be forgotten as we move on.
Nobody *ever has to talk about anything* in this class that they don't
feel comfortable talking about in order to remain a "student in good
standing" in this school. I hope that's clear.
And Suz, I'm picking you out to be the first student in this class to
get called on in this way (ta-dah!!!) out of respect for your reservoir
of courage. Also, it seems to me that you've shown a lot of personal
growth in your postings over the last month. So why do you suppose—in
addition to my enjoyment of the content of that posting of yours—did the
'ol Coach' imagine that he heard the music of the Can-do/Dictator in
that posting?
If this "calling on students" experiment works, then:
a) if you make no response at all, then I'll drop it.
b) if you respond that you don't know, then I'll "throw it open" for
answers from other students here to try to get it.
c) if your answer is incomplete, I may ask for other students to have a
try at it, too, or else add comments of my own.
d) if your answer is correct, you will get a gold star on your notebook
{wide grin}
Can we try this out for awhile, Kiddees, and see if it works?
Thank you, All.
Coach
In another thread, soon, I'll be looking at some of your postings, Doug.
Wowee! You've sure been full of "vim and vinegar" these days! Reading
Ouspensky? Ha! Yes, I seem to see a lot of changing in you going on,
too, that seems to reflect a lot of personal growth.
I can't tell you both—Suz and Doug—how delighted I am to see you Kiddees
"making nice" to each other, as Hawaiians put it. Remembering back to
the beginning of the last semester of Classroom Talk postings, beginning
with "Who started the fight on the playground?" it seems to me we've all
come all the way around a whole cycle together in this class since then,
in a number of ways.
Continue with Winter 1999/2000 Classroom Talk or
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Archived February 13, 2000