Classroom Talk
Spring - Summer 2002 Archive
Beat me, Dad-dy, eight to the bar! Posted by John on May 16, 2002 at 15:28:06:
Wowee! It does my heart good to see that you can get going like a house afire, Douglas, boogeying like that when you spot something in the field
that you're interested in and you like to jam off of.
This is something I've been trying to get across to everybody in this class for a long time now . . . if you can wake up and discover something specific
that you really like and love to do, that discovery is very powerfully energizing. And here we see Douglas off to the races, hat blown off in the wind.
I hope you all can see this as clearly as I do, Everybody.
One day our hero is down in the dumps and flat on his back with quite understandable suffering. And the next day he's building a gol-dang
corporation, from the start, brick by brick. Last Tuesday, I was pretty well convinced that you were giving up the ghost, Douglas. Giving away your
coin collection and your prized books . . . Well . . . You know as well as I. So I told you about my concerns and how I felt, and you certainly have
reassured me that you ain't dead yet.
I don't know where to start in comending your panoply of efforts, but I guess, after all, I'd better start by pointing out that we are talking about a
fictitious plan here, a fantasy idea, a just-for-play project (like little kids do—heh-heh) . . . . . . indeed, we are talking about something that is very
highly unlikely that all of us can *actually*do. A year from now, will there actually be such a corporation in the real world? Will this corporation have a
functioning staff and be raising revenues in appropriate ways that pay for the corporation's over-all operations and payroll? (I take it non-profit
corporations are exempt from paying tax, and are eligible for grants, and contributions). Will such a hugely complex entity as this actually exist in the
real world a year from now?
"*Get real*!!!" as you have said to me from time to time, Douglas. And yet, here you are designing our new fictitious corporate logo (I'm excited to see
the first four drafts that you've come up with already!) and calling to one and all of us for our first fictitious Board of Directors meeting! Ha! (And
the sound of one hand clapping, many times from me!) You are Douglas on the spot! You are on the ball! You are saying "Let's go!" "Let's do it!" You
have power! You have clout!
Whereas I—mistakenly, thank God—was thinking only a few days ago that you were going to end it all, you are demonstrating, not just in words but
in *actions* that you ain't dead yet, and there's obviously more to come.
Before responding to your suggestions here, let me remind you that *my fantasy* about this project was that we would, first of all, graduate a class of
experienced founding students. Although you are leaping like a meteor, Douglas, we all have more work to do in the Sixth Grade before it would
seem to me that we were honestly ready to incorporate the school and see what kind of new life doing that sort of project would bring.
What purpose could such a project serve, unless we have truly qualified people to administrate it?
In this last school year of our formal training here, there are several more things that I would like to cover. Maybe they aren't necesssary, but these
are what I have in mind.
I'd like to cover abit more the art of having a daily mindfulness practice going, how to practice so that students wake up more often and can remain
awake longer when they wish to.
We've never really taken a close look together at what is called "the Ego" in the awareness game model. The term has many different meanings in
different training approaches, and a very clear and specific meaning in our terminology that I would like to shine a light on. I'd like to help all of you to
realize that you can *see your egos happening*, as the term ego is explained here. The object is not to have "no ego." The object is to know the ego
when it's activities are happening, so that you can "step off of it" whenever you'd like to.
Now that Eon has gotten his first dream job *completely on his own* (which I didn't intend to interfere with, so he could *see* he could do it on his
own without me), I would now like to go ahead and share that training I mentioned long ago, called "Being relentlessly on the job trail." There are
dream jobs to be had, for any of you here.
I would like to do a training on using mindfulness to intentionally find someone to love—showing how men and women can have different parts to
play in recognizing and becoming close with someone to care about and be cared for by, someone that they can have soul companionship with (and
perpetuate soul companionship with when one has already found that someone to love).
And I would like to get into these questions of mindfulness and the family more, too. What part can mindfulness play in having peace and harmony at
home, and in raising children in a healthy way? And, I could do a class or two on mindfulness and playing sports for the fun of it as well as skill.
And there is another thing, too, that really is my pet goal for the work we will be doing in the Sixth Grade. I'd like to give all of you a chance to
realize—fully and experientially—what I mean by recognizing the distinct personality types *by the music of it*. Eventually, by becoming conceptually
familiar with the contents of the wheelbook, one can begin recognizing and *understanding* the types in the course of life in a non-conceptual way—
by feeling the nuances of the types, experientially, without having to go through the intellectual process of referring to the names and labels of the
wheelbook. Most of the time, when I am "using the wheelbook," I don't go through the intellectual steps ("Oh, there's an in-your-face command,
pushy, that must be the Dictator."). I just sense it, taste it, feel it, hear the music of it, know it, and know what to do about it. Since I know it's
humanly possible for me to do this, I feel confident it's possible for me to teach you students how to do everything that I can do with the wheelbook,
and show you how to do everything that I can do in playing the awareness game, including recognizing ego-driven personality by the music of it.
Why not?
Oh yes, and I'd like to be able to coach all of you to be able to speak the Language of Being at any time that you wake up and choose to. Student
John's recent question pertained to this.
So these are things I have in mind for what I think I'll be doing here during the rest of this year as coach of this class. And, of course, I can go on
responding to your questions and requests as best I can. And all of this can be handled sort of "mix-and-match" as we go along. I hope that part of
what we are doing here will not become obscured by any project we might undertake.
Yet, here now, Douglas, you are saying it's here-now, and you are asking us to leap forward with the project. I suppose that's okay, too . . . . if it isn't
"the project *instead of* the class." If it's "the final year of the class, with the project on the side," I'd be more comfortable with that. And I'm still
imagining that we won't really be ready to put the project on the road until the end of this year (if ever).
But you're absolutely right, Douglas! Why not start *now*, indeed? Anybody here who wishes to volunteer already to start doing things that *
prepare us* for the project is absolutely welcome to do so, by me. You're *in*, Eon! Thanks for volunteering! Don't let this interfere with your new
dream job, please! That's more important for you now, in my opinion, especially in your first months in being there. Give that a hundred and ten
percent! But there may come a time, and there will be a place for you in TTMT, Inc., alright, Eon, if TTMT, Inc. comes to actual fruition. Some time
long ago, when I brought this fantasy up in class in some detail, the only person who stepped up and volunteered back then was Eddie. You're *in*,
Eddie. Douglas is *in*. Eon's *in*. I'm *in*. Apart from the four of us—although I've discussed this project with some of you before—I don't
remember if anyone else has actually spoken up on their own and explicitly volunteered to participate in it. And that's okay! I don't wish to cheat any
of you of your freedom to choose or not to choose on this.
So, at this point, what we've got for a Staff is "a dedicated Graphic Designer," inviting Eon to join in forming "a Department of Design." And Eon may
like that, or maybe might prefer to participate in other departments as well that will be needed in the corporate structure. And we've got two more
so-far undesignated volunteers in Eddie and me. That's a start in the real world. A bold start. It's the way things like this actually do happen, when
they do happen.
>Why don't you solicit other talents in the Class for it occurs to me that there is a Board of Directors, in terms of skill, for the asking.
Yes, I agree with that estimate of available talent. We've got all the right stuff among us, alright. I think we would have all the right stuff to be highly
competitive in our field (if we can graduate a founding class). But a Board of Directors does not a corporation make.
Right away, we see the need for more departments in order to continue realistic functioning along this trail. If I understand correctly, a member of the
Board cannot also be a paid Staff member in the departments of a non-profit corporation. We would need both a competent Board and a professional
Staff. And many questions remain to be answered in order to incorporate a non-profit corporation on the Internet, if that can be done. In what legal
jurisdiction would this corporation exist, in order to legally raise contributions? In what country? In what State, if in the U.S.? The laws for this are
somewhat different in every State. Either we would need a Fund-Raising Department, in order to have funds to hire a lawyer (or a bequest of some
kind for this), or we would need a volunteer Legal Department of our own to research questions like these. Although the working Staff can be
spread out all over the world and work together by Internet, it's possible that the members of the Board of Directors would all have to be located in
the same State in order to comply with the laws and be a legitimate corporation. I don't know about these things so far.
No . . . . I'm not going to "solicit other talents in the Class," Douglas. I'm not putting out "a call," so to speak. That is, I'm not inclined to lean on
anybody for this "crazy idea" from this point on. It seems like this ought to come about as naturally as possible, for what we have in mind. I think that
if we're going to go to the trouble to make a corporation like this come into existence in the first place, participation in it should be as truly voluntary as
possible, coming out of free choices that are made freely from within. I wouldn't wish to cheat any of you of free space to have a chance to make a
choice like that.
Maybe different ones of you will feel "a calling" for this on your own. Maybe not. It's still just a fictitious fantasy, after all. There is still the Sixth
Grade to be completed—separate and apart from project considerations in my view. And in the meantime, yes, I'm open to anybody's volunteering
for this class project, too. Perhaps we *can* prepare for this in more real world ways than we have accomplished so far.
By the way, it seems to me that we would have two Staffs to be thinking about in this project, one to run the company and administrate the free
mindfulness school, and, within the company, a Staff to produce and put out Mindful Awareness Magazine (still unique in its field, as far as I know).
That too, might provide enough revenue for financing company operations some day. That'd be the neatest thing of all, I think, if TTMT, Inc. could
eventually be financially solvent on its own! Wouldn't that be cool? (And it *might* be easier to raise backing to get the magazine going than for the
school itself.)
But for now, there is this one reality: a logo is being designed.
As I said, I'm really stoked by these first drafts of designs for our new logo that you sent me, Douglas. I'm amazed, and delighted. The idea you
came up with of incorporating a moebia strip (spelling?) into the logo is really genius inspired, in my book. I *love* it!!! I'm outright *joyous* at the
suggestion of *inward-outwardness* of it, to me, the suggestion of mindfulness in that way, in a figure that is an endless continuum with no beginning
and no end, where the inside is like the outside! Whew! I think—given the actual purpose it was designed for—that may be the beginning of the
neatest graphic design I've ever seen. "Mindfulness is eternity" is what it seems to be expressing to me . . . . . if you don't mind my putting intellectual
words on what is purely a work of art.
I notice in one of the versions you sent me that the design can incorporate an empty pentagram in the middle. I don't wish to get in your way too
much with this, as it's really *your* project. But the idea comes to me in jamming on it if you don't mind, to wonder if you might be able to twist that
moebia strip a little bit more and come up with an eight-sided empty figure in the middle of the logo. Would that be possible?
And by the way, can't you post your drafts of this in Classroom Talk posts, so the rest of the class could watch you working on it, over your
shoulder, so to speak, and be enjoying the process of it? I thought Brent added a function at the bottom of the Post a Follow-Up page that would
allow for that somehow. (I still don't know how to work it.) Didn't Jeff use that function when he posted pictures of his famous sightings of the
elusive Chocolate Bilby in Australia?
Anyway . . . . . not to get carried away by all this!!! . . . back from the realm of fantasy to the real world field of the awareness game. Darn it all, I
would like to be getting some coaching done this week!
And, in fact, Douglas, I'd like—with your permission—to post that private class that I wrote to you last Tuesday night so the others could see what I
had to way then—not your email to me in the Coach's Office, but my email to you, if you wouldn't mind.
I don't see there'd be any harm in that, for it doesn't really disclose anything you haven't disclosed on your own in class (and my reactions and/or
responses to that). And it relates with you as the hero that you are. We are all aware of the psychological pain and distress that you have been going
through now, and those of us who know you understand the financial dilemma for sheer survival that you are faced with now with the sad
circumstance of finding that your dear Mother is dying and your usual network of support systems is falling apart. That's a big challenge, indeed.
And even though you've demonstrated that you ain't dead yet, Bruddah, I think others in the class might benefit some day when they are in the
toughest circumstances that life brings their ways, by hearing some of the coaching I had for you last Tuesday in that class, in thinking you might be
despairing of even going on with your life.
Would you give me your okay on posting this, Douglas?—ASAP, if you please, so I can post it Friday, and feel I've gotten an honest week's work in
around here, before heading out to my weekend job in the country again. And I suppose I'm not the only one who's been worried about you, lately,
Douglas. That little class might help all of us to relax a bit more, and be able to be more mellow in the future with any tough situation like this that may
come up in any of our lives, either for our own Selves, our our loved ones around. I think that class might do some good.
With love for all of you,
Coach
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Archived 08/26/2002