Practice Circle: May 7th
Welcome everyone.
Today we’re going to engage in a multi-layered contemplative and relational practice together ending in requesting support from the field, or even each other
We’ll begin with a 20-minute calm staying practice. The function of this practice is to help stabilize attention, soften the body-mind, and allow us to arrive more fully into openness and presence together.
From there, we’ll move into small groups of three or four for a relational instruction exchange.
Once you’re in your groups, decide who is A, B, C — or A, B, C, and D — and simply know the order of sharing so that each person recognizes the voice of the person before them.
The first person will begin with a slightly longer instruction whose purpose is simply to cohere the small field between you — helping everyone arrive together in shared presence and attunement.
From there, with eyes closed or open, you’ll begin offering short, pithy instructions drawn directly from your own experience. The key is that you are sharing the instruction that you yourself most need to hear in order to deepen your own practice in that moment.
We want the instructions to be simple, direct, spacious, and experiential.
Leave about 20–30 seconds between sharings so that everyone has time to genuinely receive the instruction and apply it within their own experience.
Trust the silence.
Trust the field.
Trust the inherent unfolding of the process.
There is no right or wrong way to do this.
You can draw from anything we’ve explored in Open Ground practice:
openness of the body
spaciousness
emptiness
wholeness
lucidity
stillness
silence
permeability of boundaries
intimacy with experience
the clarity of awareness itself
Really allow yourselves to explore and deepen the direct experience together.
This practice will last 25 minutes total, with the first five minutes devoted to cohering the relational field.
After that, we’ll shift into a 15-minute practice called speaking the interpersonal field.
At that point, open your eyes — if they’re not already open — and begin speaking to the “we.”
Tune into the shared field of experience and trust that what is arising in you is, to some degree, participating in the collective field as well.
Speak from direct contact with the shared experience rather than from performance or conceptual thought.
Examples might be:
“We are deeply interdependent.”
“Love is here.”
“We are held within one awareness.”
“We are the clarity of the sky.”
“There is no outside.”
Again: move slowly, leave long pauses, receive each statement before the next person speaks.
Allow the words to emerge from contact rather than performance.
From there, we’ll shift into inquiry around grab, hooks, contraction, judgment, and support.
We’ll begin with about five minutes of individual sharing:
Where are you experiencing the strongest grab right now?
Where does the self become hooked?
Where is judgment arising?
What feels difficult to receive?
Where are you losing openness?
What relationally or internally feels most contracted right now?
Just share honestly where your work is at this moment.
And then, at the end of your sharing, speak into the field where you are asking for support.
For example:
“I’m asking for support in releasing jealousy.”
“I’m asking for support in softening self-judgment.”
“I’m asking for support in deepening patience.”
“I’m asking for support in trusting openness.”
“I’m asking for support in staying present during conflict.”
Allow yourself to genuinely speak your request into the relational field and allow the group to receive it.
After the individual sharing, we’ll move into about ten minutes of open relational dialogue together.
Post into the chat the small group flow:
SMALL GROUP PRACTICE OUTLINE
Decide who is A, B, C (or D) and remember the order.
Cohering the Field (5 min)
First person offers a slightly longer instruction to help the group arrive together:Relational Instruction Exchange (20 min)
With eyes open or closed: offer short, pithy instructions from direct experienceSpeaking the Interpersonal Field (15 min)
Open your eyes and speak to the “we.”Grab + Support (15 min)
Individual Sharing (5 min):
Where are you hooked right now?
Where is contraction or judgment arising?
Where are you losing openness?
Then end with:
“I’m asking for support in…
Open Dialogue (10 min): Move into relational dialogue together:
Closing
One person from the group will briefly share with the larger group what emerged in the practice field together.