[Dialogue] Whole-hearted questions, Whole-hearted Answers

[LAURELCG at aol.com]

New question: What is Too Much Information?
 
Jann
 
 
In a message dated 7/31/2012 5:22:44 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
stevehar11201 at gmail.com writes:

I got a  1 to 1 note from Joyce asking what's up with this Wiegel &
Harrington  exchange about questions.

I'm guessing she's worried there is some kind  of animus in our
back-and-forth -or she thinks one or the other of us are  in deep weeds
of confusion.

Just to be clear: I have no animus or  upset going what so ever.
I actually like Wiegel's questions.
I'm  thinking he is trying  to open up some more powerful more  lively
discorse in this dialogue.

Personally I like the idea  of
-sharper questions that move texting forward
-sharper questions that  cause interesting answers
-koans, and cross-word puzzles that make you do  an Arsinio Hall
reaction like..."Makes you go hmmm?"

I enjoy obscure  references to our common and uncommon literature.
Surely Wiegels carp quote  [is he carping]? is out of the book the Ronin.
So is my retort, by the way:  "neither does the severed branch leave the 
tree"
Didn't read the Ronin?  Worth it and cheep on Amazon. I think Jack
Gilles may have a list of the  sections that used to be read as a bed
time story in LENS  seminars.

I think Wiegel is on to something by inviting edgy questions  and a
more focused dialogue - especially in a year celebrating 50 years  of
past and envisioning 50 years of ICA future.

By comparison, in  the Soto Zen community there is a tradition called
"Dokusan" where there is  a public, pregnant exchange of views between
the  teacher &  student about what is real and what is important. It
often takes the form  of Q & A but at a deeper more existential
levels...almost anything goes  that engages what is ready-to-hand in
the exchange.

Shunryu  Suzukii's famous quote comes from this tradition: "In
Beginner's Mind there  are many possibilities, In Expert's Mind there
are few. It implies that  fresh questions and real inquiry create fresh
answers; which in turn loose  their freshness.

Two short personal examples of teacher-student  encounters

Some questions become life-long inquiries. For example one  time Kaye
Hayes asked: "Steve, what is one thing that grounds you in  history? I
said immediately: Satyagraha: Gandhi's term for something like  firm
grasping for the truth." I'm stilly carrying around that question.  It
is still alive for me.

Another time the Sarpanch of Maliwada  asked me a question when Chan
and I came to visit and to see what Maliwada  was -long after the
project was over. He offered me tea and I refused to  drink it. He
asked: "Steve, you came all this way and I see you refuse to  drink my
tea, why is this? I knew the answer immediately but couldn't say  so I
bowed Namaste fashion in silence. What I couldn't say but  saw
immediately that I was afraid to drink the tea boiled in water  for
fear of becoming ill. It was a foolish fear of course, but the  deeper
point, I was just just being a tourist in my own life at that  moment,
just passing through, full of thinking but very little being,  very
little doing, not much integrity -the kind of integrity that  JWM
called Maliwada Integrity where what you say and what you do  actually
fits together, you know you are not a tourist in your own life,  just
passing through on a tour.

So in a Soto Community   "Dokusan" type encounter, anyone can claim
either the role: student or  teacher. Often the student asks the
teacher a question or offers an  assertion, the teacher responds. Or it
is the other way around the teacher  asks, the student self-selects and
engages the question. there is an 800  year tradition of recording
these encounters with respect poetry,  commentary and picking up the
question again and again to squeeze new  wisdom out of it.

In the Q & A encounter people listen for the  wisdom point not for
animus, not for logic either.   The Q &  A proceeds until either the
student or the teacher bows and steps back  realizing the last point is
the wisdom point and acknowledging it. The  other listeners often "get
it" too and write it down.

There really  is no "make wrong" no shame-making or cynicism, no
animus, no snarky  drive-bys.

In the Q & A , it is a discourse to find out what's so  and make what
is actually so clear to everyone present: the student, the  teacher and
the audience.

It is said to be how "Stones polishing  each other" and learn to speak
clearly & wholehearted. "Stones" also do  real work besides real
discourse.

In non-poetic lingo some kinds of  discourse are performative not just
"words. See: "speech acts":  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._L._Austin

What IS the "proper" form of  dialogue in the dialogue?

What possibilities do you notice?

More  like this:
-acknowledgement of the life and energy of colleagues?  Yes
-announcements? yes
-personal epiphanies and realizations?  yes
-ICA hopes and dreams? yes

Less like this [I say]
-flights of  wistful nostalgia for the past? Boring
-ORID in a texting sequence? Meh. In  text ORID is horrid. Gets
processed in my in box not my heart
-aimless  chit-chat? Drivel. It drives people away like Wayne Elsworth
-people  opining more layers of self-referencing abstractions? Thank
you Dr.  Descartes, who thinks thinking comes 1st before being and
doing which might  come later [or not]

Not every dialogue needs whole-hearted  intentionality, of course.

Returning to Joyce's question: what's up  with you guys in the dialogue?
It is a good question.

My answer is  polishing stones, learning to ask and answer wholehearted
questions with  wholehearted answers. I think this is what Wiegel might
be up to. Anyway it  is what I'm up for.

Joyce's Q is like Brian Stanfield's story from  Courage to Lead from
his own acknowledged teacher Joe Pierce who had  something to say at
the Lusaka airport.

The customs official asked:  Have anything to declare Mr. Pierce.
Mr Pierce answered the question  full-out and whole-hearted.
The official stepped back.
Stanfield doesn't  say if the customs official bowed - or not.

Do you have anything to  declare Mr. Wiegel?
[heh, heh,  heh]

Steve







--
Steve  Harrington
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