Transcription
I think the first thing I want to say -- we're not going to talk for very long now, but -- is just thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for showing up, in the full sense of the word, in the ways that you did, for engaging, for playing, for working hard. Just thank you for your practice. It's very beautiful.
You know, I'm quite aware some of you will have come and, "Yeah, thanks. It's interesting. But maybe it's not really for me." And that's really important to make that distinction, and make that choice, and have that freedom, and follow what calls you. Some of you might feel, "Yeah, there are some things here I could use," and it becomes -- some of the things, some of the ideas, and probably more some of the practices we've been offering will kind of, in a sort of slightly piecemeal way, be added to your repertoire of what you do in practice. And that's fine, too, of course, and you're very welcome to that.
And then there will be some of you for whom there's just something about what we've been talking about, and what we've been trying to unfold together here, that just feels, like, completely natural. There's something -- it's almost like putting words to something that -- several people have said, putting some ideas and words and a kind of framework for what my soul, what the soul does anyway, or was doing anyway, or was pulled to. And you'll be hungry for more, and hungry for all of it. And hopefully there are teachings, and there have been teachings and practices, that you can begin to get your bearings and navigate with all this.
And I would say that there is a way in which what we've been talking about is really natural. It's like, in our language, we say soulmaking is natural to the soul. It's what the soul wants. It's what it does. And there's a way in which the path of soulmaking expands and grows very naturally. It's just what it does if we don't block it, if we don't get in the way. So, in a certain sense, what we've been doing is just kind of highlighting some of the ways we can get in the way, and some of what just can possibly unfold.
I can't even remember now -- was it yesterday morning we talked about the five ranges? So that list, which I think is now up there, which I just ran through very briefly, of five sort of possible domains in which the range of our experience and our openness can extend further. We talked about with each of the elements in the lattice, and the constellation, the lattice itself. We talked about it spreading along the axes of self/other/world. We talked about the range of eros and the range of logos, the range of ideas which we can even entertain or play with or allow; ideas of what a human being is, what existence is, what kind of world, a cosmos we live in, or we create/discover; the whole edifice of kind of flexible metaphysics. We talked about the range of energy body experience, sense. And we talked about the range of what we might call apparent pathology to, I guess, non-pathology.
Anyway. One thing about that, and I didn't really say it. I think some of you understood. This, that process, those ranges, will unfold naturally as well. That's just the natural movement of soulmaking. I hope you didn't come away yesterday with the idea that we need to force these, we need to push: "Right, range. Let's push. Faster. If I'm a little bit scared of the dark end of things or I'm really not sure about this apparently pathological, now I have to really try and have some really dark, kind of weird images." No. It's just to be aware of what my tendencies might be, ways I might be closing, just even my conception of what's possible or available or right. Not to force, not to push. Just to be aware.
And sometimes in this process of natural sort of growth, there are periods where things just break open. They just explode open. The vessels are shattered, and a whole new range opens up of experience, of perception, of energy, of idea, of eros, all of it. And there are periods where we're just kind of at a certain place, a certain range, and we need to be there for a while -- I mean, maybe really a while. Just safe, consolidated, not really a plateau, but just at that range. So really not to force it. There's something very natural here that needs to be respected. At the same time as there's a kind of naturalness to soulmaking and the opening of that perception, can you, have you had the sense this week, in your life but also the experience this week, of just how easy it is and how common it is for us to get in the way of that natural opening of soulmaking? So easy. Either through the limited ideas, through limiting energy, through limiting eros, through limiting the possibility of image in any of these ways.
How easy it is and how common it is for us to be working either in meditation, or even intentionally with another person around soulmaking, with that intention to take care of that, and how easy it is for it to kind of -- I don't know what to say -- be almost soulmaking. It's as if it diverts. It can divert very easily into something that's kind of close, maybe something that's familiar to us, about a way of practising, about a way of thinking of practising, about certain psychological ideas or ways of relating to dukkha or whatever -- all of which are absolutely lovely and really valuable. So there's this balance between what's natural, and what might be asked, if you're interested and kind of love, have fallen in love a little bit with all this. There's the ask of this kind of respect for natural unfolding, and a kind of care of discernment: when are we now actually in a different paradigm? When am I, in my experience, in my way of looking, in a slightly different paradigm? Not to say one is better or worse, or this or that, but different, and there's a kind of care of discrimination that's possible there.
Also, when we're together in different ways, in groups, or two people, or whatever, and there's the intention for soulmaking, you know, how much of the potential there depends on the care of the relational field, and that something in the relational field can also prevent, block, divert, etc. So if we use this -- I said it earlier in the retreat -- this idea of, rather than a black and white between "it is soulmaking" or "it isn't," "Have I got it?", "Have I not got it?", "it is imaginal" or "it isn't," hopefully there can be this kind of idea of, like, it's a direction. We can open up more and more what we might call the fully imaginal or the genuinely imaginal. So we avoid all this kind of judgment, and we instead bring in a kind of care and discernment.
So soulmaking, soulfulness, includes heartfulness, definitely, but it's more than that. It includes love and mettā, yes, but it's more than that. It includes, certainly, using the imagination, or being allowed to use imagination, but it's more than that. It's more involved than that. And it includes being open to desire, but it's more than just that phrase. And so there's the kind of invitation, for those of you that are drawn or interested or love it, the care of discrimination -- not for the sake of better, worse, advanced, this, that, different, 'our way'; it doesn't matter. It's more this idea -- I think I said it in the Q & A yesterday -- that something can seem a little narrow, but going through that narrowness just for a little while then opens up other reaches that wouldn't otherwise be available.
So I guess this is true for this kind of Dharma, what I'm about to say, but I'd say it's true for any kind of Dharma that you love, whether it's emptiness or whatever it is. If people ask me, "What advice can you give? What would be helpful?" Two words: be insatiable. Be ravenous. Yeah? Practically, you know, I mean, you guys have heard lots of advice about taking care of your practice outside, and perhaps we'll talk a bit more about that. But in relation to soulmaking, the importance of exposing yourself to beauty every day. In our culture, it takes the lowest rung in the pecking order, above functionality, convenience, comfort, economics, etc. Soulmaking, you might also say going deeply into beauty is the same as going deeply into soulmaking. It's the same thing. They're almost interchangeable words. The fullness and the richness of what beauty really means to the soul.
There's something about taking care every day. What does that mean? Some exposure to beauty -- art, or nature, or ideas, or Dharma, or whatever. And again, you might have sensed this already -- I mentioned it just a minute ago: if it is soulmaking that you're drawn to, and we will talk about this in a minute, if some of your practice of soulmaking is -- you're attempting to do that together, in groups, or two people, or whatever it is, in relationship, then how much that needs a kind of care, and alertness, and sensitivity, and responsiveness, to care for the relational field, the temenos, in which soulmaking can happen. It needs a vessel, it needs a crucible. That vessel, that crucible of soulmaking, just even in ourselves, but even more so when we're with other people, it's so easily shattered. It's a fragile thing. And it's asking a lot of us -- that care, relational skill, willingness to speak what's maybe difficult, speak one's honesty, work it through with another person. So we have to be really interested. This question of, "Interesting. This was almost soulmaking. Or it was completely not soulmaking. And that was. And what makes the difference? How?" This is a question for discernment, being really interested in how do I care for, what are the conditions to care for, that vessel? It's a living vessel, this temenos thing.
So it can be really interesting, rather than I judge myself, "I can't really ...", or I judge another person, "It's their fault. If they weren't here, it would be soulmaking." Care. Care and discernment, and care in the discernment. It's a living thing, this vessel, this temenos. We'll talk about that later. You know, we just touched on it so briefly, and several people have ... we could have spent a whole week with that balance of attention thing. How easy it sounds, and how hard it is for human beings, especially in our culture. So that, actually, just even developing one's kind of sensitivity and skill with that, is actually part of this vessel, and how difficult that is, how challenging. But we will talk more about that in a minute.
So if you're in love with this or some other kind of path of practice, of Dharma, be ravenous. Be insatiable. And be careful. The two together. And 'care' means bringing all your intelligence, bringing all your sensitivity, bringing all your interest to discern what helps, and what doesn't help, and what are the conditions. This is, again, like all of this, it's an open-ended investigation. Bring your creativity. Allow your humility. So we can have both. And then the insatiability, and this humility, which kind of contains the interest in learning to discern, they form two wings that balance each other. Yeah? Something fierce, almost, in us. Hungry. And something so exquisite and humble in its care. Hunger and humility, both. Together, with these wings, the reaches open, where we can fly, where we can walk, where we can dig.
That's all I'm going to say. Thank you again for your practice, for your beauty.
