Replying to LO24922 --
Mark Feenstra in his message of June 20 - summer solstice here in Yukon -
says in his story about an experience with dialogue
...snip
> It seemed that a greater
> intelligence, a being perhaps, of quite a different order than our normal
> human intelligence, immensely deeper, slower, more resonant and endlessly
> present emerged into the conversation whilst our normal intelligences
> simply witnessed what passed before us. Somehow these timeless moments
> would pass away, only to emerge again when the conditions were right.
and again...snip
> All I could remember was that increasingly deep questions seemed to
> provide the
> vehicle, particularly questions about the nature of reality - but
> specifically what kinds of questions I did not know.
I will tell a bit about my experience with a form of what this list calls
'dialogue' that has been used for a couple of hundred years in the Quaker
Community - Also called the Religious Society of Friends. I have only
recently reconnected with Quakers, though I am what is called 'birthright
Friend' - someone born to a Quaker family
We do business using questions (called 'queries') and speaking from the
silence.
The Clerk (who presides over the meeting) will put a question to the
group. We begin with silence. Someone will speak...more
silence...someone else will speak and so on. This continues until the
Clerk hears what he/she believes is the 'sense of the meeting'. The Clerk
will then speak this 'sense'. There will be a quiet chorus of
'agreed...agreed...agreed', or someone else will speak again. This
continues until what we call 'unity' has been reached (a process some
describe as beyond concensus). The spoken 'sense' then becomes a 'minute'
of the meeting. Beliefs underlying the process are that the spirit
(greater intelligence, communal intelligence...as in Mark's reference) in
me is responding to the spirit in others and the connecting/separating
silences allow this to happen. At times when we are dealing with profound
questions, this process becomes very powerful and we sense that we have
moved to a different place. We described this as 'gathered community'.
It has certainly been a great learning for me to participate in this
dialogue experience with peope who know how to sit and listen in silence.
Part of the discipline is knowing not to speak to repeat in different
words what someone has already said. From time to time some Friends may
feel the need to support a statement. We might hear someone say "That
Friend speaks my mind". I observed when I first began to attend business
meetings that what is spoken is often not only concise, but elegant and
gentle as well.
Mark also speaks of increasingly deep questions. Another practice of
Quakers is something we call 'worship sharing'. Again we work with
queries, though in smaller groups. The purpose here is community
building. We sit together for an hour or so. The person who has agreed
to serve by leading offers one or two queries or themes and we respond,
going around the circle this time, but using a process similar to the
business meeting. Such a query might be, "How do I experience living in a
peaceable way?"...or..."How am I open to new light, from whatever source
it may come? How do I approach new ideas with discernment?"
Although I live in a remote area of Canada and have spent time with
Quakers only 2-3 times a year over the past 5 years, I find that I know
some of these Friends better/ in a deeper way through this process, than
many friends who live in the same town and whom I have known for almost 20
yrs.
I pose a question to the list -
'How have you used questions to assist you or your organization in
learning?'
Sue Starr
Whitehorse, Yukon
Canada - as the days begin to lengthen
--"Sue Starr" <starr@internorth.com>
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