The Practice of Suspending

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<table rules="all" frame="box" cellpadding="7" border="1" style="width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" style="width: 20%; background-image: none; text-align: left; vertical-align: top;">90 min. design </td><td valign="top" style="width: 40%; background-image: none; text-align: left; vertical-align: top;">8 hour design </td><td valign="top" style="width: 40%; background-image: none; text-align: left; vertical-align: top;">5 half-day sessions </td></tr><tr><td valign="top" rowspan="1" style="width: 20%; background-image: none; text-align: left; vertical-align: top;">There is no 90 minute design for this practice like the Practice of Recognizing. This is because the Practice of Recognizing is an introductory session, and should precede all other practices. </td><td valign="top" rowspan="1" style="width: 40%; background-image: none; text-align: left; vertical-align: top;">The purpose is to briefly introduce participants to the Practice of Suspending, to let them experience and discover it for themselves through activity, reflection, discussion.</td><td valign="top" rowspan="1" style="width: 40%; background-image: none; text-align: left; vertical-align: top;">The purpose is to briefly introduce participants to the Practice of Suspending, to let them experience and discover it for themselves through activity, reflection, discussion.</td></tr><tr><td valign="top" style="width: 20%;" rowspan="1"> </td><td valign="top" style="width: 40%;" rowspan="1"> </td><td valign="top" style="width: 40%;" rowspan="1">CHECK-IN and REFLECTION (15 min.) How was your week? Any new insights or discoveries about your individual or group models, about your personal or professional situation? about the practice of recognizing? REFLECTION In notebooks: <ul><li>How has the definition of your personal or professional situation changed, if at all?</li><li>How do you think about your personal or group model during the week? </li><li>When you’re finished, please put your notebooks under your chair.</li></ul> </td></tr><tr><td valign="top" style="width: 20%;" rowspan="1"> </td><td valign="top" style="width: 40%;" rowspan="1"> </td><td valign="top" style="width: 40%;" rowspan="1">PERFORMANCE (5 min.) <ul><li>When most all of the notebooks are under their seat, music begins for performance.</li><li>Do performance, then at the concluson say: "Today is about the practice of suspending."</li><li>The chair represents the part of us that we hold onto; the part of us (busyness, the media, everyday activities, other’s peoples needs) that sometimes may keep us from seeing the person that wants to be more visible. Sections of the performance: sit on the chair, see the chair, fall in love with the chair, become attached, try to get away, release the chair, notice in your environment, see the balloon, grab the balloon, tie it to the chair.</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td valign="top" style="width: 20%;"> </td><td valign="top" style="width: 40%;">SET-UP (5 min.) <ul><li>If possible, draw attention to any comments that reflects an aspect of suspending, of being detached from oneself.</li><li>When do we know that we should be less attached to how we see ourselves, and more open to another role? So, that it benefits both ourselves and the collective? </li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Relate a personal story about the practice of suspending. </li><ul><li>This is Mark Shimada's story: About two years before I began to perform, I attended writing workshop and wrote a story about Jeffrey and Ethan. Ethan was a speech writer, Jeffrey, an improv actor, was Ethan's friend and tried again and again to get Ethan to perform with them. Ethan refused and refused. Finlly, Ethan broke-down and tried it. He loved it. It was the connection to the audience that he had been wanting for many years as a speech writer. Two years, after Mark wrote this story, he found himself on stage performing his own solo theater play. The story about Jeffrey and Ethan was his future story.</li></ul><li>But, how does this show up in a collective? Most of the time, when someone else has an idea or does something that interests us, that pulls us, then we build on it , for someone else. </li><li>The practice of suspending is about letting go, being pulled, and following through, all happening in about the same time. (for more ideas, see the entire design for the <a title="practice of suspending" target="_blank" href="The-Practice-of-Suspending.html">practice of suspending</a>)</li></ul></td><td valign="top" style="width: 40%;">SET-UP (45 min.) Walk through different parts of the performance and relate to the practice of suspending and to individual and collective virtuosity.<ul><li>What was this about? What does this mean? </li><li>What happened at the end?</li><li>What is the chair in our life?</li><li>What did you get when I was moving around?</li><li>What happened when I discovered the chair? When I saw it?</li><li>Was there something this last week that you felt pulled to? Has there been something that has wanted your attention?</li><li>That happens when we discover something new about ourself.</li><li>Then, what happens?</li><li>How easy is it to get away?</li><li>Do we really know when we should do something different?</li><li>Share about what’s difficult to do something different, to try to do something different.</li></ul> Key Ideas:<ul><li>Moving the chair around: the unconscious life, going from experience to experience without any mindfulness My life is dictated by external events. I don’t have any influence about where I’m going.</li><li>Discovering the chair: There’s more to me than just doing, doing, doing, and riding the rollercoaster of life. I am my stories, events and experiences that have happened in my life that have shaped who I am today.</li><li>Attached to the chair: This is me. It’s who I am. I know now, and I want other people to know, too.</li><li>Release of the chair: Stories about me keep me from pursuing anything else It keeps me safe, and tied down.</li><li>Seeing the balloon: When I get out from under that belief, limiting beliefs about who I am, I can see something else. And, if I give it energy and interest, if I become curious about it, it’ll show me things that I would have never imagined or seen.</li><li>Anything new about what you were seeing since last week’s session? (did you see your own balloon?)</li><li>The chair. I sit in a chair for so many things. It made me aware of “who am I when I set in this chair?” In a way it is an identity for who we are at work? When we sit in the chair, it becomes home, I know what I should do.</li></ul>Explan the practice of suspending<ul><li>When do we know that we should be less attached to how we see ourselves, and more open to another role?</li><li>Salmon Rusdie in the book One Thousand Days in a Balloon says that "Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives -- the power to retell it, rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change -- truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts." </li><li>Experiences shapes our stories, our stories shape our experiences. How do we create new stories?</li><li>There is a simple cycle to our life’s experiences. This is how it begins: what we experience defines who we are. Who we are influences what we seek to do. What we do then becomes part of our experience, and the cycle repeats. If we are satisfied and content with this cycle, then nothing further is needed. However, if something is missing in our life, then how can we intervene to change our experience or change what we seek. Without taking any risks to explore or have a new experience, we continue to repeat the same types of experiences, and nothing changes. So, we revserse the cycle, seek different and new experiences that prompt us in to different ways of doing. The new ways of doing affect our being, which affect the experiences we seek. This repeats itself until finally the new behaviors are in place and we return to the experiences ‡ being ‡ doing.</li><li>Gary Klein, a researcher in decision sciences studied what it was about fire fighters and ambulance drivers that made a difference in the millisecond, life-sustaining choices that they made. What he found was that they made life-threatening decisions based on the library of stories that had formed over their work experience. But, this isn’t new, right? Our stories are based on our experiences. But, what is important to draw attention to is how the decisions that are made in the milliseconds of one’s life are informed by our life experiences. So, it is important to be mindful of our experiences, because they not only become our stories, but they become the library for the decisions we make.</li><li>What do we use to have new experiences that give us new stories that shape new decisions, decisions that may need to be different than the ones we have traditionally made?</li><li>One way is to imagine and create a future story, an unexpected story. </li><li>Possible questions: </li><ul><li>How does our orientation to the stories of the past affect our present day action? </li><li>How might stories of the past affect our future? </li><li>How do stories of the present affect our future? </li><li>How might stories of the future affect your present day story?</li></ul><li>Share a personal situation where a story shaped one's future.</li><ul><li>This is Mark Shimada's story: About two years before I began to perform, I attended writing workshop and wrote a story about Jeffrey and Ethan. Ethan was a speech writer, Jeffrey, an improv actor, was Ethan's friend and tried again and again to get Ethan to perform with them. Ethan refused and refused. Finlly, Ethan broke-down and tried it. He loved it. It was the connection to the audience that he had been wanting for many years as a speech writer. Two years, after Mark wrote this story, he found himself on stage performing his own solo theater play. The story about Jeffrey and Ethan was his future story. </li></ul><li>This is what I think happened when I did that, from what I’ve read – the story created new neural pathways in my brain which then hardwired my behaviors, and maybe even influenced events that I was not entirely conscious of.</li><li>Stories are the way our brains hold information. AThey can also determines what behaviors we make. If decisions are made on stories, and stories govern behaviors, and we’re trying to do something different in our lives, we need to start with stories, to architect new information in our brains, to find new behaviors and that’s what we repeat.</li><li>This is the power of a future story.</li><li>At the collective level, a future story can energize and keep people working towards something together.</li><li>Tell a personal story about how a group with a story affected their future. </li><li>If stories can affect your future, then what stories at work are affecting you? </li><li>Stories are contained in business plans, project schedules, vision statements, yearly invitations and strategies. By their nature, they lack the emotional content that we get from so many other forms of stories, that it can leave us wanting and waiting for that weekend movie or play.</li><li>What’s powerful is when the individual’s story is aligned with the group’s story. When what matters to the individual and what matters to the group are aligned.</li><li>What is a future story? </li><ul><li>When we write a future story, we reach into our imagination and describe a possibility, and we begin to scratch out a path.</li><li>Without knowing your future story, you allow your life to be influenced by external events, rather than having a hand in your destiny.</li><li>When you create your future story, you architect a pattern of messages for your brain, messages that can attract and create your reality. </li><li>To allow your future story to emerge, you must let go of a part of you in order to create the “space” for another you to be revealed.</li><li>When you write your future story, you reach in to your imagination, maybe even accessing time on a dimension that cannot be explained. </li><li>When you envision your future story, you decide the ending, and more importantly, you must answer the “why” of the story and suggest ways to overcome and face issues, challenges, and obstacles.</li><li>You might not know that a story is your future. We can write it, get it down and see. And somehow things will move around and shift. This is about the practice of suspending, it’s about trying to find a future story.</li><li>Our future story exists today. We just need to suspend our daily life, our traditional notions about who we are and see what’s there, what will be revealed or discovered.</li></ul><li>The practice of suspending is about finding that future story.</li><ul><li>Future stories are about letting go, it’s about not trying to see what you’re trying to write. Suspending is about imagination. Suspending is about allowing ourselves to be that playful, that creative, that’s when ..</li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">There is some research by Leonard Shalin, author of "Art and Physics,"who wrote about art and business and looked at all the major changes, major shifts in art. What we he found was that change sin art, preceded changes in science.</li><li>When artists began to see … then we got geometry. When artists were painting black paintings, it was thirty years before we got to the black hole.</li></ul><li>Today is about allowing yourself to step into that.</li><li>What this have to do with what we talked about last week, about individual and collective virtuosity.</li><li>Individually, when we create our stories, the story in our organizational life is already defined for us. We don’t always get a hand in that. So, today, you'll have the opportunity to craft your own story, and then also see how your individual story can shape a group's story. </li><li>As an individual, the practice of suspending contributes to collective virtuosity because these are the times when we don’t’ just suspend for the sake of our own personal curiosities and efforts, but because we suspend for the group’s needs and efforts</li></ul>Explain the Hero's Journey framework for creating future stories<ul><li>Your individual and collective future stories will be based on a framework called The Hero’s Journey.</li><li>Introduce Joseph Campbell</li><li>Introduce the Heros' Journey</li><ul><li>There are three main stages: initiation, separation, return.</li></ul></ul>DISCUSSION <ul><li>Find a movie that everyone has seen. (Forrest Gump, The Wizard of Oz, Star Wars)</li><li>Ask questions about the hero’s journey for participants to identify in the story.</li><ul><li>Who was the hero?</li><li>Whas was their common world?</li><li>How did they cross over into an unknown world?</li><li>What caused it? (This is the call to adventure)</li><li>Who was his or her mentor?</li><li>Who or what represented the threshold guardians?</li><li>Who was the enemy? allies? tricksters?</li></ul></ul></td></tr><tr><td valign="top" style="width: 20%;"> </td><td valign="top" style="width: 40%;">INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITY (15 min.) <ul><li>So, to practice that, I'd like to ask you to wander around the paintings and stop when one attracts you. Then work on that painting for awhile, and then move again. This is your opportunity to practice letting go, being pulled, and following through. But, also an opportunity to still practice recognizing, listening and observing yourself, and others.</li><li>Explain these directions:</li><ul><li>Wander around, choose a painting that attracts you.</li><li>Build on what's there, even take out, or remove parts of the painting, as part of your "building on" process.</li><li>Remember: let go, be pulled, follow-through, listen and observe yourself and others.</li><li>We'll take about 10-15 minutes for this round.</li></ul></ul></td><td valign="top" style="width: 40%;">INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITY (1 hr.) <ul><li>The purpose of this exercise, to write your own hero's journey, is for you to create a future story, a handful of sentences that describe some imaginary possibility that could be your future self. To help you, I will state a fill-in-the-blank sentence for you to free-write on an index card. When all of those are done, you’ll look at them, and synthesize them down into a handful of sentences. </li><li>This story is about you. It may even be a story that you would want to write about more, but for now, it is a writing exercise for you to practice suspending, to discover something unexpected.</li><li>How will you know? Becaus the ending of the story, the return home will be surpsing.</li><li>To help you discover that something unexpected, it will be important for you to free-write, to not know what you are going to write, but to let your hand show you. </li><li>To help you, you'll do a short exercise. but, before we do that, let me share a quote from Robert Fritz’s newsletter, 3/31/09:</li><ul><li>Background to highlight, not read: This is the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth. He also made inopportune discoveries, based, not only on his famous five-year voyage on the Beagle to the Galapagos Islands, but on a life-time of observations of nature. He hesitated to publish his findings, knowing how controversial they would be in his day-and-age. Yet, most of his findings have been verified over the years, particularly since the discovery of DNA in the Fifties. </li><li>Like those who rejected Galileo's discoveries, there are many people who would disallow Darwin's ideas. They, like Galileo's adversaries, are duty-bound by beliefs that take the Bible literally. They cannot consider science as a valid way of discerning the physical universe when scientific discoveries fail to support their belief system.</li><li>What is telling is how this battle is waged by those who think in terms of belief. Darwin's discoveries are labeled "Darwinsim." The "ism" is designed to made Darwin's ideas simply a matter of just another belief. Then it's one belief over another belief, so that facts, data, experiments, and the rigor of scientific inquiry can be ignored.</li><li>Darwin's discoveries are not a belief system, nor were they based on belief in the first place. But history has shown how humanity has organized itself around beliefs, which, too often, has led to wars, strife, prejudice, conflicts, and hostilities. Even the way we have learned the so-called "scientific method" has led us to misunderstand the way most discoveries are made. In school we learned that step one in the scientific method is to "start with a hypothesis." This translates to begin with a theory, a speculation, a worldview, a concept. The next moves are to conduct experiments that prove or disprove the theory. But, the organizing principle is the hypothesis</li><li>This is not how many of the most creative scientists work. New discoveries would be made harder if they began with a hypothesis, because it would be hard to go beyond what you already know. </li><li>The quote to read: "In his book A History of Knowledge, Charles Van Doren said about Sir Isaac Newton, "Newton loathed hypotheses. He saw in them all the egregious and harmful errors of the past." Newton, himself said, "Hypotheses have no place in science." And Descartes said, "First rid your mind of all preconceptions." As in other aspects of the creative process, step one is to start with nothing: a clean sheet of paper, a new beginning, a fresh start. Observations may lead to new unknown areas of discoveries. We don't know what we might find. In fact, we may reach new territory that contradicts our pet theories, worldviews, beliefs and concepts."</li></ul><li>So, let’s start with a clean sheet of paper. </li><li>Free-write exercise:</li><ul><li>For a few minutes, try free-writing. Just put the pen or pencil down and let it keep going. If the pencil stops, that means your brain is starting to think, and that's not what we want. If you cross out words, then the brain is thinking. You'll have a chance to edit later, for now, just get the words and ideas on the cards.</li></ul><li>After the exercise, remind everyone: You’ll know if you’ve demonstrated the practice of suspending if your return is completely unexpected.</li><li>Read each of the statements below twice. Follow that with a few of the questions for each phrase to help prompt the participants.</li><ul><li>The Protagonist, The Hero, The Main Character: The hero of my story is . . . </li><ul><li>Describe everything you can about this person – how they dress, where they live, how old they are, where they were born and raised, some of the significant events that happened in their life.</li></ul><li>The Hero’s Ordinary World: In the hero’s ordinary world life is . . .</li><ul><li>What is a daily life like? What is mundane? What is it about this ordinary world that the hero is dissatisfied with, or more hopeful about? </li></ul><li>The Goal: The hero’s goal is to . . . </li><ul><li>What is the hero’s goal? What do they want to change or transform in their life, about their work, about their relationships, about how they contribute to the world around them?</li></ul><li>The Call to Adventure: Suddenly, the hero is asked to leave their ordinary world when …</li><ul><li>What happens to help the hero leave their ordinary world? What does someone invite them to do? What suddenly takes them out of their ordinary world?</li></ul><li>The Hero crosses a threshold. It is a place that is marked by leaving the ordinary world and entering an unknown world. The threshold is …</li><li>The Mentor: Before the hero’s crosses the threshold, he/she meets their mentor. The mentor is a person who teaches (blank) or gives gifts and powers of (blank) … </li><ul><li>Who is the person that has already appeared or is soon to appear that is the Hero’s Mentor? This is the person that has the experience, wisdom, relationships, and powers to help guide the Hero through the unknown. Who is this person and how does the Hero meet this person? How do they develop their relationship at the beginning of the story?</li></ul><li>The Threshold Guardian: As the hero considers crossing the threshold, they say something that reveals what could possibly keep them from stepping across the threshold. As he or she approaches the threshold, this entity is represented by … </li><ul><li>What is it that the Hero is thinking or feeling? About their apprehension, etc.</li><li>What does the Hero face that tests him/her?</li></ul><li>As the Hero crosses the threshold, the unknown world looks like …</li><ul><li>What does the unknown world look like? What is about the environment that is different than their ordinary world?</li></ul><li>Magic Power: The Hero’s magic power is …</li><ul><li>What magic power or symbol is the hero given to face the unknown? Who was it given by? How did the hero receive it?</li></ul><li>Tests of Trust: In the unknown world, as the Hero pursues their goal, their self-trust is tested by ….</li><ul><li>What Allies, Shadow (the dark side of the Hero)Enemies, Shapeshifters (a love interest of the Hero that he/she doesn’t quite understand), Tricksters (a comic aspect, personifies chaos or mischief), Magicians, False Loves test the Hero’s self-trust and trust in others? What events happen? How does the Hero’s self-confidence change, both positive and negative?</li></ul><li>The Main Challenge: As a result of the testing, the Hero has been prepared to face the ultimate challenge which is when . . .</li><ul><li>What is the ultimate test to the Hero when they overcome their innermost struggle or find their innermost hope, their confidence is given a big boost.</li></ul><li>The Elixir: As a result of completing the main challenge, the Hero gets their goal and something very unexpected. What is that?</li><ul><li>When they achieved their goal, they learned something else about themselves that they did not expect, it is something that they realize they wanted more than the initial goal, but they didn’t know until they found it.</li></ul><li>The Return Home: The hero returns home by . . . </li><ul><li>What is different about how the hero returns home? Is it the ordinary world, or is a place similar to the ordinary world, but different, their “real” home?</li></ul><li>The Story: As a result of returning home, a celebration is given and a group of children gather around to hear the story. One just one page, write this story.</li></ul><li>WHEN FINISHED: write a number on the back and number them in sequence on the back.</li><li>Go back, read each card, and highlight the phrases that you like.</li><li>Then, using all those phrases, write a handful of sentences that briefly describes your story. Write the sentences as if it were something you would want another person to read on the back of the book, something that make the reader curious enough to read the book.</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td valign="top" style="width: 20%;"> </td><td valign="top" style="width: 40%;"> </td><td valign="top" style="width: 40%; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">GROUP ACTIVITY (1 hr.) <ul><li>Now, as a group, create a group story, starting with where each of you returned from.</li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Imagine that you all returned home to exactly the same place. Somehow you all end up at the same location and you begin talking about your recent adventure, about what now feels ordinary, and about what’s next in your lives. Using the same format, discover your new heroes; story.</li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Contrary to the individual exercise, the group story is something that you would want to work on further. It has interest and significance for you, and it has appeal and inspiration to your audience.</li><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">To help you, consider these questions:</li><ul><li>Who will you be sharing this story with?</li><li>How would you describe the emotions that you want others to feel?</li><li>What is the point that you want to make? Is there one question that you want to answer by the end of the story?</li></ul></ul></td></tr><tr><td valign="top" style="width: 20%;"> </td><td valign="top" style="width: 40%;">REFLECTION and DISCUSSION (45 min.) REFLECTION In your notebooks: <li style="margin-left: 40px;">Can you describe any moment where you let go, felt pulled, and you followed through, even though there was another part of you that was discouraging and contradicting your intention?</li><li style="margin-left: 40px;">What queued your feeling of being pulled by another's painting? A prompt by someone else? Your inner curiosity? My verbal instructions? </li> <ul><li>To introduce the discussion or close the session, choose from any of these quotes: </li><ul><li>"Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you love. " Jallaludin Rumi </li><li>“Our imagination is the most important faculty we possess. It can be our greatest resources or our most formidable adversary. It is through our imagination that we discern possibilities and options. Yet imagination is no mere blank slate on which we simply inscribe our will. Rather, imagination is the deepest voice of the soul and can be heard clearly only through cultivation and careful attention. A relationship with our imagination is a relationship with our deepest self.” (Pat B. Allen, Art is a Way of Knowing, p. 2)</li><li>Let’s try an experiment. Pick up a coin. Imagine that it represents the object which you are grasping. Hold it tightly, clutched in your fist and extend your arm, with the palm of your hand facing the ground. Now if you let go or relax your grip, you will lose what you are clinging onto. That’s why you hold on. But there’s another possibility. You can let go and yet keep hold of it. With your arm still outstretched, turn your hand over so that it faces the sky. Release your hand and the coin still rests on your open palm. You let go. And the coin is still yours, even with all this space around it. So there is a way in which we can accept impermanence and still relish life, at one and the same time, without grasping. – Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan book of Living and dying, pp. 34-35.</li></ul></ul>DISCUSSION <ul><li>Ask for any comments or thoughts from the group.</li><li>If possible, draw attention to any comments about how the painting progressed to set-up the practice of unfolding.</li></ul></td><td valign="top" style="width: 40%;">REFLECTION, DISCUSSION, EVALUATION, ADMIN, CLOSING (20 min.) REFLECTION <ul><li>Ask participants to turn to the appropriate pages in the personal notebook.</li></ul>DISCUSSION:<ul><li>What types of insights or curiosities dDid the practice of suspending affect your personal or business challenge?</li></ul>EVALUATION:<ul><li>Participants complete evaluations </li></ul>ADMIN:<ul><li>Review any admin issues for the next session</li><ul><li>For the Practice of Unfolding, ask participants to wear clothese they can get paint on, to bring extra shoes to get paint on, but also have shoes they can wear in the hallways</li><ul><li>Ask for volunteers to come early to help set-up the room, if needed</li></ul><li>For the Practice of Embodying, ask participants to wear clothese they can get paint on</li></ul></ul>CLOSINGChoose from any of these quotes to close the session<ul><li>"Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you love. " Jallaludin Rumi </li><li>“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” - Martin Luther King Jr.</li><li>Let’s try an experiment. Pick up a coin. Imagine that it represents the object which you are grasping. Hold it tightly, clutched in your fist and extend your arm, with the palm of your hand facing the ground. Now if you let go or relax your grip, you will lose what you are clinging onto. That’s why you hold on. But there’s another possibility. You can let go and yet keep hold of it. With your arm still outstretched, turn your hand over so that it faces the sky. Release your hand and the coin still rests on your open palm. You let go. And the coin is still yours, even with all this space around it. So there is a way in which we can accept impermanence and still relish life, at one and the same time, without grasping. – Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan book of Living and dying, pp. 34-35.</li><li>Handout: Love Your Path by Paolo Coehlo (see below, print out as a handout)</li></ul><blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;">1. The path begins at a crossroads. There you can stop and think what direction you want to take. But don't spend too much time thinking or you'll never leave the spot. Ask yourself the classic Carlos Castaneda question: Which of these paths has a heart? 2. The path doesn't last forever. It's a blessing to travel the path for some time, but one day it will come to an end, so be prepared to take leave of it at any moment. 3. Honor your path. It was your choice, your decision, and just as you respect the ground you step on, that ground will respect your feet. Always do what's best to conserve and keep your path and it will do the same for you. 4. Be well-equipped. Carry a small rake, a spade, a penknife. Understand that penknives are no use for dry leaves, and rakes are useless for herbs that are deep-rooted. Know what tool to use at each moment. And take care of your tools, because they're your best allies. 5. The path goes forward and backward. At times you have to go back because something was lost, or a message to be delivered was forgotten in your pocket. A well tended path enables you to go back without any great problem. 6. Take care of the path before you take care of what's around you. Attention and concentration are fundamental. Don't be distracted by the dry leaves at the edges. Use your energy to tend and conserve the ground that accepts your steps. 7. Be patient. Sometimes the same tasks have to be repeated, like tearing up weeds or closing holes that appear after unexpected rain. Don't let that annoy you; it's part of the journey. Even though you're tired, even though certain tasks are repeated so often, be patient. 8. Paths cross. People can tell you what the weather is like elsewhere. Listen to advice, but make your own decisions. You're responsible for the path entrusted to you. 9. Nature follows its own rules. You have to be prepared for sudden changes in the fall, slippery ice in winter, the temptations of flowers in spring, thirst and showers in the summer. Make the most of each of these seasons, and don't complain about their characteristics. 10. Make your path a mirror of yourself. By no means let yourself be influenced by the way others care for their paths. You have your own soul to listen to, and the birds to whisper translations of what your soul is saying. 11. Love your path. Without this, nothing makes sense.</blockquote><ul><li>From the chapter The Hero’s Adventure in the book by Bill Moyers, Campbell says: “If you realize what the real problem is – losing yourself, giving yourself to some higher end, or to another – you realize that this itself is the ultimate trial. When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.</li></ul></td></tr><tr><td valign="top" style="width: 20%;" rowspan="1"> </td><td valign="top" style="width: 40%;" rowspan="1">GO TO THE <a href="/The-Practice-of-Unfolding.html">PRACTICE OF UNFOLDING</a> </td><td valign="top" style="width: 40%;" rowspan="1">GO TO THE <a href="/The-Practice-of-Unfolding.html">PRACTICE OF UNFOLDING</a> </td></tr></tbody></table> <ul><ul><li> </li></ul></ul>

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