ALIA Europe: Samplings from the river.

So much happens in just a few days. I had hoped to post something each day but the experience has become like a great river, sweeping us all along. It began as separate parts: a module, a meditation talk, a creative process workshop, a lunch conversation, a walk in the woods, outer and inner. Sometime during the week the boundaries became thinner until one thing echoed the next, one coincidence followed another. I guess you could say "it's working."

A few samplings from my notebook:

"The ground is acknowledging uncertainty, not running from it. Then we are able to be in the question. There is no precedent for how to solve problems at the level of complexity we have now. We can't break them into parts and apply best practices. Being able to simply see what's in front of us, beyond limiting assumptions, letting go into openness, is how we cease to fight with our own experience and tune into what is going on. This is inseparable from personal transformation... Life has forward-going energy. Whatever happens is an accurate message and can be stepped into and used.. It is important to have a personal practice of some kind--some way of reminding yourself when you become subsumed by habits...a mirror from which you can't escape.... We can't control results; we can only control the conditions we are able to create. We can walk forward with commitment and passion. We can walk lightly and take delight in the challenge." —Michael Chender

"There are many mindfulness practices, but if you want to cultivate loving-kindness, compassion, and insight, it's also helpful to just sit without any result...such as a better bike." —Arawana Hayashi, responding to questioner who practiced mindfulness while fixing his many bicycles.

"When we invite our organization to enter the chaordic zone, the zone of innovation and change, we are inviting uncertainty, the unknown, and some degree of chaos. When I talked about this with the leader of an organization we are working with, I said, 'I am willing to walk with you, to take the risk with you, but I am not willing to take the risk *for* you.'" —Toke Moeller

"It's great that you can see connections between what I've said about power and love, and other frameworks and reference points you have. But I just want to caution you about being too quick to say oh yeah, this is that. From my experience, this is a life's work. And you can't just mush them together. You have to work on one at a time. Love. Power. And then it's like walking. I think of the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. At first it can't walk at all, and then gradually it finds one leg, then the other. Sometimes you stumble, but you keep going, you keep practicing." —Adam Kahane

"It's a powerful thing--a group sitting in a room doing nothing but just being who they are... Being who we are takes courage. It isn't comfortable. But it is a powerful way of living." —Arawana Hayashi

"When we are able to be inclusive of ourselves, we can be inclusive of others. When we practice friendliness towards ourselves, we can practice friendliness towards others." —Chris Tamdjidi

"When I was a little kid my grandparents had an Italian restaurant, probably because they were Italian. They would put me in the kitchen with some pots and pans and a spoon, and close the door. I would just play and play. So it's the same now. This is all I need to be happy. —Jerry Granelli, referring to collection of "found pots" that he then used to create music as Arawana Hayashi danced and Barbara Bash performed a brushstroke