Learn: Meditation & Teaching

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Meditation, Talk & Recorded Q&C

There are three sections in this recording – meditation, talk, recorded Q&C – and each section is essential for your embodied learning of this material. The meditation prepares you to receive the teaching. The talk and the Q&C both contain parts of the teaching from Hameed for this lesson. After you’ve completed the whole recording it is time to do the exercise.

Inquiry Exercise – 3 Different Ways: 

1. Join the Weekly Inquiry Practice Session. See the Inquire lesson for the link to join the hosted Zoom meeting where you’ll be given instructions and paired a fellow course participant to do the exercise.

2. Do the Exercise with One Other Person: Connect in person or online. Decide who will ask first. That person will ask the question, then listen as a silent witness while the other person answers. After they answer, the first person says “Thank you” then continues to re-ask the same question and listen to the response for a total of 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes are over, switch roles. You’ll switch back and forth for each of the two questions: person A, then person B, then person A, then person B, and so on.

3. Do the Exercise on Your Own: If you choose to do the exercise on your own, you can either write in a journal or speak your experience out loud using a recording device as the witnessing listener.

Exercise Instructions

• This exercise is called “Repeating Questions” and will be done in a small group of 2 people.
• Decide who will ask first (Person A) and who will answer first (Person B). Also decide who will keep the time (a smartphone timer works well).
• Person A will ask Person B question #1 for 15 minutes. Then switch roles and Person B will ask Person A question #1 for 15 minutes.
• Repeat this process with question #2
• The listener is being a silent, neutral witness, sensing themselves and being present, paying equal attention to themselves and to the speaker. No encouragement or discouragement in posture or words, just open attentiveness that helps the person feel held and supported to explore. The speaker is also sensing themselves and exploring their experience with immediacy as they verbalize to their partner.
• After your short answer, your partner will say “Thank you”, then you’ll have a moment to re-group, come back to center, and wait for the question to come again.

Below are the questions for this exercise. Each is asked repeatedly for 15 minutes per person. Whether the content is political, personal, or both—whether it has to do with where you feel marginalized, or where you feel stressed about your work, or about climate change—let things keep flowing! 

Question 1: Tell me something that limits the power of your enlightenment drive. (15 min per person)

Question 2: Tell me a way you experience the drive for enlightenment. (15 min per person)