Inquiry: They should make it come alive.

They should make it come alive.

This one often comes up for me when I am in spiritual groups where a teacher mainly teaches through talking. (Often long, dry, boring talks.)

Why not use one of the many tools out there that makes it come alive here and now, helps everyone find the wisdom from their own immediate experience, and invites the wisdom to emerge from the group rather than one single person?

It seems more fun, juicy and effective, so why not do it?

Why not use the Big Mind process, headless experiments, The Work, or one of the many other simple and effective approaches out there?

1. True?
   Yes. Seems true when it comes up. My feelings tells me it is true. My stories tells me it is true. Others agree with me.
2. Sure?
   No. Also, don’t know what is best for me, the students, or the teacher.
3. What happens when I believe that thought?
   • I go into stories such as the ones in the intro.
   • I identify with these stories, and see them and myself as right. I know better than they – both the teacher and the hapless students who think they get something out of dry talks.
   • There is a split, a sense of I and Other. And this brings a sense of separation, isolation, of being in the wrong place, of not quite belonging.
   • I see all of this happening, the reactivity and rigidity, and this makes it even more uncomfortable.
   • What am I not able to appreciate because of that belief? I am not able to appreciate what happens here and now. The teacher, the teachings, the students, whatever happens for me.
4. Who would I be without it?
   • Present. Available. Receptive. Able to see how I and others may benefit from the talk. More sincere in my relationship to the teachings. Sense of us, of being in the same boat. More free in my relationship to the talk and the group, including free to leave!
5. Turnarounds.
   • They should not make it come alive.
     • True. It is obviously what the teachers and the students want. They must get something out of it. (Something I am not quite able to see, at least not when I am absorbed into that initial belief.)
     • It brings all of this up for me, inviting me to inquire into my own beliefs and fixed views around it.
     • It helps me clarify what I am looking for, and what is more juicy and interesting for me.
   • I should make it come alive.
     • Yes, very true. I am the one who should make it come alive. As usual, the advice is for myself.
     • When I am there, I can make the teachings come alive in me, finding it in myself here and now.
     • I can notice what is alive in me, including any of these reactions. I can fully allow it all.
     • I can leave, find another group that is more juicy for me.