Exploring Ourselves with Jackie McInley, June 19, 2022

Exploring Ourselves with Jackie McInley

Sunday, June 19, 2022

Zoom online

 

Fourteen of us were on hand for this Sunday morning session with Jackie McInley, who joined us online from France. The meetings lately have perhaps been increasingly spontaneous and with minimal structure and guidance, providing a space for unanticipated exploration of whatever is arising for participants as the conversation unfolds. Jackie is still active in bringing questions to the open space of potentiality that can be dialogue, but she also encourages group members to share whatever is alive for them. Very soon in the discussion some questions were posed about the relationship between thought, feeling, and emotion and to what extent we are listening to feelings. We looked a little at intellect and feeling, the question of naming a feeling or not, and the kind of inner narrative that goes on as we converse. The place of fear and desire for security was introduced and the importance of being closely with whatever is going on in us was mentioned as being significant in our self-inquiry.

The dialogue flowed onward with the wondering “What is responding to any question and can we allow the question to go beyond what is stimulated by it?” One participant contributed that there are many layers and levels of interaction and reaction that are taking place in the sharing of dialogue. The subject of tension arose and seemed to be of interest to many of the group. What is it like to experience tension with its different layers? Is tension being felt or is it being “organised”? Is there a kind of “Gatekeeper” in us who wants tension to appear in a certain way? Is there a conflict between control and breaking free? Some subtleties of “being with” tension or other feelings were brought forward, including the issue of fragmentation between different parts of us. Can the mind’s tendency to create division be seen as it occurs, without having to find a solution to it?

It was a meeting peppered with a variety of interesting questions and responses; the attendees were quite fully engaged, as usual.

DB