Talking Circles

[tariki]

On another Forum someone began a "Talking Circle" and it has continued for many hundreds of posts and thousands of views. The thread has been peaceful and welcoming to all.

 

The Talking Circle has been in existence for centuries in Native American Spirituality as a way of resolving problems,disputes and opening to new thoughts and viewpoints, and of understanding that of others.

 

For further background, please try typing "Talking Circles" into Google and a whole host of sites will be offered. I have found it worthwhile to go to some and read a few of the descriptions of the history of the idea as well as much else.

 

Maybe we could try to begin one here?

 

From many introductions it appears there are many seeking to "escape" old thought-forms and embrace a more open way of seeing/being. Yet then, often, there is silence. This is not to say or imply that I believe that the search has ended for anyone, yet it seems that there is greater, possibly unfilled potential, on a Forum such as this, where almost any view can be expressed without fear of censure or flaming, for dialogue and finding new horizons.

 

So of anyone wishes to begin talking, about anything or nothing..................

 

........and if there is silence, I threaten a further "random mystical clipping" from my Kindle to start the ball rolling....

 

[PaulS]

NO, NO, please not another kindle mystical clipping, please!

 

Thanks Tariki for suggesting this - I'm happy to kick things off and then sit back and read what others want to say.

 

I would like to say that I have found this little community a great place for support, for challenging perceptions and ideas, for learning, and to some degree healing old wounds. I enjoy the interaction between new and old members and participants, and I am grateful how just about everybody treats others with complete dignity and respect. It has really helped me personally to be able to bounce ideas around and challenge assumptions long held. Obviously not all of us agree all the time, but generally this forum is ultra-civilised in this regard and you don't see that very much anywhere else. It's a credit to members, moderators, and administrators (I notice it's been raised by several new members just recently). So I would like to extend a sincere thankyou to everyone in this communtity for their help, tolerance, suggestions, explanations, and fellowship. This is my Church.

 

Cheers

Paul

Edited December 23, 2012 by PaulS

[tariki]

Paul, having saved everyone from another "Clipping" you may well have earned the right to sit back..............

 

I agree with your sentiments regarding this Forum, though I do see a place for a more robust form of dialogue. But as I indicated elsewhere, at the moment I seek peace. I also concur with a few words by dusktilldawn that revolved around the rather slow pace of things here, yet that such allows for much that can be lost when in the blink of an eye many posts are slung at a topic and the thread either veers off-topic or ends in so many counter claims that my poor old mind staggers away in incomprehension!

 

All the best

Derek

[JosephM]

I agree that no forum is perfect for everyone. I think there is a time in ones walk where something is to be learned or gleaned from robust and even sometimes vicious debates. Of course this is not the place for that. That is probably why this more peaceful site is not designed as a fit for everyone's walk. Many have come and left and most all (but not all) of them have expressed that they have benefited greatly for the time they have spent here. Some seem to outgrow the need for what this site offers and i think that is great. Some have stayed here and been a blessing to new people who have walked a similar path. We as a forum (community) have no growth goals but we have indeed grown and personally i am delighted by any comfort, peace and opportunity for footing people have expressed that they have found from other members here as a member or guest.

 

Joseph

[tariki]

Hopefully all have had a happy and loving Christmas. My own enduring memory will be of my 10 month old grandson, fresh from the opening of his many many presents - most of the "press this" and see what happens push along variety - settling down instead with a sparkling bracelet that was a present for his mum, shaking it deliriously with supreme joy for ten minutes or more. And of course, the fact that for the whole day he would head away from his new toys and crawl straight for the cabinet on which the most expensive ornaments stood........

 

Anyway, back to Talking Circles. Maybe some here are not aware that I choose to identify more as a Buddhist than anything else, even if labels seem more and more redundant these days. Long ago I "accepted Christ as my own personal Savior" - as the saying goes - but the road leads on and on, and for me, away from any form of Conservative Christianity. Basically I have no belief at all that any "sacred" book is "the one", no belief that any transcendent Being has communicated supremely in just one Book and no other. From my own observation of today's world, and knowledge of history, such a claim and belief has been, and is, the source of untold misery, suffering and conflict between human beings.

 

For me, it is more surrender to the Ground of Being (not to a "being"), the Ground in which we live and move and have our being.

 

Rather than "truth" being found in one book - or ANY book - all reality seeks to open us to Reality-as-is.

 

i bring fullness and satisfaction to the world,

like rain that spreads its moisture everywhere.

Eminent and lowly, superior and inferior,

observers of precepts, violators of precepts,

those fully endowed with proper demeanor,

those not fully endowed,

those of correct views, of erroneous views,

of keen capacity, of dull capacity -

I cause the Dharma rain to rain on all equally,

never lax or neglectful.

When all the various living beings

hear my Law,

they receive it according to their power,

dwelling in their different environments.....

..The Law of the Buddhas

is constantly of a single flavour,

causing the many worlds

to attain full satisfaction everywhere;

by practicing gradually and stage by stage,

all beings can gain the fruits of the way.

 

(The Lotus Sutra, Parable of the Dharma Rain)

 

So, I have had my say in the Talking Circle.