Prototyping
My crystallizing and prototyping right now as a result of my participation in this MMOC is an interior
process. It is happening on the inside in a way that Gregory Bateson describes as information –
formation within. My prototyping is a letting come and enacting and embodying within. I am
informing myself. This is accompanied by embodied new behavior on the outside, on the level of
appearances. Visible phenomena of my behavior are changing. But the main work is done on the
inside.
I am crystallizing a new interior condition while step by step I am going to perform into a different
behavior. I experience this formative process as one part work which I have to do with a certain
discipline (that would be the Yang-part of the practice in the Daoist tradition) and one part
evolutionary process that I have to provide the necessary conditions for (e.g., by cultivating my way
of listening and talking) and that is going on by itself (the Yin-part of the practice).
This gives me a completely new understanding of the right side of the U. Like small U-experiences on
every stage of the big U I seem to need a moment of suspending from time to time to sense into and
identify with the newly found qualities of listening and talking and sensing myself in the various fields
around me.
Reflecting this is like putting a spotlight on the current stage of an ongoing process that started much
earlier in my life. More recent stages of this process were
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Writing my master’s thesis on Theory U
The Presencing Foundation Program in Berlin in 2013
The Social Presencing Theater Advanced Training Program with Arawana Hayashi from
December 2014 to November 2014 (including a regular coaching circle via skype with
participants on various places around the planet)
Learning Daoist meditation practices for more than 15 years now
Newly found Zen practices
Presencing Coaching Circle: My intention to explore myself and my work from a new angle
My decision to move out of former coaching circles
MOOC & Case Clinic Coaching Circle (meeting in person)
Coaching Circle with OD professionals to explore the spiritual dimension of coaching
My Dao teacher in retreats throughout the last 15 years advised us to observe ourselves and find out
whether we might have a tendency to go shopping for enlightenment. A symptom for that would be
a habit of workshop-hopping from one teacher to the next one without suspending and taking some
time to observe the differences caused by the learnings from the courses. And also to get clear about
what my learning edge is, to begin with. He constantly reminded us of the power of intention. A lack
of intention causes workshop-hopping and a certain greed for more and more teachings while
shopping for enlightenment. He recommended that everybody find for themselves what works best
to cultivate their attention or mindfulness or awareness and to explore these practices in depths,
following the advice of the wind trigram of the I Ging: (Choose wisely and) go deeper with what you
are doing to cultivate yourself and to raise your consciousness.
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For me this is a dual process – exploring my interior condition and cultivating my personal practices
to raise my consciousness is the one part, the other one is exploring my ways of connecting to others
and cultivating my listening and talking practices to contribute to generative conversations in all
contexts of my life. No wonder this all happens at a moment where I am sorting out my professional
life in search for MY WORK.
For this weeks prototype I chose to make a sculpture that expresses the current stage of the
development process of my interior condition. I took a lump of clay material in my hands and closed
my eyes. I started to feel the material and to work on it by moving my hands kneading it, striking its
surface, forming it. I followed my intuitive impulses and let the movement emerge from inside,
observing its beginning, continuation and end. When I felt that I had reached the end I opened my
eyes and looked at the shape of the clay sculpture that had emerged in my hands.
I saw a rough spiral in the form of a snail shell. I tried to find out what it wanted to tell me. An infinite
spiral, moving forward, but also wanting to hold something. I pressed my fingers in to the round
surface and formed a half pipe. The material started to get dry and to crack on the surface, like the
skin of a reptile. This pipe, ready to contain something and to carry it spiraling into the unknown
future sported the traces of something very old. An ancient wisdom perhaps? Could it be that the not
yet embodied knowledge at its source is connected with a fully embodied but forgotten ancient
knowledge?
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