What do I bring to the edifice of the Work? I hadn’t thought of it like this when I committed to helping with Claymont’s upcoming Three-Month Course of Study. But this is the image Madam de Salzmann offers in The Reality of Being when she talks about group work. “I am responsible for the stone I do not bring to the edifice.”
A number of us at Claymont are committed to help with the course of study which starts next August. At this point, the materials are being gathered, the groundwork has been laid, and the structure is underway. Participants are mustering. Those of us involved are defining our roles.
I keep asking questions: How are we to do this without it becoming a dry copy of our own course at Sherborne or Claymont? How is this to be different, given the times and technology that is part of life now? What is my own intention in participating in this course of study? How do I see myself in relationship to those who are participating, including the other presenters?
I’ve asked lots of questions, but what I haven’t fully considered, is Madam’s question. What do I bring? What hole will be left open in our edifice if I do not bring the stone that is alive and unfolding for me? If I just trot out old truths and experiences? In considering this, I am becoming conscious that all of us are embarking on this project. Ours is not a teacher / student dynamic, but an exploration we are embarking on together.
What I Can Bring
Two summers ago, at a Claymont seminar, I opened myself to “What is being asked of me?” That was when I committed myself to something that seemed to be forming and is now being called the Three-Month Course of Study. Now it feels like being committed is only the first step.
I begin to see the work ahead. Opening myself with an active question, one that may resonate with others but is rooted in my own exploration, feels like the answer to “what do I bring?” My stone must be chiseled into presence in the moment. It is my unique contribution that adds a piece to the edifice of experiential understanding. A stone that no one else can bring but me. That fits neatly into the whole.
Yes!!! I feel excited by your reflections: I am becoming conscious that all of us are embarking on this project. Ours is not a teacher / student dynamic, but an exploration we are embarking on together.
My stone must be chiseled into presence in the moment. It is my unique contribution that adds a piece to the edifice of experiential understanding. A stone that no one else can bring but me.
True for all of us!! All the time!!