focus, then I release that focus as I’m slowly shifting my attention to the River of Behavior, coupled with a long and full exhale.

Then, I repeat this pattern of inhale with gaze resting on the River of Behavior, followed by a slow shift to the next river during a long exhale, and so on… until I complete the circle with a return to the River of Awareness. During all that time I strive to stay receptive to my body sensations and emotions when “swimming” in each of the rivers.

Now, I stop writing and you can stop reading, as we move around the ring of the rivers, following the rhythm of slow breathing with attention… 

We just had our first experience of a guided reflective meditation, shared across distance and time. Next, let’s deepen it with a foreground/background reversal practice. If the ring of rivers was in the foreground of our attention and the yin/yang in the background, then change that with bringing the centrepiece of the Four Rivers mandala into focus and let the rivers fade into the background of our attention.

As I rest my gaze on the center, I hold this question in the back of my mind, without thinking too much about it: 

What could nourish the relationship between our learning community’s collective being and becoming?

I let the question fully sink in, appreciating the gift of the source that sent it to me… I observe my first merging thoughts but I don’t analyze neither the question nor what it evokes. Instead, I just feel into the question, ever more deeply. As my mind is quieting, I feel my heart opening and I hold our community there with a tender loving care. 

Then, a shape-shifting occurs. The community is not out there and the questioner in here. The “I” is expanded and includes the community, which puts the question in a more intimate light. 

If you’re more curious of this process than the answer that came to me, then stop reading here, right now, and go through your own process of reflective meditation…

If and when you can’t wait to find out about my heart intuition about the relationship between our collective being and becoming, then read on. 

One of the places where our being is expressed is in the descriptive statements about our various, collaborative projects. Our becoming is emerging from our conversations. What will nourish their dynamic coevolution most is the lightest structure that enables/inspires the largest number of meaningful interactions between us.

That structure itself may change over time of the course and, possibly, beyond. For now, it seems to be composed of two parts: the wiki pages where our project descriptions reside and our conversations moving the projects forward in the forums, cross-linked with the wiki, and the real-time calls between members of the project teams. 

Congratulations for completing your first reflective meditation with the Four Rivers mandala. Remember, you can always return to and use it whenever you want to gain a deeper answer to “big picture” questions you have about the course. If you did gain some insight from your process or what came up in response to the focus of this contemplation, would you please “pay it forward” by posting as a reply to this blog.

* A mandala represents an imaginary place that is contemplated during meditation. Each object within it “has significance, representing an aspect of wisdom or reminding the meditator of a guiding principle.” BBC on Sacred Mandalas. (According to the Buddhist tradition it helps to transform everyday minds into awakened ones.)