holistic dialogue meditation

(The same event with the same title is available on eventbrite for a donation rather than a fixed price incase the price here does not meet your budget)

Our collaborative efforts of life-exploration and self-inquiry are grounded in these 5 pages of a document: holistic dialogue manifesto or you can go on reading the document here:

### Holistic Dialogue Manifesto

Holistic: Quality of non-bias and cohesion of all aspects and components.

Dialogue: Ongoing interplay of happenings and communication(s) anchored by no starting point or destination.

Manifesto: Public statement that explains why something was done or will be done. The word comes from the Latin "manifestus," meaning clear or obvious.

The Motivation
After a period of collective investigation and exploration, showing that, regardless of the individual’s background—conservative, liberal, religious, scientific or otherwise—it is rare to grow up and/or live in an environment that provides space and support for unlimited life and self-exploration, let alone doing it effectively and efficiently.
The capacity for uninterrupted exploration and self-inquiry is seen as:

• Necessary for having uncompromised individuals and, as a result, society.
• Essential for living/operating in freedom, rather than continuously seeking it.
• Key to unblocking our talents and learning potential.
• Quite simply, fun.

Disclaimer
Often, the personal experiences shape how one understands things, but here, the aim is for the process of living itself, along with what comes with it, rather than my personal experience of it. This is not about authority or teaching—it's about exploration and we are all in this together.

The flow of ideas presented here are meant to help the exploration and self-inquiry, not to pin down what and how to think. This document does not claim to know anything for certain; this is just an attempt to engage, together, in the process.

Getting Started
Given all that has been said, how am I, as the writer, supposed to even begin? Writing with a purpose can make it seem like the writer already "knows" something, but this is obviously not about having answers, though answers could come up.

To truly engage here, both the document and the reader have to be free of the personal and collective stories we usually carry so as not to influence and alter what is to be perceived by what has been perceived. So, let's start with where we are, as we are and nothing else.

How to Begin the Dialogue

How can the conversation of exploration and introspection take place without turning everything into ideas and concepts?

It might seem difficult. Should one then give up? Or instead, acknowledge the biases and conditioning whenever and wherever they surface? “Conditioning” here is meant as the thoughts and beliefs one has based on their past experiences. This is not just an idea; it is something we are dealing with right now, in real-time.

Shall one’s conditioning be explored and inquired into—not to escape it or change it but simply because it is, at the very least, part of who we are as we are right now? This might be enough to fuel our exploration further.

Exploring, Now
Often, one hesitates to act when the purpose or meaning is not verbally clear. Is that because of how one has been raised, or is it the natural tendency to have it so? Does it even matter at this point?

Can there be meaning beyond what words or thoughts can capture?

Examining this possibility might suggest that the process in question is not something that can be measured. If it cannot be measured, does one lose interest in it? Or can one let go of their past experiences, both intellectual and spiritual, and see what emerges? Exploring the past when it comes up—not the story of it, but the way it shows up in the present.

Learning From the Past
There is a saying: "Those who do not learn from the past are bound to repeat it." This is true for things like science and the practical aspects of life but does this saying also apply to one’s mental and emotional side of life? The only way to find out, having gone thus far, is by taking a new kind of action and observing what happens.

Origin of Action
What does action actually mean? Most of the time, one reacts based on the past—acting because of what has happened before, whether it was the past, the present or even the future (because it is based on the past). For the sake of the question of action, one must go beyond these reactions, beyond the realm of reactions. When one lets go of the past, in this sense, what is left?

Nothing. But "Nothing" does not necessarily mean emptiness—it means "not a thing," that which is not fixed.

Having the past cleared out, life is available to be explored as it is right now. With the past not in the way, the senses—how one sees, hears, and feels—might work differently.

Exploring Our Senses
Before diving into the senses, something should be clarified: Sensitivity, here, does not mean being easily hurt or offended. Sensitivity, in this sense, is not about reacting. This does not mean that one won’t react, but that reactions and sensitivity are placed differently now. What is this new order that is emerging?

Can a new sense of order, not based on the past, be discovered?

Living in the Present
This is not about solving a puzzle. Puzzles are fixed and life is not. Hence, one explores a new way of living—not ruled by the past, by expectations and problem solving, belief, conflict, etc, whatever fixes life into something or another. Thought and thinking, as they are based on and from the past are part of this but, by this point, they are not at the center any longer.

Can order emerge naturally, emerge in an organic way?

Learning Anew
What does it mean for the senses to work without being centered around thought?

One might be afraid of living this way—not just because one is unaware of anything else but what they are used to, but also that one has been limited and governed by what one knows as well. Most of us have been taught to achieve and progress through the governance of these limits.
A possibility of a learning is being faced with all this, one that is not based on following, seeking and gathering more, more knowledge and experiences. A learning undirected by the past, undirected by the known.

Silence and Stillness
For this new learning to happen, the mind must not be occupied with thoughts, memories, or plans. Occupied with verbal meaning or narrative. When the brain is occupied, this new learning cannot happen. This is not about restricting oneself but about starting from where one is, as one are.

What happens when meaning can no longer be held by narrative?

What’s Next
Whether this is explored and inquired into alone or with others, with Synopsis or not, with the Holistic Dialogue manifesto or not is up to you. In any case though, one must be very careful not to turn whatever is shared here, or what one discovers on their own, into another doctrine, method or technique. This is a shared responsibility where each clarify and notify the other whenever a formulation is observed to be being built up.

Good luck.