[Note to my patient readers: I have been out of action since a serious bicycle accident on August 14. I’m healing, and still have some way to go. But I’m inspired to get back to this ALIA chronicle because I’ve been working with the group in Halifax to plan some ALIA events on the west coast (of North America) in 2013 and 2014. I will share some of that thinking and progress here from time to time; if you would like to be involved or to know more now, it’s fine to send me a separate note.]
* * * * *
How to know when to act and what the appropriate action is? Feeling hesitation is a way of knowing that clarity about acting is near. I might ask myself, “Why am I hesitating?” This very question means I am about to act.
Acting
“Acting is saying yes to something and no to everything else,” said Michael Chender during our third session at the ALIA Summer Institute. The integrity and care of a direct action can attract others to you and your cause. In the moment, acting is instantaneous. We cannot see ourselves acting. You can’t even keep yourself company, it is a moment of such aloneness. The practice is synchronizing one’s body and mind, with not knowing in the background and confidence in the foreground.
In Acting, we encounter our habits of hesitation and impulse. These are always present for us. First, the habit of hesitation. Are we hesitating or showing intelligent caution as an extension of Exploring (going step by step and giving attention to feedback)? When we find ourselves hesitating, it might be because we are trying to do the “whole thing” rather than just the next step; or, we might be trying to do the perfect thing; or we might not want to do what is obvious.
The habit of impulse is paired with spontaneity. If impulse is “reaction”, spontaneity is something new out of nowhere. We react because we can’t stand the uncertainty of a situation; our neurology wants to resolve it. Spontaneity comes from knowing fear thoroughly; we become fearless.
One practice around hesitation and impulse is to “step on hesitation” and “resist impulse”, synchronizing body and mind. Another practice is to “do something”. Act. Be not afraid to be thought a fool (assuming you have come through the steps of Entering and Exploring).
“Paying attention to detail is building the nest of the gods”, suggested Michael at the end of the day. This was later rendered in beautiful calligraphy by a member of our group.
Paying attention to detail is building the nest of the gods.