In philo-sophical practice

Opening a clearing is crucial in the second stage of the philo-sophical process. As long as I am in the first stage of the process, when I analyze my Platonic cave, I can use ordinary reasoning and thinking. But in order to advance to the second stage and step out of this cave, a different attitude is necessary. It wouldn’t help me to think from my ordinary patterns, or to reason from my usual opinions and attitudes. As long as I philosophize from my perimeter, I will remain in my perimeter. No amount of smart reasoning or brilliant analyses will take me beyond my boundaries.

In the second stage of the process, therefore, we need to learn to philo-sophize from a clearing – which is to say to understand from a bigger reality, from beyond our little selves. But how do we open a clearing? And how can we help others do so?

To some extent, a clearing is like an unexpected “gift” given to us, which does not depend on our own efforts. It sometimes happens, for no apparent reason, that our inner being opens up to new understandings and plenitude. At those special moments we may become bigger than our normal selves. We may experience ourselves as part of a greater horizon of life and reality.

However, to some extent a clearing depends on us. First, it may depend on our attention. Clearings appear in us more often than we realize, but we are usually too busy to notice. Our usual patterns and conceptions are too powerful, and they quickly take over before we note that something significant happened. Even when we notice it, we often dismiss it as nothing but a pleasant mood. However, when we notice a clearing and cultivate it, then we experience a small miracle. It is as if the world appears from a new depth, from beyond the usual self. Philosophizing from this perspective is true philo-sophizing.

To some extent, then, having a clearing requires us to learn to pay attention and be aware. But furthermore, it is also the fruit of work, experience, and cultivation. By working on our state of mind we can gradually learn to develop an inner attitude that invites clearings. With experience we can gradually learn to push back our normal self and open a free space in ourselves. We can then learn how to be involved in the world, in our everyday work and errands, and at the same time to also be bigger than our busy self.

This is, then, a central task for the philo-sophical practitioner: To learn to notice and cultivate one’s clearings.

EXAMPLE

Linda organizes a philo-sophical weekend at a house in the country. On Friday evening the retreat starts with a long philosophical discussion about the self. A few theories are proposed, and the companions argue about them.

Daniel, one of the eleven participants, finds this boring. As a philosophy student he is good at arguing and analyzing. But recently he feels that the usual philosophical discussions are limited, and that they take him nowhere. He feels that they go in circles, always remaining in the same kind of thinking, in the same approach to ideas and life. He wants something new, but he doesn’t know what. In fact, this is why he decided to join Linda’s philo-sophical group.

The next morning Daniel wakes up early and takes a walk by himself. He climbs to the top of a hill and sits silently. Watching the landscape below him, he notices a deep inner stillness rising in him. His thoughts are silenced. The usual chatter of his mind disappears.

After a while, the topic of last night’s discussion floats into his mind. The ideas appear in his mind very clear, and he lets them unfold themselves. Surprisingly, he doesn’t feel the usual need to judge, to evaluate, to have an opinion, to take sides. He simply contains the different voices and lets them speak inside him.

Then, a new thought formulates itself in his mind: “Where am I in all these ideas? Which one of them is my opinion? Which one is me?” In some strange way he feels that silence is the best answer. Because, he realizes, he is not limited to one specific opinion. He is with all the ideas in the world, he is everywhere.

The experience takes only twenty minutes, but it continues to reverberate in him during the rest of the day. Linda notices that he is unusually quiet. “You are not saying much today, Daniel.”

Daniel tells her about his experience. “I felt,” he adds, “that my usual opinions and reactions were not relevant. In fact, I felt that I – my usual I – was not relevant.”

“This is a precious experience, Daniel. Thanks for sharing it with me. And what are you going to do with it?”

“What do you mean?”

“An experience is only an experience, Daniel. After a while it goes away and disappears. If you want it to be more than a memory, then keep it in your heart. Try to return to the inner openness that you experienced. Try to explore it and cultivate it. Try to see what it can teach you.”

“Is this what you call a clearing?”

“It is an EXPERIENCE OF a clearing. One kind of experience out of many others. You experienced it as an inner silence, but sometimes we experience a clearing differently: as a wave of inspiration, or as a feeling of compassion as if we are with the entire world. The important thing is not the feeling, but the openness, and what it can teach you. If it pushes back the usual patterns in you, the usual thinker, then it is a clearing.”

Two weeks later, when Daniel visits Linda, she asks him if he is able to re-experience the clearing.

“No, not completely. Only to some extent. Never as powerfully as it was at the retreat. But often I can bring back some of the openness. And when this happens, sometimes I have wonderful new understandings. But at other times I try and it doesn’t work at all, especially when I am tired or preoccupied.”

“Don’t worry about success and failure,” Linda says. “Clearings have a dynamics of their own. Don’t try to control them, or otherwise you will choke them with your ideas and patterns. Try inviting them without forcing them.”

EXERCISE

It is difficult to produce a clearing at will, but it is possible to invite it and get at least a taste of it. To do so, sit quietly in a quiet place. Choose a short unfamiliar passage from a book and read it slowly. The text should be one or two paragraphs that are condensed (without many repetitions or explanations), and that deal with a particular everyday idea (self, love, freedom, etc.). Classical philosophy or poetry texts are especially appropriate. Examples are passages from Marcus Aurelius, Nietzsche, Emerson, Rilke, etc.

Focus your mind on the text and read it very slowly – much more slowly than you usually read, resting a moment on each word. This would help eliminate the usual flow of automatic thoughts. Try to LISTEN to what the text says, as if you are listening to a friend. Don’t analyze, don’t impose your thoughts on the text – simply let it speak in you. If irrelevant thoughts enter your mind, don’t listen to them but don’t fight them either. Simply don’t pay attention to them and let them pass.

Success in this exercise depends on many factors. But if you succeed, after a few minutes you will experience a quiet openness, an openness of listening, free of the usual thoughts that normally try to analyze, grab, control, organize. New understandings might rise in your mind.

After you get a taste of this openness, try to see if it also appears at certain moments in your everyday life.

LESSON 11