|
|
The Dynamic Creation Of Live
Socratic Dialogues
It is a
challenge to give a clear picture of a practice that is so different
and unique, especially since there is no formula for doing it.
DEPTH Dialogue is an art, not
a technique or a method, but it has
a solid basis in technique,
like any good art. It is a sort of
improvisation on a theme, like in music. The theme is deep exploration
of your experiences and self, with a main focus that sets the tone
(DEPTH Dialogue's main question.) It is a
kind of improvisation with DEPTH
Dialogue's basic elements.
The use of DEPTH
Dialogue's basic elements to generate live on-the-spot
deep
Socratic dialogues is similar to the use of notes, chords and technique
in
progressive jazz to produce an improvised performance. The notes and
chords that produce the music are always the same, but the possible
variations in their
real-time use are almost infinite. Technique is used, but only as that
which has already been thoroughly learned and assimilated so as not to
be in the way.
Spontaneous
Creation
The essential elements of
deep
inwardly focused Socratic dialogue that were shown in the Basics section
are spelled out
in precision and detail in the Manual
Of DEPTH
Dialogue.
When
these elements are artfully and skillfully brought into use in a live
conversation they result in an improvised on-the-spot deep Socratic
dialogue.
There is no formula to do this. The intersection and blending
of the Socratic dialogue elements does this. When these elements enter
into the conversation focused on your deep inner experiencing, a deep
Socratic dialogue just naturally results.
Synergy
Of Basic Elements
These elements are not
spelled
out in the accounts of Socrates'
dialogues, but they are there implicitly. When brought together in a
dynamic ongoing conversational interchange these elements form a
synergy that results in true Socratic dialogues. In this way, we are
able to see the emergence of entirely new creations of genuine deep
dialogue each and every time, in our own lives in present time.
The
creative play that we do with these elements allows us to be creators
of entirely new experiences that spontaneously take us beyond the
boundaries of what we knew or thought we knew even just a moment ago.
New light dawns and new undreamed of horizons open up - EVERY TIME!!
Demonstrating
DEPTH Dialogue
The approach of
showing the basic elements and how they can be combined
to create the practice is a better way of demonstrating the inner
dynamics of
DEPTH Dialogue than presenting actual records of DEPTH Dialogue
sessions. Records of actual sessions would give the impression that the
outward form of what happens is DEPTH Dialogue, when it is not.
The
outward form that someone would observe watching a DEPTH Dialogue
session is only a dim shadow of what is really going on. If you then
took this outward form to be what DEPTH Dialogue is you might try and
imitate that outward form, and this would be entirely missing the mark.
This would definitely NOT
create real Socratic Dialogues.
Inner
Demonstration
This is also the
mistake that has been made by people trying to do
Socratic Dialogues from reading and interpreting Plato's Dialogues,
which are our best record of Socratic dialogues from the time of
Socrates. What it takes to find out what is really going on in Plato's Dialogues
is a deep personal intuitive exploration into the actual inner dynamics
of the kind of deep self-exploration that is indicated there. This
takes you well beyond the outward form of the recorded dialogues, and
well into deep PERSONAL transformation.
It is not an intellectual game,
or even a dramatic enactment. It is a deep journey into your own self,
and all that that entails. It is going into your own psychological,
emotional, experiential, and even your physiological uncharted depths
with no guarantee of what the outcome might be. It is deep personal
exploration of the kind that Socrates was leading people into in his
time.
The
Inner Source
DEPTH Dialogue is the
result of this deep personal exploration, using
the search for the true inner dynamics of deep Socratic dialogue as
guidance. There was no assurance that this exploration would be
fruitful because the actual guidance from a teacher or a tradition was
not there. It took a long time and there were many mistakes, wrong
turns, etc. etc. There was much suffering involved, from being in
uncharted territory without a clue (most of the time.)
But fortunately,
the exploration finally yielded the desired result - experiencing,
knowing, understanding and being able to teach, the INNER dynamics of
the INNER process, the process that is way, way beyond any ideas
of Socratic dialogue that have ever come from study or imitation of its
outer form.
True
Deep Socratic Dialogue From
The Source
This is why it is not
arrogant or exaggerated to say that DEPTH
Dialogue is a very good approximation of the true inner dynamics of
what Socrates himself was actually doing with people when he guided
them into deep self-exploration. DEPTH Dialogue is the result of just
such a deep Socratic self-exploration, now summarized and essentialized
into principles, elements, guidelines and artful practice, making DEPTH
Dialogue not a record of that one deep self-exploration by one person
but a universal
practice that anyone can now participate in.
By flowing with and
into the elements of DEPTH Dialogue anyone can now
reproduce that deep self-exploration as a real adventure in his own
life and experience. All that is needed is guidance from someone who
knows the elements, the technique of applying those elements, and, most
especially, the subtle experiential creative art that takes the whole
process far and away beyond all the elements and technique.
This is what DEPTH
Dialogue guidance provides. It is a true and
unfailing way of dynamic creation of live Socratic dialogues.
To continue, return
to From
Technique To Art.
|
|