reflectives – a detailed month by month look at past reflectives

threshold is a bristolian spiritual community, to find out more about us, our values, and how we operate click here. on the third saturday of the month threshold holds a reflective meeting on a spiritual or cultural theme in a public space (ie a pub!) in the centre of bristol. members take it in turns to lead these sessions, and there is a guideline of one hour preparation time. we would like to share the content and resources from these sessions. please feel free to replicate or adapt them for your own use.

june 2009 – photographing threshold

an outward-bound reflective, threshold members went off in different directions to photograph things that are ‘thresholdy’ – things and people in transition, boundaries, and the spaces in between.  We then re-assembled in the pub to show each other our photos.

Click here to see selection of full sized photos on Flickr

may 2009 – reflecting on threshold

“the threshold [should] not [be seen] as a location for the stepping over from one state or condition to another, but as a place or condition in itself, an endless waiting towards, a becoming nothing” henry tietzsch-tyler, 27 february 2009

“…what does it mean to reflect upon a position, a relation, a place related to other place but with no place of its own – a position in-between?” elizabeth grosz (2001: 90.)

“for me this space of radical openness is a margin –a profound edge.” bell hooks (1990: 149.)

we have now been running for a year and a half and so jenny took the opportunity to lead a session reflecting on our own existence as a fluid, non-institutionalised group or community. we talked about how threshold is like a rare species and the nature of rare species is that they either become extinct, or an effort is made to step in and save them. there is a sense of fragility, which is something i think we’ve all felt about threshold at times. we had a frank discussion about where threshold is at the moment and to took time to reflect on what threshold means to us; what we value in threshold; what our capacity is; our aspirations for the future; what we’d like to change. we felt that there were lots of things about threshold which we want to continue such as the imperfect/unpolished nature of our reflectives, no one leader and the sense that differences in opinion are valued rather than suppressed. we did also all acknowledge that we were worried about the future of the group and needed to increase in numbers to increase diversity and our capacity to survive. we talked about a lot of things (including possibly stopping official socials and having informal get-togethers instead) and decided to carry on some of the debates online on our discussion page. please join in the discussion!

april 2009 – via negativa

in the fourth century, the church fathers wrestled with the inadequacy of making positive statements about god, such as god is good. such human language inevitably limited our understanding of god’s essence, and negative theoology – the via negativa – attempted to transcend such limitations by stating, for example, god is not good. this opposition might then lead to the synthesis, god is beyond good. in this session, richard led an exercise drawing on negative theology in which we took turns to complete and lay down slips of paper bearing the words god is not. The picture below shows the results. example statements included, god is not out there, a person, slave, on our side, infinite, everywhere, a ship, a bird, obedient, almighty, male (or female), a pint of beer and god is not not. many of the statements provoked discussion – and sometimes quite strong disagreement – about what they meant and whether they could, or should, (not) be said. click on the image for a larger, if somewhat blurry, view.

march 2009 – hearing the bristol sound

jenny brought along recent lyrics from bands associated with bristol. what do these lyrics have to say about the immediate here and now for bristol at the turn of the millenium? is this the same as our immediate here and now? with a nod to the greenbelt theme of the long now (and brian eno), will this be relevant in 175 years, was it relevant 175 years ago? do we hear any sense of call as a response to these lyrics? you can answer these questions yourself by reading some of the lyrics here

we felt that, apart from a bit of social commentary from tricky and jane taylor, the overwhelming sense of the here and now is quite self-absorbed. is this what current bristolians are like?! a lot of the emotional content of these songs was relevant 175 years ago, and will probably still be relevant in 175 years time, although we thought the context, emphasis and language would be different. we didn’t sense a direct ‘call’ from these songs, but it did make us think about being less self-absorbed.

we talked specifically about each song and the conversation ranged from comparing massive attack to william blake (this statement definitely needs more context!) to moaning about portishead’s ongoing existential angst and uncertainty (which we also empathised with to some extent). we particularly liked the lyrics to sweet hours and my street (which was amusing as very much montpelier!).

please add your comments here

february 2009 – falling white stuff

our reflective was cancelled due to heavy snow. we’re currently having an online discussion on our facebook group about future reflectives. join the facebook group if you want to contribute…

january 2009 – janus the two-faced god of thresholds

bea led a reflective picking up on the mythology surrounding janus (from twilight spirituality in nov). we explored reclaiming the expression ‘two-faced’ in terms of the different aspects of ourselves which we need to show to different people, and seeing both sides of the spiritual threshold we’re sitting on. we used an image of a two-faced figure and individually considered the pairings of: how i present myself to friends/strangers; what i would like to leave behind/take forward; living within an organised religion/without religion; 2008 and the past/2009 and the future etc.

december 2008 – christmas cool wall

lindsey led a session revisiting the coolwall format (debating how cool/uncool a concept is and placing it on a continuum from cool to uncool, see the write-up for may 2008 below). the theme this time was christmas and the concepts included everything from the theology of christmas to cultural traditions around christmas, and various christmas obligations. generally we can have a debate about anything, but what was most noticeable with this coolwall was how indifferent we were to a lot of christmas related issues (particularly aspects of christmas which for some people define what christmas is). we were also surprised again at how traditional our values are when pinned down like this, although we like to think of ourselves as quite alternative…

november 2008 – twilight spirituality

jenny led a session exploring the idea of twilight spirituality. to start with we explored spiritual and cultural associations with the binary opposites of light and dark. we then thought about associations with twilight (dusk and dawn) and jenny shared the result of a google search on twilight deities. we particularly liked janus the god of openings and thresholds of all kinds (including the thresholds between light and dark).

we imagined a festival to celebrate twilight spirituality: to start with we thought that the location of the festival would be in a porch area, starting at dusk and ending at dawn (with the lights on inside and dark outside, to create a state of twilight in the porch area). we had talked about the cycle of deconstruction and reconstruction in terms of dusk and dawn and wondered how to add this into the festival, perhaps a reading at dusk which slowly untangles into gibberish to be rewoven into something else at dawn?! we would have visual illusions and moving holograms (e.g. Madonna changing into Buddha and back) as decorations. there would be real ale to drink (neither hot nor cold) and marble cake to eat. two people would dress up as janus (with two heads coming out of one outfit) and they would give out ambiguous gifts father christmas style. the people would dress in veils so it wasn’t clear who they are.

however, we then decided that this was all too definite and planned to be a true celebration of twilight spirituality, and decided that a more authentic celebration would be to acknowledge the sacredness of confusing moments. to do this you would pause at doors and gates, as a physical expression of embracing thresholds rather than trying to rush through them into more definite times/areas. 

october 2008 – labels

we spent some time looking at the labels we apply to ourselves and others. this took the form of a simple game led by richard in which we took turns to pick a card from a deck and display it in front of us. everyone else then confessed the way they would think about someone they met wearing/carrying/displaying that symbol. the picker then talked about how they would feel about bearing that label and the perceptions of others. eventually, we had four symbols each:

one of the really interesting things was the way in which the symbols modulated each other when displayed by the same person, for example the medals and the cnd symbol, and the darwin fish and the wwjd wristbands. sometimes, we could halucinate a life story that would encapsulate a diversity of such symbols, perhaps learning not to trust our stereotypes (if such learning was necessary).

another very enjoyable aspect of the evening was that regulars lindsey, steve and richard were joined in the game by one of the cornubia’s patrons who was sharing some bar space with us. it was great to be able to engage with a fellow pubgoer without any expectation of a “let me hand you this tract” moment. let’s hope it happens again.

 

  

september 2008 – poetic creeds

 

 

august 2008 – non-magnetic poetry.

phil used a magnetic-poetry inspired reflection to inspire us to create our own creed. in this session, because of the summer holidays/low turn out, we had a free/trial play with them. we will have another go at them in the september session.

(if you have a robot brain belief is comforting certainty)

july 2008 – faith journeys

lindsey read a taoist parable called the pathless path, which explores how the journey itself can be the goal (see full version below). after the story we contemplated our own faith journeys, stimulated by an origami boat covered in prompts, such what type of traveller are you? (pilgrim, adventurer, refugee, tourist etc) what are you leaving behind? (friends, certainty, cognitive dissonance, routine etc) what would help? (lonely planet, cup of tea, companionship, encouragement etc) how are you feeling? (exhausted, expectant, confused, overwhelmed etc.).

we each made our own origami boats and, using coloured pens and pencils, we decorated our boats with words and pictures reflecting our own faith journey. at the end of the session we set out boats sailing on bristol’s floating harbour (this resulted in them being blown into the corner of the harbour wall where all the rubbish collected – which in itself might be quite indicative of the journey! we suggest if you repeat this session not to sail your boats in a polluted harbour incase some members of your group take the outcome too literally!)

A Taoist parable:
There is a statue of Lao Tzu, the founder of Tao. And a young man has been thinking for years to go to the mountains and see the statue of Lao Tzu. He loves the words, the way Lao Tzu has spoken, the style of life that he has lived, but he has never seen any of his statues. There are no Taoist temples, so there are very rare statues and they are all in the mountains – standing in the open, carved out of the mountain – no roof, no temple, no priest, no worship.

 And years pass, and there are so many things always coming in between. But finally one night he decides that he has to go – and it is not that far, only a hundred miles – but he is a poor man, and he has to walk. In the middle of the night – he chooses the time in the middle of the night so that the wife and the children and the family are asleep and no trouble arises – he takes a lamp in his hand, because the night is dark, and goes out of the town.
As he comes out of the town to the first milestone, a thought arises in him: ‘My God, one hundred miles! And I only have two feet – it is going to kill me. I am asking the impossible. I have never walked one hundred miles, and there is no road…’ It is a small hill path, a footpath – dangerous too. So he thinks: ‘It is better to wait till the morning. At least there will be light, and I can see better; otherwise I will fall somewhere off this small footpath. And without seeing the statue of Lao Tzu, simply be finished. Why commit suicide?’
So he was sitting just outside the town, and as the sun was rising an old man came by. He saw this young man sitting; he asked: ‘What are you doing here?’ The young man explained.
The old man laughed. He said: ‘Have you not heard the ancient saying? Nobody has the power to take two steps together, you can take only one step at a time. The powerful, the weak, the young, the old – it doesn’t matter. And the saying goes: `Just one step by one step, a man can go ten thousand miles’ – and this is only a hundred miles! You seem to be stupid. And who is saying to you that you should go continuously? You can take time; after ten miles you can rest a day or two days, enjoy. This is one of the most beautiful valleys and the most beautiful mountains and the trees are so full of fruits, fruits that you may not have even tasted. Anyway, I am going; you can come along with me. I have been on this path thousands of times, and I am at least four times your age. Stand up!’
The man was so authoritative, when he said: ‘Stand up!’ the young man simply stood. And he said: ‘Give your things to me. You are young, inexperienced; I will carry your things. You just follow me, and we will take as many rests as you want.’
And what the old man had said was true – as they entered deeper into the forest and the mountains, it became more and more beautiful. And wild, juicy fruits… and they were resting; whenever he wanted, the old man was ready. He was surprised that the old man himself never said it was time to rest. But whenever the young man said it was time to rest, he was always willing to rest with him – a day or two, and then they would start the journey again.

Those one hundred miles just came and went by, and they reached one of the most beautiful statues of one of the greatest men who has ever walked on the earth. Even his statue had something – it was not just a piece of art, it was created by Taoist artists to represent the spirit of Tao.
Tao believes in the philosophy of let-go. It believes you are not to swim, but just to flow with the river, allow the river to take you wherever it is going – because every river ultimately reaches to the ocean. So don’t be worried, you will reach the ocean. There is no need to be tense.
In that lonely spot the statue was standing, and there was a waterfall just by the side – because Tao is called the watercourse way. Just as the water goes on and on flowing with no guidebooks, with no maps, with no rules, no discipline… but strangely enough in a very humble way, because it is always seeking the lower position everywhere. It never goes uphill. It always goes downhill, but it reaches to the ocean, to its very source.

The whole atmosphere there was representative of the Taoist idea of let-go. The old man said: ‘Now begins the journey.’
The young man said: ‘What? I was thinking, one hundred miles and the journey is finished.’
The old man said: ‘That is just the way the masters have been talking to people. But the reality is now – from this point, from this atmosphere, a journey of one thousand and one miles begins. And I will not deceive you, because after one thousand and one miles you will meet another old man – perhaps me – who will say: `This is just a stopover, go on.’ Go on is the message.’
The journey itself is the goal.
It is infinite. It is eternal.

(http://www.osho.nl/New-Osho-NL/EnglBooks/TaoPathless.htm)

june 2008 – threshold: the quest

jenny led us in a role play style game based on a theme of spiritual exploration. players chose characters ranging from st anselm to rumi to john wimber. the aim of the game was to speak to god or reach spiritual enlightenment. characters moved towards this goal by scoring points in 5 areas: love, hope, faith, scholar and quest. during the game session, the players listened to descriptions of their character’s surroundings, as well as additional information and potential choices from the game master, then described their actions in response (sometimes involving chance by the use of dice). halfway through the game players had to write a section of the game each. players then collectively played through the scenarios they had created. at some point we may publish the whole game here. if you want to reproduce this for your own group email threshold@infinitarian.com and we’ll send you the details (it is too long to post here and hasn’t been typed up yet).

may 2008 – cool wall

richard introduced us to a game loosely inspired by the top gear cool wall. we had a small pile of cards with words or short phrases drawn from christian belief or practice written upon them. we took turns to pick up a card and place it on the table between two labels – “cool” and “uncool”. others could then try to persuade the player to move the card more towards one of the labels, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. we ended up with the cool wall shown below (click on the image to see a larger version).

of course, the whole game depends on what is meant by the terms on the cards (and by “un/cool”). the discussion about what each term meant, and why it was un/cool, was the point of the game. the end result does not reflect a measured consensus, just a snapshot of individual opinions on that evening. nonetheless, we began to learn a little more about each other’s experiences and perspectives.

april 2008 – threshold style passover

this meeting was at about the same time as passover so we decided to do a ‘threshold’ passover meal. bea faciliated the creation of our own ‘threshold’ cedar plate to help us reflect on current oppresion. we did this by covering the table with sheets of paper so that the table became one big ’cedar plate’. we divided the table breadth-ways into 4 parts, each part provided the space for a question: what have we been freed from? what has been sacrificed for our freedom?  what do we mourn? what are we still enslaved to? we then divided the table in half length-ways, so that one side represented the global, and one side the personal. using a variety of food samples we started to place items symbolically in the different spaces to represent our thoughts and ideas, sometimes annotated. we ended up with the annotated tablecloth shown below (click on thumbnail for full image).

we followed this with a pub meal, leaving a beer for elijah.

march 2008 - god shaped hole

we reflected on absence and presence. phil read some quotes from a discussion on an athiest website about the absence and presence of god. we thought about absence and presence using the idea of pascal’s god shaped hole: does a god shaped hole really exist? if it does, does everyone have one? do you know something is absent if you’ve never had it? if a god shaped hole does exist what is it it like – a hollow chocolate santa?  using some coloured pens we explored these questions and our own ideas with symbols and words. we annotated a piece of paper with a jigsaw shape cut out of the center to represent our ‘hole’, or absence, and a piece of paper cut into the shape of a jigasw piece to represent ‘god’, or presence.

at the end of the session we fit all our jigsaw pieces together to get a multifarious picture of god or presence.

 

february 2008 - banksy reflection

lindsey led a time of individual reflection on a banksy picture. each banksy pictures was placed in the centre of an a4 page, with 3 graded frames surrounding the image with the headings: what i see; what it suggests; i feel. we made our own notes in each frame, and afterwards fed back to the group with discussion.

evaluation: if you repeat this we suggest editing out sections of some of the pictures in photoshop (if you have time). e.g. how does it effect your perception if you hide the angel’s wings/ the bottle and cigarette? note the effect of hiding the shopping bags in the crucifixion image.

january 2008 – dayenu, self acceptance and alternative resolutions

lindsey led a session on self acceptance as a counter-cultural reaction to new year’s resolutions and the constant pressure to improve:

read: a jodo shinshu parable (based on tannisho, ix)

once, there was a giant oak tree. it stood in the middle of a park so it had never felt the touch of axe or saw. it grew to full size with great out-stretched branches, larger than most trees. many animals and birds made their homes in the tree. they ate the acorns that dropped onto the grass beneath. what fun it was for the to romp in the piles of colorful autumn leaves. some of the acorns eventually grew into trees as well.the neighbors who lived near the park planted the acorns in their own yards because they admired the oak tree so much.one of the most promising of the acorns in the park resisted growing into an oak tree. it had overheard stories of the massive felling of trees and of lightening. so, it lay passive in the soil of the park for two whole winters. the acorn said, “i’m now planted in the earth, but i refuse to grow. i intend to stay an acorn forever.”even a park attendant’s kindly attentions, the rain, and the sun did not cause the acorn to sprout.

soon, in the third year, a small green sprout poked up through the grass. the green shoot said, “so now, i’m growing. but i will not grow any higher than two meters”but, again, the park attendant’s kindly attentions, the rain and the sun did their work and the shoot grew more than two meters in height.the shoot had become a young sapling. the sapling said, “ok, so now i’m a small tree, but i will not put on leaves.” the park attendant came every day to attend to the tree. he bound it against the wind and pruned its branches when needed.

again the seasons passed, buds appeared and then leaves. the leaves were full and beautiful. the oak tree said, ” so now i have leaves. but, i will not allow them to change colors in the autumn and fall to the ground like other trees. i refuse to let it happen.”still the park attendant came and fertilized the tree he watered it in the dry seasons and even put up a birdhouse. he noticed that small acorns were developing on the branches.the seasons changed so that autumn came to the park. the leaves did change in to wonderful purple, brown, red and yellow. the tree was a beautiful sight for all to behold.then there was a great windstorm. it came icy and sharp from the north. the park attendant went to see the oak after the storm. some of the great branches were broken and sagging. he cut away the broken branches and gave the tree some tree medicine.after the storm the leaves fell in big piles around the tree trunk. children came to play in the leaves. the park attendant roasted some of the acorns for the children. a few of the acorns nestled deep in the grass. they would later become future trees themselves.animals of all kinds came to make their homes in the spreading branches. squirrels and birds made winter nests. spiders and insects found places to hide from the winter cold. one day it was bitter cold. the park attendant came to prop the branches up against the weight of the ice. he piled leavers up against the trunk and placed a wire grate around the trunk to protect it.

as the park attendant was working patiently he happened to turn his face up towards the tree. the oak looked down into a face that was full and round, the face of a buddha. in spite of the winter cold, the face had a slight glow about it. this was the light of acceptance and deep wisdom. looking into that face gave the oak tree an inner peace it had never known before. for the first time in its life the oak tree understood the deep mystery of simply being an oak tree.

taken from http://www.manitobabuddhistchurch.org/childrensstories/page23.html[it's best not to read this to a group in a noisy pub!]

then these question were asked to reflect on self-acceptance as a new year resolution:

1. how do you feel when you think about the kind of person you are?
2. do you like and respect yourself?
3. do you accept yourself for who you are?
4. do you have confidence to try new things even though you might fail?

on art paper the group to drew a picture of a tree in the center of the paper. in the tree they drew or wrte the positive qualities they thought about themselves such as personality traits or skills .

Then as a group we looked at the dayenu song. We read the following information:

“there’s a traditional jewish passover song that every jewish child learns: dayenu (‘enough’).

the original hebrew wording is a series of verses in which it is maintained that if, in the exodus from egypt, god had only struck the egyptians with plagues but done no more, it would have been enough (all sing: day-day-enu). if he had only gotten the israelites across the red sea, it would have been enough (all sing: day-day-enu)

you get the point: it’s about low expectations. god gets an a no matter what he does.

but dayenu has humanistic applications as well. dayenu can be a zen concept indicating satisfaction with and acceptance of things the way they are. you can pronounce dayenu on a spouse, sibling, or friend, indicating that they’re about as good as they’re going to be, that you expect no further improvement from him/her, that the person is good enough. dayenu! “ [from the jewish atheist blog http://thejewishatheist.com/?p=145 see also wikipedia definition]

we had a go at writing a dayenu song for threshold, as a form of alternative new year’s resolution. this sets the low ‘threshold’ of what is enough for our group, with the alternate line ‘dayenu – if this is all we do’. a musical person can later set a tune if they like! don’t worry, however the song turns out it is dayenu! (the original song is on wikipedia if you want to read it).

dayenu by threshold

if we drink beer and are silent together

dayenu – if this is all we do

 if our paths cross but once

dayenu – if this is all we do

 if we create an atmosphere where we don’t feel under pressure to be religious

dayenu – if this is all we do

 if we plant a seed whose fruit we never see

dayenu – if this is all we do

 if we accept one another

dayenu – if this is all we do

 if we understand ourselves a little better

dayenu – if this is all we do

 if we figure out on the way and make a few mistakes while doing so

dayenu – if this is all we do

 if we learn something new, or forget something we once knew about god

dayenu – if this is all we do

 if we reach out for a god we cannot see

dayenu – if this is all we do

 if we spot god in the other people in the pub

dayenu – if this is all we do

 if we express ourselves but can’t do it in pithy sentences

dayenu – if this is all we do!

we ended the evening with this reminder for st. francis de sales: ”do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.”

 

 

december 2007 – alternative mid-winter festivals

 

on 3rd december we had our first reflective/spiritual session. bea led the group in an original version of consequences – imagine your own religion and mid-winter festival. this led to some amusing results with some similarities and some perculiarities. we will share edited highlights shortly!