Participatory Inquiry, episode 110: Contemplation

John Kellden
Jul 23, 2017 · 3 min read

“In a network, we contemplate dissonance, reflexivity,
response-ability, reach and resonance.”

@johnkellden

Someone is right on the web. Someone is right there on the web. Maybe even quite a few. How to find them? When found, how to connect? When connected, how to build the relationship? When enough trust, how to transact?

“It was quite clear: This was not about belief, it was about experience. The sages were speaking about states of consciousness in this life that could be experienced by anyone. The fundamental insight was that the deepest layer of one’s own experience, one’s Self, was identical with the basis of the world outside. There was a unity of all things.”
— Vernon Katz, The Upanishads

Tribes, Institutions, Markets and Networks
Would our tribal allegiances benefit from an update, in order to better re-align with the world outside?

a unity of all things

Would our personal institutional compliances benefit from adapting to an increasingly complex state of affairs?

Is our deliberate or unquestioned adding a dollar sign to every thing on the planet, in need of an update? Are markets working in ways that serve?

catgifs, selfies, opinion and content marketing

Is our networking working? What meaningful connectivity, beyond catgifs, selfies, opinion and content marketing, are we instigating and cultivating?

The Rolls and The Bicycle

“…when I watch a stranger learning to ride a bicycle for the first time, my own body, although it is standing solidly on the ground, inadvertently experiences the uncertain equilibrum of the rider, and when that bicycle teeters and falls I feel the harsh impact of the asphalt against my own leg and shoulder. My tactile and proprioceptive senses are, it would seem, caught up over there where my eyes have been focused; the momentary shock and subsequent throbbing in my limbs make me wince.

spontaneous convergence in the things that I encounter

My hearing, as well, had been focused by the crash; the other ambient sounds to which I’d been listening just before (birds, children playing) have no existence for me now, only this stranger’s pained breathing as he slowly shoves the bicycle aside and accepts the hand I am offering, pulling himself to his feet. He shakes his head, laughs a bit, then grins — all in a manner that readily communicates to my body that he’s okay — and then turns to inspect the bicycle.
The diversity of my sensory systems, and their spontaneous convergence in the things that I encounter, ensures this interpenetration or interweaving between my body and other bodies…”

— David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous

Contemplating Cultures and Conviviality
Beyond yet including tribal allegiances, institutional structures, market dynamics, network intelligence — what returning to our unique individual senses and natural sovereignty, what returning to our natural belonging to a vibrant planet, what cultures co-evolving with natural conviviality?

Participatory Inquiry, episode 110: Contemplation

Jeff Sheldon
John Kellden

Written by

Cards catalyzing stories, Conversations that mind and matter, Digital communities & immersive productions. https://goo.gl/Ypd5u8

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