Perhaps the first question is whether "leading" means acting as facilitator, or acting as guide or teacher?
In the first case, you would be serving the group and the group agenda (whatever it might be); in the second, the group would have decided in some way to entrust itself to your agenda. Being clear about what they want you to do, and what you want to do, would be a useful first step.
By an odd turn of events, I once found myself, for a few years, in more or less the former role in a small vipassana group, initially because the other, more senior members had retired, and I was the only one who could reserve the room. (Not a qualification that is likely to make one order a larger size in hats!) The format was very simple, involving reading from a book by a Burmese teacher, and then doing quiet sitting for about half the time, with a bit of check-in at the end. Other than slightly shifting the reading component toward something like group discursive meditation, the only influence I had was setting an example by showing up every time, and marking the sections of the session (reading, sitting, finishing.) Even here, though, the "work" consisted of maintaining a clear, unambiguous presence and sequence, so that the sessions were or felt more or less inevitable. When new people came in, I would orient them a little. When one or no people appeared for a session, I would go through the stages on my own. (This made a point for the occasional late arriver.)
The cautions have to do with having a clear sense of what you intend to do, and what it will consist of. And not allowing it to get derailed by other agendas. Also, it's important to have a regular schedule, and stick to it (eg, once a week, once a fortnight, or month, at a set time).
Another kind of "meditation group" involves careful, slow reading of a text, and then doing explicitly discursive meditation with elements of the just-read text, with perhaps a little debriefing afterward, and perhaps a light snack.
In general, this kind of activity shouldn't be a surrogate or substitute for a simple social get-together. It's good to frame it work, rather than hanging out. Because it's always possible that some deeper energies could get stirred up, it's good to have a very firm container for the work, and an approach to recognizing and grounding-out stray energies (and drama).
To borrow from Flaubert, "Be regular and orderly in your group work, like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your inner work." Not completely true, but useful to remember as a rule of thumb. Encourage this attitude, so that there is a double focus: in the meditation, and on reflection on the meditation. This double or parallel awareness is worth cultivating, and in a certain sense it is often the aim of meditation work.
(I suppose I should close like the Critical Drinker!)
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branchandroot
Re: Colors, John Gilbert & meditation groups
Date: 2025-01-14 04:13 am (UTC)In the first case, you would be serving the group and the group agenda (whatever it might be); in the second, the group would have decided in some way to entrust itself to your agenda. Being clear about what they want you to do, and what you want to do, would be a useful first step.
By an odd turn of events, I once found myself, for a few years, in more or less the former role in a small vipassana group, initially because the other, more senior members had retired, and I was the only one who could reserve the room. (Not a qualification that is likely to make one order a larger size in hats!) The format was very simple, involving reading from a book by a Burmese teacher, and then doing quiet sitting for about half the time, with a bit of check-in at the end. Other than slightly shifting the reading component toward something like group discursive meditation, the only influence I had was setting an example by showing up every time, and marking the sections of the session (reading, sitting, finishing.) Even here, though, the "work" consisted of maintaining a clear, unambiguous presence and sequence, so that the sessions were or felt more or less inevitable. When new people came in, I would orient them a little. When one or no people appeared for a session, I would go through the stages on my own. (This made a point for the occasional late arriver.)
The cautions have to do with having a clear sense of what you intend to do, and what it will consist of. And not allowing it to get derailed by other agendas. Also, it's important to have a regular schedule, and stick to it (eg, once a week, once a fortnight, or month, at a set time).
Another kind of "meditation group" involves careful, slow reading of a text, and then doing explicitly discursive meditation with elements of the just-read text, with perhaps a little debriefing afterward, and perhaps a light snack.
In general, this kind of activity shouldn't be a surrogate or substitute for a simple social get-together.
It's good to frame it work, rather than hanging out. Because it's always possible that some deeper energies could get stirred up, it's good to have a very firm container for the work, and an approach to recognizing and grounding-out stray energies (and drama).
To borrow from Flaubert, "Be regular and orderly in your group work, like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your inner work." Not completely true, but useful to remember as a rule of thumb.
Encourage this attitude, so that there is a double focus: in the meditation, and on reflection on the meditation. This double or parallel awareness is worth cultivating, and in a certain sense it is often the aim of meditation work.
(I suppose I should close like the Critical Drinker!)
All the best,
LeGrand Cinq-Mars