What is the experience of being? I explored this inquiry in a two-part blog. In part one, I explored an interdependent understanding of being. In this blog, part two, I will introduce the 12 practices that support this new understanding of being.

This new dimension of being views humans as co-creators of our world. However, most psychological models relating to the self and human functioning imply that the self exists as a discrete, separate, and independent entity. Therefore, learning professionals, seldom appreciate this interdependent nature of being nor the generative capacity it reveals. They both impact learning and require unlearning.

To live between learning and unlearning entails a primary focus on intention, inquiry, imagination, and contemplation. We must clear our minds to sort out identities, penetrate distractions, prioritize concerns, disclose concealed impediments, and tune in to an intersubjective experience to co-create our existence.

If we can become open to this possibility, the question then becomes how to clear ourselves to reveal and tune into the vessel that we are?

Getting Closer to the Experience of Being

This journey requires much more than mere knowledge of theories and concepts.

We are not proposing practice in what we know or how we do things. We are proposing practice for differentiating being to clarify who we are.

This kind of practice requires becoming present to our humanness as a fluid, interdependent, interconnected being – to become aware of the felt experience of being. The practice of being opens up a dimension of our humanity that can increase performance without increasing the compulsion and wants that also increase anxiety.

Practice precedes performance. We become intentional to test our understanding of knowledge, to question our assumptions and to reveal the causes and conditions that intersect to create experiences.

These practices discovered through research and contemplative learning will expand our presence to reveal our interdependent being: our temporal nature, internal state, and our possibility as co-creators (as distinguished in part one).

Our 12 Practices

As we have grown to become Bhavana Learning Group, we have also codified our multi-year inquiry into the practices for developing an interdependent awareness.

Part of our shift involved exploring and examining rigorous practices that access our being to expand our presence: To weave together our past and future, reveal impediments, integrate lessons and realize possibility.

I have organized these 12 Practices in three vessels, each preparing learners to integrate wisdom into an interdependent awareness.

  • Grounding Vessel– Practices 1 through 4 – develops a foundation for our view, speech, and actions.
  • Fruition Vessel– Practices 5 through 8 – expands grounding to cultivate commitment and possibility.
  • Fertile Vessel– Practices 9 through 12 – extends and deepens the previous learning to co-create.

The key for each practice below denotes how we exist with or without each practice. I have also linked some resources after each practice to support an inquiry.

= With PRACTICE              = Without PRACTICE

1. AWARENESS

This practice cultivates my attention so that I observe my experience – the perceptions, emotions, thoughts and other causes, conditions, and contexts that influence me.

 I react to events and circumstances, and I allow deadlines and tasks to determine my actions.

View this link to begin a practice of increasing awareness.

2. INTEGRITY

This practice honors my word as whole and complete, and it affects my speaking, action, livelihood and agreements to cultivate trust.

My fragmented attention and casual speaking create incongruences between my words and deeds, causing confusion, uncertainty, and distrust.

View this link to begin a practice for shifting our understanding of integrity and to build trust.

3. INTENTION

The practice of bringing conscious thought to the present moment. Being deliberate and responsible in my motivation, attitude, and direction, manifesting as mindful choosing, speaking, and action.

 My reactions rest on sentimental wishes, wishful thinking, and my casual aims and heartfelt desires.

View this link to begin a practice for deepening intention and intention in speaking (speech-acts).

4. AUTHENTICITY

 With this practice, I take custody of my unified being – who I’ve been, who I am and who I will become. My interactions reveal the possibility of being fully human.

My preoccupation with fitting in, adapting to norms and my self-image guides my priorities, concerns, and actions.

View this link to develop an awareness of authenticity.

5. INTENTIONAL SPEAKING

This practice focuses awareness on weaving thought and meaning, bridging my intentions with reality. With this practice, I become a co-creator responsible for language that shapes meaning, action, and outcomes.

I react with habitual patterns such as gossip, idle speaking, hyperbole, or magical thinking to make myself feel better or impress others.

View this link to deepen the practice of intentional speaking

6. COMPLETION

 I practice reflecting on things as they are. I recreate others, acknowledge situations, and receive concerns from a foundation of wholeness and background of possibilities.

My split attention leads to stepping over items, ignoring details, and taking shortcuts. I learn to tolerate unnecessary missteps, which requires more time and energy.

View this link to begin a practice for increasing an awareness of completion.

7. DEEP LISTENING

My practice of bare attention and receptive awareness allows things to be revealed — for me to be with others as they are and to receive their concerns fully.

 I listen only for the information I need to manage my tasks and solve my problems.

View this link to expand deep listening.

8. COMMITMENT

With my practice of devotional resolve – cognitively, emotionally, and volitionally – I find serene direction in surrendering to something larger than myself.

 My life consists of obligations and perpetual, monotonous tasks that find me aimlessly drifting without direction.

View this link to begin a practice for developing commitment.

9. REFLECTION

The practice of regular reflection focuses my awareness on deepening concentration below the surface to gain insight. With this practice, I can develop the openness to cultivate untapped possibilities and potential, gaining insight beyond daily activities and tasks.

I automatically react to events and tasks, skimming and scanning communications. I am unable to delve below surface thoughts or emotions for a sustained period.

View this link to better understand how to develop reflection.

10. DISCERNMENT

With the practice of rigorous focus and attention, I can cut through noise and distractions to recognize small details. I can accurately tell the difference between similar things, and choose wisely among competing needs, concerns, and priorities to gain clarity.

My indecisiveness has made me unable to scrutinize, evaluate, or penetrate the morass of choices and distractions. I lack observational skills to prioritize or discriminate between items that appear similar and have become inattentive to the quality of my output.

View this link to begin a practice for developing discernment.

11. INQUIRY

This practice cultivates living in the question. We explore situations with ontological humility to view things as they appear, and cultivate an unlearning that suspends certainty. We remain open to others’ perceptions and perspectives, and understand that any view is only part of a larger picture.

I reflexively seek out answers and solutions and stop questioning once I discover them.

View this link to shift an awareness of inquiry.

12. COMMUNITY AS CONTEXT

This practice ultimately determines what it is to be a person because becoming a “self” happens in community. This practice expands my view of “self” and community as mutually dependent on causes and conditions – a point of view that unifies and views coherence in the flow of experiences.

I believe I am a discrete, fixed, and solid entity. I am an independent and individual identity to protect and defend.

View this link to increase awareness on this practice of community as context.

Practice Cultivates Wisdom

The experience of practice is quite different from behaviors, knowledge or “tools.”

  1. Each of these 12 Practices expands our view to cultivating the experience of being as interdependent.
  2. Each is connected through a progressive sequence: the first vessel (Practices 1 – 4) is fundamental, and the subsequent vessels (Practices 5 – 8, and Practices 9 – 12) expand on previous vessels.
  3. Each lives beyond conceptual understanding to include experience (not simply knowledge) for deeper understanding.
  4. Each also opens a new perspective and framework with techniques and trainings that establish routines and rituals to cultivate wisdom.
  5. And finally, each includes resources to begin an ongoing practice.

The practice of practice leads to greater clarity and wisdom by 1) applying new understanding 2) internalizing our learning, and 3) embodying our experience of learning on the way to 4) expanding to an integrated being.

Many programs promise these same results, but such promises stem from a mistaken conclusion about learning, unlearning, and wisdom: to know the content (about the thing) is not living the context (felt experience of being).

“We are not proposing practice in what we know or how we do things. We are proposing practice for differentiating being to clarify who we are.”

I’ll leave the larger implications for another blog. Suffice it to say that only greater clarity of causes and conditions reveals the beliefs that lead to our consumption and desires that impede the experience of greater satisfaction that already exists.

Our (dis)satisfaction is rooted more in unexamined assumptions rather than one more “missing” thing to consume, acquire, or leverage. As the Buddha taught, “Those who act with few desires are calm, without worry or fear.” 

With this deeper awareness of being, we view concerns about performance as mutually dependent on the wisdom found at the source of our freedom.

And that begins with practice.

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Tony Zampella is the learning designer at Bhavana Learning Group, which serves coaches, educators, and learning professionals and executives.

As an instructor, researcher, and designer of contemplative learning programs and practices, Tony’s work explores the human side of change by bringing wisdom to learning. His focus includes ontological inquiry, Integral meta-theory, and Buddhist psychology to sustain contemplative practice.