Three Quotes for Contemplation / Nov 5 & 6

Kuma-sensei on Discipline, Being Disciples of Our Path, and Meditation

Photo by Dingzeyu Li

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Preface

For those of you who have been following The Poet’s Dreamingbody since the beginning, you will recognize a few of the words and some of the “word-play” in this post. I have mentioned a few of these topics before but this time I’m including actual source quotes from Kuma-sensei in this regard.

Kuma-sensei enjoyed “world-play.” She invited us (me, and others who knew her) to reframe words at various times. In some instances, it was a playful reframe. In other instances, it was an invitation to reclaim a word, to use it in a different way as a means of life-navigation.

For example, “intimacy” becomes “into-me-see” in Kuma’s word-play. If that doesn’t make immediate sense to you, think about it for a moment.

Intimacy = “into-me-see.”

Unless we really allow others to see who we are, there can be no intimacy. Unless others really allow us to see who they are, there can be no intimacy. Without actual and authentic intimacy, regardless of the type of relationship, it is only an acquaintanceship, a loose affiliation.

This was one of the often disarming qualities of sitting knee-to-knee with a teacher like Darion. “Into-me-see” simply happened.

Another word she liked to play around with was: Question.

She used to say, “Look at the word ‘question.’ There are actually three words inside it. Quest-I-On. The questions we are compelled to ask become the quest we are on.”

I can also remember her saying once, “If you aren’t sure what QUEST you are ON, you haven’t started asking the right questions of yourself yet.”

[ She used to clobber me with that one. ;) ]

Another word she asked us to look at differently is: Discipline. This is another example of Kuma-sensei’s “word-aikido” offered in three quotes.

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SOUND MAP

“Connective” from Neurogenesis / Robert Rich

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