5/19/2011

Empty Space

“In the dialogue group we are not going to decide what to do about anything. This is crucial. Otherwise we are not free. We must have an empty space where we are not obliged to do anything, nor to come to any conclusions, nor to say anything or not say anything. It’s open and free. It’s an empty space. The word “leisure” has that meaning of a kind of empty space. “Occupied” is the opposite of leisure; it’s full. So we have here a kind of empty space where anything may come in – and after we finish, we just empty it. We are not trying to accumulate anything. That’s one of the points about a dialogue. As Krishnamurti used to say, “The cup has to be empty to hold something.” David Bohm - On Dialogue
The 2nd Steering Commitee Meeting of Dialogue – Facilitating Creative Communication was held between 14-17 of May, 2011 in Talinn, Estonia. The Project completed its half time life span, and it was just the exact time to take an overview to the issues regarding to the Project;  decisions to be taken and deadlines for  the decisions were discussed. I’m using the word “discussion” which is contrast to dialogue only to attract you.



The desks and chairs were U – positioned facing to a projection screen, a desk of manager and flipchart. Matters were spoken through the day and at the end trainees gave feedbacks. At the feedback we imitiated to sit in a dialogue session where we had obstacles such as desks and the talking symbol could only passed from one hand to other contrary what we do in dialogue sessions- the talking symbol is always left in the middle when the speaker finishes his word. According to the disipline we acquired from Dialogue nobody cut other’s word but only this one was not enough to turn the session to a Dialogue because our conversation became one like “I agree or disagree”. This was a successful experiment to see that a dialogue is not for decision making.
Dialogue is about creating a collectively shared meaning in a microculture. Therefore in a group dialogue we do not decide on issues because decisions occupies one’s mind. Deciding means taking responsibilities. We need to create an empty space in our brains for collectively shared meaning which may be formed within Dialogue sessions.