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in reply to: Shona's Response to "Thinking At the Edge" #715

Yes that was me! And how interesting to consider second-language acquisition in regards to TAE. My initial thoughts follow.

My first reaction to this question is that I think it would be difficult to get ESL students “thinking on the edge” if they were writing in English, unless their English was very polished. It seems like there would be a disconnect when translating thoughts from their original language right onto the page in English. Many of my students (many Cantonese and Mandarin speakers) would go through sentences slowly with me, taking their time making sure the grammar was correct while thinking about writing in much more technical terms than I do as a native speaker. If you didn’t have the language to express what your “body” was telling you (in English), I imagine it would be frustrating. Maybe it would be somewhat similar to writing a creative piece in a language that wasn’t native?

This struck me as particularly relevant:

“We find that when people forgo the usual big vague words and common phrases, then — from their bodily sense — quite fresh colorful new phrases come.”

The big vague words and common phrases are what you’re limited to when you’re learning. Would new phrases be able to come with the added difficulty of translation? If they come in your first language, writing or translating them to English would at least be time-consuming (with your level of English in consideration). I think it might be helpful to think about this in terms of second languages that we speak (fluently or not) as English speakers. Because I am by no means a fluent French speaker, using Sondra’s felt sense writing process to write something in French would be difficult for me because I end up with such a quick flow of ideas (that come faster than my ability would be to write them down in French). Even though my students were much better with English than I am with French, I imagine there is a similar baseline there that would make it tricky.

So to your question:

“If an individual who has limited experience with expressing their cognitive process through language, in whatever modality or format, how much further can felt sense or TAE take that person?”

I don’t know, but my guess is that it wouldn’t take them too much farther. I’m not teaching right now, but it would be very interesting to experiment with this.

This would be an interesting question for someone like Karyna- who is a fluent speaker now, obviously, but I wonder what she thinks it would have been like learning about felt sense/TAE when she was younger and was still learning English?

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in reply to: Hilarie's Response #608

Hi Sondra,

This is so helpful! I should have said playfulness – both that and abandon are closer to what I wanted to say.

Thanks!

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in reply to: Hilarie's Response: Rethinking Nirvana #567

Sean: thanks for your thoughts! I’m thinking of Nirvana as a positive concept here, in line with Hindu/yogic tradition. It turns out the valence is slightly different in Buddhism. In Sanskrit (I just learned), the word means “blown out” (like a candle). When it’s used in India and in the American yoga contexts with which I’m most familiar, it describes the attainment of egolessness, which is related to union with Brahma, the creator of the universe. Ego is a bad thing in this context, which maybe relates a little to your question (since other traditions don’t think that, and it certainly doesn’t always seem to be a bad thing in the yoga selfie, yoga as a sport world we live in). I’m also getting SO interested in process in a comp context and also realizing that to some degree I always have been – I look forward to talking more!

Sondra: thanks, too! I think you’re absolutely right that the hierarchy is an uncomfortable one, particularly for Gendlin. My understanding of the yoga philosophy of body is that the lower body is called that in part because it’s closer to the ground, not because it’s lower in an evaluative sense – but the goal still is to move up to the highest chakra (energy channel), which is the seventh, on the top of the head. In broad strokes, what the yoga practice is supposed to do is unblock the energy throughout your body so that you can eventually move into the higher realms. I’d like to think through how Gene’s implying could rework these tensions a bit, because I suspect there are ways in which it could dovetail beautifully with some aspects of yogic thought (like the science of breathing, maybe).

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in reply to: Ryan Tofil 2/11 Response #395

Ryan, I’m so sorry too, and I am so glad you shared. My mom died pretty suddenly just over a year ago, and I’ve been frustrated by all of the feelings I don’t remember. With your post as context, though, I’m now wondering if my body actually remembers more than I think it does, and it’s just my mind getting in the way. Part of my block might be that I’m writing a memoir about her, so I’m trying to gather lots of memories and represent her as clearly as I can.

Your line about the mind living outside the body is so profound, and I think every person who’s lost someone could benefit from reading it.

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