Why contemplate in a group, with a group, as a group?

When we think of contemplation, we often think of being alone. To stay connected to ourselves we separate from others. We draw a false distinction between being contemplative and being interactive. But what if we could bridge our contemplative practice with the communities to which we belong? We know the group’s power to direct our attention. Groups can steer our attention away from the present moment and into discursive mind; groups can also help us dive deeper into practice and stay for longer periods of time. Contemplative Group Dynamics offers mindfulness practitioners the opportunity to benefit from the shared intention of a group to deepen practice through group interaction. The group practice expresses a lived ethic of being of benefit to others through sharing one’s own insight or realisation, as such it is a practical expression of contemplation beyond mute self-absorption.

Contemplative Group Dynamics

Contemplative Group Dynamics is based on the foundations of mindfulness: body sensation, feeling tone, mental-emotional events and phenomenon or experience. As in individual meditation practice, the foundations of mindfulness provide a simple and profound way to explore the nature of our experience.

Contemplative Group Dynamics is a unique group meditation practice that stabilises and clarifies group attention. We can then explore the nature of mind, experience, and reality. Contemplative Group Dynamics is grounded in Buddhist meditation and Western phenomenology. It supports practitioners interested in interweaving private and shared meditative experience.

Four Foundations of Mindfulness

As we practice, the foundations become enfolded within one another.  This complexity finds expression with the sharing of dreams which contain, without external perception, sensation, feeling, and thinking. The dream is a universal example of how things are other than they appear!

While many meditators are familiar with the foundations of mindfulness as a solitary and individual practice, Contemplative Group Dynamics transposes these to the group using speech.

For Whom

Contemplative Group Dynamics is helpful for beginning as well as seasoned meditators. Group specialists will discover how the precision of mindfulness mixes with the openness of the group environment.

Meditators benefit from the use of both silent and speech practice. During practice with speech, “objects” of mindfulness such as body sensations are articulated by members in a concise and simple way. These articulated moments are similar to a guided practice only that the group is guiding. The articulation of the particular foundation, be they sensations, feelings, mental events, or experience, help keep the focus on the same. The practitioner may join the discourse with their own contributions thus helping to build the contemplative environment.

Seasoned meditators can glean insight into how experience may manifest as private or shared (subjective or intersubjective). Practicing as a group provides a relational context for exploring how we are affecting and are being affected by one another moment by moment. Practitioners may view the dynamic activity of the group as a way of working with the intersubjective stream of one’s mind. Sustained attention is strengthened by the group intention to be present. Sustained attention discloses the true nature of what arises including the designations of self, other, and world.