Laughing at Ourselves
The Self-reflective Playful Community Process
The Game of Fooling
by
Susanne Cook-Greuter, Angela Halvorsen Bogo, Michael Nelson Doshin
How often do we allow ourselves to free the Inner Fool and play the Game of Fooling?
This most popular session held by Susanne Cook-Greuter, Michael Nelson Doshin and Angela Halvorsen Bogo from IEC 2018 reveals the main principles of Fooling and how to inhabit the innocent Inner Child.
„Always begin with Bodhichitta” – says Michael Nelson Doshin.
But what does it mean?
- Begin with absolute clarity
- Become completely still
- And a deep selfless caring will arise
Listen to the presentation to see and practise the Bodhichitta and be part of the joyful play of Fooling:
Scroll down if you would rather read a short summary of the event.
Michael Nelson Doshin continued with a short meditation which helps to focus inwards in order to reach the innocent Inner Child.
Here are the main focus points:
- Relax your body
- Breath – find the breath naturally arising and falling
- Open your heart and let it be at peace
- Let go of all likes and dislikes, fears and hopefulness
- Empty your mind of all thoughts, let go of all your opinions and beliefs
- Notice the stillness that underlies of all things – this stillness, the I-Amness which is always there
In this stillness, in the complete silence there will arise the deep selfless caring and this wil begin the play of Fooling
After this short meditation Angela Halvorsen Bogo asks the audiance to amuse themselves. Slowly, step by step to bring the awareness into themselves and after that spread it out to the whole room.
She invites the people to go around and meet others:
„Let them see you as you are right now”
With small exercise she guides the audiance to evoke the Inner Child and fool around that brings joy and laughter.
Michael Nelson Doshin explains how to practise the Fooling.
It has three principles that should be considered:
The Sacred Laughter
This is a spontenaous laughter after the retreat gets intense and everybody’s dropping deeply in the silence.
In this silence this laughter spontaneausly begins to emerge.
But how to reach this Sacred Laughter if your are not sitting in a retreat?
Start with the Sacred Kvetching.
The Sacred Kvetching
It is a yiddish word that means whining, moaning, complaining.
He invites everyone to complain about something, in order to notice who is doing the whining.
But whos is causing the suffering in your life?
There is one single source: it is you. If you recognize this one, you arrive to the last important thing:
The Sacred Joke
The joke is you – the Cosmic Joke is you 🙂
Susanne Cook-Greuter announces the guidlines of the Game of Fooling, which are the following:
- Respect everyone and everything in this game
- Own your Fool – don’t project onto someone else
- Do not do unnecessary harm
- Clean up any messes you may make
- Be a blessing
- When in doubt, say: YES!
- Enjoy yourself
Angela Halvorsen Bogo invites the audiance for a little play during the conference – there are three bags that contain 12 foolish missions to be completed.
She also explains, that inhabiting the Fool can be a completely new or even scary prospect of yours, but it has a big invitation that the Fool can bring you:
To say yes to taking a risk!
And in case a mistake is happening?
This is a moment to enjoy
Mistakes are the unexpected things that go wrong, but these are little doorways into something else if you go through them.
As an offering, the presenters showed the Greeting of the Fool, which should be practised in order to cherish the Inner Fool.
Curious about the Greeting? Check the VIDEO
And don’t forget, that the Fool’s heart is pure!
Program
THE IEC REGATHERING 2019
Friday
MAY 24
14:00 – 15:00 Opening circle and meeting each other 15:00 – 15:30 Thought Leader Key Speech 15:30 – 16:00 Break 16:00 – 18:00 Afternoon process 18:00 Suggested Program: Have dinner with community, socialize, enjoy the spa and the garden together.
Saturday
MAY 25
9:00 – 12:30 Big Circle
- Opening and encounter
- Thought Leader Key Speech and sharing
- Coffee Break
- Open Space Process – offering and choosing workshops, discussions, presentations.
12:30 – 14:00 Lunch and rest 14:00 – 17:00 Open Space (breakout groups) 17:00 – 18:00 Big Circle (harvesting) 18:00 Suggested Program: Have dinner with community, socialize, enjoy the spa and the garden together.
Sunday
MAY 26
9:00 – 12:30 Big Circle
- Opening and encounter
- Thought Leader Key Speech and sharing
- Coffee Break
- Open Space Process – offering and choosing workshops, discussions, presentations.
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch and rest 13:30 – 16:00 Open Space (break out groups) 16:00 – 17:00 Big Circle (harvesting and closing)
With Love, The IEC team