Sunday, March 11, 2007

mythos and the larger sangha

Hi all!
Might our Sangha have gone into an extended silent retreat and no one bothered to tell me? Or are people sitting in the circle...asleep?

In any case, I have some new questions to share inspired by a book circle discussion of Harrison's Spirit: Transformation and Development in Organizations."

Harrison writes that his definition of theory is "a likely story". He also writes that "myth is neither true nor false, but rather *behind* truth - as the body of material through which a culture's values, purpose, and direction come to expression. Myth is not just "any old story," it is *the* story, which gives shape and focus to Spirit, and makes everything make sense. Myth, in short is the "eyeglasses" through which a given people perceive and interpret their world. It is
the vantage point from which, or by which the *true" is judged to be true...


"It is common practice to speak of myth and ritual as if they were two separate things, but that is not so, for ritual is simply putting the words of myth into form, motion, and usic. Myth and ritual are two sides of the same thing, which I will call *mythos*.

"Finally, myth doesn't just commuicate *about* Spirit in its quest, but in some way manifests that Spirit in experiential terms; you can feel it." (pp.8-9, "Spirit...")

Harrison continues later in saying that his way of eliciting the story(-ies) in an organization is to ask the question:

"What are things like around here?"

This has me asking two questions--

1. What is the mythos of the international community/organization of Open Space Technology facilitators?

2. What is the mythos of the international annual Open Space on Open Space?

When I think of these answering these questions, I am reminded of what some say when holding a storytelling circle:

that the circle is an invitation to share any story, a mad, glad, sad, silly, irreverent, or even humorous story.