RADICAL NOT KNOWING:

MINDFULNESS AS AN EMBODIED
RELATIONAL RESOURCE IN
GENERATIVE DIALOGUE

Edgardo Morales
 • I come from a tradition of practice
• Instructions are languaged in terms of an
THE individual mind
MINDFULNESS • Constant challenge was how to move “out of
CHALLENGE:
TO MOVE FROM
the cushion”
THE PERSONAL • I found it important to infuse practice with a
TO THE relational language
RELATIONAL
• I’d like to play with the idea that mindfulness
can serve as a core relational resource of
generative dialogue in different domains of
practice
 1. Presentation of 3 key themes
a) What is mindfulness?
b) Mindfulness as radical not knowing
c) Mindfulness as a relational presence
2. Play with mindfulness moving it from the
A POSIBLE
FLOW FOR personal to the relational
THIS 3. Mindfulness at the heart of generative
PLAYSHOP practice
a) Characteristics of generative practice
b) Implications of mindfulness for generative
performance
4. Helpful guidelines, key ideas and
applications
 • Traditional instructions: focused and
open/wide attention
• Being Present: the present as flow, as no-thing
• Awareness of content of consciousness
(feelings, thoughts, sensations, perceptions)
• No condemnation, non-resistance, allowing for
what emerges: thought as thought, feeling as
W HAT I S feeling……..
M I N D FULNESS ?
• Investigative, curious, discerning, playful

What is this….?
What is our relationship to what we
notice….?
•
 M OVE M E N T S
•Safety
OF
M I N D FULNESS
•Sharp points
 • Don’t know what may emerge in the immediacy of
the moment

RAD I CAL N OT • Don’t know how “what is” will unfold

KN OW I NG :
D ON ’T KN OW • Don’t know where and when openings, generative
MIND moments will occur
“ THE M I ND
B E F OR E • Don’t know what things mean, meaning are fluid
THOUG H T ”
• Can be in pause, resting in uncertainty, not knowing
and not having to know
• Increased humility and curiosity for what may
A mind perged at the emerge
edge of possibility
RE L ATIO NAL
P R E S E NCE
 Relax Be • The guiding purpose of this dialogue is to “keep the
ball in the air”, promote dialogue flow, as you listen
Pause Present as you speak.
• When you speak, take a breath: Share what you’re
experience in the previous exercise was like. You
may share your view about the relevance of this
G UI D E LINE S practice to your professional work
F I RS T
E X C E R CISE • When you listen, stay attentive to the person’s
story or how he or she expresses the story.
• As you participate in dialogue, use focused or wide
attention, you may pay attention to the quality of
the dialogic flow and notice its changes, what helps

Open Trust it or disturbs it.

emergence
 • Acknowledges and enhances the capacities,
abilities and talents of participants
• Dialogue is crafted as an emergent,
relationally sensitive and responsive process
C H ARACTE RIS T ICS
O F G E N E RATIV E • Promotes innovations, creativity,
P R AC T ICE responsiveness and the co-construction of
emergent possibilities
• Joint action is basis for transformation and
meaning creation
• Highlights sensitivity to the immediacy of the
moment
 • Clear comprehension of
purpose
THE VIEW:
CRAFTED FROM
• Impermanence, life as flow
TRADITIONS OF
MINDFULNESS, • No thingness, no stable “I”,
multiplicity
• Interdependence,
interconnection, non-isolation
 • There’s a crack in everything:
follow the crack
• Let confusion be your friend
HELPFUL
GUIDELINES:
WITH THE
• Nothing is ever always
ASSISTANCE OF
MINDFULNESS • Practice generative recycling
• Trust emergence
 Unchains relational resources to
MINDFULNESS promote increased intimacy,
IN THE SERVICE enhance dialogic flow, disrupt
OF
GENERATIVITY dominant stories and notice and
expand generative moments
RE L ATIO NAL
P R E S E NCE
 1. Connecting
2. Building
3. Resourcing
GENERATIVE
MOMENTS 4. Disrupting
5. Generating
 1. Connect. Craft an inclusive, open dialogic
space
2. Build shared purpose – generative platform
3. Co-generate an embodied connection with
relational resources and capabilities
GENERATIVE
MOMENTS 4. Notice and use confusion and incongruities to
disrupt dominant stories and performances
5. Notice, Generate, and enhance emergent
possibilities, innovations and potential futures