Not everybody is a natural Focuser
Hello everybody !
I finally understood something which has caused me endless anguish.
Gene Gendlin did not AT ALL come up with Focusing. That has always been clear. There is for example a beautiful (and famous) description of Focusing in William James.
So what did Gene do?
It seems to me that what he grasped so clearly, which James and others had not seen, is that NOT EVERYBODY IS A NATURAL FOCUSER. That’s the thing.
William James (William Wordsworth, George Eliot, Matthew Arnold, Virginia Woolf, Gottlob Frege, …..) having Focusing themselves, took for granted that everybody knows Focusing. Gene saw that this is not so.
And he presided over a great COMMUNAL effort to help all the other people find their innate Focusing abilities.
As a result, more is known about Focusing now than anybody could ever have anticipated, and this great treasure is made available to countless people, who would never have discovered it in themsleves.
Phew! So simple. And such a relief. I’m sure this is all obvious to others, but I never had it clearly in my sights before.
Love to all,
Rob
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Yes indeed rob……………..more than not everybody being a Natural Focuser……….this is really NOT everybody’s Cup O’ Tea. Many of us DO NOT want to go fishing about inside…….at all.
I hope I remember to wholeheartedly respect that whenever I meet it and let go of all the well intentioned enthusiasm I may still be lugging around, which remains undeniably unwelcome. there are many of us who do not want to go treasure hunting, right now, thankyou very much.
My sense is that it is a huge mistake to get caught up in believing that the world needs to discover focusing. We believe that at our peril…are we not, after all, all here for different reasons?
and if we go along with that…………then NOT everybody actually NEEDS Focusing ? Right ?
So we need to leave them be…of course that does not mean we need to stop listening.
November 20th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Thanks for saying it out loud Rob,
The children had already taught me all of that and more.
Tom says let’s not stop listening though and I say amen to that!