Seeing Space
I believe that a person does not choose to be a teacher because it is just a job. Teaching demands too much of the mind and body and heart to be just a job. It is not something you do where you go into work, punch a clock, sit at a table, turn on a machine, then turn it off, leave the job and go home and forget it. Teaching demands you to be with it for the time that you are doing it and then often for most of the rest of the day as well.
When most teachers get up in the morning, they are thinking about that one class that is not so well put together yet, or about that one kid you has not come around, or about the assignment that needs to be posted on the website, or about the adult learner who clearly needs some support, or about the deadlines for course content, or about the process of learning and who is and who isn't and why. All of this takes over the space of the mind until planning mind dominates and there is nothing else. Teachers give all of themselves to this most of the time of the day.
Recently, a teacher attending one of my weekend retreats told me that she does not have time in the day to go to the bathroom or to get a cup of tea. She eats her lunch in her elementary school classroom with the kids and when she goes home, there is always more to do. A university professor told me some time ago that it always looks like the academic calendar is a great way to work and to have a lot of vacations. But in truth, she actually spends a lot of her time not teaching in the classroom - say during the summer - researching what she needs to have in place for the next course she will teach in the fall. Or she is reading and writing about the topics she teaches in order to publish them and maintain her position. Finally, another teacher just wrote to me to say that she was not sure she could take an online course on mindfulness for teachers. Her response said, "Ironically, most teachers are so stressed that they do not have the time to do anything for themselves to work with the stress, even if it is not a lot of time." There is the sense that there is no time; no time for self-care and no time for the space and grace that leads and inspires a teacher.
What teachers need to know is that in truth, there is all the space and time in the world available to them. All they need to do is to stop and step back and to see a bit more clearly both inside their own minds and bodies, and then perhaps inside the minds and bodies of their students.
There is a notion in early Chinese painting that what is important in the painting is not the objects in it but the space from which the objects emerge. The painter sees and draws the space as clearly and as importantly as she draws the objects. The space is always there - it is what we walk through, it is the air we breathe, it is all that is invisible that surrounds us every moment of our waking lives.
We can learn to stop and to see the space rather than the objects, but it takes some time and it takes a strong intention to incline the mind in that new direction. But it is truly possible. Right now, wherever you are, just look at what is around you. And now, take a moment to focus your eyes on the edges of things, on the contours. See the place where the object ends and where space begins. Then move to yourself and feel your whole body sitting in whatever position it is in. Then feel the sense of the contours of the body and feel where the body ends and where the space around it begins.
When you start to look at the world from this perspective, you can see that there is infinitely more space than there are objects in it. And if you do this exercise outside, you will notice that the air and the sky go on beyond where you can even see until there is much more space, truly infinite space that surrounds our planet and is in between this planet and the next one. They measure that space in light years.
In physics, there is a principle that goes something like this: when there is more space, there is more time.
Try this:
The next time you are teaching a class, simply see what is happening from the angle of space rather than from the angle of what is going on or even the people in it. If you fix your gaze to a bigger, wider space, your mind will naturally open up to a slower and perhaps gentler responding to what is happening. From the perspective of space, there is no need for reaction, and there is much more time for compassion. Seeing the space may even open up our innate lovingkindness and compassion. Pay attention when you practice seeing the space and notice the quality of the mind. Notice what your relationship is to time and to space right then and there. Perhaps you will see love and compassion present in the here and now.
Claire M. Stanley, Ph.D.
Center for Mindful Inquiry
167 Main Street
Brattleboro, VT 05301
When most teachers get up in the morning, they are thinking about that one class that is not so well put together yet, or about that one kid you has not come around, or about the assignment that needs to be posted on the website, or about the adult learner who clearly needs some support, or about the deadlines for course content, or about the process of learning and who is and who isn't and why. All of this takes over the space of the mind until planning mind dominates and there is nothing else. Teachers give all of themselves to this most of the time of the day.
Recently, a teacher attending one of my weekend retreats told me that she does not have time in the day to go to the bathroom or to get a cup of tea. She eats her lunch in her elementary school classroom with the kids and when she goes home, there is always more to do. A university professor told me some time ago that it always looks like the academic calendar is a great way to work and to have a lot of vacations. But in truth, she actually spends a lot of her time not teaching in the classroom - say during the summer - researching what she needs to have in place for the next course she will teach in the fall. Or she is reading and writing about the topics she teaches in order to publish them and maintain her position. Finally, another teacher just wrote to me to say that she was not sure she could take an online course on mindfulness for teachers. Her response said, "Ironically, most teachers are so stressed that they do not have the time to do anything for themselves to work with the stress, even if it is not a lot of time." There is the sense that there is no time; no time for self-care and no time for the space and grace that leads and inspires a teacher.
What teachers need to know is that in truth, there is all the space and time in the world available to them. All they need to do is to stop and step back and to see a bit more clearly both inside their own minds and bodies, and then perhaps inside the minds and bodies of their students.
There is a notion in early Chinese painting that what is important in the painting is not the objects in it but the space from which the objects emerge. The painter sees and draws the space as clearly and as importantly as she draws the objects. The space is always there - it is what we walk through, it is the air we breathe, it is all that is invisible that surrounds us every moment of our waking lives.
We can learn to stop and to see the space rather than the objects, but it takes some time and it takes a strong intention to incline the mind in that new direction. But it is truly possible. Right now, wherever you are, just look at what is around you. And now, take a moment to focus your eyes on the edges of things, on the contours. See the place where the object ends and where space begins. Then move to yourself and feel your whole body sitting in whatever position it is in. Then feel the sense of the contours of the body and feel where the body ends and where the space around it begins.
When you start to look at the world from this perspective, you can see that there is infinitely more space than there are objects in it. And if you do this exercise outside, you will notice that the air and the sky go on beyond where you can even see until there is much more space, truly infinite space that surrounds our planet and is in between this planet and the next one. They measure that space in light years.
In physics, there is a principle that goes something like this: when there is more space, there is more time.
Try this:
The next time you are teaching a class, simply see what is happening from the angle of space rather than from the angle of what is going on or even the people in it. If you fix your gaze to a bigger, wider space, your mind will naturally open up to a slower and perhaps gentler responding to what is happening. From the perspective of space, there is no need for reaction, and there is much more time for compassion. Seeing the space may even open up our innate lovingkindness and compassion. Pay attention when you practice seeing the space and notice the quality of the mind. Notice what your relationship is to time and to space right then and there. Perhaps you will see love and compassion present in the here and now.
Claire M. Stanley, Ph.D.
Center for Mindful Inquiry
167 Main Street
Brattleboro, VT 05301
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