Facilitators' Course, Belangwila Temple

The intensity of the work here is exhilirating. The openess of the students and their absorbtion of all offered is heartwarming. Last day tomorrow, I invited requests of what to work on and they requested: how to deal with participants who do not wish to participate! Yes.

Today we went deeper into the NCV (Non Violent Communication) work I introduced earlier this week. Anoja and I went round the small groups of three and offered suggestions to the students attempting to make observations, connect with feelings, needs and requests. The move from blame and the critical mind, the jackal, to an accepting heart, giraffe, was slow and painful. But immensley inspiring to witness as belief systems were turned on their head and new way of connecting, a connection with the heart, was being discovered.

One very moving experience was working with a young man who has grown up knowing only war. His issue was around someone who was not, in his view, studying properly, this made him angry and he hit her. The hitting, to begin with was not his issue. When the hitting of women is modelled as normal behaviour, how can this be a problem? Slowly together, and with himn listening to his heart, he moved froma place of blaming her behaviour for his anger and hurt, to attempting to find a new way of connecting to his heart, of understanding the sadness he feels when he does connect, at this sort of activity towards another. He managed to connect to his feelings and needs, but for today being able to make a rquest, to maybe ask for help, was a step too difficult.

At the end of this session, and hourt or so later, this young man came up to me and in halting English thanked me from his heart for the process we had gone through together.

Later, at the final circle, he said, with a huge grin, that he had discovered a big jackal in him. His smile showed his giant heart, his giraffe nature.