I do not remember how I came upon THE DEEP PHILOSOPHY GROUP - History, Theory, Techniques but it deeply resonated with me. Below, I have captured a few of the ideas in the book. I would like to apply these concepts to an ongoing study of Collective Presencing.
WHAT IS DEEP PHILOSOPHY? by Ran Lahav
...philosophy can be more than abstract university lectures, more than opinionated arguments or logical analyses, more than a tool for solving problems.
The approach we call Deep Philosophy is born out of the yearning for realness, for truth and authenticity, in other words out of the yearning to get in touch with the foundation of life and reality… to touch reality in a personal way.
To do Deep Philosophy is to reflect on basic issues of life and reality from our inner depth, in togetherness with our companions...inner depth is an aspect of our being which lies beyond our ordinary state of mind, and which goes beyond our normal psychological patterns of thinking and feeling.
...we have formulated what we call The Pillars of Deep Philosophy, which are the essential ideas on which Deep Philosophy is based.
1. Yearning for realness
2. Inner Depth
3. Thinking-from (giving voice) ...our normal discursive thinking – theorizing, analyzing, opinionating, discussing – is not appropriate… The alternative is to think “from” the reality of our inner depth instead of about it, which is a very different kind of thinking.
4) Philosophy ...philosophers. I do not limit myself to the way reality resonates in me personally, but include the way it resonates in human reality in general.
5) Togetherness
THE BIRTH OF DEEP PHILOSOPHY by Michele Zese
Let me first go back a few months earlier, to a previous philosophical event which took at the end of April 2017. Ran Lahav, with the help of Stefania Giordano, organized a philosophical-contemplative retreat in Liguria, in the west of Italy. At that time, I knew very little about philosophical contemplation, but I had been fascinated by the idea since attending a lecture about it by Ran Lahav in Torino (Turin), in 2016.
THE STRUCTURE OF A SESSION by Francesca D'Uva
It must be rich enough to lend itself to contemplation, and it must contain within itself the imprints of the depth which Deep Philosophy seeks scattered among the philosophical words. Especially useful are philosophical texts that deal with self-transformation…
In our Deep Philosophy group we have developed several different kinds of sessions, each one focused on a different goal and accordingly having a somewhat different structure. These include sessions focused on contemplation, sessions focused on understanding the text, sessions focused on sharing personal experiences, and voicing sessions.
...we recognize and cherish individual differences. Each one of us is a unique individual who encounters a given text or session from the perspective of unique life-experiences.
PROCEDURES FOR STUDYING TEXTS by Massimiliano Bavieri
Our goal in a Deep Philosophy session is to contemplate on philosophical ideas from our inner depth, and thus let new understandings emerge from a deeper dimension of our being.
In addition, a philosophical text also helps the group focus its attention on a common topic and a common perspective… and thus create a common language for communication. Furthermore, the text also serves to take us beyond our usual everyday thoughts to new unexplored perspectives on life.
...in as far as possible, the speaking must also be a “speaking from,” that is, giving voice to one’s subjectivity ...resonate not only with the text, but also with the words of our companions.
Although this personal understanding may lack the scientific rigor that is the goal of academic reading, it involves deeper aspects of our self which lie beyond abstract reasoning ...going beyond our normal psychological self which lives on the surface of our being.
Such philosophical texts, when used in the Deep Philosophy sessions, serve as “doors to the depth” of existence. In other words, they make the reader aware that he has not yet taken the path of transcending his habitual and superficial life, but that he has the possibility and the duty to do so.
PERSPECTIVES ON INNER DEPTH by Kirill Rezvushkin
Most of us would answer that in everyday life our behavior tends to be automatic, and this results in meaninglessness and inauthenticity, even if we do not suffer from any specific personal problem. To make our life more authentic and meaningful, we should gain access to an inner dimension within us that is a source of vitality, and try to remain connected with it on a regular basis.
The powerful sense of inner connectedness and awakening which we feel during the session can extend beyond the session.
Metaphors offer us a more accessible and immediate perspective, and indeed they sometimes touch me meaningfully.
In our depth we can also find our inner voice, like Socrates’ daemon. From a psychological or psychoanalytical perspective, this inner voice can be understood as the super-ego or the collective unconscious.
To sum up, the experience of inner depth is not one thing. It is the meeting point of a wide range of perspectives, including one’s personal history, togetherness with companions, philosophical theories, metaphors and images, ideas from religion and psychology, the sense of reality and time. Personally for me, those perspectives, as I described them here, gave my experience of depth its incredible richness and power.
PRECIOUS MOMENTS by Stefania Giordano
What is this element of “light” or “preciousness”? ...It is something that participants feel strongly as a powerful encounter with something valuable and meaningful, a sense of being filled with new spiritual richness and wisdom, an openness to the infinite treasures of philosophical thought… At that moment, you can see your individual life against the background of the infinite ocean of ideas and reality.
... this exercise is a kind of dance between the philosophical idea and one’s personal life… The sense of preciousness comes from the discovery that my concrete life is connected to broader philosophical meanings… Precious moments are transformative – they gradually change our orientation to life and make it broader and deeper.
THE PHILOSOPHICAL POLYPHONY by Sebastian Drobny
After months of working together in online sessions, meetings and retreats, we barely know anything about each other’s daily life.
In the field of music, polyphony means that multiple voices join together to create a single musical piece…
As the participants start picking their words carefully and speaking in a condensed and precise way, their inner attitude changes too. It is no longer an attitude of discussing and expressing opinions, because it becomes gentle and attentive to each word and to others. Participants are no longer inclined to judge or comment on the other voices, but rather to resonate with them.
The participants’ polyphonic voices fill the group’s mental space with creative ideas and personal experiences.
Without expressing our personal experiences and our inner depth, the philosophical discourse would remain (to use Bergson’s words) “dead leaves on the water of a pond,” devoid of personal connection.
WHAT IS RECOLLECTION? By Sergey Borisov
The word means remembering, but it also means collecting yourself again (re-collecting), in other words finding yourself again after being lost in everyday activity.
In such moments, our attention changes: whereas previously it was directed outwards towards things and people, now it attends inwardly… This deep meaning cannot always be expressed in words, even when it fills our entire being.