Focalising is, for the Community of Living Ethics, one of its core values: it is not only its basis for teamwork, but also its “political” structure (i.e. its mode of self-governance).
In fact, the concept of focalisation is mostly explored from the point of view of a way of exercising a function within group life. But it is worthwhile, given the psycho-spiritual scope of the theme, to approach it also from an individual angle, i.e. to try to understand what this word means and what it implies when linked to the process of growth in consciousness. The two perspectives, that of a function in the group and that of a function for personal development, have a common denominator: the concept of the ‘focal point’.
The focal point has the characteristic of always being a centre: a centre that unifies various elements, a centre that tends towards a goal, a centre that collects and redistributes, in short, the functions performed by the centre could become a very long list. But the centre is, always and in any case, the point of origin of every constructive and, even more, creative process. If there were no centre, any being and any situation would be nothing but a collection of disconnected elements scattered in space, hence of no effectiveness, but only useless clutter. This is true for everything: we need a centre in our psyche, a centre in the cell, a centre in the physical organism, a centre in a company; even the house we live in, to be harmonious, needs a room that acts as a centre and around which the other spaces are distributed.
In the model of Psychosynthesis, that centre is the ‘I’ and, if it were not so well defined, there, in the middle of the ‘egg’, all the other parts of it would have no chance of integrating and performing their function in a purposeful and orderly manner.
We can therefore state, without doubt of being wrong, that every manifestation of beauty always originates from a centre, that of its creator, and, in turn, gives expression to a centre: a central idea, a central message, a central image, a central function…
The centre is also the starting point for every process of synthesis, just as it is the point of arrival, when different elements find their fulfilment in a focal point of higher vibration than that of the individual components in their initial phase.
The path of searching for the centre, in itself evolutionary, could however easily bring with it the risk of becoming ego-centred, a very frequent or even inevitable effect, on the one hand, underlined as a danger by esoteric psychology and on the other hand abundantly manifested in our society and its ills: these are all derived, both interpersonally and collectively, from an egocentrism that often borders on socially dysfunctional behaviour. In order not to run into ego-centrism, which always slows down or blocks development, we do, however, have a sure antidote at our disposal: becoming attentive and sensitive to the centre of all things and people around us. This means learning to think of ourselves as centres, to observe ourselves as centres, to relate to each other as centres and also to stimulate each other as centres.
At this point you may be asking yourself: but what does all this chat about the centre have to do with focalising?
Here’s the answer: focalising starts from there, from the centre. But it goes even further: the centre, once identified, becomes a focal point of forces, of resources, of energies. It gathers within itself, in short, much wealth, thanks to its natural magnetic power. Knowing that the space in which we live and are, is pervaded by Fire, it is not difficult to extract a spark that ignites that focal point: in our consciousness we can do it, no more and no less than children play at setting fire to a piece of paper through a lens exposed to the sun. The lens is us when we attract light into our focal point, and the burning paper is that which we want to light with a nice, warm, glowing fire.
Learning the secrets of the focal point and dedicating ourselves to lighting fires in us and around us is the quintessence of self-fulfilment and a great Task.
Our Community, after all, exists for this and it is no coincidence that the first farmhouse, the one from which all the building work started, is called Poggio del Fuoco. That first spark ignited many hearts and spread to the various farmhouses and villages as they came into being. We can see our spaces as so many braziers in which to engage with Fire: to get to know it, to train ourselves to light it and to learn how to keep it alive in all circumstances. This intent is the very essence of all the activities and proposals, and it is also the great promise that the Community has in store for those who approach it.
Dedication to Fire is the profound meaning of Focalising: the beauty of being consecrated vestals of the perennial and all-pervasive Fire, the true Builder of a new world.
by Marina Bernardi
This article is part of a web resource archive about group life and focalisation – The Science of group work. For more resources on the subject, feel free to visit the website https://www.scienceofgroupwork.net/