ABOUT THE FOOL

Satee Bhave Hall

No, It's Not My Address.

People often ask me whether Satee Bhave Hall is my address.

No, dear people. It's my name.

Satee was given to me by my grandmother.

Bhave came from my parents.

Hall came from my husband.

And Fool?

Ah. That one I earned myself.

Fair and square.

Simply by living in this rather mad world for so many years.

Nobody bestowed it upon me. No university awarded me a certificate. There was no graduation ceremony.

Although, looking back, there were several occasions when somebody should have handed me a cap with bells on it.

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How I Became a Fool

I have spent much of my life wondering about human beings.

Including the one I happen to be.

Why do we believe what we believe?

Why do we become so attached to our stories?

Why do we keep doing things that make us miserable, and then complain that life is making us miserable?

And why, when we have such a magnificent planet to live on, do we spend so much time arguing about who we are?

I have explored these questions through stories, theatre, teaching, conversations, books, and a fair amount of getting things wrong.

Especially the last one.

It has been an excellent teacher.

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Some Things I Have Done Along the Way

I have written scripts, worked with stories and films, explored theatre, taught children, and spent years learning about the mind, happiness, communication and the living world.

My studies have taken me through NLP, the Science of Happiness at UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, Harvard's PredictionX, and Fritjof Capra's Systems View of Life.

I have also spent time with Zen, Tao, the I Ching, Vipassana meditation, and thinkers who have had the audacity to question almost everything human beings take for granted.

Alan Watts, J. Krishnamurti, Gregory Bateson, Nagarjuna, Lao Tzu and many others have kept me excellent company.

Not that I always agree with them.

And I certainly wouldn't expect them all to agree with one another.

What a splendid tea party that would be.

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Why The Fool Method?

Because I am not particularly interested in teaching people how to become ideal human beings.

I haven't met one yet.

And if I did, I suspect we'd both be rather uncomfortable.

I am much more interested in how we create the person we call “I.”

How we learn our roles.

How we become trapped in them.

And how we might discover a little more freedom to live differently.

The Fool Method brings together my love of theatre, stories, Zen, Tao, systems thinking, ecology and the endlessly fascinating absurdity of being human.

It is an invitation to explore.

Not a prescription for how to live.

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And What Am I Doing Here?

Well, I am still exploring.

Still reading.

Still wondering.

Still making mistakes.

Still occasionally discovering that something I was absolutely certain about yesterday looks completely ridiculous today.

And now I am inviting a few other Fools to join me.

Not as followers.

Not as patients.

Not as students who must become like their teacher.

But as fellow human beings, each with a rather interesting collection of I's.

We can explore together.

We can laugh at ourselves.

We can learn from nature.

And perhaps we can become a little more comfortable with the astonishing business of being alive.

Welcome to The Fool Method.

I'm Fool Satee.

And no, this is not my address.