The Practice of Emptiness and The Question as Mirror

A Reflection on my Coaching Practice

Note: this piece is inspired by a recent share from Shai Tubali on Krishnamurti - deep gratitude🙏

In our work with the Pattern Catcher Approach to Regenerative Leadership and Well-Being, I've recently been reminded of something profoundly important in my coaching practice.

As a primary responsibility, I need to tune in, sense, listen, and notice where the person or people I am working with are at, and respond accordingly. I need to be fully receptive to their signals and cognisant of their current environment and circumstances.

Additionally, to aid my ability to tune in, sense, listen, and notice, I need to be "empty,” as in empty of preconceptions, agendas, obligations, judgments, outcomes, predictions, and bias.

My capacity to be effective in this ‘emptiness’ is supported by clear intention and focused attention. It enables me to recognise the signals others are sending with minimal distortion and respond with genuine alignment. In turn, I can then send key signals of unconditional receptivity.

This is a foundational principle. And it gets tested. It gets tested if ever I carry the agenda, that I want the person I’m working with to see what I see. Yes, it will be with the aim of helping them. However, I will be neither empty nor curious.

Emptiness is essential to the Pattern Catcher approach's first pillar, co-regulation, and second pillar, co-inquiry. It allows us to create a space of psychological safety free from judgment and preconceptions, and journey together to respond to what arises in our inquiry. I remember a coaching mentor of mine, sometime ago, saying that it was ok to have a working theory; however, it is essential to suspend it (or empty it out) to be fully present and deeply curious.

Recently, I found a post offered by teacher Shai Tubali on LinkedIn. In his post, he cites Krishnamurti’s change in his teaching style, where he moved from providing answers for his students to reflecting their questions to them to explore the source of the question itself. Hence the term, The Question as Mirror.

As I contemplate Question as Mirror, I see the possibility of deeper inquiry and discovery within the practice of emptiness.

This practice is an active and disciplined state that acts with the mirror's polished surface. Without it, my biases and agendas cloud the reflection, making it impossible for the person I'm working with to see themselves truly. Emptiness allows me to suspend my expectations, dissolve biases, and create a space where others feel safe to explore.

Krishnamurti's insight into ‘the question as mirror’ resonates deeply. Once a clear energetic space is established through ‘emptiness’, my observations and questions aren't loaded or directing the person I'm working with to ‘see what I want them to see’. Instead, they are inviting us to hold a mirror together – reflecting the words spoken, as we notice feelings, notice assumptions, their internal logic and ultimately the source from which other profound questions may arise.

It's not about what I see, but about what we see when we look into that reflection together as co-inquirers, which is the very essence of the second pillar of the Pattern Catcher approach. When I ask, "What does 'frustration ' mean to you in this moment?", for example, I'm not looking for an answer for myself or to provide a solution. I invite us to observe the very structure of thought, to reveal the mind having the experience, rather than just the content of the problem.

Holding the question as a mirror, born from a place of profound emptiness, isn't about building understanding in the traditional sense. It's a method of dissolving our projections so we can discover insight from within, as Krishnamurti guided. It fosters genuine self-observation and brings implicit beliefs into explicit awareness.

This reflection reinforces the cultivation of ‘emptiness’ as an ongoing practice, a continuous commitment to providing a fidelity of reception. It's about trusting the inner wisdom of the person I'm working with and knowing that my role is to invite us both to create the clearest possible pathway to explore together.

🙏 Martin © 2025