To Touch What is Being “Forged in the Alchemy of Love”: Breaking Ground in the Wisdom Community

Dear Friends of Northeast Wisdom,

I am pleased to invite you to visit “Breaking Ground”, a new page on this website that hopes to become an active forum for the exchange of ideas, insights, creative expressions and experiences related to the integration of Wisdom into daily life, our inner experience and our lives in the world, our relationships and communities. Welcome!I have just revisited Cynthia’s November 2016 Blog post ‘Lines of My Own Composed above Tintern Abbey’. I recommend it; so much so that we have re-posted it in Breaking Ground. Her experience, of the long ago life and work of the monks, and of the stones themselves at Tintern Abbey, intimately met my own life, revealing its capacity to reach beyond Cynthia’s singular moment to touch the hearts of many, moving and stirring Life within the collective.

This is the essence what Breaking Ground wants to foster; a platform where the manifestation of Wisdom in everyday life can be shared, and a symposium for the dynamic exchange of that which bears the seeds of transformation, in our own lives, in the lives of those who ‘listen with the ear of the heart’, in the world. Many of our experiences, whether they are sublime – or simple, ordinary moments in the mundane – have the potential to serve as stepping stones, acknowledgments, opportunities and challenges, inspiration, beacons of truth and love to others. To reflect on an experience that speaks to Living Presence flowing through life, to acknowledge the touch of the Beloved, to share a testament to human consciousness and its capacity to continue to heal and grow through time and space, is a gift gratefully received. We do this, in ways large and small, for one another and the planet.

…With infinite tenderness, resolve — like the eyes of Michelangelo’s Pieta I had seen for the first time only weeks before at the Vatican — it spoke to me in those moments, shared what could be shared of the quiet endurance in the face of reversal, deepest sorrow, human atrocity. “Yes,” said the walls, quietly, “we know…And yet, through all of this, something still stands.”

PietaThere is much afoot in the Wisdom community; many places where people are gathering to explore Wisdom practices and find ways to celebrate together the growing edges of Wisdom work. There are groups studying Cynthia’s books, Teilhard, Tomberg and Gurdjieff, local practice circles and centering prayer groups, online study and life sharing initiatives, as well as singular events and weekend gatherings. A growing body of experience, creativity, imagination and consciousness is contributing to life on the planet.

In the life of individuals, what is it to live the Wisdom work day to day? How is it taken up into life? Does it help? How is it reaching beyond the inner life into work and relationship? Where are the fruits of Wisdom showing up? A conversation is happening about how the inner work is reflecting in daily life, how it can serve the greater human collective and the world, and where Wisdom may offer guidance during times of great change like our own. I have been noticing a call to deepen, a sounding to wake up and lean in, into what is real, into the aliveness of sensation, the complexity of light and darkness in our lives and world, and the interweaving of the imaginal realm with our waking life on earth.

“Just as we are still standing now,” they whispered to my heart—“and see how we have drawn you here and you are listening right now. Do not look upon us as a destroyed monastery, but as a living transmission.”

sculptureHow are we each experiencing and working with the beauty and challenge of our times? Are we picking up the weave, the warp and weft, of Wisdom? And if so, what are we discovering? Where are the questions, the difficulties? Where are we finding the light? the truth? The love? How does Wisdom illuminate these times?

“Know that what is forged in the alchemy of love is beyond the of ravages of time. All else may dissolve; this alone remains. But in your own transfigured heart, you will always find it.”

Our hope is that the Breaking Ground page, here on the Northeast Wisdom website, can further serve the community at large, encouraging a mutual and direct exchange of projects, templates, creative and imaginative expressions, as well as the personal reflections and insights that fire the deeper revelations of a life lived with Wisdom. That we can collectively share the transfigurations of our hearts.

You will find, just to start, an outline for a wisdom gathering such as Marcella Kraybill-Greggo’s Moment of Silence and Wisdom Day, inspired by Inauguration Day and adaptable for any Wisdom event. Or Steven Bonsey’s announcement about the new website ‘Wisdom and Money’, and the way that Wisdom practices inform the group’s gatherings and thereby deepen their activities and relationship with money.

On a more personal, but just as universal, note are Lois Barton’s reflections on the spiritual practice of conversation as a dance of sacred listening; and Adwoa Lewis-Wilson’s poem ‘Take Off Your Shoes’, as well as her intimate sharing of a moment in her life of faith during Holy Week at Hallelujah Farm, as she stood in her knowing heart with the Beloved.

Visit the Breaking Ground page and check out the newest post, Bill Redfield’s second article in a four part series, where he introduces the Wisdom Leadership Training, a new endeavor which hopes to train postholders to skillfully facilitate the integration of Wisdom into life and the ‘self-structure’ rather than simply provide for single – lovely – experiences for participants. You will also find the most recent Northeast Wisdom blog post, ‘To Midwife Third Force: Creating Law of Three Midwife Groups’ on the new Breaking Ground page, where you may find information and support for creating Law of Three groups in your locale or online.

swirlingIf you are interested in participating through a posting, or have reflections, insights, creative endeavors, group work or personal experiences related to Wisdom work you would like to share, or see shared, on Breaking Ground please contact Laura Ruth at laurampruth@gmail.com.

With love,
Laura

 

All quotes above are from Cynthia Bourgeault’s ‘Lines of My Own Composed above Tintern Abbey’ originally posted on the Northeast Wisdom website Blog November 2016 (and remains accessible in the Blog Archives) and re-posted on the Breaking Ground page of the Northeast Wisdom website in June 2017.

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4 thoughts on “To Touch What is Being “Forged in the Alchemy of Love”: Breaking Ground in the Wisdom Community

  1. Thank you Cynthia,

    For offering your heartfelt invitation to participate in the creative exchange that is, in your words, “the real proof of the strength and vitality of a tradition.”

    Thanks to Holly, our Northeast Wisdom website managing pro and wise eye, our desire to include comments on Breaking Ground is now realized and ready as well. Your comments are welcome!

    With love,
    Laura

  2. Laura, this is a beautiful endeavor. A birthing place for seeds to grow and flourish. Thank you for this vessel. Julia

  3. Thanks, Laura, for putting this page together so beautifully and stating its purpose so eloquently. Now, Wisdom students everywhere, the rest is up to you!!! Help put flesh on the beautiful bones of this invitation by boldly sharing your experiments, work-in-progress, reflections, and innovations. We are a living tradition, drawn from “ahead and within,” not a top-down-following of a fixed curriculum or guru. It is expected that the students will go far beyond their teacher; that is the real proof of the strength and vitality of a tradition. Have at it!

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