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Integral Light Shining in the Dark: An Advent Teaching and Wisdom Retreat
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Nurturing the Second Body: Building the Higher Collectivity with Cynthia Bourgeault
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Pure Grace. Thank you!Anna
Thank you for the “Law of Three” perspective. However, I must admit that I am not particularly theological minded though I have written a poem about the recurrence of “three” in the life of Jesus as found in the New Testament: https://www.threesology.org/3-wise-men–english.php.
Granted that a “law of three” can be an effective sign post towards developing a heightened embodiment of spirituality, a more comprehensive grasp of the “three” might well afford us with a greater clarity of the simple metaphysics which typify beginning sojourns into personalized venues of spirituality. In other words, we need to ground our knowledge of “threes” in the practicality of examples found in multiple subjects such as physics, biology, and anatomy…. https://www.meddean.luc.edu/lumen/meded/grossanatomy/threes.html.
By claiming the “three” as a pathway to an enhanced spirituality, let us see how the three manifests from multiple perspectives, since each of these may in reality be a person’s individualized spiritual journey defined and labeled according to the vocabulary present in a given genre of research. I have placed a link to your page here: https://www.threesology.org
Cynthia’s insights and advice that we should work on our inner willingness to be vessels ,through focused spiritual practice really resonanted with me. The “trouble” Will find us…..
Loved the truth, Cynthia spoke, when she said that the need in this season of confusion , is for clarity and incisiveness (Métis)that will help us in correct identification of the situation, which should be spoken when necessary and with humility and appreciation of our oneness
it resonates deeply
How or where do I sign up for the recourse, conscious aging ?
Hi Rosemary: Thank you for reaching out. Here is the conscious aging course: https://wisdomwaypoints.org/courses/conscious-aging/
Do let us know if you need additional help. Blessings, Jenn
Many thanks for Cynthia’s talk “What Is Ours To Hold.” It is a guiding light in a time of darkness and deep grief. Keep on keeping on, Cynthia! ❤️
As always Cynthia’s timely message encouraging us to hold firm to our spiritual practice is not only inspirational but necessary to survive these times. It’s just what I needed to continue my daily prayer and hold on to the hope that many more will see how “wrecking ball” tactics destroy what is good.
What is Ours to Hold-
EXCELLENT and timely.
Please continue to spread Cynthia’s important message.
This talk by Cynthia Bourgeault brought such needed clarity for me. And I sincerely appreciate that it came to my email today —So “right on time!”Thank you for your work in Atlanta and the forthcoming website for Integral Arising. I would very much like to stay connected.
This post was so incredibly helpful in practically grounding the lessons of the law of three. Thank you!
Watchfulness is the method of destroying all identification. Hence Gurdjieff called his process the process of nonidentification. It is the same, his word is different. Don’t identify yourself with anything, and slowly one learns the ultimate art of watchfulness.
Osho
Marcella and Bob, thank you for this interview! Bob, I just found your offerings on the Wisdom Waypoint website earlier this month and immediately signed up for your daily quotes, then became a member so I could access the courses and the Facebook group. I had left “the work” I started with Cynthia’s teachings on Gurdjieff (during the pandemic) because it just didn’t “take”, felt too abstract or something like that. I felt too alone in it. But something is sparking in me now. I will follow where it leads. I hope for an explosion. I appreciate your gentle shepherding heart. Thank you. Cindy
Thank you! This helps clarify for me the potential of both “loving my neighbor and my”enemy’.”
Thank you Nancy and beautifully said. I love how this set of teachings takes us right into the heart of and collapses that paradox. In continuation, Jenn
Jenn – This is wonderful. It so accurately (and so much more eruditely!) reflects my own experience listening to those Claymont teachings. I too experienced the ‘Jesus event’ – coming through the Ray of Creation, in a way heretofore only intuited. This has given me words I can actually share with others who also intuit but aren’t sure how to express their intuitions. It has helped me immeasurably to understand my more evangelical family members, who may express their faith in ‘sound bites’ – and yet are very clearly ‘the real deal.’ Thank you so much for writing these words, which I will be sharing!
Marga
Thank you so much for reading them Marga! It is so deeply affirming to hear that my attempt at synthesizing landed in you as well…and that we picked up on some of the same keys nuggets from the teachings. Grateful to be sharing with you on this journey. Blessings, Jenn
Thank you for your deep dive into Gebser. I’m part of the body of Christ practicing out of All Souls Episcopal Church in Berkeley. After our recent Adult Formation classes on Christian heresies, I thought I’d better take a deeper look at the meaning of gnosis. Which in turn led me to The Ever-Present Origin, and to the word “enstacy”, which I googled and found your explanation. I have and have read two of your earlier works and was impressed by what I read coming from an Episcopal priest. Well done. Is there available a compost work on your understanding of Gebser, or must I print out your prior and subsequent posts? Thank you for what you’re doing!
I recently attended a retreat called “Choosing Conscious Elderhood” at Ghost Ranch, NM. These 10 guidelines mirror some of the things I took away from that retreat, particularly accepting the limitations of an aging body (#’s 2 & 3 in the guidelines). I have read two of Cynthia’s books and I am grateful to have happened upon this website this morning. Thank you for posting these!
How, where can I get the exercises
Cynthia frequently refers to?
Lynne Wilbanks
Thank you for your thoughtful words. What book are you quoting from?
Hi Barbara, the book is “Wisdom Way of Knowing” by Cynthia Bourgeault
Cynthia – Thank you for this. I am going to share this with my Spirituality Group (all 70+) — with full attributionl. The last three guidelines especially touched something in me.
Guideline 8 aligns with so much of what I believe, my observations of the old, and conversations with them. I believe as our outer body diminishes our inner spirit grows and “will shine out through even a shattered container.” I have witnessed it many times — in my friend, Blanche, in Mom and Dad and my elder relatives who have gone before me. I am beginning to feel it in myself. The outer work of vanity tires me out, while inner spirituality energizes me and gives me solace. It allows me to be who I am where I am.
Guideline 9 interests me and sparks a curiosity in me. I want to know what Gurdjieff exercises are and who Boros is. It describes death as I’ve come to think about it — a birth. I’ve thought of it as a birth into eternal life, but the prospect that it is a birth into my “fully attained selfhood” excites me.
Guideline 10 made me think I have reached a bridge labeled Surrender that I am being called to cross to reach Vitality on the other side.
Peace and Blessings
I really appreciate the teachings that Kerri shared with us. In particular, about less-than-mindful dissemination of energy, and about the body’s role in the guidance we receive. And how the body had to be prepared to hold certain higher energies.
At this point for me, it looks like enough daily exercise to dissipate my restless energy, and remembering to take deeper breaths. Plus a lot of body-centric practices to build health and keep my lymph flowing!
With regard to Kerri’s comment on reflection
I stood before an icon of the virgin and child, their cheeks pressed together while their eyes held mine, and bowed while chanting “Lord have mercy.”
Please explain in the light of not bowing before any image?
Also,as a non Catholic, I have never understood praying to Mary when you can go straight to the source. I have never seen a biblical directive to do this and wonder where it came from.
If we can pray to Mary, then can we pray to our own mothers? Or even hear from them?
Thank you
Georgina
Thank you for sharing these reflections Kerri. I’m experiencing wordless resonance as I receive these words — most vividly, a strong and growing warmth in my heart.
Kerri,
Thank you deeply for this honest, searching and authentic offering. I know exactly that tension point you so eloquently describe. I’m at a seminar in Cambridge for lifelong learners, taking classes that stimulate me intellectually but I am trying to listen deeply with my whole body. And how often I find myself leaning forward, forgetting my feet on the ground. Even two-headed awareness is a challenge. You give such rich instruction with your insights. It inspires me to keep practicing to bring myself into presence, no matter what the circumstances.
May Gods Mercy be with you in All times. I fee so gratefull and lifted to have this opportunity to read and share this so well describeing experiences of Kerry B.
Have participated same kind of
‘exercises’, rooted at the same way, three-centered awareness practising, the holy movements and flow. This dualistic bodymind human beeing of mine on its own way to grow more Human in God, not so much time left on the Earth and life flowing with these upp and down, centered and less centered ,back and forth happenings in every day life as if riding on a waterpuffalo.
We do all in and on this globe live special times!
Dear Kerri, what a beautiful reflection of real, visceral experience. It is stunning to hear your voice again, and I am grateful you shared your lived truth with us. It helps us all to check in, and sense into our own journeys on the path of becoming full and alive as human beings. This day; in the dance of relationship and community with Mystery in our daily lives. I especially appreciate learning “to bear,” “to see,” “then gently turn back,” and the longing “to get out of God’s way,” shared freely from your precious heart to ours. Thank you! I wish you well! With love, Laura
Thank you Dear Cynthia and team and all of the wisdom elders whose richness you draw towards us all, it is an eye opening and beautifully curiosity filled life ahead that I can dare to look towards as I lay down the feverish strivings of a youth long past and breathe into a fresh awakening in the time ahead
Will the zoom recording on Conscious Aging be made available?
Dear Juliana: Yes! The event recording was shared via email with all ticket holders. If you purchased a ticket and for some reason did not receive the recording, please reach out to admin@wisdomwaypoints.org and we will send you the video link immediately. Many thanks, Jenn
Thank you for your reply, Jenn.
I didn’t know about the Conscious Aging event until after it had already taken place. So I’m not a ticket holder. I was just hoping a recording might be made available for others.
Thank you for your consideration.
Juliana
Dear Juliana: Ahh! Thank you for helping me understand. The recording of the teaching is available here for all to purchase and enjoy here: https://wisdomwaypoints.org/courses/conscious-aging/
Many blessings, Jenn
Thank you a wonderful zoom. To publish this would be very helpful to loads of people.
Thank you so much dear Cynthia and Wisdom Waypoints what riches !
My heart literally leapt when I heard Cynthia recently say “we are preparing to exit the womb of this physical existence into the new and larger playing field of a life we can’t even dream of “
my goodness what a joyful release and relief.
To know for all that has been, in this life journey, is propelling me into the birth of death.
To hear this as the True meaning of my life.
As I now enter my 62nd year I can fear not the dissolution but consciously focus on Being.. That glorious radiance can come to the fore.
No more meddling , a true surrender, what a task what Truth.
I humbly look forward , knowing I will be supported in this realm and beyond. Thank you
With Love and Gratitude Amanda
I didn’t think too hard on who would be Kamala Harris’s best VP pick. Both Biden and Harris are supporting the genocide in Israel/Palestine. I am disheartened that genocide is not a deal-breaker for more people. When Netanyahu came to speak to congress. we received 57 bipartisan standing ovations. Afterwards, Harris admonished the protestors, not the man who is responsible for the deaths of 1000’s of Palestinian children, among other atrocities. I’m voting for Jill Stein, who could win if people could agree that genocide is a red line.
Agreed
❤️
Leigh, I am with you! Genocide is my deal breaker too….I’ve been traveling in my little RV for over 2 years across the country and parts of Canada, and the repeated history of decimating a group of people, including our Civil War, to take their lands has deep wounds in the earth places and the spirits that surround the places. With all the pressing issues, for me condoning and supporting genocide is my red line….I cannot in good conscience vote for Harris (or Trump) either. Jill is the only one on the ballot who is willing to take that position. Wish Marianne Williamson had been allowed to get her message out more, since she also promoted creating a Department of Peace!
Hi Debra
I am so happy to see you post after all this time – better late than never! I’m so glad that there are people such as you for whom this is a red line. I so wished everyone felt this way. I am broken-hearted over all that has happened since we last wrote. Trump is horrible, but the Dems are putting forth no resistance to the continuing genocide, and those of us who care deeply about this are in disbelief that it has come to this. Thank you again for your response, I really was heartened to find it today. ❤️
Where can I purchase Cynthia Bourgeault’s new book at this time?
Dear Susan: Thank you for your interest and apologies for any confusion. The “10 Practical Guidelines for Conscious Aging” was published as an online blog post, but not as a print book. I apologize if that language caused confusion. You are welcome to print this on your home computer to share. Many thanks, Jenn
So what do you think of Tim Walz as a “denying force?”
Since this blog was written, Tim Walz was selected as her running mate. How does he fit into the law of three?
Love your comment, “Your old self is the sacrificial lamb you will lay upon the altar of your deeper becoming.” This is the one idea missing from Fr. Rohr’s wonderful Falling Upward writings.
Where can her book be purchased?
Hi Dear Anita: Which book are you looking for and I can try to help.
Many thanks,
Jenn, Wisdom Waypoints
I was told that “Ten Practical Guidelines for Conscious Aging” is a podcast, not a book, although I saw somewhere “just published.” If it is available in book form, I would like to order it for my brother. I’ll be on zoom Tuesday, but he doesn’t want to do that. This sounds like something that would be helpful to him.
Thanks!
Dear Anita: Thank you for clarifying so I may try to help. The “Ten Practical Guidelines for Conscious Aging” is currently only published as a blog post which you are welcome to print at home and share with your brother. It is not in a book form at this time. We look forward to sharing the Tuesday event with you. blessings, Jenn
I didn’t have much trouble recognizing when it was my time to transition to retirement. The quickness of my younger colleagues made it easier. It is way beyond time to usher in a younger generation and get out of their way. It’s kind of crazy that we have a lower age limit for being president and not an upper one. Undeniably there are older politicians who are still managing well, but it’s uneven. Thank you for your thoughts on aging and for the photo of your granddaughter. I look at people who are even older than me and admire how they have adjusted. No doubt Joe Biden will be fine and I thank him for stepping aside.
Thank you Joe Biden for embracing the common good
Yes, and amen.
Your casting of Joe Biden as one facing the choices of Prospero was brilliant and inspired. Yours was a large vision and it transcended personal attack
Less nobly, my comments: I met with Biden a few times in his early years as a senator on the Foreign Relations Committee. (I was representing the Ford and Carter administrations on various issues.) Back then I found him a self-centered, defensive, know-it-all who brought neither knowledge, experience, nor empathy to foreign policy. He clearly had resentments and was dismissive of others’ views.
I thought that over the years he matured enormously through knowledge, experience and the sufferings of illness and personal tragedy. He performed great services for all of us as one of our better modern presidents.. But then there was June 27th and maybe more important, its aftermath: denial, blindness, hard-heartedness and most of all “it’s all about me” even if Trump wins. I saw the shadow of the callow young senator there.
In age do we all regress to our earlier limitations? Is there a way near our end of achieving luminous seeing and gifting that to the world? I think of Jimmy Carter or in our mystical path Thomas Keating. Is that the work that in our large (you) and small ( our community ) ways we are called to do?
It feels different than just stepping aside when the time comes. Please don’t rush off the stage; we (you) may have a lot to contribute albeit in a different way.
Dear Shirley and Adele, thank you very much for volunteering to offer this practice! I will try to make it when I can, but besides having many mornings when I have to be other occupied, I admit to not being a morning person in general. So we’ll see!
I did want to say that I’ve led many chanting sessions online in recent years, mostly for Quakers, and I learned from another Quaker Friend, Tony Martin, how to add other voices to mine, using the Audacity app. Tony and his wife, Patsy, lead a chanting group twice a month, and they introduced me to Zoom singing by using recorded tracks, so that when participant’s mics are muted, they can at least hear themselves singing with a group, rather than just with the leader’s voice. Looking at all the faces on the screen, it’s easy to feel that one’s voice is blending in with those of the others we see. Fortunately, I’ve had friends who were willing to add voices to the tracks I send them. I like that they’re not necessarily polished voices, too! It does take a fair amount of time and effort to make the recordings ahead of time, but I have enjoyed the work when I’ve done it. I certainly understand, though, if you can’t undertake that added level to the project you’ve already undertaken, with this daily routine! Just thought I’d throw the idea out there in case you feel like trying it sometime!
Much gratitude,
Paulette
Dear Paulette,
I haven’t looked at this page in a while so I apologize for the delayed response. The “chant” workshop I attended with you and Tony is probably one of the key experiences that let me think I could do this, so deep bow to both of you!
I’ll contact Tony and see if I can learn more about the audacity app. We’re approaching psalm 100…it might be fun to see if we could do something with the combined voices to celebrate that!
And of course, if you ever want to be a lead us as cantor, we would love to have your beautiful voice and presence..
I am interested in this morning practice with others.
It will be a 5:30 adventure for me here in Interior B.C. Canada.
I do have The Cloister Walk .
I have a series of recorded tapes and a booklet from Cynthia titled “Singing the Psalms”
Is there a cost .
Or a donation to Wisdom Waypoints?
When does it begin?
Dear Bonnie: The chanting the psalms is daily from M-F at 8:30am ET via Zoom. It is already going so you can simply join any day that works for you. There is no cost.
Here is the event link: https://wisdomwaypoints.org/event/chanting-the-psalms/
We hope this helps! Wisdom Waypoints
I love listening to the psalms but I am one of the few people in the world with no sense of pitch. So in order to chant in community my contribution is a low hum. I wonder how best to experience chanting with an ear unable to distinguish or discern tone? Thank you.
Dear Nancy,
First, I’m not an expert, so please read this as from someone who will gladly be corrected by anyone else who wants to replay who knows more!
Second, the wonder of ZOOM is that nobody can hear you but you, so make a joyful noise without worry about how it might sound to others. Make a sound that pleases you…be it just to talk the psalm, or hum, or be gloriously loud and off key. You are so welcome to join us because all are welcome, just as you are, and everyone belongs, whether they think they can sing or not.
Third, and maybe a serious response to your very honest and vulnerable question is this….many of us were told we couldn’t sing, were silenced, and as you did, learned to quietly hum along so you wouldn’t disturb anyone. Truthfully, any kind of singing exposes some essence of ourselves, and it’s a really vulnerable activity. As Cynthia points out in Chapter 7 of Chanting the Psalms, chanting strips away our masks and forces us to work with what’s real because that’s all you’ve got. But the good news is that what is real in you is beautiful…I’m going to quote Cynthia because what she says is so wonderful: “First and foremost…your real singing voice is beautiful…because your true singing voice is so closely connected to your authentic self, and because this authentic self is nothing less than the glory of God written in you as your being….so you can relax and enjoy the ride” (p.77).
Isn’t that marvelous? Your authentic self is nothing less than the Glory of God.
She goes on to say that some of our work in chanting is actually learning to deeply breathe from that place where the vocal column connects to the diaphragm, that place in the middle of your torso just below your heart, your center. If you can try to inhale to that place, and exhale deeply from there, you’ll go a long way toward “taking away the strain, constriction, and the anxiety….while staying connected to the breath” (p. 77-78). She also says that when people relax and breathe deeply from that center, most find that as they sing, they can comfortably follow along.
And if you want chant along with us to not only become more comfortable with your voice but to begin that process of “divine therapy” Fr. Keating talked about, “working with your voice in chanting is an absolutely marvelous way to deepen the process of self-inquiry, exploring the material of your essential being and the blockages and constrictions in your personality. If you’re willing to see it this way, it’s an opportunity to move beyond egoic performance anxiety and learn more about the creature you truly and magnificently are” (p. 78).
I hope this helps.
Dear Shirley,
Thanks for the very useful answer. I chuckled when I read “many of us were told we couldn’t sing, were silenced.” That’s me- my fith grade teacher told the entire class I had a tin ear and could not sing at all. I really appreciate your answer and, of course, this wonderful opportunity on Zoom. With much gratitude for all the good work at Wisdom Waypoints.
Thank you for offering this opportunity. I am called to practice the chanting and will join you at 6:30 am Mountain Standard time Blessings.
We’ll be so glad to have you.
This Ever Present Origin has long made more sense to me than a God who creates and leaves, or even just sits up there watching. God knows my every thought not because he is listening in but because he is the source of thought and creative expression of all kinds. Mathematicians don’t speak of making up equations but of discovering them. Creative artists of all kinds speak of “channeling” the images, music and inspiration the finds its form in their creations. What else could this be but a continuing, creative Presence as close as our own breath?
Hello, I am wondering if there is a wisdom way community that meets in the UK? Thank you very much
I am a student of the Focusing process started by Eugene Gendlin, PhD. In Focusing we are often dealing with what we call a Tangle consisting of two or more beliefs, energies or trajectories that are locked or stuck in opposition to each other. What often happens in Focusing is that we bring in a sense of Loving and Allowing Presence to hold these two opposing energies whereupon the Tangle will usually dissolve or integrate. It feels pretty magical.
Is this a similar process to what you are doing? I’m curious about the third force. I am aware that everything is God, or that God is all and in all. So the first and second forces are not not-God but perhaps God energy with a twist, an inserted lie. The third force might then be God energy without the twist.
I’ve experienced this in Focusing that when I bring a sense of Presence to the stuck place, the lies somehow stand out and become apparent and in that Light they do what all shadows do, disappear.
These are mostly my ideas and experiences using the Focusing format. I’d be interested in any comments or ideas about any of this and how it relates to The Law of Three work. Thank You!
Cassandra, I too practice Focusing, have for 15 years or so, and was also a student of Gurdjieff many years ago and have found that the 3rd force, the reconciling force was not the Presence brought to the 2 other parts…that is the first step, but the moment of seeing those two seemingly opposing forces (they don’t have to be opposing, but often seem that way…I think they are really just another point of view or perspective) actually come to a resolution that is completely new and inspiring and other than either of the 2 forces…a new, 3rd thing that emerges that brings is all together. It is the reason WHY I have loved Focusing so much.
Thanks Heather.
Also looking forward to hearing more from you.
Couldn’t have said it better. Accept the chaos and align the inner with the outer. Beautiful succinct words as always. I try and bring some of this wisdom to my ecumenical online contemplative Meditation group where I often host a session. Thank you.
What a wonderful blog Jenn. I love how you painted the image of chaos in the kitchens of our lives. And how these teachings , more than that, the laws of life and love itself, IS our kitchen, transforming us in our willingness to say yes in the alchemy of heat and fire.
Thanks Jenn
Very moved by news of this event. Maybe when a seemingly blind eye is being turned on our happenings, a new hope is born
“……God is gradually entrusting the future of the species to us while remaining our partner and companion. In this way, God makes us……co-creators and co-redeemers”
Thomas Keating, in Reflections on the Unknowable, p.66.
I learned this prayer in a Ukranian community in Canada 50 years ago and have said it ever since in the way you suggest. Happy to find your writing on this today, as I was remembering it.
I would like to contact Bev. I live in Denmark Western Australia and wish to find out more about what courses she runs in Western Australia. Thanks so much. Jan Hill
Thank you. Reading this blog is experiencing “meaning is not explanation, but resonance”…..exactly where I needed to be today.
Good to hear from you, Yin Mei!
Bill
Marcella,
I just found this. Thank for the joy and awe you shared with your writing and these pictures.
I’m so grateful for these teachings, their nuance and their clarification are very helpful. Thank you for the effort to do this.
Marcella, Wow! Thanks so much. The words and the pictures together made me come alive. I grew up in the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts and have never ‘hit the home front’ for the peak of foliage since. I seem to be either too early or too late. Now at 84 and not driving, I depend on experiences like the one you provided to ‘be there.’ I just want to linger …. your brother, John McMahon
Wonder and awe inspiring. Thank you!
Marcella,
Such a refreshing piece … I felt wonder, and a deep deep breath as I read this … the inhale and the exhale of receiving the gift of Autumn through your words, pictures … Nature, God’s first scripture!
Grateful indeed! Thank you!
This is wonderful Marcella. I can see the colour and vibrancy and sheer delight in your writing!,
Thank you!
Very helpful for me. I feel consolated and teached at the same time.. thank you Emma
Resy, writing it did the same for me. Thanks for writing.
Yours,
Emma
Hello Emma, I was in the CP group today and somehow I missed the title of the Rumi book that you read the poem from would you mind sending that to me and did you get it off Amazon or another location? Thanks so much
Well done.!!
Thanks Robby!
E
Elizabeth,
‘But his yearning for complete unification in Christ was so powerful that it propelled him along the path, far more powerfully than if his psychological world had been more comfortable.
Toward the end of his life, his biggest surprise was not that he had transcended his humanity but that he could finally accept it!” (P 107)
Oh that resonates!
Yes indeed, it certainly did for me also.
Beautiful sharing. Thank you.
Thank you, Emma. It’s wondrous and mysterious how “results” come in ways and forms that make our original “goals” seem tied to the place we are leaving.
Bill, thanks for sharing your thoughts. It’s always so good to know others are traveling the same road!
Yours,
Emma
I am very sad about this, but glad that Cynthia told us on a honest way.
Not long ago we have heard that there was a split in The monastery of chevetogne in Belgium. I think for the same reasons. This monastery was very dear to us. It still opens the doors for guests but it lost its credibity. And we also lost a precious jewel.
I cannot say more than feelings of sadness and loss
How can I find the Zoom link for the book circle?
Having done 20+ years of work with the Enneagram, I am thrilled to be in this book group! namaste,
Angelina
Hello all, unfortunately registration has closed for this book circle. There will be more in the future so stay tuned! You can find out more about them under the drop down titled ‘Practice.’
Sounds wonderful.
Wondering if it’s too late to sign up and how I might do that?
Hello Julia, unfortunately registration has closed for this book circle. There will be more in the future so stay tuned! You can find out more about them under the drop down titled ‘Practice.’
Hi Steven,
It’s on zoom. Go to wisdomwaypoints.org
Click on events
Click on practice
Click on book circles……
Look forward to joining this circle.
Hello. I live on Vancouver Island, BC. I’m interested in the Book Circle beginning Aug. 29, but haven’t been able to figure out whether this will be conducted via Zoom or Chatroom. How do I sign up and participate? Thanks. Steven
Hello Steven, unfortunately registration has closed for this book circle. There will be more in the future so stay tuned! You can find out more about them under the drop down titled ‘Practice.’
Thank you Laura for your insightful look into this essential CYNTHIA book. I will re-read it now with fresh eyes.
Are there plans to plant more start-up seeds of ‘Law of Three’ startup groups, for relative beginners? If so, I am interested.
I’m currently in a practice circle with Heather Ruce, in which she’s leading us into the Obligolnia Strivings.
yes sir I am intrested to know More about law of three. please advise
Dear Cynthia, it seems to me that the argument against the stages of Wilber refers to his model of development, which he himself has since revised. At the latest with the Wilber-Combs matrix and the book “Integral Spirituality” his model is three-dimensional. Timeless aperspectivity is also possible on magical and mythical levels, only then it is interpreted from the appropriate level. This makes it possible, for example, to grant enlightenment to such figures as Eido Shimano or Baker Roshi, although they had grosser personal deficits. Wilber even speaks of a so-called NS-mysticism. One representative of this NS-mysticism was Karlfried Graf Dürkheim, who covered his traces in this respect after the war.
Transforming, thank you! Praying with you for the entire universe to cherish God’s peace & love.
BRAVO <3
many thanks for this divinely timed offering. so beautiful, generous, poignant. thank you.
I struggle with the statement, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” I believe Jesus is alive and gave/gives his life for all of us. Not just Christians.
You are hearing this exclusively, Bobbi, as most Christians do–i.e., nobody comes to the Father except through a personal belief in this particular person, mediated (of course) by the Christian church But Jesus is intending it as widely INCLUSIVELY as possible. He clearly considers himself as an energetic extension of the Father, offering himself as an access ramp which is open to everyone, accessed simply by being willing to open oneself fully to the freedom, truth, and life force that he offers, universally.
I am so grateful for your sharing this beautiful piece. God speaks to me so clearly through music. and this setting is powerful and puts my heart in an entirely new focus for Eater and its meaning. Thank you Cynthia, and Wisdom Waypoints.
You DO know the truth and it HAS set you free.
Thank you for these powerful series. I feel I can reclaim my tradition in a truthful way with the message of love and not power & pain.
Most grateful to Cynthia and the Wisdom Waypoint Board for a most selfless gift to truly understand and live the Lord’s passion!
Dear Cynthia, All of my world 48 joys and sorrows melted into world 24/12 through abiding in Christ’s truth, perfected love, and promise of eternal life; which was so beautifully presented in this collaborative work of art. Blessings on your Easter celebration. Mari
Thank you Cynthia. What a beautiful start to Easter Sunday and for the next five weeks leading to ascension. Bless you .
I have cried and cried through this series, Cynthia… thank you so much… I sense this ‘music’ was exactly what I needed to re-view many of my life’s conclusions, to be more precisely in service of Divine Will at this particular time… I look forward to the weeks to come, to a deeper and deeper connection with the Wisdom Waypoints’ collective intention.
Thank you Cynthia and Wisdom Waypoints. I don’t have words to express how deeply I have been touched by your Libretto and the music of Ray Adams. God bless you and yours as this Easter season unfolds.
Thank you Cynthia, and all of you who have been with us this Holy Week together
This has been a deep week in silence and although at home.
With deep gratitude.
God bless you.
THERE ARE NO WORDS… I BOW WITH REVERENCE…
THANK YOU, CYNTHIA AND THANK YOU, WISDOM WAY POINTS.
BLESSINGS,
MARIA ESTHER
As a lapsed Catholic who has kept alive a longing for Jesus, this piece spoke to me so powerfully. And with such Reality. It bridged the pain of Jesus’s suffering with the alchemy of love. Thank you deeply for this gift of the passion that has so awakened my heart.
“I am the vine, you are the branches – Love one another as I have loved you.
Place me like a seal upon your heart. – Abide in me as I in you… “
There is a lot to practice … My Lord, do I still have time… – at least now in this my age of 80:ies ; so much I have wasted my time – to pray strength to abide and hold on!
NOLI ME TANGERE
So powerful! I wonder when it was first performed and how thrilling it must have been for Cynthia. Were you there and where was it? Thank you so very much for sharing it with us this Holy Week!
While I hear why you might have liked it to end after Jesus offering his new commandment, I appreciate the recap of his core teachings. And the finale! Jesus bursting from death itself deserves such fanfare with the trumpets, bells and the proclamation to believe in his way of love.
With Easter love and blessings to you all…
This has been a beautiful way to live into Holy Week. Thank you, Cynthia, for sharing your gifts so generously with us.
Thank you Cynthia. As I leave for 10 days of silence at Snowmass, I will hold one reflection each day. You are a blessing. Thank you for sharing your gifts so generously.
Dear Cynthia (if I may)
I can’t thank you enough for this Holy Week offering. This year the services in the various churches I attended almost seemed calculated to drain the feeling and meaning from this most holiest of times in the liturgical calendar. Each day, it was your libretto and Ray Adams’ music that brought me back to the reality, allowed me to grieve, and feel everything deeply as it ought to be felt.
(And what a stroke of genius to bring in the Song of Songs!)
What a gift! Thank you!
Thank you, Cynthia. Your libretto is stunning and heals my heart. You bring me to God in Christ with the Mary’s and all the saints and angels and disciples and all that is as it is. Here and now on this tiny planet. How beautiful! Thank you.
Anna
This was a marvelous event. Thank you
“Place me like a seal upon your heart. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” This my motto to live in the love of God as Magdalene lived in Jesus’ love. When four eyes become two eyes.
Thanks so much, Cynthia, for awakening my fierce love for God and for Edmund, my husband who has been holding my hand as Cynthia takes us up on eagle’s wings to the heavenly realm. Blessed Easter to all of you who will read this.
Thank you, thank you Cynthia, Finn and Andrew and everyone at Wisdom Waypoints for this beautiful offering. My heart is full of gratitude. It has enabled a deeper Holy Week passage for this one and it has been such a blessing for us to journey together.
with a deep bow of Gratitude and taking Heart to Abide in Love,
emma
Cynthia unpacks the Final Discourse so beautifully. I have read the words before, but never 1) heard them as SPOKEN words–they weren’t sterile, they were alive; and 2) how emotional and beautiful they are. I could imagine myself sitting in that upper room and listening to them, utterly mesmerized by their power. Her libretto brings this out so well. And the music adds to the impact. I am looking forward to the rest of this week!
So extraordinarily beautiful, Laura. It has both heightened and deepened my experience with The Wisdom Jesus. I am so grateful.
Thank you for this deep and stirring reflection, Laura. Not only did it touch the sore and tender part of me that feels so inadequate in the face of this Truth, but your words washed over me as a loving balm.
The music was as water…sometimes a stream, then a tumultuous sea mirroring the the heavens swallowed in utter darkness…The Truth, The Way, and The Life, swallowed up in that ninth hour. Physically I swayed with my face buried in my hands listening to the plunk plunk plunk of the blood of Our Lord dripping, dripping, dripping. The tolling of the bells…begs the question, for whom do the bells toll? The culture of death that pervades our world today under the guise of inclusion and equity. The willful bodily mutilation of children…CHILDREN!!! Offering humanity up to the alter of transhumanism to be electronically lobotomized or physically euthanized (& without parental consent.) A culture at every turn that tries to convince us that we are everything but what we really ARE. The only Great Reset is the one Jesus promises…Today you shall be with me in Paradise. The dark clouds are again gathering. Take heart… and, be of good courage. If ever there were a time to speak truth to power it is now.
This experience has touched me deeply and strengthened my faith and ability to love myself and the world more intimately. Thank you Cynthia.
Your words speak to me as no other.
“Eli , Eli lama sabachtani!” Nothing left… surrender; “In to your hands I commend my spirit… ” both needed … Yes, I agree with Meister Echart – both needed – and they still are. This day in my apartment – door open to the nature – outside the melting snow and warm air, the sun shining – and this loneliness and still togetherness. This glorious music with your Libretto; This experience can best be described in my mother tonque : Jumalaisen kaunista, syvää, kirkasta, kuultavaa ja samanaikaisesti järkyttävän ehdotonta, tummaa, ankaraa ja lamauttavan paljastavaa / Divinely beautiful, deep, clear, sensitive and subtle and on the other hand absolute, deep and harsh and bare – shocking.
Thank you dear Chyntia, for giving this and you gave this with love. A gift of Love.
“Into your hands I commend my spirit.”
These words reminds me how Jesus freely and willing gives Himself into the hands of God. Today Jesus saved me by give His life totally. I accept the gift of new life in Him. I pray to stand fire in Him in my hardships and difficult times. Thank you Cynthia for explaining the ways of cross to walk with Jesus in my life. God bless you.
DEAR CYNTHIA
I FOUND, AFTER YOUR EXPLANATION, THAT THE LIBRETTO/MUSIC FED THE WORDING OF THE GOSPEL AND MY REFLECTION BROUGHT ME TO A DEEPER SENSE OF PRAYER. THANK YOU SO MUCH. YOU ARE A BLESSSING TO US.
Once again, the poignancy of the both/and; the holding so gently the excruciating pain, injustice and suffering in our world, with the hope and promise of a greater Love at work, fills me with a kind of terrified wonder and awe. Has this story, told year after year, had some effect? I have to believe it has and even in our hearing now, it is reaching into places where change is possible.
Thank you for such touching beauty.
Dear Cynthia, this is both utterly heart wrenching and an imprint of deep abiding faith that we so desperately need in our times. I awoke this morning so sad, alone and all I could think of was trusting Jesus on the Cross, ‘into your hands I commend my spirit” and I agree with Meister Eckhart, it is both; it’s as if you have to let the feelings of utter abandonment take you into a darkness of panic and despair and only then, when you turn to God is it from everything within you.
This gift you have offered all of us now at this time with its glorious music is exactly what will support and carry us through these dark days. Thank you so much and bless you.
I learned late about this offering (Maundy Thursday)–will this remain posted on the website for a while after Holy Week so I can finish it?
Yes these will be available as a permanent resource and as blog posts.
Messiah keeps coming to remind us the way from the material world; to awaken into the spiritual realm
Gate gate, para gate, para sangha gate, Bodhi swaha
the most powerful part of today’s portion of the Libretto and the music for me was near the end; specifically,
“For this I was born
And for this I came into the world.”
It rested nicely with Cynthia’s call for us to find the courage to stand and see our own shadow and in seeing our own truth possibly answering our own questions, ” For what was I born, for what/who was I brought into this world.”
I causes me to pause…to ponder.
Dear Cynthia
I am so grateful for this beautiful gift. This Maundy Thursday we are called to keep watch on the dark fires of our Hearts and how we participate in the collective. What an amazing challenge
Today Jesus was truly present as I sat with a person from an authoritarian culture, who told me from
their traumatised self that they didn’t want ‘to react’ but ‘to feel’ what they felt and be True.
I was transported, in the profound healing as we sat in Silence. A Silence they had never experienced before, to the Holy Thursday of Now.
What a wonderful web we are held in . I am so grateful for this Blessed space.
Thank you with my whole heart
with Love
Amanda
The line that struck me…Dances to a music all his own.
The music literally got me dancing and clapping… woke something deep within me. Found myself shouting out to God…What ever it is you want (of my life)…DO IT…DO IT.
Release me Lord from that which binds me and keeps me from the abundant life your life offers to me NOW.
No one else to turn to but the very God, his very Abba, that has willed this very thing.
Jesus: Abba, if it be your will, let this cup pass from me.
Mt 26:39 Yet not my will but yours be done.
Ps 31:5 Into your hands I commend my spirit.
This is so lovely.
Is there somewhere that this Oratorio can be downloaded to be listened to all at once and in the future? I would be happy to pay for it.
Thank you,
M
Blessed are you when they shall revile you, Mt 5:11 Persecute you, and falsely say all manner of evil Against you for my sake. Rejoice and be glad, for Great is your reward in Heaven. In the same way they Persecuted the prophets who were before you.
My refection is on Jesus words offers courage, strength and reward to the peace maker, innocence and honest in poverty to the people of our world. Jesus becomes the path for them today. The good will people are predicted for their past and future for earthly life. They will persecute falsely manners and everything will go against them. This Holy Thursday is the day to remember those people who walke with Jesus in the past and present today. This kind of people’s model is Jesus. Who HE is ……
Dances to a music all his own
That melts our hearts of stone…
Who He is ……(Jesus) “I am the Way, the Truth, The Life.”
“I´am the Way, the Truth, the Life
No one comes to the Father except through me”
This is hard – My strong ego, always acting first, I feel shamed, and yeat my faith is weak and ego strongly bound to matter – as today … I feel so afraid, Oh Lord, lost, I apologize and feel shamed in my weakness… give me your mercy to melt my heart of stone.
I find Cynthia’s talks very challenging especial the Maundy Thursday one on the collective consciousness and how we respond in today’s world. It is especially challenging for me at this time as we are asked to vote for the Voice in Australia giving the Indigenous a voice in the Constitution which I support but it goes a bit far with no recourse should things go askew. While I would like to see changes which probably won’t come do I vote for what is morally right or for what I think the future might bring? Holding these things in tension, as Richard Rohr recommends is challenging also.
God works with individuals not mobs. Thanks and where two or three are gathered must refer to bringing the body and heart in.
And yet we need the push back of groups to show we’re all in same boat and keep check on my ego.
It’s a mystery ….all are needed
Thanks Cynthia
Please provide an update on the book circles re: centering prayer. Most in these posts are 2 years old. Perhaps you have ended this resource for spiritual growth. I have been an avid reader of Cynthia’s books for several years.
Gratefully
Midge Miles
Thank you so much for your words, focusing on substituted love rather than suffering victim. What a difference it makes. Listening to the music I found myself crying. I was looking into soft eyes of mercy that were saying “I will not leave you orphans, I will come for you” and “abide in my love”. As Jesus and I (and all) are intertwined, I believe Jesus will not come for us, He has never left, we were never orphaned. I couldn’t see that through a heart that was living solidly in world 48.
Deep Gratitude
To hold a paradox; Mercy – something, eternal in a fleeting moment –
You Cynthia, provided here a profound deep metaphor; One pearl moment of my late life humbly and with gratitude now in my mind – a paradox to hold; something eternal in the fleeting moment at the same time in peace and chaos and … to see that humbly … afterwards.
This Passion-music; this deep and sweet libretto became a flowing but at the same time peaceful river which filled my heart, lifted and opened to awareness and joy – my whole body responding; The hand position central.
– You Cynthia have been given the mercy to give living words and living energy forward
With gratitude
The gentle and tender way that Cynthia made and held the gesture encourages me to have the courage to face what needs to die and to develop the will let it go. There is something so nurturing in the gesture together with the music. Thank you for this gift>
My husband and I have been there many many times. We renewed our marriage vows at 30 years there. We just love that Monastery and the lovely monks who run it. As always, Cynthia, you lay it all out so clearly with your honest and powerful writing. When will we learn? That land is sacred. What will become of it? Sometimes I just went up there to walk the road for a space of pure peace, when we visit our son who lives in Basalt. Thank you for your beautiful eulogy to this precious jewel.
What came is the true darkness when we experience this death. All is gone. All is given over and is done with sorrow and suffering. The seed must be planted in the darkness of the soil and in the unknowing of what will transpire before the new life and new joy can emerge. WE will know that Love is greater than death.
What came is the true darkness when we experience this death. All is gone. All is given over and is done with sorrow and suffering. The seed must be planted in the darkness of the soil and in the unknowing of what will transpire before the new life and new joy can emerge. WE will know that Love is greater than death.
With gratitude for the beautiful symphony of Jesus reflection and total surrender to our fathers will.
A path to follow which is total surrender, acceptance and love, in spite of the anguish, sorrow, betrayal and pain he suffers through.
My whole being is tingling listening to Cynthia and the divine beautiful music! Holy and filled with Love. The Divine is not far from my heart. I am that too. How much Love there is, available, and fulfilling, when the Heart is free to BE that LOVE! Thank you for this generous gift. It is very precious to be reminded again of the grace of Being!
Into your hands; I commended my spirit.” What a power full action Jesus had made in His anguish condition. It shows me the fully acceptation and totally free willingness to the father’s will. Jesus was ready to die to yield a rich harvest (gather together us to the Father). It invite me to do for others in loving and severing them in small ways. In my life show the good seed in my community and die for love bearing and accepting the pain of others (the world) offer to me. Jesus was a fully human and fully Divine so I am. Jesus had shown me the path to walk willing and happy. Amen
I am grateful for the way Cynthia introduces her work and for the way she gives suggestions as to how the text and music might invite a deeper experience into a complex set of emotions and felt experiences which each of us have lived and or will live into. The metaphor of birth with the physical pain and sense of lack of control and yet accompanied by those who could witness and how profoundly supportive their presence can be even as witnesses was very helpful to me.
The text and music of Jesus’ disappointment as his friends’ exhaustion into sleep and his feeling abandoned and separated from them was also very helpful to me and brought out two relationships for me to pray into as well. I will also keep the beauty of the harvest being joyously returned by those whose tears watered the planting was very moving and the juxtaposition very helpful. Thank you!
Once again very powerful. This emphasis of love and acceptance plus surrender couldn’t come at a better time.
What a beautiful and powerful way to “experience” the sense that Jesus had of surrender, self-emptying, kenosis: “Into your hands I commend my spirit.” In my meditation, I sensed a fear of losing self and that somehow that would be shirking my responsibility as the person that I am. But I love Cynthia’s emphasis on the “regenerative” power of a seed dying…into new life.! The physical gesture of being held by a greater love is equally powerful.
With deep gratitude!
Thank you for sharing the gift of this work. It is extraordinary. I’ve listened to many Passion works over the years, and this one, so far, has been moving me like none other, in large part due to your libretto.
I am loving these sessions. Thank you, Cynthia and Wisdom Waypoints Team.
The Holy Wednesday link isn’t working. I hope t can be fixed, as I don’t want to miss a session.
What link are you referring to? Let me know and I can fix it.
Thank you for this.
Stay with me as I stay with you.In this fragile world unloved and unwanted.
Jesus:
Jn 16:19 A little while and you will see me no longer.
Jn 14:30 The prince of this world is coming.
Jn 16:20 You will weep and mourn while the world rejoices.
Jn 16:23 But take heart: I have overcome the world.
I sense the echo of grief that Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene endured at the foot of the cross… as well as the promise of Thy Kingdom come.
Surely, the times we are living in bare witness to “Jn 16:20 You will weep and mourn while the world rejoices.” How to endure the grief of this world day in and day out? The knowing, in the depth of my heart, he has overcome the world and abides in me…and I in him. Verily, he has not abandoned me, nor I him.
Magnificent! Thank you. I feel truly blessed to be on this walk with this community.
I feel as if all of us are learning from an investigative reporter who is finally uncovering a truth,…one that was hidden for so long, and now, in this very liminal time, in both our inner and outer world, something vital to all of us is being revealed….. a love that it seems we are losing, but no… is preparing the way. thank you thank you Cynthia
An amazingly beautiful gift.
Still savoring and absorbing all the meaning, awe, and love. Too full for words. As a “lost child”, “I will not leave you orphaned…” stands out.
Thank you indeed!
Dear Cynthia
My heart is just filled with the tremendous love of God for Jesus, Jesus’ tremendous love for me – us for God, our world. The word trust comes alive within me today even though I have struggled all of my life to believe in it.
The music lends a deep contemplative prayer within me as I pray The Farewell Discourse. I am a liturgical dancer. Before this week is over I will choreograph/dance this Farewell Discourse, as my prayer
Questions. How would you define “substituted love”
Where do I find Wisdom Waypoints.
Thank you so much for sharing your gifts!
Thank you, Cynthia
What an amazing gift. Thank you…..
Beautiful! Thank you!
What are the chances that these videos are uploaded to YouTube so we can have captions and translations?
Feeling so grateful for this blessing from Cynthia, Ray and Wisdom Waypoints.
Anna Sorensen
This is beautiful. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Dear Reverend Dr. Bourgeault and your magnificent sacred community,
Thank you for this holy offering and your always sage words. I love that you took the “cœur” out of courage meaning heart in French, as you said. Gorgeous. This week is the Holiest of Holies. I understand why The Beloved Lord had to die in order for the miracle of The Resurrection, but I will never understand why He had to suffer SO horrifically. If I make it to Heaven it will be my first question to The Almighty. Many of you will disagree with me, but the Jews did not “kill” The Lord Jesus Christ as they were prohibited to do so under Roman Law. The Romans did indeed “execute, murder” The Son of God, but the Jews starting from the top with Caiphas plotted His murder. It is ALL there in Scripture. I am a devout lifelong practicing RC and know of course that Jesus Christ was born a Jew. But, He was a rebel and came to shake things up. He instituted the Roman Catholic Church at The Last Supper, The Institution of The Eucharist. I know I am simplifying this but the “Protestant” as in “protest” church did not exist until Martin Luther in the 1500’s who was a revered RC Augustinian Monk. He did not want to leave the Catholic Church. I absolutely understand why he did. God bless you all on this sacred journey as we await The Resurrection of The Beloved Lord, Saviour of the World, King of Kings, Helena
Thank you for this beautiful way to move through holy week. Loved the music, it is very uplifting. The words in the discourse that stood out to me were: “where I am going, you cannot follow now…I will come to you.
What a beautiful gift to receive during Holy Week! Thank you, thank you, you! God bless Cynthia and Ray and all those who hear these words and music.
Thank You Cythia for this beautiful gift. The music is equisite.The vision of a feather floating upwards rather than receiving gravitational pull downwards lingered throughout the piece.
Oh my God, what a wonderful and touching piece of light and love
Dear Cynthia,
I am so overjoyed by your offering of libretto and music! I would love to have permission to share this with the choir I sing with and with my Morning Prayer and Compline groups that I pray with daily. What a gift you have given to us for this Holy Week! Words are hard to find that express my gratitude.
Blessings and thanks to you for making this a most Holy Week!
Winnie Grace
Thank you so much. This feeds my essence. Thank you for my daily bread this Tuesday morning. Amen.
Cynthia, you were truly inspired by the Holy Spirit when creating this Libretto. Just the right words to bring forth Jesus’ deep love for humanity. My heart sings with the music that Ray Adams composed.
The Teacher’s tender concern for us all.
Thank you for sharing this.
So needed during this liminal time of transformational change in our outer and inner worlds as we crack open like a new born chick to the remembrance of divine love birthing us a new
Much gratitude ✨❤️✨
Thank you Cynthia for the gift of this Passion for Holy Week. I feel so moved by your words in the video and your introduction. My heart comes alive knowing that we are the branches of the Vine, and the different and beautiful take on the self-offering of Jesus in transformative love for the world. I’m so glad I signed up for this. Thank you again.
Apparently the audio file does not play on some browsers. Click the alternate link, and that should work.
Dear Cynthia,
Your voice so delicately expresses the love which Jesus surely meant to leave us with. How beautiful to begin the Passion in this way! Thank you, thank you!
“…your grief will turn to joy”….and as you said, “we are being held in love” as we go through this week of remembering the Passion and as we are aware of the suffering in today’s world.
(I look forward to the music button coming on-line.)
In peace,
Cara
What a beautiful beginning to Holy Week are these two days. Thank you. The best rendition of the passion. My heart sings with joy
Thank you for this beautiful reflection Cynthia. So wonderful to have a libretto that reflects the intentional love behind Jesus’s ultimate offering.
The vine needs the branches, as well as the branches needing the vine because the branches manifest the vine – making clear and beautiful the life force. Yes!! Abide in my (reciprocal) Love… Love one another as I have loved you. My goodness if only we can spread this gift into the world, what a different place it would be.
I can’t play the music though – the little arrow to begin it is not ‘alive’ – is there anything I can do?
If you are unable to play the music; I have a mac so I tapped on the audio box and copied the music address into my web browser. Then from there, I clicked on the address and it downloaded it to my computer. From there, I was able to open the music and listen to it. Hope this helps.
Thank you so much Cynthia. I am deeply moved by your commentary and will look and linger and listen again.
My link to the music does not work – it was wonderful to hear it in the background during your today’s talk though.
What a wonderful gift to journey through this Holy week, with reflection and contemplation our Saviours love and sacrifice.
Thank you Cynthia for this wonderful presentation.
I found the music very beautiful and very meditative. Since childhood I have been trying to make sense of the Passion and death of Jesus. At last I see that it is all about substituted love – all about love and peace.
I have worked through and discarded theologies of the myth of Adam and Eve and the fall; blaming the Jews; scapegoating etc. None of them ever made sense .
Jesus came I believe to show and teach us about love.
Thanks Cynthia.
Dear Wisdom Waypoints
I am deeply grateful for the gift of this Holy Week offering of Cynthia’s commentary and the passion from Ray Adams. I am able to access the video from Cynthia and the text but for some reason the music will not play when I try. I dont know if this is other’s experience? I cant seem to find any other way of accessing the music. It may be that I just have to let go of hearing it, but if there is any other way for the link to the music to be given so it can work then I would be very grateful
many blessings
Julia Richmond
I praise the wisdom and gift of faith of Cynthia.
I liked Jesus words : “you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. But take heart: I have overcome the world.” It gave me encouragement and hope for our suffering world. It also gave me inner joy that Jesus is walking in my all situations. This statement ” full extent of His love”. Jesus’ love is a sea of life for me.
Thank you cynthia. Very lovely and very helpful.
Sorry but I cant get the music to play
Thanks so far, also for Cynthia’s video comment. However, I can’t get the player to start. Do I need a special player or is the music not loaded yet?
It seems the music portion is not uploaded/attached. I cannot get anything to play.
I clicked on the start button for the music, but it is disabled (grayed out). Please fix it. Thank you!
Thank you for this precious gift. I can’t find the recording to listen to it. I would appreciate it if you can reply to my comment with a link to the recording. Thanks!
Listening with my heart.
Katherine Kallis
I am not finding the link to the music?
A long needed new and faithful use of Scripture.
We hear music starting Tuesday, is that right?
Thank you.looking forward to this journey ♥️♥️
My heart is holding close the gifts you have shared in this message and in your relating how the libretto was formed. I already sense an aliveness in the selections that embodies the unfolding of Holy Week moments and mysteries, yet without the painful othering and scapegoating that still felt present in the Palm Sunday liturgy yesterday where we were invited to participate by becoming part of a mob. The scapegoating and antisemitism have always disturbed me and felt like a betrayal of the love we were being shown incarnate, but until I heard your interview Cynthia I had not considered the obvious lack of feminine voices or presence. Thank you.
Thank you for this Easter gift. I am grateful.
I have a question – sort of embarrassed to ask; however, what is your meaning of
“substitute love”? Your response would be helpful for me.
Thanks you and blessings
My heart is holding close the gifts you have shared in this message and in your relating how the libretto was formed. I already sense an aliveness in the selections that embodies the unfolding of Holy Week moments and mysteries, yet without the painful othering and scapegoating that still felt present in the Palm Sunday liturgy where we were invited to participate by belonging part of a mob. The scapegoating and antisemitism have always disturbed me and felt like a betrayal of the love we were being shown incarnate, but until I heard your interview Cynthia I had not considered the obvious lack of feminine voices or presence. Thank you.
Thank you for this beautiful accompaniment to this sacred passage Cynthia and Heather <3
Thank you so much for this beautiful gift for Holy Week, a great way to travel these days together.
Thank you for reminding us this IS
Holy Monday
Walking along with you and others this Sacred Week
Love & MORE love
Thank you Cynthia for this beautiful gift.
With gratitude
Sirkka-Liisa
Thank you, Cynthia and Wisdom Waypoints. I don’t usually look through all of my emails, and I certainly glad I did today.
Blessed Holy Week
I am so delighted to be on your mailing list. Thank you for this incredible gift
Thank you Cynthia for this wonderful Easter blessing
Thank you for this lovely gift!
Is there a place we can hear the score played? Or will recordings of each part of the work be in this series?
Recordings of the pertinent parts of the work will be included in each section. I am sorry that at this point we have not been able to locate a quality recording of the entire piece, and I would in any case not want to release it without the express permission of Ray Adams’ heirs. Will work on that if we make this available again next year!
Thank you Cynthia and Heather for this beautiful offering. I appreciate this generous gift and will share it with my sister as she will be spending this week with me.
Thank you so much,
Carol
Thank you, Cynthia, Heather, and Wisdom Waypoints for such engaging and embodied Holy Week offerings. With this gift and attending Heather’s retreat, Accompanying Jesus and Mary Magdalene through the Paschal Mystery, I will be deeply immersed and held within our web and other webs, connecting us all in love and hope this Holy Week.
Thank you for this precious theme of consummate love. The theme of Christ’s freely given love is so resonate within my heart and spending time with that wisdom is so needed and welcome.
Sincere thanks Cynthia! This will be core to my Holy Week/Easter celebration. I have hoped for this since I first read about it at least 5 years ago!
Blessings,
Mairéad Heaney
Thank you for bringing to light the truth of the universal Christ.
This is a beautiful gift and I am grateful you sent it. Thank you
Lovely! Thank you, Cynthia! Earlier this morning before I read this I downloaded a copy of your book Centering Prayer & Inner Awaking!
How grateful I am to be sitting here listening to this “meeting of remarkable women” sharing the inspiration of this PASSION of Christ. Awed by your account Cynthia of waking in the night to that inspired Psalm.
This is Wonderful, thank you, Cynthia, yet I couldn’t see it hat there was any music downloaded for Monday is that correct?
Where is Joshua Tysinger now? I can’t connect with his group Grand Option Circle.
Thank you.
How do the 3 “persons” of the Trinity—Father Son. Spirit—fit with the law of three?
In my opinion, the 3 ´persons´ of the Trinity were never ‘persons’, just as the 3 wise men were never 3 wise men. It’s ALL pointers.
Who can help to explain better in words Gebser’s view of blindness to a sense of space before the 1400s even though yes no one painted perspective until the Renaissance? Surely people understood why camels receded into the distance or children enlarged as they ran toward you? They built massive ships and measured speed which can’t be done without knowing about time. I can understand the sense of being lost in a collective or a myth in ancient time, but it’s hard to imagine people not being aware of space. We allegedly per Gebser only achieved a sense of time in the modern era, but surely the ancients, who invented sun dials, saw the sun passing through time, moment by moment, from East to West in the course of a day, or their children and plants growing through time? Who can explain this alleged shift according to Gebser in consciousness more clearly please?
They didn’t have to concept of a single vanishing point. See Giotto, which has multiple vanishing points. And Gebser didn’t know the Chinese had developed their own “perspective” (axonometry). His explanation of Cubism is contrived. See https://jankrikke2020.medium.com/why-the-world-relies-on-a-chinese-perspective-cf3122caf67f
Deep bows of gratitude Jonathan, Jeanine and all the weavers of the gracious work given in Valle Cruces. It is food!
Peace and Love
Thomas
I am deeply touched by such work. Inspired by those who walk this path, I will continue to explore, to meditate and listen with awe. Thank you for giving another glimpse into this larger picture of the universe
Please add me to your blog recipients.
please keep me updated
Since my early days of institutional religion I have tried to find an explanation for my feelings and experiences. Thinking all along that priests and pastors already knew what I wanted to know. Along the path with you I have picked up the cohesive bits and pieces but no where in my search had I been exposed to the incredible significance of Eastertide until you unwrapped it.
I suspect I was trying to identify feelings through reason. Now, so many of the passages of your book are illuminated, especially the de Pasquale bother’s perfection of the tension.
For the first time I know what those feelings are. It’s like I have carried a note in my pocket since my birth that said “remember to come home”.
Thank you!
Dear Cynthia,
I’m noticing in myself and in my social-spiritual pods, an increasing sense of ‘OKness within’ partnered with a deep intention to accept world events as ‘What Is’… especially in the last few months. In fact, in this moment I write, I have no doubt whatsoever that MY best stance as a human center of being in the face of the divisiveness on Earth is to be whole within myself and to trust the ‘Greater Process’ underway. Your words have taken away some tension I didn’t even know I was holding, and given me greater commitment to and trust in the Whole… Thank you…
Beloved Teacher, as I try to remain in my kedsjan body, your cheerful invoking makes me laugh and smile. Once again, I am grateful to you for all the many Wisdom Schools, web and in person, Living School, your books, etc.; I want you to know that the mere fact that you BELIVED IN ME all these many years is what mattered!!
Love is what it is all about,
Kay Bochert
How inspirational. Thank you
Dear Ms Bourgeault,
I have been a student of the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother since the 1990’s along with an introductory understanding of the work of Teilhard de Chardin. Having just begun to read your blogs from the beginning I am delighted to find the commonality in between your understanding and the teachings of Sri Aurobindo. Having been raised with a Jewish background, abandoning this for Eastern Spiritual teachings with a casual dismissal of Christian teachings, I am delighted to encounter the universality of ChristianMysticism thru your blog postings.
Looking forward to continued reading of your awesome understanding,
Very Truly Yours
Stuart Sapadin
Thank you Cynthia. Just watched the recording of the Eastertide message. What I am hearing is the resurrected Jesus -pastoral and prophetic -is us if we let go of our constructs in the spiritual life. You name things so well and you engage with big concepts without throwing the baby out with the bath water so to speak. I loved Eye of the Heart, The Wisdom Jesus and The Meaning of Mary Magdalene. You articulate many ideas that have ruminated in me for years. Have loved your two courses on MM and the Lenten journey too. God Bless.
I left the Zoom meeting feeling so grateful that God (by whatever name) is streaming a message full of wisdom and compassion through His beloved servant, Cynthia. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
What a beautiful rendition of inner realizations and inspirational words describing Cynthia’s new book. I can’t wait to get it
Dear Cynthia,
I first got acquainted with you in your interview with Rick Archer- your words altered my perspective about Spirituality. I bought your book- Wisdom way of knowing. Contemplating the next one to get. I look forward to your invitation here.
Blessings
THANK YOU, Cynthia! I am grateful for your message and accept your invitation to follow the six (not easy) practices you suggest. Putting away the journal will be difficult for me to do, but I am going to give it a try.
Peace and Joy!
I didn’t know anyone else was addicted to counting! Now that is a challenge.
Dear Cynthia
I am so grateful to you . The support I receive from your teaching is beautiful. After a very dark night I rejoice in this journey of ascension tide with Grace and Blessings which in turn I pour back to you
So powerful as I find the moments of my days filled with opportunity to practice. Often lettiIng go and stepping back much like letting the thoughts that come in meditation go on by. Gives me a chance to watch and modify my reaction whether it’s when I deal with one of my horses or my spouse. I now welcome opportunities to let go where before I often felt resentment. What a path and I have a long way to go
Thank you, Estelle. Blessings of the celebration to you!
Thankyou for this narrative of Holy Week, for the telling use of phrases of Mary Magdalene, the eye of the needle, of becoming truly human. I was transported to the celebration!
Cynthia, this is so hope-filled and encouraging, re the union of hearts and wills already in place in this wonderfully diverse group of bishops, and the wisdom community “having their backs so fully.” Thank you!
Carole Pentony
Houston, Texas
Stunning, clear, a call to “all hands are needed on deck!”
Laury
❤️
A profoundly beautiful and yet simple ternary message of “see or perish”. With much gratitude
MaryAnn .
Thank you to Benjamin for this incredibly concise review of Cynthia’s latest book. I liked it for two reasons. It fills every requirement of a good book review, revealing the contents so that the reader can anticipate the flow and appropriate, at whatever level of seeking they are, the deep meaning Cynthia is conveying. The review is like an echo of the book through other eyes.
The second reason I liked this review is because it so precisely defines Cynthia’s deepest messages. It must bring great joy for an author to see this kind of review that honors at a deep level the passion behind the words and the intent of those words to bring healing to a hurting world. Thank you Benjamin
Gorgeous. Thank you.
How wonderful to be introduced to Heather. I look forward to exploring the resources cited
Think of Gurdgieff’s 1st force as a kernel of an idea that springs from inside a being in that place where human consciousness meets the Universal Energy/God. As that kernel is fed energetically, it expands. What surrounds the idea then is all of the previous/existing thoughts in energetic form that would – in a limited binary consciousness (good/bad, right/wrong) – oppose and/or prevent the thought form from becoming manifest. As the kernel continues to be fed thought energy, loving, creative energy, it meets each instance of cognitive dissonance (positive thought vs. negative thought) & what is loving always wins out, so, little by little the kernel attracts the molecules of creation that resonate with the idea and it grows 3 dimensionally beyond the energetic limitations of second force which have continued to be met or addressed/dwindle, into the manifestation phase or third force, physical reality, the realm of the 5 or 6 senses and it “becomes”.
Dear Heather,
Grateful for this, I hear your call. Praying unceasingly, and sharing your call with others. May we be One in prayer, voice, and collective healing.
Lovingly,
Laury
Thank you for this, Heather.
I had text which describes St. Theophan’s instructions to, upon awakening as soon as you become aware of yourself to descend to the heart and gather all your forces there. I cannot locate the text. Can you refer me to this text in some source.
I have a copy of ‘thoughts for each day of the year’ and ‘preaching another Christ’
Id appreciate your suggestion.
Cynthia’s Mary Magdalene book marks a landmark in authentic Christianity’s spiritual journey from being a faith where the broader wisdom of the heart and the powerful role that Jesus assigned this woman was put to oneside, to a life giving unity of consciousness that transcends this world and reveals Christ to be the spiritual master that he was, and Magdalene, the loving spiritual companion who ‘got’ his message completely.
I’m excited and hopeful to have come across Cynthia.
For many years I (brought up a Catholic) have wandered through life looking for this connection to God. I have been disappointed in church an religious leaders who have never talked about the infusion of this love in us all, but we have not connected to it because we were unaware of it. I long to know this God of love.
I’ll be getting Cynthia’s books , and looking forward to reading them.
Lovely reflection, lovely chant. Thank you –
I’m rather leaning to enjoying development within the structures. This growth capacity seems to fill up every structure available completely, eventually. And then what? Will a new structure emerge like a mysterious gift…a gift for human life anyway. In which case, we can then happily get busy and explore, learn and develop until that is full too and maybe go back and fill in some corners that appear in other structures (I’m always finding lots of room in the magic box). I have a feeling that a structure available to us might look like an empty, even invisible structure. Development within it will never fill it and it will seem to remain empty yet it seems be a structure! This might end the necessity for any sort of flatland sense, at least in that location. So far, I’ve been able to find…the holy indwelling spirit in every structure and love them ALL because of that. That doesn’t make them less of a challenge with lots of the failures particular to each structure. The spirit is just so encouraging. What do you think? Is an empty structure (form) still a structure? Can we fill it with silence and peace maybe? And then what….from what I’ve seen of this universe, structures are abundant and perhaps infinite forms of consciousness tended by love.
This is beautiful Beth. Mother Earth is blessed to be nurtured by gentle beings like you. Fiona xxx
In the words of Gurdjieff, this wise achering. Let’s just way too many words , Wiseachering.Use the memory stone. In the words of Thomas Keating silence is God’s first language, everything else is poor translation. Remember yourselves always and everywhere and remember to practice your preferred meditation sitting practice twice a day as your ceaseless prayer in The cloud of unknowing.
I feel this too Cynthia. I can’t help it. These planetary events have forced a greater inner knowing and call to prayer. We have always lived with uncertainty and now this reality is more in our face. I can’t help but feel a greater intimacy with the planet and others. I sense that magi star coming…
Congratulations, Claire and Emma, for hosting a beautiful day and sharing this luminously clear summary of TK’s final teachings in The Sacred Embrace. Profound!
Thank you for this beautiful piece, Beth. I stumbled upon this “by accident” this afternoon and I feel so nourished by it. I can feel the rich embrace of the darkness–the joy, the angst, and the wisdom that lives in that sacred space. Last year I was looking for a Mary-focused Advent practice. Wasn’t successful. This year, I forgot that I wanted this–until now. I wonder what will flow between the two poles, north and south, at your solstice event. Thank you.
Thank you for your words and the profound thought behind them. Our culture of consumerism permeates everything, often in unseen ways. Your words remind us Wisdom is not something we consume or do, it is the transformative process (Love) at work within each of us that we then live out of – our part is to listen, to participate in that unfolding with awareness that we are part of something bigger – the Whole.
Consider, for the future generation, and present putting theses and other
wonderous books on audio
What a superb piece of writing.
Thank you, for echoing and expanding some of my thoughts.
Bless you.
Thank you, Heather,
Your post gives a lot of food for thought. What you said helps in discerning where and how to be involved. And I appreciate that.
Thank you for this moving account of your journeys on the retreat. I am again shaken by the clarity of the gift of the reality of the different worlds Cynthia offers. It was a joy to read and I felt the experience palpably.
Very happy to hear the magical reflections. Certainly thrilled when any part of the globe sees the brilliance of these teachings for the first time. Thanks for sharing this good news.
Sincerely,
Marty Schmidt
Hong Kong
Perfectly timed. Thank you.
This is excellent. I just finished my second reading of Beelzebubs Tales … and was going over the carriage, horse, driver and passenger so this was a timely discovery.
Thank you! Elizabeth, for the thoughtful reflection, both in your blog and during today’s discussion. So much to process with all three centers (and so much to let go!)
PS I really wanted to meet you, Jeanine, and your father and many others in person…. And to be in the embodied presence of Cynthia! Some day.
Ah! Truthfully, I respond with deep resonance….and envy. The oneness you describe, Mahan and Jeanine, I experienced at my first Wisdom School at Kanuga, NC in 2015. The “container” was one, with many parts: silence, beauty, trees and water, kingfishers, chanting, centering prayer, conversation in groups, joint conscious work, eating together and finally eucharist. This Great Oneness, a school in the Lord’s service, knit me into this Wisdom Web. I Therefore I continue to be touched and to resonate. Even on Zoom. But, alas, as you know, it is not the same. Thank you to you disciples who gathered on behalf of the whole web to deepen the Wisdom at the heart of all we tend. I know the fruits will keep coming.
a beautiful account of one of the most moving and powerful weeka i have ever spent in my life. Mahan, Jeanine, Guerric, Thomas, and our entire gathered crerw–on the ground and globally–blessing upon blessing.
Deep insights into centralized totalitarian power and control (pressure) and its impact on “authentic evolutionary development.”
Rob Verkerk, Ph.D., founder of the Alliance for Natural Health International, interviews Dr. James Lyons-Weiler, founder of the Institute for Pure and Applied Knowledge, about the political corruption of “science” and the crisis it has created — and how on Earth we’re going to get ourselves out of this mess!
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/rob-verkerk-james-lyons-weiler-political-corruption-science-crisis/
Hope, Faith, Love
Fascinating. I see (almost) everything in flux. Easiest to see in technology but also in culture, then society and it’s components – educational systems, health care systems, marketing systems, retail systems, energy systems…. but they all seem to be bumping up against two huge resistances – a political system whose resistance to flow is most visible in the US Senate; and a legal system, which resists change by nature but has now enshrined an interpretive principle which goes by the name of “Originalism” but would best be called “No Change, Ever”. Without a third force it is hard to see how this could end in anything other than revolution or death.
How clearly written. I liked the railway analogy here, that “passengers are not ticketed and fined if they choose to bypass the highspeed railway (“fast and long”) and walk the entire way to their gates (“small and slow.”)+ .. yes, indeed, the crux here is as said above, namely that intelligence is built in to the design itself. much to contemplate here…with gratitude for the clarity of exposition.
What a RICH RICH gathering this was! Delighted to have others be able to participate and receive this practice day! We will do it again in late April 2022. Stay tuned!
Thank you, Heather, for your joyful enthusiasm and your generous heart!
I’ve long been a fan of Cynthia and was curious to see her journey on this. I’ve never vaccinated my kids or myself for reasons that aren’t important to this. I’m a legal professional and my challenge isn’t about the Vax, it’s with the legal precedents that are being created right now that will then be used to argue for deeper legislation in the future. We will continue to be stripped us of our basic human rights….think forced abortion, sterilization and euthanasia. These things will all be on the slippery slope of legal evolution if this isn’t stopped now. How does one navigate this from a non dual perspective?
In getting vaccinated, I didn’t consider legal precedents and what might legally happen someday. My decision to get vaccinated was for the health of myself, my family, and the world today. The non-dual perspective from which I navigated is for me my spiritual and faith perspective that we are one — what I do for my health I do for everyone’s health, what I do for or to me I do for or to others, and what I do for or to others I do for or to me.
I too resonated with Cynthia’s decision for vaccination from a visceral sense of this being “the best shot” in our given circumstances- where science has brought us for now. It has really helped to have it articulated in the context of this series on The Common Good. I hope to absorb some of the concepts sufficiently to be able to share them with a few at least!
Sincere thanks Cynthia!
I appreciate being reminded that we live in abundance. As for a decision about vaccination, the truth of Sheldon Kopp’s statement comes to my mind, that is, “All important decisions are made on the basis of insufficient data.” For me, getting vaccinated was one of those decisions I made mainly by listening to my inner voice which I think is the deeper wholeness to which you refer.
Oh my, this post has really opened my eyes to a central issue around truth. trust, fear, scarcity and abundance. I could not see my way to understanding how anyone could be an anti-vaxxer; it just seemed ignorant and uncaring. Cynthia’s post has shaken something lose for me. Maybe this is the start of a “heart softening” — my own — that can in some small way contribute to a deeper wholeness.
How does Autopoiesis emerge within the conscious awareness of the human person? I can only share my own experience. My experience now, is that my personhood is no longer mine but given by Christ. I know myself as a person and experience my sense of personhood through personality, I am an 8 on the enneagram. The filter of personality obscures true seeing but Christ takes up home within myself and a new seeing and being emerges. It is never a complete seeing but the source of seeing becomes the attention of devotion. As I wander in my day, I realize too that every person is sharing in this personhood according to their awareness. This experience allows me to rest in a living identity of wholeness. I cannot express in words how deeply grateful I am to this loving intimate Presence which seems to care so much about me.
The fundamental shift is one of identity. For me, my identity has moved to being one with Christ who shares His life with me. Through Him, With Him and In Him I live, move and have being. This shift which is pure gift, unattainable by the separate self, offers me the whole, whilst still broken and incomplete. It is an unconditional gift of the Beloved.
Prayer, prayer and prayer seems to me to be the key. Time in prayer allows for the slow subtle understanding which needs to emerge before recognition within the wider field of normal seeing. It is like a seed which is sowed in the ground, in the darkness of faith, trusting in the springtime of life. One day the seed is no longer, it has a new identity because it has discovered the very source of it’s life.
Dear Cynthia,
I agree with the the insights eluded to in this blog on autpoiesis. My understanding, is that on the level of earthly existence we share in the infinite relationship (the whole, the Source, God) according to the awareness of our true nature. There are many levels of consciousness, think world 48,96,192 etc. It seems to me and it is my own experience that it is impossible to access worlds 24 and 12 without the guidance of a Master. Jesus Christ, Being the Mystical Body and Mind of World 12 consciousness embued into earth consciousness through the Holy Spirit, an invisible power which accesses and transforms the human heart through prayer and humility.
It seems to me at least that prayer, especially forms of prayer such as centering prayer is a central and essential activity calling us into this communion. My willingness to empty myself and be illumined by the willingness to suspend my sense of the known and to be illumined by the darkness
of faith in Christ becomes the narrow gate by which I walk.
Thank you for your courage and direction
What does it mean that the book circle is now full?
Is this not an invitation to join this study?
Yes! Please join us as we journey through this Wisdom book together! All our welcome! Our once a month book circles specifically discussing this book have now been launched…but anyone in the community is welcome to join from right where you are and join the reading and the practices!
This is a great website! Thanks so much to all who made this happen!
Thank you, Matthew.
I honor your decision to visit the living. There are untold blessings for family as for you and your wife.
I appreciate the commentary on the SITE SEEING.-The prayerful narrative.
Beautiful. Thank you for posting this, Matthew. So profound, especially now as the spiral of the pandemic rotates back around and we are all living (and will continue to live) with so much death in the midst of so much life. Whether I live or die, I am the Lord’s.
Thank you Matthew. Your words describe the beauty of aging and dying, and being born again and again.
The picture of the greening of the bones fills me with hope and awe. What a divine and holy mystery. Blessings and gratitude
Anna
Thank you, Ben! You captured both the intent and the ‘intent-sity’ brilliantly. Primordial breathing indeed. Honored to be participating in this work with all of you.
Gebser’s statement that “Consciousness summons forth an increasing materialization” also triggered thoughts in me. One thought is that consciousness summons forth an increasing materialization in the sense that consciousness becomes matter which is consciousness in form. Another thought is that consciousness summons forth an increasing awareness of nonmaterialization, that is, increasing awareness that matter is not matter but spirit even though our perception is of matter.
The One Yearning spilled out through us all. Yes, thanks Dear Ben!
Thank, Ben/Benjamin, for some very interesting and unique phrases that gives me a flavor at a distance of this very special time in Stonington recently.
Beautiful, Benjamin. I’m using the open/closing hand as an inner task this week, in conscious presence, contracting/expanding. Aware.
Grateful for your sharing.
Sounds wonderful Marcella and Jeanine.
Cynthia, I am moved to the core, the very entrails, by your decision and direction of travel. In the most timely of ways it resonates deeply within. I’ll be staying tuned for sure and, please God, it won’t be long before we meet again on board!
Dear Cynthia, I let out an inner cry of Oh no when I just read you would be sailing in another direction, with a real sadness in my heart. I was only yesterday thinking I wonder if it would be ever possible that Cynthia could be my Spiritual Director. I hope that I can still be connected with your future teachings, for your explanations are putting the pieces of a complicated puzzle together for me. I do live a long way from you on the South Coast of England but with a guiding hand from above, who knows my little boat may get steered, to a small gathering that you may hold somewhere. Huge blessings on you.
Blessings from all of us at Contemplative Outreach and congratulations on this courageous step! We know Fr. Thomas is certainly cheering you on and I look forward to how you will continue to bless our community through your life of daily prayer and ‘mentoring in place’. What a gift you are to our world!
Cynthia – Wow! It’s so amazing to read these comments and to know how many of us are out here, doing our damnest to connect with the imaginal realm, one another, and our second bodies. Last week, I was ‘on retreat’ with you – listening to the Stonington audios that crossed my path through the email about your new book. After 25 years of working with my own teacher, now retired, THIS was the food I’d been looking for. I’d read Eye of the Heart (twice – took that for it all to sink in!), and then taken the e-course on the imaginal realm, so I was all primed to hear you teach about it. I can only say that the experience with those teachings just blew my mind. More, it acquainted me with my own second body, theretofore just a concept, but now something I can reliably find, identify and work through. I felt deeply the responsibility to step forward into paschal courage. That was a concept I had been considering myself, without being able to find the words to describe it. It’s been my experience with so many of your teachings – it’s like you’re a more accomplished and articulate version of . . . . me! Anyway four friends from our past work together are also listening now, and I feel like we are kind of a ‘satellite’ group. So having said all that, I want to echo what others are saying: it makes complete sense that you can most effectively continue your work, at this time, with small groups of people , face to face, who you know are well prepared to take it in. Imaginally, I can feel the rightness of this, even though it means I will likely never get to work with you in the flesh. PLEASE continue to make the audios of your meetings available. Their relevancy for so many of us – often prepared by other teachers, I suspect – is vital to the continuation of this most necessary work.
With deep respect, Marga
May 3rd
Dear Cynthia, It takes great courage, even when the pressure to obey that calling is strong, to untether yourself from the Mother Ship and go into free fall. You have always led by example both personally and in the legacy of your work and now out on the edge of the more esoteric edges of your Christian faith and Imaginal gatekeeping, I can feel you sailing free, wind blowing your sails to full stretch and the horizon beckoning beyond the known.
How very blessed I have been to have participated in some of your later teachings as the hand-holds were coming off….and this is an inspiration as my own moorings have been cutting loose and I have to live into my own questions.
I know that I shall be joining you in the Imaginal realm as those questions deepen into knowing.
Thank you for your life commitment , to your very generous sharing of all you have discovered and your prayers and action for our Planet in such difficult times.
With blessings and deep respect
Serena
Dear Cynthia,
I am as ‘they’ say long in the tooth, but very agile still, and feel very blessed to have locked in on your work after a long trek through many teachings, teachers, each gave me something to carry but not all I needed. I have been long active in Centering Prayer, read much of Keating, Rohr, Merton and others, through them the true light of Christ shines. “On the other hand’ there is a parallel track in my life; I seem to detect something of like kind in yours, namely a more or less conventional track, and the other, under many names – esotericism, ancient wisdom ,etc. I have happily discovered that you have brought these two streams together on a train track that works, look forward to sharing, and learning in this Work…
This Way resonates clearly in my reading, Cynthia. Every blessing of courage and freedom to play your hand with panache and wisdom. The first oriole of the season comes to the window just now. Amen.
I cannot describe in adequate words the deep flow of love pouring from my heart as I read this. And will reread. And will ponder these things deeply in my heart. Bless. May it be so.
Will you still be teaching in Maine? I have just moved here (back home to my home state) after 25 years out in Boulder, Colorado. I’ve felt a calling to work with you for a long time. I’m excited to learn what’s next and if there are opportunities for a Mainer like me.
I cannot describe the sense of awakening, hope, longing, recognition, and invitation I feel reading this letter. I bought “The Imaginal Realm” last Fall and it has set me upon a transformational path (including intense breakdown/spiritual emergency/emergence) which has led me to Gebser (through Jeremy Johnson), The Gospel of Thomas, and many of the other mystical breadcrumbs you have left (they have left). I am experiencing some of what Gebser describes – mostly time collapsing and all the strange ways this has manifested, as well as the symbolic and imaginal taking over my viewpoint. Before reading “Seeing Through the World” I honestly thought I was verging on psychosis. I await more news of your new calling and how it may reach me. I trust it will as I have found you this last year. I am Spiritual Director and Archetypal Consultant. I mentor students of Caroline Myss’ Sacred Contracts program and work closely with Stacey Couch who runs this program for her. I have been weaving this wisdom into my work and know that I am called to follow you and the others who are seeking us as we are seeking them. Please know you have a grateful and truly inspired companion/student/assistant/presence in Effort, PA. I have renamed my town Effortless although so far the post office doesn’t recognize this shift. Perhaps it’s just mine right now. Many blessings and great reverence and gratitude Cynthia.
Ciao dear Cynthia,
grazie mille for your deep sharing of these new impulses and how you will inhabit that space teaching and mentoring as you move forward. I so appreciate the trust in your sharing.
As an author, teacher and mentor I owe you more than you will ever realize.
Wisdom schools, especially W. Jesus and G. of Thomas gave me a paradigm which felt authentic within Christianity. Assisi with you and Richard Rohr 2012 and the journey with La Santa Maddalena changed my life; and the grace of that work continues to be my North Star. When I had covid my first instinct was to go to the vertical even before the doctor. It was my relationship with the liminal realm, those teachers who informed my process – perhaps the most powerful gift of all.
Thank you!
May you always have good winds!
with love, Susan
Dear Cynthia,
I have never met you, but I feel like I know you. I first encountered you in your article, Prospero, Jonah, and “The Greek, in Parabola. Then I watched you on u-tube and looked up your website. I just missed your class you had during lent so I bought your book, Eye of the Heart. Then I bought The Wisdom Way of Knowing. I walked away from Christianity a few decades ago, married a Native American, and mostly followed his spiritual path. But he passed to the other side and I felt like I was adrift on the sea in my little boat without a compass. So when I saw your book, Mary Magdalene, I signed up for your class because she was always a special person in the Jesus story to me. I am taking the class at the present time. I felt encouraged to take another look at Christianity.
I am 74 years old and apprenticing myself for my great disappearance being in the last quarter of the circle of my life. I love all the work you have done and are doing. Your writings are a compass for me to help me see my way. I wish you the best on your journey and thank you for being you.
Thank you,
Carol
Let your inner compass guide you, my cherished teacher. May the love and light of the universe hold you in comfort and offer guidance as you sail on to new destinations and unseen horizons.
Love and Courage Shall Guide Thee,
Cheryl
Cynthia, this sounds like a solid and right thing to do at this time. I hope that you will reach down and “pick up” some of your students who have followed you for many years but are not nearly as close to living in World 24. With only glimpses of that promised land I am steadily working to get there and beyond through Conscious Love and much practice.
Congratulations for all you have done for the Living School and your many Wisdom Schools!
I am honored to be one who has enjoyed both.
Love is what it is all about,
Kay Bochert
Cynthia…you were my first (Wisdom) teacher about 10 years ago, and I’d follow you anywhere. My life has changed because of you and your teachings, and I follow you closely any way I can. Many blessings on your continued voyage and tweaked heading. Can’t wait to see where you’ll be taking us
I see us as present in our life in love by abiding in and living from awareness that all creation is one, expressed with compassion in word and deed toward and with all creation. The word person means to sound through, to sound you through. For me that means that when what sounds through outwardly is in union with what is inwardly, you’ve got you together, you’re in love. Living such is right action, which is our responsibility and is reward in itself. I think focus on right action, not outcome, is critically important.
I love The Wisdom Jesus – writings that I come back to again and again. It has been a source of great encouragement and hope and a guide on my journey while so many of my Christian traditions and evangelical beliefs were falling away.
It’s so easy for us to not know or to forget that all creation is divine in material form. It’s important to remind ourselves that we are divine. You lose your life be losing attachment to this brief in time and space human form, and you save your life by identity with your divine eternal essence.
thank you David, for sharing yours..
As I read these thought provoking words my own thoughts went to aperspectival atime. Perhaps aperspectival atime doesn’t irrupt into the present from somewhere beyond, but present is or includes aperspectival atime. I think all is present in atime of Presence. I think in atime of Presence there is no purpose except to Be, which I assume includes to expand, grow, become. All is one and harmonious in Presence. I imagine that in Presence there is vibration and confluence, but no linearity or causality, no front or back, no in or out, no forward or backward. Presence materializing costs the creation of space, time, linearity and causality. I think Presence is also Consciousness is also God. Thank you for inviting comments.
This could be Rilke’s awareness expressed in his poem “I live my life in Groeing orbits moving out over the things of the world….I have been circling around God, and I have been circling for a thousand years, and I still don’t know if I am a falcon, a storm, or a great song.” This”God” is the epicenter or originary presence that is timeless and purposive and full of all possibilities. I experience it as Presence.
David Doane : thank you for expressing what I believe– and experience– so succinctly.
I will be reading along with you and looking out for your updates. If one is not in the zoom group, is there any opportunity to ask questions?
My understanding is that we are born with a unitive operating system. We are one and are born one. The egoic or binary operating system is the result of conditioning and indoctrination. We learn separation or dualism, which dominate for a while. We seem to need some time before we are born again and awaken into awareness that we and God and all creation is one. We are in the world of appearance of separation but of the reality of oneness.
Am I correct in saying that the book circles is closed?
Thank you Matthew. I really enjoyed reading this and it is so appropriate for Lenten reflection. I am going to try and embed some of the principles in my Centering Prayer Group. I might be thrown into prison for heresy here in my conservative community, but it’s worth a very subtle attempt.
How do we join the current study that Matthew is teaching?
Dear Patricia,
Thank you for writing to us about not receiving these posts in your email inbox. It is a mystery; our apologies! In order to get them again you will have to go to the Northeast Wisdom/ Wisdom Waypoints home page and scroll all the way down to the bottom of the events listing. You will find a Subscribe to Email Updates box there, which you can fill out and click on subscribe below. Apparently we are not permitted to add people ourselves—you must offer your permission by signing up yourself. I will mention this issue to Bob, and perhaps when the new site is launched we will be able to help more readily. Thanks for your comment, perhaps it will help others as well! With love, Laura
I think it is the mind of Christ that allows you to do this.
This important message triggers me to express some thoughts. For me, 9/11 was a crossroads in world history. One was a road of revenge and war, the other a road of compassion and understanding. We could have whelmed and changed the world by a response of compassion, but we chose the “bring it on” macho road of revenge and war, greatly and quickly increasing division, fear, and violence. Instead of fostering an Us composed of us and them working together, we furthered us vs them. In hindsight, it was a colossal missed opportunity for world transformation and unity, I hope we do better with other ones. I appreciate the urgency and hope in your message. I believe we have all inflicted pain, at least we in supposedly developed countries, and religion has contributed too much to the pain. Spirituality based on our oneness with one another and all creation is hopeful and healing because it is based on truth, that is, we are one.
I am deeply moved and excited by your writings on Gebser, there is one piece in Lesson 3 which was profoundly heart opening, where you describe, ‘taking in another word and allow that world to touch our heart and wash over us deeply….’
and I wondered if in doing this it was ‘Putting on the Mind of Christ’?
Thank you for this, Heather. There is much here that feels foundational for our work in these times.
One thing I notice: unlike many other Wisdom practices, external considering can not practiced exclusively in solitude. It involves listening to someone else, and, in regard to systemic racism, it means listening deeply across lines of historic division.
Where can we find opportunities to practice external considering in this way? In my experience, I have seldom found it in our Wisdom Schools. Where I have found it — in an organized way and held within a Spirit-based frame — is in the work of Be Present, Inc. (bepresent.org).
Some comments now reading this a second time:
1. Please say more about how it’s possible that the last 3 years have been more revelatory than the first 6 decades put together? How.is.that.possible?
2. The mental gift is giving us “backbone” is an intriguing idea. You have often said that we need to build up the “nervous system” in order to “bear the beams of love” (Blake), by which I had always thought that the way to do that was through meditation, the Welcoming Prayer (going down into sensation rather than up into story), and various physical practices (chigung, yoga, proper breathing techniques – anything in the body center). Is mental “backbone” and building up the nervous system the same, different, or related aspects of “Jedi training?”
3. Needing that backbone is also a very important point. This is a great reminder, as you yourself have said explicitly in the study of Gebser, for us not to apologize or wish away the mental structures, which to be honest is hard to do because so much of not just Eastern practices, but now Western approaches, too, always stress how the mental structures are the biggest impediment to spiritual life. As you said in Wisdom Way of Knowing, it’s like using a chainsaw to play the violin – the wrong tool for the job. Especially for those mindy 5s, 6s, and 7s on the enneagram, we wish we could just be done with the whole mental overactivity and get on with the show! But that, too, requires subtle discernment, for the mental has its own gifts we don’t want to deny. But it’s hard to get that balance right.
4. “Evolution goes chordate” – after looking that up, I realized, wow, that is SUCH a great metaphor…because it is physiologically true that we have gained a great deal in standing upright, but we’ve lost the earlier gifts, too. Our sense of smell, for instance, has atrophied now that we are not so close to the ground. Certainly it is standing up that allows us to have the “perspectival” approach at all. We can consider the big picture, but that gives us a distance that separates us the magical and mythical.
5. If I can suggest that this would be another way to use the Enneagram with the 8-9-1 instinctive triad helping us redevelop the kinesthetic dimensions, the 2-3-4 triad reminding us of the heart center, and 5-6-7 giving us that “holy denying” force. Or for that matter, the base, sacral and solar plexus chakras are the kinesthetic; the heart and throat are the emotional center; and the brow and crown are the mental.
At this point, I’ll tag on a revision of what I wrote on FB a few days ago about HOW to do this from a practical point of view. What practices are available to take this from the page to implementation?
6. About a year ago, following a brief meditative grounding, I asked my mind, my heart, and my body (in that order) a question about my own personal future and just sat at my computer and typed out a response. While I generally consider myself to be something of a brick in such intuitive practices, I was pretty shocked what tumbled out in full sentences (which I have in my files): the mind spoke with utter clarity; the heart spoke of its own accord by forgetting the question but speaking of its own deep matters; and the body downloaded striking words of opaqueness that still evoke mystery and gravitas. Maybe you could try this at a retreat or Wisdom School setting.
7. Finally, I’m in training to become an energetic kinesiology practitioner. As I’m reading the magical description above especially, my own most vivid examples come from my kinesiology practice. Our disciplined approach to the body is principally in this magical domain, although it certainly has a very clear “holy denying” aspect in that the process does not appear to be “woo woo” in any way, even if the outcomes are jaw-dropping.
In this sense, it is a working model of the magical, mythic, and mental working seamlessly, with the magical/body center the wheel around which the other two spin. When doing kinesiology, the practitioner’s and client’s bodies stay in constant contact – that’s the most important conversation – with occasional explicit conversion of body indicators into actual language. So, body-based muscle tests lead occasionally to various “psycho-emotional responses” (for example, “can’t learn from past mistakes”) that combine the mythic and the mental; at other points, archetypes (e.g, Zeus is about one’s overmastery of a situation) can be used to see which of these “energetic frequencies” speak to the body. This is just the beginning. Certainly the 3Ms could be applied to kinesiology practice because they are all frequencies that the body can respond to.
This energetic kinesiology – a millennia-in-the-making combination of Chinese Taoist-based meridian systems, the Indian chakra nadi system, and Western anatomy and physiology – verifies precisely what you are saying about how the 3M’s work together for the purposes of healing and transformation. In fact, all 3M’s – drawing on three Wisdom traditions – are working in a concerted, orderly state of “harmonized complexity.” (No “paroxysm!”) What you are saying aren’t just nice words to me, but becoming a lived practice.
My own dream is to complement this primarily body-based practice (body-centric or magical) with the Enneagram (mind-centric or mental) and spiritual practices (heart-centric or mythical). Kinesiology is a quite passive reading of the body by a practitioner, the enneagram is an active mental process, and spiritual practice are the daily, heart-based practices that take the body and mind-based inputs from kinesiology and enneagram respectively, and integrate them in the self holistically.
I did not receive lessons 7,8,9,10. Please put me back on your email list. Not sure why. Thanks.
I appreciate Cynthia’s unpacking of this material and the invitation to play with it. Her insight around the three centers needing to be balanced (and in communication) before a new arising can occur, causes me to wonder where the centers have been getting some exercise.
I don’t know if I’m using the concepts well, but I’d like to try them out using Cynthia’s descriptors.
I’ve been wondering what someone with a longer perspective might see in our 2020. Yes, it will be a year remembered for unprecedented low points, but there are other things I’ve noticed. I’ve been keeping a list: 2020, the year of the nurse, the neighbor, the scientist, the voter, and the county clerk.
Was it our magic center that infused the following?
How (with 2.3M dead from a new breath stealing disease) could it have not caused millions to wrestle with the grief and gift of the life that flows through all things. At the very least, many humans have given that life force their attention and reflected on its power.
Did you notice something liminal about the gatherings to publicly grieve and protest George Floyd’s killing? And did you notice that while the profile of the victims remain distinctly black and male, the profile of the protesters got more diverse? Is it a valid use of the shapeshifting capacity to apply it to the phenomenon where people begin exercising their ability to hold another group’s perspective?
When the pandemic disrupted people’s routines, entertainments, and consumptions in large scale ways, many sought refuge on hiking trails, seashores, and open places. I wonder if there was not an upsurge in a population’s direct sense of the holy.
Was it our mythic center that lots of people used to find their sense of nobility, heroism, and virtue?
What were doctors, nurses, and care takers doing when they quickly discovered they had no cure? From what I can tell, they stuck with it. They offered care and company. They bore witness to the humanity of the individual dying alone in front of them.
And who are these scientists who went to work in the face of such odds? A vaccine for a novel virus (or maybe 3 or 4 vaccines) created in the span of a year? There is something noble and virtuous about the kind of people who join in the creative, collaborative, humbling, disciplined, and mostly anonymous work of listening to a disease and developing a response.
And speaking of unglamorous professions, I’ve met a few county clerks. As a group I’ve known them to approach transparency, counting, and non-partisanship like a solemn vow. It is the stories we tell ourselves about the importance of defending ideas and principles that is what the mythic center offers, right? It’s been a long time since I used the word ‘patriot’ with a sincere heart, but I found myself using it as the best word in my vocabulary to describe their kind of quiet honor.
And the voters of 2020. People showed up in droves to cast their one, solitary vote. And, yes, I recognize that a lot of pundits see a deep divide, but I wonder if there is also something else to see. I think a large number of voters moved beyond their own self-interest to a motive for preserving and protecting a common good.
Thank you, Cynthia, for allowing a space to work on this. I do also really love the image of Jacob wrestling with the angel. No chance we are getting out of this without wounds.
Dear Cynthia,
This morning I considered just where I might post this – then came your timely blog post. Only two nights ago I watched the film “Meetings with Remarkable Men” by happenstance. And in writing just now, it occurred to me the value of the film quote (spoken to Gurdjieff):
“You have found your place my son. You come like a lamb, but, don’t forget you have a wolf in you as well. Look, can you find the force to enable these two quite opposite lions to live within yourself? Listen carefully. This won’t happen by itself. It is not enough to think about it, to dream, to wait – at anytime the wolf can devourer the lamb. And, you must learn what it means to become responsible. This is an exact science, and that is why you are here. I will not put you in the hands of someone you can not feel complete trust.”
I offer the trustworthy hands of Vandana Shiva and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., dialoging here the overt mechinations of truly unremarkable men. In so hearing this “you must learn what it means to become responsible.” We are living in remarkable and perilous times that require humility, courage, and conscious suffering (as you Cynthia have so stridently conveyed).
https://childrenshealthdefense.salsalabs.org/2-8-21defender?wvpId=0549f378-ffbb-451a-bb70-82c2639d98dc
2 Timothy 3 (KJV)
3 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, 7 ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. 9 But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.
Thank you. I took the introductory Wisdom School Course and I really enjoyed it. The only thing I did not like was there was no zoom meeting. It was all pre-recorded and was somewhat impersonal. If there is a weekly zoom for the Divine Exchange, then I will sign up for it. If not, I don’t think I will sign up. I want to get involved with a weekly zoom group to discuss what we learned. I didn’t like the email exchanges.
Thanks,
Cathy
Cathy, if you follow thehyperlink on The Divine Exchange, it ought to lead you right to the CAC website, where the course is being offered. There you’ll find all the details. The lectures themselves are pre-recorded, but as I understand it, the overall group is divided into smaller groups, each of which is assigned a teaching assistant. I am not sure whether the TA interactive mode involves a weekly zoom meeting, but you can find out on the CAC site. If have have any trouble with any of this, get back to us here. Several of the people in our Wisdom community have served as TA’s for the Introductory course, and I’m sure we can come up with the information “in house.” Welcome!
Hi
My name is Cathy and I am interested in this course. Will Cynthia be teaching this course live through zoom or will it be all pre-recorded. If it’s pre-recorded, will there be weekly zoom meetings. What day is this available? My email address is cathyharpnsoul@gmail.com. thank you for your time and help.
Blessings, peace and love,
Cathy
Gosh Heather, I am a kindergarten student when it comes to Wisdom isues but I did want to tell you how much I loved your blog. I read it through twice because I needed to percolate through the wisdom it contained. I personally, and my husband, an Episcopalian priest, are dedicated to persuing the metamorphosis necessary to heal our world and ourselves, and self observation is a bit part of this. Almost all of what you have written is rich in material that helps us take the steps we must to continue on this journey, within ourselves and in our community. I would love to join your practice circle but I am afraid that I would not be able to contribute at a meaningful level. But I continue to read and learn and I will be watching out for further blogs. Grace and blessings to you and your team.
Heather –
Thank you for this deep and thoughtful consideration of racial justice work through a wisdom lens. It offers all of us an opportunity to approach the subject with humility, care, and urgency. I am always deeply touched by the fourth Obligonian Striving: “to pay as quickly for one’s arising and individuality, in order to be free afterward to lighten as much as possible the sorrow of our Common Father.” This is a reminder that we only do the work on ourselves for the sake of the other and the Father, not abstractly but actually.
Finally, THIS –
“What would happen if we leaned into the practice not from a preoccupation with our own internal states, needs, and narratives but rather with hearts as finely tuned spiritual instruments ready to play?
For one, we would water the earth with holy tears pouring out of a genuine remorse of conscience. Remorse for our being asleep. At the 2020 October Wisdom School at Claymont we spent some time with the idea of remorse. Cynthia reminded us that remorse is not about guilt or shame, although there can be a place for those, but rather an immediate seeing in which freedom and humility allow you to finally take responsibility without blame, self-justification, or denial.”
In gratitude for tackling the subject so thoughtfully –
Thank you for this beautiful post. I’m grateful to be reminded that holding grief over our country’s past and present deep wounds is helpful, and that the small and insignificant-seeming attempts we each make to try to heal the divide in our country with love really do matter.
I’m behind with Cynthia’s posts and readings and will catch up, but I love that all of this is Jungian, and also what every good actor learns to do, on some level: Switch sides. Try on our ‘other’ as ourself. This practice is vital in all times, and is so especially needed now. I get into trouble when I suggest this exercise on social media, but I’ll keep trying.
Thank you for being there in wisdom for us all.
I too will be joining and reading along….for a second time! (the Book)
Grateful to be in this community, and to share pray and meet this season of life together….
Hi Bill and Sarah,
Today, I was enjoying the beautifully curated Cynthia Quotes in your post and happily “surrendering myself to the beauty” of the images. But it was an extra bonus to find these came from you and Sarah! I’ve been hoping to see you again since the end of December.
I’ve been in your Friday Centering Prayer Group on Fridays throughout most of December; as with the various Centering Prayer Groups I’ve joined since the pandemic began (I mostly go to Heather Ruce’s daily meditation) it was such an amazing experience to be able to feel THAT connected with a group of “strangers”, and practicing Centering Prayer with your group on Christmas Day itself – a day when we normally spend with family and loved ones – really made me see that in the Wisdom Community, I’ve found a new family and a true home. For this and so much more, thank you.
Thank you for the the things you listed as a step backwards. No coals from me, rather bouquets. I would love it if you were to unpack those items a bit more, especially about taking a second look at the Roman Catholic Church. There is something very appealing in that though I cannot explain why I think so. I’ve just been drawn to it recently.
Thank you for your stimulating writing. It moves me to think and share my thoughts. I think and hope that we move from efficient to deficient to efficient etc etc. I think I still believe that transcend and include is the way of evolution — for me, getting there with what the booster rocket provided is an example of transcend and include. For me, a healthy expression of the magical is living Namaste. A healthy expression of the mythical is the hero’s courageous journey of faithfulness to one’s truth. A healthy expression of the mental is to become all that your self is.
Thank you for this analysis that piques my ‘unknown’ territory to really ‘see’ how everything plays its part. Personally having deeply intended as a child to follow Jesus, I find that I automatically ‘turn my cheek,’ rather than confront and heal (in others, as well as myself). I’m taking a turn at anchoring in my ‘self/Self’ and finding judgment calls I never knew were there. I don’t like it at all. I’d rather be ‘good.’ But following this blog, I’m confirmed to go ahead and really engage with all that I don’t like in myself! Whew!
(Does this sound like the direction you’re pointing us in? …not the evolving collective ‘out there,’ but the evolving collective ‘in here’ as another fractal of the principle?)
Yaw,
it looks like Trump hating is what yaw do best around here.
As I read, I thought of Irenaeus’ “The glory of God is a person fully alive.” And thought of exhortations to “awaken” and “become all that you are.” Light pours from us in our words and actions.
Thanks so much for naming the chapters as well as for the future monthly posts.
Certainly will be following along! Am indeed grateful!
Thank you Cynthia for the quick and very clear reply.
Thanks for including those of us who aren’t officially signed up! I also have read it a few times, but reading as lectio will be even better. Looking forward to reading posts and comments.
Welcome all Wisdom Friends who are ‘reading along’ in Wisdom Jesus!!!
These are the chapters we are reading together each month…in case you want to be reading at the same pace…
January – Ch 1 – 2 & 8
February – Ch 3 – 5
March – Ch 6 – 7, 12
April – Ch 9 – 11 (Easter)
May – Ch 13 – 16
And so we begin…again…
~Marcella
Love how uplifting and unifying your invitation is to join in the imaginal realm. I will, thank you!
From near San Francisco I will join in the reading The Wisdom Jesus. I have read it once already and the book is dog eared with underlining and references written on the inside of the covers. I will journey again through the book and rather than gobbling it up, I will use Lecio along with everyone. I will anticipate the blogs bringing wisdom from others.
TY, Jeanine. Will be reading with you, and watching for posts. I love the movements/chant here.
Cindy (Cyntcha)…
Basically, in this Gebserian context, it means to be FULLY AWARE of something; to take it in with “three-centered knowing:” not just another factoid to be inventoried somewhere in your mind, but a reality to be marked, sensed and inwardly digested by your whole being . In Gurdjieffian terms, the difference between merely “recognizing” something and fully SEEING it.
Cynthia, your comments on Gebser are wonderful.
A question, Gebser, Jeremy Johnson and you, use the word “ware”
Can you define what it means in the context that you are using it. When I look up the meaning, it is “beware” or “be wary of” or something along those lines. But I don’t think that is the sense in which the word is being used in this context.
Thanks
I’m just beginning to read this wonderful treasure. Thank you.
Yes, Yes, Yes Amen.
I just discovered this page. I am interested. Thanks.
I am new to this particular wisdom stream ( though not new to such work). I feel so very blessed to have been, all week, listening to the October retreat which you so generously posted on your website, Cynthia. These are the teachings I’ve been seeking. Here they are, now, when most I (and the world) need them. I am so grateful to be able to participate in this retreat, even from afar. You have articulated all that I’ve been intuiting – yet haven’t had the words to speak.
Thank you, Cynthia and thank you for the Northeast Wisdom community. These connections nurture me.
Thank you, Cynthia, for your wise and helpful guidance for a day of national turbulence.
Thank you for this offering, Bill
My understanding of “to endure suffering” is that we have no choice but to suffer — we suffer life, we can’t not suffer it, and the only choice we have is in how we suffer it. In that sense we endure suffering.
I’ve been following these posts and recently read Johnson’s Seeing Through the World with much pleasure, but this certainly is the most prescient and useful of my reading: I can easily now see the difference between the Western and Asian approach. I appreciate that Cynthia is not “adjudicating” on this point, but raising it for us to contemplate. I think around the world we are enamored with the Buddhist path, as Cynthia points out in the memes adopted by modern culture, but then we apply or appropriate lessons learned in one cultural setting to another without deep reflection. The points raised here about “conscious suffering,” gathering past-present-future into one, and working with the ego’s particularity seems resonant with my experience and those of my students, despite having lived in Asia for 30 years. This is not to denigrate that tradition in the least, but rather to give them their due place at the table. What comes to mind is one of the most familiar images in Chinese iconography – two dragons playfully dancing around a central jade ball. Let’s pull up a chair and enjoy the two traditions speaking playfully to each other of their winnowed wisdom.
Thank you Cynthia. I confess, I haven’t been diligent in reading this series, however, this entry caught my eye. Just last night I wrote a reflection that included a comment on this subject. I found myself speculating that when we encounter Eastern philosophies or Spiritual ideas and attempt to view them through a Western Lens, we find ourselves with a distorted view. After spending two weeks in India, I came home with the impression that the philosophies I heard and read had a cultural aspect. I visited India (specifically visiting two ashrams with Mathew Wright) intentionally keeping an open mind so I could have an experience as free from pre-conceived ideas as possible. I came home a different person and I’m still unpacking what I experienced so that I can articulate it clearly. You’ve inspired me to take the time to go back and digest all eight blogs and whatever comes next. My processing, digesting and integrating capacities are much slower than your writing capacities. Once I get it and confirm it in my experience, though, it’s solid. Thank you again for this. It’s extremely helpful for this wisdom practitioner, post holder and sharer.
Thank you for this. I have been wondering how I was going to manage all these new teachings, now I know these are not requirements and I can relax and trust where I am guided.
This resonates with my current experience of moving between realities with totally different ways of being and interacting… the reality within the dream and the dissolving presence of the ‘me’ within the wakeful state.
Deeply touched …gratitude
Cynthia and Marcella, I have that same picture hanging in my apartment!! Anthropos!
Lovely…
Thank you for this conversation. It allowed greater compassion to enter. As a less verbal person, I experience when reading Gebser more a sense of 3D spatial understanding which is not something I can easily put in words. It is a visceral experience.
I just finished the Mary Magdalene course with CAC, and as I listened to the interview, Cynthia’s phrase ‘whole-group capacity for understanding’ jumped out at me. Many of us in the course felt something like an embrace from the context we were learning from, and in the forum there was much gratitude expressed for everyone contributing to it.
I became very aware that we were benefiting from what had come before (and now I’ll call it the collective wisdom body all of you have been cultivating), such that a palpable awakening was available to me every time I posted. In other words, every week of the course my whole life seemed to be agitating and re-organizing around my post in the forum, and I knew I was in a context that was facilitating my ‘work’. I would work with my words until I sensed a coherence and completion and my week’s agitation would resolve.
Several of us in the course were very reluctant to let go of one another, so I know the effect was manifest for others as well, even in those late to complete the lessons (CAC left the material up for us for several extra weeks).
The appreciation and gratitude I feel for you, Cynthia, and for the community’s collective wisdom body/field/capacity/offering is very deep. Connecting to this ‘body’ has ‘collected’ me and kept me sane during these times.
Bill’s passion and dedication for the earth is an inspiration for us all. It is all too easy to be concerned about me and forget that without earth, “me” doesn’t have much of a chance here, nor do our decendents. Thank you Bill for carrying the message.
My path to share is awareness that Creation is God incarnate and born. This season emphasizes that awareness.
Gorgeous, wonderful and wonder-filled Way-pointing! Thank you, Laura Ruth.
This is just so wonderful and so exciting……
Thank you Laura, thank you everyone!
Stunning articulation Laura! Truly stunning! Thank you dear heart! ❤️
Our consciousness of consciousness awakens and expands.
Can’t go home again? I’m not so sure.
I’ve been a docent at the Anchorage Museum for the past 15 years. The History gallery used be laid out chronologically, and I would give a tour entitled “10,000 year of Alaska History”. I would start by saying that History, as we’ve learned it in school is crucial dates, 1066, 1492, 1776, primary documents like the Mayflower Compact and names of significant leaders. So in Alaska “History” doesn’t really begin until 1741 when the Europeans showed up and started writing things down. The gallery had dioramas that depicted pre-contact scenes of “Eskimos, Indians and Aleuts” that I would describe as “stone-age” cultures. Then the Russians showed up, a “more advanced” culture with metal tools, gunpowder and a written language. Russian Orthodoxy. Then the Americans came with steam engines, airplanes and the trans-Alaska pipeline. The rule of law. Progress, eh?
Well, about 8 years ago the museum began to “decolonize”. The History gallery was redesigned around themes and we put the replica of Vitus Bering’s ship in storage someplace. We docents (most of us white) have been educated in Native Alaskan culture, spirituality, and ways of knowing. It’s been eye- opening.
There has been, among Native people, a resurging interest in Native languages, dance and story telling. Native women are sporting traditional chin tattoos. We now have an Alaska Native Culture charter school here in Anchorage. And restored place names: Mt. McKinley to Denali, Barrow to Utkiaqvik.
And I think a part of this cultural movement is a restoration of an indigenous structure of consciousness, that never really disappeared, but has been maintained by village elders and passed down to all of us who are willing to listen. It sees that all creatures have a spiritual nature, that everything is connected and that traditional rituals and gestures are needed to keep everything on an even keel.
Thank you Cynthia for your teaching. I understand your language, perhaps from years of studying your books, online courses, videos! I’m wondering about the birth of new consciousness at various rates around the planet. Some cultures are more receptive? Also, ways we can concretize the aperspectival? Thank you, everyone, for your comments throughout this book discussion.
Only yesterday jotted down these out flowings that arose in morning prayerfulness…
Where do we put our (inherent) value? So important!
I found you in all the “wrong” (yes, and right) places.
Love knows no bounds.
Redemptions song.
Lord, help me to know the import and gravity of mine own life (in the schema of the whole.)
Give me eyes to see (and hear)
Give me ears to hear (and see)
Later that day I received word of a past colleague that lay ill with kidney failure and slurred speech in the ICU. My mind filled with extraneous mumbo jumbo, whys and wherefores; confronting it, I saw very clearly my self-referential perspective. In seeking God’s forgiveness, less of me came forward to pray, purely for Michael Corrao.
Klint has been on my mind constantly (her third altarpiece as a visual of the relationship between developmental stages and gebser’s structures) since starting Jeremy Johnson’s most recent course. Decided to see if Klint and Gebser had any contact or communication with each other, and I love that your site came up first. I’ve been a huge fan for years.
The analogy I’ve been using is of a wise old priest communing with a young acolyte. The acolyte sees layers of growth between themselves and the priest The priest’s wisdom is that she simultaneously sees them both as just two children sitting on a bench and is also able to hold and respect the layers that, for the acolyte, are necessary to organize consciousness or their journey.
Time to expand from ‘mi fa’ to ‘si do,’ expansion of consciousness; a change of octave. Not an upgrade in software, but a whole new motherboard. With all the genuine suffering inherent in the current process, it is indeed heartening to realize it too is in service to Love. Thank you Cynthia for bringing it to the Waypoints group.
Are any of you folks familiar with the art of Hilma af Klint? The Guggenheim showcased her work a couple of years ago. I am a complete novice when it comes to art and art history, but I saw the exhibition and it really seemed to me that she was working from a whole different mode of consciousness. I think she was in correspondence with Rudolf Steiner, back in the day. Is her art aperspectival? What do you think?
John af Alaska
What are some examples of art, music, cinema, literature that seem to embody an aperspectival consciousness? Johnson mentions the Japanese film, Akira. Also the 1920 Paul Klee painting Angelus Novus. What else? And why?
Dear Cynthia,
Thank you so much for your deep commitment to climbing the mountain, and the contribution that makes to all of us!
I found myself staggered by these blogs on Johnson/Gebser because I have found myself at the intersection of your Christian scholarship and mysticism (via several courses and books) and my husband’s phenomenological exploration of what he calls ‘aperspectival field theory.’ His first book was published in 2003, but worked on it for over a decade (“Oneness Perceived,” Jeffrey Eisen, Paragon Press).
Jeff is a psychologist with a deep appreciation of the arts. (I don’t believe that he is aware of Johnson or Gebser’s work). Jeff’s words on page 3: “Oneness Perceived” presents a unified field theory of Oneness and duality… of perception and aperceptual reality…” A lot of what he writes now (dictates from his wheelchair) is about the ‘perceptual illusion.’
It certainly seems time for the many perspectives to unite into a yet greater expansion of awareness, in each one of us? in conversations? in every which way?
I went through a Catholic gradeschool in the Midwest and became an anthropologist; Jeff’s ethnicity is Jewish with no religious training at all, but a real gift for recognizing inner psychological truth. You can imagine our conversations… and how grateful we are for the ‘perspectives’ you offer from such an open heart…
Namaste, Jeanie
This is difficult material, at least for me. What comes to mind in reading is to get outside the box. We are in a perspective and it’s important to not be of it.
Oh – this is all feels so important! I long to get out of Flatland; to help us all to ‘see’ and live beyond this view. For now I’ll do my best to return as often as I am able to that place of ‘paradox tolerance’, trusting that this new aperspectival view is an inevitable and future gift for us all. And hoping we can help to usher it in in time.
I’m grateful for these teachings. I’ve only been able to share comfortably Wilber’s brilliant insights with my liberal friends, hoping we would ‘grow up’, and it always left me feeling embarrassed and disloyal to my conservative friends, many who are far more intelligent and mature than I ever will be in this lifetime.
Thank you, Cynthia.
Beautiful! A full Blessing. Thank you.
Hey Wayne, I’m happy you are going through the teacher training with Peter. That’s great. The next Taoist Wisdom Practices course will begin in January. Please send me an email at allen.bourque@gmail and you’ll get a personal invite be fore Christmas.
Allen
Thank you for your stimulating reflections. My comments: We are part of the Source. The Source becomes each of us. Give up goal-directed or outcome-directed action, prayer, and service, and commit to action that is right. Give up the ‘means and end’ dichotomy. Live in hope and trust of right action. Leave end to the Source.
Yes, the experience landing in me this morning was reverberating with Thomas the Twin in logion 6:
His disciples asked him and said to
him: How should we fast? And how should we pray? And how should we give alms? And how should we observe dietary laws?
Jesus said: Do not lie, and do not do anything against your conscience, for
heaven sees all things. For there is nothing that is hidden that will not be made
manifest.
Or as the Luminous Gospels puts it:
Do not do what you hate.
This, and Quaker George Fox rising in song through Paulette’s chant:
Keep Within, for the measure’s within and the light of God is within, and the pearl is within you, though hidden.
And the Sufi: pray without ceasing, alive within the heart…and Attar of Nishapur says: the whole world is a marketplace for Love.
It is a wonder to be alive. Sanai says:
Say the name. Moisten your tongue
with praise, and be the spring ground, waking.
So hard to put into words, maybe: Be with what is becoming.
Laura, your writing itself is a strong/soft invocation of our interiority. Thank you.
Thank you Laura. This is beautiful. And this brought back such beautiful warm memories of holding your hand in The Elm Dance at Kanuga a few years back. Within your reflection came a bit of encouragement from Rafe as I essentially am assigned to the hermit life now. I am convinced my prayers matter to the Earth, at least, as I watch the birds in my backyard dance regularly. They come close and seem to know.
What a wonderful gift. Thank you wholeheartedly. It truly elevated me out of my ego centered mind, which I was having difficulty shaking off.
And placed me back in a unified presence with God. A true blessing!
This blog entry arrived (thank you!) the day after my cousin and soul friend shared The Sycamore by Wendell Berry, a powerful synchronicity that awes.
The Sycamore by Wendell Berry
In the place that is my own place, whose earth
I am shaped in and must bear, there is an old tree growing,
a great sycamore that is a wondrous healer of itself.
Fences have been tied to it, nails driven into it,
hacks and whittles cut in it, the lightning has burned it.
There is no year it has flourished in
that has not harmed it. There is a hollow in it
that is its death, though its living brims whitely
at the lip of the darkness and flows outward.
Over all its scars has come the seamless white
of the bark. It bears the gnarls of its history
healed over. It has risen to a strange perfection
in the warp and bending of its long growth.
It has gathered all accidents into its purpose.
It has become the intention and radiance of its dark fate.
It is a fact, sublime, mystical and unassailable.
In all the country there is no other like it.
I recognize in it a principle, an indwelling
the same as itself, and greater, that I would be ruled by.
I see that it stands in its place and feeds upon it,
and is fed upon, and is native, and maker.
Laura, you totally capture the BEAUTY…and in such devotional poetry, share these pearls of great price. Thank you! Stunning…truly. Deeply grateful Laura. This is your ‘terrain’…you swim in these waters….which comes through so beautifully ‘from the inside out’. Thank you.
“Before we can discern the new, we must come to know the old. By knowing the old I actually mean something like re-constituting it. As Deleuze says, it is not enough the have the unconsciousness, you must produce it yourself in the present. Bringing up the structures from the depths of time, from latency, is a matter of animating them, presently, and as such must be a participatory process. …
“…To truly integrate the structures requires more than a mere distanced appreciation of their remote accomplishments. We must come into glimmerings of contact with the so-called past and chance, as it were, a meeting with the dead. To know the night you must risk stumbling in the dark.” Johnson, Seeing Through the World, pgs 61-62
“There is a great difference, between comprehending the knowledge of things, and tasting the hidden life in them. I fed on the sweetness of the former, before finding the true manna of the latter.” Isaac Penington (via Paulette Meier’s chant True Manna)
“The conscious Reason-of-understanding, which in general it is proper for three-brained beings to have, is a “something” which blends with their common presence, and therefore information of every kind perceived with this Reason becomes forever their inseparable part.” Gurdjieff, Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson, pg 1166.
I am so convicted by Jeremy’s call to ENTER different structures versus analyzing them. I come from Trump country, and was raised Southern Baptist. I have spent years thinking I “know” what my parents are thinking. Reading the passage above helped me realize I do NOT. I “know” what I think about what they think! I have not been willing to “see from” their perspective, and have not thought I needed to because I came from it.
It seems that when we say the structures are not linear, or not developmental, we acknowledge that they each exist in direct communion with the origin. Here is where the sphere versus the line is helpful – we can be miles apart, on an arc, but still be equa-distant to the origin. This also helps us to realize that while we can see the shadows of other structures so clearly, we likely do not see the shadow of our own.
Hi Karla,
I love the image of the arc with tethers to the Origin. What I am picturing is the rust that develops on those tethers in response to overwhelming life experiences. Our work, it seems to me, is to become aware of those shadows and the rust they create so that energy can pass freely along them to and from the Origin. When this can happen, any structure can yield the capacity to see through the eyes of the other and hence to treat our neighbors, large and small, with compassion. What flows naturally through a tether that is clear is the energy of our origins, Love.
Hello Cynthia, and everyone – really appreciating your thoughtful and important questions/reflections shared here. I posted this over on Facebook, but maybe it’s worth posting here, too (with slight edits):
As many anthropologists will readily tell you, transplanting what we know from the field of developmental psychology (which, we should also readily acknowledge, draws its data from individuals in our modern secular culture) to the evolution of entire human cultures and societies—living indigenous communities or otherwise—has been consistently deconstructed.
It’s clear that hunting and foraging societies had, and have, ways of knowing with their own unique complexity and sophistication, sometimes more robust and flexible in arenas other than our own (Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, or more recently Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta as two important books on this subject. David Graeber and David Wengrow are also important contributors, who I feature extensively in my next book).
For instance, in James C. Scott’s excellent book Against the Grain, he writes about how our Paleolithic ancestors, and indigenous populations of North America, had “long been sculpting the landscape” through a kind of “fire-assisted form of applied horticulture” — again, long before agriculture came into existence in Mesopotamia (or, in the case of NA, after agriculture was tried and abandoned for a different mixed-subsistence economy such as the Haudenosanuee Confederacy).
Early human societies also had a flexibility of social systems, switching dynamically back and forth between egalitarianism one season and hierarchical organization during another.
Even returning to Gebser’s commentary on , say, mythical consciousness: complementarity and ambiguity is a defining *feature* of that way of knowing.
Cynthia, your phrase of “perspectival humility” is deeply appreciated here, because I think that is what we need—what if we aren’t the end-all, be-all, the summit of evolution? What if remediation/re-integration is *part of the process* of emerging complexity? I don’t want to rule out the possibility of Piaget’s insight (that *maturity* happens when we’re able to hold more complexity), but it seems like the jury is still out for us and our perspectival world being able to do that.
*Can* we fold ourselves, the perspectival world, back into the whole, and realize our innate integrality?
The long and painful journey of distanciation and severing from the animistic magic and psychistic mythic, the numinous, is, as we are learning, over: the world itself (the “itself”!) seems to be providing us with a profound and catalyzing crisis of integration in these times. If we can bring forward the integrating presence of origin (the “integrum”) and participate in that creative, intensifying “standard”, that is, the spiritual present, then we might be graced enough to declare some budding maturation of our culture.
But until then, we need to work on our civilizational myopia and the subtle ways it creeps into our scholarly narratives. Julius Caesar, for instance, had a very convenient schema ordering “barbarians” towards the bottom and ‘civilized’ and stately Romans at the top.
Thank you, Jeremy, for reinforcing our need for perspectival humility. I will post those two words on my refrigerator! As I continue to pursue an understanding of the ways of the human mind I will remind myself that experience has made clear that what we claim as the discovery of truth in one era is made painfully obvious to be deeply flawed in the next, a piece of the proverbial elephant, but a misleading piece without an understanding of how it fits into the whole. Perhaps if we remind ourselves that all our constructions of reality are just theories – metaphors, reflections in a blurry mirror- we can get closer to maintaining perspectival humility as we pursue our quest for understanding.
An observation on this observation: Isn’t it marvelous that we humans have the capacity to recognize our myopia – to be able to not only see through the eyes of the other but also to reflect on what this means for our own understanding and to hold both in vibrant tension at the same time?!!
More direct ti Jean Gebser’s book, than last link i provided
http://www.jean-gebser-gesellschaft.ch/extracts.html
Many of the chapter’s of Jean Gebser’s book can be accessed here:
http://www.jean-gebser-gesellschaft.ch/mutations.html
Thank you for elaborating on the very important difference between stages and structures. Stages evolve one into the next, like childhood evolving into adolescence, each stage being growth beyond the previous stage, and each stage embodying the whole, while structures exist independent of each other, like sections of a jig saw puzzle, each section being unique, no section better or more grown than another, and each section being part of a whole but not whole in itself. I think evolution of human being and human consciousness is through stages that are recursive, each stage including and going beyond the previous one.
Thank you, Betsy for broadening my perspective on this question. I recognize now that I was thinking only within the context of modern western thought . From what I know of indigenous cultures, it does seem that many had a closer connection with the imaginal realm than we do today. Within the context of modern western thought, however, I am very reluctant to relativize all structures as “fully entitled partners”. Perhaps we could impose a standard based on what kind of attitudes and actions a given structural worldview produces. I’m inclined to see as “higher” in the sense of closer to being in tune with the Source, those structures that incline people toward compassion and caring for the rest of creation. Does this fit in with your broader perspective?
the “standard” you are envisioning in fact exists in Gebser’s teaching, but it is not IMPOSED. It is precisely THE EVER-PRESENT ORIGIN, which holds all structures, stages, and timescales in a spacious harmony around its constellating presence. Integral consciousness for Gebser is not “a higher stage of eveolution;” it is a capacity to directly perceive and BE IN RELATIONSHIP with that presence–a capacity that requires the active strengths and perspectives of all structures of consciusness. We simply cannot get ANYWHERE without the active reclaiming, consciously, of those mythical and magical structures of consciousness, for they contain within them the roots of numinosity, a sense of belonging, and a flexible, shape-shifting self-surrender to the whole antithetical to the mental structure of consciousness with its perceptual center fixed in the “hypertrophic ego” (as Gebser names it). This is why worship in liberal/progressive churches tends to fall so flat and wind up so mental, tinny, and implicitly judgemental; it simply can’t get over itself! The “earlier” structures do indeed retain gifts without which it is impossible to proceed. And so does the mental structure, which, through its very ego strengty, has a greater capacity to integrate, rather than simply be absorbed, into the numinosity. It, too, is essential. Everything belongs.
I think I have a loose grasp on what you are saying. Let me put it in my own words and ask you to tell me if I’m on the right track. I think you are saying that the capacity to connect with the imaginal realm is a separate animal from the stages of cognitive and moral development. At any stage, a person can connect but the quality and content of the experience may be different according to the cognitive stage. eg. a child’s experience of the imaginal will be different from an adult’s. It will be received and processed through the schemas of the cognitive stage he is in and therefore will not be able to be integrated as well as the adult’s who has more complex schemas into which to integrate it. These two ways of functioning are parallel processes, yet intertwined. Am I on the right track? what am I missing?
According to Amazon, my copy of Seeing Through the World, is due to arrive by 8pm tonight. I’m looking forward to beginning the journey. “Structures vs Stages” helps me make sense of some of the cultural and political divisions here in Alaska.
I am very grateful for this different framing of Wilber’s construction of the levels or stages of consciousness. I’m not reading Gebser (literally can’t afford to buy another book right now!) but I was a student in Cynthia’s CAC Introductory Wisdom School last spring, and I read and discuss her books with friends on the same path. I encountered Wilber and Spiral Dynamics in a Buddhist-y spiritual group in 2012, and was never comfortable with it for the exact reasons Cynthia and Johnson lay out here–the inevitable linearity of it, and the implication (which I actually heard stated a few times) that every culture must go through all the stages to get to the “higher” levels. Looking at Indigenous cultures still existing in the world and what we know of those that have dwindled or vanished, there is a deep wisdom there that I see as almost completely missing from our supposedly more advanced stage as modern industrial societies. That their understanding must be “included and transcended” just doesn’t really make sense.
Connection with and dependence on Earth is one of the areas that Indigenous cultures have deeper awareness than we tend to have. I would even say that Indigenous and “primitive” lifeways are more in tune with the Imaginal realm than our World 48 rationality tends to be, even if we are expanding into the green level. Here’s an example of what I mean. We learn of how our ancient ancestors in the northern hemisphere had big ceremonial days-long rituals at the winter solstice, praying, weeping, dancing, eating, pleading with the sun to return. And it did, every year. Our science-informed view tells us that this is just primitive magical thinking, because we know that Earth will continue orbiting the sun whether we acknowledge it, thank it, appreciate it, hold rituals for it, or not.
But in an Imaginal context, isn’t it possible that the love and appreciation and acknowledgement of the gift of the sun that our ancestors felt and expressed actually did in some ways feed the sun? And feed the entire cosmos? That psychic force of appreciation and attention surely is exactly the kind of food the Imaginal realm needs from us here to keep the cosmos pulsing along instead of decaying into chaos, the direction our inattention and lack of gratitude seem to be taking it now. Rather than all the Indigenous and Earth-aware cultures having to somehow go through the “stages” in the spiral of consciousness, we who are at a supposedly higher level need to learn from them how to be more conscious in ways like this.
I have to admit also that at first, even the image of “unfolding” seemed to have a hint of linearity and directionality to it–it implies starting somewhere and moving outward from there, getting larger. But the metaphor of the art museum seems perfect to me. I was thinking “enfolding” rather than “unfolding,”and the idea of each gallery in a museum having its own note and fragrance within the whole, each contributing its own ethos and beauty, has that sense that everything is already there and is connected in a larger contextual relationship.
Thank you to Cynthia and this community for continuing to unfold (!) the western wisdom tradition’s cosmology and morality, and deepening my understanding of the meaning of it all.
I haven’t read the book yet, (I just ordered it) so what I am saying is based only I what I read here but, as a student of the development of consciousness, I feel compelled to chew on what I read and give a preliminary response.
Wilber’s stages, Johnson says, necessitate a strictly linear view of consciousness emergence, saving the transpersonal for the higher stages. Thinking of these same organizations of consciousness as structures, he offers, removes the implication that one is more mature – let’s say it right out:”BETTER”- than another. Each of the 5 structures, he asserts, is an authentic mode of participation in the world, a fully entitled partner.
My response:
Research in cognitive development clearly shows that the appearance of these structures is developmental with the more simplistic and inflexible ones appearing in early childhood and the more complex ones that can handle ambiguity later. To say that all are equally “good” would be to say that development offers no better capacity to relate to the world. Do we want to say this?
Furthermore, when one examines the content that each of these structures leads to, one sees that the developmentally later ones encourage a great deal more compassion for others than the earlier ones. (cf. Kohlberg’s stages of moral reasoning) Do we want to discount this?
The appearance of these structures IS linear. They describe development within the egoic operating system from simplicity to greater complexity on the horizontal plane.
Let’s remind ourselves that everything we say about this issue is working in metaphor. We think of the egoic operating system as a structure of the mind, but neuroscience hasn’t, as far as I know, identified a physical structure with which we can identify it. It serves, however, to help us talk about a way information is processed so we give it structural status. Piaget’s concept of schemas that become gradually more complex as they are forced to accomodate to more and more conflicting input is my go-to metaphor of this developmental process.
This is not to say that a person whose primary structure is, say, law and order reasoning, cannot have a transpersonal experience (as Wilber distinguishes between states and stages) but it takes a structure that can tolerate ambiguity and hold horizontal and vertical thinking in tension at the same time to actually integrate the transpersonal perspective into actions in his everyday life.
I appreciate Cynthia’s desire to heal the horrendous rift in our society today by reducing judgmentalism on both sides, but I don’t think we can do it by asserting, as Johnson does, that “all 5 structures are authentic modes of participation in the world…fully entitled partners.”
I look forward to reading the book and further installments on this blog. I hope my thinking is expanded!
Cynthia, Love the Mercator reference having graduated from SUNY Maritime (knew that would come in handy one day). Would appear these charts are being employed at respective poles. Full of anticipation and gratitude.
Brueggemann quotes Socrates as saying “All true speech ends in dexcology to God”. Good thing to remember when sailing those higher latitudes.
I live in the South and many members of my family are trumpsters, the closest being my son in law. He’s a good man and I am forced to open my heart to him and find common ground. I can see many of my attitudes while talking to him. It’s an ongoing struggle right now. But we are all God’s children.
YES! to both #1 and 2. #3 , Integral as BOTH dual and nondual; yet more accurately SIMULTANEOUS conscious awareness in the new/current (heart) AND all previous structures of consciousness (mental and somatic). More Multiperspectival than Aperspectival? Haven’t seen this book yet, but heading for it now. Can’t wait to see the unfoldings in this exploration; I bow down to your integrity and persistence in following the truth wherever it takes you, and whatever the costs. Bravo!
Thank you, Cynthia, for always helping us to see and go deeper. I’ve been saddened by the judgements flying around our Wisdom Community and my own heart. I thought we had grown more. It shows me there is always more work to do in our hearts and how we see.
I don’t think we actually live these judgments out, maybe some are habits, thought patterns and distortions of truth. Others are a righteous calling out of things that need to be changed. The only way our collective community can support our brother and sister Americans is to step out of judgement and anger and learn to see with love. When we remove the “mote” in our own eye we can then help others to see as well.
When I saw this post yesterday something excited my spirit. I didn’t even finish the post before I ordered the book. Thank you for calling us to this collective work of healing.
Thanks, Bill, I really like how you talk about attention and surrender, and balancing the three centers. Even though I’ve read and reread those passages in Cynthia’s books, it still is intriguing to see how she as well as other interpreters (yourself, in this case) re-assemble the parts into a new whole. (By the way, you are describing the concept of a holon down below, a concept my high school students took too quite nicely.) Thanks for putting this together.
I’m grateful for you Marianne, and grateful to be together on this journey. It is such a blessing to have you in our group as we pause and savor Mystical Hope together!
Thank you Jeanine. I have read your writing many times and it is guiding me along my present journey as a member of the book discussion group of Mystical Hope. What an experience! From a thankful heart!
Thank you Jan. Glad you are following your call back to Mystical Hope.
Our hearts united as one, Jeanine
Jeanine,
Thank you for this beautiful and timely writing.
Interestingly, as I have been seeking what hope looks like in these very trying days, I too have felt called to revisit “Mystical Hope”. It truly is a gem that can be held and looked at over and over again to be enriched by. It is a reminder that there is always More!
Blessings friend
Jan
Jeanine, what a soul-warming reflection. As often happens, it’s timely in its appearance in my Inbox. Thank you for the time I know is involved in putting thoughts to word.
Thank you Lee. I’m glad it was a timely appearance. Many blessings with you, Jeanine
Still feeding off of Valle Cruces, this phenomenal sharing of the web from Stonington is a further nourishment for what is mine to do in the collective activation of the nutrients needed in this precious moment. Eye of the Heart is where I am seeding my residence now. Reading the book after Valle Cruces was a tremendous shockpoint! Thanks Cynthia and all of you for courageously standing your post and outflowing the aliveness that you all experienced at this on-the-ground gathering in Stonington.
Thank you so much Laura. Beautiful writing. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about hope and how fragile and beautiful it is as embodied spirit. I miss you!
Am not sure this is where to post remarks after our class today but want to follow up the synchronicity of receiving the following in the mail:
From Etty Hillesum, Dutch Jew who died at Auschwitz concentration camp, writing from the Westerbork transit camp:
“There is a really deep well inside me. And in it dwells God. Sometimes I am there, too…And that is all we can manage these days and also all that really matters: that we safeguard that little piece of You, God, in ourselves.” Some call that well “hope”
Beautiful Robin, and thank you Allen. And yes, you are welcome to post after class here, and after the Mystical Hope posts that will follow this one. There may also be an email thread in your NEW/WW study group to be sharing in as well, but we appreciate you sharing your comments and the poignant and profound quote from Etty Hillesum—whose heart shines through her words in the midst of the most incomprehensible human terrors. Thank you so much for sharing it with the wider community. We are all in it together! With love, Laura
Very beautiful post Laura, thanks.
Cynthia — I appreciate your post, and thank you especially for the story about the mother, daughter, fisherman, and you. I am touched by it. So much happy heart bursting can happen by taking the time for a few moments of kindness.
I sit here with tears of hope, and with everything in me saying yes to what has been spoken and shared in this blog. I read Eye of the Heart last week and it was as if what had been gradually shifting moved firmly into its new paradigm. What I had been sensing and feeling my way into is now clear. I am grateful. The story of the mother/daughter, fisherman, and Tim resonate in my heart with learning about the imaginal. I am in my latter years, but only 3 1/2 years into centering prayer, presence, I do not have 25-30 years to grow and mature in it, but after reading your book Cynthia, I am greatly encouraged that with commitment, openness to the imaginal, I will have what I need to do my part for our world. Thank you for writing your book at this time.
Thank you, Jeanie! I love your comment that you are deeply ACTIVATED by my book. No author could hope for more. Thanks, too, for noticing the balance in the voices, a direct reflection of the balance (synergy) in the group.
Receiving these living words and loving energy has left me feeling like I’ve participated in the Wisdom School… Thank you.
I’ve also just finished reading your new book, first time through, Cynthia, and am deeply activated by it. As I open to what I can do imaginally from where I stand in my conscious circles, I’m reminded from your perspective, Bill, not to shy away from information flow in the more dense worlds (ouch!). And from your story, Tim, I’m reminded in the midst of the chaos to notice and ‘be-with’ the everyday loving relational realities around me.
(Just to feed back one more level, also gratefully, please know that I’ve read this entire post with its different voices over and over for my experience of its balance, and where it asks me to rest. Thank you for the caring and precision!)
What wonderful sharing. So beautifully written. I am grateful to be a recipient of this post. Thank you!
Small world…I looked you up and see you studied with Peter Wayne; I also did for a couple of years. Are you interested in being on my email list for the Taoist Wisdom Course?
Hey. I just saw this (better late than never). Is the Taoist Wisdom link different from your general link? If so — YES — make me a part of this. And yes. I study with Peter Wayne, and am a candidate for teacher certification through Tree of Life, his tai chi studio.
Forgive my lateness, but I would like to be on that Taoist Wisdom list. I’ve started doing a lot of taoist meditation.
Hi Dennis,
We have changed the class time. New session will run on Tuesdays from 4:30 to 6. We’ll begin on Jan. 19. Let me know if you want to join this time.
I have in the past. Currently I do one CP session a day. My daily Taoist meditation practice is mostly standing (wuji) and is blended in with Qigong and Tai Chi practices. The goal is to more deeply integrate meditation with movement.
(Tai Chi is often described as meditation in motion. That’s an issue that’s only accessed through practice).
Funny. I’m basically attempting the same synthesis over time. I’m a longtime tai chi practitioner and now teacher. Within the last year I was introduced to taoist meditation (within the water tradition, I believe) and it’s been amazing. Integrating (or attempted integration of) all of this is a never-ending joy. Changed my life. So glad to find this website. I will be following on a regular basis. Thank you.
Hi there,
I think you’ll find a lot of similarity between the Taoist practice of “Sitting and Forgetting” and Centering prayer. After all, centering prayer is based on the book ” the cloud of unknowing” where one places oneself within the cloud of “forgetting”. Similar concepts IMHO.
Thanks,
Martin
Hello, Allen. I happened upon this page while considering my own meditation practice. I have delved into Centering Prayer, Vippasana, and now the Taoist meditation approach. Currently, I do a Centering Prayer meditation at one point in the day, then at another point in the day I meditate using Taoist techniques. As I go forward, I wonder if I should drop one and concentrate more on the other. I really love both approaches and wonder what your own meditation practice entails. Do you do both? Many?
Hi Dennis,
I’m happy to read your comment and excited by your explorations. I would suggest you definitely focus on one practice for several weeks at least. The standard Centering Prayer guideline for praying twice a day is born of many peoples experience that a second sit amplifies the practice is very distinct, although of course unpredictable, ways.
I do the Centering Prayer.
There are many Taoist meditation practices, really a lot. The short version of what I do is a preliminary phase while standing to activate a relaxed awareness of my whole body and the sphere around my body (the 3 foot “auric” field that’s suddenly become important in a new way). I then sit with that broad focus and dance with the meditation: allowing it to unfold but taking care not to get too lost. That’s the approach we cultivate in the course.
I’ve done the esoteric Taoist meditations with the inner orbits, but I wasn’t drawn to go in that direction.
Let me know if you want to continue this conversation directly.
Allen: Thanks so much for this response. So you are able to do at least three sessions a day? Two Centering Prayer and one taoist approach?
This resonates with an experience early this summer.
For hours,
Turning over and weeding a severely overgrown garden,
Oft considering the weeds of mine own heart,
In sheer exhaustion,
I surrender to what is,
And,
From where I do not know,
The soundless words resound –
“I will complete in you what I started.”
In that very moment,
All of my being knows IT to be true
Selah
The trust is in the surrender.
Thank you for this post.
I believe there is no contradiction in the injunction to “divide attention” and to experience it as an all-encompassing 3-dimensional space.
Conceptually it would come to a geometrical event: 1) when my attention is fully taken by external/internal events (identification), attention is a unidimensional “dot”, 2) an effort to add a second dimension (as described in ISOM), and stretch the scope of my attention would be to build a bidimensional “line”. To do this, there is an effort implied, difficult to pin down and frustrating, yet necessary so as to deeply recognize the limitations of what comes “from my side”. I cannot “do”.
Lastly: 3) attention as an all- encompassing, three-dimensional “volume” is a different experience. It requires surrendering my self-will and experiencing sensation more as a deep feeling. I might call this possibility: creating a sacred space. A space of which I participate, rather than where I have a leading role.
Thank you all for your comments… we are meeting soon as a Wisdom Council and your thoughts and experiences are important to us. How to find one another on the path, and through what mediums, how to practice together, are some of the questions we are taking up as we grow and lean into how to continue to hone how we serve the Wisdom community.
Please, keep commenting! And sharing your wisdom and experience, what has served you and what you are looking for in your lives as practitioners with Wisdom.
With love,
Laura
I have been blessed in many ways by the lockdown, unlike others who have felt the icy blade severing their income, their jobs and their freedom. I have been able to use the time to write, read, research and learn. I have read books and blogs about the Wisdom Way, attended online Zoom Groups with Marcella and William Redfield. I have been able to write blogs and make connections with like-minded others through unique ways. I have an active Centering Prayer group on Zoom. My growth edge to find creative ways to bring this wonderful knowledge and experience of a deepening relationship with God, Cynthia’s teachings, William Redfield’s teachings, James Finley and Miribai Starr and many others, to this part of my world where I am a somewhat solitary member. My community needs to know this things, I am a beginner, but I can try and do what I can. I am finding my voice and surrendering my fear, taking the horse by the reins as we surge into the world of sharing, connecting and loving. I find the environment of chaos a gift from the imaginal realm that allows me to wallow with curiosity in its deep waters, not wanting answers, not resisting but surrendering to its mystery and watching with awe as day by day life unfolds. I am truly blessed.
Your words are beautiful and true. Thank you, Laura!
Represent means to re-present, to make whatever referred to be present in and through me. I have learned it is about being open and allowing rather than forcing, and it is experiential more than intellectual. An icon can be a living representation. What has happened and who has lived are irrevocably with us. Thank you.
Valuable in learning and assimilating knowledge and arriving at wisdom is to be open and trust the judgment of one’s inner self. My understanding and awareness is that the cosmos including each of us is God incarnate, and the ever cycling atoms of the cosmos congregate at times in one place more than another making the presence of God in such congregation feel more intense to us human beings.
beautiful description of energetic embodiment practice. Grounded, practical and mysterious, unknowable. I both look forward and am humbly wary of the practice. Thank you.
I so appreciate your grounded, sensory and poetic evocation of the place you write about. To answer the questions, what is arising in me is a sense of the ground leaving from under my feet. This time of apocalypse has unmoored me. Some of the institutions and communities I have been woven into over the past few decades are no longer part of my life–their response to our multiple crises is to keep doing what they have been doing, rather than daring a new path as the times sternly call for. I can’t continue with them. My church is one of these. I am feeling the aloneness that Cynthia has mentioned in some of her posts and talks in the past few months–aloneness in this time and place, but with a growing awareness of others existing on other planes that are coming in close. An awareness of “being met” when I practice centering prayer. I did not start the Gurdjieff exercises when she published them, but I am beginning them now. Deeply grateful for them, and for the wisdom community in this moment.
What has been arising in me is greater clarity as to my truth and greater courage and need to say my truth. Thus far, times of expressing my truth have gone well, that is, I have been listened to and people seem to value my truth. Thanks for asking. Here’s to greater clarity and more frequent expressing of truth.
Beautiful job Laura. You spoke many aspects of my heart experience. I am practicing Aqua Divina, prayer in my pool. I am training my new Yellow Labrador Retrievers. I’m also practicing Gurdjieff’s exercises and reading Azize’s latest book. All to stay grounded and at peace amidst a busy psychotherapy private practice.
Laura, thank you for your always illuminating and beautiful writing. You ask “Where are we? Where are you?” and the answer is “Here. Now.” Although our “heres” are many, our Now is becoming ever more One. I have found sustaining community, sangha, in reading reflections such as yours. Following the stories of our time we live in, the time that seems pressing in all around us. Not in a sense of urgency, but more as a felt connection: “You, too. Yes, I know.” We are experiencing this, together. Let us be. Now, Here.
Thanks, Bill. This is some very helpful info to consider. I did not know you were the Thorny One but will keep it in mind…
Thank you for this most beautiful offering!
Thank you. My thoughts: We never know for sure — Miraculous Being helps when we are aware of that. We do seem to need some knocking down and boiling to become servant and teacher, become what we are, become. Blessed be our awakening to the power we incarnate. Be responsive to what is happening and trust your inner voice ongoingly. Being aware and witnessing the present are powerful.
Dear Bob,
Calling the helpers around, in and through you. As my husband goes through a similar if not as intense physical experience , certainly a spiritual, psychological one, your ‘assignments” and writing become teachings, as you are servant- hopelessly and devotedly.
Thank you with a grateful heart
Bob,
It’s an honor to study this very advanced course with you. May you pass Dr. Burkitt’s class with flying colors. My presence and prayers will be with you.
God’s peace and mercy be with you,
carol
What I find critically important is your statement that “the wisdom path may prove most helpful in all of this in its deepening capacity to see the divine wholeness in all its apparent disparate parts.” What appears separate is essentially one. To live from that awareness there is no separation, racial or otherwise, and thus no fighting or violence.
Deeply grateful for your invitation, Bill, to enter more deeply and tangibly into this watershed moment in our shared history as human beings. I would like to hear more about the young Wisdom teachers in the larger community who stand poised to lead us into this work.
Would also welcome reading and focusing collectively on Resmaa Menakem’s book, My Grandmother’s Hands. I was deeply moved by his interview with Krista Tippett a couple of weeks ago as mentioned above.
Indeed, deep listening to the voices of our inner disquietude and sitting with the discomforting voices of the status quo, or the anger and dispare of the marginalized until they can be reconciled within us and transformed. We do need each other to strengthen our hearts and minds for this epic endeavor.
Thank you Bill for your thoughtful reflection. This is an important time for us all to reflect on our history, and stand side by side with our brothers and sisters of color.
Thank you Paula for sharing Resmaa Menakem’s interview with Kristen Moe. His voice is an important one to listen to. He was also interviewed on On Being. Very powerful, and also gentle in his approach.
Thank you for this!
Truly it is past time for all of us to regularly practice the Jungian-like exercise of ‘switching sides during the debate’. Having spent 30 plus years as an unhappy liberal living and raising six children in a very conservative corner of the US, this became my survival strategy.
It works.
There is much healing and flow and connection happening in the most unexpected of places.
Many of my liberal friends are now angry with me or no longer speak to me because I now ask for understanding and communication rather than judgment and anger. I have much to learn (!!). I still am me, believing in basically similar things but now trying to listen far more, and seeing it all as growth and flow.
Systemic racism is a given. This is not new.
I don’t understand why those interested in the future of Christianity and in beginning wisdom school education do not spread their nets far wider for a willing and ready audience — beyond traditionally religious streams of connection. I’m confused by the lack of discussion within meditation groups about how systemic and far reaching the issues humanity faces are. This goes far beyond the current pandemic and social unrest.
My (soft) background is in the area of environmental science; human ecology. Basically our societal structure and overshot way of living is already history. Who does not see this? Who does not see what this means?
I encourage those within wisdom schools and progressive Christian communities to reach out to those feeling broken and unsure of our way ahead. Looking for love ❤️
My six children, now grown and all so intelligent; sensitive and giving-back-to-society professionals .. they long ago gave up on the deep Episcopal steeping (compromise between Quaker mother and Catholic father) they were raised in. Most no longer view any of it as helpful in their young lives. Still, the patterns are there ..
Start with David Fuller’s ‘Rebel Wisdom’?
Jem Bendell or Charles Eisenstein?
Perhaps you within the ‘future of Christianity’ circles have already spread your nets wide and I’m simply a very gratefully included outsider, trying to fit these many pieces together .. 🙂
Thank you!
❤️
This is such a worthy article on how our racism is ‘imbedded’ in our body and how it is transferred generationally… then some techniques to ‘unearth’ it.
https://medium.com/@kristinmoe3/breaking-the-chain-healing-racial-trauma-in-the-body-af1bffd1d926
An historical, if halcyon, period during the Muslim residence in Spain that it might be profitable to examine is the 10th and 11th century period in and around Girona, in the north, when Muslims, Jews and Christians lived together in peace, harmony and mutual respect. This period of time witnessed a cross-fertilization of cultures which greatly influenced all three. If I recall correctly, it did not end until the Inquisition put an end to Inter-religious toleration.
Very excellent reflection. A tsunami of change and challenge: of Covid, racism, and climate change is rudely awakening us to examine our blind spots. Wisdom way of knowing must include social justice. Thanks for sharing your ‘inconvenient truths”
Composed May 27, 2020
We are living in unprecedented times.
Reason for concern is reason to unite “to warm the atmosphere”.
Prior to the Ying Yang post I was, seemingly out of nowhere, considering the reality of the Yin Yang symbol, and questioning the ‘necessity of darkness’ to counterbalance the light (to maintain harmony). Days later I happened upon Hellmut Wilhelm’s book CHANGE. Darkness has many connotations and not all EVIL (my current definition of evil being anything counter to life – evil spelled backwards live).
Excerpts:
page 19 – 20 To recognize that man moves and acts, that he grows and develops, this is not deep insight, but to know that this movement and development takes place in typical forms and that these are governed by the law of change, from which there is no escape, this is the knowledge that has fostered in early Chinese philosophy its gratifying integrity and lucidity.
It is not easy to present in plastic form the development that manifest itself in this way, that is inherent in all phenomena. The concept of change is not an external, normative principle that imprints itself upon phenomena; it is an inner tendency according to which development takes place naturally and spontaneously. Development is not a fate dictated from without to which one must silently submit, but rather a sign showing the direction that the decisions take. Again, development is not a moral law that one is constrained to obey; it is rather the guideline from which one can read off the events. To stand in the stream of this development is a datum of nature; to recognize it, and follow it, is responsibility and free choice.
When this idea of change is applied to the evolution of an individual man, of social groups and of the era, a series of makeshift hypotheses we have been accustomed to use in explaining events falls away. The principle implies no distinction between inside and outside, content and form. It is implanted in a man’s heart; it is active and discernible. In the same way, it is active in human groupings and in whatever is great in the era. This it not only embodies, but carries the “soul” of the group, and the “spirit” of the time. The universality of its power includes all levels in all dimensions; every seed that is planted grows and matures within its scope. (The FIE)
The movement of change thus conceived is never one-dimensional in direction. If we keep to an image, cyclic movement is the best term for it. The later commentary literature has made frequent use of this image, but the rigidity that came about because of it is alien to the book itself. The idea of a movement that returns to its starting point, however, is certainly basic. It may have been derived from the orbits of the heavily bodies or the course of the seasons. To the old Chinese, death itself meant a return. But, in such an interpretation more is implied of the idea of self-containment or wholeness than of recurrence. The notion of progress, which we have incorporated in the idea of cyclic movement by the image of the spiral, is alien to the ancient concept of change. The value judgement contained in our idea does not accord with the image made after nature. And the attempt to exalt the new at the expense of the old, the future at the expense of the past, was alien to Chinese thought. The accent lies solely on the ability to keep within the flow of change. If earlier times have been superior to us in this respect, the fact is recognized without prejudice, and the lesson is drawn that we should feel obliged to do as well as the ancients did.
The fact that the movement returns to its starting point keeps it from dispersing, which movement in one direction cannot prevent. The infinite is thus brought within the confines of the finite, where alone it can be of service to man.
Safety is the clear knowledge of the right stand to be taken, security in the assurance that events are unrolling in the right direction.
Page 21-22
We see that here the concept of change comes very close to the Taoist law of the cosmos, the tao of Lao-tse, the meaning of which is so difficult to convey in another tongue.
The Book of Changes contains the measure of heaven and earth; therefore it enables us to comprehend the tao of heaven and earth and its order…Since in this way man comes to resemble heaven and earth, he is not in conflict with them. His wisdom embraces all things, and his tao brings order into the whole world; therefore he does not err…In it are included the forms and the scope of everything in the heavens and on the earth, so that nothing escapes it. In it all things everywhere are completed, so that none is missing. Therefore, by means of it we can penetrate the tap of day and night, and so understand it. Therefore the spirit is bound to no one place, nor the Book of Changes to any one form.
…the Book of Changes derives the idea of consistency and all-inclusiveness. We see that change is at work in the great as well as in the small, that it can be read in cosmic happenings as well as in the hearts of men. From this comprehensiveness of tao, embracing both macrocosm and microcosm, the Book of Changes derives the idea that man is in the center of events; the individual who is conscious of responsibility is on par with the cosmic forces of heaven and earth. This is what is meant by the idea that change can be influenced. Here again…a passage in the Tao Te Ching containing a similar thought.
In this point of view, which accord the responsible person an influence on the course of things, change ceases to be an insidious, intangible snare and becomes an organic order corresponding to a man’s nature. No small role is thus assigned to man. Within set limits he is not merely master of his own fate, he is also in a position to intervene in the course of events considerable beyond his own sphere. But it is his task to recognize these limits and remain within them. And to further this understanding by putting the experience of olden times and its wise men at his disposal, the Book of Changes was written.
We perceive our narrow human band width of reality, and think it’s all there is. Maybe there are even additional bands. And all that is is affecting all that is, thoroughly interrelated, like it or not, choose it or not.
I believe that chastity, poverty, and obedience are in reality naturally emergent consequences as one deeply commits to the greater transcendent reality, the temenos, the holy of holy that balances, informs, guides, and illuminates the way home.
Love it… manna from heaven to earth, manna from earth to heaven… interdependent, interbeing, limitless participation. Thank you for sharing.
I believe vows like poverty, chastity, and obedience are about detachment from things, from people, and from the many voices that pull and push in various directions. Detachment frees one to abide in Being, and it promotes depth in Being rather than breadth of beings. The personal and cosmic levels are nonlocally correlated, and it’s wonderful that more people are becoming aware of that correlation and are intentionally directing their personal living to be more positively correlated to the cosmic.
I value the Taoist wisdom. What particularly caught my attention in this post is the importance of chaos — the Chinese “hundun” — in the human process. I believe confusion and chaos are very important in knocking us out of our lock step and provoking new life, growth, creativity, transformation, enlightenment. That’s what wise teachers and koans have done. I think inward focus particularly helps develop “hundun.” Thank you.
A group atmosphere is part of the planetary atmosphere, and I think they can’t not affect one another; the issue is how they affect one another. I am sure we can intentionally allow and grow healthy group atmosphere that would most healthily affect planetary atmosphere, such as through the Exercises — we sure need it.
I welcome your enthusiastic support and am happy to hear about your work.
One piece that didn’t get included in the interview is information about Zhiliang Duan, a Catholic/Taoist grandmaster who worked as a healer in Beijing through most of the 20th century. I had the opportunity to experience a couple of workshops with him here in the States. I think you’ll find him interesting if you google him.
It is in there now Allen. At least his name is included so that people can google him. Nice work Allen! I look forward to what you are offering through the class.
Great work, Allen! Tai chi is wonderful, the teachings are revelatory…I’m so happy to see this cross-fertilization. Mindful movement is an approach that my students enjoy in my high school classroom – and it worked especially well this semester during COVID-19. Wish you many blessings with this work. I did a one-week tai chi experience two summers ago. Even though I performed “poorly,” I caught the beauty and elegance of the practice, and how like Centering Prayer it can be an outstanding way to embody teachings and metaphors – a particular strength of the Chinese approach – into one’s daily life: https://martinschmidtinasia.wordpress.com/2018/08/03/descent-from-mind-to-body-a-journey-into-bodily-intelligence-in-a-week-of-tai-chi/
I’m a newbie here… in the 11th week of Cynthia’s Intro Wisdom School right now… found myself here after searching for more about De Chardin’s Mass on the World.
I’ve been part of the Santa Barbara Conscious Evolution community initiated by Barbara Marx Hubbard around the turn of the millenia. About 100 of us met for about 7 years, in small circles, ‘gatherings of the whole’ and retreats… We called our ‘atmosphere’ the ‘resonant field’ and even still, when we reunite as ‘two or more,’ we can feel it as a palpable surround.
I’m so appreciative of your and Gurdjieff’s context, Cynthia, for many of us became part of a diaspora … we literally dispersed into our own projects and locations, or I might say now into ‘non-localized action’ that still seems very interconnected and coordinated!
In reading your post, I reflect that I have been part of the cohesion of a group working together with a common aim, such as being part of a choir, and I experienced great joy. And I’ve been part of a group during a time of no aim or goal and simply together in the present, attending to process, being and becoming, and the experience was profound and transformative. I think such experiences relate to that of which you speak.
Thank you, Cynthia! I am starting late on these teachings and going slowly. I find I need several days to digest each – then keep going back over them. They are so rich! One thing I’ve struggled with is the concept of “intentional suffering.” Can you give me an example of how that might materialize in ones experience. I’m thinking it may be like my experience of the struggle I have with alcohol – the pull between desires. It’s spoken to me deeply. But maybe I’m simplifying his meaning. ??
There have been a handful of times in the 40+ years of my practice that I think I have been in the state you describe — when I was in a state of presence, with profound connection with myself and those I was with, in a state of intimacy with being, a state of peace and joy, with a sense of being not of this world and a little removed from it, a state in which I felt I was two feet above the floor, with a sense of strength, capability, and self-confidence way above my norm, a state of being in love with being. Those few times remain a source of strength and motivation within me. They keep me going. I don’t know how to directly make that state happen, but I know it is related to and a by product of being in the present, being immersed in the process and totally without goal or agenda, a sort of riding the wave, and being wide open, honest, and unselfconscious. Such few and special experiences had nothing to do with religion in the usual sense and everything to do with religion in the unusual sense of connection, wholeness and oneness.
I am deeply thankful. Joan
I need you most to be in meditation and silence holding the place between this unsettling world and the imaginal. Thank you
Cynthia, I respect your candid wishes. We all have to find our place in the way forward. Thank you for affirming that. I am doing so as a parish priest and it won’t necessarily look like what you or other priests are doing. I’m claiming my ground to stand upon as well.
I am slowly moving with Zoom and refraining from creating Facebook Live and YouTube videos for worship. I am only using Zoom for meetings and crucial gatherings which would otherwise be inaccessible to me. And I am only creating audio podcasts for my parish along with writing and sharing.
My concern about the video technology is not about being further situated in privilege. All of us wisdom school participants are already an exceedingly privileged sort–highly educated, highly reflective, mostly very white, and often of considerable means. And my concern is not “inflaming the planetary atmosphere and contributing to spread of the virus” which, forgive me, I still find incomprehensible in the midst of an otherwise superabundance of crucially important guidance and teaching.
My concern is that these video technologies, to the extent they become so quickly “normal”, carry with them unexamined weight–the preoccupation and distraction of seeing ourselves on screen, with often full-frame faces and extraneous details, and an unintentional anti-sacramentality of absence when trying to do worship mostly alone in a church setting.
So the best I can live into these days is the sacramentality of the voice that frees the eyes from a screen. But I also realize other faithful folk are trying and doing good things with video. We are all doing the best we can and good is being done even through media I do not myself choose to create. I do hope to be able to livestream services for the homebound when we do have congregations again somehow and sometime–that makes more sense to me.
I look forward to your continuing deep seeing and sharing which has so changed my life and given me hope as a Christian and a priest. Thank you for following your calling. Blessings.
Thank you for your commentaries. Thoughts triggered in me: The source of my attention is consciousness of which attention is an aspect. Consciousness is my essence or real self. I think the closer I stay to the consciousness that is my essence, the closer to the truth I am.
Thoughts triggered in me in reading the gift of your message: The soul incarnates in human form, and remains the essence of the person. It seems to me the soul has a body, not the body that has a soul. The soul extends eternally, though probably only humanly detectable at this time as an energy field extending a few feet around the physical body. What appears to be a cacophony of souls especially in close range is one Soul. Each person is within his or her atmosphere while being part of the cosmos.
I was so excited to see this “Pandemic Homework.” Alas, like many, I no longer have a job and the cost of this book is prohibitive and gives it the sense of being “exclusive,” which is unfortunate and disappointing.
This is very good and there are different names for behaving in this manner. The act of mindfulness, responding versus reacting, and maintaining bearing. It is simple but not easy without practice. I taught mindfulness to my fourth graders and believe that if we raise children to acquire equanimity, the world could be changed. A big if, to be sure. Thank you, Cynthia.
“This will be the paddock where we contain the wild horse of our thoughts, emotions, and impulses until the whole thing comes quietly into a wordless equanimity”.
The above excerpt reminds me that James Finley once told a story about a young monk raising a water buffalo. He told the story with such inventiveness and humor that it stuck with me. So much so, that over the years I have seen much of my own behavior as that of an immature water buffalo. Hopefully my water buffalo is beginning to stay within its boundaries. Equanimity is a wonderful word for it.
Thank you Cynthia. These blogs are like food for me. Especially as I work with the practices.
Beautiful piece. Thank you!
Confused about our role.
In a spiritually evolving world, are we in these lower energy bodies to be energetic bridges, anchoring sources that willingly surrender and attune to the flow of the divine creative force to increase its presence here, or are we active participants in the dream? I’m thinking, hoping it begins with the first, which after much refining work flows into the second .. Or is this glamour or illusion?
Somehow our purpose must extend beyond this difficult work of active surrender and energy refinement into creative participation in the evolving divine dance … ?
I have much to learn.
That will be the subject of my forthcoming book, EYE OF THE HEART, due out from Shambhala in early September. Basically, it’s both. In a forthcoming commentary on the Gurdjieff WEB exercise (specifically, in the concluding installment of my six posts on this exercise), I will fill in the pieces a bit further-0-not as much as in the book, but a trailer. Stay tuned! It should be up by sometime the week after next, I would guess. Blessings and thank you for your kind comments.
so true and helpful on so many levels : “when I say “I”, something inside me stands up, when I say “AM” something inside me sits down.” This is the dance of intellect, emotional center and body that literally makes the world go ’round. I also love the link to this practice and the health, or balance, of the entire planet / universe…. evolution as a participatory process where we of conscious choice can use our free will to be with that which is real. thank you for sharing this… I will be unwrapping it for a long time.
Cynthia,
Thank you so much for your guidance in how we, as individuals, can feel as if we are doing something of benefit to the whole (not to mention giving me a focus/task to keep me sane and productive during this difficult time). The selfless sharing and encouragement you have given to us all on the Wisdom path is sincerely appreciated. Joseph Azize’s book and you “fleshing out the information” has allowed me to understand Gurdjieff in a whole new way, or actually, on a whole new level. Namaste, my cherished teacher. Love and Light be with you always.
By the way, I do not think the virus theory is voodoo either; as Shakespeare said, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” We are mere babes in our understanding of the universe.
In recent weeks I’ve been heavily considering how I ingest my food (when I remember to). When consuming solid food, I invariably hear the inner voice iterating “this is my body”; with liquids, “this is my blood”. Most certainly related to the “stirrings” building up, to, and including, Holy Week. This week my attention turned to the breath; associating with it, the Holy Spirit. I sense that somehow the breath is related to the breadth in the biblical passage below. Breadth, a dimension beyond the physical x,y,z axes of “form” defined by length, and depth, and height). Rashad Feild was scientifically exploring the moisture laden qualities of the breath, as being qualitatively more. Have you any insights into this?
Ephesians 3:18
15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 17That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 20Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
Thank you Anne. I am going back through Cynthia’s blogs on The Exercises to prepare for our Group Wisdom Study tonight and I find the Ephesians passage very helpful. We are enjoying the metaphor of a puzzle in our study…each piece essential to the whole…this was a “connecting” piece.
Beautiful Paula. Many a morning I wake to the vague remembrance of this incredulousness pandemic; and gently remind myself, it’s ‘real’. The quality of my awaking so dependent on how whole and intact I emerge from the dreamscape, or journey back from ‘only God knows where.’ This morning I woke with the simple unitive chant streaming from within, “everyone is my brother, everyone is my lover”. A total occultation of all else. A pure overflowing heart felt presence emanating beams of love.
Thank you for your lovely thoughts, Anne. Every blessing to you.
Thank you for what you post. It is stimulating. My understanding is that each of us is finite and infinite, temporal and timeless, dual and nondual. The Divine Unmanifest manifests in form. Each individual is a locus of the manifestation of God. Creation is God incarnate.
Thank you Cynthia, for this latest blog.
I look forward to more understanding of the joining of “Lord Have Mercy” and “I am”, as I have had two experiences in the imaginational realm that now seem to be related to each other and also to these sacred phrases. As my understanding grows my hope is to learn to live them more fully. One of them took place a few days after the Fall teaching at Halleluyah Farm.
Blessings, Lawrie
Thank you Cynthia. As I take a deep breath, and after intense consideration, my book is ordered; I feel drawn to this participation wherever it leads.
An experience came to me while practicing attention with the body rotation last week. Maybe others have had similar occurrences. With my body fully on line I felt a deep urge to pray. I felt it was for more than one being. I sat and waited for guidance simply sending love where it was needed. Soon I started sensing constriction in my chest and difficult breathing. I put my attention back in my whole body and sensed a flow coming up from the earth and also light coming from above. As these energies met in my chest area they seemed to create a vast space so that the breath came easily and fully, even more fully than before this began. I simply closed with a prayer of gratitude for what felt like answered prayer. Bill Redfield has talked about conscious suffering in our Lenten retreat. Maybe that’s what I experienced. I’ve had similar experiences relating to healing prayer but this was a first because I didn’t set out to pray at all.
Whatever this is, I’m feeling strongly led to more actively and deeply work with attention and three centered awareness.
Eagerly awaiting your continued commentaries. They are very helpful in keeping a healthy perspective.
Thank you for your posts. In the 60’s, we used to say get out of your head and into your senses. One’s head is a valuable servant and a terrible master. Also, we are part of that relational field, the mercy of God. Lastly, it’s interesting that for Gurdjieff, Jesus is one of the highest attained sacred individuals and not an ontological singularity.
Thanks Cynthia! I have been working with this practice since Fr Azize graciously made it available. As you mentioned, the minds persistent cleverness in stealing the energy during the process is astounding! I have found that my experience of this seems to come in the form of tension especially during the open-eyes piece of the exercise. One example of this tension is when the “head” cannot feel the sensation in one of the body parts in the rotation. I sense that this is the head space trying to take the lead and, when I experience this, if I can relax in an engaged trust of rhythm flowing from within the movement itself it seems to manifest as an allowance of gravity that is fully charged with a strange de-associated (for lack of a better word) and enlivened confrontation (I believe Azize uses that word) with HOW I “normally” take in impressions and a transformative sensation. One lesson for me is that “I” can not force a sensation and when “I” try to do so all the centers are not online and integrating the receiving. It seems that Clear impressions rely on integration And almost “trusting” the wholeness that the centers transmit together. I wonder how others are experiencing this practice.
This work feels similar to one I created on my own, a hybrid of many. Remembering Merton’s account of gazing at red carnations and The Secret Life of Plants, in the spring and summer, my early morning routine is to sit on my patio and take in my yard and especially the hybrid tea roses right at the patio. My gazing starts with the blooms and then opens peripherally, sensing where in my body I notice a different energy from different visual and audible sensations. I combine this with Sardello’s heartfulness practice that is aware of head to the heart and limbs. I simply let this all flow with the main effort being in sensing, not thinking. I’ve done this inside but spring allows me extra joy outside. Clear Impressions is adding depth and solidity to what I was already doing and muscle memory for life “off the mat.” Thank you for making it available.
Wisdom from the Inside and the Insight
Thank you,
Rose
absolutely love this ‘counter-intuitive’ advice, Cynthia. Thanks so much for sending this message to my heart space I am making my intention now to continue to pay more attention to it.
much love and blessings to you and all who enter here (:
Marcia, my book hasn’t arrived yet, but here are the page numbers for the first four exercises that Cynthia recommended as Pandemic Homework:
“Make Strong” (pp. 178-82)
“Four Ideals” (pp. 231-240)
“Lord have Mercy” (pp. 241-251)
“Clear Impressions” (pp. 261-269)
and the fifth is the “Atmosphere” exercise in chapter 11, 11.6.
With love, Laura
Thank you for the question. Thank You for the answer. With gratitude l begin to see how it works.
i leave that to your own conscious discernment, Bill. This is the present window of opportunity for taking this CAC course, and it’s certainly a useful building block both in terms of exploring conceptual framework and deepening the practice. On the other hand, I have already made the case as to why a little less internet learning and a little more unplugging and listening within might actually be more in service of planetary healing just now. Put my money where my mouth is, eh? At any rate, I would say let your heart lead you to the path where right now you feel you can be of most service.
Yes, me too. <3
I’m in. Do I take the Divine Exchange course or what? U lead, I’ll follow.
You’re welcome Cynthia. Thank you for intuiting and shedding light on this profoundly important issue. Caritas.
I don’t see a link for access to Joseph Azize’s five of Gurdjieff exercises which were made available to the Wisdom School Community. I do have his book, Gurdjieff: Mysticism, Contemplation, and Exercises, on Kindle but to specifically find the exercises is difficult in the extensive text.
Stay Well,
Marcia
My understanding is that contemplation is thoughtful attention, reflection, consideration. Transformed contemplation is contemplation beyond just this world contemplation and into unitive contemplation. It’s contemplation of all that is being God incarnate or God in consciousness.
thanks for this valuable link, Anne. looks impressive.
A followup to the Ask Cynthia question –
How do we best thwart this (5G) deployment in the heavens above and on earth?
“If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.” ~ St. Francis
>Concerned scientists all over the world are testifying to the ubiquitous dangers of 3G, 4G, and 5G EMF’s (Electromagnetic Frequencies), based on hard science. It is also important to consider, the absence of science does not make something safe (The tobacco industry to cite one of many egregious examples). The “Precautionary Principle” is apropos.
https://the5gsummit.com
Free access for 7 days to the expert testimony (“new age” and legal commentaries aside).
Love “raised cyber-eyebrows” – looking forward to that post. Trying to maintain neutral eyebrows, open eye.
thank you, Shelly. Not only did you dig out that comment I’d discreetly buried, but by making the connection with Teilhard, you have brought it brilliantly forward in a sacramental and paschal context Namaste! This is Wisdom work at its finest.
Intrigued and encouraged by the mention of being called to the “front lines” for indeed, our “social distancing” does favor the economically advantaged.
Teilhard was in the trenches of WW1 from 1914-1919, while the Spanish flu pandemic was sweeping the world. Speaking of the front, …”the front cannot but attract us because it is, in one way, the extreme boundary between what one is already aware of, and what is still in process of formation. Not only does one see there things that you experience nowhere else, but one also sees emerge from within one an underlying stream of clarity, energy, and freedom that is to be found hardly anywhere else in ordinary life-and the new form that the soul then takes on is that of the individual living the quasi-collective life of all men, fulfilling a function far higher than the of the individual and becoming fully conscious of this new state.” (The Making of the Mind, p. 205.)
Teilhard’s time on the Front illuminates the invitation to “re-establish actual physical links in the human chain” as this current pandemic plays itself out. His boldness, courage and humility continue deeply sustaining in this Moment.
Peace be with you, Cynthia.
Hi, Cynthia:
Do you have any pointers to the scientific evidence for cell towers and satellites being involved in the direct transmission of the virus? As an ex-biologist, I’m having trouble with that …
Also, do you not think that the South Korea situation is evidence that social distancing can “flatten the curve?”
As usual, y0ur refections are challenging and very timely, and I am grateful for your unique vision.
Thanks,
Lee (Rick) Olson
Living School, 2017 cohort
Hi Cynthia,
I’m with Rick on this one. I am such an admirer of you and yet, the parts about old conspiracy theories regarding 5G networks and the statements that flattening the curve won’t work have been around for ages and have been entirely debunked. Can you assist us on those parts…in terms of where you are drawing your information from? I would hate for people to not do their part in social distancing because they feel it won’t help anyway.
Love,
Maria
The poets, of course, are on the front line of awakening us to what the evolutionary impulse is asking of us…(Clare Dubois, founder of Tree Sisters, just posted these eye and heart opening verses in her blog.) Thank you Cynthia for putting your hermetic ears/soul to the ground for all of us.
‘…….Ensure the shelves of your heart never fall bare,
That your soul seeds new sprouts
And the wings of your imagination
Refuse containment.
May you realize what matters, who matters,
The rock that you can be,
When the world is shaking.
Stockpile only what is limitless,
And can be shared with all.’
–Excerpt from The Appropriate Response by Mary Reynolds Thompson
~ Here is Kristins Flyntz’s gift: An Imagined Letter from Covid-19 to Humans.
Stop. Just stop.
It is no longer a request. It is a mandate.
We will help you.
We will bring the supersonic, high speed merry-go-round to a halt.
We will stop
the planes
the trains
the schools
the malls
the meetings
the frenetic, furied rush of illusions and “obligations” that keep you from hearing our
single and shared beating heart,
the way we breathe together, in unison.
Our obligation is to each other,
As it has always been, even if, even though, you have forgotten.
We will interrupt this broadcast, the endless cacophonous broadcast of divisions and distractions,
to bring you this long-breaking news:
We are not well
None of us; all of us are suffering.
Last year, the firestorms that scorched the lungs of the Earth
did not give you pause.
Nor the typhoons in Africa,China, Japan.
Nor the fevered climates in Japan and India.
You have not been listening.
It is hard to listen when you are so busy all the time, hustling to uphold the comforts and conveniences that scaffold your lives.
But the foundation is giving way,
buckling under the weight of your needs and desires.
We will help you.
We will bring the firestorms to your body
We will bring the fever to your body
We will bring the burning, searing, and flooding to your lungs
that you might hear:
We are not well.
Despite what you might think or feel, we are not the enemy.
We are Messenger. We are Ally. We are a balancing force.
We are asking you:
To stop, to be still, to listen;
To move beyond your individual concerns and consider the concerns of all;
To be with your ignorance, to find your humility, to relinquish your thinking minds and travel deep into the mind of the heart;
To look up into the sky, streaked with fewer planes, and see it, to notice its condition: clear, smoky, smoggy, rainy? How much do you need it to be healthy so that you may also be healthy?
To look at a tree, and see it, to notice its condition: how does its health contribute to the health of the sky, to the air you need to be healthy?
To visit a river, and see it, to notice its condition: clear, clean, murky, polluted? How much do you need it to be healthy so that you may also be healthy? How does its health contribute to the health of the tree, who contributes to the health of the sky, so that you may also be healthy?
Many are afraid now.
Do not demonize your fear, and also, do not let it rule you. Instead, let it speak to you—in your stillness,
listen for its wisdom.
What might it be telling you about what is at work, at issue, at risk, beyond the threats of personal inconvenience and illness?
As the health of a tree, a river, the sky tells you about quality of your own health, what might the quality of your health tell you about the health of the rivers, the trees, the sky, and all of us who share this planet with you?
Stop.
Notice if you are resisting.
Notice what you are resisting.
Ask why.
Stop. Just stop.
Be still.
Listen.
Ask us what we might teach you about illness and healing, about what might be required so that all may be well.
We will help you, if you listen.
thank you for sharing….
Blessings on you and your hermitage during this shifting time, and thank you for your wisdom. “The cell will teach you all things.”
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
Cynthia — Thank you for sharing your thoughts from Eagle Island. It sounds to me that where you are (more ways than one) is wonderful. What you wrote triggers thoughts. For example, that the earth is inflamed and this pandemic is “an ecological cleansing” greatly the result of us — I sure agree. Fifty years ago, Sydney Jourard made the extreme statement that every illness is a protest against a way of life that isn’t working. I think there is much truth in what he said. I think we and earth make an effort to get well. You speak of what we can do. I think a major thing we can do is embrace unitive thinking, as you have long supported, and leave behind dualistic thinking and living. We can realize that we are one and not separate, we are us and not us vs them or us vs nature. We can be compassionate and build bridges and work together rather than be greedy and build walls and fight. We can realize that what we do to this planet we do to ourselves. I don’t find “terror” of or in the present — I find surprise, aliveness, and creativity in the present. Wishing you a continuing holy time on Eagle Island.
thank you, Cynthia, for this. I have been hearing similar message from other wisdom teachers, including indigenous shamans. Our Mother Earth will survive; it is humans who will suffer the toll of this virus. I hope more and more of us will take the time to go within and listen to the deeper lessons of this pandemic. BTW, I’d like to share this on my own blog.
Peace and all good,
Pauline (one of your LS students, cohort 2019)
go for it, Pauline. with my gratitude. cynthia
Yes
beautiful… thank you…. deeper….
We are ONE
Amma C
my dear teacher,
i remember just a handful of things you had said during your last visit to the Festival of Fates here in my certified compassionate home field. (the rest of what you said is still in the process of coming to the surface.)
speaking as a Louisville grows citizen gardener (purple shirt and everything), wouldn’t you agree that truly the pot in which our contemplative prayer most flourishes is the “terra cotta” of self-forgetfulness? perhaps the only good pot for this sort of annihilation/full surrender! hardy-har-har.
but rather than get into that little controversial subject, allow my wife Annie and I to join with Pat McCabe and humbly say “we are with you” in whatever direction you choose to address the crowd from.
you know i love you.
Beloved Cynthia,
I’m so glad to see you are safely on Eagle Island. Thank you for using your broad communications to share the reality of what is actually transpiring with all those “who have ears to hear.” We join you at 24.3 and broadcast the power of Love as bioresonant entrainment. We begin the creation of heaven on earth following the path of the Christ. Be Well!
Interesting what you said, Cynthia, about internet technology intensifying the electromagnetic inflammation of the planetary atmosphere and driving the contagion. Would you say more about that such as how that happens or any elaboration you might offer?
Thank you. I was already looking at it after reading the article yesterday. I just hurdled over the price tag and the April 21 delivery date from the UK – with the Kindle version. I am slow with the exercises so will start this afternoon.
It would be great if all the people scheduled to come to Valle Crucis and/or Stonington could start now with the exercises. These are important encounters and we should arrive prepared.
agreed, Angel. What a great idea! I am already working with about five friends in this way: two of them on the ground in the UK, the others here. Maybe more could follow….
Thank you Cynthia. Is there any other way to access the book material you speak of? The cost for the kindle version of his book is $97 (!!) and the hard cover is around the same price(in Canada and the US)
Hello Heather.
I understand the dilemma regarding the price as these are and will continue to be difficult times for most of us. As we are all walking on this Wisdom journey together, if you would like the Gurdjieff book that Cynthia has assigned as homework (which, by the way, is a wonderful idea) I would like to purchase it and have Oxford University Press ship it to you directly. Please let me know.
Hi Cheryl,
Thank you for your generosity, I’m just so touched by your offer, I’m rather stunned! I see from an email I just received that in collaboration with the school, Joseph Azize has made these exercises available to us. I haven’t looked closer yet since I just received the email this morning. I will look more closely and if there is no other way to receive these teachings, I will certainly accept your offer. My friend and I are taking Cynthia’s online wisdom school and we would both benefit from your generosity. Thank you again Heather
Hi Heather,
I am just happy to be able to help; especially as I feel this Wisdom is necessary for as many of us as possible, now more than ever. I took the Introductory Wisdom School course (though a few years ago and through Wisdom Way of Knowing) and was blown-away. It was an ah-ha moment in my life when all my previous searching came together and revealed my missing “key” to be in the lack of involvement of my heart. With a strong science/medical background leading to the Hermetic/Alchemy path, I have mostly lived in my head. Cynthia’s teachings have been instrumental in bringing the heart back into my quest. I am registered for the second Wisdom course, the Divine Exchange, through CAC in May and am extremely excited as I have been eagerly awaiting the chance to go further with her teachings! Best wishes for you and please let me know if I can help.
May Love and Light envelop all creatures of the universe in comfort
As we are all One,
Cheryl
My recurrent prayer is “turn then most gracious advocate thine eyes of mercy towards us.”
The emergence of a truly transformed humanity is under way and going through birth pains. Now is the time to rise as spiritual mid-wives.
Dear Susan Cooper,
I would be very happy if it is possible for you to help me with a link or reference to the image of the “feet of wisdom”
Bedst regards and Thank you!
Cool, Cynthia Bourgeault. “Imaginal reality” calls to me in the flash of my dog’s eye as she quivered with excitement before a run in days long gone. In a man’s eye as he came to trust in hope that he could resist through 12 steps the cravings of his addiction, it sparks. In the joy of letting go in a short free fall over a cliff while safely belayed, or in the burning flush of tears and collapse after taking the body and blood in a mariachi mass in the incense of a Cuernavaca cathedral by loving invitation, we know of of it. Tell us more.
Thank you, Cynthia, for your teachings and your conscious service. We read the eight parts aloud, as Lectio readings. Absorbing the words, containing them, allowing them to blossom however and whenever they will. I have reached a place on this path where the need for understanding has been greatly quieted. Many pieces of the Whole have landed in a place beyond understanding. Keeping my inner receiver tuned to the Resonance Channel carries me forward.
Separation is apparent and not real. Differentiation is real and often not apparent. The West is built on separation though there is no separation and all is one. All is one, and the one is God. I think children, for maybe the first 18 months, live in oneness consciousness, and we lose it as we get conditioned and indoctrinated to see separation as we get older. Closeness to babies, which mothers get to have first and most while fathers get much less, is so wonderful and therapeutic because it is closeness with oneness and God. I believe Jesus had and abided in that oneness consciousness, maybe to a greater degree than anyone else. I believe he (like some others most notably Buddha) wanted us to have that consciousness and live a Way that gets us there, but instead we separated Jesus from us and made him an object of worship.
So when it is said, “God is in me but I am not God.” and “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” — is this still panentheism or pointing to the cosmotheandric way?
Another wonderful explication Cynthia! Your excellent writing brings into focus spiritual truths in a way the average Christian can understand. As a heart sister who also has spent decades focused on these very topics, may I invite you to reconsider your statement of the heart as NOT the the seat of emotions, but rather the organ of spiritual perception. If you step beyond the either/or framework into the both/and perception of heart mind it is more accurate to say the heart is BOTH the seat of emotion AND the organ of spiritual perception. Emotion has been so misunderstood in our culture that we often fail to appreciate its importance. E-motion understood as our sensory perception of life energy movement clarifies it’s actual function. It is with the heart’s frequency perception that we experience and calibrate our life energy to synchronize the dimensions of our being into coherent wholeness, which then feels to us as peace. Thank you so much for wrestling with these things in theological terms to make them available within the context of Christianity.
The mind is an expression of total mind, total mind is an expression of heart, heart is an expression of Heart. Human consciousness is an expression of Supreme Consciousness. Human being is an expression of Divine Being. I am is an expression of I Am who I Am.
I am registered for the upcoming online wisdom school into. Reading the posts and impressions of the teaching assistants has inspired and enlightened me and I am excited about starting the course in March.
I love this! I’ve only just seen it imagined as the vesica piscus or mandorla, but this brings out much more of the complexity.
Question: I’m reading Thandeka’s “Love Beyond Belief” and thinking about her thesis that religions get started when someone has an experience of the transcendent and wants to help others have the same experience, but somehow people miss the point and think that the guidance offered is not merely suggestions but actual rules/the one true path. So everything gets codified and rigid. Would you place “organized religion” in the material realm? As “ideas clothed in material form,” perhaps?
Einstein said energy is matter. It’s not that energy is imminent or transcendent to matter, not that energy permeates matter, but energy is matter. Likewise, God is every where and every thing, not above them, not inside or outside them, not captured in them or revealed in them, but is them. As matter is energy materialized, physical reality is God physicalized, or God incarnate.
I have deeply immersed my life into the spiritual realm of the mystic and everyday I am reading, lest I g and writing. The material in the online wisdom school was dense, but life changing. I would however really appreciate an opportunity to be able to go through the videos again. Can you tell me if these are available anywhere?
Jesus apparently is the first in the West who is known to have fully attained nondual consciousness. Many in the East attained nondual consciousness even long before Jesus. It is ironic that the Western institution that developed in Jesus’ name, that is, Christianity, supposedly worships Jesus while being ignorant of the nondual consciousness he attained and pointed to, and there are people and institutions of the East that don’t worship Jesus but do embrace the nondual consciousness that he attained.
As I read your post on “Consciousness” I was reminded of a book that put words to my struggling faith years ago called:
The Critical Journey: Stages in the Life of Faith by Janet Hagberg. Perhaps it could even have been called Stages in the Life of Consciousness.
In it she shares the six stages of faith with hitting the wall slicing between stage 4 and stage 5
Stage 1: The recognition of God
Stage 2. The life of discipleship
Stage 3. The productive life
Stage 4. The journey inward
The wall
Stage 5. The journey outward
Stage 6. The life of love
I remember being in stages 1 2 and 3 with the certainty of my beliefs, belonging to my tribe and seeking to live it out by sharing how others could join my tribe. When I hit the wall in my life – suffering through an identity crisis as well as opening my heart to past childhood trauma my clear and dogmatic beliefs began to shift and evolve. God began to crack open my heart center. As I was moving on my journey and gradually Awakening to new depths and heights it was not necessarily welcome by my tribe as they saw me potentially falling from grace. The church is a big tent but in the Evangelical tradition where I spent a good many years I would say most of these churches are best at working with people in stages 1 through 3 because as an organization they have not gone beyond stage 3. So when individuals move beyond stage 3 and begin to question and doubt and struggle it can cause ripples in both an individual’s life as well as the church’s life.
As consciousness grows and expands upon our planet my prayer is that God will raise up new forms, organizations, and structures that can hold this expanding consciousness. I believe your work Cynthia is one such model with the Wisdom Schools and I rejoice in it!
Two pots cannot occupy the same place; but two fragrancies can.
Joshua, in reading this precious story, I find myself gently crying. For what I do not know.
Perhaps for the gift of feeling included as you described this process step by step.
Oh how glorious to see…
Problem is, this rendition is still dual. The Western mind clings to dualism. All creation really is a single unified field. All that is really is God incarnate. I certainly believe that Jesus was a monotheist.
Thank you Susan for expressing so beautifully what I and many others experienced during those special 14 weeks at the end of 2019. Technology made it possible for me to sit in my little study and listen to Cynthia’s amazing teachings and feel part of a wider Wisdom community no matter if I am thousands of kilometers away. I am most thankful!
It feels like that consciously or unconsciously the creative powers of God flow through us. When unconscious we are not aligned with the unconditional Love of Father/Mother/Son and fear is our semi-constant companion…and scapegoats (other people, addictions) are often our choice.
This Unified Field of Love that we all abide in yearns to become KNOWN. We are each that hidden treasure.
Thank you for being our teacher Cynthia and giving us a glimpse of the treasure that all are/is. May 2020 be the tipping point in Human Awareness of The Oneness.
Dynamism as the key acknowledges that the hallmark of life is movement. Dimensionally dualism is 2D vision; static, either/or, non-movement. Non-dual is 3D vision; it recognizes oscillatory movement, both/and halves of a complete cycle of horizontal movement. Unitive vision is 4D and adds time with the addition of forward and backward motion. The law of three expands to 5D as co-creative vision when the addition of the third from another angle creates the new–the 4th in a new dimension.
Western theologians just don’t let go of dualism. Imminent, panentheism, cosmotheandric — there is so much contortion to hold on to a dualistic theology. Saying that God is in everyone and is everywhere is still dualism.
to do today …
get a grip on the meaning of pantheism and panentheism
and
continue with the second pass over the advent retreat – the suggested meditation
‘I’ve Got You’
Reflection …
My heart knows something deeper/beyond these terms.
A Higher order is guiding.
Cynthia, I am looking forward to your teaching in these post.
Thank You
Hi Cynthia,
We appreciate the Lectio-sized portions of your essay. Very good for reading aloud! Although we couldn’t stop the intellect from looking up Panentheism, comparing it to Pantheism, and so forth, our hearts called us back to the resonance of your words. That resonance found voice as “it’s all the heart of God,” and “our Wisdom practice is relationship with God within us.”
In gratitude,
Bill and Sarah
Jon, this sounds like a beautiful on-the-spot illumination of the heart, demonstrating exactly how–as C.G. Jung once observed–“Bidden or Unbidden, God shows up.” Shows up wielding the light of Christ, which is then illuminated in EVERY heart, increasing the manifest presence in this poor shattered world of unifying love. Thank you.
asking 1.
Grant me eyes
to see
through
the veil of illusion
God present
in all things
without exclusion.
— Matthew Mumber
How can the light be in everyone? How can God be in everyone? How can God be in Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jews, Atheists? They don’t have Jesus. They don’t have the Holy Spirit living within them. They have not asked Jesus to come into their life as Lord and Savior. Thank God my heart has been cracked open and awakened!! My arrogance, my blindness has been shattered and there is no turning back. May the light of God continue to shine bright in my brothers and sisters in every faith tradition walking the face of our beautiful and hurting earth!!
Maybe you are or maybe you’re not aware that your question arises from the tacit imperialistic – not christian – mindset of western culture. You know what’s true, and others without your persuasion do not, seems to be you underlying position. If you were to open your mind to other cultures and traditions, your question might evaporate.
This concept of the imaginal enlivens me with it’s possibilities and I now equate it with the Kingdom of God as I read scripture. I see faith in Jesus as a key to this imaginal realm. I look forward to your visit to South Africa Cynthia and encourage you to complete this important book. Dawn Geiges.
Is this what wants to be remembered now…..that as Jesus (Christ) was truly one with the Father he was able to be truly one with the Mother (Mary, Mary Magdalene)? The Divine Mother (the flowing, rhythmic, changing, & loving evolutionary impulse of the universe) in concert with the Divine Father is Heaven on Earth. Being Single. Divine Birth.
A Kundalini Yoga instructor described it this way…
I Am + I Am Feeling
What a beautiful reflection. Thank you all for putting the experience of this wisdom school into words and sharing the way the Gurdjieff movements are part of understanding with our three centers what it is to be the collective whole.
Is there any way to know how many are on the wait list for the Imaginal School in March 2020 at this time? Hoping to be able to come.
You can contact robbin@wayofwisdomknowing.com for more information. Hope that helps.
I am Grateful, We are To Care for our Created beings and works of His Hands who formed and fashioned our Existence, Love and Thankful to Our Creator . We are practicing mindfulness and understanding. What you ask of me , I shall abide in Your Love. Jesus Christ my Redeemer in your name and in your praise I pray this prayer unto thee. Also to your faithful elect , those whom have believed and trusted and are with you as members to say Thank you for the work in Building my Father’s Kingdom. For your letters of encouragement. I’m delighted to know that God’s Will Be Done.To His appointed time and plan. Thank You for the opportunity to know of your Greatness. I Love You Always
Have you thought of doing a study group on The Meaning of Death like you did with Bruno Barnhart’s book? I would love to take part of that.
Dear Dianne, I have been thinking about how we might work with Mystery of Death myself, so thank you for your comment. I think it deserves some thought, about how we might take it up in a meaningful way. Another wonderfully rich and in some ways difficult text! And one that I find speaks to the heart of Wisdom in such a profound way. It moved me very much to work with Boros, and I think we may be able to support some great work, with some careful thought. We keep growing, and learning, and challenges like these are just what we are wanting to explore. Keep on letting us know what is coming up for you! With love, L
aura
I am also interested and have started reading The Grace in Dying by Kathleen Singh. Very helpful- it’s lije having an elder.
I would so love this ! ( Study group on the meaning of death, explori g the depths of Barnhart’s book.
– Cynthia Popelka
I would be interested in participating in this book study. Additionally, the Kathleen Norris Singh book is wonderful, and reading it with a group would be an attractive prospect.
I’m struck once again by the extent to which Northeast Wisdom School appears to be a genuinely ecumenical effort, as certainly Fr. Keating’s and Richard Rohr’s are. Perhaps the rediscovery of sophia perennis, contemplative life and centering prayer might help mightily in overcoming sectarian peculiarities? That would be amazing, a huge work of the Holy Spirit.
I, too, would like to have the option to print the pages without the images. Hoping this can be possible.
Seek and you will find more than you can possibly imagine.
Sharon
Thanks for sharing this!
Love – the Rumi poem, and meditation practice.
I’m not sure how I missed this when it was first posted. These are extraordinary and inspired stories that are also beautifully written. I hope to meet you and look forward to your future contributions to the wisdom community.
Josh, thanks so much for sharing this wisdom, which I personally find so resonant. The ‘feeling’ of homelessness and the sense of the home-ness as the source of that ‘feeling’ has been with me for quite a while. Your experiential piece for me has made the question even bigger and more whole. Specifically with how it relates to the “source of all Mercy.” As you say, “The trauma of separation (in whatever form that takes – mine) ceases to exist when we discover that we are homed, perfectly by the Source of all that Is and that this has been true all along: without condition” And what a profound commentary on two pieces of Luke – the Beatitudes and Home(less)Ness LK 6:20 “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” and LK 9: 58 – “Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to rest.” The sense that our shared inner sense of poverty (restlessness) IS the spontaneous activation of the Source of Mercy is real and urgent! Namaste!
I viewed (“view” does not do justice, maybe “divid in to”) the first session last night, and it was incredibly moving and thought provoking. I look forward to viewing (and participating from afar) in the other sessions. Thank you so much for sharing these!
I feel personally privileged and honored to have access to this sacred celebration of the life of Thomas Keating. Thank you so much. Indeed, the Work does continue, Fr. Keating’s role being deepened, clarified and sanctified as his energy exudes from the morphogenetic field we share. Thank you so much for making this possible for the community at large.
Awesomeness innate intuitive …. organic light — beautiful !!!
YES! That sweet sweet Divine Exchange. What a delight to read your heart felt description of what transpired as you all recorded together. I also felt that moment in the airport as a sweet connection and happy synchronicity. I was heading back to Asheville after a powerful five day Wisdom School, co-leading with Marcella Kraybill-Greggo, held at Moravian Seminary in Bethlehem PN. Almost 40 of us had experienced a deep dive into the Divine Exchange, so seeing you was a grace and a sweet knowing of our ‘quantum entanglement’. Can’t wait to enjoy and share this new CD! Deep bows of gratitude for the creativity and the willingness to dance in abundance together. Grateful!
Oh, my! What a beautiful (and also humbling) gift to read Andrew’s reflections on our time together creating this new album! I am so filled with gratitude! And what a gift he brought to the making of it! His piano accompaniment is so intuitive and “Spirit led,” and his beautiful tenor harmonies are simply exquisite! Between this and Nick’s expert acoustic bass arrangements and gift with harmonizing as well, I felt totally supported all the way, and am extremely pleased with the recording we’ve done. The support of the Wisdom Community, as Andrew indicated, has infused this entire project with such love and joy. There’s a lot more work to do before the CD is finalized, e.g. liner notes, package design, mixing and mastering, and manufacturing, but we are well on our way! I’m forever grateful!!
Thank you Andrew. This makes my heart sing. I can hear the music and sense it’s power to move the soul. I tear up with gratitude for all you name. Deep bow to each of you for holding your post and offering your gifts including Molly. And we were with you.
After the January Law of 3 retreat our small Law of 3 group, with the addition of two others, has continued to meet once a month using Zoom. It continues to amaze us how by working together we have moved through life situations and challenges by recognizing and sensing the shift of third force. What was hard to do individually is thrilling to do as a group. I no longer view “obstacles” (second force, denying force) as a problem they are part of the solution to move us into new arisings. I am very grateful to Marcella for putting these teachings together as she has.
Sacred exchange and sacred relationship. Thank you for sharing your life experiences.
Thanks Josh. Your intimate description of the transmission and the experiences surrounding it are both enlivening and consoling. Though, I do not feel that I have had perhaps this wisdom transmission, there are pieces of what you say in your essay that I can very much resonate with in what I would call the hospitality of death that I have experienced with loved ones. When you mention “It was never the absorbed content that mattered – …Whenever we talk about God, we’re really talking about ourselves! It’s the presence that you have to offer other persons that truly matters” I recall most recently during the passing of my godchild who had been in a coma for several weeks, there were no words – in deed we did not have the opportunity to know each other very well at all during his 29-year-old life – but there were chants and touches that were called forth in this moment that was beyond content – something in the experience of this engaged silence was a transmutation ON BOTH SIDES, although I could not describe it if I tried. I sang and touched his body but it was bi-directional. Subtle yet purely true. I anticipate ‘teachings’ from my godchild. And, as you say “When we give death our presences while we are still living, a heart-to-heart connection can be forged between both living and dying,” it puts me in mind of the relationship I had with my mother and how it developed during her last days of this life. We (she and I – share THIS life together in presence I know, even though most times it is not something I can articulate. Perhaps that is best. Forgive my indulgence. Death has been a close comrade of mine for quite a while. Thanks again for this provocative and encouraging tribute to the energetic interdependence of the realm(s) and how you welcome it so intimately and fervently!
You must contact me. I would love to know more about your exploits with Beatrice. Thank you.
A very moving, profound transmission!
Thank you, Josh for this illuminating teaching.
I , too, can relate as a couple of my spiritual teachers, esp. Tibetan Buddhist ones, led me to at-one-ment, one before dying, the other afterwards.
I would love to hear more about your experience! Thanks for informing me about this.
I was privileged to host Beatrice for a week at my home in the early 90’s. She has also been a profound influence in my life. Your relationship with her reminds me of Cynthia Bourgeault’s relationship with Rafe, a relationship which also transcends death. Much to reflect and celebrate. Thank you.
HILDA Montalvo
Saint Bruno, Pray for Us
You saw your beloved friend brother Bruno
Of Immaculate Heart fame visit you
Exalted in Heaven seen you below
Gazing on you while you gazing thereto
He stepped into your Consciousness Divine
As your sisters and brothers on High want
To come to you with messages of Mine
That they are family your Soul to vaunt
He was quite tall in gaunt appearance his
For hermit of Mount New Camaldoli
Appearance still the same in Heaven’s Bliss
In his Visitation in great Glory
You have a new patron on High in him
His Holiness I Show you in Bright Glim
Excerpt from THE BELOVED in which The Father speaks to the Beloved
Copyright Jean-Marie de la Trinité
July 22, 2019
Trenton, NJ
A mystical panegyric to New Camaldoli and Bruno Barnhart excerpted from my Quora response on “How as the Catholic Church positively shaped your life?”
The wonderful hermits of saint Romuald at New Camaldoli Hermitage Big Sur, California ingrained the Liturgy of the Hours into me and gave me a hermitage for the solitary worship of God in contemplative prayer. They also understood my mystical life which was already profound when I came to them. Their holy prior Bruno Barnhart was a kind and learned spiritual confidant at the time and also encouraged my writing on the mystical life. He understood me quite well, both spiritually and intellectually. There, at Immaculate Heart Hermitage, I was fully grounded and educated in the eremitical life and the life of reclusion which I live to this very day in a mixed spiritual life of action in the world as a public philosopher and mystic which is added to my life as a hermit-recluse.
Also, at Immaculate Heart, God gave me four of the greatest mystical experiences of my entire life centered around the Holy Spirit and Mary the Mother of God, which I have written about from time to time over the years. It was there that God gave me the first miracle which would be witnessed by another person and so was able to be objectively corroborated by that person.
It was there also on those holy grounds, walking down from the campanile to the retreat house one day at high noon, that God gave me my first immense inspiration in poetry which flooded into my being and consciousness out of Heaven. This was to be my vocation thereafter in which The Father confirmed me some years later, calling me, simply, WRITER with absolutely no qualifiers to His incredible statement identifying how I would serve Him in the world, that is, not a writer of this or that but simply WRITER which was left infinitely open for my own defining by filling up its content in all that I have written over the years since, now some 100 books and counting.
Peace and Love always. jm
Marcella – Deep bow to your bringing the Law of Three into consciousness for so many of us!! And for helping us practice and use this amazing tool in so many ways.
The law of three:
Brahma, Siva and Vishnu
Here I AM on Thursday at 8:15 pm. Sensing the collective awakening arising. Thank you for the opportunity to join in this arising.
Again… thank you for this opportunity… it felt deep last night and I will try and make time to spend time centering again tonight.. Hope others might join this…
The heart of God has been reviled,
To bring love not hate.
I am deeply appreciative of this opportunity to join others (on whatever plane of existence they are at) in this practice of becoming still (or at least .. more still) and making space for new arising. Thank you so much for this invitation… will join you during the time preceding tonight’s debate.
Thank you for this! Yes, I will join you for some period during that hour. May the One who makes all things new have the space and longing for that to occur.
Count me IN. From 8:30-9:00 pm, I will be in prayer for the arising!
Years ago, as a young mother, I read that the future would be much different for our children, they would not experience the movement of their parents to a more affluent experience, e.g., opportunities for advancement would be limited, they would not own their own homes, and the advantages my husband and I had would be non-existent. I felt sad.
Around the same time, I came aware of the advances of technology and the power that was being placed in human hands…cloaning, robots, “big brother”, technological advances that to me were God-like powers. I became aware of the need for “inner work”, reliance on a power greater than ourselves, and the connection to God humanity needs for the healthy, growthful and conscientious use of these powers. I had just begun my own conscious journey to being fully human, fully alive and recognized the necessity for this work to become natural/normal human growth…and the need for this growth in handling the powers being revealed to humanity and their vulnerability to being misused…either ignorantly or intentionally.
Now, 45 years later, the prophecy for my children has not been realized…all five have experienced amazing opportunities in their lives. The other vision…the need for a conscious connection with the Creative Source of All…receives confirmation in the works of Barnhart…and little did I realize so many years ago that I would be a “pioneer” in that direction through the Inner Work I was being led into…and meet up with all of you and others on my path, becoming a part of the very movement Barnhart describes at a personal and beginning corporate level. How affirmed I am feeling, how hopeful for our global world, how inspired by the unfolding of just what Incarnation means not only to the Christian world, but to the unfolding of Humanity itself. This is what I have devoted my life to…spirituality, spiritual direction, conscious evolution. The Wisdom Tradition reawakened by the works of Barnhart and Bourgeault have served to highlight the corporate movement and the vision of a World Church expressed by Rahner. I have surely realized a new Axial period in my own life through my inner work and outer work (conscious work), (Cousins) and Teilhard’s Energy of Love permeating /saturating All is a constant in my life.
All this to express the affirmation of my own inner work and being in God I receive from Barnards work, the hope and inspiration that this vision is growing through other learned and inspired leaders, the possibility of a maturing humanity in and through God’s Love is growing and impacting our world. In other words he gives life to the Bigger Picture which illuminates my life work and joins me in community with others of like mind and direction.
I’m a seeker in Maryland. Would appreciate a group in my area of MD 21042 that is interdenominational.
Thank you Matthew. Reading this chapter for me was both consoling and challenging at the same time. Having recently read Rhythm of Being some of what Fr Bruno is saying puts me in mind of Panikkars “sacred secularity.” Perhaps it is the sense of wholeness and the resonant reverberations in the universe from all our concrete activity in seemingly private lives.
The consolation is tied to the sense that the Christ event as Incarnation is irreversible and inevitable as Incarnation itself is the principle of history. I so resonate with the sense of our awareness of the incarnation in history has disappeared seemingly, while at the same time it is unfolding and embodying – though hidden sometimes in history – asthe principle of history itself.
The idea of resistance to Incarnation is so important in that it grants the option to trust in the inevitable movement of Incarnation in and as history while at the same time demanding our active participation in the Incarnation always embodiment itself.
In the final analysis it seems that the inevitability of the Incarnation as the “seed going into ground” demands our engaging awareness in participating in the divine outpouring of the nondual into humanity and the universe. For me this is the sapiential wisdom grounded and embodied in the deepest expression there is.
It is both a wondrous realization and a all demanding challenge. I hope to be “up for” in communion through whatever uniqueness I have to offer with the Incarnation that is already underway.
I just glanced at a copy of the book.
I would love it, Matthew, if you could reflect on this.
Take the notion that non duality in Hinduism is primarily about the identification of “I AM” with Brahman, whereas the distinctive Christianity non duality retains (or even focuses on) the I-Thou relationship.
Based on nearly 50 years of study of world traditions, I would say that (really, just as in all Western religions) at least 90, perhaps 99% of Asians (in India, China, as elsewhere) who had even the remotest interest in religion maintained either a dualistic or qualified non-dualist, bhakti/devotional stance as their sole or primary mode of worship.
This bizarre idea that in the 10th century, or whenever, millions of Indians were even aware of anything like the intellectual philosophy of Sankara or any other non dualist notions (even if they had heard the Upanishads or Gita recited, which would have been extraordinarily rare among the masses) – this idea is almost entirely due to the way that European intellectuals picked and chose among the books and teachings they found in India.
Themselves allergic to devotion and a personal God, they found their own intellectual salvation in the idea that a primarily impersonal Reality was the fundamental one. Somehow this idea has persisted despite Ramakrishna’s polar opposite view (and persisted even among his own highly Anglicized disciples!).
I’ve attempted to engage Cynthia on this point, and as of yet, I haven’t seen any writings where she addresses it (in the foreward of Father Barnhart’s book she repeats the same tired error), and Father Barnhart himself makes the same mistake.
Personally, my sense is there’s something quite emotionally powerful about making one’s own religious tradition unique (I won’t say “superior” here, but at the very least, unique, and perhaps therefore “special”).
it’s just not factually the case, at least, with regard to the relation of the individual and the Divine. Check out Madhva if you haven’t come across this before – or even better, read Sri Aurobindo (if you happen to be familiar with Ken Wilber, a good shortcut is to read virtually anything he’s written about Sri Aurobindo, and assume that Sri Aurobindo intended the very opposite of what Mr. Wilber wrote).
It is interesting that Father Bede Griffiths wrote a great deal about Sri Aurobindo, who found an incarnational spirituality in the Vedas which he had found nowhere else in the spirituality since the beginning of the Axial Age.
I share your optimism, and doubt if Donald Duck Trump is anything but a helpful symbol of the fear and reactivity within us all, facing the utterly radical transformative power of the profound global shift in which we are irrevocably immersed.
I have found, in terms of a language transcending religion and accessible even to the most fundamaterialist skeptic, that Dan Siegel’s integrative vision is very powerful for many.
Having taught his “Wheel of Awareness” exercise personally to over 30,000 people, he tells us that with just one 20-25 minute practice, people with no prior interest in things spiritual talk of astonishing experiences of peace, joy, universal love, and of “having experienced God.”
For the general public (particularly parents) it may be “the Whole Brain Child” that is most accessible.
http://www.remember-to-breathe.org
Thank you Matthew for this outstanding synthesis, and even more for the joyful and hopeful heart through which bring it to all of us.
This is so rich Laura and what I was hunting for on Pentecost, some container for the mystery. Thank you
Wonderful account, brave too. I so like “Life happens all around that little point of still attention.” and can really connect with you through that. Memories of visiting the French Orthodox church and monastery at Lorgues in the South of France and that point of still attention glowing amongst the candles and the chanting. I believe it connects with the Sufi practice (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleven_Naqshbandi_principles) of Nigah Dasht. Love and good wishes to you.
Thank you Jonathan,
I enjoyed the description of the Sufi principle very much: I will copy it here for others to see, “Neegar dashtan (or nigah dasht) — watchfulness, use of special faculties.
“Concentrating on the presence of God. Being alert, watchful for and open to subtle perceptions, positive energy, positive opportunity and positive impacts. Being watchful over passing thoughts.” (from wikipedia, Jonathan’s link above)
Thank you for sharing about your path of discovery and unfolding. I am grateful to read about the process of learning, discovery and waiting that supports centering in love. I am also glad to know of your prayer group and book. As a contemplative Quaker seeker, who has explored several inter-faith mystic practices, my learning has been so helped through Cynthia’s teaching, and so many other resources like the book, Unbinding by Kathleen Dowling Singh. After years in somatic psychotherapy and research work I love now having time to explore creative art as one of many spiritual practices. In my area (Maryland) it is exciting to see so many spiritual seekers finding the opportunity to dive into spiritual exploration after retirement. Thank you again.
Dear Paula, Thank you for the lovely images described-and sharing your path of discovery, homecoming, connection. It speaks deeply to my condition of exploring inter-religious connections and finding through seeking the sweet rest and love at the center. Grateful for your sharing.
Carol Cober
Thanks, Laura, for posting this. I was hoping there were Wisdom Schools arising in the SE! I have been facilitating a Wisdom Practice Circle in Tampa since 2017. I plan to contact Jeanine, Laura and Rebecca for advice and energy to keep the movement going.
Dear Carol,
I am so happy that you find this useful. That is just what the intention is, and is the kind of connection that we are all hoping to serve. All good fortune to you in your work in Florida, and thanks be to God!
With love,
Laura
Today, as I read the 3 blogs on the Imaginal Realm, I feel that my experience of surrendering to Christ as a process of indwelling Spirit in me. Now, I am seeking awareness this so that I can live this moment from Christ.
Dear Paula,
Thank you for this sprightly, thoughtful, and very unguardedly personal reflection. It gave me much food for thought, as well as opening a beautiful window to another culture and set of religious traditions and understandings. The shadow side of shame and its sometimes lack of objectivity and false humility is something to explore.
Mary Ellen Jernigan
My husband and I have recently “discovered” you. We have gleaned so much from your teachings and appreciate your ability to somehow make sense out material and information that can tend to be confusing, to say the least. Thank you for so faithfully sharing the insights given you via The Imaginal Realm.
♥️♥️♥️
This is beautiful, Joshua. An eloquent counter to the current dimenishment of the second-person face of God in traditional meditation. An integral view values both causal and subtle and integrates them both. Leet us know when you write some more. You are gifted!
Paul Smith, author of Integral Christianity and Is Your God Big Enough? Close? Enough? You Enough? Jesus and the Three Faces of God.
Thanks for this enticing piece. I long for this, or as is presented, the divine yearns within me as this.
Thomas
oh this is just wonderful .. x
I believe this is the new axel period and the new golden age where the gold of this new age is Christ consciousness. Alchemists must learn movement and rest, ebb and flow, the give and take of atonement.
The massive misunderstanding of the nature of the individual in Asian wisdom – one would have hoped that the singular arrogance of this attitude had been gotten over at least by the end of the 20th century.
The idea that all or even most Asians practiced a particular esoteric discipline of yoga is so on the face of it utterly absurd, it pretty much makes anything else said by someone who makes such implicit claims at best, useless, at worst, yet another sign of that arrogance that evidently remains in the shadow.
The compassion and love taught by Jesus was predated by centuries in the bhakti traditions of Asia. No less a scholar than Robert Thurman explains in many writings how individuality – true individuality – is not YET understood by the non dual Christians.
This unity becomes more real to me as Fr Bruno helps me name my divine identity revealed at age 40 initiating my joyful, sorrowful, glorious journey with Jesus thru the next 40 years of my life to 80, when a near death experience illuminated my unitive, eucharist awareness.
Now 5 1/2 years into this Dimensionment/Unitive cycle ( as named by Guerdjieff) I reach a deeper level of understanding of the relationship between the two as I ponder the cross’ infinite convergence of all. The Easter Cross speaks:
Love/sacrifice/suffering…how love calls forth the sacrifice, done thru Love, bringing suffering and with it emptying/kenosis, which is the theme of my lent/Holy Week this year. Birth and Death; Death and Birth, each contains loss and new arising…ONENESS in Diminishment and Union.
Very helpful. Much reminds me of Beatriz Bruteau’s discussion on Being as including both the finite and the Infinite, and the sense of perfection as wholeness – that process of inclusion and transcendence, dualism and nondualism. Thanks Matthew.
If God is within us from the very beginning (of the world?), is baptism symbolic of our awakening to that realization? Is it not possible that awakening to our identity with God happens in relationship with God in the natural world where God is incarnated from the big bang on and on? Is the insistence on non-duality taking place through the incarnation in the person of Jesus too exclusive? How about the enlightened beings in earlier times and other places? How about the other living beings on the planet? Is non-duality only for humans since the last 2,000 years? If unity with God comes only through Christ (in Jesus), then Christianity is a very exclusive club.
Myra, thanks for these questions which call for a larger Wisdom. I found the first paragraph on page 59 at attempt to consider a more universal perspective: “Perhaps the global confrontation [between East and West] of our time is a sign of the ripening of Earth, the planet of humanity. If so, it is not surprising that rapid mutations occur everywhere at once, as in the transition of a single, comprehensive process into a new phase.” On page 95, the last paragraph before part IX, there is a similar nod to universal human experience: “It is not immediately obvious how the unitive baptismal illumination of a Christian relates to the nondual realization of a Vendantist or of a Zen Buddhist, but there is doubtless a deep correspondence between the two experiences because of the universal spiritual structure of the human person.” THAT intrigues me…..
Matthew, thank you for putting so much into these reflections. These words, and the thoughts you share in the Zoom group are so helpful.
Thanks Matthew – a brilliant summary of the eastern turn. You have brought out Bruno’s genius in holding these two essential aspects of Christian experience. I believe he has illuminated for us the very core and energy centre of Christian life in our baptismal divine and nondual identity – made even more powerful and real by situating it within the ongoing journey of Christian life – towards eucharistic self-giving. We cannot live one without the other.
Many thanks for your care and insights with this work.
Chris Morris
Thank-you so much for helping to make these insights more available to our understanding!
Wow….thanks for putting into such poetic language your understanding of the imaginal realm. Beautifully and enticingly stated.
Steven, thank you for asking. I’m in the midst of organizing one right now. Easier said than done! Remember, that the perceived sensation of solitude accounts for a whopping amount of time spent on the spiritual path. Within the human condition, attaining hyper-connectedness to the Source of all Reality is never an actual given. Rather its is an emergent byproduct of a hard-fought series of transformations that complexifies consciousness. Spiritual community can help stabilize solitary movements into safe harbor with this divine Love by re-directing momentary periods of instability back into a governing grounding point in Reality. The path is replete with unnecessary side-turns and detours that do not necessarily correspond with functional new-arisings, therefore I would imagine that such a community would help provide some traction. We may use contemplative group processes not only for interweaving our personal lonelinesses into a broader, creative narrative – always observing to much relief that there are objective invisible patterns that guide us through asymmetrical horizons – but that the more we are conjoined with those Love energies en masse, the more our solitude is transformed into a singular multiplicity! From my experience, you never want to purge yourself of solitude completely – rather the point of the journey is to re-arrange one’s self from the inside/out into a completely autonomous source of mobile connectivity. Navigating the inward “disorder” accompanying this foreign process of “becoming” ought to be mediated by someone who has, in fact, ventured through “the eye of the needle.” No matter how rare they might be in our cultural milieu, as a Personal Center of radiant activity, such luminaries ensure a stable foundation for adequately harmonizing discordant communal expressions It must be said that someone who has not realized the presence of Christ cannot illumine the heart of Christ in a yearning body of believers. Tall order! Really, the structural dynamics of this Christ-centered community should act in service of maintaining a “stable container” for promoting constructive transformation. Everything else, visual-wise, is relatively negotiable…
I wonder, is the work of following “the non-linear, asymmetrical pathways of the imaginal” work that we can support in one another? If, as Cynthia wrote in her blog, “the imaginal realm is collective and evolutionary; its ultimate purpose is to guide, shape, nourish, and where necessary offer course-corrections to our entire planetary and interplanetary unfolding,” then surely this is work to be done in community and not just as solitaries. If so, what does that community look like?
About 7 years ago, I took a course offered by Lifelong Learning Institute on the “Other Stories of Jesus”, focusing on the Nag Hammadi gospels. The professor placed a number of books for further reading on a display table. He picked up Cynthia Bourgeault’s The Meaning of Mary Magdalene to add a comment. I recall he looked at her book, held in his hand, & must have felt a little divided, because he said something like, “Yes, …. Yes, she is a scholar, though her work is a bit off the main road.” Drawn to byways rather than the main road, I bought that book, & when I came to the page where Cynthia speaks of the imaginal realm, I knew I had found a phenomenon that made sense to me within the Christian tradition— a real place of encounter with the transcendent. Not a projection. Not a story to believe or to see as symbolic or allegory. A place to draw from in my life’s journey to the extent Grace knows I am able to use. Thanks for continuing the discussion around Cynthia’s blogs on the imaginal. You added relevant information to my awareness.
kairos is always killing me. i’m going long here. idk, 7 min long maybe.
true story.
i went to war last night.
kendrick:
“with an automatic weapon,
don’t nobody call a medic,
imma do it till i get it right….”
(our friend TM called this “Dark Lightening” in a book he rated as “just okay”.)
“finna run into a buildin,
lay my body in the street,
give my story to the children,
and a lesson they can read.
and the glory to the feeling of the holy unseen.
seen enough,
make a (……….) scream…
i lost my head,
i must’d misread,
what the good book said.
oh woe keeps me,
it’s a jungle inside,
give myself again till the well runs dry.”
thank you Josh.
reading this on a rainy morning in a packed out pseudo-christian coffee shop. southern baptist seminarians with 7lbs of doctrine. the temptation to engage as enemies is always live. one seems to give off an uncomfortable fragrance that enlivens division. as Merton said in the rain and rhino, “thus the solitary cannot survive unless he is capable of loving everyone, without concern for the fact that he is likely to be regarded by all of them as a traitor.”
pray that for Ilhan Omar doesn’t lose the love. blessed beautiful sister.
the fragrance of Christ. “Only the man who has fully attained his own spiritual identity can live without the need to kill, and without the need of a doctrine that permits him to do so with a good conscience.”
and combining that with Laura’s words last week; “It has been fascinating for me to notice this in life more and more; what it is to sense an autonomous inner core, and respond and act from kenotic inner knowing rather than from outer expectation, rule or law. Coupled with this, and operating on the level of culture as well as within an individual person, is the new freedom and creativity in the participatory dance with God and creation.”
“fascinating” is one way to put it. it truly takes a bunch of deaths to get to the passivity you all speak of. some more horrifying than others. at least i’m finding this to be true, out here where the topic is Red or Blue in the land of crowded thoughts, confusion, and haste. oh and guns, lots of guns and good ol christian values.
i did go to war last night. it seemed to be a war over the Reality of true Hope. Passivity.
not the worst war i’ve seen. my wife and i once sat thru one that words can’t quite capture. horrible love. sorta like that last chapter in Screwtape where the dude dies and gets to see just what the hell is going on behind the scenes. i remember Annie’s face vividly, when revelation hit her as she went to straighten the edges of the duvet cover in something of a manic grab for distraction. i remember when she saw it(?), with the duvet still in her fingers, and she dropped to her knees in horror. horror… dark lightening. something, or things, swirling around a fleet of dark, shadowy dragonflies, leaving streaks that seemed to evaporate as fast as they appeared. our healer-mix Nimbus following it with her eyes might have been the biggest dose of fear. this wasn’t my first rodeo. this started very young for me. sometime around when the chair lock was installed on my bedroom door in Pawtucket. i still remember the screams of terror when it would be slid into place. i still remember what i can only refer to as a shadowy swirling. i still remember an utterly profound sense of Home when it was over.
This continues to be the case even now, and fear no longer grips quite like it did. but i’d never really went thru anything like that night with another human. we huddled on our bed like the disciples in the boat. our two furry angels shivering beside us. we put the psalms on blast from the half-monks of seattle’s st. mark’s compline choir. “because he is bound to me in Love.” dark lightening. mystery.
the last thing i can remember, it ended (if that’s even the right word), with what i can only describe as another ugly and truly terrifying revelation of Love. like the sharp strings in the third movement in Bach’s triple slashing us across the face with deadly precision, we learned first hand: Where two or more are gathered…
i get chills just thinking about it for real. a very strange vibe stuck with us for the next couple days.
but…then it was back to the tired, old routine…”real life” as it were…
i don’t wish to open this up any further at the moment. the timing of this post is a hard swallow.
but i can say that the words: “i have no enemies” are being burned into me. i’ve long desired a handbook for how to deal with this invisible burden in the middle of a Christian nation. the warnings of Matthew 7:22 on our red hats. much to my surprise/pain/joy, it’s being branded unto my heart. this is not the Christianity i was promised as a child listening to Jennifer Knapp and dctalk in the minivan. i know you know what i’m talking about Josh, as you’re in NC. i was fixing to be a youth pastor in Greensboro about 10 years ago. but that wasn’t the right road lol.
“Christianity is not merely a set of foregone conclusions. The Christian mind is a mind that risks intolerable purifications, and sometimes, indeed very often, the risk turns out to be too great to be tolerated. Faith tends to be defeated by the burning presence of God in mystery, and seeks refuge from him, flying to comfortable social forms and safe conventions in which purification is no longer an inner battle but a matter of outward gesture.” -from Conjectures of a GB.
without the wisdom coming down from the Northeast i’d be having a much harder time accepting this Burning Love.
Amma C- i love you. we made eye contact once. it was a heavy day. you were sitting indian style next to the wizards empty body. that memory is manna to me.
there is a spot not 400ft from this coffee shop, where a handsome ol’monk with a broken back would sit in his Momma’s grotto and write poetry about “the very stones” burning him.
i’ll be carrying all of your words over to the grotto with me.
Thanks for this description which is delightful in its affirmation and challenge. Somehow what you are describing is some of what I sense is happening within my own experience. I hope to release and receive ever more from the imaginal. The connections you make here are efficacious. Thanks again!
Laura,
This morning I was going to prepare for tomorrow’s “Future of Wisdom Zoom” by reviewing my notes but remembered seeing an email that said you wrote about the second chapter so began here instead. Your ability to capture Bruno’s thought and share it with such beauty, grace and your own deep appreciation has touched me deeply. I’m in awe by what you captured and how you captured it. It reveals to me that I need to ask the Holy Trinity to lead me into a new way of thinking and being as I continue reading this marvelous book. Thank you for sharing your reflections.
Dearest THANKS, MARCELLA! Your descriptions of truly ‘coming home’ in so many dimensions are so embracing AND expansive at the same time. So often we forget how full the ‘oneness’ is. Most gratefully, Barb D M
Thank you so much for this sharing. Deep recognition of place. This brought to mind a recent DNA recognition of people that.i experienced recently.
And yes the deep recognition I’d Cynthia, for me in reading one sentence in The Wisdom Jesus and vibrating with the recognition.
A spectacular ode. Is your last piece still posted? Can’t find it.
Here it is https://wisdomwaypoint.wpengine.com/breaking-ground/the-coming-of-the-full-stature/
Absolutely beautiful Adwoa! Thank you so much for sharing your vision and practice of each new day.
Here is a short review I wrote of Second Simplicity that gives a flavor of his work. While I did enjoy it, I do have to say that I find his work challenging, especially the Future of Wisdom book. Up until this point, his work hasn’t really “stuck” with me; perhaps that will change in the year of Barnhart. Here’s the book summary:
“Barnhart provides a powerful vision of the Christian life based on four dimensions of a mandala: (1) unitary consciousness (God), (2) logic and rationality (Word), (3) inclusivity (Spirit), and (4) incarnation (Matter). To become more spiritually mature in the contemporary age means to move from the northwest quadrant of the mandala, a mix of (1) and (2), in a southeast direction. This means seeing the divine in the created world (moving from 1 to 4), and balancing critical thinking with a more personal and emotional sensitivity (moving from 2 to 3). The result is a replacement of a static, institutional belief system with a dynamic, incarnational experience of the Spirit. This more inclusive faith will bring about a second simplicity, a return to the Mystery of the Christ event evident in the first few centuries of Christian history, but lost in much of the intervening time.
Beyond the many useful applications of this mandalic symbolism, Barnhardt writes with a holistic, restorative force that is difficult to resist. Even if at times the reader wishes for greater clarity, the rousing spirit that breaks forth in the writing is itself a testament to the mystical understanding of the author, who serves as a New Camaldoli monk in California.”
Thank you Matt and Wisdom Council for your loving work and contribution to the awakening of our collective consciousness to Bruno Barnhart’s Wisdom.
This sacred symbol…this map…longs to become known with the
“new story” of Bruno’s teaching. Symbols (think 1’s and 0’s) transmit information profoundly in human “language”–but in our Son/Word dominated cultures this symbol has lost it’s unitive understanding. Wisdom can teach us all to re-know this symbols Unitive Power and Transfiguring Divine Love. Humanity needs this new understanding of our most sacred symbol—-a symbol that formed western civilization and it’s consciousness needs to become “viral” as the dynamic, synthesizing, unifying and joyful expression of the power of Love and Life that it is.
YES–one of the few writers whose words remain seared in my consciousness as we all learn “to bear the weight of our divine vocation” And to listen to St. John speak through Barnhart’s listening heart was a true gift. We are never truly separated from those who have gone before and each one of us will also contribute to this becoming of God’s dream.
Immersing myself in your deep thinking always addresses the unrest I have about my whereabouts vis-à-vis the public and contemplative spheres. In an evolved world they would be one and the same. How do we help this happen as we work on opening our hearts? And are we opening our hearts to help this unity to happen? Blessed Advent to you. I like celebrating the baby but like more of his second fuller installment.
Ooooo Laura! Luminous Solstice piece. Thank you…from the heart.
From Maximus the Confessor (Mystagogia)…
“The world is one…for the spiritual world in its totality is manifested in the totality of the perceptible world, mystically expressed in symbolic pictures for those who have eyes to see. And the perceptible world in its entirety is secretly fathomable by the spiritual world in its entirety, when it has been simplified and amalgamated by means of the spiritual realities. The former is embodied in the latter through the realities; the latter in the former through the symbols. The operation of the two is one.”
oh I love that: “The operation,” the operation, “of the two is one.” The thread of alchemy running through, doing its work, mending us and the world, “in its totality.” I have been reminded recently, and felt the accompanying humility, of the sacred nature of the word ‘alchemy’ and the totality, entirety and embodiment of its operative force.. like Teilhard’s faith, and maybe as human beings we move, and rest, there, between and within, fall in and out, on the wings of the good, the true and the beautiful. Blessed be. Thank you Joan.
Luminous Writing, Laura! Right to the heart . . .
So grateful for you and the gifts you bring forth.
Thank you Patricia, it is a wonder how we can connect through the heart across such distances and through words, with their limitation and potential!
So moving , Laura! Such a wonderful unfolding and fluidity of your days away with its premonitory dream informing you in the room and where your experience in the room informs the dream…and Reality becoming visible…and how so many inner and outer levels spontaneously arise to greet your sensitive deep awareness. Then bringing the Mother in as the waiting unfolds and resonating with her mysterious capacity to hold all that is…in her expansive heart.
I found it to be instructive as well to remind me of being aware of each moment’s richness. As well, it brought to mind what Holy Spirit shared in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-19: ” Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit.”
PS- As a life life long Episcopalian, I have had continuous “nudges” from Mary where she “drops into my mind”….the latest being in guiding me to help a new friend in St. Louis who needed to work with his childhood trauma, esp around his mother. Mary seemed present to give me the instruction on the visualizations and languaging to share around forgiveness of her and esp. himself. He reported it worked just right so far.
Thanks again, Laura.
Yes, I found that ‘prayer without ceasing’ and the wonder of it, arising a lot during the weekend.. the ‘Jesus, Mercy’ walking beside the ‘there is no God but God’ chant in the heart “there is nothing but God, there is only God, there is no one but God, there is only God…”
How Mary stays, waits, is with, the immediacy… at once. Another paradox. Pondering immediacy, yet there she is, one of our most accessible doorways into the heart of hearts. Thank you Jeremy.
Thank you Laura, Solstice has always been a favorite time for me. A chance to go within and reflect and rest.
You are so welcome Donna, it is so interesting how deep the rest of this time, and yet we can be so surrounded by the busy. I find much peace in these long dark nights.
Deep gratitude, Laura, for this piece on Solstice, particularly your poignant reflection on your granddaughter. I have been mindful, as never before, of gifts that arise from observation and engagement with the very youngest amongst us.
Thank you Shelly, I feel I learn so much from them too, and have been thinking quite a lot lately about those on the other side of life as well; what the truly old ones offer us. Remembering to thank them more.
Laura,
Your writing here moves me into memories of moments when I recognized beauty in nature and when this moved into heart-felt perception of wholeness, of Grace. Thank you for sharing your experience of the imaginal.
Yes, amazing isn’t it, when we notice how what we perceive moves us to a deeper experience within, beyond the initial sense of taking in the beauty, or the truth of something in the world. These connections opening the world to us ever more. Thank you for sharing your words about that.
Thank you Laura for your generous offering. I will be revisiting again.
You have put into words thoughts that I have been struggling with for some time. Many thanks!
Where can I find Cynthia’s third blog post on the Imaginal?
Here you are https://wisdomwaypoint.wpengine.com/2018/12/is-the-imaginal-realm-real/
Simply, YES!
Clearly, beautifully expressed, Bill. Sharing with friends. Thank you.
Loved this piece. Especially Panikkar. Subject to subject—it reminds me of a vision I had a long time ago. I was thinking incredibly hard about capital punishment and why internally it seemed so wrong to me—not a question of morality but of something else. I was walking in downtown Charlottesville on the pedestrian mall—lost in thought—when suddenly something opened up in me and I saw what the world looked like when it was subject to subject. Can’t describe it except to say that it was about relationship and love but not affection—something much deeper—a total reorientation. So that is what I see reflected in your words—except not just between us and Jesus but between each one of us and all of us and the Divine—subject to subject(s) to subject—the trinity that holds Absolute Potentiality in manifestation so that love might be. That flow is disconnected when we objectify any Being.
Jeremy, thank you for your feedback and the mutual encouragement. We sure need one another to help discover for each what the true path we are called to walk into the full stature of Christ in us.
Blessings
Thank you, Bill, for pointing the way so beautifully to our inner space, the place of encounter.
Yep. I get that “not Christmassy” thing. Oven is broken, so no cookie baking with grandkids, who are going out of town for the week anyway. A Buddhist husband, Jewish closest local friend, etc., etc. Then I read this and am reminded of what I need to deeply KNOW over and over again. Thank you dear Bill.
This lovely theological reflection is one I will keep on hand to give to friends and other speakers as a sample Review of the heart of the contemplative work. Thank you
Thank you for this beautiful invitation
Bill,
THANK YOU for this Advent gift.
Beautifully clear, loving, helpful, thoughtful and heartful.
Very fine and powerful messages. It covers so much of the Lord’s ministry.
I was much in resonance with a point not made often enough…that we all need to allow for each person to analyze, react , and express themselves in the way that befits them as regards how they process what is reality for them…of course, within the bounds of decency and respecting others.
Thanks for your excellent post.
ahhhh!!! thank you!!! caught in the act. the whole thing deply witnessed through the lens of your beautiful seeing heart.
Beautifully expressed – reminds me of my retreats with Cynthia. Thanks for expressing the moment with us.
Laura, thank you for this lovely reflection on your time with Cynthia at Garrison. It gave me a sense of being there.
Thank you thank you Laura for this beautiful sharing!
Logion 50 from the Gospel of Thomas comes to mind…
Logion 50
Yeshua says,
Suppose you are asked,
“Where have you come from?”
say, “We have come from
the Light at its source,
from the place where it came forth and
was manifest as Image and Icon.
If you are asked,
“Are you that Light?”
say, “We are its children,
and chosen by the Source,
the Living Father.”
If you are questioned,
“But what is the sign of
the Source with you?”
say, “It is movement and it is rest.”
wow ~ this is so very beautiful and profound, Cynthia! so, this is one of the reasons to continue my daily centering prayer practice…so I can align the coherence of my heart, mind and soul with the resonant power of the divine energy of Christ; and from that place, serve the world around me 😉 thank-you for the reminder. Virginia from Woodstock.
Hi Northeast Wisdom Webmaster…
Is there any way to have a button to click that would allow a “print” format? Thanks so much for considering.
Great idea…will add that for the next update.
Thanks, Holly!
Holly – one other thought is that it would be great to have the option to print without the photos… Don’t know if that is possible, but I thought I’d ask! I know there are occasionally graphics that are desirable, like the nesting graphics in the last article, but often they are photos that are not essential to the article.
Oh my Cynthia! Masterful. And it just so happens to be true. The garments rend, tears flow, the heart bursts upon reading. Glory!
And those images that accompany the text. Gorgeous. All we need now is music and the dance!
She IS Music and Dance!!! Silly hats and all,
One of the most helpful presentations on the imaginal realm that I have experienced.
Of course, being in the vessel with Cynthia is always quite an experience
Hello Jeremy
Appreciated your comment on Cynthia’s take (more appropriately
give) on the Imaginal. Her current series is some of her best work to date. We ARE all in the Vessel with Cynthia….
very accurate description…..I am a poet and I love words.
Traveling with her writings is quite the ride and quite the journey.
We became friends years ago at St. Benedict’s Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado. Share many similar monastic experiences.
I am a hermit in the woods near by.
Have you checked out her latest book “Love is the Answer”?
A collection of comments and thoughts about various concepts,
a good little read.
Namaste
Karen D’Attilo
dattilokaren95@gmail.com
Thanks Karen
Yes,’ Love is the Answer….’ is a superb read. I am in the middle, reading slowly and meaningfully each word. There is such a wonderful blend of music , poetry, innate and acquired wisdom, compassion, wordsmithing, dance and the play of light and openness in her presence and writings. How wonderous!
Ah dear dear Cynthia
Exactly what I needed to read on a cold snowy evening in Snowmass.
I managed to break two ribs and pain
interrupts floating in the Imaginal
Realm. Your verification of what I know of the Imaginal is balm for my
soul. As for messages between worlds. A button, made of abalone shell, managed to disconnect itself from a beloved’s sweater and wound up on my pillow.
Someone is indeed home.
Thank you.
It is all in the Eucharist which Jesus, the Christ, gave to us to be perfectly all in ONE & ONE in all.
Matter is really consciousness. Eg… form is emptiness, and emptiness is form. Consciousness or pure awareness is the new paradigm…replacing the material paradigm. This is consistent with Cynthia’s + remarks about parallels to Dzogchen in Centering Prayer. Her teachings at Garrison , New York, this past 5 days were off the chart. So grateful to be an attendee.
I am delighted that you are writing about the imaginal realm and am excited to read future writings.
I’ve actually never seen anybody place the imaginal realm higher than the physical except for Ken Wilber.
For example, in the Indian tradition (Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Sikh, unaffiliated/Tantric, etc), the imaginal realm (a) coincides with the physical (though being more fundamental), requiring only a shift of attention to be aware of the subtle living energies of that realm; and/or (b) is “within” at a deeper level.
Still deeper is the true Heart, the individualized “Bliss” or “Ananda” of the ocean of Ananda in which we swim and love and have our being.
As your teachings in the Living School often did, this generates thoughts and questions that touch both my head and my heart, prompting me to take time to listen more deeply … Thank you for sharing your work with us; I look forward to reading more.
These words resonate deeply, Cynthia…I’m grateful for them today. More will be most gratefully received.
What you write here connects with what I am coming to see in the early chapters of Bonaventure’s The Mind’s Road in into God and Richard Rohr’s video commentaries in the Living School materials — how the physical creation participates in and becomes sacramental revealer of the divine presence.
Beautiful. Looking forward to reading more.
A grateful heart this morning just before dawn as I moved into the flow of your words. What you are describing resonates with my experience – the flow of your words (I believe) are “poetic” because, at least for me, what I have experienced in these dimensionless “locations” any words seem to limit and too narrowly contain the experience – poetic visionary language and the images you use were for me the best “doorways” into my experiential memories – like a tuning fork for the heart sound waves. Oh how I look forward to your continuing to offer more on this.
“Confluence.” Most important, I would imagine. Confluence is both where connection is possible and where connection is happening. In the deepest connections among others and myself in my everyday, ordinary realm, the imaginal realm is the confluence that helps energize, enliven, and enlighten these connections. A cloud of witnesses provides a tone, a soundtrack for connecting.
I am very excited you’re writing about the ‘imaginal realm’. I first described it as another dimension permeating the four we already measure (as in Astrophysics Brane Theory there must be seven more than we can measure because of the way the universe behaves). Can’t wait to read more!
Ah Yes….
The passing of Abbots Joseph Boyle
and Thomas Keating, true Masters
of the Mystical, Magical Realm of
the Imaginal, beckons us to follow
them into the Christic Circle of
infinite intimate love.
Karen D’Attilo Snowmass
Ah yes,
Dreams are fueled by the power of the Imaginal.
Both Abbot Joseph Boyle and Abbot
Thomas Keating are Masters of the
Imaginal Realm. May their mystical
majesty continue to amaze and melt our hearts.
Karen D’Attilo Snowmass
Thank you
Thank you! I look forward to more…
Cynthia, you write with the lyrical ear of a poet. You play with words as if they were musical notes that dance and swirl with the grace of ink injected into a pitcher of water. They flow around me, enveloping my heart and mind in a gauzy mist that both reveals and conceals your meaning. I let go of attempting to understand with my mind and allow them wash over me in a gentle wave, not unlike smoke from an extinguished candle that is moved by a graceful hand.
I feel as though I have just had a moment in some angelic school of wisdom in the estheric realm by some ancient guardian master.
That, or my DNA energy center must’ve shifted.
Thanks
Will be listening intently.
Thank you and encouraging you . . .
“Put more simply, it separates the visible world from realms invisible but still perceivable through the eye of the heart. In fact, this is what the word “imagination” specifically implies to in its original Islamic context: direct perception through this inner eye, not mental reflection or fantasy.”
So happy you are describing inner ways of “knowing”.
Gary Zukav’s Seat of the Soul——which my soul just asked me to go get from the bookshelf and reread after 15 years—-really opened up the conversation that humans have many more ways of sensing and experiencing life than we were operating. He described us as “Multisensory”—-beyond just the 5 senses—“extra” sensory perceptions that help us to navigate life in a more authentic and loving way.
It feels like the imaginal realm you are describing is important for humans to be able to “sense”. Very grateful for all the senses you have helped awaken in our world.
I imagine the imaginal realm to be what is also called quantum reality. They are two names for the zone between nonlocal infinite reality and local time bound reality, or between spiritual/God and material/human. The imaginal realm is the middle realm of particle-wave blend which is between the realm of vibrations and potentiality and the realm of particles and actuality. All three realms are always present — it’s our awareness of them that may or may not be. We are human beings, and human beings are imaginal/quantum beings, that is, we are a union of nonlocal and local, infinite and time bound, spiritual and material. Our challenge is to be aware of both realms, be aware that we simultaneously abide in both the material world and in the spiritual world, and to live accordingly. Our challenge is to be what we are.
This resonates powerfully for me and I’m eager to hear more. I love “what’s really at stake in this realm is an active flowing together” – yes, yes – and “that ‘other intensity’ to which we truly belong.” I hope that “in whose light the meaning of our earthly journey will ultimately be revealed,” but I’m not sure about that. May it be so. Please keep sending dispatches from the field! Joan
There was such a penetrating piercing ‘knowing’ in my heart that I read much of this in sobs of relief? wonder? recognition? gratitude that what i have sensed through my brother’s murder 20 years ago to my husband’s recent death is now articulated. I’ve called it a ‘veil’ in a poor attempt to describe it. TYTYTY. May you continue to receive and radiate the Spirit that so blesses so many of us.
Thank you.
Very powerful Cynthia …. I resonate deeply with your thoughts and words …. and experience …. I feel the imaginal at certain times as you have expressed here …. can’t wait to hear more of what you have to say and express …. thank you so much for your this !
Hi Cynthia, I am excited by your new work. You may/ may not be aware of a form of therapy that accesses the imaginal realm of the unconscious thru prerecorded programs of specified’ classical’music. It’s called Guided Imagery in Music-Bonny Method. ( Equivalent of a 2 years Masters training. ) The website is http://www.ami-bonnymethod.org. I am trained in this work and the imaginal opens up wondrous inner worlds connecting with realities beyond time and space…thereby bringing transformation to all who surrender to/ embrace what unfolds….the hero’s journey.
I’m a 80 year old woman with heart and memory (white spots on brain)health issues. Altho in HS & college I loved physics, read Tielhard and listened to Wagner with my father I continue to be puzzled with my choices. Why these choices?? I have no idea. I ‘understood’ little, can repeat or explain even less. Recently I’ve begun to ‘hear’ Wagner and other great artists in my ears.
Joshua, thank you so much for your devoted labor of love and willingness to meet, respond and change in such a presence. I look forward to hearing more of the fruits of your remarkable opportunity and true relationship.
With love,
Laura Ruth
I had the privilege of knowing Beatrice. She once spent a week at my house when she and Jim had come from NC to give a talk at our group. Since then I have struggled to read and live her vision. I consider her one of the gifts of my life.
Dear dear Laura, As always you open and awaken my heart recalling what my soul needs to remember… thank you so much. May the Blessings from All That Is continue to encircle you and whisper her Deep Truths. Love, Joan
Thank you, Laura. Love Elizabeth
Thank you Laura…with you…feeling…leaning in..engaging with the geosphere…present…grateful for your share…
So beautifully written, Laura, and what an amazing sight to look up and see a hawk watching you, and your eyes connecting, a truly divine moment as you walked the labyrinth. I had a similar experience (of Awe) two years ago walking the labyrinth at St. Olaf College (Lutheran); after I exited the maze, I looked back and saw a cross projected onto the ground…made out of shadows from neighboring trees. Thank you for your essay!
Thanks for sharing your story, Laura, of your time at the retreat..finding strength in the ground of our being. Beautifully expressed.
Lovely description of silent retreats! I make a ten day silent retreat every year which brings me home to my Source and strips away the dross.
Dear Bill,
What a beautifully expressed reflection of your time in Stonington. Thank you! As a relative newbie to the Wisdom Path and also a photographer, I immediately related to every word. I pass through your area routinely on my way from Arkansas to our vacation home in Cashiers, NC. I intend to make it a point to give you a heads up with the hope of connecting on one of our trips. I was fortunate to attend my first Wisdom School at Kanuga this past March and learned there is a dedicated Wisdom Community in Asheville that includes a number of Cynthia’s devoted leaders and teachers.
We are all on a transformational path. I envy your time in Maine. Thank you again for your post and photographs.
Charlotte aka Cha Cha Brown
Thank you, I attended my first wisdom school in N Carolina this year and hope to attend another
Easy to feel how genuine this is. Helps a lot.
Thank you! Beautiful
Dear Bill,
Thank you for the wonderful images and narrative. Your photos captured the light and your words evoked the essence that we all sensed and shared.
Oh, what delicious words and images! Thank you for reminding me of my own Wisdom a la Cynthia pilgrimages. I pass by Gatlinburg several times a year en route to Lake Lure, NC. Gonna stop by to meet you and buy me some peace and tranquility.
Thank you, Brie, for such clarity riddled with challenge. Tracey and I especially liked your inclusive stance. The idea of bringing the dazzling meal of Wisdom to folks trapped in survival mode. I hope our stream can meet Native Wisdom at least halfway.
Thank you, Brie, for that insightful articulation and for those challenging questions. You yourself are a shining example of which you write. While informed by Cynthia’s Wisdom work, your own authentic voice rises up from our community to add direction and guidance for this community’s unfolding. Let us all add our own voices—in our work and in our lives—to sing the strains of Love in Wisdom’s key.
Thanks, Brie, for giving the flavor of the week. I would have liked to have come, but not possible to make the trip from Hong Kong at this point. We are working on some pretty exciting things here that may of relevance: we are basically using the foundational principles of the Wisdom Tradition to teach our relatively secular-minded, high-achieving high school students to teach a 4-year course called, “Spiritual Explorations.” We have just completed year 1, and it went better than we had dared to hope, but the real benefits will be when they do it again in year 2,3, and 4. It really is the Wisdom Tradition brought to bear on an unsuspecting orange-green meme jet set next generation group of students. To give you a sense, here’s one student’s video reflection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufCbenU_GRo&feature=youtu.be Of course this is the best example, but I think it’s representative of what many kids experienced to a lesser degree. So, as you think of taking the WT beyond a Wisdom School setting that serves a certain demographic, we are bringing it to a very different context, and so far it’s working. Maybe even more surprising is that my 4 other colleagues who taught the course embraced it, despite some having intellectual misgivings at the beginning. But again, the proof was in the pudding. In 3 years time we should have a pretty well-articulated 4-year (20 classes/year) curriculum that could be shared – along with some student data on how they are growing from the courses. (Here’s more on the year 1 course: https://martinschmidtinasia.wordpress.com/2018/02/22/waking-up-to-the-vertical-dimension-initial-student-reflections-on-spiritual-explorations/) Meanwhile, we are embarking on a 2nd year of social justice courses – that’s a longer story, but here’s a summary of what’s happening: https://martinschmidtinasia.wordpress.com/2018/04/05/deep-without-and-deep-within-curricular-paths-for-expansion-in-student-consciousness/ . All this to say that as the Wisdom community thinks through where it’s going, we are experimenting every day with the future global elite using these deep principles of trying to change the world and the self simultaneously. Of course, the school is not really aware of the deep roots of what is happening, but for those with eyes to see, it’s an experiment worthy of attention. All the best, Marty
Brie, The June Wisdom Ingathering was my first but definitely not my last.
Your comments above ring true with me. Please keep me in the loop. Marty’s comments and sharing are also in the vein which could be really helpful going forward. I came away from Stonington seeing a possible place for creating anew a model of Wisdom Circles which I developed over 15 years ago while part of an aging ministry in Virginia but this time right here on the Blue Hill Peninsula across the bridge from Deer Isle /Stonington. Yesterday I began exploring this concept with a fellow parishioner from St. Francis by the Sea, Blue Hill who has been volunteering his time in the upper grades of the local elementary school. He sees so many young people thirsty for meaning, dialogue, and being engaged. Does the Northeast Wisdom community have any ideas?
Hi Kathy,
We start school on Wednesday again, so in full school thinking mode now. Let me share with a blog entry that summarizes where I’m at with high school students, which is an application of the Wisdom Tradition to a senior elective religion class. It works consistently with our students. https://martinschmidtinasia.wordpress.com/2018/07/14/the-essentials-of-a-curriculum-for-self-understanding-the-body-mind-heart-framework-in-sss/
Beautiful post. I wasn’t there – but I much appreciate this window into the conversation!
Brie, beautifully done!
Thank you for these insights and the train of thinking that pulls us toward a common identity and third force action. Much to consider and continue to reach toward.
Kudos, Brie! You have offered us much to ponder. . .
With you all the way sister!
Thank you so much for your clarity in connecting all the things! Beautifully done.
Thank you so much Gabrielle!
Cynthia,
Rebecca told me to read this and it has been incredibly helpful. I too orginally identified as a 7 but several things didn’t line up so then I was identified as a 1. Still, the 1 never felt right either. Everything you are saying has deep resonance for me and actually made me cry at my desk. I don’t know whey it’s so important for me to know this but I know that it is, at this moment. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much for this very informative and insightful post, Matthew.
I understand that you guys aren’t open to criticism or alternative views but, yet again, here goes…. This entire push from sites or teachers like this is to alter the context of the Christian message from a real people with a real history with a real worldview to that of the “ultra-enlightened” perception of today claiming an incompatibility between orthodox Christianity and evolutionary science, and mindlessness of conservative views in light of liberal “progression”, claiming a particular cosmology has brought humanity to a higher consciousness and understanding of the Christian message.
That’s fair enough but to mistake this as being anything but a re-wording of basic pantheism with the term panentheism and reinterpretation of what has been understood within a particular historical/cultural context with a socio political bias towards the collective and an anti-heirachical worldview is absurd. In an effort towards “unity” you’re systematically eroding the message of Christianity. Like all pantheists (or Panentheists if you prefer), you confuse hierarchy with worth. Replacing the context within which people understand Christianity has occurred repeatedly throughout history. The Church has stayed the same, not because it’s an archaic, judgemental organisation of patriarchal stuck-in-the-muds but because it’s preserving the context for those concerned with seeking truth to find it. None of this is new in the slightest.
Beautiful, Matthew. Thank you. carol
To cultivate humility, intimacy and union ….rather than just being in one’s head trying to understand this by thought .This is the boldness for me to take up the call.
Joachim of Fiore —I first learned of him from Phyllis Tickle at The
Co-Creation Conference at Holy Trinity in Greensboro, NC in 2014. So joyous to be reminded of him. And of Phyllis Tickle’s rousing “where now the authority?” talk. Yes, indeed. Where now the authority? https://youtu.be/pyCHSChQCSE
Also at the conference was Cynthia! Thanks to her wisdom teachings at that conference my twin sister Lisa and I were “groupies” right away. Went to see her in Atlanta, went to hear her in Asheville, then signed up for the first Mega Wisdom School in 2015—we are learning…where now the authority.
Sharing the authorship of creation with all of our brothers and sisters through the eyes of our hearts—oh Holy Spirit we are grateful for the gifts of the spirit.
P.S. Thank you Matthew! Our wisdom study group in Greensboro is savoring Bruno Barnhart’s The Future of Wisdom—each and every page is fueling our desire to “become all flame”.
I realise that all criticism is usually always received as “hate-speech” by you people but and will be ignored again… here goes anyway… Good grief. More liberal political posing and utter misrepresentation of Christianity… And lets be clear. This is a political rant dressed up as spirituality. This site and those associated with it are undercutting the miracle, the foundational message of Jesus Christ by (like all immoderate religious liberals) you’re stubborn push to re-interpret and re-define everything through the lens of the collective, the fanciful “evolved” group identity, and miss the point of the miraculous creation of the human personal individual completely. I suppose that’s why whenever republicans are brought up by you guys (which is rare) they’re eluded to as uneducated hill-billy hicks.
Why did the Holy Spirit come after Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension? Something to do with the “growing up of the disciples” you say? It’s unbelievable that you call yourselves Christian. I can only surmise it’s yet another liberal effort to redefine reality to suit yourselves. If you call yourselves Christian then you must be right? There’s barely anything Christian about your theology even though it’s sounds it on the surface. Very lovey-dovey feel good 😉 But hey, free speech and all that… right? But honestly, you guys just make it up as you go don’t you?…
I know you don’t like to think about an alternative interpretation on evolutionary spirituality (held by many republican, orthodox Christians) that rather than dissolving everyone backwards into one great big pantheistic (sorry, I should say Panentheistic ;)) ocean of consciousness (group-think and oh so politically correct and appeasing to other religions), actually culminated in the emergence of unique, eternal, separate beings who’s maturity has every bit as much to do with external realities as our “growing up”. By not acknowledging that reality, by skipping over it as if everyone previous to your “enlightened” self weren’t quite spiritually mature enough to grasp the “real” Christian message, you again, miss the point completely. The subtlety with which you guys misrepresent Christianity continues to be masterful though. I must say 😉
Here’s a thought. How about pretending that you might actually be wrong and seeking to make a genuine argument against your stance? Is it possible that perhaps not all republicans and everyone previous to your generation aren’t spiritually immature idiots?
Thank you, Matthew. How blessed am I to be living in this Age of the Holy Spirit among such great souls as you? Your preaching and writing is the newest of testaments. Keep it coming, brother!
xo,
Kate
Thank you Tom! I find this meeting of Quakerism with the Christian Wisdom stream (with its Sufi, Teihard, Gurdjieff flavor) very exciting as well. I would direct you to take a look at Cynthia’s blog piece of February 26 of this year, “Whur we come from…” It speaks both directly and currently to Cynthia’s particular lineage in the Wisdom tradition. It is on the home page right now, or click on Blog to scroll down and find it shortly.
It is also always fun to send in a question via the “Ask Cynthia” page on this website. You will find a link there on the home page as well as at the top of the page here. Thanks so much for being in touch about this. With love, Laura
Hi, I am a Quaker and have participated in an interfaith spirituality course in which Cynthia was the Christian teacher. Connecting her awisdom tradition with Quakerism is a very exciting development! It can help both traditions contribute to the healing of our times and nudge us forward towards Teillard’s Omega point! I would like to have in my pocket a paragraph or two that summarizes Cynthia’s Wisdom School philosophy/theology. Is it the perennial philosophy plus? How would she word this?
Thank you and blessings on this work!
Cynthia writes: “However apparently contradictory and volatile Trump’s agendas may be, Wilber points out, the common denominator is that they are always anti-green.”
This is the fundamental error. Trump was anti-green in a number of rather superficial ways, e.g. with respect to race, sex and so on. But his main message was: Make America Great Again (MAGA), which appealed to the increasingly-large economically disenfranchised portion of the population, seeking relief from what seems like endless downward mobility. His “MAGA” addressed the gross inequality and collapsing quality of life that has developed in “green” (actually mean orange) America over the last 30-40 years, doing so in a way that could be understood and acted-upon by ordinary, non-intellectual Americans.
The truth is, and I think this should be obvious: America has not been even remotely green since the 1970s at the latest (when the big anti-green backlash developed). It has been all mean orange or worse since then. If green had been in ascendence, or if it had any real power at all, then it would have been expressed in decreasing inequality, larger share of GDP to labor, ever-decreasing military-security-prison spending and operations, etc., etc.; but the opposite has happened, and to a high degree. Trump addressed these problems and expressed THE CORE green value of equality — albeit in very poor, partial, and intellectually bankrupt way. As weak and inferior as his appeal was, it was better than the slavish neoliberalism and mean orange-ness of Hillary, and voters sensed this.
Further, Trump made many statements suggesting that he would reign-in NATO, stop the endless wars, re-establish good relations with Russia, etc. — all of which reflect decidedly green values, indeed core green values. This was as opposed to the shameless warmonger Hillary who, memorably, cackled like the wicked witch of the West about the bloody murder of Gaddafi (“we came, we saw, he died”).
You could object that Trump’s actual behavior since the election has failed, quite completely, to live up to his pre-election rhetoric. Of course that is true. But it is not the point. The point is his basis for winning the election. He won the election, in part, by being more green than the thru-and-thru mean orange Hillary. There were other factors, but that was a big one.
One more thing of note: the incredible rise of the self-described “socialist” Bernie Sanders, railing against the “wall street billionaires” and generally articulating a MUCH clearer and better green message than any other candidate. He came out of nowhere, with zero name recognition and low-single-digit vote percentages in early primaries, to near-parity with Hillary before the convention. His resoundingly GREEN equality message was resonating with everyone. Most informed analysis suggests that Bernie would have won against Trump. In any case, the significance is that the American electorate was fed up with mean orange neoliberalism — personified by Hillary — and the way it has nearly destroyed America. Americans were ready and willing to go green in a big way in 2016. But, denied the option of Sanders — MUCH more, and much-more-authentically, green — they were forced to go with next best, the awful Trump. The fact that Hillary was less of a racist and sexist than Trump was of minor import, relative to her absence of support for truly core green values. (And, btw, since the record clearly shows that Hillary has no problem with the mass murder of women, black and brown people the world over, just how non-sexist and non-racist IS she? I daresay that she does not have an authentic green bone in her body; only a few fake ones for PR purposes.)
For purposes of this post, I just downloaded Ken’s (“post truth”) essay in entirety, and guess what? Search for “Sanders”: no hits! He does not even mention the Bernie Sanders phenomenon — one of the greatest outbursts of pure green energy in the U.S. in decades! This is beyond oversight; this is sheer fucking blindness! I’m sorry to be so blunt, but I can’t hold it back. There is no excuse for this, from someone supposed to be an intellectual leader and analyst.
Wilber is totally off the beam, apparently informed by his enormous over-estimation of the significance of university philosophy departments and the pomo navel-gazers that tend to populate them. He has failed to understand that the core green values and concerns are equality and peace (at minimum, in practice, less inequality and fewer wars), NOT postmodern philosophical abstractions, and NOT the narrow “pluralism” that elevates issues of interest largely to upper-middle-class people. Perhaps this is because (it is probably because) Wilber is himself an upper-middle-class person, and is seemingly obsessed (at least some of the time) with postmodern philosophical abstractions. That he is blind to the Sanders phenomenon, while taking the execrable Hillary to represent green, indicates that he has little conception as to what green really IS.
Please see Cynthia’s response in the Ask Cynthia section https://wisdomwaypoint.wpengine.com/ask-cynthia/
I just want noted that the answer provided on “Ask Cynthia” is for my very last question and while it’s enough to reveal that Cynthia’s views are certainly not Christian she has failed to answer the question in context of my full previous comment and continues to avoid an adequate defence of her claims to be a Christian wisdom teacher.
… I see you have a more Swedish take on the concept of free speech and transparency.
I just found this book, which has a chapter on de Chardin and Aurobindo, which specifically distinguishes Aurobindo from Maharshi as well, which may be helpful: https://books.google.com/books?id=s0_DCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA40&lpg=PA40&dq=%22Bruno+barnhart%22+%2B+Aurobindo&source=bl&ots=J7yDOJRI3d&sig=8N-5_4JUu1acrvITmF253jyJFBQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjwxt-RoNjZAhWG0FMKHRY0DoAQ6AEINjAE#v=onepage&q=aurobindo&f=false
I would love to hear some more details on why Cynthia rejects Sri Aurobindo’s evolutionary vision but is ok with the Christian Advaitic vision (including Raimon Panikkar, Henri LeSaux/Abishiktananda and Bruno Barnhart), noting that all three quite consciously drew on Sri Aurobindo’s work.
It’s also particularly intriguing, given that de Chardin has a much more abstract, physicalist reductionist view of evolution (less incarnational, one might say, due to what Owen Barfield referred to as the extensive “residue of unresolved positivism” in his work). I’d be interested to hear about that in light of the aforementioned rejection of Sri Aurobindo. I suspect it has to do with the conflation of his work with that of Ramana Maharshi, but I’m open to being corrected on this.
Don, I certainly don’t reject Sri Aurobindo; I simply haven’t worked with his material enough to feature it in the lineage. Beatrice Bruteau is certainly the bridge here, a student of both Teilhard and Aurobindo, whose work radically synthesizes these two giants of thinkers.
Cynthia, i may be mistaken, but I’m responding to a comment you made several months ago in which you expressly said you don’t think much of Sri Aurobindo or Ramana Maharshi. What struck me particularly was, if you think that there is anything remotely similar about the two, then probably you haven’t read much of either. And if you haven’t read much of either, why make such a negative (it was quite negative the way you stated it at the time – which is why I’ve stuck with this) comment?
I tentatively had hoped, when I first started studying your writings a year or so ago, that you were one of the people on the integral scene, who had begun to liberate yourself from the unfortunate legion of errors that Ken Wilber has committed.
Your recent comment to a student who assumed that your practice of Centering Prayer involved some kind of “open awareness” was sterling, and seemed to me to begin to glimpse the integrality that is possible when we let go of the modern tendency to think that God’s Presence can be “engineered” by our efforts.
If it’s true that you simply aren’t aware of Sri Aurobindo’s work, and did not intend consciously to disparage him or lump him together with the non-evolutionary Advaitic lineage of the Maharshi, I apologize (though having just written that, I do remember you specifically explaining that you didn’t think much of Sri Aurobindo because you didn’t think much of Advaita Vedanta – again, if I interpreted you incorrectly, I apologize).
I just joined a private Facebook group, made up of students of Tibetan Buddhist teacher Alan Wallace. The group is dedicated to “home practice” – what I would refer to as making one’s home a sacred sanctuary, a “monastery” – if that last word didn’t imply some kind of withdrawal from the world.
Inspired by your response to that student, i’ve been trying to convey a very different sense of what “practice” means, beyond even that total letting go.
here’s what struck me. There is an evolutionary Force, a conscious Divine Presence, which is present in all of our hearts (every living creature, really). We aren’t aware of it to the extent the demands of the body, the life force, the emotions and the mind preoccupy us. As those demands begin to lessen, this aspiration of the Heart simply is present. We don’t need to do anything to cultivate it or focus on it or even let go into it.
We only need to stop blocking it. I have found over the years that that aspiration has a gentle (and sometimes not so gentle!) guidance, and the more I follow that guidance, the less it is “me” following that guidance and the more it is “Her” (I prefer to experience That as Her, though it is infinitely Her) both aspiring and guiding.
She brings the mind to total silence, or more properly, she opens the mind to That Silence which is all pervading and ever-present. She stirs the surface heart, tuning it to the infinite Soul within, bringing the entire personality into falling in love with the world, with the whole evolutionary process, the unfolding which, when the mind is utterly Silent and the heart filled with love, is evident in every moment, every sound, every sensation.
That/She is there in the patient I am evaluating and the computer I am typing on. And She unfolds in incalculable, infinitely varying and playful – even mischievous – ways, laughing as She cries along with all of us. She is There in Trump going to North Korea, and in Nicholas Kristof excoriating Trump for having no idea what he is doing.
I know we all have our own paths. I fell in love with Brother Lawrence when I was 20, and throughout the 1980s, I learned much as choir director of a Spanish Catholic church, and from my discussions with Father Alphege of the Cloud of Unknowing, but I never was drawn personally to Christ.
I “knew” on May 10, 1970, at 2:30 PM, that awakening to God, who I knew in that moment as all-pervading, was the meaning of life, and that it was an ever-unfolding awakening, not a one time thing, and that my work in the world involved the integration of science and spirituality. And through explorations of Gurdjieff, and Sufism, and Tibetan Buddhism, and many Christian mystics, and Anthroposophy and much more, I knew in March 1976, upon reading Chapter 6 in Satprem’s “Adventure of Consciousness,” that prior to this life I had already been working on the integration of science and spirituality, and in this life I had found my teachers in Mirra Alfassa and SrI Aurobindo.
K D Sethna (Amal Kiran) has also written on de Chardin and Sri Aurobindo. I strongly recommend it.
Thank you for this Wisdom synthesis, Cynthia! (the Cynthia Synthesis ☺️) It is just what I have been longing for. I have printed a copy of this post to study it more deeply. It is a “curriculum” that makes my heart feel effervescent! Thank you for shepherding us along this luminous path of non-duality, non-identification, and love.
This is really a new low when even non-Buddhist have the general understanding that compassion and tolerance are the essence of Buddhism. And yet disappointingly a supposedly highly learned Abbot tasked to helm a great Buddhist monastic establishment is instead enforcing discrimination and intolerance. What else can be said but clearly the case of another one of the “three great” Gelug monastic universities of Tibet has fallen into the hands of a (samsarically) ambitious one who clearly deviated from what Buddha has taught.
It looks to me as if there is a celebration taking place of a kind of return to the “Golden Age” of evolution before the ego came to be and the human species lived in a unitive unconsciousness (the Garden of Eden mythology, healthy early childhood, etc.). At that time the identity of the human species was no doubt rooted not in the mind (free of conceptualization and constructs for they didn’t have the capacity for it) but in the body. So according to you they were somehow freer than we are for they didn’t even have mental constructs to get in the way of their bare seeing. There was no sense of separation to be overcome and therefore no consciousness of the union they enjoyed directly… But that ship has so obviously sailed. There is no going back.
The ego developed through form, right? It arose out of the universe and is therefore the next stage of evolution after the “Golden Age”. The human species developed a sense of separation from each other and the universe itself because the universe evolved that way irrespective of the insanity it produces. The evolution of ego consciousness, the separate self, happened. It seems as if this is being described by implication as some kind of a mistake and that the goal is to return to a unitive unconsciousness mislabelled as unitive consciousness hence the celebration of a return to formless pure consciousness (for form and separation go hand in hand. Without it there is no differentiation). Yet here we are.
As “one” with the universe (or God) as you may be, it is I who am writing this particular comment and you who are reading it. As much as it is true that this very discussion is the universe conversing with itself, in, through and as us, it is equally true that there is a separation required in order for that to occur. In other words, the development of the separate self is required for a higher, more complex form of unity to evolve. When two or more separate selves achieve unitive consciousness (not unitive unconsciousness, as if that’s possible after the development of the ego) there is a higher oneness, a higher expression of Teilhard’s love energy both driving and directing the evolution of the universe. There could be no crueller nor thoughtless act (no matter how blissful its dressed up to be) than to create separated beings who know it (For we all do, no matter how much we spiritualize it and claim that unitive consciousness has freed us from that illusion) only to swallow them back up into the ocean of consciousness once their “job” is done. It makes far more sense that unitive separation (not unitive unconsciousness) is part of what’s coming. At least then we can all be a little more honest.
Not only is form required for the development of the ego but also required for the higher expression of love in the next stage of evolution, hence Jesus’ physical (though different physicality) resurrection. If more spiritual teachers came back down to earth maybe material reality would once again regain its utter mystery. Nobody can even define what the hell a simple leaf is let alone consciousness itself. To say that the leaf IS consciousness as if you actually know what that means is tantamount to saying with a straight face “that orange is an orange.” Very helpful. You can have unitive unconsciousness in the absence of form but certainly not unitive consciousness. In order to be conscious (egoic or unitive) the self is required and in order to be a self, form is required. There are no heavens that exist in some “conceptualized” place apart from the universe (or multiverse) of material reality. That’s a form of dualism. I can only know that I am the universe become conscious of itself once I have a self to be conscious of it, which requires the initial development of the ego, which requires form. I think a recognition of this would cut through a whole lot of spiritualized mumbo-jumbo because there’s really no need for it once you see that the material universe of form IS all the evidence you need for it IS the only true realm in, through and as which we experience the spiritual. As C.S. Lewis put it, “Miracles are the retelling in small letters of the very same story written across the entire universe in letters too big for most of us to see.” When you see that truth the idea of physical resurrection is a walk in the park and you don’t have to through it out because being separate is actually ok, in fact, really, really good. It’s only a leap because we’ve been convinced by people who should know better that a leaf has actually been explained! The leaf, the grass, dog’s, brains… everything is utter mystery. We’re literally living in THE Fairy Tale of which all fairy tales tickle a deep distant recognition.
The very reason I can know that my true self and God are one and the same is because I am a separate self that can know it and the reason I am a separate self is because I have form. In other words, I can only be one with the formless God because I have form. Unitive separation IS the higher unity. The Formless came to tell us that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy5VtDc3fc8
Rather than continue waiting for these supposed “conversations” to take place, out of the numerable questions I’ve posed I’ll settle for one answer to one question: In your view, was the historical Jesus of Nazareth physically resurrected from the dead three days after his death on the cross?
In your view, was the historical Jesus of Nazareth physically resurrected from the dead three days after his death on the cross?
Please note Cynthia’s response in the Ask Cynthia section https://wisdomwaypoint.wpengine.com/ask-cynthia/
lol yeah this is the (expertly) subtly implied “evil hypocrite” who asked the question intended to get a straight answer from Cynthia as to who she believes Jesus to be. I ought to have expected such a response from a one-sided platform. Perhaps one day you can be bothered enough to respond on this or the other blogs where an actual “conversation” can take place and people asking questions you know perfectly well to be legitimate won’t be undermined with such skilled elusiveness.
In the meantime, let me be more direct as to avoid any implication that I think you’re a Messiah and I’m trying to “trick” you from that position. In your view, is the historical Jesus of Nazareth the unique Son of God? You, and I’m sure everyone with half a brain, know perfectly well why I am asking this question. You’re claiming your teaching is based on “Christian” premises while at the same time not actually claiming any orthodox Christian premises at all. Do you not think that deserves some sort of defence?
Hey Craig: I know I have been asking some pointed questions of Cynthia, but i have tried – I hope it comes across – to always ask respectfully. She strikes me as a deeply sincere, dedicated teacher, one I think deserving of respect.
Each to their own, Don. Personally, I despise gaslighting. I’ll call it when it occurs (comparing my question to the “caesar’s taxes” question was absolutely that) and doing it from a one-sided platform isn’t what I’d call “respectful” either. At least I’m honest enough to be up front about it. I’m not Cynthia’s friend. I’m not your friend. My respect is not your right. If you’re offended then that’s your problem. I’m not responsible for your feelings. I’m interested in the truth.
I’m not the one who has achieved quite a bit of money and popularity from claiming to be an international teacher of Christian wisdom. I’m not the one who presents ideas to be commented on by the public only to, at best, forego any defence to criticism or, at worst, claim (explicitly or implicitly) that such criticism is some sort of personal attack. I’m certain that’s one of the primary reasons Richard Rohr doesn’t have a blog at all. Popular Theology is fuzzy-feel-good but is as substantial as eating sugar. It’s pretty easily dismantled.
Literally nothing substantial has been expressed via those 8 statements. It’s as if the emperor has revealed her new clothes and everyone is just clamouring to praise them. I challenge it and I’m being disrespectful… I’m fed up with supposed teachers claiming Christian truth without any need to defend that claim… My response… hang respect. Answer the question.
This is a great start, Cynthia! Just yesterday I was listening to Russ Hudson talk about the different emphases between Gurdjieff Work, the enneagram community, and the Diamond Approach. Understanding how this Wisdom branch fits into, interacts with, and establishes a unique charism within this family of related approaches is of strong interest for me.
When I was confirmed in the Anglican Church, by someone who is now the Dean of …., he said he could not answer quite a lot of my questions. Years followed, spending time with Mevlevi, Naqshbandi, almost converting to Islam, spending time with two of the “children” of Mr. Gurdjieff and many of his “grandchildren”. Although my actual grandfather was Russian Orthodox, Metropolitan Anthony very graciously ignored my application to convert. After various upheavals, I became disillusioned, threw it all aside, fourth way, religion, spirituality, all of it. Then, at Easter 2005, I had an experience in church which illuminated for me an understanding of the Body of Christ – I was only there to take my son to Sunday School! I then had a dream which directed me to take up the fourth way again and rejoin a group. As I became a server, head server, a Lay Pastoral Assistant with my church, I struggled to reconcile my Christian Faith with my conviction of the need for “work on oneself”. I began to see a Trinitarian solution to this conundrum: the affirmation of Faith, the “Yes” held in the one hand and the denying “No” of being confronted with how it is with this person. The trick was to hold them both apart, not allowing either the one to drive out the other, nor them to merge into one as with two magnets crashing together. This tension was amply assisted by others. And then, I heard about this theologian and pastor who was writing about, and most importantly working with, the connection between Christianity and the Fourth Way. God Bless you.
Thank you, Cynthia … I have been like one of the sailing dinghies circling around a harbor and keeping my eyes, ears and heart open to the teachings and deep sense of spiritual direction that has emerged over the past 20 years as the sailing ships come and go, exploring the deep waters and sharing the treasures to be found. Looking forward to navigating through this particular branch of this Wisdom “verticil” (I had to look up this word) …
With gratitude, Pat
Cynthia:
Thank you for this overview and reminder. I look forward to when you unpack each of these elements in more detail. I feel as though you are doing a “course correction” for us, and giving us a sense of the terrain that we are navigating.
Blessings, Michelle+
Very interesting overview, thanks.
Noting the presence of the incarnational emphasis and also the name Panikkar, I urge folks to take a look at Rod Hemsell’s “Philosophy of Religion,” in which he explores the trinity in Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism, all within a profoundly incarnational, evolutionary, post-teal vision. His book is available for free here: https://www.auro-ebooks.com/philosophy-of-religion/
Yes! Yes! Yes! “This is my body given for you: I would eat and I would be eaten. This is my blood poured out for you: I would be borne, and I would bear. Do this in remembrance of me: Whoever does not dance, does not understand.” The entire cosmos is the body of Christ!
I have had your salmon experience, “This is my body given, and given, and given for you,” often when observing one creature eating another, or observing a decaying tree in the woods or, or watching a crow pick at a carcass on the roadside, or watching a video of a black hole swallowing a star, or a star going super nova. We are food for one another on every conceivable level. It is the dance of life! We are being danced! It find it beautiful and powerful that a circle dance would have been a part of the first Eucharist.
Your post touches my heart deeply.
The mind can be quite deceitful, so much care must be taken here. One can believe one is immersed in the “felt sense” of the heart, free of verbal dialog, yet fully englobed in a non-verbal conceptual structure.
It is deeply illuminating to see how this works with physical pain. It’s possible to pull back layers and layers on non-verbal conceptualizing, feel one has reached the end, and discover yet more layers.
As long as there is suffering, there is conceptualization, even of the subtlest kind.
“Explanation is of the mind. Meaning is of the heart, a felt-sense of belongingness that needs neither justification nor further action. It is simply its own fullness. ” THANK you for this. I often have times of no internal monolog, feeling the regularly ping of body constriction that is Self-ing in the body. From a Buddhist base, there is just hanging out there. But it’s confusing, wearying, and one still has to get on with the day, navigating your life.
Which tends to prompt the old explanations to come back onto the scene. Resting in the heart, sensing into felt meaning – now that is another way to navigate the border zone. Deep bow of thanks – Meg
A very sweet note. Particularly fascinating in that Cynthia has channeled here the traditional illusionist philosophy.
One can construct any ideas with the mind, but there is a direct “knowledge by identity” which is at the core of genuine evolutionary spirituality.
This is so powerful. Thank You.
Beautiful! Thank you Laura!
Please add me to your blog distribution.
Your words took me back to another thread of my belief system. Do this in remembrance of me…..has been a line of vitality in my life, as long as I can remember. The salmon story is very powerful.
Would you allow me to share the story with my Secular Franciscan community?
Peace and all good to you,
Marie Bianca OFS
Dear Marie,
Yes, feel free to share. You can sign up for e-mails on the right side of the page–there’s a box to enter your address.
Blessings,
Matthew
Amen! May it be so! THANK you Adwoa for your prophetic invitation and steadying voice. Grateful…
Adwoa, thank you for this heartfelt and penetrating testimony to the Godbearing Mary. It will be thinking I will return to as my own faith wobbles in the face of our reckless and unjust world. And what glorious images that accompany your work.
Laura Ruth really does a tender and maternal job of finding and knitting image to word. It is a lovely journey to walk in.
Adwoa, I am moved to recognize and acknowledge the authentic and powerful prophetic voice that you are giving expression to. I have been challenged and drawn deeper by the clarity and power of your writing. Thank you.
Now I’m REALLY looking forward to reading it~
Today my Jungian analyst suggested I take a look at this blog as it impacted her greatly. I had read some of the blogs on this but today’s blog takes me to a place of self forgiveness which I have struggled with. The comments on how we talk about issues is well taken. As part of the whole I pray I grow in compassion and understanding for myself and others. Thank you Cynthia for your clarity.
Hi Cynthia,
I found this fascinating as after a very long search myself and lots of back and forth with RHETI I finally plumped down on being a 7. And the difficulty was that although I could admit to gluttony as it were, and some of the reasons behind it, I couldn’t identify with the self-distraction from pain part being a long term seeker of personal authenticity. I could perhaps see myself though as more firmly in the 7 camp as I can relate to other of the “choice points” you mention, albeit with that caveat. So your suggestions both for a new core passion and prioritising different behaviour patterns, which puts a slightly different slant on the typology makes a lot of sense to me. I can absolutely relate to compulsive motion, fear of constriction, and your description of feeling trapped in early nurturing situations leading to becoming skilled self-nurturers is spot on.
In the present (!) what I now find fascinating if that is a word I can use for my situation, having been diagnosed with Lyme Disease over 2years ago, with chronic fatigue being the main and ongoing symptom, is to dare to whisper that it probably is the perfect teacher for this new understanding of a type 7 ie someone who is constantly planning, wanting constantly to be trying new things, to be on the go, in order to avoid a basic fear not of distraction from pain but of annihilation. It has been sooo hard to have to let go of those comforters because I simply DON’T have the energy to keep the facade going. But now I have been given something to work with as I can identify with the challenge of the journey from choice freedom which is no longer accessible to me, to spontaneity freedom. Thank you (yet again) for doing the digging to bring this new insight to light.
Your insight on 7’s is brilliant and so helpful! As a 7 I’ve never really identified with either wing. Your insights make me realize I have a strong 7 wing and that takes me to a place of greater light with that understanding. Thank you!!!!
P.S. I forgot to mention that I lost a scholarship that was pretty much destined for my high school education.
Dear Cynthia,
I totally understand your dilemma in terms of coming to grips with a personality type such as “7.” For many years, I couldn’t understand how an INFP, such as myself, could possibly be a 7. It simply didn’t compute; but one day at our group intensive Doug Dirks, who knew a helluva lot more about enneagrams than I, suggested that I take a deeper look at “7”; that is, even though I grew up with two nurturing parents. When I was 3 1/2 yo, my mother was diagnosed with a malignant melanoma in her upper right thigh. After three surgeries, my parents were told that there was nothing else they could do, and she, perhaps, might live another six months. Her constant prayer while in the hospitals was: “Lord (I prefer the term Love), let me live as long as I am needed. A few years later, after moving to San Luis Obispo, she was diagnosed with SLE (systemic lupus erythrematosis) and told it could kill her. She told the doctor that “if cancer wasn’t going to kill her that something with such a silly name surely wouldn’t.” She lived a very rich, creative and artistic life (all the way to 92) as a writer, painter, and copper-enamelist. And she always encouraged me to take risks with the caveat: “Just don’t you dare die on me.” She even had the guts (after taking many courses) to write a book on handwriting analysis; and in 2000, she published her first novel, “Black Frost,” with a potent and courageous prologue. When she originally conceived of the idea, she was a couple of decades ahead of OB/Gyns she discussed it with. In my teenage years, we used to sit up until the wee hours of the morning psychoanalyzing each other, while my dad would pound on the wall saying “Good morning.”
When I turned 13 in the 8th grade, two scarring incidents occurred that changed my thinking about authority figures. The first occurred during a basketball scrimmage after school. We had a very short, stocky, highly competitive coach who would practice with us. During one practice, he wen up for a rebound only to be outmaneuvered by my fellow guard. While awaiting an outlet pass, I saw him turn and kick my teammate really hard in the privates. It took a whole week before he told his parents what had happened to him. After they followed this up with a meeting with the principal, an IHM sister that I truly admired, she approached our team several afternoons later. She asked if anyone had seen this alleged incident, and I stepped forward and told her exactly what I had seen. About a week later, she summoned me to her office; and when I opened the door to her office, the coach was standing behind it. She told me to tell her again what I had said, this time in the presence of coach (he stood right there with his arms folded). Then during baseball season, that same coach told me that I couldn’t play for the school and Babe Ruth League at the same time. He even gave me the first “D” of my life for PE. Then while trying out for Babe Ruth, one of my teammates was cut. None of us had any idea that a couple of days later that he would hang himself. The thing that really shook me to my core, was the discovery that his mother had gotten home in time to untie him; but sought NO medical attention because she was a staunch Christian Scientist.
Also, Cynthia, I approached you ever so briefly in the corridors of Tamaya to tell you how much your exposing me to Stephen Harrod Buhner had meant to me. You were moving with such dynamism that I stopped short of telling you that it launched a Francis in me that I didn’t even know existed.
Hugs,
Dan
Cynthia, you have named my journey as a seven well and what I have come to discover over the years about what lies underneath the excitement and activity. It keeps me away from terror and pain. The Wisdom treasury and its understanding of time-space has given me a place to rest after much, much running. Thank you for the words that articulate this particular energy of the Enneagram.
THANK YOU!!!! You;ve said it all, with such depth and beauty.
I just finished reading Ken Wilbur’s book and while it offers an explanation regarding hierarchies of consciousness. I don’t see how it offers a way out or thrugh the present dilemma, which I suspect has gone on in way way or another forever.
It doesn’t offer an truly practical insight in how to interact with it except to take some position that I must be part of the green and therefore more aadvanced in thinking. This is the basis for conflict that Wilbur is trying to assuage. I could just go on and be more tolerant and understanding but then there are some very real issues regarding human rights, morality the environment and so much more. If I didn’t think that practically everything Trump’s presidency does not represent an attack on my personal values I could sit back and muse on an evolutionary process as proceeding according to plan. But then I’m a part of that process.
One can fabricate all kinds of plausible reasons how and why this crisis came about but finding a way through or out requires thoughtful but decisive action. I don’t see any of this in Ken Wilbur’s color fabrications.
Unbelievably gorgeous Laura! WOW! You have captured the soul of this gathering in inspired beauty! Thank you for your deep heart receptivity!!
Appreciate this post!
“How such people have found resilience and love has much to teach our contemplative movement, even if it comes through forms we have not inherited through ‘the Tradition.’”
Adwoa, thank you for this gift. I see you. Holding a lonely bridge between wisdoms. Thank you for speaking of your experience. Indeed your voice speaks to me of the promise of the unfolding Unity of God.
Karla,
Thank you for this feedback. These words, somehow, i just saw for the first time: I see you.
It is something to think about “a bridge between wisdoms.” Surely we are all that kind of bridge in some place. At the same time, Yes, that kind of bridge has felt like a clear and persistent part of my form. It is a beautiful frame you offer for a lonely ambassadorship.
i pray for these kinds of conversations to be growing among us. To prepare the ground, i pray for them to be growing within us all the more.
Peace, adwoa
Adwoa, I have read this more slowly, carefully and thoroughly than anything else I’ve read in a very, very long time. I continue to live with it in me. Thank you.
Oh how I love this piece of thinking and writing buttressed with such gorgeously apt images. Taking the gift of Darkness to heart. The consummate gift to White woman (man) in the struggle to let more into, by lived example,the frazzled terrified and sometimes lost Heart. Thank you for this gift. Feeling your presence close in Tracey and my Quieting Space here at home.
Julia,
Thank you. Having lost regularly predictable morning hours of sleep: as the winter draws near, i am savoring the longer season of awakened darkness. i am grateful for your phrasing… the Divine desires and is nourished by our free and courageous offering/gift of the frazzled experience of the world into Its Heart.
There is such sweetness in the Dark, when the outside matches the canvass of the inside and suddenly one finds herself gathered in with the struggles of so many others in the beating Heart of God.
Such gifted writing makes it possible for a non-attendee to get an inkling of what occurred.
Dear Cynthia,
This is quite a piece of writing, and certainly quite a topic to take on. I felt as I read that this article could be used by any and every contemplative group – and by any congregation of any faith as an attempt to transcend everyone’s and anyone’s personal beliefs and feelings, and stay in it long enough to at least just begin to see something that might arise in a new or different way that might just add to the conversation or take it to a different dimension.
Clearly the “truth” has not yet made itself evident in an undefinable “ah-ha” where we can all sit back and say “that is the truth – discussion ended.”
I think here about Colin Kaepernick’s behavior of kneeling during the National Anthem as he became a martyr of sorts while the conversation has reached almost epic proportions with even the President of the US getting involved. Kaepernick can’t get a job in football, but now everyone seems to be weighing in. Where was the place to hold this conversation? Right in front of everyone. But the price to call the meeting so to speak for Kaepernick was very high.
I suspect that the conversation really might be much larger (i.e. How does “thou shalt not kill” figure into capital punishment for instance) and wander into the realm of something that might include Neale Donald Walsch’s Conversation with God which says something like, and I paraphrase from my own understanding, “nobody does anything to anyone without their agreement” and “there are no victims and there are no villians”. That said, and that being true or at least a pointer to another dimension to bring into the conversation, (and I understand that this perspective could make a lot of enemies), if there are no victims, there are no perpetrators. Collaborators yes. Will there ever be a place for an intelligent look into the possibility of this sort of truth or happening to be included seriously in this conversation? And if not, might there not be many other options or possibilities that could be a part of this that transcend our cultural understanding of right and wrong?
I think you have taken a huge and courageous step Cynthia and I hope that we can see a continuation of this both from you and in our own circles. Thank you for this invitation to begin.
I just read this essay for the first time today, Oct 1. Thank you for addressing this difficult subject. I don’t think I have answers and even my opinions are not clear to me, and yet I do have some comments to share. First, I don’t see the soul as the fruit of the entire life journey — I see it the other way around — the journey of life is the fruit of the soul. Second, I do see soul, life, and individual essence as synonymous and would like to understand your saying they are not. Third, I think you said malevolent intent is part of murder. To me, malevolent intent isn’t required for murder to be murder. Like with the dog owner murdering his or her dog, the intent may be benevolent and yet it is murder. Last, and this one is most difficult, is about the woman’s right to control her body. I agree that a woman has that right. Once she is pregnant, a baby is developing within her and all kinds of things are happening to her and with that baby, and my thinking is that she doesn’t have the right to control the life of the baby. My thinking is that at that point she has the right to deal with the baby while it is growing within her and deal with it after it is born.
I found this in my practice this morning; how strongly it speaks to this blog series. From Teilhard’s Divine Milieu:
“The masters of the spiritual life incessantly repeat that God wants only souls. To give those words their true value, we must not forget that the human soul, however independently created our philosophy represents it as being, is inseparable, in its birth and in its growth, from the universe into which it is born. In each soul, God loves and partly saves the whole world which that soul sums up in an incommunicable and particular way. But this summing-up, this welding, are not given to us ready-made and complete with the first awakening of consciousness. It is we who, through our own activity, must industriously assemble the widely scattered elements. The labor of seaweed as it concentrates in its tissues the substances scattered, in infinitesimal quantities, throughout the vast layers of the ocean; the industry of bees as they make honey from the juices broadcast in so many flowers– these are but pale images of the ceaseless working-over that all the forces of the universe undergo in us in order to reach the level of spirit.
Thus every man, in the course of his life, must not only show himself obedient and docile. By his fidelity he must BUILD — starting with the most natural territory of his own self– a work, an OPUS, into which something enters from all the elements of the earth. HE MAKES HIS OWN SOUL throughout all his earthly days; and at the same time he collaborates in another work, in another OPUS, which infinitely transcends, while at the same time it narrowly determines, the perspectives of his individual achievement: the completing of the world. For in presenting the Christian doctrine of salvation, it must not be forgotten that the world, taken as a whole, that is to say in so far as it consists in a hierarchy of souls– which appear only successively, develop only collectively and will be completed only in union– the world, too, undergoes a sort of vast “ontogenesis” (a vast becoming what it is) in which the development of each soul, assisted by the perceptible realities on which it depends, is but a diminished harmonic. Beneath our efforts to put spiritual form into our own lives, the world slowly accumulates, starting with the whole of matter, that which will make of it the Heavenly Jerusalem or New Earth.” (p 23-24; emphasis Teilhard’s)
The both/and, the inclusion of matter and spirit, the building of a soul and the part played in the simultaneous building of the world: how do these become experiential, realities in our lives, rather than remaining separated, conceptual? I feel it happening inside me, things that were once conceptual have become visceral experience. Viscerally then, how to hold what is so broken, so wounded, also part of the whole evolving creation.
How do we grow our capacity to experience wholeness day to day? Notice, experience– consciously — our connection to the vast spectrum of this reality in daily life, and then live it, bring it forth, translate them into our actions and interactions? How do we nourish and support, contribute to, the changing matrix, the new paradigm? How to address the wrenching, heart breaking divide in the midst of such potential beauty? I remember talk of the myriad ways we, as individuals, were each going to respond to these times. The value of those differences, the necessity of them.
I notice myself drawn to keep returning to the basis, to the root, as I interact, in what I do. Listening for something moving in a situation, in a conversation, what is articulating. It has been physically riveting. Listening for how remembering becomes the act of re-membering in any given moment. Leave the cliché and open to the sensation of it. Daily, often very acutely, I consciously feel the loss when I stray from that root; it is a teacher. I am aware of the sorrow, feel the homesickness of being lost, nuts in a crazy world. More and more I am aware of both things at once, the experience of separation and of wholeness as one. Learning to talk about this- how that awareness of the ground, which is inclusive of all matter and spirit, becomes the source of our actions. Noticing that ground at work around and within us. Felt sense. Without needing to be said. There is something already at work. How do we take this up- at the time- right now. Ancient wisdom, but how to experience the truth of it now, live it, in these times, each day.
I appreciate the challenge you are putting forth Cynthia, to create, to act, to converse in ways that acknowledge a greater context, a wholeness of a greater reality that is right here, right now. I loved how Teilhard’s words this morning dovetailed with this discourse. How to not divorce the experience of insight from our living, ongoing, not even necessarily to speak of it directly, but keep it at the heart, the root and ground, of our actions, interactions, responses.
Laura,
Thank you SO much for ferreting out this Teilhardian offering, which somehow I’d overlooked in DM. It’s a brilliant way of talking about incremental personhood without having to hinge the whole case on the developmental soul, which I know is going to sound too esoteric for many traditionally formed Christians. Both Teilhard and Boros were inching their way toward something already hidden in plain sight in the Christian tradition, which Ilia Delio has now named “whole-making.” Her latest book is brilliant on this!
Dear Nashville Laura, I revisited this posting today and just wanted to say how lovely the tone I find in it, deep, with a sustaining sweetness that speaks to really being in an inner conversation with the work in life. I appreciate that so much. Thank you!
With love,
Laura R
Thank you one and all, particularly To John for a very concrete, helpful strategy and to Bill for this profound, beautifully thought out reflection. Together, we’re getting somewhere at last.
What a wonderful and long trail you’ve left for us to consider! And thanks to the many interesting reader comments, especially about the Asian traditions. I would like to suggest that the starting point for coming together is what you said early in the second essay:
“[T]he liminal zones bordering life and death—i.e., what happens before birth or after death—have been regarded as a Mystery entrusted to the great spiritual traditions.”
You went on to suggest that spiritual practitioners eventually acquire some familiarity with these liminal zones. But I would suggest that while there is an arguable uniformity to many reported experiences of the earthly life-to- death zone, there isn’t a similar body of expressed knowledge in respect of the entry into earthly life. Even in Catholic tradition, and harking back to Aristotle, the idea of “delayed ensoulement” held sway for fourteen hundred years ending only in the late 19th century. Views as to when this “ensoulement” happened were not consistent. The diversity of opinion compounds exponentially if we throw in reincarnation. In other words, leave this issue as a “mystery” about which there are various opinions.
At the same time, virtually every religious tradition views the human experience on earth as a journey of actual or potential spiritual development—whether described as an expansion of being, a change of consciousness or adherence to the will of God. Most see this in the context of at least some degree of human freedom.
My suggestion for a dialogue then is to acknowledge the mystery and to place it in the context of human development and freedom and then to ask a broader question about our experience:
In a world of evolution, transformation and death, what is the meaning and practical application of the Fifth Commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.” ?
–What about personal, communal and national defense? When is killing justified? (We’re killing a lot of people these days.)
–What about economic activities with toxic materials that kill unspecified persons-our neighbors- over time?
—What about ecocide and climate change?
—What about systems that deny life-saving medical care for economic reasons (e.g. HIV drugs in Africa, the US insurance system)?
—What about crushing poverty that “kills” the potential for a human’s development?
–What about coercive cultures and virtual slavery that do the same?
—What about economic and technological invasions that left unregulated threaten to “kill” ensouled, older cultures (including fundamentalist communities)?
I think that a wide-ranging dialogue between faith leaders would remind us that in almost no context is the commandment, absolute; that countenancing preventable physical death is commonplace; that room needs to be made for competing clams to “life”, importantly including spiritual life ; and that not the least of these is the claim and right of humans to use their own physical bodies as instruments in their own development.
I think such a dialogue would also force us to confront the realities that we are in a new era where human power to control the material universe and direct individual and collective physical evolution is unprecedented and where the fate of all are visibly and irrevocably intertwined. A dialogue would humble all of us and make it easier to compromise in the face of uncertainty; it would require us to make more subtle discernments and build on our commonalities. Then, much of what you have suggested might come to pass.
Who can start such a dialogue? A more difficult question.
Cynthia, This is such an important question to engage.
I have family members who were persuaded that voting anti-abortion was more important than any other issue at stake in the last election. They have been persuaded that their first concern should be saving the lives of unborn children.
I believe that protecting the environmental is the most important Pro-Life issue of our time and should clearly be part of the conversation as such. Without care for clean air, water, land, and a decrease in carbon emissions, many future generations of children will not have a chance to be born.
I like your original outline, Cynthia and I definitely resonate with the discussions of the developmental soul. These ideas are relatively easy for those of us in the wisdom community. In order to effect change in law, wouldn’t it be necessary to popularize these ideas in some way? You mentioned the entertainment and marketing industries. I believe both of these have been used to popularize ideas. Why not this. Wisdom students in these industries could over time get across some ideas about the soul so it would become easier to have public discourse. I know there are women who owe their spiritual beginnings to Oprah. Just saying, I know it sounds crazy.
I believe we also need to be diligent with language and make sure that when two people say soul, they mean the same thing.
I’d love to be part of continuing discussions on this because I have struggled with it for a long time.
I have little in the way of wisdom to offer for a way forward. I resonate deeply with your attempt to address public ethical concerns from a Wisdom perspective.
As a pastor, I do not feel that I am being faithful to my calling if I fail to speak to these larger societal issues. And yet doing so is fraught with land-mines and pit-falls. I agree that the vacuum is lethal, and I am grateful that you have risked such a careful example of weighing such responsibilities.
Next month, I will experiment with a weekly Wisdom practice of gathering with chanting and silence, and then moving to a discussion of Miroslav Volf’s book, Public Faith in Action, in an attempt to raise the bar for our consideration of ethical issues. Sharing will be along the lines of those in Living School Circle Groups–deep listening, vulnerable and unrehearsed sharing, no cross-talk, fixing or correcting. Thanks again for your courageous and wise leadership.
This seems like a good topic for a different kind of Wisdom School, perhaps one that, in addition to the Work component had small groups wrestling with the issues together. Perhaps a book of essays could come out of that, like a prism that looks at different angles. Your opening up the topic of the soul in what seems to these Western ears is provocative and has great possibilities for all kinds of work in moving forward. Maybe each of these topics is a Wisdom School. So much to ponder . . . .
Thank you for venturing into this subject of abortion that causes such pain and discord. I read this entry almost dispassionately until I reached near the end where you refer to “the unified terrain of the human heart”, and I choked up. This realization is what causes much suffering, I feel. We know on some level that our hearts are one heart, and yet we keep building firewalls around that one unified heart knowing. I have no answers other than to keep looking for that one heart in everyone I converse with. And, that is so difficult for me when the words of conversation devolve into fear laden opinions.
Hello,
Yes, looking for our common one Heart in everybody I meet is also all I can offer at the moment.
I am greatful for this article and this discussion on such a painful and important topic.
Much love,
Annalisa
“I mourned for the full spectrum of aborted life…”
Yes, Julia, yes–and with such depth and beauty of soul. It is only against this backdrop that the abortion issue can really find its true balance and perspective. Thanks for staying with the process so insightfully and courageously.
Cynthia, thank you for sharing your “developing soul” with us all in this brilliant and courageous writing that began with taking on the contentious fetal abortion issue in our time. It has been an exciting ride trying to keep up with you as you have been giving “Abortion” a new home. (Indeed, giving Christianity a new home so that fetal abortion can take its rightful place in the overall scheme of things.
During this week’s installment, as I was reading the first stanza of Laura Gilpin’s poem, my gut seized up so hard that I was unable to breathe. We all know what happens to “freaks of nature.” After catching my breath, I read on only to breakdown in tears. From your contextualization of the poem, I guessed I was having my personal response to “duration of time.” I was thrilled by Van Gogh’s starry night that gave balm to the two-headed calf during her one night of life, but even with that the Grip and Release continued for some time It felt like I was in the throes of childbirth. I rode it our until forms began to emerge.
Then the words Aborted Potential popped out and demanded to be heard. I began mourning for all the aborted potential that came up. I saw meandering rivers damned lifeless, the right brains of children rejected, adults conditioned to ignore the wisdom of their bodies, first nations virtual identities stolen. I saw so much of life cut short of reaching its potential. The full maturation process held in captivity over and over again by bad decisions, ignorance, greed or wilful cruelty, within a nation born on compromised soil and perverted values. I mourned for the full spectrum of aborted life. And now, in our present climate, we witness aborting as a way of life.
Then I read on and was filled by much gratitude with the idea of a “developing soul” and how much good can come from this process but wondering how to help get our cultural soil turned over to receive such an idea. I guess that answer is in all of us. We do the work day by day by fully embracing the maturing process. Thank God for the connection to the Wisdom work.
With love, Julia
Cynthia–thanks for this post. I don’t see this in writing very often. The face that God turns to us is always one of love. But love does not coerce relationship. We must choose to be in relationship. If we have free will in ultimate decisions then we must be able to choose to be in relationship with God or not. If we are to be co-creators with God then there must be creation in our journey–the developing soul. I think that the perceived conflict comes in with the emphasis on salvation as a prize/reward and its accompanying moral judgement as well as the specter of hell that still haunts our collective consciousness. Love is its own reward and that which is of God is eternal. I don’t think God ever turns away from us but we can and do turn away from God. But as Cynthia has wisely stated the road is not easy and sooner or later for the soul to grow and the relationship with God to deepen we must, as Bruno Barnhart says, learn to bear the weight of our divine vocation. The path of “conscious labor and intentional suffering” yields the most fruit but I am convinced that growth happens even when we are not “awake” so long as our suffering brings us to greater compassion for the world.
These reflections are such a gift, Laura. Thank you.
ps I have been watching our small herd of sheep for years now, as the flock moves through time, babies coming in and growing up, some stay and some go, the old matriarchs dying, the rams leaving when they become dangerous to all. They are domesticated, and yet they very much have a life of their own, a nucleus that is sheep, not human. We are not at the center of their lives, the flock is the center. When a sheep (singular or plural the word remains sheep) is dying the flock is very interested and stays close, just as they do when someone is giving birth, or when someone strays or gets stuck on the other side of the fence (which can cause quite the commotion).
Once death is final however the flock moves on and no longer hangs around, there seems to be little interest in the body suddenly, after the great and serious curiousity beforehand. A very young one may come back to check it out, but even that is short lived. Immediately there is an interesting reconfiguring where the roles shift, a new matriarch steps up, often there are little personality changes. The death of a lamb can live a bit longer in the ewe who has lost, but the flock moves in and surrounds her, almost moving her along with them as they find their new order with the new arrivals.
What continually amazes me is how much they are a flock. How they move the way a fall flock of birds flying moves across the sky forming and reforming, an elastic, expanding and contracting membrane. The sheep do that as well over the course of a day in the field, over the course of years. It is beautiful really. And though there are individuals to be sure, the flock itself is an organism that those individuals serve, a collective, that moves with the ebb and flow of life and death, reconfiguring the balance naturally and with little fanfare so that no role is left untended.
Ahhhhh such deep mystical resonance I experience as I read this. YES! Inviting us into the SCALE of Wisdom. To deeply know ourselves as HELD in this endless hologram of LOVE…knowing that ‘nothing can fall out of God’…as you, Cynthia, and Julian of Norwich (and other mystics) before you, have reminded us. Thank you for this ‘poetic interlude’….I felt invited into a pause of DEEP spaciousness. Took me back to Babette’s Feast, highlighted in your Mystical Hope book…where General Lowenhielm rises and offers this toast:
Mercy and Truth have met together. Righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another (Psalm 85). Man in his weakness and shortsightedness believes he must make choices in this life. He trembles at the risk he takes. We do know fear. But no. Our choice is of no importance. There comes a time when our eyes are opened. And we come to realize that mercy is infinite. We need only await it with confidence and receive it with gratitude. Mercy imposes no conditions.
And lo! Everything we have chosen has been granted to us. And everything we rejected has also been granted. Yes, we get back even what we rejected. For mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and bliss shall kiss one another. (p61 & 62)
Thank you Cynthia
Gorgeous Laura! Thanks for catapulting me right back to Stonington!
I have just read these words for the first time, and am writing through tears in response. In our group of seven “Meditations on the Tarot” study group yesterday we were touching on questions of what is resolved and unresolved in a life, what remains mystery, how to remember the light in the depths of darkness. It was surfacing as a life challenge in a way, how do we meet these inexplictable moments- and patterns in our lives- that hurt, the painful times that call for an arising, a steadying within, sometimes taking years to muster the courage and depth of heart to stand with. But it all lands ultimately right here in the center of this truth: how to not separate anything from God. How to remain true, moment by moment, to what we know, that nothing falls out of God. “We are pouring from fullness to fullness here” and “nothing can fall out of God” …or “ever pass from the knowingness of God.” I need these poetic interludes! They give me courage and and comfort the parts that feel separated and alone. The promise of cosmic fullness helps me feel the truth of it, the container of it, and offers perspective, to whatever degree of soul is growing within. The image of the soul developing for cosmic service feeds and anchors me in this small boat, knowing there are so many and we all have a part no matter, and I feel the swell of waters that have no end beneath and within and all around me. And I feel part of and companioned in God. What a beautiful morning meditation. Deep thanks, and with love, Laura
This lovely, poetic post brought to mind the story of the encounter of Buddhist John Blofeld with a Taoist Sage (From the book, “The Secret and the Sublime”)
***********
Tseng Lao-weng’s talk of rivers flowing into the ocean had put me in mind of Sir Edwin Arnold’s lovely expression of the mystery of Nirvana, ‘the dew-drop slips into the shining sea,’ which I had long accepted as a poetical description of that moment when the seeming-individual, at least free from the shackles of the ego, merges with the Tao- the Void. This I knew to be an intensely blissful experience, but it was Tseng Lao-weng who now revealed its shining splendour in terms that made my hear leap. Afterwards I wondered whether Sir Edwin Arnold himself had realized the full purport of his words. At a certain moment in our conversation when Tseng Lao-weng paused expectantly, I translate the beautifulline for him and was rewarded by a smile of pleasure and surprised. Eyes glowing, he replied:
“My country men are wrong to speak of the Western Ocean People as barbarians. Your poet’s simile is penetrating – exalted! And yet it does not capture the whole; for, when a lesser body of water enters a greater, though the two are thenceforth inseparable, the smaller constitutes but a fragment of the whole. But consider the Tao, which transcends both finite and infinite. Since the Tao is All and nothing lies outside it, since its multiplicity and unity are identical, when a finite being sheds the illusion of separate existence, he is not lost in the Tao like a dewdrop merging with the sea; by casting off his imaginary limitations, becomes immeasurable. No longer bound by the worldly categories, ‘part’ and ‘whole,’ he discovers that he is coextensive with the Tao. Plunge the finite into the infinite and, though only one remains, the finite, far from being diminished, takes on the stature of infinite. Mere logicians would find fault with this, but if you perceive the hidden meaning you will laugh at their childish cavils. Such perception will bring you face ot face with the true secret cherished by all accomplished sages – glorious, dazzling, vast, hardly conceivable! The mind of one who Returns to the Source thereby becomes the Source. Your own mind, for example, is destined to become the universe itself!’
His wise old eyes, now lit with joyous merriment, bored into mine. For a fleeting moment, I was able to share in the vastness of his inner vision. The bliss was so shattering that I was compelled to lower my gaze. For a person in my state of unpreparedness, prolongation of that flash of limitless insight would have been more than flesh and blood could bear.
Cynthia, I am blown away by these last two posts. Not so much from the abortion question (in Canada its a non-issue, and I believe most of the pushback comes from early modern control issues, at best), but for the spiritual direction.
Precision of language yields clarity of thinking. The first one is relatively easy; life is ever present from the Big Bang on (at least).
The distinction between individual and person/ soul/ 2nd body, with the implied developmental journey, is for me the essential one and the light-bulb. The eastern traditions acknowledge ‘this precious human birth’ not for its inherent suffering, but for the opportunity to realize enlightenment – an opportunity not given to the other realms, not even the god realms or the hell realms. We have just the right amount of suffering – not too little, not too much!
The question for me is, from a Christian wisdom perspective, if we are each loved individually, and most of us don’t have the ‘luck or tenacity’ to develop a soul? – what of this love?
So grateful for this writing 🙂 – meg
Thank you
Dear Cynthia,
I imagine other students of yours and readers of your works will find within themselves—as I have—a deep confirmation of the truth as it is expressed here. But this is much more than an intellectual assent to the concepts presented; this is a profound embodied affirmation that this reality is being lived into in our lives right now. The substance theology in which I was educated and trained cannot reach me where I am living now. (Although I am grateful for all the twists and turns that have brought me to this moment.) My heart, mind, and body resonate to this deeper truth. Thank you, Cynthia.
Bill Redfield
Thank you so much, Laura, for this moving summary of what transpired at Stonington. Your words are poetic and inspiring and the photos beautiful. What a privilege and a responsability to have formed part of that community grounded in Teilhard’s and Cynthia’s wisdom at living the heart-felt path of consciousness. Your writing helps me to prepare my body ‘to bear that consciousness’.
You’ve captured the essence,Marcella. It’s like being there all over again!
The soul begins as a tiny seed, fragile, yet immortal. For some, it may lie dormant for a lifetime weighted down by circumstances and the concrete blocks of indifference. The heavy asphalt parking lots of every day human struggle have blocked out the life-giving sun. Eventually, however, concret and asphalt will crack and split, and in the fissures, green will begin to pop up, reaching quickly toward the light, making up for lost time. In our eventual destination, the landscape of eternity and infinity, the shoots will become as the California oak, both branches and root systems intertwined, pulsing to gether with one deep green heart.
This was whispered to me in the hours after midnight. The whisperer was none other but my own soul, giving me a peek into its own wobbly journey.
As usual, my friend, you are taking us into deeper and deeper waters that will sustain us. I am in awe and appreciation for your wisdom that keeps following the golden thread.
With great affection,
Patricia
Thank you, Cynthia, for this comment. Something very true that I haven’t seen in your previous writings seems spelled out here in your relatively simple and yet deeply alluring description. It rings true, yet comes across as new and fresh. It’s both sobering and enticing because it connects my daily actions with the mythical vertical dimension. It’s a cosmology that accounts for full divine freedom (spirit), natural processes of genetic inheritance (essence), and total human responsibility and effort (heart). I am quickened by reading it to consider all aspects of this coming together, realizing that my choices today play a role in the “ultimate desideratum” of entering the imaginal realm’s wedding banquet with the requisite attire; therefore, my life can been seen to extend to the infinite. I’m grateful to have this Wisdom understanding shared with such clarity.
Looking forward to convening with you all tomorrow am at 07.00 MST.
Thank you Cynthia, I am spending a little time with Essence, Spirit and Heart being the three forces that manifest the new arising of Soul. And it is funny that I find a degree of comfort in the process being one of creation out of what is given rather randomly coupled with the nudge from the divine dancing within the field of the very specific nature of an individual doing their work polishing the heart. I think the Divine Dancer may answer my personal question, and inclination, about what is already known, what already dwells within. It reminds me of the secret place where my being is in conversation with God.. and that door I do not believe is ever closed, pre-conception, life or after death; just as I do not believe that implies a human being has easy access to that inner room, or is even conscious of the door. What bountiful surprise life is capable of, what limitless sorrow. This feels like another way of being in direct relationship with the creation to me, an on-going work.
An on-going work that really is about so much more than myself. In fact I believe I am discovering that as I grow I am growing into a visceral relationship with being as a cosmic particle of a more complex incarnate being, also part of an interweaving of greater incarnate being, also part of an on-going creation…
I have a card on my desk from the Lao Tzu that reads: The work is accomplished. Lasting and forgotten. Day by day, piece by piece, I am aware of the creation of being. Cycles of movement and rest. I truly marvel at times at how hardship has been taskmaster and teacher. As I enter my 60’s deep gratitude has arisen for it; in fact I am helpless before it, it is very strong. There is a relief around the starkness and bounty of the relativity, how “lasting” and how “forgotten” it all is. That “nothing is wasted” and yet, to “engage the real task of spiritual germination” is profound sacred ground. Our hunting grounds.
It is true, in light of these realities, the mystery you spoke about earlier in the series rises on the horizon and brightens and I am humbled. Like putting on the glasses to watch the eclipse. We are only capable of seeing so much. The question how another human being makes a decision about an abortion, or how a person chooses to deal with the end of their life, becomes the business of a soul and God in that individual’s inner room. How can we judge, when Essence and Spirit bump up against one another in the human heart of any individual human being? And in a way, how can we contain our joy? The sorrow is always there, but there is effortless joy surfacing in that dynamic relational mystery as well.
Thanks again Cynthia, for your courage to put yourself out there, and bring up these realities in conjunction with the particular issues rising in the cracks of the social divide in our times. With love, Laura
Someone on Bernardo Kastrup’s form asked me to say a bit about maintaining awareness after the death of the body. It struck me this might relate to this blog post, so, sorry if it appears opaque – I just dashed it out and the cafe really is about to close in 5 minutes, but here goes:
oh my goodness, you’re going to make me work hard! One-who-doesn’t-know.
I’m in the midst of preparing for a psych eval tomorrow, so I shouldn’t be spending too much time on this…..
I’m also thinking I should wait for Peter to respond….. (though I’m in a pretty good mood, having just spent $700+ bucks on an Apollo Twin audio interface which turns out to be MUCH better than the Arpeggio Duet I was using – and I am finding the voice quality to be excellent WITHOUT adding EQ prior to recording!)
There, how’s that for mystery!
I don’t know, here’s the best I can do without taking more than a few minutes.
I suspect, from whatever little I understand, that it’s VERY much like maintaining awareness through sleep and dreams (at least, that’s what the Tibetans tell us).
I had a 6 month research project back in 1991 where I taught 12 people to have lucid dreams. Half of them learned to maintain awareness from waking into the dream state.
Here’s a little what it’s like.
If you are deeply relaxed without losing conscious awareness (ordinary mental consciousness, that is), you can see images forming which at first are rather psychedelic, but then become more and more orderly and 3-D, and if you don’t lose awareness, you’ll suddenly find yourself “in” the scene you’ve been previously observing as a witness.
Now, if you stay alert, the “you” or “me” that you were when waking is clearly experienced as “different” from the “me” of the dream. You may even see the body – say, “Don’s’ body – as an inextricable part of the whole dream. Then you can choose to let the dream dissolve, and you are absorbed into White Light.
Now, at first the Light seems to be formless and quality-less. But if you are able to stay alert, it is felt, directly, not with mental interpretation, as filled with infinite potential forms, a kind of symphony of cosmic “vibrations,” rhythms, harmonies, which at times may seem to be urging, moving toward forms of the more conventional kind that we take to be the rocks, trees, plants, rivers, planets, stars, of our conventional world.
You can let this form, “return” (you’ve never left or gone anywhere, but words are almost impossible for this), to “waking consciousness,” but if you maintain connection with that Light, it is as though there is a song, or really, a symphony of symphonies, which IS – or ARE? – the various “objects” – whether “material” or mental or emotional or whatever words you want to use. If you read a few lines of Savitri – I recommend the opening few pages of Book 1, Canto 4 – and read them out loud, VERY VERY VERY VERY slowly, as rhythms, without caring in the least what they mean, you may start to feel a rhythm which can extend outward and become the very substance of the pages of the book, the room or ground or body around and in you, and thoughts and images and whatever else is awaring or consciring the world into Being, and there may be a sense of how the individual can be the whole world without being any less the individual or the Absolute.
Ok, Barnes and Noble cafe is closing and gotta go. And I still have to prepare the eval. Darn!:>))))))))))
I will sit with you from Raleigh and will invite others to join as well. Thank you!
All I can say is a humble ‘thank you’ for so clearly, concisely and graciously taking the time to share the fruit of your work with us. You have placed words on my long held intuition that there has to be something MORE to this impasse. It is utterly essential and will more deeply inform my practice as a healthcare professional and student of Wisdom.
This is a real cliff hanger! I will be faced with waiting for the next installment.
Hi Don
I hope a lot of your confusion will clear up when we get to the next installment. Note here that I’m merely summarizing traditional Catholic teaching here, not setting it forth as my own personal belief. When I refer to this idea as “steeped in substance theology,” I believe I’m acknowledging the same point you’re making when you say “What if being is non-spatial and non-temporal?” Traditional Western metaphysical categories have tended to think in terms of being having “substance”–i.e., a self-defining suchness or even “thing-ness” that confers its identity. This is precisely the starting assumption so up for grabs in the contemporary dialogue with science and with other metaphysical models.
But I should warn you, that I’m not into Eastern advaitic models, a la Ramana Maharshi or Sri Aurobindo. At least they do not principally inform my own thinking. They seem in their own way metaphysically monological, assuming the existence of categories of Being that would be as up for grabs in the present dialogue with the postmodern world as any other set of philosophically derived stipulations. I think if you keep trying to take my comments back to known advaitic reference points, you’re forcing the fit and will continue to experience confusion/frustration. Rather, see if you can stay with the unfolding on its own terms and see where it leads when I fill in more of the picture next week.
By the way, my definition of life which you found so problematic (again, by starting with philosophical categories positing an infinite being or fullness) is informed substantially by Adrian Bejan in his book DESIGN IN NATURE. A Duke University professor of Engineering and avowed agnostic, Bejan has pioneered what he calls “The Constructal Law” studying how flow works in all finite systems, whether organic, inorganic, or informational. Thus, he can conclude, “To be alive is to keep on flowing and morphing.” (p. 6). This “bottom-up” rather than “top-down” benchmark for the presence of life allows us even more strongly to extricate life from merely a biological phenomenon and relocate it with the basic dynamism/intelligence/purposiveness of all created forms. This is indeed a bottom-up model, not dependent on the stipulation that there is first a conscious “ground of being” or “platonic ideal” which becomes the causal ground for all finite activity. Two different ways of looking at things, for sure.
I don’t necessarily deny the existence of ideal forms and a conscious ground of eternal, infinite fullness. But like Occam’s Razor, I’d prefer to start with the simplest, most immediately verifiable explanations for the beingness we witness around us and participate in breath by breath—rather than starting with a stipulated metaphysical reality and forcing all the pieces to accommodate around it. Too much Christian Science in my childhood to wanna go there again!
Wow, thanks for an amazing, detailed response. Much appreciated.
My confusion was seeing what appeared to me to be classical theism mixed with what I had assumed was your nondual Christianity. You acknowledgement of starting out with traditional teaching cleared up the confusion.
I realize this is getting rather far afield from your topic, so I’ll just address two other points briefly:
As for Bejan being agnostic, I’m afraid I’ve rarely met an agnostic that isn’t a physicalist in drag. I often find it worth pondering Owen Barfield’s pregnant phrase: “the residue of unresolved positivism”
Finally, assuming you aren’t taking your view of Sri Aurobindo from Ken Wilber (who, though presenting himself as an expert, has admitted he hasn’t actually read any of Sri Aurobindo’s writings), it would be impossible for me to put in my own words the infinite worlds between Maharshi’s Advaita and Sri Aurobindo’s evolutionary vision, so I”ll leave you with this, from Book III, Canto 2, of Savitri (for more on the mysterious Black Fire that burns at the heart of every atom, every subatomic particle, I recommend Krishna Prem’s commentary on that great postmodern treatise, The Katha Upanishad (circa 800 BC); available for free on the net):
The Power, the Light, the Bliss no word can speak
Imaged itself in a surprising beam
And built a golden passage to his heart
Touching through him all longing sentient things.
A moment’s sweetness of the All-Beautiful
Cancelled the vanity of the cosmic whirl.
A Nature throbbing with a Heart divine
Was felt in the unconscious universe;
It made the breath a happy mystery.
A love that bore the cross of pain with joy
Eudaemonised the sorrow of the world,
Made happy the weight of long unending Time,
The secret caught of God’s felicity.
…
A Heart was felt in the spaces wide and bare,
A burning Love from white spiritual founts
Annulled the sorrow of the ignorant depths;
Suffering was lost in her immortal smile.
A Life from beyond grew conqueror here of death;
To err no more was natural to mind;
Wrong could not come where all was light and love.
The Formless and the Formed were joined in her:
Immensity was exceeded by a look,
A Face revealed the crowded Infinite.
…
Hers is the mystery the Night conceals;
The spirit’s alchemist energy is hers;
She is the golden bridge, the wonderful fire.
The luminous heart of the Unknown is she,
A power of silence in the depths of God;
She is the Force, the inevitable Word,
The magnet of our difficult ascent,
The Sun from which we kindle all our suns,
The Light that leans from the unrealised Vasts,
The joy that beckons from the impossible,
The Might of all that never yet came down.
All Nature dumbly calls to her alone
To heal with her feet the aching throb of life
And break the seals on the dim soul of man
And kindle her fire in the closed heart of things.
All here shall be one day her sweetness’ home,
All contraries prepare her harmony;
Towards her our knowledge climbs, our passion gropes;
In her miraculous rapture we shall dwell,
Her clasp shall turn to ecstasy our pain.
I’m in. And a deep bow to the bring forth of this idea for the Divine.
Sorry, that was supposed to be:
“Ramana Maharshi attempts to convey THE distinction…”
Which are the prior two installments?
Good to point this out. Both installments can be found on this site. The first one posted on July 17th is entitled “A Surprising Ecumenism…” and the second one is “Abortion, Pro-Life, and the Secular State: A Modest Proposal” which was posted on July 25th.
Cynthia,
I have a specific question. I realize it may sound like a purely speculative question, but I think it has powerful practical implications (it also may sound “challenging,” but I am genuinely confused!).
You say the soul is “created” at or near conception.
Can you explain how this relates to a non dual view? The practical implications, to me, stem from the apparent absence of an eternal (non temporal, not endless in time) aspect of the Being (or soul).
It seems that the question of abortion (and every other moral question) changes 100% if our “essence of Being” is non-temporal and non-spatial. The very foundation of the question of evil changes too.
Perhaps I’m misunderstanding what it means for a soul to be created?
The following passage may convey more clearly my confusion about this issue:
*****
“In the following passage, the Indian sage Ramana Maharshi attempts to convey he distinction between the deeper consciousness – that of the Infinite Knower – and the separative egos consciousness. He does so in response to someone simply having said, “I have come here from far away”
‘That is not the truth. Where is a ‘coming’ or ‘going or any movement whatever, for the one, all-pervading Spirit [the Infinite Knower] which you really are? You are where you have always been. it is your body that moved or was conveyed from pace to place till it reached [here]. The is the simple truth, but to a person who considers himself a [separately existing] subject living in an objective world, it appears as something altogether visionary.’
(From pg. 263: “Yoga Psychology and the Transformation of Consciousness”)
Fascinating thoughts, though I perhaps am misunderstanding some terms, as I tend to find the Indian understanding of “life” and soul more comprehensive and integral than most of what I’ve found in the Western tradition – but, since I could very well be misunderstanding what you say, let me investigate a bit
Starting at the end, the description you make of the “developmental soul” has been part of the Mahayana tradition for over 2000 years. Alan Wallace speaks of it as the “substrate” consciousness – which is associated with the animal evolution, then with humans, and will be associated with whatever species emerges that transcends humans. Robert Thurman, who has studied Sri Aurobindo’s terminology as well as being a life-long student of Tibetan Buddhism, agrees that this term is similar – though not exactly the same – as Sri Aurobindo’s ‘psychic being.”
Sri Aurobindo makes a distinction between the “psychic entity” – or Divine Soul – and the psychic being, which seems to relate to what you call the developmental soul.
Of course, this wouldn’t be “bestowed at conception” – but as far as I know, rebirth was a commonly accepted understanding for several centuries among the early Desert Fathers (and, I imagine, Mothers), so, I don’t think this is necessarily a major difficulty (though it were widely accepted, it wouldn’t necessarily end the abortion debate – Thurman himself is strongly against abortion, though he is pro-choice – after all, if a lama has chosen a particular birth as a way to return, abortion doesn’t “kill” the Soul (as if the infinite, eternal Soul could be killed!), but it does deprive the evolving psychic being of a specifically chosen manifestation).
So far so good.
The problem I have is with the definition of life, as “flow, dynamism, and intelligent purposiveness.” If there is nothing remotely like the 19th century notion of self-existent matter, then there is no such thing as a “purely biological phenomenon,” if “biology” is considered, as Richard Lewontin thinks of it, as purely material (Lewontin is the biologist who famously declared, [paraphrased]: “I don’t care if materialism is utterly irrational and incoherent, we must support it no matter what, because the alternative [religion] is so much worse”).
From the Vedantic view, when Being manifests (which is an eternal reality, not really a “when”), the Cosmic “Word,” or Cosmic Harmony manifests a perfect reflection of an infinitesimal portion of that Infinite, Unthinkable Being, without in any way disconnecting from that Infinite Reality. In our current state of Avidya/Ignorance/Sin, from that Cosmic Harmony, the limited mind provides shapes which appear to be independent or separate, the life-energy (which is not at all the pseudo-materialistic vital force of the 19th century biologists) is an intermediate reality between the separating mind and the “result” of the projection of the Cosmic Word, the sensory appearances which we have deluded ourselves into believing to be independent physical “stuff” of some kind.
Excellent. Can’t wait for the next installment!
hmm, one more – I guess what I got from that is, identification in the Ignorance means being lost in the appearance, taking the phenomenon for the Reality.
Divine identification means knowing the Divine, identifying with the Divine in the tree, the sky, etc.
of course, all words are problematic, because it sounds in the previous sentence like I’m separating the Divine and the tree, or the Divine and the sky. It might be better to say knowing the tree AS the Divine, but this only has meaning if read with a totally silent mind! (silent, meaning, disidentifying from the mind:>)) tricky, tricky words!)
Hi again:
I was thinking about this issue of identification and non-identification, and some potential confusions with the terms came to mind.
I remember when I first came across the Gurdjieff work in 1971, the whole idea of non-identification sounded dualistic to me. “I” am here and what I am identified with is “there” and I’m trying to separate myself from it. I puzzled over this until I came across someone who clarified it for me.
The Mother (the previously referred to Mirra Alfassa) had undertaken an extensive study of Western occultism before coming to India. She did this in the 1890s and early 1900s, so it would have been before Gurdjieff was well known. But she lived for some years in Paris, where Gurdjieff groups first flourished in the 1920s, so it’s possible she was familiar with some of the same sources as Gurdjieff (though I know he was alleged to have learned much in North Africa as well as Central Asia).
This passage, from one of her writings, was very helpful to me in clarifying the non dualist/dualist meaning of **both** identification and non-identification:
KNOWLEDGE BY UNITY
Consciousness is the faculty of becoming aware of anything whatsoever through identification with it. But the divine consciousness is not only aware but knows and effects. For, mere awareness is not knowledge. To become aware of a vibration, for instance, does not mean that you know everything about it. Only when the consciousness participates in the divine consciousness docs it get full knowledge by identification with the object.
Ordinarily, identification leads to ignorance rather than knowledge, for the consciousness is lost in what it becomes and is unable to envisage proper causes, concomitants and consequences. Thus you identify yourself with a movement of anger and your whole being becomes one angry vibration, blind and precipitate, oblivious of everything else, It is only when you stand back, remain detached in the midst of the passionate turmoil that you are able to see the process with a knowing eye. So knowledge in the ordinary state of being is to be obtained rather by stepping back from a phenomenon, to watch it without becoming identified with it. But the divine consciousness identifies itself with its object and knows it thoroughly, because it always becomes one with the essential truth or law inherent in each fact. And it not only knows, but, by knowing, brings about what it wants. To be conscious is for it to be effective—each of its movements being a flash of omnipotence which, besides illumining blazes its way ultimately to the goal dictated by its truth-nature.
Your ordinary consciousness is very much mixed up with unconsciousness—it fumbles, strains and is thwarted, while by unity with the Supreme you share the Supreme Nature and get the full knowledge whenever you turn to observe any object and identify yourself with it. Of course, this does not necessarily amount to embracing all the contents of the divine consciousness. Your movements become true, but you do not possess all the manifold riches of the Divine’s activity. Still, within your sphere, you are able to see correctly and according to the truth of things— which is certainly more than what is called in yogic parlance knowledge by identity. For, the kind of identification taught by many disciplines extends your limits of perception without piercing to the innermost heart of an object: it sees from within it, as it were, but only its phenomenal aspect. For example, if you identify yourself with a tree you become aware in the way in which a tree is aware of itself, yet you do not come to know everything about a tree for the simple reason that it is itself not possessed of such knowledge.
You do share the tree’s inner feeling, but you certainly do not understand the truth it stands for, any more than by being conscious of your own nature self you possess at once the divine reality which you secretly are. Whereas if you arc one with the divine consciousness, you know—over and above how the tree feels—what the truth behind it is, in short, you know everything, because the divine consciousness knows everything.
Indeed, there are many means of attaining this unity. It may be done through aspiration, or surrender, or some other method. Each followed with persistence and sincerity leads to it. Aspiration is the dynamic push of your whole nature behind the resolution to reach the Divine. Surrender, on the other hand, may be defined as the giving up of the limits of your ego. To surrender to the Divine is to renounce your narrow limits and let yourself be invaded by it and made a centre for its play. But you must bear in mind that the universal consciousness so beloved of Yogis is not the Divine: you can break your limits horizontally if you like, but you will be quite mistaken if you take the sense of wideness and cosmic multiplicity to be the Divine. The universal movement is after all a mixture of falsehood and truth, so that to stop there is to be imperfect; for, you may very well share the cosmic consciousness without ever attaining the transcendent Truth. On the other hand, to go to the Divine is also to attain the universal realisation and yet remain free of falsehood.
The real bar to self-surrender, whether to the Universal or to the Transcendent, is the individual’s love of his own limitations. It is a natural love, since in the very formation of the individual being there is a tendency to concentrate on limits. Without that, there would be no sense of separateness—all would be mixed, as happens quite often in the mental and vital movements of consciousness. It is the body especially which preserves separative individuality by not being so fluid. But once this separateness is established, there creeps in the fear of losing it—a healthy instinct in many respects, but misapplied with regard to the Divine. For, in the Divine you do not really lose your individuality: you only give up your egoism and become the true individual, the divine personality which is not temporary like the construction of the physical consciousness which is usually taken for your self. One touch of the divine consciousness and you will see immediately that there is no loss in it.
On the contrary, you acquire a true individual permanence which can survive a hundred deaths of the body and all the vicissitudes of the vital-mental evolution. Without this transfiguring touch, you always go about in fear; with it, you gradually develop the power to make even your physical being plastic without losing its individuality. Even now, it is not entirely rigid, it is able to feel the conscious movements of others by a sort of sympathy which translates itself into nervous reactions to their joys and sufferings: it is also able to express your inner movements—it is well known that the face is an index and mirror to the mind. But only the divine consciousness can make the body responsive enough to reflect all the movements of the supramental immortality and be an expression of the true soul and, by being divinised, reach the acme of the supreme individuality which can even physically rise superior to the necessity of death and dissolution.
In conclusion, I should like to draw your attention to one point for it very frequently obstructs true union. It is a great error to suppose that the Divine Will is always acting openly in the world. All that happens is not, in fact, divine: the Supreme Will is distorted in the manifestation owing to the combination of lower forces which translate it. They are the medium which falsifies its impetus and gives it an undivine result. If all that happened were indeed the flawless translation of it, how could you account for the distortions of the world? Not that the Divine Will could not have caused the cosmic Ignorance. It is omnipotent and all possibilities arc inherent in it: it can work out anything of which it sees the secret necessity in its original vision. And the first cause of the world is, of course, the Divine, though we must take care not to adjudge this fact mentally according to our petty ethical values. But once the conditions of the cosmos were laid down and the involution into nescience accepted as the basis of a progressive manifestation of the Divine out of all that seemed its very opposite, there took place a sort of division between the Higher and the Lower.
The history of the world became a battle between the True and the False, in which the details are not all direct representations of the Divine’s progressive action but rather distortions of it owing to the mass of resistance offered by the inferior Nature. If there were so such resistance, there would be nothing whatever to conquer in the world, for the world would be harmonious, a constant passage from one perfection to another instead of the conflict which it is—a game of hazards and various possibilities in which the Divine faces real oppositions, real difficulty and often real temporary defeat on the way to the final victory. It is just this reality of the whole play that makes it no mere jest. The Divine Will actually suffers distortion the moment it touches the hostile forces in the Ignorance. Hence we must never slacken our efforts to change the world and bring about a different order. We must be vigilant to co-operate with the Divine and not placidly think that whatever happens is always the best. All depends upon the personal attitude.
If, in the presence of circumstances that are on the point of occurring, you take the highest possible attitude—that is to say, if you put your consciousness in contact with the highest consciousness within your reach— you can be absolutely certain that in such a case what happens is the best that can happen to you. But as soon as you fall from this consciousness and come down into a lower state, then it is evident that what happens cannot be the best, since you are not in your best consciousness. As Sri Aurobindo once said, “What happened had to happen, but it could have been much better.” Because the person to whom it happened was not in his highest consciousness, there was no other consequence possible; but if he had brought about a descent of the Divine, then, even if the situation in general had been inevitable, it would have turned out in a different way. What makes all the difference is how you receive the impulsion of the Divine Will.
You must rise very high before you can meet this Will in its plenary splendour of authenticity; not before you open your lower nature to it can it begin to manifest in terms of the Truth. You must, therefore, refrain from applying the merely Nietzschean standard of temporary success in order to differentiate the Divine from the undivine. For, life is a battlefield in which the Divine succeeds in detail only when the lower nature is receptive to its impulsions instead of siding with the hostile forces. And even then the test is not so much external as internal: a divine movement cannot be measured by apparent signs—it is a certain kind of vibration that indicates its presence—external tests are of no avail, since even what is in appearance a failure may be in fact a divine achievement. … What you have to do is to give yourself up to the Grace of the Divine; for, it is under the form of Grace, of Love, that it has consented to uplift the universe after the first involution was established. With the Divine Love is the supreme power of transformation. It has this power because it is for the sake of Transformation that it has given itself to the world and manifested everywhere. Not only has it infused itself into man, but also into all the atoms of the most obscure Matter in order to bring the world back to the original Truth. It is this descent that is called the supreme sacrifice in the Indian scriptures. But it is a sacrifice only from the human point of view; the human mind thinks that if it had to do such a thing it would be a tremendous sacrifice.
But the Divine cannot really be diminished, its infinite essence can never become less, no matter what “sacrifices” arc made … The moment you open to the Divine Love, you also receive its power of Transformation. But it is not in terms of quantity that you can measure it; what is essential is the true contact; for, you will find that the true contact with it is sufficient to fill at once the whole of your being.
Thanks. Great idea. Count me in.
Wow, Don! This is incredibly powerful and moving. And Louise, it’s a pretty intense introduction to what “non-identification” means. Thank you.
I first encountered Krishna Prem in January, 1975. I saw a copy of his Bhagavad Gita commentary at Weiser’s, on Broadway in NYC, then the 2nd largest “occult-spiritual” bookstore in the world (Watkins, in London, was, I think, the largest).
I still remember vividly starting around 3 PM, reading straight through into the night, then going back and reading through the whole book again without sleeping. I read it everyday for at least the next 20 years, and to date, it still strikes me as one of the greatest spiritual books of the past 100 years (it was written as a series of commentaries for a Vaishnava – Devotional Hinduism – journal in the 1930s). That book, as well as his commentary on the Katha Upanishad, are both available for free online. His “Initiation Into Yoga’ includes a wonderful biography of his life, and some of the essays written in the 1920s that made some of the greatest yogis in India consider him to be one of their own.
I mentioned Ramana Maharshi’s estimation of him. Sri Aurobindo, who, though an Indian native was educated in England, said that Krishna Prem’s astonishing capacity for surrender to God had amazed him, as Sri Aurobindo himself recalled having been “modernized” enough to find surrender (along with the corollary ‘non-identification’) extremely difficult.
There’s a beautiful vignette of Krishna Prem going before Mirra Alfassa (also known as “the Mother” of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram) for darshan (“Darshan,” traditionally, is an outer ritual symbolizing surrender to the Divine). As he stood before her, she asked him, “What do you want?” Without any hesitation, he replied, “To give myself [to God].”
The Mother was known – at least, among the Zen Buddhists who saw her as a fully awakened sage, the Christians who met her and esteemed her as a saint, among many others – as someone who could look into the very depths of one’s soul.
She looked at him intensely, and then said, “But you *have* given yourself.”
“Not enough,” was his immediately, unself-conscious reply.
MIrra later said that rarely had two simple words moved her so deeply.
This is something written over 80 years ago, by Ronald Nixon, later known as Sri Krishna Prem. Ramana Maharshi called him a “rare combination of Jnani (sage) and bhakta (devotee). Sri Aurobindo and the Mother both admired him greatly for his astonishing (for a westerner) capacity for utter and complete surrender to the Divine.
Ronald Nixon was a British man who followed the wife of the chancellor of Lucknow University to a remote Ashram in the Himalayas. He revered her for the rest of his life as a woman and rare spiritual stature. He wrote some of the most beautiful spiritual books of the 20th century, and was greatly admired by such people as Ramana Maharshi and Sri Aurobindo. He was given the name “Sri Krishna Prem.”
Among the many of his inspiring writings, this short essay, originally published more than 80 years ago, has a startling relevance to the events of recent weeks (well, actually, to just about everything happening in the last 80 or 800 or 8000 years!!)
THE VIOLENCE OF WAR
By Sri Krishna Prem
Wars are psychic events that have their birth in the souls of men. We like to put the blame for them upon the shoulders our favorite scapegoat, upon imperialism, nationalism, communism, or capitalism, whichever be our chosen bogey. Not any or all of these are really responsible, but we ourselves we harmless folk who like to think that we hate war and all its attendant horrors. We may have had no finger in the muddy waters of politics or finance, we may have written no articles or even letters tending to inflame national, racial, or communal passions, yet we are all sharers in the responsibility.
Every feeling of anger, hatred, envy, and revenge that we have indulged in the past years, no matter whom it was directed against and however “justified” it may seem to us to have been, has been a handful of gunpowder thrown on to the pile which must, sooner or later, explode as now it has done.
But it is not he or they who struck the match that is or are responsible for a world in flames, but we who have helped to swell the pile of powder. For what is it that we have done? The states of hatred, fear, etc., that have entered our hearts and there met with indulgence are, as always, intolerable guests. We hasten to project them outside ourselves, to affix them like posters upon any convenient wall. Doubtless there was something in the nature of the wall that made it a suitable vehicle for that particular poster, but, all the same, the poster came from us and was by us affixed.
Whether we look at the psychology of individuals, or at those aggregates of individuals which we call national states, the process is the same. That which we hate or fear in ourselves we project upon our neighbors. He who fears his own sex desires discerns impurity in all whom he meets; in the same way, nations that are filled with hatred, fear, and aggressive desire perceive the images of those passions burning luridly upon the ramparts of other nations, not realizing that it is they themselves who have lit and placed them there. Thus arises the myth of the peace loving nations and individuals, just because we project our own aggressive desires upon our neighbors and thus secure the illusion of personal cleanliness.
This is not to say that the responsibility of all nations is alike, any more than is that of all individuals. Some of us have sinned more deeply than others, but the assessment of such responsibility is never easy. It is more important and also profitable for us to remember that all hatred, fear, envy, and aggressive desire, by whomsoever and however “privately” entertained, has been the fuel which prepared and still maintains the blaze. Every time we feel a thrill of triumph at the destruction of “the enemy”, we add to it, for each time we do so we are making others the scapegoats for the evil in ourselves. This is not mere philosophic talk; it is not even religion; it is sheer practical fact which any psychologist will confirm.
None of us, not the most determined conscientious objector, not the most isolationist of neutrals, can escape his share of responsibility. Indeed, it is often just those who do not partake in the actual physical fighting who do most with their thoughts to increase the conflict. Fighting men, after a few months of experience have been gained, are often to a surprising degree free from hatred, while those who sit in comfortable isolation only too frequently indulge their own baser excitements and passions by exulting in vicarious horrors, making a cinema show out of the agonies of others, fighting to the last drop of (others) blood, and fanning the flames of hatred and violence with the unseen wind of their own thoughts and feelings.
For there is that in all men which welcomes war; yes, welcomes it even to the point of willingness to undergo its sufferings. In almost all men there is much that social and religious convention will not in normal times permit to find expression. There is a caged beast in the hearts of most of us, a beast whose substance we should like to gratify, but cannot for fear of consequences. Usually he nourishes his subterranean life on the scraps of fantasy and daydream that filter down to the den where he sits, brooding on deeds of violence and cruelty by which he may be revenged for his confinement; and each time we indulge in fantasies of hatred or revenge those thoughts sink down and add to his ferocious energy. Sometimes we can feel him straining against the confining bars, but in normal times “God” and the policemen keep him down, so that only occasionally does he escape and the world is shocked by some deed of atrocious cruelty. When this occurs, society decides that that man’s cage is too weak to hold its beast, and, fearing the example on others if one should be allowed to escape with impunity, hurriedly proceeds to destroy both man and beast.
It is necessary to add that the beast is not destroyed by the killing of the body which was its cage. Unseen by men it roams about, freed of its cage of flesh, free also to enter in the heart of any man who will give it temporary shelter and to urge him to the vile deeds that it loves. If men in general became aware of the extent to which this happens, they would not be so eager to kill those who commit ghastly crimes—nor their personal enemies either. This is what happens in normal times. But in times of war all is different. “Cry havoc and let loose the dogs of war” is no mere poetic metaphor. The hell-hounds from within are loosed. All that was “sinful” and forbidden before is now encouraged in the service of the State. Hatred, violence, ferocity, cruelty, as well as every variety of deceitful cunning, all these become virtues in those who direct them against “the enemy”. Even those whose States are not at war feel the contagion and, taking sides in the struggle, indulge their beasts in imagination.
Thus do the periods of war and peace succeed one another through the weary centuries of history. It is not intended to deny that in certain circumstances the open and outer violence of armed resistance may not be the lesser of two evils, for in the present state of humanity the alternative is too often a violence of thought and feeling, an obsessive brooding over hatred and revenge that is far worse than outward fighting. But never will violence bring violence to an end. As long as we nourish the brutes within our hearts with the desire-laden thoughts that are their lifeblood, so long will they break out from time to time, and so long will periodical wars be inevitable.
The only way to real peace is the taming of those inner beasts. We who have created them, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, must weaken them by giving them no food, must re- absorb them into our conscious selves from which in horror we have banished them, and finally must transmute their very substance by the alchemy of spirit. And that is yoga: only in yoga is peace.
The world is just one’s thought; with effort then it should be cleansed by each one of us. As is one’s thought, so one becomes; this is the eternal secret (Maitri Upanishad). Those who care for peace and hate war must keep more vigilant guard over their thoughts and fantasies than in normal times. Every exulting thought at news of the destruction of the “enemy” (as though man had any enemy but the one in his own bosom), every indulgence in depression at “our own” disasters, every throb of excitement at the deeds of war in general is a betrayal of humanity’s cause. Those who enjoy a physical isolation from the fighting are in possession of an opportunity that is a sacred trust. If they fail to make use of it to bring about peace in that part of the world-psyche with which they are in actual contact, namely, their own hearts, above all, if they actively misuse that opportunity by loosing their beasts in sympathetic fantasy, then they are secret traitors to humanity. As such, they will be caught within the web of karma that they are spinning, a web that will unerringly bring it about that, in the next conflict that breaks out, it will be on them that the great burden of suffering will fall. Of all such it may be said that he who takes the sword in thought and fantasy shall perish by the sword in actual fact.
This is the great responsibility that falls upon all, and especially upon all who by their remoteness from the physical struggle are given the opportunity of wrestling with their passions in some degree of detachment, and so actually lessening the flames of hatred and evil in this world.
None can escape, for all life is one. As soon should the little finger think to escape the burning fever which has gripped the body, as any to escape the interlinkedness of all life. Neutral or conscientious objector, householder or world-renouncing sannyasi, none can escape his share of responsibility for a state of things that his own thoughts have helped to bring about; for neither geographical remoteness, nor governmental decree of neutrality, nor yet personal refusal to bear arms can isolate the part from the whole in which it is rooted.
It is in the inner worlds of desire that wars originate, and from those inner worlds that they are maintained. What we see as wars upon this physical plane are but the shadows of those inner struggles, a ghastly phantom show, boding forth events that have already taken pace in the inner world, dead ash marking the destructive path of the forest fire, the troubled and unalterable wake of a ship whose prow is cleaving the waters far ahead.
In war or peace we live in a world of shadows cast by events that we term “future”, because, unseen by us as they really happen, we only know them when we come across their wake upon this plane.
Sri Krishna’s words, pronounced before the Kurukshetra battle, “by Me already have they all been slain”, refer not to any remorseless, divine predestination, but to this very fact, and they are as true of those whose bodies will perish in the coming year as they were of those who fought in that war of long ago.
Until we understand and face this basic fact, wars are inevitable, and struggling in the wake of troubled waters that ourselves have made, fighting with shadows that ourselves have cast, we shall continue to cry out against a hostile and malignant Fate, or if of a more submissive nature, to pray to God to save us from its grip. But prayers and out cries alike are useless: “Not in the middle regions of the air, nor in the ocean depths; not in the mountain caves, nor anywhere on earth is there a spot where man can escape the fruit of his evil deeds.” In the inner worlds we have made war: in those same inner worlds we must make peace, for “Mind is the forerunner of all things, by mind are all things made. He who with desire-polluted mind thinks or acts evil, him sorrow follows as the wheel the foot of the ox.” (Dhammapada)
Sri Krishna Prem (1898-1965), was born Ronald Nixon. As a young man, he was fascinated by Buddhism and the Pali language. In 1924, he accepted the post of Reader in English at Lucknow University in India and later accepted initiation into the Vaishnava religion and was considered the first westerner to ever become a Vaishnava. He later founded a Hindu ashram, with his guru Yashoda Mai, in the foothills of the Himalayas. His works include, The Yoga of the Kathopanishad, The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita, and Intiation into Yoga.
I have been contemplating from the “other side” of non-identification, i.e., how “identification” with our Creator, or for Christians, identification with Jesus, the Christ, brings me closer to our call to human completeness, wholeness, through “identification”, our identity rooted in our Creator. As we carry out our various ministries or work, non-identification can keep us from subjectivity to our ego drive towards success. Our identification with our Creator or Jesus the Christ as a Christian, frees us to enter into the world while remaining “detached” from the outcomes. Non-identification is a unique and clarifying way of stating our primary focus of union with God, maintaining a centereness in our being, and thus free to give ourselves freely away. God, Jesus, the perfect human/divine icon, and the Spirit are our identity. This is Enlightment and leads to enlightened movement/behavior.
Thank you, Cynthia and Jerry for the post. Is it possible to explain “non identification” with more detail?
Many thanks.
Blessings and peace,
I am confused by this in the second paragraph: “Let us not lose ourselves in our emotions and remain non-identified. ” That seems to say remaining non-identified is a bad thing. Then the last sentence seems to be telling us to “Stay non-identified,” which sounds as if being non-identified is a good thing.
Admittedly, non-identified is not a term that I have heard in this context, so I join Louise Deutsch in hoping that you may explain that.
Yes, Jerry could stand a little editing here; his meaning is “Let us not lose ourselves in our emotions; let us remain non-identified.”
Meanwhile, I keep forgetting that non-identification is not a household term in Christian contemplative circles; its provenance is the Gurdjieff Work (although an implicit sense of it certainly underlies S. Benedict’s teaching on Humility in the seventh chapter of his Rule.) Identification is basically a special form of attachment: attachment to one’s sense of self or identity, as generated through the operating system of the smaller self. When one does something in an identified way, its implicit (usually) unconscious agenda is to express or assert a sense of one’s own identity. People are identified with their religions, nationalities, parish churches, enneagram type, values–almost anything you can throw a lasso of your selfhood around. In most of psychological culture, it’s looked upon as a strength and a source of motivation. Gurdjieff accurately pointed out that the sense of selfhood thereby generated is fragile, illusory, prone to violence if anything threatens it, and prone to vainglory if anything doesn’t. The Charlottesville debacle is a case in point. True identity is conferred by sinking one’s roots deep into being itself and –in the words of my hermit teacher Brother Raphael, “having enough being to be nothing.” This is also Benedict’s definition of humility, and is a guarantee of action that is aligned with love and forgiveness.
You can explore deeper by hunting up my “Spiritual Practices from the Gurdjieff Work” teaching series on the Spirituality & Practice website.
Thank you, Louise. Perhaps this excerpt from a teaching session I did on identification in the S & P Gurdjieff teaching series might be helpful.
—
Identification
Of all the useful applications of this Gurdjieffian mode of self-observation, perhaps none is more useful than the help it gives us in spotting that insidious stealth bomber, identification.
Identification is another of those Gurdjieff specialties. No other body of spiritual teaching I’m aware of nails it so well and works with it so directly. Sniffing out identification (both in myself and in those around me) as been the single most valuable piece of learning I’ve carried with me from my years in the Work.
What is Identification?
Identification is essentially a form of spiritual attachment. But it’s a special case of attachment: attachment to one’s own sense of identity or self-image. When you’re “identified” with what you’re doing, you’re doing it in such a way that its primary (if not exclusive) motivation is to establish or assert a sense of who you are.
So what’s so bad about that? One of the reasons identification is difficult to spot at first is that in our culture we commonly think of it as a virtue. It’s good (isn’t it?) to be identified with your school, your church, your country, your political party. We see it as a way of “building team spirit” and as a source of motivation. To be identified with something means “to really get involved” and “to put everything we’ve got” into it! The opposite of identification, as we typically think about it, would be indifference or apathy.
But in Gurdjieff’s take, identification is always a negative. Like an invisible millstone around our necks, it chains us firmly to our ego selfhood with its inherently defended and anxious mode of being. And when it gets loose in a group, it becomes the unseen bull in the china shop that winds up wrecking everything. Even the loftiest of original intentions get tangled up in a quagmire of personalities and hidden agendas. Organizations that run on a good deal of idealism (like churches, non-profits, and political action groups) seem particularly vulnerable to it.
What causes identification?
The main reason that identification is hard to spot is that it’s so closely tied into the mechanisms from which our usual sense of selfhood derive that it’s almost like trying to look at your own eyeballs! Our cognitive mind works on the principle of perception through differentiation. In order to make sense of reality, it automatically begins by separating the field of perception into binaries—subject/object, inside/outside, “me/”not me, “ etc.—then moving the separated pieces around through standard mental operations such as comparison /contrast, “either/or,” “more and less.”
With this program running, “who I am” appears to consist of a set of defining characteristics and properties that distinguish me from everyone else. (It’s a fundamental principle of logic that identity is conferred through differentiation.) Identification, then, is fundamentally the vigilant assertion of that set of characteristics we believe makes us uniquely us. It’s the ego’s way of holding onto itself for dear life!
But where identity is based on differentiation, there’s always a shadow side in exclusion and competitiveness, and an inherent potential for differentiation to slip into divisiveness. If I am “me” to the extent that I am not you, there’s a strong predisposition to protect my own sense of identity and to react with violence when that identity is threatened.
Identification is a huge consumer of psychic energy and is the number one cause of burnout among clergy, political idealists, and caregivers. If you take on the identity of being a good person, a caring person, a good mother, a stellar preacher, etc., the amount of energy going into maintaining that identity will eventually collapse in exhaustion.
Spotting identification
Identification is easy to spot in others. You see it all around you: in excessive attachments to roles and an unwillingness to do them in a different way (because “that’s who I am!”) You spot it in continuous self-referential statements (“I am a person who….”) or in the tendency to turn every task or encounter into a demonstration of individuality. You spot it in territoriality and in touchiness.
With yourself, it’s not so easy—and here’s where some of those self-observation skills we’ve been working on come into play. The biggest tip off to identification, is the presence of inner constriction. When you feel bracing, urgency, inner tensioning arising within you, no matter how justified you feel your position may be may be, it’s a near-infallible sign that identification is part of the mix. The tendency to see those with a different opinion as “opponents” is also a tip-off.. When the voice tone shrills, the posture becomes ritualized, the jaw and shoulders tense, you can be pretty sure that identification has entered the picture.
The other tip-off is a disproportionate amount of effort or energy spent on a task that could reasonably be completed much more simply. I finally had to admit that identification was the primary culprit a few years back when I found myself taking nearly thirty hours each week to compose as ten-minute sermon! Under the guise of being “prepared,” what I was really up to was trying to be impressive!
Working beyond Identification
But is it really possible to work without identification? What, then, would supply our motivation?
The late Gerald May, a psychotherapist and co-founder of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation had an arresting answer to this question, with which I believe Gurdjieff would not disagree:
“As attachment [identification] ceases to be your motivation, your actions become reflections of compassion absolute.”
It’s true that the ego self can only work through separation, division, comparison; it’s built right into the operating system. Identification and the ego-self are joined at the hip. But as we move beyond this limited selfhood toward what Gurdjieff calls “Real I,” a whole new vista opens up, which spiritual masters of all times and places have alluded to as the very essence of awakening. We begin to see through the eyes of a deeper selfhood that does not run the “perception through differentiation” program, but can find its bearings within a single, flowing field of reality whose nature can be directly perceived as coherent and compassionate. In this larger and more vibrant reality it is not only possible, but in fact effortless to work without investment in self-image and outcome; we simply flow in the river of compassion.
Etats Unis! United States….that came to me this morning as I weeded one of the banks in front of our 100 year old church…So much unending work I thought to myself–how can we keep up with our grounds and church with ever dwindling resources—human and financial? Then a wave of wisdom teaching came over me. Ora et Labora— Gurdjief’s “Work”. My personal “state” was what I was responsible for in the moment. What can I control? My thoughts and my actions. Can I lovingly weed? Can I thank the many who have come before me to tend this church? Yes! Thank you Jerry and Cynthia for humbly passing on the wisdom teachings so we can learn to live in internal unity. Soon we will see it reflected everywhere! Preparing for the Eclipse. Praying and Working, Lora
Wonderful idea that resonates with us all. FYI, 7:00 a.m. Is a time that works for us and others that need to meditate earlier.
I am definitely with you holding the post during wee hours of the night when sleep escapes me
Yes. I’m in. Thank you Marcella.♡
Thank you. Yes, I will join you, and share with others.
My regular sit time is somewhat earlier 8 am-ish EST. I will continue to include intention for 3rd force and the capacity to bear the needful.
Wonderful idea. Count me in and our Wisdom Study Group I know will join in.
I’m in. I can sit at 7 am Eastern time or after 7 pm. If enough of us commit to different times on Tuesday, we will cover the entire day.
And I will share this with others, inviting them to join us…
I’m in, just earlier in the morning on Tuesdays. And the local Lutheran pastor and I are leading a special prayer service for peace and justice this coming Sunday evening (Aug. 20) at 6 pm, if you would like to add your presence to that time of prayer, too. Peace to all.
I am in from next Tuesday the 22 from Colorado. Thank you for this intentional initiative. The time is ripe.
I’m in!
I’m in.
I’m in on Tuesdays after my early Pilates class!
Thank you for providing a way to pray for our hurting world that also tends to my hurting heart. It’s too easy to become angry or shut it all out. Prayer and silence heal.
I will be joining at 9am
Thank you for this invitation. How miraculous this arising – I also felt it yesterday and invited my immediate circle to join together in centering prayer for the world. I would love to be part of this wider circle – could do Tuesdays – earlier – i.e. 7 AM or in the evening 6 PM or later. Blessings to all.
– Mary Beth Clancy
I’m in. Even though we are one in our collective prayers anyway, this is a such a time of angst that in coming together in community will serve at many levels in our hearts. Thank you.
Hi David:
Taking your comment on materialism first – I’m not sure if anybody else mentioned it, but in case you were responding to one of my comments, by “Materialism” I don’t mean the use of physical things, but rather, the feeling of taking anything to exist apart from God. In a way, we’re all “sinners” – if it means looking at people (whether the Pope or Donald Trump) as if they could move an inch or think even one thought without the power of God behind them). So if any of my comments triggered any discomfort, my apologies.
I’d like to take a moment to respond to your other points, all of which sound like they come from a place of considerable pain and discomfort, something I’m quite intimately familiar with. I’ve tried for the past 47 years to live remembering as much as possible what I just wrote about above, that I “live and move and have my Being in God,” and, well, so does everyone else. So as a fellow God-Being (!!), I offer you the following reflections.
DAVID: Its a sad day when conservative biblical beliefs are vilified by the Pope and other extreme left-leaning scholars. Where is the Pope on the topic of the bloodshed in Venezuela? Where is the Pope on the topic of gang violence and shootings in Chicago? Maybe he’s too busy overseeing ghost written articles slamming conservative CHRISTIANS.
DON: I imagine that if I felt the Pope was that important, I would too be concerned that he wasn’t addressing the grave problems you mention, including bloodshed in Venezuela and gang violence. And certainly, if he is unfairly attacking conservative Christians, that would be inappropriate – for him, and for anybody. I still have fond memories of the hundreds of conversations I had with conservative evangelical Baptists from Bob Jones University over the 8 years I lived in Greenville, SC
I’m sorry – but I stand against the following:
DAVID: – young teens having babies out of wedlock generation after generation which happens in the lower economic segments of our society…then to have the ultra-liberals decry these high-school dropouts don’t have any opportunity in our economy
DON: You might be surprised – and I hope it might bring a smile to your face – to hear the extent to which Hilary Clinton agrees with you! I remember during the campaign wishing so often that she would speak more frequently to pro-life groups about her wish to share common ground with the goal of reducing abortions to zero. One of the major areas she hoped to promote was ending the cycle of poor girls from white, black, Hispanic and other backgrounds having children out of wedlock. And I admire any conservative statesperson who works to create more opportunities. If President Trump were to succeed in creating more job opportunities for these girls (having dramatically lowered the out of wedlock birth rate) I would be among the first to applaud him (just because I might disagree with other policies of his doesn’t mean I can’t applaud him for doing something I agree with!
DAVID: – the quick “abortion on demand” which as you do note in your article does in fact STOP A BEATING HEART. Do you think Jesus would support abortion? My hunch is you on the left have completely forgotten about Jesus
DON: I’m not aware of any abortion clinics that provide “abortion on demand” and if they do, I’m happy to support a 3 day waiting period (as I would for purchasing guns). Knowing that all living beings are manifestations of God – living and having their Being in Him – I certainly agree that before stopping a beating heart, we must go very deep within, pray in the most sustained, dedicated, surrendered way possible, and ask for Divine insight as to whether or not we are doing the right thing. I assume you are aware of the pregnant woman who died in an Irish hospital recently. Virtually every medical professional who examined her agreed that if she carried the fetus to term, she and the fetus would die. I assume you would agree that at least, in that single case, the abortion would have been worthwhile – the fetus would have died either way. If that is correct, then you and I are both pro-choice, and I imagine that you would also agree on the goal of reducing abortions to zero. So perhaps we can join hands on the same side of the fence and look out to the horizon together, with the same goals, even if we choose different means.
DAVID: – protection of our borders. I do believe in immigration, but legal immigration. Why is it OK for those to the south to simply cross into the country and get welfare while Christians trying to flee the middle-east have to go through yrs of red-tape to get into the country legally
DON: I’ve never personally met anyone identified as moderate or progressive who is pro illegal immigration. I do know that for much of the 80s, 90s and 2000s, until about 9 years ago, many pro-business conservatives were in favoring of looking the other way with regard to illegal immigrants, and almost all progressives I knew of were strongly against it to the extent it negatively impacted American workers. I do know that has changed, and if there are progressives who are pro illegal immigration, I would agree with you that that is deeply problematic (let’s make sure those Canadians don’t slip over the border illegally! Just kidding:>))
DAVID: – for believing the BIBLE (you do remember what it is don’t you) that talks frequently of the return of Jesus and the need to be prepared
DON: My understanding is that of all Christians, the ones who are most dedicated to being 24-hours-a-day-365-days-a-year-prepared for the return of Christ are contemplatives. In my own practice, I know that forgetting Him is like having the life-blood drain out of you. Remembering Him and preparing myself for an utter and complete surrender is the reason I get up in the morning – in fact, not a “reason” but the power, the Life that supports my every breath and every thought.
DAVID: – believing in free speech which is under attack by the left in our colleges and universities and where being a conservative in thoughts and / or beliefs means 1 is ridiculed and in many cases forced underground.
DON: I don’t think I can even conceive of a countering response to you. One of the great tragedies of the dogmatic Left is the suppression of free speech, political correctness, etc. Dogma is a problem on the Right and the Left. ON the Right, it’s adhering to a very narrow definition of what it means to be a conservative, and on the Left, it’s, well, exacly the same! Here we are together 100%! I think the single greatest challenge of being human and aspiring for a thoroughly spiritual life is to find unity amidst diversity – but to celebrate, rejoice in diversity, yet not for one instant forgetting we are all together in Christ (or as Paul says, “Christ is everything”)
DAVID: – paying my fair share of taxes. As I make more $ than avg, I fully appreciate / understand my responsibility. However it makes me cringe seeing the continued expansive growth of welfare programs. Back in the 1930’s you worked menial hard-labor jobs to get handouts. Now, it’s a “right”. Do I feel a decent % abuse the system – absolutely. Do I get mad the left demands I pay more….absolutely. You call it materialism, I call it fairness. I didn’t have a lot to start with….paid my own way through college in the 80’s by working 40-hrs a week as a cook. So I get frustrated by the sheer laziness of some but frustrated even more by the liberal left decrying that I’m a “materialist”.
DON: Well, it’s getting harder to find any disagreement. Regarding paying one’s fair share of taxes, I can only say, “Amen” and recall Oliver Wendell Holmes: “Taxes are the price we pay for civilization.”
DAVID: Sadly, there is a war brewing (I’ll freely admit on both sides). What is sad is the inability to work together. My “belief” is the forces of evil are pushing the 2 sides further apart with ea side growing in hatred of the other side. So call me what you will….you are right in your article, the Pope’s letter and opinions mean zip to me any more. I, like many, have left his church to join a church that still preaches the bible.
DON: Regarding the war brewing (really, brewing? I think it’s here – been here for thousands of years:>)) Perhaps since we all left the garden?) I’ll just repeat what I said above about unity in diversity, celebrating unity while recognizing we are all one in the Spirit.
You and I, Cynthia and Trump, Jesus and all, diverse yet united in God.
Thank you David, I appreciated your passion and deeply held thoughts.
David,
Thank you for your courage and faithfulness in taking the risk of posting your thoughts on this obviously “leftist” leaning site. Yours is an important and vulnerable self-offering which helps tremendously to shed some light onto our tragically polarized civic discourse by giving voice to where the underlying heart concerns on the right are coming from.
It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to get into a point-by-point debate about the insights you’re raising here. By way of a response, I’d simply want to share two general observations. First of all, the left is as multifaceted as the right. While there is certainly a swathe of aggressive secularism represented here, which might not know the Bible or perceive the world from the from a specifically Christian or even a spiritual context, there are also very, very many people represented within this camp who know their Bibles well, pray daily in deep scriptural prayer, and believe– from within the authentic sincerity and living practice of their faith– that the path of Jesus calls us to a radical inclusivity and generosity extending to all the world. Like the Laborers in the Vineyard: no more “not fair,” no more “mine vs theirs,” no more “more or less.”
While you may not agree with that perspective, I think it’s unhelpful (on both sides) to question the sincerity of faith simply because interpretations differ.
Second–and me speaking personally here–I don’t believe that Christ will come again at some unspecified future date. I believe he is ALREADY HERE NOW, fully present, at work in the world “reconciling all things to himself.” It is because of my own felt-sense commitment to the living Christ, here in our midst, healing from within as well as drawing from beyond, that I feel impelled to look beyond tribal loyalty (whether religious, racial, or nationalistic)– all “them vs us” perspectives– to seek the wholeness of our single human family as Our Lord shapes us here and now into the “many members of the one body of Christ.”
Thank you again for speaking up.
Its a sad day when conservative biblical beliefs are vilified by the Pope and other extreme left-leaning scholars. Where is the Pope on the topic of the bloodshed in Venezuela? Where is the Pope on the topic of gang violence and shootings in Chicago? Maybe he’s too busy overseeing ghost written articles slamming conservative CHRISTIANS.
I’m sorry – but I stand against the following:
– young teens having babies out of wedlock generation after generation which happens in the lower economic segments of our society…then to have the ultra-liberals decry these high-school dropouts don’t have any opportunity in our economy
– the quick “abortion on demand” which as you do note in your article does in fact STOP A BEATING HEART. Do you think Jesus would support abortion? My hunch is you on the left have completely forgotten about Jesus
– protection of our borders. I do believe in immigration, but legal immigration. Why is it OK for those to the south to simply cross into the country and get welfare while Christians trying to flee the middle-east have to go through yrs of red-tape to get into the country legally
– for believing the BIBLE (you do remember what it is don’t you) that talks frequently of the return of Jesus and the need to be prepared
– believing in free speech which is under attack by the left in our colleges and universities and where being a conservative in thoughts and / or beliefs means 1 is ridiculed and in many cases forced underground.
– paying my fair share of taxes. As I make more $ than avg, I fully appreciate / understand my responsibility. However it makes me cringe seeing the continued expansive growth of welfare programs. Back in the 1930’s you worked menial hard-labor jobs to get handouts. Now, it’s a “right”. Do I feel a decent % abuse the system – absolutely. Do I get mad the left demands I pay more….absolutely. You call it materialism, I call it fairness. I didn’t have a lot to start with….paid my own way through college in the 80’s by working 40-hrs a week as a cook. So I get frustrated by the sheer laziness of some but frustrated even more by the liberal left decrying that I’m a “materialist”.
Sadly, there is a war brewing (I’ll freely admit on both sides). What is sad is the inability to work together. My “belief” is the forces of evil are pushing the 2 sides further apart with ea side growing in hatred of the other side.
So call me what you will….you are right in your article, the Pope’s letter and opinions mean zip to me any more. I, like many, have left his church to join a church that still preaches the bible.
Thanks for a thoughtful post, Darlene. Yes, translated into levels-of-consciousness color codes, I’d say your intuition is probably on target that orange rationalism is the best way to find a place where more of us can stand together. It’s the level from which the original social contract emerged, and if the “transcend and include” model is correct, then even those working at the so-called “higher” levels can find a comfortable berth at this level. The “first tier,” as I see it, really ensures a common mooring ball at this level; then the sacred traditions are free to push beyond it–but without overturning it.
You also put your finger squarely on a question I raise but do not specifically address here: “secular” affirmative action. It is indeed a can of worms, particularly for “green” level consciousness. As I take it (political correctness not withstanding, for the moment), beginning powerfully with the civil rights movement in the 1960s, we began to use government to enforce a “higher” standard of conduct as secularly-derived notions of human rights got out ahead of (and sometimes directly crosswise with) classic spiritually-derived notions, which tend to be more hierarchical and more conservative. Liberals used the strong arm of government to enforce what were, in origin, secular ideologies (with loose ties to Christian gospel values chiefly through the work of Rene Giscard and Gil Baillie), claiming that these values were “higher” and “objective.” So to have the religious right and pro-lifers now attempting the same coup is merely “tit for tat. ” Liberals should have seen it coming, had they not been so blindsided by their arrogant conviction that the leading edge of social truth is in fact objective truth.
My compromise here–and it’s a hard one, I know–is to suggest that we back the government out of the affirmative action business. It’s a noble idea, but it overreaches what the social contract (first tier) can support. The karma we’ve reaped in the present administration is in some sense inevitable.
Where then, and how, do we carry forward our growing sensitivity to systemic oppression? The insight is so, so true, and the work of addressing it so desperately needed. But I don’t think we can legislate it, even more than we can legislate anti-abortion law, without violating the social contract. Somehow this work has to go on in the second tier. Or perhaps, in a new “body of humanity” which comes into being around shared values at the Integral and nondual levels. I do see the lineaments of this occasionally appearing as affirming and denying forces grow sharper, forcing the spiritual traditions to re-emerge as their highest selves, bearing authentic third force.
As I would expect, your line of reasoning here is eminently sane, reasonable, and compassionate, Cynthia.
Without interjecting too much of my own viewpoint on the issue per se, I want to suggest a few points of discussion about the frame.
–Repeat mention of the government as a rational or coherent actor (“the government agrees not to…”) raises a weird mix of nostalgia and cynicism in me. “We agree that the government will not…” is language that softens into a point of assent relating more to what is projected or hoped about future government activity, yet it retains the notion of coherence. Just what is “the government” here? And is “it” capable of this kind of coherence, or what would it take to get there? I remain very hopeful about the effectiveness of grass-roots organizing, and I can appreciate these statements as an expression of a coherent vision that could underpin calm and compassionate action.
–What I see as a large potential flashpoint in any affirmation of this overall line of reasoning is that it pre-supposes some acceptance of levels (whether any individual reader interprets them as relating to consciousness, morality, spirituality, or something else). This could be equally hard to swallow on either side of the divide, whether it’s the divide between abortion viewpoints, or on the green & blue edges of the orange middle ground exemplified here.
Which raises a very large question for me: What is the potential of a rational “middle ground,” (a kind of orange “catechism” if you will) to move us toward transformation on this (or any) issue? Or is something else needed? I myself long for a great deal “more,” as I’m sure many Wisdom students do.
I can also see that orange rationalism may in fact be the best way to find a place where more of us can stand together. The goal here, as I understand it, is mostly to try to diffuse tension in this deeply fraught transitional time, preparing for a transformative “more” we can’t quite anticipate (2nd- and 3rd-tier predictions aside).
–Though I believe I understand what you mean by “secular affirmative action standards” in point 5a, those particular words trigger strong associations to another big and difficult social divide: that around race and Affirmative Action. (Perhaps a good topic for another blog series?) Could some other words be found to express what you mean, and that would keep people’s thought process (and limbic system) focused one hot-button issue at a time? Seems to me that would be a very good idea before taking this line of reasoning to the wider audience it deserves.
Thank you so much for taking this leap and leading the way, Cynthia!
“we don’t necessarily need people to change their values, we need people to broaden their sympathy for a wider spectrum of values to see how, at a foundational level, they already share many of the core values of those they oppose.”
i thought this was an interesting article to add here… x
https://www.culturalevolution.org/docs/ICE-Growing-Out-of-Americas-Divided-Culture.pdf
Thank you for this blog series about abortion. Differences about this issue have strained my friendships and extended family relationships. It is so hard to be perceived as pro-abortion when I consider abortion a travesty, yet cannot see my way to one-size-fits-all in this issue. Being a pacifist, I try not to judge those whose livelihood supports the military. Similarly, my judgment of a woman who chooses to end her pregnancy feels impossible. I may be mistaken, but understand in Jesus’s time abortifacients were used, yet Jesus does not address the subject. That omission is telling to me.
Yes, that’s what I’m trying to say here, Don. Let the First Tier baselines be the law of the land and the functional limit of jurisdiction; then let the individual traditions invite adherents to a higher level of “best practices” according to their respective spiritual interpretations. But these practices would be VOLUNTARY (or at best, obligatory within that particular tradition); they would not become the law of the land. Nor would government interfere with them, practiced internally within a tradition except when public safety was significantly jeopardized.
Why should the tens of millions of US citizens (I assume this post is directed toward the US, though folks from around the world are here as well) be subjected to the views of exoteric Christians?
While I applaud your attempt to bring in the deeper mysteries underlying Christianity, I wonder how many people here who were brought up as Christians can really feel what it’s like to be a non-Christian in this still very much Christian-dominated country?
From our perspective, every time we hear an argument about what US Law should be from a Christian point of view, it feels like a punch in the gut, reminding us of how many millions of people don’t quite fully accept us as ‘real Americans.”
I would think any higher, deeper perspective would have to transcend virtually and specific religious perspective.
The real and fundamental obstacle to understanding abortion is not religious fundamentalism of any kind, but rather, fundamaterialism.
Now, it goes without saying, the default beliefs of the vast majority of so-called religion are well within the field of fundamaterialism. Just ask someone why they got sick, or why someone has mental illness, or how the brain affects them, or, well really, take any sentence from anyone, just about any time.
Charles Eisenstein has a great image that conveys this quite well. He asks us to imagine a huge fork in the middle of vast, empty outer space. Our attitude toward almost any object or even person is much like this – a “thing’ that exists entirely alone, separate from anything else, barely in relationship.
So back to abortion. Let’s take a non-materialist/non-dualist view and it’s incredibly simple.
Let’s start with, there’s nothing but God. You really don’t have to say anything else, but lest someone think this is illusionism, let’s go a step further.
What is an individual? not a personality, not a separate self, but an individual? If there is only infinite, eternal Divine Being, than that infinite Being must have the capacity to manifest in the differentiated universe (without losing even one iota of its Divine Unity) as infinite individuals (non separate individuals). Sri Krishna states this with elegant simplicity in the Gita – he says the Jiva is “an eternal portion of My Being.” – That is, the individual is an inherent potential for multiciplity in the unfathomable, unthinkable depths of the Infinite.
Then what is the purpose of manifestation? Surely, Allah said it most clearly – “I was a hidden treasure and longed to be known.” This eon-like slow unfolding of the hidden treasure no doubt takes place through the entire universe, but it manifests in the individual in a special, unique way.
Franz de Waal says there appears to be the beginning of some kind of “centered” experience as early in evolution as in fishes, possibly insects. But the first glimmers of self-awareness are not seen until mammals like whales arise, and certainly more so in chimps (and of course, in the case of what one primatologist referred to as “that damn bird,” Alex, the African Grey).
But the great spiritual seers throughout history have in one voice said that it is only with the buddhi (the awakening of which led to Buddha’s enlightenment) that self-awareness comes to fruition.
Human birth, then, is not for the purpose of survival, pleasure, accomplishment, relationships, learning, etc. It is for one single purpose – to awaken and to manifest the Divine.
Once again, to refer to the Gita, it is the greatest of follies to believe that the individual is either born or dies. The individual, like the Divine with which it is always one, is eternal, unborn, infinite, undying, and it cannot be burnt, wetted, torn, or destroyed in any way.
The individualized soul, looking from above (this is of course a childish fabled way of saying it) is drawn by a “Light” – the Light of the mother’s aspiration. That aspiration is, unfortunately, usually very confused, but the soul nevertheless is always looking – between lives – for the embodiment through which it will journey on its path to awakening most fruitfully. (in reading this and subsequent paragraphs, it will be necessary to frequently remind oneself that “all is in the Divine, the Divine is in all and there is nothing but the Divine”)
How many ways can abortion happen? Very frequently, as with millions of miscarriages, the soul realizes after conception that it has made a mistake, and simply chooses to leave and wait for another embodiment.
Or it conveys to the mother in some way an intimation that it does not intend to be born in that womb.
But what if the humans “thwart” the intention of the soul? Well, remember, there is still no birth or death for the soul. Perhaps that was the very lesson it decided to enter into the womb to learn (knowing of course, that for the timeless, spaceless spirit there is no entering or leaving).
Given how utterly limited and distorted and confused most human understanding of life, consciousness, energy, matter, force, well, just about everything, it certainly seems that the path of least resistance is the best one.
Keep the government – probably the most spiritually retarded of all institutions except corporations – as far away from abortion guidelines as possible, and for those fundamentalists (fundamaterialists in drag) who are upset by this, take Hilary Clinton’s advice to heart – we can all agree on a goal of as few abortions as possible, while disagreeing on the methods to get there.
And again, government, corporations, Clinton, Trump, Stalin, whoever – there is nothing but the Divine, and of course, the purpose of evil, as Ramakrishna said, is simply to thicken the plot.
Part II
These are helpful and much appreciated additional insights, Don.
thanks Cynthia – actually, that was part of a longer comment, that I posted over at your other site, but the rest got cut off here. Glad to hear it makes sense. There rest is here: http://www.contemplative.org/a-surprising-ecumenism/
PART I:
Beautiful, heartfelt and elegant statement – and an important one at this time.
I’d like to add something from the psychological perspective.
Karen Armstrong, in her writings on fundamentalism, makes the crucial point that, while many secular folks think of fundamentalists as expressing medieval views, the mindset of fundamentalists could simply not have existed prior to the emergency of 19th century materialism.
And, according to British psychiatrist, Iain McGilchrist, the root of modern materialism is not a philosophic view as much as a form of attention. Put in neurological terms by Buddhist teacher and former neuroscience professor John Yates (in his “The Mind Illuminated” – the best manual of Buddhist meditation i’ve ever come across), he describes two major attention networks, one responsible for selective attention (SA) and one for peripheral awareness (PA). On my recommendation, Yates looked at McGilchrist’s work, and agreed that McGilchrist’s “left mode” and ‘right mode” thought (somewhat related to left hemisphere mediated and right hemisphere mediated attention) are closely correlated with SA and PA.
Cynthia, you have offered much to think about. I think there are at least two other mastodons in the room that need careful consideration:
Sexuality and feminism: As many have pointed out the need to repress sexuality and especially homosexuality and women’s sexuality feed the need for rigid systems of law and belief that will keep powerful impulses at bay. The cultural divisions on this issue erupted in the 60s and 70s and battle lines were drawn. It’s no coincidence that the most memorable rallying cry of the last campaign–“Lock her up, lock her up!”–was directed at a decades-old symbol of the post-60s modern woman .
Contempt for religion: Far too many liberals (now known as progressives) have carried over an Age-of-Enlightenment contempt for religion and by unthinking extension, for any spirit-centered life. Those who make religion/spirituality central in their lives are viewed as benighted anti-intellectuals who cling to silly beliefs out of fear or unimaginative habit. The abortion issue then becomes a stand-in for this larger cultural divide. There seems to be almost no room in the Democratic Party for the faith-centered, at least in their Caucasian form. During the Obama Administration there was a needless pushing of limits on issues such as abortion and health insurance simply because there was no real respect for principles emerging from a religious—centered life. There are stories of some senior Democrats simply writing off White Catholics and Evangelicals in the last election. During the women’s march on Washington pro-life groups that wished to participate were excluded. There is an article in The Atlantic on the topic, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/12/democrats-have-a-religion-problem/510761/.
I’m not sure that the bridge you are trying to build can carry sufficient weight unless these issues are actively addressed as well.
Hi William:
Do you know Paul Ray’s work? He has done research over several decades on different trends in American culture.
I don’t think these track spiral dynamics, though I know some have made an argument for it. I think it’s best with a new category system to let it speak for itself and not try to fit it into old categories.
He speaks of Traditionalists – people who are comfortable with the way things were 50 or more years ago; traditional family, church, etc.
The Modernists are those who call themselves “classic liberals” – who focus on economics as the “business of America.” This fits very much into the neoliberal framework.
Then there are 2 categories of Cultural Creatives. This may not be associate with economic class as so much of the Spiral Dynamics “Green” category is. But it is, as you say, William, rather relentlessly secular and – as with the Modernists – often anti-religion.
Then there are spiritual Cultural Creatives. These were a very small number 40 years ago but have grown to some 20 million in the US (the estimate for overall Cultural Creatives is as much as 60 million or more; almost a 5th of the population). These are among the core folks interested in non dual Christianity. MANY of them, if not most, are progressives.
You might look this up and also look up Rabbi Michael Lerner’s “”Spiritual progressives.” There are far far more of them than you think. The Washington consensus on both the Right and Left, among mainstream politicians, tends to be tolerant of religion but often (in private (much more dismissive).
Finally, read about Hilary Clinton’s long term desire to be a Methodist preacher. It gives a whole different side of her.
KW seems to put most of the blame for Trump’s election on the reaction of the proletariat to the “mean green meme.”While this is certainly a factor (witness the latest upheavals at Evergreen College which are being shown nightly on Fox News), I think the main revolt was against the “orange” stage- the rational efficiency of globalism and neocapitalism that has stripped this nation (and most European nations) of productive jobs and a sense of hope for the future. Trump’s victory was due in large part to people who could not stomach more of the same on the Democratic ticket.
Ken says that the “green” level took over in the 1960s, but I think that beginning in the 1980s there was an orange backlash that allowed identity politics (gender, race, orientation)to be discussed as a ruse, but in no way allowed real equality issues to be brought up. This “mean orange meme” has been in control for many years in matters political and economic, while the goofy green contingent is carefully ensconced in ivory towers and for the most part does not filter down to the common people.
I think that he is 100% correct in thinking that the leading edge of greens committed suicide with the deconstructionists and has never recovered.
“Ken says that the “green” level took over in the 1960s, but I think that beginning in the 1980s there was an orange backlash that allowed identity politics (gender, race, orientation)to be discussed as a ruse, but in no way allowed real equality issues to be brought up. This “mean orange meme” has been in control for many years in matters political and economic, while the goofy green contingent is carefully ensconced in ivory towers and for the most part does not filter down to the common people.”
Precisely right. I would go farther and say that Ken has never really understood what green IS, fundamentally. It sure as hell is not bunch of ivory tower postmodernists, your “goofy green contingent”. Ken never addresses in a deep way, to my knowledge, the socialist and communist movements of the 20th century, and related economic justice thrusts (real GREEN). All the crap about feminism, LGBT, etc., is, at best, at the periphery of green, not at the core. Ken never got to the core.
Cynthia, I don’t know if you remember me, but I was a co-founder of Boulder Integral, and was there when we hosted you to have a conversation with Ken about the masculine/feminine dynamic and relationships between men and women. I was sitting in the back (with Ken’s former girlfriend) while Ken read from a paper for a full hour and 55 minutes of a two hour session, with all the women angrily pacing in the back of the room waiting for some kind of dialogue with you or at least an opportunity for you to speak. I think you got maybe 5 minutes, and were very gracious in both your listening and your response. We should have done something to control this, and I do apologize for not breaking in on Ken and giving you an opportunity to share your wisdom. He was talking all about relationships with women, but could not see or interact with the one (you) sitting right next to him.
I think that this is a symptom that Integral has not developed or matured past the problem that you put so well:
Orange may be individualistic while green is pluralistic, but both are relying on the mental egoic operating system (“perception through differentiation”) to run their program; green’s “groups” therefore, are merely “individuals writ large,” (which “co-exist” not a new holonic unity (which “coalesces.”)) Or another way of saying it: green is simply orange looking through a postmodern filter.
This, incidentally, I believe to be another fatal “performative contradiction” undetected by Wilber; greens think FOR oneness but FROM “perception through differentiation;” how crazy-making is that? It’s a pretty significant developmental gap to navigate, causing their minds always to be out ahead of what their psyches can actually maintain. Hence the anger, the arrogance, and the hypocrisy.
With all of these Integral papers, and all of this talk, we are still working from ‘perception through differentiation,’ constantly differentiating, making ourselves superior in some way, setting up the constructs of others as straw men then knocking them down, and differentiating to the nth degree. What we are currently doing is blasting the world (now the green meme in particular) with a firehose of elaborate constructs and distinctions. This is reaching a point where we are blinded by our construct-thicket, and what once was a useful map to see the world from a clearer perspective has become a club to attack others who do not see the world through all of our differentiating constructs. It’s on the verge of becoming another believing and belonging system, where doctrinal constructs divide, and we see others only through our constructs and mental representations of them, and do not see who is actually right in front of us.
I’d go a step further, and say that, having hung out in the center of the Integral space for the last decade, we have in no way gotten out of “green” or done any kind of a jump to a 2nd tier. We are still in the ‘perception through differentiation’ mode, and like all such systems, tend to put ourselves on top, differentiated from the rest (we believe) in some unique way, and blaming green here for it’s failures, while being in green ourselves for the full ride.
I am with you that the sign of the next movement of the human soul (whether we call it a level or a stage or a growth in maturity) is to put the mind in the heart. I think this next place will be one in which we become construct-aware, and use our elaborate constructs as servants of the heart.
I think a moment is coming where we, as boomer seekers, will give up on our transcendence project, give up on our desire to clear a highjump bar to some state achieved in the long-running Buddhist monastic project, and instead begin to focus on immanence, which as you say requires a rewiring of the physical system. We are talking about things constantly noq that our psyches and bodies cannot maintain, therefore the big gap between talk and walk.
I’m eager to get out of this adolescent phase, and make the move to a focus on immanence and what this requires of us. I am beginning to experience this next human ecosystem as a form of Field Consciousness, Interbeing, Interconnected, Interpenetrating—not as concepts, but as a lived truth.
I think what we have to offer from a Christian background is that this feels like being inside of God, one unit or cell in an interconnected whole. This is not an idea—it’s a felt and ‘realized’ truth. This does not mean that the cell is particularly healthy, or fully mature, but that it can draw health from the One Being that it is within.
Opening the heart, putting the head in the heart, speaking from the heart, acting from the heart—this all necessary to put the distinctions and constructs in their proper place. Working in this deeper, powerful frequency is an essential practice.
The interesting thing is that we may have to give up Integral in it’s current construct making and distinction making form to actually get to Integral. I hope we can turn to this task without blame or recrimination, and become what we’ve been speaking about now for so, so many years.
Cynthia, your sharing of this experience remains in me, many months later, a source of hope and connection. Seeing how alive it has been over time, feeling its aliveness, how steady and real the heart of the message, it feels like an example of how we can all be touched by one another, in your sharing, in Tintern Abbey’s sharing with you, and with your friends, in the monk’s sharing of their lives and experiences beyond even the life of the stone walls they lived and worked in. Ripples of the truth and the love radiating out and between us as we meet, and over time. Consciousness revealing itself as these surfaces meet. Wow. It continues to remind me of the beauty and the power of being drawn to the ground, to hear the voice, feel the heart, of God.
Bruno Barnhart, former prior of New Camaldoli Monastery, mystic, hermit, and my friend and spiritual father for more than thirty years, is now officially on the other side.
I have been stumbling under the weight of sorrow related to the things of our world. Judy, fellow traveler of ‘Becoming Truly Human,’ directed me to this post. There are too many words, associations, connections, and sensations to relate; the vibrational intensity does leave me stammering. I will simply thank you because you continue to teach me and guide me along.
Cynthia shares a beautiful and powerful “negative space” eucharist based on Teilhard de Chardin’s The Mass on the World.
(Almost) every word here is so beautiful, it saddens me that its powerful effect is lessened by an exclusivist claim (I’m sorry your Sufi teacher was so unaware of so many Sufi teachings). I recall many times when my teacher Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee would tell us of how Bhai Sahib, the teacher of his own teacher, was lifting the hearts of humanity (without “doing” anything, of course:>)
One of my favorite observations along this line comes from Swami Vivekananda, who said that if humanity has not blown itself to smithereens as of yet, it is because of a small handful of yogis in the Himalayas meditating. He was speaking symbolically, of course, but I’m certain he was referring to the “fragrance” of their Consciousness permeating the atmosphere of the earth.
In his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Aurobindo spends several chapters telling of the multiple incarnations of God that have come to earth, presenting it as an evolutionary fable (the various animal incarnations, becoming fuller and fuller manifestations, leading up to humanity – and…. beyond!).
Jesus Christ was not the only one who, through sacrifice, through shedding the blood of the false self paved the way for the risen Cosmic Christ who ever after has changed the earth plane. All incarnations have done that, though in their own way. Similarly, Jesus Christ was not the first integral teacher, as we find integral teachings already in the most ancient Upanishads, such as the Isha, on which Sri Aurobindo based his “Life Divine.”
This, to me, not only does not take away from the fundamental importance of Christ nor the joy and ecstasy of celebrating the Risen Christ in this Easter season. We can see HIs incarnation as a momentous event in the 13.7 billion year story that is the unfolding of the Big Blossoming that is even now unfolding within and around us, “in which we live and move and have our Being.”
There is a very important point which is totally overlooked in these assessments in my opinion. Trump requires to be seen in the context of Bannon. Trump represents turqouise and is an expression of the new order coming through. Anyone who understands turquoise is able to see that. Turquoise has strong capacity to correct the narcissim and lack of true transparency which rests in green. To understand this all you need to consider is the profound corruption that lies at the heart of the hegemonic travesty of the Clintons – this represented green at its most flagrant stretch, about to sieze power again, but seen through by the collective eye willing to weigh up the good and the bad in proportion. Clinton lost due to her corrupt nature. T|rump wants to ‘drain the swamp’ – bring correction to this gross distortion, not to get swept up in the narcissistic idealism of the Clinton lies requires to be able to see through them……..the liberal left, democrats and Clinton supporters are not able to see this….or I should say are unwilling to see the shadow. This is the narcissistic zenith of green – the full expression of its absolute shadow, and therefore the begining of its demise.
Bannon has seen this for a long time, he also understands the internet and was able to use this technology as an extension of his ideas…..a return to a normailsed new ground, not a regression…..as the great lie of liberalism is that they are right, peaceful, multiculturalism as a norm. They are war mongers, capitalistic and corporatist and non individual….individualism in body identification – feminism, LGBTQ etc…..these are superficial, and only relevant for a short period of time.
Narcissism is defined by an inner object relation perspective of alignement to the idealised self – a false self, but identified as their true self. This paradox of self deception – seen in the outing of the corrupt core is what won Trump the seat of President. The narcissist can not see their own vulnerabilities – they project. What was the Democrat campaign about, but projection of devaluing attacks on Trump. By comparison Clinton has a long record of self serving corruption, modelled also so well by Bill Clinton. Their followers are in denial of this. Therefore to see this, and to make a balanced decision, not an emotional one of simple identitfication, one needs to be able to equally percieve both and balance accordingly.
The split in the political realm, the protests, the knashing of teeth the denial of acceptance all symbolise the inability to accept reality. To have swallowed the narrative of all those projections – racist, sexist etc – devaluing statements. The tools and trade of narcissists.
The liberal left can not see beyond itself and thus cries despair – ‘not out President’ – the split in itself, unable to see ‘whole object relations’ – to see reality and weigh up accordingly.
Trump and the alright accept the normative and daily issues associated with unbriddled multiculturalism – they are not in denial, not supress those concerns, unlike the left – who claim ‘racism’ to supress discussion……blind to their own shrinking and defunct value system of diversity. They only accept the diversity they decide upon, and miss the irony in this, so blind to their own love of their own reflection. Thus the reality of Trump destroys their sense of self – the depression begins to emerge……this is classic psychoanalytical material. For the narcissistic bonds to be transcended and resolved, true self perception is required – green does not have this faculty at this level – only turquiose does, therefore it represents true insight.
This begs the question, how could a less intelligent stage as supposedly represented by Trump percieve the inner workings of green better than they can see themselves?
Answer – it can’t.
Trump is the new stage, as represented via Bannon, master architect.
Don, some of the best people in our entire Wisdom network are right there in Asheville, teaching, organizing, and praying! Check out the website wisdomwayofknowing.org, and be back in touch with me for specific contact details if you can’t get a direct contact with site organizer, Robbin Whittington. You’d definitely be a welcome addition to the Asheville cell!
ah, one more thing, something I mentioned at your contemplative site. I love your use of the phrase “operating system.”
A great way to put my main point very simply: The changes that occur (to use the unfortunately over-simplistic Spiral Dynamics terms) from Blue to Orange to Green, etc, are all **within** the same operating system (the refinement of the pre-frontal cortex or “Buddhi” and progressive freeing from the sub-cortical neural networks, or “manas”). The change that occurs in very early childhood from pre-verbal to verbal (from manas to Buddhi) is a change in the operating system (I wonder, though, if opening to non-duality might not be seen as stepping out of all operating systems altogether – while maintaining a thinking/feeling/acting relationship to whatever OS is functioning at the moment – our current phrase for this is simply “open, heartful Awareness” – with which one can have a Relationship as well as “merge” in union).
We’re going to use this (“change in operating systems”) in public talks (we’ve already substituted “instinctive, emotional and mental programming”) for the highly problematic “3 brain” usage that’s become so popular. I’ve tried it out on a few people and they “grok” the distinction almost immediately.
I’m sure we’ll explore it in our contemplative practices group as well. It’s going to be very interesting as the “mission” is to reach out to the seven thousand households in the East Asheville neighborhood, so given this is “weird” Asheville – we’ll be presenting to fundamentalist Baptists, hard-core dogmatic atheists as well as soft-core secular humanists, Wiccans, Taoists, neo-Vedantin New Agers, Sufis (New Age and otherwise), every brand of Buddhism imaginable, semi-Vaishnava kirtan enthusiasts, and no doubt various “denominations” unique to Asheville:>)
(By the way, In case any folks here might feel the need to defend Ken Wilber – note that I appreciate very much his work – I’ve followed it closely since the late 70s. His heart’s in the right place:>)
Sorry, I mean Don. Much appreciated, at any rate!
HI folks, great conversation.
I just sent this comment to Cynthia’s blog (where her comments on Wilber’s essay were posted). As a psychologist whose dissertation adviser received his doctorate in development, with a specialization in Piaget, I’ve long had misgivings about the way Ken Wilber talks about developmental stages. In this light, I found Cynthia’s critique exceptionally well done.
Apologies for the length:
I love your point about the “leap” required for the new era is from the heart, rather than merely cognitive. Ultimately, it’s certainly clear, from the evolutionary perspective, that the only sustainable solution to the global crisis is a shift to a new consciousness. Jean Gebser had a “vision” of this in the early 1930s, himself acknowledging that, on the inner planes, he had been influenced by Sri Aurobindo’s “field of force” in the emergence of this vision. Franklin Merrell Wolff also recognized what he referred to as “Recognition” as the only solution; and of course, Sorokin and de Chardin (along with, more recently, Joanna Macy and David Korten) have said the same.
What struck me about the Wilber article is the same problem with the concept of “stages of development” that he has struggled with since the 1970s (by the way, in his “Wilber-Combs lattice,” he does attempt something like a distinction between stages and levels, but the problem remains there as well).
The essential problem is that Wilber began writing in the 1970s, at a point when Piaget’s ideas about stages had not yet been completed rejected. The “cognitive revolution” had already, in the previous decade, begun to view development in terms of increasing complexity of information processing, but the ‘stage’ idea continued to linger (in 2003, I spent some time researching the newest ideas on development – I was struck by a 1000+ page book published by the American Psychological Association, “A Century of Developmental Psychology,” which, apart from a dozen or so pages reviewing Piaget, had not one word to say about stages of development!).
In the 1990s, TM researcher Charles Alexander edited the book, “Higher Stages of Development.” The majority of the authors continued to hold on to the by-then completed outmoded views of stages. Alexander began the book with a section that included several authors who held the “information-processing” theory. This did not seem at all promising to me, but one author – Ellen Langer – stood out. For the most part, she rejected the concept of stages of development, with one exception – those that occurred in early childhood. Though she is now mostly known as the major proponent of the allegedly “Western” form of mindfulness, her proposal was almost identical to that of Indian psychology from over 2000 years ago.
To take it back “just a bit”
If you look at the beginning of the cosmic evolutionary process, and consider the 370,000 or so years when elements and the ‘laws’ (patterns!?) of nature were forming, you can already see an “increasing” manifestation (emergence) of consciousness. Jumping ahead 10 or so billion years, we now know that plants have a rather marvelous “nervous system” of sorts and clear signs of conscious response to their environments. Similarly, we continue to discover more and more marvelous signs of consciousness even in one celled organisms. With the increasing number of mainstream cognitive scientists and philosophers beginning to look at panpsychism seriously, and the clear evidence of a phylogenetic “ladder” in biological evolution, we’re on the verge (just in time for the transition to the new era) of an evolutionarily-based science of consciousness which, in tandem with contemplative science and the emergence of contemplative disciplines throughout the existing world religions, provides a strong foundation for the age to come.
The ethologist Frans de Waal suggests that some kind of “centering” of experience appears even in fish, and grows stronger in amphibians and reptiles. With mammals – and most likely birds, at least, African Gray parrots like Alex Pepperberg! – we have clear signs of “reasoning” though for the most part, still very little “self-awareness” if at all. This kind of emotionally and “vitally” based reasoning is almost exactly what Indian psychology refers to as the “manas.” This same “manas” (“sense mind” or “emotional mind” – “emotions” here being the passions, not necessarily complex human feelings) is predominant in the infant.
What seems to happen in a few animals – chimpanzees, dolphins, Alex, and a few others – is the first glimmer of self-recognition, very much along the lines of what starts to occur in human infants somewhere between 18 months and 3 years (“No!” is one of the great signs of this:>). This is the emergence of the Buddhi, represented physiologically by our pre-frontal cortex (“PFC” for short) with its capacity for abstract thinking, planning, deciding, judgment, self-awareness, empathy and self-regulation).
But in Indian psychology, the Buddhi was never understood along purely cognitive lines. In fact, as the Buddhi becomes progressively illumined, a number of stunning things begin to happen: (1) with the freeing up of consciousness from the “tamasic” (ie inert, dull, subconscious) influences of the physical and instinctive consciousness) and from the “rajasic” (ie hyperenergetic) influence of the “life” (pranic, chi) consciousness, its innate sense of the whole, of unity, of integrality, begins to emerge, with an increasingly refined balance of cognition, volition and affect (‘knowing, willing and feeling’ in classic Aristotelian and Kantian terms).
Two more profound things begin to occur. Through contemplative practice, as one gains the ability, through the purified Buddhi, to enter more and more into Silence, the “knowing/feeling” of the Heart awakens, and one more and more acts “from” the Heart rather than relating to it as something essentially separate. At the same time (it’s not really time – it’s synchronous, outside what we ordinarily conceive as “time”) the Light of the Spirit begins to irradiate the now “enlightened” Buddhi and the world and the “self” are seen in an utterly and profoundly new way.
So to get back to the early “phase,” it is not so much stages that have been popularized as blue, orange, green, etc, but a progressive (and non-quantifiable – at least, not through Loevinger’s “sentence completion” test!) refinement of the Buddhi, as it becomes freed from the influence of the manas and the “indriyas” (senses), opens to the influence of the Heart within and the Spirit above.
The key to all this is the understanding of the true individual, which has nothing to do with the separative ego. It is the soul, or as Sri Aurobindo refers to it, the “psychic being” which is the Divine spark progressively, over the course of evolution, developing a vehicle to manifest the Divine “on earth, as it is in heaven.”
****
(Following up on previous point on stages of development) A very easy way of looking at the problem with “stages” of development is to use a great phrase that Cynthia has used:
The shift from “manas” (the sense mind or emotional mind of Vedanta) to “buddhi” (that which is “enlightened” in the Buddha) is a shift from one operating system to another. The changes in spiral dynamics from blue to orange to green to yellow are all changes within the same operating system. If manas is mountain lion, and buddhi is yosemite, then blue, orange, etc are simply yosemite, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, etc.
By reaching an ever-widening circle of individuals with mindfulness and more importantly, truly contemplative practices, the inner cultural world will shift to a new operating system.
At the same time, this can be facilitated with “outer” institutional or structural change. When building new institutions, when creating community structures, when devising new economies or political structures, to look at what facilitates the shift from manas, to buddhi, and beyond (see the end of chapter 3 of the Bhagavad Gita for more on this ancient “developmental” process), and to look further at what facilitates the emergence of the new OS beyond buddhi (beyond – the higher intuition; and within, the Divine spark, the soul or evolving psychic being).
Wow, Dave, I am stunned and grateful beyond measure for this extensive additional data and the confirmation that my instincts have been leading me in the right direction. Thank you and bless you!
Thanks Cynthia. Jan (my wife) and I are thoroughly enjoying your newest “Heart of Centering Prayer” book – we discovered your work last fall, watching the 4 videos of your Boston College talks. Not being “institutionally Christian,” we’re relying a lot on you at the moment to learn enough about Christian contemplative practice so we can feel ok about leading a “contemplative practices” group as part of the (Methodist-based but interfaith/interspiritual/trans-spiritual) Missional Wisdom project at the Haw Creek Commons in Asheville. I actually asked Jim Duggins for a recommendation for more writings (I borrowed one of Elaine Heath’s books to learn more) and he wrote me and said, “You should look at Cynthia Bourgeault’s latest book”:>))
So I guess we’re on the right track!
stop by at our site if you feel like it – it’s got a lot of Dan Siegel’s “interpersonal neurobiology” (though in the last year, developing our e-course, we’ve radically simplified – neuroscience apparently seems to be leaving the “localization” tendency (the amygdala’s the fear-center; the hippocampus is for long term memory, etc) and moving toward complex, intertwined neural networks. interesting stuff!
http://www.remember-to-breathe.org/Breathing-Videos.htm
I’ve been vacationing in The Keys for the last month, trying to catch-up on my LS reading (Ken Wilber in fact) (not a favorite) My discipline is social work and I am familiar with, and taught developmental theory, psychology, economics, and social justice issues. I find that Ken Wilber tends to focus on formulating complex theory, that pulls a little from each of the above, and loses me in the process because of all the assumptions and offshoots of ideas. I am so happy I took the time to read these posts.
The wind and rain is severe, and I am enjoying the awe of its being. (How true that LS experience enhances everything)
I’ve found this series of posts very informative. My beginning level understanding was clarified by reading through the various opinions. As a member of Harry’s cohort, the last two contributions from Harry and Cynthia were particularly meaningful as they talked to me from where I am. I don’t want to leave the head and the world of theory. I am just trying, with difficultly, to transcend and include the essence of theory by falling into the heart and seeing these various theories in relationship to contemplation and action. Integration?
Thank you to all of you for your deep and thoughtful responses. I will respond in kind as I can, but I did want to say, Harry, that I agree with your analysis pretty much 100%, including both the “plausible” and “legitimate criticism” parts. I really appreciate your insight that the classic conditions for growth beyond one’s present level of consciousness are always, as you say, swimming upstream against the grain of immediate self-gratification, and I think you’re right that the tide of our culture has seriously eroded those capacities in a goodly segment of our populace. And yes, I concur with your foreboding that it’s going to be a lot more grim than many of us can even imagine, way more than just a slap on the hand of poor, misdirected green. We need to be ready to take in stride, without having it destroy either our hope or our faith, significant societal collapse. A project well worth your remaining life energy–mine as well. thanks
[cont.]
Now, the legitimate challenges. The first is what seems missing to me. Most developmental models emphasize the role of destabilizing life events which serve to draw worldviews and life processing systems into question. While I do see the Trump election as an eruption of Shadow as well as a direct response to the Mean Green Meme of condescension and disrespect for flyover country, I think Wilber avoided the implications of this eruption. Fear usually makes people loathe to move developmentally. They hunker down and fight. Might it be that the only way developmental movement can occur here is by virtue of calamitous change making the former paradigms untenable? Has Kali Yuga arrived right on schedule?
It’s important to view those at the red/amber and to a lesser extent orange levels as suffering and meriting compassion. But in the end, the hard work of responding to the evolutionary demand for change is theirs. And it occurs in a culture that makes such growth difficult. F. Scott Peck’s work The Road Less Travelled argues that evolutionary growth is always possible but unlikely in a culture with consummate consumerist values of instant gratification (as opposed to long, delayed change), presumption of entitlement to comfort (as opposed to the willingness to endure suffering) and the demand for convenience (as opposed to the willingness to persist in the hard work of growth).
In all honesty, the immediate future looks pretty grim to me. And here is a second challenge to Wilber’s model. While it is important not to awfulize the rise of Trumpland (as I have no doubt been guilty of in a series of public hand wringing posts on my own blog, frharry@blogspot.com ) it’s also important not to engage in avoidance in seeing the gravity of our situation in all its negative potential. The analogies to 1984 and mid-20th CE totalitarianism may not be on all fours, as we said in the law business, but there are decidedly some similarities in ideation and construction of the other that we ignore to our peril.
Finally, I would pose a question. In terms of this discussion, how do you engage in compassion for those who are espousing constructions of the Other that distort who they are and obscure the image of G-d that they bear? How do I in good conscience pray for “Donald, our president,…” each week in the Prayers of the People when I find him to be a moral monster? How do you confront the problematic thinking of those who would deny climate change even as the storm drains in nearby Miami Beach are bubbling up seawater each high tide separating out a respect for their person even as their unrespectable thinking is confronted and rejected?
I apologize for my verbosity. These subjects are among the highlights of my two years at Living School and the problems I raise here are the focus of my remaining life energies and time (think Integrative Project). I am extremely excited they are being discussed here and I look forward to your thoughtful responses.
Let me begin by saying thank you to the Living School for making Wilber’s essay and Cynthia and Richard’s summaries/responses to it. I also found the comments very helpful in seeing the wide range of responses to these ideas. So, my gratitude. Now, a couple of thoughts.
I have used the models from Kohlberg, Gilligan, Haidt and to a lesser extent Fowler and Wilber in my ethics and humanities undergraduate courses for years. I find the developmental model helpful in understanding moral and spiritual development. Many of my students have often seized upon these models as a beginning place for their own reflections on development. The inclusion of these ideas in the curriculum is part of what drew me to the Living School.
One of my students years ago provided me with a format for critically assessing course materials. Rather than asking where the argument is right/wrong, she suggested the following: “Where is this argument plausibly correct?” This allows for a consideration of the matter without presuming anything about the final outcome. And “Where might this argument be legitimately challenged?” This requires the challenger to do more than simply dismiss the argument and offer reasons why the argument might have holes in it, as virtually all of them do.
So where is Wilber’s argument plausibly correct? As a recent retiree from a philosophy department at a public mega-university, I cannot agree more with Wilber’s critique of the Green POMO meme. Not only have we lost sight of the role of deconstruction as a means of critique aimed at better understanding our world, we have largely elevated it to a revealed religion which, as Wilber accurately describes, has become a logjam for further evolution.
Being able to see the partiality of any truth claim and the contextual contours that shape it are important. Leaping from there to a rather mindless relativism in which no truth claims can ever be taken seriously, particularly not on any kind of universal basis, is not the mark of critical thinking, it is the mark of avoidance and intellectual laziness.
That truths are hard to ferret out does not mean we get to excuse ourselves from that calling. And while one of our posters here suggests that deconstruction is irrelevant to anyone outside the academy, I would point to the past election with the rise of false news sites readily embraced by many as their basis for voting and the acceptance of the painting of the election’s most honest candidate as the liar by the election’s least honest candidate as a sign that the Green meme has indeed “seeped” into public consciousness.
Wilber is also plausibly correct on the hypersensitivity of audiences generally (students are mere reflections of the larger culture, I think) and the difficulty this proves in holding any kind of critical conversation about any aspect of our personal and collective lives. Admittedly, this hypervigilant attitude arises in the face of the demonic which has emerged gradually over the past two decades of the information age but gained momentum in the last election. The reference in one of the responses to the Jungian shadow is right on target here, I think. Whether we will take the opportunity to own up to that Shadow and recognize its detrimental effects on us personally and on the body politic is another question.
Finally, he’s plausibly correct on asserting that compassion is the appropriate response to the anguish emerging from the red, amber and, to a lesser extent, orange levels. Being displaced socially and dispossessed of one’s lifelong identity in the process is painful. As our Buddhist bikkhuni taught our sangha in San Jose, “Everyone knows what it feels like to suffer. So when we see suffering in the other, the only genuine response can be compassion.” [cont.]
Beautiful…..thank you……love.
Hi Cynthia,
All very interesting, and though I’m not fully schooled in developmental stages but see how they generally follow stages of spiritual growth, I’m sensing that too much is being forced into this model, trying to make things fit–as it seemed you were implying in softening the distinction between orange and green. That Trump either rallied or regressed voters to amber I think may miss the more urgent imperative of people just needing jobs. It’s amazing how much human evolution vanishes at the dinner table. People without jobs will generally follow someone promising work. Occam’s razor here: the simplest explanation tends to be true, though certainly there are amber voters in the Trumps ranks, as I imagine there are among Clinton voters as well.
Secondly, seems I never hear anyone talking about the contexts of macro and micro requiring justice and mercy respectively to maintain human cohesion. For a group, justice is the highest good, a balancing of the scales, but for individual relationships, mercy and compassion that deliberately unbalance the scales in favor of the beloved is the highest good. Both are love tuned to different contexts. As greens with best intentions work to legislate compassion in the macro, they are losing the cohesion of the group, which it seems Trump exploited. Unless there is some unprecedented shift in human nature, it seems there will always be the need for justice and rule of law in group settings–which may also mean borders and immigration regulations–to maintain the integrity of groups in which mercy and compassion can be protected and practiced in individual, micro settings. I’m not sure we evolve beyond certain realities in our group relations even as we grow in our collective spiritual consciousness.
I’d love to hear any of your thoughts along these lines. And thanks for all the work you do for us.
Wow, Dave that’s a terrific thought about the needs of micro and macro and how they are different….and perhaps even balancing. Had never thought of it from that perspective. Thank you!
Hi Lisa. Making that distinction helped me work through a lot of issues with more balance and brought Scriptures into new focus as well…(OT a macro book/nation of Israel/justice–NT/micro/compassion). Thanks for letting me know it helped.
Cool. Interesting. I get it with regard to Old Testament/New Testament. Again, thanks! : )
Wonderful reporting and commenting. I hear a lot about being the”resistance” so I offer something I recently learned from Caroline Casey; if we change the word to ‘protect’ it is less combative and more inclusive and gets us the same destination.
Thank you Cynthia and Co. for your work this weekend. My take away for myself from reading your post is:
1) Seek to establish contact with the bandwith of guiding compassion, tenderness and responsive concern that is encircling the planet awaiting our resonating hearts
2) Trust the deep hope that is evolving, still flowing beneath all that appears to be… (Teilhard)
3) Attend to the practices of reciprocal feeding: conscious labor and intentional suffering that release the higher energies/substances of the fruits of the spirit crucial for the building up our common planetary life/interplanetary life. (not optional) (Gurdjieff)
4) Put up antennae for “aperspectival madness” in the cul de sac (echo chamber) and then when we find ourselves there…? (I need to study the, “then what”?) (Wilber)
5) Hold the post; stand with courage and equanimity; hold resilient space for third force;
6) Stay close to the light within that always shines brightly in the midst of anything and everything….
7) Turn hourly, daily to the protective field of tenderness and responsive concern that is alive and well and surrounds our planetary anguish.
7) Place hope in Source, not outcome.
8) Seek to become aware and develop my ‘symbiotic self’ and live from ‘genuine synergistic community’ that is in inseparable physical communion with every living being in the universe. (Fitzgerald)
Thank you for these contemplative actions to meditate on.
I would love suggestions for reading from Teilhard if there was a particular book you read together for this time.
I found a note on a scrap of paper that is Cynthia’ish to me and fits this work: “There is conjugal opportunity in any occasion… If we open inwardly this puts us in alignment and rescues us from the ‘sloughs of despond,’ creating a channel of consent and dredging the harbor through which we exit into the ocean… We start carving the channel with each moment of conscious consent”
Blessings all,
Lisa
Thank you so much for calling this group together and for reporting on the gathering, Cynthia. Such wisdom in this group! And so wonderful to hear of the Divine Presence exploding in the Sunday morning Eucharist. This post encouraged my heart.
where does contemplation turn to action?
Keith,
You might consider going out and buying some Indian handmade turquoise jewelry for your wife or girlfriend .
But Keith it can be just as simple as just being mindful and prayerful of the situation the Indians are going through with oil pipelines running through their native land.
Praying,
I must say that on Sunday morning during my second service I get the presence of Christ so powerfully in the Eucharist that I consciously noticed!!!!!!
Question…does holding the post entail speaking prophetically in these times???
The opposites if the fruits of the spirit is ovbviously what the former administration has left us now holding.
Let us learn this lesson well.
“Dig in” with this new administration to bring about the fruits we are needing.
I see no good that would come to resist the new administration.
The opposites of the fruits of the spirit is ovbviously what the former administration has left us now holding.
Jeff, dear heart, I do not understand at all your first sentence. I hope I am not being obtuse.
And I do not understand whether you are being facetious, or ironic, in your further comment.
My gut instinct tells me to resist the new administration with all my mind, heart and soul.
Dear Genevieve O’Hara
Thank you for sharing your gut feelings with me.
The condition that the former administration has left Is very obvious.
We as a country have slid back to an animal like consciousness, we can see this by simply turning our TV set on in reading the blogs about all the violence in the streets of America.
So if we are of an agreement that the former administration was of the “green “state of consciousness , And we truly Believed and hoped it was a true green state of consciousness , but it appears that it has obviously became divisive and has derailed itself .
If we can empty our preconceived ideas of what the new administration is As mainstream media paints them as (Red) or
reactive. Let’s empty our preconceived ideas into the new administration as a turquoise State of consciousness .
Let us be prayerful for this new state of consciousness of being turquoise .
Trump is a genius at being whatever color he needs to be .
God can use reptiles for His advantages.
Just what I was looking for. Ken’s writings have helped me so much and I’m really needing to make sense of this dramatic turn our country has taken. This will be helpful. And thanks, cynthia, for your input and perspective on this.
Thank you all for this rich and fruitful conversation. I have read each comment and am weighing, sifting, and taking all to heart. We are just finishing up a very small ingathering of Wisdom students to feel our way deeper into this discernment. One clear and stunning truth: Christic love is powerfully and intimately present with us in the NOW regardless of outcomes, allowing Wisdom to configure (rapidly if necessary) as the “holding” energy whatever may ensue. I am grateful and awestruck by the courage, compassion, and preparedness of our folk.
With the exception of the last two amazingly nondual-thinking paragraphs, for me, Ken Wilber’s essay hit his main two points over and over – that the leading edge ‘green’ developmental stage, by accepting everything as true according to its context, set up an actual paradigm where nothing is ultimately true in all contexts; and that again, the leading edge ‘green’ contradicted this premise by feeling only its own truth was valid, resulting in a narcissistic disregard for everyone and everything else.
Wilber’s perceptions feel right – the mean-green-meme classism is seen in media ad nauseam. The narcissism is equally on display in ego-driven comments following news stories, editorials, and on Twitter. That the leading edge developmental stage needs to step up to the challenge of changing course, and accept their responsibility for derailing evolution’s forward momentum, and most importantly, as Wilber implores, show only Compassion to those individuals in earlier developmental stages, is good advice to implement in real-time practical ways. It helps me to realize, as Wilber points out, that so many people live within extremely constricted inner and outer worldviews that cause them fear and pain, resulting in wounds that need balm, not acid. I would add that applying balm, however, does not preclude non-violent resistance to policies that constriction engenders.
An essay cannot address everything, but I do wonder about a couple of omissions. I felt as if the Damocle’s sword – in our time, a double-edged sword – hanging over us was nearly ignored: potential nuclear disaster and impending climate change disasters. It seems both need to motivate the regenerated leading edge, whether ‘green’ or ‘integral’, to work diligently, first on their own further development, striving beyond the “egoic operating system” to the mind/heart aligned system that Cynthia teaches, and secondly, to seriously get practical in including and coordinating different disciplines s. a. medicine, art, history, business, economics, education,and politics (all of which Wilber lists) for state of the art answers. Wilber’s short foray into the business regulation debate, advocating a rollback of regs, seemed to me lacking in current research and understanding. For example, there is not a consensus that regulations have hampered small business growth, and to roll back regulations targeted by the current administration s. a. the Waters of the U.S. Rule (which protects rivers and wetlands) would be devastating for the precarious environmental gains made up to this point. In addition, more small businesses than ever have gone under since 2008 because with the economic meltdown, people who lost their jobs were looking anxiously for an income source, and gave start-ups a try in massive numbers – start-ups that were generally underfunded and not well planned.
My thought is that we spend time on the meditation mat and apply ourselves to practices, so that we can be compassionate toward individuals and clear in our hearts and minds when we advocate for change. Then we turn to analysis of information presented by disciplines, and realise that facts are still important in a Post-Truth World.
I’m wondering if people are aware of the source of integral perspective that is Jean Gebser. If so, I think it would be interesting to compare and hear from Ken Wilbers and how he arrived at his thesis.
Hi Cynthia,
In thinking about ways in which the Green needs evolutionary correction, I’ve been thinking about how well-meaning politicians are handling the current administration. Just as an example: the Elizabeth Warren and Betsy Devos encounter. The folks at the orange level are looking to Betsy, regardless of whether this is who she is or not, as the “millionaire with the grade 8 education”. America loves that kind of story a lot more it seems than the intellectual who becomes rich. You see this with people accepting the term “blue collar billionaire” for the president. Regardless of whether he’s ever been blue collar, he sort of acts that way.
So let’s call Betsy the wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Then you have Elizabeth Warren, smarter than all get out with a look on her face that says “I’m going to roast you.” While her heart is in the right place on the issues: the protection of education in America, etc. her tone begets violence to those who see her as the one that the “grade 8 millionaire” is going to rise above.
Let’s call Elizabeth the sheep in wolf’s clothing.
What would happen if she became the sheep in sheep’s clothing?
Is there a way to make it known that this person is not qualified for the job, but doing it such a way that she is still shown love and somehow thus showing love to the millions of people on the defence? Is it even possible at this stage? It seems that the orange levels are on the defence for reasons of patronization. Their guy is in the house right now so a deeply hurtful, provoking tone is coming from the orange level and is wreaking havoc. The greens don’t know how to combat this provoking tone with anything other than patronization, because they’re not yet at the level of kenotic love, so will protect themselves with strong intellectualism that walks circles around those who are less able (which may or may not be an act).
I may be wrong, but it seems that patronization can feel equally violent to an orange. So they end up paddling the same boat toward toxicity and violence and taking up all the air in the room.
When I am at my worst, I resort to patronization to defend myself. It is its own form of abuse and its own form of violence.
I know what dropping the guard of patronization looks like personally for me, but I have no idea how that would play out in the political field. Just some thoughts.
Also, in thinking about this further, I would like to make a change: wherever I say “orange” – replace it with “amber”. It is interesting to point out that the new administration is being led by a red level and most of the team is probably amber. The leaders who we vote for mirror our own level to some degree. Which is probably why there were many “orange” level Christians who either didn’t vote or voted third party. Something else interesting is that we might say Sanders represents the one who is most able to speak across to the people at different levels, which is why some greens who sense a need for a corrective (though they wouldn’t call it that) might have been drawn to him.
Cynthia, this article and your comments have been a lifeline. I want to go deeper with the concepts, and am reaching out to others through different communities. Please let me know if there are specific others I might approach.
I also want to flag this article, which I think has real relevance to Wilbur’s premise of the failure of green as the evolutionary edge.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/books/review/the-righteous-mind-by-jonathan-haidt.html
Karla
Cynthia and others, my understanding of Wilbers Levels of Consciousness continues to grow. His analysis of President Trump makes sense on so many levels. However, as you have stated in #5, heart consciousness is a totally new way of seeing. Moving our seeing from the mind to the heart will be essential in understanding and going forward to bring about the change that we are working for.
I am grateful for Teilhards emphasis on Love and am looking forward to Illia Delio’s year of focusing on Love in the year ahead. it is always interesting to read these intellectual analyses but Contemplatives are reframing all this so they can see from Oneness and Nonduality. We try do it automatically but then look to scholars like Cynthia to help us along the way.
Thank you. Love is what it is all about, Kay B.
Hi Cynthia,
Thanks for bringing this issue and Wilber’s work to the discussion. Here is my (less than) 2 cents worth:
Regarding Teilhard, I do recall seeing a chart on the Integral Website that listed representatives of each of the color-coded growth stages. Teilhard was the example given for the 2nd tier turquoise/teal level. So I believe his genius and contributions are recognized in the Integral circles.
In terms of lines of development, I think Ken is running with Howard Gardner’s work on Multiple Intelligences. Ken seems to hang with the criteria Gardner used to have a certain “quality” meet the criteria to be labeled as a line of intelligence. Initially, the “Spiritual” line was not on the list. It was added later, as I recall. Yet Ken is quick to point out that the meaning of “spiritual” and its evolution are tricky to grasp, because of so many different running definitions (much akin to the term soul). Spiritual can be seen as a speparate line of development/intelligence, but it can also be seen as the Eros-engine that actually fuels the growth along each of the lines. Furthermore each line may have a significant interplay with the others such that a dynamic psycho-spiritual graph emerges. As an example, most highly developed moral people are cognitively mature as well. Yet, the reverse is not true (the classic mad scientist archetype comes to mind). I could argue that the glue that combines the lines is a good definition of Spiritual. It gets rather confusing.
I’ve heard Ken describe himself foremost as a cartographer. But he is quick to add that the map is never the territory, nor is the menu ever the meal. His writings suggest that maps will hopefully continue to evolve and improve.
For me, what has been one of the useful ideas from Ken’s maps is the recognition that the second tier/teal level is that major operational system shift where contempt begins to float out the window. Perhaps the greatest error of the mean green meme is that it hates the haters. As they say in Zen, that mode of being/perspective is like washing out blood with blood. It ultimately doesn’t work, as we have seen. Jesus’ message is radically different. I can’t claim to love God on the one hand and hate something else (neighbor, the environment, the “other”). That is perhaps THE performative contradiction, from the Christian Wisdom perspective.
Just some thoughts. By the way, your new book “The Heart of Centering Prayer” is stunning. Really top notch. Thanks for that offering. I could blabber on and on about how rich it is. Everyone else on this thread should get it.
Rex
a train of thoughts that just came by:
“politics and elections” turned from rational truth and decisionmaking into expressing emotional truth and suppressed emotions and traumas
isn’t that green in itself?
are attempts to ‘get back’ to fact based truth a longing for an amber style of (factual) order and clarity?
Hi Cynthia,
Thank you for this wonderful response to Ken’s offering. I just finished reading Ken’s essay, and in true Wilberian fashion the movement toward Integral and Second Tier is proposed as a way forward. Being a pastor in the Lutheran Tradition, I also have seen a need for the head/heart connection in moving us toward a greater connection with neighbor and God, and am strengthened by those who are engaged in ‘widening the perspective’. In thinking about your comment on the cognitive line, I was reminded of Ken’s insistence on growth across the whole AQAL map. His mentioning of “Showing up”, “Growing up”, “Waking up”, and “Cleaning up” in the last pages of the essay helped me to again see that it is in working toward wholeness as we “differentiate and integrate” that is the aim for our strivings.
Thanks for all that you do in your work and calling.
I read Wilbur new age thesis and really think the only thing I come away with it is growth comes out of death like the lotus from the rotted humus of the bottom of the pond- if one believes the Buddhas can emerge from a lotus one or believe in the resurrected Christ who will come again -but if your a malignant nihilist who only consumes the world well he is a king as Ginsburg said moloch- the new Age philosophy will not stop a second American civil war which seems to be happening in slow motion
Wilber to be sure makes some good points but at the risk of being simplistic and a little crude:
1. Nobody outside of academia and a narrow intellectual glitterati gives a shit about truth as a cultural construction or inherent philosophical contradictions or nihilism. Wilber mistakes his own world (speculative philosophy, academia) for the larger one.
2. While (correctly) decrying greens who see “deplorables” and the great unwashed, he sets himself up as the new “integrated” vanguard. Maybe, maybe not. But is this really the road to recruiting the troops needed for the battle today?
3. What most people around the world have cared about is material wellbeing. The world has enjoyed enormous economic expansion since WWII under a system that was made possible in no small measure by the productivity of America’s farmers and factory workers. America made the world great (or at least moved it along). But as the system morphed, some people in our country didn’t get credit or what they think is their fair share and they’ve watched a dubious elite that generally produce nothing tangible go way off the greed and dishonesty scale (2008, CEO pay ratios, crony capitalism, generally the 1%).
4. There’s nothing new in what we are seeing. It’s just new in our own experience. When elites become greedy and corrupt, populist autocrats rise up or worse things happen from the outside— Roman republic, Ottoman empire, France (“let them eat croissants”), Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba, Jerusalem, Sodom and Gomorrah.
5. What people also care about is identity and a sense that it’s respected. There’s a demographic that doesn’t get much respect. This is a complicated problem but here are a couple of thoughts, one inspired by Gurdjieff.
—For the most part, our elite are one-centered (intellectual) beings (so many spiritual practices are aimed at “getting us out of our heads”). But for a lot of people the moving center is the most important. Thus, tools, making things with your hands, guns, fishing, cars, 4-wheelers, sports and sport events, feeling the earth in your hands or an animal between your legs —these are moving center activities and give a lot of satisfaction as well as a way of bonding with others who enjoy the same. As heady people, we often just don’t get it.
— Religion is an important element of identity. As Teilhard reminds us, we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Since the Enlightenment, our elite culture has downgraded religion. Today, it’s often ridiculed. In reaction, to preserve the spiritual component of identity, many at home and abroad have battened down the hatches into fundamentalism .
6. Fear—for decades our government and elites have fed fear — fear of communists, fear of terrorists, fear of failure, economic uncertainty—into the culture. That combined with distorted histories taught in most schools has made it remarkably easy for a demagogue to intensify them.
I could go on but in a phrase: shouldn’t we concentrate in cleaning up the mess we left in our own culture before dreaming of being at the vanguard of the new evolutionary leap?
My own understanding of consciousness is relatively simple. My concluding remarks are decidedly narrower than this forum has presented; and admittedly and transparently political in explaining factually how I believe the election was engineered.
Cynthia Bourgeault is more than fair in her critique of 5 points of the Wilbur model. I take as my starting her fifth observation: “the leap to this new level of conscious functioning is not simply an extension of the cognitive line but requires ‘putting the mind in the heart,’ not only attitudinally but neurologically.”
The evolution of the human mind has occurred in “leaps.” It manifests as three discontinuities. First came simple consciousness which humans share with the animals; second, self-consciousness which distinguishes humans from animals. It is an ordinary consciousness possessed by every human being. Third is the leap to Cosmic Consciousness, Supra Consciousness or Christ Consciousness.
Levels, color codes and grades are not terms that convey the unique experience and evolutionary leap that is a transformation of the human being. Richard Maurice Bucke wrote: “Upon self-consciousness is based all distinctly human life so far, except what has proceeded from the few cosmic conscious minds of the last three thousand years.”
In the East it is the “Brahmic Splendor.” Dante described it as capable of trans humanizing a person into a “god”. Walt Whitman experienced his cosmic sense as “ineffable light”. Carl Jung advanced our understanding of consciousness through his notion of individuation a pesonal experience he arrived at through the exploration of his own unconscious mind. One that led to his experience and encounter with his higher Self.
While I consider Pierre Teilhard de Chardin among the leading scientific and spiritual luminaries of our time I do not bring him into these remarks. I have not read the Wilbur analysis to appreciate whether: “The greatest contribution of this paper is that it gets the scale right: it “nails” the arena in which events are actually playing out and offers a plausible hypothesis as to the underlying causes, a hypothesis which restores both coherence and an empowerment.”
I attempt to narrow the scale in my following remarks. I also offer empirical causes which I think Teilhard de Chardin would appreciate from his scientific training.
I have read many analyses and I understand the conclusion by Cynthia Bourgeault: ”Virtually every other analysis I have seen—political, sociological, Biblical—is working from too narrow and limited a perspective.” I would add that one Jungian analyst I read sees the incumbent president as a projection of our dark psyche – which may have some truth.
Notwithstanding the aspiration for a broader perspective, I do think that the present crisis can be and initially needs to be appreciated from a narrower and limited perspective; a technical narrowness which draws upon neither Wilbur nor Chardin. When appreciated this narrower perspective may lend itself to the evolutionary framework of Chardin where I agree one needs to evolve the discussion – but give narrowness its due because it helps an appreciation of causes.
My perhaps narrow, but by no means shallow nor ill-considered, perspective draws upon the journalistic reporting, books and films of Greg Palast and the editorializing of Palast’s research by Thom Hartmann.
I present the Hartmann synthesis of the Palast research:
The election of 2016 may well have been stolen—or to use Donald Trump’s oft-repeated phrase—”rigged,” and nobody in the media seems willing to discuss it.
The rigging was a pretty simple process, in fact: in 27 Republican-controlled states (including critical swing states) hundreds of thousands (possibly millions) of people showed up to vote, but were mysteriously blocked from voting for allegedly being registered with the intent to vote in multiple states.
Greg Palast, an award-winning investigative journalist, writes a stinging piece in the highly respected Rolling Stone magazine (August 2016 edition), predicting that the November 8, 2016 presidential election had already been decided: “The GOP’s Stealth War Against Voters.” He also wrote and produced a brilliant documentary on this exact subject that was released well before the election, titled The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
He said a program called the Interstate Voter Registration Crosscheck had been quietly put together in Kansas and was being used by Republican secretaries of state in 27 states to suppress and purge African American, Asian and Hispanic votes in what would almost certainly be the swing states of the 2016 election.
Crosscheck was started by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach back in 2007 under the guise of combating so-called voter fraud. In the ultimate thumb in the eye to the American voter, the state where Crosscheck started was the only state to refuse to participate in a New York Times review of voter fraud in the 2016 election, which found that, basically, there wasn’t any fraud at the level of individual voters. Turns out, according to Palast, that a total of 7 million voters including—
• Up to 344,000 in Pennsylvania
• Up to 589,000 in North Carolina
• Up to 449,000 in Michigan
(These numbers were based on available Crosscheck data from 2014
These eligible voters may have been denied the right to have their votes counted under this little known but enormously potent Crosscheck program.
Those numbers are way more than enough votes to swing the 2016 election to Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. But no one seems to care.
That summary from a much longer researched document and video was from Thom Hartmann.
So this analysis points to causes that are not by any means superficial but are structurally the foundation of the way voting actually works or did not work in this previous election.
The election has sent millions of people pouring out onto the streets to protest a man they think is a racist, misogynist, xenophobic bully who will destroy US democracy in his quest to establish himself as supreme ruler of the country.
Maybe they’re right. Maybe the incumbent embodies all these tendencies and is one who will destroy America. But where were these people when his predecessor was:
1. Bombing wedding parties in Kandahar
2. Training jihadist militants to fight in Syria
3. Abetting NATO’s destructive onslaught on Libya
4. Plunging Ukraine into fratricidal warfare
5. Collecting the phone records of innocent Americans
6. Deporting hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers
7. Force-feeding prisoners at Gitmo
8. Providing bombs and aircraft to the Saudis to continue their genocidal war against Yemen
Where were they? How do these facts inform an understanding of consciousness of individuals and by extension the collective unconscious of this country?
We need to understand the length and breadth; the height and the depth of this situation. I agree with the imperative of a consciousness perspective. It can only benefit from an appreciation of causes which are indicators of a much darker and deeper unconscious which affects us all.
Thanks to all! Not sure I grasp all the intricacies of the comments, yet know that when sense am coming from Oneness that all is well and all will be well.
Further, am decided to fast from so much cable and constant news of Trump and instead hold human family before Yeshua,
befriend anew Silence, and by Grace, seek to be more fully alive, aware and available to whatever is. Of course, will continue justice endeavors, particularly on local level here.
Asheville, NC
Wonderful analysis of what is currently going on from an evolutionary perspective–both Wilber’s and Teilhard’s. Wilber’s writings have been very helpful for me in helping me to see how science and religion went their separate ways at modernity’s birth, and how they might reconcile for human and earth well-being in this crucial time.
It’s clear that Wilber has been influenced by Teilhard–insides-outsides and evolution of consciousness–and I appreciate your leadership in helping Barthian trained pastors like me understand what Teilhard was up to.
I read The Heart of Centering Prayer which brings so much more clarity around what we might mean by non-dual consciousness and how we might find a way to it. That we may find our way into this next tier through the domain of devotion rings so true to my experience.
I am grateful for Wilber’s road-map and your Teilhardian and Wisdom clarifications as I try to provide some spiritual guidance and light in this turbulent season.
Dear Cynthia,
Thanks for responding to Ken’s statement, which has been making the rounds in my circle of spiritual friends, although I myself haven’t read it yet. However, I will take the opportunity to raise an observation/question from my own experience and reflection rather than as any kind of intelligent consideration of Ken’s model. I wrote a few years ago that working with you on Centering Prayer, Desert Fathers and Mothers material, etc, that I sensed that a devotional aspect was a point of departure from my previous diet of Borg, Spong, Jim Wallis at Sojourners as well as the more secular Wilber or the Spiral Dynamics people. Writing about teaching for spiritual activation, I concluded:
“Encourage a devotional disposition towards daily life: Despite the dissatisfactions and injustices evident to all in the visible world, the appropriate response to an interconnected world that “appears as an integrated whole, a continuum of energy that shows itself to be massive, unfathomably complex, extravagantly beautiful, single organism” (Bache, 2008, 31) is awe, wonder, and a sense that on another level all is right with the universe. Thus, devotion is an appropriate response to the state of the universe. Worship of God as transcendent is complemented by a joyful appreciation of life’s essential goodness in God’s immediate presence. In the end, it is the quality of lived experience that speaks for itself. Cynthia calls this a “recognition energy,” which is “the capacity to ground-truth a spiritual experience in your own being” (2004, 8). Such inner knowing is the basis of Cynthia’s and Chris Bache’s writings, and presumably the place from which the teacher as spiritual activator carries out their work.”
Now when I have been on retreat with you, you have described yourself as an “iconoclast,” as one whose preference is on the Quaker end of the spectrum. This causes me to redefine what “devotional” means, which, as I said above, is more about a posture of the heart towards life rather than more external displays of worship or devotion. Perhaps I’ve always understood devotion more as an outward manifestation rather than an inward movement.
The simple parallel to my own life is that in the last 5 years or so that I’ve been regularly committed to Centering Prayer, I have felt a gradual lessening of general life anxiety being replaced by a quiet sense of gratitude. Along with this has come an attention to aliveness in its many manifestations: in nature, in the call of children on the playground, in the smell of my coffee.
Finally, I would note that the feeling tone of Teilhard and Wilber reflect this difference. Whereas Wilber’s work has been intellectually thrilling in places for its clarity, it doesn’t leap off the page the way that Teilhard’s writing does. While the latter is harder to understand, there is an animation beneath the words that is palpable in a way that is absent in Wilber’s more easily understood prose.
So, I guess I’m trying to understand what devotion really means when one “puts the mind into the heart.” I happen to be reading at this very moment Helminski’s The Knowing Heart, where he writes: “Many gifts are bestowed upon those who learn to be in continual remembrance. The loveliness of this world may increase. Taste, sight, fragrance, and sound intensity and are experience as gifts from infinite Being. Even the senses are brought to spiritual ecstasy. Simple pleasures become infinitely rewarding” (55). This seems to be very much in line with your understanding of devotion.
https://martinschmidtinasia.wordpress.com/2014/12/27/beyond-holistic-education-a-pedagogy-of-spiritual-activation/
Thank you, Marty, for these beautiful words. It made a difference in looking at daily practices. It put beauty into them. I can also see that a practice has not outcome, no goal so it can be used by my ego in the same way that much of what I “do” can be used.
Thanks, Deborah, nice to know it was useful to you!
Cynthia, thank you for this analysis of Wilber’s essay and for your book “The Heart of Centering Prayer”. Wilber’s analysis utilizing his well-worn path I think accurately illuminates the unexpected and provides hope during our “evolutionary correction”. And I agree that the ultimate escape is through the difficult path to non-dual awareness that seems to indeed be edging to reality at a palpably quicker pace. As you develop in the book, directing oneself to sense the heart and through the heart in contemplation and simply remaining there, experiencing the world in a non-attached state is on of the easiest precepts for me to follow to achieve a meaningful connection with this next step of a deep sense of unity.
Cynthia, a great job, very helpful, thank you. One observation. Regarding your critique number three: Wilbur says in his latest book, the green level is “half integral –” this is more in line with this understanding of the structures not as “chunky” but as probability waves.
Cynthia, one other point: you mention in your summary that you do not know where Ken Wilber gets his “tipping point” of 10%. He mentions this in several of his books including the most recent. It comes from the experience of the 60s when the tipping point of 10% was reached and brought the cultural structure from the from the Amber to the green
Humanity must find a way to express and live by simple CORE TRUTHS—Humanity is good. We are family. We are blessed beyond measure. Life is beautiful.
Holding that in my heart. Humanity is good. We are family. We are blessed beyond measure. Life is beautiful.
Love,
Lora
Cynthia, thank you for posting this and sharing your thoughtful commentary. I found it very, very thought provoking. Could you address how to fit into Wilber’s analysis and your commentary the fact that the plurality of consciousness (I am sure that is incorrect wording) did not drive the change and elect Trump? Can’t one very legitimately conclude that his election does not reflect the bigger picture of the evolution of consciousness but a smaller picture of a procedural glitch embedded in a written constitutional structure and history from over two centuries ago? That while consciousness did evolve, the operational system or framework in which it acted did not? Thus, we experienced not only his election but also the resultant unprecedented push back? In summarizing Wilber’s analysis, you write that he concludes “Trump was able to successfully fan the smoldering fires of resentment building at all three lower levels—red, amber, and orange—into a roaring blaze of anti-green sentiment …” But he didn’t. The majority rejected his “smoldering fires” and he lost the popular vote and was elected with less votes than Romney and McCain lost. I would very much welcome your thoughts, as I question whether the analysis is very different if we incorporate this fact into it.
Great comments Roy, I do think Trump fanned the fires of anger and resentment amongst a large section of the American voting population. But as you astutely point out the operating system is broken. Again as in the case of George II we get a president elected by a minority of those who voted! Enough with the electoral college already. It is outdated, dysfunctional, and antidemocratic. as a resident of Utah my vote never counts in the general election because the majority here always vote Republican. And when there are apparent discrepancies we have a court system that will never allow a recount! Our electoral system is broken and our Constitution is way outdated. And I think the founding fathers would agree that they could see our country today and the world we live in.
and only by embracing deep evolution can we come to deep hope. And the only way that I see that enough us can get to and embody second tier consciousness that can re – member our shattered world, is if enough of us engage in daily effective courageous and gritty transformative practice: Body mind emotions shadow spirit soul heart. I think it takes grit to get to the grace. I think God and the universe are routing for us. Let’s give them some help, take responsibility, and do our part. Shall we?
A correction: Trump got more votes than either McCain or Romney:
http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/index.html
Or maybe you meant that Trump got fewer votes than the numbers Obama got in either 2008 or 2012, to which McCain and Romney lost, which is true.
Chris, thanks for correcting me! It was unconscionable of me not to double check my sources! While I will still argue my fundamental point that Trump’s election occurred by operation of the law, not a change in consciousness, I surely won’t do so by sharing that misinformation.
Since first discovering Wilber twenty years ago I have had a great love for his brilliant mind and analytic ability and a hesitation about what feels to me to be his arrogance. So I share the reservations about how he comes to some of the sweeping generalizations he makes. But there is something he is saying in this essay that I have also been trying to say that I want to raise up.
One of the things we must be about if we are to participate in the healing of our society is to move from what Wilber defines as green to turquoise or teal or what Bourgeault [and many others] refer to as the move from head to heart. This is a profoundly transformative move personally and socially. But there is something else.
We have the opportunity and the imperative to become present to the other. Our contemplation can become action that constructs conversations with the “deplorables.” We can, by the Practice of Presence, transform alienation into alliance.
I have recently read Judi Picoult’s great small things. It is a book about personal and interpersonal transformation around our attitudes about race. But in a larger sense it is a template for transformation.
My brother and sister both voted for Trump. We grew up together but see the world through vastly different lenses. I was blessed to see through the eyes of some very wise and generous people and almost without exception these were people I met in the context of a community of faith.
Each of our personal efforts is potentially salvific but it sure helps to be surrounded by a community that shares a larger sense of purpose. More than protecting the building or increasing the membership or conducting services that preserve the traditions, we need communities that are committed, at least those who speak in a Christian idiom, to “growing into the fullness of Christ.” The path ahead is full of potholes, Jeff. Let us travel the road together.
Cynthia, your points fill-out (for me) the picture Wilber put to canvas. A common area of agreement that I see in your summary, in other comments from R. Rohr and was certainly present in WIlber’s writing is that a more substantial path to “health” for everyone at all levels is really needed. Green has got to get to a more accepting place and that as long as it is stuck in its contradiction, the head-winds will prevail to stall progress. Contemplation offers each the peace and grace they can absorb and it may well be the yeast that causes this dough to rise! At a minimum, it improves the probability that more will get to a place of greater potential – which (from your most recent book) is a view from oneness that embraces the entire rainbow of colors.
The teachings of Vajrayana, (esoteric Tibetan/tantric Buddhism) training also parallels the mystical stages/ Models in a lot of ways.. “In this training, practitioners accept negative concepts and emotions and their sources and transmute them as enlightened wisdom and wisdom power. This approach is like transforming the poison of the tree into medicinal potion. This is the path of tantra….” This is the path of bodhisattva observing bodhichitta (love,compassion). You move deeper in the practices of “various kinds of visualizations that center around the motif of inner fire the meaning of Tummo. These all work with the basic heat, the life force.” It’s purpose to burn away conceptualized notions.
These practices are powerful and I did not get to the advanced stages. I abandoned my practice when I began having “kundalini” symtoms, 3 hour long body orgasm with concurrent excruciating headache. My teacher at the time said stop and only focus on grounding, which I did. The path of the bodhistattva requires an attitudinal stance but does not feel as intimate as the Christian path of Christ to me, yet it still very much resonates. While you do take Bodhisattva vows “to save all sentient beings” i.e. by saving your self, vowing to stay “awake”, I never was able to move out of the mind in many ways, but I still do certain practices. I still hold a dialectical stance with multiple contemplative practices.
Through my Christian beliefs I do deeply feel a “fierce particularity” yet also a still point within my heart that at times can see without words into the hearts of others without the mind, it happens randomly and unsolicited and floods me with such intimate love that everything stops for a few minutes and unites as one beautiful energy, maybe this is the hallmark of the Christian faith versus herd mentality with a bad case of echolalia. Because of particular experiences like these of “seeing with the heart” I felt a “knowing had been downloaded into my spirit and knew that Divinity lives within each of us with the deepest intimacy . Thank you Cynthia for your comments on Wilbers paper, excellent. I went to Wilbers book after Trump was elected looking for awareness and had just surmised that Trump was vibrating at the egocentric,red/amber stage and let it go though it did not satisfy me. This paper and your comments have greatly helped. Love.
Thank you, Cynthia! I’ve been sitting here writing, rewriting, on and on – trying to say how deeply your beautifully expressed analysis Ken Wilbur’s post touched me – no words are working for me. You are so gifted and we are so blessed to have this connection with you. MANY thanks and blessings!
Dear Cynthia,
As always, I find your reflections/critiques of Ken’s work illuminating of both his very important work, and yours – a new light emerges shining from both. I am immensely grateful for the evolutionary framework of Teilhard + Ken + the current Heart understanding you bring: a place to stand in Love during this time of often terrifying and maddening events. Love always, Faye
Road goes on forever and can be filled with lots of potholes,but too it can be smooth fresh pavement, either way our hearts must be swept and cleaned daily. Some of us have much clutter to clean (me) before considering the road trip,Considering all of the green lights, yellow lights and red lights along the road. It can be a painful road.
What we put back into our hearts once they’ve been swept clean must be the lover within .
For some this is gonna be a hard road to travel. I am currently running into potholes on a daily basis.
Let’s all be there for one another red,yellow ,orange ,green, and turquoise.
Yes, I’m familiar with Ken’s map, but I disagree with it in this case precisely because of the issue you raise in point 5: he sees the cognitive development as a separate line entirely, and by inference related principally to the mind (too often conflated with the brain.) Western mystical models make clear that this is not the case. Within the progressive developmental stages there are quantum leaps based on a second parameter Ken does not explicitly deal with: the rewiring of the physiology of perception itself, neurologically detectable as “putting the mind in the heart.” In the Eastern Orthodox models, at least, the transition to second and third tier STAGES (not “states”)—known as “contemplation”—does not and cannot happen without the overriding of the operating system of the mental/rational level of consciousness, brought about by the gradual moving of attention lower, to the region of the heart, together with the increasing capacity to perceive in the “objectless awareness” mode. I believe Buddhism is well aware of this as well, particularly in Tibetan teaching, but modern translations of Buddhist sacred texts, inevitably operating through our own Western intersubjective filters, fail to detect that in Buddhism the mind is not the brain, but the brain/heart synchrony.
Hi Cynthia! Very helpful summary which is much appreciated. A few thoughts. Regarding #3 in your Comments and Critiques, Wilber is explicit in seeing levels of consciousness as developmental stages (I just checked on this in his book Integral Spirituality, as one source.) Regarding#5, Wilber sees cognitive development as a separate line entirely. Here it seems to me you are comparing apples and oranges in his work. Further, he asserts that the experience of Oneness will be different for those at the amber, orange, green, turquoise, etc. developmental levels of consciousness. So I encourage a more careful reading of his work before drawing some of your conclusions here. What he calls second tier is, it seems to me at least, what you are pointing to in the experience of putting the mind in the heart. Second tier consciousness is that inclusive, though it will be expressed differently in Buddhism and in Christianity.
It is so helpful to weave Wilber and Teilhard together as you do in your comments — I agree that it’s Wilber’s loss that he doesn’t draw on Teilhard.
With love,
Marianne
Thank you Cynthia for all this opportunity to Explore this wisdom
It is very disheartening that in the last 8 years, there is no peace in the world. In fact, especially in the Middle East, the violence has gotten worse. I was really hoping that President Obama would show us his plan and proposal for World Peace, since he received and accepted the Nobel Peace Prize.
Instead, all we heard were excuses. And we saw him play more golf than most of the previous presidents. Over 300 rounds of golf.
Politicians are suppose to be leaders. Not elitists. I do believe they are suppose to set the example of SERVING their country.
It’s easy to blame the other politicians – the ones you didn’t vote for. And I do hope that Trump does NOT play a lot of golf and is willing to work hard for the sake of this country. But time will tell.
BTW, I did NOT vote. Why? Because I am not able to. I am a Legal Immigrant with a Green Card. I can not vote in the USA. There was a push to get the illegal immigrants to vote but not the legal immigrants to vote. Sorry, but that doesn’t seem fair nor does it make any common sense.
I really appreciate the UNSUNG heroes of this country and those in other countries as well. Those that serve in the military and in our communities, who don’t want the lime light and quietly give their time, money and energy and sometimes their lives, to try to make this country and this world a better place. The UNSUNG Heroes have a special place in my heart.
Would like to learn more about your insights. I like the way you held fast to hope while facing the possibility of an 800-setback.!
Sabina,
Great that you were able to penetrate the veil and discover the treasure lying within. I agree 100%. Just wouldn’t want to lay it on anybody not to motivated…Thanks for adding your two cents worth.
Dear Cynthia and All,
I briefly would like to add that I was thrilled to skip the first chapter, per your recommendation-I am big on shortcuts! But then my partner strongly encouraged me to read it and I must say, for me, it set up a vital energetic field for entering into the story. There is a powerful intention in Chapter 1, coming out of the mouth of the archetypal Holy Fool, that is imprinted into the consciousness of the reader. Also, and most importantly, there is a brainwave entrainment from this chapter that I needed, to be able to enter into the story itself. So…just wanted to add my 2 cents, in case it is helpful to anyone…oh and I do not come from the background of being a diehard Gurdjieff fan- so go figure! But, as my partner said, “he is a hoot!” The chapter is hilarious and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. I found this to be a very helpful exercise in loosening up the mind and shaking up mental entrapments. I think of it as a Nasrudidn tale. Definitely out of the mouth of a Holy Fool!
much love,
Sabina
Amen!!!!! Come Lord Jesus.
Yes, I’m in! I would love to do in person wisdom retreats, though live in the Midwest, not the Northeast, so online may be more doable at this point… Yes, to deep practice and deep reading. Thank you, Cynthia!
Count on Cherry Log Christian Church. We have 2 groups formed and will be staying aware together, doing what we can individually and together, praying together, writing letters. Together with the Unitarian Universalist Church in our rather remote area, we plan to hire a bus to take us to Atlanta to join in a protest.
We are meeting Jan 5 for our first small wisdom gathering and will introduce Beezlebub as an option to begin our study together.
We are with you and thank you for your wisdom and leadership in these escalating days.
I’m in. Needing a tangible sense of other beings reaching for the light, finding the next step. Needing also to put what’s happening in the world at the moment in a wisdom context, and needing to be lifted up by the knowledge of the many souls who are transforming what is possible in the human heart. Will revisit Beelzebub directly.
Thank you all,
Alani
I’m in. Feeling strongly pulled toward this work and I’m ready to do what it takes to get up to speed. Would like to connect with others here in Colorado and, Cynthia, if you do a leadership training, I would like to be included. It has been my response to almost everything the last few years to look at the big picture. It seems the only way the world makes sense. These last years, I’ve been studying, either by cd or by retreats with Richard Rohr, James Finley and Ward Bauman. Also, Non Violent Communication and similar programs and the Christian Mystics, especially John of the cross. On Gurdjieff, I acquired a copy of Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous many years ago. It’s like a magnet for me, I read it again every few years.
Something in me is hungry for much deeper work now. So, here I am.
with palms joined… bowing to the morphogenic field.
with heart bursting…singing a hymn of I Am in-ness.
with forehead smiling…thanking you, Cynthia.
in reverence,
Sabina in Gilroy, Ca
I’m in!
Is it not by these dirty breathing fossil oil burning human inventions that cowboys use to save us from the heat of the midday sun and from the ratchet effect on our human bodies to reap and harvest grain for our daily bread that we so graciously partake in our daily easements?
Dear Cynthia and All,
I am all in – swallowing a strong dose of humility to cope with the sense of personal inadequacy.
Thank you.
I am almost in awe of what Bill has written and shared. Rather than write much now, I say “Amen” to what Bill has written and suggest that wonder/imagination/creativity may help all of us realize increasingly more of the power of unity and of love as deep structures of reality.
I am in. Right here in the Napa Valley in California. I have ordered all the books and would love to get a study group going and be involved in online classes with you, Cynthia, thank you for your leadership in speaking truth about our harsh circumstances.
Everybody puts there pants on the same way.
Even cowboys
Bill,
My arms are wide open, my eyes closed and my head tipped back with deep gratitude for your heartfelt words this evening. What you’ve shared here strengthens my resolve to dwell and REMAIN within the juxtaposition of the horizontal and the vertical, that exquisite point of contradiction in which true faith is found, for the life of the world.
I’m in – in any way that’s possible for me. I’ve been longing for a way/s to play the part I’m called to in this momentous upheaval. For starters, you’ve given us some reading to do! I’ve also felt a need for a group in my area to be close enough geographically to meet for prayer – even if it’s just once a month – until we cam get to another Wisdom School. Thank you for all you do Cynthia!
I’m in from Oregon
I am a Living School student and would like to participate. I’m in BC, Canada.
Hello Dear Cynthia,
Blessings to you in the Advent sacred quiet of Eagle Island
Thank you for holding your post and helping us to embody and ground our own in each place on the earth where we have been called at this time. In Canada here there is also concern with the unfolding events in our beloved neighbours country.
I am reminded in our dialogue here of what Mary Magdalene – La Maddalena – wrote and taught while holding her post between the eternal and the embodied realms… her deep presence, witness, compassion, and love in the face of the unknown and faith, deep unwavering faith. Her teaching and her commitment to holding the ‘tether’ and the eternal light here inspire and inform my days.
her voice calls to us down the ages;
~ ~~ ‘those who would be in the light must hold the light’…
Luce luminoso a tutti,
Susan
I’m In from snowy wisconsin
I’m in! It is a good time to return to Tarnus who helps us see the larger picture. I keep Clarisa Pinkola Estes, “Take heart my friends, we were born for these times” foremost in my mind. Everything we have done so far is preparation. Remaining steadfast is the challenge and I thank you for your guidance in this great collective call. Gurdjieff’s tome has sat on my shelf for years. I dip into it from time to time but have never given it the serious study it deserves. Guess this is the year for it. I’ll return to my print-outs from your on-loine course on Gurdjieff for support and await future blogs.
Hi, Cynthia, from U.K. part of the world again. I am in. Willing, ready and grateful to be guided by you.
Have read Beelzebub, and There Was Light is a Christmas present for my Beloved.
I am in and ready. Love. X
Thank you Cynthia. I am headed toward a 28 day deep winter silent retreat in high desert country in Colorado this January. Perhaps my reading companions have arrived as well. God grant us wisdom, a clear path and courage to walk it.
I’m in
I’m in!!!
How grateful I am for your sharing of heart and wisdom. I think I’ve hungered to hear it. Have been feeling so undone – discouraged, confused, and numb. Issues of abandonment and desolation arising in waking and sleeping dreams. But I’ve also been starting to regather myself, and your words on a faith based in a broader timeline are helpful. I rest this morning with this: What appears to be is not all there is. Deep forces are at work, and deep listening needs to be renewed. Would love to attend another wisdom school. Maybe in the southeast? And please tell me more about Omega. Seems it’s time for “all the broken-hearted people living in the world” to agree….or at least come together with open hearts.
I don’t know how much I understand, but I am in.
I’m in! Thank you.
With love, blessings and gratitude.
I am with you, Cynthia. I already have The Passion of the Western Mind and now I am inspired to tackle Beelzebub’s Tales. Since the retreat in October, I have been gently spreading Teilhard’s idea of deep hope. At a certain point in my life, I consciously chose deep hope. I knew nothing of Teilhard and wasn’t sure that I wasn’t kidding myself. What a relief to know I’m not alone. Thank you.
Dear Cynthia
Thank you so much for this post. I have been feverishly reading the Guardian and the Times (in the UK) in the hope of coming to some sort of resolution and acceptance over this year’s Brexit and American election. However your posts have spoken to something in me that a purely rational analysis, although helpful, cannot do. I felt a sense of stillness reading this, although as you say it is not about being sanguine. Thank you for facing it all and for expressing your sense of foreboding but also deeper recognition of the unfolding of consciousness in deep time. I really appreciate this, all best wishes, Claire Carruthers
I’m in.
Dear Cynthia — I’m in. I’ve been reading Tarnus’s book, sharing Teilhard’s book in our Centering Prayer group, and looking forward to reading Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson. Thank you for continuing to uplift us and light the way.
Yes,yes, all in and ever grateful for this community.
Count me in–
Liz
Yes, of course Cynthia – I’m in. We are feeling the intensity up here in Canada as well, and a growing sense of the seriousness of these times. I am inspired by your call to gather our hearts and minds as a response. Also inspired by the reminder that “we were made for these times”: http://www.grahameb.com/pinkola_estes.htm.
Helpful – thank you. Yes – Modern monks holding the light as the dark agers move onto the playing field.
I’m in, and If a Wisdom School in western No. Carolina region manifests, I’d love to be there.
Please count me in.
Cynthia, Your words regarding what we are in for reflect some of the despairing thoughts I’ve been having in the last few days. But I had told myself we would cycle out of this moving away from rational thought toward fantasy and conspiracy theories. I had not gone back as far as 800 years in my thoughts yet. So, yes, I’m in… because of age and circumstances, mostly in online course work. You help to give us hope as we journey through these dark times together.
Dear Cynthia,
Mary said it best, Yes!
Deep practice and deep reading…I’m in. Thank you Cynthia for holding your post and for calling us to hold our own posts, together, during the time to come.
I’m all in!!! Doing what I can locally and feeling buoyed by many willing and eager to take this journey together.
Yes…I am in. I would like to mention that a small group of us have been re-reading “Meditations on the Tarot” It has been incredibly powerful and prescient to revisit this work…….so foundational and helpful during these chaotic times……I sit silently waiting to be led and guided as to next steps and fighting the urges for activism too soon……deep grounding is needed…….I continue to “hold the space”. Love.
The Meditations are in my lap as I read through these posts. Wish I were closer to you.
Dear Cynthia, I am so often inspired by your clarity and courage, knowing you from the Living School and your work over time.. I am in, although his work has always eluded my deeper understanding. The wisdom path is our hope.
Here in the heartland I’m in.
All in! I have no idea what that means now or will mean in the days ahead. And yet, All In.
Dear Cynthia, yes, I’m in. Would love to connect with others here in the Pacific north west. Blessings
Hi all. We are starting a small group in the Alexandria VA area to explore Gurdjieff from a Wisdom perspective. I see this as a long term project. We live in a time of mid-wiving. I don’t expect that which is coming into the world to arrive in my life-time. But what we do matters, and I think deepening our understanding of Gurdjieff will make us better mid-wives in whatever action we take in the world. We are two now but welcome others. If you are interested in joining us, email me off-line at mbartel@bartelassociates.com. We are looking at a January start–details to be worked out.
I’m in.
Writing from the UK, there were so many similarities with what happened with our referendum vote: I went to bed hopeful and woke up in shock on both occasions. Thank you Cynthia for distilling so much wisdom from Gurdjieff and Teilhard (for people like me who don’t have the wit or will to do it for myself), and for offering a hopeful way of working with so much global trauma. I have at times felt despairing, and yet it has also provided the wake up call, which in responding to your post, gives me hope. I would love to continue to participate through deep practice and deep reading, looking to find the third way to deep action from a different place than knee jerk fear or guilt. Yes, I’m in.
I am in cynthia
I, too, feel inadequate, but want to be in. Your words have given me real hope.
Cynthia, I’m in. For the deep practice, for the deep reading. Reach out to me if I can be of support or assistance. I’m in the SF/Oakland.
I’m in.
Thank you for your wisdom and generosity.
I’m in. I found an emerging church in my town! I will be hosting a small group in my home on Richard’s new book. I am eager to see your suggestions for small groups going forward. I am grateful for you and your forward vision! Bill Brennan
Yes, to our journey, to our listening, to trusting the heart always.
Yes! Count me in! Holding a post here in the Pacific Northwest.
Yes, I too want to participate. And as Gail E. said, I do not feel adequate.
I knew on election night that life as we know it is over. But I did not understand that this would shake the foundations of Western Civilization. I am grateful, Cynthia, for your “long-scale and impartial visioning”.
I’m inc Cynthia! I’ve just downloaded all 3 books onto my Kindle. Even though I’m Canadian, I recognize that this election will have huge global significance. As for formats, on-line activities permit more people to participate, and with the right kind of adjunct social media connections, can connect people pretty deeply.
I so appreciate this wisdom and encouragement Cynthia to stay faithful to the journey. I was brought to tears the other day by the truth that “deep hope takes place over deep time.” I’ve been crushed by the realization that we are only in the incipient phases of the changes I thought were well underway. Pressure cooker indeed! I look forward to watching our path unfold and I will be on the journey with you.
I’m in.
I’m in. I want to continue this path of Wisdom now that I have discovered it. I thought I had just found something that was missing in my life. Now Wisdom is becoming a way of life and I want to have and offer companionship along the way.
Would love to find some way to be connected from Memphis and the Mid-South.
Robert,
I’m in West Tennessee.
Would be glad to have folks in the area to study with.
Jeff
All in here.
Yes, I’m in – to whatever extent I can be. Being deaf and in a wheelchair, online communication works best for me. Thank you Cynthia! – always, Michie
I’m in. I’ve read some of Beelzebub and And there was Light. I’m seriously concerned and am also seriously appreciative of the call to contemplative action by Cynthia.
Somehow I deeply felt by the third debate that he would win. After the election, I wasn’t overwhelmed like so many of my friends but felt this was almost meant to be in order for us, especially me who doesn’t like to dabble in politics, to get with it. My question though was who would guide us. Cynthia is the best person I could have dreamed of as one of great wisdom, courage, and organizational expertise and so much more. Thank you, Cynthia.
CB wrote: “the next few months I will be listening further into how our work wants to take shape “on the ground:” independent small groups? A new round of Wisdom retreats? Online learning formats? Officially rebooting the Omega Order?”
I would appreciate having foundational Wisdom schools run again to help newcomers to Cynthia’s work get up to speed. I personally don’t find on-line courses as helpful as face to face events because they lack the human connection that so often sparks deep exchanges and growing between participants who are gathered together in person.
I would include in Cynthia’s suggestions to have leadership start/continue meeting with other Wisdom groups, such as Richard Rohr and his Center for Action and Contemplation, Shalem folks, Friends of Silence, the Oriental Orthodox Order in the West, Contemplative Outreach, and others, to share and learn from each other. Sufi and Buddhist groups would also be a source of insight. This kind of networking has the potential to create a “federation” of Wisdom communities that can help to keep us all grounded in Wisdom practices and perspectives as we discern how we each will personally take action, while not becoming reactive, cynical, and full of despair. Lusseyran himself joined forces with a bigger underground movement, which amplified his own efforts tremendously.
Count me in for reading Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson.
Living in Iraq during the war I came to understand that God breaks open our lives as individuals, as a people and as a world and asks us “Who are you, what do you love?” We answer that question with our lives. For me that is the question this election brings–directed at each of us. I don’t know how we build a world in which all are valued, in which we see each other through the eyes of God but God does. So I am quietly strengthening my resolve as I remain attentive to what God is asking of me in this time. Teilhard certainly is a source of strength–that he could experience the suffering of the trenches of World War I and still see God’s dream through it all. I am in for reading Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson if it can help me see more clearly how to help midwife the new arising. For that is surely what is happening.
I do not feel quite adequate to participate in this program, but, I would like to participate where I can. I am so terribly concerned about our country and the person who is going to lead it. . .
The “New” Human Love Story. A Star has come to guide us to the Birth
of God’s Child. Our Human Family surrounds us but the Birth of Divine
Cosmic Love must be Humbly and Wholly Accepted. This is the Glory of God.
We are all God’s Children. Equally and Completely Loved. Each and every one of us.
It is Time to K(NOW) This in every cell of our Physical Body. Humbly and Wholly Human… God’s Child.
I Am Loved. I Am Loved. I am Loved. I AM LOVE.
Love Longs to be Known. Humanity Longs to Love. It is time to be Single/Unified and Universal in our Divinely Human Love. Pass it On!
I am love strongest in consciousness,
I am love strong in faith,
I am love weaker in hope,
I am love in body in weakness.
Even in body I am love.
Oh Cynthia, what a magnificent experience! I especially needed to read that this was a matter of “vibrational intensity overwhelms rational faculties”. It helps to understand so much and your connecting it to Gurdjieff also, not to mention Cistercian monks, Wordsworth, etc.
Inspired by your writings Cynthia, and others, I’ve written my own reflection about the US election – and posted a blog to host it – a view from ‘across the pond’. All in the same kind of vein, I hope. http://www.brokenhallelujah.net/
Thank you for sharing this experience, Cynthia. It helps me take heart.
Amen-Alleluia….and inspiring and clear presentation for which I thank you.
Amen-Alleluia….an inspiring and clear presentation of the transcendent transformative work of the Spirit in our midst here and now. Thank you Father Wright for the encouragement that pondering the second axial period brought and for, with
Cynthia Bourgeault and others, awakening us to a wondrous new vision of Trinity in the Whole Christ.
Sister in light, the confort of knowing you as we share the fight to be keepers of the word.
In gratitude,
Thank you, Cynthia, for seeing beyond the fear. Your words inspire hope and freedom from a paralysis which has been gripping me. You’ve shown me a way to trust and live.
Shadows at Tintern (on the eve of the American election)
We kneel
before the vast glassless window,
bright Autumn hills
shining behind.
Knees damp,
toes pitting the mud.
The high altar’s gone
the stained glass gone.
Skeleton arches
throw Gothic shadows
across the nave.
Now, we’re prone.
Face down, smelling damp earth.
For four hundred years
monks prostrated themselves
here
in the shadows
before the brightness.
Until that day
when Cromwell’s fire came
and darkness fell.
The monks are gone
the roof gone.
Yet the silence is alive,
resonating.
Eternity shining deep
beyond the shadow,
the darkness
of our time.
These are scary times indeed! But it is good to know we are not alone. Your words of encouragement, Bob, are hanging on my wall. My Brothers and Sisters, this is our clarion call to step outside our comfort zones, lay down our egos and let the Spirit within each one of us rise up from our God-center and into this troubled world which so deeply needs our love, patience and understanding. I’ve sensed for some time the outcome of this election, yet hoped desperately it would not come to pass, for I did not know how I would cope. I kept telling myself “I’m not yet ready for this.” But then of course, if not now, when, and if not me, who? Wisdom demands not just contemplation and meditation, but our active love flowing into our world, engaging our neighbors, listening, sharing, and showing them by the example of our own lives that Love is alive and well and is indeed the only force that can transform us and bring us together without destroying us. This is my hope. This is my prayer.
So beautiful!
Thank you for sharing, Cynthia ❤
Thank you for taking us in to the Monastery with you and sharing
the wisdom of the transformed hearts that lived and breathed in
that space–an eternal transmission of Creation’s Love. We need
to know how loved we all are—we still don’t believe it. I
Intellectually believe it but am longing to believe it in every cell
of my body. Embodied Love. Mother Earth we hear you.
Such wonderful thoughts….. Along with many others, I have felt a sense of fear and dread. Giving myself a couple of days to just ‘be with’ and feel the emotions in my body has been helpful. Slowly the energy is shifting and is giving way to some serious hope and trust. I know God has often used some strange characters throughout history to actually be a positive – perhaps Donald will be one of those., perhaps not, but I do have a deep faith that as Hildegard said, “all will be well, in all manner of things, all will be well.”
Thank you Cynthia and the monks of Tintern Abbey, now I know what I have been looking for.
Thanks so much Cynthia – a very reassuring affirmation of what my heart is telling me about all this. And a challenge too – to step up a gear in my own game, in my little patch of the vineyard. I’ve just read a fantastic article by Charles Eisenstein who is saying very much the same thing, from a somewhat different perspective. Instead of voting for a wolf in sheep’s clothing, what the American Trump voters have done is voted for a wolf in wolf’s clothing. Which is a kind of progress, a kind of breakthrough – the beginning of the end perhaps? http://charleseisenstein.net/hategriefandanewstory/
Thank you Cynthia,
We DO know the way. You have reminded us to trust Love, speak truth to power. It feels like a dance and in the dance our bodies and our hearts know when and how to move and when to let go. I’ve observed these lines of action in my own experience, though it will be helpful to more skillfully identify and work with them sooner. Thank you for speaking to the larger view, the deeper fear. And thank you reminding us; we DO know the way.
I am called to remember that St. John of the Cross said if you are to go to a place that you know not… you must go by a way you know not… Just when we think we “see” the way we are really being fooled. As so beautifully noted by Cynthia, we are called to sense the presence of a New Arising and let go of that which we thought to be the “preferred” route we were to travel.
Thank you Cynthia, for expressing what I know in my heart, and for your rallying call. ‘This is wisdom’s hour’. I will hold your words close.
Sarah (Brighton UK)
Thank you for this thoughtful essay, Cynthia. I know a non-dual OS would tell me to look beyond trepidation. I have, and I feel a thrilling hope. This shock will bring a new OS online for our country. I have deep faith in the goodness of people. Cooperation is our natural instinct. We are all being called to be more creative. Surprises, while stunning, can also be exciting because they show us the unexpected can happen. I’m betting on unexpected healing for our nation.
Wisdom work is transforming how I can be with a very troubling election. I have been so much more able to be truly present to my sadness, anger and disappointment and then to release them, not in a gesture of despair but of deep hope and trust. I can relax more without knowing how this will turn out and can be of greater service to others. The wisdom community is making much difference for me. Very grateful!
Wow. This is beautiful.
Julie
(friend of Gwen’s)
Thank you SO much, Cynthia! This is SO needed! Wish we could ALL be together in this work, though I know spiritually we are.
Love and blessings,
Wonderful. Really helpful. Thank you.
Thanks. Tears and determination.
Love,
Mark Felt (Glastonbury, Albacore)
What a delightful followup story, Josh. I just finished the last chapter you wrote in the book “Personal Transformation and a New Creation, The Spiritual Revolution of Beatrice Bruteau.”
Your relationship with Beatrice and Jim was quite a gift … and you have now made it possible for this gift to be shared with others. Many blessings as your work continues …
Pat Laudisio
Fantastic story. Proud of you, Josh-immensely so, for your faithfulness and wisdom in working with Jim and Beatrice. Your love and strength for them both shine through. Cynthia was right in placing these matters with you. And those who come to read her papers, I hope, will know your story, and others who have guided this special moment into manifestation and completion. I sense Beatrice’s smile beaming on you. Love, Steve
Beauty is for everyone. Thank you for sharing this beautiful sculpture with us and your neighborhood.
As an older student of the Living School, with grandchildren the ages of these children, I find such comfort in knowing that this type of community is forming. As you said, these are our future wisdom teachers and how fortunate for all of us that you have had Cynthia and Jim to lead you.
Beautiful and healing in every way – both the sculpture and your words. I’m writing from Mass General Hosp, where I’m recovering from highly successful surgery. Grace abounding.
Reminds me slightly of Brancusi’s “Kiss”
How is it that the impassive solidity of granite can be so moving?
I just listened to the 2 songs. They are so beautiful and “not for kids only.” Thank you so much and I look forward to hearing more.
Thank you so much for sharing. I’m so sad we were not able to be there but hearing you share about it has been a blessing!
Love,
Stef
Dear Cynthia, I am the Deborah (Welsh) who teaches Wisdom Schools (Wisdom of the Body) with Bill and Lois. I just discovered this memorial you wrote about Bruno, and it makes me ever more happy that I will finally meet you soon. It is actually my longtime friend, Nanette Walsh, who introduced me to Bruno, and I had the great, good pleasure of meeting him privately for an hour of conversation May, 2015. Your connection to him and mine (though through some “degrees of separation”) touches me deeply. See you in Big Sur.
I am grateful for the insights and clarity of you have presented. I am aware of the power of surrender (death to self) that is a gateway to transformation. I believe that it is the personal death of self that will change everything. Not literal death but the surrender of our subjective identity. Organization is formed by it’s members as will the organization (church) live through Pentecost as its members individually are transformed in their surrender to their own identity. I celebrate the truth of suffering as the gateway to surrender. Suffering would not be suffering without a love. Suffering is seen as love when I die to myself.
Brie- I loved this story. It’s so beautifully written and your narrative sweeps us along. I too have spent many mornings in cold, beautiful churches, wishing for a homily that would warm my heart. I am so glad you found God and the evolutionary spirit of Teillard, although not where you expected!
As an old Anglican priest brought up in old-style religion I couldn’t agree more. The old software has been incompatible for at least the last 50 years actually. Human cultures come and go, this should not surprise us, but the rapid evolution of our imaginative landscape can be hard for everybody, hard to know what to do for the best. However, that wonderful something/someone to whom faith is gravitationally drawn is burning through, and will burn through, in new ways we may not at present be able to imagine. I have every trust that this is a new axial age. Veni, Sancte Spiritus! Bring it on !
I am 78 in May, and an at-home disabled physically TEC Priest. I would to know if you offer events online. That would be wonderful. Thank you. Jack+
A couple of week go, I partook in an Indigenous Worldview Workshop led by Brander McDonald, Indigenous Justice Coordinator for the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster, BC. Indigenous people have traditionally and for the most part see themselves as directly connected to the Creator, so being called into life, into being itself, is and always has been ‘being called’ as you so eloquently wrote Cynthia. “The call is to life, to love, to greater reality, and it is universal; it resounds through and in the marrow of life itself.” Thus our identity lies and from this perspective we ‘know’ ourselves and ar able to ‘stand up’ with all of Creation…
I think God gives each of us the opportunity to surrender to his way. He gives it freely to everyone who is willing to stop and take it in. When you surrender your will to him and begin to spend quiet, silent, prayerful time in his presence your life begins to unfold into a new presence of God. I have seen this in my own life over the past years and I have asked myself this very question. I have dear friends who are good people. They go to church, read daily devotions, try to live right, but my life is different from theirs.
I spend many hours a day in prayer to God. I talk, I listen, I sit quietly in his presence and absorb his spirit. I am not smarter, or more chosen than my friends, the difference in me and them is my willingness to devote my time to God. Others are not willing. It is a surrender to God. It is a willingness to slow down, to put want too’s or have too’s away and give time to God and the Holy Spirit. God is not going to share time with other things going on in our lives. He wants his own time and if you are willing to create a quiet space, he will come. Some people may consider this wasted time. Ask why you are willing to sit in the same place for so long and wait to hear from God. The only way to answer this question is to practice spending time with God. As you quiet your mind and your space and open your soul and let God come in you will find the answer.
God will only come when we are willing to surrender to his will and create the space for his silent arrival
In a recent book I was reading the word “Amen” was used, but in its Aramaic form “Ameyn”, which was translated “This is the ground of my connection with Unity, from which all my actions will flow.”
And to your essay, Matthew, I say AMEYN!
Thank you for this post.
Thank you, Cynthia.
I had only one opportunity (1994/95?) to experience the teaching and presence of Fr. Bruno. Now I remember it as a passing comet … something had just happened and I did not know what it was or what to do with it.
You have helped to fill in some of the pieces and I still have the opportunity to return to “Second Simplicity” and remain open to “the new things.”
Cynthia, I am thrilled for you to have the new Northeast Wisdom website live. Thank you for welcoming your West Coast Wisdom students to your latest teaching opportunities. We are all looking forward to seeing you at La Casa de Maria in February. It is an honor to call you my teacher and support you in your much needed hermit time.
As a graduate of Georgetown University, I read Teilhard de Chardin as a student. I have always loved him, quoted him and generally viewed him as intellectually beyond my humble capacities.
Now, when I return to him, I am touched more deeply by his life story. His struggles, his losses, his work and his great ability to continue his soul’s evolution and to share that with others. I am in awe of the great simplicity that nurtured such complex perceptions of the world and cosmos – his devotion to the sacred heart of Jesus.
His soul – his marriage of self and spirit – as perceived through his life attracts me and calls forward in me an authentic, ancient and deep desire to belong.
I love that in his rooms when he died was his Litany to the sacred heart of Jesus that in part bespeaks his desire to unite with the heart of Jesus and the heart of Evolution. I know that desire – and I love knowing that this longing of the apostolic heart does not depend entirely on my intellectual prowess nor the challenges therein.
So, in complete acknowledgment of the great intellecutal invitations of Teilhard de Chardin and his brilliant work, I cling like a child to the idea that his soul’s simple longing and desire for the sacred heart of Jesus unites us. And in that, I hope i too will find the seeds of my own soul’s evolution – and a marriage of my self and my spirit.
Happily stumbled upon this blog. I wholeheartedly agree with the vision of a need to change. “We are evolution,” T’s Phenomenon of Man. ‘Writing new liturgies and revising dogma’ is global work. Nothing matches Catholicism’s breadth and depth to shoulder this task. It will happen, but people must be patient. Instead of changing the Church people are exiting in droves, we must be the change. Whence the burgeoning of the contemplative. Such is the pre-dawn pinking that precedes the earthquakes we await. To be faithful to the dynamism of evolution, we must also be detached from the need to produce the quantum leap. We must do our part and remember it is a small part. We’d do well to think in terms of centuries and millennia when we offer the world tableaus of hope. This is a tiny whisper from the easily ignored plains of North Dakota. I’m impressed with Cynthia’s work recently discovered. Peace & blessings on her and her disciples.
I was raised an Episcopalian and in my late teens and twenties became interested in Eastern religion and philosophy and meditation. I am basically an agnostic, but a couple of years ago–in my early 60s–I discovered Unitarian Universalism and actually have become a full-fledged member. UUs believe that spiritualism in constantly evolving and new understandings are continuously being revealed to us. In our church we draw on many different philosophies and religions, including Christianity. Every individual is free to follow their own spiritual path and understanding. We have atheists, agnostics, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Pagans, etc., etc. I’ve finally found the kind of open- mindedness and tolerance I am comfortable with in a church. Just wish I’d found it sooner–when my son was a child.
Yes, this is so true. I know the old narrative very well thanks to my 12 years of Catholic school training, and I was glad to leave it behind to become a “none”/”spiritual but not religious”/”interspiritual.” I’m grateful for Cynthia’s work, which has done a lot to convince me that Christianity can be so much more than the old (and so aptly phrased) “intellectual and emotional straight jacket. I think it’s what many of us “wounded Christians” secretly hope for.
Dear Richard,
Thanks for your comment. I’ve admired Contemplative Fire from a distance for a few years now. I’d love to visit the community sometime–which would be easier if there wasn’t an ocean between us! But I’m so encouraged by the kind of ministry and vision happening there.
Glad to reconnect you with Teilhard. I’ll look up the Laloux book.
Thanks and blessings,
Matthew
Thank you for reminding me about Teilhard. I last read him 50 years ago! I shall now return to him. I got the link to you through Contemplative Fire, a Wisdom community here in the UK – part of the emergence of the non-dual consciousness. It comes in a week in which I have been excited by more evidence of this next stage in the evolution: Frederick Laloux’s book, Reinventing Organisations, which shows how some organisations, both non profit making and for profit are embodying the emergent consciousness.
Richard Craig
No password needed, Carol, as far as I know. If you go to the resources tab, click on books, then scroll down beneath the pictures of all my books, you’ll find a similar treatment of the major Teilhard books for this project. Just click on any title that appeals to you and you’ll be catapulted straight into ordering land! Enjoy!
i don’t remember the password for the reading list. Can you help? Blessings carol