I dare to call action birthed from contemplation the greatest art form because I believe it is. It underlies all those other, more visible art forms we see in great sculpture, music, writing, painting, and most especially in the art form called human character. when these two (action and contemplation) are one, the result is always beauty, symmetry, and transformative form -- lives and actions that inherently sparkle and heal.
If the nations that built on the Judeo-Christian heritage do not soon see the work of earth care and climate change as a moral and spiritual imperative, one wonders how we will have any moral authority left?
It has become rather clear to many of us that both top leaders in the church and leading politicians in society are largely made up of men who wanted to get there. What is lost to our society, however, is much needed wisdom and the common good, and often just basic spirituality.
The edge is a holy place, or as the Celts called it, "a thin place" and you have to be taught how to live there. To take your position on the spiritual edge of things is to learn how to move safely in and out, back and forth, across and return. It is a prophetic position, not a rebellious or antisocial one.
Richard Rohr sums up this whole spirituality of initiation in a one liner: the young man who cannot cry is a savage, the old man who cannot laugh is a fool.
Richard Rohr writes about why peace is so hard to come by for most people and most groups, especially if they presume they can eliminate all evil from themselves or from the world.
For Richard Rohr the question is always "how can we turn information into transformation?" How can we use the sacred texts to lead people into new places with God, with life, with themselves?
Richard Rohr argues that we are seldom personally "transformed" by an idea or a new piece of knowledge, unless it is also connected to a person or a relationship. Persons finally transform persons into persons; ideas only rearrange our minds.
History has recognized that there are at least two major movements in the spiritual journey. Richard Rohr calls them the path of ascent and the path of descent.
I have come to think of the Rites of Passage as jumping, or maybe being thrown, into a "life-changing stew" where I simmer for five days in the "transformational mix" of silence, wilderness, and powerful ritual that breaks open my heart, allows me to see new possibilities for myself, and creates "living questions" to percolated within me and guided me.
When I attempt to describe it to other people, I tell them that the Rites were the most profound primal experience of my life. They intensified my longing to stay connected to wisdom learning as I participate in daily experience changed, but the same person.
A 21st Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity and Spiritual Awakening. Wilbur, Patten, Leonard and Morelli Integral Book 2008.
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