The World, The Flesh, & The Devil
Dom Hélder Câmara’s model of the “spiral of violence” offers a comprehensive perspective on the sources of evil and violence in society. By recognizing and addressing evil at all three levels ...
Powers, Principalities, Thrones & The Stanford Prison Experiment
The Stanford Prison Experiment and the concept of “powers, principalities, and thrones” both offer insights into the nature of evil, particularly in the context of human behavior and institutions. While the ...
A Contemplation on Love’s Essence
Love Beyond Sentiment: A Contemplation on Love’s Essence Love is often portrayed as an emotion that dances in the realm of sentimentality and romance. It is depicted as a force that ...
Where Words Dissolve
Silence is the universal language. It is a common human experience that the deepest communication occurs when nothing needs to be said: in silence, one hears the language of lovers or ...
Interfaith Interbeing 2023-08-10
. Interfaith * Interbeing Nonviolence Beloved Community (Interfaith*Interbeing is sponsored by Contemplative Interbeing, a congregational member of the Interfaith Mission Service) Interfaith Friends, We hope you find this hybrid newsletter-podcast a ...
Transpersonal Psychology
It is human nature to desire and yearn for meaning and purpose in life, to connect with —to be part of—something bigger than ourselves, and to connect with the depths of ...
Love, Justice, and Mercy
Love, Justice, and Mercy — Rev Dr William Barber I don’t know a salvation apart from social justice. I don’t know how you encounter Jesus—when Jesus said in Matthew 23—for instance ...
Essential Nonviolence
The Sufis tell a story of the Holy One who said to his disciples, “What’s better, do you think? Is it contemplation, or is it action?” They said, “Why, Holy One, ...
Awe
As Rabbi Kushner points out, Abraham and others were asked to leave everything familiar to them behind and to go to a new land that God would show them (Genesis 12:1). ...
Is the World Real or Just an Illusion?
Many classic Advaita texts say that the world is an illusion, but does that mean that it is not real? The only reason we have problems with this is that in ...
Values – Truth, Goodness, Beauty
What are values? Are they just paint or wallpaper on the walls of our cell which we put there in order to brighten our prospects in this hermetically sealed box in ...
Attention
Let’s examine the all-important role of attention. Attention is not just another cognitive function. Attention is how our world comes into being for us. The altered nature of attention can appear ...
We Act Out a Story
We act out a story and we perceive the world through a story. Thus the question is, what story should you act out? Or what story should you emulate? Or what ...
A Message of Contemplatives to the World
To Dom Francis Decroix Dom Francis Decroix, abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Frattocchie near Rome, received in 1967 a request from Paul VI for a “message of contemplatives to the ...
Cultivating Creativity and Curiosity
Our creative abilities connect and contact many different aspects of our humanity. Take time to reflect on these two excerpts from Mirabai Starr’s book “Wild Mercy.” When speaking of art, we ...