The World, The Flesh, & The Devil

6 Sep, 2023
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

4 Sep, 2023
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

23 Aug, 2023
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

13 Aug, 2023
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

3 Aug, 2023
. 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

28 Apr, 2023
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

6 Feb, 2023
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

31 Jan, 2023
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

9 Jan, 2023
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?

18 Dec, 2022
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

23 Oct, 2022
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

16 Oct, 2022
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

5 Oct, 2022
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

25 Apr, 2022
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

23 Mar, 2022
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 ...