Living in the Now: Abandonent to Divine Providence #2

Apropos of the challenge of living in the present moment, I was recently at a college event where former Senator George McGovern, the '72 Presidential candidate, was describing a devastating event in his own life-- the night when police came to his door and told him the tragic news that his daughter had been found frozen to death after a bout of drinking. McGovern had been talking about Abraham Lincoln, the topic of his latest book, and about Lincoln's life-long struggle with depression. He had then made the connection to seeing his daughter's struggle with depression, then alcohol, and about the terrible circumstances of her death. I don't think his remarks were scripted, but rather that somehow he felt moved to trust the audience with his vulnerability in that moment. It was very powerful... hearing this influential and well known public figure, now in his late eighties, speaking from that place... I don't think that there was a dry eye in the whole crowd, except for a man sitting nearby.

He was shifting his attention between some balance sheets on his lap and his blackberry, which he held surreptitiously at his side. It is hard to say why he was there, and indeed, it was his own business what he was doing. But I couldn't help but feel that he had missed out on something so significant, a moment of profound connection between McGovern and his audience, the several hundred of us gathered there for his talk. Indeed, the man looked up at the pause in the talk... when McGovern seemed to choked up to continue and took 20 seconds or so to compose himself, but hearing nothing, the man looked around and returned to the work on his lap.

Why do I mention this? I have been where that man was that night... my attention fragmented by multi-tasking. I have missed poignant and key moments as well, when someone was telling a very personal story and making themselves vulnerable, yet my attention was leaning backward into something that had happened earlier in the day, or was pre-occupied with some future event. Or maybe I was impatient to be someplace else, so not entirely present in the moment. I think you probably know what I am talking about... multitasking, fragmented attention, lack of presence.

In today's Gospel, Jesus seems to be speaking indirectly about how life in the Kingdom demands that we live without attachments, that we snap to attention in the moment by letting bygones be bygones and surrendering the future in trust-- discerning carefully what God's will is for us here, now.

Lk 9:57-62

As Jesus and his disciples were proceeding
on their journey, someone said to him,
 “I will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus answered him,
“Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”
And to another he said, “Follow me.”
But he replied, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.”
But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead.
But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.”
And another said, “I will follow you, Lord,
but first let me say farewell to my family at home.”
Jesus answered him, “No one who sets a hand to the plow
and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God.”


Living in the moment, fully present-- awake, aware, attentive... in some profound way, this is what is required of us to live in the Kingdom of God. And it requires that we practice "uni-tasking"-- doing one thing well at a time. It requires slowing down our minds from their tendency to race ahead in anxiety or to dwell in an unhelpful way on what has already happened. It requires a willingness to be fully present with undivided attention of mind and heart, so that we are available to the person or people at hand.

Living in the Now: Abandonment to Divine Providence

Many of you may have heard of the contemporary speaker and writer, Eckhart Tolle? He wrote a phenomenally popular book, The Power of Now, and then just recently a follow-up entitled, A New Earth. Tolle's subject is the nature of the self, and he proposes that the way to all the things we truly desire in life is to stop the insanity of our ego-- that we might gradually wake up to a new, more free and loving way of being. While initially a little skeptical, I have come to appreciate his ideas and his very simple way of expressing himself. And I have begun to recognize traces of his thought in many spiritual writers from a number of traditions, many of them going back several thousand years. Of course, this should not be so surprising... throughout history, ordinary human beings have been experiencing insight and enlightenment, waking up to the true nature of the authentic self.

One of those forebearers is an 18th century French Jesuit by the name of Jean Pierre de Caussade, who wrote a classic little book of spirituality called, Abandonment to Divine Providence. In it, he introduces the perennially wise notion of living fully in the moment... not dwelling in the past, nor fretting about the future. He called the experience of living fully in the now the "sacrament of the present moment," wherein we meet the Divine and are presented with an opportunity to cooperate in the unfolding will of God.

Since this job of mine is about as engaging and absorbing as you might imagine, and I need to be reminded to take a breath and return to the moment, trusting fully in God's presence even in the midst of action... I am going to spend the foreseeable future sharing excerpts from this classic little text and offering brief commentary. How does that work for you?

Peace be upon you this moment and always...

Stopping the Insanity...

No doubt you have noticed as I have how our society seems to be in the grip of an anxious, fearful, and rather paranoid phase in history. And if you're like me, you're feeling a bit suspicious that this is all for someone else's benefit... the media outlets who thrive on sensationalism, the military defense contractors who profit from war, the pharmaceutical industry who peddles anti-anxiety pills and anti-depressants, politicians who rattle the saber occasionally to stir up support for anti-immigration policies... you get the idea of course.


By contrast, in the Gospel for today's Sunday mass, Jesus teaches the disciples to get past their oppositional and fearful thinking... thinking rooted in their own need to be special, to feel important, to be the "in-crowd," and instead of paranoia or judgment, to see others in a positive light-- giving the benefit of the doubt. Imagine how different things would be if we give strangers the benefit of a bias that sees people as good, that appreciates how people are generally doing the best they can, that we are all more similar than different, and that in the end, all people want to be happy.


Gospel
Mk 9:38-43

At that time, John said to Jesus,
"Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,
and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us."
Jesus replied, "Do not prevent him.
There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name
who can at the same time speak ill of me.
For whoever is not against us is for us.
Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink
because you belong to Christ,
amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.

I've been remiss...

Greetings and peace!

My apologies for not staying as current as I would like with the blog this week. I am beginning a new job that is completely engaging my time, energy, and creativity so that I haven't had much left for these reflections this week. As you may have seen from previous posts, my interests professionally and pastorally involve the intersections of adult learning & development/spiritual maturation/ & leadership.

In these past two blogs, I've been considering the nature of the true self, that deep down sense that we are precious and beloved in the eyes of the Divine, though we are imperfect and will never be perfect. It strikes me that this is not easy for people to really accept. If we come to the world with a dualistic operating system (the tendency toward either/or, "black and white" thinking), we have a hard time believing that we could be lovable without being perfect. Or we may accept it as an idea, but still struggle with accepting it in our hearts. To accept that I can be simultaneously a sinner and be loved without conditions might feel like a contradiction.

Now, we've all been there... either/or thinking is a natural part of our growing up, especially in adolescence. If we have an especially strong tendency in that way of perceiving and making sense of the world (like Holden Caufield in the Catcher in the Rye-- intolerable of "phoniness") we will probably tend to be hard on ourselves and fairly judgmental of others. But if that dualistic operating system doesn't get upgraded, we can stay that way all our lives. This is very problematic in such a complex world where the black and white ways of seeing tend to miss all the gray areas, oversimplifying life into easy categories and cliches.

But if the conditions are right, if we have the right balance of supports and challenges in our experience and a decent amount of courage, openness, and faith, we can evolve from the dualistic operating system to the dialectical (both/and) way of seeing the world and making meaning. This will mean that we can appreciate the gray areas, live with ambiguity, and even come to cherish paradox. If I am not mistake, love plays a key role in helping is evolve along these lines... being loved despite and even including our imperfections. Such love gives us hope, not so much for perfection, but a kind of integrity and wholeness that includes and transcends our limitations, foibles, and failings.

Cheers, and have a great Friday!

The True Self

Illustration by Michael Leunig

The true self... for some of us, this might seem like a strange concept, as if we could be anybody other than simply who we are. It might seem strange to hear me speak of masks, or of the notion of inauthenticity. For such people, I'd guess that you might be one of those rare "people without guile," as Jesus referred to Nathaniel. My dad was such a person... what you saw was what you got, and vice versa for that matter.

But I don't think that describes the majority of us. Most of us had experiences early on where we didn't feel sufficiently "well held," and as a result, developed ways and means of taking care of ourselves-- of getting the resources we needed to feel safe, secure, etc. Speaking from personal experience, I grew up in an environment where I was very much loved, yet despite that love, I was not quite convinced of my mom and dad's ability to take care of me. Some fear or doubt crept in from I know not where. Perhaps when we talk about original sin, one way of understanding it is that gap between reality and our perceptions, where fear and insecurity filter what we experience and lead us to doubt the value of our true self.

Do you know what I am talking about?

So, what is this true self? I believe that nature of the true self was revealed to us through Jesus' experience at his baptism in the river Jordan. There, Jesus had a powerful experience of his belovedness-- such that it was as if a dove had descended down upon him, sending waves of the Father's affection for him with each flap of its wings. And Jesus in turn shares repeatedly how we have a share in that belovedness. This is our true nature, just as it was Jesus' own... beloved and precious in God's eyes, children.

But unlike Jesus, most of us forget that true nature, mistaking other messages for the one that God revealed to Jesus that day at the Jordan.

More to follow... have a great week!

Wisdom and the Way of the Divine

In today's readings for the Sunday Mass, the second reading is from the letter of James. Scholars speculate that the author of James may have been the one referred to as "the brother of the Lord," one of the pillars of the Christian community in Jerusalem, and very likely, the first bishop of that community in Jerusalem. The style of his letter is in the line of the Jewish Wisdom literature (Proverbs, Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon, etc.) in that he urges his community to "right conduct" and ethical living. From my perspective, the Wisdom literature generally challenges what we would think of as the ego driven way of life and instead suggests living harmoniously with the will of the Divine.

Here is the passage from today's reading:

James 3:16-4:3


"Beloved:
Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist,
there is disorder and every foul practice.
But the wisdom from above is first of all pure,
then peaceable, gentle, compliant,
full of mercy and good fruits,
without inconstancy or insincerity.
And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace
for those who cultivate peace.
Where do the wars
and where do the conflicts among you come from?
Is it not from your passions
that make war within your members?
You covet but do not possess.
You kill and envy but you cannot obtain;
you fight and wage war.
You do not possess because you do not ask.
You ask but do not receive,
because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions."

The reading seems so straight forward, a bit like the above cartoon of the CEO at his desk. Would that it was so easy to put our ego under a glass and get on about our business without being selfish, vain, arrogant, envious... etc! If you're wondering what I am referring to when I use the expression "ego," I am thinking of it in both a psychological and a spiritual way. From a psychological perspective, the ego is the way that our sense of self is organized and presented to the world. Included in the organization is the need for survival, belonging, self-expression, our sense of identity gleaned from ethnicity, race, nation, religion, role, etc. It is difficult to imagine how we would get through any given day without our ego intact and fully functioning... it is our sense of "I" and "me."

At the same time, from a spiritual perspective, our sense of self is often based on a distorted or illusory perception of who we are. Often due to experiences in our early childhoods, and very often as a result of our life in society, we pick up messages about who we are, and whether we are good enough, beautiful enough, lovable enough, athletic enough... and these affect at a very deep level our sense of our identity and worth in the eyes of others. These distorted perceptions of ourselves often lead us to feel bad about ourselves in some deep way that we can barely articulate, or that we are somehow better than others because of some trait we were recognized for early on. Essentially, this distorted sense of ourselves leads us to have a kind of false conception or picture of ourselves-- for instance, the CEO who thinks he is the master of the universe and above the law. Or the woman who continues to put herself down because her sisters always got more attention than she did, even though she may have achieved more "success" in the world.

I will probably spend a few days or more reflecting on this topic because it is at the heart of the spiritual life... but in a nutshell, I believe that God is always inviting us beyond the false self that we cling to, and to discover at the core of our being our true identity. More to follow!

Let me know if this is working for you because you're pretty quiet out there, and sometimes I need a little encouragement.

Wise and Skillful Means of Serving Change: Polarity Management

These days, one of the issues that I've been confronting in the process of trying to support a change process in an organization is that of managing polarities. Even if you don't recognize the terms, you probably recognize the experience. For example, people start to talk about the value of introducing new thinking and innovation, yet others resist and complain that "if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it," and why not just do things like we always have. Some will raise the importance of striving for excellence, and others will complain that this will create an atmosphere of unhealthy competition and lead to a loss of community. Or there there are those who debate about whether limited resources should be devoted to personnel or invested in facilities. And there are umpteen other examples of these kinds of polar tensions: quality/quantity; large/small; product/process, etc. You know what I am talking about?

I recognize that, at times, limited resources or mutually exclusive possibilities mean a "zero sum game" that requires making either/or decisions. However, so many issues in organizations these days involve complex and inter-dependent realities that defy either/or thinking. They can only be resolved by taking an approach that identifies apparently conflicting values and integrates them, holding them in a "both/and" manner.

Michael Kruse, vice-chair of the of the General Assembly Mission Council of the Presbyterian Church (USA) refers to a book called, Polarity Management: Identifying and Managing Unsolvable Problems, by Dr. Barry Johnson. In Kruse' blog from 2005, he writes: "His thesis is that a great many (not all) of the issues we define as problems to be solved are actually polarities to be managed. To illustrate the point, ask your self a question. Which is more important to breathing; inhaling or exhaling? The question is absurd because breathing is the oscillation between these two polar activities.

Johnson uses the idea of matrix with four boxes. The boxes in the left column are one pole and the boxes in the right column are the other pole. The boxes on the top row are the positive aspects of the two poles and the bottom row are the negative aspects.

 

With the breathing analogy, call “inhaling” Pole 1 and “exhaling” Pole 2. The positive side of inhaling is that the body receives oxygen (Quadrant A). However, if we stop there, carbon dioxide builds up and we die (Quadrant B). This pushes us to the positive aspect of exhaling which is that we expel the carbon dioxide (Quadrant C). However, if we stop there, we will be deprived of oxygen and die (Quadrant D). This pushes back to Quadrant A, and the cycle repeats it self.




The idea is that this same dynamic applies to many polarities in human relationships. For example, take a church board that is divided between those who want a rigidly scheduled and tightly controlled church and those who want a spontaneous, adaptive, and free flowing style of ministry. Call Pole 1 “Planned” and Pole 2 “Free-Flow.”

Quadrant A -  The positive side of a planned environment is that everyone knows their responsibility. Lines of accountability are clear. People know what to expect and how to plan. Resources can be effectively and efficiently marshaled for a given task.

Quadrant B – Life together becomes stale. Activities are done by rote. Creativity is stifled. Opportunities are missed because the focus is on keeping the “machine” running. New people with new gifts and passions have no way to plug in.

Quadrant C – The move is toward the free-form. The possibility of new dreams and visions is embraced. New opportunities are identified and pursued. Creativity is unleashed. People begin to find new ways to minister they had never thought of before.

Quadrant D – Eventually chaos ensues. Overlapping activities happen while other concerns drop through the cracks. Creativity is stifled because there is no way to effectively engage the community. Opportunities are missed because there is insufficient structure to mobilize people to action. This pushes the group to Quadrant A and the whole thing starts over.

The fact is that in most polarities, most of us tend to lean toward one pole or the other. We tend to be overly (if not exclusively) focused on the positive aspects of our preference and the negative aspects of the polar opposite. Throw together people leaning toward opposite poles and what too often happens is a power struggles to make one pole or the other prevail. The irony is that should either one win, they will likely kill the organization; just like valuing inhaling over exhaling.

Tremendous breakthroughs can occur when everyone comes to see the polarity for what it is. Understanding begins when I can openly acknowledge the potential downside to my polar preference and express appreciation for the positive aspects of what the polar opposite brings. That lessens the defensive stance of my polar counterpart to do the same, hopefully allowing us to appreciate each others contribution to a healthy polarity.

Johnson uses the human function of breathing. The Apostle Paul used the analogy of “the body” to illustrate his perspective on how the various gifts should function in the church. The body is a myriad of managed polarities like breathing. As the body of Christ, we need to learn better how to breathe."

Thank you, Michael Kruse!

Getting on Jesus' Wavelength... a critical stance toward "the givens"

Recognizing the way that Jesus' way of seeing, knowing, and doing is counter cultural is really just the beginning... Jesus' relationship to the religious and political authorities, and the prevailing cultural conditions and conventions of his time is often depicted as critical of "the givens," those taken for granted assumptions that we live and breath without seeing... like fish in water.

Some examples... the Jewish people of Jesus' time had very strict rules about observing the Sabbath, so that even minor kinds of labor were forbidden. But one Sabbath when Jesus and his disciples are walking through the grain fields, they are hungry and eat handfuls of the raw grains. When challenged, Jesus turns the authorities' logic around and tells that that the Sabbath was made for humanity, not humanity for the Sabbath. From their perspective, he is messing around with one of the most sacred prohibitions in their law. But Jesus puts the practical before the ideological or dogmatic. He is being reflective and critical of "the givens."

In other instances, the disciples are criticized for not fasting, or performing ritual purifications, and Jesus responds to the authorities that they are more concerned with the external observance of these customs, but have no regard for the interior conversion that God calls them to. He is pointing out their hypocrisy, and undermining the authority that these "givens" have in their lives.

In an example from today's scripture reading, the author of Luke's Gospel describes how a sinful woman crashes a dinner where Jesus is laying at table, as was the custom. Moved to tears by her encounter with him, she weeps so copiously that she bends down to dry Jesus' feet with her hair and to anoint them with oil. This kind of contact between an unmarried man and woman was so strictly forbidden that the offending parties could be stoned to death... but again, Jesus defies the conventions in the interest of making this a teachable moment about forgiveness, love, and faith. In being reflective and critical of "the givens," he is able to do something new... in that moment, to reveal a glimpse of the new creation.

In each of these cases, people seem to observe these customs because someone tells them to or because everyone else does so. And how often do we do the same... perpetuating customs and conventions that might have had some value or sigificance grounded in the experience of an individual or community, but now, we do them out of routine or an unreflective and uncritical habit. No doubt, if asked why, we will not hesitate to invent a reason, but if we're honest about it, we just don't know. While this is certainly the case with some of our religious habits and customs, there are other "givens" that are perhaps even more problematic, let alone destructive.

Just today while shopping for plants for my room, I overheard a clerk saying to someone: "be patriotic-- keep shopping!" For some reason, I thought that way of thinking passed with the last presidential administration, but the idea continues, no matter the fact that uncritical consumerism is bad for individuals, nations, and the planet. These idea linking consumerism and patriotism has a life of its own-- like a bad cliche. And this is just one example! Let's pay attention, why don't we, to the ideas, conventions and customs that we take for granted and perpetuate without having good reason or cause. Make sense?

Getting on Jesus' Wavelength...

It's transition time for me these days (as if we aren't always in a bit of transition, right? Because if we're not in some kind of transition, we're probably not growing...) as I move into my new day job at Le Moyne College, a Jesuit liberal arts school in Syracuse, NY. This hasn't been leaving much time/energy for blogging, though I am trying to make a regular commitment.

With a little help and encouragement from friends though, here we are! What I have on my mind and heart these days is how important it is to get ourselves on Jesus' wavelength. What do I mean by that? In the letter to the Philippians, Paul suggests that we should have the same mind in us, the same attitude if you will, of Christ Jesus. Elsewhere, Paul writes of the importance of being renewed by the constant transformation of our minds, our ways of knowing.

If I am not mistaken, we are commended to adopt Jesus' way of seeing, knowing, and being... to get on his wavelength instead of seeing, knowing, and being as the world teaches. The contrast is fairly dramatic. If the world teaches us to seek our own satisfaction through the pursuit of possessions, Jesus teaches us to live with simplicity, sharing what have with those who have less than we do. If the world teaches us to seek power for ourselves and to lord it over other people for the pursuit of our own ends, Jesus teaches us that power is meant for service, and that greatness comes from putting ourselves in the service of the least. If the world teaches us to seek for celebrity and prestige in the eyes of others, Jesus teaches us to imitate him in living without concern for what others think, and even to endure public shame and humiliation in the service of purposes and priorities bigger than ourselves.

In short, the wavelength that Jesus operates on, the logic of his life, is very different from the wavelength and logic of the world. Are we willing to tune into his frequency?

The Cross and The Will of God

Today, Monday, September 14th is the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. Rather than get into the history of this particular event on the Church calendar, I wanted to offer a brief reflection on the relationship between the cross and the way we understand the will of God.

In the Gospel from yesterday's mass, we hear Jesus say that we must pick up our cross and follow him, and then he goes on to say that if we would save our lives, we must lose them. Mark's Gospel is believed to be directed toward a community living under persecution with the threat of actual martyrdom. Thus, the dramatic and even literal interpretation of these passages is quite confronting. However, I do not believe that the way of Christ and the will of God need to be interpreted solely in these literal terms. In fact, I think it is more helpful on a number of counts to emphasize a metaphorical, even symbolic interpretation.

When Jesus tells us to pick up our cross and walk with it, I hear him saying, "embrace the will of God in your life as I did." This is not to say that God's will in our lives will look identical to his (suffering and dying on a cross, falsely accused by religious and political authorities), but rather, that as we identify and accept God's will, that we take it up in faith, with courage, and full of the belief that we will discover the meaning of our lives by holding on to God's will rather than clinging to the attachments and agendas of our own egos.

How do we know the will of God in our lives? At risk of over simplifying a bit, I do not think we have to go far to discover it. The prophet Micah wrote that the will of God was to "love tenderly, to work for justice, and to walk humbly with our God." The Shema, the teaching at the heart of the Torah, is to "love God with all your heart, all your strength, and all you mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself." I believe it is to live life from moment to moment with awareness of God, self, and neighbor... and to allow God's love to flow through us.

What does this require? Well, this is where suffering is sometimes involved. I believe that as we center our lives around loving service, that we must often identify how our ego would chose otherwise in a given moment, and that we must practice a sort of self-emptying of that ego as a result. I know this is a bit of an over simplification, but let's have a conversation about what that might mean in particular circumstances.

Have a great week!

New Wineskins Retreat At Boulder Integral

New Wineskins: A Contemporary Pilgrimage Toward the Future of Christianity with Fr. Richard Rohr


Thursday 10/8 (9am) – Sunday 10/11 (1pm), 2009

Scroll down for Tuition and Registration information

A precious opportunity to learn from Fr. Richard Rohr, O.F.M., and Fr. David McCallum, S.J.

Special Guest Teachers: Sr. Theresa Monroe, R.S.C.J., and Rollie Stanich

This retreat/workshop is intended for seekers working within the tradition, those who have left the Christian path behind, and those seeking a way to return. In St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he commands the early Christian community “to have the consciousness of Christ among you.” This four-day offering will explore how the Holy Spirit embodys the consciousness of Christ within our being, knowing, and doing in the world.

The topics we will explore include:

* Deep Metanoia-the process of lifelong, evolving transformation into our truest selves.
* Uniting contemplation and action.
* Healing wounds from the tradition, and opening the path forward.
* Exploring Integral Christianity and emerging Evolutionary Spirituality.
* Teaching contemplative prayer practices from the Franciscan and Jesuit traditions.
* Getting to know the many faces of God.
* Embracing the personal and collective shadow.
* Including, transcending and loving the vast array of perspectives held by those within the body of Christ.
* A developmental view of spiritual maturation and its implications for the way we live our faith.

The Old, The New, The Emerging

In the Gospels, Jesus teaches that new wine requires new wineskins, suggesting that the fresh Spirit he is breathing into the world cannot be adequately contained by the ways of the past. Yet he honors tradition, using the example of the wise servant who brings forth from the storehouse both the best of the old and the best of the new. Today we ask: What is the best that this ancient tradition has to offer? How can this treasure be integrated with the emerging revelation that humanity is developing and evolving both in consciousness and culture? How can Christianity help us grow up, wake up, and create a new world?

Cultivating a Path of Practice: Contemplation, Action, Intellect, Faith, Love & Devotion

At this retreat, while there will be plenty of opportunities to fearlessly dive into the intellectual investigation of the big questions, we will also spend “quality time” with Father Richard and other teachers, opening our hearts and emotions. We will tenderly embrace and touch the core essence of a path of Love and Devotion, and learn how to turn that into meaningful action and service.

With opportunities for deep dialogue and silence, spiritual practice, liturgy, and communion with many others on the same path, our hope is to create a vital space for a contemporary pilgrimage, that we might become true contemplatives in action.

So, we invite you to come and join us with your own wisdom. Together we can draw on past experience and future aspiration to create the emerging reality of Christianity. From the past, let us explore the wisdom of purification, illumination, and union. From the future, let us listen deeply to our hopes and aspirations for what Christianity might become.

A Special Treat- Mountains, Beauty, and the Aspens in October

If the weather permits, we will also include a day’s trip to the Chapel on the Rock at St. Malo Retreat Center near the beautiful Rocky Mountain National Park.

Sliding Scale Tuition and Registration

Members of Boulder Integral get 15% discount! To get members’ rates, please consider supporting our mission and becoming a member. Please click here!

Discounted Rate
$327.25 (members)
$385 (non-members)

Sustaining Rate
$412.25 (members)
$485 (non-members)

Scholarship Rate $285 (only 15 scholarships are available. Please see below for application instructions)

* Please choose the higher amount that you can afford. Your contribution is what helps us give assistance to those who are in serious need for scholarships and donate to our teachers.
* Give the gift of learning – Register a friend or someone in need (if you want to know of someone who has financial needs, please send an email to Nomali@Boulderintegral.org and we will let you know a list of those who need most assistance)


Online registration please click here

* Registration fees do not include lodging and food (there are many affordable restaurants just across the street, including a Whole Foods store.)
* For information on Travel and Accommodations please see http://www.boulderintegral.org/contact-us/accomodations/ If you would like to stay at a home of one of our community members in Boulder or Denver, we maybe able to help. Please send an email to Nomali@boulderintegral.org. It could be free or for a small fee to the host. These arrangements will be made between you and the host.

Scholarship Application Instructions

Please describe the circumstances due to which you need financial assistance to attend this retreat/workshop and send email to nomali@boulderintegral.org. Please also include your name, phone number, year of birth, occupation, annual income, number of dependents (including yourself). Would you be able to volunteer in simple areas of the seminar?

Cancellation Policy

If you need to cancel, please call Nomali or Jason ASAP at (303) 541 1540 or send an email to Nomali@Boulderintegral.org with “Need to Cancel” on subject line.

* Registrations canceled before 9/7/09 will be refunded the entire fee minus a non-refundable administration fee of $75
* Cancellations made between 9/8/09 – 9/30/09 will be refunded 50% of your registration fee, which includes the non-refundable administration fee of $75
* Cancellations within 1 week of the conference (10/1/09 – 10/7/09) are not eligible for a refund. Also, no-shows are liable for the entire conference fee.

New Wineskins for New Wine Part 2

So, as I mentioned yesterday, Jesus is challenging the religious authorities and his own disciples to be conscious about their relationship to their beliefs, traditions, moral codes and ritual practices. What do I mean by this relationship? For starters, is there a gap between what they/we espouse to believe or think is true, or good, and what we actually do in practice. We might call this the "knowing/doing gap." He vigorously challenges their hypocrisy, that they say one thing and do another-- for instance paying such attention to their ritual purifications of their hands and neglecting their purity of heart. Or that they profess to obey the prophets and then they lay heavy taxes on people, even poor widows, to support their temple economy

This knowing/doing gap is a universal feature of human experience, isn't it? We profess to love our neighbor, and then we draw a line when it comes to people who rub us the wrong way, or who are different from us in some way. The classic example is of people who make a display of going to Church on Sunday and then have altercations in the parking lot on their way home.

In my own life, I think of any variety of things I know that are good and that I should do, and then I do the opposite. I have to acknowledge that I live with this knowing/doing gap, so for starters, I need to be very slow to judge others for their hypocrisy. Second, the energy I spend worrying about the hypocrisy of others would probably be better spent closing my own gaps, deepening the integrity that we are called to.

So, a thought to consider: where do you find gaps between what you say and what you do, or between things you know are good and how you're actually living in practice? When you sit with one or two these gaps, how does it feel to recognize this? Do you feel guilty, or prompted to action? If it is guilt... move on! Let this be a prompt to wise, gentle, and discerning discipline as you address one of these gaps. Blessings on your day!

New Wineskins for New Wine

This past Friday, the lectionary readings for the Catholic liturgy included that passage from Paul's Letter to the Colossions (1:15-20) and the Gospel was Luke 5:33-39. It goes like this:

And they said to him, "The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink."
Jesus answered them, "Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days."
And he also told them a parable. "No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.
(And) no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, 'The old is good.'"

In this passage, Jesus is in the midst of an instruction to both the religious teachers of his day and to the disciples, who are listening in. The subject of the lesson is the relationship that religious people have to the beliefs that they espouse, the moral codes and conventions that they follow, and the ways they worship/conduct rituals. You may be wondering what I am talking about in terms of this relationship. And you may have some ideas yourself, which you're welcome to share.

Over the next few days, I will proposing a variety of perspectives on how we frame our relationship with what we believe, based on where we are in our own religious and spiritual maturation. Stay tuned!

On this Labor Day: A bit of advertising... The Integral Incubator for Innovation

Greetings all...

Have spent the last few days moving to Syracuse in Upstate, NY where I will be undertaking a new role at Le Moyne College, a small Jesuit liberal arts school-- my alma mater! I intend to post some reflections about what it's like to return home after 20 years, and the challenges and opportunities that go along with that kind of experience. Given how many of us have to move in with our parents these days, maybe many of you know what I am talking about?

But for now, I want to offer a bit if ad-space for some friends offering a unique opportunity for people to bring their creative and professional aspirations into reality. Boulder Integral is a center dedicated to promoting and adapting the theory of Ken Wilber, an Integral philosopher. Wilber offers a profoundly insightful map of reality that has implications for every field and dimension of human experience. I know that sounds a bit abstract and grandiose, but so it goes. It has influenced my thinking a great deal and helped me shape the design of my doctoral research.

The intention of this workshop is to offer participants a dynamic and supportive community space and the necessary conditions for helping people articulate and realize their creative aspirations around work. If my experience of a leadership event there last year is any indication, this is going to be an amazing time with really gifted and great people. In fact, I would be willing to say that the conditions will be in place for people to stretch into all kinds of new ways of being and doing...

See the website and add below for details:



THE INTEGRAL INCUBATOR
Your Dream, Enacted!
Bring your project to an intensified environment of
discipline, creativity and teamwork!
(www.IntegralIncubator.org)

If you have a dream or project that you want to get real traction on, the Integral Incubator could be just the boost you're looking for.

Here's how it works: on Nov 2 - 6 (a Mon-Fri workweek) you will join a group of 20 evolutionaries at the Integral Center in Boulder, Colorado. For five days we will mix transformational practice, group processes, individual coaching, as well as ample time to actually work on your project.

As a special treat, one afternoon we will make a trek down to Denver to spend a few hours with integral theorist, Ken Wilber, who will share his insights on how to harness the emergent powers of integral consciousness to make your dream a reality.

The link above will take you to a page on our site that will explain the experience more fully. Please note the Early Bird discount!

We'd love for you to join us if you have a dream or project to light a fire under. And if you're not exactly sure what your life's work is, you can use this as an opportunity to focus yourself and commit to a plan that makes the most of your gifts and opportunities. We're confident that the Incubator is going to be a very powerful experience for all who attend.

Christ, the Image of the Invisible God

Today's readings from the daily mass of the Catholic Church begin with a beautiful passage from Paul's letter to the Colossions describing the "Cosmic Christ." And then the Gospel passage is one of my favorites as well, where Jesus speaks of the importance of putting new wine in new wineskins. I'll probably be reflecting a bit on these two readings and sharing how and why they resonate with me.


Brothers and sisters:
Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things were created through him and for him.
He is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
He is the head of the Body, the Church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he himself might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell,
and through him to reconcile all things for him,
making peace by the Blood of his cross
through him, whether those on earth or those in heaven.


I am so taken by the very first line, where the author of the letter has the audacity to claim how Jesus is the image, the portrait, the picture that best portrays who and what God is... Why audacious? Because in the context of first century Judaism, even the name of God could not be uttered without stirring a kind of religious dread. How then could anyone claim that a human being could reveal in a complete way the nature of the Divine? It is hard for those who are Christian to step out of our perspective as 21st century people who take for granted Jesus' divine and human nature. Or do we? Along the lines of the paradoxes I've been reflecting on, it is very hard to hold onto the simultaneous humanity and divinity of Christ-- we tend to emphasize one dimension or the other. Either Jesus is the all powerful, omnipotent and omniscient embodiment of God or he is simply an extraordinary human being-- an enlightened being along the lines of Buddha. This is an example of our tendency to think in either/or terms, rather than in the "both/and" that appreciates the paradox of Jesus-- fully divine and fully human.

Why is this so incredibly important? If we tend to emphasize Jesus' divinity over his humanity, we lose one of the central graces of the Incarnation... that God became human that we might become like God. I say that again... God became human in order that we might become divine... "daughters and sons of God." Isn't that something? We can unpack more about what that means later. And then if we tend to emphasize Jesus' humanity at the expense of his divinity, we lose the uniqueness of Christ and his capacity to exercise his divine agency in our lives... healing, reconciling, inspiring, liberating...

More later. Have a glorious day and a great weekend!

The Beauty of the Ordinary

As I have shared, this time in Soho, the West Village, and elsewhere in NYC has been a reminder of how much of our life energy is spent cultivating the surface image that we (and I) project to the world. That is, how much time and attention we (and I) am tempted to define myself externally, by what we wear and how we wear it, by our physical appearance and grooming, by our youthfulness, or our thinness.

If you're wondering why I am particularly sensitive to this there, I just spent a few months in rural Australia where I was living amongst regular folk: farmers, fisherman, miners, etc... In all credit to them, these are people who generally live in a simple and down to earth way, without a whole lot of fuss about what they look like, or that they keep up with the latest and greatest trends in fashion or technology. So, I traveled from the Outback to the cosmopolitan epicenter of materialism, advertising, and consumption. It is a little bit of a culture shock, as you can imagine. And while I have lived and worked in developing countries and found it challenging to re-enter the American context of conspicuous consumerism, I am finding myself more sensitive than I would have expected to the disparities of have's and have not's.

If I am honest, I have to acknowledge how powerful the urge is to be part of all of this is-- to be part of a fashionable in-crowd, to be connected to "important people," to have prestige, and influence. As Jesus and subsequently, the apostle Paul described this seductive desire... it is the way of the world that lays its claims on us, a way that is engineered to serve the personal and the collective ego-- promising relief for our needs for belonging, for recognition, for security. Sadly, we seldom stop to assess the cost of trying to satisfy these inner needs with external trappings... costs to ourselves and to our world. If I am sounding a bit disoriented and, if I am honest, at times a bit disgusted, I hope that you understand.

If I am not mistaken, there is a kind of insanity at stake in all this... the assumption being that unless we have the buying power to afford the exclusive luxuries of life, we'll never be satisfied, let alone happy. By extension, we not only spend an inordinate amount of time and energy fantasizing about the life we'd like to have, we idolize the celebrities we assume are actually living that life now. What is the cost? We fail to appreciate the beauty of what we have, to recognize the blessing of the life that we're living and the ordinary people and things in our lives.

Let's stop the insanity, why don't we? Please weigh in with your own thoughts, comments, and criticisms.

Living in the Tension

Art by Dennis McNally, S.J.












One persistent theme of my recent experience in Australia is that of paradoxes... that life is seldom a black and white matter, but rather, a matter of living with paradoxical tensions. What am I talking about? Following on the theme from yesterday-- that of living in the world but not being bound by its conventions, of appreciating beauty and excellence without trying to grasp or possess them, of having one foot in the world of ephemera- the passing things, and the other foot in the eternal... this is what I am talking about. When we try to look at and understand our experience in those dualistic, polarizing terms, it is very hard to hold any of these things together, let alone to appreciate that we are called to be both human and divine, sinners and saints.

Despite our tendency to see things in the either/or terms (e.g. I am either a sinner and condemned or beloved and "saved"), this dualistic way of seeing is largely driven by our ego. The reality of things as understood by those who see the world from the heart is undivided and whole... and all things are connected. I am, for instance, both a sinner and precious to God-- at this very moment. The capacity to experience and make sense of life in these non-dual terms takes lots of grace and regular practice. In terms of Ignatian spirituality, it require that we become more and more contemplative in action...

In the world but not of the world...

This past year, my Jesuit community here in NYC had to move from their space on the Upper West Side where they had lived for nearly thirty years. Their new location is in a former rectory on Thompson St in Soho. If you know this area, you also know that what was once a fairly industrial part of town has now become a very swanky shopping district, replete with movie stars and models, artists, and wealthy young hipsters. When I cooked for my community a few nights ago, and while shopping at the Whole Foods on Houston, I could not help but feel like I was old and terribly out of shape compared to all of the buff and beautiful young people waiting at the checkout. It was as if everyone practiced yoga, ran marathons, and received fashion consultations on how to look stylish without trying. Besides the fact that I am getting older, could use a diet, and have to face the fact that my idea of "classic" is slightly idiosyncratic, do you know what I am talking about?

There was a time when visiting this very chic part of town and moving amongst these beautiful people would have filled me with a sense of longing, resentment, and frustration... when a restless and unsettled part of my ego would have wanted a piece of all this for myself, and in not attaining it, would have felt this self satisfied superiority-- judging all this as materialism and vanity as a defense against my own dis-ease. Again, can you relate to what I am saying?

These days, however, I am in a very different state of mind and heart, and the quality of the experience of being here for a visit is entirely distinct from the past. For some reason, I feel a grounded sense of my own worth and fullness, while at the same time acknowledging my own tendencies toward vanity and materialism. Because of this, I neither feel so fragmented by longing for what I do not have, nor separate from or superior to all these people on the sidewalks and in the fancy shops and restaurants. It is a curious thing... a kind of inner freedom that feels both down to earth and joyful at the same time. Even if it is a temporary state, it feels like a healthy one to try and cultivate-- to see through the illusions created by advertising and product placement, acknowledging the passing nature of things while at the same time appreciating beauty, art, and aesthetic accomplishment. It is a sort of paradoxical state, if I am not mistaken, but in the spirit of what Jesus taught when we said we should be "in the world, but not of the world."

Does this resonate with you? Please offer your own thoughts and insights...

September, my favorite month!

So, it's the first day of September, and I'm here in NYC for a few more days before returning to my new assignment at Le Moyne College, a Jesuit school in Syracuse. I've just returned from 8 months in Australia where I was completing the last phase of Jesuit formation before final vows. With the very cool morning here, it feels like fall has arrived, and with it, all those nostalgic feelings of new beginnings. And of course, new beginnings inevitably involve endings and farewells. As you perhaps reluctantly return from summer vacations, or at least the change of pace that summer provides, what are you feeling grateful for? And what are you anticipating as the fall approaches?

After keeping a blog up for the last several months, I found that it provided a meaningful way for me to connect with friends, family, and colleagues, and to draw insight through reflection on experiences. My intention with this blog will be to offer thoughts and feelings related to Life, Word, and Way... while everything is fair game, a fair amount of my attention will be on ways of connecting contemporary life with the Way of Jesus, sharing insights from the spiritual life, and following up on questions.

Hope that you will stop back, and if you do, to participate in this conversation and play!