[Springboard] Approach To Junaluska

[david442 at cox.net]

Thanks, Mary,

It so good to see your name and imagine hearing your voice again.

Have a great mindful day in the here and now.

David

---- marykdsouza at vsnl.com wrote: 
> Thank you for your reflection David.
> I am also learning mindfulness and agree with most of what you say.
> Mary
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: david442 at cox.net
> Date: Thursday, November 15, 2007 2:23 am
> Subject: [Springboard] Approach To Junaluska
> To: springboard at wedgeblade.net
> 
> > The contradiction that bites at my consciousness for the past 12 
> > years is Jack Gilles’ Number 2 under All the gifts of humanness 
> > belongs to all.  Not only as the contradiction states now is there 
> > an  absence of approaches to exploring profound humanness as a way 
> > to unite us all, but most humans around the planet are aware of 
> > this absence.  They know nothing really satisfies their deepest 
> > soul felt needs.  They are thirsty for vitality beneath the wealth 
> > and beneath the poverty they are experiencing.
> > 
> > 	As I have tried to satiate this thirst in myself, I have found 
> > that until very recent times I did not have a daily, weekly, 
> > monthly or annual practice that met this need.  In the past seven 
> > years I begun to explore daily and hourly what Saint Paul 
> > advocated two millennia ago “prayer without ceasing.”  By chance 
> > it came to me through Engaged Buddhism as expressed in the work of 
> > Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Buddhist monk.  My mentors in this 
> > tradition are Larry Ward and Peggy Rowe-Ward who’ve are lay dharma 
> > teachers in this tradition.  
> > 
> > 	Peggy calls Larry a Buddhacostal since he has found no need to 
> > leave his Christian Baptist heritage to become a “Buddhist”.  This 
> > Engaged Buddhism neither requires “conversion” nor in Larry’s own 
> > words is there any reason to convert.  We are Christians learning 
> > an immense bundle of practices and “great beings” who embody 
> > traits and vivid images of what living as a profound human being 
> > is all about.  When we sit before an altar the whole wall is 
> > covered by these “bodhisattvas” or “saints” who are available to 
> > us here and now, not somewhere over the rainbow.  This practice 
> > comes to me as very fresh.  If I had grown up Buddhist, maybe it 
> > wouldn’t be so fresh.  But Thich Nhat Hanh has done a fabulous job 
> > making Buddhist lore transparent to humanness.  That’s the 
> > freshness I love.
> > 
> > 	Could I have found my thirst slaked somewhere else?  Could I have 
> > found it in my own Christian tradition?  Of course.  But I didn’t. 
> > The saints of the past practiced sitting, walking, eating, lying 
> > down, standing meditation 24/7.  Mindfulness all day long even in 
> > my sleep (those dreams and night visitations are critically 
> > important) is a great way to live.  The only failure in the 
> > Christian priestly, monastic traditions was to train us lay people 
> > to do these practices sufficiently that we could take it with us 
> > into our daily lives, into our work place, our families, our 
> > friendships, etc.  It is “intentionality” to the nth degree in our 
> > own Order: Ecumenical tradition.
> > 
> > 	I would welcome the opportunity to glean the wisdom we’ve all 
> > been accumulating over the past 20 years about what practices are 
> > working for us.  I know they are working.  Just look at all the 
> > wonderful, miraculous achievements we’ve been doing in 
> > corporations,  in health-education-environment, in local 
> > communities, in other service organizations, in doing whatever 
> > business we are currently doing.  We know our practices are alive 
> > and healthy because over the 20 years we have continued to be 
> > Those Who Care.  What works for you?  Please share it.
> > 
> > 	If you find yourself thirsty for a corporate spirit life, look 
> > around you.  Dare to look behind all the labels that are thrown 
> > around.  Dare to look in unsuspected places.  There are retreat 
> > centers galore.  There are books and book stores galore.  The “New 
> > Age” is over.  I know because I saw it in writing the other day.  
> > (A smile and a wink)  It is now the New Now!!!!!
> > 
> > 	How would I approach our process at Junaluska?  I want to hear 
> > everyone’s story about their life and their work.  I want to be 
> > able to paint a mosaic of our Doing.   I want to listen to our 
> > Knowing – what we have learned from doing what we’ve done.  Maybe 
> > a cross gestalt of our knowing and doing would name the guilds 
> > that in a way we are already members of.   And I want to know what 
> > spiritual practices we’ve been doing that have authentically 
> > sustained and motivated us over the last 20 years, or even just 
> > the last 5 years.   We cannot easily in three days separate these 
> > into three departments.  So I would put them all in the first 3 
> > hours and then do the cross gestalt and ask, “What’s next?  And 
> > what shall we do together in the ensuing days, weeks and months?”
> > 
> > 	As Goethe said long ago, “Once we let go of our hesitancy and 
> > commit ourselves to our dream, providence will enter in and 
> > provide the help we need to do what we set out to do.”  (My 
> > paraphrase)
> > Blessings,
> > 
> > David McCleskey
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Springboard mailing list
> > Springboard at wedgeblade.net
> > http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/springboard_wedgeblade.net
> > 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Springboard mailing list
> Springboard at wedgeblade.net
> http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/springboard_wedgeblade.net