[Springboard] David's 25 ¢ worth

[David Dunn]

1. I have found it much more instructive to stand our old formulation on its
head: -from- "being is the intensification of knowing and doing" -to-
"knowing and doing are how I embody who I choose to be." Remember SK: the
self is a relationship that relates itself to itself and in deciding to be
itself grounds itself transparently in the power that posited it." My
experience is that my being was given to me as a gift to discover. The power
that posited me is the Mysterious Power to which I may choose a
relationship. My true self is a partnership with that Mysterious Power: when
I discover that and choose it in freedom, THEN I am given eyes to see
clearly and the spirit to embody energetically the knowing and doing that is
the mission I share with Being Itself. My vocation is discerned in the call
that occurs deep within me because it is both me and the Mysterious Power
that gives me life and energy and intent.

2. I'm thinking that a group also needs to discover and name what gift of
being has been given to it. Who are we, anyway? I think that we're a
religious order that has been given the unique charism of being secular
religious capable of embracing the immense diversity of human spirituality
and the tools for fostering the evolution of human spirituality and
transformational community. It's the eyes of that particular charism that
tell me what to look for in the world and what to bring to the reality I
see.

3. With this set of eyes, what I see are innumerable secular religious all
around me who don't have a way to discover and name the fullness of what
they have been given to be, let alone explore corporate relationships that
foster the evolution of the gift of their selfhood. I am surrounded by
lonely individuals who have been given deep awareness of something new for
which they have no name or form.

4. I believe that we have been uniquely gifted with the ability to come at
the questions of final reality, salvation, ethical living and vocation "from
underneath" religion just at a time when the established religions find
themselves in a world that is beyond the capacity of their inheritance to
serve and in which the religiously disestablished find themselves in the
world without the eyes to see and name the depth of the capacity to which
they are invited by Being Itself.

5. I'm thinking that it's discovering and claiming authentic forms and
teachings and practices for these emerging secular religious that is given
to us to figure out in our association with each other. I believe that it is
especially urgent to name who we are, so that we can see and appreciate
ourselves and to help others develop eyes to see more deeply and clearly who
they have been given to be.

6. We need to decide if we have a charism that is needed for the future of
the world. Is what we've been given to be relevant to the world of the
contradictions that we see? If so, we need to formulate a new way of
institutionalizing a multi-generation association. I'm not sure whether it's
an association that exists for doing projects, for carrying memory into the
future, or calling people to a new way of being in the world. Maybe all of
these. Maybe some purpose that none of these holds adequately.

7. I have no basis for presuming that a multi-generational association is
dependent on our children. This association is either a gift to the world
that the Mysterious Power is calling forth or it is not. If it is, we'll see
this gift in the lives of people all around us, some of whom will be our
children. If not, nothing that we can do will convince our children that
they have this gift if they really don't. We need to be careful not to
burden then with our needs or belittle them by presuming that our calling
will be their calling.

8. Finally, I think that it's high time for action research in relationship
to all of the above: time to get visible, time to identify the arena of
discourse and action as having fundamentally to do with the inseparability
of secular spirituality and transformative action, and time to invite others
so that we can see who notices that we've just helped them discover who they
really are.

David Dunn

-- 
David Dunn
www.mirrorcommunication.com
david at mirrorcommunication.com
720-314-5991
Skype: dmirror

-- THANKS FOR UPDATING MY EMAIL ADDRESS --