[Springboard] Preparation for next Springboard

[George Packard]

Joe,
Thanks for the Word and call to the future.
I have started Eckhart's book on audio and he is compellingly centering and
channeling of spirit.
I acknowledge your call to attend to what I have eclectically sampled and
dismissed as random new age scatterings. I have appreciated many new things
and resources it has brought, but failed to grasp it as the significant
release of energy it has become in this last few years, as illustrated by
Tolle's book.
 Thanks for the call to attention.
George.

  _____  

From: springboard-bounces at wedgeblade.net
[mailto:springboard-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Joseph A. Slicker
Sent: Sunday, April 06, 2008 8:11 PM
To: Springboard Dialogue
Subject: [Springboard] Preparation for next Springboard


Dear Colleagues:
    We have a wonderful heritage.  Without the 20th Contrary theologians
like Bultmann, Tillich, the two Niebuhrs, and Bonhoeffer with their context
along with Joe Mathews and others we would not in all probably be
spiritually alive today.  We should celebrate their gifts and keep them
stored in our memories for periodic checking if and when needed.
    However, that is not the edge today and constant hovering over them keep
us from expending our energy on today's edge.  The 20th Century is gone.
Its enclosure is 'old wine skins'.  Our zooming technology, zeitgeist of
modernism-post modernism, and increasing awareness of a 'one-like Gaia', in
all of which we and our society swim---however you want to describe it--- is
here and now. It is also here to celebrate and self-consciously live in.  
    We have to get ourselves into the 21st Century to devise our theology,
our kerygma, practical applications and solitudes.  It is in this context
that I humbly and respectfully urge us to continue to prepare for this by
taking two very necessary baby steps.  
 
    1.  Each of us begin immediately, and get our house church, guild,
sanga, or whoever else you run with, to participate in the Monday night
Oprah website presentation of "A New Earth Online Class"  It is a study of
Eckhart Tolle's book, "A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose."  It
is a real gem.  
    Tolle's book presents nothing but highest spiritual value, and the
dialogue of the program is all about authentic being.  I found it overcame
the 'Greek' in me that thought it was to mundane or 'foolishness' for me to
participate, or the 'Jew' in me which found it a 'stumbling block' to my
culture, or sloppy thinking, theologizing or wanting to reduce it to an
intellectual argument.  Incidentally, Tolle claims no specific heritage, but
certainly is privy to the great tradition of both the East and West.
    Oprah is no slouch herself.  She should be acknowledged for taking a
stand for authenticity of being in herself, but should also be acknowledged
for taking the same stand for her audience.  She guides the dialogue of the
program as MC.  Sometimes she answers with her own history and wisdom which
always seems to be on target, or clarifies the conversation as Tolle answers
the incoming questions.
    I had read the book in 2005 when it first came out.  I was so struck
with it that I sent each member of my family a copy.  In addition, my sister
and I had extended conversations on sections of it.  So I was originally
reluctant to participate in the program--hadn't I read it already.  How
wrong I was.  I follow the dialogue as it goes on, and get caught up in it.
I see myself in each person even though my external situation is different.
My interior awareness is in the dialogue and requires me to respond to the
choice that is in question. 
    The program is on www.oprah.com <http://www.oprah.com/>  on Monday
nights at 8 PM central time.  There are several questions each week to help
our study for the follow week.  It also has exercises for each session.  If
you miss a program they are available in video, audio, and transcript, or
can be downloaded to your ipod for ongoing use.  There were more than 11
million participants at the end of session three.  It grows in number each
session. 
    Join the online show for its next program, April 7, 2008, beginning the
last five chapters of the book.  If you aren't able to get your group
together now, then start the process of their deciding to act and get
whatever past lessons necessary for their ability to continue the dialogue.
Then setup how this or something like this can be utilized or recreated in
the future.
 
    2. The Tolle dialogue is an outstanding, but just one of many types of
examples of the consciousness revolution that is going on today.  Don't
underestimate this revolution.  It hasn't happened in this magnitude in
written history before.  It includes both the spiritual and material,
intellectual and practical life.  We all can see the externals such as
awareness of global interaction, technology expansion that include the
internet and cell phones. Small groups can spring up and talk to each other
everywhere.  New possibilities have expanded beyond imagination.  On the
other hand, the world seems in many respects to have gone crazy.  Hate, and
hate and denial groups, expand and destroy peoples' bodies, their hopes and
dreams.  
    What is going on that allows people to become aware of transcendence
beyond our immediate hopes and dreams?  Enter the Consciousness Revolution.
I think it is imperative that those who are aware of this transcendence read
the recent book, "2012".  My initial reaction was, Naw!  I don't want to get
caught up in such mythologies that some groups use as a vehicle for their
use of distorted eschatology to fuel their hatred.  Again, I was so wrong.
The book 2012 describes the signs of the consciousness revolution today.  It
explains how many great traditions held both the spiritual and material
together as they expand toward gathering fullness.  The greatness is that
they see how nature---the earth---the galaxy---are part of the
spiritual/material in the revolution's movement to an apex.
    The book is made up of series of essays of around 25 different people
and many traditions. Thumb through and get a picture of the whole.  Read the
first few chapters and then jump to the last one, and then go through and
read as your interest guides your selection.  You won't be disappointed.
And remember this is just a tip of the iceberg of this revolution.  Every
discipline is breaking loose in some dimension.  It's seeing that whatever
you touch is like a fountain bursting loose in its flow.  Enjoy it all.
 
                                                                     Joe
Slicker
                                                                     April
2008
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