Global Priors' Council
Chicago
July 24, 1979
When I first heard the category "The Way"
this summer I was confused because the conception of the Tao (The
Way) is not the same as the Way in English. When we talk about
the Tao (The Way) we usually mean "God" like Logos.
When we talk about Buddha, that does not simply mean "Great
Enlightenment." Orientals do not talk about God. They are
concerned to find the place in which to have dialogue with the
universe. My assignment this morning is to give a spin about the
"Thinking of the Way" I changed the title to "Thinking
in the Way" however, because of my different conception.
Our image in the Orient of a wise man is someone who does not
talk because he is thinking. Even when he talks, people cannot
understand. Therefore, if I myself am a real wise man, you probably
will not understand what I am saying.
I understand that there are at least three ways of
thinking of the Way. The first is with the brain, thinking with
the brain. This is the way the Westerners do it. They use intelligence
and reason in order to create knowledge. The second is with the
heart. This is the way the Easterners do it. They reflect on their
concern in order to receive wisdom. I do not know how it is different,
knowledge from wisdom. Probably knowledge is a buildup like
the scientific. The building is a symbol of the knowledge, but
wisdom does not build up. The third way is the way of Chuang Tzu
who created Taoism. Chuang Tzu is more famous, a great thinker
of Taoism. He wrote about thinking from the toes of your feet
up through your body. This is the way of thinking from the bottom,
from the deeps, from the roots, from the fundamental, from life
itself, from Being. It is the third way of thinking in the Way.
Thinking in the Way is consciousness and encounter.
For instance, when you go to a flower garden and look at the flowers,
everyone could say this is pretty. But this is not encounter.
Thinking in the Way is sensitive, like a poet. The poet observes
seriously when, through dialogue , he encounters flowers as universe.
When you encounter the flower (universe) then you are conscious
of another world. Therefore, without encounter, there is no consciousness.
Without consciousness there is no encounter. When we decided to
do the project in Kuh Du E Ri, it was not because it was a good
place to do a project. There was a highly developed village at
the entrance there that would make it difficult to have a dramatic
sign in Kuh Du E Ri. But we went because of our encounter with
human suffering in Kuh Du E Ri. Forty per cent of the villagers
were slash and burn farmers on the mountainside. They slash forests
in the mountain, burn the mountain and plant it. After the harvest
they move to another place. They had traditionally lived there.
About four years ago, the Government decided to keep the forests
in the mountains national, and they kicked the farmers out of
the mountain. When they moved to this village from the mountain,
they had nothing but what they could move on their backs. This
is the human factor. So we decided on this village for the project.
The human suffering is why we decided to do the project there.
Thinking in the Way is freedom, the freedom of obedience
to all my relationships. I cannot give my total commitment only
to building a model village, but I can give myself to creating
a human community. If I think more about methods and models of
community development than about the human beings I am related
to, then my methods could actually be a block to my caring. When
I decide to submit my life to create human society, then I realize
that the total spirit of the village is my spirit, my being. This
is real consciousness about being a human being in relationship
with every other human being. If this is your consciousness, then
even if you get angry with the villagers or even fight with them,
it does not matter. Authentic dialogue only comes out of standing
on common ground with your neighbor. One day we had a meeting
with the village leaders in Kuh Du E Ri, and I asked, "Do
you know that I love you?" They said, "Yes, we know."
I asked them again, "How do you know?" They said, "We
cannot tell you exactly, but we know." They knew about my
depth relationship with them through my care for the village.
Thinking in the Way is intentionality. Every morning
the auxiliary in Kuh Du E Ri visits every project and household
in the village. This means concrete care for the village. For
example, if you have 1000 chickens, you must look at each one
because if even one gets sick, it can make all the others sick.
How can we do this job of social demonstration and town meeting?
Because we love local communities. That is why we like everything
in our village. Our intentionality is that total care.
Thinking in the Way is responsibility. After that
conversation with the villagers, I realized that both the villagers
and the auxiliary had become more responsible persons. When I
first met the woman who would become my wife, I thought that she
was nice. But thinking that someone is nice does not create profound
relationship. One day I said, "I love you." She said
nothing, but she changed toward me. Declaration or confession
of covenant transforms individuals into human community. We must
have a spiritual dialogue with the villagers. We must stand with
them, live with them, take on their contradictions, their suffering.
It is only there in the midst of that situation that we can authentically
care for human community. This is our only integrity in relation
to society.
Thinking in the Way is no/intellectual or abstract
in a human development project. Thinking in the Way is not simple
concern as in charity. Thinking in the Way comes up from the bottom,
from the roots, from the toes, as Chuang Tzu said. It has to do
with where you are standing in your bare feet. Thinking in the
Way is not worrying about how to help poor people, but how I can
solve my own suffering, which is their suffering, for there is
only one suffering, the suffering of human community. Life accountability
is not the question of what can I do to take care of poor people.
The question is one of incarnation becoming one with
suffering community both the 15% and the 85%. From
that standpoint, I raise the question, "How do we create
human community?"
The greatness, the gift of our Movement is not only
our methods, but is our being one with all people and creating
the future from that standpoint. This is what we have always been
about. RS1 is not talking about helping the poor people,
but is about being pioneers of history, forging out new human
community.
Do not try to be a saint or a general, but become
a local man, and as local man create primal community. Trying
to be a saint or a hero is not what is required in our time. Forget
about being a saint or following some great saint. Think only
about our first steps in bare feet; moving into Fifth City, full
of risk, uncertainty, difficulty, where failure became learning
and success became greater and greater responsibility. Think only
about being incarnate as local man.
I do not want to talk about Jesus here, but if I
did I would say Jesus actually failed in his life. Where people
became electrified in their excitement was in how Jesus failed.
He was not a winner. The image of a winner is like a king, a ruler,
but Jesus died in despair. He suffered. All men know despair and
suffering and, therefore, know that the way Jesus embraced his
death as meaningfilled, as wonderfilled, as a gift,
can also be their way. And that, in fact, is the Way.
Thinking in the Way is consciousness, freedom, intentionality
and responsibility, from standing barefoot on common ground with
local man.
I would like to conclude by reading a poem to you.
There is only One Way.
In the Way we encounter everything,
We lose everything
And yet, here we receive everything.
The Way is a place of wonderfilled rapture
in the center of loneliness.
It is the place of freedom in the center of despair.
It is the place of creativity in the center of sorrow.
Everyone already knows loneliness, despair and sorrow, therefore they are on the Way.
Or maybe, everyone is not going on the Way.
The Way itself is a sinking downwards until it is nothing.
It is then that we are coming up, and flying away.
But this flying is not into the sky.
It is a flight into the vastness of our own being.
In this way we come out of ourselves so that we can see our real self.
The Way is the mirror of Being that shows us ourself.
There is only One Way.
Here there is joy, but a joy that cannot be shared with anyone else.
But everyone can have this joy.
Therefore, we cannot dwell in our joy because everyone else is not yet in this joy
That is why our heart is burning to ashes with loneliness
in the center of this joy.
There is only One Way.
Here there is freedom, but a freedom that cannot be shared with anyone else
But everyone can have this freedom.
Therefore, we cannot dwell in our freedom, because everyone else is not yet in this freedom.
So we lose ourself and become a slave of freedom
with despair of painful endurance in the center of this freedom
There is only one Way.
Here there is creativity, but a creativity that cannot
be shared with anyone else.
But everyone can have this creativity.
Therefore, we cannot dwell in our creativity, because everyone else is not yet in this creativity.
That is why we are losing ourself in sorrow and seeing
ourself destroyed in the center of this swirl of creativity.
Our heart is burning with loneliness, enslaved in freedom, because of despair.
We see our own being in this center Way
There we see the disappearing self
In the Center of sorrow.
There is only One Way.
In the Way we encounter everything,
We lose everything,
And yet, here we receive everything.
| THINKING IN THE WAY |
| CONSCIOUSNESS: Without encounter there is no consciousness. Without consciousness there is no encounter. | FREEDOM: The freedom of obedience to all my relationships. Authentic dialogue only comes out of standing on common ground with your neighbor. |
| INTENTIONALITY: This means concrete care. How can we do this kind of Jobof social demonstration and town meeting. Because we love local communities. Our intentionality is that total care. | RESPONSIBILITY: Declaration or confession of covenant transforms individuals into human community. We stand with them) live with them, take on their contradictions, their suffering. That is our integrity |
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| PRESENCE OF THE WAY |
| SOCIOLOGICAL SHIFT: CORPORATE EFFECTIVITY The presence of the Way is experienced as ; shift from being individual giants to also being corporate effectively. | TELEOLOGICAL SHIFT: CREATION WINNING
The presence of the Way is a shift in experience of using creation to do our missional agenda to discovering that we are also being used by creation for its winning. |
| MYTHOLOGICAL SHIFT: SURRENDER TO THE NEW The presence of the Way is sustained by the myth that we not only demand creation to change but also that we surrender to the new when it comes. | IMPLICATION SHIFT: AS GUIDE The presence of the Way is shifting from our understanding of ourselves as the traveler on the journey to also being the Guide on that journey. |
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