The Human Agenda

Mystic Heart by Wayne Teasdall

Mystic Heart:

Discovering A Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions

By Wayne Teasdall

An Intermystical Bridge

The Guidelines for Interreligious Understanding

Snowmass Conference

1. The world religions bear witness to the experience of ultimate Reality to which they give various names: Brahman, Allah, (the) Absolute, God, Great Spirit. 

2. Ultimate Reality cannot be limited by any name or concept. 

3. Ultimate Reality is the ground of infinite potentiality and actualization. 

4. Faith is opening, accepting, and responding to Ultimate Reality. Faith in this sense precedes every belief system. 

5. The potential for human wholeness – or in other frames of reference, enlightenment, salvation, transformation, blessedness, nirvana – is present in every human person. 

6. Ultimate Reality may be experienced not only through religious practices but also through nature, art, human relationships, and service of others. 

7. As long as the human condition is experienced as separate from Ultimate Reality it is subject to ignorance, illusion, weakness and suffering. 

8. Disciplined practice is essential to the spiritual life; yet spiritual attainment is not the result of one’s own efforts, but the result of the experience of oneness (unity) with Ultimate Reality. (What transforms us is not what we do but our integration with what is.)

Blood Donation

It's a small sacrifice

But I gain much satisfaction

The needle prick is actually not that bad

The machine chirps when my heart is not pumping the blood our fast enough

The nurse talks to calm me 

Or to get attention

It does not matter

It takes longer, about half an hour, to give red blood cells.

For 40 minutes I lay still and give of my body

something I can live without

And when it's over I take the day off

To say thanks to myself, to a health system that will deliver my blood where it is most needed

I also imagine someone, somewhere

Who might live or at least live a little better

Because of my gift

Vital Conversations - June 10

Vital Conversations hosted Beverly and Dale Cole for a lively and provocative visit about her book, Cleaning Closets: A Mother’s Story.   I asked at the beginning for all present to share some quality they appreciated in their parent or parents.  Our parents have given us a variety of gifts.   Beverly has been a gentle and assertive voice for compassion and understanding for all persons.  Her second book is also available now.  Voices From The Kingdom:  All God’s Children Have Keys contains interviews with religious leaders on the vision of inclusion for all persons.  The interviews provide a much-needed clarity and insight about the pain and exclusion experienced by the faithful who happen to be gay.  Thanks Beverly for your gifts to us and for the gift of love for you son.

Next month we will discuss The Mystic Heart:  Discovering A Universal Spiritual in the World’s Religions by Wayne Teasdale.   Mark your calendars and join us July 8^th at 1 p.m. at Mid Continent Library, Antioch Branch.

“The purpose of a vital conversation is not to win an argument but to win a friend and advance civilization.”  Vern Barnet

The Shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins

“I watch the smoke braid and rise into the tree, a shadow branching growth, a ghost, and I think about the ways that lives can intertwine, the way one life touches on another, our lives and all the lives of others a long continuous thread – a train – of independent yet contiguous actions.”

The Shadow Catcher A Novel by Marianne Wiggins

As a child I dreamed about flying.  I think that is a common childhood dream.  I loved to visit places especially in the West.  Our family went camping every year and we visited National Parks, western towns, Indian Reservations, and long winding highways.  I recall meeting Indians and thinking about their lives that seemed so exotic and wonderful.  Little did I know then about the oppression and hardship they had experienced.  As a young parent, we took our own children to many of the same places.  One of my favorite memories, for a variety of reasons, was a summer vacation when we visited Mesa Verde National Park.  Around the campfire at night, after climbing through the cliff dwellings, I would tell Lars and Molly about Lohar, the Indian body and his pet, “Chicken Red Feather.”  The stories were never published, except in my heart.

Reading The Shadow Catcher brought many of those precious memories back to the forefront of my mind.  Marianne Wiggins has woven a yarn that connects her life with the lives of Edward Curtis, the famous photographer of American Indians, his wife and children.  I have not studied his life enough to know how accurate her story is and that is not even important.  She weaves into the novel her own relationship with her father who died at a much to early time in her life and the mystery of a man who stole his identity.

I love her writing.  Every sentence is a work of art.  I will read more of it.  I loved the story and the mystery.  What I loved the most was my willingness to revisit my childhood dreams and young adult joys through the images produced in my brain as I read this novel.  Photography is not the only way that images are captured and reproduced.

Shambhala Mountain Center

SHAMBHALA MOUNTAIN CENTER

Near Red Feather Lakes, Colorado

May 2009

During our time in Colorado last week, Ann and I took a short road trip to visit Red Feather Lakes and the Shambhala Mountain Center.  The first was a bit of a let down.  I failed to recognize what would attract me to retire there.  The second, Shambhala, was a beautiful treat. Shambhala Mountain Center is a mountain valley retreat located on 600 acres in northern Colorado. Since 1971 the Center has offered hundreds of programs on Buddhist meditation, yoga and other contemplative disciplines. Tamed by thirty years of use as a contemplative retreat, Shambhala Mountain Center is a place where one of the basic truths of Buddhism—that people can be profoundly open to the wisdom of the present moment—is always readily available.

We met Heidi who welcomed us and invited us to park across the road and make ourselves at home on the property.  She shared a map and pointed out the public rest rooms, dining center, and the trail to the Great Stupa.  It was about 2/3 mile walk through the “down town” (seemed a strange term for the 6-7 small buildings) to the Stupa.  The Stupa was built in honor of the Center’s founder, the meditation master, author and artist Chogyam Trumgpa Rinpoche.  It was constructed by volunteers over a period of 17 years and is dedicated to PEACE, WISDOM, and COMPASSION.  I experienced an overflow of all three as we spend the best part of the morning there.

A short walk beyond the Stupa was a Kami Shrine that was also very interesting.  It blended well into the woods and seemed a natural human addition to what creation has graced the area with for hundreds of years.  It is good to experience buildings that add to the natural environment rather than detract from it.

To see a few more pictures of our Colorado holiday click here.

Mountains Beyond Mountains

Thanks to Leroy Seat for providing this information from the Vital Conversation on May 13, 2009

Vital Conversations (May 13, 2009) 

Discussion of Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, 

a Man Who Would Cure the World

(2003) by Tracy Kidder 

A few facts about: 

Paul Farmer 

 Born in 1959 in Massachusetts, reared in Florida. 

 Graduate of Duke University; received MD from Harvard Medical School and Ph.D. from Harvard. 

 Began working in Haiti in 1983, founded Partners in Health (Boston) in 1987. 

 Currently Presley Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Department of Social Medicine at 

Harvard University. 

 He is married to DidiBertrand, a Haitian, and they havethree children: Catherine (10) and a son 

and a daughter both less than one year old. 

 He nowworks in Rwanda,and he hasbecome a citizen of that country. 

 He is the author of many books, including AIDSand Accusation(1992, 2006), The Uses of Haiti 

(1994, 2005), Infections and Inequalities(1999, 2001), and Pathologies of Power: Health, Human 

Rights, and the New War on the Poor(2003, 2005) 

 He appears in a movie about Aristide (see below) and also in “IAm Because We Are” (2008), a 

movie narrated by Madonna and available for viewing at http://www.hulu.com/watch/64450/i- 

am-because-we-are. 

Haiti 

 In 1697 what is now Haiti became a French territory and was given the name St.Domingue. 

 A slave revolution began in 1791, and in 1804 the country became the Republic of Haiti, the first 

and only nation whose independence was gained as the result of a slave rebellion and the first 

independent nationin Latin America. (“Égalité for All: Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian 

Revolution,” 2009, is a PBS “home video” available on DVD at MCPL.) 

 Ruled by dictators François(“Papa Doc”) Duvalier (1907-1971) and his son, Jean-Paul (“Baby 

Doc”) Duvalier (p. 1951) from1957-86. 

 Now the least-developed country in the Americas; ranks 148th of 179countries in the U.N. 

Human Development Index (2008). Ranked 177thout of 180 on the 2008 Corruption Perceptions 

Index. 

Jean-Bertrand Aristide 

 Born in 1953, he became a Catholic priest in 1982 and served the Church of St. Jean Bosco in the 

poorest part of Port-au-Prince. (His church was attacked by the tonton macoutes in 1988; 

thirteen members were killed and the building burned. Two weeks later he was expelled from 

the Salesian Order.) He left the priesthood in 1995, married the following year, and 

subsequentlybecame the father of two daughters. 

 Elected President of Haiti in December 1990 with 67% of the popular vote. Ousted from office 

by a coup d’état on 9/30/91. He was also President from 6/15/93 to 5/12/94, 10/12/94 to 

2/7/96, and 2/7/01 to 2/29/04. 

 Author of several books, including Eyes of the Heart: Seeking a Path for the Poor in the Age of 

Globalization(2000). 

 “Aristide and the Endless Revolution” (2005) is a documentary movie about Aristide, and in it 

Paul Farmer makes comments about Aristide.

Pluralism Vs. Diversity

Pluralism vs. Diversity

I am reading Diana L. Eck’s book Encountering God:  A Spiritual Journey from Bozeman to Banaras.  It is delightful story about both her personal journey in recent years and the world’s story of growing interactions between people of different faith traditions.  As I read, I reflect back on my own journey from a small town in Nebraska where it was special to have a Jew visit in our home because he played in Community Concerts series.  I remember being on the campus of a large Roman Catholic University and buying a Bible that had books I had not read yet and feeling a bit adventurous.  Both of us have come a long way.

I am honored to hang out with other members of the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council that has representatives of 15 different faith groups.  Monday and Tuesday each week I sit in my cell at USP Leavenworth and listen and visit with men in the Life Connections Program from a variety of religious backgrounds as they change their lives by building a stronger foundation in their faith traditions.  I believe in that unit of a local prison we are creating a society that respects and values the differences.

Diana Eck is right in pointing out that diversity is a mere reality.  It is a fact.  Pluralism is embracing that reality and cherishing the gifts of the diversity.  We can observe the fact of diversity and take either the road of further misunderstanding and religious chauvinism or the road to a positive and interactive interpretation of plurality.  I choose the later.  In the last 15 years my life has been so blest by the interactions with women and men whose spiritual and religious journeys are dramatically different from mine.  I can’t image my life today and in the future without the wonderful gifts from other religious traditions.

Vital Conversation: "Change or Die"

April 8, 2009 

The monthly Vital Conversations group discussed the book Change or Die by Alan Deutschman.  Our guest, Dr. Kendall Hughes, directs the Life Connections Program at the USP Leavenworth.  I also assist in that program where we practice the three keys to change related in the book.  Dr. Hughes is in the upper left behind me.  

RELATE

You form a new, emotional relationship with a person or community that inspires and sustains hope.

REPEAT 

The new relationship helps you learn, practice, and master the new habits and skills that you'll need.

REFRAME

The new relationship helps you learn new ways of thinking about your situation and your life.

Next month, May 13th, we will discuss Tracy Kidder's book Mountains Beyond Mountains.  The books are available through Mid Continent Library.  

"The purpose of a Vital Conversation is not to win an argument but to win a friend and advance civilization."  Vern Barnet

Appreciative Leadership

"Appreciative Leadership grows out of social constructionist theory, which posits that what we consider to be good, true and meaningful is created through our communication with one another.  All knowledge, meaning and sense of identity emerge from relatedness.   A teacher can only be a teacher when there are students.  A parent becomes a parent when a child is born.  And an executive leads only when there is a reciprocal relationship called follower.  In many ways we are the sum total of all the relationships in our lives."

Dr. Diana Whitney

I am spending four days in Chapel Hill, NC with a small group of Appreciative Inquiry Coaches and Trainers learning more about "Appreciative Leadership."  I appreciate the people who have supported this adventure by responding to my request to give me some feedback.  Today I received and read these comments about my leadership.  

In my former life as a parish pastor I often commented that it is unfortunate that funerals and memorial services are the time when people say such nice things about a person.  I am so thankful that I did not have to die to read the words of my friends about my leadership.  I treasure the words written and will read them again in a few weeks.  

We also are using the  "Strengths Finder" Analysis available on-line.  This profile is my way of identifying my preferred leadership strengths.  Mine are:

INTELLECTION

DEVELOPER

ACTIVATOR

MAXIMIZER

EMPATHY

What are yours?

Vital Conversations - March 11, 2009

Vital Conversations

March 11, 2009

 Our Search for Happiness:  An Invitation to Understand the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, by M. Russell Ballard

 Elder McCalister, our guest, from the Liberty Jail LDS Center was wonderful as he shared with us from his lifetime of experience as a Mormon.  I am thrilled that we have created a safe space for differences to be shared and where appreciation grows.

 Releasing Conversation:  Name, what attracts you to a religious community?  What are you looking for in a spiritual community?

 The purpose of a Vital Conversation is not to win an argument but to win a friend and advance civilization, especially in greater Kansas City and our local neighborhoods.  We gather from different histories and understandings of our faith and our history.  This will be a respectful sharing of perspectives with the intent of better understanding each other and not a debate about who is more faithful or who is right. 

Topics discussed:

• Mormon history so integrated in US history, especially in Clay County, MO
• Original blessing vs. Original sin
• Religious tolerance vs. One true way
• Baptism is a sticky issue, tell us your understanding and practice, especially baptism of the dead
• The coming of Christ back to earth, where, when,
• You believe in continued revelation.. Can you tell how that is discerned
• Temple paid for before it is built, timing of building, visit for 10 days, etc.
• Cooperation between faith groups

Next Month, April 8^th Change or Die

Life Connections Program – USP Leavenworth, journals

Change of Die:  Could you change when change matters most?  By Alan Deutschman.  A powerful book with universal appeal, this book deconstructs and debunks age-old myths about change and empowers us with three critical keys – relate, repeat, and reframe – to help us make important positive change in our lives.  We will also have a conversation about The Life Connections Program, an 18 month faith based program at USP Leavenworth.  Dr. Kendall Hughes, the Chaplain and Director of LCP, and several of the spiritual guides will join us for the conversation.