The Log

People Skills

Morgan — Wed, 23 May 2012 16:29:51 +0000

Our Thursday evening sessions have been suspended for a time to make time for planning. We considering a set of special sessions on People Skills.

Here is a text I have in mind for Special Sessions in the fall. People Skills: How to assert yourself, listen to others, and resolve conflict.

People Skills

This is a wonderful text, which some years ago, set a new direction in my personal and professional life. It teaches high level social skills which most people never learn or learn very late in life. Unfortunately, it is difficult to learn these skills by reading a book. At best, a book can only make you vaguely aware of them. Thus, it is like reading a book on say, woodworking. There is a vast difference between reading a book about woodworking and actually working wood. Yet, by working wood, you begin to understand what the book was trying to teach you. Thus learning is an interative process, working, making mistakes, reading, listening, and then working again. As Mark Twain said, "If at first you don't succeed—fail, fail again. So it is with People Skills, the best way to learn these skills by practicing them and the best way to start is in a class where we do roll playing.

These skills are difficult to pick up and make a habit. Your highest level skills tend to be the most recently learned and thus the less practiced. When we are tired, or afraid, or angry, or distracted we tend to slip into our old habits—less effective but habitual behaviors. So, by practice, you gain the ability to use your high level skills in the real world, when the stakes are high.

So, I am looking for a few people who would like to practice these skills in a few sessions this summer, and then help facilitate small groups in roll playing sessions in the fall. I believe that our churches should be teaching this stuff. Nobody else is. Although this book is entirely "psychological' there is a spiritual dimension to these techniques. On the one hand, high levels skills like this can be learned by dark hearted people which they then use to win trust and then manipulate people. However, the underlying darkness will eventually play its hand. Only a spiritually mature person can apply these skills with love. When the true Christian learns these skills it also gives them wisdom to see when they are being used selfishly.

Start by checking out the link above and look through the table of contents and read the excerpts. If it intrigues you let me know. If I can get a quorum we can start looking for times we can all meet.

Holy Week and Thomas Merton

Morgan — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:08:53 +0000

From now through Easter we will be using excerpts from the writing of Thomas Merton to moisten our contemplative practice. We will be using a special text from the series of booklets published by The Merton Institute for Contemplative Living.

Spiritual Literacy

Morgan — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:39:01 +0000

Spiritual Literacy

Currently we are doing readings from this text. Usually a series of short excerpts by five or six authors but on a single topic, such as the sacred in everyday objects, or nature, or home. We then do a twenty minute silent meditation followed by reflection and discussion.

Readings from many traditions

Morgan — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 17:10:44 +0000

John Donne

Over the next few weeks we will be exploring readings from the sacred literature of other traditions as well as from the Christian and Hebrew traditions. The readings I have in mind are these:

"Krishna Reveals himself to Arjuna" in the Hindu Bagavad Gitta

Passages from the Tao Te Ching

"God speaks to Job from out of the whirlwind" from the Book of Job.

John Donne's "Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, no. 17": For whom the bell tolls. Published in 1627

Some songs of the Sufi's: Rumi, and Hafiz

A few of Rainer Maria Rilke's poems.

I encourage any suggestions you have for additional readings.

Into the silent Land

Morgan — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 18:47:36 +0000

Our next sessions will be framed by the teaching of Martin Laird. This relatively young Monk of the Order of Saint Augustine has written a remarkable book. I have read through this book twice, the second time reading aloud. It has dramatically stimulated me to become more consistent and deliberate in my practice. The following quote from his publisher, Oxford University Press may give you a feel for its value to you.

"In Into the Silent Land, we see the ancient wisdom of both the Christian East and West brought sharply to bear on the modern-day longing for radical openness to God in the depthsof the heart. Laird's book is not like the many presentations for beginners. While useful for those just starting out, this book serves especially as a guide for those who desire to journey yet deeper into the silence of God. The heart of the book focuses on negotiating key moments of struggle on the contemplative path, when the whirlwind of distractions or the brick wall of boredom makes it difficult to continue. Laird shows that these inner struggles, even wounds, that any person of prayer must face, are like riddles, trying to draw out of us our own inner silence. Ultimately Laird shows how the wounds we loathe become vehicles of the healing silence we seek, beyond technique and achievement. Throughout the language is fresh, direct, and focused on real-life examples of people whose lives are incomparably enriched by the practice of contemplation." Oxford University Press

Into the Silent Land is a beautiful and deeply consoling book, a reminder that prayer is both real and fundamentally simple. Not since Thomas Merton's Contemplative Prayer have I encountered a guide to contemplation this wise and compelling."--Douglas Burton-Christie, author of The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism

"This book is different. There are plenty of books on contemplation that feel rather tired--either wordy and labored or unhelpfully smooth and idealistic. But this is sharp, deep, with no cliches, no psychobabble and no short cuts. Its honesty is bracing, its vision utterly clear; it is a rare treasure."--Rowan Williams, The Archbishop of Canterbury

"Often they say 'you learn how to swim by swimming' but a good coach or swimming manual is essential. Equally, we could say 'you learn how to be contemplative by contemplating' and a good guide or mentor is necessary.Into the Silent Land is just that. I tried it and it works. Try it."--Archbishop Desmond Tutu, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize

Seven Steps to Spiritual Healing

Morgan — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 13:32:10 +0000

Here are the seven steps to spiritual healing, which are the basis for our current sessions on Healing Trauma.

Step 1. Be grounded in your experience of who you are as a human being in relationship with others. Take responsibility for the healing that needs to occur.

Step 2. Have faith in the subtle flashes of spiritual awakening that occur each day. Trust that these moments reveal that you are not merely ego, but also a spiritual being created in the image and likeness of God, who is spirit.

Step 3. Realize that the root of suffering is estrangement from spiritual experience, and the root of happiness is spiritual experience.

Step 4. Follow the mystics on the path of prayer and meditation, which heals the root of suffering at its origins.

Step 5. Follow the path of compassionate love, which heals the roots of suffering in our minds and hearts.

Step 6. Learn to live in the axial moment, which transcends suffering even in the midst of suffering.

Step 7. Through prayer, meditation, and compassionate love, devote yourself to the lifelong process of becoming a healing presence in the world. Resolve to live this way until the last traces of suffering dissolve in love and only love is left.

Desert Wisdom

Morgan — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 20:35:48 +0000

While traveling this summer I came across a helpful book on spiritual practice. I was visiting a wonderful Archives Bookstore in Pasadena California. It has over 50,000 volumes in stock, nearly all of which are on theology and religion. My friend and I staid there for a long time browsing and chating with the owner. We talked about where Christianity is going.

I thought that if Christianity is going to be meaningful to the minds and hearts of the 21st century it is going to have to reach more deeply into its mystical tradition. If that happens, Chrisitianity is going to start looking and feeling a little more like Zen. I had made this statement and happened to see a stack of volumns and reached for one. There it was, Space for God, by Don Postema, a friend and colleague of Henri Nouwen.

I opened it up and found it contained black and white illustrations from Van Gogh and Rembrandt which had a certain purity about them, like a Zen garden, yet entirely western and not a zen garden. Like but different. Among these illustrations were others done by another friend of Henri Nouen, Yushi Nomura. These were cartoons in a very Zen style, but surprise, the captions, were all from the Desert Fathers and Mothers. The Abbas and Ammas who are at the beginnings of the Christian contemplative tradition.

I was so impressed I picked up Nomura’s book as well, Desert Wisdom–sayings of the desert fathers.

I will bring them both to our next session. We may find that they may be worthy of further study as a group.

In the meantime, I hope to see you as we start our new sessions on healing trauma, this Thursday, September 23 at 7:00.

Free Hugs in Sondrio, Italy

Morgan — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:13:51 +0000

I hope you are progressing in your own spiritual practice while our group is in recess. Here is something Laura Hile came across which may remind you of why we must practice. Our spiritual practice helps remind us of what we need to remember.

Rest on the Journey

Morgan — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 01:16:47 +0000

Rest on the flight into Egypt. Carvagio c.1628We will be taking a break from our regular Thursday evening practice during the months of July and August. So many people were traveling that we found that we were unable to have enough continuity for our study. We will be starting a new study in September, a Seven-Step Process in spiritual healing. These sesssions will teach us how to heal our soul through Meditation. It combines traditional spiritual practice with clinical psychotherapy.

Watch this page for more information. Better yet, sign up for our email list and we will keep you posted.

For more on this series see the Transforming Trauma web page.

Christian Meditation

Morgan — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:23:37 +0000

James FinleyMany people have the idea that only Buddhists meditate, or that mediation is some kind of eastern thing. In fact meditation is ancient in Christianity, however, the meaning of terms has changed. What we think of as meditation, has been traditionally called contemplation in the west and hesychasm in the Orthodox church.The word meditation comes from Latin and was used to describe a different kind of prayer. Meditation and contemplation has a rich history and several different modes in Christianity. There has also been some cross-over between Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.

In our next season James Finley will be teaching us from the Christian tradition. Finley is a practicing psychotherapist, husband, father, and former Trappist Monk who teaches meditation as he learned it from Thomas Merton. This series will provide a foundation for a second Finley series on the way we bring suffering into our lives. He uses this in his psychotherapy work. Finley is able to bridge modern psychology and Christian and Buddhist traditions in way that illuminates the confusion of modern life.

For more on James Finley, you can visit his website at www.contemplativeway.com The website has long videos from James Finley's sessions on various Christian mystics and what they have to teach us.