Knowing and Not Knowing<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soul Knowledge<\/strong>\nTuesday, January 28, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p>When Western civilization set out on its many paths of\nwinning, accomplishment, and conquest, the contemplative mind seemed\nuninteresting and even counterproductive to our egoic purposes. The\ncontemplative mind got in the way of definable goals for progress,\nscience, and development, which were very good and necessary in their own way\u2014<em>but not for soul knowledge.<\/em>\nWe lost almost any notion of paradox, mystery, or the wisdom\nof unsayability\u2014which are the open-ended qualities that make biblical\nfaith so dynamic, creative, and nonviolent. Instead, we insisted on\n\u201cknowing,\u201d and even <em>certain<\/em> knowing all\nthe time and every step of the way! This is no longer the enlightening path of\nAbraham, Moses, Mary, or Jesus but a rather late and utterly\ninadequate form of religion, which is probably why so\nmany individuals, especially in the West, now say they are\n\u201cspiritual but not religious.\u201d I cannot fault them for that,\nthough it sounds like the dualistic mind speaking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We must remember\nthat Christianity in its maturity is supremely <em>love-centered<\/em>, not information- or\nknowledge-centered. The primacy of love allows our knowing to be much humbler\nand more patient and helps us to recognize that other traditions\u2014and other people\u2014have\nmuch to teach us, and there is also much we can share with them. This stance of\nhonest self-knowledge and deeper interiority, with the head\n(Scripture), the heart (Experience), and the body\n(Tradition) operating as one, is helping many to be more integrated and\ntruthful about their own actual experience of God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Contemplation\nallows us to see things in their wholeness and thus with respect <em>(re-spect<\/em> means to see a\nsecond time). <em>Until\nRichard recognizes and somehow compensates for his prejudicial way of seeing\nthe moment, all Richard will tend to see is his own emotional life and agenda\nin every new situation.<\/em> This is the\nessential letting-go lesson (<em>kenosis<\/em>)\nof Contemplation 101, but such self-emptying does not yet feel\nmuch like \u201cprayer\u201d to the average person, which is probably why many give up\ntoo soon and frankly never truly meet otherness\u2014much less the Other.\nThey just keep meeting themselves over and over\nagain. Only at a deeper level of contemplation do we begin\nto see the correlation between how we do anything and\nhow we do everything else. We take the moment in front\nof us much more seriously and\nrespectfully. We catch ourselves out of the corner of our\neye, as it were, and our ego games are exposed and diminished. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such knowing does not contradict\nthe rational, but it\u2019s much more holistic and inclusive. It might be\ncalled trans-rational although many think it is pre-rational. It goes\nwhere the rational mind cannot go, but then comes back to honor the\nrational, too. In our Living School, we call this \u201ccontemplative\nepistemology\u201d\u2014a contemplative theory of how we know what we\nknow. <em>Contemplation is\nreally the change that changes everything\u2014especially, first of all, the\nseer.<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Knowing and Not Knowing Soul Knowledge Tuesday, January 28, 2020 When Western civilization set out on its many paths of winning, accomplishment, and conquest, the contemplative mind seemed uninteresting and even counterproductive to our egoic purposes. The contemplative mind got in the way of definable goals for progress, science, and development, which were very good and necessary in their own way\u2014but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18564"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18565,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18564\/revisions\/18565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p>When Western civilization set out on its many paths of\nwinning, accomplishment, and conquest, the contemplative mind seemed\nuninteresting and even counterproductive to our egoic purposes. The\ncontemplative mind got in the way of definable goals for progress,\nscience, and development, which were very good and necessary in their own way\u2014<em>but not for soul knowledge.<\/em>\nWe lost almost any notion of paradox, mystery, or the wisdom\nof unsayability\u2014which are the open-ended qualities that make biblical\nfaith so dynamic, creative, and nonviolent. Instead, we insisted on\n\u201cknowing,\u201d and even <em>certain<\/em> knowing all\nthe time and every step of the way! This is no longer the enlightening path of\nAbraham, Moses, Mary, or Jesus but a rather late and utterly\ninadequate form of religion, which is probably why so\nmany individuals, especially in the West, now say they are\n\u201cspiritual but not religious.\u201d I cannot fault them for that,\nthough it sounds like the dualistic mind speaking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We must remember\nthat Christianity in its maturity is supremely <em>love-centered<\/em>, not information- or\nknowledge-centered. The primacy of love allows our knowing to be much humbler\nand more patient and helps us to recognize that other traditions\u2014and other people\u2014have\nmuch to teach us, and there is also much we can share with them. This stance of\nhonest self-knowledge and deeper interiority, with the head\n(Scripture), the heart (Experience), and the body\n(Tradition) operating as one, is helping many to be more integrated and\ntruthful about their own actual experience of God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Contemplation\nallows us to see things in their wholeness and thus with respect <em>(re-spect<\/em> means to see a\nsecond time). <em>Until\nRichard recognizes and somehow compensates for his prejudicial way of seeing\nthe moment, all Richard will tend to see is his own emotional life and agenda\nin every new situation.<\/em> This is the\nessential letting-go lesson (<em>kenosis<\/em>)\nof Contemplation 101, but such self-emptying does not yet feel\nmuch like \u201cprayer\u201d to the average person, which is probably why many give up\ntoo soon and frankly never truly meet otherness\u2014much less the Other.\nThey just keep meeting themselves over and over\nagain. Only at a deeper level of contemplation do we begin\nto see the correlation between how we do anything and\nhow we do everything else. We take the moment in front\nof us much more seriously and\nrespectfully. We catch ourselves out of the corner of our\neye, as it were, and our ego games are exposed and diminished. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Such knowing does not contradict\nthe rational, but it\u2019s much more holistic and inclusive. It might be\ncalled trans-rational although many think it is pre-rational. It goes\nwhere the rational mind cannot go, but then comes back to honor the\nrational, too. In our Living School, we call this \u201ccontemplative\nepistemology\u201d\u2014a contemplative theory of how we know what we\nknow. <em>Contemplation is\nreally the change that changes everything\u2014especially, first of all, the\nseer.<\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Knowing and Not Knowing Soul Knowledge Tuesday, January 28, 2020 When Western civilization set out on its many paths of winning, accomplishment, and conquest, the contemplative mind seemed uninteresting and even counterproductive to our egoic purposes. The contemplative mind got in the way of definable goals for progress, science, and development, which were very good and necessary in their own way\u2014but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18564"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18565,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18564\/revisions\/18565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}