{"id":19229,"date":"2020-08-24T09:34:48","date_gmt":"2020-08-24T13:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19229"},"modified":"2020-08-24T10:00:12","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T14:00:12","slug":"the-ability-to-hold-paradox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19229","title":{"rendered":"The Ability to Hold Paradox"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.cmail20.com\/ei\/d\/1B\/EDF\/011\/043831\/csfinal\/2020-08-23-CM-header-9900000000079e3c.jpg\" alt=\"Image credit: Garden of Wish Fulfilment (detail), Arshile Gorki, 1944, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon Portugal.\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Order, Disorder, Reorder:<br>\nPart Three<\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wB_H7LJsVcI\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p><strong>The\nAbility to Hold Paradox<\/strong><br>\nMonday, \u202fAugust 24, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Beyond\nrational and critical thinking, we need to be called again. This can lead to\nthe discovery of a \u201csecond na\u00efvet\u00e9,\u201d which is a return to the joy of our first\nna\u00efvet\u00e9, but now totally new, inclusive, and mature thinking.<\/em>&nbsp;\u2014Paul Ric\u0153ur&nbsp;(1913\u20132005)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>People are so\nafraid of being considered pre-rational that they avoid and deny the very\npossibility of the transrational. Others substitute mere pre-rational emotions\nfor authentic religious experience, which is always transrational.<\/em>&nbsp;\u2014Ken Wilber<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These\ntwo epigraphs are not precise quotations; they\u2019re summaries drawn from my\nreflections on two great thinkers who more or less describe for me what\nhappened on my own spiritual and intellectual journey. I began as a very\nconservative pre-Vatican II Roman Catholic, living in 1940\u2019s and 1950\u2019s Kansas,\npious and law abiding, buffered and bounded by my parents\u2019 stable marriage and\nmany lovely liturgical traditions that sanctified my time and space. This was\nmy first wonderful simplicity or period of <em>Order<\/em>. I was a very happy child and young man, and all who\nknew me then would agree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet,\nI grew in my experience and was gradually educated in a much larger world of\nthe 1960s and 1970s, with degrees in philosophy and theology, and a broad\nliberal arts education given me by the Franciscans. That education was the\nsecond journey into rational complexity and critical thinking. I had to leave\nthe garden, just as Adam and Eve had to do (Genesis 3:23\u201324), even though my\nnew Scripture awareness made it obvious that Adam and Eve were probably not\nhistorical figures, but important archetypal symbols. Darn it! I was heady with\nknowledge and \u201cenlightenment\u201d and was surely not in Kansas anymore. I had\npassed, like Dorothy, \u201cover the rainbow.\u201d It is sad and disconcerting for a\nwhile outside the garden, and some lovely innocence dies in this time of <em>Disorder<\/em>. Many will not go there, precisely because it is a loss\nof seeming \u201cinnocence\u201d\u2014things learned at our \u201cMother\u2019s knee,\u201d as it were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As\ntime passed, I became simultaneously very traditional and very progressive, and\nI have probably continued to be so to this day. I found a much larger and even\nhappier garden (note the new garden described at the end of the Bible in\nRevelation 21!). I fully believe in Adam and Eve now, but on about ten more\nlevels. (<em>Literalism is\nusually the lowest and least level of meaning.<\/em>) I no longer fit in with\neither staunch liberals or strict conservatives. This was my first strong\nintroduction to paradox, and it honed my ability to hold two seemingly opposite\npositions at the same time. It took most of midlife to figure out what had\nhappened\u2014and how and why it <em>had<\/em>&nbsp;to happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This \u201cpilgrim\u2019s\nprogress\u201d was, for me, sequential, natural, and organic as the circles widened,\nand as I taught in more and more countries. While the solid ground of the\nperennial tradition [1] never really shifted; I found that the lens, the\ncriteria, the inner space, and the scope continued to expand. I was always\nbeing moved toward greater differentiation and larger viewpoints, and simultaneously\ntoward a greater inclusivity in my ideas, a deeper understanding of people, and\na more honest sense of justice. God always became bigger and led me to bigger\nplaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Order, Disorder, Reorder:<br> Part Three<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Reorder:\nThe Promised Land<\/strong><br>\nSunday, \u202fAugust 23, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our recent Daily Meditations have been focusing on what\nseems to me a universal pattern of spiritual transformation that takes us from <em>Order<\/em>, through <em>Disorder<\/em>, to <em>Reorder<\/em>. <em>Order<\/em>, by itself, normally wants\nto eliminate any disorder or diversity, creating a narrow and cognitive\nrigidity in both people and systems. <em>Disorder<\/em>, by itself, closes us off\nfrom any primal union, meaning, and eventually even sanity in both people and\nsystems. Our focus of this week is <em>Reorder<\/em>, or transformation of\npeople and systems, which happens when both are seen to work together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like\nmost other kinds of growth, this spiral probably happens over and over\nthroughout our lives, and reveals itself in the Bible:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Garden of Eden\n\u2014&gt; Fall \u2014&gt; Paradise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Walter\nBrueggemann teaches three kinds of Psalms: Psalms of Orientation \u2014&gt; Psalms\nof Disorientation \u2014&gt; Psalms of New Orientation. [1]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Christians call\nthe pattern Life \u2014&gt; Crucifixion \u2014&gt; Resurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many now speak\ngenerally of Construction \u2014&gt; Deconstruction \u2014&gt; Reconstruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\nare indeed \u201csaved\u201d by knowing and surrendering to this universal pattern of\nreality. Knowing the full pattern allows us to let go of the first order,\naccept the disorder, and, sometimes hardest of all\u2014to trust the new reorder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every\nreligion in its own way is talking about getting us to the reorder stage.\nVarious systems would call it \u201cenlightenment,\u201d \u201cparadise,\u201d \u201cnirvana,\u201d \u201cheaven,\u201d\n\u201csalvation,\u201d \u201cspringtime,\u201d or even \u201cresurrection.\u201d It is the life on the other\nside of death, the victory on the other side of failure, the joy on the other\nside of birthing pains. It is an insistence on going <em>through\u2014<\/em>not <em>under, over, or\naround.<\/em>&nbsp;There is no nonstop flight to reorder. To\narrive there, we must endure, learn from, and include the <em>Disorder<\/em>&nbsp;stage,\ntranscending the first na\u00efve <em>Order\u2014but also\nstill including it!<\/em>&nbsp;It amounts to the best of the conservative and\nthe best of the liberal positions. People who have reached this stage, like the\nJewish prophets, might be called \u201cradical traditionalists.\u201d They love their\ntruth and their group enough to critique it; and they critique it enough to\nmaintain their own integrity and intelligence. These wise ones have stopped\noverreacting but also over defending. They are usually a minority of humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Based on years of spiritual direction, I have observed that conservatives must let go of their illusion that they can order and control the world through religion, money, war, or politics. True release of control to God will show itself as compassion and generosity, and less boundary keeping. Liberals, however, must surrender their skepticism of leadership, eldering, or authority, and find what is good, healthy, and deeply true about a foundational order. This will normally be experienced as a move toward humility and real community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"293\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Screen-Shot-2020-08-24-at-9.59.15-AM-500x293.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19232\" srcset=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Screen-Shot-2020-08-24-at-9.59.15-AM-500x293.png 500w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Screen-Shot-2020-08-24-at-9.59.15-AM-300x176.png 300w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Screen-Shot-2020-08-24-at-9.59.15-AM-768x450.png 768w, http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Screen-Shot-2020-08-24-at-9.59.15-AM.png 1968w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Order, Disorder, Reorder: Part Three The Ability to Hold Paradox Monday, \u202fAugust 24, 2020 Beyond rational and critical thinking, we need to be called again. This can lead to the discovery of a \u201csecond na\u00efvet\u00e9,\u201d which is a return to the joy of our first na\u00efvet\u00e9, but now totally new, inclusive, and mature thinking.&nbsp;\u2014Paul Ric\u0153ur&nbsp;(1913\u20132005) [&hellip;]<\/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\/19229"}],"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=19229"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19233,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19229\/revisions\/19233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}