Tags
Christianity, Cynthia Bourgeault, difficulty, Joko Beck, life, meaning of life, Meg Wheatley, patience, perseverance, spiritual practice, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, vow, wisdom, Wisdom School
Last evening we sat, a group of 12 seekers, to begin what is the last in a series of events that have taken place over the last six years in different places in the Northeast United States. We call them “Wisdom Schools.” Drawn first by the work of our teacher Cynthia Bourgeault to delve into the Wisdom Tradition of Christianity, we have joined an ever-growing network of people who choose spiritual practice as a discipline for deepening our living. Explaining how that happens, we admit, is something difficult to do and generally only seen in retrospect. We will spend the next three days “swimming in that sea” and hope to go home ready to meet the challenges of our everyday lives with more determination and willingness because of having been together.
As I sat down and opened my computer this morning, I opened as well Meg Wheatley’s small but powerful book, Perseverance, and read the following paragraph that gave a hint of what I might be trying to say. It is, at least, all I need for now as I go to prayer.
Human life should be like a vow, dedicated to uncovering the meaning of life. The meaning of life is in fact not complicated, yet it is veiled from us by the way we see our difficulties. It takes the most patient practice to begin to see through that, to discover that the sharp rocks are truly jewels. (Joko Beck, Zen teacher)
