Quote:
Chris Parkerson wrote:
Thank you for the kind words. Oddly enought, my sangha name is "Compassionate Heart of service" in my TNH practice. I also happen to be a Christian Theologian and would introduce you to the word (Irenics). Perhaps you already know it, but I love its sound. It is the opposite of polemics (focussing upon what we cannot agree on).
Christianity is full of beliefs.... to a fault. Indeed, in Harvey Cox's (Harvard Seminary Professor) 2009 book on "The Future of faith, he called the last 2,000 years an age of belief (rather than faith). It is there that I got the differences in definition.
For me, Rumi cuts to the quick. "Sell your Cleverness and buy Bewilderment" he says (Coleman barks translation). The more we surrender our hearts to eachother, the more we will find commonality. And even when we find ourselves stuck in "attachment" (must have this; cannot have that) we can make friends with it and watch it arise and go away without even judging our judgment. he he he.
Would we could do this with eachother as well.
Namaste and Puha
Chris
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Hi Chris,
Well, I am all in favour of an irenic movement in Aikido!
Irenic is a nice word.
Erasmus tried to reconcile protestants and catholics in a irenic way, did he not?
The first Dutch ship to arrive in Japan was named the "Liefde"; Love (referring to the letter to the Corinthians).
But before sailing to Japan this ship had another name, it used to be called "Erasmus".
A number of years ago they retrieved the sculpture of Erasmus that was on the back of the ship. It had been kept in a temple where people revered it as a statue of a kami.
It has been a long time since I read Rumi, will have to find another copy. I like the word bewilderment here. We do lose the capacity to be amazed because of this attachment to our own opinions. And with it we lose the capability of making friends. But when we get stuck in this attachment it is not always so easy to let it go. Even the zen way of watching it arise and go away takes practice.
Gassho,
Tom