Hi All,
After missing our Monday night gathering, one member of our group asked me to send her the summary. Since I had not intended to write a summary, this request called upon a bit of reflection on my part, reflection which I very much appreciate. Wisdom Writers, being a dialoguing process, a process intended to develop the mind of essence, is of a different nature than other meetings we are familiar with. When we summarize such a gathering, it is more like sharing reflections on the “seeings” that came to the fore during the dialogue as well as those which continued to appear and unfold after the coming together. Back to thinking about the dance of the bees, the mind that is built during the dialogue is now available to those “participating in the dance” for going forward with our work. The next time we come together, we again develop the mind of essence which again enables our going forward with our work, taking up our roles from the mind of essence, the wisdom mind of intent. Unlike the bees, we do have the capacity to share the written word, even from generation to generation, the nature of reflection that we hope will begin to evoke the image that was present during the reflective dialogue. As I am writing this, I am realizing that the processing of this sharing will call for another “dance of the bees”; it may not be the original group that is participating in the reflective dialogue searching for seeing the whole, the life of the whole, but nonetheless, the imaging calls for dialogue if it is to continue to develop the mind of essence. The other way of working of such a “summary” is that it may serve to evoke in “the bees that have participated in the dance in the past,” a memory of the seeing which they can then again deepen and develop as they go forward with their particular work.
To focus our dialogue, we returned to the Path of Potential book, AT THIS TIME OF POTENTIAL, and particularly to the writing, “The Way of Love and Peace.” This writing being a reflection on the beatitudes (Mt5) from the life of the whole perspective, the perspective of our going forward on this earth, from the perspective of our being intended members of life with intended work and roles in eternalizing life on earth. Just as the honey bees, ants, etc., we are intended to become and be – through our ways of living and working – reciprocally nourishing with the whole of life, the life of the whole. The Father’s command is eternal life – on earth as in heaven. So with all of that as background, I will try to capture some of the images that came to the fore either at the Monday night gathering, or have continued to develop since we were together in dialogue. I will not try to place them in any particular order.
- The beatitudes are not a smorgasbord of choices of qualities to manifest, but an unfolding process… a lifetime process. The beatitudes reflect a whole process, a process of moving towards wholeness… a process which unfolds from being poor in spirit. Drawing a circle and placing the first beatitude at the one o’clock position, mapping the others clockwise around the circle, is of help to our imaging the flow of the process.
- Reflecting together on each of the beatitudes, beginning with “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” creates a rich imagery of the working of this unfolding process, seemingly unavailable to us should we try reflecting individually. We once again discovered that, from this perspective, being poor in spirit is an inner process. Each of the beatitudes reflects an inner process, the inner process essential as we go about our daily doings. For example, meekness is the inner process essential to inheriting earth, taking responsibility for the ongoingness of life – the whole of life – on this earth (Blessed are the meek, because they shall inherit the earth).
- As we processed through the beatitudes, imaging them as a process, we could see that the first four were all about preparing ourselves for the work, for our work, for our intended work, the work of our heart. The first three leading up to our seeing that we, each and all, have intended work and roles – work of our heart, called work – a seeing that evokes a hunger and thirst for righteousness… for seeing and manifesting virtue in and through our work, and for harmonizing with intended ways of working of life. Leading to a transformation in self… a turning of our hearts and minds, the nature of turning essential to our taking up the work … transformation – an entire change in how we view ourselves, our work, our place in the world, our purpose; and this change in heart and mind prepares us for the moving into community for realizing that which was actualized.
- With the fifth beatitude, we enter community… and interestingly the fifth calls for being merciful. Confronting the temptation to see those who have not realized the essentiality for change in heart and mind as somehow inferior to ourselves. Low and behold, we find this beatitude throws us right back to the first, calling upon our looking at ourselves once again. Are we really poor in spirit?
- The processing of these one by one, in a flow, creates images of their working that we see reflect an unfolding process of the way of love and peace, the way of living and working in community – the community of life – accomplishing the work intended in a way that is soul building and spirit manifesting.
- We began to see that this is certainly not “one round through the beatitudes and we are finished.” Not like preparing and cooking a meal for the family and then cleaning the kitchen for the next round which will be like the last. No, this is more like spiraling upward in potential ongoing transformations. For, having experienced and lived from and through the process as a whole, one returns to “poor in spirit”, but now the self that must become poor in spirit is the ideological community (communities) to which we are attached. This is community work. This is the work of now (community is the smallest whole for that which is unfolding at this time). It is the ideological community that must become poor in spirit… a process that calls for our coming together in community in reflective dialogue (not problem solving). The ideological community processing through poor in spirit, mourning loss of the old ways to which we are attached, meekly realizing that we have work here on this earth that we (the community) are failing to take up and that call for the coming together of many communities; and that we are called to hunger and thirst for seeing the essence virtue of our community, that which is intended (perhaps not presently that which takes up our time and attention), and discover/realize our intended work and role as community within the whole of life on this earth. A realization which led, last Monday night, to our seeing where we – humanity – must go; and the change that is being called for in the hearts and minds of many if we are ever to get there… change which is not something that can be commanded, ordered, legalized, legislated. No, a choiceful change in heart and mind… a turning of hearts and minds for taking up all of our pursuits in ways that which work for all children in the world, and for bringing the world of our making into congruence with the world of intent.
- Monday evening we certainly experienced what is called building the mind of essence… the mind of essence being the seeing of the essence of the whole such that each can go out into the community and take up their heart’s work and role from such seeing, in harmony with such seeing. What a gift this is; a gift which gives us a whole new view of the experience of love and peace… not calm waters of an early morning on the bay!
I am certain that those of you who were at the Monday gathering would have much to add to what is written here. I must say, first of all, thank you for the request for the “summary” of Monday night’s gathering… and thank you so much for our ongoing dialogue, which is such a gift.
All for now, Sandra
Sandra Maslow Smith, Philosopher of Potential
