Dear Folks -

Since this talk is the last one I'll do in Ordinary Life until
August 5, I chose to spend the time talking about some of the
assumptions I've been working from in the series "Having a Religious
and Spiritual Fit." As usual I think the spoken version is better
(more complete) than the text here. One of the things I do in talking
about the matter of authority is to talk about how in the Protestant
version of Christianity it came to be that there was, and is, a
division between "liberals" and "conservatives." My suggestion is
that we let neither label define or confine us. The presentation ends
with my version of the stonecutter story.

I am on my way for a holiday in England and Turkey. A great line-
up of guest speakers is in store for the rest of July.

Much love,

Bill Kerley

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Dear Folks -

The title of my talk in the Ordinary Life Gathering this week was
"The Role of Tradition." The past two weeks I emphasized the
importance of the paths of "not knowing" and "not doing." There is,
however, the need for some tradition and for one to follow that
tradition with integrity. A story from Howard Thurman shows how
ritual is what provides the foundation for ecstasy. It is true that
religion can and has poisoned much throughout history. Illustrations
are given of this. However, faithfully giving oneself to a discipline
is what can transform us. We have to find this to be true for
ourselves and when we do we and others around us are transformed. I
used as an example of such transformation Paul Potts singing on
"Britain’s Got Talent." Thanks to the work of Richard Wingfield I was
able to show the video at the gathering. I am putting a link to this
amazing performance at the appropriate place in the text. It will
take you about four minutes to watch it and I urge you to do so.

Much love,

Bill Kerley

Download 20070624.pdf

Dear Folks -

Last week I talked about how a much needed, and yet much
neglected, path to walk in spiritual work is that of "not knowing."
There is an equally important path that is called by many spiritual
teachers the path of "not doing." That is what this week's talk in
Ordinary Life is about – "not doing." Focusing on "knowing" and
"doing" alone leads to inevitable divisiveness. I take the title of
this talk from a poem by Vaclav Havel -  Beginning To Be

Much love,

Bill Kerley

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Dear Folks -

The title I gave to this week's Ordinary Life talk is "Following
Conventional Wisdom Isn't Wise." We don't so much live in a sea of
conventional wisdom as much as it lives in us. We come to take the
conventional wisdom of our culture as "the truth" rather than just
seeing it as a cultural bias. This is one of the reasons all
spiritual teachers have referred to people who follow the way of
conventional wisdom as blind. Spiritual work is about seeing "what
is." Spiritual work is about having a profound perceptual shift. I
use the field of quantum physics to help us see that we don't see.

Much love,

Bill Kerley

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