ORDINARY LIFE - Thoughts and Ideas to Help You Live a Happier Life
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Summary for October 14, 2018
By Wayne Herbert
Dear Folks -
Bill and Sherry are back home in Houston after their vacation in the Balkans. Bill continues his sabbatical from Ordinary Life, and will return to us soon. Meanwhile, if you haven't already done so, you might want to take a look at Bill's Balkan Adventures blog. You can read it by clicking here.
Our guest speaker last Sunday was Michael Lerner, author, therapist, and co-founder of Commonweal, a California based center for health and healing, art and education, and environment and justice. His talk was titled -
KIND HEARTS, PEACEFUL MINDS, SKILLFUL HANDS
Living lives of service in the Anthropocene, or Human Centered Age
Michael drew on the teachings of Richard Rohr to discuss first the idea that a gospel that doesn't take into account the rights of human beings is simply an instrument of power.
Michael then turned to Rohr's teachings about the power of love and meditation and prayer as a way to connection with God. Michael also discussed Rohr's seven core teachings and how they relate to the ideas of love, justice, and human rights.
Michael concluded his talk with a discussion of the enneagram, Rohr's interpretations of the enneagram, and how the nine enneagram types are reflected in many spiritual teachings, including the Jewish mystical tradition of the Kabbalistic tree of life, the 7 deadly sins of Christianity (plus 2), and even with the lands Odysseus visits on his way home from Troy; they occur in the same order as the enneagram.
You can find the audio and video versions of Michael's below, as well as the Michael's presentation notes.
If you have not registered for the Michael Dowd event, I strongly encourage you to do so before all tickets are sold out. To register, click here.
Rob Landes will be in concert this coming Sunday, October 21, 2018, starting at 4 p.m. You really don't want to miss this performance. Rob has performed frequently at St. Paul's both as organist and pianist. This will be a benefit fund raiser for Michael Dowd's appearance in November. There is no charge for this benefit concert and all donations are gratefully received. For more information, click here.
In order to read or download the text of the talk, click here.
In order to listen to or download the audio version of the talk, click on the audio player below.
To watch the video of Michael Lerner’s presentation, click on the player below.