Showing posts with label deepening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label deepening. Show all posts

2021/09/16

Whee! We, Wee All the Way Home: A Guide to Sensual Prophetic Spirituality (Meditation): Fox, Matthew: 9780939680009: Amazon.com: Books

Whee! We, Wee All the Way Home: A Guide to Sensual Prophetic Spirituality (Meditation): Fox, Matthew: 9780939680009: Amazon.com: Books



Whee! We, Wee All the Way Home: A Guide to Sensual Prophetic Spirituality (Meditation) Paperback – June 1, 1980
by Matthew Fox  (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars    5 ratings

This practical book leads us into a spirituality of passion that leads to compassion--coming to our senses in every meaning of the phrase.

Print length
264 pages
June 1, 1980


Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
SPIRITUALITY / PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION

Whee! We, Wee All the Way Home is a simple handbook which leads us out of a privately oriented mysticism into a deepening link with humankind
It is a universal handbook, reminding us that each one of us is a bearer of ecstasy and therefore of God. 
It is a valuable book which highlights the obstacles (or dragons) we may meet on our journey, and the means for dealing with such obstruction.

“Whee! is provocative, exciting and radical in both its scope and ideas. It is both socially relevant and psychologically sound.”
--Library Journal

“This is a pioneer book . . . a voyage replete with new ideas and seldom seen perspectives.”
--Thomas F. O'Meara
===

About the Author
Matthew Fox is a Dominican scholar, a popular speaker, and an innovative educator whom one commentator has called a "crusader and a smasher of chains." He is the past director of the Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality at Holy Names College, Oakland, California, and the author of Original Blessing, and Meditations with Meister Eckhart, and many other titles.
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Product details
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bear & Company; Original ed. edition (June 1, 1980)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 264 pages
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Matthew Fox

Biography

Matthew Fox is an internationally acclaimed spiritual theologian, Episcopal priest, and activist. He holds a doctorate, summa cum laude, in the History and Theology of Spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris and has devoted 45 years to developing and teaching the tradition of Creation Spirituality, which is rooted in ancient Judeo-Christian teaching, inclusive of today’s science and world spiritual traditions; welcoming of the arts and artists; wisdom centered, prophetic, and committed to eco-justice, social justice and gender justice.
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Customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars

Top reviews from the United States
5.0 out of 5 stars Whee We Wee

Steven H Propp
TOP 100 REVIEWER
5.0 out of 5 stars AN EARLY BOOK FROM THE EXPOUNDER OF CREATION SPIRITUALITY
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2010

Matthew Fox (born 1940) is a theologian and bestselling advocate of "Creation Spirituality." He became a Catholic priest of the Dominican order, but was removed in 1992, and has subsequently become an Episcopalian priest. He has published an autobiography,  Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest .

He begins the Preface to this 1976 book (republished in 1981) by stating,

"This is a practical book about waking up and returning to a biblical, justice-oriented spirituality. Such a spirituality is a way of passion that leads to compassion. Such a way is necessarily one of coming to our senses in every meaning of that phrase."

He justifies his use of the term "sensuous spirituality" by saying, 

"I feel sorry for these fearful people who have apparently never enjoyed the sensuousness ... of a home-grown tomato or a ripe peach. Have they never wallowed in the delight of a baby's smell, squeals, or a puppy's cuddling? Of the smell of a horse's sweat or a lilac's perfume? Shame on such people?" 

Somewhat surprisingly, he rejects the approach of Teilhard de Chardin "because he is chauvinistic, dualistic and ultimately afraid of the sensual; because he is unaware of political evil; and because he ignores Jesus for the Christ."

Here are some representative quotations:

"A spirituality is a way---a way of living in depth."
"Is bisexuality of God not what spiritual leaders like Buddha and Jesus and Francis have preached?"
"Because gays are so often excluded from society's institutions (like women are), we can hopefully depend on them to offer alternative institutions---ones that are more sensual, more alive and quickening than those we have inherited."
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3 people found this helpful
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Carl McColman
VINE VOICE
5.0 out of 5 stars The Role of Ecstasy in the Spiritual Life
Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2001

One of Matthew Fox's earliest books, this title explores the importance of ecstasy in the spiritual life. 

Fox considers the distinction between "natural" ecstasies (like sex) and "tactical" ecstasies (like meditation)

he goes on to consider that a truly authentic mysticism must be sensuous in its orientation, so to cultivate the maximum amount of ecstasy for the maximum amount of people. 

From there he spins out to consider how we need a communal mysticism -
- in his words: "We shall become ecstatic together or else we'll become extinct together." 

Few spiritual authors are so honest about the importance of ecstasy/sensuality in life--or in mysticism. 
Years ahead of its time when first published in 1976, this book is still bold and relevant today. 
Perfect for anyone who thinks mysticism needs to get out of the head and into the body.

18 people found this helpful
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MKC FLEMING
5.0 out of 5 stars A Life Changer!
Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2011
In 1976 I read this book and it changed my theological focus dramatically. 
I moved from the concept of "Original Sin" to that of "Original Blessing" and so brought a much more positive dynamic to my ministry. 
I also learned of how believers become Euchrist, thereby moving from the constraints of the cultic priesthood. Matthew Fox changed my life and continues to do so. It all began with this book.

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2021/09/06

Buddhist Christianity from Christian Alternative Books

Buddhist Christianity 




Buddhist Christianity

A wide-ranging, searching and partly autobiographical argument that it is reasonable and beneficial to combine definitely Christian and Buddhist commitments.
Synopsis | Reviews (7)
Paperback £14.99 || $24.95

Aug 27, 2010
e-book £6.99 || $9.99


978-1-78099-085-9
Buy e-book
Ross Thompson

Synopsis


It is possible to be a Christian Buddhist in the context of a universal belief that sits fairly lightly on both traditions. Ross Thompson takes especially seriously the aspects of each faith that seem incompatible with the other, no God and no soul in Buddhism, for example, and the need for grace and the historical atonement on the cross in Christianity. Buddhist Christianity can be no bland blend of the tamer aspects of both faiths, but must result from a wrestling of the seeming incompatibles, allowing each faith to shake the other to its very foundations. The author traces his personal journey through which his need for both faiths became painfully apparent. He explores the Buddha and Jesus through their teachings and the varied communities that flow from them, investigating their different understandings of suffering and wrong, self and liberation, meditation and prayer, cosmology and God or not? He concludes with a bold commitment to both faiths.
==

Cynthia Nichols
5.0 out of 5 stars Clear, potent, terrific writing
Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2013
Verified Purchase
For anyone who finds vital meaning in both Christianity and Buddhism, anyone interested in intelligent ways to reconcile their differences while foregrounding their real affinities, this is a great read. Not for fundamentalists--Thompson's understanding of Christianity is more from the mystical and nonliteral traditions.
5 people found this helpful
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warlock
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2018
Verified Purchase
this book got me back on my first path--bhuddism
One person found this helpful
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Hayo B.E.D. Krombach
1.0 out of 5 stars Title and content are different and do not match.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 18, 2020
Verified Purchase
I received a book today with the title 'Buddhist Christianity: A Passionate Openness', by Ross Thompson. This title I had ordered. However, inside the cover is another book with the title 'Cromwell was Framed: Ireland 1649'. It is a different book, which I hadn't ordered from you.

Please provide me with a new book where the text matches the title: Buddhist Christianity.... I request this new item without incurring further costs or having to return the useless one I got today.

I am sure there are more of these misprinted copies.

I hope Amazon can agree to this.

Best,

Hayo B.E.D. Krombach
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Ray
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting perspective
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 3, 2013
Verified Purchase
This is a very interesting book, especially being written by a CofE clergyman. It is such a complex subject, that it is always good to have perceptions challenged, and to look at the issues from a different viewpoint, so I found it very valuable, even if I did find that there are a number of non sequiturs in parts of the book. It is also very readable, so I would recommend it to anyone who is even mildly interested in the subject
3 people found this helpful
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Ray V
3.0 out of 5 stars Informative and Thought-provoking
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 7, 2012
Verified Purchase
This is a personal account of the author's spiritual pilgrimage. I liked his thoughts about the basic identity of the spiritual heart of both faiths. I found parts of it tedious, mainly because I am not very interested in deep philosophical theology either of the Buddhist or of the Christian variety. However, I found myself warming to the more emotional and instinctive parts, and also learning a bit more about Buddhism.
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==

Double belonging: Buddhism and Christian faith

(NCR photo/Teresa Malcolm

Paul F. Knitter, author of Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian, is Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He is a leading advocate of globally responsible interreligious dialogue and author of more than 10 books on the subject. In this, his newest book, he writes very personally, sharing his struggles with his Christian faith while relating how his study of Buddhism -- and his own Zen practice -- has helped him through this struggle.

NCR readers familiar with Buddhism or other Eastern practices and religions will find this book both refreshing and rewarding. It is unusual for a Catholic theologian to write as personally as Knitter has done in this book. I spoke with him recently about his Catholic faith and the Buddhist thought and practice that have entered into his thinking and life as he has worked in the field of interreligious dialogue.

Fox: Do you consider yourself to be a Christian?

Knitter: Oh, I definitely do. I was born a Catholic in Chicago, grew up and entered the seminary. I consider myself to be a Christian, especially in its Roman Catholic form.

Would you say that you’re a Buddhist Catholic or a Catholic Buddhist?

Definitely the noun is Catholic or Christian; the adjective is Buddhist. My primary identity is Christian.

As a Catholic theologian, what is your relationship officially with the church?

I think I’m a pretty reputable member of the Catholic Theological Society of America. I’m a practicing Catholic. My relationship with the church is, as far as I can judge, good.

To be straightforward and honest, I have received some general admonitions from Pope Benedict when he was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. In a book on dealing with other religions, he mentioned me as one of the people who represent a tendency that could easily slip into relativism. I’m working in an area that is quite controversial, namely how Christianity can understand itself in the light of other religions.

In your book you speak of “double belonging.” Just what does that mean?

Double belonging is being talked about more and more now, both in the theological academy and in the area of Christian spirituality. I think it’s the term that is used when more and more people are finding that they can be genuinely nourished by more than one religious tradition, by more than their home tradition or their native tradition.

How widespread is double belonging?

I wouldn’t say it is for general consumption, but in areas of Europe and North America, I think that the number of people who are serious about practicing their faith are finding that some degree of double belonging is becoming more and more a part of their lives.

Why such a broad interest today in Buddhism among Christians?

There’s no one answer. In the book, I quote a friend of mine, Fr. Michael O’Halloran, who is formerly a Carthusian monk and now a priest here in the New York archdiocese. He is also a Zen teacher. Michael once told me that Christianity is long on content but short on method and technique. So I think Buddhism is providing Christians with practices, with techniques, by which they can enter more experientially into the content of what they believe.

What are the needs among Christian believers that you think Buddhism is addressing?

I hope I’m not generalizing here too much, but I think a lot of it has to do with the dissatisfaction that many of us Christians feel with a God who is all out there, a God who is totally other than I, the God who stands outside of me and confronts me. I think we’re searching for ways of realizing the mystery of the divine of God in a way in which it is more a part of our very selves.

I think Christians are searching more for a way of experiencing and understanding God in a unitive way, or what I say in the book is a “non-dual way,” where God becomes a reality that is certainly different than I am, but is part of my very being.

Buddhism does not affirm the existence of God. It has been described as an “atheistic” religion. How can it have significance for a theistic religion like Christianity?

We’ve got to be really careful with how we use the term “atheistic.” Clearly Buddhism does not affirm the existence of a personal God, but I think the better term would be “non-theistic” rather than “atheistic.” It’s not denying God, but if I may put it this way, the Buddha and so much of Buddhism is much more concerned with experiencing ultimate reality rather than defining and naming it.

When you ask a Buddha, “What is it that you are part of when you are enlightened, or when you experience nirvana?” one of the terms or images that are used is sunyata, which means emptiness. That’s not a very good translation but it’s the word they use to identify that ultimate reality is not an entity, a being, but rather it is what they call the interconnectedness of everything. Or as the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh uses the term for ultimate reality, “interbeing.”

Buddhism has helped me to rediscover, to deepen what it means when, in the New Testament -- maybe it’s the only definition of God that we find in the New Testament -- when it says that “God is love.”

I think what Buddhism means by “interbeing” helps me appropriate what in our Christian terminology we mean when we say divine reality is love, and then that sets the stage for me -- and I think for many Christians -- for reappropriating one of our central symbols for God, spirit.

So for me now when I say the word God, what I image, what I feel, thanks to Buddhism, is the interconnecting spirit -- this ever-present spirit, this ever-present, interconnecting energy that is not a person, but is very personal, that this is the mystery that surrounds me, that contains me, and which I am in contact with in the Eucharist, in liturgies, and especially in meditation.

Buddha was enlightened; Jesus was divine. That’s a big difference, isn’t it?

Yes. It’s a big difference. When one looks at, first of all, the language that we Christians use to talk about the mystery of Jesus the Christ, perhaps the two primary words that we use -- or doctrines that we attest to -- are Jesus is Son of God and Jesus is Savior. Now those two terms, Son of God, Savior, are beliefs. These expressions are our attempt to put into words what is the mystery of God.

All of our words are our efforts to try to say in words what can never be fully said in words. In other words, we’re using symbols, we’re using metaphors, we’re using analogies. This goes straight back to St. Thomas Aquinas and to my teacher, Karl Rahner. All of our language is symbolic.

So when the Catholics say that Jesus came to save us, we are not saying just that?

We’re saying something that is very true, something that tries to express what we have experienced, but we can never capture the full reality of it in those words. Again, to use the Buddhist image that is often used, our words are like fingers pointing to the moon -- not the moon itself. Words can never be fully identified with the reality that they are indicating.

You write that Catholics need an eighth sacrament. Explain that.

This has been perhaps one of the key elements that I and many others have learned from Buddhism: the importance of silence. It is in some form of meditation we recognize that the mystery of God is something that cannot be appropriated simply by thought.

This fits into our Catholic sacramental theology. We say that every sacrament contains matter and form. So the matter in the sacrament of silence is our breath, being aware of our breath, being one with our breath, doing nothing else but breathing.

A number of times in the book, you quote Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese monk. You write, echoing Nhat Hanh, that in order to make peace, we have to be peace. Reversing Pope Paul VI’s statement, you state that if we want justice, we have to seek peace. Is that right?

My wife and I spent much of the ’80s and the ’90s working in El Salvador for peace during the war. So we have been activists throughout our lives -- peace activists, social activists. But when I look back at that activism I am aware of how so often our actions were filled with a certain verbal violence.

We had to resist, we had to confront the evil structures. And there are evil structures, but something was missing for me. What was missing was captured in an experience I had back in 1986 or ’87 when I did a Zen retreat with Roshi Bernie Glassman.

I said to him during this retreat that we were going down to El Salvador to try to do something to stop the terrible death squads. He said: “Right, you have to stop the death squads, but you also have to meditate because you will never stop the death squads until you realize your oneness with them.”

That is the experience that Buddhism calls us to, this deep, personal experience of our interconnectedness with all beings, even those whom we have to oppose as oppressors, as perpetrators of evil. We are one with them. This is what Thich Nhat Hanh means when he says that we have to be peace within ourselves. We have to overcome our egos and realize our connectedness with all beings.

You’ve written, “For Buddhists, selfishness is not so much sinful as it is stupid.” Explain.

This is an aspect, I think, that is especially appreciated, or needed, by many Christians. For Buddhism, and I would want to say for Catholicism as well, our fundamental nature is good. Our fundamental nature is the Buddha nature, namely we are part of the interconnected whole, called to be aware of it, and to act out of compassion.

But our problem is that we are not aware of this. Because we’re not aware of this, because we think we are separate individuals rather than part of the interconnected whole, we think we have to protect ourselves. We think we have to gain things in order to establish our identity and, therefore, we act selfishly. We’re acting selfishly, not because we are fallen, not because we are evil in our natures, but because we are ignorant.

You’ve written that in the future, Christians will be mystics or they will not be anything at all. What do you mean?

That is a loose quotation from my teacher, Karl Rahner. What he was getting at is this: There are so many challenges and so many difficulties that we face that unless our identities are based on our own personal experience of God, as part of them, of Christ, as their very being, they are not going to be able to find the strength and the stamina and the wisdom to hang in there.

You’ve written that Buddhism has helped you peer into the mystery beyond death. What about death and life afterwards?

That was perhaps, for me, the most helpful, but maybe the most controversial part of my book. Buddhism tells us that here in this life our true identity, our true happiness, is to move beyond our individuality. I think that resonates with the word, “Unless a grain of wheat genuinely falls into the ground and dies, it will not bear fruit.” Buddhism has led me to look more deeply into what that passage means or what Jesus means when he said, “You will not find yourself unless you lose yourself.”

This has brought me to recognize something that for me seems to be more satisfying, namely that the life that awaits me after I die is going to be an existence that is going to be beyond my individual existence as Paul Knitter. I will live on, but I will not live on probably as Paul Knitter. In other words, our life in the future life after death is a form of existence that is beyond individuality. That doesn’t mean we’re annihilated; that doesn’t mean we don’t exist, but we will exist in a totally transformed, trans-individual existence.

[Thomas C. Fox is NCR editor and can be reached at tfox@ncronline.org.]





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How the Buddha became a Christian saintJuly 13, 2020 5.58am AEST


Author
Philip C. Almond

Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland
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From the 11th century onwards, the Legend of Barlaam and Josaphat enjoyed a popularity in the medieval West attained perhaps by no other legend. It was available in over 60 versions in the main languages of Europe, the Christian East and Africa. It was most familiar to English leaders from its inclusion in William Caxton’s 1483 translation of the Golden Legend.

Little did European readers know that the story they loved of the life of Saint Josaphat was in fact that of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, the founder of Buddhism.
The ascetic life

According to the legend, there reigned in India a king called Abenner, immersed in the pleasures of the world. When the king had a son, Josaphat, an astrologer predicted he would forsake the world. To forestall this outcome, the king ordered a city to be built for his son from which were excluded poverty, disease, old age and death.

But Josaphat made journeys outside of the city where he encountered, on one occasion, a blind man and a horribly deformed one and, on another occasion, an old man weighed down by illness. He realised the impermanence of all things:

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No longer is there any sweetness in this transitory life now that I have seen these things […] Gradual and sudden death are in league together.

While experiencing this spiritual crisis, the sage Barlaam from Sri Lanka reached Josaphat and told him of the rejection of worldly pursuits and the acceptance of the Christian ideal of the ascetic life. Prince Josaphat was converted to Christianity and began to practise the ideal of the spiritual life of poverty, simplicity and devotion to God.
Scenes from the Story of Jehosophat from the Bible. Augsburg, G. Zainer, c.1475. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Paul J. Sachs

To forestall his quest, his father surrounded him with seductive maidens who “tantalised him with every kind of temptation with which they sought to arouse his appetites”.

Josaphat resisted them all.

After the death of his father, Josaphat remained determined to continue his ascetic life and abdicated the throne. He journeyed to Sri Lanka in search of Barlaam. After a quest lasting two years, Josaphat found Barlaam living in the mountains and joined him there in a life of asceticism until his death.
A great saint

Barlaam and Josaphat were included in the calendars of saints in both the Western and Eastern churches. By the 10th century, they were included in the calendars of the Eastern churches, and by the end of the 13th century in those of the Catholic church.
Saints Barlaam and Josaphat, Jacques Callot’s Calendar of Saints, c.17th century. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of William Gray from the collection of Francis Calley Gray, by exchange

In the book we know as The Travels of Marco Polo, published around the year 1300, Marco gave the West its first account of the life of the Buddha. He declared that — were the Buddha a Christian — “he would have been a great saint […] for the good life and pure which he led”.

Read more: Netflix ‘Chinese Game of Thrones’ charts the life of Marco Polo – so who was he?

In 1446, an astute editor of the Travels noticed the similarity. “This is like the life of Saint Iosaphat”, he declared.

It was, however, only in the 19th century the West became aware of Buddhism as a religion in its own right. As a result of editing and translating of the Buddhist scriptures (dating from the first century BCE) from the 1830s onwards, reliable information about the life of the founder of Buddhism began to grow in the West.The Sacred Bodhi Tree. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Chicago Society of Etchers

Then the West came to know the story of the young Indian prince, Gautama, whose father – fearful his son would forsake the world – kept him secluded in his palace. Like Josaphat, Gautama eventually encountered old age, disease and death. And, like Josaphat, he left the palace to live an ascetic life in quest of the meaning of suffering.

After many trials, Gautama sat beneath the Bodhi tree and finally attained enlightenment, thereby becoming a Buddha.

Only in 1869 did this new-found knowledge in the West about the life of the Buddha lead inescapably to the realisation that, in his guise as Saint Josaphat, the Buddha had been a saint in Christendom for some 900 years.
Intimate connections

How did the story of the Buddha become that of Josaphat? The process was long and complicated. Essentially, the story of the Buddha that began in India in the Sanskrit language travelled east to China, then west along the Silk Road where it was influenced by the asceticism of the religion of the Manichees.

It was then transposed into Arabic, Greek and Latin. From these Latin versions it would be translated into various European languages.

Years before the West knew anything about the Buddha, his life and the ascetic ideal which it symbolised were a positive force in the spiritual life of Christians.
Gautama Buddha seated on a lotus throne, c.1573-1612. © The Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA

The Legend of Barlaam and Josaphat demonstrates powerfully the intimate connections between Buddhism and Christianity in their commitment to the ascetic, meditative and mystical religious life.

Few Christian saints have a better claim to that title than the Buddha.

In an era where the Buddhist spirituality of “mindfulness” is very much on the Western agenda, we need to be mindful of the long and positive history of the influence of Buddhism on the West. Through the story of Barlaam and Josaphat, Buddhist spirituality has played a significant role in our Western heritage for the last one thousand years.

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===
CAN A CHRISTIAN BELIEVE IN NO-SELF?
ON BEING ENGLISH TEACHER FOR A ZEN MASTER

​Can a Christian be a Buddhist, Too?
Jay McDaniel


Many years ago, when I was in seminary, I had the unusual experience of living in two religious worlds simultaneously: one Christian and one Buddhist.

In the mornings I would take classes on Christianity under the guidance of gifted seminary professors, all of whom were preparing me to become a minister.  And then, in the afternoons, I would serve as the English teacher for a Zen Buddhist monk from Japan, who had recently completed his monastic training in Kyoto, having had the satori (enlightenment) experience with help from his Zen master.

For a young seminarian fresh out of college, my year as an English teacher for this Zen monk – now my good friend - was a very intense year.   I would leave morning classes thinking about the self's relation to God as understood in the Gospel of John, deeply steeped in the richness of a Christian path.  Then I would visit with a Zen monk in the afternoon, talking about Zen, and wondering if the self and God even existed.  He is pictured below.

One day in seminary illustrates the whole year.  I remember going to chapel in the morning, before class, and singing Amazing Grace along with my fellow seminarians.   I felt enveloped in God’s love.  That afternoon I then discussed with my Zen friend the meaning of the well-known koan "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"  He explained that there is no rational or formulaic answer, but that there is an "answer" and that it has to do with not having a self separated from the world.  He and I were always talking about the Buddhist idea of no-separate-self, or 
anatman.

I left our discussion wondering if Jesus had a self in the first place, and if God had one as well.  Maybe they, too, exemplifiedanatman.  Maybe they could hear the sound of one hand clapping because their selves, like that of a good Zen Buddhist, were empty of substance and completed by the world.  It seemed to me that the whole year was like this: trying to link the amazing grace of God’s love with the sound of one hand clapping.  

Of course this year did not emerge in a vacuum.  For me, it emerged as the outcome of a rather deep search, not simply for Christian identity, but for a living Christian faith.  I was myself surprised to find that Buddhism might help me find that faith.

I had first become interested in Buddhism during my senior year in college.   I was looking for an alternative to a form of fundamentalist Christianity into which I had briefly fallen; and I found that alternative in the writings of the late Catholic writer, Thomas Merton.   You will see photos of him on the right.  He was a monk living in a monastery in Gethsemane, Kentucky, who wrote voluminously on many topics, including war and peace, social justice, contemplative prayer, mysticism, and Buddhism.  Merton’s interest in Buddhism struck a chord in me because I, like he, was drawn to forms of spirituality that emphasize "letting go of words" and "being aware in the present moment."   Protestant Christianity often seemed too wordy to me.  Buddhism pointed to a world beyond words.

One reason I especially liked Merton was that he was sensitive to the fact that Christianity, too, points to a world beyond words.  It points to the world of other living beings who are to be loved on their own terms and for their own sakes, who cannot be reduced to the names we attach to them; and it also points to the world of divine silence as experienced in the depths of contemplative prayer.  Merton turned to Buddhism as a way of deepening his own understanding of the wordless, trans-theological dimensions of Christianity, and with his help I did the same. 

Under the influence of Merton's writings, then, I began to take courses in world religions during my first year in seminary, even as I also took course in biblical studies, the history of Christianity, and Christian theology.   At this stage, my interest in Buddhism was satisfied primarily through books and lectures in these courses.  Growing up in a middle-class Protestant setting in Texas, I had not really known a Buddhist, much less a Zen Buddhist, in a personal way.  I had known cowboys.

All this changed when I was asked by one of my professors to be the English teacher for the monk from Japan.  My professor was a professor of world religions named Margaret Dornish, and I was taking a course on Buddhism under her.   Her request, and my acceptance of it, changed my life.  The monk’s name was Keido Fukushima, and he was being sent to the United States by his master in Japan to learn English and to learn about America.   My assignment was to meet with him every day for one full year, teach him English, and also take him to numerous sites throughout southern California, from malls to monasteries.  Indeed, I myself was to be part of the experience for him.  In meeting me and getting to know how young people think, he would be meeting an "American."  I tried my best to be an “American” for him, but I am sure that I was, at best, a middle-class Texan.   I worried, along with Dr. Dornish, that I would be teaching Keido Fukushima to speak English with a Texas accent.

I quickly learned that my student, whom I was told to call Gensho, had already had seven years of English as a student in Japan.   I later learned that Gensho means young monk and that I was calling him "young monk" the whole time.  This was odd, because he was ten years my senior, but it never seemed to bother him.   In any case, he was being sent to the United States, not to learn English, but rather to brush up on English, so that he could return to Japan and field questions from Americans about Zen.  Given his facility with the language, our agreement was that I would teach him English by having him explain Zen to me.  Thus, we spent hours upon hours talking about Zen and Buddhism. 

As soon as we began talking about Zen, he explained to me that the best way to understand Zen is to undertake a daily practice of Zen meditation, or zazen.  Under his guidance I did take up that practice, and I have been doing it ever sense.   It introduced me to that world beyond words -- the world of pure listening -- that had led me to be interested in Zen in the first place.  Twenty years of Zen meditation is at least part of the experience that I bring to this website.  The other part is twenty years of teaching Buddhism and Asian religions to college undergraduates.

But Gensho's explanations of Zen did not stop with discussions or with zazen.   The wisest teachings he gave me in those days were the gleam in his eye, his ever-present sense of humor, and his kindness.  These activities were for me then, and are for me now, living Zen.  Dead Zen is what you get in books, and perhaps even books like this.  Living Zen is what you get when you are face to face with a Zen person or, still more deeply, with life itself.  As Gensho would often say, the ultimate koan is not the question: "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"   It is life itself.  It is how you respond to what presents itself: the birth of children, the death of loved ones, the caress of your beloved, the beauty of sunsets, the murder of innocents, the laughter of friends, the hunger of the child.    When you respond with wisdom and compassion in the immediacy of the moment, you have become living Zen.  Your life is your sermon.  You are like the dog and cat in the photo: present in the present moment, true to your Buddha-nature in all its particularity.

With his help, then, I came to realize that Zen is not about arriving at another place called nirvana, but rather about arriving at the place where we start -- namely the present moment -- and living freely in the here-and-now of daily life.  Zen is among the most down to earth and concrete religions I know.  It is very bodily and practical.  For this reason I think Zen can enrich the incarnational emphasis of Christianity, which likewise finds the infinite in the finite, the sacred in the ordinary, the word in the enfleshedness of daily life.   Living Zen can help Christians enter more deeply into that form of living to which we aspire: life in Christ.

As I was spending my afternoons and many an evening with Gensho, my more conservative friends in seminary worried a little about me.  They knew that Zen Buddhists do not often speak of God and that faith in God is not part of the Zen world.   And they worried that I myself was falling into a dual religious identity.  One of them called it "double religious belonging."

I was not comfortable with this phrase.  Even as I felt like I was experiencing two different worlds each day, I did not feel that I belonged to two countries and had two passports.  Rather I felt like one person who was receiving nourishment from two intravenous tubes: one the dharma of Buddhism and the other the wisdom of Christ.   I borrow this metaphor from a wonderful Zen teacher in the United States, Susan Jion Postal.  Intuitively I knew the two medicines were compatible, but I was trying to figure out how they were compatible with my mind.  Moreover, I knew that if I had to choose one medicine over another, I would choose Christ.  I was not all Buddhist and all Christian, or half Buddhist and half Christian, but rather a Christian influenced by Buddhism.  Fortunately, the two fluids did indeed feel compatible and mutually enriching, so I wasn't forced to choose.  Each had a healing quality that could add to the other.

What, then, was the healing quality of Christianity?   Of course it has a lot to do with God and with the healing power of faith in God.  Part of this healing quality can be described if I go into greater detail about the chapel service in seminary, when we sangAmazing Grace.   When I sang along with the others, I felt that there was indeed a grace at hand, both in the lyrics and the melody and in the people singing it.   We were somehow together in a communion of love, even as we were different persons.  I sensed that there is a mysterious and encircling presence -- a sky-like mind -- in which we live and breathe and have our being, and that this mind is amazingly graceful.  We can live from this grace and even add to it.

For my part, I felt this grace most vividly, not in ideas learned from books, but in the gifts of personal relationships, in the beauty of the natural world, in the depths of dreams, in hopes for peace, in the silence of the soul, in the eyes of animals, in the mysteries of music, and in acts of lovingkindness.  There is something beautiful in our world, even amid its tragedies.  For me, this beauty is God.  God is the lure toward beauty in the universe, plus more.  And God is in the beauty, too.  The beauty of the world is God's body.

Admittedly, even in seminary, I did not always envision God as a male deity residing off the planet.  Neither did my professors, especially those who were process theologians.  With their help I arrived at a way of thinking about God that has made sense to me ever since.  They helped me see that the universe is not outside God, like a servant seated far beneath a throne on which sits a king; but rather inside God, like developing embryos are inside a womb, or schools of fish are inside an ocean, or clouds are inside the sky. 

My professors called this perspective pan-en-theism: a phrase which was coined in the nineteenth century, and which literally means that everything-is-in-God even as God is more than everything.  It seemed to me then and seems to me now that pan-en-theism is closer to the truth of amazing grace.   Grace is not something we approach from afar, like a throne on which sits a king, but rather something that is "always already here" as pure gift.  Just as the ocean is "always already here" for a fish swimming in it, so grace is "always already here" for human beings.  Our task, as humans, is to awaken to what is always already here.

I have said that from a pan-en-theistic perspective God is more than everything added together.   This is certainly the case for process theologians.  Just as an ocean is more than all the fish swimming in it, so God is more than our experience of God.  Imagine a fish swimming off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico in North America, and imagining that he knew everything about the ocean, including what it is like off the coast of New Zealand and South Africa and the Arctic.  This fish would be equating its own experience of God with the whole of God. 

Unfortunately, this is what I did during my senior year in college when I was a fundamentalist.  I was pretty sure that I knew the whole of God and that others who disagreed with me were wrong.   And this is why I am so glad to have discovered Thomas Merton, who helped me realize that the divine ocean is always more than our experience of it and we can lie back gently into its waters.   From Merton I learned about God the more-ness, and about how silent listening was profound way to be connected with this God.

Oftentimes in seminary before I went to sleep at night, I would pray to the divine more-ness.   Not only the contemplative prayer that Thomas Merton describe, but also the more traditional prayer of address that is at the heart of so much lived religion.   I would open my heart to the divine ocean and say “Please be with them O Lord” or "I am so sorry, God" or "Thank you, it is so beautiful" or "May all beings be happy."    Indeed, in times of sadness, I would also pray the harder prayers, the lamentations and protests, such as "Why did you let this happen?" and "Where are you, anyway?" and "Why have you forsaken me?"  These were for me a kind of primal speech of the heart, more like poetry than prose.   They were reaching out into the vastness of a mystery beyond my imagination, yet present even in its absence.

At first I felt a little guilty about these harder prayers.  I knew that you find this kind of praying in the Bible quite often, in the Psalms for example, but for some reason I thought I was supposed to be nicer to God than the biblical authors.  Thankfully, my professors explained that all these ways of praying are authentic if they come from the heart, because the divine ocean is big enough and powerful enough to receive and absorb all doubts, pains, sufferings and even all sins. 

How did they know this?  Most of them appealed to experience and also to Jesus.  In the minds of most of my teachers, Jesus was not a supernatural figure who descended to the earth from above, but rather a man among men whose opened heart revealed a special aspect of God: namely God's open-hearted reception of the world into the divine life, with a tender care that nothing be lost.  If we imagine God as an ocean, they said, then let us imagine Jesus as a fish among fish, whose opened heart reveals the Empathy and Eros of ocean itself.  Jesus was, as it were, a window to the divine.  I liked to think of Jesus as one of those fish with especially shining eyes.   You would look into his eyes and see the ocean.  Its name was not power or control or fear.  Its name was compassion.   You could feel this ocean every time you listened to other fish and cared for them.  You could feel it when you had compassion for yourself, too.  It was a very wide ocean, without boundaries, and somehow people saw it in the eyes of Jesus.   Not his alone, of course, but also in the eyes of others.

Of course not all eyes reveal compassion.  Some are all about power and control.  People with power-hungry eyes have somehow lost sight of their capacities for vulnerable love.  Their victims need our special love and care, and our hope that somehow the journey of live continues afterwards, so that their hearts find peace.  And those with power-hungry eyes need our love, too.  This is a teaching of Buddha and Jesus.  We must not draw boundaries around love.

I think that the ocean of compassion is also an ocean of listening.  It is affected by everything that happens all the time: omni-vulnerable, like a man on a cross.  I had a few friends in seminary, and I have many friends now, who do not believe in prayer.  Some of my friends in the college where I teach don't believe there is a divine ocean in the first place.  They believe that the great receptacle in which the universe unfolds is an empty space rather than an amazing grace, more like a vacuum than an opened heart.  And, of course, they may be right.  When it comes to the mystery within which we all swim like fish in the sea, we all see through a glass darkly.   No one can grasp the ocean, not even Christians.

Additionally, I have more religious friends who do indeed believe in a divine mystery of sorts, but who do not believe it receives prayers.  They see the mystery more like an energy or force which can act upon things, but which cannot be acted upon.  It has the power to give, but not to receive.  Our task, they say, is to do the will of God, they say, cognizant that God does not need us in any way.  For these friends, God is more like the male deity residing off the planet than an ocean of compassion.  He stands above the earth, watching from time to time, and intervening from time to time, but he would do just fine if the earth and the whole universe ceased to exist.

For my part, I have no objection to other people imagining God as a male deity residing off the planet.   I think we need many different images of God in our imaginations, and that this image is one among many that can help us.   I have met people whose lives have been empowered to deal with great suffering, with great courage, through this image of God.  But I do indeed have a problem with people who imagine this male deity as having the power to give but not to receive; the power to issue commands but not to empathize; the power to act in the world, but not to be acted upon by the world.   When God is imagined in this way, we have, as the philosopher Whitehead once put it, rendered unto God that which belongs to Caesar.   

I'm with Whitehead.  A God who lacks the power to receive, who doesn't need the world in any way, is too monarchical.  He is a lot like Caesar but not much like Christ.   When I say "God" in this column I mean the Christ-like God as opposed to the Caesar-like God.   I mean the God who is present to each living being on our planet and throughout the universe with a tender care that nothing be lost.   I mean the God who is filled by the universe, just as an embryo fills a womb, or stars fill a dark and starlit sky, or fish fill the sea.  I mean the God whose face is compassion not power, whose body is the world itself.  I mean the God who is an ocean.  The God whom Christians see revealed, but not exhausted, in the healing ministry of Jesus.

Faith in God is trust in the availability of fresh possibilities.  And life in God lies in being present to each situation in a kindly way, open to surprise, honest about suffering, and seeking wisdom for daily life.   I saw this kind of faith in "Gensho."  He did not have an image of God in whom he placed that faith.  When God becomes an ocean, we must sit loose with images, too, lest we make idols of them.  Still we can have faith in something more, maybe even someone more: someone who listens and seeks our well-being.   This is a faith to which I am drawn, moment by moment, as I try to walk with Christ, with help from Zen.

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see also:


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A Look at Christianity, Through a Buddhist Lens

By Peter Steinfels
Oct. 9, 2009

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/us/10beliefs.html

Five decades ago, Paul F. Knitter, then a novice studying to become a Roman Catholic priest, would be in the seminary chapel at 5:30 every morning, trying to stay awake and spend time in meditation before Mass.

Last Wednesday, at the same hour, he was sitting on his Zen cushion meditating in the Claremont Avenue apartment he occupies as the Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture at Union Theological Seminary in New York.

A few hours later he was talking about his pointedly titled new book, “Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian” (Oneworld). The book is the outcome of decades of encounters with Buddhism — and of struggles with his own faith.

Born in 1939, Mr. Knitter began his path to the Catholic priesthood at age 13, studied theology in Rome during the years of the Second Vatican Council, was ordained in 1966, completed a doctorate in Germany and began a long and influential career as a scholar addressing questions of the relationship between Christianity and other world religions.


He received permission to leave the priesthood in 1975, taught for many years at Xavier University in Cincinnati and after his retirement was invited to Union Theological.

“Am I still a Christian?” he asks in his new book. It is a question posed over the years by others, including some unhappy officials in the Vatican. But the question, he writes, is also “one I have felt in my own mind and heart.”

“Has my dialogue with Buddhism made me a Buddhist Christian?” he writes. “Or a Christian Buddhist? Am I a Christian who has understood his own identity more deeply with the help of Buddhism? Or have I become a Buddhist who still retains a stock of Christian leftovers.”

The struggles Mr. Knitter is writing about are not the familiar ones about sexual ethics, the role of women or the failures of church leaders.

His focus here is on what he calls “the big stuff”: What does it really mean for Christians to profess belief in an almighty “God the Father” personally active in the world, or in Jesus, “his only-begotten Son” who saved humanity through his death and bodily resurrection, or in eternal life, heaven and hell?

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However much he tried, Mr. Knitter found that certain longstanding Christian formulations of faith “just didn’t make sense”: God as a person separate from creation and intervening in it as an external agent; individualized life after death for all and eternal punishment for some; Jesus as God’s “only Son” and the only savior of humankind; prayers that ask God to favor some people over others.

Mr. Knitter’s response, based on his long interaction with Buddhist teachers, was to “pass over” to Buddhism’s approach to each of these problems and then “pass back” to Christian tradition to see if he could retrieve or re-imagine aspects of it with this “Buddhist flashlight.”

He was not asserting, as some people have, that religions like Christianity and Buddhism are merely superficially different expressions of one underlying faith.

On the contrary, he insists they differ profoundly. Yet “Buddhism has helped me take another and deeper look at what I believe as a Christian,” he writes. “Many of the words that I had repeated or read throughout my life started to glow with new meaning.”

Those new meanings will unsettle many Christians, as Mr. Knitter recognizes, even as they address difficulties felt by many others. This will vary, of course, from issue to issue. Mr. Knitter’s translation of Buddhist meditation into a call for a Christian “sacrament of silence” may be readily welcomed. His search for a “non-dualistic” understanding of God and the world may be only leading him through Buddhism back to Thomas Aquinas.

“Perhaps I could have come onto these insights without Buddhism,” he said Wednesday. Yet even in those cases he often expresses these insights in language that will be debated, like God as “InterBeing” or “Connecting Spirit.”

When his comparison between “Jesus the Christ and Gautama the Buddha” leads him to conclude that both are “unique” saviors but not sole or final ones, he is treading, as he well knows, in a theological minefield.

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One can predict that this book will receive instant condemnation from people who feel their duty is to protect Christian doctrine from wandering off course.

One can also predict that those condemnations will, in turn, make others hesitant to voice more nuanced, thoughtful criticism out of fear of piling on.

Mr. Knitter and his book deserve better. It is easy to draw up a list of substantial criticisms. For one thing, Mr. Knitter’s Christianity comes laden with all the impurities of popular piety and workaday theology while his Buddhism seems to be that of the best and the brightest.

Some readers may detect the reflex of the lifelong recovering cleric in his recoiling from whatever might appear to be patriarchal or excluding. And most important are questions about the nature and use of religious language for pointing to a mystery that can never be captured in human words.

Yet serious critics, no matter how major their differences, will not be able to ignore the enormous, almost disarming honesty of this book. Mr. Knitter admits his painful puzzlements and conducts his search for answers out in the open. He does not hide behind academic abstraction but writes clearly and personally and leaves himself open to correction.

Although he argues for a kind of religious “double-belonging,” he does not hesitate to ask whether this is ultimately a kind of promiscuity — or, as one of his students put it, “spiritual sleeping around.”

Mr. Knitter doesn’t believe so. But he has written his book in part to see whether fellow Christians agree.

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Will his “double-belonging” resonate sufficiently within his own faith community that he can continue to consider himself a Buddhist Christian? Or if not, as he explained this week, will he feel obliged to recognize himself as a Christian Buddhist?

One need not have a stake in that outcome to find “Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian” a compelling example of religious inquiry.

A version of this article appears in print on Oct. 10, 2009, Section A, Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: A Look at Christianity, Through a Buddhist Lens. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

2021/09/05

The Quaker Bible Reader: Buckley, Paul, Angell, Stephen: 9781879117167: Amazon.com: Books

The Quaker Bible Reader: Buckley, Paul, Angell, Stephen: 9781879117167: Amazon.com: Books

Thirteen Quakers look at portions of Scripture, describe what they find, and how they found it in order to encourage every Friend to engage the Bible .

. by entering into a dialogue with this ancient book, 
exploring your own assumptions about God, and 
deepening your relationship with the divine.

2021/09/04

Spiritual Deepening eRetreats: Silence & Light for Quaker Newcomers | Friends General Conference

Spiritual Deepening eRetreats: Silence & Light for Quaker Newcomers | Friends General Conference



Spiritual Deepening eRetreats: Silence & Light for Quaker Newcomers



The Silence & Light for Quaker Newcomers eRetreat invites you to explore and practice the experience of Quaker worship and silent waiting, for an inward encounter with Inner Teacher who leads, guides, and transforms us every day. This session is offered for people who are curious about Quakers or new to Quakerism and will explore the basics of Quaker theology and practice.

Learn more: What to expect during a Spiritual Deepening eRetreat




"This eRetreat has been a gentle reminder to 'wait to feel the Spirit' and listen more closely for it....This was a perfect combination of a mini retreat, communal sharing and learning experience." - Spiritual Deepening eRetreat participant
eRetreat Details:
Offered September 18 - October 16, 2021
Four weeks, $45 pay-as-led** participation fee
Weekly readings, queries, resources, and activities available on FGC's eRetreat website, Matrix
Community Building Calls: Saturdays from 3-4:30pm Eastern / Noon Pacific starting September 18

**Pay-as-Led is a method of offering sliding scale pricing so that paid events are more accessible for people with a wide range of abilities to pay.
eRetreat Schedule and Weekly Themes
Weekly Theme Module Begins Community Building Call
Introductions September 18
Week 1: Stillness and Silent Times September 18 September 25
Week 2: The Light Working in Us September 26 October 2
Week 3: Deep Listening & Discernment October 3 October 9
Week 4: Relationships & Spiritual Community October 10 October 16


Community Building Calls

Each week, the facilitators will lead Community Building Calls using Zoom. During these calls, participants will have the opportunity to reflect on the eRetreat content, worship together, do additional eRetreat exercises, and build connections with each other.

Register for this eRetreat



The Silence & Light for Quaker Newcomers eRetreat will be facilitated by Michael Levi.



ML head shot 7-2020.jpeg




Michael Levi is a member of Adelphi Friends Meeting in Maryland. For many years he has taught "An Introduction to Quakerism" to members and attenders of his Meeting and to parents of a Friends school. In addition, Michael has led many sessions, especially on Friends history and practices, under the care of Adelphi's Continuing Quaker Education committee. Michael's leading is to help provide a framework in which the guidance of the Spirit can resonate and be better understood, so that we all emerge better equipped to answer that of God.

In a non-Quaker context, Michael has led scores of workshops and trainings on topics ranging from nonviolence and civil disobedience to economic statistics and software development.


Sign up for the Spiritual Deepening email list to receive notifications about future eRetreat sessions

2021/08/23

After Capitalism - Wikipedia

After Capitalism - Wikipedia



After Capitalism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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After Capitalism: Economic Democracy in Action
Author Dada Maheshvarananda
Country USA
Subject Post-capitalism, Prout
Genre Non-fiction
Publisher Innerworld Publications

Publication date 2012
Pages 390 pp
ISBN 978-1-881717-14-0
Preceded by After Capitalism: Prout’s Vision for a New World


After Capitalism: Economic Democracy in Action is a 2012 book by United States author Dada Maheshvarananda, an activist, yoga monk and writer.[1][2][3] The book argues that global capitalism is terminally ill because it suffers from four fatal flaws: growing inequity and concentration of wealth, addiction to speculation instead of production, rising unsustainable debt and its tendency to exploit the natural environment. The author proposes a grassroots movement for economic democracy with cooperatives and local economies based on the Progressive Utilization Theory or Prout, a post-capitalist model conceptualized by Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar of India. The book includes a conversation with Noam Chomsky and essays by Frei Betto, Johan Galtung, Leonardo Boff, Sohail Inayatullah, Marcos Arruda, Ravi Batra and others.


Contents
1Background
2Content
3Critical response
3.1Praise
3.2Mixed
4See also
5Notes and references
6External links
6.1Reviews and interviews
Background[edit source]

The author's first book, After Capitalism: Prout's Vision for a New World, with a preface by Noam Chomsky, was published in 2003 and, subsequently, translated into nine other languages. However, when the author started to update it, he discovered that both the world and the development of Prout had changed so much that more than 80 percent of the text was actually new material. Beyond this, economic democracy, a fundamental demand of Prout, was also starting to resonate with the Indignados Movement of Spain and the global Occupy Movement. Hence this book has a new title.
Content[edit source]

Chapter 1: The Failure of Global Capitalism and Economic Depressions: A brief review of colonialism, the economics of the Cold War, common practices by multinational corporations, the Global Financial Crisis of the 2000s, economic depressions and global capitalism's four fatal flaws. "How to Live Through Economic Turmoil" by Mark A. Friedman.

Chapter 2: A New Social Paradigm Based on Spiritual Values: An ecological and spiritual perspective, Prout's philosophical base, universal spirituality, the concept of Cosmic Inheritance, the problems with materialism, and Neohumanism. Definition of social progress, definition of the dynamic web of life or "Pramá", how it is lost and how it can be restored. The benefits of meditation for activists. "The Importance of Prout and its Concept of Pramá" by Dr. Leonardo Boff.

Chapter 3: The Right to Live!: The minimum necessities of life guaranteed to all, pharmaceutical corporations vs. generic medicines, comparing Prout to Marxism, Communism and Participatory Economics. The Five Fundamental Principles of Prout and how they can be used to evaluate social policies, factors that motivate people to work and economic indicators for setting the minimum and maximum wages. "Striving to Achieve Affordable Health Care for All in Kenya" by Didi Ananda Rucira.

Chapter 4: Economic Democracy: Industry, commerce and service in three levels, how to provide housing for all, economic decentralization and socio-economic regions, comparing the welfare economics of Amartya Sen to Prout. Barter trade, Prout's monetary system, taxation, "A Proutist Response to Land Value Capture" by Dr. John Gross.

Chapter 5: Cooperatives for a Better World: Human nature competitive or cooperative? Successful cooperatives around the world, the Mondragón cooperatives, how worker cooperatives function, what makes cooperatives successful? Examples of small-scale cooperatives in Maleny, Australia and the Venezuelan cooperative experience.

Chapter 6: An Agrarian Revolution and Environmental Protection: The deepening crisis in agriculture, food sovereignty, Prout's agrarian revolution, agricultural cooperatives, ideal farming and the benefits of growing your own food. Agro- and Agrico-Industries, the benefits of a balanced economy. Prout Master Units, community supported agriculture (CSA), the Food, Farms and Jobs program of Illinois. Endangered rainforests, forest preservation strategies, tribal knowledge of medicinal plants, the Future Vision Ecological Park in Brazil and a block-level planning exercise.

Chapter 7: A New Perspective on Class, Class Struggle and Revolution: History and the Social Cycle, bloodless revolution and armed struggle, a new vision of history. The Sarkar Game. The exploitation of women throughout history and today, and the awakening of women. "Comparing the Class Analysis of Marx and Sarkar" by Dr. Ravi Batra and "Prout's Social Cycle" by Dr. Johan Galtung.

Chapter 8: Spiritual Revolutionaries: Sarkar's vision of Sadvipras, spiritual activism, facing our shadows. Goodness, evil and how to train heroes. Emotionally intelligent leaders and how to inspire others and yourself. "Becoming Sadvipras" by Satya Tanner and "Prout Lessons from Development Work in West Africa" by Dada Daneshananda.

Chapter 9: A New Concept of Ethics And Justice: Increase in violent crime, ethics for personal and social transformation, cardinal human values as the basis for legal justice, restorative justice and re-education centers for personal transformation, transforming prisoners through yoga and meditation, drug abuse as a health issue.

Chapter 10: "Our Culture is Our Strength!" Cultural Identity and Education: Psychic exploitation, culture, civilization and pseudo-culture, an educational revolution, Neohumanist schools, local and global languages, mass movements and guerrilla street theater. "Future Tasmania" by Liila Hass and "Using Prout to Evaluate and Support a Community Samaja Movement: The Maya of Panimatzalam, Guatemala" by Dr. Matt Oppenheim

Chapter 11: Prout's Governance: Different views on governance, democratic reforms, constitutional proposals based on Prout, a universal bill of rights, world government. "Transformative Strategies and the Futures of the Prout Movement" by Dr. Sohail Inayatullah.

Chapter 12: A Call to Action: Strategies for Implementing Prout: "Another World is Possible!" Organizing marginalized farmers, how to be an ideal activist. The Prout Research Institute of Venezuela and the Prout Institute (Eugene, Oregon, USA). Model cooperatives and community service projects, mass movements, a popular youth movement in Hungary and protests against global capitalism. Hope for the future.

Chapter 13: A Conversation with Noam Chomsky: About The Occupy Movement, economic democracy and cooperatives, limiting the accumulation of wealth, consciousness raising, and Latin America.

Afterword: "The Possibility of Creating Another World is in Our Hands" by Frei Betto.

Appendices: Discussion questions about the book, designing Prout Study Action Circles, Prout slogans.
Critical response[edit source]
Praise[edit source]

Bill Ayers in Left Eye on Books wrote, "In just a few pages I felt the brotherly embrace of a comrade-in-arms, a soul-mate, and a companion; further along his fierce intelligence and original insights challenged me to make new connections; by the end I was inspired to re-imagine next steps in my own efforts at movement-making."[4] Gar Alperovitz, author of America Beyond Capitalism, wrote, "An ambitious and stimulating attempt to connect spiritual principles with the pragmatic work of building a better world." Gregory Wilpert, author of Changing Venezuela by Taking Power, wrote, "After Capitalism is a crucial contribution towards figuring out where we want to go, not only after capitalism, but now, as we try to build the new world within the old." George Katsiaficas, activist and author of Asia's Unknown Uprisings, wrote: "With grace and intelligence, Dada Maheshvarananda illuminates paths of personal enlightenment and global transformation." Charles Eisenstein, author of Sacred Economics, wrote, "A broad ecological, social, political and spiritual awareness informs this vision of a new economic future."
Mixed[edit source]

Jeff Fleischer in ForeWord Reviews wrote, "Most of the book is simply an explanation of Prout, and has the same strengths and weaknesses of the theory itself. While many of the goals advocated by Maheshvarananda and Prout supporters—such as diminishing income inequality and promoting citizen cooperatives—are certainly admirable, the theory is often vague about how they would be achieved or what a transition to a Prout economy would look like on a large scale... Too often, After Capitalism will seem naively unrealistic to opponents of Prout's vision while simultaneously obscure and lacking in specifics for those who would like to see its principles applied... Maheshvarananda is more effective in his critique of how current economic systems have created global wealth inequality, and at citing statistics for how poverty has spread even in wealthier nations. The most interesting parts of the book, however, are the guest contributions, which serve as case studies of using Prout principles in specific, smaller-scale projects around the world. While these contributions are quite short, they offer some of the detail lacking in the overall treatise."[5]
See also[edit source]
Criticism of capitalism
Dada Maheshvarananda
Post-capitalism
Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar
PROUT
Notes and references[edit source]

^ "DADA MAHESHVARANANDA presents COOPERATIVE GAMES FOR A COOPERATIVE WORLD | Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe". www.malaprops.com. Retrieved 2021-05-16.
^ "After Capitalism". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 2021-05-16.
^ "After Capitalism: Economic Democracy in Action by Dada Maheshvarananda - Paperback - from World of Books Ltd (SKU: GOR008710508)". Biblio.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-05-16.
^Trudge Toward Freedom: A Review of “After Capitalism” by Dada Maheshvarananda Archived May 18, 2013, at the Wayback Machine" by Bill Ayers, Left Eye on Books, Jan. 15 2013”
^After Capitalism: Economic Democracy in Action, by Jeff Fleischer, ForeWord Reviews, Dec. 5 2012.”
External links[edit source]
Prout Research Institute of Venezuela
Reviews and interviews[edit source]
Radio interviews of Dada Maheshvarananda with Maeve Conlan of KGNU Independent Community Radio in Boulder, Colorado, Dec. 11 2012 and Dec. 13, 2012.
Trudge Toward Freedom: A Review of "After Capitalism" by Dada Maheshvarananda by Bill Ayers, Left Eye on Books, Jan. 15 2013
After Capitalism: Economic Democracy in Action, by Jeff Fleischer, ForeWord Reviews, Dec. 5 2012.
Categories:
Anti-globalization books
Social change
Social philosophy literature
Contemporary philosophical literature
Criticism of capitalism
Works about capitalism