@psyche_the_mag Earth Abides Practice of Community #1 November 7, 2019
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Earth Abides: Practice of Community Here at Earth Abides, residents strive to embody a collective, deliberate, moment-to-moment ‘Practice of Community’ and to consciously support each other in this exploration. Here's how our visitor protocol describes such living mutualism; followed by a brief introduction to our current practice: 'My conscientious self, do not slander any being.' -- Here at Earth Abides, we don’t inquire whether residents or visitors have a spiritual practice or what it is, believing the choice a wholly personal, private and autonomous affair. Nonetheless, we do understand and experience the diversity and healthfulness of the inner life of Earth Abides as intimately and inextricably co-associated with the well-being and diversity of the outer life of our community - in both its more-than-human as well as human aspects. So, whether Native American, Buddhist, Yogic, Christian, Pagan, non-religious or otherwise, we honor, support and encourage all authentic practices tending to the unity, integrity and resilience of individuals who live and visit here. Alongside this commitment to diversity in its myriad, individualized forms, Earth Abides residents also share a commitment to a shared, community practice among ourselves. An elemental part of moment-to-moment, daily life hereabouts, this practice is central to our experience of conscious personal transformation with one another and for one another, lived into Being. During your visit to our home, we invite you to join us in this, our practice of community. And whether you choose to participate or not - offering up insights into your experience, for example - we request that you endeavor to respect this essential touchstone of residential life at Earth Abides during your stay with us, however brief it may be. How does our community practice work? Easy, really. Firstly, ours is a ‘post-religious’ practice. That is, whether we identify as atheist, agnostic, theist, pantheist, non-denominated, fundamentally secular or entirely otherwise, simply doesn’t matter. Our practice is also ‘post-political’: whether we identify as conservative or liberal, native or immigrant, POC or white, binary or binary-busting, or entirely otherwise, our practice both honors and transcends all such distinctions in the formless integrity of our own, private, entirely unique experience, whatever and whoever we are, and however we identify to ourselves and the world. No creed is required, nor is prior experience - simply a commitment to join in exploring a particular inner theme of coherent community life. Experienced spiritual practitioners might recognize the steady, ongoing flow of our practice as something akin to individually working with a Yogic mantra, Sufi wazifa, or personal affirmation. But again, ours is an approach which includes and transcends such personal and cultural forms and identities, inner and outer, both allowing for and embracing a transcultural, transpersonal experience of community life which, in the same breath, fully honors our individuality and our relatedness with others. Simply stated, here at Earth Abides we strive to embody a collective, deliberate, moment-to-moment ‘practice of community’ and to consciously support each other in this co-evolving exploration. Secondly, to this effect, we approach an evolving succession of specific practice-themes, working with each theme for several weeks at a time. Our current practice-theme and our evolving, shared, common insights into it - a conversation we invite you to participate in and contribute to - is posted on the fridge in Catherine’s House and also circulated digitally. We respectfully ask that you consider it when visiting our home. Earth Abides: Practice of Community #1. 'My conscientious self, do not slander any being.' At first, such practices may seem simple, self-evident and obvious. But if we work diligently with them, we find that each one opens up onto a vast field of inquiry and awareness. Right action is difficult enough, for example; right speech takes a good deal more discipline; where right thought carries us into an immense territory of transformative challenge. How might we cultivate a spontaneous habit of not judging others or ourselves? How far can a practice reach when it ultimately silences the voice of slander within us? Perennial wisdom is one unanimous chorus describing slander as a particularly insidious form of persecution and violence, one of the most heinous and damaging of all social behaviors. A form, no less, of murder. How common is gossip? Is there anything such as innocent gossip? What does our slandering of another say about us? Slander endeavors to establish a chain of alienation in the innermost heart of another, to tear apart the fabric of relations itself. What black magic is this? Can we ever know where and how the corrosive effects of our slander ultimately land? All of us are tempted to project our pain on someone or something else rather than dealing with it in ourselves. In part, we resist because embracing a greater vision of the truth of peace involves nothing less than relinquishing the ego’s ticket to power - as morally superior and better than others, as holy and heroic in our violence, as righteously justified in projecting upon, accusing, attacking or expelling someone ‘worse than we are’. What makes our own scapegoating or slander, as distinct from that issuing from an enemy, ‘special’ or ‘sacred’? Does such behavior evoke a tranquil world? Where do we discover the freedom within ourselves to dissolve a fracture in our identification with life into an experience of love? What is it to face the fact of a personal ending? Does our inner violence denied actually require an externalized enemy? How does unified violence define our circles of community, their experience of solidarity, righteousness, innocence and ‘peace’? Is there an essential complicity between slander spoken and slander heard? Our typical waking consciousness is characterized by a fantastically elaborate system of rationalizations and blind-spots insisting upon our sense of alienation from and betterment over others, simultaneously justifying the myriad forms of projected violence such falsehood and denial effects and requires. A primary emphasis of inner work is to understand and recognize the inclination to slander as a threshold which both illuminates the darkness of our own heart, and calls for its conversion. Slander amounts to a recognition of the limits of our love, opening us, as individuals and communities, toward the infinite possibilities of the heart. What is it to commit to relating to life with loving kindness, again and again, in every way, everywhere we go? In the alchemical blaze of facing, integrating and letting go of slander, we locate and release afresh the makings of wholeness, unearthing from our unused potentials a treasury of universal virtues: the patience, loving-kindness, hope, humility, forgiveness, compassion, equanimity, fortitude, generosity and mercy equal to the repair of the world. We take in and take away violence and give it back to the world as peace. The world returns, through us, to an essential wholeness. The capacity to be a consistently uninhibited vessel for timeless virtues to reveal themselves does not emerge suddenly or of its own accord. This is why we call practice, ‘practice’. As a community here at Earth Abides, we commit not to slander any being, nor to repeat slander, nor to retaliate to it. We invite you to join us in supporting our community practice.
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Image description
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Earth Abides: Practice of Community Here at Earth Abides, residents strive to embody a collective, deliberate, moment-to-moment ‘Practice of Community’ and to consciously support each other in this exploration. Here's how our visitor protocol describes such living mutualism; followed by a brief introduction to our current practice: 'My conscientious self, do not slander any being.' -- Here at Earth Abides, we don’t inquire whether residents or visitors have a spiritual practice or what it is, believing the choice a wholly personal, private and autonomous affair. Nonetheless, we do understand and experience the diversity and healthfulness of the inner life of Earth Abides as intimately and inextricably co-associated with the well-being and diversity of the outer life of our community - in both its more-than-human as well as human aspects. So, whether Native American, Buddhist, Yogic, Christian, Pagan, non-religious or otherwise, we honor, support and encourage all authentic practices tending to the unity, integrity and resilience of individuals who live and visit here. Alongside this commitment to diversity in its myriad, individualized forms, Earth Abides residents also share a commitment to a shared, community practice among ourselves. An elemental part of moment-to-moment, daily life hereabouts, this practice is central to our experience of conscious personal transformation with one another and for one another, lived into Being. During your visit to our home, we invite you to join us in this, our practice of community. And whether you choose to participate or not - offering up insights into your experience, for example - we request that you endeavor to respect this essential touchstone of residential life at Earth Abides during your stay with us, however brief it may be. How does our community practice work? Easy, really. Firstly, ours is a ‘post-religious’ practice. That is, whether we identify as atheist, agnostic, theist, pantheist, non-denominated, fundamentally secular or entirely otherwise, simply doesn’t matter. Our practice is also ‘post-political’: whether we identify as conservative or liberal, native or immigrant, POC or white, binary or binary-busting, or entirely otherwise, our practice both honors and transcends all such distinctions in the formless integrity of our own, private, entirely unique experience, whatever and whoever we are, and however we identify to ourselves and the world. No creed is required, nor is prior experience - simply a commitment to join in exploring a particular inner theme of coherent community life. Experienced spiritual practitioners might recognize the steady, ongoing flow of our practice as something akin to individually working with a Yogic mantra, Sufi wazifa, or personal affirmation. But again, ours is an approach which includes and transcends such personal and cultural forms and identities, inner and outer, both allowing for and embracing a transcultural, transpersonal experience of community life which, in the same breath, fully honors our individuality and our relatedness with others. Simply stated, here at Earth Abides we strive to embody a collective, deliberate, moment-to-moment ‘practice of community’ and to consciously support each other in this co-evolving exploration. Secondly, to this effect, we approach an evolving succession of specific practice-themes, working with each theme for several weeks at a time. Our current practice-theme and our evolving, shared, common insights into it - a conversation we invite you to participate in and contribute to - is posted on the fridge in Catherine’s House and also circulated digitally. We respectfully ask that you consider it when visiting our home. Earth Abides: Practice of Community #1. 'My conscientious self, do not slander any being.' At first, such practices may seem simple, self-evident and obvious. But if we work diligently with them, we find that each one opens up onto a vast field of inquiry and awareness. Right action is difficult enough, for example; right speech takes a good deal more discipline; where right thought carries us into an immense territory of transformative challenge. How might we cultivate a spontaneous habit of not judging others or ourselves? How far can a practice reach when it ultimately silences the voice of slander within us? Perennial wisdom is one unanimous chorus describing slander as a particularly insidious form of persecution and violence, one of the most heinous and damaging of all social behaviors. A form, no less, of murder. How common is gossip? Is there anything such as innocent gossip? What does our slandering of another say about us? Slander endeavors to establish a chain of alienation in the innermost heart of another, to tear apart the fabric of relations itself. What black magic is this? Can we ever know where and how the corrosive effects of our slander ultimately land? All of us are tempted to project our pain on someone or something else rather than dealing with it in ourselves. In part, we resist because embracing a greater vision of the truth of peace involves nothing less than relinquishing the ego’s ticket to power - as morally superior and better than others, as holy and heroic in our violence, as righteously justified in projecting upon, accusing, attacking or expelling someone ‘worse than we are’. What makes our own scapegoating or slander, as distinct from that issuing from an enemy, ‘special’ or ‘sacred’? Does such behavior evoke a tranquil world? Where do we discover the freedom within ourselves to dissolve a fracture in our identification with life into an experience of love? What is it to face the fact of a personal ending? Does our inner violence denied actually require an externalized enemy? How does unified violence define our circles of community, their experience of solidarity, righteousness, innocence and ‘peace’? Is there an essential complicity between slander spoken and slander heard? Our typical waking consciousness is characterized by a fantastically elaborate system of rationalizations and blind-spots insisting upon our sense of alienation from and betterment over others, simultaneously justifying the myriad forms of projected violence such falsehood and denial effects and requires. A primary emphasis of inner work is to understand and recognize the inclination to slander as a threshold which both illuminates the darkness of our own heart, and calls for its conversion. Slander amounts to a recognition of the limits of our love, opening us, as individuals and communities, toward the infinite possibilities of the heart. What is it to commit to relating to life with loving kindness, again and again, in every way, everywhere we go? In the alchemical blaze of facing, integrating and letting go of slander, we locate and release afresh the makings of wholeness, unearthing from our unused potentials a treasury of universal virtues: the patience, loving-kindness, hope, humility, forgiveness, compassion, equanimity, fortitude, generosity and mercy equal to the repair of the world. We take in and take away violence and give it back to the world as peace. The world returns, through us, to an essential wholeness. The capacity to be a consistently uninhibited vessel for timeless virtues to reveal themselves does not emerge suddenly or of its own accord. This is why we call practice, ‘practice’. As a community here at Earth Abides, we commit not to slander any being, nor to repeat slander, nor to retaliate to it. We invite you to join us in supporting our community practice.
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