First Private Post

Well, I made this blog private yesterday. I am the only reader now. I did start "Exploring the Kingdom" for developed reflections and essays, but I wanted this to be a place for my own notes, etc. and a place to experiment.

That said, I don't know what else to say. I do my longhand writing every day, so that is not what this is for. I think continuing to take my reading notes and other things I discover from the web and my own thoughts.

As I read Abhishiktananda, I am challenged by the idea of interreligious dialogue. I experience the same tension - although to a much lesser degree - that A did. He found truth, beauty, and goodness outside of Christianity, in particular in the religions of India. While I haven't travelled to the far East, I've also found resonances with my own soul in the teachings of their religion. However, the tension isn't so great for me, because I am pretty confident that Jesus would have appreciated their insight as well. He does not seem like a dogmatic teacher, but a wise man who was open to truth, beauty, and goodness wherever he found it. The issue isn't as acute for me because I have been taught a less exclusive view of Christianity. Catholic, after all, means "universal."

The other challenge I find is the individualism of this path A describes. It is ultimately done for the good of the world, but seems very much like it is something one achieves. One works their way to holiness. Now, that I write that, it is not that simple. The path is through the heart and is always a response to God discovered there. Service does come, but as a fruit of the Spirit found in the heart. Any other form of service is incomplete, and can even be destructive.

I am struck by A's courage. He was a little cooky, but he took the Gospel with ultimate seriousness. There is no doubt that God was the central reality for A and that he discovered God in his Sad-guru Jesus. I have a similar temperament. I am at times obsessed with God. All that ultimately matters to me is doing God's will, or even better, becoming and instrument for God's goodness and love.

As the book comes to a conclusion, the basic insights remain the same. Dialogue of experience at the depth of the soul is the key to this path. Experience, experience, experience. The thing that sets A apart from other Empiricists is the type of experience he allows. He is more interested in inner, or spiritual experience (what Lonergan would call the "data of consciousness" than in outward experience. He is interested in the soul and spirit more than in the body. I also share these interests. I admire A a lot, and more than admiring him, I want to follow a similar path in my own life.

Lord, grant me a joyful, gentle, grateful heart that knows and does Your Will.