For the Journey toward Transformation

These are authors whose insights and thinking are part of the work of ICCD. They complement the additional authors and their works found after the various reflections on the site.

Bede Griffiths
Throughout the Circles and in all the other programs offered by ICCD we often speak about this time being one of radical shift-of paradigm change-of evolving consciousness. To understand this moment we draw on spiritual insights, art and imagination, and discoveries in science as well as chaos and systems theory. The integration of many disciplines offers us some insight into the time we are living and how we can respond.

Bede Griffiths in his book, A New Vision of Reality, Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and Christian Faith provides a comprehensive reflection on our time and how to envision a new reality drawing on faith traditions from the East and West and the discoveries of science. If you haven't been able to keep up with all the literature in these various areas this book provides an overview as well as a prayerful reflection by someone who is considered to be one of the significant persons understanding the unity yet distinctiveness of all the religious traditions. He concludes his book with a radical vision of a new society and a universal religion in which the essential values of Christianity will be preserved in living relationship with the other religious traditions of the world.

Bede Griffiths, a Benedictine monk, died in 1993. Although this book was published about two decades ago, it only testifies to how visionary he was. It continues to speak to the world in which we find ourselves.

Bede Griffiths, A New Vision of Reality, Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and Christian Faith, Templegate Publishers: Springfield, IL, 1989.


Brother David Steindl-Rast
In 1969 a young monk led my first profession retreat. He invited us to spend each day with a concentration on one of our senses. He asked us not to read the papers or listen to the news. For those of us alive to the issues of the day and steeped in Gaudium et Spes thereby reorienting our understanding of how women religious are to be in the world, this request and approach seemed strange, even anathema to us. But I found an attraction to this approach and I believe it began my journey to integrate the spiritual insights of both Western and Eastern faith traditions.

The monk was Brother David Steindl-Rast. I met him again last year and as we talked he told me of his book which was just being released, Deeper than Words, Living the Apostles' Creed. In this work he reexamines the words formulated by the early followers of Jesus from his perspective as mystic, from his experience of interfaith dialogue, and from his understanding of quantum physics.

Brother David relates in his introduction why he chose to write this book in response to a challenge offered to him by the Dalai Lama in which he expressed a sadness that even though there is much in common between Christianity and Buddhism the one thing that separates is the idea of a divine Creator. Brother David said he knew what he had to do. Stay true to my Christian tradition's belief in Divine Creation and show that it was compatible with Buddhist belief in Interdependent Arising.

In writing this book he has done what he set out to do and he offers to those of us who have embarked on an evolutionary faith journey an excellent reflection to help us make sense of our tradition in ways that are liberating and inclusive.

Deeper than Words, Living the Apostles' Creed, Brother David's Steindl-Rast. Image Books/Doubleday: New York. 2010

Brother David's other books, audio and video tapes can be found at his very fine website www.gratefulness.org


Don Beck/Christopher Cowan
During the Engaging Impasse Circles and in many of the processes that I lead I refer to the theory of Spiral Dynamics. This refers to the theory that Don Beck and Christopher Cowan developed based on the psychology of Clare W. Graves.

Spiral Dynamics is a theory of human development applied not only to individuals but to groups and societies as well. It posits that human development is not fixed and that as one's material conditions improve a new set of values, assumptions, worldview evolves to address this new situation and the challenges it presents. Like a spiral each new mental model transcends and includes the previous one. Each person/culture evolves differently and therefore embodies a mixture of the various value systems and with different intensities; however, all the different levels are developed in sequence and none are skipped over.

They employ the term "vMeme" which refers to a core value system, acting as an organizing principle, which expresses itself through memes (self-propagating ideas, habits, or cultural practices). The letter v indicates these are not basic memes but value systems which include them. They use colors alternating from hot to cool colors to indicate the various levels of the Spiral. So if someone has said that you are operating from a Turquoise vMeme they are employing this theory.

I find this theory a helpful one to begin to get a handle on the competing worldviews that we experience in our world today as well as the competing worldviews within one's self. It also gives some insight as to how to listen for common values among the vMemes even though each is interpreted through their own perspective.

I highly recommend the book: Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership, and Change, Don Beck and Christopher Cowan, Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 1996.

www.spiraldynamics.net


Ervin Laszlo
Underlying the design of Engaging Impasse: Circles of Contemplation and Dialogue® (EI) is a belief that we are at a critical point, a chaos point, in our evolutionary journey and that we are at the choice point to breakthrough to a new consciousness. The work of Ervin Laszlo strongly influenced this assumption. He is founder and president of the Club of Budapest and considered to be a significant thinker in systems philosophy and general evolutionary theory.

Laszlo develops these concepts in his body of work. He articulates the various drivers that have and are leading us to this chaos point: overconsumption, global warming, and regional conflicts over resources, etc. He then articulates how this breakthrough can emerge and what is needed.

In The Consciousness Revolution: A Transatlantic Dialogue, he writes: "We are moving toward a new culture of which science is a part, of which the ancient wisdom could be a part and in which they could both find a new integration. At its best this is not a recovery or a rehearsal of the past, but a new synthesis."

In WorldShift 2012, Laszlo explores the connection between the ancient wisdom of the Mayan calendar and the chaos point toward which we are moving. He describes WorldShift as “a worldwide shift from a path of unsustainability, conflict and confrontation to a path toward sustainability, well-being and peace.” He concludes with an imaginative look at the planet in 2032 following the shift in consciousness which creates the structures needed to live in a peaceful and sustainable world.

Important reading as we continue our journey toward the transformation of consciousness.

Books by Laszlo include:

The Consciousness Revolution: A Transatlantic Dialogue. Las Vegas, NV: Elf Rock, 2003

The Chaos Point: The World at the Crossroads. Charlottesville, VA: Hampton Roads Publishing, 2006.

Science and the Reenchantment of the Universe. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2006.

World Shift 2012: Making Green Business, New Politics, and Higher Consciousness Work Together. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2009.

www.ervinlaszlo.com


Judy Cannato
Throughout the EI experience we use the term “morphogenic field”. The biologist Rupert Sheldrake developed this hypothesis which asserts that there are non-visible fields of values, attitudes, behaviors which surround living systems and accelerate the learning of those patterns in subsequent generations. This experience became palpable throughout the Circle experience as each succeeding Circle seemed to be asking questions and moving forward more rapidly than the previous Circle. In fact during the Quantum Leap conference in March, 2008, the focus was on the emerging Engaging Impasse morphogenic field.

Judy Cannato, a former Circle participant, writes brilliantly about this concept in her newest book, Field of Compassion. Weaving the insights of physicists, cosmologists, theologians, psychologists and mystics she proposes a fresh approach for believers in the 21st century.

She articulates how there is a morphic resonance between the morphogenic fields of the Universe story and the Christian story. She continues to reflect on how within the Christian story the image of the Kingdom of God is another morphogenic field. All share a common resonance. "Each is fundamentally a story that speaks to the primacy of connectedness" .In each narrative we are reminded that unity precedes diversity and that diversity seeks unity in the never-ending flow of communion.

As with Laszlo, Cannato reflects on the new consciousness which is emerging and so needed today. She speaks about the new human who manifests the Field of Compassion. As in her other books, Cannato integrates her grasp of science with her own reflection and experience. She also offers us certain practices that assist us in moving toward this new consciousness and furthering our journey into the higher stages of development.

This book is a great contribution to deepening our understanding of how to move toward the transformation of consciousness.

Judy Cannato, Field of Compassion: How the New Cosmology is Transforming Spiritual Life. Notre Dame, IN: Sorin Books, 2010.

Other books by Judy Cannato include:
Radical Amazement: Contemplative Lessons from Black Holes, Supernovas, and Other Wonders of the Universe. Notre Dame, IN: Sorin Books, 2006.

Quantum Grace: The Sunday Readings: Lenten Reflections on Creation and Connectedness. Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2005.

Quantum Grace: Lenten Reflections on Creation and Connectedness. Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2005.

www.judycannato.com

Written by Nancy Sylvester, IHM
© 2011 Institute for Communal Contemplation and Dialogue
Reprint with permission iccdinstitute@gmail.com

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