Forming+and+Introductions+-Seeking+Wisdom+in+a+Time+of+Crisis


 * Gathering: **As we go around the circle, you are invited to share your name and a crisis (minor or major time of danger or fear) you have faced in your past and at least one choice the crisis presented you with?

-brief on this workshop: see Background on the Study

What is Tao te Ching? Pg xxi What is Tao, definition of liberation pg xxiii-xxv xxiii “Tao, meaning a way or path leading to harmony, peace, and right relationship...walking wisdom xxv “Liberation is the process of moving toward a world where all human beings can live with dignity in harmony with the great community of beings who make up the Gaia, the living earth...
 * Introductory texts **

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 * A “Cosmic” View of History **

Pg 7 “We must remember that the very fact that these crises are our own making means that there is hope of addressing them in a meaningful way... We can choose life...If we have the will, we have the means to control human population, to dismantle weapons and to deflect wars, and give everyone a voice in democratic self-governance”
 * Seeking Wisdom: **

Pg xvii “we are called to reinvent ourselves as a species... The first step is understanding the.. . obstacles ... the second is the formulation of a cosmology... sufficiently entrancing that will sustain us in the transformation of the human project.” “obstacles include the illusion of unlimited growth..., excessive corporate power, a parasitic financial system, and a tendency to monopolize knowledge and impose... monocultures of the mind... reinforced by systems of education, mass media, consumerism, and artificial environments...” media type="youtube" key="uQGQ0JkiA1A" height="315" width="420" align="center"
 * The obstacles: **
 * Additional Resources & Encouraged activities ** :

-Read proverbs 8-9 and think about what type of (tao) walking wisdom you use or don’t use to get you through the week.

-Take some time to reflect on the table of contents document and the rough discussion outline. Think about the titles and what we talked about this week and post a discussion item addressing the following:

//How conscious are you? Of what are you conscious? What are you not conscious? What do you know and what do you want to know? Any confusing idea’s or questions about how concepts relate? Anything you want to touch on in the next 5 weeks? Anything we should look at and spend time on? //

Excerpts from Iona Abbey Worship Book, Pg 139 O Christ, There is no pain in our hearts or in our planet that you do not know, for you have touched the lowest places on earth.
 * Closing Prayer: **

Teach us to grieve with you, O Christ, the loss of all the beauty that is being killed.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">There is no place in the heavens <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">that cannot be touched by your resurrection presence, <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">for you fill all things.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">Give us strength in your victory over death <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">to grow into your way of love, <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">which does not despair but keeps sowing sees of hope <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">and making signs of wholeness.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">Teach us to know our interconnectedness with all things. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">Teach us to grow with each other <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;">and all living creatures through love. Amen.