"for women, discovering a different ground of self rather than our conditioned sense of need, control, insecurity..." Elisabeth Debold: Rich Murray 2011.12.14
http://www.evolvewomen.com/the-ultimate-spiritual-practice-for-women/ Tuesday, December 6, 2011 at 8:58 pm The Ultimate Spiritual Practice for Women by Elizabeth Debold * 22 Comments When you think about women and spiritual practice, what pops into your mind? Leggy ladies in tights doing a downward dog? Wafty women in white flowing robes dancing among flickering candles? Pop cultural images of women interested in spirituality often imply that the goal of spiritual practice for women is to become hyperfeminine. (Click for a send up of the “Yoga Girl” image.) Yoga or sacred dance are beautiful, and we certainly need more beauty in the world. And yoga can lead to significant transformation -- the inspiring story of Ana Forrest is just one testament to that -- but too few of us set our sights on real, tangible, spiritual evolution as the goal of our practice. Becoming more fit and calm and lovely is fine. But becoming more femme is hardly a transformation that’s going to rock the world. As Ken Wilber once wrote on the pages of What Is Enlightenment? magazine, Transformative spirituality does not seek to bolster or legitimate any present worldview at all, but rather to provide true authenticity by shattering what the world takes as legitimate. Meditation is a practice of transformative spirituality. Why? Because it challenges who we think we are at the most fundamental level. It reveals to us an ever-present dimension of reality beyond mind, time, and our embodiment through which we can recognize that we are not some object clinging for security to the surface of this spinning planet. No, we are WHAT IS. The infinite unmoveable perfection of Being, the ground of everything, itself. This realization, when taken seriously, frees us from our false identification with our personal history and all the ways things have been. The door opens to true, shattering transformation. And for women, discovering a different ground of self rather than our conditioned sense of need, control, insecurity or the thousands of ways that we are looking, looking, looking for anything outside of ourselves to validate who we are and give us direction and purpose, well, that is essential. It’s essential if we want to transform and, through our transformation, shatter the world that we know has to change at the core.... ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
