[Dialogue] Meal Conversation Models

Wed May 27 18:37:55 PDT 2015

I'm interested in the idea of 5 simple meal conversations with Buddhist roots.

I was just reading the author Peter Matthiessen which seems on point:

“Zen (Buddhism) has been called the "religion before religion," which is to say that anyone can practice, including those committed to another faith. 

And that phrase evokes that natural religion of our early childhood, when heaven and a splendorous earth were one. But soon the child's clear eye is clouded over by ideas and opinions, preconceptions and abstractions. Not until years later does an instinct come that a vital sense of mystery has been withdrawn. 

The sun glints through the pines, and the heart is pierced in a moment of beauty and strange pain, like a memory of paradise. After that day, at the bottom of each breath, there is a hollow place filled with longing. 

We become seekers without knowing that we seek, and at first, we long for something "greater" than ourselves, something apart and far away. It is not a return to childhood, for childhood is not a truly enlightened state. 

Yet to seek one's own true nature is "a way to lead you to your long lost home." To practice Zen means to realize one's existence moment after moment, rather than letting life unravel in regret of the past and daydreaming of the future. 

To "rest in the present" is a state of magical simplicity...out of the emptiness can come a true insight into our natural harmony all creation. To travel this path, one need not be a 'Zen Buddhist', which is only another idea to be discarded like 'enlightenment,' and like 'the Buddha' and like 'God.” 

― Peter Matthiessen, Nine-Headed Dragon River: Zen Journals, 1969-1982

I used to go to a Unitarian church. Every sermon began: "Present moment is the name of God".

What fresh conversations indeed for a ..."present moment"... around a meal table.
I'm wondering, how about you? 

There used to be at least 13 distinct spirit conversations according to a 1972 Global Archives document; now there seems to be one conversation formula: ORID. 

Why not DORI...or ORI without the "D"... or ORIO where the 2nd O stands for "Ontological". 

Apparently ICAI began a recent session in Africa with an icebreaker "Tell me a Story.
Some online teachers want to create a sense of Community Belonging Before they get to course work.

Did you ever listen to Terri Gross or Krista Tippett interviews where the conversational energy and some times good heartedness  runs and runs and runs? Ever replay a dialogue to see the point when the conversation began to flow?

Thanks for the ask Dawn, I'm interested, anyone else?

Message from:  Steve
PS "discarded" seems a little harsh for wisdom (not terminal certitude)

> On May 27, 2015, at 1:06 PM, Dawn Collins via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
> 
> For whomsoever is willing: Pls email me 5 meal conversations models by June 7, 2015 to be used with my brief pamphlet "On Becoming A Practical Theologian" now available in Archives-Chicago. Has been used recently in meal conversations by Archives-Chicago team and a Buddhist practitioner, who is a friend of my daughter, Kaira Lingo, who recently became a lay Dharma teacher after 14 years as a monastic.
> 
> I need two or three? sets of 5 art form questions each, with brief intro/context and conclusionary insight "charge" statement.
> 
> Thanks a million, and to all interested Directory folks, still mailing out gratis copies covering "P-Z" by early June. So you may wish to make use of the Archive publication.
> 
> G&P
> Dawn Collins
> (formerly Lingo)
> 
> 1818 N. Marion St.
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> 303-388-1454 (call, leave a message or email me any time)
> collinsdawn747 at yahoo.com
> 
> P.S. Am available at home all day on Tuesdays (excluding 3-5p.m.), Saturdays and Sundays. Otherwise, I'm at mom's as part of her 24/7 recovery family care team. We welcome your prayers for Olivia Cook.
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