On Wed, 17 May 1995 BClemson@aol.com wrote:
> Re the discussion of soul in the organization.
[ .. a wonderful story, snipped .. ]
[ .. ending with another very short one... ]
>
> I persuaded my rather conservative Baptist church
> to sponsor my class in Aikido for inner city
> teenagers partly on the basis that Zen (which is the
> foundation for the martial arts) is spiritual without
> having dogma. And it seems to me that is what we
> must do about soul in the organization. We must be
> spiritual without having dogma. And, while I am all
> in favor of authenticity, authenticity is a weak
> substitute for spirituality.
I think the story was exactly what we needed. One of the best things
about it is that it gets the _logic_ of critical concepts like "spirit"
and "authenticity" and even "dogma" clearly related. The realities are
what they are whether we name them or not; the dimensions of our common
humanity that I choose to name as "spiritual" may well, in another's life,
have a different name, or several names, or no name at all. That will
certainly interfere with our efforts to talk to each other; but those, as
your story so eloquently shows, can be resolved.
Regards
Jim Michmerhuizen
jamzen@world.std.com
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. . . . . There are more different kinds of people in the world . . . . .
. . ^ . . than there are people... . . . . .