“Literature, by virtue of its ironic force, undermines “the fantasy of authority.”
“One does not have to possess or own the truth, in order to effectively bear witness to it.”
-The Claims of Literature: A Shoshana Felman Reader (2007)
“Souls who love God, a Sufi sheikh said a thousand years ago, ‘know one another by smell, like horses. Though one be in the East and the other in the West, they still feel joy and comfort in each other’s talk, and one who lives in a later generation than the other is instructed and consoled by the words of his friend.'” Stephen Mitchell, Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation
“A knight-errant of the spirit, Miguel de Unamuno calls the Spanish mystics, starts for his adventures after having, like Hernán Cortés, burnt his ships.”
Salvador de Madariaga
Kairos Center for Change is pleased to announce the Mystic Heart Series engaging women in a spiritual quest to open themselves to the unknowable with the healing containers found in wisdom texts, poetry, music, film, prose, mythology, and psychology. They sojourn with us through the labyrinth of our souls toward the still point. We contemplatively engage literary text and art in community while spaciously listening for the questions and images rising from the instincts. Slowly, whatever has been calcified, alienated, hidden, or lost in our adaptation to the busy post-modern world is reanimated. Whether you are a novice or experienced quester, there are no experts, only beginner’s mind, traversing as a pilgrim. Expertise, accomplishment, and mastery are obstacles or illusions of the mind thwarting progress, inhibiting growth. You must witness for yourself the original language of your personal and unique soul arriving as you continuously seek the burning point within and follow your becoming.
Every Wednesday a free offering is made to gather in circle with the intention of practicing deep listening to the murmuring deep. We are now engaging contemplative recitation of the sutras, each illuminating an ancient meditation practice for opening the heart to eternal Beauty, Love, Peace, Truth. We bring our intentions to our internet circle to know the All, welcome the All, and be the All, the Light for one another, including new members seeking Self Knowledge from a contemplative practice. We join together to potentially experience the particular miracles community enjoins as we seek to enter the Heart and rhythm of Mother, of God, of Existence Awareness together, where Self Knowledge is revealed, where transformation of the heart truly manifests.
The series began on December 11, 2021 with the following second Saturday of every month at 8 am for 90 minutes. If, at any point you discern that this is not right for you, you are of course, not obligated to continue. You are encouraged to be in continuous discernment.
The following texts are part of this series:
- Sitting by the Well by Marion Woodman
- Dangerous Old Woman by Clarissa Pinkola-Estes.
- Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Suzuki
- Human Condition by Thomas Keating
- Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
- Why Good People Do Bad Things by James Hollis
- Bhagavad-Gita, New Translation by Stephen Mitchell
- This is Real And You Are Completely Unprepared by Rabbi Alan Lew
- Moses: A Hidden Life by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg
Women who completed an intensive self-study will be joining us at times, returning to these works for more insight.
Wednesday nights we engage the Pirke Avot, translation by Rabbi Rami Shapiro. Each morning we engage the Psalms for children and mother’s crying out for justice.
