[Revisiting Ordinary People as Monks & Mystics]

Q. Regarding that first book, Ordinary People as Monks & Mystics (OPMM). Is it possible to communicate with people who are drawn to OPMM as I am? I'd like to be in contact with people who think, believe and live those thoughts, which are so sensitively outlined in OPMM. Is this wish a contradiction? People who live like monks or mystics supposedly don't "need" people.

A. You seem to answer your own question! Yes, we can and probably should "fellowship" with the like-minded. This is scriptural. Perhaps cloistered religious communities sprang up for much this reason. Except reaching out can distract, if one is too "needy." One fundamental [of OPMM] is that we're moving away from small-self, personality, while moving toward Life, God, Christ, as we honor the divine love. God wants us for Himself, which is why the saintly outgrow emotional neediness, becoming mature, compassionate and self-sufficient. Jesus Christ taught this primal lesson: Leave mother, father, and "small-self" and "Follow Me!"

And Yes, OPMM describes a solitary way, but no one form! Bewilderment, wonderment, seeming loneliness can be blessings in disguise. See a spiritual director or counselor. Feelings prod us on; purify, yet not in the way of narcissism, which avoids self-abnegation. The dimension, or "form" of our solitude is born largely of consciousness; the self vanishing (as monastic language calls it) that lets us live vibrantly, productively, creatively in the midst of others in a way that serves the divine communion -- the sacred, vital life in self and others. It's not the form of outer life that fulfills and makes a difference so much as the state or "shape" of consciousness we live in, our dwelling place (as Raimundo Panikkar wrote about). Perhaps those who love the ideas in OPMM could ask the central question each day along the lines of 2 Samuel 7:5, "Are you the one to build me a home to dwell in?"

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