Contemplate This!

This bonus track is an edited snippet from my interview with Chris Heuertz for the Contemplate This! podcast, conversations on contemplation and compassion. My interview with Chris was so rich and in-depth that I wanted to break out this 7 minute section where he gives a very concise overview of what the Enneagram is - or better, how it functions as a tool for spiritual growth and integration - and he gives an incredible overview of the nine personality typologies, or as he calls them the nine paths to God. If you're totally new to the Enneagram, or even if you're not, this is one of the best quick introductions I've ever heard, and it seemed worthy of its own mini-episode. I hope you enjoy it, and after you listen here, head over to the full episode and dive all the way in with Chris's wisdom on the Enneagram in the full podcast of episode 5 at [thomasjbushlack.com/episode5](http://thomasjbushlack.com/episode5/). You will not be disappointed.

Phileena is a founding co-director of Gravity Center: a Center for Contemplative Activism (in Omaha, NE), along with her husband Chris. She has spent her life in social justice work among the world’s poor. A member of the New Friar movement, for nearly 20 years she and her husband Chris served with Word Made Flesh in more than 70 countries building community among victims of human trafficking, survivors of HIV and AIDS, abandoned children and child soldiers and war brides.

Author, spiritual director, yoga instructor, public speaker and retreat guide, Phileena is passionate about spirituality and making the world a better place. With a rare gift for communicating the dynamics of the inner life, Phileena gracefully guides others toward growth and transformation.

Phileena has led contemplative retreats for a number of faith communities including: Word Made Flesh, World Vision International, Compassion International, as well as churches from various traditions and non-faith and interfaith groups in leading cities across the nation.

She has spoken at a number of universities and seminaries including: Asbury University, Asbury Theological Seminary, Biola University, Creighton University, Eastern Nazarene College, Fuller Seminary, George Fox University and Midland University; and conferences such as Q, Catalyst, Urbana and the Center for Action and Contemplation.

Phileena and Chris founded Gravity in 2012 to support the development of consciousness by making contemplative practice accessible to individuals, communities and organizations who engage the challenging social justice perils of our time. Phileena’s work includes public speaking, teaching and writing on contemplative spirituality, facilitation of contemplative retreats, and spiritual direction.

This third interview is with the Rev. Dr. Tilden Edwards, an Episcopalian priest and founding member, former Executive Director, and now Senior Fellow of the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. Shalem is a Hebrew word meaning "whole" or "complete," or as Tilden explains in this podcast, the Hebrew captures the notion of "movement toward wholeness." According to their website, "Shalem is grounded in Christian contemplative spirituality yet draws on the wisdom of many religious traditions." Through Tilden's leadership Shalem was one of the first institutes designed to train ministers and church leaders for spiritual direction, particularly outside of the context of monasteries where the practice has continued since the earliest centuries of the Church. In that regard, Tilden is a particularly important figure for the rebirth of contemplative spirituality in a distinctively ecumenical context - that is, among Christians of all denominations and backgrounds. It is also worth

highlighting that his background includes congregation-based social justice work in Washington, D.C., in his early career as a pastor - he talks about leading others down 16th street in his cassock in the March on Washington in 1963 - and that his introduction to contemplation was further ignited through intensive introductions to contemplation early in his career both with an Episcopalian Benedictine monastery and with a Tibetan Buddhist lama.

This second episode is an interview with Cynthia Bourgeault. Cynthia is an ordained Episcopalian priest, and beloved teacher of contemplative forms of Christian practice, Founder of the Wisdom Way of Knowing, teacher in the Wisdom School, and now a core teacher at the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albequerque NM. She has been a prolific author of 9 books, notably Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening and her most recent, The Heart of Centering Prayer: Nondual Christianity in Theory and Practice. She is considered by many, myself included, to be one of the central teachers in the renewal of Christian contemplative prayer in general and Centering Prayer in particular. I think it’s safe to say that her work is so interesting because it is so deeply rooted in her knowledge and study of the tradition, while also being highly original, even idiosyncratic at times. She brings a very unique blend of experiences – her time with Quakers and Benedictines, her study of Gurdjieff, and

then her eventual familiarity with the growth of Centering Prayer in the last 4 decades – to offer some original and thought-provoking insights into contemplative practice.

This first interview is with Fr. Richard Rohr, a Catholic priest and member of the Franciscans, the religious order established by St. Francis of Assissi in the 13th century. He is the founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a leading teacher in the Living School, a program begun by the Center for Action and Contemplation that has introduced and trained hundreds of contemplative activists in the Christian tradition, empowering them to bring contemplation as a ground of peace and deeper meaning into their work to create a more just world. He is also the author of numerous books and recorded teachings.