The Pocket Contemplative

For many people, justice is an increasingly central call and need. But it brings risks. Maybe we feel burdened or superior or lonely. Benedictine sister Lynne Smith lives right at the nexus between contemplative spirituality and justice and has discovered that that can be a sweet spot for her joyful life. 

Mentioned in Today's Podcast:

• The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

• Final Journeys: A Practical Guide for Bringing Care and Comfort at the End of Life

What I'm Into: 

• Farewell to Disneyland: My Decade of Young Widowhood

On a recent podcast, Ryan Bauers endorsed The Book of Joy, a conversation between the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu about finding joy. Dave Schmelzer read the book, loved it, and he and Ryan have an enthusiastic conversation about the great things there.

Mentioned in Today's Podcast:

• The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

We’ll be back with new content next week but, in this encore episode, Dave Schmelzer and Tom Wassink look at the changing legacy of J.R.R. Tolkien and CS Lewis for Christians. 

David McKee is a counselor who is also an oblate at a Benedictine monastery (and a member of a Zen center). In a far reaching conversation with Christina Roberts, Ryan Bauers and Dave Schmelzer, he talks about how learning to be present to ourselves with compassion opens us up to healing--and God--but also to the kind of prophetic engagement with the world that he says is a particular gift that Christianity offers other traditions. 

Mentioned in Todays Podcast:

Amy Carlson talks to groups around the country about joyful, thriving eating and the power of eating around a table (or even just at a table, if we're alone) and how learning to notice our body's response to food is a game-changer. In a vibrant conversation with Ryan Bauers, Christina Roberts and Dave Schmelzer, she talks about how churches, sadly, often complicate our relationship with food--even as they provide the powerful community that offers us the good stuff she's so passionate about. 

Mentioned in Today's Podcast:

On last week's podcast, Dave Schmelzer offered a book report on a book called "Why Buddhism is True" to consider crossover between Buddhist and Christian Contemplative insights. Christina Roberts asks: How should Christians navigate spiritual exploration? Are there things they shouldn't explore because those things expose them to spiritual danger? If so, how might one figure out what's safe and what's not? Ryan Bauers joins Christina and Dave to consider this.

More recent Christian contemplatives like Thomas Merton famously have discovered that what they're learning has a lot in common with what contemplative Buddhists know. Christina Roberts and Ryan Bauers commissioned Dave Schmelzer to do a "book report" along these lines, and he chose Robert Wright's (he's a journalist with The New Republic) provocatively-named book "Why Buddhism is True" (not, as Wright points out, in a religious sense, but as a description of how meditation impacts our consciousness for the better). Christina, Ryan and Dave have a vibrant conversation about what Dave reports.

Mentioned in Today's Podcast:

New Yorker article: Thomas Merton, the Monk Who Became a Prophet, by Alan Jacobs 

• New Yorker obituary of William Goldman

One of Blue Ocean Faith's founding perspectives is "My drive to judge other people is a big problem." Yet it comes across to us differently in today's ever-more polarized world. As was pressed by our conversation about Ken Wilber and our conversation with Doug Pagitt, what does it look like to embrace people very different from you while also living out your convictions? Christina Roberts, Ryan Bauers and Dave Schmelzer discuss.

Mentioned in Today's Podcast: