{"product_id":"9780966509045","title":"At One with the Heart of Creation: Reflections and Verse on the Spirit Journey","description":"\u003cb\u003eThree Sections\u003c\/b\u003e   \u003cp\u003eSection one is about linking our understanding of creation and its interior power to our current human condition: the people of this planet are dispirited. Some even say we suffer soullessness. We are out of touch with spirit. Or as Mother Teresa said, after a trip to the USA, she'd never seen such an abundance of things and such a poverty of the spirit. Our major contradiction is not economic, political, or cultural - it is spiritual.  The evidence seems obvious: warring and terrorism continue evermore fiercely; we deny the atmosphere is in big trouble; we let the poor get poorer; global diseases run rampant; we squander the planet's resources; we become more provincial; materialism drives us. Sounds like a Hebrew prophet's litany that would have been followed by a woeful declaration of cause: \"You people are out of touch with the way things work here in creation. No wonder you are dispirited and your souls languish. You have lost touch with that which makes creation tick.\"   \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis then is the book's context: humankind is in a spiritual malaise and struggles to articulate the reasons why. As the above master image of the book says, we are on a spirit journey - whether we are seekers or not - even though most of us in this secular age find such a statement strange. We think and act as though we're primarily on a personal journey. Yet, the journey is not about \"me as a person\" but is about \"me in relation with all others,\" human and non-human.   \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is not enough said, however. The truth we are missing is that spirit happens in the relation between the other and me, or spirit happens in the relations of creation. Since creation is one big set of relations, spirit is happening all the time and everywhere, yet we are unaware of it most of the time. Putting it all together, we are on a spirit journey we are not very present to, thus our dispiritedness and growing planetary suffering at our hands. In this section we explore spirit's presence in everyday life and the dynamics of the spirit journey.  In section two, the book's master image says our spirit journey is about our experiences of communion with the power at the heart of creation.  How do we begin to deal with the contradiction of our time which is spirit disrelation?\u003cbr\u003e   Answer: we become more aware of our experiences of communion with spirit. This section is out to help us understand that the cure is always at hand because communion is the way creation works. The title for the book applies here especially: at one with the heart of creation.  In this section we illustrate experiences of communion that reunite us to the heart of creation through the particulars of creation, giving us new perspective and sometimes changed lives.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn section three, this spirit journey book talks about the power at the heart of creation that motivates humankind to be agents of intercommunion. Here the focus is the mission of creation as mutual care or inter-communion. In some ways this uncommon word is the same as communion, but we will use it more as a way to talk about our resolve and action to comprehensively interrelate with and care for creation as it cares for us.   \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat and Our Intent for the Reader\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Reflections start as more experiential and move toward more interpretive as each of the three sections progresses. The Verses are meant to give tangential expression to the Reflections and add space for a more interior dialogue with the message at hand. Though there are some participatory exercises, this is not a workbook but rather a book with various reflective dimensions.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe intent of the book is to allow the reader the opportunity for brooding about creation and one's depth relationship with it. The word \"deep\" is showing up everywhere these days: deep ecology, deep time, deep space, deep structure, deep listening, deep mind. This tells us that cosmologists, physicists, psychologists, and other secular professionals are recognizing there is interiority in every discipline and that every particular of creation - in form and event - is full of depth.   \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOur intent is therefore twofold: point to the depth dimension\/dynamic in creation and our lives, and, second, create a dialogue wherein communion and intercommunion become more conscious and may even happen; for communion and intercommunion are happenings, finally, beyond the control of our mind and will. We can set the table and serve the meal and trust that spirit is present. If so, all around the table will be blessed and nourished by being connected with the deep meaning that is always present now; and partakers will embody the spirit of the meeting as they go forth.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJohn P. Cock, author of five books, is a guide for secular and religious groups interested in spirit awakenment, formation, engagement, sustenance, and community. Lynda L. Cock has taught in schools around the world and now teaches in Greensboro. Both are members of the Center for Ecozoic Studies in the Piedmont bioregion of North Carolina.  \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Transcribe Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47013747982576,"sku":"9780966509045","price":12.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780966509045_p0.jpg?v=1763884130","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780966509045","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}