We are proposing an alternative to the silly and unconstitutional and unimaginative law by the state of Louisiana to put the ten commandments in all public schools. We call it the “10 c’s” and they have been tested in a test project in an inner city high school in Oakland, California.
[FROM THE ARCHIVE: 8/5/2020]
One of the “C’s” is Contemplation. Maria Montessori teaches children how they can “make silence.” Humans are all capable of “making silence.”
Making silence, calming our busy monkey brains and our action/reaction reptilian brains, is necessary for the very survival of our species. As we live more and more in busy, crowded, noisy urban settings, we are called to deal more wisely with technological inventions that, if not checked, can annihilate our species with their immense powers of violence and destruction.
Many methods are available from wisdom traditions the world over to teach practices of calming the busy brain, of meditation and stress reduction. Kaleo Ching, a faculty member at my University, taught “Tai Chi and Mask Making” with us and in prisons.
Kaleo taught maximum and minimum security inmates for Haight Ashbury Jail Psychiatric Services in San Francisco. After his classes, several students approached him and said: “This is the first time in my life I have experienced quiet.”
Wouldn’t it be marvelous to introduce murderers to their capacities for quiet before they kill others? Wouldn’t this education prove to be a marvelous investment in murder-prevention? And prison prevention? Studies and films are available on what happens in a prison when meditation practices like Vipassana meditation is introduced to the prison complex. Calm displaces hyperactivity and hypertension. Joy begins to spread.
Why not teach joy and calm before prison and to the culture at large? Every human has these capacities in them but they have to be nourished and nurtured. They have to be educed. That is education’s job.
Rather than feeding young people pills for so-called “hyper-activity” we ought to be showing them ways of finding peace that are internal and not by way of drug-taking.
A person can take these ways with them their whole life long.
In inner city schools in San Francisco yoga was taught youngsters under the rubric of sports and physical fitness. A fourth grader reports: “I feel really grumpy in the morning. Yoga makes me feel ungrumpy.”
With yoga, students are calmer and stress is reduced. Children find inner controls. One teacher observes:
Yoga is similar to other sports in that it takes determination and will. It’s different in that you compete with yourself. When kids see themselves improving, their self-esteem improves.
As kids learn the exercises, they themselves lead the other students. Says one student: “When you can’t focus, you do yoga and you can focus.”
Charles Burack reports that getting students to simply focus on one’s breath produces powerful results. Such exercises provide a nonideological, nonauthoritarian, and non-consumerist means of self-empowerment because it puts individuals in touch with their own deep, vital self, which is the living source of strength, wisdom, and kindness. This self is not selfish; rather, it is highly sensitive and responsive to the real needs and worth of the surrounding universe.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human, pp. 108-111. And Fox, Confessions: The Making of a Postdenominational Priest, pp. 353-359.
Banner image: “Chambers.” Mixed media collage-painting by Kaleo Ching. Please open the link to read Elise Dirlam Ching’s extraordinary accompanying poem.
Queries for Contemplation
How do you find silence and tame your reptilian brain? And monkey brain? How might the world change if everybody did?
Recommended Reading
The A.W.E. Project: Reinventing Education, Reinventing the Human
The A.W.E. Project reminds us that awe is the appropriate response to the unfathomable wonder that is creation… A.W.E. is also the acronym for Fox’s proposed style of learning – an approach to balance the three R’s. This approach to learning, eldering, and mentoring is intelligent enough to honor the teachings of the Ancestors, to nurture Wisdom in addition to imparting knowledge, and to Educate through Fox’s 10 C’s. The 10 C’s are the core of the A.W.E. philosophy and process of education, and include: compassion, contemplation, and creativity. The A.W.E. Project does for the vast subject of “learning” what Fox’s Reinvention of Work did for vocation and Original Blessing did for theology. Included in the book is a dvd of the 10 C’s put to 10 video raps created and performed by Professor Pitt.
“An awe-based vision of educational renewal.” — Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice.
Creativity: Where the Divine and Human Meet
Because creativity is the key to both our genius and beauty as a species but also to our capacity for evil, we need to teach creativity and to teach ways of steering this God-like power in directions that promote love of life (biophilia) and not love of death (necrophilia). Pushing well beyond the bounds of conventional Christian doctrine, Fox’s focus on creativity attempts nothing less than to shape a new ethic.
“Matt Fox is a pilgrim who seeks a path into the church of tomorrow. Countless numbers will be happy to follow his lead.” –Bishop John Shelby Spong, author, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism, Living in Sin
3 thoughts on “Contemplation, Another “C” toward Becoming Human”
What values to we aspire to as people and a society? Before we become dismissive of the Ten Commandments in schools, why not consider what values they convey. Did not Jesus, say, ““Do not suppose that I come to dismantle the Law or the Prophets. I do not come to dismantle but to fulfill. For truly I say to you until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota or letter stroke will ever pass away from the Law until all is accomplished.” Matthew 5:17-20. — BB.
Here are the 10 Commandments reframed as societal values in modern-day terms (from ChatGPT 4o):
1. Societal Value: Commitment to a single moral compass or core ethical principles.
2. Societal Value: Avoid idolatry or placing material possessions and superficial values above integrity.
3. Societal Value: Show respect in speech and communication, honoring sacred and important concepts.
4. Societal Value: Balance work with rest and personal reflection to maintain mental and physical health.
5. Societal Value: Respect and value family relationships and the wisdom of elders.
6. Societal Value: Respect the sanctity of human life and resolve conflicts peacefully.
7. Societal Value: Maintain fidelity and trust in personal relationships.
8. Societal Value: Respect the property and rights of others.
9. Societal Value: Value honesty and integrity in all interactions.
10. Societal Value: Cultivate contentment and avoid envy by appreciating what you have.
Contemplative Mystical Spirituality is found in all our major spiritual traditions with its emphasis on daily silent meditation/prayer as an essential spiritual practice to help quiet, heal, and transform our busy egocentric minds towards the LOVING Wholeness~Oneness of our Soul~True Heart Self in the Flow/Sacred Process of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT….
Thomas Keating helped contemporary Westerners understand and practice this spiritually valuable contemplative prayer from our Christian mystical tradition by forming and teaching ‘centering prayer’ and support groups through Contemplative Outreach in the 1980s that soon grew nationally and internationally through the help of the Spirit. The website is contemplativeoutreach.org and teaching videos are also available on YouTube under the subscription channel Contemplative Outreach.
This is a valuable resource. Contemplative Outreach has two prayer chapels every week with of hour of centering prayer followed by lectio and visio divina and holy listening and speaking for those who feel so moved.