“For us, practicing a disruptive spirituality within the Machine might be the only way to preserve our souls from the liquifying heat and power of the Giga Press, and to light a fire of a different kind.” Excellent. And I second Exogenesis!
Thank you for making this essay available, Peco. I didn't get a chance to read it the first time around. But it hit me just at the right moment this morning because I was reading Simone Weil's exposition of the Lord's Prayer and something about when you said this: "Religious people are sometimes criticized for praying about problems, as if prayer is just a kind of magical thinking that substitutes for “real action”, but in reality prayer and other spiritual practices are just the opposite..." - something in that idea reminded me of how she talks about "give us this day our daily bread." In that section, she first says that Christ is our bread and that it is a daily thing-- it can't be saved up. "We cannot bind our will today for tomorrow...we have not been given a will that can be applied to the future...the effective part of the will is not effort, which is directed at the future." She goes on to say that we look for "bread" like money, ambition, consideration, decorations, power...all of which are very real sources of energy to us. She then has this gorgeous idea which rings true for me "There is a transcendent energy whose source is in heaven, and this flows into us as soon as we wish for it. It is a real energy; it performs actions through the agency of our souls and our bodies."
Also I have been reading about how the Benedictines read the psalms three times a day (thank you, Kathleen Norris) and saw evidence of it with my own eyes last weekend at St. John's Abbey in Minnesota here last weekend, being lucky enough to be on a retreat there. If that's not a disruptive spiritual practice, I don't know what is! I am freshly inspired to introduce Psalm reading into my family's life.
“For us, practicing a disruptive spirituality within the Machine might be the only way to preserve our souls from the liquifying heat and power of the Giga Press, and to light a fire of a different kind.” Excellent. And I second Exogenesis!
This morning I was part of a community conversation about much of what you have so generously gifted us in this article.
Thank you for reinforcing my learning.
Thank you for making this essay available, Peco. I didn't get a chance to read it the first time around. But it hit me just at the right moment this morning because I was reading Simone Weil's exposition of the Lord's Prayer and something about when you said this: "Religious people are sometimes criticized for praying about problems, as if prayer is just a kind of magical thinking that substitutes for “real action”, but in reality prayer and other spiritual practices are just the opposite..." - something in that idea reminded me of how she talks about "give us this day our daily bread." In that section, she first says that Christ is our bread and that it is a daily thing-- it can't be saved up. "We cannot bind our will today for tomorrow...we have not been given a will that can be applied to the future...the effective part of the will is not effort, which is directed at the future." She goes on to say that we look for "bread" like money, ambition, consideration, decorations, power...all of which are very real sources of energy to us. She then has this gorgeous idea which rings true for me "There is a transcendent energy whose source is in heaven, and this flows into us as soon as we wish for it. It is a real energy; it performs actions through the agency of our souls and our bodies."
Also I have been reading about how the Benedictines read the psalms three times a day (thank you, Kathleen Norris) and saw evidence of it with my own eyes last weekend at St. John's Abbey in Minnesota here last weekend, being lucky enough to be on a retreat there. If that's not a disruptive spiritual practice, I don't know what is! I am freshly inspired to introduce Psalm reading into my family's life.
Thank you!
A needful reminder, thank you for this.
Bodies not Machines! The declaration, the covenant, the promise!