The Divine Companion
I’ve presented talks about the spiritual and psychological aspects of the inner world in various formats: one-shot presentations, a series of short talks given over several months, day-long retreats and as a worship service.
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The hope of the talks, in any format. is to stimulate a dialogue with people who attend. Audiences have included churches, church-adjacent groups and spiritual-but-not-religious gatherings. If you have a small group who might be interested in hosting a presentation, please let me know your particular interest and let's talk about what we might arrange to match meet your interests and needs.
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SERIES OF TALKS
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Monday evening presentations at a retreat house​​
Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle.
Explore the overlap between Teresa's metaphor for our inner world--the Interior Castle that can be either well explored or neglected and unknown--and Richard Schwartz' metaphor for our inner world of an Internal Family struggling for harmony.
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Thomas Keating: Two Selves.
Explore different metaphors for appreciating two aspects of ourselves: the True Self and the False Self. Both aspects are useful and valuable but are best when we include our spiritual endowments in all parts of ourselves.
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Quaker Discernment.
Explore how the example of some people with much spiritual insight can be a guide to developing our own discernment. Discernment addresses two things: What is the character of God? What should I do with my one precious life?
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Gerald May and the Importance of Desire.
Explore the writings of Gerald May, a psychiatrist who, early in his career, treated people with addictions (desires gone awry) and, at the end of his career, was a central part of Shalem where he wrote about spirituality.
Kin-dom Connections.
Explores the word, Kin-dom, coined by Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, A Cuban born nun who felt excluded on two levels: being a woman and being an immigrant. Her word emphasizes our commonality (kinship) rather than dominance.
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Couples Therapy for the I-Divine Companion relationship.
Apply the principles of Couples Therapy developed by Harville Hendrix to your inner relationship with your Divine Companion. A core principle is developing an accurate image (Imago) of your partner that isn't contaminated by erroneous ideas or prior unhealthy relationships.
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Parables and Personal Stories.
Explore how parables (metaphors) can help us understand spiritual concepts that are just beyond our grasp. Explores how your personal story (Who do you think you are? How to you get and give love?) shape how you live your life.
Attunement, Attachment and your Divine Companion.
Explore how attachment between people might give us ideas about our inner connection with our Divine Companion. Develops the concept of attunement, deeply understanding another person, in terms of being attuned to your Divine Companion.
Marcus Borg: The Heart of Christianity (Spirituality).
Explore Marcus Borg's five core aspects of all religions: "Something/Someone More," a sacred path, a discipline or practice, compassion and wisdom. These common elements of religions of the world are used as a lens for seeing and appreciating the elements of our inner world.
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Martin Buber on Relationships.
Explore Buber's well-known concept of the I-Thou relationship with his less well-known idea of the inner I-Eternal Thou relationship; explores how our inner life shapes our relationships in the outer world.
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Overlap between Teresa's Interior Castle and psychological maps of the inner world.
Explore how spiritual and psychological perspectives provide complementary ideas about our inner world: includes Teresa of Avila, psychodynamic, Internal Family Systems, and Buddhist views.
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Sunday Afternoons at a Retreat House
These afternoon meetings explored several topics as springboards for discussions about the spiritual aspects of our inner world.
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The Magnificat.
What do we magnify (increase in awareness) and what do we let recede into awareness (allow it to lose its hold over us)? Winnowing as spiritual discernment. A model of will as a corollary to basic neural functioning.
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Identifying what are critical core issues in your life.
Teresa of Avila's perspective on values in the inner landscape, dialoguing with your Divine Companion. Weaver and Rippers from a spiritual perspective.
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David Brooks: Two Mountains metaphor for two major approaches to life.
Shallow and deep choices. If there is a dark triad of psychopathy, what might the light triad of authentic spirituality look like? Miscellaneous ideas from Eben Alexander; Natalie Batalha: astronomy always brings me back to love; Claudia Rankin: groupism, exclusion and inclusion.
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The Epic Journey as a Parable of the Spiritual Life.
Jung described the possibility of living life as an epic journey; he didn't say, but he implied, that the default option is to live life as a trivial journey concerned mainly with material ease and comfort. Comparing various myths with the inner journey of the mystics. Possible framework for a leaderless group that focuses on spirituality and the inner world.
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Adult Education classes at various churches
Spirituality and Psychology.
Two Adult Education talks given at Presbyterian church. How our maps of our inner world can either restrict us to a mainly secular life or open us up to much larger spiritual vistas. How merging a psychological perspective of a person with a spiritual perspective of the inner life can create a broader "psyche+spirit" view of ourselves.
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What’s Spirit Got to Do with It?
Seven Adult Education classes given in a Presbyterian church. Examined psychological issues (depression, loneliness and anxiety) and explored how a spiritual perspective can help a person with these common issues.
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A SpiriTED Dialogue
A series of six presentations given in a library (a secular setting). A series of presentations for a secular audience that explores the overlap between psychological and spiritual perspectives on life. Combined short presentations, music (songs with lyrics in a spiritual vein), guided meditations and conversations among people attending.
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Deepening Relationships
Nine Adult Education classes given in a Methodist church. Explore the desire for deeper relationships through the dual lens of psychology and spirituality.
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STAND-ALONE TALKS
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Centering Prayer and your Inner World. Talks for several Centering Prayer groups.
Talks explored the complementary aspects of Thomas Keating's teachings and the view of the inner world as described by mystics and psychologists.
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Compassio: Bernie McGinn on Compassion
Bernie McGinn spent most of his career collecting and translating the writings of mystics over the past 2000 years. He concluded that any authentic inner encounter with God led to a significant increase in compassion for those who are struggling or excluded from the main of society.
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God and You: Sacred Tandem (GYST)
Presentations to ecumenical groups.
Ecumenical presentations in which three people, each from different faith traditions, each gave a TED-like talk about their faith's perspective on a topic, such as compassion. After these presentations, members from each faith tradition met with others from different faith traditions to share how their faith tradition helped them be more compassionate. The event concluded with a panel discussion in which speakers shared the gems of other faith traditions which they found helpful.
GYST1 Ecumenical discussion of a faith tradition's perspectives on compassion. Faith traditions represented at this meeting were Mennonite, Sikh, and Lutheran; GYST2 Ecumenical discussion of perspectives on compassion. Faith traditions represented at this meeting were Presbyterian, Anabaptist, and Jewish.
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WORSHIP SERVICES
House as a Metaphor for a Person (worship service in Presbyterian church)
A worship service with new lyrics for several songs using the melody and words to express the atmosphere of our inner world where a person can meet with their Divine Companion; sacred storytelling reenactment of Jesus meeting Zacchaeus that imagines Zacchaeus’ inner world; sermon that weaves together spiritual and psychological house metaphors, each one elaborating a certain aspect of our inner world.
The Kin-dom Within (Worship service in a Methodist church)
A worship service with new lyrics for several hymns words to express the atmosphere of intimacy with the Indwelling God; the theme for the service was “The Kin-dom Within” based on Luke 17:21.
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A SpiriTED Dialogue (service at a Unity church)
A presentation for a secular audience that explores the overlap between psychological and spiritual perspectives on a person’s experiences. Combined short presentations, live music, guided meditations and conversations among people attending.
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Mustard Seed Sermon (worship service in Methodist church)
Viewing the parable mustard seed as a way of understanding how desire and reverence act in your inner world
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Syrophoenician Sacred Storytelling (gospel presentation in Methodist church)
re-enacting the Gospel story of the woman who wouldn’t take “No” as the answer; how a persistent holy desire can change the direction of your life
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RETREATS
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Integrating the Ideas of Teresa of Avila and Thomas Keating
Teresa of Avila described our inner world as having some aspects that are mainly human and some aspects that are capable of being receptive to the indwelling Beloved. Thomas Keating described our inner world as having an Own-Made Self (his later term for the False Self) and the True Self. Combining their descriptions can enrich our understanding of our inner world.
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The Holy Partnership
Explores how our sense of our inner world can lay the foundation (or create obstacles) to forming a holy partnership with our Divine Companion; explores the Divine Dance that involves one inner step of reverence and one outer step of service.
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Embracing the Divine Companion
This retreat explored the inner landscape of a person as home to a person and the indwelling Divine Companion who seeks to embrace you and be your partner in the adventure of life, in both challenges and opportunities.
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Romancing the Divine Indwelling
Exploring Thomas Keating's teachings in terms of suggestions for fostering a deeper intimacy with the Divine Indwelling (also called the Divine Companion).