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Awakening Mind, Awakening Heart – An Evening with Cynthia Bourgeault
Liz Vickers, Victoria
Volume 28 Issue 7, 8 & 9 | Posted: September 19, 2014
Modern day mystic, Episcopal priest, writer, and internationally known retreat leader, Cynthia Bourgeault divides her time between solitude at her seaside hermitage in Maine, and a demanding schedule traveling globally to teach and spread the recovery of the Christian contemplative and Wisdom path .
The Contemplative Society, when it was formed in July 1997 on Salt Spring Island, found a principal Teacher and Advisor in Cynthia. Although she is no longer resident here in BC, Cynthia continues in her role as principal Teacher and Advisor to TCS. Through her written works, retreats and workshops, she encourages “reawakening the inner heart of Christianity itself through a direct encounter with the Wisdom Christ, our living interior master”. (Cynthia Bourgeault, April 2003).
Modern day mystic, Episcopal priest, writer, and internationally known retreat leader, Cynthia Bourgeault divides her time between solitude at her seaside hermitage in Maine, and a demanding schedule traveling globally to teach and spread the recovery of the Christian contemplative and Wisdom path .
The Contemplative Society, when it was formed in July 1997 on Salt Spring Island, found a principal Teacher and Advisor in Cynthia. Although she is no longer resident here in BC, Cynthia continues in her role as principal Teacher and Advisor to TCS. Through her written works, retreats and workshops, she encourages “reawakening the inner heart of Christianity itself through a direct encounter with the Wisdom Christ, our living interior master”. (Cynthia Bourgeault, April 2003).
She has been a long-time advocate of the meditative practice of Centering Prayer and has worked closely with fellow teachers and colleagues including Thomas Keating, Bruno Barnhart, and Richard Rohr.
Cynthia has actively participated in numerous InterSpiritual dialogues and events with luminaries and leaders such as Kabir Helminski, Swami A Atmarupananda, and Rami Shapiro.
To learn more about Cynthia Bourgeault and about The Contemplative Society, see the website www.contemplative.org.
In Cynthia’s words, “I would say that I’m creating a bridge between contemplative Christianity and action. I bring forth some of the skills in the contemplative path to help avoid the usual pitfalls of burnout, violence, judgment, and hypocrisy, and also to bring forth some of the prophetic and compassionate skills in the action traditions to help contemplatives move beyond the sense that the domain of their wisdom is “inner” work. There really is no inner and outer: There’s one world.
TCS blog post February 2014: Writing about her visit to Bhutan earlier this year.
“In the very incongruity of our situation—this VIP-style banquet spread before a humble troupe of Christian seekers—a quality of being together emerged that was artlessly pure and spontaneous, without self-importance, posturing, or ulterior motives. The sincerity and transparency of our intentions shined forth particularly brightly in the deep mutuality of our informal exchanges (which often went on till well into the night, fueled by endless cups of tea.) The high points of the journey, for me, were a riveting audience with the Vice Sangha Raj of the Monastic Body, who bathed us all in successive waves of love as he officially tied our karma to his, and a quiet Sunday Eucharist offered in a farmhouse high in the Himalayas in which two red-robed Buddhist monks participated fully. Whether these acts have any follow-up in the temporal sequence, they stand as their own absolute moments, each bearing its plenitude of meaning.”
To learn more about Cynthia Bourgeault, and the event on September 25th, see the website www.contemplative.org.
Liz Vickers, Victoria