The Blue Sapphire of the Mind

Notes for a Contemplative Ecology

De: Douglas E. Christie

Narrado por: Chris Ruen

"There are no unsacred places," the poet Wendell Berry has written. "There are only sacred places and desecrated places." What might it mean to behold the world with such depth and feeling that it is no longer possible to imagine it as something separate from ourselves, or to live without regard for its well-being? To understand the work of seeing things as an utterly involving moral and spiritual act? Such questions have long occupied the center of contemplative spiritual traditions.

In The Blue Sapphire of the Mind, Douglas E. Christie proposes a distinctively contemplative approach to ecological thought and practice that can help restore our sense of the earth as a sacred place. Drawing on the insights of the early Christian monastics as well as the ecological writings of Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, Annie Dillard, and many others, Christie argues that, at the most basic level, it is the quality of our attention to the natural world that must change if we are to learn how to live in a sustainable relationship with other living organisms and with one another. He notes that in this uniquely challenging historical moment, there is a deep and pervasive hunger for a less fragmented and more integrated way of apprehending and inhabiting the living world - and for a way of responding to the ecological crisis that expresses our deepest moral and spiritual values.

Christie explores how the wisdom of ancient and modern contemplative traditions can inspire both an honest reckoning with the destructive patterns of thought and behavior that have contributed so much to our current crisis, and a greater sense of care and responsibility for all living beings. These traditions can help us cultivate the simple, spacious awareness of the enduring beauty and wholeness of the natural world that will be necessary if we are to live with greater purpose and meaning, and with less harm, to our planet.

©2013 Oxford University Press (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

The Elephant Named Buddhism

I can’t understand why the author keeps referring to basic concepts and principles underlying Buddhist philosophy but not calling it that and attributing all historical contemplative spiritual thought to some sort of Christian tradition that he keeps referring to. I feel like there’s an elephant in the room called Buddhism that he refuses to name, and that furthermore he’s suggesting that the Christian tradition embrace, and the way that he is framing it feels a lot like appropriation. Booooooooo.

Wonderfully unexpected

A delightful and meandering look at the christian contemplative tradition and its immersion with beingness and the natural world. An important book for our times.

The real deal

A splendid introduction to the earl Christian contemplative tradition and how it is relevant to the great ecological upheaval we find ourselves in today.