commons

I'm thinking about starting a new website. FaithCommons has done well, these past three years, and it probably has more life in it. But I want to open another path, one that might be difficult to begin unless it has its own space.

The focus of the site will be human spirituality and its development. And the premise of it is that spiritual maturity makes possible the highest that humans and humanity can attain, that of enlightenment, salvation, nirvana and the kingdom of God.

continue reading "Thinking About Starting a New Website"

The recent murder of leadership in Pakistan is one more incident among many like it down through history that bears witness to a deeper problem.  While most of the world is horrified by the taking of lives in the public domain where humanity would like to feel comfortable to walk about, somewhere there is a group of people who regards these events as heroic -- even as a public witness to their submission to the greater power of God.

continue reading "Commons and Difference"

All

Recent readings in the Trail of Tears has shown me that, in part, the treaties that took the land from the natives relied on the lack of restriction to create privatization, or one might say, total restriction.  It has been expressed as a way of thinking that the natives did not so much consider that the land belonged to them as that they belonged to the land.  Not just a play on words, but an expression of world view that differed totally from the European mindset of settlers in the New World.

continue reading "Does the Private Sector Comprehend a Commons?"

As I struggle along the path to understanding Faith in our emergent, quantum, relative, global world commons¹, I'd like to offer this working definition of faith.

faith: n. due diligence to relationship

continue reading "A Working Definition of Faith: v1"

This conference paper that I recently found on the 'net very well describes the notion of a Commons of Faith that has been simmering in my head these past two years since this website was born.

While Commons is generally thought of as a "liberal" and anti-corporate concept, these are not necessary. As in all things, moderation and balance are best. In fact, political parties are themselves guilty of taking concepts from the public common vernacular and using them for their own private gains, such that they are no longer useful for their original meaning. Enclosure and private property are useful concepts, but they are very harmful when allowed to enrich the few at the expense of the many, or to pollute or rape shared resources and environments at the expense of latter generations. But where does faith come in, you might ask?

From the perspective of faith, the commons is the ultimate reality. The universe, even the existence itself, is the common space in which all are at home. The universe is the ultimate free gift—not one of us invented it, not one of us can ever privatize it. Ultimately we are brought int life by such a commons, [live] our life within it, and conclude our lives within it. Indeed, that ultimate commons is graciously accepting of all who life here—"God makes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust"—the gift of existence is provided by the cosmic commons with gracious equality for all. (Harold Munn, Faith in the Commons)

continue reading "Faith in the Commons"