"Reason Integrally Considered"...

Today's pre-Christmas post comes to you from Dean Brackley's "The Call to Discernment in Troubled Times" a great book. In Chapter 17 he is discussing "Ten Touchstones for Discernment" - ten important pieces to foster and facilitate truthful discernment. The first touchstone is "Reason and Science" and he states:
"To understand reality and act well, we must use our heads. We must observe, read, remember, question, interpret, think and dialogue. In short, we must reason. And we have to do so systematically. We need the sciences - philosophy, psychology, the social sciences and all the other disciplines. Yet reason by itself is not enough. Reality is reasonable, but we are naive if we suppose that reason alone can take us to it. Because reality is vast and complex, and because of our biases, getting at the truth requires reason integrally considered - that is, reason enriched by experience, practice, imagination, and affectivity; reason rooted in personal transformation; reason drawing, critically and creatively, on wisdom-traditions."

One of the main flaws in our search for health, wellness and wholeness (HW2), in my opinion, is that we are not using "reason integrally considered" in order to get out of the mess we created. Albert Einstein is purported to have said that our problems can not be solved using the thinking that created them. We have fallen into the secular trap of believing we know everything and thus can create models of HW2 that will solve the current problems with our episodic intervention portal.

Take another look at the quote above from Brackley...reason integrally considered employs reason that is enriched - not just everyday reason. It brings into our thinking our experiences and our personal transformation. By default then, if we are not transforming ourselves through careful consideration and thoughtful employment of spiritual wisdom-traditions, then we can not achieve visionary reason. We will be stuck with our everyday reason, and I have every belief that we will continue down a path that will not improve our HW2.

So, how can we get our reason to be integrally considered, not only as individuals but as communities and nations? One key aspect is to begin to name the idols that keep us in bondage - primarily the free enterprise anarchy (economy). Our pursuit of the "almighty dollar" to the exclusion of 45 million persons who are now below the Federal poverty line, is a social injustice of mamoth proportions. The fact that the Department of Corrections is now the largest provider of mental health services is another sign of our lack of integrally considered reason. There are so many other examples.

My wife came up to me this morning and said that 2011 will be a year of discernment on peace. I suspect that it will become a little more manageable in size, but this a kind of informed reason that can make a difference in our HW2. I invite you into reson integrally considered in your own situation to see what might be created. Let 2011 be a year of personal transformation and wisdom.

Peace to one and all,
Dan