Because the
life
of our spirits is so fragile,
it is very easy to ignore the budding
of our spirits,
so that our spiritual life dries up and
disappears.
If we want our spirits to grow,
we must prize and nurture whatever
inkling
of spirit we have
rather than dismissing and forgetting
these capacities
because they lack immediate practical
value.
Each week we
will explore two dimensions of our spirits
by responding to two on-line essays.
All 8 are linked from the following URL:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/C-SPIRIT.html
First week:
1. Beyond
the Life
of the Body, the 'Heart', & the Mind .
2. Ways
to Expand
Our Spirits .
Second week:
3. Self-Transcendence, Self-Criticism, & Altruism .
4. Freedom:
Transcending
Enculturation and Choosing for Ourselves .
Third week:
5. Creativity: Making Something Genuinely New .
6. Love:
The
I-Thou Encounter, Discovering Other Persons of Spirit .
Fourth week:
7. The
Disclosure of Existential Anxiety
and
other Manifestations of Our Existential Predicament .
8. Glimpses
of Joy and Fulfillment .
There is also a printed resource for this seminar:
Spirituality for
Humanists: Six Capacities of Our Human Spirits.
This 24- page book is available free of charge on the Internet.
You may down-load and/or print-out
this
book for your personal use.
If you would like to have a printed and
bound copy,
that will costs you only $1 or $2,
depending on the format you choose.
These will be available for purchase in class.
Each chapter of the printed book
corresponds closely with an on-line essay above.
We must take
time to let our spirits breathe.
Perhaps in dialogue with other sensitive
persons in spiritual quest,
we can become better attuned to our
inward
lives and stimulate our spirits to grow.
Ultimately, our
growth in spirit is an individual process,
but perhaps in sensitive dialog with
other persons on the way,
we can become better attuned to our inner
dimensions of spirit.
The seminar leader,
James Park, is an existential philosopher
and author of the on-line essays and the small book.
He spends
his time thinking, reading, writing,
and leading classes like this one, all
of which help him to expand his spirit.
DATE & TIME: (When would be best for you?).
PLACE: (open to suggestions for locations in Minneapolis and St. Paul).
FEE: Free of charge (unless something
must be paid for the meeting room).
syllabus for distant learners:
You might also get
a bit of inspiration from
the outline
of a presentation on Spirituality for Humanists.
If you would like to
read a very short presentation (3-pages),
which summarizes all the basic points,
go to the cyber-sermon
on Spirituality for Humanists.
suggestions for offering this seminar
in other places:
The above course descriptions
may be adapted
to suit other situations of people getting together
to explore their capacities of spirit.
(1) Alternative titles for the seminar:
If you want to offer
this class, choose whichever title
would draw the people you want to attract.
Which titles avoid the mistaken impression that this class might be pop spirituality?
(1) SPIRITUALITY FOR HUMANISTS:
SIX CAPACITIES OF
OUR HUMAN SPIRITS
(2) SPIRITUALITY WITHOUT GODS:
SIX CAPACITIES OF
OUR HUMAN SPIRITS
(3) EXPLORING THE HUMAN SPIRIT:
RATIONAL SPIRITUALITY
(4) INTRODUCING EXISTENTIAL SPIRITUALITY:
SIX CAPACITIES OF
OUR HUMAN SPIRITS
(5) A RATIONAL EXPLORATION OF THE HUMAN
SPIRIT
________________________________________________________
(2) Facilitator of seminar:
The leader of the discussion should be someone There is no separate
study-guide.
The text itself should be sufficient
to stimulate lots of interesting discussion.
And each chapter is only 3 or 4 pages
long,
short enough for anyone to read before
the class.
Participants are simply asked to illustrate
how
freedom, creativity, love, angst, etc.
—the
various capacities of our human
spirits—
manifests themselves in our own lives.
And before the class
begins,
the faciltator should clarify any obscure
points
with the author of the text.
If questions arise in the mind of the
facilitator,
they will probably also arise in the
seminar.
_________________________________________
(3) Number of meetings:
This seminar was originally
developed as an 8-session class,
two hours each session, meeting once
a week,
at the First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis.
The text was actually written as a result
of offering this seminar several times.
If there are only about
10 people in the seminar,
then one hour (half of one session)
is enough to discuss each chapter or each cyber-sermon.
But if there are 10-20 participants,
then more time would be better,
since that allows each person to explain
in depth
how he or she experiences that dimension
of his or her spirit.
More time for more
participants is especially needed
for the meeting in which creativity is
explored.
Participants are invited to demonstrate
examples of their own creativity.
But in recent times,
many people are too busy
to commit themselves to a class of 8
sessions.
Thus, 4 sessions, as outlined in the
full course-description,
is a length more likely to succeed.
course description as submitted to EXCO July 20, 2009:
Hello
EXCO organizers, Because the
life
of our spirits is so fragile,
Each week we
will explore two dimensions of our spirits First week: 1. Beyond
the Life
of the Body, the 'Heart', & the Mind . 2. Ways
to Expand
Our Spirits . Second week: 3. Self-Transcendence,
Self-Criticism, & Altruism . 4. Freedom:
Transcending
Enculturation and Choosing for Ourselves . Third week: 5. Creativity:
Making Something Genuinely New . 6. Love:
The
I-Thou Encounter, Discovering Other Persons of Spirit . Fourth week: 7. The
Disclosure of Existential Anxiety 8. Glimpses
of Joy and Fulfillment .
There is also a printed resource for this seminar: We must take
time to let our spirits breathe.
Ultimately, our
growth in spirit is an individual process,
Class time: Probably a week-day evening, four weeks in a row. Class Dates: Beginning a convenient week in October Place: Lofts on Arts Avenue #218, 1829 3rd Ave. So., Minneapolis. Class size: At least 10, but no more than 20. What experience do you bring to this class? I have offered this class several times before,
I am submitting the following course description
in a format that you might adapt for all such submissions.
I will insert the correct hyperlinks
once the course description is posted on the EXCO website
---unless you have an easy way to include them from below.
Fall 09
Religion & Spirituality
Mpls.
Potential
When Enough Sign-Up
Course title:
ARE YOU A PERSON OF SPIRIT?
SIX CAPACITIES OF OUR HUMAN SPIRITS
Name of facilitator:
James Park
E-mail:
PARKx032@TC.UMN.EDU
Phone:
(612) 871-7275
course description:
Being together with other persons of spirit
can help us to tune-in to our higher capacities.
In the first
meeting we will attempt to define and distinguish
these four dimensions of our selves:
(1) our physical dimension (given by
our genes);
(2) our emotional-psychological dimension
(learned since birth);
(3) our intellectual dimension
(characterized
by words, verbal learning); &
(4) our spiritual dimension (beyond body,
heart, and mind;
manifest in the following 6 capacities).
Our human
spirits
show themselves in these six phenomena:
(1) self-transcendence,
self-criticism,
& altruism;
(2) freedom—our ability to shape our
own lives;
(3) creativity—our ability to bring
something
new into being;
(4) love—which opens us to encountering
others as Thou;
(5) anxiety—which puts us in touch with
our underlying Malaise;
(6) joy & fulfillment—opening to
living beyond angst and despair.
it is very easy to ignore the budding
of our spirits,
so that our spiritual life dries up and
disappears.
If we want our spirits to grow,
we must prize and nurture whatever
inkling
of spirit we have
rather than dismissing and forgetting
these capacities
because they lack immediate practical
value.
by responding to two on-line essays.
All 8 are linked from the following URL:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/C-SPIRIT.html
and
other Manifestations of Our Existential Predicament .
Spirituality for
Humanists: Six Capacities of Our Human Spirits.
This 24- page book is available free of charge on the Internet.
You may down-load and/or print-out
this
book for your personal use.
If you would like to have a printed and
bound copy,
that will costs you only $1 or $2,
depending on the format you choose.
These will be available for purchase in class.
Each chapter of the printed book
corresponds closely with an on-line essay above.
Perhaps in dialog with other sensitive
persons in spiritual quest,
we can become better attuned to our
inward
lives and stimulate our spirits to grow.
Would you like to expand your circle
of
friends to include other persons
who are seeking to deepen their lives
and get into better touch with their spirits?
Have you been looking for a group that
will facilitate your spiritual growth?
but perhaps in sensitive dialog with
other persons on the way,
we can become better attuned to our inner
dimensions of spirit.
if enough have signed-up by then.
This course description will be updated
after those signed-up have been asked
for their input about the best day of the week.
during which I wrote the book used in this seminar.
Later I re-created the chapters as on-line discourses,
which are the primary resource for this seminar.
I have written 4 other books on spirituality.
If you would like to know more about me,
I have a personal website:
An Existential Philosopher's Museum:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/
And here is a summary of my career in alternative adult education:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~parkx032/JP-AL-ED.html
This includes a list of other classes I am still interested in offering.