Love

I just returned from the fifth of six installments of the Introduction to Shalom Process Leadership training up at Shalom Mountain Retreat and Study Center. Since October, 30 of us have engaged in not only a deep inquiry into the mechanics of leading a Shalom retreat, but also an adventure into the exploration of the Self and much else. As often as not, the central learnings of each month's installment has more to do with lessons of the heart than with specific process leadership techniques.

This weekend raised an example for me of what Wilber has called the "myth of the given", that is, each of us will interpret our state experiences through our own peculiar lenses. Those lenses are not only tinted with the hues of our particular levels of development, but with our cultural and family myths, language, and shared beliefs. My own lenses are heavily tinted, for example, with the hues of my Christian upbringing, perhaps moreso than the Zen tints I've added in my adulthood.