Dear Friends in Silence,
I hope you don't mind my adding to your inbox by sending this short post as a follow up to yesterday's Silentium Spiritual Practice Group gathering - I couldn't wait!
I hope those present will agree with me, that the dominant emotion the evenings reflections and sharings evoked in people was AWE. You can imagine then my own awe, when getting up to go for my walk this morning, looking forward to listening to the long awaited new episode of The On Being Podcast, to find that the title of it was 'The Thrilling New Science of Awe' - WOW!
But the most awesome thing for me was, as I listened, that the conversation named and affirmed what had evoked our emotion of awe during yesterdays gathering. Here is a little of what Dachner Keltner, the scientist Krista Tippet was interviewing, had to say when she asked him what, through his research, he found most commonly evoked the emotion of awe in people:
Dacher Keltner: The first surprise was: it’s other people around us — everyday people — who bring us awe, and what we called moral beauty.
Krista Tippett: And I love that language, “moral beauty.”
Dacher Keltner:Yeah, kindness, courage, overcoming obstacles. You know, saving people’s lives. Just time and time again the most common source of awe is other people.
I love that language of 'moral beauty' too and the word I'm going to put on it, so I can bring it back to the practice which is our focus here in Silentium, is LOVE.
Here are the links to the episdode both from Spotify and the On Being website where you can also view the full transcript. If On Being isn't already a part of your regular listening I can't recommend it highly enough - it was always great but I have a sense it's evolving to a whole new level this season.
Dacher Keltner: The Thrilling New Science of Awe
To listen on the On Being Website click HERE
Just in case you couldn't make it last night, or, if you were there but would like to view it again, here is a link to the interview with Ilia Delio which featured last night as our '3rd thing'. It's available for a one week viewing window from today:
I hope you have a lovely weekend everyone.
Go Well and God Bless
John