wonder or radical amazement

ryan, new to the blog world, posted this at integral awakening:

wonder: v. desire or to be curious to know something.

we discussed co-creating and establishing a sense of wonder with a group, which I believe applies to any group, community, or relationship, for that matter...When we are part of a group or community, a key component is "having awareness of others", and more importantly, "others having the awareness of that awareness." ...When we have an awareness of others, we wonder about them - what is happening in their life, what are they thinking, feeling, seeing, believing, being, doing? And in turn, others are aware we are wondering about them, and vice versa. And it is through this mutual awareness, wondering, that fosters and fuels the blossoming of meaningful relationships, groups, communities, and dialogues - it is the lifeblood of groups.

and more wonder from a torah portion on learning to listen

Abraham Joshua Heschel would begin his lectures with a startling announcement: "Ladies and Gentlemen, a great miracle has just happened." People would immediately sit forward, eager to know what happened. "The sun just went down," he’d say. They would stare at him, wondering if he’d lost his mind. Some would laugh, others would shake their heads. Then he would begin to describe the inner life of the religious person. What does it mean to be religious? How does a religious person see the world? He’d challenge the audience: What have you lost when you lose the capacity to wonder at a sunset? What sort of person are you when you’re no longer surprised or impressed, no longer compelled to stop and notice the sun setting? What do you lose when life becomes so dull?

"Wonder, or radical amazement," Heschel wrote, "is the chief characteristic of the religious man’s attitude toward history and nature. One attitude is alien to his spirit: taking things for granted, regarding events as a natural course of things. As civilization advances, the sense of wonder declines. Such decline is an alarming symptom of our state of mind. Mankind will not perish for want of information, but only for want of appreciation. The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living."

i value the presence of wonder in my community

comments:
thanks, Ashley, for continuing this conversation. I think your posts help others to wonder more about life. Your quotes really hit home for me, particularly how devistating it is for us to lose our sense of awe about life. Have you studied logotherapy? The concept of existential vacuum I believes ties into this.
ryan | Email | Homepage | 06.10.04 - 4:17 pm | #

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i love the suddenness of wonder, how an object reaches out a grabs every ounce of my being, leaving me breathless and bewildered, filled with reverence and the eros of love, silent before this new revelation dissolving my certainties, shifting ego from its grooves.

cool cool water running down my back
thomas | 06.10.04 - 11:30 pm | #

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http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040610.html

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040531.html
thomas | 06.10.04 - 11:43 pm | #

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Ah! Ashley, you are the dazzling and modest embodiment of the Goddess of Wonder and Radical Amazement!

love, Christy
Christy Lee-Engel | Email | Homepage | 06.12.04 - 2:25 am | #

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ryan and christy,

thanks for letting me know that my sourcery (hee hee!!) is working and evoking the juices of wonder and amazement. i'd say it's a passion of mine!

i did a quick search on logotherapy... it does seem to tie right in. i look forward to learning more, i'd never heard of it before.

thomas,

you point out a rich piece... wonder with reverence vs. wonder with skepticism... wonder with reverence invites the object into one's being, encouraging breathless bewilderment and the dissolving of certainties. i'm thinking that wonder (or more accurately curiosity) with skepticism is driven by control and one's need for/dependency upon certainties. instead of the eros of love filling the wonderer, the one with skeptical curiosity wanders into the object... analyzing, picking, piecing, trying to find some ground of certainty.

anyone agree or disagree?
ashley | Email | Homepage | 06.12.04 - 6:39 pm | #

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agree! on uncertainty...this from john ralston saul who says that our ability to live with uncertainty is where the 'genius in humanity is released...periodially, we seem to stare at this uncertainty in amazement, as if overwhelmed by such an unsatisfactory requirement. and then we turn back to the utilitarian manifestations of our thousands of talents and characteristics...organizing and measuring and executing...as if these talents were more real and we more mediocre...as if we were incapable of embracing what we are.’
penny | Email | 06.13.04 - 7:14 pm | #

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it's a good thing that we know (or are learning) that we're fully capable of embracing who we are!!
ashley | Email | Homepage | 06.15.04 - 10:55 pm | #

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...she says with a bit of genius...
penny | Email | 06.17.04 - 6:56 pm | #

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only a bit? hee hee!
ashley | Email | Homepage | 06.18.04 - 1:13 am | #

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rumi on 'a bit'...

let the drop of water that is you become a hundred mighty seas.

but do not think the drop alone becomes the ocean.

the ocean too, becomes the drop.

the ocean easily becomes a bit of ashley genius !
penny | Email | 06.18.04 - 7:20 pm | #