Principles as Spiritual Practice — Introduction

For those few hearty souls who read this blog from time to time, you could probably tell that writing has been a part of my spiritual practice for some time. Between the Celestial Lands Journal and now this new effort at regular theological and sociological blogging, part of my spiritual discipline is daily taking time to write. Often this is after my morning time on my Zen meditation cushions, and sometimes it is right after I wake up.

Usually, this writing is about whatever topic is on my heart or on my mind at the moment, but I like to push myself to be a little more focused than that from time to time.

My first published essay (in the book “Abiding Questions of Free Congregations“) was about learning to put the Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism into practice in your life by committing to the Zen Precepts. The primary premise that I was working with is that the Principles themselves are not easily applicable in one’s daily life… they are not specific enough.

I have begun to re-think that premise, and perhaps it is just that the principles seem that way to me because I had not gone deep enough into what each of them means as a spiritual practice.

So, I am going to, over the next several weeks, commit to doing a “series” with this blog, specifically looking at each of the seven principles from the perspective of how they could become a spiritual practice and discipline lived in one’s daily life. For my spiritual practice of writing, this will commit me to being more focused than I usually am. It will also hopefully provide the groundwork for a sermon later this summer, and perhaps an Adult Religious Education Curriculum.

I look forward to your engagement with these essays over the coming weeks, and to learning from you how the principles are active in your daily lives. You can respond privately through my email at david @ celestiallands.com or also through this blog by the comment section below.

I look forward to the journey together.

Yours in faith,

David

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