A mystical experience at nineteen changed David Cassian Cole's life forever — setting him on a journey through Celtic spirituality, Christian mysticism, Eastern Orthodox hesychasm, twenty years inside a dispersed new monastic order, and now the teaching of Fr. Bede Griffiths and a recontextualization of Christianity through the Upanishads. David's is a life devoted to truth, wherever it leads.
We talk about the Cosmic Christ, panentheism and the sacredness of nature, the Jesus Prayer and Sanskrit mantra, suffering and spiritual dryness, and what it means, in his words, to "release the divine from all of our concepts."
David Cassian Cole is the founder of Waymark Ministries and author of The Celtic Year, Celtic Prayers & Practices, The Mystic Path of Meditation, and The Art of Peace: Life Lessons from Christian Mystics. Visit: www.waymarkministries.org
Chapters
00:10 The Mystical Experience: Encountering the Cosmic Christ
11:58 Living in the Mystery, Not in the Knowing
15:48 Celtic Spirituality: Seeing and Experiencing the Divine in and through Nature
21:27 Understandings of Nature: Reductionist, Pantheism, & Panentheism
27:53 New Monasticism: A Structure for Spiritual Freedom
33:29 New Monastic Vows: Simplicity, Purity, and Obedience
38:05 Rhythms of Spiritual Practice
44:15 Created to Be in Community: Individuation & Belonging
48:10 Bede Griffiths and Christianity Through an Upanishadic Lens
54:01 Devotion to Truth Over Tradition
59:29 Bede Griffiths as Guru: The Marriage of East and West
01:06:07 Shantivanam Ashram & Sanskrit Hymns and Chants
01:10:31 The Jesus Prayer and Hesychasm
01:14:39 Recontextualizing Sin as Deviation or False Belief
01:18:44 Living from Higher Consciousness
01:22:16 "God, rid me of God": Mystical Experience and Understanding of God
01:28:57 Any Experience of Love is a Divine Experience
01:31:30 Spirituality in Family Life
01:36:12 Acceptance, Compassionate Response, and Suffering as an Opportunity for Spiritual Growth
01:42:44 Dry Periods as Periods of Spiritual Transition
01:46:23 "Words Aren't Always Necessary When You Are Praying"
01:47:16 Balance between Action and Surrender
01:53:36 Waymark Ministries, Forest Church, and Community Engagement
Music for this episode by Benjamin Bigelow
