The Ethics of Dialogue: Conversation as a Spiritual Practice

What happens when we bring some of the same principles of a meditation or mindfulness practice into our conversations with each other? That is to say, what becomes possible when we become fully present and engaged in the experience of listening, speaking, and relating to others as a dialogical practice?

What forms of communion—and even shared purpose—emerge when, yes, we recognize, honor, and work with our differences, yet also go beyond our personal identities to experience presence and meaning through the art of conversation? How could a practice such as “generative dialogue” help people of the different faiths or worldviews reach new levels of intimacy—and how could we experience this sort of intimacy in other cultural contexts, including our social activism as well as our everyday lives?

Marco and Trevor discuss Trevor’s recent paper "The Ethics of Presence: New Paths in Interfaith Dialogue."

Mentioned in this Episode

People

Olen Gunnlaugson Bruce Sanguin Otto Scharmer Francisco Varela Andrew Cohen TJ Dawe Rupert Sheldrake Thomas Merton Greg Thomas Slavoj Zizek Terry Eagleton Jean Gebser Alain Badiou Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri Bruce Alderman Dustin DiPerna Andrew Venezia David Foster Wallace Emmanuel Levinas Jacques Lacan Jiddu Krishnamurti David Bohm

Organizations

EnlightenNext Next Step Integral Vancouver School of Theology

Books

On Dialogue – by David Bohm Theory U – by C. Otto Scharmer Presence – by Peter M. Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, Betty Sue Flowers The Ever-Present Origin – by Jean Gebser The Foundations of Universalism – by Alain Badiou

Websites

Beams and Struts Academia.edu

Concepts

generative dialogue, Bohmian Dialogue, pluralism, spiritual practice, Quaker Listening Practice, relationship to the other, spirituality of conversation, interfaith dialogue, communion, God, mindfulness, creativity, collective intelligence, shut the fuck up and write, field theory, morphic fields, beginner’s mind, emergence, the holy spirit, intersubjective meditation, agency and communion, jazz music, flaneur, developmental theory, Body of Christ, the multitude, irreducible singularities who come together in common, Integral Postmetaphysical Spirituality, planetary civilization, convergence

Credits

Audio Production Charles Gammill

Intro Music: “What Does Anybody Know About Anything” – by Chris Zabriskie Exit Music: “It's Always Too Late to Start Over” – by Chris Zabriskie License: Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0) More info: chriszabriskie.com