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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue'> </span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=2 color="#333399"
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:
Arial;color:#333399'>Michael wrote</span></font><font size=2 color="#333399"
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333399'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#333399" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333399'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span class=GramE><font size=2
face=Verdana><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:
Arial'>The levels, yes.</span></font></span><font size=2 face=Verdana><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial'> This
is one of the things I'm trying to get in the attention. Not as an
explanation or a way for convincing, but that there is some powerful
essence that can be discovered keeping in mind what
a real Open Space is: to respect the Space of the others and to leave
it up to their choice what level they would like to go in to.</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#333399" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333399'>This conversation
reminds me of some things I’ve read recently about and by Meister
Eckhart, a 14<sup>th</sup> century theologian.<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>
</span>Eckhart talked about letting go and letting be as an essential aspect of
spirituality.<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>Eckhart’s
description of letting go and letting be, as well as his linking of that choice
with spirituality, seems to parallel some of the conversation here.<span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>Here are a few excerpts:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#333399" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333399'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#333399" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333399'>“Eckhart
invented the words for letting go and letting be.<span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>The two words are Abgeschiedenheit and
Gelassenheit respectively….”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#333399" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333399'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#333399" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333399'>Abgeschiedenheit
evokes a mind that is on the way to dispossession from all exteriority which
might spoil its serenity.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#333399" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333399'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#333399" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333399'>Gelassenheit comes
from the word lassen, to let go, to relinquish or abandon.<span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>It also means to allow or permit.<span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>It suggests openness and receptivity.<span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>“It means, says Eckhart, to be ‘receptive
of all spirit.’”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#333399" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333399'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#333399" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333399'>“Thus what
letting go does is to develop sensitivity and openness to the spirit and this
receptivity results in letting be…. Letting be is an act of respecting
the autonomy of all things.<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>‘It
designates the attitude of a human who no longer regards objects and events according
to their usefulness, but who accepts them in their autonomy.’ <span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>Thus a good synonym for letting be might be
reverence.<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>Letting be is an attitude of
reverence for all things that allows them to be themselves and God’s selves.
This represents one more reason why the path of letting go and letting be is not
one of putting down anything or any event.<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'>
</span>It is rather to enter so fully into events and things that we reverence
all that is there.<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>This reverence is a
gentle letting be.<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>‘What is being
spoken of here is to meet with gentleness, in true humility and selflessness,
everything which comes your way.’”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#333399" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333399'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#333399" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333399'>“Letting oneself
be oneself and letting others be themselves.”<span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#333399" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333399'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#333399" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333399'>“One cannot
learn this [to perceive God in all things] by flight, by fleeing from things,
and from externality to solitude, but one must learn to cultivate an inward
solitude, wherever or with whomsoever one may be.<span
style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>One must learn to break through things and to
grasp one’s God in them and to be able to picture him powerfully to
oneself in an essential manner.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#333399" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333399'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#333399" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333399'>“The letting go
Eckhart advocates…. is a letting go of the I in order to let the <span
class=GramE>We</span> happen.”<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#333399" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333399'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color="#333399" face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:#333399'>Julie<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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