For those of you who missed the talk and haven’t read this paper, I am posting it here again. Click on the following link to bring the paper up in .pdf format:
The Mystical Symbolism of the Green Phoenix
Basically an overview of the symbolism behind the Green Phoenix, this paper presents the spiritual underpinnings of what we are trying to do at the Institute. An excerpt follows:
Fundamentally, my hope is that the Green Phoenix Institute will be a sacred space for healing, self-cultivation, and awakening. In my case, each of these elements – all fundamental aspects of our sacred human heritage – has been essential to my life. And each of these requires a time and place for us as human beings to experience – to connect to them. When I took on the job of remodeling this building, I felt – and still feel – that our community is in need of, and ready for, a temple, and traditionally a temple is a facility in which these three – healing, self-cultivation, and awakening – can transpire. A temple is the iconic and archetypal place to hold space and time for these practices, these elements of sacred life. I suppose it is due to our idealistic leanings that it came down to my family and me to manifest this space. But ultimately, that is just part of the dance of the one and the many. There is no separate me here to do anything, and in the course of events most of the work was and is done by others. This body-mind held the intention, however, and so I felt – when Joel asked me to begin giving talks for the Center – that I should first speak about the motivation and intention behind the Green Phoenix Institute.
