Franciscan Mysticism: Becoming What You Already Are | Richard Rohr

The experience of god inside oneself is often called Franciscan Mysticism. It's about becoming what you already are, and the profound wisdom St. Francis imparted for living in harmony with both ourselves as well as others around us can be seen throughout this lecture by Richard Rohr, exploring some key aspects that make up his understanding of how we should live our lives based off these teachings.

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"I come from the mystic Sufi tradition, which seeks insight, understanding, and wisdom from many of the great spiritual traditions. Among my favorites are Taoism, Zen Buddism, indigenous philosophy, and scientific pantheism. I also consider myself an atheist and an agnostic. So why am I sharing this video about Christian mysticism? Because I personally find myself enriched by learning about other mystic traditions - seeing the commonalities between all of them, and how they often speak to similar concepts but use different words and poetry to describe essential truths. For instance, from a mystic's perspective, god, the Tao, and the great mystery are all names for the universe. This is what I learned from growing up as a Sufi. Underneath the different words and cultural/historical contexts, virtually all religions and spiritual traditions share an underlying essence, which we call wisdom. The love of Christ is the love of Buddha. Christ consciousness, enlightenment, and being one with the Tao - they all speak to similar transcendent states of consciousness that humanity has experienced throughout time and across cultures. I get a lot of enjoyment from seeing the oneness within the world's spiritual diversity.

For the longest time, I have to admit, Christianity was not my favorite way of speaking about these ideas, due to conservative and fundamentalist interpretations being the most dominant where I live, so coming across this mystical interpretation of Christianity was truly refreshing. I may have to add this to the long list of spiritual traditions I resonate and identify with." - Tim Hjersted

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