
Background:
I was born and raised in Newport, Rhode Island on the island of Aquidneck. I still hear the ocean's call.
I did my undergraduate work in
philosophy at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.
I hold two
earned doctorates: one in ecclesiastical law (J.C.D., 1966) from
the Lateran University in Rome, Italy
and one in philosophy
(Ph.D., 1982) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill.
On a personal note, I am married to
Gregg Winn Sullivan who is my love. My ongoing living and learning are
intimately intertwined with hers. Together, we taught the Quest for
Wholeness course at Elon for thirteen years. The last class was
in the academic year 2005-2006. Quest was a two-semester mentorship
offered to some 16 select juniors and seniors. It met once a week to
create a space where learning and life could be integrated from the perspective
of the humanities. It was a year-long commitment to daily practice, to the
"inner work" of leadership, personal development and, in general, "living
large."
I have one daughter, Heather
Anne Votta Sullivan, who, after serving in the Peace Corps in Honduras, is
now doing graduate studies in Political Science at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is exploring the first half of life while I am
exploring the second half. Often, we deal with similar issues from
different places on life's spiral path.. Also, I cherish a step-daughter:
M.J, two step-sons: Dusty and Paul, and 5 grandchildren: Jonathan, Amanda, James, Cody and Mary
Elizabeth.
For some time, I had a double focus for my work:
I was on the faculty of Elon University in the town of Elon, North Carolina [between Burlington and Greensboro, NC].
I also worked with the Tai
Sophia Institute for the Healing Arts (formerly the Traditional Acupuncture
Institute) whose campus is at 7750 Montpelier Road, Laurel, MD
20723 [between Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD -- off exit 15 on Route 29]. See
http://www.tai.edu
In all my work,
I bring a concern for ethics and leadership, transpersonal developmental
psychology, philosophy of religion and Eastern philosophy.
My abiding interest is in the place where
philosophy, psychology and spirituality -- East, West and beyond --
intersect and
mutually enhance one another.
Contact Information:
Address: John G. Sullivan, Ph.D.****************************************************************************************************************************
MY
WORK AT ELON UNIVERSITY:
I joined the Elon faculty in 1970. In
1979-80, I received the Daniels-Danieley Award for Excellence in Teaching
-- a one-time-only award. From 1985 until my retirement in spring of
2006, I have held the Maude Sharpe Powell Professorship in Philosophy. On
August 19, 2002, I was named Elon's first Distinguished University
Professor. I retired from Elon after the spring semester of 2006 and
was awarded "emeritus status". By then, I had taught at Elon for
thirty-six year.
Throughout my time at Elon, I have played an
active role in shaping the direction of the Department of Philosophy. The Elon
Philosophy Department's mission has several forms. One short form is
simply
For many years, we thought of our program in these terms:
"In dialogue with the past, we enter inquiry together
into enduring human concerns
so as to enrich our common
life and deepen our care for the world in its
unfolding."
"Philosophy" means "love of wisdom." Philosophy, for us, has both a wisdom orientation and a practical intent. Our approach
I am a long-time participant in the ongoing inquiries sponsored by the Tai Sophia Institute in Laurel, Maryland. I co-founded in 1987 and taught until 2002 in the Institute's SOPHIA project (School of Philosophy and Healing In Action), a program for adult learners that applies the principles underlying Chinese medicine to everyday life. The mission statement of SOPHIA is:
"To come to life more fully
so as to serve life
more
wisely and more nobly:
Sagely stillness, within;
Sovereign
service, without."
It is largely out of this work that I wrote my first book, To Come to Life More Fully: An East West Journey (Columbia, MD: Traditional Acupuncture Institute, 1991).and my recent book Living Large: Transformative Work at the Intersection of Ethics and Spirituality (Laurel, MD: Tai Sophia Institute, 2004).
I was principal designer and first
"director-at-a-distance" (2002-2004) of a new initiative at Tai Sophia
Institute: a Master of Arts in Applied Healing Arts program for adult
learners in all walks of life. In January 2002, this program
enrolled its first class. The first class to graduate recieved their degrees in
June 2005.
The courses in the Applied Healing Arts Program are taught in an
executive format. I teach in the following of the core courses: Basic
Sophia, Recovering Oneness with Nature, and Practicing Stillness
through the Timeless Wisdom Traditions. [I do not teach in the other core
courses: Calling and Commitment, New Science; New Thinking, and Practicing
Service in all the Arenas of Life.]
The MA in Applied Healing Arts has a three-fold mission. To offer:
- a WIDER WORLD -- a framework rooted in nature and timeless wisdom -- large enough to have place for science, art and spirituality;
- a DEEPER WORK -- a set of practical habits of mind-and-heart designed to aid us to recognize when we are in small mind and to shift to larger mind-and-heart -- what is called in the wisdom traditions "the practice of the art of living and the art of dying;" and
- a GRATEFUL, FOCUSED GIFT -- where the framework and the practices are applied to a specific area of life where they will make a difference
This program teaches the skills to become a practitioner for life, to become a healing presence
so that wherever one is there will be less surplus suffering and more creative possibility for our common life.
In this way, the program emphasizes
Commitment in Oneness
formed with attention to New Science, New Thinking
expressed in
Meditative Stillness and Effective Service.
It echoes Frederick Buechner's beautiful declaration: “To find our calling is to find the intersection between our own deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger.” It invites learners to integrate some of the new thinking in science with the oldest timeless wisdoms East and West and places all this at the service of all our kin -- what poet Gary Synder calls "The Great Family" and includes all creatures on the earth.
Everyone, it is said, will sooner
or later have their fifteen minutes of fame. Mine came in
delivering the Elon Commencement speech on May 25th, 2002. I had been,
since 1980, Elon's designated back-up commencement speaker. Reporter Daniel
Golden in a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal (May 14, 2002) dubbed me
"the unofficial dean of the nation's standby commencement speakers. " Dan
Golden went on to write: "In his twelve minute address, Prof. Sullivan
will recount a Passover fable told by Iraqi Jews and relate it to 'freedom,
community and remembering who you are.'"
[The text of this talk can be found
at the bottom of this webpage.]
As a result of this coverage,
CNN's reporter Bruce Burkhardt did a story for Paula Zahn's American Morning
show that aired on Friday May 24, 2002. NBC reporter Bob Faw did a story
for the NBC Today Show that aired on May 28, 2002. Locally, Lisa Hartnet
interviewed me for her radio show "The State of Things" on WUNC -- a local PBS
affiliate. This show aired on Wednesday, May 22nd, 2002. The
Magazine of Elon told the "story within a story" in its Summer 2002
issue. Meridians, the journal of Tai Sophia Institute,
published the address under the title "A Story with Three Lessons," in the
Autumn 2002 issue (Vol. 9, Number 4). So perhaps good things do come to
those who wait.
Four Sample Speeches follow.
The first is my Graduation Address given on May 25, 2002;
the
second is my response to the events of September 11th, 2001, given the day after
the terrorist attacks;
the third is my response to becoming Elon's first
Distinguished University Professor, at the installation ceremonies on Oct. 24,
2002;
the fourth is an address to the university community in my final
semester before retiring. The occasion was the 31st Reynolds Memorial
Lecture held on Tuesday, February 21, 2006. This presentation looks at
universities past, present and future (or Pre-modern, Modern and
Trans-modern). In the Trans-modern, I look at what a university might look
like if it took seriously the environmental crisis that marks our time.
**************************************************
Speech #1:
Mr. President, members of the Board of Trustees, honored guests, faculty, staff, students of Elon University, and a special congratulations to you -- the graduating class of 2002.
Well. . . it's been a long time coming. For you, for me, for Elon. You are the first class graduating from Elon as "Elon University." The change happened officially last year on June the first. Most of you know that I have been "back-up speaker for graduation" for about as long as you, the members of this class, have been alive. During that time, Elon itself has felt at times like a back-up college -- a back-up to other colleges, a back-up to other universities. But here and now, as I stand with you, and you stand with me, in the power of this family, I say: "Back-up no longer! We're the A-Team now!"
In the ancient traditions, guidance is given through stories. The stories seem to be about warriors and sages, about kings and queens and commoners -- yet they are really stories about you and me and every person -- stories about a time that is ever present. Will you listen to such a story this morning? Please say “Yes!” Thank you.
Once upon a time, in a time before time was worn on the wrist, in a time out of time, in a kingdom far away, there was this unusual custom.In most kingdoms, when the ruler dies, his or her son or daughter succeeds to the throne. But in this kingdom, when the ruler died, a powerful, magical bird was released. [Perhaps a phoenix, who know?] The bird would fly around in the air above the subjects. Finally, the bird would alight upon one person. That person would be the next queen or king.
In this realm, there was a slave who worked in the palace. He was a musician who dressed in funny clothing -- a cap made of chicken feathers and a raggedy belt -- and he played music on a drum. The slave was not happy with his lot. He felt that it was degrading. He prayed to be free.
Now, it came to pass that one day the king died, and the magical bird was released. It circled the sky for some time. All watched in anticipation. Finally, it came to rest on the head of the slave, nesting itself in his hat of chicken feathers. Immediately, and to his great surprise, the slave was declared ruler of the entire kingdom. In an instant, the slave was transformed into a powerful sovereign.
The new monarch moved into the palace, donned royal attire, and took his place upon the throne. As his first royal decree, he had a tiny hut built next to the palace. The only furnishing in this little shack was a large mirror. Early every morning, the new king entered this little shack, disappearing behind the door for a short time. Then he would emerge, lock the door behind him, and return to the palace. His ministers and advisors thought that this was very peculiar behavior but, after all, he was the king now and who would question the king?
As the years went by, the sovereign passed many laws aimed at reducing, and finally eliminating all slavery and much suffering. The changes were made so gradually that no one noticed them. The king was known to all for his kindness, his justice, and his compassion, as well as his strange habit of visiting the odd little hut early every morning.
One day, his closest advisor asked, “Your Majesty, what is it that you keep in that hut of yours?”
The king led the advisor into the hut and showed him a burlap sack containing the chicken feather hat, the ragged belt, and the drum. “These,” he said, “are my most treasured possessions.”
“But these are reminders of slavery!” the advisor replied in disgust. “These are not the possessions of a king, Your Majesty!”
“Ah, but they are,” replied the king. “You see, once I was a slave and now I am free. When you made me your king, I made a promise to myself and God. I promised I would never forget that I was once a slave, lest I grow arrogant and haughty, lest I treat people as I was once treated. Every morning, I come here and dress as I was once forced to dress -- as a slave. I stare at myself in the mirror until tears come to my eyes, and only then, am I prepared to leave this hut and rule as a good king should. It is this memory which makes me the king I am. These are the most treasured possessions I have.” *
Wonderful story, don’t
you think? What makes it more wonderful is that it is a Passover
Tale told by Iraqi Jews. It echoes the great experience of Judaism –
passing over from slavery to freedom. It echoes the Christian experience
of passing over from death to life. It echoes the American experience of
passing from tyranny to liberty. We were slaves and now are
free. But this is not a process over and done with. This is our
daily work.
From this story, I offer three lessons, or perhaps better, ongoing tasks.
First, there is the ongoing task of going from being a slave to becoming free. On the outer dimension, going from slave to free is a story of growing up, going from dependence to independence. Going to college and graduating from college are moments when both you and your parents may want to say-- in the words of Dr. King -- “Free at last. Free at last. Lord God Almighty we’re free at last.” Yet even on the outer plane, things are not that simple. And on the inner plane, we are beginners indeed. If we are honest, we know that we are not free. We are enslaved by old habits, old ways of relating. Enslaved by constrictive stories and destructive roles. Enslaved by patterns of blaming and complaining, arguing and "having to be right." The first task is to be aware of how we restrict ourselves and others. To be aware. Then to learn how to drop these patterns. To drop them and recover ways to come to life more fully. In this daily work, we are aided by our deepest desires. We want to be free, long to be free, yearn to be free.
In our story, the slave took two steps simultaneously. Becoming free and becoming king. We can separate the steps. After becoming free, one steps up to service, to care for the community. You become free in order to serve social units larger than yourself – families, institutions, nations and the good earth itself. You arrive at university caught in conversations about what others and the college can do for you. If your education is truly liberating, you begin to see that you are co-responsible to make Elon and the world what it is and can be -- Phoenix rising!!
In the mythic sense, to be a sovereign means to care for a sphere of life larger than your own. You do this by bringing order into life, knowing how to put first things first. You do this by encouraging creativity. You do this by blessing the young. You become free in order to serve the common good.
The third challenge of the story asks “How do you handle adversity?” Do you translate your experience of adversity into victimhood or do you use adversity to open your heart and deepen your life? In the words of the story, what do you make of the hat the belt and the drum? Here is what I say:
Learn to see hats of chicken feathers as crowns in disguise. You are of royal lineage. You are meant to be co-responsible for all that concerns our common life.
Let the raggedy belt remind you that you are one person above and below the waist -- one person linked -- like these oaks -- to the earth below and the sky above.
Let the drum remind you of your own heartbeat. Feel your heart beat this day and know the gift of the life we share. This is the rhythm by which we work and love and tend all that we do.
These insignia cause us to stand in the place of the least of the brethren. They remind us to be compassionate to all, to stand with our brothers and sisters, to act with them for the common good.
There is a story of a monastery where the monks were constantly quarreling. A wise old monk was asked what to do. He said: Tell them that one of their number is the messiah. This is the true secret of the hut and the mirror, the hat and belt and drum -- to see the kingly, queenly, sagely dignity in every one we meet.
So this day and tomorrow and all the tomorrows given to you
-- may your heartbeat remind you of your most treasured possessions:
to be
free,
to be of service
not to forget where you came from so as
to meet everyone with a compassionate heart.
God speed. And, may the Phoenix that each of you is -- Catch the Fire!
Thank you.
John G. Sullivan
Elon University
May 25,2002
* Note: The story is a Passover Tale told by Iraqi Jews. I heard the story from my friend, Arthur Z. Steinberg, Rabbi of Temple Sinai in Portsmouth, Virginia, who used the story at a congregational seder in April 1997. He claims that the source is lost from memory so I am crediting him for preserving the story in oral tradition.
Good morning.
Let me set the scene scarcely more than 24 hours ago. The day at Elon
began around the Fonville
fountain. Sun shining. Blue
skies. Football team and coaches gathered. A marching band coming
across the quad.
Americana in pure form.
We would soon learn the
gruesome, surrealistic news. Out of the serene skies -- two-hijacked
aircraft would annihilate
the World Trade Towers. Another plane would
crash into the Pentagon. Smoke spewing forth. Fire, blood, and
suffering.
Everywhere the darkness of debris, adding blindness to
pain. This generation's Pearl Harbor.
I went to meet my 10:30
class called "Dante's Journey." My students were already watching the
news, already in the
room were tears and grief, worry and disbelief.
Ironically, this was the day we were to begin Dante's great poem -- the Divine
Comedy. This was the day we were to enter Hell with Dante.
Here is how the first
cantica begins: "At the midpoint of the journey of our life, I awoke to find
myself in a dark wood
from which there was no direct way out." And so
Dante's journey begins -- his journey through hell -- to learn the many ways
we violate one another, to experience the many faces of evil.
I said to my students: Today, we
are in the dark wood. Today, we are at the gateway to Hell. There it
is on the screen.
The Manhattan skyline, its twin towers collapsed; clouds
of smoke muffling screams of horror. The sky blackened with the
pain,
not of hurricane or flood, but the pain that humans consciously cause to other
humans.
As Dante begins his journey,
he must face three beasts. First, the leopard of disordered appetites.
Second, the lion of
bestial behavior where we trample the good of intellect
underfoot. Third, the lean and hungry wolf representing the
worst form of
evil -- when the highest capacities of humans are put to the worst of uses.
Cold, calculating intelligence in
service of cruelty and the diminution of
life. Slavery. Holocaust. Racism. Genocide. And,
in smaller but no less deathly
scope, terrorist attack.
Yesterday, on September the
11th, 2001, we glimpsed this face of evil. Cold, calculating, cruel.
Corporate evil.
Systematic evil. Evil inhabited by twisted ideologies.
A saint in our time has said
that if you give a person a gun, that person may killed dozens. But if you
give a person an
ideology, that person will willingly kill millions.
Yes, and go to sleep in the unshakable belief that he or she has kept the
faith,
stood up for the good and glorified God in the action.
The sins of the leopard come
from disordered appetites -- as when drinking to excess causes tragedy.
The sins of the
lion arise when we trample the good of intellect
underfoot. Perhaps when we face acts of mindless vandalism. The sins
of the
wolf arise when we utilize intellect and loving devotion -- the
highest human capacities -- in service of death, darkness and
cold.
Anti-life, anti-light, anti-warmth.
Are the seeds of such evil in us? Yes, and we are most often blind to it.
We descend to this circle of hell as we become
dogmatic about our country, our religion, our way of life.
We become infected by this evil as we reduce
complex matters to slogans and then exult in "being right."
We become infected by this evil when we close our
eyes to systematic injustice at home or in our foreign policy.
We become infected by this evil when we cry out for
revenge and coldly say: whatever it takes!
In a famous Zen story, a
samurai warrior comes up to a little monk and says: Teach me about heaven and
hell. "Teach
you?" the little monk replies, "why you are a dirty,
smelly, poor excuse for a samurai. Even your sword is rusty!"
Insulted, the
samurai, flush with anger, draws his sword and is about to
cleave this insolent monk in two. A split second before he strikes,
the monk
says: "That's Hell." The samurai has a moment of insight. He
realizes that this monk has gone to the very door of
death to teach
him. He fills with gratitude, his body relaxes and he sheaths his
sword. At that precise moment, the monk says:
"That's Heaven."
There is a lesson
here. Day by day, moment by moment, I can create hell or heaven. And I
have a choice, if I am awake
and alert -- In what I say and do this day,
will I choose to create hell or choose to create heaven?
And the larger lesson is
this -- one truth we humans should have learned by now. The simple truth
is this: hate is never
overcome by hate. Strange as it seems to
so-called realists of any age: hate is only overcome by love. Only
overcome by love.
Why do some of our brothers
and sisters so hate us that they will give their lives to obliterate two symbols
of our power?
How can they fail to heed the cries of our people? we
say. How can we fail to heed the cries of their people? they say. We
have mothers, fathers, sons and daughters. They have mothers, fathers,
sons and daughters. And this is how we act?
Immense, immeasurable
sadness.
"We have one moon, clear and unclouded," says the poet Ikkyu,
"And we are lost in the darkness of the world."
Having entered the gates of
hell what will we do? Create more hell? Or be a presence for peace
and the hard work of
self-reflection, repentance, wisdom and
compassion? Dante passes through hell and will soon enter the spiral path
back to the
earthly paradise. Here are the final lines of Dante's
passage through hell. "He first," Dante says of his guide, Virgil, "and I
following; till my straining sense glimpsed the heavens through a round
hole,
by this glimpse of
the heavens we climbed,"
by
this glimpse of a better way, we here in this place climb.
We are companioned too. And
together we will, as the last line of the Inferno puts it, "come forth, to look
once more
upon the stars."
Yes, we are companioned too. And together we will, "come forth, to look once more upon the stars."
May our journey lead us --
as Dante's did -- from dark wood to White Rose,
from our potential for violence and ignorance and cruelty
to our potential for living a larger life and following a higher way.
In all this, may we, who
companion one another, be moved by love,
by the great love that overcomes hate,
by, in Dante's words,
"the love that moves the sun and other stars."
And let us say: Amen.
John G. Sullivan
Elon University
September 12, 2001
Speech #3:
TO LOVE THE PILGRIM SOUL IN ELON
A response given on occasion
of being named Elon's first Distinguished University Professor
October 24, 2002
Elon is an institution that I love. I am in it and it is in me. In words adapted from William Butler Yeats, I have "loved the pilgrim soul in her and loved the sorrows of her changing face." [1]
The older I get, the more I listen to love songs. The older I get, the more the strands of my life intertwine.
This evening is, for me, a love song in which many strands intertwine. A love song for my wife, Gregg, who has also co-taught with me the Quest class for ten years. A love song to my family -- those here, those at a distance like my daughter Heather and my sister Elaine, and those like my parents and grandparents who have gone before. A love song to the philosophy department -- those here and those who have gone before. A love song for Elon -- for all of you -- for those here and not here, those who have gone before and those who will come after.
I have discovered that you become what you love. I think of Elon under four aspects -- "the work, the place, the people, and the dream." Elon -- so understood -- has become part of me. Its unfolding, part of my unfolding. Its yearning, mine. At times such as this, I glimpse my life and its life spreading out in four dimensions over space and time. I see Elon over time -- a particular place, yes. But people more -- students and staff and faculty. When I think in four dimensions, then Elon is all of us and all beyond us -- all who have shared this work. We who have struggled and loved here will always be a part of what we love. And what we love will always be a part of who we are. For me, a Fall day in 1970 and the sounds of Jack White's marching band. Spring symposia for the Liberal Arts Forum. Faces in time. Students and colleagues and those who support the work. Struggles like the one that unified the tenured Elon teaching faculty. Births and deaths. Common tragedies and common joys. The ongoing work of reinventing ourselves and our calling. Three presidents and three colleges. Throughout, I have "loved the pilgrim soul in her and loved the sorrows of her changing face."
At this juncture, we struggle to balance community and excellence. Or perhaps more radically, to discover a new form of excellence -- an excellence that is itself a community achievement. We struggle to rethink profoundly what community is and can be, to rethink profoundly what excellence is and can be. We seek to do this in the context of a faculty deeply devoted to its students. A context where the excellence co-arises from faculty and students through their common work. For us to see this, I believe we must think of our connectedness in four dimensions -- over time as well as in space.
On the occasion of Dr. Fred Young's retirement, I read these words from one of China’s greatest poet, Li Po:
And I said that, in this image, what remains for us is Elon. Yet Elon also is us -- because all that has been done from the heart -- in the spirit of service -- remains always -- like the threads in a quilt, like the veins in the rockface of a mountain, like the sound of events echoing still.The birds have vanished into the sky
and now the last clouds fade away.We sit together, the mountain and I
Until only the mountain remains.
Tonight, I want to read another poem from the Chinese -- this one a love song of a man for his wife. It is also a love song for myself and all of you. It is by Kuan Tao-Sheng. It is called “Married Love.”
In such a viewpoint, reconsider the work -- the place -- the people -- and the dream. They do not stand apart from us, over against us. We do not wait for them to give to us or us to them -- as if we were two things. Rather we are a dance within "relationships of relationship" with a new sense of community and new possibilities of excellence. Not "power over" but "partnership with." [2] We are changed by our interactions. We are in one another's clay.You and I
have so much love
that it
burns like a fire,
in which we bake a lump of clay
molded into a figure of you
and a figure of me.
Then we take both of them,
and break them into pieces,
and mix the pieces with water,
and mold again a figure of you,
and a figure of me.I am in your clay.
You are in my clay.
In life, we share a single quilt.
In death, we will share one bed.
When thinking about this
honor, I wondered what it meant to me and I to it. I thought of myself in
Thomas Aquinas' phrase as "one who holds the care of the community." I
remembered that in the mythic way of thinking such a one has three functions:
(1) to remember what is important, (2) to encourage creativity and (3)
to bless the young. If I do that -- supporting and supported by you --
then that will be my service.
Other words return to me, words
from my own Celtic tradition, again words from the poet William Butler
Yeats. The poem is called Vacillation. And we do vacillate between
hope and despair in times dark with the threat of all that opposes community and
the excellence of collaboration. Here are the words of the poet:
Tonight, in this work and place and dream I love, with people I love, I am grateful and profoundly blessed. In this place with all of you, I believe that I can bless.My fiftieth year had come and gone,
I sat, a solitary man,
In a crowded London shop,
An open book and empty cup
On the marble table-top.While on the shop and street I gazed
My body of a sudden blazed;
And twenty minutes more or less
It seemed, so great a happiness,
That I was blessèd and could bless. [3]
So let it be this way: May Elon be blessed at this time in history where the planet's fate for humans is to be decided, where we are being asked to change our lives. May Elon-the-work be blessed -- the work of learning so as to serve all life. May Elon-the-place be blessed and remind us of our rootedness through place in the web of nature. May the Elon-the-people be blessed -- all of us -- at our central core. And finally may Elon-the-dream be blessed -- the dream that links us to the Great Work, the Great Love and the Great Calling.
I thank you all from a place deeper than words.
John G. Sullivan
Elon University
October 24, 2002
1. See William Butler Yeats, The Collected Poems (New York: Macmillan
Publishing, 1940, 1956), from
"When You
are Old," pp. 40-41.
2. The phrase is from Rianne
Eisler. See her The Chalice and the Blade (San Francisco: Harper
and Row, 1987).
3. William Butler Yeats, op. cit., from
"Vacillation," pp.245-247.
Notes on the
Presentation –The Idea of a University Revisited © -John G.
Sullivan
In this presentation, I work on a large canvas sketching the
history of humankind in three epochs:: a Pre-modern Epoch lasting from the beginning of
humankind through the classical and medieval ages; a Modern Epoch beginning in 1500 C.E. and lasting
to the present; and a Trans-modern Epoch,
beginning in seed some 50 years ago and beckoning us still.
interdependent.
2. We start from perceived scarcity rather than beginning
from intersufficiency and seeing, in Gandhi’s words, that we have enough
for our need but not for
our
greed.
3. We start with the seen
only and go on to believe that only what is material and measurable
counts. We fail to prize both the seen and more subtle
forces such
as love and loyalty, compassion and caring, justice and Golden Rule fairness.
This is the logic of modernity in its destructive guise: separateness, scarcity, seen only, short term and superiority over. Good people operating under this failed logic are causing massive harm. The signs are clear – the old paradigm is unsustainable. It is equally clear that we can’t get to a sustainable future by thinking from within the cultural paradigm that generated the problems in the first place.
From Scarcity ------- --- to ------
Intersufficiency
From Seen Only --------- to -----
Interweaving of Seen & Subtle
Aspects
From Short Term Only --- to ----- Intergenerational
Time
From Superiority Over --- to ----- Intercollaboration
With
In Part III, I use this framework to examine what a
Trans-modern university, might be like. I draw especially on
the work of David Orr, The Earth in Mind (1994) and Thomas Berry, The
Dream of the Earth (1988) and The Great Work (1999).
A.
How might we awaken to our deep and dynamic interconnection with
one another and with the natural world? How might this aid us
to create true learning communities? How, in these communal
inquiries, might we learn from nature how to live in sustainable
ways? How might we use the entire university and all it
touches as a teaching vehicle?
C. How might we learn to
interweave the seen and subtle? How might we encourage thinking and
acting that promotes respect and fairness, honesty and large-mindedness,
kindness and care? How might we cultivate ethical and
spiritual dimensions?
D. How would dwelling in
intergenerational time help us to honor the ancestors, seek justice among
contemporaries, and serve the children in our midst and yet to
be?
E. What forms of intercollaboration might
emerge from a new sense of where we stand and what we commit to serve?
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