Problems of Humanity: Buffalo Exploration Group
A Love of Truth
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    • Key Statements
  • Introduction
    • Changing Values >
      • A Question of Principle
    • Views of the Future
    • Science and the Unity of Life
    • FROM THE PISCEAN TO THE AQUARIAN AGE
    • SERVICE AND THE SERVER >
      • HEART RESPONSE
      • RIGHT USE OF THE MIND
      • RIGHT SPIRITUAL APPROACH
      • ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY
    • MEDITATION >
      • MEDITATION OUTLINE
  • The Psychological Renewal of Nations
    • MEDITATION
    • INTRODUCTION
    • INNER PSYCHOLOGY ———The qualities of the Seven Rays
    • Outer Psycholgy ———Spiral Dynamics
    • TECHNIQUES OF REHABILITATION AND RENEWAL >
      • The Teaching of History
      • Justice, Forgiveness, Truth and Reconciliation
      • The value of the arts
      • Europe: A phoenix from the ashes, harmony out of conflict
      • The Soul of Europe
      • Emerging Nation Initiatives
      • Crans Montana Forum
    • CONCLUSION
    • WORK PROPOSALS
    • Periodicals & Websites
  • Children, Youth and Education
    • Introduction
    • KEY STATEMENTS
    • Failings of the Current System
    • The Work of Men and Women of Goddwill
    • Building bridges – Conventional and Emerging Innovations >
      • Educating ourselves, not just our children (Ron Miller)
      • Spirituality in Higher Education (David K. Scott)
    • Ecoliteracy
    • Soul education
    • The Work of the United Nations >
      • The World Summit for Children and the Convention on the Rights of the Child
      • Educating the girl child
    • ALICE A. BAILEY AND AGNI YOGA ON EDUCATION
    • MEDITATION
    • List of Resources
  • Capital, Labour and Employment
    • Introduction
    • MEDITATION
    • The Problem >
      • Aspects of the problem
      • What lies at the heart of the modern materialistic difficulty?
      • Debt in an interdependent world
      • Capital gravitates towards richer countries
      • Transnational corporations (James Robertson)
      • Globalization, transnational businesses, and the UN Global Compact
      • Child labour (International Labour Organisation)
      • Facts on women at work (International Labour Organisation)
    • Towards Solution >
      • Money as energy
      • Are capitalism and sustainability mutually exclusive? (Jonathon Porritt)
      • Understanding wealth (Paul Ekins)
      • How can we raise the world’s ethical floor? (Hazel Henderson)
      • How to create a real ownership society (Jonathon Rowe)
      • Big business and sustainable development
      • Emerging new work patterns
      • The universal living wage
      • Education for good work (E F Schumacher)
      • New management — from organisations to living organisms
      • Sociocratic circle-organization method
      • A new measure for human development
    • Exercising Goodwill >
      • UNITED NATIONS: INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION
      • WORK PROPOSALS
    • Resource List
  • Racial Minorities
    • Introduction
    • The Forces of Prejudice
    • Towards Solution of the Problem >
      • Bridging: From Separateness to the One Humanity
      • Shaping Attitudes Early On: The Special Responsibilities of Schools
      • Constructive Activities
      • Four Freedoms and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
      • United Nations Actions
      • Kari-Oca Village Declaration
    • Reflections on Race >
      • Minorities Today
      • Human Rights and Freedoms
      • A New Type of Education
      • Racism Has No Scientific Basis
      • Differing Perceptions
      • Prejudice and Discrimination
      • Tolerance & Unity in Diversity
      • Extracts From the Books of Alice A. Bailey
    • MEDITATION
    • Suggested Reading List
  • The Churches and Organised Religion
    • Introduction
    • The Problem >
      • THE ILLUSION OF DOCTRINE AND DOGMA
      • FUNDAMENTALISM
      • AUTHORITY, REASON & WESTERN MATERIALISM
      • THE NOTION OF PUNISHMENT
    • Essential Religious Truths >
      • THE NATURE OF RELIGION
      • THE PLAN AND THE HIERARCHY
    • Signs of New Life >
      • RELIGIOUS STUDIES IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
      • NEW AGE SPIRITUALITY
      • INTERFAITH WITHIN
    • Toward a New World Religion >
      • THE NEW WORLD RELIGION
      • FOUR NEW REVELATIONS
      • DIFFERENT PATHS BUT ONE GOAL
      • SCIENCE POINTS TO WHOLENESS
      • LESSONS FOR THE CHURCHES
      • RELIGION NEEDS EMANCIPATION
      • THE REAPPEARANCE OF THE CHRIST
    • MEDITATION
    • Reading and Reference List
  • International Unity
    • Introduction
    • Some Aspects of the World Problem >
      • POVERTY
      • WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
    • Toward the Solution of the Problem >
      • HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOM
      • ECONOMICS AND THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
      • CARING FOR THE EARTH
    • The New Idealism - Building Unity >
      • THE DEVELOPMENT OF A HIERARCHY OF WISE COMPASSION
    • The World After September 11th >
      • THOUGHTS IN THE PRESENCE OF FEAR
      • GLOBAL SOLIDARITY
      • SPIRITUALIZING FOREIGN POLICY
    • The United Nations >
      • ORIGINS
      • REFLECTIONS ON THE UN
      • WHO WILL LEAD THE WAR ON WANT?
      • THE UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM
    • World Citizenship >
      • YOU CAN CHANGE THE WORLD
    • Towards the New World Order
    • MEDITATION
    • Suggested Resource List
  • New Conversations
    • Articles >
      • What I Learned From Tickling Apes
      • Why Giving Back Isn' t Enough
      • Overcoming Polarization Requires the Moral Strengths of Both Right and Left
      • In big think: Cardinal Virtues = Rational Life by JAG BHALLA
      • New York Times: Racial Bias, Even When We Have Good Intentions
      • The Truth About The People You Can't Forgive
    • Blog
    • Books >
      • Can Earth's and Society's Systems Meet the Needs of 10 Billion People?
      • Convergence: Facilitating Transdisciplinary Integration of Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Engineering, and Beyond
      • Facilitating Climate Change Responses
    • Internet
    • Videos >
      • Ted Talk: Gary Haugen (2015) The hidden reason for poverty the world needs to address now
      • Spiritual, But Not Religious by Father Thomas Keating
      • Multiple Intelligence's
      • From Oprah Show: The Exercise That Helped High School Students Confront Prejudice
      • We Are Built To Be Kind
      • Jeff Salzman - Why should we care about the news?
      • The Biggest Problems Of Our Times All Come Down To This Word That Starts With 'E'
  • Contact

THE NOTION OF PUNISHMENT

by bell hooks


Growing up was a time of intense contemplation for me. It was during that time of my life that I learned to build an inner life that could sustain me.  I felt even then that I was on a spiritual journey. In my church, we often sang the words: "Is it well with your soul? Are you free and made whole?" As a seeker on the Path, I was searching for a way to be well in my soul.

Although I considered myself living a life in the spirit, I went away to college knowing that I would no longer participate fully in the organized church, which over the years had come to seem full of folks who really did not believe what they taught or live those beliefs. During my undergraduate years, I began to look at other religious traditions in search of new and different spiritual paths. I was seeking to flee a fundamentalist religious tradition that was firmly rooted in the notion of punishment. I could no longer accept Western metaphysical dualism: the assumption that the world was divided into good and bad, white and black, superior and inferior. In Original Blessing (1983), Matthew Fox best expresses the dilemma I felt as a young
woman raised in the southern black Baptist tradition when he writes of the pitfalls of a model of spirituality exclusively structured around the drama of fall and redemption: It is a dualistic model and a patriarchal one; it begins its theology with sin and original sin, and it generally ends with redemption. Fall/redemption spirituality does not teach believers about the New Creation or creativity, about justice-making and social transformation, or about Eros, play, pleasure and the God of delight. It fails to teach love of the Earth or care for the cosmos, and it is so frightened of passion that it fails to listen to the
impassioned pleas of the anawim, the little ones of human history.... (p.11)

As a young adult woman able to be critical of Christianity, I searched for a spiritual path that would offer an alternative to the fall/redemption model. That search led me to teachings and to spiritual leaders and guides who taught me about other paths. I learned about the mystical dimensions of Islam, studied about Buddhism, Hinduism, and other religious traditions. My
current spiritual practice grows out of a combination of various traditions. Drawn to the teachings of Buddha, I practice yoga and meditation. That aspect of Christian faith I most cling to is the emphasis on prayer. And from the teachings of Sufi mystics, I learned how to understand Love as divine energy in the universe.


The Problems of Humanity Exploration Group

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