The Blue Sapphire of the Mind Quotes

“To dwell in the place of God, as Evagrius puts it, is to live with a particular intense awareness of this reality, to know oneself not as a solitary, autonomous being but as one whose identity can only be conceived of as existing within an intricate web of encompassing relationships. The primary work of contemplative practice is to become more aware of this web of relationships, to learn to live within it fully and responsibly and to give expression to it in one’s life.”
― Douglas E. Christie, The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology

“To retrieve a vision of the world as whole—through sustained attention to the underlying unity that connects all beings to one another and to the root causes in our thought and practice that contribute to the deepening fragmentation of self, community, and world—is necessary to the work of healing that is at the heart of any sustained ecological renewal. We are now facing the very real possibility that such a vision of the whole has been rendered unimaginable and unrealizable by the sheer range and extent of the ecological degradation we have visited upon the world. One of the most potent and enduring images of our precarious condition to have emerged from the literature of ecology during the past twenty-five years—of the world as an archipelago of ecologically impoverished islands—suggests that fragmentation is a fundamental reality with which we must now contend.6 This image of widespread ecological fragmentation—one that reflects the increasingly evident loss of biodiversity and ecological integrity throughout the world—raises serious questions about whether it is still meaningful to speak of cultivating a vision of the whole, and whether any spiritual practice can help to mend this torn fabric.”
― Douglas E. Christie, The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology

“Really to see something once or twice a week is almost inevitably to have to try to make oneself a poet.”
― Douglas E. Christie, The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology

“rumination on the idea that our ecological commitments, if they are to reach mature and sustainable expression, need to be grounded in a sense of deep reciprocity with the living world.”
― Douglas E. Christie, The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology

“the question of what it is to become aware of oneself as alive in the living world and how to cultivate this awareness for the sake of that world remains one of the most pressing spiritual concerns of our time.”
― Douglas E. Christie, The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology