The Doc Searls Weblog : Wednesday, November 9, 2005:
An interesting insight into Doc Searls' (one of the authors of the cluetrain manifesto) spiritual journey.
"About ten years ago I took a few days off to chill in silence at the New Camaldoli Monastery in Big Sur. One of the values the White Monks of the monastery share with Quakers in Sunday meeting is confinement of speech to that which 'improves on the silence'. (Or, in the case of the monks, fails to insult the contemplative virtues of silence.) It was there that I had an amazing conversation with Father John Powell, who told me that any strictly literalist interpretation of Christ's teachings 'insulted the mystery' toward which those teachings pointed � and which it was the purpose of contemplative living to explore. 'Christ spoke in paradox', he said. Also metaphor, which itself is thick with paradox. Jesus knew, Father Powell said, that we understand one thing best in terms of another which (paradoxically) is literally different yet meaningfully similar."
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