2023-03-16

Last updated Aug 15, 2023

#psychology #personaldevelopment

** Magisterial Lectures | Roberto Conrado Guevara PhD - On Journeys & Crossroads: Reflections on Exodus

We end the different modules with the coming together of the personal and communal. In this video, Bobby Guevara talks about the concept of slavery and freedom from a personal stance. Think about how slavery and freedom applies to you and your personal development.

#religion #spirituality

• The Reality of Slavery
  • The phenomenal growth of the children of Israel leads to the people’s enslavement: “…they set taskmasters over them to oppress with forced labor… The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Isarelites, and made their lives bitter with hard service” (Ex. 1:11, 13-14)
  • Insight #1: You might not like slavery, but after a while, you get used to it.
    • E.G. Spanish colonization, Martial Law
• The Story of Exodus and the Reality of Unfreedom
  • “…[W]e have constructed patterns in our lives–patterns in relationships, patterns at work, and so often, self-defeating patterns, which undermine our best interests…There is always a ’logical’ connection between a surface symptom or pattern and a historic wounding to the soul.” - James Hollis, Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life, 2005
  • Ignatian Spirituality and the Reality of Unfreedom
    • We can see these self-defeating patterns…this form of slavery…as a invitation to greater awareness
    • “With much ‘unfreedom’ in us we will never be able to do serious discernment and we will just continue to be at the mercy of our attachments.” - Ramon Maria Luza Bautista, S.J., Schooled by the Spirit, 2009
  • “Where is your brother?” (Gen 4:9). Where is your brother or sister who is enslaved? Where is the brother and sister whom you are killing each day in clandestine warehouses, in rings of prostitution, in children used for begging, in exploiting undocumented labour? Let us not look the other way…The issue involves everyone!" - Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium #211
    • Pope Francis wishes for all of us to hear God’s cry.
    • He tells us not to look the other way, because these issues involve everyone.
    • Reflect on the question of slavery that is amidst us: Who are our brothers and sisters? The ones whose lives have been made bitter by oppression?
    • The invitation for greater awareness is not again meant to bring us to a dark place, but really an invitation for deeper compassion and for deeper solidarity
  • The Cry
    • “The Isarelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out…. [T]heir cry for help rose up to God. God heard their groaning… remembered his covenant…and took notice of them” (Ex. 2:23-25)
    • The crying out is important because without the crying out, you just end up returning to Egypt. You just end up returning to slavery. The crying out, it’s not just an expression of misery you knowthe crying out is also a complaint it’salso a protestit’s also an acknowledgement that thingsare not rightthe crying out is the first sign ofopenness to the hopeful expectationthat slavery is not the last wordi
    • E.G. Student praying to God in a retreat about her anger and resentment towards her parents. By acknowledging these (and thus lifting these up to God), she felt that she had the opportunity to start anew.
    • That’s what tears are all about. They are an acknowledgement that one needs to be saved.
    • Insight #2: The basic requirement of freedom is the awareness of “exile”, the groan of conscious alienation. - Avivag Gottlieb Zornberg Freedom requires awareness of exile
      • Before one can be free, one must be aware that one is not free. That awareness is manifested in the crying out.
      • Cards/Freedom is being conscious of your constraints
      • Cards/The alternative to freedom is unconsciousness
    • Ignatian Spirituality and Self-Awareness
      • Saint Ignatius of Loyola says that one of the temptations of the evil spirit is to tell us to keep your weakness in the dark. Just keep it hidden, don’t let it be known. But we know the change begins when we are able to bring our weakness into the light.
      • “As Ignatius of Loyola observes, the enemy of human nature does fear discovery. While our weaknesses remain unacknowledged or closeted away, we are powerless over them. The sometimes painful process of dragging our weaknesses into full light of day by understanding them is the first empowering stride toward conquering them.” - Chris Lowney, Heroic Leadership, 2003
      • Related to insights from #DLQ10
        • Cards/The wound is the place where the Light enters you
        • Cards/Brokenness
    • “When the heart is able to ask itself and weep, then we can understand something… Dear young boys and girls, today’s world doesn’t know how to cry…Certain realities of life we only see through eyes cleansed by our tears. I invite each one here to ask yourself: ==have I learned how to weep?== Have I learned how to weep for the marginated or for a street child who has a drug problem or for an abused child?” - Pope Francis, Message to Filipino Youth at UST, 18 Janurary 2015
    • The cry is pivotal in opening the gates that make freedom and liberation possible.
• The Call of Moses
  • “The cry of the Isarelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Isarelites, out of Egypt.” (Ex. 3:9-10)
  • Certain formula in the Bible: people are called by God, and they object to this.
  • Moses objects to God 5 times. Roberto finds Moses’ call fascinating because it’s as if the Lord throughout that entire process was shaping his heart, shaping his heart to make it more docile to the promptings of the Lord’s spirit.
  • Insight #3: God calls each of us to the vocation of freedom.
• The Summons to Vocation
  • “God calls you to make definitive choices, and He has a plan each of you: to discover that plan and to respond to your vocation is to move toward personal fulfillment.” - Pope Francis, World Youth Day 2013
  • When we ask questions such as “What is the meaning of my life?”, “Why was I created?”, “Why am I here?”, “This one life I have…what am I being invited to gamble it on?”…we enter the realm of vocation. ==Where are we being someone to?==
  • “The Christian vocation, rooted in the contemplation of the Father’s heart, … inspires us to solidarity in bringing liberation to our brothers and sisters, especially the poorest.” - Pope Francis, World Day of Prayer for Vocations, 26 April 2015
    • Vocation is not just personal.
    • This reminds us that the question is not just at this point in my life “Am I more free?” An equally important question is: “Are others, especially the poorest among us, more free because of me?”
  • “God calls you to the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” - Frederick Bucchner
    • Reminds us that vocation is not just my deepest gladness and my deepest joys (See Ignatian Spirituality and Cards/Desire), but rather ==the intersection of my deepest desires and the world’s deepest hungers.==
  • “The meaning of your life is to find your gift. The purpose of your life is to give it away.” - Pablo Picasso
• For Reflection and Prayer
  • How would you describe your inner journey these past years. Take time to recall the most significant lights and shadows of your journey.
  • Reflecting upon your life and deepest desires, what do you think you are being called to doz.
  • What would you consider the ‘Egypt’ that enslaves you? How do these affect you, your relationships, work, and life?

Magisterial Lectures | Roberto Conrado Guevara Phd - On Journeys & Crossroads: Story of Our Lives

• Crossing the Sea: From Slavery to Freedom, Death to Life
  • “What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt! Is rhis not the very thing we told you in Egypt, ‘Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians?’ For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” - Exodus 14:1-14
    • Why did the Isarelies miss Egypt? Perhaps because of fear.
  • Insight #4: What makes change difficult is fear. If you want to live in mediocrity, then live in fear. - Fr. Venacio Calpotura SJ
    • Mediocrity stems from fear
  • “Fear governs so much of our lives…Standing up to our fear is perhaps the most critical decision necessary in the governsnce of our life…” - James Hollis, Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life, 2005
  • James Hollis states that one of the most common ways fear can be in charge will be found in ==our flight from personal responsibility.==
    • What does one do when one is afraid? Blaming and scapegoating.
    • This is exactly what the Isarelites did with Moses.
    • When one is afraid, one lets go of responsibility.
    • But we can choose to stand up to our fears instead.
  • “There is a temptation that says it is ‘better to stay here,’ where I’m safe. But this is the slavery of Egypt: ‘I fear moving forward, I’m afraid of where the Lord will bring me.’ Fear, however, ‘is not a good counselor.’” - Pope Francis, Courage in Spite of Our Weakness, 2 July 2013
  • Hollis also says that the other by-product of fear is lethargy: the lack of energy, the lack of enthusiasm, the lack of the will to move forward, to dream, to imagine.
    • We are tempted to give in, to be immobilized by fear.
  • Moses’ response: “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be still.”
    • Moses uses the word see 3 times. This was probably deliberate because you have to remember that what caused Israel’s fear was what they looked at. What caused their fear was what they saw. Moses is telling them to not look at the sources of your fearr. Change what you’re looking at. Rather than look at your fear, look at what the Lord will do for you today.
  • Insight #5: To lead involves helping one’s self and others ‘see’ things in a new light. Leadership involves helping yourself and others see things in a new light
    • Moses was a leader to the Isarelites because he taught them to see themselves and reality in a new way.
  • “May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.” - Nelson Mandela
    • Same act of looking, but you decide what you look at
  • Prevalent method of leadership: making people fixate on their fears. Is this necessary? Alternative method: ordinary citizens and leaders inspiring through hope
  • When you reach a point in your life where all around you you’re afraid, then you would have reached a point where you must now make a decision.
    • Israel had to make a decision: go back to the familiar (Egypt), or venture into the unknown (sea)?
    • They could drown, they could die…but there is also the potential to gain freedom, a new life. But they won’t be able to know this without risk
    • At every point in our life we have two options. One option is to go back to the familiar, even if the familiar is slavery. The other option is to move forward and risk death to see whether there’s life and freedom at the other end.
    • Insight #6: Cards/Change happens only when we are willing to leave the familiar-that-enslaves behind.
  • Two Walls:
    • jean luiska a jesuitbiblical scholar he says you know inancient timeswhenever someone wants to orientatehimselfor herself whenever someone wants to ina sense get a sense of bearinga sense of direction that person wouldlook to the eastwould look to the east and when you lookto the eastyou have the south to your right and youhave thenorth to your left
    • “And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and left.”
    • “right” = yamin, which also means “south”
    • “left” = semol, which also means “north”
    • If the Isarelites had the south to their right and the north to their left, they were traversing from west to east.
    • In Ancient Near East…
      • The “east” was the gate of life, the place where the light (the sun) defeats darkness and death.
      • The “west” was the entrance into the underworld, the world of darkness, death, and evil
    • Therefore, if the Isarelites were traveling from West to East, they were traversing and fighting the forces of death, the forces of darkness and evil, the forces of their desires, to be born unto a new life at dawn.
      • This is what Exodus is all about: ==a journey from slavery to freedom.==
      • This is not just Israel’s story; it’s also the story of each and every one of us.
  • “Growing up…requires two practices. First, we must ==take responsibility for ourselves==, and stop blaming others: the society, the parents, the partner, the malevolent gods. Secondly, we have to ==look within== to see the repetitive core ideas, the complexes, and the historic influenced w==here the true enemy== lies.” - James Hollis, Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life, 2005
  • “Human history, our history, the history of every one of us is never ‘finished’; it never runs out of possibilities. Rather, it is always opening to the new – to what, until now, we had never had in mind. To what seemed impossible.” - Pope Francis (as quoted by Cathleen Falsani), 23 May 2013 #history
  • “And suddenly you just know…it’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.” - Mister Eckhart
• For Reflection and Prayer
  • What “sea” is the Lord inviting you to cross? In what concrete area of your life are you being asked to move from slavery to freedom, from lethargy to generosity?
  • To what newness is the Lord inviting you?
  • On COVID-19: “Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our desd rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.” - Arundhati Roy #history
  • ==Journey gently, journey lightly, journey bravely.==

Slavery and Freedom Lecture

• Overview: self -> networks -> relationships -> organizations -> spirituality
• There are many things that make us unfree.
  • Even those we are unconscious of. Cards/The alternative to freedom is unconsciousness
  • So we have to really reflect on what enslaves us…
  • Slavery is dehumanizing
    • This applies not only to the captured, but also to the captors
    • We cannot say that we are promoting humanity if we ourselves are doing the enslavement
  • Slavery can come not just from the outside, but also from within
    • We can enslave ourselves with particular habits and practices
  • The first step is really about recognition. Awareness is what leads to action
• Inner freedom comes from fulfilling your vocation
  • This calling is specific to your unique situation in a particular manner
  • God doesn’t just want you to be one thing…he wants you to be many things…hence multiple callings
  • Knowing your calling is important. But how will you know this?
    • First, you have to try it
    • At the end of the day, if it leaves you feeling fulfilled, then that’s a good sign
    • We can never know our vocation until we’re in it, until we’re doing it
  • We only get confirmation for the vocation that we have rather than a clear sense of it prior to even doing it
  • We get our vocation not from reflecting alone, but trying it out
  • Try out different locations; try out different lives
    • The time we spend on trying something that doesn’t turn out to be a fit will never be wasted
• Ubuntu: my freedom is tied to someone else’s freedom. I cannot be free unless they are free.
  • Tied to Decolonialism
  • We cannot be free if we are simply doing things for ourselves.
  • Explaining freedom: the ability to manifest desire.
    • If I want to do something, can I do it? If I want to have something, can I acquire it?
    • If we’re able to help others, do we help them? There’s a certain freedom in that.
    • Our freedom is intimately tied with the freedom of others (e.g. friends, family, acquaintances, strangers in proximal places)
  • Think: how is slavery and freedom a communal concept for us?
    • How can we be enslaved by certain things, by certain material realities, by certain social systems?
    • How can we experience freedom from being with the people we are currently with now?
    • If you’re given the chance in the future, will you be able to use your power to help people experience freedom?
• Relevant quote from First Spiritual Exercises: Go where God is disturbing you

#IDS147 #literature

#theory #history #capitalism

• In the writings of Marx and Engels, what we read about is a scathing critique of THE social system that keeps the rich, rich, and the poor, poor.
• What these two men were studying was the fact that with the decline of feudal systems, or those which kept the monarchy, monarchs and the tenant farmers, tenant farmers, in Europe, ==a new social class emerged.== This social class was the bourgeois or known collectively as the bourgeoisie or in Filipino, we would refer to this class as the burgis.
• The burgis rose out of feudal relations with the decline of the monarchy. When more “modern” systems of wealth creation were possible, such as learning a trade and selling your products, or inventing something and employing workers to produce, it was no longer the monarch that was in power but ==those who could have power over production, selling, and of course, earning.==
• In this system, the poor were no longer tenant farmers but factory workers, cogs in a wheel of production. Now, not everyone is a factory worker but the same system is visible even in corporations, where the “lower tier” workers are paid less than those on top. The problem with this relationship is ==the work that a person does does not equal what the person earns and someone (or someones) on the top earn the most for doing the least work.==
• So, the question that we are forced to confront is what is the value of a person? And how is that value made possible? Or, we can change these questions to how is the worth of a person determined by their relationship to a system of production?

• If the world is founded on an unfair system, why is it that people don’t rebel? Marx argued that eventually, the lowest worker, the proletariat, would rebel.
• Marx liked that idea of uniting all the workers of the world, who united in an ideology of equality, would break all hierarchies that kept inequalities in place. In such a new system, ==everyone earned as much as they worked. ==
• And, with State holding all the funds, there would be ==a stronger sense of equitability–a kind of institutionalized “sharing”.== In this system, wealth would be fairly distributed and everyone would have equal opportunities.
• The world has seen at least two major Communist economies, China and Russia, with Cuba too, but it’s not clear to what extent this system worked, following the intentions of Marx. But that does not mean Marxist thought can’t be applied, which is why, in intellectual circles, we have what is referred to as “Marxist critique”, which is ==a theoretical and practical means of challenging power and resisting the inequalities that characterize our society today.== (See Marxism)
• Challenging inequality is not easy and successes are few and hard to come by. Have you ever been conscious of how inequalities impact on the totality of our lives? And have you ever heard of or participated in movements that attempt to resist and challenge these inequalities? Did these movements work?

• It’s hard to say why we were born in the families we were born in. So for many reasons, the our births seem accidental–we may have been born in burgis families, just as others may have been born in poorer or even wealthier families. But, ==that accident of birth has birthed into the conditions that formed us today. ==
• Marx has also written about how invisible social systems keep the rich, rich, and the poor, poor. If we believe that, then who are now has everything to do with class we were born into. Do reflect on your lives and try to see to what extent this might be true for you.
• Since systems that ensure the UNEQUAL distribution of power and wealth are invisible, ==we have accepted them.== The concept of Hegemony, which was thought up by an Italian thinker, Antonio Gramsci, means that “we are oppressed without knowing it” or “we are oppressed and we have accepted it” or “we have consented to the system, and we don’t know it”. ==So we are happily oppressed.==
• Have you ever felt like you had already agreed to an invisible form of oppression? So invisible that you had to think carefully to realize it?

• When Communism has succeeded as a system of government or not, it does not mean Marx is not useful. On the contrary, Marxist thought and critique are still very useful, if they are framed within a view toward making things better for all.
• What Marxist critique does is ==it makes visible the invisible systems of power and inequality.== ==And that is what literature, art, music, film, can do.== Through these forms of creative expression, writers, artists, thinkers, and anyone who feels compelled to do so, can articulate what is invisible and reveal how systems of power have hurt and impacted on all of our lives. 
• But ==critique has to be deployed in light of concrete action==–at least that is how I see it. For example if an system of gender inequality is revealed through films on LGBTQ++, then what are we supposed to do? What can we do to make things more fair? 
• At this point, it’s important to consider what power means. To me, power equals access and choice. And these are not available to all. Why is that? Why are some more powerful than others?

• Because we are all conditioned socially into certain positions, there is a chance of all of us experiencing Fragmentation and Alienation, which result from us ==being forced in “a place” in the system which we don’t like.== The result is, a fragmented person, who is at odds with themselves and/or an alienated one, who feels dispossessed, disenfranchised and marginalized by the system.
• For example, students carry the burden of earning money for themselves and for their families. That can be a fragmenting moment, especially if the student does not want to earn in the manner their parents conditioned them to. That situation can also be alienating for the student who feels like their life was “made” for them but does not agree with what was made. It does take wisdom and growing up to deal with such a situation, if it’s even possible to deal with them.
• In other words, because of a social system that invisibly keeps us all in our place, ==we wind up with internal problems.== The system conditions us to the point where we accept the system. And that is one reason why Jung says we have no sense of self-knowledge. ==The true self, after all, may be a problem to the system because it may not at all cooperate.==
• But, one is tempted to ask whether the chance for self-knowledge is also equally distributed.

Huxley’s novel is certainly a brave one! In this novel, we have the human relationship with production and order expressed in very literal ways. But, the orderliness of the brave new world of the novel has cracks, where problem areas show. As you read it, bear in mind these ideas:

• how is order created and maintained?
• how are people kept in their place
• how is society both fragmented and whole?
• how is the individual both fragmented and whole?
• what problems keep bubbling under the surface?
• what does the destruction of the individual that occurs at the end tell us about the place of the individual in a social system?
• is there some redemption for the brave new world at the end of the novel?
• is it possible to redeem societies or just individuals? or the two can never be separated?

Are there similarities between Demian and A brave new world? What similarities do they offer in terms of

• an idea for how an individual’s identity is formed
• the power of a social system
• keeping hierarchies in place
• what happens to those who resist