Practice Radical Amazement
Guided by Krista, inspired by Abraham Joshua Heschel
Listen daily until you move on to the next Wisdom Practice.
Journal with the ideas, the questions, and invitations raised. Pay attention to how these things surface in your thoughts, in your body, and in interactions and experiences as you move through your days.
Use the Question to Live and Integration Step as further prompts for practicing, and for journaling.
You’re building spiritual and moral muscle memory.
Transcript
Krista Tippett: I wonder if thinking about the frontiers of what we’re learning about the nature of the universe, the mystery of that, and the mystery and reality of ourselves within that, creates a sensation of space in you — physical, emotional, or spiritual spaciousness.
Think about wonder. Think about wonder as a muscle that can power a reality-based, worldly hope. Take on a readiness to be surprised in the core of your being and in the most granular interactions. This is consonant with a deep spiritual discipline, very passionately articulated and embodied in the great Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. It’s a spiritual discipline called “radical amazement.”
Rabbi Heschel said, “I would say about individuals, an individual dies when he ceases to be surprised. I am surprised every morning that I see the sun shine again. When I see an act of evil, I am not accommodated. I don’t accommodate myself to the violence that goes on everywhere. I’m still surprised! That’s why I’m against it, why I can hope against it. We must learn how to be surprised.”
[music]
