In “The Change That Changes Everything,” Fr. Richard presents what for most of us is a radically new way of seeing the world, each other and ourselves. He says, “We’re so accustomed to thinking dualistically about everything: we’ve been taught to think analytically about everything.” This means we’re in the habit of judging everything and everybody. “Does it please me, does it not please me? Is it good or is it bad?” In our thinking, he says, we divide the world and everything up as if other people, other things, even ourselves are all objects for us to constantly evaluate one way or the other.

 

There is a way, says Fr. Richard, of seeing that the mystics have known for a long, long time. The mystics teach us that there is a way of seeing that lifts us beyond our preoccupations about “Who’s in, who’s out? Who’s judging me? What are they thinking? What are they saying?” The mystics beckon us to enter a world where to see is to be astonished; to see is to be moved at the core about who and what we are and to experience ourselves in powerful connection within a world that nurtures all living things and empowers us to be very different kinds of human beings.