Are You Ready to Be Radically Responsible?

For some time now, I have been wanting to re-read Stephen Cope's The Wisdom of Yoga: A Seeker's Guide to Extraordinary Living. This is Cope's second book, and I think it's even better than his first in a variety of ways.

But this is not to be a book review.

Rather, I realized that it would be fun to read this book with you. If you choose, you could read along.

Every week -- usually on Mondays -- I'll write about one or more concepts that I find particularly intriguing in each chapter. A chapter at a time, a week at a time. After the introduction material, there are 15 chapters, so we'll finish the book around the beginning of September.

A summer book club sort of thing.

Feel free to read or not. Comment here or not. Or even write about it on your own blog and place a link in the comments -- or not.

There were a lot of things that stood out for me in the introductory material of Cope's book, but above all was this line:

The wisdom of the strivers emerges wherever seekers accept the radical responsibility for confronting reality directly. (Cope, xxxi)

The radical responsibility. I love this phrase.

Are you ready to take radical responsibility?

Are you ready to abandon what you think you know for the territory of the unknown?

Are you ready to be uncomfortable, to confront darkness, to engage in challenge and spiritual warfare?

Are you ready to be brave?

If your answer is yes (and I am thinking that it is), then what does this journey mean to you?

What are you setting out to discover?

Of course, expectations will be blown wide apart and ideas will be drowned in the brilliant light of experienced truth, but to set out, I think we need to have an inkling of why and what for.

Perhaps spend some time journaling about this: Why do I seek? For what do I seek?

Now I need to go find my pen and journal, because I, too, need some time with those questions...

(Photo Credit: Christine C. Reed, Honeysuckle Vine, 2009)