The Myth of Shalem
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by Gerald May
Early this year, Shalem's dear friend Richard Rohr, O.F.M., shared some of his wisdom about organizational life with us. The timing was exactly right for the transition Shalem is currently experiencing. Among other things, he said that every organization has a "founding myth," a central notion that inspires and animates the people who make up the organization. The myth is a living thing, deep and mysterious. It cannot be reduced to words, so mission statements and policies can never capture it.The myth is formed, instituted and embodied by the founder. Over time, the myth inevitably experiences cycles of dying and resurrection, evolving and refining itself. For the survival of the organization, however, the myth must contain a core of consistency. And it must be born afresh in the hearts of the people.
Reflecting on these ideas recently, I vaguely remembered something that Shalem's founder, Tilden Edwards, wrote over a quarter of a century ago. It took me a while to find it, but when I did, it seemed to reflect Shalem's founding myth with a wonderfully youthful passion. Tilden wrote it in support of a new American center being established by the Tibetan Lama Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche, a man who had powerfully influenced Tilden's spiritual life:
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On Pondering the American Presence of Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche
Bronze man-god swooped West on iron bird
Carrier of Dharma light gleaned through silent snow
Island of pure East in a surface-strange but
bottom-known land-
What will happen here to your subtle knowing, your
in-tune movement, your sharp will, your manifold interior means-
As these are rushed through our composing rooms,
our computers and analyzers,
our grasping, breathless ways?
How will your conch meet our trumpet?
Your incense our briquettes?
Your robes our T-shirts?
Your magic our science?
Your science our magic?
Your authority our democracy?
Your silence our noise?
Your patient singleness our pressing splatter?
Your spiraling in our spiraling out?
What in you will survive in us?
What will prove the wheat and what the chaff?
What the precious gem and what the cultural dross?
What the penetrable and what the opaque?
What the true godliness and what the mere ego-man?
A house built on rock does not crumble in storm
as a house on sand,
But what will prove rock and what will prove sand
Beneath your orange-clad feet, strange-familiar man?
Charism is yours-for an impelling task-
Mysterious movement thrusts you amidst us,
Calling for our common listening for the intent-
Our attentiveness to the Karma-Grace
That brings us mind to mind-face to face.
What facet of the Dharma-Davidic Jewel can shine
through U.S. us?
What in us can live of the lotus-born? of the Spirit-born?
What spark can brighten our Cross-Star lineages?
What luster can these add to Sambhava's line?
What mutation will come?
What common Jewel then will shine through heart to heart?
Pray that a Rich Meeting will polish the Nameless
Jewel ever brighter-
Pray fervently,
for the brightest luster must it be,
to penetrate our powerful-wounded sight-
our hate-loving, violent, writhing, striving,
bloated, seething, scared-proud national "kaf."
Our hope lies in the small, growing hole of doubt and pain
amidst our cock-sureness-
In the humble-empty-dead-black space that
invites a new dawn.
May you be protected, supported, freed to show us your path to the
Light at the bottom of that space, spiritual friend-
May our host Christ-Moses lineages welcome and learn from
your way to the Light as a deep mirror of their own ways,
That our lives may be enriched
And your fragile lineage preserved-
for the sake of all sentient beings.
Samaya, rgya, rgya, rgya.
E-ma-ho!
Descendat Gratia!
Amen.
Peace
(The Rev.) Tilden H. Edwards, Jr.
July 26, 1974
© 2008 The Shalem Institute.