The Eight Core Principles of the Center for Action and Contemplation
These principles were previously published in a pamphlet by the same name, which is now out of print. To read Richard Rohr’s reflection on each principle, click the link in parentheses following each statement.
- The teaching of Jesus is our central reference point. [criterion]
- We need a contemplative mind in order to do compassionate action. [process]
- The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better. Oppositional energy only creates more of the same. [emphasis]
- Practical truth is more likely found at the bottom and the edges than at the top or the center of most groups, institutions, and cultures. [perspective]
- We will support true authority, the ability to “author” life in others, regardless of the group. [non-tribal]
- Life is about discovering the right questions more than having the right answers. [primacy of discernment]
- True religion leads us to an experience of our True Self and undermines my false self. [ultimate direction]
- We do not think ourselves into a new way of living, but we live ourselves into a new way of thinking. [praxis over theory]