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.

1. The teaching of Jesus is our central reference point. [criterion]
2. We need a contemplative mind in order to do compassionate action. [process]
3. The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better. Oppositional energy only creates more of the same. [emphasis]
4. 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]
5. We will support true authority, the ability to “author” life in others, regardless of the group. [non-tribal]
6. Life is about discovering the right questions more than having the right answers. [primacy of discernment]
7. True religion leads us to an experience of our True Self and undermines my false self. [ultimate direction]
8. We do not think ourselves into a new way of living, but we live ourselves into a new way of thinking. [praxis over theory]