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This week we’re keeping our conversation close to home, as we explore Unteachable Lessons: Why Wisdom Can’t Be Taught and Why That’s Okay — the new book from Encountering Silence co-host Carl McColman.
How do you touch the face of God? You touch the face of God through the medium of silence. And the silence is always there, it’s not something I have to create, it’s not something we have to conjure, if anything it’s something we simply have to allow. Again, by learning, little by little by little, by learning to attend to the spaces between the words. — Carl McColman
Unteachable Lessons looks at some of the most important “lessons” of life — learning how to love, how to trust, how to pray, how to grieve — can never be learned from a book or a class or a workshop. It looks at how wisdom often operates on a level deeper than words. Of course, that means one of the best ways to access wisdom is through silence.
In today’s episode of the podcast, Cassidy and Kevin talk to Carl about how the book came to be written and what inspired Carl to explore this particular topic.
Sometimes words get in the way… and sometimes going to a workshop gets in the way, or reading a lot of books gets in the way… we have to learn not through “learning,” but through living. — Carl McColman
Some of the resources and authors we mention in this episode:
- Carl McColman, Unteachable Lessons
- Carl McColman, Befriending Silence
- Carl McColman, The Big Book of Christian Mysticism
- Carl McColman, Christian Mystics
- Carl McColman, Answering the Contemplative Call
- Lil Copan, Promises of Heaven
- Martin Laird, An Ocean of Light
- Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love
- Sam Keen, Fire in the Belly
- Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
- John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul
- Woody Allen, Without Feathers
- William Faulkner, Three Novels
- Tilden Edwards, Living in the Presence: Spiritual Exercises to Open Our Lives to the Awareness of God
- Gerald May, Will and Spirit: A Contemplative Psychology
- Thomas Keating, Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel
- Rene Girard, Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World
- Elias Marechal, Tears of An Innocent God: Conversations on Silence, Kindness and Prayer
- Mary Margaret Funk, Thoughts Matter
- Marvin C. Shaw, The Paradox of Intention
Writing is a great antidote to pride. — Carl McColman
Episode 72: Unteachable Lessons: Encountering Silence in Wisdom That Can’t Be Taught
Hosted by: Cassidy Hall
With: Carl McColman, Kevin Johnson
Date Recorded: September 3, 2019
Bonus content! Here’s one of Carl’s favorite kitty-cat videos…