Traditions

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#000099" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="01ed4c00erkqpg.png"> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="95" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 46 WIDTH="91"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="46" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="91" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Ancestral Wisdom</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="075a7a70.png" border=0 width="167" height="167" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <div> designed by Lorenz Gude, ofc</div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#C0DCC0" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="558" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#990000" BORDERCOLORDARK="#660066" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#339999 > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 42 WIDTH="546"><div> <A HREF="interfaith__multifaith__transfaith.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Integrated Spiritual Community"><U>Integrated Spiritual Community</U></A><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#660066" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><A HREF="_interdependence_of_living_beings_.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Condition of Being"><U>The Condition of Being</U></A><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#660066" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><A HREF="guidance_and_skills_for_living_in_a_diverse_community_.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Companions of the Way"><U>Companions of the Way</U></A><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#660066" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><A HREF="practice_of_presence_to_self_and_others.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Companions in Action and Nonaction"><U>Companions in Action and Non-action</U></A><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#660066" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><A HREF="questions.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Frequently Asked Questions"><U>Frequently Asked Questions</U></A><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#660066" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><B>Traditions</B><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#660066" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><A HREF="discernment.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Community Discernment Process"><U>Community Discernment Process</U></A><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#660066" FACE="Symbol" >   ·   </FONT><A HREF="id53.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Cord of Unity"><U>Cord of Unity</U></A></div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 73 ><NOBR><div> <IMG SRC="0d14e490.png" border=0 width="78" height="73" ALIGN="LEFT" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#660066" FACE="Tempus Sans ITC" ><B>The Fourth Order of Francis and Clare </B></FONT></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B> </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="home"><U><B>home</B></U></A><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#660066" FACE="Arial" ><B>  </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#660066" FACE="Tempus Sans ITC" ><B> </B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#6633CC" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="id63.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dec 04"><U><B>site guide</B></U></A></FONT></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> Traditions</div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="10" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="559" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#990080" BORDERCOLORDARK="#0000CC" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT= 1038 WIDTH="531"><div> 1.  We are a non-traditional interfaith community of men and women who practice radical awareness of God's presence within ourselves, in others and in all creation. We greet all beings, including ourselves, with respect as children of God and manifestations of Holy Wisdom.</div> <bR> <div> 2.  The Fourth Order does not represent any particular religion, denomination or political affiliation. We receive our inspiration and guidance from the teachings of Holy Wisdom and the life and spirit of Francis and Clare of Assisi. Companions maintain practice within their own faith traditions. The depth of our practice brings depth to the order.</div> <bR> <div> 3.  Although we come from diverse faith traditions or none at all, we proclaim the unity and transforming power of divine love experienced through prayer, contemplation, joy, suffering and compassion. </div> <bR> <div> 4.  We acknowledge in our condition of being, with its many expressions of individual and collective frailty, the co-occurring possibility of genuine loving kindness toward ourselves and others. In our own poverty, powerlessness or arrogance, this possibility is the seed of ongoing conversion and radical transformation.</div> <bR> <div> 5.  Simplicity, Loving-Kindness, and Holy Freedom are our guardians and the gate of our freedom. </div> <bR> <div> 6.  We acknowledge a condition of interrelationship of being with each other and all creation, a co-arising with our companions in the world. We experience the divine as present, immanent and at play in all creation. Although in one sense the life we lead with its passing desires is illusion, on a deeper level nothing exists that is not an emanation of the stillpoint we call God.</div> <bR> <div> 7.  The Fourth Order suggests certain conditions and practices that foster spiritual life, joy, freedom and loving compassion. We practice simplicity, non-attachment, and trust in the providence of the Holy Spirit as we seek an organic experience of the divine presence in its movement and its stillness.</div> <bR> <div> 8.  Our two great practices are the practice of presence and the joyful poverty of not knowing. We lean upon the cloud of unknowing that passes between us the ultimate great mystery.</div> <bR> <div> 9.  We mutually support one another through sacred conversation, meditation, prayer and contemplation of the wisdom scriptures of the world religions. We pray together in silence, sound and movement.</div> <bR> <div> 10. Companions act as companions of the Fourth Order but not in “in the name of the Fourth Order”. We are clear that the power of our actions is derived not through affiliation with an organization or community, nor by our ideas. The power of our actions is derived through the grace of the divine mystery and the depth of our presence to the stillness and silence that is beyond our ideas. </div> <bR> <div> 11. The Fourth Order is not a piety movement, a politic, an ecological movement, a psychological strategy to improve self-esteem or become “whole”. Nor is it a place of safety. Most of us live on one edge or another. </div> <bR> <div> 12. Companions simply and humbly accompany ourselves and others in the presence of great mystery. In this manner may we reveal the compassion of the great unseen source.</div> <bR> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>