15 See Note 14.
16 Webster’s New International Dictionary of the English Language. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam, 1918.
17 Ibid.
18 Juan Mascaro, trans. 1962. The Bhagavad Gita. London: Penguin.
19 Beverly Lanzetta, Ph.D., introduced the term “social mystic” into my vocabulary in her August, 2003 seminar on Theologies of Nonviolence at Northern Arizona University, in which she adroitly led an eclectic group in studying “the theology and spiritual practice that guided some of the twentieth century’s greatest social mystics, among them M.K. Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Joshua Heschel, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, and Thich Nhat Hanh.”
20 Alfred North Whitehead, quoted in David Ray Griffin. 2001. Reenchantment without Supernaturalism: A Process Philosophy of Religion. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, p. 54.
21 I see parallels between the concepts of “monk-warrior” and “social mystic.” Though the phrases may evoke differing imagery (“monk-warrior” seems more vividly individualistic, condensed and focused; “social mystic” seems more generic of the species, widespread and open; “monk-warrior” seems more a rushing stream, while “social mystic” seems more a flood plain), at base they are remarkably similar, if not the same.
22 John Dear. 2000. Jesus the Rebel: Bearer of God’s Peace and Justice. London: Sheed and Ward, p. xv.
23 Translated as “spiritual being” or “spiritual warrior” or “awakening warrior.” Awakening, because one who takes the vows of a bodhisattva continues to open awareness. An awakening warrior lets go of fixed concepts and ideas (idée fixe’ – a form of insanity), releases rigid definitions of self as a permanent unchanging entity, allows ongoing expansion of awareness, and allows consciousness to open outside the realm of cognition. Warrior, because the bodhisattva faces all that arises. She is a spiritual emergency medical technician. He practices and uses skillful means in helping others stop their emotional and conceptual bleeding, prevent the shock of separate-self illusion, and heal the wounds that come with clinging and attaching. See Red Pine, 2001.
