The kingdom lay in burnout, the fields and women barren. The king languished in some unknown malady, wounded perhaps. Once the priest king, he had said the Mass using Christ's very cup. Now that all seemed past. There came Arthur and his knights. They had a vision to locate Christ's chalice and restore the kingdom. Thus began the quest for the holy grail--the crusade against the infidels. The quest was long and futile. The crusade created more pain and depression. Parcifal, one of the knights, happened to meet the king. He asked an innocent question, "Your majesty, what ails you?" This foolish question fummeled the king. It had never occurred to him, but upon looking within, he found himself on the road to recovery. The king healed and then could die. The kingdom flowered anew.

The myth of the holy grail initially appeared at the first millenium. Christianity was crusading to destroy the pagan pact with nature. Hints of the long-range implications of the new patriarchy began to appear in the religious fantasies of the people. As we approach the second millenium, the grail legend takes on renewed meaning. If we are to be healed from our destiny with extinction, we must find that cup that Christ drank from and offered to us, that cup that contained his blood. Where is this cup and what is the meaning of this foolish question that healed a terminal king? The cup is a container. Christ's blood is both the suffering on the cross between animal and divine as well as the spirit of life itself. Being wounded, do we crusade, fighting the infidel for control? Or do we turn within, asking ourselves, "What is it with me?" The patriarchy values power The scientist priest reveres "predictability and control" as the sacred omen of the conquest of nature. The secret of the goddess banished with the pagans was the secret of the container, the receptive holding place within where nature speaks through our vulnerability. Nature may call us through a wound or depression. When wounded, rather than conquer pain in quest of a solution, withdraw to that grail within and listen for wisdom.

We are becoming ready to listen. The goddess returns. Jesus dances on his grave. We open our hearts to one another.

It's all happening. There are different markers along the path as the grail legend becomes prophecy fulfilled. Here we deal with books. I remember one by Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person. Mr. Rogers was a minister who turned to psychology to escape dogma and learn how to search within. He revolutionized counseling with his homeopathic formula: listen empathically to the person and that person will learn to listen, too. Then a student sought to improve upon his mentor's methods. Listening to the words we speak is a good start, but we must learn to listen to the heart, which speaks with images coming from within yet beyond the boundaries of our mortal egos. In his groundbreaking book, Focusing , Eugene Gendlin continued his mentor's unearthing of the grail.

What began as a simple act of listening has now become the seeds of cultural renewal. I have on my desk two more books. Peter Campbell and Edwin McMahon, two Catholic priests, are attempting to heal the burnout in their old religion by promoting the spiritual use of Gendlin's focusing technique Their first book, Bio-Spirituality: Focusing as a way to grow. (Loyola University Press) shares the spiritual implication of looking within. Their gospel is that the spirit dwells in our bodies. Focusing reveals it.

These priests suggest that to experience the new communion, we must learn to ask ourselves Parsifal's question. They teach us to pray, "What now stands between me and feeling good right now?" This question is actually the initiation of the process of "focusing."

"We must find a global mental health process which at the same time is intrinsically a spiritual process, because it teaches us how to carry in our bodies the truth of how we are living on this fragile planet and what we are doing to ourselves, one another and our environment. At the same time, it must open to us, within this very terror, the hope and the alternatives which are also there. Focusing is the most practical step in this direction...because it clarifies and supports the essential psychological-spiritual dynamics of human wholeness common to all people."

I am quoting from the second book, Beyond the Myth of Dominance: An Alternative to a Violent Society (Sheed & Ward). Written by McMahon, it spells out the wider implications of drinking from the grail of focusing. The patriarchal myth of dominance, he explains, is at the core of our troubles. The crusading paradigm, always trying to fix things by conquering them, causes more problems The renewed feminist religion finds inspired meaning, rather than endless garbage, by listening to pain and hearing its message rather than covering it up with remedies. The bio-spiritualists claim that this change in attitude has the potential to transform society.

I don't know if all their claims are true. But I do know that "focusing" is for real and is really different from how we usually carry on. I've come to rely upon it as part of my daily steam cleaning. I know that it's better for me to turn inward and find out what's up than to go around in a funk, a workaholic grinding the burr under my saddle by riding harder and angrier. If I would only stop and ask what ails me, then from deep within my bodily felt sorrow or hurt an image will float to the surface. The image gives meaning to my suffering. I rediscover the goddess' paradox, that by knowing and accepting myself, I immediately change. I leave my focusing session healed. The king of dominance being dead, I am free to continue my day in a softer fashion. The power of the "looks within place" prompts me to teach all my students to focus on the grail within.

Buy Bio-Spirituality: Focusing as a Way to Grow now!

Buy Beyond the Myth of Dominance" An Alternative to the Violent Society now!