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Action Research and Spirituality. Podcast on ResponsAbility with Hilary Bradbury

Hilary Bradbury is in conversation with Michael Michael Noah Weiss and Guro Hansen Helskog on their podcast ResponsAbility.

Hilary writes: “I really enjoyed talking with Michael and Guro on their podcast ResponsAbility.  I know of their work with philo-cafes which bring young adults into deeper questions about how best to live their lives at this time in history.  Naturally we talked about action research – perhaps it’s an elaborate philo café. And we spoke of spirituality – as a practice of inquiry with others from which there are always new responsAbilities.”.

The landing page of the podcast episode is here:

https://responsability.transistor.fm/episodes/9-hilary-bradbury-action-research-dialogue-and-spirituality

The transcript here: https://responsability.transistor.fm/episodes/9-hilary-bradbury-action-research-dialogue-and-spirituality/transcript

For those who want to listen to it on Spotify, the link is:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3yMxlBYKkdeevy12R4JeR2?si=dMLrMikITA-nTf6P5wgJTw

And for Apple Podcast:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/9-hilary-bradbury-action-research-dialogue-and/id1765525386?i=1000684068322

Here’s a taster

“over the centuries, if not millennia, of philosophy, our thinking and knowledge has always had an aspect of the divine. Humans enjoyed a sense of purpose, often unspoken, in connection with life around. Call it religion for simplicity.

But all of that sense of purpose and belonging is now thrown out. In just the past few decades especially, we hear an atheistic orientation asserted especially around universities. Religious purpose has been disappeared. This vacuum can be an opportunity. Otherwise it will be a frightening void.

For me talking about spirituality therefore means reinscribing our conversation with what helps us feel alive, the things we feel have purpose. My own sense of purpose with the world, is with the larger ecology, with animals. Eco-feminism describes my worldview. All this puts me into connection as it reminds me that I live in a world that’s bigger than me. And that I can take action within this worldview.

The downside is I can also sometimes give up hope. What needs to be done given my understanding of the world is so great versus what any one of us can accomplish. Yes, it’s very difficult. But we can also learn to bracket that doubt and anxiety and practice arriving again and again into reflective conversation together. There we can come to experience what we share with others. And in experience there’s a paradox. On one hand eco anxiety and hopelessness. On the other, there is a simple joy of being alive. So if we can manage to be together over time, we can start wherever.  That’s one of the actions we take inside the Action Research Plus Foundation. We meet together regularly to come into dialogue about our lives, our purpose and share how to live better at this time of great worry and doubt.

This is all spiritual. Because for me spirituality is deepening into our own experience of connection, and therefore touching into our deep vulnerability we feel in realizing so many of our connections are fragile. From that I can ask, how to live at this time. There are always new answers. New responsAbilities.”