Casting Indra's Net
Fostering Spiritual Kinship and Community
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- £11.99
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- £11.99
Publisher Description
A heartfelt call and primer for community-oriented models of wellbeing in our age of polarization and turmoil.
Creating compassionate communities takes more than good will—it requires a dedication to respecting cultural differences while remembering the fundamental spiritual kinship that exists between all people. Activist, counselor, and Buddhist teacher Ayo Yetunde creatively unpacks this condition through the metaphor of Indra’s Net—a universal net in which all beings reflect each other like jewels.
She offers a practice path that acknowledges our deep challenges—challenges that increasingly give rise to the temptation of group violence, which she calls mobbery—while showing exactly how we can still listen, learn, and heal together. Drawing inspiration from the Black liberation tradition and from stories from various religions, Yetunde recasts Indra’s Net as the network in which we all have the choice either to succumb to our impulses toward division and brutality or renew our civility and love for each other. The more than 20 practices in Casting Indra’s Net include:
Five commitments for healthy, nonviolent living Guided contemplation to water the seeds of your spiritual potential “Mirroring” and “twinning” other peopleTonglen (receiving and releasing) and lovingkindness meditations Affirmations
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this meandering outing, professor of pastoral care Yetunde (Object Relations, Buddhism, and Relationality in Womanist Practical Theology) extols the value of "spiritual community" in a polarized world. Employing the Buddhist symbol of Indra's net (a vast net spanning the universe that connects all life) as a guiding concept, the author foregrounds the importance of "mutuality," or a radical inclusivity based in human interconnectedness. To achieve it, she writes, humans must pursue a "compassion revolution" by caring for those they may not know or like and preventing "mobbery" (the accumulation of personal anger into powerful group anger). Along the way, Yetunde discusses the January 6 Capitol riot, the pandemic, and more to show how modern culture has shifted toward mobbery (in the past, people covered their mouths when sneezing to protect others from common colds, while Americans in early stages of the pandemic rejected masks and public health advice). As for returning to a state of civility, the author suggests readers "attend to others" by "cultivat a non-anxious presence" and "practic deep perception." Though Yetunde's aims are well-meaning, the result is haphazard: the religious insight, sociopolitical discussion, and occasional turns into psychology are vaguely linked, but never form a coherent line of reasoning. Readers will have to be very patient to get the most from this.
