This is part of a weekly series based on Fr. Thomas Keating's talk "The Evolution of the Contemplative Christian Spiritual Journey" from the 2012 Contemplative Outreach Annual Conference in Snowmass, CO, "God is All in All."
English Transcript
Oddly enough, someone asked me the question when I was on the platform [at MIT] with His
Holiness [the Dalai Lama]: “Are people basically bad or good in your opinion?” I wasn't expecting
this question because we were in an inter-spiritual or inter-religious dialog. I said, "Well, I
understand the Bible says God thought everything was good especially humans who are very good."
I added, "I think it's getting better." I said that not as a joke but because I really think that we're in
an evolutionary process that puts us at the crossroads between previous ancestry as animals and our
destiny as divinely-human beings that God introduced when mankind reached a certain level of
rational consciousness, and could reflect on himself and herself, and could appreciate abstract ideas
and concepts, and be grateful, and evaluate the good things of creation, and enjoy them. It is
certainly is a mistake to think that God created us on this planet to be unhappy.
Semana de Diciembre 16 – ¿Son las personas esencialmente buenas?
Curiosamente, alguien me hizo esta pregunta cuando estaba en el escenario [en el Instituto de Tecnología de Massachusetts] con Su Santidad [el Dalai Lama]: En su opinión, ¿las personas son esencialmente malas o buenas? No esperaba esta pregunta porque estábamos manteniendo un dialogo inter-espiritual o inter- religioso. Dije “Bueno, entiendo que la Biblia dice que Dios pensó que todo era bueno, especialmente los humanos, que son muy buenos.” Agregué: “Creo que la cosa está mejorando”. No lo dije como una broma sino que realmente pienso que estamos en un proceso evolutivo que nos coloca en una encrucijada, entre nuestro anterior linaje como animales y nuestro destino como seres divinamente humanos, que Dios introdujo cuando la humanidad alcanzo un cierto nivel de conciencia racional, y pudo reflejar en si misma , y apreciar, ideas abstractas y conceptos, y estar agradecida y valorar las buenas cosas de la creación, y disfrutarlas. Ciertamente es un error pensar que Dios nos creó en este planeta para ser infelices.
