James Finley

In this book, Mirabai invites readers to experience his quintessential guidance for navigating the journey to union with love itself.

And James Finley in the foreword of the book notes how skillfully Mirabai has woven his poems together, like the poem you're about to hear, with tracings of valuable information and insights to help us understand how his poems, his life, and our lives are so mysteriously interconnected and sustained in God's love.

This is my translation of a poem by San Juan de la Cruz, St. John of the Cross.

It appears in my book, Luminous Darkness.

You know, I'm reading Richard Rohr.

You know, I was learning from James Finley and I was seeing my IFS therapist.

And yet, You know, my body was telling a different story.

And so, yeah, I do think that, you know, that, you know, particularly when we're doing the deeper character work, you know, when I'm working with people who are elevated on the narcissistic spectrum in particular, they didn't get there overnight.

Greetings.

I'm Jim Finley.

And I'm Kirsten Oates.

Welcome to Turning to the Mystics.

Welcome, everyone, to Season 14 of Turning to the Mystics, where we're turning to the poet Emily Dickinson.

And I'm here with Jim to dialogue about his second session.

Welcome, Jim.

Yes, so good to walk through this poem together and share it with the listeners.

And he'd lost a child really tragically, but when he reflected back on his life, I think he called his life Tales of Wonder.

You know, I interviewed Jim Finley, and he's the latest episode of my podcast that came out just like a week or two ago.

And he's had so, oh, yes.

He's the, yeah, we called it gym class.

So

tell us where we can find, what did you call him, Jim?

Jim Finley? Jim Finley.

Yeah, he's the best.

Just pardon.

I stole that from James Finley.

Well, of course.

Oh, I love Finley.

And this is the reality, right, is that we're thrown into these things before we're ripened.

Ripening is a word that I hope I give him credit in the book, but I borrow it from James Finley.

James Finley, the contemplative trauma therapist who was with Thomas Merton at Gethsemane many, many years ago and became a trauma therapist, but is now probably in his 80s.

You know, what was interesting is I was writing on ripening.

Of course, we think about fruit when we think about ripening.

You know, if I had been in another parish, this wouldn't have happened.

But because that was what we were dealing with, we had to kind of, you know... set something we had to kind of address it so we started a school then we started a jobs program then we we couldn't find enough felony friendly employers and so we had to invent stuff so we had a bakery then we had anyway now we have 17 social enterprises we have really thousand folks a year walk through our doors we have tattoo removal we have therapy we have 500 what we call trainees or who are in our 18 month program.

Wow.

That's unbelievable.

They surrender to their own healing and, and, uh, and so that takes a lot of work, a lot of courage.

Yeah.

Um, We were friendly with Bernie Glassman.

I'm sure you know.

Here we are.

Welcome to Jim class.

I have been waiting to share this episode with you for so, so, so long.

My teacher, colleague, friend, and mentor, one of the most genuine mystics I've ever met, Dr. James Finley, inspired this entire project, The Healer with a Thousand Faces.

Bye-bye

Oh my gosh.

Thanks for attending Jim Class.

God, that was so good.

Uh, but the people that really landed for me in a big way, there's a guy named Michael Singer who has a book called The Untethered Soul, which is kind of amazing.

James Finley is a, is a-

Mm-hmm

... great writer for anyone looking for something.

Because we can't control life, but when we're on the path, life supports us in anything that happens.

You know, that, the wonderful word from James Finley, who said that, um, he said that, "God protects us from nothing, but sustains us in all things." And that's, that's what happens on the path.

The lovely words, really appreciate that.

So listen, we always have an opportunity to, for you to respond to what's been said, to either share an experience or, uh, make a contribution or ask a question.