In the Night Desert: Negotiating Dark Nights of the Professional Soul" Subject of March 15 Lecture

SALISBURY, MD---Dr. Mary Rose O'Reilley, author of Radical Presence(Boynton/Cook, 1998), discusses "In the Night Desert: Negotiating Dark Nights of the Professional Soul" on Wednesday, March 15, at 7 p.m. at Salisbury State University. Her lecture, part of this spring's lecture series, "Listening to Spiritual Perspectives," is in the Wicomico Room of the Guerrieri University Center. Admission is free and the public is invited.

The title of her talk is from a poem by William Stafford, whose titles so often, said O'Reilley, "evoke the dark nights of the soul we come to in academic community: ‘Travelling Through the Dark', ‘In the Deep Channel' and--with a view to an exit--'How to Save Your Soul.' Most of us are so throughly afraid of the dark that we have almost managed to banish talk of ‘the shadow' or imagery of ‘light and darkness' from professional conversation--for good reasons, but only if we do not understand that the dark is merciful."

Mercy will be the "point of my presentation," said O'Reilley, who has written for a wide range of academic, literary, religious and social change publications. "I will attempt to mediate some insights from the Christian and Buddhist mystical traditions that deal with negotiating crises of spirit and community." She will discuss the six weeks she spent with Zen master Thich N'hat Hanh's Buddhist community, Plum Village.

"Buddhists talk about ‘koanic thinking,'" said O'Reilley, "a process of letting go of rational analysis and interrogating a crisis ‘in the deep storehouse of consciousness.'

"I hope, in this presentation," said O'Reilley, "to give practical ‘education for darkness': a suggestion for helping us negotiate with hope the crises of boredom, burnout and breakdown of community that come to us on the teaching path."

O'Reilley, a professor of English at St. Thomas (MN) University, has worked closely with spiritual educator Parker Palmer, author of the landmark text, The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life. Palmer wrote the following about Radical Presence: "Read this book with your mind descended into your heart, and it will draw you, as it drew me, into a silent and reflective space where we can practice listening, being present, receiving others and being truthful--the secrets at the heart of teaching, and living, well."

For more information on O'Reilley's presentation or a complete listing of cultural events at SSU this spring, please call the Salisbury State Public Relations office at 410-543-6030.