A Personal Workbook for Civil Discourse

The Divine Equation: Six Questions each person must answer.

The Center for Contemplative Practice

The Divine Equation

The Divine Equation is not about God. It is not a proof, a creed, or a test of belief. It is a set of six barriers—six thresholds—that every human must face to evolve to the next step of fulfillment. These barriers sit between the life you are living and the life that is still possible. Unlocking them requires no supposition of a divine nature. It requires only honesty about what your experience has already produced and the free choice to look at it without defending it.

The six barriers are: What is the purpose of life? What is your purpose of life within that purpose? What does reality look like? How does it all fit together? How do you love fiercely? You know you are going to die; now what? Each person answers from their lived experience. Each answer is valid for that person. The Equation names the places where growth is still possible.

Purpose of This Civil Discourse

This workbook exists so people with different answers can sit together and work the Divine Equation from the lives they have actually lived. Physicians, lawyers, teachers, law-enforcement officers, political opponents, believers and non-believers are welcome. The purpose is not to change anyone’s mind or to decide who is right. The purpose is to practice profound listening as each person names the barriers still standing between them and the next step in their own humanity.

Each person states what their own experience has produced. Everyone receives each answer without interruption, correction, or judgment. Each person’s reason and free choice are the only standards in the room. Silence and respect keep the conversation from tearing itself apart.

Rules of Participation

These rules are strict and non-negotiable. They exist so that a small group can finish the work without conflict. Follow them exactly, whether you meet in a room or on Zoom.

1. Right to one’s own belief. Each person has the right to the answers their life has produced. No one may interrupt while another is writing, reading, or speaking. The speaker finishes before anyone else opens their mouth.

2. Respect for the reason of another. No one argues who is right and who is wrong. No cross-examination, no correction, no “but what about,” and no commentary on what was just said. The only response permitted in the moment is silence.

3. Profound listening. Remain fully silent while others speak. After each person finishes reading, the group sits in silence for ten minutes. In that silence, you may write one or two private words that arose. Keep those words private until the later meeting for meaning.

4. Dignity of free choice only. There is no right or wrong answer in the room—only the dignity of each person’s reason and free choice. What you write comes from your own life. What you hear belongs to the speaker. You do not grade their Center; you receive it.

5. Small groups only. Keep the group to four or five people. Larger numbers destroy the silence the format requires and turn the meeting into a performance. If more people wish to participate, form a second group.

6. Same rules on Zoom. Mute yourself except when it is your turn to read or speak. Turn off your camera during the writing period if that helps you concentrate. Turn the camera back on only for the reading.

7. Exit in silence. When the first meeting ends, everyone stands and leaves in silence. No discussion follows. The second meeting (for meaning) happens later. In that meeting, each person has five minutes, without interruption, to explain how the six answers gather around the one Center they named. After all have spoken, fifteen minutes of silence in the upper room of the inner self precede any open conversation about what was learned.

The facilitator’s only task is to restate the rules at the beginning, keep time, and gently return the group to silence if anyone begins to argue or correct. The Divine Equation is the only agenda. Each person’s life is the only textbook.

1. What is the purpose of life?

This is the first barrier. Write from concrete moments in your own experience. Notice when purpose seemed present and when it seemed absent. Do not aim for a finished theory. A phrase, a memory, or a short description is enough. This is the larger purpose against which you will later measure your own life.

2. What is your purpose of life within that purpose?

This is the second barrier—the place of your one Center. Name the single thing that has actually organized your choices, time, and loyalty. Then say, from your own experience, why you placed it there. Reduce competing claims until only one remains. Unlocking this barrier is the most important entry in the workbook.

My one Center is:

Why I place it there:

3. What does reality look like?

This is the third barrier. Describe reality as you have actually lived it. Include an ordinary day and an extraordinary one. Use the language of observation, relationship, and consequence. No claim beyond your experience is required. A careful description begins to unlock the barrier.

4. How does it all fit together?

This is the fourth barrier. Place two areas of your life that feel disconnected side by side. Notice where connections appear and where they do not. You can say the pieces don’t yet fit. The work is accuracy, not forced coherence.

5. How do you love fiercely?

This is the fifth barrier. Love here is a practice, not only a feeling. Name one relationship or commitment where you kept showing up when it was costly. Describe the cost and the continuation. Fierce love is visible in the pattern of what you have actually done.

6. You know you are going to die; now what?

This is the sixth barrier. Acknowledge the fact of limited time. Imagine you have one year of ordinary health left. What would you continue? What would you stop? What conversation would you have? Write the answers concretely. Notice which changes you could begin this week.

After You Write

If you use this workbook in a group, follow the Rules of Participation exactly. Read what you have written. Remain silent while others read. Leave in silence. The second meeting explains how your six answers gather around the one Center you named. No interruption. Then sit in silence for fifteen minutes in the upper room of your inner self before any open discussion of what you learned.

The Divine Equation is complete only when you face each barrier with honesty. What you write here is the record of that facing. It belongs to you. Copyright of Michael F. Conrad, Ed.D. The Center for Contemplative Practice. All rights reserved, with collaboration

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