This is the fifth post on Step Two of InterSpiritual
Meditation: MAY WE BE GRATEFUL FOR LIFE'S MANY GIFTS.
Here is Part Two of my InterSpiritual Journey, from 2002
to now (June 2023):
I am grateful that I have been blessed with support and
encouragement from InterSpiritual Companions in recent years. The term InterSpiritual was coined by Brother
Wayne Teasdale in the 1990s but did not become a household term right
away. I became familiar with it around
2010.
In 2002 I retired after 28 years as a pastor. Mary and I
moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina where Mary did a Post-Doc at the
University of North Carolina from July 2002 to June 2003. I thought that making her do this after all
the work she did to get a Ph. D. was “cruel and unusual punishment” but the year
there turned out to be an important transformative experience for both of us. This was due to several opportunities for
relationships and growth. The one that has made a huge impact was joining a
weekly Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina group at The Church of
Reconciliation. Our devotional life ever
since has been enhanced immeasurably by that experience.
That was also when I began to find all kinds of spiritual
wisdom and practices mainly due to the explosion of resources on the internet. As
I developed Abundancetrek.com, I found that
Frederick and Mary Ann Brussat had begun promoting many of these resources on the
Spirituality and Health website. I had
appreciated their educational work for many years before the internet came
along. I began filling my website with links they offered, perhaps a hundred
before those links became extinct due to their move to their own website in
2006, the website I call the best website in the universe, Spirituality&Practice.
What an amazing website Spirituality&Practice
is. If it was limited to book and film
reviews it would be amazing. But add to
that many other features including a comprehensive approach to 37 spiritual
practices, e-courses, blogs, galleries, the Spiritual Practice of the Day, the
Spiritual Reading of the Day, the Quote of the Day, the Teacher of the Day and
Naming the Days.
When I think of my early days of Internet searching I
think fondly of Inner
Frontier, Daily Zen, The Church of I Am, Wahiduddin’s Web, Grateful Living, The Common Lectionary,
Contemplative Outreach, One Spirit and Progressive Christianity. I offered
quotes and many links on Abundancetrek.com
and my blogs from these websites. More recently I discovered the wonderful daily
devotions from The Center for Action &
Contemplation. My basic categories on Abundancetrek.com
were and still are Heavenly Attributes and Spiritual Practices. The Heavenly Attributes
are: Abundance, Joy, Wisdom, Beauty, Love, Truth, Peace, Justice and Freedom. The Spiritual Practices are The Journey of the
Mind practices of Stillness, Detachment and Humility; The Journey of the Heart
practices of Silence, Discernment and Healing;
The Journey of the Body practices of Solitude, Devotion and Holiness; The Journey
of the Soul practices of Simplicity, Delight and Heavenliness.
InterSpiritual wisdom and practices are now becoming
quite numerous. Do a search
for “InterSpiritual” at Spirituality&Practice
and you will come up with 199 books, 23 e-courses, 23 quotes, 21 teachers, 13
traditions, 12 blogs, 7 films and 4
topics as of June 12, 2023. The first two
e-courses listed are InterSpiritual
Meditation and InterSpiritual
Wisdom. I took both of these
e-courses when they were first offered in 2010 and 2011. I was so intrigued that I pursued the
InterSpiritual path as a student at the Spiritual
Paths Institute led by Edward W. Bastian who has earned a place as one of
the pioneering teachers of InterSpiritual Wisdom and Practices.
I have had the privilege of working closely with Ed for more
than a decade along with several others who became what Ed called the Founding
Mentors. This would never have happened
without the internet.
Let me tell you about Ed’s InterSpiritual Journey since
my journey has been intertwined with for the past decade. He worked for a while with Lowell Thomas, a legendary
radio and television reporter and documentary film maker. With Lowell Thomas, he went to India in 1970 where
he met the Dalai Lama. This was long before most of us ever heard of the Dalai
Lama. Unlike me, Ed’s Presbyterian upbringing did not satisfy his thirst for a
solid spiritual foundation. So he
pursued the Buddhist path. The Dalai Lama introduced him to other Buddhist
teachers in the Tibetan monastic community in exile in Northern India. He stayed there and learned how to engage in a
deep meditation practice. Ed wanted a comprehensive
knowledge of Buddhism and so he got a Ph. D. in Buddhist Studies at the
University of Wisconsin.
Fast forward to the 1999 and 2004 and we find Ed in Aspen,
Colorado where he was invited to represent Buddhism at Father Thomas Keating’s annual
Snowmass Gatherings of Meditators. This turned
out to be a life-changing experience. He
sold his business, the Aspen Internet site, and started the Spiritual Paths Institute in Aspen. The first
faculty included several pioneering teachers of InterSpiritual Wisdom and
Practices: Thomas Keating, Cynthia Bourgeault, Rami Shapiro, Kamir and Camille
Helminski, Swami Atmarapananda.
Now fast forward to 2008 and the economic downturn which
led to an enrollment decline. Also, Ed’s
doctor advised him to move to sea level. So he moved into his sailboat in Santa
Barbara harbor, wrote two wonderful books on InterSpiritual Wisdom and
Practices. The first one, InterSpiritual Meditation: A Seven-Step Process
from the World’s Spiritual Traditions, was based on his and his colleague’s
reflections during and after the Snowmass gatherings. Here is the S&P
book review.
The second one, Mandala: Creating an Authentic
Spiritual Path: An InterSpiritual Process, was inspired by a vision he once
had where he met spirit beings who showed him a Mandala with spokes for 12
spiritual styles, 12 spiritual questions and 12 wisdom traditions. This is the format for the book. Here is the Goodreads page for
the book.
These books became the basis for two e-courses offered by
Spirituality & Practice. See above. I took both of them and I was
hooked. Ed then offered an
InterSpiritual Meditation course and a Mandala course on the Spiritual Paths website with an engaging
and comprehensive curriculum. In 2013 Omega Institute invited Ed to teach a
seminar on InterSpiritual Meditation and the InterSpiritual Mandala. I went and
met Ed there. He told me about his plan to offer a course for people wanting to
become an InterSpiritual Mentor. I
signed up along with about 10 others. 6
of us graduated in 2017. I would never have
been able to do this without the internet.
Recently I have been blessed my continuing involvement with
Spiritual Paths and with three wonderful
groups close to my home in the Mohawk Valley of Upstate New York: Weaving Home, Lotus Heart Zen and the Interfaith Coalition of Greater Utica.
I have also continued to be active as a Presbyterian
minister in a variety of ways at First
Presbyterian Church, Utica and the Presbytery of Utica.
++++++++++++
+ This is a series of posts on InterSpiritual Meditation:
A Seven Step Process created by Dr. Edward Bastian. I am an InterSpiritual
Mentor certified by SpiritualPaths
Institute which Ed established. In these posts I am offer reflections
of mine and others on each of the steps which are:
1. Motivation: “May we be Happy and Healthy.”
2. Gratitude: “May we be Grateful for Life’s Many Gifts.”
3. Transformation: “May we be Transformed into Our Highest Being.”
4. Compassion: “May we be Loving and Compassionate.”
5. Mindfulness: “May we be Mindful through Our Breathing.”
6. Wisdom: “May we Become Wise through our Meditation.”
7. Service: “May we be in Service to All.”
+ I invite you to purchase and
read Ed's wonderful books including InterSpiritual Meditation:
A Seven Step Process Drawn from the World’s Spiritual Traditions and Mandala:
Creating an Authentic Spiritual Path -- An InterSpiritual Process.
+ I invite you to consider taking a comprehensive
e-course on InterSpiritual Meditation offered by Spiritual Paths. The course is
always available but periodically it is taught via Zoom by Ed and other
teachers as an 8-week course with group participation. Another wonderful Spiritual
Paths course which is always available and periodically taught via Zoom is the InterSpiritual Mandala Course.
It is designed to “Create your Spiritual Practice and Path by harnessing your Spiritual
Styles to Find Answers to your Spiritual Questions.”
+ I invite you to join The New Faith for
the New Earth Facebook Group where I and group members post and comment on
InterSpiritual Wisdom & Practices and other topics.
