This is the fourth post on Step Two of InterSpiritual Meditation: MAY WE BE GRATEFUL FOR LIFE'S MANY GIFTS.
I am grateful that I have joined with other companions on the amazing journey of InterSpiritual Wisdom & Practices. Here is how one of the pioneering InterSpiritual teachers describes this journey:
To walk an interspiritual path is to travel through the wilderness with open hands and a courageous spirit. It is to navigate with the heart and a book of prayers from every faith tradition that ever uttered a sacred phrase in any language. To travel an interspiritual path is to drop to our knees in the presence of Love wherever we encounter it, and to disarm our hearts the minute we have the impulse to otherize a faith we do not understand. To take an interspiritual journey is to circle ever inward, to a place of holy silence and vibrant stillness, and then to surge back outward with the contemplative fruits we have gathered to feed a hungry world. An interspiritual life invites us to take our rightful place at the table of the Divine in many Holy Houses, and asks that we kneel at the altars of multiple traditions and drink from the goblet we are offered, and allow it to transform us. Interspirituality is about saying YES to the sacred in every form and no form, about moving beyond intellectual orientation to active engagement with various religions, about seeking and finding the Love that unifies all paths and affirms our essential interconnectedness. -- Mirabai Starr, from www.mirabaistarr.com
What a blessing it has become for me to be among more and more people devoted to this path. May you be so blessed. May you join me in gratitude for this splendid opportunity to create a new earth which reflects the abundance, compassion and freedom of heaven which is our birthright since we really are heavenly beings temporarily enjoying the unique experience of being human here on earth. Let's enjoy this sojourn even more by embracing the cultures and rituals and wisdom offered by all of humanity. We can become more and more grateful for the riches, the variety, the gifts found here on earth where we are for now.
My InterSpiritual Journey began long before Wayne Teasdale coined the term sometime in the 1990s. I will share some highlights from birth to the end of the twentieth century in this post and I will share my 21st century highlights in a future post. Here we go:
I have been open to finding wisdom sources outside of the Christian Wisdom Tradition for as long as I can remember. Shortly after I was born in 1947 I was baptized in a Presbyterian Church in Caldwell NJ. When I was two, we moved to Denville NJ. There was a big Presbyterian Church in nearby Dover and a small church in the Union Hill section of Denville which became Presbyterian in 1957. The first pastor of that church, Theodore Blunk, was a new graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary. He was a wonderful pastor who loved working with the youth of the area and there were many of us baby boomers to work with. He would now be called a Progressive Christian. He opened my eyes to the infinite possibilities available beyond the friendly but narrow confines of Christianity.
As a college and then seminary student in Boston (1965-1973) I found my way to Old West Methodist Church where I was blessed by very progressive pastors and very progressive professors. I opened my eyes even more. Christianity worked for me and still does. But, like Wayne Teasdale, I wanted to find meaningful experiences beyond those friendly but narrow confines. I found meaningful wisdom and practices mostly through several books which I did not find in the seminary curriculum. I hope that has changed.
One of the pastors at Old West Church, Bill Hudson, introduced me to Nikos Kazantzakis. I read several books by this great Greek writer. He wrote about the great teachings found in the East as well as the West. Concurrently I discovered The Handbook to Higher Consciousness by Kenneth Keyes, Jr. I still find this book valuable. He presents some of the great wisdom from the East in a way which makes sense to the Western mind. He calls the seven chakras the 7 centers of Consciousness. Going from bottom to top they are called the Security Center, the Sensation Center, the Power Center, the Love Center, the Cornucopia Center, the Conscious-Awareness Center and the Cosmic Consciousness Center. The 12 Pathways to Higher Consciousness, which I memorized, is a profound tool for overcoming the security, sensation and power addictions. I read a few more books in the 1970s from outside the Christian Wisdom Tradition including How to Meditate by Lawrence LeShan, Siddhartha by Herman Hesse and Black Elk Speaks. I also read books from secular sources, particularly Psychology, Sociology and Quantum Physics.
During the years I served as a pastor (1974-2002) I stayed mainly within the friendly but narrow confines of the Christian Wisdom Tradition. Nevertheless I did have a couple of life-changing experiences during those years. While I worked as a pastor in Dearborn, Michigan in the 1980s, I was led to John Biersdorf, a United Church of Christ Minister who was the Guiding Teacher at the Ecumenical Theological Center of Detroit. He regularly taught many pastors and others to meditate with a Buddhist mindfulness approach. In the 1990s I devoted quite a lot of effort to reading, understanding and practicing A Course in Miracles. Also in the 90s a friend encouraged me to read several important books from outside the Christian Wisdom Tradition. Particularly The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley re-opened my eyes to the riches found in the East. More and more I sought wisdom from beyond the Christian Wisdom Tradition, particularly from the religions of the East but also from Shamanic and Indigenous wisdom.
After I retired as a Pastor I had more time to pursue wisdom and practices and the Internet was exploding with it more and more and more. I will continue sharing my InterSpiritual Journey in a future post.
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+ 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.
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