Looking back now, I guess my life is another testimony to “Ask and ye shall receive.” I was serious about religion as a child and, in one way or another, was always trying to find the truth and do the right thing. It was questioning and seeking that gradually led me step by step to become a sannyasi, or monk, in the tradition of Yoga.
Spirituality in the 21st Century
Interfaith Caravan Treks through BC’s Historic Interior Town on a Journey of Peace
When Rizwan Peerzada of the Ahmidya Community of BC approached me to participate as a speaker in the World Religious Conferences in Yukon and Inuvik then I happily agreed. The Ahmidya Community has been organizing interfaith conferences, quite often, to promote peace of Islam and harmony among diverse faith communities. Their motto is – “Love for all and hatred for none.” The members of this community not only talk about peace but practice it religiously.
The Spiritual Journey of a Climate Activist
For 44 years I have been a progressive activist and organizer, and for the last nine, a climate activist. Over these years I’ve always known that my upbringing in a family that took seriously the teachings and life example of Jesus of Nazareth had a lot to do with why I chose this course. Recently the importance of that spiritual grounding resurfaced as I’ve interacted regularly with people of various faiths within the Interfaith Moral Action on Climate (IMAC), a group I helped found about a year ago.
Tectonic Shifts in American Religion and Spirituality
The Pew Forum’s October 9 report on religion in America was released in the midst of a presidential campaign in overdrive, daily doses of bad-news business stories, violence in Syria and the threat of violence in Iran. Nevertheless, on October 9 the New York Times noticed what looks to be the biggest religion story of 2012, as did the Washington Post, CNN, Huffington Post, and dozens of other news outlets.
The Spiritual Formation of a Nazarene Interfaith Activist
As readers of the Interfaith Observer know full well, the world is in the midst of an unparalleled religious diversity. Everyone acknowledges this new reality. The ways we respond are legion. Historically, progressive religious adherents are most likely to identify as religious pluralists and work intentionally to develop new friendships with religious strangers.
Yes, But Pay Attention to the Details
Count me a team-member of the interspiritual movement. I am in sympathy with the goals of The Coming Interspiritual Age by Kurt Johnson and David Robert Ord, a grand, ambitious work with an optimistic vision of future global unity. Kurt Johnson’s mental scope on display here is astonishing. A polymath, he was for thirty years a distinguished scientist at the Museum of Natural History, penned an award-winning New York Times best seller about Vladimir Nabokov and butterflies, and regularly contributes to Wikipedia, all attesting to the breadth of his discussion of how humanity came to its current crises of religious conflict and spiritual dis-ease. Johnson and Ord’s ability to weave facts into sweeping historical narrative lends strength to their conclusions.
On Behalf of ‘the Many’
In this freewheeling book, Kurt Johnson and David Robert Ord attempt a truly daunting task: to tell the story — one that reaches back fourteen billion years — of what they call “the planet’s emerging unity consciousness,”1 or, in terms of their mentor Wayne Teasdale, the emerging Interspiritual Age. The authors define interspirituality as “the sharing of ultimate experiences across traditions,” “a more universal experience of the world’s religions, emphasizing shared experiences of heart and unity consciousness.” Fundamentally, however, interspirituality turns out to be monistic: “the entire religious experience of our species,” they write, “has been a single experience.”
Pan-Asian Participation in the 1893 Parliament
Some Jain friends at the 1993 Parliament of World Religions gave me a booklet with the title We Were There As Well. Too easily the starring role of Swami Vivekananda has obscured the significant contribution that other Asian participants made a hundred years earlier at the 1893 World Parliament of Religions, participants who deserve to be remembered.
How a Native Elder & a Muslim Found Spiritual Friendship at a Christian Celebration
The invitation came from the Centre for Christian Studies to be a presenter at their 130th Anniversary celebrations in Winnipeg. The evening’s theme was Diversity, Transformation, and Hope. I was to substitute for Joy Kogawa, a fine poet who could not make it. How could I fill her shoes!? When I heard the theme, though, I said yes.
High Tea with Marcus and Mary
by Ruth Broyde Sharone
The English landscape rushed by the bus window, lush green hills alternating with roads that twisted and turned through leafy glens.
There Just May Not Be Time
Is there any hope for real change in the human condition? Kurt Johnson and David Ord certainly think so, and I am grateful to them for The Coming Interspiritual Age and its optimism. But I wonder…
What You Should Know about "Spirituality & Practice"
The pilgrim typing “spirituality” into an internet browser these days will receive 225,000,000 hits in the flash of a second. Buyers beware. Virtual religion/spirituality is an unchartered territory where anyone with the inclination can put up a “shingle” on the web. Knowing whom to trust is a major consideration for the spiritual seeker who turns to the web for resources and support.
Tectonic Shifts in American Religion and Spirituality
The Pew Forum’s October 9 report on religion in America was released in the midst of a presidential campaign in overdrive, daily doses of bad-news business stories, violence in Syria and the threat of violence in Iran. Nevertheless, on October 9 the New York Times noticed what looks to be the biggest religion story of 2012, as did the Washington Post, CNN, Huffington Post, and dozens of other news outlets.
The Coming Interspiritual Age Published this Month
This month marks the publication of The Coming Interspiritual Age (Namaste) by Kurt Johnson and David Ord. The vision they sketch delivers its insights from a multitude of sources and disciplines and comes to conclusions that will be applauded and criticized. Whether it resonates with you or not, it offers an affirmative, healing perspective of a world clearly in trouble on many fronts, so it deserves our attention.