An interfaith service project established by Roger Prentice : -
onesummit At gmail DOT com
onesummit At gmail DOT com
Inter-spirituality is focused on;
“the recovery of the shared mystic heart beating in the center of the world’s deepest spiritual traditions.” WT Wayne Teasdale
via ‘...the sharing of ultimate experiences across traditions.’ WT p26 The Mystic Heart
"Interspiritual dialogue can underpin a new kind of inter-religious dialogue" Wayne Teasdale
"Interspirituality is not a new form of spirituality or an overarching synthesis of what exists, but a willingness and determination to taste the depth of mystical life in other traditions.
Interfaith encounter, interreligious dialogue, and the collaborations of the religions, whether through interfaith organizations or more directly in bilateral relationships, are becoming permanent features of a new global culture.
Our knowledge of other religions and cultures is likewise increasing, opening the door to a universal understanding of religion, spirituality, and culture." A Monk in the World, Wayne Teasdale
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Q. What is the absolute minimum needed to arrange an interspiritual meditation & dialogue?
1 A minimum of one other person.
2 Sit with them in silent meditation for a few minutes. Breathe - be conscious of your breathing.
3 Bring two or more high-level texts from different traditions that around a particular topic e.g. ‘love’ that point to the Oneness beyond the diverse traditions. To start see HERE for wonderful texts about love. There are many books of quotations from which to choose and myriads of quotations online.
4 Read them aloud to each other.
5 Share insights.
6 Take tea or break bread together
7 Take the inspiration, and the good vibrations, with you into the following week and do something good for other people.
How do you know if you are doing it right? There will be one or more of the following; lots of insights, perhaps astonishment, joy, laughter, perhaps some tears and an increased desire to serve others.
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LONGER VERSION!
Q What is the ‘One Garden’?
It’s a state of heart-mind, an allegiance to Oneness. We call being in touch with Oneness and as such ‘being in the One Garden’.
It is;
1 Celebrating heart-connection with the Oneness beyond the clamouring traditions & world-views.
2 Meetings to experience being in the company of those who feel a Oneness beyond those clamouring world-views. Meetings are to savour Oneness rather than academic study of comparative traditions.
3 Using the spiritual discipline of dialogue to find new inspiration from the golden threads within the various world-views that point to Oneness - starting with a) God is love, and b) the Golden Rule - http://sunwalked.wordpress.com/?s=golden+rule&submit=Search
Q. Tell me a bit more.
A. The ‘One Garden’ is about being and doing and celebrating & serving Oneness. If you feel the Oneness behind all the world-views, philosophies and religions you are in the One Garden already - it’s a state of heart-mind!
Q. Is it perennial philosophy?
A. I prefer the term ‘perennial spirituality’ - the central mystical core of teachings to be found in all the great traditions - a) Awaken-b) Detach from the lower self- c) Serve your fellow humans.
“I am neither Christian nor Jew nor Parsi nor Moslem. I am neither
of the East nor of the West, neither of the land nor of the sea... I
have put aside duality and have seen that the two worlds are one. I
seek the One, I know the One, I see the One, I invoke the One. He
is the First, He is the Last, He is the Outward, He is the Inward. “
Jalâl ad-Dîn Rûmî - (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273)
Q. Are you an interfaith organization?
A. Yes if the process is pointing out Oneness. No, if the process holds on to identity based on differences and claims of exclusivity i.e having a monopoly on truth instead of ‘many paths; one summit’.
Interfaith at its best is this HERE. Interfaith at its worst is grudging toleration. Interspirituality is the experience of the Oneness we can find when pointed to in all great traditions.
Q. So is the One Garden a religion, or a sect of a religion?
A. No! - God forbid! We want to celebrate the Oneness, not yet more differences.
Q. Are you about recovery from cultic or similar bad experiences
A. No, there are other good organizations doing that. But the One Garden experience could be healing as well as inspiring - just like all good learning. But if you need specialized or individualized help go to your doctor or a spiritual /coach or counsellor.
Q. How do you know if someone is right for the One Garden’?
A. Ultimately the issue is ‘do they get it’. It usually comes with some humility, calmness, balance - or a major shock - as in the case of Eckhart Tolle or Saul!
Q. But what do you actually do?
A. In our group we start with silent meditation on the grounds that it is only in silence that we can be truly at one! It acknowledges that we ultimately are only one, and as Socrates/Plato said, in our knowing we know nothing.
Then there is a short presentation including two or more inspiring extracts ‘inspirationals ’from different backgrounds that are set alongside each other.
Then group members generate the agenda-questions - individually or via creating a question from dialogue in pairs.
The main dialogue, uses the agenda of questions generated, is whole-group.
We try to summarize and share what were our main points of learning. We then end with a short meditative silence and/or an ‘Ommmmm’.
We the take tea or break bread together.
Many members are involved in a variety of social service projects.
Q. Does the group teach certain forms of practice?
A. No - except for silent meditation, and other forms of meditation and, following Thich Nhat Hanh in - ‘Smile: Breathe: Go mindfully’ We use extracts from major spiritual teachers for inspiration. Members have their own practice and worship - and I don’t ask to know.
Q. What if I am happy in a mainstream religion?
Two kinds of people come to One Garden sessions. The first are ‘free-thinkers’ who are not in any mainstream tradition. The other kind are happily in a mainstream tradition but who because of the universality of their heart and mind like to celebrate and explore other traditions - and the Oneness beyond all traditions.
Q. Are there teachers who have mapped out this ‘One Garden’ territory?
A. Yes. You will get the clearest understanding of interspirituality from this HERE or from Wayne Teasdale’s seminal book The Mystic Heart . We also find that almost all who are attracted to the One Garden are familiar with at least one of Eckhart Tolle’s three books; The Power of Now, A New Earth or Stillness Speaks. Others who have mapped out the territory are Aldous Huxley in his The Perennial Philosophy.
You can summarize the teaching of all as the 1) ‘love is the content’ and 2) the ‘structure’ is
a) awakening,
b) detaching from the lower self and
c) serving our fellow human beings.
That is the perennial philosophy or as I would prefer ‘the perennial spirituality’.
Tolle’s work is the best accessible description of the essence of all of the major spiritual world-views. He makes no claim to be a saint or Messenger of God or anything other than a teacher teaching out of his own deep experience. That experience was a cataclysmic reordering of his personality, following a long period of depression. Of course the experience, followed by years of processing that experience, and ‘revealing’ commentary on the insights from the experience, is quintessentially the experience of mystics, and in humbler ways it is the experience of many of the rest of us, often in our senior years!
Q. In what sense have they mapped the territory?
A. We all see and know the misery and suffering created by inter-religious enmity but these great souls saw the Oneness behind the diversity. They then demonstrated the Oneness from a range of teachings and gave us a structure to think about that Oneness.
Q. How do you view interspiritual experience?
A. In two parts. Firstly religious, or spiritual experience, is inevitably mystical - both for the Founders of the great world faiths and, in lesser ways, our own spiritual experience which is also essentially mystical. We are taken out of our ‘self’. In the case of us ordinary mortals we are temporarily relieved of the burden of self. This is direct experience - often unlooked for, but perhaps more likely as a result of spiritual practice.
Secondly such experiences may leave us with an need for explanation - or at least some form or enlightened commentary
So our spiritual life in this world is in some way
a) direct experience of The Whole or of Mystery or Ultimate Being, or God if you prefer, and secondly
b) there is what we do with such experience in action and in thought (philosophy).
There are many ways that this experience can occur - sought for or unexpected. Our son says for him it is passing through cloud layers at 120mph (sky-diving)!
The spiritual Messengers write about their own experience in allegorical or symbolic terms and they also reveal commentaries or explanation or laws. Our life can also be seen as firstly direct transcendent experience - via meditation, prayer, nature, the arts etc.
And in addition to all the practicalities of earning a living and the like we also work out a philosophy or code or ethics that flow from our experience in general and our mystical-spiritual experience in particular - and hopefully use it for the good of others as well as ourselves.
One version of the structure of such experience and commentaries is called the Perennial Philosophy - but I prefer ‘perennial spirituality’.
‘The teacher and the taught together produce the teaching.’ - an ancient saying according to Eckhart Tolle on YouTube video The Flowering of Human Consciousness - HERE
Q. Give me an example of a key ‘oneness’ that many will already support.
A. The Golden Rule which for the 8 or 9 faith communities that we draw inspiration from, plus Humanism;
Hindu Faith
When a man sees that the God in himself is the same God in all that is, he hurts not himself by hurting others: then he goes to the highest Path. - Bhagavad Gita (13.28)
Taoism
Regard your neighbour's gain as your own gain and your neighbour's loss as your own loss. - Lao Tzu, T'ai Shang Kan Ying P'ien, 213-218
Confucianism
One word which sums up the basis of all good conduct....loving-kindness. Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself. - Confucius, Analects 15.23
Buddhist Faith
Hurt not others with that which pains yourself. - Udana-Varga (15:8)
Jewish Faith
What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow men. That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary - The Talmud (Shabbat 3'a)
Christian Faith
All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. - The Gospel of Matthew (7:12)
Muslim Faith
No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.
Hadith of Bukhari - (quoted in "Prophet Muhammad and His Mission_, p. 106)
Baha'i Faith
And if thine eyes be turned towards justice, choose thou for thy neighbor that which thou choosest for thyself. - Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 30
Humanism
And these from ancient Greece for good measure!
“We should behave to friends as we would wish friends to behave to us.” - Aristotle
“Do not do to others what would anger you if done to you by others.” - Socrates
Q. Then what is it?
A. It’s realizing that behind the clamour of world-views there is a Oneness that can bring inner peace and joy in its celebration and exploration - and motivation to serve others.
Q. Is it just for individuals?
A. No When there are two or more who have realized that Oneness you have the smallest possible community!
Q How does that work in practice?
A. Being in the ‘One Garden’ is the state of being when you feel at-one with the Whole. With two or more you enjoy being together, including in silence and you enjoy finding ways of celebrating and exploring and expressing being at-one.
Q. What’ s the Whole?
A. Everything you experience that isn't experienced as you - the chair you're sitting on and a billion, billion stars - and all the rest. The Whole is also the Mystery. Outwardly the Whole is infinite and inevitably a mystery. Inwardly we are infinite and inevitably a mystery. The two of course, when we forget the illusion of self, are One.
Q. What else is it?
A. It’s a network of groups - but more than that it is a planetary ‘community’ consisting of all who sense the Oneness beyond diversities - and who seek to live in the balance of the ‘two wings’ - oneness & diversity, Whole and the parts
Q. Where did the One Garden groups start?
A. In Brighton, in the UK?
Q. Where else?
A. Anywhere and everywhere that two or more people together honour the Oneness behind different world-views it is simply a sacred ‘space’ for those who feel the Oneness behind the clamouring world-views! It's a state of mind, and a community!
Q. How did you find a framework?
A. In the sameness of major accounts of mystical experience together with what is known as ‘perennial philosophy/spirituality’ - or interspirituality or advaita.
Q. Isn’t that a world-view?
A. Yes I suppose it is, but the key is that many or all religions have more or less forgotten the Oneness at the heart of their teachings. Oneness has degenerated into exclusivity and the lust to convert. If all the worldviews kept Oneness to the fore and at the centre then the One Garden would not constitute another world-view!
Q. In realizing that there is only One Garden what are the benefits for the individual?
a. Feeling that you have arrived home spiritually
Q. Insofar as the world might realize Oneness and that there is ultimately only One Garden what would benefits be?
A. Justice, peace,, unity in diversity, massive developments in the qualities of the lives of all peoples,
Q. Can you zoom down from that macro level to a specific example or two?
a. Yes the oneness that enable people to ignore nationality or religious groupings when working for social justice in such areas as;
Water
micro-credit
Medicine
Many of the Charities
etc - are all examples of outcomes from realizing Oneness.
Q. So why do you concentrate on this level - and in this way?
A. Because there are many people who feel the Oneness and have no way to meet once a week to feel it in a group, enjoying being at-one in silence with others and enjoy the craic of exploring how the Oneness is indicated in extracts from the different worldviews
Q.Are there rules?
A In the foundation groups there appears to be a high level of tacit understanding that is a function of the maturity of those who found each other - in the One Garden group.
Q. But if there were rules what would they be?
A. Some examples;
1 Respect,
2 Realizing that we are only ever at-one in silence - which as several teachers have said is the primary way to approach God!
3 No proselytising - just celebrate the Oneness.
4 Smile, breathe & go mindfully
5 Hang your ego up at the door.
6 Structured dialogue is better than rambling conversation.
Q. What have you learned from early experience?
A. Lots of people just don’t get it!
Q. What then? A. Wish them well.
Q. Do people who come to One Garden events have particular labels for themselves? A. I don’t know, I don’t ask. Sometimes someone might share a bit of personal history e.g once they studied Sufism, or whatever. Most know instinctively and via personal experience that connection to Oneness
Q. Are there worldviews that wouldn't be acceptable? A. There are some pseudo religions that would be at least very challenging as would a nazi world-view.
Q. What is a non pseudo-religion? A. A version that has a proven track record of integrity, doing no harm etc and which is covenant-ally connected to one of the two great lines of teaching known as the semitic and the aryan ie. Buddhism, Hinduism etc and Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Baha’i. To this I would add first-nation religions in various parts of the world - that have a record of doing good and a proven track record of integrity, doing no harm etc
Q. But aren’t there corrupt versions of all of those? A. Yup - watch out for them, dig deep, don’t rely on the proselytizers, work out your criteria e.g. all forms of truth must come together as one objective/scientific truth, mystical-arts truth & moral truth. Be very, very careful!
Q. Why? A. Because you could lose a decade or two and a great deal of your spiritual energy and ability to serve others effectively and in good ways, if you throw your lot in with them. Expensive!
Q. As a teacher for many decades who are the most destructive would-be members?
A. Those with a) a proselytizing agenda, b) too much ego, c) above average neurosis, d) those in need of psychiatric or medical help, e) those with too much inner angst or confusion. Etc.
Q. What happens to them? A. The group tries to send out ‘the power of healing’ and they heal sufficiently - or they go off to find another boat to rock, another group to sabotage or dominate and other ways to keep their contribution to the pain-body going!
Q.But what are your members like? A. Blessedly varied - but in the main their goodness of heart and the suffering & witnessing of their personal journeys have put them in the state of Oneness that we metaphorically call the ‘One Garden, or the ’Interspiritual world-view’ or Advaita - howsoever you choose to ‘point to’ our two ‘wings’; the unnamable Oneness and the glorious diversity. Namaste!
CONTACT: Roger (Dr Roger Prentice) at onesummit@gmail.com
RESOURCES - some exemplary interfaith organizations
Scarboro Missions - http://www.scarboromissions.ca/Interfaith_dialogue/what_we_do.phpUpdated 24th Aug 2014
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