Interspirituality. Hmmmm. Big word. Doesn’t show up on spell-check. Incredibly ambiguous if you do a Google search on it. And yet…and yet is sounds like something enormous. Sounds like something the world might need. Spirituality, and the prefix of “inter”…Latin for “between, or among,” we might be on to something here; and in Santa Barbara we certainly are.
The term “Intersprituality” was first coined by Wayne Teasdale, and while I won’t digress here on the teachings of Brother Teasdale, what I will note is a quote from Mahatma Gandhi that has much in common with what Teasdale was getting at:
“When you go to the heart of your own religion, you go to the heart of all others too.”
This was certainly my experience on my retreat at La Casa de Maria, where I was given the gift of being introduced to the interspiritual community in Santa Barbara. When I showed up at the Spiritual Path’s retreat, I really didn’t know what to expect, nor did I understand fully what drove me there. But what followed was a weekend of celebration, meditation, and calls to action. The objective of the retreat was to bring environmental advocacy groups into dialog with the spiritual leaders from various religious traditions and members from the community to explore the ways in which can work together.
Ed Bastian, founder of Spiritual Paths, lead the retreat. Speakers included Reverend Cynthia Bourgeault, Ph.D, Shaikh Kabir Helminski, Shaikha Camille Helminski, Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Ph.D, and Pravrajika Vrajaprana – faculty from Spiritual Paths. Representatives from environmental groups included Sharyn Main from the Community Environmental Council, Dr. Michael McGinnis, an Environmental Studies professor at UCSB, Don Four Arrows Jacobs; professor of Educational Leadership at the Fielding Graduate University, and Michael Potts from the Rocky Mountain Institute.
I was turned on to something that’s time has come, and I can’t wait to see what’s next. It was one of the most beautiful, remarkable things to not only explore the traditions of all these great faiths, but also see how much we have in common. At the core of all religions is a spiritual essence that unites, and never divides. The sacred contract we have to each other as humans and this planet that sustains us is universal. To understand this, and teach this is truly what can change the world. Namaste and Godspeed to Spiritual Paths – you’ve got great work ahead of you.
