A Natural Progression
By Rev. Deborah Steen Ross
Rabbi Roger Ross
The word “Interfaith” has been around for many years. It became popular in the 1970’s, thanks to Rabbi Joseph H., Gelberman (of blessed memory), who with clergy of many faiths, created first Interfaith salons and then the first Interfaith Seminary to help people understand and respect each other faiths.
And for years that was enough.
In the past few years however, the energies of our planet have changed and sped up. A larger more expanded understanding of the Heart of all religions, and an understanding that we are not separate from one another, no matter what faith we are, is needed. Now we move forward into a new paradigm.
Kurt Johnson, in his book The Coming Interspiritual Age, writes about Interspirituality as:
“Spirituality so based on the heart and unconditional love that it would be impossible to feel separate from anything.”
We believe that Interspirituality means more than that. It is the confluence of hands, hearts and minds coming together to create something new; something that is connected with all of Life on an energetic and mystical level that transcends the everyday, which recognizes and accesses the Divine in every religion, every person and with the Earth itself.
The world’s Mythologies all ask the same questions:
Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? What are the rules we need to follow to get us there? To help ourselves change this paradigm we must also ask “What is the higher energy that is the SAME, that is the freeing factor at the heart of all these questions and religions?” Brother Wayne Teasdale called it “the Universal Law of Mysticism.” We call it “Divine Awareness,” for each other and the Earth.
If we look to the Earth and the Earth –based First Beliefs, they come from a place of observation of the everyday, every moment, changes around the person and his /her environment. It does not come from rules and regulations of what to see, how to see, what one must do to be in favor with a supreme being of a particular religion. It is the mindfulness of Love in our observations every moment; around us, with us, into us, with every breath, in every aspect of our walk in the world. This is true worship; true spirituality.
It is what Barbara Marx Hubbard, well known Futurist and Lecturer, touches on in her book Emergence; The Shift from Ego to Essence, when she talks about holding that spark of Oneness within us, within our Divine Essence and learning and becoming a Universal Human. How do we stay mindful at every moment of our higher energy place in the situations we find ourselves every day? How can we keep our energies wrapped in Divine Love and coming from a place of Higher Consciousness, and still operate in a 3D reality, or even in a crisis situation?
At New Vision Interspiritual Seminary in Elmsford, New York, we are teaching these concepts to our ministerial students. We teach the deeper understanding of world religions, Nature Based and traditional, and how to be an Interspiritual Minister and function in this day and age, where every day is an exercise in mindfulness and knowing how to stay in our Divine Essence.
We have added a Healing Module to our Program as well, that enables students to learn how to send Divine/Universal Energy to situations, people and the Earth at every moment and for all situations- for the highest good of all concerned.
We have created what we call the Seven Root Planetary Challenges that are being named and worked with through prayer and energy sendings daily. These seven points represent Fragmented Energy Challenges that support duality and divisiveness. Divine, Universal Energy is being sent to these, at noon in each time zone. We are sending to Transformation; from Fragmentation to Wholeness, for the highest good of all.
- PATRIARCHY vs. MATRIARCHY – BALANCE
- MY VERSION OF GOD IS BETTER THAN YOUR VERSION OF GOD/THE ONLY VERSION ALLOWED
- THE ONE WITH THE MOST MONEY/RESOURCES DIRECTS ALL THE POWER (Illuminati, gold, diamonds, oil, water, 1% of elite controls)
- SOCIAL ORDER- SUPERIORITY OVER OTHERS (color, caste, race, women, animals, planet)
- DEMISE OF ECO-SYSTEMS- dolphins/whales, seals, rainforests and creatures in them, Nature in general from oil spills and pollution, clear cutting, “Global Warming”
- FEAR MONGERING –fear controls everything- blaming one race or religion-‘scapegoating’
- NATURAL DISASTERS- changes in the Earth’s topography, floods, earthquakes, droughts, tornados, hurricanes/cyclones, fires.
On page 286 of TCIA, Kurt Johnson asks the following questions:
“How can humanity break the historical pattern of religion hijacking spirituality into exclusivity and aggressive, even violent behavior? What is the formula for linking humankind’s interior and exterior senses and skills?… Globally, what new awareness must arise, and what are the attendant skill sets that must accompany it, if humankind is to survive and thrive?”
Some of the things we are teaching at our Seminary address these questions:
- The ability to really “listen” to another person and to our still small voice within.
- To stay in a calm, elevated place in the midst of what appears as chaos, and understanding that chaos births change.
- To always be looking for and seeing the highest and best in every person, in every situation.
- To keep others calm and tuned in.
- The ability to send prayers and energies for the highest good for all concerned.
- Knowing how to be a group leader-creating Wisdom Circles or Cooperation Circles to enhance and hold higher energies and where people can come together physically to initiate acts of Interspiritual cooperation and peace building. (For further information on this see United Religions Initiative ( www.uri.org )
Interspirituality is the next step in Human Evolution, and the emerging consciousness of all human beings and the planet.
www.NewVisionSeminary.org www.URI.org
©Rev. Deborah Steen Ross, Rabbi Roger Ross April 6, 2015
