I mean two different things when I say interspirituality outside of any community; both of which describe me at present. First, I am one of those individuals that Wayne referenced that come from “no tradition”; phrasing this another way, I might label myself as profoundly spiritual, without being religious. I cannot claim that I follow any particular faith traditions or combination of traditions; so I guess I am faith-neutral. But I also respect and honor the traditions, so I am also faith friendly. Second, right now I live just outside Asheville, NC. I have not found a spiritual community. Being far away from any big cities, it is difficult to find like-minded people. As we have our discussions, I feel that it is vital that we think of ways to include people who come from no traditions and who feel that they are in isolation as they do this work.
Yes, no doubt this is one of the big challenges of the growing interspiritual paradigm. It may be “the” emerging, inevitable, paradigm BUT how does the interspiritual perspective, which can be SO NATURAL in the “I” space of an individualm find any kind of a “We” space in which to contextualize.. .
And, this does not even mention the question of what compatible “We” space are to begin with. This must have been the situation of every “new view”, “new vision”, “new paradigm” as it emerged. And, yet, we know the process somehow “happened” as each of these grew. But as we say in TCIA, they undoubtedly emerged by people experimenting with what really works for them, and inviduals, an in smaller, and then larger “We’s”. Even this emerging blog is an example.
We also know that emerging “We’s” like CMH, or Spiritual Paths, or any of the OUnI Participating Communities often, and usually, offer more than what people actually “bite” on. We have many intiatives, offerings that are not engaged while at the same time some folk wonder “why isn’t anything going on?”.
I think we just need to keep experimenting. One thing we have figured out it that actual soul groups, already tight knit groups centered around a certain person, group of persons or segment of the vision, DO seem to be able to create actual community and ongoing “happenings”.
But, further, interspirituality is inevitably asking a new question. Once we don’t have “good old time religion” covering the emotional bases, and rights of passage of people based on covering their needs/fears in the world and have stripped a lot of that away, what do we have. THEN what are people interested in? This is also a worthy questions as we mine this unfolding path.