This discussion category is dedicated to the emerging movement of new interspiritual monasticism.
You can read the manifesto by Adam Bucko and Rory McEntee online here: “New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Life in the 21st Century”
You can read it online or download it for free here: “New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Life in the 21st Century”
From the article: “We assert that new monasticism names an impulse that is trying to incarnate itself in the new generation. It is beyond the borders of any particular religious institution, yet drinks deeply from the wells of our wisdom traditions. It is an urge which speaks to a profoundly contemplative life, to the formation of small communities of friends, to sacred activism and to discovering together the unique calling of every person and every community.”
Also, you can view some articles written on the manifesto that appeared in National Catholic Reporter here:
This posting is in response to the article written by Rory and Adam for I have some questions. You mentioned mentoring young people who might describe themselves as spiritual, but not religious. Do you feel that these mentors need to be fairly close in age to these twenty-something in order for them to relate or could they be someone in their mid-sixties. I got the impression that both of you work from a community that are very open to multiple traditions, but still focus on a specific tradition; so how you expect to relate to the SBNR? I may have missed something, but you mentioned having a seven-year program, but gave no details. There are programs for a bachelor and master degrees shorter than that. What are you planning to be in this program? Since I am SBNR, I wonder how you would envision a form of monasticism where I would truly welcome be as an equal.
Hi TS, thanks for this…let me try to address some of your questions. In terms of mentoring, we don’t believe that the mentors need to be close in age to young people. Sometimes just the opposite. Adam and I would not say that we work from within a specific tradition…our methodology has been much more one of following the “guidance of the holy spirit.” Note that this is just one way of describing it, but it is a way of cultivating a deep relationship with life, and finding it becomes a real relationship that then guides us, often deeply into varying traditions at different parts in our journeys, and at times into receiving deep wisdom and mentorship from people who claim no particular tradition. But underlying the journey is a definite sense of guidance. faith, and trust. Interestingly, when I look at the personal stories of other “spiritual aspirants”, from whatever tradition they come out of, I often get the same sense of “archetypal story”. This shows to me that the spiritual journey is much more about being a human being than being a Buddhist, Catholic, SBNR, or whatever. I think this is part of what interspirituality is pointing towards. So I think we have a profound resonance with the SBNR movement, as the interest lies in the spiritual dimension of the human being without being beholden to a religious tradition.
One of the points we are making is that many of the traditions, with their theological frameworks and dogmatic formulations, are no longer speaking to many young people in a deep way. One example of this is the explosion of the SBNR movement. Yet, these traditions contain great wisdom, and most of our great living spiritual masters have emerged from one of the traditions. We feel that this wisdom needs to be passed on, but it cannot be done in the traditional way of one committing to a specific tradition and receiving mentorship from within. So one question that arises is: how to pass on this wisdom?
Adam and I have found that a methodology similar to what the Snowmass Conference has developed is very promising. This harkens back to individual people’s biographies…their personal stories of transformation and the Divine, the Buddha mind, or whatever it is they have found that has brought them insight, wisdom, and greater expansions of love and compassion…and that by sharing these stories, insights, and experiences in an intimate and personal way becomes a way of transmitting their wisdom to others. Through sharing their experience, and sometimes even respectfully challenging each other on the interpretation of our experience, the process leads into a transmission that begins to happen, where one begins to receive the transmission of the other’s wisdom, of their lived spiritual experience and maturity. This differs from the traditional model because this transmission isn’t necessarily beholden to, or interpreted within, the traditional framework that the experience arose within.
So that spiritual mentorship becomes more about deep friendship and sharing, and the movements of the spirit that occur among us. In this framework, I think there is ample room for mentors from no traditions, because it is not really about being in a tradition, or being in multiple traditions, or being in no tradition, but about one’s lived experience and how to create space so that it can be passed on to a younger generation. Because there is so much wisdom that is contained in the traditions (I think of a Father Thomas Keating, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and even Brother Wayne who was a very committed Catholic), I think it is important that we find ways to bridge the gap between the traditions and the interspiritual movement, of which I see SBNR as a large part.
On the 7-yr program, right now it is in the visionary stage, but is meant to model the more traditional time period for “monastic formation”, where often monks and nuns do not take final vows until after a period of 7-10 years. It is a way to build a framework for people who are interested in undergoing a similar rigorous process of “spiritual maturing”, less about intellectual study or pastoral training, such as in a bachelors or masters or interfaith/minister degree, and more about a deep contemplative process that can be mentored, including psychological shadow work, contemplative practice, and intellectual study, and can be tailored to each individuals needs. For some, it may be being drawn more to a particular path, such as Sufi, or Catholic, etc, or it may trace out a much more broad path. So I think it is a vision to model just what you mentioned, a rigorous and deep contemplative training that leads one into a formal commitment to “monkhood”. Of course, we are redefining monkhood in some radical ways in the manifesto, as we expand it to include those in relationships and working actively in the world. Yet, the idea of the spiritual warrior and the complete giving of ones life to the spiritual journey remains the same. (and also a quick note that “monk” can refer to a man or a woman in its original use).