Introduction

The Emerging, Holistic Worldview

Awakening and Transformation of Consciousness

Reconnecting to Nature

Health and Healing

Socially Engaged Spirituality

Similarities of Religions

The Christian mystic and Catholic priest, Thomas Keating, who lives in the high mountains of Colorado, has for 20 years held annual meetings with spiritual leaders from many denominations. He had dialogues with them trying to find what united them. Here is his list of what he found common to all of them:

1. The world religions bear witness to the experience of Ultimate Reality, to which they give various names: Brahman, Allah, Absolute, God, Great Spirit.
2. Ultimate Reality cannot be limited by any name or concept.
3. Ultimate Reality is the ground of infinite potentiality and actualization.
4. Faith is opening, accepting and responding to Ultimate Reality. Faith in this sense precedes every belief system.
5. The potential for human wholeness (or in other frames of reference —enlightenment, salvation, transformation, blessedness, nirvana—) is present in every human person.
6. Ultimate Reality may be experienced not only through religious practices but also through nature, art, human relationships, and service of others.
7. As long as the human condition is experienced as separate from Ultimate Reality, it is subject to ignorance and illusion, weakness and suffering.

• Spiritual Practices
• Similarities of Religions

A beautiful video with Thomas Keating, Invitation from God, by Marie Louise Lefevre, can be ordered here.

Hanne Strong, president of the Manitou Foundation, has invited spiritual leaders of many traditions to make retreats on the land where the Native Americans used to meet in Colorado.