Mind, Spirit & Our Divinity
Spirituality
A major part of The Great Rising's ethos is a move towards a more spiritual approach to our lives, drawing together the divine, the human and the natural world, which we believe was the original intent for life here on earth. There has been a great splintering, and a division of these elements, often leading to war, religious conflicts, human isolation and a sense of disconnection and unfulfillment. As the old world slowly falls away, we are presented with new opportunities to bring unity and fellowship to our precious existence here -
a veritable heaven on earth.
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An article by one of our Great Rising members, Janice Dolley.
From Interfaith to Interspirituality and Beyond
Most indigenous communities and the founders of the many faiths across the world have clearly experienced the subtle presence that is within all forms of life and attributed their creation to the Supreme Being, known by many different names. Those who came after and developed a religion to sustain and communicate the original teachings often developed a certain orthodoxy from which a religion subsequently developed which stuck closely to beliefs and practices that perpetuated the outer or exoteric forms. Over time different understandings began to emerge until fundamental differences prevailed so groupings with a specific understanding developed into denominations or sectarianisms of many different kinds until today there are about 4,500 Christian groupings , eight different branches of Islam, three key branches of Buddhism divided into numerous sects, four main branches of Judaism ,and all together an estimated 4000 different religious traditions.
Whilst this great diversity existed at the exoteric level there has fortunately been an esoteric or hidden, inner stream trickling through the ages based largely on the deeper insights of many mystics. It has been the mystics with some direct experience or a deep inner knowing who have been the early seeds of a new kind of spirituality that is more widely emerging for us today. Hildegard of Bingham from her twelfth century abbey sung with the joys of the soul which came from a deep inner sense that “Everything that is in the heavens, on earth, and under the earth is penetrated with connectedness ,and penetrated with relatedness” and that “the music of heaven is in all things” Another mystic from the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas, proclaimed: ”the human soul is capex universi ‘, in other words capable of containing the whole universe and in the fourteenth century Joan of Arc was even burnt at the stake for heresy for declaring to an established inquisition that her own direct experience and inner knowing was God speaking to her.
Orthodoxies have been important for many for whom a particular set of beliefs have been integral to their own sense of identity or maintained by those seeking to develop a religion as a means of control, or those feeling the need for some certainties during times of stress or change as are being experienced today.
However, a parallel stream has been developing which has prioritised the value of direct experience and inner knowing and has especially been expressed by poets and dramatists. The seventeenth century Alexander Pope wrote that “the world is one stupendous whole, whose body nature is and God the soul.”
The period of the late 19th century must have been a time of renewed insights that we are all souls on a human journey and that despite the prevalence of an overlay of materialism, especially since the industrial revolution and increasingly technocratic society, that has meant that according to William Wordsworth
“The world is too much with us, late and soon,
Getting and spending we lay waste our powers,
Little we see in nature that is ours.”
Clearly he could see the onset of the dark satanic mills and how they were going to crush a spiritual awareness. Such thoughts were possibly behind the setting up of the first world parliament of religions in Chicago in 1893 and the memorable final speech given by Swami Vivekananda who proclaimed, “All power is within you, you can do anything and everything.” This may possibly have contributed to the inspiration that Francis Younghusband received to set up the World Congress of Faiths in 1936.
As someone who was fortunate to be present for the Second World Parliament of Religions in Bangalore, India in 1993 my overriding impression was that those giving lip service to the importance of dialogue and exchange were still fixated on promoting their own particular faith as a priority.
Also present at that event was Revd. Marcus Braybrooke who has written many books on the journey of faith and initiated different interfaith initiatives that have been helpful in carrying this energy forward. It was he who became involved with the World Congress of Faiths and in the 1980s invited me to assist him. I have fond memories of a trip that was organised to Leicester where we were able to visit different churches, a Jewish temple, a mosque, a
gurdwara and spoke with many people for whom their tradition was a key aspect of their identity...
Read the whole article here:
