An Interspiritual Perspective

Where the world's traditions find their common ground

“While different faiths developed through specific prisms of culture and contexts in space and time, there are universal spiritual principles which are foundational to all of them. Interspirituality is the common ground, where all of the wisdom traditions meet.”

- Joan Borysenko

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Note: If you haven’t already, you may find it helpful to read my previous post, Beyond the Spiritual “Basement”, before reading this one.

Another Way of Being in the World

My most recent post presented three forms of religiosity / spirituality and how each relates to the world’s wider faith community: namely, the exclusivist, ecumenical, and interfaith types. I also presented a borrowed metaphor to help us understand where we reside religiously (and perhaps where we have in the past).

The initial part of the metaphor found us in the basement where we encountered the exclusivists. The next led us to the upper floors where the ecumenical folks were gathered to explore the rest of the house. As we peeked out the windows, we saw the interfaith supporters stepping outside of their homes, greeting their neighbors, and uniting in solidarity on behalf of the community.

Now, as we venture down the street, we find a circle of trees in the center of a park (much like the one in the photo above). We see people congregated in the middle of this grove who look upward, intently focused on the opening overhead.

They come from various homes in the neighborhood, or from no home at all, and we observe some who lean on specific trees for comfort and support. As they crane their necks to view the sun, they feel the light that warms and illuminates every person gathered in this place.

This last image in our expanded metaphor reflects an interspiritual view.

What is Interspirituality?

Interspirituality, as a term, originated from the late Brother Wayne Teasdale, an interreligious monk and mystic. It should be noted that “interreligious” was eventually replaced by the word interspiritual to be inclusive of the religiously unaffiliated.

Not surprisingly, the term interspirituality is often confused with interfaith. The latter suggests an appreciation of and a willingness to dialogue and collaborate with other faith traditions. It suggests a quality of relating among people who embrace a multitude of beliefs, creeds, ideologies, and religious systems. It does not imply, however, that the distinctiveness of these separate traditions should be lessened.

With an interspiritual view I am suggesting something a bit different. The aspects of appreciation and collaboration remain, but interspirituality is less concerned with the differences among traditions (although these are acknowledged and accepted as important). Instead, an emphasis on something called perennial wisdom is at the heart of an interspiritual orientation. Consider, as an example, the fact that so many traditions have adopted something akin to the Golden Rule that I referenced a few posts ago.

The Center for Action and Contemplation, founded by Fr. Richard Rohr, provided an effective explanation of perennial wisdom in a 2017 newsletter: “There have been many generations of sincere seekers who’ve gone through the same human journey, and there is plenty of collective and common wisdom to be had. It is often called the ‘perennial tradition’ or the ‘perennial philosophy’ because it keeps recurring in different world religions with different metaphors and vocabulary. The foundational wisdom is much the same, although never exactly the same.”

One of the Center’s faculty members, Cynthia Bourgeault, points to certain teachings of Jesus as illustrative of this type of ancient wisdom, a wisdom at the root of so many of the world’s religious traditions. This wisdom is concerned with human transformation: a movement from our animal instincts and self-absorption into embodiments of love and compassion; from judgmental, dualistic perspectives into nondual worldviews. “This was the message that Jesus, apparently out of nowhere, came preaching and teaching, a message that was radical in its own time and remains equally radical today.”

Teasdale also understood inner development and transformation to be a common thread of perennial wisdom. He said that a commitment to this metamorphosis engages a person in their totality. Spirituality becomes a way of life, experienced in every aspect of it. In his book, The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions, he conveyed that no manual for the inner life could fit every person. It is in finding and following our own path that we find independence and inner directedness.

Teasdale emphasized that, “Many religious people depend on institutions – their church, synagogue, temple, or mosque – to make their decisions. Rather than looking for inner direction, they shape their spiritual lives through conformity to external piety. They seem to lack the ability and desire to stand on their own two feet. Spirituality draws us into the depths of our being, where we come face to face with ourselves, our weaknesses, and with ultimate mystery.”

What does it mean to “come face to face with ultimate mystery”? We might understand that it points to direct, immediate experiences of something transcendent (however one might name it) that is not reliant on a religious authority or anyone else to act as an intermediary. Simply put, these experiences are mystical in nature – and they serve as another commonality among people of different religious traditions.

William Johnston, author of The Inner Eye of Love, states that, “All authentic religion originates with mystical experience, be it the experience of Jesus, of the Buddha, or Mohammad, of the seers and prophets of the Upanishads” Indeed, the major religions of the world all have their well-known mystics. Sufi mystic, Rumi, tells us: “Christian, Jew, Muslim, shaman, Zoroastrian, stone, ground, mountain, river -- each has a secret way of being with the mystery, unique and not to be judged.

In his recent book, Why We Meditate: The Science and Practice of Clarity and Compassion, Daniel Goleman laments that “The modern crisis of established religions is caused by the scarcity of the personal experience of…transcendental states – the living spirit at the common core of all religions. And that spirit unites the diversity of meditative forms.”

But mystical sounds so “woo-hoo”, you might say. I’d argue that these numinous experiences are not that uncommon, although some may hesitate to discuss them openly. They may surface unexpectedly during meditation or prayer, while engaged in nature, or even during an everyday activity. Certain spiritual practices may increase the possibility of such an experience.

For the sincere spiritual seeker, there optimally exists an openness to and discernment around the meaning of such encounters when and if they occur. One may find it helpful to share them with an experienced spiritual director or other trusted companion. Remember, however, that the presence or absence of mystical experiences in one’s life does not make someone more or less spiritual.

Strands of Interspirituality

How might we actually live in an interspiritual way? There are several forms. The list below includes examples but may not be exhaustive. You may recognize some of these forms from prior posts about spiritual independence.

In actual practice, people with interspiritual orientations learn from, and often incorporate, certain understandings into their spiritual lives from one or more religious traditions. Here are some ways it could look, according to an instructional graphic produced by All Souls Interfaith School of Spiritual Direction (the source I referenced in my previous post):

1. A common strand of interspirituality involves a person remaining rooted in a single faith of origin, while learning and benefitting from aspects of other faiths.

2. A hyphenated strand is employed when a person maintains connections to a faith of origin, but substantially identifies with another one as well (you may recall the term, “spiritually fluid”).

3. An unaffiliated strand is used by a person who does not identify with any one faith system but takes an eclectic approach to their spiritual expression (as with many spiritual “nones”).

4. In an integral strand, a person seeks to identify shared precepts and values from two or more faiths, then integrate them into practices and forms that reflect these.

Final Thoughts

Someone could move through life quite contentedly without ever discovering what lies at the heart of interspirituality. In fact, one might feel most at home in one of the other forms of religious expression. To such a person I say, with no hint of judgment, “If you aren’t drawn to this path, simply pass it by. At least for now.”

Others, however, may recognize a yearning, a tugging at their hearts for something they cannot name, something that cannot be put into words. It has something to do with love, with consciousness, with a sense of life’s meaning and purpose. It is a desire for shared values and interconnectedness.

It is a longing for a glimpse of the transcendent.

“The spiritual life, in its fullest sense…is a mystical process. It begins when we accept the invitation to live our lives from the deepest wells of wisdom, from the depth of transformative or mystical consciousness. This is not an easy matter; it takes commitment and discipline that will span the rest of our earthly sojourn.

Brother Wayne Teasdale

Before You Go: An Invitation

If interspirituality sounds intriguing, or you wish to deepen your current knowledge and lived experience, consider this special invitation to explore it with like-minded travelers on their uncharted paths.

Starting on January 10^th, I will be co-leading an 8-week, online class on Interspiritual Meditation (ISM) with Don Chatfield (pastor of All Souls Interfaith Gathering in Shelburne, Vermont).

For details about this opportunity, offered by Spiritual Paths Institute, follow this link: https://spiritualpaths.net/ism/