Bees In The Garden: Cultivating Your Inter-Spiritual Nature ~ Mirabai Starr

Like bees in the garden of spirit, we are designed to gather nectar from all the world’s spiritual traditions and allow it to become rich honey with which to sustain ourselves and feed the hungry world. We are also endowed with the wisdom to recognize the nourishment and pass over the noxious weeds.
When we encounter different faiths, our task is to excavate and sift to find the jewels that lie at the heart of each tradition. Every religion contains a treasure trove of wisdom teachings and transformational practices, and each one is also burdened with divisive messages and a history of violence and oppression. The inter-spiritual seeker dares to dive down and lift up the teachings of love, and refuse to drink the poison.
The emerging inter-spiritual movement does not insist that all the world’s religions are the same. Rather, it affirms that all the world’s religions recognize and proclaim that all beings are one. It is in this sense that the inter-spiritual path is unifying.
The goal of the inter-spiritual life is to move beyond inter-religious dialog and into a direct experience of the sacred in multiple traditions-an encounter that, by its very nature, dissolves historical boundaries and calls all beings into our essential interconnected state. By cultivating radical spiritual nakedness, we transcend theology and enter the mystery, where we may be transformed by love.
In this session, we will follow the streams of mystical longing and social justice that emanate from and return to the heart of the world’s religious traditions. Through readings from the ecstatic poetry of the mystics, sitting in contemplative silence, chanting the names of God in an array of languages, and engaging in deep dialog, we build community and invigorate our inter-spiritual quest, so that we may live in deeper peace and be of greater service to all beings.

[@ggonsg]

Thank you for sharing your wisdom.

[@TheseEyesGod]

Thumbs-up and favorite - excellent, truly heart-felt message ~♥~ This is such a balanced perspective - so level-headed and full-hearted.

[@rudy8278]

It is our Humanity, our spiritual capacity and the Roots of Being that connect all of these experiences. No matter how one goes deep, there you are!

[@StephenUS99]

THE BEST! COLLECTING MY JEWELS. ALL ARE FACETS OF THE SAME GOLDEN DIAMOND...Oh, if only I could write you...TRULY MOVED "me" HOW I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR MORE...

[@marybalfanz]

Beautiful words

[@manyhumbles]

wonderfully inspirational! I wonder if when "they" said that you would need to go deep into ONE of the wisdom traditions / religions - the idea behind it was not to invest your entire interest in it as the only way or path but rather to use it for cultivating the path of stillness as opposed to a noisier outer one? and saying yes to "them" all is a natural thing for a soul who is walking a path of heart! Don Juan Matus in Nagual/Yaquai way of knowledge said a path is only a path and there is no affront to yourself or others in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you.... look at every path closely and deliberately - try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself and yourself alone: does this path have heart? if it does the path is good and if it doesn't then it is of no use."

[@justjazzieful]

beautiful talk!

[@SandyInNaples]

Why call out "right-wing Christians?" Defined as: Christian right or religious right is a term used mainly in the United States to label conservative Christian political factions that are characterized by their strong support of socially conservative policies. The fact that you exclude one group tears at the fabric of your thesis. There are no exceptions or exclusions only misunderstanding if you truly understand the oneness of everything. Please don't think I am this or that, defending one group over another. I am not criticizing the speaker. I am only stating what unity and universal love is.

[@3877michael]

I'm not buying this. The point of view is that you lack or do not know god. This is absurd and hard core duality. Me then god. That is duality. All this talk is for entertainment only. The absolute stands aside and says I need some more absolute in my life.. Hilarious.

[@jamesthomas1244]

Of course "you" are not buying this. You, the great wise one who thinks he knows what God is. You, who sees love of God as absurd and hilarious. You who have made non-duality a religion that makes you feel wise and righteous. Hopefully after two years you have left such thoughts behind.