While religion and spirituality are different, studying any of the major religions, and even minor ones, leads to recognizing a common thread: there’s an unnameable energy, vibrating in the universe, called by many names. We can say God, Great Spirit, Allah, Buddhist Enlightenment, or even Quantum Physics. I suspect by whatever name we humans call, the energy answers. And probably doesn’t really care which name we use. That basic philosophy leads me to calling this a post-denominational blog.
We humans, however, get in the habit of naming the unnameable. And then, after using words to define, we want to prove our definition is right. That’s an all too common human characteristic. The problem with that particular characteristic is that we end up fighting about who’s right rather than reaching beyond words to find wholeness.
Because our times feel so fractured and the competing words so fierce, this blog presents a place to wonder and explore.
It’s not that I don’t have beliefs, but like any belief, mine are shaped by personal experience. There are things I know and things I believe: for example, I know an energy moves through me when I preside at Eucharist as we wide-spread-catholics-with-a-small-c call sharing bread and wine in communion; I know that same energy moves through me when I practice as a healer or when I am in prayer. I choose, as a shorthand, to call that energy God. But when I worked with a curendera in Mexico, she said ”Señor”; and when I studied in Hawaii, the teachers said “Huna”; a Native American medicine man said “Great Spirit”; and a Sri Lankan monk said “Buddha.” The energy moving through me in each case felt the same.
I’ve invited others to join me in this endeavor – mine is not the only voice calling for a new understanding – so you will find reflections from writers who practice various religious traditions and who understand an underlying spiritual energy in all life and in all religions.
And who knows? Maybe even some humor about this thing called a spiritual journey!
Janet Sunderland
