On Getting to Know Each Other as a Spiritual Practice for Peace

When we first started talking about blogging this group, we wondered what to say. After all, are the monthly dinner conversations & spiritual practices of 8 or 9 people so very interesting, and can they be conveyed by the typewritten word? And why is meeting for supper, conversation & prayers a work for peace?

This blog is an experiment to answer the first question; this post is an attempt to answer the second.

J brought us news about an interfaith conference for peace in Jerusalem. Instead of the usual formal presentations on religious beliefs and practice, about 100 people of various faiths met and talked to each other, one-on-one, in small groups, and in large groups. At the end, there was a spontaneous prayer circle; people were so moved because of the bonds they had made. J said she thought this was the way peace work would grow in the Middle East. Shahabuddin has previously explained to us that the culture there is focused on interpersonal relationships as the way to get things done, on family and friendship and the guest as predominant archetypes of relationship.

Recently, I went to the Seeds of Compassion conference, and there Rev. Samuel B. McKinney spoke about the need to put a face on the Other. He pointed out that it's hard to vilify someone you know face-to-face. (Click here and scroll to Tuesday in the left window and move the video slider to about 85%, time point 3:35 to see the clip.)

Several times we've thought "Maybe we should DO something - raise funds or give educational talks." One of us goes to Israel & Palestine, has been at the Abrahamic Reunion meetings, devotes time to the Center for Religious Tolerance which supports the AR - shouldn't we be more like her? Instead, we come back to the importance of being: being ourselves, being together, the primacy of Being, knowing that true action flows effortlessly from Being.

At the meeting that F mentioned in the previous post, Shahabuddin told people the most important way they could help the world situation is to do their practices, to not get caught in the negativity of world events and their expression in the media. Murshid said "My smallest work in the inner plane is worth more than all I do in the outer world."

Spiritual life comprises all of life, not just things the mind can label as "spiritual," so we work to bridge the gap between our "unspiritual" selves and our "spiritual" selves. In discussing things like what it's like to grow up Jewish in America, we widen our horizons, put a face on the Other, and we offer that widening to the benefit of the One Being, and particularly to the members of the Abrahamic Reunion. As we spend time together, come to know each other better, and share our hearts, our love grows, and we offer this, too, to the Beloved. Any increase anywhere in the human field of awareness of love helps the cause of peace in the world, as the cause of peace is the Cause of All, and humans are His vice-regent on earth (Quran 2:30), His pipelines for manifesting His will.