Dedicated to spiritual life practice, selfless service and advancement of the interspiritual message
Brother Wayne envisioned this association as “The Universal Order of Sannyasa” in The Mystic Heart (p. 248). It was launched in 2010 by ISDnA and soon after became the Community of The Mystic Heart.
Community of The Mystic Heart
Vision: The Community of The Mystic Heart is dedicated to the realization of a new civilization grounded in and acting from the contemplative, compassionate and loving heart. “Such a universal society will draw its inspiration from perennial spiritual and moral insights, intuitions, and experiences.”(Teasdale, The Mystic Heart, p.5)
Mission: We seek to help each other grow and deepen in the spiritual life and to be a prophetic voice for the emergence of a more just, sustainable and peaceful world. We nurture the continuing refinement and advancement of the Interspiritual message brought forth by Brother Wayne Teasdale and his teachers and we encourage each other in living out our vows to actualize the Mystic Heart, in service to the One, in which is included all of creation. “The Mystic Heart, in its maturity, reflects the essential elements, gifts, and genius of all the traditions of spiritual wisdom: an actual moral capacity, solidarity with all living beings, deep nonviolence, humility, spiritual practice, mature self-knowledge, simplicity of life, selfless service and compassionate action, and the prophetic voice.” (Teasdale, The Mystic Heart, p. 244).
The Community of The Mystic Heart offers a welcoming space for mystics and contemplatives of all faith traditions, or none – free of divisive doctrinal differences – to practice, to dialogue, to deepen, to expand, and to seek the commonality, while respecting the diversity, of the world’s great mystical teachings. We practice Interspirituality, defined by Brother Wayne as the sharing of ultimate experiences, spiritual insights, spiritual practices and resources across traditions, and we collaborate with other organizations in projects and initiatives that are congruent with our mission.
Culture:
We observe already, because of interest “far and wide” in our venture, an evolution toward inviting various communities, networks, and interfaith institutions (both where community members now are located, or propose to be located) to join us in this experiment by establishing local and regional chapters consistent with the existing “cultures” of those communities, networks, interfaith institutions etc.
Then, we vision, the community as a whole can take the responsibility, as we grow together, to evolve an appropriate “meta-Culture”. We see this direction because (1) people need to be free to join this experiment in a way meaningful and comfortable for them and (2) then, together, we can ‘co-discover’ how we create the unity in this diversity.
We acknowledge that typically a group, like an individual, has a conscious experience and an unconscious component. Our intention at CMH is to be conscious about ourselves and to provide space throughout to allow our consciousness to be ever deepened. Accordingly, we share these preliminary statements at this time:
1. A self-aware organization so that the culture is ever being reviewed, explored, and uncovered
2. More than tolerant, we acknowledge and explore areas of conflict and friction as areas rich in learning and growth
3. We allow space in all group interactions to expand our understanding of our group unconcscious and hence our culture
4. We include ourselves as part of the whole and treat each member with respect
5. Our culture is one of inclusivity in all aspects of our self-expression
6. Throughout we aim to keep it simple and keep it light!
CMH LEADERSHIP
Community of The Mystic Heart Leadership Circles
Original “Planning Circle” of CMH Founders
Left to right: Ellen Friedman (TX), Kurt Johnson (NY), Timothy Miner (DC), T. S. Pennington (NC), Dorothy Cunha (NY), Janet Quinn (CO), Jean Leone (NJ)
Our Thanks for their service
A New Leadership Circle inducted June 20, 2010
Tim Miner, Jean Leone, Kurt Johnson, Dorothy Cunha, Ellen Friedman, T. S. Pennington, Loch Kelly, Diane Berke, Ernest Wachter, Diane Finlayson, Rory McEntee, Nita Renfrew, Patricia Selmo, Deanne Quarrie, Katherine O’Connell, Katherine McDowell, Janet Quinn (emeritus)
Current Leadership:
CMH is currently led by “Circles” that pertain to each of its major activities. The Sannyas program described under Monastic Options is directed by Swami Shraddhananda with her team of sannyas. The Interspiritual Monastics in the World is led by by aCentral Coordinating Circle – at its founding, Rev. JoAnn Barrett, Neil Deuchar, James Hopkins, Timothy Olivieri, David Wachter and with two subcircles: Media and External Communications Circle – David Wachter; and Postulancy and Novitiate Facilitating Circle – Tim Olivieri. There is also a volunteer Circle serving general and innovative discussion among the Community, including Dorothy Cunha, T. S. Pennington and our friendship with Jeff Genung, the founder of Contemplative Life (www.contemplativelife.org) where there an interactive subsite “hub” to serve the CMH membership. For general oversight there is a CMH Administrator, Dr. Kurt Johnson who works to oversee the ongoing life of the Community in synchronicity with his knowledge of Br. Wayne Teasdale’s overall vision.
Non-Member and Member Advisory Council
Ken Wilber, Andrew Harvey, Swami Parameshananda, Swami Vidyananda, Swami Ramananda, Lama Surya Das, Fr. Thomas Keating, Pir Zia Inayat-Khan, H. H. Sai Maa Lakshimi Devi, Ashok Gangadean, Nina Meyerhof, J. J. and Desiree Hurtak, Ken “Bear Hawk” Cohen, Philip Hellmich, Terry Patten, Philip Goldberg, Grace Sesma, Lucinda Vardey, Miranda MacPherson
Our Thanks!
CMH: [Rev. Dr.] Diane Berke, [Rev. Dr.] Joyce Liechenstein, [Rev.] Loch Kelly, [Rev. Dr.] Thomas Downes, [Rev. Dr.] Kurt Johnson (CMH Administrator)
NEW BOOK
THE COMING INTERSPIRITUAL AGE
by Kurt Johnson and David Robert Ord, appeared in November 2012 from Namaste Publishing (the publishers of Eckhart Tolle, Michael Brown, Shefali Tsabary etc.).
It is a comprehensive update to “Interspirituality”– as coined by Brother Wayne Teasdale in his classic The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions
It is a book written for general audiences. Along with an in-depth view of what “Interspirituality” may become, the book melds interspirituality with the unfolding of globalization and multi-culturalism worldwide, the integral and spiral dynamics views of process and history, current studies of consciousness, brain/mind and quantum/string theory…. and a host of other elements essential to our voyage to a “civilization based on the Heart” (Bro. Wayne’s words). It is a book aimed at taking the reader through many fascinating territories and into a vision of what an interspiritual world might look like.
The book has already been endorsed by over forty leaders from across the world’s religions and transformational communities as a comprehensive new guide to Interspirituality. Their comments will appear in an initial section “Advance Perspective on The Coming Interspiritual Age” in lieu of a Foreword. Watch for further information at the following websites:
www.namastepublishing.com
www.thecominginterspiritualage.com
and The InterSpiritual Multiplex website linked throughout this CMH site.
A collaboration by Kurt Johnson, CMH Administrator and David Robert Ord, Editorical Director, Namaste Publishing.