Mission and Activities of the Community of The Mystic Heart

Consecration and Induction Ceremony at the Founding of Bro. Wayne’s “Universal Order of Sannyasa” (now the Community of The Mystic Heart). The founding community asked all historical and contemporary figures who have shared this universal intention to join them in consecration of the Order and its Founders. Members received a saffron cord symbolizing the simple saffron “kavi” robe of the historical sannyasa and the interspiritual pioneers at Shantivanum.

Seventy founders joined in Washington DC on January 9, 2010, at All Souls Unitarian Church to consecrate the founding of Brother Wayne’s vision of a “Universal Order of Sannyasa” (now called the Community of The Mystic Heart). See more on the founding throughout this site and also HERE.

The central mission of the community is in keeping with Brother Wayne’s call to advance the message of Interspirituality. Brother Wayne first envisioned the Universal Order on pages 248-250 of his classic book The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions. He suggested it as a basic “institution” or “structure” to help carry and express the message of The InterSpiritual Age.

Most simply put, Bro. Wayne defined “Interspirituality” as the kind of spirituality that is so heart-centered, so centered on the recognition of everyone and everything as the interconnected Divine, that any divisive consideration of belief, creed, concepts, dogmas, or exclusive claims are not only secondary concerns but, at worst (as in militant fundamentalism), a kind of immature or even pathological spirituality.

To Bro. Wayne, conventional “interfaith” was a level of consciousness and heart recognizing that, yes, it was important that different experiences and claims about the “who we are”, “where we came from”, and “where we are going” should search for dialogue, tolerance, understanding and peace. But he considered this still a level of consciousness and heart unnecessarily caught up in a concern about “who is right” with regard to mental notions of belief or creed.

Beyond interfaith, Bro. Wayne saw “trans-traditional spirituality” as a deeper spirituality– a spirituality interested more in the wisdom and gifts of all the world’s spiritual experiences, statements, celebrations and faiths than those of just one historical tradition. Trans-traditional spirituality is less concerned about the divisive question of “who is right” but is still unable to completely remove the need for discussing this question.

In “Interspirituality”, however, Bro. Wayne recognized a level of consciousness and heart so aware of interconnection (or Oneness) that historical questions of “who is right” in dogma, creed, or belief actually became irrelevant. This explains why “Interspirituality” is so close to what is also sometimes called “awakened awareness” or “enlightenment”. These are often described as a complete dropping away of the sense of separation.

Regarding the historic unfolding of Interspirituality, it is useful to point out that in 2005– when Wayne and ISD planned their program on Interspirituality for the Parliament of the World’s Religions– few had even heard of the word. However, when you Google “Interspirituality” today you find countless references. The mission of those connected to Bro. Wayne has always been to aid this evolution.

As of 2010 the discussion of what the Community of The Mystic Heart can “Be” and “Do” is a wide open question, under discussion by the emerging membership.