In 2024, our spiritual discernment will be Making a Home for the Mystic Heart
(Maintaining an Environment for Spiritual Practice).
Our main source of inspiration for this year is Interspiritual Meditation by Edward W. Bastian. In this book, he points out the necessity for our spiritual practices to be performed in a context of intention and wisdom that supports and informs them. He outlines a series of steps we can take to help integrate our practice, wisdom, and daily life.
We can consider each of these steps in a personal, communal, or universal domain. Also, as particular independent practices or as elements in a ritual sequence.
JANUARY: Making a Home
Why do we need a context for practice? How might we design one? Remember to consider this on both the level of each of our individual paths and on the level of our congregational practice.
Download Universal Worship Service Scripture here.
FEBRUARY: Motivating Ourselves for Spiritual Work
Using our desire for health and happiness to motivate practice. Reflecting on past unsuccessful means to eliminate suffering and create happiness. Examining positive examples of how practice can help make us happy.
Download Universal Worship Service Scripture here.
MARCH: What Is Our Ultimate Spiritual Goal?
In order to bear fruit of our potential, it is vital to plant the seed of our ultimate purpose at the beginning. This is the result of personal inquiry, and need not be the same for everyone. What is your most profound spiritual goal?
Download Universal Worship Service Scripture here.
APRIL: Gratitude
Invoke the many blessings of our lives: the people, things, and circumstances for which we are grateful. Focus on obstacles and resistance as well: we need to become grateful for the entirety of our lives. There are intricate causes for every moment we are alive. With gratitude, our minds are drawn into wisdom fueled by a compassionate desire to help, rather than a fearful repulsion urging us to flee.
Download Universal Worship Service Scripture here.
MAY: Our Relationship with the Ancestors
In performing a new task, we depend on the example of others to guide us. Teachers, mentors, saints, prophets, God. We visualize (maybe) and invite them to join us.
Being imitative beings, we mold ourselves on those around us. Through invocation, mantra, images, symbols, we remind ourselves of the qualities we want to embody. This can imply the literal presence of beings.
JUNE: The Ideal
We must develop a clear image of that which we would like to become, honestly acknowledging our present inadequacies and the ways in which we would like to improve.
JULY: Confession and Forgiveness
We must take personal responsibility for the causes of our own suffering. Take stock and admit these. Shine the light of mindfulness and love into our unconscious. Forgiving ourselves and others, loving the wounded parts of ourselves (negative emotions and bad habits), we renounce our attachment to the thoughts and behaviors that need healing and transformation.
AUGUST: Compassion
Love is the sincere wish for the happiness of another being. Compassion is the sincere intention to remove the causes of their suffering. The most profound love is not limited by attraction or even by deep affection. It is not conditioned by circumstance; it is without limits. At this stage, we allow ourselves to be infused and immersed in the presence of universal love.
SEPTEMBER: Mindfulness Through Breath
Working with the breath is at the heart of many secular and spiritual techniques of meditation. Focussing on the breath, we allow our consciousness to recede from the senses, thoughts, and emotions. Our consciousness can ride the subtle breath into the heart center. Abiding in the heart is a foundational practice for contemplation, meditation, or prayer. We can develop the capacity to dispassionately observe and release our incessant thoughts, emotions, habits, and memories.
OCTOBER: Concentration
Focusing on an object: the flow of breath, a mantra or prayer, an image or symbol.
Once we have withdrawn our sensory awareness into the subtle consciousness of the heart center, we can enter into the pristine clarity of direct wisdom.
NOVEMBER: Meditation
Now that the garden of mindfulness has been carefully cultivated, we can begin to deepen and expand the scope of our meditation. We can choose a specific meditation practice that is compatible with our beliefs, reason, temperament, and spiritual style.
DECEMBER: Dedication
We conclude our meditation by rededicating ourselves to serving the highest good for everyone. This is an unrelenting determination to integrate our spiritual practice into our daily lives. It is not enough merely to state our ideals. We must truly intend to participate in making it happen.
2023 Spiritual Discernment
Transforming the Body, Heart, and Mind
JANUARY: Purifying the Body. Download readings here.
FEBRUARY: Cleansing the Heart. Download readings here.
MARCH: Observing the Mind. Download readings here.
APRIL: Refining the Body Download readings here.
MAY: Educating the Heart Download readings here.
JUNE: Clarifying the Mind Download readings here.
JULY: Relaxing the Body Download readings here.
AUGUST: Surrendering the Heart Download readings here.
SEPTEMBER: Dissolving the Mind Download readings here.
OCTOBER: Finding Balance in the Body Download readings here.
NOVEMBER: Harmonizing the Heart Download readings here.
DECEMBER: Recreating the Mind Download readings here.
Our yearly Spiritual Discernment is reflected in our activities, within our services each Sunday, and within the diverse groups that meet in circle throughout our community.
2022 Spiritual Discernment:
ENCOUNTERING THE INFINITE
Meeting the Divine Mother in Nature, Humanity, and the Cosmos
A contemplative, exploratory inquiry and discovery
January-April: Meeting the Divine Mother in Nature
May-August: Meeting the Divine Mother in Humanity
September-December: Meeting the Divine Mother in the Cosmos
The following scripture readings from the world’s diverse religions are compiled as part of our second Sunday Universal Worship service:
January: The Human Body
Download January 2022 Scripture Readings here.
February: The Natural Foundations of Morality
Download February 2022 Scripture Readings here.
March: Nature as Mirror and Teacher
Download March 2022 Scripture Readings here.
April: The Community as Shaman
Download April 2022 Scripture Readings here.
May: The End of Patriarchy
Download May 2022 Scripture Readings here.
June: She Who Hears and Responds
Download June 2022 Scripture Readings here.
July: The Humanist Tradition
Download July 2022 Scripture Readings here.
August: Reintegrating the Feminine
Download August 2022 Scripture Readings here.
September: The Divine Mother as Destroyer
Download September 2022 Scripture Readings here.
October: The Divine Mother as Wisdom
Download October 2022 Scripture Readings here.
November: The Divine Mother as Energy
Download November 2022 Scripture Readings here
December: The Divine Mother as Mystery
Download December 2022 Scripture Readings here
2021 Spiritual Discernment:
THE WAY OF SERVICE – Engaging with the World
How do we engage our deepest selves
with the world’s greatest need?
What qualities do we need to develop
to serve the world with integrity?
How can we engage our sovereignty
and our capacity for action
to serve the greater good?
We shall explore the landscape of the Way of Service drawing from traditional models and contemporary experience. Each month will focus on a virtue or attribute. Each can be seen as an inherent attribute of Humanity or as an attribute of God that can be reflected in ourselves.
The following scripture readings from the world’s diverse religions included below are compiled as part of our second Sunday Universal Worship service:
January: HONOR. Dignity.
Download January 2021 Scripture Readings here.
February: COURAGE. Fearlessness. Confidence. Risk-taking.
Download February 2021 Scripture Readings here.
March: GENEROSITY. Hospitality. Abundance.
Download March 2021 Scripture Readings here.
April: SOLIDARITY. Loyalty. Restorative justice.
Download April 2021 Scripture Readings here.
May: DEVOTION. Faithfulness. Reverence.
Download May 2021 Scripture Readings here.
June: SINCERITY. Integrity. Purity.
Download June 2021 Scripture Readings here.
July: NOBILITY. Vocation. Responsibility.
Download July 2021 Scripture Readings here.
August: BENEVOLENCE. The strong protecting the weak. Serving the under-served.
Download August 2021 Scripture Readings here.
September: SILENCE. Reticence. Right speech.
Download September 2021 Scripture Readings here.
October: HUMILITY. Simplicity.
Download October 2021 Scripture Readings here.
November: FORBEARANCE. Mercy. Restraint.
Download November 2021 Scripture Readings here.
December: PERSEVERANCE. Patience. Long-term visioning.
Download December 2021 Scripture Readings here.
Our exploration seeks to answer these questions:
- How do we define or experience this attribute?
- What are the obstacles to manifesting this attribute?
- How do we need to redefine or reimagine this attribute
for our world now? - What are useful and relevant practices?
Our yearly Spiritual Discernment is reflected in our activities, within our services each Sunday, and within the diverse groups that meet in circle through our community.
PAST YEARS SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENTS:
2021 Spiritual Discernment
The Way of Service ~ Engaging with the World
2020 Spiritual Discernment
The Path of Wisdom in Sacred Community
2018 Spiritual Discernment
The Path of Love through the life and teaching of Saint Francis of Assisi
2017 Spiritual Discernment
Guidelines for Engaged Buddhism by Thich Nhat Hahn
2016 Spiritual Discernment
Spiritual Permaculture: Coming into Deeper Relationship with Earth.
2015 Spiritual Discernment
Restoring Balance to the World: Hoops of Honor
2014 Spiritual Discernment: Principles of Spiritual Activism
2013 Spiritual Discernment: Following the Light: The Dance of the Elements
The 12 Conditions of a Miracle,
The 12 Steps to a Compassionate Life,
The Charter for Compassion…
The Living Values (Brahma Kumari)
