InterSpiritual Meditation

SEVEN-STEP PROCESS – BRIEF DESCRIPTION

This contemplative process can be shared by people from many perspectives and traditions.  It can be practiced alone and in community with others. It pulls together key elements of contemplation and meditation shared by many traditions.  In this process we gather in the language of silence and experience inter-connectedness.   Joining in stillness, we don’t impose on others our own personal beliefs, rituals, or the names for our absolute truths, deities, or God.  We honor and celebrate the wise and compassionate practices of all traditions. We discover a profound unity within our diversity.  We flourish in the love, peace, compassion, gratitude, and the strength of our shared wisdom.  We are of one heart. Quietly, each in our own way, we join in the following seven stages together.  The sound of a bell leads us from one stage to the next.

1. Motivation: May I Become Healthy in Mind, Body, and Spirit

Physical, mental, and spiritual health are intertwined, and meditation fosters their good health and happiness. We begin meditating with confidence that it will help us to heal the innermost causes of illness and suffering.  We pray that InterSpiritual consciousness will help heal all beings.

2. Gratitude: May I Be Grateful for Life’s Many Gifts

With gratitude we invoke and honor our teachers, mentors, and great spiritual role models. We invite these great beings to remain present and pray that they guide us. We remind ourselves about the blessings of friends, family, and the environment that nurtures and sustains us.

3. Transformation: May I Be Awakened and Transformed Into My Highest Potential

We acknowledge and confess our shortcomings, vowing to patiently persevere in our personal transformation. We vow to remove our inner obstacles and negativities.  Without guilt, we forgive others and ourselves as we open to the transformative presence of love.

4. Intention: May I Be Loving and Compassionate

We set our intention on love and compassion — the transforming energy for the health and happiness of all.  We vow to help all beings be free from the causes of their suffering.

5. Mindfulness: May I Be Centered and Mindful Through Breathing

Mindfully, we concentrate on our breathing. This calms, clears, and focuses our mind. Thoughts, memories, and feelings are observed and released. We focus on our breath, drawing it into the heart-center of our being.  Opening ourselves to the reciprocity of universal love, healing, and wisdom we establish the tranquil focus for deep meditation.

6. Meditation: May I Become Wise Through Meditation

Meditation and contemplation are taught in many ways by many traditions.  With sincere respect

and appreciation for others and dedication to our own practice, we silently engage in our own meditation.  Alone or in community we deepen of our own wisdom as well as our InterSpiritual communion with other diverse experiences of that which we call “sacred.”

7. Dedication: May I Bring Love, Compassion, and Wisdom Into the World

Visualizing our family, friends, colleagues, antagonists, and all beings throughout the world we rededicate ourselves to becoming servants of peace, justice, and environmental health. May this meditation help us to engage together in the world with patient kindness and wise compassion.