The New Monastics

Father Adam Bucko is a Polish-American Episcopal priest who serves as the director of The Center for Spiritual Imagination at the Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City, New York. He is a committed voice in the movement for the renewal of Christian Contemplative Spirituality and the growing New Monastic movement, and the author of the new book, Let Your Heartbreak be Your Guide: Lessons in Engaged Contemplation. In this episode, we discuss the origins of the book, the work of ‘engaged contemplation,’ Polish spiritual activism, the exemplary compassion of Christ, being a ’new monastic’ or contemplative in the world, Reciprocity Foundation, breaking open and filling our ‘cup,’ prayerful living, and his call to priesthood.

Let Your Heartbreak be Your Guide by Adam Bucko

The Center for Spiritual Imagination

The Reciprocity Foundation

Charis Foundation

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Brenda Salgado is a Nicaraguan-American curandera and Toltec healer, who emphasizes ceremony and traditional circle work for healing conflict and building community. She is the former director of the East Bay Meditation Center, and the current director of Nepantla Healing and Consulting. She is also the author of Real World Mindfulness for Beginners.

In this episode, we explore and dialogue on the issues of relationship to the natural world, the ‘wings’ of Eagle and Condor consciousness, the planetary ‘convergence,’ the ‘Peace and Dignity Journeys,’ pan-indigenous interspirituality, authentic representation in ‘inter-mystic’ dialogical spaces, not getting ‘fundamentalist,’ connection to place and our displacement, ‘reclaiming our inheritance,’ re-establishing right-relationship to place, Standing Rock, the Doctrine of Discovery, stewarding our homes, and the ‘de-humanization’ of our lives and environment.

Links:

Charis Foundation

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Ramon Gabrieloff-Parish is an assistant professor at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, and a leading voice in environmental justice, sustainability issues, contemporary rites of passage, and bringing the sacred into everyday living. In this episode, we explore and dialogue on the issues of sacred ecology, our paradoxical separation from nature, urban living, human divergence and convergence, de-colonized perspectives, industrialization, pandemic wisdom, complex historical legacies, the function of our religious traditions and ongoing revelation, reclamation of our relationship to nature, wilderness detox,  contemporary rites of passage movements, being human and educating character for the health of the planet.

Links:

Charis Foundation for New Monasticism and Interspirituality

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In this episode we are joined by Alejandra Warden, an educator, interspiritual teacher, and founder of the Essential Oneness Feminine Wisdom Project.

We focus our discussion on Alejandra's newest book, Remembrance: A Vision of the Sacred Feminine and the Renewal of the Earth, in which she shares, for the first time, the powerful visions on the sacred cosmic feminine, that she experienced over a period of 7 months, shortly after moving from Argentina to the US. We dive into the context of that period, the contents  of her visions, how Alejandra integrated that experience of awakening, and how she translates her process into her teachings and work with students. Along the way, we share some excerpts from the book, and explore various topics such as: how the sacred feminine relates to the sacred masculine, creation as love incarnated, effects of patriarchy, interspirituality in the context of Alejandra's visions, and the sanctity of everyday life.

Links:

Alejandra's Bio,
and spiritual autobiography in Spanish,
El llamado de mi Corazón: Una autobiografía espiritual

Charis Foundation for New Monasticism and Interspirituality

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From the Intro: “In the 1970’s, long before podcasts like our own, there were radio shows whose reach was perhaps more limited, but whose impact was still powerful. Among the best of those shows was “In the Spirit” on WBAI in New York City, in which Lex Hixon interviewed some of the best, most interesting spiritual teachers and thinkers of the 1970s—Alan Watts, Tarthang Tulku, Rabbi Zalman Schachter, Ram Dass. But what made the show really special was Hixon himself, a deep spiritual thinker and practitioner who would soon make his own mark, and whose insight and sincere questions made the show far more interesting. In 2016, Paul Cohen of Monkfish Publishing, published these interviews in a book edited by Sheila Hixon called Conversations in the Spirit: Lex Hixon’s WBAI “In the Spirit” Interviews: A Chronicle of the Seventies Spiritual Revolution. We will be using the book, with permission from Monkfish, to look at some of these interviews in the context of where we are today.

The first interview we want to examine is from October 8, 1978, with Sufi master Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan (1916-2004), who is the son of Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927), the first Sufi master in the West and the founder of Inayati or Universalist Sufism. This interview, unlike many others, was recorded on-location at the Abode of the Message, Pir Vilayat's Sufi spiritual community in New Lebanon, New York.”

Using the interview as a jumping-off point, our dialogue explores the ongoing tension between universalism and particularism, ‘pure’ and ‘syncretic’ religions, and how to honor a tradition, such as Islamic Sufism, in the face of changes in spiritual perspective, some of which are embodied in Universalist Sufism. Along the way, we reflect on the life and legacy of these two spiritual giants, who were both a part of a larger web of figures on the forefront of the 1970’s ‘spiritual revolution’ in America, and its impulse towards interspirituality, unity, and spiritual freedom.

To supplement our dialogue and exploration, we use samples from the original recording of this interview, which may be found here.

If you are interested in the book, Conversations in the Spirit: Lex Hixon’s WBAI “In the Spirit” Interviews: A Chronicle of the Seventies Spiritual Revolution edited by Sheila Hixon, it may be purchased here.

Links:

Charis Foundation for New Monasticism and InterSpirituality

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In this fourth episode (actually our first recorded episode), we interview Tessa Bielecki, former Mother Abbess of the Spiritual Life Institute and a Carmelite hermit in Tucson, Arizona. Tessa talks with us about her Polish Catholic background, founding a Carmelite reform movement, and four Carmelite wilderness monasteries. She also discusses her life today as a “urban hermit,” the impact of Fr. William McNamara, the relationship of “Holiness and Vitality,” life-affirming Christianity, the influence of J.R.R. Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings on the Spiritual Life Institute, contemplation as “personal passionate presence,” Teresa of Avila and Carmelite spirituality, interreligious dialogue (particularly related to the historic Buddhist-Christian dialogue at the Naropa Institute in the 1980s), and interspirituality today. 

Tessa Bielecki is a Carmelite Christian hermit and a pioneer in interreligious dialogue. Co-founder and former Mother Abbess of the Spiritual Life Institute (a Carmelite reform institution), she founded four eremitical monasteries in North America and Ireland. Later, after leaving the Spiritual Life Institute, she founded the Desert Foundation (with Father David Denny), exploring connections between the Abrahamic faiths. Today, Tessa lives in Tucson, Arizona, where she considers herself an “urban hermit.”

To learn more about Tessa, or to donate to her 'urban hermitage,' go to: sandandsky.org

Links: 

Charis Foundation

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In this episode, we are joined by Reverend Matthew Wright, a leading figure in the dialogue on contemplative life and interspirituality. With Reverend Matthew, we talk about Karl Jasper’s notion of the “Axial Age”and Ewert Cousins’ idea of a “Second Axial Age.” We also discuss the inherently interspiritual matrix from which religions are ‘birthed’ (including Christianity and Islam), and explore the deep and surface connections between the ‘Abrahamic Religions’ (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), and the notion of an ‘Abrahamic lineage’ of spirituality. Some of the connections and topics we discussed include: shared forms of prayer, an emphasis on ‘relationality’ vs. identification with God, the notion of idolatry, and the Abrahamic investment in human possibility.

The Reverend Matthew Wright is currently priest-in-charge at St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in Woodstock, New York, where he lives in community with the brothers of Holy Cross Monastery in Westpark, New York. He is also a close student of both Cynthia Borgeault in the Christian contemplative tradition, and a dervish of American Mevlevi Sufi sheikh, Kabir Helminski, and sheika Camille Helminski.

Links:  

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Charis Foundation

Rev. Matthew Wright on the Second Axial Age

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In this episode, we are joined by Deepa Patel, a teacher of Inayati Sufism who works with Charis Foundation on the Future of Religion and Interspirituality dialogues. With Deepa, we explore alternate sources of spiritual guidance (e.g., influential books and family members) which serve to connect us to ourselves, as well as the function of teachers who ‘mirror’ something back to us, helping us take personal responsibility around discipline and discernment. We also look at teachers, like Krishnamurti, who do not claim to be ‘teachers,’ as well as issues of readiness for teaching, making commitments, disappointments with teachers, ‘inner guides,’ and the difficulties of choosing from the spiritual menu.

Deepa Gulrukh Patel is a teacher of Inayati Sufism and the Executive Director for the Zenith Institute, a four-week Sufi meditation camp in the Swiss Alps, where she guides retreats for young adults. She is also a partner in Charis Foundation’s Future of Religion and Interspirituality dialogues, the Chair of Tamasha Theatre Company and the Loss Foundation, a bereavement support service for people who have lost loved ones to cancer. Her past roles have included being a music education producer for the BBC, a campaigner on HIV/AIDS for Action Aid, and Managing Director of Creative Partnerships (a national UK Government Initiative on creativity in schools). She currently facilitates programs for organizations globally on the art of collaboration, conversation and contemplation.

Links: 

Deepa's Full Bio

Charis Foundation for New Monasticism and InterSpirituality

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In this episode, we are joined by Rory McEntee, a leading figure in both the new monasticism and interspirituality movements, with whom we explore the origins of Charis Foundation, ‘old’ and ‘new’ ways of teaching spirituality, the idea of new monasticism and what is ‘new’ about it, interspirituality and its pioneers, the “growing edge” as spoken of by the Rev. Howard Thurman, contemplative life and ways of being interspiritual, the nine new monastic vows as framed by Rev. Diane Berke, goal-oriented spirituality and ‘spirituality for me’, service to others, and stories of interfaith challenge.

Rory McEntee is the co-founder of Charis Foundation for New Monasticism and Interspirituality (with Netanel Miles-Yépez and Adam Bucko) and co-author (with Adam Bucko) of The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living). As a student of both Father Thomas Keating (the founder of the Centering Prayer movement) and Brother Wayne Teasdale (the coiner of the word ‘interspirituality’), Rory helped to found the Interspiritual Movement, traveling around the world and participating in dialogues with world spiritual leaders, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis. A former administrator for the Snowmass InterSpiritual Dialogues, Rory now runs The Future of Religion & Interspirituality Dialogues (with Netanel Miles-Yépez). He has taught at both Keane University and Drew University, and is currently finishing up a Ph.D. in Theological and Philosophical Studies in Religion at Drew University.

Links:

Charis Foundation

"New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Life in the 21st Century"
by Rory McEntee and Adam Bucko  (pdf of original manifesto)

"The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto For Contemplative Living"
by Rory McEntee  and Adam Bucko (book)

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