How will we meet these needs and find new spiritual community in this time of great change?
What are some of the new shapes and structures of the emerging new forms of spiritual community today?
Read MoreThe Body of Christ Becoming
Practicing Community – Part Ten
As we begin to awaken to the experience of our shared interiors, of the we-space that constitutes communal energy, mutual knowing, and interbeing on a mystical and very real level—that which is “in here” together—we expand beyond this limited story of individualism. We come into the experience of our intersubjective reality. This is where the subject of the sentence becomes plural: from I to We. Not just as a collection of separate parts, but a real and dynamic collective. How do we experience this?
Read More Deep Relationality at the Heart of Evolution
Practicing Community – Part Nine
“You can go no further alone.”
This was the phrase I heard at a turning point of my spiritual journey, at the great shift from individuality into the call to deeper community.
The ironic thing is that I had been living in an intentional community and had long pursued various forms of church expressions, small groups, and spiritual friendships. “What do you mean?” I thought, “I have sought community my whole life!”
But I knew. It was the mystical journey that had reached the end of its isolation. The unfolding and awakening could no longer be something that only I experienced inside myself—for I had begun to come into the experiential knowing that these interior realities were not confined to my individual space. They could no longer be felt and engaged with apart from the dynamic and lively field of interbeing, of interconnection, of WeSpace.
A new intimacy was beckoning beyond the realm of myself, beyond the external forms of commonality that brought me together with others, beyond just the sharing of ideas and ideals.
It is the call of mystical love.
Read MoreUnderstanding and Appreciating Types of Personalities
Practicing Community – Part Eight
While we love a great solo, the best music comes from an assembly of instruments playing together. There is just something to the joining of different sounds in resonance that creates something truly special. As is often said, the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts, and it is through playing together that we create beautiful music.
This is the symphony of community which is made up many different types of instruments, each playing with their particular pitch and tenor but into a harmonic wholeness that co-creates the collective song.
Read MoreWith One Another in Growth Areas
Practicing Community – Part Seven
How do we welcome our darker shadows in community? How do we hold the tension of imperfection and limitation that is always present, while also seeking to grow and heal together? What are healthy and appropriate practices of shadow work for a spiritual community?
Read MoreBeholding Our Golden Shadow in Love
Practicing Community – Part Six
“For now we see in a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know just as I have been fully known.”
– I Corinthians 13:12
Finding the Portal of Transformation in our Differences
Practicing Community – Part Five
In the dance of community, we’re bound to step on one another’s toes from time to time. Realistically, at times it will be more than just a hurting toe—we will see our egos bruised and challenged. We may see boundaries crossed, emotions projected, and issues avoided. Sometimes it gets messy!
There is no real community without problems, without conflict, without disagreements, and without wounding. Any time we seek meaningful relationship and connection with others, there are swells and storms to be navigated—it will not all be smooth sailing.
When we give ourselves to the practice of community, on some level we probably know this is part of the deal. But our individualism is strong, and if things get rough it’s easier than ever to jump ship and retreat back to the safety of ourselves. Or away to a different community.
How do we stay with and continue through? And when should we? Can conflict and creative tension become a portal of transformation? And how do we make our way through it?
Read MoreThe Choice of Healthy Mutuality
Practicing Community – Part Four
Deep community cannot happen without trust. And trust is a tricky thing. How do we choose who to trust? How is trust built? What if we over-trust and naïvely subject ourselves to something harmful? What degree of trust is appropriate for relationships in spiritual community?
Read MoreHeart Consciousness Growth
Practicing Community – Part Three
Once we have been unbound by the illusion of our separateness and individualism, we begin to recognize more and more how we are interconnected. We see the myriad ways we are not islands of Self, but members of a collective, divine body of Christ. That is to say—not “members” of a church or religion—but co-participants in the body of God on earth today.
And yet, we may also experience difficulties in actually living into and operating from this place of deep mutuality. While we may feel deep longings and have sincere intentions to engage more directly in our communal nature, it perhaps doesn’t come easily to us. Or we may not quite know how to do it. Though it is natural—in our deepest nature—it may often feel foreign at first. Or we may simply have to pace ourselves to rebuild the atrophied muscles of this under-utilized capacity.
Read MoreOvercoming Individualism Together
Practicing Community – Part Two
In many religious traditions, the element of community has been seen as a byproduct of spirituality rather than a focus point. A result of a common interest or aim rather than a vital component of the spiritual work itself. There is the spiritual content and substance, and then there is the community that comes together around those focal points of teaching, learning, service, and spiritual practice. In most cases, community is just what happens along the way.
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