 Hi, today's episode of We Are Only One is brought to you by MtGox, mtgox.com, and USGoCoins.com, 1-800-HOTCOIN, and Mese Grill, M-E-Z-E-G-R-I-L-L.com. Hi, everybody. Welcome to episode 6 of We Are Only One. I'm Jude Byrne, and today I am honored and delighted to have as my guest Reverend Diane Burke, the co-founder and spiritual director of One Spirit Interfaith Seminary and One Spirit Learning Alliance. Welcome. Thank you, Jude. I'm delighted to be here. Thank you for having me. Oh, it is our pleasure. I love One Spirit. That says so much right there. I know that you brought a video for our audience to see a little bit about One Spirit as a learning alliance with classes as well as an interface seminary. So we're going to show you a little bit right now to get a feel and then love you to take us through it. Okay? Sure. Thank you. The thrust of the seminary has always been very much on becoming the kind of human being who through our very presence invites and supports other people to grow and to open to being in the world in a more open-minded, open-hearted, inclusive way of being. One Spirit Learning Alliance grew out of a deep friendship I had with my oldest and dearest friend of 35 years, Diane Burke and the mix of her, the depth of her teaching about the great spiritual traditions and the practical learning I had about how to operate in the world. And neither of us had planned to do this. It just kind of emerged almost as a natural part of the conversation we've been holding since we met in college and spent 10 hours in dialogue. I think the heart of that work for me has really been expressed by something that Tolstoy said and that is grow spiritually and help other people to do that. It's the meaning of life. And I think it's that deep sense of purpose that has not only informed everything we do, but that's the common thread that draws people to that program and that experience. I began my role here as the coordinator of the admissions process and it has been a fascinating journey from holding the space just for the seminary, for the two classes of the seminary, to continue to watch the evolution of the people that show up at our door. The level of spiritual maturity, of understanding, of even educational background of the people that are showing up at One Spirit continues to remind us how we need to evolve the program and what has happened in order to keep evolving the program to match the level of the person that shows up at our door. And the program moves, the students move, the program moves, the student moves and it just continues. It's just an evolution. Hopefully we're going to be educating presidents very soon. We had some very interesting feedback on Saturday. We had a new presenter on Islam and one of the things he shared with me afterwards is what an interesting experience it was for him to be with our students because most of the time he teaches people who are very strongly rooted in a particular religious identity and affiliation. And our students, some of them still have a strong affiliation but many, their primary identification is no longer with a specific religious and cultural group but with the family of humanity and the family of creation itself. It's very moving to be a part of this community. I think that you're really getting a flavor for this that this is not a workplace alone. This is our spiritual home, our emotional home. We're not only working on One Spirit here but we're working on our own personal little One Spirits together. For us ministry is a very broad umbrella of which conventional understandings of what clergy do is only one small piece. The other thing that has always informed my own understanding is something ascribed to St. Francis. He said there's no use walking anywhere to preach or teach or serve or whatever. If you're walking isn't you're preaching. What's most powerful? That was great. Covered a lot there. Can you tell us some more about One Spirit and the different things people can expect there? We began One Spirit in August of 2002 and the idea of it really was born in the aftermath of 9-11 when my sense of the real urgency of this work that can be a force for peace, for understanding, for healing in the world really began to expand. I had been involved in training and ordaining interfaith ministers since 1988 and had been working on developing training programs and curricula for that purpose since then. In 2001 I discovered that the vision that I had was larger than the actual institutional container in which I was working and it became clear that the right thing to do was to begin a new organization. The name One Spirit Learning Alliance and One Spirit Interfaith Seminary came to me one morning in a meditation and a follow-up conversation with my friend Michael Pragola and through an amazing series of synchronicities in which the universe clearly seemed to be supporting this idea we were able to get the organization started in a very short period of time and open our doors in September of 2002. Our flagship program is the Interfaith Seminary training which trains and ordains interfaith and interspiritual ministers. Since we opened our doors we've ordained over 600 ministers who are not only from all over the United States but from all over the world as well. We have students and graduates in Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, South America. It's really become a global movement and in addition to the seminary we also offer courses in this kind of inclusive spirituality and inclusive approaches to personal and spiritual development that are open to the general public as well as some professional trainings specifically in interspiritual counseling and a new program that we started last year in integral mentoring and ministry. Wow, that sounds like quite a very ambitious and beneficial offering that the world needs so much right now. I think almost the use of one spirit to me is visionary at the time. I think in the 80s it was kind of different from now and the inclusiveness which is so important and at the core of spirituality. I also heard that you have learning, distant learning and online offerings for people who may be out of the country or could you speak to that a little bit? Is that would the seminary program be part of that? Yes it is. Our live classes are held in New York City and all of them are actually audio recorded live so that people anywhere in the country or anywhere in the world are then able to download the audio recordings from a secure student website and participate in the program that way as well as in online discussion forums and conference calls, study groups and those kinds of things. That's great. I'm sure some of our viewers will be checking out your website. Yes I would say actually about half of our student body each year take the course by distance learning or by online participation. I'm sure that's enhanced your offering to be able to do that. Can you combine being in person sometimes and online others if you're traveling or you come to town? Yes absolutely. We encourage our distance learning students to come to New York for classes whenever they're able to do that and we actually have had students fly into New York every month. The classes meet once a month on a weekend and we've had students fly into New York every month from places like Chicago, Seattle, California, London and other people come maybe once a year, two or three times a year and at the end of the year there is a residential intensive of final retreat that all of the students come to the New York area to participate in. I actually know some friends of mine from Miami who one of whom was a rabbi and one of whom was a Buddhist and so they both really enjoyed it as well as several friends of mine from California who've taken this. So I wonder if you could give us a little slice of a day in the life at the interfaith. What would that be like? Be studying teachings from all various disciplines? Yes in the first year of our training we consider the first year of the seminary really a kind of personal foundation for interfaith and interspiritual ministry. So the focus of the study in the first year is an introduction to the world's religious and spiritual traditions including eastern traditions, the Abrahamic western traditions, indigenous spirituality, Native American African based spirituality as well as some of the newer modern revelations that are continuing such as 12-step spirituality, new thought spirituality, a course in miracles and in addition to that also an exploration of some of the basic psychological principles that anyone who is going to be involved in spiritual service involved in supporting the spiritual lives of other people need to be familiar with. In addition to so actually so every month we have a presenter who comes in from a different religious or spiritual tradition rather than having an academic professor teaching about religions we bring in either clergy or lifelong practitioners of different paths and different traditions to share the richness of their spirituality from the viewpoint of someone who is actually living it. During the month the students will be reading about that particular religion or spiritual tradition in terms of its history, its beliefs, its observances and rituals and also delving into the sacred texts of that tradition and having a direct experience of the kinds of spiritual practices that we often associate with the various religions. What you find actually is as you begin to explore spiritual practices you find that almost every religion includes almost every type of practice yet sometimes in our minds we associate certain religions with certain kinds of practices. So for instance we may think of the practice of mantra which is the repetition of a sacred phrase or a sacred word with the eastern traditions with Hinduism or Buddhism even though again the repetition of a sacred phrase is found in pretty much every religious tradition. So the month that students are studying Hinduism they'll be invited to work with the spiritual practice of mantra the spiritual practice of repeating a name of God or a sacred word and they can do that within the context of their own spirituality so it doesn't need to be a Sanskrit word someone who is Jewish could work with a Hebrew mantra someone whose Christian could repeat the Jesus prayer you know whatever is meaningful to them individually but just to have a sense of what that type of practice brings into their own spiritual life in the same way when we study Islam we invite people to pray five times a day which is one of the central practices of Islam. Again they're not being asked to do the salat the traditional five times a day prayer of Muslims but just to see what effect it has on their spiritual life if they make a discipline of praying five times a day. So our exploration of these traditions is very experiential as well as academic and intellectual because we want people to have an opportunity to have a firsthand experience of the richness and the spiritual treasures that each of these traditions offers to the human family. It sounds like a spiritual trip around the world but in great depth and as you were speaking I just feel like you're putting on ancient wisdom and combining it with the tradition but also the thought of now and really feeling how that would be. I can't help but think that that would further understanding and communication among nations to do that. Yes I think that one of the things that happens as people study these different traditions is that they begin to glean the common threads that are found in really the common heritage of human wisdom that belongs to all of us. We're living in such an interesting time because it's really the first time that these ancient ancient teachings are widely available to whoever is really drawn to seek them. I read recently that one in five I think Americans but possibly beyond that as well now consider themselves spiritual but not religious and what they're looking for is not so much the sense of particular identity that comes with being aligned with a specific religious tradition but that direct experience of spirit that experience of connecting with the source of being that is really what gave rise to all of these traditions in the first place and people are looking for ways to tap back into that deeper river of experience where we really can feel our shared humanity as well as our shared true nature or divine nature as well. Yes I remember the book One Human Family was it the family of man the family of man yes in the 70s had pictures of and it was so soulful of people all over the world and how interconnected we all are and I think I would say in my experience more than one in five gravitate more towards spiritual than the religious I think people are finding more heart and soul in an eclectic approach of delving into spirituality as opposed to a tunnel vision and an absolutism of I have the truth and no one else does. Yes and again I think people are hungry for experience rather than dogma yes people are less interested now in being told what to believe than they are in finding ways of connecting deeply with their heart with their capacity to love with the compassion and caring for other human beings and for the earth itself and creation itself that naturally bubble up in us when we do tap back into that source the family of man was actually a book that was very alive in my own early adolescence and the impulse to that kind of inclusive sense of the family of humankind the family of creation the sense that there is a deeper unity underneath all of the religions and all of the religious teachings is something that really has been part of my life since I was a very very young child I remember as a little girl being taken to different houses of worship and to my amazement and surprise I felt at home in all of them but I thought that I wasn't supposed to feel that way I thought that I was supposed to feel at home in my own religion which my birth religion is Judaism and that I was supposed to feel respectful in the houses of worship of other religions but my experience was actually quite different my experience was that I somehow felt at home in all of the places where the divine was being honored and celebrated many many years later I came across a couple of poems of the Sufi mystic Rumi that really expressed that sentiment in a way that that I was so delighted to recognize my own experience and I'd love I'd love to share those with you love Rumi what is praised is one so the praise is one too many jugs being poured into one huge basin all religions all this singing one song the differences are just illusion and vanity sunlight looks slightly different on this wall than it does on that wall and a lot different on this other one but it is still one light what you are looking for has many names and one existence don't search for one of the names move beyond any attachment to names every war and every conflict between human beings has happened because of some disagreement about names it's such an unnecessary foolishness because just beyond the arguing there's a long table of companionship set and waiting for us to sit down how beautiful and I think that that is probably the best expression of the spirit and the intention behind everything we do at one spirit as anything that I could that I could say I was just I had the vision of a table set on the premises and going and partaking of spiritual nourishment as well as emotional exchange it sounds delightful I have not taken any classes but I have attended a special event which was lovely the fire of grace with Andrew Harvey and I said I don't know how to pronounce the data yes she was exquisite yes that was a lovely evening with Ruby and what you say you know I think I have worked with leaders in different thought systems and beliefs and I've spent a lot of time recently out west working with earth wisdom teachers of a pre Mayan tradition and I find their words very similar to yours as far as the importance of oneness the importance of not getting lost in the unnecessary foolishness and really coming to a deeper level of a heart centered connection that we are all one and we really need to drop the veil of separation right now for for the good of all and the good of the planet I agree completely and I also think it's important for all of us to recognize that while our deepest nature intuitively knows the truth of that our conditioning makes it so easy to fall into creating a sense of separation in so many different ways and that the inner work of being able to move beyond those barriers is is really the work of a lifetime you know I think we're in a time right now where particularly in the west where we have such a strong sense of individualism that learning how to function within community and as members of a community is really one of the most important skills we can develop and one that is not really taught as part of our basic systems of education one of the things that we do particularly within the seminary program but really in everything we try to do at one spirit is to use the process of creating spiritual community as kind of a crucible for people to be able to explore whatever it is that gets in the way of their being able to experience and express that knowing of oneness and that deeper love and compassion that is so fundamentally part of who we are so we look at you know I often think that the people who come to one spirit come because they have a very deep longing in their lives to live in this world as a presence of love as a presence of healing and peace to have a beneficial impact on the lives of people around them and what tends to happen when someone feels that longing and says yes to it is that we're asked to look at everything inside of us that really gets in the way of our being able to do that so all of the places that we tend to shut down the places that our heart contracts rather than opens the places where we find ourselves caught in judgment and I'm right and you're wrong and all of those kinds of things are very much a part of the inner work of preparation for becoming an interfaith inter spiritual minister so each month as we look at different religious and spiritual traditions people are asked to look at where am I uncomfortable with this where does this trigger judgments in me where is it hard for me to really open myself to experience the wisdom and the beauty that's contained in these teachings and to just very gently be willing to look at that and see if we can set it aside in the same way our interactions with each other in community I sometimes in the first class say to students there will be many times over the next two years that you will find yourself wondering what am I doing here there will also be times that you will look around at your classmates and find yourself wondering what are they doing here and those places where we kind of rub up against each other where despite our aspiration to be loving to be compassionate to be open-hearted we find ourselves feeling irritated and challenged and judgmental and all of those kinds of things really become such a crucial place for us to be able to do the inner work that lets us become more transparent to to the flow of spirit through us it sounds like a great opportunity for personal growth and then communal growth yes which very now you mentioned a phrase interspiritual could you comment on that a little bit yeah should we watch the next part of the video well that'd be great we will be waiting for it to come but recently mentioned interfaith moving to interspiritual this ministry is a very broad umbrella of which conventional understandings of what clergy do is only one small piece the other thing that has always informed my own understanding is something ascribed to st francis he said there's no use walking anywhere to preach or teach or serve or whatever if you're walking isn't your preaching what's most powerful about diane's teaching is the degree to which it's heart-based but yet built on a solid foundation too often in our society we have separated our thinking our feeling and our doing and you know i believe that the great traditions all agree that the longest journey is the journey of allowing the mind to sink into the heart and only when those two become integrated can we really act with skillfulness in all aspects of life on this planet there are really two levels of understanding of what's needed in our world today one is certainly the the more traditional understanding of interfaith which has been that people with strong affiliation and identification with different traditions find a way to come together and move hopefully beyond simply being civil to each other but but trying to actually engage in conversation where they can understand each other's point of view and worldview a little more openly I think that we are really on the cutting edge of something that has emerged on the foundation that that kind of interfaith work has made possible and it's something that Wayne Teasdale was writing about and he coined the term interspiritual which I think is a more accurate description of the approach that we take which is that again our identification is less firmly anchored in one specific tradition and more in the the deeper mystical river of experience and revelation that all of the traditions grew out of and from there we look at what are the the treasures as Michael was saying the the core teachings but even beyond the teachings the richness of practices for tapping into that unifying ground of experience that allows us to really come together and meet in in the heart that's lovely and an idea whose time has come yes yes I think that part of the impetus for our starting one spirit is that emergence that I was speaking of there of the movement from more traditional expressions of interfaith which were really grew out of a kind of dialogue in which people of different religious backgrounds wanted to come together to understand each other's beliefs observances ways of understanding the world and those efforts clearly are still incredibly important and necessary in our world today but a beginning desire that people engaged in that work began to feel to be able to join together at a deeper level of encounter and a deeper level of actual spiritual experience every one of the religious traditions grew out of the revelation either of the particular founder of that religion or a group of sages who had that experience of directly tapping into that oneness into that unity of being that really is the source from which all of creation arises and each one of them developed methods if you will practices to try to help other people have that same deep experience as people began to get to know each other better some of these interfaith leaders they began to recognize that at the deepest levels of their respective spiritual practices the reality that they were encountering was really one and the same and that they could begin to learn from each other's practices in ways that could enhance their own understanding and their own ability to tap into those those deeper states that sharing of practices across traditions that sharing of experience is what Wayne Teasdale in in his amazing book The Mystic Heart uh referred to as inter spirituality or inter mysticism and what he says in that book is that mysticism itself is in a sense the universal religion of humankind and that inter mysticism or inter spirituality will be the spirituality of the third millennium mm-hmm so i think that the the sense in me and in michael and the others who joined with us to start one spirit really reflected the desire to move from an emphasis primarily on interfaith to a stronger primary emphasis on inter spirituality and again i think in the experience of many many people now particularly people who consider themselves spiritual but not religious that sense of finding value from exploring deeply a variety of practices from across traditions has really opened up their own spiritual lives i i feel like i've been an inter spiritual inter mystic for a long time and not aware of it and i'm really resonating with this concept and energy and consciousness and i think many people who have been seekers mm-hmm will totally identify with this and and benefit from it and and with the world the communications with the internet and all the exchanges and dialogues to me it just seems so rich and such an important concept as we when we need that unity consciousness that we are one and and that consciousness only one tv is that's what it means that we are all one yes and we are only one is the name of the show yes and i'm thank you for enriching that concept for me that inter spirit and inter mystic too because to me it was always so presumptuous that one group would have the answers to the exclusion of everyone else yes you know so i'd love to continue this and right now i need to break and thank our sponsors for allowing us to share and have you here so today i'd like to thank mount gox mtgox.com it is an online exchange services for bitcoins they now take euros the british pound the australian dollar and the canadian dollar is coming very soon and usgoldcoins.com 1800 hotcoin our trusted advisor for investments in rare gold and silver coins andy takes a hands-on approach and he will help you and take the mystery out of buying silver and gold so you can call him directly for the current inventory at 1-800 hotcoin and mezay grill m e z e g r i l l dot com where authentic mediterranean food meets modern flavor they are now serving breakfast i can personally testify they have delicious food very healthy hummus tabooly all mediterranean delights we often eat there and they are located at eighth avenue and 55th street in new york just a couple blocks south of columbus circle so thank you all inter spirit and the third millennium what do you see and feel about that i think that we're really as many people have have been feeling and have said that we are on the cusp of a new evolutionary expression and movement of consciousness that will take that experience of oneness or unity and bring it to a level of expression in our day to day lives that we can barely even imagine at this moment in time i love the metaphor of the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly that from the standpoint of a caterpillar there's no way to imagine life as a butterfly in fact a dear friend of mine showed me a cartoon a few years ago that i love that was two caterpillars walking along the ground in a butterfly passes overhead and one of the caterpillars turns to the other and says you're never going to get me up in one of those things and i think that that there are parts of us that resist the the call to growth that is really happening on the earth right now but one of the things that i love in the scientific description of that process of metamorphosis is that at a certain point in the life cycle of the caterpillar cells begin to emerge in the caterpillar that are called imaginal cells and these cells contain the blueprint the dna blueprint of the butterfly rather than of the caterpillar the immune system of the caterpillar reacts to them as if they're foreign uh invading cells and attacks and destroys them but they continue to be uh generated and then they begin to cluster together and as they cluster together they grow in strength so that the caterpillars immune system can no longer overpower and destroy them and in fact the immune system the defenses of the caterpillar break down and the process of transformation of caterpillar into butterfly is set in motion i think we are very much at that time in in our history right now that uh that there is a sense of a new humanity a sense of a new consciousness that is wanting to be born on the earth it has been prophesied in many of the religious traditions and as people wake up to the the kind of sense within themselves of wanting to grow into something more wanting to grow into the fullness of their their being and to understand what it really means to be a full human being they are gravitating and finding other people who share that same impulse and those same feelings and are beginning to come together so that we are i believe individually but also coming together in collectives to help midwife this new birth i think that uh people who are drawn to the kind of ministry that we train people for are people who feel very much a desire to be midwives to that spiritual unfolding on the planet and and in the lives of of the people around them and i think it's important to understand that ministry is really a very very broad expression it is not at all limited to what we think of as a traditional clergy person standing in a pulpit and preaching on sunday mornings or friday nights or thursday nights or whenever the the religious gathering is that that ministry really is about spiritual service and being as i said a midwife to this new consciousness that's wanting to be born so for for example what you're doing with this show is an expression of authentic ministry because you're helping other people to wake up and to pay attention to what's stirring inside of them i also think that another part of what's happening right now at this moment in history is is the necessary integration of our spirituality into our daily lives that spiritual awakening can no longer be something that only happens in monasteries or on mountaintops that it really needs to be brought right into the midst of our lives in this world and into engagement on behalf of justice on behalf of compassion that can really address the enormity of suffering that exists in our world today so i think it's a time that we are also being asked to find ways of marrying our spiritual lives with our engagement in the world as agents of change and transformation not only in the inner realms but in the very institutions and social structures that exist in our world as well i couldn't agree more and you said so many things that touched so many bing bing bing want to thank you for your comment about the show that is the intention of bruce wagner and ed gel and myself and anyone connected to only one tv and i'm sure the intention of one spirit as well is is providing practical tools as well as spiritual insights and teachings having guests like you and bringing the sense of community together in whatever medium that is if it's online if it's in person if it's at a community event education like the learning alliance provides but realizing that we are one and we you know we need each other to we're here to help each other we're here to love and not just follow our own path if you will in the inner direction which of course is key to realizing that we are all interconnected but also as you were speaking about taking it to the community and having the tools and the realization and helping sharing the light with others who may for their because of their worldly situation may may not see the light as easily at this particular moment in time and i've heard the phrase sacred activism used and in particular by andrew harvey who i know is a colleague and a dear friend of yours yes i wonder if you could i'm sure that one spirit um does a lot of community outreach and sacred service and sacred activism i wonder if you'd comment a little bit on that there are a variety of expressions that one spirit as an organization but also that our our graduates are engaged in one of the projects we were involved in last year was working with an organization in new york city that deals particularly with the elderly homeless to provide them with clothing uh there's very few organizations that deal with that specific population and that's one of the uh projects that one spirit as a community has supported our graduates have been involved in working in many parts of the world we have one graduate who has been doing a lot of work in Haiti particularly with the young girls who are part of a system i believe called the rest of it system where uh young girls are basically sold into almost like indentured servitude with a promise that the families they'll work they'll be working for will educate them but often that does not actually happen and this one graduate of ours has started an organization to work with girls in that situation in Haiti another one of our graduates uh is part of an organization that works in a hospital in Uganda teaching the hospital specializes in the treatment of tb and uh this woman teaches self-care to the hospital staff we've had other graduates who've been part of groups that have gone to the Congo to work with the women who have been uh the victims of of the really systematic rape that has been used as a as a terror tactic there so there are many different expressions that that people have but i think that the uh the understanding is that spirituality is incomplete unless it expresses itself in loving service and tangible expressions of compassion in the world so our our students are expected to be engaged in some form of community service throughout their their two years of study and uh many of the the courses that we've taught over the years in our public offerings have also been centered on uh what you're what you described as sacred activism Andrew Harvey's work and i'm i'm very blessed to be a part of the core faculty of Andrew's Institute for Sacred Activism which is in located in Oak Park Illinois wonderful he's going to grace us with his presence in December wonderful we're closing in and i wanted to mention i'm not sure of the date but i know there's an open house coming up if you could tell people yes the open house is on wednesday august 17th the program begins at 6 30 there is information on our website which is www onespiritinterfaith.org people can pre-register for the open house that's helpful for us in knowing how many people to plan for uh our next series of classes begins in september so i would really encourage anyone who feels moved by what we've been talking about today and feels a sense of longing to be of service in this world even if they don't know how that what form that service is going to take to visit our website and to consider this particular training it is profoundly transformative and life-changing for everyone who goes through the training program i'm sure it is i'm feeling drawn to it myself do we have another clip of um we'd like to show people can you tell us what this clip is i think this is uh just the uh it's the closing of the video clip that we've been looking at and it has some final scenes from our commencement ceremony which is our public celebration of our newly ordained ministers and typically it's held at the glorious riverside church here in new york city wonderful thank you i feel we have graduated in the spirit it has been such an honor and a blessing to have you here as our guest i hope you will come back again i would love to would you like to close us out with some blessing some words of love for all those listening my deepest prayer for the whole of the human family and through us for the whole of this magnificent and beautiful and bountiful creation in our lifetime may the love of power be replaced by the power to love thank you that was so beautiful thank you and i i was thinking of something which is actually very similar to that it's a poem i read this morning by hafez and it says um the sun never asks and it's the sun talking to the earth and it says the sun never asks the earth to say thank you or you owe me with a love like that it can light up the whole world i sort of paraphrased it but it's very close in embracing through love that we are one yes so we send our love to everyone have a beautiful day many blessings namaste