Hello again, Bruce and company : )

I'm just getting to the good stuff in The Coming Interspiritual Age, but am having a hard time finding time to continue as daily living just gets more demanding by the week! Some day, some way, it'll come though, I keep hoping and I can hardly wait for that.

Bro. Wayne Teasdale's book will be next on my reading list. From what I've read about the man himself, his book is sure to be pure beauty so I can hardly wait to get into it. Being short on time here, I'll just say that the list you've come up with thus far, Bruce, furnishes plenty of guidance on improvements to the typical way business is carried out in humanity's day to day affairs.

Consistently stringing our words together as shows ACTUAL "mutual respect at all times" will ensure phenomenal results follow our every endeavor. Benefits on a scale that few deem possible or probable.

What Really spreads the word of such mutual respect fastest and farthest, is employing all-inclusivity, I find. This eliminates the lime lag that follows requiring readers to guess if ladies first, men first, or humans first listings that eventually embrace all are reflecting the writers vision more than a poor vocabulary.

It's a great time saver, communicating without need of all that guesswork, that each and all are considered equally capable for full participation in whatever is being proposed.

More power to all good works!

RhonnaLeigh

--- On Sat, Nov 16, 2013, Bruce Schuman wrote ---

Good morning all. Saturday here in Santa Barbara -- thanks to the many people from the Global Resonance Network who checked in here. Our general membership list has grown a lot -- though things are still settling down, of course.

Just to refresh an awareness of where this project came from and what it's about, let me just mention that the driving trigger to set off this particular way of framing what we are doing here -- or at least what the mission statement says we're trying to do -- was the publication of The Coming Interspiritual Age (TCIA), by Kurt Johnson and David Ord, published by Namaste Press.

This is a big picture survey of a complex multi-faceted global movement, highly influenced and shaped by the perspective of Brother Wayne Teasdale in his 1999 book "The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World's Religions".

This book -- along with hundreds of other books and influences on the general theme of "interfaith" -- have been major influences on me, and have guided me for many years -- since the initial creation of United Communities of Spirit in 1996, and on through the development of many other interrelated projects -- some of which are cited on my Alliance profile.

This Alliance project is intended to generally follow its stated "mission" or "agenda" -- which, on the morning that I first wrote out this sketch, under the inspiration mostly of the Johnson/Ord book, looked like this:

As far as I can tell, to the best degree I can manage or help nurture, co-creativity and "sacred listening" are at the core of what is happening here. I absolutely expect this to continue -- because I absolutely do trust this process of "sacred convergence" that I do sense all around me.

This is not such a simple thing, it is hard to "predict" exactly how or where this is going, and it seems to be driven by a kind of deep trust, and a steady process of "one foot in front of the other" from everybody involved. Stay humble, be friendly, keep listening, work hard to do your part, honor others and try to see their actual motivation instead of "demonizing" what you don't fully understand or find suspicious or doubtful -- and be there.

And maybe, after this several exciting days of a lot of interesting email and messages and growth -- we can turn our primary attention to some specific constructive tasks. I myself want to clarify this notion of "The Sacred Tree of Community" -- the "Mandala of Souls". Maybe (??) we need some "guidelines" for how to interact in this space -- or maybe just "mutual respect at all times" is enough. I want to see some concepts and action plans. What is your plan, Josko, to actually do anything besides have philosophical discussions among a small group on the internet?

I say -- we ARE interconnected -- and "believing in the right religion" is not a condition for this interconnectivity. That's just how it looks to me -- my "one vote". You are welcome to yours.

Peace.

--- On Fri, Nov 15, 2013, Starr* Saffa wrote ---

Good Morning Bruce

Thanks for addressing issues and encouraging folks in the big picture.

Bruce: On this one theme, Starr* -- we'll talk about this more later, and I appreciate your concerns and share them -- but we (I) do want to link to mainline religions and other schools of spirit and prophecy. Saying that everybody has to do it "our way or else" is not the strongest way to proceed -

Starr*: "You are doing 'it' your way" Bruce, which is your prerogative in that you are the creator of this place and the CEO. I appreciate you want to pull seven billion people together under this Alliance Tree.

My brainstorming WITH you, was offered as suggestions in case you wanted to consider broadening your reach of 'alliance' so as to appeal to pioneers in what I see as liberating ideas for Humanity in this new Paradigm, rather than primarily focusing on trying to 'fix' dated patriarchal religion and their branches as a Universal Spiritual outcome.

There doesn't seem to be much wiggle room in that, but maybe the "My Alliance" you want to create will permit some other branches to emerge.

A metaphor:

Baha'u'llah wrote: "Regard men as a flock of sheep that need a shepherd for their protection. This, verily, is the truth, the certain truth. We approve of liberty in certain circumstances, and refuse to sanction it in others. We, verily, are the All-Knowing." Kitab-i-Aqdas, p 63

Many sheep have broken free, and the alliance sees itself as a Universal Shepherd to call the sheep back to the fold/flock with dreams and hopes for a kinder more liberal Shepherding.

Bruce: Right now, I want to encourage this idea that we are working together to build an alliance -- a big strong collective super-dynamo that can bring together the collaborative efforts of many co-workers/team-mates who can see the vision that is starting to appear here, and want to jump in hard -- the way you guys have been doing -- to start weaving a ton of new connections. My guess right now is -- this is feasible.

Starr*: In these transitory times it is a very interesting project to attempt to be a Hand, or a Bridge that Unifies. Obviously, I have found all the ideas of Integral Theory, Inter-spirituality, Universal Spirituality, Sacred Activism, etc very appealing to investigate - and I am grateful that you are pulling many of these concepts together for us to enjoy, and perhaps be contributing participants in various phases that allow for the Soul to fly Free.

May the Source be with all of You,

Starr*

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