About this ebook The Mystic Heart chronicled Brother Wayne Teasdale's journey into a multifaceted spirituality blending his traditional Catholic training and the Eastern way of sannyasa (Indian monkhood). A Monk in the World tells what the journey has meant for him — living as a monk outside the monastery, integrating teachings from the world's religions with his own Catholic training, combining his vigorous spiritual practice with the necessities of making a living, and pursuing a course of social justice in a major American city. In telling his story, Teasdale shows how others can find their own internal monastery and bring spiritual practice into their busy lives.
Wayne Teasdale was a lay monk and best-selling author of
The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World's Religions,
Bede Griffiths: An Introduction to His Interspiritual Thought, and
A Monk in the World.
As a member of the Bede Griffiths International Trust, Teasdale was an adjunct professor at DePaul University, Columbia College, and the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Wayne Teasdale was editor of Awakening the Spirit, Inspiring the Soul: 30 Stories of Interspiritual Discovery.
About this ebook Drawing on experience as an interreligious monk, Brother Wayne Teasdale reveals the power of spirituality and its practical elements. He combines a profound Christian faith with an intimate understanding of ancient religious traditions. Skip carousel
Wayne Robert Teasdale (16 January 1945 – 20 October 2004) was a Catholicmonk, author and teacher from Connecticut, best known as an energetic proponent of mutual understanding between the world's religions, for an interfaith dialogue which he termed "interspirituality". He was also an active campaigner on issues of social justice.
Essays in Mysticism: Explorations into Contemplative Experience, Foreword by George A. Maloney (Liturgical Publications/Sunday Publications 1982) ISBN0-941850-02-1
Towards a Christian Vedanta: The Encounter of Hinduism and Christianity according to Bede Griffiths (Asian Trading Corporation 1987) ISBN81-7086-122-5 Developed from his dissertation at Fordham University.
The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions, Foreword by the Dalai Lama, Preface by Beatrice Bruleau (New World Library 1999) ISBN1-57731-140-X
A Monk in the World: Cultivating a Spiritual Life, Foreword by Ken Wilber (New World Library 2002) ISBN1-57731-437-9
Bede Griffiths: An Introduction to his Interspiritual Thought, Foreword by Bede Griffiths (Skylight Paths Publishing 2003) ISBN1-893361-77-2
Catholicism in Dialogue: Conversations across the Traditions (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 2004) ISBN0-7425-3177-5
The Mystic Hours: A Daybook of Inspirational Wisdom and Devotion(New World Library 2004) ISBN1-57731-472-7
The Community of Religions: Voices and Images of the Parliament of the World's Religions, editor, with George Cairns (Continuum International Publishing Group 1996) ISBN0-8264-0899-0
Awakening the Spirit, Inspiring the Soul: 30 Stories of Interspiritual Discovery in the Community of Faiths, editor, with Martha Howard, Foreword by Joan Borysenko (Skylight Paths Publishing 2004) ISBN1-59473-039-3
Interspirituality, also known as interspiritual, is an interfaith concept where a diversity of spiritual practices are embraced for common respect for the individual and shared aspects across a variety of spiritual paths.
Interspirituality originates in the work of Wayne Teasdale, who developed this term to reflect commonalities between religious traditions, specifically those that are spiritual in nature.[1] These commonalities across religious practices do not erase differences in beliefs, rather they build community and sharing across practices, leading to the ultimate goal of more human responsibility to one another and the planet as a whole.[2][3] At its core, this is an "assimilation of insights, values, and spiritual practices" drawn from many different traditions that can be applied to one's own life to further personal, spiritual development.[4]
While interspirituality is involved with common spiritual practices, these are not synonymous with how religious traditions practice. As such, interspirituality should not be considered synonymous with interfaith work, in part because some spiritual practices may be considered antithetic to certain religious practice, thereby including elements that would not be accepted by some conservative approaches.[5] New insights that can be gained through aspects of other spiritual practices can be threatening to some faiths, as postmodern approaches to beliefs and practices can be challenging when individuals are encouraged to explore other practices to deepen one's own.[6]
One way interspirituality is practiced is through interspiritual meditation. This was originally developed by Edward Bastian from the Snowmass Conferences convened by Thomas Keating,[7] who organized gatherings of people from other spiritual practices, including the Dalai Lama.[8] Through these gatherings, interspiritual meditation grew to incorporate insights in meditative and contemplative practices across many spiritual traditions, primarily through engaging in shared spiritual practices and then discussing them, rather than through lectures or formal teachings about them.[9] These practices continued to develop and expand beyond Keating's death.[10][11]
^Teasdale, Wayne (1996). "The Interspiritual Age: Global Spirituality in the Third Millennium". The Community of Religions: Voices and Images of the Parliament of the World's Religions. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 209.
