Nine Points of Agreement in the Interspiritual Declaration (From the work of the Snowmass Group)





    every belief system.

  5. The potential for human wholeness – or in other frames of reference, enlightenment, salvation,

    transformation, blessedness, nirvana – is present in every human.


    art, human relationships, and service to others.


    subject to ignorance, illusion, weakness, and suffering.




    (transpersonal), or beyond both.

Brother Wayne Teasdale’s Nine Elements of a Universal Spirituality

  1. Actualizing full moral and ethical capacity

  2. Living in harmony with the cosmos and all living beings

  3. Cultivating a life of deep nonviolence

  4. Living in humility and gratitude

  5. Embracing a regular spiritual practice

  6. Cultivating mature self-knowledge

  7. Living a life of simplicity

  8. Being of selfless service and compassionate action

  9. Empowering the prophetic voice for justice, compassion, and world transformation.


Seven Elements of Interspiritual Education

  1. Teaching interspirituality itself (the journey from interfaith to experiential interspirituality)

  2. Teaching sacred activism (the inherent connection of being and doing)

  3. Cultivating higher consciousness (unity consciousness as an actual experience)

  4. Nurturing individual formation (personal maturation in authentic universal spirituality)

  5. Teaching integral (the integral vision and the developmental view of history)

  6. Community building (building authentic communities of all kinds)

  7. Ministry development (developing interfaith and interspiritual ministry from conventional roles – in

    religious institutions, chaplaincy, hospice – to entrepreneurial initiatives, creating new roles for interfaith and interspiritual ministry).


Eight Needed World Shifts in Consciousness

  1. Appreciation of the interdependence of all realms of human life and the surrounding cosmos

  2. Growing ecological awareness, with recognition of the interdependence of humankind and the

    biosphere, including the rights of all biological species

  3. Dedication to nonviolence, with a commitment to transcend militancy and violence tied to national

    or religious identities

  4. Embracing of the shared wisdom in all the world’s religious and spiritual traditions, past and


  5. Growing friendship, and actual community, among the individual followers of the world’s religious

    and spiritual paths

  6. Commitment to the depths of the contemplative pursuit and the mutual sharing of the fruits of this

    ongoing journey

  7. Creative cultivation of transnational, transcultural, trans-traditional, and world-centric


  8. Receptivity to a kosmic vision, realizing humanity is only one life form and part of a larger

    community, the universe.


Eight Evolutionary Developmental Elements:

  1. Human consciousness and heart have been evolving toward a maximum potential regarding the kind of being humans can be and what kind of an earth we can create.

  2. This has been going on since the known origin of the cosmos, as material evolution and as evolution of consciousness.

  3. This is recognized in a fundamental tenet of the interspiritual vision, that the evolution of world religions has been one unfolding experience reflecting the gradual growth of human maturity.

  4. This trend is anchored in the universally unfolding experience of “unity consciousness” or “awakening,” the experience of profound interconnectedness, no separation, and the world of the heart.

  5. This unity consciousness has been emerging through all the world’s spiritual traditions.

  6. Historically we have witnessed this unfolding in myriad identifiable threads in the world’s

    philosophies and religions.

  7. This unfolding has implications for how we develop our collective skills so that this consciousness

    can manifest in the world in tangible skill-sets working toward global transformation.

  8. This has implications for the innumerable realms and arenas of endeavour, represented by all


E-mail me when people leave their comments –

You need to be a member of ContemplativeLife to add comments!

Join ContemplativeLife