Shadows and light

In a classroom that darkened my heart, I found a light today.

Knowing that it is good to be exposed to various styles of learning, and wanting to obtain experience in different class groups and grades, I observed another English teacher's class today. The lesson was on a South African drama that I did not know too much about. This lesson was also for a Gr.12 class that I had been warned about, but had not encountered yet. Call it morbid curiosity if you will, but I needed to know what I would likely encounter in future.

It was horrifyingly mesmerizing to see just how unruly a senior class could be. I would liken it to watching a horror movie: it scares the life out of you – but you just have to see how it ends! I could not fathom how any one of those learners could have the foggiest clue of what was going on in the drama. Or anything at all, for that matter! And that's where a pinprick of light surprised me.

I was asked to put a question to the class, and could only draw from my limited knowledge of the drama, my own framework of the period (which I had lived through) and the reading that had been done in that lesson. I decided to look for evidence of subtext-sensitivity, and asked for additional themes that ran through the text – expecting the usual stock answers of love, betrayal, friendship etc.

One boy, at the back of the class, bowled me over when he picked up on "the trouble with freedom". There was a kid with a brain, an understanding, and a willingness to think further. Even in the midst of a cacophony of apes.

This solitary soul showed me that there is always a fleck of sanity and hope in the midst of anarchy.

Always look for it, nurture it, and find peace in it. Because if it is not about lifting up the few, how can it be about uplifting the many?

The Serenity Prayer

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Amen.

True Colors: it gets better

turn up the volume

and view this in full screen

thank you to the Gay Men's Chorus of LA!

why i am

Love is the law.
and no, I'm not talking about romance and cozy cuddles, special winks and sweet nothings... i'm talking about the nitty-gritty, push up your sleeves and sweat 'til you bleed kind of love. Loving your neighbor - in it's broadest extent.

i have been through a terrible patch - and I'm not out of the woods yet - but I have again realized the all-importance of Love. in these last few months, i have received compassion, acceptance, support and kindness from all sorts of unexpected places. here in blogland, here in Taiwan and from across the planet. people i never knew had it in them - including people i never knew at all.

through this, i have found that returning love to those around me - not only makes a significant difference in their lives - but it also heals me.

starting from a place of Love, i have made an effort to be there for my students. to reach out to my colleagues. to walk in kindness and compassion with those who cross my path in all sorts of ways. to put the past to rest and find new perspectives all 'round.

it is not always easy - for i am not a perfect being. but i am committed to stay true to Love, and by Grace alone, i am making a difference.

i have often asked myself: "What is my purpose? What is my goal? Why am I here?"
i am glad to say that i've accepted the answer.
Paulo Coelho tweeted it - and my heart resonated:
"Your dream is your mission."

mine has always been: "Love"
that is why i am.

prayer request

i know this isn't really what anyone wants to read so close to the festive season, but if you have the inclination, please spare a thought or two:
for my old friend Leon, who has lost the battle against cancer and can now only wait...
for Love to grow and heal where me and Peter so desperately need it, and
for our friends and families that have their own journeying and healing to go through.

and remember - live life fully and live life now.
tomorrow... well, tomorrow is not a promise we can keep.

intermission: on religion

i just wish the Bible-thumping, fear-mongering, hate-and-damnation types would stop shouting: "Do you know Jesus!" and start asking: "Can you see Jesus in me?"

Esquire.com: What If Jesus Meant All That Stuff?

This radical Christian's ministry for the poor, The Simple Way, has gotten him in some trouble with his fellow Evangelicals. We asked him to address those who don't believe.

By Shane Claiborne

To all my nonbelieving, sort-of-believing, and used-to-be-believing friends: I feel like I should begin with a confession. I am sorry that so often the biggest obstacle to God has been Christians. Christians who have had so much to say with our mouths and so little to show with our lives. I am sorry that so often we have forgotten the Christ of our Christianity.

Forgive us. Forgive us for the embarrassing things we have done in the name of God.

The other night I headed into downtown Philly for a stroll with some friends from out of town. We walked down to Penn's Landing along the river, where there are street performers, artists, musicians. We passed a great magician who did some pretty sweet tricks like pour change out of his iPhone, and then there was a preacher. He wasn't quite as captivating as the magician. He stood on a box, yelling into a microphone, and beside him was a coffin with a fake dead body inside. He talked about how we are all going to die and go to hell if we don't know Jesus.

Some folks snickered. Some told him to shut the hell up. A couple of teenagers tried to steal the dead body in the coffin. All I could do was think to myself, I want to jump up on a box beside him and yell at the top of my lungs, "God is not a monster." Maybe next time I will.

The more I have read the Bible and studied the life of Jesus, the more I have become convinced that Christianity spreads best not through force but through fascination. But over the past few decades our Christianity, at least here in the United States, has become less and less fascinating. We have given the atheists less and less to disbelieve. And the sort of Christianity many of us have seen on TV and heard on the radio looks less and less like Jesus.

At one point Gandhi was asked if he was a Christian, and he said, essentially, "I sure love Jesus, but the Christians seem so unlike their Christ." A recent study showed that the top three perceptions of Christians in the U. S. among young non-Christians are that Christians are 1) antigay, 2) judgmental, and 3) hypocritical. So what we have here is a bit of an image crisis, and much of that reputation is well deserved. That's the ugly stuff. And that's why I begin by saying that I'm sorry.

Now for the good news.

I want to invite you to consider that maybe the televangelists and street preachers are wrong — and that God really is love. Maybe the fruits of the Spirit really are beautiful things like peace, patience, kindness, joy, love, goodness, and not the ugly things that have come to characterize religion, or politics, for that matter. (If there is anything I have learned from liberals and conservatives, it's that you can have great answers and still be mean... and that just as important as being right is being nice.)

The Bible that I read says that God did not send Jesus to condemn the world but to save it... it was because "God so loved the world." That is the God I know, and I long for others to know. I did not choose to devote my life to Jesus because I was scared to death of hell or because I wanted crowns in heaven... but because he is good. For those of you who are on a sincere spiritual journey, I hope that you do not reject Christ because of Christians. We have always been a messed-up bunch, and somehow God has survived the embarrassing things we do in His name. At the core of our "Gospel" is the message that Jesus came "not [for] the healthy... but the sick." And if you choose Jesus, may it not be simply because of a fear of hell or hope for mansions in heaven.

Don't get me wrong, I still believe in the afterlife, but too often all the church has done is promise the world that there is life after death and use it as a ticket to ignore the hells around us. I am convinced that the Christian Gospel has as much to do with this life as the next, and that the message of that Gospel is not just about going up when we die but about bringing God's Kingdom down. It was Jesus who taught us to pray that God's will be done "on earth as it is in heaven." On earth.

One of Jesus' most scandalous stories is the story of the Good Samaritan. As sentimental as we may have made it, the original story was about a man who gets beat up and left on the side of the road. A priest passes by. A Levite, the quintessential religious guy, also passes by on the other side (perhaps late for a meeting at church). And then comes the Samaritan... you can almost imagine a snicker in the Jewish crowd. Jews did not talk to Samaritans, or even walk through Samaria. But the Samaritan stops and takes care of the guy in the ditch and is lifted up as the hero of the story. I'm sure some of the listeners were ticked. According to the religious elite, Samaritans did not keep the right rules, and they did not have sound doctrine... but Jesus shows that true faith has to work itself out in a way that is Good News to the most bruised and broken person lying in the ditch.

It is so simple, but the pious forget this lesson constantly. God may indeed be evident in a priest, but God is just as likely to be at work through a Samaritan or a prostitute. In fact the Scripture is brimful of God using folks like a lying prostitute named Rahab, an adulterous king named David... at one point God even speaks to a guy named Balaam through his donkey. Some say God spoke to Balaam through his ass and has been speaking through asses ever since. So if God should choose to use us, then we should be grateful but not think too highly of ourselves. And if upon meeting someone we think God could never use, we should think again.

After all, Jesus says to the religious elite who looked down on everybody else: "The tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom ahead of you." And we wonder what got him killed?

I have a friend in the UK who talks about "dirty theology" — that we have a God who is always using dirt to bring life and healing and redemption, a God who shows up in the most unlikely and scandalous ways. After all, the whole story begins with God reaching down from heaven, picking up some dirt, and breathing life into it. At one point, Jesus takes some mud, spits in it, and wipes it on a blind man's eyes to heal him. (The priests and producers of anointing oil were not happy that day.)

In fact, the entire story of Jesus is about a God who did not just want to stay "out there" but who moves into the neighborhood, a neighborhood where folks said, "Nothing good could come." It is this Jesus who was accused of being a glutton and drunkard and rabble-rouser for hanging out with all of society's rejects, and who died on the imperial cross of Rome reserved for bandits and failed messiahs. This is why the triumph over the cross was a triumph over everything ugly we do to ourselves and to others. It is the final promise that love wins.

It is this Jesus who was born in a stank manger in the middle of a genocide. That is the God that we are just as likely to find in the streets as in the sanctuary, who can redeem revolutionaries and tax collectors, the oppressed and the oppressors... a God who is saving some of us from the ghettos of poverty, and some of us from the ghettos of wealth.

In closing, to those who have closed the door on religion — I was recently asked by a non-Christian friend if I thought he was going to hell. I said, "I hope not. It will be hard to enjoy heaven without you." If those of us who believe in God do not believe God's grace is big enough to save the whole world... well, we should at least pray that it is.

Your brother,
Shane

memo to self: be kind

be kinder than necessary - everyone you meet is fighting
some kind of battle.

live simply,
love generously,
care deeply,
speak kindly...

and leave the rest to God.

still here

although i am by far not ready to talk about it, i realize that total radio silence from me would be irresponsible.

thought for the day: Be merciful to those who fail you.

sharing is caring

The Warrior hears someone say: "I need to understand everything before I can make a decision. I want to have the freedom to change my mind."

The Warrior regards these words suspiciously. he too enjoys that freedom, but this does not prevent him from taking on a commitment, even if he does not know quite why he does so.

A Warrior of the Light makes decisions. His soul is as free as the clouds in the sky, but he is committed to his dream. On his freely chosen path, he often has to get up earlier than he would like, speak to people from whom he learns nothing, make certain sacrifices.

His friends say: "You're not free."

The Warrior is free. But he knows that an open oven bakes no bread.

Warrior of the Light, p. 47 - Paulo Coelho

spring at the start of fall

it is september now and back home people are celebrating the return of spring. days are getting longer, nights are getting warmer and all around nature is getting ready to burst with joy. it is a time of renewal, hope and celebration. it is a time to celebrate life - and to fall in love.

i am lucky. for although i'm oceans away from home - i am with the one i love.

in Taiwan it is ghost month: a time when the gates of the underworld are believed to open and the dead are allowed to roam the land of the living. spirits without descendants to care for them are prayed to during this time, so that they may also enjoy the warmth of life among the living. those lucky enough to have descendants get to feast on tables laden with food and drink that are offered to them. for others, this is a month of remembering the departed and cherishing those who are still around.

again, i am lucky. for in remembering my departed friends and family - i am reminded to love fully without restraint. i am reminded that life is unpredictable and short - and that love should be cherished and enjoyed openly and fearlessly.

fearlessly... that is my achilles' heel. my terrible burden. for you see - i am still plagued by fear... the fear of my inadequacy.

this might be a revelation to some, for many believe me to be fearless. in fact, i often make a point of facing my fears head on, to overcome them and to help others do the same. i have often said that this does not make me immune to fear - but that i'm fighting a winning battle. and for the most of it - i am.

for the most of part.

tonight, while standing in the rain waiting for the garbage truck, i felt very much like a spirit with no descendants. the switch from the fullness of SA life (with my friends and family) to the total isolation of city life in Taiwan (Peter works - i'm still looking for a job), was suddenly too much for me.

i'm not going to go into the negative flip-flops my mind was doing - suffice to say i was feeling pretty forlorn...

then the garbage truck arrived - and a complete stranger huddled me under his umbrella. he walked with me from the garbage truck to the recycling truck and back to our building - even though he only had a small bag to deposit at the first truck. i thanked him profusely as he smiled and disappeared into the crowd.

the rain eased up and i decided to go for my walk around the museum's park again. a cool breeze was blowing and i was beginning to feel a lot better. before long, i realized that i was praying as i walked - and for about half in hour i had an intimate discussion with my Lord, who was walking right next to me! i was in Jesus's company and it felt completely natural, safe and friendly. it was a miracle, just like the stranger with his umbrella. i've often felt close to Christ - but tonight was the first time i literally felt him walking right next to me! walking next to me, telling me not to be afraid. telling me that, even though i might not believe it, i truly am a perfect creation and more than adequate for the journey i'm taking. telling me to believe in Love and reminding me that i am never alone.

none of us are ever alone.

what started as a dark night of the soul - turned into the promise of a new dawn.

spring is coming - even here, on the brink of fall.

wherever you are tonight, and whatever you are going through - may you also experience the promise of a new dawn.

wether you believe as i do or not - this spring is eternal (and Love believes in you).

now go hug someone.

my reality

following last night's post, you may very well ask what my reality looks like.

despite what it might sound like, i do not live in my own little world - far removed from your own. having renounced the fear-driven version of reality doesn't exempt me from having to face fear either. on the contrary! in order to renounce fear, i have to face it - and face it every day until i conquer it. but conquer it, i will :0)

i can describe my whole reality in one point - but will try to clarify and elaborate through extrapolation. here goes:

1) Love really is the answer.

2) being true to yourself doesn't cost anything of true value

3) Truth does not exclude truth

4) work does not feel like work when it is your calling

5) do what brings you joy, enjoy what you do

6) find a common ground

7) look for the good in everything and everyone

8) respect and reward your body - don't try to reconfigure or hide it's personality

9) accept that you are already beautiful... you've always been beautiful

10) smile when you feel like it, cry when you feel like it - you get the picture

11) engage with those around you

12) sleep 6 to 8 hours at night and nap at noon

13) be courteous, be kind, be gentle

14) be thankful

15) patience is not only a virtue - it's a way of giving yourself time to "get it"

16) dream

17) live your dream

18) live your Truth

19) have Faith

20) do it now.

repost from: The Wild Reed

The Sufi Way

For many people, whirling dervishes and the works of the thirteenth-century mystic and poet Jelaluddin Rumi are what come to mind whenever Sufism is mentioned. Related to these associations is the not uncommon belief that Sufism describes the mystical branch of Islam. Yet while there is truth to this, it’s an incomplete truth. For as celebrated British author Doris Lessing reminds us, “the Sufis are not a Muslim monopoly [as] the Sufi reality predates Islam [and] has always been introduced, secretly or openly, into every culture.” (1)

Lessing (pictured at left) also notes that the word “Sufism” is not liked by Sufis as “they see it as a typical Western abstraction, away from the living reality of the Sufi Way, which is embodied in people.” (2) Furthermore, the actual word “Sufi,” Lessing observes, “is not necessary for a fresh introduction of Sufi feeling: many an activity or event or series of events has been Sufic, but no one has known it, perhaps not even the people involved. Many books have been for a Sufi purpose, the word never being used.” (3)


The Sufi purpose

Of course, all of this begs the question: what is the “Sufi purpose”?

Well, according to Dr. Alan Godlas of the University of Georgia, the essence of Sufi purpose and practice is quite simple: “the Sufi surrenders to God, in love, over and over; which involves embracing with love at each moment the content of one’s consciousness (one’s perceptions, thoughts, and feelings, as well as one’s sense of self) as gifts of God or, more precisely, as manifestations of God.” (4)

Not surprisingly, like all efforts related to experiencing and comprehending the love that is God, the Sufi Way infuses (and often transcends) the structures and practices of organized religion and is all about transformation and enlightenment; all about recognizing and distinguishing “the light” from the various screens that filter it. In this analogy of Doris Lessing’s, the screens represent various “national or historical cultural patterns,” (including those structures and practices of organized religion) whereas the light stands for “a truth which is central to humanity.” (5) For as Lessing reminds us, “the word ‘light’ has been used in every mystic tradition as a symbol for God, the Absolute, the Beloved, the King, the Simurgh, Truth, Life of the World – a hundred other terms.” (6)

In the 1960s, Lessing was a student of the Sufi teacher Idries Shah, who is credited with playing a major role in introducing Western audiences to the Sufi Way as a form of universal wisdom. In many of her writings – both fiction and non-fiction – Lessing addresses questions related to the meaning and purpose of this understanding of the Sufi Way. One of the most direct of these writings is her 1996 article “Summing Up: When Idries Shah Died,” in which she acknowledges that “people are always asking, ‘But what is Sufism, what are the Sufis, surely it can be put into a few words?’”

In response to this foundational question, Lessing notes:

There are some statements, almost aphorisms [that I can offer]: for instance that in every human being is an initially tiny, precious, shining thing, capable of development, which can bring her or him to fulfillment. Or, that the Sufi truth is at the core of every religion, its heart, and religions are only the outward vestments of an inner reality. This last is helpful to people like myself, who find it hard to see religions anything more than systems of indoctrination with perennial tendencies towards the persecution of differently thinking people. (7)

A gradation of understanding

In his book, The Way of the Sufi, Idries Shah shares the tale of how Moses rebuked a man for offering to comb God’s hair, wash His robe, and kiss His head. God, however, rebuked Moses saying: “Thou hast driven away a worshipper from the nearest to Me that he could approach. There is a gradation in all men: each will perceive what he can perceive and at the stage at which he can perceive it.” (8)

Lessing takes from this story the message that “one religion is not better than another: each is an expression of local needs,” and that: “beyond religion, most of whose practices are the ethics of the society in which it operates codified, is a range where experience becomes more complex than the rigidities of good/bad, black/white.” (9)

I can certainly relate to these observations, yet when I reflect upon God’s response to Moses in the story told by Idries Shah, I cannot help but think of the inability of the Roman Catholic hierarchy to perceive God in the lives and relationships of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Indeed, when it comes to issues of gender and sexuality, members of the hierarchy (along with those who uncritically accept everything they say) seem to be stuck at an underdeveloped stage in a gradation of understanding and perception. I must admit that it’s often a struggle for me to see such entrenched people as “worshipers” of a God of love and liberation.

Yet regardless of what I think, these folks (my brothers and sisters, I constantly remind myself) definitely see their efforts to, for instance, promulgate teachings that malign homosexuality and its expression by insisting that they are the results of humanity’s “fallen” state, as a way of displaying their obedience to what they actually believe to be God’s truth. Such unquestioning obedience, I’ve discovered, is what they understand as the hallmark of faithful worship of God. Of course, such a hallmark implies that we have all the answers – here and now; and that the human endeavor isn’t about journeying and developing, but about hankering down and safe-guarding “the (one and only) truth.”

Don’t get me wrong, there will always be aspects of our experience – certain insights, developments, and truth claims – that are worth safe-guarding. That being said, I have to say that much of the Roman Catholic Church’s stated understanding of gender and sexuality is definitely not something I consider worth supporting or defending. (For a start, such understanding is unreasonable – and any understanding or teaching that claims any kind of respect, or claims its authority in the concept of “natural law,” must be reasonable.)


A catholic reality

I’m not in the least bit interested in circling the wagons and unquestioningly defending the hierarchy’s unreasonable theology of human sexuality – one that in its intentional failure to be mindful of and informed by the collective wisdom of the people of God, is not only unreasonable but also immoral. No, I’m much more interested in moving the caravan forward; in acknowledging and getting on with our journey as a pilgrim church - a community still very much in process, still very much discovering the ever-unfolding truth of God within, among, and around us.

This probably accounts for my growing interest in the Sufi Way, that way of perceiving and being in the world that understands true worship of the Sacred as an openness to growth and change, as a trusting willingness to engage with “the light” as manifested in the lives and relationships of all.

Of course, those fearful of growth and change may angrily dismiss the Sufi Way as some kind of “New Age” fad. Yet, in reality, the Sufi Way is the life force of all authentic religion. For as Rumi scholar and translator Coleman Banks reminds us, the Sufi Way, the “love way” is not religious; rather, it’s the “origin and longing inside religiousness.” (10) Thus one way I’ve come to understand the Sufi Way is as a religious sensibility, a way of engaging self, others, and the Sacred that, as Shah, Lessing, Coleman, and others have noted, is at the heart of all religions. (It brings a smile to my face to think that this universality makes the Sufi Way a truly catholic reality – “catholic,” after all, means “universal.”)


Consciousness, conscience, and compassion

In light of this universality of the Sufi Way, Doris Lessing writes:

A question like: “But what about a personal God, and the importance of this to so many people?” falls away. St. Theresa of Avila experienced “his Majesty.” St. Theresa the Little Flower talked of “My little Jesus.” A crazy person may say “I am God” – but so did Hallaj, one of the greatest Sufis of all time, who was judicially murdered because he said, in a mystic state: “I am the Truth.” A Spanish peasant girl sees a vision of the Virgin. Sorcerers raise the Devil, horns and all – Spanish St. Theresa saw the Devil until she had got past that stage. Adam and Noah, Abraham and Moses talked with God, in a way which sounds like son with loving father. In India there is a hierarchy of deities which are experienced in the stages of the Hindu disciples. An African witchdoctor experiences God according to the realities of his part of the continent. The modern astronomer has his moments of vision when the skies his mind inhabits become a mirror for something beyond. The light can do no other than fall in the patterns of the screens – the mind of the experiencing person, which has been formed, been set, by his culture, his experience, his prejudices.

Again and again one is returned to this point: one can do no more than start from where one is. And it is not an unuseful exercise to use this thought in an effort to find out where that is.

Or as [Idries] Shah puts it: “If you are uninterested in what I say, there’s an end to it. If you like what I say, please try to understand which previous influences have made you like it. If you like some of the things I say and dislike others, you could try to understand why. If you dislike all I say, why not try to find out what has formed your attitude?” (11)

Yes, it’s all about growing in consciousness, in self-awareness; all about seeking the light beyond all our humanly-constructed (and often arrogantly and fearfully defended) “screens.” I for one like what teachers such as Idries Shah have to say. I also appreciate the efforts of folks like Doris Lessing and Coleman Barks to articulate in everyday language the wisdom of the Sufi Way. I plan on further exploring this way in an ongoing series of posts at The Wild Reed. In particular, I want to explore the Sufi Way and its connections to Christianity (including the idea of Jesus as a Sufi Master*) as well as the Sufi Way and homosexuality.

Interestingly, I was originally going to title this series, “Contemplating the Sufi Way,” but once I began researching and writing, I soon realized that I’m doing much more than contemplating. I’m already walking the Sufi Way, as are all of us who are striving to live lives of consciousness, conscience, and compassion; we just may not have realized that this term, one among many, exists to name this journey toward union with the Sacred - a journey that is both intimately personal and universal.

One went to the door of the Beloved and knocked. A voice asked: “Who is there?” He answered: “It is I.” The voice said: “There is no room here for me and thee.” The door was shut. After a year of solitude and deprivation this man returned to the door of the Beloved. He knocked. A voice from within asked: “Who is there?” The man said: “It is Thou.” The door was opened to him.

– Rumi

* Chuck Lofy touches on these interesting questions about Christianity and the Sufi Way when, during the interview I conducted with him in 2005, he noted that Jesus said, “I come to cast fire on the earth,” and how, in Christian terms, “this ‘fire’ is the symbol of the Holy Spirit, the guiding and illuminating Spirit that according to the great religious traditions, is deep within all of us. The ‘spark’ comes when we recognize and affirm ourselves as one with this Spirit.”

1-3. Lessing, D. “Summing Up: When Idries Shah Died.” Daily Telegraph, November 23, 1996. (Also reprinted in Lessing, D. Time Bites: Views and Reviews. Harper Perennial, New York, 2004.
4. Godlas, A. “Sufism’s Many Paths” at http://www.uga.edu/islam/Sufism.html.
5-6. Lessing, D. “The Sufis” (first published in Books and Bookmen) in Time Bites: Views and Reviews. Harper Perennial, New York, 2004.
7. Lessing D. “Summing Up: When Idries Shah Died.” Daily Telegraph, November 23, 1996.
8. Shah, I. The Way of the Sufi. Penguin Books, 1991 (reprint).
9. Lessing, D. “The Sufis” (first published in Books and Bookmen) in Time Bites: Views and Reviews. Harper Perennial, New York, 2004.
10. Barks, C. Rumi: The Book of Love – Poems of Ecstasy and Longing. Harper San Francisco, 2003.
11. Lessing, D. “The Sufis” (first published in Books and Bookmen) in Time Bites: Views and Reviews. Harper Perennial, New York, 2004.


Recommended Off-site Links:
The International Sufi Movement
Sufi News and Sufism World Report
Sufis Without Borders
The Threshold Society

Recommended Online Articles:
Rumi and Sufism: Examining Islamic Spiritual Science in the Modern Age - Wajahat Ali (Goatmilk, June 10, 2008).
Christian and Islamic Mysticism - Thom Curnutte (Ad Dominum, January 2, 2009).
A Glimpse of Oneness for a Change - Joan Chittister (National Catholic Reporter, November 26, 2008).
Gay Muslims Reveal Different Evolutionary Stages of Faith Development - Joe Perez (MyOutSpirit.com, November 8, 2007).
The Mysterious Potential Hiding in Our Pain - Tom Esch (Progressive Catholic Voice, April 2008).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
In the Garden of Spirituality: Doris Lessing
My Travels with Doris
Keeping the Spark Alive: Conversing with “Modern Mystic” Chuck Lofy
In the Garden of Spirituality: Paulo Coelho
The Road to Love: Coming Out in Africa and the Middle East
The Many Manifestations of God’s Loving Embrace
The Sacred Heart: “Mystical Symbol of Love”