Interfaith Explorations Spring 2023: Cultivating Spirituality in Daily Life
April 12 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am PDT
In this offering, qualities of heart and mind to help us in our daily life at home, in family, in the workplace, and other situations in the journey of life, such as births, deaths, joys, traumas will be explored through the framework of Spiritual Alphabet, developed by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat. Our sessions will be facilitated by Dr. Jay McDaniel and Sophia Said, who will bring two “letters” from the spiritual alphabet to each session (“A” is for attention, “B” is for beauty, “C” is for connection, etc.), sharing quotations, poems, and stories from personal experiences that illuminate them; and then, with help from prompting questions, invite others to do the same.
Interfaith Explorations is a program of the Interfaith Center of Arkansas, and is co-sponsored by the Cobb Institute, Spirituality & Practice, and Process & Faith.
Here is an instance where it can be shown that Process-based Christianity can play well with other religions without losing it's own substance and interiority. It still is Christian but it is willing to find common ground in relationality, experientiality, morality, and the common good. Basically, the ingredients of love based upon a loving God and Savior/Redeemer in outreach to all mankind. Which also means, as it did to the Apostle Paul, you adapt Christ without losing Christ. - R.E. Slater
Compassion Here and Now: The Buddhist Way in Process Perspective
A Discussion Group Exploring Buddhism Through the Lens of Process Thought
WHAT?
Learning Circle
WHEN?
April 12 thru April 26 Wednesdays at 5:00 PM Pacific / 8:00 PM Eastern
WHERE?
Online via Zoom
This 3-week learning circle, facilitated by Jay McDaniel and Kazi Adi Shakti, explores how people might learn from Buddhism with help from process philosophy and theology. The focus is on Mayanana Buddhism in the Zen tradition. The circle is open to anyone who has an interest in Buddhism and process thought; no prior knowledge of either is required. Themes to be explored are momentariness, inter-becoming, mindfulness, breathing meditation, the Bodhisattva vow, the Buddha nature in all things, compassionate living, emptiness, God, ecological civilization, and service to the world.
“This Unthinkable Power [of Amida Buddha] stronger than ourselves, this persistent urge impelling the self to transcend itself, is a call to us of the All feeling Compassionate Heart, the Eternal Spirit of Sympathy, who is in his essence the Light and Life of all, who is World-conscious. To feel all, to be conscious of everything, is the Spirit. . . . [T]his Light and Life, this All-feeling Being is in our hearts.” –Kanamatsu
About the Facilitators
Jay McDaniel, PhD, is professor emeritus of world religions at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas who has written several books on process-relational thought and its application in religion, spirituality, and ecology. His works include Living from the Center: Spirituality in an Age of Consumerism, What is Process Thought?: Seven Answers to Seven Questions, and Choosing Life: Ecological Civilization as the World’s Best Hope. Jay is editor of the website Open Horizons, serves as an advisor to Process & Faith, and is also chair of the board of the Cobb Institute.
Kazi Adi Shakti is an artist and independent researcher studying and theorizing on the intersections of Process thought, Madhyamaka Buddhism, Western Marxism and Ecofeminism, with a special focus on the unique role each might play in a holistic soteriology that includes them all. Kazi blogs regularly on her site, www.holo-poiesis.com. Kazi graduated with a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art where she majored in Interdisciplinary Sculpture with a focus on computer modeling, 3D scanning and digital fabrication. She currently works as a specialist in the 3D digitization industry, working with museums and cultural institutions to capture and produce high-fidelity virtual representations of historical artifacts as part of the on-going process of their conservation and documentation.
