The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions
Wayne Teasdale
ISBN 1-57731-102-7
Part I: Finding What Unites Us
Introduction The Mystic Heart: Our Common Heritage
Chapter 1 A Bridge Across the Religions and Beyond
Chapter 2 Crossing Over: Pioneers of Interspiritual Wisdom
Chapter 3 The Mirror of the Heart: Consciousness as the Root of
Identity
Chapter 4 “The Paths are many But the Goal is the Same”:
Discovering the Way
Part II: The Practical Nature of the Mystical Way
Chapter 5 The Mystic Character
Chapter 6 Spiritual Practice : The Crux of Inner Change
Chapter 7 Out in the World: The spirituality of Action
Part III: The Mysticism of the Natural World
Chapter 8 Natural Mysticism: Reading the Book of Creation
Part IV: Global Mysticism
Chapter 9 The Promised Land of the Spiritual Journey
Chapter 10 Opening the Heart of the World: Toward a Universal
Mysticism
An excerpt from “A Bridge Across the Religions and Beyond”
“What is Spirituality?
“Being religious connotes belonging to and practicing a religious tradition. Being spiritual suggests a personal commitment to a process of inner development that engages us in our totality. Often, when authentic faith embodies an individual’s spirituality, the religious and the spiritual will coincide. Still, not every religious person is spiritual and not every spiritual person is religious.”
“Spirituality is a way of life that affects and includes every moment of existence. It is at once a contemplative attitude, a disposition to a life of depth, and the search for ultimate meaning, direction, and belonging. The spiritual person is committed to growth as an essential, ongoing life goal. To be spiritual requires us to stand on our own two feet while being nurtured and supported by tradition, if we are fortunate enough to have one.”
An excerpt from “The Promised Land of the Spiritual Journey”:
“As I look back over the extraordinary moments in my own spiritual journey, I am fascinated to see how interspiritual it is. Although I am primarily a Christian, a Catholic contemplative, my heart and life are now totally open to whatever and whenever mysticsl graces take me. My experiences have ranged from pure, unitive elevations into the divine reality, to a painful phunge into the void in my early years as an undergraduate. They have included intense nondual moments with nature and its inhabitants—trees, flowers, mountains, birds, deer, raccoons, dogs, cats—even one sagelike turtle I encountered in Oklahoma. I have had the classic upanishadic realization, the overwhelming awareness that everything is within me and within everyone and everything else.”
Tags: awareness, change, goal, life of depth, mystic, mystical, nondual, paths, religions, simplicity, spirituality, upanishadic
