The Mystical Heart – Mirabai Starr

From the heart of Judaism, Christianity and Islam springs the primordial affirmation of the Oneness of the Divine. While Jews, Christians and Muslims may not always agree on the particular attributes of the One or what our relationship with the Absolute is meant to be, they all recognize that its true nature is love. It is not that the three faiths are all the same, but that their underlying message calls us to Oneness. It is the mystics of each religion who carry the unifying jewels to a troubled world.

In this module, you’ll:

• Learn the primary declarations of faith of Judaism, Christianity and Islam
• Contemplate sacred scriptures affirming the Oneness of the Divine
• Chant sacred phrases in Hebrew, Latin and Arabic
• Encounter teaching stories from each tradition that illumine divine unity

Judaism, Christianity and Islam urge us to recognize the face of the Creator in the beauty of creation. From this heart space, it is impossible to “otherize” individuals or communities who are different from us or to objectify the earth and its resources. The greatest testimony to our relationship with the Holy One, all three faiths insist, is the way we treat one another and the planet we share.

In this module, you’ll:

• Identify key scriptures in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, the Qur’an and Hadiths that emphasize our charge to be stewards of the earth and servants of the marginalized
• Study nature mystics, such as Hildegard of Bingen and Francis of Assisi
• Discern the social and/or environmental issue that concerns you most and make a practical decision to contribute to its alleviation
• Explore the role of the prophet in our times

The mystical path is characterized by paradox. Mystics throughout the ages and across cultures have borrowed the language of romantic love to evoke the way in which the soul both yearns for and connects with the sacred. In the dazzling light of love, we experience a mixture of intimacy and awe. The experience of mystical union dissolves the separation between lover and Beloved, so that there is, in a sense, no one left to experience the merging. The Holy One simultaneously transcends all form and expression, and permeates all that is.

In this module, you’ll:

• Make a plan to participate in a Jewish, a Christian, and a Muslim (or Sufi) religious service or community practice
• Engage in contemplative reading of mystical poetry in the three Abrahamic faiths
• Create a work of art to convey your experience of the divine
• Build an inter-spiritual altar

The Hebrew word teshuvah means “return.” It invokes the infinite lovingkindness of the Divine who meets us with open arms the moment we take responsibility for our negative actions and strive to make amends. Jews, Christians and Muslims hold compassion as the highest ideal, not only with regard to how we are meant to treat others but also as a reflection of the unconditional love in which the Holy One enfolds us. When we draw on this quality, we cultivate the courage to forgive and the vulnerability to be forgiven.

In this module, you’ll:

• Learn the meaning of desert hospitality and table fellowship
• Reconcile with someone with whom you have had a falling out
• Practice guided meditations that invoke unconditional love
• Study sacred writings from Judaism, Christianity and Islam on the transformational power of mercy and compassion

Something in the psyche of the human family yearns now more than ever for the Divine Feminine. She has been shunned, ridiculed, and burned alive for millennia. By revitalizing our relationship with the Holy She, in the form of Mother, of Lover, of most intimate female Friend, we may unfold the treasure map that leads to the resources we need to heal the ravaged planet and all who dwell on her.

In this module, you’ll:

• Shift your focus from the transcendent to the immanent nature the Divine
• Explore embodied, incarnational spirituality
• Compare the ways in which Judaism, Christianity and Islam relate to the sacred feminine
• Learn stories from the lives of feminine mystics in the three Abrahamic faiths
• Study biblical wisdom literature

Many contemporary spiritual seekers abandoned their Judeo-Christian roots in search of Eastern meditation practices only to discover that the religions they grew up with contain a rich contemplative tradition. There has been a contemplative revival among Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders striving to be more relevant to their congregations. Each of the monotheistic faiths teaches us to turn inward and cultivate a direct and personal relationship with the sacred in silence and stillness.

In this module, you’ll:

• Commit to a regular meditation practice
• Experience Centering Prayer
• Engage in zikr (Islamic practice of repetition of the Divine Name)
• Explore the teachings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers

A direct encounter with the sacred – whether a dramatic experience of mystical melding or a fleeting glimpse of the unity of the cosmos and our perfect place within it all – carries a quality of the ecstatic. This is the place from which the poetry of the mystic flows and overflows. Profound pain can also be a gateway to the numinous. Grief strips us of our ordinary preoccupations and lays the heart bare. From this naked space our yearning for the Divine intensifies.

In this module, you’ll:

• Engage in contemplative readings of mystical poetry and sacred scripture from Judaism, Christianity and Islam expressing separation from God
• Explore the connection between loss and longing for the Beloved
• Practice inter-spiritual chanting to open the heart
• Identify common themes in Jewish, Christian & Islamic teachings that invoke both the ecstatic and the painful nature of the divine relationship

The prophetic task is urgent, and we are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We must not abdicate our power or postpone our responsibility to repair the broken world. True contemplatives do not gaze serenely from behind a veil of detachment. A distinguishing mark of the adept on the path is that the protective covering around the ego has slipped or been stripped away. She recognizes her interconnectedness with all beings and cannot help but respond to the cries of the world.

In this module, you’ll:

• Identify your particular prophetic task
• Study the core teachings from Judaism, Christianity and Islam that urge us toward compassionate action
• Cultivate a Sabbath practice
• Practice self-care to balance your commitment to being of service