We Are All Flowers in One Garden

by guest blogger, Randall Krause

It is common to think of ourselves as different from others, and, all too often, religion becomes one more way to separate ourselves from others rather than bringing us together. Yet, it doesn’t have to be this way. Our religion, our spirituality, can be a unifying force that helps us include others and celebrate the diversity of all people. It just takes a change of perspective.

Underneath all of our beliefs, cultural differences and identities, we all share the same humanity, the same love, and the same being. When we connect from these more essential aspects of ourselves, we connect with all people.

So how do we do this? It’s easy. All we have to do is what is natural for us. Perhaps not natural for our egos, but rather for what’s more essential within us.

Recently, Swami Veda Bharati, a teacher in the Himalayan Yoga Meditation Tradition, wrote that "applied spirituality is to feel all hungry children’s hunger and loneliness of the bereft; to fill these empty spaces with selfless action." In this brief statement, Swami Veda captures the unifying force of acting from the heart: We open our heart; we feel the needs and pain of others; and act from love to ease their pain. Doing so is as natural as breathing. We know what to do without a lot of thinking and analysis.

This heart driven loving action can take many forms: Feeding the hungry; educating those whom education would lift; helping and serving our elders; visiting the sick; and so on.

This loving action is a form of worship, and it brings us together.

Love underlies all of our religions. Though the words may differ in our prayer books, all true religions exalt love, and when we are motivated by this essential force, we come together, grow spiritually, and make the world better.

Besides connecting with the love within us, we can also unify ourselves with others by connecting with our essential being through contemplative practices.

Modern life is so busy and it’s easy to get caught up in all of the doing. We rush around so much that our actions almost seem to define us, as if we were human-doings. However, we are called human beings for a reason: We exist, we be, and this being aspect of ourselves is perhaps the most essential part of ourselves.

The great contemplative traditions of all times have pointed to this being part of ourselves and guided us to experience it. When we do so, we find an identity for ourselves that is more central to us than the usual body-centered ego-identity, and we also find our oneness with all people and all life.

To experience our being, we quiet the mind and become aware. This sort of contemplative practice is common in all spiritual paths, and has been refined to an art in the meditative traditions. The following is a simple practice from the Himalayan Tradition that can be practiced by anyone. It’s called a “Two-Minute Meditation”. Here’s how you do it:

Sit with your spine erect and head, neck and hips aligned. You can sit on the front edge of a chair with feet on the floor and hands on your thighs. This makes it easy to have your spine erect. Relax any muscles not needed to maintain this sitting posture, and breathe deeply and smoothly. Let the body relax, letting go of any tension.

Close your eyes, turn you attention to the breath, and strive to breathe smoothly and continuously, minimizing (and with practice eliminating) any pauses that might appear in the breath.

As you exhale and inhale, be aware of the breath flowing out of and into your body. Sense the feeling of the breath as it leaves and as it enters your nostrils, and observe how your belly contracts as you exhale and expands as you inhale.

Let your attention remain on these sensations of breathing, allowing your body and mind to relax. When thoughts come into your mind, briefly notice their presence and quickly return your attention to the sensations of breathing.

After two minutes, you may choose to extend the meditation longer, or you may open your eyes and take a few moments to remain still and notice how you feel.

Try this brief meditation and notice your experience. This is a first step toward communing with your being. You may find it very relaxing.

There are many ways to feel our oneness with all people, all beings. These are two examples, both emphasizing experiences common to all religions. We humans truly are all flowers in one garden.

Randall Krause is Director of Himalayan Yoga Meditation Society of Los Angeles. Please see our website www.hymla.com for articles and information. Also, if you’d enjoy Yoga and Hiking in Switzerland in July, 2011, please see our site: www.yogahiking.info and join us in the Alps!

Talkin’ ’Bout My Generation

Project Interfaith Executive Director Beth Katz guest blogs for Omaha.net.

We’re gearing up at Project Interfaith to bring in our next speaker, Sumi Loundon Kim (author and Buddhist chaplain at Duke University), and her imminent arrival has got me thinking about how generational differences are shaping faith communities and interfaith work. Kim will draw on her own experiences as a Gen X Buddhist and her work with young Buddhists (she’s edited two anthologies of writings by young American Buddhists) to share with the community how generational differences are impacting Buddhism in America... Click here to read more.

Let's Teach ABOUT Religion in Public Schools

by guest blogger, Gary Groff

While attending a workshop at the JCC on teaching the Holocaust, Beth Seldin Dotan said “Gary, you’ve got to meet the Director of Project Interfaith, Beth Katz”. And thus began a terrific relationship between Project Interfaith, Beth and me (which has expanded to include her husband, Jesse and my wife, Paula.) I have served on the Advisory Board for almost five years now and have been involved in several educator workshops on religious diversity issues in public schools.

In May, 2009, I retired from the Bellevue Public Schools after 32 years in the classroom and was hired as an Adjunct Instructor in the Religious Studies Program at UNO. I was also hired as the Social Studies Department Chair at Omaha Central High School (Beth’s alma mater, but I won’t reveal which graduating classJ). In my role as Department Chair, I was able to implement into the curriculum at Central High an Introduction to World Religions course that I had created at Bellevue West.

The course is divided into six segments; Religious Responses, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. If time permits, other spiritual paths are explored, such as Baha’i, Native American spirituality, Sikhism or perhaps Jainism. The opening unit, Religious Responses, focuses on the important role that religion plays in human existence. We discuss the common elements found in a variety of spiritualities (ritual, symbolism, scriptures etc.) and then we use that base of knowledge to delve into the specific faiths of the next five units.

I think that the students would say that the one concept that I continually “harp on” is the need for religious literacy. I firmly believe that the best way to overcome prejudice toward and stereotyping of religious communities is to learn something about those communities. We here at Central High are extremely fortunate to have a great deal of ethnic, cultural and religious diversity present in our hallways and classrooms. My class roster includes Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Wiccans, and non-believers as well as a wide variety of Christian traditions. Needless to say, our class discussions can be very interesting! People have a tendency to fear what they don’t understand, and my objective in this class is to provide some understanding and appreciation of people with “other” religious beliefs. I can’t, and don’t espouse any one tradition; I tell the students that they certainly don’t have to believe what others believe, but they must respect the other person’s beliefs and their right to believe what they do. I am happy to say that the students are responding well to this concept. As these young people move on to college, jobs, the military, whatever their futures may hold, they inevitably will be working and living in a more religiously pluralistic society. I have had several students come up to me when they were home from college during a break and say, “I am so glad that I took your class. In my dorm are a number of ____ (fill in the religious path), and I actually understand why they …” So now, instead of fearing those “other” students, they can develop meaningful, positive relationships with them.

The course has a standard textbook (“Living Religions” by Mary Pat Fisher), but we also utilize multiple supplemental resources as well. One of my colleagues jokingly (I hope) told me one day how easy it must be to teach the course; “…all you have to do is open up the newspaper.” On some occasions, he may be correct. Every Monday in USA Today newspaper there is an editorial piece entitled “On Religion”. Prominent scholars in the field of religious studies (Stephen Prothero, Eboo Patel, Oliver Thomas, Tom Krattenmaker among many others) contribute their thoughts on the current issues involving religious diversity and the role of religion in our everyday lives. It’s a great way to start the week and get the kids involved in some very thought-provoking discussions. Another resource that we like to use, although not of great academic value, is Beliefnet (www.Beliefnet.com). The students can surf through this site and learn more about various faiths and also have some fun. There are jokes and funny bumper stickers relevant to specific faiths, articles about celebrities’ faiths, and lots of interesting quizzes; everything from the religiosity of The Simpsons to Belief-O-Matic, a survey that will match student beliefs with the beliefs of different spiritual paths. On a more academic note, the “Virtual Religion Index” (http://virtualreligion.net) from Rutgers University and “Religious Tolerance.org” (http://www.religioustolerance.org) are two very helpful sites.

I am enjoying my experience at Central High a great deal. The students are motivated and engaged and very enthusiastic about the course. One of the elements of the class that they all seem to enjoy are the field trips. I believe that it is imperative that the class get out and meet members of the various religious communities present in the metro area. We have visited the Jewish Community Center, the Millard Islamic Center and the Hindu Temple of Nebraska. When going on a field trip is not possible, we have guest speakers come in and present to the students. Guests have included Dr. Paul Williams from the Department of Philosophy and Religion at UNO, the Reverend Father Chris Margolitis from the Greater Omaha Greek Orthodox Church and Valdene Mintzmeyer from the Heartland Temple- Zen Center of Nebraska.

The mission of Project Interfaith (Project Interfaith grows understanding, respect and relationships among people of all faiths, beliefs and cultures) and the objective of the Introduction to World Religions fit hand in hand. We are both striving to alleviate the fear of the unknown “other” through education and appreciation. I have been enriched both personally and professionally through my relationship with Project Interfaith and can only hope that perhaps I have made some small contribution to promote the acceptance of, and respect for the religious diversity that is increasingly a part of our great American society.

Gary Groff is a long time Nebraskan who earned his B.S. in History at Westminster College (Mo.) in 1975 and his M.A. in Secondary Developmental Reading at the University of Northern Colorado in 1977. Gary’s areas of academic interest include the comparative study of the world’s religions and the study of the spiritual beliefs of America’s Founding Fathers.

Gary established a Title I Reading program in the Goodland (KS.) school district while teaching at Goodland Senior High School. In 1979, he moved to Bellevue, Nebraska and began a 30 year teaching career. During the last 12 years of that career, Gary developed and implemented a Comparative World Religions course for the Bellevue Public Schools. That course is now a permanent addition to the Social Studies curriculum at both Bellevue high schools. While teaching at Bellevue West, Gary also earned a graduate minor in religious studies at UNO. Upon retirement from BPS in May of 2009, Gary was hired as an adjunct instructor in the Religious Studies program at UNO. He currently serves as the department chair of the Social Studies department at Omaha Central High School where he has implemented the first World Religions course for Omaha Public Schools. In his “free” time, Gary enjoys following NU football (a season ticket holder since 1968!) reading, fishing and traveling with his wife, Paula. He also enjoys spending as much time as possible with his two grandchildren.