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Welcome to my webpage, both a reflection of my spiritual life and an invitation for you to join me in spiritual study and practice. Both my spiritual life and my teaching are “interspiritually” grounded, “interspirituality” being a term coined by the late Wayne Teasdale (see his essay on the subject). In sum, it means to live a spiritual life in which one intentionally seeks to integrate the wisdom, practices, and virtues of other religious traditions into one’s own spiritual journey. In addition, says Wayne, the interspiritual life is sustained by “the universal stream of mystical consciousness.” Thus the theme of this site, "return to the mystic." So what does it mean to "return to the mystic?" Returning to the mystic means studying the spiritual texts and practices of the world's religious traditions and history's most noted spiritual figures. Contrary to modern notions of spirituality, where we hear much talk about "the next stage in human evolution" or the arising "new consciousness," the return to the mystic represents the fact that the essential spiritual truths that ground us as human beings were discovered long ago - and remain unchanged. Indeed, the Hindu yogis' realization of our essential nature, the Buddha's insight into the nature of the mind, Jesus' teaching of the sacred dimension of all creation - here and now, and the Sufi emphasis on the heart as the primary means of spiritual experience (none of which is to mention the insights and teachings of spiritual figures from other traditions, e.g., Judaism and Taoism) remain the foundation for living a truly spiritual life. These insights and teachings have not been surpassed and more than anything else, the world desperately needs to rediscover them. We all need to return to the mystic. So, I hope you find my spiritual reflections (blog posts) meaningful, and, I hope you consider joining me in spiritual study and practice. Namaste! (What is most essential in me bows to what is most essential in you, in which recognition we realize that we are one.) Alexander Riegel | Upcoming Events
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