The mystic and philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, famously said, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”  When we pursue the spiritual life, we pursue the human life.  What does it mean to be human?  And, what does it mean for a child to be human?  In this essay, I suggest how parents’ understanding and practice of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) and scaffolding enable children to be and become more human. 
 
Lev Vygotsky defined the ZPD as "the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers".  The ZPD is significant when a skill may be too difficult to grasp on their own.  In this zone, the adult or peer provides guidance, support, and/or encouragement to the child, which helps them operate at a higher level within the zone.  The adult or peer is constantly modifying the task in order for the child to amplify understanding.
 
While Vygotsky never used the term scaffolding, David Wood, Jerome Bruner, and Gail Ross define scaffolding as a process "that enables a child or novice to solve a task or achieve a goal that would be beyond [their] unassisted efforts." Scaffolding entails activities facilitated by an adult or peer (e.g. modeling, making meaning of seemingly insignificant actions, or breaking down a task into smaller tasks, to name a few) that support the child in the ZPD.  The goal is for the child to be able to complete the task on their own.  Both the ZPD and scaffolding promote knowledge and understanding for the child.
 
The ZPD and scaffolding also provide a way for children to make ethical choices and ask questions about their existence.  Adults and peers can engage in conversations with children that invite them to answer the how and why questions children have and make meaning of them.  At a Parliament of World’s Religions breakfast last week week, I learned about the interreligious organization Spiritual Playdate, where facilitators create opportunities for dialogue between adult and child around spiritual issues. Together, they “explore and discover beliefs…”.  Exploration and discovery are very different than monologues by adults about what a child ought to believe.  The emphasis is more on being and becoming than believing, belonging, or behaving (to borrow a phrase from Elizabeth Drescher’s Choosing Our Religion).

Within trusting and safe environments and relationships, children try on new and different identities and behaviors; they question their values, preferences, and motives; and they explore and discover what it means to be human.  The concepts of the ZPD and scaffolding offer insights into why we can’t be neutral, non-participating adults when it comes to nurturing the humanness of children.  Rather, we can join them in their exploration and play, encourage their curiosity, and listen deeply to their questions.
 
Jeanette Banashak, PHD, EdD.

​The term "interspirituality" is still a fairly new term in terms of public awareness. Many people who might consider themselves to be "interfaith", are often called deeper: to explore the intersection of religious/spiritual experience on more universal soul level. 

These people are often mystics, and sense a deeper thread of universal truth running through the religious traditions of the world. Perhaps they've never used the term "interspiritual" to describe themselves, but, in truth they just might be. 

In 1999, Br. Wayne Teasdale, a Catholic monk who also practiced in the Hindu tradition, spoke of "the mystic heart," the meeting place of all the world's spiritual traditions—a deep well of wisdom sourced in Ultimate Reality that anyone can access. 

Here at SGTI, we are proponents of this deep well of wisdom. We are encouragers of mystic hearts. To that end, we have now made a dynamic new e-course available to all seekers and companions (not just our students): "Enter the Mystic Heart: An Introduction to Interspirituality." 

Created by Dr. Janice Lundy, it is a self-paced, downloadable course with 12 dynamic lessons, including videos and audios, to help deepen your understanding of your own mystic heart, or the hearts of those you companion. This unique course is both an informational, content-rich class and an opportunity to engage in spiritual formation through an interspiritual lens.

We hope you will take advantage of this unique opportunity!

At the Parliament of World Religions in Toronto last November, I attended a session entitled “GenInterfaith: Claiming Complex Religious Labels”.  Author and speaker, Susan Katz Miller, began with a premise that speaks to us at the Spiritual Guidance Training Institute.  From her description she wrote, “Few of us have singular religious identities. Most of us have extended interfaith families, are multiple religious practitioners, live in post-colonial environments with religious layering, and learn from and draw on the many religions that surround us.” We interact in face to face and online encounters with diverse representations at the intersections within our community.
 
In her presentation, Susan Katz Miller highlighted the fact that ¼ of our population in the US is growing up in interfaith families.  In addition, the fastest growing interfaith couples are Christian and Atheist.  We are in need of new practices, given the rise in intermarriage, multiple religious practices, and spiritual fluidity (a term by Dwayne Bidwell, author of When One Religion Isn’t Enough).  The following four practices were suggested:

1. Let us define ourselves.  We don’t want to check merely one religion.
2. Educate institutions and clergy.  Make sure we include the voices as insiders, rather than talk about them as outsiders.
3. Embrace religious literacy.  We can take opportunities to create links between people of faith and no faith.
4. Include us in the practices.  Make sure that multi-faith people are part of the discussion.

 
We would like to add one more and are also curious about what practices you would add.

1. Cultivate relationships with people of multi-faith and no faith.  What better way to live into our interconnected nature.

 
At the Spiritual Guidance Training Institute, we celebrate the multitude of religious identities as well as the identities of race, ethnicity, class, gender, ability, sexual/attractional orientation, age, socio-economic class, work, education, veteran status and more.  And, we trust that our practices align with our words.

​Interspiritual Meditation - Christian Meditation
Week 4/7
 
Nada te turbe,
nada te espante
todo se pasa,
Dios no se muda,
la paciencia
todo lo alcanza,
quien a Dios tiene
nada le falta
solo Dios basta.
 
Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things pass away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
He who has God
Finds he lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.
 
-St. Teresa of Ávila

The Second in a Series of Interspiritual Meditations

Buddhist Meditation
Buddha continued:
 
“Subhuti, if anyone gave to the Buddha an immeasurable quantity of the seven treasures sufficient to fill the whole universe; and if another person, whether a man or woman, in seeking to attain complete Enlightenment were to earnestly and faithfully observe and study even a single section of this Sutra and explain it to others, the accumulated blessing and merit of that latter person would be far greater.”
 
“Subhuti, how can one explain this Sutra to others without holding in mind any arbitrary conception of forms or phenomena or spiritual truths? It can only be done, Subhuti, by keeping the mind in perfect tranquility and free from any attachment to appearances.”
 
“So I say to you –
This is how to contemplate our conditioned existence in this fleeting world:”
 
“Like a tiny drop of dew, or a bubble floating in a stream;
Like a flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
Or a flickering lamp, an illusion, a phantom, or a dream.”
“So is all conditioned existence to be seen.”
 
Thus spoke Buddha.
 
-Diamond Sutra: Chapter 32

Here at SGTI, we've just completed the second Residential Institute for our 18 mos. certificate program for interfaith/interspiritual guidance. Key to our learning about how to hold presence for and engage in sacred listening with people of any and all religious, spiritual and secular philosophies is interfaith immersion.

We maintain that it is not enough to engage in "book learning" about traditions other than our own to keep our hearts open and our listening skills fluid. It is not enough to have speakers come to talk about various traditions either. In order to build and maintain interfaith and interspiritual understanding, we need hands-on experience--immersion. 

While in Chicago this week, we had two interfaith immersion experiences: at the Bahai House of Worship of North America in Wilmette, IL, and IMAN—the InnerCity Muslim Action Network located on the south side of the city. At each site, we had the unique opportunity to participate in religious services and to speak one on one with members of each tradition. At IMAN we also shared a meal which is always one of our hopes with any immersion experience. 

When we connect this way--heart to heart—interfaith merges with interspiritual and we learn just how similar we all are, especially within the context of spiritual values. Our practices and rituals may sometimes feel different, yet, we are able to connect on a deeper level by cultivating appreciative knowledge, one of the other core principles of our unique SGTI curriculum. 

At IMAN, there was the call to prayer in Arabic, a "sermon/message" on gratefulness, and a felt sense of sitting on holy ground with one another, Muslim and non-Muslim, to experience the Sacred. The women students of SGTI were warmly greeted and spent time after the Friday prayer service with the physician's assistant of their health clinic. Her joy of service was evident and contagious. And inspiring! 

Why interfaith immersion? Because by engaging in this way, we become deeply aware of how much alike we are. We all want to be happy, to feel safe and free, to do meaningful work, and to worship in our own way. And because, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "The end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the Beloved Community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opponents into friends. It is this type of understanding and goodwill that will transform the deep gloom of the old age into the exuberant gladness of the new age."

(Source: imancentral.org)

In August of 2017, SGTI's first cohort met in Chicago, Illinois, to experience its first Residential Institute. We've just posted slide shows from this stellar, interspiritual experience. They present a more in-depth look at our training, Interfaith Immersion experiences, along with Cultural Appreciation, and contemplative practice opportunities. Enjoy! 

Participating in interfaith/interreligious work is harder than it looks.  This is precisely what Rabbi Dr. Rachel Mikva addressed last fall at Chicago Theological Seminary.  At the convocation, Rabbi Dr. Mikva explored some of the difficulties of engaging in interfaith/interreligious work and relationships by asking important and provocative questions.  I am writing about her address nearly 11 months later because it was one that influenced me personally, as well as professionally, with the conception of The Spiritual Guidance Training Institute.

Five points were discussed that supported the thesis that interfaith work is more difficult than at first glance.  One overarching question that Mikva asks is, “Who gets to say who is included?”  She suggests that interreligious discussion can be exclusive when its focus is on religion, leaving out those practicing or exploring spirituality and ethics.

Rabbi Dr. Rachel Mikva began with a discourse on Christian privilege in the interreligious sphere.  For the most part, the Christians who host a gathering are the ones who control the agenda.  Christians have also tended to receive grants, allowing them to fund their institution while others do not have access to the same resources.  Theonormativity (a social assumption that belief in God is proper) is a barrier that excludes groups like secular humanists and others.  As a result, the theistic, global, hierarchical religions promote western hegemony. 

Second, there is a growing complexity of politics of representation.  For example, individuals who practice in spiritual and ethical traditions may not identify as “religious”, yet may identify as interspiritual.  Most often, it is the individuals who make meaning within their tradition; some Buddhists say they have a faith, while others don’t use the language of faith.

Third, interfaith/interreligious work does not stand alone, but is a part of a system of overlapping and intersecting social identities.  A Spanish-speaking rabbi has his unique social, cultural and theological experience and offers unique interpretations of scripture.

Fourth, “the world weighs heavy”.  There are hot-button issues in the social, political, theological, spiritual, scientific, and legal arenas that complicate the motivations of people wanting to do good will.  For example, LGBTQ inclusion can serve as a barrier to different groups working harmoniously.

Fifth, the concept of claiming a tradition and being accountable to one another is complicated.  When interfaith groups come together, how does one claim what is important in their tradition when it may be the very thing that offends someone else in a different tradition?  What do healthy boundaries look like in interfaith/interreligious work and relationships?
​
A few compelling solutions were offered that I believe promote healing and community among traditions.  Rachel Mikva suggests that we need neutral spaces for religious study to occur; we need to learn from, not just about, others who are different than us; we need to focus on more than others’ differences in order to understand our own traditions; we need to be cautious to not say things like “this religions states…” and “that religions believes…” because interfaith/interreligious work is ultimately about people.

Jeanette Banashak, PhD, EdD