Friends, we are pleased to announce the release of a new SDI (Spiritual Directors International) podcast featuring SGTI cofounders, Jan and Jeanette, on "Spiritual Fluidity." Please take a listen as they are interviewed by SDI's Matt Whitney. This conversation may speak to your heart, especially if you are a spiritually independent person, or someone who companions people who are inclined this way. 

Here is how Matt introduced us in the podcast: 

Jan Lundy and Jeanette Banashak are longtime members of SDI, they are spiritual directors, and founders of a unique training program called the Spiritual Guidance Training Institute – which educates and equips people to be spiritual directors and companions.

This episode is Part 1, with a focus on what it looks like to be a “spiritual independent” or “spiritually fluid”. It doesn’t mean you have no faith tradition (though it might), but in your life’s journey to commune with mystery and the ground of all being, you may find that no one particular tradition has all the answers you seek. What is perhaps most true is that each person’s spiritual journey is unique, and not easily identified by a way of thinking or an ideology. Jan and Jeanette both have been on this journey personally and vocationally.

Part 2 will premier next week. 

You can listen to (and download) the podcast on these channels: 

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4dt3O436sjqzfbPwPvJ9dO

Podbean:sdiencounters.podbean.com/?fbclid=IwAR2HV2b0rqlcg13FTwZU8M3OXyjXDUvu4yk-8aQITyJLExcd_EOF4HgF9LQ

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sdi-encounters/id1451231142?mt=2&fbclid=IwAR23dNyG5b-uGelb0qHJbJ3wwCwz1wiCs1iU3r23QR2OR0CJZJUMFB4LIC4

When we attended the Spiritual Directors Conference in Seattle in March we became aware of the ever-growing need for spiritual companionship for people of all traditions (and none)—BY people of all traditions and then some.

SDI has been moving forward to expand the understanding and practice of spiritual companionship—beyond formal spiritual direction. We at SGTI support this effort. There are a myriad of ways we can companion individuals of various religious, spiritual and ethical traditions and many forms of training one might be able to take to get comfortable with doing so.

When we think of all the heart-centered individuals in various caring professions—chaplains, social workers, counselors, coaches, hospice workers and health-care professionals, clergy and lay servants, spiritual and secular community leaders, and more—who might want to expand their understanding and practice of compassionate presence and care, our hearts open even wider. 

The world is in such great need of healing and many of its citizens are ailing, feeling spiritually uncertain, isolated or unsupported. A spiritual companion is someone who can hold presence for someone right where they are, just as they are. No matter their religious, spiritual or ethical framework, a properly and ethically trained companion can serve others individually and collectively. 

Spiritual Directors International defines spiritual companionship in this way:

"Spiritual direction or companionship inspires people to experience authenticity in their lives as they connect with and explore the ground of all being, that deepest of truths which is beyond life and death and goes by many names, including God, and no name at all."

In keeping with this international movement to promote and expand spiritual companionship, SGTI has expanded its 5-month training program to be more inclusive.  

We are pleased to announce "Interfaith/Interspiritual Wisdom Training." This innovative training program is for people in all the caring professions. online program results in a Certificate in Interfaith/Interspiritual Competence. This will prepare you to companion and serve seekers of various religious, spiritual and ethical traditions. 

The premier cohort is now forming and we invite you to learn more about  "Interfaith/Interspiritual Wisdom Training" and listen deeply to hear if this kind of offering might serve you and those YOU serve very well. 

We welcome your questions and look forward to hearing from you and do hope you will consider joining us—and enter the "circle of love" of which Rumi spoke. 

At the Spiritual Guidance Training Institute, we include listening practices and techniques in each of our modules.  One of the ways we practice deepening our listening is to reflect on how we are doing with our own listening in various contexts.  During our spring residential institute, our students spent some time one-on-one with a peer and discussed a relevant topic for the day’s theme.  After the discussion, we met back together and asked, “What did you notice about your listening?”
 
The following include paraphrases of some of our students’ responses:

• I noticed my body and what I do with it while listening.
• As I was listening to the story, I was thinking that I knew the end to the story, so I didn’t fully listen in the moment.
• I felt a need to want to affirm their theory.
• I felt distracted by the listening techniques.
• I was wondering where my eyes go when I am listening.
 
This list is not an exhaustive list, but a collection of responses that represent a range of thoughts or feelings that emerge while we are listening.  Being able to name some of them is a way to first acknowledge the transient nature of our thoughts and feelings and then to let them go so we can be fully present with our companion.  By offering our attention to the person in front of us, or on the other end of a phone/Zoom/Skype call, we engage in the practice of companionship.  We not only getin touch with the sacred in another and in ourselves, but we also touch the sacred in another and in ourselves.  And that may be one of the greatest gifts we can offer another.

​The Spiritual Guidance Institute recently spent a fabulous week together at our spring residential institute.  We camped out at the Cenacle Center, a wonderfully hospitable retreat center on the northside of Chicago.  The week’s activities were quite varied: We incorporated teachings on development and the enneagram, practiced deep listening with our unique methodology Pure Presence, had a day of silence, ate community meals together, met with a Cenacle sister, and visited the Hindu Temple in Lemont, an Ash Wednesday service at a Presbyterian church, IMAN (Inner-city Muslim Action Network), and a Muslim/Christian dialogue dinner.  It was a week to remember! 
 
We feel grateful to our students for the productive conversations and presence during the week.  And we are grateful to our friends who hosted us and shared their sacred stories with us.

Our next cohort will begin in August 2019. An interfaith immersion experience like this could be yours! Learn more.

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!

Here at The Spiritual Guidance Training Institute we assist our students in developing "sacred listening." One of the tools we use to do so is a unique protocol developed by Dr. Janice Lundy called "Pure Presence™." The methodology and practices  are intended to open one's heart to listen to others in ways that  are "pure"—  without bias, judgment, or hidden agendas. This allows us to transcend religious doctrine, cultural prejudice, or anything that could keep us separated from our fellow human beings. It enables us to create a space for connection and healing to happen within a spiritual guidance session. 

We could say that we at SGTI are trying to foster "hearts as wide as the world." In our final learning module with Cohort 1 students we explored this concept, and invited them to share their understanding of "a heart as wide as the world." This is what one of our students, Jeffrey Phillips, wrote: ​

​“The heart of the world” – what is that?  Is it the social world misshapen by structures and systems that seem unchangeable, and that, more often than not, go unnoticed by people who have been taught to not see and question unjust schemes?  Is it the world itself – beautiful, dying, the original body of God?  Is it the world of creativity, imagination, science, curiosity, discovery, spirituality, primal experiences, social bonding, sexuality, and the arts?
 
Or it is God – that which beats (like a heart) at the center (the heart) of all things?  The goodness, the joy, the love, the moral imperative to care?  Being, Consciousness, Existence, Spirit, Mystery, Eternity – experienced in shared, sacred story, symbol, rituals, concepts, and completely unorthodox (“profane,” “secular”) and unexpected numinous, luminous places, people, and circumstances?
 
How does one listen to that Heart?  By taking time in the daily practice, by stepping outside the ordinary routines to attend the festival of a different social group or take a new course.  By paying attention to your toothbrush – really looking at it for the first time!  By sitting when you could be busy.  By resting when you could be working.  By savoring a conversation, a meal, a day. By being when you could be doing. By reading a poem slowly – really chewing on it - rather than reading the news.  By “praying the news,” and considering those stubborn social systems and the suffering they inflict on innocent folk.  
 
And then by reflecting on that toothbrush-looking, that sitting, that being, that soulful reading, that news praying.  And doing it again the next day – or doing something completely different.  Or maybe by approaching a daily practice with no agenda at all other than to Be Open, and to see – and hear! - what happens in the moment, in the here, in the now.  I have learned that this last year and a half.

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.

On Monday, January 7, 2019, we celebrated the graduation of SGTI's first cohort of interfaith/interspiritual guides. This was a landmark moment for the Institute as well as for these students because they are some of the first in the U.S. (the world!) to have received formal training and certification in interfaith/interspiritual direction. We are so very proud of them. Congratulations, graduates!

Students for this cohort hailed from California, Texas, Illinois and Michigan. We initially gathered with them in August 2017 in Chicago, IL. for a one-week Residential Institute. We took trips to various holy houses in the greater Chicago area to expand our knowledge and experience of various traditions. On our first full day together (pictured above left), we visited Mishkan, and participated in a Shabbat service and potluck afterwards. 

"The gift you give another person is just your being."
Ram Dass

SDI co-founder and co-director Jan Lundy has a new essay featured as a blog post on the Spiritual Directors International website. "Cultivating Loving Awareness" offers a bow to yogic sage, Ram Dass, and a deep invitation for us to "see through lenses of love." A method and practice for doing so is offered as well. 

"A few years ago, I was blessed to have a private conversation with the yogic sage, Ram Dass, whose work has guided me for years. During our time together, we talked a great deal about the "heart-mind." For him, our spiritual health ...

Here is the link to read the entire post:
https://www.sdiworld.org/blog/cultivating-loving-awareness