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WORK TITLE: Finding Peace through Spiritual Practice: The Three Amigos’ Guide
WORK NOTES: with Don Mackenzie and Jamal Rahman
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://interfaithamigos.com/Home.html
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://interfaithamigos.com/About_Us.html * http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/go-local/abraham-to-descendants-knock-it-off * http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/interfaith-amigos/interfaith-amigos * http://www.cbsnews.com/news/clerics-seek-peace-through-humor-dialogue/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born January 23, 1942.
EDUCATION:Earned Ph.D., 1975.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Rabbi and therapist. Ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 1968; founder of a meditative Reform congregation; founder of a meditative synagogue in Seattle.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Ted Falcon is a rabbi and therapist. Ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati in 1968, he has taught Jewish meditation, spirituality, and Kabbalah since the 1970s. He founded the first meditative Reform congregation after completing a Ph.D. in psychology and later a meditative synagogue in Seattle. Along with Pastor Don Mackenzie and Imam Jamal Rahman, he is a member of the Interfaith Amigos.
With coauthors Mackenzie and Rahman, Falcon published Getting to the Heart of Interfaith: The Eye-opening, Hope-filled Friendship of a Pastor, a Rabbi, & a Sheikh in 2009. Falcon teamed up with an imam and pastor to offer a reflection on interfaith relations by discussing the group’s own friendship and how best to approach those of different spiritual outlooks. The authors relate what they believe to be the core of their respective religious traditions before addressing the common problems that their faiths face, particularly in the post-9/11 world.
Again writing with Mackenzie and Rahman, Falcon published Religion Gone Astray: What We Found at the Heart of Interfaith in 2011. The trio of authors turns a critical eye on sexist, homophobic, exclusivist, and violent aspects of their religious traditions. They also present ways that interfaith cooperation can work to heal the wounds that the religions have created in these areas.
Falcon published Finding Peace through Spiritual Practice: The Interfaith Amigos’ Guide to Personal, Social, and Environmental Healing in 2016 with coauthors Mackenzie and Rahman. The account looks into the lament of adherents of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity who yearn for their religious foundations to provide a greater sense of justice and peace in these troubled times. The authors address the meaning of peace and the importance of maintaining regular spiritual practices and also consider the us-versus-them mentality.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, October 10, 2011, review of Religion Gone Astray: What We Found at the Heart of Interfaith, p. 51; June 13, 2016, review of Finding Peace through Spiritual Practice: The Interfaith Amigos’ Guide to Personal, Social and Environmental Healing, p. 94.
ONLINE
CBS News Web site, http://www.cbsnews.com/ (December 26, 2009), John Blackstone, “Clerics Seek Peace through Humor, Dialogue.”
Forward, http://forward.com/ (March 18, 2017), author profile.
Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ (March 18, 2017), author profile.
Interfaith Amigos Web site, http://interfaithamigos.com/ (March 18, 2017), author profile.
Spirituality and Practice, http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/ (February 26, 2017), Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, review of Finding Peace through Spiritual Practice.
Ted Falcon Home Page, http://www.rabbitedfalcon.com (March 18, 2017).
Theosophy Northwest Web site, http://www.theosophy-nw.org/ (November 1, 2009), Sally Dougherty, review of Getting to the Heart of Interfaith: The Eye-opening, Hope-filled Friendship of a Rabbi, a Pastor, and a Sheikh and Religion Gone Astray.
Yes, http://www.yesmagazine.org/ (November 6, 2006), Sarah van Gelder, author interview.
LC control no.: n 99266113
Personal name heading:
Falcon, Ted
Found in: A journey of awakening, c1999: t.p. (Rabbi Ted Falcon, Ph.
D.) t.p. verso (Theodore G. Falcon; ordained Reform
rabbi in 1968; doctorate in psychology 1975; based in
Seattle)
Mackenzie, Don. Getting to the heart of interfaith, 2009:
ECIP t.p. (Rabbi Ted Falcon) data view (b. 01-23-42)
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Pastor Don Mackenzie, PhD, now living in Minneapolis, is devoting himself to interfaith work after retiring as Minister and Head of Staff at Seattle’s University Congregational United Church of Christ. Previously, he served congregations in Hanover, New Hampshire, and Princeton, New Jersey. Ordained in 1970, he is a graduate of Macalester College, Princeton Theological Seminary and New York University. His interest in interfaith work began while a student at Macalester and continued while living and teaching in Sidon, Lebanon, in the year prior to the Six-Day War in 1967. His country music band, Life’s Other Side, recorded the sound track for the documentary film Family Name, and has sung at the Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.
Rabbi Ted Falcon, PhD, spiritual guide, author, teacher and therapist, has taught Jewish traditions of Kabbalah, meditation and spirituality since the 1970s. Ordained in 1968 at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, he served in Los Angeles as a congregational and then a campus rabbi. In 1975, he earned a doctorate in Professional Psychology and, in 1978, founded the first meditative Reform congregation. He moved to Seattle in 1993, where he also founded a meditative synagogue. He is the author of A Journey of Awakening: Kabbalistic Meditations on the Tree of Life and co-author, with David Blatner, of Judaism For Dummies. He served as Scholar-in-Residence at Unity of Bellevue for two years, and has a private spiritual counseling practice, seeing people in his Seattle office as well as via Skype.
Imam Jamal Rahman is co-founder and Muslim Sufi Minister at Interfaith Community Sanctuary in Seattle and adjunct faculty at Seattle University. Originally from Bangladesh, he is a graduate of the University of Oregon and the University of California, Berkeley. He has a passion for interfaith work and travels often, teaching classes, workshops and retreats locally, nationally and internationally. He is available for interfaith weddings and ceremonies and, like Rabbi Ted, has a private spiritual counseling practice. His books include Sacred Laughter of the Sufis: Awakening the Soul with the Mulla’s Comic Teaching Stories and Other Islamic Wisdom; Spiritual Gems of Islam: Insights & Practices from the Qur'an, Hadith, Rumi & Muslim Teaching Stories to Enlighten the Heart & Mind; The Fragrance of Faith: The Enlightened Heart of Islam and Out of Darkness into Light: Spiritual Guidance in the Quran with Reflections from Jewish and Christian Sources.
Abraham to Descendants: “Knock it Off”
A roundtable discussion with Sarah van Gelder: A rabbi, a minister, and an imam, brought together by 9/11 and what followed, discover new spiritual depths from their dialogue and friendship.
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Sarah van Gelder posted Nov 06, 2006
Brother Jamal Rahman, Rabbi Ted Falcon, and Reverend Don Mackenzie in Jerusalem
Brother Jamal Rahman, Rabbi Ted Falcon, and Reverend Don Mackenzie in Jerusalem in November 2005, with the Dome of the Rock in the background
A rabbi, a minister, and an imam walk into a bar. No, really. Since 9/11, three religious leaders in Seattle have been meeting for sometimes “vigorous” discussions, lecturing together, and even doing joint spiritual teaching. Rabbi Ted Falcon is founder of Bet Alef Meditative Synagogue, Reverend Don Mackenzie is minister and head of staff at the University Congregational United Church of Christ, and Jamal Rahman is a Muslim Sufi minister at the Interfaith Community Church. And that time they walked into a bar? It was to discuss a book they are co-authoring, Getting to the Heart of Interfaith: The Eye-opening, Hope-filled Friendship of a Pastor, a Rabbi and a Sheikh. The three are now known as the Interfaith Amigos.
Sarah: How did the three of you start working together?
Rabbi Ted Falcon: When 9/11 occurred, I called Jamal, and the two of us did a Shabbat service together. Since then, we‘ve taken part in each other‘s services, and it has become natural to work together.
When one awakens spiritually, there is an awakening to inclusivity. You start to perceive that each authentic spiritual path is an avenue to a shared universal. To deepen means to explore that territory together along with the ethic that naturally flows from it.
Sarah: Had you done those exchanges before 9/11?
Brother Jamal Rahman: Not much. After 9/11, as a Muslim, I felt a strong need for such a community.
Ted: A lot of attention at that time was focused on the perpetrators of 9/11 as representative of Islam, and we wanted to counteract that. We needed to put public faces on mutual understanding between our faiths.
Jamal: Brother Don joined us a year later.
Ted: Right. He has a remarkable sensitivity and directness. The three of us complement each other in an interesting way. Don is far more linear than either of us. And we need that; Jamal and I are much more apt to ramble, but we‘re also more spontaneous. Part of what we taught Don was to talk without notes.
Reverend Don Mackenzie: I‘m very much a student of my colleagues when it comes to spirituality and mysticism, and I am learning to catch up because it is the spiritual substance that carries religion forward.
Ted: I think spirituality holds the key to the deep healing that is required in our world. My experience with Jamal and Don is a continuing deepening of my appreciation, not only of their traditions, but of my own.
Jamal: I find that by listening to Brother Ted and Brother Don, and by learning from them, my roots in Islam are growing deeper. I‘m becoming a more authentic, more complete Muslim. Interfaith is not about conversion, it‘s about completion. I‘m becoming a more complete Muslim, a more complete human being. And that‘s a great joy.
Sarah: The three of you went to the Middle East together. What was that experience like?
Brother Jamal Rahman
Brother Jamal Rahman
Jamal: When Brother Ted invited me to go to Israel with this 44-member group, I was particularly keen to visit the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. That is where the Prophet Muhammad ascended seven levels of Heaven after his astonishing night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem. Why didn‘t the Prophet ascend to Heaven from Mecca itself? Why did he have to go all the way to Jerusalem and then ascend seven levels of Heaven? One reason, Muslim sages say, is that for Heaven to come to Earth, the house of Ishmael and the house of Isaac must be united. And I witnessed that need very clearly on this trip.
The next major site for me was the Holocaust Memorial. There I realized—in a very stark way—that when, as the Qur‘an says, one‘s ego is untamed, one can stoop to the basest behavior. The Memorial shows with heart-breaking clarity what we humans are capable of if we don‘t do the essential work of transforming the ego.
The third powerful site for me was the concrete wall that seals off the West Bank from Israel, in effect isolating the Palestinian town of Bethlehem from all the surrounding communities. What a difference from the Wailing Wall, which exudes piety and devotion! This political wall screams of pain and injustice.
Ted: I have a deep love for Israel. I grew up with the Middle East prominent in my life. I have long been a supporter of a Jewish state and a Palestinian state. I can be extremely critical of Israeli positions, but sometimes I find myself having to defend them, when the criticism comes from a place of wanting to abolish the state of Israel, rather than wanting to find ways of establishing peace.
On this trip, I was particularly concerned about what it would be like for Jamal. There were no other Muslims who were interested in going on the trip. Jamal was profiled at the airport when he arrived in Israel; he was pulled out of line and questioned.
Jamal: I showed the passport officer a flyer of the three of us doing an interfaith, inter-spiritual program, and she kept saying “a Rabbi, a Muslim, a Christian pastor? This is good, very, very good.” She took it upon herself to guide me through all the procedures, escort me to a supervisor, wait with me in line, and her constant mantra was “Don‘t worry, I‘ll take care of you. This is good, very good.”
Ted: Two images were important to me during our trip. Many churches are built on places where a great teaching of Jesus occurred. But, the church buildings actually hide the place where something happened. And it came to me that all our faiths do that. There‘s something in the institution itself that inhibits the original, spiritual purpose for which that faith was founded.
The other image happened on the last afternoon of our tour at the Sea of Galilee. After our teachings, we each invited participants to experience a ritual from our faith tradition. Jamal was doing the Muslim ablutions before worship, Don was doing either a baptism or a blessing, and I was doing a symbolic Mikvah, which is a ritual bath. We were all using the same water, the water of the Galilee, and I was aware that some of the same water molecules were there when Jesus was there, and when Abraham was there.
As we all shared the same water, it seemed symbolic of the nourishment, the universal presence, the spirit that cuts across the separations in which deep healing can be found.
Reverend Don Mackenzie
Reverend Don Mackenzie
Don: That was just an incredible moment. In the Christian tradition, that spot is a place of forgiveness, which is a very powerful theme for me as a Christian pastor. Being a Christian in Israel was a complicated experience because I am heir to two things that are causes of the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis. One is the Christian repudiation of Judaism—the 2,000-year history of anti-Semitism. The other is the western humiliation of Arabs, coming to a peak with the Treaty of Versailles, which broke up the Ottoman Empire. Those are both causes of the issues we face today, and I am related to both as an American Christian and as a pastor.
For me, this was a journey of understanding the imprisonments of the mistakes we make and the liberation that forgiveness can bring if we can just find a way to get at it. I am enormously reassured that the spiritual deepening that I‘m experiencing has within it the possibility of lifting that up so healing can begin.
Ted: We were able to meet with both Jews and Muslims who are on the same track. But walking into Bethlehem, we encountered the concrete wall and felt the gloominess, tension, sadness … a kind of unrootedness, ungroundedness.
Jamal: Hopelessness. There‘s an Arabic saying that when a man has hope, he has everything. When there is no hope, he has nothing.
I got that feeling of hopelessness in Bethlehem. At a heart level, I began to understand that to Muslims, Israel‘s occupation is a symbol of their hopelessness. But when an Israeli or a Jew looks at Israel, he sees that it‘s just a small sliver of land…
Ted: …just 260 miles long and 60 miles across at its widest, 6 miles wide at its narrowest. It is 1/640th the size of the Arab countries surrounding it, and from an Israeli point of view, from a Jewish point of view, it is under constant threat of annihilation. Yet from an Arab consciousness, Israel is bigger than the Arab countries.
Jamal: Absolutely.
Ted: From that consciousness, Israel is more powerful than the countries around it. And I get it, but even as I say it to you, there is a part of my mind going, “How can you see it that way?”
I get it. What is seen is not only Israel but the United States, technological power, military power, economic power, educational power.
When I was in the 9th grade and experienced my first anti-Semitic battle, the thing that used to bother me the most wasn‘t the kid who hit me. It was my friends who stood and watched and didn‘t know what to do. There is in the Jewish psyche a sense that we could each be on our own, and if we don‘t have a place to go, we could all be gone, whether that‘s true or not…
Jamal: It isn‘t.
Ted: It‘s not like that, it‘s what‘s in our consciousness.
Jamal: And from the Muslim perspective, it‘s not Israel, it‘s America. America and Israel are one. It‘s almost like Israel does not exist in the Middle East. Israel lives, breathes, and gets its sustenance in North America.
Sarah: There have been times when religious leaders have taken stances against injustice, as you three have, but other times religious leaders have condoned atrocities and even perpetrated them. This seems to be true across faith traditions. Can you help us understand why this happens?
Don: I think there‘s the possibility within all the world‘s great religions of drawing on the spiritual substance of the faith rather than the often-dominating shell of the faith. That is what permits a person like Gandhi, or Martin Luther King Jr., or Nelson Mandela, to say things that can lift the human spirit rather than suppress it. These are things that point to the absolute center of the struggle for human and civil rights for everybody.
Every time there‘s a crisis, we can each fall either way. We can either step up to the possibilities for redemption in those moments—and our traditions all support that in different ways—or our egos can be seduced into thinking we deserve to be right, and that means that someone else is going to be suppressed or repressed. That‘s why we keep coming back to the ego, what Muslims call nafs. We are always trying to be on the lookout for that, and should we ever get into a really grisly argument, somebody will have to ring a bell and say, “Whoa, our egos are at work here!”
Sarah: Has that happened? Have you guys ever … (laughter)
Ted: Not so far, no, no.
Don: We‘ve had some really good…
Jamal: …vigorous discussions.
Ted: There have been times. Jamal helps me to remember to be flexible. But every tradition can be used to support pretty much any position. Many people think that it‘s scripture that‘s doing it rather than people using the scripture. I think there‘s something about awakening to the universal dimension that allows one, of whatever tradition, deeper access to what people were trying to express.
Jamal: Rumi says, the bee and the wasp drink from the same flower, but one produces nectar and one produces a sting. When we are in positions of power, are we working to tame our nafs? If we are not, we cannot have what Islamic teachers call “spaciousness within oneself.” The heart becomes clenched and closed.
Sarah: You are all three from traditions that trace back to Abraham. So this is sort of a cousin‘s quest, right?
Jamal: A dysfunctional family…yes?
Don: We do all look to Abraham as an important spiritual ancestor, but we get there in importantly different ways.
Ted: The Arabs are descendants of Ishmael and the Jews are descendants of Isaac, the two sons of Abraham.
A new insight for me is that the Jewish tradition is characterized by the teaching of oneness, the Christian tradition is characterized by the teaching of love, and the Muslim tradition is characterized by the teaching of compassion. We normally think that the message is meant for others, but it occurred to me that the very message that Jews need to hear is oneness, and Christians need to hear love, and Muslims need to hear compassion. We are not very good about getting our own message.
Sarah: What is your source of hope?
Don: My hope comes from the conviction that God intends healing for all of creation. It just can‘t be that if God loves this world, anything will be spared from healing.
When I think of the Middle East as a paradigm of despair, I think of the moment when Nelson Mandela was released from prison. Who would have guessed? Surely there is a power greater than mine—thanks be to God—at work in this world that will have the ultimate healing influence. The only question is, how can we be instruments of that power?
Jamal: Gandhi always made three points. First, it is the sacred duty of every individual to have an appreciative understanding of other faiths. Second, we must have the courage to acknowledge that every religion has truths and untruths. And third, if an extremist commits an act of violence, let us not criticize that person‘s religion. Better, point out to this person the insights and verses of beauty from his or her own tradition. This is the way to peace. This is the way we three are modeling, and that gives me a lot of hope.
Rabbi Ted Falcon
Rabbi Ted Falcon
Ted: Peace is not something we get to and healing is not something we get to. There already is peace and healing, and it‘s a matter of becoming available to know it.
The Hebrew word “Shalom” essentially means wholeness and completeness. To the extent we allow ourselves to be whole, we connect with the integrity of our being and we appreciate the integrity of all beings. That wholeness breeds peace and healing.
There probably is no concept that is repeated more often in Jewish tradition than the prayer for peace. One change, which I think is crucial, is that it is no longer legitimate for any group to pray for peace for themselves without at the same time praying for peace for everyone. It‘s no longer possible to imagine that there can be peace for any single group without peace for everyone.
It comes down to appreciating the oneness that absolutely interconnects all of us.
Sarah van Gelder mugSarah van Gelder interviewed Rabbi Ted Falcon, Reverend Don Mackenzie, and Jamal Rahman for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Sarah is executive editor of YES! Magazine. Interfaith Radio is a weekly talk show with Falcon, Mackenzie, and Rahman. For details, see .
Producing in-depth, thoughtful journalism for a better world is expensive – but supporting us isn’t. If you value ad-free independent journalism, consider subscribing to YES! today.
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John Blackstone CBS December 26, 2009, 7:31 PM
Clerics Seek Peace through Humor, Dialogue
As more details of an attempted Christmas terror attack emerge, it's clear that achieving peace on earth remains elusive. But three clerics of different faiths have teamed up to chase it, by provoking laughter and thought, as CBS News correspondent John Blackstone reports.
In a world where religion fuels both the drive for peace and the call to war, religious differences can be a chasm when the world needs is a bridge.
So meet three bridge builders - a pastor, a rabbi and an imam. They call themselves the interfaith amigos - pastor Don Mackenzie, rabbi Ted Falcon and imam Jamal Rahman - and they can seem like a comedy act.
"We are "Three Stooges" fans," Mackenzie said following a visual gag in which the three sat down before and audience and crossed their legs simultaneously. "We embody their famous saying that "I tried to think, but nothing happened.'"
"The soul opens with either tears or laughter," Falcon told Blackstone. "If we have a choice we'll choose laughter."
But their goal is serious: encouraging peace through understanding
"Our perceptions are so different, but as we talk more those differences they narrow more and more," Rahman said.
"Religion had been used because of it's authority as a cover for too much violence, too much hatred," added Mackenzie.
The violence and hatred of 9/11 planted the seeds for this friendship.
"When 9/11 happened, I immediately called Jamal and I said I want you to share in the Shabbat service with me that week," Falcon recalled. "It is crucial for people to see a different face of Islam."
The rabbi and the imam then invited the pastor to join them in public discussions of what divides us and what unites us.
"The tragedy of 9/11 offered us the moment to say, 'We've got to do something to try to prevent this sort of thing happening any more,'" Mackenzie said.
"Muslims must get to know Jews and Christians and really make the effort to connect with the other," said Rahman.
How does Rahman answer the doubts of some Americans that Islam is a peaceful religion?
"If we judge a religion by the behavior of some practitioners, every single religion would be in deep, deep trouble," Rahman said.
Together, the three clerics traveled to Israel - the holy land for all three religions and a place where peace has been particularly elusive.
"Any time you think you're all wrong - like Palestinians are all wrong, Israelis are all right - you'll never get to peace," Falcon said.
"You're a Jew, I'm a Muslim," Rahman said. "We both know this land belongs neither to Jews, nor to Muslims, nor to Christians; This land belongs to God."
Mackenzie recalled, "I said, 'Guys this is why we're doing this! How does it feel to be Ted? How does it feel to be Jamal?'"
In seeking peace they've seen the answer is to understand how it is to be the other.
Rahman added, "Not to change the other but to find a way at the heart to heart level to connect with the other."
"We live in a world at a time when the issues are so big, none of us - no country, no faith, no culture - can fix them alone," Falcon said.
They have written a book about their journey together, and they have become accustomed to having their friendship sound like the beginning of a joke.
But how about this one instead: A rabbi, a pastor and an imam walk on a road toward peace.
No bio
Rabbi Ted Falcon Spiritual guide, author, teacher and therapist; one of the Interfaith Amigos
Rabbi Ted Falcon, along with Pastor Don Mackenzie and Imam Jamal Rahman -- now known as the Interfaith Amigos -- started working together after 9/11. Since then, they have written two books together and brought their unique blend of spiritual wisdom and humor to audiences in the U.S., Israel-Palestine and Japan.
Falcon, founder of meditative synagogues in Los Angeles and Seattle, is author of "A Journey of Awakening" and co-author of "Judaism For Dummies."
Through worship, teaching, counseling, and speaking, Rabbi Ted shares the spiritual gifts of Judaism, while appreciating that it is only one of the authentic spiritual traditions of the world. With gentleness and humor, he deeply affirms the integrity of each individual being.
Rabbi Falcon helped heal the childhood wound in my soul of being “half” Jewish; not quite acceptable in my Jewish family and not understood in my non-Jewish world. This left me feeling intimidated and inauthentic. In 1996, I walked into a Rosh Hashanah service lead by Rabbi Ted. The congregation was warm, happy and engaged. “This is yours” was his message to me almost 20 years ago. Far from the judgmental inquiry into the pedigree of my earlier life. Rabbi Falcon welcomed me into my heritage. He taught me through ancient language, story, humor, meditation and melody. Also, through friendship and social action, that “half” is an illusion. He has inspired my life in many ways. Most importantly, he is a model of how to be a good human being.
Spiritual guide, author, teacher and therapist, Rabbi Ted Falcon, PhD, chosen as one of the Jewish Daily Forward's Most Inspiring Rabbis of 2014, has been a student and teacher of Jewish meditation and Kabbalah for over forty years.
Rabbi Ted is co-author, with David Blatner, of 'Judaism For Dummies,' in which his wit and wisdom illuminate and make accessible the broad scope of Jewish tradition and history. He is author of 'A Journey of Awakening: Kabbalistic Meditations on the Tree of Life.'
As part of the Interfaith Amigos, he explores the frontiers of interfaith spirituality. Karen Armstrong calls their "exuberant and courageous" second book, 'Religion Gone Astray: What We Found at the Heart of Interfaith,' "an inspiration and example for all of us in these sadly polarized times."
You can learn more about him at http://www.rabbitedfalcon.com/ and http://interfaithamigos.com/
Finding Peace Through Spiritual Practice: The Interfaith Amigos' Guide to Personal, Social and Environmental Healing
263.24 (June 13, 2016): p94.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Finding Peace Through Spiritual Practice: The Interfaith Amigos' Guide to Personal, Social and Environmental Healing
Don Mackenzie, Ted Falcon, and Jamal Rahman. SkyLight Paths, $16.99 trade paper (200p) ISBN 978-1-59473-604-9
This book by the self-proclaimed Interfaith Amigos (Getting to the Heart of Interfaith)--MacKenzie is a Protestant pastor, Falcon is a rabbi, and Rahman is a Sufi imam--promotes a meditative spiritual practice intended to help create inner healing and thus help practitioners promote change in a world suffering from violence and environmental damage. As part of a program to foster a sustainable, lifelong engagement in activist causes, the book includes exercises meant to prevent and heal idealism burnout and despair. Each exercise is rooted in ideas and ideals from the authors' faith traditions, in many cases deriving from the mystic, meditative strand in each. Meant to stand alone as a spiritual guidebook, the book is nevertheless best understood in the context of the Amigos' experience of interfaith exploration and the wisdom derived from it. The writing is uneven, but the book is accessible and engaging. It's likely to appeal to those with interests in interfaith, the causes of peace and environmental activism, and contemplative practice. (Aug.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Finding Peace Through Spiritual Practice: The Interfaith Amigos' Guide to Personal, Social and Environmental Healing." Publishers Weekly, 13 June 2016, p. 94. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA458871780&it=r&asid=9602384cfaeb35ca9976d6eafc031e19. Accessed 26 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A458871780
Religion Gone Astray: What We Found at the Heart of interfaith
258.41 (Oct. 10, 2011): p51.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2011 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Religion Gone Astray: What We Found at the Heart of interfaith
Don Mackenzie, Ted Falcon, and Jamal Rahman. SkyLight Paths, $18.99 trade paper (224p) ISBN 978-1-59473- 317-8
A pastor (Mackenzie), rabbi (Falcon), and imam (Rahman) team up again, building on techniques described in their first book (Getting to the Heart of Interfaith). Here, they move beyond the now cliched post-9/11 discussions of tolerance and toward real critique. The authors seek to eliminate the violent, exclusivist, sexist, and homophobic aspects of their own religions, and then use interfaith dialogue to heal those hurt by such negativity. The book is most intriguing when the authors stop blaming extremism and admit to faults inherent in their traditions. Writing honestly about their personal struggles and misconceptions, they humanize the issues and make them impossible to ignore (what do you do when scripture commands killing?). Some readers may find it difficult to abandon their theological and political beliefs, and therefore may not be able to swallow some of the authors' more progressive ideas (e.g., discarding sexist scriptures). The authors also fail to address how a religion can remain unique in a nonexclusivist, pluralistic environment. Yet the book offers a tangible use for interfaith dialogue: it can encourage much-needed healing for readers of all faith backgrounds. (Nov.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Religion Gone Astray: What We Found at the Heart of interfaith." Publishers Weekly, 10 Oct. 2011, p. 51+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA269776796&it=r&asid=510626e417ac1bc857722b8e54a814ab. Accessed 26 Feb. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A269776796
Finding Peace through Spiritual Practice The Interfaith Amigos' Guide to Personal, Social and Environmental Healing
By Ted Falcon, Don Mackenzie, Jamal Rahman
A top-drawer celebration of diverse spiritual practices for social activists in the growing interfaith movement.
Book Review by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
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Within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam an increasing number of believers are feeling defeated and depressed in their efforts to heal the broken and battered environment, bring about justice for all people, and forge a viable peace for our times. When asked to describe what this malaise feels like, they point to the kind of sadness and powerlessness that comes when hope is nowhere in sight.
In this timely, practical, and enlightening book, Rabbi Ted Falcon, Pastor Don Mackenzie, and Imam Jamal Rahman, who call themselves the Interfaith Amigos, address this lament of social activists with the following premise:
"Spiritual practices can give advocates for social change greater success in their pursuits, and concrete actions in the world can deepen the experience of spiritual seekers. We can maximize positive personal, social, and environmental change by supporting activism with spiritual practices, and we can encourage spiritual seekers to recognize that true spirituality demands action. We all want greater peace, and that requires both inner and outer action."
The Interfaith Amigos are convinced that true peace is not the absence of conflict, fear, and pain but rather is "a way of living in which our conflicts lead us to more meaningful relationships, fear awakens us to live with greater safety, and pain reminds us of where we need support. Peace is an environment in which we help each other become the very best we can be."
After taking a hard look at polarization and the familiar "us versus them" mentality along with the trap of old conditioning, the authors present spiritual practices that have proven helpful in moving them beyond hopelessness; dealing with anger and burnout; offering relief from fears that can lead to violence; and coping with the negative states that hinder "the power of love as a positive force for change."
The Amigos explain that to make spiritual practices a way of life, they need to be done daily – and they give us an abundance of things to try. Each author presents practices from his own tradition for daily use, to mark the rhythms of the year, and to honor the cycles of life. Here are just a few examples:
From the Jewish tradition:
The Havdalah Candle
Honoring Your Holiness
Connecting Heaven and Earth
Immersion in a Pool of Peace
The 3-3-3 Breath
The Heart-Space Meditation
From the Christian tradition:
Connecting through Music
Opening Your Eyes to Social Injustice
I Am Not Alone
Challenging God
Centering through Journaling
Lectio Divina
From the Islamic tradition:
Sacred Naming
Connecting with the Other
Reflection on Divine Signs in Nature
Sacred Holding
Closest to the Light
Deepening Divine Qualities
Along with the authors, we are heartened by the growth of the interfaith movement and welcome the opportunity for people of different traditions to do spiritual practices together. This pioneering book provides a superb model of the fruits of spiritual practices in this era of spiritual hospitality and renewal.
Getting to the Heart of Interfaith: The Eye-opening, Hope-filled Friendship of a Rabbi, a Pastor, and a Sheikh by Ted Falcon, Don Mackenzie, and Jamal Rahman. Skylight Paths Publishing, Woodstock, VT, 2008; 183 pages, ISBN 978-1-59473-263-8, paperback, $16.99.
This is the most helpful interfaith book I've seen. The authors illustrate with the progress of their own friendship how to gradually build relationships with people of other faiths or spiritual outlooks, making the process concrete and human. Modeling five stages of a journey toward interfaith understanding, they begin with stories of their life in relation to spiritual matters, then move to sharing what they consider as the core of their own traditions. Pastor Don speaks about "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." Rabbi Ted chooses the Sh'ma and V'ahavta prayers, which read: "Listen, Israel, the Eternal is our God, the Eternal is One. And you shall love the Eternal your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all you might. And let these words which I AM commanding you today be on your heart." (p. 62) His explanation is inspiring and illuminating. Sheikh Jamal chooses compassion, as seen in the verse "In the name of God, boundlessly Compassionate and Merciful," words that open all but one of the 114 chapters of the Qur'an.
They then write honestly of the the problems and promises of their own faiths, ways to handle difficult interfaith problems, and participating in each other's spiritual practices and ceremonies. It was interesting to see how little Pastor Don knew about the dark side of Christian history in relation to other faiths until his interfaith work caused him to investigate. After researching Christian anti-Semitism, he says, "I discovered, with growing horror, the degree to which the Christian church had given theological assent to the Holocaust. Centuries of anti-Judaism had culminated in the murder of millions of Jews. I was weak in the knees, and even wondered if I could go on as a minister of a Christian church. I wondered how I could be a minister and not have fully understood this. How could it be that Christianity, representing the Gospel of Jesus, would give support to such suffering?" (p. 44).
Throughout, the reflections of the three "Interfaith Amigos" provide food for thought. For example, they explain that for them:
inclusive spirituality relates to the realization of Oneness, the Oneness toward which each of our faith traditions leads us. The One we seek is a shared One – there is only One. We believe the One, usually called "God" or "Allah" in our three faith traditions, is the One Universal Life that contains all that exists, yet is infinitely more than all that exists. To the extent that we realize ourselves as integral parts of that One, we are moving toward the spiritual side of the [faith] scale . . .
This inclusive spirituality is crucial because it leads to a very particular way of being in the world. When we are connected to each other and interconnected with all beings, we naturally begin to care better for others and for our planet. This spiritual consciousness allows us to see ourselves in all others and to understand that when we bring pain to another, we are actually bringing pain to ourselves. When we support another, we are also supporting ourselves. A strong ethic naturally flows from an inclusive spirituality, and this is the ethic we seek to celebrate together. In our interfaith work, we have realized again and again that the more deeply we share, the better we are able to appreciate the Universal we all seek to serve. – p. 160
Among the spiritual practices they shared, Sheikh Jamal's five techniques for opening the heart particularly struck me. As he says: "In Islamic spiritual terms, God resides in the throne of the heart; astonishingly and mysteriously, the Divine Heart is in the human heart. Our spiritual task is to open a passageway from heart to Heart . . ." (p. 149).
Even though I've never belonged to any faith tradition, over the last several years I've been involved in interfaith events to support better understanding among people. During activities when people share perspectives from their traditions, I've often felt self-conscious, thinking "What am I doing here?!" This book has given me insights that will allow me to bring more to and take more from these experiences. – Sally Dougherty (November 2009)
Religion Gone Astray: What We Found at the Heart of Interfaith by Pastor Don Mackenzie, Rabbi Ted Falcon and Imam Jamal Rahman, Sky Light Paths Publishing, Woodstock, VT, 2011; 170 pages, ISBN 978-1-59473-317-8, paperback $16.99.
Seattle's Interfaith Amigos, brought together after 9/11, explore four of the difficult subjects in their Abrahamic faiths that are often raised by people who come to their presentations: exclusivity or staking claim to the one and only truth; violence or justifying brutality in the name of faith; inequality of men and women or the patriarchal stranglehold on power; and homophobia or a denial of legitimacy. The authors addresses the issue honestly in turn, each from within his own faith, and then together they offer concluding thoughts on it and provide questions for people to ponder or to share in a discussion group.
These and other controversial issues are far from tangential. They are in the sacred texts, in the traditions that have grown up around the religions, and also have been absorbed from the cultures which the religions are practiced in. In the authors' view religious institutions like individuals can go astray from the deep spiritual values religion seeks to awaken in people and become caught up in power and control. Interfaith dialogue can help individuals and groups return to their spiritual purpose and meaning. "The healing that we need as a society requires us to meet each other as full human beings. The healing we seek opens us up to collaborate more honestly in confronting the major issues that impact us all. Such healing does not deny the problems we find in our traditions, but utilizes them in the service of becoming whole. Healing allows us to appreciate our own traditions and those of others more profoundly." (p. x)
There are some pearls of wisdom here. For example, Rabbi Ted Falcon says when discussing the Jewish view of God: "That name-which-is-not-pronounced consists of the four Hebrew letters yod-hay-vav-hay and is a form of the three-letter verb root hay-yod-hay, which means 'to be.' The unspoken name, comprising these four letters, can best be translated 'That which is.' The name refers to Being without limitation of time or space." He brings out that because "Hebrew has no neuter, everything spoken is either masculine or feminine. God, like everything else, can be a 'He' or a She,' but not an 'It.'" (pp. 141-2). His discussion of "I AM as I AM" is also illuminating.
Particularly recommended for those from the Abrahamic faiths or who are dealing with people from those faiths. – Sarah Belle Dougherty