Posts in Practice
Navigating Natural Rhythms of Community

Phases of Group Development
Practicing Community – Part Thirteen

It is the nature of life to grow and evolve. So too, every group and community that is alive will go through change and growth. Unfortunately, many spiritual communities instead take a static approach to community life. They try to keep things the way they are, reinforcing the traditional patterns and set processes that bind the members to a repetitive cycle.

But if the spiritual community continues to evolve, it can be a synergistic process of personal growth and communal evolution working in tandem.

Let’s look at some natural phases of the process of community life and where that can lead us if we navigate them with wisdom and grace.

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Community, Practice, WeSpaceLuke HealyMystical Community, WeSpace, Evolution, DevelopmentComment
Do You Resonate When You Pray for Others?

A Prayer that Resonates

One of our core mystical practices in our WeSpace Groups is something we have called "Integral Prayer." That is admittedly a name that does not say much about what it actually is. We have had to keep putting a lot of energy into helping others understand what we mean by that terminology. In a long, wonderful conversation Luke and I had about this, Luke came up with a much more lively and descriptive name to help with that understanding — Resonating Prayer.

We can pray predictably, saying the routine words or affirmations of a religious ritual. Or we can pray in a resonating way. One of the dictionary meanings of "resonate" is "to affect or appeal in a personal or emotional way." Or "to strike a chord with." So we might say this is prayer that comes from deeply personal and vibrating, felt resonance within that seeks to strike a chord in another.

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PracticePaul SmithIntegral Prayer, practice, Transmission Comments
How to Awake to Oneness

Part Five: Waking Up to Oneness

In his book, Working with Oneness, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee Ph.D. and Sufi mystic, writes, "Oneness is very simple: everything is included and allowed to live according to its true nature. This is the secret that is being revealed, the opportunity that is offered. How we make use of this opportunity depends upon the degree of our participation, how much we are prepared to give ourselves to the work that needs to be done, to the freedom that needs to be lived."

This is our call at ICN – "to give ourselves to the work that needs to be done."

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Mysticism, PracticePaul SmithOneness, Embodiment, ConsciousnessComment
Living in Our Communal Body

The Body of Christ Becoming
Practicing Community – Part Ten

As we begin to awaken to the experience of our shared interiors, of the we-space that constitutes communal energy, mutual knowing, and interbeing on a mystical and very real level—that which is “in here” together—we expand beyond this limited story of individualism. We come into the experience of our intersubjective reality. This is where the subject of the sentence becomes plural: from I to We. Not just as a collection of separate parts, but a real and dynamic collective. How do we experience this?

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Community, PracticeLuke HealyMystical Community, WeSpace, EmbodimentComment
Bearing Forth a New World

Becoming Mystical Mothers this Advent Season

We are all meant to be mothers of God. What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly but does not take place within myself? And what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his Son if I also do not give birth to him in my time and my culture? This, then, is the fullness of time. When the Son of God is begotten in us.
—Meister Eckhart

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Mysticism, PracticeLuke HealyAdvent, Womb, Cocreation Comments
Community as Symphony

Understanding and Appreciating Types of Personalities
Practicing Community – Part Eight

While we love a great solo, the best music comes from an assembly of instruments playing together. There is just something to the joining of different sounds in resonance that creates something truly special. As is often said, the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts, and it is through playing together that we create beautiful music.

This is the symphony of community which is made up many different types of instruments, each playing with their particular pitch and tenor but into a harmonic wholeness that co-creates the collective song.

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Community, PracticeLuke HealyMystical Community, Types, EnneagramComment
Conflict and Creative Tension in Our Midst

Finding the Portal of Transformation in our Differences
Practicing Community – Part Five

In the dance of community, we’re bound to step on one another’s toes from time to time. Realistically, at times it will be more than just a hurting toe—we will see our egos bruised and challenged. We may see boundaries crossed, emotions projected, and issues avoided. Sometimes it gets messy!

There is no real community without problems, without conflict, without disagreements, and without wounding. Any time we seek meaningful relationship and connection with others, there are swells and storms to be navigated—it will not all be smooth sailing.

When we give ourselves to the practice of community, on some level we probably know this is part of the deal. But our individualism is strong, and if things get rough it’s easier than ever to jump ship and retreat back to the safety of ourselves. Or away to a different community.

How do we stay with and continue through? And when should we? Can conflict and creative tension become a portal of transformation? And how do we make our way through it?

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Practice, CommunityLuke HealyPractice, Mystical Community Comments