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Open-minded • Open-hearted
A new approach to spirituality
When asked your beliefs,
You could answer 'Holistic'
All life is sacred, interdependent and growing to fulfil its potential.
Love, Support and Protect all beings.
Connect. Grow. Serve.
• • • • • • • • • • •
The New Spirituality
A Holistic Manifesto
We live in a period of remarkable change out of which a new,
open-minded and open-hearted approach to spirituality is emerging. This
holistic spirituality:
• Welcomes and celebrates diversity of culture and belief.
• Honours the beauty, power and mystery in nature, universe and all
existence - by whatever name it is known - and our natural place within
it.
• Recognizes that all life is connected, interdependent and developing to fulfil its potential.
• Cultivates the essence of all spiritual traditions:
Connect with and experience the wonder and miracle of existence.
Guide your development with wise self-reflection.
Serve the community of life.
• Affirms the core morality of all faiths, joined with the ethical
imperatives of ecology and absolute respect for the development of all
human beings.
• Is dedicated to the creation of:
Social Justice - World Peace - Environmental Harmony
Development, Prosperity and Fulfilment for All.
Holism(noun, from the
Greek holos): the idea that all life is connected and interdependent;
that nothing can be fully understood unless one sees the whole system
of which it is a part; that a whole is always more than the sum of its
parts.
Holistic: a description
of any behaviour, concept or attitude that seeks to understand and take
full account of all aspects, parts and dimensions; eg holistic
healthcare, holistic policing, holistic education, holistic
spirituality.
Holist: someone who
seeks to understand and behave in a holistic way; who is aligned with
ideas of holism; spiritually, someone who seeks to become a fulfilled
and whole human being, embraces diversity, wishes to build healthy and
whole communities.
Background - Building Towards the 2011 Census
There is substantial research to show that a majority of the population
in modern democracies is moving on from traditional faiths to a more
general spirituality. It would be very helpful to give this new
spirituality some coherence and a more public profile.
One of the first steps is to get people, when asked their beliefs, to
respond 'Holistic' - as shorthand for their support for this new
spirituality. In the UK this will build up to the 2011 Census.
Demonstrating the size of the movement could provide enormous support
to those people of goodwill working to further a holistic approach in
work, education, healthcare, commerce, leisure, arts and government. It
supports the healing of religious bigotry, conflict and fundamentalism.
It would also encourage people to engage more fully as holistic citizens through school governors, hospital boards and so on.
People from a particular faith community might want to name themselves
as 'Holistic Christian, Holistic Muslim' or 'Jewish Holist', 'Pagan
Holist', etc.
The purpose of The Holism Network is to gain status and representation
for Holistic Spirituality in all those situations where faith and
philosophical communities are represented; and to support a network in
which there are many diverse and new ways of expressing and
representing this spiritual approach.
The Holism Network • www.holism.info
My Involvement
Two years ago I was looking at what I wanted to do with the next two
decades of my life. One possibility was that I would start a retreat centre - possibly in south west Ireland. This was
an attractive idea.
My background however has always
included social and political engagement. Several friends were nudging
me into being more of an activist.
So I spent some months meditating and dreaming on it until finally I woke one morning - Engagement! Activism!
Give voice to the new spirituality. Millions are into it and living it.
Give it a more public face. Show how deeply worthwhile and hopeful it
is.
Steam pouring out of my ears like a pressure cooker, I wrote Soulution: The Holistic Manifesto. Now I am networking, building the website and beginning to campaign.
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Holism Page
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