One of the great paradoxes of being a writer (and speaker) on contemplative spirituality is that I essentially use words to invite people into a wordless place. Ah, sweet irony.
And while that is usually a matter of writing, I love to speak about silence as well. Today (September 18, 2013) I am going to be on Rabbi Rami Shapiro‘s How to be a Holy Rascal internet radio show. Hope you can tune in. The show will be broadcast live at 11 AM Central time (Noon Eastern time, 10 AM Mountain time, 9 AM Pacific time), and to hear it, just visit this link: www.unityonlineradio.org/how-be-holy-rascal/carl-mccolman-author-and-christian-contemplative and click on the “Listen Now” button. I know we will be talking about contemplation and mysticism, but I suspect we will also explore interspirituality and the thorny question of the relationship between religion and spirituality.
Since it will be a live broadcast, you can also call in if you have a question for Rabbi Rami or me. Call 888.55.UNITY (888-558-6489) any time while the show is on (11 AM – Noon Central time).
If you miss the live broadcast, a link to a recording of the show will be posted probably by tomorrow. Once I have that link, I’ll post it to my Twitter feed. (Update: this is the link to the archived show: (“Carl McColman, Author and Christian Contemplative”)
And speaking of recorded interviews, I invite you to take some time to listen to my two-part interview on David Dault‘s Things Not Seen Radio. This pre-recorded interview looks at contemplative spirituality primarily from a Christian perspective although we do discuss my interfaith wanderings as well. Here are links to the two parts of the interview:
- “My Job is to Love” The Path of Contemplative Spirituality, Part One
- “My Job is to Love” The Path of Contemplative Spirituality, Part Two
So happy listening (and call in today, if you can!)
Update: As of 2020, these archived interviews are still available. God bless the internet. This is why, as the old saying goes, you should never put anything on the internet that you don’t want your mother to see (or hear) — because once it’s there, it’s forever!
I have been meaning to comment on the “spirituality versus/and religion” points you have been raising, and the idea of spirituality without religion. This is incredibly complex stuff, and I fear it is a space in which it is really easy for folk to go astray without realizing it. Yes, spirituality without religion is possible, but to live in thius way requires a level of spiritual maturity that in my experience is hard to achieve without having had a serious communal spiritual practice, which I believe is hard to achieve without grounding in the forms, traditions, rituals and community strength of a religious practice. In other words, organized religion provides the starter-kit which enables one to graduate and move into more spirituality, less religion. I have been really experiencing this in an interesting way as I first observed Ramadan, and more recently the Jewish High Holy Days http://interfaithandspirituality.blogspot.com/.