A Big Tent: 2012 and The Shift

One of the guiding principles of 2012 discernment is the notion of inclusiveness. With reference to other spiritual traditions, the Shift can serve as a unifying principle and a big tent that embrace the commonalities in what might be perceived as disparate spiritual practices rather than emphasizing the differences. In addition, we're seeing interesting trends developing where practitioners of traditional religions are combining them with other spiritual ideas and practices.

This trend has been around for a long time and is commonly known as "cafeteria style spirituality". But what's interesting, as reported in USA Today, is that the trend is accelerating. For example, "Of the 72% of Americans who attend religious services at least once a year...35% say they attend in multiple places, often hop-scotching across denominations."

This is called syncretism, defined as the "the combination of different forms of belief or practice". Syncretism is very consistent with the 2012/Shift mindset since it becomes important to respect the rich variety of spiritual sources that point to this unique time in history. There's a long list but they include Hopi and other indigenous prophecies, Mayan, Taoist, Tibetan Buddhist , Vedic, Christian, and Islamic traditions.

It's really a beautiful idea to think that so many spiritual paths are converging on the transformation of the Shift as common ground but there's still a lot of work to do to start seeing different spiritual practices as "many roads" instead of many walls. One of the changes that needs to take place, as Mayan interpreter Carl Johan Calleman points out, is to move beyond dualistic thinking. This means breaking down the artificial barriers between spiritual traditions that create disharmonies and in its most extreme expression hatred and intolerance. Our challenge now is to come to some consensus on the underlying basic truths and principles that run through many spiritual practices to get closer to the goal of acting in unity and as one voice for this truth to be manifest creatively in our inner and outer worlds.