Juan Enrique Toro at the Parliament of the World's Religions

what's the future of religion it seems that where humanity is right now is that we are in from the Mystic perspective could be called the ordeal the Mystic Journey uh through all Traditions is basically the same for stage Journey it's a journey that begins with a call when the Seeker is called you know and to come into a spiritual awareness then there's the phase of the Beloved where the seeker comes into contact with that presence and feels their Spirit grow and is just so enlivened and enthusiastic and then as the Seeker surrenders deeply into that deepens that um you know unfolds that more into their lives there comes a point when there's a breakdown there's a meltdown something happens within the individual that causes an absolute breakup of everything that he or she knew themselves to be and it is from that disaster that ashes of themselves that a new being emerges if the Seeker stays true to the path and to what the fourth stage is called the union now the the new self to emerge is the self that is no longer like the past self it's the resurrected self it's the crucifixion Resurrection being enacted over and again and so that's the traditional Mystic Journey For The Individual but I see and I'm hearing everybody else say the same thing humanity is in this phase of ordeal where there's a breakdown happening and the breakdown is for me seen in the lines of Separation uh the lines uh between us are getting more marked and more uh Stronger uh fundamentalism is screaming more there seems to be an energy a well up of that um uh economics the halves and the Have Nots we're we're seeing this this these camps come into greater and greater strength and it is from this sort of this breakdown of a of a harmonious sort of tolerant Humanity that I think we're being propelled into an era in which we're going to see extremes of what we could call light and dark um just extremes of uh of knowing of perception and so where spirituality is right now I believe is in a place to guide the individual through this in a way that affirms for them first of all what's happening explains what's happening and invites them to you know decide for themselves what it is that's going to emerge from from a the disaster I think that we're in a phase of a human evolution where we will either rise up as a new Humanity or we're going to just end humanity and take nature with us I I think that we're we're really we're really headed in that direction it's just the forces are getting too strong there's just too much power that we're wielding humanity is is wakened up to its power um more than ever before but we don't know what to do with it and so the spirituality that is needed right now is the spirituality that will awaken the consciousness of this and say let's form this new self this new human so in terms of the traditions because we're here at the parliament of world religion which is in a sense bringing together all the ancient traditions and their modern forms and also some of the modern Traditions like your own Unity yes that's right um so in light of what you just said do you feel the Traditions need to change to meet the kind of new this ordeal that you describe okay so um last night at the opening ceremonies there was one gentleman I I don't remember his name he spoke up and he said if religion is not causing a new an inauguration of self continuously if you are not being reborn if you are not uh finding yourself you know a new constantly then it's not a path it's not a religion it's not authentic spirituality and I would Echo that I would say that that whatever path you're on if it's not somehow renewing you then it's it's not an authentic path um I would say that I could speak from what I see in Costa Rica the uh the Catholic faith the Evangelical um and I don't want to speak anything against that but I don't see a freshness I don't see a newness I don't see a new um voice emerging from them that's sort of guiding us through this this challenging time uh as a matter of fact in some of the messages that we're receiving um you know uh against abortion against homosexuality uh in a way is is kind of breaking is kind of holding back it's you know this is this is not the time for this kind of dialogue I mean we're you know we're we're in a crucial phage of humanity so the new spirituality is about a spirituality that's willing to re-examine itself they willing to say are we meeting the need are we as a movement as a as a group U rising in in a way Wess are we being reborn are we inaugurating ourselves continuously or are we not and if we are then we're relevant if we're not maybe it's time to let it go you know what I what I know about the Catholic tradition again coming from Latin America is just what I know best I know that within the deeper teachings within what it's taught to their priests what's taught within is very holistic it's very expansive they're not concerned about the devil and sin and and original sin this is what they teach to the public but within their their own teachings they're very Universal they're very open um I would I would say that again it's not the problem with the with the movement or the religion uh I would say it's it's just the interpretation of of How It's put out the person you know I think they've made a collective uh choice not to share their the universality uh but let's stay to this theology let's stay to this Viewpoint um which I think is ultimately limiting