Tom Zender at the Parliament of the World's Relgions

how do you feel the religious Traditions are meeting The Changing Times that we're facing I think it's a mixed bag Craig I I think depending upon the particular religious path uh I think there are great intentions on the part of many of them uh to assist the world in some way through this and and other crises I think where the problems start to occur is when the dogmatism of any particular path begins to take hold then the spiritual aspect of what is taking place and how to help the world process begins to to lose something and so what we look for is spirituality someone once said that religion tends to drive us apart spirituality tends to bring us back together again and so we look to the spiritual principles of un and other practices to be the Catalyst for peace in our world for bringing it back together again and I think that that each individual religion does a lot of good things to attempt to help the world what the world seems to gravitate to is the idea of individual personalized spiritual transformation and then realize that as we each individualize it it becomes Collective and it is that Collective spiritual growth raising of world Consciousness that ultimately can really positively impact the world sometimes I think we're putting Band-Aids on with various practices and what the world really needs is a complete and total healing so how how do you feel Tradition at large needs to change in response to this evolutionary demand I think it needs to um think about the impact of Dogma upon the behaviors of their given communities and does it release people to transform and assist the world or does it continue to bind people into absolute and specific beliefs and practices that may not assist that particular Community or those particular individuals so the release of Dogma I think is one critical action I believe another release is that many paths insist that there be an in intermediary um a given minister or Guru or Rabbi or priest that must be present for an individual to have a personal relationship with God and we just don't think that's so and we don't think that's part of deep spiritual practices we do believe that there is a direct path and so it is my own particular relationship with God that transforms me and transforms others as they enter that that set of spiritual practices which are for the most part dogree as an example Unity basically has no Dogma we have five simple beliefs that we think are fundamental to good spiritual practice whether somebody's part of unity or not so the release of Dogma the release of the idea of intermediaries and the promotion of personal relationships with God for personal transformation and Collective transformation I think if all of the world's religions practiced that general idea then we would see a much more accelerated change in our world so how do you feel Unity itself is responding to the very demand that you're talking about what's your sense of I think the new Unity is one of being more visible being more available uh being more identified as a valid creditable durable source of spiritual support and we offer that non- denominationally we support people of all faiths and in many cases no faith I've had people walk up to me and say hi Tom calling silent unity and reading daily word is my church and so we do uh stay current with prayer practices and some of what was done here today in the sense of collaborating with the medical community and other scientists is part of uh that two-way street of effective prayer practice certainly from a spiritual point of view I think there is also something coming into play from the scientist that tells us perhaps there are also uh things from the scientific community that can enhance the effectiveness of our prayer uh in terms of Publications uh we stay very current with contemporary spiritual thinking uh we read a lot of different materials books we pay attention to a lot of author we think there are a number of people who are in the Forefront of spiritual research and thinking people like Dr David Hawkins Ken Wilbur uh Don Beck just to name a few so we we tend to meet with them and uh listen to them as part of the input to keep ourselves fresh what do you feel is the potential of this Parliament to uh help the Traditions move ahead and help Humanity move ahead I think if the par will continue its work full force and continue to hold these kinds of dialogues not only at a at a global level but also at say Regional or national levels local levels if if if that can persist then I believe the shift in the religions and the harmony that can take place among them can absolutely impact the world it we we can create a different kind of world to live in so much of our uh so much of our dilemma so much of the the wars and the skirmishes and the battles we fight are fought in the name of religion and it's been that way for centuries so if we can adopt a new paradigm in terms of a global relationship with God I think the parliament has a uh has a massive opportunity to bring that forward e