*UPDATE: Weekly meeting Zoom link here

The practice of spirituality without religion can at times feel lonely. Alone might be a better word. Personally, if pressed to identify, I would refer to myself as “spiritual” but not “religious.” I am deeply invested in an honest exploration of life’s deep questions, and am open to help and guidance in this quest from any source, but I’m uninterested in being told that one way is the right way. As I see it, there are too many different ways of seeing and experiencing life for one way of describing things to actually be the correct way.

I’m defining a “religious” identity as one dedicated to a single description of reality as the right one (this may or may not resonate with your definition). And I’m using the word “spiritual” to refer to a deep interest in understanding reality unbound by a certain single doctrine. Doctrine provides built-in community. The lack of doctrine leads to loneliness, or rather, aloneness. Like ships in the night, spiritual navigators may pass each other without knowing how close they are, because there isn’t a single lighthouse guiding us into shore.

However, if we can find some way of connecting, of turning our lights on while at sea, we might find an entire ocean illuminated like stars in the night, and feel encouragement to continue on the spiritual inner quest, where only you can find the true answers.

I’ve been lucky to find some fellow spiritual travelers, and their presence is vital to my ongoing exploration. The Buddhists call it sangha, spiritual community, a community of spiritual kinship. One such traveler is Saqib Rizvi. I was lucky enough to connect with him through our similar work on the app Insight Timer, and now I’m proud to call him a friend. We meet weekly to talk and record a podcast together, but the podcast is secondary to the enjoyment of exploring spiritual questions with another person who is also invested in an honest exploration of reality, open to dropping existing beliefs and assumptions, curiously interested in WHATEVER comes up in the present moment. The present moment is always a surprise if I’m open to it. And it’s quite helpful to have someone with you to reciprocate and re-energize the openness. Without others, it’s very easy to forget the miracle of Right Now. The miracle is so simple, and it’s so easy to forget.

A community helps you remember.

Why am I telling you this? Saqib and I decided to open our weekly meetings to anyone who would like to join. I learned recently of a few others doing something similar (Jessica Amos and Darius Bashar, respectively) and was inspired to try it out. We meet every Tuesday at 10am PT/1 pm ET for one hour via Zoom, and we’re inviting you to join. You can plan to come on a regular basis, or just attend when it’s convenient. We’ll be there. Logistically, we’ll likely begin with some sort of meditative practice, then move into discussion between the two of us on a topic relevant to the spiritual life, and leave space for group discussion and engagement. And we’ll be monitoring comments throughout the meeting, so we might switch to group discussion earlier than anticipated depending on what’s said or asked. You can be as passive or active as you like. You can be however you like. This will simply be a space to feel some spiritual community, to receive some inspiration, some reciprocal motivation to energize your daily practice, whatever it looks like.

When I meet with Saqib, my energy is recharged, my spiritual questions clarified, and I remember what matters most: this one precious moment - the one I so easily forget due to my thinking mind’s desire for control. There is no control, and my spirit knows that. My spirit celebrates it. I’m freed to return to conscious awareness of the only real thing: JUST RIGHT NOW.

We’re calling the weekly meeting The Hour of Now (a play on Eckhart Tolle’s famous book and movement). The name may change, the format of the group may change. We’re open to anything. Who knows, maybe no one will show up and, after two weeks, the group will never be heard or spoken of again (haha, mostly kidding). We’re planning to get it started on 4/4, and then start meeting weekly thereafter. Click here (or click the image below) to register and get the Zoom link once we’re up and running.

Oh, and it’s free. No cost other than your presence (though, what is really more valuable than that?).

*Also, just FYI, if you are interested and cannot make this weekly time due to a schedule conflict, we’ll certainly explore expanding to other times in the future. For now, we’ve decided not to record the meetings, but instead to let them exist only for the moment. It arises and it passes, permanently impermanent.

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