sPIRITUAL DIRECTION & INTERFAITH Counseling

 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. What is Spiritual Direction?

Many religious traditions across the globe offer different ways to enhance this integral dimension of human life which leads to better physical health, emotional wellbeing, spiritual wholeness or holiness (Eph. 3/19)

 

 

1. What is Interfaith Counseling?

 

Interfaith Counseling assumes that every soul like a tree is rooted in a particular tradition, from which he or she draws spiritual nurture, and has its branches open to offer human and divine comfort to all who come to relax there.

 

Interfaith Counseling respects the uniqueness and the awesomeness of everyone's experience and lets the soul glow and grow with or without a faith tradition.

 

Spiritual Direction or Interfaith Counseling touches the deepest level of being, flows with the Source resourcefully, connects freely with the web of the universe and expands or contracts as Fullness or Nothingness in order to reach out with love and compassion especially to the little, the lowly, the lonely, the lost and their leaders.

 

"Guide me as You will, Use me when You will."

Mother Teresa of Calcutta [1910-1997]

 

 

2. Who is a Spiritual GUIDE or Interfaith Counselor?

Throughout human history, individuals have been called to accompany others seeking the Mystery we name God. In this time, Ariosto Coelho of Spiritual Direction -a member of SPIRITUAL DIRECTORS INTERNATIONAL [1998-2008] responds to this call by tending the holy in individuals and groups around the world and across traditions.

 

A Spiritual Director or Interfaith Counselor is a bridge, a facilitator, a mirror, a companion, a mid-wife, a soul-friend who enables and empowers the directee or counselee to listen to one's deeper self in order to delight in the best within where the soul glows and grows with love and compassion.

 

 

3. HOW DOES the Soul glow and  grow?

 

BY BEING TRUE TO ONE'S INNER self

    ▪ becoming an alchemist (Paulo Coelho)  

    ▪ traveling the road less traveled (Scott Peck)

    ▪ knowing why the caged bird sings (Maya Angelou)

    ▪ creating spiritual affluence (Deepak Chopra)

    ▪ having a heart for the poor (Teresa of Calcutta)

    ▪ blending the opposites (Carl Jung)

    ▪ unearthing the hidden symbols (Marija Gimbutas)

    ▪ dancing in harmony with the universe (Rumi)

    ▪ practicing truth and non-violence (Mohandas Gandhi)

    ▪ changing through dialogue and trust (The Dalai Lama)

    ▪ embracing the everyday (Thomas Moore)

    ▪ accepting the power of now [Eckhart Tolle]

    ▪ forming habits and a conscience (Stephen Covey)

    ▪ hearing and speaking in a different voice (Carol Gilligan)

    ▪ dreaming dreams and see visions (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

    ▪ being an instrument of peace (Francis of Assisi)

    ▪ understanding God's fingerprints in silence (Rabbi Kushner)

    ▪ wandering on the beautiful trail (Navajo Night Chant)

    ▪ experiencing Jesus of Nazareth, "I am in my Father

       and you in me and I in you." (John. 14/20)

    ▪ being enlightened "How wonderful! How wonderful! All things

       are perfect exactly as they are!" (Gautama Buddha)

    ▪ unfolding and enfolding "Infinity, Intimacy, Integrity,

        In-harmony with impermanence: Laughter" (Ariosto Coelho)

 

 

4. WHAT IS spiritual development?

 

enlightenment?

"There are three stages in one's spiritual development" said the Master, "the carnal, the spiritual and the divine." "What is the carnal stage?" asked the eager disciples. "That's the stage when trees are seen as trees and mountains as mountains." "And the spiritual?" "That's when one looks more deeply into things -- then trees are no longer trees and mountains no longer mountains." "And the divine?" "Ah, that's Enlightenment," said the Master with a chuckle, "when trees become trees again and mountains, mountains."

 

iNSTANT SAINTHOOD?

"Contrary to popular book titles, there are no Easy Steps to Maturity or Secrets of Instant Sainthood" according to Rick Warren (The Purpose Driven Life, 2002. pp122-123). "When God wants to make a mushroom, he does it overnight, but when he wants to make a giant oak tree, he takes a hundred years. Great souls are grown through struggles and storms and seasons of suffering. Be patient with the process. ... A delay is not a denial from God. Remember how far you've come, not just how far you've got to go. You are not where you want to be, but neither are you where you used to be. "

 

THE Dance of Holiness?

Said the Master in One Minute Nonsense (Anthony de Mello, 1992. p.339): "When you were in the tomb you were silent. Then you were born and began to talk, talk, talk -till the day you are laid in the tomb. Then you will once again be silent. Capture that silence which was there in the womb and will be there in the tomb and even now underlies this interval of noise called life. That silence is your deepest essence." It is a dance of holiness: "Not my will, but Yours be done." Jesus of Nazareth, The Christ.

 

THE YOGA OF FULLNESS?

RELATIONSHIP COUNSELING

clinical art & psychotherapy