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Points of Agreement from Contemplatives Across Different Religious Traditions

In 1980, a group of contemplatives across 8 religious traditions gathered together in the spirit of interfaith dialogue.
Here are their 8 points of agreement:
1. The world religions bear witness to the experience of Ultimate Reality, to which they give various names.
2. Ultimate Reality cannot be limited by any name or concept.
3. Ultimate Reality is the ground of infinite potentiality and actualization.
4. Faith is the opening, accepting, and responding to Ultimate Reality. Faith in this sense precedes every belief system.
5. The potential for human wholeness — or, in other frames of reference, enlightenment, salvation, transcendence, transformation, blessedness — is present in every human being.
6. Ultimate Reality may be experienced not only through religious practices, but also through nature, art, human relationships, and service to others.
7. As long as the human condition is experienced as separate from Ultimate Reality, it is subject to ignorance and illusion, weakness and suffering.
8. Disciplined practice is essential to the spiritual life; yet spiritual attainment is not the result of one’s own efforts, but the result of the experience of oneness with Ultimate Reality.
Additional Points of Agreement

9. It is essential to extend our formal practice of awareness into all aspects of our life.
10. Humility, gratitude, and a sense of humor are indispensable in the spiritual life.
11. Prayer is communion with Ultimate Reality, whether it is regarded as personal, impersonal, or beyond them both.

Living Presence

A Friend on the Path

Presence isn’t something we create. It’s a relationship we allow.

Watch & Listen

We practice returning to presence until we are living in Presence.

Points of Agreement from Contemplatives Across Different Religious Traditions

1. The world religions bear witness to the experience of Ultimate Reality, to which they give various names.

2. Ultimate Reality cannot be limited by any name or concept.

3. Ultimate Reality is the ground of infinite potentiality and actualization.

4. Faith is the opening, accepting, and responding to Ultimate Reality. Faith in this sense precedes every belief system.

5. The potential for human wholeness — or, in other frames of reference, enlightenment, salvation, transcendence, transformation, blessedness — is present in every human being.

6. Ultimate Reality may be experienced not only through religious practices, but also through nature, art, human relationships, and service to others.

7. As long as the human condition is experienced as separate from Ultimate Reality, it is subject to ignorance and illusion, weakness and suffering.

8. Disciplined practice is essential to the spiritual life; yet spiritual attainment is not the result of one’s own efforts, but the result of the experience of oneness with Ultimate Reality.

Additional Points of Agreement