No. 0315 ( Tấn Liêu dịch)

Souls greeting souls

Meditation groups are emerging as a way of connecting and sharing wisdom

FLORIDA WEST -BY STEVE HEISLER CORRESPONDENT

Jacquie Riker gathers with friends in a circle in her home for spiritual explorations.

Every other Monday night, settled on sofas, chairs and the floor, they practice namaste -- soul greeting soul -- during an evening of music and meditation.

"The circle symbolizes eternity that has no beginning and no end," said Riker, an ordained New Thought minister. "When we're in a circle, we're close enough that all of our energy fields of our bodies are connected and we can all see each other, so it creates the space of connection with each other. That's one of the things that's so lacking in our culture ... the sense of being seen and connected and heard."

That sense of connection is being sought more and more in groups such as Riker's, outside of the confines of a Sunday worship service.

"I begin a guided meditation to enhance our sense of grounding and to open our hearts so that when we begin to voice tone, the sound that comes up and out of our throat is the sound of pure love of our heart," Riker said. "We tone as one unified voice and send that out to the world."

While Riker regularly leads her Monday circle, she is involved with another gathering in which anyone may direct the actions.

The New Moon group is one solely for women that meets monthly on the eve of the lunar event for which it's named. In a collaborative, egalitarian fashion, members such as Bradenton's Kim Fabre take turns leading sacred rituals.

"We take turns hosting and leading," said Fabre, a dentist. "There's a Native American tradition where the women would gather during the new moon -- they called it a moon lodge -- and they'd gather their wisdom together."

Wisdom, in that context under Fabre's direction, has included a mer-ka-ba meditation, a type of energy work that is said to clear one's body and surrounding area.

The eight-women gatherings have meditated on artworks from an art therapist. They've also made use of Fabre's neighbor's labyrinth, or maze.

Modeled after France's Chartres Cathedral labyrinth, it fits in well with the group's focus.

Traditionally, the labyrinth represents a spiritual walk through life, Fabre said of their journeys through the 30-foot maze.

Fabre's spiritual path is a marked departure from her upbringing.

Raised in a family that believed in some strict Methodist and Lutheran traditions, she now says "the world is my church."

Her new belief system evolved after a revelation in the early 1990s. She said she began to question the dogma of organized religion in her mid-30s.

"I had a spiritual crisis where what I was told was completely incongruous with my experiences in life," she said. "It was a point in my life where you can't ignore the things that don't make sense anymore."

In the case of Julie Burch's circle, love has an ever-evolving meaning. Her group was born four years ago out of a book discussion. Initially Burch, who attends the Center for Spiritual Awakening, and 15 friends gathered to discuss Bell Hooks' book, "All About Love" (HarperCollins). That discussion among like-minded spiritual women has evolved as they examined facets of the concept.

"It was meant as a point of departure for sharing our own wisdom," Burch said. "It was a departure for some deep thinking and conversation. We were looking at love from every angle, family and spiritually and how it showed up in our lives and how we were practicing it."

As they segued into other books -- they're now on "The Art of Being" -- Burch and her friends from New Thought and Science of the Mind backgrounds realized they were enveloped in a different issue.

"To me and the people in the group, there wasn't a separation between looking at love and looking at the spirit," said Burch, who hosts the group at her home the second Saturday of every month. "When you think about how love operates in your life, it's very similar to how God or spirit operates in your life."

Burch, a Southside Elementary art teacher, and Riker, who for 13 years ministered at the Center for Positive Living in Sarasota and still leads a monthly meditation there, and who also attends Burch's group, feel that the growing prevalence of circles can only be seen as a positive.

"There's something about having an intimate discussion that's extremely powerful," Burch said. "I'd say there's a center of gravity in the community and the more groups like this raises the center of gravity. There's something about people being in alignment with their source where they can move into their lives with a sense of integrity and wisdom."

"We've gone to ad nauseam classes and seminars and read books," Riker said. "People are starving for this type of spirituality, to be able to go inside and rekindle that flame of the divine that we all carry within us."

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050505/FEATURES/505050420/1270/NEWS0101