The Global Oneness Project

By David Ian Miller - San Francisco Chronicle - San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Director of the Global Oneness Project talks about his own spiritual practice and what it's like growing up with a father who's a spiritual leader

At first glance, "global oneness" sounds like a stereotypically airy New Age construct -- sweet but signifying nothing in the real world.

But Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, director of the Global Oneness Project, is determined to document the interconnected nature of all life on earth. He travels the world seeking out stories from people whose work or ideas emphasize oneness with other people, animals and nature.

So far, he's collected some 50 interviews with writers, teachers, healers and activists in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and South America. Their stories are then shared in video interviews on the organization's web site*.

Vaughan-Lee, 27, lives in Point Reyes Station with his wife and two young children. He is a practicing Sufi and the son of Sufi teacher and author Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee. I spoke to him last week in Oakland about what he's learned so far in his travels, his own spiritual practices and what it's like growing up with a father whom others look to for spiritual advice.

What sparked the idea for the Global Oneness Project?I was working on a film called "One: The Movie" for about nine months in 2005. We were traveling quite a bit, going to film festivals and community screenings, and I was struck by how many people were responding to the movie's focus on unity, on what unites us rather than on what pigeonholes or separates us.

People from all walks of life and backgrounds were telling me, "We want to see more of this." And so we came up with the Global Oneness Project as a way to use the Internet to provide people with an in-depth look at the subject.

What do you hope to accomplish?Hopefully, to inspire dialogue and new ways of thinking and working in the world. And the way we are going to do that is by getting people to participate, not just by viewing the material but also by providing them with a place to respond to what they have seen.

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Some people might say that the money you're spending in traveling and telling people's stories might be better spent in establishing aid programs that could assist communities in some concrete way. How would you respond to that?They have a point, but I think there is an argument for both. There is a tremendous amount of money being put into aid programs -- not enough in any way -- but how much money is being put into media programs that go out and cover these stories about everyday people? I don't think there are many. And I especially don't think there are that many which make the stories available free to everybody.

Your father, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, is a Sheikh of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order and a teacher to many. What was it like growing up with a parent who is a spiritual leader?
When I was young, he was not a spiritual teacher. He was a student of a spiritual teacher. And it wasn't until I was a teenager that he became more of a spiritual teacher. I think my dad just sees himself as a simple guy who is a Sufi, and that a few people like to come and see, and he is really not -- I think "a leader" sounds kind of grand.

Your father is known for dream work, a fusion of the ancient Sufi approach to dreams with the insights of modern psychology. Did you all share your dreams around the breakfast table? Actually, my sister and I got so tired of dreams being shared that when we were about 7 years old we said: "Look! No more dreams at the breakfast table! We don't want to hear about dreams. We want to eat our cereal." Sometimes it got a little bit much.

You know, it's the same with children of psychologists. You learn all of these terms. You know who Freud and Jung are before anybody ever should, right? And so there is a reaction against that. Initially, I just wanted to watch my TV show and play in the backyard and go ride my bike, but as I got older, I learned the value in many of those tools dream work has for dealing with your own psychological process, your own spiritual process and things relating to that.

As a practicing Sufi, what would you say are the most important aspects of your faith?I can only speak from my point of view. Some spiritual traditions make a distinction between a spiritual practice or teachings and the world. One of the things I like about Sufism, at least the way I observe it, is that there is no separation between these two things. You don't have to meditate off somewhere by yourself, go on retreat or remove yourself from the presence of others.

You can do it while you are in life, while you are a schoolteacher or a parent. I think there's tremendous power in doing a spiritual practice while you are doing everything else, whether it's driving to work or changing my son's diapers. All those little things -- they are a spiritual practice because it's constant remembrance of God, which is a very common Sufi practice.

What are your daily practices?
I meditate, and I have a simple zikir that I do silently. A zikir is the same as a mantra. And so I do that, and I try to live as much in the moment as I can.

How does someone become Sufi?
There are so many different kinds of Sufism that it depends. But one thing that is common among Sufis is a desire for a direct relationship with God, or the Beloved. So that is something that drives someone to become a Sufi.

Depending on where that person is in the world or what option is presented to that person, if they have an innate desire or something happens in their life that brings that desire, they will find a situation that can reflect that most adequately. And that might be Sufism or it might be something else.

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*[http://www.globalonenessproject.org/]

[picture: Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee of the Global Oneness Project talks with an interview subject, Max Harrison, an aboriginal elder from the Yuin nation on the south coast of Australia. Photo by Denise Zabalaga]