Waterloo: At their core, humans everywhere are the same.
"We have the same mind, the same body. The only thing that divides us is the way we think," said Shiv Talwar, president of the Waterloo-based Spiritual Heritage Education Network.
This weekend, a conference at the University of Waterloo will examine the concept of spirituality that is at the core of all faith traditions and appreciated by believers and non-believers alike.
“We will look at spirituality as a unifying part of religion,’’ said Talwar, a retired Conestoga College civil engineering professor.
More than 80 participants are expected to attend the second annual conference - Education to Globalize the Human Mind - at the Ron Eydt Village at the Waterloo university campus.
Humera Javed, one of the organizers of the conference, said the focus of the event is spirituality, not religiosity.
“Spirituality stands to reason, faith does not,’’ she said. “Everyone can connect with some spirituality.’’
Six presentations will be held Saturday and Sunday.
Sandy Westin, North American co-ordinator for the United Religions Initiative and based in Johnson City, Tennessee, said she will speak at the conference, focusing on fostering a sense of mutual respect among all faith backgrounds.
“When we let go of our idea of artificial separation and we discover our common ground then those artificial barriers dissolve and then we have a sense of we,’’ she said.
United Religions Initiative is an international interfaith network where people of different religious backgrounds work together for the good of their communities.
Presenter Rory Dickson, a PhD student at Wilfrid Laurier University, will speak about philosopher and mystic Ibn 'Arabi and Sufism.
A tradition from Islam, Sufism is often described as the mystic and spiritual part of the Islamic faith.
Dickson said one aspect of the philosophy of Sufism acknowledges and appreciates religious diversity and pluralism.
“The deeper you go into the spiritual core of the tradition, the more universal elements you find, resources you find that unify people across borders of religious culture and identity,’’ he said.
Sufism still plays a role in the daily lives of Muslims in Morocco and some areas of Pakistan, but there is also a growing view against Sufis, claiming they corrupt the religion, Dickson said.
For more information on the conference, go to www.spiritualeducation.org
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