Even those who are used to attesting truths based on scientific rationality cannot easily brush aside the declarations of the mystics. Indeed, of late, there are outstanding scientists who have started paying heed to the relevance of spiritual inquiry into Truth in the light shed by the mystics; they see no inherent contradiction between spiritual inquiry and scientific inquiry because they are per force aimed at different levels of reality.

We are convinced that the discovery of the core value of spirituality through intellectual understanding and practical experience will also serve the true goal of religion of one’s choice. Our website (http://www.SpiritualEducation.org) is dedicated to give wide publicity to this central message in the fervent hope of satisfying the spiritual needs of the individual and also in improving the climate for religious tolerance, a consideration that is becoming increasingly germane to today’s shrinking world. And this would be of immense value to our multi-cultural society in Canada.

We propose to forge a global network of interested people who broadly subscribe to the views stated above. We expect to exploit the potential of the Internet to promote education, research, dialogue, and reflection in the spiritual heritage of humankind.

We would like to quote from the encyclical letter, fides et ratio (partially reproduced in Enclosure A), of the supreme pontiff John Paul II to the bishops of the Catholic Church on the Relationship Between Faith and Reason given in Rome, at Saint Peter's, on 14 September 1998:

“Moreover, a cursory glance at ancient history shows clearly how in different parts of the world, with their different cultures, there arise at the same time the fundamental questions which pervade human life: Who am I? Where have I come from and where am I going? Why is there evil? What is there after this life? These are the questions which we find in the sacred writings of Israel, as also in the Veda and the Avesta; we find them in the writings of Confucius and Lao-Tze, and in the preaching of Tirthankara and Buddha; they appear in the poetry of Homer and in the tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles, as they do in the philosophical writings of Plato and Aristotle. They are questions which have their common source in the quest for meaning which has always compelled the human heart. In fact, the answer given to these questions decides the direction which people seek to give to their lives.”

SHEN proposes to provide educational material from different religious and cultural viewpoints on the great questions that human mind has been probing for times immemorial. We would like to emphasize the last sentence of the above quote – “the answer given to these questions decides the direction which people seek to give to their lives.”

Another quote from the encyclical letter, fides et ratio, of the supreme pontiff John Paul II is in order:

“Although times change and knowledge increases, it is possible to discern a core of philosophical insight within the history of thought as a whole. Consider, for example, the principles of non-contradiction, finality and causality, as well as the concept of the person as a free and intelligent subject, with the capacity to know God, truth and goodness. Consider as well certain fundamental moral norms which are shared by all. These are among the indications that, beyond different schools of thought, there exists a body of knowledge which may be judged a kind of spiritual heritage of humanity. It is as if we had come upon an implicit philosophy, as a result of which all feel that they possess these principles, albeit in a general and unreflective way. Precisely because it is shared in some measure by all, this knowledge should serve as a kind of reference-point for the different philosophical schools. Once reason successfully intuits and formulates the first universal principles of being and correctly draws from them conclusions which are coherent both logically and ethically, then it may be called right reason or, as the ancients called it, orthós logos, recta ratio.”

“These are among the indications that, beyond different schools of thought, there exists a body of knowledge which may be judged a kind of spiritual heritage of humanity.” SHEN proposes to unearth and provide educational material on this spiritual heritage of humanity.

We are convinced that in the post-modern age of air travel, lightning speed in communication, secularism and multi-culturalism, education in the spiritual heritage of humanity based on insights of different mystics promotes world views that engender feelings of oneness, mutual understanding, tolerance and peace. The Reverend Canon Dr Arthur Peacocke, a physical biochemist and Anglican priest, the only Oxford University faculty member to be both a Doctor of Science and a Doctor of Divinity, recipient of the 2001 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in his acceptance speech (Enclosure B) for the prize at London’s Guildhall remarked:

“…. There can be no greater quest of humanity than to seek the purposes of God for all-that-is so that our knowledge and internets of information can be deployed with wisdom -- the ability to cooperate harmoniously in the divine purposes in creation in evoking the personal and spiritual in and through the natural.

Such a quest involves human beings becoming more fully human by instantiating their distinctive values, and becoming more self-offering in their mutual love, thereby sharing in the quality of their Creators own self. Christians have had their own particular way of experiencing and speaking of this when they refer to the divine Word being expressed in creation and as revealed in a particular person in history, Jesus the Christ. However the divine creative Word cannot, in principle and by definition, be exclusive and "cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd" to any one person alone, or to any one religion, culture, race or time. The universality of science strongly points away from such exclusiveness and its global vistas now incite and excite us to a new joint, human, global discerning of the divine self-expression, the Word of God, in the natural and human created order. ….”

SHEN proposes to deploy the internets of information to engender the universality that is the subject of Reverend Dr Peacocke’s exhortation, and which is experienced by the mystics of different cultures as they meditate to understand the world and to discover meaning for human life. The inclusiveness argued by Reverend Dr Peacocke results in understanding and tolerance between different religions, races, and cultures and is one key focus of SHEN.

Reverend Dr Peacocke describes human life as constituting of a double quest -- the searches for intelligibility and for meaning.

“Today the intertwining of these two enterprises is more apparent than ever for it is the meaning of the world that science describes which we seek. Science encourages us to go on asking "Why?" both in the ancient and perennial form of "Why is there anything at all?," which has evoked the postulate of an Ultimate Creative Reality that is the Source of all being and becoming; and also, in light of the epic of evolution, the question "Why should the universe be open to rational explication and why should it have the inherent capacity to develop from insentient matter-energy in space-time thinking persons who can know that they so originate and are free to shape their lives on the basis of overriding values?" Such questions are posed by the vistas of science but cannot be answered by science. It has been the perennial quest of the great religions of the world to respond to such questions by seeking both for intelligibility and meaning -- along with the intelligibility provided by the sciences.”

The search of intelligibility and meaning has been global in nature and has always engaged mystics, theologians, scientists, historians and philosophers and is the concern of those of many faiths, and of none. In Reverend Dr Peacocke’s words, “Such a quest involves human beings becoming more fully human by instantiating their distinctive values, and becoming more self-offering in their mutual love, thereby sharing in the quality of their Creators own self.”

SHEN proposes to bring the results of this search within easy reach of the students and seekers so that they can stand on the shoulders of giants who have painstakingly endeavored in this field in the past. SHEN feels that the educational milieu is now ripe to be enriched with the study of all such findings with ready availability of comprehensive courses and establishment of university chairs.

This search enables us to perceive all beings in a new light -- in the light of a perception of one Ultimate Reality, God, who, giving everything its existence, is both the common source through nature and spirit, and the destination of fulfilled humanity. Intelligibility is the result of the perception that the entire universe springs forth from one Ultimate Reality. Meaning of human life lies in individual’s attempt to identify his/her self with this Ultimate Reality. Moral and ethical living is a natural consequence of realizing such a meaning of life. This summarizes SHEN’s concept of spirituality (Enclosure C – The Concept; and Enclosure D, a SHEN brochure).

[S1] SHEN’s mission is to promote this concept of spirituality comprised of a perception of unity underlying the apparent diversity through education, dialogue, and research in the spiritual heritage of humankind. A personal spiritual search is characterized by one’s attempt to strengthen one’s conviction in this perception. The strength of an individual’s conviction is an important determinant of the individual’s identification with the Ultimate Reality. The stronger this conviction, the more one sees one’s self in the Ultimate Reality and the Ultimate Reality in one’s own self. Speaking of Thomas Merton, who has been acclaimed as the single most influential American Catholic spiritual author of the twentieth century, an author [1] observed that Merton wanted to be genuinely catholic, excluding nothing, including all:

“… the more I am able to affirm others, to say “yes” to them in myself, by discovering them in myself and myself in them, the more real I am. I am fully real if my own heart says yes to every one.

I will be a better Catholic, not if I can refute every shade of Protestantism, but if I can affirm the truth in it and still go further.

So, too, with the Muslims, the Hindus, the Buddhists, etc. This does not mean syncretism, indifferentism, the vapid and careless friendliness that accepts everything but thinking nothing. There is much that one cannot “affirm” and “accept”, but first one must say “yes” where one really can.

If I affirm myself as a Catholic merely by denying all that is Muslim, Jewish, Protestant, Hindu, Buddhist, etc., in the end I will find that there is not much left for me to affirm as a Catholic: and certainly no breadth of the Spirit with which to affirm it.”

SHEN believes that when such a worldview is achieved, one begins to identify oneself with the entire universe resulting in feelings of oneness, love, respect, and understanding. Oneness or unity, then, becomes the ultimate test of all ethics and morality – good is what makes for oneness or unity.

There is an overwhelming body of evidence in support of the objectives of this mission. Scholarly conclusions are also well augmented in popular literature. For instance, a set of five articles by Michael Valpy published in the Globe and Mail in December of 2000 (Enclosure E) and more recently, Sharon Doyle Driedger’s article entitled “Soul Searchers” published in Maclean’s of April 16, 2001 (Enclosure F) are just two of the many examples of the popular press documenting this search.

To achieve its stated mission, SHEN proposes to forge a network of interested people worldwide; and make an extensively use the medium of the Internet. Internet through its lightening fast and pervasive communication facilities helps in forging a network of interested people and also acts as a medium of education and information dissemination as envisaged in our web site (http://www.SpiritualEducation.org). Since the message of spirituality is universal in nature, SHEN considers the Internet that is characterized by technological pervasiveness to be ideal for its propagation.

With the above background in place, now we would like to address your questions specifically. We will discuss our philosophy, plans and activities, which are strongly suggestive that we can achieve success in its entirety should our proposal meet with your approval, as we very much hope would be the case.

Let us consider each SHEN objective and how SHEN intends to achieve it one by one in the light of the background presented above:

1. “To promote education, research and dialogue of all religions and in the spiritual heritage of humankind on the Internet”. Courses for education are currently being researched and we envisage them to include subjects such as lives and works of different mystics, ultimate reality and meaning, religious philosophy, spiritual living, ethics and morality, yoga, and contemplative methods such as meditation, etc. The teaching method envisaged is primarily distance education through the use of the Internet, although seminars and discussions with personal attendance are also envisaged. We have already started a series of seminars and the details are enclosed herewith (Enclosure G). The courses shall be designed to be suitable for pluralistic societies such as Canada

2. “To organize, promote, and provide down-loadable material, dialogues, chat and discussion sessions, and the like in a focused and disciplined manner with respect to spirituality and religion”. Technological capabilities for the realization of this objective currently exist on the Internet. Although much more is to be accomplished in the direction of content, a blue print exists on our web site. You are invited to visit http://www.SpiritualEducation.org to see a framework of how SHEN plans to accomplish this objective.

3. “To provide a library of spiritual heritage literature including Commentaries and interpretations of heritage literature in English and other popular languages, publications, novels, plays, stories and anecdotes based on truth or fiction exemplifying spiritual principles in life for scholars and research workers at universities, research centers, and institutions of higher learning”. SHEN feels that spirituality as envisaged by it has been confined to the mystics who articulate it in the first place and the elite who access it by virtue of their educational privileges, and no systematic attempts have been made to educate the general public about it. This kind of paternalistic approach is promoted worldwide by religion partly due to lack of suitably trained clergy and partly due to structural fidelity, and is based on a feeling that the masses are not necessarily interested in the understanding the real essence of spirituality. SHEN is convinced that the status quo must be changed and the Internet has provided the technological tool to assist in this mammoth effort. The enormous potential of ethical behavior and human development resulting from this effort makes it imperative that it be undertaken in earnest. Please visit our web site and click on the Library menu to see our effort to-date. With the advent of the Internet lot of this literature is already available on different site and can be made accessible to SHEN simply by providing links to the appropriate sites.

4. “To host public essay competitions for youth to promote spiritual living and spiritual development”. This objective is in conformity with the educational mission of SHEN. We must seek ideas from all quarters including the youth if we want to succeed in this important effort. SHEN feels essay competition is a meaningful method of achieving the youth involvement. Internet provides the reach for international solicitation and publication of good ideas. SHEN proposes to use this tool for the advancement of spiritual education using involvement such as essay competitions.

5. “To provide syllabi and educational material for courses on spiritual and ethical education in primary schools, high schools, colleges, and universities”. Modern developments in science, transportation, and communications have resulted in the growth of pluralistic, multi-cultural, multi-racial and secular societies worldwide. There is a great degree of cynicism in the traditional religious paradigms. Governments administer societies by the laws with fear of punishment. Ethics tend to be merely utilitarian and materialism reigns supreme. Living within the law or by bending the law and avoiding being caught is considered to serve the purpose of life. Meaning takes a back seat. Religion is not very effective in the ethics arena. It hinders by dividing rather than unite. Spiritual education as envisaged by SHEN offers the hope of creating a feeling of oneness and the consequent ethic equating goodness with oneness with the entire creation of the Almighty. This spiritual ethic challenges everyone to judge their actions by whether they make for unity and oneness of all instead of merely respecting the law of the land.

With an eye on potential benefits to humanity of such an ethic, SHEN proposes to create a storehouse of educational resources and make them available for the use all parties, including primary schools, high schools, colleges, and universities to use as part of their regular curricula. SHEN hopes that this kind of spiritual and ethical education will be more acceptable to pluralistic, multi-cultural, multi-racial, and secular societies such as Canada than education in individual religions. No progress has been made in this important area thus far. Subjects such as works of contemplatives and mystics, ultimate creative reality and meaning, religious philosophy, spiritual living, ethics, morality, yoga, and meditation, etc. are being researched.

6. “To deliver courses on spirituality and ethics at different levels on the Internet in distance education mode”. SHEN hopes to be able to offer courses in spirituality to those who would like to take them. Students will register in individual courses and will receive lessons and evaluations in distance education mode on the Internet.

7. “To receive and maintain a fund or funds and to apply all or part of the principal and income therefrom, from time to time, for charitable organizations, and in particular for charitable organizations or purposes as follows: (a) to provide bursaries and scholarships to deserving students in accordance with the Corporation’s policies and practices governing such disbursements; and (b) to institute Chairs at universities to promote education in spirituality”.

SHEN would like to promote its mission of spiritual education by suitably encouraging students with bursaries and scholarships. It plans to make funds available to educational institutions to administer according their respective policies for bursaries and scholarships with only the two additional requirements - use SHEN funds for promoting its mission of spiritual education, and report back to SHEN on the use of the funds. It is important for us to obtain the charitable status in order to obtain sufficient funds to finance this activity. We would like to start with one scholarship of $2,000 value at each of the five major Ontario universities and expand the program as we succeed further in fund raising. Source of income would be individual and corporate donations.

SHEN also proposes to institute chairs at various universities to promote research and education in spiritual heritage of humankind. Because of the high costs involved, setting up of university chairs is a long-term goal. At present, we are not aware of any major university with chairs in spirituality, although chairs in individual religion are commonplace. In order to promote spiritual education and research, we feel this situation must change. We are hoping that in time we would be able to interest corporate and individual donors in contributing to achieve this goal.

Having thus discussed each of the objectives stated in the SHEN governing documents, we proceed to look at each of the requests for information in your letter:

· “within its objectives, SHEN states that it will offer educational programs/seminars/materials on the topic of spiritual heritage. Please provide us with more information regarding this aspect of SHEN. We would like to be provided with a list of all the programs to be offered, as well as the actual or proposed curricula, reference materials or course materials (if available) for each. We would also appreciate it if SHEN could provide us with examples of any available media material or films it intends to create and/or distribute”

As discussed above in talking about the objectives, SHEN is proposing to set up an educational resource center and an educational facility for offering courses in distance education mode on the Internet in subjects such as lives and works of different mystics and contemplatives, ultimate reality, meaning of life, religious philosophy, spiritual living, ethics and morality, yoga, and contemplative methods such as meditation, etc. We consider setting up a good library resource as a pre-requisite to developing any educational material. We envisage a wide scope for SHEN. We have the whole of humankind in mind in setting up this facility. We have made a humble start in developing a culture and mindset for the organization and the library resource. We have setup a website http://www.SpiritualEducation.org which illustrates a framework of how SHEN plans to accomplish its mission.

We are aware that we need a wide variety of human resources to achieve our goals. We need to forge a network of interested people worldwide. We have made a start in forging this network. Locally, we have initiated a series of lectures at the University of Waterloo and the Kitchener Public Library. Lectures in the series are widely advertised and well attended. We enclose a guide to presenters and copies of flyers that we prepared to promote each of the recent talks and those that are planned for near future (Enclosure G). This enclosure is intended to give you an idea of the scope that we envision. In time, we intend to initiate similar lecture series at other locations within Canada and other countries.

We enclose a VHS tape containing an award winning film (Enclosure H) as an example of the ideas that we consider practical and relevant to SHEN’s mission. The title of this film is “Just a Little Red Dot”. A Toronto teacher and filmmaker, Mitra Sen produced it. It shows a true story based on her in class experience. We consider it a fine example of spirituality in action in everyday life in breaking down human barriers of racial divide and promoting understanding and oneness in the school system in Toronto.

We enclose three publications as examples of our intentions and abilities. They are authored by three of our founding members - “The Ultimate Reality and Meaning of Samkhya” by Shiv Talwar, Journal of Ultimate Reality and Meaning, Vol.24 Number 1, 2001 (Enclosure I), “Science and Mysticism” by H. K. Kesavan (Enclosure J), and “Woven On the Loom of Time – Many Faiths and One Divine Purpose” by M. Darrol Bryant (Enclosure K). Whereas there is a wealth of scholarly work in spirituality worldwide, we perceive a dismal lack of educational material suitable for pluralistic societies such as Canada.

· “SHEN states that it intends to provide scholarships and bursaries to deserving students. Please provide a complete description of this program. For example, what is the eligibility criteria for individuals? What is the selection process to determine qualified individuals? Will SHEN administer these funds? How will individuals be made aware of available funds? How much is to be provided? What will be the value of each scholarship/bursary, etc.? How will SHEN ensure the funds are used on a recipient's education?”

In the matter of scholarships and bursaries, SHEN proposes to develop a set of governing criteria with administrative details such as the selection process, fund administration, advertisement to make students aware of the availability of SHEN scholarships and bursaries, etc. to be handled by the respective internal policies of the recipient educational institution. There will be reporting requirement and a requirement that the SHEN funds be used to promote the SHEN mission.

· “We would also like to be provided with additional details regarding SHEN's objective to institute Chairs at universities, as well as any plans it may have to support educational institutions”

This is a long-term objective. It will be handled in a fashion similar to scholarships and bursaries with the universities enjoying complete academic freedom within the framework of SHEN’s mission and a reporting requirement.

· “How will SHEN promote the spiritual concept of "unity in diversity"?”

SHEN feels that the spiritual concepts that it proposes to promote automatically give rise to a feeling of unity in diversity leading to peace, equanimity, justice and harmony amongst all people. SHEN does not propose to take any action directly including political activity of any nature whatsoever towards promoting these values other than contributing to cause them indirectly through spiritual education. SHEN is a spiritual organization with an emphasis on education to rekindle the spiritual light, which is immanent in everyone. We hope that with the kindling of this light, feelings of universal unity automatically strengthen.

· “SHEN states that it may fund-raise using concerts or films. Kindly provide additional details on this program”

For fundraising, SHEN envisages to use the various accepted methods to solicit individual and corporate donations without competing with any industry. SHEN proposes to make the educational material available free to interested parties on the Internet and some material may be distributed in the form of books, video and audio tapes, etc, in which case SHEN will charge appropriately.

· “We note that SHEN's first list of objectives included a reference to assisting in realizing; "...peace, equanimity, justice, and harmony among all peoples". However, this objective is omitted from the formal governing documents submitted by SHEN. Does SHEN intend to pursue any activities in pursuit of such a purpose?”

This was judged to be an indirect outcome of SHEN’s objectives rather than an objective that SHEN has to actively attempt to achieve. That is the reason for its deletion.

We trust that the foregoing addresses each of the issues in your letter. Please do not hesitate to ask for further clarifications if necessary. Should you feel that a meeting with some of the SHEN directors for further clarifications will helpful, please do not hesitate to write and we shall only be too glad to attend at your office at a mutually arranged time. The signed copy of the bye-laws is also enclosed (Enclosure M).

Thanking you.

Yours truly,

Spiritual Heritage Education Network Inc.

Per:

Shiv Datt Talwar, President

List of Enclosures

A. An excerpt from the encyclical letter, fides et ratio, of the supreme pontiff John Paul II to the bishops of the Catholic Church on the Relationship Between Faith and Reason given in Rome, at Saint Peter's, on 14 September 1998

B. News Report and original of acceptance speech of the Reverend Canon Dr Arthur Peacocke of Oxford University for the 2001 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion

C. The Concept – A two page statement articulating the founding concept of SHEN

D. A brochure produced to promote SHEN

E. Set of five articles by Michael Valpy published in the Globe and Mail in December of 2000

F. Sharon Doyle Driedger’s article entitled “Soul Searchers” published in Maclean’s of April 16, 2001

G. Details of a SHEN sponsored series of lectures at the University of Waterloo and the Kitchener Public Library

H. A VHS tape containing an award winning film entitled “Just a Little Red Dot” by a Toronto teacher and filmmaker, Mitra Sen

I. Article entitled “The Ultimate Reality and Meaning of Samkhya” by Shiv Talwar, Journal of Ultimate Reality and Meaning, Vol.24 Number 1, 2001

J. Book entitled “Science and Mysticism” by H. K. Kesavan

K. Book entitled “Woven On the Loom of Time – Many Faiths and One Divine Purpose” by M. Darrol Bryant

L. SHEN Web site: http://www.SpiritualEducation.org

M. Signed copy of the byelaws.

[1] Higgins, Michael W. “Heretic Blood – The Spiritual Geography of Thomas Merton”, Stoddart, Toronto, 1998, page 259