Spiritual Heritage Education Network Inc.  

 

August 26, 2002

 

******

Charities Directorate

Canada Customs and Revenue Agency

Ottawa, ON

K1A 0L5

 

 

Dear Sir,

Re:  FILE REF NO. 3014329 – Spiritual Heritage Education Network Inc. (SHEN)

Reference is made to your letter dated April 19, 2002 on the subject file and our meeting in your office in Ottawa on July 3, 2002 with yourself and your colleague, Patrick.  Let me begin by thanking yourself and Patrick profusely for taking the time to meet with us and listen to our presentation.  We consider it extremely thoughtful of you to consent to this personal meeting, which enabled us to augment our application with a presentation face to face.  Special as our application is in its lack of precedence, it is our considered opinion that personal presentation proved invaluable in creating a level of mutual understanding of each other’s positions that is hard to achieve with the written word alone.

Summary

This letter starts by showing a strong affinity of the SHEN founders with education, SHEN being an outcome of their concern for a significant need that they perceive in modern secular educational systems of diverse societies in the free world.  SHEN came into existence because of its founders’ belief that education in the spiritual heritage of humankind will satisfy this need.  The letter reproduces the SHEN objects from its Letters Patent and shows that each and every one of the objects relate strongly with advancement of active education envisaged by SHEN.  SHEN proposes the mode of distance education via the Internet because of its cost effectiveness in reaching out to students in diverse geographical locations.  The letter then discusses the SHEN mission statement highlighting its generality, universality, inclusiveness and openness, thus arguing against any perception of narrowness, specificity, and closeness that are the characteristics of promotion of a specific definition, ethic, worldview, or behaviour. 

SHEN’s attempts and plans to-date to propel forward its educational objectives include its web site, its public seminars and proposed plan of distance education.  The educational plan includes plans for bursaries and scholarships, and instituting spirituality chairs at universities.  This letter describes all these attempts to-date and plans for future.  The letter concludes that SHEN’s extremely important and useful educational objectives cannot be achieved significantly without receiving the registered charity status from Canada Customs and Revenue Agency.

Objectives

Spiritual Heritage Education Network is a fairly descriptive name.  The operative word in the name is education.  Education is the reason for the creation of this organization.  The object of the said education is spiritual heritage – not of one community, one religion, or one culture but spiritual heritage of entire humanity.  The last word namely network expresses the methodology of operation in two senses.  In one sense, it means that SHEN proposes to achieve its objectives using an open network of volunteers worldwide.  In the second sense, it means that the modern worldwide network of computers, i.e. the Internet, is expected to play a key role in achieving the educational objectives in distance education mode in addition to enabling intercommunication between stakeholders such as volunteers, teachers, students, etc. in diverse geographical locations.

Our web site http://www.SpiritualEducation.org shows a list of our founding members and their respective bio-data in brief.  This list is indicative of the inclusiveness and universality of SHEN.  The list includes people from many religions and walks of life lead by a strong contingent of people from the field of education.  We reproduce below the impressive list of founding members from the field of education from the total list of founding members on the web site:

1. Bill Blackmore (Retd. Prof. Conestoga College & United Church Minister)
2. Darrol Bryant (Prof. & Chair of the Dept. of Religious Studies at the University of Waterloo)
3. Ramesh Chahauver  (Retd. Secondary School Teacher)
4. R.N. Dubey (Retd. Prof. Of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Waterloo)
5. H.K. Kesavan (Retd. Prof. & Chair of Systems Engineering Dept. at the University of Waterloo)
6. Russel Legge (Retd. Professor of World Religions at the University of Waterloo, President of the Canadian Council of Churches)
7. Jim Leslie (Retd. Prof. of Physics at the University of Waterloo, Director Distance Education)
8. Josephine Naidoo(Retd. Professor of Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University)
9. Richard Payette (Teacher Secondary School)
10. Paul Socken (Chair of the Department of French Studies at the University of Waterloo, Chair of the Dean's Advisory Committee on Jewish Studies)

 

 

 

 

11.      Shiv Talwar (Retd. Professor of Civil Engineering at Conestoga College)

 

 

 

 

I reproduce below all the objects for which SHEN is incorporated from our Letters Patent dated September 15, 2000:

1.        To promote education, research and dialogue of all religions and in the spiritual heritage of humankind on the Internet.

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.

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 centres, and institutions of higher learning.

4.       To host public essay competitions for youth to promote spiritual living and spiritual development.

5.       To provide syllabi and educational material for courses on spiritual and ethical education in primary schools, high schools, colleges, and universities.

6.       To deliver courses on spirituality and ethics at different levels on the Internet in distance education mode.

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”.

As you can see from the above objects in the Letters Patent that SHEN does not “merely disseminate materials over the Internet”.  It does in fact plan to “engage in activities targeted at educating others”.  All the said objects are related with development and offering of formal courses in distance education mode; to research and development of educational materials and resources; development of curricula, course outlines and content; etc.  Our objects include proactive distance education courses as well as self-learning resources and opportunities through chat and discussion sessions.

SHEN plans to provide education in a distance education mode.  It may be pointed out that distance education mode of the kind proposed by SHEN is adopted by many reputable educational institutions in today’s technological environment especially when the goal is to reach students in diverse geographical locations.  SHEN’s educational objectives are not limited to a specific location and we intend to reach diverse locations nationwide, distance education is thought to be the best mode suitable for serving our purpose.  This plan of active education rather than mere dissemination of materials over the Internet is obvious from our web site as well where one item of the top-level menu is entitled “Registration” and another as “Courses”.  This objective clearly involves actively registering students in formal courses involving instruction in a useful branch of human knowledge, which has taken added importance especially after the tragic and symptomatic events in New York on September 11, 2001.

Mission

Let us now focus on the object of SHEN’s intended educational activity.  As pointed out earlier in this letter, the object of the said education is spiritual heritage – not of one community, one religion, or one culture but spiritual heritage of entire humanity.  You are right in stating that the term "Spiritual Heritage" is not specifically defined in SHEN's Letters Patent.  It is perhaps appropriate not to hardwire any legal definition in the Letters Patent, since the term “Spiritual Heritage” of humanity in general and as intended defies any specific definition.

In the absence of a specific definition of the term “Spiritual Heritage” in the Letters Patent, the mission statement from a document entitled “The Concept” in Enclosure C of our documentation mailed to you on August 23, 2001 is a good guide.  This statement provided the motivating factor for the founding members of SHEN to go ahead with its incorporation.  Let us first focus on the first paragraph of this statement, which reads as:

"The mission of the proposed Spiritual Education Network is to provide easy access to the thinking and findings of people who have spent their lives studying the nature of humankind and its relationships in the universe.  The motivation behind the mission is to assist humankind in realizing its full potential by understanding and living by spiritual principles discovered by such people.” 

The first sentence of the above quoted paragraph constitutes our mission statement.  We submit that statement is open and general.  It addresses the great philosophical and spirituality questions regarding the essence of existence of individual and that of the universe, such as “Who am I?”, “What is this universe?”, “How am I related to this universe?”, “What is the meaning of life?” etc., etc.  In this connection, we intend to explore thinking and findings of people from different disciplines - philosophers, theologists, spiritual and religious leaders, mystics, etc. from different religions and cultures; and people from natural and life sciences such as physicists, chemists, cosmologists, biologists, etc. that study and research the origin of life and of the universe.  In this way, our mission is related with human quest for intelligibility of the universe and meaning of life through the study and learning of spiritual principles that deal with the essence of the universe and that of human beings, highlighting the relationships of human beings within the universe and with their maker.  We submit that there is no specificity or narrowness in our mission that even hints at pursuing any particular attitude of mind or any particular ethical standard by which to conduct one’s life and affairs.

The second sentence of the paragraph quoted above states the motivation behind the first sentence and it talks about “assisting humankind in realizing its full potential” through intelligibility in general and understanding the core meaning of human existence.  We further submit that this motivation too lacks any particularity of mental attitude or of ethical standard.

We expect some tangible benefits to accrue to the society as a consequence of our educational effort towards a renewed understanding of the nature of humankind and its relationships in the universe.  Although it is hard to foresee all such benefits, it is easy to foresee some of them.  For example, we can anticipate an increased understanding of our respective religions and that of others leading to an increased tolerance of other religions.  We can anticipate a reduction in discrimination based on race, religion, age, sex, etc.  We can anticipate an increased feeling of connectedness of not only humanity but also of humanity with its environment.  All such good has a spiritual dimension that our objectives seek to emphasize.

The second paragraph reproduced in your letter is an attempt to elaborate on such societal good in an inclusive manner. This paragraph reads as reads as follows:

“People, who have realized such a spirituality as envisioned herein, agree about its fundamental nature.  They declare that the immanent self is the same as, or at least akin to, the Universal Principle [1] .  They also say that the innermost desire of everyone is to personally discover this Truth.  Once such spirituality is experienced, one recognizes the Ultimate Truth in all things and feels a sense of self in everything.  This recognition has the potential of helping human beings become better by observing the ethic of unity of all creation.  Such spiritual discoveries comprise a human heritage worth preserving and promoting.  They are the source of all ethics and peoples’ only hope towards realizing true understanding, peace, equanimity, justice, and harmony."

This paragraph contains a perception of public good that may result from the pursuit of the SHEN mission, thus providing a tangible rationale for pursuing the stated mission.  This perception does not preclude other perceptions of public good that may accrue from our mission.  We submit that even this rationale does not foresee any particular attitude of mind or any particular ethical standard by which to conduct one’s life and affairs.  The only thing foreseen or hoped for here is spiritual dimension of human development leading to a feeling of fundamental unity or connectedness of entire humanity resulting from reflection on the great philosophical and spiritual questions of life.  How individuals play out this feeling of mutual love and understanding resulting from a feeling of underlying unity or connectedness is their business, and it is not SHEN’s business.

We submit to you that our mission and objectives are related with the study of age-old fundamental spiritual and philosophical questions and the conduct of life according to the ethical standards that emerge on reflection of such questions.  Different religions have been doing it for ages, but they have been doing it in isolation.  Their approaches might have been effective when societies were homogenous.  Hampered as they are with institutional loyalty, it is a matter of general perception that the religious approach is of limited effectiveness in today’s post-modern heterogeneous societies of the free world continually being reshaped by globalization, communications revolution and other forces.  What is new in our mission is the collective study and research by a diverse group of interested people in spiritual underpinnings of different religious traditions and dissemination of the resulting knowledge and understanding through dialogue, education, and reflection.  Internet provides an excellent medium of communication between individuals located in different locations for dialogue, discussion, research and education.

We intend to study and research the essence of an individual and the essence of the universe by studying the spiritual heritage of humankind as stated in our mission - “the thinking and findings of people who have spent their lives studying the nature of humankind and its relationships in the universe”.  We intend to use an approach that is multi-disciplined, multi-religious, and multi-cultural in order to include a body of knowledge that can truly be described as spiritual heritage of entire humanity.  We intend to develop different kinds of educational material for public education in such a spiritual heritage.  We intend to develop and offer courses about the same in distance education mode, provide bursaries, scholarships to encourage such studies and research, and institute chairs at universities to promote research and education in spiritual heritage of entire humanity.  We submit our keywords are education, research, dialogue, and reflection in such a spiritual heritage.  There is no room for “persuading the public to adopt a particular attitude of mind with regard to the ethical standards by which to conduct one's life and affairs”.

To better illustrate SHEN’s attempt to-date and plans to propel forward its educational objectives, SHEN has initiated efforts to commence an exercise of various educational activities, namely:

·        SHEN Sponsored Public Seminars

·        Post-Secondary Level Courses

·        Bursaries and Scholarships

·        Chairs at Universities

Seminars

We have made a start.  One example of this start is our web site.  The current state of development of the web site is only an indicator of our objectives more than our achievements.  Our achievements to-date with unpaid volunteers although noticeable do not even scrape the surface of the huge potential of our objectives, which cannot be fully realized without receiving the registered charity status from Canada Customs and Revenue Agency.

Another example of this start is visible in the seminars that SHEN has been sponsoring at the University of Waterloo.  Some of the seminars are also offered at the Kitchener Public Library.  This series of seminars is arranged by SHEN and advertised in the local media, public libraries and the local universities; and it is open at no cost to everyone - students, faculty, and the community.  Here are the details including title, presenter, and brief description of seminars that we have had to-date:

1. Glimpses of Indian Spirituality

Professor Darrol Bryant of the University of Waterloo offered this seminar at the University of Waterloo and later at the Kitchener Public Library.  Attendance at the University of Waterloo was more than 50 people and the Kitchener Public Library approximately 35.  India is a land of rich and diverse spiritual traditions.  Darrol's video-lecture on this topic was a result of a study term abroad as part of a course in year 2000.  The talk explores in words and images something of the remarkable diversity of Indian spirituality: Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Jain and Sikh emphasizing how people of diverse faiths can live and work in relative peace and harmony due the inherent spirituality of the population.

2. Spirituality & Yoga

Professor R.N. Dubey of the University of Waterloo offered this seminar at the University of Waterloo.  Perhaps because of the current popularity of yoga, over 70 people attended this seminar.  Yoga is not merely a physical discipline.  Professor Dubey explored the concepts of spirituality and yoga.  He discussed the relationship between them and examined how yoga helps experience spirituality in real life.

3. Evil: Contemporary Spiritual Responses

Professor David Seljak of the University of Waterloo offered this seminar at the University of Waterloo.  About 25 people attended this seminar.  The modern world has seen great advances.  It has also seen unprecedented acts of evil:  colonialism and imperialism, the Holocaust, World Wars, the nuclear arms race, and the environmental crisis that threatens the very existence of life on this planet.  The seminar discusses thinkers who turn to ancient writings, ideas, values, and practices to address the problem of evil in the modern world to come up with some startling and fascinating suggestions.  Can we still find sources of wisdom and goodness in these traditions to offer solutions to the unique forms of evil today?  The seminar strongly suggested that the principle of underlying unity is humankind’s only hope in minimizing evil, which is the result of the principle of separation and division.  Even doctrines can be divisive and thus evil.

4. Mount Kailasa: A Spiritual Journey

Name of Mount Kailasa conjures up visions of its grandeur and solitude in the minds of yogic seekers.  Followers of different faiths envision their respective deities – Lord Shiva for Hindus, Buddha/Avaloketishwara/ Padmasambhav for Tibbetans/Buddhists, Rishabh Dev for Jains, and so on - sitting in the lap of Mount Kailasa in the lotus position lost in deep meditation unlocking the mysteries of the universe and beyond.  In his talk, Mr. C.M. Bhandari, who worked as a tour guide for this idyllic Himalayan destination, shared with us his own spiritual journey, as also references from Skanda Purana and Srimad Bhagwad Purana about pilgrimage to Kailasa and Mansarovar and the creation of the Universe.  He will also shared his views on God realization, which is the purpose of most of the pilgrims to Mount Kailasa.  This seminar was offered at the University of Waterloo and was attended by approximately 50 people.

5. Spirituality of Thomas Merton

Professor Michael Higgins of the University of Waterloo offered this seminar.  The venue for this seminar was the Kitchener Public Library, where approximately 35 people were in attendance.  Thomas Merton has been the single most influential American Catholic spiritual author of the twentieth century.  Merton knew God personally and he wrote theology from his own contemplative experience.  According to Merton, "Contemplation transforms our consciousness and forces us to see reality in a new and totally different light. It gives a sense of oneness not only with God but with the whole of reality that exists only because it is grounded in God."  In this talk, Professor Higgins gave us an account of the personality of Thomas Merton and his spirituality.

6. Gardens: A Reflection of Spiritual Beauty

Jaellayna Palmer offered this seminar at the University of Waterloo, and approximately 15 people were in attendance.  The importance of gardens and physical beauty in the world's religions is introduced and then visually presented through a series of slides showing the recent transformation of Mt. Carmel in Haifa, Israel, the world headquarters for the Baha'i Faith.  Jaellayna personally served as a volunteer at the Bahai headquarters for eight years.  She studies gardens as a reflection of God's beauty. She has visited gardens and holy places in nearly 40 countries.

7.    Noticing Spirituality

 

Jack Paleczny offered this seminar at the University of Waterloo to an audience of approximately 25.  Jack’s work as hospital chaplain privileged him to have patients share their life stories with him.  He developed a framework of understanding their spirituality, whether it was presented in religious language or otherwise.  As he noticed personal qualities, connections and questions, he reflected them back to the people who generally appreciated being been understood.  Consequent spiritual assessment enabled Jack to develop a plan of spiritual care, which he shares with other caregivers so they too could appreciate and support the spiritual journey of the patients.  In his seminar, Jack shared with us his experience and his framework of spiritual understanding.  This seminar was also promoted in all the local hospital and care facilities.

 Many caregivers were in attendance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

8.    The Spirit of God & The Times of our Lives

 

Professor Hendrik Hart offered this seminar at two venues – the University of Watyerloo and the Kitchener Public Library.  Attendance at the University of Waterloo was about 25 and at the library only 5.  Hendrik recently retired as professor of philosophy at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto.  One of the areas he worked on was the spirituality of all human endeavors, not just the work of religious people.  He tried in this way to gain acceptance for religious people who wanted to make open connections between their spirituality and their scholarly work.  In this context he spent much times assessing the spirit of Reason of the West, both as it influenced secular academics and as it influenced religious life.  In his seminar, Hendrik shared with us some results of these studies as they impact on understanding the world in which we live…

9. World Peace – A Spiritual Issue

Paul Ellingham offered this seminar at the University of Waterloo with an audience of approximately 25 persons.  Paul Ellingham has served as the chaplain for the United Church of Canada at the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier for ten years, and as minister of the Bloomingdale United Church for seven years. Paul has been involved in a wide spectrum of interfaith events in Waterloo and Edmonton and has a special interest in the spiritual development of young people. Paul has also been actively involved with Habitat for Humanity for ten years and chairs an affordable housing corporation.  In this seminar, Paul discussed spiritual dimension of world peace – how people’s spirituality and spiritual actions stemming from the underlying unity of the entire humanity as expressed through the principle of non-violence can contribute to peace.

The topics planned for the seminar series in the near future include “Spiritual Bases for Religious Tolerance”, “Essence of Buddhism”, “Spirituality and Health”, “Book of Genesis”, “Bhagvad Gita”, etc.  Some of the seminar transcripts are expected be featured on our web site as well.  The mix of seminar topics and seminar presenters indicate the wholeness and width of SHEN objectives.  While deciding the seminar topics and the presenters, the only considerations are relationship with the essence of humankind and the universe, essence of religion (any religion), inclusiveness, and respect for all without discrimination of any kind, whatsoever.

 

Courses

We plan to develop educational resources such as course descriptions, course outlines, lesson plans, learning resources and teaching material on the broad subject of spiritual heritage of humankind.  These educational resources would be made available on the website for interested teachers worldwide.  We want our research and development effort to be available for educational purposes by all interested parties.  This sharing of research and development will facilitate spiritual education in general by obviating the need for the same or similar effort as already accomplished by us.

In addition, we plan to develop courses to be delivered on our website in a distance education mode.  Initially, faculty for developing the educational vision and directions for research and development as well as teaching would be drawn from the list of founding members of SHEN from the field of education, who will work on unpaid voluntary basis because of their commitment to the concept of SHEN.  However, we cannot achieve the SHEN educational objectives in a significant manner without receiving the registered charity status from Canada Customs and Revenue Agency since paid research and development staff and teaching faculty are necessary for the same. 

Potential students will register on the website and pay a nominal fee for taking these courses.  The course offerings will be on formal basis with all the features characterizing formal education including course outlines and objectives, individual lesson objectives, the offering of sequential lessons, assignments, monitoring of progress and evaluations, etc.   Personal interaction with teachers will be rendered possible through the use of Internet tools such as e-mail, web phone, web discussions and scheduled chat sessions.  Student group interaction will be encouraged with discussion threads on the web and chat sessions.  Students will also interact with each other.  One-to-one student interaction will use e-mail.  In addition, wherever possible, students will be encouraged to make personal presentations in scheduled seminars and conferences.

Initially, SHEN courses will be targeting the mature student at the post secondary level and successful completion of courses shall be recognized with the award of an appropriate SHEN certificate only - personal development being the only motivation for taking the courses.  As the offerings mature, we plan to develop courses for secondary schools and younger students as well.  We also plan to negotiate credit arrangements with regular academic institutions.  In addition, we plan to help and encourage them to offer our courses in-house in their respective classrooms at appropriate levels.

We perceive the following courses or course categories as the educational core that characterize and define the uniqueness and universality of SHEN.  The core courses will look at different spiritual issues in a non-judgmental and an inclusive manner.  The purpose will be to assist the student in the student’s individual spiritual quest for intelligibility and meaning.  Because of the importance we attach to these objectives, we intend to develop and offer them using diversely constituted teams of faculty.  We intend to continue making every effort in developing and maintaining excellent resources in offering them:

1.      Universal Principle And The Individual

The term “Universal Principle” refers to that principle, which can be considered as the substratum of the universe.  Terms such as “Ultimate Reality”, “Ground of Being”, “Godhead”, “Absolute”, etc. are used synonymously.  Different religions, different disciplines, different cultures and different individuals have various views about the Universal Principle, as to how the universe comes about, how and why the individual in the universe relates to it.  This course explores major schools of thought about such questions and dwells on the fact that all schools of thought seem plausible to their respective proponents.  Such an exploration, it is hoped will lead to intelligibility of the universe and a feeling of tolerance of different points of view.

2.      Meaning and Purpose

The universe exists for a purpose and human life in the universe has meaning only in the context of individual reflection and understanding guided by the thoughts of one’s spiritual role models and spiritual directors.  This course or course category will guide the student in his/her quest for meaning and purpose of life by encouraging an exploration of the individual concept of intelligibility.

3.      Contemplative Techniques

Spiritual life implies living according to ones concepts of what is vital and of essence.  Reflection and contemplation are thought to be necessary to sort out the trivial from the vital.  This course or category of courses will explore the various contemplative and meditative systems including Patanjali’s system of yoga and the approach according to the Anonymous Author of The Cloud of Unknowing.

4.      Spiritual Ethics

Irrespective of the approach used to achieve intelligibility, whatever underlies one individual underlies all.  Whatever the individual understanding may be of the underlying substratum and the individual’s relationship with it, he/she must behave with others and the environment as if all are similarly related with It.  Spiritual ethic lies in the unity of the essence of all beings and objects.  Good lies in the recognition of this essential unity in living one’s life and on the contrary, evil in the non-recognition of this unity.  Good is what makes for unity or oneness and evil is what makes for separateness or division.  Spiritual ethic emphasizes this essential unity with due regard to the practicality of superficial differences.  The course explores ways of how life can be lived emphasizing this underlying unity irrespective of our concept of this unity.  This ethic, by its very nature, is simultaneously satisfactory in both spiritual and practical domains.

In addition to the above mentioned core courses, we intend to develop and offer various courses in the following categories:

1.      Spiritual Leaders and Spiritual Literature

In support of the core courses, we intend to offer various courses to study spiritual thought in diverse spiritual works and of spiritual leaders such as the Upanishads, the Bhagvad Gita, the Ramayana, the Bible, the Talmud, Theologica Germanica, the Quran, the Hadith, the Lankavatara Sutra, the Heart Sutra, the Dhammapada, the Tibetan Book of Dead, the Lotus Sutra, Spiritual thought of the Aboriginal Americans, Shankara, Ramanaujan, St. Teresa, William Law, Meister Eckhart, Chuang Tzu, Yung-chia Ta-shih, Sen T'sen, Kabir, St Catharine of Genoa, St Bernard, Bayazid of Bistun, Ruysbroeck, Hans Denk, George Fox, William Penn, Abraham, Moses, Philo of Alexandria, the Maimonides, the Kabalists, Martin Buber, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Jalal-uddin Rumi, Evelyn Underhill, Patanjali, Anonymous Author of The Cloud of Unknowing, Buddha, Nagarjuna, Chinul, Hui Neng, Padmasambhava, Dalai Lama, Bodhidharma, Shinran, Atisha, Mahavira, Guru Nanak, Mohammed, Jesus, St. Augustine, St. Thomas, Darwin, Einstein, Baha'u'llah, Thomas Merton, Ramana Maharishi, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, John Shelby Spong, etc.

2.      Philosophy and Spirituality

Philosophy studies human ideas in general.  Spirituality studies human ideas relating to the essence of humanity and of the universe, relationship of the universe and its essence, meaning and purpose of life, etc.  Understanding of philosophic ground related with first principles such as the human ego, beginning of human thought, sense perception, nature of sense perception, subjectivity, etc. are considered essential to the understanding of spiritual heritage with which humanity is endowed.  This course covers such thoughts of philosophers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Shankara, Kapila, Patanjali, and others as are considered relevant in the understanding of spiritual heritage of humanity.

3.      Theology

Theological topics such as different exegeses of the book of Genesis, Samkhya and Yoga schools of thought etc.; heaven and earth; consciousness and material nature; grace and human effort; contemplative and active lives; salvation according to different religions and cultures; and other topics that are considered complementary to the understanding of the spiritual heritage of humanity.

4.      Natural & Social Sciences

This course or course category is related with ideas from Physics, Chemistry, Cosmology, Psychology, Neuroscience, Biotechnology, Life Sciences and Computer Science etc. that add to the understanding of the unity of essence of humanity, the universe and of life in the universe.  Sciences as well as spirituality are in the realm of human experience in a continuum of understanding.  They must compliment each other without contradictions.

Bursaries & Scholarships

SHEN plans to promote its objectives 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 two additional requirements - use SHEN funds for promoting its objectives 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.

Chairs at Universities

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 spiritual heritage of humanity, 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.  We plan to set up our first such chair at the University of Waterloo.

 

Network - Our Method

We would like to point out that SHEN is not a closed association.  We propose to achieve the SHEN objectives through a network of interested volunteers worldwide to promote education, research, dialogue, and reflection in spiritual heritage of all humankind.  The openness of the voluntary association further ensures against any vested interest persuading the public to adopt a particular attitude of mind with regard to the ethical standards by which to conduct one's life and affairs.  This openness is clearly visible from our web site as well, in which calls for worldwide volunteers are displayed in prominent positions.

In conclusion, we would like to emphasize SHEN’s single-minded focus on education in spiritual heritage of entire humanity.  SHEN’s objectives aim at active education, and active education alone.  SHEN is not satisfied by mere dissemination of material on the Internet. SHEN considers passive dissemination of material in the role of library resource only that cannot replace but it can certainly assist in the educational process.  We would like to reiterate that SHEN’s objectives and its methods possess the generality, universality, inclusiveness and openness; and lack the narrowness, specificity, and closeness that are the characteristics of promotion of a specific definition, ethic, worldview, or behaviour. 

Although a lot more needs to be done, SHEN has made a humble start in achieving its objectives.  Your support is considered essential before we can proceed at an accelerated pace.

We would, therefore, request that you reconsider your opinion in the light of our meeting of July 3, 2002 and the information presented in this letter.

Thanking you.

Yours truly,

Spiritual Heritage Education Network Inc.

Per:

 

 

 Shiv Datt Talwar, President