The Interfaith path was born as a consequence of the need for Canada to open its doors to those of other faiths who wished to have refuge from conflict within their country. When the government opened its heart to allow other faiths to live communally there was a need to consider how this would affect the children of the next generation. The concern was about how to support and allow other faiths since Canada was a Christian country. So there was created a constitutional law in which Canada would provide the support to other countries and allow for a Multifaith movement.

Within the spiritual path of a movement I see distinctions about how a person interests or involves themselves in creating association. There is the person who is of a faith and who is not interested in other faiths yet who understands that love is within all faiths. These people are the grounding field for the Multifaith path, these people usually identify themselves by the name of the tradition they belong to. Then there are those who aren’t of a designated faith yet who work in a spiritual way and also feel that God’s love is the one. Here are those who aren’t of a faith yet who are faithful to God’s love. All are considered.

For this reason I come to present my version of a simple understanding of the basic rights born to each human being – the right to exist spiritually with a loving God.

Many Paths, One truth

​A perspective of the rights of  the​ individual practitioner

The first right is the right to exist and is the first and foremost right, as the light of consciousness born of awareness is what takes us into realization. To know this right is to know safety, as the right to exist is born intimately through a field of kindness. This first right is to ascertain that the individual has a right to be and exist without torment. Nothing can take away this right; the right to exist is the right to know a greater good in faith.

When the light of kindness is not available the individual practitioner who is subjected to conscious pain has the right to know the holding of good government. When the goodness of heart holds the light of heart it engenders right relationship, clear communication and security.

The next right that comes into play is the right to experience. By association we come to know our own nature for we cannot exist without personal experience. By way of reflection and observation we come to see, know and understand the quality of existence that moves us. Our personal experience is born of relationship; our way of relating provides us with our individual nature. When the individual is given this right, a respect is born of deep intimacy with self. Otherwise the nature of the individual remains shadowed in doubt and conflict without self- reflection. What is governing through experience is a reflection of the greater mind as is born of the individual who is in actualization. When the knowing of the individual through experience comes to light, the spiritual association can then respond.

As a spiritual practitioner who serves to intimately know goodness, it is imperative to know the right to exist and the right to experience.  Otherwise there would be no foundation on which the individual would have the right to be as is. The right to be as you are is a respect for distinctiveness, and only by way of this respect can there be true association. This right comes naturally as the field of consciousness provides the energy and light through which the self is reflected. When this right is seen as beneficial the individual has the power to know rest and find comfort, this allows for an awakening to and enhancement of the greater goodness. This right encourages the evolution of a souls’ consciousness and is the bridge to knowing thyself.

As the individual discovers and explores the sensitive nature of self, there is then the right to need. Need is born of longing and desire to be conscious in the light and goodness of Divine light. This need is an impulse that is heartfelt and grounded in a human being. Allowing the right to need opens an individual to accept the nature of being vulnerable under a greater good. The right to need is first with self and then with other and feeds an exchange for light and love that enhances the greater good. It is essential for without the right to need the spiritual association does not grow. When the right to need is denied there is conflict at all levels; this conflict is a way of relating that can indulge issues of power.

When the individual has engaged the movement towards the light, the experience of this engagement opens the senses. The right to touch is the experience of receptivity with the light.  When in receptivity the consciousness is open to knowing and responding with natural understanding. The right to touch enables consciousness and union. Without touch there is no ability for the self to receive, transmit and give. The right to touch gives the grounding force for a human being to know that their knowing is acceptable and good.

As the right to touch brings into play the complete individual by engaging the physical body as spiritual embodiment, the right to be healthy and happy is the right to exist in a positive and sensitive way. This is harmony with the light.

The transition of the individual into consciousness brings awareness of new possibilities. This is the potential for the individual to create. Within this potential is the ability to grow, expand, deny and express. The right to create is the sensitive action that fulfills a need with heart. What establishes this right in our value system is the knowledge of self as good, and without this there is no potential and possibility to create. The right to create is established through an individuals’ ability to connect with consciousness.

When the right to create attracts others there is the merging of the senses. Through attraction the self is reflected and seen by others. Intimate relating allows the heart to evolve. Absence of intimate contact is by nature deprivation, for without heartfelt contact the senses cannot evolve. This is the right to intimacy and in this right we acknowledge the ability and need to share heartfelt connection. What is of value through connection is to realize the heart as knowing. The suffering that we engage in through intimate relating is only of past and asks a delicate application of awareness. When this awareness is offered there is mutual understanding. The right to intimacy is the right to have a meaningful relationship with self and other.

What the right to intimacy asks of the individual is to know that self is good and lovable. When this is acknowledged there is the freedom to know a greater field of love. The offering of consciousness in intimate relating opens the individual to a play of free association and brings awareness to a freedom of being. This right to be free is the right to relate as an individual in conjunction with others and with God. This right moves the light into an expansion of consciousness and feeds the field of heart for all. The right to be free is a reflection of the right to be.

The last right is the right to love. Nowhere is there a power more engaging and more demanding of the individual. The right to love asks that we be able to know all other rights since these are the foundation of faith on which the heart can respond effectively and wisely. Together the rights bring forward for the individual a conscious and heartfelt ability to know love. Love as a fountain of goodness is expressed in consciousness and can only exist when the right is observed.

As the practitioner grows, the light of consciousness seeks to reveal itself when these rights are observed. By this I mean to say that growth of heart and consciousness will have impact and make an impression that indicates that the practitioner as an individual has personal power. Yet this power is of the light and should not be misused. When the light issues a purposeful reflection it is an expression from the greatest of all sources of love.

The Interfaith movement hasn't yet done service to bring unity to spiritual matters. When the professional individual takes the time to work with association, there is no way that the collective will deny the whole therefore in time the matter of rights will become a point of fact.

We choose our path and with consciousness and heart there is growth collectively. Personally the Interfaith movement provides the awareness and possibility of great value culturally.  In learning about other spiritual traditions we grow in awareness and respect for other cultures, but without true heartfelt association this power is of no probability. Without true heartfelt association there is no foundation of rights on which the individual practitioner of any faith can exist.

In offering this paper on the rights of the individual I feel grateful to have the opportunity to share a deep need. This need is of a desire to promote an awareness of a light within that looks to give, and which seeks to know a community of everyday people who can grow in association, simply because they have heart. When these two meet many others are then allowed to grow because those who have the grounding for this can support those who are beginning the journey. The field of light and love that we share is an ocean that feeds us. There is no illusion of separateness when we accept and share basic spiritual rights. When awakened the practitioner knows this path as a simple expression of love that provides the protection and creation of a positive relationship with all there is.

When the collective comes to recognise the rights of the individual, a stable and purposeful relationship with God, the light of consciousness and heart is held. When a field of likeminded people work in association and in light only the rights of the individual are shared. The thought of so many people of diverse paths fielding a light that does not in any way deny consciousness is our potential.  In my opinion the basic rights of the individual are the foundation, the building block on which this movement can grow successfully.

Copyright Denise Richard