Yearly observance of the World Interfaith Harmony Week in the first week of February is the result of a UN General Assembly resolution proposed by HRH Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad on behalf of HM King Abdullah II of Jordan in 2010. This resolution was adopted unanimously as it expresses a heartfelt aspiration of humanity.
Yearly observance of the International Day of Yoga on June 21 is the result of a UN General Assembly resolution proposed by Prime Minster, Narendra Modi, of India and co-sponsored by 177 member nations in 2014. This resolution was adopted without a vote as it expresses a universal recognition of uniqueness of yoga as a technology of human transformation to enable realization of any heartfelt aspiration.
Spiritual Heritage Education Network Inc. (SHEN), the organizer of this virtual conference on four consecutive Saturdays of February, 2021, was established in Waterloo, Ontario in Canada on September 15, 2000. This organization is dedicated to researching, developing, delivering and promoting education in core human spirituality of antiquity and secular sciences of modernity to cultivate lived feelings of unity in diversity. The nature of this education must be contemplative to live what we learn and teach.
The aim of SHEN then is to put these two UNGA resolutions together to “Envision the Future of Education: Contemplative Learning of Unity in Diversity” to transform the mind of the learners to love the One God of the universe, to love the Good and love the neighbour irrespective of his/her diversity.
This four day conference is planned to have a look at four different issues related with education of the future to usher in an era of world interfaith harmony. Please look at the focus of each day by clicking on the links that follow:
- Feb 6, 2021: The conference will focus on ways to raise the consciousness of learners to see the One God of the universe in the God of their specific communities and in the relative God of other communities to enable the love of the neighbour irrespective of the diversity of the neighbour.
- Feb 13, 2021: Our inbuilt natural instincts and early childhood conditioning of the mind about the relative God of our faith community keeps our consciousness at the level of survival, sustenance, procreation and the faith identity. What is a systematic way of raising our consciousness to transcend such divisive issues to see the light of the Universal God reflect from the God of our faith in order to see the neighbour of another community as a kin?
- Feb 20, 2021: Our research shows a unity between core wisdom of religion and again a unity between this spiritual wisdom and secular science. We call this convergence of scientific and spiritual wisdom as holistic science. This science underlies the transformational system of yogic contemplation. On this day, we will focus on the beauty and power of Holistic Science, systematic application of which can transforms us to see unity in diversity and love the neighbour independent of how diverse he/she may be.
- Feb 27, 2021: On this day, the conference will focus its light on the incomparable system of eight-fold yogic contemplation the practice of which can transform humanity to live not only in harmony but also in health and wellness.