The Wiki-Spirit Manifesto:

A contribution to the conversation in the world about spiritual life.
If you dare to, pass it on to your list, with attribution below. And since it's a collaborative project, feel free to shoot me your contributions. It's open-source spiritual software, and I'll feel free to administer the contributions for greatest project evolution and effectiveness.

Thanks,
Don McAvinchey
CoachDon@CreateaMonthofMiracles.com
www.createamonthofmiracles.com


The Wiki-Spirit Manifesto:
An Open-Source, Collaborative & Sustainable Spirituality

1. All organized religions are set up to keep men in power. That’s it. ‘Nuff said on that.

2. If you’re arguing with that first point, you’re proving it.

3. Spirituality is about your individual experience of spiritual life, your connection with the numinous of life.

4. If there are rules or dogma, it isn’t spirituality. It's religion. Not the same thing.

5. Many organized religions narrow one’s thinking to close to other possibilities in life, and in spiritual life. I’m not sure if they all do. You’ll have to decide that.

6. Thinking a certain way, being a certain way, talking a certain way, isn’t spirituality. This is what organized religion does to you.

7. You have to fit a certain mold. This isn’t spirituality.

8. Spirituality is about living an ecstatic life. Wide open, fully expressed, fulfilled life. Not living by organized religions’ rules. That ecstatic living may be quietly led, and may be dancing for joy. But it’s about expressing Your Self.

9. It’s really good to hear different thoughts, and not be controlled by just one thought.

10. Spiritual life picks and chooses what works for you, from your knowledge, teachings of others, and what fits for you in your life’s unfolding situations. Not what forces you to fit into some pre-determined form.

11. Any organized religion that keeps women out of leadership roles is a lie.

12. Women are children of Spirit/God/Goddess/The Universe/Consciousness, equal to all other forms of life, especially equal to men.

13. If you believe otherwise, you have been brainwashed by men who wear long robes, and funny hats. They are manipulating you. Time to wake up.

14. If you have internalized these derogatory beliefs and are arguing about women being less than men, you’re again proving that you have been brainwashed. Sorry about that.

15. Life is far too rich, varied, and wonderful to be contained by such bigotry. How could one aspect of The Great Spirit be less than some other aspect? Silliness, pure and simple.

16. Spiritual life is based in our own individual experience of mystical, mysterious, and wonderful occurrences. No one else can judge our experiences.

17. Scripture can be a guide for living a deeper, more fulfilling spiritual life.

18. It can also be used to dominate people different from your group, keeping this belief of “they are less than us” going. That’s just wrong. And evil.

19. If you hear a minister, priest, rabbi or imam using scripture to portray others as less than his group, he is lying to you, and trying to manipulate you. Please don’t fall for that old trick.

20. No doctrine means freedom of spirit.

21. Not being attached to dogma is spiritual life.

22. To live life is what spirituality is all about. Living doctrine or dogma is about keeping men in power over women, indigenous peoples, and anyone who opposes those old ideas.

23. Trying to convert anyone to your way of ‘religious belief’ is using domination over his or her Spirit. Domination can be defined as you thinking you’re better than, have the true answer, and look down on the other person and their spiritual life.

24. This is inherently wrong and evil.

25. Evangelism is using domination over other peoples’ Spirit. I’m sure you’d guessed already that we were going there, right?

26. Thus, evangelism is wrong and evil.

27. If you don’t think so, just check out the television evangelists, and look at them objectively as to their level of compassion, understanding and acceptance of other peoples’ beliefs. You may not stop puking if you really let the truth of this into your belly.

28. Spiritual ideas that challenge your way of thinking aren’t necessarily bad.

29. Different is good.

30. You have to have an open mind and open heart to love those who have different spiritual experiences than you.

31. Even people with different beliefs from this manifesto. Check that out.

32. All spiritual dogma or doctrine is wrong, by definition.

33. The definition is that we honor individual spiritual experience above doctrine.

34. Any doctrine, dogma, preaching or rules must subjugate automatically to individual spiritual experience and expression.

35. Don’t hold your breath for this to happen. You’ll probably faint.

36. If you are getting angry in reading this manifesto then that is your reaction, not ours. But, we love you anyway.

37. Sometimes we have to think these things through a little bit, before we can really grasp them clearly.

38. If you just believe what someone else tells you, preaches to you, or interprets for you from scriptures, then you are sacrificing your connection with Spirit. Not wise.

39. Why is this not wise? Because you are intimately connected with Spirit, all the time. Therefore, to turn your connection over to someone else besides yourself, who probably wears a long robe and a funny hat, or a three-piece suit, means you are pretending that you have no spiritual power, and they have all of it.

40. This is obviously a delusion. Time to wake up.

41. There are no rules anymore.

42. Guess who has to decide to be an ethical person now?

43. Yep, you guessed it: It’s You!

44. Since there are no rules anymore, and we are evolving toward a personal ethic, then you have to take on the responsibility of your own ethical stance in life.

45. Tough shit if you don’t like that, it’s true, so get over it.

46. And get a life.

47. A life that has to have your own ethics about kindness, compassion, tolerance, connection and giving and receiving love from people who are different from you.

48. Do you really want every place in the world to look like McDonald’s?

49. From your own personal spiritual experience growing up, maybe being around different people who can’t believe you don’t go to church, can’t believe that you have no strict religious beliefs and no doctrine, so what their judgment ends up missing is that you have to work harder to come to a personal ethic, to be even more aware of how you are showing up in the world and showing up toward other people, even how you are showing up with those with different beliefs than you--now that's enlightenment.

50. This is true. Check it out in your own internal intuition. You’ll see it’s true.

51.For example: many gay or lesbian persons we’ve met have a better handle on sexuality than many heterosexual persons we’ve met. The gay and lesbian folks have been forced to figure out their own personal ethics about sexual life, apart from the institutional belief systems of the majority. That’s why they are generally clearer as a group about sexuality. Trial by fire, sort of.

52. So, what is an open-source, collaborative and sustainable spirituality? That’s the most important question of our age, in our opinion.

53. It is a spirituality that honors all paths.

54. No spiritual or religious belief is more legitimate than any other path.

55. We know, you folks who believe in a Savior cringe at this idea, and we’ll probably lose you at this point. Unless you are a courageous person. Yes, that’s a direct challenge.

56. Courage will lead you to engage intimately with someone else’s path.

57. Fear will lead you to try to convert them to your path.

58. Fear is what leads to the Dark Side, remember? Yoda taught us that.

59. Fear, anger, intolerance of others. That’s the Dark Side of the Force.

60. If you are trying to convert someone to your way of religious belief, then by definition you are afraid to connect with them intimately. No bull, this is true.

61. A sustainable spirituality calls on us to connect with other peoples’ spiritual paths.

62. A dead-end spirituality tries to convert others. That’s all you can say for it. It’s a lost cause from the beginning.

63. A conversion based religious structure sees other people as less than your group, less than you, evil, possessed by the devil, or just plain deluded.

64. This is silliness. If you believe this way, you again have been brainwashed, and again, we’re sorry about that.

65. But since there are no rules anymore, you have to come to a fundamental decision: Do you want to learn to be intimate with others, to experience others’ lives, hopes, beliefs, or, do you just want McDonalds everywhere?

66. In other words, do you want a rich and varied life, or do you just want little carbon copies of your own religious beliefs surrounding you everywhere you go?

67. Life is always more rich, thick, and wonderful than any one story can contain.

68. This applies to spiritual life, too.

69. Therefore, a sustainable spirituality is fundamentally within an ethic of absolute empowerment of the other person’s spiritual experience.

70. And, thus, empowerment of your own spiritual experience. You can’t have one without the other.

71. So, we honor your spiritual experience. Whether it is within a church building, scripturally based, or free-flowing outside of any dogma or doctrine.

72. Sustainable spirituality has no room for judging others, putting them down because they don’t believe in your personal savior or prophet, or anything like that.

73. And open-source spirituality must then hold that all contributions to the development of spiritual life contain goodness. You might not follow all contributions, because of who you are. But all contributions add to the structure and format, and enrich it.

74. Now, if someone tells you that this is wrong, off-based, theologically unsound, or against scriptural interpretation, then check if they are a man wearing a long robe.

75. No offense to anyone, but that’s just weird.

76. Not weird that a man would wear a long robe. To each his own. No, it’s weird that a man who wears a long robe and a funny hat would then turn around and declare women to be outside of the realm of good, solid spiritual life, so they can’t hold leadership positions. For example.

77. By the way, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, who we believe was Jesus’ wife, quotes Jesus as saying, “Do not lay down any rules beyond what I appointed you, and do not give a law like the lawgiver lest you be constrained by it…Rather let us be ashamed and put on the perfect Man, and separate as He commanded us and preach the gospel, not laying down any other rule or other law beyond what the Savior said..”

78. Duh. Wonder how that one got left out of The Bible?

79. When we are tired and exhausted from our own resistance to being close with other’s who believe differently than we do, we must take on the responsibility of our own resistance, and it’s effects on us.

80. It’s exhausting to judge others. That’s God’s work, by the way, as all scriptures tell us: “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” Duh, again.

81. Rather, we MUST work toward a sustainable spirituality, one that doesn’t hide behind dogma, doctrine or separating beliefs, but instead, connects us, one to another.

82. Anything less would be uncivilized, as Charles Barkley used to teach us.

83. From this place of acceptance, compassion, and collaboration, we can build a world-wide culture that creates a sustainable spiritual ethic amongst all of us.

84. The ‘powers that be’ won’t like this idea. They will argue against it, say it’s against scripture, spoken by the devil himself, and hurtful to children learning the ‘3 Rs’.

85. They will be trying desperately to hold onto their sources of power, namely, the systems of power that automatically subjugate others: women, indigenous peoples, and minorities, meaning, anyone who doesn’t believe as they believe, and anyone who doesn’t acknowledge them as the all-powerful speakers of the ‘Truth”.

86. Sorry, fellas. Game over.

87. What is right, and just, and spiritual, is to honor all people, honor all paths, and stop this insane separation based on religious dogma dictated by men.

88. An open-source, collaborative, sustainable spirituality holds us to the task of each person individually rising to the highest ethic possible for them, both in spiritual life, and in social discourse with those who are different in their beliefs.

89. It calls on us to collaborate in building a Life that is workable for everyone, not just for those who would make the world carpeted with McDonalds restaurants, and McDonalds churches.

90. An open-source, collaborative, sustainable spirituality brings people together, without requiring them to be converted. It honors who we are as people, first and foremost, not whether we fall in lock-step with the dogma of the pseudo-empowered minority.

91. A sustainable spirituality will not tolerate the elimination of unalienable human rights, such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, because certain ‘groups’ of people don’t fall into the religious power groups' definition of what a moral person looks and acts like.

92. Therefore, for example, anyone who wishes to marry anyone else, must be allowed to do so, and be honored for the love that brings them together, rather than honoring the hate that judges them. Honoring such hate for folks such as gays and lesbians who wish to have legitimized marriages, is non-sustainable, non-collaborative, and thus, evil, since it only honors McDonalds church beliefs.

93. From the realm of mystical experiences to the agnostic and atheist living a life of self-determination, all these are legitimate paths, and we must honor them, as each person in their own turn follows their own path of love and life.

94. A sustainable spirituality leaves judgment up to Spirit, if at all.

95. Collaborative spirituality opens the door for contribution by all peoples, by all paths, and rejects the notion that ‘we have the one true path, the one true savior, the one true prophet, the one true interpretation of scripture’. That silly notion cannot be held in esteem, but felt compassion for it, as it is a spoiled child’s way of thinking and viewing the world.

96. Only a spoiled child would believe such nonsense, and, like a spoiled child being led to a better way by his parents, we take a stand of truth-telling, containment, and non-cooperation with such silly notions.

97. We hold those who think that way in the light of greater expectations, and refuse to lower our standards to accept this silly, childish way of thinking as something that must be legitimized by agreement, but instead, we tolerate the temper tantrums of such ‘children’, and keep them away from the other ‘children’, in order to not create a greater disturbance for all.

98. No offense, because all paths must be honored. But not accepted as the truth, nor, tolerated in their hurtful abusive ways of coercion, evangelism, or dogma. Spoiled children are not allowed to run rampant over everyone else, simply to appease them. That is abusive parenting, and we ain’t gonna do that, no sirree.

99. Finally, a collaborative, open-source, sustainable spirituality views each person’s contribution as holding the potential for greater learning, for increased effectiveness, for greater insight, for closeness and understanding, and for adding to the whole project.

100. Even those who say it is ‘sinful’ to believe the ideas of this manifesto, who judge us and scorn us, their path is honored as contributing, because within our consciousness, we are attracting this in some way with our own power.

101. Therefore, we reclaim our power as individuals back from this old paradigm, and honor our own path as well.

102. It is a beautiful thing!


Don McAvinchey & Friends
www.CreateaMonthofMiracles.com

Three miracles this week to share from Coach Don

Dear Friends,

Two miracles happened for me this week, and one wonderful healing, that I want to tell you about.

The first was a synchronous event, that was other-worldly. I was talking with my brother Dave on Tuesday night about a particular kind of investment direction that he's studying, and that I looked at a few years ago, hadn't thought of much since, and just had some thoughts about it last week. Dave is high on this idea, and I said I'll check it out some.

When I got home, in my mailbox was a brochure about this very same investment path, something I hadn't received any info on for a couple of years. I smiled and told my partner about it that night.

The second miracle happened when I drove away from a meeting with a client, declaring that I wanted to increase my income to a certain amount per month, and asking Spirit and my angels to help me do this. 2 hours and 35 minutes later, a friend called, offering a business venture, and said that he knew I wanted to raise my income to the very same amount that I had stated in my prayer request earlier that day. I hadn't talked with him in over a year about money.

And the healing happened when I met with another client, and opened up our session to Spirit, asking for help and guidance, and it came to us both in the same words during our meditation time.

Miracles are all around us, all the time. Step #1 of my "7 Steps to a Month of Miracles" says,

"Pay attention daily to synchronicity and serendipity as it occurs, and make note of it."

This action not only embeds the miraculous in our own reality and thinking, but it also brings the miracles we experience into the very stories of our lives, which others then see us living. It makes it truly real when we take this action, and sustains it.

Write in your miracle stories. I'd love to share them with everyone!

In the Miraculous,

Coach Don

Chapter 1:What It's Like to Be Working in "The Miracle Field"

I wanted to get your thoughts on my first chapter for my new book, "How to Create a Month of Miracles". Feel free to either place your comments into a new entry, or, share a miralce story with me that you'd be okay for me to use in my book.

Here's the chapter:

Chapter 1:

What It’s Like to Be Working in “The Miracles Field”

Different people work in different fields in our world: doctors, engineers, teachers, therapists, carpenters, scientists, homemakers---and those fields are all pretty well understood to contain certain rules, roles, and requirements.

Doctors see patients, and work to help them be healthy.

Teachers move children to greater understandings and skills, in classrooms and in the world.

Therapists, which I’ve been, help people heal old troubles and reconnect with their own strengths and capabilities.

But what’s included in the miracle field?

It’s kinda trippy, to tell you the truth. I’ve decided that this is my path in life, at least for the foreseeable future. I’m here to help bring more miracles into your life. Pretty simple calling, when you think about it.

But how do I do that, for you, for my coaching clients, for my workshop participants?

And what are the job benefits of working in the Miracle Field?

Here’s what I’ve come to, see what you think:

*The Miracle Field has no rules to live by. You have to find your own path through it.

*This Miracle Field has been crossed by millions of fellow travelers, all in search of the same thing: more miraculous connections in their lives, and in the lives of those they love and serve.

*We can bring this Miracle Field into our hearts, our minds, our actions, even right into our bodies, and learn to make use of it for good. We can actually feel this Miracle Field, if we allow ourselves to do so.

*The Miracle Field has the best job benefits of any profession I’ve encountered: absolute love from my clients and workshop attendees, total appreciation for my work, loyalty beyond understanding, connection with others that is a fundamental honor to be a part of, and, oh yeah, pretty good money too!

*and, it’s a ton of fun!

So why not pursue this field whole-heartedly, with gusto, and with reckless abandon? \Why not go whole-hog after this kind of work?

Well, the challenges are many, and to name just a few:

*People raise their eyebrows at you at parties, and you can see some of them looking for where the door is when you first mention this idea.

*Some ‘religious’ folks don’t like the idea that I’m horning in on someone they revere’s territory, and consider it ‘blasphemy’, or something like that.

*Claiming that we are powerful, infinite beings is a challenge for folks to swallow, as they look at their lives and don’t necessarily see that level of preferred creating going on.

*Thus the level of responsibility that this Miraculous View calls for is a challenge too, and not one that is very easy to step into. It’s much easier to place responsibility onto something, or someone else, for our troubles in life. We see this in sects that promote belief in “The Devil”.

*And then, from my own personal journey, all of these apply to me as well. I am challenged to accept this level of responsibility for creating my own miracles in life, for holding the integrity of being disciplined enough to accept the responsibility for my creations, for not blaming others for my state of mind and how I show up in life. I haven’t always found that level of integrity and awareness easy to stay in and hold onto.

*Finally, sometimes I just don’t believe my own thinking about this Miraculous View of Life. There seems to be enough evidence, but I get impatient, and sometimes want quicker, clearer responses to my requests of The Universe, before I’ll believe it wholeheartedly. I guess you could call me, “Coach Thomas” sometimes, instead of Coach Don!

So, a Miraculous View of Life is challenging, personally and culturally. ‘You know it don’t come easy’, as the song says. It’s at times like walking a razor’s edge, and yet, so incredibly rewarding at the same time.

It is such a wonderful way to live life. The times when I have felt the most in line with The Universe, with my own Purpose in life, with Spirit-flowing-though-me, I have felt incredible certainty in my Self, joy in my connections, clarity in my thoughts, and a lightness to my being.

Such good stuff, I always want more!

I now sit with this Miracle View when I meet with my clients, and focus on It, as I’m focusing on my work with these wonderful people who hire me. As I do this, I feel that sense of connection, and I concentrate on bringing that sense directly into my physical body.

When this happens, I notice that people get covered over with light, so I can’t see their faces. I notice that intuitions come to me about them, that take over, and won’t go away until I say them out loud. I at times hesitate saying them, because they sometimes seem so outlandish, or even off-track from what we are talking about in the meeting.

But, when I say these intuitions out loud, and this has happened every time, my wonderful clients will say to me, “Wow, I never thought about it that way! That really opens up a whole new view for me. Thank you, Coach Don, for that insight.”

Or, they will be reminded of something they held dear before, and feel again the excitement and enthusiasm for that project or direction.

When this happens, the joy I see in their faces is wonderful to witness, and the momentum toward reviving this dream is palpable in the room.

I always get all ‘googly’, as my daughter calls it, when this happens. I can feel the energy surging through me, I actually physically feel the essence of my client’s experience, and the love that pours between us is wonderful to feel as well.

The Miracle Field is an inspiring place to work, as you can probably gather. The more I acknowledge how wonderful it is, the more miracles seems to happen, both in my life, and in the life of my clients. And this type of acknowledgement of the miraculous has become one of my touchstones for staying aware of the Miracle Field.

I can tell you that I absolutely love that this is happening for me!

How about you, what has your experience with the miraculous in life been like for you in your life? Would you be willing to take just a moment and picture the times when you’ve felt so connected, that miracles have shown up in your life?

And, if you do take that moment to remember, would you then come to our website, www.MiracleStories.com, and let us know about your experiences? I’d love to hear about your them, and I’m sure others who visit the site will as well.

Thank you for sharing your miracles stories, in advance!

The 12 Steps Toward a Spirit-Filled Life

1. We acknowledge that we are powerful beyond measure in creating our lives, each and every moment.

2. We came to believe that a Power greater than our old, small view of ourselves is who we really are.

3. We made a decision to immerse our will and our lives within the Spirit that we experience in all things.

4. We look at our 'mistakes' in life as the result of playing a smaller game, and cut ourselves slack that we have played that kind of game in our lives.

5. We saw how our limited view of our Infinite Self creates the illusion of separateness, and creates hardship and suffering in our lives.

6. We move steadily toward loving acceptance of our ability to create our reality.

7. We live in the humility of sharing our inner and outer gifts and talents with others, and not hiding them in false smallness.

8. We ask for forgiveness from all we may have harmed, and hold them in a space of love.

9. We live in the integrity of clarity between ourselves and others.

10. We practice our process of reclaiming our power from the illusions that we have created and continue to create.

11. We seek through prayer, awareness and meditation to improve our ability to love and appreciate our creations as we experience them.

12. Having had a spiritual illumination as the result of these steps, we live a life of freedom and creation, sharing ourselves with others as the Universe shares.

Create a Month of Miracles

Create a Month of Miracles

Thanks for coming to our new blog! I've never had one of these things up and running with folks adding to it, so let's learn about it together!

Take a moment and let me know what you think about my new direction and website, Create a Month of Miracles!

I'm so excited to pursue this with you, to hear about miracles in your life, and to explore together how to bring more miracles into all of our lives.

See you soon,

Coach Don