The Ara Tradition is a path of deep reflection. We ask ourselves tough questions, challenge our assumptions and expand our understanding of ourselves, the world we live in and the Divine Mystery. We are a Mystery Tradition, but for us the Mystery is hiding in plain sight. Our work is to remove our blindfolds and to explore, approaching that journey with open minds and open hearts. In this way, our sense of the Sacred expands and so does our understanding of our role in the web of life.
The Ara Tradition is devoted to experiencing divinity directly, within and all around us. Thus, one of our central spiritual precepts is not a belief, it’s something we experience: the world is sacred. We often refer to this as the principle of immanent divinity. Our practices enable us to experience this truth as Oneness, a deep, personal and intimate connection with the world’s innate divinity.
It is from these experiences of communion that we have derived the spiritual principles that are the foundation of our Tradition. In the midst of complexity and Mystery, the greatest truths are the simplest:
The source of creation is sacred
The energy that weaves all of creation together is sacred
Creation embodies and reveals the presence of the Divine and its wisdom
The Earth is sacred
By living in harmony with nature, we live in harmony with divinity
The Temple of Ara values nature as the greatest of all spiritual teachers and so our spiritual practices and rites bring our selves – mind, body and spirit – into harmony with the Earth and with the Sacred. Observing the wisdom of Nature as holy, we seek to live according to the spiritual wisdom it reveals to us. Thus we honor the Earth as our Mother, recognize the interconnection and interdependence of creation, and seek to live in balance and harmony with the natural world giving back as we are given to, honoring the feminine as well as the masculine, respecting creation’s diversity and inherent divinity and rediscovering our place in the web of life by engaging the world with open and loving hearts.
Our spiritual principles are the foundation of our ethics – we seek to live in a sacred manner because we live in a sacred world. This means treating ourselves, others and the world around us with respect, reverence, reciprocity and gratitude. It is a good way to live and it is the basis for a new relationship with one another and with the Earth, a relationship which is, in fact, ancient.