What is Interfaith Meditation?
Interfaith meditation refers to contemplative practices that bring together individuals from different religious traditions to meditate in community, or to practices that draw upon meditation methods from multiple faith lineages. Unlike syncretism, interfaith meditation does not seek to create a new hybrid religion but rather allows participants to sit in shared silence while maintaining their own theological commitments. The practice operates on the premise that contemplative experience—whether framed as prayer, meditation, or silent communion—reveals common ground beneath doctrinal differences.
The term is sometimes used interchangeably with “interspiritual meditation,” though scholars note distinctions: interfaith work emphasizes dialogue and mutual respect between traditions, while interspirituality denotes a deeper engagement with the experiential and mystical dimensions that give rise to religious expression.
Origins & Lineage
The modern interfaith meditation movement emerged from several parallel developments in the late 20th century. The 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago marked the first organized interfaith gathering, establishing a precedent for cross-tradition dialogue. However, the specific practice of meditating together across faith boundaries developed nearly a century later.
A critical milestone occurred beginning in 1984 when Father Thomas Keating, a Trappist monk, convened the Snowmass Conferences at St. Benedict’s Monastery in Colorado. For twenty years, senior practitioners from Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Native American traditions gathered annually to share their contemplative practices and theological insights. These gatherings became the foundation for what Edward Bastian later formalized as “InterSpiritual Meditation”—a seven-part meditation framework published in his book of the same name following Keating’s model. Bastian founded the Spiritual Paths Foundation in 2000 to continue this work.
Simultaneously, other institutions advanced interfaith contemplative dialogue. The World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM), founded in 1991 by Benedictine monks John Main and Laurence Freeman, established interfaith work as part of its mission. The 1994 Good Heart Seminar, in which the Dalai Lama commented on the Christian Gospels and dialogued with Christian monastics, represented what WCCM describes as “a ground-breaking model of contemplative interfaith dialogue.”
The 1993 centennial Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago further catalyzed the movement, as subsequent parliaments (Cape Town 1999, Barcelona 2004, Melbourne 2009) regularly featured meditation and contemplation as integral to interfaith encounter.
How It’s Practiced
Interfaith meditation manifests in several forms. In group settings, participants from different traditions gather in person or online to sit together in silence for 20-30 minutes. Some sessions are led by a single guide who offers minimal instruction, while others rotate leadership among practitioners from different faiths. Many groups use the Meditation Chapel platform, an online interfaith meditation community that supports daily practice across time zones.
Some models provide structured frameworks. Bastian’s InterSpiritual Meditation uses a seven-part sequence: health and happiness, gratitude, compassion, forgiveness, lovingkindness, dedication, and silence. Each participant applies their own tradition’s understanding to each stage—a Christian might pray to Jesus while a Buddhist invokes the bodhisattva ideal during the same timed section.
Other approaches emphasize pure silence. Centering Prayer groups affiliated with Contemplative Outreach welcome practitioners of all faiths to their practice of silent receptivity, rooted in Christian contemplative tradition but ecumenical in participation. Similarly, organizations like Interfaith Alignment host weekly 30-minute online sessions featuring practices from diverse traditions—QiGong one week, Sufi chanting the next, silent meditation the following.
Universities and interfaith centers increasingly offer interfaith meditation as both spiritual practice and pedagogical tool. Students experience meditation from different traditions to develop what practitioners call “spiritual friendship” and what scholars term “cognitive flexibility.”
Interfaith Meditation Today
Seekers encounter interfaith meditation through university chaplaincies, online platforms like Meditation Chapel (serving practitioners globally), regional interfaith centers, and dedicated organizations. Interfaith Alignment (formerly based in the U.S.) provides weekly contemplative sessions online. The WCCM operates groups in over 100 countries and maintains its international center at Bonnevaux Abbey in France, hosting retreats for people of all faiths.
Congregations and meditation centers increasingly host interfaith sitting groups. Some meet weekly in homes, hospitals, prisons, and workplaces. The Interfaith Meditation Initiative, founded as a 501©(3), trains religious leaders in interfaith teams to teach meditation in schools and institutions.
The Parliament of the World’s Religions continues to provide space for interfaith meditation at its gatherings, with dedicated “yurts” and chapels for silent practice alongside panels and dialogue.
Common Misconceptions
Interfaith meditation is not an attempt to create a universal religion or to claim all religions are identical. Practitioners and scholars emphasize that theological differences remain intact; a Christian praying to the Trinity and a Buddhist practicing insight meditation may sit side by side without doctrinal compromise.
It is not inherently unorthodox to one’s tradition, though conservative voices in various faiths have raised concerns. Critics argue that exposure to other practices may dilute one’s own tradition or implicitly endorse theological claims incompatible with orthodoxy. Proponents counter that depth within one tradition can be enriched—not threatened—by witnessing others’ practice.
Interfaith meditation is not secular mindfulness, though both may involve silent sitting. The former explicitly honors the sacred and often includes invocations, prayers, or dedication of merit according to participants’ beliefs, while secular mindfulness deliberately removes religious framing.
It is not necessarily led meditation. Many interfaith sessions involve complete silence, with participants engaging their own interior practice without verbal guidance.
How to Begin
Those interested in experiencing interfaith meditation have several entry points. Online platforms like Meditation Chapel (meditationchapel.org) allow beginners to join daily sessions led by practitioners from various traditions. Interfaith Alignment (interfaithalignment.org) offers weekly recorded sessions exploring diverse practices.
Locally, interfaith councils and university chaplaincies often host meditation groups. Contemplative Outreach chapters welcome meditators of all backgrounds to Centering Prayer practice, which serves as an accessible Christian-rooted interfaith gateway.
Reading materials include Edward Bastian’s InterSpiritual Meditation (2013), Wayne Teasdale’s The Mystic Heart (1999), and the proceedings from The Common Heart: An Experience of Interreligious Dialogue (2006), documenting the Snowmass Conferences. The WCCM website (wccm.org) offers free resources on meditation in the Christian tradition with interfaith application.
Those wishing to establish an interfaith meditation group in their community should consider inviting representatives from local Buddhist sanghas, Christian contemplative groups, Islamic centers, Jewish communities, and Hindu temples to sit together periodically, allowing each tradition to guide one session in rotation.