Through faith people find the door of liberation.
—Adi Granth
Twenty-Five Years of Faith
“Stop struggling and start living!”
That was the invitation on the first
flyer distributed by the Center
for Spiritual Enlightenment inviting people to learn how to meditate,
practice the principles of spiritual living, and attend a new interfaith
worship service. “Everyone is welcome,” it said. The vision
behind those statements was throngs of spiritual seekers, regardless
of religious background, sitting together in the silence communing
with the One Life of God.
As one of the founding ministers, I remember well the first worship
services held at 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoons at the Odd Fellows
Hall in the Rose Garden area of San Jose. We knew that 2 p.m.
was not the ideal time, but a local Baptist group had their services
there in the morning. Friends, family, and students of yoga and
metaphysics who wanted to support the new Center attended the
first Sunday service in October 1981. There was a real excitement
in the air that first day and a hopefulness about how quickly
the divine vision was unfolding. That hopefulness lasted six days
until the following Sunday arrived; no one showed up for the worship
service, and the reality of ministry stared us starkly in the
face.
On many Sunday afternoons only a handful of people showed up for
services, often just two or three. Sometimes two of them were my
own young children who didn’t have a choice about where they
were going to worship that day. After a few months we decided to
quit. It really seemed too hard. We were paying to rent a nearly
empty hall and offering a worship service to one or two people.
Nevertheless, there was one woman who came every week. When we told
her we had decided to quit, she said: “You can’t! I’ve
been looking all my life for a church like this.” We listened
to her and heard her. I believe it was in that moment that a real
ministry began. Our focus shifted from what we could accomplish
to how could we serve, beginning with one person. A deeper awareness
dawned that we had a role to play in the divine plan, one that would
unfold in its own way and time. From that shift in consciousness
and the surrender that accompanied it, many doors opened. We stopped
struggling and started serving.
We were offered the community room of a savings and loan building
in Los Gatos on Sunday mornings. People started to come and to tell
others about this new ministry. People who had left traditional
churches, but who were still spiritually hungry, came to hear the
interfaith message, as well as to learn to sit in the silence and
commune inwardly with the Divine. Couples from different faith backgrounds
found a spiritual home where they could worship together. Those
who had no previous religious affiliation were delighted with the
freedom to develop their spiritual life in a nonsectarian environment.
One man told me that when a friend invited him to go to this new
worship service he replied that he didn’t go to church. His
friend said, “It’s not a church, it’s in a bank.”
He said, “Okay, I’m comfortable with going to the bank!”
Gradually the group of worshippers grew from one, to thirty, to
five hundred attending three services on Sundays. This year, now
located in the beautiful World Headquarters in the Rose Garden area
of San Jose (just across the way from that first Odd Fellows Hall),
CSE celebrates its 25th year of ministry.
Through the years we have offered over a thousand Sunday worship
services, as well as thousands of classes and retreats teaching
people how to meditate and follow principles of spiritual living.
Today the worship services are often filled to overflowing as seekers
from all religious backgrounds sit side by side in the silence of
divine communion worshipping the one reality of God that is known
by many names. The ministry itself has offered a witness: our lives
and the lives of others are changed for good with faith in the ability
of a power greater than ourselves to fulfill its purposes of healing
and repairing our families, our community, and our world. All of
life conspires to support our awakening and truly prospering as
awakened, compassionate beings living in harmony with one another,
with God, and the planet.
The spiritual root of CSE’s interfaith teaching is the tradition
of Kriya Yoga, the science of Self-realization (spiritual awakening
to our true nature) brought to the West by the great saint, Paramahansa
Yogananda, in the 1920s. The Sanskrit word “yoga” means
to yoke, join, or experience union. It is divine remembrance or
the awareness of our true nature that occurs when we are restored
to wholeness. The teachings of yoga are a nonsectarian spiritual
path for seekers of all faiths interested in exploring the mystical
path of God realization. Meditation is practiced as a way of awakening
to spiritual Truth, to that which is beyond thought, opinion,
or dogma.
Our message at CSE emphasizes the potential for all people to awaken,
and the importance of living a spiritually conscious life by following
the universal precepts of the world’s wisdom traditions such
as harmlessness, truthfulness, and right use of our life energy.
We are all here to awaken to the truth that this life is God’s
life. We come from a common Source, live and move and have our being
in that Source, and return to it. Awakening to the unity of life
brings new joy in living and a clear sense of how we can each contribute
to the wellbeing of all.
In 1998 we moved into our current location on University Avenue.
As the Spiritual Director, I asked in prayer to know if the move
would be right for this ministry. The words that came to me in
prayer were: “Many souls will come to God there.” And
so it is. On any day of the week it is possible to see people
wholly engaged in some form of spiritual practice, reflecting
on universal human values and the unity of all religions: attending
a worship service or morning meditation, prayerfully working in
the garden, walking the labyrinth, stretching mind and body through
hatha yoga, studying scripture, exploring how to live spiritual
teachings in small group meetings, or sharing with the children.
The call of the mystic poet Rumi can be felt throughout the Center:
“Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshipper, lover
of leaving—come. Ours is not a caravan of despair. It doesn’t
matter if you have broken your vow a thousand times. Still come,
and yet again, come.”
Every day presents us with a new opportunity to see with the eyes
of faith and walk through the door of liberation into a life of
peace. I am grateful to all of those who have come over the years—those
who have served, those who have prayed, those who have stayed
to build a spiritual community from the seed of a divine vision.
I am grateful to Roy Eugene Davis
who offered the teaching and opened the door of possibility. For
this day I am grateful. For the divine love that guides each and
every one, constantly turning us in the direction of awakening
to truth, I offer praise and thanks.
Center
Directory 
flyer distributed by the Center
for Spiritual Enlightenment inviting people to learn how to meditate,
practice the principles of spiritual living, and attend a new interfaith
worship service. “Everyone is welcome,” it said. The vision
behind those statements was throngs of spiritual seekers, regardless
of religious background, sitting together in the silence communing
with the One Life of God. 
As one of the founding ministers, I remember well the first worship
services held at 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoons at the Odd Fellows
Hall in the Rose Garden area of San Jose. We knew that 2 p.m.
was not the ideal time, but a local Baptist group had their services
there in the morning. Friends, family, and students of yoga and
metaphysics who wanted to support the new Center attended the
first Sunday service in October 1981. There was a real excitement
in the air that first day and a hopefulness about how quickly
the divine vision was unfolding. That hopefulness lasted six days
until the following Sunday arrived; no one showed up for the worship
service, and the reality of ministry stared us starkly in the
face.