"True, genuinely integral and healing spirituality calls for a radical disengagement, but nor from 'the world' nor from 'the body' or from 'this earthly life' as such. Rather, a healing kind of spirituality calls us to detach ourselves from those attitudes and actions that heighten our divisions or tend to exacerbate conflict among us. While calling for a disengagement from such divisive attitudes and actions, at the same time, an integral spirituality also calls us to a thoroughgoing engagement with our earthly tasks, rather than an escape from them. Grounded in a vision of interconnectedness and compassion for all sentient beings, a healing spirituality cannot but be an engaged kind of spirituality that plunges itself right in the midst of the muddy waters of this world in working toward the well-being of all. It must never be an escapist spirituality that preaches dualistic detachment and disdain for the things of this world.

"A healing spirituality can save us from a sense of powerlessness, and instead, enable us to discover a source of empowerment for transforming society. As we recover our true identity in realizing our interconnectedness with one another, we awaken to an expanded notion of Self that embraces the Other in reverence and love. This embracing attitude is the antidote to the temptation to retreat into alliances or subgroups that demarcate 'us' against 'them.'

"A healing spirituality is also enriched by inter-religious encounters. This means it cannot be the monopoly or prerogative of any one religious tradition, community, or institution. Forged in the creative process of mutual encounter and dialogue among members of different traditions and religious communities, it draws from their respective riches. A healing spirituality incorporates and cultivates all kinds of wisdom — Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, the attitudes and worldviews of indigenous religions, and also values and principles of non-religious kinds of humanistic outlooks. Thus it enhances the sense of communion and empowerment among all individuals and communities across traditional boundaries, so that together, we can turn toward the tasks of reconciling with one another, overcoming our mutual as well as our inner alienation, and healing our wounded Earth.

"More and more of us are seeking to cultivate such a healing spirituality in our individual lives. Empowered by our spiritual experience and nurtured in our own respective traditions, we can engage in the public forum with courage and conviction, addressing concrete issues that demand our attention. As we take up the tasks of 'mending the world' (to borrow an expression from the Jewish tradition), we may see hopeful signs springing up among the debris of our wounded world."