Aldea Spiritual Community

As we conclude our Perennial series, we arrive at one final paradox:
What if the spiritual path can itself become another identity to defend?
Drawing from the Perennial Philosophy - the timeless wisdom found across the world’s spiritual traditions - we explore how the ego can quietly co-opt even our best intentions, transforming practices meant to free us into new forms of striving, certainty, and separation.
This message is an invitation to loosen our grip, laugh at ourselves a little more, and remember that awakening isn’t necessarily something we achieve...It’s something we continually return to.
 
Quotes:
 
“The ego wants to own even enlightenment.” — Anthony de Mello
 
“The ego is the mental construct that constantly tries to protect, defend, and build a version of ‘me.’” — Michael Singer
 
“As long as you are trying to become enlightened, you are reinforcing the one who wants to become enlightened…. The greatest trap on the spiritual path is to believe that you have arrived.” — Adyashanti
 
“There is a contradiction in wanting to be perfectly secure in a universe whose very nature is momentariness and fluidity…. If I want to be secure… I am wanting to be separate from life.” — Alan Watts, (The Wisdom of Insecurity)

For our meditation on August 2nd, Joseph Amormino gave a special presentation on Mudras and their benefits. 

In Part 3 of our Perennial series, we explore the heart of the mystical traditions found across Christianity, Sufism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and beyond.
 
Rather than beginning with doctrine, the mystics begin with direct experience - an encounter with ultimate reality that transcends language, labels, and religious boundaries.
 
Quotes:
 
“You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.” — Rumi
 
“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me.” — Meister Eckhart
 
“Between you and the Beloved, there is no barrier but your own mind.” — Kabir
 
“A human being is part of a whole called by us the Universe.” — Albert Einstein
 
“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” — Julian of Norwich
 
“Every little thing is gonna be alright.” — Bob Marley
 
“The parallels between modern physics and Eastern mysticism are not merely interesting; they suggest that these two traditions are leading to the same vision of reality.” — Fritjof Capra
 
“Mystery is not something that you cannot understand, but it is something that is endlessly understandable. It is multilayered and pregnant with meaning and never totally admits to closure or resolution.” — Richard Rohr
 
“God can be embraced by love, but never by thinking.” — The Cloud of Unknowing
 
“Love is the bridge between you and everything.” — Rumi
 
“Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone—we find it with another.” — Thomas Merton
 
 

Enjoy Suzen's meditation from the services on July 26, 2026.

What happens when belonging becomes dependent on believing the “right” things?
 
In Part 2 of our Perennial  series, we explore the movement from dogma—beliefs handed to us—to dharma—the unique path that arises from our own deepest knowing.
 
Dogma shows up in families, politics, workplaces, communities, and whenever unquestioned conformity replaces curiosity. But the deepest spiritual traditions point us toward something far more intimate: learning to trust the wisdom of your own experience while discerning what genuinely bears good fruit.
 
The goal isn’t simply to reject tradition, but to move beyond inherited certainty into authentic wisdom - discovering a belonging rooted not in conformity, but in truth, love, and lived experience.
 
Quotes:
 
Ram Dass:
“The spiritual journey is individual, highly personal. It can’t be organized or regulated. It isn’t true that everyone should follow one path. Listen to your own truth.”
 
Bhagavad Gita 3:35:
“Better is one’s own dharma, though imperfectly performed, than the dharma of another well performed.”
 
Thomas Moore (A Religion of One’s Own):
“When I speak of a religion of one’s own, I’m not talking about a selfish, ego-centered, loosely patched together spiritual concoction. I’m recommending a courageous, deep-seated, fate-driven, informed, and intelligent life that has sublime and transcendent dimension… To be religious even in a personal way, you have to wake up and find your own portals to wonder and transcendence.”
 
Matthew 7:17–18:
“People and their lives are like trees. Good trees bear beautiful, tasty fruit, but bad trees bear ugly, bitter fruit. A good tree cannot bear ugly, bitter fruit; nor can a bad tree bear fruit that is beautiful and tasty.”
 
Guru Nanak:
“Truth is high, but higher still is truthful living.”

Enjoy Sylvia's meditation from the services on July 19, 2026.

What if the world’s spiritual traditions aren’t competing with one another but pointing toward the same deeper reality?
In the first message of our Perennial series, we explore one of humanity’s oldest and most compelling ideas: that beneath the diversity of religions, cultures, and spiritual paths lies a shared wisdom that has been rediscovered throughout history.
Together we ask:
What is the Perennial Philosophy?
Can different traditions all reveal aspects of the same truth?
Why do religions look so different if they are pointing toward something universal?
How can we honor our own path without believing it is the only path?
Whether you’re religious, spiritual-but-not-religious, skeptical, or simply curious, this message is for you! 
 
Quotes:
 
Rig Veda 
“Truth is One; the wise speak of it in many ways.”
Agostino Steuco 
“One principle of all things, of which there has always been one and the same knowledge among all peoples.”
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 
“The essential truths of philosophy have always been and will always be in the world…”
Huston Smith 
“No one religion is true in the sense that it exhausts truth.”
Raimon Panikkar 
“No religion is the whole of truth; each is a window onto it.”
Rumi 
“The lamps are different, but the Light is the same.”
 

Enjoy Greg's meditation from the services on July 12, 2026.

Jake was joined by Victor Shamas for a powerful and wide-ranging conversation responding to questions and topics submitted by our community! Tune in as we explore art, mindfulness, atheism, rebuilding spiritual practices, hero complexes, prayer, and more. 
 
This conversation was inspired by the timeless Rainer Maria Rilke quote:
"Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and... try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer." 

Enjoy Kathleen's meditation from the services on July 5, 2026.