Recent gatherings show a thirst for spirituality freed from traditional authority, writes Sylvia Thompson

Over the past few weeks, groups of up to 50 people and more have been gathering in an elegant room on St Stephen's Green in Dublin to listen to and ask questions of international dharma teacher Catherine Ingram.

Earlier this month, 1,400 people went to hear German-born spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle speak in the RDS, Ballsbridge, Dublin. And tonight, the directors of the Cultivate Living and Learning Centre in Temple Bar, Dublin, are expecting more than 100 people to turn up to hear radical priest and author Matthew Fox's lecture, A Spirituality for the 21st Century.

"There is a new generation of people who are more interested in spirituality than religion," says Matthew Fox, who was a priest in the Dominican Order for 34 years until he was expelled in 1991 by Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict), principally for being a "feminist theologian". He has since been "adopted" as a priest by the Episcopal Church in the United States.

Espousing a creation-centred Christianity, Fox calls God "mother" and prefers the idea of original blessing to original sin.

"It's time for a new reformation," he says. "Part of the theologian's job is not only to deconstruct by saying things such as 'Mass is boring' but also to reconstruct it by creating forms that are not boring."

Fox is renowned in the US and beyond for the "cosmic mass", a new liturgical form which mixes dance, techno, live music, rap and other contemporary art forms with the western liturgical tradition.

"My teachings are aimed at people with a consciousness around eco-justice, social justice and gender justice - the Christ in nature, the Christ of the cosmos," he explains.

Meanwhile, a person-centred God is not part of Catherine Ingram's evening inquiries into "the nature of awareness and the possibility of living in awakened intelligence". Yet she has been drawing people of all religions to her Dharma Dialogues in Ireland since 1995.

"The experience of being is our fundamental nature," she told the gathering at one of her sessions last week. "And when we look for a sense of aliveness outside of ourselves, we are ignoring that we live our lives from within. Chasing around makes it harder to enjoy life."

A FORMER JOURNALIST and a former Buddhist (she practised for 19 years), Ingram believes her message is accessible to everyone. "I also have my Dharma Dialogues on iTunes and I get letters and emails from all over the world," she says.

But who comes to her sessions? "People come because they've suffered or are weary of certain practices and traditions and want to relax into their own being. There is also a walking-wounded quality to some people who don't go along with the 'buy more and have more experiences and you'll be happy' agenda."

Although Dublin is just one leg of her current international programme (she will visit Denmark and Sweden later this month), Ingram says she is particularly drawn to the Irish. "I'm impressed with how the Irish speak their hearts, how they are brave in saying the difficult truths, and the ease with which they hear this rather simple message that doesn't involve religion."

Ingram acknowledges that other people, such as Eckhart Tolle and American mindfulness meditation teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn, are promoting ways of being that are similar to her own.

Mary O'Callaghan, a Dublin-based psychotherapist and "mindfulness meditation" teacher, says that a lot of these speakers are distilling the essence of Buddhism and have developed a language that fits with experiences.

"This is much more helpful to western people than getting caught up in the trappings of Tibetan Buddhism, which has a different socio-political and cultural context to our own," she says.

One man who is familiar with the writings of many of the spiritual teachers of our times is Mark Patrick Hederman, a monk in Glenstal Abbey, Co Limerick. He says: "People are not looking for dogma or doctrine or some catechistical book. They are looking for integrity and conviction."

Hederman believes that, because people are now more educated, they are no longer dependent on authority figures to tell them what to do with their lives.

"What they want is first-person contact with the three persons of the Trinity," he says. "They will look to anyone to help them achieve this direct connection and then judge for themselves. Sometimes they will be impressed and sometimes they will be disappointed."

Both Fox and Ingram say that there are progressive movements within the established Christian churches in the US. "There is an interest in meditation, and interdisciplinary conversations and conferences are happening in the United States," says Ingram.

Fox adds: "There is a great interest in deep ecumenism between the wisdom of Buddhism, the wisdom of western religions and the wisdom of Native American Indians in the States at present."

He also believes that global warming has given us all a wake-up call and argues that the eco-movement needs to be spiritually based.

SO WHERE DO the established churches in Ireland fit into this growth of interest in spirituality? Rev Ted Woods is a Church of Ireland rector in Rathfarnham, Dublin, and the Church of Ireland's director of ordinance (the selector of new trainee Anglican priests). He strongly believes that the Christian churches need to find a new language that will fit better into our contemporary culture.

"We have been so busy defending our institutions that we have forgotten about the spiritual needs of the people," he says. "If we restrict the experience of God to our own version, we invalidate other people's experiences of God.

"We have to tolerate where people are at and cater for their deepest needs, rather than offering them a package to take or leave - because that simply doesn't resonate with some people today."

THE CATHOLIC PRIMATE of All-Ireland, Archbishop Seán Brady, said recently that the fundamental challenge for modern Ireland is "to retain the balance between the best of the old and best of the new".

This, he said, required "moving to a new maturity in public and media debate, where the importance of faith in the lives of so many Irish people, including the new Irish, is given due recognition and respect by the new forces of Irish culture".

Sounds good, but perhaps what leaders of the established churches also need to do is to give due recognition and respect to the growing emphasis people are placing on their spirituality, whether practised within an established religious community or not.

For information on Catherine Ingram's Dharma Dialogues contact 01-2875524 or see www.seminars.ie