In October 2001, members of a small Franciscan religious community, The Franciscan Companions of the Immaculata -- operating in Florida, Georgia, Washington, D.C., Louisiana and Arizona -- painfully decided to sever their ties with the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, and begin living an authentically monastic expression of non-sectarian, post-denominational spirituality, based on contemplative principles, compassionate service to those in need, and a mindful awareness of the need for global healing.

Deeply disturbed by a backward trend toward exclusivity, intolerance, extremist conservatism and fundamentalism by the successors to the Order's original inspiration and patron, Pope John Paul I, the community could not help but begin to recognise the seeds of hatred that were growing like a cancer in the doctrine and dogma of the Roman Catholic instiuin to appear to make the denomination little more than a hate-group, much as it had the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Disciples of the Buddha and the Christ

Believing that they were called to follow the more authentic charism of the early followers of the Teacher Christ, whose purpose was not to start a church or religion, but instead to liberate those who would listen from the limitations of institutional religion, superstition and oppression, they adapted the Brief Rule of St. Romuald of Camaldoli, and set out to live as the Early Desert Fathers lived -- as simple monastics and contemplatives.

Like those early desert monks, they would strive to understand the dharma of the Anointed One, as transmitted to him by many Eastern teachers and lamas in Alexandria and in Tibet, back to the earliest days at Sarnath; when Buddha Sakyamuni first transmitted the dharma to his first disciples.

The new community would formulate a vision statement, which reflected the Franciscan charism of seeing all sentient beings as our brothers and sisters, and responded to the mandate of the Teacher Christ to "Love the Indwelling Sacred, love one another, love ourselves..." through selfless service, renunciation, and listening with an interior ear to the Wisdom of the Desert.

Choosing as their spiritual shepherd, Dharmacharya Gurudas Sunyatananda, whose eighteen previous years as their spiritual guardian and teacher within the community, and whose involvement and ordination in both the traditions of Buddhism and contemporary Catholicism, coupled with a professional background as a respected anthropologist, therapist and philosopher, brought stability and insight to the new, post-denominational order, the young community soon faced new challenges.

There were those among them who disliked the non-theistic lens through which their newly consecrated bishop-protector interpreted the Dharma of Christ. There were those who expected the exclusionary and supremecist ideals of institutional Catholicism, as well as the fundamentalist beliefs in the literal interpretation of Christian mythos (scripture) as historical fact. There were those who refused to accept Buddhist dharma as being equal in importance to the dharma of Christ. And there were those who did not believe it was right for their highest ranking prelate to call himself the "spiritual son" of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.

In early 2007, after six months of contemplative retreat, His Eminence Dharmacharya Gurudas Sunyatananda (known within Catholic circles as Bishop-Exarch Francis-Maria of the Immaculata), formally severed all ties with institutional religion, and having entrusted the Franciscan community he co-founded to the loving-care of Bishop Kevin Crowell, S.F.I., returned to the life of a simple monk, teaching a non-sectarian, post-denominational synthesis of the Buddhist Dharma with the reflections of the Lotus Sutra, found in the teachings of the Compassionate Christ.

The Order Grows and Expands

As the number of students of this "Dharma of Compassion" grew, Dharmacharya Gurudas Sunyatananda, whose students affectionately called him "Khenpo" (Tibetan for "abbot") or "Servant-Father", was asked form a contemplative monastic order -- The Contemplative Monks of the Eightfold Path -- which would embody a contemporary expression of Buddhist, Franciscan, Advaita and Benedictine Camaldolese spirituality, living according to a simple rule of life, following the Eightfold Path of Dharma, and sharing in the work of alleviating suffering in the world.

Recognising that not everyone was called to live a monastic life, and with a growing number of lay students asking how they could become part of the work of the Contemplative Monks of the Eightfold Path, without taking ordination or contemplative vows, Khenpo agreed to establish a grassroots intentional community, known as the Spiritus Project, which would include lay practitioners as well as members of the monastic order.

Central to his agreement to establish and guide this new movement was his growing concern over certain unhealthy, manipulative and cult-like abuses he personally witnessed among a number of self-proclaimed American gurus and spiritual leaders. After spending the greater portion of fifteen years working to help victims of such organisations to escape the cycle of abuse, and get counseling, he was ready to provide sincere spiritual practitioners a healthy alternative, without the screetching, lying and exploitive baggage of these unsavoury characters' groups.

"I'm just a simple monk. Jesus didn't appear to me, and neither did the Buddha. I don't hear voices... don't concern myself with beliefs in "one true path" over another... and I never pretended to teach priests at a non-existent Jesuit seminary," the "Reluctant Lama" told reporters at the community's first blanket-drive for the homeless, in early 2008, "All of that has already been done before... and people have been catching on for years. It's time for someone to let folks know that the dharma isn't about bangles and glitter, or making your guru rich. It's about compassion, loving-kindness and service to all sentient beings."