just be it Just Be It is a practice of presence that recognizes the limits of language. When aware of silence there is a state of inner still alertness. You are wholeheartedly present.

Holding Stability in an Unstable Environment

About ten years ago I found myself stuck on a steep mountain slope. I had miscalculated, thinking there was an opening at the top. After climbing 1500’ I came to the conclusion it was impossible. Looking down, I discovered the rock surface was unstable for any misstep. I had taken a book up and when I set it down I watched it tumble several hundred feet. I sat in stillness for some time. I prayed, knowing the slightest error would result in my death. I needed stability in the ultimate of unstable conditions. I needed support. Each step down was with wholehearted awareness. Each completed step carried my deepest gratitude for the opportunity to take one more step, for the support the slightest ridge gave my foot. And that’s how it went for hours as I felt graced to experience another moment. Dainin Katagiri writes about this ‘step by step’ phenomenon in Returning to Silence:

“….let us imagine you are climbing up a mountain cliff. That situation is just like being on the verge of life and death. There is no way to escape; you cannot complain. If you are there, all you have to do is just be there. If you act instinctively you could die. If you are nervous, you could die. should you depend on the intellect, you could also die. So you have to depend on the mountain, your mind and all circumstances. You have to watch carefully and understand. Your consciousness must be clear and know what is going on there. Then, after using your best understanding, your body and mind should depend on just one step. This is action. This is the process of one step without being nervous about what will happen in the next moment, or thinking bout when you will reach the peak, or how far down the bottom is, or who is climbing, or how much farther you can keep going like this, or that you could die. There is nothing to think about, nothing to depend on. All we have to do is just be there using all the things we already have: consciousness, mind, mountain and weather. Then we have to act. Just take one step, a pretty simple step.
What is this one step? Is it to understand about living by studying philosophy or psychology? I don’t think so. Finally they must be thrown away. All we have to do is just live. Take one step, and that one step must be stable. This means, after using your consciousness with your best effort, then act, wholeheartedly. This one step is really not just one step; it is the universe, including the mountains, your mind and consciousness. All things are completely melted into one step. What is one step? One step is the mountain. One step is the weather. One step is you. One step is the true way to live. It is really to attain the Way.” p. 106

Isn’t this what vital living is, finding stability in the face of each unstable arising moment? In the face of impermanence, can I vow to aim to Divine nature, whatever tradition I’ve come to it with. Isn’t it about facing the feelings of ‘ending’, of ‘aloneness’, knowing that God is in the action of ‘this’ step. Can we afford to miss our appointment with the next arising step? Our wholehearted attention is called forth. Our life or death depends upon it. This emergency situation attitude, dedicated in equanimity, is the base of just be it…here and now.

To love one another and all things as ourselves.

This is a pretty big question that lives with us continuously. Our great spiritual teachers have provided us with some pretty consistent direction. Jesus says we’re here to love one another as ourselves. Buddha instructs us to ‘wake up’ to the interconnection of all things and to the constantly changing nature of things. Islam has charitable giving as one of its five pillars. Indigenous cultures profess the need for stewardship in exchange for our opportunity to be here. At the core of all of these traditions, the message seems to be that we’re here to connect, to never feel alone. Shame comes from the feeling and fear of disconnection. Either I feel ‘enough’ or ‘not enough’, which condensed down gets to the core of our sense of worth.

The root of ‘to heal’ is ‘wholeness’. If we feel worthy of love and belonging our heart is whole. Our capacity to step out with courage, to be active in the world without fear of disconnection, comes from our deeper sense of belonging. Deeper listening is allowed through a willingness to let go of who we thought we ‘should’ be in receipt of waking to who we are. As we come to more fully embrace our vulnerability we courageously step into the unknown. This is the birthing ground for joy and creativity. The famous theologian, Paul Tillich, titled a book Courage to Be. We can live our lives in shame, filled with ‘not enough-ness’ or we can touch the ‘connection’ of all beings and things.

In his book Each Moment is the Universe, Dainin Katagiri writes about this intimacy of connection:

“You act on the surface of the ocean, and your action is stable, walking firmly at the bottom of the ocean. This is called bodhi. When you and your practice are stable in this process, all sentient beings come together and you are one stable being, walking at the bottom of the ocean and swimming on the surface of the ocean.” p. 104

“Even though we understand who we are, we have to see what we are. Are we separate from the grasses, trees, or birds? No, we are grasses and trees, snowstorms and fine days. So we have to learn what the storm is, what winter is, what spring is. We have to understand everything in our whole life. So accept that life is just a continuation of learning. Day after day, life after life, we just have to learn constantly. That’s enough.” p. 104

“Grass is being, so each grass is the entire world, you are the entire world, and the whole world is the entire world. Nothing is left out; nothing is wasted. Then you can live with all sentient beings in peace and harmony.” p. 104

The real challenge is to hold this ‘feeling’ of Oneness in the face of those struggling in the dualistic mind of disconnection. We can repeatedly see the source of our suffering is found in our felt sense of ‘not belonging’. This is a question of examining where our sense of connection stops, where we limit our love, and where we refuse to forgive. The key learning of connection is observing the obstacles that come up each time we act from feelings of separation. Our shame and violence arise from where our sense of belonging stops. We can numb ourselves into a comfort zone within our small world. Yet, eventually the flood, climate change, radiation, immigration issues, etc., comes to reveal a world where all things come together and melt into One.

Holding a position of separateness eventually breaks even the strongest dictator. We can try to escape it from greed, fear and ignorance, but we eventually experience more and more shame and restlessness. Today, in America, we’re the most in debt, obese, medicated and addicted society on the planet. We’ve placed great emphasis on educating to the dualistic mind, stressing consumption and comparative competition. We try to bury the ‘whole’ heart, striving for more and more. We spend trillions trying to keep others from getting ‘our stuff’. Politicians and religious leaders spend billions in propaganda trying to sell us on a false sense of certainty about the Uncertain. We pretend that there’s no collateral damage for these efforts. Yet, we feel one another’s suffering…the politician’s, the terrorist’s, the religious leader’s, the Right Winger, the Left Winger, the conservative, the liberal, and on and on. Yet, our lesson is to commit to intimacy, to ‘feeling’ our connection and showing the courage to have a respectful conversation.

We can ignore one another, numb ourselves to the harm of our actions and inactions, act as ants in a sugar bowel greedily eating more and more until we explode, or we can truly let ourselves be seen as the connected Divine beings we are. We can move from the ‘whole’ heart, letting ourselves be seen, fully embracing our ‘enough-ness’.

The Dali Lama says we’re here to learn to live in joy. Katagiri says life is just a continuation of our learning. We could essentially eliminate all of our belonging boundaries and divide our political/religious parties into ‘open minded’ and ‘close minded’. We’re either grateful and courageously curious or we’re stuck in our small world of judging one another. We’re either living a life or joy or one of continual restlessness, desiring things to be different from what they are. Our real spiritual security seems to rest in our capacity to ‘wake up’ to Love, to the full felt sense of our being Connected. Here’s where our real sense of worth comes from and we’re here to hold it and to support others in their awakening to this truth. While we must walk the surface of the ocean, our peace comes from awareness to one foot always grounded on the bottom in awareness to our interdependent connection.

Sorry about some search engines directing you to my blog site. I’m currently working on this.

Years ago I taught progressive relaxation to some of my communications students.  I was always amazed to discover how few had a felt sense of the actual ‘relaxation’ response.  They received training in tensing and then letting go.  Many never could truly reach a state of complete muscle relaxation when tested.  They ‘held on’ with muscle tension, resisting the ‘let go’ response involved in relaxation.

I like the definition that ‘stress’ is the distance from where we’ve been or where we want to be from where we are.  The logical conclusion would mean we reduce stress to the degree we’re able to ‘arrive here, now’.  If I can fully engage the moment, in complete awareness to what’s arising and what it offers, I’ve left the stress zone.  Many spiritual traditions would direct us to this.  For example, Buddhism says we’re either in sukka (peace) or dukka (restlessness).  The Buddha sat in stillness for forty-nine days in search of relief from this restless mind.  The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path were his insights from this opening.  Essentially, the ‘dis-ease’ is our stress/suffering.  The cause is our restless mind.  We can alleviate this by ‘letting go’ and maintaining certain practices that deepen our sense of interconnection and awareness to the constantly changing moment.  In the Christian tradition I’m moved by Philippians 4: 6-9:

6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen ^ain me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

In both traditions, the remedy seems to be in finding the ‘no complaint, no complaint’ zone.  Another way to describe it is ‘no struggle’.  This is challenging work, in the face of a constantly changing circumstance.  Holding relaxed presence in the face of the earth quake or conflict is truly the sign of a master.  Our deeper journey seems to be to remove obstacles to Love, to be ‘great full’ for what is, to meet each other’s restless mind in compassion, and at the very least, to not cause harm.

The relaxed, stress free mind seems to be well received by the body.  This mind fully receives the opportunity to participate in the unfolding present moment.  In this full attention the Divine manifests and all is possible.

So try it out.  Just sit, breathing in, breathing out.  No wanting to be back there or in the future somewhere.  Just witness the moment’s opportunity to breath in, deep.  And then to breath out, slow.  Cultivating the desire to really, really, want to be ‘here, now’, seems to be the time tested method for reducing stress and enhancing mindful action.  The evidence can be found in watching the master make the most difficult look effortless, as though completely outside the boundaries of time and space.

When the mind leaves Love (the Divine), obstacles appear.

The illusion is that I somehow “am” this body and this mind, somehow separate in my sense of ownership.  Yet, in truth, I have no idea about who I was before entering this body or what/who I’ll be when this body wears out.  As my awareness deepens to the illusion of thoughts, I can see how they are just mental formations that can carry me further and further from the reality of the next arising moment.  Yet, there’s a truth that forever keeps feeding this consciousness, a command to Love in the face of the delusive separating mind.  At the end of the day we seem to find the journey wasn’t about some spiritual linear achievement but about our capacity to choose Love.  At the end of our occupation of this body we all surrender it, we all experience the body’s wearing out, we all say good bye to our friends/family/stuff, and we all have the wake of actions taken while inhabiting this body.  At some point we come to see the journey wasn’t about what we have, what we’ve achieved, or how much people seem to like us.  Our peace or misery comes from a review of how dedicated we’ve been in dropping our obstacles to Love.

A spiritual practice dedicated to dropping the illusion of a separated ego seems essential.  Some have referred to this process as ‘self settling into Self’.  Actions directed from Self are without exception driven from Love.  Any notion of ownership appears absurd and there’s a sense of radical humility in the less obstructed journeyman.  The lower vibration of the separated mind more frequently moves from fear.  Caught in perceptions of ‘right’, the wake of these actions is usually turbulent, disharmonious, and out of rhythm to the beauty of the Divine.  Interestingly, those choosing Love (Oneness) by definition must drop their obstacles to those choosing Fear (Twoness).  There can be no exception to One just as there can be no exception to choosing Love.

So where does violence begin; where is opportunity robbed; where is harm done?  Without exception, harm occurs when actions move from a sense of separation.  Violence begins where the sense of belonging stops.  The practice is to forever deepen the sense of interconnection.  The perception of helping or hurting another vanishes as we deepen the felt sense of Oneness, helping or hurting self as Self.  In choosing Love, the choice seems to be full acceptance of the moment, no matter what.  Instead of ‘my’ body, it’s ‘this’ body, gifted to me, meeting ‘this’ moment, gifted to me.  The mind’s work is to dig for the gift of what’s given.  The will is needed to make space for drilling into the mystery of what ‘is’.  Meditation/prayer seem to be the best process.

The aim is to drop obstacles to Love, to live in appreciation for what’s been given, to meet others’ restlessness as our own, to forgive mistakes, to have the courage to openly meet new arising moments free from judgment, yet forever motivated from Love and our sense of interconnection.

The journey…..to drop our obstacles to Love.

The gift…the opportunity to participate.

The result…sustainable joy and a rhythmic/harmonious wake.

The way we language our response to these questions can determine the degree of peace or restlessness we carry through our day.  It influences our degree of joy or suffering.  I’ve personally found the first step is to eliminate my sense of possession or ownership of a body.  It’s been difficult, but productive to move from attachments to what I “have” and what I’ve “achieved”.  With some awareness, it’s quite easy to see that’s not who I am.  For sure, I carry a wake of my life, but that’s not what pushes the boat forward.  What’s happened before had to happen for my awareness of this moment to be where it is.  A great practice is to give thanks for all of it because from those experiences, painful and joyful, my awareness has arrived to where I am, now.

So how do I move from a defined sense of identity, from an attachment to my story, my body and my mind?  Again, here’s where language is tremendously helpful.  General Semantics instructs us to strike the verb “to be” from our language, recognizing the individual nature of perception (i.e. instead of saying ‘the banana is yellow’, say ‘the banana appears yellow’).  This respect and honor to our individual experience fosters peace over war and softens our journey to grow.  On the contrary, the degree to which we attach to our notions of ‘right’ vs. ‘wrong’, to our fixed belief systems, determines our slowed journey as we become entangled in conflict.  I’m not sure who said it, but I resonate with it: We can choose to be right or choose to honest. In honesty, we’re curious and open to explore with intention to what’s best for all with harm to none.  In honesty, we realize we have no idea who we were or where we’ll be when these bodies wear out.  In honesty, we know there’s no awareness of creating our bodies.  In honesty, we see the value to saying ‘the body’ and ‘the mind’, rather than attaching possession through use of ‘my body’ and ‘my mind’.  I don’t know who I was before the body carried me (nobody).  I don’t know who I am in this body (somebody).  I know my journey is to turn awareness over to what’s bigger than me, but what’s still connected to me, in unobstructed love (somebody else), and I’m at peace knowing I can’t end when the body drops off (nobody/somebody, emptiness is form and form is emptiness).  With an attitude of no gain, but one of depth, love and respect, filled with wonder and humility, the separated illusion of ego drops away.  I am All and I am Nothing.  I am simply my moment to moment Awareness, deepening in my intentions to remove obstacles to Love, deepening the felt sense of our interconnection with all beings and non-beings.  Within the realm of One Love we treasure divinity.  We can see how our problems all stem from the belief we’re separate from God.

In Love, when the earthquake comes, we’re solid in our felt sense of One.  The relief to the transitory nature of each moment comes in knowing we can never be separate.  Bodies come and go. Flowers bloom and wither.  Entropy and energy dissipation happen.  The mind creates thoughts that come and go.  Yet, separateness is an illusion.  It may be time to ban the use of ‘birth’ and ‘death’.  It implies a beginning and an end.  We can’t prove an absolute end, so why not just be more semantically correct and say ‘changed’ or ‘transformed’?  No thing is nothing.  As science advances we’re just beginning to better understand how emptiness is fullness and fullness is emptiness.

So why are we here?  Most great spiritual teachers would say we’re here to ‘wake up’.  Wake up to what?  To Love and our resistance to it.  While we’re tempted to think our salvation lies in our good deeds, perhaps the greater message is that it’s not at all related to some linear progression of spiritual achievement, but rather to our deeper exploration of our created obstacles to Love.  Recognizing this gift of life, could we be here to keep from taking anything for granted, to steer from complaint, to cultivate our relationship to ‘this arising moment’, and to forever dig deeper into what our heart calls us to?

A regular meditation/prayer practice seems most helpful in listening to the heart’s (Divine) call.  This work of cultivating depth through stewardship and awareness helps slow energy dissipation so we can deepen along the way in this body, ‘being/doing’ to the fullest.  It seems good to cultivate a higher vibration that smashes our restlessness.  It seems helpful to take a pause, to not loose our sense of Unity.

Whether it’s music, meditation, yoga, boardsports, circle communication process, children, in relationships, being in nature or sacred meals, I feel deepened through the cultivation of One.  These are dedicated practices that require focus, attention and vow to still the mind of Two.  Yesterday, during a yoga class, my teacher said, “You can never do too much yoga.”  While she was referring to the specific practice she was teaching, yoga means “to yoke”, “to join as One”.  Within this spirit, we can never cultivate One too much, especially in a culture that feverishly promotes Two through messages of greed, fear and the ignoring of One (ignorance).  My passion to cultivate the experience of One has been deeply stimulated by Brother David Steindl-Rast.  He describes this experience of the mystery in his book, A Listening Heart:

“This visible and this invisible meet at the crossroads  which we call our heart.  When we say “heart”, we mean that center of our personal being where we are one with ourselves; yet, not with ourselves only.  In our heart of hearts we are one also with all others– and with the Ultimate, with God.  St. Augustine affirms from his own mystical awareness a truth of which every human being has an inkling: “In my heart of hearts God is closer to me than I am to myself.” p. 23

“In one of his Poems for the Hours of Prayer Rilke describes the beginning of our life’s journey in a kind of miniature creation myth.  This myth is so relevant to our task of making sense of the senses that I will paraphrase it here:  God, in creating humans, speaks to each one of us personally, but only before we are completely fashioned; after that, God goes with us out into the darkness and is silent. The Creator’s words which we dimly hear, before we are led out into the night, are these: ‘Urged on by your senses, go forth to the very brink of your longing.  Clothe me, the Invisible, in what is visible!” (But how can this be done?)  ‘Grow like a fire behind all things so that their expanding shadows keep covering all of me.  Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.  Keep going, no matter what.  No sensation is too far out.  Let nothing separate you from me.’  (And then, the Creator’s parting word:) ‘The Land which they call life is near.  You will recognize it by its serious demands.  Give me you hand!”  p. 24

Brother David captures the power and beauty found in deeply listening to the pull we ‘dimly hear’, the motivation to cultivate One in a world that screams Two.  The Rilke story commands us to stay from the experience of Two, always choosing to practice One, through beauty and terror.  Whether on a beautiful walk through the woods, in the mountains, or by the sea; whether facing a predatory enemy, serious illness or deep wound, the choice is always to deepen to the felt hand of One, ‘at the crossroads which we call our heart’.  In a world of Two, our journey is to vow our practice to One, and you can never do/be too much One.

‘So take my hand in you hand.  Say, “It’s great to be alive”.’ Lyric from Elton John’s movie Friends.

In Oneness, you are never alone.

When our minds leave Oneness, obstacles appear.

Violence ripped us apart a few weeks ago when a lone gunmen in Tucson went on a shooting rampage that brought the country to pause.  The vibration of our nation raised as we met the suffering of those injured and those left with the pain of losing a loved one’s physical presence.  As a community, Tucson stepped beyond the response of revenge.  News reporters captured the victims’ compassion for the parents of the shooter and stayed from fueling further division as they stayed on to report the healing of a community.  Even today, I would suspect most of us put our attention and prayers to the future healing of such deep wounds over our anger at the shooter’s senseless act.  Ancient spiritual teachings and collective wisdom would have us deeply look into the mind of the shooter in compassion.  Through a deep understanding and empathy with the person, as us, we’ll move closer to healing and reducing the possibility of future senseless acts.

Today there’s a nation facing the very real potential of anarchy.  Egypt has drawn millions to the street who felt oppressed, not listened to.  When people feel there’s no hope, when they feel it’s over, violence is inevitable.  This is quite different than pushing different political agendas.  It’s a true ‘up’ rising, as people once again discover their worth, taking their opportunity to participate.  Unfortunately, the conflict in Egypt has been framed as ‘anti-Mubarak’ and ‘pro-Mubarak’.  The mind of duality seems to limit it’s capacity to this didactic approach.  The mind of One looks deeper into the situation.  That’s exactly what the faculty and administration of Valparaiso University did in the spring of 1970 when a conflicted campus community shut down the university after Nixon invaded Cambodia.

It was a turbulent time with the nation deeply divided on the merits of our military involvement in Vietnam.  The country was as polarized as I had ever seen.  About ten per cent of the student population felt the situation was hopeless and committed to extreme measures to be heard.  Classes were disrupted by protesters and hunger strikes were begun.  An administration building was burned, suspected from an outside agitator.  Emotions were hot.  Yet, rather than introducing violence to the situation, the Valparaiso staff invited a dialog.  Rather than dichotomizing students into factions of ‘pro-war’ and ‘anti-war’, they listened and discovered the common ground.  Neither side wanted violence.  At the end of the conversation it was clear that some students just wanted a return to the stability of their studies.  Some students could not continue their regular studies in light of their impassioned desire to participate in what they thought democracy called for.  In a brilliant move, they negotiated to allow the protesters to pursue their aim responsibly in an independent study project, receiving pass/fail grades in their courses up to the meeting date.  The contingent was to allow non-protesting students to continue their studies uninterrupted.  Common sense prevailed and the university was made stronger through such an act of integrity.

So how does this apply to Egypt’s current situation?  Today the media is claiming a showdown between ‘pro-Mubarak’ and ‘anti-Mubarak’ factions.  In fact, it’s the wrong frame.  It’s a showdown between those who want a return of stability against those who had no stability and hope before the protests.  It’s a showdown between those who want the protesters to go home vs. the protesters who essentially don’t have a home.  A dualistic mind can only think in terms of winners and losers and seems to thrive on the fight.  A mind of One would create a deeper dialogue aimed at common sense.  At the end of the day, people are concerned about their quality of life.  They want an opportunity to participate.  Mubarak stands for many as a leader who failed to nurture this.  Rather than inflaming the situation with ‘win/loss’ mentality, those without hope need some way to know they’re engaged, given the opportunity to participate in the changes they see as necessary.  The diplomatic response would be to enlist representatives from both parties in a forum where they could deeply listen to each others’ situation.  Most protesters are not interesting in destroying the stability of their neighbor, even if they have no stability.  Most citizens of stability are not interested in starving the less fortunate so they can have more.  The thirst for greed and the fear fed for each other can be diminished when they break the illusion of ‘two’.  We are our brother and sister and our aim is to support one another as ourselves.  Just as the Valparaiso staff and students did in 1971, the Mubarak administration could engage a dialogue with protesters about the changes they see as necessary.  The citizens wanting a return to stability could engage in the dialogue, with both parties seeking common ground.  Violence would be subverted, protestors would feel they’ve been heard and tended to.  Those seeking return to stability could once again open their doors.  True democracy would show bright, unlike the extreme polarization that runs rampant today.

Just as Tucson stayed from ‘right vs. wrong’ revenge judgement, a desire to do what’s best for all with harm to none makes us all better.  A mind of One would raise the planet’s consciousness much like Mandella, Gandhi, Dr. King, the Dali Lama, and many others have done throughout time.  The dualistic mind of the media wants to play this like a football game.  The mind of common sense would play it seeking to find the common elements of those involved.  True compassion is our willingness to meet each others’ suffering from the mind of One.

Bridges, Not Walls

It’s been an amazing week in light of the Tucson shooting.  While the pain, wounding and suffering are massive, it’s interesting what happens when we’re drawn into the pause of violence’s aftermath.  While our ‘important’ people are very cautious to not blame our mindless, angry speech for the actions of a mentally ill shooter, there has been much needed attention put to the power of words and our respect for one another as human beings.  Unfortunately, not a lot has been said about just what it means to be civil.  I understand that the word originates from the capacity to live well in a city.  It goes beyond tolerance to a sense of interconnection and interdependence.  It drives from compassion, generosity and common sense to evolve.  This would necessarily require a vow to open mindedness.  The origin of politics goes to civility, seeking common sense solutions for the best of the city.  Unfortunately, greed for power, authority and wealth have created selfish interests which undermine our willingness for civil discussion.  It’s rare to see a common sense dialogue.  Most of our legislators are trained attorneys, skilled in the techniques of persuasion.  Their educational training places almost no attention to the skills of active listening and dialogue.  We’ve seen our politics digress to arguments of blame, manipulation, fear, intimidation, and every tactic of persuasion possible.  Our political campaigns focus upon difference through combat style debates and inflammatory TV, Internet and radio ads that would have us believe we’re a truly polarized divided nation.  The nature of politics today has been anything but civil attempts to make common sense decisions for the best of all with harm to none.  So it’s been refreshing to see this topic at least touched upon over the past few days.

Last night President Obama referenced the ultimate question, pointing out that as we face our death the real sense of our life meaning will come down to how well we’ve loved.  It won’t revolve around how many metals we’ve received, how much fame and fortune, how much power and material accumulation, etc.  We’ll say good-bye to all of these, yet the results of our loving actions will continue.  The results of the heroic actions in Tucson will forever live on much like those of the 9/11 heroes.  Their wholehearted, open actions of courage raised the consciousness of the planet.  The most poignant message from President Obama was a challenge to honor those heroes of Tucson with speech befitting to this higher consciousness.  So just how do we do this?

It makes no difference what political party, race, religion, etc., one belongs.  What counts is our convicted civility to hold an open mind.  A great democracy demands we step from our ‘righteous pride’ and sense of ‘knowing’ to a humble curiosity to grow and learn.  This takes the greatest of courage.  Can I face others whose concepts and thoughts are vastly different from mine with a fresh, open mind, willing to explore?  Can I dedicate to cultivating surprise and curiosity in my journey to deepen understanding?  Can I approach others from a deeper desire to uncover our common sense rather than judgmentally focusing upon our apparent differences?  This requires the deepest courage and results in the best society.  It drives from faith and hope, from a much deeper knowing.  It has nothing to do with persuasion.  There’s a vow to cultivate the open mind, to step from fear in courage to participate, and to humbly receive the gift of this participation.  It’s a recognition that our very embodiment as a human is precious gift, providing the opportunity to participate.  It’s a realization to convict ourselves to joy, no matter what.  It’s conviction to dialog, to steward a hopeful future, and to humbly hold our place as an interconnected being.

Our great spiritual teachers strongly recommend space to cultivate our appreciation through prayer and/or meditation.  This has been a great week for this.  Again, it occurred during a week of Oneness (1/11/11), a week where we could all more deeply touch the gift of our humanity.

Circles Have No Sides

Violence has been described as “that which robs opportunity”.  From the mind of Two (greed, fear and ignorance), we inflict harm upon another from the delusion that we’re somehow separate.  Somehow caught in notions of our “rightness”, we inflict our judgment upon others, exerting our force in persuasive attempts to get them to change.  Interestingly, change is always here.  Cultivating curiosity, the compassionate response is to listen, even to those who we’re tempted to judge as ‘unenlightened’.

Have you been watching the news coverage of the “Tragedy in Tucson”?  It’s not one to make sense from when approaching from a position of Two.  Shortly after such deep wounding (separation), the only authentic response is silence.  I went to Virginia Tech one week after the shootings.  I could feel the darkness and pain on the campus when I was still miles away on my approach.  The mainstream media circus had left, clergy trying to sell their answers were trying to talk to students, yet the only genuine response seemed to rest in the collective stillness and silence.  This was also the more common experience after 9/11 and other deeply wounding tragedies.  These silent moments after such deep hurt give us pause to touch our humanity.  We find a moment to diminish our fear and anger, to embrace those whose thought is not our thought.  The breaking of this silence is a delicate matter.  At Virginia Tech I blew the horn at a ceremony one week after the shooting.  It still may have been too early, but it was a sounding of unification, in harmony and rhythm once again found after such dissonance and separation.

The Sound of One was heard loud and clear from outer space when Rep. Gifford’s astronaut brother-in-law challenged us to be more mindful with our words. Flight controllers in Houston fell silent as Scott Kelly spoke via radio from space:

“We have a unique vantage point here aboard the International Space Station. As I look out the window, I see a very beautiful planet that seems very inviting and peaceful. Unfortunately, it is not.

These days, we are constantly reminded of the unspeakable acts of violence and damage we can inflict upon one another, not just with our actions, but also with our irresponsible words.

We’re better than this. We must do better.”

Sometimes it takes a vantage from a different space to cultivate Oneness.  A previous astronaut, Edgar Mitchell, had a similar experience upon viewing the peace of our planet from space.  Upon return to earth he founded IONS (Institute of Noetic Sciences, www.noetic.org).  This organization’s mission is to scientifically validate this experience of one.  Their vision statement is:

The Institute of Noetic Sciences serves an emerging movement of globally conscious citizens dedicated to manifesting our highest capacities. We believe that consciousness is essential to a paradigm shift that will lead to a more sustainable world. We encourage open-minded explorations of consciousness through the meeting of science and spirit. We take inspiration from the great discoveries of human history that have been sourced from insight and intuition and that have harnessed reason and logic for their outer expression. It is our conviction that systematic inquiries into consciousness will catalyze positive concrete transformations in the world. In this process, our vision is to help birth a new worldview that recognizes our basic interconnectedness and interdependence and promotes the flourishing of life in all its magnificent forms.

Noam Chomsky has written that our attempts to persuade others always has an underlying current of violence.  It’s like our restless, grasping mind is struggling with what “is”.  In times of trouble our thoughts travel to wanting things different.  If only we could be like we were, or if only we could get to future relief.  Anything but resting in this painful place.  Yet, our experience and ancient wisdom leads us to rest in ‘this moment’, in meeting what’s arising here and now.  This is the formula the Buddha provided over two thousand years ago.  Our restless mind causes pain and suffering.  It comes from our attachments.  Our relief is to cultivate stillness, letting go our grasping, embracing the beauty of ‘this moment’.  Within the beauty of this moment we feel our basic interconnectedness and interdependence (Oneness).  We’re then directed to actions from a sense of wonder (one-der) and reverence.  From this place we aim to a higher consciousness that’s more sensitive to the harm from damaging speech, from taking what’s not been given, from sexual misconduct, from killing, and from the ignorance grown through intoxicants.  When Scott Kelly says “we’re better than this, we must do better”, it’s the same command as our great spiritual teachers.  It’s a moment of pause to consider cultivating a response to our Oneness.  For me, young Mattie Stapanek captured it best with his 9/11 poem:

For Our World

We need to stop.
Just stop.
Stop for a moment
Before anybody
Says or does anything
That may hurt anyone else.
We need to be silent.
Just silent.
Silent for a moment
Before we forever lose
The blessing of songs
That grow in our hearts.
We need to notice.
Just notice.
Notice for a moment
Before the future slips away
Into ashes and dust of humility.
Stop, be silent, and notice
In so many ways, we are the same.
Our differences are unique treasures.
We have, we are, a mosaic of gifts
To nurture, to offer, to accept.
We need to be.
Just be.
Be for a moment
Kind and gentle, innocent and trusting,
Like children and lambs,
Never judging or vengeful
Like the judging and vengeful.
And now, let us pray,
Differently, yet together,
Before there is no earth, no life,
No chance for peace.

Mattie J.T. Stepanek
September 11, 2001

Have a healing moment this 1/11/11, a ‘One-drous’ Moment in Our Evolution