Bearing Witness
The “rational” values of the culture that we live in may have freed us from the myths of the past, but unfortunately they have also undermined our capacity to have any faith in the unseen metaphysical domains of our innermost interiors. In the ancient premodern world, that unseen dimension was validated by shared myths and religious beliefs and was empowered by the supercharged energy of awakened consciousness in inspired prophets and seers. Today we no longer have myths to rely on to validate our spiritual illumination. Together we need to create a post-traditional consensus about the great significance and place of Spirit in the human experience. This has to be generated by those of us who have seen beyond the veil of appearances and have experienced those deeper metaphysical domains to such a profound degree that we’re willing to bear witness in public. But to be taken seriously, we must do so in a way that points us not only beyond the myth and superstition of the ancients but also beyond the naïve idealism predominant in so much of New Age thinking. We must be ruthless in our rationality in order to authentically transmit the light of the trans-rational God in the twenty-first century. This is an enormous task, but our willingness to take it on will slowly but surely make a profound difference - Andrew Cohen
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
The Hope
An excerpt from Andrew Harvey's new book The Hope: A Guide To Sacred Activism.
An elderly black woman was brought by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission face to face with the man, Mr. Van de Broek, who had confessed to the savage torture and murder of both the woman's son and her husband a few years earlier. The old woman had been made to witness her husband's death. The last words of her husband had been "Father forgive them."
One of the members of the Commission turned to her and asked "How do you believe justice should be done to this man who has inflicted such suffering on you and so brutally destroyed your family?"
The old woman replied "I want three things. I want first to be taken to the place where my husband's body was burned so that I can gather up the dust and give his remains a decent burial." She stopped, collected herself, and then went on. "My husband and son were my only family. I want, secondly, therefore, for Mr. Van de Broek to become my son. I would like for him to come twice a month to the ghetto and spend a day with me so that I can pour out to him whatever love I have still remaining with me. And finally, I want a third thing. I would like Mr. Van de Broek to know that I offer him my forgiveness because Jesus Christ died to forgive. This was also the wish of my husband. And so, I would kindly ask someone to come to my side and lead me across the courtroom so that I can take Mr. Van de Broek in my arms, embrace him, and let him know that he is truly forgiven."
The assistants came to help the old black woman across the room. Mr. Van de Broek, overwhelmed by what he had just heard, fainted. And as he did, those in the courtroom -- friends, family, neighbors -- all victims of decades of oppression and injustice -- began to sing "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me."
The first time I read this sacred story, one detail leapt out and felled me with its truth: "Mr. Van de Broek, overwhelmed by what he had just heard, fainted." Nothing in his brutal and degraded past could have prepared Mr. Van de Broek for what the black woman to whom he had given such pain gave him in return, not fury, nor a call for his execution, but unconditional forgiveness and a reclaiming of him into the human family as a whole and into her own immediate family. And the sacred power, flowing through her because of her humility and faith, did not merely "move" Mr. Van de Broek; it fell on him like invisible lightning from a dimension of pure love he may never have begun to suspect existed. In that moment, two extraordinary journeys, both terrible in different ways, intersected in an explosion of grace.
An elderly black woman was brought by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission face to face with the man, Mr. Van de Broek, who had confessed to the savage torture and murder of both the woman's son and her husband a few years earlier. The old woman had been made to witness her husband's death. The last words of her husband had been "Father forgive them."
One of the members of the Commission turned to her and asked "How do you believe justice should be done to this man who has inflicted such suffering on you and so brutally destroyed your family?"
The old woman replied "I want three things. I want first to be taken to the place where my husband's body was burned so that I can gather up the dust and give his remains a decent burial." She stopped, collected herself, and then went on. "My husband and son were my only family. I want, secondly, therefore, for Mr. Van de Broek to become my son. I would like for him to come twice a month to the ghetto and spend a day with me so that I can pour out to him whatever love I have still remaining with me. And finally, I want a third thing. I would like Mr. Van de Broek to know that I offer him my forgiveness because Jesus Christ died to forgive. This was also the wish of my husband. And so, I would kindly ask someone to come to my side and lead me across the courtroom so that I can take Mr. Van de Broek in my arms, embrace him, and let him know that he is truly forgiven."
The assistants came to help the old black woman across the room. Mr. Van de Broek, overwhelmed by what he had just heard, fainted. And as he did, those in the courtroom -- friends, family, neighbors -- all victims of decades of oppression and injustice -- began to sing "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me."
The first time I read this sacred story, one detail leapt out and felled me with its truth: "Mr. Van de Broek, overwhelmed by what he had just heard, fainted." Nothing in his brutal and degraded past could have prepared Mr. Van de Broek for what the black woman to whom he had given such pain gave him in return, not fury, nor a call for his execution, but unconditional forgiveness and a reclaiming of him into the human family as a whole and into her own immediate family. And the sacred power, flowing through her because of her humility and faith, did not merely "move" Mr. Van de Broek; it fell on him like invisible lightning from a dimension of pure love he may never have begun to suspect existed. In that moment, two extraordinary journeys, both terrible in different ways, intersected in an explosion of grace.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Inspiration
"Inspiration offers a new paradigm for communicating, away from force and manipulation. Shared human perfection, the bedrock of successful communications, is nothing less than love; while cynicism blocks evolution." JM Roberts
Seeking to improve the world is a futile game built on a lie. If we want to be transformative communicators or leaders we need to work through the self. In other words, if we want to make the world a better place, we start by looking at ourselves - that way there will be one less scoundrel among us. In order to communicate in a really transformative way, we've got to get over our need to change and fix people. If our intention is to really accept the world, and the people around us as they are, then we become naturally inspiring and transformative - its the paradox of transformative leadership and transformative communication. We do not inspire people by trying to make them better - it usually just annoys them - we inspire them by witnessing their inherent perfection.
Seeking to improve the world is a futile game built on a lie. If we want to be transformative communicators or leaders we need to work through the self. In other words, if we want to make the world a better place, we start by looking at ourselves - that way there will be one less scoundrel among us. In order to communicate in a really transformative way, we've got to get over our need to change and fix people. If our intention is to really accept the world, and the people around us as they are, then we become naturally inspiring and transformative - its the paradox of transformative leadership and transformative communication. We do not inspire people by trying to make them better - it usually just annoys them - we inspire them by witnessing their inherent perfection.
We are on the forefront of something big, and really fascinating - we realize that we have to look inward in order to solve our external problems. We are starting to get that most of our external problems actually start within us. We are trying to learn how to turn inward, find the source that animates us, and recognize that actually we created all this. We created our life, our relationships; all the problems that we have. To some extent our problems are a twisted tribute to our own creative power. Evolutionary biologists describe how the human mind has developed to be a great short-term problem solver. Catch the food, build the fire. We did not evolve to be long-term thinkers yet here we are at a place in history where we need to access and live out long-term priorities. It seems that sadly, even tragically, we are just not that species yet. Yes, the only way we can even survive in the short term is to start thinking about sustainability, and long-term perspectives.
Now when it comes to the realm of communication and sustainability, if we just take the simple common sense assumption that people consist of a mind, a body, and a spirit; we can see that there are really only three ways a human being can communicate with another human being. One would be from the level of the body to the body. That would be force. Say I wanted to get you to move a rock, I could force you to move a rock with my body. Another level would be that I could convince you to move the rock by using my mind to convince your mind to make your own body do it. That would be persuasion. Then at the top we would have inspiration, which is when I somehow access that shared creative intelligence; that nature within me to ignite the creative intelligence in you to make your own body move the rock. Inspiration would be the only way of communicating that does not have that backlash; that is sustainable. When people feel inspired to move a rock, they will keep doing it.
Enter the law of resonance; this is where a message is going to be heard at the same message level from which it is sent. If I send a message from the body, it is going be heard that way, or from the mind. I could say inspirational stuff, but if I am trying to manipulate it, if that is my intention, then it is not going to be inspiring. Conversely, Until we are willing to re-experience whatever fear we have not properly digested from our past, it will continue to clog up our experience of the world. And we will project it onto the world around us as judgment and cynicism. Cynicism is just undigested pain. Until we encounter, embrace, and overcome our own cynicism, we are going to be locked in the persuasion of force no matter what we say or do. This sounds like very ancient wisdom. It sounds Greek; it sounds Buddhist; it sounds like the Hebrew prophets. The hard way that gets easy rather than the easy way that gets hard.
Let's consider cynicism, because it's a potent enemy right now. People feel it is hip to be cynical, resigned, and somehow un-hip to be an inspired person. We all go through periods where we are afraid to be positive, because its not cool within the group. Why does this happen? It is because we cannot distinguish false positive from true joy. When we start to see that the mainstream has a lot of in-authenticity in it, we see a lot of what is actually desperation, masking as positive thinking. We start to mistrust positive statements. We see how even really great wisdom can be abused. Phrases can be abused to serve inauthentic ends. So we become mistrustful of anything positive, and we almost start to realize that the only cool people are the ones who have the courage to see the truth of life - which is not being stated in the mainstream. We have to forgive the mainstream for not being authentic at times, and not use that as a way of poisoning our own selves or keeping our own selves from being happy. Forgiveness is really where it is at.
Neither can we inspire another human being if we are coming from a place of scarcity ourselves. Flipping that around, if you are coming from a position of truly having faith in the universe operating through you and of you having more than you need; if you are coming from that place, it is hard not to inspire other people at all. It is like giving water to someone who is crawling in the desert. We have been hypnotized into scarcity-based thinking. At every corner of our society, there is a conversation revolving around how there is not enough to go around. If you can, in an unauthentic way, embrace the world, and engage the world with that faith; and that conviction of the ultimate abundance of life, you will change the world. You will, and you will not be trying to change it, and you'll be having fun. You will look at everyone that you encounter with gratitude that they are there. You will be thinking: "What an amazing person this person must be for being in my space, because I know that I am being a part of this amazing life and they must have been sent to me for some sort of reason." There is so much unsaid power in something as simple as the look in your eye. You look at people through that lens, and they feel uplifted by you.
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