The Dalai Lama is like a doctor ...

"Many of the great doctors in history have distinguished themselves and come to inspired diagnoses in part by seeing the connectedness of things, the way a problem in the head may effect the performance of the body, or how what you put in your mouth can alter the acid in the stomach. The body is a single organism in which one push here may have a strong effect there. So it is, too, the Dalai Lama says, with the world - and our very concerns about it all are intertwined, impossible to solve separately. It's no good offering people peace, he suggests, if those same people lack food and water; and it's no good offering them food and water if our forests and rivers are polluted. It's no good, even, to clean up our environment if we're still polluted within. In short the solution to all our problems, economic, environmental, political, spiritual, can only be addressed by going back to fundamentals, the change of attitude that can create a change in everything the attitude inspects. Reforms on the surface make no difference whatsoever."

- Pico Iyer - The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama - p.93

The Silent Revolutionaries

.....On the surface of the world right now there is war and violence and things seem dark. But calmly and quietly, at the same time, something else is happening underground. An inner revolution is taking place and certain individuals are being called to a higher light. It is a silent revolution. From the inside out. From the ground up. This is a Global operation... A spiritual conspiracy. There are sleeper cells in every nation on the planet. You won't see us on the T.V. You won't read about us in the newspaper. You won't hear about us on the radio. We don't seek any glory. We don't wear any uniform. We come in all shapes and sizes, colours and styles.

Most of us work anonymously. We are quietly working behind the scenes in every country and culture of the world, cities big and small, mountains and valleys, in farms and villages, tribes and remote islands. You could pass by one of us on the street and not even notice, we go undercover, we remain behind the scenes. It is of no concern to us who takes the final credit, but simply that the work gets done. Occasionally we spot each other in the street, we give a quiet nod and continue on our way. During the day many of us pretend we have normal jobs, but behind the false storefront at night is where the real work takes a place. Some call us the 'Conscious Army', we are slowly creating a new world with the power of our minds and hearts. We follow, with passion and joy, our orders from the Central Spiritual Intelligence.

We are dropping soft, secret love bombs when no one is looking. Poems, Hugs, Music, Photography, Movies, Kind words, Smiles, Meditation and prayer, Dance, Social activism, Websites, Blogs, Random acts of kindness. We each express ourselves in our own unique ways with our own unique gifts and talents. 'Be the change you want to see in the world' (Mahatma Ghandi). That is the motto that fills our hearts. We know it is the only way real transformation takes place. We know that quietly and humbly we have the power of all the oceans combined.

Our work is slow and meticulous, like the formation of mountains, it is not even visible at first glance and yet with it entire tectonic plates shall be moved in the centuries to come. Love is the new religion of the 21st century. You don't have to be a highly educated person or have any exceptional knowledge to understand it. It comes from the intelligence of the heart embedded in the timeless evolutionary pulse of all human beings. Be the change you want to see in the world. Nobody else can do it for you. We are now recruiting, perhaps you will join us or you already have....
All are welcome...
The door is open.

-Author Unknown -

It's not really helping ...

... anybody to live a life that isn’t true to yourself.

What happens when I sit in the dark ...

Last night I sat in a darkened room with a few strangers watching a documentary called Examined Life. It starts with a quote from Plato, “an unexamined life is not worth living”. The question is, what happens when you examine your life? Listening to the words of the philosophers streaming from the screen in front of me my mind begins to wander back to earlier in the day. I’m reminded how BORED I AM, bored and dulled to such an extent that anything but what I am supposed to be doing is attractive and an easy distraction.

Today I dragged myself kicking and screaming against my will and my better judgement onto campus, into work and to the classroom. I’m unsure but it seems that the students are bored and dulled by the experience too. What keeps me going on this treadmill of an existence is the belief that education can make a difference. At times education can provide spaces for transformation, liberation and hope. Education can be a pathway to other places. What is to become of education? The modern, mainstream, institutionalised version of knowledge acquisition, of empiricism is dulled by its own myopia, is void of radical solutions and is becoming a one dimensional training camp for the masses.

Boredom is the domain of the boring. When there is so much inequality, injustice, poverty, violence, destruction in the world there is no excuse for being bored. What happens when you find yourself in an organisation, system or institution that is part of the damage and harm being done to others? Arguably the larger community or structure is a reflection of each individual. The challenge is therefore to change it one day, one person, one thought, deed and action at a time. Maybe most of my working day is spent doing things that seem to perpetuate what I am trying to change. That does not have to define me or hold me back or trap me inside of the oppression. However, it is important to fight back. It is essential to effect change in order to liberate the oppressor and set us all free to live in a new community built on freedom, diversity, hope and love.

My boredom is a manifestation of my frustration, anger and sadness. To give in to it is the tragedy. To be motivated to find new ways of communicating with people, new ways to learn and most of all new communities in which to redress the injustices that surround us is my path away from BOREDOM to a more enriched, compassionate and gentle life.

turning to one another

There is no greater power than a community discovering what it cares about
Ask "What is possible?" not "What is wrong?" Keep asking.
Notice what you care about.
Assume that many others share your dreams.
Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.
Talk to people you know.
Talk to people you don't know.
Talk to people you never talk to.
Be intrigued by the differences you hear.
Expect to be surprised.
Treasure curiosity more than certainty.
Invite in everyone who cares to work on what's possible.
Acknowledge that everyone is an expert about something.
Know that creative solutions come from new connections.
Remember, you don't fear people whose story you know.
Real listening always brings people closer together.
Trust that meaningful conversations can change your world.
Rely on human goodness. Stay together.


- Margaret Wheatley -

Letters to a young poet ...

...I would like to beg you dear Sir/Madam, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to 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.

- Rainer Maria Rilke, 1903 -

Lost

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.

- David Wagner -

What do you love?

"In the end

we will conserve

only what we love.

We will love

only what we

understand.

We will understand

only what we are

Taught."

- Baba Dioum, Senegalese Poet

and Environmentalist, 1937 -

Tree/Jack

It's your softness, your gentle spirit
That leans me to you
You are a place of safety
A wise old soul.

I sit my spine touching yours
Drawn by your compassion
I fall into your tender clasp
Held so caringly.

You know what is felt
Beyond any need for an
Exchange of words
I talk to you like no other.

You are my special friend
A most precious gift
Always to be cherished
Never to be forgotten.

Never Give Up

No matter what is going on

Never Give Up

Develop the heart

Too much energy in your country

Is spent developing the mind

Instead of the heart.

Develop the heart

Be compassionate

Not just to your friends

But to everyone

Be compassionate.

Work for peace

In your heart and in the world

Work for peace

And I say it again

Never Give Up

No matter what is happening

No matter what is going on

Around you,

Never Give Up

- HH 14th Dalai Lama -

What I mean is ...

What I mean is,
we stood on the bank of the river
under the trees,
the pair of us,
and we promised the nothing
that was there,
the nothing that made us,
the nothing that was listening,
that we truly desired to go
beyond ourselves.

- Ali Smith -
Girl Meets Boy, p.159

It is said ...

It IS said that all that
you are seeking
is also seeking YOU,
that if you LIE still,
sit STILL,
it will find you.
It has been waiting for you
a long time.
Once it is here don't move away.
REST.
See what happens next.

- Clarissa Pinkola Estes -
Women who run with the wolves (p.148)

I Carry Your Heart

I carry your heart with me
(I carry it in my heart)
I am never without it
(Anywhere I go you go;
And whatever is done by me is your doing)
I fear no fate
(For you are my fate)
I want no world
(For beautiful, you are my world, my true)
And you are whatever a moon has always meant
And whatever a sun will always sing is you.
Here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(Here is the root of the root
And the bud of the bud
And the sky of the sky of a tree called Life;
Which grows higher than Soul can hope
Or mind can hide)
And this is the wonder that's keeping
The stars apart
I carry your heart
(I carry it in my heart).

- e.e.cummings -