Andrew HarveySacred Activism

Globe in classroom, New Orleans by Chris Jordan from "In Katrina's Wake" (2005)

I believe we are heading into the eye of a perfect storm, which threatens the human race and a great deal of nature. I think it is extremely important that we all stop denying just how dangerous, insane and savage this perfect storm of crises is, and just what it means for all of us and the world. I think you know what those crises are. There is a holocaust going on that the doomsayers had predicted. There is a retreat among many of the major religions into fundamentalism, which disorders our unity. There is the domination of a kind of corporate magnate who is brutal and addicted to power, exploitation and greed. The mass media, largely owned by corporations, is filling our minds with violence, trash and celebrity trivia, at the very moment where you and I need to be inspired, galvanized and given the authentic information.

There is a lifestyle, which you and I both live, hectic, driven and multi-tasking, which makes it almost impossible for even the most well-meaning of us to have the kind of pleasure and peace in which to hear the voice of the soul that could guide us. When you bring all of these crises together, and factor in the population explosion, what we are looking at is a perfect storm of interrelated crises that are all manifestations of a selective force - human self. This human self has lost the most fundamental connection of all, the connection with the sacred nature of creation and of life. I think it is very important that we all wake up fast, because all those who are not awake now are going to be, very soon. The crisis is not going to relent and it is going to get very much fiercer very soon.

I believe this storm of crises is an evolutionary possibility of unprecendented intensity. It gives us the opportunity to gaze into the mirror of our destiny, and to see very clearly, that unless you and I evolve to the next level of putting our deepest principles and holiest compassion and greatest passion for life into direct, clear. radical action on every level, we will simply not survive. This great death we are living, that we are manifesting out of addiction, greed, extraordinary apathy and fantastic lack of concern for life is also potentially the birth canal of an unprecedented birth. A chastened, humbled humanity, opened at last by tragedy, awakened by the knowledge of the shadow may really claim our innate, sacred consciousness, start acting from our heart and turn apocalypse into grace, nightmare into opportunity, redeem terrible tragedy by gathering together on a massive scale to transform the world.

This crisis is the equivalent on a global scale of a crisis that a mystic goes through at a certain moment on the path. In Christian mysticism it is called the 'Dark Night of the Soul'. In the metaphysical systems of Mahayana Buddhism, it is the shattering of the false or created self. Can humanity see this immense consciousness as a God-sent, God-given, God-ordained opportunity to unlearn all our dangerous attainments? If humanity could settle in the deep ground of divine inspiration and learn how to go through the shattering ordeal with authentic grace, authentic commitment to transformation, then not only will we survive, but humanity will be transformed and born into an authentic divine nature, through the death of the collective false self that is manifesting this great death and wrecking everything. What is there in us that can birth a divine humanity, transformed by tragedy, illumined by shattering knowledge and transfigured by divine grace? What force can give us the power to turn this devastating situation around?

Four years after my teacher Father Bede Griffiths died, I had a dream in which he showed me two rivers. One was a river of fire going toward the sea. The other was a river of even more intense fire. They met at the sea in a glorious, radiant, divine explosion of energy. I heard a voice saying, "These two rivers are the two noblest forces of the human psyche. They are the river of the mystic's passion for God and the river of the activist's passion for justice. When these two rivers meet, a third fire is born that is ordained to transform everything. It the fire of divine compassion and love in action."

The vision gave me a term Sacred Activism and in honour of that I wrote a book. If you believe, as I do, that we are facing extreme danger together with extreme opportunity, I ask you in the name of Buddha to get up at three o'clock in the morning someday soon, surround yourself with the peace of God in whichever way you understand it, and ask youself one question. Which of all the causes in this beleaguered, damaged world breaks my heart the most? Please dare to ask yourself this question, and dare to listen to what your heart says to you. If you do, your heart will reveal to you a sacred mission that belongs just to you, and that will be the deepest and most radiant voice of your soul. You will be given at that moment, an injunction and a direction. What you can do then is to join with other people with a similar heartbreak, and work together in your local community, to do something real about what it is that you advocate in yourself.

I talk about this vision of sacred activism widely, and I am also involved in a way of grounding it in the world called Networks of Grace. These networks are going to be cells of six to twelve people gathered around a heartbreak, or a profession, or a passion, dedicating in their local communities to start a grassroots, radical revolution of the third power; Love in Action. It is the only way we will get a chance for it to work. If we wait for corporations to transform our situation, we will wait until the last tree is burnt down. If we wait for politicians to have a major spiritual transformation and suddenly give millions away and start feeding the poor, we will be waiting for the last animal to disappear. This revolution of the soul in action depends upon you and me. We are getting real about the tragedy of where we are now, the opportunity of where we can go, and the heartbreak you and I feel. When we get real about these things, we are impelled to come together in networks of grace and do something about it. 

The above is the transcript of a talk by mystical scholar, poet & translator Andrew Harvey at the NYC launch of Bhikkhu Bodhi's Buddhist Global Relief project 

 

This is GREAT and gave me a good belly laugh. 

The spirit of Christmas is all about LOVE, and not how much lighting one has in front of their home. I find it refreshing when people don't try to keep up with the neighbors. You can have a Less is More attitude about Christmas lighting and still be in the spirit of Christmas.


The Ditto house owners are very clever, creative and obviously have a great sense of humor.

 

WOW! Bill McKibben's 350.org International Day of Climate Action was a huge success. According to their website people in 181 countries came together for the most widespread day of environmental action in the planet's history. At over 5200 events around the world, people gathered to call for strong action and bold leadership on the climate crisis.

I have just spent the last hour marveling over all the phenomenal pictures and videos that people sent in from all over the world. Check them out HERE.

There were several events planned in my area of Phoenix, Arizona like climbing up a mountain with Arizona State University students and bike rides. My husband and I met up on Thursday, October 22nd with some local members of 1Sky to take a 350.org photo in Old Town Scottsdale by the big LOVE sculpture in the park to signify our love of home, community, and our planet. Here is our picture.

We were in the park for about an hour taking photos and of course people walking by would question us about what we were doing. I had printed up small cards with what 350.org is all about and what it means. So when asked I would just pull out a card from my pocket and give it to them.

After the photos were taken some of the group went on for a bike ride, but my husband and I went to the Scottsdale ArtWalk where the local art galleries open their doors to the public and show off their work. This particular ArtWalk was a Taste of Art ArtWalk where you could sample food and wine as you stroll and look at art. So we opted out of the long bike ride in order to eat, drink wine and look at art which is more to our liking. (lol) I kept my 350.org gear on while at the ArtWalk and of course I was asked numerous times what does 350 mean, so I would whip out one of those printed cards and hand it to them. I had printed up 24 cards and only came home with three.

When you are in love with your home, and I don't mean your house, but where you live, for me it's the glorious Sonoran Desert, then you are always happy to support any organization that wants to protect it and keep it pristine, beautiful and healthy.

 

I am a member of the Global Coherence Initiative which is a science-based initiative to unite millions of people in heart-focused care and intention to shift global consciousness from instability and discord to balance, cooperation and enduring peace.

The Global Coherence Initiative is designed to help individuals and groups work together, synchronistically and strategically to increase the impact of their efforts to create positive global change.

Together we will:

1) Increase personal coherence for the benefit of ourselves and the planet
2) Help shift the planetary consciousness baseline from self-centeredness to wholeness care
3) Increase connection and social harmony
4) Empower our ability to navigate through global changes with less stress and more ease
5) Empower environmental responsibility and stewardship of the planet

This project has been initiated because millions of people sense that this is an extraordinary time; that a paradigm shift of human consciousness is now under way; that we are at the crossroads of change and must move toward the healing of ourselves and our planet. Many people are feeling a strong desire to help change our present and future conditions and are looking for ways to use their heart, spirit-aligned wisdom and care to make a meaningful difference.

The Global Coherence Initiative is one of many care and compassion initiatives taking place on the planet. Each year, an increasing number of groups and online communities are radiating compassion and care to the planet in these times of need. We and others feel that these collective heart-based initiatives, rather than being a trend, represent the proactive consciousness platform of the future, in which individuals and communities take responsibility for shaping a new world by increasing love, care and compassion for the global whole.

I recently volunteered to participate in a 6-month GCI Interconnectedness Study on the relationship between human consciousness, Earth’s energetic activity and other planetary factors. (I have a lot of free time on my hands these days, lol) Anyway, I do receive e-mail alerts and I thought I would pass this one on to the members of this community. This alert is about the upcoming International Day of Peace.

Envisioning the Peaceful World You Want to Live In
"For the International Day of Peace, September 21, align with the spirit of all who are sending prayers, meditations and positive intentions for world peace."

Creation starts with thought, desire and imagination….the same as desiring a new house, job, etc. Thoughts, desires and imagination create an energetic blueprint for what we want; then taking action steps towards our goal helps to create the building blocks for intentions to manifest.

In honor of International Peace Day, let’s take five minutes a day (or what’s convenient for you) to envision the world as we would want it to be: A world that respects individual human rights and authentic communication, has balanced, conscious leadership and compassionate governing systems worldwide, values the preservation of resources, has love and respect for animals and environmental balance. A world that provides food, pure water, shelter and world peace for all. Create your own additions and remember to enrich your vision with genuine feelings from your heart’s desire so as to give it life. Close with a moment of gratitude and the request that whatever manifests only be the highest best for the whole."  

UPDATE:  HeartMath in honor of International Peace Day, Sept. 21st, created a beautiful video called At the Heart of Peace. You can watch it HERE.

Social Justice and the Environment

I want to start a dialogue on social justice how it affects the environment and Obama’s new call for moral imperative.

I think by now everyone has heard of how we need to become more energy efficient, buy products that do not pollute our waters and the air we breathe, buy local food and help your community. But has anyone thought about how a person who can hardly survive on minimum wage or sometimes less can afford to buy these wonderful green products? It has become a vicious circle of the haves and the have nots and the continuous blame of those that have that the have nots are not doing their green living share and responsible living.

How can we live green? The answer is first we need social justice!

Let us look at some of the social justice and challenges that we have here in the USA. Social Justice aptly defined by John Rawls as respect of basic individual liberty and economic improvement. What does that mean exactly, economic improvement, it means in a democratic society such as ours everyone living in these 50 states deserve basic and good universal education, basic and good universal health care from the cradle to the grave, social security for children in terms of safe early child care so that parents can earn a living, basic security for seniors, good jobs with basic and real livable wages from mighty corporations to the smallest firms and above all safe and inexpensive public transportation.

This is what makes a country, these are just the basic needs that a government has to perform for its citizens if it wants to be considered progressive, civil, decent, compassionate and democratic. This is not socialism it is basic government services for which the people, in return, pay taxes to their government.

It is that simple.

Do you know the answers to some of the following Social Justice questions, adapted from Bill Quigley who is a Human Rights Lawyer and Law Professor at Loyola University in New Orleans?

1. In 1965, CEOs major companies made 24 times more than the average worker. In 1980 CEOs made 40 times more. How much more did CEOs earn than the average worker in 2007?

Answer: Today’s CEO from Fortune 500 companies make 374 times the average worker and over 70 times the pay of a four star Army General. And they pay less taxes than the average worker through all kinds of tax loop holes. Not only do they get these outrageous salaries but they get bonuses at the end of the year. When did a worker in the same Fortune 500 company get a bonus?
Also the CEOs are vehemently opposed to any social justice for their workers. They do not contribute to child care, they decry any vacation time and give their employees barely 10 workings days off a year sometimes not paid, they are derelict when it comes to health care insurance deducting enormous amounts from their meager pay checks. They outsource and fire at will. Where is the social justice in that?

2. In how many of the more than 3,000 cities and counties in the US can a full time worker who earns the minimum wage afford to pay rent and utilities for a one bedroom apartment?

Answer: In no city or county in the USA can a full time worker who earns minimum wage afford even a one bedroom apartment rental. In order for a worker to rent any kind of apartment they must earn at least $17.32 an hour as per the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
In fact 81 percent of renters live in cities where the Fair Market Rent for a two bedroom apartment rental is not even affordable with two minimum wage jobs.

3. How many people does our government say are homeless in the US on any given day?

Answer: A total of 754,000 are homeless. About 338,000 homeless people are not in shelters (live on the streets, in cars or in abandoned buildings) and 415,000 are in shelters in one given night. For comparison, San Francisco has population of about 739,000.

4. What percentage of people in homeless shelters are children?

Answer: HUD reports nearly one in four people in homeless shelters are children 17 or younger.

5. How many veterans are homeless on any given night?

Answer: Over 100,000 veterans are homeless in any given night. About 18 percent of the adult homeless population are veterans. This is about the same population as Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Love is the New Religion (The Spiritual Conspiracy) by Brian Piergrossi

I was first introduced to this poem on 11th Hour expert Wallace J. Nichols website who blogged about this poem back in June. Since then the author Brian Piergrossi has made a video to go along with his poem.

This video contains a series of images, with a voice-over of author Brian Piergrossi reading the poem from his book The Big Glow, along with background native tribal music.

This poem has struck a nerve in the human consciousness and, over the last few months, has now been spontaneously forwarded, via emails and blogs, to tens of thousands of people around the world by various titles.

It is becoming the catalyst... the rallying cry around the planet.

This poem in video form, however, has the chance to make an even larger impact in bringing us together toward the world we want to create.

If it inspires you...if it makes you realize that your dreams are shared with others around the world then please pass it on.

Together lets create the world of our dreams.

Please take a few minutes from your day to watch this video.    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mndsMqz54aA&feature=player_embedde

 

Michael Jackson's album Off the Wall came out 21 days after my 17th birthday, and at the time thanks to ABBA, I really did think I was a Dancing Queen. (lol) My 8-track of Off the Wall was played and danced to over and over and over again. That album and Michael Jackson have made an ever lasting impression on me. Music, art, and film always have the greatest impact on you when you are open to receiving the message.

Michael Jackson's Earth Song which came out in 1995 was his first single that overtly dealt with the environment and animal welfare. I was not completely surprised when I read this past week how Earth Song was a top five hit in most European countries, and in the UK, it remains Jackson's best-selling single. Sadly, Earth Song was not even released as a single in the United States. I wonder why? Maybe the reason was the US was not open to receiving this message at the time.

Earth Song was accompanied by a lavish music video which had an environmental theme, showing images of animal cruelty, deforestation, pollution and war. Jackson and the world's people unite in a spiritual chant Earth Song which summons a force that heals the world. Using special effects, time is reversed so that life returns, war ends and the forests regrow.

The video was filmed in four geographic regions. The first location was the Amazon Rainforest, where a large part was destroyed a week after the video's completion. Natives of the region appeared in the video and were not actors. The second scene was a war zone in Croatia, with residents of the area. The third location was Tanzania, which incorporated scenes of illegal poaching and hunting into the video. No animals were harmed in the making of the Earth Song, as the footage came from documentary archives. However, a poacher killed an elephant within a mile of the shot. The final location was in Warwick, New York, where a safe forest fire was simulated in a corn field.

Michael said this about Earth Song:

"I remember writing Earth Song when I was in Austria, in a hotel. And I was feeling so much pain and so much suffering of the plight of the Planet Earth. And for me, this is Earth's Song, because I think nature is trying so hard to compensate for man's mismanagement of the Earth. And with the ecological unbalance going on, and a lot of the problems in the environment, I think earth feels the pain, and she has wounds, and it's about some of the joys of the planet as well. But this is my chance to pretty much let people hear the voice of the planet. And this is "Earth Song." And that's what inspired it."

I was happy I came across so many eco-bloggers like Treehugger, Ecorazzie and many others blogging about this song since Michael Jackson's transition last week. I hope this music video gets shown all over the world and especially here in the United States.  Here's wishing that we are now more open to receiving this message and the wonderful gift of music and video from a true genius.

You can view Michael Jackson's Earth Song video HERE.

The Anacostia River Cleanup and Protection Act of 2009 PASSED!

The Committee of the Whole approved the Committee Report on B18-150, the Anacostia River Cleanup and Protection Act of 2009 without question or discussion.
We still have a second and final vote in two weeks; however, since it was unanimous, it's going through. Please thank all council members involved for passing this bill.
www.TrashFreeAnacostia.com

What does the Anacostia River Cleanup and Protection Act of 2009 do? 

* Place a 5-cent fee, paid by consumer, on all disposable recyclable plastic and paper carryout bags from Retail Food Establishment license holders (including grocery stores, food vendors, convenience stores, drug stores, restaurants) and Class A & B liquor licensees.
* Ban non-recyclable plastic carryout bags.
* Require that if a plastic carryout bag is offered, that it must be recyclable and clearly labeled as such.
* The retail establishment will get 1 cent of fee returned tax exempt to the retailer.
* Retailers who choose to offer a carryout bag credit program will retain an additional cent, for a total of 2 cents per bag.
* The remaining fee per bag will be deposited into a new Anacostia River Cleanup & Protection Fund.

 

A very extra-special person in our life invited us to attend her graduation ceremony at Arizona State University where President Obama gave the commencement address. He addressed nearly 9,000 graduates and urged them to change the course of history.

I loved his speech because it applied not only to ASU graduates, but to all of us. No matter where you live on this planet or how old you are...it applies. His address was not at all political, just 100% inspirational by focusing on how everyone, including himself, has to continue to build a body of work. He said no one should rest on their laurels, for each of us has a body of work still yet to come.

President Obama wasn't the only rock star there last night; Alice Cooper rocked the house with his graduation anthem, "Schools Out."

Even though it was very warm day here in Arizona, I have to say it was one of the COOLEST days I have had in awhile, and a day I will always remember.

You may have seen snippets of his address on the news, but I encourage everyone no matter where they live in the world or regardless of your age, to take the time to listen or to read his address in its entirety. It's that inspiring!

President Obama's ASU Commencement Address: Watch Video or Read Full Text

Can you see their flow... as the breeze dances between limbs, as the sun sneaks a glance through the leaves.    'Reach for the sky, the heavens,' says the little branches below, while its trunk stretches beyond the seed planted deep in the dirts undertow. The flow of earth rubs its roots even and slow, 'smooth' it whispers. 'breath' it says. As I place my hand on my chest and touch its rough edges grown decades ago, I say, 'Let's breath together.'