Beauty

September 30, 2015

I wrote “The Beat Is Love” for the times we are facing

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None of us has the luxury of giving up now.

We’re all in this thing together

Walking a line

Between faith and fear

              – Old Crow Medicine Show

As the climate changes, we adapt by learning how to farm, make our own implements and clothes.  We reinvent what it is to be grown ups as we make the old paradigm obsolete.  We create horizontal social relationships to replace the nasty, outdated and stifling hierarchies of the past so that we can breathe, scream, call for help, rejoice, innovate.

The Empire strikes back but we are braced for the blow.  We’ve got solid ground beneath us and we know we have the truth on our side.

It’s just those moments when you stick out your neck and nothing is there, the dark feels like it is closing in, and all your hope seems to be dying, that somehow out of nowhere succor materializes, bringing blessed relief.

It can happen in the bleakest barren corner of the paved over, urban desert or the lush but lonesome wilderness.  We all have that moment where we stretch out to the unknown despite fear, despite doubt.  

We are betting on our inner voice because we have no other recourse if we are going to survive the rapid and devastating effects of anthropogenic climate change and its sister disasters of environmental degradation through pollution, economic devastation through greed, and social disintegration via manipulation and lies that we have been living on a grand scale.

Instead of being destroyed, we will link arms and join together to pull each other out of this crisis.  We will become something new; transcend the egomania of the past and realize that coming to each other’s rescue is the most shining and glorious reward that we could aspire to.  The most coveted laurel of the future is the inner recognition that we have the power to uplift each other.  Quiet, joyful moments that pass ephemeral, without attachment.

We don’t need to be afraid.  It is going to be OK.  

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September 15, 2015

Gratitude and The Sacred Feminine

Gratitude and The Sacred Feminine

Mother Earth is hurting
And everyone is searching
For that feminine energy
 – India Arie

As we collectively heal our culture, we are conscious that to heal is to deepen our capacity to honor the sacred feminine.  One realization after the other, our appreciation for all the facets of the feminine unfold.  The Holy Mother Durga gives way to the Sacred Bitch Artemis of classical European mythology, and then to the Passionate Tutu Pele of Hawaii and all the faces of the Changing Woman of the Navajo mythology.

One facet of the feminine that is still not yet fully appreciated in our culture is our ability to receive.

It is sacred to be helped.
To be loved.
To be fed.
To be taught.

In the Vedic system, our left side is the feminine, receptive side.  Our right side is our masculine, active side.  Each of us has the power to give and receive.  Not only that, but our health and wellbeing depend upon a balance of forces.

In the trajectory of American history, it has been a part of our national story to take pride in our rugged individuality. Because European Aristocracy was such a toxic and abusive system, it really was necessary for independence from the prior system to become a prime value in our culture.

Moving from abusive dependence to a wholesome interdependence is a transition still in process.  

To truly move into balance, we must value our power to receive as much as we value our power to create and give.  The student who receives the teaching is just as necessary to a true transmission of insight as the teacher is.

We also need to recognize when someone taught us.  Maybe we were afraid and they consoled us.  Maybe we were wild and reckless and they tamed us.  Maybe we received their teaching in private, and don’t have to acknowledge them. Maybe we received their teaching through our own suffering, and we don’t want to acknowledge them.  True humility dictates that we acknowledge their contribution to our lives, anyway.

When we have been inspired by someone, we say thank you.  As the Tibetan Buddhists, teach, when someone says they made it on their own, you know that’s not true.  We’ve all had help since the day we were born and took food from our mother’s bodies.  The only honesty is to acknowledge all we have received, with gratitude.

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