Monthly Archives: January 2021

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 8 – Day 46 – 1/31/2021

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welcome, well come to the second day of a season of peace and this last day of journeying january where we bless the space of this moonth, this moonth of dreaming, dreaming a world of peace… as per usual we have such a trifecta of riches as we bless the space of the magical mystery tour of the wildest of the last eleven moons which is quite a declaration… i know i’d said it would still be a turbulent ride but i had no idea… more on that but first the riches of today – the last day, the astonishing light of being day and the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo moon launch…

so, i’m breaking tradition with the image for today because this moonth and full moon and new year call us so deeply into the question of what is still pulling on your soul, how to live this one wild and precious life?

for the past month, i’ve been exiled from my usual space as we were all evacuated from our homes following a disaster of the biological kind… it never crossed my radar screen that a month later i’d still basically be living with only the clothes on my back… i laugh with myself so thankful that back in july i was so massively transfused with iron(y) and that i’ve been asking the cosmos for a sabbatical for years and here it is… sort of… being down to bare essence and letting go at an even more profound level, of only being response able in each present moment of creation, of savoring the gap between stimulus and response and refining the power of co-creation as i listen for what pulls on my soul…

it’s still that thread of the unraveled collective tapestry, that thread assigned to me an eternity ago, that thread of dreams to be woven in seamlessly magnetizing coming home to the one heart of great mystery where we all dwell in harmony ceaselessly regenerating radically opening more and more to whom we truly be – souls playing the music of the celestial/mycelial spheres…

as we bless this space between us, this one long continuous conversation, this being together with truth, this blink of an eye month so potent with transitioning into the unknown – a great turning within, intimate communion with all that is – may we flow from the deep wellspring at the center of being as we make a seismic shift and like the earth, open to what is calling us, what must come forth in us for it is what we truly love…

let us close this moment by breathing together animating our one body with spirit, filling us to overflowing with golden light of love…

blessed be…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 8 – Day 45 – 1/30/2021

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“Place yourself in the middle of the stream of power and wisdom which flows into your life. Then, without effort, you are impelled to truth and to perfect contentment.”

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something, If we remember those times and places — and there are so many — where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however a small way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.“

~ Howard Zinn ~

in concert with the season for nonviolence which begins today on the anniversary of Gandhi’s assassination and ends 64 days later on April 4th, the anniversary of King’s assassination,today, the pilgrimage begins my favorite season that’s always in season – a season of peace…

on this first day, we begin with a contemplation and practice of courage, of heart which is a LOVEly way to begin for goodness knows the way of the peacemaker takes great courage, great heart in a world of dominance consciousness… let us now light the inner flame of our one heart and invoke the beloved peace prayer of St Francis to begin this saunter – this walk on holy ground for this season of peace…

“….. make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.”

may we all begin and end each day with a prayer for peace and invoke it through our ultradian healing rhythms that ask us to pause every 90 minutes or so throughout our awake time to sustain optimal functioning…  when saying hello and goodbye to beings, may we say “May Peace Prevail on Earth…”  may we create space in our lives dedicated to praying for, meditating, singing, dancing, contemplating  and being peace… in this way, we create a cosmos of beauty and harmony built on justice, on balance and guided by love…

thanks be for helping me to live this day quietly, peacefully… to lean upon cosmic great strength trustfully, restfully… to wait for the unfolding of the implicate order patiently, serenely… to meet others peacefully, joyously… to walk all ways with wonder and wisdom…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 8 – Day 44 – 1/29/2021

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for the past two days, there are shepherds lighting the path i’ve wanted to commemorate in addition to what was honored and so today in this moment of eternity, i re-member a profound moment on january 27, 76 years ago when the Soviet Red Army liberated the Jewish concentration camp of Auschwitz, in Poland… as the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, this post is dedicated to all who liberate and to all of us who are liberated… yesterday marked seven years ago that Pete Seeger, the father of  folk music and a shepherd extraordinaire still calling us to embody our better angels by singing love, died and that the crew of Challenger died 35 years ago on the 28th day of this moonth…

“It really boils down to this, all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
—Martin Luther King, Jr.

with every breath and step on the pilgrimage, i contemplate how we all best serve the whole… i believe the bedrock of this query is understanding that all our relations prosper only when we real-eyes we are part of a greater whole and our survival, our sustainability is intricately linked in the same way we are intricately interconnected to every thread in the web of life… it is, always has been and always will be a story of cooperation… just as all the 70 trillion cells of my body cooperate to make me work, so must the 70 trillion cells to the 70th trillion power cooperate for the cosmos to expand and deepen harmoniously…

yes, Martin saw that the will to connect is our most essential impulse and how what affects one of us, affects everyone of us and how could it not since we are one body-mind-spirit-soul made up of trillions of cells to the infinite power…

since every thought, word and deed affects all our relations, may we all walk in wonder, saunter in awe  as shepherds, as lightkeepers, as sheltering arms, as beloveds all walking each other home to the frequency of right thought, right speech and right action…

i’ll close with the words of Wendell Berry, another pilgrim on a journey and  wisdom lover…

“Belong to your place by knowledge of the others who are
your neighbors in it: the old man, sick and poor,
who comes like a heron to fish in the creek,
and the fish in the creek, and the heron who manlike
fishes for the fish in the creek, and the birds who sing
in the trees in the silence of the fisherman
and the heron, and the trees that keep the land
they stand upon as we too must keep it, or die.

This knowledge cannot be taken from you by power
or by wealth. It will stop your ears to the powerful
when they ask for your faith, and to the wealthy
when they ask for your land and your work.
Answer with knowledge of the others who are here
and how to be here with them. By this knowledge
make the sense you need to make. By it stand
in the dignity of good sense, whatever may follow.

Speak to your fellow humans as your place
has taught you to speak, as it has spoken to you.
Speak its dialect as your old compatriots spoke it
before they had heard a radio. Speak
publicly what cannot be taught or learned in public.

Listen privately, silently to the voices that rise up
from the pages of books and from your own heart.
Be still and listen to the voices that belong
to the streambanks and the trees and the open fields.
There are songs and sayings that belong to this place,
by which it speaks for itself and no other.

Find your hope, then, on the ground under your feet.
Your hope of Heaven, let it rest on the ground
underfoot. Be it lighted by the light that falls
freely upon it after the darkness of the nights
and the darkness of our ignorance and madness.
Let it be lighted also by the light that is within you,
which is the light of imagination. By it you see
the likeness of people in other places to yourself
in your place. It lights invariably the need for care
toward other people, other creatures, in other places
as you would ask them for care toward your place and you.

No place at last is better than the world. The world
is no better than its places. Its places at last
are no better than their people…”

may we wander as shepherds singing light in the dark illuminating a path to our one heart…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 8 – Day 43/8 Years – 2600 Days – 1/28/2021

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as we all cry out at this first full moon of this new year for a vision of new life coming over the next thirteen moons, a vision inspired by inner light, fiery leo , heart of humanity stands with sun at the heart of the solar system forming a channel for the great star of initiation, Sirius, chalice of pure love energy to pour forth overflowing gifts of radiant light and divine love through our one cosmic heart…

this leo moon is calling us to be lionhearted – authentic, integrous, fearless, creative rebels with a cause singing a new song of the earth, our soul song of beloved community living as one cosmic heart  being, living, knowing we belong to each other and love is who we are….

let us take this moment under this full moon of connecting deeply with SELF to breathe in and breathe out, dream, invoke, ground into earth and fly across the skies our vision of how best to serve the whole… and, as we sit around the cosmic round table with all our relations contemplating the grail question, we thank our sister full moon for the gift of creative fire, the gift of creative expression to share in the great circle of love…

as spontaneously as we are pulled by a magnetic force to gather together around the sacred children’s fire, i hear the same conversation echoing again and again…. how are we to be, who are we to be, how to come into more balance… and on this day of the turning of the wheel contemplating what is truly real, asking and rethinking what are we choosing to birth, for what do we choose to stand?

We Stand for the Earth.
We Stand for the Water.
We Stand for the Children at the Sacred Ceremony of Fire!

standing together being loving presence always…

howlelujah, beloveds in this moment of eternity of liberating and celebrating wild soul!

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 8 – Day 42 – 1/27/2021

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Dear Siddhizens of the Cosmos,

i arose early today to tune into the announcement of what time it is on the doomsday clock… not surprisingly, it’s still 100 seconds to midnight… leaving the clock as close to midnight as it has ever been in its 73-year long history confirms the need to take urgent action to address these dual existential threats of nuclear weapons and climate change…

today’s announcement is a vital reminder that when it comes to the existential threats posed by nuclear weapons and climate change, we face systemic dangers that demand systemic solutions…

the reality is that a small group of governments — the United States and Russia chief among them — insist their national security can only be guaranteed by holding the world hostage to nuclear conflict… too many people in power believe the perceived security benefits of these weapons are worth the inherent risks but those risks are higher than commonly understood and extend to extinction-level events; it is after all called the ‘Doomsday Clock’…

we must prioritize efforts that reduce the most proximate nuclear risks and eliminate nuclear weapons, our survival depends on it…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 8 – Day 41 – 1/26/2021

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today, i share two of my favorite poems from one of my favorite farmers of the heart, Wendell Berry….

The Real Work

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.

~

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 8 – Day 40 – 1/25/2021

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when i see this picture today that i took five turns around the sun and five moons ago on a pilgrimage through the belly of the earth to the healing waters of a once powerful falls, it looks like a dream which prompts my re-membering a dream of five years and five moonths ago which feels just right for the five month anniversary of my latest dying and rebirthing on this day that begins the fourth week of forced evacuation from where i live due to a disaster…

before sharing the dream, let’s inter sacred space with deepest bows to grandmother spider… always weaving a web of such amazing, intricate interconnectedness demonstrating beyond the shadow of a doubt that we live in a cosmos of implicate order, great mystery unfolding,.. yes, below the deep river of suffering is another river always bubbling and whispering all is well…

and now for the lucid dream of five/five years/moonths ago on this very day, a potent dream of grace so perfect for this first moonth of the decade of destiny when we are called to listen, listen, listen to the heartsong of the council of ancestors – rainbow sky, the stone people, brother sun, sister moon, floating clouds, mother waters…

 i’m in a car and we’re winding around a narrow and oh so steep mountain road when i real-eyes no one is driving the car on this precipitous path… i look around and feel the presence of pure love auto piloting the vehicle and in that moment i know i can relax and trust this journey… looking out to the left, i see beloved ocean below flowing in and out and i am filled with peace, love and joy as we continue our spiraling trek around the mountain into the land of rainbow sky where i breathe in this moment of awe and rest on the trail of wandering in wonder knowing everything is grace, especially important on a day like today to be reminded and to hear the lost falls’ echoes rising from the river below the river whispering… be here now standing in the center seeing all that is as sacred, as one vast ocean of being one with cosmic flow…

may our dreams come alive today…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 8 – Day 39 – 1/24/2021

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as always, such a treasure trove of riches to share on this day of honoring the astonishing light of being; in this moment of eternity, i am called to celebrate Grandmother Bernadette of the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers whose courageous and generous spirit returned home on January 20th…

known for always tending the fire, here are Grandmother’s last words of transmission spoken ten days before transitioning….

” At my old age I am often asked about transmission. How I envision it, who it’s intended for, and why pass it on? … Many questions I’ll try to answer.

Transmission helps to safeguard the continuity of knowledge. Like a torch whose flame makes it possible to light another torch. Knowledge not only illuminates consciousness but also creates guardians of this consciousness generating bearers of light, people who will ensure that this knowledge is protected, preserved and can be transmitted once again. 

For many years already, this has been a topic that matters a lot to me. I’m clear about the value of the gift I’ve received, and I have to keep it alive by giving it back to future generations, in the most appropriate form. Through dreams, I get regular messages that encourage me to do so. Spirits insist that I awaken consciousness around me.

Where I am, transmission is happening on a daily basis. With my family, with the people who come to meet me, with the team around me. It’s done in different ways depending on the direction that is required. This is the natural extension of my former job as a teacher, a form of education working on its own, orally, through gestures, or even in silence. Yet it is always always very concrete and requires physical proximity.

Regarding transmission of power, this is a very delicate topic because it’s difficult to know the morality of the person who will receive it. Does he or she really measure the value of what will be received? Will he or she have the ability to take on this new responsibility? What will be the use of what will be given?

I never trust appearances –  preferring to rely on specific assessment criteria that determines whether the transmission of power or knowledge can happen. The criteria can be based on a person’s life achievements, a family situation, whether there is enough foundation to assume a new status, and what a person’s behavior indicates about their morality. I also look at the overall nature of things and take time to get the green light before any action.

Sacredness. This is very sensitive because what is sacred is normally kept secret. Even more so now with the saturated use of social media – everything is said, everything is written, everything is shared, we no longer distinguish what is sacred from the rest. To reveal sacred knowledge when it cannot be received and understood appropriately can weaken the power held within it.

On the other hand, if you don’t transmit, you take the risk of cutting the lineage, ending a living knowledge, letting the flame you’ve nurtured all your life go out.
Transmission remains first and foremost an altruistic act, serving the divine and humanity, and I will always do my best to perform it in the most accurate way.”

~ Rose Bernadette Rebienot Owansango ~
January 1, 1934 – January 20, 2021

with profound gratitude, we bid fare well to our beloved grandmother knowing the great mother welcomes her home…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 8 – Day 38 – 1/23/2021

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“Just as compassion is the wish that all sentient beings be free of suffering, loving-kindness is the wish that all may enjoy happiness. As with compassion, when cultivating loving-kindness it is important to start by taking a specific individual as a focus of our meditation, and we then extend the scope of our concern further and further, to eventually encompass and embrace all sentient beings. Again, we begin by taking a neutral person, a person who inspires no strong feelings in us, as our object of meditation. We then extend this meditation to individual friends and family members and, ultimately, our particular enemies.
We must use a real individual as the focus of our meditation, and then enhance our compassion and loving-kindness toward that person so that we can really experience compassion and loving-kindness toward others. We work on one person at a time.”
~ The Dalai Lama ~

today, i’m still celebrating the beginning of the end of nuclear weapons and contemplating how we wage peace and  i come to being deep peace of the flowing wave and boundless sky which brings me right to the lineage of the order of the  zen peacemakers and their practices which open the space for the deep peace arising from true emptiness of false self… let us go to the edge trusting in the implicate order to bring all that is into cosmic balance…

SiddhiZen Peacemaking

THREE REFUGES OF A ZEN PEACEMAKER

Inviting all creations into the mandala of my practice and vowing to serve them, I take refuge in:
Buddha, the awakened nature of all beings.
Dharma, the ocean of wisdom and compassion.
Sangha, the community of those living in harmony with all Buddhas and Dharmas.

THREE TENETS OF A ZEN PEACEMAKER

Taking refuge and entering the stream of Engaged Spirituality, I vow to live a life of:

Not knowing, thereby giving up fixed ideas about myself and the universe.
Bearing witness to the joy and suffering of the world.
Healing myself and others.

TEN PRACTICES OF A ZEN PEACEMAKER

  1. Peacemakers throughout all space and time recognize that they are not separate from all that is.  This is the practice of Non-Killing.  I will not lead a harmful life nor encourage others to do so, and will abstain from killing living beings, thus living in harmony with all life and the environment sustaining it.
  2. Peacemakers throughout all space and time are satisfied with what they have.  This is the practice of Non-Stealing.  I will not take anything not given, and will freely give, ask for, and accept what is needed.
  3. Peacemakers throughout all space and time encounter all creations with respect and dignity.  This is the practice of Chaste Conduct.  I will give and accept love and friendship without using or clinging.
  4. Peacemakers throughout all space and time listen and speak truthfully and compassionately.  This is the practice of Non-Lying.  I will compassionately and constructively speak the truth as I perceive it, purposely deceiving no one.
  5. Peacemakers throughout all space and time cultivate a mind that sees clearly.  This is the practice of Not Being Deluded.  I will embrace all experience directly.
  6. Peacemakers throughout all space and time realize lovingkindness.  This is the practice of Not Talking About Others’ Errors and Faults.  Accepting what each moment offers, I will realize that I am not separate from any aspect of life.
  7. Peacemakers throughout all space and time realize equanimity.  This is the practice of Not Elevating Oneself and Blaming Others.  I will not blame, judge, or criticize others, nor compete with others or covet recognition.  In this way, I practice inclusiveness.
  8. Peacemakers throughout all space and time are generous.  This is the practice of Not Being Stingy.  I will not foster a mind of poverty in myself or others, and will use all the ingredients of my life, giving my best effort and accepting the result.
  9. Peacemakers throughout all space and time transform suffering into wisdom.  This is the practice of Not Being Angry.  I will not harbor resentment, rage, or revenge, and will roll all negative experience into my practice.
  10. Peacemakers throughout all space and time honor their lives as instruments of peacemaking.  This is the practice of Not Thinking Ill of the Three Refuges.  I will recognize that I and all beings are expressions of oneness, diversity, and harmony.

shanti, shanti, shantihi…

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 8 – Day 37 – 1/22/2021

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today is the day, nuclear weapons are illegal under international law… the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons is a significant step forward toward the future creating a bold vision of a nuclear weapons-free world, shifting our focus to the inhumane aspect impact of these weapons and proclaiming a global consensus to address this existential issue… striving to bring our global perception of nuclear weapons closer in line with their terrible reality, the treaty formally enshrines the necessity of their total elimination for the good of all our relations…

people have worked to abolish nuclear weapons since they were first invented in 1945 and today the countless activists, agitators, scientists, physicians, spiritual leaders, legal professionals, mayors, and more who stood against nuclear weapons can celebrate this amazing achievement…

  beginning a new chapter for nuclear disarmament, this landmark treaty prohibits nations from developing, testing, producing, manufacturing, transferring, possessing, stockpiling, using or threatening to use nuclear weapons, or allowing nuclear weapons to be stationed on their territory… it also prohibits assisting, encouraging or inducing anyone to engage in any of these activities…

ICAN’s President, Beatrice Fihn, said, “This is just the beginning … States that haven’t joined the treaty will feel its power too — we can expect companies to stop producing nuclear weapons and financial institutions to stop investing in nuclear weapon-producing companies.”

United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, commented,“Entry into force is a tribute to the survivors of nuclear explosions and tests, many of whom advocated for this Treaty.” He went on to describe the entry into force as “the culmination of a worldwide movement to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons. It represents a meaningful commitment towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons, which remains the highest disarmament priority of the United Nations.”

may the nine nuclear nations join the treaty so that peace prevails on earth…