for almost a month now, i have been writing, inside of myself, a tribute to bell hooks along with so many others but today on this day of the planet of love beginning a new phase as evening star and a new cycle, it seems a good day for honoring bell who was always writing of love…

i shared with bell an enormous respect for MLK, a teacher who led her to another being, Thich Nhat Hanh, who also servrd as a powerful teacher for her… in a conversation with him, bell said, “I think that we best realize love in community. This is something I have had to work with myself, because the intellectual tradition of the West is very individualistic. It’s not community-based. The intellectual is often thought of as a person who is alone and cut off from the world. So I have had to practice being willing to leave the space of my study to be in community, to work in community, and to be changed by community.” Thay answered her saying, “Right, and then we learn to operate as a community and not as individuals. In Plum Village, that is exactly what we try to do. We are brothers and sisters living together. We try to operate like cells in one body.” i wholeheartedly agree with Bell’s pronouncement that this is the love that we seek in the new millennium, which is the love experienced in community, beyond self and with Thay;s plea that  live that truth and disseminate that truth…

may we all devote ourselves to building and being a community of love bringing our one body into an ecosystem of harmony…