Monthly Archives: September 2023

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 268- 9/10/2023

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today we celebrate the astonishing light of ourselves as a masterpeace of beloved community of all our pilgrim relations where we re-member we belong to each other as we walk the camino in unity…

pilgrimage of peace

a daily breathing practice

in rhythm with flow

~

and a:

pathless path of peace

creating a world of justice

guided by love

~

where we are:

flowing in beauty

being the soul of the space

wherever we are

~

and devoting ourselves to:

meeting each moment fully

meeting it as a friend

~

while always re-membering:

“in the end only three things matter: how much you loved,

how gently you lived and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you“

~ Buddha ~

thank you dear friends for sharing this journey, this wandering into wonder… i’m going to close today’s spiral dance as i opened it over 3500 days ago with immortal Rumi’s words…

“If you are seeking, seek us with joy
For we live in the kingdom of joy.
Do not give your heart to anything else
But to the love of those who are clear joy,
Do not stray into the neighborhood of despair.
For there are hopes: they are real, they exist –
Do not go in the direction of darkness –
I tell you: suns exist.“

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 267- 9/9/2023

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every outbreath, an emptying… every inbreath, a re-membering…

walking the camino today is a day of deeply breathing and dancing in the chaos on this day of nines which is the number of transformation and is an energy resonating so profoundly through me on the ninth day of the ninth month as i take refuge in the blissness blue moon lodge, because blue moon lodges are the lodges for transformation, of transformation…

today’s walk along the camino of peace brings up the words of the Dalai Lama about our island home desperately needing more peacemakers, healers, restorers, lovers and storytellers which reminds me of an old legend of the first peoples of this land…

this legend about a savior named deganawida, the peacemaker, originated over a thousand years ago during the final decades of pre-columbian america at a time like now, a time of pervasive fear and instability in the iroquois world when a young virgin gave birth to a son… she was told in a dream that “your child will be a messenger of the creator and will bring peace and harmony to the people on earth.”

when deganawida came of age he told his mother, “I shall now build my canoe from white stone, for the time has come for me to start my mission in this world. I know I must travel afar on lakes and rivers to seek out the council smoke of nations beyond this lake. It is now time for me to go stop the shedding of blood among human beings.”

as deganawida began his mission he first encountered a group of hunters who were fleeing from the bloodshed in the their own village and he instructed them: “Go back to your people and tell them that the Good News of Peace and Righteousness has come to your nation.”

the peacemaker’s mission, as the many accounts of the legend make clear, was to reestablish the natural equilibrium on which the well being of individuals, societies, and the whole of creation depends… deganawida achieved this mission by healing them—by “making their minds straight.” deganawida’s role was not that of a warrior, but a redemptive shaman—a healer… he was quite explicit about the mission: “health means peace, for that is what comes when minds are sane and bodies are cared for.”

on this day of transformation, may we all be peacemakers every moment…

yes, make us instruments of thy peace and where there is hatred  let us sow love and where there is despair, hope and where there is darkness, light…

om, shanti, shanti, shantihi…

namaste’

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 266- 9/8/2023

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May you find in me the Mother of the World.  
May my heart be a mother’s heart, my hands be a mother’s hands.  
May my response to your suffering be a mother’s response to your suffering.  
May I sit with you in the dark, like a mother sits in the dark.  
May you know through our relationship that there is something in this world that can be trusted.

in honor of the day known as Mother Mary’s birth and World Interdependence Day – love that synchronisiddhi – in this moon of amazing portals opening us to visioning a world where we all belong to each other, a world of love and compassion, let’s turn to one who speaks for us of love and compassion. this basic issue on which our survival depends… hear now HH, the Dalai Lama…

“I believe that at every level of society—familial, national and international—the key to a happier and more successful world is the growth of compassion. We do not need to become religious, nor do we need to believe in a particular ideology. All that is necessary is for each of us to develop our good human qualities. I believe that the cultivation of individual happiness can contribute in a profound and effective way to the overall improvement of the entire human community.

We all share an identical need for love, and on the basis of this commonality, it is possible to feel that anybody we meet, in whatever circumstances, is a brother or sister. No matter how new the face or how different the dress or behavior, there is no significant division between us and other people. It is foolish to dwell on external differences because our basic natures are the same.

The benefits of transcending such superficial differences become clear when we look at our global situation. Ultimately, humanity is one and this small planet is our only home. If we are to protect this home of ours, each of us needs to experience a vivid sense of universal altruism and compassion. It is only this feeling that can remove the self-centered motives that cause people to deceive and misuse one another. If you have a sincere and open heart, you naturally feel self-worth and confidence, and there is no need to be fearful of others.

The need for an atmosphere of openness and cooperation at the global level is becoming more urgent. In this modern age, when it comes to dealing with economic situations there are no longer familial or even national boundaries. From country to country and continent to continent, the world is inextricably interconnected. Each country depends heavily on the others. In order for a country to develop its own economy, it is forced to take seriously into account the economic conditions of other countries as well. In fact, economic improvement in other countries ultimately results in economic improvement in one’s own country.

In view of these facts about our modern world, we need a total revolution in our thinking and our habits. It is becoming clearer every day that a viable economic system must be based on a true sense of universal responsibility. In other words, what we need is a genuine commitment to the principles of universal brotherhood and sisterhood. This much is clear, isn’t it? This is not just a holy, moral or religious ideal. Rather, it is the reality of our modem human existence.

If you reflect deeply enough, it becomes obvious that we need more compassion and altruism everywhere. This critical point can be appreciated by observing the current state of affairs in the world, whether in the fields of modern economics and health care, or in political and military situations. In addition to the multitude of social and political crises, the world is also facing an ever-increasing cycle of natural calamities. Year after year, we have witnessed a radical shifting of global climatic patterns that has led to grave consequences: excessive rain in some countries that has brought serious flooding, a shortage of precipitation in other countries that has resulted in devastating droughts. Fortunately, concern for ecology and the environment is rapidly growing everywhere. We are now beginning to appreciate that the question of environmental protection is ultimately a question of our very survival on this planet. As human beings, we must also respect our fellow members of the human family: our neighbors, our friends, and so forth. Compassion, loving-kindness, altruism, and a sense of brotherhood and sisterhood are the keys not only to human development, but to planetary survival.

The success or failure of humanity in the future depends primarily upon the will and determination of the present generation. If we ourselves do not utilize our faculties of will and intelligence, there is no one else who can guarantee our future and that of the next generation. This is an indisputable fact. We cannot place the entire blame on politicians or those people who are seen as directly responsible for various situations; we too must bear some responsibility personally. It is only when the individual accepts personal responsibility that he or she begins to take some initiative. Just shouting and complaining is not good enough. A genuine change must first come from within the individual, then he or she can attempt to make significant contributions to humanity. Altruism is not merely a religious ideal; it is an indispensable requirement for humanity at large.”

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 265- 9/7/2023

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every outbreath, an emptying… every inbreath, a re-membering…

layer by layer, i am removing all i thought i was and had to be leaving me being in this moment of eternity naked in the now and open to what is sans attachment to identities re-membering simply, i am…

~

“I AM pure consciousness, the underlying essence of all elements and beings.
I AM the innate nature of everything.
In pure water I AM the sweet taste.
In the sun and moon I AM the radiance.
In the very center of human beings I live as virility and courage.
I AM the sacred word Om, which is an appellation of the Divine , and I AM the sound of it heard throughout the universe.
I AM the slight, delicate scent, the sweet fragrance of the earth.
I AM the brilliance in both fire and sun, and I AM the light of Divinity in all beings.
I AM the subtle spirit in spiritual practices that gives them their existence– for example, the love in the devotee, the austerity in the ascetic, the sweet sense of charity in the giver.”

~ the Bhagavad Gita ~

~

under this moon of soulfulness, may we dance devocean seeing blessings everywhere while shedding old skins like trees dropping leaves so that we live simply, we simply live free to open the portal to the river below the river resting gently on grandmother’s lap witnessing and waiting for the water to settle trusting in the inner knowing that it will and the way becomes clear…

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 264- 9/6/2023

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for whenever we need a cup of courage in dancing the pathless path of heart:

every outbreath, an emptying… every inbreath, a re-membering…

“A true vocation requires shedding anything that would impede or obscure the call. A true pilgrimage requires letting go of the very things most people try to hold onto. In seeking after what the soul desires we become pilgrims with no home but the path the soul would have us follow. As the old proverb says, “Before you begin the journey, you own the journey. Once you have begun, the journey owns you.” After all, what good is a dream that doesn’t test the mettle of the dreamer? What good is a path that doesn’t carry us to the edge and then beyond that place? A true calling involves a great exposure before it can become a genuine refuge.”
~ Michael Meade ~

while walking the camino of peace and purification today, i am tempted to come off the pilgrimage and distract myself from this calling of leaping into the great unknown and so i return to the breath, come home to the stillpoint, the present moment, the calling…

~

The Journey

“Above the mountains
the geese turn into
the light again

Painting their
black silhouettes
on an open sky.

Sometimes everything
has to be
inscribed across
the heavens

so you can find
the one line
already written
inside you.

Sometimes it takes
a great sky
to find that

small, bright
and indescribable
wedge of freedom
in your own heart.

Sometimes with
the bones of the black
sticks left when the fire
has gone out

someone has written
something new
in the ashes of your life. You are not leaving
you are arriving.”

~ David Whyte ~

~

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 263- 9/5/2023

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we are coming down the homestretch to the international day of peace on the 21st of this moon and a year and a week ago a great man of peace died; it feels just right to honor him today as we celebrate the astonishing light of our interbeing in this sacred moment of eternity and to re-member this being of perestroika and glasnost, revolution and openness, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. i’m going to have Gorby speak for himself in some excerpts from his lengthy acceptance speech given in June of 1991 just months before stepping down as the Soviet Union’s first and only president…

“This moment is no less emotional for me than the one when I first learned about the decision of the Nobel Committee. For on similar occasions great men addressed humankind – men famous for their courage in working to bring together morality and politics. Among them were my compatriots.

The award of the Nobel Peace Prize makes one think once again about a seemingly simple and clear question: What is peace?

Preparing for my address I found in an old Russian encyclopedia a definition of “peace” as a “commune” – the traditional cell of Russian peasant life. I saw in that definition the people’s profound understanding of peace as harmony, concord, mutual help, and cooperation.

This understanding is embodied in the canons of world religions and in the works of philosophers from antiquity to our time. The names of many of them have been mentioned here before. Let me add another one to them. Peace “propagates wealth and justice, which constitute the prosperity of nations;” a peace which is “just a respite from wars … is not worthy of the name;” peace implies “general counsel”. This was written almost 200 years ago by Vasiliy Fyodorovich Malinovskiy – the dean of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum at which the great Pushkin was educated.

Since then, of course, history has added a great deal to the specific content of the concept of peace. In this nuclear age it also means a condition for the survival of the human race. But the essence, as understood both by the popular wisdom and by intellectual leaders, is the same.

Today, peace means the ascent from simple coexistence to cooperation and common creativity among countries and nations…

Peace is not unity in similarity but unity in diversity, in the comparison and conciliation of differences. And, ideally, peace means the absence of violence. It is an ethical value. And here we have to recall Rajiv Gandhi, who died so tragically a few days ago…

Perestroika, which once again is returning our people to commonsense, has enabled us to open up to the world, and has restored a normal relationship between the country’s internal development and its foreign policy. But all this takes a lot of hard work. To a people which believed that its government’s policies had always been true to the cause of peace, we proposed what was in many ways a different policy, which would genuinely serve the cause of peace, while differing from the prevailing view of what it meant and particularly from the established stereotypes as to how one should protect it. We proposed new thinking in foreign policy…

I began my book about perestroika and the new thinking with the following words: “We want to be understood”. After a while I felt that it was already happening. But now I would like once again to repeat those words here, from this world rostrum. Because to understand us really – to understand so as to believe us – proved to be not at all easy, owing to the immensity of the changes under way in our country. Their magnitude and character are such as to require in-depth analysis. Applying conventional wisdom to perestroika is unproductive. It is also futile and dangerous to set conditions, to say: We’ll understand and believe you, as soon as you, the Soviet Union, come completely to resemble “us”, the West…

We want to be an integral part of modern civilization, to live in harmony with mankind’s universal values, abide by the norms of international law, follow the “rules of the game” in our economic relations with the outside world. We want to share with all other peoples the burden of responsibility for the future of our common house…

Our democracy is being born in pain. A political culture is emerging – one that presupposes debate and pluralism, but also legal order and, if democracy is to work, strong government authority based on one law for all. This process is gaining strength. Being resolute in the pursuit of perestroika, a subject of much debate these days, must be measured by the commitment to democratic change. Being resolute does not mean a return to repression, diktat or the suppression of rights and freedoms. I will never agree to having our society split once again into Reds and Whites, into those who claim to speak and act “on behalf of the people” and those who are “enemies of the people”. Being resolute today means to act within the framework of political and social pluralism and the rule of law to provide conditions for continued reform and prevent a breakdown of the state and economic collapse, prevent the elements of chaos from becoming catastrophic…

Ladies and gentlemen, international politics is another area where a great deal depends on the correct interpretation of what is now happening in the Soviet Union. This is true today, and it will remain so in the future…

The more I reflect on the current world developments, the more I become convinced that the world needs perestroika no less than the Soviet Union needs it. Fortunately, the present generation of policy-makers, for the most part, are becoming increasingly aware of this interrelationship, and also of the fact that now that perestroika has entered its critical phase the Soviet Union is entitled to expect large-scale support to assure its success…

If we fail to reach an understanding regarding a new phase of cooperation, we will have to look for other ways, for time is of the essence. But if we are to move to that new phase, those who participate in and even shape world politics also must continue to change, to review their philosophic perception of the changing realities of the world and of its imperatives. Otherwise, there is no point in drawing up a joint program of practical action…

The Cold War is over. The risk of a global nuclear war has practically disappeared. The Iron Curtain is gone. Germany has united, which is a momentous milestone in the history of Europe. There is not a single country on our continent which would not regard itself as fully sovereign and independent… The idea is not at all to consolidate a part of our civilization on, so to say, a European platform versus the rest of the world. Suspicions of that kind do exist. But, on the contrary, the idea is to develop and build upon the momentum of integration in Europe, embodied politically in the Charter of Paris for the whole of Europe. This should be done in the context of common movement towards a new and peaceful period in world history, towards new interrelationship and integrity of mankind… Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Near and Middle East, all of them, are to play a great role in this common cause whose prospects are difficult to forecast today…

Progress towards the civilization of the 21st century will certainly not be simple or easy. One cannot get rid overnight of the heavy legacy of the past or the dangers created in the post-war years. We are experiencing a turning point in international affairs and are only at the beginning of a new, and I hope mostly peaceful, lengthy period in the history of civilization…

However, to accomplish this all members of the world community should resolutely discard old stereotypes and motivations nurtured by the Cold War, and give up the habit of seeking each other’s weak spots and exploiting them in their own interests. We have to respect the peculiarities and differences which will always exist, even when human rights and freedoms are observed throughout the world. I keep repeating that with the end of confrontation differences can be made a source of healthy competition, an important factor for progress. This is an incentive to study each other, to engage in exchanges, a prerequisite for the growth of mutual trust. For knowledge and trust are the foundations of a new world order. Hence the necessity, in my view, to learn to forecast the course of events in various regions of the globe, by pooling the efforts of scientists, philosophers and humanitarian thinkers within the UN framework. Policies, even the most prudent and precise, are made by man. We need maximum insurance to guarantee that decisions taken by members of the world community should not affect the security, sovereignty and vital interests of its other members or damage the natural environment and the moral climate of the world…

I am an optimist and I believe that together we shall be able now to make the right historical choice so as not to miss the great chance at the turn of centuries and millenia and make the current extremely difficult transition to a peaceful world order. A balance of interests rather than a balance of power, a search for compromise and concord rather than a search for advantages at other people’s expense, and respect for equality rather than claims to leadership – such are the elements which can provide the groundwork for world progress and which should be readily acceptable for reasonable people informed by the experience of the twentieth century.

The future prospect of truly peaceful global politics lies in the creation through joint efforts of a single international democratic space in which States shall be guided by the priority of human rights and welfare for their own citizens and the promotion of the same rights and similar welfare elsewhere. This is an imperative of the growing integrity of the modern world and of the interdependence of its components.”

Rest in Peace, Mikhail Gorbachev, a vector of change who shaped world history…

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 262- 9/4/2023

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in this moment of eternity when we celebrate labor of love day, i find myself  spending some moments this day contemplating the notion of labor and reflecting upon its essence as a labor of love, as the great work of being pregnant with an unknown creation forming within, a seed we water and feed and sing to as we hold space reverentially for the new and gather with others to support the birthing process, to shelter the labor of love, the great work of and for all our relatives… thousand fold thanks for all the beings joining in creating a world of light…

~

Song of the Builders

On a summer morning
I sat down
on a hillside
to think about God –

a worthy pastime.
Near me, I saw
a single cricket;
it was moving the grains of the hillside

this way and that way.
How great was its energy,
how humble its effort.
Let us hope

it will always be like this,
each of us going on
in our inexplicable ways
building the universe.

~ Mary Oliver ~

~

in closing, a few words from Martin Luther King’s final speech – the next day he was killed in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968 where King went to support garbage workers who were on strike to protest unsafe conditions, abusive supervisors, low wages and to gain recognition for their union…

“I would like to live a long life,” he said. “Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain, and I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.”

the way to get there is every day to continue the labor of love and the struggle for human dignity, workers’ rights, living wages, and social justice… to intend and act from an energy of compassion and liberation and light, to align more and more deeply with source, the self organizing intelligence of  the ever regenerating space we call home…

celebrating our labors and laborers of love, especially essential workers – let’s get to work putting real workers of essence, the master builders of our world, at the front of the line and give them accolades and discounts for their inestimable service… and, may we all celebrate our laboring, our birthing a onederfilled world of love…

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 261 – 9/3/2023

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“Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars 

of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment, 

the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders 
of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is 

nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned 

in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side 

is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world 

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it 

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it
go,
to let it go.”

these challenging times speak to letting go and to the profound lessons of impermanence, compassion, and grief that can be learned as Mary Oliver muses in her poem quoted above…

may we learn to appreciate both nature’s wrath and beauty, understanding our place in the balance of things…

“Be completely empty. Be perfectly serene. The ten thousand things arise together; in their arising is their return. Now they flower, and flowering sink homeward, returning to the root. The return to the root is peace. Peace: to accept what must be, to know what endures. In that knowledge is wisdom. Without it, ruin, disorder. To know what endures is to be openhearted, magnanimous, regal, blessed, following the Tao, the way that endures forever. The body comes to its ending, but there is nothing to fear.” ~ Verse 16, Tao Te Ching ~

“Death, whether our own or others, can be a powerful gateway to complete tenderness. The confrontation with the impermanence of all things is perhaps the widest gate to liberation from suffering. Facing death or dealing with death, our sight becomes clear. ‘Priorities and omissions are etched in a merciless light,’ as Audre Lorde wrote. Given the sheer quantity of death around us, why not use this merciless light to better see who we are?”

~ Zenju Earthlyn Manuel ~

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Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 260 – 9/2/2023

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welcome to the second day of soulful september where under the tutelage of the sun in virgo, the virgin who is one in the true self, we attune to the all that is with the energy of bhakti, of devotedly opening the heart ever wider and deeper….

re-membering grandmother weaving joyfully

returning to her, we breathe in harmony

our one heart soars with great mystery

buoyantly floating in the vast skysea…

~

may we live in love in the buoyantsea

planting seeds of peace in the fields of rainbow mystery

kindling the inner light eternally

dancing home together joyfully

flowing as one effortlessly…

~

Poetic Peace Pilgrimage – Year 10 – Day 259 – 9/1/2023

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a heartmind like sky

emptiness as vast as space

witnesses wonder

the sanskrit word for emptiness is shunyata while the chinese character is sky; both representations plus the image of hang gliding convey some of the experience of our true nature of emptiness…  the joyful freedom and liberation when we are empty of separation, weightiness, burdens and limitation… a state empty of suffering while grounded in boundless compassion for all relatives, a state sans borders and boundaries, as vast and expansive as the deep peace of the running wave flowing through the all that is… a state of flying into the great unknown, syncing/sinking/surrendering into emptiness which can feel disorienting especially when done wholeheartedly and it is that same whole-heartedness that saves, that orients, that aligns us with source…

welcome to soulful september where we align with the master sculpting force that chisels away the stone of illusion and expectation releasing the soul held within to take flight and dive ever deeper into the peace passing all understanding, the peace found in the center of the medicine wheel…

re-member open sky

return to her, breathe and fly

our one heart soars high

listen with me now as we surrender to boundless love to the Love Prayer the inimitable Charlie Chaplin heard singing him on his 70th birthday:

“As I began to love myself I found that anguish and emotional suffering are only warning signs that I was living against my own truth. Today, I know, this is “AUTHENTICITY”. As I began to love myself I understood how much it can offend somebody as I try to force my desires on this person, even though I knew the time was not right and the person was not ready for it and even though this person was me. Today I call it “RESPECT”. As I began to love myself I stopped craving for a different life and I could see that everything that surrounded me was inviting me to grow. Today I call it “MATURITY”. As I began to love myself I understood that at any circumstance, I am in the right place at the right time, and everything happens at the exactly right moment. So I could be calm. Today I call it “SELF-CONFIDENCE”. As I began to love myself I quit steeling my own time and I stopped designing huge projects for the future. Today, I only do what brings me joy and happiness, things I love to do and that make my heart cheer and I do them in my own way and in my own rhythm. Today I call it “SIMPLICITY”. As I began to love myself I freed myself of any thing that is no good for my health – food, people, things, situations, and everything that drew me down and away from myself. At first I called this attitude a healthy egoism. Today I know it is “LOVE OF ONESELF”. As I began to love myself I quit trying to always be right and ever since I was wrong less of the time. Today I discovered that is “MODESTY”. As I began to love myself I refused to go on living in the past and worry about the future. Now, I only live for the moment, where EVERYTHING is happening. Today I live each day, day by day, and I call it “FULFILLMENT”. As I began to love myself I recognized that my mind can disturb me and it can make me sick. But as I connected it to my heart, my mind became a valuable ally. Today I call this connection “WISDOM OF THE HEART”.

may we all walk in a soulful way today and every day with each breath a new beginning, each moment of eternity a walk in beauty with all our relatives traveling as one along the rainbow trail deeper into great mystery’s sacred web of life everlasting…

~