Month: December 2019

I am moved (pun entirely intended) to send this blog posting based on several recent premonitions that may or may not manifest. I have felt several times in my meditations that our overdue large earthquake is imminent. I hope that I am only tuning into something more general, but I felt compelled to speak of it here.

What does it mean on a spiritual and practical level to be prepared for such a physical disaster? I’ve been considering that and wanted to share some quick thoughts that might apply to any of us, whether our local threats are earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, or other natural or human-caused events.

Practically we can and should have emergency plans and supplies. There are good local resources in most places and the Red Cross has a great webpage of suggestions in that regard:
( https://www.redcross.org/get-help/how-to-prepare-for-emergencies.html ).

Spiritually we prepare by knowing and trusting in whatever is our definition of the Divine. By practicing continual connection and awareness of the sacred spirit in all things through meditation, prayer, mantra, singing, dancing and other types of movement, mindful breathing, and truly connecting with nature.

I believe that if we can hold these practices day by day, hour by hour, with every breath and every step on our precious planet, then if/when disaster strikes, we will be better able to hold our center and be in a position to be of service to all our fellow human and more-than-human relations who may be suffering physically, mentally, or spiritually.

That is my prayer. May it be so.

There is never enough hope and we can all use the remembrance of what author Kate Davies called “Intrinsic Hope” ( https://g.co/kgs/Aqbkon) – the hope of the seed in the frozen winter ground, the hope of the salmon fighting its way upstream, the hope of the womb.

NOTE: I will be traveling quite a bit the next couple of months, so these posts may come out less often. Sending blessings and love for the new year. May it be filled with adventure and learning.

Enjoy this lovely poetry from Lisel Mueller

Hope

It hovers in dark corners
before the lights are turned on,
it shakes sleep from its eyes
and drops from mushroom gills,
it explodes in the starry heads
of dandelions turned sages,
it sticks to the wings of green angels
that sail from the tops of maples.

It sprouts in each occluded eye
of the many-eyed potato,
it lives in each earthworm segment
surviving cruelty,
it is the motion that runs the tail of a dog,
it is the mouth that inflates the lungs
of the child that has just been born. It is the singular gift
we cannot destroy in ourselves,
the argument that refutes death,
the genius that invents the future,
all we know of God.

It is the serum which makes us swear
not to betray one another;
it is in this poem, trying to speak.

~ Lisel Mueller ~  
(Alive Together: New and Selected Poems)

THE WINTER OF LISTENING

No one but me by the fire,
my hands burning
red in the palms while
the night wind carries
everything away outside.

All this petty worry
while the great cloak
of the sky grows dark
and intense
round every living thing.

All this trying
to know
who we are
and all this
wanting to know
exactly
what we must do.

What is precious
inside us does not
care to be known
by the mind
in ways that diminish
its presence.

What we strive for
in perfection
is not what turns us
into the lit angel
we desire.

What disturbs
and then nourishes
has everything
we need.

What we hate
in ourselves
is what we cannot know
in ourselves but
what is true to the pattern
does not need
to be explained.

Inside everyone
is a great shout of joy
waiting to be born.

And
here
in the tumult
of the night
I hear the walnut
above the child’s swing
swaying
its dark limbs
in the wind
and the rain now
come to
beat against my window
and somewhere
in this cold night
of wind and stars
the first whispered
opening of
those hidden
and invisible springs
that uncoil
in the still summer air
each yet
to be imagined
rose.

…

The Winter of Listening
From River Flow
New and Selected Poems
©David Whyte and Many Rivers Press

…

Signed copies of this new pocket companion available by ordering from David Whyte & Many Rivers Press. Please note your request in the comments field during checkout. https://www.davidwhyte.com/essentials

…

Winter Moon
Photo © David Whyte
Kettlewell. Yorkshire Dales
Winter 2019

A new essay from Cleary Vaughn-Lee’s Go Project:

Our core mission as an education organization is to highlight our common humanity. How can we learn through stories from individuals and communities around the world experiencing social, cultural, and environmental change? What does it mean to be human?

It is with great pleasure to share a new essay that expresses our mission so beautifully by author and artist Rabbi Dr. Ariel Burger, “Learning and Teaching from the Heart in Troubled Times.” Ideas for the essay originate from Burger’s book, Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom, which I highly recommend. 

Burger was a friend and apprentice of Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, author, activist, and Nobel Prize winner. His book explores their unique relationship and the teachings of Wiesel, who was a professor at Boston University for close to four decades. Burger captures Wiesel’s love of learning, which he describes is what saved Wiesel and what compelled him to teach. Professor Wiesel once said, “that education, when designed with a focus on morality and humanism, could change the course of human history.” 

“Can we fight against injustice with moral ferocity? And yet, keep our hearts open?” Burger explains that this is a great challenge for students and teachers today, and while we live in such divisive times, it is more important than ever. 

Wiesel emphasized that “Questions connect us to one another, while answers separate us. Questions open us, while answers close us. There is quest in question.” I wonder how students will respond to this thought.

“It is not enough to know the facts. We must take things—history, current events—personally,” said Wiesel. When we do, writes Burger, we can “embrace new ways of thinking, learn new habits of questioning, and ultimately, find a deeper sense of common humanity.” 

I hope you enjoy the essay. And, as always, we’d love to hear from you. 

All the best,
Cleary Vaughan-Lee 
Executive Director

This post counts as both an inspiring mystic practice and a reminder of this wonderful event coming up next Wednesday.

From brother Murad Phil:

 Out of You the astonishing fire, the birthing glory, the power and life to do, the song that beautifies all, from age to age it renews. Truly power to these statements—may they be the ground from which all my actions
grow. Sealed in trust and faith. Amen.
(Excerpt from Aramaic Lord’s Prayer)

Dear Dance Friends,
This coming Wednesday, December 11, 2019, 7:30 PM

We will be celebrating the beauty,
compassion, and wisdom of Jesus’ (or “Yeshua’s”) prayer in his own native
tongue, Aramaic, through a cycle of prayer, chant, sacred dance, and ritual. The entire evening will be dedicated to this remarkable prayer which unfolds in many layers rich with a multitude of meanings.

Year after year, this cycle of dance and chant in Aramaic has taken so many
of us on a sacred journey revealing vast vistas of the spiritual path. It is an experience of a spiritual path that is deeply grounded, Earth-based and pragmatic, yet sings with sublime beauty and transcendent exultation.

Please join us in celebrating this prayer from one of the greatest of spiritual masters!

For more information about this event and downloadable flyers, please go to
The Aramaic Lord’s Prayer
http://seattledup.org/events/19_12_11_aramaic.htm

I also encourage you to explore the prayer in greater depth at:
www.abwoon.com.

Many Blessings,
Phil Murad

Aramaic Lord’s Prayer* *December 11, 2019, 7:30 PM* *

Keystone Congregational Church* *5019 Keystone Pl N* *Seattle, WA 98103* *

* *Aramaic Lord’s Prayer* *

Abwoon d’bwashmaya* *Nethqadash shmakh* *

Teytey malkuthakh* *

Nehwey sebyanach aykanna d’bwashmaya aph b’arha.* *

Habwlan lachma d’sunqanan yaomana.* *

Washboqlan khaubayn (wakhtahayn) aykana daph khnan shbwoqan l’khayyabayn. *

Ela patzan min bisha. *

Metol dilakhie malkutha wahayla wateshbukhta l’ahlam almin.**

* Ameyn*

* A Translation of the Aramaic Lords Prayer (based on the work of Neil
Douglas Klotz, from* Prayers of the Cosmos*)*

* O Birther! Mother-Father of the Cosmos, the Breathing Life of all.*

* Help us to breathe each holy breath feeling only you.*

* Unite our “I can!” to yours, so that we walk as kings and queens with every creature. Prepare us for the marriage of power and beauty, that we may bring forth a new world of justice and peace.*

* Your one desire then acts with ours, Spirit and Nature united in Divine cooperation and passionate purpose.*

* Grant what we need each day in bread and understanding. Help us fulfill what lies within the circle of our lives each day. We ask no more and no less.*

* Don’t let surface things delude us. But break the hold of inner stagnation – free us to walk your path with joy.*

* Out of You the astonishing fire, the birthing glory, the power and life to do, the song that beautifies all, from age to age it renews.*

* Truly power to these statements—may they be the ground from which all my
actions grow. Sealed in trust and faith.*

* Amen.*