Beloved friends,

I have made it through the last classes in my Master’s program and now I’m on the final track to complete my thesis, internship, etc. to graduate (Inshallah) in May!

It is my hope that this blog can be a channel for all of us to continue to remember our connection to the One, to our earth, and to each other. We have much work to do and I truly believe we have the capacity, motivation, resilience, and power to create a new reality.

I love this quote from Terence McKenna – “What is out of control, what is in fact dying is a world that had become too top-heavy with its hubris, too bent by its own false value systems and too dehumanized to care about what happens to its own children. So I say, good riddance to it. … Let’s create a new world.”

In community with all of you, and with the many prophets, thinkers, sages (especially the youth!), we can and will create beauty, harmony, and love in a culture that respects the earth, our siblings, and ourselves as equally deserving of sustainable sustenance, abundance, and joy.

May it be so – may we make it so.

Dear friends,

My work toward a Master’s degree in Social Change and a certificate in Spiritual Direction is moving toward its final phases (thus the dearth of recent postings here!)

As part of my practicum for Spiritual Direction, I am required (blessed!) to offer, free of charge, Spiritual Direction sessions for one person for the next 3-4 months. If you would be interested in trying this out, please contact me directly at drmatthewsusa@gmail.com.

Spiritual Direction is perhaps better described as Spiritual Companionship. It is an opportunity for you to spend time being deeply heard and encouraged along your spiritual path no matter what that might look like.

As Interfaith Spiritual Directors, we are extensively trained in deep and active listening, connecting with the Divine, and a wide and expansive understanding and appreciation for all of the world’s faith traditions as well as the science and belief systems of those who would choose, “none of the above” as their spiritual path.

If this feels like something that would benefit you, please consider helping me toward my final goals and graduation in the Spring.

And be aware that once I have completed these goals, I will be offering Spiritual Direction on a sliding scale basis, so this may be a path we can share in the future as well.

With deep appreciation and love,
Wakil

Gitanjali 35

Rabindranath Tagore – 1861-1941

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
     Where knowledge is free;
     Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
     Where words come out from the depth of truth;
     Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
     Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
     Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action— 
     Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

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.*

I’ve been blessed to participate in a class discussing the parables that Jesus was reported to share in the gospels of the New Testament and Thomas. I was frankly a little concerned at first that this would be my cup of tea, but in fact, have found the practice of “exegesis” or analysis/interpretation of these stories to be quite profound and valuable.

I wrote a paper on the parable of the mustard seed and thought I’d share some of that here as it holds a lesson for all of us as we work through this liminal time between the crumbling and decay of our current world and the hoped-for and worked for redemption and re-creation of a new way of being.

The parable of the mustard seed appears in all three of the synoptic gospels:

How shall we compare the kingdom of God, or with what parable might we put it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, the smallest is of all the seeds on earth. And when sown, it rises up and becomes the greatest of all vegetables, and it makes large branches, so that are able under its shadow the birds of the heaven to dwell. Mark 4.30–32 (NRSV)

Like is the kingdom of the heavens to a mustard seed, that taking, some person sowed in his field. The smallest, on the one hand, it is of all the seeds, but when it has grown, greatest of the vegetables it is, and it becomes a tree, so that when come the birds of the heaven, even they dwell in its branches. Matthew 13.31–32 (NRSV)

To what is like the kingdom of God, and to what should I make it like? It is like a mustard seed, which taking, a man casts in his garden, and it grew, and became a tree, and the birds of the heaven dwelled in its branches. Luke 13.18–19 (NRSV)

It is also found in the Gospel of Thomas:
He said to them, “It is like a mustard seed. < It > is the smallest of all seeds, but when it falls on prepared soil, it produces a large plant and becomes a shelter for birds of heaven.” Thomas 20.2-4

We can look at many possible interpretations of this parable, but let’s consider the possibility that Jesus’ lesson was meant to point to the way a common medicinal herb, though the seed is very small when planted in the fertile ground can become a shelter for many creatures.

Perhaps His message was simply that even the most humble and unimposing beginning has the unlimited potential to grow into a place of sanctuary for the most vulnerable among us.

In His ministry, as he was speaking to an audience of the poor and outcast, the message may well have been that they held responsibility for recognizing and acting upon that potential. That even though they came from humble means, they were still of great value medicinally and as an added spice for the sustenance of the message Jesus sought to share. That with that recognition came the responsibility to thrive and grow into a beautiful and protective plant or community that gave sanctuary to all of God’s beloved creatures, both human and more-than-human.

I like this interpretation in its simplicity and its value as a message for our times.

Many of us are feeling the despair and frustration of witnessing the suffering of our planet and our marginalized siblings in these apocalyptic days. That frustration and despair are often accompanied or caused by our feeling that we are too insignificant to make any real change or to arrest the seemingly inevitable destruction.

In this lesson, Jesus offers us the message that even a tiny seed has the potential to grow into a place of refuge. If we take that message seriously, we have the opportunity to manifest that power in our lives by trusting that even our smallest efforts may ripple out and grow into something large enough to afford sanctuary, change, and redemption for our earth and our beloved communities.

My beloveds, consider this possibility.

We have the capacity to hold that potential like the tiny mustard seed in our hearts with faith that it will guide us toward the small work in each moment that will result eventually in vast and comprehensive change toward a new reality – even as we accept that like any tree we plant, we may never harvest the fruit in our lifetimes. By holding that potential with love, compassion, faith, and power we can fulfill the promise Jesus gave us with this parable and truly make a difference to our world and to the world of our children and our children’s children.

May it be so.

This new poetry came to me over several recent wanderings through the Autumn forests here on the Salish Sea. This has been a particularly brilliant season for fall foliage due to our new climate. The blessing of that curse has been these gorgeous displays as the earth prepares for the little sleep of Winter. Enjoy.

Fire of Death – Spark of Life

Fire hued trees of Autumn
Blaze their final
rapturous radiant display

Let go their resplendent leaves.
Fire of death falling, dancing, drifting
Into the pulsing embrace of the welcoming earth

Painting their rain glistened feet
With the blood fire
palate of multi-colored leaves

While beneath that glistening fire
potent, fecund, pulsing
The spark of life is reborn.

2019 ~ by Wakil David Matthews