Reflecting on a Collection of Reflections

May these reflections care for your body-mind so that you might care for all beings everywhere.

The core of my vision has remained the same - to enable everyone to realize her/his/their full potential - but my strategies and actions have changed over the years, beginning with pedagogy and projects, shifting to programs and policies, then to presentations, and now publications. May all beings realize peace, happiness, understanding, and compassion for people and planet. (Photo above of a group of friends celebrating in Chicago many years ago.)

My son told me that at this stage of my life I should focus on comfort and convenience. My heart tells me that I should focus on writing, publishing, holding a neighborliness workshop, launching a neighborhood climate resiliency project with Warren Wilson College, and caring for family, friends, the vulnerable, democracy and social justice, and my body-mind. How to do all of this and more?

Enjoying reading Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet by Thich Nhat Hanh. It is helping me to care for Earth, society, friends, family, and this body-mind. Gratitude.

It is taking some serious mindfulness practice to keep from being overwhelmed again and again by the unrelenting lies and harm being carried out around us. May we each realize peace, happiness, and understanding, and take compassionate actions to care for all beings everywhere. May it be so.

What an unparalleled gift this life is: to be called, to dream about my calling, to act on my dreams, to speak and teach about my actions, to write about my speaking, actions, dreams, and calling, and then to once again put my dreams into action where I am living. Gratitude.

Yet, life is so hard and full of suffering. What a mystery. May we awaken to understanding and compassion for self and all others.

I just realized why I studied English as an undergrad at Oklahoma State University. So that when I retired from working around the world caring for the least, the lost, and the last, and when I was old and tired, I could simply enjoy being at home crafting essays each week to care for this suffering world. In the beginning was the word, and the word will create a new world of compassion and regeneration. May it be so.

There is more to life than politics and social media. There is beauty to enjoy, family and friends to love, truth to celebrate, mindfulness to cultivate, racism to heal, books to read, walks to take, relaxation to fall back into, books to write, dreams to dream, and care of those in need far and near. And there is getting out the vote (GOTV) and saying hello to each other on social media. Gratitude.

We do not live in a post-truth world. We live in a world awash with lies that must be countered with truth and compassion.

Saw this evening the film “The Social Dilemma” concerning the control AI-driven social media is having on humanity and its dangers to democracy, collective truth, social discourse, and ethical behavior. Much to contemplate concerning the nature and purpose of the human being and human society on this planet. May we awaken to our true nature of compassion and understanding.

Time to wake up and act up: democracy is being damaged; people are suffering; ecosystems are crumbling; time to wake up and act up.

Our language can trap us in delusions. Our beliefs can trap us in language. Our assumptions can trap us in beliefs. Our perceptions can trap us in assumptions. Our perspectives can trap us in perceptions. How to wake up and come into the really real? Stopping. Pure awareness. Mystery. Love. Gratitude.

In the midst of the daily trauma and outrage, may I/we manifest understanding, kindness, generosity, patience, urgency, solidarity, empathy, gratitude, and compassion for each and every being we encounter both near and far. May it be so.

The suffering of World War II gave birth to the UN. What will the suffering of climate chaos birth? Maybe a sustainable civilization of compassion?

What a stunning mystery! To be a conscious living being as part of a 13.8 billion year old universe with billions of more years to create, explore, and experience! Who could ever have dreamed this or made it up? And with only one thing to do – love it all, moment by moment, situation by situation, being by being. But how to do that with understanding and skillful means, that is the question, the challenge, the calling.

This is a good time, as we face the possible collapse of civilization, to change everything - greed to generosity, fear to trust, war to peace, patriarchy to gender equality, plutocracy to participatory governance, fossil fuels to green energy, prejudice to understanding, systemic poverty to socioeconomic justice. What else needs to change? How can you and I and millions of people of good will do this?

“Organize locally. The empire can monitor the national scene, manipulate media, and crush large movement, but a community that feeds, protects, and educates itself is harder to break. It’s slow gritty work, but it’s also where survival—and eventual resistance—lives.” ~William Murphy

No separation. Without the Earth, I do not exist. Without the sun, I am not. Without humanity, no me. Without the cosmos, nothing. It is indeed all or nothing. Every being arises moment by moment in interdependent, mutual origination and transformation. Mystery. Love. Gratitude.

I feel as though I am just waking up. Surely I have woken up before this? Did I go back to sleep? Or is this a deeper, wider awakening? Yes, life is good. Yes, life is a profound mystery. Yes, I am grateful. And yes, we are living in a global empire based on greed for power, money and fame for a few. More and more people are waking up. The movement of movements is growing. This is the moment when compassion and wisdom can turn the tide.