Compassion

Today I went to hear Tibetan Lama, Tulku Tsori Rinpoche speak on the imperative need to embrace compassion.  Without compassion suffering continues even though we may exist in heaven. The fluttering of the heart can be excruciating when it is opened and then exposed to suffering and yet how can we climb beyond this suffering without softening and embracing it with compassion so that we may make actions to change it? We are as I have said before in this together.

Rinpoche pointed out that we are eternal beings subject to multiple incarnations and that we may return to this place in any number of millions of forms. I know this is true because I remember my own past lives; I have done so since I was a child. I remember vividly at 4 or 5 standing on my bed with my baby sisters and asking them, “How can I dream what it feels like to be a grown up if I have never been one before, how do I know that?” I had many recurring and vivid dreams of times in a couple of lifetimes just before death. In one I know that were I to walk the coast of England I would find the place of my dream, it was so clear to me then and still is today.

For me there is no question that we have been here before and that we are likely to come back again. Rinpoche also pointed out that we are blessed to be born as a human. We are afforded the rarest of rare opportunities to be born human. It is an honor; the boon of great good fortune. To be human proves a soul of immense worthiness and good karma has descended to take human form and grace this place with the singular blessings of its presence. This is true for every single one of us. None are to be singled out and cast away as unworthy. Think of it; as humans we have so much privilege, a fruit fly lives a day and we may live up to one hundred years. A bat subsists on insects, we may feast on any number of foods; almost any other being on this planet may become our meal. Our existence consists of freedoms, delights, entertainments, feasts and journeys impossible to most other creatures and yet we choose to include in our experience sufferings of cosmic proportions like war, self-denigration, enslavements, terrorism, deceptions, checking out, nihilism, cynicism and disempowerment.

We are all powerful cosmic beings with astonishing resilience. Each of us descends from the same brilliant fire of consciousness, choosing the karmic circumstances by which to know our divine Self better. In one life we may be enemies, in another we may be family. Our karmic contract affords us the opportunity to crack the constraints of our understanding so that we may discover our true nature of oneness. Our understanding miraculously stays with us, imprinting the incidents of our lives, lifetime after lifetime. It is a monstrous or a delicious trap depending on the moment.

We are fortunate though to have the enlightened teachings of the Buddha, Christ, many great Saints of India and a burgeoning of incredible new living Saints here in the US and elsewhere to guide us through this mire.

Tulku Karma Rinpoche’s compelling lesson today contained a foundation block of the teachings of compassion that all may use. He instructed us to honor our mothers, to look to our mothers for the example of unconditional love. To remember how selflessly our mothers cared for us. To notice how interested and supportive our mothers are. He pointed out that compassion must start here, right where we are. There is no sense in having deep compassion for those on the other side of the world while we are rude, judgmental and dismissive of those closest to us. What a beautiful instruction this is and how simple it seems and yet I think we all know how difficult it can be when presented with the reality of the moment and the caustic nature of some habitual interactions. And yet Rinpoche smiling joyfully enforced his recommendation to allow our mothers to be right no matter what to agree and be gentle like he is.

To learn more about Tulku Karma Rinpoche please go to www.ytdr.org.

Awaken

Heaven is made within and the only way to get there is to wake up.  Here is a beautiful opportunity to examine this concept and perhaps even to crack the window and smell the fragrance of awakening or better yet to open the door and dive into the pool of heaven. What time could be more auspicious than now?  In an innovative new documentary film, AWAKEN, by filmmaker Danisa Perry we comprehend our special place in time and our unique role in humanity’s path to enlightenment. Through AWAKEN we recognize our own brilliance at choosing to be born now at the dawn of 2012.
 
The film AWAKEN is a gift of wisdom and inspiration fraught with love to counter the doomsayers of the end times prophesied to come very soon, in fact coming the year after next, in 2012. Renowned visionary and futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard enthusiastically rallies us to see these times of strife and chaos as a destiny that is the most perfect opportunity. Mystic Master Shaman Bonnie Serratore welcomes us to slip into an open state of meditation where she introduces us to a place beyond fear. Toltec Master Rita Rivera Fox explains the true meaning of the Mayan end times and shares the answer to all of humanity’s ills. Tibetan Lama Tulku Tsori Rinpoche invites us to commit to the only change that is meaningful – enlightenment. Finally, William Linville propels us beyond the limitations of the mind where he reminds us of what is most important, to let go and be love.  The masterful wisdom of these teachers comes with a directness that welcomes us to wake up and relish this moment. The twinkling in their eyes hints at a magnificent mystery that is awaiting us to be welcomed and fully realized.
 
Danisa’s clean, compelling interview style affords an intense, intimate interaction with the master that allows us to connect in the deepest way possible. The rich, raw and real teaching is ours to digest while we view awesome flights through exquisite natural settings set to compelling world music. All in all the experience of this film is a delicious feast for the mind, heart and spirit likely to be repeated many times once viewed for the first time.
 
Come experience an intense mystical journey of awakening on the verge of 2012 at the world Premiere of AWAKEN the film, with a exclusive week-end workshop on awakening led by the film’s teachers to follow.
 
This groundbreaking and transformational film entitled AWAKEN documents the presence and wisdom of an array of teachers from diverse spiritual backgrounds on the significance of this crucial time of planetary shift and shares with us how the current global crisis is an impetus to awaken to oneness, as such revealing the true esoteric meaning of 2012.
 
             Awaken is a gift to the spiritual awakening through direct and immediate
             contact with awakeners.  A very special contribution to our conscious evolution.
                                     – Barbara Marx Hubbard
                     
                      A documentary by Danisa Perry
 
Space is limited so please sign up right away:
 
To pre-purchase tickets,
for more info and to view trailer go to:
1-888-902-GURU
 
 Location: The META Center New York
214 W. 29th Street,
16th floor New York, NY 10001
(between 7th and 8th Ave.) Tel. 212-736-0999
 
             Awaken is a spiritual experience that ignites that place deep
             within that has been yearning to be touched.                          – Patricia
 
You will discover:
•What the Toltec teachings are saying about 2012
•Techniques to advance your conscious awakening
•How to break free from fear and limitation
•An awakening to love and oneness…
 
Premiere Ticket $15
Premiere and Workshops $135
(special pricing available for individual workshops)
 
Premiere January 29th, 2010 (7pm-10pm)
Week-end workshop January 30th- 31st 2010 (10am-4pm)

Choose Heaven

How do we create a vision for a new future for humanity? We are going through massive changes right now; cosmic energies are shifting the fiber of our reality and we are in a unique space of opportunity. The opportunity to reframe our relationship with our reality is at our doorstep. Every step of our lives is an opportunity to embrace heaven, to create a life of abundance, joy, celebration, respect and love. I say choose that.

Many of my friends know that I created with the generous help of many good friends a short film, “New York City Spirit” that celebrates the diverse ways in which New Yorkers connect to the divine. I still hope to make the feature length version at some point. The reason that I did this is because I have experienced the overwhelming grace of connecting with the divine. Should I say connecting? It’s really wrong because how do you connect with that which you already are? We are that divine, the divine is what pulsed this reality that we share into being, it is what maintains the reality we perceive, it is what maintains our image of our selves and all interactions we participate in as we play from day to day. Why is it that we do not know this every moment of life?  – We forget.

At one point in my studies I uncovered a unique explanation of  the creation of man. I must digress for just a moment to put this into context, I am not writing any scholarly works here, my goal is to celebrate the pure, raw energy of the divine – to taste it as much as possible so I do not want to be constrained by pedantic requirements of referrals to source or whatever. Suffice it to say that I share my experiences, recollections, personal discoveries and hope that this perspective is useful. Part of the cosmic shift that we go through here includes a personal shift to the self-empowerment of trusting our own body, emotions, intuition and mind as our information source. Statistics are irrelevant to the individual when the magic of the divine is recognized.

So back to the unique creation of man; God extruded man from the blissful core of Herself and placed man on the Earth for the purpose of exploring the state of separation. Man remembered his former state of being utterly merged into all-being, all-knowing, blissful everything and said to God, “I don’t like this separation, I am cold, lonely, and I feel rejected. Therefore, I’ve decided that I will just merge back into YOU.” And he did. God was within the context of Her perfection and bliss a bit disappointed, Her experiment in exploring the nature of Her expanded and diversified being was abruptly ended.  So She started again, this time She created a foil, a veil and made it so that man could not remember his former nature as being merged within Herself.  Thus began the glorious adventures of man.

The mystical experience that I had that made this story of man abundantly clear happened one day in Central Park. I was sitting with a great mystic, Pamela Wilson, and we were talking about the nature of forgetfulness. I was watching a swan gliding about on the pond, leaves were gracefully fluttering above my head, my hair caught the slight breeze and suddenly everything changed. My inner being cracked and shifted with the profundity of a massive earthquake without any rumbles or shatters. It was a change of momentous proportion that had nothing to show for itself except this: It occurred to me that my dismay at my repeated and sometimes prolonged forgetfulness of the divine was irrelevant because even if I forget; my divine creator never forgets me. Therefore if I am THAT creator as well as being that which is created then technically I never forget too. The wave of relief that swept over me was powerful and lasting. Now I have no stress if I forget and some days when in old habitual ways I slip into self-recrimination and perhaps begin to whine, “O, where is God?” I smile and chuckle because I know that is just a game, a game of hide and go seek played with the self. It makes me laugh out loud. I can trace the path of choices that led me to this revelation and every one was a conscious decision to choose enlightenment.

Much help is available these days to further the conscious embrace of heaven here on Earth now. On Tuesday, I saw a fabulous film entitled, ‘With One Voice’.  The website for the documentary is: http://www.withonevoicedocumentary.org/. Various mystics speak on the nature of spirituality, life and religion. Each brings understanding within the context of their traditions yet the voices are beautifully harmonious. All of the great religions are represented and these wise mystic teachers generously point out the richness of the path that led them to knowing the divine while also acknowledging the value of other paths. One said that as long as there are many different religions there will be that many ways to know God. I say as long as there are individuals there will be as many ways to know God, and this is the key, it is not about following doctrine but about experiencing our true nature. I highly recommend this film and you can order it here: http://www.alivemindmedia.com/films/with-one-voice/

A broken heart

These are the dark times or perhaps the challenging times of the famous Chinese proverb that says, “May you live in interesting times”. The challenge is to permit the heart to break, to be with those who suffer fully without drowning ourselves. I have been angsting over my next blog; this one, because what can one say about heaven being here when such terrible quakes happen as in Haiti and so many suffer and die? The last thing I intend for this blog is for it to be pollyannish; that is of use to no one. 

So where is heaven in all the disaster that we have just witnessed and  in that suffering that continues to unfold in further desperation? I think the first step toward finding it and recogizing heaven is here is to know that we are more than just our physical form, we are greater than that. Our isness is eternal; that primordial witness of our lives, loves, wars, disasters and deaths is omiscient and omnipresent. That core us is beyond the blink of an eye that is this life. That part of us knows this is heaven, that part of us orchestrates this heaven so that we may experience the sublime and the excruciating feelings of this life. Challenging times afford each of us the opportunity to know ourselves better. These events also allow us to know ourselves better as one humanity, as the organism of community that we are fast becoming in this rapidly globalizing village. I think of a woman I saw on TV two days ago who was trapped for 6 days in rubble. When a team of US firefighters finally pulled her out she broke into song. My heart sings with her as much as my heart breaks for the children sitting in the streets next to their injured or deceased parent. I pour my prayers and blessings on those who are suffering in Haiti and to those who are helping, thank you to them all for their part in this massive global heart opening event.

It is important to look at this event and see what is going on cosmically and globally. Our world is our reflection of our self. Our immediate personal world reflects our personal, individual suppositions about reality. Our world at large reflects the greater agreements we assume as a community of humans. We carry and sustain immense constructs of what we think our world should be. For example the banking system is a construct, it’s “reality” is only apparent because we all agree to function by it’s authority. National borders are a construct, as are governments, educational systems and of course religions. All these ‘structures’ have formed over thousands of years built on infrastructures of assumptions that were formed and agreed upon thousands of years ago. Assumptions like “God is a jealous god”, “my race is the smartest”, “women should stay in the home”, “my neighbor is my enemy”, “survival of the fittest” all impact with tremendous power the way we interact and live together. I think few would agree that these structures are perfect and true. Many people are left out in the cold, impoverished and unable to create a sustainable lifestyle and this is because of these constructs. I was infuriated to learn that when Haiti revolted after learning about the French revolution and won their freedom they were then subject to reparations for loss of French revenues garnered by the slave industry. It took Haiti 150 years to pay off this massive debt, I wonder why the slaves were unable to make a case for reparations for their slave labor and ill-treatment and instead garner 150 years of reparation payments from France. These are the kinds of constructs that are crumbling right now. We are entering a new time where subjugation of our fellows, theft of each others energy and lifeforce will not be permitted. How can we be in heaven when the comfort of one depends on the suffering of another? We are intimately intertwined as one humanity and each individual’s well being is mutually beneficial, even the ants have figured this out.

I remember vividly while watching on TV the twin towers of the World Trade Center collapse that I felt like everything I thought was real inside me was crumbling and disintegrating. I felt a palpable shattering of the subtle construction of my understanding of my world. In the days after 9/11 in New York City New Yorkers were so soft and sweet. People’s hearts were open. Strangers were chatting with each other. Residents set drinks outside and made cookies for passers by. An opera singer broke into a splendid song one morning in the subway and the entire subway car felt sacred. It didn’t take long though for hearts to harden and for the US to stampede into war. Five years later we witnessed the suffering of New Orleans, then the South Asian Tsunami, then the hurricane in Haiti and ten years later here we are again witnessing terrible suffering.

It is said that if a change in direction is needed God will tickle your nose with a feather, if you are really alert you will immediately pay attention and shift course. If that doesn’t work God will slap your hand with a newspaper, hopefully for most of us that will get our attention and we will make a correction, if that doesn’t work he’ll use a 2 by 4 across your temple, it will probably hurt like hell but who’s going to ignore that. In your dazed recovery ideally you will change your misbehaviour. But if, however, even the 2 by 4 fails to make the point then comes the mac truck barreling down toward you with full force. Even though we are blessed with free will while playing in this realm it is critical that we follow the path of grace chosen by our own souls. Does it sound like I might be blaming someone for the earthquake? I hope not, I am not. I am convinced though that a quantum shift in our relationships to each other and to our world will produce a dramatically different experience of our world for each of us.

Here is an opportunity to allow the heart to break, or at the very least to soften and open. This is perhaps our most important duty right now, holding of anger, fear, jealousy, judgment and other negative energies ripples out into our world in terribly destructive ways. It takes great skill and effort to hold a state that welcomes heaven but heaven will not be perceived unless that disciplined state is nurtured.

I would like to recommend a well-reknowned prescient teacher Tom Kenyon, who offers beautiful and useful information to support us through these difficult times. A most recent article entitled, “Haiti and the Chaotic Node” presents information on how to maintain a good state as we go through these trying times. http://tomkenyon.com/haiti-and-the-chaotic-node

We are in this together.

The best thing about heaven is that we get to play together. We get to learn from each other, we create, share, celebrate and move into a deeper understanding of our true nature together.

In the Buddhist tradition it is recommended that you meditate on a flower or a flame. Any object of the natural world will reveal the wonder of reality. Buddhist’s know that  it is critical to understand our true nature because not one single being will be freed to full enlightenment while another remains bound. We are inextricably bonded in our heaven.

We have all heard that saying, “When the student is ready the teacher will appear”. The big question is, will we recognize that teacher? I’ve heard a great story about the man who was coming home to his village and the villagers were dashing madly toward him. “What’s up?” He asked. “There’s a mad elephant loose. RUN, or he will kill you.” Now the man was just coming home from a very profound spiritual retreat and he thought, “no, I’m safe, God will protect me by letting me know if there is danger to me here”. So he continued walking. Another and another villager waved him off and one even tried to pull our man into joining the fleeing crowd but he was steadfast in his determination to trust that God would warn him. As the elephant rampaged toward him, knocked him down, and trampled him the man cried out, “God, why didn’t you warn me?” God said to him, “I did warn you, at least five of your fellow villagers told you to run, why didn’t you run?”

This is what I call spiritual infrastructure. Think about that village; once it was the woods, then some one beat a path, another built a bridge, a third established a police department. Soon there’s electricity, buses, supermarkets, schools and all number of conveniences that make life more civilized. We could do none of this by ourselves.

It may not be visible but the spiritual infrastructure that is comparable to bridges and roads, tunnels and mass transit exists; all we need to do is take advantage of it. Great world teachers of many millenia have mapped the inner roadways, bypasses, fields, forests and goldmines. The infrastructure is sound and as real as those things that make our daily life so convenient. After all, everything visible on the outside is representative of that which exists on the inner planes.

It seems that knowledge of the infinite, intimate understanding of our oneness is coming out of hiding. It is coming into our days, informing friendships, art, music and film. Even television is getting into the act with sneak peaks at great wisdom, but more on that in another post. Really I want to mention music right now. Music is one of the manifestations on this plane of reality that can most likely to impart the wisdom of our true nature, to connect us to the divine that we are. Chanting, tribal beats, low hums like the digeredoo or the esraj all create windows into higher planes of consciousness for us. I personally feel that is because we are first made of sound then of light then of matter. It says so in the Bible, and in other texts but I say so because I have felt it; this is the power of meditation or of chanting.  So today I want to introduce you to a fabulous new piece of music that is profound in it’s mystic beauty. Check out Haale’s new song and her first music video, an ode to life, the moon, fire, warmth…

(filmed by Casey Meade)

Qualities of Heaven

We  have arrived we are already in Heaven, this is it. So if it does not feel like heaven does that prove that this is not heaven? What are the qualities of heaven? Let’s take a stab at it: perfection, freedom, bliss, joy, communion with the divine and with each other, all needs met on physical and spiritual planes, opportunity to flourish and be fantastic, appreciation of what we are and what others are, and probably much more that I am not thinking of. I would love to hear your qualities of heaven.

Where exactly are we on this path of reaching heaven? It’s a bit like what, I think, Tom Sawyer once said to Huck Finn, though I can’t find the exact quote: something about if his great Aunt was there in heaven he surely wouldn’t want to be there. The idea supposes restrictions on heaven, it supposes that heaven doesn’t have room for differences and for appreciation of those differences. Much the same as here. I guess it shows that our idea of heaven is a function of where our mind set is right now. We live with an overwhelming awareness of the limited, we perceive that if it’s not this it’s that, there is very little room for qualities of difference or for gradations toward the exquisite. I guess I’m talking about the glass being half empty versus half full.

For us today we have the most amazing opportunities, we can try on someone elses viewpoint on a daily basis. With the prevalence of media we can live the stories of others with vastly divergent views from us without committing. We can taste another’s dreams, trials, striving, failure and successes. Is that why we are so enraptured by the lifestyles of the stars? Don’t their lives look like heaven from the outside? Yet too many times the curtain is pulled away and we become aware of a despair that leads to tragic consequences. So can we definitively say that fame, wealth and success are heaven? We spend so much of our time scrambling to make a “perfect” life but what defines a perfect life? We as humans have the amazing ability to live in astonishingly different circumstances, from igloos in the North to grassy huts all the way on the Equator. Much of our ideas of perfection are not even ours, we find ourselves being sold on all kinds of things, or activities that will produce qualities of enjoyment, success, delight, perfection or whatever. It all comes at us from the outside in a torrent of choices.  Our perceptions of what is delicious for a life or a heaven are uncountable. What would we find in THE heaven?

I would like to share what I think we would find: Our consciousness would dissolve out of phenomenon into the noumenon, first we might be blissfully blinded by the brilliant light of our own primordial Self. That Self that is the essential core of us that was the initial separation from the ALL CONSCIOUS. Then we may blend into the chaos of the emptiness, which is really all things in potential and all things that will never be and all things that will be. There we rest in perfect equilibrium for eternity, needing no thing, being no thing, thinking no thing. It is our natural state and is inexpressibly delicious. This state is ours to have even while we are separated into form, for this is the state that nourishes the form and propels it into being. This state is available at all times in all places and the doorway is meditation. I invite you to meditate on your heaven, taste the deliciousness of your breath that reveals the pathway inside to that sacred space. This is how you will know that heaven is here.

On the Ground

Do you think it’s because I introduced my new peace symbol this week that I suddenly greet the challenge in the proverbial you?

On the ground is where ‘Heaven’ meets the road or in my case, the tracks. Today in the fabulous New York subway system I got crowded between two guys arguing over space. A guy in the station was yelling at the guy behind me to make space for him on the train where there there was none. By the time the one who was on the train right behind me got off the train to let the other guy on I felt very defensive of the poor guy left behind and mad at the “idiot” standing over me with his arm leaning on my shoulder. He was grumbling that the other guy was an “idiot”. That’s why I referred  to him that way. I felt like I was in the middle of it all; I swallowed the drama into my being, took it on, kind of revelled in it. Not because I wanted to, or because it was mine but probably because I am a creature of habit like all of us; eager to salivate over that sour deliciousness of drama, conflict, and self-righteousness. It is dangerous territory that we all know so well and that we fail to navigate with grace too many times, witness the conflict world wide that escalates to global scale. Will we ever tire of it?

When we know how these encounters affect us why is it that we still trample through our heaven kicking up dust and insulting each other? I was so riled up I was ready to defend the abandoned commuter but the “i…”, excuse me, I am sorry but I don’t know his name, was just too close to me; it was a bad idea.  Suddenly I thought, “wait this has nothing to do with me” even if it did I don’t need to relish the ugliness of it all. So I breathed, I relaxed, I offered all the fury back to the man standing next to me who perpetrated the flurry to begin with and basically washed my hands of the whole thing. Afterall the abandoned commuter chose to step out of the train rather than continue to engage with mister “I”.

Then I remembered a story about the Buddha who was asked by a woman what to do about a conflict that troubled her. I may not have the story exact but this is what I took from it. He asked her what would happen if she made a feast and asked her opponent over to eat but he refused to eat, she said I would have to eat the food myself. The Buddha said exactly so don’t engage with him and he will have to consume the trouble he makes himself. Or something like that. When I relaxed and breathed I disengaged from the drama, what a delicious relief that was. It was not my misadventure, so why get involved. Ordinarily, I would have carried that energetic shift through my whole system for hours after the encounter but the exercise of conscious relief restored my equanimity instantly. This is Heaven – awareness, choosing and practicing. It worked so well that a very short time later when another guy got really irritated with me because I happened to be walking in his way, that kind of thing happens in New York, I didn’t even get phazed by it. Let him have his annoyance, it has nothing to do with me.

I had a sense when I released that tension in the subway that some profound shift had happened that energy was returned to it’s rightful place.  I think that’s why I remembered the Buddha’s story. We are beings of vast complexity, intricately connected. We are capable of infecting each other with delight through a song, or fury through a harsh word. I would have to say that knowing this I admit that my interactions in this world with most people are clumsy. Do I listened enough? I wish. Do I appreciate enough? Probably not. Do I get annoyed too many times? Definitely. I suspect that in order for us all to become fully aware of the Heaven we cohabitate a far greater awareness of our affect on each other must be cultivated. So that’s what that peace symbol is about. It represents a contract to practice this kind of interaction.  To walk the talk. Are you with me?

Joy Rising

Well, this is a trip. So many of you have looked at my blog in the last few days. So many of you have commented and emailed me. Thank you, you are inspiring me. 

The most amazing thing is happening; as the contemplation that Heaven Is Here is initiated the proof comes flooding toward me. Today on Oprah I saw video of a flash mob dancing to Black Eyed Peas, maybe you’ve seen it. It is fantastic check it out here:

As one participant on Oprah’s show said, “It was passion unleashed, unity revealed and joy rising”. He began this by saying if he were to imagine what Heaven would be like that was it.

This is our job right now. It is our joy rising to envision and enact Heaven. Bravo to all those who participated in that flash mob and to the Black Eyed Peas for the joyful music they create, they are showing the way.

It’s All New.

In Vedic tradition it is said that whatever you do in the beginning of any new venture will set the tone for that whole event. I have to say that I totally believe it and last year was proof because I started the year traveling and then traveled somewhere exotic every month for the entire year except the summer months when I love to be in Connecticut. So here we are starting not only a new year but also a new decade. Right now we have the opportunity to set a tone for years to come. It is our choice to make that future great so how do we do so?

I have been playing a lot of Scrabble lately, I love it. Interestingly yesterday Scrabble spawned contemplation for me while I was shoveling snow out of my driveway. I was thinking of connections, I often contemplate the idea of connections between us all as humans. The way we interact is the way we create sublime life or tortured life, so why do we choose either of these?  Back to Scrabble and what I think I learned from it. I marvel that you can have a good hand with good letters but might only find a 12 or so point word using most of your letters; however other times you can place 1 or 2 letters and get a stunning score by connecting words and increasing their value. The more each letter is used to connect or create other words the greater the potential for value with or without the double, triple letter and word bonuses. Think of this in relation to life and interactions. Unfortunately today pretty much all of our focus is on monetary value of everything; New York City even put a value on each tree planted within the city limits. Reducing the stuff of life and its multiple interactions to a monetary value seems to me to be a very linear and confining structure. Wouldn’t it be better to stretch our understanding of value in interactions? We can dimensionalize the richness of life if we cherish and celebrate our interactions, connections in many more ways.

In honor of this new beginning a year and a decade in which I dream to see a shift in consciousness toward mutual respect and celebration of each other and of our various contributions to the fabric of our shared lives I invite you to check out two websites working to make a difference. This morning on CBS Sunday morning I heard about Dafna Michaelson and her mission to interview people making a difference in their communities nationwide.  Bravo Dafna, her inspiring video blogs remind us of the pioneer spirit that made the USA.  http://www.50in52journey.com/ That pioneer spirit of connecting people and communities to accomplish the inspirational is needed again so that we can fabricate a magnificent new decade. Another website is http://www.kiva.org/ Kiva lending provides people to people micro loans to alleviate poverty and yes, connects people across the globe. These are websites that exemplify that multi-stacked value connection like a single Scrabble s that triples words in two directions. The value is not counted in dollars but in hearts.

As my offering to this new decade I want to share with you a new peace sign created because of the inspiration of my dear friend Robyn. It means I (the straight line) enter wOrld (the circle) and greet You (the y) with loVe ( the V or a tilted L) whichever you prefer. I prefer to think of it as a v because v is close to the heart of the word love.

This sign is rich with meaning: first it is upright reaching toward the sky and welcoming active peace. This makes it a contract or a commitment to live by peace.  This symbol represents not just a passive alignment with the idea of peace. It appears like the tree of life affirming life and celebration. The I which is you or me is partly out of the world acknowledging that we are of a greater reality and merely playing in this world. I is enveloped by you before world showing that all of our interactions are with conscious presence in other forms whether it is people, animals, trees or even Mother Earth herself; we cannot be separated.  And love represented by the V is the connecting force between You and I. Currently I have not settled on a name for the symbol though I have a couple of ideas. Any suggestions?

Happy New Year all.