Namaste, the reason why I say: "My family calls me Pancho" is because pretty much everyone calls me Pancho. After all, we are the Grand Human Family. Someone asked me to be more creative about sharing the love in the opening line, so this time I like you to know that even though some of you don't know me, I embrace every single one of you in my heart. Yes, I love you all (all of you, and the totality of you... that is feeding 2 birds with one seed ;-)).
To think outside of the box (what box? ;-)) and be a bit creative, today I'm going to share with you 4 points that came to mind/heart during the sharing circle:
1. Where is "away"?
2. The Hardest Thing
3. Creativity of Old Principles
4. The Spark of Life
1. Where is away?
When we say: "I'm going to through something away, where is away? Sister Julia Butterfly Hill shares with us (in this 5 minute video clip about Disposability Consciousness) that there is no such a thing as away. It's only called waste if we are not using it properly. If it's "waste" it is because we haven't been creative enough to find a way to use it. Julia spent more than 2 years living in the branches of an ancient redwood to bring awareness about our interconnectedness with all life. In the face of lack of imagination and destruction, she found a creative way to protest and to cling to truth!
2. The Hardest Thing
Nothing is harder than conceiving what has not yet been imagined. However, when we come to see that our life is a gift and a contribution bigger than our wildest dreams, we start to experience the miracle that we are and with this miracle, we discover the reason why we are here on this Planet at this important time in history.
3. Creativity within Old Principles
Not so long ago, I wrote this in a long inspired Charity Focus email thread:
Nonviolence and the gift-economy are as old as the hills. Both of them are principles. The way we adapt these principles to the situations prevailing around us requires courage, imagination and creativity. Sometimes we, as imperfect ever-growing human beings, confuse this creativity with the principles.
What this means is that in our awakening phase, first, one might be loyal to a creative-courageous individual, but that loyalty should, in due course, grow into commitment to principles, where the intermediate phase, the bridge, could be a commitment to the community of like-minded/hearted people. That is, for (r)evolutionary purposes, respect for an individual, must be replaced by respect for a group of individuals. If there is no love, respect and commitment for the posse, there would be dissensions and unresolved conflicts within it. Loyalty to an individual should thus advance to commitment to the community of the like-minded/hearted and from that to commitment to the principles. Perhaps this is what the Buddhists mean when they say: "I take refuge in Buddha. I take refuge in sangha. I take refuge in Dharma".
Love for an individual or for a group is shaky. There most eventually be a commitment to principles. Then, the fractal of Nature and the Universal Love will take care to spread the principles from the infinitely small to the infinitely great. That's why, from my perspective, we are part of this exciting movement that started ~3 billion years ago on this Planet, where life has learned over billions of years the advantages of cooperative, locally rooted, self-organized enterprise, in which each individual organism is constantly balancing between individual and group interests.
I believe with each one of my ~30 trillion cells and all the spiritual energy contained in this sack of organic matter, that love and life is the quintessential symbiosis. Yes, now you know, I'm the most fervent admirer and follower of the bold organisms that inhabited this part of the Cosmos billions of years ago. And we better start showing some loyalty and respect to the courageous living beings that, in a bold (r)evolutionary move, started symbiotic relationships to evolve from prokaryotes (organisms formed by only one cell) into eukaryotes (multicellular organisms, like plants and animals).
I'm very happy to know that we all are dancing in this billion-year-long progressive consciousness party. The music still playing and I think the name of the current song is Inner and Outer (R)evolutions: The Total (R)evolution of the Human Spirit.
4. The Spark of Life
What better day to honor the daily life of art than today when, many laps around the Sun ago, mamá Harshida was born. A spark of life who met another spark of light (papá Dinesh) and created two more sparks of light (hermanos Nipun and Viral) and now we all are striving for the soul of life.
In an impromptu celebration sparked by the ONE-derful Yi-An (also know as Audrey Lin, another spark of love in our community), a touching-moving video was created, a booklet of Lessons Of Life Learned on Wednesdays with Auntie Harshida, sweets... it was a joyful encounter of many souls or as we say: a connection at the SOULlular level. Here are some snap shots of the delightful shared space/time.
May we all, one star at a time, find the way to contribute with our light and unique skills to spread love, compassion, pragmatism, courage and wisdom to form an entire galaxy of citizens of the World, the Beloved Earth Community.
On Apr 26, 2010 Pancho wrote :
Namaste, the reason why I say: "My family calls me Pancho" is because pretty much everyone calls me Pancho. After all, we are the Grand Human Family. Someone asked me to be more creative about sharing the love in the opening line, so this time I like you to know that even though some of you don't know me, I embrace every single one of you in my heart. Yes, I love you all (all of you, and the totality of you... that is feeding 2 birds with one seed ;-)).
To think outside of the box (what box? ;-)) and be a bit creative, today I'm going to share with you 4 points that came to mind/heart during the sharing circle:
1. Where is "away"?
2. The Hardest Thing
3. Creativity of Old Principles
4. The Spark of Life
1. Where is away?
When we say: "I'm going to through something away, where is away? Sister Julia Butterfly Hill shares with us (in this 5 minute video clip about Disposability Consciousness) that there is no such a thing as away. It's only called waste if we are not using it properly. If it's "waste" it is because we haven't been creative enough to find a way to use it. Julia spent more than 2 years living in the branches of an ancient redwood to bring awareness about our interconnectedness with all life. In the face of lack of imagination and destruction, she found a creative way to protest and to cling to truth!
2. The Hardest Thing
Nothing is harder than conceiving what has not yet been imagined. However, when we come to see that our life is a gift and a contribution bigger than our wildest dreams, we start to experience the miracle that we are and with this miracle, we discover the reason why we are here on this Planet at this important time in history.
3. Creativity within Old Principles
Not so long ago, I wrote this in a long inspired Charity Focus email thread:
Nonviolence and the gift-economy are as old as the hills. Both of them are principles. The way we adapt these principles to the situations prevailing around us requires courage, imagination and creativity. Sometimes we, as imperfect ever-growing human beings, confuse this creativity with the principles.
What this means is that in our awakening phase, first, one might be loyal to a creative-courageous individual, but that loyalty should, in due course, grow into commitment to principles, where the intermediate phase, the bridge, could be a commitment to the community of like-minded/hearted people. That is, for (r)evolutionary purposes, respect for an individual, must be replaced by respect for a group of individuals. If there is no love, respect and commitment for the posse, there would be dissensions and unresolved conflicts within it. Loyalty to an individual should thus advance to commitment to the community of the like-minded/hearted and from that to commitment to the principles. Perhaps this is what the Buddhists mean when they say: "I take refuge in Buddha. I take refuge in sangha. I take refuge in Dharma".
Love for an individual or for a group is shaky. There most eventually be a commitment to principles. Then, the fractal of Nature and the Universal Love will take care to spread the principles from the infinitely small to the infinitely great. That's why, from my perspective, we are part of this exciting movement that started ~3 billion years ago on this Planet, where life has learned over billions of years the advantages of cooperative, locally rooted, self-organized enterprise, in which each individual organism is constantly balancing between individual and group interests.
I believe with each one of my ~30 trillion cells and all the spiritual energy contained in this sack of organic matter, that love and life is the quintessential symbiosis. Yes, now you know, I'm the most fervent admirer and follower of the bold organisms that inhabited this part of the Cosmos billions of years ago. And we better start showing some loyalty and respect to the courageous living beings that, in a bold (r)evolutionary move, started symbiotic relationships to evolve from prokaryotes (organisms formed by only one cell) into eukaryotes (multicellular organisms, like plants and animals).
I'm very happy to know that we all are dancing in this billion-year-long progressive consciousness party. The music still playing and I think the name of the current song is Inner and Outer (R)evolutions: The Total (R)evolution of the Human Spirit.
4. The Spark of Life
What better day to honor the daily life of art than today when, many laps around the Sun ago, mamá Harshida was born. A spark of life who met another spark of light (papá Dinesh) and created two more sparks of light (hermanos Nipun and Viral) and now we all are striving for the soul of life.
In an impromptu celebration sparked by the ONE-derful Yi-An (also know as Audrey Lin, another spark of love in our community), a touching-moving video was created, a booklet of Lessons Of Life Learned on Wednesdays with Auntie Harshida, sweets... it was a joyful encounter of many souls or as we say: a connection at the SOULlular level. Here are some snap shots of the delightful shared space/time.
May we all, one star at a time, find the way to contribute with our light and unique skills to spread love, compassion, pragmatism, courage and wisdom to form an entire galaxy of citizens of the World, the Beloved Earth Community.
Pancho