Healing Our Relationship with the Earth

When I read about the current administration’s lack of any strategies to protect against global warming, I am reminded of the movie The Matrix. In the movie, people are kept alive in pods by some global corporate conspirators. The people in the pods are dreaming their lives - i.e., jobs, families, towns, cities, are all a dream. Before I saw the movie, I had been told it had deep metaphysical significance, but failed to see beyond the revolutionary visual effects that the movie was most noted for.
But then a vision came to me that human beings, or at least human beings living in the U.S. are very much like the people in the pods. We’re asleep to the fact that our lives are being run by corporate interests.
There was an episode of Friends where one of the characters, Joey, reads the wedding ceremony he had written for his friends’ Monica and Chandler’s wedding as part of his ministerial duties. He talks about how Monica and Chandler “share and care and give and receive,” repeating the words over and over. Spiritual values are about sharing and caring and giving and receiving repeated over and over.
Our society does not foster spiritual values, although it pays lip service to them. If we really concerned ourselves with sharing, caring, giving and receiving, then George Bush and his administration could never get away with passing off an energy policy that actually allows for the increase of greenhouse gas emissions, but is cloaked in language that sounds as if greenhouse gases would be reduced.
I see Americans driving around in SUV’s with American flags sticking up from the windows, asleep to the fact that their SUV’s are part of the greenhouse gas problem. SUV’s are part of the bigger problem that Americans are asleep to. The bigger problem is the fact that their consumption patterns are the cause of global warming and other environmental problems that they face.
We fill the earth with toxic chemicals that pollute our ground water, but then buy bottled water. We spew toxic emissions into the air widening the hole in the ozone, but then slather ourselves with SPF 50. A miraculous life is a conscious life and a conscious life is about seeing the cause and effect relationship between our actions and their consequences. In the dream sleep we’re living, we are blind to consequences. If we’re honest with ourselves, we can see the consequence of our current energy and consumption policies. Our beaches are disappearing. If you’ve ever seen the coast from the air, there’s just this thin little strip of sand separating the ocean from the towering high rises that continue to be built.
I believe we’re at a choice point. Can we wake up? Can we demand that our legislatures support alternatives to our oil based economy? They exist. A search on the web for “alternative energy” sites brings up pages and pages of links. Can we actually apply the spiritual values of “sharing and caring and having and giving,” articulated by Joey in his impassioned description of his friends’ relationship? It’s those values, coupled with waking up to the consequences of our actions that will provide a sustainable future for everyone on this planet. The good news is that some people are waking up. Some states, like California, and some countries, like England, are joining forces to institute earth-saving measures.
The real healing comes when we realize that we’re not separate from any living thing. What we think, say and do impact the whole. Love begets love. Indifference begets indifference. Ignorance begets ignorance. The kind of world we want to see really is the kind of world we get.

Staying Sane in an Insane World

I was raised with the dictum, “You shouldn’t be too happy!” The phrase wasn’t overtly stated, but my family had a generalized angst that I internalized at an early age. Worry was my family’s response mode to any crisis, and even when there wasn’t a crisis, well, there were still the everyday worries to worry about.
My mother suffered from manic-depressive illness. Her way of coping with major transitions – good or bad – was to become psychotic. The first episode that I was aware of occurred when I was five, but according to what a cousin told me recently, my mother showed signs of manic behavior soon after I was born. My cousin told me that she wanted to adopt me.
Had she adopted me, I would have missed out on an opportunity to learn about mental illness and insanity. I would have missed out on learning about the freedom that comes from love and forgiveness and seeing another as yourself.
The main lessons life offers us over and over is to question our sanity, if we were honest with ourselves. Who doesn’t struggle with staying sane in this insane world we live in? Who’s not neurotic here? Who’s not living in fear on a daily basis? There are those who achieve enlightenment without being neurotic. I’m not one of them.
This essay isn’t about what my mother did to me. As one of my teacher’s, Marianne Williamson has often repeated, “God says to us I want to give you a wonderful life, but your mother was such a bitch, my hands are tied.”
This essay is about the lessons of living a spiritual life. A spiritual life is nothing more than having a worldview that allows for (a) going inside to find the resources we need to cope with whatever life hands us; and (b)having that inner awareness become the touchstone or modus operandi of daily living.
I’ll always be grateful to my husband, Larry, for teaching me that life is much too important to be taken seriously. A neurotic, which I readily admit I am, takes herself very seriously. That’s because she has forgotten who she is. The only problem I or anyone in this world has is an identity problem. There was a song I remember hearing called Remembering and Forgetting. When I’ve identified with my ego self as Sorah and that’s all I am, then I’m in a state of neurosis. Neurosis is separation from self. This state has to breed fear, because as an ego or an “I, I’m vulnerable to all the other “I’s” in the world. When I remember – no, more than remember – when I feel my connection to certainty or when I’m grounded in it — then I am remembering who I am. And when I remember, I’m at peace.
Problems or chaos or turmoil or trauma force us to reach inside and to and find that wisdom, strength, peace, inspiration, intuition, still small voice or whatever you want to call it, that when heeded, leads us step by step to growth.
A spiritual path is not for the queasy. The process is one of uncovering the light or love or wisdom that resides within each of our soul’s. To uncover light, first one needs to look at the covering. That’s what life’s lessons are about. We get to look at ourselves and see what we’re made of. Some of us think that who we are is the covering. The covering is what we’ve come to identify as “I.” The covering is made up of all the roles we play, our belief systems, and the sum total of all our past experiences. The spiritual life means taking responsibility for our lives totally and completely. It requires that we look at each one of the pieces of the covering because any ideas about who we are and what we need to do are limiting. To grow spirituality means allowing these ideas to be dispelled. Once I let go of the identity I made, then I can remember that we are all one. Then we are free to follow our hearts. Following your heart doesn’t mean that you dwell in bliss forever. My experience taught me that sometimes when I followed my heart, I found bliss, but then sometimes that bliss was short lived. Or sometimes when I followed my heart, things fell apart. Mostly following my heart lead me to bigger challenges, people, events, situations that tested my mettle and made me go even deeper inside to marshal the resources I needed to rise to the occasion. I've found that when I follow my heart, there is no road map. It's like Stephen Levine once said to me, "I Braille my way through life." That's what the path with the heart is. It's a feeling journey – a -- a sensing journey. The path with the heart leads us to the depths of ourselves. The path with a heart leads to the home within our hearts we never left. Following a path with a heart means trusting yourself. It’s the only way to stay sane in an insane world.
Reflection
In order to enjoy your spiritual peace, you have to give it away. For example, this morning I was nuts – really, really angry at someone. I was so angry, I called a friend to vent, which didn’t really get rid of the anger; it just validated my right to be angry. I prayed for help to release my anger. I had an appointment to work on a grant. The time spent with my co-worker was really enjoyable. We got into creative sync that was satisfying to both of us. The grant had to do with getting funds to create a spiritual center. My co-worker began asking me questions about what it means to lead a spiritual life. There was my opportunity to get sane again by teaching what I had to learn. I had to be peaceful in order to teach peace. If you give away money or objects, you have less. If you give peace to another person, you have more of it.
Peace is like a river. When you give a cup of peace to another, you find that you haven’t given up anything. The Source of Peace is eternal; the more you give away, the more flows into your heart.
Share your peace today with a person, a flower, a plant or a pet. Experience the fullness that comes after you have given. At the end of the day, take time to mentally note of what your day was like. Enjoy.

Seeing another as yourself is the key to healing relationships. Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati said that in some Native American tribes there is no word for I; they only have words for we. I believe in win/win outcomes. But to have a win/win outcome, means that we need to focus on what we really, really want. A Course in Miracles says that what we really, really want is peace. It also says that when peace is all you want, that's what you'll see.

Non-attachment means relinquishing attachments to tangibles. Everything tangible in this world will one day disappear. It's the intangibles, love, peace, forgiveness, compassion, mercy that have lasting effects. We carry them with us from life time to life time.

Be kind to each other. That's the only thing that's important.

Seeing another as yourself is the key to healing relationships. Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati said that in some Native American tribes there is no word for I; they only have words for we. I believe in win/win outcomes. But to have a win/win outcome, means that we need to focus on what we really, really want. A Course in Miracles says that what we really, really want is peace. It also says that when peace is all you want, that's what you'll see.

Non-attachment means relinquishing attachments to tangibles. Everything tangible in this world will one day disappear. It's the intangibles, love, peace, forgiveness, compassion, mercy that have lasting effects. We carry them with us from life time to life time.

Be kind to each other. That's the only thing that's important.

The holiest place on earth

According to A Course in Miracles, “the holiest of all the spots on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a present love” (T26.IX.6). By that definition, the Holy Land is not very holy, since ancient hatreds prevail regardless of the rightness or wrongness of the reasons. And, by ACIM’s definition, a holy war is impossible. Holiness is love. War is hate.

Many of the readers of this newsletter are spiritual seekers, and like me, are trying to incorporate an authentic sense of spirit into their lives. I’ve received email messages recently from Deepak Chopra and Marianne Williamson, whose insights into spirituality have influenced millions and millions of people. Marianne urges us to pray and ask to see beyond differences; Deepak urges us to establish a presence of peace where we are.

My latest column on http://www.religionandspirituality.com/ is titled “Making love to the Beloved” (http://www.religionandspirituality.com/view.php?StoryID=20060730-113126-5109r. While its focus is on seeing your spouse as the Beloved, or the embodiment of God on earth, I often wonder what the world would be like if everyone would see everyone else as the Beloved. In truth, that’s what we all are. Mother Theresa knew that. Mother Theresa is said to have looked at sick and dying children knowing that they are “Christ in disguise.” Christ is another name for God’s Creation, which is all of us. It’s a shared Self, and is only known through sharing. One of the songs that’s sung at Shabbos services, L’Cha Dodi, translates to “I am my Beloved and my Beloved is me.”

Steve Bhaerman, a/k/a Swami Beyondananda (http://wakeuplaughing.com/news.html), in his latest Notes from the Trail, cites cell Biologist’s Bruce Lipton’s work about how fear makes people stupid. When people are in “fight or flight” mode, blood leaves the frontal lobe, the seat of higher intellectual functioning, and goes to the reptile brain, which is the seat of instinctual reactions. This makes sense for enhancing short-term survival reactions, but in the long run, it makes for irrational thinking.

Sending love and prayers to the Middle East so sanity can return may have an effect. I honestly don’t know. It doesn’t seem that prayer has worked yet. But remembering our spiritual connectedness right here and right now does work. It also means that wherever we stand is Holy Ground. To stay focused on love, without denying fear, takes tremendous discipline, and yet it’s the only way to thrive during adversity. And I breathe in love and breathe out compassion and pray that all my hatred be converted to mercy and forgiveness.
Namaste,

Sorah Datri (my new Hindu name, as bestowed on me by my guru, Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati).