Marianne's Blog

The Romantic Mysteries

The common wisdom goes like this: that the myth of "some enchanted evening," when all is awash with the thrill of connection and the aliveness of new romance, is actually a delusion... a hormonally manufactured lie. That soon enough, reality will set in and lovers will awaken from their mutual projections, discover the psychological work involved in two people trying to reach across the chasm of real life separateness, and come to terms at last with the mundane sorrows of human existence and intimate love.

In this case, the common wisdom is a lie.

From a spiritual perspective, the scenario above is upside down. From a spiritual perspective, the original high of a romantic connection is thrilling because it is true. It is in fact the opposite of delusion. For in a quick moment, a gift from the gods, we are likely to suspend our judgment of the other, not because we are temporarily insane but because we are temporarily sane. We are having what you might call a mini-enlightenment experience. Enlightenment is not unreal; enlightenment - or pure love -- is all that is real. Enlightenment is when we see not as through a glass darkly, but truly face to face.

What is unreal is what comes after the initial high, when the personality self reasserts itself and the wounds and triggers of our human ego form a veil across the face of love. The initial romantic high is not something to outgrow, so much as something to earn admittance back into - this time not as an unearned gift of Cupid's arrows, but as a consequence of the real work of the psychological and spiritual journey. The romantic relationship is a spiritual assignment, presenting an opportunity for lovers and would-be lovers to burn through our own issues and forgive the other theirs, so together we can gain reentrance to the joyful realms of our initial contact that turn out to have been real love after all.

Our problem is that most of us rarely have a psychic container strong enough to stand the amount of light that pours into us when we have truly seen, if even for a moment, the deep beauty of another. The problem we have is not that in our romantic fervor we fall into a delusion of oneness; the problem is that we then fall into the delusion of separateness. And those are the romantic mysteries -- the almost blinding light when we truly see each other, the desperate darkness of the ego's blindness, and the sacred work of choosing the light of mutual innocence when the darkness of anger, guilt and fear descend.

Marianne Williamson will delve deeply into the romantic mysteries in her February 17-19, 2012, workshop in Los Angeles called THE ENCHANTED LOVE WORKSHOP: Building the Inner Temple of the Sacred and the Romantic. Live streaming available. Go to www.marianne.com for details.

PRAYER VIGIL FOR MADISON, WISCONSIN

THIS JUST CAME IN FROM FRIENDS AT UNITY OF MADISON:

WISCONSIN CAPITOL PRAYER VIGIL
March 10, 2011

This is an effort to take a positive, spiritual, Unity approach to influencing what has been the ongoing debate and disagreement at our Capitol and throughout the state. This prayer vigil is open to anyone that is willing to take a moment or more for focused prayer or meditation.

At 7:00 am and at 7:00 pm, the vigil participants will take some time for a focused prayer or meditation. The timing could be 10 seconds or an hour, depending on your situation and desired participation.

This prayer vigil is meant to be non-partisan, we don't pray for any particular results with the politics or parties. What we do pray for in everyone and every situation is:
• Divine Order
• Peace
• Justice
• Understanding
• Compassion

Be creative and let Spirit flow through you. Some ideas for prayer and meditation:

• An affirmation, example: "I choose, in this moment, to release and replace any appearance of fear or mistrust with light and love and peace."

• The Prayer for Protection
"The Light of God surrounds us,
The Love of God enfolds us,
The Power of God protects us,
And, The Presence of God watches over us."

• Visualize the Capitol glowing in white, healing light

• Create whatever prayer or meditation you feel will help bring peace and Divine Order to everyone in Wisconsin and beyond.

We will begin this practice immediately and continue until peace is restored. Share this with any souls your think would be open and willing.

Peace & Blessings,
Barry Roberts & Sandy Strietelmeier

FEMININE 2.0

When I went to college in the1970's, the Women's Liberation movement was all the buzz. Women's "consciousness raising groups" were growing up everywhere, as women shared with each other their secrets - and anger -- that they, their mothers and their great, great grandmothers had held tight to their chests for centuries.

Feminists of the time were right about some things, but wrong about others. On one hand, there's no underestimating the explosion of formerly unavailable choices that became ours at last as a consequence of the Women's Movement. Sisterhood truly meant something then; we realized that none of us would succeed in life unless all of us were allowed to. And it became unequivocally clear that women could think as well as men, work as well as men, and deserved the opportunity to do whatever it was that we wanted to do. It's almost hard to believe that that was still somewhat of a radical proposition only forty years ago, but it was.

As with any movement, however -- whether a person's individual journey or the collective journey of a culture -- there were sometimes two steps forward and one step back. While women were powerfully liberated both externally as well as internally by the feminism of the 1970's, we made some serious mistakes as well. Looking back on it now, it's clear that in some ways we denigrated the feminine in the name of feminism. Too often we took liberation to mean simply that we were free now to behave just like men. In the name of feminism, we denied some essential aspects of our authentic selves. While feminism should have been nothing if not a celebration of our own unique characteristics, we insisted that we had no unique characteristics... that gender differences were hogwash, and a feminine woman was nothing more than a plaything for men. Calling a woman "feminine" was practically an insult! Words like nurturing and maternal weren't viewed as feminine and therefore feminist; rather, they were viewed as weak. If men could be tough as nails in the corporate boardroom, then so could we. If men could have sex and not get emotionally involved, then so could we. If men could make business their bottom line and not factor in the welfare of children in formulating social and economic policy, then so could we. Yippee. We were liberated to become their clones.

The last thing the world needed, of course, was twice as many paternalistic thinkers as there were before. But you live and you learn. In the last two or three decades, a great correction has been underway, as women of my generation have recognized the psychic scars left by our self-inflicted wounding of the feminine self. Too often, having become men, we then had a harder time with men. And having denied the importance (even the reality) of our feminine yearnings, we too often lay havoc to what is for many women a natural yearning of the heart, born of millions of years of evolution, to make a home and raise a family. Choosing to be a "traditional housewife" was seen as relatively unimportant at that time: so much less important, say, than having a real job.

I looked at my own mother -- at her passionate devotion to husband, children, home and extended family -- and I thought I could improve on that! I would go out into the world, you see -- out where the important things were happening. It took me - as I think of took millions of other women, as well - a few decades to see how very wrong I was.

In time, I came to understand that spiritual, mythical and archetypal forces are just as powerful and influential as are political, cultural and social ones. Indeed, we overemphasize either category at the expense of something precious that the other has to offer. And in a metaphysical sense - given that as Einstein said, "time and space are illusions of consciousness" - you come to realize that as far as a difference between being "out in the world" and "being at home" is concerned, there actually is no difference. The concept of "out there" or "in here" becomes pretty meaningless once you realize that everything out there is simply a reflection of one's consciousness. If anything, if we tended to the within better, there wouldn't be so many problems without: if we raised our children better and tended to our own psyches more effectively, then we wouldn't have so many political and social problems to begin with.

I ultimately realized that my mother's very traditional role was far from meaningless. I now see that is a woman's God-given role to tend to the home and take care of the children: it's just that the entire planet is our home and every child on it is one of our children. Hell yes, women need to be out in the world if that's where we feel led to be, but not at the expense of our spiritual mission. Rather, we're in the world to fulfill that mission, by proclaiming that the world is our home and that we're responsible for all of its children.

And that would change the world.

Just as we wouldn't tolerate elements to enter our home that needlessly endanger our own children, so we shouldn't tolerate elements in the world that needlessly endanger anyone's children. Homemaker and motherhood are not just material conditions that belong to a few; they are states of consciousness that belong to any woman who assumes them. Women should be the keepers of the conscience of the world. We are keepers of the internal flame - the light of humanitarian values and the primacy of love - and our greatest power lies in keeping it lit.

Corporate profits should not be our economic bottom line; the safety and welfare of this planet, our collective habitat, should be our bottom line. On this, we should insist. For we are the homemakers of the world....

Money should not be our societal bottom line; the welfare of our children should be our bottom line. On this, we should insist. For we are the mothers of the world...

Any mother, should she see something dangerous in her home, would say, "No, not in this house! No way! Not here!" And as women of the world become the strong moral force that in our collective state we are capable of being, then when dangerous elements born of unrestrained greed and aggression enter the world, it is we who should lead the cry, "No, not on this planet! No way! Not here."

A common anthropological characteristic of every advanced mammalian species that survives and thrives is the fierce behavior of the adult female of the species when she senses a threat to her cubs. From the lioness to the tigress to the mama bear, any threat to her cubs is met with the fiercest response. The adult female hyenas even encircle their cubs while they're feeding, not letting the adult males get anywhere near the food until the babies have been fed.

Surely the women of America could do better than the hyenas.

Imagine if we were to insist -- as with our collective political and financial power we could insist -that the amelioration of unnecessary human suffering become society's new bottom line. From the 17,000 children on this planet who starve to death each day to the millions who lack a basic elementary education, from the relative complacency of the industrialized nations to the brutalization of women through the world to the billion souls among us living as best they can on less than $1.25 a day, it is the sleeping giant of a conscious and awakened womanhood that can provide the only sustainable solution: putting human civilization back on the track to probable survival by giving back to it its heart.

Women worked hard, and many at great personal sacrifice, to provide for the modern Western woman the extraordinary opportunities and powers that we now enjoy. While not all our battles for equality have been won, still enough of them have been won that our focus should not be solely on getting more power, but on how to use most effectively the power that we have. We have not only the right but also the moral responsibility to speak out loudly not only for our planet and our children, and for the millions of sisters around the world who cannot speak up for themselves. Not centuries ago but weeks ago, a fourteen year old girl in Bangladesh was raped, then caned as her "punishment," and then died of her wounds. Let us speak, and act, for her.

In honor of our foremothers, for the sake of our oppressed sisters around the world, and for the love of all of our children both born and not yet born, we should wake up now... kick ass now... and change this world before it is too late. For that kind of thing is woman's work. Twas always thus, and will always be....

A DEPARTMENT OF PEACE: To Dream, Then to Act

On February 18, 2011, Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduced HR808 into the 112th Congress, calling for the establishment of a US Department of Peace. The crux of the DOP would be the establishment of an Executive level department in the US government, whose purpose would be to investigate, articulate and facilitate non-violent solutions to both domestic and international violence. It was President George Washington who first argued that in addition to a War Department we should have a Peace Department. In honor of his birthday, let's be as forward thinking in this area as he was.

Given the current make-up of the US Congress, the passage of the bill this session is somewhat unrealistic of course. But that does not matter; no true warrior for peace and justice ever let "realism" stop them. If that were the case, there would have been no abolitionist movement, suffragette movement or civil rights movement. When it comes to doing the right thing, it doesn't matter whether the status quo is with you yet. You just keep on keepin' on. We're building something in the ethers here; when the tipping point will get here, no one knows.

The idea of this bill getting out of committee this year is almost laughable, but so what? Let's not let laughter stop us -- let it propel us. Laughter is a powerful thing, as long as it's a laughter in anticipation of what you know in your heart is bound to become reality someday, rather than the cynical laughter laced with inner tears at the sight of what already is.

For two per cent of the current Dept. of Defense budget, this bill would celebrate and honor and -- most importantly -- support with actual resources the extraordinary peace-making efforts of Americans both here and abroad. It's not enough to simply fight violence with violence. We must do more than that; we must proactively create a world in which violence has no room to breathe. This is hardly some pie in the sky idea; it's an idea that would institutionalize the drive towards peace creation. Whoever wants to laugh at that can laugh. There is already enough support given to a war machine in this country; it could be argued that were we in our right minds, we would cry all day just thinking about it. So why shouldn't we create a peace machine? As John Lennon said, "Let's give peace a chance." One of the ways to do that is by giving it some political heft.

On President's Day, let's remember these words of President John F. Kennedy: "Those who make peaceful evolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable." Today, let's take a stand for peaceful evolution, despite the extraordinary material forces arrayed against it. The ways of violence and brute force have always amassed material power, but don't let that stop you. Love has cosmic support.

This President's Day, do something that you might do if you were President. Take a stand for peace. Write your Congressperson and give support to the Dept. of Peace bill. Tell him or her you'd like them co-sponsor it. Find out more about it at http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h112-808. Write an Op Ed, attend a Town Hall meeting of your Congressperson, send this information to your mailing list. Make a beautiful noise about a beautiful idea.

We won't eradicate war until we more deeply embrace peace, and that takes more than just a wish or even a prayer; it takes spine. One of the leaders of the Egyptian protest movement said something remarkable after the resignation of Hosni Mubarak. He said, "We're dreamers and we made it happen." We're dreamers too, but dreams must do more than dream. Now we must do the "make it happen" part.

What better day to do that than on President's day. And who knows? If our noise is loud and powerful and beautiful enough, even our President might hear....

THE MYSTICAL CHRIST

The Biblical line "There is only one begotten Son" is interpreted by traditional Christians to mean that Jesus was the only one, but to the metaphysical among us the line means something different. It is not an exclusive but rather an inclusive statement. "There is only one begotten Son" means that there is only one of us here.

Just as Swiss psychologist Carl Jung posited the notion of the collective unconscious -- mental imagery he called archetypes that we all share -- the spiritual notion of the Divine (or Christ) Mind takes things one step further: if you go deep enough into your mind and deep enough into mine, there is something deeper than just shared imagery. If you go deep enough into all our minds, we share the same Mind. We share one source point, or true identity, and that is love.

For that reason alone, the Golden Rule is a good idea. For if there is only one of us here, then what we do unto others, we do unto ourselves. It may seem to take time for things to show up that way: the person we do whatever we do to may or may not be the person to slap us or hug us back, but someone will. The realization that there is only one of us here is both an illumined realization and the wisest guide to behavior. For if I realize that whatever I give I give to myself, then I'm a whole lot more careful about what I give. They say karma's a bitch, but in fact it's a blessing. The point is to use it well.

We are joined as brothers because we are joined, period. This is the mystical meaning of the line "one in Christ."

IN THE LAND OF EGYPT

In a radio interview this morning I was asked if I have hope for the future... whether I think love will ultimately prevail on earth.

From a spiritual perspective, yes love will ultimately prevail. Buddha became enlightened; the Jews made it to the Promised Land; Jesus resurrected. All those are religious tales that inform us of the basic imprint of the universe. No story is over until the happy part, and if it's not happy yet then the story isn't over.

But that is only the beginning of a framework for understanding. We mustn't let the phrase,"Love will ultimately prevail," be a mere platitude that serves to justify complacency...either spiritual or political. For whether we learn to love one another through wisdom or through pain is completely up to us. How long it takes before love prevails is completely up to us. How much human suffering occurs before love prevails is completely up to us. Free will does not mean we get to determine what ultimately happens, but it does mean we get to determine what happens in the immediate future to us and to those we love.

When you have thousands of people acting out a high-emotion, high-stakes drama such as that which is occurring in Egypt today, almost anything can happen.

On the one hand, we are witnessing the purity and power of the quest for freedom. The demand for basic human rights, the repudiation of a dictator, and the protest of an economic order in which 40 per cent of one's population lives on less than 2 dollars a day - all of this is a pure, democratic rising up of the human spirit. And if America doesn't stand in support of those things, then we've completely lost our own moral center.

At the same time, this situation has gone from volatile to violent. Freedom is rising, but the forces of oppression are cracking down. Chaos overrides not only the impulse to freedom but also the impulse to basic human decency. Blood is spilling. People are dying.The situation has gone from liberating to tragic.

Right now, let's pray for a miracle.

May a great wave of sanity and peace flood the minds and hearts not only of the protestors, but also the military and police and government. The phrase "may cooler heads prevail" comes to mind. May men and women of honor and good will within every corner of Egyptian society be listened to, and their words and ideas heeded. May thousands of small miracles that you and I will never ever know about quiet down a conversation over here, cause a peaceful solution to emerge in a neighborhood over there. May a general sense of peace and good will - something we'd seen almost miraculously on display at the beginning of the protests -- return to the streets of Egypt.

Try closing your eyes and see, with your mind's eye, legions of angels roaming through the streets of Cairo. Do this as frequently as you can throughout the day. It is no idle fantasy. This is the exercise of spiritual power, and in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., such power is "more powerful than bullets." Even when we are materially passive, he said, we can still be "spiritually active."

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle means that as the observer changes, there is a change in that which is observed. Worldly news anchors report the news: miracle- workers help change the news by the nature of their thoughts. And the greatest medium of miracles is prayer. So today, let's pray for Egypt.

Dear God, please pave a miraculous path for the people of Egypt, to peace and freedom and joy unending. Bless their hearts. Guide their minds. Illumine this moment. May love prevail. Amen.

Musings

If I've learned anything -- and these days I feel more aware of what I have not yet learned than of what I have -- it's that my life in any given moment is exactly what I make it. If I have a positive attitude, then there is positivity in my life; if I have a negative attitude, there is negativity in my life. If I take care of my body through proper diet and exercise, I'm more likely to be happy than if I do not. If I meditate and keep my spiritual practice constantly in mind, I'm more likely to be happy than if I do not. If I forgive, I'm more likely to be happy than if I do not. I realize not only intellectually but viscerally that the purpose of our lives is to learn to be happy, and I understand my own responsibility to do and think and say the things that make happiness more probable.

Sometimes I look at the world around me and despair, as I suppose most everyone does, at the current spate of humanity's trials and tribulations. But I see enchantment and miracles and and love all around me too, and I know that they are God's consistent response to the mess humanity can make of things. How tragic the suffering a wrong-minded view of the world creates, and how merciful that the universe keeps throwing us new opportunities to do things differently. I know that beyond this world is a realm of greater possibility, and the veil that separates us from there is so much thinner than we think.

Every time we see beyond the veil, we become veil-lifters for others as well. Our criticism, blame, judgment and such only thicken the veil, while forgiveness and mercy and compassion dissolve it. It really is so simple, yet sometimes so difficult. And yet it is the choice we make, every moment of every day.

AN EXTREMIST FOR LOVE

MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY: THEN AND NOW

Turning Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday into a national holiday is one of the things that America got right. It's a day set apart from all others, when all generations will pause to think about a great man, his legacy and what it should mean to us.

So far that sounds great, and to a large extent it's what's happened. But I've been around for all of the MLK birthday celebrations so far, and the yearly "celebration of his life" is starting to look in ways like a Disneyized version of both the man and his legacy. The last thing we need today is a romanticized version of Martin Luther King, Jr., much less an idealized version of the struggle that he stood for.

In l945, when Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower toured the former German concentration camp at Ohrdruf, , he famously said to an aide, "Take pictures. Take lots of pictures. Some day some sons of bitches are going to try to say this never happened."

I haven't heard anyone say that the Civil Rights movement never happened, but the national memory is turning pretty soft. Despite the successful efforts of the Texas School Board to foist upon all American schoolchildren the audacious rewrite of history that gives short shrift to the Civil Rights movement -- and the shameless willingness of textbook publishers to go along with that - the facts do remain the facts. The Civil Rights movement was and remains one of the most significant social justice movements in the history of the Unites States. And despite the almost odd emphasis on "community service" which has come to mark this day- as in, you know, help the homeless, feed the poor, be "non-violent" -- Martin Luther King, Jr. stood for a love that was more significant and more difficult, involving a lot more suffering than just being a good citizen for a day. If all Martin Luther King Jr. had stood for was community service - if his message to black America had been simply to ameliorate the suffering in its midst through compassionate one-on-one action -- then he would probably not have died how or when he did. Let's be clear about that, and not hand down to our children some whitewashed version of the man and his mission. Martin Luther King was far more courageous and more dangerous to the status quo than is reflected in this contemporary caricature.

He challenged the United States to allocate its vast and gargantuan resources in a more fair, just and compassionate way; and for that, he died. He challenged, at the end of his life, the increasing American militarism that sent young men to die for old men's mistakes; and for that, he died. He demanded that the United States make good on its creed of liberty and justice for all, not just in word but in deed; and for that he died. We do not serve his legacy, and we do not serve our children, by portraying either the life or the struggle or the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. as simply the story of a peaceful man who sought to establish "the beloved community" and then, for some mysterious reason that shall remain shrouded in obfuscation, was shot on a motel balcony and died.

No, kids, if you believe that, then you're not asking enough questions. Yes, it's our job to keep his dream of the beloved community alive, but it's also our job to be as critically intelligent as he was regarding the entrenched resistance to the materialization of that dream.

A Protestant theologian in the 20th Century wrote a commentary on the story of the Good Samaritan as he made his journey from what we might call "good" Samaritan to "conscious" Samaritan. The first time the Samaritan saw a beggar on the road, he stopped to give him alms. The second time he saw a beggar on the road, he stopped to give him alms. The third time he saw a beggar on the road, he stopped to give him alms. About the fourth time he saw the beggar on the road, he stopped to ask himself, "Why are there so many beggars?" Martin Luther King would not just ask us to help those who suffer; he would ask us to challenge the institutional forces that make all that suffering inevitable.

On King's birthday this year, a good doctor in Oakland received a Martin Luther King, Jr. Hero's award for treating children with asthma in a low-income community. It struck me, as I watched the award ceremony, that in order to truly honor the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., we need do more than honor the good doctor who treats asthma: we need to ask ourselves, and demand of our government, what environmental standards have been so compromised, and to whose financial benefit, that so many children in American today, particularly in our most disadvantaged communities, have asthma to begin with.

In order to truly keep Dr. King's dream of the beloved community alive, we must dream our own contemporary version of it. We can dream of an America that is not willing to protect the privileges of the few at the expense of the needs of the many; we can dream of an America in which our citizens are not so easily manipulated to equate the size of our military budget with the safety of our future; we can dream of an America, and a world, in which love and not money are civilization's bottom line.

MLK's love was not a complacent love, any more than his political activism was cynical or angry. When confronted with the accusation that he was an extremist, Dr. King made this reply, "Perhaps I am, but I'm an extremist for love." Did you hear that kids? Be extremists....for love. Do not be tricked into thinking that the struggle for the beloved community is easy, unchallenged, or over. It is none of those things. Just as in the days of Dr. King, the struggle for justice is often difficult, it attracts the ire of the prevailing system, and it is far from over. On this one day each year, when we think of Dr. Martin Luther King -- what he gave us, and what we lost -- in order to honor him most deeply, we will do more than community service. We will remember that our service must not stop there. We will try, as he did, to truly step up to the plate. And like him, we will change the world.

WORDS HAVE POWER

According to "A Course in Miracles," all minds are joined. While it appears to the physical eye that I am here and you are over there, on the level of mind there is no place where you stop and I start. We are all affected by everyone else's thoughts, just as a butterfly flapping its wings near the South Pole affects the wind currents at the North Pole. When any wave moves, the entire ocean shifts.

So it's basically irrelevant whether Jared Loughner specifically related to the hate speech around him in some linear, causal way. Thoughts can go viral, as we have seen throughout history when group pathologies overcame the better angels of a people (Hitler's Germany was an example). And as it is written in The Course, "all thought creates form on some level." If enough hate-thought and hate-speech is present, it's almost inevitable that some hate-filled manifestation will emerge somewhere within that field of consciousness. Jared Loughner was swimming in the thought-forms and images of hate, as almost all of us are these days. And to an obviously deranged mind, violent thought forms are like gasoline to an already smoldering fire.

I heard a not-yet-declared 2012 Presidential candidate on television, refusing to condemn the use of gun imagery in political dialogue. "After all," he said, "we have free speech." Darn right, Sir. And something else we should have is a dose of healthy shame. Maybe it shouldn't be illegal to talk about one's political opponents as though they're enemy combatants. But it should be unthinkable.

Hopefully after the events in Tucson, things will quiet down and our political dialogue will become more civilized and respectful. One can only hope. We had two days of a sober, silent and tender collective heartbeat, and even in its sadness it was inspiring. The Tucson memorial had some stunning moments. As it was after 9/11, Americans got quiet for a moment of group sanity....we felt the authenticity of our humanness...we actually remembered we were a nation. But it didn't last then, and we will see whether it lasts now.

In Alcoholics Anonymous, it is often said that "every problem comes bearing its own solution." Tragedy takes us to the very state of consciousness which, were we to hold to it, would go far toward preventing further tragedies. Whether pundits, politicians and media personalities choose to use this tragedy to grow spiritually, to increase their compassion, to commit more deeply to love, is under no one's control but their own. But each of us can decide for ourselves what we will personally do with this latest national tragedy. We can remember that just as hate thought and hate speech do indeed affect the entire world, so do loving thought and loving speech. The only thing greater than a forcefield of hate is a forcefield of love. And each and every one of us -- with the thoughts we think, the words we use and the things we do -- contribute, or fail to contribute, to the field of consciousness that will save us all.

1/8/11: A Night of Tragedy and Transformation

"Bullets can't stop love," said Arizona official Steve Farley today, claiming that Arizona will be better for having gone through the trauma and tragedy of this day.

America is looking deeply at itself right now, and we have desperately needed to do that. Vigils are being held all over the state of Arizona, and on invisible planes we know that miracles are happening because of it. Hearts are softening; sanity is returning. People are remembering that all of us are human, and all of us are infinitely valuable. A deranged young man merely reflected the insanity of our current political discourse, and as the saying goes, "every problem comes bearing its own solution." It has taken a tragedy like this to make us all take a deep breath.

All of us are praying for Congresswoman Giffords and the others who were shot today. But let's put feet to our prayers, as well. Wherever we are and whoever we are, we can participate in de-escalating the violence of our society by de-escalating the violence in our hearts. Whoever we haven't forgiven, tonight let's simply do it. Whoever we're thinking about with anger, tonight is the night to let it go. And to whatever extent we haven't been a powerful voice for love in our own lives, let's commit tonight to stepping up our game. Life is a serious business, and to whatever extent we haven't been playing it seriously, let tonight be the night when we awaken from our stupor and decide to be a player in the healing of our world.

Among other things, let's look deeply at how easy it is for deranged people to get guns not only in Arizona, but in other places in our country as well. If you feel this isn't right -- that it isn't safe for us or for our children -- then know the only way we will override the resistance of the National Rifle Association is if we ourselves get involved in the effort. THe NRA is right that guns don't kill people -- that people do. But with so many unstable people out there, there is no rational reason for us to make it so easy for them.

May those who died in today's massacre rest in peace. They have done what they came to do this lifetime, and it is time for them to sleep.

But for the rest of us, it is time to wake up. To pray yes, but also to act. To think deeply, but also to speak powerfully. To feel concern, but also to act with courage. God's blessing doesn't just mean that He does something for us; it also means that He does something through us. And now is the time to let Him. God bless Arizona, God bless America and God bless us all.

Preparing for the New Year

December 30, 2010

One more year is almost past. The year ahead lies before us like a newborn child, fresh with possibilities, its history not yet written. And as with a child we must be very careful, for its future will reflect either our wisdom or our lack thereof.

Spiritually, every moment is a new beginning. We enter into it with either an open heart or an unloving attitude, voting with our consciousness from a slate of infinite possibilities. Standing on the brink of a new year, let's feel the joy but also the sacred solemnity of our extraordinary power to design the future.

New Year's prayers carry more miraculous power than do New Year's resolutions. Forgiving ourselves and others for the casual unkindness of an unconscious moment; for time wasted in self-pity that could have been used to create something true and beautiful; for lack of gratitude for blessings and privileges. Dedicating ourselves to the purification of our hearts... seeking to stop the chronic indulgence of our weaknesses, and the power to embody our God-given strengths.

Lists can be helpful:

I ask forgiveness for....
I grant forgiveness for....
For I would carry none of that burden on my heart into the new year...

And another one:

I pray that this or that aspect of my personality be healed, transmuted, miraculously dissolved as I enter the new year...
I pray to embody the perfection of my divine potential, as a blessing on myself and others...

This is the moment of the year when we inhabit inwardly both sunset and sunrise. God created them both, but we ourselves decide how to paint them. Next year will bring whatever next year brings, but what we bring TO it will make all the difference. And the greatest thing we can bring to it is our love.

"Freedom," by Jonathan Franzen

Often I've thought that the times in which we live cry out for a Dostoyevsky or some such, a novelistic genius of the ages who could describe our generation and explain us to ourselves in a way that only fiction can do.

I've just finished reading Jonathan Franzen's new novel, FREEDOM, and I think he is exactly that. This is hardly some unique observation, as I'm one of innumerable readers and scores of reviewers who have pronounced the book astonishing.

I told my twenty-year daughter that I stayed awake until 6AM this morning finishing the book, unable to put it down. "Wow," she said. "If it's that good, I'll have to read it!" I told her that I thought she would like it -- but that if she waits thirty years, it will absolutely slay her. It is a book about the layers of accumulated experience that make up a modern lifespan -- including the tragedies that emerge from the maelstrom of our contemporary illusions -- and then, at last, what happens when forgiveness and mercy get the final say.

Like any great work of art, the book expands you on the inside by illuminating what's outside. "Bravo" doesn't even begin to cover it. Thank you, Jonathan Franzen. What a blessing you are to the world.

Christmas and A Course in Miracles

It's Christmas Eve Day, and millions of people all over the world are pondering the meaning of the birth of Christ. For many, the birth of the historical Jesus is the main point of the story. For others, Christmas carries a meaning far beyond one man born two thousand years ago. Christmas in the deepest sense is the celebration of his birth inside us all.

He was a man yes, but also more than that. He is but one name for our shared identity, our oneness not only with each other but with God Himself. The Christ within Jesus was the Light that exists within us all; the difference between him and us, according to A Course in Miracles, is that he has fully actualized the potential that exists inside each one of us.

He is Internal Teacher, Transformer of Perception, Comforter, Elder Brother and Friend. Does Jesus save? Actually, he does. For the only thing to be saved from in this world is our own insanity. Every problem in the world is a result of our NOT having actualized our spiritual potential; he, as our Elder Brother, has been assigned the task of helping move us forward into the light of our own true being.

Some people today have difficulty with the word "Jesus;" it is acknowledged in the Course itself that "some bitter idols have been made of him who came only to be brother to the world." Yet Jesus was his name. Perhaps the name is less to be avoided and more to be reclaimed -- for the extraordinary light it carries and the profound wisdom it conveys. In ACIM, it says that the word "Jesus" spoken in any language automatically reminds the mind of our oneness with God.

If he's born anywhere, he is born in us. When we are angry, we can give birth to our gentleness. When we are sorrowful, we can give birth to joy. When we are at war, we can birth to peace. Jesus represents our highest hopes, for ourselves and for the world, because he represents who we were created to be, who we can be, and who in some miraculous way, we shall be. More than that, he can help us get there.

He is not the name on the door for everyone, but if his name is on your door, you know it. And for those who have seen his name on the door of their own hearts, Christmas is a wondrous phenomenon indeed. On this day, by celebrating him, we are celebrating the extraordinary possibility and ultimate certitude that we ourselves will see the light, we will embrace the light, and ultimately we will become the light.

And all will be well.

Merry Christmas, and love to all the world...

How Things Happen in DC: Water for the World

Yesterday I was asked by Congressman John Conyers to submit a written statement for the Congressional Committee discussing the Water for the World Act:

"Thank you for this opportunity to add my support for the Water for the World Act.

My support stems from both my role as a mother and my role as a citizen.

I can no longer care only about the well-being of my own child; in order to truly care for the long term well-being of my own child, I must concern myself with the well-being of children everywhere. The world has become a very small place, and we are awakening to the philosophical truth that the destinies of all mankind are interconnected. A million children dying unnecessarily every year from water-borne illnesses is morally, as well as socially and politically, unacceptable.

As a citizen, I am concerned that the United States is always playing catch up, having to deal with terrible problems on the back-end that could have been prevented or at least ameliorated dramatically had they been dealt with earlier. Large groups of desperate people are a national security risk, as their desperation makes them far more vulnerable to ideological capture by those who truly wish us ill. A child who is befriended by us today is less likely to be a child who sees us as his or her enemy tomorrow. I strongly support any domestic or international legislation that deals with our problems on a causal level, and the Water for the World Act is a prime example. There are enough predictions of wars being fought over clean water in the decades ahead to make any serious and conscious citizen deeply committed to dealing with this problem now."

Despite the efforts of Rep. Conyers and a number of organizations this legislation will apparently not be taken up by the House this session.

Despite unanimous passage in the Senate, the bill encountered resistance from both Democrats and Republicans on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Republicans in particular expressed concern with the potential cost of the bill. There was apparently an attempt to negotiate a compromise that would have lowered the number of target beneficiaries in the bill, but that did not work out, and would have required the Senate to approve a new negotiated version of the bill.

This bill would only have been passed by the House on the suspension calendar, which is a special expedited voting procedure that requires a 2/3 majority - so it would need strong support from both Democrats and Republicans that did not materialize.

So there you have it. Sad, but illuminating.

Marianne

Spirituality and Politics

It's been a fascinating last few days, as I stayed close to my computer and posted news reports and action alerts on my facebook page about three issues that I'd think would touch anyone's heart: a bill in Congress to provide medical coverage for our 9/11 First Responders; another one that would help put an end to the forced marriage of children around the world; and still another to help provide clean drinking water to the billion people around the world who do not currently have it, resulting in the deaths of a million and a half children each year from water-borne illnesses.

Well you'd think I'd become an avowed Communist, given some of the reactions! The good news is that the majority of posts were positive and supportive of these humanitarian efforts. But it still astounds me that some people think that anything "political" is therefore "unspiritual," or that a spiritual teacher should not weigh in on political issues. I agree with Dwight Eisenhower's statement that "politics should be the part-time profession of every American." Check out my facebook postings to see what I'm talking about. It's all quite interesting, at least to me.