Dear Paul- Thank you this inspiration to "remember." Very powerful & very appreciated, Joy Keller-Weidman Holon Consulting (707) 839-4710
> From: Paul Roberts <[email protected]> > Reply-To: OSLIST <[email protected]> > Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 10:08:01 -0600 > To: [email protected] > Subject: What can we do to help us all learn and move on? > > Excerpts from Meg's post: > > ...Enron, Arthur Andersen, Nortel, Royal Bank of Canada being sued by > Robobank of Holland... and now Worldcom. Is there a pattern here? > > really thinking that we/ they could get away with it... > > And what about "us"... > > Greed and attachment may be human failings, but enough is enough already! > > SO, I wonder if we're at a turning point here? > > What can we do to help us all learn and move on, to help the spiral turn... > in healthy fashion? > > I would really appreciate any other ideas, what other folks are doing, your > thoughts on the matter. > > ...with a frown and a smile! > > ===================================================================== > > The first 20 years of my life created a pattern of judgement for for me > that I have spent the next 30 years learning to unlearn. > > As I have continued to zig and zag on the path, I have become more aware of > my own tendencies towards judgement...transferred from my family system to > my various adult social systems...especially those relating to the work > world. > > For me, finding my essential stance remains my first priority, even more so > when there is a "falling apart". It is, at the same time, both the > simplest and the hardest thing for me to do. > > When I find my way back to that place, I find answers come to the questions > Meg poses here...questions I have posed many times myself. In that place, > my thoughts and actions align, and my interactions with the larger systems > in which I live become clarified...again...and again...and again. > > Particularly in times of piercing the veil entirely, when the entire shelf > of ego-self has dropped away, even for short periods of time, my > perceptions have radically altered: difference has been replaced by "no > difference", judgement by radical acceptance, conditional love by > unconditional love. Those moments have provided me the ability to begin > again: to find, to understand, to articulate, and to move from what I am > calling here "essential stance". > > Words have been powerful tools of remembrance for me. Here are two poems, > one ancient, one modern, that speak to me about a certain kind of radical > acceptance that help me remember, so I can "go home" spiritually, > cognitively and emotionally. Here, and only here, is the open space I need > to think and act clearly in times of crisis. > > Best, > Paul Roberts > > > Tao Te Ching #28 (Lao Tzu tr. Mitchell) > > Know the male, > yet keep to the female: > receive the world in your arms. > > If you receive the world, > the Tao will never leave you > and you will be like a little child. > > Know the white, > yet keep to the black: > be a pattern for the world. > > If you are a pattern for the world, > the Tao will be strong inside you > and there will be nothing you can't do. > > Know the personal, > yet keep to the impersonal: > accept the world as it is. > > If you accept the world, > the Tao will be luminous inside you > and you will return to your primal self. > > The world is formed from the void, > like utensils from a block of wood. > > The Master knows the utensils, > yet keeps to the the block: > thus she can use all things. > > > > > Please Call Me by My True Names > Thich Nhat Hanh > > Don't say that I will depart tomorrow--even today I am still arriving. > > Look deeply: > every second I am arriving to be a bud on a Spring branch, > to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings, > learning to sing in my new nest, > to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower, > to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone. > > I still arrive, > in order to laugh and to cry, > to fear and to hope. > The rhythm of my heart > is the birth and death of all that is alive. > > I am a mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river. > And I am the bird that swoops down to swallow the mayfly. > > I am a frog swimming happily in the clear water of a pond. > And I am the grass-snake that silently feeds itself on the frog. > > I am the child in Uganda, > all skin and bones, > my legs as thin as bamboo sticks. > > And I am the arms merchant, > selling deadly weapons to Uganda. > > I am the twelve-year-old girl, > refugee on a small boat, > who throws herself into the ocean > after being raped by a sea pirate. > > And I am the pirate, > my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving. > > I am a member of the politburo, > with plenty of power in my hands. > And I am the man who has to pay his "debt of blood" to my people > dying slowly in a forced-labor camp. > > My joy is like Spring, > so warm it makes flowers bloom all over the Earth. > > My pain is like a river of tears, > so vast it fills the four oceans. > > Please call me by my true names, > so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once, > so I can see that my joy and pain are one. > > Please call me by my true names, > so I can wake up and the door of my heart could be left open, > the door of compassion. > > * > * > ========================================================== > [email protected] > ------------------------------ > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, > view the archives of [email protected], > Visit: > > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
