The rest of my spiritual newsletter contains:Short QuotesThe Chief Objectives of the Theosophical Society as Outlined in the Mahatma Letters, Canadian TheosophistTwo wolves
Read more…
(If you have any problems viewing, please simply clickthe link below to view this week's journal entry on my website blog.)http://www.sacredpassages.com/blog/
"The world is full of movementBathing us in change"~John MillarEach day I am given the opportunity to genuinely embrace whatever I'm experiencing in life, which is an easy affair if I am experiencing something pleasurable. However, our interior world, like the natural world, has its own seasons and "weather patterns," if you will, including periods of contraction, darkness and pain.Consistently over the years I've discovered tremendous wisdom in Thomas Moore's well known book, Care of the Soul, which includes a chapter entitled, "The Gifts of Depression." When I first read these words over 10 years ago, I must confess I was confused — as the words "gifts" and "depression" clearly did not belong in the same sentence. They didn't have anything to do with each other, or so I thought at the time. His orientation was foreign to me, as my approach to myself at that time of life had been one of resisting pain or whenever I was going through what might be called a "darker" experience in my life.But Moore introduced me to the power of loving acceptance, of adopting a healing attitude towards those all-too-human experiences pain and disturbance inside...."Because of its painful emptiness, it is often tempting to look for a way out of depression. But entering into its mood and thoughts can be deeply satisfying. Depression is sometimes described as a condition in which there are no ideas — nothing to hang on to. But maybe we have to broaden our vision and see that feelings of emptiness, the loss of familiar understandings and structures in life, and the vanishing of enthusiasm, even though they seem negative, are elements that can be appropriated and used to give life fresh imagination."~ Thomas MooreA central focus in my day-to-day counseling practice is assisting people to access their heartfelt compassion as they traverse through painful passages in their lives. Like the clouds of low fog moving into the green valleys and up the spine of mountains in the gorgeous photo above, I consistently find we are well-served whenever we allow, witness, and embrace the darker seasons of our life. Speaking metaphorically, the mountain is truly being blessed by the fog — just as we are being given an opportunity to deepen whenever we are walking through challenging periods in our lives.Tenderness is often my most valued presence in this process of embracing myself right where I am. Whether these "foggy visitations" last minutes or hours or days or weeks or months — I find that always have much wisdom to reveal to me, are often a prelude to a new flow of creative expansion, and like a storm front they rain upon me and then move along their way in their own natural timing. Just like the natural cycles of nature, a season of winter in our lives is, in part, preparing us for the coming of spring.One of my most powerful mentors, Abraham Lincoln, gave himself tremendous permission to experience his own vulnerability and suffering throughout his life. His intimate relationship with his own melancholy deepened his connection with his humanity, and contributed to his extraordinarily wise leadership of our country through its darkest hours.I find great comfort and strength from these words about the alchemical process of discovering meaning from pain:THROUGH DARK EMOTIONSby Miriam GreenspanPain invites us to change our lives and ourselves,to transform the way we look at the world.Though we may want to push outof our discomfort zone immediately,despair asks us to slow down, take our time, be still.Sometimes it compels us to stop everythingin order to painstakingly remap our world.It is through surrender to the unwantedthat we embrace our vulnerability.Our helplessness teaches us humility.When we are humbled by pain, we seeour smallness in the vastness of the cosmos.The ego gives up its hold on reality,its paltry attempts to control and to dictateits terms. It lets go of its agenda.Its grandiosity thus diminished,there is an opening, and a larger vision can emerge.Amazingly, this letting go,which is a kind of death,is also one of the great joys of life —an effort that is the end of all effort.When we unfurl the gnarled fist of control,letting the hand open up to receive and to give,our smallness — once the source of our agony —becomes a source of comfort.Whether we listen to them or not,the dark emotions will emerge.Once way or another,they exert their call through the body —as an act of grace or an act violence,a cancerous growth or a surge of creative energy.Dark emotions don't go away.They simply come to us inwhatever form we can bear.When we master the art of stayingfully awake in their presence,they move us through suffering.We discover that the darknesshas its own light.With Love and a faith-filled embrace of right where you are just now,GavinSoul-Centered Counseling & Workshopswww.sacredpassages.com805/498-7097
Read more…
Bila kita membicarakan nias maka langsung pikiran kita akan membayangkan seorang pria berpakaian adat setempat sedang melayang di atas seonggok batu yang disusun setinggi lebih dari 2 meter. Atraksi lompat batu atau fahombo merupakan sebuah andalan pariwisata dari pulau nias. Membicarakan hal ini mau tidak mau kita harus kembali kepada sejarah panjang perjalanan budaya masyarakat nias.
Berabad-abad lampau, pulau nias yang terletak di sebelah barat Sumatera, terdiri dari beberapa wilayah yang diperintah oleh para landlord atau panglima-panglima perang sebagai bangsawan tinggi, Kedudukan bangsawan itu bukan kedudukan turun temurun, kedudukan itu mereka dapatkan dengan menyelenggarakan pesta menjamu masyarakat atau owasa. Maka semakin sering mereka menyelenggarakan owasa maka semakin kekal dan tinggi pula kedudukan mereka di mata masyarakat, dan biaya mengadakan pesta pesta mereka dapatkan dari hasil jarahan perang.Untuk memenangkan peperangan bangsawan-bangsawan tersebut memerlukan dukungan pasukan yang kuat, sehingga pada waktu tertentu mereka membuka kesempatan kepada pria-pria muda untuk menjadi prajurit. Bagi kaum pria menjadi prajurit atau anggota pasukan pertahanan merupakan sebuah kehormatan, dengan penghasilan yang lebih bagus dari masyarakat biasa dan membuka kesempatan kelak bila nasib baik menjadikan mereka seorang bangsawan, mencapai kedudukan yang mulia pula.
Menentukan pantas tidaknya seorang pria menjadi seorang prajurit, tidak hanya ditentukan oleh kemampuan standard, bentuk fisik atau sekedar ilmu bela diri dan ilmu-ilmu hitam, tetapi penentuan akhir, mereka diuji harus dapat melompati sebuah susunan batu setinggi 2,3 m, tanpa menyentuh permukaannya sedikitpun.Pada masa-masa yang silam, acara seleksi ini diselenggarakan secara khusus dan berlangsung begitu meriah, seolah-seolah sebuah festival, orang berduyun-duyun datang dari jauh sekalipun untuk menyaksikan pria-pria muda saling menunjukan kebolehannya melompati batu dan berusaha menjadi yang paling baik. Bagi para gadis acara ini merupakan arena memuja dan memuji pria-pria idaman dan juga sebaliknya, bagi para pria yang lulus uji segera saja menjadi idola gadis-gadis. Bagi yang sudah mempunyai calon, segera saja ia meminang pilihannya, yang masih jomblo mempunyai kans besar mendapat calon istri. Sehingga fahombo akhirnya bergeser maknanya, seolah-olah menyiratkan siapa yang berhasil melompati susunan batu tersebut layak disebut dewasa dan pantas menikah.Kini fahombo menjadi sebuah atraksi pariwisata dan tidak saja dilakukan pria muda, pria tua bahkan yang renta sekalipun boleh melompatinya. Fahombo juga tidak lagi menjadi ajang pemilihan pria idaman para gadis, mereka lebih memilih pria pujaan yang mempunyai mobil, motor atau setidaknya menjadi pegawai negeri atau punya motor bebek.
Read more…
Carica adalah sejenis tanaman pepaya mini yang banyak tumbuh di Dataran Tinggi Dieng. pada waktu lalu, tanaman ini juga ditemukan di daerah Batu, Malang, Jawa Timur. Termasuk dalam Family Caricaceae genus Vasconcellea. Bentuk buah nya seperti buah coklat (cocoa) tapi warna dan texturenya mirip dengan pepaya tetapi lebih kecil kira-kira seukuran kepalan tangan. Daging buah harum dan berwarna kuning kepucatan dan jika dimakan cenderung asam rasanya. Getahnya bisa terasa sangat gatal jika tersentuh kulit. Carica jarang dimakan langsung dan lebih tepat jika dibuat manisan.
Manisan Carica adalah comodity khas daerah dataran tinggi Dieng dan Wonosobo. Biasanya dijual dalam botol-botol selai ukuran 230 dan 350 gram. Setelah jadi manisan rasanya manis dan texturenya seperti buah mangga. Yang istimewa adalah saus atau air manisan yang terbuat dari biji Carica. Selain manis, aromanya sangat harum dan mengundang selera. Manisan Carica adalah oleh-oleh istimewa khas wonosobo dan dataran tinggi Dieng.
sebenarnya jika di kelola dengan baik, industri Carica bisa jadi salah satu ciri khas daerah Wonosobo sekaligus menjadi brand kedua bagi daerah wisata di dataran tinggi dieng. Dulu produk Carica sempat diproduksi masal oleh sebuah pabrik besar, tapi sejak krisis moneter tahun 1998, pabrik itu bangkrut. Kini industri Carica dijalankan dalam skala kecil (industri rumah tangga) oleh beberapa perusahaan di Wonosobo. Tim main yuk mencoba menelusuri industri buah yang harum ini.
Read more…
Esoteric Christianity is becoming more popular. It is a combination of belief in Jesus as a VERY special messenger and New Age beliefs like karma and reincarnation. People usually also believe in healing, aura reading and things like that. Examples of teachers of Esoteric Christianity are Rudolf Steiner and Edgar Cayce.I wonder - who here is inspired by Esoteric Christianity?
Read more…
Wiltshire, UK - May 4, 2009 Photo: Steve Alexander“I produce myself among creatures whenever there is a decline of virtue and an insurrection of vice and injustice in the world; and thus I incarnate from age to age for the preservation of the just, the destruction of the wicked, and the establishment of righteousness.” -Krishna, Bhagavad-Gita IV:31The power of consciousness itself, is working through each of us, Eckhart Tolle says of the current cycle. Something in the collective consciousness wants that change, and we must try to be open to it.We have chosen the mysterious crop circle phenomena, this week, as a stimulating reminder of ways that lead towards that change—becoming more consciously aware of the divine within us, and around us.Watch: Crop Circle Documentary 2009We should be opening more to what wants to happen on this planet, Eckhart Tolle says, but it can only be realized through each individual person. Each new realization helps others to shift in consciousness, which is necessary at this time. The question for humanity is to either shift and evolve together, or perish together.Watch: Eckhart Tolle – Transformation of ConsciousnessRead more…
Actors, Writers, and Designers Call For Release of Aung San Suu Kyi
May 15th, 2009
Media Release From Burma Campaign UK
For Immediate Release 15th May 2009
For more information contact Zoya Phan on 44 (0)7738630139
Actors, Writers, and Designers Call For Release of Aung San Suu Kyi
Some of Britain’s most distinguished actors and writers have added their names to a global petition for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all Burma’s political prisoners. The petition calls on United Nations SecretaCry General Ban Ki Moon to make securing the release of the prisoners a top priority.
Yesterday, Burma’s democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was imprisoned in Burma’s notorious Insein jail. She will face a trial on Friday for breaking the terms of her house arrest, after an American entered her home and refused to leave.
Ben Kingsley, Joanna Lumley, Diane Rigg, Zoe Wanamaker, Juliet Stevenson, Tony Robinson, Phillip Pullman, Monica Ali and Joanna Trollope are among 30 famous people to back the Free Burma’s Political Prisoners Now! campaign. The campaign is being organised by former political prisoners
“The world is horrified by the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and more than 2,000 other political prisoners,” said Zoya Phan, International Coordinator at Burma Campaign UK. “Ban Ki Moon must take action, not just sit behind a desk in New York issuing statements of concern.”
More than three-hundred thousand people have signed the petition calling for UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon to secure the release of Burma’s political prisoners.
A new report – Silent Killing Fields - published this week by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, has exposed the systematic denial of medical care for political prisoners. Last week Aung San Suu Kyi, who is ill and under house arrest, was denied medical care after her doctor was arrested. Although her doctor’s assistant has now been allowed to visit her, her doctor remains in jail, with no explanation from the dictatorship as to why he has been arrested.
The petition can be signed online at: http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/fbppn.htm
Full list of those supporting the campaign:
Ben Kingsley
Joanna Lumley
Ian McKellan
Jo Brand
Zoe Wanamaker
Victoria Wood
Diana Rigg
Tony Robinson
Juliet Stevenson
Tom Stoppard
Monica Ali
Iain Banks
Charles Dance
Terry Gilliam
Ben Fogle
Sandy Gall
David Hare
Nicholas Hytner
Miriam Karlin
John O’Farrell
Philip Pullman
Rose Tremain
Joanna Trollope
Sarah Waters
Selina Scott
Sharon Davies
Nicole Farhi
Tim Sebastian
Jane Asher
Maureen Lipman
For more information contact Zoya Phan on 44 (0)7738630139
Read more…
Believing You ArePaintings by Mg Aw“That which ye sow ye reap. See yonder fields! The sesamum was sesamum, the corn was corn. The Silence and the Darkness knew! So is a man’s fate born.” -The Light of AsiaBREAKING UP is hard to do. Even after worldviews have betrayed us, they still cling like burrs in our psyche. Witness, for example, the “Flat Earth Society,” the geocentric view of the universe, and creationist beliefs about the age of the earth. The list is long.Intuitives and psychics can be woefully inaccurate in their divinations, and science is replete with exploded, once sacred dogmas. Up to very recently, it was believed that the brain cannot grow new cells—when they’re gone, they’re gone!NeuronsIn 2005 we learned just the opposite: Adult Brain Cells Do Keep Growing! (LiveScience)The word Science comes from the Latin word Scire, which means to know. It is supposed to be a systematic, organized way of investigating the world. The catch is when specialized learning turns into a dogmatic worldview, and then becomes an end-in-itself—it becomes separated from the harvest of what would have been a whole truth.Watch video of Dean Radin:Are You Nothing but a Pack of Neurons?The Fickle AtomThe illusion of solid matter “was shattered in 1897,” writes David Pratt, in his article The Infinite Divisibility of Matter,” with the discovery of the electron, the first subatomic particle”……the “uncuttable” had been cut. This was followed by the discovery of the proton in 1911 and the neutron in 1932, the two particles that make up the atomic nucleus. In the decades that followed, subatomic particles began to proliferate like bacteria, and today over 200 are known.“Blavatsky provided a compelling argument for the infinite divisibility of matter,” Pratt writes, and quotes her ingenious thought experiment from The Secret Doctrine, (SD 1:519):"This is sufficient to show how absurd are the simultaneous admissions of the non-divisibility and elasticity of the atom. The atom is elastic, ergo, the atom is divisible, and must consist of particles, or of sub-atoms. And these sub-atoms?""They are either non-elastic, and in such case they represent no dynamic importance, or, they are elastic also; and in that case, they, too, are subject to divisibility. And thus ad infinitum. But infinite divisibility of atoms resolves matter into simple centres of force, i.e., precludes the possibility of conceiving matter as an objective substance. This vicious circle is fatal to materialism."Watch Robert Thurman: Buddha and The AtomRead more…
by Katinka Hesselink
Levels of Meditation: relaxation, concentration, contemplation, awareness…
My friend Richard's asking: How do you usually distinguish contemplation from meditation?
I’d say contemplation is a type of meditation: a type with more thought than most. To explain the matter as well as I understand it (can’t do better than that after all), I think I have to categorize all types of meditation - or what’s usually called meditation. I looked up the subject in the Yoga Sutras, which I’ve been studying lately. I also turned to what works of Ken Wilber I have in my library, asked my twitter friends, and of course I looked online.
There are various ways of categorizing meditation practices. One way is by looking at what purpose people have in meditating. For instance @Cherylbinstock suggested I meditate to create angels. I believe there is only one type of angel we might create - and that is to become angels to others ourselves. There are of course people who meditate because they think it will bring them more success in life, or peace of mind, or help cope with stress. The traditional object was - at the opposite end of the spectrum: Nirvana, Enlightenment - ultimate release from all human suffering.
Ken Wilber noted, about traditional forms of meditation, that they aim at different transpersonal realms. “Some aim for psychic experiences, some for the deity mysticism of the subtle realm, some for the formlessness and Freedom of the Causal Witness, and some for nondual Unity of One Taste.” (A Brief History of Everything, p. 255)
Since Richard asks my personal opinion - I feel that the quality of meditation should be measured, at least in part, by the answer to the question: are you awake when you meditate? Does your meditation resemble more a slumber, or a piercing light of awareness? The first hardly deserves the name meditation. It’s a form of relaxation that may help one to live a less stressful life, but so may an afternoon nap.
Awareness can be an ingredient in any kind of meditation. In the highest types of meditation, awareness becomes empty. Not the emptiness of mindlessness, but more the stillness of a mind not bothered by repetitive thought and useless chatter.
LEVELS OF MEDITATION
I think then that the following summary fits the various types of meditation we see today rather well - not in aim, but in method.
Relaxation - meditation music for instance fits this level
Concentration. Examples of this include:
visualization
affirmations
mantras
Contemplation
Awareness
I’ve organized them by what I consider their level. But the levels do mix and merge. These are after all merely words - and this kind of stuff transcends words almost by definition.
The first - relaxation - is on the list because much that people call meditation falls into this category. It is not what I would call meditation, but I’m not one to ignore popular opinion. As I’ve said though - there is nothing wrong with it either.
The second - concentration - is one that does deserve the name meditation perhaps a bit more. I think it’s necessary to be able to learn to concentrate on one subject for a longer period of time, if one is to progress spiritually. However, a study of math would serve the purpose just as well as learning to visualize a Buddha God form. Affirmations may be very useful to become conscious of what you unconsciously feel about yourself, and learn to alter that. But psychotherapy may serve that purpose just as well.
Coming to mantras I’m a bit mixed. I’ve been warned frequently that mantras may, especially if overused, open people up to unconscious forces that they aren’t ready for. Actually, this is probably true for all kinds of meditation. Proceed with caution - and preferably under the guidance of a qualified teacher. I was very surprised to read in the Yoga Sutras that real meditation on the mantra Aum included thinking about it’s meaning…
Very suitable to my story that - because that brings me to the next level of meditation: contemplation.
Contemplation, or jnana yoga, is the type of meditation Blavatsky felt was best for Westerners. Jnana Yoga is a type of thinking about subjects that includes intuition. It’s a calm kind of thought, where the stillness of awareness is brought to whatever subject is being studied. Or at least - that’s how I understand it. This is the kind of meditation that I do myself - I’ve been taken off that path by my university studies, but now that I’m no longer having to try to fit the scientific train of thought, I find my mind is slowly finding it’s way back to its natural channels. Which is a relief.
The next step is one that I’ve only read about. I’ve tried visualisation, but aside from noting that I’m quite capable of it, it bores me. Meditation to music sends me to sleep - or more boredom. Various types of concentration: again, I can concentrate alright - but concentration on books does seem a tad bit more useful to me than concentration on mantras for instance. And, as I think I’ve made clear, too much concentration on books doesn’t work for me either. I’m finding a middle path in the form of contemplation.
So - what IS the next step. The step beyond contemplation? It’s one that many these days would seek without having even tried the previous steps. I think for those that can, the others aren’t necessary. But for those that end up failing would be safer off trying one of the others (or none).
Awareness ultimately needs no object. From concentration to contemplation is a step that includes turning inward - listening to the still small voice. The next step is realizing that between observed (thoughts and feelings) and observer there is no difference. That is: ultimately all is ONE. Ken Wilber puts it as follows (though Jiddu Krishnamurti might as easily have been quoted).
Rather, as you calmly rest in this observing awareness - watching mind and body and nature float by - you might begin to notice that what you are actually feeling is simply a sense of freedom, a sense of release, a sense of not being found to any of the objects you are calmly witnessing. (A Brief History of Everything, p. 252)
In front of you the clouds parade by, your thoughts parade by, bodily sensations parade by, and you are none of them. (A Brief History of Everything, p. 253)
This of course explains the duality of most meditation quite well. I’m sure anyone who has tried Zen Sitting Meditation recognizes this experience. It is the prelude to the next step - described as fulcrum 9 and 10 in Wilber’s ‘Sex, Ecology, Spirituality’. I confess, I don’t get the difference between fulcrum 9 and 10. But let me take a description from the last stage: the nondual stage of meditation:
Abiding as I-I, the world arises as before, but now there is no one to witness it. I-I is not “in here” looking “out there”: there is no in here, no out there, only this. It is the radical end of all egocentrism, all geocentrism, all biocentrism, all sociocentrism, all theocentrism, because it is the radical end of all centrisms, period. … As Dzogchen Buddhists would put it, because all phenomena are primordially empty, all phenomena, just as they are, are self-liberated as they arise.
I don’t know whether that’s a true description of that ultimate state, or whether the words of Ken Wilber the author outran the knowledge of Ken Wilber the mystic. But since it is surely beyond my experience, I will not bother with it any further. Instead let me share some of the interesting links my twitter friends shared when I asked what I should write about meditation. Each is far easier to attain than the exulted ground just discussed.
Katinka Hesselink: http://www.allconsidering.com/2009/levels-of-meditation/Read more…
by Philip D'Arbanville
Could it be that the world relies on humans to think clearly - and in harmony - for its survival? The Global Consciousness Project (GCP) at Princeton University just may prove that the Morphogenetic Field Theory is more than pseudoscience. Based on a hypothesis developed by English scientist Rupert Sheldrake, which was influenced by Carl Jung's controversial theory of the Collective Unconscious, the GCP aims to prove that all of mankind is connected through a powerful mind field.
If Jung's theory that a "reservoir of the experiences of our species" actually exists, then the morphogenetic field is where this knowledge resides. Sheldrake's theory postulates that these fields contain a sort of "universal database" of human intelligence that is shared amongst all living beings.
This knowledge is necessary for beings to not only exist, but also to evolve. For example, 200 years ago, it took nearly a week for a child to learn how to ride a bicycle. Since then, generations of children have learned this ability. As a result, the imprint of that knowledge has carried into humankind's morphogenetic field so that now it typically takes a child only a few hours to master the balance needed to ride a bike.
Since 1998, the GCP has monitored 50 diode machines around the globe in an effort to determine if the consciousness of mankind actually exists. Through the use of white noise signals, these machines are believed to have the ability to measure if the morphogenetic field is influenced by our behaviors, our interactions with other beings or even the occurrence of tragic world events.
For example, each time there has been a tragedy that arouses collective world mourning, such as Princess Diana's death and 9/11, the diodes have registered an interruption in the random, yet statistical, pattern that exists when the world is in harmony.
Fascinatingly, these disturbances have been detected hours before the event even happened. For example, all 50 diodes worldwide simultaneously registered a disturbance in the morphogenetic field five hours before the first airplane crashed into the World Trade Center. Researchers for the GCP believe this is most likely the time the terrorists put their long-planned attack into motion.
The scientific proof of the connective link between all living beings and the morphogenetic field has the potential to radically change the 21st century. If we truly have a constant impact not only on each other, but on future generations and the health of our world, our responsibility as humans may have just been ratcheted up a few notches.
Read more…
Three years ago, the choice between doing time in a teen detention center for drug possession or shooting a film seemed like an easy one to Cody Cayou (Swinomish), Nick Clark (Grand Ronde/Swinomish) and Travis Tom (Swinomish/Lummi). The boys envisioned meeting girls while creating a rap video or maybe even a gangsta movie.
What they didn’t foresee was how their mistakes would end up transforming not only their lives, but also the future of the entire Swinomish community. Childhood friends who grew up on the Rez skateboarding and playing basketball, Clark’s father had split, Cayou’s mother had passed away and Tom had just recently lost his sister.
Hurting, rebellious teenagers without a clear direction, the boys were desperately seeking a place to fit in. As they descended into a world filled with drugs, alcohol and violence, they finally attracted the attention of local law enforcement. Instead of being abandoned in the juvenile justice system, they were lovingly guided to Longhouse Media, an educational film program for Native teens.
According to co-founder Tracy Rector (Seminole), the nonprofit organization was founded in 2005 to “catalyze indigenous people and communities to use media as a tool for self-expression, cultural preservation and social change.” The group’s primary program, Native Lens, brings digital media training to Native youth in rural and urban settings. “We believe youth can use this technology to explore personal and community issues, such as education, environmental degradation, traditional health care and cultural pride.”
Just ten months after Longhouse Media opened its doors, co-founder Annie Silverstein found herself sitting across a table from the three beanie-clad, chair-spinning teens on a cold October day. Silverstein informed the boys that Native Lens had received an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant, which meant their video would focus on the environmental impacts two local oil refineries - Shell and Tesoro - have had on their tribal lands.
Less than thrilled with the turn of events, the boys reluctantly agreed to do the project. In the end, their journey produced the incredibly candid, heartfelt documentary March Point, which unearthed more than a century of hidden corruption about their people’s history, heritage, land and natural commerce.
A Winding Journey of Discovery
During their initial research, the boys discovered that several Coastal Salish speaking tribes, including the Swinomish, Samish, Kikyalus and Lower Skagit, have inhabited the valleys and shorelines of northwest Washington’s Skagit, San Juan and Island counties for centuries.
Established under the 1855 Elliott Point Treaty, the Swinomish Reservation is situated on the peninsula of Fidalgo Island, about 70 miles north of Seattle. Most residents are nestled along the Swinomish Channel, which serves as the Reservation’s eastern boundary.
Two historic events finally caught the boys’ attention. In 1873, President Grant retracted a portion of the Swinomish Reservation, known as March Point, and gave it to non-Native settlers. Nearly 60 years later, two oil refineries that process crude oil into diesel, gasoline, propane and other fuels, were constructed on the land.
In the 1960s, as community and environmental health concerns grew, some leaders began to question whether the oil refineries even had a right to be on the land. Claiming the seizure of March Point was an illegal breach of their treaty rights, the tribe petitioned the Indian Claims Commission to reestablish their original boundaries. When their pleas fell upon deaf ears, the tribe launched a plan to buy back the lost land; as of 2004, more than 1,000 acres were once again under Swinomish control.
In the film, when Allan Olson, general manager for the tribe, tells the boys that the oil companies should owe the tribe “millions and millions of dollars for leasing the land”, Cayou asked, “You mean, we should be bling-blingin’ like the oil company executives?”
Community concerns about the unusually high number of toxic illnesses and cancer cases during the past 25 years eventually led the boys to tribal elder Brian Cladoosby, who told the boys, “Every year, they have a cleanup of the refinery. It’s called The Shutdown. During the 60s and 70s, they took a lot of that cleanup material and they dumped it in the middle of our reservation.”
Cladoosby also believes the community should be worried about other things. “I’m not sure how toxic the chemicals are that are released into the atmosphere. I know I see a lot of smoke or steam or things coming out of those plants, so I imagine when the north wind is blowing, and that stuff is flowing toward our Swinomish Reservation, the air quality is being impacted.”
Subsequent research by Cayou, Clark and Tom turned up published reports indicating the presence of heavy metals and chemical contamination in the Tribal tidelands and waters, where many of the community’s residents harvest clams, crabs and fish. Tribal lore claims that the salmonwere once so numerous that one could walk across the river on their backs. Today, there are large areas of the coastline considered unsafe, even though tribal-enforced testing of shellfish has not turned up any unacceptable levels of contamination, to date.
“It’s scary,” says one resident in the film with a shrug, “but, I’m not going to quit eating it. It’s an important part of who we are.”
The Awakening
As the boys delved deeper into the community’s accusations of pollution and political corruption, they become painfully aware that their tribe’s health and future were being systematically destroyed.
In a Discussion Guide on the documentary, published in conjunction with PBS, Rector writes, “The problems that Native communities face today are directly linked to a history of forced isolation, oppression and genocide. This inheritance and its impact on Native culture have contributed to violence, hopelessness, addiction and low self-esteem among Native youth…Throughout tribal communities in the Pacific Northwest, drug abuse, illiteracy, child abuse, poor health and nutrition and post-traumatic stress disorder are all well documented.”
“It’s tough staying out of trouble here because of the many challenges we face every day,” Cayou says in the film. “But, we care about our family, our tribe and our culture.”
“There are a lot of drugs in this community,” Clark admits. “My life was just going down the drain. If I didn’t get involved in Native Lens, I don’t know where I’d be right now. Probably on the streets somewhere or locked up or…I don’t know.”
As storytellers, the boys’ passion grew organically, emerging in a sense of responsibility, discipline and focus. Cayou and Clark preferred a methodical approach, while Tom was more spontaneous. When they learned how to take charge of interviewing the subjects and began to master different shooting techniques, Rector and co-producer Annie Silverstein took a backseat.
“After screening a day’s footage, it was often surprising how intuitive the boys’ perceptions and comments were for the story,” says Rector, who estimates they shot about 50 percent of the film. “They would invariably address the issues at hand in their own way, which was often much more gutsy and powerful.”
As the story began to take shape, the teens realized that the burden of finding serious solutions to these problems now fell on their shoulders. Native American activist Billy Frank Jr. advised them, “One of your generation will be sitting in my chair very soon and younger tribe members will be asking you questions. What will you do for the Swinomish Tribe?”
Such startling questions lay heavy on the boys’ minds. Although they had grown tremendously throughout the project, Cayou, Clark and Tom still felt incapable of dealing with all these inherited responsibilities.
“Until we find a healthier way to make cars go without oil, we have to do everything we can to protect our home because the next generation is depending on it,” Cayou later reflects in the film.
Feeling Their Way Out of the Box
When the boys received the news that they would be able to attend the Constituents Coffee with Washington State Senator Patty Murray in Washington, D.C., they began diligently preparing for the meeting. Even the night before, lounging in plush animal-print robes in the “most luxurious room we’ve ever seen”, the boys reviewed Murray’s stance on environmental issues.
Still, they worried whether anyone would step forward to take responsibility for the wrongs the federal government had perpetrated upon the tribe. They feared no one would come forward to help them solve their concerns.
While the boys were unable to tape the interview, they do share a very poignant moment with the audience after the momentous meeting. Slumped on a park bench, huddled in oversized jackets and ski hats that protect them from the harsh winter chill, the boys’ disappointment is obvious:
“We asked her some questions and she asked us questions,” explains Travis as he shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head.
“Seems like she’s really supportive of the environment,” chimes in Cody.
“I thought it was pretty cool because there were a lot of rich people in there. I don’t know if they were rich, but it was bright in there. We were probably the only dark faces,” says Travis, looking at the ground.
“A lot of smart people,” Cody says, “and, we didn’t fit in because we didn’t have suits on.”
“Yeah,” Travis adds, “with ties.”
“And, we’re not pol-i-ti-cians,” says Nick, speaking up for the first time.
“Don’t have to be,” Travis quips. “All you need is a suit and a tie, Nick.”
Nick responds with a silent nod.
“We felt out of the box,” Travis explains awkwardly.
“Yeah, like we weren’t supposed to be there or something,” says Cody. “But, she listened to us, so it’s all good.”
“We should meet more Senators,” Cody suggests.
“No,” Travis says, “I’ll feel out of the box again.”
A Film Inspires Hope
According to PBS’ “Independent Lens” program, “March Point questions for the first time the legality of the reservation boundary adjustment and documents the refineries’ environmental impacts.” The documentary, which aired on November 18, has received widespread critical acclaim in the film festival circuit, including Best Documentary at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto in October.
Mikula, who posted a comment on the March Point website after seeing the PBS screening, says, “I laughed and cried and fell in love with the work and the young men behind this amazing effort. As an old oil refinery worker, I can tell you that there is no way that industry will be made safer for the environment…These men deserve a standing applause for all the work they have done to get the truth out and tell the story of their people’s connections to the land and water. My grandfather was Cherokee, so that makes me a Native with a ‘bright face’ and an inner fire for our Mother Earth. You are the glorious sons of your people.”
“We hope this film will give the audience a window into the unique beauty of the Coast Salish people and their way of life,” Rector recently told PBS. “Also, it is our desire that March Point will bring awareness to the issues of environmental racism and the resulting disparity of big corporations on tribal lands and near people of color. Finally, we hope that governmental officials and local citizens will be inspired to take action in the cleanup of pollution from Puget Sound so the First People of the region can continue subsistence practices which nurture their rich cultural heritage and support good health.”
The boys have not only inspired those who have come in contact with the film, but the experience transformed their own lives, as well. Now seniors at La Conner High School, all three have improved their grades and Cayou and Clark plan to study filmmaking in college.
Native Lens hopes it can inspire more youth to follow their example. Longhouse Media started with financial support from the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, but now receives funds from the Lummi Indian Nation, the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, Puyallup Tribe of Indians, Skokomish Tribal Nation, Squaxin Island Tribe, Suquamish Tribe and the Tulalip Tribes, as well as National Geographic and the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). The next large project for the youth at Swinomish is to produce a monthly show for the tribal television station and for Seattle’s cable station SCAN-TV.
March Point is available on DVD at www.marchpointmovie.com. Community screenings of the film are available throughout North America and a Discussion Guide is available for download PBS’ website. For more information about Longhouse Media or the Native Lens project, contact Tracy Rector at 206/387-2468 or nativelens@mac.com.
What Makes a Building Green?
A green building, also known as a sustainable building, is a structure that is designed, built, renovated, operated, or reused in an ecological and resource-efficient manner. Green Buildings are designed to meet certain objectives such as protecting occupant health; improving employee productivity; using energy, water, and other resources more efficiently; and reducing the overall impact to the environment.
What are the Economic Benefits of Green Building?
A green building may cost more up front, but saves through lower operating costs over the life of the building. The green building approach applies a project life cycle cost analysis for determining the appropriate up-front expenditure. This analytical method calculates costs over the useful life of the asset.
These and other cost savings can only be fully realized when they are incorporated at the project's conceptual design phase with the assistance of an integrated team of professionals. The integrated systems approach ensures that the building is designed as one system rather than a collection of stand-alone systems.
Some benefits, such as improving occupant health, comfort, productivity, reducing pollution and landfill waste are not easily quantified. Consequently, they are not adequately considered in cost analysis. For this reason, consider setting aside a small portion of the building budget to cover differential costs associated with less tangible green building benefits or to cover the cost of researching and analyzing green building options.
Even with a tight budget, many green building measures can be incorporated with minimal or zero increased up-front costs and they can yield enormous savings.
What are the Elements of Green Buildings?
Below is a sampling of green building practices.
Sighting:
Start by selecting a site well suited to take advantage of mass transit. Protect and retain existing landscaping and natural features. Select plants that have low water and pesticide needs, and generate minimum plant trimmings. Use compost and mulches. This will save water and time. Recycled content paving materials, furnishings, and mulches help close the recycling loop.
Energy Efficiency:
Most buildings can reach energy efficiency levels far beyond California Title 24 standards, yet most only strive to meet the standard. It is reasonable to strive for 40 percent less energy than Title 24 standards. The following strategies contribute to this goal.
Passive design strategies can dramatically affect building energy performance. These measures include building shape and orientation, passive solar design, and the use of natural lighting. Develop strategies to provide natural lighting. Studies have shown that it has a positive impact on productivity and well being. Install high-efficiency lighting systems with advanced lighting controls. Include motion sensors tied to dimmable lighting controls. Task lighting reduces general overhead light levels. Use a properly sized and energy-efficient heat/cooling system in conjunction with a thermally efficient building shell. Maximize light colors for roofing and wall finish materials; install high R-value wall and ceiling insulation; and use minimal glass on east and west exposures. Minimize the electric loads from lighting, equipment, and appliances. Consider alternative energy sources such as photovoltaics and fuel cells that are now available in new products and applications. Renewable energy sources provide a great symbol of emerging technologies for the future. Computer modeling is an extremely useful tool in optimizing design of electrical and mechanical systems and the building shell.
Materials Efficiency:
Select sustainable construction materials and products by evaluating several characteristics such as reused and recycled content, zero or low off gassing of harmful air emissions, zero or low toxicity, sustainable harvested materials, high recyclability, durability, longevity, and local production. Such products promote resource conservation and efficiency. Using recycled-content products also helps develop markets for recycled materials that are being diverted from California's landfills, as mandated by the Integrated Waste Management Act. Use dimensional planning and other material efficiency strategies. These strategies reduce the amount of building materials needed and cut construction costs. For example, design rooms on 4-foot multiples to conform to standard-sized wallboard and plywood sheets. Reuse and recycle construction and demolition materials. For example, using inert demolition materials as a base course for a parking lot keeps materials out of landfills and costs less. Require plans for managing materials through deconstruction, demolition, and construction. Design with adequate space to facilitate recycling collection and to incorporate a solid waste management program that prevents waste generation.
Water Efficiency:
Design for dual plumbing to use recycled water for toilet flushing or a gray water system that recovers rainwater or other non-potable water for site irrigation.
Minimize wastewater by using ultra low-flush toilets, low-flow shower heads, and other water conserving fixtures. Use re-circulating systems for centralized hot water distribution. Install point-of-use hot water heating systems for more distant locations. Use a water budget approach that schedules irrigation using the California Irrigation Management Information System data for landscaping. Meter the landscape separately from buildings. Use micro-irrigation (which excludes sprinklers and high-pressure sprayers) to supply water in non-turf areas. Use state-of-the-art irrigation controllers and self-closing nozzles on hoses.
Occupant Health and Safety:
Recent studies reveal that buildings with good overall environmental quality can reduce the rate of respiratory disease, allergy, asthma, sick building symptoms, and enhance worker performance. The potential financial benefits of improving indoor environments exceed costs by a factor of 8 and 14.
Choose construction materials and interior finish products with zero or low emissions to improve indoor air quality. Many building materials and cleaning/ maintenance products emit toxic gases, such as volatile organic compounds (VOC) and formaldehyde. These gases can have a detrimental impact on occupants' health and productivity.
Provide adequate ventilation and a high-efficiency, in-duct filtration system. Heating and cooling systems that ensure adequate ventilation and proper filtration can have a dramatic and positive impact on indoor air quality.
Prevent indoor microbial contamination through selection of materials resistant to microbial growth, provide effective drainage from the roof and surrounding landscape, install adequate ventilation in bathrooms, allow proper drainage of air-conditioning coils, and design other building systems to control humidity.
Building Operation and Maintenance:
Green building measures cannot achieve their goals unless they work as intended. Building commissioning includes testing and adjusting the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems to ensure that all equipment meets design criteria. It also includes instructing the staff on the operation and maintenance of equipment.
Over time, building performance can be assured through measurement, adjustment, and upgrading. Proper maintenance ensures that a building continues to perform as designed and commissioned.
City of San Diego's RidgeHaven Green Building
At a glance, the Ridgehaven Building appears identical to its neighbor. In 1996, however, the 73,000 sq ft. Ridgehaven Building was completely renovated with many cost-effective sustainable performance methodologies and technologies. As a result, the Ridgehaven Building now uses 65 percent less total energy than its nearly identical neighbor, yielding a saving of more than $70,000 in annual utility costs. This equates to $1 per sq ft. in annual savings. Even more important, the building occupants love its light and "healthy" atmosphere, boosting their productivity.
Steps to Ensure Success:
Establish a vision that embraces sustainable principles and an integrated design approach. Develop a clear statement of the project's vision, goals, design criteria, and priorities. Develop a project budget that covers green building measures. Allocate contingencies for additional research and analysis of specific options. Seek sponsorship or grant opportunities. Seek advice of a design professional with green building experience.Select a design and construction team that is committed to the project vision. Modify the RFQ/RFP selection process to ensure the contractors have appropriate qualifications to identify, select, and implement an integrated system of green building measures. Develop a project schedule that allows for systems testing and commissioning. Develop contract plans and specifications to ensure that the building design is at a suitable level of building performance. Create effective incentives and oversight.
Read more…
BLOG YOUR STORY*SHAPE YOUR VISION*TRANSFORM YOUR WORLD,
Share your story. Empower your voice Write about your creative vision, your healing story, your deepest insight, share your creative process from inspiration to actualization, share in you and your friend's Community Actions for Social and Environmental Change, Spread the Word with your Stories for Positive Change. Help lead the way to transform our world.
Read more…
The Peacemaker Within
Nurture the Peacekeeper through World Vision Walks
Thich Nhat Hanh’s Annual PeaceWalk & LWF’s “Walk Across the World”
by Michele D’Arbanville
The moment I stepped into the street at 6th and MacArther in downtown Los Angeles with Thich Nhat Hanh on his annual Peace Walk, I experienced a deep sense of belonging; a oneness with all who seek to transcend the boundaries of racial and social injustice and an awareness of our connection to the suffering of all people. Flooded with emotion, I recalled those in our past and present, who have walked and stood for peace in the face of violence.
Enlightened souls who’ve led the way, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese Monks, The Dalai Lama, all those who participated in the non-violent protests in Tibet, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, Germany, USSR, Yugoslavia, China and Lebanon, are all part of a human heart chain that stretches far back into our historic past, our Native Americans, Knights of the Roundtable, Kshatriya Warriors of Ancient India and around 600BC it is said, Gautama Buddha, helped make all Asia mild.
One of today’s revered spiritual teachers, Thich Nhat Hanh, calls himself a simple monk. He says, “Peace is in Every Step. Each step we take is the doorway to the kingdom of happiness.” The Vietnamese, Buddhist Priest, known affectionately as, “Thai”, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King. He shows us ways to calm the mind and open the heart.
Might the simple act of walking for peace break us open to spiritual consciousness and principles of deep listening, compassion and non-violence?
As I stepped into the streets, taking long, slow breaths, an inner spaciousness and a sense of universal responsibility entered into the walking meditation. I felt a collective memory of those who have walked before me, as peacemakers for social justice, understanding, tolerance and peace. The heart of the great universe called on my strength, all of our fearlessness called up my truth. Each human who has suffered, penetrated the sphere of my heart. Yes, we are all truly part of this larger heart, beating in unison for truth.
What does it mean to be a peacemaker in this time?
Each breath, each step becomes nourishment for the places inside ourselves that aren’t comfortable, the parts inside that need healing…even the perceived enemies inside and out…we breathe each step for them and us.
“We must meet hate with creative love, love is the most durable power in the world. Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.” said, Martin Luther King.
When we guide our bodies, hearts and minds to hold this message, our intention for non-violence becomes clear. As we walk in our everyday life we carry the spiritual lineage of peacemaking that these great teachers have passed on to us. We become Peacemakers for the planet.
Helpful ways to heal include spiritual retreats, peacemaking workshops, World Vision Walks and Sacred World Arts and Music gatherings. At a previous retreat through, “The Open Center”, Thai took thirty of us through the streets of New York City in the late ‘80s. We gathered to share in the wisdom of this then little known Vietnamese monk.
He led us through the streets of Manhattan, hearts leading the way in a walking meditation, as we gently stepped in unison, even getting on and off subways together. The heart pilgrimage took us from downtown’s SOHO all the way uptown to a grassy knoll on the upper east side of Central Park. There we all participated in a Dharma Talk with Thai.
The experience engendered deep trust, silence and loving kindness.
If we listen to our hearts for the message of peace in every step we take, in every breath we breathe and every gesture we make, then each precious moment is filled with conscious presence. The challenge is great and the rewards even greater. As we guide ourselves to hold a strong vision of Tolerance and Non-Violence, we help each other at this vital time. We join in a collective healing that breaks us open to the heart and turns the cycle from greed and need into giving love and abundance.
“There is no way to peace, peace is the way.” said, Mahatma Gandhi.
In honor of Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, October 2nd, Living Wellness Foundation held a World Vision Walk for Tolerance at Self Realization Fellowship’s beautiful ‘Lake Shrine’ in Pacific Palisades. We all walked slowly around the beautiful lake with the brothers and sisters of SRF, the ‘Full Circle Learning’ students and community members. The children sang the most poignant song, “…A glorious vision is waiting for you, a personal mission, if only you will see it through…” Thoughts were shared about Gandhi’s teachings on Non-Violence, “Satyagraha” and the ‘Full Circle’ children signed the ‘Walk Across the World in Unity and Harmony’ flag. Their prayers and wishes for peace joined those of Jane Goodall, The Tibetan Monks & Nuns of Zangdokpalri and many others from all the World’s Cultures. October 2nd, Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, has now been sanctioned by the United Nations as a, ‘Day of Non-Violence’. This October 2nd, was a worldwide event for LWF, with walks in Channai, India, and Northern California as well. The Walk Across the World, Paths to Tolerance Program is a worldwide coordinated effort that seeks to raise awareness for tolerance and understanding, which cumulatively logs walker’s distances throughout the year to equal the earth’s circumference of 24,800 miles collectively by the end of October 2, 2008.
We stepped into the street and dropped into a collective soul memory, a reminiscence that included the pain and suffering of all who had walked before us, those who made so many sacrifices. They made sacred the land they walked on. Now we are present, all striving to heal injustice in an act of non-violence, walking together in harmony. We walk together on this earth, shadow steps of light, learning to carry and share these seeds of wisdom, to create a collective awareness within, from which we all can heal our world.
Lest we forget the madness in Mumbai, India, which tore at the very fabric of our collective hearts as we witnessed the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel burning up in flames, India still mourns the innocent lives lost during that killing spree. And the world is still recovering, wondering how it is going to heal in the wake of these continuing terrorist attacks.
Mumbai’s Jewish Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis spoke through tears in Israel of their shared mourning. Mutual victims, they had nine of their followers killed in the senseless carnage. Yet, of the terrorists, they said, “We need to shower these lost souls with love they can’t forget, to instill in them a deep awareness of their humanity.”
Americans from Charlottesville, Virginia, who were in Mumbai on a spiritual retreat under the leadership of Charles Cannon, founder of the Synchronicity Foundation, say they’re overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and compassion toward them. The group lost Alan Scherr, 58, and his 13-year-old daughter, Naomi, in the terrorist assault on the Oberoi Hotel.
Cannon also spoke of the need for contemplation and understanding that we are all one human family hurting ourselves out of ignorance. “Humankind must create ways to provide education for everyone on the fundamental principles of nature, which are rooted in all the great religions, sciences and philosophies,” he said.
As India moves forward in its emotional and spiritual healing, many will turn to the 6,000-year-old tradition of Ayurveda, a healing science that combines body, mind and soul. The principles of Ayurveda guide followers in how to keep hurt from turning into despair, anger and hate by learning how to transmute those negative feelings into compassion, healing, hope and love. It may be that these are the exact principles that can provide the education that is so badly needed for our world to begin to heal.
Ayur means “life” in Sanskrit. The origins of Ayurveda date back to the Vedas, the ancient spiritual texts of India. One of the four Vedas that teach about the essence of life and nature, the Atharvaveda, contains the principles of healing upon which Ayurveda is based. Known for enhancing longevity, Ayurveda has influenced many of the older healing traditions, including Tibetan, Chinese and Greek medicine. As a result, it is recognized by many as the mother of healing.
This “Science of Life” is an ancient system of soul-mind-body awareness that helps restore balance and preserve health. Its healing methodology seeks to uncover the causal nature of any imbalance and restore that imbalance to equilibrium, thus healing all symptoms and preventing further disturbances. Application of its practice is said to instill greater awareness of one’s consciousness through the experience of finding one’s center equilibrium point and learning to hold on to that balance.
Unlike traditional Western medicine, Ayurveda is understood to be a lifelong endeavor. A Doctor of Ayurvedic Medicine is not separate from practicing the healing program in his or her own life. They are expected to walk the walk, while facilitating the healing of others. .
Ayurveda uses a theory of five great elements - ether, air, fire, water and earth - to represent the foundation of how nature functions, including human beings. In all living beings, these five elemental energies combine to form doshas, which manifest as Vata (air/ether), Pitta (fire/sun/water) and Kapha (earth/water). According to Ayurveda tradition, every human being is born with a unique mix of these doshas, which ultimately determine each person’s physical, sensory, mental and emotional tendencies. When a person’s unique combination of qualities is identified, a personal treatment plan is devised to not only restore vitality, but also maintain a positive state of health.
While this philosophy on health may not have trickled down to mainstream society, a majority of Americans are familiar with several Ayurveda influenced practices, such as Yoga, Acupressure, Naturopathy, meditation and massage. Although standards of practice are still being established for licensing Ayurveda in the U.S., reputable schools are currently training practitioners in New Mexico, Washington, California and elsewhere. In India, the training is typically a five and a half year program, with additional internships for another few years.
The Kerala Ayurvedic Academy and Clinic in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood offers a complete educational program for training, as well as a treatment center with experienced practitioners. The physicians encourage clients to relax into a thorough exploration of their physical, emotional and mental natures. An initial visit begins with simple healing practices to balance the physical body and calm the mind. This brings vigor and clarity to one’s nature. Further practices help release toxins and purify the body, mind and soul.
According to Dana Oennin, LMP, Head of Clinic Administration, these treatments can have immediate impact. “Recently, a woman who’d been using a cane came in and had an external basti treatment. Her leg showed remarkable improvement after just one treatment and she is returning for another,” Oennin explains of the 40-minute procedure that uses a topical dough dam and a special herbal warm oil mix. “More and more people are becoming acquainted with Ayurveda’s gentle, yet powerful, healing effects.”
The first visit with an Ayurvedic practitioner typically lasts one and half hours and results in a recommended lifelong health plan based on the patient’s temperament. The practitioner recommends the best foods to eat, exercises to engage in and healing treatments to explore, which may include oil massages, herbal steams, herbal remedies, meditation, sound, color or light therapy. Typically, a deep relaxation oil treatment will also be employed. All treatments are prescribed in a cyclic rhythm in harmony with the seasons. Patients often speak of how their “being” responds to, and eventually becomes intimately acquainted with, their own innate cyclic patterns. Ayurveda believes that this is the key to a vibrantly healthy body, mind and spirit.
Read more…
My own interest in the Feldenkrais MethodSM was sparked by my desperate need for the work. A fall on the ice left me disabled with a low back injury. After following the usual medical and chiropratic treatment for nine months with only occasional alleviation of pain, one lesson in Functional Integration* gave me a sense of well-being that bordered on euphoria. I knew immediately that I needed as much of that feeling as I could get and embarked on a quest for Feldenkrais that eventually led me to Moshe himself.
As a participant in his four-year Feldenkrais Professional Training Program held in Amherst, Massachusetts, I rolled around on the floor of a huge gymnasium for nine weeks each summer with 220 other curious people who felt similarly drawn to Moshe’s unique approach to learning. My personal learning not only freed me from the pain syndrome I had been locked into, but gave me a fluidity of motion and increased mobility, so that I now move better than before my accident. More significant than my body’s recovery is the change in my self-image and my expanded concept of what I can do. It has given me the confidence to make a major move from Washington, D.C. on my own and to re-establish myself here in Orange County, practicing a profession that is virtually unknown.
Moshe Feldenkrais was an Israeli scientist with a Ph.D. in Physics and Engineering from the Sorbonne in Paris, but his training program was absolutely non-academic. He led us through an experience of self-discovery that started with how our bodies function in movement. We repeated simple little movements, sequentially arranged, that somehow magically freed up our bodies, so that we could do larger, complicated actions with incredible ease and grace. As we played with these movements, he directed our attention to how the different parts of the body interact to create movement. He took us back through the basic functions of infant development – rolling over, sitting up, crawling, standing up and walking – to fill in the gaps in our initial learning, which were obvious to his practiced eye by how we moved in class.
Moshe was the first Westerner to hold a black belt in judo, and his books on the subject are well known in France. He understood human movement from so many points of view that few people could even begin to match his skill. Knowing that understanding of human functions must come from the inside out, he attempted to re-create for us the kind of experimentation and discovery that he himself had experienced in developing his method.
He interspersed the movement lessons with rambling stories that alternately fascinated and bored us, and with bad-tempered outbursts that inspired a whole gamut of reactions on the part of his students. Our frustration brought our habitual patterns of behavior to our awareness. We began to comprehend just how our emotional state influenced our ability to perform physically, and how our self-image and our habitual modes of acting limited us. All the time, we had the relatively concrete example of our constantly expanding repertoire of movement capacity as a reference point.
My own personal realization of this phenomenon came during my second year of training when I placed the sole of my foot on my forehead with comfort and learned to stand on my head. I had never done either in my whole life, even before I had a “bad back and bad neck.” I began to examine my other limitations.
In pushing the edges of my perceived limitations, I followed the model Moshe had taught us in movement classes that used feedback gained though the nervous system. We move, we feel and we know. The knowing cannot always be put into words, but a movement that is felt often seems more real than a thought. When thought and feeling are put together, a mind/body connection is established taking us into a realm of being which is fully integrated. Such harmony of action flows with an ease and efficiency that can only come when resistance has been eliminated.
By paying attention to very small movements, we learn how to discard the unnecessary components in building a more complex action such as sitting up, for example. Through this same process we can also learn to streamline our conflicting motivations into a clear intention. With this knowledge of how to direct our mind and body to do whatever we wish, comes a natural confidence that enables us to use our whole selves, physically, emotionally and intellectually. This integrated use of self, characterized by Moshe as Functional Integration* is the goal of this method.
Having previously taught French to uninterested high school students, I find it very rewarding now to be teaching people basic functions which can significantly improve the quality of their lives. A recent client was an eleven year old girl who had broken her hip and was still limping six months after the operation. I helped her learn to shift her weight to that leg more easily in walking. In compensating for the injury, she had also developed a pattern of twisting the shoulders and tilting her head to one side. If left uncorrected, in favoring the injured leg she might have further distorted the use of her body. This could have resulted in undue stress on the stronger side, eventually leading to ankle or knee problems. With increased awareness and attention she will now be able to resume her athletic activities in a balanced fashion.
Another student was a fifty-year-old businessman who took aerobic classes to get back in shape. An old shoulder injury prevented him from lifting his arms overhead, and strangely enough, the more he exercised the less flexible he became, despite his weight loss and firmer muscle tone. After three lessons in Functional Integration his aerobics teacher stopped the class to comment on his improved flexibility. I told this story to another client who promptly sent me her husband. A rather skeptical lawyer, he was certain that there was no cure for the stiffness of old age which was catching up with him. After his first three lessons with me, his aerobics teacher complimented him on his newfound flexibility. Still the skeptic, he jokingly inquired if I had a special arrangement with all the aerobics teachers in town. In both cases the improved flexibility came from using the trunk of the body more efficiently, rather than attempting only to stretch tendons and muscles of the limbs. They had also learned to relax chronically contracted antagonistic muscles which were limiting movement and causing them to become “muscle-bound” after their workout.
Although my practice in Washington, D.C. was primarily with healthy adults who came for management of stress and chronic muscle tension, I have also worked with people with various disorders of the neuro-muscular system such as stroke, ataxia and cerebral palsy. The work has effectively improved their balance in walking and given them confidence to attempt activities that they avoided out of fear of failure and possible embarrassment.
A six-year-old boy with ataxia confided in me that his dream was to climb a tree like his classmates. After he learned to relax the shortened hamstring and musculature of his contracted left leg, his gait improved considerably. In a few weeks he could climb up the tree, and in another week he could also climb down, which is harder. He progressed to jumping, standing on his head and other activities that his increasing self-confidence prompted him to try. He got very interested in the idea of his muscles directing his bones and told me he could almost see his muscles riding a bicycle.
This method of imagining the body kinesthetically in movement is an important component of the Feldenkrais Method. People with partial or complete paralysis can use their good side to teach the other side to move. In Awareness Through Movements classes we often do the movement on one side only. On the opposite side we simply imagine in minute detail how it felt to actually do it. Students often find that the learning transfers from one side of the brain to the other, and that the side which only imagined the movement can perform better than the other.
Learning can also take place on a strictly neuro-muscular level, with no conscious understanding of what is taking place. After six months of my working with an eight-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who doesn’t speak, her nurse and teachers noticed a dramatic improvement in her balance, the sensory ability of the affected right side and her ability to relate to others. With her, all the teaching and learning has been non-verbal, through gentle touching, to which the child responds very well.
As a practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method, I enjoy the freedom I have in determining how to work with a particular client and the variety of human functions that it can effectively improve. Moshe’s philosophy is that what we do is not so important as how we do it. I am very pleased to be involved in a profession which encourages my own personal growth through continually exploring the “how of doing” as I help my students live better lives.
Suze Angel, M.A. is a Fulbright Scholar and an authorized Feldenkrais∗ practitioner. Suze was disabled by a fall and rehabilitated herself completely through a four year professional training program with Moshe Feldenkrais, the originator of this unique and much acclaimed method of body/mind integration.
Read more…
I think everyone remembers their first vision quest so vividly because it marks such a dramatic shift in their experience on the spiritual path. Before I attempted my first quest in 1982, I had already been on a very disciplined and focused spiritual path for over ten years. I had already done long fasting and taken long spiritual retreats. Couple this background with a lifetime love of nature and time spent out of doors and I felt I was primed for the quest experience.
However, my previous spiritual training had left me unprepared for the quest. It had taught me much about transcending the physical dimension by rising to an expanded awareness. I could enter this expanded spiritual awareness easily, however that ease seemed not to make a difference to my day to day experience and action. I had begun to feel a curious but definite split within myself. After first wondering whether it was some bizarre aberration within my own experience I began to think that the split was a result of the nature of the spiritual path I had been following, a path so focused on transcendence.
Every one of us is a duality, one part physical and personal, and one part spiritual essence. By and large, my previous spiritual path sought to enliven the spiritual side of my nature by focusing on transcendence. However, this created a gulf between the physical and spiritual sides of myself. This seemed to be true for others as well. The more we practiced spiritual techniques, the wider the gap grew and we actually become more unbalanced than we were before we started. Today, there are seekers who have been on the spiritual path for many years who hold a great deal of light in their hearts, but their personal lives are still dominated by emotional distress, anger, and fear.
The vision quest originates a different path to spirit. Instead of seeking spiritual growth through ascension and transcendence, it derives its power through the process of descent into and through the physical. Simply being a small circle without food or distraction, leaves us only the environment around us and ourselves for our awareness to dance within.
We descend into our physical/mental/emotional self and gain deep, though sometimes uncomfortable, understanding and clarity. Then, we descend further into the natural world and the power and importance of our connection there. Finally we drop below the physical veneer into the subtle rhythms of life itself and are expanded into the universal spiritual consciousness. The path of the quest, then, leaves us grounded and embodied, as the ground and the body have become the pathway into spirit.
However, at the start of this first quest, I only dimly intuited these things. I was struggling to articulate them. I did believe that the unique nature of the quest would open to me the experience of insight and vision into the directions I should, or would, be following in my life. Because I felt very stuck in my life, I needed that awareness badly. Paradoxically, I approached this first quest with a certain cockiness. From within the framework of my past experience, I expected it to be easy. However, it turned out to be, in many ways, the hardest thing I had ever done.
Our quest protector was Tom Brown, Jr., author and leader of the world’s largest wilderness awareness and survival school. He explained that this quest had been passed to him through his teacher, Stalking Wolf, an Apache elder and shaman. He warned us that our task would be daunting. For indigenous peoples, the entrance to the quest was far easier than we would face. They lived close to the earth and were familiar with her rhythms, her voices. For them, it was a few short steps into the quest. Modern peoples, stepping out from busy lives in a culture steeped in almost constant, frenetic action, would have a much longer journey into the purity of the wilderness. He said that the challenge would be great.
However, his strongest warning was about the greatest challenge we would encounter, and that would be the coming face to face with ourselves. He said that most of modern life distracted us from that encounter but when we remove all distraction, as we do in the vision quest, we can no longer avoid it. We see all the way to the core of our heart, all illusion is stripped away. When he told us that, I felt fear at his words because I felt sure that I would succumb to all the darkness that I sensed behind my quiet presence.
Those four days and nights I spent in my quest circle, turned out to be one of the hardest things I had ever done, but I was hooked. It temporarily stripped me of all the knowledge and information I had gained along my spiritual path and forced me to confront the truth of who I was, and to see both what I had, and had not, accomplished along my way. It foretold of a hope of healing and showed me the pathway. It cut through the dogma and the conceptual so prevalent in modern spirituality, and brought me face to face with myself.
I found that the path of the vision quest opens both personal and spiritual vision and insight to us. Through descent, we ourselves, and then nature, become the pathway for us to approach the spiritual heart of life. As we walk this path we find that we are able to carry our spiritual awareness within our humanness. Our thoughts and feelings become inspired and purified by the visions, both personal and universal, that have touched and transformed our hearts and minds. Within this experience our awareness becomes seamless, it fills into the dark places within ourselves, shedding light and personal insight. It fills in our connections with the natural world with deep understanding and feeling, and we expand into the sacred spiritual realms. In other words, the vision quest can heal the essential human split between the physical and spiritual, rather than making it wider.
I was blessed and I have been blessed with many grand visions over the years, not the least of which was to become a quest protector. I have now guided over a thousand people to Grandfather, Stalking Wolf’s vision of the quest. In that first quest, a commitment was born that has spanned over 18 years and included approximately 30 quests of various lengths. I found a path that could bring me home, and I have stuck with it.
Coaching In My Life.
Coaching is a way of being, a way of communicating, a way of living. It is choosing in every moment to listen or speak or do something based on what I am committed to, not just on what I am thinking or feeling. Coaching is choosing to be powerful and vulnerable at the same time.
When I am being a coach I am being me. I am being a woman who is passionate about making a difference in every conversation I have, every action that I take.
I am honest when I admit that I don’t always want to do the work or even think that I can do it. But I am willing to do it anyway and take the risk of looking foolish or inadequate.
In coaching, I am using the gifts that I have been given and the lessons I have learned. It starts within myself, with being aware of my thoughts and hearing my heart as I awaken and experience each moment of the day.
Some days my first thoughts are what I did not do yesterday or some unpleasant feelings I’m having about someone. I feel heavy and burdened. I feel like lying on the couch and not doing anything. I ask, “Who cares and what does it matter anyway?”
I am recalling one of those days, feeling depressed. Then a thought arrives. It says, “Amy (my daughter) needs a math tutor.” My heart sounds out how much
I love my daughter and how much I want her to have the education that can give her choices in life.
I am fully present to how I will do whatever it takes to provide her with whatever she needs. I am now conscious of what I am committed to. I quickly review what’s been accomplished. I see what is missing.
I jump off the couch and start jamming around the house to get ready for the day. Then the phone rings. My accountant never received the paperwork needed to prepare my tax form. I go into panic. As my thoughts come fast and furious, Amy yells out something from the other room. I look down at my schedule and see that I have an appointment in twenty minutes.
As I start to race, the coach in me says, “Stop!” I sit, listen and breathe. In the space of a minute, I connect with what I am here to accomplish, and with joy of being given so much richness in my life. I go talk with Amy, then gather my paperwork and get on with my day.
I am so grateful to have the distinction and power of conscious thinking, honest emotions and creative actions in my life. Coaching has been instrumental in bringing this out in me.
Coaching is a process of shifting from knowing the answer to asking questions. It is asking what are you committed to? What are the facts? What is missing? What would be possible if you include that which is missing?
Coaching is bringing out the best in ourselves and in others. When we hear what is truly wanted and needed, we can uncover the most effective way to get there.
A coach is someone who is more committed to a person’s fulfillment than to his or her comfort with the status quo. In order for coaches to do their work, there must be a desire for coaching and a clear project at hand. The request for coaching can only be made when we are ready to make the changes that will take us out of the box where we have kept ourselves.
The times that I make the biggest difference in my own life and in those around me are when I choose to act based on a commitment, not on what feels easy. I risk telling the truth. The truth oftentimes brings up difficult thoughts and feelings. I must be willing to confront these before the truth can do its work of setting me free.
I must be prepared to deal with whatever shows up. I use coaching principles of listening, of stating the facts, of acknowledging what’s been accomplished, and being open to what’s possible.
The power of commitment which coaching brings out in me gives me the discipline to do my mental, physical, emotional and spiritual exercises.
The joy and peace that is the result of this work gives me the possibility of serving my purpose, and of choosing happiness in the moment no matter what the circumstance.
Having a coach in my corner has given me a way to consistently know and live my purpose. I have especially been thankful for coaching when I am starting and completing major projects and transitions.
Coaching can make all the difference when we take on the job that we are to do and allow for all of the support that is available.
Eileen Joyce
Read more…
WALK ACROSS THE WORLD is a worldwide coordinated program bringing spiritual and community leaders, children and adults into global collaboration to 'Walk for Tolerance & Understanding’. Walker’s distances will be logged throughout the year to culminate annually on October 2nd. Our goal is to have the combined total distance covered on all the walks in a year’s time equal the circumference of our Earth, some 24,800 miles.
One especially fun part of the Living Wellness mission is educating children. In the tradition of great naturalists like, Thoreau and Emerson, great humanitarians such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, we encourage all who walk to take conscious steps upon the living earth. Many inner- city children have been limited in their interaction with Nature, so the Living Wellness walks provide a special opportunity for them to commune with the great outdoors and appreciate life itself from a whole new perspective.
We encourage children, young people and adults to share about their special walks in writing and on video by posting their work on livingwellness.com and having them blog about their most moving experiences. We look together at all the important traditions of walks in many different cultures the world over, such as the El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage through Spain, the ‘Walk-Abouts’ of Australian Aboriginals, the sacred temple walks of ancient Japan, and the Bhuto movement journey, the Johnny Appleseed walk of service to Nature, the ‘On Walden Pond’ poetic naturalist appreciation walk, the many walks for many worthwhile causes, and even to Health and Sports style Walkathons and Olympic Speed-walking. What style of walk will you try? -…maybe one from another culture? Walk and share your story; add in your mileage! Walk with your friends and community in common purpose for a higher cause. Make new walking friends in different countries, exchange your stories and videos on livingwellness.com Ultimately, our Walks together create an expanded awareness of global unity, cultural understanding and mutual respect.
Read more…
If Jung's theory that a "reservoir of the experiences of our species" actually exists, then the morphogenetic field is where this knowledge resides. Sheldrake's theory postulates that these fields contain a sort of "universal database" of human intelligence that is shared amongst all living beings.
This knowledge is necessary for beings to not only exist, but also to evolve. For example, 200 years ago, it took nearly a week for a child to learn how to ride a bicycle. Since then, generations of children have learned this ability. As a result, the imprint of that knowledge has carried into humankind's morphogenetic field so that now it typically takes a child only a few hours to master the balance needed to ride a bike.
Since 1998, the GCP has monitored 50 diode machines around the globe in an effort to determine if the consciousness of mankind actually exists. Through the use of white noise signals, these machines are believed to have the ability to measure if the morphogenetic field is influenced by our behaviors, our interactions with other beings or even the occurrence of tragic world events.
For example, each time there has been a tragedy that arouses collective world mourning, such as Princess Diana's death and 9/11, the diodes have registered an interruption in the random, yet statistical, pattern that exists when the world is in harmony.
Fascinatingly, these disturbances have been detected hours before the event even happened. For example, all 50 diodes worldwide simultaneously registered a disturbance in the morphogenetic field five hours before the first airplane crashed into the World Trade Center. Researchers for the GCP believe this is most likely the time the terrorists put their long-planned attack into motion.
The scientific proof of the connective link between all living beings and the morphogenetic field has the potential to radically change the 21st century. If we truly have a constant impact not only on each other, but on future generations and the health of our world, our responsibility as humans may have just been ratcheted up a few notches.
