08/26/2010

Manifesto of Peace: A prose poem

Heart Light
© Pamir Kiciman 2010
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We are a community of men, women and children.
We live, breathe and exist together in our community.
Our community is our home, even though we also have a roof over our own family.
Gathered under such roofs, we form neighborhoods.
We leave our neighborhood in the morning and return to it in the evening.
What is good for us is good for the community.
To protect our own is to protect the community.
What is best for the family is equally good for the community.

We are fond of boundaries.
Me, myself, my family, home, country.
My goods and future.
My health. My food. My money.
My beliefs and views.
Me. Mine. My own.

It’s natural to love one’s own.
It’s natural to shelter one’s own.
It’s natural to care more about your own.

Then again, we fight with our families and ourselves more often than with others.

Community is inside as well as outside.
Community is a state of mind.

Our state of mind is our first community.
It’s from our mind and heart that we decide how much to blame others.
Blame others for our own troubles.
If in our heart and mind we would find peace, we would find peace in our relationship with all people.

Relationship is a fact of life.
There are those we want to be with and those we have to be with.
We are in relation with others in many ways.
Our thoughts, feelings, needs, money, beliefs, views put us in touch with others.
These others are individuals, and groups of individuals that function as companies, institutions and governments.
There is a web of life. The stranger we see at the bank has similar relations.

We also share the web of life with Nature and its lifeforms.

The tree’s shade and a pet’s warmth are cherished. Wheat and oranges nourish us.
We relax and play at the beach. The web exists so that life works.

Are you ever angry at an apple you enjoy?

What makes us angry with people whether they are those we want to be with or those we have to be with?

Anger disappears when we share instead of hoard.
Anger disappears when we see that our family is similar to another’s family.
Anger disappears when we notice that the fruit tree that feeds us, feeds a child whose name we may not even know.
The same cotton that we wear is on someone else’s back, the same material on our feet protects another’s feet,
and the same steel that makes our car makes the neighbor’s car.

The sun shines on us all equally.

Peace appears when we emphasize similarities.
Peace appears when we honor natural variety.
Peace appears when we realize that everyone seeks the love we seek.
Peace appears when we accept that health; happiness and financial security are available to us as a human right and not at the expense of another.
Peace is seen in the web of life when we tell our fear to grow up!

There’s not a single person who doesn’t want the basics of life that we want.
These basics include tangible things as well as success, happiness, health, acknowledgment and fulfillment.
Since we have to participate in life in similar ways to attain similar results, is it not more productive to join efforts?
Is it not more powerful to manifest dreams with collaboration rather than competition?
Who wins when one person or group wins? Only that person or group and everyone else are losers.

Who’s the loser when everyone wins? The obstacles!

Obstacles are created by us and can be uncreated by changing our heart and mind.
For that we simply need willingness and reason.
Reason shows us that cooperation brings results.
Willingness takes us into our heart and mind where we develop flexibility and compassion.
When reason is coupled with forgiveness, we have a winning formula for social and personal success.

Let us remember that the formula of reason plus forgiveness has to be applied by citizen and leader alike.
Afterall, a leader is a citizen and a citizen is a leader.
Those who are elected or rise to prominence in some way are sanctioned as leaders, yet their power is in the hands of the people.

Forgiving leaders paves the path to start afresh.
Leaders returning that trust with sincerity and unwavering commitment, solidify the path.
People taking a real interest and becoming active with the power they have completes the shared responsibility of community.
Then everyone is on the same path, heading to unity and a better life for all.

Pain, grudges, disappointment, injustice, prejudice, lack of opportunity, education or housing, poverty, ill-health as well as all the other challenges of life, and the real solutions for these are the responsibility of every single member of society.

We are the only ones who can bring order to chaos.

We are the only ones who can bring peace to conflict.

We are the only ones who can bring sanity to anger and hatred.

We are the only ones who can correct errors.

We are the only ones who can heal wounds.

We are the only ones who can monitor each other for the good of all.

We are the only ones who can use reason to see that the web of life is inclusive and not exclusive.

We are the only ones who can forgive and move on.

The past keeps us in the past. The future is ours to live. The present is where we act, assert and voice our common vision.

Mother, father, child, business owner, politician, teacher, student, professional and unemployed, WE populate our communities.

We are the only ones who can make it a place worth living.

We are the only ones who can create a new history.

We are the only ones who can

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To see more of Pamir’s meaning-making photography, visit his photoblog.

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12/23/2008

Subtle and not so subtle activism

Heart handsThe Holidays inspire charitable giving and care for others. These days there are so many ways to give. Recently two Twitter-driven causes brought this point home. One was an effort by Epic Change to raise enough funds in 48 hours to build a new school in Tanzania. With a separate site setup called TweetsGiving, Epic Change was able to raise $11.131 in 48 hours with a simple #tweetsgiving tag driving traffic to the donations site and the power of retweeting! And it was also a micro-giving effort with only $10 being asked of each donor. Of course some gave more. Kudos to @sanjspatel and @StaceyMonk.

Another micro-donating effort is being lead by @pistachio. She’s only asking for $2 donations to charity: water, an organiztion I wrote about here as part of Blog Action Day. $2 a piece to raise $25.000.

I’m writing this to bring attention to how easy it is today to be charitable, not just seasonally but at any time and how it can be meaningful and not just duty or admonishment. I would also like to speak to a certain thinking that is prevalent in spiritual communities. The thinking goes somewhere along the lines of “change in the material world takes too long; in truth poverty is nonexistent; what you focus on grows; we must work in consciousness to change the paradigm and not reaffirm poverty, but instill the truth of abundance that is our very nature.”

After fifteen years of working directly with consciousnes and spiritual energy, I’m viscerally aware of the power of transformation that originates in the inner planes. This has been called ‘subtle activism’ and it is indeed an approach that many still must adopt. Consciousness is primary, there’s no doubt about that. What changes in consciousness, changes out in the world. Yet my spirituality is a practical one and so I wrote the following open letter and offer it here for your consideration. I also encourage you to visit the links above and participate according to your heart.

We live in the dimension of form. Our origin is elsewhere. We are Spirit manifest in matter. To manifest Spirit fully in matter we have divine tools, and earthly tools. It’s the balanced use of both that brings success.

As the vanguard in subtle activism, we also have to consider how we frame our approach for the mainstream. Remember the tragedy that took place at Columbine High School? At the time many in the spiritual community said things like: “Those who passed chose to do so. They contracted to leave the planet. All is in divine order.”

It’s pretty obvious what the response would be from those parents, peers and school staff who went through that experience, if this was said to their face. It would be perceived as cruel, lofty, unrealistic; there would be backlash and outrage.

The existence of divine order behind seeming tragedies is a truth. That some of us ‘contract’ for certain experiences has truth in it too. But it can’t be said out loud, not until the general consciousness of society has reached at least a modicum of the paradigm that these truths espouse.

And we don’t know specifically what the subtle elements are; perhaps there’s order, perhaps there’s evil, in the act not the doer. Does it all come out in the wash in the end? Perhaps.

Point is, while some of us have an awareness, or even working knowledge of Reality, many are serious about how real reality is to them, and that’s fine. Matter does have a reality. It’s not the ultimate, but knocking your knee on a sharp corner really hurts! Even for us ‘elevated’ types, losing a child is not and should not be a small matter to be rationalized by clinging to our paradigm. We are Spirit and Human. Leaving the Human out of the equation simply doesn’t work.

As humanity finds itself in the midst of many tough and complex challenges, the teamwork of Spirit and matter applies also in the larger context of societal and global improvement. A paradigm shift necessarily takes place in consciousness, but it’s utterly pointless to stop there. That’s equivalent to promising you’ll do something and not doing it. Right thought and speech must be followed by right action.

Recently, Blog Action Day put a lens on Poverty. While it’s true that our true self and the nature of the Universe is like Goddess Lakshmi, i.e., there’s no concept of lack whatsoever, it seems implausible to expect an emaciated, under and malnourished child or mother to be comforted by or even consider this. We don’t live by bread alone but by bread alone do we also live. Even those of us who have the material necessities to be able to put aside time to contemplate and embody the lack of lack, often find that we aren’t able to.

What can be done? Join forces. First feed a hungry belly, then ensure the future supply of food, and then teach the underpinnings of a philosophy that will eradicate hunger permanently if enough people subscribe to and energize it continuously.

We congratulate ourselves too quickly for being the vanguard of a consciousness-molds-matter paradigm. Firstly, there are advanced beings very involved with the Earth plane who have been, since antiquity at least, wielding powerful subtle tools to dawn another higher age. So far it hasn’t quite manifested. When it comes to consciousness shaping matter in the dimension of form there can be considerable lag time. There is also Divine timing.

Secondly, we’re pitiful in our understanding of time. The wisdom of India tell us that the world is created, destroyed and recreated every 4,320,000 years (Maha Yuga). Ours is a materialistic age, the Kali yuga which lasts 432,000 years. While it’s important to vibrate to higher truth and hopefully be wayshowers, it’s equally important to take care of what’s in front of us here and now, because some of this is on a cycle that has its own clock. In the meantime people are starving.

One last point to consider is that when someone perishes from violence or hunger, the entire vibration of that experience remains on the Earth, and travels with that soul on its journey. Inevitably the soul reincarnates, bringing that vibration back into the Earth plane. In its nonphysical journey and when embodied again, this soul specifically passes the vibration of its demise down its bloodline to its family. This happens both in biological DNA and spiritual DNA. Thus there’s a very substantial and chronic vicious circle.

And thus we must join Spirit and matter in addressing all such concerns. Someone can pass over with a full belly or in peace, while the right consciousness emerges in the dust of this Earth. Physical, material action has a huge place in circumventing the vicious cycle as described above, and we are here to serve.

12/17/2008

Submit your wellness values to Obama/Biden Health care team

President-Elect Obama, and Health and Human Services Secretary-Designate Tom Daschle are requesting public commentary during the month of December, as they draft a proposal for health care reform.

This is a prime opportunity to speak out about the importance of holistic health as a vital component of health care reform in the USA. If you’re a Reiki practitioner or maintain your all-around health and wellness through other natural and holistic or integrative ways you may submit your ideas directly at Change.gov in the Health Care Agenda section. Read below for some core ideas that you may want to mention.

First, if Reiki is important to you write as a health care consumer and not as a practitioner. State your preference that Reiki is reimbursed by insurance. Emphasize that you would like to have full access to Reiki Training and healing. Definitely mention that Reiki is already recognized by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the government’s health agency. Make sure that you include a link to the NCCAM’s Reiki Backgrounder.

You may then want to mention any or all of the following, as a way to start changing the health care paradigm:

  1. Health care must promote health and wellness, not merely manage disease.
  2. Preventive care is more than screenings. It includes a positive program of wellness, with a healthy diet, exercise, mental and emotional health, and natural methods that support the body’s inherent self-healing powers.
  3. Health care must include full freedom of choice regarding health care options. Each individual should be free to choose from the full spectrum of health care modalities, without interference from the government restricting particular methods.
  4. We must champion the needs of children in any health care program. Of particular concern is the increasing use of pharmaceutical drugs with children, rather than preventative measures such as good diet, counseling and assistance for at risk-children, and a full spectrum of educational programs that include artistic expression, physical exercise and creative play.
  5. It is a matter of social justice that every citizen have access to basic health care regardless of financial status. However, universal coverage without reforming the way health care is delivered will endanger the economic health of the country. Cost containment is not simply a matter of eliminating waste and profiteering. It also requires a de-emphasis on high-tech “sickness care” and a new emphasis on health promotion.
  6. A diversity of health care options, especially those that are holistic and preventative in nature, would actually lower our nation’s cost for providing universal coverage and result in a far healthier population.
  7. Health care reform means ending medical discrimination against holistic health practices and natural health supplements, to allow truthful health information to be freely given in regard to the health benefits of natural remedies, to allow holistic health practitioners to freely practice without fear of prosecution.
  8. Research funding for the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (National Institutes of Health) should be massively increased.
  9. An Integrative Medicine Advisory panel should be created to advise legislators and policy-makers on ways to bring holistic and integrative medicine practices into any Health Care Reform legislation that is drafted. Such a panel should draw on the expertise of such organizations as the Preventative Medicine Research Institute (Dr. Dean Ornish), the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine (University of California in San Francisco), Duke Integrative Medicine Center, The Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine (San Diego), and other similar centers.

Go ahead and include your bullet points in comments here. The health care debate will go beyond December and we can build a unified set of ideas here, that can be used again and again in future communications with any administration.

In the meantime Click here to share your comments with the Obama/Biden team.

 

 

I credit Richard Katz and Patricia Kaminski for some of the points made here.

04/12/2008

The land owns us

These videos are just too good…

Bob Randall, a Yankunytjatjara elder and traditional owner of Uluru (Ayer’s Rock), explains how the connectedness of every living thing to every other living thing is not just an idea but a way of living. This way includes all beings as part of a vast family and calls us to be responsible for this family and care for the land with unconditional love and responsibility.

03/04/2008

Earth Hour 2008

I just signed up to the new Earth Hour website for 2008 and I thought you might like to take a look and possibly sign up too. Earth Hour is on 29 March 2008 at 8pm, and it looks like it’s going to be really big. So far, as well as Sydney, there’ll also be Chicago, Tel Aviv, Manila, Copenhagen, Melbourne, Brisbane and Toronto all turning off their lights for an hour in the name of preventing global warming. And I’m sure there’ll be more cities by March. Sign up for Earth Hour with me by visiting and join the movement.

Also check out the informational & inspirational video below…