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06/07/2002 Archived Entry: "6/7/02 Spiritually oriented activist communities"

I met with Van Jones yesterday, reviewing the recent COF workshop, and discussing what’s up next for COF. I am very grateful to be working with him and to have Van as a friend. My life feels very rich these days with respect to friends and associates with whom to do the work.

At our last board (more or less) meeting, we had agreed that COF does not have the staff or means to support the growth of local COF groups. At the time, I accepted that decision with a certain sense of relief, as I felt somewhat overwhelmed by the prospect to trying to provide that support. But, when I met with Bernie Glassman from Peacemakers, we wound up sharing our goals and aspirations, along with why we wanted to do what we aspire to.

In that conversation, it became clear to me that I firmly believe that world needs some organization to create a network of spiritually oriented activist communities. This does not mean communities in which people physically live together, although it would certainly be good if there were such places, but, rather, where people who lived in proximity to one another could get together on a regular basis to provide support and networking to one another.

In order to create the shift in consciousness that the world needs for humanity to survive and thrive, we need to create and place before humanity a new and profoundly attractive way of life. This way of life must represent an integration of our collective aspirations. Living impeccably with respect to the environment, in community with others. Having regular times and places to share hopes and fears, to sing and dance, to pray, do yoga, and meditate. To be able to share projects together, to be able to ask for and offer help freely. To learn and train together. And to have the governance and networking skills to meet on local, regional, national and international levels.

Certainly, we do not have adequate staff, or even the requisite skills to do all of the above. Yet, as far as I can see, that is the work. And, if that is the work, then we must get the funding to build the staff we need, and must explore various cutting edge governance techniques, until we find, learn, or create a workable governance system.

I will share the above with our Board, which we are still in the process of putting together, and see what we all have to say. Then, I will be leaving for Summer Solstice. I pray that I may use the time to get more deeply in touch with my higher self, and that I might leave Solstice with a clearly articulated plan for a daily practice that will keep me more deeply attuned with my higher self.

The times require those of us who wish to serve humanity to overcome our inner obstacles and bring our full beings to the plate. With our sense of mission fully present, having let go of our egos, and our intuition functioning at the highest possible level. We need to be in that place of flow, where when we identify what is needed for the work, and open ourselves to receiving abundance, then it manifests.

Does the above seem too "soft," too "new-age," to you? If so, I must share with you (though how to do so is a question) that things are subtler than they seem. Most people think that yoga is a form of physical exercise. Some think it is a cultic thing, associated with this or that lifestyle. But, at its root, yoga is the art and science of understanding the flow of one’s consciousness, of controlling the mind to serve ones higher self.