In a world with Barack Obama and Eckart Tolle
By Susan Ellis of keylifejourneys
I decided to wait a while before putting my thoughts to paper regarding the Barack Obama inauguration. I wanted to savor the memory. Since that event, Eckart Tolle, author of "The Power of Now" and "A New Earth," has been in Toronto speaking at Roy Thomson Hall. From this Master's books I've learned how much this life is lived under the control of the ego. That part of self which only survives in an environment which has opposites, creating separation and division. Only by living with contrasts can we appreciate the difference between love and fear, hot and cold, light and dark. We make judgments as to what is "good" and what is "bad;" who are friends and who are enemies. Once we have made those judgments we argue for then to become truth. But judgments are only opinions; they can never be truth or fact. They are the beliefs we feel we need to live by. They are the beliefs we defend when opposed and will kill to maintain. I'm trying to move myself from living a "them and us" lifestyle.
It is hard, but I focus on the "we are all one" mantra. I am trying to distance myself from belief in my privilege and entitlement -so prevalent today. You know the attitude - If I want to drive a Hummer, no one is going to stop me driving a Hummer. There would be no fun if I drove a cheaper fuel efficient car and gave the money I saved to UNICEF so that a kid could get a mosquito net or clean drinking water. Clean drinking water - what's that to us - we just use it to wash the Hummer. Our behaviour and attitudes will always impact on another's life. We are all interconnected, interdependent, one. It is the chatter in my head that keeps me apart. With every inspiration of breath I reunite with the universe. By focusing on this moment I can experience what is real.
So I think back to the Sunday concert at the Lincoln Centre which was the kick off celebration for the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
Before the TV cameras started rolling showing the concert to the world, the Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, gave the opening blessing. Most of the world never heard it. I'm going to quote this masterful piece of work.
"O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…
Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist
on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are
beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from
malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.
Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against
refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual
and transgender people.
Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic "answers" we've
preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about
ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise
to the challenges of the future.
Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us
will be "fixed" anytime soon, and the understanding that our new
president is a human being, not a messiah.
Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must
always be balanced with those of the world.
Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine
respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that
in our diversity, we are stronger.
Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every
religion's God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in
the human community, whether across town or across the world.
And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the
office of President of the United States.
Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln's
reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy's ability to enlist our
best efforts, and Dr. King's dream of a nation for ALL the people.
Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm
captain in these times.
Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated
to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the
challenges ahead.
Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his
leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United
States.
Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that
experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of
those who are still its victims.
Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him
remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot
at his daughters' childhoods.
And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our
presidents, and we're asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk
he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and
great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he
might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in
this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a
nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.
AMEN"
This is the same Gene Robinson who had to wear a bullet proof vest during his consecration as a bishop to protect him from conservative clerics. He is gay.
I keep reading his words over and over. They talk of opening our hearts to diversity and compassion. To come from a place of gratitude not arrogance and to respect that god means different things to different people. Something Barack Obama reiterated in his inaugural address.
"We are a nation of Christians and Moslems, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers." Obama faces reality, yet they are considered radical words by the intolerant.
Obama also said "We cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself."
Here is a man attempting to mould a new conception of the world where instead of focusing on our differences, we search for our common ground.
He put that on symbolic display when the Rev Rick Warren gave the invocation on inauguration Day. Rick Warren is a divisive man known more for polarizing people than bringing them together. He fought so hard to make Proposition 8 in California succeed, so denying the previously held right of Gays and Lesbians to marry. His selection was considered a slap in the face to the gay community. But Rick Warren also fights for literacy and education for the marginalized and against world poverty and disease (including HIV/AIDS). He is active in the fight against global warming often putting himself at odds with his conservative buddies. Let's look at some of the words of this controversial man of the cloth.
"Give to our new president, Barack Obama, the wisdom to lead us with humility, the courage to lead us with integrity, the compassion to lead us with generosity. Bless and protect him, his family...
…Help us oh God, to remember that we are Americans. United not by race or religion or by blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all. When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you, forgive us. When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone, forgive us. When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us. And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches and civility in our attitudes--even when we differ.
Help us to share, to serve and to seek the common good of all. May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet."
I'm not going to be cynical and believe that he can say these words purely because he feels gay and lesbians are not the fellow human beings of which he speaks. I am going to say that the words were sincere and Obama's way of looking at the world rubs off on him. Obama sees that he can respect people of various beliefs and attitudes when he can find their common values. Maybe we will find some peace in the world with this concept. Generally we look for the things that separate and divide us. We search out ways to show we are better than an other; that our god is more powerful than another.. you get the drift.
The statement that caused me to hold my breath that Obama made in his speech was
"We will extend a hand if you are willing unclench your fist."
Again radical words.
Over the last few years the US has had a gun in its hand when facing clenched fists. Acts of reprisal and retribution boycotting and laying siege are all acts destined to make fists close tighter.
There is wisdom in the words of Neal Donald Walsch from Conversations with God, Book 1 -
"All attack is a cry for help."
I believe it comes from a place of weakness and pain, not strength and confidence. Or maybe we just haven't matured enough to attempt to settle our differences in good faith.
The final religious leader, Rev (Dr) Joseph Lawery, gave the Benediction at the end of the Inauguration. His words included these -
"We truly give thanks for the glorious experience we've shared this day. We pray now, O Lord, for your blessing upon thy servant, Barack Obama, the 44th president of these United States, his family and his administration. He has come to this high office at a low moment in the national and, indeed, the global fiscal climate. But because we know you got the whole world in your hand, we pray for not only our nation, but for the community of nations. Our faith does not shrink, though pressed by the flood of mortal ills.
For we know that, Lord, you're able and you're willing to work through faithful leadership to restore stability, mend our brokenness, heal our wounds and deliver us from the exploitation of the poor or the least of these and from favoritism toward the rich, the elite of these.
We thank you for the empowering of thy servant, our 44th president, to inspire our nation to believe that, yes, we can work together to achieve a more perfect union. And while we have sown the seeds of greed -- the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other.
And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance."
When the world is filled with drama, angst and pain it implores us to join the dance. It asks us to lower our joyful frequency, ever emitting from us, to wallow in it's "hour of discontent." The common energy draws us in to be part of the vicious circle of destructive thoughts which become destructive behaviors.
Although we are asked to join that dance we are also being pleaded with to be the one to turn the music off. Many who are in the drama thrive from being there. Others know it is harmful and want to be removed from it but don't know how. They need a role model, a guide, someone who is standing still and not dancing. Still to slow down others, still to wait for the universal breath to be in unison. Waiting to hear the sigh that proclaims peace at last.
Barack Obama, for his inauguration, brought three very different purveyors of religious doctrine to the same table. They all found their common ground and invited us to learn the steps of a new dance or the words of a new song. The place where they are to be found is already known to Eckart Tolle and he says
"Pay attention not just to the words, but to the silent spaces between the words…that's where the shift happens."
I decided to wait a while before putting my thoughts to paper regarding the Barack Obama inauguration. I wanted to savor the memory. Since that event, Eckart Tolle, author of "The Power of Now" and "A New Earth," has been in Toronto speaking at Roy Thomson Hall. From this Master's books I've learned how much this life is lived under the control of the ego. That part of self which only survives in an environment which has opposites, creating separation and division. Only by living with contrasts can we appreciate the difference between love and fear, hot and cold, light and dark. We make judgments as to what is "good" and what is "bad;" who are friends and who are enemies. Once we have made those judgments we argue for then to become truth. But judgments are only opinions; they can never be truth or fact. They are the beliefs we feel we need to live by. They are the beliefs we defend when opposed and will kill to maintain. I'm trying to move myself from living a "them and us" lifestyle.
It is hard, but I focus on the "we are all one" mantra. I am trying to distance myself from belief in my privilege and entitlement -so prevalent today. You know the attitude - If I want to drive a Hummer, no one is going to stop me driving a Hummer. There would be no fun if I drove a cheaper fuel efficient car and gave the money I saved to UNICEF so that a kid could get a mosquito net or clean drinking water. Clean drinking water - what's that to us - we just use it to wash the Hummer. Our behaviour and attitudes will always impact on another's life. We are all interconnected, interdependent, one. It is the chatter in my head that keeps me apart. With every inspiration of breath I reunite with the universe. By focusing on this moment I can experience what is real.
So I think back to the Sunday concert at the Lincoln Centre which was the kick off celebration for the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
Before the TV cameras started rolling showing the concert to the world, the Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, gave the opening blessing. Most of the world never heard it. I'm going to quote this masterful piece of work.
"O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…
Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist
on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are
beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from
malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.
Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against
refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual
and transgender people.
Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic "answers" we've
preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about
ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise
to the challenges of the future.
Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us
will be "fixed" anytime soon, and the understanding that our new
president is a human being, not a messiah.
Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must
always be balanced with those of the world.
Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine
respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that
in our diversity, we are stronger.
Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every
religion's God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in
the human community, whether across town or across the world.
And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the
office of President of the United States.
Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln's
reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy's ability to enlist our
best efforts, and Dr. King's dream of a nation for ALL the people.
Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm
captain in these times.
Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated
to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the
challenges ahead.
Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his
leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United
States.
Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that
experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of
those who are still its victims.
Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him
remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot
at his daughters' childhoods.
And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our
presidents, and we're asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk
he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and
great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he
might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in
this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a
nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.
AMEN"
This is the same Gene Robinson who had to wear a bullet proof vest during his consecration as a bishop to protect him from conservative clerics. He is gay.
I keep reading his words over and over. They talk of opening our hearts to diversity and compassion. To come from a place of gratitude not arrogance and to respect that god means different things to different people. Something Barack Obama reiterated in his inaugural address.
"We are a nation of Christians and Moslems, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers." Obama faces reality, yet they are considered radical words by the intolerant.
Obama also said "We cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself."
Here is a man attempting to mould a new conception of the world where instead of focusing on our differences, we search for our common ground.
He put that on symbolic display when the Rev Rick Warren gave the invocation on inauguration Day. Rick Warren is a divisive man known more for polarizing people than bringing them together. He fought so hard to make Proposition 8 in California succeed, so denying the previously held right of Gays and Lesbians to marry. His selection was considered a slap in the face to the gay community. But Rick Warren also fights for literacy and education for the marginalized and against world poverty and disease (including HIV/AIDS). He is active in the fight against global warming often putting himself at odds with his conservative buddies. Let's look at some of the words of this controversial man of the cloth.
"Give to our new president, Barack Obama, the wisdom to lead us with humility, the courage to lead us with integrity, the compassion to lead us with generosity. Bless and protect him, his family...
…Help us oh God, to remember that we are Americans. United not by race or religion or by blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all. When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you, forgive us. When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone, forgive us. When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us. And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches and civility in our attitudes--even when we differ.
Help us to share, to serve and to seek the common good of all. May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet."
I'm not going to be cynical and believe that he can say these words purely because he feels gay and lesbians are not the fellow human beings of which he speaks. I am going to say that the words were sincere and Obama's way of looking at the world rubs off on him. Obama sees that he can respect people of various beliefs and attitudes when he can find their common values. Maybe we will find some peace in the world with this concept. Generally we look for the things that separate and divide us. We search out ways to show we are better than an other; that our god is more powerful than another.. you get the drift.
The statement that caused me to hold my breath that Obama made in his speech was
"We will extend a hand if you are willing unclench your fist."
Again radical words.
Over the last few years the US has had a gun in its hand when facing clenched fists. Acts of reprisal and retribution boycotting and laying siege are all acts destined to make fists close tighter.
There is wisdom in the words of Neal Donald Walsch from Conversations with God, Book 1 -
"All attack is a cry for help."
I believe it comes from a place of weakness and pain, not strength and confidence. Or maybe we just haven't matured enough to attempt to settle our differences in good faith.
The final religious leader, Rev (Dr) Joseph Lawery, gave the Benediction at the end of the Inauguration. His words included these -
"We truly give thanks for the glorious experience we've shared this day. We pray now, O Lord, for your blessing upon thy servant, Barack Obama, the 44th president of these United States, his family and his administration. He has come to this high office at a low moment in the national and, indeed, the global fiscal climate. But because we know you got the whole world in your hand, we pray for not only our nation, but for the community of nations. Our faith does not shrink, though pressed by the flood of mortal ills.
For we know that, Lord, you're able and you're willing to work through faithful leadership to restore stability, mend our brokenness, heal our wounds and deliver us from the exploitation of the poor or the least of these and from favoritism toward the rich, the elite of these.
We thank you for the empowering of thy servant, our 44th president, to inspire our nation to believe that, yes, we can work together to achieve a more perfect union. And while we have sown the seeds of greed -- the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other.
And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance."
When the world is filled with drama, angst and pain it implores us to join the dance. It asks us to lower our joyful frequency, ever emitting from us, to wallow in it's "hour of discontent." The common energy draws us in to be part of the vicious circle of destructive thoughts which become destructive behaviors.
Although we are asked to join that dance we are also being pleaded with to be the one to turn the music off. Many who are in the drama thrive from being there. Others know it is harmful and want to be removed from it but don't know how. They need a role model, a guide, someone who is standing still and not dancing. Still to slow down others, still to wait for the universal breath to be in unison. Waiting to hear the sigh that proclaims peace at last.
Barack Obama, for his inauguration, brought three very different purveyors of religious doctrine to the same table. They all found their common ground and invited us to learn the steps of a new dance or the words of a new song. The place where they are to be found is already known to Eckart Tolle and he says
"Pay attention not just to the words, but to the silent spaces between the words…that's where the shift happens."
Posted by Key Life Journey's Blog at 2/2/2009 10:19 PM 
Categories: opinions and thoughts
Tags: Barack Obama A New Earth The Power of Now Eckart Tolle Gene Robinson
Categories: opinions and thoughts
Tags: Barack Obama A New Earth The Power of Now Eckart Tolle Gene Robinson
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