Wisdom Warrior/Spiritual Activist

 ”If not you and me, then who?  If not now, then when?”  Hillel

The testing, challenging times of social upheaval and climate change that we live in with increasing floods, fires, pandemic illness, draughts, institutional and structural racism, ideology of white supremacy and privilege, economic inequity, rampaging consumer capitalism with its emphasis on materialism, militarism, rising political  fundamentalism polarizing various populations against one another,  are all calling for a response that is wise, powerful, and transformational.  Today’s challenges call for Spiritual Activist Wisdom Warriors. 

Warriors of Wisdom battle whatever enemy/opponents rise up within them trying to close their hearts to the love that lives in us all as the essence of our being.  Spiritual Activist Wisdom Warriors are moved by agape love of their fellow beings, by their valuation of justice, peace, equal support and opportunity for all, to bring their love into action in the world.   They call on the warrior archetype but fight with the weapons of skillful communicative skills using the transformational energy of love to shape-shift fear to faith, shadow to illumination, injustice to justice, selfishness to selflessness.  Wisdom Warriors bring love into the world, into all their relations, all their interactions. They act with love,  They act from love.  

Spiritual Activist Wisdom Warriors show up to do the best they can to actually keep the heart open for the flow of infinite, unconditional love, agape love that is who and what they truly are, moving through them going where ever it needs to go in the moment that will help open the doorway for fullest blossoming and greatest good for all.  This is living from spirit.  This is living love. This is walking a spiritual path.  

In these times, given what is called for to transform  fear-based cultures into love-based, healthy, happy, and just ones, is action.   Those of us like myself who seek to walk a spiritual path, those who  all who wish to live an integral life of morality and honor,  we all need to act. We need to bring our gifts into the world to do our part in creating the kind of world that is possible for us to create, one that works for all in a good way.  

 Towards this end it is vital to recognize the importance of dismantling structural racism build into every institution of our society - educational, healthcare, legal-correctional, banking,  and economic, etc.  The institutional racism is built on the ideology  of white supremacy that has been there since the very beginning of this nation.  Overt racist acts are not needed to  continue the system that privileges all those of white skin and discriminates and oppresses people of color on a daily basis. The systems work and will continue to work until enough Spiritual Activist Wisdom Warriors step up to make the changes that need to be made recognizing that to do nothing allows the system to continue on benefitting white people and hurting people of color. 

   Creating a Win-Win-World for All  entails taking ownership of what we as a nation did to  indigenous, black and brown people and what continues to be wrought upon them.  It entails  apology and restorative justice with reparations for all that was taken by violence. This is facing the  shadow  work, on a national level, that is integral with transformational healing. It is foundational in birthing a healthy society for trying to build one without so doing is like erecting a beautiful building atop a  foundation of termite rot and decay. Spiritual Activist Wisdom Warriors hear the call and take action.  

 The “how” of the action is up to the guidance in each person’s heart. It is not about comparing or measuring  our action as good or better or worse than someone else.  It is not a competition  with a winner or loser because we are all losers if we don’t change how we, humanity, are operating at this time for it has brought us into calamitous situations that actually threaten the future existence of our species, as well as many other species that are already dying off at an alarming rate.   

So to all who feel the call of the Spiritual Activist Wisdom Warrior, thank you for the courage it takes to   step up and into the fire as a healer, a peace- worker, some one who stands up for justice, for fairness, for the underdog and the oppressed, for the disadvantaged, doing what the Hawaiian 

 expression Hana Pono calls for - “ Do the right thing”.  Do what is righteous,  what your heart and soul call you to do joining a world-wide team  i call “the Starlight Ohana”, meaning an extended family of light-workers, working cooperatively and  supporting each other in polishing up the light we are to shine more love into the world. 

“Love is the answer.  Love is the key.  Love is the healer.  Let love flow through me.  Let love flow through thee.  Let love flow through we. Let love flow - Ya-wee!”

Remember,  the only time you can experience  whatever you want to experience is right now.  Spiritual 

Activist Wisdom Warriors know this and show up to Live Love Now. 

May it be so for increasing numbers around the world but it always has to start with you, here and now, this day, this holy breath. May it be so!

All Blessings. 

love, tomás

A sacred illness

 

A sacred illness is one that educates us and alters us from the inside out, provides experiences and therefore knowledge that we could not possibly achieve in any other way.

DEENA METZGER

Realize the infinite value of each moment of your own life as well as other beings...

 

Awakening is to realize the infinite value of each moment of your own life as well as other beings, then continue to act accordingly.

KAZUAKI TANAHASHI

ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS

 

Vibes are action, I love those GOOD VIBES I get from you ALL thanks for helping me FEEL GOOD!

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, 

but people will never forget how you made them feel."

                       Maya Angelou"

Stardust combined with Earth dust..."Dust to Dust"....

 

Be humble for you are made of Earth. Be noble for you are made of stars.

SERBIAN PROVERB

We have the numbers:

 

We may feel as weak as mice nibbling at the world’s fetters. But we are many. The fetters must snap.

BR. DAVID STEINDL-RAST

The most precious inheritance that parents can give

 

The most precious inheritance that parents can give their children is their own happiness.

THICH NHAT HANH

My anger serves my passion, my passion for peace serves the world.

 I embrace my anger, and utilize the energy of it for my peaceful purposes.

“Anger is like a howling baby, suffering and crying. The baby needs his mother to embrace him. You are the mother for your baby, your anger. The moment you begin to practice breathing mindfully in and out, you have the energy of a mother, to cradle and embrace the baby. Just embracing your anger, just breathing in and breathing out, that is good enough. The baby will feel relief right away. All”

― Thich Nhat Hanh, Anger

Just to be is a blessing.

 

Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.

RABBI ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL

NOW, one can start to improve the world.

 

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

ANNE FRANK In 1940, after Germany invaded the Netherlands, Anne and her family couldn’t leave the country, so they decided to hide in a warehouse in an attempt to escape the persecution of Jews by the Nazis.For over two years, Anne wrote in her diary with an awareness that was extremely mature for her age. She detailed her experiences and insights while she and her family were in hiding, living in a constant fear of being arrested. Anne Frank’s diary is a record of her understanding of the war, and showcases her incredible storytelling abilities in such horrific circumstances.In 1944, the Franks were found and sent to concentration camps. Anne died before she turned 16, and her father, Otto Frank, was the only family member to survive the Holocaust. After the War, Otto returned to Amsterdam, where he found his daughter’s diary and later published it as The Diary of a Young Girl. Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.  No one has ever become poor by giving.  Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.  The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God.  I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.  People can tell you to keep your mouth shut, but that doesn’t stop you from having your own opinion.  In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit.  Where there’s hope, there’s life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again.  Whoever is happy will make others happy.  Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness.  As long as this exists, this sunshine and this cloudless sky, and as long as I can enjoy it, how can I be sad?  There’s only one rule you need to remember: laugh at everything and forget everybody else! It sound egotistical, but it’s actually the only cure for those suffering from self-pity.  Those who have courage and faith shall never perish in misery.  The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!  Dead people receive more flowers than the living ones because regret is stronger than gratitude.  Sympathy, love, fortune… We all have these qualities but still tend to not use them!  I can’t imagine how anyone can say: ‘I’m weak’, and then remain so. After all, if you know it, why not fight against it, why not try to train your character?  I think it’s odd that grown-ups quarrel so easily and so often and about such petty matters. Up to now I always thought bickering was just something children did and that they outgrew it.  An empty day, though clear and bright, is just as dark as any night.  The young are not afraid of telling the truth.  Whoever doesn’t know it must learn and find by experience that ‘a quiet conscience makes one strong!’  I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.

CHA CHA CHARLESTON ( 45 musicians singing and playing it )

We often think of anxiety as the fear of the future, but perhaps more precisely it is that we can not control the future...

 This is a good thought from, I can't even remember who it was but it rings true: Anxiety is the fear we won't be able to control the future.

We often think of anxiety as the fear of the future, but perhaps more precisely it is that we can not control the future, or one specific aspect of it.Once we realize this to be the case, it is comforting to know that the Serenity Prayer can kick in to help us.

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

The Law of Mind Action is at work here. How we work with our thoughts is critical to our health and sanity! Amen, right Ya'll?

A little lightness for your day, thanks to MaryAnn Clark Durell:

Cha Cha Charleston: https://youtu.be/Qm_IiEbWXTs

                                                                                         Rev. Ed UnityCharleston, S.C.

All Lives Matter WHEN Black Lives Matter - Veterans for Peace help protests stay peaceful while supporting BLM

 

So nice to not be walking alone anymore, Donzell is my new point man,

Donzell is a retired E-7 Sgt.

  They did not "defend", they OFFENDED Charleston starting war leading to destruction of Charleston.

Rev. Thomas Dixon of The Coalition, Justin Hunt in blue, and Erica Cokley with "You

Done made this Mama Angry" She has a non-profit VOICES UNITED.

Hunt is president non-profit call STAND AS ONE.

Another Confederate gave that "Con" a hard time for holding our flag while smiling. He was a half Sioux from near Chicago, and was only wearing hat, because he "did not like anyone telling him what to do- identifying with the word "rebel" on the hat.

That cannon back there was one that helped start the Civil War fired by Citadel Cadets on Federally occupied Ft. Sumter.

Holistic Spiritual Life - "...rightly understood, it is a vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being."

 

Sometimes people get the mistaken notion that spirituality is a separate department of life, the penthouse of existence. But rightly understood, it is a vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being.

BR. DAVID STEINDL-RAST

All tied up and no place to go?

 

Our fates are tied. We have this strange notion on this planet that our fates are not tied. If it were not so we would not be here together. It’s that simple.

LUISAH TEISH

Love is measured by its own fullness, not by its reception.

 

An act of love that fails is just as much a part of the divine life as an act of love that succeeds, for love is measured by its own fullness, not by its reception.

HAROLD LOUKES

Trouble? Might as well make it good, necessary trouble!

 

Trouble creates a capacity to handle it…meet it as a friend, for you’ll see a lot of it and had better be on speaking terms with it.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

Comment on FB about possibility of Civil War and my reply:

"I’m so sad because I feel in my heart there will be a civil war and our country will be ruined, unable to be rebuilt."

1

There are too many of us, and he has pissed off the

military.

My purpose now in my last few years is to help nonviolently, peacefully to end the reignited Civil War. Thanks for supporting me.

My purpose now in my last few years is to help nonviolently, peacefully to end the Civil War. Thanks for supporting me.

You sent

37 minutes ago

Sunset to Moonrise on Folly River to Folly Beach

 

Sunset at Folly

 

f we only see the harvest as a time to be grateful

 

If we only see the harvest as a time to be grateful, we miss the opportunity to be grateful for rest, planting, and caring.

MIKE MARTIN

This isn’t a contest but the doorway into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak.

 

Praying. It doesn’t have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention, then patch a few words together and don’t try to make them elaborate, this isn’t a contest but the doorway into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak.

MARY OLIVER

Why Black Lives Matter, very well written

 “400 years ago white people enslaved black people. And sold them. And treated them as less than human. For 250 years. While white men built the country and created its laws and its systems of government. While 10, 15 generations of white families got to grow and flourish and make choices that could make their lives better.

And then 150 years ago white people "freed" black people from slavery. But then angry white people created laws that made it impossible for them to vote. Or to own land. Or to have the same rights as white people. And even erected monuments glorifying people who actively had fought to keep them enslaved. All while another 5, 10 generations of white families got to grow and accumulate wealth and gain land and get an education.

And then 60 years ago we made it "legal" for black people to vote, and to be "free" from discrimination. But angry white people still fought to keep schools segregated. And closed off neighborhoods to white people only. And made it harder for black people to get bank loans, or get quality education or health care, or to (gasp) marry a white person. All while another 2-3 generations of white families got to grow and pass their wealth down to their children and their children's children.

And then we entered an age where we had the technology to make PUBLIC the things that were already happening in private-- the beatings, the stop and frisk laws, the unequal distribution of justice, the police brutality (in the south, police began as slave patrols designed to catch runaway slaves). And only now, after 400+ years and 20+ generations of a white head start, are we STARTING to truly have a dialogue about what it means to be black.

White privilege doesn't mean you haven't suffered or fought or worked hard. It doesn't mean white people are responsible for the sins of our ancestors. It doesn’t mean you can’t be proud of who you are.

It DOES mean that we need to acknowledge that the system our ancestors created is built FOR white people.

It DOES mean that Black people are treated at a disadvantage because of the color of their skin, and

It DOES mean that we owe it to our neighbors-- of all colors-- to acknowledge that and work to make our world more equitable.

Because Black Lives Matter. Understanding why we have to say this matters. Your voice in this movement matters. Recognizing privilege, power and history matters."

Copied and pasted. Feel free do the same.

This is the process that brings us closer, that gives us a world of shared values, of meaningful community.

 

Finding out what connects us, revelling in our differences; this is the process that brings us closer, that gives us a world of shared values, of meaningful community.

BELL HOOKS