Please feel free to ask questions, comment and share your own ways to evolve from turbulent and uncertain times. This section might be the most important take-away from my whole website, so I hope you make use of it!
One of my teachers, American Buddhist lama, Surya Das, from Lexington, Mass, teacher and author, sent me this advice as part of his regular email to his subscribers.  Â
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Â And so, here we are, living in volatile times, even capable of eradicating ourselves from the face of the planet. If we are paying attention, days like these can provide us with a genuine learning opportunity for conscious evolution and enhancing our discernment, combined with a heartfelt need to build community for solace in kindred spirits and meaningful connection.
To help muster the energy required to face the challenges of our complex world, I rely on what Buddhist activists call
The Three Freedoms:
1. Freedom from undue hope & expectations
2. Freedom from fear & anxiety
3. Freedom from selfishness & bias
Buddhism teaches that nothing is more dangerous than an untrained or unhealthy mind, and nothing more conducive to great happiness and wellness than a well-trained clear and wise mind. Yet it's not only all about mind and intellect, our emotions, body, energy and soulful dimension also come into play. Right action can be a way of achieving one's goals. Practicing patient forbearance in the face of harm and abuse, without being overly passive in our pacifism, we find that nonviolence is and can be a dynamic multi-dimensional means of persuasion, a technique for political activism, and a recipe for peacemaking and harmonizing---a fearless and forceful way of living authentically as well as speaking truth to power. Right action equals appropriate morality, it carrying with it a sense of discerning wisdom, precision and skillful means.
That is why I am calling for a grassroots arising of a heartfelt and committed Lobby of Compassion, a participatory mandala of persons who are willing to link hands, heads and noble hearts in a measured, focused and sustained effort to develop sufficient clear vision and appropriate action to find and pursue another way---as an alternative to the slippery slope of partisan politics and vestiges of Cold War thinking that has afflicted us for centuries. So we may have a century of dialogue upon the heels of the last century of wars, bloodshed and environmental degradation.Â
You are the most powerful person in your world. Everything you do could be motivated by compassion. A better and more just and equitable world depends on your own clarity of mind, purity of heart, and a decisive spirit. It is within your reach and special power.Â
Help yourself, help us all.
With love and blessings,
Lama Surya Das.
When I read "linked hands, heads, and noble hearts" I saw a long chain of people, spanning from coast to coast, holding hands. That would be quite a feat to organize, but wouldn't it be amazing??? I'll hold the vision seed in my heart. Thank you, Jeanne!
Thank you Jeanne. I try to remind myself of your message on a regular basis. What you wrote here resonates immensely. I am still in the first stage of grief however, I don't know why I can't get over it, it's just daily gloom. Going forward I'm going to try very hard to listen to your message and evolve, it's very important but for me also very difficult.
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Thank you very much for sharing this Jeanne. x
Thank you Jeanne, that's exactly what I try to do everyday. I've learned to observe what is going on and be in the know without getting emotional about it. I do my part in activism by contacting Congressman, petitions, etc. Meanwhile I hold peace in my heart and a vision of the world I want to live in. I know that thoughts create and I try very hard to keep them positive, to get away from the "us against them" mentality, and to be compassionate. I don't always succeed but I do try! A couple days ago I meditated on the future. I have a hard time meditating, unless I'm really tired then it's easier. I don't necessarily "see" images but I hear and I feel. I do talk to my spirit guide every day and I can hear him - not that he tells me anything, because you know- free will! He's more concerned about my soul development than "human" problems so sometimes he really is of no help since I have to figure things out myself :) Anyways, during this meditation I asked - What is going to happen in the next few years? - I immediately felt immense joy and I kept seeing yellow, sunny, bright light - I always associate yellow with the sun and happiness and then I "saw" daffodils. I didn't think much of it other than they're yellow and they look happy but then when I looked up the meaning, daffodils mean rebirth and new beginnings. I know in my heart we're heading for a better world, it might be tough to get there but it will be worth it. My guide also tells me to focus on myself - his words are - just because there's chaos over there, it doesn't mean it's going to affect you. I believe that he means that yes, bad things are going to happen but they're not necessarily going to touch you or touch everybody. I also believe that some bad things do need to happen for people to wake up and for change to happen. I look at your page as a preparation - now that we have an idea of what is going to happen we can prepare and we can mitigate the outcomes by getting involved, organizing, helping, finding solutions, being compassionate, being positive, praying...anything that raises the vibration of this planet. I think we have already done so much with the marches, with the resistance, with the activism - I think things could have been much worse if we didn't resist. I'll keep thinking positive for all of us ♥
Diana,  I want to read your post over and over. Thank you.  I especially like the part when you say your guide tells you to focus on yourself. I feel that has become a big take-away for me in this process. Like Natalie has expressed it, this is a process of going through stages of grief. I started going through grief first in the 1970's  when I began to focus more earnestly on politics and was disappointed with what I was seeing. Then when George Bush came into office and declared war on Iraq, I went into another level of grief.  This past election was the penultimate state of shock and grief. Â
Now I'm entering a new phase -- a belief that I have something valuable to learn from all this, that this situation is an opportunity to evolve. Oh, I've known all this for decades, but there are levels of knowing - levels of grief and levels of knowing your purpose in it all.Â
Last year I took some workshops with Joanna Macy, the great eco-philosopher and activist. I was sure she would help me, and she did. She wrote a book called Active Hope: How to Survive the Climate Crisis without Going Crazy.   Joanna teaches us that hope is not something we have. It is something we do.  We have to face the truth first - squarely.  And we have to grieve it. Joanna grieves the state of the world, and encourages us all to do the same. She has a ritual called the Truth Mandala in which students go into the center of the group and cry out their disgust and their pain.  People fall down sobbing, seriously grieving. That is, Natalie, where you are, as you said.  It was so helpful to go through that. Thank-you, Joanna. Here's a trailer to her film.Â
Then we can get into gear and envision a beautiful world and work towards it. Â
These stages are not linear.  We  pass through them, then we can move on. And then we fall back into the grief and move through it again each time a little more evolved.Â
When I felt a deep grief after the election, I found Charles Eisenstein's latest book, A More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible. The title alone is the message - that there is a more beautiful world waiting for us if we just see it.  I had already seen the more beautiful world, even before his book. I'd seen it coming years
Thank you Jeanne, I'm going to add those books to my reading list- it helps to keep the mind focused and positive :) And I totally agree, this is our opportunity to evolve, let's make it the best evolution ever and build the better world, I know we can together ♥
I am a new member who will be attending the group tomorrow on May 8, 2017 for the first time . I was drawn to this site by asking for guidance and connection and feel am incredible connection and sense of empowerment just by reading here and being a member. I asked for a vision immediately after registering and felt intense vibrational frequencies and was flooded with what are usually symbolic visions. I saw concentric bowls radiating and energetically sparking upwards shooting out energy. Immediate connections were..Hollywood Bowl which is built into to connect with the earth but emits and strengthens auditory as well as visual activities or events. There is a Navajo connection to pueblos and symbols of a a frog, three spinning spirals, hummingbirds, and the man in the maze symbol. I connect with Buddhist and other ancient beliefs but often vision in Native American symbology. I feel immense connection..to you Jeanne, this group and to your Buddhist quotation. I am a guilter..your quilt icons, a blogger who seeks to give and to serve "With Heart and Hands"..and a huge connection to your post here, Jeanne. I am feeling that this time is all about life cycles and choices to serve now, to claim our own power with heart and courage and create a new earth cycle of love and harmony after sacrifice and walking our individual paths that led us here to this site. I know we can do this by our joining energies and gifts to work as one creating a new...vortex or world or something similar..together. I feel such love, so much energy but intense gratitude for being led here!
With Heart and Hands,
Michele Bilyeu
Natalie, I truly respect your honesty and this path of working through a very real and very deep grieving process. Many are walking this path right now and I believe that bit by bit you will abd your mirroring connection..will intuit the answers you seek as to why we need to process grief..in all its forms now. I know you will come out stronger and stronger as your empathic heart continues this spiraling energy. Love to you Natalie!
With Heart and Hands,
Michele Bilyeu
 Michele, I have the same feelings about this site as you! I have to admit, you expressed it in words way better than I could! I have meditated many times around the vortexes in Sedona, and I get simaler positive vibes and energy from this wonderful site. Thanks for putting in to words what I was mutually feeling. And Thank you to Jeanne for bringing all of our like minds here for something great! Â
Blessings to you Lightfooted! It's lovely and powerful to meet light...auto corrected from like..but for once auto correct is even better... minded hearts!
With Heart and Hands,
Michele Bilyeu
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