Something of a sermon that I wrote a few years back.
*****
Creating a Thriving Peace:
Connecting with Our Sacred Essence and Deepening in Community
by Shams Cohen (04/03)
Each of our lives is a prayer of manifesting. Our lives are our prayer. Take a moment right now to remember that you are sacred. You are a drop from the ocean of Oneness, a holy facet of the Divine jewel; the spark in your eyes is Divine light. Now really open to this idea: your entire life is a prayer. A dance. An opportunity to celebrate, influence, praise and/or damn the existence you have been given.
When you open to these concepts, how does your life look? Does your focus change? How do you spend your time? How do you treat others, and how do they treat you? How do you want to pray?
Mainstream media would have us believe that all is hopeless and all are at war. This is the voice of despair, and despair is based in illusion. Don’t let that statement go by too quickly; it’s taken me my lifetime so far to understand it myself: despair is a real feeling with its roots in illusion. Despair’s roots come from a story of hopelessness we’ve been sold, that the source of power is outside of ourselves and often against us. Many of us have learned to tell ourselves this story, and it locks us in a cage separated from our true purpose, power, and potential. The good news is: there’s a better story to tell.
The source of all power is One, and since we are part of that One, it cannot be against us. When we align with our sacred selves and live our lives as prayer, we come to our choices with more energy, focus, and inspiration. Sometimes we also beat ourselves up with regret. If you go there, don’t stay there. Give yourself mercy and the permission to move forward; you are already forgiven.
Knowledge of the truth of our being as facets of The Oneness gives us access to our real power: clear wisdom, inspired creativity, enlivened health, and Divine flow (often mixed with equal parts of hope and fear). Breathe through the fear; A friend once told me that fear is just excitement without breath.
When I listen to the folks around me, I hear the hopeful version of the story being told. People are learning to hear the voices of their own inspiration and to allow for the possibility that their distinct and individual visions of how to grow peace, love, creativity and community may actually be possible. Not only possible, but necessary. Not only necessary, but evolutionarily inevitable, as these have been the true dreams of our people for some time now.
Contrary to what our “leaders” are trying to force-feed us, people have no appetite for war and the propagation of the idea of “enemy”. People are hungrily available for creative, beloved community. In every workshop, ritual, and community gathering I’ve recently led or attended, people seem more and more available to open their hearts in support of one another. Have you noticed this, too? If not, we need to get you into some more supportive environments ASAP!
The mantra of “We are all One,” is spreading like the most nurturing of wild fires, sparking the creative imagination and burning away fearful competition based on scarcity and violence based on notions of enemy and other. All we need in order to spark loving interactions is to create spaces where loving behavior is the norm. And each of us can effect whether or not loving behavior is the norm everywhere we go.
In my own life, I’ve come to realize that my purpose is to support people in remembering and honoring their Divine Essence as well as to create space for people to support each other’s spiritual unfolding in beloved community. Though it sometimes terrifies me (until I remember to breathe and pray), I am stepping up to join the ranks of the Faithkeepers, those who believe in the possibility of a beautiful future here on earth.
It can be scary to hope. Sometimes it puts us back in touch with despair, or regret. But remember: fear is just excitement without breath, despair has it’s roots in illusion, and the past is already forgiven. There’s a better story to tell, a story of hope.
Within the seed of each of our souls’ dreams is the blueprint for Heaven on Earth, which can only show up if each of us steps up to manifest our piece of the vision. It is not selfish or stupid or impossible to manifest our dreams. It is what Spirit is asking each of us to do. I echo the sentiments of Marianne Williamson when she encourages us to be magnificently whole: “We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you Not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.”
One of my teachers, Reverend Mary Mannin Morrisey formerly of Wilsonville’s Living Enrichment Center, invites us each to consider “If my dream WEREN’T impossible, what would be my next step?” This a good way to trick the voice of despair into letting us grab a taste of our hope. Once you’ve tasted your hope and vision, let these lyrics by Jewel remind you of the way: “Lend your voices only to songs of freedom. No longer lend your strength to that which you wish to be free from. Fill your lives with love and bravery, and you shall lead a life uncommon.”
The steps to creating a peaceful future are deceptively simple. I see them in action all around us, and I invite you to embrace them more fully in your life:
1) Recognize your own spiritual beauty and power.
2) Commit to manifesting the dreams of your soul.
3) Lovingly support others in their own soul emergence.
I see the uncommon life Jewel sings about becoming more common, yet no less wondrous. War is based on a notion of “otherness” that not only no longer serves us, but is also both scientifically and spiritually untenable. People are recognizing that there is no good in personal or national solutions that harm others. For a choice to truly be in one’s highest good, it must support the highest good of all. Since we are all connected, how could the truth be otherwise? People know this! They just need reminding sometimes.
In answer to these challenging times, we must accept our Divine Power and fully manifest our unique talents and gifts in service to the Greater Love. We must know the dreams of our souls and support one another in their fruition. Imagine the world created when each of us is supported in bringing forth our deepest gifts. Imagine our faces, our interactions, our lives in community.
As we bring forth our Divine and creative dreams, we birth an amazing world where people’s hearts join together in holy support of one another’s finest selves, generating the highest common good. In the words of Sufi guide Sidi Muhammad, we manifest the promised land of “peace and love and mercy and justice” by being peace and love and mercy and justice for ourselves and for each other. We dare to love and hope and heal together, creating the world of our yearning today. For the good of all and the harm of none. So be it.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Becoming Fully Human, Together
My school has this great ethos, in that they strive to "Educate to Counter Oppressions and Create Just and Sustainable Community." Feels like the heart of ministry to me!
*****
I think of the following quote from one of my professors as my rallying epiphany... a message that was already forming more solidly in my mind that he then gave words and clarity to when I first read this quote by the side of the Deschutes River in Oregon this Summer before heading to the Bay Area for seminary. It is quite a chewy paragraph, but if you are anything like me, then wrestling with it with pay off in resonances and revelations. I use it as a jumping-off point, because countering the phenomena that he describes is the passion which currently fuels my ministry.
"… Many of us are living as though our lives were someone else's occupied territories. We might not believe or accept certain things that are going on in the world around us, but we rarely challenge them for fear of the consequences for us and for those for whom we care. Much of the tensions, personal and communal, with which we live are, I believe, rooted in this colonization. Colonization, the forced imposing of a certain way of thinking, of being, of moving in the world, and the subtle and systematic removal of all that it perceives as a threat to its project, makes us doubt the value of our own work when it goes against the grain of the dominating paradigm. … colonization can even kill our spiritualities and poison our relationships. Its roots go so deeply that it is sometimes difficult for us to imagine that we can re-shape the discourse. Why? Fundamentally, because hegemony is the power of the dominating discourse to convince everyone that the interests of the few in power REALLY are the interests of all. Brute force need not be used to attain this goal, nor even blatant efforts to sway public opinion. It goes on through the economy, through billboards and TV programmes, through curricula in schools; it unfolds itself in ways that lead us to believe that the desires of the discursive regime are INDEED OURS. Thus, they come to be taken for granted. Hegemony is important because the capacity to influence the thought of the colonized is by far the most sustained and potent operation of the dominating discourse. This leads to the fragmentation and compartmentalization of our lives. And it goes on every day in countless ways."
-Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Farajaje', acknowledging also the works of Frantz Fanon and Teresa Cordova
The cures of this disease are at the heart of my ministerial call. As I have professed for years on my freelance ministry web site www.soulemergence.info:
My purpose through Soul Emergence is:
Sometimes we have an awful lot of layers of emotion and behavior related to our social locations to slog through before we can uncover any sort of "pure" relationship to the essential experience of some powerful event like the loss of a loved one. Most of us are not wading in the waters of pure experience, but rather in the mud up to our ankles, if not deeper. How do we both get cleaner and also benefit from the mess? How do we get clear enough to know who we are, and empowered enough to bring those selves forward?
*****
I think of the following quote from one of my professors as my rallying epiphany... a message that was already forming more solidly in my mind that he then gave words and clarity to when I first read this quote by the side of the Deschutes River in Oregon this Summer before heading to the Bay Area for seminary. It is quite a chewy paragraph, but if you are anything like me, then wrestling with it with pay off in resonances and revelations. I use it as a jumping-off point, because countering the phenomena that he describes is the passion which currently fuels my ministry.
"… Many of us are living as though our lives were someone else's occupied territories. We might not believe or accept certain things that are going on in the world around us, but we rarely challenge them for fear of the consequences for us and for those for whom we care. Much of the tensions, personal and communal, with which we live are, I believe, rooted in this colonization. Colonization, the forced imposing of a certain way of thinking, of being, of moving in the world, and the subtle and systematic removal of all that it perceives as a threat to its project, makes us doubt the value of our own work when it goes against the grain of the dominating paradigm. … colonization can even kill our spiritualities and poison our relationships. Its roots go so deeply that it is sometimes difficult for us to imagine that we can re-shape the discourse. Why? Fundamentally, because hegemony is the power of the dominating discourse to convince everyone that the interests of the few in power REALLY are the interests of all. Brute force need not be used to attain this goal, nor even blatant efforts to sway public opinion. It goes on through the economy, through billboards and TV programmes, through curricula in schools; it unfolds itself in ways that lead us to believe that the desires of the discursive regime are INDEED OURS. Thus, they come to be taken for granted. Hegemony is important because the capacity to influence the thought of the colonized is by far the most sustained and potent operation of the dominating discourse. This leads to the fragmentation and compartmentalization of our lives. And it goes on every day in countless ways."
-Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Farajaje', acknowledging also the works of Frantz Fanon and Teresa Cordova
The cures of this disease are at the heart of my ministerial call. As I have professed for years on my freelance ministry web site www.soulemergence.info:
My purpose through Soul Emergence is:
1. To enliven people by nurturing the rediscovery and celebration of their own powerful Wholeness.
2. To create space for people to spiritually unfold, discover and celebrate the Power of Love and essential Oneness in beloved community.
I believe in some sense that these notions, though not always the presenting issue, may be part of all that is at the heart of pastoral care.Sometimes we have an awful lot of layers of emotion and behavior related to our social locations to slog through before we can uncover any sort of "pure" relationship to the essential experience of some powerful event like the loss of a loved one. Most of us are not wading in the waters of pure experience, but rather in the mud up to our ankles, if not deeper. How do we both get cleaner and also benefit from the mess? How do we get clear enough to know who we are, and empowered enough to bring those selves forward?
Some thoughts on my role as a spiritual leader
This is something inspired by my grad school application essay questions, as well as my years of studying Sufism. It was one of those wake-up-in-the-morning-and-grab-a-pen kind of moments. Some might say "a download".
*****
The role of the spiritual leader is to be in remembrance and affirmation as constantly as possible of The Oneness, and of their own holiness, their own sacredness, their own majestic and unknowable value and to extend this remembrance to all beings and all creation. When this knowing is available as certainty, to carry it with optimism and grace in a way that is contagious but not arrogant. When this knowing contains doubt, to carry that with gentleness and humility in an atmosphere of inquisitive and supportive self-reflection.
Religious leadership involves prioritizing whatever thoughts, practices and behaviors root us deeply in our own sense of the sacred. To daily intend to draw water from these wells, and to give in service from that place of fullness. To be sensitive to the momentary perceptions of abundance or paucity in terms of inner resources, and to understand when to outwardly minister and when to inwardly replenish. To model these ideals, and to help those who are drawn near and who ask how they too might connect more deeply with their source.
Religious leadership involves facing life with a sincere heart, making choices according to a sense of ethics, and taking action from a place of guidance with a sensitivity towards intentions, energetics and effect. A spiritual leader approaches hurdles with reverence for the full authentic emotional palate, and with a sense of humor and a fine appreciation of paradox. A spiritual leader is powerfully merciful towards self and others when witnessing not only the possibilities but also the pitfalls and limitations of being embodied as perfectly imperfect human beings on a very non-linear path of becoming.
The role of a spiritual leader is to hold hearts with compassion, to have empathy for suffering, and to believe in deep and infinite creative possibilities. To shine light on the sacred "I am" and the sacred "I can" available to each of us. To remind us to connect with our passions and to live whole-heartedly from our inspirations. To affirm our birthright belongingness in a beloved community of spiritual journeyers ever more deeply becoming ourselves as we pass through the trials that reveal our essences and wrestle with the guardian obstacles on our ways to deepening in creative, life-giving community.
These are many of the concepts of religious leadership that I understand in relation to my own call, the demeanor that I aspire to and often do embody, the values I revere, embrace, and by which I am nourished. In my own walking, I aspire to be and do all these things in a mostly transparent way. I've seen that those who say they've learned deeply from me have done so through knowing me, through witnessing my own process of wrestling and becoming. I aspire to stand with and next to those who seek my ministry, to empower their own leadership, to draw out their own creativity, and to affirm their own direct connection with the Divine as they understand It. I am blessed to have assisted in the enlivening of people by nurturing the rediscovery and celebration of their own powerful wholeness, and by creating space for people to spiritually unfold, discover and celebrate the power of Love and essential Oneness together in beloved community. I have ministered with these values, and hope to continue to do so, in myriad ways.
*****
The role of the spiritual leader is to be in remembrance and affirmation as constantly as possible of The Oneness, and of their own holiness, their own sacredness, their own majestic and unknowable value and to extend this remembrance to all beings and all creation. When this knowing is available as certainty, to carry it with optimism and grace in a way that is contagious but not arrogant. When this knowing contains doubt, to carry that with gentleness and humility in an atmosphere of inquisitive and supportive self-reflection.
Religious leadership involves prioritizing whatever thoughts, practices and behaviors root us deeply in our own sense of the sacred. To daily intend to draw water from these wells, and to give in service from that place of fullness. To be sensitive to the momentary perceptions of abundance or paucity in terms of inner resources, and to understand when to outwardly minister and when to inwardly replenish. To model these ideals, and to help those who are drawn near and who ask how they too might connect more deeply with their source.
Religious leadership involves facing life with a sincere heart, making choices according to a sense of ethics, and taking action from a place of guidance with a sensitivity towards intentions, energetics and effect. A spiritual leader approaches hurdles with reverence for the full authentic emotional palate, and with a sense of humor and a fine appreciation of paradox. A spiritual leader is powerfully merciful towards self and others when witnessing not only the possibilities but also the pitfalls and limitations of being embodied as perfectly imperfect human beings on a very non-linear path of becoming.
The role of a spiritual leader is to hold hearts with compassion, to have empathy for suffering, and to believe in deep and infinite creative possibilities. To shine light on the sacred "I am" and the sacred "I can" available to each of us. To remind us to connect with our passions and to live whole-heartedly from our inspirations. To affirm our birthright belongingness in a beloved community of spiritual journeyers ever more deeply becoming ourselves as we pass through the trials that reveal our essences and wrestle with the guardian obstacles on our ways to deepening in creative, life-giving community.
These are many of the concepts of religious leadership that I understand in relation to my own call, the demeanor that I aspire to and often do embody, the values I revere, embrace, and by which I am nourished. In my own walking, I aspire to be and do all these things in a mostly transparent way. I've seen that those who say they've learned deeply from me have done so through knowing me, through witnessing my own process of wrestling and becoming. I aspire to stand with and next to those who seek my ministry, to empower their own leadership, to draw out their own creativity, and to affirm their own direct connection with the Divine as they understand It. I am blessed to have assisted in the enlivening of people by nurturing the rediscovery and celebration of their own powerful wholeness, and by creating space for people to spiritually unfold, discover and celebrate the power of Love and essential Oneness together in beloved community. I have ministered with these values, and hope to continue to do so, in myriad ways.
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