The increasing environmental chaos has forced even the mainstream media to talk about ‘climate change’. But they’re very careful not to say anything that would frighten their viewers too much. Don’t talk about the web of interrelated problems that give a realistic view of the danger we are in. Don’t talk about the accelerating breadth and rate of change, and how the future, near and far, will look.
Similarly, the devastation of COVID-19 brings a whole new path of destruction to our families and communities. Has shown the failure of the capitalist economy.
And more recently, the terrifying rise of police states and authoritarianism in this country and around the world.
Is it all too much, too late to fix? Increasingly, it looks like the answer to many of these things is ‘yes’.
True or not, we have choices about what to do now. How to mitigate the damage. How we can leave the best possible world for our children.
For how many decades have we said, or heard, we must change [BLANK] now? And when has [BLANK] ever changed?
The pursuit of consumerism and an obsession with productivity have led us to deny the value of life itself : that of plants, that of animals, and that of a great number of human beings. Pollution, climate change, and the destruction of our remaining natural zones has brought the world to a breaking point.
Please, let’s not go back to normal, by Juliette Binoche and Aurélien Barrau, LaMonde, May 6, 2020
Martin Luther King, Jr, said we need to “undergo a radical revolution of values”, “from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society.” Only through such a revolution, he declared, would we be able to overcome “the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism.”
We need to “undergo a radical revolution of values”, “from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society.” Only through such a revolution would we be able to overcome “the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism.”
Martin Luther King, Jr
The future will be determined by our values. How do we live more consistently with our values? How do we encourage others to examine their own values? Why haven’t we been successful in bringing about a radical revolution of values?
“The direction and harmony of these global changes depend on upon the values that are inspiring the change. When these values are life- preserving and life-enhancing, we will move forward to a new, just global civilization. If these values continue to be about short-term, materialistic gains solely, we will continue to experience a deepening cycle of death and destruction.
It is becoming clearer and clearer, with every passing day, that walking a prayerful, peaceful spiritual path is the only way forward to a just, sustainable, and harmonious world.”
Prophecies, Unprecedented Change and the Emergence of a New Global Civilization, 2017-2020, WALKING THE RED ROAD·TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2016
What can we do?
I was blessed to hear Arkan Lushwala speak about “Indigenous Ways of Restoring the World” during a call sponsored by the Pachamama Alliance. “Arkan Lushwala is a rare indigenous bridge of the global north and south, carrying spiritual traditions from the Andes in his native Peru as well as being adopted and initiated by the Lakota people of North America.”
“everywhere people ask, “what can we do?”
The question, what can we do, is the second question.
The first question is “what can we be?”
Because what you can do is a consequence of who you are.
Once you know what you can be, you know what you can do”
Arkan says we are facing life threatening situations related to environmental damage. We are facing such severe challenges that we cannot solve them only by ourselves.
We must move beyond thinking and talking. Action now is essential.
Action is spiritual.
We need to practice trying to reach our sacred space. We need a higher universal intelligence to help solve these problems.
We must open a sacred space for prayer so we may be open to the warrior spirit.
The importance of prayer.
- We pray as a form of connecting to other forms of communication
- We need to be aware of what is happening in the moment, elevate ourselves, move closer to the sacred
- I first have to reach deep into my own heart
You start praying while you are also listening. I become aware of, remembering, what I pray about at that moment. We need to rely on our own ancient indigenous memory. Stop being isolated. Fully become part of the earth and water and plants and air. This is an immense source of knowledge about these problems.
I am in front of the sacred fire of all who are listening. Let’s say that I am thinking now. I am remembering. The notion of intelligence and to understand refers to memory. Intelligence means learning, but also achieving that state in your mind when you are remembering. The air that we are breathing carries the memories of the ages, the movement of energy. Deepest intelligence in our culture is memory. There are always memories of the ages in all that surrounds us.
The state of being, the prayer, makes us open to receiving. If we are really open, and not blocking ourselves, and connected to what is around us, with our eyes, breath, sensations, and feeling that arrive in our heart, through our antenna, if we are open in this way while we are doing something, our action is being infused with guidance or instructions. There is something there that is watching what you are doing and helping guide you. Sometimes we need the help of the elders or others to understand these experiences.
We ask for help. When we put ourselves in that elevated space, that makes it much easier for us to receive help. Help is always there but we often miss the messages.
If I am open and receptive to other frequencies and the higher state of my being, I’ll have much more help in my work.
The correct way is not to take credit, but the joy is the moment itself, by feeling integrated to life while you are doing the action.
When we sit with others in a circle, when we all change the state of our being together, we move up to the sacred together. Working with others in community, much, much more can be accomplished.
If a person expresses an experience that is from a sacred space of high resonance, I am activated by that. It resonates in my own heart and mind and spirit, and it triggers my memory, too. by the presence of something sacred.
We sit in a circle and witness someone remembering. We receive the same spirit together. Our individual self and agenda slips away. Joining our hearts. Mother Earth is the One, all of us become the One together. A lot of wisdom comes south. We are all impressed by the presence of something sacred.
Quakers, social justice and revolution 