Nevertheless, this week I have gazed from afar, while Pat Robertson, from a place of old-style ignorance, dug an even deeper hole for his credibility with sentient beings by declaring that Haitians have created their own reality and are being punished. Daily, I tell my yoga students, and my kid, that we humans are merely different embodiments of the same Universal Energy, that we are all mini-manifestations of God, or Source, or Spirit, flowing through us. No other “religion” necessary. Honor yourself, others, and the planet. We are One.
And then Pat Robertson comes along and proves me wrong! No possible way is HE ME! I am so not One with a tv evangelist. -–Is that what he is? I can’t bear to look him up.
But for the sake of spiritual exercise, for the sake of putting my money where my mouth is, for the sake of walking the talk, I’m gonna go there: I am One with Pat Robertson. Furthermore I agree with him that we create our own reality, which is what, as I understand it, Pat Robertson is “accusing” Haitians of doing.
That would appear to be where our agreement ends. He does appear to say we create reality, but from a confused, xenophobic, victim-based perspective. Taking a step back, or a step up, to a higher level, a global or even Universal perspective, I believe we do and did--We human beings, through thought and word, DO create our reality, all humans, all at once, not just Haitian-humans.
So many current texts say: Remember Who You Are. Take a big step back and up. We are all microcosms. We embody the same Universal energy of life. I See You.
Personal experience and a level of mirroring from my spiritual community leads me to see that Earth is a network of Life Force, a forum where Divine Intention is manifest. Shadow, as well, is manifest here: our biggest fears, and our most victimy perspectives, are also manifest here on earth. It's quite a responsibility, being a Creator. Dare I accept it?
We human beings come from a long tradition of being victims! It is only very recently that a non-victimy perspective has been embraced, finally. For ages, God has sent down plagues. Satan has punished. Whatever your religion. Most of us have been conditioned—and from looking out around us, we have led ourselves to “empirically” believe--that things happen to us.
Only recently has quantum physics begun to illustrate that thought actually creates the physical, that the external originates internally. In the meantime, for ages, we as a human conglomerate have unconsciously been offering disharmonic, victimy, fear-filled thoughts, sending these fear-seeds out to manifest. Our conscious, Divine, prayerful intentions have manifest as well. Thanks be to God. And to the Goddess, working in tandem.
There is one Earth. We, the living energy of humanity, are One On Earth. These boundaries called countries are invisible from that perspective; they are un-real, man-made constructions. Thoughts and beliefs don’t know these boundaries. ALL of us, thorough the Divine Power of being human, create an eruption on earth. All of the ways in which we have abused earth and each other come crashing back to us karmically, in exchange for what we the people have offered, just doing the best we can, and in this week’s case Haiti is left picking up the pieces. And where crisis has struck a chord in our hearts, we non-Haitian humans are responding with aid, care, love, and light that know no national boundaries.
We come together so well in crisis. What if it didn’t take crisis? What if we were always empathetic to each other and the earth? Have you seen Avatar?
I checked the map. Isn’t Haiti so close to home? This crisis hits close enough to home to cause me to ask: where am I not clear about life on Earth? Where am I in denial of the concept that my thoughts and actions can actually manifest and do damage—or the opposite: create heaven on earth? Am I creating it right now?
How can I help in this time of crisis? By honoring the life that is potent in my thoughts, and in my very breath. By opening up to embody true gratitude that I am alive, that the pulse of life flows through the people I love. And the ones I don’t even know. By embodying gratitude that this square foot of land that I inhabit right this second is solidly supporting me. By honoring the energy of creation that wishes to express itself through me through teaching and writing. By navigating life with a renewed sense of gratitude every day, sending it down into the earth every time I eat from the earth’s goodness, every time I pump gas! By teaching that it matters. On a daily basis, I will be grateful that the unfixed pothole on North Avenue is really not that huge after all.
What can I really do to help keep the planet in harmony? Tonight it came to mean that I not wash my sheets. They’re clean. It’s not that I’m a compulsive washer; it’s that I want them to be really really soft. Right now. My friend who gave me these sheets for Christmas promised, “They’ll get softer and softer every time you wash them.” So I want to wash them! A lot!
For two weeks I have left my newly washed and dried espresso-shade sheets downstairs beside the washer. I've known temptation. I love them and am grateful, and I want them to be super-soft. Now. But tonight I finally made the commitment—for the sake of writing this blog, perhaps, but that’s as good a reason as any—that to wash clean sheets is not sustainable when there are people who don’t have clean drinking water. It feels wrong to wash them for the sake of a having an obscene level of comfort, NOW. It feels like...a lot of water. I do admit that it bums me out that it feels wrong, because I want really soft sheets. Now.
Isn’t that the privilege and the curse of living in the U.S? So many of us have gotten used to being ridiculously comfortable, that it's hard let it go.
Is there a part of you that can buy into the possibility that our founding fathers GOT this Oneness, somehow, as well as the potential for the Land of Plenty, on some level; that these initials US are intended to remind us of the melting pot that this land was meant to be?
Now is the time to gather the forces and energy of capitalism and turn it back to creating an Earth that thrives with abundance and is honored as our Source. Let's create an awareness, within ourselves and others, that our thoughts and feelings are most comfortable on Earth when they are at a Divine level. Until we alter our awareness, I am convinced that our Earth Mother will continue to find another opportunity to take in a deep breath and ROAR. It's all...just...energy.
For me to think I live in some kind of world where the literal vibrations of being human don’t register, and aren’t felt by the earth and its inhabitants around me, is to live an unconscious existence. The movie Avatar graphically illustrates how blind humanity still is (particularly America, its military, and its acquisitionist-Capitalist far-reaching arms). Avatar is a reminder of how many people are still sleeping, still asleep on the un-conscious hamster wheel of unsustainable, addictive growth. Still in denial that We Are One. That the Earth is alive and sacred.
My friends and I haven't waited for the scientists and powers-that-be to ordain this empowered point of view. It is a cutting-edge, revolutionary act to NOT be a victim. It is also a very rewarding act; the effects become more and more clear the longer we ground ourselves in this sense of responsibility for holding the Light of Love and using that Light not just as a beacon, saying,“rescue me!”--but as a Divine tool for cocreation. As a cocreator, I must honor the highest part in everyone around me, even if I judge their actions or beliefs to be wrong or hurtful. So yes, at that level, We Are One. Whoever you are. Even if you're a FoxTV reporter or a tv evangelist. I honor the energy that unites us. I See You.
So, yes, Pat Robertson, my shadow ancestor, I honor you as a teacher--a teacher who illustrates so clearly the unevolved reality from which I have awakened; for me there’s no more falling back to sleep.
