A letter to Washington: Earn and Save

Friday, July 29, 2011

Dear President Obama, Senators Snowe and Collins, and Representatives Michaud and Pingree:

As a concerned citizen—a member of the human community—I challenge you to become leaders in and of change in these extremely challenging times. I know that old systems are coming apart, and I know that human beings are so resourceful that they build new ones—even better ones—just like the universe forms new and better galaxies by blowing up stars—creating supernovae.

I am certain you see yourselves as servants of the public. I encourage you to assume roles of "servant leaders" as Robert Greenleaf would have us understand. My sense of the present energy is that the population is looking for leadership, and, in my humble opinion, you are the only ones in any position to lead us through this time of extreme challenge.

I have a strong sense of an intense atmosphere of helplessness and desperation in our nation. The spokespersons for this are our young, whose various harmful behaviors are acting-out expressions of their despair. We adults owe it to them to listen to them—all of them, and listen to them in serious and respectful silence—what the Quaker philosopher, Douglas Van Steere, called "holy listening".

I do not doubt for a minute that you all know exactly what you need to do to meet the challenge of increasing debt: increase income and decrease expenditures. The time–honored way of increasing income is to tax people. President George W. Bush, acting on a belief that there was increasing income from other sources, wrote a change in the tax code that benefited large corporations and the richest people. It was a mistake because our national income subsequently dropped significantly. It needs correction; so please tell the population of this country that you are going to have to do it. I think you will find the majority of the population of this nation in support of that move.

What is our major expenditure? War. I think Osama bin Laden is grinning in his grave watching us spend ourselves into bankruptcy. History shows us that wars end when nations can no longer afford them. Please slow down and back out. Again, I strongly sense that you will have majority support.

I, as one simple citizen of this fine country, promise you that I am doing everything in my power to move us into a place of integrity, and from that position, I humbly ask you to act as servant leaders to restore our national integrity and maintain it. I have shared this with other Mainers of both Congressional districts with permission to forward it to you, as appropriate. 

Respectfully submitted,

Kenneth H. Hamilton, MD

Resolve conflict

Right at this moment, I am very much aware of the tremendous conflict that rages not only in this country but across the whole world. I am also aware that the oldest known human bones bearing scars of other human attack are about 30,000 years old… and we have been around for about 200,000 years; so this form of violence is temporary. It would appear that conflict is something which has its origins in the function of the human ego. It is quite clear that unless we do something about it, it will kill us. The time to do something about it is now.

We are coming to the point of naming our demon that grew out of conflict and suffering; the name of that demon is Dominator. Consider the profoundly dangerous implications of that title. Consider how it daily affects us at all levels from the personal to the national and the international. Consider that it is a title that comes from fear and grows on fear using conflict as its weapon. Consider that both fear and conflict are illusions created by the human ego, which, as an acronym, stands for "edge God out". Yes, the 12–step programs that help us recover from our addictions created that phrase. (And, for the sake of argument, let "God" simply stand for that awesome force that stands behind and is represented in a creation that defies definition and description.)

In H.O.P.E.'s work, we help people recognize that fear is a projection to a time that does not exist, and that anger/conflict is a projection to a space that does not exist for the person who is projecting it. As such, neither fear nor conflict really exist for any individual; rather, they are illusions; so, in the words of Ram Dass and Paul Gorman, "Be here now!" This is the name of a book they co–authored, and the instruction can be found in virtually every spiritual tradition and in all martial arts.

As we choose to give ourselves permission to be fully present to the illusory nature of all fear and conflict and to the real nature of the power of this great Universe, we can see that every supernova creates new elements that become new stars and their planetary systems which are capable of bringing sentient life into existence. So consider that the current conflict will result in its own implosion and we are destined to become a psychospiritual supernova of peace, compassion, and creativity.  

Keep in mind the wisdom of the French Jesuit, biologist, and philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955): "Our duty as humans is to behave as if limits to our abilities do not exist. We are collaborators in creation."

So let us prepare ourselves to endure this conflict, and affirm and assume the destiny he names.

H.O.P.E.'s Parking Space

"Things" are moving quickly today. As I watch them from my particular standpoint in life, I see HOPE's parking space opening wide. Yesterday's HOPE group meeting had four new visitors, one from 211 and three at the invitation of a H.O.P.E. Guide who has opened a HOPE group for women down in York County. They all got a lot out of their experience, and took home extra copies of the Gold Book to give to others. When I got home, my mail included a copy of William F Winter's Fetzer Essay on Deepening the American Dream entitled Opening Doors in a Closed Society (http://www.fetzer.org/resources/resource-detail/?resource_id=1000136). He was the governor of Mississippi during the desegregation time and describes his feeling of shame that he felt towards the closed societies in his state. He develops the theme of "closed societies" into today's extremely closed condition. His solution would not surprise you at all: convene the members of the Grass Roots of society to develop images that open those doors and move us into an exciting future implied 200 years ago at the founding of this nation.

What Is Compassion?

In light of the recent tragedy in Arizona and the not so recent,yet ongoing, political climate, I am feeling that I need to really strengthen my compassion towards others and towards myself as well. To that end I realize I need to explore what I really mean when I use the word compassion and when I talk about wanting to be more compassionate. I am hoping to learn from others as well as share what I am learning about this concept of compassion. I would welcome any thoughts or opinions about the subject as well as a sharing of experiences when others were aware of acting compassionately towards others as well as being the recipient of compassionate acts. I hope that others will join me

Namaste`

Steve

The nature and effect of Centering

Look at these two below, and as you do, keep in mind that Albert Einstein said that every point in the universe is at the exact center of its universe, and in A Course in Miracles that center is where there are no illusions and where none can ever enter. H.O.P.E. has followed this teaching for over twenty years, helping people find their own center... and heal. 

I came across the Hermetic belief three years ago and then Black Elk's belief came across my computer screen today.  Please consider that the way to that Center--our center--is by removing all projections (fear and anger) and attachments (shame, blame, guilt, and envy), and thereby becoming aware, present, and accountable. It's time I shared this....

Hermetic peace – Alain de Lille (c. 1128–1202)

God is an intelligible sphere (a sphere known to the mind--Joseph Campbell) whose center is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere.

The Three-fold Peace – Black Elk (Oglala Sioux, 1953)

The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Wakan-Tanka, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us. This is the real peace, and the others are but reflections of this.

The second peace is that which is made between two individuals, and the third is that which is made between two nations. But above all you should understand that there can never be peace between nations until there is known that true peace, which, as I have often said, is within the souls of men.

Every Master knows this. Become a Master and bring peace to the world.

Compassion, Forgiveness, and Hope

This is a loop of thought, belief, and concept that vitalizes all H.O.P.E. Group work. It is published in a brochure on the nature of H.O.P.E. Groups published this year and received with rich acclaim. Here's the loop--it can go forward or backward as the concepts nurture and support each other.

1. Compassion
Compassion isn't something that is solely the property of our great spiritual leaders; it is hardwired into our brains. Special "mirror" nerve cells pick up the feelings of others around us... their sufferings, be they pain or joy. We humans have more of these cells in our brains than any other animal species. The power of this ability is so great that we humans have not learned how to benefit as much as we have learned how to suppress--deny--them. When we learn to live with the power of compassion, especially in the presence of other compassionate humans, we access a wonderfully rich healing power within our own selves--the power of forgiveness.

2. Forgiveness
Forgiving is all about letting go of burdens of judgment that we hold towards others who have hurt us. It is something we do for ourselves, and it arises from our ability to be compassionate. It sets things right without saying that the harm the other has done us, is right; rather it puts the harm in the embrace of compassion that heals the wounds. It reverses self-imposed hatred; the kind of hatred so often created by those who have suffered physically, mentally, emotionally at the hands of other humans who are supposed to love them. In the presence of a caring, nurturing, supportive--compassionate--group of like-minded people, we can come to love ourselves and others by forgiving rather than judging. Compassion makes it possible for us to forgive the pain that others have made us carry.

3. Hope
Václav Havel tells us

“Hope is the certainty that things can make sense regardless of how they work out.”

He shares that with us from his personal exposure to the chaos of his beloved Czechoslovakia coming under threat of domination by the Soviet Union. Through this he was able to see the potential for healing and growth--the potential to find a new, richer order for his country. He found it through his ability to practice forgiveness in the context of compassion. H.O.P.E. Group meetings focus on creating a context of compassion and forgiveness, in which its members can find meaning, value, and purpose in the seeming chaos of their lives.

Love

"The essence of our being is love!"

That principle of attitudinal healing jumped out of the Gold Book and landed in my consciousness one evening at a H.O.P.E group meeting last year. During the fall, I was traveling for my job and struggled with balancing a huge work obligation while going through a major life change at home....not to mention, natural mid-life changes. It was a challenging time and one day in the midst of a hectic schedule and feeling unsettled about all of it, I remembered..."The essence of our being is love!" I smiled and felt better...simple as that.

It is such a simple statement yet so hard to grasp. Although I experience relief everytime I said it to myself last fall, other challenges appeared and I pushed it out

H.O.P.E's Gold Book

This once-folded, laminated booklet is printed on goldenrod copy paper, and we use it to open all H.O.P.E. Group meetings.... It puts us all on the same page, building a safe, respectful container for the H.O.P.E. Group meeting, whose agenda always walks in through the door. It is the primary responsibility of the H.O.P.E. Group Guide to model the inner safety and peace nurtured by the content of the Gold Book.

The Guide does not read the book to the meeting, but joins the members in reading it, going around the circle, one phrase at a time.

When one opens it, the HOPE Group Opening is on the right-hand page; not where we customarily start, but put there on purpose to help us take apart old belief systems.

H.O.P.E's healing work focuses on helping us answer four questions: Who am I? Why am I here? How am I going to get what I came for? What am I going to do with it when I have it? We understand that those answers can be directed in a helping, healing way or a harmful destructive way; so we have the twelve Principles of Attitudinal Healing that Jerry Jampolsky, MD, and others extracted from the spiritual text, A Course in Miracles, which focus on "let(ting) go of fear and conflict and seeing life in a peaceful and loving way." The group guidelines are commonplace, here comprising ten points of verbal agreement that are a verbal agreement as to how we are going to get along for the time we share today. Finally, we close by standing in a circle and repeating the key lines of the Prayer for Serenity.

I shall go through the Gold Book, one phrase at a time in the comments for this post. You are welcome to join in the discussion. Click here to view the Gold Book.

HOPE Groups

Differences between HOPE supportive Groups and other support groups:

Focus on what you're all about, not your disease. (A "cancer support group" focuses on cancer... it can't not!) HOPE Groups focus on making sense of your life by confronting your challenges... it's a life that gets done but once in the annals of the Universe. Don't die with your dream inside of you... share it in your HOPE Group.

Ability to share gallows humor... to listen without judging or being judged, and to laugh without judgment but with happiness and joy.

This is said to be "soul work" If this is soul work, how do we know it is soul work? Because the Persian poet, Hafiz, wrote a poem called "The God Who Only Knows Four Words:"

"Every child has known God, not the God of names, not the God of don'ts, but the God who only knows four words and keeps repeating them, saying, 'Come dance with me.' Come, dance." 

It is the soul that dances the divine dance, inviting the ego to join it... always.
There are no taboo subjects. Anyone can talk about whatever they want to talk about... even God or not-god.

It's different and it works.

If you'd like to see what a woman born without important bones below each knee has to say about her relationship to adversity, go to http://www.ted.com/talks/aimee_mullins_the_opportunity_of_adversity.html  and hear the voice of any HOPE Group. There's no better expert than one who has really, really been there... and so have you. Come show us your dance.

Listening and witnessing

Listen and Witness

"Listen to the song of my heart,
Listen to the song of my heart.
Listen to my heart-song,
Listen to my heart-song.
Listen to the song of my heart.

"Witness the beauty of my dance.
Witness the beauty of my dance.
Witness my beauty-dance.
Witness my beauty-dance.
Witness the beauty of my dance.

"Listen to the cry of my soul.
Listen to the cry of my soul.
Listen to my soul-cry.
Listen to my soul-cry.
Listen to the cry of my soul."

-- Richard Lawrance

Spirituality

I heard a physician named Daniel Sulmasy describe spirituality as our relationship with the transcendent. I like that idea because what this life, species, world, solar system, galaxy, galactic cluster, and universe is/are is a mystery (or Mystery) to me. And it appears to me that most HOPErs bring their spiritual nature to their HOPE group.

What might love be?

Love is being present to what is without any expectation of what it ought to be, which lets it become what it really is. In other words, get your controlling ego out of the way, and Life will lead you on.

The Healing Power of Presence:

There's a fascinatingly simple yet challenging way of looking at the Universe: It's a point--a center-- that has no dimension (try to get outside of it and find one!), and so it is everywhere and everywhen. Hey! then it has to contain all dimensions of space and time!. Duh, that's us!

Einstein saw that every point (you and me, for instance) is in the exact center of its universe. So, y'know what? HOPE has told me that when we move to our center, we heal... because the center is a spiritual center that must be whole in order for us to be.

Come, let's explore what it might be like to make it possible to go to the center that is each one of us. Enjoy!

Greeting

This is an open blog in which to explore H.O.P.E., Healing of Persons Exceptional. Ask questions. Answer questions. Express concerns. As the founder of H.O.P.E., I will visit this blog often, in order to keep up with the dialogue.

Our name contains the possibility for three threads: What is "Healing"? What do we mean by "Persons"? What do we mean by "Exceptional"? I invite you to go to our website, http://www.hopehealing.org; you will find a lot of information there, and if something is not there, I would like to hear from you. Thanks.