We are, every day, more & more
to engage in processing
deeper levels of reality…
to engage in practicing
psychoactive modalities
so that our inner spaces, spheres
will be fully present in the outside world
Who believe that training in LOVE
in its multiple forms
compassion, loving-kindness
caring mindfulness, taking care…
will play a major role
in the years to come
In the shift needed
to include & transcend
those earlier stages we were in
times we felt as scarce
& evolved toward advanced stages
where we will experience
the world as plenty
World & worlds
where our hara, our centers of gravity
will be grounded in a spirited matter
& our souls will be lifted
by an incarnated spirituality
Because
most likely
without merging those
two fundamental, complementary
aspects of reality
we will keep feeling
torn apart, isolated
& fear will keep distort
our perception of reality
will keep eating us from within
will keep generating violence
when facing the other
the unknown, the different
Because,
without any doubt
by practicing embodied LOVE
our ability to observe, discern
comprehend, collaborate
will be enhanced
creating, more & more
harmonious global fields
which will, in return
nourish, heal, rejuvenate us
Each & everyone of US
Subtext
psychoactive modalities : Psychoactive modalities refer to those practices we engaged in and, if properly done, will give our psyche, our unconscious, a direction that it will look for, until it becomes conscious and fully integrated into our Being.
loving-kindness : In the book “The Art of Happiness”, based on interviews done by Howard Cutler, a psychiatrist, with the Dalai Lama, it was reported that the Dalai Lama was quite surprised when Cutler was telling him about the self-hatred the occidentals where suffering from. From my experience, I found that loving-kindness has been a practice addressing this issue by generating self love, by establishing a secure space, by soothing oneself through ease and well-being. A practice sometimes so difficult that you have to start to envision it thinking of someone else. But a powerful practice to attend to our integrity, and restore it when shattered, as teached by Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield, among others.
caring mindfulness : Lately the Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard has been adding this qualifier to the practice of mindfulness. As he explains we cannot separate the quality from the action, like to be a mindful sniper, because this practice was never intended to do harm. Among other things, it is a practice to develop altruism.
taking care : I was introduced to the depth of this concept through the work of Carol Gilligan, especially in her book “Joining the Resistance”, in which “the central conviction of her work today – and the central thesis of this book – is that the requisite for love and the requisites for citizenship in a democratic society are one and the same. Both voice and the desire to live in relationships inhere in our human nature, together with the capacity to resist false authority.”
to include & transcend : This concept was a breakthrough in my life because it made me realize that I was trying to integrate new beliefs, new concepts, but I was doing so while rejecting what I had learned before, not understanding that the mastery of each lesson where necessary at their appropriate stage of development, and only if they were well integrated, I could really move on. An example : as a toddler we are told to never cross the street alone. Then, as a child, we are taught to watch for a car before crossing and to cross only at the streetcorner. Now, as an adult we can do all this and cross in the middle of the street if we wish, to the rightful exasperation of car and bicycle drivers sometimes. Rightful because the concept of include and transcend is intrinsically linked with the concept that everything in life is a whole in itself and a part of something else. As our heart has its own autonomy, it is also part of another wholeness, our body. And just the same, our body has its own agency, and also lives in communion with the extended environment. So for our own reason, we might have to cross the street in the middle, but we have to also keep in perspective the well being of all the others who are sharing the space. Here’s where I learned about those fondations of reality, “A Brief History of Everything” by Ken Wilber.
hara : “In the Japanese medical tradition and in Japanese martial arts traditions, the word Hara is used as a technical term for a specific area (physical/anatomical) or energy field (physiological/energetic) of the body.” – Wikipedia.
most likely versus without any doubt : My intention behind the use of those terms is to remind us of the relationship between what is contingent, a possibility that might or might not happen, and what is necessary, in all our choices.
mari.e cornellier 