Dear Network --
Thanks for your presence -- and your patience. Yesterday was pretty intense and a little rough. Things seem much more polished now.
According to some calendars, today (Nov 2) is "All Souls Day", and yesterday was "All Saints Day". Perhaps that is coincidence, perhaps not.
Yesterday was quite an astonishing day for me, and today continues to unfold its implications. This morning, I was up early after brief sleep, and wrote an email letter to the United Religions Initiative (URI), which I thought appropriate for this group.
For me -- I think I could simply say -- that "The Shift" more or less happened yesterday. It's like -- to my utter and total surprise -- God flipped the power switch on.
So -- I feel like I am operating on a different plane. I probably could explain that -- but let me just forward this message -- which presents some ideas that I think are important and profound and beautiful.
In particular, if you get a chance -- listen on YouTube to the rendition of the song "Love Rescue Me" by the Omagh Community Youth Choir in Northern Ireland.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1ohx398P7I
If you are feeling imaginative and your body wants to move, try this version of the original recording, by the song's authors Bobby Dylan and Bono (of the band U2).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTxYep9qgKE
If you want some clues to the power in this -- consider that last Sunday October 26, there was an enormous U2 concert in the Los Angeles area, which is being broadcast through YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/u2official#p/u/
Thanks for being here, thanks for all you give.
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Dear URI --
Good morning from Santa Barbara. It seems I am up early today, and I thought I would write something to this mailing list...
I hope you will be a bit patient with me. I seem to be experiencing something extraordinary, and I thought I should tell you a little bit about it.
Yesterday, November 1, as I have been saying, seems to me to be one of the most amazing days of my life, perhaps the most amazing day. Amazing, and yet simple -- but also -- very fast, and very comprehensive and penetrating. My sense is -- this is of interest, to at least some in this discussion.
In brief -- I am sensing a kind of opening in the energies -- like some sunlight coming through a cloudy sky -- a kind of new way forward -- that is made possible by the interrelated and semi-independent efforts of millions or billions of people, responding individually and collectively to the most primal calls of life...
I think I could say -- that the URI is one agency or facility in that process -- one to which I have been connected for a long time -- and which played a catalytic role in these energies from yesterday -- which, I am sure, are simply continuing to unfold...
AN INVITATION
I think what I want to do -- is do what I can to briefly introduce you to some possibilities, and invite you to take a little time to experience some of what has so strongly affected me -- which you can readily do if your internet connection makes this possible. And to keep this directly relevant, I do want to frame this idea in the context of the email sent here yesterday, with the subject line "Who Governs the World?"
Early in the morning, when I saw this subject line, it caught my eye, and I immediately felt that it invited response. Though some of the content might be complex and controversial -- that didn't seem disabling to me. The important point was his central statement -- that the world is nearly ungovernable -- and increasingly dangerous -- because the spirit of community is so weak in the international context. His opening paragraphs are his strongest argument, and his final sentence puts it before us: "Evidently, how the world is to be governed remains one of the greatest puzzles of our time."
No doubt.
So -- asking your forbearance -- what I want to suggest to you -- is that -- by the beauty of many graces -- perhaps there are some new approaches to addressing this puzzle.
And what I want to do right now -- is outline a few possibilities, and invite you to consider the energy.
Maybe even these small difficulties that occasionally arise within the URI context are a symptom of this larger collective challenge. Some new skill, some new method, some gentle insight, something -- is needed, to nurture, to midwife, to broker, to facilitate, to hold together -- this ministry of kindness -- this charter of compassion -- that we all seem called to honor in our lives...
Let us grant -- that human pain --
must be addressed.
And -- that many of us here -- simply must respond, and are responding, and have always done so...
And that is a great and beautiful thing.
And yet, at least as I see it -- this puzzling question, this myopic vexation -- this challenge -- of how we live together, how we work together, how we unfold a happy and successful and healthy planet -- does remain -- as Father Gerry O'Rourke said to me at the lunch table in Manresa Spain before the 2004 Parliament -- "a mystery".
So -- given all of this -- I just want to say -- that yesterday, and probably continuing this morning (it's still early!) -- some shaft of light seems to have moved into this mystery -- and for me, created an illuminating opening -- that I personally am experiencing -- as a quite extraordinary thing --
Perhaps this experience is "a vision" -- perhaps it is just an insight, or a design, or a way or a plan, or some kind of energetic combinatoric -- but whatever it is -- I see it. And in my experience, it is glistening with the quiet power of an immaculate 747 jet on the tarmac with its engines at low idle...
***
A few months ago, I heard some beautiful music on public television, sponsored by a group called "Playing for Change". They've done some extraordinary things -- including coordinating musicians all over the world to play together into a single track for the song "One Love". It's beautiful and very touching. And there is another song on their CD, that I especially want to mention, with the title "Love Rescue Me".
This song is recorded by the Omagh Community Youth Choir in Northern Ireland, a city which experienced a terrible act of terrorism, and which responded in part by creating this beautiful choir. Their director explains this situation on this YouTube recording, which I hope you will find the time to experience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1ohx398P7I
There is much of relevance here -- and I have been absorbing this song almost non-stop for the past day or so -- in a variety of different versions also available on YouTube, and on the Playing for Change CD which I purchased. If you can manage to experience this video -- once, or ten times -- I am sure your deepest interfaith instincts will be confirmed and nurtured.
The wording of this song, for example -- is a powerful statement, that I personally experience as a deeply authentic prayer -- that, for me, arcs straight through the divine current, through the Divine Mother --
And it is interesting -- and I believe important -- to know that this song -- was written by Bobby Dylan and Bono, of the band U2. Bono, of course -- is Irish...
Ok. Let's say -- that you have now taken twenty minutes of your precious life, and experienced that video -- maybe several times. You get it...
Now -- let's fast forward -- to the version of this song that was originally recorded by Bobby Dylan and U2, in 1988 -- on the album "Rattle and Hum".
This is a whole different thing -- or is it?
I'd say -- these versions absolutely are prayers -- anthems -- a most profound call.
Something that echoes throughout human civilization.
Something that rises everywhere -- everywhere there is a heart-beat...
Take a second, if you can stand it -- and go for this version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTxYep9qgKE
Love Rescue Me
think about it
Love Rescue Me
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Ok, now -- with that said -- the next piece here -- that puts this thing into the sky
Is the sweet little amazing fact
That the band U2 just performed a huge concert in Los Angeles last Sunday October 26, which is available on YouTube.
For me -- catch your breath -- this is utterly stunning.
This is absolutely awesome.
Totally Awesome.
Now -- I'm not saying that this is a sanctified vibe, and this impact may not be your kind of church.
But -- think about it -- if it were --
If these guys were doing Love Rescue Me
At this power level
This -- is the key to releasing the white-lightning avalanche
of pent-up love
that is everywhere across this planet
Just get a feel for the impact.
If you happen to have a 23-inch monitor with a broad-band connection and high-impact speakers -- this whole business will be a lot more visceral....
http://www.youtube.com/u2official#p/u/
*********************************************
So, that's a start on HUM - Mala - Love Rescue Me.
HUM -- is our emerging new project for convergent resonance
Mala -- is a string of prayer beads -- held together by the common thread -- Mala is community
What we are looking for -- what the author of the piece on dissonance and weakness in global governance is looking for -- is how that energy
can be vastly strengthened -- and empowered
and validated and activated, and placed -- at the infinite eternal core of our communal self-governance.
Thanks for being there, thanks for listening.
- Bruce Schuman, Santa Barbara CA USA, 5:46am, Nov 2, All Souls Day, 2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints
At 06:19 AM 11/1/2009, you wrote:
http://www.agenceglobal.com/Article.asp?Id=2177
Agence Global
Who Governs the World?
by Patrick Seale - Released: 30 Oct 2009
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Rarely in modern times has the planet been as ungovernable as it is today. Global problems assail us on all sides, but no global solutions are forthcoming.
Instead, what do we see? Wars, massacres, unprecedented financial crises, unresolved conflicts, over-population, food and water insecurity, pitiful mass migrations, the ravages of climate change -- and, in many parts of the globe, a rash of cruel and corrupt regimes.
Long gone are the days such as after the first and second world wars -- when a handful of allied statesmen could lay down the law, draw frontiers, reward and punish, and impose a victors peace. Gone, too, is the bi-polar world of the Cold War, when the United States and the Soviet Union established an uneasy equilibrium.
Instead, the world is a jungle of squabbling and competing states, each one of them intent above all on protecting its national interests, with little regard for the common good.
It is clear that the world faces a grave problem of governance.
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