I almost didn’t put quotes around the title of this post, because I think it’s true, and we might as well claim it!
Of course I could be biased. Especially since I just returned from another three-day Sufi retreat in Indianapolis as one of a group of 30 open-hearted souls who “eat, dance and pray together,” as Sufis are wont to do.
The Dances of Universal Peace have captured my being since the mid-90s. I used to dance with the folks in the mountains of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, Utah and Colorado; now I dance with midwesterners. Here’s three of us, during this morning’s ten-minute break between dances.
Some of us came to Paula’s beautiful dance room in her Indianapolis home from Wisconsin, others from northern Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and I don’t know where else. We didn’t talk with our personality selves much, until the end of the retreat when, over lunch, I found out that Kent is a professor at Goshen College (Quaker) and Margaret a professor at the University of Cincinnati. She and I talked about her work in bringing the idea that “all waste is food” home to her students, especially as regarding human waste streams into sewers, etc. But the more exciting part about her life, she says, is the five-day conference she just attended in San Rafael California on the work of Hildegaard Von Bingen.
Our retreat leader for the weekend, Maitreya, is not only a wonderful musician, but an unusually conscious young man
who introduced us to the idea of looking at our consumptive habits, not just of stuff but of impressions.
What kinds of information do we take in? How do we process it? Do we know how to let go of what does not serve? Can we forgive? Do we know how to give of ourselves unreservedly? Our dances help us to pare away the personality, leaving the essence not only intact, but connected to all others, in the one being. As in the Invocation, which we say, every day, before we begin.
Toward the One,
the Perfection of Love, Harmony, and Beauty,
the Only Being;
United with All the Illuminated Souls,
Who form the Embodiment of the Master,
the Spirit of Guidance.
Holding hands, we seek to illuminate ourselves to in order to serve those who suffer.
And we weep together, too. In our dances, circling round each other, open-eyes wet and bright with the light of love, burning through the dross of our surface selves, clearing the debris of the everyday, paring us down to essence where our hearts beat as one.
Here’s a wonderful little video from a Canyonlands Dance Retreat, which I have attended several times.
And here’s the promised piece.
Love is the New Religion/The Spiritual Conspiracy
February 12, 2012
by Brian Piergrossi
brianpiergrossi.com via riseearth.com
On the surface of the world right now there is war and violence and things seem dark
But calmly and quietly, at the same time, something else is happening underground
An inner revolution is taking place and certain individuals are being called to a higher light
It is a silent revolution
From the inside out
From the ground up
It is time for me to reveal myself
I am an embedded agent of a secret, undercover
Clandestine
Global operation
A spiritual conspiracy
We have sleeper cells in every nation on the planet
You won’t see us on the T.V.
You won’t read about us in the newspaper
You won’t hear about us on the radio
We don’t seek any glory
We don’t wear any uniform
We come in all shapes and sizes
Colors and styles
Most of us work anonymously
We are quietly working behind the scenes in every country and culture of the world
Cities big and small, mountains and valleys, in farms and villages, tribes and remote islands
You could pass by one of us on the street and not even notice
We go undercover
We remain behind the scenes
It is of no concern to us who takes the final credit
But simply that the work gets done
Occasionally we spot each other in the street
We give a quiet nod and continue on our way so no one will notice
During the day many of us pretend we have normal jobs
But behind the false storefront at night is where the real work takes place
Some call us the “Conscious Army”
We are slowly creating a new world with the power of our minds and hearts
We follow, with passion and joy
Our orders from the Central Command
The Spiritual Intelligence Agency
We are dropping soft, secret love bombs when no one is looking
Poems
Hugs
Music
Photography
Movies
Kind words
Smiles
Meditation and prayer
Dance
Social activism
Websites
Blogs
Random acts of kindness
We each express ourselves in our own unique ways with our own unique gifts and talents
“Be the change you want to see in the world”
That is the motto that fills our hearts
We know it is the only way real transformation takes place
We know that quietly and humbly we have the power of all the oceans combined
Our work is slow and meticulous
Like the formation of mountains
It is not even visible at first glance
And yet with it entire tectonic plates shall be moved in the centuries to come
Love is the new religion of the 21st century
You don’t have to be a highly educated person
Or have any exceptional knowledge to understand it
It comes from the intelligence of the heart
Embedded in the timeless evolutionary pulse of all human beings
Be the change you want to see in the world
Nobody else can do it for you
We are now recruiting
Perhaps you will join us
Or already have….
All are welcome…
The door is open
