In love, nothing exists between heart and heart. Speech is born out of longing, True description from the real taste. The one who tastes, knows; the one who explains, lies. How can you describe the true form of Something In whose presence you are blotted out? And in whose being you still exist? And who lives as a sign for your journey? - 8th century Muslim poet Rabia al-Basri Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. - Rumi We are connected now, not just by the invisible lines of the energy at the heart of all things. This "heart of all things" connection has always been, even as groups encountered each other, clashed, made war or peace, and lived in their place and time which shaped their cultural and spiritual expressions. Today, we are now connected by the internet, and the global summit of the world of ideas, and… ideologies… is available to anyone who is able to log in. On March 15th, 2019, the very same day that 15-year-old Greta Thunberg led a worldwide skip school protest for climate justice, a 28-year-old man chose to enact a mass shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, claiming his actions were anti-immigration in intent. I have never had the honour of visiting New Zealand, but I have had the honour of knowing a number of folks from New Zealand, and I have always felt there is an innocence and beauty carried in the culture, that is palpable in the presence of the people I have known. Today, as I held my youngest, who is nearing his 3rd birthday, I longed for little 3-year-old Mucad Ibrahim to be okay. To be safe and with his family. My heart stretched all the way to the families in Christchurch, grieving and in shock, and then, to the Ummah around the world. Words are powerful. The energy behind our words are powerful. It is clear that a grassroots movement for the things that make this world beautiful is growing. But it is also clear that an alt-right neo white supremacy movement is growing. And I’m going to be clear about something: the degree to which we can suffer and mourn with our Muslim brothers and sisters about this massacre, is the exact degree to which we have faced the brunt of our own addiction to overconsumption, fundamentalism, power, and white privilege. Now is not the time to say “what about” anything. As Saint Francis wrote, "O Master, let me not seek as much to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love." We must put the parable of the Good Samaritan to work now more than ever ... to see the highest and the good in the "other", and to look at our own corruption. Let's not kid ourselves... and as Christians, let's call it out... this white nationalist terrorism rearing its hideous head has its roots in slaveholder Christianity, and in an Islamophobia forged in great part by Christian fundamentalism. The song I want to share today, Heart and Heart, comes from the new Meditation With Children album (to be released April 27th, 2019). There is a beautiful line I worked with, from a poem called Reality, by one of my favourite poets, the 8th Century Sufi mystic Rabia al-Basri. The line I used from her poem is: In love, nothing exists between heart and heart. This line brings us back to the heart of all things, that I mentioned at the beginning of this reflection. But here’s the tricky bit. Unitive or nondual consciousness is not uniformity. It is not homogeneous. We don’t get to skip innocently over this line of Rabia al-Basri’s, this week of all weeks, and begin to feel good about how we’re all connected and how there’s no separation between us and God and the world. While that is true, we are also in the physical realm and we walk around in the skin we’re in. We must plant Rabia’s line in the most diverse, symbiotic garden you could ever dream of. As the global summit of online ideologies continues to embolden entitlement, there is a Oneness that is not superficial, that is not cheaply relativistic, and it is in-building an awareness and a love here in our corporeal state, for far-off places and people who are different from ourselves. As more and more awaken to inborn delusions of entitlement and the lie of exceptionalism... that diverse garden has a chance to grow into a beautiful, cacophonous, balance. Inshallah. PS- Lastly, there is a petition speaking out against the white nationalism behind this shooting, and it is being organized to gather names and messages that will be bound into books and delivered to the families effected by the massacres in Christchurch. To sign the petition and send your message, click here. PPS- And men... all of you... go and get initiated through either the Mankind Project or Illuman and then start a men's group in your area when you get home. Love needs all hands on deck, so if it is your tendency to sleep your way through these violent events caused by angry young men, arise and be counted, Elders. The world needs you.
21 Comments
3/16/2019 11:25:04 pm
My experience of men's groups is that they are limited. Mixed groups get a lot more done. Men need women to show the way. Men get stuck and can't go ver far on their own. I"m aware many men will disagree with this and have gotten a lot from men's groups. Just my experience. If men learn to open up in the presence of women and women learn to open their wounds in the presence of men a lot more integration and healing occurs. We need each other.
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Alana
3/16/2019 11:38:46 pm
Hi Randy,
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Liz Day
3/17/2019 02:26:55 am
I feel moved by you sharing your experience on this subject Randy, thank you.
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Denis Langford
3/17/2019 08:43:39 am
My experience and belief is the same as yours Randy, and I have sang your song often. My experience with Illuman over last couple of years is teaching me that most men aren’t where we are. Most men need need other men to help them to be transformed beyond the violence. Thanks for sharing.
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Mark Pierson
3/17/2019 12:04:27 am
Thank you from New Zealand. It is a very sad and questioning time for us. You concern and song are much appreciated. Thank you.
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Alana
3/17/2019 07:49:20 am
Love and courage from across the world Mark.
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3/17/2019 12:31:42 am
Thank you Alana
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Alana
3/17/2019 08:00:47 am
Sue, thank-you for sharing. I have been holding the contemplative community in New Zealand in my heart. You included. Love and light, Alana
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Jill Montgomery
3/17/2019 12:57:46 am
Thanks so much for your heart stretching out to us here. Your words resonate..... I teach English and some of my students will have been effected by this - I write this Sunday night before heading in tomorrow to reach out and share in the grief of this tragedy. I find myself too examining my own heart and position of privilege.... deeply challenging...... may we all know the great peace Jill
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Alana
3/17/2019 08:03:27 am
Jill - holding you and the challenges ahead as you step into your community. May wisdom and maturity grow and prevail and carry the whole of this, together with our great self-emptying Lover.
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I am continually moved by your sensitivity to the events that take place in the world around us: the recent event in New Zealand is today's example. 3/17/2019 01:09:45 am
Thank you Alana, for thinking of us in New Zealand. We are moved by the ground-swell of love. Only this wave of love can drive the darkness out. After Friday's events if felt like a loss of innocence for us in NZ. Below was my poetic response:
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Wilma Korthuis
3/17/2019 09:37:03 am
Your poem expresses our feelings
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Alana
3/17/2019 09:39:26 am
“Until it floods the land” - May it be so. Thanks you for this.
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Becky Butler (Charleston, SC)
3/17/2019 04:45:25 am
A poem by Sister Robin Stratton
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Lora Farlow
3/17/2019 08:39:36 am
The Great Reality. The Oneness of All...this reflection of our human fear (caused by belief in separation) turned blindly in to harm needs to be SEEN. Gentle ones need to step forth and share the truth of our sister and brotherhood. Harm no one in thought, word or deed..ourselves included...simple to say...profound in practice. This beautiful online community shows the power of love to travel through time and space to heal our fractured souls. Awakening to our True Natures...Knowing Our Oneness must be a top priority so that Love, Peace and Joy.....Truth, Beauty and Goodness is the air that we breathe, the water that we drink and the food that we share. Blessings to our beautiful New Zealand and it's people...Innocence is never truly lost...may you all be the shining Light of this Truth. Love, Lora
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Denis Langford
3/17/2019 08:43:08 am
You’re words both written and sung touched us deeply this morning. Thank you.
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Wilma Korthuis
3/17/2019 09:21:12 am
Words cannot express the sorrow I feel. My heart goes out to each of you directly impacted by this terrible tragedy. The whole world is impacted by this. May our eyes and hearts be opened to the truth that we are all one.
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Bernadette McNab
3/17/2019 12:05:03 pm
Let us join in prayer for the injured and grieving of New Zealand and petition Almighty God for changing of hearts that begins with breathe upon me o wind of God. Let's also say a prayer for our Filipino brothers and sisters affected by tragedy as recent as Jan. 27, 2019 when 20 or more were killed in a bombing of a Catholic Church, with dozens more being injured.
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Anne-Marie Pike
3/17/2019 04:19:49 pm
Beautiful... thank you.
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Grandma RosieMerry Sheridan
3/26/2019 04:24:36 pm
Richard Rohr writes in The Universal Christ, "We are an incarnation, like Christ, of matter and spirit operating as one. This, more than anything we believe or accomplish, is how all of us continue the mystery of incarnation in space and time-either knowingly and joyfully-or not." Loving Thanks, Alana, for All the Heart to Heart you are doing; to Richard; and to each of you. My heart knowingly, joyfully, and sorrowfully beats on reverberating our Oneness from the inside out!
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AuthorAlana Levandoski is a song and chant writer, recording artist and music producer, in the Christian tradition, who lives with her family on a regenerative farm on the Canadian prairies. Archives
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