Tribe: Why Community?
If you are not completely naked, wrap your beautiful robe of words around you, and sleep.
-- Rumi
-- Rumi
We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community. -- Dorothy Day
Perhaps we cannot prevent this world from being a world in which children are tortured. But we can reduce the number of tortured children. And if you don't help us, who else in the world can help us do this? -- Albert Camus
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. -- Anais Nin
The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision. -- Helen Keller
Vision
On a level much deeper than our cells, there is a Unified Vision of our human possibilities. On a level much deeper than the stories and myths that we tell one another, there is within each of us a seed of this very same Vision: we are blessed to be living in the time of a New Beginning! To serve this growing awareness and to awaken into the Divine Intention is our challenge... meant for radiance, we have collectively settled for the complex function of form: while the real liberation is of substance and a simple delight in life that echoes in the silent spaces of our hearts... Community cultivates the desire to listen...
What have you heard? Have you heard the heartbeats of God? Have you heard the Song of the Earth? Have you heard the One chanting, "Only One" and "No Separation"? Have you heard your footfalls upon the streets that you walk calling up to you, "There is a Way"? Have you heard that the Divine is unfolding Itself within humanity and is inspiring new efforts for justice, equality, and peace? And have you heard a still, small, voice within your voice telling you a new story of our Inter-Being: divinely connected in the One Love Consciousness? Community cultivates the desire to listen...
Community cultivates the desire to listen... The work is beginning: persons, groups, and intentional communities are exploring their possibilities for service, surrender, and solidarity: for both personal and global transformation... Community is the daily Declaration of Sacred Intention: We open our hearts and minds to the Life Divine: we open to the creative, the kind, and the beautiful: we open to the radiant possibilities within ourselves, our companions, and the Way that together we walk: and we open our eyes to the Amazing Life we have been given to experience the gifting of the One Love... This is the Place of beginning... our humanity is sacred: we are divine beyond our grasping desire to understand: like water, we can cup it, but we cannot grasp it (gain power over it): but in that "not grasping" is the all of our wisdom... let it be... just let it be...
Core Values
Not community-for-the-sake-of-community: but community with Love Activated and with the inspired intention to practice beauty in one's daily life and work: and with the necessary sincerity to give practical evidence of a "renewed" mind and a vital "change" of heart: where kindness isn't a rule but a joy, where gentleness isn't a policy but an opportunity, and where ecology isn't a dogma but an exciting circle of relationships... Intentional communities are meant to act as leaven in the "bread" of society: as catalysts for personal and global transformation: which means that they are Places of both service and synthesis. For Divine Beauty to be actualized community must be able to see what needs to be done and summon the will to act... such a community and Place will engage and inspire both members and guests to rise in quest of their own possibilities...
Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
If a core value and primary intention is the creation of a "beloved community", then community must become radiant from within its spiritual center: and radiance is the result of transformation. The will to engage, with serious intention, every possibility for transformation needs to be nurtured, like a precious garden that will feed a family... to willingly explore our many layers of consciousness and to adopt a co-creative relationship with the One Love Consciousness and the Universal Wisdom Teachings is essential to the cultivation of community... the service, surrender, and solidarity of community will be evident in the attitudes and works of community members who each uniquely blend the human and the divine, in the respect and reverence with which each community member is treated by all, and in the manner in which community members relate to their neighbors and the wider community. At the same time, there must be room for stretching and experimentation with the new and different: community is also the freedom to pioneer! Inspiration, the creative, and the steady attunement to the deep rhythms of life and relationships can create an environment of both trust and support... if the one competition endorsed by the community is that of questing to "love more" than the One Love that started all the loving to begin with, then all will be well, at least eventually, all will be well...
A "beloved community" is all about "praxis": the process of putting ideas into action and then the shared reflection that draws out the lessons that have been learned: praxis is a sacred circle, essential for both a spiritual "grounding" and for the on-going development of a shared community leadership... if the ground upon which community members walk is holy, what then of their attitudes and actions? Every step is an expression of reverence and delight: every word an expression of adoration and blessing: is this ridiculous? Again, community is like a garden: the soil of the garden must be nurtured and cared for that it might give life to the seeds and plants growing there: so too, our minds must be trained and re-focused from the exclusive club of "me, myself, and I" to the social network of "I am You, You are Me, and We are All Together"... So no, "reverence, delight, adoration, and blessing" are not ridiculous: they are just the flowers and fruits of a love that has been practiced...
Still Though, Why Community? Why Tribe?
If one cannot admit that the well-being of this entire precious blue Planet is at risk, there will be nothing written here which will contribute to the question. If one is completely unaware of the injustice evident in the divide between the haves and the have-nots, there will be no reason to read further. If one is entirely oblivious to the historical and current oppression and exploitation of women, there is simply nothing left to say... community begins with an awakening into Reality... The scandal of vast hordes of wealth while tens of thousands of children die of malnutrition and poverty -- everyday -- is a clarion call to a complete re-ordering of our personal and social relationships... likewise, the scandal of our planetary destruction in the pursuit of the few for unbelievable wealth, is of itself sufficient reason for rEvolutionary organizing and action... community begins with the stunning conviction that one life can make a huge difference in the potential outcomes for our moment in time...
What did Pythagoras, the Buddha, Yeshua, Francis, Rumi, Theresa, Gandhi, and Dorothy Day do? They formed community. As keen observers of nature, each saw that all of life exists in a web of relationships -- of inter-being -- and strives to upward-rise into community: the One Love Consciousness is the origin and constantly creative Energy that enlivens all of matter, every creature, and especially every human with divine meaning and purpose: it is enlightened faith in this One Reality that is the transformational possibility of community...
Community is the solidarity experience: the choice freely taken to stand, side-by-side, with the dispossessed and powerless: community is the bold proclamation that every life is worthy of the very best, and so is a witness for international equality, justice, and peace. Community is the activation of compassion to work with the One Love Consciousness in the struggle for unity, reverence of the Earth, equality for women, and the right ordering of relationships to facilitate every person's full development and liberation...
Community is the cultivation of a deep interior life of unity: steadily reducing the divide between belief and action, until thought, word, and deed are one. This is perhaps the most difficult work of any person in the course of their life! Community facilitates inner work by creating a happy, safe, healthy, and welcoming environment for everyone's enjoyment. Constructive work in happy fellowship is sacramental: love grows the food just as love will cook it... love nurtures the soil, cleans and paints the houses, decorates and creates, plays music and sings, adventures into the wider community in service, networks for justice, equality, and peace, and in all things gives evidence of paradise possibilities... Work is advancing everyone's liberation in Love... Work is the service of the Common Good... Work in a spirit of service is the debt we each owe for the gift of our breath... Community is the answer of the heart to the deepest questions and struggles of our time: community is the answer of resolute faith that the Good and Kind and Beautiful will overcome and transform all that is base, oppressive, violent, and miserable...
Community is the awakening into the Great Secret of Yeshua: we are each very dearly loved! And it is by responding to this One Love with love that the New Creation is vitalized and actualized! The Universe and this Earth whirl within the loving embrace of the One: it cannot be anything other than what it is: One-in-Love! Community is the personal decision to live as an agent of transformation: wholly and completely for Love! Community is the movement of spirit and life that urges us forward into the practical ramifications of our Divine Unity...
Community is the firm declaration that it is by mutual-aid that we both survive and thrive: all of nature is as a parable-in-action of the web of life of which we are a part. This Divine Web of Inter-Being enlivens community with a willingness to be happy in the midst of struggle... community is an educational center, a neighborhood resource for sharing, and always a festival-in-the-making... community is the stimulant for both giving and creativity as it builds towards unity and convivial culture in Love...
Community is the emboldened realization that a fully human life requires the unity of service, surrender, and solidarity... community is the freedom to choose the well-being of the Whole as the vivification of the self... community is the steward and trustee of common resources: held for the common good of all... in community no one lords it over anyone else: everyone is sister and brother belonging to and within the One Love... community is a living organism animated by the Breath of the Divine: breathing through us to the degree that we remain receptive and open to grace: to be animated by the Breath of the Divine is to begin to live as a kindness and as a smile...
Community is economic sufficiency: community develops as its members create and share... community is the offering of one's gifts as essential to the happiness and well-being of all... community is the release from the driving spirit of modern industrial technology which prices everything according to profit: what does it profit a person if he gains a higher margin, but loses his soul in the process? Community is the answer to the fundamental question of our time: how much is enough? Freed from the necessity of answering, "There can never be enough", the communitarian may enter the blessed state of satisfaction and be happy, safe, healthy, and welcomed...
Community is holistic, deeply rooted in a culture of the Divine Feminine, and attuned to the ancient ways of Native Peoples... Aspects of the holistic outlook include: personal responsibility for one's condition, creating a healing environment, reverence for the whole person, eating lightly and organically, reducing the harm one causes including harm to the Earth, mindfulness and meditation practice, and integrating spiritual practice within the everyday... Educational themes include: personal growth, the integration of the arts in daily life, natural health, nonviolence, equality and justice, gender relations, a loving universalism, organic culture, biodiversity, and the value of all the parts especially as they relate to the whole... community is the commitment to live our human future now...
Community is the place where persons are encouraged to explore their possibilities in a safe and welcoming environment... life, intimate with others and with nature, yields the highest rewards...community is a web of relationship networked through air, water, and soil... community is the will to act in harmony and with the intention of harmlessness towards every other... community is the ability to welcome diversity: cultural, religious, economic, and social... community is the intentional cultivation of loving awareness in daily life... community is the place where the human body is safe, nurtured, and celebrated... community is the place where everyone recognizes that she / he has a voice equal to that of everyone else... community is the place where vision is connected to reality, where work is service, where the common good is common to all, and where organizing is to first of all be organized for the Good, the Kind, and the Beautiful...
The primary purpose of community, integrated within every other purpose, is to fully incarnate the New Creation of Harmony, Peace, and Justice -- under the rainbow arc of the One Love Consciousness -- in a particular locality, and then by extension about this entire precious blue Planet... the task of the communitarian is to focus and refine the Energy of the Universe available within an individual mind and heart, and then to make that Energy available to the Common Good and for transformation...
Community is also the conscious, planned, development of economic alternatives: creating and networking in circles of micro-economies, communities must co-create institutions of solidarity to steadily replace the institutions of exploitation and domination... the natural aspirations to heal, grow, and thrive can be nurtured in an environment of life-long learning...
Communities are places of both "retreat" and "advance"... by breathing in peace, we may exhale passion: the two in balance nurture a dynamic -- harmonious -- human life... communities are places to cultivate allies and thus create multiple "entry points" for the wider community, for students, and for volunteers... communities merge flexibility with strength, beauty with practical, cooperation with freedom, and dedication with responsibility... communities are at the same time conservative (cherishing, honoring, and protecting community, the Earth, and the past) and radical (artistic, open, building justice, and looking to the future)... Communities are places for taking into serious consideration the well-being of the entire Planet when making decisions... communities are places wary of the strait-jacket of definitions...
Communities are places where the individual attracts to her / himself that which is thought... think deeply of the One Love Consciousness and live everyday as a blessing to those on the same path as you: see what happens! All of matter -- every physical manifestation -- is Energy: is Consciousness: is One: "We have been made by Love, for Love, to become Love" (Simone Weil)... The more one appreciates and activates this One Reality, the deeper the experience becomes, until little by little, one is everywhere linked in the One Communion of Love...
Breaking It All Down
Everything written thus far is a lie! Community is actually the complete opposite of what has been written on this page! And these first two sentences of this section are as the famous Zen koan: "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" You must not proceed further until you have correctly answered...
"Breaking it all down" is a very big part of both community and the mystic-activist life... and truthfully, the "breaking down" goes hand-in-hand with the "building it back up"... You should realize by now that we are all an interesting mix of a whole lot of "stuff": some of our stuff is of course stunningly original and beautiful... and some others much less so... we love and we rage, we bless and we curse, we work hard and we blame others, we are lovers and we are cruel, we turn on the lights and wallow in the dark, we organize for justice and manipulate our friends, we proclaim the grandest vision and cheat on our partner... and most of us carry our "stuff" in the shadows of our minds and hearts: neatly packaged and stacked: but always on the ready for immediate use should the wrong occasion arise... and the stuff just keeps piling up: why am I always the one to wash the dishes, take out the trash, pick up the kids, vacuum the carpets, and scrub the toilets? One of these days... and this is just barely taking into account all of us who have been abused, bullied, ridiculed, made to feel ugly, told that we are too small, or too fat, or too stupid: and have you ever felt a fist hit you and the other kids do nothing but laugh at your humiliation and fear? Have you ever looked in a mirror and wanted to see someone entirely different looking back at you? Have you watched a movie and wondered why you had to born without either the looks or the talent to be adored by anyone or famous? Have you ever sunk into alcohol or drugs to cover "for just one blessed minute" the secret of who are: the secret that you hate: the knowing that you are a worthless scumbag? Have you ever known, not that there isn't a God, but that that God hates you too and delights in every time that you hurt and cut yourself? Well, welcome to community because that is only who ever shows up!
Not saint: human being! Is that okay? Please say that is okay! Our modern culture is one of great amplification, which makes everything much, much, more difficult. We are all living in the "dark night of the soul": abandoned by God, left on the margins to survive as best we can: there are a few very popular ways of shutting down and going into a self-protection mode: drugs and alcohol are immensely popular as are fundamentalist religions and reactionary politics: blame and accusation are convenient tools to justify an increasingly meaningless existence... "Humpty-Dumpty sat on a wall, had a great fall, and could never be put back together again"... we are each "Humpty-Dumpty" living in the fear -- and sometimes "knowing" -- that this children's rhyme is true: at least about us... And yet, and yet... along comes a book, maybe its "The Grapes of Wrath" or maybe "The Hope" by Andrew Harvey... and we see ourselves in the story and begin to wonder if the part we have been playing for so very long might be modified a bit: or maybe of maybe's: radically transformed? Is that even possible? SO HERE WE ARE! WE ARE THE ONES WHO HAVE SHOWN UP TO BUILD COMMUNITY!
Holy moly! What now! Is it even possible? How the glorious hell does all of this get changed -- or even modified -- into THAT! So what it comes down to is this: how far down the rabbit-hole do you want to go? Just how serious are you about this transformation stuff? How interested are you in humility and honesty? How do you sleep at night and when you wake up what thoughts first fill your head? When your shadow becomes evident to everyone else are you going to shut down, act out, or leave? Or are you ready to stay and do the hard work? Do you give a rat's ass about your intentions -- and start "unpacking" -- or is it just time, once again, to cut and run? Oh and there is one even more sinister possibility: we'll all pretend! We'll create the appearance of doing the hard work, the serious meditation, the acts of devotion, and the works of mercy and justice: and then we'll really screw anyone who uncovers our truth... "The Dark Night of the Soul" is a beautiful poem written by St. John of the Cross while imprisoned by his religious brothers... it is also part and parcel of everyone's mystical journey: the hero has to die: God has to die: all has to be lost... before the hero can be reborn in the God who never left and into the joy of endless possibility... This: this! is the work of community!
Are you still interested?
Picking up The Pieces
A community -- a tribe -- of vigorous intention is possible: since Unity is our essential nature and the One Reality, we might even go so far as to say that community could be lived as an "applied science"...
One might very well say that, collectively, we are living in the "Dark Night of the Dominator Paradigm" (or of the Planet)... the Dominator Paradigm is the philosophical / political position that there is a "barely bridgeable" gulf between the Divine and Matter or the Human, that the human is inherently "bad" (an inheritance from "Woman"), and that "separation" is fundamental to reality (justifying exploitation, oppression, etc.)....[Read The Chalice & The Blade, by Riane Eisler]. Set, not so much "against" the notion of separation and division as for Oneness and Unity, is the building of community: and it is possible to chart a useful path for common application...
1. Surveying the crisis of both soul and Planet, wise discernment is essential: where the loudest voices are automatically perceived to be the voices of authority, it takes an activated will to advance the subtle and small... the soul that has given time to pondering the sources of pleasure will realize that the greatest satisfactions are found in the natural and the beautiful, in the practice of "home economics", and in a welcoming table and hearth... it is precisely in the vivification of community that happiness, meaning, and purpose is found... Wise discernment knows the value of time and will not sell to just any bidder... Wise discernment knows the value of land, home, and of place and will practice reverence and beauty... Wise discernment will look for the ways of connection and value them above temporary gain... Wise discernment is the steady remembrance of the Unity in the breath, in the work, in the pleasure, and in the rest: and will so organize religion, economics, politics, and culture...
2. Surveying the crisis of both soul and Planet, dedicated action is essential: when organizing is ridiculed by those adept at sowing division to reap political and economic rewards, it requires an activated will to advance the good of all and of the Planet above that of the very few... action is essential to the maintenance of life: one cannot live without action... wise discernment in the field of action will convince of the necessity of working without attachment to either success or of failure, and always for the well-being of all and of the Planet... renouncing the base desires of both domination and profit, the one who works as dedicated action for the well-being of family, neighbor, and community has made practical wise discernment...
3. Surveying the crisis of both soul and Planet, passionate inquiry is essential: when both art and science are marginalized by those in power, it is especially time for a spirit of passionate inquiry to become the watchwords of civilization... the cultivation of an open mind in the pursuit of philosophy is essential to the creation or maintenance of a democratic spirit.... the twin abilities to question and to reflect are the highest use of all learning... intelligence exists for the cultivation of social well-being, kindness, and service... to live a life of continual passionate inquiry is to live in a perpetual state of wonder: wonder is the door to enthusiasm: and enthusiasm opens every other door...
4. Surveying the crisis of both soul and Planet, abundant simplicity is essential: when unlimited profit is the basis of economics, power becomes the heart of politics: this is the corruption of both the home and democracy: the soul cannot long survive wedded to either profit or to power: this is the truth! Wise discernment, dedicated action, and passionate inquiry inevitably lead to the advantages of abundant simplicity... when communities have a notion of the meaning of "enough", everyone has the potential of thriving: and on the contrary, when there is never "enough", some few will conspire how to arrange both economics and politics to serve their greed and lust for power... As Gandhi said, following the inspiration of Yeshua, "There is enough for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed"... the practicalities of abundant simplicity is the satisfaction of the great human hungers for family, food, safety, happiness, community, and creative possibilities for every child... communities thrive when the only competition is sharing and kindness...
5. Surveying the crisis of both soul and Planet, devotional meditation is essential: when dissipation is the driving force of culture, the active cultivation of mindfulness and the care of the soul is the beginning of wisdom... if the One Reality is Unity, and if that Unity is the One Love Consciousness, then wisdom would indicate the benefits and pleasures associated with the cultivation of adoration and surrender of heart to the One... absorbed in Unity, the mind can rise above the "veils of separation" to the direct perception of the Good and Beautiful, and so then re-enter the fields of action with clarity of vision and purpose... the devotional offering of all thought and action to the Bliss of the One and the Service of All is the ripe fruit of a life of great richness and blessing...
6. Surveying the crisis of both soul and Planet, awakening to Unity is essential: when separation and division are the root system of religion and civilization, the divine object of "flourishing" is contrived to be for sale... awakened into Unity, the required duality of all human thought may begin to be bridged: start with Beautiful and Ugly, Good and Bad, Sinner and Saved, and God and Satan... what is real and who am I are the two core questions to budge the mind out of the "jail" of separation... original sin is the philosophical justification for every abuse of power... original blessing, on the other hand, is the realization that there were no locks to the cells of our jail... it is possible to breathe free, to walk upright without fear, and to live anticipating the very best... awakening to Unity is the cultivation of the Divine Feminine in daily life and the parallel realization that this very Planet is Alive and Sacred... when all decision-making considers the past and seven generations into the future, we will live in the blessedness of constant renewal... Renewal enlivens the consciousness of community with sacred purpose...
7. Surveying the crisis of both soul and Planet, love without limits is essential: when power buys and sells anything and everything, there is only one way of forward into a recovery of sanity and balance and it is that of active love... for the one who is deeply satisfied, well-rooted in the pleasures of home, work, and community, the expansion of love into the wider social realm is required... the daily practice of works of mercy and justice builds bridges of transformation among folks who may have not yet learned the compassion imperative... one who sees both the suffering person and the systemic causes of suffering may become a source of wholly right action... liberated from duality, one may see, truthfully, the sacred divinity of every other and serve to liberate them from every oppression: walking hand-in-hand in the mutuality of liberation, persons are freed to simply to love... pursuing action as a service to the Common Good, one is freed from the seductive power of profit... acting in the world, free from the desire to acquire the fruits of action and simply as a direct consequence of loving, one could be said to be finally alive... and further, awakening in life to the stunning realization that each and every one of us is dearly beloved by the One Love Consciousness: creating, sustaining, and evolving All Being into Gracious Consciousness: "You are dearly loved by me" is the Song of the Universe, of the One Love, within every heart and the Unity of rEvolution...
The steady practice within an intentional community of these "Principles of Mystic Expansion": Wise Discernment, Dedicated Action, Passionate Inquiry, Abundant Simplicity, Awakening to Unity, and Love Without Limits is the "praxis", the experiential method, of creating the community of dreams... What remains, of course, is the activated will and daily intention to become who it is possible to become: with the active encouragement and support of a gathering of sisters and brothers... "Why Community?" Perhaps when all is said and done, only community can truthfully answer the question of "What are you worth?" And of course, the correct answer to that question is, "I am worth the very best! I am worth Love!"
