Embracing Hope

In the words of Sanjayan, a scientist with The Nature Conservancy, "we in the conservation movement have done a spectacular job of demoralizing and depressing people." Unfortunately, our focus on the difficulty, the immediacy, and the extent of the challenges confronting the world's environments this century has convinced too many people that "the world is doomed."

Of course, it's not only because Earth is resilient, but also because collectively, we human beings have the intelligence and wherewithal to make fundamental changes and accomplish great things. If we decide to do so.

What we need is Hope, a belief that what we do as individuals and as a species can make a big difference. Hope that we can find common purpose in ensuring that our Earth remains not simply habitable but also beautifully diverse and life-giving.

Without hope, we wallow in resignation, admitting helplessness without ever really daring to see what we might be capable of accomplishing.

So it becomes important to publicize the good news, to make people aware of what we have done to preserve a species, to protect a natural place, to discover ways to reduce our "carbon footprint" or our impact on nature.

This is my Christmas wish: that we embrace our full human potential, put aside our helpless attitudes, and empower ourselves with Hope. And this is my Christmas gift: I commit myself to focusing on the positive, to doing whatever I can to keep Hope alive among us.

It may take some time, but if we go forward with Hope, we really will be able to accomplish the "miraculous."

Here's the link to Sanjayan's interview with David Letterman on this topic:

http://www.nature.org/magazine/winter2009/?src=m1

Prayer of Peace

Ilchi Lee presented this prayer at the Opening Ceremony of the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders in the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations on August 28th, 2000.

I offer this prayer of peace

Not to the Christian God

Nor to the Buddhist God

Nor to the Islamic God

Nor to the Jewish God

But to the God of all humanity.

For the peace that we wish for

Is Not a Christian peace

Nor a Buddhist peace

Nor an Islamic peace

Nor a Jewish peace

But a human peace

For all of us.

I offer this prayer of peace

To the God that lives within all of us

That fills us with happiness and joy

To make us whole

And help us understand life

As an expression of love for all human beings.

For no religion can be better

Than any other religion

For no truth can be truer

Than any other truth

For no nation can be bigger

Than the earth itself.

Help us all go beyond

Our small limits

And realize that we are one

That we are all from the earth.

That we are all earth people

before we are Indians, Koreans, or Americans.

God made the earth

We humans have to make it prosper

By realizing that we are of the earth

And not of any nation, race, or religion.

By knowing that we are truly one

In our spiritual heritage.

Let us now apologize

to all humanity

For the hurt that religions have caused.

So that we can heal the hurt

Let us now promise to one another

To go beyond egotism and competition

To come together as one in God.

I offer this prayer of peace

To you the almighty

To help us find you within all of us

So that we may stand proudly one day before you

As one humanity.

I offer this prayer of peace

With all my fellow earth people

For a lasting peace on earth.

We Launch from the Sea

"Flying Fish"

A poem by Carl Sandburg

I have lived in many half-worlds myself … and so I know you.

I leaned at a deck rail watching a monotonous sea, the same circling birds and the same plunge of furrows carved by the plowing keel.

I leaned so … and you fluttered struggling between two waves in the air now … and then under the water and out again … a fish … a bird … a fin thing … a wing thing.

Child of water, child of air, fin thing and wing thing … I have lived in many half worlds myself … and so I know you.

Prayer for Beauty

"I pray thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within."

--Socrates

Emerson, Truth, and Beauty

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?"

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Message of Our Times

Let the Angel Trumpets herald the message:

"Equal rights for all!"

It's well past time....

The Four Limitless Meditations

May all beings have happiness
And the causes of happiness.

May all be free of sorrow

And the causes of sorrow.

May all never be separate from the sacred happiness

That is sorrowless.

May all leave attachment to dear ones and aversion to others

And live believing in the equalness of all that lives.