Note to Reader: The writings that follow are selected excerpts from Chris Saade’s soon to be published book on the Inclusive Spirit. They focus on the psychology and the spirituality of heart-centered living and give special attention to the importance of being authentic and heart-centered in our quest for personal fulfillment and global responsibility. The writings are an attempt to underline the crucial importance of bringing together psychological and spiritual self-development with activism for peace and inclusion in the world. Enjoy!
The Call to Inclusion
May we remember that we are the ones—parents, artists, teachers, blue collar workers and white collar workers, entrepreneurs—who will stoke the embers of the fire of inclusion. Inclusion is a life-transforming idea that is spreading wide and gaining momentum. It is emerging amid the ruins of divisiveness and violence. The idea of inclusitivity connects open hearts and concerned spirits and redraws the map of our planet’s future. We are the heart-centered leaders who need to be unsparing with our voice and actions. We are the ones who are called to fortify the idea of inclusion.
Inclusion is an idea whose time has finally come.
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Today, more than ever, we need a daring and a soulful vision for our day-to-day living. We need a dream that is solidly based on the heart and is richly inclusive. Today, our hurting world pleads for individuals and leaders who are willing to be passionate about peace and to act heroically for the reconciliation of our differences on a personal as well as community and global level. The disparate parts of our humanity—scattered and found in different cultures, religions, and philosophies—cannot remain at war with each other. Together we all share this world. We cannot escape being part of the same global destiny. There is no way out of this reality, only a way forward into a radical awakening of spirit.
The dawn of inclusion and peace is arriving. We are people who are called to inspire a reunion of divergent and traditionally warring views. We are the ones who will have to galvanize the breaking of bread amongst those who have held enmity for centuries. There is no time left for despondency and cynical self-talk. We cannot allow ourselves to be derailed from the great task of inclusion. Inclusion is too important to ignore and requires a solid and soulful commitment. People are hungry to be invited into larger and larger circles of belonging in spite of and because of their diversity. This hunger for inclusion has become a reality demanding to be heard—a scream of the soul that can no longer be hushed…
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That which you passionately seek and that of which life deprives you are the gold that creates the mettle of your spirit. Bless the seeking and bless the deprivation. Attempt above all, every day, to engage the world from your heart's center. Your heart is the sacred ground that connects you to all that is ultimate. Your heart roots you in your soul. Seek above all to be centered in your heart.
The Importance of Authenticity
Until we understand that our own and others’ authentic characteristics and aspirations are the irreplaceable foundation for the fullness of life, it will be impossible to build inclusive relationships, inclusive communities, and an inclusive world.
Authenticity & Global Responsibility
This is a time in the development of our consciousness when it is crucial for us to bridge the gap between self-development and global action.
There is a dire need for psychology and spirituality to seriously take into account the fact that human beings are intrinsically agents of justice and peacemaking. Full psychological healing and spiritual awakening requires each of us to discover the greater meaning of our lives. By closing our eyes to the global scope of who we are as individuals, and by turning our attention away from the collective need for inclusion and peace, we imprison our spirits in a fictitious smallness and lose ourselves in a wasteland of superficial pursuits.
Our spirit is ultimately epic and needs to be engrossed in the pursuit of a larger purpose. We need a sense of global connection and solidarity with others in order to grow, be nurtured, and truly self-realize. In a post 9/11 world, we can no longer afford the pursuit of the “me first” fake self. Our yearning for a world at peace screams for acknowledgement and beckons us to constructive action, an action that springs from the most profound center of our being. We are asked to confront our lingering, though mistaken, belief that we can live a fulfilled life without a commitment to a greater purpose. The largeness of our spirit needs to be recognized. We thrive through participation in local and worldwide communities. This participation is a source of immense spiritual nurturance that we have dangerously neglected. Our spirits hunger for peace, inclusion, and reconciliation. We are the partners of the earth. We care. We long to make a difference. And we dream of lives audaciously consequential. When we allow the greater ethical ideals of our spirit to shrink or dissipate we become depressed and sicken our hearts. Psychological health and spiritual development must not be separated from the deeply rooted humanitarian longings of our spirit. This is our great task if we are to live a life rich in spirit and abundant in passion.
Authenticity and Diversity
A respect for the authenticity of our own and others’ spirits is quintessential if we want to build inclusive families and inclusive relationships, as well as develop a vision of an inclusive world. Authenticity generates diversity, and diversity calls for us to master the art of inclusion. Families need to include the diversity of their children, and communities need to affirm their cultural, religious, racial, and sexual diversity. The global commonwealth has to openly welcome the creative input of its manifold ethnic and religious resources. The healing force of inclusion can only come from leaders who understand that diversity is the most generative power of our universe—leaders who can grasp the wisdom of plurality because they are connected to their heart and grounded in a deep respect for all the variations of the human spirit.
It is important to celebrate (not just tolerate) our authentic differences
We are all similar in many ways. We are also dissimilar. The celebration of the dissimilarity of our spirits is the beginning of a great transformation in our thinking. The sincere welcoming of our diversity is an act of profound love. We celebrate the diversity of our different needs and aspirations in order to establish true and lasting relationships. We celebrate differences in the longings of our hearts in order to uphold the rainbow of creativity in our midst. As we open our lives to the interweaving of our spirits, we nurture the idea of peaceful inclusion and help foster a sturdy respect for diversity on the larger scale of communities and nations.
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When we invite and value authenticity in our midst, we necessarily awake diversity. The championing of our authentic and inescapable diversity demands from us the vision and the courage of relentless peacemakers—for it is only when we celebrate the diversity embedded in our quest for authenticity that we put to rest our old ideas of control and domination. By moving beyond the toleration of differences and into its celebration, we invite the new and radical paradigm of inclusion to take root in our relationships and in our world. We all share a planet with an unimaginable number of diverse species and live in a universe where our own galaxy contains one hundred billion stars, each one with its own specificity. As we become conscious of this universe we inhabit, we come to unabashedly celebrate this paradoxical world of commonalities and divergences. By doing, so we lead our world closer to peace. The holding of our diversity with a deep sense of awe is the great and urgent task of our century.
Mutual Advocacy
We are learning to openly advocate the different perspectives, beliefs, and experiences of others. The spiritual practice of mutual advocacy can unite us beyond our differences and enable us to usher in a needed sense of peaceful inclusion. The practice of advocacy has the power to bring about the unimaginable and the unexpected…
A Christian speaks of the beauty he finds in Islam; a Muslim points to the gems she finds in Christianity; a Hindu honors the wisdom of Judaism; and a Jew celebrates the contributions of Hinduism. An atheist raises a toast to a believer, and a believer sings the praises of the insights of atheism….Meanwhile, in a family, a husband at odds with his wife asserts that there is value in her viewpoint. She in turn, while disagreeing with her husband’s viewpoint, affirms that his perspective has brought her some tremendously valuable gifts. This is the power of generous advocacy. Advocacy is about up holding, with respect and admiration, some aspects of the position or perspective of others. Advocacy can happen between siblings, between parents and children, between neighbors, as well as between warring factions across oceans.
The following passage is fictionalized email, from a wife to her husband, in which she expresses a vision of mutual advocacy:
“Darling, I write to you with tears of gratitude and tears of trembling. I am very grateful for all the time you invest with me in our couple’s counseling. We have been married for eight years, and I have experienced your commitment to me and to our relationship. I know you must wonder why I ask for more when I already have your heart, and I know that our dialogues have been hard on you lately. I am very aware of the stretching that is being asked from you and from both of us. I am asking us to expand the scope of our vision, our vision of loving each other. We know that we love each other deeply—that is an undeniable fact. We have always had a deep affection for each other. What I am longing for is that we invoke and apply the deep love that we have for each other when we are facing issues where we differ and encountering moments of turbulence where we have needs and desires that do not mesh. I would love to see us expressing our love in a way that upholds and celebrates our differences when these differences emerge. I know that you love me, and it means the world to me! And my darling life companion, I would love so much, if in the throes of our disagreements, we would still approach each other as each other’s greatest ally. I want to make sure that, when you bring me a need or a proposal that rubs me the wrong way, I take the time and make the intentional effort to find something in your words to lovingly affirm. I want to learn to show you that I am on your side even and especially when our needs differ. It would mean a lot to me if you would do the same for me. Please join me in not withdrawing our energy from each other when we bring something uncomfortable to each other. I need your expressions of love, especially when my longing is different from yours. It would mean so much to me to know that when the winds of tension arise, our care for each other stands strong, especially in the way we communicate with each other. I believe it would be a great gift to us if, while we are attempting to cross the rivers of our differences, we could continue celebrating each other even from opposite shores. I yearn to experience and feel our intense love and expressions of affection when we’re not seeing eye-to-eye. I know I am asking something of us that is difficult. However, I pray that we can offer each other this loving and mutual advocacy as a gift that honors our rich bond and our commitment to each other.
Your forever loving partner…”
It is exactly when we are in the throes of conflict with others that we need to remember to passionately advocate their core needs and longings. That is the beginning and the power of heart-centered communication.
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Through the practice of mutual advocacy, a dialogue becomes a rich co-creation and a possibility for peace making. The practice of passionately advocating some aspects of the position of others is an effective and profoundly needed spiritual discipline. It transforms the nature of the dialogue and heals the bitterness embedded in our differences.
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We advocate others when we believe their perspective has something valuable to contribute. By recognizing that others always have valuable contributions to bring to the table, and by believing that dialogue is not about winning or losing an argument (personal or global), we awaken our spirit to its great potential of inclusion and community-building. If we hold on courageously to the proposition that all others, at all times, have some wisdom to share, we transcend the paradigm of divisiveness and begin to take bold and effective steps toward the coming age of inclusion.
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When we passionately advocate the value we find in the position of the other, we embark on a rich and rewarding journey toward reconciliation. The path of generous advocacy might not yet be within reach for everyone; nevertheless, it is a powerful driving force and a compelling catalyst for change when practiced by the bold few who are willing to pioneer such an impactful idea. Gandhi and Martin Luther King excelled at the art of finding something to advocate in the position of their foes. They had faith in the promise of advocacy’s healing powers. Honoring the differences we have with others opens the doors to reunion. It blasts away the unyielding walls of our rigidity and sends a message to others that they remain part of the solution no matter the breadth of the differences that divide us.
The close relationship between living authentically and loving passionately
We build the most loving and healthy relationships when we engage others in a way that is congruent with the natural style of our spirit, while at the same time inviting and respecting the authenticity of our partners. We fall into a dangerous trap when we belittle the needs of our own natural style or the natural style of our partners. While there is no set way to make a relationship succeed, we give relationships the greatest chance to thrive when we build them on a foundation of courageous authenticity, transparency, and a generous sharing of oneself. The extent to which we can give to others passionately is directly linked to how true we are to our genuine sense of self. Natural styles differ from person to person, however every style is a valid conduit to a passionate connection. We build intimacy when we express our love without holding back and do so in a way that upholds the authenticity of our spirit. A dearth of affection in a relationship is not caused by differences in style, but rather by the betrayal of authenticity. Such a betrayal of our truth is often motivated by a wish to ‘please’ our partners or to avoid conflict. The practice of giving up our genuine truth for the sake of ‘pleasing’ prevents the relationship from being built on a foundation of honesty and loving vulnerability. If we suppress the authenticity of our spirit in order to appease others, we lose our ability to love with integrity and passion.
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We are all made to be passionate. The loss of passion in a relationship is not due to an inherent deficiency in a person’s style. It is caused by a failure to honor and uphold enthusiastically our own and others’ authentic style and to express ourselves passionately through our style. Passion flows uninhibited when we communicate our authentic needs and incorporate them in our vision of the relationship. Love grows when we furbish our ability to express ‘the real’ of our spirit as well as welcome and carve out a space for the sacred authenticity of our partners.
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We emotionally injure our loved ones if we deem their authentic character to be deficient. The problem is never with the style of their spirit but arises when we lack consciousness in expressing our style intentionally and constructively. Consciousness is always a prerequisite for freedom. We empower our relationships, not by changing our genuine style or asking others to change theirs, but by becoming conscious of our style, claiming it intentionally, and learning to be aware and acknowledge its gifts and its lacks. Our task is to learn how to develop our style and express it in a way that is intentional and relationship-building.
The more we are faithful to our spirit the more we can stretch into unfamiliar behaviors
Fidelity to the truth of our spirit does not exclude growth into the new and the unfamiliar.
In a relationship, we need to integrate and stretch toward some of our partner’s ways of being. The more we expand our sense of self, the more we enrich the passionate interchange of love. We need to expand our repertoire, but it is essential that we do so without betraying the core of who we are. The mindful practice of love requires us to simultaneously remain faithful to our natural ways as well as to incorporate some of the unfamiliar traits that our partners introduce to us. In order to stretch in this way we must remain firmly and proudly grounded in the nature of our spirit—for if we give up our authentic identity we sacrifice the true passion that emerges from the wellspring of our authenticity. A loving relationship calls us to expand the scope of our behaviors generously and without defensiveness. A committed and passionate love has never been the estate of the fainthearted. The deepest love emerges from the paradox of self-fidelity and the daring adventure of inviting our loved ones to expand us.
Our spirit has to unfold according to its own individual nature
As a river cannot be but a river, a canyon cannot be but a canyon, and a mountain has to be a mountain, each individual nature has to be itself. For our nature, if respected, can flower, generate, and create from its own astounding and particular make up. It is true that we continuously experience change; however, there is also an unchanging core within us that needs be acknowledged, appreciated, honored, and championed. Otherwise we could easily be hurled away from our inner truth by the winds of circumstance. We could lose that which is most precious to us: the true identity of our spirit, the authenticity that connects us with the passion for life and the awe of being alive.
Seek to become who you naturally are. Become masterful at embodying your spirit.
Develop the spirit that has always inhabited you. Do not be lured by self-images that are alien to the core of your authenticity. Do not wish to be someone other than who you truly are. Do not betray the genuine driving force of your spirit, for such a betrayal will bury your creativity and drain your joy. Why envy a hawk when you are an owl? Why crave to be a horse when you are a giraffe? Each being has its own indispensible contribution to offer to the march of history and the unfolding of the greater vision of life. We infuse our lives with meaning and build peace out of the stuff of sheer authenticity.
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Authenticity is the golden path to a rich experience of life. Authenticity confers on our life its dignity. Authenticity is the compass that reveals the true north of our spirit. As we intentionally honor our real longings and our way of being, we discover the embers of our most meaningful passions.
Authenticity & Enthusiasm
It is only when we act in ways that respect the natural style of our spirit that we unleash our creative energy and enthusiasm. Only by going for our dreams in a style and manner that is very true to us do we maintain a high level of vivacity and endurance. If we find ourselves sluggish, we have most probably attempted to co-create our dream in a way that violates the natural style of our spirit.
All styles are valuable
Every style is creative, and every style offers a specific and valuable angle of perception from our collective human genius. We deconstruct the hold that shame has on us when we honor the different character styles displayed within our families and in our communities. For our generosity can only be drawn from the well of our authenticity. It is only within our authenticity that we find the creative and spiritual powers needed to face our greatest personal and collective challenges.
It is crucial to be curious about the particular nature of our spirit
It is not until we develop a loving curiosity toward the nature of our spirit, that we will be able to ground ourselves in all that is real about us and resist the pressures weighing on us to be what we are not. Without developing a deep intimacy with our own spirit, we will blindly follow the external demands put on us. Many of these demands will be in conflict with our authenticity and if we adhere to them, we will become confused and destabilized. We will be apt to make promises we cannot keep and in so doing, injure others as well as ourselves. For when a fiction about “who we should be” replaces the real nature of our spirit, we become unable to follow through on our word. We become tossed to-and-fro by intoxicating moments of “I can get myself to do anything,” followed by experiences of paralysis and despondency. Self-betrayal undermines the ground we stand on. But when we unearth our authenticity, listen to it attentively, and faithfully act on it, we access a true and immensely powerful creative force in us. Only then do our words become consistent and our promises solid and reliable.
This is our human predicament: we can choose to remain unaware of the nature of our spirit and go on drifting alongside our lives. Or we can choose to become conscious about the truth of our real needs, instinctual gifts, and natural orientations. If we choose the latter we enable ourselves to engage with excitement the unique beauty of our true story.
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Ultimately, we all have to ask ourselves if our actions display the true image of our soul or if our actions have become false and have tragically succumbed to the forces of the inauthentic.
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Take time to find out the nature of your spirit. Invest time and energy to bring to light your authentic blueprint. The particularities of your spirit do matter. You are here on this earth to develop and mature the special configuration of forces, needs, and aspirations that constitute your spirit. You can never be someone else, but if you live the creative destiny of your spirit to its fullness, you will flourish!
It is very important to attend to the core needs of our individual spirit
Each spirit has specific needs that are essential for its growth. These needs cannot be discarded. People who care about making a difference in their families and in the world take seriously the needs and hungers of their spirit. As protectors of our own and others’ spirits we are asked to seek out environment, work, and relationships that nurture our core essential needs. Spiritual mindfulness requires us to listen to and become aware of the core needs of our individual spirit. Simultaneously, we need to support others in fulfilling their spirit’s needs. The more we become the guardians of the great causes of inclusion and peace, the more we realize how important it is to tend to our spirit and nurture our needs in order to be healthy and strong in the pursuit of our calling.
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The growth of our spirit depends on developing an acute inner intuition. We evolve exponentially as we cultivate a strong awareness of the landscape of our souls. If we are deaf to the hunger within us and starve our spirit, we depress our life force and drastically weaken our ability to love and create. However, if we take the time to heed our vital needs and tend to our emotional and spiritual health, we will find ourselves plugged into a source of endless energy and endurance. We free in ourselves a strength that is beyond our usual imaginings. If we feed the deep hungers of our spirit, we will come to know within us a powerful and creative resiliency. It is a well nourished spirit that can take on the tasks of building loving interactions as well as hearing and responding to the global plea for a new era of inclusion and intelligent cooperation.
As offspring’s of the modern age, we have been taught to distrust our spirit and to discount the idiosyncratic orientations of our nature. We tend to doubt and even repress our natural characteristics. This is very unfortunate because it is the natural traits of our spirit, however different they may be from the mainstream, that are the source of our greatest creativity and most fierce acts of compassion.
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Trusting the nature of our spirit requires a true paradigm shift in our thinking. Instead of attempting to push aside our natural needs and aspirations, we must trust them. Instead of suppressing our natural tendencies and instincts, we are asked to develop them and enroll them in service of our noblest dreams.
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When we feel ashamed of the natural blueprint of our spirit, we force ourselves to become something we are not. We think that we can convince ourselves to become anyone, forgetting that we are bound to and rooted in particular nature. However, there is only so much forcing we can do! If we continue to push ourselves out of our genuine truth, we subject ourselves to a level of stress that will lead to exhaustion and eventually to depression. We cannot violate the nature of our spirit without spiritually collapsing.
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The nature of our spirit (the way we naturally go through the world) is our wealth. Our nature, when lived authentically, is a never-ending source of energy. When we move toward becoming who we truly are, we restore harmony between the world and ourselves. We tread the sacred ground that only we can tread and become the piece of the puzzle that is our unique contribution to the world. As we infuse ourselves with the power of spiritual congruence, we experience the joy of being at peace with ourselves and become a powerful and generative presence in our world.
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The nature of our spirit is our most valuable gift and resource. It is our task to honor it and celebrate it. By striving to be fiercely authentic we discover the source of our passionate love. We discover the well from which we can lavish our mates, our children, and give to our community from an abundant sense of generosity.
By remaining authentic, we hear the vision that calls on us, the vision that will impart meaning on our lives and usher in change in our world. Only by descending into the particular truth of our spirit do we discover our path to service. Authenticity is the irreplaceable container of our most loving and most meaningful achievements.
It is possible to betray the nature of our spirit; however, the price exacted is gargantuan. For by going against the grain of our spirit, we bring dis-ease into our life. Bitterness overtakes us, and there are not enough pills or soothing drinks to drown the tragedy of dissociating from what is authentic in us. The only remedy is to return as quickly as possible to the truth of our spirit.
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There is no short cut that will allow us to bypass the struggle, hard work, and the overcoming of obstacles on our spiritual journey. Even those that trust their spirit intimately will have, like everyone else, their share of difficult times and challenges. However, they will know that their tears (as well as their joy) belong to their true destiny. Their pain is dignified, for it is the result of their drinking fully from the sacred chalice of their genuine spirit. When we stand in the river of our authenticity, we will have the strength to endure the inescapable challenges, struggles, and difficult reversals in our story. There is deep peace in knowing that we have inhabited our true story regardless of circumstances. There is deep comfort found when we remain deeply rooted in our authentic truth without trying to manipulate the results of our actions. Living authentically is the springboard toward the spiritual peace we seek and the spiritual power we need.
True success is a life lived authentically
Our greatest failure is to ignore the inherent specificity of our spirit and to live in a way that does not articulate the truth of our deeper identity.
We travel successfully through life when we affirm our particular and (even eccentric) style of creativity. We owe it to ourselves and to the world to nurture those creative dispositions that are most natural for our bodies and our spirit. We love most and create most when we are rooted in the endlessly fertile soil of our true nature.
As we pursue the trail of our authenticity we unfurl our true destiny. If we force ourselves in a direction that is not congruent with the truth of our spirit, we engage in a grueling and ultimately life-draining race to nowhere.
It is not easy to be attuned to the authenticity of our spirit and remain faithful to its natural creative flow. It means that we have to listen and care for the specific needs and unique desires of our spirit. It also means that we have to fight the messages that disconnect us from the truth of our being—the messages that imply we should or should not be a certain way. It means letting go of all facades and clever maneuverings that lead to the betrayal of our spirit’s truth. It means recognizing that the authenticity of spirit is immensely freeing. This is the path to emotional and spiritual maturity.
We are successful when we affirm the right of our truest self to exist. This kind of success emerges from actions expressing our true nature. It is this kind of true and real success that is, grounded in the expression of our authenticity that rejuvenates our energies and leads us to contribute generously to the world. It is this kind of authenticity-bound success that inspires us to create peace in our communities. For actions and goals that split us from our authenticity, however alluring and seemingly effective, tax our health and drain our spirit. Only the success that unifies us with the authentic truth of our spirit is worth pursuing.
Authenticity is the strength of our spirit
Everyone’s story, the human story, is rich with the paradox of defeats and successes. As we develop spiritual strength, we learn to respect and celebrate our successes as well as our defeats. We come to focus not on success as such but on the pursuit of our authentic destiny. We realize that defeat incurred in the pursuit of our genuine truth will not injure our spirit but on the contrary, is essential for our growth and development. In fact, as long as we are faithful to the authenticity of our spirit, we will rebound from all setbacks. What is unbearable to us is not the challenges of failures, but the investment of our energy on endeavors that do not belong to the calling of our spirit. It is the continued violation of our authenticity that ushers in depression and allows this depression to become a long-lasting (though unwelcomed) guest.
An intentional path is a commitment to live from our heart’s center. It is about developing our capacity for living a passionate and compassionate life in service of others and the world.
We are the protectors of authenticity, our own and others’
We are the protectors of the truth of our spirit. We are also the protectors of the authentic expression of the spirit of our mates, our children, our friends and co-workers, and even those who disgrace us or oppose us. When we blind ourselves to the needs of each other’s spirits, we build a destructive tension between us. We fail each other when we do not support the natural and specific aspirations that drive each of us and support the unleashing of the best of our gifts. If we want an inclusive culture, we need to become the active advocates of each other’s right to fully and passionately claim the authenticity of our spirit.
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There are as many different styles of spirit as there are individual human beings. Each style is very productive in its own way. Each style is an expression of the deep authenticity of a person and all are equal in worth. Each way of authentically being is necessary for the completion of the whole and the development of a collective genius.
Authenticity & Peace
We build peace when we realize that our differences—whether a matter of inclinations, needs, religious or political affiliations—are not a problem to be solved, but rather a wealth to be protected and mined. We lay the foundations for peace when we approach such differences, not with rage or victimization, but with the passion of those who see diversity with eyes of awe. For we thrive as individuals and as nations on the co-creativity of inclusive alliances between diverse spirits and intelligences.
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Humans have fathomed for too long the elimination of differences whether ethnic, religious, or ones of sexual orientation. This destructive fantasy must be transformed if our planet is to survive. We cannot afford anymore the perpetuation of this violent mindset. Thankfully, most of us are repelled by violence done to someone who, though different from us, is known by us and is someone into whose eyes we have looked and life story we have heard. Yet we have always to remember that anyone near or far who is different from us in personality, beliefs, or inclinations, is still like us and part of us. They too are hungry to be seen and to have their spirit intimately known and accepted. Our need to be included is a universal hunger. The inclusion of differences and the ability to enjoy our diversity is a sign of spiritual maturity that remains our best road to peace.
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Peace happens when we invite the stories of others into our circles of listening. Peace flourishes when we respect this important paradox of life: we are all different in our uniqueness, yet we are one in our spiritual connection. As our minds grasp the genial beauty of the idea of inclusive diversity, we will be able to revel in a harmony that is life-sustaining and sustainable.
Authenticity & Generosity
The acceptance of our own authenticity opens the doors of our generosity. When we accept and surrender to the creative flow of our individual nature, we become a living gift to others and to the world. As we experience the grace of being at peace with who we are, we access the energy and resources to give back to our communities. Our hard-claimed individuality becomes a resonance of empathy with all those who struggle to free their spirits. As we accept and honor the authentic aspects of our inner life, we enlarge the circles of inclusion in our outer life. When we are at war with ourselves we are unable to give generously and love fully. We may be well intentioned, but we remain paralyzed by our inner conflict and are drained by all the misplaced effort it takes to suppress the unwanted parts of ourselves. When we bless our authentic truth, in its depth and integrity, we find that our strength is renewed and our generosity expanded. When we sink deeper into the genuine nature of our spirit, we become free to compassionately serve others and care for the world while at the same time providing our own being with nurturance and vitality.
May we joyfully, consciously, and intentionally embrace all our human imperfections—for they are the flowerbeds of the unique and special character of our spirit.
Authenticity & Flexibility
It is when we courageously stand by the needs of our spirit that we reach out to others and negotiate with them with generosity and with an open heart. Pleasing and placating, contrary to appearances, do not lead to any lasting negotiation. If our fidelity to our spirit is shaky, then our ability to look at new options and explore new behaviors will be weak and limited. It is only when we are deeply rooted in the authenticity of our spirit that we become receptive and strong enough to venture into new, promising, and yet unexamined visions. Self-doubt leads to rigidity; intentional affirmation of our authentic truth opens the way to flexibility. Real strength is generous to others and flexible enough to be in partnership with others and with life.
The Passion of Compassion
We discover our heart's passion in partnership with others. We find ourselves not by retreating into isolation, but by engaging others in their great needs, longings, and hopes. Compassion to our world opens our heart. It is a doorway to all passions. We are often tempted to believe that we are independent monads and that others in their struggle for selfhood and justice are nothing more than faraway images on a TV screen. This is indeed an illusion. The joy and the pain of others live within us—some of it consciously and much of it at levels we do not yet comprehend. The exercise of compassion re-routes our energies from barren self-analysis back to the fertile ground of the heart. Compassion guides us into the creative mystery of the unfolding heart. Our soul is a brother to the abused and a sister to the abandoned child. When one ostracized person is restored to their dignity, all of us become more dignified. Our own body shudders with ineffable joy when a child whose spirit was broken is restored to love. All this is to say that compassion is not an extra item on the to-do list of our busy schedules; it is rather the root of our being, the source of our most meaningful passions and the truth of our authenticity. Compassion is an intrinsic and inescapable solidarity with others. It is the beginning of all great dreams and the ground from which our collective hope blossoms.
The dreams of the heart are the starting point of a greater and more embracing wisdom
Some say it is dangerously unwise to think that we can risk living by and for the dreams that tug on our heart. They believe that such a giving of ourselves to these dreams is mere foolishness. But from a spiritual perspective, the foolishness of our devotion to the dreams of our heart is a sacred foolishness. It is this sacred foolishness that made the Queen of Sheba travel from Africa to Jerusalem to visit King Solomon. It is this sacred foolishness that Christ spoke about when he said that the wisdom of God is madness to most men. Erasmus extolled this foolishness when he wrote his treatise on the “folly of wisdom.” It is a most sane foolishness of spirit that returns to us nothing less than our very lives. Centering our attention on the great dreams of the heart, as well as taking the risks to implement them, is the action of an awakened intelligence and a spirit that is most noble.
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It is only the authentic yearnings of the heart that can sweep away the clouds of our confusion. It is only the calling of the heart that can free our mind from paralysis.
The creative desires of our heart are our most trusted guides
The creative desires of our heart are an ever unfolding story that guides us through the confusion and uncertainties of life. These desires, born from the intimacy we develop with our heart, introduce us to a wealth of enlightening experiences. We are fulfilled and individuated to the extent that we create from the deep longings of our heart.
Our core desires lead us to our destiny and incite us to engage our life passionately. Rather than being disassociated observers, we become grand participants in a meaningful unfolding of the individual and global spirit.
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The longings of our heart call us into actions that are the best expression of our authenticity. Oppression and abuse teach us to deny our heart's longings, but the spiritual journey gently (and sometimes fiercely) redirects us to value the embers within our heart. Spiritual practice nudges us to cradle with great care the budding longings that visit us in the quietude of our privacy—for this prodding of our heart points us toward a more fulfilling and meaningful vision of our lives. The freedom to live by one’s heart is a grace of unimaginable value. And it is within the imagination of the heart that visions of beauty and meaning are hatched.
Intense feelings, when experienced consciously, are soul-making
Great spiritual insights arise from intense feelings. These intense encounters with life send tremors through our soul and deconstruct our habitual egoic defenses. They tear asunder whatever lack of authenticity we have tolerated in ourselves. Intense feelings open our heart wide and prepare us to receive wisdom and visions from our deepest sources. We experience life-giving intensity through our great joys as well as our great griefs and both of these visitations are essential for our spiritual health and maturation. It takes real spiritual strength to welcome and be present to the tides of feelings that life brings. The more we value the power of joy as well as the dignity of grief, the more our spirit grows with passion and compassion and the more our spirit awakens from its slumber. Deep feelings that are genuinely experienced, rather than numbed, invoke in us the beauty, sensuality, and the awe of being fully alive. The intensity of our grief and the intensity of our ecstatic moments are how our spirit carves our soul into greater wisdom and deeper compassion.
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We become the best of who we are by intimately feeling our profound grief as well as our riveting joys. We are sculpted into our humanity by these powerful experiences. Our defended ego will resist the intensity of feelings that our experiences generate; yet our soul knows it can welcome intensity—for the soul is thirsty to stretch beyond its limits, be guided and deeply inspired.
The real success of the spirit is to have lived intentionally and fully from the heart
Like waves breaking and renewing themselves, a life from the heart never ceases to present us with new challenges as well as new possibilities. An open heart is thus a heart that holds within it an ocean, an ocean filled with memories of defeats, foiled attempts, as well as memorable experiences of achievement and breakthrough. It is the whole of the journey that deserves to be honored and celebrated, not only the results. For what could be more worthy than to have strived to live intentionally, authentically, and passionately from the heart?
The Importance of Creative Partnership
It is in our genetic make-up to think and act in partnership with our fellow beings and in partnership with the world we inhabit. Spiritual masters have long taught us that partnership is the essence of our spiritual development. Our abilities to be in a creative relationship with others are a core truth about who we are as human beings. The questions facing us are: “Will we be able to overcome the destructive mindsets and ideologies that keep us from achieving the best within us?” And: “Will we be able to expand the concepts of family, tribe, nation, and species to include all beings and to afford them the same rights, privileges, protection, and respect that we deem essential for our own loved ones?”