|
Articles Index
Newsletter Information
Newsletter Archives
Healing Products & Services For Purchase
Register For Workshops and Certifications
Directions
Holistic Integrative Breathing CD's and Online Store
Wisdom Of The Earth Medicinal Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils
DVD's Coming Soon!
Holistic Community Circle Links
|
|
Articles
Manifesting Whole Community
by Rusty Stewart, Ph.D.
How can we manifest community? What type of community do we want? What would our community look like? How does spirituality mold our purpose of community? Many questions asked. Too few actually put into practice grounded on true spiritual principles. In order to answer these questions let's look at them in reverse order so we don't put the cart before the horse!
Integrated spirituality, the underlying common truths and practices in all spiritual traditions, is the key in forming our purpose of community. Ultimately this means inclusiveness, oneness, or wholeness. It means walking our talk and letting go of the limiting paradigm of judgment, selfishness, and scarcity. This translates into all are welcome into community regardless of their history, background, and beliefs. It means that people do not have to fit a criterion to be accepted into community. Think of how the great spiritual masters would have welcomed people into their space. In addition, it requires all of us to come from the paradigm of abundance. There is more than enough for everyone! We have to model a different system. We have to promote and support each other. We cannot practice the same principles of competition and capitalism or we're just putting a different bow on the same package. You'll notice that the other questions become easier answering them in this order.
So what would our community look like? Before we answer this, it might be helpful to look at the demographics of our community as it presently exists. According to “The Cultural Creatives” (Ray & Anderson, 2000), we are currently divided or separated into the following categories: The Moderns (50%), The Traditionalists (24%), and The Cultural Creatives (26%), broken up into two subgroups, The Green Peace and The Inner Spiritual Growth Seekers. For a more complete definition of these segments read “The Cultural Creatives.” One of the main purposes of the book was to demonstrate how large the Cultural Creatives population is. This is also the fastest growing segment of America since the late 50's. However, even with all of this going for us we still have to approach community with an inclusive spirit. If we try to isolate ourselves with like-minded people there will be no bridge to a new paradigm. All eyes are on us now. We must become spiritual and community mentors while remembering that we are all students and all teachers. Or as Jeshua articulates through James Twyman, we are Spiritual Peacemakers. Everybody goes or nobody goes! We are all one.
Now what type of community we want is a no-brainer. Once we see what will work and what will not work, why would we dare try to create a community that ultimately would not work for the whole? No matter how we slice it, separateness, difference, and judgment create resentment and resistance. As we open our arms to everyone and practice patience, tolerance, and compassion we allow the abundance of universal love to flow through us. It helps to reflect on our own past challenges along our path. This naturally leads to the manifestation of community through acceptance of ourselves and letting go of our fears. Instead of no we chant a resounding YES!
So in order to manifest whole community we must keep walking our talk more and more. We are being watched ever more closely during these times of transition. People are looking for another way. Change is from the inside out. We need to change and then correspondingly model that change. We cannot come from the old belief system that THEY need to change. It will never happen. Extend love and compassion to all. Give everyone a reason to be curious about what we are about. Show up in a way that's refreshingly inclusive and abundant. There is enough of EVERYTHING for EVERYONE. Let go of your fears. Let go of capitalistic competition and entertain a different way. Live and experience cooperative abundance! Create and manifest community!
Please visit my website www.personalgrowthalternatives.com for my link to my monthly newsletter and click on Manifesting Community. This will provide community events for the upcoming two months at the beginning of every month.
Yoga Living, May/June 2004
|
