Working for Humanity Healing

Now, since Humanity Healing have put me in charge of this blog, I am going to step out of my comfort zone here and use this public space to deliver a very personal message - to my colleagues in Humanity Healing and to all of our wonderful supporters all around the world.

Humanity Healing is a very new organisation. It is still finding its feet and yes, mistakes have been made and problems have arisen; both internally and externally and we are all on one huge learning curve as this global healing phenomenon roots itself firmly into the spiritual bedrock of humankind and spreads its reach and influence around the globe. HH is becoming a mighty force in its mission to engage fully with active spirituality. If you are not clear what THAT is all about, see Chris Buck's wonderful piece just below this short post.

But you know, as big as HH is becoming, as influential in spreading a doctrine of actively engaging with allevaiting suffering as it is, at its heart Humanity Healing is simply the outward expression of the hearts and minds of a small core group of people. This group of people - and I am not going to name names here - you will get to know them from the work that they do - ask for nothing in return. They ask only to be allowed to support you when you cannot stand on your own anymore. To offer compassion where there is a lack of it. To hold a hand when there is no other friend to do so.

Humanity Healing is the collective voice of a few loving and compassionate people with a burning desire to fulfill their personal mission to help in whatever way that they can. So here is my personal and truly heart felt message to you; my colleagues within Humanity Healing:

It is my privelege and honour to be a part of this collective expression of unconditional love. It is a greater privelege and honour to be counted as a friend of some of the warmest, most loving and compassionate people I have ever come across. What you are doing in Humanity Healing is profoundly beautiful. It is the essence of all that makes life worth living. The hand you offer to me and to all of those out there suffering is frankly breathtaking in its expression of the one true value that is worth following in this world: Simply love and love simply. My colleagues in Humanity Healing are my friends. We are family and from my own heart I offer them all much love in return for all that they have given to me and continue to give to those in need.

But I also want to address this to everyone else reading this. As I said, we are a small core group with a mission. Our mission is being realised, but in that realisation life and God and the Universe is pulling us along at a pace that sometimes is hard to keep up with. We do our best. We are always happy and grateful when those in need come to us and allow us to help where we can. But, is there something that you could do for Humanity Healing? We are anxious to increase our numbers. We are anxious to become involved in helping those that currently perhaps fall outside of our remit as we don't have someone with responsibility for that particular focus. Do you have an expertise that could help us in our work? Our numbers are growing, but we, like everyone else need more friends! You can't ever have enough friends! If there is something that you can offer, however small it might be we would love to hear from you. You can find us easily through all of the links down the sidebar here or by putting up a comment to this post.

My friends, both within Humanity Healing and without: Life for me is an adventure. It has had and continues to have, its good points and bad points - its ups and downs. But one thing I know deep in my heart, is that Humanity Healing is now shining a light into some of those darker corners of life. Not just for me, but for all. The radiance and the warmth is uplifting. My life continues to be an adventure but as the adventure unfolds I personally now have grasped tightly to my heart, Humanity Healing as my companion.

I offer you all much deeply felt love and respect my true friends.

Blessings and metta,

Steve

A Ramble on Spiritual Activism

A phrase that has really only recently entered the lexicon of spirituality is 'Spiritual Activism'. A peculiar phrase perhaps..after all, isn't spirituality a personal and largely 'inward' affair rather than 'outward' and active? How do we become an activist as we sit in meditation, contemplation or prayer? Wouldn't 'non-activism' more accurately define our engagement with our own personal spirituality? What has activism got to do with it? Certainly, these are thoughts and issues with a deeply personal resonance that help us to define our orientation to our particular core beliefs. Spiritual Activism however is really quite central to a full engagement with spirituality; tapping into its central matrix. Spiritual Activism is also fundamental to and forms a part of the core mission statement for Humanity Healing.

For this reason I have pulled together some material from Chris Buck - one of the co-founders of Humanity Healing, along with our new video release that will give you a much better idea of where Humanity Healing stands on this important philosophic issue of active spirituality.

The first piece of text here was recently published on the Humanity Healing MySpace blog. Our MySpace page can be accessed via the link in the sidebar of this blog, along with all of the other Humanity Healing internet sites. So without further ado, let me hand you over to Chris:

A Ramble on Spiritual Activism

"The opposite of love is not hate, its indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness, its indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, its indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death, its indifference."

- Elie Wiesel

Throughout history, there has been an ebb and flow between organized Religions and Spirituality. For the most part, at least in the West, organized Religions have held the upper hand. During the latter part of the last century, there began a shift in perceptions and a questioning of the Tenets of Faith. People in search of Truth and of the purpose to our existence on this planet have been stepping off the Paths of traditional Religions and moving towards ones of self-discovery. This is not to say that these Paths lead in different directions – they do not – only that there is an increasing desire for a more personal relationship with Creation and the Creator than just following the basic forms allowed in the religions we have been raised in. For some, these Paths lead full circle to a stronger Faith in their original religious teachings. For others, the Path leads to Eastern practices such as Buddhism, Mysticism such as Kabbalah, or esoteric teachings such as the Divine Feminine.

Since the advent of the new millennia, there has been a surge in the rising tide of Spirituality. This is due, in large part, to the wide-spread use and personalization of the internet, and the growth of such on-line communities as MySpace, Zaadz, Youtube and others. It has become easy to not only find information, but to engage in instant communication with people around the world who want to share discoveries and knowledge.

A phenomena resulting from the rise of Spirituality and the growth of the internet is Spiritual Activism. Spiritual Activism is an answer to a need to do more to help others than just donate money or time. Many people are no longer satisfied with just the traditional charities. In part, this is because the focus is often so broad that the donor feels completely removed from the end result. While Disaster Relief, or Feeding the Hungry, or Sheltering the Homeless are all laudable and necessary goals, the scope is so large-scale it is difficult to feel a personal connection with the process.

As an individual grows spiritually, the desire to give of themselves and not just their resources grows as well. This is because there is a fundamental truth that becomes evident at some point - we are all connected. Whether you see that connection solely through our shared humanity, or you understand the energetic links between all things, or you believe in the spiritual congress of our collective souls; the fact remains that, whatever your beliefs and however you are comfortable expressing it, we ARE all connected. For example, there are a lot of differences between an educated engineer living in the United States and an uneducated plantation worker in Bangladesh; but the similarities are much more important if you open yourself to them. We both need food and shelter. We both have hopes, dreams and a desire to provide a good home and future for our children. We both possess dignity and deserve respect and understanding. We share a common humanity. We both possess a soul that resonates with its own unique beauty. Our differences are superficial. Our similarities are manifest. We are the same. There IS a connection.

It is knowledge and understanding of this connection that allows an individual to develop Compassion as part of their daily way of life. It is compassion that compels us to reach out from the heart to help others. This, in turn, expands our capacity for Love which furthers our personal spiritual growth. Raising another, raises you as well. Helping another becomes a form of self-love as well as an expression of outward love. This becomes an upwardly spiraling cycle of increasing awareness, increasing connection, increasing compassion, increasing involvement, increasing capacity, and back to increasing awareness. An individual’s spiritual advancement and corresponding spiritual activism raises not only themselves and the recipient of the action, but produces a ripple outward that advances each and every one of us as well.

Remember the connection between us.

There will always be a real need for the mega-charities to deal with such huge projects as running refugee camps, combating regional famines, or coordinating disaster relief; but in the last decade, many small non-profit organizations such as the Humanity Healing Foundation have been created to give spiritually-oriented individuals an opportunity to connect with other individuals around the world to help heal individual needs, whether that is rebuilding a single tsunami-ravaged village in Bangladesh, or teaching spirituality to reduce inner-city gang violence in Los Angeles, or setting up a special hospital in Africa to help women who have been horribly brutalized and mutilated.

The point of this whole Ramble is to share a vision of a way for all of us to help Heal the Heart of Humanity. Whichever Path you follow, it is through Spiritual Activism that we will make the individual connections needed to engender Compassion and resolve specific problems. It is through Spiritual Activism that we will be able to combine those individual connections into mighty bridges to span the ethnic, political and economic chasms that divide our world.

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi

This next piece, again from Chris was written as a MySpace bulletin to alert everyone to our newly released video work 'One Voice' (which can be found below):

The Humanity Healing Foundation’s latest video, One Voice, was inspired by a plea from a friend living in fear of the vicious persecutions currently occurring in Burma (Myanmar). In truth, if a government uses oppressive force against Buddhist monks, then no one under their rule is safe.

Sadly, there are many places around the globe where Humanity suffers under the lash of oppression and violence.

Many of our friends on MySpace and elsewhere are on the Path of Spiritual Advancement – a conscious process to raise their vibrational level and ascend to a higher state of consciousness. There are many bulletins and teachings shared discussing the beauty of the Ascension Process.

But do not forget that one reason the Ascension Process is so beautiful is because of the stark contrast to the ugliness it rises from.

While individuals can advance on their own, we as a race will not ascend unless we help each other. We are all capable of being Spiritual Warriors. We are all capable of fighting on the side of Light. Many help by sending out waves of Metta, positive intention, or energy to help rebuild the Grid; but there is more you can do.

Let your voice be heard!

Demand positive action from your elected leaders. There are many venues to do this, but here are two of note:

www.humanrightsactioncenter.org

The Human Rights Action Center is working to pressure the restoration of Aung San Suu Kyi to power in Burma, to support human rights groups around the world and is creating a fund to get people out of harm’s way in exceptional human rights abuse cases. Please visit their site and show your support.

www.my.care.org/campaign/iwdaction

The Humanity Healing Network supports the petition drive organized by Care to pressure our elected officials not to ignore the orchestrated wave of brutal violence being done to women in the Congo. In the coming weeks, Congress is expected to introduce the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA) legislation that will increase protection and services for women and girls facing gender based violence, and will direct more U.S. funding to violence prevention abroad. The IVAWA will increase U.S. leadership in responding to the violence suffered by women and girls in the DRC and around the world. Please urge your representatives to support the IVAWA today. You can link to your elected representative from the above website link.

This is a Call to Action. Please join with us.

Spiritual Activism is, as Chris has stated, about taking action. It is about coming from that heart of compassion that we all develop on our spiritual paths and using that energetic force to make a real difference in the world. The beauty of action founded on a heart of compassion is that it is focused by wisdom. Unfocused action often leads to mistakes, or the wrong action being taken, or the right action at the wrong time. Compassion and wisdom in having a symbiotic relationship enable us much more to take the right kind of action at the right time that will result in the best possible outcome for all concerned. This is the heart of Humanity Healing: a wisdom focused Spiritual Activism as an expression of heart-felt compassion for all those that suffer. I would urge all of you to sign the petition and our Pledge of Unity. you can find the link to our Care2 site listed in the sidebar of this blog.

If you are interested in any of our other videos that detail further our work in this area across a range of specific areas, then you can find them at YouTube. Just click the link in the sidebar.

Many blessings and much metta,

Steve, Chris and Humanity Healing.

What Makes a Master?

It is my pleasure this time around to bring to you a short piece from the keyboard of Humanity Healing's Honorary Ambassador and good friend of mine; Lauren Zimmerman. Lauren reveals here something that I believe is critical to all of us if we are to make progress on our personal journey's back to wholeness and a state of conscious Divinity. What she has to say here cannot be overstated. We all need to refocus our minds and look in the right direction if we are to make changes to our inner and outer lives. Only in this way can we bring to permanence that state of harmony and connectivity to spirit to which we all aspire.

We at Humanity Healing are honoured to have Lauren on board and hope that you will find inspiration in her words.

What Makes a Master?

Given by The Presence of God

to Lauren Zimmerman

When one looks to see who has become a Master, do not look at the path that has been walked. Look at the heart it took to walk the path. The measure of a Master is not made by magic tricks and whims of the moment. To be a true Master is to become the Divine that you are. A true Master understands that everything external is not the Truth, that the Truth cannot be found outside of oneself. To become what your Soul is, in a world of deception, illusions, emotion, and lies, is to become a Master. If one wants to live the life of a Master, one becomes Master of one's life. The truth of life, the genuine truth of life, lives within each person. And so it is that when one masters oneself, one masters life. What that means is that, to become the Master that you seek to be, it becomes your mission to know yourself and heal yourself into the Truth of who you are, untainted by all things that lie outside yourself. A true Master responds to life not by becoming overwhelmed, or emotional, or angry, or distraught. Your true life, the life that will make you the Master that you truly are, lives within you. A true Master may be found living in a hovel, surrounded by agony and poverty. The measure of a Man's home is not the measure of a Master. The true Master is not the Man who lives upon a hill, overlooking the town where he owns buildings and people. The true Master has no need to own people, to overpower people. The true Master has no need to overpower circumstances. The true Master understands that all things that live outside of oneself are not the measure of the Master. His measure is not what he owns in the world but what he owns within himself. Masters have walked barefoot with bloody feet and hungry bellies. Masters have looked through bars at guards and guns and died on concrete floors. Masters have stood alone for years, seemingly without friends or riches. But these that I have seen and called Masters have been one thing. They have been true, always true, to the truth that lies within them. The truth that no Man, no prison, no friend, no mansion, can make them what they are not, and that is Master over themselves. Each person has the opportunity to become a Master, to become calm within oneself by accepting and living the truth that nothing outside of oneself has the power to make you something that you're not. And what are you? You are an aspect of God.

Many thanks Lauren!

Blessings and much metta to all,

Steve

The Path

When we walk the path of spirit, we learn from all the experiences that we have and the books that we read and from our fellow travellers who walk the same path that we do and all the workshops that we take, that what we are engaged in is a walk of Truth. We have found something profound and wonderful and a resonance with something deep in our heart; within our being. We have found the way to the Truth. And yet, we see so many others walking on their own path and we feel sad that they have not found the Truth. That they have chosen a path that can only lead to suffering and pain and will be littered with misguided souls, floundering because they sadly have not found our path which leads irrevocably to the only Truth and certain union with the Light and with God. How sad. Those poor souls, if only they would walk our path. See it's beauty, it's perfection. It's profound wisdom and certain liberation into the glories of the Light that Abounds in all beings.

When we walk this path we find a light within, a glow, a certainty that we have been guided to The Way and we resolutely and steadfastly put one foot in front of the other. Although we might cast a glance at those going along an altogether different path, we pay no real attention to the path itself. Instead we feel sorry or angry for their foolishness and lack of correct discernment and we hold to the task of making sure that we at least do not step badly or go astray on an entirely erroneous and different way - one that will certainly end in calamity. Eventually we forbid ourselves from even glancing over to see how others are fairing on their journeys. Temptation knows no bounds and if we even look at what they are doing or listen to what they might have to say we could be tempted to follow their way. And thus we could be held to account. We could be judged for our outrageous sins against The Truth. We must not let anything sway our resolution that only THIS way is the correct way. We could be destroyed.

So we reach into our pockets and pull out our blinkers and put them on and utter a sigh of relief that now there will be no temptation. Whatever they are doing and where ever they are going we shall not look for it is surely wrong. It is surely the route to damnation.

But when The Buddha and The Christ and the Prophet Mohammed and the Avatars and Angels and all the Bodhisattva's of countless generations walk side by side across the boundless and limitless light-fields of eternity they simply speak of love as they tread the same path together. Each one's heart a radiating cone of love. Each certain that for the sake of suffering humanity they pointed the way to the Truth. To the only Truth. And when asked in which direction this might be, they all in unison point in the same direction - to the Godhead - to the state of union with all that is. To the place of immersion and dissolution into a perfect state of being and non-being.

And when we ask through which gate we should go to follow in their footsteps, to begin our own walk along that path, they each smile and point to a different gate and we can simply choose which is right for us. But the admonition etched into each of these gates is the same: 'Begin with Love' and so whatever else we may find along the path, Love must be our companion. We must open our hearts and find the love that was placed there before we were born so many eons ago by the Mind of God. Without love we can never attain the goal. Without Love we can never find our way back to who we really are. Without love we reach into our pockets for our blinkers and put them on and pour scorn on those fools walking a different path. The path of judgment. The path of destruction. This path is in reality only to be found in the hearts of those who don the blinkers of ignorance. For none of the Great Teachers ever conceived that their path would be seen in this way by the closed hearts and minds of those foolish enough to believe that only their Teacher held the keys to the Great Truth.

And as our friends and companions in life that walk any one of the multitudinous paths that have sprung from the minds of men, sing of their Truth for all to hear, listen and learn that all have a journey to make back to the Divine. For each and everyone of us on this journey through life is a blessed gift of Spiritual Transcendence and an expression of the most perfect state of Love which has as it's home the vessel that we call the hearts of all men and women. We are all of the One and are merely a temporary but sublime shimmer within the energy of Existence. Whatever our path, it is the right path. Whatever your friend's path, it is the right path. Whatever your enemy's path, it is the right path. God waits at the gates at the end of all these paths and etched on each is the admonition 'End also with Love'.

Many blessings and much metta,

Steve