Tag: oneness

Standing with the Trees

Photograph © 2006 Peggy Kornegger
Photograph © 2006 Peggy Kornegger

A few weeks ago, millions of Turkish citizens took to the streets in massive demonstrations throughout the country, protesting an increasingly authoritarian government. The event that triggered public outrage: police use of violence against activists who were sitting in trees in Istanbul’s Gezi Park to prevent their being cut down. Government plans to demolish both the trees and the park—in addition to turning nearby Taksim Square into a shopping mall—pushed people to the breaking point. The trees are some of the only ones remaining in the city, and the square is one of the last places for public gatherings.

Many other issues have been on the rise in Turkey, but it was the threat of forced separation from nature and from one another that was the people’s “last straw.” Trees have once again become a symbolic focal point in human awareness. The crowds gathered in Gezi Park and Taksim Square were standing up, not for an abstract environmental cause, but for the quality of their own daily lives. For the right to see green trees outside their door, for the right to meet with their neighbors in a public space not based in consumerism. Those who joined them in the streets throughout Turkey acted with deep human empathy both for their cause and for the physical suffering they endured. These protests continue.

Nearly 16 years ago, Julia Hill Butterfly took a similar stand—and endured helicopter harassment and repeated attempts to break her resolve—when she lived for two years in a 1500-year-old California redwood to prevent it being killed by a lumber company that was clear-cutting the redwood trees. Julia’s selfless actions have influenced countless others, including those who may not even know her name.

These courageous individuals were standing in the deeper truth of their oneness with all living beings, with all life. They were surrendering to a greater Spirit, or Intelligence, within them, which moved them beyond reason, beyond even personal safety, to live their lives fully aligned with the source of life itself. Nothing else mattered. They were not thinking; they were acting from their hearts. And this is the energy that is rising more and more powerfully in the world, infusing us with hope and possibility.

In many spiritual traditions, the tree of life symbolizes the entire cosmos and our place in it. The Maya of Guatemala consider the ceiba tree sacred, and the day Aaj in the Maya calendar stands for trees and abundance. On this day, the Maya pray for harmony and for the resurgence of nature. Their prayers, from their hearts, connect to each action, each word spoken, in their daily lives. We are being called to live similarly now, aligning our heart’s truth with how we are present in the world moment to moment. We each have countless opportunities to be in harmony with something greater than our own individual lives. Can we humans at long last stand within the circle of life instead of outside it?

Julia Hill Butterfly and the people of Turkey inspire me to believe that it is possible. And the trees themselves inspire me. Each day when I look out the window at the tall maple trees in my back yard, I am filled with reassurance that life continues, that just as the trees stand strong and tall, while at the same time bending with the winds of change, we too can do the same.

For the Love of Bees

Photograph © 2012 Peggy Kornegger
Photograph © 2012 Peggy Kornegger
Now that winter is over in New England, and spring bulbs are blooming in my garden, I am filled with sweet anticipation for the coming months of summer flower abundance. My life has increasingly revolved around the change of seasons since I moved to a house with a yard a few years ago. Although I have always filled my apartments with houseplants, I had never really gardened outdoors before. I read up on which flowers and bushes would bring butterflies and birds to the garden and slowly began to learn how to become a “midwife” to plant life.

Soon, butterflies and birds did indeed begin to frequent the flowers and bushes in my yard. Unexpectedly, though, it was the bees that completely stole my heart. I discovered that there were at least 5 or 6 different kinds that visited the flowers, including honeybees and bumblebees. I watched them all and learned more all the time, just by observing their behavior. The evening that I discovered a bumblebee curled up for the night on the petals of one of my zinnias, I fell in love. I felt such tenderness, as if it were my own child.

Over the weeks and months, I found that bumblebees also “slept” on blanket flowers, bachelor buttons, pincushion flowers, sedum, cosmos, and the butterfly bush. Their most interesting bed, however, was the 6-foot-tall Joe Pye weed, which has large clustered fluffy pink blossoms. In the late evening, I would often find 8 or 9 bees on the different levels of flower clusters, snuggled into their own down comforters. When it rained, they would hang beneath the flower clusters, using them as umbrellas while they rested.

In the mornings, if it was cool or damp, the bees would often “sleep in” until the sun warmed the air. Sometimes I would see a bumblebee slowly stretching its legs, one by one, as if limbering up after its night’s immobility. I always wished them good morning and good night, and I believe they were aware of my presence as a “friend,” occasionally buzzing up to my face in greeting. I’ve had butterflies behave in a similar fashion, sometimes even landing on my chest or arm to sit in the sun. It was a beautiful life lesson about the conscious intelligence of all beings.

Bees, which many people hardly notice, provide irreplaceable support to the cycles of life on Earth by pollinating the flowers. The massive deaths of honeybees and bumblebees in recent years have been heartbreaking. The probable cause: pesticides and herbicides used by agribusiness, landscapers, and often homeowners as well. It is my hope that people will begin to understand the wisdom and urgent necessity of gardening and eating organically, for the health of our bodies, our planet, and all the creatures that inhabit it. You only have to fall in love with one flower, one tree, one animal, or one bee to feel the interconnectedness of all life. In one(ness) is the survival of all.

Note: A reader has reminded me that GMOs are another likely culprit in the collapse of bee colonies. Thus the key importance of the current consumer campaign against GMOs in the U.S. For more information, visit: http://www.organicconsumers.org/bees.cfm.

Peace, Love, and Extreme Fear

Photograph © 2013 Peggy Kornegger
Photograph © 2013 Peggy Kornegger
Is it possible to remain peaceful when you are faced with extremely frightening events? Can you feel fear and peace simultaneously? And hold love in your heart through it all? More and more, we are living the answers to questions like these. In Massachusetts, where I live, during the 2013 Boston Marathon, residents found themselves in the midst of a terrorist drama that dragged on for five days. As fate would have it, I was away from home, on retreat with Panache Desai in Florida, during that exact time period. Within the group of 46 people from all over the world, there were several of us from Massachusetts.

We first heard the news about the explosions at the Boston Marathon when the daughter of one couple phoned her parents in tears. Remembering with a terrible sinking feeling that my partner was at the marathon, I left the session to phone her. Finally, I got through and cried with relief upon hearing her voice. In the days that followed, those of us from Massachusetts kept in touch with loved ones back home, supported by the deep caring of others in the group, many of whom knew firsthand about living with political unrest and violence in their own countries. Panache himself grew up in London, where bombings were an ongoing part of life.

During the course of the week, together we held a space of peace, love, and compassion for those in Boston as well as for those elsewhere in the world who face terrorism, violence, and gut-wrenching fear. True, we were one step removed from the events in Boston, but because many of us had family and friends there, the fear was very real for all of us. Each day brought some new painful piece to assimilate. On Friday, when I learned that pursuit of the two suspected bombers was taking place less than a mile from my home, I once again felt adrenaline course through my system. On the phone, my partner told me that the entire city was under lockdown, and she could hear helicopters flying low over the house, searching the area. It was surreal—and frightening. Yet, even in the midst of it, she and I found we were able to remain relatively calm and centered. “Breathe,” she said to me. “I’m here. I’m okay in this moment.”

And that’s how we got through the week, one breath, one moment, at a time. Feeling everything and letting it flow through our bodies. All of us in Panache’s group were experiencing our various individual fears and pain within the larger spaciousness we had opened ourselves to—allowing instead of resisting what had occurred in the past and what was unfolding in the present. I’ve found such a deep wisdom in that process. For me, it means being open to every part of life—embracing it all, every exquisite or excruciating minute. Within that embrace is a peace that helps me to live my life with less suffering and tension, even in the middle of frightening or upsetting circumstances.

Back home in Boston, I was especially moved by the stories of those who stepped forward to help others during the explosions and by the community spirit that flowed within and toward Boston from individuals and groups across the country and around the world. A One Fund was established to help those most affected by what occurred. One, oneness—it was empathy and heart-felt love that people were feeling. May that love continue to expand, and may we peacefully heal the separation that gives rise to violence.

“The greatest gift that you can offer our planet is the gift of your peace.”—Panache Desai

The Field

© 2012 Anne S. Katzeff / Artist
© 2012 Anne S. Katzeff / Artist
“Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing
and right-doing, there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.”—Rumi

This is one of my favorite Rumi quotes, and lately I’ve been thinking it would be the perfect engraved quotation to appear at the entrance to all government buildings in Washington, D.C.—or in all government buildings everywhere, throughout the world. Better yet, abolish the buildings and just meet in the fields! Something needs to change, that’s for sure. Entrenched attitudes and political posturing are part of the old paradigm of separation and irreconcilable differences. The new paradigm, which we are living into day by day, calls for these to dissolve and make way for open hearts and open minds. And for listening instead of nonstop talking.

Politicians are not the only ones caught in this trap. When people identify heavily with their personalities, they frequently find themselves stubbornly clinging to being right and finding others wrong. Beneath the personality and egoic roles, however, lives the individual spirit or soul who sees commonality and connection instead of “otherness.” Here is found the oneness and peace we all seek. My soul doesn’t care if my personality is irritated by someone else’s beliefs or behavior. My soul doesn’t care if my ego feels wronged by another person’s opinion of me. My soul is just witnessing all of my life experiences, without comment, without attitude. In that place of pure spacious being within, there are no opposing sides—all is one.

If we could pause, breathe deeply, and drop into that space periodically throughout the day, our lives would flow with greater ease, and our relationships would become more flexible. To live from an open heart and a peaceful spirit is to find true happiness in each moment—and common ground for collective decision making in our communities and in the world at large. Give up right; give up wrong. Consider the possibility that there really is a field out there where we can meet and learn from our differences instead of fight over them.

In Lynne McTaggart’s book The Field, she writes of the space within and between everything on Earth and in outer space, which scientists have heretofore labeled “dead.” McTaggart makes a convincing case that this space is alive with energy and vibration, the very basis of the universe. This is ancient knowledge within the realm of spiritual masters, and today many quantum physicists also agree that a “unified field” of intelligence or infinite consciousness does indeed exist, and we are part of it. If I am not mistaken, Rumi’s field and McTaggart’s field are one and the same. The silent space of spirit within is connected to the space between all forms on Earth and in the cosmos. The energy within and between vibrates a web of light that is pure oneness. When we consciously “step into” that rainbow field of light, hardened conflicts soften, and you and I recognize each other as we.

Ascension for Everybody

Photograph © 2012 Peggy Kornegger
Photograph © 2012 Peggy Kornegger

What is ascension anyway? The word historically has had either a religious or an astronomical context: the ascent of a human body to heaven after death or the position of a celestial object in the skies. Another definition refers to spiritual masters who spontaneously dematerialize from this plane to another, higher one. Today, however, there is an expanded meaning used by those who believe our planet is undergoing an evolving shift of consciousness. In 2013, ascension is about becoming conscious spirit within our living human bodies on Earth—in essence, “ascending “ into our soul selves and bringing Heaven and Earth into alignment in the process. Not just for masters or dead people, this ascension is for everyone.

The level of spiritual awareness and wisdom attained by the average person is growing exponentially in the new millennium. So many have a sense of something greater touching their lives, even those who don’t consciously subscribe to a particular religion or new age philosophy. God, or the Divine, is no longer a concept associated only with special days or events that take place within a church, synagogue, or temple. Spirit is everywhere, at all times, and humans have given it many names. Some call it Source energy or an intangible Intelligence that permeates all things. Others consider Mother Nature to be the most sacred spirit of all. And many believe that language concretizes something that is beyond physical description, a connection that can only be found in the stillness of one’s own heart.

However expressed, more and more people do seem to be experiencing some kind of greater Presence. It is this awareness that, once fully felt, connects each of us to our individual spirit, or soul. In discovering the Divine within and opening to that powerful flow of energy, light, and unconditional love, we “ascend” into our unique soul-ness here on Earth. We begin to live as our authentic selves—not the ones society told us we should be, but the ones we came to this planet to embody, full of endless possibilities. Body, mind, feelings, and spirit become a cohesive whole, and we learn to love ourselves, as well as others, at a deeper level. Our authentic soul selves live in harmony, peace, and oneness, not separation, conflict, or hatred. Ultimately, that is Heaven on Earth. That is ascension.