Nudity is a Great Leveller
January 24, 2010 at 5:17 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Feminism, Nonviolence, Philosophy, Theatre
That was the thought I had after yesterdays shennanigans. What shennanigans you ask?
Yesterday, I went to see “Trilogy” at the Barbican. It is a Feminist piece of theatre which charts some of the struggles and historical debates – ie Norman Mahler and Germaine Greer – asks lots of searching questions, and provokes women to revel in the beauty of their own bodies without worrying whether their breasts are too big or small.
In short, there was lots of nakedness. Local women dancing together naked onstage. It sounds so silly in words, but it was a deeply emotional and challenging theatrical provokation. And at the end, women from the audience were invited onto the stage to disrobe in the wings, and then sing “Jerusalem” with gusto, in front of a crowded auditoriam.
Standing there in the front row, arms around the ladies either side, suddenly we were a sisterhood. A feeling of immense solidarity and celebration of womanhood. It was empowering. Liberating.
Feminism is not about hating men; it is about loving being a women. And of course, part of that is acknowledge the wounds of patriarchy. Yet men bear these wounds too; it is not just our struggle. Essentially, we are not victims, but struggling together against the same structures that curb and prevent diversity of expression.
And, as the curtains closed, and I hugged the women around me as old friends – with no sense of their class or acheivements or individual stories – I realised, nudity is a great leveller!
“He said: I want your body. She said: You can have it when I’m through with it!”
Things I learnt in 2009 . . .
December 31, 2009 at 5:46 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 4 CommentsTags: Magic, Nonviolence, Philosophy, Poems, Spirituality
In 2009, I learnt:
that Love is the answer
So simple, and yet
So easily turned into a cliche,
devoid of any real meaning
To give generously
without expecting any return
because we are all One
united together
our pain and our pleasures
I learnt
that a joy shared is a joy doubled
for the world is full of Magic,
In 2009, I learnt
not to make apologies for my own presence
my own unique take on the world
To not hide and withdraw
Nor be an uncensored bore
To take up my space
No less, no more
I learnt
and let go of plans
of principles and laws
trusting in wisdom, the Divine Feminine
I learnt
that people are neither black, nor white
that there is a time to flee, and a time to fight
that the struggle between left and right
is one of stability and adaptability
to embrace them both, unite
I learnt
to not be controlled by fear
but allow my intellect to make things clear
That there are many routes and directions
And walking step by step, the only steer
In 2009, I learnt
to value “means” as much as “ends”
to love the body, the flesh
as much as the ethereal soul
to be silly, and to laugh
that it’s ok to just be daft!
I learnt that
there is strength in vulnerability
that sentiment need not be supressed
To move away from “good” and “bad”
To the enriching, to what is best
In 2009, I learnt
to let go of “happily ever after”
enjoying the present moment
to breathe, be still, be silent
to move, to touch, nonviolent
I learnt
that the world is a messy place
that there are black dots on a white canvas
and I learnt
to embrace them both as truth, reality
and look them in the face.
Nonviolent Power
October 29, 2009 at 12:25 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Ethics, Nonviolence, Philosophy, Quotes
To have power is not the same as to abuse power. Take care not to misuse your power, nor limit it or give it away. We all have power and it can ALWAYS be used for the greater good.
What I learnt on Retreat
September 2, 2009 at 10:41 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 7 CommentsTags: Lyrics, Nonviolence, Play, Quotes, Spirituality
Recently, I went on a week long retreat at the Christian Meditation Retreat Centre in Oakwood, London. I first came across the World Community for Christian Meditation last Autumn, when I attended a 6-week long Introduction to Meditation course at St Mark’s, Myddleton Square in Angel. Paradoxically, attending this course was one of the key events that led me to give up the Christian label in my life at the end of 2008. I realised that there was no real difference between this, and the Zazen meditation I practiced during Shorinji Kempo training. If meditation was the Way, it was not one that was patented by any one religious tradition: it was the Way of the mystics.
Since then, my practice has been sporadic: bursts of enthusiasm puntuated by long silences. Not exactly the 20 minutes twice a day affair recommended by the WCCM’s godfather, John Main! As he says in his book, “Word into Silence”, meditation is simple, but it is NOT easy. Simple are the instructions: sit on floor or chair with long back, close eyes gently, breathe and say your mantra (the word “Maranatha”). Unfortunately, the execution is the NOT easy part: our thoughts and feeling constantly hustling for attention. I therefore went on retreat with the aim of weaving the discipline of meditation into the fabric of my life: 20 minutes twice a day.
In the Benedict discipline that John Main was part of, life is lived by balancing these three things – prayer, (manual) work and study – to establish harmony between mind, body and spirit. Our retreat, therefore, followed the same tradition. Five slots of meditation – the first at 6.30am and last at 9pm – punctuated the day. In between, two slots catered to our minds: one, a talk led by Father Laurence Freeman OSB, the other, Lectio. From what I understand, Lectio involves reading Scripture slowly and whole heartedly, noticing your thoughts and the feelings it brings up. It is not the same as intellectual study. In our case, we read two Scriptures, one Christian and one from another tradition, and discussed what they meant to us. Our bodies were catered for by doing manual work (cleaning/gardening), yoga and a silent walk in Trent Park each day. And of course, there was also very good food which served this purpose!
According to Father Laurence, the purpose of meditation is to “increase the sum total of human goodness” by enabling us to see ourselves more and more clearly, not through a glass darkly. To know our real selves, and not an illusion. As I’ve written before uncertainty is an inevitability of the human condition. We respond to the deep anxiety this creates by doing one of two things. Some people deny the existence of this deep anxiety; they avoid and run away from it by busying themselves with doing. Alternatively, they disengage altogether and fall into depression and addiction. The other response is to become simple and child-like – not disaggregating ourselves into tiny pieces (my problem, my job, my leisure) – but seeing life as a whole, as shalom. How does this latter response help us? Because, although human insecurity is an inevitability, we may choose to allow ourselves to be blanketed by the warmth of Divine security: a “peace that transcends all understanding”, a sense of experiential relationship that is love. The Middle Way (of Jesus, Lao Tzu and the Buddha), not religious certainty nor secular certainty.
Yoga. Play, exploration, an awakening. To discover one’s own body. To really sense it; to love its every curve and nook. How, if we do not take the time to love our own bodies, can we ever expect anyone else to love it? How can we love someone else’s body, if we cannot love our own? How can the beauty of sexual intimacy be enjoyed without such a deep, physical love? My body is a rollercoaster; it is a mystery. So often we treat our bodies harshly. Pain is seen as an irritation, something that needs to be fixed quickly. But pain is the body’s cry for attention. Meditation is attention. To feel awake in mind, body and spirit. Giovanni Felicioni, our teacher, said something beautiful: “The movement from observation to evaluation is the beginning of violence.” So true.
The next day. The Holy Spirit – that universal energy, supreme manifestation of the Divine, that is Chi and Ki and Prana. It has four aspects:
1) Inwardness
It is only fully understood through interiority, a deep encounter of the reality within and outside self. We must create a sacred space within us, cultivate an Inner Silence, for the Holy Spirit to reside. “The body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.”
2) Pure joy
“Ananda.” The Joy of Being, a deeper reality than the universal anxiety, which flows from the Source through your own Existence: just like rain through a drain-pipe. Breath. Spirit. When I was a child, the phrase “pure joy and freedom” used to whirr around my head. Now I know what it means. For “where the Spirit is, there is freedom.”
3) Energy
“Dynamos” (Greek). Power. Uncontrolable. Indestructible, yet changing in form. No wonder men seek to suppress it by structure; seek to pin it down. For it constantly reforms and reshapes in its wake. A pure manifestation of God. This is why the Quaker tradition keeps codification to a minimum, changing its “Testimonies and Witness” in response to the Breath of God. Truth is, perhaps, an Absolute Reality: Brahman. Spirit, however, changes form: Ganesha, Shiva and Lakshmi. They are different, yet they are the same. And we are to worship, “in Spirit and in truth.”
4) Love
That overused word that can mean everything and nothing. A communication. The creative spark that flows from Other-Centredness, just as in the Holy Trinity. To know God, we must love. For “where love is, there is God.”
Yoga. Two natural tendencies exist. Those people who live on the ground, rooted in reality, sometimes rigid; those people who live in the space, imaginative, sometimes airy-fairy. We need both. Deep roots, as well as branches; Stability, as well as Adaptability.
Lectio. We read from “Jesus – the Teacher Within” (Laurence Freeman). Karma and Sin are one and the same. The Law of Cause and Effect. Wrongdoing leads to punishment. But the Law of Love ALWAYS overrides. “This is the Law, ancient and inexhaustible.” (Dhammapada).
The next day. There are two kinds of prayer: apophatic and katophatic. The former is a contemplative and mysterious experience grounded in silence. The latter uses thoughts, words and images as a medium. Karen Armstrong establishes a similar dichotomy when she discusses “mythos” and “logos”. We need both strands. We need to pray alone and together. A matrix holding four options. In my own spiritual walk, this equates to meditation and Quaker meetings on the one hand, reading and discussing with friends – my “church” – on the other.
And what is prayer? Surfing? Attention. A work of love. To stretch one’s consciousness towards the Other. Meditation is the Narrow Way, an expansion of consciousness. Drugs are a short cut to the same end, and yet, like anything easy, don’t hold the same satisfaction in the long run. There is a video of John Frusciante on YouTube, a while after River died, which has given me this sense.
Song lyrics:
“The mystery of love
is that we become
what we delight
to gaze upon
So that when we have
opened our hearts
to the Light
we become
Light.”
The next day. The three stages of meditation.
1) In the silence, interruptions. “What should I have for dinner? Why did he say that?” Say your mantra!
2) In the silence, interruptions. Deep hurts, pain and brokeness surface. God heals. All things come together. Say your mantra!
3) The brick wall: Ego. A naked awareness of our Self, each block being its own defense mechanism/separate identity. Say your mantra!
Gradually, the bricks fall aways.
On the other side of the wall, there is a person, a guide: Jesus Christ. We sense His presence, yet we do not cling. Through Him, energised and empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are led on to the infinite Absolute, the Joy of Being, the Father.
“Eternal life is given to those who live in the present.” - Wittgenstein
Yoga, and a pithy quote:
“Christians used to be known as followers of the Way, not the one’s who’ve already got there.” - Giovanni Felicioni
The next day, we recapped the Walter Wink theology of the Cross. Sin equating to violence, first mentioned in the story of Cain and Abel. The Cross, the end of scapegoating (Rene Girard). That the death of one could save the multitude. For the death of one is the death of all, for we are all One together, interconnected. Jesus revealed this and frees us from our self-deception. The end of violence; nonviolence is the only palatable choice. Resurrection is the transforming energy that is released when we allow ourselves to take that place on the Cross.
There is more that I’ve left unsaid. The beauty of the Bhagavad Gita. The Parable of the Prodigal Son equating to a divided Ego: Id and Super Ego in conflict. And the gift of empathy.
But these three genie wishes I’m left with:
1) To learn to love.
2) To learn to be loved.
3) To know my true self, and through knowing, know God.
Nature, Nurture and Nonviolence
May 28, 2009 at 9:38 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Ethics, Nonviolence
I watched a programme on iplayer, hosted by Michael Portillo, called ‘How Violent Are You?’. There were many interesting insights there. For instance, he went to an annual festival of violence in Latin America, where anyone can fight anyone the same age/size. Even the children are encouraged to fight, urged on by the crowd. There was also a repeat of the famous experiment, whereby people were told (by the scientist) to give electric shocks to the person in the next room answering questions. Always worrying, I can only hope I have what it takes not to follow orders/authority against my own conscience. He also identified that loss of sleep, alcohol and drugs all increase our senstivity to violence.
The most interesting insight, however, was this. Up until the age of three, children have no control over their “violent” impulses. After all, it is a necessary survival tool. However, after this, if the child is taught to share and disagree nonviolently, the brain actually changes shape. A lesson of nurture over nature. I happened to mention this to a friend of mine, who was unsuprised. Apparantly, the same thing happens when a buddhist monk meditates on compassion. How fascinating. Certainly this suggests that the human spirit has a vast capacity to change for the better.
Core Values
May 2, 2009 at 4:25 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Ethics, Homemaking, Nonviolence, Philosophy, Play, Spirituality
If I can live a life consistant with these values, I shall be one happy-bunny!
1) Wisdom
In Matthew 10:16, it says, “be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves.”
On the one hand, this means acting in a way that is above reproach, that cannot be construed as anything but “good” and well-meaning: being “angelic”. On the other hand, it relates to being fully aware of your surroundings – the violent intentions that may lie in the hearts of men (to trip you up or catch you out) – and not having your head up in the clouds: being “cunning”.
It means being a person that looks for the good in others, but is conscious of the potential for violence and is fully-armed to deal with it; perceiving individuals as grey, neither black nor white.
Wonder
“I don’t know about you, but I practice a disorganized religion. I belong to an unholy disorder. We call ourselves “Our Lady of Perpetual Astonishment.”
From Vonnegut’s, A Man Without A Country
By wonder, I mean continually being in a state of expectancy and enchantment. In “Summer Holiday”, the French mime says that when you’re travelling, you’re always “beholded”: thus, whatever happens, you always appreciate it.
Wonder leads to gratitude, and gratitude leads to joy.
Who can look at the moon and the stars and not feel a faint, ‘wow!’ echoing in their soul?
Whether it is a direct or indirect acknowledgement of Something More does not matter. What matters is seeking out those moments.
“may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old”
(ee cummings)
3) Tender-heartedness
“If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.”
(Emily Dickinson)
To have a hard heart is to be closed off from the suffering of humanity. Though we can be joyous in all moments, we cannot pretend away suffering.
To feel their pain, with empathy.
To suffer with them, with compassion.
And most of all, to act, somehow, someway, however small.
May I never walk past a person in tears and not reach for a hankerchief.
May I never walk past a person hungry and fail to give them food.
May I never walk past a person “invisible” and fail to greet them through the eyes.
4) Authenticity
“And this above all, to thine own self be true” (Shakespeare)
This is not about being self-centred and doing what you want at the expense of other people. The example that comes to mind is a person have an extra-marital affair, and saying they’re following their heart.
I see it more as a movement away from the Ego (the socialised self) towards the Id (what you are when no-one’s looking). It means finding that spark of divinity – a jewel within you – and not hiding it away in embarassment. Dare not be less for society’s measly sake; be more, for the sake of Something More.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you NOT to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won’t feel unsure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. As we let our own Light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. “ (Nelson Mandela)
5) Playfullness
Play is a much under-rated value. Somehow, people think work is something grown up and serious, and play childish and frivolous. I could not differ more.
In Alexander Technique lessons, we talk about a child learn to write. Over and over, they get the letter upside-down or back-to-front. Over and over, the parent/teacher makes the child repeat it. As the parent/teacher gets steadily more stressed, they tense up their body saying ‘concentrate!’ The little child, imitating the adult, will tense up their body and try really hard to please the parent. And maybe this time they get it right. The parent commends them, and from this day on, the child will associate concentration and effort with reward.
In actual fact, when we are in a state of “play”, we learn much more, we are more open to possibilities, linkages and ideas.
To play is one of the most important things we can do.
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”
(George Bernard Shaw)
6) Nonviolence
(I did try to make it 5 – for neatness – but it was impossible!)
Violence is anything that dominates, diminishes, dehumanises or destroys yourself or anyone else.
To be nonviolent, therefore, is to hold this tension. To walk the tightrope between being dominated or dominating others.
This strand runs through many of the famous texts:
“Love you neighbour as yourself” springs to mine.
“Live half for yourself and half for others” (Doshin So) also.
The Golden Rule.
It is a fascinating, endless exploration and one that shall endure for a life-time.
To live gently without being trampled; to make an impression, not a mark.
How about you? What are your core values and why are they important?
Why strikes won’t work
March 18, 2009 at 1:13 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Economics, Nonviolence
I was watching a documentary about ‘Strikes’ last night: the miner’s strike, the gravediggers strike, norman tebbit and the airline pilot’s strike, the itv strike and jon snow, the ford women’s strike and Eddie Shah and the printers. It was a very interesting history.
A couple of things came to mind however, which make me uneasy about striking.
First, workers declare war on management/owners. Whether sucessful or not, wars are very ugly things – and human beings can become monstorous. Thus, after the war is over and people go back to work, the relationship between workers and management is irrevocably broken. This is not a good footing for the firm to improve in the future.
And firms are not ‘bad’ in themselves. They serve a social function, and both workers and management/owners alike will benefit if a firm is doing well and increasing in productivity.
In some of the strikes that were mentioned – the miners strike and the printers strike – the workers were against the technical innovation that would improve productivity. Or in the case of coal, it was inevitable that the coal would run out; nobody could do anything about that. Change is part of life, and sometimes we have to move on and adapt.
However, some strikes relate to pay scales and the exploitation of workers, such as the Ford women’s strike. This is an important distinction to make regarding improvements to a firm’s profits.
Is it because productivity has been improving due to technical innovation (in other words, an increase in revenue), or does it relate to a decrease in the Cost of Sales (ie squeezing as much as you can out of labour). The former is to be commended; the latter disdained.
The profitability of th Ninetines, largely appears to be due to the latter. Longer hours on the same pay, cutting jobs and operating with fewer workers, so called efficiency gains. This is not what I would call good management or entrepreneurship; improvements to the firm are entirely illusionary.
The second probelm with strikes is the impact of peer-pressure. Even if you are happy in your job, it is difficult not to get drawn in, because of the intimidation that goes on. Individuals should have the right to act by their conscience, even if it differs from the majority. I actually think there is a great amount of courage in being a ‘scab’, whether right or wrong.
So, in conclusion, management and workers are both important components within the social entity of the firm. If the firm does well, both should prosper and vice versa. Creating an internal war between them, will never lead to a relationship that is conducive to a firm prospering and innovating. Rather, fairness between all parties is key.
Fairness, honesty – if coal is running out, we will have to close in the longrun, but how can we make it less painful for all stakeholders – and, above all, a desire for the optimum solution for all stakeholders, rather than just the group you belong to.
It is, again, a case of win-win solutions. But, if we want these, it is necessary to reduce the hierarchy within organisations. This will ensure that there is mutual respect between different groups, all working together for the benefit of the firm, rather than against each one another. As I have said before, if the structure is inherently violent – that is, prone to the domination of one group over another – further violence will result.
The Violence of Systems
March 18, 2009 at 12:45 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Economics, Nonviolence
As I was squashed on the Tube this morning, my mind turned to the violence of systems.
Violence is anything that dominates, dehumanises, diminishes or destroys yourself or other. Thus, it would appear many of our systems, and the infrastructure’s in place, are inherently violent. To squeeze human beings onto a system of transport, and talk down to them about moving along the carriage, is quite frankly dehumanising. It has no respect for the intelligence and ultimate good nature of humna beings.
Placed in such a system, where people are treated like cattle (not that I particularly approve of that either), people begin to act in a dehumanised manner, like monsters or -at the very least, petulant children. Not living up to their humanity is something they can be intentional about changing, but my point is that the system is the cause, not the human being.
In the same way, there is a violence inherent in economic systems that have evolved from the use of co-erced labour – rather than treating fellow men as equals. This has led to the formation of classes within society, and the pecking order one is born into.
How can we go about moving from violent towards nonviolent systems? What would they look like?
I am not, of course, advocating revolution or some kind of utopian dream. No, we must start from where we are, and gradually tinker with it so that we get something better.
But what are the changes that could be made…
From an article about the reconstruction of Northern Sri Lanka
March 9, 2009 at 10:38 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Economics, Ethics, Nonviolence
But when one girl is asked what she likes most about peace, she says simply: “Electricity.” (Joe Leahy, Financial Times, March 8th 2009)
A telling comment.
Can Everyone Be A Winner?
March 4, 2009 at 1:27 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a commentTags: Ethics, Nonviolence, Philosophy
There is to be a protest march on Saturday regarding violence against women. I was discussing with a friend why I wouldn’t be attending, and expressing what I find problematic about the ‘-isms’:
It is true, and distressing, that increasing amounts of physically violent acts are purported against women. Listening today to the World Service, I heard about the commands given to soldiers in Dafur to rape women AND children. As part of a war strategy, doing this in front of the menfolk, increases males own feeling of impotence, and therefore, is psycologically effective in reducing the desire to fight back.
Furthermore, violence against women is a signal of increasing levels of inequality, dislocation from society and unhappiness. The old adage talks about a man told off by his boss, who comes home and beats his wife. I think there is an immense amount of truth in this analogy, and therefore, whenever acts of violence are purported, we need to look back at the earliers links in the vicious cycle.
The power dynamics between the sexes are sadly still in favour of men across many parts of the world; you only need to read the statistics regarding the number of ‘missing women’ in the world to be aware of this.
However, a definition of violence that only includes physicall abuse is far too narrow. Rather, I see violence as being anything that diminishes, dehumanises, destroys or dominates yourself or others. With that definition, we can see that women are equally as violent as men. The methods may differ – often more verbal – as the process of socialization often prescribes the methods of violence that are acceptable to different sexes. (In fact, physical violence is too often seen as the rite of passage into manhood) Nonetheless, the root is the same.
What we need to do is to look further up the circle of violence, and analyse the sytemic and societal causes of people feeling diminished, dehumanised, destroyed or dominated and reacting – violently – against this.
The problem I have with the ‘-isms’ is that, all too often, people are separated into victims and aggressors, men and women, worker and capitalist. This victim-aggressor dichotomy allows those reacting against violence to represent themselves as ‘innocent’ without looking at the violence within themselves. The sides become polarised because no-one wants to identify themselves with the aggressor.
Again, this is the problem I have with Holocaust Rememberance Day; how come people are happy to expend cheap emotion on the victims of the Holocaust, walking around in those mocassins. We could just as well put ourselves in the shoes of the ordinary men and women, who worked as prison guards in concentration camps, and then went home and played with the kids. But that is far more unpalatable, isn’t it.
When we separate people into victims and aggressors, parties become entrenched and anyone trying to walk across the ‘no man’s land’ is shot down in flames. Inevitably, violence leads to more violence. Those who are being oppressed, first oppress those who are more vulnerable, then, as their own sense of power increases, and they ‘win’, they punish the people that had oppressed them in the first place. This is the problem with violent revolutions: they lead to more violence, rather than the expected Promised Land.
Where there are winners and losers in any human struggle, humanity itself is never a winner. 1-0 or 0-1 will be the result this decade, and 0-1 or 1-0 in the next! With unabashed idealism, I wonder whether we can all push for 1-1.
If my brother is unhappy, I cannot be happy; we are all interconnected. So the same should go for men and women, workers and capitalists, introverts and extraverts 
: if we can seek solutions in the interest of both parties, then everyone will be better off. It will take a lot of energy, but much less perhaps than the energy wasted on entrenched struggles. Let’s all agree to stand eye-to-eye with the violence within ourselves, and refuse it.
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