FOR THE SAKE OF HUMANITY
With Rae Story
A 12-hour retreat where I will be reciting mantras and following practices for humanity
other manchester based and international students will also take part in a coordinated effort
The public can engage with the project through two methods:
to send names of people (themselves, friends or family) and condition (health, relationship, passed away, finding jobs, getting pregnant, climate etc) and I will dedicate the merit of the practice to the named people and to the rest of humanity.
To offer a donation which will be split three ways to Manchester community Qigong Group,
and to the Healing Hut Fund to continue to subsidise the work that I do for people who cannot afford it.
To consider their own personal responsibility and transformation -
see below.
People can email me their names and contact details if they are interested in my work and would like to find out more:
[email protected]
THE PRACTICE
Most of us live in relative comfort, but others live in intense
fear, violence and trauma.
How do we reconcile these differences? How can we respond to
situations in the world with compassion and wisdom whilst at the same time knowing that
ultimately we cannot fix these unfixable problems?
We tend to focus on doing, on fixing things, on action.
Non-action is seen as passive and not engaged. This is quite a modern approach and typical of our western values and emphasis on the material world – we want to see results, we want to achieve progress, we want to measure change.
Our ancestors in the East proposed a radically different approach to dealing with the
conflicts inherent in humanity. Across Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism we are taught
the importance of a balance between action and non-action, the material and the spiritual, the doing and the being.
We do this by taking personal responsibility to behave with virtue, to avoid harming ourselves and others, and to tame our wild minds/hearts. In some ways it could be
said that we change ourselves instead of changing the world.
More detailed and refined practises are taught specifically for the conditions and
circumstances that affect our lives, the lives of others and our world. However, by seeing the world beyond the duality of self-other, man-nature we also begin to see relationships
between everything.
That our own untamed anger is the same anger that fuels wars and
enables atrocities to happen.
To cultivate a spiritual life and take spiritual responsibility is integral to fulfilling our human potential. We cannot survive for long without the cooperation of hundreds of other people crisscrossing the globe. Yet this inter-connectedness also exists energetically an emotionally and mysteriously. We pick up on peoples bad moods and anxiety, we hope and pray for peoples recovery from sickness, we sometimes know things that we cannot possibly know through conventional means.
I will make a personal and private response to Michael’s brief by creating the space for
a one-day, 12 hour retreat on 12/12/12. Following particular practises from my Tibetan
Buddhist lineage to protect the worlds and all beings, to help the climate and seasons
return to their natural course, to help people who have power to see clearly and with
compassion, to help people who are suffering, sick and dying and
to help people who have passed away navigate to a better re-birth I will dedicate
this practise to all.
If you wish to take part you can also put some special time aside on the 12/12/12 to
do your own tradition’s practices for Humanity.
When was the last time we did any special practice for the state of the world and humanity? We need to bring these ancient practices back to life, to re-invigorate our spiritual lives and
reconnect to what is really important.
If you are atheist or agnostic or don’t have a particular religious or spiritual practise to follow, you can still take part because our substantial nature is the same whether we
have a faith or tradition or not. The spiritual part of us in these cases is in more need of attention and re-connection. Here are some suggestions of how we can all reconnect with the truth of our being:
The way we chose to COMMUNICATE -
Listen first, instead of jumping in with our opinions and ideas and beliefs, instead of listening for a gap into which we can thrust our self-importance, we can chose
to listen with our heart and soul to the person we are conversing with. In this moment they are the most important person on the planet to you.
When we speak we can chose to speak with kindness and gentleness and chose not to e harsh words and harm people through our words.
We can consider RENUNCIATION
Probably the least popular route during such material and self-centred times, but essential for getting anywhere on a spiritual journey.
We need to learn to let go of the things tat block us, and our attachment and defense of these things.
This can include material items, although one can be still be rich and have possessions whilst not being attached to them, so it is not a path of abstinence and asceticism.
Letting go of negative cycles of thinking including anger, desire, pride, jealousy
and doubt, of vices that harm us, of stubborness, of harmful habits, over-consumption and ignorance.
We need to think less in terms of giving something up in such a way that we suffer its loss, and more in terms of relaxing our grip, realising that actually we already have everything that we need.
We can begin a PRACTICE of some kind, here are some examples:
Silence - take some time to sit quietly, to be silent and calm down your heart
Joyful Awareness - tune in to this present moment and access the
incredible energy that is all around usall the time,
walk, eat, drink, converse, work, play, love with full awareness of what you are doing, rather than being in one place and mentally preparing for another.
Rejoicing - not just in our good fortune and circumstances, but
in our friends and families good fortune, in the moments of peace and comfort,
in the relationships that are working and projects that are helping people.
If we can’t rejoice in what exists then we are really in trouble!
perfect bliss
Most of us live in relative comfort, but others live in intense
fear, violence and trauma.
How do we reconcile these differences? How can we respond to
situations in the world with compassion and wisdom whilst at the same time knowing that
ultimately we cannot fix these unfixable problems?
We tend to focus on doing, on fixing things, on action.
Non-action is seen as passive and not engaged. This is quite a modern approach and typical of our western values and emphasis on the material world – we want to see results, we want to achieve progress, we want to measure change.
Our ancestors in the East proposed a radically different approach to dealing with the
conflicts inherent in humanity. Across Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism we are taught
the importance of a balance between action and non-action, the material and the spiritual, the doing and the being.
We do this by taking personal responsibility to behave with virtue, to avoid harming ourselves and others, and to tame our wild minds/hearts. In some ways it could be
said that we change ourselves instead of changing the world.
More detailed and refined practises are taught specifically for the conditions and
circumstances that affect our lives, the lives of others and our world. However, by seeing the world beyond the duality of self-other, man-nature we also begin to see relationships
between everything.
That our own untamed anger is the same anger that fuels wars and
enables atrocities to happen.
To cultivate a spiritual life and take spiritual responsibility is integral to fulfilling our human potential. We cannot survive for long without the cooperation of hundreds of other people crisscrossing the globe. Yet this inter-connectedness also exists energetically an emotionally and mysteriously. We pick up on peoples bad moods and anxiety, we hope and pray for peoples recovery from sickness, we sometimes know things that we cannot possibly know through conventional means.
I will make a personal and private response to Michael’s brief by creating the space for
a one-day, 12 hour retreat on 12/12/12. Following particular practises from my Tibetan
Buddhist lineage to protect the worlds and all beings, to help the climate and seasons
return to their natural course, to help people who have power to see clearly and with
compassion, to help people who are suffering, sick and dying and
to help people who have passed away navigate to a better re-birth I will dedicate
this practise to all.
If you wish to take part you can also put some special time aside on the 12/12/12 to
do your own tradition’s practices for Humanity.
When was the last time we did any special practice for the state of the world and humanity? We need to bring these ancient practices back to life, to re-invigorate our spiritual lives and
reconnect to what is really important.
If you are atheist or agnostic or don’t have a particular religious or spiritual practise to follow, you can still take part because our substantial nature is the same whether we
have a faith or tradition or not. The spiritual part of us in these cases is in more need of attention and re-connection. Here are some suggestions of how we can all reconnect with the truth of our being:
The way we chose to COMMUNICATE -
Listen first, instead of jumping in with our opinions and ideas and beliefs, instead of listening for a gap into which we can thrust our self-importance, we can chose
to listen with our heart and soul to the person we are conversing with. In this moment they are the most important person on the planet to you.
When we speak we can chose to speak with kindness and gentleness and chose not to e harsh words and harm people through our words.
We can consider RENUNCIATION
Probably the least popular route during such material and self-centred times, but essential for getting anywhere on a spiritual journey.
We need to learn to let go of the things tat block us, and our attachment and defense of these things.
This can include material items, although one can be still be rich and have possessions whilst not being attached to them, so it is not a path of abstinence and asceticism.
Letting go of negative cycles of thinking including anger, desire, pride, jealousy
and doubt, of vices that harm us, of stubborness, of harmful habits, over-consumption and ignorance.
We need to think less in terms of giving something up in such a way that we suffer its loss, and more in terms of relaxing our grip, realising that actually we already have everything that we need.
We can begin a PRACTICE of some kind, here are some examples:
Silence - take some time to sit quietly, to be silent and calm down your heart
Joyful Awareness - tune in to this present moment and access the
incredible energy that is all around usall the time,
walk, eat, drink, converse, work, play, love with full awareness of what you are doing, rather than being in one place and mentally preparing for another.
Rejoicing - not just in our good fortune and circumstances, but
in our friends and families good fortune, in the moments of peace and comfort,
in the relationships that are working and projects that are helping people.
If we can’t rejoice in what exists then we are really in trouble!
perfect bliss
