Common Bread Is...


* A Still Point in your Turning World
* A Trusting Space to Share Your Journey
* Inclusive Interfaith Spirituality
* Good Food & Friendship
* Guest Speakers from the World's Wisdom Paths
* Chanting, Meditation, and sometimes...
* We Dance!

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* Friday 12/4: Ayurveda

Longhouse, 6 PM Laura Sycamore, Ayurvedic practitioner.
Link for Info


Laura Sycamore teaches & practices the world's most ancient healing knowledge: Ayurvedic Medicine, from the Vedic culture of India. She will teach us practical techniques for health.
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* Thurs 12/10: Release Stress!
After a hearty potluck dinner, Fred & Shon share simple stress relieving techniques to use for study breaks during 'Eval. Week.'
Longhouse, 5:30 pm

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Winter Events:
* Jan 21: Common Bread Coffee House
Taste the grounds of your being: finest coffee & herbal teas, acoustic music & poetry. Bring your guitar, bring your poems!

* Jan 28: Meet the Quakers
Olympia Quaker Meeting returns with delicious potluck dinner, wisdom of the Quaker Way, and a Quaker Meeting experience to which all are welcome!

* Feb 11: Dances of Universal Peace
Returning by popular demand! Sufi-inspired chants and dances in the Rotunda, led by Eve Fagergren and musicians.

* Feb 28: Centering Prayer
Mary Solberg, trained instructor, shares a simple, graceful, contemplative practice based on the experience of Medieval Christian mystics. Though rooted in the Christian tradition, this Zen-like practice is universal.

* March 10: Sean Johnson's Wild Lotus Band from New Orleans
See picture gallery below. Sanskrit Kirtan chants inflected with New Orleans jazz and blues!
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Common Bread meets in the Evergreen Longhouse on Thursdays at 5:30 for potluck dinner and spiritual inspiration. Occasionally we meet at other times and locations for a special guest speaker. And we encourage student speakers! We are a crossroad of wisdom paths: Eastern and Western, ancient and modern. The crossroad is a sacred space where we honor each person's unique journey. Here, there's a place for you.

Students remember Common Bread as a time when they were, as Emerson wrote, "caught up into the vision of first principles, with souls that made our souls wiser."

Photo Gallery

Click any picture to enlarge it!

On Nov. 20, Tibetan Lama, Anam Thubten Rinpoche spoke to over 100 in the Longhouse. Pictured here with student leaders Shon & Crystal, Rinpoche returns on Fri. April 9.


"The quintessential goal of our path is surrendering to reality each moment, then seeing & loving everything as divine."


Mystical cellist Christine Gunn returned on November 12 to perform her new composition on 'The Hero's Journey'.


Christine's compositions generate spiritual energy in mind & body.


Ms. Gunn with Common Bread's leaders, Shon, Chrystal and Ian.

On Nov 6. A trio of musicians performed Hindi devotional songs & explained the mythic stories behind them.


Shon with his teacher and fellow musicians after the concert. Thanks for bringing Indian classical music to Common Bread, Shon!


Common Bread celebrated Celtic New Year, Oct. 29, with a visit from the Wyrd Wizard, Son of Cerridwyn, who gave out snakes.


Ian O'Donnell & Crystal Marble (now engaged) at our Samhain-Halloween party. They came as Jesus & Mary Magdalene.


Common Bread hosted Sean Johnson's Wild Lotus band from New Orleans.


Sean is an Evergreen grad, Yoga teacher, and Kirtan singer, who inflects Sanskrit peace chants with a hip New Orleans rhythm. Sean's band returns to Common Bread on March 10!


On Oct. 15, Quaker outdoorsman Deric Young spoke on 'Nature as Sacred Book,' using the creatures of the earth as portals into prayer and meditation. 30 attended.


One of nine national leaders of the Baha'i faith, our May 21 guest speaker was Erica Toussaint.


Chelan Weiler, Common Bread's Baha'i representative brought Baha'i speakers and singers from Portland.



On April 8, Dr. Mohammad Ayub introduced Islam. Oct 6, Dr. Ayub's wife, Amy Aisha (below), spoke to Common Bread on 'Women In Islam." Over 30 attended.







Dr. Ayub is a Muslim peace activist who founded a local Jewish-Muslim dialog group. Dr. Ayub & members of Lacey Mosque led Common Bread in Muslim evening prayers.




November 13, Krishnammal Jagannathan, winner of the 2008 Opus Award, a disciple of Gandhi and Ramana Maharshi, addressed 90 seekers at Common Bread in the Recital Hall (Link to article).


Feb 5, Evie Fagergren led us in Dances of Universal Peace.


Evie (far left) is also the Treasurer of our ministry Board!


Meditating, praying, chanting a Celtic blessing together at Common Bread: 'May the long-time sun shine upon you, all love surround you, and the pure light within you, guide your way home.'


On Jan. 22 Olympia Quakers visited Common Bread to share Quaker Meeting.


Quakers bring great food to Common Bread too!


Jan. 29, Mary Solberg of Contemplative Outreach (2nd from right) taught Centering Prayer, an ancient Christian meditation practice.


April 23, Ian gave a talk on 'the Agnostic Way to Spirituality.'

Christine Wagner, Evergreen Career Counselor, helped us unite spiritual passions with career goalson October 16.

'Forget every touch or sound that did not teach you how to dance.' (Rumi) Common Bread hosts contra dancing!




Ani, of the Art of Living Program, teaches the healing power of breath. 25 students came to share these powerful practices (below)



"Having a heart quiet enough to trust and listen brings justice." - Adrien Nyongabo, child of the Rwanda-Borundi genocide, spoke last March, pictured with Angus Tierney '08.


Talcott Broadhead, Program Director for Evergreen's Sexual Assault Prevention Office, pictured with student activist Jenna Wes at her Common Bread workshop.


Common Bread loves Evergreen...

Feminine Spirit of Wisdom in the Hebrew Bible

Wisdom (Hochmah in Hebrew, Sophia in Greek) is personified as the feminine consort of the Lord in the Hebrew books, 'Proverbs' and 'Wisdom of Solomon.' 'Proverbs' is part of the Bible, 'Wisdom of Solomon' is considered a sacred text among Jews and many early Christians.

(VERSES FROM ‘THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON’ CHAPTER 7)

I called upon God, and the Spirit of Wisdom came to me.

I preferred her before sceptres and thrones, and esteemed riches nothing in comparison with her.

Neither did I liken her to any precious stone, because, in comparison to her, all gold is as a little sand...

I loved her above health and beauty, and chose to have her instead of light: for the light that comes from her never goes out...

All good things came to me with her, and innumerable riches in her hands.

And I rejoiced in them, because wisdom goes before them: yet I did not know she was the mother of them all….

For Wisdom moves beyond all motion. She penetrates and pervades all things by her purity.

She is an aura of the might of God and a pure effusion of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing sullied enters her.

She is the refulgence of eternal light, the spotless mirror of the power of God, the image of his goodness.

And she, who is one, can do all things, and renews all things...

And passing into holy souls from age to age, she produces friends of God and prophets...

For she is fairer than the sun and surpasses every constellation of the stars.

Compared to light, she takes precedence.

(VERSES FROM ‘PROVERBS’ CHAPTER 8)

Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?

She stands in the top of high places, and at the crossing of the paths.

She cries at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors…

“The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.

I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.

When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.

Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:

While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.

When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the deep:

When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:

When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment:

when he appointed the foundations of the earth:

Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.

Misinterpreting the Koran

“I have been commanded that I should fight these people till they bear witness that there is no god but Allah.”

Such passages from the Koran cause much confusion, especially in the hands of those who are hell-bent on portraying Islam as a threat. Such a verse can confuse us since the Koran also states, "Commit no aggression, for God does not love aggressors" (Sura 2:191). The Koran accepts Judaism and Christianity as living paths to God: "Those who are Jews and Christians, who believe in God, the Last Day, and do right, surely their reward is with their Lord, and no fear shall come upon them, neither shall they grieve" (Sura 2:62). The Koran also states: "In true religion there is no compulsion.” (Sura 2:256)

We are not the only ones confused. Islamic terrorists confuse their own religion. They justify killing the innocent by refusing to follow the rules that Islamic scholars have laid down for interpreting the Koran.

Islamic scholars embrace a systematic method of interpretation based on a very simple principle: CONTEXT. One can only interpret a verse of the Koran in the context of verses that take precedent. This is comparable to our legal system, where we adjudicate by showing precedent to earlier case-law, following the thread of precedent back to the Constitution. In the rules of Islamic contextual analysis, there are specific Suras of the Koran - usually the longer ones - that establish context for all others.

According to this rule, any statement about war is contextualized by Sura 2, which establishes that war is legitimate only when fought in self-defense. Sura 2 can only be contextualized and subsumed by one other verse, the first line of the Koran: 'B'ishmillah' hi rahman i'raheem' (‘In the name of God, who is pure Love and Compassion.’)

In the 7th Century, Arab tribal leaders sought to kill Mohammad and his followers. Had Mohammad remained pacifist, he and his small community would have been slaughtered. Mohammad chose to defend his people.

This brings us back to the verse we started with. Out of context, this verse seems to say that a Muslim should attack non-Muslims and fight them until they convert. But this verse is only valid in the context of self-defense. Such warlike verses apply only when an enemy attacks Muslims, to persecute them and destroy their religion.

When Mohammad mustered his soldiers for self-defense, the only historical precedent for treatment of captive enemy warriors was death or enslavement. Previous Roman and Christian armies treated their captive enemies brutally. Genocide or slavery were the only alternatives that the Hebrew army, under Joshua, offered the tribes of Canaan in 1100 BCE (cf. Deuteronomy, chapter 20). The Koran established an entirely new rule for the treatment of captured enemy soldiers, a kind of 'Geneva Convention' for the ancient Near East.

When Mohammad went into his meditation cave and asked Divine Source how to treat defeated enemy soldiers, Allah replied that he should spare the captives, allowing them to live as Muslims. The Koran gives no commandment to "convert them by the sword." On the contrary, the Koran prohibits compulsory conversion. (2:256)

Captives who chose not to convert had to pay a special tax (Jizya) to the Mosque. This seemed only fair since Muslims pay quite large tithes to the Mosque. Paying the Jizya, non-Muslims were welcome to live under Muslim rule. In fact, when Christians expelled the Jews from Europe, the Muslim caliphate of Baghdad welcomed the Jewish exiles. There, Jewish and Muslim scholars worked side by side to preserve the classics of the ancient world and develop the sciences of astronomy and mathematics. Our decimal system, algebra, and the concept of zero all came from Middle Eastern Muslim scholars. Algebra and zero are both Muslim words. Today we still use “Arabic” numerals.

What this all means is that terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda are no more Muslim than the Ku Klux Klan is Christian. These fringe groups distort their religious heritage into heresy. The Islamic mainstream has repeatedly condemned terrorism. Yet the Western media ignore these condemnations, preferring to emphasize conflict over reconciliation. Conflict boosts their ratings.

'Jihad' does not mean 'holy war.' It means 'struggle to follow a godly path.' Though Jihad can refer to physical warfare in self-defense, it more commonly refers to an individual’s inner struggle against the lower impulses, the struggle to achieve pure surrender to God’s will.

‘Islam’ is the infinitive of the verb, SaLaM, 'to surrender, to achieve peace, to be at-one.' Islam derives from the same Semitic root as the Biblical word, 'Shalom'. Islam means, 'to find peace through surrender to God.'

- Fred LaMotte

Poet's Corner

Submit writings about your spiritual journey.

shovel the world into my eyes

(by Chelan Weiler)

i am preparing myself
for the worms
with lipstick and a red dress

the dust is my suitor
and i am making of myself
his perfect bride

he knocks on the holes to which i've given my eyes--
the sockets sunk 6 feet under light
he wants to come in, and shovel them
full of the world

the stubble that grows
on the lazy chin of his shadow
are the unkempt weeds
that invade the purer plots of my heart

i flirt
with this unruly torment
twirling my hair into its tangle

and in the search for a soft, loving bed
the dirt will pull me down
into its chest
with thick permanent fingers

and kiss me
and decompose me
and tell me i'm beautiful
and eat my face
as we grow roots in each others darkness
layers underneath
the pulsing call of life.

If I Were a Pear
(by Chelan Weiler)

If i were a pear
on a plate
i'd spend my hours
looking at you

your curves
your strange movements
the way your head
perks up so slightly at suggestion
the way you are so intent
on drawing me
on finding me interesting
and then eating from my sweet
belly.

if i had a paintbrush, though
i'd also paint your stillness
when your palms
feel the supple texture of a moment
and hold its cheek

those times you become
a window
and life looks through you
so clearly
those times when your hands
don't fumble for meaning
and we just look at each other
quietly
and understand.


The Word
(by Sayre Herrick)

the word is not dead

it is sleeping in the pauper
and
in the tongue’s pirouette,
dancing over a plane of newspapers—
in the drunken fashion of a nearsighted sleeper

the word is not dead

it is not grand,
—it does not have to be,
to be worthwhile speech of kings…
if a king would wish to speak
and to step down from the grandiosity of silence.

time demands the word.
it is a shadow of what we know
a currency of communication
exchanged and absorbed
but we have lost the gold
and so there is an empty promise in words

and so what we speak is a shadow of what is true
and so the audience listens in suspended disbelief

the word, in essence
is the truth of our own minds
and what is truth if we have not named it?
what is truth but a word that we have created?
and so it is no different from what is false

yet the word is a reflection
and without it, the boundless Unformed overwhelms meaning
the untrue becomes true
and the shadows of words cease

the point of view, from where our light consciousness radiates,
is not the sun—
its light does not come from a singular source

when there is no Where from which the Light came,
and when there is no object from which a shadow can be formed,
and so no direction for a shadow to fall,
so there, is the Beyond of our minds
and the realm of Truth.

Breathe
(by Fred LaMotte)

Breathe in the morning stars.
Breathe out all the way down
to your seed.
Sniff the present moment,
munching your life slowly as an elk.
Hug yourself like a sleeping cat.
Dangle your spine in the music of wind
like a chain of bells.
If you have wings, use them.
If not, don't pretend.
Let sap flow through broken places
where you can graft new friends on.
Never close these wounds.
Let them become eyes.

Sacred Sound
Bathe yourself in the cleansing vi-
brational energies of sonic Love.
What is the sound of Love? Let's
find out. What is the healing
potential of sound?
Experiment explore express sing move
dance massage heal grow and change
integrate disintegrate commune rest listen
meditate.....
We're swimming in a sea of energy that we
are co-creating. What do you wish
your Sacred Sound to be?
Let us hold this sacred space for one other
to be authentic.

- Michael Mercker
(Mike holds Sacred Sound meetings on Sunday Evenings. This is your invitation. For more info, contact Common Bread at commonbread@gmail.com)

Rain
(This scene is from a novel about Jesus in India by Amanda Weatherford, class of '08, Common Bread student co-leader.)

Storm clouds emerged and thickened in the obsidian sky. Moon’s magnetic pull and the humid wind coaxed ocean waves into a frenzy. Yeshua continued to pray- receiving and giving energy into the abyss of night. The warm electricity he received made his heart flutter. Wind began to blow fierce and lightning like the bolts from Indra’s bow surged into the sky with a trembling crack and rumble to follow. Clouds darkened by the minute with drops of rain to follow- first big and slow, and then faster until the entire visibility of Jugganatha’s skyline was written with endless strings of rain.

Yeshua arose, a deep elation bubbling within. He looked into the firmament, felt the cool water from Heaven beating on his body and began to chuckle. His chuckle turned into laughter, and his laughter turned into deep bellowing joy. He raised his hands to the sky and closed his eyes, allowing every element to feel this jubilation. He spun around and around, arms outstretched and laughing all the while. His bare feet smooshed deep into the sand and water.

Soon Yeshua heard a horde of people in excited tones approaching him. Half the town of Jugganatha had come to witness this miracle. Avani spotted Yeshua and ran to him. Her arms rose in celebration as well, joining Yeshua in deep laughter. Her hands moved to touch his- flat palm to flat palm. Immediately, she felt the intensity of energy surging from his palms. Her head bowed to prop against his as she looked into his countenance.

“Oh Yesh, do you do this?”

“No, my dear. I became entranced and felt the presence of the Great Spirit. I asked for rain and my intent and prayer was so loud that I almost thought I could hear them audibly though I wasn’t speaking. I felt myself become part of the moisture, the clouds, all the elements of the sky. Then I felt myself cry for the sadness this draught has caused your people, and when I began to weep, so did the skyThe way I felt everything, and then once I wept…it was like Nature and I as one found the best way to express our sadness, through rain! - Amanda Weatherford, '08

Adrien Nyongobo, Common Bread Speaker

Child of the Rwanda genocide, Adrien Niyongabo shared his prophetic work as founder of HROC, 'Healing & Rebuilding Our Community' on 3/14/08.

Adrien is an African Quaker, Burundi Yearly Meeting of Friends. He has been working with the African Great Lakes Initiative of the Friends Peace Teams since October 2000. In 2003 he initiated the Healing and Rebuilding Our Community program in Rwanda, training the first 15 HROC facilitators. He then returned to Burundi to introduce HROC in Burundi and expanded the program to include the training of Healing Companions. He has made three speaking tours to the United States and one to Britain. He is married and has four children.

Healing Hearts and Communities after War
The Healing and Rebuilding Our Community (HROC) workshops began in 2003 when the African Great Lakes Initiative, the American Friends Service Committee, and members of Friends Church in Rwanda and Burundi came together to jointly develop a program that would address the consequences of violence. After years of colonization, civil war, ethnic hatred, and genocide, the need for healing on both an individual and community level in the Great Lakes Region of Africa was paramount. The curriculum was created to introduce participants to the concept of trauma, build a sense of trust and community within the workshop, facilitate initial expressions of grief and mourning, and establish concrete ways to deal with anger. It is a participatory approach which utilizes culturally appropriate games, song, prayer, and discussions to empower people to find their own meaning within the teachings. Participants are asked and encouraged to share their experiences, which then become the basis of the learning. It is an environment where there are no wrong answers; where even if you cannot read and write your knowledge and opinions are valid and real.

Designed as the cornerstone in a larger program to build community capacity, the hope was that HROC participants would use what they learned to respond to the widespread trauma in their villages, strengthen interconnectedness between their neighbors, and reduce the isolation which keeps many people from seeking help in the first place. Many participants move on from the basic workshop to advanced trainings to become “Healing Companions” who are skilled in the art of active listening and can accompany family members and neighbors through the healing process.

Way of the Hollow Bone

(by Robert Lester www.rblester.com)

In ancient times, our ancestors were guided by their innate connection to their spirit. Life was about deep listening and acting accordingly. One of the things I learned from a First Nations Elder was the art of listening. He would only say something once and expected me to understand it. That trained me to listen not only with my ears, but with my spirit. He taught me the Teaching Of The Hollow Bone.

If you find an old bone in the woods, it has been cleaned out by insects or animals and appears to be pristine. The insides are absolutely smooth. When you become like a hollow bone, you have no ego, no concerns, no doubts, no pride. Just humility. Spirit can now come straight to you and straight through you. I was told the hollow bone teaching is over 40,000 years old, and when you rely on it, it never fails.

How do you become a hollow bone?

In traditional teaching, techniques include ways to clear your mind, ground yourself, and breathe your spirit into your body. In a natural setting, you can practice opening yourself to the natural world. You can then listen with your heart, literally!

Here is part of the teaching that you can try for yourself.

*Go out into nature and find a spot where you feel safe and comfortable. This could be a special place in a park, or a favorite saltwater beach, or by a river. Your spirit will know the exact spot that feels most powerful.

*Bring a wool blanket or sweater and wrap it around you. The wool has its own medicine and will draw good to you and protect you as well. Shelter yourself from the wind.

*Sit down where you are.

*With your eyes closed, breathe in from above your head, pulling your spirit down into your body.

*Pull the breath down through your body through your tailbone and into the earth. To develop a relationship with the earth, hold your breath for just a moment and quietly exhale.

*As you exhale, let your spirit soar up along the body and above you.

*Inhale back down all the way through you, back into the earth. As you touch the earth with your breath, hold your breath again, just for a moment.

*Then exhale again up through the body. Keep your eyes closed. This breathing will begin to clear the mind. You are sitting in one place and quieting yourself.

*Now bring your consciousness to your heart, in the center of your sternum. Bringing the intention to the heart focuses your attention on your personal fire, your Spirit. Make a fire~listen to the spirit within.

*Breathe in a soft fashion. With each breath, expand your consciousness, to all that around you and listen from your heart, your spirit. If you are on the water, you can become the water. If you are in the woods, you can become the land.

*As you listen with your spirit, you may hear the helpers from the unseen give you guidance. You may hear the grandfathers direct you in ways that you had not conceived possible.

*Finally, you will begin to hear your own spirit direct you in the way of your highest good. This is the beginning of the Hollow Bone Teaching.”

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Please note how this ancient Native American practice resonates with the practices of other traditions, including the Christian practice of Kinosis (self-emptying) from the "self emptying of Christ" in Phillipians 2; the Zen practice of Sunya (emptiness) from the Heart Sutra; and the Yogic breath-practice of self-cleansing from the root to the crown chakra. (- Chaplain Fred)

The New Cross

Celtic Cross, Book of Kells

"Behold, I make all things new!" (Revelations, 21:5)

This is ecstatic speech, erupting from the vision of the living Cross, which is also the Cross-road of sincere spiritual paths, Eastern and Western, ancient and modern. This is not systematic theology. I only utter what I see. Won't you enter the Cross-road with me?

The old Cross was a work of mediation: it was intermediate between God and Man. But the age of mediation is over. We settle for nothing less than the immediate presence of God. The new Cross is a living intersection of God and humanity in the present moment.

The new Cross is never one moment old. The new Cross blossoms as Christ-consciousness in perpetual resurrection. Liquid gold, the new Cross is born from every atom of the blessed Mater, mother matter, radiance of Spirit from the sacred physiology of our bodies. All that we behold in stars and distant galaxies is reflected in our own electrons.

The center of the new Cross is here, wherever we may be. On the horizontal of this Cross, past and future are crucified, giving birth to Now. On the vertical, spirit and matter unite. Heaven bows to earth as dust becomes God. Christ is here with us at the center, rooted in the earth yet touching the stars. He dies into each breath we breathe, pouring the Spirit into the core of our heart. And when we exhale, choosing to make our breath a prayer, we send that Spirit forth into nature.

As Jesus, Christ-consciousness appeared in history 2000 years ago. But as Spirit-Awareness, that divine Being wells up like a tear from inside us this very moment, flowing into the world through our senses. Each act of perception, offered in conscious wonder, incarnates God on earth. We meet Christ in a homeless woman's gaze, in the eye of a child, in a red berry on a naked twig, in the sound of a thrush on the still air of an Autumn morning. Why await his Second Coming? He never departed.

The four beams of the new Cross are not the old rugged beams of priesthood, dogma, judgment and war. The beams of the new Cross were described by the mystic poet, William Blake: "We are set on earth a little space to learn to bear the beams of love." The new Cross reaches out to every corner of the earth, embracing all whom Christianity once rejected.

The new Cross is unconditionally inclusive. One might object, "Is nothing condemned? Is there no judgment? " The answer is a resounding "Yes! There is condemnation. We condemn the violence of judgment itself." Are not the greatest crimes against humanity committed by those whose righteousness, whether political or religious, compels them to judge? Do they not imprison, torture, and make war in the name of Right? Do we ever hear such terrors committed in the name of Wrong? No, the most heinous acts of human violence are always committed in the name of Good: by the saved, the chosen, and the politically correct. But on the beams of the new Cross, judgment itself is crucified!

What are the four beams of this new Cross? To the left, the Divine Feminine. To the right, the Meeting of East and West. Below, the Sacred Earth. Above, the Winged Heart of Mystical Prayer. And at the center, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Colossians 1:27)

The Westward beam reaches toward the Great Mother, regaining the balance of masculine and feminine power in our culture. This beam reveals the Holy Trinity as a family: Father, Mother, Child. Through this beam of the Cross our Wiccan, African and Native American mothers suckle us with ancient Goddess wisdom. Through this beam, we find Spirit not above, but in the womb of matter. Matter is Mater.

The open-armed Cross welcomes all to participate in the divine dance of male and female energies. This is the dance of Christ and Sophia, Isis and Osirus, Attis and Cybele, Ishtar and Tamuz. But now the dance is heightened to a new self-awareness and a new responsibility. The marriage is not only an outward material wedding of man and woman, but an inner marriage of the masculine and feminine in each individual person. This Crossbeam bursts with blood-red buds of rose.

The Eastward beam points toward India, bearing twined opposites that blossom in words of reconciliation between East and West. Through this beam, with its vibrant ultra-violet buds, we honor civilizations that flourished long before there was ever a university in Paris or a government in Rome or a temple in Jerusalem. Through this beam we are bathed in a beacon of metta, the compassion of Sakyamuni Buddha. We gaze into the countenance of Amidha Buddha to behold Christ's face, shining from the East. In the sparkling rays that dance from this beam of the Cross, Krishna plays. The breath of his flute is the living Word of creation vibrating over primal waters. When we follow this beam, we follow the path of Tao, for this also is the Way of Jesus.

Now what do we see in the vertical dimension of the new Cross? The beam that points downward, tangled with green vines, roots itself in sacred Matter, anointing the human senses. F0r it is through our enlighened senses that God delights in creation. This Crossbeam touches the earth and reveals it to be paradise. Earth is the only possible eschaton, the goal of time already present. Earth is the sacral plexus of God's universal body. On this living trunk of Cross, twin petals of soul and body enfold one stamen, the Christic wand that heals a planet never again to be wasted. This pollen-covered Crossbeam is the human spine, sparkling axis of the cosmos in each body. For all of us, Cruciform, connect sky and earth.

The North-pointing beam of the new Cross is the path of mystical prayer. This beam radiates upward, and inward, into Wonder. This beam leads us beyond theology, into the nameless, boundless, primordial space of pure Being. For as it rises, this Crossbeam also points to the heart. The symbolic language of all scripture reveals that to climb up is to move within, the mountain top is the center, and ascending to heaven means entering deeper into the heart.

This Crossbeam is no sword of knowledge, but a ray of divine bewilderment which points beyond words. Tangled with golden blossoms, this ever-spiraling, widening path raptures us with delight. Through this wild path of love, we participate in Christ's yearning for Mary Magdalene, and the Magdalene's yearning for the Beloved. This love is an eternal current that ebbs and flows between longing and fulfillment. These waves of love move Winter to Spring and Summer to fall. For nature's cyclic journey is a reflection of the soul's inward pilgrimage to God. And whether we call this love-tide Radha-Krishna, Yahweh-Shekinah, or Christ-Mary makes no difference at all. We cannot let names suppress the actual experience of the living current of ineluctable delight that flows through love's winged heart.

At the end of this up-shining Crossbeam, Lover and Beloved meet in the bridal chamber. That mystical space transcends creation: yet it's entrance is the center of your heart. The doors of that secret bridal chamber are flung wide open. Yet no stairway of doctrine or dogma can come close to those doors. The radiance of the bridal chamber unlocks every gates from inside, rends the veil of all sanctuaries, and expels all patriarchal authorities who would parcel out or quantify the fullness of Union.

Follow this beam of mystical prayer. Enter the great simplicity of your heart, where faith sinks down in rhythmic waves of silence that give breath and beat to every mantra, wisdom breathes a peace that passes understanding, and God is the molten golden core of every electron in your body.

How long is the journey on this beam of mystical prayer, where to reach the outermost limit is to rest in the Center? It is but the length of a sigh, no further than the passage from the head to the heart. Breathe out and sink into Christ, your seed. Breathe in and blossom as "all in all." (1 Corinthians 15:28)

Honored Speaker at Common Bread, 11/13/08

Krishnammal Jagannathan:

Living Disciple of Gandhi

Link: Land for Tillers' Freedom (LAFTI)

Common Bread was honored to present Krishnammal to the Evergreen community on November 13, '08. She is a living friend and disciple of Gandhi. She also studied with Ramana Maharshi. 82 years old, she is the recipient of this year's Opus Award for world service, presented at Seattle's Benaroya Hall, November 18.

Krishnammal has spent her life serving India's poorest, providing sustainable homes and employment for the "Untouchables," waging non-violent struggle against the devastating inequalities of the cast system.

An unfathomable tragedy was a turning point in her life. In 1968, 44 Dalits—members of India's lowest caste and some of its poorest residents— were murdered at Kilavenmani village in the Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu. This devastating occurrence proved to be the impetus for founding Land for Tillers' Freedom (LAFTI).

“My mission was to provide livelihood by abolishing landlessness among the poor and bringing humanness and dignity to their lives,” Jagannathan says. “The Dalits were banned from wearing chapals [foot wear], collecting drinking water in the village well and temple entry. They were tied to the trees and forced to eat cow-dung when anyone broke the norms. All of this happened during the 1970s and I resolved to change all of this, to bring an end to the worst form of apartheid in the 20th century.”

“Bridging the gap between the rich and poor, bringing the landless and landed rich to the negotiating table to share and care for each other is most fulfilling to me.”

Formally founded in 1981, LAFTI allowed Jagannathan and her husband to work toward justice and land rights in Tamil Nadu, India by elevating the social status and acceptance of the Dalits through housing and farmland provisions. LAFTI is equipping the landless with land through loans and work opportunities, thereby allowing them to become self-sufficient. LAFTI's skills workshops allow people,during the nonagricultural season,to support themselves through entrepreneurial efforts like mat weaving, tailoring, plumbing, carpentry, masonry, computer education and electronics.

Through LAFTI, Jagannathan has negotiated land subsidies with the government and reduced-interest bank loans to purchase land. Because of her work and its undeniable results, the government of India is also considering implementing LAFTI's approach to increase the peaceful transfer of land.

However, LAFTI is about more than protection of land rights. It encourages empowerment and sustainable practices to benefit other oppressed communities. Hundreds have benefited from educational and outreach opportunities that promote wasteland development, self-employment and environmental protection.

With dignity, vision and an indefatigable spirit, Jagannathan is improving the living conditions and the future of the Dalits. LAFTI has changed the lives of 13,000 families and those who were once powerless are now in charge of guiding their future.

“Bridging the gap between the rich and poor, bringing the landless and landed rich to the negotiating table to share and care for each other is most fulfilling to me,” she says. “Hope in the midst of misery and poverty by lighting the lamp in the homes of Dalit women is an enriching moment for me.”

Learn more about Jagannathan's work with LAFTI and Friends of LAFTI.

From Kerouac's 'Dharma Bums'

From Chapter 9 of 'The Dharma Bums' by Jack Kerouac: Japhy Ryder and Ray Smith are camping out after a day of mountain climbing. The scene is based on an actual hike which Kerouac took with Buddhist environmentalist Gary Snyder.

Now the mountains were getting that pink tinge, I mean the rocks, they were just solid rock covered with the atoms of dust accumulated there since beginning-less time. In fact I was afraid of those jagged monstrosities all around and over our heads.

'They're so silent!' I said.

'Yeah man, you know to me a mountain is a Buddha. Think of the patience, hundreds of thousands of years just sitting there bein perfectly perfectly silent and like praying for all living creatures in that silence and just waiting for us to stop all our frettin and foolin.'

Japhy got out the tea, Chinese tea, and sprinkled some in a tin pot, and had the fire going meanwhile, a small one to begin with, the sun was still on us, and stuck a long stick tight down under a few big rocks and made himself something to hang the teapot on and pretty soon the water was boiling and he poured it out steaming into the tin pot and we had cups of tea with our tin cups. I myself had gotten the water from the stream, which was cold and pure like snow and the crystal-lidded eyes of heaven. Therefore, the tea was by far the most pure and thirst-quenching tea I ever drank in all my life, it made you want to drink more and more, it actually quenched your thirst and of course it swam around hot in your belly.

'Now you understand the Oriental passion for tea,' said Japhy. 'Remember that book I told you about? The first sip is joy, the second is gladness, the third is serenity, the fourth is madness, the fifth is ecstasy.'

'Just about old buddy.'

The rock we were camped against was a marvel. It was thirty feet high and thirty feet at base, a perfect square almost, and twisted trees arched over it and peeked down on us. From the base it went outward, forming a concave, so if rain came we'd be partially covered. 'How did this immense sonumbitch ever get here?'

'It probably was left here by the retreating glacier. See over there that field of snow?'

'Yeah.'

'That's the glacier, what's left of it. Either that or this rock tumbled here from inconceivable prehistoric mountains we can't understand, or maybe it just landed here when the friggin mountain range itself burst out of the ground in the Jurassic upheaval. Ray, when you're up here you're not sittin in a Berkeley tea room. This is the beginning and the end of the world right here. Look at all those patient Buddhas lookin at us, saying nothing.'

'And you come out here by yourself?'

'For weeks on end, just like John Muir, climb around all by myself following quartzite veins or making posies of flowers for my camp, or just walking around naked singing, and cook my supper and laugh.'

'Japhy, I gotta hand it to you, you're the happiest little cat in the world and the greatest, by God you are. I'm sure glad I'm learning all this. This place makes me feel devoted. I mean, I have a prayer. Do you know the prayer I use?'

'What?'

'I sit down and I run all my friends and relatives and enemies one by one like beads, without entertaining any angers, and I say, like:

'Japhy Ryder, equally empty, equally to be loved, equally a coming Buddha...'

Then I run on to:

'David O. Selznick, equally empty, equally to be loved, equally a coming Buddha...'

But I don't use names like David O. Selznick, just people I know because when I say the words 'equally a coming Buddha,' I want to be thinking of their eyes, like you take Morley, his blue eyes behind those glasses, when you think 'equally a coming Buddha' you think of those eyes and you really do suddenly see the true secret serenity and the truth of his coming Buddhahood. Then you think of your enemy's eyes.'

'That's great, Ray,' and Japhy took out his notebook and wrote down the prayer, and shook his head in wonder. 'That's really really great. I'm going to teach this prayer to the monks I meet in Japan. There's nothing wrong with you Ray, your only trouble is you never learned to get out to spots like this..."