Belly-Centering Our Awareness for Peace & Justice

Here's an excerpt from a message I sent to peacemaker Sharif Abdullah. He recently met with a group of people interested in Sacred Activism.

My questions these days: How can we bring our power-centering practice to the attention of those who could and would like to use it in the process of peacemaking? How can this practice play a part in resolving the local and global crises that are putting human and planetary survival in jeopardy?
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Dear Sharif,

I loved the moment during your presentation when you showed us the photo of Earth from space. You said something like "Look at this picture with more than your eyes. You have to look at it with something deeper." At the same time, you brought your palms down from the level of your chest to the level of your waist.

Several times during the afternoon you asserted that transforming the dead-end "mess" we've created into a sustainable future depends on our changing our consciousness. Given our brief time together, we didn't have a chance to explore just how to generate the inclusive consciousness that peace, justice, and sustainability require.

In my own work, I name the divisive patterns of perception sustaining the "mess" as "conquest mentality." I name the holistic patterns of perception as "connection consciousness." And I suggest that the evolution from one to the other follows from a change in the locus of our awareness....

Awakening and energizing the body's center, the hara, develops the awareness that we're kin to all creation. It awakens our capacity to see with that "something deeper."

Informed by the consciousness alive in our body's core, we can look at the photo of Earth from space and see the sacred home that we share with each other and all of life.

continued...