I spent the evening listening to a free talk by Jean Houston. She is a scholar, philosopher and a researcher in Human Capacities, one of the foremost visionary thinkers and doers of our time. She is a principal founder of the Human Potential Movement. She is an extraordinary living teacher.
"I believe that we are stewards of a time that is upon us - but often we need the encouragement of each other to be able to wake up to this extraordinary time and possibility." ~ Jean Houston
My life story began as a baby just like yours did. I was hurt, I suffered, was violated, disappointed, angry, vengeful, jealous, guilty, pathetic, vulnerable and gullible. That’s the short list. People hurt me. I hurt people. I learned something from every experience. Every moment contributed to how I define myself today. It is up to me what I focus on. Do I focus on the day I stole merchandise from a store and condemn myself for being a complete loser or do I see the learning in the experience and let it go? What memory am I holding on to and what’s the payoff for believing my old story?
Do I adopt my father’s bigoted mindset and value my self-worth as he did or do I recognize he was a wounded man who abandoned his heart? What is my truth?
I am a steward of myself. I look after me. I define my needs based on my beliefs. I was not able to do this as a child because I was a child, and I sure learned about respect and thereby adopted strong tenets as an adult.
My ancestors did the best they could with what they knew. My father did not meet my needs. The lack of respect I experienced defines my strong desire to respect. This strong desire ignites my passion to demand respect for all beings, both two-legged and four-legged.
"Your brain has one function-to do exactly what you tell it to do." ~ Jean Houston
I’ve created this meditation community as a steward of this world. You have joined in this meditation community as a steward of this world. We are living in intense times where change happens quickly.
Define who you are based on the desires of your heart.
Train your mind to be your advocate. Believe you can.
Be patient. Be a teacher and be the student.
Jean Houston says:
“We can hunker down in fear, or look for the opportunity to care, each in our own way. Our kindness is a light. The more we extend it, the brighter it becomes and the more darkness we illuminate. We can give without any expectations until goodness flows from our depths, presents new possibilities, and expands our sense of purpose.”
“So my dear friend, I invite you to create a new virus of caring, of a nobility of our humanity that becomes even more contagious than the one dancing in the headlines.”
“This is our time. We can choose to surrender to fear or we can show the world what it means to be thoughtful, to be generous, and to be proactive in helping friends or strangers alike. Perhaps this is an initiation of sorts in which we are invited to step into a new experience of our interdependence and empathy.”
Participants’ Reflections:
Listening to Jean Houston last night was so powerful. She kept talking about the Higher Self and connecting to the Higher Self and letting our Higher Self grow. The third one was about our mythic self. She said we are the ‘mything link’. I just love when I open myself up to my higher purpose and Higher Self and Mythic Self. I get so many ideas in that space, it just opens me up. When I remember to do it, it’s powerful. But hard. I think it was Leo Tolstoy who wrote it’s hard to think creatively when you have to change the baby’s diapers. Life gets in the way. But it makes a difference when we do connect to our Higher Self.
We subscribe to Jean Houston’s newsletter. She is all over Youtube. She’s written numerous books. She worked with Mother Theresa,. and she was friends with Margaret Mead, Joseph Campbell. She’s in her 80s; she looks 50.
I was especially moved by the words the ‘nobility of our humanity.’ I thought about nobility and how we don’t use those terms very often. Coming off the debate last night, I was reflecting on what is nobility. It is value, respect, commitment, loyalty. It dawned on me during the meditation that a return to that could resolve where we are on each extreme of the spectrum. Because people of color did not have that respect. The people I believe who voted for the current president years ago did not feel they had a sense of nobility and that’s why perhaps they were attracted to the appeal and the magnetism of this man in an effort to be valued once again. Those words, a return to the nobility of our humanity and our heart-center made me realize that is what rests at the source of our new future if we could step back into that. I’m a huge Jean Houston fan and I haven’t listened to her in a while, so thank you for that.
I think where we are with the climate is included in that as well, because if we hold the nobility of our humanity, we treat everything around us, including the climate, with that heart.
The word that jumped out at me this morning was stewardship. We are stewards of the time that we are alive. We are stewards of ourselves. For the care of ourselves and the care of others, especially at this time. It begins with us and resonates out from that. Thank you for putting that out there this morning.
I’m fascinated with stewardship because all of a sudden, I’m doing a lot of things I want to do but what I realized was missing was me. I’m not taking time to be a steward of myself. This morning’s meditation is helpful. The other thing, about people being stewards for others, I went for a walk in the woods and a couple of miles in, I came across a huge labyrinth. I was with two other people, and one walked it very quickly and felt dizzy. I’m thinking, that’s not the purpose of a labyrinth. What a labor of love for someone to lay out all these stones, this intricate labyrinth patten with an infinity sign in the middle. Some people are stewards of themselves. You have to be a steward of yourself in order to be a steward of others. It was a sign of stewardship of the environment and of others.
I wanted to follow on nobility, because it’s a word I like a lot. I know there is the older meaning of being noble with people of a certain class who didn’t get involved in the grubbiness of life. They didn’t work, they didn’t have jobs, no businesses. They were above it all. I translate that into trying to hold myself with head high and mind clear above the grubbiness of my ego and impulses, not get sucked into the ugliness of life. I’m also realizing that in Buddhism, it’s the Four Noble Truths which help you to rise and embrace your heart.
Thank you for spending time with me for You, for honoring your sacredness and your nobility and your path. I wish you all a peaceful day.