As the tide of the political season washes over us, once again the Swami has some wise words in the Aiki spirit. Enjoy! Participate!

The Transpartisan Up-Wising: Americans Are Waking Up, Left and Right

"It's time for the red tribe and blue tribe to sit in council together, and talk until they are purple in the face."

-- Swami Beyondananda

Dear Friends and Co-Hearts:

If you've been reading my stuff recently, you know that a recurring theme is that if we the people truly want to empower the Golden Rule to overrule the rule of gold, we need to leave the safe harbors of left and right, come front and center, face the music and dance together.

While we don't know the outcome of the upcoming elections, we can safely predict that they will not resolve very much. The two sides will remain bitterly divided, and the corporatocracy will remain in power. Epithets will fly, and fear and anger will obscure the obvious truth: As long as we the people remain divided, we will remain conquered.

However, there is good news! There is a grassroots evolutionary up-wising, an awakening awareness that the only way to "overgrow" the current system is for we the people to shift our focus from the diversionary media sideshow and gather together around the virtues and values that unite us.

A while back, my mission for these times came to me. I am to be a healer of the body politic. My work with Bruce Lipton writing Spontaneous Evolution gave me a powerful foundation in science and spirit for a truly new story. Now, I am involved with another writing partnership to bring the evolutionary conversation to the political domain.

A little more than two years ago, I met Joseph McCormick and found a political kindred spirit. Interestingly, our political backgrounds couldn't be more different. I grew up in a liberal household in New York, was active in the new left, and have always considered myself a progressive. Joseph grew up in a conservative Catholic family, attended Virginia Military Institute, was an Army Ranger, an activist in the Christian Coalition, and a Republican candidate for Congress.

From our separate "tribes," Joseph and I have come to a very similar understanding: It's time for us to identify the functional aspects of "progressive" and "conservative," and create a "whole-brained" body politic that is mature enough and wise enough to evolve the mission of America's Founders. This is already happening, as Transpartisan groups are springing up everywhere. In Seattle, for example, Greens and Libertarians, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, conservatives and progressives, are sitting in council and emerging as the new "cells" in the body politic.

Joseph is a healer of the body politic in his own right, and has a track record of bringing together diverse organizations and individuals, from MoveOn.org to Christian Coalition, from Al Gore to Grover Norquist. (You can read more about Joseph, myself and our project below.)

Together, we are collaborating on a book called The Transpartisan Upwising: A Grassroots Evolution. Interweaving our diverse backgrounds and perspectives, bringing Joseph's practical experience and my humor, we intend to create an entirely new political conversation in America. You can read more about it here: http://transpartisan.us/

If you too are fed up with the divisiveness, with a corporate media that offers far more heat than light, and if you're ready to stop the lamenting and complaining and empower a healthy body politic, we hope you join the conversation. As we write the book, we will be each blogging regularly to offer a transpartisan perspective on current events, and we will be reporting and commenting on signs of the upwising.

Neither the progressive nor the conservative tribes as they are currently constituted have the power to unite Americans so that we are powerful enough to counterbalance the abuses of the corporate state. Together, however, we can build a healthy body politic through heartful communication, respectful listening, and by discovering the truth together rather relying on "pre-packaged" beliefs.

Steve Bhaerman

Again, go here to learn more. http://transpartisan.us/

Practicing Peace in Difficult Times

I recently reconnected with Pema Chodron's "Practicing Peace in Times of War," a profound book whose 100 pages are filled with power, presence, and wisdom. Reading it again was a centering experience and powerful reminder on how to achieve peace within.

This post highlights excerpts of Pema Chodron's message:

So war and peace start in the human heart. Whether that heart is open or whether that heart closes has global implications.

So when you're like a keg of dynamite just about to go off, patience means just slowing down at that point--just pausing--instead of immediately acting on your usual, habitual response. You refrain from acting...and connect with the soft spot. But at the same time you are completely and totally honest with yourself about what you are feeling. You're not suppressing anything; patience has nothing to do with suppression. In fact, it has everything to do with a gentle, honest relationship with yourself.

You have a choice whether to open or close, whether to hold on or to let go, whether to harden or soften.... That choice is presented to you again and again and again.

So the next time you feel yourself getting hooked, see if you can catch it. Can you feel yourself tightening? ... Then pause and breathe with that unsettling energy.

If you want there to be peace--anything from peace of mind to peace on earth--here is the condensed instruction: stay with the initial tightening and don't spin off. Keep it simple.

When you open yourself to the continually changing, impermanent, dynamic nature of your own being and of reality, you increase your capacity to love and care about other people and your capacity to not be afraid.... And you begin to think of your life as offering endless opportunities to start to do things differently, endless opportunities to dissolve the seeds of war where they originate--in the hearts and minds of individuals like you and me.

Practicing peace begins with catching myself before I revert to unconscious habits; then honoring and being patient with my own inner opponents. As Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido, said: "Opponents confront us continually, but actually there is no opponent there."

Presence is key.

Good ki!
Judy Ringer

The Friendly Skies: Regaining Perspective

Friend and colleague Ashley Davis Bush shares a personal story about regaining perspective in "Friendly Skies."

I hope your day is bright and full of ki. If things aren't going so well, regain perspective with a centering breath. And look around for one thing to be grateful for.

Good ki!
Judy R.

A Different Take on "Shoulds"

My colleague, Larry Barkin, and I communicate through our newsletters. He lives in Arizona (I'm in NH), and while we've never met and Larry doesn't practice Aikido, his thinking on conflict and communication reflects my own and sometimes gives me a new way to look at things.

Earlier this month, I enjoyed reading his unique take on why we "should" Listen to Those Who "Should" You.

In my experience, "shoulds" are part of a "right/wrong" paradigm (which is why we often reject others' "shoulds"). For example, I might say to myself, "I should have this conversation." Yet whether the conversation is a good idea depends on how purposeful I am in my communication. Or, "You should not speak until you've had a chance to think," which is probably appropriate advice in most circumstances. And there are times when it might be useful to speak up immediately -- when your safety or another's is in jeopardy, for instance.

In general, I use the word "should" rarely, and with awareness.

That said, what I appreciated about Larry's article was his writing about how we come to our beliefs through acculturation and habit, and that if we'd been brought up differently, we would have different beliefs. So doesn't it make sense to at least listen to those who have backgrounds unlike ours and therefore have information we do not. In my teaching, I often talk about the "other planets" people come from. If someone offered us a view of another planet, wouldn't we be interested?

Here's a quotation from Larry's article:

Who "they" are, in fact, are people who have different beliefs and, therefore, may be giving us the exact advice that will transform our lives if we will only listen.

You can read the entire article here.

So thanks, Larry, for the alternate view of "shoulds." We "should" all practice the art of listening and learning from each other more often.

With Ki!

Judy R.

New Website and Blog

Just wanted everyone to know that I now have a website that shares my art quilts. I also have started a blog entitled, Explorations in Quilting and Life that will focus upon my artwork. I still will be contributing here as well. Hope that you will check my new sites out some time.

Judy Warner