"No Sweet Fruit Comes From a Bitter Seed"

Arriving in the Philippines, I found April was really hot. However at every corner the genuine friendliness and openness of the Filipino made me forget the muggy heat. I had come for the first time to this country on invitation to speak on "A Resilient Mind" and "Karma," topics that seemed of great interest as there were roughly about 500 people at each gathering. I was rather surprised that the Karma topic would arouse such a response as the Philippines is unique for being a Christian country in Asia and also very Catholic.

As you interact with the people you feel their innate spirituality , a very caring and kind disposition which is probably why so many are attracted to work in nursing ,medicine and why so many are passionate about issues of social justice. On the other hand I quickly started to hear many bitter complaints about the rife corruption in the government, both past and present.

This made me wonder why in religious countries such as India, Italy, Greece, the Philippines there is such unlimited corruption and nepotism. A religious tradition has very clear codes of conduct based on compassion and honesty then why, especially in these places, such an incoherence of talk and walk?

In Greece, the supposed home of democracy, there is an exclusive approach in their political, religious and societal systems that actively combats the idea of equality and inclusivity. For example, if one is not Orthodox one is called a heretic! Compassion and tolerance are highly respected values in India and yet, in spite of legislation, social castes and gender discrimination still persist, such as the abortion of unwanted female fetuses. In Italy with its ancient tradition of Christianity the corruption and license of many of its leaders is taken as the norm and they so often can circumnavigate any law with marvelous dexterity!

Do they think that they already know enough so there is no need to self-examine? Believing and the actual living are often worlds apart. Why this forgetfulness to practice their cherished ideals and ideas which they talk about and even worship? Codes are there but it seems they are interpreted to suit certain agendas or conveniently ignored until a desperate need for a divine favor sends them scurrying to a church or temple. Do they really believe that an opportune faith is viable? What's missing?

In the Philippines the innate characteristics of care and spiritual values have become somewhat invisible in the class-conscious elite. Here, as in many countries, there is a political, social and religious nepotism operating which demands compliance as a prerequisite for acceptance and social advancement. There is an insatiable greed that ignores the plight of over 70 percent of the people who are at or below the poverty line. Once they categorically blamed the Spanish, later the Americans but now their own people, who are in power, are equally as insular. Human nature is human nature no matter the nationality or epoch! All things can emerge from anyone according to character and disposition. It appears that fundamentally, it's neither a matter of religion nor left or right politics nor social position but equitable conditions mainly depend on the character and value systems of individuals and collectives.

I spoke to two Filipino activists, both passionate about what they did concerning the injustice of the system. I write "did" because these two women who are sisters, are both ill with cancer and have moved away from activism. Both realized that their pent up, systematic fury and animosity had somehow contributed to their condition. Both seemed very strong willed and not just committed but consecrated to their ideals of social justice. With a humble insight they conceded how their frenzied ardor had had to be moderated as the intensity of it made them sick both mentally and physically.

The word "passion" carries with it the idea of intense wanting or craving and any intense desire sooner or later creates an imbalance and inevitable suffering. Actually anything obsessive creates incongruous behavior. For example, an immense desire for peace and justice but using anger and animosity as methods to achieve it. It's a contradiction in terms to say we fight for peace! The sisters had realized that by aligning themselves to deeper spiritual values and more peaceful approaches a noble cause needs neither tirade nor antipathy to propel it.

Sometimes sickness can make us stop and rethink the reason of our existence and why we are doing what we are doing. The sisters were open minded enough to experiment with alternative attitudes and behavior. In fact a change of method and attitude contributed to the cure of one of them and the other, together with her physical therapy, is also on a course of attitudinal therapy and is seeing the improvement physically and mentally.

No matter the excuse bitter feelings and pent up enmity creates a detrimental energy in mind and body that sabotage the self . Actually at the talk on "Karma", a term which people use but do not really understand so well, the ideas of punishment and "just deserts" were clarified. In the Philippines as well as in India the word is used a lot and it is understood as deserved sorrow and destined suffering, an idea that possibly helps perpetuate certain social and mental systems that inhibit personal progress.

They were surprised to understand another perspective about karma, that it is not to do with retaliation or punishment but it is an attempt by the universe to regain its balance and return to its natural state of harmony and order. To regain balance, to repay a negative debt a spiritual value or attitude is used such as respect, acceptance, forgiveness. This action reverses or dissolves all negative consequences. For if negative attitudes and actions such as vindictiveness and rancor are used the issue may be suppressed but never solved. It will go underground, lay dormant and later on erupt again. When antagonistic attitudes are used rather than compassionate ones then cycles of violence keep reappearing from time to time between and within people and nations.

To clear a negative debt a positive input is necessary. To give the opposite of what you are receiving creates the balance: when there is anger and insult to remain in my peaceful self-respect, whilst others may be dishonest to maintain my integrity, where there is blame and accusation to harmonize and reconcile. Of course, easier said than done! It takes great inner strength to achieve this practically. Such strength comes when we make a daily journey to the self and the Divine .This journey of daily silence repositions our understanding and perspective so that we can we can tune into the necessity of the moment.

Rebalancing into well-being depends on realizing that I always have a choice, no matter the circumstances. I may not be able to change the circumstances but I can change the attitude with which I respond to the person, circumstance or relationship. There is always a choice. I always have that freedom. The choice I make carries its consequence and since I choose I am responsible for that consequence. Many times we react impulsively, without reflection and new perspective then the same problems or pain keep repeating in individual and collective life. The seed of positive change depends on realizing that I have always the freedom to choose a new way to think and act. Situations change when the seed of choice changes.

Inner silence and awareness can always reverse a pattern. The human spirit has great capacity for transformation and improvement of life, patterns are reversible but one has to choose. Even God cannot choose for me, God can greatly facilitate a favorable result but my choice and consequent destiny are in my hands. We have that freedom always. Everything is possible at every moment. Whilst sharing these insights that I had learned from my meditation teachers it seemed the audience realized that their freedom is always in them no matter the external bondages.

And speaking of freedom I remembered being told whilst in Manila about the great liberator hero of the country Jose Rizal, whose wise brilliance stimulated the revolution against the Spanish about 110 years beforehand. Rizal knew many languages, traveled to and lived in various countries in Europe, practiced as a doctor and was also a poet and writer. He was the Filipino Gandhi.

He was spiritual and intelligent, not essentially a political person but someone who deeply wished a better and just condition for his country. He wished to achieve reform peacefully; he was not an armed revolutionary. He stated:

"We want the happiness of the Philippines but we want to obtain it through noble and just means. If I have to commit villainy to make her happy, I would refuse to do because I am sure that what is built on sand sooner or later would tumble down".

His writings are treasure stores of wisdom. His books, "Social Cancer" and "The Reign of Greed", from which I have read extracts, indirectly fueled the revolution against the Spanish tyranny and stimulated the movement for freedom. Although the revolution succeeded in ousting the Spanish administration it was replaced by the more moderate but still intrusive American army. And this time there was no Rizal to inspire plus the people were possibly too tired to resist again another intruder.

In 1498 the Filipinos had the strength to resist Ferdinand Magellan, who was actually killed in battle against the native people led by the famous hero Lapu-Lapu. He was the first known Filipino to resist Spanish colonization and Rizal was the last. They both used different means to achieve their aims. Lapu-Lapu's efforts, although commendable and honored today, did not actually succeed because the Spanish came and ruled for about 400 years. Rizal's methods eventually won as the people inspired by his wisdom and vision energized themselves into action. Of course it was another time and different methods were needed.

Both are remembered and are commemorated in Rizal park in the heart of Manila. Lapu-Lapu's statue, sometimes called the Sentinel of Freedom, symbolizes the independence that was eventually won not with the overthrow of the Spanish but with the withdrawal of the Americans in 1946. That united effort for freedom and justice had to be re-emerged when Marcos, a Filipino, neither a Spaniard nor an American, had to be overthrown in 1986. Tyranny is a state of being; it's not especially linked to foreigners or particular nationalities, classes. What a person is, is what a person does.

Scapegoats are always found but all hostile situations are best solved it seems when both victim and the oppressor are made aware of their shortcomings. The victims need to stimulate their self-value and sustain it and the oppressor has to be educated and directed to accept the right of the other to exist. If the oppressor is treated brutally their immediate violence may stop but will at some time reappear even if a decade or century later. As we stated earlier cycles of violence keep turning and returning over time. Oppressors can be anyone or any group who are cut off from the roots of their humaneness. Surprisingly, victims, once in power, can also become oppressors which invariably happen when the use of violence is justified as a means to be liberated. The French and Bolshevik Revolutions are good examples of this. Gandhi and others like him totally rejected the idea of justified violence. He was aware of the far-reaching consequences of such actions.

There cannot be justice without forgiveness. There cannot be real change without enlightened choice. Hate never changes anyone or anything. These are amongst the principles for creating a just, harmonious society.

As Rizal said:

"No good water comes from a muddy spring,

No sweet fruit comes from a bitter seed".

He believed that true reform is from within: a change in attitude and values and this is the root of the social, nonviolent action to change systems such as education, public administration and inspiring the people not to accept the brutality of the oppressors but at the same time not using brutality to get rid of brutality.

The People Power Revolution of 1986, clear and very determined, used the great power of nonviolence to overthrow the tyranny and restore democracy. To a great extent it did, however there are still complaints that democracy is not and has never been fully restored because, as always, power remains in the hands of an exclusive oligarchy. Everywhere it seems we keep returning to the same position: there is a positive turn in a direction but with time ingrained personality patterns return triggering the same ambitions and the same injustices.

Is this karma? Possibly yes. However the individual always has the freedom to choose and, at least, on a personal level reverse things. The power of the individual is always paramount: very often a role model is the catalyst for creative change but the main challenge seems to be to sustain such change.

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An Homage to Heroes

This blog will neither be about environmental policies, nor political/social issues regarding ecology. This not a watchdog blog to monitor but it is just a blog to say a great thank you, to express gratefulness to the green heroes of our planet, who silently and gallantly do their duty in the world's forests but more so in millions of cities, towns and their parks. The heroes who are the lungs of Humanity, whose existence facilitates our own.

On my Emirates flight to India I had a stop at Dubai airport and would have to wait six hours. What would I do with so many hours? As I was pondering and walking I suddenly had a vision, or was it a mirage? Is it possible to have a vision at an airport? There they were: about six meters tall, four or five of them, regal, sapphire green arms outstretched into the terminal of foraging passengers. Beside them was a shallow, large pool of diamond clear water. Around it shrubs and plants and I thought I even heard some birds. It was an emerald oasis in this steel aviary that receives so many beautifully painted iron birds whose graceful but noisy landings and launchings could be seen and sometimes heard.

Soon I realized it was not a vision but a reality. Trees can grow anywhere but it was so unexpected to find them here of all places. Does a shy Dryad live here secretly and tend to them? Near the water were clusters of moonlight-colored peace lilies, whose bright-white faces took me beyond the plastic, cement and steel. Peering at these airport trees I was inspired to write and sat comfortably opposite them entranced by their jade luminosity against the backdrop of bustling shops and people. The six hours would pass quickly. I cannot write odes like Keats or Shelley but at least I can honor the trees' distinctiveness of being.

These towering heroes have often been taken for granted. Here in this airport they are protected but so often their bodies are cut down, chopped up and burnt to make way for villas, highways, resorts, dams and other types of "human progress." Always they surrender stoically to their fate. Their bodies are daily offered to comfort and sustain humankind. I bow to their sacrifice. Will anyone give you any awards or medals like they do to human heroes? Has anyone thought of it?

Gazing at these out of place trees, I recall, after a hectic week in the city, talking walks in the tranquil eucalyptus forest near my home in Sydney. I felt what Robert Louis Stevenson once wrote:

"It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's heart, as for the subtle something, that quality of air that emanates from the old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit."

After one long flight and waiting for the next my weary spirit and I must say, weary body, felt rejuvenated simply by being near to these lanterns of jade foliage.

I utter a "thank God" for the proliferation of the internet as it has saved so many precious green lives. The mania for news and its global distribution is now mainly on the Internet so their heroic hearts and bodies are no longer pulverized into paper coffins, read for an hour then callously disposed of.

Trees are amongst the beings I know that are unconditionally generous. Take an apple seed: you plant it, it grows and soon produces apples upon apples; for years and years one tree produces thousands upon thousands of apples. Each apple has many seeds which have the potential for other trees; unlimited potentials every year. One seed does not just produce one apple does it? Trees have no idea of measurement, calculation and its consequent stinginess as we humans do. Mother Nature does not have "an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" mentality, which is most fortune for us otherwise we would all starve to death! Abundance and a democratic sustenance is this Mother's religion; what a relief she follows no man-made one.

Last year outside my house in Athens I had the grisly experience of finding the neighborhood's majestic, ancient carob tree guillotined. Indignant, I rang the council about the insensitivity of such a brutal act.

"Athens has such a problem in not having enough clean oxygen and you cut down one of its prime producers!" I declared.

The civil service employee told me the occupants of the apartment building complained its branches interfered with their external air conditioning apparatus. I was lost for words because I could not understand his or their logic. Though I was clear about the carnage of the event, although we argued, nothing moved the council man. To stop myself either screaming or crying I found solace in William Blake's words:

"The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way."

In that moment I wrote my own poem. Writing poetry is like a meditation when wishing to ease tension and stop the self from erupting into negative outbursts that really get one nowhere. I reflected on the meaning of tyranny:

"Tyranny in Athens"

Mutilation... castration

And the accusation:

"Murder. Murder!

Why this senseless

maiming and chopping,

slashing and lopping?"

The dead lay

spread to dry.

It's easier, they say

to drag their parts away.

Today another green head

is guillotined,

simply because it's there,

obviously because it blocks the way,

irrefutably because it clutters the air,

and, unequivocally,

green does not go with grey!

Athens once opened the eyes of others

Now solidly has sealed her own!

A selfish heart cannot be wise

for it blindly lusts the "More."

Its brainless tongue wages

trivial, verbal war

in this monoxide kingdom of rage and gore."

Whilst writing this I gradually calmed down and in the heart of the calm found the trust to believe in the benevolence of the universe. So it came to pass, as it is said, that within a few months tiny, peridot heads appeared everywhere on the trunk. Its resilience was astounding and its magnanimous breath is once again serving its mutilators, who look out of their apartment windows and marvel at its strength, hopefully not calculating another necessary execution!

Once again, another example of green heroism that cannot be appraised by any accolade.

Anyway, back to my Dubai oasis where I muse on the wonders of these heroes and gradually a list emerges of all their merits.

Now here's my list of their bountiful offerings to humanity. Once trees were used a great deal for almost everything. In the last 100 years with the advent of technology other materials have been substituted but still so much of their altruism is in our lives. However I will include all that they have given and give, whether past or present. Here goes:

1. Above all things, we thank thee Tree for our daily breath.
2. Light and heat with the fire made from their bodies.
3. Food: oil, fruits, nuts, honey, maple syrup and chocolate.
4. Buckets, barrels, boxes, baskets and caskets.
5. Plates, spoons, canoes, looms, rooms and brooms.
6. Ships, boats, trains, frames, shacks and tracks
7. Walls, doors, floors, drawers, see-saws, beds, sheds, chairs, tables, ceilings, cupboards, billboards, roofs and booths.
8. Benches, fences, rafts, vats, mats, carts, masts, poles and bowls.
9. Home for bees, birds bugs, bats and koala bears.
10. Bridges, towers, corks, forts, bows, arrows, barrows, batons, chariots and clubs.
11. Quills, mills, sills, pencils and wheels
12. Cloth, clothes, shoes, soap and rope
13. Papers, posters, letters, stamps, books, crooks, mags and maps... once could a journalist/writer accomplish their task without using the body of a tree or plant?
14. Guitars, sitars, flutes, lutes, cellos, pianos, violins and mandolins.
15. Climbing, cubby house, solitude, shade, palisade, Christmas celebration and meditation.
16. Could Noah, Odysseus, Columbus, Raleigh, Nelson have done anything without them? Fleets of their bodies have floated on seas and lakes for centuries to conquer, trade, colonize, explore, travel and simply cruise.
17. The Trojan Horse: a wooden trick of a gift that won a war.
18. The Delphic oracle advised Athens to use "wooden walls" to defeat the powerful Persian Xerxes. The wooden ships conquered the massive Persian fleet. So the Athenians won, otherwise the West would have had a totally different story, so the historians tell us.
19. Myths about trees: Osiris, Athena, Medeina, Pomona, Drumantia, Aranyani, Abellio, Ghillie Dhu, Daphne, the Meliai and many others.

So you can see the unpretentious heroes' great achievements without whom the human race could not have aspired, accomplished nor survived and I am sure there must be other things created by our heroes not on this list.

Standing mindful in their silence they never forget to bestow and in our silence we can never forget to revere these humane alchemists of the planet. Boarding the plane to India I recalled a quote from Gandhi:

"What we are doing to the forests of the whole world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another."

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The Call of Silence

It is early April, early morning and the curling mist fills the valley below Assisi. The only things I hear are the birds and the bells which chirrup and chime in turn. Otherwise a silence embraces the dawn lit city. A silence that has existed, I am sure, in Assisi during the time of Francis and Clare.

As I gaze outside my room there are two tall pine trees totally occupied with Francis' chattering sisters, to whom he once said: "little sisters, if you have now had your say, it is time that I should also be heard.' It is said after these words they became silent and listened to him. However at the moment the birds are still chattering away obviously happy to feel the sun's topaz light aureole their tiny heads and glow,like golden hosts, onto their open melodious tongues. For a moment it looks like a new painting by the great master Giotto, who is well known in this city.

Beyond our sisters' voices there is a vast calm, an infinite feeling of quietness. Just to be here, away from the mind's rampart scurrying and scampering is heaven. The mind has been trained to be relentless for facts, believing that intellectual acrobatics and a plethora of facts define truth. In fact I find the opposite. Too much thinking, too much talking, takes us very far from the truth of things but even more so, from our inner peace. Prove, catalogue, plan, classify, validate, theorize, analyze, scrutinize, judge, demonstrate, interpret....."STOP!" I have often screeched. How about a break?

Everyone has an opinion about everything. Now, with all these crises everywhere, an ocean of opinions on the whats, the whys, the hows have created a flood of repetitive facts. Read any newspaper, watch any television program, browse the internet. The flood rises as everyone claims justice, blaming real or imagined culprits and it just goes on and on , higher and higher.

It seems that in the 21st century we have precipitated ourselves into an abyss of extremes. Over informed and over opinioned, people often do not halt the consumption of information. It's healthier to find a middle way: to know when to think and when not to, when to speak and when to keep quiet, when to step in and when to step out, when to make things happen and when to allow things to happen, when to be extrovert and when to be introvert. The realities of life can be found also through a complementary silence in one's self. When we cool down, when we can listen, when we can tune into the other then we can speak from a space of insight otherwise it is just a cacophony of emotive, often prejudiced ramblings.

So I came to Assisi just to stop: to be quiet, to contemplate the flow of things. I remember Plato's words: "I am trying to think, don't confuse me with facts." True reflection does need a distance from the barrage of facts!

Even the great thinkers like Plato needed to take time out. Silence, the slowing down of one's self, creates a space of quietness within, which in turns creates clarity of understanding. Silence refreshes and rejuvenates the mind, whose habitual appetite for noise, news and diversion has created an addiction to everything external. We are the creators of our stress, our crises and breakdowns because we have forgotten to stop, reflect and renew. We clearly understand the obvious need to recharge our mobiles but what about our minds? To experience inner quietness is as important as expressing ourselves. Without recharging ourselves we cannot function, we cannot communicate with life. Actually this inner calm gives perspective and a balanced perception to the myriad details and negative things we are daily bombarded with. Inner silence filters everything that comes to us from the outside.

Creating a space for silence is crucial for meaningful living. Taking time out to be silent is a necessity. To stop, to step back and be still gives fresh oxygen to the mind. It is like a car. We buy a car because we wish to move. To go from one place to another but we would never buy a car that did not have a brake because no matter how far or well the car moves it must also be able to stop. Our life is for expression and interaction but we also have to stop from time to time and reflect on our motives, our judgments, our movements. To stop means to observe and see where the traffic in my heart and mind are going, otherwise habit obliterates the truth of things and my clarity and peace disappear. So Assisi was a place where I could brake and stop as I had often done on a mountain top in India.

Enjoying the tranquil hills of Umbria I could forget the clamor, clatter, push and rush of the cities I usually find myself in and experience the serenity and beauty of nature, which activated my own inner tranquility.

Francis created his spiritual gentle revolution by first getting close to nature and tuning in to her serenity and principles. He provided an alternative to a legalistic, theologically congested church which had forgotten the simplicity of its own original spirit. His experience of the Divine had reminded him of a Universal Benevolence, which he felt was reflected in the interconnectedness of life not only of humanity but also of humanity with animals, nature and her elements. It became his task to remind others of this divine love and intrinsic interconnectedness. No wonder he is regarded as the Green Saint,the patron of animals and the environment.

At his hermitage just outside Assisi I saw a bronze statue of him lying on the ground and two companion monks with their circled fingers held up to the sky measuring something. It is said that Francis loved to gaze up at the bright Polar Star and his companions were trying to measure certain aspects of that star. The earth and sky were also his companions.

Francis learned to be realistic as well as spiritual for he stated: "Start by doing what is necessary, and then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible."

To make the impossible possible is a sign of real spirituality, to achieve what others cannot dream of. What others may call crazy or unrealistic but is accomplished by an individual step by step is a kind of sanctity: an integrity of spirit

Francis once said:

"Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society."

"Sanctify" is not just a religious term he is using but it is his deeply felt sense of wholeness and oneness with nature and humanity and unlimited trust in the Divine. To achieve this sanctity he realized that he and his spiritual companions had to absolutely let go of selfish possessiveness and the greed of being. The respect we give to that interconnectedness of life and to life's resources is an answer to the wars and crisis we see around us today and what he himself had experienced in medieval Italy. He was so shocked by war's brutality and violence that he broke down and had to reposition himself, his purpose and his code of being. This breakdown is vividly represented outside the Basilica of St Francis where a statue of him on a horse captures his sense of utter desolation and disillusionment as both horse and man limp back from the war.

So in his hermitage away from his task of rejuvenating Christianity, traveling over Italy and to countries such as Egypt, Corfu, Syria , aligning himself with the poor and sick, Francis found the time to gaze at the stars, mountain, flowers ,water and trees. He also spent time talking to the animals and to his brother sun and sister moon. Giotto captures all of this in the paintings which decorate the basilica of Francis where we spent Good Thursday early morning in meditation. A small group of us, who had especially come for a two day dialogue, shared a collective silence for about one hour. Two days earlier a small group of Buddhists, nuns, yogis, Platonists, Christian meditators had actually come together to discuss the creative and healing power of contemplation as a contribution to today's crises.

Certainly our group felt that inner silence was a crucial start for newness in thought and action. Greece came up as an example of crisis and our Platonist friend from Germany perceptively stated that the crises has first started in Greece because that is the heart of western culture and all western culture , to a smaller or greater degree is suffering from the same malaise. So Greece as the parent receives the first blow of the Western collapse. He went on to say that where the crisis is also exists the solution. The roots of heritage hold the antidote to the poison.

The American coordinator of our Contemplative Alliance stated that now it appears to be the time that spiritual principles need to be valued and applied for social transformation. Thought, word and understanding are necessary but also action. So thinkers do not just keep on thinking, speakers do not just keep on speaking, analysts do not just keep on analyzing but also act. Action that can be effective when a contemplative empowering has happened individually and collectively to change the anachronistic routes of thoughts and behavior. Without that inner transformation then the same consciousness keeps repeating the same mistakes. The wheel keeps turning in on itself and there is no exit. All innovation began and was sustained by a transformation in consciousness. To act from a space of transformative silence facilitates the application of spiritual principles into social living. Otherwise either we rehash decrepit formulas or become too complacent. As Plato said:

"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-strano/the-call-of-silence_b_1414299.html

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Free or Not to Be? That's the Battle

Arriving in Tahrir square I was expecting it to look like Syntagma Square in Athens but the Egyptian Square was far more dilapidated, devastated and showing far greater signs of wear and tear than its Greek equivalent. Both uprisings were tenacious but the Egyptian one was certainly more ferocious -- although some quarters are predicting that an equally ferocious uprising is expected in Greece.

With tanks, horses, camels and guns that killed hundreds and injured thousands the Arab Spring in Egypt has been a bloody one. Does Europe have its Spring also? Is it more of an economic one which has begun in Greece and has also emerged in Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain ? A break-up of political, social, as well as economic, systems that do not operate justly and transparently, is being evidenced in both Europe and the Middle East, triggered by different reasons but fundamentally the same reason: indifference to and ignoring the plight of fellow citizens. This insensitivity to others' needs has always been a characteristic blindness of the human species, no matter the constitutions they have had, and nearly always some kind of revolt was needed to redress the situation. The revolt may have been violent or not depending on the issues and people instigating it.

Tahrir Square is known for its demonstrations: in 1919, in 1952, the bread riots in 1977 and now 25 January 2011 and onward. Tahrir means Liberation. Every country on the globe has a day, a square, a bridge, a song or a statue commemorated to freedom. Freedom is a deeply cherished instinct within the human spirit. To revolt against oppressive forces which violate that natural freedom has often been seen as a necessity when no other alternative has worked.

In Tahrir Square the statue of Omar Makram looms in front of the Mogamma building, a bleak administrative government office, which often closed when rioting reached its peak. Omar Makram recalls Egypt's resistance to Napoleon, another autocrat bent on domineering ownership. The Mogamma is an ugly, communist-looking building which was a gift by the Soviets who tried to manipulate a footing in Nasser's Egypt. However the Egyptians were wary of the Soviets bearing gifts. And they, luckily, did look the gift horse in the mouth and realized the trap. Unfortunately, selfless generosity is not a characteristic of most human-made systems, especially politics.

The huge, shapeless grey horse houses the Tax Evasion Investigations Office. However it begs the question whom did they actually investigate? Certainly not the elite in power. A great part of the Egyptian revolution was because of the crushing, ongoing poverty, selective biased tax collecting (a Greek echo here) and blatant nepotism (another Greek echo).

In Cairo when speaking with people, one gets different versions of the actual why, how and where things are going when describing the revolution. Like the ancient Egyptian myths, there are four or five versions of the same story. It is difficult to gauge the truth of events. Some speak of the revolution being hijacked by the army and Muslim brotherhood, who waited in the background after the youth and middle class activists had spent their focus and energy. A wall off the Square has graffiti drawings of many young men with wings honored as martyrs of the Revolution. However one thing is clear that everyone was outraged with a callous government that showed no real concern for the country's 85 million people.

The Pharaoh mentality of the deposed leaders alienated, it seems, not only the youth and middle class but also the army who allowed the revolution to evolve. However, as things were getting out of hand, it stepped in to show they were needed to quell the chaos. A brutal show of force that was simply an orchestrated game, so I am told. It seems the game is continuing as all are waiting and are asking what is the relationship of the army with the Muslim brotherhood and with the fledgling government? What will the new constitution look like? Will it be truly functional or only giving lip service to democratic demands? It is a long wait till June or July. A few protest tents remain in the square but will they keep waiting there? Most protesters have gone home. However in their homes it seems many are waiting and certainly hoping for a better, freer and just Egypt.

The battle for truth and rights has been going on for a long time in many countries and in ancient Egypt the great struggle for these values was embodied in the battle between Horus, the young rightful heir and his old, tyrannical uncle, Set. At the moment the younger, revolutionary face of Egypt has many tyrannical uncles whether from the army, the Muslim brotherhood, politicians and the hidden ones, who many say, exist in an incognito mode.

Autocracy by an individual and/or group and its accompanying reckless ambition destroys both coherence and transparency. Horus relied on his mother Isis, who in turn relied a great deal on the god Thoth, the one, who through his wisdom and honest methods was able to mediate and redress the balance between the uncle and his nephew. However, the gods like Thoth disappeared long, long ago but surprisingly even such people who could and should do such work seem to have disappeared.

Why is it that people in governing positions become so addicted to rulership that they do not care a straw about the lives of their people? It seems only through a system of checks and balances that the depravity in governance can be controlled. So the new constitution hopes to have a president who can be monitored and controlled by executive power in the newly formed Parliament. But who are the members of this upper and lower houses of Parliament? Is it made up of a variety of uncles that deceive the rightful heirs to a free and new Egypt? People are waiting for some kind of benevolence.

Speaking of rulers and authority, opposite to the Mogamma building, there is the orange colored museum of Cairo, majestic and gleaming. It houses many magnificent ancient relics of Egypt. I went in and seeing the beautiful display of the Tutankhamen rooms, the sphinxes of pharaohs such as Hatshepsut, I decided to go to the mummies room to find the mummy of Ramses II, called by his people, "The Great Ancestor." This great pharaoh immortalized himself by constructing huge statues, obelisks and monuments throughout the country. Displays of supreme authority were common in ancient Egypt but Ramses topped the list; he had about 66 years of rule to vigorously spread his fame and name and, it seems, he didn't waste a minute. Absolute rulers inevitably succumb to the ostentation syndrome. Deluded by a sense of infallibility that in time becomes their downfall, although Ramses did not seem to experience such a downfall and lived to a ripe old age. He was an exception to the rule.

Entering the room, startled by the ancient, twisted cadavers of Pharaonic mummies I felt a disrespectful intruder. To peer at their dead bodies, for which I paid 100 Egyptian pounds entry, I felt was most inappropriate. Suddenly I came face to face with Ramses who was lying stretched out flat in a glass case. Here he was: shriveled, shrunken, almost hairless, slit eyes shut, decayed teeth, withered bandaged hands suspended in the air. This had been the Great Ancestor and I remembered Shelley's poem (in Greek, Ramses was called Ozymandias):

"And on the pedestal these words:

'My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'"

Ramses is not confined to Egypt. One of the obelisks he had built is found in Paris. It originally stood in Luxor at the entrance of the temple to Amun-Ra but now stands in Place de la Concorde. In that place, which was once called Revolution Square, where the guillotine indiscriminately and cruelly meted out its violent justice to the betrayers of equality and freedom, stands this pharaoh's monument. The obelisk quite contrary to the revolution's spirit recounts the power, supremacy and the unique personal glory of the man. Justice, freedom, well-being, honor depended on his word and whim. What if he was in an off mood one morning?

Do people learn? The arrogance of self keeps rearing its head again and again abasing everything. If we can learn from history and I know it may sound like a big "IF" but if we can then we see that adverse situations require not merely political and social solutions but also spiritual, ethical ones. Learning, realizing, remaining aware, whatever we like to call it, is very often curtailed by both personal and collective amnesia. Is it that people conveniently forget? Is it that we really forget? Is that we are so caught up in the moment that consequences are not thought about -- how to hold onto the lessons of the past so that our present and future society is inclusive, just and peaceful?

The obelisk symbolized a petrified ray of light, of the Sun god, Ra. That light symbolized life and strength. I decided to visit the oldest obelisk in Egypt, in ancient Heliopolis, called On by the ancestral Egyptians. It had been the supreme cult center of Ra. The city is now in the suburb of Mataria, and has completely vanished except for a lone obelisk. In its heyday it was the greatest stronghold of priests and priestesses in all of the country.. We could call it the Vatican of ancient Egypt. It is also here in the sacred city that the famed Bennu Bird (phoenix ) came to die and be reborn from its cremation fire. This myth together with others proved lucrative to the ancient clergy as people came from far and wide on pilgrimage.

On finding the obelisk it did not seem that impressive, especially since we were not allowed within its precincts. What impressed me more was the flurry of the tiny, three-wheeler taxis, called "tuk-tuks" as they dashed and rushed around just as they do in India and Thailand. Our driver with a calm dexterity was able to maneuver herself around at least 10 possible collisions before we finally arrived.

Actually these petrified rays of sunlight are found all over the world: In Italy there are said to be 11 of them -- in the UK, in Turkey and in New York's Central Park. The one in Central Park, the twin of the one in London, originally stood in ancient Heliopolis and though built by Thutmose III, Ramses, a few hundred years later, chiseled himself and his deeds on the great pillar. Our friend Ramses could not resist!

And speaking of Central Park and America we remember the Declaration of Independence which justified the right to revolution. Its most memorable words include:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

These words have been a beacon for human rights over the decades. However many of the signatories of the Declaration at that time did not apply it unequivocally. It did not apply to most of the 'Negroes' who continued to be kept as slaves nor to the native Indians nor to women. Often ideas are accurate and true but there is a blindness that does not allow people, even the creators of those ideas, to see the reality or necessities of the situation.

Sometimes immediate political or social needs override and farsighted, inclusive applications are overlooked. Undeniably the Declaration was a great and necessary start to creating the awareness of the need to install the sanctity of the individual and his or her rights above and beyond an elitist, oppressive regime. It inspired Abraham Lincoln in his fight to abolish slavery. The spirit of that revolution became one of the inspirations for revolutions in Europe, particularly the French one. So much so that France gave the Statue of Liberty, the Roman goddess of freedom, as a gift to America about a hundred years later.

We need something more than simply political, economic or social policies; it now requires a tapping into the humaneness of being human. We can call this spiritual or ethical but it means a genuine respect for the self and others so that collective well-being is realized. Otherwise ideas and formulas, no matter how right they are in themselves, can just be beautiful words that disguise the overwhelming necessity for personal and collective transformation in the ways we think and behave.

Light is needed not as stone symbols but as a symbol of knowledge and understanding that removes our delusions, whether personal or social, whether of superiority or inadequacy.

Without a change in consciousness and an education in applied spirituality then we inevitably return to the same point... a brutal insensitivity to the needs and rights of everyone, including Mother Earth. Never to forget our humanity in spite of circumstances.

When individuals and communities create a silent, non-violent revolution inside themselves a creative change takes place. A transformation in consciousness where ego, greed and anger are recognized and conquered after which it certainly then filters into our social living.

Genuine spirituality always has a positive social impact. Applied spirituality is the great need at this moment. Spirituality is a humane concern for the inclusive benefit of others, an application of ethical values in daily life that creates a transparency, which in turn engenders trust in relationships. People from all walks of life have demonstrated this: Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa, Philothei of Athens, Francis of Assisi, Florence Nightingale, Maria Montessori and many others have shown how compassion, concern and care make a crucial difference. A difference that is emulated by posterity, a difference whose benefits are honored because they are inclusively respectful and long lasting.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-strano/free-or-not-to-be-thats-t_b_1339556.html

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Greece, Youth and the Phoenix

"The day that Youth had died,

There came to his grave-side,

In decent mourning, from the country's ends,

Those scatter'd friends

Who had lived the boon companions of his prime,

And laughed with him and sung with him and wasted,

In feast and wine and many-crown'd carouse,

The days and nights and dawnings of the time

When Youth kept open house.............' 

"The Funeral of Youth: Threnody" -- Rupert Brooke

Always it has been a sense of identity, a sense of belonging and a sense of purpose that has provided a state of self-worth and emotional balance to all people, especially those on the threshold of their lives. Greece at the moment is no different but its crisis has pushed the people, especially its young people over the threshold. Not the threshold of creating, planning and visioning for their country but to migrating... this seems to be their only alternative to better their lives, at least, for a significant number of them. Unable to find support they must fulfill their dreams elsewhere. Of course this is not new for the Greeks. Dysfunctional, parochial governance has often, in Greek history, created such conditions. At the core the problem is not really money but an absence of a genuine democratic system. A centuries-old policy of self-aggrandizement in political, religious and social systems that heavily penalizes those who do not comply has been the norm even till today.

The real crisis is and has been an existential one. People do not know how or in what way to exist contentedly. Of course, this is not peculiar to the Greeks. However, at the moment, the Greeks seem to have center stage and their frustration in terms of identity, belonging and purpose are issues for them and particularly their youth.

In Greece there has always been tumultuous fumbling in terms of survival and identity but it has now evolved into a desperation which is so clouded by fear and doubt that solutions are neither believed in nor aimed for. Youth have ideals, dreams, hopes, enthusiasm and optimism to create the best but it is clear that at the moment Hellenic youth have not been considered.

The government's frenetic frenzy to survive and to keep the country buoyant has overshadowed the great necessity to open windows for real opportunity and creativity. It is hopelessly short sighted but the inability to see long term consequences does tend to be a national characteristic. So what other alternative do the young people have except to migrate to warmer and kinder climates? The future is built on the young adults of today. If they go, Greece will go.

We are hearing about the tragic increase in suicides, strange extremes in political groupings, further strikes, and on Sunday, Feb. 12 the biggest outburst of violence and frustration in the streets of Athens were witnessed since this whole austerity and bankruptcy scenario emerged.

The scorched buildings reflect their burnt hopes and trust. Hooded and hidden, violent protesters were depicted as the young and the angry. However many see these hooded protesters as agents of either the police force or government. The truth of these often quoted assumptions cannot be verified but obviously many people believe the extreme violence is a set-up, something else is lurking underneath. People speak of influences and agendas that are in place, intent on disabling their country.

In this protest the hoods took the limelight but they certainly do not represent the vast majority of young people who search for other ways to find viable solutions. New demonstrations are now planned because, though the new bailout was passed, many doubt that the draconian measures that must be implemented can be or even should be. Whom will we see again? The hoods? Rigged police action?

It is so well known that the dinosaur public administration of the country is completely dysfunctional not only because of its extreme outdated-ness but the unjust way it has dealt with the Greek people. For decades the "clientele consciousness" of giving jobs and securing allegiance to political groups where pandering and bribery were and are the norm bred social elitism. Its inevitable collapse is what we are witnessing now. Such systems cannibalize; they are parasitical -- not open and humane to allow a free flow of new perspectives and inputs. The blind leading the blind, the decrepit clenching the decrepit until all the sycophants topple and crash together in a hollering heap. Such is politics!

Is it a wonder that the people have lost faith in their leaders and their systems or rather any system including the IMF and EU? However, worse than that they have lost faith in themselves. Many of the Greeks I have spoken to do realize they have recklessly spent beyond their means, that they had no idea of the meaning of accountability or taking responsibility. Dependent on the traditional "savior consciousness," that someone out there will do everything for them they have negated their own sense of creative responsibility. So they accuse and blame very eloquently those who have betrayed them! Politically and socially they invested in the wrong people and now are faced with the reality that they themselves can only save themselves. On the one hand a very liberating position on the other hand very daunting. Some are even willing for a degree of austerity if it really helps the country. However they cannot stomach the blatant inequalities as the richer, including their own ministers, escape their financial accountability simply because they have the connections and means!

Democracy may have been born in Greece but it seems also to have died here. All of what is happening shows that something absolutely clean and transparent is needed. Things could not go on as they were. Neither young nor old could exist with dignity in such a system.

The majority of the young people are bright, hardworking and willing to try. Of course there is a significant minority spoilt by indulgent parents providing for their every whim and have not learnt the basic human skill of responsible living. You can still find them in abundance hanging around in the coffee shops, talking and smoking for hours. However what is to become of the enterprising ones? What is to become of their energy? Many are leaving or hope to, but on the other hand many, for one reason or another, are staying. They wish to conquer their quiet despair and still hope. Another positive horizon may open they say, as from the ashes of the legendary phoenix bird a young one resurrected for a new cycle of life. The same can happen now to the society no matter how bleak things appear, they keep saying. Some pointed out to me that the phoenix bird was the symbol of the Greek War of Independence.

The noble-hearted Ioannis Kapodistrias, in 1827, was elected the first head of state of an independent Greece. He used the phoenix bird as a symbol of his new provisional government. The symbol was abandoned many, many decades later when the despotic junta also used it. The bird migrated into oblivion. Now it seems it could have a revival as a symbol of spiritual resurrection.

The more reflective youth I have spoken to who cannot or will not migrate feel that neither anarchy nor violent revolution can change people and structures. They believe an inner change in mentality will bring back the moral and creative elements to their society. With a change in thinking and systems the phoenix can fly again out of its self-made funeral pyre of ashes into a better cycle of prosperity. Is this idea too far-fetched? Is it all really, after all, just a myth?

Those of us who have been young, and who still young are at heart, know how ideals do not always translate into practical day to day living so easily but it is said "where there is a will there is a way." All things are possible. And what was at the very, very bottom of Pandora's box? Hope!

Youth always hopes and is willing to venture. Youth has always had this idealist energy. They were and are willing to experiment, to migrate, to stay, to dare, to change, even to sacrifice.

One such young idealist was buried in Greece in 1915 at the age of 27 on the far flung island of Skyros. Young Rupert Brooke was a poet who lived and studied in Cambridge. Brooke, like his more famous predecessor Lord Byron, who was also a poet and Cambridge man , who also idealistically participated in the Greeks' War for Independence about 100 years before, also believed in the great ideal of liberty. Together with his comrades, Brooke sailed to fight in Gallipoli. They felt like the crew of a new Jason and Argonauts expedition eager to recover the Golden Fleece of freedom. Brooke cherished what most Europeans have and still cherish about Greece, a nostalgia for a country and a culture that has shared its superlative heritage with Europe. Actually even helped create and define it. Where has this spirit gone? Will it return?

The phoenix never dies. It is an immortal bird that rejuvenates itself over and over again. Not to go back to the past. The past is the past. It can be appreciated and admired but any nationalistic nostalgia is of no use at the present time. However to rekindle the creative spirit that can again arise and face the challenges of the present is both a possibility and a necessity. A consciousness that can integrate and adapt to the modern reality but with a different compass than the one used by older generations.

Poem inscribed on Brooke's gravestone

The young Brooke found a meaningful direction as expressed in his poem "Peace" (strange title for a young recruit about to enter a war but it most probably expresses that having found his purpose he was at peace with himself):

" Now God be thanked Who has matched us with His

Hour,

And caught our youth, and wakened us from

Sleeping,

With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power.

To turn, as swimmers into cleanness leaping,

Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary...."

I remember visiting his solitary grave made of white marble surrounded by the turquoise silence of the sea and by a grove of ancient olives that had watched his burial 97 years before. Standing there I felt how another group of youth at the turn of the early 20th century were given a sense of purpose, even of identity through this war for liberation. In hindsight we know that no activity which uses violence as a means can ever liberate. Violence creates enemies and repeating cycles of violence that periodically explode with long suppressed resentments and vengeance. Only when people emerge who have the consciousness to reconcile differences with compassion and heart-felt acceptance does peace and well-being become long lasting.

Brooke became a national icon; even Winston Churchill eulogized his death and sacrifice. The point in later years is that he, like all the young men that died in Gallipoli, did not have to be sacrificed. Mismanagement and inept leaders created propaganda and youth was deceived. Lies are the best things governments are good at and often the truth is discovered many years later, although these days because of the impact of social media "you cannot fool all the people all the time," as easily as in the past. This is a very healthy thing.

As a 19-year-old Brooke had written in "Seaside":

".........I stray alone

Here on the edge of silence, half afraid,

Waiting for a sign........."

What's the sign? Is a debacle a sign? Is it a disguised opportunity for more authentic things to come? Can we hope, can we have the confidence for something better and for a moment leave the" how" and "why" of it and just keep trust as we watch the ashes still glowing?

As one young person earnestly pleaded, "Now we must no longer wait but create!"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-strano/greece-youth-and-the-phoe_b_1299533.html

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