The Way Out Is In

The Guest House – Jalaluddin Rumi

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
They may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

The Way Out – Is In

This exquisitely elegant axiom of Thich Nhat Hahn is profound in its simplicity. In light of this coronavirus crisis, it takes on a prophetic dimension.

We are now, all 7 billion of us, in a retreat. We are pushed to reflection, to examining the visions, values, hopes, and fears that determine our actions and experience. Have we ever had such an opportunity before? I think it is important to ask ourselves what went wrong, and also to reflect on who or what has some fault. Yet, I believe that healing and creative transformation are better served by exploring our dreams. Our dreams and the stories we create to express them have creative power. They shape our world. We must understand that even those things we want to change, the things we feel are obstacles, and oppress us, have their roots in dreams, in the stories we tell ourselves and tell the world.

Consider this, the original meaning of the magic word Abracadabra is “I create what I speak.” If we are dreaming of scarcity and fear, we will create situations of lack, competition for resources, and fear of not having enough. And from this dream come all the forms of domination, seeking power, control,  and the violence it takes to hold to such attempts. All of this rooted in these fearful dreams. If we look at the world and the injustices we see, it becomes clear that they are rooted in this kind of thinking, this kind of dreaming.

 The enigma of dreaming, the mystery of our capacity to find and create meaning, to find and receive purpose and inspiration in dreams and intuitions, our ability to imagine and envision ways of living, and our talent to interpret the meaning of all aspects of our experience, is truly awesome. Awesome, in both senses of the word, as something wondrous and as something inspiring of fear. The power of stories to shape our lives is as mighty as it is mysterious.

The way out is in, and this other powerful notion that the obstacle is the way, are teachings that we can now verify collectively. This situation caused by coronavirus pandemic is forcing us to go inside. The question is, do we perceive this quarantine as an emergency lockdown disaster, a forced retreat, a totalitarian coup d’etat or a challenge and possible healing? This situation is causing an unprecedented global confrontation with our inner and outer experience. We are obliged to explore what Arnold Mindell (founder of Process Oriented Psychology) has called Dreamland. Processwork has integrated teachings that can be found in many traditions of self-development and self-knowledge. It considers disturbing or threatening symptoms as starting points for the initiation of processes leading to deeper understanding, healing, and resolution of adverse conditions or conflict. “Every criticism, judgment, diagnosis, and expression of anger is the tragic expression of an unmet need.” This quote of Nonviolent Communication creator Marshall Rosenberg, also points out that what appears as an adversary can be welcomed as a messenger of some greater understanding and freedom.

Dreamland is the world of our emotions, values, fears, hopes, beliefs, ideals, in short, our subjective reality, our psychology. This situation is giving humanity a singular opportunity to ask essential questions about our lifestyles and our socio-economic and political systems. The opportunity here is to discover what is wanting to be born and then find the individual and collective courage, focus, and organization to bring the dream into everyday reality.

This is the opportunity before us: if our “old” world seemed crazy, let us not desire to return to that “madness” we called “normality.” A society rooted in myths of scarcity, separateness, and competition. Creating a world of anxiety, stress, fear, hostility, and mistrust. Let us instead dream wonderfully and remember Ruby Tuesday: “Lose your dreams, and you will lose your mind.”

 

 

 

My neighbour and her boy and another neighbour’s  2 girls made drawings in front of an old people’s residence in Amsterdam. Artivists and activism is changing the world!

La mia vicina, il suo bimbo e le due ragazze di altri vicini hanno fatto dei disegni davanti a una residenza per anziani ad Amsterdam. Artivisti e attivisti stanno cambiando il mondo!

What’s the point of this movie?

It tells the story of a group of people who followed a dream of giving voice to an artistic life of freedom, expression, love and courage. A dream that allowed them to overcome great challenges, issues of life and death, loss and joy to be reborn from time to time as the sphinx and inspire and let joy unfold for thousands of other voices.

This is an important story now, for all of us who are facing challenges that test our humanity, that ask each of us to reflect on what kind of life we want to lead and in what world we want to live it. Challenges that ask us to affirm our solidarity and to take our dreams seriously. We believe that artivism and artivists (which we all are) are agents of change and are creating a new world. Every act of beauty and meaning has consequences that go beyond the immediate visible and measurable. Every act of compassion for oneself and others contributes to the creation of a new mythology that has the power to change the world.

What is crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is an act of love, friendship and trust in the power of imagination and collective action. For example, Uri and I have 4800 friends on Facebook. If everyone was ready to contribute only 5 euros, we would have 24,000 euros to complete our work of love to inspire everyone to go for their dreams and follow their own artivist path!

Che senso ha questo film?

Racconta la storia di un gruppo di persone che hanno seguito un sogno di dare voce a una vita artistica di libertà, espressione, amore e coraggio. Un sogno che gli a permesso di superare grande sfide, questioni di vita e di morte, di perdita e di gioia per rinascere da volta in volta come la sfinge ed ispirare e lasciare che la gioia si dispieghi per migliaia di altre voci.

Questa è una storia importante adesso, per tutti noi che stiamo affrontando sfide che mettono alla prova la nostra umanità, che chiedono a ciascuno di noi di riflettere su quale tipo di vita vogliamo condurre e in quale mondo la vogliamo vivere. Sfide che ci chiedono di affermare la nostra solidarietà e di prendere sul serio i nostri sogni. Crediamo che l’artivismo e gli artivisti (che siamo tutti) siano agenti di cambiamento e stiano creando un mondo nuovo. Ogni atto di bellezza e di significato ha conseguenze che vanno oltre l’immediato visibile e misurabile. Ogni atto di compassione per sé e per gli altri contribuisce alla creazione di una nuova mitologia che ha il potere di cambiare il mondo.

Che cosè crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding è un atto d’amore, amicizia e fiducia nel potere della immaginazione e l’azione collettiva. Per esempio, io e Uri abbiamo 4800 amici su Facebook. Se ognuno fosse pronto a contribuire solo 5 euro, avremmo 24,000 euro per completare la nostra opera d’amore per ispirare tutti che lo vedranno ad andare per i loro sogni e seguire il proprio sentiero da artivista!   

                 .

Yes, and I say it joyfully, the world has ended!

When I ask them, friends are saying, “yes, this slowdown, this lockdown, this stop which came from nowhere, the way we’re living now, home with loved ones eating, reading, dancing, making love, talking about it all, reflecting, meditating, chatting with others, it’s the life we always wanted”. Others say, “Hey look, they took over, fascism, dictatorship is rising, look at all this control of people suddenly, everybody everywhere locked in their houses, the economy has come to a screeching halt and soon the big boys will be asking for a bailout at our expense, and look, the only ones allowed to circulate freely are police and military”. Things that make you go Hmm.

Perhaps it’s not what it seems. Perhaps this is a gift, a deep and severe teaching. Maybe the old world is done, gone for good. Perhaps this new situation is it, a new world that begins here and goes on like this for, I won’t say forever, because nothing is forever. Yet everything is always now, the time in which we live it. And that old world, the world who’s voices still can be heard when we say “this could be the beginning of a new reality”, we can hear them in the whispers and shouts you hear inside and around you saying, “yeah but how are you going to make that work?” Well, are those old voices? Could they be echoes of our dreams of scarcity, and our ancestors, the ones we were until a few days ago –  until we that world came to an end?

Well, is this true? Is it just a wild fantasy? It’s up to us, choose!

with great thanks to Dustin Quasar for the use of his beautiful image

(was that ever not so?)