The human heart can feel overwhelmed by the number of tragedies and ills that befall people, especially when these are initiated at the hands of others or could be prevented by the hearts of others.

In this discussion, let us open our eyes and hearts not only to the plights of humanity that need to be addressed, but also to the fears we may carry of not being enough and therefore being overwhelmed by the world's suffering. In this regard, the human heart may be aware of its own limitation, but the divine Heart within the human is unlimited in its love and in its capacity to hold all.

Let us say a prayer, then, for the homeless and for all who suffer everywhere. Let us pray, too, that our own hearts grow large enough to hold the world within them. - Julie

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Beauty-full - I join you in prayer.

I watched a beautiful movie that had as one of its' parts people experiencing homelessness sharing their experience. I highly recommend it if you long for an uplifting yet humbling movie. It is called "The Human Experience" and is available on netflix.

On Thanksgiving weekend I talked to a boy who had no coat and was homeless and high. I held his hands and we prayed together. I still think of him and wish I had given him a coat. I tried to give him my gloves, but he wouldn't take them. I pray that he has found help for his addiction and is safe and warm.

I live in Western MA, in the USA. Tonight we are preparing for a very large snowstorm. We could receive up to two feet of snow. Yesterday, I had the direct experience of feeling the goodness of this storm that was coming. I am not really sure what it means, but it felt deeply connected to the Earth, her healing and the goodness that she provides. I am grateful to be tucked in safe and warm while the winds blow outside and even as I feel the goodness of this storm, I grieve for all who do not have a safe, warm home to tuck into to wait for this storm to pass. May the time come soon, where it will not be possible for any human being to not have shelter, food, and basic needs met. I pray and I join my hearts with all around the world who are praying for themselves and for the many who do not have what is essential.
With love and blessings, Michaela

Thank you, Michaela, for reminding me to hold those who are out in this storm in my prayers.
With Love,
Abriete

Dear Merina,
I am glad that this topic, which had recently lain dormant, spoke to your heart so you could share your feelings about this. My name is Meg and I am glad to meet you here.

It is indeed horrible to be homeless, hungry and helpless. I can’t imagine what it must feel like, Merina. Imagine feeling so lost, perhaps in pain, filled with worry and fear and yet still be invisible to those that pass you. It would appear to be an impossible situation to fix as there are so many millions of people now, all over the world that do not know where they can safely sleep or if they will eat today. This happens in a time where we do have the knowledge and resources to solve this growing epidemic and yet this heartbreaking condition persists. Is it too big a problem to fix?

I offer you and all dear readers an invitation to look at homelessness and poverty from a spiritual view. Julie's newsletter post, even though written to address the conditions in America back in 2005, can easily be seen as help for the world because no one that suffers is exempt. She offers deep insight with solutions that we all can contribute to if we choose.

Thank you for posting, Merina. I hope to hear back from you as I look forward to what you think about her article:

Here is an excerpt with a link to the complete post:



"In this country, pressing social issues of hunger and homelessness are with us today to an increasing degree. They are with us because we, as a nation and as a government, have not yet given them sufficient priority in our hearts and within our national budget, to reduce their impact or to make them disappear entirely. This does not mean that each of us, individually, does not care about such issues. We may care deeply. It means that in the distribution of money and resources to address national issues of utmost concern, these issues are not at the top of the list.

What should be abundantly clear to us as we strive to learn how to be "our brothers' keeper" - in the biblical sense, in the Buddhist sense, in the Christian sense, and in the sense of moral conscience - is that something has to become eminently real to us in both heart and mind before it can be addressed on a practical level. The motivation for 'holding the world' must be there before the actions that emanate from it can take place.

With this goal in mind - of holding the suffering of others in our awareness - it is possible to look at the picture that emerges of hunger and homelessness in America - a picture that would not be as startling if it did not take place in the wealthiest nation in the world. If we were talking about an African nation or an Asian nation, we would not be surprised to find extensive hunger and homelessness. Or, if we were talking about the victims of the recent tsunami crisis, we would know from watching the news that problems of homelessness and hunger are being addressed in a massive way by governments and world aid organizations.

That is why it is all the more startling when these issues appear in this most prosperous country, even after years of social welfare programs aimed at addressing them. Despite these programs, they come up again, and again and again, because much more needs to be done about them. "

Read more here: http://lightomega.org/NL/2005-01-19.html

The history of man's spiritual evolution can be depicted as a relationship of rose and thorn, traversing a line between sweetness, beauty, and love, and the pangs of hardship and unexpected loss and pain that always seem to counterbalance the sweet fragrance of the rose.

Never understanding why the thorns of life had to accompany life's beauty, mankind has always had to find ways of dealing with its heavy burden of suffering, both individually and collectively, trying always to focus on the smell of the roses and to minimize the sharp stabbing intrusion of that which was unwanted or unexpected.

Had we but known that the thorns were necessary in order for the roses to exist at all, it may not have made a difference. For the human heart, though it may justify suffering on the level of principle or purpose, nevertheless seeks always for an end to suffering, and a day in which only flowers will grace the vistas of what lies before us. For this is the nature of what it means to be human to seek love and peace and yet to have to abide with the sharp edges of life that are often piercing in their effects.

The thorns of life have been necessary because of the degree of separation of human consciousness from the truth of its own being and from the truth of the Divine nature of all of life a gift from the one Creator of all Had there not been such a separation in awareness, it would not have required the sudden stabbing pain of reality to wake one up to something. For this has always been the service of pain that it awakens within consciousness something that has been asleep, and yet that has been necessary for the further development of wholeness of the self. It does not come into being gratuitously, but rather as a force for healing, to bring the self back to the path of truth and growth and toward the light of wholeness.

Even though the meaning of pain may not be conscious and even though in many instances it seems unjustified, punitive, cruel, haphazard, indifferent, or meaningless, nevertheless, its purpose in manifesting the thorns of life has been to create movement sometimes gentle, sometimes sharp into a different way of looking at things.

Imagine, now, a world in which roses exist without thorns. This is the world of the future. A world in which spiritual growth and the movement toward wholeness no longer needs the kind of prodding that has existed before a world in which the separation of consciousness from the light of sacred reality no longer requires the vast leap over mistaken ideas and notions of reality which create a chasm to be bridged in order to institute a path of return. Under these circumstances, the thorns would no longer be necessary. Painful prodding would no longer be necessary, for the path of growth could be held in light and the corrections that might be needed would be small corrections, ones that could be instituted gently and progressively without a sharp blow to one's awareness.

This is what lies before us in the unfolding evolution of the earth's story and of the story of her inhabitants as we move into the next level of spiritual understanding and evolution. This next level has been called many things, but by whatever name one conceives of it, it is a place and time in which roses shall bloom without the necessity for thorns, and in which the human soul shall experience its own beauty and fragrance without the cloud of self-doubt or mistaken perception that has existed thus far.

Before this time comes, there shall still be thorns that pierce the heart and soul thorns that result from mankind's indifference to man, thorns of mankind's indifference to the sacred life of the earth, thorns that come from cruelty and disdain, from pettiness and greed, from fear and from the desire to seek advantage over others. These are the thorns that human beings create through their own misguided actions, and before they leave the landscape of human consciousness entirely, they will make their presence known.

But in the end, those aberrations of consciousness which lessen the humanity of one to another, which lessen the caring of the human heart of one to another, will progressively disappear. And in its place, will be the awareness of oneness that allows all to answer the question: "Am I my brother's keeper?", with a full and unequivocal "yes."


Blessed be this time of transition and of the earth's flowering into a new day.





http://www.lightomega.org
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rose.A.Mailend1.jpg

‘Hunger and Homelessness in America’
by GurujiMa

“…Today, we must face the fact that 36 million people in this country (numbers from 2004) — a population the size of New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts together — are not able to provide enough food for themselves or their families to sustain themselves, and that between six hundred and seven hundred and sixty thousand people, according to different estimates, on any given night may not have a place to sleep.



As we become more spiritually aware, we cannot afford to not know about these things, as our hearts grow and expand and our desire to help the planet expands as well. Sometimes in the past, our caring has been put aside because it seemed that there was nothing of a practical nature we could do with it. The sense of helplessness has caused many of us to turn ourselves ‘off’ and to go on with our lives, as if those who are suffering were not with us. The thinking has been that if we don’t see them, we don’t have to feel helpless or discouraged.



Yet, we are in a different time now. We are in a time when the advent of greater light has the possibility for changing the consciousness of people in a way that was not possible before, and therefore of leading to life-altering action that will be of benefit to many. We can participate with this change in any outer way that we choose, for what is essential is the inner way that manifests the outer. This is the essence of a spiritual life. Such a life involves the commitment to allowing our hearts to expand so that all action may come from greater love. This doesn’t mean that we have to be depressed each day about those who are hungry, cold, or who have no place to sleep. It means that we have to be mindful of the suffering and the need of others, and to hold this need in our hearts with God.



What ‘holding with God’ means is very different from holding something by ourselves. For one thing, it involves the awareness that God’s heart also holds the suffering of all, and strives continually to bring all of life into a state of greater abundance, hope, and love. For another, even if we do little to affect change in a practical way, our inner focus affects change silently and surely. We can be in a continual state of awareness of the earth and the beings upon it who are in need. Similarly, we can be in a continual state of wordless prayer for the blessing of all.



Regarding social action, too often in the past it has been infused with motivations of anger, fear, resentment, and judgment. Now, we must redefine what it means to act out of conscience. The word ‘conscience’, etymologically, means, ‘to know with’. In order to ‘know with God’ what is right to do, the source of our action must come from a deep inner calling that tells us when to act in a certain direction. This calling is the voice of God speaking within our hearts, creating a sense of rightness. If the source of motivation toward action is anger or judgment, then the result cannot be ‘with God’. To ‘know with God’ is to allow the consciousness of love to precede whatever action is taken, so that that the greatest possible expression of love can emerge. No matter what the degree or shape of our outer activity, the caring for others and the wish for their wellbeing is the central core of change. This will inevitably grow as the heart expands, as the soul infuses the personal self, and as the way of holding suffering ‘with God’ becomes more possible.



As these changes occur, becoming an ‘emissary of light’ is a natural outcome. Being an ‘emissary of light’ does not necessarily involve organized social action to address critical issues, though it may. There are beings at all levels of spiritual life and light who assist in transforming the consciousness of the earth without being in bodies and without engaging in physical action. For those within the human experience, more than anything else, such transformation involves standing in the light with awareness and great love, so that our alignment with light can affect those around us and spread to the planet as a whole.



It is with this invitation to share in the fate of mankind from the place of feeling at one with God’s love, that I offer the following resources to you on ‘Hunger and Homelessness in America’, in order that there may be no one, anywhere, that we feel separate from."

Continue reading ‘Hunger and Homelessness in America’ by GurujiMa (January 19, 2005)
https://lightomega.org/writing/hunger-and-homelessness-in-america/