One of the most frequent “flashbacks” I experience these post 9/11 days is to that occasion a decade or so ago when those gurus of government, our United States Congress, came face to face with an honest-to-God peak experience. I kid you not, folks, it was an occasion of senatorial samadhi, right down to the tears and rapture that always accompanies a moment of totally authentic inspiration. And what was the source? What kind of happening did it take to totally capture the attention and sentiment of over 500 sophisticated power brokers who’ve “seen and heard it all?”

A statement of profound insight, coming from a quiet, unassuming play-write did the trick. On the occasion of his message to the U.S. Congress, Vaclav Havel, first President-elect of a free and independent Czechoslovakia mesmerized his audience with the following . . .

“The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and in human responsibility.”

Please notice . . . Nowhere did he suggest that salvation can be found in the bomb bay of a Stealth bomber, the command console of a Trident submarine, or an insane initiative to turn outer space into the next killing fields.

He continued . . .

"Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, nothing will change for the better in the sphere of our being as humans, and the catastrophe towards which this world is headed - be it ecological, social, political, demographic or a general breakdown of civilization - will be unavoidable. Even if we are no longer threatened by world war or nuclear annihilation, we still might find ourselves living in a world that is not safe.”

How prescient can one be?

Don’t miss the essence of President Havel’s clarity. Even if the “superpowers” do fear for their existence enough to “ban the bomb,” he says, and agree to stay out of each other’s sandboxes, nothing truly transformative is going to happen in the sense of a total healing for Mother Earth and her merry band of boarders until we all look WISDOM in the eye and heed Her call for a “global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness.”

And what form must this “revolution” take to create the kind of change the great Oversoul of humanity is crying for? Ram Dass says it this way...

“Over the past 30 years, many of us have arrived at a deeper appreciation of our intimate interrelationships with other cultures, with other species and with the earth. This appreciation leads us to listen more carefully in our day-to-day lives and to tune ourselves harmoniously to the deeper needs of our fellow beings and to the rhythms of nature.

"We recognize that such attunement cannot be mediated exclusively by the analytic mind, but must come through a balance of heart, mind, body and spirit.

"Through listening more deeply, we have often understood the incompatibility of our present lifestyle with our emerging understanding of the role we want to play as a healing force in the universe.”

And here we are as a community of faith called Unity Center addressing that sense of incompatibility by refining our awareness of the kind of integrity of action and spiritual understanding it’s calling for. Fundamental to the process of truly hearing what’s needed is the work we do to open our hearts and to practice compassionate acts in our lives, work that is nurtured by our willingness to engage in the meditative and contemplative practices that will quiet our minds so that we can hear our way with equanimity into each moment, replete as it may currently be with suffering and uncertainty.

If this new millennium is to witness our civilization successfully navigating its currently chaotic rapids to arrive at a new level of evolution, it will require that we as individuals, alone and in concert, truly rise to the occasion.

We will be called upon to reflect in our lives a gentleness and friendliness of spirit - a wisdom-born clarity that can see through the entrapping mediocrity of Free Market Nirvana, Unholy Jihads and Eye for an Eye Foreign Policy and act with will and courage and firmness to embrace spiritually informed values and create alternative institutions, or reinvent existing ones, so that they truly reflect our deepest intuitive understanding. Only if we are guided by a yearning for truth and are free to enter into the dance of form with real love, will we succeed.

I sense that Spirit here at Unity. I see us deeply committed to the “global revolution of human consciousness.” Many of you are already beginning to see your time and money as useful instruments of peaceful, loving service, so know this. As you commit your resources to the common good, you ennoble your existence and bring great Joy to the Heart of all God’s Creation.

Thank you for allowing me to participate in the miracle of your Love and the fruits of your labor as we join hands to take our Unity Center into the new age as a mighty agent of a “global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness.”

Enjoy the Grace.
--Chad