More Together Than Alone webinar archive
MORE TOGETHER THAN ALONE:
THE POWER AND SPIRIT OF COMMUNITY
A 3-SESSION WEBINAR GUIDED BY MARK NEPO
OCTOBER 4, 11, 18, 2020, 1-2:30PM EST
Recordings
Session 1
https://vimeo.com/464979836
Password is NEPO
Session 2
https://vimeo.com/467141796
Password is NEPO
Session 3
https://vimeo.com/469807952
Password is NEPO
Support Material
SESSION 1: FINDING EACH OTHER
I believe what the self-centered have torn down,
the other-centered will build up.
—Martin Luther King, Jr.
***
NOT ACCORDING
TO PLAN
MARK NEPO
When I drop my glasses
in the airport and they’re
crushed in the walkway
between terminals, I get to
meet the three kind souls
who help me on my way.
Then I hear you crying
after everyone has left.
So I bring you water
and hear your story.
Ever since the lock on
my door broke, I have
more visitors.
Now the road I always
take is detoured, which
I curse until I see the
heron glide across the
small pond I didn’t
know was there.
***
TELL ME
YOU HAVE COME
MARK NEPO
The mystery is that
whoever shows up
when we dare to give
has exactly what we need
hidden in their trouble.
***
WHERE NO ONE
STAYS A STATUE
MARK NEPO
It was a sunny day
and I went to the park
and sat on a bench. I was
one of many coming out
from under our rocks
to warm and lengthen.
He was two benches down,
a gentle older man
staring off into the place
between things, beyond
any simple past, staring
into the beginning or the end,
it was hard to say.
When he came up
our eyes met
and he knew I’d seen him
journey there and back.
There was no point in looking away.
And so, he shuffled over
and sat beside me. The sun
moved behind the one cloud
and he finally said
in half a quiver, “How
can we go there together?”
I searched my small mind
for an answer. At this,
he looked away and the sun came out
and I realized this is what the lonely
sages of China were talking about,
what the moon has whispered
before turning full for centuries,
what dancers leap for, what violinists
dream after fevering their last note.
But I was awkward and unsure.
He stared, as if to search my will,
and after several minutes,
he just patted my knee
and left.
I watched him
darken and brighten in the sun,
and vowed to look
in the folds of every cry
for a way through,
and hope someday
to meet him there.
***
Take Home Journal Question 1
What shell are coming out of? What is calling you out of it? What is keeping you in? Begin a conversation between those two voices.
Take Home Journal Question 2
Identify two people in your life who preserve the things that hold us together, describe how, and tell them that they are Living National Treasures.
Take Home Journal Question 3
Describe one quality of truth you can reclaim from your past that will help you move forward, understanding who you are.
Take Home Journal Question 4
Tikkun Olam is Hebrew for “You are here to repair the world.” Since we are the world, we are here to repair ourselves. What does this mean to you? Describe one way you need to repair yourself in order to change the world. What is the first step in this healing?
Take Home Journal Question 5
Tell the story of a time when the smallest gesture made all the difference. Is there a situation you can contribute to in a way that can make a difference? What is keeping you from doing so?
Take Home Journal Question 6
Describe one way you are bending the world to your will? How is this affecting you and those around you? Then, describe one way you are loving the world together? How is this affecting you and those around you?
Take Home Journal Question 7
Tell the story of a time when you had to build something again. What happened and where did you get the strength to begin again? How did building the second time differ from the first? Do you need anyone’s help? Is there something in your life or near your life that currently needs building again? How can you begin?
___________________________________________________________________________
SESSION 2: OUR UNDERLYING ONENESS
Trying to save the world without liberating yourself is like
carpeting the Earth rather than wearing sandals.
—Ramana Maharshi
***
I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold, service is joy.
—Rabindranath Tagore
***
INSIDE EVERYTHING
MARK NEPO
Keep trying to hide and in time
you become a wall.
Keep trying to love and in time
you become love.
Our journey on Earth is to stop
hiding, so we can become love.
Everything else is a seduction
and a distraction.
Courage is staying true.
***
They came first for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
—Martin Niemöller (1892-1984)
***
EARTH PRAYER
MARK NEPO
O Endless Creator, Force of Life, Seat of the Unconscious,
Dharma, Atman, Ra, Qalb, Dear Center of our Love,
Christlight, Yaweh, Allah, Mawu,
Mother of the Universe…
Let us, when swimming with the stream,
become the stream.
Let us, when moving with the music,
become the music.
Let us, when rocking the wounded,
become the suffering.
Let us live deep enough
till there is only one direction,
and slow enough till there is only
the beginning of time,
and loud enough in our hearts
till there is no need to speak.
Let us live for the grace beneath all we want,
let us see it in everything and everyone,
till we admit to the mystery
that when I look deep enough into you,
I find me, and when you dare to hear my fear
in the recess of your heart, you recognize it
as your secret which you thought
no one else knew.
O let us embrace
that unexpected moment of unity
as the atom of God.
Let us have the courage
to hold each other when we break
and worship what unfolds…
O nameless spirit that is not done with us,
let us love without a net
beyond the fear of death
until the speck of peace
we guard so well
becomes the world.
***
Take Home Journal Question 1
Describe a situation in which you are currently valuing the brick over a person and how is this compromising your ability to understand others?
Take Home Journal Question 2
Describe one object in your personal museum that is waiting to come alive as a tool to be used now, one thing in your museum that is a live resource waiting to help you.
Take Home Journal Question 3
Four sustaining forms of hospitality are shelter, affirmation, remembering our larger home, and spiritual hospitality (helping another cross a threshold). Describe a time when you were given one form of shelter. Then explore your readiness to offer some form of shelter to someone else.
___________________________________________________________________________
SESSION 3: WE ARE MORE THAN WHAT IS DONE TO US
The Chinese word 蜕变 (t-way be-yan) means “taking off all coverings to become one’s true self as time unfolds.” This is at the heart of any spiritual practice.
***
In Tibet . . . there are stories about a legendary kingdom . . . governed by wise and compassionate rulers . . . This place was called Shambhala . . . [A]mong many Tibetan Buddhist teachers, there has long been a tradition that regards the kingdom of Shambhala, not as an external place, but as the ground or root of wakefulness and sanity that exists as a potential within every human being . . . [T]he first principle of Shambhala vision is not being afraid of who you are. Ultimately, that is the definition of bravery: not being afraid of yourself . . . The premise of Shambhala vision is that, in order to establish an enlightened society for others, we need to discover what we inherently have to offer the world.
— Chögyam Trungpa
***
We must prepare the hearts of the children for the conflicts they will inherit.
—Robert Enright, Forgiveness Researcher
***
How do we prepare ourselves inwardly to participate in the oneness of humanity?
—Vincent Harding, Civil Rights Leader
***
If another world is possible, what is your role in making it happen?
—Cynthia Cherry, President of ILA
***
THE GREAT OPENING
MARK NEPO
It was the son of a soldier,
a soldier who killed his own people.
It was that gentle son who went
in despair to his grandfather’s
bridge to ask in his
solitude why.
And that night he dreamt
that everyone who’d been hurt
and everyone who’d done the hurting
met on that bridge. And in their
awkwardness and pain, it began
to rain flowers which grazing
their skin opened their faces
and they were healed.
And the flowers, falling
into the water, brought
the fish who thought
the petals were food.
And the son of the soldier
woke committed to the building
of bridges and to the food
of flowers raining
from the sky.
***
Take Home Journal Question 1
Which is more dominant in you today, the one who flows or the one who hoards? What kind of effort is required to flow and what kind of effort is required to hoard?
Take Home Journal Question 2
What obstacle do you need to face in order to connect all things, so you can return to being one who flows instead of being one who hoards?
Take Home Journal Question 3
Describe a time when you have been caretaker and when you have been a gatekeeper and what led you to each position. How has each affected you?
Take Home Journal Question 4
What is in your sacred bundle and how can you pass it on?
