Nonviolence seen in the Occupy movement,

from concepts in Metta’s glossary

“Nagler’s law”

Nagler’s law is quite simple:

NV + V = V. (Nonviolence plus violence equals violence)

A small amount of violence can subvert the nonviolent character of a movement or demonstration, especially if, as is commonly the case, the violence is focused on in the media. An example of this was during the Occupy Oakland general strike held on November 2^nd with an astonishing, peaceful turnout. Several protesters left with tears of joy after its success, but the beauty displayed that day was replaced by a violent confrontation against the police in the early morning. After a day of an estimated 100,000 person nonviolent march, protesters started fires, swarmed vacant buildings and used homemade bomb launchers to fire M80’s at police. This incident carried about by a few protesters separate from the Occupy demonstration ruined the all day effort to remain nonviolent.

 Nonviolent Moment

A nonviolent campaign can build up to an open confrontation where its nonviolence is pitted against the violence of an oppressor.  Nonviolent actors actually welcome and sometimes plan for such a confrontation, confident that nonviolence will always prevail in the long run.

In Occupy demonstrations, UC, Berkeley students were beaten by police and UC Davis demonstrators were needlessly pepper-sprayed.  These cases actually served to point up the increasing militarization of the country, and raised the standing of the students, who remained nonviolent throughout the attacks.

A few articles below explain the effects a nonviolent moment can have:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/uc-davis-pepper-spray-incident-reveals-weakness-up-top-20111122

http://blogs.berkeley.edu/2011/11/25/what-is-nonviolence/

Person Power

In contrast to “people power,” where the emphasis is on numbers, we can use this term to describe the core energy at the heart of a movement, which is the nonviolent commitment of the individuals (or individual) within it.  A million people marching in streets will not confer nonviolent power if they lack discipline and are harboring violence.  The Occupy movement, by teaching nonviolence and allowing individuals to adopt its methods, has provided good examples of person power.

Integrative Power

In order to offset the common misconception that nonviolence is a ‘non-something,’ peace theorist Kenneth Boulding developed the model of “three faces of power:” threat power, exchange power, and integrative power that comes into play when one is authentic and truthful, having the long-term effect of bringing parties together.  When a large group of students at Davis were confronted by a small but threatening group of police the students offered them a “moment of peace” to peacefully withdraw, which they did.

Trusteeship 

Trusteeship was proffered by Gandhi as an alternative to outright ownership.  Not only donations of money but cooking utensils, “the peoples library,” and technological equipment are good examples of things held in trust and used for the common good on the camping sites.  Importantly, talents and capacities that occupiers make freely available to the movement also exemplify trusteeship.

In Zuccotti Park a young woman called “ketchup” was given a laptop for her work.  Some occupiers complained, but she explained that the computer was not hers but rather a tool for her use on the site.

Boulding’s First Law

Because of the prevailing paradigm, most people find it difficult to believe that nonviolent events have happened even if they’ve seen them at first hand.  Out of frustration with this obtuseness Kenneth Boulding coined this law: “If something has happened, it’s possible.”  Many did not believe that a large number of Americans could gather in protest as they have done, turning their back on consumerism to such a degree and remaining largely nonviolent in the face of serious provocation ­­– and some may not believe it yet.   But it is here (and as occupiers often say, is not going away).

“Work” vs. Work

Principled nonviolence will always have a beneficial effect on its surroundings even if it does not “work” in the sense, get what it wants in the short run.  It may seem that the Occupy movement did not “work” in the sense that it failed to change financial structures and even lost physical ground on most of the sites they tried in vain to occupy, but it has drawn badly needed attention to a serious wrong and shown a path to change.  It has also shown, of course, that people can organize spontaneously and maintain nonviolent witness to get things done.

Return to OccupyNonviolence

SEPTEMBER 10-12, 2011 (and beyond)

We intend to create beloved community as an alternative to the fear, anger and grief surrounding the events of 9/11. This will be a campaign to lift the human image and restore human dignity through nonviolence. As a nation-wide (or wider) campaign, “Love Your Enemy” is designed to create a community of partners who are both moving in their own lives toward what MLK called a “people-centered civilization” and working out a long-term strategy to reverse the war system.

“Love Your Enemy” is:

• not a ‘one-off’ event but an ongoing project
• not limited to the symbolism of 9/11 though it builds on a conversion of the attention paid to that date
• not a partisan event but open to all who long for real security

That said, it is also a campaign that will grow organically, attracting people and groups with various capacities (this is what Gandhi called “the law of progression”).  Therefore it is not possible to specify all the ways that the ‘lift off’ of the tenth anniversary of 9/11 will ramify and develop.  Satyagrahis are creative people flexible enough to take advantage of opportunities as life offers them and imaginative (and bold) enough to come up with strategies of their own that accord with their basic principles.  Here, for those who would like to participate, we place before you suggestions for two types of activity: training and acting.

1. Training

• There are various ways to get grounded in the basics of principled nonviolence. We have found that two good ways for serious activists are Michael Nagler’s classic book, The Search for a Nonviolent Future, and the webcast of his year-long course at UC, Berkeley, PACS 164 A and B.  Both are available through the Metta website.  For the book, an extensive study guide is now offered on the same site; for the course, a set of learning tools will be furnished shortly.
• For those who wish to try the experiment, read Chapter 22 of Mahatma Gandhi’s classic work, Satyagraha in South Africa and see how many of the basic principles covered in the book and the course you can identify.  Tell us what you have come up with, and we will send you a certificate of completion (not to imply that we then stop learning!);
• Participate in nonviolence trainings that will be available through Metta’s nonviolence retreats and workshops.

In other words: Non-cooperation alone is not adequate. There must be a positive emphasis on implementing what we want to see. We can use non-cooperation when those exercising threat power seek to intimidate and harm us. In this way, we realize that the focus of our movement is not a series of police confrontations; it is building a new world based on respect and dignity.

Here is an example of constructive programme in action in Brazil. Keep in mind that they need to incorporate aspects of obstructive program when confronted by the government.

Return to OccupyNonviolence page

• Statistics show that even if violence “works” in the short run, in the long term, it never makes a situation better.  As Gandhi said, “violent revolution will bring about violent self-rule.”
• The more comprehensive our nonviolence, the greater effect it can have. This means that instead of focusing all of our efforts on outward change, we can learn to deepen our awareness of how nonviolence works, not only on the level of the deed, but in our words and thoughts.
• Nonviolence is a form of persuasion and dialogue, not a one-sided form of coercion. Respect the escalation curve model and always try to deescalate a conflict; avoid using the wrong strategy at the wrong time (this is where a strategic overview is essential).

• Satyagraha is a last resort strategy for a discussion  (looking for a win-win outcome) and can lead to the need for self sacrifice at the highest degree possible. Do not make this sacrifice before it is necessary e.g. promises of fasting unto death without first a willingness to try other strategies are always ineffective. Satyagraha is a method which “compels reason to be free.” We must be reasonable ourselves to awaken the reason of another; we must be willing to take risks and sacrifices (even to our ego) to open the heart of another.

• Here is our short video series conducted at this retreat.
• Here is the audio to talk number three:
  • Download audio file (talk 3 nonviolence.mp3)

• Here are our two hope tanks: 
  • Download audio file (hope tank 1.mp3)
  • Download audio file (hope tank 2.mp3)

Educators, don’t forget: you can find use our latest study guide for lesson plans and activities.

You may also want to read Tim Flinders’ chapter in Eknath Easwaran’s Gandhi the Man for a succinct overview of ahimsa and Sataygraha.

We look forward to working with you throughout the school year.

Between Zero and ONE
I’m busy finding the infinite ways that I love you,
and if you listen carefully to the Milky Way,
you will hear, my angel, that she is busy loving you too.

I want you, my dear, to conceive the largest number your mind is capable of imagining…

How many cells have been nourished as units of life for humanity to exist?
How many minutes in silence have the still-minds of all the planet’s satyagrahis spent to continue the kindness revolution?
How many leaves have been kissed by the Sun?
How many molecules of air have been dancing in the atmosphere?
How many droplets of water have been flowing freely on the skin of the Earth?
How many worlds and stars and galaxies had stood over you all night keeping watch?
How many photons live inside the body of the Cosmos?
How many shining eyes are there in all the children of Nature?

If you listen carefully to the Milky Way,
you will hear, my angel, that she is busy loving you too, with all her stars as ONE;
she is busy loving you with each spark of life;
she is busy loving you and loving me and loving every single being that has ever inhabited this world;
she is busy loving us with a unified impermanent breath and with her intoxicating scent of oneness.

Then the multiverse of universes counts without counting and resets my soul,
because reducing ourselves to Zero is where we all converge to start again.

This is how we are still busy finding the infinite ways that we love you,
between Zero and ONE.

The Glorious Kiss
Wait patiently, My Angel,
sitting still at the edge of the non-observable universe.
Then, escaping from polarity, injustice, duality and gravity,
my action will travel at the speed of Love,
among black egos and supermassive fears.

Wait in complete trust, Beloved One,
in the field of supreme awareness and courage.
Then, the most tender kiss, the cosmic caress,
will kiss your soul and embrace your heart.

Feel the soft lips, Divine One, of our kind insurgent stars,
our supreme source of freedom and light,
the magnificent delight,
that comes from tasting the oneness nectar of life.

What’s her name?
Only when her loving eyes pierce you to the bone of your fearlessness;
only when her kindness invites you a tea of reflection;
only when her irresistible smile illuminates the Himalayas of your potential;
only when her solitude meets the sunlight of your soul;
only when her refreshing waters quench the thirst of your boredom;
only when her powerful presence encourages your abundance in the garden of life;
only when her generous service sweeps away your ego from the floor of justice;
only when her celestial silence attracts the hummingbird of your innate beauty;
only when her gracious walk resonates with the lights, and shadows and colors of the branches and leaves of your creativity;
only when her soft arms of Bay hug and embrace the Ocean of your being;
only when her divine goodbyes kiss the welcomes of your stillness.
Only then, you will know her name.
Her name is Freedom.

Uprising of Souls
You are our revolution who started in the wombs of our mothers.
The communion of colorful-fresh-local-organic acts of kindness
reflected in an historic sunset,
a landscape of the conjunction of Venus, the Moon and Justice,
a celestial date that inspires lovers, poets and rebels,
who count the mix of emancipated photons as ONE, with each subversive kiss…
with every kiss of every lover of all the lovers that have ever lived.

Once the land and freedom have called you with a: ¡Ya Basta!
your heart, Beautiful One, can no longer live without real love,
because how do we sell the land that people walk upon?
How do we sell the precious liquid compound that keeps us alive?
How do we sell the air?
How do we sell our Mother?
How do we sell the Sun?
How do we sell the Moon?
How do we sell the stars?

Your joyous God will give all as a gift with no strings attached.
Even the engagement rings of Saturn
with their astonishingly beauty,
worn on your community fingers,
as a cooperative, locally rooted, self-organized movement marriage.

That’s your true nature.
The independence you have been waiting for…
and the Galaxy has laid her ancient love at your feet
to witness, in service and solidarity,
the courageous mass awakening of the peoples
living on the pale blue diamond.

The blazing upraising of souls
seeking for the beautiful warmth
of your heart’s fire.

Would you like to WALK with an Angel?
It is your force born of truth and love.
You come from silence, and you speak your truth.
You cannot be quieted, because your voice is within everyone.
What I experience and seek is glorious
beyond compare, something far beyond anybody’s capacity
to render into thoughts and words.

The overcast of the soul
an Angel converts
into a shinny present moment.
It is incredible that you, My Angel, cleared the sky of injustice
and the joyous forest of my heart was happy to feel
your gentle but firm freedom sunlight steps
on the fertile ground of fearlessness.

And I heard millions of tears of joy, falling from above,
I smelled a symphony of inspiration,
in a feast of redwoods witnessing our awakening
while telling us that life is a Cosmic intervention in every detail.
Then the resistance gardens of my lungs
were filled with the oxygen of courage and compassion.

What is more full of life?
The after-rain in the green dense growth of trees,
another Universe’s party sharing the surplus, or
the alive Amazon in your kind eyes,
and the droplets of hope hanging for just one more second
onto the beautiful flowers and leafs and dreams
for they never give up what they believe in?

And even a dying bush is a miracle
seen by the light of your forgiving eyes,
those drops of satyagraha defying the authority of the gravity of poverty…
millions of mirrors hanging in there, alive, with their transparency,
in a revolution of beauty and generosity,
reflecting your face in every direction.

The equanimity of generations of thirsty citizen ferns
who have patiently waited for the rain of justice
and have learnt the lesson of billions of years of cooperation
while observing competitive aggressive species
coming and going.

The soft fresh carpet of colorful green mosses
capturing the awe of our moistening evolution,
kissing the trunk of a graceful Ahimsa oak
in the winter of scarcity.

Then the roaring of the wind and a choir of crisis
intimidating for its invitation to fly above the crumbling structures…
a majestic concert of percussions of molecules
knocking the resistance drums of our skin
embracing our two times 30 trillion cells…
and we stop WALKing and pretend that we fly with open arms
and then the wise red tail hawk shows us the way:
unperturbed by the currents of change,
sees the clouds passing by in stillness, flying in stillness,
sharing the secret of how the divine reveals to life.

My Dear you say it is just the flow of life
and I only surrender to the Angel of My Angel.
because there is no way I can get lost,
there is no way I can fall,
with your love as support
in this impermanent World.

Because the beauty lies
in the realization that
when we WALK with an angel,
you will fly in stillness
within the Cosmos of your being,
and you will loose all notions of boundaries
to join the timeless universality of our Clear Light.

Nothing in the Universe can prevent the collapse
of the luminous star before a supernova,
as my love for you, and for humanity, My Angel,
is unstoppable.

WALK with an Angel and feel the radiation of the explosion of the New Renaissance;
WALK with an Angel and create the building blocks of community;
WALK with an Angel and let our own light shine;
WALK with an Angel and feel how we are liberated from our own fear;
WALK with an Angel and witness how our presence automatically liberates others;
WALK with an Angel and understand that we are not leaderless but leader-full.

Your Angel awaits in the mantram of your breath,
and in between your inhale and exhale,
I will join you in our Cosmic celebration.

Please WALK with your Angel, Our Angel, and fly with us.

1Music2Unify and the TREEvolution
You just awakened the poet and rapper in me,
the soul-force and satyagraha said Gandhiji

The longest night 
gives way to the stronger lights 
so that I prolong this fight 
to what’s wrong it’s right.

‘cuz the Universe is a communion of subjects
not a collection of objects.
Be the change and feel life’s interconnectedness
while weaving solidarity, truth and kindness.

We are planetizing the movement
with every action, in every moment,
with the peoples of the Earth, 
and every revolutionaries’ breath,
with the emancipated borders,
with the courage of the warriors and the passion of the lovers.

And Mohandas awoke, and Cesar fasted, and Rosa sat, and Martin walked, and Barack ran and Yes! We can!

And this is our core, our strength and unity:
to evolve from consumerism to community,
and it’s not new, it’s as ancient as Astronomy
Do you feel me bro? It’s just the old gift-economy! ;-) 


Fearless Service
Be kind to your sleeping heart,
take it out to the vast fields of light
and let it breathe.
I used to have an armor
around my spirit
and then I learnt
that clad in the panoply of love
human hatred cannot reach you.

Now the Universe is hiding again in my heart
and I cannot cease to celebrate.

Bring the face of your Beloved before you
as I do when I see your face
in the sky of your dancing joy.
Then you put your lips on my lips
and lit another holy lamp inside my heart.

It is ecstasy to discover
that your unbearable Divine Light,
My Angel, is inside of me too.
I don’t know more than you do,
because I am your other you
and you are my other I,
the balanced Cosmic Communion of WE,
in service for all.

The Inner Revolution
After a deep meditation,
I felt the sweet breath of Mahatmaji,
surrounding me…

He wiped the cold tear in my cheek
and he whispered his advise in my ear:
“In the middle of a warm hug
and her gorgeous smile,
tell her: I love you, I forgive you, I bless you,
I’m still committed to you
and, I trust you and your higher-self”.

As I was delivering the message to My Life,
his astronomical magic appeared
and never left my stronger heart in bliss
because each heartbeat is the softest kiss.

Awakened Flight
It is our responsibility to try to persuade our people to not walk over the cliff.
If we fail to show them the different paths of light to change their belief,
it is also our responsibility to construct, for all,
a net of kindness, love and compassion for their fall.

Love and Life: The Quintessential Symbiosis
Our star, blind is
to the beauty of Earth without sunlight
and futile are the attempts of life
to survive without these unconditional love rays.

…the radiant glorious Full Moon
is just a fierce mirror of the source of life;
and the humble New Moon
loves the right time for action to eclipse your heart…

in between thoughts;
in between the sighs of the photons of love;
your presence, my dear, immersed when exhale becomes inhale…
that’s when we know that the best revenge is forgiveness
when in the silent-passionate-song of the spirit
we understand that the exquisite rhapsody of souls
converge in the infinite silence
where we are not “we” but ONE.

This deep silence, a serenade to the soul,
as shivers tingled down the length
of the essence of my essence
and your music, Beloved One,
transcend senses and generations,
because our uncovered Self is clearly infinite
in the great and in the small.
That’s the everlasting changeless nature of impermanence:
the wellspring of life.

How can I love life so intensely without grasping it at the heart?
How can I make truth real without living it at thought, word and action?
How can I serve all life without feeling inseparable from the Universe?
How can life manifest without your sunlight?
How can life be brought to clear focus without the awareness of death?
How can truth be transmitted without touching one another’s soul?

Who would not welcome us, my angel, when our heart is filled with nothing but love?

Love and Life,
as the non fragmented existence of our collective being,
as a fractal of compassion, courage and wisdom,
is the Quintessential Symbiosis.


The Generous Photon
How do you thank the persistent photon whose 150-million-kilometer pilgrimage,
in the middle of the winter,
ended up in your skin with a warm kiss?

Or the historic ones who traveled 5 times that distance and more,
during the obscurantism show,
to illuminate those glorious moons
that brought Humanity’s Renaissance four centuries ago?

Have you ever welcomed, with the windows of your soul,
those pieces of light who have bounced off from the rings of Saturn?
What did you say? What did you feel? What is your almighty role?

Have you assimilated, my angel,
that letter of love from the Universe
describing a brave photon from Andromeda,
who left his home in a poetic verse,
2.5 million years ago,
and traveled for trillions of dark miles
with the only purpose
to greet your fascinating eyes
immersed in astonishment with the Magnificent Divine?

Thus, Beloved One, your millions of tenacious photons of love and courage
permeate every corner of this planet.
It is their unstoppable loadstone task,
to reach your charming beating magnet,
and more sooner than later, those photons of The Great Turning
will merge with your servant heart, my darling.

Even if it is just one, wouldn’t you be grateful?

The existence of a photon satyagrahi,  
dispel darkness and brings light.
She says to my ear:
“Light is my nature… what else but light could there be in me?”
For she to be, means to shine.
Giving light is natural for a star. So what’s your star my dear?

Then is when I realized that a photon lives in community too.
Individual photons, from the same source, become ONE wave, not we, not two.
A quantum mystery for your continuous divine path.

It is our collective co-creation of magical light,
a chain of generous photons
moving in stillness at the speed of love
producing smiles.

The illegal lover
The Moon shines in my body 
and so is the Sun and the planets and the stars and the galaxies.
The beautiful light of eternity is within me
but my blind eyes cannot see it.

Then I decided to become your lover…

My love for you, my angel, is written in the history of time
and I need no papers to show it.
My home is everywhere I go, including your heart,
and I need no permission to stay in this part of the planet,
because I adore you.

Bureaucrazy asked for a green card 
but I only have a red heart 
saying your name, Beloved One, in every heartbeat.

And you might build prisons, and borders and walls
but how does the air know the difference?
How do the stars stop shining in the side of your country?
How do the currents in the Oceans stop flowing in between imaginary lines?
How do the magical meteor showers discriminate the non-real divisions below?
How does the Earth pass customs to enter into the SOULar System?
How does the Moon can be chased by “la migra”?
How does the Milky Way get deported from the night sky?
How does the Sun show her passport?
How do the undocumented clouds are blocked from flying to your town?
How do you know the nationality of the oxygen molecules visiting your lungs?
How does the fierce hurricane of my love can be delayed to reach the coasts of your heart?

This is my immigrant illegal love for you:
to block the gates of weapons of hate
to liberate libraries
to emancipate public spaces
to work the land
to nourish your body 
to cherish your soul
to conquer your heart 
with my unconditional love for you, your children and the children of your children.

My illegal love has existed since the beginning of time…
and, as the letters of a lover, as your first kiss, 
you will remember us as new worlds to be discovered.

As citizens of the World,
our illegal love has existed since the beginning of time… 
when you look into our eyes, my dear, 
when we look into each other sunshines 
you will understand how much we love you,
because this is an unconditional timeless borderless love 
that has crossed the entire Universe with the only purpose to hug you.

As citizens of the World,
our planetary letters will penetrate the walls of prisons 
to tear down the imperial dehumanization 
with hope, truth, detachment and love.

As citizens of the World,
our visa is that of the disobedient-servant-cross-pollinating monarch butterflies 
or that of the subversive meditative gray whales.
We will cross the oceans to heal your children
and to bring smiles to your communities.

In an illegal Big Bang of service in stillness, 
our humble love for you, my angel, 
is filling your Supreme Soul 
with an ever expanding happiness, aliveness and joy.

About Radical Love
So, Beloved One, you asked what does it mean to love you subversively?

To serve with no strings attached, just for the sake of giving, that’s subversive.
To call you my family in the optical delusion of separateness, that’s subversive.
To greet you with a kiss and a hug in the isolation paradigm, that’s subversive.
So, my dear, feel my lips, my arms and my unconditional service holding you tight, 
embracing you in community.

To walk and to ride a bike when the sweating-spiraling-pale-blue pearl already passed 350, that’s subversive.
A community garden in the midst of the asphalt jungle, that’s subversive.
To plant a tree not for us but for future generations to rejoice, that’s subversive.
So, my angel, enjoy the fresh-organic-superlocal honey of our dreams, shadows and juicy fruits of harmony.

To visit 2 million flower homes to extract a pound of sweet smiles, that’s subversive.
To cook once a week for more than a decade while opening the doors of your home to everybody, that’s subversive.
A Wednesday, a kitchen, a clinic, a farm stand, a magazine, a museum, a filmmaker… 
all ran by love in a materialistic society, that’s subversive.
So, my dear, make prophets not profits, and be subversive.

To listen emphatically when everybody talks, that’s subversive.
To be in silence in the urban brazen din and noise, that’s subversive.
Ildefonso, a 27 year old deaf languageless brother who wasn’t able to understand the concept of “country”, that’s subversive.
The same brother asking why in “dark skin land” he starves but in “light skin land” he doesn’t, that’s subversive.
So, my dear, with tears of joy in my eyes, following Ildefonso’s music,
I’ll meet you there in the Colorless Skin Land 
where we all converge to Be In Receptive Silence, 
where we all are pure, happy, brave, still… ONE.

To be still in the middle of the rushing city, that’s subversive.
To be courageous and kind in the midst of violence, that’s subversive.
To strive for the soul of life in perfection, that’s subversive.
So, my Love, live in ultimate perfection: wholeness.
Ultimate perfection, my angel, has a way of protecting itself 
by always showing us there are a few more details to finish.

To let the stars and the galaxies kiss your skin, that’s subversive.
To send a wholesome hand written love letter in the email era, that’s subversive.
To love all living beings with no strings attached, that’s subversive.
To have fun in the insurgence learning movement, that’s subversive.

Thank you Beloved One, 
now we know that another name for subversive 
is radical love.

This sky where we live
is no place to lose our wings
so love, love, love!

Awake, Arise and Act
now is the time 
it’s time to join together
it’s time to love as ONE
to find a place to park your spirit
and fly
silence within silence
but there’s scattered energy 
living without purpose
in violence, in noise, in disrespect…
hatred dissolves in the presence of love
souls in receptive silence
the new paradigm
space between space
reflection of the best of us
saluting peace officers
climbing the slippery mountain of impossible
for a painful success of shining eyes
our bare foot love
carried by an unstoppable soul
of the Feminine Divine 
determined to make it
ONE step at a time

a poet on the clouds
rooted in his heart
a fierce mom radiating joy
in the landscape of fearlessness
a Ramadan faster in solidarity with Iraqi widows
embodying the spark of life from the other side of the Planet
a permacuturalist of the heart
planting more dreams already reality
a homeful isolated heart 
ignored by many
invited to a delicious schizophrenic dinner:
a feast of radical love

experiments 
growing in generosity and courage
a happy welcome minister in stillness
being kind to each other
peace having done the right thing
a pen of inspiration
home-made harmony fortune
a love drive
a love muffin
a love cookie
a love warrior
a server named smile
a singer on fire
abundance of inspiration
abundance of excitement
abundance of enthusiasm
abundance of (r)evolution
abundance of fun
abundance of insurgence
abundance of ONEness
abundance of abundance

tears of hope
tears of happiness
tears of harmony
tears of possibility
tears of carpe diem
tears of Ahimsa
tears of Satyagraha
tears of tears
all in our eyes 
working as lenses
to amplify love
to magnify truth
to host light
as telescopes do
to receive 
the love from the stars

so open up your eyes and see
there’s only ONE humanity
open up your heart and know
there’s only ONE soul
return to love 
return to forgiveness
a wake up call
a wake up song
a wake up concert
a wake up symphony 
that is loving you,
my angel,
between Zero and
ONE.

Again
How do you know if I really love you, my angel?

Look at the blue sky 
as the Sun warms your heart… 
Feel the sound of waves
as the Ocean caresses your mind…
Honor the starry night
as a shooting star crosses the firmament of your spirit… 
My love for you, my angel, will be there again and again and again…

You’ll never know, 1000 years from now
if it’s going to be a cloudy day
nor what’s the shape and outreach of the next wave reaching the shore
nor the exact time for the next shooting star to appear…
but worry not, my Love,
I’ll be there for you, again and again and again…

Live with the material poor
as they enrich you with their millionaire soul wealth…
Rise up with courage 
as injustice and men’s laws are melt down by the heat of fearless satyagrahis…
Lead an inner and outer (R)evolution
as you serve with ONEness, compassion, atonement and forgiveness…
My love for you, my angel, will be there again and again and again…

You’ll never know how the generous spirit 
of humble people will transform you
nor if the stillness of your heart and your means will be challenged enough
nor the immediate success of the fruits and ripples of the Total (R)evolution of the Human Spirit…
but worry not, my Divine Lover,
I’ll forgive but not forget and my love for you will be there, again and again and again…

Enjoy the slow compassionate science
as the precision of its predictions reveal the secrets of the Cosmos…
Be astonished by the generositree of plants
as they create free oxygen for our survival… 
Mimic the wholeness of life
as you copy the principles, organize from the bottom up, reward cooperation, promote diversity and foster resilience…
My love for you in Unity, my dear, will be there again and again and again…

You’ll never know the sense of awe and wonder
from the new discoveries to come
nor the uncountable ways Nature acknowledges interdependence 
nor the creativity to run with light from the closest star
but worry not, my angel,
I will share the surplus of my Biomimicry, inspiration and love with you, again and again and again…

Read the verses
as my soul embraces your being…
Praise the bee flying
as she collects nectar for your sweet tea…
Smile at a baby
as he shares his unconditional love with you…
My love for you, my angel, will be there again and again and again…

You’ll never know which bee 
shared the honey you are eating
nor the color of the eyes of the next new born smiling at you
nor the power of the next poem flowing through me…
but worry not, my angel,
My love for you will be there, again and again and again…

Like the Milky Way appearing in the bed of the night sky 
Like the Sun kissing the elder Redwood 
Like the Air sighing in your lungs 
again and again and again…

Any time, any where, I’ll be waiting for you 
to make love to you in receptive silence 
again and again and again…

So it is true Beloved One!
The Cosmos bends towards justice
and Our Universal Love
will reach you in infinite ways
as we love you
again and again and again…

Elizabeth Snowing
I dreamed about you, pregnant with the liberated daughter of the World.
The umbilical cord of understanding was around her neck
but the peaceful flexible womb of your compassion disentangled all conflicts
and the yogi gave birth to the most profound attentive happy eyes I ever seen…
they are the expression of Nature’s love.
She looked at me and pierced my spirit so deeply
that only oneness was left on our bodies.
The feeling of becoming a father.

On the fourth day,
I asked to the Universe of Love
to see the Cosmos as it is.
The answer, among impermanence,
were thousands of graceful big cold snowflakes
flying and disappearing, coming and going…
melting away as soon as they were kissed by the warm ground or by my skin.

You were, once again, everywhere…You were snowing.

A perfect snowflake
became a droplet on my palm in a magic landing.
The moistened total awareness of the mouths of my pores invited you to infiltrate in me.
As the thirst of the soul was quenched,
I equanimously recalled once more, Elizabeth Snowing,
that you and I are not we,
but you and I are ONE.

The True Red Pencil
Emerged from the kisses of your eyes
was my need to be in love with all life;
the kind of love and the will
that come when the mind is still.

I didn’t know what real love was
until I loved all.
When my mind is still
I see everybody as my own self,
as my own blood.

At the still center within the heart,
same spot where the dagger pierced,
is where I found you, Beloved One.

Painful if we resist,
joyful if we surrender
to its petals
to its divine flow
to its detached nature.

We can never know what real joy is
until the mind is still…
a mind at rest and a heart full of love
is the true red pencil that panted
these verses from above.

A Butterfly living on the Moon
When silence replaces the truth
the silence itself is a lie
break the silence!
be a citizen of consciousness

drink from the fountain of present
it clears the regrets from the past and future fears
for today prepare?
after tomorrow stare?
the happiness and power of stillness is not here nor there!

the only deserts are lack of  imagination, lack of enthusiasm
bath in the lake of now and rekindle the creative spirit
be attentive as when your sibling bled
there is no place for only the intellectual head
because we all know the heart is red
and go further so that the soul is fed

You are not just a star in the galaxy, you are also the mighty galaxy in the star
You are not just a soul in the Universal Love, you are also the mighty Universal Love in the soul
Speak up and join us to be in receptive silence
Learn the art of simplicity
To rejoice our moral grandeur and spiritual audacity

Gracias Luna! For loudly kissing your winged daughter
with the roots, the branches, the fruits and the flower
altogether strengthened her soul force: our real power.

The Eternal Cloth
Your being, Beloved Angel, fills
my spirit with courage to cross the highways of injustice
my heart with compassion to eradicate the abyss of indifference
my mind with understanding to discover there are no enemies.

(Y)our love, Beloved One, is an eternal shield of truth
witnessing mountains as slow waves
listening in-between Big-Bangs as rest note in the song of the Cosmos
caressing the Milky Way as soft canopies of our ancestors flying through space
tasting oceans and lakes and rivers as tea of evolution
smelling the stars as dust of life…

your eyes impossibly loving
your ears impossibly attentive
your touch impossibly gentle
your mouth impossibly smiling
your smell impossibly fragrant.

But our still minds,
merged in the glory of silence as ONE,
tapping into the impermanence of all,
generous with all sensations,
imagining our expansive joy,
are divine power and the possibility for Freedom.

Let’s walk side by side towards the Moon of United Souls in the path of community!
Let’s kiss Justice on the lips!
Let’s bow to each other bending the body of service with the-palms-together of love and respect!
Let’s feel the tears of gratitude from a being overflowing with love!
Let’s embrace in a sublime equanimous Planetary hug!

Beloved One, it is through the patient cotton of fearless kindness,
and its indescribable beauty,
that our hearts are warmly weaved forever.