Velcrow Ripper's Blog (43)

Can Sufism Counter the Taleban?

Sufis by Velcrow Ripper

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7896943.stm

By Barbara Plett

BBC News, Lahore

It's one o'clock in the morning and the night is pounding with

hypnotic rhythms, the air thick with the smoke of incense.

I'm squeezed into a corner of the upper courtyard at the shrine of

Baba Shah Jamal in Lahore, famous for its Thursday night drumming

sessions.

It's packed with young men, swaying to the… Continue

Added by Velcrow Ripper on March 16, 2009 at 3:00pm — 6 Comments

The Gift of Acknowledgement

One of the simplest, most powerful things we can do in our everyday human interactions, is to acknowledge another person. To see them, to give them the gift of empowerment. Costs you nothing, but can be absolutely transformative for that person. It's the stellar opposite of that old stand by - judgement, criticism, disapproval. A spiritual activist looks for ways to encourage, to cajole the best of another, to add fuel to their spark, to light their fire by truly seeing… Continue

Added by Velcrow Ripper on March 16, 2009 at 2:23am — No Comments

Compassion on Two Legs

Spring 2000, Pak Mun Dam, Thailand

I'm at a protest camp in Thailand, on the Mun River, trying to shut down the world banked funded Pak Mun Dam project, which has been devastating communities and eco systems. My Filipino friend Cray and I are having a beer with a couple of hard nosed activists from the anti-fascist squatter scenes of Berlin. Cray let it slip that he is an unapologetic Roman Catholic, like many Filipinos, and it turns out the squatter guy… Continue

Added by Velcrow Ripper on March 12, 2009 at 5:00pm — 2 Comments

Leave Me Alone (Don't Ever!)

I once had a friend who was in a relationship crisis, and he was completely distraught. His life had been dedicated to spiritual practice, and increasingly, to teaching meditation and spiritual thought. He said to me, with a look of confusion, "I can go into deep Samadhi (Samadhi is a high state of meditative awareness) in meditation, but I can't figure out relationships."

I've experienced the same struggle in my own life, and I have a feeling we're not alone. But increasingly, I am… Continue

Added by Velcrow Ripper on March 9, 2009 at 5:14am — 3 Comments

LANTERNS OF MEMORY

Here's a short film I did based around an interview with a Hiroshima Survivor. It was part of a series of short films that later became part of my featured documentary, Scared Sacred.

By the way folks, you can help spread these videos by rating them high and reposting your comments on you… Continue

Added by Velcrow Ripper on March 3, 2009 at 9:30pm — 30 Comments

Velcrow Ripper Talk Part 2

Here's part two of my Fierce Light Talk in Nelson,…

Added by Velcrow Ripper on February 24, 2009 at 11:54pm — No Comments

Velcrow Ripper talk - Part One

Here's part one of a talk I gave in Nelson a few weeks back, the day after a screening of my feature documentary on spiritual activism, "Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets… Continue

Added by Velcrow Ripper on February 24, 2009 at 4:47am — 1 Comment

Grateful Mornings

I’ve recently started waking up every morning with a thought of thankfulness. Taking a few moments before I begin my day, to think of a few things that I can be truly thankful for, sets me on a bouyant path, out of the right side of my bed and into the day. It’s a simple thing, but so easy to forget. Gratitude is a tremendously powerful force that aligns us with an attitude of celebration, openess, spaciousness. Thank you world! Thank you… Continue

Added by Velcrow Ripper on February 23, 2009 at 6:32am — 3 Comments

We Can Offer What We Are

A few years ago, I had the honour of interviewing Alice Walker for my feature documentary, Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action. Alice is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Color Purple, activist and a social visionary who has been a participant in many of the major movements of planetary change, from the American Civil Rights Movement forward. When I stepped into Alice's lovely home in… Continue

Added by Velcrow Ripper on February 20, 2009 at 11:30pm — 3 Comments

Happy True Love Day!

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

-Martin Luther King Jr.

It's Valentines Day! How about we transform a Hallmark occasion into an opportunity to celebrate True Love. The kind of love those icons on the ipeace poster are talking about - Gandhi, The Dalai Lama, John Lennon, Martin Luther King Jr. They knew a thing or two about what true love really… Continue

Added by Velcrow Ripper on February 15, 2009 at 12:30am — 36 Comments

What would love do?

"O Love, O pure deep Love, be here, be now,

Be all – worlds dissolve into your

stainless endless radiance,

Frail living leaves burn with your brighter

than cold stares –

Make me your servant, your breath, your core." - Rumi

What would love do?

Ever asked yourself that question?

See how your day is transformed when you flash yourself awake, before you act.

The next time the phone rings, take a breath,… Continue

Added by Velcrow Ripper on February 4, 2009 at 5:27am — 35 Comments

This Precious Human LIfe

This morning my beloved uncle Bob died of cancer. He passed away gently, in his sleep. Yet another casualty of the cancer epidemic that is sweeping this planet. He contracted cancer from exposure to asbestos at a pulp mill he worked in.

My brother Randy also died of cancer, just a few years ago. Too many of us, far too many of us have been touched by cancers cruel fingers. Although it is often difficult to prove, I believe that the huge spike in cancer we… Continue

Added by Velcrow Ripper on January 31, 2009 at 5:30am — 4 Comments

DO HERE NOW

The old spiritual mantra of Be Here Now needs up dating. Spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen, suggests this one: "do here now." Be Here Now was about stepping into the depth of our Being, truly becoming present, inhabiting this moment, tasting it to the fullest. It's what Ekhart Tolle teaches in such classics as "the power of now." And it is a tremendous starting point. But then what? As Gwen, here on ipeace, recently asked me, "is the purpose of… Continue

Added by Velcrow Ripper on January 27, 2009 at 6:30pm — 1 Comment

NOW

In this moment

The sun glitters breathless and ecstatic

In a clear clear sky

In this moment

A polar bear drowns

From melting ice

Hold on

To it all

Light

Dark

and everything in between

It's all You

Ever wonder

how much

one little heart can hold?

All of it.

There's room for it all.

Sometimes it has to break… Continue

Added by Velcrow Ripper on January 24, 2009 at 4:12am — 3 Comments

DARE TO DREAM!

"Hope and sincerity are the new punk." - Antony

light-person

DARE TO DREAM

For now, let go

Just for now, let it all go

Your worries, your fears

Your addiction to suffering

Put your despair and…

Continue

Added by Velcrow Ripper on January 21, 2009 at 1:30am — 2 Comments

EMERGENCE

Human beings are a complex concoction, a molten mixture of mind, body, spirit, and shadow; a combination of the mental, physical, and spiritual plus all the goop from the dark cellar of our psyches, all coming together to create a fragrant, stinking, steaming sumptuous human stew that is uniquely me, uniquely you. To bring all these elements, and the many elements within these elements, into conscious harmony, to become an integrated… Continue

Added by Velcrow Ripper on January 17, 2009 at 9:42pm — 3 Comments

The Next Step

I was listening to an Enlightenext interview with evolutionary visionary Brian Swimme today, and he talked about the idea that the next phase of evolution will be when we learn to live in a society of “mutually enhancing relationships.”

What a beautiful vision. This is an evolutionary understanding that can apply to every facet of our lives, from the way we interact with each other, to the way we interact… Continue

Added by Velcrow Ripper on January 11, 2009 at 12:50am — 2 Comments

NEW YEARS EVOLUTION

Kay, it’s that time of year when we all are thinking about how we're supposed to be making a bunch of stinking New Years resolutions that we’re never going to keep and that are just going to make us feel bad about ourselves for the next year.

Well my first New Years Evolution is to stop feeling bad about myself for any of my shortcomings - just let that go. But first I have to do a very un-male thing and accept that I actually have a… Continue

Added by Velcrow Ripper on January 2, 2009 at 4:00am — 3 Comments

BLACK - WHITE - AND GREY

I just received a lovely note, and the following letter from Robi Damelin, who I wrote about in my previous blog post "The Courage to Forgive in the Holy Land." She found my recent blog on Ipeace. With Robi's permission, I share this letter from her, written yesterday...

BLACK - WHITE - AND GREY

By Robi Damelin

Of the Bereaved Parents Circle - Families Forum

How I wish I could view life through certain eyes of black and white, and that this grey picture… Continue

Added by Velcrow Ripper on December 31, 2008 at 7:34pm — 2 Comments

THE COURAGE TO FORGIVE IN THE HOLY LAND

In 2004 I visited Israel and Palestine, to film for Scared Sacred, for what was to become the powerful, moving conclusion of the film. Below are some excerpts from my journal. It features a remarkable group of people known as the Bereaved Families Circle, parents of both Israeli's and Palestinians who were killed in the conflict, who have banded to together to say: enough. Enough killing. It's time to stop this… Continue

Added by Velcrow Ripper on December 30, 2008 at 11:00pm — 28 Comments