"Respect all religions and no preference ..."

New Thought News Service photographers Ariane Davis and Wes Yarborough photographed His Holiness the Dalai Lama from their front-row seats at the closing ceremony. At right, Joy Wandin Murphy, a senior Aboriginal woman of the Wurundjeri people, greets the Dalai Lama following chanting by the Gyuto monks. At lower right, the  

Dalai Lama takes in cellist Michael Fitzpatrick's solo, "Invocation for World Peace." At left, His Holiness reminds a rapt audience of the call to honor all spiritual paths. "All carry the same message, same sort of practices," he said. "We practice same sort of idea." Contradictions within and between the religious traditions, the Dalai Lama said, meet the needs of people with different dispositions. "It is necessary to have a variety of different religious traditions."

   

Living sacraments: a conversation with Lisa Ferraro and Erika Luckett

By Katie Dutcher
New Thought News Service


The minute Erika Luckett steps up to the microphone, you can tell that something magical is about to happen. 
She pauses for a moment, eyes closed, and you get the impression that she's listening for something. 
Then all of a sudden, the hands that have been frozen on the guitar come to life, and the music that pours forth has a spark and an energy to it that is absolutely unmistakable. A moment later, Erika's deep, rich alto voice is joined by Lisa Ferarro's almost ephemeral mezzo-soprano; the voices blend together so beautifully that at first you might not realize that a second voice has come in.
The sound they create is rich, textured, and complex, and more than any other duo I have ever heard, they sound and sing as one.
 Erika and Lisa have been writing and performing together for a little over three years. They met as solo artists in 2006, but it wasn't until the 2007 United Centers for Spiritual Gathering that they first created music together. The chant they sang together awakened something in both of them; they realized right away that "something was wanting to come through." 
As a duo, they are recognized for their presence, inspiring songs and musical renditions of the poetry of Rumi, sacred, powerful chants and songs that bring the words of one of Sufism's most beloved mystics to life. Below, their thoughts on their music and the human sacrament – which a talk with them reveals are two sides of the same coin.

On songwriting

(Songwriting) is about being open. When you're open, thoughts will come together in ways they normally wouldn't. For us, writing is a process of deep listening – listening with our entire body. Feeling what wisdom is trying to come through us. Ideas, they're not something that you create. They're already there, all around you, all the time – you just need to listen and pick up on them. When we write songs, we sometimes feel like we're walking into ideas … When we're open to what ideas are trying to emerge, whether it's the key, the beat, the rhythm, the lyrics, things just arrange themselves. Music has been our greatest teacher in the lesson of surrendering. To think that we are conjuring this music, that it's coming from us, is absurd – and the quick path to writer's block. The music comes through us. We're just vessels.

On the human sacrament

What we try to do with our music, and in our lives, is to be an awake citizen on the planet in the highest capacity we can. Just to embody living in a place of connection with everyone else. Transmitting that (sense of) connection is a human sacrament. We see our role as reminding everybody of that sacrament. The radio of God is on all the time. It's up to us to keep our connection to it clear … It's about being willing. That word, willing – it concerns the will. Where are we directing our will? We're always directing it somewhere, even if we're not aware of it. We're using our will in every moment. Where do we choose to direct our will?... We can be so asleep to our magnificence sometimes. We are the Creator. We are masterfully creating a work of art that is our life. We are reflections of the Divine – it's just about how much we step into that. It's our choice to imbue our lives with divinity, and become magnifiers of the divine.

On their music

Music (is something that) speaks to our heart and to both sides of our mind. With music, sometimes people can't handle it, because they feel something. Music can make you feel out of control. It opens you up in ways that other things can't … We try to keep subtlety in our music and work. We try not to tell you what we're doing. What we like to do is create the opportunity for (someone to have) an experience. We want to meet you where you are; we have no attachment to how (our music) is supposed to be experienced. Our highest intention is to create a space for someone to wake up to something … Music is the way God speaks to us most clearly. It's such a blessing to be here, to do this work with each other, and become co-creators with the Divine. It's such a blessing. We're so grateful.

Rastafari's ancient future, foretold by a believer

By Susana Wolds

New Thought News Service

Rastafari made an appearance on the world's stage this week.  

In the spotlight was Yasus Afari, the Rasta ambassador to the Melbourne Parliament. Emphasizing the individual's connection to all of creation and to Jah, the divine, in a workshop on the philosophy, Afari explained how the human family must usher in the future by honoring the past.

"Humanity is the temple of the most high," Afari said in discussing human spiritual identity. "We say 'I and I' to invoke our oneness with God as our true essence.

"This reminds us who we are," he said, pointing to the bundle of locks atop his head.  

Afari explained family as a sacred expression as well. 

"If we are the children of Jah, then Jah must have a wife."  Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, the representation of God for Rastafari believers, desired that the empress be recognized with the same pageantry as he was, Afari noted, which reminded Selassie's people that God is both masculine and feminine.

"Religions are fingers on the hand of the Almighty," Afari said. "Our spirituality is to be used as a tool for liberation and enlightenment."

Alluding to holy scripture, Afari said humanity will witness the Genesis of a new era when "international morality and the rule of conscience" cure the shared plagues of hunger, war, disease and ignorance.  

Rastafari envisions a future in which we blend the best of ancient traditions with the best of contemporary reality.

"Don't forget your roots," Afari advised his audience. "Don't lose your knowledge of the land, of food and of the herbs. We need this knowledge for the future." 

In the photo above, Afari gives his audience a moment to take it all in. "Let's take a breather," he says, and plays Bob Marley's "Exodus" as people relax and begin to move to the rhythm. Marley's music carries the vision of Rastafari: one human family marching towards an ancient future, a movement of the people. Photo by Susana Wolds.

A Jain's life of service, on display at the Parliament

By Olivia Ware

New Thought News Service

Jainism is a faith deeply rooted in nonviolence. Followers of the Jain faith take care in the simple act of breathing so as not to harm bacteria or the most miniscule insect. For Jain adherent Asha Mehendra Mehta, "healing the earth means nonviolence." Compassion is at the center of everything that is Jainism. 

Asha Mehta wants to show the world what Jainism is through good acts and the "art of enlightenment," and participated in the Parliament with that in mind. A collection of her paintings, embodying Jainist tenets, was on exhibition throughout the event. In addition to her art, Asha Mehta is immersed in numerous goodwill efforts, including a project that has supplied more than 25,000 disabled and hearing-impaired people with wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs, crutches, hearing machines and more for free. The group is funded by friends and corporations devoted to causes aligned with Jain principles. 

She is also involved with Food for Education, an organization that feeds children who attend school and helps those affected by disasters.

Why has Asha Mehta done all of this?

"Service to humanity is service to God," she explained simply.

Dalai Lama calls for action at Parliament's close

By Olivia Ware

New Thought News Service

Words are inadequate to describe experiencing His Holiness the Dalai Lama speak at the Parliament of the World's Religions. At age 16, I was in the front row for the closing ceremony, in the midst of dozens of flashing cameras!

The

Dalai Lama

charmed his audience from the moment he stepped on stage.

"Oh, living! Quite warm!" he said as Joy Wandin Murphy, a senior Aboriginal woman of the Wurundjeri people, presented him with an animal skin and a eucalyptus branch. His Holiness laughed and smiled broadly during the performances that followed, and went out of his way to thank the Aboriginal musicians and other artists that took part in the Wednesday afternoon culmination of the weeklong Parliament.

The Dalai Lama commended the work that was done at the Parliament, but reminded us that action is necessary as participants return home. He smiled while saying that sometimes big gatherings can simply be social events, and it is what takes place afterward that truly makes a difference. 

If nothing is done in the next five years, the Dalai Lama said, the 2009 Parliament may be regarded as a "sleepy" group by the world.

Parliament organizers took the occasion of the closing ceremony to publicize a new way for attendees to stay connected until the 2014 gathering. A new social network called PeaceNext.org will let people keep in contact, share ideas and expand Parliament-related activities.

Photos, at top, Parliament delegates sign a banner meant for the Copenhagen climate change summit, and above, attendees share an embrace as the last day comes to a close. Photos by Ariane Davis and Wes Yarborough. Wes Yarborough contributed to this report.

New Thought finding its voice in the global family

New Thought News Service

The “10 families” of New Thought traveled to Melbourne as a delegation. 

On Wednesday, as Parliament attendees rushed between meeting rooms to last workshops, films and lectures, New Thought participants expressed the idea that not only are they leaving as one family, but that they feel like increasingly visible members of a global family of faith.

“I really feel like the New Thought communities were extremely unified, extremely connected,” said Rev. Dr. Michelle Medrano, Core Council chairperson for the United Centers for Spiritual Living and spiritual director of the New Vision Spiritual Growth Center in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Medrano was one of the handful of New Thought representatives who attended the first “modern” Parliament, held in 1993 in Chicago. From that half-dozen or so people, the New Thought delegation grew this year to about 250, including roughly a dozen program presenters.

“It says not only that New Thought is more interested in the Parliament, but that the Parliament is more interested in  New Thought,” Medrano said.

It was the first Parliament for Joe Murray, Youth Community Leader for the United Centers for Spiritual Living and a member of the Hilltop Center for Spiritual Living in Fallbrook, Calif. It was a first for Murray in other ways as well.

“This is the first time I’ve seen my faith, my philosophical background, co-mingling on such a big scale with other faith communities,” he said. “I’ve had an opportunity to see so many different people from all over the world representing all different religions and in many ways, it feels like a New Thought gathering.”

If it felt like a New Thought gathering, it may be because so many of the spiritual threads that run through New Thought stem from many of the traditions represented in Melbourne.

“It’s funny how I kept thinking in these workshops, ‘I’m a Hindu, I’m a Sikh, I’m a Muslim,’” Medrano said. “There’s more that unites us than separates us.

“This is a model for how the world could be.”

Murray and other delegates have been struck by the environment of interest and warm regard created and sustained throughout the weeklong event. 

“The undercurrent of interaction, love and friendliness that I feel at a New Thought gathering, I feel here,” Murray said. “I share a smile with everyone that passes, and I feel that mutual respect and acceptance, even if I don’t interact with that person for more than 10 seconds.”

New Thought leaders have hoped to take the opportunity of the Parliament to raise the movement’s profile. On Wednesday, several delegates expressed satisfaction that the aim had been achieved. And it was the small, spontaneous chats that often made the strongest impressions.

“In terms of the (Friday New Thought) presentation, I expected people to have more curiosity,” Medrano said. “But then I reflected back on how often I’d had talks with people.Often that’s the importance of conferences, one on one.”

“I’ve been more inclined to stay out of the sessions and absorb the experiences between sessions, in passing,” Murray said. “It’s these interpersonal interactions that have been most rewarding for me, as well as being able to explore Melbourne.”

Murray expressed the view of many in summing up the week.
"I'm grateful for this opportunity. I really am."

At left, Rev. Dr. Kathy Hearn, community spiritual leader of the United Centers for Spiritual Living, Frank zumMallen, president of the Affiliated New Thought Network, and Rev. Dr. Kenn Gordon, president of the International Centers for Spiritual Living talk about New Thought's presence at the Parliament. Above, Rev. Keith Cox of ICSL, Katie Dutcher of the New Thought News Service and Rev. Jacqueline Triche Atkins, executive minister of the Power Circle Congregation in Chicago. Photos by Ariane Davis.

Listening to the land

By Alexis Yancey Jaami
New Thought News Service

A Parliament participant thanks Miriam-Rose 

Ungunmerr-Baumann after her talk.

"We still wait for the white man to understand our ways. We certainly spent a lot of time learning theirs," said Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann, quietly but firmly, in discussing injustices experienced by her people, the Aboriginals of Australia.

Ungunmarr-Baumann's people find strength in Dadirri meditation; her face shows that the strength sustaining the community is alive and well.

"I was born under a tree ... and that place has very special meaning for me. We have not lost our spirit of Dadirri. It's the way we strengthen ourselves."

During a Sunday workshop at the Parliament, Ungunmerr-Baumann demonstrated the practice, which involves listening deeply to the land and connecting to the Earth, which the Aborigines consider their mother.
"There are deep springs within each of us," she explained. "These springs are the Spirit of God, the sound of deep calling to deep. This is the sound of Jesus. Faith is in the feet. We have connection to the land. If you visit my community, we mostly sit on the ground and that's our connection."

The workshop, "Maori Custom Law and Listening to the Land – Australian Aboriginal Meditation," also featured Merekaraka Caesar, a Wahine Moria of Queensland, who echoed Ungunmerr-Baumann's observations. 
"I am sitting here with my shoes removed. That's my connection to Mother Earth," Caesar said.
She told attendees about Tikanga, or Maori custom law. Handed down from her Tipuna, or ancestors, the law is a practical, vibrant, living part of Maori culture.
"Tikanga is from our God and our ancestors and gives spiritual guidelines from the beginning of time when we stood as eternal brothers and sisters," Caesar said.

It has only been 10 years, she said, that the government has allowed her native language to be taught in schools. 
"In six months, the government will give back to us land we tended for Mother Earth and they are only charging us 2 percent," she said. "Some of my people are angry about that, but I say be grateful it's only 2 percent."

A gay man from Los Angeles asked Ungunmerr-Baumann what he could do to stand up for himself when facing discrimination in America.  
"The first thing is finding out about yourself," she advised. "Find out who you are. I feel confident in who I am and where I come from. I just keep walking."

"Unite with those who think the same and then build up the numbers of those who think the same," Caesar said. "This is the right season in the world for change. It's the people's turn.  Put up your hand if you agree with me."  
The visibly moved participants raised their hands.

Maori Merekaraka Caesar meets 
with workshop attendees.

For popular singer, creativity's the ticket up and out

By Roya Camp
New Thought News Service

Self-expression was Zain Bhikha's way out of apartheid South Africa and into a life of music. He spent the weekend at the Parliament, talking about how important it is for young people to tap their creativity – and modeling the results of his own lifelong experiment in just how far personal creativity can reach.
Bhikha was 19 when a childhood friend was shot and killed. And while he'd always had a passion for singing, he hadn't tapped into music as a vehicle through which to explore emotions and feelings.
He'd never had musical training but decided to enter a song competition. He won, and went on to record a first album, of Islamic songs.
That album caught the attention of Yusuf Islam, known more commonly to the non-Muslim world as Cat Stevens. Bhikha has since recorded other albums, and travels widely to perform his Islamic pop and nasheed music.
In his weekend Parliament youth workshop, "The Art of Creative Expression," Bhikha spoke about the importance of letting young people have the latitude to do the sort of exploring he'd done.
"They're so afraid of being judged. Unfortunately, we judge our young people all too quickly," he said.
His advice for youths?
• Take a chance.
• Have passion and belief.
• Respect all people.
Bhikha chose to channel complex feelings about apartheid and the death of his friend in constructive, creative ways. This weekend, he said, and showed, that response is an individual decision.
"Sink or swim? Become bitter or better?" Those, for him, are the questions. It's up to us to know the answers.
"You decide," he said. "Don't blame anyone else for who you are."

Being a door: a conversation with Jeremy Donovan

By Katie Dutcher

New Thought News Service

Jeremy Donovan is an indigenous Australian who bears many titles: didgeridoo player, international speaker, traditional healer, youth worker. 

His business card, however, reads simply "Jeremy Donovan – Keeper of Wisdom." 

New Thought delegates at the Parliament this week were treated to a special visit by Donovan; following are excerpts of an interview I conducted with this inspired and inspiring man.

On his grandfather

I met my grandfather when I was 16, and he died when I was 22. I only had six years with him. And people ask me, "How could you have learned everything you learned from him (in such a short time)?" And I say, you know what, I learned more from my grandfather when he passed away than in the six years I sat with him. Because now I feel him, and I smell him, and I recognize him everywhere I go … 

No matter where I am, even if I'm sitting in the desert by myself, I'm not alone. Because this is a living place. The spirit of the people is still living. I want people to realize that we can still learn from our ancestors' hearts, even though they're not here to teach us. The spirit of them is still there. And you just have to go internally to find that spirit ...

Knowing the history and knowing what my grandfather was forced to live through (as an indigenous Australian) inspired me. (I realized) that I'm indigenous in this day and age. So I have the opportunity for a voice, where my grandfather didn't. If I've been given that opportunity, I need to use it to create change, so our next generation doesn't have to live through what my grandfather's generation lived through.

On his past

In the presentations that I have, I (always) talk about the troubles that I went through. I don't pretend that I wasn't involved in criminal activity at one time. I'll never hide that. I'll always let people know that … Because if I hadn't gone to jail, I wouldn't be the person that I am today. And it's because sitting in jail taught me to sit in darkness. If you've never seen light before, how do you know what it looks like? The only way to understand what light looks like is to sit in darkness ... My grandfather, being a traditional person, never talked about light, but he talked about the moon, because that's the brightest thing you can see in the midst of the night. He would say to me, "Son, if you can sit in this (dark) room and still find the moon, then you'll find yourself." ... (It became) about embracing the shadows. Embracing everything that was painful in my life, and really loving it. Learning to love everything that hurt you the most. And then being good with it, and accepting that that is not who you are. The pain you've experienced, it's not who you are. But it's part of your journey – your book. 

My grandfather used to say  "Son, you're a book. And if you don't like a chapter, you can't just tear it out. That's all you. That's always going to be there – otherwise there would be a broken binding."

On shoes and the land

I can't wear shoes. I don't like wearing shoes. When I have to do that, I'm uncomfortable. For me, these flip flops, that's the closest you're going to get me to shoes without me being uncomfortable, and even then I'll usually be carrying them ...I like to be able to feel the land I'm walking on – even if it is blanketed by concrete, it's still land. Beneath this, is land. And that's what I want to feel …

When I go to a new location, the first thing I do is often just walk around and touch everything that's living. So I'll touch the trees, or sit on the grass. Because that's stuff that is deeply connected to the earth, and that's what I'm connected to. 

I really know that I will never have ownership of land, that the land will always have ownership of me, and that I'm just part of it. In the great cycle of things, the physicalness of me will eventually end up back in the land. When I die, it's not like I'm just going to spontaneously combust. Eventually, there's going to come a time when I die, and then I will turn to ashes, and my ashes will go back into the land.

On God

You know, I wasn't good with the word "God," because it was too Biblical for me … So I asked my granddad, "What is God?" And my grandfather said, "I'll have to show you what God is." So one night, late at night, my grandfather woke me up and he said, "I'm going to take you and show you God." And so my grandfather walked me, in the midst of the darkness, to the top of a cliff. And we stood there, and the sky was littered with stars, and the wind was blowing, and there was so much noise from different things, and my grandfather said, "Look out there." And I looked. And he said, "That's it." And I said, "What?" And he said, "This is God. What is God? God is everything. That's (Yurra Binna) – Our Creator"…

Our traditional wisdom, it's so true to everything that's ever been argued about in biblical religions, or even in the New Thought religions. Yesterday, I was listening to the "founders of New Thought" speak, and I thought ... "Wait a minute! We're the founders of New Thought! Our paintings are 40,000 years old!"

On his identity and message

What I really want to do is change the perceptions of people (about indigenous Australians). I don't have to look like what the stereotype says I'm supposed to look like to hold that (indigenous) wisdom, that message. I don't have to wear a little loincloth and be covered in paint to still be aboriginal. When I wear a Ralph Lauren shirt, and a bright pink one at that, it doesn't make me not aboriginal … The clothes, the paint, that's not what creates my identity. It's what's within, and the words that I have to share. That's when you'll really get to understand my identity – when you feel my words or you listen to the words that I have to share …

For me, (my work) is about getting people to see indigenous culture in a way that's not fairy-tale-based or mystical-based, just as a real culture. It's living – it's always going to be living. Even if we come to the sad place where there's not a single indigenous person left in this country, it's still here and it's still living. And that's what I want people to see … 

When people hear me speak, they hear an indigenous man speak about indigenous life and how he resurrected his life with culture. And they see someone that's full of pride. Nothing makes me more proud than performing or speaking or sharing my story with people. Because I know where I've come from. There's never a moment in my life when I paint my body, or stand up onstage in regular clothes and speak, that I'm not drawn to tears …

My grandfather used to say, "Son, you are a door. It is up to the people to choose to walk through that door." We have no idea the effect we have on people. All we can do is just become that door. You can't force people to walk through your door … not everyone is going to want to come through it. But you can be that door. And if people want to knock on it and come through, they're the ones that you can touch. You just have to be present and allow people the opportunity – to just ensure that the door is there.

Parliament director sees strength at the grassroots level

By Olivia Ware

New Thought News Service

As I crept along a conference center wall Friday morning, looking for another glimpse  of enlightenment, a gentleman asked me about my position here at the Parliament. 

After initial greetings and my brief explanation of the New Thought News Service, he introduced himself as Dirk Ficca. Suddenly, I was conversing with the director of the Parliament of the World's Religions himself. And once I had gathered my thoughts, the questions began to flow. 

Ficca told me that since the first modern Parliament, in Chicago in 1993, the Parliament has become more metropolitan and focuses increasingly on grassroot efforts and commitment.

He hopes participants bring their experiences of the Melbourne gathering to their "corners of the world," and that nothing will be left behind, that the learning and the love shared in Australia will transcend the Parliament.

Future Parliaments, Ficca said, will pay "more attention to linking religions" in the areas of business and communication. Speakers at the Thursday  night opening ceremony noted that the faith-based communities are in a good position to help solve some of the world's pressing problems, but can't do the needed work in isolation.

Ficca agreed, saying religion has an "indispensable contribution to make, but not alone."

Dirk Ficca speaks with Sri Karunamayi, a 

presenter at a Friday morning panel.