RADICAL SAGES
by Robert Rabbin
I have always been one of those people who believe they are in this world for a
particular purpose. The poet Rumi said something along these lines: There is one
thing that we all must do. If we do everything else but that one thing, we will
be lost. And if we do nothing else but that one thing, we will have lived a
glorious life. I feel as if these words were encoded in my DNA. I never cared if
that one thing would be world-changing, such as discovering penicillin or
leading people to freedom like Mahatma Gandhi. It could be modest, even
invisible to others. I just wanted to find that one thing which I knew would
make all the atoms of my being spin like whirling dervishes entering ecstasy. My
whole life has been a treasure hunt whose chest of gold was this one thing.
The exquisite poet Mary Oliver wrote, "One day you finally knew what you had to
do, and began." At 54 years of age, I finally knew what I had come here to do,
and I have begun. Here is the genesis, the creation story, of Radical Sages,
which is what I found in my treasure chest.
Up the Mountain
It is important to say from the outset that I am a lifelong mystic, a person who
is intensely interested in "the worthful aspects of reality--its values,
meaning, and purpose..." to borrow Huston Smith's phrase. Mysticism is concerned
with the nature of mind, self, and reality; with issues of identity and
transconceptual truth; it refers to an individual's struggle to attain a clear
vision of reality and the transformation of consciousness that accompanies such
a vision. I write in my essay "If Not Me, Who? If Not Now, When?":
- "When I was 11 years old, I had one of those epiphanies that shape one's
life in unexpected ways. In my case, I developed a restless soul that longed
for missing pieces in the puzzle of living: Who am I? What is my purpose? How
shall I live? A few years later I took to the road on a spiritual quest,
traveling around the world in search of answers to my questions about life and
living, reality and truth, meaning and purpose. I spent the next 25 years
immersed in various non-dual wisdom traditions, including ten years of study
with Swami Muktananda. During those years, I experienced awakenings,
realizations, epiphanies, and transcendent bliss beyond the scope of words.
One day, my search for existential clarity and wholeness came to an end atop a
summit of eternal silence and pure being."
Radical Sages was conceived during these years of mountain climbing and
summit living. My current perspective and opinions are the offspring of this
search and rescue mission for my soul, as is my motivation for social renewal
and political transformation.
I know that "eternal silence and pure being" sounds ethereal, even vague.
Perhaps I can ground it a bit by saying I directly experienced my oneness with
all of life and intuitively understood that love best describes the meaning and
value of existence. If you stop and think about it, this is a common, maybe the
most common, human experience. I will go so far as to say that this experience
of unity in love with all things is the prerequisite for authentic human being.
It connects us to others and to all of life. It bestows wisdom and humility,
love and compassion, tolerance and understanding. From this full heart and mind
and overflowing spirit, we behave in ways that are truthful and transparent, in
service to all. I have traveled around the world and lived in many countries and
cultures. I have not yet met a person who, after some discussion, could not
reveal some similar epiphany.
In these same travels, I have come to see how diverse and varied are the ways in
which people express this fundamental truth about our unity in love with all
existence. In scores of religions and spiritual traditions--large and small,
well-known and obscure--people have invented wildly and beautifully different
theologies and cosmologies, scriptures and sacred songs, beliefs and
commandments, rituals and prayers. They are meant as means to overcome
self-centeredness and limiting identities and perspectives, to uplift our moral
and ethical character, to develop a feeling of unity with others, to realize
one's truest self and role in the great mystery of life.
Each, in its highest expression, will agree that the glittering centerpiece of
spiritual achievement is the cultivation and embodiment of love and kindness.
And yet, what should be blessings of diversity and tolerance are often tragedies
of violence and oppression in which we use the emblems of our unity as weapons
to separate, divide, and conquer. We have allowed the "three poisons" described
by the Buddha--greed, hatred, and delusion--to overwhelm and obscure our innate
unity in love with all things. We have deceived ourselves by darkening the
refracted colors of the one light, turning them into harsh distinctions and
angry differences. We have forgotten who we are, beneath the beliefs of
separation and difference.
The core purpose of Radical Sages is to bring light to this darkness and
remembrance to this forgetfulness, and to call forth the highest expression of
our common humanity--unity in love with all things--as the medicine for healing
our troubled world.
Down the Mountain
Exploring the nature of mind, self, and reality often takes us into higher and
subtler planes of existence, where we can lose touch with the physical world and
the dramas of everyday life. Many religions and spiritual traditions place
spiritual above material, creating a false hierarchy and pitting Soul against
World in a struggle for supremacy. This misconception has helped to create the
common stereotype of a mystic or sage as an aloof witness to the world. In fact,
I was a poster boy for this image for 25 years.
But I have learned the greater purpose of inner spiritual work: to unite
spiritual wisdom with committed action, to be passionate advocates for peace,
freedom, and social justice--in the world.
In Little Gidding, T. S. Eliot writes, "The end is where we start from." I came
to one end, only to find myself at another, wholly unexpected, beginning. I
started a new life in which another restless spirit began moving through my
fullness and wholeness. I experienced a new passion and deep hunger to fully
engage the world around me, the world I had neglected during years of
inward-focused meditation. This world, from which I had sought to escape, had
become beautiful, enchanting, and compelling. This wondrous world--full of
complexity, chaos, and contradiction--is all the proof one needs of transcendent
spirit and mystery. I've discovered this world is my world; I belong to it and
it belongs to me. This world is my body, and my body is this world.
This awakening to the practical implications of "oneness" was a long time coming
for me. I was addicted to self-transcendence, to a kind of medicated meditative
lifestyle in which I allowed my feeling for the world--my caring and passion and
enthusiasm for life and for living--to be numbed by too much witnessing and
watching, and not enough acting. Not enough loving.
In a series of experiences, which I won't recount here, I came to a true unity
with life, a unity in which dissociative tendencies and emotional neutrality
disappeared. I realized I had never been separate or estranged from the source
of life and consciousness. It seemed then, as it does now, that the greatest
truth and the highest expression of our common humanity is to embody and
consciously demonstrate our unity in love. It took me a long time to understand
Dr. Smith's pithy pronouncement, "The goal is not altered states, but altered
traits."
In the Valley
Shortly after my teacher, with whom I had studied for 10 years, died in 1982, I
began to make my own way in the world, trying to live as a mystic in a
materialistic world. Through a series of seeming serendipitous events, I became
a leadership coach and consultant. My clients were mainly senior executives in
corporations. My role as a "clarity coach" was to enhance their awareness of
themselves and their relationships, and to improve their leadership and
communication skills. I enjoyed my work, and yet I felt a malaise within my true
heart. Something was out of kilter with either the what or the how of my work,
because I was leaking life force. I was becoming spiritually depressed. I did
what I always do when feeling blocked, conflicted, or out of alignment: I went
inward. I went on a week-long vision quest in Mexico to meet with silence, my
word for that inner knowing about which Mahatma Gandhi said, "The only tyrant I
accept in the world is the still small voice within me."
On the fourth day of meditation, the unmistakable voice of silence spoke
wordlessly and unequivocally: Teach the mysticism you know to leaders. My
initial reaction was terror; 15 years ago words like "spirit" and "soul" had
barely found their way into the business lexicon, let alone a word like
mysticism! I felt this would be too hard and that I would die of ridicule and
starvation. Do it, said the voice, and you will be guided. It is your path.
Teach the essence of hamsa to world leaders. Don't worry.
Hamsa is a Sanskrit word which means "supreme transcendent wisdom." Hamsa is a
mantra that signifies our unity with that consciousness which pervades every
atom of this universe and connects all living beings. I was supposed to talk in
corporate boardrooms about this? I knew that I would be required to encounter my
every fear, insecurity, doubt, and pretense.
Returning from Mexico, I founded the Hamsa Institute. A few weeks later, I
delivered a talk, agreed upon before my trip, to the legal affairs department of
a billion dollar pharmaceutical company. As I was unpacking my briefcase, the
head of the department asked for my card. Returning to his seat, he looked at
it, now with the word hamsa on it, and asked, "What the hell does hamsa mean?"
This is it, I thought. They're going to throw me out on my ass. I actually began
putting my notes back in my briefcase. "Hamsa," I said, "means supreme,
transcendent wisdom." The attorney's face tensed and his head fell forward into
his hands. He shook his head from side to side. I closed my briefcase and
prepared to leave. He looked up.
"My God," he sighed, "do we ever need some of that around here." Thus
encouraged, I spent the next decade instigating conversations about spirit,
soul, and wisdom with corporate clients.
Then came the shattering morning of 9/11/01. It was as if the planes had crashed
into my soul, leaving it wrecked, sad, and sorrowful. In response, I wrote "A
Call for Peace," giving voice to my grief and my hope for a response from our
government that would not precipitate more violence and destruction. A deeper
awareness of the connection between spiritual awareness and social events opened
within me. I began writing more articles of a "political" nature. I was dismayed
at the militaristic responses of America, saddened that the wise legacy of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi went unheeded. During our bombardment
of Baghdad, I felt as if the missiles were exploding in my own body. Suddenly,
my every cell awoke to the true meaning of what I had first learned decades ago
in India: tat tvam asi, Thou Art That--all of existence is connected. Every
spasm of violence, each shattered life and moments of horror were happening
inside me. It was not something I could hide from or ignore. My being, my body,
had grown as big as the world.
I was taken by an urgency to heal the pain "out there: in the same way I had,
years before, sought to heal inner, personal pain.
I began to write and speak about engaged spirituality, about taking
responsibility for the condition of our world and carrying spiritual wisdom from
the meditation halls into the world. I realized that we risk a kind of social
apathy in our search for personal enlightenment. It can be quite hip in
spiritual circles to seem to be the lotus rising above the mud, even though the
lotus needs the muddy water in order to live!
My new beginning is summed up in these words from Kabbalah: "First we receive
the light, then we impart it. Thus we repair the world." Imparting the light
requires great things of us: authenticity, honesty, courage, determination,
empathy, personal responsibility, and commitment. Repairing the world requires
that we add responsibility to realization, caring to love, and action to
insight.
I wrote an article in 2003 that received worldwide distribution through the
internet, "Mr. Bush: I'm Coming for You." I received hundreds of emails in
support, but one in particular touched my core. He wrote: What are you going to
do?
A few months later, I had my answer: TruthForPresident.org, a newswire whose
purpose was to elevate the political dialogue and consciousness in this country.
I wanted to influence the coverage of the national media, to inspire the
American public, to spotlight people, policies, and events that would help renew
our world through principles of universal wisdom. I distributed dozens of
under-reported stories and editorials to the national news media, political
policy makers, and cultural thought leaders. That project morphed to include an
online spiritual activism resource, whose purpose was to inspire and mobilize
yoga, meditation, and spiritual communities to participate in the electoral
process.
I thought TruthForPresident would last seven months, from its March 2004 launch
through the presidential election. I was wrong. The task of renewing society to
reflect the heart of wisdom is not an election year project: it is a lifelong
project.
We need nothing less than a gargantuan, spirit-based, wisdom-infused holy mass
of activist leaders to elevate the social and political dialogue and
consciousness in America, and to influence all aspects of cultural life and
public policy legislation.
Which brings us knocking on the front door of Radical Sages...an evolution of
spiritual action.
The Problem
I cannot more succinctly define the cause of personal, interpersonal, and
planetary confusion, sadness, and mayhem than the 15th century Indian mystic and
poet, Kabir:
- "We sense that there is some sort of spirit that loves birds and animals
and the ants--perhaps the same one who gave a radiance to you in your mother's
womb. Is it logical you would be walking around entirely orphaned now? The
truth is you turned away yourself, and decided to go into the dark alone. You
have forgotten what you once knew, and that's why everything you do has some
weird failure in it."
Weird failures are proliferating at a fearsome rate. The philosopher J.
Krishnamurti once said, "The crisis is not out there in the world; it is in our
own consciousness." It is self-evident that the outer, cultural world in which
we live is a direct manifestation of our inner world of beliefs, attitudes, and
values--all of which determine and drive our actions. Consider this astounding
information from Dr. Helen Caldicott, in her 2002 book, The New Nuclear Danger:
- "Globally, the annual military expenditure stands at 780 billion dollars.
The total amount required to provide global health care, eliminate starvation
and malnutrition, provide clean water and shelter for all, remove land mines,
eliminate nuclear weapons, stop deforestation, prevent global warming, ozone
depletion and acid rain, retire the paralyzing debt of developing nations,
prevent soil erosion, produce safe, clean energy, stop overpopulation, and
eliminate illiteracy is only one third that amount--237.5 billion dollars."
Is this not a weird failure? Is this not a horrific indictment of our
collective consciousness? Albert Einstein tells us, "We cannot solve the
problems of the world from the same level of consciousness that created them."
We are now and urgently called by our past actions to raise our consciousness,
to expand our awareness, to elevate our humanity--one by one and all together.
We have no choice but to remember what we once knew: to remember our essential
unity in love with each other and with all of creation. We have no choice but to
rainmake a monsoon of wisdom and love to flood the world.
The Solution
The crux of wisdom is the experience of Oneness. It is the most salient fact of
the mystical experience and it is universally true. We each exist as expressions
of the same fundamental reality. We are each unique expressions, yes, but of the
same essence. We all belong to the same family. My blood is the same as yours,
my heart is the same as yours, my body is the same as yours. We seem to stand
apart from each other, but our essence is one. We seem to be different, but we
are all parts of a whole. The one truth that the wisdom-keepers of the world
teach is that the entire universe is a living manifestation of love. They mean
that this visible, physical world is a flower whose invisible roots of love
reach all the way to the center of the universe, and back again, winding around
and through everything, a moving, flowing root system--like a current--warm and
alive, nourishing all that lives. However much the sages of the world may
disagree on certain matters, whatever their various names and descriptions for
God, in spite of their contrasting stories and myths of creation--on this point
they all agree: The highest knowledge, the greatest enlightenment, the supreme
achievement of the human spirit is contained in this one truth: Love. Love is
the very soul of existence. To know this, to speak this, to live this is to
embody universal truth.
Naturally, whatever any one part does touches and affects the whole. We are
wrong to think that we do not affect the whole. Every thought, every word, every
slight touch of our hand sends energetic impulses racing outward on the
trillions of strands of connective tissue that enfolds us all in the One.
Whatever we do to ourselves, we do to each other as each action is a stone
thrown into the pond of our common existence. Within minutes, or hours, or days
we will feel the ripples of our actions wash over everything. This is why we
cannot war our way to peace, because the killing keeps coming back. We have to
wage peace, not war. And then peace will keep coming back.
The purpose of life is to realize, consciously, that we are the embodiments of
love. We all know this. Though we may have forgotten or ignored it, what we once
knew can be known again, right now. We have only to enter our heart to remember
who we are.
I entered my heart, and I remembered what I once knew. I saw the light and felt
the peace of each thing. And love, such love, the kind of love that dissolves
all fear and separation and anger poured in from some invisible place. The kind
of love that fills us with forgiveness and peace and compassion. The kind of
love that turns us into lovers of the beauty and mystery of life, worshipers of
the indomitable light and presence of the creative source of the universe.
Every human being wants to touch and taste the same happiness, the same
goodness. And so we are all joined together, we are all as one in our desire for
happiness and wholeness and love. This is ours, from the beginning. This is what
I remember, this is what I know, this is what my heart teaches me: all things
are sacred; do not harm or kill others; do not pollute natural beauty.
Love created this universe and it is the nourishing nectar of all creation. Love
is heart and pulse, yes; but love is tendon, too, in that it binds all existence
together into one body. All of creation comes from love, is sustained by love,
and returns to love.
As the embodiments of love, how shall we live? What shall we do and what shall
we not do? How shall we demonstrate what we know, deep in our heart? How are we
to make visible in this world what moves silently within us all?
The Work
There is pain in the world. There is violence and war, despair and hopelessness,
poverty and hunger, oppression and fear, pollution and degradation. Things are
very unstable. We have to work together to make this situation better. We have
to stabilize and beautify the world. It is the work we are meant to do.
The world is begging to be healed of violence, brutality, and greed. Let this be
our project. We cannot use our spirituality as a shield from social life and
responsibility, nor be afraid to put our spiritual hands into the earth of
committed action for social change. We cannot let national identities, religious
dogma, or political ideology corrupt the higher knowing of our heart. Can we
rise above the self-created tyrannies of our times--nationalism, racism,
militarism, sexism, corporatism--to establish just societies in which all
people, indeed all living creatures and the Earth herself, may live in harmony
and peace?
Let us come together as one and work with our whole being, with all our power,
beauty, and tenderness; with all our heart, strength, and resolve. Let us start
now, right now, this very minute, to heal our world.
Radical Sages
Radical Sages see inner spiritual work and transformational social action as
inseparable. We understand that wisdom is both insight and action. We know that
just as a flower is not separate from its fragrance, the inner and outer worlds
are not separate. We cannot have inner freedom if there is no freedom in the
world. We cannot have inner peace if there is no peace in the world. We cannot
have inner love if there is no love in the world.
· Radical Sages consciously actualize their inner knowing and most sacred values
in real and telling ways.
· Radical Sages participate wholeheartedly in social and political life: they
embody wisdom and compassion while acting with strength, purpose, and resolve.
· Radical Sages express universal wisdom as passionate advocates for peace,
freedom, and social justice--for all people. Our philosophy of universal wisdom
is rooted in the awareness that all life is sacred and shares a common essence;
and that all people desire and are entitled to a life of freedom and dignity,
peace and well-being, social justice and generosity, love and kindness.
· Radical Sages' vision of social and political renewal is a natural expression
of experiencing our unity in love with all of creation.
What we do now, individually and collectively, will lead our world down one path
or another. Our every thought, word, and action holds the power to create or
destroy. In the simplest of terms, our choices are between the paths of war and
peace, between violence and nonviolence, between hatred and understanding,
between fear and love, between retribution and reconciliation, between
aggression and restraint. We must aspire to greatness. The stakes have never
been higher, and we have no margin for error. Let us remember that this world
belongs to us, the people, not to governments, corporations, or special interest
groups; and we must exercise our full right of ownership with our very best self
and highest wisdom.
The French novelist Emile Zola once said, "If you ask me why I came to this
Earth, I'll tell you: I came to live out loud." So, it turns out, have I.
I urge you to shout at the top of your lungs the pure truth of your heart, to
let the highest expression of your human being roar throughout the land and
reverberate throughout the world. "Every community," said civil rights activist
Bayard Rustin, "needs a group of angelic troublemakers." I invite you to
participate in this global evolution of spiritual action.
I invite you to be a Radical Sage.
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Robert Rabbin is a San Francisco-based writer and speaker. He is the author of
numerous books and articles, and the founder of Radical Sages, an online hub of
global spiritual activism. For more more information, please visit
www.radicalsages.com.
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©Robert Rabbin/All Rights Reserved/2005
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