Today I am pleased to post an excerpt of an amazing book, Women of Wisdom. The following addresses the issue of love in action. Enjoy.
If there ever was a time when we need to put love into action, it is now. Take a look at our world—it is so interconnected, not only by technologies of communication and transportation, but also by technologies of destruction.
War and terrorism can reach the other end of the world in a matter of minutes. So we really are at an evolutionary turning point. We have to join together to lay the foundations for a peaceful world. And this is what I have so much passion for—not only because of my research, but because I am a mother, and a grandmother.
How are we going to make a difference? How are we really going to heal this world—this world that is so full of suffering; where especially women and children are all too often brutalized? How can we even think of peace as long as that violence continues?
I’m not going to exhort, to preach that people should be kinder and better and more loving; because after all, spiritual people have been doing this for millennia. Instead, we’re going to look at how we can create the conditions that will support the kinds of relationships and behaviors we yearn for: relationships of mutual benefit, of mutual respect, of mutual accountability, of non-violence, of caring.
These are the relationships we want, yet they are so different from what we see in so much of the world—top down rankings of men over women, race over race, religion over religion, nation over nation; rankings that have to be backed by fear and force.
When I talk about the conditions that will support better relationships, I’m talking about beliefs and institutions, starting with family, education, and religion; all the way to economics and politics. I am talking about conditions that can sustain what I call “Cultures of Peace.” I am talking about systemic change.
Those of you familiar with my work know that I’ve introduced two new categories for understanding and transforming culture: the dominator model and the partnership model. And I will tell you about these.
But I would like to start on a personal note, because all of us here are animated by a yearning for something better—something more evolved, more spiritual, more caring, more loving. I think all of us have, at some point in our lives, asked whether so much misery, violence and insensitivity are inevitable. For me, asking this question is rooted in the experiences of my childhood.
My Life and Research
I was born in Europe in Vienna, Austria during a time of a massive regression to the domination model. It was during the Nazi’s rise of power in Germany. From one day to the next my world basically collapsed. My parents and I became hunted; hunted with a license to kill.
So I am only here by two miracles really. One of them is what I now think of as the spiritual courage of my mother. This miracle took place on Kristalnacht, “the night of the broken glass,” so named because of all the glass that was broken in Jewish homes, shops and synagogues. This was the first night of official terrorism by the Nazis against the Jews. On this night, a gang of Gestapo men came to drag away my father. But my mother recognized among the Nazis who came to our home, a young man who had worked for our family business. She just got enraged. She said, “How dare you come here! We have been so good to you. And you come here to loot and to take away this man who has been so good to you?”
My mother had the spiritual courage to stand up against injustice out of love. This is not courage to go out and kill the enemy; it is courage rooted in love. She could have been killed. But by a miracle not only was she not killed, but my father was returned, and we were able to escape. We escaped Europe by a hair’s breadth—and this is the second miracle. We were on one of the last ships from Nazi Europe before the St. Louis—which carried a thousand Jewish women, men, and children—was turned back from Cuba. These refugees were turned back by the Cuban authorities and by every single nation in the western hemisphere, including the United States. They had to sail back to Europe, where most of them were killed in Nazi concentration camps.
All this led to questions. “Why is there so much cruelty? Is it inevitable, or are there alternatives?” We have been told that this cruelty is human nature; it’s in our genes. Of course these theories are updates of the old story of Original Sin. We are evil and we need to be controlled.
Get your own copy of this amazing book at http://www.wisewomanpublishing.com/womenofwisdom.html. This book is being endorsed by some of the top spiritual leaders from around the globe.
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