Featured Teacher:
Stephen Levine
Stephen Levine is a poet and teacher of guided meditation healing techniques. He and his wife and spiritual partner, Ondrea, have counseled the dying and their loved ones for more than 30 years. Stephen Levine's bestselling books Healing into Life and Death:A Gradual Awakening; and A Year to Live are considered classics in the field of conscious living and dying. He is also the coauthor, with Ondrea, of the acclaimed To Love and Be Loved; and Who Dies?
The Levine's work is said to stretch from the most painful experiences of the human spectrum to the furthest point on the human horizon, from hell to heaven, from pain to ease, from our ongoing sense of loss to the legacy of our unending interconnectedness. Their experiential Conscious Living / Conscious Dying workshops are a meditative investigation of what it means to be fully alive, cultivating the qualities which heal the mind and heart, exploring the nature of what it is that dies. (excerpt from SoundsTrue.com)
Stephen Levine talks about the process of developing his poetry and the story behind it.
Part 1
Here is an excerpt from Stephen Levine's poetry book Breaking the Drought: Visions of Grace:
Not enemies
"We are not enemies
though parents told us so
We are not enemies
though they taught us so at school
We are not enemies
just because the pulpit insists
We are not enemies
though strangers toss epithets
We are not enemies
though even love goes sour
We are not enemies
just because we can't contain our pain
We are not enemies
though we meet short of our sameness,
the best of each of us lives in the other.
If we can forgive ourselves
we can forgive anyone."
So sudden, so quick, so toxic, so destructive, so fatal, so hurting and emptiness fulfilling
Death why are you among us?
So ruthless, so dividing, so careless, so hurting, so indiscriminate, so heartless, so manipulative so dark yet appearing so subtractive, such an Evil
Death why are you among us?
So happy I had seen her face, so bright and full of life, so promising, so wise and caring, so loving and caring, very respecting
Death why are you among us?
You fall and come between families, friends, neighbours, colleagues, You strike like a careless thunder, and take those close to our hearts, Death why are you among us?
Are you the anonymous thief among thieves? Are you the world’s most wanted criminal? Yet no cop can arrest you, is it the UN or Interpol or rather the CIA without the expertise, because the mentioning of the SAOCU is unspeakable. Or is it the devil himself who masks you? Death why are you among us?
Are we to appreciate you? Are we to accept you? Are we to rejoice you? because Holy books speak of you, as our only path to meet our creator. Lest we know the answer. Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Death why are you among us?
For how long are we to wait for the moment of truth? Could it be that we will live forever? For God himself isn’t among us. Then who are we? Death why are you among us? Death what have we done to you, death why are you among us?
Nations have fought, families divided, friends turned enemies, neighbours killed each other, in pursuit of the agonistic unattainable, death why are you among us?
So unbearable, so heavy, yet appearing so light, because no one knows the answer to abortionism, so scary, so inadmissible, so frightening, yet appearing so bearable, light and friendly, because carjackers have still not found the reason to stop, death why are you among us? Who are you?
When are you ever gonna stop? When does your belly ever get full? If ever you have one, when does the pleasure of your desire get satisfied? The pockets ever full? Or perhaps they have holes in them, because it seems your freeway toll never stops counting, death why are you among us?
So envy, so bitter, so edgy, yet so centered and scratchy, so itchy, because with you the last bout of our happiness fades away, death why are you among us?
So silent, yet so instrumental, because your tunes only bring grief and sad memories, for how long are we to dance to them songs? because it seems your sword is choosey and merciless on all those we love, death why are you among us?
Your bitterness lingers much longer than our own pleasures, death why are you among us? Death what have we done to you? Why are you on us? So quite, yet so terrifying, why are you on us?
Spare us the moment, for the sorrows on their faces is tears in our eyes, death why are you on us? Spare us the moment, for a smile on their faces is joy in our hearts, death why are you on us? For we hope life will take his stand and fight like a man. Fight like a man, like a man fight, fights like a man, life where are you? Fight fight fight fight, fight like a man, a man, a man,