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“The present state of worldwide anxiety, which is characteristic of all great periods of radical transition, must give way to an expression of dynamic hope and faith in the capacity of the human family, especially its youth, to build a new earth, a more humane community, a future open to greater joy and more creative becoming.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Boldly resonant today, this statement was composed at a gathering of spiritual leaders on the 30th Anniversary of the United Nations, October 24, 1975.
As the gathering came to a close, Brother David Steindl-Rast led the group in the meditation below. It seems fitting today, on the eve of International Day of Peace 2017, to share this invitation to “stand with reverence on the common ground of the human quest for meaning, side by side with all who ever stood on this ground in their searching thought, in their celebration of beauty, in their dedicated service.”
Sisters and Brothers in the Spirit:
We have been witnesses of an important and deeply moving event, important not only for us who witnessed it, but also for the history of the United Nations and so for the whole human family.
It is only fitting that we should want to celebrate the closing of this great event by a grateful gesture of the heart.
But it would not be enough if someone pronounced a blessing or prayer in front of you. We must make this grateful gesture of the heart together at this moment. I invite you to do this.
Since we are truly one in heart, we ought to be able to find a common expression of the Spirit who moves us at this moment. But the diversity of our languages tends to divide us. Yet, where the language of words fails, the silent language of gestures helps to express our unity. Using this language then, let us rise and stand.
Let our rising be the expression that we are rising to this occasion in deep mindfulness of what it signifies.
Let our standing be a mindful gesture: mindful of the ground on which we are standing, the one little plot of land on this earth not belonging to one nation, but to all nations united. It is a very small piece of land, indeed, but it is a symbol of human concord, a symbol of the truth that this poor, mistreated earth belongs to all of us together.
As we stand, then, like plants standing on a good plot of ground, let us sink our roots deep into our hidden unity. Allow yourself to feel what it means to stand and to extend your inner roots.
Rooted in the soil of the heart, let us expose ourselves to the wind of the Spirit, the one Spirit who moves all who let themselves be moved. Let us breathe deeply the breath of the one Spirit.
Let our standing bear witness that we take a stand on common ground.
Let our standing be an expression of reverence for all those who before us have taken a stand for human unity.
Let us stand with reverence on the ground of our common human endeavor, joining all those who stood on this ground, from the first shaper of tools to the engineers of the most complex machines and institutions.
Let us stand with reverence on the common ground of the human quest for meaning, side by side with all who ever stood on this ground in their searching thought, in their celebration of beauty, in their dedicated service.
Let us stand in reverence before all those who on our common ground stood up to be counted, stood up – and were cut down.
Let us remember that to stand up as we have now stood up implies a readiness to lay down one’s life for that for which one stands.
Let us stand in awe before those thousands upon thousands – known and unknown – who have laid down their lives for the common cause of our human family.
Let us bow our heads. Let us bow our heads to them.
Let us stand and bow our heads, because we stand under judgment.
We stand under judgment, for “One is the human Spirit.” If we are one with the heroes and prophets, we are also one with those who persecuted and killed them. One with the henchmen as we are one with the victims. We all share the glory of human greatness and the shame of human failure.
Allow me to invite you now to focus your mind on the most inhuman act of destruction you can find in your memory. And now take this, together with all human violence, all human greed, injustice, stupidity, hypocrisy, all human misery, and lift it all up, with all the strength of your heart, into the stream of compassion and healing that pulsates through the heart of the world – that center in which all our hearts are one. This is not an easy gesture. It may almost seem too difficult for some of us. But until we can reach and tap with our deepest roots this common source of concord and compassion, we have not yet claimed within our own hearts that oneness that is our common human birthright.
Standing firm, then, in this oneness, let us close our eyes.
Let us close our eyes to bring home to ourselves our blindness as we face the future.
Let us close our eyes to focus our minds on the inner light, our one common light, in whose brightness we shall be able to walk together even in the dark.
Let us close our eyes as a gesture of trust in the guidance of the one Spirit who will move us if we open our hearts.
“One is the human Spirit,” but the human Spirit is more than human, because the human heart is unfathomable. Into this depth let us silently sink our roots. There lies our only source of peace.
In a moment, when I will invite you to open again your eyes, I will invite you also to turn in this Spirit to the person next to you with greeting of peace. Let our celebration culminate and conclude in this gesture, by which we will send one another forth as messengers of peace. Let us do this now.
Peace be with you all!
This meditation was led by Brother David Steindl-Rast at a gathering of spiritual leaders at the 30th Anniversary of the United Nations, October 24, 1975.
Thank you for this. I was there with my father and still have such tender, hopeful memories of it.
This meditation is so powerful and relevant in our turbulent times today! Wisdom at its best for truly “One is the human Spirit”!
It is true. We are all One.
ah, a wonderful example of the idea of paradoxical gratitude I feel. Thanks
I am curious to know where the introductory quote originated ….
.iow the text in red …beginning with….“The present state of worldwide anxiety, which is characteristic of all great periods of radical transition, must give way to an expression of dynamic hope and faith …..?
I ask because tin he quote provided of Brother Davis’s U.N. prayer he does not use either the words “hope” or “faith” in it.
Being an Esoteric Christian I notice and pay respect to Br David’s use of the english language. Is that opening quote from Br David?
yes or no, there can said to be some some similarity here in his U.N. prayer here…. between Esoteric and Exoteric
“Since we are truly one in heart, we ought to be able to find a common expression of the Spirit who moves us at this moment. But the diversity of our languages tends to divide us. Yet, where the language of words fails, the silent language of gestures helps to express our unity. Using this language then, let us rise and stand….”
Hello Ed,
The introductory text beginning with…”The present state of worldwide anxiety…” refers to a statement made by Robert Muller — who served as Assistant UN Secretary-General for 38 years and then as Chancellor Emeritus of the UN University for Peace in demilitarized Costa Rica — as he described the event. A fuller description of the introduction can be found on this page http://gratefulness.org/resource/united-nations-meditation/. Thank you for your attending to the content of this post with such thoughtfulness. We appreciate your presence and participation on the site. Kindly, Saoirse (on behalf of the gratefulness team)
Dear Saoirse
Thank You for this additional information, or, Sufi say it, “”Thank Us” because all we truly have is each other.”
Be Well Be Present
EdS
I was deeply moved by the meditation Br. David led in 1975 and was also prompted to write about the quote of the day below.
The hope that is left after all your hopes are gone – that is pure hope, rooted in the heart. Br. David Steindl-Rast
I have never been extremely fond of the word hope. For me, hoping and moping seem to walk hand in hand because I relate my hopes to shattered dreams.
It seems to me that hope is always about the future or the past. “I had hoped to ___________ or I hope I can___________.
What might Br. David be referring to when he says, “…after all your hopes are gone…”? Is the key word in that phrase: “your.”? Is their a difference between …”pure hope” and “your hopes”? Might that be the key?
Perhaps, your hopes and my hopes originate in the egoic mind not the heart. Br. David says, “…pure hope is rooted in the heart.”
Perhaps pure hope is not tainted with personal wants and needs. It’s the hope that comes from surrender. It says, “Here I am—warts and all. Let my wounds serve the greater good, Root my fragility in a pure heart; Fill me with the evolutionary hope that transcends my finite and egoic mind.”
Blessings, Carol
Dear Carol,
I found this in Br. David’s article, Fullness and Emptiness about hope:
Hope
There is a close connection between hope and hopes, but we must not confuse the two. We set our hopes on something we can imagine. But hope is open for the unimaginable. The opposite of hopes is hopelessness. The opposite of hope is despair. But even in a hopeless situation hope remains open to surprise. Surprise links hope with gratefulness. To the grateful heart every gift is surprising. Hope is openness for surprise.
This might give another insight to what he meant in that quote…
Margaret, I deeply appreciate your pointing out more if Br. David’s wisdom about hope. Thank you.
Yes Carol, this seems to me to be the way of it.
Perhaps when all of ‘our’ hopes are gone, we are left empty, empty of ourselves. Perhaps that is when we are given hope from outside of our ‘self’ – whether that be from the Love that surrounds us, or from the fountain of Life deep within us, from deep in the well of our soul? I believe that we also find this collectively, in our Oneness, our Unity, as a race.
Hope can be hoped and at a shallow level without faith, without that deep rooted trust, and having no root, is easily washed aside by the tides of life.. On the other hand, there can be discovered that Hope which is One with a knowing, a firm belief, One with Oneness itself.
Patjos, Thank you. Carol