Director's Message for January 2010

January 1, 2010


On this first day of the New Year I send you greetings and well wishes for a healthy, happy and prosperous 2010. As I sit to write to you I wonder how many of you take the time to actually read the newsletter? I realize that there is a lot to read these days and I, too, find myself limited in terms of my capacity to peruse as many of the informative newsletters that arrive each month. It is our intention, through the newsletter and blog, to keep you informed of the events that MCLA/Sacred Path are presenting as well as to provide information that we believe is newsworthy. Have you noticed that our blog has a comments area following each section? It is appreciated and would be helpful if you added a brief comment to let us know how you feel about what we’re offering.

Yesterday my wife, one of my children, and I took in the experience of the movie Avatar. If you haven’t seen it I highly recommend it. The film, as a cinematic extravaganza and creative adventure, hits the bulls-eye. The message of the movie hits squarely in my heart. Not only is it poignant as it pertains to unlearned lessons still confronting humanity today, but it is also a wake-up call concerning the future of our very civilization.

Graham Hancock expresses his concern this way, “It’s said that those who forget the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them.”

Myths from all around the world speak of a golden age of humanity brought to an abrupt end by our own arrogance, greed and overweening lust for power. The Atlantis story is not alone in this respect, but just one of hundreds of similar ‘myths’ that testify to a great forgotten episode in human prehistory – a civilization with advanced technological accomplishments that severed its connections to its own spiritual roots and thus ‘angered the gods’, ‘lost the mandate of heaven’ and was destroyed.

Destroyed so completely, Plato says, that the survivors had to begin again like children with almost no memory of what went before.

Is ours the next lost civilization? Will what we have built and created with our global scientific culture be swept away, lost beneath the sea or ground to dust and scattered by the winds? Will we be remembered in some future age for our flying machines, our ability to travel thousands of miles in a single day, even to reach the moon and planets, our magical devices in which we were able to witness distant events, our almost unbelievable technology, our unimaginable wealth and abundance – as though from a time when the gods walked the earth? Will we be looked back on as a people who lived through a golden age and squandered it utterly?

In mythical terms, it has to be said, such an outcome looks chillingly likely. For it is hard to imagine a civilization that has more completely severed its connections to the spiritual roots of all being than our own – a society that fells the sacred rainforests and replaces them with soy bean farms, a society that preserves not only the wealth and privileges of the few but also the grinding poverty and suffering of the many, a society that makes war with terrible weapons and spreads hatred like a virus across the planet, a society that has forgotten how to love.

Perhaps this was why the ancient Maya, keepers of a calendar of unknown origin and surpassing technological complexity, chose to transmit a warning to us? Perhaps as their great visionaries journeyed through the dimension of time they saw this defining moment that we call 21 December 2012 and mapped it out for us in order to alert us to the doom that we alone – not the universe, not blessed mother earth – have the power to bring down on our own heads.

And perhaps it is not too late. For if the Maya were able to peer into the future then they will have also seen that nothing is inevitable, that the power of choice remains with us – each one of us as individuals, each society, each alliance of nations and ultimately the whole of mankind. So although it cannot be doubted that we do indeed stand at a crossroads today, the Maya also saw that we are not compelled to choose the road that leads to ruin and destruction.

But a new state of consciousness will have to be birthed amongst us if we are to avert disaster – if we are to take the right road, the good road, that leads to a brighter tomorrow. And this is entirely possible, not in the blink of an eye, not without hard work and dedication, but nonetheless possible.”


Daniel Pinchbeck states, “The possibility for a rapid regeneration of human culture is predicated on a great awakening happening quickly – before ecological meltdown leads to systemic breakdown. People need to awaken spiritually, to realize the many dimensions of psychic life beyond those accepted by modern society, and at the same time, bring those realizations down into the daily lives and social practices. Spiritual realization needs to be integrated with social commitment and direct action. Since the biosphere is now directly threatened by our post-industrial civilization, retreat from society is no longer possible or desirable. No matter whether we like it or not, each of us, inevitably, is a social and political agent whose smallest actions have a direct influence on other people and the world around us. Our current culture enshrines irresponsibility, greed, and waste. If the human species wants to survive, the civilization that replaces this one is going to have a different set of values and a revamped operating system.”

Graham Hancock and Daniel Pinchbeck will be keynote speakers at the 2012: Tipping Point Prophets Conference in Cancun Jan. 22-28, along with Jose Arguelles, Stanislav Grof and others. www.greatmystery.org/events/cancun2012.html


Avatar was also deeply moving for me because I kept picturing and hearing our beloved brother Timothy “Whispering Eagle” Aquilar who would express as he gazed deeply into our eyes and souls, “I see you.” Andrew Soliz told us at Timothy’s Memorial that it was the custom of indigenous peoples to grieve the loss of a loved one over 12 full moons. With the presence of the blue moon at the end of December, 13 full moons have passed since Timothy left us last year on January 3rd. I have grieved his passing with each full moon and reflect often on the depth of the conversations that we would have regarding what concerned us and what we intended to do about it.

Theosophist teacher J. Krishnamurti summed it up this way, “We were saying how very important it is to bring about in the human mind the radical revolution. The crisis is the crisis in consciousness, a crisis that cannot anymore accept the old norms, the old patterns, the ancient traditions, and continuing what the world is now, with all the misery, conflict, destructive brutality, aggression and so on. Man is still as he was, is still brutal, violent, aggressive, acquisitive, competitive, and he has built a society along these lines.

What we’re trying to do in all these discussions and talks is to see if we cannot radically bring about the transformation of the mind, not accept things as they are but understand it, examine it, give your heart and your mind with a thinking out a way of living differently.

But, it depends on you, not somebody else, because in this there is no teacher, no pupil. There’s no leader. There’s no guru. There’s no master, no savior. You are the teacher, the pupil, the leader, the guru of everything and to understand is to transform.”

On Saturday, February 6th MCLA/Sacred Path will host a Gathering for Men at Holy Spirit Retreat Center in Encino. This is a day designated for men of all ages to come together to take up matters of concern on a personal level as well as what we can do to make a positive difference in our families, our immediate communities and the world at large. We have made a reduction in the cost of this event and are also offering partial scholarships to those that are feeling the pinch financially. These events serve as fund-raisers for the organization as well as opportunities to create reunions for those who have participated in our events and opportunities for new men to have an experience of who we are as a community of men seeking to improve our lives. I hope you will consider joining us for a day of interactive learning and engaging communication. Men who attend the Feb. 6th event will receive a discount on their registration for the spring retreat. Read about the day for men and sign up below.

Mark your calendars now for the 23rd Annual Spring Sacred Path and 11th Annual Call to Adventure Retreat, April 15-18, 2010. More information and registration packet will be available at the beginning of February.

Blessings to you and yours,
Stephen

Timothy "Whispering Eagle" Aguilar, Dr. Stephen Johnson, Andrew Soliz

To Download the Flyer/Application for the February 6, 2010 DAY FOR MEN, Click HERE