Hello fellow travelers, my beautiful brothers and sister planetary passengers. Here we are, together for the 238th time, curving around the sun to the same ‘point’ in our yearly cycle since the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776. A friend inspired me to re-read the document earlier this year, and I really began to feel and understand it for the first time. It brought me to tears of joy – the potential it represents - it is such a beautiful document that I felt to share it here (the main text is included below).
The cyclical nature of life presents us this radical blessing as we come back to the ‘same point in time’ – the 4th of July, 2014 - with the opportunity to change patterns and make new choices. We can now re-claim the meaning of what Independence Day was originally about. 238 years later, it is time to step it up even more, and make this a declaration about building foundations for a living equality for all of us on the planet, not just the inhabitants of one country.
The cyclical nature of life presents us this radical blessing as we come back to the ‘same point in time’ – the 4th of July, 2014 - with the opportunity to change patterns and make new choices. We can now re-claim the meaning of what Independence Day was originally about. 238 years later, it is time to step it up even more, and make this a declaration about building foundations for a living equality for all of us on the planet, not just the inhabitants of one country.
A TRUE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE –
TO BE FREE FROM OUTSIDE CONTROL
TO BE FREE FROM OUTSIDE CONTROL
The word “independence” is defined as “free from outside control” – and so this document is a declaration of being free from outside control. When we feel the lives of the men who wrote and signed this document, and the people they represented, it is clear that, while of course this was about being free of the tyranny of the then King of England, that this document holds a far greater sense of the yearning for true liberation as human beings. Today, we could say that it is our inalienable right to evolve towards a liberated way of being. Such evolution is “the pursuit of happiness” in the truest sense of the word.
Another countryman, Henry David Thoreau, reflected what it means to be free from outside control when he said, “for an impenetrable shield, stand inside yourself.” This is how we begin to become free from outside control, by simply ‘standing inside’ ourselves, being in our own body, being in alignment with our own inner heart, and developing the foundations of the way to step forth from there – renouncing any need for anything outside of ourselves. This is the basis for knowing that we are all, equally, far more than we need.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
Once we feel the tender, precious magnificence in ourselves, it is palpable - palpable being a synonym for the word “self-evident” - that this same greatness is in everyone else equally. Once we understand the equality we all share at our essence, and really feel the truth of it in our body and how we then choose to live, we could never choose to create separation between us and others, nor harm or control another tender, precious, magnificent human being. In true equality, there is no need for violent ways, no need to shield forcefully, guard aggressively or protect by not letting others in to our heart and our life. In true equality we experience harmony, unity, openness, and the ability to give and receive love in full.
Sounds pretty good, so why is it so elusive to find people living this truth? I feel that the answer is hinted at in what I feel is one of the most powerful parts of the Declaration of Independence - these following lines:
“…experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”
We are so used to living in a way where we are vastly controlled from the outside, that it is ironically uncomfortable to abolish this way of living. We have become so accustomed to this, and it is this form that is reflected at us from all around. It is no easy thing to handle our greatness. Yet handling our greatness is key in letting go of outward control, and to changing our own destructive forms of 'self-government' based on this outward control. The more we handle our own light, our own immense grandness, the more we find the liberty of true independence, and the more equality we bring to all the other magnificent beings around us.
Some may be angry or sad about where this nation has travelled since the signings, others cynical, other blindly patriotic, but there is no question that we have moved far from the original energy and commitment that the founding fathers had in this country. Yet the seeds are still planted there, waiting to bloom to their full potential. So, now is a powerful time to consider how we might tend to those seeds of independence, equality and liberty and thus return to building the foundations to live that way, that way which can be felt in the words of The Declaration of Independence.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
Once we feel the tender, precious magnificence in ourselves, it is palpable - palpable being a synonym for the word “self-evident” - that this same greatness is in everyone else equally. Once we understand the equality we all share at our essence, and really feel the truth of it in our body and how we then choose to live, we could never choose to create separation between us and others, nor harm or control another tender, precious, magnificent human being. In true equality, there is no need for violent ways, no need to shield forcefully, guard aggressively or protect by not letting others in to our heart and our life. In true equality we experience harmony, unity, openness, and the ability to give and receive love in full.
Sounds pretty good, so why is it so elusive to find people living this truth? I feel that the answer is hinted at in what I feel is one of the most powerful parts of the Declaration of Independence - these following lines:
“…experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”
We are so used to living in a way where we are vastly controlled from the outside, that it is ironically uncomfortable to abolish this way of living. We have become so accustomed to this, and it is this form that is reflected at us from all around. It is no easy thing to handle our greatness. Yet handling our greatness is key in letting go of outward control, and to changing our own destructive forms of 'self-government' based on this outward control. The more we handle our own light, our own immense grandness, the more we find the liberty of true independence, and the more equality we bring to all the other magnificent beings around us.
Some may be angry or sad about where this nation has travelled since the signings, others cynical, other blindly patriotic, but there is no question that we have moved far from the original energy and commitment that the founding fathers had in this country. Yet the seeds are still planted there, waiting to bloom to their full potential. So, now is a powerful time to consider how we might tend to those seeds of independence, equality and liberty and thus return to building the foundations to live that way, that way which can be felt in the words of The Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration of Independence (abridged)
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States.
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States.
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