Love Is Life Fully Lived

I welcome you to our community and to the ideas, goals and potential of the 16 days of Summer Camp before us. During our time together perhaps we can create a think tank for new ideas, and a space for actually experiencing a fully lived life.

A fully lived life is possible only within a culture which respects the whole of life, one which nourishes the human being in all of his or her spiritual, sexual and political aspects. When all sides of our nature are allowed to flow and to interconnect, we find ourselves in a state of wholeness that is naturally loving, A culture which nourishes this kind of fully lived life is not our society as we know it now. Our civilisation is one of separation. from which we urgently need a new direction if we are to preserve life on the planet. We have separated human from the cosmos, human from human, the individual from the community, human from nature, the spiritual from the sexual and love from politics. Out of this separation of mankind from the cosmos has arisen a super inflated ego full of illusions of its own power and right to dominate others and nature. This overvalued ego which erroneously believes itself to be its own source of power is actually a fragment of life which is separated from its source.

It is the separation of the individual from the community, moreover, that leads the ego to feel alone and isolated, and requires it to constantly affirm itself through opposition to others and nature in order to create its identify, false though it be. This individual power measures itself by defiance and through a concept of personal freedom which amounts to: "kiss my arse, I do what I like." Here freedom gets confused with spontaneity, where one is allow to follow one's own reaction or feelings, because one's own freedom is more important than anything else in the world. Anyone who is different from me, my group, my tribe, my country is wrong.

Because love and sexuality have been taken out of the community, privatised and removed from social and political life, their power too is split into the allowed and the forbidden. Sexuality is permitted to flow only into the very narrow channel of an isolated couple-ism. To go anywhere else requires lies and deceit, in short cruelty to others. As a result of love having become privatised, children have become private possessions, and consequently they are obliged to battle for their power and freedom against their putative owners, the parents. All our educational institutions enforce and sustain this separated existence. The consequences are this battle are the constant accusations and guilt that make up a normal part of our present culture. It is integral in our families, our social cliques, reinforced in our political parties and in our communities.

As a result, politics has become patently untruthful, government becomes doublespeak and the projection of images. Since our economics is geared to benefit only a tiny but powerful establishment, it is hardly surprising that a small part of humanity lives in abundance, whereas the larger part lives in a state of poverty and near starvation. In our civilisation religion has lost its connection to its spiritual source and has become just another institution of domination helping to diminish mankind by keeping him ignorant instead of connecting him with the divine.

This is our present culture which serves to restrict and limit our human potential. To turn this around means to reconnect with our cosmic greatness and with the source of life. Here at Zegg we have committed ourselves to establishing a culture of wholeness, of connectedness, of responsibility and one that is free from violence in every realm of life. We are researching how such a culture can be realised and sustained. We are asking what we need to do to build this kind of culture. We are asking how and where do we need to change our existing social structures to bring it about now.

We will be speaking about various aspects of these questions in the summer camp. We will look at reconciliation and forgiveness as indispensable concepts in the new culture, we will share with you what we have learned about the kind of community that can be a viable form of life for a peaceful future, we will speak about the spiritual foundations of a love that is free from "shoulds and oughts", we will talk about the kind of living structures for parents and children that facilitate the growth and freedom of both. We will share views about the current political situation of the earth, about ecology, sexuality, new technology, diet, and global peace work. We will talk also about ways of decision making that respect both the individual and the whole. In these dialogues we will be working together in a common search for truth. And in them, let us forget the superficial distinction between a Zegg member and a guest, because each one of us must find the point in our own biography where change is possible. Knowing that each of us is a unique representative of the whole, whatever work we can do to heal ourselves, also aids the healing of the whole.

Healing is always a mutual process between individual and community. There is no such thing as an independent personal healing that is limited to ourselves. A true and durable healing of any single person has to bring in the historical, communal and cultural aspects that underlie any apparently person problem. Otherwise we simply reinforce our isolation, we continue to aggrandise our own personal ego and nothing changes in the world. To think only of ourselves is to waste energy which is urgently needed for healing the whole. We have to recognise that we are all in this together. Whatever problems we personally have are the problems of mankind as a whole.

A new culture can arise only through the coming together of the outer changes in the social and political fabric, along with the inner change each one of us makes away from individualism towards a holistic spirituality. The inner life and the outer life must interconnect, otherwise there really will be nothing new in the "new" culture. So far, cultural revolutions were a mere change of flags, idealisms and programmes. They were all nourished by the same human underground of revenge, rage and competition for power. None of the revolutions changed mankind, none ever brought a lasting peace.

We can only bring about as much peace as we have developed inside of ourselves and as much peace as we have created between one another. If we truly want peace, then we must rethink each moment of our lives. We need a commitment to recognise and transform the incessant war going on in our heads that manifests itself in our thoughts, words and deeds. When we first start this kind of inner work of change we are very likely to feel frightened, because we don't want to see how much we ourselves are contributing to world wide massacre. But with each experience of rethinking, with each new and conscious reconciliation and action, with each new application of truth and life and the love that these actions attract, strength and renewed determination to persevere grows. Places of crisis in the world need our help, but the places of crisis are right here also in our superficial life styles, in our cutting inconsiderate words and one-upmanship, in our habit of taking what we need regardless of another's need, and in thoughtlessly littering our environment with anything we don't need.

To really accomplish the work of changing habits and thought forms, we have to pay attention toward the source from which we ultimately draw our strength. Sometimes we imagine we get our strength from being against something or somebody. You have an idea which is different to mine, so my first thought is "No, I don't like it". I establish myself as a obstacle against you. I don't know exactly what I want, but I don't want your idea. I have defined myself by the negative.

I have also to see how I fail to take responsibility. The community takes a decision. I was not totally in harmony with that decision, but I didn't bother to speak out at the time. Now, weeks later I am still resentful about that decision. I am bearing a grudge against those who took this decision, so I create some "others" who are wrong. So long as I go on thinking like this, I fail to notice that I did not take my responsibility at the time and speak my views. But it is never too late to see my part in anything that has happened, and when I do, I become empowered, and strength flows back into me.

Actually the moment when I embrace full responsibility, megatons of energy and strength are set free. Never again am I the victim of circumstances. I do not have any more enemies. There are no "others" who hinder me. This is ongoing work. New situations are constantly arising demanding that I embrace my power for responsible action. And each mistake is the chance for a new insight. Little by little I am discovering that freedom is no longer simply me doing what I like. It is much more a process that grows out of taking part in the whole and through this acceptance and embracing of responsibility. Freedom is no longer "free from", but "free for". This kind of freedom never comes from a closed heart, but arises out of the fullness of possibilities. Freedom is the knowledge of my necessity and the full acceptance thereof. In that kind of freedom, I act from the truth of my own being.

A culture which is committed to preserve and nourish the life energy must heal the individual by leading each one in the direction of their greatness, because that is what corresponds most closely to our cosmic origins. This idea has the power to turn around our educational, political and social institutions. Such a turn around means letting go of the materialistic power to conquer nature and others, in favour of the spiritual power to unite together as brothers and sisters to preserve life and the earth. It means letting go of the fixations of neediness, consumerism and the never ending cry for a guilty one who is outside of ourselves. We need to embrace concepts like personal responsibility for what we want to bring about in this world, for caring for one other, for empathy, contact, openness, trust and co-operation.

But how to reach this place? Moral appeals or pious intentions without action fade away quickly. What we need are areas of growing experience in which these qualities can be developed and supported, first intellectually and then realised in community practice. Without such new experience, the words alone are powerless.

Nevertheless, I myself, as a closed system can never create alone a culture of trust. First, we must produce places of protection and safety in which people can dare to be open and to trust. For example, I may experience that speaking truth brings me much more love than my old ways of pretence and lies. Then my heart opens more if I allow myself, and have a group to support me, to love more than one person. And if I can give the same acceptance to my partner, then I come to recognise that my fears were a result of my own isolation. I experience that I can find a mental-spiritual place beyond jealousy, when I discover that my life is no longer built on the limited anchor to only one person. Once my cocoon has opened and my reflective awareness recognises this movement which gives permanence to this moment, I can understand the functioning mechanism of an open system. My protection and my security are no longer dependent on rules and moral laws, but arise organically out of contact, communication and trust with loving comrades. Building the new culture is therefore the accumulated product of individual and communal work through holding and experimenting with a concrete vision, through making experiences and by taking time for mental reflection.

Here then is the deeper meaning of the summer camp: to experience this inner and outer work together. Lectures and discussions will serve to create the outline of the kind of culture that we are seeking to build. In small (village) groups we come together to discuss, reflect and to experience for ourselves how this could work. In these groups we have the chance to actually create community and feel its power and kinship. And what exactly do we mean by community? Community means first of all, taking others seriously. Secondly, community means using others to help find out who I am. In other words, using others to find out how I am seen. Within a culture of trust the feedback of others is essential for self knowledge. Only through you can I recognise myself and avoid the error of overvaluation of self. Actually, there is no me without you. A human potential gets developed when it is needed and reinforced by others. In this intimate inter-relationship, we find the natural connectedness that dissolves the separation between ourselves and others by using the eyes and ears of the others in order to recognise our self.

Feedback from others is on the one hand a gift and on the other a necessity for our own growth. Valuable feedback comes from others who are also doing inner work towards their own growth and self knowledge. A true mirror is one which is free of the tarnish of preconceived ideas or inflexible views. We all know how easy it is to fool ourselves when we are working alone thinking that we are improving ourselves. The ego can use anything for its own ends. It is quite capable at making a pretence at changing through meditative practices. The ego is a master showman who can easily master all the tricks and correct answers to imitate spirituality and it does it quite unconsciously. Real spirituality needs a life based in truth. In the place where my lies are, where I pretend towards myself and others, there I have abandoned the path of my actual being. This is more easily seen by others than myself simply because they are not as entangled with myself as I am. Buddha came to awakening only through the gaps in his efforts. Slowly he came to understand that only the absence of any form of resistance brought about the recognition of the completely healthy spiritual quality which existed in himself. This is why a complete letting go and devotion are such important parts of meditative practice.

By devotion we mean a loyalty and steadfast faithfulness towards the divine wisdom, towards giving up the fight against the communion of human beings. Communion can only develop out of those who have found trust.

Spiritual practice helps us to see through the confusions of the ego. The absence of ignorance, of inner distress and paranoia opens up an overwhelming view into life. There one discovers a completely different kind and way of existence. We find our connection to our cosmic existence and to the permanent beingness within us.

We find it in silence, in nature, in sex, in music, in touch with birth and death. In these moments we disconnect from our fixation with everything that seems so important in our daily life. Then we connect with the essential, our real self. So how do we live when we are outside of those magic moments? It requires a mental training to enable us to remain trustful in situations of conflict or loss or frustration or boredom or fear. It's mental training that allows us to transform our rage against oppression and inequality into meaningful and effective action. It is a training to learn to stand back and position ourselves at a place of observation, to become the witness from which vantage point we can view the history of mankind and every situation of ourselves and the planet from an all encompassing perspective.

There, as we remember our origin and our purpose of being , a sense of inner respect wells up in us. This deep respect for life is part of the love toward something bigger than ourselves. This larger connectedness acts like a communal spirit which commands a higher authority, so very different than the authority of a punishing god/father outside of ourselves. It is the holiness ever present in and around us.

This is the holiness that belongs naturally to the healed human being. The more we learn to see the holy again, the more we heal inside. Behind cynicism and sentimentality lingers the longing for this holiness. If we see the holy in the other, we heal the other, because we reconnect the other to their origin. Dieter Duhm wrote: "We are all cosmic beings who are presently on this planet. We are all in the process of learning within, a development which leads towards a larger overview, a larger connectedness and a greater consciousness. Our common goal is the overcoming of all fear-producing elements and the connection with the great love--the individual and the cosmic. The more we are able to support each other in this development within the community, the more the community itself grows in solidarity, and the more it develops in its energy of love and trust."

May the experience of each of us be guided in this direction so that together we will be enabled to make our unique contribution to the building of a new culture.

ZEGG