The organized body of Celebrationism and the home of all people. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rev. Adv. Michael, Sust. Imp. 

The World Celebrationist Society

and The United Celebrationist Movement

March 2015 

 

 

A Reflection on Celebration - Part I 

 

 

 

 

Life is the immersion of conscious education and experiential gift for the benefit of all existent energy embodiment.  Embedded in our genetic mapping is an inherent sense for celebration in tribute to this divine blessing. To neglect this internal command is to offend against the blatant gifts of the most blessed origin and to forfeit the nutrient of spiritual bonding through conscious inter-existent offering. 

 

The greatest nourishment of our own internal energy comes from gifting to others. Every gift is a celebration. Every celebration is a tribute to our grand origin as sacred but temporary breakaways from its universal, equal and coherent body.  

 

Celebration is the most majestic human gesture. It is sowed in a profound singularity of respective and flexible individual expression. Celebration is not only outward act of festival and tribute, but also internal acknowledgement. It is gesture and service. It is recognition and tradition. It is kindness and honor. It is the act of appreciation for possibility, culture, imagination and heritage.   It is everything we do in affirmative tribute, acknowledgement and emotional contribution. When we express our love for another, we are celebrating. In honoring others with our presence, we are celebrating. In being patient, kind or welcoming to a stranger, we are celebrating. In submitting our self to the appreciation of a child’s laugh or a scented spring breeze; a compelling visual creation or the distinct feeling of sand grains on our flesh, we are celebrating. It is our primary duty to celebrate -- and to celebrate it all. 

 

Each meaning of every celebration we offer will take its own definition in the context of our own being. There is no standard, except for consciousness we apply to the acts of appreciation we give.  

 

To offer celebration is not only an application of gesture to another, but is a requirement in application to self. We must celebrate our own beings and comfortably express the flavor of our own contribution as unmatched pigment in the greater portrait of humanity. In celebration of self we are responsible to our dreams and imagination. We must honor the best parts of ourselves through self-appreciation, forgiveness and consciousness for the positive contributions we make as emotional beings. Our adherence to the callings of our inner passions should be our ultimate guides as commissioned servants responsible for offering the products of our being, as extensions of cosmic beauty, in celebration of our presence on earth.

 

The single greatest commandment is indeed to celebrate. Celebrate humanity. Celebrate our brethren. Celebrate our being and the possibility of our contributions. Celebrate in love and in service; celebrate selflessly and for self. Celebrate in tribute to the great bonds natural to every existent and our motherly originations. Celebrate for the goodness of this immersion.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Rev. Adv. Michael, Sust. Imp. 

The World Celebrationist Society

and The United Celebrationist Movement

February 2015 

 

 

 

A Reflection of Cosmic Balance in Humanity

 

 

 

In each human story, and with the resulted flavor of every new and one of a kind biological mortal creation comes a new pixel in the greater portrait of humanity. Each born existence encompasses intricate detail in contribution to a greater narrative -- the human saga. It is in the interest of this ancient, evolving and interrelated story that comes opportunity for a special appreciation of our own perfection through imperfection. 

 

The nature of our imperfection is simply a form of the omnipresent balance of existence. This balance has been observed and fostered by generations of people, perhaps most famously by our Taoist teachers, first contributing such notions in a prehistoric age, to people in a similar era of discovery. This idea, quite beautifully, belongs to every generation, as it serves so consistently and comfortably through constantly present authority in each element of existence. 

 

We can revisit the most obvious example of natural and necessary balance in existence by considering the power and place of the sun and the moon. With the absence of the serenely evocative mystery in the cool, relieving darkness of earthly night, the nature organic to this bountiful rock would be overwhelmed by the powerful, nutritious light that provides us warmth. With the absence of the nurturing light of the sun, the tamed, voided spirt of night would deprive us of the light that shines the way. 

 

The same spirit of balance is present in all things human. To consider common examples: we are able to observe that life requires birth and death. We live on a home of both ocean and desert. The course of life offers us both the innocence of youth, and later, the weight of age and maturity. Without mindful nutrition we are subjected the excessive weight or malnutrition. To indulge in a favored direction of either self interest or selfless-service results in self-involved distance, or unnecessary and potentially harmful self sacrifice. In poverty there is painful deprivation and in excess comes the damage of spoiling. Balance is the neutral weight that offers us the blessings of complete and fulfilling life. 

 

We must be mindful to find balance even in flaw. At the center of this respective scale of cohesive equality should be an acceptance and realistic observance of what it is to be imperfect. It is appropriate, if not necessary for us to observe light celebration, through reflection and understanding, of our natural deficiencies. In solidarity with this notion though, must come a  cautious adherence to mindful protection from harm and regression through active progression and personal development.

 

We must also be cautious in distinguishing harmful imperfection from organically driven biological nature. It could be surmised, after revisiting man’s volatile history, that we are selfish creatures. Science shows us that much of our more questionable behavior is born from organic neuro-chemical drive. This is forgivable when we consider the context.  

 

To revisit (and build on) a thought of one of the most exceptional thinkers of our generation, Stephen Hawking: We are only advanced primates on a small, perhaps even common planet, revolving around a completely average star, in an inconceivably massive, complex and expanding universe... 

 

A key element, for the purposes of this reflection at least, is notably missing from Dr. Hawking’s  accurate and valuable notion however; in our advanced nature is also profound sensibility. We are gifted with the power of recognition, and in this recognition we are positioned to be very impressive primates indeed. Our animalistic nature is balanced with the ability to learn and improve, we are blessed with the strength to alter and address many behaviors, and more fundamentally, to know right from wrong. This balance arms us to be impressively greater than even our most damaging animalistic tendencies, and effectively elevates our race to the status of human.  

 

In understanding the imperative balance that comes to us in our imperfect natures, we are challenged not to be self-damning, but rather called to understand and appreciate our imperfection in what it offers us in opportunity for balance. When we make a mistake, we have the opportunity to balance the misstep with correction. When we’re overwhelmed, we have the opportunity to clear the fog with added reflection. When we harm our selves or others, we have the opportunity to resolve through healing and progression. With every step taken in the spirit of balance is the seed of education. 

 

Our communal callings on earth are to progress in contribution to the human narrative, and to nurture the cosmic energy in our beings in a loving, productive way. The flaws natural to each of us are indeed fundamental to what we are. What centuries of flawed action have taught us however, is that flaw might be integral to man, what is integral to flaw though, is the potential for harm. It is not in collective human interest to harm. Nor is it particularly natural for us to work in our own interest. The damage we inflict through our complex, patchwork nature has been, and will remain inevitable as long as men walk the earth, but its power in harm is under the domain of man’s reign through power in self.

 

As a preeminent brush stroke in the portrait of our being, imperfection’s bold, vibrant stroke, born from cohesive notions of duality, is fundamental to each mortal canvas. Flaw serves as the means for our challenge and resulted growth as a fundamental addition to the great collection of

bio-energetic pigment that works out to a new individual masterpiece with each human birth.

 

The elemental presence of flaw cannot -- and should not -- be eradicated from our nature. Without its ever-present weight to offer us opportunity for lesson, progression and experience, the very weight of humanity’s unmatched occurrence would cease to exist, and our purpose would be blended into incomprehensibly strange and redundant stagnation.  

 

For these reasons, it is Celebrationist philosophy to embrace the flaw woven into the fabric of our nature, and do so with an adherence to balance and careful observation for its purpose in our lives. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Rev. Adv. Michael, Sust. Imp. 

The World Celebrationist Society

and The United Celebrationist Movement

January 2015 

 

 

A Reflection on Forgiveness and Understanding

 

 

 

We’re in an age of tremendous division. A forceful gravitation pulling us to increasingly damaging ends toward blinding anger and dangerous categorical misjudgment seems to be concerningly prominent in societal attitude. Our position as a people should not to be to divide among our selves with fueled passions for separations in what is unique to each of us, but rather to call on our greatest inner strength to aid us in reflection - and on the progressive journey to understanding. It is not only our responsibility as people in faith who value the greatness of love and acceptance - but to add to the miracle of the gesture, we are offered great treasure in finding the key to this notion of nourishment. Perhaps first among these gifts we find in return for our work to offer a special brand of brotherly love in forgiveness, is the comforting replenishment that offers relief in lieu of fear, comfort in lieu of unsettled anger and the righteous bond of incorruptible acceptance that gives us freedom to not view life through the lens of judgement, paranoia and fear, but rather through the clarity inherent to the joys of love, kindness, goodness and inter-communal learning. 

 

When endlessly confusing and powerful offenses, regardless of scale, are brought against us, we’re often left with little more than our natural animalistic tendency to grieve in anger and defend against pain through notions of hate bred through our hurt. We feel instinct to assert new enemies with little regard for the implications inherent to an idea with such power. We are challenged to use the gift of power implicit to our race and grow to be stronger than the pain we experience. This premise is of profound value when we consider those who commit atrocities worthy of great sorrow against us - this is to say that we must approach our understandings and reactions to even the greatest afflictions of pain with mindful caution. 

 

To implement this idea in context using one of the more potent challenges of our day, this reflection will address the violent extremist terrorism that so many are subjected to in both the lesser expecting life centers of the west and the tattered, submerged and volatile fronts of the more ignored corners of earth. Celebrationists should address this moral challenge through thought and reflection using the tools available to us in discovery,  consideration for the facts in the language of our existence - science - and with a mindful respect for context. 

 

We ask all who consider this reflection to be cautious in not falling into a valley of thought that implements fearful isolationist attitudes in generalizing any grouping of people. Extremist terrorists are not representative of the Islamic faith or its mainstream adherents. We must, without exception, be accepting and welcoming to our Muslim brothers and sisters who wish to coexist in peace, and ask only that their faith, people and culture are respected. 

Though there are mismatches in philosophical visions and values between the strictest interpretations and philosophies of Islam and Celebrationism, it is in the spirit of honoring the Pillars of our Movement which call for acceptance, appreciation and support, that the Celebrationist Movement passionately supports this respectful attitude toward the ancient faith of Islam, its faithful and those rooted in Islamic culture. We stand with them in opposition to the acts of cowardly and misguided violence that inappropriately stains a faith of inherent beauty and meaningful service to 1.6 billion people who share this human experience. 

 

In this same spirit of acceptance and as we journey closer to fulfilling the act of forgiveness in its purest form, and with reverence for these important messages in the Pillars which serve as the vertebra in the spine of our core philosophy: 

 

“Our movement, being one that was founded in the spirit of celebrating humanity, views all other people, without exclusion, as equals who are worthy of acceptance, forgiveness and are welcome to the embrace and practice of our movement without any consideration for any prior misdeeds or offenses - regardless of nature or severity"

 

“…We don’t believe in condemning people for mistakes or for things that were done in the wrong spirit. With this important notion is also a belief that a person should reflect and be sorrowful for wrongdoings. They should also take a path of correction and improvement that incorporates self-forgiveness in the spirit of self love.” 

 

We consciously must ask our selves to forgive the flawed and mortal men and women who have committed such immeasurably painful and damaging acts of atrocity against us, especially through acts of terror. We ask our selves to honor this notion of forgiveness because to be vengeful is to nurture darkness and harbor the seeds of fear. It is in respect for actions of greatness in our own capacity in absolving dark sentiment that we are called to forgive. We must forgive offenders for forcing heart wrenching pain. For clouding our world with an ever-present threat which robs us of the comforts which we are entitled to in a peaceful society. We must forgive them for the dilution of joy that is natural to appreciating what is more beautiful in our lives. We work to forgive our misguided, offending brothers and sisters because it is what we’ve been called to do. Because we cannot be afraid. Because it is an act that is inherent to a goodness very much in reach to the hearts of people willing to work harder to not be burdened by the twinned spirit of anger, hate and misunderstanding which fueled the very same atrocities committed against us.  

 

We do this not through a miraculous suppression of human instinct and natural human emotion, but rather through a challenging journey of healing, reflection, openness, exploration, unique and eventual understanding leading finally to forgiveness and acceptance. The latter two virtues, regardless of context, can be grown and explored endlessly as you work through the degrees that you achieve, closer and closer to an increasingly purer form of both. 

 

The nature of healing is perhaps as complex as the people yearning for it. To heal is to take time to feel, the mourn, to hurt, to think. There is no designated time frame to heal nor is there a sameness for any one scenario, trauma or person. It simply offers the opportunity to relieve our selves by feeling the anger that burns in our core, the sadness that drowns our hearts, the confusion that buzzes in the atmosphere of our minds. It is a step that gives us the means to process all that we feel, and process those feelings in a way that hopefully marks us deep enough to push toward a better position to not experience the same traumas repeatedly. We encourage followers to take a special care to acknowledge these feelings, to understand them, to share them with people closest to you. Discuss them and explore them until you are familiar with their root, their nature, their purpose. Appreciate them as being natural, expected and acceptable. 

There is no shame in feeling the incredibly advanced and complex emotions that add to the multidimensional beauty of being human. It is imperative that each person take the time to heal as fully as possible and respect the process unique to each problem. 

 

We reflect to discover. It is an expedition of self-understanding in which we journey to achieve full and accepting atonement to self. We must ask our selves why we do the things we do and where we come from in our emotions and actions. Our human tendencies are inevitably based in layers of cause and reason - sometimes natural through pre-programmed brain chemistry as a tool founded in the grand evolution of our being, sometimes through attained defenses or dispositions burnt into us as the subconscious take-aways from painful experiences. Regardless, we must understand what is behind our fears, actions and ways of thinking. The act of reflection is the means of self-discovery crucial to our progressions in respective growth.

 

A most valuable and essential tool is to be open to the endlessly generous world around us. We are blessed with the advanced positioning to learn and absorb the constant stream of information in every subtle nuance of experience. It is wise to be open in observation and assessment in learning from the occurrences and characters who fill our lives. We’re duty bound by the dictating and steady principle of advancement, both as a society and in individual contexts, to be available to new ideas, ways of thinking and the gracious offerings of shared story and experience through human interaction. In this same principle is a calling to be open to the vast possibilities in understanding of other people’s life contexts and backgrounds.  

 

Exploration should be applied in research for a greater understanding. It is imperative that we strive to actively learn about each other and the conditions of the world. We should explore variables available to us such as background and setting, philosophy and principle before making concrete judgement on conduct. This guides us in attaining valuable perspective en route to greater understanding and the serenity found in forgiveness.  

 

Forgiveness is a process. It is an exercise that leads to a brand of wisdom that not only offers relief, but a sense on how to improve the relationships of our lives and the behaviors that we partake in. To forgive is not necessarily to subject one’s self to further pain, discomfort and compromise - but instead a welcoming to, both our selves and those who offend us, to revisit our actions and relationships with an open heart when we are prepared to honor the great commandment of progression and goodness to do better - with our selves, and with each other.  

 

To hurt is to be human. It can take the healing outlined in this letter to attain any degree of this emotional achievement and the powerful implications inherent to it. We call on all followers and students of the Celebrationist philosophy to apply a committed effort to achieve genuine, meaningful and irrevocable forgiveness toward those who subject you to offense, hurt or injustice. To commit to this is to commit to journeying a mountain of challenge with each wound inflicted. We will be required to honor any personal debt to forgive our selves in each step backward. With each conscious and heart-filled effort though, the impulse to continue on the journey and the process itself will become more natural to the cravings of our souls. Understand that every act of forgiveness comes with some degree of journey, and as the imperfect beings that we are, we will inevitably struggle with realizing this profound act of interpersonal understanding and acceptance. But we must continue to attempt the journey, and attempt the journey without a sentiment for exclusion. It is these continued efforts to consciously work toward mastering our own greatness in doing better that will rail us toward a more fruitful, satisfying and connected life experience.