“… When we walk on a path through a forest and feel calmed by the beauty of the dappled light, we are welcomed into the Beloved Community of beauty …” ~ Elias Amidon
Yesterday was #GivingTuesday during which people, across the globe, united in a worldwide celebration of generosity – such a real and direct experience of a beautiful community ! … what would certainly be what Elias Amidon calls a “Beloved Community” … a community that’s a real life example of humanity’s generosity, kindness, unity and more that we can all be proud of and take heart that it truly does exist … and in these deeply troubling times of coronavirus wreaking havoc – with the daily news of rising deaths, anxiety, economic hardship, divisiveness – we can still find hope if we look for it … as Elias does in his exploration of The Beloved Community …
The Beloved Community
In the early 20th Century the American philosopher Josiah Royce coined the term “the Beloved Community” as an ideal of social harmony brought into being by those loyal to goodness and truth. Later, the notion of the Beloved Community became central to the teachings of Martin Luther King Jr., who envisioned it as the ideal human community of love, solidarity, and justice that was “not yet” but that would eventually be actualized through our commitment to nonviolence and the sacredness of life.
It’s a beautiful notion — the Beloved Community — stirring in us a sense of hope that humanity is indeed evolving toward a promised land. And it is just this towardness — “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice” — that inspires us, encourages us, and gives us the strength to believe we shall overcome some day no matter how bleak things look at the moment.
I say “amen” to that. We need hope, we need the faith in ethical progress that this vision offers us. But because it’s a hoped-for ideal it can also feel a little abstract; because it’s “not yet” — while the dysfunction of human societies is in our face — we can doubt that it ever will be.
I’d like to suggest that we might understand the notion of the Beloved Community as not only a beautiful future ideal toward which we are called, but that it’s also a reality that’s here, now.
The Beloved Community is all around us and within us. It’s how our bodies function — the community of our organs and blood, nerves and bones, all functioning together in a wondrous wholeness. The air we’re breathing, the water we drink, the food we ate at our last meal, are testaments to the Beloved Community we are part of. Everything is working together; everything is hand-in-hand.
The trees on the hillside draw sustenance from the earth through their roots, from the air and sun through their leaves. When their individual lives end, they give back to the soil and to the bugs and birds the richness their bodies have collected. The Beloved Community. When we walk on a path through a forest and feel calmed by the beauty of the dappled light, we are welcomed into the Beloved Community of beauty. When we say “thank you” to a stranger at the grocery store, those words rise up from our gratefulness for a small kindness, and — for a moment — the ideal society we hope for is made real.
From age to age, mothers have cuddled and sung to and protected their babies. The Beloved Community. Every day the distant giant planet Saturn attracts stray asteroids that enter our solar system, shielding planet Earth from devastation. The Beloved Community. Scientists look for ways to produce clean energy, poets look for ways to express wonder, children laugh as they’re carried on their father’s shoulders. The Beloved Community. It’s here, and at the same time, it’s not yet.
When we perceive, even for a moment, how we are held in the community of life, how we are sustained within the vast web of all our relations, we gather strength to carry on and to serve the advent of the vision we dream of. Yes, the web of our relations can be torn — we see evidence of that every day — but with care it grows back.
Each act of kindness, selflessness, generosity, compassion, and communion heals and creates the Beloved Community. These acts, however inconsequential they may seem to us at the moment, are like seeds that contain within them our not-yet realized goal. As theologian Paul Tillich describes it in the language of the Old and the New Testaments, “the coming of the Kingdom of God [the Beloved Community] does not come in one dramatic event sometime in the future. It is coming here and now in every act of love, in every manifestation of truth, in every moment of joy, in every experience of the holy.”
Our ancestors, for all their failures and wars and missteps, longed for what we long for, and succeeded in bringing us to life and to this recognition of the better world we are capable of. We can draw strength from this gift of our ancestors — it’s a strength that’s here, now. The generations of humans to come — our unknown descendants depending on us and cheering us on — we can draw strength from their encouragement too. It’s a strength that’s here for us, now.
Let us take heart in the Beloved Community, not only as a hopeful vision of the future, but as a vivid reality that arises “in every manifestation of truth, in every moment of joy, in every experience of the holy.” It’s both a reliable compass that will guide us through the dangerous times ahead, and it’s here, now, our good home.
~ Elias Amidon
Coronavirus continues to take a toll on humanity and tremendous, heroic efforts continue to be underway by many to ensure our health and safety … helping those who are involved in such efforts is the “order of the day” … and in this spirit, Go Fund Me needs to be commended for organizing various campaigns targeted towards COVID-19 relief efforts. All of these campaigns are worthy of our attention … but for now we wanted to highlight TWO critical ones that we have donated personally and also as Stillness Speaks:
Despite the financial challenges that are amongst us all, if your situation allows you to donate and help then …
… please visit Frontline Responders Fund’s Go Fund Me page … and help deliver crucial supplies to these frontline responders …
… and/or visit America’s Food Fund Go Fund Me page and help feed the neighbors in need.
And, we again, express our deepest gratitude to a) the COVID-19 Frontline Responders (all the healthcare professionals – doctors, nurses, hospital/medical-services staff – firefighters, law enforcement, volunteers, and any/all the people involved in keeping the “system-at-large” functioning for ALL of us) … and b) Go Fund Me for organizing America’s Food Fund to feed the needy.
THANK YOU!
Elias’ writes a monthly Notes from the Open Path which are short contemplations on an approach to living wholeheartedly and in clear awareness (aspects of his Open Path teachings) …
The entire text above (aside from the block quoted content) is authored by Elias and is from his September 2020 monthly email Notes from the Open Path. He has graciously given us permission to freely share these notes with our readers.