Mission VII: Be the Peace

For Reflection: Before moving on to Mission #7, take a moment to reflect on yesterday's mission. How did it feel to open your heart to another? Was it scary, difficult, exhilarating? What was the effect of this action on your own well-being and on the person you shared with? How might you live with your heart more openly throughout the year? If you haven't done so, post your reflections and experiences on the Compassion Report Map to amplify your compassionate action!  It was hard.  It seems like we are always too busy to stop and listen.  Everyone I approached yesterday was like the bunny in Alice in Wonderland, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q93VrYOXSe8.

"Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.” -Let There Be Peace on Earth, Song by Jill Jackson Miller and Sy Miller Our seventh and final mission, Agents, is to make an offering of peace to another person or community from the sincerest depths of our hearts. Let us kick off this mission by listening to the song that moved Pope Francis during the interreligious encounter at the Ground Zero Memorial in New York. Peace is not a noun, a thing, but rather it is a verb, a continuous intention, a way of being in the world. Peace is the willingness to be vulnerable, to seek understanding, to strive for respect and integrity, to be humble, and to reach across the chasms of disconnection and confusion with the full intention of creating lasting bonds of compassion and love. Today’s mission, Agents, is to make an offering of peace to a person or community you feel would benefit from such an act. It might be a religious or spiritual community that has been traditionally excluded from your society. Perhaps it is a community of a different culture or place that you want to make feel more welcome. It could even be a person that you wish to have a more peaceful relationship with, whether this is a friend, family member, or coworker. Create an offering of peace in your own way - which could be a work of art, your words, a letter, a hug - and offer it to them today. As you fulfill your mission, share your experiences on the Compassion Report Map to amplify its power! Check out all of the inspiring reports posted on the map so far! Going Deeper: This may be the final mission for World Interfaith Harmony Week, but there are many wonderful compassion expeditions to come! Agents, sign up for the upcoming Compassion Games Coopetition: Love This Place! Serve the Earth Week! Beginning on April 16th, Serve the Earth Week is 9-day global challenge to inspire acts of love, service, and compassion toward our Mother Earth and all life. Learn more and sign up here!   Inspiration for Mission #7: The inspiration for our final World Interfaith Harmony Week Coopetition is from the profound global warrior of Peace, Pope Francis.   “Instead of being just a church that welcomes and receives by keeping the doors open, let us try also to be a church that finds new roads ... to those who have quit or are indifferent.” Additional Resources: Pope Francis Full Speech with US Congress September 2015 Follow Pope Francis on Twitter @Pontifex Pope Francis' Website Review Past Missions! Missed any of the previous missions or want to review them? View them here!

Mission VI: Open the Heart

For Reflection: Before moving on to Mission #6, take a moment to reflect on yesterday's mission. How did it feel to have such a mindful, intimate experience with your meal? Have you ever thought about food being such an expression of values, or even a spiritual experience? How might you bring more mindfulness into your experience of eating everyday? If you haven't done so, post your reflections and experiences on the Compassion Report Map to amplify your compassionate action! I attended a very special Tea Time at a local church yesterday.  Divers-Tea is now in its second year and the first year.  Divers-tea had 100 women from diverse faiths gathered for an art activity and conversation in its first year.  In its second year, 200 women gathered for a deep listening and sharing time.  The art activity was secondary.  I was mindful about the tea when I savored it after I poured tea to the ladies at table 19 from my mother's tea pots.  Two of the nine women at my table participated by listening.  The others shared their thoughts to questions provided by the organizers about the meaning and challenges of diversity in our times.  We all shared one thing in common, we drank the tea that came from my ancestors tea pot without walls, fears, or divisions.  My mother's tea pots unify us with something warm, comforting, and connecting.  We all wanted more tea, be it with sugar, cream, or plain!  Tea was Peace! Tea was human dignity connected!

“The longest journey you will make in your life is from your head to your heart."  The Teaching of a Sioux Legend Today’s sixth mission, Agents, is to heed the call of our hearts by opening its secrets to someone we love. Too often, our experiences in life lead us to believe that having an open heart is a form of weakness, a way for others to hurt us. In response, we learn to build great barriers around our hearts so that we can protect ourselves from pain. Sadly as a result, the way to our heart becomes overgrown with thorns, brambles, and the path is nearly forgotten. Yet the heart needs no map, for it always calls to us to return to it. We know - from decades of research and thousands of years of teachings from wisdom traditions - that an open and loving heart is central to our happiness and well-being. When we express the deepest parts of ourselves to others who care for us, not only are we more joyful as a result, but those we care for are happier, as well. It takes courage to open one’s heart, but to live an authentic life, one must be willing to take those risks to transcend our fears and find peace within ourselves. By doing so, we inspire others to share themselves as well, and together with open hearts, we can find our way to a more peaceful and loving world. Today’s mission, Agents, is to share something that is close to your heart with someone you care about. It may be opening up about something you need help with but were too afraid to ask. It could be sharing how you feel for this person, or how much you care about them. Identify within yourself a meaningful way to open your heart to another, and see what effect it has on yourself and on them. As you fulfill your mission, share your experiences on the Compassion Report Map to amplify its power! Check out all of the inspiring reports posted on the map so far! Going Deeper: Want to take this Mission a bit further? Dr. James Doty, Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery at Stanford University and champion of compassion, developed an mnemonic alphabet of the heart to deepen the practice of opening the heart every day. Read the alphabet of the heart here, and use it to guide and support your journey in opening your heart to another for today’s mission. Inspiration for Mission #6: Inspiration for this mission comes from the teachings and lifelong commitment of His Holiness the 16th Dalai Lama, who says, “My religion is simple. My religion is kindness.” Additional Resources: Read the Dalai Lama’s book called “The Art of Happiness” Read Dr. James Doty’s new book called “Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and Secrets of the Heart” Review Past Missions! Missed any of the previous missions or want to review them? View them here!

Mission V: Nourish the Soul

For Reflection: Before moving on to Mission #5, take a moment to reflect on yesterday's mission. Mission #4 went from the universal of the Golden Rule to the deeply personal. How did it feel to identify the acts of kindness you find extra meaningful when you are the recipient? Was it difficult? Why do you think this is? Was it challenging to treat others in this special way? Was it rewarding? If you haven't done so, post your reflections and experiences on the Compassion Report Map to amplify your compassionate action! I went to a workshop yesterday that helped improve in the area of the Golden Rule through listening and speaking. a. The kindness of others towards my progress as a facilitator in VTS and my eloquence were praised.  That built my confidence because I get from my family that I am not a good listener.  I learned that I have to be intentional and repeat internally without judgment what people are saying to get the scope of what is being said and honor their time and ideas communicating. b I also realized that I need a lot of work towards being kind.  The timing and the choice of words a person chooses can make people insecure and feel diminished.  Sometimes we choose our own growth and satisfaction at the expense of providing an unhappy experience for others around us. Sometimes we are intentionally unintentional. I need to watch what I say and do and why I do say something at all times if I am really applying the Golden Rule.  I have to keep my devilish ego in check. I have been so many times where the two women, whose names I do not even know where yesterday.  I think some of my remarks for personal self-improvement might have hurt at least one of them because they took it as directed to them, not to me. But, was I trying to help them at a time they were not ready for that help or was I trying to show others and myself how much growth had I accomplished? Insecurity and fear are heavy monsters and a big challenges for the Golden Rule.

“Three times a day we get to express our values through food.”  - Michael Pollan, Author, Journalist, & Food Activist Our fifth mission, Agents, is to become radically attuned to the life-giving experience of eating, by one’s self or with others. Watch this clip of our friends Michael Pollan and Oprah Winfrey explain the premise of our fifth mission! Eating is a direct, daily reminder and connection to all of the unseen and interrelated forces that we depend upon to live. This is an incredibly profound experience that human beings share universally around the world. Yet, often it is difficult in fast-paced modern societies to slow down enough to be mindful of how meaningful and important of an experience eating actually is! To counteract this problem, we’ve developed a Compassion Games “Power-Up” to help us more fully connect with our food, one another, and our Mother Earth. This Power-Up is called “Yum the Meal!” There are only four guiding actions of play… share this experience alone or with friends. Yum the Meal! Guiding Action #1: Ground yourself fully in the moment by taking 3 slow, deep breaths. Let go of whatever has been on your mind, and tune into the sensations of your living body, of your windy breath and the feeling of existing as a physical being in this very moment. Guiding Action #2: Think of as many ways to thank the food you are eating as possible. Pour gratitude into everything about your food. For instance, you can give thanks to each animal, and each plant that you are about to eat. You can give thanks to the trace minerals in the food that our bodies need to survive every day, and even the particles of energy within the food that will soon become our very bodies. You can give thanks to the farmers who grew the food, to the soil which provided the nutrients within it, and to the Earth for providing the precious conditions for life to exist! Guiding Action #3: Enjoy the first three bites of your meal as much as you possibly can. Savor every nuance of flavor, every micro-landscape of texture, and how everything about your food coalesces into the river of a life-giving experience. Guiding Action #4: With every bite, give thanks to your beautiful body for sustaining your life. Day after day, year after year, our bodies work so that we can live, so that we can live our one wild, wonderful, and mysterious life. As you fulfill your mission, share your experiences on the Compassion Report Map to amplify its power! Check out all of the inspiring reports posted on the map so far! Going Deeper: Going deeper in our experience with food is recognizing that everyone has a relationship with food, and recognizing that for some, food poverty is a reality. Many of us are privileged to have healthy and abundant food in our lives, but for many this is not the case. One of the featured Ways to Play during Harmony Week is the Souper Bowl Food Drive as a way to support our brothers and sisters who are hungry and in need of food. A little compassion and thoughtfulness can go a long way if we all come together to donate food to our local food pantries to give them some support. Participate in the Souper Bowl by organizing your community to share the abundance of food so there is less hunger and suffering in the world. Additional Resources: Learn more about Michael Pollan and his work on food advocacy here! Review Past Missions! Missed any of the previous missions or want to review them? View them here!

WIHW2017: Mission IV

For Reflection: Before moving on to Mission #4, take a moment to reflect on yesterday's mission. Each of our voices are powerful, and our voices together can be magical and unstoppable. Combining our voices can also be challenging, even in private. What was it like to add your voice to a piece of music from another culture? Were you able to express yourselves with the music the way you wanted to? How might you fully express your voice in other areas of life to speak your personal truth more powerfully? If you haven't done so, post your reflections and experiences on the Compassion Report Map to amplify your compassionate action!  I did not combine it, I just listened to the video, which was a balancing, empowering experience into worlds I have never explored in the safety, and non-threatening world of sounds inspired in peace, kindness and love.

Our fourth mission, Agents, is to identify one way you really like to be treated, and then today seek out an opportunity to treat someone else that way. Visionary of the Charter for Compassion Karen Armstrong introduces us to the idea of the Golden Rule on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday!   Virtually every spiritual tradition recognizes the Golden Rule as the most important practice to live one’s life by. Within the spiraling array of traditions that circumnavigate the globe, the Golden Rule is truly a universal teaching! Let us take a moment to explore the ways we really like to be treated. Although the Golden Rule is universal, we each can receive a type of kindness that is extra meaningful to us. It might be the quality of the time someone spends with us. It could be physical touch, such as a hug or a hand on a shoulder in a show of support. Maybe it is hearing affirming words of kindness, someone doing something kind for you, or even someone giving you a thoughtful gift. Agents, identify what actions are especially meaningful to you, and then treat someone else that way today! As you fulfill your mission, share your experiences on the Compassion Report Map to amplify its power! Check out all of the inspiring reports posted on the map so far! Going Deeper: Want to go a bit deeper in exploring the Golden Rule from the diversity of spiritual expressions? Our partner Spiritual Playdates has created an interactive Golden Wheel to learn about the Golden Rule! It’s really fun, and provides beautiful insight on how the Golden Rule is expressed both uniquely and universally in the world’s traditions. Check it out here! Inspiration for Mission #4: This mission is inspired by our friend Karen Armstrong, world renowned religious scholar and visionary of the Charter of Compassion. In 2008, Karen was awarded the TEDx Prize where she was granted one wish: to launch our partners, The Charter for Compassion, a global campaign to activate compassion at the center of our lives and social institutions through collaborative partnerships worldwide. Additional Resources: Take a look at this poster that shows us how the Golden Rule is described in various world traditions. Read about and affirm the Charter for Compassion Read about the background of Karen's wish for a Charter for Compassion here Review Past Missions! Missed any of the previous missions or want to review them? View them here!

WIHW 2017: Mission III: Harmonize

For Reflection: Before moving on to Mission #3, take a moment to reflect on yesterday's mission. How did it feel to listen compassionately to another person - respecting their worth as a human being regardless of their differences in tradition, perspective or culture? Were you able to connect with them in a heartfelt way? How might it affect your life if you took this approach toward connecting and listening to others everyday? If you haven't done so, post your reflections and experiences on the Compassion Report Map to amplify your compassionate action!  I did not have the opportunity to talk about another person about traditions, faith, perspectives or culture, but the Three Interfaith Amigos made me think of people talking different languages.  We think we could be understood if we speak louder, or all at the same time and we do not communicate.  The few minutes of the video made me realize the importance of attentive listening and meaningful dialog.  A dialog where we share instead of judge or make our personal opinions prevail.

Our third mission, Agents, is to harmonize our voices with other traditions and cultures through the universal expression of music. Every culture and society values music as a fundamental expression of human life. Its enchanting qualities transcend language, as it can be understood on levels that dive deep below the rational, thinking mind, straight to the heart. Today, find a hymn, chant, or song from a tradition different than your own and listen to it deeply. Even if you cannot understand the words, allow the music to move your spirit. Feel the nuances and movement of the music. Imagine the visuals these sounds invoke, and allow yourself to feel the experience in your body. Then, when you are ready to, add your own voice to the piece of music in your own way. You might hum quietly to the music, or add your own harmonies. Agent, your voice is an incredibly powerful tool. From it arises your deep, personal truth and through music, you can share it with the world. Need a place to start? We recommend listening to “The Gift of Love” by Sami Yusef, a song composed for World Interfaith Harmony Week in 2015! Agents, remember... As you fulfill your mission, share your experiences on theCompassion Report Map to amplify its power! Check out all of the inspiring reports posted on the map so far! Inspiration for Mission #3: Inspiration for Mission #3 comes from Malala Yousafzai, a young woman whose voice and truth could not be silenced. Malala, a Pakistani activist for female education, is the youngest laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize. The local Taliban in her region attempted to assassinate her on October 9th, 2012, due to her work to see that all children receive an education. Watch an incredible interview with Malala and Oprah Winfrey here. Additional Resources: Tune into the Compassion Games Live "Blab", an interactive interview with interesting champions of compassion on Thursday at 4pm PST! RSVP here. Check out this Golden Rule Spotify playlist put together by our partner Spiritual Playdates

WIHW 2017, Mission Two: Compassionate Listening

For Reflection: Before moving on to Mission #2, reflect on yesterday's mission. What was it like to sit with the reality that our personal ancestral lineages reach to so many people who have lived before us? Did you feel more connected to yourself, to life, and to others? How might you continue to carry this awareness in your everyday life, and how might it impact your interactions with others?  The small task of connecting my eyes to the sky and to the earth was very powerful because it allowed me to focus on what was there before me and will be there after me.  I felt a link to my father especially because a tree that once was planted, died for a while, but as by magic, the administration at my school planted not one, but many trees in the area where once my father's tree stood alone.  It is also very connecting that my sisters will be back in OKC in a couple of weeks to have a sisters' time together.  I think I am going to try to have a plaque in memory of my father planted there and another in the trees that were planted by me in memory of my mother on the other side of campus.

“Why is interfaith dialogue so difficult? [It is] the confusion between the particular and the universal. Every authentic spiritual path is an avenue to a shared universal. But that universal is far greater than any particular path.” -Rabbi Ted Falcon, The Interfaith Amigos Our second mission, Agents, is to listen compassionately to someone from a different tradition, perspective, or culture than our own. We introduce the concept of Compassionate Listening with The Interfaith Amigos! Few things can stir up our emotions like listening to someone say something that goes against what we believe to be true. Agents, this is a sign! There is profound treasure buried where these feelings exist… If we can rise to the challenge! It is easy to have compassion for someone who thinks and lives like we do. It is much more difficult to see past the differences that seem to divide us from the “other”, to look past judgement, and find the will to care and try to understand regardless of these different views. It can be difficult to accomplish, but where these feelings lay, untold growth awaits! Today, seek out and listen to someone that holds a different perspective than you do. It could be a friend, a family member, or even an acquaintance you’d like to learn more about. Listen with an open mind and heart, without judgement, with a genuine interest to understand their perspective or tradition. Agents, remember... As you fulfill your mission, share your experiences on theCompassion Report Map to amplify its power! Your report inspires others, amplifying the power of your compassion and generosity! Going Deeper: If you want more guidance on how to be a more compassionate communicator, The Interfaith Amigos have put together 5 interfaith dialogue stages: Reaching beyond distrust, suspicion and fear by sharing our stories together. Gaining an appreciative understanding of the core teachings of another's traditions. Understanding how some of the verses and practices in our traditions are consistent with core teachings and other verses and practices are inconsistent with those core teachings. Being willing to enter into more difficult conversations, such as Israeli and Palestinian conflict. Celebrating and experiencing spiritual practices from other traditions. Each day during World Interfaith Harmony Week the Compassion Torch will be passed to a new Champion of Compassion. On Day 2 of the Giving Games, we are deeply thankful to pass the Compassion Torch from Sande Hart and the Charter for Compassion: Women and Girls Sector to the one and only Interfaith Amigos! The Interfaith Amigos, of course, are the inspiration behind Mission #2. They began working together after 9/11, and have been healing the divide between faiths ever since. Don't miss out on their remarkable story! Read Our Featured Story About the Interfaith Amigos Here! Partners in Compassion! Thank you to our truly remarkable partner in compassion for making this coopetition possible. Learn more about the incredible work, history, and vision of the Fetzer Institute here!