Tag Archives: Jesus

Nonviolence, Christ Consciousness, Palestine – Sami Awad

It was my honor and pleasure to have this conversation with Sami Awad, a leader in the nonviolent movement to resist oppression worldwide and especially to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian people.

Please see the YouTube video of our talk, and/or listen to the audio podcast here.

Sami Awad is a Palestinian activist committed to nonviolence, healing and transformation. His path weaves personal and collective healing, the wisdom of ancient teachings, commitment to awakening consciousness and living life through radical love.

He serves as Co-Director of Nonviolence International and is based in Bethlehem, Palestine where he has been a leading advocate of nonviolent resistance to occupation and an inspirational leader for building a shared future of Palestinians and Israelis based on equality and human rights.

His recently published book, The Sacred Awakening – Reclaiming Christ Consciousness, shares his own story of “leaving Christianity to find Jesus.” In it, he offers his understanding of the life and teachings of Jesus as something we are invited to embody ourselves. He takes us through the inner meanings and instructions for life in the Sermon on the Mount, helping us see them as a path for awakening to higher consciousness and being agents of change here on Mother Earth.

In our conversation, Sami shares his own political and spiritual evolution, from embracing the two-state solution for Israel/Palestine, to seeing that what is needed is opening to “the consciousness of one-state.” He explains that this means making the vision of equality, dignity, respect and freedom for both Jews and Palestinians the primary focus for finding practical solutions. He holds a deep recognition of the need for healing the traumas of both peoples.

A very interesting part of our discussion involved his participation in an Ayahuasca healing ceremony for Israelis and Palestinians together which led to some very profound transformations of consciousness.

Please watch and listen to this conversation: YouTube video of our talk, and/or listen to the audio podcast here. While you’re there, please check out other conversations with people doing wonderful work to make the world better, and please subscribe to help get the word out more.

You can learn more about Sami at Nonviolence International, and his website, and his own website, sami-awad.com.

Published in the New Yorker!

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OK, the subject line is an attention getter. But it’s true, my recent blog post, “A Jew at Maundy Thursday” was published in the Episcopal New Yorker, the official news publication of the Episcopal Diocese of New York in their recent “Love vs. Tolerance Issue.” (See it here: http://www.evergreeneditions.com/publication/?i=266826),

IMG_0638        More exciting is the fact that I now have a final proof copy of Crossing the Boundary – Jewish Leaders of Other Spiritual Paths in my hands. It looks great and having read it through one more time I am convinced that it is a valuable contribution to the awakening of spiritual awareness and the role of group identity in human evolution. As well, of course, another view of the several millennial journey of the Jewish people.

Those of you who contributed to my Kickstarter campaign should be receiving your signed copy of the book very shortly. At that time, I will officially “launch” the book and hope you will help me by forwarding the announcement to your friends and colleagues. I’ll be sending that message as soon as books are available for order.

In the meantime, below are a few more statements from folks I’ve asked to read and comment on the book.

 

“In Crossing the Boundary Alan Levin has assembled a group of spiritual teachers who show us that the deepest way to become authentically ourselves is to build connections with the variety of spiritual and religious traditions that we previously thought of as ‘other.’ A boundary crosser himself, Levin has much to teach all of us who seek to deepen our own spiritual lives.”
–Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor Tikkun and chair, the Network of Spiritual Progressives. Author of Jewish Renewal and Healing Israel/Palestine.

“In Crossing the Boundary, Alan Levin presents and demonstrates the restless spiritual curiosity and courage that distinguishes Jewish people everywhere. The ‘God Wrestlers’ interviewed here are not content with simply repeating prayers of the past but are part of the on-going struggle to discover the deepest highest truth alive today and imagine a sustainable tomorrow. Each unique personality, following their heart, discovered divinity that both altered and affirmed their original faith. Although meant as a study of identity, Crossing the Boundary is an affirmation of spiritual intelligence, resistance to easy answers, and universal love that renews the world.”

–Alex Grey, Artist, Author, Co-Founder CoSM, Chapel of Sacred Mirrors

“Alan Levin has written a thoroughly absorbing account of his interviews with fourteen spiritual teachers in a variety of traditions and how they have connected with as well as separated from their ancestral Jewishness. In our contemporary world men and women of Jewish family origin and religious upbringing have become not just practitioners but also teachers of Catholic, Sufi, Buddhist, Hindu, Wiccan, Shamanic, Taoist and Sikh spiritual doctrines and practices. These individuals have not rejected their Jewish tradition but built on it and integrated its essence into their chosen life-way. Surely this is a 20th century phenomenon: from the often gruesome persecution history of European Jewry has emerged a synergistic rainbow of spiritual teachings that honors the ancestral wisdom and devotion embedded in traditional Jewish religious life. This book offers rich and moving testimony to this unique historic process.”
–Ralph Metzner, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus,California Institute of Integral Studies Author, The Unfolding Self, and The Well of Remembrance.