Monday, April 8, 2013

Who...am I?

Look at me
Now tell me what you see
Be honest
You see the colour of my skin?
Or what I'm wearing perhaps
Or what I own, drive
Where I live
What I have
What YOU see I have

Or perhaps you detect
Comfort, an ease of being
Safety,
A lack of lack
A lack of pain,
A lack of strain.

Look again.
Really look
Do you see openness?
Willingness,
Perhaps a generosity
Of spirit
Can you see a hint of guilt too
But wait,
What about sincerity
industriousness
Friendliness
Sharingness

What would you have me
Be, do, say
Would that make it
Better
Lesser
Should I be lesser
Give, take
Take again
Take some more
Is that better

I am connected
eternally Sourced
But
There are limits
Even for me
I am also
custodian
For the Great Custodian
Of bounties
Freely bestowed

I touch
The Source
And I am
Just as in awe
Of favours
Revealed
Delighted, joyous
Sometimes
Delirious

Then which of
My Favours
Will ye deny
my favours
your favours too
If
you would
just
Connect

I free
I fly
I shake, rattle
disrupt, delight
clever
caustic, sharp
obsess, upset
confuse
beset with doubt
worry, denial
Shattered.

Emerge
peace with regret
embrace follows accept
sadness, relief
courage then new belief
Vigour, fervour
return
I collect my
Spirit
I am done.

Look at me
Now
What do you see
You
Me

The Pigeon Hole

You take me as a subject as a painter would, and you find a place for me in the landscape of your mind. I would rather you take me as that subject around which you would paint a glorious, new landscape.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Turning 37...

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the Light gets in.

Leonard Cohen

Friday, July 31, 2009

On Truth & Justice

True Justice is not about punishment, but restoration and rehabilitation. Marietta Jaeger

And before that restoration of spirit begins, first perhaps, there has to be acceptance – at the very least of the act that occurred. If we continue to carry the emotional charge around the event that occurred, then perhaps we can never really create the space in which our own healing can begin.

Compassion and forgiveness are spoken of often enough – acting out compassion and forgiveness is another thing altogether. It means that first and foremost, I need to accept things as they have come about to be – and this means reconciling myself to the acceptance of loss – whether it is the loss of a loved one, or of my possessions, or of my dignity, or my health. This is a great challenge, because I would have to ask myself how I will now live without that which was important to me.

Once I can accept that life from this moment is going to be irrevocably different for me, and once I can start to come around to what that will mean for me, perhaps this is the point when I can now start to look at the occurrence from a different perspective.

And this is perhaps the first inclination towards forgiveness – Neale Donald Walsh writes that in forgiving someone, we are saying to them “thank you for-giving me this experience”. This may hard for some to swallow – after all, how could one possibly thank the murderer of a loved one for giving them the experience of heart-wrenching loss, and for taking that person away from them forever?!

But I would say that in doing this, we are not going as far as thanking the perpetrator in saying this – what we are doing, perhaps, is to shift our perspective and to accept that at this stage, what has happened has happened, and neither hell nor high water can change that. It’s tough to do that. Gratitude for an experience can take a long while to come about – it is only with hindsight that our vision is 20-20 – it is only after the fact, and maybe a long while after the fact, after we have learned various lessons associated with the experience, or after perhaps we have grown from the experience, that we can look back and perhaps start to introduce gratitude for what we have gone through.

Some are able to do this better than others – some will succumb to the pain of the experience in such a way, that it is only the imbibing of substances that will help them take their attention away from the pain – and sometimes, this is the only means that they will ever use to help them cope.

But there are some that will, in a moment of surrender, take a moment to pause, and to open their hearts a little wider.

It is in doing this, I believe, that we start to create the space for compassion – that all-healing, alchemising vibration that literally, in and of itself, starts to melt away the lower vibrations of anger, and pain, and indignation, and humiliation.
Perhaps in coming into acceptance, we are reconciling ourselves with a little of Truth – in facing our demons, we acknowledge them and we recognize them for what they are. We recognize that an ‘injustice’ has been brought about; a loss of dignity has come about. It is perhaps at this juncture, that we can also realize, that we have a choice with regards to what we can do next.

If I live for ‘an eye for an eye’, I may demand at this stage that the one who has harmed me be put through the same level of pain that s/he brought about to me. I may feel at this stage, that in doing so, I am ‘taking responsibility’ to ensure that the perpetrator is also ‘held responsible’ for his / her act. This is the premise that the death penalty is based on. It would be interesting to know just how many witnesses to executions feel genuinely redeemed or ‘better’ after having watched the killer ‘put to sleep’.

I could, on the other hand, realize that having this person killed will not ultimately take the sting of my loss away – my anger will abate, but chances are, I will not feel any less wretched. In this instance, I will embark on an entirely different process – an introspective one, where I will have to make peace with my pain in an entirely different way. And this is perhaps where forgiveness starts to seep in – in attempting to understand in a small way the who and the how and the why, and then perhaps, with ultimate grace, forgiveness of myself, and of my own sense of wretchedness.

On the notion of Justice, there is a very interesting story I came across. In the absence of anthropological details and fact, I will relay it as a story:

There is tribe that exists in some part of the world, which has a unique manner in which the members mete out Justice to one of their own that that has killed another. They tie up the person’s arms and legs, put him into a sack, dump him into a boat which as a small hole in it, and they push the boat out into the furthest and deepest part of the village pond.

The rules are this: All in the village must come to witness the punishment. All in the village must stay and watch the entire process unfold, no matter how traumatic it gets. As the boat starts to sink, and as the water fills up the boat, and as the perpetrator starts to struggle, and to drown, it is ONLY the family of the victim that is allowed to take any further steps – they can therefore let the person drown in front of them, or decide to swim out and rescue him/her.

One may argue that in contemporary society, we can’t possibly all start using ponds and sacks to bring about justice – but consider this – even the families of the victims who are allowed to witness executions, are shrouded from the ultimate horror of watching someone die a long and painful death in front of them – we’ve developed the lethal injection and the more horrible but efficient electric chair to ensure a ‘quick exit’.

I believe that if we truly honest without selves, and if we were to engage with more compassion in our systems of jurisprudence, then perhaps we would be willing to let go of our own sense of vindication, which often takes precedence over anything else, and substitute punishment for a more reconciliatory and rehabilitative approach.

In Kenya, we are currently grappling between sending our post-election violence perpetrators to the International Criminal Court in the Hague, and subjecting them to the enquiries of a local Truth and Justice & Reconciliation Commission.

Well, if they are willing to look into the eyes of the people whose lives they have destroyed, and in the interest of Truth, completely come clean and describe in detail how they set about planning the violent and horrific death of the loved one of the person they are sitting in front of, then perhaps we can allow the person they have harmed to decide whether s/he is going to going to let them sink, or swim. But Reconciliation can only come about if we are prepared to face our demons with the greatest of courage, find the magnanimity of Spirit to initiate the process of Forgiveness, and engage with each in the most authentic manner possible.

Anything less, will Just not do (pun intended).

Monday, June 22, 2009

On Power

With Great Power, comes Great Responsibility.

What Power is NOT……

Power is not Force – it is not about imposing one’s Will – rather it is about having the strength and Presence of Mind to bring about Enrollment into a Higher Ideal.

Power, in and of itself is not harmful – it depends on the quality of Intent behind the channeling of Power.

Power is not Gender specific – it is not Masculine. It is not qualitatively anything. It can, however, be infused with masculine or feminine qualities through intent, to influence a situation.

Power is not Exploitation – It is not ‘at the expense of’ – exploitation can only come about as a result of Free Will deeming it so – Power unto itself is not exploitative. It can be directed by Free Will or Choice to exploit, but in and of itself is not exploitative.

Power is not rigid. It is Free Will that holds power to a position. Power in and of itself is not stagnant or still – it is ‘pulsating’ in nature – power is channeled and directed and is radiating. Power is harnessed by Free Will and Choice to retain and maintain the structure of a system. This is why Free Will is so powerful – it can harness the movement of power into rigidity. Power in and of itself is not rigid – it is Free Will and Fear that uses Power to bring about rigidity.

Power is not Exclusive – Power does not discern, Power just IS. It is available for and to everyone. It is the intellect that is able to identify and discern the presence of Power and the benefits of holding Power, and then to use Free Will to hold on to Power for exclusivity purposes.

Power is not Greedy, or Discriminatory. Power is used by greediness. It is Free Will and greed that causes an individual to want to harness more Power. It has nothing to so with Power in and of itself. It is the human instinct that manipulates Power and succumbs to greed that causes the desire to harness more Power.


Power is available to anyone and EVERYONE. It is YOUR Free Will that will determine how YOU will use Power to your advantage and for the benefit of ALL.

How do YOU choose to use Power???

Monday, March 23, 2009

This magazine is 'Loaded'

The latest issue of Wajibu Magazine, a journal of Social and Ethical Concern is out now.



Click Here for a look at the contents in this issue.

TO FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN GET A COPY, PLEASE CONTACT DIPESH PABARI AT dpinkenya@yahoo.co.uk

Click Here to access the Wajibu Webite

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Leadership my Ar** - Nothing's Changed

I posted the following post in February last year. Absolutely NOTHING has changed - in fact it's worse. Out of sheer frustration, I am posting this again.

___________________

I just cannot help feeling angry at the way our future is currently being horse-traded. Keeping my optimism levels high is becoming more and more of a chore and extremely difficult to do.

To you, Mr. Politician, I wish we could tell you to your face how we really feel about you.

I wish you could see the disdain and the lack of respect with which we regard you. I wish we could somehow find a way to let you go, and not waste any more of our precious energy resting our hopes with you - always hoping and praying that you’ll do the right thing.

What exactly is it that we owe you? Why do we even look up to you? Why did I even bother allowing myself to be momentarily uplifted by your fake and deceitful promises? Why did I invest any faith in you?

You, all of you who claim to lead us today, have, as a GENERATION have failed us. You have allowed our communal values to disintegrate. You have allowed us to become a people divided by greed, self-interest and exclusiveness.

While we wait out every day with bated breath, you continue to haggle with each other over who will retain the most power, trying to ensure that you maintain your upper hands and your control. You’re STILL not seeing the real picture – you are so blinded by your self importance, and your inflated egos, and you really don’t give a damn about what happens to millions of us.

Oh how I wish there was some way to get rid of the lot of you. How I wish we all felt more empowered, more able, more confident, more enthusiastic, more determined, because if we did, trust me – you wouldn’t stand a chance. But you know that already, don’t you? It’s why you use what you use to oppress us, to keep us down, to make us fearful, to make us insecure and uncertain. You try to destroy our strength every opportunity that you get.

What goes around, comes around. No power lasts forever. No family is always safe. The sins of the fathers will always be revisited on future generations. Maybe you’ll keep your children safe, but perhaps you’ll be around to see the legacy that you left your grand-children. You will only have yourselves to judge.

So go ahead – fill your bellies to bursting, steal as much as you want, fulfill every self-serving desire, because your grandchildren will be the ones to inherit a world that is so bursting with poverty, that they will not be able to step out of the safety of the palaces that you built for them because their security will be threatened with every step that they take. They will not be able to step out of their palaces because the environment that they live in is so filthy that a mere breath will make them ill. They will not be able to walk and live freely because there will be no concept of neighbourliness – you had them all killed.

Their lives will be filled with boredom, because you eliminated diversity when you brought about your divisive thinking.

So go ahead – negotiate, horse trade, make your deals, and stick with your myopic and petty thinking.

You will pay the price, and no amount of cash is going to help you settle the bill and you certainly won’t have built up any credit.

Enough said.