This Week's Quotation:
When we bear witness, when we become the situation—homelessness, poverty, illness, violence, death—the right action arises by itself. We don’t have to worry about what to do. We don’t have to figure out solutions ahead of time. Peacemaking is the functioning of bearing witness. Once we listen with our entire body and mind, loving action arises.
– Bernie Glassman
The Gift of Bearing Witness
Rev. Berry Behr, Interfaith Minister
One of the miracles of interfaith work is witnessing something extraordinary happen when a group of people is invited to share their story with strangers who have no agenda other than listening. They tell their story as if for the first time, because they know those listening are hearing it for the first time.
As the people speak, new insights arise. The strangers ask new questions, or perhaps old ones, but their tone is kind, compassionate, and curious. Somehow, questions and answers seem to arise from a deeper place—the heart. The people telling their stories feel heard and appreciated. The people listening feel immense gratitude for the privilege of sharing intimate space with people who are so willing to share their hearts.
Twice in one month, I observed this alchemy of bearing witness that culminates in a sense of healing. During the Spirit of Freedom Tour, we spent a day with the African traditional community. Two weeks later, I returned with another group. Both times, traditional healers (Sangomas) told their story to strangers from across the world whose cultures could not have been more different. The African traditional story includes a history of struggle to have their spiritual practices recognised and customs valued. Even today, Traditional healers’ practices are often at odds with an outdated colonialist legal system; for many South Africans, our globally celebrated constitution, guaranteeing freedom of religion, is disappointing in real life.
What is the point of a story if nobody is willing to listen to it? When we arrive with a fresh heart to hear a story, however old, it is as if the pent-up pain of the storyteller is suddenly released. The relief is immense. Somebody cares. Somebody heard. Somebody asked a question that leads into a field of possibility. This is a new world.
If all we ever do is listen with our whole heart, what an enormous gift that is. What a loving action it is, to bear witness to one another.
It was a long time in my life before I realized that my parents weren’t ‘normal’. They went to church – but they also talked about people like Edgar Cayce and others like him. Once when I closed a door and accidentally damaged the leg of a tiny little insect, I felt so bad and was crying, my mom said, Don’t worry, it will grow back. I asked her why we couldn’t do that, and she answered that maybe we have forgotten how to. And who knows, over the decades of my life, through trainings of all kinds, and certainly including Attunement, we have found so much more than we have ever known before, and so much that was lost from the Ancients over time. Physical healing is of course just one part of of the inner Grace of Life that we all possess – we are fortunate to be here during a time of Revelation!! We are no longer supporting forgetting, we are supporting Awakening of all kinds. Thank you so much Rev. Berry for the Blessings of what you show us.
This essay touched me so deeply. It speaks to the many stories that need to be heard, sharing different religious practices that give meaning to a human being’s life. It might not be my practice, but we can all listen and seek to understand.
Beautiful.
This is Attunement.
May we all Listen and Witness deeply with our hearts.