This last Sunday was Valentine’s Day, and it was also Chinese New Year.

I found myself at a New Year’s celebration in Flushing, Queens, the town I always joke is named after me (The English called it Flushing, but it was founded by the Dutch as Vlissingen), the birthplace of American ideals of religious freedom (see Remonstrance of Flushing). The event was held at a temple, the Happy Buddha Precious Temple, devoted to the cultivation of the Dao, our true nature, our true Self. This is an outpost of a global movement which was founded some sixty years ago, but claims roots in the oldest Chinese wisdom traditions of Daoism and Confucianism, while also integrating Buddhism and the understanding that Jesus was an enlightened teacher like Buddha. This is an interesting movement, which takes an a-religious posture, although it does incorporate some ritual, but in essence it sees the Dao as the most abstract vision of the Source of all Being, and hence their movement as the root of all religious traditions, so that their view is that their system of belief does not need to conflict with any particular religion you think you belong to. In other words, there is an interesting sort of tolerance here, and an expression of the one behind the many.

I was fortunate to participate in their rite of the transmission of the Dao, which they equate to the opening of the wisdom eye. It was very simple and beautiful, and the old gentleman who performed the ritual was excited to learn that I had been a student of Lao Tzu’s Tao Teh Ching ever since I was about ten or eleven years old. As it was my acquaintance with Chinese culture started with the discovery of Robert van Gulik’s Judge Dee series, and then after that I got interested in playing Go, (Chinese Checkers, as van Gulik calls it in the books), and gradually also in Lao Tzu, and to a lesser degree in Confucius. Over the years it always seemed to me that Kung Fu Tze was to Lao Tzu as Aristotle was to Plato in the West. In any case the old gentleman immediately speculated that maybe this rite would be a reunion with my old teacher Lao Tzu for me, and that was surely what it felt like, and in a funny way it was yet another circle closing in my life, for Lao Tzu, the Buddha, Quan Yin, and Jesus are really all one. Much like the Thomas Gospel the Tao Teh Ching has this quality of being more an invitation to the contemplation and the pursuit of truth, much more than being prescriptive or concerned with form. Of course Lao Tzu, just like Jesus or the Buddha did not found a religion, that’s just what the followers made of it.

Along with the ceremony, which was optional, there was also a lovely New Year’s meal, where all the members of the community prepared a dish.

All in all, this was a beautiful way of celebrating the Chinese New Year, and a new year in general, reminding me to recommit myself daily to the Course’s notion of: Make this year different by making it all the same.

See here for a video commentary to the above passage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFNCHw_Hb5Q by Kenneth Wapnick.

This is a most enjoyable book, and also very moving and profound. A little boy remembers a past lifetime as a world war II fighter pilot and his parents research the whole thing. On his father’s part, who was the driver of the research, the intention was to disprove reincarnation, while his mother being more accepting of the possibility. Meanwhile the book inevitably adds up two and two and comes up with five, seeming to conclude that reincarnation is real. Clearly memories from past lifetimes can be a valid experience, but if they prove reincarnation is another matter, what they do prove is the mind’s ability to view different contexts in the hologram of space and time, not limited to the apparent lifetime we are then experiencing.
Having said that, the detail to which this little boy, James Leiniger, experienced these things was quite amazing, and the book is very much worth reading. There was also a Prime Time interview with the parents posted on their website. My favorite line from the book may well be when the father said to his young son that he loves him, and the son says: “Of course daddy, that’s why I picked you.” So when did he pick his parents the bewildered father asks: “When you were in the pink hotel in Hawaii.” The fathers memory then zooms back to a time spent with his wife in Hawaii, about five weeks prior to the time of conception of his son.

The holographic model of time and space which the Course implicitly espouses, and which is at least implied by the quantum physical model, suggests another way of looking at this. The mental activity of the separated mind simply consists of reviewing a past gone by in the present, so that it’s not only the notion of past life memories, which represent in a way reviewing a past experience, which in turn can preoccupy us in the present. Our entire life experience is like this, for the world never exists in the present, hence the Course’s dictum that: “There is no world!” ♠

The same theme comes up in Logion 52, of the Thomas Gospel, in which Jesus points out to the apostles that they are trying in vain to understand him from the past, whereby they fail to be present with Jesus, and joining with him in the now. Although it is not explained in so many words, the implication here is evidently the same, namely that this is our human condition as children from the ego, that we fail to recognize Jesus, because we are judging based on the past, and so we are repeating the past in the present, and thus keeping the present safely outdoors, outside of the framework of reality which we are prepared to accept.

In the book, the research of the parents ends up being useful to young James Leiniger to let go of the past and move on with his life, so they were extremely helpful to him by not suppressing or denying his experiences, as a result of which he was able to deal with the past and let it go. The more common outcome would have been to suppress the experience, and staying stuck in it for a long time. In terms of the Course, this is an example of the miracle, as follows:

The following is is a press release from Fonkoze, dated January 25th, 2010, and it is an amazing story.

Fonkoze filled in the gaps, where the banking system was mostly useless, to get money to the people. Even money transfers were useless if there was no way to pick up money, and Fonkoze made it all work, in an unprecedented collaboration with the US Army and UN. I am passing the story along word for word, it bears repeating.

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In the predawn hours of Saturday, January 23, an unprecedented joint NGO-military operation delivered money by helicopter to ten locations throughout Haiti for payouts of money sent from
abroad and to permit Haitians greater access to their savings. The dramatic operation, which involved the U.S. Military and United Nations to complete the delivery, used disguised boxes of money airdropped across Haiti. In the wake of the earthquake on January 12, Fonkoze was the only financial institution in Haiti able to stay open for customers making withdrawals and receiving money transfers, but within days Fonkoze grew short of cash. Unable to access its commercial bank account in Haiti, Fonkoze reached out to its partners to get money into the hands of desperate earthquake survivors.
In less than 24 hours, Fonkoze was able to secure approval to send $2 million of cash from Fonkoze’s accounts in City National Bank of New Jersey to its 34 branches that had not been
shut down by the earthquake. The cash was packaged in Miami and transported aboard a military C-17 to Haiti. Below is an abbreviated timeline of the mission (the full timeline is
available upon request).

“This was an absolutely tremendous experience for all of us – military and civilian, government and non-profit alike,” said Anne Hastings, CEO of Fonkoze Financial Services. “Our branches
have been working since the earthquake to pay the money transfers our clients so desperately needed to begin to put their lives back together.”

“As people continue to migrate from PAP, Fonkoze’s branch network will become even more essential. Probably most important, unlike the commercial banks, Fonkoze has re-opened many of its branches and has continued to pay out remittances using its cash on hand,” said Jennifer Harris from the U.S. State Department.
The earthquake on January 12 left many, especially the poorest Haitians, unprepared to cope with disaster. Along with the immediate effects of the quake, many had no money in their
pockets, had had their assets and resources destroyed, and lost key family members. After the earthquake, all Haitian commercial banks closed cutting Haitians off from money sent by their
family and friends in other countries. Despite suffering severe damage to its headquarters, Fonkoze quickly re-opened 34 of its 42 branches, including its Port-au-Prince branch.
Within the first week of re-opening the branches, Fonkoze delivered more than $1 million in remittances and savings to Haitians. It then worked quickly to bring in an additional $2 million
from its account at the City National Bank of New Jersey, working through a unique collaboration of the United Nations, USAID, the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Department of
Defense, Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank and City National Bank.

The migration of people out of Port-au-Prince to other areas will mean that Haitians will need infrastructure and financial services in some of the most rural, remote areas of the country,
which Fonkoze has been serving for over 15 years. “After the earthquake it became evident that with large numbers of Haitians migrating from Port-au-Prince to the provinces, Fonkoze, as the
only MFI that pays remittances, would have to play a major role in providing Haitians with access to cash in order to be able to buy food, water and shelter,” said Julie Katzman of the
Multilateral Investment Fund.

Fonkoze, Haiti’s alternative bank for the poor, is helping the most vulnerable Haitians stabilize their lives by opening its doors so that they can access their savings and their remittances from
friends and family abroad. Fonkoze has the deepest reach into Haiti’s rural areas and already has built a remittance network that would take years to create from scratch.

Quick Facts About Fonkoze
Fondasyon Kole Zépol (Fonkoze) is Haiti’s largest, most innovative microfinance institution with over 200,000 clients. It operates 42 branches across Haiti and in every province of the country,
including many towns and villages where no commercial banks operate. It is the institution on which Haiti’s poor relies, especially during crisis. Microfinance helps unlock the entrepreneurial potential of the poor with small loans and other assistance they need to lift themselves out of poverty. Fonkoze provides micro-loans and micro-insurance services and other social programs to poor Haitians and also offers remittances and savings accounts for more than 200,000 people. Overall, Fonkoze directly touches the lives of more than one million Haitians.
Fonkoze targets the poorest of the poor in Haiti. As of 2007, 79 percent of Haitians were living on less than $2 per day and 55 percent were living on less than $1 per day. More than 99
percent of the people receiving Fonkoze loans are women and the average size of Fonkoze’s basic loan is just $172.
Fonkoze pioneered micro-life insurance in Haiti with its Haitian partner Alternative Insurance Company. Families who make claims receive relief from their loved one’s debt and $125 to help
the family cope with the financial shock. Fonkoze has its own remittance service and is also a vendor for MoneyGram, CAM and Unitransfer.

Among others, Fonkoze partners with the Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank, Partners in Health, USAID, World Vision, Whole Planet Foundation (Whole Foods Market), Grameen Foundation (Alex Counts, Grameen Foundation President, serves as chair of Fonkoze USA), Oikocredit, MEDA, CGAP and other major development agencies and
organizations.
With over 95 percent Haitian senior staff and a highly-skilled, Haitian-majority management team, Fonkoze is building the foundations for democracy and sustainable development.
Fonkoze and Anne Hastings, CEO, Fonkoze Financial Services, have been recognized worldwide for their innovative approach in helping the most vulnerable build better lives in the
Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation.
You can find the latest information and updates following the earthquake at www.fonkoze.org

www.fonkoze.org

Anne Hastings
Fonkoze
+1 305-420-6192 (Tele)
+509 3701-3910 (Haiti tele)
director@fonkoze.org

Leigh Carter
Fonkoze USA
+1 202-628-9033 (Tele)
+1 202-746-7053 (cell)
lcarter@fonkoze.org

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