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LIVE8 - THE BIGGEST SPIRITUAL EVENT EVER by William Bloom info@williambloom.com
LIVE8 - THE BIGGEST SPIRITUAL EVENT EVER - JOIN IN WITH MEDITATION, PRAYER AND HEALING
This Saturday's Live8 Concert will be the biggest spiritual event that humanity has ever experienced. This is an extravagant claim, but two things are for certain. First, never before in the history of humanity have so many people been involved in a single shared experience. Second, the core of the experience is both celebratory and moral - 'spiritual' by any other name. The figures and reality of the event are impressive and worth repeating. Live8 will be the biggest broadcast ever, with more than 5.5 billion people able to tune in through a variety of media. The global population today stands at 6.5 billion which means that 85 per cent of all people will be able to watch or listen to the concert. This surpasses the previous 2004 record of the 3.9 billion people who watched the Olympic Games. No matter how cynical some may be about its showbiz buzz, the whole happening can be positively described as contemporary collective religion and spirituality at its best. It has all the features of great worship. Song, rhythm and noble ideals. Whether it is the Gregorian chant of Christian monks, hymn singing, tribal and pagan dance, Buddhist mantras, Islamic song-prayers or one of the many other cultural forms - throughout history, in all times and places, people have come together to share their spirituality through music. Today the shared music of our globe is rock and pop. This Saturday the congregation is almost everyone on the planet. Global, collective worship. And the event has depth - the depth of true meaning, compassion and relevance. It is concerned with the suffering and deaths of millions of children and adults, condemned by a poverty that can be remedied. It will raise consciousness and open hearts. It is fully engaged in social and political realities, bringing direct pressure to bear on the 8 world leaders who will meet in Scotland for the G8 summit and who have the opportunity now to increase aid, release debt and create a global trading system that is fair, immediately saving lives that are otherwise slaughtered by our gods of uncaring commerce and power politics. But as a spiritual event, Live8 will also carry atmosphere and energy. It will call in and transmit love, compassion and connection. Anyone who remembers the LiveAid concert of 20 years ago, or the opening and closing of the last Olympic games, will remember the powerful emotion and energy of those events. This Saturday, then, is also an opportunity for prayer, meditation and healing. There is occasion here for everyone to participate. As well as being enthusiastic supporters and spectators, we can also give co-creative spiritual engagement. Whatever the event appears to be on the outside, in the inner world it also has immense power. During the worldwide concert, we can pray and meditate for global healing and justice for all the world's people.
We can call for and send healing.
We can increase our commitment to a life style that harms no one and no being. Religion by religion there is a common myth that their saviour will return and lead humanity to a better world, to heaven on earth. This is an old model, a hope dependent on a single leader. Today's world is more democratic, less hierarchical. There is the possibility that humanity as a whole can manifest its spirituality and love of freedom. As with the fall of the Berlin Wall or the response to the Tsunami disaster, the heart and passion of humanity can manifest in enormous group events.
As we know every few seconds a child dies of extreme poverty. A lost life, a devastated family. I cannot live with this any more. Most of us cannot bear it. Linked by the global communications network, linked by our shared prayers and meditations, let this coming Saturday truly be the greatest spiritual event ever. Let it move and transform the hearts of all of us, manifesting practically in a transformed world. Enjoy the party. Anchor the passion. Heal the world.
William Bloom June 2005
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