Letter to Friends that went out today sharing the website and my public perspective on where we are and where we need to go: Marc Gafni

[english]

marc gafni
published on marcgafni.com
please share comments on info@marcgafni.com

A Public Letter send to people on my mailing list inviting them to look at our website.

Hi Friend,

Shalom Chaver

I hope this note finds you well.

First a technical note: I do not have a formal mailing list – my technical assistant took these names from my old computer so if you should not be on this list or do not want to receive these messages just let us know.

I am concluding a long and painful retreat which has lasted more then two years.

There has been much learning in this time, many tears and not a little bit of laughter.

I am surrounded by wonderful friends and I am grateful to them for their love and support. It is now necessary for many reasons to end my retreat and return to my more active life.

I invite you to visit my website marcgafni.com.

It is straightforward and almost self explanatory.

So just a very short word of explanation at this juncture.

First there is a Hebrew and English section. However, since I do not yet have a good Hebrew translator on staff here in Salt Lake City. the bulk of the material is in English.

On the left hand side you will see a list of tabs marking different sections of the website.

In the articles section you will find twenty categories of articles which I invite to you read and enjoy. In the section aboutmarcgafni.com you will get a general view of the website. In the section re-imagine library you will get a general sense on what I am working on these days.

On the home page you will find at the top, an article which appeared recently in Catalyst Magazine, an award winning US publication which will give you a general sense of my last two years.

The article clears my name of some of the distortions and falsehoods that have circulated on the internet and in some press forums for the past couple of years.

Like all press articles it is partial and incomplete, but the reporters captured at least some sense of the last two years. The article is available on the home page.

As the writers indicate, they spend several months and reviewed hundreds of pages of primary source documentation in order to reach their conclusions. The writers had direct and indirect contact with representatives of all the voices in the story.

On the home page as well, you will find a musical and poetic welcome to the site; Together the poem, the music and the words share the intention of the website.

There is also a large section of recorded dialogues with different spiritual teachers -many of which i recorded in the last year.

There is as well, a large section of free audio and video teachings plus a store marcgafni.com where you can buy a more extensive lecture series as well as find links which will enable you to order other books and a cd series.

There is also a section called Controversy where I give my perspective on events of the last two years. I try to do so from a place of open heart, even as I feel the full pain of the wounds of love.

It was written very carefully, together with a relatively large team of people from diverse backgrounds, which had input and guided the process.

The words are precise and chosen carefully.
I tried to share my perspective without demonizing anyone and without attacking anyone even as I speak for the first time on these issues and decisively refute the idea that I sexually harassed anyone or the like in Israel. At the same time I own my personal responsibility for my part in the contribution system that created these events.

In this writing I try and demonstrate the move from the old thinking of “blame frame” in which we point the finger and demonize, making ourselves victims in order to let ourselves off the hook. This kind of thinking while occasionally having some validity is ultimately far too limited and partial to be transformative or healing.
At the same time, the facile new age nonsense that suggests that we are the sole creators of our reality and that therefore we should take full responsibility for everything that happens to us is also inappropriate. This kind of thinking while occasionally having some validity is ultimately far too limited and partial to be transformative or healing.

This position also seemingly noble is rooted in a dangerous hubris, in which we arrogate to ourselves complete power over our lives, a seductive view which soothes the gnawing fears which haunt human beings, but which is ethically corrosive at its core.

A more appropriate position would seem to be the third way. The move from blame frame to contribution system. In a contribution system everyone needs to see what their part in creating the reality that unfolded and to take appropriate responsibility for their part in that system.

This allows one to identify their correct responsibility and directs one to the only place where we really have power over our part – whether five percent or fifty – in the contribution system.

At the same time we have fully prepared these two years on many levels and will not sit by silently if I am falsely attacked. We will respond fully and effectively on many levels.

This much is demanded by my love of my children, friends students and myself.

I am hugely appreciative to all of you who have written me since the website came up.

Your letters and your words, now and over the last two years have meant so so much to me.

My family, colleagues, and I are moving on with our lives.

I just got off the phone with my son Yair who was standing at a bus stop in Be’er Sheva and he said to me what my son Eytan said to me only two weeks before.

“Abba, this is enough. We need our Abba back. This must end already. We really need you at this time in our lives”

I promised them to do whatever I could to end this chapter, learn its lessons, and move to a more constructive and evolved chapter in our lives.

On the website I share that these two years have been like a death for me. Before death we do a life review. As I said on the website, I apologize with heart and soul to anyone who feels that I might have hurt them in this life time. I invite anyone who feels they have unfinished business with me to contact me. My heart is open.

I give you my forgiveness for any way in which you may have hurt me and I implore your forgiveness for any way in which I may have hurt you. And it is forbidden – for all of us – to cry more than it hurts.

Let’s – all of us – and me first, give up the demonization game, take back our projected shadows, and transform the insults of love into the wounds of love, learning all the time to practice keeping our heart open in the midst – not only the joy of eros, but also the pain of eros.

I also thank the thousands of people in my life time that I have been privileged to help and to serve in large or small ways. It has been a huge privilege to serve you and to bring joy to your life.

There is so much that needs to be done. So much hurt and pain and suffering in the world. We are Gods verbs. We are God’s language. We must live as love. We must be love. We must act to realize love and open hearted discipline and compassion in our world.

The future of the World and according to the teachings of the kabbalists, the future of God, depends in no small part, on you and me.

I will seek to embody the divine life force in every situation I encounter. I will try and teach and embody the torah of boundaries and when the torah demands the expansion boundaries as it sometimes does, I will try and embody that demand in a direct and transparent way.

I pray that in my day to day life, in my sharing, in my writing, my action and my being, I will be aligned to the will of God and serve as a source of love and compassion to all those whom I encounter. And if I die sooner then I would like to, I want to leave in the world only my love.

Yours,
Marc Gafni

please feel free to share a comment on info@marcgafni.com

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