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An Open Letter from Jack Kornfield, Ram Dass, and Sharon Salzberg
Dear Friends,
We are writing to ask your support for two beloved friends of ours, Stephen and Ondrea Levine. They are currently facing significant difficulty. After a life-time of giving, they are now at a time to receive from those of us whose lives have been touched by their presence and teaching.
Their greatest needs are financial. Ondrea has Leukemia and the costs of her insurance and treatment have used up their savings. Stephen's health is not good either, and he is too frail to travel or teach. When we heard about this, we felt moved to contribute to a fund set up for them, and to encourage others to do the same.
Stephen and Ondrea have been among our generation's most important teachers, demonstrating and encouraging others to embrace the power of love and generosity. For three years, they ran a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week free phone line for those dying or in need of support. When the phone bills got too high, they sold their house to keep the project going. For decades they regularly corresponded with thousands people who were seeking spiritual guidance, giving freely to those in need, many of whom were sick or in the final years of their life.
The circle has now come around, allowing us the opportunity to give to these two life-long givers. We hope to raise several hundred thousand dollars in small and large donations to help them through this time.
Caring for friends and teachers is an essential part of any spiritual life. As we age, spiritual friends are more important than ever. Stephen and Ondrea have been dear spiritual friends to us and to thousands of others through their books, workshops, and correspondence.
If you are one of these people and are moved to give, below are three ways to donate to the Levine Fund at Bread for the Journey. Bread for the Journey informs us that donations are tax deductible.
With gratitude and love,
Jack Kornfield, Ram Dass, and Sharon Salzberg
Mail: Send to: Bread for the Journey, 267 Miller Ave., Mill Valley, California 94941. In the letter, please enclose a note indicating that your gift is for the Stephen and Ondrea Levine Fund and in the note section of your check write "Levine Fund." In honor of the immeasurable gifts Stephen and Ondrea have given to the family of the earth, Bread for the Journey has generously offered to manage the fund with 100% of your donation going to the Levine Fund.
Online: click here and designate the donation to the Levine Fund: http://www.justgive.org/giving/donate.jsp?charityId=3583&isRecurring=&;
Phone: call 415-383-4600 with a credit card number.
To get on an email list for updates and news of Stephen and Ondrea, send an email to Levinefund@gmail.com and put in the subject "add to list."
For questions and other means of giving, contact SorenGordhamer@gmail.com.
* Please feel free to post this letter on blogs or forward it to individuals or groups you know who may wish to hear news of Stephen and Ondrea.
Monday, December 17, 2007
An Open Letter from Jack Kornfield, Ram Dass, and Sharon Salzberg
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56 comments:
Dear Stephen and Ondrea.
I first attended a workshop the two of you led back in 1980. It was memorable for many reasons, first among them the fact that so many parents of children who were murdered or who died in accidents were present. The equanimity and grace and compassion and empathy with which you both were present to such profound suffering has stayed with me for all these years. It has been a model I continue to aspire to.
I'm sorry to hear of your current struggles. I have contributed money to the Bread and Roses Fund. I hope that they open up their website and find more money there for the two of you than you will possibly ever be able to use. Bill Gates is famous for saying "It's harder to give away money well, than it is to earn it in the first place." He obviously doesn't know the two of you! ;-)
I will also hold you in my thoughts and prayers over the next weeks and months. The empirical research results on intercessory prayer seem to be leaning towards no efficacy. I figure it's simply "operator error." I'm going to send kind and loving thoughts regardless.
Many continued blessings to you both.
Mark Brady
Dear Stephen and Ondrea,
After reading the open letter, I realized that I never have done the graceful thing of writing to you before today.
My heart is aching to hear that you both are experiencing such difficult times.
May I choose this opportunity to express to you both my deepest gratitude for turning my life around at a time where I was in a lot of pain.
I never had the priviledge to attend one of your workshops as I live in Quebec but I have followed the two of you for a very long time and have been truly transformed by your work.
Later on, when I started to teach meditation, I introduced your work to my students who today are teaching it to their students.
Today, I can only contribute money to the fund and prayers but please know, Stephen and Ondrea,that you have touched many millions of others on this planet and I trust that you will continue to do so.
I will pray for you Ondrea every day and pray for you Stephen also.
May you both find infinite blessings on this difficult path that we call life.
In gratitude,
Nicole Bordeleau
Stephen & Ondrea,
I send you my greatest blessings & love.
I really could not say it any better than Nicole (above), but I will try.
When my father was dying in 1989, I sought help in many ways, your books were paramount to the great blessings I received. I was able to tell my father long held reasons for past actions, give him unconditional love and come out of the experince feeling transformed.
I have often said that it was like I was on the edge of a dark abyss and I was ready to fall in, when I found myself miraculously on the other side in the light.
I cannot begin to thank you enough for your work! I am giving a donation and I will be sending prayers and love out daily to both of you.
In Deep Gratitude & Love,
Elizabeth Keith
Dear Stephen & Ondrea,
The two of you are among a handful of people who are almost always with me. You are back behind my shoulder, where I hear your wise, playful voices, and see your radiant, lovely faces, whenever I turn around. You will always be there. I have written countless letters to you both, in my heart/mind. There really are no adequate words to tell you how much difference you have made in so very many lives.
I attended 5 years of your awesome Lake Merrit Weekends. These were life-transformative experiences for me. I still cherish the ‘ah-breath’ and the memories of seeing deep into the eyes of so many others at the concluding Sufi dance you always led. And, of course, Ondrea’s colorful socks!
I have shared your books, tapes, and words of wisdom with so many others. Mostly, tho, what I take with me, from knowing you both, is the incredible example of how you’ve shared your lives, your time, and your passion, so selflessly and so readily, as others needed it.
You were there with me at the death of both of my parents, where I utilized the ‘grief point’, moved from the silence, and drew so much support from your tapes and your writings.
I wish this golden time of your life, now, to bring you all the happiness, well-being, and assistance possible. I know of no two people who are more deserving than you are. I’m letting everyone I can think of know about this precious opportunity, which we now have, to give back, just a little… in return for all that we have received from you.
much love, respect, deep gratitude and affection,
Stephanie Ulrich
Dear Ondrea and Stephen,
I'm glad for this opportunity to thank you both for the gift of your Selves, your gift to so many people. I am a therapist today in large part due to your teachings and inspiration.
A few things I will always remember: the dance of courage and love at the end of the weekend. (I dreaded this ritual at first, but then came to relax in it.) Your socks. Both of your socks! Stephen's comment that when about to die in a car accident, for example, the last thing someone typically says is not a sweet prayer of forgiveness, light and spiritual farewell, but instead: "Oh shit." ...i.e. the time to make amends and live out loud is now. I remember Stephen's responsible, graceful and powerful way of embracing his anger. I remember -- and I tell this story often -- Stephen's repeating "Have mercy (on yourself)" over and over one weekend; it sunk in. And I remember Ondrea's remarkable beauty -- inside and out -- and her gentle strength and occasional ferocity. A rare and precious woman.
You are both held in such high esteem by so many. You and your teachings and stories are now used to teach others.
Thank you both. I will pass this on, too, and also make a contribution to the fund that has been set up to ease this time in your lives a bit.
I heard a quote once that has always reminded me of you guys -- don't remember by whom, but it's: "When you truly possess all that you've been and done, you become fierce with reality."
With great respect and warm regards,
David Von Kohorn
Dearest Stephen & Ondrea,
Each posting encapsulates the joy, kindness, and wisdom you have shared with so very many of us.
My experience with you was incredible, you made a dream come true.
I cannot express in words how excited I was in March of 1992 when I recieved a hand written letter from Ondrea & Stephen Levine! I could hardly believe it was real, but it was.
Your letter was to precede a wish you fulfilled later that year. You and Ondrea came to speak to the nusing staff at Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford.
The health care team needed someone to help guide our work and expand our mind about how to deal with dying children and their families and ourselves.
You were both so honest and real about your own journeys. You gave us another mindset from which to view our work. Your visit was so very important.
I want to add that you impacted my life in such a way that I went on to meet and stay for a brief time with Elizabeth Kubler-Ross.
You must know Stephen that Elizabeth adored you. When she was alive she spoke of you often and most lovingly. She had the highest respect for you and your work. I am sure you must have known how she felt about you but I am sure she would have wanted me to tell you again.
Blessings to you and Ondrea, contibution to Bread and Roses.
With love, Eileen Durham RN
Many blessings and warmth to you both. Your work was so important to me as I completed an internship in counseling at a center for those with serious illnesses in Denver, Co five years ago. I had no idea how much I didn't know about death, and your writings helped me to open to new mind and heart knowledge, and to not run and hide from it all. You have helped me work compassionately with my own deep grief as well as with the grief of others. There is so much to be learned and heard in that place in our hearts (or is it just one big heart, with each of us working with a fragment of it?) I have so much more to learn from myself, from others, from you. Thank you for your heartfelt gifts to the world.
Deep healing and love,
Kathleen
Dear Stephen and Ondrea:
We are born out of love and we die back into love. But between the two, as you wrote, Stephen, 'The more we love, the more real we become."
Thank you, both, for being so totally real.
Ramon Sender Barayon
dear dear you s......
hard to find words right now...right ones..
you have touched my life, my heart so deeply.
at workshops....thru books & listening...i hear your echoes inside me...in my head & in my heart. passed your books on to so many people....
felt so sorry to hear of your troubles. wishing i could do magic, swoosh of a wand & it would all be wooshed away. sent the letter around as far & wide as i could, being $ challenged here.
sending love & prayers & good & healing wishes.....
may the long time sun shine upon you all love surround you & the pure light within you guide your way on ......
thank you for the inspiration to go on in this life.
& the feeling of "it must be alright to be here, if you guys are here"
in awe and
profound gratitude.
lisa young
warm wishes from da big apple
Dear Stephen & Ondrea,
"Out of the blue," I just found myself thinking of you. Very vivid recollections came to mind of workshops I attended maybe twenty years ago. So I Googled you and found "An Open Letter." I am sorry to learn that you are going through some shit and hope that my gift brings comfort to each of you wonderful beings.
Your work changed my life and the way I relate to people, the present, grief and death. Thank you, thank you.
Blessings from the California coast.
Peace. Victoria
Dear Stephen and Ondrea:
Similar to last post, you have been on my mind regularly lately. I've been having "fantasies" or perhaps true guidance that I need to be your protege--passing the great works you published in GUIDED MEDITATIONS, EXPLORATIONS AND HEALINGS. Then I googled you and found this "open letter." I am contributed to the fund today.
Your published work has had, and continues to have, a deep reaching impact toward my transformation and waking up. We've never met but know that there is much loving service you have provided to me through this book.
I am doing a lovingkindness meditation for you both right now. May you be free of suffering (maybe you are even though physically you are in pain). May you be at peace (I trust you are).
With merciful care and tenderness,
Patrice
Dear Stephen and Andrea...Your teachings and presence have been a blessing in my life.
I wish you healing wherever healing may be found.
Stephen & Ondrea-
I am Bruce Cargill's oldest daughter I have been trying to locate you to let you know that he passed on January 25th. I have included a link to his obituary & guest book.
http://www.legacy.com/TimesUnion-Albany/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=102098924
Tributes to be held in June 08.
Lovingly
Denise Cargill
It's tragic - but so is the American health care system where people who are sick can die because their money runs out. People with the "socialised" medical benefits of Western Europe can at least get the full treatment they require for leukemia free of charge - without having to watch their money drain away. Good luck to you both. David.
Dear Stephen and Ondrea, You both came to the Providence Zen Center and did a weekend with Zen Master Seung Sahn. It was a wonderful retreat. When it was over, you donated your honorarium to the Zen Center. I imagine you both did this many times.
I trust that it is all coming home to you both as you need it. Thank you for your wonderful teaching.
Dear Stephen and Ondrea,
What a shock to see this letter while I was googling you! I am writing a book on aging (I am now 85) which is becoming more and more a book about dying. I have learned so much from you both over the years. You may remember me, Stephen, from several Ram Dass retreats, one in which I had the nerve to play the part of Ram Dass in a skit, against your playful warnings). I have never met you, Ondrea, but was so happy to learn that you had attended the workshop I put on in Santa Fe, April 1980, called "Blessed are the Peacemakers." I felt that your presence had blessed the gathering.
You are both beloved members of my spiritual family, and I wish I could do more to help you than the meager check I am sending to Bread for the Journey. If holding you in prayer counts, and I believe it does, may the prayers of all of us bring you hope and healing. and may the financial contributions of the many you have helped and inspired over the years bring you what you need today. With love and deep appreciation, Marilyn Gatlin
Dearest Stephen and Ondrea and all who are reading. I do not know your work as well as others commenting. I just seem to keep reading "Who Dies" over and over again. I have picked it up again recently and was searching for workshops today when I found this letter. What a blessing to give to you. It gives me a gift at least as great as attending a workshop with you.
Blessings and love to both of you.
Dear Stephen and Ondrea,
Although we've never met in person, you have been my spiritual companions and inspiration for more than two decades. I am profoundly grateful for the healing your work has brought me, and it gives me joy to feel that I can return something to you. Your books are also a major resource for my client work, and I know how much they have helped so many people.
I will hold you in my heart and mind in thankfulness forever. You have immeasurably enriched my life - may the spiritual riches that you have shared so generously now abundantly return to you, in whatever form you need.
Blessings,
Melanie (UK)
Dearest Stephen and Ondrea:
I was first introduced to your work 20 years ago by a Helper - Gloria - in my spiritual community, The Pathwork. She had ovarian cancer, and read the Soft Belly meditation to us which she said had helped her immensely. It opened my heart at a time when I was finally beginning to integrate my own losses. The result of that work (with the help of your books and tapes) was a call to change the direction of my life.
Today, I am a social worker in St. Louis who worked in hospice for 10 years (6 at a hospice house), and now have a private practice in grief, loss, and transition, specializing in individuals and families with cancer and ALS. I also work with The Wellness Community here as facilitator and teacher. Just last week it was my privilege to conduct the Soft Belly meditation with a class of cancer patients and caregivers.
As I read this beautiful meditation, once again my heart and belly opened to the power of mercy and the tremendous need for compassion - particularly self compassion - in our world. "Have mercy on you" has become the center of resonance in my life and my work. My clients and I owe you much.
(Incidentally, I also specialize in Financial Wellness as a spiritual and psychological challenge - and I've observed that no one hardens their bellies like those with shame and fear about their money.)
Money is only one form of energy flow regarding which I am grateful to be of service to you. Holding you in prayer and meditation is another. You have given me so much, and inspired my giving. The ripples of your influence will always be expanding!
I hope we can continue to receive updates on your website as to how you are. You are truly bodhisattvas to those of us who live and work at the boundaries of life and death.
Ms. Kevin Ferris
Dear Stephen & Ondrea,
I am sorry to hear of your difficulties. I wish you both peace and healing. I've sent a gift to Bread for the Journey, in hopes that I can be of help.
As always with love,
Eve Fielder
My dearest friends,
I am stunned. My newly broken heart opens to bring you both inside, where you have held me so many times.
May what we are all able to send you multiply and become sustenance that will help provide for your needs and lighten your hearts.
Many blessings.
Lynn Park
Stephen and Ondrea,
I am greatly saddened by the news of your circumstances and was so glad to be given a way to give back to you. Though i spent little time with either of you, your books and presence left an imprint on me in my early days of searching for a more authentic self. I think of you on the leading edge as leaders in the arena of human transformation and compassion building. I am certain you will receive back in quantum amounts all you gave out and then some, and hope you are sustained by all the love in all its forms coming to you now.
With great gratitude for both of you being in this world...mine is a far more beautiful place for having met you. elisabet skyhawk
Dear Stephen and Ondrea..
I was greatly saddened to hear of your circumstances and so glad to know of a way to give back to you. Your books and presences left an inspiring imprint on my psyche in the beginning days of searching through my unconscious traumas for my authenticity. i am making a donation to your fund in hopes that you will receive way more than what you need to sustain you. My world was certainly made a more beautiful place for having been with the two of you. With love, elisabet skyhawk
There really are no words to describe the profound impact the book "A Year To Live" has had on my life. It led me to become the person I was born to be. If you could know where I came from and know me today, you would know it is nothing less than a miracle.
I went from being a person so afraid of death to working as a hospice volunteer to now being a Manager of Volunteer Services for VistaCare Hospice, as well as, becoming an ordained minister. All of this started with my reading your book and listening to God...so many different facets of God...Holy Spirit.
Thank you for blessing my life beyond measure.
Your Pal,
Rev. Angie Campbell
Stephen and Ondrea:
I hated hearing this news of suffering, and...such a surprise, as Stephen would say. I never atteneded a workshop, but have read and listened to tapes.
Thank you...I'm happy to contribute to the fund.
Love
Bill
You don't know me at least in this life, or this body. Recently I visited my closest male friend who was in the process of making his transition at 56. We had lived through Katrina together and they moved to Austin and we moved to Crestone. I found your book Healing Into Li... I came home and ordered it immediately and it has the exact message my soul needed right now!
I have been an avid student of this illness sometimes called MS, sometimes called late stage lyme disease for nearly 20 years. I have learned a lot, but what I learned from your book that I am Blessed to do with others, but not myself is love unconditionally. And the answer to my healing was always here, but I needed you to instruct me in the poetic, deeply moving way that you do. Thank you for that Stephen and Ondrea.
So now you know me in this lifetime. And I am so happy to be able to give back! Thank you for that, too. Aliyah
Stephen and Ondrea, You are new to my circle of life. Teachings and becoming happen when you are ready. I just re-read Be Here Now again after 40 years. My daughter just visited Breitenbush and sent me a link. Your presence has been vital to so many the karma is returning in love and support. I join that growing family and hope to grow with it and you.
Clark Blomquist, West Bend WI
Dear Stephen and Ondrea,
After seeing the announcment in the Shambala Sun concerning the upcoming benefit I pulled my copy of "Who Dies?" off the shelf. I bought it in 1986 and now the front cover is torn but taped and the pages are somewhat yelow and stiff,paragraph afte paragraph underlined and accentuated with !!! This book was one of the most important books I ever read and I bought multiple copies and gave them out to my family and friends. It was a great comfort to me when my father died in 1988. I was a young ER doc and was so excited by this book that I wrote Stephen asking if I could pick up my family and move to New Mexico so that I could work and study with the two of you. I recieved a very nice personal letter from you Ondrea explaining to me that you really weren't set up for that type of relationship with your readers.
The lessons I learned from your writings have been profoundly helpful, supportive and comforting in both my personal and professional life.
I end my daily Zazen sessions by dedicating the merit to the mindstreams of those members of my family, close friends who have died or are currently ill or struggling with life's many challanges. May they all find happiness. May they all be well. The two of you have given me so much in so many mysterious ways and I want you to know how grateful I am for that. Years ago I attended a weekend retreat at ZMM in N.Y. with Robert Thurman and he said he wanted to tell us a secret. "No One Dies!" Perhaps that is the answer to the question asked on the front page of your wonderful book.
May peace be with you,
Jim Freeman
Clarkston, Michigan
Mar. 25, 2008o
Dear Stephen,
You are such a beautiful example of how to live. You are one of my most cherished teachers. I discovered your work through a friend who you helped to die without fear and with deep honesty and integrity. That death changed my life. I studied your work, went to graduate school, learned to meditate, worked as a psychotherapist, established a low fee mental health clinic, began working with autistic children, married, built a life. Your teaching began to crack open a hard shell. I started to listen to the whisper of "yes" underneath all the pain. I started to believe in the reality of the eternal, the "great perfection". Your voice has been a background encouragement in so much of my life. I hear you saying "have mercy on yourself" and "big surprise". I hear you saying "if you meet someone who says they have their shit together, they are probably standing in a pile of it". I hear you saying "if suffering made a sound we would all be deafened by the roar". I hear you saying "soft belly, feel the hardening, how automatic it is, and soften into spaciousness." Your work helped me discover how wide my heart can be. Your generosity kindled my great sadness and helped me touch a caring and fiercely intelligent state of mind. I'm deeply grateful. With great love and respect, you are and will remain a hero to me.
Jeffrey Eaton
Seattle, WA
Dear Stephen and Ondrea
Your books 'Who dies?' and 'healing into life and death' were my guiding lights trough my father's terminal cancer. A time which could have been deeply unpleasant became a time of love, healing and connectedness for me. The books helped me open up in a most magnificent way to something sacred. So my father's loss was not a loss but a gift. Strangely only recently after 12 years I have come to realise that what I learnt from those books is equally valid in how to deal with everyday 'unwanted/unpleasant' emotions....I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart and wish you well.
Much love
Shirin Eghtesadi-Thomas
London
Dear Stephen and Ondrea Levine,
I was so shocked to read about your illnesses in the
Shambala Sun, forgetting that we are all mortal!
In my life, I think of you often, and laugh or maybe get a little misty-eyed for your wonderful teachings and presence. I remember after one retreat I called my sister from New Mexico, I think, to do the forgiveness and Metta meditations from the phone booth. It made us both so happy.
I also used a meditation in one of your earlier books, Stephen, with Ram Dass, for grounding when I was hitchhiking alone across B.C.- safely.
I will send a donation and share the merit of my meditations with both of you. You have given me so much. I will always feel love for you and grateful for the wonderful time spent in your physical presences and in your books. I wish for your happiness, and ease and health.
Love,
Jenny Ogier
having experienced your wisdom has been an honor and a blessing. i can only believe you will be surrounded by love as well as all that you need. my financial contribution is a mere token of my gratitude....
with hope.
bayla claudine kraft
Dear Stephen & Ondrea -
Many years ago your work touched me through your tape set "To Love and Be Loved". At that time I was seeking to return into life partnership but flummoxed as to how. Your words and teachings touched and changed me.
I will contribute to your fund. I live and work in a retreat center. I will offer up your names in our morning prayer as well.
with love and gratitude,
Pat Parisi
I'm pretty much an average schmuck of a guy to whom you have opened a whole new world. Through your works you have inspired me to work with others in difficulty.
What you have brought to the world is that which Mother Theresa, MLK, Ghandi brought. Your work is and will always be an inspiration to me.
I can't remember ever hearing the names, but reading through the open letter tells me these are wonderful people who spent their lives blessing others. So I pray my little donation through the www.justgive.org/giving/donate.jsp?charityId=3583&isRecurring=&; blesses your lives.
I pray for you that the invisible hands that carried you through the years you spent for others will carry you through this trial.
Etuk Udofia, Nigeria
Dear Stephen and Ondrea,
Well, it looks like the message of need from both of your great hearts has been getting through on the psychic as well as internet channels. I, too, in the past few weeks have had the two of you on my mind... a lot. And, like some other's, Googled you and found out about your current predicament.
I've read your books, attended workshops, (so many moons ago) and soaked up so much from the fierce tenderness of your words and wisdom. But what has stayed with me even more than your teachings ( which I quote often, one of my favorites being "Big Surprise!") is the sweet, sweet mercy of how I witnessed you as you touched the souls of so many people. And you always, ALWAYS made me laugh.
I am sorry to hear of your struggles and suffering. And I am grateful and absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to be of service to you who have devoted your lives to service, and to give back in deep, deep appreciation, some small token of what I have received from you over the years.
You have been beloved teachers for me and obviously for so many, and I continue to hold you in my heart and prayers with the fervent wish that your time of difficulty can be held and shared by all of us who have come to love you.
Chris Zydel
May I be safe and free of fear.
May you be peaceful and abide in joyful repose.
May we be healthful, whole, in accord with Life and Being.
May all walk in Beauty and dwell in Lovingkindness.
dear stephen and ondrea,
how well i recall something you said to me stephen, in a workshop i attended soon after my father died, 11 years ago. i spoke at the mic, crying, hundreds listening attentively, as i spoke of taking my father to the toilet for the last time, and worried that i could have dropped him, wanting to have loved him perfectly, cared for him perfectly.
you took a breath,and said, " When there's that much love, you can't go wrong".
i've quoted you many times...
stephen and ondrea, your books and workshops profoundly affected my life, as a woman, as a healer/therapist, as a human being on the path.
it's all path. and you two are brilliant lights radiating compassion and wisdom everywhere which never dies.
i love you both, and was very sad to hear of your illnesses and difficulties.
i hope my small donation will be of some help, along with so many others.
may you both have the total healing you took birth for.
your love for each other has been a deep inspiration to me. i remember before one workshop, watching you gaze into each other's eyes quietly before the formal beginning with the group. i never forgot that moment. something got transmitted to my own heart in that gaze, i resonated with that like a tuning fork, understanding intuitively what intimacy really is, really could be between two human beings, two lovers.
thank you for offering yourselves so utterly, so completely, with so much power, love, energy.
love
jai levy
p.s. i just gave my nephew, who is in jail, a copy of Dharma Punx. He read it(something he would have never done out of jail!) and it's being passed around to other inmates. thank you for bringing Noah to the planet, Stephen!
Stephen, I have never forgotten the afternoon that I first heard your voice. I am a nurse, I was in the car driving to make a Hospice visit. I was listening to New Dimensions to your interview with Michael. Just before you began the forgiveness meditation, Michael wisely advised that those in their cars might want to pull over so I did. Good thing. I sobbed through most of it. Some 20 plus years later, I still invite patients to listen to it on an IPOD. I can honestly say that you dramatically changed my life....your books, your tapes, your walk on this planet. I am now a nurse case manager for the Hematology in patient physicians at KUMC in KC. Many of the patients on our unit have leukemia. My heard goes out to Ondrea as she breathes through this illness. Thank you so much for all the two of you have shared with so many on their journeys. Namaste'.
Dear Ondrea and Stephen,
It is my fondest wish, that you feel the love with which your spirtual
community is enfolding you!
I am one of many, whose lives have been touched by your "loving kindess".
Several years ago, I came upon the "Opening the Heart of the Womb" tapes.
Although I'd been working
through a healing process for some time, I had difficulty releasing fully. Stephen, when I heard your voice, a male voice, one engendered with such gentleness and
loving kindess, my shell broke, and the tears flowed. There was no issue of "not" trusting, with you. I let you lead me, where I had been afraid to go, for years, the heart of the womb and the heart in the chest.
There are no words, to express appropriately, the love and gratefulness that come to the two of you for the selfless service, heal-
ing and compassion that you have extended to so many!
I would end with a plea.You are not forgotten,
please find a way, if you cannot yourselves, to save and promote your work in
perpetuity, for there is a
whole new generation, who can truly be taught, the meaning of "loving kindness".
May God Bless both of you on your journey, where-
ever it may lead"!
Love, Jan Vukcevic
Dear Stephen and Ondrea,
I've read all these beautiful tributes to your amazing kindness, generosity, and healing love and teachings for so many people... and my heart is so full of love for both of you. I feel surrounded by the most intimate family of those who have written these messages who love you like I do.
Thank you for all you have given me. Your work will continue to heal me as long as I live.
The one time I was able to hear you speak - in the mid-80's in Austin, Texas - you were sitting outside on the grass and there were so many AIDS patients, many in wheelchairs, and several on gurneys. Everything you brought of yourself to that moment was so healing, so exquisite...and sometimes very funny. You said "You must always be willing to be God's Fool". Serious advice I treasure.
May you both be comforted by the love,gratitude and generosity from your world-wide family. You are in my prayers.
Sherle in Texas
May you find grace and peace and joy on your path, where ever it takes you. And may you feel love every day.
Dear Stephen and Ondrea,
In May of 1990, my only child, Zach, died in an automobile accident. People kept bringing us books, which ended up under the couch, until I received Who Dies. Your words were the first ones that provided comfort to me with my loss. Within the next 18 months, I would lose my mother to heart disease, my dad to suicide and every THING else in the Oakland Firestorm(including my home). I think it was in June of '90, I attended a weekend workshop with you both at Fort Mason in San Francisco- it was the weekend the US bombed Afghanistan, so our meeting was timely and haunting. When I heard about your illness and life situation, I wanted you to know how much your words got me off of my knees, up and running and down on my knees again - only voluntarily! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Ginny Felch, Stinson Beach CA
(ginny@silverliningimages.com)
Dearest Stephen and Ondrea,
There are no words to adequately express the positive impact you have made on my life ever since my first weekend seminar with you in NY in June of '91 or '92. You have been there for me ever since as I moved through life, death and illness of my family, and much personal challenge, change and upheaval. I have taken your spirit, your faces and voices, words, tapes and books with me wherever I have gone and kept them in my heart, for it was you who helped me learn how to navigate the sometimes dangerous waters of life. I have shared with countless others the nature of your work and the blessings I have had just from knowing you. You have given so very much to so many people that it would be impossible to imagine being able to adequately reciprocate but please know that I continue to keep you both in my heart, soul and prayers, and that I will give as much as I can to help. You taught me that love is all there is--that it is eternal, and that there is room in the heart for all that which the head cannot handle. I wish for you all the blessings that you have given others and peace and love as you face this most recent challenge.
Namaste,
Marnie
Nobody should have to die without money for health care, especially ones who have worked so long and so hard on behalf of the dying.
I have avoided Steve and Ondrea's work ever since attending a "Who Dies?" workshop in Minneapolis in about 1990. I cried for days after Steve told me I was "just like" my abusive mother for "telling her she was wrong". Sometimes messages aren't right, or are communicated poorly. The Levines have done SO much for so many people, and, hearing about their trouble, I wanted to give a little back where I am still wounded. No one should have to die alone or in need. They may not have helped me but they sure helped thousands of others. Namaste.
Dear Stephen and Ondrea,
I'm so sorry to hear about your current health and financial struggles. I have never met you but have been touched by the work you both do. I have several of your books. A Gradual Awakening was one of the first spiritual books I owned, and I have read it many many times.
You will be in my thoughts and prayers. May you be well and free from suffering.
Warmest Regards,
Marilyn
Dear Stephen & Ondrea,
I have been inspired, awakened, healed, and amazed by your work and extraordinary service. I am sitting daily now with healing intentions for you both and offer this lovingkindness...
May you be at peace.
May your hearts remain open.
May your continue to awaken to the light of your own true nature.
May the healing for which you took birth unfold with grace and holiness.
And may you be an evershining presence for one another as you have been a source of healing for us all..
With love and gratitude.
Namaste',
Sharon
Tucson, AZ
Dear ones,
Thank you for these many years you have served us as examples of living awareness, breath, love and freedom.
Annica vatta sankhara.
John
Tallahassee
In The Heart Lies The Deathless
I picked out your tape by this name just because it moved me so. You became my teacher, guide consolation inspiration and great friend just from reading and listening to your words. you are in my prayers and heart, that you be surrounded by great love always
I'm a psychologist practicing and teaching in Chicago. Your work has had a more profound impact upon me, my psychotherapy work, and my teaching than any other source. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Robert Moretti
Dear Stephen and Ondrea,
A Gradual Awakening was one of my earliest introductions to mindfulness and meditation and I found it to be very profound. I had given it to a friend of my wife's many years ago and had always wished I had another copy to refer to. Just last week, I picked up a copy at our local used book shop and, on reading it over after all these years, I found the teaching just as profound, if not more so, as I originally did so many years ago. Thank you so much for your teachings - they have been a great blessing to me as I am sure they have been to so many others. I wish you both much love and all the very best.
Metta,
Phil
Dear Stephen and Ondrea, We've never met, and I only came across your work a couple of months ago, when I bought the book "Who Dies?"
I've been telling everyone I know about this book ever since. I tell them that each chapter has a "wow" moment. I find myself nodding my head as I read each page, intuiting that these things that I have no provable knowledge about must be true.
I'm currently studying to be a psychotherapist and brought one of your guided meditations into the course a couple of week ago.
I've made a small contribution which still sees me indebted to you for the light that you've shined into the darkness.
With Meta,
Dermot
Stephen & Ondrea,
Reading your books, listening to your tapes, and attending your classes was some of the most important work I did in the early days of my practice. It gave me a base on which to build and it taught me an important skill, how to forgive. I will hold you both in my thoughts and send love.
Dearest Stephen and Ondrea,
I had heard and now have read the updates that confirm that you are in a challenging place with health issues and financial strains. I have been a hospice nurse for 22 years and know of your work with the sick and dying. More importantly, I must tell you that you have changed my life. I have read many of your books and heard many of your tapes and it is the lesson of "having mercy" that has been the most magnificent kernal of gold that has made such a magnificent impact on my life. I hear your voice in my head, Stephen, that says, "have mercy". Your teachings have been infused with Goddes' wisdom and has taken root in my spiritual heart. Thank you for your faithfullness in all your ways. I pray for you during my morning meditations and will continue to lift you both up to the throne of Godde. Blessings and peace be yours as you walk this path.
I send you love.
Pat Johnson (Missoula Montana)
Hi
First I'd like to know that Stephen or Ondrea is actually reading this? If so, can you get just one line back to me at: skyovernevada@yahoo.com
Somehow the internet seems often too surreal.
First I was in a SF bookstore, wandered over to the spiritual metaphysical section and for 3 months flirted with passages from WHO DIES? It was too real for me to purchase initially. I had to work up to it!
With that said, I have attended multiple workshops starting with Stephen. We first met at a workshop for caregivers at the SF Unitarian Church and I was neither a cancer patient nor a caregiver but somehow I showed up. I had a sore back and mentioned it to Stephen during a break.
I was cursing my body and he remarked about this. In those days we didn't have terms like " metta or loving kindness" but that is pretty much what Stephen communicated. More than that however, I felt a distinct rush of head to the affected area and almost immediate relief.
I later attended a few workshops with Stephen and Ondrea including one on healthy relationships.
Sometime later I was in emotional pain, living in Honolulu and I wrote Stephen, Ondrea answered with a handwritten note of empathy also advising me to being "singing in the shower". The note was so personal and filled with love that I almost cried for joy just reading it.
You folks have meant so much to me and I'd like to know if funds are still needed and if so, I'm ready to contribute metta, money and more thanks yous than I can possibly communicate on a blog.
Namaste
Sweet ones,
We are deeply comforted, by your kindness and loving energy sent our way.
Treasure Yourselves
love
ondrea & stephen
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