Our vow is our dedication. It is our motivation. It is why we get up early in the morning and go to bed late at night, working internally for clarity and working externally for the good of the world.
Our vow is like the mission of other organizations, but since our mission is our entire lives, we call it our vow.
We vow to integrate Awakening with Responsibility.
We vow to integrate the experience of transcending the world with the experience of transforming the world.
We vow to weave Awakening and Responsibility together so fully that we increase the amount of legitimate trust in the world. Our product is legitimate trust. We are trustworthy if we are willing and able to behave selflessly.
Why do we do this?
The horrors that litter human history were not done by people who believed they were doing the wrong thing. They believed they were doing the right thing. We must have the humility to transcend the belief that we are right or wrong, to go beyond our own limited perspective and live according to the larger world.
To let go of our own views, our own beliefs, is the beginning of the path we walk, but it isn’t the end. It isn’t enough. We also must learn how to live in the world and engage it to transform the unjust systems that maintain and protect untrustworthy behaviors. We create systems that reward integrity, honesty, compassion and trust.
To do this, we cultivate the courage to create. We spend time, give our attention to clarifying and understanding our vow, our own personal dedication to live our own true life. This means uncovering and being vitalized by our life’s purpose. And it means that this vital purpose is not just our own, but it is connected to our society, the society of all life.
We make real trust. We live it. We know that letting go and love are one. We create a world that is free and true.
What is CEDAR?
COMMUNITY We are real people living in a real community, together. We hold each other accountable. We care for each other when we need help and push each other when we are tired. We irritate and confuse each other (not intentionally but it happens) and we thereby learn how to make use of human relationships as a practice.
EXPERIENCE We dedicate ourselves to the direct experience of Awakening and Responsibility. This is not vague. It is not an idea. It is not a concept. It is not an opinion. It is not a belief. It is not a standpoint. It is not a hope. It is not a formula. It is not a tradition. We hold ourselves to a clear standard that is real.
DEVELOPMENT To Experience Awakening and Responsibility directly is the beginning, but not the end. We are not satisfied with a glimpse. We nurture and deepen these two sides of our practice, and learn the lesson that is our greatest gift to the world: that they are developed fully when we integrate them. We learn the skills required for them to be mutually supportive. The most accurate and complete measure of one’s psychological and spiritual development is the extent to which one sees Awakening and Responsibility as mutually supportive.
AWAKENING The direct experience of Awakening is the tangible loss of everything, the cessation of consciousness, the wisdom of unhindered freedom.
RESPONSIBILITY The direct experience of Responsibility is the power that arises when we are dedicated to our deepest commitment, when we discover our purpose equally inside and outside, when we are willing to live our love completely today.