Seeing people through the serpent and dove

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Yeah. So in the Christian
tradition we have

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the scripture of Matthew 10:16

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where we talk about
Jesus says to be as wise

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as a serpent
and as peaceful as a dove.

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And my mentor Reverend
Alexia Salvatierra

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talks about dove
and serpent power.

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That serpent power serpent is
being aware of the human nature

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of people and our kind
of egoic structures

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that make us self-serving
and make us you know

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perpetrate you know
violence and oppression.

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And then the dove power being
the the other part of our nature

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nature that is divinely connected

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that is wired for peace that is
wired for love and for harmony.

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And then each one of us has this
kind of dualism in our nature.

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And so in contemplative activism

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we look at humanity with this
lens of having this dual identity

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that we expect the CEOs of
corporations to have a serpent

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you know part of themselves
where they are self serving.

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They are seeking to make
as much money as possible.

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But then we also have to see
the dove essence

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of them as well as people
who are divinely connected

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to our Creator and have a, that
are a part of kind of the spirit

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that animates all of us.

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And that when we do
contemplative activism

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we're aware of the serpent
nature of the oppressor

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but we're also aware of their
divinely connected self

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and that's the self
we're speaking to

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when we're asking them to desist

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from you know whatever
it is that they're doing

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that we're asking them to stop.

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We're appealing to their
dove nature

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and asking them and appealing
them to be more connected to that.

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Okay, I'll do that again

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So the Christian tradition
in Matthew verse 10:16

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There's a verse about

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Okay

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Just one, one sentence, which
I have no idea what that was

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So when we're

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when we have the opportunity
to speak to the oppressor

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and to appeal to them
we want to appeal,

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be aware of their serpent self,
right, and their motivations

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that may be very much driven
by that kind of serpent power.

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But we want to appeal
to the dove power

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that's also present in them

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that there is that same
spirit that animates us all

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that is divinely connected to all
things exists in that person as well.

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And so that is the power
with which we want to invoke

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from them we want to invoke
a different response from them

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by appealing to their dove essence.