Lying is the Origin of Evil

By Paul Levy

Whether it’s fake news, alternative facts, mainstream media propaganda or our government’s lies, it is getting increasingly harder in this Orwellian world of ours to discern truth from lies. In words that are even more true today than ever before, Jung writes, “the lie reaches proportions never known before in the history of the world.”[i] Lying has gone pandemic in our world. From the spiritual point of view, lies are a murder at the level of soul. According to Buddhism, lying in one form or another—be they big or small, lies of commission or omission, to oneself or others—is the root of all evil. As the Buddhist Maharatnakuta Sutra says, “A liar lies to himself as well as to the gods. Lying is the origin of all evils.” One of the most important requirements for confronting the forces of evil is for us to stop lying to ourselves, which is the very act that helps us to cultivate the ability to discern between truth and deception.

Our culture doesn’t supply the adequate vocabulary necessary to describe, express and thereby expose evil. Evil itself has dumbed us down, as we no longer seem able to talk intelligently about the subject. Evil’s inability to be languaged is one of the things that allows it to get away with the murder that it does. Speaking of evil, Denis de Rougemont, author of The Devil’s Share writes, “It is emptying all words of their meaning, turning them inside out and reading them backwards, according to the custom of the black mass. It is inverting and ruining from within the very criteria of truth.”[ii] The sacred mass is about communion with the divine; de Rougemont points out that, as if in a black mass, the darker forces co-opt words, the medium of communication, to have the opposite of their desired effect – to cut us off from our communion with the divine, as well as separate and divide us from each other. The relationship between lying and evil is symbolically expressed by the figure of the devil, who Christ called “a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44) 

One way we are all geniuses is our incredible ability to deceive ourselves. When someone lies and falls into the perverse situation of believing their own lies (a form of hysteria called pseudologia phantastica), they can develop a type of charisma such that their lies, through psychic contagion, become very convincing to others. Jung writes, “Nothing has such a convincing effect as a lie one invents and believes oneself, or an evil deed or intention whose righteousness one regards as self-evident.”[iii] Lying to oneself, and then absolutely convincing oneself that one is not doing so, is an extreme form of self-deception that is to be unconsciously hiding from oneself. To quote the former dissident Vaclav Havel who eventually became the first President of the Czech Republic, “Lying can never save us from another lie.” In other words, once we step on the path of lying, lies feed on and off of themselves, weaving a never-ending web of deceit in which we become caught. 

Once we become sufficiently committed to—and possessed by—this process of hiding from ourselves, as if in the throes of an addiction, we then become compulsively driven to sustain the lie that we are perpetrating on ourselves by whatever means necessary, lest we snap out of our self-generated cycle of self-deception and have to confront the lie that we have been living. Once our self-deception becomes air-tight, however, it continually doubles-down on itself without end so as to avoid both the light and the dark. We then become an alien to our true selves.  

  

Believing our own lies is a classic version of doublethink: in trying to reduce our own cognitive dissonance, we successfully deceive ourselves, pull the wool over our own eyes (and then forgetting that we have done so), trick ourselves out of our (right) mind, literally brainwashing and hypnotizing ourselves in the process. The result is a split—and toxic—mind that has “danger” written all over it. The consciousness of the person so afflicted, as philosopher Herbert Marcuse put it, has become inured to its own falsity. 

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, in the classic The Brothers Karamazov, writes,

“Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” 

When we lie to ourselves, we lose the ability to discern truth from falsehood, both within ourselves and out in the world. This ultimately leads to a lack of self-esteem and even self-loathing, which results in losing our ability to truly love - the greatest tragedy of all. 

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Loneliness: A Health Problem That Could Be Deadlier Than Obesity, Study Says

By

 Richard Enos

For COLLECTIVE EVOLUTION

Loneliness can reliably be linked to a significant increase in the risk of early mortality, according to a study at Brigham Young University. Head author, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, notes that “substantial evidence now indicates that individuals lacking social connections (both objective and subjective social isolation) are at risk for premature mortality.”

Holt-Lunstad believes the risks associated with loneliness are already greater than such established dangers as obesity:

Several decades ago scientists who observed widespread dietary and behavior changes raised warnings about obesity and related health problems. The present obesity epidemic had been predicted. Obesity now receives constant coverage in the media and in public health policy. The current status of research on the risks of loneliness and social isolation is similar to that of research on obesity 3 decades ago… Current evidence indicates that heightened risk for mortality from a lack of social relationships is greater than that from obesity.

Furthermore, she warns that “researchers have predicted that loneliness will reach epidemic proportions by 2030 unless action is taken.”

Why Are We So Isolated From Each Other?

From the long view, it can be said that Western civilization as a whole has fostered a gradual disintegration of our physical and social ties. With an emphasis on individual goals and an almost fanatical regard for personal achievement, the traditional institutions of family and community and their capacity to provide their members with a sense of belonging and shared purpose have become significantly fragmented.

The family unit has gone from large generations-linked mutual support systems to small and immediate units, sometimes involving single parents whose necessities make it very difficult to create a stable home environment for their children. Add to that the fact that more and more people are not even building families, and our society has more people living alone than at any other time in history. This includes the elderly, who are less likely to find a ‘fit’ living within their children’s families than ever before.

The decline of the ‘community’ is perhaps as significant as the disintegration of the family unit. In Western-style communities, people work as a collection of individual units interacting by specific functions rather than as an interrelated whole with a significant shared identity. Naturally, attempts are made today to join or build ‘communities’ all the time, but like the Meetup model, they are founded on the gathering of select people with similar interests and purposes, rather than a shared embrace of all people within a certain geographical area.

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Interview with Shiva Ayaadurai MIT Phd and Dr. Joseph Mercola concerning COVID-19

https://www.wakingtimes.com/2020/04/18/systems-biologist-speaks-out-about-covid-19-response/

17 Krishnamurti Quotes That Will Turn Your World View Outside In

Dylan Charles, Editor
Waking Times 

 

A sage is someone who can put into words the aspects of our mysterious nature that most of us can only feel.

At times in my life I have been overwhelmed by the world and confused about the purpose of it all. I spent much time in anguish, behaving in self-destructive ways, wondering why happiness was so elusive.

In this struggle, I passed many years looking outward for the source of turmoil in my world, trying to tweak, upgrade and replace parts of my life that seemed culpable for my sorrows; a different job, new friends, more education, better stuff. This always led me back, of course, to where I started, still confused, still unsatisfied, still searching for someone and something to blame.

Words are more than just the sum of their meaning, they are powerful incantations, capable of conjuring up great inspiration or of casting damning spells. Philosophy is something that can heal, yet no doctor can prescribe it and no one can predict which words a person must hear to break through to a better place in life.

The potent words of the great Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti fell into my life at precisely the right time, ringing true enough in my mind and in my heart to carry me to brighter days.

Until then, no other spokesman of truth had challenged me so bluntly to take personal responsibility for everything that is wrong in my life and everything that is misaligned in the world, pointing out so truthfully that the world is as we create it. None other had demanded so fervently that I look deep within for the answers to suffering, pointing out the inattention I was giving to my own life. No one else had challenged everything I thought I knew about my personal history and my culture, exposing the conditioning of my own mind, compelling me to change.

And for this I share with you these 17 Krishnamurti quotes that will turn your world view outside in, urging you to reconsider your culture religion, politics and family, guiding you towards a new awareness, intelligence and the truest freedom.

Mostly taken from his public talks in the late 1960’s, these quotes have the power to unleash us from our chains and set us free into a powerful new present where our humanity can finally reign supreme over our fearfulness.

I hope you find solace in them as I have, and that you share them with those whom you love, stirring within them the deep truths that can liberate us from the pitfalls of our own consciousness and the fabrications of our culture.

1. Our minds are conditioned – that is an obvious fact – conditioned by a particular culture or society, influenced by various impressions, by the strains and stresses of relationships, by economic, climatic, educational factors, by religious conformity and so on. Our minds are trained to accept fear and to escape, if we can, from that fear, never being able to resolve, totally and completely, the whole nature and structure of fear. So our first question is: can the mind, so heavily burdened, resolve completely, not only its conditioning, but also its fears? Because it is fear that makes us accept conditioning.

2. I wonder why we divide life into fragments, the business life, social life, family life, religious life, the life of sport and so on? Why is there this division, not only in ourselves but also socially – we they, you and me, love and hate, dying and living? I think we ought to go into this question rather deeply to find out if there is a way of life in which there is no division at all between living and dying, between the conscious and the unconscious, the business and social life, the family life and the individual life.

These divisions between nationalities, religions, classes, all this separation in oneself in which there is so much contradiction – why do we live that way? It breeds such turmoil, conflict, war; it brings about real insecurity, outwardly as well as inwardly. There is so much division, as God and the devil, the good and the bad, ‘what should be’ and ‘what is.’

3. Man has always sought immortality; he paints a picture, puts his name on it, that is a form of immortality; leaving a name behind, man always wants to leave something of himself behind. What has he got to give – apart from technical knowledge – what has he of himself to give? What is he? You and I, what are we, psychologically? You may have a bigger bank account, be cleverer than I am, or this and that; but psychologically, what are we? – a lot of words, memories, experiences, and these we want to hand over to a son, put in a book, or paint in a picture, ‘me’. The ‘me’ becomes extremely important, the ‘me’ opposed to the community, the ‘me’, wanting to identify itself, wanting to fulfill itself, wanting to become something great – you know, all the rest of it. When you observe that ‘me’, you see that it is a bundle of memories, empty words: that is what we cling to; that is the very essence of the separation between you and me, they and we.

4. How is the mind, the brain included to be completely quiet? Some say breathe properly, take deep breaths, that is, get more oxygen into your blood; a shoddy little mind breathing very deeply, day after day, can be fairly quiet; but it is still a shoddy little mind.

5. We look at conditions prevailing in the world and observe what is happening there – the student’s riots, the class prejudices, the conflict of black against white, the wars, the political confusion, the divisions caused by nationalities and religions. We are also aware of conflict, struggle, anxiety, loneliness, despair, lack of love, and fear. Why do we accept all this? Why do we accept the moral, social environment knowing very well that it is utterly immoral; knowing this for ourselves – not merely emotionally or sentimentally but looking at the world and at ourselves – why do we live this way? Why is it that our educational system does not turn out real human beings but mechanical entities trained to accept certain jobs and finally die? Education, science and religion have not solved our problems at all.

Looking at all this confusion, why does each one of us accept and conform, instead of shattering the whole process in ourselves?

6. This is a very human, ordinary problem, which touches the life of everyone of us, rich and poor, young and old, why do we live this monotonous, meaningless life, going to the office or working in a laboratory or a factory for forty years, breeding a few children, educating them in absurd ways, and then dying? I think you should ask this question with all your being, in order to find out. Then you can ask the next question: whether human beings can ever change radically, fundamentally, so that they look at the world anew with different eyes, with a different heart, no longer filled with hatred, antagonism, racial prejudices, but with a mind that is very clear, that has tremendous energy.

Seeing all this – the wars, the absurd divisions which religions have brought about, the separation between the individual and the community, the family opposed to the rest of the world, each human being clinging to some peculiar ideal, dividing himself into ‘me’ and ‘you’, ‘we’ and ‘they’ – seeing all this, both objectively and psychologically, there remains only one question, one fundamental problem and this is whether the human mind, which is so heavily conditioned, can change. Not in some future incarnation, nor at the end of life, but change radically now, so that the mind becomes new, fresh, young, innocent, unburdened, so that we may know what it means to love and to live in peace.

7. To deny conventional morality completely is to be highly moral, because what we call social morality, the morality of respectability, is utterly immoral; we are competitive, greedy, envious, seeking our own way – you know how we behave. We call this social morality; religious people talk about a different kind of morality, but their life, their whole attitude, the hierarchical structure of religious organization and belief, is immoral. To deny that is not to react, because when you react, this is another form of dissenting through one’s own resistance. But when you deny it because you understand it, there is the highest form of morality.

In the same way, to negate social morality, to negate the way we are living – our petty little lives, our shallow thinking and existence, the satisfaction at a superficial level with our accumulated things – to deny all that, not as a reaction but seeing the utter stupidity and the destructive nature of this way of living – to negate all that is to live. To see the false as the false – this seeing is the true.

8. If people who say they love their children meant it, would there be war? And would there be division of nationalities – would there be these separations?

9. If the mind is unconditioned it is free. So we are going to find out, examine very closely, what makes the mind so conditioned, what are the influences that have brought about this conditioning, and why we accept it. First of all, tradition plays an enormous part in life. In that tradition the brain has developed so that it can find physical security. One cannot live without security, that is the very first, primary animal demand, that there be physical security; one must have a house, food, clothing. But the psychological way in which we use this necessity for security brings about chaos within and without. The psyche, which is the very structure of thought, also wants to be secure inwardly, in all its relationships. Then the trouble begins. There must be physical security for everybody, not only for the few; but that physical security for everybody is denied when psychological security is sought through nations, through religions, through the family.

10. Then there is the question of dying, which we have carefully put far away from us, as something that is going to happen in the future – the future may be fifty years off or tomorrow. We are afraid of coming to an end, coming physically to an end and being separated from the things we have possessed, worked for, experienced – wife, husband, the house, the furniture, the little garden, the books and the poems we have written or hoped to write. And we are afraid to let all that go because we are the furniture, we are the picture that we possess; when we have the capacity to play the violin, we are that violin. Because we have identified ourselves with those things – we are all that and nothing else. Have you ever looked at it that way? You are the house – with the shutters, the bedroom, the furniture which you have very carefully polished for years, which you own – that is what you are. If you remove all that you are nothing.

And that is what you are afraid of – of being nothing. Isn’t it very strange how you spend forty years going to the office and when you stop doing these things you have heart trouble and die? You are the office, the files, the manager or the clerk or whatever your position is; you are that and nothing else. And you have a lot of ideas about God, goodness, truth, what society should be – that is all. Therein lies sorrow. To realize for yourself that you are that is great sorrow, but the greatest sorrow is that you do not realize it. To see that and find out what it means is to die.

11. Can you observe anything – a tree, your wife, your neighbor, the politician, the priest, a beautiful face – without any movement of the mind? The images of your wife, of your husband, of your neighbor, the knowledge of the cloud or of pleasure, all that interferes, doesn’t it? So when there is interference by an image of any kind, subtle or obvious, then there is no observation, there is no real, total awareness – there is only partial awareness. To observe clearly there must be no image coming in between the observer and the thing observed. When you look at a tree, can you look at it without the knowledge of that tree in botanical terms, or the knowledge of your pleasure or desire concerning it? Can you look at it so completely that the space between you – the observer – and the thing observed disappears? That doesn’t mean that you become the tree! But when that space disappears, there is the cessation of the observer, and only the thing which is observed remains. In that observation there is perception, seeing the thing with extraordinary vitality, its color, its shape, the beauty of the leaf or trunk; when there is not the center of the ‘me’ who is observing, you are intimately in contact with that which you observe.

12. If I think I am very beautiful and you tell me I am not, which may be a fact, do I like it? If I think I am very intelligent, very clever, and you point out that I am actually a rather silly person, it is very unpalatable to me. And your pointing out my stupidity gives you a sense of pleasure, does it not? It flatters your vanity, it shows you how clever you are. But you do not want to look at your own stupidity; you want to run away from what you are, you want to hide from yourself, you want to cover up your own emptiness, your own loneliness. So you seek out friends who never tell you what you are. You want to show others what they are; but when others show you what you are, you do not like it. You avoid that which exposes your own inner nature.

13. Real freedom is not something to be acquired, it is the outcome of intelligence. You cannot go out and buy freedom in the market. You cannot get it by reading a book, or by listening to someone talk. Freedom comes with intelligence.

But what is intelligence? Can there be intelligence when there is fear, or when the mind is conditioned? When your mind is prejudiced, or when you think you are a marvelous human being, or when you are very ambitious and want to climb the ladder of success, worldly or spiritual, can there be intelligence? When you are concerned about yourself, when you follow or worship somebody, can there be intelligence? Surely, intelligence comes when you understand and break away from all this stupidity. So you have to set about it; and the first thing is to be aware that your mind is not free. You have to observe how your mind is bound by all these things, and then there is the beginning of intelligence, which brings freedom. You have to find the answer for yourself. What is the use of someone else being free when you are not, or of someone else having food when you are hungry?

To be creative, which is to have real initiative, there must be freedom; and for freedom there must be intelligence. So you have to inquire and find out what is preventing intelligence. You have to investigate life, you have to question social values, everything, and not accept anything because you are frightened.

14. Have you ever thought about why you are being educated, why you are learning history, mathematics, geography, or what else? Have you ever thought why you go to schools and colleges? Is it information, with knowledge? What is all this so-called education? Your parents send you here, perhaps because they themselves have passed certain examinations and taken various degrees. Have you ever asked yourselves why you are here, and have the teachers asked why you are here? Do the teachers know why they are here? Should you not try to find out what all this struggle is about – this struggle to study, to pass examinations, to live in a certain place away from home and not be frightened, to play games well and so on? Should your teachers not help you to inquire into all this and not merely prepare you to pass examinations?

15. So religion becomes a matter of belief, and belief acts as a limitation on the mind; and the mind then is never free. But it is only in freedom that you can find out what is true, what is God, not through any belief; because your belief projects what you think God ought to be, what you think ought to be true. If you believe God is love, God is good, God is this or that, your very belief prevents you from understanding what is God, what is true.

16. A conditioned mind is not free because it can never go beyond its own borders, beyond the barriers it has built around itself; that is obvious. And it is very difficult for such a mind to free itself from its conditioning and go beyond, because this conditioning is imposed upon it, not only by society, but by itself. You like your conditioning because you dare not go beyond. You are frightened of what your father and mother would say, of what society and the priest would say; therefore you help to create the barriers which hold you. This is the prison in which most of us are caught, and that is why your parents are always telling you – as you in turn will tell your children – to do this and not do that.

17. Now, there are many people who will tell you the purpose of life; they will tell you what the sacred books say. Clever people will go on inventing various purposes of life. The political group will have one purpose, the religious group will have another, and so on and on. And how are you to find out what is the purpose of life when you yourself are confused? Surely, as long as you are confused, you can only receive an answer which is also confused. If your mind is disturbed, if it is not really quiet, whatever answer you receive will be through this screen of confusion, anxiety, fear; therefore the answer will be perverted. So the important thing is not to ask what is the purpose of life, but to clear away the confusion that is within you. It is like a blind man asking, “What is light?” If I try to tell him what light is, he will listen according to his blindness, according to his darkness; but from the moment he is able to see, he will never ask what is light. It is there.

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Dear Woman - by Consciousmen

On one level we are all responsible for everything that has ever happened on this planet, either by collusion, delusion, or confusion, whether we have played the part of victim or perpetrator.

"I'm sorry.
Please forgive me.
I love you.
Thank you."
~ Ho'oponopono Prayer

Maybe now we can co-create a planet of harmony and balance, with love and respect for all Beings regardless of gender or form.

Zeitgeist: Moving Forward

Awaken from your slumber, friends...
Open your eyes!

Deepened Entrenchment

It seems like it would be very easy for someone you’ve given some sort of authority to (even an unintended, projected authority) to say all the right words to you, all the right things to you, all the most comforting, ideologically satisfying terms and conditions when it comes to what you want to hear about spirituality. And the marketplace is geared for that. There is just about every single flavor out there for people to dive into. And they do. Those who say they are leading spiritual lives, and they are spiritual people, and so forth. There is very little challenging that goes on. And the challenging that does come about is a challenge more toward – well, deepening an entrenchment into identification, rather than a challenge in the opposite direction, of allowing to dismantle what’s allowing one to believe lies, to believe untruth, to believe what’s not the case in favor of what is totally the case, and always has been and always will be, in a time bound structure – and beyond. What is fascinating to see is just how completely riveted a spiritual seeker can be on thinking and believing that they are making “progress” because they have done so much “work” on themselves. And to see directly, while as perfect as that is – those are the trajectories that need to be followed – but in light of what they THINK are being pointed toward, it’s the exact opposite. It could not be more averse or unattuned. Now, in the broad scheme, sometimes you need to be duped for a long, long time in order to finally have the day come where the shackles come off and the scales fall from the eyes – and that’s why I say it’s perfect. What I’m merely trying to convey is that, to watch this going on – to hear this – to sort of see people becoming so entrenched, and being so caught up – there is a remembering of what that was like. And how caught up in the brambles one can be come in that situation. However, when it comes to Truth Realization, ultimately any sort of self development, self improvement like that, makes no sense. There is nothing you can do to any of that kind of a structure that’s going to have any bearing on Truth Realization. It’s slated or not slated from moment one. What working on the ego, self improvement, self development does is bury people even further into this tangled mess – yet at the same time they think all of this so-called development is “working”, and they listen to people who are telling them to do keep doing this – maybe even challenging them on those counts, but challenging them in the wrong direction. And how willingly our belief is suspended in that position – how willingly we allow ourselves to fall into that trap, to fall into that guise of progress, fall into somebody telling us, or “challenging” us to be better – while, when it comes to Truth, what they are actually often doing is moving us away, trapping us, or even burying us further into the muck than perhaps we have ever been.

Just Perception

The Simplicity of What IS - Joan Tollifson

Liberation is not about having the answers or having an experience. It has nothing to do with belief, but is rather the absence (or transparency, or seeing through) of belief. Waking up does not happen in the past or the future, only Now. Liberation or enlightenment is not something you find or acquire like a new car. It is not some dazzling or exotic experience like being permanently high on ecstasy or LSD. Liberation is seeing through the ubiquitous fabrications and mirages of conceptual thought, including the whole idea of liberation and the one who supposedly needs to be liberated.

Ultimate Reality is hidden right in front of our eyes in plain view. It is showing up as breakfast dishes, laundry, sunlight on leaves, the barking of a dog, sound of traffic or rain, the humming of the computer, the taste of tea, the shapes of these words, and the awareness being and beholding it all. And only when we describe all of this in words does it seem as if "awareness" is one thing and "the taste of tea" is something else. The non-conceptual actuality of this breathing-hearing-seeing-being is undivided, without center or periphery. No inside, no outside. No subject, no object. Simply this, just as it is.

And then perhaps a thought: "There must be more to life than this," or "What is the meaning of it all?" or "What about final enlightenment?" or "Isn't this all just the phenomenal manifestation, and isn't that an illusion?" Thought creates imaginary problems and tries to solve them. The complex human brain has an astonishing ability to conceptualize, imagine, remember, project, and think about things that have no actual reality. Yet even these thoughts are nothing but a momentary dream-like shape or expression of the One, undivided, boundless Whole.

Thought labels, categorizes, evaluates, and reifies the ever-changing perceptions that appear. Conceptual thought creates the hypnotic, mirage-like illusion of solid, persisting, independent things (including "me" and "you") -- the illusion of duality and separation. Thought imagines "me" as a separate character on a journey through time. It conjures up goals and stories of success and failure. It even creates the image of "me" as a serious spiritual person dedicated to getting rid of the "me." But without thinking, where is the "me"? What am I, really?

***

Is it possible that the peace and well-being we seek (that longing at the root of all our more superficial desires), cannot be found or satisfied by answers or attainments or experiences of any kind? Is it possible that the very search for it "out there" is precisely what prevents us from noticing that what we are seeking is the very essence of Here and Now?

And what is that?

It is nothing you can take hold of conceptually, and it's not any particular experience (as opposed to any other experience). It is the beingness, the groundlessness, the IS-ness of this moment -- this that is undeniably present beyond all doubt, requiring no proof or belief, impossible to deny -- before and after and even during all the grasping and searching and experience-seeking. The words (beingness, groundlessness, IS-ness) are only pointers. What they point to is nothing you can get hold of as an object. In fact, there really are no solid objects because everything is thorough-going flux. This no-thing-ness (or emptiness) is all there really is.

And this no-thing-ness is vibrantly alive, aware, conscious, awake, present. The grasping, searching and thinking may seem to destroy the wholeness of being or the spaciousness of presence-awareness, but can anything really destroy awareness, or the present moment, or beingness? Doesn't everything appear Here and Now, in awareness? And doesn't everything appear altogether at once as one diverse but seamless whole?

(Click here to read more)

OSHO - On Meditation

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My whole life I have been talking about meditation. There are one hundred and twelve methods of meditation; I have gone through all those methods—and not intellectually. It took me years to go through
each method and to find out its very essence, and after going through one hundred and twelve methods I was amazed that the essence is witnessing. The methods' non-essentials are different, but the center of each method is witnessing. Hence I can say to you, there is only one meditation in the whole world and that is the art of witnessing. It will do everything—the whole transformation of your being.

Whatever I am doing, my meditation continues. It is not something that I have to do it separately; it is just an art of witnessing. Speaking to you, I'm also witnessing myself speaking to you. So here are three persons: you are listening, one person is speaking, and there is one behind who is watching and that is my real me. And to keep constant contact with it is meditation.

So whatever you do does not matter, you just keep contact with your witness. I have reduced religion to its very fundamental essence. Now everything else is just ritual. This much is enough. And this does not need you to become a Christian or a Hindu or a Mohammedan or anybody, and this can be done by an atheist, by a communist, by anybody, because it needs no kind of theology, no kind of belief system. It is simply a scientific method of slowly moving inwards. A point comes when you reach to your innermost core, the very center of the cyclone.

The basic element running through all the methods of meditation is witnessing. You ask me: What is witnessing? Whatever you are doing. For example, right now you are writing. You can write in two ways. The ordinary way that you always write. You can try another method: you can write it and you can also inside witness that you are writing it. And you ask: Does that mean some kind of detachment? A detachment. You are a little distant, away, watching yourself writing. So any act, just moving my whatever you are doing, just remain a witness. If you have any ego, it will destroy it, because this watching is very much poisonous to the ego. It is not ego that watches. The ego is absolutely blind. It cannot watch anything. You can watch your ego. For example, somebody insults you and you feel hurt, and your ego feels hurt. You can watch it. You can watch that you are feeling hurt, your ego is feeling hurt, that you are angry. And you can still remain aloof, detached, just a watcher on the hills. Whatever goes on in the valley you can see.

So all the methods are basically different ways of witnessing. I have condensed them in a very simple way: First, watch your actions of the body. Second, watch your actions of the mind: thoughts, imaginations. And if you can succeed in watching all these three, and as your witnessing grows deeper and deeper, a moment comes that there is only witnessing but nothing to witness. The mind is empty, the heart is empty, the body is relaxed. In that moment happens something like a quantum leap. Your whole witnessing jumps upon itself. It witnesses itself, because there is nothing else to witness. And this is the revolution which I call enlightenment, self-realization. Or you can give it any name, but this is the ultimate experience of bliss. You cannot go beyond it.

This is the simplest. And because it can be done without in any way interfering with your everyday life, because it is something that you can go on doing the whole day. Any other method you have to take some time apart for it. And any method that needs one hour or half an hour to sit and do it is not going to help much, because twenty-three hours you will be doing just the opposite. And whatever you have gained in one hour will be washed away in twenty-three hours. This is the only method that you can continue around the clock. While falling asleep you can go on witnessing, witnessing, that the sleep is coming, coming, coming, that it is getting darker and the body is relaxing. And a moment comes when you can watch that you are asleep. And still there is a corner, a space in you which is awake.

When you can watch yourself twenty-four hours, you have arrived. Now there is nothing to be done. Then witnessing has become natural to you. You don't have to do it. It will be simply like breathing, happening to you.

This is my basic method. But there are other methods. If people feel that this is difficult for them, they can try other methods. All are available. I have returned from a movie show. It is surprising to see how much the light and shade photos projected on the screen captivate people. Where there is really nothing, everything happens! I watched the audience there and it felt as if they had forgotten themselves, as if they were not there, but the flow of electrically projected pictures was everything. A blank screen is in front and from the back the pictures are being projected. Those who are watching it have their eyes fixed in front, and no
one is aware of what is happening behind their backs. This is how leela, the play, is born. This is what happens within and without. There is a projector at the back of the human mind. Psychology calls this back side the unconscious. The longings, the passions, the conditionings accumulated in this unconscious are being continuously projected onto the mind's screen. This flow of mental projections goes on every moment, non-stop. The consciousness is a seer, a witness, and it forgets itself in this flow of the pictures of desires. This forgetfulness is ignorance. This ignorance is the root cause of maya, illusions, and the endless cycle of birth and death. Waking up from this ignorance happens in the cessation of the mind. When the mind is devoid of thoughts, when the flow of pictures on the screen stops, only then the onlooker remembers himself and returns to his home.

Patanjali calls this cessation of the activities of the mind Yoga. If this is achieved, all is achieved. To understand the mind, there are the three points: The first thing is tremendous fearlessness in encountering the mind; the second thing is no restrictions, no conditions on the mind; the third point is no judgments about whatever thoughts and longings arise in the mind, no feelings of good or bad. Your attitude should simply be indifferent. These three points are necessary to understand the perversions of the mind. Then we will talk about what can be done to get rid of these perversions, and go further. But these three basic points have to be kept in mind.

This is my observation of thousands of people: I see them carrying such great psychological luggage, and for no reason at all. They go on gathering anything they come across. They read the newspaper and they will gather some crap from it. They will talk to people and they will gather some crap. And they go on gathering. And if they start stinking, no wonder!

I used to live with a man for a few years. His house was so full of unnecessary luggage that I had to tell him "Now, where are you going to live?" And he would go on collecting any kind of thing. Somebody would be
selling his old furniture, and he would purchase it, and he already had enough. He had no time to use that furniture, and he had no friends to call. His whole house was full of furniture: old radio sets, and all kinds
of things. And I said "But, I don't see the point why you collect all this." He said "Who knows, any time it may be useful." One day we went for a walk and on the road. By the side of the road, somebody had thrown a cycle handle. He picked it up. I said "What are you doing?" He said "But, it must be worth twenty rupees at least, and I have picked up a few other things also—sooner or later I am going to make a bicycle!" And he showed me. He had one wheel, one pedal, that he had picked up from the roads. And he said "What are you saying? Soon you will see!" This man died. The cycle remained incomplete. And when he died, everybody who came to look was puzzled by what he was doing in this house—there was no space even to move.

But this is the situation of your head. I see cycle-handles, and pedals, and strange things that you have gathered from everywhere. Such a small head, and no space to live in! And that rubbish goes on moving in your head; your head goes on spinning and weaving—it keeps you occupied. Just think what kind of thoughts go on inside your mind.

Sometimes, sitting under the stars, you feel a bliss arising within your heart. It seems not of this world. You are surprised. You cannot believe it. I have come across simple people who have known many moments in their life which are Buddha-like, which belong to Christ consciousness, but they have never talked about them to anybody because they themselves don't believe that they were possible. They have in fact suppressed them. They have been thinking that they must have imagined them: How can it happen without any effort of my own? How is it possible that suddenly one becomes blissful? You can remember them in your own life—and in such moments when you were never expecting them—just going to the office, in the daily routine, the sun is high and you are perspiring, and suddenly something strikes home, and for a moment you are not the old you. Paradise is regained. And then it is lost again. You forget about it because it is not part of your style of life. You don't even talk about it, you think 'I must have imagined it. How are these things possible? And I have not done anything so how can it happen? It must have been hallucinatory, an illusion or a dream.' You don't talk about it. As I have observed thousands of people deeply I have not come across many people who have not found such certain moments in their life. But they have never talked of them to anybody. Even if they tried to, people laughed and they thought: You are foolish, stupid. They don't believe, they repress.

Not only has humanity repressed sex, has humanity repressed death, humanity has repressed all that is beautiful in life. Man has been forced to become like an automaton, a robot. All clues, all doors, have been closed towards the unknown. It is my continual experience of thousands of people that when they come for the first time to meditate, meditation happens so easily because they don't have any idea what it is. Once it has happened, then the real problem arises—then they want it, they know what it is, they desire it. They are greedy for it; it is happening to others and it is not happening to them. Then jealousy, envy, all kinds of wrong things surround them.

The inner world is a new world where you have not even looked, where you have never taken a single step. So I have to teach you how, slowly, you can step inwards. Even when I say to people to go inwards, immediately they ask questions which show how focused on the outside things they are. I say to them, "Sit silently." And they will ask me, "Can I do gayatri mantra?" Whether you do gayatri mantra or you read the newspaper does not matter, both are outside. I am telling you, "Sit silently." They say, "That is right, but at least I can repeat omkar…" It is pitiable. I feel sad for them, that I am telling them to be silent but they are asking me to fill their silence with something. They don't want to be silent. If nothing else, then omkar will do—anything will do.

In India people go on doing all kinds of things. They concentrate, they chant mantras, they fast, they torture their bodies, and they hope that through all these masochistic practices they will realize God. As if God is a sadist! As if God loves you to torture yourself! As if he demands that the more you torture yourself, the more worthy you become. God is not a sadist; you need not be a masochist. I have come across people who think
that without long fasting there is no possibility of meditation. Now, fasting has nothing to do with meditation. Fasting will only make you obsessed with food. And there are people who think celibacy will help them into meditation. Meditation brings a kind of celibacy, but not vice versa. A celibacy without meditation is nothing but sexual repression. And your mind will become more and more sexual, so whenever you sit to meditate your mind will become full of fantasies, sexual fantasies. These two things have been the greatest problems for the so-called meditators: fasting and celibacy. They think these two things are going to help—they are the
greatest disturbances!

Eat in right proportions. Buddha calls it "the middle way": neither too much nor too little. He is against fasting, and he knows it through hard experience. For six years he fasted and could not attain to anything. So when he says, "Be in the middle," he means it. About celibacy also: don't enforce it upon yourself. It is a by-product of meditation, hence it cannot be enforced before meditation. Be in the middle there too, neither too much indulgence nor too much renunciation. Just keep a balance. A balanced person will be more healthy, at ease, at home. And when you are at home, meditation is easier.

What then is meditation? Just sitting silently doing nothing, witnessing whatsoever is happening all around; just watching it with no prejudice, no conclusion, no idea what is wrong and what is right.

~ Osho

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The Connection Between Lifestyle and Disease as Related by Two Medical Doctors

This is such important information, so supportive of the Truth of the actual workings of the body and how to take care of it and heal it. Your body has natural protection mechanisms built into it to protect it from harm, and your primary emotions are meant to signal you as to whether your choices are leading towards complete physical, mental, and emotional health or disease and addiction. Your sense of spirituality and of wholeness are no more and not less than the body and mind giving you positive feedback for your life choices. When all is in balance the evolutionary spiral is complete, and you are living in the vibratory frequency of harmony with all of Life.

This excerpt is from the alternative news show Democracy NOW! with Amy Goodman (which I highly recommend over FOX or CNN).

Dr. Gabor Maté: “When the Body Says No: Understanding the Stress-Disease Connection”

The Vancouver-based Dr. Gabor Maté argues that too many doctors seem to have forgotten what was once a commonplace assumption—that emotions are deeply implicated in both the development of illness and in the restoration of health. Based on medical studies and his own experience with chronically ill patients at the Palliative Care Unit at Vancouver Hospital, where he was the medical coordinator for seven years, Dr. Gabor Maté makes the case that there are important links between the mind and the immune system. He found that stress and individual emotional makeup play critical roles in an array of diseases.


Dr. Lorraine Day's Story About How She Healed Her Own Cancer (Click Here to Link to Video Interview)

Faith or Doctors? You Choose!

When we are facing the statistics that 1 in 3 of every US citizen will develop cancer of some sort, you may want to turn to Dr. Lorraine Day for education, guidance and practical wisdom. At 69 years young on the day we interviewed her, Dr. Day is a living testament to creating health and healing through natural means.

Lorraine trained as an orthopedic surgeon and was head of the department in San Francisco General. She has investigated the source of the AIDS virus and has challenged conventional wisdom, her colleagues and the medical establishment. A strong and determined woman, Lorraine tells it like it is, so if you have someone in your family that has a medical condition and you don't trust what you hear, you may want to pay very close attention to this interview.

Her official products site contains natural healing products, CD's and DVD's that won't cost nearly as much as your next prescription. If you have anyone in your family that has cancer, please urge them to listen to this interview.

Time melting ... being quiet now... 'desires fulfilled breed more desires'

From "I Am That", Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj ~ Chapter 53

Click Here to listen to the following being read while you read along with it: http://charliehayes 36.tripod. com/iamthat54. mp3

Questioner: I must confess I came today in a rebellious mood. I got a raw deal at the airlines office. When faced with such situations everything seems doubtful, everything seems useless.

Maharaj: This is a very useful mood. Doubting all, refusing all, unwilling to learn through another. It is the fruit of your long sadhana. After all one does not study for ever.

Q: Enough of it. It took me nowhere.

M: Don't say 'nowhere'. It took you where you are -- now.

Q: It is again the child and its tantrums. I have not moved an inch from where I was.

M: You began as a child and you will end as a child. Whatever you have acquired in the meantime you must lose and start at the beginning.

Q: But the child kicks. When it is unhappy or denied anything it kicks.

M: Let it kick. Just look at the kicking. And if you are too afraid of the society to kick convincingly look at that too. I know it is a painful business. But there is no remedy -- except one -- the search for remedies must cease. If you are angry or in pain, separate yourself from anger and pain and watch them. Externalisation is the first step to liberation. Step away and look. The physical events will go on happening, but by themselves they have no importance. It is the mind alone that matters. Whatever happens, you cannot kick and scream in an airline office or in a Bank. Society does not allow it. If you do not like their ways, or are not prepared to endure them, don't fly or carry money. Walk, and if you cannot walk, don't travel. If you deal with society you must accept its ways, for its ways are your ways. Your needs and demands have created them. Your desires are so complex and contradictory -- no wonder the society you create is also complex and contradictory.

Q: I do see and admit that the outer chaos is merely a reflection of my own inner disharmony. But what is the remedy?

M: Don't seek remedies.

Q: Sometimes one is in a 'state of grace' and life is happy and harmonious. But such a state does not last! The mood changes and all goes wrong.

M: If you could only keep quiet, clear of memories and expectations, you would be able to discern the beautiful pattern of events. It is your restlessness that causes chaos.

At least it did not slow them down, as your kicking would have surely done! You want immediate results! We do not dispense magic here. Everybody does the same mistake: refusing the means, but wanting the ends. You want peace and harmony in the world, but refuse to have them in yourself. Follow my advice implicitly and you will not be disappointed. I cannot solve your problem by mere words. You have to act on what I told you and persevere. It is not the right advice that liberates, but the action based on it. Just like a doctor, after giving the patient an injection, tells him: 'Now, keep quiet. Do nothing more, just keep quiet,' I am telling you: you have got your 'injection', now keep quiet, just keep quiet. You have nothing else to do. My Guru did the same. He would tell me something and then said: 'Now keep quiet. Don't go on ruminating all the time. Stop. Be silent'.

Q: I can keep quiet for an hour in the morning. But the day is long and many things happen that throw me out of balance. It is easy to say 'be silent', but to be silent when all is screaming in me and round me -- please tell me how it is done.

M: All that needs doing can be done in peace and silence. There is no need to get upset.

Q: It is all theory which does not fit the facts. I am returning to Europe with nothing to do there. My life is completely empty.

M: If you just try to keep quiet, all will come -- the work, the strength for work, the right motive. Must you know everything beforehand? Don't be anxious about your future -- be quiet now and all will fall in place. The unexpected is bound to happen, while the anticipated may never come. Don't tell me you cannot control your nature. You need not control it. Throw it overboard. Have no nature to fight, or to submit to. No experience will hurt you, provided you don't make it into a habit. Of the entire universe you are the subtle cause. All is because you are. Grasp this point firmly and deeply and dwell on it repeatedly. To realise this as absolutely true, is liberation.

Q: If I am the seed of my universe, then a rotten seed I am! By the fruit the seed is known.

M: What is wrong with your world that you swear at it?

Q: It is full of pain.

M: Nature is neither pleasant nor painful. It is all intelligence and beauty. Pain and pleasure are in the mind. Change your scale of values and all will change. Pleasure and pain are mere disturbances of the senses; treat them equally and there will be only bliss. And the world is, what you make it; by all means make it happy. Only contentment can make you happy -- desires fulfilled breed more desires. Keeping away from all desires and contentment in what comes by itself is a very fruitful state -- a precondition to the state of fullness. Don't distrust its apparent sterility and emptiness. Believe me, it is the satisfaction of desires that breeds misery. Freedom from desires is bliss.

Q: There are things we need.

M: What you need will come to you, if you do not ask for what you do not need. Yet only few people reach this state of complete dispassion and detachment. It is a very high state, the very threshold of liberation.

Q: I have been barren for the last two years, desolate and empty and often was I praying for death to come.

M: Well, with your coming here events have started rolling. Let things happen as they happen -- they will sort themselves out nicely in the end. You need not strain towards the future -- the future will come to you on its own. For some time longer you will remain sleep-walking, as you do now, bereft of meaning and assurance; but this period will end and you will find your work both fruitful and easy. There are always moments when one feels empty and estranged. Such moments are most desirable for it means the soul had cast its moorings and is sailing for distant places. This is detachment -- when the old is over and the new has not yet come. If you are afraid, the state may be distressing; but there is really nothing to be afraid of. Remember the instruction: whatever you come across -- go beyond.

Q: The Buddhas rule: to remember what needs to be remembered. But I find it so difficult to remember the right thing at the right moment. With me forgetting seems to be the rule!

M: It is not easy to remember when every situation brings up a storm of desires and fears. Craving born of memory is also the destroyer of memory.

Q: How am I to fight desire? There is nothing stronger.

M: The waters of life are thundering over the rocks of objects -- desirable or hateful. Remove the rocks by insight and detachment and the same waters will flow deep and silent and swift, in greater volume and with greater power. Don't be theoretical about it, give time to thought and consideration; if you desire to be free, neglect not the nearest step to freedom. It is like climbing a mountain: not a step can be missed. One step less -- and the summit is not reached.

~ ~ ~

"Stop thinking and talking and there is nothing you will not be able to know" ~ Hsin Hsin Ming

Happiness Has No Opinion

How refreshing, the whinny of a packhorse unloaded of everything!

--Zen saying

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The sound of one dog barking

Human beings understand too much. But what they understand is just somebody's opinion. Like a dog barking. American dogs say, "Woof, woof." Korean dogs say, "Mung, mung." Polish dogs say, "How, how." So which dog barking is correct? This is human beings' barking, not dog barking. If dog and you become one hundred percent one, then you know sound of barking. This is Zen teaching. Boom! Become one.

-Seung Sahn, from "Boom! An Interview with Zen Master Seung Sahn,"

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'Love' is a big word, of course. It is enough, I feel (whatever mechanisms are at play) to enter the feeling of BEING in this body, fully and completely embodied. Then, there is a tactile understanding of what is felt in THAT body, and THAT body, when the BEING in that BODY is also embodied/awakened. It also felt when THAT body is somehow blocked/restricted in its natural flow.

Some non-dual teachers make a lot out of the concept "there is nobody here" or "there is no-one here" - but if it is just an idea, just a concept, and not fully realised in the body, in the feeling, in the breathing out, then it is just playing with words.

The difficulties arise with language. I have one language, you have another, Rupert has another, and everyone else has their own vocabulary in all this. I feel this is perhaps the final frontier in non-dual meanderings ... opening up the language, and the sense of mutual trust, such that language is no longer a barrier. Instead, we look for bridges that cross the language barrier, we become less rigid in our thinking through what has been embodied, so that it is clearly and openly offered and received. In a way, the mind is not subtle enough to articulate completely in words what is felt deep down. Whatever language arises within 'you' or 'I' is bound to not totally resonate with the 'other' ... because of the way that language evolves within each of us in such a personal way.

When speaking about and refering to a traditional viewpoint/ philosophical stance, how do we bring that alive in the listener in such a way that fully conveys what we have realised through it as a vehicle of embodiment ... so that it is not just seen as a 'philosophical viewpoint'? And how can we be receptive enough to that traditional vehicle of embodiment, such that we overcome our resistance to it, and its terminology and methodology?

with warm regards
Roy

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Everything is new now for me.
My mind is new, the moon, the sun.
The whole world looks rinsed with water,
washed in the rain of I am That.

Lalla leaps and dances inside the energy
that creates and sustains the universe.

- Lalla
14th Century North Indian mystic

From "Naked Song", Versions by Coleman Barks
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Separateness

Where on earth would we find a boundary between us?
Would it be the air between us that we both breathe?
Would it be the skin on my body that is participating
in the exact same atmosphere as the skin on your body?

The idea of separateness is something we have to make
up, so we say everything that connects us doesn't count
because we can't see it. Of course, if the air weren't
there all of a sudden, it would become important in a
hurry. But for right now, we choose not to pay attention
to it.

Look and see how you make up separateness within yourself.
Look for your sense of "self' and "other." Notice how within
yourself, there arc many selves. Inside or outside yourself,
see if you can find a boundary.

From: 'Trying to be Human: Zen Talks from Cheri Huber'

Thinking the Unthinkable: Not Growing the Economy

At what point does economic growth become uneconomic growth?

by Tim Jackson in Common Dreams

Every society clings to a myth by which it lives. Ours is the myth of economic growth. For the last five decades the pursuit of growth has been the single most important policy goal across the world. The global economy is almost five times the size it was half a century ago. If it continues to grow at the same rate, the economy will be 80 times that size by the year 2100.

This extraordinary ramping up of global economic activity has no historical precedent. It's totally at odds with our scientific knowledge of the finite resource base and the fragile ecology we depend on for survival. And it has already been accompanied by the degradation of an estimated 60% of the world's ecosystems.

For the most part, we avoid the stark reality of these numbers. The default assumption is that - financial crises aside - growth will continue indefinitely. Not just for the poorest countries where a better quality of life is undeniably needed, but even for the richest nations where the cornucopia of material wealth adds little to happiness and is beginning to threaten the foundations of our well-being.

The reasons for this collective blindness are easy enough to find. The modern economy is structurally reliant on economic growth for its stability. When growth falters - as it has done recently - politicians panic. Businesses struggle to survive. People lose their jobs and sometimes their homes. A spiral of recession looms. Questioning growth is deemed to be the act of lunatics, idealists and revolutionaries.

But question it we must. The myth of growth has failed us. It has failed the two billion people who still live on less than $2 a day. It has failed the fragile ecological systems we depend on for survival. It has failed spectacularly, in its own terms, to provide economic stability and secure people's livelihoods.

Today we find ourselves faced with the imminent end of the era of cheap oil; the prospect (beyond the recent bubble) of steadily rising commodity prices; the degradation of forests, lakes and soils; conflicts over land use, water quality and fishing rights; and the momentous challenge of stabilizing concentrations of carbon in the global atmosphere. And we face these tasks with an economy that is fundamentally broken, in desperate need of renewal.

In these circumstances, a return to business as usual is not an option. Prosperity for the few founded on ecological destruction and persistent social injustice is no foundation for a civilized society. Economic recovery is vital. Protecting people's jobs - and creating new ones - is absolutely essential. But we also stand in urgent need of a renewed sense of shared prosperity. A commitment to fairness and flourishing in a finite world.

Delivering these goals may seem an unfamiliar or even incongruous task for policy in the modern age. The role of government has been framed so narrowly by material aims and hollowed out by a misguided vision of unbounded consumer freedoms. The concept of governance itself stands in urgent need of renewal.

But the current economic crisis presents us with a unique opportunity to invest in change. To sweep away the short-term thinking that has plagued society for decades. To replace it with policy capable of addressing the enormous challenge of delivering a lasting prosperity.

For at the end of the day, prosperity goes beyond material pleasures. It transcends material concerns. It resides in the quality of our lives and in the health and happiness of our families. It is present in the strength of our relationships and our trust in the community. It is evidenced by our satisfaction at work and our sense of shared meaning and purpose. It hangs on our potential to participate fully in the life of society.

Prosperity consists in our ability to flourish as human beings - within the ecological limits of a finite planet. The challenge for our society is to create the conditions under which this is possible. It is the most urgent task of our times.

If You Must, Take Action!

There is no point waiting for someone else to fix the problems in the world. YOU must take a hard and unwavering look at how YOU have facilitated the madness. Where is your mind, where are your thoughts? Do you waste endless hours in escapist fantasies and tactics while your world is crashing around you? Are you waiting for rescue? Do you think space ships will come next month and take you home? Do you know who you are?

If you must take action, do it NOW. If you must speak up, do it NOW! Are you working for the corporate fascists because you're afraid that if you quit you will not be able to pay your bills? Are you watching FOX, sipping a beer, waiting for your guru to call? Are you sitting in a room meditating on forgiveness while your Mac & Cheese heats up in the microwave?Are you mindlessly sucking up to what they tell you? You are cutting off your own air supply, you have given over your life and are committing slow suicide. This is no time to succumb to fear. It is either sink or swim time, and no one will escape.

Stop eating their junk food. Stop shopping at their stores. Stop taking their cancer drugs. Stop paying their salaries. Stop paying taxes. Stop using their banks. Stop funding their charities. Stop sending your kids to their schools. Stop watching their TV programs. Stop watching their movies. Stop pretending that it's all normal. Stop talking about stupid shit. Stop talking.

Listen. Listen to what they are really telling you. Listen to how much bullshit surrounds you. Listen to how they tell you how to be. Listen to how they tell you who you are. Is it true? Are you a suit, a skirt, a mask, a bit player, a role, a concept, an idea, a belief system, an ideology, a religion, a political party, a nation, a skin color, a race, a product, a feeling, an emotion, an ego, a thought? Are you an original or a copy?

What is true? What is it that is always true? What is it that DOESN'T change? If you are going to ask questions, they ought to be good ones!

He Who Hesitates is Lost

Well, there aren't hundreds stampeding to view my site. Am I too radical? How can this be? It's just the truth as I see it, and the possibility of CHANGE. Maybe there are few who really want to change...

I guess people still believe if they pray, chant, meditate, march, and talk enough, the change will take care of itself. Well, it will, in one sense. Whatever will happen, will happen. Maybe Ron Paul will be President and global warming will not cause any problems for the next 100 years (but I'm not holding my breath!) It would be nice to believe we have all the time necessary so we can continue living the lives we've worked so hard to create so far. So much easier to be on automatic, to continue to believe in a God who will save us, to think clicking away at the internet will do some good. I mean, why make waves?

Maybe your life is basically good, and you are relatively content. You are able to pay the bills, you have a little in savings for a rainy day, your children are doing well in school. It's nice to come home, put up your feet, watch your favorite show on TV, pop something in the microwave. Maybe you have a satisfying relationship with someone who likes similar activities. Maybe your sex life is improving. It's just so much easier to not look around too much, not read too much, not be too aware of the rest of the world. Just keep keeping on making the mortgage and car payments, paying taxes, accumulating more gadgets to make life easier. I mean isn't that what it's all about?

You look around you and everyone else is pretty much doing the same thing. It's interesting to get together and talk about the insanity that is happening, how Joe can't sell his house and it may go into foreclosure, how Bill lost his job at the Company, how the price of gas keeps going higher, how you might not be able to send Billy to soccer camp this year. You join in the communal venting for a bit, then go home to continue the routine. Maybe you only put a dollar in the collection plate instead of five, but you have hope. You have faith that someone will fix it.

The Truth is that there is no one "out there", no separate something that will save you. YOU are the answer you seek, YOU are the one to make the changes. That undercurrent of doubt and fear you keep hidden is trying to get your attention so that you will ACT. The wolf is at YOUR door, and ignoring that fact will not keep you from getting eaten.

The engineers in New Orleans knew for many years that the levees were inadequate, but failed to act on that knowledge. The cost has been immeasurable, so many freedoms and lives lost, so much profiteering taking place. Humans have a predilection for procrastination, but remember, he who hesitates is lost. Do you think it can't happen again, that it can't happen to you?

Your government has sold you down the river. It only cares about itself and its agenda for expansion. Those with money get the life rafts while the rest go down. It is beyond borders, it is a global corporate elite calling the shots, and they don't care if they have to sacrifice America to get what they want. The game is World Domination, and our Constitutionally protected sovereign rights are the last hurdle. They are evaporating as we speak. What to do, what to do....?

I can't really answer that question. YOU know what you need to do, the question is will you do it? And I'm not talking about all the ways you distract yourself so you don't have to deal with the Truth another day. Part of the problem is the numerous ways we can distract ourselves - drinking, smoking, shopping, TV, working, sex, etc. Is any of it helping to alleviate your growing anxiety? Wake up, stop dreaming, grieve for your broken illusions if you must, and then get moving.

A PROPOSAL...

There are dozens of organizations and web sites that discuss the possibility of awakening in this life time as a precursor to any real change occurring on the planet at large and most of them I agree with. However, few offer any real practical way to create a lifestyle that supports this on an ongoing basis. There are definitely some retreats that give one a taste of what it is to be awake and I highly recommend them (please check out some of my links), but most people come away finding themselves still immersed in a lifestyle not really conducive to growing further in embodying this awakening. It is to those who are seeking a viable way to incorporate their realization into a mode of action that I offer this proposal.

I have done much research concerning patterns of earth change and its impact on the countries of the world, and presently have chosen Costa Rica as one of the places where we can implement our plan of creating a haven for awakening individuals that is self-supporting. We aim to attract investors who wish to remove themselves from the insanity being played out by the industrial/military/pharmaceutical corporations wishing to dominate our lives, and want to support awakening consciousness while still making a living. We believe that if only a handful step forward with the initial financial help needed, we can make it worth their while by offering an ongoing income plus land upon which to build a home, making it an investment that will increase in equity and help others who seek to deepen in this process of awakening.

Consider the many ways your money is now spent that works only to continue a system that is obviously unsustainable and no longer serves anyone. One only has to look at the world stage, with its wars of aggression, trade agreements that end up impoverishing nations, and corporate greed, to see how out of control things are. Though there are precious few ways in the physical realm to completely step away from what is currently in place, it is plausible to consider that one can reduce one's reliance on governments or other authorities whose aim is to eliminate sovereignty and keep us compliant and enslaved to their agendas. But governments are working overtime to close any loopholes that allow us to live freely, so time is of the essence. The escalating fear that has most people in denial is gathering strength; the outcome of this is unknown, but it does not bode well for human beings as a whole. So I am calling out to men and women of integrity to put your money where your mouth is and make an uncompromising decision to to jump from the sinking ship of life as we once believed it, and to create something new and life-promoting.

We are drafting an executive summary that explains thoroughly how the money will be used to create a center for awakening that offers silent retreats, as well as an opportunity to continue to live and work together to help this continue. Investors will receive a share of profits plus land to develop. We will create organically a community that has only one agenda: to assist in the awakening of consciousness by allowing those who are ready to not only step out of the box, but to stay out of the box. We do not promote any complicated processes, ideologies, or particular individuals. We do realize that there is one way most conducive to the awakening that caters to all individuals, and that is silent sitting. It cuts through all the myriad concepts and puts one immediately in touch with the thought processes that have one hypnotized and unrealized. And by continued sitting, these are seen for what they are, and one has the possibility of release.

I know there are many that feel stymied as to what they can actually do to help create change. They browse the internet daily, signing up for newsletters and clicking on petitions. They do their best to buy organic and live more simply. They gather at places of worship, in each others homes, and out on the streets to discuss, organize, and protest. But still the big wheels are turning. And they turn because still we buy gas for our SUV's, still we pay taxes, still we sign driver's and marriage licenses, still we go to work for the corporate machine. Our daily lives are monopolized by the very system we are raging against. This is an inner conflict that can only be resolved by walking one's talk. There's no getting away from it in even the minutest detail of our lives. It's no different than surrendering to an abusive relationship, where you are getting beat up every day, but continue to live as if everything were OK, putting on makeup to hide the bruises.

The Truth is difficult to bear at first. We go through stages with it. Denial is the first stage, but one can't stop there. Anger is next, the body's signal that an injustice is perceived, but ineffective anger often turns into depression unless there is an outlet for action. To act effectively is important, but it is to our own hearts we must turn to discover the way. No one else has the answers you seek, or knows the secrets you keep. You are the one to be the change you want in the world.

So if your path has you feeling more beat up than free, consider an alternative. Dialogue with us, explore the possibility, see if it fits. The heart will leap towards freedom, if given a chance to. How many more times will you plow it over with excuses? I'm sorry I can't soften this message with lovey-dovey, airy-fairy, New Age-speak, but that is just more pablum for the masses. This is only for those warriors who have the courage to SEE what is True and ACT on it.

Riding the Merry-go-Round....

This is how it looks to me...

Life as we know it in the human thought-realm matrix is like being on a merry-go-round. It looks like there is movement, the horses go up and down, and from a child-like perspective, it actually seems as if one is getting somewhere. But that's only if you're on the merry-go-round. For someone standing on the ground, it is obvious that the merry-go-round is just revolving in a small, circular orbit. Now for those riding the merry-go-round, there can be endless discussion on whether or not the merry-go-round has any purpose, if it is functioning correctly, the rules and regulations regarding being on the merry-go-round, who gets to ride the horses, lions, tigers, bears, or whatever, ad nauseum. Some will complain about the revolution speed, the need for an upgrade, new leadership (a merry-go-round czar?) or whatever. Some may even say we should stop the merry-go-round and get off, a very progressive stance indeed. But in the meantime, the merry-go-round continues to turn in it's little circle, around and around and around....

Now while you're riding the merry-go-round, you may notice others who are standing on the ground as you whizz by. They wave to you, indicating the possibility of you joining them on the ground, but you move by so fast you can't quite catch what they're saying. Maybe you'll catch "If you want to get off the merry-go-round..." before you've already passed them by on another revolution. Maybe you'll hear the words "...you've got to jump!" So you turn to your fellow riders to point out that there are some who are not on the merry-go-round, and isn't that interesting, and maybe jumping is an option, but very often it leads to endless discussions about the rationale of jumping, how is it accomplished, the possibility of injury, etc., etc. More questions beget more answers beget more discussions and on and on the merry-go-round turns, a thousand viewpoints and opinions endlessly expressed. It is comfortably beguiling in its familiarity, its hypnotic sameness, its apparent safety. It reinforces inaction by settling for ongoing debate between this, that, and the other.

The questions are unsolvable as long as you remain on the merry-go-round. That's why it's called a merry-go-round, it never really goes anywhere. There's only ONE way to get off a merry-go-round, my friend, and that is to JUMP!

Remember the first time you went off the high dive, how long it took you to get even to the bottom of the stairs because that first step was a commitment you couldn't back down from? And then standing up there, looking down at the water, how far it seemed, crazy even? And you were scared, whether you showed it or not, perhaps even terrified, because you could, after all, get killed? But in the end, when you got past all the debate and fear and actually JUMPED it was the most exhilarating, amazing, FREEING experience, and you wanted to do it again and again?

It is the same every time we approach the unknown. For some reason, as we get older, we tend to veer away from taking chances with our lives, unlike the toddler, who though falling every second step, is determined to discover walking. When very young, we were unconcerned about the opinions of others; the imperative to be mobile was paramount and there was no doubt in our ability to master it. But also back then we were undistracted, focussed, undeterred. Then came television...and round and round we go...

It is easy to ride a merry-go-round, lulled into a false sense of momentum and change. On the merry-go-round, you can change your seat and believe you have done something radical. But you might as well finally admit that you are on a merry-go-round and you're getting nowhere. There are no saviors on the merry-go-round, because once you're on it's more of the same. A pretty costume and innovative delivery doesn't change the fact that you're still on the merry-go-round.

So you better be clear...do you want to keep riding or do you want to get off?