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Waking Up in an Insane World
Our Zendo |
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The Buddha Watches.... |
Reflecting Stillness... |
Beauty Is... |
The author has received an overwhelming response to his recent Global Research report entitled, “An Emergency Program of Monetary Reform for the United States.” The introduction to that report stated that, “the U.S. financial system headed by the Federal Reserve System has failed, and…only an emergency program of monetary reform can address conditions which may be leading to a catastrophe like the Great Depression or worse.”
This new report on “Monetary Reform and How a National Monetary System Should Work” continues the dialogue by outlining the principles and mechanisms available to help guide the creation of a monetary system for any nation that wishes to enjoy economic democracy with prosperity. This would be in contrast to the collapsing debt-based monetary system overseen by the Federal Reserve and the other central banks of the world, coordinated at the top by such institutions as the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank, and the Bank of International Settlements.
Note that all the banks of the Western world are ultimately private institutions owned by the world’s super-rich. The international banking structure is operated by and on behalf of the world’s monetary elite primarily for their own profit.
Just below the banking system are the giant corporations of the global economy which derive capital from and funnel profits into the financiers’ empire. Bringing up the rear are the populations and debt-serfs of the no-longer-sovereign nation states, including those of the United States, whose participation in the system as consumers is essential, but whose jobs continue to disappear as manufacturing is increasingly automated.
The author had realized as early as 1970 that the central problem with the world’s economy lay on the side of distribution, not production. He came to Washington, D.C., that year and spent most of the next thirty-six years working within sight of the Washington Monument, learning how things really work, and pondering the methods that might be more in concord with such founding documents of American democracy as the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Twenty-one of these years were with the U.S. Treasury Department.
Now, for the first time, this report builds on the findings of many of the world’s monetary reformers past and present by offering a complete prescription for a new and better world. This prescription is radically different from most progressive reform agendas that address only symptoms of the underlying systemic failures.
WHERE MONEY COMES FROM
When setting out to study monetary principles, we must realize how little we know of the real facts of monetary history. Economics is an extremely limited discipline rife with untested assumptions and unchallengeable dogmas. Its most pernicious doctrine is the assertion that there is something called “the market,” where there is an “invisible hand” that makes everything work out the way it is supposed to.
Actually, an economy functions according to the principles according to which it is designed and regulated. If it is designed to funnel wealth into the hands of the monetary controllers, then that is what the “market” and the “invisible hand” will do. If it is designed to foster “the general welfare,” as it should according to the preamble to the U.S. Constitution, then the “market” and the “invisible hand” will tend in that direction.
Unfortunately, we march today to the tune of the monetary elite, so they are the ones who reap the profits and the benefits. They are the ones on whom the “invisible hand” lavishes the wealth of the world.
It is done through the process of bank-created credit. While during the nineteenth century other forms of money circulated, such as large quantities of coinage, silver certificates, and government-issued greenbacks, almost all the money that exists today originates through a loan by a financial institution to an individual or a business.
When a loan is made it is issued as a liability on the bank’s ledger. When it is repaid, the liability is canceled. With today’s computer systems, all transactions are digitized, of course. The bank keeps the interest on the loan as its combined administrative fee and profit. The money that is lent had no prior existence.
Once money is created as credit, it takes many forms according to how the loan recipient spends it. Some credit is used by businesses or individuals as investment in order to generate profits over and above the amount they must repay to the bank with interest. If the money is used simply for consumer purchases, the individual consumer must pay back the loan through future earnings. In those cases where the borrower defaults on the loan or goes bankrupt, the money simply remains in circulation however it was spent.
Unfortunately, large amounts of credit are used mainly for speculation, not for any benefit to the producing economy. This includes securities bought on margin and borrowing by hedge funds where the fund may make a profit even if the value of its investments goes down. Bank-created credit in this case is little more than chips in a casino.
Other borrowing takes place by equity funds and other types of investors for leveraged mergers or buyouts of entire companies, where the predators wreck a company’s infrastructure by reducing costs and selling its assets, then pay back their bank loans before unloading the business on someone else.
The most important thing to realize about the banking system is that the money which enters into circulation as purchasing power must eventually be returned in the repayment of loans. This is why the Federal Reserve’s monetary measures—M1, M2, and M3—are meaningless, because so much of it has liens against it.
We are taught that paying it back is the way things should be—obviously, if we borrow something, we should pay back what we owe.
But the peculiar thing is that because the borrowed money pays for labor, commodities, rent, etc., it becomes part of the prices that are eventually charged for goods and services. However, when the money goes back to the bank to cancel a loan, that purchasing power disappears. Neither the banks nor economists ever make note of the fact that this process creates a chronic shortage of purchasing power which must be filled by more loans and more bank profits. The economy is thus a treadmill that borrowers must constantly trudge along in order to have enough money for survival.
So a system which is seemingly grounded in the simple adage that if you borrow you should repay is all wrong. The reason it is all wrong is that in most cases, individual consumers should never have to borrow in the first place. And we never ask ourselves why, with the abundance that is possible from modern science and technology, should people have to borrow money at interest for the necessities of life—a house, a car, household expenses, an education, etc.
Click here to read full article...ANN ARBOR, Michigan - One in every three of the more than 1,500 children's toys tested in time for the holiday shopping season have been found to contain "medium" or "high" levels of chemicals of concern such as lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic.
Researchers with the Michigan-based nonprofit Ecology Center tested for chemicals that have been associated with reproductive problems, developmental and learning disabilities, hormone problems and cancer; and for those identified by regulatory agencies as problematic.The testing was conducted with a screening technology - the portable X-Ray Fluorescence analyzer - that identifies the elemental composition of materials on or near the surface of products.
The Ecology Center and partners across the country today released their second annual consumer guide to toxic chemicals in toys, which can be found online at www.HealthyToys.org.
Environmental health groups are holding toy testing events nationwide and urging manufacturers and the federal government to phase out the most harmful chemicals at once.
"There is simply no place for toxic chemicals in children's toys," said Ecology Center's Jeff Gearhart, who led the research.
"Our hope is that by empowering consumers with this information, manufacturers and lawmakers will feel the pressure to start phasing out the most harmful substances immediately, and to change the nation's laws to protect children from highly toxic chemicals," he said.
Lead was detected in 20 percent of the toys tested this year. Lead levels in 54 products were well above the 600 parts per million federal recall standard used for lead paint, and will exceed the U.S. legal limit in February, according to the new Consumer Product Safety Commission regulations.
If the new regulations were in effect today, some of the toys on the shelf this holiday season would be illegal to sell. When children are exposed to lead, the developmental and nervous system consequences are irreversible.
Levels of lead in many of the toys tested were above the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended ceiling of 40 ppm of lead in children's products.
Children's jewelry remains the most contaminated product category, maintaining its spot at the top of HealthyToys.org's "worst" list for a second year.
Overall, jewelry is twice as likely to contain detectable levels of lead as other products, the researchers found.
Numerous Hannah Montana brand jewelry items tested high for lead. HealthyToys.org recommends that consumers avoid low cost children's jewelry.
The website allows searches by product name, brand, or toy type to see if certain toys have toxic chemicals. The newly-redesigned site also lets visitors create a personalized holiday wish list that can be sent to family and friends, and a blog-friendly widget to quickly search the toy ratings.
With millions of toys on the market, HealthyToys.org could not test them all, but visitors to the website can nominate other products to be tested. The most commonly requested items will be tested each week leading up to the holidays.
Through its testing, HealthyToys.org found toys made in China are not the only ones that contain toxic chemicals. Tests show that 21 percent of toys from China and 16 percent of those from all other countries had detectable levels of lead in 2008.
About one-third of the 17 toys tested that were manufactured in the United States showed detectable levels of lead. Two toys had levels above 600 ppm. Among the highest lead levels detected was in a Halloween Pumpkin Pin made in the USA, which showed 190,943 ppm of lead.
Lead is not the only toxic found in the toys. Researchers also found toys containing cadmium, mercury, arsenic, and bromine. Forty-five products tested showed bromine at concentrations of 1,000 ppm or higher, indicating the use of brominated flame retardants - chemicals that may pose hazards to children's health.
Arsenic was detected at levels greater than 100 ppm in 22 products, while 289 products contained detectable levels of arsenic.
Cadmium, a heavy metal, was found above 100 ppm in 30 products, while 38 of products contained detectable levels of cadmium.
Mercury was found above 100 ppm in 14 products, while 62 of products contained detectable levels of mercury.
HealthyToys.org identified products made with polyvinyl chloride, PVC, plastic by measuring their chlorine content.
"PVC is a problematic plastic because it creates major environmental health hazards in its manufacture and disposal and may contain additives, including phthalates, that may pose hazards," the Ecology Center said. Twenty-seven percent of the toys tested this year by HealthyToys.org, excluding jewelry, were made with PVC.
"The good news is that 62 percent (954) of the products tested contain low levels of chemicals of concern, and 21 percent (324) of all products contain no chemicals of concern. These products look and feel no different than other children's products on the shelf," said the Ecology Center. "These findings show that manufacturers can and should make toys free of unnecessary toxic chemicals."
Many now involved with the waking up process say that when they hear terms like living in…No- Mind…Emptiness…The Great Space...Vanishing…Void Nature…The Death of the Ego, or Seeing before mind, are somewhat fearful of such an adventure beyond the mind. They are fearful of losing it, of vanishing all together, or even of going crazy, if they go too deep down the rabbit hole from their minds known reference points.
This mind is the root of our suffering and once we really see this, really get it, then the possibility of it going makes some sense. What is “real” is what does not come and go, this can not ever be lost, is not perishable, does not die, only “this” cannot be lost, only “this” is who and what you really are, only “this” has no name or form, and only “this” brings peace.
In the times that come, those of you who make the choice to become part of the wholistic transformation of this planet and its inhabitants will lead the way through the transformation of yourselves. Mankind is inspired by example, not by words, written or spoken. Will you each be as famous as Mother Theresa? No indeed! Your example will be one of living the life of purposeful focus. Each day, your intent is to be a human becoming for the purpose of Mankind becoming and the planet becoming. This commitment in unison will bring forth an aura of magnetism that will reflect in all aspects of your experience. Will it make you a millionaire? Probably not. Your focus is to participate in the larger creative flow into an experience that will have parameters that are yet unknown. The basic concept on which all higher dimensions are based is in the understanding that the pivotal point to upliftment into evolving consciousness involves the unified focus of returning to the level of the Creator.
The "one-upmanship" of accumulating and maintaining material wealth is a moot point. During the period of chaos as it facilitates the transition, those with intent to assist in the birthing of the new paradigm (rather than the maintenance of values to be transcended), will be assisted in having available what is needed in order to superintend facets of organization that are necessary. These will not be in the focus of leadership, but of setting the ideal or archetype of cooperation. Once before, a question was asked for your contemplation. You were asked if you could conceptualize a system in which there were no levels of leadership of hierarchybecause they were unnecessary. A unity of focus based on personal responsibility to fulfill the harmonious (shared) goal of "becoming" through individual experience sets up a cooperative environment. Cooperation replaces competition, and fear is no longer present. The accumulation of wealth is motivated by the desire for protection, which is based upon fear of what the future may hold, and is reinforced by the empowered ego through competition. "He who dies with the most toys wins" is an apt illustration of this imbalance. "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle (cultural reference to the small gate into a town or a house compound) than for a rich man to enter heaven (a state of contentment)." This is true, not because of the material things that are accumulated, but because of the basic attitudes that motivate him/her. Retirement funds are necessary because these same attitudes and beliefs bring on disease and degeneration of the body, illustrating the basic lack of trust in the Creator’s flow that birthed you into this life experience. In a nutshell, the moment you are born, you are taught to begin swimming upstream against the flow of creative expansion. It is now time that you climb out on a rock, take a good look around, and then begin swimming within the expansive flow. It is so much easier and "in-joy-able".
Swimming with the flow allows the focus of "becoming" to be thought acting within and upon itself. The resulting harmonious experience is that of being wholly supported in that quest. To accomplish this within an environment where Humanity is swimming in the opposite direction is impossible, unless it is accomplished within a cooperating group that is literally out of that flow. Pulling one's self out of that flow, up onto the rock, carefully perceiving the situation, and then making the decision to enter the greater flow of the Galaxy that is moving within creative expansiveness, brings you to a level that is outside of that struggling mass. Once the initial group begins this action by freewill choice, many increasing numbers will join, and a new flow is then formed to join the galactic flow. As those of the masses, literally wearing themselves out by spending their creative energy within the struggle, observe your life moving smoothly and easily along within that flow, your mission of reversing the flow will be well underway.
Your return ticket receives its first punch when you pull yourself out and stand on the rock and observe the situation from the level of accepting the situation as reality within the 3rd dimensional realm of planet Earth. The next punch in your ticket is received when you make your choice/commitment to bring forth a new paradigm of experience. The next is received when you begin the move within your consciousness, and change your life-expression through thought and action in harmony with your commitment to bring forth this new paradigm of experience with both the inhabitants and the planet. You then know the purpose of your incarnation at the fully conscious level, and the empty wondering will cease. You then will live in fulfillment of your purpose. To choose otherwise means tearing up your ticket. Can you get a new one? Later maybe, but you will have missed your intended purpose and your intended opportunity.
Re-read, contemplate, pray and decide! Freewill is your privilege and your responsibility. Use it in wisdom!
From "Handbook for a New Paradigm"
What now can you few do to stem the tide of blackness as it deepens more and more quickly? Shall we recount again all that you already know, and groan and beat upon our breasts as did the prophets of old, and cry out for "God" to save us? Millions are already doing that to a Creator they think ignores their cries for an answer to their prayers. It is in the perception of victims that desire rescuing that they ask, and they cannot receive answers to such prayers. Indeed, only those prayers that ask for empowerment within the framework of Creation can be answered. Do you think that the stars stay up in your heavens by casual request of a god-being? Indeed not! They are there within the design of balance and mathematical laws that underpin All That Is. Man continues in his mindless begging and blocks the very help he desires by being unwilling to participate, except in ways that are contrary to the very Laws that support his unhappy existence. The story of these Laws surrounds us all in what remains of Nature, but in his misery, he blinds himself. The scientific learned ones analyze the components, but not the process of Life within the manifested structures of Life that surround them. The mental analysis of the mind deludes him into an arrogant belief of his superiority over his surroundings, rather than his brotherhood and kinship within it. How can those be helped that are becoming more and more blind to the very process within which they exist?
The victim cannot be rescued, but must pull himself up by his own boot straps and rescue himself by being responsible for his own rescue. Man is made in the essence of his Source. He is a tiny holograph of this Source. A holograph is a tiny fragment of the whole that has the potentiality of projecting the whole from which it came. Though the concept of the holograph has been encompassed in part, it has not been "analyzed" with application to the essence of Life that is within all self-aware beings. It is the refocusing of this fragment toward its Source of existence that determines the degree of the totality of the Source that is brought forth into the known reality of each fragment’s experience.
If you consider the degree of the focus that has brought forth the planet Earth from the fragment of its Source, you can begin to get the picture. Look at the magnificence of the human body that is the vehicle of your experience here. A vehicle capable of housing a self-awareness that can contemplate its Source if it but will, because that Source contemplates itself and, in so doing, fragments Itself so that it can further contemplate Itself through manifestation of experience. Within it, is the freewill to do this. Since freewill is the vehicle for this contemplation, then it is manifest within each holographic fragment. This freewill allows for all experience within a further enhancement of this Self-contemplation process. This is the polarity that enables the recognition of that which serves the contemplation process and that which does not, so that the balance of these allows for the completion of each exploration into the return of the fragment that was originally projected to its Source. To follow this process as presented, there is a spiral of understanding as this is contemplated by the mind reading this information. Each fragment returns itself to the Source that projected it. Thus, you are led to understand the framework of the process you are within, for each of you are a holographic fragment of the Source of All That Is in the process of self-contemplation. Ah, panic, you will become as nothing if you follow the path of the return. Indeed not! With each returning phase toward the Source of your entry into experience, your own self-awareness grows, and it becomes greater and greater until you have the absolute potential to being a total equal within the greater Totality of that Source contemplating Itself.
From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men
Let Light descend on Earth.From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth.From the center where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men-
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.From the center which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth