The self I’ve made, my ego self, can never be my true Self, and my true Self can never be split in two and still be what It is. When I think my Self can be split in two, into ego and spirit, good and evil, as I do 99.5% of the time, I’m making the split real, experiencing it as if it really happened, which it hasn’t. What has to be undone is not the split and my ego which I experience as real, but my belief in them. Trying to undo the split or the ego, merely strengthens my belief in them. To have peace and joy, I have to undo the mind’s belief, what’s going on in the projection booth, not the screen, the decision to be separate from spirit.
Mind, equated with spirit, and body, equated with ego, cannot both exist. It’s one or the other, ego or God. I see the flesh or recognize the spirit. There is no compromise between the two. If one is real, the other must be false, for what is real denies its opposite. I know which I’m identifying with by how I’m feeling – peace – spirit, anxiety – ego. I’m constantly shifting between these two all the time, usually unconsciously. When I become aware of these shifts, I try to reconcile the two. But this can’t be done for one denies the other.
Trying to reconcile the two, to integrate mind, body and spirit, which seems like a wonderful goal and useful spiritual practice, is bringing spirit into the world to fix the world, which denies the singular reality of spirit and the illusory nature of the world. Once dragged into the world, spirit ceases to be itself. What is all-encompassing can have no opposite. The all-encompassing spirit has no place in a world of opposites. Spirit, mind and body cannot be integrated, which is what the ego urges us to do, because spirit transcends the mind and body entirely.
If I am spirit, one Self united with my creator, unified within myself, I cannot be a body, nor an individual. Yet my ego ‘reality,’ my everyday experience denies this. Of course I’m a body, I hurt, feel joy, get hungry, have ideals. But really, there is one choice for the millions and billion of earthly phenomena, problems and pleasures in my life, and that is: spirit or flesh. Remember, this does not mean undoing the world, flesh and ego, but simply looking at them from the perspective of my reality as spirit and forgiving the mistake of identifying with my small self, instead of my big Self. With each experience and each moment we have the opportunity of deciding who we are, children of the ego, or children of spirit, then forgiving ourselves when 99.5% of the time, we choose the ego.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
One or the Other
The self I’ve made, my ego self, can never be my true Self, and my true Self can never be split in two and still be what It is. When I think my Self can be split in two, into both ego and spirit, good and evil, as I do 99.5% of the time, I’m making the split real, experiencing it as if it really happened, which it hasn’t. What has to be undone is not the split and my ego which I experience as real, but my belief in them, my belief that they are real. Trying to undo the split or the ego, merely strengthens my belief in them. To have peace and joy, I have to undo the mind’s belief, what’s going on in the projection booth, not the screen, the decision to be separate from spirit.
Mind, equated with spirit, and body, equated with ego, cannot both exist. It’s one or the other, ego or God. I see the flesh or recognize the spirit. There is no compromise between the two. If one is real, the other must be false, for what is real denies its opposite. I know which I’m identifying with by how I’m feeling – peace – spirit, anxiety – ego. I’m constantly shifting between these two, usually unconsciously. When I become aware of these shifts, I try to reconcile the two. But this can’t be done for one denies the other.
Trying to reconcile the two, to integrate mind, body and spirit, which seems like a wonderful goal and a useful spiritual practice, is bringing spirit into the world to fix the world, which denies the singular reality of spirit and the illusory nature of the world. Once dragged into the world, spirit ceases to be itself. What is all-encompassing can have no opposite. The all-encompassing spirit has no place in a world of opposites. Spirit, mind and body cannot be integrated, which is what the ego urges us to do, because spirit transcends the mind and body entirely.
If I am spirit, one Self united with my creator, unified within myself, I cannot be a body, nor an individual. Yet my ego ‘reality,’ my everyday experience denies this. Of course I’m a body it says, I hurt, feel joy, get hungry, have ideals. But really, there is one choice for the millions and billions of earthly phenomena, problems and pleasures in my life, and that is: spirit or flesh. Remember, this does not mean undoing the world, flesh and ego, but simply overlooking them, looking past them to my reality as spirit and forgiving the mistake of identifying with my small self, instead of my big Self. With each experience and each moment we have the opportunity of deciding who we are, children of the ego, or children of spirit, then forgiving ourselves when 99.5% of the time, we choose the ego.
Mind, equated with spirit, and body, equated with ego, cannot both exist. It’s one or the other, ego or God. I see the flesh or recognize the spirit. There is no compromise between the two. If one is real, the other must be false, for what is real denies its opposite. I know which I’m identifying with by how I’m feeling – peace – spirit, anxiety – ego. I’m constantly shifting between these two, usually unconsciously. When I become aware of these shifts, I try to reconcile the two. But this can’t be done for one denies the other.
Trying to reconcile the two, to integrate mind, body and spirit, which seems like a wonderful goal and a useful spiritual practice, is bringing spirit into the world to fix the world, which denies the singular reality of spirit and the illusory nature of the world. Once dragged into the world, spirit ceases to be itself. What is all-encompassing can have no opposite. The all-encompassing spirit has no place in a world of opposites. Spirit, mind and body cannot be integrated, which is what the ego urges us to do, because spirit transcends the mind and body entirely.
If I am spirit, one Self united with my creator, unified within myself, I cannot be a body, nor an individual. Yet my ego ‘reality,’ my everyday experience denies this. Of course I’m a body it says, I hurt, feel joy, get hungry, have ideals. But really, there is one choice for the millions and billions of earthly phenomena, problems and pleasures in my life, and that is: spirit or flesh. Remember, this does not mean undoing the world, flesh and ego, but simply overlooking them, looking past them to my reality as spirit and forgiving the mistake of identifying with my small self, instead of my big Self. With each experience and each moment we have the opportunity of deciding who we are, children of the ego, or children of spirit, then forgiving ourselves when 99.5% of the time, we choose the ego.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
It's a Mistake, Not a Sin
And when, once again, I catch myself judging, I want to remember that judging is a mistake, only a mistake in spirit’s eyes, a case of mistaken identity, of identifying myself as a separate ego instead of a spiritual being united with my creator and all the other spiritual beings. I want to remember that judging is simply a mistake, not a sin.
If it were a sin, God would have to punish me [the ego’s god, the real God only loves and forgives], I’d feel guilty and anxious and fear divine retribution. None of that guilt and anxiety is necessary if it’s only a mistake. But I almost always think my mistake is a sin, and each time I am mistaken, put myself through the whole guilt, anxiety, jitters thing. The problem is not that I made a mistake, I will always be making mistakes, being human is making mistakes, but that I was unwilling to have the mistake forgiven, corrected by the gentle love of spirit.
Unwilling, because I fear being enfolded in the gentle love of spirit and experiencing my place in the oneness with my big Self, would be the end the ego, of my little self, and it would be. And that’s scary. So I make mistakes, not because I’m ‘bad’ or a ‘loser’ but to preserve my special identity, my small self, my ego.
But, spirit is constantly whispering that teaching me by my mistakes is OK and will not delay my awakening. It knows who I really am. It does not matter how often and how many times I forget my true identity, nor how many mistakes and seeming sins I commit, spirit reminds me that the timeless truth of my Self is unaffected.
Spirit tells me that whenever I am tempted to judge or see myself as unfairly treated, hold a grievance, or as not receiving the love and attention I feel my specialness – my ego’s small self, deserves or demands, I can say, “there I go again” and go directly to spirit and say, “I must be looking at this wrong, please help me,” and the help will come. This is having the big mistake of thinking I’m an ego forgiven and corrected by the gentle love of spirit. Spirit is never delayed by our mistakes, but the experience of our happiness most definitely is.
If it were a sin, God would have to punish me [the ego’s god, the real God only loves and forgives], I’d feel guilty and anxious and fear divine retribution. None of that guilt and anxiety is necessary if it’s only a mistake. But I almost always think my mistake is a sin, and each time I am mistaken, put myself through the whole guilt, anxiety, jitters thing. The problem is not that I made a mistake, I will always be making mistakes, being human is making mistakes, but that I was unwilling to have the mistake forgiven, corrected by the gentle love of spirit.
Unwilling, because I fear being enfolded in the gentle love of spirit and experiencing my place in the oneness with my big Self, would be the end the ego, of my little self, and it would be. And that’s scary. So I make mistakes, not because I’m ‘bad’ or a ‘loser’ but to preserve my special identity, my small self, my ego.
But, spirit is constantly whispering that teaching me by my mistakes is OK and will not delay my awakening. It knows who I really am. It does not matter how often and how many times I forget my true identity, nor how many mistakes and seeming sins I commit, spirit reminds me that the timeless truth of my Self is unaffected.
Spirit tells me that whenever I am tempted to judge or see myself as unfairly treated, hold a grievance, or as not receiving the love and attention I feel my specialness – my ego’s small self, deserves or demands, I can say, “there I go again” and go directly to spirit and say, “I must be looking at this wrong, please help me,” and the help will come. This is having the big mistake of thinking I’m an ego forgiven and corrected by the gentle love of spirit. Spirit is never delayed by our mistakes, but the experience of our happiness most definitely is.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Looking at the Jitters Differently
It’s not really what’s going on either inside or outside me, tho I judge it as either good or bad, the problem is the fact that I am judging. The problem is that if I’m judging, then I’m with ego.
What I’m learning to do is catch myself judging and stop as soon as I catch myself. Judging is inevitable and essential as long as I think I’m in the world with ego. By saying, “Oh, there I go again,” I’m acknowledging my inevitable involvement with ego without the judgment and guilt that goes with it, while leaving myself free to interpret whatever the phenomena is with spirit, to love what is, and to see it as a learning experience and an opportunity to shift from ego to spirit.
It’s the interpretation of the phenomena, whether my everyday ego consciousness sees it as good or bad, that causes difficulty and makes the ego’s interpretation of the world real, not the phenomena itself. In fact, seen in that light, each time I do catch myself judging, don’t blame myself and even forgive myself, I’m using my experience as a learning opportunity, and an opportunity to shift. And though judging feels like an incorrect way to live, if I catch myself and forgive, judging then becomes a correct way to live. Each time I catch me or you judging and am able to say, “Oh, there we go again,” without guilt or blame, I undo the guilt and fear that make the ego’s interpretation’s of the world real.
So, I need not judge the phenomena or the world as ‘good’ to love what is, all I need do is catch myself judging, forgive myself, and ask spirit for a different interpretation. It is in the forgiveness that the love of spirit is found. It is the experience of forgiveness and love that is itself the different interpretation.
What I’m learning to do is catch myself judging and stop as soon as I catch myself. Judging is inevitable and essential as long as I think I’m in the world with ego. By saying, “Oh, there I go again,” I’m acknowledging my inevitable involvement with ego without the judgment and guilt that goes with it, while leaving myself free to interpret whatever the phenomena is with spirit, to love what is, and to see it as a learning experience and an opportunity to shift from ego to spirit.
It’s the interpretation of the phenomena, whether my everyday ego consciousness sees it as good or bad, that causes difficulty and makes the ego’s interpretation of the world real, not the phenomena itself. In fact, seen in that light, each time I do catch myself judging, don’t blame myself and even forgive myself, I’m using my experience as a learning opportunity, and an opportunity to shift. And though judging feels like an incorrect way to live, if I catch myself and forgive, judging then becomes a correct way to live. Each time I catch me or you judging and am able to say, “Oh, there we go again,” without guilt or blame, I undo the guilt and fear that make the ego’s interpretation’s of the world real.
So, I need not judge the phenomena or the world as ‘good’ to love what is, all I need do is catch myself judging, forgive myself, and ask spirit for a different interpretation. It is in the forgiveness that the love of spirit is found. It is the experience of forgiveness and love that is itself the different interpretation.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
The Jitters Again
I’m “jittery” again, anxious, tight throat, difficult breathing. I can take something homeopathic for it and it usually helps. But I’m wanting to manage it from a spiritual perspective. I’m wanting to acknowledge the physical conditions, know they’re only temporary, like clouds passing across the sun, not judge them or take them so seriously, ask spirit for help and go past the jitter stuff to the light, joy and peace that I know, abide in me. This takes practice and God knows, I’m getting plenty of practice! It’s a process, the Course says, got to remember that, and take one step at a time.
I used to think, and kind of still do, that the jitters meant that there was something wrong with me. It sure feels like there’s something wrong and its very uncomfortable, too. Now I try to think that the jitters are actually covering up my light, joy and peace, like a cloud passing across the sun and that if I stop dwelling on the jitters, then I will experience my light, joy and peace. Yes, experience the jitters, but don’t dwell on them, nor look for reasons and explanations. Simply acknowledge them, look at them with spirit – but I can’t get to spirit, ‘cause I’m jittery - and let my birthright of light, joy and peace replace them. But, as long as I ask the body to tell me what reality is, I’ll have the jitters and won’t be able to reach spirit.
Having the jitters is feedback and means I’m identifying with ego, with my bloated nothingness, not spirit, and think I’m stuck in the body. What I’ve got to do, only for an instant, is relinquish all thoughts about who I think I am, a body, and allow the ‘other’ reality, my reality as a spiritual being, to express. Once I believe I am separate from spirit, I can not see anything but projected shadows of my own nothingness, the fearful ramblings and rantings of my ego. Naturally I’m anxious! Believing I’m separate from spirit and reliant on the ego’s pathetic, limited, paranoid version of the world is scary.
So I can’t get there from here: understand truth [spirit] from the perspective of illusion [the body]. It’s either/or: either spirit or the ego. To get to spirit, I’ve got to give up ego. Doing this is a process and the jitters are part of that process; so, in a perverse way, from the ego/body’s perspective, the jitters are a useful good thing.
Remedies for the jitters include saying to myself, “Oh, there I go again,” instead of worrying, judging, feeling anxious and being afraid; remembering to ask to see things differently, with spirit instead of ego; and identifying the thoughts that I’m judging against, release them and realize they’re only thoughts, and like the clouds that hide the sun, will soon be gone, revealing the light that was always there. It’s only when I take the thoughts and conditions seriously, as right and wrong, life and death [which they are to the ego], that I make them real and able to bother my body. I want to be able to as Byron Katie says, “love what is” both inside and outside me.
I used to think, and kind of still do, that the jitters meant that there was something wrong with me. It sure feels like there’s something wrong and its very uncomfortable, too. Now I try to think that the jitters are actually covering up my light, joy and peace, like a cloud passing across the sun and that if I stop dwelling on the jitters, then I will experience my light, joy and peace. Yes, experience the jitters, but don’t dwell on them, nor look for reasons and explanations. Simply acknowledge them, look at them with spirit – but I can’t get to spirit, ‘cause I’m jittery - and let my birthright of light, joy and peace replace them. But, as long as I ask the body to tell me what reality is, I’ll have the jitters and won’t be able to reach spirit.
Having the jitters is feedback and means I’m identifying with ego, with my bloated nothingness, not spirit, and think I’m stuck in the body. What I’ve got to do, only for an instant, is relinquish all thoughts about who I think I am, a body, and allow the ‘other’ reality, my reality as a spiritual being, to express. Once I believe I am separate from spirit, I can not see anything but projected shadows of my own nothingness, the fearful ramblings and rantings of my ego. Naturally I’m anxious! Believing I’m separate from spirit and reliant on the ego’s pathetic, limited, paranoid version of the world is scary.
So I can’t get there from here: understand truth [spirit] from the perspective of illusion [the body]. It’s either/or: either spirit or the ego. To get to spirit, I’ve got to give up ego. Doing this is a process and the jitters are part of that process; so, in a perverse way, from the ego/body’s perspective, the jitters are a useful good thing.
Remedies for the jitters include saying to myself, “Oh, there I go again,” instead of worrying, judging, feeling anxious and being afraid; remembering to ask to see things differently, with spirit instead of ego; and identifying the thoughts that I’m judging against, release them and realize they’re only thoughts, and like the clouds that hide the sun, will soon be gone, revealing the light that was always there. It’s only when I take the thoughts and conditions seriously, as right and wrong, life and death [which they are to the ego], that I make them real and able to bother my body. I want to be able to as Byron Katie says, “love what is” both inside and outside me.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
If-then Revisited
In the past, I’ve written suggesting that the “if-then” proposition limits us, requiring some pre-condition to get another condition. For example, “I’ll be happy when the house is paid off.” In other words, if the house is paid off, then I’ll be happy. My point was and remains, be happy first, it’s your birthright as a spiritual being, whether the house is paid off or not.
Here’s another way of perceiving the “if-then.” If God is true [and It is] and we remain as It created us [true and good and sinless as Itself], then light and joy and peace abide in us. The practical application of this is: If I am as God created me, rich with goodness and power, as It is, then darkness cannot obscure the glory of God’s Son – me, you and the Oneness of all humanity and all of creation. It means, darkness, evil and everything the ego has taught and the world represents is false if, and this is a biggy, if we seek spirit first, last and always and turn away from the idea of separation and the ego’s thought system. If we go within and connect with our inner wisdom, peace and power first - our reality as spiritual beings, we will not be bound by the ego’s illusions of the world, nor bound by pre-conditions, and can exercise our birthright to be happy right now, mortgage or mortgage, deficit or no deficit, cancer or no cancer, if we so choose. This is what Victor Frankel meant by the “final freedom.”
Leonard Pitts Jr.’s column today also deals this inverted “if-then” proposition, but from a slightly different perspective. Writing about how recent polls show a slight majority of Americans now favor gay marriage, he says while, “the will of the people matters a great deal” in a democracy, “the idea that human rights [such as marriage] are subject to a popularity contest,” is not reasonable nor correct. Now here comes the “if-then”: If, Pitts says, as Thomas Jefferson wrote, human rights are ‘unalienable’ and that we are endowed with them from birth, then you and I cannot ‘give’ rights. We can only acknowledge, respect and defend the rights human beings are born with. If human rights are inalienable, given at birth, then we can not accept the notion that such rights are doled out to a minority on a timetable of the majority’s choosing. “You don’t do the right thing because it’s popular. You do it because it’s right.” In other words, if all of us are created equal, then all of us must be treated equally – race, religion, political party and sexual preferences not withstanding.
Here’s another way of perceiving the “if-then.” If God is true [and It is] and we remain as It created us [true and good and sinless as Itself], then light and joy and peace abide in us. The practical application of this is: If I am as God created me, rich with goodness and power, as It is, then darkness cannot obscure the glory of God’s Son – me, you and the Oneness of all humanity and all of creation. It means, darkness, evil and everything the ego has taught and the world represents is false if, and this is a biggy, if we seek spirit first, last and always and turn away from the idea of separation and the ego’s thought system. If we go within and connect with our inner wisdom, peace and power first - our reality as spiritual beings, we will not be bound by the ego’s illusions of the world, nor bound by pre-conditions, and can exercise our birthright to be happy right now, mortgage or mortgage, deficit or no deficit, cancer or no cancer, if we so choose. This is what Victor Frankel meant by the “final freedom.”
Leonard Pitts Jr.’s column today also deals this inverted “if-then” proposition, but from a slightly different perspective. Writing about how recent polls show a slight majority of Americans now favor gay marriage, he says while, “the will of the people matters a great deal” in a democracy, “the idea that human rights [such as marriage] are subject to a popularity contest,” is not reasonable nor correct. Now here comes the “if-then”: If, Pitts says, as Thomas Jefferson wrote, human rights are ‘unalienable’ and that we are endowed with them from birth, then you and I cannot ‘give’ rights. We can only acknowledge, respect and defend the rights human beings are born with. If human rights are inalienable, given at birth, then we can not accept the notion that such rights are doled out to a minority on a timetable of the majority’s choosing. “You don’t do the right thing because it’s popular. You do it because it’s right.” In other words, if all of us are created equal, then all of us must be treated equally – race, religion, political party and sexual preferences not withstanding.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Humor
Children's Science Exam
If you need a good laugh, read through these children's science exam answers...
don't know what grade they're in or where its from, but it's FUNNY!
Q: Name the four seasons.
A: Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.
Q: Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink.
A: Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists.
Q: How is dew formed?
A: The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire.
Q: How can you delay milk turning sour? (Brilliant!)
A: Keep it in the cow.
Q: What causes the tides in the oceans?
A: The tides are a fight between the Earth and the Moon. All water tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and nature hates a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this fight.
Q: What are steroids?
A: Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs.
Q: What happens to your body as you age?
A: When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental.
Q: What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty?
A: He says good-bye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery.
Q: Name a major disease associated with cigarettes.
A: Premature death.
Q: How are the main parts of the body categorized? ( e.g., abdomen)
A: The body is consisted into three parts -- the brainium, the borax and the abdominal cavity. The brainium contains the brain; the boraxcontains the heart and lungs, and the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels A, E, I, O, and U.
Q: What is the fibula?
A: A small lie.
Q: What does 'varicose' mean? (I do love this one...)
A: Nearby.
Q: Give the meaning of the term 'Caesarian Section'.
A: The Caesarian Section is a district in Rome.
Q: What does the word 'benign' mean?
A: Benign is what you will be after you be eight.
If you need a good laugh, read through these children's science exam answers...
don't know what grade they're in or where its from, but it's FUNNY!
Q: Name the four seasons.
A: Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.
Q: Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink.
A: Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists.
Q: How is dew formed?
A: The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire.
Q: How can you delay milk turning sour? (Brilliant!)
A: Keep it in the cow.
Q: What causes the tides in the oceans?
A: The tides are a fight between the Earth and the Moon. All water tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and nature hates a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this fight.
Q: What are steroids?
A: Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs.
Q: What happens to your body as you age?
A: When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental.
Q: What happens to a boy when he reaches puberty?
A: He says good-bye to his boyhood and looks forward to his adultery.
Q: Name a major disease associated with cigarettes.
A: Premature death.
Q: How are the main parts of the body categorized? ( e.g., abdomen)
A: The body is consisted into three parts -- the brainium, the borax and the abdominal cavity. The brainium contains the brain; the boraxcontains the heart and lungs, and the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels A, E, I, O, and U.
Q: What is the fibula?
A: A small lie.
Q: What does 'varicose' mean? (I do love this one...)
A: Nearby.
Q: Give the meaning of the term 'Caesarian Section'.
A: The Caesarian Section is a district in Rome.
Q: What does the word 'benign' mean?
A: Benign is what you will be after you be eight.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Anxiety
My anxiety grows ever more pervasive and it scares me. Maybe I need medication. It goes in cycles, from times with no or very low anxiety to others in which the intensity and duration is increasing. The cycles of low or no are shorter and fewer. Things in the world outside my life [in most respects, thank God, my life is better than its ever been] – the ongoing deterioration of American politics and community values, ever more severe and frequent natural disasters, the situation in Libya - are good reasons to be anxious.
But if I’m wanting to live from the inside-out, I want to ‘overlook’ what’s going on in the world, my life and even my body, and with spirit’s help, see through all that, ‘overlook’ it, to see the truth of spirit’s presence behind these appearances and temporary conditions. Overlooking is not seeing spirit is in the events, horror and pain. Overlooking means having an active awareness that these things are not the truth; that we are spiritual beings having earthly experiences, most of which are occasionally benign but essentially nasty and brief. The wonderful loving experiences we have here, in the world, reflect our momentary awareness of our spiritual reality, and do not arise from the world in spite of what we think and feel.
The world is a nightmare made by the ego in opposition to spirit and was designed not to work so we’d be pre-occupied by it, constantly anxious, and unaware of the spiritual reality we are and the help we can connect with to awaken. As long as we keep trying to fix the world and contribute to a world that works for everyone, we are trapped in the nightmare, going up to the movie screen to fix a focus problem.
If we can realize we’re having a bad dream, we can wake up. So, in a perverse way, the ever increasing cycle of anxiety is a good thing, because it shows me that I’m trapped in the nightmare, don’t know what to do, can’t fix the world, have been wrong all this time going up to the screen to fix the focus, need to give that up and rely much more fully on spirit.
The Course says, before you go to spirit for help, you first have to feel uncomfortable. “We need the experience of misery and anxiety for that is what motivates us to go to spirit for help.” Once we are motivated and sincerely ask for help – “I want to see this differently – with spirit, not ego” – spirit can use the contrast between the happiness and peace It offers and our misery and anxiety.
“Be not conformed to this world,” the Apostle Paul is said to have written. “But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The source of my anxiety is being mesmerized by the problems of the world, seeing them as real and taking them too seriously. The world IS real, in the dream I’m dreaming. But with spirit’s help, which It wants to give, has given and merely awaits my awareness of it, I can have a lucid dream – a dream in which I’m aware I’m dreaming and can manipulate to be saner and happier.
With spirit’s help, I can rethink and reexamine what is going on within and without, and having chosen spirit, be essentially renewed by the transforming of my mind, and in that transformation have the happy dream of contributing to a world that works for everyone. But only with spirit’s help, only motivated by my anxiety and desire, not to fix the world, to go up to the screen to fix the focus, but to shift from the ego’s thought system to spirit’s. Sigh. Not easy but at least I guess that means I don’t need meds…yet.
But if I’m wanting to live from the inside-out, I want to ‘overlook’ what’s going on in the world, my life and even my body, and with spirit’s help, see through all that, ‘overlook’ it, to see the truth of spirit’s presence behind these appearances and temporary conditions. Overlooking is not seeing spirit is in the events, horror and pain. Overlooking means having an active awareness that these things are not the truth; that we are spiritual beings having earthly experiences, most of which are occasionally benign but essentially nasty and brief. The wonderful loving experiences we have here, in the world, reflect our momentary awareness of our spiritual reality, and do not arise from the world in spite of what we think and feel.
The world is a nightmare made by the ego in opposition to spirit and was designed not to work so we’d be pre-occupied by it, constantly anxious, and unaware of the spiritual reality we are and the help we can connect with to awaken. As long as we keep trying to fix the world and contribute to a world that works for everyone, we are trapped in the nightmare, going up to the movie screen to fix a focus problem.
If we can realize we’re having a bad dream, we can wake up. So, in a perverse way, the ever increasing cycle of anxiety is a good thing, because it shows me that I’m trapped in the nightmare, don’t know what to do, can’t fix the world, have been wrong all this time going up to the screen to fix the focus, need to give that up and rely much more fully on spirit.
The Course says, before you go to spirit for help, you first have to feel uncomfortable. “We need the experience of misery and anxiety for that is what motivates us to go to spirit for help.” Once we are motivated and sincerely ask for help – “I want to see this differently – with spirit, not ego” – spirit can use the contrast between the happiness and peace It offers and our misery and anxiety.
“Be not conformed to this world,” the Apostle Paul is said to have written. “But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The source of my anxiety is being mesmerized by the problems of the world, seeing them as real and taking them too seriously. The world IS real, in the dream I’m dreaming. But with spirit’s help, which It wants to give, has given and merely awaits my awareness of it, I can have a lucid dream – a dream in which I’m aware I’m dreaming and can manipulate to be saner and happier.
With spirit’s help, I can rethink and reexamine what is going on within and without, and having chosen spirit, be essentially renewed by the transforming of my mind, and in that transformation have the happy dream of contributing to a world that works for everyone. But only with spirit’s help, only motivated by my anxiety and desire, not to fix the world, to go up to the screen to fix the focus, but to shift from the ego’s thought system to spirit’s. Sigh. Not easy but at least I guess that means I don’t need meds…yet.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Up Tight
Another big battle this morning to stay positive, to let ego go and be with spirit. This has been going on every morning for what seems like my entire life. I want to get out of bed and as soon as my feet hit the floor, know that this is the day, the hour, the moment I let my bloated nothingness go, get out of my own way and connect with the spirit in and around me.
But I resist, feel anxious, my throat tightens up, it’s difficult to breath and sometimes my stomach has butterflies. I know this anxiety and resistance is not the truth about me, that I’m spirit first. I pray to let the anxiety go, to give it over, but the tightness remains.
I go through my routine anyhow, feeling tight, on edge, like walking a tightrope, barely avoiding a mistake and a deadly fall, criticizing, judging and beating myself up, not really having any fun, not really being positive, connected and joyful.
Being full of hope, wonder, joy and deep self-expression is the exception, not the rule. Some mornings are worse than others. And it used to be that the anxiety would diminish during the day to a low buzz. But lately, that’s not been the case and the tightness in my throat persists through the day. I keep trying to give it over, to know its not the truth about who I am, to sincerely ask to see this experience as the Course would have me see it, to see it differently, as spirit sees it, as a mistake, not a failure, and sometimes that helps.
Blogging helps, too; helps me get a sense of perspective and often to find a way to be the way I want to be. It’s not working so well this morning, my throat’s still tight.
But I resist, feel anxious, my throat tightens up, it’s difficult to breath and sometimes my stomach has butterflies. I know this anxiety and resistance is not the truth about me, that I’m spirit first. I pray to let the anxiety go, to give it over, but the tightness remains.
I go through my routine anyhow, feeling tight, on edge, like walking a tightrope, barely avoiding a mistake and a deadly fall, criticizing, judging and beating myself up, not really having any fun, not really being positive, connected and joyful.
Being full of hope, wonder, joy and deep self-expression is the exception, not the rule. Some mornings are worse than others. And it used to be that the anxiety would diminish during the day to a low buzz. But lately, that’s not been the case and the tightness in my throat persists through the day. I keep trying to give it over, to know its not the truth about who I am, to sincerely ask to see this experience as the Course would have me see it, to see it differently, as spirit sees it, as a mistake, not a failure, and sometimes that helps.
Blogging helps, too; helps me get a sense of perspective and often to find a way to be the way I want to be. It’s not working so well this morning, my throat’s still tight.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
We are part of the Whole
There is that within us which knows. It is a part of the Whole, a piece of the hologram of Life that like every hologram, contains the awareness of the Whole. And what the Whole knows, the parts know. We are part of the Whole, the Universe entire, all of space and time. The universe, time and space and the Whole are working through us right now, whether we know it or not, just as the laws of science work, whether we believe in them or not.
We will experience more peace, joy and love while contributing to a world that works for everyone and everything, if we consciously work with the Whole. We tend not to want to do this, though, and rope off a part of all that is, give it a name, personality, address, SSN, thus limiting our awareness of and cooperation with the Whole.
But every once in awhile, we get an inkling of the Whole, sense that we are part of something greater, something benign and loving, even in the midst of natural and man-made disasters. But just as we do with everything, we cut the Whole down to size to fit our egos, limiting our awareness of belonging and greatness and label it God, or Allah, or Elohim, or Jesus, or Vishnu, and use the labels to divide us. But no matter the label, we know there is that within us which knows.
If we can identify with that greater Wholeness, connect with it and work from that place, instead of from our tiny egos, not only will we experience more peace, joy and love, we will also know what to do to build a world that works for everyone and everything, and how to deal with the crisises in Japan, Libya and with our own fiscal and democratic systems.
We will experience more peace, joy and love while contributing to a world that works for everyone and everything, if we consciously work with the Whole. We tend not to want to do this, though, and rope off a part of all that is, give it a name, personality, address, SSN, thus limiting our awareness of and cooperation with the Whole.
But every once in awhile, we get an inkling of the Whole, sense that we are part of something greater, something benign and loving, even in the midst of natural and man-made disasters. But just as we do with everything, we cut the Whole down to size to fit our egos, limiting our awareness of belonging and greatness and label it God, or Allah, or Elohim, or Jesus, or Vishnu, and use the labels to divide us. But no matter the label, we know there is that within us which knows.
If we can identify with that greater Wholeness, connect with it and work from that place, instead of from our tiny egos, not only will we experience more peace, joy and love, we will also know what to do to build a world that works for everyone and everything, and how to deal with the crisises in Japan, Libya and with our own fiscal and democratic systems.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Hubris
The ancient Greeks called it ‘hubris’ – the belief that individuals and humanity as a whole were equal to, or greater than, the gods; that we could on our own, ignoring and not heeding powers we know to be greater than ourselves, live good and safe lives. Hubris is a kind of pride that for the Greeks, always led to a tragic fall. To live in harmonious balance with the forces represented by the gods, disciplining our pride and grandiosity was the way to live a good and safe life.
Humanity’s hubris is on display in Japan. As of this morning, four nuclear reactors are in danger. Do you see the hubris? They were not and could not be economically designed and built to cope with an 8.9 earthquake. We designed and built them anyway, betting that an 8.9 earthquake is such a rare event it was worth the gamble. And it was worth the gamble for many years. Now the 8.9 earthquake has come, radiation is leaking, and no one, most especially the ‘experts,’ who have a deep and blinding investment in the status quo, can tell what’s next.
Nuclear power is not the same as fire or electricity. Some argued that when Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to humankind he was suffering from hubris. Or that when scientists tamed the gods own lightening and put it into our homes, that too, was hubris. Taming fire and electricity were not hubris, but heroic achievements, that never threatened the entire planet or all of humanity. Nuclear power does threaten the entire planet or all of humanity and it is hubris.
From the very beginning and right up till this moment, nobody knows what to do with nuclear waste. Is it heroic to continue to produce deadly, long-lived nuclear waste when we know the dangers and don’t know what to do about them? Or is it hubris? Shall we continue to gamble that the 8.9 earthquake or its equivalent will not strike again here or elsewhere in the world? Will we continue to trade humanity’s and the planet’s long term viability for short term gain? How many more disasters will it take for us to see our hubris and learn to live in harmonious balance with Nature and the forces represented by the gods, disciplining our pride and grandiosity?
Truly safe nuclear power, with knowledge of what to do with the waste, or the ability to produce no waste, would be like Prometheus stealing fire from the gods. It would not be hubris, it would be heroic. Let us work towards that. But without such technology, continuing as we are is hubris leading us to another tragic fall.
Humanity’s hubris is on display in Japan. As of this morning, four nuclear reactors are in danger. Do you see the hubris? They were not and could not be economically designed and built to cope with an 8.9 earthquake. We designed and built them anyway, betting that an 8.9 earthquake is such a rare event it was worth the gamble. And it was worth the gamble for many years. Now the 8.9 earthquake has come, radiation is leaking, and no one, most especially the ‘experts,’ who have a deep and blinding investment in the status quo, can tell what’s next.
Nuclear power is not the same as fire or electricity. Some argued that when Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to humankind he was suffering from hubris. Or that when scientists tamed the gods own lightening and put it into our homes, that too, was hubris. Taming fire and electricity were not hubris, but heroic achievements, that never threatened the entire planet or all of humanity. Nuclear power does threaten the entire planet or all of humanity and it is hubris.
From the very beginning and right up till this moment, nobody knows what to do with nuclear waste. Is it heroic to continue to produce deadly, long-lived nuclear waste when we know the dangers and don’t know what to do about them? Or is it hubris? Shall we continue to gamble that the 8.9 earthquake or its equivalent will not strike again here or elsewhere in the world? Will we continue to trade humanity’s and the planet’s long term viability for short term gain? How many more disasters will it take for us to see our hubris and learn to live in harmonious balance with Nature and the forces represented by the gods, disciplining our pride and grandiosity?
Truly safe nuclear power, with knowledge of what to do with the waste, or the ability to produce no waste, would be like Prometheus stealing fire from the gods. It would not be hubris, it would be heroic. Let us work towards that. But without such technology, continuing as we are is hubris leading us to another tragic fall.
Monday, March 14, 2011
When Waves Collide, Part 4
When Waves Collide by Eileen Workman
It values play and social engagement as much as work, and honors the arts as creative expressions of human consciousness. It recognizes that the true resources of humanity reside not in how much sweat we produce in a day, but in our ingenuity, our creativity, our imaginative capacities, our passions, our talents and our skills. It values cooperation above competition and realizes that humanity advances through freely sharing our wisdom so we can build on what we've learned, not through the bottling of knowledge and selling what we know to the highest bidder.
It recognizes that all the money ever created cannot possibly match those resources, and that trying to measure the worth of unique human beings through comparing them to each other is a hopeless enterprise. It learns from the past but does not cling to it; it leans into the future but does not fear it. In short, it is a wave marked by human maturation, where all the fears, insecurities, aggression, isolation, sexual obsessions, cliquishness, short-sightedness, rebelliousness and arrogance of youth are being replaced by a quietly growing desire to live and work in peaceful communion with one another - and with nature - for the benefit of future generations.
So again I say, let's rejoice as we midwife what's arising, and let's not shy away from consciously hospicing the old out of existence. The past served us once, and it serves us still by teaching us how not to be tomorrow. While at times it may appear that the old will never die and the new is too diffuse to overcome the density of the power/dominator structure, it is in that very diffuseness that the new is finding its footing and its power. One or two loud voices in the wilderness can be effectively stilled, but the voices of the many, joined together, will not be silenced. No messiah is necessary to lead this rising wave of human advancement. What will lead this wave instead will be a thousand, million points of living light. So I invite each of you to tune in, turn on and begin to shine your light right NOW...the world is waiting!
It values play and social engagement as much as work, and honors the arts as creative expressions of human consciousness. It recognizes that the true resources of humanity reside not in how much sweat we produce in a day, but in our ingenuity, our creativity, our imaginative capacities, our passions, our talents and our skills. It values cooperation above competition and realizes that humanity advances through freely sharing our wisdom so we can build on what we've learned, not through the bottling of knowledge and selling what we know to the highest bidder.
It recognizes that all the money ever created cannot possibly match those resources, and that trying to measure the worth of unique human beings through comparing them to each other is a hopeless enterprise. It learns from the past but does not cling to it; it leans into the future but does not fear it. In short, it is a wave marked by human maturation, where all the fears, insecurities, aggression, isolation, sexual obsessions, cliquishness, short-sightedness, rebelliousness and arrogance of youth are being replaced by a quietly growing desire to live and work in peaceful communion with one another - and with nature - for the benefit of future generations.
So again I say, let's rejoice as we midwife what's arising, and let's not shy away from consciously hospicing the old out of existence. The past served us once, and it serves us still by teaching us how not to be tomorrow. While at times it may appear that the old will never die and the new is too diffuse to overcome the density of the power/dominator structure, it is in that very diffuseness that the new is finding its footing and its power. One or two loud voices in the wilderness can be effectively stilled, but the voices of the many, joined together, will not be silenced. No messiah is necessary to lead this rising wave of human advancement. What will lead this wave instead will be a thousand, million points of living light. So I invite each of you to tune in, turn on and begin to shine your light right NOW...the world is waiting!
Friday, March 11, 2011
When Waves Collide, Part 3
When Waves Collide by Eileen Workman
We see it in the de-funding of college tuition for students, such that education is out of reach for most or else requires young people to shoulder huge debts that will enslave them to corporate America even before they've fully matured. We see it in the raping and polluting of our environment, the excessive consumption of nonrenewable resources, the careless extinction of other species, and in the production of cheap goods and services marketed constantly through a barrage of advertising and designed to part the masses with their hard-earned cash. We see it in the selling of so-called "services" like mortgage lending, utilities and credit card borrowing, which use ongoing debt to bind workers to corporate America, where they struggle to earn a paycheck to meet those endless obligations.
We see it in our current medical system, which limits care to those who can afford it, promotes symptoms abatement instead of genuine cures, and supports the marketing of old age as a disease that must be overcome at any cost. We even see it in our religions, which train people not to question authority and teach us from an early age that we're broken, unworthy and must spend our current lives atoning for the sins of our forefathers if we hope to experience a happy "afterlife."
While looking at this outgoing wave isn't pleasant, we can't turn away from it and pretend it doesn't exist. It's very real, and the energy it is still producing is causing real human and planetary suffering. Certain factions within New Age and spiritual circles have taken the position that we should only look to the "light" and pay attention to the good things that are happening. But to ignore the shadow side of human behavior is to run the risk that this energy continues to collect in the depths of the shadow, where it might regroup (as it has in the past) to rise again.
Looking at the shadow side of the power/dominator wave - contrary to popular fears - doesn't strengthen it. It merely shines a light on it, bringing it to public attention where we have the power to consciously CHOOSE whether we wish to feed this energy or starve it. Meanwhile, the new wave of energy that's arising in human society is gathering momentum and developing global coherence, and it now seems strong enough and bright enough to overcome the heavy, depressing energy of the old wave.
The energy of the new wave can be identified by its grounding in a joyous and overwhelming love for life. It carries within it a reverence for this planet, for other creatures, for nature, for the interconnectedness of all beings and for the evolutionary thrust of consciousness. It values the environment and supports concepts like sustainability, renewable energy and regenerative living. It proposes we make less but make it better, consume less but consume it more wisely, work less but work smarter and with the intention of advancing humanity and stewarding our future.
It values wisdom above information, realization above dogmas and spirituality above religious training. It approaches reality from a whole-systems viewpoint instead of objectifying and valuing separation, and knows everything to be alive, sentient and evolving. It defines success not through possessions or monetary wealth, but through the metrics of human happiness, planetary health, the well-being of other species and the ability of society to empower ALL individuals to self-actualize. It promotes self-governance, self-discipline and self-awareness as the cure for external domination. It views work not as jobs for pay, but as the necessary labor of humanity to advance the survivability of our species.
We see it in the de-funding of college tuition for students, such that education is out of reach for most or else requires young people to shoulder huge debts that will enslave them to corporate America even before they've fully matured. We see it in the raping and polluting of our environment, the excessive consumption of nonrenewable resources, the careless extinction of other species, and in the production of cheap goods and services marketed constantly through a barrage of advertising and designed to part the masses with their hard-earned cash. We see it in the selling of so-called "services" like mortgage lending, utilities and credit card borrowing, which use ongoing debt to bind workers to corporate America, where they struggle to earn a paycheck to meet those endless obligations.
We see it in our current medical system, which limits care to those who can afford it, promotes symptoms abatement instead of genuine cures, and supports the marketing of old age as a disease that must be overcome at any cost. We even see it in our religions, which train people not to question authority and teach us from an early age that we're broken, unworthy and must spend our current lives atoning for the sins of our forefathers if we hope to experience a happy "afterlife."
While looking at this outgoing wave isn't pleasant, we can't turn away from it and pretend it doesn't exist. It's very real, and the energy it is still producing is causing real human and planetary suffering. Certain factions within New Age and spiritual circles have taken the position that we should only look to the "light" and pay attention to the good things that are happening. But to ignore the shadow side of human behavior is to run the risk that this energy continues to collect in the depths of the shadow, where it might regroup (as it has in the past) to rise again.
Looking at the shadow side of the power/dominator wave - contrary to popular fears - doesn't strengthen it. It merely shines a light on it, bringing it to public attention where we have the power to consciously CHOOSE whether we wish to feed this energy or starve it. Meanwhile, the new wave of energy that's arising in human society is gathering momentum and developing global coherence, and it now seems strong enough and bright enough to overcome the heavy, depressing energy of the old wave.
The energy of the new wave can be identified by its grounding in a joyous and overwhelming love for life. It carries within it a reverence for this planet, for other creatures, for nature, for the interconnectedness of all beings and for the evolutionary thrust of consciousness. It values the environment and supports concepts like sustainability, renewable energy and regenerative living. It proposes we make less but make it better, consume less but consume it more wisely, work less but work smarter and with the intention of advancing humanity and stewarding our future.
It values wisdom above information, realization above dogmas and spirituality above religious training. It approaches reality from a whole-systems viewpoint instead of objectifying and valuing separation, and knows everything to be alive, sentient and evolving. It defines success not through possessions or monetary wealth, but through the metrics of human happiness, planetary health, the well-being of other species and the ability of society to empower ALL individuals to self-actualize. It promotes self-governance, self-discipline and self-awareness as the cure for external domination. It views work not as jobs for pay, but as the necessary labor of humanity to advance the survivability of our species.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
When Waves Collide, Part 2
When Waves Collide by Eileen Workman
We see evidence of the old power/dominator wave wherever we notice energetic attempts to control the many (and the much) by an elite and powerful few, and wherever we spot high concentrations of global resources and monetary power creating suffering among the many have-nots. The last gasps of this wave are visible all over America today. They include recent attempts by the corporate controlled media to de-fund NPR and PBS so that in the future all conventionally conveyed information will be screened by the business community before it reaches the public. It includes the removal of longstanding safety nets from beneath the working poor, along with across-the-board reductions in government services, to cow people into working harder for ever less money and fewer benefits.
We find it in the recent mortgage scandal and banking collapse, which was followed by a taxpayer-funded refueling of the very financial institutions responsible for the illegal activities that destroyed the wealth of a shrinking middle class. We see it in the recent foreclosure debacle (accompanied by illegal efforts to introduce forged documentation to accelerate the foreclosure process) which has laid the entire burden for this scandal on the backs of laborers and the poor.
We see it in cynical attempts to sell the de-funding of Planned Parenthood to the masses based on the religious right's pro-life doctrine, so as to make abortions inaccessible and to deny birth control to the poor, which will ensure that the next generation of working stiffs will be born. We see it in attempts to "dumb down" education so that children are not taught HOW to think, but are instead force-fed WHAT to think and then required to submissively regurgitate that information without error in order to be considered "successfully" educated.
We see evidence of the old power/dominator wave wherever we notice energetic attempts to control the many (and the much) by an elite and powerful few, and wherever we spot high concentrations of global resources and monetary power creating suffering among the many have-nots. The last gasps of this wave are visible all over America today. They include recent attempts by the corporate controlled media to de-fund NPR and PBS so that in the future all conventionally conveyed information will be screened by the business community before it reaches the public. It includes the removal of longstanding safety nets from beneath the working poor, along with across-the-board reductions in government services, to cow people into working harder for ever less money and fewer benefits.
We find it in the recent mortgage scandal and banking collapse, which was followed by a taxpayer-funded refueling of the very financial institutions responsible for the illegal activities that destroyed the wealth of a shrinking middle class. We see it in the recent foreclosure debacle (accompanied by illegal efforts to introduce forged documentation to accelerate the foreclosure process) which has laid the entire burden for this scandal on the backs of laborers and the poor.
We see it in cynical attempts to sell the de-funding of Planned Parenthood to the masses based on the religious right's pro-life doctrine, so as to make abortions inaccessible and to deny birth control to the poor, which will ensure that the next generation of working stiffs will be born. We see it in attempts to "dumb down" education so that children are not taught HOW to think, but are instead force-fed WHAT to think and then required to submissively regurgitate that information without error in order to be considered "successfully" educated.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
When Waves Collide, Part 1
When Waves Collide by Eileen Workman
What we're witnessing now is no less than an energetic collision of two major waves of human evolution, one receding and one just now arising. I exhort us all to rejoice in this, because although it means we're presently caught in a swirl of chaos and conflict, the opportunity is arising for us to catch the new wave and begin to ride the leading edge of a massive change in the way we "do" human society.
The outgoing wave is represented by the power/dominator culture that has controlled human behavior for many thousands of years. The disintegration of this wave, which began over a century ago when angry citizens began to overthrow their oppressive monarchies, continues unabated. We've recently witnessed its expansion throughout the Middle East as dictator after dictator falls to the public outcry against tyranny. Because in the early part of this global revolution people didn't know how to create a non-dominator culture, the first rebels who overthrew their oppressors eventually repeated the mistakes made by their predecessors.
The new governments that arose purported to be populist systems, but eventually they all fell back into old, unconscious patterns of dominating and controlling the many for the benefit of the powerful few. I include the United States in that assessment, because while our Founding Fathers had the foresight to envision and design a populist system, our government long ago ceased acting as a true democracy and has instead become a corporatocracy. The national agenda is now being controlled by the wealthy elite, who use manufactured lack and campaigns of fear to cow the suffering masses into submission. The recent Supreme Court decision that allowed businesses to fund political campaigns simply codified the silent overthrow of democracy that has been occurring beneath the surface for many years. Business interests now dictate to politicians what they wish to see occur. Our current crop of political puppets - particularly those who rose to power post the Citizens United decision - are allowing their strings to be pulled by these hidden overseers in exchange for status and privilege as members of the "ruling" class.
What we're witnessing now is no less than an energetic collision of two major waves of human evolution, one receding and one just now arising. I exhort us all to rejoice in this, because although it means we're presently caught in a swirl of chaos and conflict, the opportunity is arising for us to catch the new wave and begin to ride the leading edge of a massive change in the way we "do" human society.
The outgoing wave is represented by the power/dominator culture that has controlled human behavior for many thousands of years. The disintegration of this wave, which began over a century ago when angry citizens began to overthrow their oppressive monarchies, continues unabated. We've recently witnessed its expansion throughout the Middle East as dictator after dictator falls to the public outcry against tyranny. Because in the early part of this global revolution people didn't know how to create a non-dominator culture, the first rebels who overthrew their oppressors eventually repeated the mistakes made by their predecessors.
The new governments that arose purported to be populist systems, but eventually they all fell back into old, unconscious patterns of dominating and controlling the many for the benefit of the powerful few. I include the United States in that assessment, because while our Founding Fathers had the foresight to envision and design a populist system, our government long ago ceased acting as a true democracy and has instead become a corporatocracy. The national agenda is now being controlled by the wealthy elite, who use manufactured lack and campaigns of fear to cow the suffering masses into submission. The recent Supreme Court decision that allowed businesses to fund political campaigns simply codified the silent overthrow of democracy that has been occurring beneath the surface for many years. Business interests now dictate to politicians what they wish to see occur. Our current crop of political puppets - particularly those who rose to power post the Citizens United decision - are allowing their strings to be pulled by these hidden overseers in exchange for status and privilege as members of the "ruling" class.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Proud to be an American, Part 2
In 22 Statehouses Across The Country, Conservatives Move To Disenfranchise Voters
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/05/state-disenfranchisement-schemes/
In statehouses across the country, Republican lawmakers are raising the specter of “voter fraud” to push through legislation that would dramatically restrict the voting rights of college students, rural voters, senior citizens, the disabled and the homeless. As part of their larger effort to silence Main Street, conservatives are pushing through new photo identification laws that would exclude millions from voting, depress Hispanic voter turnout by as much as 10 percent, and cost taxpayers millions of dollars. In the next few months, a new set of election laws could make going to the polls and registering to vote significantly more difficult — in some cases even barring groups of citizens from voting in the communities where they live.
Conservative legislators across the country have said these laws are necessary to combat alleged mass voter fraud. But these fears are completely overblown and states already have tough voting laws on the books: fraudulent voters face felony charges, hefty fines, and even lengthy prison time. In Missouri, for example, voter fraud carries a penalty of no less than 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Yet conservatives have insisted on finding a legislative solution to a non-existent problem. In states like Indiana, where an ID law passed in 2005, both nuns and college students have found themselves turned away from the polls. Similar laws are on the books in eight other states and that number could expand dramatically in coming months. ThinkProgress examined these efforts in eight states:
SOUTH CAROLINA: Despite dying in the state senate last year, a bill requiring voters to present a photo ID has passed both legislative houses in contentious party-line votes. The two houses will now have to resolve their two different versions. One local NAACP official called the legislation “Jim Crow Jr.” and said the law was “during President Obama’s election, lots of blacks were out voting and doing absentee voting. (Republicans) don’t want the African-American vote to come out that strongly again.”
WISCONSIN: In the midst of Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) showdown with the Main Street Movement last week, Republicans rammed through a voter ID bill that critics have said shows “zero respect for Wisconsin voters.” Some analysts have said that the bill also shows little respect for the Constitution. Salon’s David Weigel wrote from Madison that “the legislation, as written, appeared to have constitutional problems that would shred it in court.”
TEXAS: Despite facing a $10-11 billion budget shortfall, Gov. Rick Perry prioritized a voter ID bill as an “emergency item” last month — forcing the Texas legislature to act on the bill before dealing with the state’s budget crisis. Since then the Senate has passed a voter ID law that would be the most restrictive in the nation and almost certainly depress turnout among low-income Texans. That shift could make all the difference in a state where in the past seven years, more than half a dozen state house races have been decided by less than fifty votes. The bill is now being considered by the Republican-controlled House and is widely expected to pass the lower chamber.
MISSOURI: In a party-line vote, state senators approved both a constitutional amendment and a bill requiring voter identification at the polls. Afterwards, one Democratic State Senator tweeted that the Senate had “just voted to disenfranchise at least 230,000 voters.” The measure is now headed to the Missouri House, where it has traditionally enjoyed strong support.
KANSAS: Monday the State Senate approved legislation, originally proposed by Secretary of State Kris Kobach, that would require proof of citizenship upon registering to vote and photo identification at the polls. Democratic state senators have strongly objected to the proof of citizenship requirement, arguing that it is both unconstitutional and will depress voter registration. The bill now awaits action in the senate.
COLORADO: The House has passed a bill requiring voters to present photo identification at the polls. Secretary of State Scott Gessler (R) has called the measure his top legislative priority.
TENNESSEE Two weeks a go, the State Senate passed a bill requiring voters to present a driver’s license before voting. The bill would create a significant burden to voting for the state’s more than 500,000 adults without a driver’s license. One Democratic state senator called the bill a “modern-day poll tax… for these poor people who have to travel to another county to pay a fee in order to have an ID that will let you vote.” The bill is widely expected to pass the Republican-controlled House.
IOWA A bi-partisan group of county election officials have risen in opposition to a proposed voter ID bill that passed the Republican-controlled House in late January. The group told reporters they had never encountered voter fraud duirng their service in the state. One Republican election chief even told the Des Moinse Register, “she worries the bill would discourage voting unless the state paid for a widespread public education campaign to ensure Iowans understood the new rules.” The bill now awaits action from the State Senate.
OTHER STATES The Montana House passed a voter ID bill last month and similar laws have been introduced in Connecticut, Maine, Alaska, Maryland, Virginia, New Mexico, Alaska, Illinois, Iowa, Montana and Nebraska. And in a number of states — including Colorado, Oregon, South Carolina and Tennessee — conservative lawmakers have introduced bills requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote.
Not only are many of these proposed laws too restrictive, they may also be unconstitutional. As the Brennan Center for Justice notes, legislators will have to fight an uphill battle to ensure their laws are held up in court and “in a difficult fiscal environment, citizens may reasonably question whether there are more pressing needs on which to spend their tax dollars than photo ID rules.” Yet conservatives have long shown little interest in the legality, fairness or cost of restricting voting. In 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt told union members that “there are some political candidates who think that they may have a chance of election, if only the total vote is small enough.” Seven decades later it seems that this strategy is once again in vogue for American conservatives.
– Kevin Donohoe
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/05/state-disenfranchisement-schemes/
In statehouses across the country, Republican lawmakers are raising the specter of “voter fraud” to push through legislation that would dramatically restrict the voting rights of college students, rural voters, senior citizens, the disabled and the homeless. As part of their larger effort to silence Main Street, conservatives are pushing through new photo identification laws that would exclude millions from voting, depress Hispanic voter turnout by as much as 10 percent, and cost taxpayers millions of dollars. In the next few months, a new set of election laws could make going to the polls and registering to vote significantly more difficult — in some cases even barring groups of citizens from voting in the communities where they live.
Conservative legislators across the country have said these laws are necessary to combat alleged mass voter fraud. But these fears are completely overblown and states already have tough voting laws on the books: fraudulent voters face felony charges, hefty fines, and even lengthy prison time. In Missouri, for example, voter fraud carries a penalty of no less than 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Yet conservatives have insisted on finding a legislative solution to a non-existent problem. In states like Indiana, where an ID law passed in 2005, both nuns and college students have found themselves turned away from the polls. Similar laws are on the books in eight other states and that number could expand dramatically in coming months. ThinkProgress examined these efforts in eight states:
SOUTH CAROLINA: Despite dying in the state senate last year, a bill requiring voters to present a photo ID has passed both legislative houses in contentious party-line votes. The two houses will now have to resolve their two different versions. One local NAACP official called the legislation “Jim Crow Jr.” and said the law was “during President Obama’s election, lots of blacks were out voting and doing absentee voting. (Republicans) don’t want the African-American vote to come out that strongly again.”
WISCONSIN: In the midst of Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) showdown with the Main Street Movement last week, Republicans rammed through a voter ID bill that critics have said shows “zero respect for Wisconsin voters.” Some analysts have said that the bill also shows little respect for the Constitution. Salon’s David Weigel wrote from Madison that “the legislation, as written, appeared to have constitutional problems that would shred it in court.”
TEXAS: Despite facing a $10-11 billion budget shortfall, Gov. Rick Perry prioritized a voter ID bill as an “emergency item” last month — forcing the Texas legislature to act on the bill before dealing with the state’s budget crisis. Since then the Senate has passed a voter ID law that would be the most restrictive in the nation and almost certainly depress turnout among low-income Texans. That shift could make all the difference in a state where in the past seven years, more than half a dozen state house races have been decided by less than fifty votes. The bill is now being considered by the Republican-controlled House and is widely expected to pass the lower chamber.
MISSOURI: In a party-line vote, state senators approved both a constitutional amendment and a bill requiring voter identification at the polls. Afterwards, one Democratic State Senator tweeted that the Senate had “just voted to disenfranchise at least 230,000 voters.” The measure is now headed to the Missouri House, where it has traditionally enjoyed strong support.
KANSAS: Monday the State Senate approved legislation, originally proposed by Secretary of State Kris Kobach, that would require proof of citizenship upon registering to vote and photo identification at the polls. Democratic state senators have strongly objected to the proof of citizenship requirement, arguing that it is both unconstitutional and will depress voter registration. The bill now awaits action in the senate.
COLORADO: The House has passed a bill requiring voters to present photo identification at the polls. Secretary of State Scott Gessler (R) has called the measure his top legislative priority.
TENNESSEE Two weeks a go, the State Senate passed a bill requiring voters to present a driver’s license before voting. The bill would create a significant burden to voting for the state’s more than 500,000 adults without a driver’s license. One Democratic state senator called the bill a “modern-day poll tax… for these poor people who have to travel to another county to pay a fee in order to have an ID that will let you vote.” The bill is widely expected to pass the Republican-controlled House.
IOWA A bi-partisan group of county election officials have risen in opposition to a proposed voter ID bill that passed the Republican-controlled House in late January. The group told reporters they had never encountered voter fraud duirng their service in the state. One Republican election chief even told the Des Moinse Register, “she worries the bill would discourage voting unless the state paid for a widespread public education campaign to ensure Iowans understood the new rules.” The bill now awaits action from the State Senate.
OTHER STATES The Montana House passed a voter ID bill last month and similar laws have been introduced in Connecticut, Maine, Alaska, Maryland, Virginia, New Mexico, Alaska, Illinois, Iowa, Montana and Nebraska. And in a number of states — including Colorado, Oregon, South Carolina and Tennessee — conservative lawmakers have introduced bills requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote.
Not only are many of these proposed laws too restrictive, they may also be unconstitutional. As the Brennan Center for Justice notes, legislators will have to fight an uphill battle to ensure their laws are held up in court and “in a difficult fiscal environment, citizens may reasonably question whether there are more pressing needs on which to spend their tax dollars than photo ID rules.” Yet conservatives have long shown little interest in the legality, fairness or cost of restricting voting. In 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt told union members that “there are some political candidates who think that they may have a chance of election, if only the total vote is small enough.” Seven decades later it seems that this strategy is once again in vogue for American conservatives.
– Kevin Donohoe
Monday, March 7, 2011
Proud to be an American, Part 1
I’m feeling sour and nasty this morning; I read the following and a bunch of other similar news and wanted to share this. It kind of makes me proud to be an American, especially in these days of the potential for democracy even in the Middle East. Ironic, isn’t it? As they move towards democracy, we move away from it….
In 22 Statehouses Across The Country, Conservatives Move To Disenfranchise Voters
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/05/state-disenfranchisement-schemes/
In statehouses across the country, Republican lawmakers are raising the specter of “voter fraud” to push through legislation that would dramatically restrict the voting rights of college students, rural voters, senior citizens, the disabled and the homeless. As part of their larger effort to silence Main Street, conservatives are pushing through new photo identification laws that would exclude millions from voting, depress Hispanic voter turnout by as much as 10 percent, and cost taxpayers millions of dollars. In the next few months, a new set of election laws could make going to the polls and registering to vote significantly more difficult — in some cases even barring groups of citizens from voting in the communities where they live.
Conservative legislators across the country have said these laws are necessary to combat alleged mass voter fraud. But these fears are completely overblown and states already have tough voting laws on the books: fraudulent voters face felony charges, hefty fines, and even lengthy prison time. In Missouri, for example, voter fraud carries a penalty of no less than 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Yet conservatives have insisted on finding a legislative solution to a non-existent problem. In states like Indiana, where an ID law passed in 2005, both nuns and college students have found themselves turned away from the polls. Similar laws are on the books in eight other states and that number could expand dramatically in coming months. ThinkProgress examined these efforts in eight states:
NEW HAMPSHIRE: In the most egregious example of voter disenfranchisement legislation in the country, state Rep. Gregory Sorg (R) has introduced a bill that would bar thousands of college students and service members from voting in the communities where they live and attend school. According to New Hampshire House Speaker William O’Brien (R) the legislation is nececessary because there “are kids voting liberal, voting their feelings, with no life experience.” A diverse coalition of young veterans, libertarians, conservatives, and progressives have organized against the bill. Both state politicians and local law professors have said the law is unconstitutional, citing “Newberger v. Peterson — a 1972 federal district court decision that ruled the state cannot bar college students from voting in New Hampshire even if they intend to leave after graduation.” Sorg told a public hearing that he had not read the decision and did not “care” for it.
MINNESOTA: Republican representatives have introduced two separate bills in the statehouse that would require voters to present photo identification at the polls. The more expansive of the bills would end same-day voter registration and create a large electronic database which would scan voter’s IDs. Conservatives have said the bill is necessary to end alleged voter fraud in the state, claims that the Minnesota County Attorneys Association have called “frivolous.” Other groups, including the ACLU and Common Cause, have raised concerns about the bill’s constitutionality, feasibility, and cost. Gov. Mark Dayton (R) has indicated that he will not sign the legislation.
NORTH CAROLINA: Republican legislators have introduced a photo ID bill that the Institute for Southern Studies estimates will cost taxpayers more than $20 million. Once again, the legislation’s target is phantom “voter fraud” — even though in 2008 authorities reported only 40 voting irregularities out of 4.3 million votes cast. The real targets of the bill would be the state’s elderly, disabled and college-aged voters. One state senator has called the legislation a “slap in the face” to the more than 35 percent 35 percent of registered voters who live in isolated, rural counties.
In 22 Statehouses Across The Country, Conservatives Move To Disenfranchise Voters
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/05/state-disenfranchisement-schemes/
In statehouses across the country, Republican lawmakers are raising the specter of “voter fraud” to push through legislation that would dramatically restrict the voting rights of college students, rural voters, senior citizens, the disabled and the homeless. As part of their larger effort to silence Main Street, conservatives are pushing through new photo identification laws that would exclude millions from voting, depress Hispanic voter turnout by as much as 10 percent, and cost taxpayers millions of dollars. In the next few months, a new set of election laws could make going to the polls and registering to vote significantly more difficult — in some cases even barring groups of citizens from voting in the communities where they live.
Conservative legislators across the country have said these laws are necessary to combat alleged mass voter fraud. But these fears are completely overblown and states already have tough voting laws on the books: fraudulent voters face felony charges, hefty fines, and even lengthy prison time. In Missouri, for example, voter fraud carries a penalty of no less than 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Yet conservatives have insisted on finding a legislative solution to a non-existent problem. In states like Indiana, where an ID law passed in 2005, both nuns and college students have found themselves turned away from the polls. Similar laws are on the books in eight other states and that number could expand dramatically in coming months. ThinkProgress examined these efforts in eight states:
NEW HAMPSHIRE: In the most egregious example of voter disenfranchisement legislation in the country, state Rep. Gregory Sorg (R) has introduced a bill that would bar thousands of college students and service members from voting in the communities where they live and attend school. According to New Hampshire House Speaker William O’Brien (R) the legislation is nececessary because there “are kids voting liberal, voting their feelings, with no life experience.” A diverse coalition of young veterans, libertarians, conservatives, and progressives have organized against the bill. Both state politicians and local law professors have said the law is unconstitutional, citing “Newberger v. Peterson — a 1972 federal district court decision that ruled the state cannot bar college students from voting in New Hampshire even if they intend to leave after graduation.” Sorg told a public hearing that he had not read the decision and did not “care” for it.
MINNESOTA: Republican representatives have introduced two separate bills in the statehouse that would require voters to present photo identification at the polls. The more expansive of the bills would end same-day voter registration and create a large electronic database which would scan voter’s IDs. Conservatives have said the bill is necessary to end alleged voter fraud in the state, claims that the Minnesota County Attorneys Association have called “frivolous.” Other groups, including the ACLU and Common Cause, have raised concerns about the bill’s constitutionality, feasibility, and cost. Gov. Mark Dayton (R) has indicated that he will not sign the legislation.
NORTH CAROLINA: Republican legislators have introduced a photo ID bill that the Institute for Southern Studies estimates will cost taxpayers more than $20 million. Once again, the legislation’s target is phantom “voter fraud” — even though in 2008 authorities reported only 40 voting irregularities out of 4.3 million votes cast. The real targets of the bill would be the state’s elderly, disabled and college-aged voters. One state senator has called the legislation a “slap in the face” to the more than 35 percent 35 percent of registered voters who live in isolated, rural counties.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Safety and Security: Too High a Price?
Inspired by Verbal Energy by Ruth Walker. We’re hung up and overly influenced by concerns over safety and security. If we understand that the two words mean different things, we might get over our hang ups, feel better and make better decisions.
Safety is freedom from accidental injury or from illness. Security is freedom from intentional attack. A safe road is one you can travel without skidding into another car or falling into a pothole. A secure road is one you can travel without coming under attack. Security is a state of not having to worry. However, once we get beyond this concept, security begins to refer to measures taken to ensure confidence and tends to have an element of control and domination.
Safety, on the other hand, is an equal-opportunity concept. A safe road is for everyone, even for bank robbers in their get-a-way cars. Security is intended to let some people in and keep others out. It’s these elements of control and domination that make the term ‘security forces,’ make a freedom loving person’s blood run cold; it could bring dictatorship in the name of security.
Safety is freedom from accidental injury or from illness. Security is freedom from intentional attack. A safe road is one you can travel without skidding into another car or falling into a pothole. A secure road is one you can travel without coming under attack. Security is a state of not having to worry. However, once we get beyond this concept, security begins to refer to measures taken to ensure confidence and tends to have an element of control and domination.
Safety, on the other hand, is an equal-opportunity concept. A safe road is for everyone, even for bank robbers in their get-a-way cars. Security is intended to let some people in and keep others out. It’s these elements of control and domination that make the term ‘security forces,’ make a freedom loving person’s blood run cold; it could bring dictatorship in the name of security.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Political lines on a map
It’s funny how so many of us think of the world as countries, as political lines on a map. Nature doesn’t care about these invisible lines on a piece of paper. Everything that goes on in nature affects everybody, regardless of where we live. Fish, clouds, and rain don’t have passports.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
As a Child, 2
Some call it luck, others grace, but it’s the same. But I know that as long as I believe anything I get must come only from my own efforts, I am limiting myself, identifying with my little self and denying my big Self.
Of course I must actively participate in bringing about the good I desire, but if I let go of the struggle, strain and stress that comes from thinking I must do it alone, then I can have an assist from ‘luck’ and ‘grace.’ I can even work twelve hour days with ease and grace if I watch who I’m doing it with, and stay mindful of my perspective and consciousness. The same task could feel like a spontaneous joy or burdensome drudgery.
“It is my father in heaven who doeth the work,” Jesus said, implying that it was not he who did it. ‘Heaven,’ in my understanding of how Jesus used the Aramaic, was used to signify a place of inner connection, not a geographical place in the sky. So, too, I am a child of ever-present protection, guidance, spirit, and love, in touch with my innocence, playing at work with grace and enthusiasm.
Of course I must actively participate in bringing about the good I desire, but if I let go of the struggle, strain and stress that comes from thinking I must do it alone, then I can have an assist from ‘luck’ and ‘grace.’ I can even work twelve hour days with ease and grace if I watch who I’m doing it with, and stay mindful of my perspective and consciousness. The same task could feel like a spontaneous joy or burdensome drudgery.
“It is my father in heaven who doeth the work,” Jesus said, implying that it was not he who did it. ‘Heaven,’ in my understanding of how Jesus used the Aramaic, was used to signify a place of inner connection, not a geographical place in the sky. So, too, I am a child of ever-present protection, guidance, spirit, and love, in touch with my innocence, playing at work with grace and enthusiasm.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
As a Child
I was playing with my niece, almost two, and my nephew, four. What intelligence, enthusiasm, energy and trust! They played like they knew they couldn’t be hurt and when they were hurt, they got up and went right back at it. They had no doubt that they were nurtured, guided, supported and loved, and they were.
I want to remember this when I’m worrying, being too cautious and fearful; when I think I’m working, not playing. I want to remember that I too, am a child, a child of the Most High. I want to remember that as a child of spirit, when I can let go of my seeming burdens and trust, as children do, I too can play and recapture my lost innocence, enthusiasm, energy and trust.
It begins by releasing the idea that I must do it all, alone. As children don’t think twice about allowing their parents to help out and take care of them, I too want to allow the universe to help out and take care of me. When I do, things flow better.
I want to remember this when I’m worrying, being too cautious and fearful; when I think I’m working, not playing. I want to remember that I too, am a child, a child of the Most High. I want to remember that as a child of spirit, when I can let go of my seeming burdens and trust, as children do, I too can play and recapture my lost innocence, enthusiasm, energy and trust.
It begins by releasing the idea that I must do it all, alone. As children don’t think twice about allowing their parents to help out and take care of them, I too want to allow the universe to help out and take care of me. When I do, things flow better.
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