February 2008
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2.01.08 - Eckhart Tolle article entitled "Stillness Speaks" http://www.soulfulliving.com/stillness_speaks.htm The Boston Globe reports today: "President Bush this week declared that he has the power to bypass four laws, including a prohibition against using federal funds to establish permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq, that Congress passed as part of a new defense bill. Bush made the assertion in a signing statement that he issued late Monday after signing the National Defense Authorization Act for 2008." Quote: "Humanity and its national governments and businesses have not yet realized that we are in the middle of the biggest war ever, the war of humans against nature and the Earth for the sake of economic growth, enrichment, more and more big cities and constructions everywhere, even skyscrapers. As a result thirty percent of the Earth's nature had been destroyed by the year 1977! The United Nations and people must do everything they can to save the incredible, magnificent nature and species of our Mother Earth." - Robert Muller This is from the upcoming O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference: Question Perspective How does technology help you perceive things that you never noticed before? How does it help you be found, or draw attention to issues, objects, ideas, and projects that are important, no matter their size or location? At the 2008 version of ETech, the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, we'll take a wide-eyed look at the brand new tech that's tweaking how we are seen as individuals, how we choose to channel and divert our energy and attention, and what influences our perspective on the world around us: http://en.oreilly.com/et2008/public/content/home Before you hop on the Facebook.com wagon, read some background information on who owns it, as well as the ramifications of living your life via the Internet versus meeting people face to face in creating real community versus cyber communities. I'm all for sharing information and insights, but there is a danger of the Internet becoming dysfunctional just as television is. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/14/facebook OpenCongress makes it easy to track any bill, Senator, Representative, or issue area in Congress. If people spent more time noticing what is going on in government versus television and the Internet, it would most definitely spark awareness into the challenges we face. Being is power. Those in power don't want you Being powerful. In the recent newsletter from Electronic Frontier Foundation, they discuss what is going to become the norm if the telecoms get immunity for spying illegally on Americans:
AT&T's Proposed Net Filtering Plan Gets Attention The Internet brought us three terrific discussions about AT&T's plan to filter the internet this week. First, over at Slate.com, Tim Wu asks: "Has AT&T Lost Its Mind?" pointing out that the company risks losing its immunity from copyright liability if it takes an active role in selecting which content can travel over its network. He says: "An Internet provider voluntarily giving up copyright immunity is like an astronaut on the moon taking off his space suit." Second, filtering was discussed again in lively debate on the New York Times Bits Blog between Tim Wu and Rick Cotton of NBC Universal. Finally, in an act of media heroism, Joel Johnson of Boing Boing Gadgets went on the AT&T-sponsored The Hugh Thompson Show and did the unspeakable: instead of discussing gadgets he talked about AT&T's plan to filter the Internet and asked the audience whether they wanted AT&T to be reading their emails and instant messages. Not surprisingly, even the AT&T-picked studio audience thought turning the phone company into Big Brother was a bad idea. The producers stopped the interview after a few minutes, then sanitized it with another take, but Joel had a friend tape the original and posted it. Let's hope this is the start of a trend. The tombstone on this bad idea should read: "Internet Filtering: Killed by the Power of the Internet."
For Tim Wu's article "Has AT&T Lost Its Mind?": http://www.slate.com/id/2182152/
For the online debate between Tim Wu and Rick Cotton of NBC Universal: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/15/bits-debate-should-internet-providers-block-copyrighted-works/
For the video of Joel Johnson discussing filtering on an AT&T sponsored show: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/01/21/talking-about-atts-i.html
For this post by EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn: http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/01/3-things-ts-proposed-net-filtering-plan
I've been doing more thinking about the power of language as it relates to reality. Most go about the world thinking in finite terms, but this is further from the truth of Being, infinite, and hence eternity as a living energetic concept. Concept is even a foolish term to make sense of the Divine, because words in and of themselves are not the direct experience of knowing, understanding, Being, and perhaps they are totally outdated and antiquated ways of the need to describe some thing. What if we were to see everything as interconnected? What would that be like? For starters, this is what Being brings to one's attention, the absurdity of being separate from other things.
Reality is like an ocean of energy, with layers or degrees of energetic resonances that occupy particular levels of awareness, and awareness is nothing more than allowing in greater awareness of truth, of information, of reality. Think of it in terms of having a swimming pool almost empty and as you add more water, one becomes more aware of the greater whole, until it spills out of the pool and moves beyond the world, filling up the surface and then filling and expanding out into the whole universe. I'm reminded of a description of a closed fish bowl with fish swimming around in it, oblivious to anything beyond the tank. At some point they become aware of other creatures staring in through the glass and suddenly they are aware of being in a closed space. They become frightened of the unknown.
So, what is occurring in our own world is realizing that we have been conditioned to the point of having locked our awareness into a very small constricting prison cell. We have lost the awareness of our inner connection. Becoming conscious of this is frightening, since what arises from this realization are all the memories and pain of being forced into the prison cell by insane adults as children. This is what keeps us imprisoned, fear of the past retributions occurring again. We don't even recall what they were, but on a subconscious level are aware that something bad will happen, and hence the negative context of change.
The beauty of this is reflected in the understanding of being present in the now, where one stops amidst the fear to look around and assess what the danger is. In most cases, there is no physical danger whatsoever. In those moments of evaluating what is going on presently in our vicinity, we can claim our power, which is awareness in the present now. Once this has been realized, a shift occurs and we are free to allow the suppressed feelings to arise to be felt. People think this is going to be horrible, but in fact it is quite healing, because one gets to embrace their truth, which is part of their power, to acknowledge how they felt in the past. What one is feeling is frozen energy and in feeling it, the energy is unfrozen and allowed to flow freely. Once this occurs, whatever the feeling was is gone and is replaced with a joy or peace.
What is important to identify is what is going on with feelings that are coming up. Are they from something occurring right now, or are they overblown for the situation. If they are overblown, it is usually past oriented, and if we just feel them, allow them without judgment, and ask ourselves where in the past might we have felt this way, one can usually pinpoint a time or situation that we felt this way. Even if you can't recall when, the real issue is acknowledging to yourself that you felt this way as a child. Feeling those feelings is essential, and one may feel nauseous or feel like vomiting or begin crying or begin to shake, but know that these are just the purging of frozen suppressed energies which will pass. Until we experience these, we will be stuck in situations and patterns unconsciously that will continue to replay themselves and cause pain and suffering. One cannot reach higher consciousness states without doing this.
All the responses to thawing our feelings are energetic in nature, so see this as dispersing liquid energy, rather than containing it. Doing this allows us to expand our consciousness to begin experience the interconnectedness of all things. Cultural laws are meant to stifle spiritual laws. Legal laws are defined to shape consciousness in such a way as to imprison spirit. Every time one goes against spiritual law, it binds the soul to subsequent incarnations to continue repeating the energetic patterns until we become conscious of them to free ourselves. Think of the energetic patterns as Velcro. If we are conscious and present to what is occurring in our life, and we don't react to it, then no energetic pattern (karma) is created. This is why we often find ourselves attracted to people who are similar to our parents and such, because the energetic pattern draws us and hooks us together. When the lesson or awareness is realized, that particular pattern can no longer hook you in. When others cannot hook you, they move on to find someone else who they can hook. This is the process by which we heal what we are unconscious about.
Reality is fluid and if you want to be free to experience greater levels of awareness, then unhook yourself. If you are involved in situations involving work, friends, relationships, or various problems, realize you are hooked. Trying to figure out what the hook is can drive a person nuts, but know it is energetic in nature, so there are feelings underneath the pattern. focus on how you are feeling in regards to the situation. If the feelings are deeply buried, then it will take time, but no you will be led to situations that will help free the pattern. I am in indebted to someone I was once friends with, who created a situation that began the unraveling of a challenging deeply suppressed hook from my early years, as well as past lives. It is also important that everyone we are involved with is assisting us in clearing our hooks, until we are free of them. At this point, we get to own the fullness of our power to create life worth living, by using our creative gifts to their fullest potential for the highest good of all beings.
This is where we can begin opening up to higher dimensions of consciousness and reality. When one can let completely go here and be in love, then one can be open to higher states, because fear is not there to constrict and close off the experience. Those who have bad trips with psychedelics must understand that it was the egoic mechanism reacting violently to having its illusions crumpled and so is wanting to pull your awareness into the fear to prevent you from gaining clarity of the greater reality to realize the absurdity of how we have been living in the cultural trance. Once you have experienced this revelation, the walls begin to crumble, as the ego cannot compete with the truth of this greater experience. Those who are in power understand the illusion and outlaw anything that would awaken you from the cultural trance. Yet they are also disconnected from the greater reality and don't like the idea of others knowing something they cannot know. Their fear is of spirit. Here's another link to an alternative news site called Oh My News and a poignant article on our so called "Justice Department" and its U.S. Attorney being evasive when being questioned by the senate committee in regards to the use of water boarding techniques. What is incredibly sick about the questioning, is why he is avoiding the question: "US Attorney General Evasive on Waterboarding" When you begin to understand this particular situation, one can begin to understand everything else that has come out of this presidency, as well as past ones, and all those who supposedly support our nation, its citizens, and others in the world in democracy. The whole thing is a subterfuge. I've been listening to Paul Von Ward talking on Beyond The Ordinary http://www.beyondtheordinary.net/paulvonward.shtml where there's archived discussions. I was listening to the first one "Model Of The Soul." Paul and the interviewers bring up some interesting perspectives that I would highly recommend listening too. Bruce Lipton was also mentioned, and here is an article called The Science Of Innate Intelligence. There's a lot going on outside the box, and these are a few of the many people who are exploring these realms.
2/03/08 - I posted the painting I mentioned 1.29.08 in the January 2008 journal. Here's a link to more Bruce Lipton presentations. His discussions represent a huge shift in consciousness: http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=bruce+lipton&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wv CBC Radio One aired a documentary called "In Search of the Divine Vegetal," about Ayahuasca. There are download links for the audio documentary, a link to a rough draft of a video on the documentary and two other videos, as well as an interview. You can find them listed on my site at http://shermanbuck.com/psychedelics.html
2.05.08 - "The search, promotion, and work by persons with the gift to lead the human species to a higher stage of mental maturing must take place without destroying the core and content of our humanity." - Erika Erdmann This quote is important in understanding that a transformation is under way of how we live as the group humanity. When I and others speak of insanity it is not about throwing the baby out with the bath water. It is about changing the water when it gets dirty and replacing it with fresh water. In other words, the emphasis of change is that when we listen to our deeper Being, our heart, then we are in harmony/balance with our inner nature. We are connected to both the inner/outer worlds and it is this perspective that will bring sanity to ourselves and the world that we are interdependent and interconnected with. There is no separation to the degree that we have been led in regards to the current scientific paradigm that has been in a process of taking things apart and compartmentalizing them. The same thing has been done in the business sector where specialization has become the norm. Unfortunately, there is a wholeness aspect that doesn't go away just because we humans chose to perceive only the parts. The minerals aren't separate from the soil, aren't separate from the plants, aren't separate from the trees, aren't separate from the insects, aren't separate from all the other life that lives within those elements, that aren't separate from the wildlife that includes domesticated humans. We are all in this Ark together. The ideas that Religion has spawned over the centuries has gotten us disconnected from Nature, as well as our inner Nature. To accomplish this process, they have managed for various reasons, mostly ignorant and arrogant one's, to bestow upon humanity and incredible self-hatred, wherein one learns to hate aspects of themselves deemed undesirable by Religious leaders around the planet. This self-hatred, which we learned as children, after turning on ourselves, we then focus externally on the world and begin projecting this self-hatred onto others and Nature. Projection is nothing more than seeing others who mirror to us aspects that we are hating in ourselves, which then moves the egoic self to hate the other. This can lead to ignoring them, or making their life difficult, even becoming violent towards them, with the next step moving towards killing. In self-hating, we have been conned into thinking that certain parts of our Being are unacceptable. And all one need do is look around the world at all those who judge to the Nth degree waging war at every step of the human epic called life. Perhaps the epic should be called death, because this is what self-hatred creates. Everything self-hatred touches within ourselves effects what each person creates. I had lunch yesterday with a friend who retired from Western Washington University awhile back. He had been one of the head librarians whom was responsible for interacting with Fairhaven College students. I wound up taking one of his classes called The Introduction to Scholarly Cultures, where he taught us about the whole concept of how knowledge is built, in what is called Knowledge Structures, that basically states that all new knowledge is built from old knowledge, or more correctly, synthesizes and transforms knowledge so that greater awareness arises from expanding ones belief systems from closed limiting systems to open receptive systems. I have been watching Bruce Lipton's videos over and over and it is mind boggling in what he is touching upon. I am realizing things he is not mentioning. I hope to discuss this at a later date. I had ripples of release within my own energy fields as realizations arose. Again, I had to go sit down and on some level, I found myself busying myself, which tells me there is more for me to uncover and release. I highly recommend you watch both videos,
even though they are long. 2.08.08 - I just received this email on the following dysfunction by Bush and his cohorts refusing to assist disabled vets who return from Iraq and Afghanistan: "Last year Army officials instructed representatives from the VA at Fort Drum not to help veterans with their disability paperwork because there was a "conflict of interest." Soldiers that get help from the VA tend to get higher disability ratings...which means that the government owes them more money. And within the Bush administration's corporate worldview, that just doesn't work. After all, there are contractors to pay." Take Action NPR article on the issue: "Document Shows Army Blocked Help for Soldiers," NPR Morning Edition, February 7, 2008 I went to the US Army website to contact the Secretary of the Army and it is set up in such a way that it is impossible to ask a question or send a comment. I contacted my senator's office and they also confirmed this. This is what closed minds in government do. They make it make it as difficult as possible to have access, which alleviates accountability. I remember my 4+ years in the Army and how extremely dysfunctional it was. The food was horrible, the mentality of those leading was a joke, and in some ways it is on the same par as our government leaders. Just as government is about political agendas, so is the Army. I recall as a sergeant having to give a tour for a visiting 3-star general. Generals show up with an entourage of Colonel's. Up until that point, I had never experience power in a negative context. When this 3-star general arrived, you could see the power he gained from his rank and how the officers gathered around him for brownie points. The guy was intimidating by the type of negative power he wielded. There are two kinds of power; power over others and power over one's self. The world is mostly about power over others and is why control is such a big issue for the many. In this case, the general's power came from people fearing him and by doing this gave their own power away to the general who fed off it. Looking back on the situation, I see that he was extremely over inflated with his self importance. I have a good idea that the higher up you go, the more inflated they get. Like hot air balloons, when things cool, they come back down to Earth.
2.11.08 - I want to discuss culture and how it forms our consciousness and in turn how we perceive self and others, not to mention how we express that limited consciousness via the body. I want to point out how this actually effects the body and how it transforms itself to embody those limiting beliefs. What I mean by this last statement is that cultural beliefs actually mold the body into particular holding patterns that withhold the energetic expressions of consciousness. Think of it like how an computer operating system functions, with subsequent software installed for certain capabilities. Humans are the same way. Our core belief system is one that allows or disallows any other software (information/abilities) based on compatibility with the operating system. Consciousness is an informational energy that flows through the body and when this full flow of authentic consciousness is met with external resistance to this expression, then the flow begins to find alternative pathways depending on how much cultural pressure is forced upon it. If this occurs enough, then the flow begins to be shut down by different factors that eventually diminish consciousness enough as to effectively block the expression of authentic self by creating a fissure that splits whole consciousness into split consciousness; schizophrenia is its common name. Osho mentions a couple of perspectives on this: 1) "Man is split. Schizophrenia is a normal condition of man--at least now. It may not have been so in the primitive world, but centuries of conditioning, civilization, culture and religion have made man a crowd--divided, split, contradictory.... But because this split is against his nature, deep down somewhere hidden the unity still survives. Because the soul of man is one, all the conditionings at the most destroy the periphery of the man. But the center remains untouched--that's how man continues to live. But his life has become a hell. The whole effort of Zen is how to drop this schizophrenia, how to drop this split personality, how to drop the divided mind of man, how to become undivided, integrated, centered, crystallized. The way you are, you cannot say that you are. You don't have a being. You are a marketplace--many voices. If you want to say 'yes', immediately the 'no' is there. You cannot even utter a simple word 'yes' with totality.... In this way happiness is not possible; unhappiness is a natural consequence of a split personality." 2) "The conflict is in man. Unless it is resolved there, it cannot be resolved anywhere else. The politics is within you; it is between the two parts of the mind. A very small bridge exists. If that bridge is broken through some accident, through some physiological defect or something else, the person becomes split, the person becomes two persons and the phenomenon of schizophrenia or split personality happens. If the bridge is broken - and the bridge is very fragile - then you become two, you behave like two persons. In the morning you are very loving, very beautiful; in the evening you are very angry, absolutely different. You don't remember your morning...how can you remember? Another mind was functioning - and the person becomes two persons. If this bridge is strengthened so much that the two minds disappear as two and become one, then integration, then crystallization, arises. What George Gurdjieff used to call the crystallization of being is nothing but these two minds becoming one, the meeting of the male and the female within, the meeting of yin and yang, the meeting of the left and right, the meeting of logic and illogic, the meeting of Plato and Aristotle." Cultural roots are what we grow from and what those parameters (limits) are is what we germinate from in terms of consciousness. Culture is not set up in a functional mode to allow for individual expression from Being. It's whole demeanor is meant to contain based on what worked in the past. It builds from the past for the future, often bypassing the present moment so much that what is created arises from intellect minus any input from spirit, and by spirit I mean higher consciousness that is connected to all that is. When one is born, there is awareness of where we came from. I remember my birthing process and have some memory of that place. As we gain the functions of language, movement, and self-autonomy we run into the wall of cultural software, where we are indoctrinated into the way of tradition, of familiar patterns, of rules of domination and control. From this standpoint, one has to realize that they are no longer conscious. Someone coined the phrase, we don't know that we don't know," and we don't have any awareness of being asleep of being unconscious. This is part of the process of splitting. In this view of life, our limited awareness is formed around the limiting cultural beliefs and it is through these lens of belief that we view the world and operate. One of the reasons why I chose to create my own degree program in Spiritual Psychology arose from a realization I had in my cultural anthropology class relating to enculturation. From this context, a psychologist who operates from a cultural trance, trained in a belief system rooted in culture, can only assist the client in coping to the level of their own awareness. Since fully conscious Beings aren't in abundance, clients rarely are healed to move beyond the cultural norms. How this arose in my own awareness in class that day was of an image of someone rising to the ocean surface and bobbing there. Suddenly a therapist reach down from below, pulling the person back down submerging them. In this perspective it was obvious to me that when we have a break through, we surface with new awareness, but are quite lost, since we have no boat or oars or any idea where we are. The depth of the water the therapist or any other healer occupies, is the level of their awareness. Anything underwater is unconscious per say. If one has ever skin dived or snorkeled, one can be submerged and still see out of the water somewhat, though the view is rather distorted. The closer one gets to the surface the more clarity there is. And when we break the surface it can be quite disorienting, not to mention frightening to varying degrees. At this stage, one is quite vulnerable to being dragged back down by those who are unconscious around them. Those who are unconscious by their very nature of psychosis, must convince others or force others to submerge again. Fortunately, we are in an age where there is a lot more information, with many more people doing the deeper work to free themselves to surface Part of this process is to learn discernment, for there are many who will feign to be aware, who will convince you they know the way, and make it there business to lead you away from your own inner faculties of knowing. Last night, I ran into someone I met at the YMCA earlier in the day, whom I'd had conversation with on re-incarnation. There tell tale signs where the conversation was going to go, since he spoke about the prophecy of the bible. In the end it was obvious he had his own ideas what that was, drawing me images he had received and what they meant. When he was done, he gave me an ultimatum based off the diagram, stood and walked off like he was superior in his knowing. There are many who will arrive as you awaken from doing your own work. I've posted the discernment rules mentioned before for gauging intuitive information and spirit voices that arise in the inner planes: True Guidance vs. False Guidance and Ego Versus Spirit Voices. This guidance works the in the same way when discerning the words and actions of people. Last nights situation ended with a judgment, as well as shaming, which I felt as soon as he gave his subtle ultimatum, then abruptly getting up, turned his back to me and walked away, giving me a look of contempt. Staying present, I was able to touch basis with what I've learned, and realized he was acting just like most Christians do, in selling their wares, and informing you there is only one choice, one chance, and if you don't take it you are damned for eternity. What was most important to pay attention to was the feelings, for they cut through the little bit of doubt I had. I grew up in a very conservative Christian republican household and community, where absolute obedience was the rule or else. So I'm still cleaning out all of that dogma learned to make room for the heart. In the past I would've gotten that garbage in my head and ego would play all sorts of games with it. As soon as the guy walked away, I through away his diagram, and checked in with my heart, realized it was garbage, envisioned tossing it into the garbage, and walked home in peace. All decisions must arise from the heart in the end. No one can tell you what the truth is and this is what really upset the man and what upsets the system. In the end, we have to know in our own hearts what truth is, because if we don't, it will always be based in outside sources and the other. Even if someone is speaking the truth and it feels right, it is still each person's response-ability to find that source within themselves and to consciously understand what it is. If one just intellectualizes it, this is not the same as direct source knowing. This is why I've stated that liberals aren't any closer knowing the truth than conservative. Both are just intellectual knowing based on belief systems. Let me clarify this more, because it may seem that one can discern intellectually based on scientifically derived truths. This can be done, but it is based on someone else telling you what truth is, which doesn't take away from their truth, but you yourself have not had the direct experience to know without a doubt that this is true. For example, someone tells you about what severe hunger is like. But, having never experienced severe hunger or starvation, how can one truly know. And we have governments/corporations/religions the world over who still do nothing about this issue. These individuals are suffering from lack of awareness. I am going to say that when one becomes conscious enough, they begin to experience others suffering. I had this happen two years ago and it was unbearable, but it woke me up to another level of understanding. Negative emotions work the same way, for if you are sufficiently conscious, you will feel the spectrum of fear, anger, hatred, violence, killing. Most are disconnected from the body, so do not truly experience the fullness of these negative energetic states. People make judgments about others all the time, and it is most always based on what they were taught indirectly from others in their family, community, religion, schools, and government. The many go through life in this mode judging others on every aspect of their being. I find this process amazing how the many profess to know for the other how they should act, think, speak, dress, create, have sex, talk, etc. Most of those who do the judging have no idea what they are talking about, because they themselves have never put themselves in another's shoes. In most cases, those that do have a wake up call about reality and begin to open up the what causes pain and suffering. And there are those cases that still number quite high, with those who have experience what they've judged in others and find it loathing because they cannot come to terms with what they judge within themselves, what they fear and hate in themselves, and so fall back into a deeper state of unconsciousness. These tend to be the ones who go on crusades against those they hate. This self-hatred and loathing is driving force in many institutions and communities around the world. Look what so called Christians did to the Africans and Native Americans and others around the world in their self-hatred. Notice what goes on with homosexuality as well. Ego doesn't do well with the full spectrum of what consciousness and spirit are about because it would bring its dysfunctional reign to an end. People have no idea how much self-hatred exists in the world because they have no idea of what lies in the depths of their own selves. I've included a link here by Myron J. Stolaroff, who discusses these deeper aspects of our collective neurosis of which the many really have no clue about. While the article discusses psychedelics, it is done from the context of them as spiritual tools. The important aspects relate to what he has to say about neurosis, repressions, and the shadow side: http://druglibrary.org/SCHAFFER/lsd/stolarof.htm. When an people own their own repressed material, and begin to do the necessary integration work, true healing arises where one begins to raise their consciousness to awaken from the mass insanity that currently dominates the world. True awareness has no need for fear, anger, hatred, violence, killing, resentment, jealousy, control, judgment, guilt, or shame. Our cultural identity has taken these and made them a part of our identity. Think of them as viruses, trojans, malware, and other variants that hinder, cripple, and destroy higher states of consciousness.
On another note, I received this email from the Center for Constitutional Rights today. The implications are about where we are headed as a society, because it is about secrecy, torture, and the abdication of human rights, democratic principles, and true justice by those who run our society. In essence, these individuals who run our societies are out of touch with reality; they are living in severely cramped prison cell of their ego minds and in their own pain and suffering purge their self-hatred and self-loathing out onto others in the world. This has gone on for far too long and must come to an end: Center for Constitutional Rights - February 11, 2008 Today Military commission charges were handed down that
seek the death penalty against CCR's client Guantánamo detainee Mohammed al
Qahtani. Read more about Al Qahtani's Torture For the past six years, the United States government has refused to conduct traditional criminal trials or courts martial against Guantanamo detainees suspected of wrongdoing. Instead, the military commissions at Guantanamo allow secret evidence, hearsay evidence, and evidence obtained through torture. They are unlawful, unconstitutional, and a perversion of justice. Read more about military commissions Now the government is seeking to execute people based on this utterly unreliable and tainted evidence: it is difficult to imagine a more morally reprehensible system. Executions based on secret trials and torture evidence belong to another century. These barbaric sham proceedings will likely to inflame the controversy surrounding Guantanamo and draw the condemnation of even our allies. Career military officers have already resigned because they could not stomach participating in a military commission system that goes against every principle of justice, due process and the rule of law. In particular, they were opposed to precisely the kinds of issues that will be the focus of Mr. al Qahtani's commission - the United States' use of torture and subsequent efforts to hide the criminal conduct of U.S. personnel. Mr. al Qahtani may be the one charged today, but it is the illegality of his interrogation under torture that will be tried in the commission. Regardless of the results, no one will ever have confidence in the outcome of these military commissions. Read more about military commissions The United States has nothing legitimate to gain from prosecuting prisoners in military commissions at Guantanamo and a great deal to lose. What kind of a nation have we become that we would rely on torture evidence, secret trials and an untested and deeply flawed system to impose the death penalty? Our nation must abandon the failed experiment at Guantanamo. If the administration believes Mr. Al Qahtani has committed a crime, he should be charged and tried in a lawful proceeding worthy of our country. Sincerely, Vincent Warren Executive Director
2.12.08 - I want to again remind everyone about this abuse of power going on in the world. People who abuse others, truly come from a place of powerlessness. If one has their own power, they recognize they have no need to force others to obey them. Those who force others are dependent on your being afraid or gullible. Once a person regains their awareness, gullibility falls away, and it is here where true power reigns. True power is in making informed choices, it is choosing to invest your time, effort, and money in those people, places, and things that support honesty and integrity. When we stop spending our monies on those that have no respect for other people or the environment, then and only then will we put a stop to the ongoing insanity. Waking up can be a sobering process, as it should be, considering we have been ignoring the obvious, based on limited beliefs. Waking up requires accessing what we've been doing, why we've been doing it, and with whom. Where is an important issue as well because it pertains to where your path would've gone if you were listening to your heart. All sorts of things change when we listen to our heart. The negative reactions that occur internally are indicative of the egoic deception that has kept us imprisoned in culturally sanctioned beliefs/patterns. Waking up acknowledges that our lives are feeding our heart and soul. A big part of this waking up journey is to pay attention to reactions externally from family, friends, lovers, and fellow workers. Being in heart means we get to listen to and follow our heart. When others don't agree and make it their business to correct us, it is time to let those people go. Why? Because they are only interested in their own interests. If it were not so, they wouldn't take the time and effort to correct you. It is one thing if you stepping on someone's foot and they tell you so, but another totally different context when you are being true to yourself and harming no other. There are those who will feel offended that you don't believe what they believe or act the way they act or whatever the issue is. People have to choose to be offended and they have to have an ego ruling in order to react. I have had these arise in regards to my own life. Some of these so called friends showed an ugly side that I had not been aware of. I've been shamed, put on guilt trips, ignored, ostracized, ridiculed, and given ultimatums. Each time this has occurred has given me the awareness to understand the dysfunction that permeates this planet. These opportunities for growth have cleared away walls that prevented access to my heart wisdom and inner guidance system with spirit. I would not trade all the money in the world for what I have learned about my Being, nor for what I have earned from reclaiming my inner domain. We are spirit embodied in living sentient matter. We have been conned into believing that we were born into sin, that somehow something is already wrong with us because we were born. This is what those in power want you to believe, because in believing there is something wrong with yourself, then one is guilty or ashamed, and the power of this belief actually short circuits your power and starts the process of going unconscious. Our society is full of those who profess to be spiritual or religious, but the majority do not have any inner connection whatsoever. What they do believe they have is based on belief and a very complex game of the ego convincing them they are having a spiritual connection; which is just mental gymnastics. When we are in this state of unconsciousness, we do not have a clear direct experience that we are a spiritual Being beyond the physical body. If we are not aware of this experience, then we are open to being manipulated into believing all sorts of non-sense. Many are told they only get one chance at making it to heaven. Of course those in power just happen to be the one's with access to the truth about what those rules require. None of them ever spend any time to teach each person how to access this truth; only to obey the truths they are told. This is lie of the biggest proportions and one should expend as much energy possible to extricate oneself from these sort of fools. And they are fools, because they don't have any clue either to what the truth is. Their claim to fame is to manipulate and coerce others so they can live off of others hard sweat, tears, pain, and suffering. Did it ever occur to any of you that those who rule are sadists to varying degrees? Power and absolute power have this at their core. A need to inflict pain and suffering to ensure the masses know who is boss. This is an arrogance born of reason with no heart involved. Heartless people are what rulers have been up to this point in time. They don't care absolutely whether or not you get your needs met, whether you starve, go without housing, or are in pain and suffering based on the rules of their game. All one need do is to look around and notice what is going on. Never mind what the TV or newspapers show you. They are owned by the same people who run the current game. They are counting on you to continue to listen to their lies and distorted facts. When a person begins to look around and notice what is going on from their heart, they will begin to feel how out of balanced things are. Your stomach and guts will tell you as well. All is not well in OZ, nor has it been for a long time. When one wakes up to this illusion, and begins to question reality as it has been taught, the game begins to present itself as something that has been loaded since day one; meaning the deck has been stacked in the favor of a minority of people. Have you ever bothered to wonder why its only the rich who can afford to run for government. In fact, it has always been that way for the most part. The rich have an agenda and it is there self-serving interests to maintain those interests at all costs. So, back to this sin garbage. Fear is integral to sin because fear is the process by where we move towards eventual separation from spirit; disconnection. Teaching children they are bad before they have the opportunity to think for themselves, creates acceptance of this false doctrine as truth. This begins the process of where what we focus on we create. As creator beings, we begin to tell ourselves we are bad and off we go into dysfunction land. Whether you practice religion or not is irrelevant because most of our society is based on those malignant religious lies. At our core is Being and Being is untainted since eternity. There has never been a need, nor will there ever be a need for sin, because it was created to prevent one from having an inner connection to one's soul and spirit. The heavens are within where they have always resided. We came from these inner heavens because it is the only way in to this dimension. The many have forgotten this inner portal only because of having their perceptions distracted. The inner has been taboo for a long time. If one is unaware of their inner domain, then they are clueless to their soul. If one is not aware of these eternal forces, then one is led to believe the non-sense taught by religion that you only get one chance. However, it is clear that reincarnation exists and has always existed. All one needs to do is do the inner work and from this one will begin to remember. Books can be helpful to trigger awareness, but its the bodywork, breathwork, and inner work that will raise awareness to these inner facts. No outside authorities are necessary or required. In fact, they are so irrelevant that upon realizing the folly of this, one will never again subjugate their own inner heart knowing. Take the time to reflect on how this process has worked to manipulate the masses. People live in fear of not being good enough and have been trained to be like trained circus animals for the benefit of this minority of people who live off of your unconsciousness. Remember, you had no choice as a child, and in most cases didn't have enough awareness of the external world, so you had to go along with the lie. And it is important to understand that in order to survive you had to put aside your pain and suffering to follow the rules. When pain and suffering reaches a certain level, trauma kicks in and we go unconscious to function in dysfunction. Take the time to explore who you are on your own terms. Begin to question what doesn't feel right and don't stop till you find the answer that feels right. Answers that are intellectual alone are irrelevant and empty of any true spiritual awareness on an experiential level. Spirit as it has been taught is as an intellectual knowing minus the direct experience. And direct experiences must include a connection that engages you in dialogue in a loving manner. More to follow...
2.13.08 - Yesterday the senate passed by a wide margin legislation to give retroactive immunity to the telecoms for their illegal wire tapping at the request of Bush and Co. This represents a blatant move to "legalize" spying on citizens of this supposed democracy. We do not have democracy. What we have is a system designed to look like it on the surface. How this operates is much like a tiered system. There are laws for the "common" people, and then there are laws for the minority of rich who run things. Their law system is deciding who to put in key government positions, so as to ensure the timely creation of "legal" law to support their agenda. The message: those at the top can break the law and get away with it. I want to be really clear about this. Those at the top are very aware of consciousness. They understand a great deal about the delicacy of mass consciousness. What I have been talking about in terms of consciousness is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to these people. They do not care about you or anyone else, except for what we can do for them. We are dispensable. If you look around at what is going on in the world, and what has been going on for a long time, is a complete disrespect for human decency. Think about the resources that are available to end human suffering, even on a basic level, and yet nothing is done. Quite the opposite, because when you get beyond mainstream media, you begin to find a whole other agenda going on to prevent pain and suffering. At every level of government, laws are passed, aid denied, pressure put on agencies, and force used to maintain a stranglehold on keeping things the way they are. Pain and suffering is the agenda. Because fear cannot exist without it. Understand this. When there is no fear, there is no pain and suffering. When a person stops stuffing emotions and feelings, joy arises and it is this that they do not want. True joy is different from happiness. Happiness is dependent on having some thing and if it is taken away, unhappiness arises. Joy is already in our "bones" because it is not dependent on anything. Joy is like an underground spring that bubbles to the surface. Joy is already there and therefore we need do nothing except let go and allow the gift to be given. This is what the rich and powerful have done for a long time. They have made it their business to cap the well, so the spring of joy cannot bubble upward from within for our en-joy-ment. Please understand this process, because the whole point of capping the well is to induce pain and suffering so that the masses can be manipulated at whim. There is a great deal of effort and tax monies put into research in by government institutions that focus on human beings and our potential. The human potential movement has not gone unnoticed by those in power because they have known about this for a long, long time. Manipulating the masses has been a science kept secret. What people don't know, they cannot use. Knowledge is power and those in power censor what knowledge will be taught in schools, churches, as well as in government and the media. If you think this absurd, then please ask yourself why the need to keep billions of secrets? Why is that at every turn we are told that we are being protected, that information is being kept secret for "National Security." National security is actually about corporate security, about the rich maintaining security over the masses. Look around you. We have an organization of people at the top who spend a lot of time whipping up drama to distract people. These dramas induce fear and fear shuts people down. Look at the papers and you will find the majority of them are filled with stories about fear, doom, and gloom. The rest is business, sports, and all those other "things" that glitter and catch our fantasy about being rich and good enough. They play on the insecurities of the masses to induce them into the process of assimilation, of being like everyone else. Ads in media and in television are carefully crafted with psychologically induced content geared towards subliminal manipulations. They play on insecurity in order to get you to buy into the fact there is something wrong with you and of course if you buy the product or service you will be filled with joy and wonder. What they don't tell you is that it will satisfy you for a short period of time; really short. A society of people who are aware and in touch with their Being and in touch with the natural flow of joy are not insecure. On the contrary, they are grounded in spiritual Being, are in touch with themselves, their feelings, their emotions, their intuitions, and are guided and supported in navigating their life based on the highest good of all. In this state of natural balance of body, mind, soul, and spirit, people are sane and in a state of self-love and self-respect which creates sovereign Beings who respect other sovereign Beings. Those in power at present do not respect anyone except their own kind. What they do is support each other in feeding off the masses for their own personal gain. The essence of this stems from two contexts of power. Each of us has our own power that rises from the depths of our Being. Being is a sentient energy of the highest vibration. This energy charges us up like a battery and we are always full of spirit if you will. When we are taught to live in fear, we lose a lot of this inner flow that charges our battery. From this state of consciousness we shift to getting most of our energy needs from external sources. When we follow others rules we get rewarded with approval/acceptance; this is a flow of energy. The level of our awareness effects the level of our own natural energy flow. Our level of mental/emotional security is relevant to this energy flow. Those who are insecure and in fear are giving their energy away. This is what fear does, it dissipates your energy. An extreme example is when someone intimidates another person. The intimidator is creating more fear so that the fearful give away their power. In this process energy (power) is given to the intimidator who uses it to re-charge his/her own battery. Both have not learned to tap into their own natural energy flow. This is what we are learning to do. We do not need others approval when we are connected to the spirit of our Being. True Being as I have said before, does no harm to another, has no need for judgment, nor is it interested in controlling others. The tell tale signs of dysfunction are obvious. Paying attention to your emotions and feelings will tell you what is going on in your life; either negative or positive. These signals allow you to become aware of whether or not you are in alignment with ego or heart. Or they can tell you where others are coming from when interacting with you. The day of listening to words over actions is coming to a close. Mastering your feelings allows you to begin discerning what is going on consciously, so as to align yourself with true Being and moving into your sovereignty to create a life of abundance. When I talk about abundance, the first level of this always, is about one's spiritual connection above all else. Spirit always comes first; your Being always comes first. By this I mean your focus is always anchored in what your Being is bringing to the light of your awareness. This means Being in alignment with your self-love, self-respect, and creating your life from these at all times. Deviating from these takes one away from Being in the present and shifts into the past/future focus of egoic thinking. Discernment is crucial to this process, in fact it is everything. When we cannot discern between heart and ego we become lost. The difference in outcomes becomes evident in the quality of what is created. When one creates from the heart all benefit from this. Heart/Spirit always creates for the benefit of all concerned. Creative spirit knows what is best for all and since the creative universe is abundant in all aspects, there is no real lack. Lack is nothing but a con job by those in power have conditioned the many to believe in. Spirit is not lacking anything. Spirit knows all the ways, knows where all the open doors are, and where all the opportunities are. When we listen to this inner well spring, we naturally live a magical life. True Being would want to create an abundant magical world for all, not just for self and few others. There is no beauty in causing or allowing pain and suffering to exist. The only excuse is egoic. Those in power are rooted deeply in their own delusion. Their entire identity is based on material goods and the use of power over others. People in this context are extremely insecure and neurotic, and from this standpoint they are in constant need to maintain control over all aspects of the external world that they can grasp. In true spiritual Being, one completely knows from they are good enough and complete. This knowing of wholeness is not an intellectual knowing, it is a knowing based on a felt sense that radiates from the heart. This radiant sense of Being ripples out through the whole body and at its highest expression is joyful. A perfect example of this is young children. They are naturally buoyant in joy and love. No one need do anything as Being to receive joy. There's no people to please, no task to perform, no criteria to meet; no thing is required... When joy arises within us and spills out into the world, its substance touches everything in its path transforming it to joy. I'm reminded of a couple of movies, "The Grinch That Stole Christmas," and "It's a Wonderful Life." In these films there were those individuals who despised those who were joyful and tried to bring them down, only it failed in the end. Joy cannot create dysfunction nor can it harm others because its nature is unconditional love. Love is not learned, it is naturally endowed from within the Being that bubbles up through the heart into the whole body and out into the world. Joy has no need of fear, anger, resentment, jealousy, hatred, violence, killing, nor does withhold, judge, condemn, or punish others. Unconditional love is joy and the more one opens their heart, one shifts into higher states of consciousness of which compassion arises. Compassion is the highest expression of the Divine, and with this state of Being one transforms everything it shines upon. In our current world, joy, love, and compassion have been replaced with words and things. In essence they have become intellectual property and intellectual actions. The intellect can never be truly warm, caring, loving, and compassionate, because these states are the higher energies of spirit that are channeled via Being out into the world. One can feel what this is like by entering into an old growth forest. The incredible stillness, peace, calm, and high energy are exactly the same. This is why it is said that Nature is the last thing left to show us the way. Ironically, this is also the reason why old growth forests are being destroyed. When ego rules it is in a destructive mode due to not being connected to spirit. Ego destroys due to being driven by fear. This is why heart is necessary to negate out fear. Understanding this will shed light on why people go down different paths in their lives. On either follows their heart or their ego. What we are moving towards is more heartfelt Being in all that we do. This is the only way to move beyond the chaos of an insane world run by egos. Becoming conscious is the only way out. No amount of intellectualizing is going to put a dent in this insanity, because it is this approach that has been creating the insanity in the first place. The only way out is to go within and to reconnect to that inner fire and allow this heart energy to flow outward again and allow it to be our navigator. One might think this would be boring. This is further from the truth because what occurs from following spirit is greatness, of having to act on our highest good. What the ego creates is really a second bit part in a B movie. Spirit always creates Oscar winning stars. There is no hard work in being this star. All that is necessary is opening up to the joy that arises from Being and in this state joy arises from Being the best we can be and in assisting others in Being based on their own sovereign right to Be. This Being is what will shift the world.
"People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?" - Thich Nhat Han, Buddhist Monk Some videos: http://youtube.com/watch?v=oXlZl7I_OvA - Mike Dooley - Thoughts Become Reality http://youtube.com/watch?v=LlqhUpVTUo4 - Brandon Bays - Freedom From Stories http://youtube.com/watch?v=BskM7z0CeZc - Wayne Dyer - 4 Ways To Gain Enlightenment In 1 Day
2.15.08 - "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." --Bertrand Russell
2.23.08 - Here's a link to Real Soda offer over 1500 varieties of beverages to drink. They even deliver to your home in Seattle and other locations. They are an interesting company that distributes beverages from all over the world that only come in glass bottles, because glass is better health wise and ecologically. Here's a video of the CEO of the Seattle distributor Chris Finch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raccQVC0C7c
I was reading about Fidel Castro stepping down as Cuba's leader this past week. George Bush's comments stated the US would be there to assist to assist them for democratic reform. George stated: "Eventually, this transition will lead to free and fair elections. And I mean free and I mean fair. Not these kind of staged elections that the Castro brothers try to foist off as being true democracy." George Bush and friends lack of honesty and integrity knows no bounds. Elections in the US are in fact staged and have been for a long time through a complex formula. From his own manipulated win over Gore, to the fiasco of voter rolls, and electronic voting machine manipulations, to media manipulations, and a host of many other undemocratic actions.
2.24.08 - This week Bellingham is having its 8th Annual Human rights Film Festival with a movie every night: http://www.whrtf.org or http://www.myspace.com/bellinghamhumanrightsfilm . Friday night I watched a film called, "A Little Bit of So Much Truth - "Un Poquito de tanta verdad". The movie is based on When the people of Oaxaca decided they'd had enough of bad government, they didn't take their story to the media...They TOOK the media. Saturday night was Occupation 101 A comprehensive analysis of the facts and hidden truths surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which dispels many of its long-perceived myths and misconceptions. The many in the U.S. are oblivious to what is going on elsewhere in the world and to what extent our government leaders are heavily influencing much of the problems in the world. We have no idea the pain and suffering that is done to others at various levels, nor are we aware of who is involved, why they are allowing it, and how much of our tax dollars are funding it, never mind the dysfunctional policies behind the conflicts. Nor are we even aware of how much brainwashing is going on in the media, which affects our consciousness. When I got done watching these two films I was sick. I have known about the root causes and what is going on to the people based on information by academic scholars, non-profits, and religious organizations who are involved in the trenches. Seeing what these people endure on a day to day basis is staggering when you see the imagery, which is what is missing entirely from our mainstream media controlled by corporate and elite interests. Money, power, and strategic positioning for resources are the causes and they do not care who gets hurt, maimed, traumatized, beaten, tortured, imprisoned, or killed. The whole thing is just plain insane. People don't want to know this stuff, but it is coming back to haunt us in our country as more and more freedoms are taken away regularly. Most just don't know about it because you will not find it in the media, because they don't want you to know about it until after it is law, and then it is too late. our job as citizens is to be aware and to take action. These days, non-profits have made it easy by having website to sign up for alerts to take action. One gets an alert and merely clicks on the provided link to a page to put in your info and the letter is already there to send. Your government representatives no longer read your letters. They scan it to see what it is about and tally the numbers. If enough people complain they vote for or against whatever the issue is. This is the core of our "democratic process." It is not about right or wrong, but about who speaks up the loudest. We the people have a problem and it is getting worse. The problem is not going to go away no matter how much material goods you buy or consume. It is not going to go away by drinking, smoking, dancing, playing, or sticking one's head in the sand. Democracy is a process that requires action on everyone's part. I received the following article entitled: “The Doors Of Perception: Why Americans Will Believe Almost Anything” The article is by Dr. Tim O'Shea and he discusses, "We are the most conditioned, programmed beings the world has ever known. Not only are our thoughts and attitudes continually being shaped and molded; our very awareness of the whole design seems like it is being subtly and inexorably erased." I highly recommend reading this article, because becoming conscious requires seeing the world the way it really is versus what we have been led to believe; and we are unwittingly being led. Waking up is not a pleasant task nor is it an easy one per say. Yes, it is simple, so very simple, and yet the ramifications are so staggering that if one were to realize just how immense of task it is, they would give up before getting started. I read a story about an enlightened man from Asia telling those who had arrived for a lecture he was giving. He told the audience before he got started that they should just get up and leave because the task will be too much for them. Ironically, my own path has been extremely challenging and with man pitfalls and challenges. But, I would not go back, because there truly is nothing to go back too. Who upon gaining some true freedom would choose to go back to sleep. Oh, there are some who try to do this, but they go on to live a lie to themselves and others. They know constantly they are living a lie and continue to pretend and it gnaws and claws at their consciousness, destroying their existence. Know one can go against their inner Being once it arises. What gets in the way is the egoic thoughts that try to distract, convince, and talk one out of following Being. What arises is a battle between the light and dark. The battle is between authentic self and egoic self. At some point, one realizes that the only way out of this battle is to lay down your arms. This might seem ludicrous, but then that is what egoic thought would point out. Ironically, it is this surrendering, this letting go, this allowing one to settle and fall back into the divine arms of Being, that we find an infinite source of power that need only be completely present to shift back into timeless presence of the Light of Being. Ego has no power over you except to the extent that one gets conned into engaging Ego. Know engagement equals no ego. Ego cannot exist, can have no power over you unless you give it to them. It is like a video game at an arcade that taunts you with flashing lights and dares you to engage. We have to choose to put the quarter in or not. And there lies the rub of free will. Are you conscious with your will or unconscious thinking you are conscious? I received an email today from the Prophets Conference Newsletter with an article by William Bloom called "Paradox Paradox Paradox," which touches on the challenges of waking up and how as we increase our consciousness more of our shadow and the dark side present themselves to be transformed. I highly recommend it in understanding oneself to a greater depth. We are stepping further into the transformational changes of a dysfunctional society, of which will take a great deal of response-ability as we learn to navigate the waters of consciousness that continue to reveal themselves to those who have eyes to see, ears to hear, and a voice with which to speak up for oneself and others around us. We are all one family, one community, one consciousness that is infinitely immense. Be well!
2.29.08 - Eckhart Tolle was on Oprah recently and she was so impressed that Oprah and author Eckhart Tolle will teach free on-line classes about his best-selling book "A New Earth," every Monday night for ten weeks.
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