A Few Last Words for 2008
Love is God's only law. All other laws derive and fade away from this.
Love is the essence of sentience.
Sr8.16.06
From A Return to Love, Marianne Williamson, 1992
"...[W]e think the universe when left to its own devices, is chaotic. But God is the ultimate order. He is the principle of constantly expanding love in action, in all dimensions, for all life."
"It is merely our job to so deeply align our hearts and minds with His spirit within us, that our lives then become involuntary instruments of His will."
"Taking what we have and devoting it to the restoration of the whole, is our salvation and the salvation of the world. Our devotion then becomes our work, and our work becomes our devotion."
From the "Healing Spirit" video, Deepak Chopra, Canada, 1992
"And by love we don't mean just emotion, although it can be expressed very beautifully in an emotion, but love is not really an emotion. Love is the experience of unity consciousness, the ultimate truth that you can experientially ground yourself in, as at the heart of all creation. This can't be contrived, this is real. It is the experience of love. It's the experience of compassion, it is the experience of my inseparable interconnectedness with all life. And I AM THAT. And once I recognize that I am that, I also recognize that you are that, and everything else is that, and that's all there is. And when I am grounded in that, then I'm in love."
"I am not in the world, the world is in me. I'm not even in space and time, they're in me. I'm in the eternal, ungrounded field of all possibilities, infinite, unbounded, immortal, bliss consciousness."
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Monday, December 29, 2008
The Power of Prayer
From The Secret of Shambhala, James Redfield, 1999
"...he was talking about watching for the subtle twists and turns of synchronicity, those mysterious coincidences that could pop up in a second to push one's life in a new direction.
Perceiving this mysterious flow, I knew, remained the central experience of real spirituality, direct evidence that something deeper was operating behind the scenes of the human drama."
"A prayer that asks God to intervene assumes that God can intervene, but only if He decides to honor our request. It assumes we have no role except to ask. The other form of prayer assumes that God is ready and willing but has set up the laws of human existence so that whether the request is fulfilled depends in some part on the certainty of our belief that it will be done. So our prayer must be an affirmation that voices this faith. In the study, this kind of prayer proved to be most effective."
"They maintain that if our expectations, our faithful assumptions, are what makes prayer work, then each of us is beaming a force of prayer energy out into the world all the time, whether we realize it or not.
"If prayer is an affirmation based on our expectations, our faith, then all our expectations have a prayer effect. We are, in fact, praying all the time for some kind of future for ourselves and others. We just aren't fully aware of it."
DIVINE ENERGY
"The degree of beauty we can see measures how much divine energy we are receiving within us.
Everything around us, both natural and man-made, flowers, rocks, grass, mountains, art -- is already majestically beautiful and present beyond anything most humans can perceive. All we do when we open up to the divine, is raise our energy vibration and thus our perceptual ability so we can view the world the way it already is.
"Keep breathing. Your vibration and ability to perceive will increase even more. Everything will become shiny, as though illuminated from within.
"Your ability to perceive beauty is the primary measure that divine energy is coming into you. You will feel lighter. The energy will rise up through you and lift you up, like a string pulling you up from the top of your head. And you will feel a greater wisdom about who you are and what you are doing. You will receive intuitions and dreams about what is next on your life path.
"You must become conscious of your expectations about life. It is the only way to maintain and extend the higher level of energy you experience. You must learn to expect that level of energy in your life, and you must do so very deliberately and consciously. This is the only way to complete the first prayer extension.
"Now you must expect this energy that is filling you to keep filling you and to flow out of you in every direction. Visualize this happening. The measure of whether the energy is flowing out is the feeling of love.
"Yes. It is a love that becomes a background emotion that stays with you as long as your prayer-energy is going out into the world. You must stay in a state of love.
"The only way to establish a constant flow of synchronicity is to stay in a state where your prayer field keeps this flow moving toward you -- a state of conscious alertness. One must visualize that one's energy is going out and bringing just the right hunches to you, the right events. You have to expect them to occur at any moment. The more you stay in this state of mind, the more the synchronicity will increase. And eventually, if you keep your energy high, this posture of conscious alertness will become your prevailing attitude toward life.
"The prevailing human worldview is always a giant field of belief and expectation. The key to human progress is to have enough people who can beam a higher expectation of love into this human field. This effort allows us to build an ever higher level of energy, and to inspire each other toward our greatest potential.
"...[W]hen you send your energy out to bring in synchronistic experiences and uplift others, and when you anchor this energy with detachment and faith, you are promoting the divine plan, and the more you can act and think in harmony with the divine, the stronger your power gets. There is a built-in safety device: God is not going to turn up the power in you unless you are on the same page with universal intention."
From The Secret of Shambhala, James Redfield, 1999
"...he was talking about watching for the subtle twists and turns of synchronicity, those mysterious coincidences that could pop up in a second to push one's life in a new direction.
Perceiving this mysterious flow, I knew, remained the central experience of real spirituality, direct evidence that something deeper was operating behind the scenes of the human drama."
"A prayer that asks God to intervene assumes that God can intervene, but only if He decides to honor our request. It assumes we have no role except to ask. The other form of prayer assumes that God is ready and willing but has set up the laws of human existence so that whether the request is fulfilled depends in some part on the certainty of our belief that it will be done. So our prayer must be an affirmation that voices this faith. In the study, this kind of prayer proved to be most effective."
"They maintain that if our expectations, our faithful assumptions, are what makes prayer work, then each of us is beaming a force of prayer energy out into the world all the time, whether we realize it or not.
"If prayer is an affirmation based on our expectations, our faith, then all our expectations have a prayer effect. We are, in fact, praying all the time for some kind of future for ourselves and others. We just aren't fully aware of it."
DIVINE ENERGY
"The degree of beauty we can see measures how much divine energy we are receiving within us.
Everything around us, both natural and man-made, flowers, rocks, grass, mountains, art -- is already majestically beautiful and present beyond anything most humans can perceive. All we do when we open up to the divine, is raise our energy vibration and thus our perceptual ability so we can view the world the way it already is.
"Keep breathing. Your vibration and ability to perceive will increase even more. Everything will become shiny, as though illuminated from within.
"Your ability to perceive beauty is the primary measure that divine energy is coming into you. You will feel lighter. The energy will rise up through you and lift you up, like a string pulling you up from the top of your head. And you will feel a greater wisdom about who you are and what you are doing. You will receive intuitions and dreams about what is next on your life path.
"You must become conscious of your expectations about life. It is the only way to maintain and extend the higher level of energy you experience. You must learn to expect that level of energy in your life, and you must do so very deliberately and consciously. This is the only way to complete the first prayer extension.
"Now you must expect this energy that is filling you to keep filling you and to flow out of you in every direction. Visualize this happening. The measure of whether the energy is flowing out is the feeling of love.
"Yes. It is a love that becomes a background emotion that stays with you as long as your prayer-energy is going out into the world. You must stay in a state of love.
"The only way to establish a constant flow of synchronicity is to stay in a state where your prayer field keeps this flow moving toward you -- a state of conscious alertness. One must visualize that one's energy is going out and bringing just the right hunches to you, the right events. You have to expect them to occur at any moment. The more you stay in this state of mind, the more the synchronicity will increase. And eventually, if you keep your energy high, this posture of conscious alertness will become your prevailing attitude toward life.
"The prevailing human worldview is always a giant field of belief and expectation. The key to human progress is to have enough people who can beam a higher expectation of love into this human field. This effort allows us to build an ever higher level of energy, and to inspire each other toward our greatest potential.
"...[W]hen you send your energy out to bring in synchronistic experiences and uplift others, and when you anchor this energy with detachment and faith, you are promoting the divine plan, and the more you can act and think in harmony with the divine, the stronger your power gets. There is a built-in safety device: God is not going to turn up the power in you unless you are on the same page with universal intention."
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Prayer Energy
From The Secret of Shambhala by James Redfield, 1999
"It all begins with the realization that our prayer-energy is real, that it flows out from us and affects the world.
"Once we have that realization, we can grasp that this field, this effect we have on the world, can be expanded, but we have to begin with the First Expansion. We have to first improve the quality of energy we take in physically. Heavy and processed foods build up acid solids in our molecular structures, lowering our vibration and eventually causing disease. Alive foods have an alkaline effect and enhance our vibration.
"The purer we vibrate, the easier it is to then connect with the more subtle energies available within us. The legends say we will learn to consistently breathe in this higher level of energy using our increased perception of beauty as a measure. The higher our level of energy, the more beauty we see. We can learn to visualize this higher level of energy flowing out from us into the world, likewise using the emotional state of love as a measure that this is occurring.
"Thus we are connected within like we learned in Peru. Only now we've learned that by visualizing that energy is a field that goes out ahead of us wherever we go, we can stay consistently stronger.
"The Second Extension begins when we set this extended prayer-field to enhance the synchronistic flow of our lives. We do this by staying in a state of conscious alertness and expectation for the next intuition or coincidence that moves our lives further along. This expectation sends our energy out even farther and makes it stronger, because we are now aligning our intentions with the intended process of growth and evolution structured into the universe itself.
"The Third Extension involves another expectation: that our prayer-fields go out and boost the level of energy in others, lifting them into their own connection with the divine within and into their own higher-self intuition. This, of course, increases the likelihood of them giving us intuitive information that can further enhance our own level of synchronicity. It is the interpersonal ethic we learned in Peru, only now we know how to use the prayer-field to make it stronger.
"The Fourth Extension begins when we learn the importance of anchoring and maintaining the outflow of our energy, in spite of fearful or angry situations. We do this by always maintaining a particular posture of detachment toward events as they occur, even as we expect the process itself to carry on. We must always seek a positive meaning, and always, always expect the process to save us, no matter what is happening. Such a mental posture helps us to stay focused on the flow and keeps us from dwelling on negative images of what might occur if we fail.
"In general, if we find a negative image coming to mind, we must consider whether it is an intuitive warning, and, if so, we need to take approopriate actions, but we must always return to the expectation that a higher synchronicity will guide us past this problem. This anchors our field, our outflow of energy, with a powerful expectation that has always been called faith.
"In sum, the first part of the Fourth Extension is about keeping our energy strong at all times. Once we master that, we can move forward and extend our energy even farther.
"The next step in the Fourth Extension begins when we fully expect that the human world can move toward the ideal expressed in the Tenth Insight and modeled by Shambhala. Moving your energy out farther and stronger in this way takes true belief. That's why understanding Shambhala is so important. Knowing that Shambhala has done it extends our expectation that the rest of human culture can do it too. We can readily see how humans everywhere can master our technology and use it in the service of our spiritual development, and then begin to focus on the life process itself, on the real reason we are here on this planet: to create a culture on Earth that is consious of our role in spiritual evolution and to teach that understanding to our children.
"Now comes the most difficult part. To expand even farther, we must do more than just remain positive in general, and avoid images of negative events occurring. We must also keep all negative thoughts out of our heads concerning other people. As you have just seen, if our fear ever turns to anger and we lapse into thinking the worst of others, a negative prayer goes out that tends to create in them exactly the behavior we expect. That's why teachers who expect great things from their students usually get it, and when they expect the negative, they get that too.
"Most people believe it is a bad thing to say something negative about others, but that it's okay to think it. We now know it's not okay; thoughts matter.
"Only by understanding the effect of prayer-fields can we grasp what is happening. We all are gradually growing more powerful, and if we don't become completely mindful of our expectations, we can inadvertently cause great harm to others.
"It is so important not to let our minds visualize the bad things that could possibly happen to us. It is a prayer that acts to create that very event."
WORRYING IS PRAYING FOR WHAT YOU DON'T WANT TO HAPPEN.
From The Secret of Shambhala by James Redfield, 1999
"It all begins with the realization that our prayer-energy is real, that it flows out from us and affects the world.
"Once we have that realization, we can grasp that this field, this effect we have on the world, can be expanded, but we have to begin with the First Expansion. We have to first improve the quality of energy we take in physically. Heavy and processed foods build up acid solids in our molecular structures, lowering our vibration and eventually causing disease. Alive foods have an alkaline effect and enhance our vibration.
"The purer we vibrate, the easier it is to then connect with the more subtle energies available within us. The legends say we will learn to consistently breathe in this higher level of energy using our increased perception of beauty as a measure. The higher our level of energy, the more beauty we see. We can learn to visualize this higher level of energy flowing out from us into the world, likewise using the emotional state of love as a measure that this is occurring.
"Thus we are connected within like we learned in Peru. Only now we've learned that by visualizing that energy is a field that goes out ahead of us wherever we go, we can stay consistently stronger.
"The Second Extension begins when we set this extended prayer-field to enhance the synchronistic flow of our lives. We do this by staying in a state of conscious alertness and expectation for the next intuition or coincidence that moves our lives further along. This expectation sends our energy out even farther and makes it stronger, because we are now aligning our intentions with the intended process of growth and evolution structured into the universe itself.
"The Third Extension involves another expectation: that our prayer-fields go out and boost the level of energy in others, lifting them into their own connection with the divine within and into their own higher-self intuition. This, of course, increases the likelihood of them giving us intuitive information that can further enhance our own level of synchronicity. It is the interpersonal ethic we learned in Peru, only now we know how to use the prayer-field to make it stronger.
"The Fourth Extension begins when we learn the importance of anchoring and maintaining the outflow of our energy, in spite of fearful or angry situations. We do this by always maintaining a particular posture of detachment toward events as they occur, even as we expect the process itself to carry on. We must always seek a positive meaning, and always, always expect the process to save us, no matter what is happening. Such a mental posture helps us to stay focused on the flow and keeps us from dwelling on negative images of what might occur if we fail.
"In general, if we find a negative image coming to mind, we must consider whether it is an intuitive warning, and, if so, we need to take approopriate actions, but we must always return to the expectation that a higher synchronicity will guide us past this problem. This anchors our field, our outflow of energy, with a powerful expectation that has always been called faith.
"In sum, the first part of the Fourth Extension is about keeping our energy strong at all times. Once we master that, we can move forward and extend our energy even farther.
"The next step in the Fourth Extension begins when we fully expect that the human world can move toward the ideal expressed in the Tenth Insight and modeled by Shambhala. Moving your energy out farther and stronger in this way takes true belief. That's why understanding Shambhala is so important. Knowing that Shambhala has done it extends our expectation that the rest of human culture can do it too. We can readily see how humans everywhere can master our technology and use it in the service of our spiritual development, and then begin to focus on the life process itself, on the real reason we are here on this planet: to create a culture on Earth that is consious of our role in spiritual evolution and to teach that understanding to our children.
"Now comes the most difficult part. To expand even farther, we must do more than just remain positive in general, and avoid images of negative events occurring. We must also keep all negative thoughts out of our heads concerning other people. As you have just seen, if our fear ever turns to anger and we lapse into thinking the worst of others, a negative prayer goes out that tends to create in them exactly the behavior we expect. That's why teachers who expect great things from their students usually get it, and when they expect the negative, they get that too.
"Most people believe it is a bad thing to say something negative about others, but that it's okay to think it. We now know it's not okay; thoughts matter.
"Only by understanding the effect of prayer-fields can we grasp what is happening. We all are gradually growing more powerful, and if we don't become completely mindful of our expectations, we can inadvertently cause great harm to others.
"It is so important not to let our minds visualize the bad things that could possibly happen to us. It is a prayer that acts to create that very event."
WORRYING IS PRAYING FOR WHAT YOU DON'T WANT TO HAPPEN.
2012...The Shift
From The Secret of Shambhala by James Redfield
"The legends say that at a precise time in the evolution of Shambhala and the outer cultures, a great shift will occur. This shift can only happen when the level of awareness in the outer cultures has reached a particular point. The legends say it will be a time of great opportunity but also of dire peril. Many times during the hidden history of mankind, humans have developed spiritually to this point and then have lost their way and fallen back into ignorance. They began to misuse their technology, disrupting the natural course of evolution. For instance, right now in the outer cultures, some people are taking the natural process of food and distorting it by genetically manipulating seeds to have unnatural characteristics. This is primarily done in order to patent these seeds and control them in the marketplace.
"The same thing is occurring in the pharmaceutical industries, where a known herbal remedy, free to all, is genetically altered in order to sell it. In the precise energy system of the body, these manipulations can have terrible consequences on health. The same is true of irradiated foods, chlorine and other additives to the water supply, not to mention so-called designer drugs.
"At the same time, the technology of the media has reached a point where it can have dramatic influence. If it responds only to the needs of corporations and corrupt politicians, it can create realities for humans that are distorted and unnatural. As corporations merge, so that they control more and more of the technology and want to use more advertising to create false needs, this problem will grow.
"Most imperative is the situation of government power and surveillance, even in the democratic countries. Citing a need to combat drug dealers or terrorists, the government has infringed more and more on the privacy of the common man. Already, cash transactions are being restricted and the Internet fully monitored. The next step will be forcing the move to a cashless society controlled by a central authority.
"This growth toward a central, spiritless government authority, in a high-tech virtual world divorced from natural processes, where food, water, and the routines of living have been trivialized and distorted, leads to disaster. When health is subverted into just one more commercial cycle of worsening food, new diseases, and more drugs, Armageddon is the result, and it has occurred several times in prehistory. It could happen again, only this time on a much larger scale.
"But it need not happen. In fact, we are one small step in awareness from turning the corner. If we could just move fully into the idea that we are spiritual beings in a spiritual world, then food, health, technology, media, and government would all move into their proper roles in the evolution and perfection of this world. But for this to happen, the prayer extensions must be completely understoood in the outer cultures. They must understand what we do at the temples. The transition of Shambhala is part of this process, but the opportunity has to be seized.
"For this to happen, your generation must merge with the last two into an integrated prayer-field -- one that includes a final unity of all the religions.
"All over the world, the generation born in the first decades of the twentieth century, what our friend from the West call the World War II generation, used courage and technology to save democracy and freedom from the threat of dictators seeking empire. They won, using technological might, and continued to expand this technology into a worldwide economy. Then the next generation -- what Americans call baby boomers -- arrived on the Earth, and their intuitions told them that the focus on materialism, on technology alone, was not quite correct. That there was too much pollution, too much corporate influence on government, too much surveillance by the intelligence organizations.
"This criticism was the normal way that a new generation expands and intuitively leads us forward. They grew up in a hardwon materialism, or in some countries, the desire for the material, and began to react, to voice the idea that there was more to life. There was a spiritual purpose behind human history that could be grasped in more detail.
"That's what was behind all that happened in the sixties and seventies in the West: the rejection of a material-based system of status, the exploration of other religions, the popularity of philosophy, the explosion in thought of the Human Potential Movement. It was all the result of a series of insights that there was more to life than our material worldview knew.
"The intuitions of the baby boomers were very important because they began to put technology and material abundance into perspective, and to grasp the deep intuition that technology is being developed on this planet to support a culture where we can focus not just on surviving, but on our spiritual development as well.
"And now, since the late seventies and into the eighties, a new generation has been arriving to push human culture even further. You and your age group are the final members of this generation. Do you see what emphasis you are bringing into the world?
"The sons and daughters of the boomers have been characterizeed as reacting to the boomers' idealism and ambivalence toward technology by becoming more practical and, in fact, developing a love for technology beyond anything seen before."
"We sensed that technology has a spiritual purpose."
"Now, do you see how the three generations flow together? The World War II generation fought against tyranny and proved that democracy could not only flourish in the modern world but expand tremendously and connect the world's economies. Then, in the middle of the abundance, the boomers arrived to say that there were problems with this expansion, that we were polluting the natural world and losing touch with nature and a spiritual reality that exists beneath the whims of history.
"And now the next generation has come along to focus again on the economy, to refashion technology so that it can consciously support our mental and spiritual ability, the way it has occurred here in Shambhala -- instead of allowing technology to fall solely into the hands of those who would use it to restrict freedom and control others."
"But this new generation isn't fully conscious of what they are doing."
"No, not completely, but this self-awareness and insight is expanding every day. We must set a prayer field that lifts them in this direction. It must be a large and strong field. The new generation must help us unify the religions.
"This is very important, because there will always be controllers ready to manipulate this generation into creating negative uses for technology or taking advantage of their alienation."
From The Secret of Shambhala by James Redfield
"The legends say that at a precise time in the evolution of Shambhala and the outer cultures, a great shift will occur. This shift can only happen when the level of awareness in the outer cultures has reached a particular point. The legends say it will be a time of great opportunity but also of dire peril. Many times during the hidden history of mankind, humans have developed spiritually to this point and then have lost their way and fallen back into ignorance. They began to misuse their technology, disrupting the natural course of evolution. For instance, right now in the outer cultures, some people are taking the natural process of food and distorting it by genetically manipulating seeds to have unnatural characteristics. This is primarily done in order to patent these seeds and control them in the marketplace.
"The same thing is occurring in the pharmaceutical industries, where a known herbal remedy, free to all, is genetically altered in order to sell it. In the precise energy system of the body, these manipulations can have terrible consequences on health. The same is true of irradiated foods, chlorine and other additives to the water supply, not to mention so-called designer drugs.
"At the same time, the technology of the media has reached a point where it can have dramatic influence. If it responds only to the needs of corporations and corrupt politicians, it can create realities for humans that are distorted and unnatural. As corporations merge, so that they control more and more of the technology and want to use more advertising to create false needs, this problem will grow.
"Most imperative is the situation of government power and surveillance, even in the democratic countries. Citing a need to combat drug dealers or terrorists, the government has infringed more and more on the privacy of the common man. Already, cash transactions are being restricted and the Internet fully monitored. The next step will be forcing the move to a cashless society controlled by a central authority.
"This growth toward a central, spiritless government authority, in a high-tech virtual world divorced from natural processes, where food, water, and the routines of living have been trivialized and distorted, leads to disaster. When health is subverted into just one more commercial cycle of worsening food, new diseases, and more drugs, Armageddon is the result, and it has occurred several times in prehistory. It could happen again, only this time on a much larger scale.
"But it need not happen. In fact, we are one small step in awareness from turning the corner. If we could just move fully into the idea that we are spiritual beings in a spiritual world, then food, health, technology, media, and government would all move into their proper roles in the evolution and perfection of this world. But for this to happen, the prayer extensions must be completely understoood in the outer cultures. They must understand what we do at the temples. The transition of Shambhala is part of this process, but the opportunity has to be seized.
"For this to happen, your generation must merge with the last two into an integrated prayer-field -- one that includes a final unity of all the religions.
"All over the world, the generation born in the first decades of the twentieth century, what our friend from the West call the World War II generation, used courage and technology to save democracy and freedom from the threat of dictators seeking empire. They won, using technological might, and continued to expand this technology into a worldwide economy. Then the next generation -- what Americans call baby boomers -- arrived on the Earth, and their intuitions told them that the focus on materialism, on technology alone, was not quite correct. That there was too much pollution, too much corporate influence on government, too much surveillance by the intelligence organizations.
"This criticism was the normal way that a new generation expands and intuitively leads us forward. They grew up in a hardwon materialism, or in some countries, the desire for the material, and began to react, to voice the idea that there was more to life. There was a spiritual purpose behind human history that could be grasped in more detail.
"That's what was behind all that happened in the sixties and seventies in the West: the rejection of a material-based system of status, the exploration of other religions, the popularity of philosophy, the explosion in thought of the Human Potential Movement. It was all the result of a series of insights that there was more to life than our material worldview knew.
"The intuitions of the baby boomers were very important because they began to put technology and material abundance into perspective, and to grasp the deep intuition that technology is being developed on this planet to support a culture where we can focus not just on surviving, but on our spiritual development as well.
"And now, since the late seventies and into the eighties, a new generation has been arriving to push human culture even further. You and your age group are the final members of this generation. Do you see what emphasis you are bringing into the world?
"The sons and daughters of the boomers have been characterizeed as reacting to the boomers' idealism and ambivalence toward technology by becoming more practical and, in fact, developing a love for technology beyond anything seen before."
"We sensed that technology has a spiritual purpose."
"Now, do you see how the three generations flow together? The World War II generation fought against tyranny and proved that democracy could not only flourish in the modern world but expand tremendously and connect the world's economies. Then, in the middle of the abundance, the boomers arrived to say that there were problems with this expansion, that we were polluting the natural world and losing touch with nature and a spiritual reality that exists beneath the whims of history.
"And now the next generation has come along to focus again on the economy, to refashion technology so that it can consciously support our mental and spiritual ability, the way it has occurred here in Shambhala -- instead of allowing technology to fall solely into the hands of those who would use it to restrict freedom and control others."
"But this new generation isn't fully conscious of what they are doing."
"No, not completely, but this self-awareness and insight is expanding every day. We must set a prayer field that lifts them in this direction. It must be a large and strong field. The new generation must help us unify the religions.
"This is very important, because there will always be controllers ready to manipulate this generation into creating negative uses for technology or taking advantage of their alienation."
"The Sorian Codes of Dinotopia"
["Dinotopia", 2002, Hallmark Entertainment]
1. One raindrop raises the sea
2. Survival of all or none
3. Weapons are enemies, even to their owners
4. Give more, take less
5. Others first, self last
6. Observe, listen, learn
7. Do one thing at a time
8. Sing every day
9. Exercise imagination
10. Eat to live, don't live to eat
11. Find the Light
Good advice for any culture, anytime!
["Dinotopia", 2002, Hallmark Entertainment]
1. One raindrop raises the sea
2. Survival of all or none
3. Weapons are enemies, even to their owners
4. Give more, take less
5. Others first, self last
6. Observe, listen, learn
7. Do one thing at a time
8. Sing every day
9. Exercise imagination
10. Eat to live, don't live to eat
11. Find the Light
Good advice for any culture, anytime!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Another lovely definition of "God" from Mark Morford, columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, taken out of context, from 11/7/08:
"...the god you and I understand as a universal, non-gendered, asexual, love-drunk energy coursing through all things at all times everywhere without the slightest wisp of prejudice or geographical preference..."
******************************************************************************
"...the god you and I understand as a universal, non-gendered, asexual, love-drunk energy coursing through all things at all times everywhere without the slightest wisp of prejudice or geographical preference..."
******************************************************************************
Monday, July 14, 2008
From "What the Bleep Do We Know?"...on DVD...
The brain processes 400 billion bits of information every second,
but our awareness is only on 2,000 bits a second.
Consciousness is the ground of all being. As we see it,
life is an illusion.
Heisenberg stated: "Atoms are not things, only tendencies".
So, are we really here? Food for thought.
* * * *
The brain processes 400 billion bits of information every second,
but our awareness is only on 2,000 bits a second.
Consciousness is the ground of all being. As we see it,
life is an illusion.
Heisenberg stated: "Atoms are not things, only tendencies".
So, are we really here? Food for thought.
* * * *
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) and the ARE: The Association for Research and Enlightenment, Virginia Beach, VA
"Understanding the Purpose of Life"
The key concept in the Edgar Cayce readings on understanding the purpose of life is that there is, indeed, a purpose in all of life. There is no such thing as chance or accident, but rather all experiences in life come to us for good reason. And although we often do not see the ultimate good in our circumstances, we can learn to recognize it more frequently and thus adopt a more positive, constructive attitude toward life. This excerpt from the ARE files gives us a clear concept of the rationale behind life and of the awesome control we hold over our own destinies.
Our purpose in life is inseparably linked to our true nature as spiritual beings. For, if the Edgar Cayce readings are correct, we were created by God as spiritual beings, part of Himself: "Hence, as He moved, souls -- portions of Himself -- came into being." "In the beginning, when there was the creating, or the calling of individual entities into being, we were made to be the companions with the Father-God." Each of us was created before the advent of the material world to be God's friend! The Edgar Cayce readings describe this role as nothing less than to be "co-creators" with God, individual souls granted the dignity of peership with the Creator Himself.
We are so often fixed in our concepts of ourselves as bodies occupying material space that it may be difficult to grasp the full import of this statement on our nature and origin. For it is saying that our true individual identity rests not in our bodies nor in our personality, but in our eternal souls, which have existed "before the beginning" of time. But if our true purpose is to be companions to God, why is that awareness so far from our consciousness? And if our ultimate nature is spiritual, why do we find ourselves existing in, and identifying with, physical bodies and the material world?
According to the Cayce material, we can understand the human condition in terms of choices we have made. Intrinsic to our nature as sons and daughters of God is the ability to choose. As companions and co-creators with God, we were bestowed with the free will which makes us responsible beings. A true companion must be one by choice, and so from the start, we were allowed the freedom to choose union or separation from God:
"For as was given of old, there is each day set before us life and death, good and evil. We choose because of our natures. If our will were broken, if we were commanded to do this or that, or to become as an automaton, our individuality then would be lost and we would only be as in Him without conscience -- CONSCIENCE -- consciousness of being one with Him; with the abilities to choose for self! For we CAN, as God, say Yea to this, Nay to that; we CAN order this or the other in our experience.... For we are indeed as laborers, co-laborers in the vineyard of the Lord."
The account given in the Cayce readings goes on to point out the obvious: We chose the way of separation from God rather than the way of union with Him. Apparently we found self-preoccupation so alluring that we were unwilling to keep the awareness of our relationship with God.
It was once we had separated ourselves from God in consciousness that He, in His infinite love and patience, provided physical life for us as a way to learn proper use of our free will. It is in the experiences of day-to-day life that we have the opportunity to grow to our full stature as co-creators with God. It is in the material world, with its cause-and-effect laws, that we have the opportunity to use our will and learn, through first-hand experience, the consequences (both positive and negative) of our choices. Thus we are spiritual beings who have been given not just one, but countless lifetimes in which to grow and to learn.
"Know that each sojourn or indwelling (lifetime) may be compared to that as ye have in your mental experience as a lesson, as a schooling for the purposes for which each soul-entity enters an earth experience."
In other words, each experience in life has the ultimate purpose of bringing us closer to God. Once we have reached our spiritual adulthood, we may return in consciousness to the Father in our role of companion and peer.
"Remember, ever, that where shortcomings have existed and do exist in the experience, those that are wise use same as stepping-stones to the real development; for less and less of self, more and more that the body, the mind, may be used as a channel for the glorifying of a unified Father in the earth.... That the earth has been given as a schooling for those who in the beginnings erred in self-indulgences, self-aggrandizement, self-glorification, is indeed a merciful experience then, even to those that find turmoils, strife and antagonism and disturbing forces in their experience. If they will but empty themselves of themselves, they become channels through which a glorified Father in the Son may be manifested."
It is important that we never think that a situation is "beyond repair". Many individuals were told by Cayce that at any moment they could choose to turn their problems into growth opportunities, simply by changing their attitude toward them. What attitudes are important?
"Keep the correct mental attitude; that is, not holding grudges, being kind, being affectionate, long-suffering, manifesting patience.... But keep creative ever in the activities. This, too...be GLAD you have the opportunity to be alive at this time."
Perhaps the crux of the attitudinal issue is that we accept responsibility for our circumstances, whatever they may be. We should not blame others or "fate", but know that we are constantly experiencing the consequences of our choices. If we accept responsibility for the painful consequences we are experiencing, then it becomes possible to take control of our lives and make different kinds of choices:
"For each soul, each entity, constantly meets self. And if each soul would but understand, those hardships which are accredited much to others are caused most by self. Know that in those you are meeting thyself!"
Finally, if we have the patience to see beyond the here-and-now, we can place each
experience in the context of our origin and destiny. From this vantage point we can see individual experiences and circumstances as part of a much larger whole, remembering that life is continuous and that no effort is ever lost:
"Yet the entity should -- and does at times -- realize that it isn't all of life to live, in one experience. For life is continued, life itself is a consciousness, a gift of an infinite influence we may call God."
* * * *
"Understanding the Purpose of Life"
The key concept in the Edgar Cayce readings on understanding the purpose of life is that there is, indeed, a purpose in all of life. There is no such thing as chance or accident, but rather all experiences in life come to us for good reason. And although we often do not see the ultimate good in our circumstances, we can learn to recognize it more frequently and thus adopt a more positive, constructive attitude toward life. This excerpt from the ARE files gives us a clear concept of the rationale behind life and of the awesome control we hold over our own destinies.
Our purpose in life is inseparably linked to our true nature as spiritual beings. For, if the Edgar Cayce readings are correct, we were created by God as spiritual beings, part of Himself: "Hence, as He moved, souls -- portions of Himself -- came into being." "In the beginning, when there was the creating, or the calling of individual entities into being, we were made to be the companions with the Father-God." Each of us was created before the advent of the material world to be God's friend! The Edgar Cayce readings describe this role as nothing less than to be "co-creators" with God, individual souls granted the dignity of peership with the Creator Himself.
We are so often fixed in our concepts of ourselves as bodies occupying material space that it may be difficult to grasp the full import of this statement on our nature and origin. For it is saying that our true individual identity rests not in our bodies nor in our personality, but in our eternal souls, which have existed "before the beginning" of time. But if our true purpose is to be companions to God, why is that awareness so far from our consciousness? And if our ultimate nature is spiritual, why do we find ourselves existing in, and identifying with, physical bodies and the material world?
According to the Cayce material, we can understand the human condition in terms of choices we have made. Intrinsic to our nature as sons and daughters of God is the ability to choose. As companions and co-creators with God, we were bestowed with the free will which makes us responsible beings. A true companion must be one by choice, and so from the start, we were allowed the freedom to choose union or separation from God:
"For as was given of old, there is each day set before us life and death, good and evil. We choose because of our natures. If our will were broken, if we were commanded to do this or that, or to become as an automaton, our individuality then would be lost and we would only be as in Him without conscience -- CONSCIENCE -- consciousness of being one with Him; with the abilities to choose for self! For we CAN, as God, say Yea to this, Nay to that; we CAN order this or the other in our experience.... For we are indeed as laborers, co-laborers in the vineyard of the Lord."
The account given in the Cayce readings goes on to point out the obvious: We chose the way of separation from God rather than the way of union with Him. Apparently we found self-preoccupation so alluring that we were unwilling to keep the awareness of our relationship with God.
It was once we had separated ourselves from God in consciousness that He, in His infinite love and patience, provided physical life for us as a way to learn proper use of our free will. It is in the experiences of day-to-day life that we have the opportunity to grow to our full stature as co-creators with God. It is in the material world, with its cause-and-effect laws, that we have the opportunity to use our will and learn, through first-hand experience, the consequences (both positive and negative) of our choices. Thus we are spiritual beings who have been given not just one, but countless lifetimes in which to grow and to learn.
"Know that each sojourn or indwelling (lifetime) may be compared to that as ye have in your mental experience as a lesson, as a schooling for the purposes for which each soul-entity enters an earth experience."
In other words, each experience in life has the ultimate purpose of bringing us closer to God. Once we have reached our spiritual adulthood, we may return in consciousness to the Father in our role of companion and peer.
"Remember, ever, that where shortcomings have existed and do exist in the experience, those that are wise use same as stepping-stones to the real development; for less and less of self, more and more that the body, the mind, may be used as a channel for the glorifying of a unified Father in the earth.... That the earth has been given as a schooling for those who in the beginnings erred in self-indulgences, self-aggrandizement, self-glorification, is indeed a merciful experience then, even to those that find turmoils, strife and antagonism and disturbing forces in their experience. If they will but empty themselves of themselves, they become channels through which a glorified Father in the Son may be manifested."
It is important that we never think that a situation is "beyond repair". Many individuals were told by Cayce that at any moment they could choose to turn their problems into growth opportunities, simply by changing their attitude toward them. What attitudes are important?
"Keep the correct mental attitude; that is, not holding grudges, being kind, being affectionate, long-suffering, manifesting patience.... But keep creative ever in the activities. This, too...be GLAD you have the opportunity to be alive at this time."
Perhaps the crux of the attitudinal issue is that we accept responsibility for our circumstances, whatever they may be. We should not blame others or "fate", but know that we are constantly experiencing the consequences of our choices. If we accept responsibility for the painful consequences we are experiencing, then it becomes possible to take control of our lives and make different kinds of choices:
"For each soul, each entity, constantly meets self. And if each soul would but understand, those hardships which are accredited much to others are caused most by self. Know that in those you are meeting thyself!"
Finally, if we have the patience to see beyond the here-and-now, we can place each
experience in the context of our origin and destiny. From this vantage point we can see individual experiences and circumstances as part of a much larger whole, remembering that life is continuous and that no effort is ever lost:
"Yet the entity should -- and does at times -- realize that it isn't all of life to live, in one experience. For life is continued, life itself is a consciousness, a gift of an infinite influence we may call God."
* * * *
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
From A Return to Love by Marianne Williamson, 1992
"...we think the universe when left to its own devices, is chaotic. But God is the ultimate order. He is the principle of constantly expanding love in action, in all dimensions, for all life."
"It is merely our job to so deeply align our hearts and minds with His spirit within us, that our lives then become involuntary instruments of His will."
"Taking what we have and devoting it to the restoration of the whole, is our salvation and the salvation of the world. Our devotion then becomes our work, and our work becomes our devotion."
* * *
From Deepak Chopra, "Healing Spirit" video, Canada, 1992
"And by love we don't mean just emotion, although it can be expressed very beautifully in an emotion, but love is not really an emotion. Love is the experience of unity consciousness, the ultimate truth that you can experientially ground yourself in, as at the heart of all creation. This can't be contrived, this is real. It is the experience of love. It's the experience of compassion, it is the experience of my inseparable interconnectedness with all life. And I AM THAT. And once I recognize that I am that, I also recognize that you are that, and everything else is that, and that's all there is. And when I am grounded in that, then I'm in love."
"I am not in the world, the world is in me. I'm not even in space and time, they're in me. I'm in the eternal, ungrounded field of all possibilities, infinite, unbounded, immortal, bliss consciousness."
* * *
The Present Moment
The present moment
is like a wave
rolling over the past and
onto the shore of the future
seeming to go somewhere
but always just here.
Sr5.11.08
* * *
Good vs. Evil
It all boils down to awareness of divinity. Once we recognize God in all life, we are in a position to consciously choose to be divine, the main aspect of which is to choose love over fear in all things at all times. Once we all recognize our unity and choose to love each other and all life in spite of and for our superficial differences, planetary consciousness will have evolved divinely and "Godness" will prevail. The choice is ours.
Sr5.11.08
* * *
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
29 April 1997... "BEAR" ...9 January 2008
May God welcome my beloved dog, Bear, into the kingdom,
where all souls find rest.
I miss his presence beside me as he serves his own life's purpose,
just living love.
But I take comfort in knowing we will be together again
when it is I who join him in the life after this life.
For this blessing, I am most grateful.
Amen.
c Sr2001
RIP, my beloved friend. In peace and love.
C.
where all souls find rest.
I miss his presence beside me as he serves his own life's purpose,
just living love.
But I take comfort in knowing we will be together again
when it is I who join him in the life after this life.
For this blessing, I am most grateful.
Amen.
c Sr2001
RIP, my beloved friend. In peace and love.
C.
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