NOV 4/07 - IMAGINATION or ESCAPE

Feet planted on the ground & one’s head in the clouds.

Have you ever heard that before?

How is it physically possible?

Be practical, quit dreaming, get those silly thoughts out of your head.

Have you ever had a teacher or your parents use those words as you sat day dreaming of worlds beyond? Did you ever find yourself out in a field with the clouds passing above, & it seemed as though you were in a completely different place?

Where did those dreams & thoughts go? Were they just escape? Did you ultimately have to get down to ‘reality’, & if so, who’s?

Did making a living & raising a family bring one’s dreams to an end or were those the dreams? When the family is raised & the choices yours, can those dreams become reality?

Physically my feet are planted in a specific location but my mind can be up in the stratosphere with the Astronauts that I saw this week on CNN. We have an eye in the sky, thanks to those who went up there, & now we can see our planet through our own eyes & the cameras that shoot the pictures, thanks to those who invented the cameras. We have a lot to be thankful for & those who brought us these mind bending inventions were not just white Caucasian males. When it comes to outer space & thought, it really doesn’t matter what color or tribe we are from.

When we ‘see’ our home, Planet Earth, from space, what are our thoughts? ‘I could go down there & take advantage of the environment & my fellowman’ or ‘I could go down there & help all those less fortunate than I’?

One of those thoughts dwells in the mind & the other is looking through eyes of love. The connection between the head & the feet is kept alive by the heart & the heart is located between the other two. It is when we connect all three that our balance comes into focus & peace enters our personal world.

This week, I went to see the group Chicago at the MGM Grand & when I came out of the show the Casino was packed with people at all the gaming devices. I went outside for a walk down the Strip & it was packed also. I like the concept of Win-Win, in Vegas it may be Wynn-Win.

Are all these people on an escape trip?

If the amount of energy, money, & people, that are in Las Vegas year-round, were turned loose on our planet’s environmental & social poverty issues, watch out!

In that regard, I met a new group of people this week that may do something about changing the flow in Vegas, & they gave me a new book, The Travelers Gift. Thanks Bea, Kathy, Frank, Theresa, Elizabeth, & Tracy.

‘The Travelers Gift’:

1. The buck stops here
2. I will seek wisdom
3. I am a person of action
4. Today I will choose to be happy
5. I will treat the day with a forgiving spirit
6. I will persist without exception

Another way of saying #1, is ‘personal responsibility’!

Yes, as Ina always reminds me, it has to start with one or two. She points out that while I have a global perspective, I must keep helping out where my feet touch the ground. I add & where my heart resides.

Isn’t it interesting that we are able to have our feet in one place but our heart in another. Our mind can be in a 3rd place. If you think about that aspect of our humanity it makes one wonder Who or What came up with such an amazing device?

Man operates with the laws of nature & by the way, Who or What came up with those laws?

This week, I read the following: “A spiritual economy teaches us to have no fear & to celebrate the Earth, as that is the reason we are environmentalists. We do not want to save the Earth because of global warming but because of our love for this Earth. In a spiritual economy the relationship between every living plant & creature is part of a delicate balance; worms are sacred, for without them to condition the soil there would be no food, so we have to respect worms. Once we have this reverence for the Earth then all our economic systems will naturally be sustainable.” Satish Kumar

Satish appears to be looking through eyes of love & reverence!

I was walking through the UNLV grounds early Wednesday morning, listening to the birds sing & looking at the beautiful tree lined pathways, when I passed a U.S. Army recruiting center which had this sign; ‘There’s strong then there’s Army strong’. That took my mind away from the beauty around me & made me begin to wonder what the definition of ‘strength’ was?

How strong are weapons that plant seeds of hatred & destruction?

How strong is love?

Is love stronger?

What will the Army ‘strength’ be used for?

Can our troops go out in love carrying weapons with significant killing capacity?

It always seems odd to me when I see troops giving kids candy with one hand while holding a rifle in the other. Which message sinks in? Might the children think that the candy is a reward for respecting the authority of the weapon?

Is the message one of peace or strength?

The age old question of love or war!

So ‘imagination or escape’, once again the choice is ours. A new life on earth is as close as our head is to our heart.

Thy will be my will is moving our heart into first place. Mind over matter is a truism but heart over both is a life saver.

We have so much life left in these physical bodies & when we leave them maybe we won’t be looking from outer space just through a camera’s eyes. The outer space is just as much a part of our lives as our inner space, unless we restrict it to that. We don’t just have to live within our physical temple; we can roam the world through our imagination.

Once our imagination starts to rum wild, there is no end to what we can accomplish. With Spirit anything is possible. We just have to catch the spirit.

Imagination lights a light, action manifests it onto the material level.

Isn’t it exciting to know that whatever one can imagine, one can manifest on the physical plane?

Don’t let the sun catch you crying, we have so much to live for.

The key to dreams coming true is love!

‘Love’ is now playing at the Mirage.

Let’s go! David

OCT 28/07 - TIME is MONEY

Have you ever heard that before, ‘time is money’?

In our capitalistic system, we equate making money with the amount of time we spend at our job or the amount of interest that compounds over time on our investments. Also, we look to appreciation or capital gains on our real estate, particularly our home.

We take our capitalistic economic system abroad, with our political democratic system, & try to convince other nations that it is the solution to their woes. We do not necessarily take into account the social & environmental costs to our economic system.

Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic & The Spirit of Capitalism: “man is dominated by the making of money, by acquisition as the ultimate purpose of his life. Economic acquisition is no longer subordinated to man, as the means of his material needs. This reversal of what we should call the natural relationship, so irrational from a naïve point of view, is evidently as definitely a leading principal of capitalism as it is foreign to all peoples not under capitalistic influence.”

What Max is saying is that other countries do not fathom our connection to material acquisitiveness. They cannot comprehend our capitalistic system. We revere it; it is our natural way of living. We have been taught nothing else.

On a personal level, do we ever stop to analyze where our time is going? What do we do with our day?

For the fun of it, guess the age at which you will leave this earth & subtract your current age. What number did you come up with?

That number is the number of times we will witness the flowering of spring, a walk through the orchards. That number is the number of times we will celebrate thanksgiving, Christmas, & any other holiday that we might celebrate.

How many times this past year have we spent time with our families? Multiply that times the number you came up with above & that is the number of visits that we can expect that are left to us in the time called life here on earth.

Is it possible there is more time? A well known Christian prayer goes “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”.

What does that mean & is there a connection between this heaven, referred to in the prayer, & the earth where we currently walk in physical form?

The answer to that question is yes, & the connection is us. Who else has the intellect that we do? We have intelligence; we are not just a body.

What color is intelligence?

Intelligence pervades us all. When we hurt another we hurt ourselves. We have time to correct that which is wrong on the physical level, social injustice & environmental degradation being a couple of these wrongs.

We can use our time on earth to bring that ‘Will”, referred to in the prayer above, to earth. We bring it through us. We are the conduit. We are capable of getting in touch with that ‘Will’. The only question is ‘will’ we?

We are will-full beings & therein lies the glitch, the devil so to speak. That is the sin that has separated us from our ultimate divinity.

We are the image of our Father, not a mirror image. We can be the light that shines in the heavens. We are a Superstar waiting to glow.

Don’t let oppression, depression, or repression, keep you down. Rise to the occasion & sing. Ina is great at that!

The Stones sang ‘Time is on our side’. If eternity is a reality, how right they were. No wonder they have lasted so long.

The Beatles sang ‘All we need is love’. How right they were also.

Petulla Clark sang ‘Dancing in the Streets’. Why not?

The words of the ‘60’s still wring true. ‘We shall overcome’. We still have time. Let’s not ride this one out.

Let’s dance. David

OCT 21/07 - SMOTHERS BROTHERS

“Who do I have to hate, to be your friend
When are we going to realize that us is them”

Last night Ina & I went to the Smothers Brothers live stage show here in Las Vegas. Some of you may remember that these were the ‘Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour’ boys who got fired from their successful television show for the things they said in reference to the Vietnam War. To give an indication of how far back that was, Kenny Rogers was still with the First Edition.

Jefferson Airplane (White Rabbit) was another of their guests, back then from San Francisco, & the Haight Ashbury district was in full swing. That was a period of war & a movement against what seemed a senseless war. The folks involved in the peace movement were labeled hippies & flower children. John Lennon & Yoko Ono were conducting a bed-in for peace & introduced the song ‘Imagine’.

Tommy Smothers was outspoken against that war & last night sang the refrain at the beginning of these thoughts.

What has changed?

When do we learn?

Then it was Nixon, now it is Bush. Who let’s them do what they do & why?

We let them do it but I’m particularly interested in the question why?

Do any of us really understand the underlying reasons for our global issues & is war the answer?

Yesterday, Ina & I went to dinner with a local Las Vegas developer friend & he was asking why the State of Georgia, with only 70 days of drinking water left, waited until yesterday to call for disaster relief. He was amazed to see Georgian citizens still watering their lawns on CNN.

(As a side note, did you notice that CNN has changed their emblem to green from red?)

What are the root causes of what is going on? War is a result, something is the cause. Why don’t we address the cause instead of sending our sons & daughters into harms way? It was suggested to Ina & I recently, that rather than sending our kids into harms way, it would make more sense to drop a nuclear bomb on Baghdad. A clean sweep so to speak. That would fix ‘them’! Who are them? Tommy (Mom liked Dick the best), for one, still asks ‘when are we going to realize that we are them’?

We are all in this together!

Whether we want to recognize, that as human beings we are all one & what affects one affects us all, we will certainly find out in our lifetime what messing with the environment does to all of us, not just a select few. Wealth won’t save anyone if our ecological underpinnings collapse!

No sense for me to run flags up the pole we all know what we are doing. It is just a matter of opening our minds & becoming aware of how we individually can affect the outcome. It will take each one of us not just a few. When we leave it to the ‘wise’ leaders or ‘poli’ ‘tics’ as Tommy Smothers says (Tommy says ‘poli’ is from the Greek root for ‘many’ & ‘tics’ are blood sucking parasites), we don’t always get a rational conclusion. Is war ever a rational conclusion? Does killing our fellow beings ever accomplish much but hatred?

Think about it, the more innocent Middle Eastern people that are killed, the more folks to hate us. Bombs don’t differentiate! Bullets often hit the wrong target. The fact the war is over there, isn’t going to keep it out of our living rooms forever. Border fences & airline security checks only delay the inevitable. The fact global warming is happening isn’t going to keep it out of North America.

The Smothers Brothers are reminding us once again, ‘when are we going to learn’? They have a terrific way of using comedy to make a point. Ina said she hasn’t laughed so hard in a long time. The audience gave the Brothers a standing ovation, was it for their beautiful voices, their comedy, or their poignant points in the refrain above?

Did anyone walk out of that theatre having heard ‘the voice’ in the Las Vegas desert? Tommy’s voice last night was very plaintive, as compared to the energy those two brothers expressed with Pete Seeger, on their Comedy Hour years ago.

I, for one, wondered what Yo-Yo Man was thinking. Does he feel as though he is singing into the wind? Dylan & Peter, Paul, & Mary, all sang ‘Blowin in the Wind’, what were they thinking?

The Smothers Brothers definitely looked mature, they are in their sixties. Many of us lived the sixties & now we join them in our sixties. Is this the time to step aside & hope the next generation gets it right, or have we gained the wisdom to make a difference? Is this now our time?

In the sixties we railed against our elders, we listened to the Stones, Beatles, & Bobby McGuire, ‘On the Eve of Destruction’. Many of us opted for flower power over weapons. What have we got now, weapons of ‘mass’ destruction? Who ordered these weapons, who is paying for them? We are! Does this seem to be going in the right direction? Might we be able to change course?

Of course we can!

It is us that sanction all of this. It is us that decide the change in course. It is us that provide the money, through taxes & our purchases. Have we ever stopped to realize the power we have through what we purchase & who we decide to purchase from?

Global corporations operate by funneling our dollars into their bank accounts. They do this on the backs of our fellow human beings from less fortunate nations. The redistribution of this wealth accumulation is up to us through how we decide to spend & share what we have.

Our greed or sharing approach to life has as powerful an affect on the future of the globe as a small seed planted in the garden becomes the next mighty oak.

A sheath of wheat bound together becomes very hard to break. Standing together we become resilient. Who do we stand with or do we stand alone? What do we stand for or do we care?

‘When are we going to realize that us is them’?

Peace is not an outdated concept! Neither is love!

Love leads to peace, peace we should love!

Peace be with you! David

OCT 14/07 - PEACE is POSSIBLE

“An armed conflict between nations horrifies us but the economic war is no better than an armed conflict. This is like a surgical operation. An economic war is prolonged torture and its ravages are no less terrible than those depicted in the literature on war, properly so called. We think nothing of the other because we are used to its deadly effects. The movement against war is sound. I pray for its success. But I cannot help the gnawing fear that the movement will fail if it does not touch the root of all evil – human greed”. M. K. Gandhi

It has been estimated that we can eradicate global poverty, education, environmental, & health issues with a budget 1/3rd the size of the U.S. military budget or 1/6th the size of the military budgets of all developed nations combined.

Now doesn’t that give us hope, whether the exact percentage is correct or not!

I’m not suggesting that ‘man’ will actually prefer peace versus war but it gives me hope to see that we have more than enough money to eradicate war’s inherent causes. Maybe having a female U.S. President would help.

It also heartens me to hear, this past week, that Al Gore was given the Nobel Peace prize for his environmental work. Ina thinks Al should run for President again or at least, combine with Hillary Clinton.

There are some ‘real’ hopeful signs appearing on the international political landscape!

I’m becoming convinced that the answer to that question is a resounding ‘no’!

Go back & re-read the Gandhi quote up above.

Gandhi is saying that war results from human greed – ‘the root of all evil’. The book of wisdom says it is the ‘love’ of money that is the root of all evil. It is this ‘attachment’ to prosperity that we in the developed countries expect as our birthright that is the ultimate cause of much anguish in developing countries. When we get this connection, we can begin to eradicate the cause.

We have enough money; we just need to prioritize its uses. It will mean sharing. It will mean repositioning money to the causes outlined above, versus continuing on the downward spiral of ‘more’ as our primary objective in life.

Ninety day cycles of earnings are a recipe for global disaster. The system was created with public disclosure in mind but it was created by regulators, well meaning lawyers & financiers, trying to regulate integrity into our system. The inherent difficulty in this type of economic system is that it does not take into account the cost of human injustice or environmental degradation.

We have to build a balance into our continuous pursuit of mammon, ‘increased standard of living’ in more acceptable terms. Who decides on that balance? We do!

We individually can have an impact. We need to make ourselves aware of the issues & make our voice heard wherever & whenever the possibility presents itself. Read Ina’s latest poem, she is putting her thoughts in rhyme. Bono puts his in song.

However, you would like to do it, participate; this is not a spectator sport any longer. We have built an economic system where a few are able to corner most of the world’s resources & the majority gets to survive as best they can. We all know that means starvation, lack of proper health care, & minimal to no education, in large parts of the world.

Why?

The answer to that question involves our being part of the favored few. However, if we could ‘see’ the issues differently, as cooperation instead of competition, then we could have our rising standard of living improve the lot of our fellow beings on this spaceship known as planet earth at the same time. This is not a race to the finish; this is an evolution in being. We need to realize that we are on a journey in this part of the solar system that ultimately leads to another journey in a different sphere. Even if some of us think that is not the case & we expect this planet & this life to be the only one, it still makes common sense to share the planet in a way that does not bring a cataclysmic conclusion for our grandkids.

Is peace probable? It might appear not at this point in history. However, I am writing these thoughts to state that I for one see a light at the end of the tunnel. History has a way of unfolding as a collection of thoughe really is hope & ‘act’ in accordance with those beliefs, we will change the world. We will change the outcome. We are the world. We are all in this together. We are one in spirit. We came from the same spiritual mold. We are who we think we are & we can ‘act’ that way.

This is not a hopeless dream. Ina & I are not the only ones dreaming this future. We hope you will join us.

Love of money & things can be replaced with the love of justice & peace. Actually that is a formula for peace, at least within each of us individually, if not for all mankind.

Let peace begin with me!

Namaste, David

OCT 7/07 - SUCCESS, OBESITY, & THANKSGIVING

This week I was reading a book on money & the meaning of life. One of the gals interviewed was quoted as follows: “Somehow life gets stressful & more complicated as we become more successful”.

Read that again & think about the last word in the quote.

What does she mean by the word ‘successful’?

What does it mean to each of us?

Does it mean the accumulation of more money?

Does it mean the accumulation of things?

Why?

Why do we equate success to money & things?

Joseph Campbell said: “If you follow your bliss, you’ll always have your bliss. If you follow money, you may lose it, & you won’t have it”.

Is Joseph Campbell recommending a failure lifestyle rather than a successful one? Or, might Joseph have the ‘key’ to real success?

What is real success? Does real success involve all humankind, or is it just a personal concept? If it involves our brothers & sisters around the globe, read the following & consider how successful we are.

“World Health Organization data indicate roughly 1.2 billion people are undernourished, underweight, & often hungry. At the same time, roughly 1.2 billion people are over nourished, & overweight, most of them suffering from caloric intake & exercise deprivation. So while 1 billion people worry whether they will eat, another billion should worry about eating too much”: Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet under Stress & A Civilization in Trouble.

Obesity has become a popular topic in our society today. So while we worry about eating ourselves to death, many in the world worry about starving to death. How successful a game plan is this?

Does it matter?

The answer to that question might depend upon our definition of success.

If success to us is a healthy planet, food for all, & education for all youth, it appears we have a ways to go.

If it isn’t about me but about us, we might want to rethink our 1st world definitions. The amounts of money that it would take to solve the three suggested priorities above, is very small & affordable, in the scheme of things.

We have plenty of money; it is just how it is spent.

The concentration of wealth today is the reverse of a successful game plan, in meeting world needs.

A friend of ours practices ‘fasting tithing’. He & his family fast one day per month, not eating 2 meals during that day, & give the money that they would spend for those two meals to a family that would otherwise go hungry.

Might this be the solution to obesity, as well as our planet’s hunger?

Just think if we spent our time finding ways to feed children that may starve to death rather than filling our stomachs.

I have spent a fair amount of time in Las Vegas recently, helping a friend, & the town’s occupancy rates continue to achieve record numbers. In every hotel, we see huge lines of human flesh waiting for a place at the buffet, where obesity will be enhanced.

There is no lack of money or food in this ‘Mecca of Mammon’. We actually believe this City could be a showcase for micro thinking. If you can believe this, Ina has taken on the idea of recycling for Vegas. So far she has one developer’s secretary helping her. Their first office has a number of containers for plastic & cans & they are working on getting the concept into their 375 unit condo complex on the strip. Talk about planting a ‘seed’.

What better place to find food than the City of Lights, where food is thrown away by the truckload.

Is there a possibility that sister cities could be established where the amount of food thrown away in one, shows up in equal amounts in the other? Could the amount of pounds we lose by fasting, show up on the bones of hungry kids elsewhere?

What is ‘success’ anyway?

Success is how we define it!

What is our ‘intention’?

Intention is powerful!

What do each of us ‘intend’ to do with the days we have left?

The answer to that question partly depends upon how we define success.

Could our concentrating on those who put too much into their mouths, end up helping those who don’t have enough? Might that which flows off our bones, end up on those gaunt children we see in other nations?

This is not about sending food on an endless basis but about readjusting the flow. Abundance is a concept that evades our materialistic self but is inherent in our spiritual nature. The apple tree flourishes while no one watches.

Without a direct connection to Spirit, it’s what comes out of our mouths & goes into our mouths, that can hurt others & ourselves. Spirit connection helps achieve the balance.

Bill Clinton recently wrote about ‘Giving’, I’m talking about ‘Sharing’.

Our lives will be full-filled, when we learn how to ‘let go’. Attachment is the Source of all evil, not the item or action itself.

Flow is the coming & going of ideas & wealth, not the damming up of the river. Health is the proper balance between what flows into the body & what flows out. Exercise helps the movement. Success is finding that balance & sharing is part of that balancing act.

We have a chance to live a different paradigm than we were taught. Could success be equated to the amount we disperse rather than the amount we accumulate? This is a very achievable goal!

Is fear behind our ‘needs’?

Is love the antidote?

Happy Thanksgiving, David

SEPT 30/07 - RENDER UNTO CAESAR

This week I finished a book ‘Money & The Meaning of Life’, Jacob Needleman. This is a book that everyone ought to read. Needleman discusses materialism, our way of life as “swirling energy that catches us up”.

He goes on to say “there are two movements of all energy & life – toward & away from unity, toward & away from the wholeness of universal oneness”. He is referring to what I call the turmoil of our inner feelings. We are continuously pulling away or towards unity. It is a swirling mixture. It is our upheaval, so to speak.

Needlemen writes “The Intelligence that created the Universe & which exists as pure energy, awareness, & joy”. If this is true, then this Intelligence is part of the nature of all of us. Is that an indication that that which we call God, ‘Intelligence’, is embedded within each of us? Which leads me to the question, ‘is God actually a combination of all of us’?

Many people have quoted the following ‘With God all things are possible’, might that mean that God ‘is’ all of us put together, our combined intelligence.

Bill Clinton says in his new book ‘Giving’: “if everyone gave of their time, we could change the world”. If we assume God ‘is’ a combination of all of us then Bill’s quote sounds like ‘with God all things are possible’.

Bill refers to a webpage for volunteering: www.vso.org.uk

So where did we veer off the path that would make all things possible? In our society, materialism became our God, so to speak. We found the concept of shopping as ‘things’ became a symbol of who we are.

As quoted in ‘The Religion of Capitalism’, Weber: “what Weber saw was capitalism made into a religion, a religion in the service of which man employed all the gifts of his mind & heart….. Man exists for the sake of his business instead of the reverse”.

We have pursued money for money’s sake. We have become captivated by that which is a medium of exchange. We call it ‘standard of living’ or many other names but it has led us away from the energy that brings personal peace. That chase for materialism has led to the imbalance amongst societies. It has been a competition for scarce resources & the development of armaments to protect our right to get & keep those advantages, our standard of living.

Today, we are beginning to see that this rampant use of our materially oriented energy, may lead to the collapse of our planet. Now our self interest has come into the picture, which is what our system is built on in the first place, ‘self interest’. The negative impact we have had upon the environment is not something we want the rest of the planet to compound. ‘They’, of course, wonder why not. What we have planted we hope does not come to fruition. But if nature teaches us anything, what we have planted, will in time flourish.

What I am trying to point towards, is the swirling energy that lives within all of us, that energy that leads us outward or inward. Our intelligence, the mind, has led us to many external inventions, our emotions, the heart, has not been accorded the same respect. The lack of balance between these two energies has been out of balance in a society that reveres material wealth. It has become a religion, so to speak. We do live for our businesses or our jobs rather than them being a means to an end. We live most of our week, focusing on the accumulation, protection, or compounding, of money.

The activity which will recharge our emotional batteries is in the giving. This is the activity & thought process that will light our way, lighten our load, & enlighten our future. If we are capable of ‘seeing’ money as something to be given away, passed on, then our inner being will shine. This does as much or more for us than for those we assist.

It is obvious that there is inequity on the planet, what is not obvious is that our personal peace is tied to reducing & hopefully removing that inequity.

This is not a competition to the death. There is more than enough when we learn how to share. Together anything is possible, or with God all things are possible, have it your way.

When we stop focusing on what we don’t have & begin to share it, the possibilities for wealth accumulation compound. Many might be thinking right now ‘if I don’t have enough, then how can I consider sharing it, that is nuts’. The catch is in the thinking.

When we ‘feel’ wealthy, we attract opportunities. It is that which is ingrained in our being that produces results, our inherent abilities. When we ‘see’ talent in another, we cultivate that talent. When we ‘see’ only problems in another that’s what grows. That, in turn, harms relationships.

So who is Caesar? Caesar represents the material world. Maybe you remember the last half of that saying, ‘render unto God that which is God’s’.

Who is God?

Us!

Together!

As one!

Love by another name!

David

SEPT 23/07 - WHERE HAVE ALL THE BUFFALO GONE

This week I drove across the plains of Western Utah, Eastern Idaho, Western Montana, & Southern Alberta. I had eaten in a restaurant where they had a picture of buffalo roaming the plains. There was a ‘sea’ of buffalo as far as the eye could see. I did not ‘see’ one buffalo on my two day trip.

That got me to thinking about what we, the white man, had done to them. We wiped them off the face of the earth that’s what we did. Slaughter for their hides, to make fur coats, the meat rotting everywhere. Not much different to today’s killing for diamonds, for broaches, only this new killing involves the murder of people.

Not far to the East of my drive, was the location of Custer’s last stand. Custer was out West protecting the white man’s right to have ‘dominion’ over the buffalo & the land. Maybe the red men decided that the slaughter of their sacred brothers, the source of their own existence, was not right. Maybe the red men questioned the authority of this God which gave the white man that dominion. Maybe they didn’t agree with what Custer stood for even if it was his last stand. Did Custer even think the price was right?

Speaking of man’s dominion over the birds & animals of this earth, does that mean the right to eliminate whole species? This makes me think of our friends in Baja, the Sea of Cortes, who are trying to save that ocean after a precipitous 90% plunge in marine life. We, mankind, wipe out whole oceans without thought of replenishment. We don’t give much thought to the limits of this Garden of Eden. We may someday comprehend what ‘sustainability’ means. Maybe we are discovering that this just can’t go on if we are to survive. Does it seem conceivable that we are stupid enough or ignorant enough to gradually wipe ourselves off the face of the earth? We apparently are not only capable of that but in fact, it has been prophesied.

I must admit that the word sustainability has not been one that I have intrinsically accepted & properly understood. It has been more a word that floated in my consciousness without any emotional attachment, until now. My drive home this week drove home a deep emotional feeling that I just can’t shake, nor should I. We have dominion & with that dominion, responsibility. We have to understand, we have to speak out, and we have to act.

Peter, Paul, & Mary sang: ‘Where have all the soldiers gone, gone to graveyards everyone’. As they point out, we don’t just wipe the buffalo off the land & the fishes from the oceans, we give equal time to wiping out humanity. The Red Men got caught in that same paradigm. Come to think of it so did the black folk. What gives us the right? More importantly, why don’t we stop it?

Since the Crusades, we have launched most of our wars against each other, in the name of God. Lately, the Islamists have been knocking down buildings in the name of this same authority. As a matter of fact he, was It a he, was the same ‘fellow’ who gave us white guys dominion over everything.

Who is this ‘fellow’ that gave us the right to eliminate life on earth? Did this ‘fellow’ really intend that which we are allowing to happen? Did this ‘fellow’ even realize that materialism would rear its head in such an ugly way? Materialism & the pursuit thereof, has become an ugly monster, a demon so to speak. Does this ‘fellow’ even understand materialism, the manifestation of thought? In the beginning was the Word! Is this ‘fellow’ thought Itself, in Spirit only? Are we direct descendants of this Spirit, this Thought? Are we caught in the manifested world? Are we having an out of body experience, so to speak, & before it’s our time to leave the body to return to the Original Thinker? After all it was His thought to have us & to give us dominion!

We may in some ways be like our brother buffalo, rushing in a stream to wards the cliff, stampeded by those who benefit by our going off the edge. We, like the buffalo, tend to keep our heads down, hope that everything will correct itself prior to our finishing this physical journey, & that our kids & grandkids will get to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

What fruits, I’m starting to ask? A tree can provide sustenance & clean our air. We are cutting them down at alarming rates. Our oceans can multiply until we wipe species out one by one. We can stay alive breathing our air, until we allow pollution to overcome our bodies. We can live an idyllic life until we allow the pursuit of ‘mammon’ to devour us.

New life is springing from our loins! Welcome Sam! What will they or he know differently? We are the Mentors the young will look to emulate.

What if Sam wants to see a ‘sea’ of buffalo? What if he asks where they went & why? Are we willing to face our culpability? Do we even feel any responsibility or are we just sitting out this last dance?

Is this journey, for us to sit in the bleachers & watch, or for us to get on the field and play?

There will always be those who will take to the field with aggression in mind, ‘dominion rights’ so to speak. Peace is not in their hearts, necessarily, & spirit will need to be awakened.

Can we wake up, spiritually speaking, can we make the turn before our cruise liner hits the rocks? Hope springs eternal! Works are needed also.

We are the lucky few, billions upon billions of sperm never made it. We have the chance to overcome our false understanding of dominion. We must stand up, we must stand out, we must have confidence in our own answers. Right Andrea!

Love, David

SEPT 16/07 - AS TEARS GO BY

Today’s title was a song, in the ‘60’s, by Marianne Faithfull. Peter, Paul, & Mary followed up with the lyrics ‘how many years must a man have, before he hears people cry’. These folk singers, along with many more, like Dylan, were resonating with a very profound message. We, of the ‘60’s, listened with eager naiveté & gradually morphed into the culture to which we were born.

That very culture & it’s under pinning is the root of much that has gone sideways on our planet. Thank goodness we are finally waking up to that fact. We are now being classified as ‘Cultural Creatives’ instead of the term ‘Hippies’ that was used for us in the ‘60’s.

‘Flower Power’ was another way of describing the strong movement & the underlying emotions that girded that peace loving time. John Lennon camped in his bed with the media all around him for a few days in Montreal. His message was peace not war. He wrote the song ‘Imagine’ to convey that message. It is somewhat a sad commentary that the media gave ‘Satisfaction’, Rolling Stones, the #1 record of the decade title instead of ‘Imagine’ but is a commentary on where we all drifted. Materialism & consumerism became our mantra & our planet became much smaller through globalization. We were able to get ‘Satisfaction’ at a much cheaper price by taking advantage of cheap oil & cheap labor, wherever in the world we could find people willing to work for $2/day.

Many of us are now seeing the cost of that supposed wealth, environmental degradation, poverty, & a war on terrorism. Where does that road end? To find out go to iTunes & listen to the lyrics of Peter, Paul, & Mary’s “Where Have All the Flowers Gone”.

There are numerous places where we can find out the ending in this saga of ours, life on earth. When do we wake up in enough numbers to speak out in a voice that will be heard around the world? In the past it has been noted ‘the shot that was heard around the world’, why not a voice of reason & conflict resolution heard internationally? One of the 4 pillars that Royal Roads University, www.royalroads.ca, is built on is Conflict Resolution. They have courses for any of us that would like to contribute to world peace or at least understand how it might be possible. While perusing their continuing education courses, check out their Sustainability curriculum, another one of the 4 pillars. Their top officers are well worth getting to know, as well. Leadership is another of their 4 pillars & I might as well mention the last one, Entrepreneurship.

My most recent reading is about Africa, a book written by a Polish journalist. He describes the millions of displaced starving people & the genocide which for the most part is unknown to our Western populations. It doesn’t affect us so why bother? Now if they had oil! That would be different as we could send billions of dollars to rebuild their infrastructure & give them a chance to live a life without daily hunger.

It is unfortunate that they were born in that part of the planet. Desert isn’t a word we associate with much value except for golf or gambling. However it’s a little too far to fly to ‘play a round’. Talking about playing around, I’m currently in Las Vegas & the local newspaper just put out the figures for August, 92% occupancy for the hotels. They are setting revenue records in a desert town that keeps secrets.

So money isn’t the issue, it is how we allocate it. It is how we share or don’t. The planets resources have a limit & we apparently are going to test where the breaking point is. This may or may not happen in our lifetime but it certainly will in our kids & grandkids.

Maybe the recording industry should re-release ‘As Tears Go By’ as a siren to those of us that have not yet picked up on the issues that face our families. We can’t leave it to them to figure out; it is going to take our help as well.

My suggestions come from the spiritual realm. Either we have the spirit to tackle the changes within ourselves or we will never see change within the outer realm. We manifest what we think & feel. Too often we don’t feel. The outer world is a reflection of our inner world.

We are the answer we have been waiting for. Let’s try to help dry those ‘tears that go by’ on this our only home, Mother Earth.

‘All you need is love’, The Beatles.

I agree, David

SEPT 9/07 - ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE – ALL THINGS MUST PASS

Elvis sang the first part of today’s title & George Harrison named his CD the latter part. These two singers have captured the nature of things. We come from nothing, manifested by thought (who’s), & we return to the dust, as does a tree. What part of us enters the ether?

A young Jewish chap once walked amongst mankind & demonstrated the energy force that overcomes physical death. Many Western Nations still remember the event as Easter Day. This fellow came out of a physical cave to demonstrate the coming out process that happens as our physical body deteriorates.

To touch this energy while still in our earthly clothes, we need to turn inward & locate the loci of our soul. The heart is where this energy is focused. The energy is often referred to as emotion, called love.

All things are possible & nothing is new under the sun. Even Solomon knew that. The Universe has all the answers & we are capable of tapping into those wisdom waves. Swirling around us at all times are numerous energy fields, such as the wireless network that I am currently operating through here at the hotel in Southern Oregon.

The sun provides life to our planet, love provides life to our relationships, & money can facilitate both. Sometimes we reverse these concepts & money & fear get in the way of relationships.

We are endowed with the ability to care & we have the capacity to cure the worlds’ ills. We can do so a little teensy bit at a time, checkout Oprah’s latest find at www.kiva.org.

Everyday in everyway, we can make a difference. Even President Clinton has joined the idea with his latest book, Giving.

I just finished a book by a Canadian Author & successful businessman, Frank O’Dea. He writes about going to Sierra Leone where he saw 3 & 4 year old children with one or both hands cut off by the gangs fighting for political superiority. In addition, the same groups gang rape young girls & then gouge out their eyes before sending them back to their villages. How can this go on in our world & how can we stand by & let it?

Frank was once a homeless street kid & today has started a movement for young street kids all over the world, called SKI, Street Kids International. Frank used to sit still begging dimes on the street in Toronto but he isn’t sitting still any more. His book is well worth a read.

There are heroic stories everywhere, as Elvis suggests, ‘anything is possible’ if we will just believe. We all have a lot to give & that’s the key, as Clinton recommends, giving. Giving lightens the heart, giving lightens the load. Giving enhances self esteem. Giving is part of the path to enlightenment.

All of us have an unlimited capacity to give. What holds us back? We are here for a short time & there is much we can give, much we can do.

Let’s together envision a new world & hold that intention until it comes about. Envisioning is only half of the equation, action is the other half. When we start a snow ball rolling it can accumulate a fair size on its own after that. Planting a seed can result in a large oak tree.

Words of encouragement water the imagination of youth. Hope springs eternal. Our journey isn’t over yet. It may have only just begun. The fields of opportunity are ripe for the picking. Two thirds of the world lives on less than $2/day. Opening our eyes & our hearts is all that it takes. Ina has started a mentorship program at the Royal Roads University in Victoria. Numerous people are having the time of their lives providing young people with what Ina calls Elder Wisdom. We learn through heart ache & our mistakes in life. These valuable lessons are the basis for mentoring.

I’m sure each of us can dredge up one or two difficult times that we have had during our years here on Mother Earth. Passing on the wisdom gained from these difficult times, is what it is all about. Young people believe, like Elvis, that all things are possible. We Elders know that all tough times must pass. Encouragement at the right time dispersed in a compassionate fashion is the antidote to life discouraging failure. Who helped Frank O’Dea up off the street?

Is Richard Leblanc the Victoria answer to the homeless? Frank has just arrived at Royal Roads to ask for support for his YEP group that has helped 550 Victoria street people to find new lives & he has a 72% long term success rate. Should we help him? Who can we get as a mentor? Might that be you? Might the time be now?

All things are possible! Elvis seemed to love singing gospel. George Harrison definitely pursued the Eastern religions after leaving the Beatles. Check out his ‘All Things Must Pass’ & ‘Living In A Material World’ CD’s. The words both these fellows sing bring tears to my eyes & hope to my heart.

What does the future hold? Whatever it does, the past has no hold on it.

Let go & let’s go. The future counts on us.

Love, David

SEPT 2/07 - HEART BASED SERVICE

Service is the answer to our internal search. True service is heart based.

Operating from the heart removes many head-aches. When the heart is open, love floods our system. The feelings that come with that ecstasy overpower our thoughts.

Love of another overpowers our love of self. We often get wrapped up in the negative aspects of life or the hurtful comments of others. Either of these will lead to tears & a lowering of self worth.

When we find ourselves falling prey to these feelings, thoughts, or people, we need remove ourselves from the harmful results. Often times abused people never move away from the source, as to consider the alternative seems frightening. The alternative can be a life filled with love & service but the abused person needs to remove the old way of thinking & responding as well as a physical move.

Service opens doors that were never there before. People respond in different ways to heart based offers of help. Some are incredulous & others suspicious. However, once they realize the sincerity of the offer, they are often astounded but usually appreciative. Those are the reactions of another, what happens within ones own demeanor is another matter altogether. Health is improved, stress is reduced, & years are added to ones life.

Heart based living creates a new person, born again so to speak. This has no religious connotations; it is a state of health. It is a new wedding attended by our inner being. It is an opening of our own heart’s door to the love & wisdom of the Universe. We are a pathway to love & light.

The next great frontier to explore is our inner Universe. We have a new lifetime ahead of us. We have the wisdom, the economics, & the health to make the most of the rest of this physical journey we are traveling.

All around us needs are evident. The fields are ripe for harvesting. We have a chance to sow seeds of love & service wherever we look. We can walk past & ignore the obvious but the price ‘we’ pay is higher than the needs we ignore. If we could truly accept the concepts, that that which we give comes back tenfold or what we sow so shall we reap, our lives could be transformed.

Living in giving is the opposite of our first world culture, materialism & competition. What we get, we often horde, while happiness lies within the flow. Wealth is abundance given to be shared. Love is of unlimited supply, we could give it away freely. Our focus often gets clouded by our immediate surroundings. Other people don’t always treat us the way we expect. Letting go & moving beyond is the antidote, not easy but redeeming.

At birth we are a perfect replica of a Divine Nature. Gradually, we build up a self image but it is just that, an image. The distortion between that image & our True Nature is the questing feeling that we get. The fear of death is the separation from our true nature. The self image will ultimately dissolve & we will morph back into our original Nature. The path to this Divine Nature on earth is through service to others. Through others we can meet the Divine within ourselves.

Selfless we live, selfish we fall.

David

AUG 26/07 - HEARTBASED INTELLIGENCE

Here is a topic that has recently been introduced to Ina & I & what do I know about it? Not much!

However, I’m thinking, or should I say ‘feeling’, that this concept is going to become very important in our lives.

I will give it my best effort to help you, the reader, to understand something that might have inestimable value to your life.

Our hearts may be the door to the Universe, to Universal Wisdom. We may have all the answers to our questions at our fingertips, or should I say heart tips. Yes, through intuition we may know all we need to know.

When one is operating from the heart instead of the head, different decisions & values kick in. The heart often wants to help when the head says no. Logically, we hold back, when tears want to flow.

Our life would be released from much stress if we got out of living in our head. We sometimes live from the heart. How might we live a life in our heart, the gateway to the kingdom? Flooded with love is not a bad way to drown.

The bloodstream is the river of life; life is where we live it. Oxygen circulates through our blood stream. The brain is the receptacle of past events & future possibilities. Those endless combinations create stress as we become hardwired to its churning.

Yesterday, we heard the phrase eco-despair. This one added to nature deficit disorder has my brain spinning in hope-less loops. Where can faith, hope, & awe enter? They can enter through the door of love, the heart.

What one puts out is what one receives. Giving is the doorway to receiving. Our heart is the giving pump. Our brain is the getting machine.

Moving to a heart centered life allows Universal Intelligence to be the Director. Being open to the sounds of silence, can provide a Universal White Board that our lives can be written upon, & whenever needed an eraser to remove the blemishes.

Isn’t that an exciting concept! Today, we could bring up the white board & erase those past mistakes in our life that continue to haunt us. We no longer need to chew over those sins or castigate our actions. We have a clean slate, to become as a little child.

Accumulation is a trap & that does not just apply to things, but also thoughts. Our life is who we have thought ourselves to be. Our society is a compilation of those thoughts. We can have a completely different society if we wish.

Yesterday, Ina & I spent some time with friends discussing what that new society (we used terms like community & village) might look like. We would like to provide places where we could share that vision. Wouldn’t it be terrific if we had heart based villages, to visit, where personal peace & service were the underlying themes? The benefits to our own life would far outweigh the energy we expended on behalf of others.

To get a much more educated version of the heart-based life and its stress free benefits, go to HeartMath. A group of people living from the heart could change the world. Certainly one young man a couple of generations ago did. Giving our life to something greater than our ‘self’ has unlimited benefits to our personal health & happiness.

Take a deep breath, invigorate the bloodstream, let go of your thoughts, go deep into feelings. What do you feel, what do you hear? Whose voice is that, what is it telling you to do?

How intelligent do we believe the advice we get from our heart, is? Do we push that advice aside as too silly & react logically? In the difference lies a life not lived. This life, is a life of ‘full’-filment, inner peace.

Peace starts within & then pervades the outside world, not the reverse.

Our hearts can connect with the Heart of the Universe; we owe it to our kids & grandkids to live that way. Let’s give it a try!

David

AUG 19/07 - THIS MOMENT ON EARTH

Ina & I are visiting our grandsons Tyler & Matthew, in Sun Valley, Idaho. The local theatre had John & Teresa Heinz Kerry appearing live on stage last Friday night, to discuss their environmental book, ‘This Moment on Earth’.

They were well spoken & elaborated on much of the same evidence that Al Gore has put out in his movie & book, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. One of the questions from the audience was “don’t we as individuals have to take personal responsibility & change the way we act, along with looking to technology & government to solve these problems?” John’s answer was enlightening. He said that if you ask people to change their lifestyles or give up something they have or are doing, it will never happen” (paraphrased).

Looking at the title of Kerry’s book, I wondered what it might mean to concentrate on ‘this moment’. How many of us live in the now, not the past or the future? Our mind is often taken up in thinking about what should be done or where we should be.

Children are amazed at what they see around them & are continuously discovering something new. How might we take that sense of surprise into our later years? What is new when our heads are filled with the accumulated clutter of years of living? We can find so many things to worry about, to fear, & to prepare for. How does that leave time for smelling the roses? How does nature fit into our daily life?

The Kerry’s & the Gore’s are saying we should pay attention to nature for different reasons. They are suggesting that what we are taking for granted may not be able to withstand our continuous harmful activity. They suggest that we consider our accumulative actions & take some personal responsibility.

They are voices in the wilderness of conspicuous consumption. We hear them but we would rather not listen to the message. We believe somebody will take care of it, & if ‘they’ don’t, we wouldn’t have an impact if we tried anyway.

Stopping to smell the roses has us pay attention to nature & nature has many of the answers that provide wisdom for living. Nature will ultimately self correct that which we throw out of kilter. However, it may have to eradicate us to do so. It seems a shame that mankind has to be thrown out of the Garden of Eden to save it. It seems that story has been written before. Maybe myths have some reality as their basis.

This moment on earth is the time for us. We have a chance to make a difference. We each get to choose how we contribute. We can let this moment pass by. We can keep up a busy lifestyle or we can stop & reflect. What will this world look like for our grandchildren when they are our age? The Gore’s & the Kerry’s are saying there is a tipping point & both suggest that it is long before our grandchildren will reach our age.

Now that thought should cause a ‘moment’ of concern. Is it truly possible that we have reached that point in the progress of humanity where we might be able to bring the world as we know it to an end?

In the past it was easy to say “let’s leave it to the kids & grandkids to straighten things out”. That may no longer be an option. The grandkids may not have the time to get to an age where they knew what hit them or why. Now that brings it to the personal level. So what can I do? The first thing is to become ‘aware’ of the issue. The next is to know what the alternatives are.

Teresa mentioned that what is being spent in one week on the war in Iraq could outfit every gas station in America with an alternative energy outlet. Money is no longer the issue it is how it is being allocated. Whose money is it? Ours! Who decides how it is spent? Ultimately, we do!

NGO’s, non-governmental organizations, are sprouting up all over the world. Which of these NGO’s represent our point of view? How involved are we in helping them get their message across to those in power? If we don’t know where else to go, go to Yahoo’s front page & hit Yahoo Green, http://green.yahoo.com/index.php?q=learn. This is not just about green, it’s about life.

When is our moment to shine? In eternity there is only one moment, now!

If not now, when?

David

AUG 12/07 - HEART INTELLIGENCE

Might the heart have a way of communicating? Might the heart have intelligence from another Source? Is the mind part of a ‘closed’ system?

Meditation is a method of slowing down the thoughts rattling around in the mind. We generate those thoughts & they are usually of past or future events.

When we can stop the mind, the heart can open up to intuition, a unique Source of answers, which can then be fed to the brain. It is a knowing!

Where do these ‘right feeling’ answers come from? Does it matter? The key ingredient is to trust them. We ‘know’ the right thing to do.

Worry, fear, & other negative thoughts lead to stress. Intuition leads to peace.

When we are doing that which we ‘know’ we were sent here to do, life lightens up. As life lightens up, things seem to naturally flow our way.

Let go & let God is an old bumper sticker, but may have significant truth within it. The term God, refers to the Source of all ideas. It is the place where our innate talent resides.

Our innate talent lies at our core, so does the Source of all wisdom. They are inter-twined.

Love lies at our core. Love is a Universal language. Love attracts.

Love can say more through your eyes than a book full of platitudes.

Can we get past our human frailties? Can we live in a world of love?

My personal experience says ‘that it is not easy’. We respond to events & people around us. We don’t hold our core. Living is often much like letting the ship’s tiller swing freely. We are thereby thrashed around in the stormy seas of life.

When we are emotionally confused, we have left our centre of being. We are no longer our natural self. We are all children of a Spiritual Father. Once we wake up to this fact, we can overcome the world. We can live in the world but not of it. We ‘can’ detach.

Does detaching mean to sit by & watch? No, good works bring good fruit. We have much to sow. We can believe that what we sow this year we will harvest next. Look at nature & learn. What dies re-grows, ‘if a seed did not die to itself, we would never see the flower’. We are the caterpillar that has the possibility of converting to a butterfly. Does that beauty need wait until our physical shell has been peeled away? That choice is ours.

We have the capability of flowering while residing in this physical temple. We were given our chance when two seeds gave their life & merged into each other to create us. As the end result of that sacrifice, we often ‘think’ we are the final point of that evolutionary chain. Nature will show us different. Evolution of the physical is an ongoing process.

Are we the physical? The answer to this question is where peace lies. Once we can overcome the dream we live in, the world becomes clearer. Once we can live from the heart, the world becomes peaceful. It is the ‘water that quenches’.

This process is not just a matter of detaching from the material aspects of our world but also not reacting to the emotional ups & downs of daily living.

Everybody loves a new born baby. What does that baby have that we can’t rediscover?

We once were a newborn, ‘one must become as a little child again to discover heaven on earth’. Must we be reborn through the womb, physically, or can we ‘become’ that bundle of love we hold in our arms, shedding all the emotional baggage created through aging?

We call aging, maturity, but getting beyond our physical self to our spiritual heritage is a sign of true wisdom. To get to that stage is to recognize the oneness of all being & that what we do unto others is what happens unto us.

Love is a state of being. The heart is the path to that intelligence. How smart we ‘think’ we are. How free we could be!

Often times we feel that our heart has been broken, so now it is a closed book. This leaves happiness at a distance for us, more than for those people that we filter. Disappointment leads to shutting down.

To open the heart is to open the petals & flower. Is there a risk in that approach to life? Not if the love is given freely with no expectation of reciprocation. Flowers give off their beauty & scent without expectation of reward. Nature provides us a veritable Garden of Eden, while we live in a world of preoccupation. Stop & smell the roses, is a worthwhile suggestion.

Heart based living is mind expanding. The heart is the garden, don’t corrupt the fruits. Allow your beauty to spread its wings. Allow your angel to fly.

David

AUG 5/07 - THREE STATES of BEING

Does the world around you leave you in a state of apprehension?

Does what goes on daily bother your inner peace?

Do you find yourself worrying over various issues?

If we answer yes to any of these questions it would indicate that we are living externally, in that dream we call reality, in the outer physical world.

This does not mean that we don’t have to provide sustenance for our physical body on a daily basis, ‘give us this day our daily bread’. When living in that external ‘reality’, it is the attachment that evolves. We begin to feel as though we ‘are’ the player in the play. We connect with that which we can ‘see’. We become the image that we portray.

The journey is to detach & recognize that we live within our physical temple. Here we meet two aspects of our being, the self image & the Source, our real self. This is where the real struggle begins.

How do we live up to our potential, how do we achieve our true purpose for being here, what could be the fruits of our imagination if we truly imagined?

The closer we approach the core of our being the brighter the light shines. Love is at the center of the Universe & the center of the Universe is at the core of us. We are that which we see & that which we don’t ‘see’.

The struggle between our two internal selves is a struggle of emotions. The one central emotion is love. To locate that center is to walk the narrow path. The fruits of that path are manifold.

All of the other emotions that pervade our daily living are steps off the straight & narrow. These other emotions contain fear, worry, envy, & other unsettling feelings. These emotions are of a selfish nature & provide little in the way of productive fruit.

The source of peace for our own life & those around us, is the narrow path we ourselves must find. We manifest that which we nurture.

This often times is a difficult walk as we find ourselves reacting to those around us. As others move off the narrow path, we tend to move with them. Keeping our center of being is the place that peace arises both for ourselves & ultimately for the world around us.

How is it possible to maintain the balance that a life of love promises when so much is bombarding our senses?

We must become aware that we are not that which we see. We then have the chance to realize we are not that which we have been. We can be a new being in love.

This is a reversal of the person that we have spent much of our physical life developing. Our physical journey is a learning experience, an opportunity to recognize who we really are.

We are the Reality of the Universe at our core. We just need to find our way home. We are lost souls until we find our base.

We create that which we imagine. Imagine that!

Recognize the power that we have. Our power is in the form of service.

When we offer our God given talents, much can be achieved, much will be appreciated. Our own sense of Self will be enhanced.

When the orange tree provides oranges it does so freely. When they have been picked & eaten the tree produces more.

How might we learn from that tree? Each of us has hidden talents that we can give freely or sparingly. In the difference lies our own degree of happiness & fulfillment.

Pricing our talents at a maximum & conserving their use, is to wither up the tree that produces those fruits. Our job, as the gardener, is to prune those emotions that deliver bad fruit & cultivate those that provide true sustenance.

Where do those talents come from? Where do the oranges come from?

We develop an ego, a self image that the tree doesn’t. We ‘think’ that we are the center of the Universe. Our heart ‘knows’ we are not. Heart intelligence!

Is it possible that our heart is the doorway to another Universe? Is it possible that our head does not have all the answers? Might we find our path through our feelings?

The heart is where love resides.

David

JULY 30/07 - A WEDDING

Ina & I just returned from the wedding of her niece, Nicole. During the wedding ceremony, the Pastor referred to the ‘love’ that binds Chris & Nicole together. This love is stronger than any other force in nature.

During the reception, Christine’s new 4 month old son, Sam, fell asleep on Ina’s shoulder & Ina was overcome with emotion. This brought tears to Christine’s eyes, also.

What creates such emotions? Love is at the center of our being. Our very core is concentrated love. We connect through a loving thread.

We leave our love core when we wander on our individualistic forays. Our self takes over during those times & we are disconnected from the vibrancy that emanates our body.

A spirit pervades settings like the wedding & reception on Saturday. The wedding was held in a beautiful garden & then the reception at the Harvest Golf Course, a golf course laid out through an orchard looking down on Lake Okanagan from the hills.

The glow that encompassed both gatherings was the soft glow of friendship & love.

We met, we beheld, we felt, & we related. We were caught up by the setting & the feelings exuded by the couple.

The love that everyone held for them was a bond amongst the group. We were not all known to each other but we shared a common ‘feeling’. This feeling extended towards the bride & groom & their extended families.

We were born in love, we can live in love, & we will be absorbed into love.

Love is not something solid that we can get our hands on & yet we try to wrap our arms around it, with hugs.

We hold new born babies with feelings that bind & bring tears to ones eyes.

We are caught up in the moment & nothing else matters. Love chases our cares away.

Whatever is going on in the world around us is shielded out by the cocoon of our feelings.

We become that which we feel. We become lost in love. We become love incarnate.

Where does that euphoria reside when we put our love feelings aside?

Can we return to our core while still living in this earthly body? Obviously, the answer is yes, as this weekend is our witness.

Can we live a love filled life or does ‘reality’ play a part?

What is reality? Is it a journey away from the ‘kingdom’ of love?

Is it possible that we can enter that ‘kingdom’ while here on earth?

Yes, Nicole & Chris invited us to do that this weekend, successfully!

I took the lonely road for many years but returned to my first love, Ina. I was fortunate enough to find her home & the bond still strong.

Love never dies & as long as we are wrapped in love, neither shall we.

Love, David

July 22/07 - GOOD BUSINESS – BAD KARMA

I have done business for years but have just begun to realize how much ‘good’ business is related to taking advantage of one’s fellow man.

The ‘opportunity’ as it is considered, results from the misfortunes of someone else. The other party is not considered as a human being but in terms of how far can we take advantage of them. To many business people, particularly those with considerable wealth already, this is often a game.

The game gets much larger once institutions, such as banks & other financial institutions are looked on as prey. The public, us, are considered fair game through the major stock markets. We are often termed, OPM, ‘other people’s money’, ours. Our money is often leveraged, put at risk, far beyond what would be considered prudent, if a person were using their own money. Thus we have the Enron’s.

Why would business people consider this course of action? As I said earlier, often it is just a game but underlying it is a need. The need can be greed, insecurity, image, hubris, fear, or numerous other emotions.

As a matter of fact, it has been stated that the root of all evil is the ‘love’ of money.

This type of love leads to stress & many other emotional issues. The latest issue of Fortune, July 23, 2007, has an article under Business Life, ‘Om Work, with hellish hours and info overload now the norm, the C-Suite set is turning to ‘extreme meditation’ to cope.’

The article goes on to say “the key to connecting is ‘not being an asshole’.” And the most effective method, the guru that is advising the Harvard Grads suggests, is meditation.

Many years ago advice about money was encapsulated in the recommendation that “one cannot serve both God & Mammon”.

If God is us, then it makes sense that we are ruining our health with our incessant focus on finances. Peace lies just beyond the pursuit of Mammon. How do we get beyond our fears & emotions?

The Fortune recommendation, to meditate, is a compensating suggestion. It is not a substitute recommendation. What it suggests is that one takes time off to recuperate to gain more energy for the pursuit. One executive says that if you can’t find half an hour during the day to meditate then you probably need an hour.

As a society, we are materialistically oriented. Our affinity to shop is the engine that keeps the economy roaring. As a matter of fact, the Federal Reserve has been worrying about inflation, which is the result of a red hot economy. Isn’t it interesting that it is our madness, or as economists call it our propensity to shop, is the thing that needs cooling down by interest rate increases. Have you ever stopped to wonder why we allow the Federal folks to moderate our behavior with monetary controls?

This impulsive nature of ours is also what allows people to steal off us. Many people are led down the garden path by their greed for greater returns on their money.

Taking advantage of another’s misfortunes is a global issue these days. We are beginning to realize that what we are doing in other nations is having a direct impact on our own culture. The consolidation of wealth into fewer & fewer hands is the road to ruin for all humanity & the environment. We appear to be waking up to this concept.

How does it relate on the individual level, you & me? It is bad karma. It is not good for our health or our soul. We can never be at peace. Meditation helps but getting at the root cause will eradicate the bug.

Karma suggests that what goes around comes around. What we sow so shall we reap.

What are the solutions?

Do unto others as ye would want them to do unto you. Or, don’t do unto others that which ye would not want done unto you.

These basic concepts are timeless wisdoms but not something we contemplate often in our fast paced money based economy. We are too busy earning & spending to think of the impact that we are having on our fellow passengers on Planet Earth.

Our buying behavior requires resources such as oil. We take it out of the ground, turn it into toys & gasoline, & then throw it back into the environment as pollution & landfill waste. The financial people have realized that billions more people are on this same track, they call it the BRIC opportunity. This stands for Brazil, Russia, India, & China. As these four nations, with billions of people, join our materialistic lifestyle, the competition for the planets limited resources goes into high gear. Pollution & waste will compound at ever increasing rates.

Where does it stop? Does it matter?

If this kind of mad activity has a bad affect on our soul, what could be the antidote?

Sharing! Yes, sharing & caring! Thinking of the other person first!

It is not about our needs only. There is more than enough to go around if we can reorient our needs. Our supposed needs lead to unhealthy habits.

Our soul has the chance to break free of its earthly bonds. Elvis Presley sings, “As long as a man has the power to dream, his soul has the opportunity to fly”.

What is our soul? It is the immortal part of us that we can’t see. It is the part that one day will lift off from its physical platform & come clean. The more drudge connected with that angelic aspect of our nature, the more weighted down our soul will be. What do we dream about? Do we give our soul a chance to fly free? Are we allowing karma to lift our heads above the clouds or make us repeat the same mistakes in another life or life-form?

I do not intend this to be a religious dogma exercise; it is intended to help us think about the water we are swimming in. We breathe the air that everyone else breathes. What are we breathing in? Is our personal nature connected to what is happening to nature itself?

Is business bad for our health?

More importantly, is business bad for our soul?

Another ancient quote paraphrased “why be concerned for things that can be stolen by thieves or eaten by moths, why not consider the price to ones soul”?

Karma, the boomerang effect! What we put out is coming back tenfold.

Let’s share, let’s care, let’s not worry so much about what we wear as to how we wear well with others. Our word should be our bond. Ties of love are stronger than chains of bondage. We can break the habits that tie us to the root of all evil. We can free ourselves for a world of peace.

We may not bring peace to the world at large but we can bring peace to our own world. We live inside a temple that allows for peace & quiet, our physical body. We just need shut down the noise of our own desires.

Is it any of my business to suggest that business corrupts? I will let you decide.

But I would suggest that in the long run we will see that it is love that makes the world go round, not business.

Love, David

JULY 1/07 - BONO & TEDster’s*

*The Economist Magazine, “Can clever billionaires help Africa?”

Bono is a Tedster, part of a group called Technology, Entertainment, Design, which wants to help Africa’s poorest with ‘the power of ideas’.

A Cabo San Lucas Christian friend of ours has just recently returned from Eastern Europe & will be soon off to S. America with ‘words of hope’ for those in poverty’s grasp.

This week Islamist converts bombed a Scottish Airport terminal.

It sounds to me like a ‘battle of ideas’ is underway worldwide.

“We are all in little boxes of our own making inside our heads”, John Lennon, Rolling Stone Interview

I heard John’s comments & his interview on iTunes store, on the Internet, which my daughter, Michelle, introduced me to this week. Incidentally, John Lennon has an airport named after him in Liverpool, England. Maybe John’s ideas are worth listening to, I’m thinking, as nobody has named an airport after me yet.

Who is right? Is it the musicians, Bono & Lennon, or the religious contingent, our Christian friends or the Islamists?

It seems to me that everyone is ‘planting’ ideas. Seeds are being sown. The young are being indoctrinated. We are doing it often in the role of Saviors. Whether we believe the answers lie in high technology or organized religion, we are planting the seeds for the future of this planet.

The bigger question that popped out of all this for me, was, are we our ideas?

In other words, are we who we ‘think’ we are?

Are we not this body we see in the mirror but a collection of thoughts?

Does our body & lifestyle reflect that accumulation of thoughts?

Are we a spiritual being, birthed originally through those immortal words, ‘in the beginning was the Word & the Word was with God’?

If we were, could that mean that we might outlive this body? Is it possible that we entered & will exit from this physical frame, this physical temple? If so, the grave isn’t necessarily our ‘dead’ end.

Maybe the words from a young Prophet, ‘let the dead bury the dead’, may have some real import.

So what ideas should we sow? Just maybe none of us have ‘the’ answer. Possibly we should consider going out to help, as the Good Samaritan did, with no purpose in mind. If you remember he carried the wounded one to an Inn & went on his way after paying the bill. He did not stop to find out what nationality the wounded fellow was or what he might get out of it by helping him.

This approach to sowing seeds could be a Universal answer to our International issues.

I admire Bono for what he is doing. He is taking time out from his group, U2, that could be making him more money & he’s taking a chance that his taking a position could hurt the group’s popularity.

Why should he do that? Why did the Good Samaritan do what he did?

What is the point of standing up & being heard or helping out?

Ideas are who we are, maybe. What do we ‘stand’ for?

Our purpose may lie in how each of us answers that question.

Definitely, our children & grandchildren, see our decision through our actions.

Changing the world has to do with changing our mind.

Our eternal future may hang in the balance.

If we knew that when our personal computer, our brain, shuts down, what was in the hard drive will be there forever, what would we input before hitting the shutdown command?

The problem for us, as humans, is that we never know when the shutdown command will br activated. Six months ago our neighbor across the street was told that he may not live another six months. Tuesday is his funeral.

So what will we do with this ‘gift’, our physical presence, that we have been given? We have a chance to sow seeds, express our ideas, and accomplish works. No one else in the history of this world has had or ever will have the ideas that we have or could have. Having confidence in that last statement, is the avenue to expressing as a creative human being.

We are the sons & daughters of a Higher Authority. We can tap that Magnificent Creative Energy whenever we decide to do so. However, we often times get wrapped up in our earthly materialistic issues & these issues become so important ‘in our minds’ that we stress ourselves beyond reason & good health.

Isn’t it interesting that it is our mind that stresses us into poor physical health & if that is the case, then it truly is ‘mind over matter’. The young Prophet, that I referred to earlier, may have had that in ‘mind’.

Take some time to go back & read his thoughts, with that spiritual aspect in mind, rather than from a physical point of view. I think the confusing thing for many of his followers was that they were having trouble relating his words to the physical world. “How can you be born again” was one of their questions. They couldn’t ‘see’ beyond the physical world.

We often have trouble ‘seeing’ beyond our physical & emotional issues, especially if we are going through a rough emotional or financial period.

There is life beyond our current circumstances & there just may be life beyond our current physical condition. How could the life force energy ever be extinguished? It is our ego that separates us into believing something that ridiculous. Energy is energy. You may unplug it but you don’t ‘kill’ it.

Our ‘life-force’ is our true nature. It is something we can tap into whenever we ‘decide’. Our self image, the ego, disconnects us & we often accept that condition. Thus, our journey involves getting past our ego. Now that may sound simple but from my experience, I am convinced it is one of the toughest jobs we face. Many of us don’t even realize that we need to face it. Many of us ‘believe’ that the grave is the final result or that there is a heaven somewhere up there. We too often think in terms of results rather than the journey. We are on a never ending journey, it isn’t about the goal.

Living in the present is part of reaching immortality. There is no ‘time’ in the present. There is no past or future. There is no stress. Stress comes from getting out of the moment & ‘thinking’ about the past & the future.

These are ‘my’ thoughts & no one has to agree with them. I have to be responsible for my own immortality. I want to take personal responsibility for the seeds that I sow.

So what’s up? Some would say heaven, but heaven is here & now. If we don’t understand that, we may never ‘see’ it. We’ve been given eyes to ‘see’ through, let’s use them, we’ve been given a heart to ‘love’ through, let’s use it.

Will I become a Tedster? I am here to serve, not to join any particular ideology. The young Prophet washed his followers’ feet, to get the service aspect across. Remember also that he was Jewish not Christian.

Today is Sun-day & here in Las Vegas that means 114 degrees. My daughter has just asked me to go to the Self Realization Centre with her. I wonder if she has been reading over my shoulder or has connected with my thoughts in the ether.

Whichever, I must sign off.

Until next time,

Love, David

JULY 15/07 - HUMAN BEINGS or ANIMALS

This morning, when Ina & I were talking, the question came up as to whether we humans have progressed much beyond animals. This led to what is the difference? We first thought that humans have the ability to think & to feel but then we remembered the mother & baby deer that ran across our lawn on Pender & realize they have some type of feeling for each other also.

So is it that we think? It appears animals live for today & we humans think about time, yesterday & tomorrow. We fret over what hasn’t been done & what should be done.

Are we much evolved from an animal or is that question giving animals a bad rap?

We have the ability to tap into Cosmic Consciousness. How close are we to that aspect of our nature & how detached are we from our physical form? The answer to that question might answer how far evolved from the animals we have achieved.

Can we float into an ethereal form as our physical form disintegrates? Do we even know we are of an ethereal nature? Are we wrapped up in what we can ‘see’?

Are we who we ‘think’ we are or are we captured by our circumstances & current physical form?

Can we travel beyond the body?

Where do we go in our dreams?

Is the life we are living part of that dream state?

What is our essence & do the animals & all nature have the same essence?

The energy behind all creation, I believe to be consistent, but we were made in the image of our Creator, a Conscious Thinking Creator. There is Consciousness behind the material world. That Consciousness flows through us. We have the Gift. What we do with it, even whether we recognize it, is up to each of us.

When we read of trillion dollar wars & church abuse settlements in the hundreds of millions, we might wonder whether we have evolved much beyond the animal state. We seem to be captured by our emotions. What are we ‘thinking’? Certainly, it doesn’t seem as though we are using the Cosmic Consciousness that is available to us. This Consciousness is not only available to us, it is us.

We have the opportunity to tap its miraculous powers. To do so, we need turn to thoughts of peace & sharing. This message is an old one; it is encapsulated succinctly in the best selling book of all time. What stops us from practicing the steps outlined therein? We are bogged down in materiality, physicality. We have trouble lifting ourselves above the material plane. We are much like the animals, in looking for our next meal, but we use our thinking capabilities to worry about things, they don’t.

The energy that underlies their physical nature underlies ours. We have that additional reasoning ability.

In the beginning was the Word, the Light. The physical world came out of that Light, that Energy. We were a part of that en-Lighten-ment. The physical world was a ‘thought’ & if a thought, why not a ‘Thinker’? I believe, Bertrand Russell asked that question.

That particular Creative Thinkers thought is a part of all humanity, as a wave is part of the ocean. Can we lift ourselves above the individual wave thought level, to our ‘all’ encompassing thought heritage? Can a fish jump far enough out of the water, to see it lives in the ocean?

We need take ourselves above the physical plane to ‘see’ the humanity that we are immersed in, to see the Greater Self behind all humanity.

‘Forgive them, for they know not what they do’, were some of the most perceptive words ever uttered.

So in answer to our opening question, ‘are we much evolved beyond the animal state’, the answer may be no. Each of us must lift ourselves to that ethereal state & a tipping point may then be reached that will give our physical world a chance.

We have to get beyond our own self, to a place where sharing is second nature. Humility was suggested many years ago, & the practice thereof may be the saving grace.

Can we reach that state beyond hubris? Each of us must live our life in a way that answers that question?

Can we evolve above the animal state? When we do, the animals will also have a chance.

Love can be a state of being. As a matter of fact, it may be the ultimate ‘human being’.

Has there ever been such?

David

JUNE 22/07 – CONNECTION

When Ina & I return to Pender Island from the city, I ‘feel’ a real connection with Nature. This may be the same religious feeling that the 1st Nation Indian tribes refer to. We have put those cultures in a position of inferiority such that we have lost a great deal of the benefit of their way of life.

What is the connection that we ‘feel’ for each other, mother & daughter, grandmother & grandson?

There is a connection beyond the physical. It is embedded in the spiritual realm.

We live in the physical realm. We feel in the spiritual. What ties us together?

Connecting with nature gives us a sense of being grounded. Our bodies came from the dust.

Where does intuition come from? This is a heart based intelligence. How does intelligence enter through our heart, from where does it emanate, & should we trust it?

The Book of Wisdom suggests that we focus on our Creator first & all else will be given unto us. So we must decide whether this is good advice & if so, what is the connection & to what or whom?

The path to that answer appears to be straight & narrow. Walking that path steadily has a lot to do with our feelings & intuition. We know when we are on the right path, it feels right. We have a built in beacon.

Getting in touch with that beacon, when all around us are others throwing up all sorts of flack & our own mind is full of worry, is a difficult task at times.

The connection that we make to our inner voice is one of the most important connections that we can make. Peace resides inside. Happiness comes out of a solid friendship with our inner being.

We can belabor out past mistakes & misfortunes leading to worry & stress or we can accept that our path has taken a few misguided turns & get on with a healthy self love.

We were made in the image of a Sacred Creator, an Energy beyond human understanding, if you wish. Whatever we decide to name the Father of our life force, one thing we know for sure, we have it.

Maslow suggested the concept of self actualization. This implies to me a chance to go beyond our little ego self & reach the Source of our true Nature. The place within where peace resides.

We have the opportunity to become a well balanced being. We can be the perfect conduit for Spiritual reflection upon the earthly plane.

The physical is where we bury ourselves. We definitely do so at our physical demise but we also do so in our materialistic lifestyles.

When we are able to get beyond our physical needs & live in a spiritual sphere, we have been born to a new lifestyle.

What we perceive is the life we live. What we dream is the life we could. Whatever we think is possible.

Connections are what hold us steady. Together we can achieve miracles. As the old saying goes, “let’s not die with our music still in us”.

We are a fortunate generation. We have health, economics, & wisdom. We need only add faith & belief in our inherent powers.

What holds us back? Our thoughts are the culprit. We are as caged as we think we are. We chase economics in our society until the economics dictate our day. We try to dominate nature & then wonder why we have the potential for an ecological collapse.

Doomsday isn’t promised by the Original Creator of All, it is the outcome of our lack of reverence for the Creation.

We were given a beautiful garden to live in & we have almost dug, blasted, & polluted it to the point of no return.

Who do we think we are? What is our connection to Nature, to the Creator, & to each other? We should determine the answers to those questions before we do irreparable damage.

Connections with strong links are a chain that is hard to break. Separation leads to weakness & weakness to failure.

Let’s hold hands.

David

JUNE 17/07 – INFIDEL

Infidel is us, as known to a large part of the Islamic world, & also, the title of a recent book by an Ethiopian woman, Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Why are we Infidels? We don’t believe in Allah the way they do. We don’t worship the way they do. This sounds like the difference between Protestants & Catholics, or Protestants & Protestants.

Ayaan Ali found out that we were not such devils after all, when she joined the Dutch Parliament, & concluded in many ways more advanced, particularly in the way the Western world treated women.

However, our Western dominator society still has not come to grips with equality for women, as pointed out by Riane Eisler, ‘The Real Wealth of Nations’.

So maybe men are the Infidels.

Who then is Allah?

Allah is the One God.

God is the basis of our being. Our ‘self’ image separates us from our Source. Love is the bridge.

There is one Universal Mind & that Energy creates continuously. Love is the strength of Its being. Love is the emotion that binds all.

Intelligence reflected through the power of love can create miracles.

The Infidel, if there is such a thing, is the self-ish image which drains our emotions of their power & happiness. This Infidel pervades all of humanity.

Humanity is One. The color of our skin & the cultures in which we are raised are the differentiators. However, as Joseph Campbell points out, in his Power of Myth, most civilizations have the same stories of a Virgin birth, etc.

We cling to ideas of separation as put forward by our parents & peers. We live in a separate ‘reality’ created by our thoughts. Our reality & our truth are not the same as someone else’s. It isn’t just different cultures & different religions that have differences of reality but also people around us. Listen to how often in a day we talk of others not acting in a way we expect them to.

How someone else sees the world is a cause for conflict. In some cases people will kill for their ideas. In our own society we generally complain.

In the end it is a battle between our own ‘self’ & the underlying truth of our nature. We are a co-creator created in the image of the Spiritual Father. That perfection is not often reached as we limit ourselves by our own nature.

To become an unlimited being we must get past our ’self’ to the realization that our larger Self is contained in all humanity & nature. Connecting to that larger Self is a quest for Love, an inner quest.

Riane says a partnership (feminine) society must replace our dominator (masculine) society to save Mother Earth. She reflects that we can’t keep ripping off the planet we live on, in the name of short term profits, our self-ish ends.

I agree with her and add that seeing the God within each other will go a long way to achieving this goal. This is a different way to look at the world around us. It becomes a different reality.

It is not a new idea. Most of the people in our culture claim to be Christian of one sort or another. As a matter of fact, just like Islam, they believe they have the One true God as represented on earth by Christ.

However, even though this particular individual taught sharing & caring, that concept has not lined up well with the economic god of short term profits. What we profess on Sunday’s does not work well during the rest of the week.

Why has this been the case for centuries? The answer to that lies in the difference between fear & love. We generally live in fear, a lack of faith.

We have not yet learned to live in love. We have not claimed the faith necessary to give our lives over to what feels like walking on thin air.

We do not believe that we can live a life of love. We generally feel that we have to protect our self interests. We preach one thing but live another.

We continuously have questions, “How’s it all going to work out?” Now, there is the Infidel.

This leads me to recommending that we need to give our life over to something bigger than our ‘self’. Where have we heard that before?

That something bigger is Love.

To live in that emotion is to trust the Universe.

That’s tough!

Love, David

JUNE 10/07 - ‘EXPRESSIONS OF CREATIVITY’

An expression of creativity!

That is who we are!

Isn’t that beautiful?

We are an extension of our Father, our Spiritual, Creative, Father, creatures of a Master Creator.

We are a ripple in the River of Creative Energy.

Through free will we have the choice to dam that River or to let it flow.

‘Thy will be done not mine’.

Every one of us has that same Power inherent to our being. It is the Power of Creation.

Nature is a magnificent Creation. What is behind nature? Whatever we call that Creative Energy it is a part of our nature also. We are one with nature. We are all from the same Ocean of Vibrancy.

The spiritual realm holds the life giving force. The physical realm is in a continual state of birth & death.

We have learned to identify with the physical, that which we can see. We have not yet overcome death. To be born again is to become aware to the life giving Creative Force which emanates our physical body.

Each of us has the capacity to accomplish miracles. We don’t necessarily believe that. In that lack of belief lies our harnessing of a Power beyond human understanding.

How do we release that Power? Two words, faith & patience come to mind. Faith is considered a religious word to many, although most of us have faith that the sun will rise tomorrow.

The laws of nature are the laws that we need to encapsulate within our own being. ‘In the beginning was the Word & the Word was with God’. We can count on the Word. What is the Word? Each of us must determine that for ourselves but it is not wrapped up in our little self, so many words.

We must get beyond the little self, the self image, the ego, to the vast Ocean beyond. Together we can accomplish anything, apart very little.

Tapping this life giving force begins by going within. The changes have to take place within. The change from self to ‘other’ orientation is getting in touch with love. Love is a state of being. Love exudes from ones persona. Love attracts. With love anything is possible.

Living a life based on faith & love might sound to many as not very practical. However, it is the most productive form of living on this planet. Is it easy to accomplish? No, it is a walk on the other side of the veil.

Creation didn’t just happen at a past point in time, it is an ongoing process. Our current materialistic lifestyle could overpower Its ability to regenerate on a short term basis, but ultimately it will disgorge us like a stomach disgorges a bug. Once we are disgorged it will get back in rhythm.

Why can’t we wake up & live in harmony with Mother Nature & our fellow ‘human’ beings? The answer to that question lies in our inability to see we are all part of that Creative Force, & whatever we do to anyone else we do to ourselves.

This last concept is extremely difficult to grasp. We have developed a solid impression of who we are within our environment & it means ‘letting go’ of that image. We have invested a lot in that picture of our self & to modify it at this late date is a fearsome thought.

The reward for doing so is eternal & eternity starts now. Eternity starts when we grasp this. We do not need to wait. We aren’t going anywhere, we are there. We are energy incarnate. We are spirit on a physical journey. We look ‘through’ our eyes.

Go within & find peace. Reflect that peace. Live in peace.

I call that a state of Love.

David

JUNE 3/07 – TRANSFORMATION

No matter what age we might be, there is a possibility that we can completely transform our life. Isn’t that exciting!

We can be something or someone that we have never been before.

Behind all of humanity & nature is a neural network that connects us. We tap that network by the actions we take daily. We can tap its potential or have it work against us by the way we approach our day.

The transformation comes by the way we deal with our inner self, that child within. Howard Bloom writes in ‘The Lucifer Principle’ that we are affected by the social group we belong to & often that social group excludes others or sees them as the enemy.

This morning we heard a televangelist church minister request everyone to join a Bible based church. He looked completely sincere & has a large congregation but I wonder what folks, who believe in the Koran or the Torah, thought. Do they feel that Christians are excluding them from the neural network that connects us all?

Does the Minister believe that God is a person somewhere above that plays favorites? Aren’t we all a part of the nature-al world?

Thinking about nature brings me to a book we recently picked up called ‘Last Child in the Woods’. This book isn’t about what we are doing to nature but about our children growing up with what the author terms, nature deficit disorder. As our son reflected recently, our two grandsons believe that food comes from a supermarket.

As our children are further removed from nature by their becoming connected to computer games, the sacred is lost. Their souls are being fashioned by a materialistic culture. We are raising perfect consumers for the global shopping machine.

How do we transform our society?

We start within our own nature.

We can attract or repel. What we put out is what we get back.

Taking a look at our actions daily & listening to what comes out of our mouths is a great starting point. The neural network behind the scene picks up & transmits what we think. When we change our approach the network picks up the signal. Call that faith if you want.

The network is going to do the work & it will attract to us what we want it to. Watch out what we ask for as we might get it, is an old refrain but a wise one.

We are the product of our thoughts. What we think of others is a reflection of who we are.

Energy is behind the Universe & that energy is available to be tapped by anyone. Yes, by you & me. Recognizing that which is invisible is not an easy task for we who believe the scientific answer is the ‘truth’.

Have you ever had intuition work for you? Have you ever had a coincidence occur? Are these just lucky occurrences or are they a sample of what ones life could be like if one listened to the heart?

We have been introduced to heart intelligence lately & have an internet based session tomorrow morning with the folks from San Francisco that relay this intelligence to the world. If we connect with the message, we will plan a trip to San Fran in the near future to further our understanding of how to live from the heart, how that can reduce stress in our lives, & improve our health. If those aren’t transforming thoughts then where do we go next?

Understanding that we are part of all that is, is a transforming thought in itself. Once we realize we are connected & not detached, we realize how powerful that concept could be to our lives. Our ego developed & detached us from that creative nature within. Many people think that is a detachment from God. Who or what is God? Now there’s a question worth fighting over! Millions have died, & continue to do so, on behalf of that God as defined by man.

Let’s get beyond the argument. Let’s transform ourselves & then the neural network can go to work to bring us together. If we let go of our preconceived ideas & allow others to be a part of what we have, the physical world could be a much safer place to traverse.

The key here is that each of us recognizes that our thoughts go out into the ether & affects others. Nothing is secret. We might think that what we say & what we do behind closed doors is of no import to others but it is very possible that the Universe hears.

Wayne Dyer says that we should not die with our music still in us. This is a very sobering thought. Many of us think we are trapped by our situation or our past decisions. We are not. That is just in our head.

We may be going through a difficult emotional time but there are blue skies ahead. Walking in the rain isn’t always a joyous experience but rainbows are beautiful.

Ye are Gods wasn’t written in a Book of Wisdom as an after thought. It is who we are. We don’t need to wait to meet God, we don’t need to look in the clouds or churches. Our Creator, our Source resides right where we do, in the human body. We reside side by side. Which one takes precedence depends on us. We can put aside our little self, as my friend Dan says, & connect with our big self. The big self is our Creative, giving, sharing, self. It is the one that makes us feel good. When we tap into who we really are, we get a burst of energy that lights up our face.

A somber face or a somber mood is the sign of our living from our little self, our ego. That is the place that all our problems & worries live. The big self is where all our possibilities reside.

How do we live from our big self at all times? As Joseph Campbell suggests, we must treat our mind as the secondary organ & let our heart take over. Our Creator lives from whence our blood flows – the heart, we live where our self image resides – the mind. When we enter the tabernacle of the Most High, our heart, we have come home. When we leave the wilderness of our thoughts, our mind, our worries subside. Now that is transformation!

Can you imagine a time when all our worries disappear, our life takes on new meaning, new vitality? No matter what age, that possibility is inherent within our very being. That to me is what is meant by bringing heaven to earth.

Let’s at least live in peace within our own soul. With that accomplished we could affect others that might join us & the seeds of a world at peace are then planted. Watering those seeds are our ‘works’. Faith without works is mute.

Show the world a shining light, don’t cover it with a lamp shade. Gloom can be seen from the eyes. Light shines through the same organ.

We can bring light into the world around us. Ask others how you can help them & you will never be lonely or without friends.

The transformation occurs within.

Transform reality as we ‘see’ it.

Admit we may have been blind.

Three steps to a new life.

When?

Now!

David

May 27/07 - OUR PATH

Ina thought that I should write about life & death this week. I don’t know what made her think of that but yesterday we spent a day with our new 6 week old grandson, Sam, on Salt Spring Island.

We returned to Pender Island on the 3:30 ferry & as we pulled off the ferry we passed a hearse waiting to get on.

Those two interconnected events got me thinking about our path between those two dates, our birth & our demise.

Where did we come from & where are we going? Those are questions that are very difficult to answer but the more interesting questions might be: what are we here for & what are we contributing to this beautiful planet?

As to the first question: what are we here for, led me to thinking, are we Gods? Is it hubris to think so? In the Book of Wisdom it states, Ye are Gods!

As to the second question: what are we contributing to this beautiful planet, we flipped on Larry King, when we got home, & there was Al Gore saying that the greatest danger we have ever faced is global warming & what it might do to wipe out a good part of our planet.

It is amazing to me that we have ‘progressed’, if that is the right word, to the point that we can now be discussing wiping out our own home, Mother Earth.

I am currently reading a book: ‘KINGDOM of Ten Thousand Things, An Impossible Journey from Kabul to Chiapas’, Gary Geddes, who is trying to follow the path of a Buddhist monk from Afghanistan to North America 1000 years before Columbus. What was Huishen, the monk, looking for? Might he have ultimately discovered himself?

Isn’t that the purpose of our journey here on this physical plane? Isn’t this an opportunity to look into a mirror produced by the adversities of life? What is the best way to get a clear picture?

The Buddhists talk about right livelihoods, right occupations. To me it is part of the Path we take. To see ourselves clearly is to look into the eyes of those less fortunate. Then do something to help. In pursuing this path, providing positive solutions to our environmental degradation is a given.

How do we get to know what we are individually capable of & how we might help? The answer to this question is to remove one’s self from the materialistic lethargy that our society cultivates through mindless mass communication & persuasion to blend with the crowd. One must step out to meld into oneness. We must recognize the interrelatedness of all life. We are one at the level of spirit, that energy which backs up our Universe & our ability to exist.

We will return to that Source of energy, as energy is never eliminated but just transformed. Transformation! That’s what we need. As the caterpillar becomes the butterfly, so might our current lifestyle become as beautiful? We are the Sons & Daughters of Intelligence beyond human understanding but we have the ability to tap Its miraculous powers.

Our path can be one laden with issues or as light as our letting go. Fly free! What a way to travel!

As little Sam grows, he will take on a self awareness, as we all did, & define himself as a new planetary ego. That separation is the parting of the ways with the original Source of being. We become who we ‘think’ we are. In our society that is defined by the materialistic consciousness of our culture.

How might Sam get beyond that? It will take awareness on his parents part, to help him ‘see’ the beauty from which he was molded. I have full confidence that his particular heritage will lead to that conclusion.

Lucky Sam!

Where might the rest of us go to get a clearer picture of our reason for being here? The answer, of course, is within but where do like minded people reside?

We are told there are about a third of all the developed world’s populations that are seeking this answer. Might we become a community? Might that community answer the call of Al Gore?

Can we turn this spaceship around? For Sam’s sake, let’s hope so.

Some people say for Christ’s sake.

I’m convinced Sam is a Son of God.

Where else could that perfection come from?

Our path is just that. What we make of it is up to us.

Are we ready for a renewal, a rebirth?

Of course!

Let’s walk.

Or as some ask “do we walk our talk”? As the Buddhists say “before enlightenment chop wood & carry water, after enlightenment, chop wood & carry water”.

I must go now to chop our neighbor’s wood, a Sunday Service, in nature, with our Creator, our eternal life Source.

A path, David

MAY 19/07 - BABYBOOMERS & THE NEXT 30 YEARS

This week I had a chance to speak to about 50 International Business students at Royal Roads University. They asked very mindful questions about the future, including the belief that some had, in things speeding up at an ever faster rate. Many of them were concerned about the environment & sustainability. I wondered whether they made the connection between competition, the rush for short term profits, & the damage to our planet.

A number of us from the ‘60’s did make that connection & still want to see if it is possible to make a difference before we pass over. To test your emotional connection to that era, go to http://moreoldfortyfives.com/TakeMeBackToTheSixties.htm before reading further.

A ‘60’s group of babyboomers that hasn’t given up & has brought us a heart based approach to our future, is the Heartmath organization in San Francisco, www.heartmath.org These folks have put forward the idea of heart intelligence. Does intuition have an intelligence that is ether connected? Do we have a direct connection to all of nature, each other, & the universe through our hearts? Have we lived in our minds too long & thereby brought ourselves to the edge of extinction? Has 5000 years of empire come to an end, as asked by articles in YES ! magazine?

The folks at Heartmath are creating a business out of this intelligence, www.quantumintech.com & the students at RRU want to know where the next ‘big’ business opportunity resides. Can the two groups connect, can we work together with our youth, and will we ‘see’ the wall before we hit it?

We are a generation that has more wealth, education, experience, & health than any before us. Government, at least in Canada, has just removed the mandatory retirement age of 65, so if we thought it was time to pack it in, we have been given a new lease on life. Maybe we can take advantage of this political & mental barrier removal to decide right now what our next career will be.

Ina has established a mentorship program at RRU with some of the entrepreneurial students & they are looking to us to help them step out into the future. They would like to know what we have learned, what mistakes not to make, & what resources are available to them as they step into a fragile future.

We control those resources & we have the wisdom accumulated through experience. Will we be willing to take the time to share both? Can we guide this space ship, planet earth, in for a smooth landing? To do this for our kids & grandkids, we have to admit to the damage we have done & help them to find ways to change course. Ongoing competition for short term profits is non-sustainable. India, China, & Russia are coming on strong, in that race, with North America & Europe. Those countries have billions of people not just hundreds of millions. What this will do to limited resources & the aftermath of burning those fuels is very predictable today.

We can’t stay ‘blind’ to the effects much longer & we have the opportunity to meet our ‘soul’, to release our ‘spirit’, & find our purpose for being here on this physical plane. We are a generation that found solace in ‘things’, materiality. We are a generation of consumers, shopping center addicts, & mindless entertainment. We found false security in having more. Many of us were woken up by the events of 9-11.

The question now being asked is; which will end this stage of humanity first, environmental collapse or nuclear war? Is this fair to our children? Is there anything we can do about it? Are we baby-boomers so inward looking as to continue our materialistic ways, to the detriment of our own offspring, while decimating their future home?

This is a fragile ship, floating in a balanced universe. The laws of nature carry us gently into the future. We now have the capability to over ride that delicate balance. How do we stop it when this ship starts to wobble?

Memories of the ‘60’s bring to mind a time when ‘peace’ was on all our minds. ‘Give Peace a Chance’ was the refrain. John & Yoko held a bed-in for peace.

Let’s not snore through what could be our brightest years, leaving our wisdom to atrophy. Elder wisdom is a valuable asset. Thank goodness one government has had the wisdom to allow it to be released.

Our greatest asset is what we have learned during our physical journey. Do you realize that it is the only thing we are taking with us into the next plane of existence?

None of our physical assets will travel with our soul as it leaves its temple, our physical body. Our body will return to dust as our soul is released. The freedom with which we will then be able to fly, can be experienced today if we are willing to listen to our heart.

Our heart knows what to do; our mind worries us to death.

Reach out & ‘touch’ someone.

Your life depends on it.

If that’s love, so be it!

Welcome to the Next 30 Years, David

MAY13/07 - MOTHER’S DAY

Might this be the day that we decide to turn the running of the world over to Mother’s again?

I don’t just mean this one day but every day.

This may take a female President or in Canada’s case, a female Prime Minister. It is definitely going to take a different perspective than the current world focus.

The Chalice & The Blade’, Riane Eisler: “Under the new view of cultural evolution, male dominance, male violence, & authoritarianism, are not inevitable, eternal givens.”

Riane describes, in her book, the Crete Myocean female ‘partnership’ culture that existed 4000 years before Christ. She goes on to describe how generations of cultures since then have moved to a male ‘dominator’ model. She suggests that to get off the train which is heading towards Mother Earth’s destruction, that we might consider moving back to that partnership model, a partnership between the sexes.

We, as individuals, have the opportunity to balance our own nature with our masculine & feminine traits. Too often we play to roles.

How do we bring sharing & caring to an egotistic lifestyle?

Do alternative lifestyles have a more balanced perspective?

What is it going to take for us to break through the veil?

What will shake us up enough to get us off our current acceptance of things the way they are?

Do we expect that things will just self correct or that someone somewhere will get the balance worked out?

Most of us have at least 30 years left, a lifetime to act. Our wisdom is that of a person who has put in two score years & ten. If we had only known then what we know now, what might we have done. Well we do know now, so what might we accomplish?

Weddings are around the corner, new birth is present.

Our grandchild lies peacefully in our arms blissfully accepting whatever we decide. His faith is divine in nature.

What do we owe to these future generations, if not a world based on love?

Could we men subordinate our dominant natures to Mother’s?

Think of what our dominator role has wrought.

The Chalice & The Blade’, Riane Eisler: “Ruth Suvard records in her yearly report World Military & Social Expenditures, the cost of developing one inter-continental missle could feed 50 million children, build 160,000 schools, & open 340,000 health care centres. Even the cost of a single new nuclear submarine – equal to the annual education budget of 23 developing countries in a world where 120 million babies die before their first birthday – could open new opportunities for millions of people now doomed to live in poverty & ignorance.”

Where does this level of priority take us?

Mother’s know the pain of giving birth to life.

Mother’s know the value of new birth.

Mother’s nurture the rest of us.

Mother’s know best.

This Mother’s Day why don’t we let our Mother’s know that we know that they know?

Our Mother’s gave birth to us & gave us the opportunity to be all we are capable of being.

We owe it to them to be more than a pain in the - birth canal.

Mother’s are the nexus of life & the divine. We are the result.

We are not just reproductive machines; we are divinity human-ifested.

We are capable of that which our Mother’s gave us a chance to be. Let’s give our kids & grandkids a chance to be all they can be by leaving a world free of conflict & pollution.

What a Mother’s Day present that would be!

Recognizing our unity brings that result.

Differences can be a thing of the past.

Love is the pivotal point.

From a grateful son,

David

MAY 6/07 – JUDAS

Over the centuries, Judas has been known as the betrayer of the Son of God. Having read Joseph Campbell’s Power of Myth it struck me that Judas is that part in each of us that betrays our divine nature.

There was not only one Son of God; we all have that divine possibility. The struggle is within, between those two sides of our self. Sometimes we find ourselves feeling that we wish we had not done or said something. We feel betrayed by that little self within.

That little self keeps us from our greatness, our purpose. As a tiny mustard seed we have the opportunity to grow to mammoth proportions. We find ourselves vegetating in the material world, while longing for our spiritual home.

This disconnect comes through the aspect known as free will. We get to choose. In our choices lies the dissension within our soul.

We believe for the most part that we are an island upon to ourselves & others are separate from us.

However, we are connected by that invisible divine nature as a wave is connected to the greater ocean. When we look at someone else we can either see the differences or see ourselves reflected therein.

We are all made up of water & blood. The life that emanates me emanates everyone. The differences are a reflection of our little self, our self image. Our self image develops over years. This is the little fellow that we have to overcome in our struggle for divinity. The outcome of this struggle has the possibility of bringing heaven to earth, as a popular prayer goes.

Heaven & hell are not physical locations they are mental & emotional states. The distance between our heart & our head is the distance between the two.

Our purpose for being here in a physical form is to understand our divine nature through a reflective mirror. Service is the method of connecting with that underlying Self. The fruits of our labor are to be shared as much for our own good as for the benefit of others.

Our well being, our health is directly affected by the difference between giving & receiving. Letting go is a cleaning of the blood stream, hoarding is a stress inducing exercise. Self-ish impulses lead to internal disruptions. Living in fear that someone else will get what we have is the road to an unhealthy life.

We have God given talents. Those talents can be utilized for self serving ends or for the betterment of the planet which we call home. On the physical level this planet is our home. On the spiritual level, our home is eternal. Currently we live in a physical temple, the body, soon we will return to our original form encompassing the physical plane. ‘In our Fathers house are many mansions’. We will turn ourselves inside out.

If we believe this world is all there is, we fall pray to small self limitations. We can expand our horizons. There is a place beyond the sea, beyond that which we can ‘see’.

The greatest betrayal is what we have done to our own personal Son of God, that part of us that is divine. We have bought into the organized story that there was just one divine human & that the rest of us are living in sin. I’m not suggesting we have not sinned. I’m suggesting it is for us to overcome that weakness within. We CAN reach divinity & we don’t have to physically die to get there. The death of one life is here & now. We can accomplish it within our own physical body. That is what is meant by heaven on earth.

When we leave the earth plane, & we all know that we will, whether our soul is at peace has a lot to do with the process I’m describing.

Am I right? Now that is something each of us has to answer for oneself! However, the process of discovery is an exciting trip. Imagine what fruitful years we have left, if we can discover what flows through the root of our personal tree.

Let the fruit grow, the good works flow. Let the light shine bringing sunlight through the rain. We are an instrument of a greater power OR we are what we think we are.

Tap the greatness within don’t let Judas run the house. The body is a miraculous instrument, it manifests what the heart or mind directs. Are we a part of a Universal intelligence? Is our heart a part of the heart that beats the world? With God all things are possible, together we can achieve anything. Guess who God is!

We do not stand alone. Remember Judas hung himself. The material wealth he received wasn’t worth what he finally realized he had done.

Let’s not let our internal Judas run our day & ruin our relationships.

We can be who we were meant to be, Son’s & Daughters of a Higher Power.

Don’t betray the opportunities that lie just beyond our ability to ‘see’ them. It is awareness, it is belief, it is faith, it is rebirth. The question was asked long ago, ‘how can I come forth from my mother’s womb again’ (paraphrased).

It is here it is now; we can do all this within our current home, our body.

I’m struggling with the path from head intelligence to heart intelligence, why is it such a long road. Tapping that well is the path to satisfying one’s thirst forever.

Judas stand back, the cavalry is coming, love is on the way.

This life is not a dress rehearsal don’t betray the one physical trip given to us as a gift. We won the lottery to be here, trillions of sperm never got the chance. We have so much to be grateful for, let’s bear fruit in all seasons.

Vaya con Dios, David

APRIL 29/07 EXPECTATIONS

Why don’t people do what we expect them to do?

Why doesn’t my spouse do what I think (s)he should do?

What is it that I expect of myself?

Do I have confidence that the seed of all creativity lies within my essence, my soul?

Is the lack of self esteem, the reason that I expect so much from others, that they don’t seem to live up to?

Why can’t I detach?

Why can’t I live & let live?

Why is everything a drama?

Expectations are a creation of my thought process. They lead to disappointments. How could the world or those around us ever do exactly what we expect them to do?

There are unlimited numbers of options available in the Universe. Our particular path often results from the perceptions (last week’s thought), that we have of the world we live in.

When we relax into our heart, we get out of our head & we live in the now, accepting the way others act & accepting the way they see their world.

Recently, I was able to witness a newborn child, Sam, our new grandchild, look out through his innocent eyes to a new world. Those eyes were exploring everything, the room, the lights, and the people staring down at him. Those eyes appeared to have no preconceived notions, no expectations.

What he saw is what he saw. Making sense of it will come over time & Sam will allow that to evolve. Why do we lose that innocence to allow things to evolve in their own magical way & without our judgment?

The older we get, the more set in our ways we become. A young Jewish prophet once said that ‘we must become like little children again if we wanted to witness heaven’.

These words indicate to me that heaven is here & now, not a distant promise. We just need to realize that we are the vehicle to bring heaven to earth. It is our perception & expectations that can get in the way.

A newborn child like Sam is the epitome of love, operating from the heart. Over the years we all gradually make ‘sense’ of the world by moving from the heart into our head. Overtime we develop a self image, the ego, the little self, & through this process gradually bring the world of miracles down to a controllable environment, or at least what we think is controllable. It is like hitting the (–) minus sign on the upper right hand corner of a computer page. That action telescopes the big picture down to a fragment of its ultimate nature.

Our seed is the Seed of the Universe, the Seed of Creativity. Our limitations are self imposed.

We have loads of excuses as to why we have limitations. Often our limitations lead us to taking more dogmatic positions. Our ignorance can lead us to the opposite of letting go, the opposite of our own joy.

Why would we do this to our own happiness? As the young prophet noted, we often can’t ‘see’. We a