Seasons of the Soul

The Fifth Column of Democracy

It is my intention to keep my BLOG inspirational and informative - to provide news and views that assist us in becoming all we can be...but as I wrote in 1996 in my book, Vision of the Grail, there is a worldwide consolidation of the media that is alarming. This is something that we must be aware of and join in efforts to counteract so that we are not swallowed up and watch our freedoms erode. The Internet is one of the last bastions of freedom of information, and if we lose that, we are totally at the mercy of spin doctors who will feed us whatever is in their best interest, not necessarily ours. This thoughtful column by Bill Moyers makes the point. Editor

Estate a Fifth Column?

Friday 11 July 2008

by: Bill Moyers

Corporate media colludes with democracy's demise.

     I heard this story a long time ago, growing up in

Choctaw

County

in

Oklahoma

before my family moved to

Texas

. A tribal elder was
telling his grandson about the battle the old man was waging within
himself. He said, "It is between two wolves, my son. One is an evil
wolf: anger, envy, sorrow, greed, self-pity, guilt, resentment, lies,
false pride, superiority and ego. The other is the good wolf: joy,
peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, empathy, generosity, truth,
compassion and faith."

     The boy took this in for a few minutes and then asked his
grandfather, "Which wolf won?"

     The old Cherokee replied simply, "The one I feed."

     Democracy is that way. The wolf that wins is the one we feed. And
in our society, media provides the fodder.

     Our media institu tions, deeply embedded in the power structures of
society, are not providing the information that we need to make our
democracy work. To put it another way, corporate media consolidation
is a corrosive social force. It robs people of their voice in public
affairs and pollutes the political culture. And it turns the debates
about profound issues into a shouting match of polarized views
promulgated by partisan apologists who trivialize democracy while
refusing to speak the truth about how our country is being plundered.

     Our dominant media are ultimately accountable only to corporate
boards whose mission is not life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
for the whole body of our republic, but the aggrandizement of
corporate executives and shareholders.

     These organizations' self-styled mandate is not to hold public and
private power accountable, but to aggregate their interlocking
interests. Their reward is not to help fulfill the social compact
embodied in the notion of "We, the people," but to manufacture news
and information as profitable consumer commodities.

     Democracy without honest information creates the illusion of
popular consent at the same time that it enhances the power of the
state and the privileged interests that the state protects. And
nothing characterizes corporate media today more than its disdain
toward the fragile nature of modern life and its indifference toward
the complex social debate required of a free and self-governing
people.

     Let's look at what is happening with the Internet. This spring the
cable giant Comcast tried to pack a Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) hearing on network neutrality by hiring strangers off the street
to ensure that advocates of net neutrality would not be able to get a
seat in the hearing room.

     SaveTheInternet.com - a bipartisan coalition - and its supporters
helped expose the ruse. Soon after, there was a new hearing, this time
without the gerrymandering seating by opponents of an open Internet.

     Now Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) has introduced a bill to advance
network neutrality, and it has become an issue in the presidential
campaign.

     We must be vigilant. The fate of the cyber-commons - the future of
the mobile Web and the benefits of the Internet as open architecture -
is up for grabs. And the only antidote to the power of organize d money
in

Washington

is the power of organized people at the net roots.

     When Verizon tried to censor NARAL's (National Abortion Rights
Action League) use of text messaging last year, it was quick action by
Save the Internet that led the company to reverse its position. Those
efforts also led to an FCC proceeding on this issue.

     Wherever the Internet flows - on PCs, cell phones, mobile devices
and, very soon, new digital television sets - we must ensure that it
remains an open and nondiscriminatory medium of expression.

     By 2011, the market analysts tell us, the Internet will surpass
newspapers in advertising revenues. With MySpace and Dow Jones
controlled by News Corporation's Rupert Murdoch, Microsoft determined
to acquire Yahoo!, and with advertisers already telling some bloggers,
"Your content is unacceptable," we could potentially lose what's now
considered an unstoppable long tail of content offering abundant, new,
credible and sustainable sources of news and information.

     So, what will happen to news in the future, as the already
tattered boundaries between journalism and advertising is dispensed
with entirely and as content programming, commerce and online
communities are rolled into one profitably attractive package?

     Last year, the investment firm of Piper Jaffray predicted that
much of the business model for new media would be just that kind of
hybrid. They called it "communitainment." (Oh, George Orwell, where
are you now that we need you?)

     Across the media landscape, the health of our democracy is
imperiled. Buffeted by gale force winds of technological, political
and demographic forces, without a truly free and independent press,
this 250-year-old experiment in self-government will not make it. As
journalism goes, so goes democracy.

     Mergers and buyouts change both old and new media. They bring a
frenzied focus on cost-cutting, while fattening the pockets of the new
owners and their investors. The result: journalism is degraded through
the layoffs and buyouts of legions of reporters and editors.

     Advertising Age reports that

U.S.

media employment has fallen to a
15-year low. The Los Angeles Times alone has experienced a withering
series of resignations by editors who refused to turn a red pencil
into an editorial scalpel.

     The new owner of the Tribune Company, real estate mogul Sam Zell,
recently toured his new property Los Angeles Times, telling employees
in the newsroom that the challenge is this: How do we get somebody 126
years old to get it up? "Well," said Zell, "I'm your Viagra."

     He told his journalists that he didn't have an editorial agenda or
a perspective about newspapers' roles as civic institutions. "I'm a
businessman," he said. "All what matters in the end is the bottom
line."

     Zell then told Wall Street analysts that to save money he intends
to eliminate 500 pages of news a week across all of the Tribune
Company's 12 papers. That can mean eliminating some 82 editorial pages
every week just from the Los Angeles Times. What will he use to
replace reporters and editors? He says to the Wall Street analysts,
"I'll use maps, graphics, lists, rankings and stats." Sounds as if
Zell has confused Viagra with Lunesta.

     Former

Baltimore

Sun journalist and creator of HBO's The Wire,
David Simon, chronicled the effect that crosscutting and consolidation
has had in media businesses and on the communities where tho se
businesses have made so much money. He wrote in a Washington Post
op-ed, "I did not encounter a sustained period in which anyone
endeavored to spend what it would actually cost to make the

Baltimore

Sun the most essential and deep-thinking and well-written account of
life in central

Maryland

. The people you needed to gather for that
kind of storytelling were ushered out the door, buyout after buyout."

     Or as journalist Eric Alterman recently wrote in the New Yorker:
"It is impossible not to wonder what will become of not just news but
democracy itself, in a world in which we can no longer depend on
newspapers to invest their unmatched resources and professional pride
in helping the rest of us to learn, however imperfectly, what we need
to know."

     For example, we needed to know the truth about

Iraq

. The truth
could have spared that country from rack and ruin, saved thousands of
American lives and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, and freed
hundreds of billions of dollars for investment in the American economy
  and infrastructure.

     But as reporters at Knight Ridder - one of the few organizations
that systematically and independently set out to challenge the claims
of the administration - told us at the time, and as my colleagues and
I reported in our PBS documentary Buying the War, and as Scott
McClellan has now confessed, and as the Senate Intelligence Committee
confirmed in June, the Bush administration deceived Americans into
supporting an unprovoked war on another country. And it did so using
erroneous and misleading intelligence - and with the complicity of the
domin ant media. It has led to a conflict that, instead of being over
quickly and bloodlessly as predicted, continues to this day into its
sixth year.

     We now know that a neoconservative is an arsonist who sets a house
on fire and six years later boasts that no one can put it out. You
couldn't find a more revealing measure of the state of the dominant
media today than the continuing ubiquitous presence on the air and in
print of the very pundits and experts, self-selected message
multipliers of a disastrous foreign policy, who got it all wrong in
the first place. It just goes t o show, when the bar is low enough, you
can never be too wrong.

     The dominant media remains in denial about their role in passing
on the government's unverified claims as facts. That's the great
danger. It's not simply that they dominate the story we tell ourselves
publicly every day. It's that they don't allow other alternative
competing narratives to emerge, against which the people could measure
the veracity of all the claims.

     Now the dominant media is saying, "Well, we did ask. We did do our
job by asking tough questions during the run-up to the war."

     But I've been through the transcripts. And I'll tell you, you will
find very few tough questions. And if you come across them, you will
discover that they were asked of the wrong people.

     John Walcott,

Washington

bureau chief for McClatchy, formerly
Knight Ridder, recently said of his colleagues in the dominant media,
"They asked a lot of questions, but they asked even the right
questions of the wrong people." They were asked of the sources who had
cooked the intelligence books in the first place or who had memorized
the White House talking points and were prepared to answer every tough
question with a soft evasion or an easy lie, swallowed by a gullible
questioner.

     Following the March 2003 invasion, Vice President Dick Cheney
dropped into a media dinner to thank the guests for their
all-the-war-all-the-time coverage of the contrived and manufactured
war.

     Sadly, in many respects, the Fourth Estate has become the fifth
column of democracy, colluding with the powers that be in a culture of
deception that subverts the thing most necessary to freedom, and that
is the truth.

     But we're not alone and we know what we need to say. So let us all
go tell it on the mountains and in the cities. From our websites and
laptops, the street corners and coffeehouses, the delis and diners,
the factory floors and the bookstores. On campus, at the mall, the
synagogue, sanctuary and mosque, let's tell it where we can, when we
can and while we still can.

     Democracy only works when ordinary people claim it as their own.

Find What You Love and Never Give Up

Commencement address given by Steve Jobs at Stanford University in 2005:

"I was lucky. I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started?

Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me - I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT.

I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple.It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking.

Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."

Measuring Success With A Smile

This was a post by Diane1 on www.Helpothers.org and is a great reminder to not take ourselves so seriously that we forget to allow our inner light to shine all the time (or at least as much as possible):

"While traveling for my documentary project, HEAR US, I pulled up to a busy Phoenix intersection and stopped at a red light. An obviously homeless man began crossing in front of our paused vehicles. I was first in line and was completely preoccupied with the reality that I couldn't find my 1:00 appointment at the nearby (or so I thought) shelter. He turned toward me, pointing to the corners of his mouth, made a universally understood motion to indicate "SMILE" and stood and stared at me.

With a snicker of someone who had been caught being overly pensive, I flashed a smile, which he recognized as sufficient to trust I'd hold that thought, and he moved on to the vehicle next to me, repeating his motions. They needed a little help, so our Mr. Smiley pointed up to the sky, circling his finger in a "divine" gesture, then stretched out his arms to indicate a worldwide expectation, and then the smile routine again. Finally, just in time for the light to change, they got it and smiled. He scooted out of the way and we moved on, me with a smile on my face that lasted longer than the red light.

Because I was trying to find an obscure location, I ended up circling around, coming up to the same intersection, this time sitting a few vehicles behind the front. I watched the end of Mr. Smiley's performance on the intersecting street, and marveled as this relentless smile-inducer scrambled to get to his next customers, our line of traffic.

Meticulously he tended to the frowning drivers and passengers of each vehicle, not satisfied until they shook off their disdain for his grungy appearance and simply smiled. Although he has no apparent way of gauging the quality of happiness he imparts, he can at least quantify the outward response--the smile, his measure of success.

My friend never made a motion indicating he needed money, perhaps because he had what money couldn't buy, the best job in the world, making people happy. His mime motions communicated more than expensive therapists, mega-bucks ad campaigns, or a pile of self-help books ever could: smile, life is short, be happy, the world is watching!"

Planetary Mas Rearrangement

Feel free to pass this on with proper credit to author Maureen Moss and website  http://www.worldpuja.org and http://www.maureenmoss.com

Dearest Hearts,

I pray you are well. This past month began my hiatus and deep inward journey as I prepare my body, mind and spirit for the heightened chapter in our lives that has already turned its first several pages.

I did not intend to write a newsletter while on hiatus this month though upon being awakened with purpose this morning I was strongly guided to do so. Please know that no response is necessary. If this resonates for you please pass it on as always with the World Puja website for further information, life-changing broadcasts from global shape-shifters, CD's, MP3's, personal sessions, and former articles that support what I am about to write.

The energy was strong that prompted this information, so I apologize in advance for its big push.

With that said my brothers and sisters, we are on shaky ground as fear continues to escalate and undermine our highest potentials, drags our consciousness through the mud and literally makes fools out of the Gods that we are.

As a species we cannot pull this kind of energy into play any more, not for any reason, for any season, for any story, for any thing or anybody. It is seriously obvious that there is infiltration on and off this Planet with a plan to incite fear wherever possible for personal gain. I am guided to reach out again and bring attention to the need to cultivate a fearless stewardship over your human form.

Many that live now and have lived previously have not worked so hard and for this long to simply let it be ok that fear is still running the show for far too many, and putting others at risk who are making great strides to cease and dismiss this malignant illusion once and for all. Fear is both a malignant and ignorant illusion induced by skewed perception of experience. It is humanity's biggest Achilles heel and it's got to be healed, or the end of suffering will never be had. Never.

I ask where is the sense in fear? There isn't any. Where is the knowledge in fear? There isn't any. (Please don't confuse discernment or intuition with fear.) Where is the strength in fear? There isn't any. Where is the life force in fear? There isn't any. What will fear do to uplift your consciousness? Nothing. What will fear do to end wars? Nothing. What will fear do to bring down the price of gas? Nothing. What does fear accomplish? It multiplies itself, spreads like cancer and puts us into slave mentality. Can fear be used to work against us? Yes. Will it be used to work against us? Yes and it already is! Where is God in fear? Nowhere.

NEVER MIND what's scaring the life out of you. Over mind what's scarring the life out of you or consciously mind what's scarring the life out of you and shift out of it before its malignancy destroys you and others. You owe it to yourself to know that you have what it takes to rise above the insidious groveling, demeaning and clawing nature of fear. Prove this to yourself once and for all.

Take anything inside of you or outside of you that you are afraid of before this day is over and take dominion OVER it by sheer will and pure love for yourself. Watch what happens. Love what happens. Don't forget what happens.

As a collective we are standing smack dab in the middle of a massive planetary overhaul and we've got a job to do that requires complete clarity and fearlessness in spite of the mess we appear to be in and the predictions of what will be. The conditions of the experience we are all going through have a purpose; to give us an experience unlike any other to breakdown mental and emotional and spiritual facades. To breakdown greed and dishonesty and attentions that have strayed in the wrong direction. Furthermore, to abolish human made laws of attraction for inappropriate "things" and to help us rise up as powerful aspects of God by giving us a new value system, teaching us how to be Self sufficient, amplifying the power of the heart, and the heart mind and give us a new lens of perception to see what is real and what is worth being alive in human form for.

Yes we are in a planetary mass rearrangement and that's why there must be both breakdown and breakthrough, which CAN NOT be done through fear. And if it can't be done through fear, and you know it, are you going to take that road anyway? Former experience has proven to all of us that the fear road has a dead end and has never resolved one single thing in our lives. Are you going to take a dead end road and let a bully named fear take you and the entire Planet down?

Are you going to pass up an opportunity, perhaps the last of its kind ever, to find out what you are truly capable of and then live from that place, or do you need a recycled experience to give it another go?  Are we going to repeat history or make history? Are we going to live Heaven or Hell right here and right now on Planet Earth where both are up for grabs? Pick your side before you are pushed to the side you don't want to be on. Either side will have you reaping what you sow.

You owe it to yourself and all of humanity to demonstrate the power of fearlessness that lives and breathes inside of your skin and bones and to be in service to the mass consciousness on this Planet as a result of doing so. Your piece of mass consciousness is vital! You can lift it or deplete it with a fear based thought or a fearless one. Don't think for a moment that your piece of Light doesn't have enough power to cause a shift in this game, one way or another, because it does, and you are responsible to steward that Light properly.

You have the strength and the power to shift out of fear in mere moments if you come to understand the strategy of fear, and utilize your strategy to strip it down. You are further responsible for discerning whether it is truly you doing the thinking about anything based in fear, or if something is being impressed upon you to think in a perilous manner. This thought takes an open mind, void of Pollyanna mentality and is born of cultivating razor sharp consciousness. When you heighten yourself to that level of consciousness you will realize that you have the power to seal off the largest trap on this Planet, which is fear, and to ward off the "players" who use it purposefully.

If you consent, intend and equip yourself with the ways and means to go about the task of shutting that trap down forever, regardless of whatever comes up or comes down in your life, you will realize your inherent power... God that you are. Self respect and deep self-love will flood in and bless every corner of your life in ways and means that you may have never entertained as being both fulfilling and life giving.

If you consent, intend and equip yourself with the ways and means of abolishing fear, in an instant you can have a breakthrough moment granting you the consciousness to never consent to such obvious manipulation again. Fear is self induced or "otherwise" produced manipulation. For God's sake, for your sake, for humanities sake please stop whatever you are doing and consider the above. Your life is at stake.

Consider this. What if you were given an internal command that asked you to spend the next 30 days building a safe harbor for your consciousness to dwell and expand in that never allows fear to trespass? How would you build an internal place where fear has no point of entry? What would you need to build a "foolproof/fearproof" harbor? What knowledge would you need as building material? What would you need to know about radical faith, action and inaction and insurmountable love for Self to make this harbor impossible for any fear based thoughts to penetrate no matter what? No matter what! Whether you've heard the command and turned a deaf ear or pretended not to hear the internal command.... it has been issued, and is asking you to become a Divine Architect and build that harbor now. No distractions, no stories, no victim mentality, martyr mentality or mortal mentality. No excuses. When you build that harbor, you will be met with indescribable peace, regardless of anything tha
t goes on or off in this world.

If we don't come to understand and witness for ourselves, within ourselves what the Masters that came before us, (and some who walk among us) taught (and teach) about the simple, uncomplicated love over fear approach to living as Divine Beings of Love and Light we will not be moved up even a half level in consciousness no matter what knowledge you hold or teach about anything that entices the human mind to stray from Self Consciousness.

Consciousness, not knowledge is your energy imprint on the Earth. Consciousness enmeshed with fear profoundly impacts our energy imprint keeping us suppressed, depressed, and away from what we came here to do; transform mortal consciousness! Fear has got to go or we as a species are going to go down, again. Where fear is not, love is, or at the very least neutrality is, bringing us closer to stability.

We are truly at the final frontier of our former existence and undoubtedly it is scary as hell to stand at the threshold of your true Self. It changes everything, and I do mean everything. You are at the edge of the cliff of your life and here, right at the razors edge, do you learn to fly, so let go of everything fearful weighing you down. When you do, the first place you will fly is to the first step of your future life and you will feel the difference from what once was your path of progression to what now will be your path of progression.

Once you get there prepare to not know where you will fly to next, until you are led. Stand in the void and don't get scared. This is a good place to be, embrace it and don't get scared. If you do get scared, simply acknowledge it and don't touch it with another thought! This is Mastery.

What will lead you to the next step is radical trust. Not the lukewarm surrender sort of trust, not the sweaty palms trust, but the trust that makes the difference between who you were while steeped in your fate and who you are about to become steeped in your destiny. Destiny is not shaped by fear; fate on the other hand is sealed by fear.

Wake up every day and get close to your soul. Approach your day fearless about everything no matter what and be willing to be led by the Lantern of the Divine. You will be, so be quiet, and be patient. Develop a strategy for building your fearless harbor and start building. It seemed so easy for so many to heed the call to make vision boards. Let this strategy supercede the most sublime of vision boards. For you see, not everyone's destiny was meant to have everything they envisioned, for soulful and contractual reasons. On the other hand, everyone's destiny requires fearless living in order for it to come to be. You may wish to pause and take that in for a moment, it's important.

As you build your fearless harbor, undoubtedly you will find yourself renouncing existing plans, former ambitions, and mentally planned goals. So be it! Let it be. This is not about you breaking agreements. It is about you honoring the agreement to wake up and stay up, being true to your higher Self, and claiming dominion over your sovereign Self. Open to the Will of Heaven and be patient. When you are not open to the Will of Heaven, you are open to the will of everything and everyone else. I don't sense that's a good option, do you?

For the sake of your destiny and out of love for humanity and this Planet's transition please deeply consider the action necessary to be taken on your behalf. Take a breath, make a commitment to your God Self to let it live out loud fearlessly and make your mark in history as a fearless hero in a never before played out shift in consciousness.

Final words: let no fear, no one and no thing hold you hostage again. You are the Light. Now blast it out, so there is no mistake about it.

Rain

She had been shopping with her Mom in Walmart. She must have been 6 years old, this beautiful red haired, freckle faced image of innocence. It was pouring outside. The kind of rain that gushes over the top of rain gutters, so much in a hurry to hit the earth it has no time to flow down the spout.

      We all stood there under the awning and just inside the door of the Walmart. We waited, some patiently, others irritated because nature messed up their hurried summer day. I am always mesmerized by rainfall, so I got lost in
the sound and sight of the heavens washing away the dirt and dust of the  world. Memories of running, splashing so carefree as a child come pouring  in as a welcome reprieve from the worries of my day.

     Her voice was so sweet as it broke the hypnotic trance we were all caught in ...."Mom, let's run through the rain," she said.  "What?" Mom asked.  "Let's run through the rain!" She repeated.   "No, honey. We'll wait until it slows down a bit," Mom replied. This young child waited about another minute and repeated: "Mom, let's run  through the rain."  "We'll get soaked if we do," Mom said.  "No, we won't, Mom. That's not what you said this morning," the young girl
said as she tugged at her Mom's arm.  "This morning? When did I say we could run through the rain and not get  wet?”  The little girl looked surprised. "Don't you remember? When you were talking to Daddy about his cancer, you said, 'If God can get us through this, he can get us through anything!"

   The entire crowd stopped dead silent. I swear you couldn't hear anything but the rain. We all stood silently. No one came or left in the next few  minutes Mom paused and thought for a moment about what she would say. Now some would laugh it off and scold her for being silly. Some might even ignore what was said. But this was a moment of affirmation in a young child's life. A time when innocent trust can be nurtured so that it will  bloom into faith.

   "Honey, you are absolutely right. Let's run through the rain. If GOD let's us get wet, well maybe we just needed washing," Mom said. Then off they ran.

      We all stood watching, smiling and laughing as they darted past the cars and yes, through the puddles. They held their shopping bags over their heads just in case. They got soaked. But they were followed by a few who screamed and laughed like children all the way to their cars. And yes, I  was one of them.  I got wet. I needed washing.

      Circumstances or people can take away your material possessions, they can take away your money, and they can take away your health. But no one can ever take away your precious memories...So, don't forget to make time and take the opportunities to make memories everyday.

     To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.
~Author Unknown

Personal Self and True Self

Two birds, one of them mortal, the other immortal, live in the same tree.  The first one pecks at the fruit, sweet or bitter; the second looks on without eating.

Thus the personal self pecks at the fruit of this world, bewildered by suffering, always hungry for more. But when he meets the True Self, the resplendent God, the source of creation, all his cravings are stilled.

Perceiving Self in all creatures, he forgets himself in the service of all; good and evil both vanish. Delighting in Self, playing like a child with Self, he does whatever is called for, whatever the result.

~From The Upanishads,Translated by Stephen Mitchell

Going Home

By Stanley Peele

In The Beginning, the world was without form, void and silent.

There was only darkness. There was neither color nor light.

God moved upon the face of the Universe.

And God said, "Let there be light." And there was light.

And God saw that it was good.

First came motion, then sound, then light.

God then created the heavens and the earth,

And all manner of living things upon the earth.

God saw that it was good.   It was paradise!

All this was given to man. And one more thing

Was given to man: free will. God did not intervene.

Mankind has created the world

As it has existed for thousands of years:

A world of anger, violence, sadness and destruction.

In the midst of this, you were born.

Why have you come?

You have come to remember;

To remember the perfection in which you were created.

You came to see this:

Your sister and you, in the midst of a heated argument;

Suddenly remembering the creation;

She, with a deep breath, saying,

"All this does not matter, does it.?"

You, in a moment of pure vision, reply, "No."

And you and your sister embrace.

You came to see a man grab his dagger in anger,

And raise his hand to stab his neighbor –

Yet in the midst thereof, remember who he is!

Behold! The dagger clatters to the floor!

And they embrace.

You came to see the suicide bomber, driving toward death;

Suddenly stop the car, disarm the bomb;

And accept peace in his heart.

You came to let go of anger, judgment, ego and greed.

And remember the motion, the sound and the light.

Motion is the dance everlasting;

Sound is a song of the purest love.

Light exposes the world of illusion,

And bathes it all in a glorious warmth.

You have come to experience the ultimate joy.

– The joy of choosing peace.

– The joy of living in a world

Where violence is thing of the distant past.

– The joy knowing that when you hurt another,

You hurt yourself.

Let us live in a world without strangers;

A world without fear.

Let us dance, sing and send light

To all the world.

Let us kneel and give thanks for the creation.

Let us go home.

Stanley Peele

July 4, 2008

Thoughts to Ponder

* Maybe God wanted us to meet the wrong people before meeting the right one, so that when we finally meet the right person, we will know how to be grateful for that gift.
*Maybe when the door of happiness closes, another opens, but often times we look so long at the closed door that we don't see the one which has been opened for us.
*Maybe the best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had.
*Maybe it is true that we don't know what we have got until we lose it, but it is also true that we don't know what we have been missing until it arrives.
*Giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they will love you back. Don't expect love in return; just wait for it to grow in their heart; but if it does not, be content it grew in yours.
*It takes only a minute to get a crush
on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone, but it takes      
a lifetime to forget someone.
*Go beyond physical looks; look for the beauty within another.
*Go for more than material wealth; find the inner treasure.
*Choose someone who makes you smile because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright. Find the one that makes your heart smile.
*There are moments in life when you miss someone so much that you just want to pick them from your dreams and hug them for real.
*Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have this one life in which to create your reality, so utilize your time here well.
*May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make
you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, enough hope to make you happy.
*Always put yourself in others' shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the other person, too.
*The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.
*Happiness is made for those who cry,
those who hurt, those who have searched, and those who have tried, for only
they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives.
*Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss and ends with a tear.
*The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go on
well in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.
*When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so that when you die, you are the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying, but smiling because you were here!.

~Author Unknown

"Rise Up Powerful Human, Rise Up!" by Maureen Moss

Maureen Moss is one of the clearest channels I've encountered, and her messages are always filled with thought provoking and inspiring messages. This is her latest one, and for more of her great work, check out www.worldpuja.org where there are great radio shows with fascinating guests!

"Rise Up Powerful Human, Rise Up!"
Once upon a time, a Beloved Divine essence, YOU, were born into a world of infinite possibilities. Inside of you, the seeds of your magnificence, your powerful magnificence was planted.

Before you left for your Earthly sojourn God asked you to remember that the seeds of your powerful magnificence were your responsibility to harvest during your earthly lifetime by your own love. It was long ago ordained that the return of the empowered Human Being, with all of of their magnificent possibilities for themselves and the world would rise up in the third millennium on Planet Earth.

With promise intact you journeyed to Earth and the veils of forgetfulness covered you as you slept. The veils have been lifted and now, you are free to awaken, fully. You are free to love and be loved once you inflame your powerful self with your own love and care -- refusing to betray yourself or frighten yourself ever again. You are being given all of the Omniniversal support from The Divine Mother aspect of Gods Highest Light to love and awaken yourself fiercely, softly, and honorably, but take note -- you must protect yourself from your mortal mind in order to do so.

As the New World pronounces itself to multi-dimensions, and multiple Universes led by the Divine Human, it introduces a powerful new role for the emerging new human, free from the confines of its former protective and limiting shell. Each one is clear, relaxed within Self, and responsible for one's energy field and respectful of another's. Each is collaborative, corroborative, a master of co-creation and fully vested in living immersed in their destiny, not their fate. Each knows they must begin building, solidifying and animating internal God consciousness in order to be able to create the infrastructure and architecture of a solid new world external.

The New Divine Human has boldness and softness, settles for nothing and knows that nothing is out of reach, and there are no limitations. The New Divine Human keeps Self on track by their connection to their heart and soul and the heart of The Mother/Father God that nestles inside. The New Divine Human is integrity personified, an architect of potentials, and is prayerful and grateful. The New Divine Human refuses to succumb to fear-based thinking and will not be frightened nor seduced by the world external. They honor stillness, seek contentment, and demand the return of their Sacred Self. They dismantle their internal Department of Defense.

Your full power has been summoned Beloveds. There is a request by the great I AM that I AM to wake up, rise up and activate your full Divine Powerful Potential NOW.

You can no longer invalidate the powerful human that you are. For if you do, you will mislead yourself and deny your true heritage.  You can no longer be tyrannized nor tormented by a mind and ego that uses tricks to keep you bound to the illusion of inadequacies, unless you decide differently. You can no longer be unforgiving toward yourself or any other, for every other is your other in Spirit.

Never be afraid to reveal who you really are, regardless of what anyone thinks. As a magnificent force of LIGHT your purest Self is needed in a world shadowed with illusion.

It is time to decide to no longer remain a human slave fastened to your past or your future. You are being summoned by the Holiest of Holies to climb atop the "story of your life" and take your rightful place as a powerful, benevolent, valuable Divine Human Being. You are the ONE you have been craving all of your life. Truth Is, and that is TRUTH.

It has never been taken lightly that earth life has taxed your spirit, and asked much of your heart, but take heart powerful Divine Human, it has not robbed you of the gifts of persistence, determination and courage. Each is omnipotent. Nor has the fire of the Divine Mother/Father God been extinguished within you. Though it may have been dimmed while in the throes of earthly experience, YOU, powerful and Divine Human, are the keeper of the omnipotent flame.

Rise UP Divine Human! Rise UP and stretch to meet your Self and you will be received with deep honor and great respect from within you, above you and around you.

A Time Comes: 11 Steps To Rising UP.

A time comes in your life when you finally get it, ...when, in the midst of all your fears and mental minutia, you stop in your tracks and somewhere the voice inside your Soul says -- Enough. I will no longer allow my mind and ego to hold me hostage. It is the Divine heart and the dignity of Who I Am that will now lead my life. The time is now.

A time comes in your life when you stop fighting or struggling to hold on to that which was never meant for you to hold onto in the first place. And, like a child after a blind tantrum, your fears and tears subside, you shudder once or twice, and you resolve to look at the world through a new lens of perception. The time is now.

A time comes when you realize it's time to stop hoping and waiting for something to change, or for happiness, safety, and security to come galloping over the next horizon. You realize that your happiness and safety, and security depends upon you and no other. The time is now.

A time comes when you awaken to the fact that you are not perfect and it's ok not be perfect and that not everyone will always love, appreciate or approve of who or what you are. Everyone is entitled to their opinion though you are no longer held hostage by what others opinions of you are. Your prime concern is to be the BEST YOU YOU CAN BE! To be the most integral, loving, compassionate, benevolent, honest, glorious, Divine Powerful Human you can possibly be. You learn the importance of championing yourself and in the process a sense of newfound freedom and confidence is born. The time is now.

A time comes when you stop complaining and blaming other people for the things they did to you (or didn't do to or for you) and you learn that you are not your experiences. Experiences are simply life's opportunities for you to rise up to a greater aspect of yourself. The time is now.

A time comes when you learn that people don't always say what they mean or mean what they say and that not everyone will always be there for you and that it's not about you. It's about them. So you learn to be compassionate and you learn to stand solid in your being and take care of your precious self... and in the process a sense of safety and security is born of self-reliance. The time is now.

A time comes when you stop judging and pointing fingers and you begin to accept people as they are, including yourself. You begin to overlook shortcomings and human frailties... and in the process a sense of peace and contentment is born of forgiveness for those around you. The time is now.

A time comes when you learn to open up to new possibilities for yourself.  You begin reassessing and redefining who your are via the brain of your heart, not mind, and what you really stand for. You learn the difference between wanting and needing and you begin to delete the outdated belief systems that have held you hostage. And in the process you begin to learn to trust yourself and God and the flow of the Universe and Divine Right Timing. The time is now.

A time comes when you learn to distinguish between guilt and responsibility and the importance of setting boundaries and saying NO. You learn to stop setting up circumstances that go against yourself and you learn to live with integrity and deep love for yourself. And in the process you learn to live a higher version of Who You Are. The time is now.

A time comes when you learn that it is vital to establish a proper connection to your heart brain and soul and begin disconnecting from the personality mind and ego regardless of how vulnerable that makes you feel... and in the process you realize that vulnerability is strength. The time is now.

And finally a time comes when you establish a proper rapport with God and the Higher Realms of Consciousness, and with your brothers and sisters on Planet Earth so you can live and co-create, a powerful life without believing that you are down here on Planet Earth doing it alone or that the "proper circumstances" just haven't shown up. The proper circumstances are always a choice away when the lens of perception is clear.

In closing Beloveds, if each and every ONE of us doesn't rise up and take dominion over our lives in a consistent, congruent, collaborative, sacred and clear manner and loose the fear, no matter what actions are called for, "someone" or "something" else will take dominion and I promise you, it's not worth it.
Copyright Maureen Moss
http://www.worldpuja.org
http://www.maureenmoss.com

Save the Earth - Severn Suzuki speech to the United Nations conference in Brazil

Inspiration of the Day:
Born and raised in Vancouver, Severn Suzuki has been working on environmental and social justice issues since kindergarten. At age 9, she and some friends started the Environmental Children's Organization (ECO), a small group of children committed to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. They traveled to 1992's UN Earth Summit, where 12 year-old Severn gave this powerful speech that deeply affected (and silenced) some of the most prominent world leaders. The speech had such an impact that she has become a frequent invitee to many UN conferences. [ more ]

Be The Change:
Read the full text of Severn's speech, and pass it on to a child you know. [ more ]

From CharityFocus.org Daily good