Why Baltimore Is Burning
By Kevin Powell
Via- Victoria Hess
April 29, 2015
I am from the ghetto.
The first 13 years of my life I grew up in the worst slums
of Jersey City, New Jersey, my hometown.
If you came of age in one of America’s poor inner cities like I
did then you know that we are good, decent people: in spite of
no money, no resources, little to no services, run down schools,
landpersons who only came around to collect rent, and madness
and mayhem everywhere, amongst each other, from abusive police
officers, and from corrupt politicians and crooked preachers,
we still made a way out of no way.
We worked hard, we partied hard, we laughed hard, we barbequed
hard, we drank hard, we smoked hard, and we praised God, hard.
And we were segregated, hard, by a local power structure
that did not want the ghetto to be seen nor heard from,
and certainly not to bring its struggles out in plain sight
for the world to see.
Indeed my entire world was the block I lived on and maybe
five or six blocks north south east west.
A long-distance trip was going to Downtown Jersey City on the first
of each month so our mothers—our Black and Latina mothers—could
cash their welfare checks, buy groceries with their food stamps
and, if we were lucky, we got to eat at Kentucky Fried Chicken
or some other fast food restaurant on that special day.
When I was about 15 I was badly beaten by a White police officer
after me and a Puerto Rican kid had a typical boy fight on the bus.
No guns, no knives, just our fists.
The Puerto Rican kid, who had White skin to my Black skin,
was escorted off the bus gingerly.
I was thrown off the bus.
Outraged, I said some things to the cop as I sat handcuffed
in the back seat of a police car.
He proceeded to smash me in the face with the full weight
of his fist.
Bloodied, terrified, broken in that moment, I would never again
view most police officers as we had been taught as children:
“Officer Friendly”—
Being poor meant I only was able to go to college because
of a full financial aid package to Rutgers University.
I did not get on a plane until I was 24-years-old because of that
poverty and also because I did not know that was something I
could do.
These many years later I have visited every single state in America,
every city big and small, and every ghetto community you can
name.
They all look the same.
Abandoned, burnt out buildings. Countless churches, funeral
parlors, barber shops, beauty salons, check cashing places,
furniture rental stores, fried chicken spots, and Chinese
restaurants.
Schools that look and feel more like prison holding cells
for our youth than centers of learning.
Playgrounds littered with broken glass, used condoms,
and drug paraphernalia.
Liquor stores here there everywhere.
Corner stores that sell nothing but candy, cupcakes, potato chips,
soda, every kind of beer you can name, loose cigarettes, rolling
paper for marijuana, lottery tickets, and gum, lots and lots of gum.
Then there are also the local organizations that claim to serve
the people, Black and Latino people.
Some mean well, and are doing their best with meager resources.
Others only come around when it is time to raise money, to
generate some votes for one political candidate or another,
or if the police have tragically killed someone.
Like Rekiya Boyd in Chicago. Like Miriam Carey in Washington, D.C. Like Tanisha Anderson in Cleveland. Like Yvette Smith in Texas. Like Aiyana Stanley Jones in Detroit. Like Eric Garner in New York City. Like Oscar Grant in Oakland. Like Walter Scott in South Carolina. Like Freddie Gray in Baltimore….
Yes, we have the first Black president in the White House but
it feels like open season on Black folks in America once more.
100 years ago this year the Hollywood image machine was given a huge boost by a racist and evil film called “Birth of A Nation,” a movie so calculating in the way it depicted Black people it set the tone, quite literally, for how we were portrayed and treated in every form of media for decades to come.
100 years ago it was common to see photos of African Americans, males especially, lynched, hung from trees, as the local good White folks visibly enjoyed their entertainment of playing hangman.
100 years later “Birth of A Nation” has been replaced by a 24-hour news media cycle still obsessed with race, racism, racial strife, racial violence, but no solutions and no action steps whatsoever, just pure sensationalism and entertainment.
100 years later the lynching photos have been replaced by cellphones capturing video of Walter Scott running away from a police officer, like a slow-footed character in a video game, only to be shot in the back—pop! pop! pop! pop! pop! pop! pop! pop!
Except all of this is mad real, Black people in America—the self-proclaimed greatest democracy on earth—are being shot here there everywhere, by the police, in broad daylight, with witnesses, sometimes on video.
And with very few exceptions nothing is happening to the cops
who pulled the triggers.
No indictments. No convictions. No prison time.
And every single instance one of these scenarios occurs, we are
handed the same movie script: Person of color is shot and killed
by local police.
Local police immediately try to explain what happened, while
placing most of the blame, without full investigation, on the
person shot.
Police officer or officers who fired shots are placed on paid
“administrative leave.”
Media finds any and everything they can to denigrate the character
of the dead person, to somehow justify why she or he is dead.
Marches, protests, rallies, speeches.
Local police show up in military-styled “riot gear.”
Tensions escalate.
Folks are arrested, people are agitated or provoked;
all hell breaks loose.
The attention has shifted from the police killing an innocent
person to the violence of “thugs,” “gangstas,” “looters.”
The community is told to be nonviolent and peaceful, but no one
ever tells the police they should also be nonviolent and peaceful.
Whites in power and “respectable Black voices” call for calm,
but these are the same folks who never talk about the horrific
conditions in America’s ghettoes that make any ‘hood a time
bomb just waiting for a match to ignite the fury born of
oppression, marginalization, containment, and invisibility.
These are the same people who’ve been spent little to no time
with the poor.
If you aren’t from the ghetto, if you have not spent significant
time in the ghetto, then you would not understand the ghetto….
No matter.
Big-time civil rights organizations, big-time civil rights
spokespersons, and big-time church leaders are brought
in to re-direct, control, and contain the energy from the
people at the bottom.
Started from the bottom now we here….
But they really cannot because the people have seen this movie
a million times before.
They know it is madness to be told to let justice take its course.
They know it is madness to wait out a legal system that rarely
if ever indicts and convicts these police officers who’ve shot
and killed members of their community.
They know it is madness to be told to stay cool, to be cool, when
they have no healthy outlets for their trauma, their pain, their
rage.
They know it is madness to hear pundits and talking heads of every
stripe on television and radio and via blogs analyze who they are,
without actually knowing who they are.
They know it is madness when middle class or professional Black
folks speak the language of the power structure and condemn
the people in the streets instead of the system that created the
conditions for why the people are in the streets.
They know it is madness that so-called progressive, liberal, human
rights, or social justice people of any race or culture have remained
mightily silent as these police shootings have been going down
coast to coast.
And they know it is madness that most of these big-time leaders
and big-time media only come around when there is a social
explosion.
So they do explode, inside of themselves, and inside their
communities.
They would love to reach areas outside their ‘hoods but the local
power structure blocks that from happening.
So they destroy their own communities.
I understand why.
I am they and they are me.
Any people with nothing to lose will destroy anything in their way.
Like anything.
Any people who feel as if their lives are not valued, like they are
second-class citizens at best, will not be stopped until they’ve
made their point.
They, we, do not care if our communities have not rebounded
from the last major American rebellions of the 1960s.
We care that we have to live in squalor and misery and can be shot
at any given moment by each other, or by the police, and no one
seems to care.
A rebellion, a riot, are pleas for help, for a plan, for a vision, for
solutions, for action steps, for justice, for God, someone, anyone,
to see our humanity, to do something.
Condemning them is condemning ourselves.
Labeling the Baltimore situation a riot because it is mostly people
of color is racist given we do not call White folks behaving violently
after major sporting events rioters or thugs or gangstas, and Lord
knows some White folks have destroyed much property in America,
too.
It ain’t a democracy if White people can wild out and it is all good;
but let people of color wild out and it becomes a state of
emergency with the National Guard dropping in, armed and ready.
Black lives matter, all lives matter, equally.
I believe that, I believe deeply in peace and love and nonviolence.
I believe in my heart that we’ve got to be human and
compassionate and civil toward one another, as sisters
and brothers, as one human race, as one human family.
I believe that our communities and police forces everywhere have
to sit down and talk and listen as equals, not as enemies, to figure
out a way toward life and love, not toward death and hate; a way
toward a shared community where we all feel safe and welcomed
and human.
Yes, I love people, all people.
But I also believe in justice, for all people. And I know that what
has been happening in America these past few years not remotely
close to any form of justice, or equality.
Imagine, if you will, White folks being shot and murdered
by the police like this, what the reactions would be?
Imagine if George Zimmerman had gone vigilante on a
White youth with a hoodie in that gated Florida complex.
Imagine White parents having to teach their children how
to conduct themselves if ever confronted by the police.
Imagine that Aiyana Stanley Jones was a little 7-year-old White
girl instead of a little 7-year-old Black girl, shot by the police
as she slept on a sofa with her grandmother, in a botched raid?
It would be a national outrage.
Baltimore is burning because America is burning with racism,
with hate, with violence.
Baltimore is burning because far too many of us are on the sidelines
doing nothing to affect change, or have become numb as the
abnormal has become normal.
Baltimore is burning because very few of us are committed to real
leadership, to a real agenda with consistent and real political,
economic, and cultural strategies for those American communities
most under siege, most vulnerable.
Policing them to death is not the solution.
Putting them in prison is not the solution.
And, clearly, ignoring them is not the solution—
Kevin Powell is a cofounder of BK Nation, a new national
organization and blog website. He is also an activist,
public speaker, and author or editor of 11 books.
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Immortal Technique: Baltimore
Immortal Technique: Baltimore
By Immortal Technique
Via - Jackie Guyot
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
The story of Baltimore is the long chain of events.
Not a single action.
A young Black man, Freddie Gray, arrested for having
a small pocket knife.
Not a switchblade.
He didn't threaten anyone.
While being arrested/in custody he received
severe neck injuries and a broken spine.
He died, after receiving no medical attention.
This murder is still under investigation.
One where 6 cops were suspended without pay.
In response, there was a peaceful protest from
an outraged and deeply wounded group of souls.
When it first came through the affected communities
they were greeted with cheers and support.
The marchers were not of only one "race", that's a lie.
There were lots of African American people yes,
but many white people stood in solidarity with
the fight against police brutality as well.
When the march finally reached a more "white neighborhood"
downtown, the baseball fans and local townies began calling
them all kinds of racist names, n-word this & that, spit on
them and taunted them.
Then they (racists) turned on the white kids marching,
calling them "n*gger lovers".
The antagonizing boiled into fights downtown & smashed windows.
Then the fires.
Then the looting by people of all backgrounds.
It's easy to only blame the protestors
when you don't know the back story.
The gangs made a truce, not to kill cops.
Another lie.
I was told that the gang truces were so they wouldn't be killing
each other in the confusion and violence.
So it wouldn't grow exponentially.
This isn't just a "black thing" as I saw ignorant people write.
Latino, and Indigenous & poor Whites find themselves victims
of the system all of the time.
ICE just killed a 20yr old kid in Detroit!!!
But to deny the unbalance of justice when dealing with
the black community, makes you look beyond ridiculous.
I'm not hear to justify anything.
I just told you a story because this doesn't just affect one of us.
This is not just a "black thing" it is a "human thing."
- Immortal Technique
Felipe Andres Coronel better known by the stage name Immortal
Technique, is an American Rapper and Urban Activist.
By Immortal Technique
Via - Jackie Guyot
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
The story of Baltimore is the long chain of events.
Not a single action.
A young Black man, Freddie Gray, arrested for having
a small pocket knife.
Not a switchblade.
He didn't threaten anyone.
While being arrested/in custody he received
severe neck injuries and a broken spine.
He died, after receiving no medical attention.
This murder is still under investigation.
One where 6 cops were suspended without pay.
In response, there was a peaceful protest from
an outraged and deeply wounded group of souls.
When it first came through the affected communities
they were greeted with cheers and support.
The marchers were not of only one "race", that's a lie.
There were lots of African American people yes,
but many white people stood in solidarity with
the fight against police brutality as well.
When the march finally reached a more "white neighborhood"
downtown, the baseball fans and local townies began calling
them all kinds of racist names, n-word this & that, spit on
them and taunted them.
Then they (racists) turned on the white kids marching,
calling them "n*gger lovers".
The antagonizing boiled into fights downtown & smashed windows.
Then the fires.
Then the looting by people of all backgrounds.
It's easy to only blame the protestors
when you don't know the back story.
The gangs made a truce, not to kill cops.
Another lie.
I was told that the gang truces were so they wouldn't be killing
each other in the confusion and violence.
So it wouldn't grow exponentially.
This isn't just a "black thing" as I saw ignorant people write.
Latino, and Indigenous & poor Whites find themselves victims
of the system all of the time.
ICE just killed a 20yr old kid in Detroit!!!
But to deny the unbalance of justice when dealing with
the black community, makes you look beyond ridiculous.
I'm not hear to justify anything.
I just told you a story because this doesn't just affect one of us.
This is not just a "black thing" it is a "human thing."
- Immortal Technique
Felipe Andres Coronel better known by the stage name Immortal
Technique, is an American Rapper and Urban Activist.
Monday, April 27, 2015
Blue Beam
What Is The Blue Beam Project?
By David Openheimer
Bibliotecapleyades.net
Monday, April 27, 2015
It involves two things.
A technologically simulated "second coming" and the reemergence
of new "MONTAUK" type projects that have the ability to take up a
whole bunch of people as in a "rapture" type of situation and whisk
the whole bunch into never-never land.
Ironically, portions of the holographic projections have
the potential for changing the planet into oneness with
God.
Unfortunately, this operates on the premise that Man
shall somehow become God in human form and control
other Men and dictate all actions and thoughts.
The calculated resistance to the new religion, the New World Order
and the new "Messiah" will entail human loss on a massive scale in
the ensuing "holy wars".
The "BLUE BEAM PROJECT" will pretend to be the universal
fulfillment of the prophecies of old; as major an event as
that which took place 2000 years ago.
In principle, it will make use of the sky as a holographic projection
screen for space-based laser-generating satellites (star wars).
These projectors will project simultaneous images to the four
corners of the planet, in every language by region.
It deals with the religious aspect of the NEW WORLD ORDER.
The "system" has already been tested.
Holographic projections of the "CHRIST IMAGE" have already
been seen in some remote desert areas.
These have only been reported in tabloid papers, so they are
instantly rendered moot.
They can also project images of alien craft, aliens, monsters,
angels - you name it.
Computers will coordinate the satellites and software will run
the show-and-tell.
Holography is based on very nearly identical signals combining
to produce and image, or hologram, with depth perception.
This is equally applicable to acoustic (ELF, VLF, LF) waves as it
is to optical phenomena.
Specifically, the "show" will consist of laser projections of multiple
holographic images to different parts of the planet, each receiving
different images according to the predominating regional religious
faith.
Not a single area will be excluded.
With computer animation and sound effects appearing to come
from the depths of space, astonished followers of the various
creeds will witness their own returned Messiah in spectacularly
convincing lifelike realness.
The various images of Christ, Mohammed, Buddha, Krishna, etc.,
will merge into ONE after "correct explanation" of the mysteries,
prophecies and revelations are disclosed.
This "ONE GOD" will in fact function as the "Anti-Christ", who will "explain" that the various scriptures "have been misunderstood" -
that the religious of old are responsible for turning brother against
brother, nation against nation - that the religions of the world must
be abolished to make way for the GOLDEN AGE (NEW AGE) of the
One World Religion, representing the One God they see before
them.
Naturally, this superbly staged, full-scale production will result
in social and religious disorder on a massive scale.
Wonder what the television transmitters of religious networks
will be doing on that day?
But before all this, they have to go through four different steps
in order to get to Project Blue Beam.
1: The first step concerns the breakdown of all archeological
knowledge.
It deals with staging earthquakes at certain precise locations
around the planet where supposed new "discoveries" will finally
explain (for them) that the meanings of the basic doctrines of
all the world's major religions are "wrong."
This falsification will be used to make the population believe that
all religious doctrine has been misunderstood and misinterpreted.
The falsification started with the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the
TV-series STAR TREK, the STAR WARS films, E.T., all of which deal
with space "invasion" and "protection".
JURASSIC PARK, was to push the theory of evolution.
2: The second step deals with the gigantic space show.
3D optical holograms and sounds, laser projections of multiple
holographic images in different parts of the world, each receiving
a different image, according to its predetermined original national
religious faith.
This new "god" image will talk in all languages.
As an example, the Soviets (actual Russians) have manufactured the
advanced computers and have programmed them with the minute
psychological particles based upon their studies of the anatomy and
biology of the human body, as well as their studies on the anatomy,
chemistry and electricity of the human brain.
These computers have also been fed with the different
languages of the world.
3: The third step deals with telepathic electronic two-way
communication.
ELF (Extra Low Frequency), VLF (Very Low Frequency), and LF (Low
Frequency) waves will reach the people of the earth through the
insides of their brains, making each person believe that his own God
is speaking to him from within his own soul.
Such rays, from satellite, are fed from the memory of computers
that store much data about the human being and his languages.
These rays will then interlace and interweave with the natural
thinking processes to form what we call the ARTIFICIAL TALK.
4: The fourth step involves universal supernatural manifestations
using electronic means.
This step contains three different orientations:
The first one is to make mankind believe that an alien invasion
is about to occur upon every major city on the earth.
This is to push each major nation into using its nuclear capability
to strike back.
In this manner, it would put each of these nations in a state of full
disarmament before the United Nations after the false attack.
The second is to make the "christian" believe that a major rapture is
occurring, with a simple "played" divine intervention of an alleged
"good" alien force coming to save the good people from a brutal
satanic attack.
Its goal is to get rid of all significant opposition to the NEW WORLD
ORDER.
The third orientation is a mixture of electronic and supernatural
forces.
The waves (frequencies) used at that time will allow supernatural
forces to travel through fiber optics cable, coaxial cable, electric
and telephone lines in order to penetrate all electronic equipment
and appliances that will by then all have a special microchip
installed.
The goal of this step deals with the materialization of satanic
ghosts, specters, and poltergeists all across the globe in order
to push all populations to the edge of a wave of suicide, killing
and permanent psychological disorder.
After that night of the THOUSAND STARS, HUMANITY IS BELIEVED TO
BE READY FOR THEM TO ENTER IN A "NEW MESSIAH" TO REESTABLISH
PEACE EVERYWHERE AT ANY COST EVEN AT THE COST OF FREEDOM.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopoli/esp_sociopol_bluebeam04.htm?hc_location=ufi
By David Openheimer
Bibliotecapleyades.net
Monday, April 27, 2015
It involves two things.
A technologically simulated "second coming" and the reemergence
of new "MONTAUK" type projects that have the ability to take up a
whole bunch of people as in a "rapture" type of situation and whisk
the whole bunch into never-never land.
Ironically, portions of the holographic projections have
the potential for changing the planet into oneness with
God.
Unfortunately, this operates on the premise that Man
shall somehow become God in human form and control
other Men and dictate all actions and thoughts.
The calculated resistance to the new religion, the New World Order
and the new "Messiah" will entail human loss on a massive scale in
the ensuing "holy wars".
The "BLUE BEAM PROJECT" will pretend to be the universal
fulfillment of the prophecies of old; as major an event as
that which took place 2000 years ago.
In principle, it will make use of the sky as a holographic projection
screen for space-based laser-generating satellites (star wars).
These projectors will project simultaneous images to the four
corners of the planet, in every language by region.
It deals with the religious aspect of the NEW WORLD ORDER.
The "system" has already been tested.
Holographic projections of the "CHRIST IMAGE" have already
been seen in some remote desert areas.
These have only been reported in tabloid papers, so they are
instantly rendered moot.
They can also project images of alien craft, aliens, monsters,
angels - you name it.
Computers will coordinate the satellites and software will run
the show-and-tell.
Holography is based on very nearly identical signals combining
to produce and image, or hologram, with depth perception.
This is equally applicable to acoustic (ELF, VLF, LF) waves as it
is to optical phenomena.
Specifically, the "show" will consist of laser projections of multiple
holographic images to different parts of the planet, each receiving
different images according to the predominating regional religious
faith.
Not a single area will be excluded.
With computer animation and sound effects appearing to come
from the depths of space, astonished followers of the various
creeds will witness their own returned Messiah in spectacularly
convincing lifelike realness.
The various images of Christ, Mohammed, Buddha, Krishna, etc.,
will merge into ONE after "correct explanation" of the mysteries,
prophecies and revelations are disclosed.
This "ONE GOD" will in fact function as the "Anti-Christ", who will "explain" that the various scriptures "have been misunderstood" -
that the religious of old are responsible for turning brother against
brother, nation against nation - that the religions of the world must
be abolished to make way for the GOLDEN AGE (NEW AGE) of the
One World Religion, representing the One God they see before
them.
Naturally, this superbly staged, full-scale production will result
in social and religious disorder on a massive scale.
Wonder what the television transmitters of religious networks
will be doing on that day?
But before all this, they have to go through four different steps
in order to get to Project Blue Beam.
1: The first step concerns the breakdown of all archeological
knowledge.
It deals with staging earthquakes at certain precise locations
around the planet where supposed new "discoveries" will finally
explain (for them) that the meanings of the basic doctrines of
all the world's major religions are "wrong."
This falsification will be used to make the population believe that
all religious doctrine has been misunderstood and misinterpreted.
The falsification started with the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the
TV-series STAR TREK, the STAR WARS films, E.T., all of which deal
with space "invasion" and "protection".
JURASSIC PARK, was to push the theory of evolution.
2: The second step deals with the gigantic space show.
3D optical holograms and sounds, laser projections of multiple
holographic images in different parts of the world, each receiving
a different image, according to its predetermined original national
religious faith.
This new "god" image will talk in all languages.
As an example, the Soviets (actual Russians) have manufactured the
advanced computers and have programmed them with the minute
psychological particles based upon their studies of the anatomy and
biology of the human body, as well as their studies on the anatomy,
chemistry and electricity of the human brain.
These computers have also been fed with the different
languages of the world.
3: The third step deals with telepathic electronic two-way
communication.
ELF (Extra Low Frequency), VLF (Very Low Frequency), and LF (Low
Frequency) waves will reach the people of the earth through the
insides of their brains, making each person believe that his own God
is speaking to him from within his own soul.
Such rays, from satellite, are fed from the memory of computers
that store much data about the human being and his languages.
These rays will then interlace and interweave with the natural
thinking processes to form what we call the ARTIFICIAL TALK.
4: The fourth step involves universal supernatural manifestations
using electronic means.
This step contains three different orientations:
The first one is to make mankind believe that an alien invasion
is about to occur upon every major city on the earth.
This is to push each major nation into using its nuclear capability
to strike back.
In this manner, it would put each of these nations in a state of full
disarmament before the United Nations after the false attack.
The second is to make the "christian" believe that a major rapture is
occurring, with a simple "played" divine intervention of an alleged
"good" alien force coming to save the good people from a brutal
satanic attack.
Its goal is to get rid of all significant opposition to the NEW WORLD
ORDER.
The third orientation is a mixture of electronic and supernatural
forces.
The waves (frequencies) used at that time will allow supernatural
forces to travel through fiber optics cable, coaxial cable, electric
and telephone lines in order to penetrate all electronic equipment
and appliances that will by then all have a special microchip
installed.
The goal of this step deals with the materialization of satanic
ghosts, specters, and poltergeists all across the globe in order
to push all populations to the edge of a wave of suicide, killing
and permanent psychological disorder.
After that night of the THOUSAND STARS, HUMANITY IS BELIEVED TO
BE READY FOR THEM TO ENTER IN A "NEW MESSIAH" TO REESTABLISH
PEACE EVERYWHERE AT ANY COST EVEN AT THE COST OF FREEDOM.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopoli/esp_sociopol_bluebeam04.htm?hc_location=ufi
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Piercing The Nine Veils
Piercing The Nine Veils
By A. True Ott, PhD
War Is Crime.com
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Any dedicated seeker of truth eventually stumbles upon the
incredible symmetry and structure of mathematics, which is
especially true in fractal geometry involving the integers 1—9.
For a most basic example, just take a look at these nine equations:
(1 × 8) + 1= 9
(12 × 8) + 2 = 98
(123 × 8) + 3 = 987
(1234 × 8) + 4 = 9876
(12345 × 8) + 5 = 98765
(123456 × 8) + 6 = 987654
(1234567 × 8) + 7 = 9876543
(12345678 × 8) + 8 = 98765432
(123456789 × 8) + 9 = 987654321
Amazing, isn’t it?
I find it very interesting, furthermore, that all of the great
philosophers in history such as Archimedes, Copernicus,
Socrates and DaVinci all were mathematicians first and
foremost.
I submit that everything from biblical prophecy to DNA strands
are built and based on quite simple mathematical formulas and
patterns — but I am getting ahead of the story, for understanding
the role of mathematics is in itself one of the nine hidden veils.
Consider also the so-called “mystery schools” of antiquity.
In shadowy temples in Sumer and Babylon — the Kabbalah showed
the way to the ultimate “Holy of Holies” — the re-veil-a-tions
(revelation, i.e., the parting of the veils) of life, the creation,
of God and when embraced in honor and truth, the very Origins
of Man.
This involved systematically piercing and embracing >9 levels
of understanding or “Truth Plateaus” before finally entering
“Nirvana” (or the ultimate unity with God) as depicted in modern
“tracing boards”.
Like a giant Sudoku Puzzle board, the human experience we call
life truly revolves around the numbers 1 — 9 in so many remarkable
ways.
Everything has a place in the system, and everything fits
neatly and precisely in the eternal grid of time and space.
This then, is but one definition of Truth — hidden, arcane
knowledge that fits completely in the mathematical grid
called logic.
Yeshua (aka Jesus of Nazareth) declared this to His disciples:
“Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free.”
Why Can’t People See the Truth?
This question is best answered by Don Harkins’ wise words
written in 2001:
“Over the last several years I have evolved and discarded several
theories in an attempt to explain why it is that most people cannot
see truth — even when it smacks them in the face.
Those of us who can see “the conspiracy” have participated
in countless conversations amongst ourselves that address the
frustration of most peoples’ inability to comprehend the extremely
well-documented arguments which we use to describe the process
of our collective enslavement and exploitation.
The most common explanation to be arrived at is that most
people just “don’t want to see” what is really going on.
Extremely evil men and women who make up the world’s power-
elite have cleverly cultivated a virtual pasture so grass green that
few people seldom, if ever, bother to look up from where they are
grazing long enough to notice the brightly colored tags stapled to
their ears.
The same people who cannot see their enslavement for the pasture
grass have a tendency to view as insane “conspiracy theorists”
those of us who can see the past the farm and into the parlor of
his feudal lordship’s castle.
Finally, I understand why.
It’s not that those who don’t see that their freedom is vanishing
under the leadership of the power-elite “don’t want to see it”
they simply can’t see what is happening to them because of the
unpierced veils that block their view.
All human endeavors are a filtration process. Sports are one of
the best examples.
We play specific sports until we get kicked off the playground.
The pro athletes we pay big bucks to watch just never got kicked
off the playground.
Where millions of kids play little league each spring, they are
filtered out until there are about 50 guys who go to the World
Series in October.
Behind The First Veil: There are over six billion people on the
planet.
Most of them live and die without having seriously contemplated
anything other than what it takes to keep their lives together.
Ninety percent of all humanity will live and die without having
pierced the first veil.”
Indeed it can be said that less than 1% of the world’s 6 billion
humans ever pierce all nine veils, and it would appear that even
this small minority is ever-shrinking.
In order to keep the “virtual pasture” green, the global elite also
successfully bribe many who have pierced multiple veils, in order
to misdirect others who may be approaching truth in many areas.
I call this simply intellectual prostitution — selling the birthright
of Universal Truth for a worthless mess of pottage.
The gilded glitz of wealth, fame and social elevation have
seduced many a gifted intellectual.
With full credit given to Don Harkins, here now are the
“Nine Veils".
The First Veil: Ten percent of us will pierce the first veil and find
the world of politics. We will vote, become active and develop an
opinion.
Our opinions will be shaped by the physical world around us; we
will have been “conditioned” from our days in public education
to accept that government officials, network media personalities
and other “experts” are the primary voices of authority.
Ninety percent of the people in this group will live and die
without having pierced the third veil.
The Second Veil: Ten percent of us will also pierce the second veil
to explore the world of history, the relationship between man and
government and the meaning of self-government through
constitutional and common law.
Ninety percent of the people in this group will live and die
without having pierced the third veil.
The Third Veil: Ten percent of those who pierce the second veil,
will eventually pierce the third veil to conclusively find that the
resources of the world, including people, are controlled by
extremely wealthy and powerful families whose incorporated old
world assets have, with modern extortion strategies, become the
foundation upon which the entire world’s economy is currently
indebted.
Ninety percent of the people in this group will live and die
without having pierced the fourth veil.
The Fourth Veil: Ten percent will then pierce the fourth veil
to discover the Illuminati, Freemasonry, and the other secret
societies.
These societies use symbols and perform ceremonies that
perpetuate the generational transfers of arcane knowledge
that is used to keep the ordinary people in political,
economic, and spiritual bondage, to the oldest bloodlines
on earth.
Ninety percent of the people in this group will live and die
without having pierced the fifth veil.
The Fifth Veil: Ten percent will progress to pierce the fifth veil to
learn that the secret societies are so far advanced technologically
that time travel and interstellar communications have no
boundaries and controlling the very thoughts and even the very
actions of people is what their members do as offhandedly as we
tell our children when they must go to bed.
As in the days of Noah, this technology is even creating synthetic
life forms, as man seeks to displace God.
Ninety percent of the people in this group will live and die
without having pierced the sixth veil.
The Sixth Veil: Ten percent will progress to pierce the sixth veil
where we learn the dragons and lizards and aliens we thought
were the fictional monsters of childhood literature are real
indeed and are in reality the actual controlling forces behind
the secret societies uncovered in the fourth veil.
Ninety percent of the people in this group will live and die
without piercing the seventh veil.
The Seventh Veil: Ten percent will progress to pierce the 7th veil
where the incredible world of fractal geometry and the universal
law of numbers will be fully understood and embraced.
The creative force of the entire universe will be shown to be linked
to numerical code formulas and sequences, and all “mysteries”
including the very fabric of time, space, parallel universes, and
access therein is unlocked.
Those whose intellects allow them to pierce the seventh veil
often succumb to the lure and promise of massive wealth
offered by the ruling elite, and thus over ninety percent of
the people in this group will live and die without piercing
the eighth veil.
The Eighth Veil: Piercing the eighth veil reveals God and the pure
energy known as Love that is the pure life force in all living things
which are one and the same.
Deep-seated Humility is needed in order to ever pierce this veil.
The Ninth Veil: Piercing the ninth veil means perfecting the pure
energy known as Love and thereby becoming truly one with God
and His formulations.
By perfecting this pure energy, one then fully embraces charity and therein gains full understanding of the universal plan of sacrifice,
death, and redemption; life itself then becomes complete and one
truly comes full circle and looks at the world through the eyes of an
innocent child, yet with the deepest wisdom born of pure Love from
the eighth veil.
Consider this: If this theory is correct, there are only about 60,000
people on the planet who have successfully pierced the sixth veil.
The irony here is too incredible.
Those who are stuck behind veils one through five have little choice
but to view the people who have pierced the veils beyond them as
dangerously insane.
With each veil pierced, exponentially shrinking numbers
of increasingly enlightened people are deemed insane by
exponentially increasing masses of decreasingly enlightened
people.
Adding to the irony, the harder a “sixth or better veiler” tries to
explain what he is able to see to those who can’t, the more insane
he appears to them.
This truth is self-evident.
Moreover, institutions such as the venerable “Southern Poverty Law
Center” are formed and financed by the ruling elite to effectively
label many such awakened individuals “hate-mongers” and
“terrorists”.
Our Enemy, The State
Behind the first two veils we find the great majority of people
on the planet.
They are tools of the state.
Second veilers are the gullible voters whose ignorance justify the actions of politicians who send untold millions of first veilers off to
die in foreign lands as cannon fodder — their combined stations in
life are simply to believe that the self-serving machinations of the
power-elite are matters of national security and are worth dying
for.
Third, fourth, fifth and sixth veilers are of increasing liability to
the state because of their decreasing ability to be used as tools
to consolidate power and wealth of the many into the hands of
the power-elite few.
It is common also, for these people to sacrifice more of their
relationships with friends and family, their professional careers
and personal freedom with each veil they pierce.
Albert Jay Nock (1870-1945), author of Our Enemy, the State
(1935), explained what happens to those who find and embrace
the final two veils:
“What was the best that the state could find to do with an actual
Socrates and an actual Jesus when it had them? Merely to poison
one and crucify the other, for no reason but that they were too
intolerably embarrassing to be allowed to live any longer.”
Conclusions
As Don Harkins has written:
“And so now we know that it’s not that our countrymen are
so committed to their lives that, “they don’t want to see,”
the mechanisms of their enslavement and exploitation. They
simply “can’t see” it as surely as I cannot see what’s on the
other side of a closed curtain.”
http://wariscrime.com/new/piercing-the-nine-veils
By A. True Ott, PhD
War Is Crime.com
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Any dedicated seeker of truth eventually stumbles upon the
incredible symmetry and structure of mathematics, which is
especially true in fractal geometry involving the integers 1—9.
For a most basic example, just take a look at these nine equations:
(1 × 8) + 1= 9
(12 × 8) + 2 = 98
(123 × 8) + 3 = 987
(1234 × 8) + 4 = 9876
(12345 × 8) + 5 = 98765
(123456 × 8) + 6 = 987654
(1234567 × 8) + 7 = 9876543
(12345678 × 8) + 8 = 98765432
(123456789 × 8) + 9 = 987654321
Amazing, isn’t it?
I find it very interesting, furthermore, that all of the great
philosophers in history such as Archimedes, Copernicus,
Socrates and DaVinci all were mathematicians first and
foremost.
I submit that everything from biblical prophecy to DNA strands
are built and based on quite simple mathematical formulas and
patterns — but I am getting ahead of the story, for understanding
the role of mathematics is in itself one of the nine hidden veils.
Consider also the so-called “mystery schools” of antiquity.
In shadowy temples in Sumer and Babylon — the Kabbalah showed
the way to the ultimate “Holy of Holies” — the re-veil-a-tions
(revelation, i.e., the parting of the veils) of life, the creation,
of God and when embraced in honor and truth, the very Origins
of Man.
This involved systematically piercing and embracing >9 levels
of understanding or “Truth Plateaus” before finally entering
“Nirvana” (or the ultimate unity with God) as depicted in modern
“tracing boards”.
Like a giant Sudoku Puzzle board, the human experience we call
life truly revolves around the numbers 1 — 9 in so many remarkable
ways.
Everything has a place in the system, and everything fits
neatly and precisely in the eternal grid of time and space.
This then, is but one definition of Truth — hidden, arcane
knowledge that fits completely in the mathematical grid
called logic.
Yeshua (aka Jesus of Nazareth) declared this to His disciples:
“Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free.”
Why Can’t People See the Truth?
This question is best answered by Don Harkins’ wise words
written in 2001:
“Over the last several years I have evolved and discarded several
theories in an attempt to explain why it is that most people cannot
see truth — even when it smacks them in the face.
Those of us who can see “the conspiracy” have participated
in countless conversations amongst ourselves that address the
frustration of most peoples’ inability to comprehend the extremely
well-documented arguments which we use to describe the process
of our collective enslavement and exploitation.
The most common explanation to be arrived at is that most
people just “don’t want to see” what is really going on.
Extremely evil men and women who make up the world’s power-
elite have cleverly cultivated a virtual pasture so grass green that
few people seldom, if ever, bother to look up from where they are
grazing long enough to notice the brightly colored tags stapled to
their ears.
The same people who cannot see their enslavement for the pasture
grass have a tendency to view as insane “conspiracy theorists”
those of us who can see the past the farm and into the parlor of
his feudal lordship’s castle.
Finally, I understand why.
It’s not that those who don’t see that their freedom is vanishing
under the leadership of the power-elite “don’t want to see it”
they simply can’t see what is happening to them because of the
unpierced veils that block their view.
All human endeavors are a filtration process. Sports are one of
the best examples.
We play specific sports until we get kicked off the playground.
The pro athletes we pay big bucks to watch just never got kicked
off the playground.
Where millions of kids play little league each spring, they are
filtered out until there are about 50 guys who go to the World
Series in October.
Behind The First Veil: There are over six billion people on the
planet.
Most of them live and die without having seriously contemplated
anything other than what it takes to keep their lives together.
Ninety percent of all humanity will live and die without having
pierced the first veil.”
Indeed it can be said that less than 1% of the world’s 6 billion
humans ever pierce all nine veils, and it would appear that even
this small minority is ever-shrinking.
In order to keep the “virtual pasture” green, the global elite also
successfully bribe many who have pierced multiple veils, in order
to misdirect others who may be approaching truth in many areas.
I call this simply intellectual prostitution — selling the birthright
of Universal Truth for a worthless mess of pottage.
The gilded glitz of wealth, fame and social elevation have
seduced many a gifted intellectual.
With full credit given to Don Harkins, here now are the
“Nine Veils".
The First Veil: Ten percent of us will pierce the first veil and find
the world of politics. We will vote, become active and develop an
opinion.
Our opinions will be shaped by the physical world around us; we
will have been “conditioned” from our days in public education
to accept that government officials, network media personalities
and other “experts” are the primary voices of authority.
Ninety percent of the people in this group will live and die
without having pierced the third veil.
The Second Veil: Ten percent of us will also pierce the second veil
to explore the world of history, the relationship between man and
government and the meaning of self-government through
constitutional and common law.
Ninety percent of the people in this group will live and die
without having pierced the third veil.
The Third Veil: Ten percent of those who pierce the second veil,
will eventually pierce the third veil to conclusively find that the
resources of the world, including people, are controlled by
extremely wealthy and powerful families whose incorporated old
world assets have, with modern extortion strategies, become the
foundation upon which the entire world’s economy is currently
indebted.
Ninety percent of the people in this group will live and die
without having pierced the fourth veil.
The Fourth Veil: Ten percent will then pierce the fourth veil
to discover the Illuminati, Freemasonry, and the other secret
societies.
These societies use symbols and perform ceremonies that
perpetuate the generational transfers of arcane knowledge
that is used to keep the ordinary people in political,
economic, and spiritual bondage, to the oldest bloodlines
on earth.
Ninety percent of the people in this group will live and die
without having pierced the fifth veil.
The Fifth Veil: Ten percent will progress to pierce the fifth veil to
learn that the secret societies are so far advanced technologically
that time travel and interstellar communications have no
boundaries and controlling the very thoughts and even the very
actions of people is what their members do as offhandedly as we
tell our children when they must go to bed.
As in the days of Noah, this technology is even creating synthetic
life forms, as man seeks to displace God.
Ninety percent of the people in this group will live and die
without having pierced the sixth veil.
The Sixth Veil: Ten percent will progress to pierce the sixth veil
where we learn the dragons and lizards and aliens we thought
were the fictional monsters of childhood literature are real
indeed and are in reality the actual controlling forces behind
the secret societies uncovered in the fourth veil.
Ninety percent of the people in this group will live and die
without piercing the seventh veil.
The Seventh Veil: Ten percent will progress to pierce the 7th veil
where the incredible world of fractal geometry and the universal
law of numbers will be fully understood and embraced.
The creative force of the entire universe will be shown to be linked
to numerical code formulas and sequences, and all “mysteries”
including the very fabric of time, space, parallel universes, and
access therein is unlocked.
Those whose intellects allow them to pierce the seventh veil
often succumb to the lure and promise of massive wealth
offered by the ruling elite, and thus over ninety percent of
the people in this group will live and die without piercing
the eighth veil.
The Eighth Veil: Piercing the eighth veil reveals God and the pure
energy known as Love that is the pure life force in all living things
which are one and the same.
Deep-seated Humility is needed in order to ever pierce this veil.
The Ninth Veil: Piercing the ninth veil means perfecting the pure
energy known as Love and thereby becoming truly one with God
and His formulations.
By perfecting this pure energy, one then fully embraces charity and therein gains full understanding of the universal plan of sacrifice,
death, and redemption; life itself then becomes complete and one
truly comes full circle and looks at the world through the eyes of an
innocent child, yet with the deepest wisdom born of pure Love from
the eighth veil.
Consider this: If this theory is correct, there are only about 60,000
people on the planet who have successfully pierced the sixth veil.
The irony here is too incredible.
Those who are stuck behind veils one through five have little choice
but to view the people who have pierced the veils beyond them as
dangerously insane.
With each veil pierced, exponentially shrinking numbers
of increasingly enlightened people are deemed insane by
exponentially increasing masses of decreasingly enlightened
people.
Adding to the irony, the harder a “sixth or better veiler” tries to
explain what he is able to see to those who can’t, the more insane
he appears to them.
This truth is self-evident.
Moreover, institutions such as the venerable “Southern Poverty Law
Center” are formed and financed by the ruling elite to effectively
label many such awakened individuals “hate-mongers” and
“terrorists”.
Our Enemy, The State
Behind the first two veils we find the great majority of people
on the planet.
They are tools of the state.
Second veilers are the gullible voters whose ignorance justify the actions of politicians who send untold millions of first veilers off to
die in foreign lands as cannon fodder — their combined stations in
life are simply to believe that the self-serving machinations of the
power-elite are matters of national security and are worth dying
for.
Third, fourth, fifth and sixth veilers are of increasing liability to
the state because of their decreasing ability to be used as tools
to consolidate power and wealth of the many into the hands of
the power-elite few.
It is common also, for these people to sacrifice more of their
relationships with friends and family, their professional careers
and personal freedom with each veil they pierce.
Albert Jay Nock (1870-1945), author of Our Enemy, the State
(1935), explained what happens to those who find and embrace
the final two veils:
“What was the best that the state could find to do with an actual
Socrates and an actual Jesus when it had them? Merely to poison
one and crucify the other, for no reason but that they were too
intolerably embarrassing to be allowed to live any longer.”
Conclusions
As Don Harkins has written:
“And so now we know that it’s not that our countrymen are
so committed to their lives that, “they don’t want to see,”
the mechanisms of their enslavement and exploitation. They
simply “can’t see” it as surely as I cannot see what’s on the
other side of a closed curtain.”
http://wariscrime.com/new/piercing-the-nine-veils
Monday, April 20, 2015
Understanding The Biology Driving Insatiable Greed
Understanding The Biology Driving Insatiable Greed
By Sara Stalman MD
Reader Supported News
Monday, April 20, 2015
We are, as a country, caught in a stranglehold by those whose
wealth makes it hard for us to understand why they should keep
demanding more.
Robert Reich addressing the need to break up Big Banks,
Lawmaker outrage at AIG potentially joining a lawsuit
again the US, Joseph Stiglitz looking at climate change
and poverty, Bill Moyers addressing the Gun Lobby's
Firepower are just the most recent attempts to address
the issue of Insatiable Greed.
Stuck between moral outrage and intellectual argument we have,
to date, been unable to effectively challenge the scourge of
economic violence that continually threatens our country's ability
to move forward with just equity for all.
A neuro-biological argument might clarify what, exactly,
is going on in a way that avoids blame and criticism.
Taking the discussion to the level of Biological Science may
seem far-flung, but Science is where the rubber meets the
road in understanding human behavior.
The data I present is clear and statistically solid; the argument
makes sense and passes the "So What?" test.
Anyone with the patience to listen can understand.
The neuro-biological argument addresses the problem of Insatiable
Greed with compassion; the shift in dialogue, in itself, offers a
genuine solution to the problem.
In brief, we are talking about a mental illness: a profound
alienation from Life associated with such terrible suffering
that people afflicted are driven to do whatever it takes to
protect themselves from that suffering.
I practiced neuro-psychiatry for 18 years with the goal
of learning to understand human suffering.
The timing or my education was fortuitous: our knowledge of neuro-
receptors was at its height just prior to the Pharmaceutical
Industry's Take-Over of the scientific data.
Most importantly, I learned about human suffering from listening
to my Patients' Stories.
Over two thirds had been badly damaged by one of three specific
childhood experiences.
Two of those damaging childhood experiences would have
precluded survival to adulthood in primitive cultures.
Both are consequences, historically, of the Insatiable Greed at the
root of the conquest, rape, and pillage that has driven "Civilization"
forward.
Americans are, perhaps, lucky in that most of us have experienced
violence as only economic violence.
Native Americans, Black Americans, American children, and most
of our forebears knew/know of a more immediate, painful violence.
The third profoundly damaging childhood experience, profound
childhood neglect, can be found at the root of all human violence.
The profound alienation that drives Insatiable Greed is a cognitive
disorder of that neurocircuitry which defines our humanity.
The human newborn has the same brain capacity at birth as
our nearest pre-human ancestors, Homo erectus; by the age
of 3, our brain is the size of the Homo erectus adult.
Homo sapiens is the only species with 2 generations of caretakers.
During the 1.6 million years that separate us from our Homo erectus
forebears, parents and grandparents learned to teach children to
be human.
Our intellectual capacity evolved hand in hand with the evolution
of human families and of human culture.
Our long childhood defines us as a species.
We are the only species intellectually capable (and intellectually
designed) to face threat with calm confidence.
That calm confidence, however, demands that someone teach
us patience and trust in a higher Goodness than ourselves.
The data is solid: people suffering the profound alienation that
drives insatiable greed never had anyone help them learn what
it means to be human.
Insatiable Greed results when children (rich or poor) are
emotionally abandoned - left to raise themselves guided
only by their own (reptilian) fight-or-flight response to
perceived threat.
The terrible insecurity of feeling alone in the world, with only one's wits and false courage, drives the economic violence of those who will never have enough.
What they have learned from Life that it's a Game to be played
without respect for anything but winning an immediate sense of
security.
Karl Rove's childhood "Story," which can be read in his
New Yorker Profile, compels our compassion.
That said the demands, the threats, and even the violence of
those with Insatiable Greed require the answer a loving parent
gives a demanding child.
That answer is a firm, "No," spoken without anger and
with understanding.
Only on hearing, "No," do we turn inward to find real security - the
security of our human capacity to serve a Greater Goodness than
ourselves.
Saying, "No," to a bully requires real courage.
It is the right thing to do.
http://readersupportednews.org/pm-section/78-78/15483-
understanding-the-biology-driving-insatiable-greed
By Sara Stalman MD
Reader Supported News
Monday, April 20, 2015
We are, as a country, caught in a stranglehold by those whose
wealth makes it hard for us to understand why they should keep
demanding more.
Robert Reich addressing the need to break up Big Banks,
Lawmaker outrage at AIG potentially joining a lawsuit
again the US, Joseph Stiglitz looking at climate change
and poverty, Bill Moyers addressing the Gun Lobby's
Firepower are just the most recent attempts to address
the issue of Insatiable Greed.
Stuck between moral outrage and intellectual argument we have,
to date, been unable to effectively challenge the scourge of
economic violence that continually threatens our country's ability
to move forward with just equity for all.
A neuro-biological argument might clarify what, exactly,
is going on in a way that avoids blame and criticism.
Taking the discussion to the level of Biological Science may
seem far-flung, but Science is where the rubber meets the
road in understanding human behavior.
The data I present is clear and statistically solid; the argument
makes sense and passes the "So What?" test.
Anyone with the patience to listen can understand.
The neuro-biological argument addresses the problem of Insatiable
Greed with compassion; the shift in dialogue, in itself, offers a
genuine solution to the problem.
In brief, we are talking about a mental illness: a profound
alienation from Life associated with such terrible suffering
that people afflicted are driven to do whatever it takes to
protect themselves from that suffering.
I practiced neuro-psychiatry for 18 years with the goal
of learning to understand human suffering.
The timing or my education was fortuitous: our knowledge of neuro-
receptors was at its height just prior to the Pharmaceutical
Industry's Take-Over of the scientific data.
Most importantly, I learned about human suffering from listening
to my Patients' Stories.
Over two thirds had been badly damaged by one of three specific
childhood experiences.
Two of those damaging childhood experiences would have
precluded survival to adulthood in primitive cultures.
Both are consequences, historically, of the Insatiable Greed at the
root of the conquest, rape, and pillage that has driven "Civilization"
forward.
Americans are, perhaps, lucky in that most of us have experienced
violence as only economic violence.
Native Americans, Black Americans, American children, and most
of our forebears knew/know of a more immediate, painful violence.
The third profoundly damaging childhood experience, profound
childhood neglect, can be found at the root of all human violence.
The profound alienation that drives Insatiable Greed is a cognitive
disorder of that neurocircuitry which defines our humanity.
The human newborn has the same brain capacity at birth as
our nearest pre-human ancestors, Homo erectus; by the age
of 3, our brain is the size of the Homo erectus adult.
Homo sapiens is the only species with 2 generations of caretakers.
During the 1.6 million years that separate us from our Homo erectus
forebears, parents and grandparents learned to teach children to
be human.
Our intellectual capacity evolved hand in hand with the evolution
of human families and of human culture.
Our long childhood defines us as a species.
We are the only species intellectually capable (and intellectually
designed) to face threat with calm confidence.
That calm confidence, however, demands that someone teach
us patience and trust in a higher Goodness than ourselves.
The data is solid: people suffering the profound alienation that
drives insatiable greed never had anyone help them learn what
it means to be human.
Insatiable Greed results when children (rich or poor) are
emotionally abandoned - left to raise themselves guided
only by their own (reptilian) fight-or-flight response to
perceived threat.
The terrible insecurity of feeling alone in the world, with only one's wits and false courage, drives the economic violence of those who will never have enough.
What they have learned from Life that it's a Game to be played
without respect for anything but winning an immediate sense of
security.
Karl Rove's childhood "Story," which can be read in his
New Yorker Profile, compels our compassion.
That said the demands, the threats, and even the violence of
those with Insatiable Greed require the answer a loving parent
gives a demanding child.
That answer is a firm, "No," spoken without anger and
with understanding.
Only on hearing, "No," do we turn inward to find real security - the
security of our human capacity to serve a Greater Goodness than
ourselves.
Saying, "No," to a bully requires real courage.
It is the right thing to do.
http://readersupportednews.org/pm-section/78-78/15483-
understanding-the-biology-driving-insatiable-greed
Saturday, April 18, 2015
What Does It Mean To Be Human?
Repositioning Humanity In The Greater Scheme Of Things
By Rob Plastow
Adbusters.org
April 18, 2015
Like goldfish in a bowl totally ignorant of “water,” we often fail to
notice how colonized our consciousness has become by capitalism
and how the resulting ideology permeates our life.
We find we revert to the same flawed thoughts that caused
our problems to fix them.
The recession of 2007 was followed with the expansion of a litany
of environmental harms caused by previous development.
Western Governments have doubled-down on neoliberalism:
greater austerity, widened gaps of inequality, less regulation,
greater global CO2 emissions — all in the quest for economic
growth.
We’ve hit the accelerator instead of the brakes as we mercilessly
try to do things better — when we should open our eyes to the
“water” all around us.
Our problems are those of ideology, belief, perception, values
and identity — so, we need a shift in all these phenomena if we
are to overcome our current problems.
This task is complex and overwhelming without a singular correct
route to success.
We must look to science and learn what it can tell us about our
relationship to the natural world , to which we are fundamentally
tied.
Contrary to the claims of anthropocentrism (human centeredness)
maintained solely by cultural inertia, man is not separate from
nature.
The relationship is in fact interdependent and interconnected.
All things share one origin.
This information has yet to be culturally assimilated.
This understanding provides a shift in pre-analytic vision
engendering alternatives to our current, flawed cultural
information.
It allows us to see the water of Western ideology and encourages us
to think anew from an eco-centric point of view with the potential
to reframe our identity, our values and therefore our culture, so we
and future generations may be better placed to solve the problems
essential to survival.
An important discovery was made in the 1920s.
Lemaitre and Hubble observed galaxies moving away from us in all
directions, and it became clear the furthest away were moving the
fastest, proving that the universe is expanding.
The principle of this discovery also infers that, were we to rewind
time to before the expansion, everything in the universe would be
in one place — it originated as a singularity — a small, almost
infinitely dense point expanding to form the universe as we know it.
Charles Darwin’s research exposed additional existentially
important discoveries.
The facts of which have permeated our culture, but without an
understanding when combined with Lemaitre and Hubble’s work.
Their synthesis of knowledge brings a natural conclusion to the
theory of evolution: all life on Earth descends from a single
common ancestor.
A single celled organism often called the Last Universal Ancestor
(LUA) that lived 3.7 billion years ago, yet shares many common
traits with bacteria alive today.
From both discoveries we can see that every living thing shares
a common origin, as do all things in the universe.
With this knowledge, the story of how we came to be here
emerges under a new light.
This story begins when a single point of near-infinite quantum
density saw an inflammatory kick in pressure that released the
energy of the BIG BANG!
As it cooled, it gave rise to hydrogen and helium atoms, the
gravitational fields of these atoms drew them together into
clouds that amassed over millions of years.
The growing friction and compaction saw the birth of the
first stars illuminating the universe.
Inside these stars hydrogen atoms (1 proton) were fused to
form helium (2 protons).
Helium atoms fused together to form heavier atoms.
Through a cosmic cycle of birth and explosive death, bigger stars were formed that could fuse even more protons into atoms up until iron, which has 26.
Heavier elements, such as gold, could not be fused even in the hearts of the biggest stars.
Instead they needed a supernova, a stellar explosion large enough
to outshine a galaxy and produce more energy in a few weeks than
our sun will produce in its entire lifetime.
The next time you look at the gold in your jewelery, you can
remind yourself you are wearing debris of a supernova exploded
in the depths of space.
You can remind yourself such stellar fusions and explosions
produced all the elements in the universe, including the carbon,
oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, calcium, phosphorus and other atoms
our bodies are constructed of.
We ourselves are made of Big Bang debris … we are made
of the same dust as the stars.
It’s filtered through iterations of cosmic evolution that saw
the emergence of our galaxy, solar system and planet from
which the LUA and all the species came and went.
This almost magical sounding story of what happens when
hydrogen is left alone to be governed only by the laws
of nature for 13.8 billion years is much like its contents in
the story itself — CONSTANTLY EVOLVING.
We are part of an ongoing cosmic evolutionary process.
Every atom in our bodies was forged in the death throes of stars.
We share DNA with all life on Earth: from trees in a rainforest
to fungi in the Cornish soil.
The woman across the road or a dog you crossed in the park.
Despite the cultural inertia of anthropocentrism-based science,
we are not separate.
WE ARE ONE.
When we reposition our perspective it sheds new light on what
it means to be human.
It is not all about us.
It is about something much larger — something we are a part of.
We can at all times be guided by two well-established pieces of
advice that, from an eco-centric perspective, take on greater
significance: “know thyself” and “to thine own self be true.”
To take our first steps then, let us look at ourselves, our planet and
the life upon it as well as the cosmos of all we have discovered and
ask: what is it to be human and how do we live as a result?
Rob Plastow lives by the sea in Cornwall with his Wife. Central
to his writing is a critical, ecocentric perspective that has been
developed from a deep love of art and science and years of working
in music, education and muddy fields.
https://www.adbusters.org/magazine/118/anthropocentrism.html
By Rob Plastow
Adbusters.org
April 18, 2015
Like goldfish in a bowl totally ignorant of “water,” we often fail to
notice how colonized our consciousness has become by capitalism
and how the resulting ideology permeates our life.
We find we revert to the same flawed thoughts that caused
our problems to fix them.
The recession of 2007 was followed with the expansion of a litany
of environmental harms caused by previous development.
Western Governments have doubled-down on neoliberalism:
greater austerity, widened gaps of inequality, less regulation,
greater global CO2 emissions — all in the quest for economic
growth.
We’ve hit the accelerator instead of the brakes as we mercilessly
try to do things better — when we should open our eyes to the
“water” all around us.
Our problems are those of ideology, belief, perception, values
and identity — so, we need a shift in all these phenomena if we
are to overcome our current problems.
This task is complex and overwhelming without a singular correct
route to success.
We must look to science and learn what it can tell us about our
relationship to the natural world , to which we are fundamentally
tied.
Contrary to the claims of anthropocentrism (human centeredness)
maintained solely by cultural inertia, man is not separate from
nature.
The relationship is in fact interdependent and interconnected.
All things share one origin.
This information has yet to be culturally assimilated.
This understanding provides a shift in pre-analytic vision
engendering alternatives to our current, flawed cultural
information.
It allows us to see the water of Western ideology and encourages us
to think anew from an eco-centric point of view with the potential
to reframe our identity, our values and therefore our culture, so we
and future generations may be better placed to solve the problems
essential to survival.
An important discovery was made in the 1920s.
Lemaitre and Hubble observed galaxies moving away from us in all
directions, and it became clear the furthest away were moving the
fastest, proving that the universe is expanding.
The principle of this discovery also infers that, were we to rewind
time to before the expansion, everything in the universe would be
in one place — it originated as a singularity — a small, almost
infinitely dense point expanding to form the universe as we know it.
Charles Darwin’s research exposed additional existentially
important discoveries.
The facts of which have permeated our culture, but without an
understanding when combined with Lemaitre and Hubble’s work.
Their synthesis of knowledge brings a natural conclusion to the
theory of evolution: all life on Earth descends from a single
common ancestor.
A single celled organism often called the Last Universal Ancestor
(LUA) that lived 3.7 billion years ago, yet shares many common
traits with bacteria alive today.
From both discoveries we can see that every living thing shares
a common origin, as do all things in the universe.
With this knowledge, the story of how we came to be here
emerges under a new light.
This story begins when a single point of near-infinite quantum
density saw an inflammatory kick in pressure that released the
energy of the BIG BANG!
As it cooled, it gave rise to hydrogen and helium atoms, the
gravitational fields of these atoms drew them together into
clouds that amassed over millions of years.
The growing friction and compaction saw the birth of the
first stars illuminating the universe.
Inside these stars hydrogen atoms (1 proton) were fused to
form helium (2 protons).
Helium atoms fused together to form heavier atoms.
Through a cosmic cycle of birth and explosive death, bigger stars were formed that could fuse even more protons into atoms up until iron, which has 26.
Heavier elements, such as gold, could not be fused even in the hearts of the biggest stars.
Instead they needed a supernova, a stellar explosion large enough
to outshine a galaxy and produce more energy in a few weeks than
our sun will produce in its entire lifetime.
The next time you look at the gold in your jewelery, you can
remind yourself you are wearing debris of a supernova exploded
in the depths of space.
You can remind yourself such stellar fusions and explosions
produced all the elements in the universe, including the carbon,
oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, calcium, phosphorus and other atoms
our bodies are constructed of.
We ourselves are made of Big Bang debris … we are made
of the same dust as the stars.
It’s filtered through iterations of cosmic evolution that saw
the emergence of our galaxy, solar system and planet from
which the LUA and all the species came and went.
This almost magical sounding story of what happens when
hydrogen is left alone to be governed only by the laws
of nature for 13.8 billion years is much like its contents in
the story itself — CONSTANTLY EVOLVING.
We are part of an ongoing cosmic evolutionary process.
Every atom in our bodies was forged in the death throes of stars.
We share DNA with all life on Earth: from trees in a rainforest
to fungi in the Cornish soil.
The woman across the road or a dog you crossed in the park.
Despite the cultural inertia of anthropocentrism-based science,
we are not separate.
WE ARE ONE.
When we reposition our perspective it sheds new light on what
it means to be human.
It is not all about us.
It is about something much larger — something we are a part of.
We can at all times be guided by two well-established pieces of
advice that, from an eco-centric perspective, take on greater
significance: “know thyself” and “to thine own self be true.”
To take our first steps then, let us look at ourselves, our planet and
the life upon it as well as the cosmos of all we have discovered and
ask: what is it to be human and how do we live as a result?
Rob Plastow lives by the sea in Cornwall with his Wife. Central
to his writing is a critical, ecocentric perspective that has been
developed from a deep love of art and science and years of working
in music, education and muddy fields.
https://www.adbusters.org/magazine/118/anthropocentrism.html
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Burning Our Bridges
Burning Our Bridges
By Sarah Anderson and Scott Klinger
Institute For Policy Studies
Thursday, April 16, 2015
To generate funds to shore up our nation’s crumbling
infrastructure, the U.S. Congress is considering giving
corporations large tax cuts on their offshore profits.
Under current law, corporations can defer U.S. tax payments on
overseas earnings until they bring the profits to the United States.
The proposed “tax holidays” would generate a relatively small, one-
time revenue bump while allowing large corporations to avoid much
larger amounts of tax owed over the longer term.
The last time we tried this, in 2004, it failed miserably.
Corporations that participated shaved nearly $100 billion
off their long-term IRS bills.
And instead of boosting investment, they used the windfalls to buy
back their stock and boost dividends while laying off more workers
than they hired.
Once the holiday was over, they began rebuilding their overseas
profit stashes.
This report identifies the 26 U.S. corporations with the largest
stockpiles of untaxed overseas profits and analyzes how much these
firms could help meet U.S. infrastructure needs if they actually
paid the taxes they owe — but can legally put off paying — on their
offshore profits.
The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that $3.6 trillion
in infrastructure investment is needed by 2020 to bring our aging
infrastructure into the 21st century and keep our economy competitive.
Just 26 firms account for more than half of the $2.1 trillion in
untaxed profits U.S. corporations are currently holding offshore.
Each of these firms has accumulated more than $20 billion
in overseas earnings.
Together, they operate 1,086 subsidiaries in tax haven nations.
These 26 firms’ offshore profits have exploded more than
five-fold since the last tax holiday on overseas earnings.
Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Qualcomm each grew their
offshore stashes by more than twenty-fold between 2005
and 2014.
If these 26 mega-stockpilers were to pay what they owe on their
overseas profits, the federal government could gain a one-time
revenue boost of an estimated $364 billion.
That would be more than enough to cover the cost of repairing all
of the country’s wastewater and stormwater systems, with enough
left over to repair or replace all of the country’s dangerous and
deficient dams and restore all the nation’s local, state, and
national parks.
Apple is the largest offshore profit stockpiler.
If the highly profitable tech firm were to pay what it owes on
those earnings, it would be enough to cover 17 percent of the
cost of needed repairs on all public school buildings.
The second-largest offshore stockpiler is General Electric.
If GE paid the taxes it owes on the $119 billion it holds offshore,
that estimated revenue would be more than enough to pay for all
of the unmet maintenance needs in local, state, and national parks.
Seven pharmaceutical firms are among the 26 mega-stockpilers.
This sector has become adept at avoiding U.S. taxes by shifting
ownership of patents and trademarks to subsidiaries in tax havens.
If these seven drug companies were to pay the taxes they owe, it
would generate an estimated $82 billion, enough to replace all of
the deficient bridges in the United States.
If just two major oil companies — ExxonMobil and Chevron — were
to pay the taxes they owe on their offshore profits, it could cover
nearly a quarter of the cost of repairing all of the country’s levees.
This is infrastructure critical for responding to the more
volatile and extreme weather we are now experiencing.
Closing the offshore tax dodging loophole for all corporations
could raise at least $590 billion over the next decade, and
$90 billion more every year thereafter.
This would represent a significant down payment on the nation’s
overall infrastructure investment needs and could create an
additional 1.8 million jobs.
Sarah Anderson directs the Global Economy Project at the Institute
for Policy Studies and has co-authored 21 IPS annual reports
on executive compensation. She serves on the Investment
Subcommittee of the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee
on International Economic Policy.
Scott Klinger is Director of Revenue and Spending Policies at the
Center for Effective Government and an IPS associate fellow. He
crafted the first shareholder proposals on executive pay while
working as a social investment portfolio manager. Scott is a CFA
charterholder.
http://www.ips-dc.org/burning-our-bridges
By Sarah Anderson and Scott Klinger
Institute For Policy Studies
Thursday, April 16, 2015
To generate funds to shore up our nation’s crumbling
infrastructure, the U.S. Congress is considering giving
corporations large tax cuts on their offshore profits.
Under current law, corporations can defer U.S. tax payments on
overseas earnings until they bring the profits to the United States.
The proposed “tax holidays” would generate a relatively small, one-
time revenue bump while allowing large corporations to avoid much
larger amounts of tax owed over the longer term.
The last time we tried this, in 2004, it failed miserably.
Corporations that participated shaved nearly $100 billion
off their long-term IRS bills.
And instead of boosting investment, they used the windfalls to buy
back their stock and boost dividends while laying off more workers
than they hired.
Once the holiday was over, they began rebuilding their overseas
profit stashes.
This report identifies the 26 U.S. corporations with the largest
stockpiles of untaxed overseas profits and analyzes how much these
firms could help meet U.S. infrastructure needs if they actually
paid the taxes they owe — but can legally put off paying — on their
offshore profits.
The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that $3.6 trillion
in infrastructure investment is needed by 2020 to bring our aging
infrastructure into the 21st century and keep our economy competitive.
Just 26 firms account for more than half of the $2.1 trillion in
untaxed profits U.S. corporations are currently holding offshore.
Each of these firms has accumulated more than $20 billion
in overseas earnings.
Together, they operate 1,086 subsidiaries in tax haven nations.
These 26 firms’ offshore profits have exploded more than
five-fold since the last tax holiday on overseas earnings.
Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Qualcomm each grew their
offshore stashes by more than twenty-fold between 2005
and 2014.
If these 26 mega-stockpilers were to pay what they owe on their
overseas profits, the federal government could gain a one-time
revenue boost of an estimated $364 billion.
That would be more than enough to cover the cost of repairing all
of the country’s wastewater and stormwater systems, with enough
left over to repair or replace all of the country’s dangerous and
deficient dams and restore all the nation’s local, state, and
national parks.
Apple is the largest offshore profit stockpiler.
If the highly profitable tech firm were to pay what it owes on
those earnings, it would be enough to cover 17 percent of the
cost of needed repairs on all public school buildings.
The second-largest offshore stockpiler is General Electric.
If GE paid the taxes it owes on the $119 billion it holds offshore,
that estimated revenue would be more than enough to pay for all
of the unmet maintenance needs in local, state, and national parks.
Seven pharmaceutical firms are among the 26 mega-stockpilers.
This sector has become adept at avoiding U.S. taxes by shifting
ownership of patents and trademarks to subsidiaries in tax havens.
If these seven drug companies were to pay the taxes they owe, it
would generate an estimated $82 billion, enough to replace all of
the deficient bridges in the United States.
If just two major oil companies — ExxonMobil and Chevron — were
to pay the taxes they owe on their offshore profits, it could cover
nearly a quarter of the cost of repairing all of the country’s levees.
This is infrastructure critical for responding to the more
volatile and extreme weather we are now experiencing.
Closing the offshore tax dodging loophole for all corporations
could raise at least $590 billion over the next decade, and
$90 billion more every year thereafter.
This would represent a significant down payment on the nation’s
overall infrastructure investment needs and could create an
additional 1.8 million jobs.
Sarah Anderson directs the Global Economy Project at the Institute
for Policy Studies and has co-authored 21 IPS annual reports
on executive compensation. She serves on the Investment
Subcommittee of the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee
on International Economic Policy.
Scott Klinger is Director of Revenue and Spending Policies at the
Center for Effective Government and an IPS associate fellow. He
crafted the first shareholder proposals on executive pay while
working as a social investment portfolio manager. Scott is a CFA
charterholder.
http://www.ips-dc.org/burning-our-bridges
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
A Nation's Shame
Trillions In New Wealth, Millions Of Children In Poverty
By Paul Buchheit
Information Clearing House
April 14, 2015
America's wealth grew by 60 percent in the past six years, by over
$30 trillion.
In approximately the same time, the number of homeless children
has also grown by 60 percent.
Financier and CEO Peter Schiff said, "People don’t go hungry in a
capitalist economy."
The 16 million kids on food stamps know what it's like to go hungry.
Perhaps, some in Congress would say, those children
should be working.
"There is no such thing as a free lunch," insisted Georgia
Representative Jack Kingston, even for schoolkids, who
should be required to "sweep the floor of the cafeteria"
(as they actually do at a charter school in Texas).
The callousness of U.S. political and business leaders
is disturbing, shocking.
Hunger is just one of the problems of our children.
Teacher Sonya Romero-Smith told about the two little
homeless girls she adopted:
"Getting rid of bedbugs, that took us a while. Night terrors,
that took a little while. Hoarding food.."
America Is A 'Leader' In Child Poverty
The U.S. has one of the highest relative child poverty
rates in the developed world.
As UNICEF reports, "[Children's] material well-being is highest in the
Netherlands and in the four Nordic countries and lowest in Latvia,
Lithuania, Romania and the United States."
Over half of public school students are poor enough to qualify for
lunch subsidies, and almost half of black children under the age of
six are living in poverty.
$5 a Day for Food -- But Congress Thought It Was Too Much
Nearly half of all food stamp recipients are children, and they
averaged about $5 a day for their meals before the 2014 farm
bill cut $8.6 billion (over the next ten years) from the food
stamp program.
In 2007 about 12 of every 100 kids were on food stamps.
Today it's 20 of every 100.
For Every 2 Homeless Children in 2006, There Are Now 3
On a typical frigid night in January, 138,000 children, according to
the U.S. Department of Housing, were without a place to call home.
That's about the same number of households that have each
increased their wealth by $10 million per year since the recession.
The US: Near The Bottom In Education And Sinking
The U.S. ranks near the bottom of the developed world in
the percentage of 4-year-olds in early childhood education.
Early education should be a primary goal for the future,
as numerous studies have shown that pre-school helps
all children to achieve more and earn more through
adulthood, with the most disadvantaged benefiting the
most.
But we're going in the opposite direction.
Head Start was recently hit with the worst cutbacks in its history.
Children's Rights? Not in the U.S.
It's hard to comprehend the thinking of people who cut funding
for homeless and hungry children.
It may be delusion about trickle-down, it may be indifference to
poverty, it may be resentment toward people unable to "make it
on their own."
The indifference and resentment and disdain for society reach
around the globe.
Only two nations still refuse to ratify the UN Convention on
the Rights of the Child: South Sudan and the United States.
When President Obama said, "I believe America is exceptional,"
he was close to the truth, in a way he and his wealthy friends
would never admit.
Paul Buchheit teaches economic inequality at DePaul University. He
is the founder and developer of the Web sites UsAgainstGreed.org,
PayUpNow.org and RappingHistory.org, and the editor and main
author of "American Wars: Illusions and Realities" (Clarity Press).
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41535.htm
By Paul Buchheit
Information Clearing House
April 14, 2015
America's wealth grew by 60 percent in the past six years, by over
$30 trillion.
In approximately the same time, the number of homeless children
has also grown by 60 percent.
Financier and CEO Peter Schiff said, "People don’t go hungry in a
capitalist economy."
The 16 million kids on food stamps know what it's like to go hungry.
Perhaps, some in Congress would say, those children
should be working.
"There is no such thing as a free lunch," insisted Georgia
Representative Jack Kingston, even for schoolkids, who
should be required to "sweep the floor of the cafeteria"
(as they actually do at a charter school in Texas).
The callousness of U.S. political and business leaders
is disturbing, shocking.
Hunger is just one of the problems of our children.
Teacher Sonya Romero-Smith told about the two little
homeless girls she adopted:
"Getting rid of bedbugs, that took us a while. Night terrors,
that took a little while. Hoarding food.."
America Is A 'Leader' In Child Poverty
The U.S. has one of the highest relative child poverty
rates in the developed world.
As UNICEF reports, "[Children's] material well-being is highest in the
Netherlands and in the four Nordic countries and lowest in Latvia,
Lithuania, Romania and the United States."
Over half of public school students are poor enough to qualify for
lunch subsidies, and almost half of black children under the age of
six are living in poverty.
$5 a Day for Food -- But Congress Thought It Was Too Much
Nearly half of all food stamp recipients are children, and they
averaged about $5 a day for their meals before the 2014 farm
bill cut $8.6 billion (over the next ten years) from the food
stamp program.
In 2007 about 12 of every 100 kids were on food stamps.
Today it's 20 of every 100.
For Every 2 Homeless Children in 2006, There Are Now 3
On a typical frigid night in January, 138,000 children, according to
the U.S. Department of Housing, were without a place to call home.
That's about the same number of households that have each
increased their wealth by $10 million per year since the recession.
The US: Near The Bottom In Education And Sinking
The U.S. ranks near the bottom of the developed world in
the percentage of 4-year-olds in early childhood education.
Early education should be a primary goal for the future,
as numerous studies have shown that pre-school helps
all children to achieve more and earn more through
adulthood, with the most disadvantaged benefiting the
most.
But we're going in the opposite direction.
Head Start was recently hit with the worst cutbacks in its history.
Children's Rights? Not in the U.S.
It's hard to comprehend the thinking of people who cut funding
for homeless and hungry children.
It may be delusion about trickle-down, it may be indifference to
poverty, it may be resentment toward people unable to "make it
on their own."
The indifference and resentment and disdain for society reach
around the globe.
Only two nations still refuse to ratify the UN Convention on
the Rights of the Child: South Sudan and the United States.
When President Obama said, "I believe America is exceptional,"
he was close to the truth, in a way he and his wealthy friends
would never admit.
Paul Buchheit teaches economic inequality at DePaul University. He
is the founder and developer of the Web sites UsAgainstGreed.org,
PayUpNow.org and RappingHistory.org, and the editor and main
author of "American Wars: Illusions and Realities" (Clarity Press).
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41535.htm
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Chelsea Manning: The Conscience of America
Chelsea Manning: The Conscience of America
By Nozomi Hayase
Disinformation.com
April 12, 2015
April 5th marks the five year anniversary of WikiLeaks publication
of the Collateral Murder Video.
The footage of a secret US military video depicted an Apache
helicopter killing Iraqi civilians, including two Reuters journalists.
It provided an uncensored view of modern war for the world
to see.
The light that shone in the darkness was the conscience of
a young woman.
Chelsea Manning (formally Bradley Manning) is now serving
35 years behind bars for her great public service.
After witnessing Manning confess to her role as WikiLeaks
whistleblower at the court-martial proceeding in Fort Meade,
Maryland, attorney and President Emeritus of the Center for
Constitutional Rights, Michael Ratner said that locking her up
“for even a day is to lock up the conscience of our nation”.
Manning’s disclosure of secret government documents exposed
America’s illegal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Guantanamo Files revealed the state of America’s offshore
gulags and violations of universal human rights according to the
Geneva Convention.
The secret US embassy cables let us see corrupted diplomacy
serving corporate global hegemony through coercion and
manipulation.
Manning’s conscience shed light on the real actions
of the US government behind a façade of democracy.
Yet, the ugly face of empire was not the only thing
she showed us.
This conscience of America reminds us of the ideals
that founded this country.
For her, the enlistment oath she took went beyond
the Constitution to the spirit of equality inherent
in the Declaration of Independence.
She once spoke of her deeply felt connection to all people in the
world, “i cant separate myself from others . . . i feel connected
to everybody . . . like they were distant family”.
This deep bond to others allowed her to feel the words enshrined
in the sacred document and to recognize when these truths were
violated.
This made it possible for her to witness what was really happening
behind modern war that was shrouded by the euphemism of
“collateral damage”.
This was expressed in her words; “we’re human . . . and we’re
killing ourselves”.
She was able to recognize the victims of US propaganda wars and
began to see those who had been branded enemy combatants as
human beings like herself.
In her courageous act of releasing these documents,
she demonstrated her loyalty to the core principle of
this country.
At the providence inquiry for her formal plea of guilty, she read
aloud a statement describing facts regarding the incident in the
Iraq suburb of New Baghdad.
By upholding the self-evident Truth “that all Men are created
equal”, she aimed to account for the actions of the helicopter
crew on July 12, 2007.
By calling it “seemingly delightful bloodlust”, she noted this to
be the most alarming aspect of the video and described how the
soldiers “dehumanized the individuals they were engaging, and
seemed to not value human life by referring to them as quote
‘dead bastards’ and congratulating each other on the ability to
kill in larger numbers.”
She explained how when a seriously wounded man on the ground
was trying to crawl to safety, instead of calling for medical
attention, one of the crew members asked for the wounded person
to pick up a weapon so that he would have a reason to engage.
She described this incident as “similar to a child torturing ants
with a magnifying glass.”
Manning also questioned the attitude and actions of the soldiers
in the helicopter at the time of the second engagement on the
video; the aerial cannon shooting of the unarmed ‘bongo truck’
(a van with two adults and two kids in it) that had stopped to
help a wounded man.
She expressed how deeply saddened she was by the aerial weapons
team’s lack of concern for human life and their response of the
discovery of injured children in the van, showing no remorse or
sympathy for those they killed or injured.
In her request for a presidential pardon, Manning wrote how her
time in Iraq made her “question the morality of America’s military
presence since 9/11” and she realized that “in our efforts to meet
the risks posed to us by the enemy, we had forgotten our
Humanity”.
She continued:
“I will serve my time knowing that sometimes you have to pay a
heavy price to live in a free society. I will gladly pay that price if
it means we could have a country that is truly conceived in liberty
and dedicated to the proposition that all women and men are
created equal.”
Chelsea Manning is the conscience of America; a great light
cast into a darkness that has been veiling the soul of this
nation.
Her deed of bearing witness to the gunship airstrikes that
slayed over a dozen people on that fateful day calls our
attention to something that had become so painful for many
to see.
At the same time, her light showed us our own light;
who we are capable of becoming.
What infused the highest law of this land were ideals
kindled in the heart.
The Declaration of Independence was the promise and
the Constitution was meant to be its fulfillment.
Are we all created equal?
Does the spirit of equality only apply to Americans or
is it an unalienable right of every person in the world?
Manning act of truth revealed that all human beings have the right
to Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness, regardless of where they
are born, their religion or color of skin.
The courageous source behind the footage of the US enactment
of collateral murder in Iraq allowed the world to see how with
the pretense of the War on Terror, we have violated the law and
betrayed our own principles.
By making this evidence available to the public, Manning gave us
all an opportunity to carry her spark of light, to uphold the Truth
that the founders of this country once held; that all are created
equal and that all life is sacred.
Nozomi Hayase, Ph.D., is a former WikiLeaks Central contributing
writer who has been covering issues of freedom of speech,
transparency and decentralized movement. Her work is featured
in many publications.
http://disinfo.com/2015/04/chelsea-manning-conscience-america
By Nozomi Hayase
Disinformation.com
April 12, 2015
April 5th marks the five year anniversary of WikiLeaks publication
of the Collateral Murder Video.
The footage of a secret US military video depicted an Apache
helicopter killing Iraqi civilians, including two Reuters journalists.
It provided an uncensored view of modern war for the world
to see.
The light that shone in the darkness was the conscience of
a young woman.
Chelsea Manning (formally Bradley Manning) is now serving
35 years behind bars for her great public service.
After witnessing Manning confess to her role as WikiLeaks
whistleblower at the court-martial proceeding in Fort Meade,
Maryland, attorney and President Emeritus of the Center for
Constitutional Rights, Michael Ratner said that locking her up
“for even a day is to lock up the conscience of our nation”.
Manning’s disclosure of secret government documents exposed
America’s illegal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Guantanamo Files revealed the state of America’s offshore
gulags and violations of universal human rights according to the
Geneva Convention.
The secret US embassy cables let us see corrupted diplomacy
serving corporate global hegemony through coercion and
manipulation.
Manning’s conscience shed light on the real actions
of the US government behind a façade of democracy.
Yet, the ugly face of empire was not the only thing
she showed us.
This conscience of America reminds us of the ideals
that founded this country.
For her, the enlistment oath she took went beyond
the Constitution to the spirit of equality inherent
in the Declaration of Independence.
She once spoke of her deeply felt connection to all people in the
world, “i cant separate myself from others . . . i feel connected
to everybody . . . like they were distant family”.
This deep bond to others allowed her to feel the words enshrined
in the sacred document and to recognize when these truths were
violated.
This made it possible for her to witness what was really happening
behind modern war that was shrouded by the euphemism of
“collateral damage”.
This was expressed in her words; “we’re human . . . and we’re
killing ourselves”.
She was able to recognize the victims of US propaganda wars and
began to see those who had been branded enemy combatants as
human beings like herself.
In her courageous act of releasing these documents,
she demonstrated her loyalty to the core principle of
this country.
At the providence inquiry for her formal plea of guilty, she read
aloud a statement describing facts regarding the incident in the
Iraq suburb of New Baghdad.
By upholding the self-evident Truth “that all Men are created
equal”, she aimed to account for the actions of the helicopter
crew on July 12, 2007.
By calling it “seemingly delightful bloodlust”, she noted this to
be the most alarming aspect of the video and described how the
soldiers “dehumanized the individuals they were engaging, and
seemed to not value human life by referring to them as quote
‘dead bastards’ and congratulating each other on the ability to
kill in larger numbers.”
She explained how when a seriously wounded man on the ground
was trying to crawl to safety, instead of calling for medical
attention, one of the crew members asked for the wounded person
to pick up a weapon so that he would have a reason to engage.
She described this incident as “similar to a child torturing ants
with a magnifying glass.”
Manning also questioned the attitude and actions of the soldiers
in the helicopter at the time of the second engagement on the
video; the aerial cannon shooting of the unarmed ‘bongo truck’
(a van with two adults and two kids in it) that had stopped to
help a wounded man.
She expressed how deeply saddened she was by the aerial weapons
team’s lack of concern for human life and their response of the
discovery of injured children in the van, showing no remorse or
sympathy for those they killed or injured.
In her request for a presidential pardon, Manning wrote how her
time in Iraq made her “question the morality of America’s military
presence since 9/11” and she realized that “in our efforts to meet
the risks posed to us by the enemy, we had forgotten our
Humanity”.
She continued:
“I will serve my time knowing that sometimes you have to pay a
heavy price to live in a free society. I will gladly pay that price if
it means we could have a country that is truly conceived in liberty
and dedicated to the proposition that all women and men are
created equal.”
Chelsea Manning is the conscience of America; a great light
cast into a darkness that has been veiling the soul of this
nation.
Her deed of bearing witness to the gunship airstrikes that
slayed over a dozen people on that fateful day calls our
attention to something that had become so painful for many
to see.
At the same time, her light showed us our own light;
who we are capable of becoming.
What infused the highest law of this land were ideals
kindled in the heart.
The Declaration of Independence was the promise and
the Constitution was meant to be its fulfillment.
Are we all created equal?
Does the spirit of equality only apply to Americans or
is it an unalienable right of every person in the world?
Manning act of truth revealed that all human beings have the right
to Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness, regardless of where they
are born, their religion or color of skin.
The courageous source behind the footage of the US enactment
of collateral murder in Iraq allowed the world to see how with
the pretense of the War on Terror, we have violated the law and
betrayed our own principles.
By making this evidence available to the public, Manning gave us
all an opportunity to carry her spark of light, to uphold the Truth
that the founders of this country once held; that all are created
equal and that all life is sacred.
Nozomi Hayase, Ph.D., is a former WikiLeaks Central contributing
writer who has been covering issues of freedom of speech,
transparency and decentralized movement. Her work is featured
in many publications.
http://disinfo.com/2015/04/chelsea-manning-conscience-america
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Meekness and Rest
Meekness and Rest
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. - Matt. 5:5
By A.W. Tozer
World Invisible.com
April 7, 2015
The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his
own inferiority.
Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong
as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself.
He has accepted God's estimate of his own life.
He knows he is as weak and helpless as God has declared him to be,
but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight
of God of more importance than angels.
In, himself,,, nothing; in God, everything.
That is his motto.
He knows well that the world will never see him as God sees him
and he has stopped caring.
He rests perfectly content to allow God to place His own values.
He will be patient to wait for the day when everything will
get its own price tag and real worth will come into its own.
Then the righteous shall shine forth in the Kingdom of their Father.
He is willing to wait for that day.
In the meantime he will have attained a place of soul rest.
As he walks on in meekness he will be happy to let God defend him.
The old struggle to defend himself is over.
He has found the peace which meekness brings.
Then also he will get deliverance from the burden of pretense.
By this I mean not hypocrisy, but the common human desire to
put the best foot forward and hide from the world our real inward
poverty.
For sin has played many evil tricks upon us, and one has been
the infusing into us a false sense of shame.
There is hardly a man or woman who dares to be just what he
or she is without doctoring up the impression.
The fear of being found out gnaws like rodents within their hearts.
The man of culture is haunted by the fear that he will some day
come upon a man more cultured than himself.
The learned man fears to meet a man more learned than he.
The rich man sweats under the fear that his clothes, or his car,
or his house will sometime be made to look cheap by comparison
with those of another rich man.
So-called "society" runs by a motivation not higher than this,
and the poorer classes on their level are little better.
Let no one smile this off.
These burdens are real, and little by little they kill the victims
of this evil and unnatural way of life.
And the psychology created by years of this kind of thing makes
true meekness seem as unreal as a dream, as aloof as a star.
To all the victims of the gnawing disease Jesus says,
"Ye must become as little children."
For little children do not compare; they receive direct enjoyment
from what they have without relating it to something else or
someone else.
Only as they get older and sin begins to stir within their hearts
do jealousy and envy appear.
Then they are unable to enjoy what they have if someone else
has something larger or better.
At that early age does the galling burden come down upon their
tender souls, and it never leaves them till Jesus sets them free.
Another source of burden is artificiality.
I am sure that most people live in secret fear that some day they
will be careless and by chance an enemy or friend will be allowed
to peep into their poor empty souls.
So they are never relaxed.
Bright people are tense and alert in fear that they may
be trapped into saying something common or stupid.
Traveled people are afraid that they may meet some Marco Polo
who is able to describe some remote place where they have never
been.
This unnatural condition is part of our sad heritage of sin,
but in our day it is aggravated by our whole way of life.
Advertising is largely based upon this habit of pretense.
"Courses" are offered in this or that field of human learning
frankly appealing to the victim's desire to shine at a party.
Books are sold, clothes and cosmetics are peddled, by playing
continually upon this desire to appear what we are not.
Artificiality is one curse that will drop away the moment we
kneel at Jesus' feet and surrender ourselves to His meekness.
Then we will not care what people think of us so long
as God is pleased.
Then what we are will be everything; what we appear
will take its place far down the scale of interest for us.
Apart from sin we have nothing of which to be ashamed.
Only an evil desire to shine makes us want to appear
other than we are.
The heart of the world is breaking under this load of
pride and pretense.
There is no release from our burden apart from the
meekness of Christ.
Good keen reasoning may help slightly, but so strong is this vice
that if we push it down one place it will come up somewhere else.
To men and women everywhere Jesus says,
"Come unto me, and I will give you rest."
The rest He offers is the rest of meekness, the blessed relief
which comes when we accept ourselves for what we are and
cease to pretend.
It will take some courage at first, but the needed grace will come
as we learn that we are sharing this new and easy yoke with the
strong Son of God Himself.
He calls it "my yoke," and He walks at one end while we walk
at the other.
A.W. Tozer - The Pursuit Of God
Aiden Wilson Tozer (April 21, 1897 – May 12, 1963) was an American
Christian Pastor, Preacher, Author, Magazine Editor, and Spiritual
Mentor.
http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/tozer/5f00.0888/5f00.0888.09.htm
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. - Matt. 5:5
By A.W. Tozer
World Invisible.com
April 7, 2015
The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his
own inferiority.
Rather he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong
as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself.
He has accepted God's estimate of his own life.
He knows he is as weak and helpless as God has declared him to be,
but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is in the sight
of God of more importance than angels.
In, himself,,, nothing; in God, everything.
That is his motto.
He knows well that the world will never see him as God sees him
and he has stopped caring.
He rests perfectly content to allow God to place His own values.
He will be patient to wait for the day when everything will
get its own price tag and real worth will come into its own.
Then the righteous shall shine forth in the Kingdom of their Father.
He is willing to wait for that day.
In the meantime he will have attained a place of soul rest.
As he walks on in meekness he will be happy to let God defend him.
The old struggle to defend himself is over.
He has found the peace which meekness brings.
Then also he will get deliverance from the burden of pretense.
By this I mean not hypocrisy, but the common human desire to
put the best foot forward and hide from the world our real inward
poverty.
For sin has played many evil tricks upon us, and one has been
the infusing into us a false sense of shame.
There is hardly a man or woman who dares to be just what he
or she is without doctoring up the impression.
The fear of being found out gnaws like rodents within their hearts.
The man of culture is haunted by the fear that he will some day
come upon a man more cultured than himself.
The learned man fears to meet a man more learned than he.
The rich man sweats under the fear that his clothes, or his car,
or his house will sometime be made to look cheap by comparison
with those of another rich man.
So-called "society" runs by a motivation not higher than this,
and the poorer classes on their level are little better.
Let no one smile this off.
These burdens are real, and little by little they kill the victims
of this evil and unnatural way of life.
And the psychology created by years of this kind of thing makes
true meekness seem as unreal as a dream, as aloof as a star.
To all the victims of the gnawing disease Jesus says,
"Ye must become as little children."
For little children do not compare; they receive direct enjoyment
from what they have without relating it to something else or
someone else.
Only as they get older and sin begins to stir within their hearts
do jealousy and envy appear.
Then they are unable to enjoy what they have if someone else
has something larger or better.
At that early age does the galling burden come down upon their
tender souls, and it never leaves them till Jesus sets them free.
Another source of burden is artificiality.
I am sure that most people live in secret fear that some day they
will be careless and by chance an enemy or friend will be allowed
to peep into their poor empty souls.
So they are never relaxed.
Bright people are tense and alert in fear that they may
be trapped into saying something common or stupid.
Traveled people are afraid that they may meet some Marco Polo
who is able to describe some remote place where they have never
been.
This unnatural condition is part of our sad heritage of sin,
but in our day it is aggravated by our whole way of life.
Advertising is largely based upon this habit of pretense.
"Courses" are offered in this or that field of human learning
frankly appealing to the victim's desire to shine at a party.
Books are sold, clothes and cosmetics are peddled, by playing
continually upon this desire to appear what we are not.
Artificiality is one curse that will drop away the moment we
kneel at Jesus' feet and surrender ourselves to His meekness.
Then we will not care what people think of us so long
as God is pleased.
Then what we are will be everything; what we appear
will take its place far down the scale of interest for us.
Apart from sin we have nothing of which to be ashamed.
Only an evil desire to shine makes us want to appear
other than we are.
The heart of the world is breaking under this load of
pride and pretense.
There is no release from our burden apart from the
meekness of Christ.
Good keen reasoning may help slightly, but so strong is this vice
that if we push it down one place it will come up somewhere else.
To men and women everywhere Jesus says,
"Come unto me, and I will give you rest."
The rest He offers is the rest of meekness, the blessed relief
which comes when we accept ourselves for what we are and
cease to pretend.
It will take some courage at first, but the needed grace will come
as we learn that we are sharing this new and easy yoke with the
strong Son of God Himself.
He calls it "my yoke," and He walks at one end while we walk
at the other.
A.W. Tozer - The Pursuit Of God
Aiden Wilson Tozer (April 21, 1897 – May 12, 1963) was an American
Christian Pastor, Preacher, Author, Magazine Editor, and Spiritual
Mentor.
http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/tozer/5f00.0888/5f00.0888.09.htm
Saturday, April 4, 2015
Understanding Death and Loss
Understanding Death and Loss
By Paramahansa Yogananda
Saturday, April, 4, 2015
Death and loss Though the ordinary man looks upon death
with dread and sadness, those who have gone before know
it as a wondrous experience of peace and freedom.
At death, you forget all the limitations of the
physical body and realize how free you are.
For the first few seconds there is a sense of fear — fear of
the unknown, of something unfamiliar to the consciousness.
But after that comes a great realization: the soul feels a joyous
sense of relief and freedom. You know that you exist apart from
the mortal body.
Every one of us is going to die someday, so there is no use
in being afraid of death.
You don’t feel miserable at the prospect of losing consciousness of
your body in sleep; you accept sleep as a state of freedom to look
forward to.
So is death; it is a state of rest, a pension from this life.
There is nothing to fear.
When death comes, laugh at it.
Death is only an experience through which you are meant
to learn a great lesson: you cannot die.
Our real self, the soul, is immortal.
We may sleep for a little while in that change called death,
but we can never be destroyed.
We exist, and that existence is eternal.
The wave comes to the shore, and then goes back to the sea;
it is not lost.
It becomes one with the ocean, or returns again in the form
of another wave.
This body has come, and it will vanish; but the soul essence
within it will never cease to exist.
Nothing can terminate that eternal consciousness.
Even a particle of matter or a wave of energy is indestructible,
as science has proved; the soul or spiritual essence of man is
also indestructible.
Matter undergoes change; the soul undergoes changing experiences.
Radical changes are termed death, but death or a change
in form does not change or destroy the spiritual essence.
The body is only a garment.
How many times you have changed your clothing in this life,
yet because of this you would not say that you have changed.
Similarly, when you give up this bodily dress at death
you do not change.
You are just the same, an immortal soul, a child of God.
The word “death” is a great misnomer, for there is no death;
when you are tired of life, you simply take off the overcoat of
flesh and go back to the astral world.
The Bhagavad Gita speaks beautifully and solacingly of the
immortality of the soul:
Never the spirit was born; the spirit shall cease to be never;
Never was time it was not; End and Beginning are dreams!
Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth the spirit forever;
Death hath not touched it at all, dead though the house of
it seems.
Death is not the end: it is temporary emancipation, given to you
when karma, the law of justice, determines that your present body
and environment have served their purpose, or when you are too
weary or exhausted by suffering to bear the burden of physical
existence any longer.
To those who are suffering, death is resurrection from the painful
tortures of flesh into awakened peace and calmness.
To the elderly, it is a pension earned by years of struggling through
life.
For all, it is a welcome rest.
When you reflect that this world is filled with death, and that
your body, too, has to be relinquished, God’s plan seems very
cruel.
You can’t imagine that He is merciful.
But when you look at the process of death with the eye of wisdom,
you see that after all it is merely a thought of God passing through
a nightmare of change into blissful freedom in Him again.
Saint and sinner alike are given freedom at death, to a greater
or lesser degree according to merit.
In the Lord’s dream astral world — the land to which souls go at
death — they enjoy a freedom such as they never knew during their
earthly life.
So don’t pity the person who is passing through the delusion
of death, for in a little while he will be free.
Once he gets out of that delusion, he sees that death was
not so bad after all.
He realizes his mortality was only a dream and rejoices that now
no fire can burn him, no water can drown him; he is free and safe.
The consciousness of the dying man finds itself suddenly relieved
of the weight of the body, of the necessity to breathe, and of any
physical pain.
A sense of soaring through a tunnel of very peaceful, hazy,
dim light is experienced by the soul.
Then the soul drifts into a state of oblivious sleep, a million times
deeper and more enjoyable than the deepest sleep experienced in
the physical body....
The after-death state is variously experienced by different
people in accordance with their modes of living while on
earth.
Just as different people vary in the duration and depth of
their sleep, so do they vary in their experiences after death.
The good man who works hard in the factory of life goes
into a deep, unconscious, restful sleep for a short while.
He then awakens in some region of life in the astral world:
“In my Father’s house are many mansions.”
Souls in the astral region are clothed in gossamer light.
They do not encase themselves in bundles of bones
with fleshly covers.
They carry no frail, heavy frames that collide with
other crude solids and break.
Therefore, there is no war in the astral land between
man’s body and solids, oceans, lightning, and disease.
Nor are there accidents, for all things coexist in mutual
helpfulness, rather than antagonism.
All forms of vibration function in harmony with one another.
All forces live in peace and conscious helpfulness.
The souls, the rays on which they tread, and the orange rays they drink and eat, all are made of living light.
Souls live in mutual cognizance and cooperation, breathing not oxygen, but the joy of Spirit.
“Friends of other lives easily recognize one another in the astral world,” [Sri Yukteswar said].
“Rejoicing at the immortality of friendship, they realize the indestructibility of love, often doubted at the time of the sad, delusive partings of earthly life.”
How glorious is life after death!
No more will you have to lug about this old baggage of bones, with all its troubles.
You will be free in the astral heaven, unhindered by physical limitations.
When a dear one dies, instead of grieving unreasonably, realize that he has gone on to a higher plane at the will of God, and that God knows what is best for him.
Rejoice that he is free.
Pray that your love and goodwill be messengers of encouragement to him on his forward path.
This attitude is much more helpful.
Of course, we would not be human if we did not miss loved ones; but in feeling lonesome for them we don’t want selfish attachment to be the cause of keeping them earthbound.
Extreme sorrow prevents a departed soul from going ahead toward greater peace and freedom.
To send your thoughts to loved ones who have passed on, sit quietly in your room and meditate upon God.
When you feel His peace within you, concentrate deeply at the Christ center, the center of will at the point between the two eyebrows, and broadcast your love to those dear ones who are gone.
Visualize at the Christ center the person you wish to contact.
Send to that soul your vibrations of love, and of strength and courage.
If you do this continuously, and if you don’t lose the intensity of
your interest in that loved one, that soul will definitely receive
your vibrations.
Such thoughts give your loved ones a sense of well-being,
a sense of being loved.
They have not forgotten you any more than you have forgotten
them.
Send your thoughts of love and goodwill to your loved ones as often
as you feel inclined to do so, but at least once a year — perhaps on
some special anniversary.
Mentally tell them, “We will meet again sometime and continue
to develop our divine love and friendship with one another.”
If you send them your loving thoughts continuously now,
someday you will surely meet them again.
You will know that this life is not the end, but merely one link
in the eternal chain of your relationship with your loved ones.
Affirmation
“The ocean of Spirit has become the little bubble of my soul.
Whether floating in birth, or disappearing in death, in the
ocean of cosmic awareness the bubble of my life cannot die.
I am indestructible consciousness, protected in the bosom of
Spirit’s immortality.”
http://www.yogananda-srf.org/HowtoLive/Understanding_Death_and_Loss.aspx#.VRm9Uo6rEg8 Understanding Death and Loss
By Paramahansa Yogananda
Saturday, April, 4, 2015
Death and loss Though the ordinary man looks upon death
with dread and sadness, those who have gone before know
it as a wondrous experience of peace and freedom.
At death, you forget all the limitations of the
physical body and realize how free you are.
For the first few seconds there is a sense of fear — fear of
the unknown, of something unfamiliar to the consciousness.
But after that comes a great realization: the soul feels a joyous
sense of relief and freedom. You know that you exist apart from
the mortal body.
Every one of us is going to die someday, so there is no use
in being afraid of death.
You don’t feel miserable at the prospect of losing consciousness of
your body in sleep; you accept sleep as a state of freedom to look
forward to.
So is death; it is a state of rest, a pension from this life.
There is nothing to fear.
When death comes, laugh at it.
Death is only an experience through which you are meant
to learn a great lesson: you cannot die.
Our real self, the soul, is immortal.
We may sleep for a little while in that change called death,
but we can never be destroyed.
We exist, and that existence is eternal.
The wave comes to the shore, and then goes back to the sea;
it is not lost.
It becomes one with the ocean, or returns again in the form
of another wave.
This body has come, and it will vanish; but the soul essence
within it will never cease to exist.
Nothing can terminate that eternal consciousness.
Even a particle of matter or a wave of energy is indestructible,
as science has proved; the soul or spiritual essence of man is
also indestructible.
Matter undergoes change; the soul undergoes changing experiences.
Radical changes are termed death, but death or a change
in form does not change or destroy the spiritual essence.
The body is only a garment.
How many times you have changed your clothing in this life,
yet because of this you would not say that you have changed.
Similarly, when you give up this bodily dress at death
you do not change.
You are just the same, an immortal soul, a child of God.
The word “death” is a great misnomer, for there is no death;
when you are tired of life, you simply take off the overcoat of
flesh and go back to the astral world.
The Bhagavad Gita speaks beautifully and solacingly of the
immortality of the soul:
Never the spirit was born; the spirit shall cease to be never;
Never was time it was not; End and Beginning are dreams!
Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth the spirit forever;
Death hath not touched it at all, dead though the house of
it seems.
Death is not the end: it is temporary emancipation, given to you
when karma, the law of justice, determines that your present body
and environment have served their purpose, or when you are too
weary or exhausted by suffering to bear the burden of physical
existence any longer.
To those who are suffering, death is resurrection from the painful
tortures of flesh into awakened peace and calmness.
To the elderly, it is a pension earned by years of struggling through
life.
For all, it is a welcome rest.
When you reflect that this world is filled with death, and that
your body, too, has to be relinquished, God’s plan seems very
cruel.
You can’t imagine that He is merciful.
But when you look at the process of death with the eye of wisdom,
you see that after all it is merely a thought of God passing through
a nightmare of change into blissful freedom in Him again.
Saint and sinner alike are given freedom at death, to a greater
or lesser degree according to merit.
In the Lord’s dream astral world — the land to which souls go at
death — they enjoy a freedom such as they never knew during their
earthly life.
So don’t pity the person who is passing through the delusion
of death, for in a little while he will be free.
Once he gets out of that delusion, he sees that death was
not so bad after all.
He realizes his mortality was only a dream and rejoices that now
no fire can burn him, no water can drown him; he is free and safe.
The consciousness of the dying man finds itself suddenly relieved
of the weight of the body, of the necessity to breathe, and of any
physical pain.
A sense of soaring through a tunnel of very peaceful, hazy,
dim light is experienced by the soul.
Then the soul drifts into a state of oblivious sleep, a million times
deeper and more enjoyable than the deepest sleep experienced in
the physical body....
The after-death state is variously experienced by different
people in accordance with their modes of living while on
earth.
Just as different people vary in the duration and depth of
their sleep, so do they vary in their experiences after death.
The good man who works hard in the factory of life goes
into a deep, unconscious, restful sleep for a short while.
He then awakens in some region of life in the astral world:
“In my Father’s house are many mansions.”
Souls in the astral region are clothed in gossamer light.
They do not encase themselves in bundles of bones
with fleshly covers.
They carry no frail, heavy frames that collide with
other crude solids and break.
Therefore, there is no war in the astral land between
man’s body and solids, oceans, lightning, and disease.
Nor are there accidents, for all things coexist in mutual
helpfulness, rather than antagonism.
All forms of vibration function in harmony with one another.
All forces live in peace and conscious helpfulness.
The souls, the rays on which they tread, and the orange rays they drink and eat, all are made of living light.
Souls live in mutual cognizance and cooperation, breathing not oxygen, but the joy of Spirit.
“Friends of other lives easily recognize one another in the astral world,” [Sri Yukteswar said].
“Rejoicing at the immortality of friendship, they realize the indestructibility of love, often doubted at the time of the sad, delusive partings of earthly life.”
How glorious is life after death!
No more will you have to lug about this old baggage of bones, with all its troubles.
You will be free in the astral heaven, unhindered by physical limitations.
When a dear one dies, instead of grieving unreasonably, realize that he has gone on to a higher plane at the will of God, and that God knows what is best for him.
Rejoice that he is free.
Pray that your love and goodwill be messengers of encouragement to him on his forward path.
This attitude is much more helpful.
Of course, we would not be human if we did not miss loved ones; but in feeling lonesome for them we don’t want selfish attachment to be the cause of keeping them earthbound.
Extreme sorrow prevents a departed soul from going ahead toward greater peace and freedom.
To send your thoughts to loved ones who have passed on, sit quietly in your room and meditate upon God.
When you feel His peace within you, concentrate deeply at the Christ center, the center of will at the point between the two eyebrows, and broadcast your love to those dear ones who are gone.
Visualize at the Christ center the person you wish to contact.
Send to that soul your vibrations of love, and of strength and courage.
If you do this continuously, and if you don’t lose the intensity of
your interest in that loved one, that soul will definitely receive
your vibrations.
Such thoughts give your loved ones a sense of well-being,
a sense of being loved.
They have not forgotten you any more than you have forgotten
them.
Send your thoughts of love and goodwill to your loved ones as often
as you feel inclined to do so, but at least once a year — perhaps on
some special anniversary.
Mentally tell them, “We will meet again sometime and continue
to develop our divine love and friendship with one another.”
If you send them your loving thoughts continuously now,
someday you will surely meet them again.
You will know that this life is not the end, but merely one link
in the eternal chain of your relationship with your loved ones.
Affirmation
“The ocean of Spirit has become the little bubble of my soul.
Whether floating in birth, or disappearing in death, in the
ocean of cosmic awareness the bubble of my life cannot die.
I am indestructible consciousness, protected in the bosom of
Spirit’s immortality.”
http://www.yogananda-srf.org/HowtoLive/Understanding_Death_and_Loss.aspx#.VRm9Uo6rEg8 Understanding Death and Loss