Awakening the Buddha in us

The utterances of the heart— unlike those of the discriminating intellect— always relate to the whole. - Carl Jung

Tibetans are crying out to the world

After decades of repression under Chinese rule, the Tibetan people's frustrations have burst onto the streets in protests and riots. With the spotlight of the upcoming Olympic Games now on China, Tibetans are crying out to the world for change.

The Chinese government has said that the protesters who have not yet surrendered 'will be punished'. Its leaders are right now considering a crucial choice between escalating brutality or dialogue that could determine the future of Tibet, and China.

We can affect this historic choice--China does care about its international reputation. China's President Hu Jintao needs to hear that the 'Made in China' brand and the upcoming Olympics in Beijing can succeed only if he makes the right choice. But it will take an avalanche of global people power to get his attention--and we need it in the next 48 hours.

The Tibetan Nobel peace prize winner and spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama has called for restraint and dialogue: he needs the world's people to support him. Click below now to sign the petition--and tell absolutely everyone you can right away--our goal is 1 million voices united for Tibet:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/tibet_end_the_violence/6.php

anger/rage/rest

A nightmare comes to me this noon.

This affliction casts a rage over me, a demonic hate is consuming me.

Why am I unsettled, fallen, at the mercy of illusion?

Sweating, writhing, as if gripped by a deadly fever, chills to my heart.

My mind is hostile to thee, my kin.

You stir me to wrath, my beloved ones.

This conscience planted in me, it hurts as I uproot it and cast it from my bed.

A deeper sorrow was not known to me until now.

These hours are heavy on my soul, I would force you hither.

I tear this love from that and this grudge from that.

Anger is a weapon, a dagger I plunge into you with every thought.

Not unlike to a wasp am I, aggravated to a frenzy of stinging.

Then to sleep and dream, dissolve into me, return to me, moon.

shift in global culture and consciousness

by Daniel Pinchbeck

My view is that “2012” is useful as a meme if it helps us to catalyze a shift in global culture and consciousness. Rather than fretting about what may or may not happen on that date, we should concentrate on the work that needs to be done now, on an inner as well as outer level. My recent focus has been the outer level, studying social theory and political philosophy. If we were to have an opportunity to transform society, what could that transformation look like in a practical sense? How could it be carried out? I have been reviewing the ideas of thinkers like Macchiavelli, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Jefferson, Karl Marx and Hannah Arendt, seeking insight into the nature of politics and power.

How do we bring awareness gained through shamanic practice or yogic discipline back into the gritty realities of political struggle and the fight against global inequity of wealth and resources? It seems there is still a lot of denial among Western mystics and “New Agers,” as well as elitism and spiritual materialism. Whether someone does a flawless series of asanas, drinks ayahuasca with 20 different shamans or visits hidden monasteries in Bhutan has no value as a sign of spiritual attainment. How they live day by day, what they do with the psychic energy and time available to them and how their work helps to liberate others is what matters.

I see this tendency to ignore the social and political struggle in the works of wildly popular writers such as Eckhart Tolle, who has repackaged Vedanta for the masses. In Tolle’s recent book, A New Earth, he writes: “We are coming to the end not only of mythologies but also of ideologies and belief systems.” According to Tolle, the creation of the “new earth” needs no change in social practices as long as you make “the present moment… the focal point of your life.” Tolle exhorts his audience to “enjoy what you are doing already, instead of waiting for some change so that you can start enjoying what you do.” Whether you are an artist, teacher, Fox News executive or currency speculator doesn’t matter: “The new earth arises as more and more people discover that their main purpose in life is to bring the light of consciousness into this world and so use whatever they do as a vehicle for consciousness.” For Tolle, the effort to change our society’s inequitable and unsustainable practices has no particular value compared to the paradise of presence.

The popularity of this message is unsurprising. Some political thinkers argue that the adoption of Eastern thought in the West has given people a way to accept capitalism, and “Empire,” by finding detachment from it. For the critic Slavoj Zizek, Western Buddhism and Hinduism “enables you to fully participate in the frantic pace of the capitalist game, while sustaining the perception that you are not really in it, that you are well aware how worthless this spectacle really is — what really matters to you is the peace of the inner self to which you know you can always withdraw…” Zizek goes so far as to propose, “the onslaught of New Age ‘Asiatic’ thought… is establishing itself as the hegemonic ideology of global capitalism.”

The shift of “2012” could mean that Eastern mysticism, the earth-based shamanism of tribal people and the West’s pursuit of philosophical and scientific knowledge about the world come together to create a new form of consciousness. I suspect the West still has to realize its spiritual destiny — its dharma — in the transformation of matter and the creation of a truly equitable and sustainable world. As the design scientist Buckminster Fuller wrote, “No human chromosomes say make the world work for everybody — only mind can tell you that.” We may not need “ideology” any more, as Tolle says, but we still need good ideas about how we reinvent our society and its institutions to become ethically transparent and sustainable. Rather than escaping from society’s problems by embracing pure presence, we can use the awareness gained from spiritual practice to become more effective agents of social change.

Source: Common Ground

Earth Awareness

Far from government imposing restrictions on all actions that adversely affect the natural balance, everything possible is done to encourage these activities in the name of economic progress. No effort whatsoever is made to reduce levels of consumption to mitigate the effects of our actions. Nor, beyond inducements to recycle, are individuals expected to take responsibility for the reasonable governace of their own lives. In these circumstances how much credibility is there to the state's claim to the right of ordering our existance?

Source: Earth First Manifesto - Matt Clowes

Trippy Dream

Last night I dreamt of my parents again. I fought viciously with them again in the presence of strangers in half-light. I had a bunch of ragged clothes in my hands. I stood there and they were sitting at a picnic table, eyeing me cruelly, smirking with disdain. Not understanding me.

I ran outside to where a yellow ugly duckling car was parked, my female friends with big hair were hanging in the front smoking cigarettes, the boot was open. I dumped my things in the back and felt such a craving and an excitement; I wanted to smoke at least ten cigarettes, one after the other.

Doors slammed shut and we drove away in the yellow car, we drove down lanes with high hedges, we drove past fair-grounds and festivals in England. I looked from the window at the people, they were all in semi darkness, from all walks of life, friends and lovers, men kissing each other passionately.

We sped by in a haze and I felt such sadness and anger. I felt such a need to numb myself out. I laid my head back on the seat, closed my eyes and then I suddenly became aware.

I knew then that my parents were flooding me with love from afar. They were sending overwhelming comfort to me from afar.

I awoke in my Amsterdam bed this morning wondering WTF that was.

resistance is no longer existance

From this void, this space, this newly self created nothingness, now arises the warmth, the form of a man.

I am here.

With this strong countenance, confident and loving, I am now impeding on this ever unfolding present, this moment of never-ending rebirth, standing and conveying; the future is so glamorous.

I am built upon a rock of extremities, tried righteousness, ever sinking, sinking, and sinking beneath the stormy waters of the hardship.

These past years of mine caught the attention of countless angels. I fought, I struggled, with them as witnesses, they watched me work with curious admiration.

The present moment rises from between these two invisible non-existent points, delving amongst the records of both I unfold. War is over. In the company of these masters I now embark.

Am I this?

Am I that?

Forget this concrete, forget this glass, and try to ditch the false urban pretense, the inner city mask.

I am.

I am now bringing earth to this city of water, before bringing nothing but lust. I am now bringing that peace, that starry night, bringing the revolution.

There is nothing outside of me anymore. There is nothing of worth in this so-called world for me anymore, there are none who dare. The future is so misleading, the past is so revealing, and both are receding.

In each mans mind there is a garden in which I wander, planting seeds, burning, cutting, and destroying. Resistance is no longer existence. I am breathing.

With this strong countenance, confident and loving, I am now impeding on this ever unfolding present, this moment of never-ending rebirth, standing and conveying.

I am laughing at my judging nature once again and they are laughing with me, my personal witness crowd. I am righteous again.

An Ending - Ascent

Affirmations for balancing the elemental energies: EARTH

I request that my Earth energy be in balance.

My life is Structured and Ordered and I experience physical Abundance and Joy.

I feel Secure and Safe on Earth, and I trust that what I need will be provided.

I enjoy being in my Body, and I feel Health and Vitality.

I honor and care for my Physical Body with love and nurturing.

I honor my physical environment, and I will live with Simplicity and Grace and Beauty.

Simple things give me pleasure.

I request to regain my Earth balance with the Earth elementals and ask to be re-connected to the Earth that is within me.

I Ask for the aspect of "grounding" in my life, so that I may manifest and create in a grounded way, and that I may enjoy life in a physical body, to the fullest.

through Tammie Stair on Starchild Global

Teodora Taneva

rejoin, not to repel or repeal but to fuse

I have walked for years, alone, maybe around the globe.

That I might cast illumination on the separation that I am, that I might eliminate the suffering that I am not.

Only to realize that this is wasted, a useless notion, walking away from the deliverance, turning my back on this redemption, when in the surrender the power awakens.

(The sleeping dragon)

I cannot rest until I am free. Then I never shall rest. What a folly!

Accept the consequences of acceptance and rest.

element of self-definition

Long was I held by the life that exhibits itself, By what is done in the houses or streets, or in company,

The usual adjustments and pleasures - the things which all conform to and which the writers celebrate:

But now I know a life which does not exhibit itself, yet contains all the rest,

And now escaping, I celebrate that concealed but substantial life,

I celebrate the need of the love of comrades.

(Walt Whitman, Calamus)

Easy Poem (2007)

by Stu Hatton

I like what is happening - a wet painting

this body - breathing strangers

oversleeping - a haze and smile to things

faces gift - seductions glow restless

and I cried today - easily

I go where words are - no shortage felt

wordyness.blogspot.com

in the air

Focus Shift

I have been enjoying experimenting with the new energy and the Law of Attraction, I have been feeling so grateful and at home in my new surroundings. There is an abundance of things around me, I have everything I need, these kinds of thoughts, and the universe is responding. I am aware of how this works now more than ever before. (Relax in the higher vibration)

Last week though: struggles, feeling stuck, disorientation, suddenly back in the old energy. There were some issues (money and addictions) and they floored me in one dismal sweep and it was like once again everything I have ever learned had disappeared.

I know that most of the humans on earth (because we are all linked) are going through a psychological shift that has been quite intense of late. The inner is now being manifested in the outer and you can see that all over the world: the shift. The old structures are collapsing and I was feeling it.

Enter Valley.

Because of my relaxation months and the abundance and balance (and the organic food) I had become a little self absorbed and oblivious, nothing wrong with that, it was after all a Capricorn-good-living-vibe that I had not yet fully experienced and it was good. (Sweet indulgence)

My chakra’s have been over stimulated these past weeks and kind of had an overload. I have been open and speaking, I have shown more of myself in the past few months than I have in years. I have had a lot of acceptance for myself. The chakras have been aligned but had been overrun by the powerful new energy that my body just can’t handle yet and they spun out. I am overwhelmed by the intensity (drama queen). My body is incorporating the new energy but it needs time, it needs devotion.

Meditation.

I am being forced to change, if I want to fully embody the new energy I must change my lifestyle and my focus. The reminders were unpleasant, they were necessary. Although the suffering is unpleasant, it is necessary.

Although I feel stuck (because I can’t have everything at once) I have to trust and open my eyes. Shift my focus. I have to get back into that flow of gratitude for what I have again, gratitude for all these things around me, for all these things within me.

I have everything I need right now. Patience. Trust.