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16 Feb 2003 @ 04:24, by newdawn. Spirituality
As I drove today along the expressway I scanned the burnt countryside. A month ago the most devastating fires in living memory swept through my home town... More >
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13 Feb 2003 @ 06:02, by newdawn. Spirituality
Be your own Valentine!
Love yourself, show kindness and compassion to yourself. Judge not harshly yourself or others.
Suprise yourself with a joyful experience or ask the Universe to bring a joyous surprise into your day.
Re~member, you can not do to others what you do not do for yourself.
So.....
allow the love, peace, tranquility and joy to flow through your heart, regardless of what is happening in the world around you, and what others direct to you and .... just perhaps .... this love and peace that flows through you may infect another and another with the same Divine Inspiration that can be shared by those whose hearts are open and thirsting for peace in their lives and their world.
Wishing a Peaceful Valentine's Day to all, especially those world leaders bent against peace.
Makepeace this Valentine's Day!!!
:) ~ (: :) ~ (: :) ~ (: :) ~ (: :) ~ (: :) ~ (: :) :) ~ (: :) ~ (: :) ~ (: :) ~ (: :) ~ (: :) ~ (: :) :) ~ (: :) ~ (: :) ~ (: :) ~ (: :) ~ (: :) ~ (: :) More >
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13 Feb 2003 @ 02:12, by unity1. Spirituality
What is it that has bought us to these times in history ? This question has been on my mind all day. and although each of us can come up with some answers the thought still remains...what is it that has bought us to these times today.
Here we sit, in the suposedly enlightened 21st century and we are witnessing the most arragantly powerful nation on earth show the most callous disregard for human life. what has bought us to this place ?
The world watches in sheer horror as the war machine of this powerful nation defies the rules of International law not to mention the voices of its own people..who themselves march in their millions.
Calls for impeachment .....who amongst them will stand up and raise their voice...risking their entire career and possibly life to do so...who amongst them inside the congress wil stand up and say no more...is there anyone ?
What can be done to stop this insanity?
Know that when the first bomb drops....all of us will feel the shame and the sadness as millions of people die over our need for oil...why...because we are all one.
what has bought us to this point in time?
This is a war that opens the door to sheer terror ......funny how the human race has the pathological ability to completly deny its own reality
humanity I weep for you.
yet I welcome your return More >
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8 Jan 2003 @ 18:13, by sharie. Spirituality
I cannot think of anything more sacred than human life, human well-being, and fulfilling our potential in every aspect of our humanity, to be spiritually fulfilled, emotionally at ease, physically healthy, intellectually brilliant, socially relaxed, sexually satisfied, and psychologically sound.
To ensure human life, human well-being, and opportunities for our human potential, we need a healthy environment in which to grow. This necessarily includes our living environment (our home, neighborhood, and community), our social environment (our family and friends), and our natural environment (naturally clean water, air, and food).
Because of this, war, corruption, and greed of every kind are denounced. This includes the greed for power beyond one's own resources, the greed for money and wealth beyond the needs of one's own family, and the greed for social status (the desire to be viewed as more valuable or worthy than any other human being).
To paraphrase Lord Acton, "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
When money and power are concentrated into the hands of a few, the people as a whole tend to endure poverty, inadequate nutrition and the lack of means to mature socially, creatively, intellectually, and in every other aspect of life, which means the community is unable to benefit from its individual members' contributions.
The mass murders ordered by our U.S. government officials spans some 150 years. I happened upon these historical events one by one over the past several years. And they continue to haunt me.
I've begun compiling a list of them here for people to see for themselves. I'll continue to add to this entry as the info becomes available to me.
I apologize to those who choose to ignorance. I was oblivious to the corruption for most of my life. But the historical facts have become overwhelming, and the personal choice to open my mind to the truth of how our income taxes are being spent, and what it means to be an American can no longer be denied. No doubt the World Trade Center attacks have impacted my need to understand the hatred against us Americans.
The following list is a work in progress, but I'll begin by awakening to the truth about the U.S. involvement in WWII. Japan did not bomb the United States. This is political- economic propaganda. As we look beyond the lies, we see that yes, Japan did bomb American battle ships, military aircraft, military outposts and soldiers at Pearl Harbor. These U.S. invaders had taken possession of the independent nation of Hawai'i which was not a state of the U.S. but an independent peaceful nation. U.S. invasions were no doubt encroaching too close to the Pacific homeland of the Japanese people, so the Japanese struck back. Was Japan on the list of next land for America to invade and conquer? Europeans had invaded Indochina, and now euro-americans began to invade the South Pacific. Japan had been isolationists for hundreds of years (refusing trade relations, guns, and other *modern conveniences*), but they witnessed invasions coming from all sides. China was in dis-array because it controlled such a diverse population, many religions (including muslims!) and nearly 30 different languages. The China was made up of various factions. The Japanese people, however, were united, and sought to resist the invasions into asia. Japanese soldiers were vicious in their rape and torture of civilians, but the slaughter of asians by the Europeans and Americans cannot be considered more civilized. The following is an itemized list of U.S. military invasions around the world:
1950's: Korea, Indochina and Guatamala
[link]
http://www.lycaeum.org/drugwar/DARKALLIANCE/ciaheron.html
[link]
http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/ni/ni-c10-s01.html
[link]
http://www.nancymatson.com/CLDWR3.HTM
[link]
1960's: Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam
[link]
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/54/057.html
[link]
http://serendipity.magnet.ch/cia/stock1.html
1970's: Iraq, Chile, Lebanon
[link]
1980's: Nicaragua, Panama, and Afghanistan
[link]
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~delacova/honduras/contra-mining.htm
[link]
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm
1990's: Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia,
Boznia, Herzegovina, Somalia, Kosovo
[link]
http://www.nmt.edu/mainpage/news/landmine.html
[link]
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=1999/4/13/114554
[link]
As we confront the truth of our U.S. government corruption and propaganda lies to the people, we awaken from our sleep, throw off the chains that enslaved us to their sick and dying culture, and we create a new world, a new civilization.
Our tax dollars were used to create *capitalist* cultures/ consumer economies around the world. This required the destruction of the native people's agricultural and spiritual cultures. But provides new laborers for the billionaires who have turned the world population into consumers of their useless trinkets, while our Mother Earth is raped and stripped of everything that is good.
As an example, here is a quote from the CIA's website:
"Thereafter, South Korea achieved rapid economic growth, with per capita income far outstripping the level of North Korea"
They have used high-tech weaponry to slaughter the people, so they can set up puppet governments *to help them become economically prosperous*, *stripping* the developing countries of their minerals and oil, their chemicals, and anything else that could be converted into *goods and services* to accumulate wealth into their private bank accounts. They have used propaganda to convince the people they need to slave away for these new and improved *modern* conveniences - pharmaceuticals, vaccinations, bovine growth hormones, chemically-altered nicotine and pesticide-laced tobacco, the list goes on and on. The rate of cancer has increased exponentially due to the carcinogens created by the chemical/pharmaceutical/military industry. The billionaires of the world are consuming human lives in order to bulk up their bank accounts.
What is Sacred? Not money, personal greed, or living in the lap of luxury while children are starving to death.
Life is sacred. Being the fullest of our potentials, enjoying our oneness with all of life, with all of humanity, with our living environment, and all the universe is what I hold sacred.
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7 Jan 2003 @ 20:52, by craiglang. Spirituality
Mark's article entitled "Tell Me About Me" soliciting feedback on communication style was a truly couragious act. He must have alot more personal security than I... 8^)
The comment by Alana, and later by Max, stirred up within me a deep soul-searching question. It is a question that transcends any of us - one about the very basic nature of communication, itself. In "Conscious Evolution", Barbara Marx Hubbard develops the idea of the emerging noosphere - of our species reaching a noetic critical mass. Yet how will we communicate in a newly-emergent world?
This leads to the question of what is the boundary of the self and the collective world in a society where communication becomes more open. What do we share as part of being honest with eachother in the collective mind? And what do we keep to ourselves as part of our own self-hood?
How do we maintain our private lives in a psychic society? More >
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 6 Jan 2003 @ 19:17, by craiglang. Spirituality
In the Bible (NIV) it reads:
"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away"...
[see Job 1:21 on Bible Gateway]
At about 5:00 PM on Christmas eve, a friend of mine met his sudden, untimely, and shocking death in a lake in norhtern Wisconsin. At about 9:30 PM that same evening, my cousin gave birth to a delightful, healthy, baby boy.
Also, in the days following Christmas, I have observed some truly amazing scenes of healing. I guess the Universe has a way of balancing the scales. More >
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30 Dec 2002 @ 11:58, by theguider. Spirituality
December 29, 2002
Christmas 2002 with the Angels
As I sit here, a few days before Christmas and write the Message for December 29th, 2002, and as the world's conflict over religions heads toward World War, my Message is of both; hope and displeasure of things to come.
A few years ago, as a few friends, my oldest son and I sat in our kitchen and talked, my son and I told of visions of things to come; we had seen the war in Kosovo in which almost pulled China into conflict with the U.S., American Armed Forces fighting in South and Central American as well as islands (their locations, we did not know), Korea and Japan fighting (we did not know if it was North or South Korea, or if they joined together in the fight against Japan), an Atomic American Submarine and an Australian Submarine colliding together and both sinking somewhere in the seas (or waters) around Japan, a country in Asia or China "Sucker Punches" the United States (I do not think this was the 9/11 terrorists act, I think this will happen somewhere in the northwestern United States) because our forces will be too thinly spread around the world in different conflicts, an American civilian 777 airplane going down somewhere between the Hawaiian Islands and the western coast of the U.S. and the U.S. Navy will be needed to retrieve the wreckage because of its depth. All these things we both, my son and I saw, but while I also saw alone; mountains rising quickly where no mountains now found, mountains that now stand disappearing, water as oceans or seas in places where we now find land, towns, villages and cities fighting over food and drinking water as even family members fight among themselves for the necessities of life, people who are injured laying outside of hospitals because there beds are full inside, drought and famine and terrible weather conditions in different parts of the world. But I also saw a world where these things did not cover the complete world but only parts of it while other parts remained the same as they are now. But this is not the end of the world. They are only things that we were told that will come to pass. The people of the world have plenty of time to repent (change their views of the past) before the End of Time comes. But whereas, I see many that this will be the last Christmas Holiday for them to celebrate during their lifetime. Many, of all religions, will fall during this coming year as the Muslims and its terrorists find their Messiah that they seek, is recognized and comings into power, and the Catholic Church falls farther away from God as its new leaders direct the Pope as they continue to hide the final secret of Fatima which was pointed directly toward the corruption of the Church.
Whereas, not all that will occur in this coming year is directed by some people trying to dominate the majority, many of our friends and family will past on from old age, disease and accidental death, for the Angels of death walk firmly on the earth as they have done throughout the passage of time. But yet, we should look upon death as a blessing to seek
Eternal Life with God in Heaven. Rejoice for those that who have crossed over, for their job well done, but cry as you miss their presence here in body with you. And recognize that some of those who you wish "Merry Christmas" to this year will not be present next Christmas Season as you Cherish the memories of Christmas' past.
And while I write this Christmas 2002 and 2003 New Year's Message, I see hope for each person to find his individual Salvation and his direction toward God. And once again as with all Christmases, I see the miracles shown to me by God's Angels.
After my wife, Chris, our son and I had spent the evening of December 24th of this year together, and after "Santa's" presents were placed under our tree, Chris and I walked out onto our front porch, it was around 11:30PM. We gazed around at our neighbors' Christmas Lights in the crisp night air and we smoked a cigarette as we killed the time before our Christ-Mass. At precisely at 11:45, the Angel Joleen entered into Chris' body as the Angels Michael, Gabrael, Jesus and others gathered around us.
I said to them, "How can one stop evilness without trying to dominate other? Is it wrong if one knows and allows another to kill people or to place them into slavery, without trying to stop the terrorists? Is it right to defend yourself or to let another take what is yours without trying to stop them? Can I stand-by and watch terrorists destroy others
without trying to warn them or even help them? You do not have the same compassion as human; you know what will happen, you know all that happens is because of the things that we have decided to do has led us to where we are. But the human does not know that; he does not understand that what is happening is what will happen. He does not know what will happen as it is known by God. I know that if I say sometime, and it is not to be known, no body will listen to what I say, but if I speak, and 10 people are to listen and be saved, then they shall hear my words and be saved, for if that is what to be, it will be. I know that I cannot change the future just as I cannot change the past. But yet, I am sad because of all the people who are being killed or who are being placed into slavery daily. Can I allow this to continue? But yet, if I kill to keep others from being placed into slavery or murdered, then I am as bad as the evil ones."
The Angels looked at me as they spoke in unison, "You cannot change what will be, do not try to change the future. Stand where you are, you need not kill or dominate, for others will do that. Allow all others their choice as you too allow yourself your personal and individual choice. Speak if you feel that is what you are supposed to do. Follow what is in your heart. For if you speak and others listen to what you have said, then it was meant for them to hear."
Then at the stroke of midnight, the Angel Joleen took my hand and we walked into the yard, she said, "Pray with meÂ…"
Then she looked up into the star lit sky and said, "Do you hear all the prayersÂ…they contain so much unhappiness." And I heard the prayers flowing throughout the world. And then, she pointed to a place to the right of the moon and near a shinning star, and she said, "That is where all the prayers first go, and then they spread out and throughout the Heaven." All the Angels that surround us and us embraced as we wished each other a Merry Christmas.
Afterward, we entered back into out home and placed a tiny Santa and sled beneath our Christmas tree. And the Angel Joleen said, "The Children are happy with it, see them playing with it?" I took a few pictures of the smoke-like images of the deceased children that drifted and/or raced around the room; these children had stopped by here on their way to God.
After a few minutes, the other Angels left her and I standing alone in our living room, and Joleen turned to me and said, "It is time for me to go."
We hugged and kissed as we said our goodbyes, and then she went limp in my arms as if she had died, and then within a few seconds, then she started breathing again as my wife, Chris, returned back into her body once again.
I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas, too. Please refer to our Archive pages for other Christmases spent with God's Angels.
FREE CONFERENCE and/or MEETING
To be Held in Your Area
Next year, during late spring or early summer, I will traveling across the United States, starting off in North Carolina and going through Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and finishing up in California. And then after that, I will be traveling to England to hold Free Meeting and/or
Conferences there as well.
If you live in or near the areas that I will be coming through and would like to meet with me to discuss God, His Angels or anything that I have written here upon this web site. I would be most happy to meet with you and /or with your family or group to talk with you.
Email me through our "contact The Guider," and I will schedule our meeting into my travel plans.
Web site; [link]
Thank you.
The Guider, David Haven
A Ministry as directed by Garbael More >
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27 Dec 2002 @ 01:44, by unity1. Spirituality
Let us now share with you a proufound understanding........at the moment of conception there is a spark of light, an explosion of energy and what you call a soul is concived, at the moment of death that spark of light, that which you call a soul, is obsorbed into all that is....in a flash the light that you are , the essence which is you, the product of all your experiences...is dispersed like an explosion, you are but an energy beam of all that exists. You have formed yourself your human form/body and have grown it from within your self. Every cell in your body is infused within you. You as that energentic spark that was concieved, and that which you are is obsorbed into all that is. The you you are and have been as this physical energy spark, is not lost, nothing can ever be lost within all that is. You are expanded, you not ony become dispersed, part of all that is, but you are enriched, you are still you in knowing yourself, yet you are more
Understand this you have never been seperate from all that is, the universe or force. From the entire universe comes you, gathering yourself together to form a physical form, upon death your energetic self/spark is obsorbed, dispersed into all that is.....you are not re obsorbed, for you have always been part of all that is. Your current beliefs hinder your understanding, for nothing can ever be seperate in actuality, all that is is everywhere, so how can anything be seperate from it.
Your trying to name is has helped create the seperation. And why are you here ? why did you do all this....why ? ...because you could ! Life is experiencing. Everything is experiencing. Again your beleifs about life seperate you from your own knowing, and therefore your own experience. There is no mystery of life to uncover, no specific path, no true way to be for all ways are the way to be in life. The beauty and mystery of life is simply that you EXIST. How you live your life is up to you. There are no right nor wrong ways, just many ways.
Many of you consider your life to be a series of experiences, some good others not so good. Still others feel that their experiences are so bad that they themselves are bad, worthless, no good, and your societies tend to reiniforce this. Yet let me share with you....life is simply expereince....and how can you fail at that? No matter what you do in life you can not fail experiencing ! Now .......how do you wish to judge that ?
Understand that your judgements of your experience will determine your life and how you live it.. But know this .....In this moment, you are who you are. You are who you are because of your experineces., every single one of them has shaped you into who you are today. And in a very real sense, you are who you think you are simply by the judgments you place on your experiences.
You are not at the mercy of any past life, nor lives yet to come. You exist in the only place that you can ...the PRESENT. So the choice becomes do you like yourself in this moment, are you ok with your life in this moment. If not why not....and are you willing to change them.....and if not now, then when ?
In your Dreamtime.....sleeping you are all different people.....you are people who know, you are people living life, choosing senarios that will best express your actions or change your actions to best resonante with who your wish to be. The veil between the worlds is thick only because of your understandings and beleifs about dreams themselves. If you did not dream, there would be no movement in your life, your choices are chosen in the dreamtime.....sleeping....and you will discover that without fully knowinng it you will have made the choice to change. Your world depends upon it.....are you willing to overcome decades of inertia and mindlessly following the leader to create from your own inherent knowingness.
The essence of all that is, is love, and you are a portion of that essence, all of you are, there is no getting away from it......you are love at your core, your physical body is powered by the love you are..... energy, the energy of all that is.
For now however it is dulled down by living in fear, subtle fears about making a living, day to day fears of making ends meet and other equaly seemingly important things. You hold your lives in your own hands, or should we say hearts...and minds.....and without the dreamtime sleeping no change would be possible..........
We tell you this also.....there is nothing outside of your self that determines what type of life you end up living and experiencing....nothing....You are all self perpertrating, self generating, self created and self creating beings. You yourselves collectively create the momentum for what befalls you both individually and collectively as a race. There is no thing out side of your selves....no god or force as such that says it must go this way, or this must happen....no....there is no such thing...the choice is always yours and as always so are the responsiblities. You are not a victim in your own lives, let alone your world. You are self determining beings, co creating your world. The collective consciousness .....that which is all of you..... has been termed God, for that is the beleif in which you live....Yet it is not outside of you as you have personified it, no....it is all of you, individually forming a collective consciousness known as humanity....this is the energy that powers your world....not something outside of yourself....but from within....from within all of you.....within the dreamtime sleeping
You are a spark of the divine, and therefore you are divine in nature. The core of you is love, the essence of who you are is love, that is what all that is is. Yet you know not what love is.
Let us share with you....the love that is, is the breath of a cool breeze on a muggy day, the love that is is the first rain drop on a parched desert landscape, the love that is ...is both within you and surrounds you...it embraces everything that you are, for it is you. The love that is, has allowed you to be
Expressed in physical form, the love that is becomes the virbration of joy. The core of you as energy, as a light form is love. When you create your physical form you are love, your form resonates at that vibration or tone. Look at your new borns they are love manifested in its purest sense/meaning/term. How then could you be anything less ?
When the energy essence which is you translates into physical form, the energy essence which is you grows the form. In other words, because you are pure love made physical, that energy, that love that is you, which is all that is, becomes the core energy harmonic of your body. In other words, you being love, your core harmonic in physical terms is love. At the vibration of that which you are, which is love, that energy weaves the body cell by cell. And what is the first organ created by this energy ? YOUR HEART !
And what is it that you have you been taught about your selves and your bodies ? In religious doctrine, you have been told that you are SINFUL....Here is the root of everything you beleif about your bodies and your selves. And why we endeavour to turn you from your religious. For from our perspective there is no truth in them and they seek to entrapp you and hinder the development that is necessary, nay, vital for you to understand your self and the world in which you yourselves co create.
We sense at this time, that the energy within your world and you yourselves are walking up from a deep hypnotic trance that has placed you at the mercy of religious dogma, subverting your inherent knowing and placing abhorant beleifs in your trusting minds and hearts. We watch humanity struggle with its own identity, trying to come to terms with concepts that are based on erronous ideas and limiting beleifs that do not free you from your prediciments, but hinder you even further. We speak to you from our hearts, from the energy of the divine love, that which is all that is, and that which is you. In this sense we will not play your game of feeding your egos, but challenge you to break out of your own self imposed limitiations. We will in a sense burst your self created bubbles of beleifs, by sharing with you the truth of your prediciments, in this way you yourselves can do your thinking and feeling and tap into the vast resoviour of knowledge that is your inheritance of being a divine spark of all that is.
22/11/02
Let us continue......As we have said...you are divine love, merging with all that is at the moment of your physical death in energtic form. That energetic form created for you this body...grew this body within the dynamic of the vibration of love. Meaning that every cell, every fibre of your being IS the vibration of love. Because this is not the common understanding upon your world, many distortions have arisin. One of the many is that you are sinful, that your body your flesh is something to be free of. This is not so, for your body is your spirit your soul essence, and a portion of all that is, how could that be sinful ? You where made in the image of God, and the understanding of God at that time was akin to all that is,... a divine force.... and all that is is love so now, what image were you made from ? The Essence Of LOVE is your image. That is what you where 'made' in the image of . God is not a man, although man is a god in a sense. Yet to a religious person, they would not agree with that for man can never be like god...that is a blasphemy....then what is the point, if the child can never be like its father.
Let us share with you a deep dark secret....The Gods who created you where part of all that is, as are you...but they where not ALL THAT IS...there fore they where not gods in that sense , they were like you are becoming now, sophisticated in your technology enough to manipulate life and create new forms of life through the biology of genetic manipulation.....and so they created you.....in their imigae and likness....and like them you are a spark of infinite divinity the vibration of love. But they where not the God of man as personified by a Father in Heaven who only had one son, born of a virgin. No they where beings who where more sophisticated in their knowing then your race is now. And like your race, they also had ego' and personailites, that demanded aligence to their word...to their laws...and to essentially what was their world...but they did not come from your world...neither did they create your world...for that was always here...remember everything came into being simultatneously as it exists now....simultaneoulsy
What has been handed to you generation after generataion is several stories merged into one....and these are very ancient in your terms....yet you pick up this story in your bibles...and by then it is very old....yet there is an older version still that gives the bible its true meaning but one that must never be openly discussed, for if so the story of mans god will find it has built its house on foundations of sand and will be washed away by the tides of deeper open enquiry....that is why the truth will always be concealed within your religious understanding. The truth of your beginings, the truth of yourselves not as sinful creatures but of sparks of love, part of all that is.
However our essential message for this timing has been posted, and that is that you are in essence love, a part of all that is, and though you are now in physical form, you have never been seperate from the love of all that is for you are in essence love and being love you have weaved your body to the energy of love, which is its core harmonic in which your body functions, anything outside of that vibration is not your core essence and will eventually over time degenerate your body. Your body is not sinful nor is it something to discard in your haste to get to a ficitious heaven. Your body is love made manifest...it is you as manifest spirit, your flesh is just as much spirit as you are there can be no distinction between your body and your spirit for you are one and the same. Both are energy vibrations of love and you form, body and all a part of all that is. There is no seperation between you as physical being and all that is, for you are all that is made manifest in physical form....no more no less.
www.geocities.com/unity1_nz/dreamtimesleeping.html
________________________________________________________ More >
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23 Dec 2002 @ 21:11, by craiglang. Spirituality
A couple of nights ago I saw an interesting documentary, aired on Discovery Channel. It was entitled "Jesus the Complete Story". The program had a very interesting take on the mission of Jeshua Ben Yusef (arguably the actual name of Jesus at that time). It looked at the context of the drama, including the politics of the time period, and described some very interesting themes.
One of the biggest themes was Jeshua's mission in the context of the resistance to Rome. He was looking for a way to resist Rome without violence. Many military messiahs had come and gone. Rebellions had occurred, and failed. For long-lasting freedom and reform to occur, the documentary stressed, was that it would not come by military might - Rome was too powerful. The only way that they would be free was to embrace a spiritual path, and nonviolent resistance.
I was struck by the similarity between the situation of that time, and the situation today. In fact, at times they verbally described the Roman occupation, but the visuals on the TV were of Israeli soldiers today, patrolling Jerusalem, the West Bank, etc. So today, while the players are different, the props are arranged differently on the screen, and the weapons have alot more power, the drama is essentially the same. It is a story of political tension, military occupation and resistance - constant rebellion, and simmering hatred.
The tides of history seem to be carrying us closer to war, yet deep within us, the still small voice of God tells us that the answer is seldom if ever force. The spirit is the answer - the only source of real peace.
Deep down, I wonder if this wasn't at least part of the real message of Jeshua Ben Yusef. A message of peace and freedom through nonviolence preached by this itinerant preacher and healer 2000 years ago. A message largely lost until Ghandi, made it succeed in our own times.
I wonder if heeding this message now is how we might achieve peace in the present day - a combination of spiritual enlightenment and nonviolent resistance to war. An interesting thought as we enter the (re-located) holiday celebrating His birth.
Namaste,
-Craig More >
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20 Dec 2002 @ 11:57, by spells. Spirituality
Dear NCN Members,
Here is my "Holiday Gift" to you. Although most or, at least some of the members here believe themselves to be "Spiritual", they still get caught up in the "Holiday Rush", and forget what our true goals on this planet are. (Evolution as Conscious Beings, not good obligational "Consumers" spending money)
For this reason I offer my gift of truth and reality about this so called "Holiday Season".
Enjoy,
Sandi
******
Re-defining What is Normal
Let’s take a look at what is considered “normal behavior” during the so-called “holiday season”. The entire Christmas and New Years hysteria, is really a facade which covers up the reality of our out-of-control, materialistic culture. It is a microcosm that represents all the falsehoods of consumerism, and its shallow fixation on material things. What could more easily demonstrate this shallow unnaturalness, than the consumer-orgy we see happening every Christmas? Does anyone every really wonder why these certain days of the year, are so stressful and personally destructive? Isn’t it a little odd that a holiday that is supposed dedicated to Christ is so materialistic, when Christ himself completely denounced materialism?
The following excerpt is taken from an issue of Great Life Magazine, a prominent health publication. It describes what is considered “normal” by this society at the “holidays”…
The article is entitled, “Give stress a vacation” and begins as follows…
“Life’s hectic pace takes a toll on our sanity from time to time especially around holidays, when demands on our time and energy push us into overdrive. When our minds perceive a challenge or threat, catecholamines are released into the bloodstream. They, along with nerve impulses, prepare the body for fight or flight, the survival mechanism humans have relied on for thousands of years to prepare the body for physical activity. Following the response, the body typically returns to its normal state.”
No one ever seems to ask the essential question here, when talking about “lifes’ hectic pace”. Why is life’s pace hectic? Was it always that way for human beings? No it wasn’t. We ourselves make it hectic and insane. Why do we do this? Because we have all been convinced by the cult of materialism, to “perform” and “consume”. It is not life that is inherently hectic or insane, it is our materialistic values which make it so. As the article points out, this lifestyle “takes a toll on our sanity from time to time especially around holidays, when demands on our time and energy push us into overdrive”. Whose demands? Answer…Our own. As “consumers” we feel a constant social pressure and emotional craving for material distractions. We’re so hollow inside (society) we need something to fill us up, if only for the next hour or minute. We feel this because as a culture we’re out of balance, and teetering on the edge of collective insanity. The modern lifestyle is indeed a “challenge or threat” posed to both the body and mind. This threat deranges the mind with artificial stresses, and destroys the body with cancer and various other diseases and nervous disorders. We literally put ourselves in a circumstance of “fight or flight” every day, but particularly at the “holidays”. Why do we do this? Because we have forgotten what life is all about, and that happiness is not found in a pill, an herb, or a box of plastic playthings.
The article goes on to say…
“But the stresses we undergo in modern society rarely require such a physical reaction, and they don’t always have a definitive outcome that causes a return to homeostasis. As a result, we are perpetually ready to fight or flee, but are not truly relaxed or active enough to release the stress. This state can contribute to high blood pressure, inhibited immunity, heart problems and other maladies. So, coping with stress before it all gets the best of us is key.”
Isn’t it interesting how, as a culture, we only think of “coping with stress” rather than just not being stressed to start with? We assume that stress is a given, because we assume materialism is a given. Why are we ready to “fight or flee” and yet are not “active enough to relieve the stress”? Because we’re too busy doing the 40-60 hour work routine behind a desk, worshipping the Dollar as God, and never questioning the values that have been handed to us by an insane society. We wouldn’t need to work like this and “fight or flee”, if we adopted natural values and lifestyles. But it would seem that simplicity and practicality are not enough for the average American…or at least so we’ve been told by the television. We are stressed because we lack the courage to think for ourselves, and question all this nonsense of a credit card, “for a limited time only” world. If you want love and light, then stay out of debt, quit your job, and develop some natural values that place love above the dollar, and your own en(light)enment above a so-called “carreer”. Let the deed fit the word!
The article continues…
“Prescription drugs, such as Valium and other benzodiazepines, are often prescribed to treat moderate anxiety, but they have sedative and addictive effects…”
Sure, why not pop another pill or take an herb, rather than change what is causing stress and death on a mass scale. Take the easy way out, and try to believe that God is coming to clean up our mess for us, or that just saying the words like “love and light” will somehow change a miserable lifestyle without ever having to do anything practical in your life. Spirituality is not just about saying nice things! It’s about living it out in your daily routine! It means questioning what is false regardless of what the neighbors might say!
From the same magazine and month, another article entitled “Why am I Blue?” begins as follows…
“It’s the holidays and you know you’re supposed to be happy, but SOMEHOW you’re more melancholy than merry.. Fortunately St. John’s wort offers a simple way to beat the blues. More than 25 studies have concluded that….
There is no “somehow” about it. We are living the wrong life, and trying to apply ourselves to lies and consumer fictions! Ok, you want love and light? Then just don’t participate any more in the darkness and despair of the dollar-as-God world! Think about the essential meaning of the word “sincerity”! In other words GET REAL about your spiritual practice, rather than just giving concepts you read somewhere a little lip service, through placating pleasantries. Go beyond just words, and actually change your lifestyle, (or not if hypocrisy suits you just fine).
The REAL spiritual practitioner questions everything, and blindly accepts nothing. If you are interested in being REAL, then try not doing Christmas any more! Realistically speaking, how SINCERE is it to give “loving” gifts and “heart-felt greeting cards” to others, just because the calendar says it’s December 25th? Love is not contained in wrapping papers or credit cards! Plastic trinkets and obligatory present-giving are not worth spending months in debt just to pay off. Fulfilling the consumer ideals of the corporate world is not worth suicide via stress.
And then there is “New Years” where everyone gets drunk and tries to pretend how “successful” and “happy” they are, while secretly drowning their indebted, stressed-out misery in another glass of alcohol and pills. Let’s face it, society is filled with lies and misconceptions. Bail out while you still can! Pull your kids out of the public brainwashing schools. Turn off the television, or at least see it for what it is. Quit your full time job, and only work when you have to live simply and naturally. Really focus your life on love, light, health and clarity, rather than “investment opportunities” and private empire building.
The “holidays” are perfectly representative of the whole ridiculous, materialistic way of life. They are literally brimming over with denial and absurd beliefs, such as the idea that giving of material objects expresses love. What bull. Why buy into such nonsense, and then spend the rest of your life fulfilling a shallow ideal, that is not even of your own making? As a culture and as individuals, we need to re-define what is “normal” living and what is not. You can talk about Love and God all you want, but how you live is what demonstrates what you REALLY mean when you say those words.
The only thing a materialist really loves is another paycheck… like a junkie wants just one more fix. We work endlessly to support our habit, not for any noble cause or basic need. That lifestyle is not “normal”.
Think about it.
Matthew Webb visionquest@eoni.com More >
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