Month: June 2014

Kabbalah ~ On The Term “Selem”

Hālau ʻĀha Hūi LanakilaLeave a comment

soul and magic

“Our first encounter with the term ‘selem,’ [image] of course, is in the narrative of man’s creation … ‘In the image of God He created Him’ (Gen. 1:26-27). The nature of this ‘image,’ though, is not sufficiently clear…The Kabbalists often introduce an additional verse, ‘For in the image man shall walk’ (Ps. 39:7), to show that the ‘selem’ is an integral part of man on earth. What then is the ‘selem’ in their conception. There is a basic assumption that two elements diametrically opposed by nature cannot exist together without some mediating entity. This also goes for the ‘nefesh’ [soul] and body…In Neoplatonic teaching and in ancient religions we find mention of an intermediary astral body; in the Kabbalah, the term ‘selem’ is borrowed to speak of the same idea. Thus we read in the Zohar: ‘When a man begins to consecrate himself before intercourse with his wife with a sacred intention, a holy spirit is aroused above him, composed of both male and female. And the Holy One, blessed be He, directs an emissary who is in charge of human embryos, and assigns to him this particular spirit, and indicates to him the place to which it should be entrusted…When the soul descends in order to enter this world…the holy image stands by it until it goes out into the world. When it does out into the world the image is summoned for it and it accompanies it and grows with it…And man’s days exist through the image, and are dependent on it.’ Thus the ‘image’ accompanies man all the days of his life … The ‘selem,’ then, is sometimes identified with a shadow accompanying man. In that sense, the ‘image’ constitutes the principium individuationis [principle of individuation], the individual and unique element in each person.”

– Moshe Hallamish in “An Introduction to the Kabbalah,” p. 274-275

5 Meaningful Methods of Meditation

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meditationThere’s a myriad of methods for meditation. Some are easy and some are difficult. All require daily practice to perfect. Here are five of the most popular methods of meditation and what they each bring to the Meditation Table. Here’s why You Should Mix them for Maximum Mindfulness.

Mindfulness, or Spiritual Method:

A most popular method comes from Buddhist meditation practice of Vipassana. It’s all about practicing detachment from each thought and being centered in the “here and now.” It focuses on situational awareness and “in the moment” presence. There is also a focus on communion with the cosmos, which can translate to prayer, but not necessarily. The best way to commune with the universe is to ask questions as opposed to seeking answers. In the mindfulness method, answers are mere side-effects of good questioning.

How to: One can practice mindfulness in any position, even lying down. The key is presence with the present moment, and clear and concise communion with the cosmos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0ukcU2o0Fw

 

Zen or Zazen Method:

Also from the Buddhist tradition, this method is all about simply sitting. It is often done for long periods of time. Its focus is mostly on posture and spine alignment with minimal focus on breathing techniques. It is the most monastic of all the methods and is therefore difficult to make progress in. Most monks practice this method while concentrating on a Zen koan or spiritual parable.

How to: The most effective positioning of the body for the practice of Zazen is the stable, symmetrical position of the seated Buddha. Keeping the back straight and centered, pretend a silver thread is pulled taut through your spine and up through your head, connecting to the ceiling.

 

Kundalini or Transcendental Method:

This method comes from the Vedanta Hinduism tradition and ties into different forms of Yoga practices. It focuses more on breathing patterns than the previous methods, using the power of breathing to launch one into a higher sense of self, or even a transformation of self. The electromagnetic field created by the human body is akin to the electromagnetic field created by the Earth. Transcendental method is all about tapping into the stream of energy naturally created by the relationship between the human body’s energy chakras with the environment’s energy vortexes. The main focus of this method is to ride this rising stream into infinity, to learn what needs to be learned, and then to return to the finite realms with new-knowledge in tow.

How to: Breathing is primary. Positioning is secondary. Relax your body, take three deep breaths; then proceed to take deep breaths and hold them for at least ten seconds each. This allows for the oxygen to cleanse the chakras and then release toxins through exhalation, while increasing kundalini energy.

Fractal Enlightenment|  There’s a myriad of methods for meditation. Some are easy and some are difficult. All require daily practice to perfect. Here are five of the most popular methods of meditation and what they each bring to the Meditation Table. Here’s why You Should Mix them for Maximum Mindfulness.

Mindfulness, or Spiritual Method:

A most popular method comes from Buddhist meditation practice of Vipassana. It’s all about practicing detachment from each thought and being centered in the “here and now.” It focuses on situational awareness and “in the moment” presence. There is also a focus on communion with the cosmos, which can translate to prayer, but not necessarily. The best way to commune with the universe is to ask questions as opposed to seeking answers. In the mindfulness method, answers are mere side-effects of good questioning.

How to: One can practice mindfulness in any position, even lying down. The key is presence with the present moment, and clear and concise communion with the cosmos.

– See more at: http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/5-meaningful-methods-of-meditation/#sthash.VMrUBuh9.dpuf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JYueTqWmyo

 

Qigong Method or Movement Method:

This method comes from the Taoist tradition. It is all about hyper-focus on breathing techniques and/or bodily movements to cultivate and maintain life energy. This is the most philosophical of the methods, deriving most of its techniques from martial arts and meditative healing methods. It focuses on moving Qi (life force) through the body through focused breathing, mental techniques, and precise movements. This method is all about the balance and equilibrium of both inner and outer forces.

How to: No matter what Qi exercise you’re doing, imagine the Qi moving through your body as you breathe in an out. As you inhale through your nose, imagine the Qi moving through your body and down to your Lower Dantian, or naval area. As you exhale through your mouth imagine the Qi moving through the rest of your body. Repeat.

 

Drumming and/or Om Method:

This may be the oldest form of meditation known to humanity. The drumming method is typically used by native and aboriginal cultures, and is generally shamanic in nature. The Om method is traditionally from Vedanta Hinduism, though the sound itself is fairly universal to mankind. These methods focus on breathing and heart rhythm in accordance with, or even dissonance with, the sound and feel of the percussion or mantra.

The heart beat itself is a drum. Breathing is a drum beat that we can control. These two methods are all about transformation through vibration and the awareness of cosmic frequencies. Shamans often use drum meditation to cross physical, mental, and spiritual thresholds. It’s a bridge that carries them to a higher sense of self in accordance with the greater cosmos.

How to: Create a sacred place. Clear your mind. Breathe with intent. If you’re the drummer, infuse your intention into the drum before drumming. Begin playing or listening to the drum. Give yourself a few minutes to fall into rhythm with the beat. Fade your drumming into silence, feeling your body’s response to the beat, then return to the drum. Repeat with clear intent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzb8zN9AbmM

 

There you have it: a minor helping of meditative methods. Each have specific techniques, but they all overlap in various ways. One of the keys to becoming a meditative master is to use all the methods to your advantage, while also allowing for personal creativity by giving your meditation a signature as unique as your own fingerprint.

Remember: the heartbeat that sustains your life is acting on the same frequency that sustains the universe. The heart with which you feel God is the same heart with which God feels you. May the Om be with you.

By Gary Z McGee

Gary ‘Z’ McGee, a former Navy Intelligence Specialist turned philosopher, is the author of Birthday Suit of God and The Looking Glass Man. His works are inspired by the great philosophers of the ages and his wide awake view of the modern world.

As written by Mariana Caplan, Ph.D.  It is a jungle out there, and it is no less true about spiritual life than any other aspect of life. Do we really think that just because someone has been meditating for five years, or doing 10 years of yoga practice, that they will be any less neurotic than the next person? At best, perhaps they will be a little bit more aware of it. A little bit.

It is for this reason that I spent the last 15 years of my life researching and writing books on cultivating discernment on the spiritual path in all the gritty areas–power, sex, enlightenment, gurus, scandals, psychology, neurosis — as well as earnest, but just plain confused and unconscious, motivations on the path. My partner (author and teacher Marc Gafni) and I are developing a new series of books, courses and practices to bring further clarification to these issues.

Several years ago, I spent a summer living and working in South Africa. Upon my arrival I was instantly confronted by the visceral reality that I was in the country with the highest murder rate in the world, where rape was common and more than half the population was HIV-positive — men and women, gays and straights alike.

As I have come to know hundreds of spiritual teachers and thousands of spiritual practitioners through my work and travels, I have been struck by the way in which our spiritual views, perspectives and experiences become similarly “infected” by “conceptual contaminants” — comprising a confused and immature relationship to complex spiritual principles can seem as invisible and insidious as a sexually transmitted disease.

The following 10 categorizations are not intended to be definitive but are offered as a tool for becoming aware of some of the most common spiritually transmitted diseases.

1. Fast-Food Spirituality: Mix spirituality with a culture that celebrates speed, multitasking and instant gratification and the result is likely to be fast-food spirituality. Fast-food spirituality is a product of the common and understandable fantasy that relief from the suffering of our human condition can be quick and easy. One thing is clear, however: spiritual transformation cannot be had in a quick fix.

2. Faux Spirituality: Faux spirituality is the tendency to talk, dress and act as we imagine a spiritual person would. It is a kind of imitation spirituality that mimics spiritual realization in the way that leopard-skin fabric imitates the genuine skin of a leopard.

3. Confused Motivations: Although our desire to grow is genuine and pure, it often gets mixed with lesser motivations, including the wish to be loved, the desire to belong, the need to fill our internal emptiness, the belief that the spiritual path will remove our suffering and spiritual ambition, the wish to be special, to be better than, to be “the one.”

4. Identifying with Spiritual Experiences: In this disease, the ego identifies with our spiritual experience and takes it as its own, and we begin to believe that we are embodying insights that have arisen within us at certain times. In most cases, it does not last indefinitely, although it tends to endure for longer periods of time in those who believe themselves to be enlightened and/or who function as spiritual teachers.

5. The Spiritualized Ego: This disease occurs when the very structure of the egoic personality becomes deeply embedded with spiritual concepts and ideas. The result is an egoic structure that is “bullet-proof.” When the ego becomes spiritualized, we are invulnerable to help, new input, or constructive feedback. We become impenetrable human beings and are stunted in our spiritual growth, all in the name of spirituality.

6. Mass Production of Spiritual Teachers: There are a number of current trendy spiritual traditions that produce people who believe themselves to be at a level of spiritual enlightenment, or mastery, that is far beyond their actual level. This disease functions like a spiritual conveyor belt: put on this glow, get that insight, and — bam! — you’re enlightened and ready to enlighten others in similar fashion. The problem is not that such teachers instruct but that they represent themselves as having achieved spiritual mastery.

7. Spiritual Pride: Spiritual pride arises when the practitioner, through years of labored effort, has actually attained a certain level of wisdom and uses that attainment to justify shutting down to further experience. A feeling of “spiritual superiority” is another symptom of this spiritually transmitted disease. It manifests as a subtle feeling that “I am better, more wise and above others because I am spiritual.”

8. Group Mind: Also described as groupthink, cultic mentality or ashram disease, group mind is an insidious virus that contains many elements of traditional co-dependence. A spiritual group makes subtle and unconscious agreements regarding the correct ways to think, talk, dress, and act. Individuals and groups infected with “group mind” reject individuals, attitudes, and circumstances that do not conform to the often unwritten rules of the group.

9. The Chosen-People Complex: The chosen people complex is not limited to Jews. It is the belief that “Our group is more spiritually evolved, powerful, enlightened and, simply put, better than any other group.” There is an important distinction between the recognition that one has found the right path, teacher or community for themselves, and having found The One.

10. The Deadly Virus: “I Have Arrived”: This disease is so potent that it has the capacity to be terminal and deadly to our spiritual evolution. This is the belief that “I have arrived” at the final goal of the spiritual path. Our spiritual progress ends at the point where this belief becomes crystallized in our psyche, for the moment we begin to believe that we have reached the end of the path, further growth ceases.

“The essence of love is perception,” according to the teachings of Marc Gafni, “Therefore the essence of self love is self perception. You can only fall in love with someone you can see clearly–including yourself. To love is to have eyes to see. It is only when you see yourself clearly that you can begin to love yourself.”

It is in the spirit of Marc’s teaching that I believe that a critical part of learning discernment on the spiritual path is discovering the pervasive illnesses of ego and self-deception that are in all of us. That is when we need a sense of humor and the support of real spiritual friends. As we face our obstacles to spiritual growth, there are times when it is easy to fall into a sense of despair and self-diminishment and lose our confidence on the path. We must keep the faith, in ourselves and in others, in order to really make a difference in this world.

Source: Huffington Post

– See more at: http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/10-spiritually-transmitted-diseases/#sthash.BS8FUzAq.dpuf

As written by Mariana Caplan, Ph.D.  It is a jungle out there, and it is no less true about spiritual life than any other aspect of life. Do we really think that just because someone has been meditating for five years, or doing 10 years of yoga practice, that they will be any less neurotic than the next person? At best, perhaps they will be a little bit more aware of it. A little bit.

It is for this reason that I spent the last 15 years of my life researching and writing books on cultivating discernment on the spiritual path in all the gritty areas–power, sex, enlightenment, gurus, scandals, psychology, neurosis — as well as earnest, but just plain confused and unconscious, motivations on the path. My partner (author and teacher Marc Gafni) and I are developing a new series of books, courses and practices to bring further clarification to these issues.

Several years ago, I spent a summer living and working in South Africa. Upon my arrival I was instantly confronted by the visceral reality that I was in the country with the highest murder rate in the world, where rape was common and more than half the population was HIV-positive — men and women, gays and straights alike.

As I have come to know hundreds of spiritual teachers and thousands of spiritual practitioners through my work and travels, I have been struck by the way in which our spiritual views, perspectives and experiences become similarly “infected” by “conceptual contaminants” — comprising a confused and immature relationship to complex spiritual principles can seem as invisible and insidious as a sexually transmitted disease.

The following 10 categorizations are not intended to be definitive but are offered as a tool for becoming aware of some of the most common spiritually transmitted diseases.

1. Fast-Food Spirituality: Mix spirituality with a culture that celebrates speed, multitasking and instant gratification and the result is likely to be fast-food spirituality. Fast-food spirituality is a product of the common and understandable fantasy that relief from the suffering of our human condition can be quick and easy. One thing is clear, however: spiritual transformation cannot be had in a quick fix.

2. Faux Spirituality: Faux spirituality is the tendency to talk, dress and act as we imagine a spiritual person would. It is a kind of imitation spirituality that mimics spiritual realization in the way that leopard-skin fabric imitates the genuine skin of a leopard.

3. Confused Motivations: Although our desire to grow is genuine and pure, it often gets mixed with lesser motivations, including the wish to be loved, the desire to belong, the need to fill our internal emptiness, the belief that the spiritual path will remove our suffering and spiritual ambition, the wish to be special, to be better than, to be “the one.”

4. Identifying with Spiritual Experiences: In this disease, the ego identifies with our spiritual experience and takes it as its own, and we begin to believe that we are embodying insights that have arisen within us at certain times. In most cases, it does not last indefinitely, although it tends to endure for longer periods of time in those who believe themselves to be enlightened and/or who function as spiritual teachers.

5. The Spiritualized Ego: This disease occurs when the very structure of the egoic personality becomes deeply embedded with spiritual concepts and ideas. The result is an egoic structure that is “bullet-proof.” When the ego becomes spiritualized, we are invulnerable to help, new input, or constructive feedback. We become impenetrable human beings and are stunted in our spiritual growth, all in the name of spirituality.

6. Mass Production of Spiritual Teachers: There are a number of current trendy spiritual traditions that produce people who believe themselves to be at a level of spiritual enlightenment, or mastery, that is far beyond their actual level. This disease functions like a spiritual conveyor belt: put on this glow, get that insight, and — bam! — you’re enlightened and ready to enlighten others in similar fashion. The problem is not that such teachers instruct but that they represent themselves as having achieved spiritual mastery.

7. Spiritual Pride: Spiritual pride arises when the practitioner, through years of labored effort, has actually attained a certain level of wisdom and uses that attainment to justify shutting down to further experience. A feeling of “spiritual superiority” is another symptom of this spiritually transmitted disease. It manifests as a subtle feeling that “I am better, more wise and above others because I am spiritual.”

8. Group Mind: Also described as groupthink, cultic mentality or ashram disease, group mind is an insidious virus that contains many elements of traditional co-dependence. A spiritual group makes subtle and unconscious agreements regarding the correct ways to think, talk, dress, and act. Individuals and groups infected with “group mind” reject individuals, attitudes, and circumstances that do not conform to the often unwritten rules of the group.

9. The Chosen-People Complex: The chosen people complex is not limited to Jews. It is the belief that “Our group is more spiritually evolved, powerful, enlightened and, simply put, better than any other group.” There is an important distinction between the recognition that one has found the right path, teacher or community for themselves, and having found The One.

10. The Deadly Virus: “I Have Arrived”: This disease is so potent that it has the capacity to be terminal and deadly to our spiritual evolution. This is the belief that “I have arrived” at the final goal of the spiritual path. Our spiritual progress ends at the point where this belief becomes crystallized in our psyche, for the moment we begin to believe that we have reached the end of the path, further growth ceases.

“The essence of love is perception,” according to the teachings of Marc Gafni, “Therefore the essence of self love is self perception. You can only fall in love with someone you can see clearly–including yourself. To love is to have eyes to see. It is only when you see yourself clearly that you can begin to love yourself.”

It is in the spirit of Marc’s teaching that I believe that a critical part of learning discernment on the spiritual path is discovering the pervasive illnesses of ego and self-deception that are in all of us. That is when we need a sense of humor and the support of real spiritual friends. As we face our obstacles to spiritual growth, there are times when it is easy to fall into a sense of despair and self-diminishment and lose our confidence on the path. We must keep the faith, in ourselves and in others, in order to really make a difference in this world.

Source: Huffington Post

– See more at: http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/10-spiritually-transmitted-diseases/#sthash.BS8FUzAq.dpuf

As written by Mariana Caplan, Ph.D.  It is a jungle out there, and it is no less true about spiritual life than any other aspect of life. Do we really think that just because someone has been meditating for five years, or doing 10 years of yoga practice, that they will be any less neurotic than the next person? At best, perhaps they will be a little bit more aware of it. A little bit.

It is for this reason that I spent the last 15 years of my life researching and writing books on cultivating discernment on the spiritual path in all the gritty areas–power, sex, enlightenment, gurus, scandals, psychology, neurosis — as well as earnest, but just plain confused and unconscious, motivations on the path. My partner (author and teacher Marc Gafni) and I are developing a new series of books, courses and practices to bring further clarification to these issues.

Several years ago, I spent a summer living and working in South Africa. Upon my arrival I was instantly confronted by the visceral reality that I was in the country with the highest murder rate in the world, where rape was common and more than half the population was HIV-positive — men and women, gays and straights alike.

As I have come to know hundreds of spiritual teachers and thousands of spiritual practitioners through my work and travels, I have been struck by the way in which our spiritual views, perspectives and experiences become similarly “infected” by “conceptual contaminants” — comprising a confused and immature relationship to complex spiritual principles can seem as invisible and insidious as a sexually transmitted disease.

The following 10 categorizations are not intended to be definitive but are offered as a tool for becoming aware of some of the most common spiritually transmitted diseases.

1. Fast-Food Spirituality: Mix spirituality with a culture that celebrates speed, multitasking and instant gratification and the result is likely to be fast-food spirituality. Fast-food spirituality is a product of the common and understandable fantasy that relief from the suffering of our human condition can be quick and easy. One thing is clear, however: spiritual transformation cannot be had in a quick fix.

2. Faux Spirituality: Faux spirituality is the tendency to talk, dress and act as we imagine a spiritual person would. It is a kind of imitation spirituality that mimics spiritual realization in the way that leopard-skin fabric imitates the genuine skin of a leopard.

3. Confused Motivations: Although our desire to grow is genuine and pure, it often gets mixed with lesser motivations, including the wish to be loved, the desire to belong, the need to fill our internal emptiness, the belief that the spiritual path will remove our suffering and spiritual ambition, the wish to be special, to be better than, to be “the one.”

4. Identifying with Spiritual Experiences: In this disease, the ego identifies with our spiritual experience and takes it as its own, and we begin to believe that we are embodying insights that have arisen within us at certain times. In most cases, it does not last indefinitely, although it tends to endure for longer periods of time in those who believe themselves to be enlightened and/or who function as spiritual teachers.

5. The Spiritualized Ego: This disease occurs when the very structure of the egoic personality becomes deeply embedded with spiritual concepts and ideas. The result is an egoic structure that is “bullet-proof.” When the ego becomes spiritualized, we are invulnerable to help, new input, or constructive feedback. We become impenetrable human beings and are stunted in our spiritual growth, all in the name of spirituality.

6. Mass Production of Spiritual Teachers: There are a number of current trendy spiritual traditions that produce people who believe themselves to be at a level of spiritual enlightenment, or mastery, that is far beyond their actual level. This disease functions like a spiritual conveyor belt: put on this glow, get that insight, and — bam! — you’re enlightened and ready to enlighten others in similar fashion. The problem is not that such teachers instruct but that they represent themselves as having achieved spiritual mastery.

7. Spiritual Pride: Spiritual pride arises when the practitioner, through years of labored effort, has actually attained a certain level of wisdom and uses that attainment to justify shutting down to further experience. A feeling of “spiritual superiority” is another symptom of this spiritually transmitted disease. It manifests as a subtle feeling that “I am better, more wise and above others because I am spiritual.”

8. Group Mind: Also described as groupthink, cultic mentality or ashram disease, group mind is an insidious virus that contains many elements of traditional co-dependence. A spiritual group makes subtle and unconscious agreements regarding the correct ways to think, talk, dress, and act. Individuals and groups infected with “group mind” reject individuals, attitudes, and circumstances that do not conform to the often unwritten rules of the group.

9. The Chosen-People Complex: The chosen people complex is not limited to Jews. It is the belief that “Our group is more spiritually evolved, powerful, enlightened and, simply put, better than any other group.” There is an important distinction between the recognition that one has found the right path, teacher or community for themselves, and having found The One.

10. The Deadly Virus: “I Have Arrived”: This disease is so potent that it has the capacity to be terminal and deadly to our spiritual evolution. This is the belief that “I have arrived” at the final goal of the spiritual path. Our spiritual progress ends at the point where this belief becomes crystallized in our psyche, for the moment we begin to believe that we have reached the end of the path, further growth ceases.

“The essence of love is perception,” according to the teachings of Marc Gafni, “Therefore the essence of self love is self perception. You can only fall in love with someone you can see clearly–including yourself. To love is to have eyes to see. It is only when you see yourself clearly that you can begin to love yourself.”

It is in the spirit of Marc’s teaching that I believe that a critical part of learning discernment on the spiritual path is discovering the pervasive illnesses of ego and self-deception that are in all of us. That is when we need a sense of humor and the support of real spiritual friends. As we face our obstacles to spiritual growth, there are times when it is easy to fall into a sense of despair and self-diminishment and lose our confidence on the path. We must keep the faith, in ourselves and in others, in order to really make a difference in this world.

Source: Huffington Post

– See more at: http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/10-spiritually-transmitted-diseases/#sthash.BS8FUzAq.dpuf

Daily Words of the Buddha ~ June 10, 2014

Hālau ʻĀha Hūi LanakilaLeave a comment

dog-heart-woman

Hitānukampī sambuddho
yadaññamanusāsati,
anurodhavirodhehi
vippamutto tathāgato.

When the Buddha teaches others
he does so out of compassion,
because the Tathagata is wholly freed
from both favour and aversion.

Saṃyutta Nikāya 1.150

Gemstones of the Good Dhamma, compiled and translated by Ven. S. Dhammika

Sacredness in Hawai’i

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pink-plumeria-ben-and-raisa-gertsberg

The first law of thermal dynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed.  The Hawaiians must have known this as  they believed that while the sacredness of a place could perhaps be defiled, it could never be lost.  Energy extends to sacred places and the objects within them, such as pohaku.  Pohaku hold a lot of power and seek to be in their proper place at all times.  (Just ask anyone who has tried to bring black sand or lava pieces home with them after picking them up from Hawaiian shores.  The disasters cease when these items are returned to Hawai’i Nei.)  Although Hawai’i is not Mecca, Lhasa or Lourdes, the islands deserve to be recognized as the land of the gods and goddesses.  The land is not just filled with sacred objects, the land itself is sacred and blessed.   When one makes a journey, they must first chant to the place to which they are traveling, because no one else will ever experience what they will experience there.  Every experience mixes our own personal consciousness with the sacred power of the particular place.  And, in Hawai’i, there are many powerful and mysterious experiences to be had.

‘Amama ‘ua noa … Let these prayers fly!

Hawaiian Prayer For Healing

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koa bowl and shells

Divine Creator, Father, Mother, Son As One

If I, my family, relatives and ancestors have

Offended you, your family, relatives and ancestors,

In thoughts, words, deeds and actions

From the beginning of our creation to the present,

We ask your forgiveness.

Let this cleanse, purify, release and cut all the negative

Memories, blocks, energies and vibrations,

And transmute these unwanted energies to Pure Light.

Amen.

~~

He Pule O Ka Ho’ola Ana

Kou inoa ku’u ho’ola, e ku’u Akua,

A me ka ho’omana’o ana ia oe ku’u la’au.

I kou alo ku’u mana’olana a me ke aloha Nou ku’u hoa like.

Kou aloha ia’u ku’u ho’ola a me ku’u maha

i loko o ka honua a me ka honua o ka wa ma mua.

‘O ‘Oe ke Akua Ho’olako apau, ke Akua Ho’oiai’o,

ke Akua Ho’ona’auao apau.

Prayer of Protection ~ The Unity Prayer

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Plumeria.NM.MardiGras

Ka Pule No Ka Malumalu ~ Ka Pule Lokahi

The Prayer of Protection ~ The Unity Prayer

~~~

Ka Malamalama O Ke Akua E Ho’opuni Mai Ia Kakou

The Light of God surrounds us.

Ke Aloha O Ke Akua E Kipuni Mai Ia Kakou

The Love of God enfolds us.

Ka Mana O Ke Akua E Ho’opakele Mai Ia Kakou

The Power of God protects us.

Ke Alo O Ke Akua E Malama Mai Ia Kakou

The Presence of God watches over us.

Ma Kahi A Kakou, E Hele Aku Ai He Akua No.

Where we are, God is.

Amene

Amen

 

Vegan Power!

Hālau ʻĀha Hūi Lanakila1 Comment

vegan power

David Haye explains why, six months ago, he took the decision to become a vegan: “I watched a TV documentary about how animals are farmed, killed and prepared for us to eat. I saw all those cows and pigs and realised I couldn’t be a part of it any more. It was horrible. I did some research to make sure I could still obtain enough protein to fight and, once satisfied that I could, I stopped. I’ll never go back.”

http://www.hayemaker.com/

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/david-haye-interview-i-lied-ive-let-people-down-9497558.html

 

 

Morning Sunrise Meditation

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When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that will never leave.
~ Buddha
The key to mastering the mind is learning to, as the Buddhists say, “surf on the waves of your thought,”- a happy alternative to letting yourself get tossed and pummeled by them on the shore. You can do this by observing your thoughts as they come and go, watching rather than reacting. Your thoughts, like waves, will arise naturally- but now you can choose to ride them smoothly.

For the next few days, notice when your thoughts start racing and stress levels begin to escalate- and take that opportunity to stop and observe this process. What are those thoughts about? Where are they coming from? What’s causing them? The more you can detach from spiraling thoughts, the less likely you are to become victimized by them.

Begin your day with this inspired Sunrise Guided Meditation, and use this time to simply observe your thoughts as you begin your day.  Namaste’.

 

Easy Way to Cleanse Your Home of Negative Energy

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cleansing
Energy debris can be a result of negative emotions, thoughts, occurrences, and stress that you have experienced in your space. Your house is like a sponge. Whatever transpires in your environment is absorbed into the walls, furniture, carpet, ceiling, and objects.

Frequently, these negative energies accumulate in the corners and tucked away places. Also, if you had a negative event happen recently or a lot of sadness or fear, cleanse your space immediately! Visualize space cleansing as wiping away dust bunnies from the past.

When Should You Space Cleanse?

The following situations are appropriate times to space cleanse:

After you remove clutter

After an argument

When you move into a new space

When a roommate or companion moves out

After a divorce or break-up

After an illness or death

When you buy an antique or second-hand item

Anytime you desire fresh energy for a new project or beginning.

Before implementing feng shui

How to Cleanse a Space:

Here is a simple space-cleansing technique to perform on your home, office, or even on a specific object:

Create a strong intention in your mind to clear the space in order to bring in vibrant, healthy energy.

Burn Palo Santo, Sandalwood #incense or dried #sage to disintegrate the negative energy in each room.  (Buy incense imported from India, Japan or China as the energy is stronger: http://shrsl.com/?~5uvl – Wave it counterclockwise in each corner, closet, and cabinet.

You may also let one stick burn in each room. Say, “Thank you for the complete disintegration of all negative energies, thoughts, and emotions from this room now.”

After cleansing, always open East windows and doors to allow fresh energy of the sun to enter.

Light a candle to dedicate energy to your endeavors. Say your wish out loud.  For example, “I am so grateful for all the love, harmony, and healthy energy pouring into my home right now.”

Imagine brilliant white light filling the whole space. Visualize your home or office as a shining star emanating light, positive energy and blessing to everyone who enters.

Feel confident that the energy in your home is fresh and ready to receive all the opportunities Summer has in store for you!

#PaloSanto is a #sacred #wood that comes from the Palo Santo trees of South America. When burned, the smoke has medicinal and therapeutic healing power. It also inspires creativity & clears negative energy. You can find some reasonably priced here: http://shrsl.com/?~5uvl

Daily Words of the Buddha ~ June 09, 2014

Hālau ʻĀha Hūi LanakilaLeave a comment

The Great Wall Sunset by qiao liang sundown tmblr

Carañce nādhigaccheyya
seyyaṃ sadisamattano,
ekacariyaṃ daḷhaṃ kayirā;
natthi bāle sahāyatā.

Should a seeker not find
a companion who is better or equal,
let one resolutely pursue a solitary course;
there is no fellowship with the fool.

Dhammapada 5.61

The Dhammapada: The Buddha’s Path of Wisdom,
translated from the Pali by Acharya Buddharakkhita

Health ~ Nutrition Can Save America

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carved watermelon salad

Nutrition can save America … But from what, exactly?

Every day, it seems, there are more signs of the accelerating decline of the American Empire. The economy is tanking, the currency is being abandoned by other nations, health care remains a disastrous failure, unemployment is atrociously high, prisons are filled to capacity, public education is failing yet another generation of children, and the population seems to be getting more diseased with each generation.

The question, though, is why?

Why is our population so diseased? Why is unemployment so high? Why can’t our kids learn well in school? Why is America losing its leadership position in the world? Why are so many jobs being offshored to other countries?

What if there were a single underlying reason that answered all these questions? As you may have guessed, there is:

Nutrition.

Poor nutrition destroys any nation. Good nutrition saves it. And in this NaturalNews special report, you’ll learn why nutrition plays such a powerful role in the rise or fall of any nation.

It’s also a warning message for America: If we don’t make immediate, radical changes in the available food supply — and the marketing of foods to consumers — we won’t survive much longer as a nation. America will fall, brought down by the inevitable consequences of a nutritionally deficient, chronically diseased population.

But to understand why this is the case, you first have to see why food has such a powerful impact on everything that matters in society: Health, happiness, employment, productivity, education and even freedom. To explain all that, let’s start with a lesson on poor nutrition.

 

What’s a bad diet?

You are what you eat. It’s a saying as old as written history. Throughout every culture, people have known this simple truth since the dawn of Man (and Woman). But before we can even talk about the consequences of “bad” food choices for a nation, we have to engage in some honest talk about what “bad” foods really are.

It’s a sobering discussion, too, because most people follow atrociously bad diets… Including many people who think they eat a fairly healthy diet. Perhaps 90 percent of the U.S. population eats a “bad” diet right now.

The official government definition of a bad diet is nonexistent. The USDA wants Americans to eat more of everything: More dairy, more meat, more grains, and even more sugar. That’s because these are the industries served by the USDA. In their minds, “poor nutrition” just means people aren’t eating enough dairy, meat, grains and sugar. The USDA remains stuck in the mindset of the 1930’s when people were literally starving from a lack of calories. So their policy incessantly remains “Eat More!”

But Americans don’t need to eat more. They need to eat less. A lot less. And especially less of the highly toxic, disease-promoting foods described below.

Here are the characteristics of a bad diet:

• Primarily consists of dead foods (cooked, microwaved, etc.)

• Primarily consists of processed foods (milled, bleached, etc.)

• Lacks large quantities of fresh, living fruits and vegetables.

• Avoids adequate water hydration (and focuses on manufactured beverages).

• Very high in processed sugars and processed carbohydrates.

• Contains genetically-modified foods such as corn, soy or sugar from GM sugar beets.

• Includes a large amount of processed, pasteurized dairy products such as cow’s milk.

• Is made with hundreds of different chemical food additives from MSG and aspartame to chemical preservatives.

• Is packaged in toxic food containers, including plastics and epoxy resins that contaminate the food with BPA.

• Primarily consists of conventionally-grown, pesticide-contaminated foods.

• Contains a large quantity of unhealthy oils such as corn oil, soy oil or partially-hydrogenated oils.

• Consists of a large number of fried foods or foods cooked at very high temperatures that destroy nutrients while creating carcinogenic compounds.

• Is made with many modified, unnatural ingredients such hydrogenated oils, refined sugar (which removes the minerals), homogenized milk fats, and so on.

• Consists of a large quantity of animal products.

As I mentioned, perhaps 90 percent of the U.S. population currently eats a diet that’s largely consistent with the above description. As you’ll soon see, this is destroying our nation.

Junk food and consequences

The diet previously described is a diet of death that delivers physical and mental impairment. Here’s an accounting of some of the major consequences of pursuing such a diet:

Personal Health: This diet causes rapid aging and the aggressive development of degenerative disease: Cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer’s disease, etc. The population also remains highly susceptible to infectious disease.

Health Care Costs: In a nation that follows a bad diet, health care costs spiral out of control, eventually consuming a quarter (or more) of the GDP, driving the nation into bankruptcy.

Education: Growing up on this bad diet, children suffer severe cognitive impairment and are unable to learn in school. In time, academic achievement of the nation falls sharply, and the great “dumbing down” of the population accelerates.

Employment & Economy: A sick, diseased population is very expensive to maintain on the payrolls of Corporate America. Poisoned by processed food diets, workers suffer from repeated sick days and poor cognitive performance at work (inability to focus, failure to learn, failure to create new ideas, etc.), all of which make the workforce increasingly expensive for corporations to maintain. Not surprisingly, this causes yet a further shift of jobs to other nations where workers are more productive, healthier and less expensive.

Violent Crime: With their brains fueled by junk foods (and with failed education giving them few options for earning an honest living), more people turn to crime. In time, the prisons become filled with people incarcerated for behavior that could have been at least partially prevented with proper nutrition.

Happiness: With disease rates skyrocketing, violent crime on the rise, education failures rampant and health care costs bankrupting families, happiness plummets to all-time lows.

Genetic Integrity: As junk food consumption continues through multiple generations, the genetic integrity of the population erodes. Birth defects increase while fertility rates plummet. The population increasingly becomes haunted with unhealthy genetic mutations that promote yet more disease in future generations.

Economic Productivity: Poor nutrition leads to disastrous economic productivity. Powered by junk foods, the population becomes virtually useless as a workforce. Instead of producing new ideas, new products and new innovations that improve the world, people sit around eating Fritos and watching YouTube videos. Economic productivity plummets, and employers shift jobs to overseas markets where people often demonstrate much higher levels of productivity.

World Leadership: With its population falling behind the world academically and economically, the nation loses its leadership position on the world stage and begins to lose its leverage for maintaining the dominance of its currency.

Democracy & Freedom: When the voters subsist on a bad diet, their minds are clouded and child-like. They are easily manipulated to vote for politicians who are essentially “entertainers” — people who look good on TV but have no real ability to improve the long-term situation for the country. Voters on junk foods elect the very people who continue to drive the nation into disease and disaster.

The problem with medication

As you can see, the problems caused by poor nutrition can literally destroy a nation. They reach into every area of society: The economy, education, health care, global competitiveness and even Democracy itself.

And yet, instead of treating these nutrition problems with a sound nutritional program, the United States of America has chosen to ignore the problem and treat people with chemical prescription drugs.

This widespread use of prescription drugs to mask the symptoms of nutritional imbalances causes the following problems that further erode the strength of any nation:

Public Safety: Medicated drivers are unsafe drivers. In the United States today, as much as one-third of all traffic accidents involve medication-impaired drivers. Instead of being alert with the help of healthful foods, our drivers are mentally compromised by meds.

Impaired Cognitive Function: This impaired cognitive function continues at work, too, where medicated workers make mistakes, suffer reduced productivity and ultimately fail to perform to their full potential.

Deterioration of Democracy: Along with impaired cognitive function comes the inability to vote intelligently, causing voters to repeatedly elect disastrously unqualified representatives to Congress (and other offices). This, in turn, erodes the bedrock of Democracy as dishonest or unqualified politicians betray the future of the People for their own personal gain.

More Disease: Medications used to treat one disease today end up causing more diseases in the future (virtually all medications cause some level of liver and kidney damage, and many promote brain and heart damage at the same time). For example, common over-the-counter painkillers cause the deaths of several thousand Americans each year just from gastrointestinal bleeding (http://www.naturalnews.com/019945_d…).

Huge Increase in Health Care Costs: During all this, the monopoly pricing of medications causes health care costs to continue skyrocketing, further threatening the financial stability of the nation.

Environmental Destruction: After all those medications pass through the bodies of consumers, they end up in the sewage systems, where they are eventually dumped into rivers and other waterways. (Most drugs, such as HRT drugs, are not filtered out by water treatment systems.) These potent chemicals pose a huge threat to aquatic ecosystems and contribute to the destruction of coral reefs and ocean life.

Do you see where all this is heading? Higher costs and lower productivity. Increased rates of disease and decreased economic productivity. Environmental destruction. It’s not difficult to extrapolate this pattern and see where such a nation might be headed. The accelerating downfall of the United States of America is a textbook example of how a nation rapidly deteriorates under the influence of excessive medication and disease-promoting processed foods.

The good diet

Fortunately, there’s a solution to all this: Any nation that wishes to remain strong and successful must follow a “good” diet. What is a good diet?

• Consists primarily of fresh, unprocessed plants (fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds) which can be made into a variety of delicious recipes (raw food chefs are especially good at this craft).

• Minimizes consumption of meat or animal products (including dairy).

• Avoids virtually all processed, manufactured foods and beverages, or only uses them sparingly.

• Consists of a wide variety of different foods so that phytonutrient diversity is high, providing consumers with a steady supply of plant-based medicine that prevents disease.

• Includes substantial time outdoors, in nature, where vitamin D can be created and stored in the body.

• Minimizes or eliminates all refined sugars and carbohydrates (like white flour).

• Eliminates GMOs from the food supply in order to avoid the health damage caused by GM foods.

• Minimizes consumption of foods sprayed with chemical pesticides or fungicides. This not only helps prevent disease caused by such chemicals; it also protects the environment from chemical contamination.

• Incorporates adequate hydration from clean water (while avoiding dubious liquids such as sodas and sports drinks).

• Includes nutritional supplementation to correct nutritional imbalances or deficiencies. (This can be accomplished through superfoods, food-based vitamins, etc.)

This diet, as you might guess, is rarely pursued by the average American consumer. Only highly health-conscious individuals even attempt such a diet, and it does require extra time, effort and money to make a reality. But the benefits are worth it. They can, in fact, save a nation from destruction!

Benefits of a good diet

Here are some of the many benefits that will be experienced by any nation pursuing a healthy diet:

Personal Health: With a healthy diet, degenerative disease rates plummet by as much as 90 percent. People live longer and happier, with far greater productivity. Disease industries go bankrupt as their customer base vanishes.

Health Care Costs: Health care costs plummet by 90%, saving the nation trillions of dollars in sick-care treatment costs. People who used to have jobs in the sick-care industry can now dedicate their professional efforts to something more useful to the economy.

Education: On a healthy diet, children are far easier to educate. Their minds work better, so grades go up, test scores improve, behavioral problems are reduced and the nation once again starts to compete with academic achievers from other nations.

Employment & Economy: A healthy, nutritionally-supported workforce is highly productive. With improved mental and physical health, people are easily able to find and keep productive jobs. Unemployment rates plummet. Employees’ increased productivity makes them more competitive from the point of view of employers, so fewer companies outsource jobs, effectively bringing more jobs back to the U.S. Remember: Employers want to hire healthy workers, but they tend to shun unhealthy workers.

Violent Crime: With increased job opportunities and improved mental health due to a good diet, violent crime rates plummet. Prisons become ghost towns as the prison industry suffers “downsizing.” Cities save money by needing fewer cops. Many people who might have been criminals while eating bad diets become job-holding, tax-paying citizens under a good diet. (This isn’t an oversimplification. Crime and nutritional deficiencies are strongly correlated. Check the medical literature to learn more…)

Happiness: A healthy population is a happy population.

Genetic Integrity: On a healthful diet, the genetic integrity of the population remains well-protected. So the genetic future of the population stays intact.

Economic Productivity: Economic productivity skyrockets. A healthy, productive workforce remains globally competitive while creating long-term job security.

World Leadership: With a healthy, productive and innovative workforce, the nation has a strong economy which translates into greater opportunities for world leadership. The nation has more influence over international trade, diplomacy, problem resolution, global resource allocation, and so on.

Democracy & Freedom: A healthy, happy and well-educated population can participate in Democracy in a thoughtful way. As a result, voters make wiser choices by assessing politicians for their skills and ideas rather than their TV presence. Democracy gets healthier as the voters apply critical thinking skills (and strong educational backgrounds) to their voting decisions. A healthy Democracy with intelligent voters helps create and protect a more free society.

As you can see, a good diet positively impacts virtually every area of importance to a nation, from the economy and happiness to freedom itself.

Every nation has a choice about what sort of diet it promotes to its People. What choice has your nation chosen?

What diet has America chosen?

It’s obvious from looking around any grocery store (or watching any TV broadcast) in America that the nation has chosen to pursue a disastrously bad diet. The vast majority of “food” products sold at grocery stores are manufactured, processed foods made with chemical additives, cooked at high heats that produce dangerous byproducts, and then packaged in toxic packaging materials like plastics containing BPA.

America is addicted to fast foods and junk foods. People eat to fill their bellies and entertain their tongues, not to nourish their minds and bodies. Food has devolved from something that nourishes the body to a chemically-altered sensory addiction fabricated in a factory somewhere.

So instead of food being medicine, it has become a source of disease. And America is paying a dear price for choosing this route. All the negative repercussions of choosing a bad diet are now coming true in America: Increased crime and chronic degenerative disease, reduced cognitive function and productivity, huge increases in health care costs, rising infertility, increases in birth defects and mysterious neurological disorders, and so on.

These negative consequences of a bad diet are causing the rapid erosion of America’s economy. Faced with the burden of carrying tens of millions of sick people who could otherwise be productive if they had chosen the path of nutrition, the U.S. economy is dragged down by the weight of sickness and disease. Its competitiveness is drastically reduced by the suppressed cognitive function caused by processed foods and chemical additives. Its education system has fallen far behind world standards, thanks in large part to the brain-slowing junk foods children are fed at home and at school.

The result? A nation that can’t compete. And that sets off a chain reaction of offshoring, downsizing, and job sector reconfigurations that see millions of U.S. jobs shifted overseas where workers offer higher productivity at lower costs… and where health care is a fraction of the price of the United States. Taiwan, for example, offers a nationwide, universal health care solution for just $21 per month (http://www.naturalnews.com/027133_h…).

In the U.S., the annual health insurance premium for a family of four is anywhere from $10,000 – $15,000, and that doesn’t even include out-of-pocket expenses for doctors’ visits, medications and deductibles. Poor nutrition has put America into a debtor’s prison when it comes to health and medicine. All the diseases caused by the consumption of unhealthful foods have made American workers virtually unaffordable for global businesses due to outrageous health insurance costs.

All of this could have been prevented with a better diet for America. So let’s get to it!

Creating a strong, healthy nation

In order to sell more products, food and beverage companies have mastered the art of engineering food-like substances that exploit the hard-wired taste preferences of the human tongue. Humans can primarily taste sugar, salt and fat, and not coincidentally, those are the three primary things that food companies put into factory foods that are marketed to the public.

Food is fabricated specifically to be addictive, much like crack. And a surprisingly large portion of the population will always seek out such addictive, synthesized food tastes in much the same way that a heroin-addicted lab rat will keep pushing the drug lever to self-medicate with even more heroin. (This metaphor is eerily accurate when it comes to junk foods and human behavior…)

There are only really two ways to prevent such people from seeking out and consuming such foods:

Method #1) Educate people about junk foods and health so that they can make better-informed decisions about what to eat (or what to avoid). (The “Free Choice” approach.)

Method #2) Restrict access to junk foods to prevent people from making food consumption decisions that are not in their own best long-term interests (the “Nanny State” approach).

A nation that wishes to be strong and healthy must, in my opinion, pursue both of these methods. Here are some of the ways in which these goals can be pursued:

Method #1 – Educate People

• Teach real nutrition in public schools.

• Require doctors to learn the principles of nutrition and teach them to patients.

• Require all broadcast media outlets (cable, TV, radio, etc.) to dedicate some small percentage of their airtime to airing pro-nutrition public service announcements (as an exchange for the right to use FCC-regulated airwaves).

• Put very high taxes on all processed foods and junk foods, then use those tax dollars to fund public service announcements teaching consumers to avoid those foods. (I’m not a huge fan of using taxes in this way, but it’s one idea worth considering.)

• Tax the key ingredients used in processed foods such as high-fructose corn syrup or refined white sugar. Then use that money to fund pro-nutrition public service announcements.

• Require all food retailers to place public service educational booklets in or near aisles where food is purchased. Those booklets should provide honest information about the dangers of processed foods and chemical additives, including mentioning the diseases they cause: Cancer, diabetes, depression, etc.

• Require prominent food labels that warn consumers about the diseases caused by the particular ingredients used in processed foods. This is similar to the lung cancer warnings on cigarette packages. A box of sugary breakfast cereal, for example, should carry a large red warning label that reads, “WARNING: This product contains ingredients known to promote diabetes.”

 

Method #2 – Restrict access

Here are some ideas that could be pursued to restrict consumers’ access to disease-promoting foods:

• Ban ALL advertising of processed foods, factory-made foods or non-natural foods of any kind. This includes TV, radio, internet, sporting sponsorships, etc.

• Ban disease-promoting ingredients from the food supply altogether: High-fructose corn syrup, aspartame, MSG, trans fats, artificial colors, sodium nitrite, etc.

• Hit food retailers with draconian new food display laws that forbid junk foods from being displayed on end caps, near checkout counters, at eye-level on the shelves, etc. (I normally don’t go for “Draconian” anything, but this is one idea to be considered.)

• End government subsidies on corn and sugar, as these are the sources from which cheap, nutritionally-depleted foods are made.

• Place heavy taxes on food manufacturers for producing unhealthful foods and beverages. This will have the same effect as raising retail taxes on those items, but it’s easier to administer this tax at the manufacturer rather than at retail.

• Use tax money raised from taxing junk foods to subsidize fresh produce, thereby making fresh fruits and vegetables more affordable to American families. (Again, I’m generally against using the tax code in such ways, but it’s an idea worth debating.)

Food taxes and subsidies

Economically speaking, using taxes to alter consumer behavior does work. Consumers are price sensitive, so making unhealthful foods ridiculously expensive while making healthful foods more affordable seems to make sense if you wish to use taxes to shape behavior. But in a free society, it’s always better, in my opinion, to rely on public education and limits on advertising to allow consumers to make their own informed decisions about what they wish to purchase and consume.

If consumers were really aware that hot dogs cause brain cancer, for example, (because of sodium nitrite), or that high-fructose corn syrup promotes diabetes and obesity, they might make far better decisions about what they wish to feed themselves and their children.

At the same time, you can’t discount the impact of interventionist tax policy to alter point-of-purchase prices. Imagine taking this to the extreme: What if a bag of fresh apples cost one penny, while a box of apple-flavored Pop-Tarts cost $10? How would that alter consumer behavior?

Most families, out of sheer economic necessity, would opt for the far cheaper fresh produce while avoiding the extremely high cost of processed foods. The cost of subsidizing the healthful foods would be easily earned back by the nation in terms of greatly reduced health care costs and increases in economic productivity (not to mention improved happiness, lower rates of disease, improved results in education, etc.).

In fact, it’s not unreasonable to suppose that in a progressive, health-conscious nation, all fresh produce might be fully subsidized by the taxpayers, effectively making their purchases (virtually) free. Imagine ten cents for a pound of carrots, or fifty cents for a bunch of organic broccoli. This could be done through taxes subsidies, if desired.

There would be fraud in the system, of course. Growers would try to claim more subsidies than they are due, so you can expect some waste overhead to exist.

You would also see Americans making “junk food border runs” to Mexico and Canada where junk food items are sold at market prices instead of the high-tax prices enacted in the USA. In effect, you would see “junk food smugglers” bringing in truck-loads of Pop-Tarts and Frosted Flakes in order to make a profit undercutting the high-tax retail prices in the U.S. The scope of this activity would be directly proportional to the difference in prices between the U.S. vs. Mexico (or Canada).

As is typical of Big Government, the feds would then criminalize the covert importation of junk foods and start running raids on junk food smugglers. You could literally go to prison for getting caught with a van full of Pop-Tarts!

That’s why taxes and subsidies are a messy business. Nations must tread carefully in this area. If taxes on junk foods are too high, they will inevitably create a very large underground market for smuggled junk foods, resulting in a rather large “criminal” operation of junk food smugglers and the widespread avoidance of the very taxes intended to be imposed.

But beyond taxes and subsidies, there’s a bigger question in all this:

Who profits from disease?

Of course, if you really want to create a healthy nation, you have to be prepared to see widespread job losses across the industries that currently profit from sickness and disease.

Those industries include the pharmaceutical industry, agriculture giants, junk food retailers and even the mainstream media. If America gets healthy with good nutrition, each of these industries would suffer considerable losses in jobs and revenues. They depend on disease for their very existence, of course, so eliminating (or greatly reducing) disease will have a devastating impact on them.

But that’s a good thing for America. Every job that treats disease is a job wasted from a big picture civilization point of view. Without disease, that worker could be doing something far more productive such as contributing to a brighter future as an educator, artist, engineer, writer or some other noble profession. It’s not that being a doctor or nurse isn’t noble (nursing, in particular, is quite a noble calling), but wouldn’t it be better for the economy as a whole if all the jobs focused on disease could be rendered obsolete by healthy people who don’t need such services? Under such a scenario, all the “disease jobs” could be shifted to something else (like researching renewable energy technologies, for example).

Unfortunately, every industry fights for survival in our economy, even if it only offers products or services based on sickness and disease. And for many of these industries, the real financial windfall only occurs when the population is kept in a state of ongoing chronic disease. A healthy population means disaster for these industries. Here are some of the big ones:

The Pharmaceutical Industry – Big Pharma would lose a fortune if the population got healthy with nutrition. It sells billions of dollars worth of drugs every year and depends on disease to sell them. All the pharmacies that retail those drugs would also go out of business: CVS, Walgreen, Wal-Mart, Safeway, etc.

The Medical Industry – All those hospitals, doctors’ offices and emergency rooms also depend on a steady stream of diseased, malnourished Americans to guarantee their job security and incomes. A drop in disease would mean the rapid downsizing of hospitals and clinics.

The Food & Agriculture Giants – The Big Food and Big Ag companies bet their profits on the continued purchasing of processed, nutritionally-depleted food and beverage products that directly contribute to degenerative disease. High-Fructose Corn Syrup, for example, is a very profitable ingredient to use in processed foods. Never mind the fact that it promotes diabetes and obesity… it’s cheaper than sugar!

The Mainstream Media – The MSM, meanwhile, depends on the advertising dollars of drug companies, soda companies and junk food companies to keep its own financial lifeline intact. If junk food and pharmaceutical advertising were both banned, the media would suffer enormous losses in ad revenues. It’s all those nutritionally worthless, disease-promoting products that keep the MSM in business! Remember, the MSM is in the business of “junk food news,” meaning they produce a “diet” of junk news for human consumption (http://rense.com/general88/paid.htm).

The Health Insurance Industry – This industry realizes huge financial gains from sickness and disease. The more people are sick, the higher the insurance premiums (and the more profit is mathematically built in). Furthermore, the more people get sick, the more they feel they need to buy insurance, so more disease inevitably leads to higher revenues across the health insurance industry.

Junk Food Retailers – This includes your local grocery store, by the way, which is stacked to the hilt with processed, disease-causing junk foods. It’s the same story with Costco or Sam’s Clubs. Wal-Mart and even local pharmacies are also chock full of disease-promoting junk foods that nutritionists know are linked to cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, kidney stones, depression and many other problems. But selling junk food is big business and grocery stores aren’t about to restrict the products they sell just because they happen to promote disease.  Pharmacies still sell cigarettes!

Disease Non-Profits – Never forget how much money is collected by the disease non-profit groups like the American Cancer Society. These “rich” non-profits depend entirely on the continuation of their sponsored disease in order to stay in power. In a world without cancer (to reference G. Edward Griffin’s book title), there’s no need for the ACS. Nor for the Susan Komen cancer group with all its ridiculous pink ribbons that pretend we can all cure cancer by going shopping. For every significant disease affecting the western world today, there’s an associated disease group depending on that disease for its own survival.

In all, these industries represent anywhere from one-quarter to one-half of the entire U.S. economy. Unleashing a wave of nutrition and health in America would therefore destroy a significant portion of the U.S. economy as currently configured. It would put rich, powerful corporations out of business and send hundreds of thousands of works out onto the streets to look for new jobs.

And yet, it’s still a good thing for America, because all that economic activity (focused on disease) is really a net LOSS to America, not a net gain. Economists don’t differentiate good from bad when it comes to GDP, but the truth is that every dollar spent treating someone’s disease is actually a dollar wasted on something that could have been prevented for a nickel’s worth of nutrition.

Nutrition is a good investment in America. Why spend dollars treating disease when you can spend nickels keeping people healthy? Putting the disease industry out of business is a good thing, because if sick-care isn’t getting much business, that means the People are getting healthier, happier and more productive. And that’s what keeps a nation strong and successful in the long run.

12 steps to save America

So how can we really save America with nutrition? It all starts with you and your family. Follow these 12 steps to unleash a new era of health and wellness in your own life:

Step 1) Stop rewarding manufacturers of processed foods, junk foods, sodas and pharmaceuticals. Simply refuse to buy their products.

Step 2) Greatly increase your purchases of fresh, organic produce. Get yourself a juicer (I like the Breville brand) and drink a fresh juice smoothie every day. Teach your children to eat more fresh produce.

Step 3) Supplement your diet with health-enhancing superfoods and nutritional supplements. You may wish to include nutrient-dense algae products like spirulina, blue-green algae, chlorella and astaxanthin.

Step 4) Greatly increase your intake of Omega-3 oils. I take Moxxor’s Green-Lipped Mussel oil as well as consuming wild salmon from time to time.

Step 5) Get a lot more sunshine: Your body (and your mind) needs sunlight. It generates the vitamin D that helps prevent cancer, depression, diabetes and heart disease.

Step 6) Boost your physical exercise. Studies repeatedly show that even moderate exercise (walking 3 times a week, for example), has a drastic reduction on rates of heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Step 7) Exercise your brain: Learn a new language, play strategy games, read books or do something active with your brain to keep all the neurons firing. This is all much easier when your brain is powered by superfoods, by the way.

Step 8) Avoid medications. Prescription drugs are poison. If you’re currently taking meds, work with a naturopathic physician to safely get off those meds and heal your body through nutrition (or other natural therapies).

Step 9) Avoid hospitals. A hospital is one of the most dangerous places you can go. They’re filled with antibiotic-resistant superbugs, for one thing. Your risk of being harmed at a hospital is much higher than what you might expect. Unless you’re suffering from an acute, dangerous condition requiring emergency medical care, make an effort to stay away from hospitals.

Step 10) Embrace your own natural healing potential! Recognize that your immune system is a technological miracle. Your body is a self-repairing biological marvel. When given the right resources (nutrition, superfoods, etc.), your body can work healing miracles.

Step 11) Thank yourself for taking the time to invest in your own good health by reading this report. Give yourself a healing reward such as a glass of fresh orange / carrot juice or a delicious superfood smoothie.

Step 12) Forward this special report to 3 friends, family members or coworkers you know who might benefit from this information. Spread the word about nutrition and you’ll be taking part in a wave of healing that can sweep across our planet as people reawaken to the healing powers of plant-based nutrients. (The web address to forward to your friends is displayed below.)

Thank you for reading!

 

—

About the author: Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, currently lives in Vilcabamba, Ecuador where he grows and consumes a large assortment of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables (http://www.naturalnews.com/photos.html). The creator of the Health Revolution Petition (www.HealthRevolutionPetition.org), Adams believes in individual liberty, personal responsibility and natural healing. His mission is to share natural health secrets with the world with the hope of unleashing of a new golden age of health and healing that uplifts human civilization. He founded NaturalNews in 2003 and remains its editor today.

Recipe ~ Vegan Avocado Mousse

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vegan-avocado-mousseThis vegan avocado mousse is super simple to make and totally delicious. Full of healthy fats to support the nervous system, it also gives you beautiful skin and hair. I love it as breakfast but it can also be a great healthy, sugar-free treat.

What you need

1/2 ripe avocado
1/2 cup young coconut flesh
Caco nibs for topping (optional)

What you do

– Blend all your ingredients in your hight speed blender.
–  Add a dash of filtered water or coconut water if needed.
–  Pour in a nice glass and garnish with some cacao nibs or and chocolate chunks.

Note: If you’d like a sweeter taste, you can add half a banana to the preparation or any sweetener of your choice.

 

 

Molecular Biologist Explains How THC Completely Kills Cancer Cells

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Above is a video of Dr. Christina Sanchez, a molecular biologist at Compultense University in Madrid, Spain, clearly explaining how THC (the main psychoactive constitute of the cannabis plant) completely kills cancer cells.

Not long ago, we published an article examining a case study recently published where doctors used cannabis to treat Leukemia, you can read more about that here (http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/02/10/cannabis-helped-treat-leukemia-in-teenage-girl-doctors-publish-case-study/). To read more articles and view studies about how cannabis is an effective treatment and cure for cancer, click here (http://www.collective-evolution.com/?s=Cannabis+Cancer).

Cannabinoids refer to any of group of related compounds that include cannabinol and the active constituents of cannabis. They activate cannabinoid receptors in the body. The body itself produces compounds called endocannabinoids and they play a role in many processes within the body that help to create a healthy environment. I think it’s also important to note that cannabis has been shown to treat cancer without any psychoactive effects.

Cannabinoids have been proven to reduce cancer cells as they have a great impact on the rebuilding of the immune system. Although not every strain of cannabis has the same effect, more and more patients are seeing success in cancer reduction in a short period of time by using cannabis. Contrary to popular belief, smoking cannabis does not assist a great deal in treating disease within the body as therapeutic levels cannot be reached through smoking. Creating oil from the plant or eating the plant is the best way to go about getting the necessary ingredients, the cannabinoids.

The world has come a long way with regards to accepting this plant as a medicine rather than a harmful substance. It’s a plant that could benefit the planet in more ways than one. Cannabis is not something offered in the same regard as chemotherapy, but more people are becoming aware if it, which is why it’s so important to continue to spread information like this. Nobody can really deny the tremendous healing power of this plant.

H.P. Blavatsky ~ The Number Seven In Chemistry

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To demonstrate more clearly the seven in Nature, it may be added that not only does the number seven govern the periodicity of the phenomena of life, but that it is also found dominating the series of chemical elements, and equally paramount in the world of sound and in that of colour as revealed to us by the spectroscope. This number is the factor, sine qua non, in the production of occult astral phenomena.

Thus, if the chemical elements are arranged in groups according to their atomic weights, they will be found to constitute a series of groups of seven; the first, second, etc., members of each group bearing a close analogy in all their properties to the corresponding members of the next group. The following table, copied from Hellenbach’s Magie der Zahlen, exhibits this law and fully warrants the conclusion he draws in the following words: “We thus see that chemical variety, so far as we can grasp its inner nature, depends upon numerical relations, and we have further found in this variety a ruling law for which we can assign no cause; we find a law of periodicity governed by the number seven.”

chem table

The eighth column in this list is, as it were, the octave of the first, containing elements almost identical in chemical and other properties with those in the first; a phenomenon which accentuates the septenary law of periodicity. For further details the reader is referred to Hellenbach’s work, where it is also shown that this classification is confirmed by the spectroscopic peculiarities of the elements.

It is needless to refer in detail to the number of vibrations constituting the notes of the musical scale; they are strictly analogous to the scale of chemical elements, and also to the scale of colour as unfolded by the spectroscope, although in the latter case we deal with only one octave, while both in music and chemistry we find a series of seven octaves represented theoretically, of which six are fairly complete and in ordinary use in both sciences. Thus, to quote Hellenbach:    “It has been established that, from the standpoint of phenomenal law, upon which all our knowledge rests, the vibrations of sound and light increase regularly, that they divide themselves into seven columns, and that the successive numbers in each column are closely allied; i.e., that they exhibit a close relationship which not only is expressed in the figures themselves, but also is practically confirmed in chemistry as in music, in the latter of which the ear confirms the verdict of the figures. . . . . . The fact that this periodicity and variety is governed by the number seven is undeniable, and it far surpasses the limits of mere chance, and must be assumed to have an adequate cause, which cause must be discovered.”

Verily, then, as Rabbi Abbas said: “We are six lights which shine forth from a seventh (light); thou (Tetragrammaton) art the seventh light (the origin) of us all;” (V. 1,160) and – “For assuredly there is no stability in those six, save what they derive from the seventh. For ALL THINGS DEPEND FROM THE SEVENTH.” (V. 1,161. Kabala, “The Greater Holy Assembly.”)

The (ancient and modern) Western American Zuñi Indians seem to have entertained similar views. Their present-day customs, their traditions and records, all point to the fact that, from time immemorial, their institutions – political, social and religious – were (and still are) shaped according to the septenary principle. Thus all their ancient towns and villages were built in clusters of six, around a seventh. It is always a group of seven, or of thirteen, and always the six surround the seventh. Again, their sacerdotal hierarchy is composed of six “Priests of the House” seemingly synthesized in the seventh, who is a woman, the “PRIESTESS MOTHER.” Compare this with the “seven great officiating priests” spoken of in Anugîtâ, the name given to the “seven senses,” exoterically, and to the seven human principles, esoterically. Whence this identity of symbolism? Shall we still doubt the fact of Arjuna going over to Pâtâla (the Antipodes, America) and there marrying Ulûpi, the daughter of the Nâga (or rather Nargal) King? But to the Zuñi priests.

These receive an annual tribute, to this day, of corn of seven colours. Undistinguished from other Indians during the whole year, on a certain day, they come out (the six priests and one priestess) arrayed in their priestly robes, each of a colour sacred to the particular God whom the priest serves and personifies; each of them representing one of the seven regions, and each receiving corn of the colour corresponding to that region. Thus, the white represents the East, because from the East comes the first Sun-light; the yellow, corresponds to the North, from the colour of the flames produced by the aurora borealis; the red, the South, as from that quarter comes the heat; the blue stands for the West, the colour of the Pacific Ocean, which lies to the West; black is the colour of the nether underground region – darkness; corn with grains of all colours on one ear represents the colours of the upper region – of the firmament, with its rosy and yellow clouds, shining stars, etc. The “speckled” corn – each grain containing all the colours – is that of the “Priestess-Mother”: woman containing in herself the seeds of all races past, present and future; Eve being the mother of all living.

Apart from these was the Sun – the Great Deity – whose priest was the spiritual head of the nation. These facts were ascertained by Mr. F. Hamilton Cushing, who, as many are aware, became an Indian Zuñi, lived with them, was initiated into their religious mysteries, and has learned more about them than any other man now living.

Seven is also the great magic number. In the occult records the weapon mentioned in the Purânas and the Mahabhârata – the Agneyâstra or “fiery weapon” bestowed by Aurva upon his chela Sagara – is said to be built of seven elements. This weapon – supposed by some ingenious Orientalists to have been a “rocket” (!) – is one of the many thorns in the side of our modern Sanskritists. Wilson exercises his penetration over it, on several pages in his Specimens of the Hindu Theatre, and finally fails to explain it. He can make nothing out of the Agneyâstra.

“These weapons,” he argues, “are of a very unintelligible character. Some of them are wielded as missiles; but, in general, they appear to be mystical powers exercised by the individual – such as those of paralysing an enemy, or locking his senses fast in sleep, or bringing down storm, and rain, and fire, from heaven. (Vide supra, pp. 427 and 428.) . . . . They assume celestial shapes, endowed with human faculties. . . . . The Râmâyana calls them the Sons of Krisâswa” (p. 297).

The Sastra-devatâs, “gods of the divine weapons,” are no more Agneyâstra, the weapon, than the gunners of modern artillery are the cannon they direct. But this simple solution did not seem to strike the eminent Sanskritist. Nevertheless, as he himself says of the armiform progeny of Krisâswa, “the allegorical origin of the (Agneyâstra)  weapons is, undoubtedly, the more ancient.” 1 It is the fiery javelin of Brahmâ.

The seven-fold Agneyâstra, like the seven senses and the “seven principles,” symbolized by the seven priests, are of untold antiquity. How old is the doctrine believed in by Theosophists, the following section will tell.
—-

1 It is. But Agneyâstra are fiery “missile weapons,” not “edged” weapons, as there is some difference between Sastra and Astra in Sanskrit.

—-

The Secret Doctrine, ii 627–630
H. P. Blavatsky

 

 

I Ching ~ Week of June 9, 2014

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#3          Zhun      Sprouting      

Above:   KAN       Precipice, Danger

               Below :  ZHEN      Arouse, excite, inspire                      

—

The Wisdom:

The beginning of a new cycle has arrived.
It wears no disguise.
It is real, tender, delicate and vulnerable.
—
A seed that was conceived and planted by your care and creativity in your life plan has been lying fallow and you have been waiting to see if agreements will be make to make this seed come to flower. You need wait no longer, the seed is pushing its way through the hard earth moving obstacles aside and is reaching the light of the sun. With this new beginning of a project that came about because of your belief in yourself comes excitement laced with the struggle to leave judgment and what is perceived as conventional behind.. Like many new ventures the way forward is not showing in clarity, which is proper at this moment in time. It is now for you to feel it. It is this lack of clear vision that is causing some confusion as to how to move forward and what or who to let go of and decide what will stay to be nurtured and protected in this cycle of new growth. Do not let your fears and doubts take you off track. Muster all your energies and call on your hidden strengths, they are there and will be accessed through using and trusting your intuition, the true voice of your heart and soul.
—
There has been a confluence of energies that has caused the situation to show in early growth. Your hopes, skills and desires have joined together to awaken and bring to life this new growth cycle. Protect this delicate and vulnerable beginning by gathering your strength through a rigid examination of the truth. This new cycle has begun because of your past hard work and your having, knowingly or not, let go of expectations.
—
That is the magic of creation; no expectations. Therefore you did not cloud your vision by projecting a future outcome. This is what has supplied the fertile field for this seed of an idea, process or relationship to open to new growth.As you gather your forces look deep into the areas of your being where you are most self-confident. From this point of view you can tap into the voice of your inner wisdom; your intuition.Intuition is a gateway to the divine. In trusting this voice you are open to receiving Universal guidance. You can call this source what you will. You can identify the voice as a guide, a teacher or angels; whatever name you give it, it is here for you now, to tune in and to listen. If you feel confused, gather your courage, dip into your inner sage or reach out to a wise person in your tribe to assist in sorting out the messages.  Once you make the approach, be dignified and respectful: listen and act on what you hear and what your heart knows as your truth.
—
Thunder and rain
Are coming simultaneously.
It is loud and difficult to hear;
Listen to the thunder
And seek shelter from the rain.
—
With new growth come unfamiliar risks. Mate your courage and your intuition. Pause for a moment of reflection and then make your move. Many things are in disarray around you. Friendships, relationships and the inner workings of your community and tribe are all trying to find their balancing point. Let them be and do not try to fix anything; you have new growth to attend to.
—
While digging deep into your intuitive self, these situations will reconcile without your interference. In fact, were you to step away from this new growth to deal with the confusion, you would keep these situations from finding their natural order and this new cycle, that brings with it the potential of strength and abundance, would diminish and likely disappear.Stand your ground now, make your movements with confidence and kindness. There will surely be obstacles showing on your path, but these are temporary, like a thunderstorm: it comes, shakes the earth, and then goes, leaving moist, fertile ground that has been prepared to birth the new.In humility, see your place between earth and heaven and realize that with this cycle comes the nourishment of your inner being and a long awaited evolution of spirit and self. Align with the greater good for all, including yourself, and the way will be made clear and imbued with a great and deep breadth of knowledge.
—
You are experiencing the birth of something new, however difficult and dangerous a birth it may be, it is the birth of a new perspective and a new way of thinking that will allow you to persevere and succeed. Perseverance in facing the coming storm of activity will deliver abundance and joy, which will lead to a brilliant completion.In business, find the gifted helpers to work with and advise you. In your personal relationships communicate openly and with a fresh approach to the truth you see and feel. Open your eyes to the love that stands before you that is without agenda or guile Leave denial and doubt by the wayside and freely take council with trusted friends or teachers, listen to what your heart is saying. In this way you are protecting the vulnerability of this new way, this new plan, with understanding gained from experiencing your own vulnerability.  This will lead you to the delicate path within where love resides.
—

You are certain to find some struggle with this juxtaposition of major forces in your life, this struggle comes with the meeting of the light and dark forces. The forces of light will open you to a loving sense of self, while the dark forces will use the ego to attempt to take you off this path of evolution. This is an important phase in the grand scheme of things.

—

Hold to the truth that comes from your inner knowing. This is your intuition, which is your connection to Universal truth. It is this truth that will carry you to a higher level of knowledge, insight and success. The problems and obstacles you are encountering will be brief. Let them run their course, and then make your move.

—

This time may well be felt as a great inner passage and it is, it will require diligence and patience, patience with yourself; what comes easily usually doesn’t last. Your magic will be found in your ability to make a relationship with the difficulties and disassemble them from the inside out.  In this way what has sprouted will grow and bring with it maturity in emotions, relationship and spirit. Your trust in your intuition is made stronger by taking action on what you feel and hear. This cycle is here to bring healing to you, your family and tribe.   By your taking action it will be felt and activated and you will join with like souls around the earth and bring harmony and peace to our entire non-geographical tribe as we prepare the way for a new golden age of peace and prosperity for all.

Many Blessings

In La’Kesh.

BobbyK    

www.bobbyklein.com

RECIPE ~ Chocolate Martini Pudding Pops

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Yeah, you heard that right. Chocolate Martini Pudding Pops. Bring on the heat. Bring on the raging dog days of summer, the long mountain bike rides, and all the sweat. Because when you have a batch of these rich chocolate frozen treats waiting for you at home, it’s all worth it.

Ingredients:

1 3.9oz package jello
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbs Godiva liqueur
3 tbs vodka

Preparation:

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the pudding, milk, cream, Godiva liqueur, and vodka.

Carefully portion mixture into popsicle molds, filling each three quarters of the way full.

Place in freezer for one hour, or until slightly firm and add craft sticks in the center of each pop and et freeze overnight, or until solid.

Daily Words of the Buddha ~ June 08, 2014

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Candanaṃ, tagaraṃ, vāpi uppalaṃ, atha vassikī —
etesaṃ gandhajātānaṃ —
sīlagandho anuttaro.

Of all the fragrances —
sandal, tagara, blue lotus and jasmine —
the fragrance of virtue is the sweetest.

Dhammapada 4.55

The Dhammapada: The Buddha’s Path of Wisdom,
translated from the Pali by Acharya Buddharakkhita

“If”, by Rudyard Kipling

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(‘Brother Square-Toes’—Rewards and Fairies)

If you can keep your head when all about you

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

 

Veda Means “Life”

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In Sanskrit, the word Veda means life. The Vedic tradition of knowledge, which is often referred to as Vedanta, deals with the meaning of life, the purpose of life, and the place of life in the universe as a whole. According to Vedanta, there are two symptoms of enlightenment. They are indications that a transformation is taking place within you toward a higher level of consciousness …

The Secret of Oz – Winner, Best Documentary of 2010 v.1.09.11 ~ with Bill Still

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http://youtu.be/swkq2E8mswI

This documentary is very informative and a must-see … if you want to begin your solid understanding about what is truly happening with the massive debt all are now suffering in the USA and the world, watch this movie. You’ll be sickened, and then, hopefully you’ll get angry enough to sit up and pay closer attention to what we, the People, can do. (2 hrs.)

Daily Words of the Buddha ~ June 07, 2014

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Jayaṃ ve maññati bālo
vācāya pharusaṃ bhaṇaṃ,
jayañcevassa taṃ hoti
yā titikkhā vijānato.

The fool thinks one has won a battle
when one bullies with harsh speech,
but knowing how to be forbearing
alone makes one victorious.


Saṃyutta Nikāya 1.189

Gemstones of the Good Dhamma,
compiled and translated by Ven. S. Dhammika

SEEDS FOR MEDITATION ~ 10 Things To Be Grateful For

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Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.

Grace and gratitude have the same Latin root, gratus. Whenever we find ourselves in a stop-the-world-I-want-to-get-off mindset, we can remember that there is another way and open ourselves to grace. And it often starts with taking a moment to be grateful for this day, for being alive, for anything.

Exercise:  once a day, list ten things you’re grateful for and count them out on your fingers. Try it this week.

JIVA AND SELF-GENERATION – I

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THE ONE RAY MULTIPLIES THE SMALLER RAYS. LIFE PRECEDES FORM, AND LIFE SURVIVES THE LAST ATOM (of Form, Sthula-sarira, external body). THROUGH THE COUNTLESS RAYS THE LIFE-RAY, THE ONE, LIKE A THREAD THROUGH MANY BEADS (pearls).  ~ The Secret Doctrine, i 222

 

The archaic Stanzas of Dzyan present a symbolic statement of the archetypal process of becoming throughout all planes and in all spheres of manifestation. It is none other than that through which the One becomes the many while remaining the One within the many. At the highest level of abstraction, surpassing both subtle and sensory perceptions, as well as all the conceptions of the materializing mind, the one pure Ray of primordial Light out of the absolute Darkness is said to multiply the smaller rays. This is a symbolic representation of the quintessential logic of differentiation, the logic of divine descent and manvantaric manifestation. There is in this fundamental logic a mirroring of the miraculous nature of birth on every plane. Gestation and growth on every plane is rooted in the universal solidarity of all life. That solidarity is much more than a physical fact or a psychic sentiment. It is a moral and metaphysical framework within which takes place all transformation of form and consciousness.

The symbolic code language of Gupta Vidya contains the fundamental challenge of Divine Wisdom to modern thought. Through elaboration and ramification, modern thought has created a vast conceptual structure of explanation and thus unravelled many secondary processes of causation. Yet, at the same time, modern thought cannot explain so basic a phenomenon as how a foetus emerges and develops from a single minute cell. Despite all the popular cliches about the extension of life through genetic engineering, the fundamental mystery of the embryo remains. Similarly, modern thought has little to say about the metaphysical mystery of the One or the psychological mystery of the Ego. In all three, there is the same challenge. The mystery of the One is a challenge of metaphysics and meditation. In meditating, one gathers within oneself all the many rays, archetypally collected into the primary seven and then merged into one central invisible point. Through repeated effort, one can thus experience something of that state of consciousness which is prior to differentiation. This is an experience of the metaphysical Void, but it is different from the experience of deep sleep because one retains full self-consciousness.

The challenge is to imagine what it would be like in the Divine Darkness, where there is no thing and no forms. Then one must imagine that within the germ of divine thought within the Divine Darkness there may arise one ray of ideational energy which contains the potentiality of the entire cosmos. From that one ray one must imagine an entire ordered array of progressive elaborations and manifestations. This is symbolized in the language of the Kabbalah by the phrase “thrones, powers and principalities”. These refer to all the subtle hosts of invisible Nature. In meditation one must reach beyond all of them to the One. Then one will be able to accommodate all these thrones and powers and principalities, the manifold hierarchies involved in multiplication of the one ray, within the folds of hebdomadic and unitary life. Although this is a challenge to metaphysics, it can only be met through deep meditation.

The mystery of the one Ego was intimated by Plato, who said that the human soul was a compound of the same and the other. This is the mystery of that which is different from, yet consubstantial with, that which it reflects. This mystery poses a profound challenge to one’s deepest sense of “I-am-I” consciousness. At the root, “I-am-I” consciousness involves a total negation of all time and form, and of all identification with memories, sensations, expectations and anticipations. It can also abstract from all that exists in the realm of appearances and thus experience pure being, which is indivisible and universal. How, then, is “I-am-I” consciousness different from Deity itself? That is, one might say, the ultimate mystery of the Sphinx, the riddle that has to be unravelled by each human soul, not in sleep or dreams and not after death, but through intense reflection in waking consciousness. This abstraction of meaning from experience must be achieved through introspection, through identification with other hearts and minds and souls, and also through the intimate knowledge of all the life-atoms that ceaselessly circulate between all beings. The soul must acquire a working acquaintance with the pantheistic conception of Deity in Nature. To solve the problem of the Ego in its entirety is the fundamental challenge of meta-psychology.

Both of these problems – the problem of the One in relation to the many and the problem of the same and the other in relation to the “I-am-I” consciousness – are replicated and reflected within the mystery of the embryo, the foetus and the germinal cell. H.P. Blavatsky posed the challenge to biological thought by asking

whether it seems unnatural, least of all “supernatural”, to any one of us, when we consider that process known as the growth and development of a foetus into a healthy baby weighing several pounds – evolves from what? From the segmentation of an infinitesimally small ovum and a spermatozoon; and afterwards we see that baby develop into a six-foot man!

Ibid., 222

The mysteries of embryology are inseparable from those of cosmology. The philosophy of Gupta Vidya is fundamentally based upon the ultimate analogy in every process of manifestation between the most cosmic and the most atomic, between the divine and the human. Hence, the Stanzas of Dzyan, in depicting the origin of the cosmos, contain innumerable references to Hiranyagarbha – the cosmic egg. They speak of the primeval gestation within the waters of space, and explain how the entire spectrum of worlds emerges from a point in the germ to yield manifestation as we know it. These cosmological processes are truly difficult to comprehend, for they raise fundamental questions which cannot be answered merely through some pious reference to the heavens or through intellectual imagery. Unfortunately, this is all that pseudo-religious and pseudo-philosophic traditions have done, and they have therefore failed to answer the challenges of universal cosmogenesis and anthropogenesis. If one grasped the integrity of the universal processes that give rise both to Nature and Man, then one would understand that these questions are no easier to answer than parallel questions about the human body and physical birth. Since Deity, Man and Nature are philosophically inseparable, one cannot comprehend the origin of the cosmos, the origin of humanity or the birth of a single baby independently of each other. One needs to regain a sense of wonder that something so infinitesimally small as an initial germinal cell can give rise to a full-grown human being.

H.P. Blavatsky proceeded to develop and sharpen the mysteries which embryology poses by crediting modern thought with an approximate understanding of

the atomic and physical expansion from the microscopically small into something very large, from the – to the naked eye – unseen, into the visible and objective. Science has provided for all this; and, I dare say, her theories, embryological, biological, and physiological, are correct enough so far as exact observation of the material goes. Nevertheless, the two chief difficulties of the science of embryology – namely, what are the forces at work in the formation of the foetus, and the cause of “hereditary transmission” of likeness, physical, moral or mental – have never been properly answered; nor will they ever be solved till the day when scientists condescend to accept the Occult theories.

Ibid., 222-223

If, in other words, one wishes to give a systematic account of the process of immense expansion that goes on in the development of the foetus, one must have a knowledge of different planes and subplanes of matter, mind and consciousness. One must also develop an account of the interactions of these agencies and forces during the different stages of the development of the foetus, and give a philosophically coherent account of the processes of transmission of likeness, through which active forces promote actual growth. In commenting upon one of the more intuitive developments of nineteenth century biology, H.P. Blavatsky praised Professor Weissmann and his view of the ancestral germ-cell operating on the physical plane. She made a vital distinction between this physical plasm and a spiritual plasm. If one accepts the notion of an ancestral germinal cell which is through its very substance the agent of transmission over an immense period of time, then one must ask at what point man becomes endowed with that cell. Suggesting the metaphysical mystery of Jiva or cosmic life-energy, she stated:

Complete the physical plasm…the “Germinal Cell” of man with all its material potentialities, with the “spiritual plasm”, so to say, or the fluid that contains the five lower principles of the six-principled Dhyan – and you have the secret, if you are spiritual enough to understand it.

Ibid., 224

Such fundamental questions cannot be answered on the basis of inductive methods and within the confining categories of modern thought. No experimental science, however systematic and complicated, can penetrate the ontology of the process of becoming. A poet or mystic, using metaphors, can often come much closer to invoking a sense of the mystery of that process, as, for example, when Rupert Brooke wrote, “Dateless and deathless…the intricate impulse works its will.” Poetic intuition intimates something intrinsic and inherent to the life process, something that is extremely fertile, extremely complex and intelligent, yet unerringly precise. The vision of mystics and poets touches that which is beginningless and endless in life, that which eludes all categories, formulas and equations.

Hermes, June 1984
by Raghavan Iyer

==================

Glossary

Let us use with care those living messengers called words.
W. Q. JUDGE

JIVA (Sk.). Life, as the Absolute; the Monad also or Atma-Buddhi.

JIVANMUKTA (Sk.). An Adept or Yogi who has reached the ultimate state of holiness and separated himself from matter; a Mahatma, or Nirvanee, a “dweller in bliss” and emancipation. Virtually one who has reached Nirvana during life.

JIVATMA (Sk.). The ONE Universal Life, generally; but also the Divine Spirit in man.

WILL. In metaphysics and occult philosophy, Will is that which governs the manifested universes in eternity. Will is the one and sole principle of abstract eternal MOTION, or its ensouling essence. “The will”, says Van Helmont, “is the first of all powers…. The will is the property of all spiritual beings and displays itself in them the more actively the more they are freed from matter.” And Paracelsus teaches that “determined will is the beginning of all magical operations. It is because men do not perfectly imagine and believe the result, that the (occult) arts are so uncertain, while they might be perfectly certain.” Like all the rest, the Will is septenary in its degrees of manifestation. Emanating from the one, eternal, abstract and purely quiescent Will (Atma in Layam), it becomes Buddhi in its Alaya state, descends lower as Mahat (Manas), and runs down the ladder of degrees until the divine Eros becomes, in its lower, animal manifestation, erotic desire. Will as an eternal principle is neither spirit nor substance but everlasting ideation. As well expressed by Schopenhauer in his Parerga, “In sober reality there is neither matter nor spirit.”

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The entire article can be found at Theosophytrust.org and Theosophytrust.mobi.

 

Living Light Acceleration (Light Body)

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The boundless power of the Goddess/God are manifesting into existence through fabricated universes by women and men who seek it, creating Nature and God as one

Light Body or Spiritual DNA is the blueprint for our Life Purpose and the divine potentialities or the “Divine Blueprint” of humanity; the ultimate expression of us as individuals and ultimately is the way to reach ascension.

The Sun and The Moon

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The Sun and the Moon

In the Hermetic philosophy, the Sun has always been a symbol of a certain aspect of consciousness as it radiates outwards of it’s self. The sun can only shine and give outwards its potent rays of light and warmth. It cannot receive or take; it is not its nature, for it is only half and a part of the Oneness of being. The other aspect of consciousness is symbolized in the Moon as the feminine receptive nature of the unconscious mind. By herself she is dark and cold and is as a passive polarity compared to the active polarity of the Sun. Alchemically the Lunar nature is one of gathering inwards and nurturing, while the nature of the Sun is one of outpouring and expansive. The Sun, which is consciousness, and which is in itself a divine energy, sees himself in her reflection, while her darkness as the unconscious is warmed and made to shine with radiance. The Sun sees his reflection in the Moon. As Fulcanelli has said, “the moon secretly absorbs the rays of the Sun and nurtures them in her bosom”.

Metaphysically, the inner process of meditation and initiation is functioning on the very same principles. The conscious mind directing thought and concentration is as the Sun. The unconscious aspect of our being is as the moon and functions on a lunar level. The unconscious psychic energies within us must be warmed and kindled by the solar essence. This is that metaphysical insemination which the philosophers speak of when they say that “consciousness must inseminate the unconscious”. It is this act that brings to birth a third aspect of consciousness in our being, the luminous subjective self as the inner divine child. When one practices meditation, one can enter into the fertile feminine unconscious where one’s birthing of the inner divine child lies as the emerging inner self. One must first make the conscious effort of his or her active will power and concentration and act upon the passive energies of the unconscious. In turn the receptive and passive energies of the unconscious, nurtures and matures the divine seed of the Sun, or our “Gold”, as the alchemists like to call it. In this way, this feminine aspect becomes the mother of divinity in that she brings forth the Son of the Sun. This is that mystical love affair, that passion and divine union of the male and female seed that the philosophers speak of which begets the Philosopher’s Stone. The Sun and the moon as the Father and the Mother, now see themselves in the divine Son as the divine man. This is the true union of the bride and groom, the re-union of Adam and Eve and the mystical wedding of the alchemists.

As the King, so too our Alchemical Queen has her part in the alchemical process. It is a most beautiful event to behold the Sun through the feminine reflection as the Lunar Astral Light. Especially when she is pregnant and full. She is our most beautiful Diana. The alchemists have always spoken highly of her and expressed her beauty in most beautiful allegorical ways as the Lilly of the Valley and the White Rose of the whitening stage of the alchemical process. It is the “beholding of the most beautiful body of Diana stripped of all her terrestriality”. Thus the wife of the Sun becomes the very mother of our own rebirth, where consciousness becomes conscious of consciousness and we realises the source of a greater light coming from the Sun within us as the Father. But we never forget our mother the moon and her gentle nurturing. In this symbolism and allegory we see the Christian mystery of the Holy Virgin mother conceived of the father, the Sun, and who gave birth to the divine child who becomes our inner master, and saviour, as our regenerated soul and consciousness.

The Cold Within

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Six humans trapped by happenstance
In bleak and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood
Or so the story’s told.

Their dying fire in need of logs
The first man held his back
For of the faces round the fire
He noticed one was black.

The next man looking ‘cross the way
Saw one not of his church
And couldn’t bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.

The third one sat in tattered clothes.
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?

The rich man just sat back and thought
Of the wealth he had in store
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy shiftless poor.

The black man’s face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight.
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.

The last man of this forlorn group
Did nought except for gain.
Giving only to those who gave
Was how he played the game.

Their logs held tight in death’s still hands
Was proof of human sin.
They didn’t die from the cold without
They died from the cold within.