Saturday 31 July 2010

Not Restoration But Reconciliation

"Dear Fellow Conservative,

"Nancy Pelosi and her liberal allies in Washington have just moved my race up to one of their top targets.

"My opponent was named to the Democrats so-called "Red to Blue" list. These candidates will serve as the rubber stamp to the radical Pelosi agenda of higher taxes, out-of-control spending, and massive government overreach.

"Click here to stop the liberal attack machines!

"Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are targeting me to keep their razor thin majority in the House to pass their extreme liberal agenda. We need to stop the Obama/Pelosi agenda and fight for our constitutional conservative majority. We cannot back down from this fight.

"Will you help defend me and the conservative values we share?

"Time is of the essence, I've got an important campaign deadline on August 10th, and it is critical for us to send a clear message and end on a strong note...

"I appreciate your help, encouragement and prayers. I will continue to fight for a constitutional conservative majority and lead the effort to repeal government takeover and restore our great nation.

"Sincerely,


"Michele Bachmann"


Dear Ms Bachmann,

I appreciate your sentiment. But your guns are trained in the wrong direction.*

It is not restoration we need, but reconciliation. Reconciliation, of our parts. When neither side has a monopoly on the 'right' of the matter. The matter of the unfolding of human civilization - now at a key structural point, for a synthesis to take place.

Hegel had a keen eye for such things. He saw that any position contains elements of disaffection. Is part of an unfolding process. Thesis, antithesis - synthesis. Leading to another level OF the process.

"Restore our great nation" - to what, exactly. The nation that bred the likes of the Neocons, and their desire for Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace? The nation that bred an economic crisis that almost - almost - took the house down with it??

Yes, free enterprise bred an outstanding standard of living - for some. It also bred terrible conditions for many.

Why should We, the People return power to those who caused the recent inbuilt crisis of capitalism - who lived by the motto of 'service to self', and the devil take the hindmost. Short-term gain for long-term pain.

I say, No. I say, Look closer. Look higher.

What is it that the Left is trying to tell us?

That 'socialism' is 'good'?

That a big-spending government is 'good'?

I don't think so.

I think that, really, they are trying to tell us something else. That there is a better way, of living than the way we are today.

That they have an intimation of a better world, waiting for us on the other side of a great divide.

Which will consist of elements of both current camps.

Like the yin-yang symbol, each 'side' of which has an element of the other in it.

Not to say that I take the 'side' of Nancy Pelosi in this matter.

Take her role in the declaring of Barack Obama to be eligible for the Democratic Party's candidacy for president.

(And what a metaphor Obama is in this matter. Neither black nor white. Nothing on this level of reality is fully either black or white. It is all 'in play'.)

Why are we supposed to merely assume that whatever was provided to Nancy Pelosi - as the presiding official of the Democratic Party's nominating convention - as proof of Obama's eligibility to run for that particular office - and particular in the sense of the clear, special requirement asked for constitutionally, above and beyond that asked for lesser federal offices - IF ANYTHING, is or should be good enough for the average American citizen? That the citizenry should just sit quietly and buy a pig in a poke?? For the highest - most powerful - office in the land...

Nancy Pelosi had a vested interest in the matter. The proof of his eligibility needs to rest with independent parties, and especially including the judiciary of the land. Which brings up a terribly sore point, in and for a nation that is supposed to champion and abide by 'the rule of law' (remember Adolf 'I am the law' Hitler??): For the judicial branch of the federal government to refuse to allow a fair hearing in court of this controversial matter is a denial of justice, and must not be allowed to stand.

But this whole matter - the current economic crisis, and socio-political crisis; of, now, global proportions - speaks of something larger going on, something more substantive than just 'business as usual'.

I'll cut to the chase. Some very powerful people, standard bearers of the Status Quo, want a New World Order that they can control, for their corporate/political purposes (aka fascism). To that end, they have created a degree of 'gobalization' that is just short of their goal. But in the Hegelian sense, that 'platform' is just part of a process, that is unfolding a larger outcome. It has generated an 'equal and opposite' response from the Left - a stream of socio-political thinking that wants a greater degree of equality in the world than that found under classical (or monopoly) capitalism, which has too much of 'service to self' at its heart. The Left would try to incarnate a greater degree of a similar but competing perspective - that of 'service to others'. But it would do it under the given, status-quo terms, using capitalism's financial system, of interest-bearing money and fractional-reserve banking; hoping that people will somehow alter their attitudes, into 'caring and sharing', within the terms of the status-quo system. But it's rather like the Second Law of Thermodynamics: Once 'money' became an end in itself, rather than merely the means that it started out as (ie, a means of exchange), it's impossible now to unscramble those eggs. Because both sides of this economic equation (capitalism vs. socialism; individualism vs. collecctivism) have bought into a worm's-eye view of the matter. The matter of living on Planet Earth.

The better outcome/true synthesis at this point would be to insert the spiritual dimension into the equation (as a piece of the 'capitalist' system contribution, versus the mere materialism (secular humanism) of the 'socialist' contribution, in antithetical reaction to the historically heavy hand of 'religion' in this unfolding process), and realize that we stand on the verge of a New Order, all right. Just not the one dreamt of in the philosophy of those who would use Power to impose their will on life on Earth.

The answer - called for so strongly now - is to bring Love to bear. The Love of the Creator for Its Creation; including the opportunity for all of its autonomous, free-will-invested sparks of divinity to become One again, at the highest turn of the evolutionary spiral of consciousness-raising.

And raise life on Earth to a new, higher level in the process.

At least for a good, oh, say, thousand years or so. Before its inevitable degradation would just generate another antithesis, in the unfolding process of consciousness raising in the illusory, unreal realm of seeming separation from the Divine.


P.S. To spell something out: Obama must now come clean about his background, for a reconciliation process to take place; which will actively include both sides of the political aisle. Since you can't have one without the other.



* It would behoove us all to learn the lesson from the British experience at the beginning of WWII when, in preparation for defending Singapore, they had all their cannons aimed to the sea - the logical direction of the anticipated invasion by the Japanese. Who inscrutably attacked by land. On bicycles yet.
O to have been a fly on the wall of the British admiralty when this treachery unfolded. Treachery, from the norms of waging war. Like gentlemen. Cricket, and 'the playing fields of Eton', and all that.

Friday 23 July 2010

Life on Planet Earth

I'm feeling an urge today to summarise my take on Life on Planet Earth, for the record.

It feels to me that we've got better things to do now as a species than play the same old sandbox games, over and over. We've got a hurting planet to learn to live in harmony with, and fast; and various races and religions and nationalities and political philosophies to knit together, in order to live in common cause on our lovely planet, asking of us now our best. Not our lowest common denominator. Our best, as a species, with free will allowing us to blow it, and start the historical process over, in our separate caves; or move to a higher level of consciousness - a breakthrough, of consciousness limitation - that allows us to express our higher aspect into our daily lives. Our higher aspect, as 'spiritual beings having a human experience,' as the expression has it.

What does that mean, practically. Practically, it means that we should, now - at our level of technological development, and environmental necessity - recognise that the concepts of interest-bearing money, and money itself, are just that - concepts. That there is a higher concept that we can aspire to, in order to live together in greater harmony, and with our planetary nest (before we start thinking too seriously of going out and exploring our material neighborhood). That concept can be stated as: giving of our best to one another out of gratitude to our Creator for life with meaning, in a meaningful universe - at this stage of that meaningful life.

I appreciate that there are differences in thinking as to what precisely 'the Creator' and 'life' mean. But there is plenty of evidence in that we can draw some basic conclusions from. For example. 'Life with meaning' can be deduced from the evidence of the phenomenon known as reincarnation - that some part of 'us' returns in different bodily forms, in order to - what. Just continue to experience material life, over and over, for no essential meaning to the process? That conclusion makes no sense. Things have a reason for being, or they wouldn't be. And a clue to the reason for the phenomenon of reincarnation can be seen in the results of something called Past Lives Therapy, whereby the individual is released from the mental/emotional block from a past life experience when he or she (in this lifetime) reconnects with it in a 'real', current-time way, recognises it - gets the message from the experience - and is released thereby from the 'block', the learning experience, in order to move on. 'To move on': to not be bound down by our past-life experiences, keeping us from a healed and wholer aspect of ourselves. Which when completely healed and whole, can truly move on. Into Oneness. Without the ego blocking the way; the sense of 'I' as a separate entity.

But I get ahead of myself. (A little joke there.)

And 'the Creator'...let's just say, the Primal Source, and leave that matter at that. I don't want to get hung up here on definitions. Let's stay with the gist of the matter. Which is: that the universe has purpose, and that purpose is Good.

Has beneficial meaning.

That there is growth involved.

Growth in consciousness.

And time now to start engaging in more of that good stuff.

Which, when done, will set us free.

Free from old limitations.

And free to start soaring like a bird; released, in good time, from the confines - the support - of its nest.

To go exploring the larger realm. Which is part of a Whole.

A larger Whole; that we are beginning - just beginning - to touch the hem of.


Think positive.

And thereby, get there.


---


The point of life
ultimately
is to get to Unity
and leave separation behind.
Not
to dwell in it
indefinitely.
That is to savor a lesser fruit.

On!
Sail on!
And you will get there
ultimately.
No bitter fruit
for
You
We
Us
Together
In Unity.

Friday 9 July 2010

Wars and Rumours of Wars

I remember, in my high school days, writing, for an English class exercise, an essay on War. I'm not sure what occasioned that subject for that exercise; it may have been - in the air - the Korean War, newly minted at the time. (Excuse me: 'Police Action', as the government called it, for some obscure, presumably international-relations-related, legalistic reason. But a rose by any other name...and its obverse.) I remember further how I opened it; with due regard for my vocabulary-building stage at the time, still experimenting with words: 'Down through the eternal ages, Man has been witness to one internecine carnage after another...", and how I sourly concluded it: " It [The impulse to war] has become a part of the nature of Man."

I wouldn't say 'it' quite that way, now, near the end of this life span. Yes, we have an animal part of our nature; and that part of us will, indeed, tend to cause us to fight for territory, or sustenance, or whatever rationale we put our minds to. But we also have another part; a part that connects us to 'the divine'. The realm beyond words, of description. The realm that just Is. And it is that realm, and that connection, that will save us from our present, major Crisis on planet Earth.

For it is a crisis of consciousness, in essence. To say, a lack of consciousness; of who we are, really. As sparks of 'the divine'; trying - in our multiple ways - to find our way home. To transcend the material realm, and reconnect with our inner Sun. Like the holotropic beings we are, in essence.

I remember, in university, in my Biology class (of my pre-medical studies), being very struck by the phenomenon, in the plant world, of what was/is called phototropism - the growth response of plants to the stimulus of light, producing a bending towards the light source. How it didn't matter in which direction the seed was planted in the soil; when it started its transformative process, it would unerringly head for the light. And we are holotropic beings, unerringly heading for our Source, in wholeness. Finding our way through the hologram which has been constructed to give us some resistance, to grow by. In a transformative process of our own.

But I get ahead of myself, a little.

I want to address the issue of war, and the causes of war. For beyond its origin in the animal part of our nature is the environmental element. To say: If the environment is sustainable, and nourishing, we will have no reason to war. The plant in us can just grow. Into its potential. So: how can we alter our environment, to further that outcome.

And now we come to the issue of what we call capitalism. Based on a concept called profit.

For that is all that it is: a concept. Not a law of nature, even of 'human nature'. Has it served humanity, to give us an incentive to produce things? Primarily out of self-interest? Indeed it has. Look at the thrust of western civilisation: basically built on harnessing the drive of self-interest. But I would submit that that is a rather primitive concept; one that can be outgrown as we increase our awareness, our consciousness, and start looking at life in a more holistic way. That is to say: considering the whole as well as the part; our personal part. And now that we are living in a day and age where the motivator of self-interest is throwing up its shadow - of the trashing of the environment, and such - it is, really, time to have a 'mid-course correction', in regards to the future of life on Earth. For the way we are going, we can blow it - the whole climb out of our primitive caves, into the light of a new day. A possible new day. If we release the training wheels that have gotten us here, to this Turning Point.

The training wheels of, one, profit, and two, money.

What may have been necessary to help us uncover our individual potential is now hindering us, and harming us. Example. Our over-reliance on fossil fuels as an energy source, and more. The capitalist system is largely built on oil. But it is proving to have a great detrimental side, in the polluting of the environment, and such. The latter including an incentive to war.

Gen. Smedley Butler wrote a book he entitled: 'War Is a Racket.' Man has gone to many wars over resources like oil. But oil can be superseded by 'higher' forms of energy. Like the radiant energy in the universe. But we can't get to that source, as long as we are locked in the old paradigm - the old mentality - of scarcity, and 'profit'. The elementary stage of our education and development as a species.

Consider a day when we travel around on magnetism, and what is called 'Zero Point Energy'. That day will come about when we grow up some more. Learn to live in greater harmony with each other, and our environment. And 'produce for use, not for profit', as the socialists call for. But without their reliance on a powerful state, to keep people in control; believing as they do only in a materialistic model of reality. That people need to be forced to do things, because of 'human nature'. That Man is but a short step from a Beast, and thus needs to be chained, and held in place by the power of the state.

I've got a better idea. I say that we trust that his better nature will come to the fore, if given the chance. His nature, of 'a spiritual being having a human experience'. Realising, that the universe has purpose, and that purpose is Good. And so Man will be motivated to give of his best, in loving gratitude to his loving Creator for life with meaning.

The proof is in the experiences of all the people who have had Near Death Experiences, and Out of Body Experiences, and Past Life experiences, and other experiences that have helped them understand that there is far more under heaven and earth than is dreamt of in the common philosophy. That our souls are exploring life, and growing from our experiences - gaining awareness. Raising consciousness; our own, and that of those around us, inspired by our examples. Heading back towards Oneness with the Divine. Leaving this realm behind - after giving it our best shot. And going Home, after the sojourn in the wilderness, that tests our mettle.

No more pharmaceutical companies creating drugs that have side effects that they then come up with other drugs to treat, because they're in business to make money. And gain power. And with their corporate allies, to try to take over the world, and make it safe for oligarchy. And so forth.

It is really time to put our childish things behind us, and grow up.

Join the club.