March, 2014
I lost my job last year and although I’ve been looking for a new one, I am not working yet. My unemployment benefits have run out, so I’m just living on savings which is pretty scary.
However, on the bright side I am currently taking classes to become certified as a Microsoft Office Specialist. I have passed my Outlook and PowerPoint exams, and received my certifications for those. I’m studying for my Excel certification now, and will finish with Word after that. The classes, study, and practice are keeping me pretty busy and don’t leave much time for the job search, but my main focus right now is completing them as soon as possible so that I’ll be more marketable.
How can I maintain faith, confidence, and a positive attitude during times of uncertainty about career, finances, etc.?… Angie
Dear Angie… All times are uncertain times! It’s only our thought that any particular times are “certain”—that our career and finances are ever really secure. If we look deeply at life, though, we see that it is always moving, always changing, and nothing ever stays the same.
In our parents’ day and age many of our fathers held the same jobs for decades. I only have one friend, though, out of hundreds, who has had a job with the same company since we graduated from college, and I can tell you that he has never been completely happy in it. I suppose he has stayed for the seeming security of it, but I am amazed that he hasn’t been “kicked out of the nest” because it has never seemed to be very soul-fulfilling for him. You see, life has a way of calling us to evolve, and when we ignore that call over and over again, very often the soul will cause us to evolve in a way that doesn’t feel very good to us. Sometimes this takes the form of what looks like a loss, as in getting laid off or fired from a job. Perhaps my friend has managed to stay with the same company because they have transferred him several times, giving him promotions and new opportunities for expansion each time.
I wonder, Angie, if you were you completely happy in the job you had. Did you absolutely love it? Or did, perhaps, you feel you were ready to move into something larger?
The fact that you are taking this opportunity to further develop your skills is perfect! You have taken what looked like an obstacle and turned it into a golden opportunity. Good for you!
Prosperity follows passion, and the more you do what you love, the more opportunity life will give you to do what you love.
Know that everything that happens in life inures for your benefit, dear Angie. Please do not for one second allow fear to take over your thoughts. Look deeply into the face of fear and question every single thought that your mind conjures about what could happen, then ask, well, if that happened, then what would happen? And if that happened, then what would happen? This is called the “So What? Process” and it helps us to see that no matter what happens in our lives, we will still survive, one way or another.
Look at the example of what happened to Neale: Things in his life spiraled downward to the point that he lived in a tent for two weeks shy of a year. Yes, it was a very very tough experience for him, but look how he rebounded from it. Within a relatively short period of time he literally went from rags to riches, and today he avows that it was one of the best things that ever happened to him! He has literally had nothing and he has literally had everything he could possibly want, and he says that both experiences left him with the same question:
“Now what?!”
You have experienced a taste of this, and you answered the question in the highest way possible for yourself. You decided to re-create anew the next grandest version of the greatest vision you ever held about yourself, Angie, and in doing so you have done exactly what CWG invites us to do.
Now, just keep going. You were guided to go back to school, and you will be guided as to what’s highest and best for you to do when you finish your studies. Try not to expect it to look a certain way. For example, maybe you will freelance several small jobs instead of having one full-time job. Maybe you will be self-employed instead of being an employee. Just trust that the continuing opportunities will be there for you and you will be fine.
You are deeply loved, guided and supported more than you know and you always have a host of angels with you, every step of the way. I look forward to hearing back from you this time next year. You will marvel at what all you’ve been able to accomplish!
(Annie Sims is the Global Director of CWG Advanced Programs, is a Conversations With God Life Coach and author/instructor of the CWG Online School. To connect with Annie, please email her at Annie@TheGlobalConversation.com.
(If you would like a question considered for publication, please submit your request to: Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com where our team is waiting to hear from you.)
An additional resource: The CWG Helping Outreach offers spiritual assistance from a team of non-professional/volunteer Spiritual Helpers responding to every post from readers within 24 hours or less. Nothing on the CCN site should be construed or is intended to take the place of or be in any way similar to professional therapeutic or counseling services. The site functions with the gracious willing assistance of lay persons without credentials or experience in the helping professions. What these volunteers possess is an awareness of the theology of Conversations with God. It is from this context that they offer insight, suggestions, and spiritual support during moments of unbidden, unexpected, or unwelcome change on the journey of life.
The people of the Crimean Peninsula have spoken, in an election that the world must assume was largely untainted by coercion or ballot-box stuffing or other corruptions. The result was never in doubt in any event, as more than 60% of the residents of Crimea are Russian speakers and are deeply embedded in the Russian culture. That majority wants to be part of Russia. It never favored being separated from Russia in the first place.
So the people of the Crimean Peninsula have spoken, voting overwhelmingly to secede from Ukraine and become an independent republic, the government of which, all the voters knew, will immediately request membership in the Russian Federation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made an astonishing statement of agreement with them on Tuesday when, if an NBC News report by Albina Kovalyova is correct, he said that Crimea was “stolen” from Russia when it was handed to Ukraine in the first place, half a century ago.
The NBC News report said that Putin, addressing a joint session of the Russian parliament, “described the 1954 allocation of Crimea to Ukraine by then Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev as a mistake and said that the wishes of the local people had been ignored.”
The NBC report goes on to quote Putin as saying that Russia was going through a difficult period at that time, and that “the people of Crimea were not asked about anything. It was hard to imagine then that Russia and Ukraine would be different countries. But it happened. The U.S.S.R. collapsed.”
The result of this was that “When Crimea became part of a different state, Russia felt it was stolen,” NBC quoted Putin as saying. “A million people went to bed in one country and woke up in another,” the report said he added.
The network said that Putin told the Russian parliament that Russia thought Ukraine would be a friendly neighbor, but that the situation “developed differently.”
On Tuesday Putin apparently went even further, describing Kiev, which is the capital of Ukraine, as “the mother of all Russian cities,” again according to yet another report from NBC News.
President Putin says he would think that Americans would understand and support the vote for independence by the people of Crimea, just as Americans support the whole idea of freedom of choice and independence, having declared its own independence from England many years ago.
Mr. Putin also said that he hoped that Germany and the rest of Europe would understand the desire of Russia to embrace Crimea again as a part of the Russian Federation, just as East and West Germany joined together once again a few years ago to form one nation — a move that, Putin said, Russia supported. He did not point out that this was even though Russia then “lost” East Germany as a satellite region under Russian control.
These words, reportedly from Putin as quoted by NBC News, are being placed here in order to put the entire Crimea/Ukraine situation in a new and larger context, allowing, perhaps, for a deeper understanding of why Russia is taking the position it is now taking regarding Crimea and Ukraine.
This does not make the Russian position “right” (nor does it make it “wrong”) — it simply makes it, perhaps, more understandable to people in the West.
All of which brings us to a remarkable idea placed in the Comments Section beneath the last headline story on this webpage, which also focused on the situation in Crimea, and invited readers to offer their suggestions on how to deal with the apparent impasse between Russia, Ukraine, the U.S., and Europe.
A reader named Cate Grieves wrote…
“If I was the President of the world, I would get all the Presidents together. They then sit around a large ROUND table. They would then have to stick a large white piece of paper to the front of their clothes. On this piece of paper would be their name — in LARGE black ink in capital letters. Then each person hands the person on their left, their name badge. They then put it on.
“Then, each person has to believe they are the person whose name they have. They then explain to the group, to the best of their ability, why they believe they are right. They are only allowed to speak for the name they have on.
“After they have all spoken, they move the names along again, one more person to the left.When they have all had a turn at each name badge, they can then discuss an outcome. The other rules for this event are: that no-one is allowed to interupt or criticise what anyone has said. They are all allowed to speak for as long as they want. They do not get to speak with their own name badge.”
Now there’s a fascinating idea. It would be an exercise in wearing the other shoe, and it could offer a remarkable format for creating a solution to more than a few problems around the world. (And in people’s homes!)
It would probably never happen, because “role playing” would probably be considered too “New Agey” or too much like a “psychological game” for world leaders (or couples in a marriage, for that matter) to actually engage in it. But it is an idea that could change the world.
In any event, now having heard more from Vladimir Putin on this whole subject, your own additional comments and observations are invited below. What does our contemporary spirituality invite us to say and do about all of this?
I remember the exact date that my path in life began going in directions I had never even thought about. It was February 5, 1983. I was going to be the DM for a group of friends who were getting together to play Dungeons & Dragons at the apartment of a girl I worked with at a fast food restaurant. Her boyfriend had driven out to one of his classmate’s houses to bring him into the city to play. The minute his friend walked into the room, I turned to my co-worker, who was sitting beside me, and said, “I’m going to marry that man.” I was so sure (without any reason to be sure! I didn’t even know his name at this point!) that I asked him to move in with me that night and two weeks later, he did just that.
His beliefs were about as far from the Roman Catholic up-bringing as they could be and it was through many long talks with him that I started down the spiritual path that led me to my current faith (or, as I prefer to call it, knowledge!) On that journey, I learned from my different teachers: Richard Bach, Shirley MacLaine, Louise Hay, Marianne Williamson, Ann Hardin Strauss, June Burke, Neale Donald Walsch,…the list is long. While every one of those teachers had a different way of explaining what they were teaching, they were ultimately teaching the same thing: that we are where we are in our life because of choices we have made, either consciously or on deep soul level.
I have shared my beliefs with many people over the last 30 years in many different ways through many different forums and I have found that most people are very resistant to the idea that they are the co-creators of their universe. One would think that such an idea would be joyously embraced! We no longer have to feel victimized! We can feel empowered and make choices as to where we want our life to go with total freedom! But so many people get caught in a trap, confusing responsibility with blame.
To say that there are no victims immediately puts someone’s defenses up. “What about someone who is raped? What about children who are abused? What about the couple who are sleeping in their beds and someone comes in an murders them? Are you saying they’re responsible for their own rape? Their own abuse? Their own murders?”
Yes, I assure them, that is exactly what I’m saying.
Before I can clarify anymore, the response that follows is usually something along the lines of, “You have one screwed up belief system if you think those people are to blame for the things that happened to them through no fault of their own!”
Responsibility and blame are not the same thing. We often use the words interchangeably but they are vastly different in this spiritual context.
Responsibility means simply that one acknowledges that one’s choices have co-created the situation in which they find themselves. For example, for the couple murdered in their beds, they chose where to live, they chose whether or not to be home that night, they chose to be sleeping at that time. What other deep soul choices they made are not something we can determine, but it is certain that they were made because otherwise the event would not have happened!
Blame, on the other hand, implies that someone did something wrong. (Yes, I know that there really is no such thing as “right” or “wrong”, but these are the limitations of our language when discussing these issues.) That if they had done “X” instead of “Y”, they could have avoided being murdered. Moreover, blame can also imply that the person should have known better than to choose “X” and should have no better and chosen “Y” from the start!
The couple who is murdered is not responsible for the actions of their murderer. They are only responsible for their own actions and choices. Those choices, along with those of the murderer, were such that at that point in time, their choices brought them all into the same time and space. At that moment when their “timelines” crossed, the murderer had several choices and the couple is not responsible for any of them.
I think another reason so many people have difficulty with the concept of being responsible for where we are in life is that they don’t believe that someone would make a soul choice that would result in their being subjected to rape or abuse or murder. The idea that someone would “sacrifice” their long-term physical safety in order to allow their fellow human beings to demonstrate Who They Really Are is something many people seem to be unable to accept. The reasons for that, in my humble opinion, can be traced back to religious ideals. But that’s discussion is for another day.
I think the following short story illustrates the idea of “sacrifice” very nicely.
I know a man who had a very abusive father. I once asked this man, in the early stages of my new spiritual journey, why he would choose to have an abusive father.
His answer was simple and yet eloquent. “Because I had the ability to stop the cycle of abuse.”
Accepting responsibility is not the same as accepting blame. Accepting responsibility empowers us to take control of our lives and make it what we want it to be. It allows us to respond to life in whatever manner we choose! Accepting blame relegates us to being victims of another’s actions. We must react to what life gives us and give up control of our lives to those who have “victimized” us.
Which option sounds better to you?
Fred Phelps is dying.
Who is Fred Phelps? He is the founder of the highly controversial Westboro Baptist Church, a man who is known for protesting high-profile funerals with signs that read “God Hates Fags.” The church is widely known for its extreme positions against gay marriage and offensive demonstrations interrupting the funerals of dead servicemen. And as you read these words, he is reported to be lying on his deathbed at a hospice center in Kansas.
And I am wondering how the world feels about his imminent passing. Okay, on the surface, perhaps that seems a tad bit obvious. It does not require a stretched imagination to think that many people will not be too entirely sad or disappointed to no longer see him physically be a part of our society, given the number of individuals he placed himself at odds with for one reason or another. But I am also wondering if there is anyone anywhere who will be able to celebrate his passing not because of his discriminatory and intolerant behaviors here on earth and they will simply being glad to see him go, but because his soul, too, carried gifts and opportunities and remembrances for us all to experience.
How can intolerance be a gift? How does discrimination provide opportunity? What remembrances could possibly be had under the guise of hatred?
Fair questions.
It is one thing to say we believe something. It is another thing entirely to implement those beliefs into a way of living, to actually incorporate them into the day-to-day choices and actions and events of our lives.
I may claim to believe that we are all one. But am I able to live from that place of believing in the most challenging situations and am I able to apply that way of thinking in the most difficult relationships I find myself involved with?
I may claim to believe in a God who does not judge. But am I able to afford that same understanding to ALL human beings, even those whose lives create pain and hardship for so many others?
I may declare myself as someone who loves unconditionally. But am I truly capable of removing the conditions from my loving someone who, from outward appearances, is virtually unlovable?
Just as the little angel in The Little Soul and the Sun agreed to do, perhaps Fred Phelps chose to experience this lifetime as someone who would stand in darkness so that others may stand in the light.
So I am wondering how you feel about the Soul called Fred Phelps as the moment where he takes his last breath on earth draws closer and closer with each passing minute. What are your thoughts about what his life meant to you and to our world? Will you be celebrating that moment for one particular reason or another?
(Lisa McCormack is a Feature Editor at The Global Conversation and lives in Orlando, Florida. To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
A person named “Wendy” wrote to tell me of an ad she saw on television. In this ad the person states, “I was an addict for 10 years, now I am not.” Wendy wanted to know how could someone claim such a thing when everyone knows, “once an addict, always and addict.” Here was my reply:
There are many paths to enlightenment and there are many ways to recover from addiction. I, for one, do not call myself an addict anymore. I find that labels tend to attract their own definition into our reality. I do say that I am a person in long term recovery from addiction. The distinction is that I am fully aware of the power of the disease of addiction and the cunning nature of the human mind. I have accepted that I have little to no control over mind and mood altering chemicals when they are in my system. Therefore, I do not partake in the lifestyle or activities that include drugs and alcohol in them.
So, for this person to say they are not an addict doesn’t concern me. A tiger always has stripes though even if we change its name. Watching the behavior and actions of another is the true definition of who they are. If they say they are not an addict and live a clean life they are in recovery. If they say they are not an addict and continue to do drugs and alcohol and exhibit the behaviors associated with addiction then they are just in denial.
Recovery to me is more than abstinence. It is a way of life, a way that includes self discovery, a softening of the personal agenda of life and a growing desire to lift others to greater heights. Recovery is about examining our behaviors and our beliefs and bringing them into alignment with who we wish to be. Recovery is a decision to face life on life’s terms.
So how do you help someone who is in denial about their addiction?
Well, if they are still exhibiting addictive behaviors you refuse to play the game. You speak from a place of authenticity and you tell them your truth. In Conversations with God it is said that “Yet despots cannot be allowed to flourish, but must be stopped in their despotism. Love of Self, and love of the despot, demands it.”
Addiction and despotism are of course not the same thing, yet the goal should be the same for all of us who claim to be loving beings. We should desire for each person to experience themselves in the next highest version of the grandest vision ever held.
Being vocally unwilling to enable the addict and refusing to take part in the lies, deception, and depravity of the disease is the best way to help someone who is experiencing it. They may cast you out of their life, but the pain of turning away someone they love for a substance will eat away at their conscience. Pain stacked up on top of pain will drive the addict to the tipping point we refer to as “the bottom.” The bottom is the place where the pain of using the substance is greater than the pain of facing up to who we have been.
The 12-Steps of anonymous programs work for some and not for others. There are other methods of recovery that work as well. Desire to recover and change is what it all boils down to. I am not going to advocate programs that claim to be able to help people modify their usage. I personally feel that is a path that all addicts have tried on their own with no success.
Alcohol is not something that is needed our useful to the human body. Anyone who claims to truly love themselves would never ingest even a drop of alcohol. I also believe the same to be true for other drugs. A person who is working on becoming more self aware, and returning to love, would be best served by being mindful food and chemicals they put into their bodies.
I would like to close this article with the “new Gospel” of CwG.
We are all one. Ours is not a better way, it is merely another way.
(Kevin McCormack, C.A.d ,is a certified addictions professional and auriculotherapist. He is a recovering addict with 26 years of sobriety. Kevin is a practicing auriculotherapist, recovery coach, and interventionist specializing in individual and family recovery. Kevin has a passion for holistic living, personal awareness training, and physical meditation. You can visit his website Life After Addicton for more information. To connect with Kevin, please email him at Kevin@TheGlobalConversation.com)
Here’s the situation regarding Ukraine: Everyone is “right.”
Really.
From their own point of view, everyone is “right.”
Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych is right. Acting president Oleksandr Turchynov is right. Russian President Vladimir Putin is right. U.S. President Barack Obama is right. The Ukraine parliament in Kiev is right in claiming that the election in Crimea to determine whether that area of Ukraine will secede and join the Russian Federation is illegal under the country’s constitution. The parliament in the Crimean Peninsula is right in calling for the election and declaring that the people there should have the ability of self-determination.
Everybody is “right.”
How can that be?
It’s simple. As Conversations with God tells us: “Nobody does anything inappropriate, given their model of the world.”
Mr. Yanukovych absolutely believes he was forced to leave the country by an unruly, out-of-control, threatening mob of “fascist” ultra-nationalists. Mr. Turchynov absolutely believes that this “mob” was comprised of citizens of Ukraine exercising their right to protest, and that the Parliament of Ukraine was right to vote to remove Mr. Yanukovych from the office of the presidency after he fled the country, appoint a caretaker president, and move forward with the forming of a new government.
Mr. Putin absolutely believes he is right in doing what he can to protect the Russian majority in the Crimean Peninsula, who he claimed said they feared that the same kind of mob that forced Yanukovych out of office in Kiev would take over Crimea as well, and route the Russian speaking majority there. Mr. Obama absolutely believes he is right is telling Mr. Putin that Russia is, in effect, invading the sovereign territory of Ukraine, that the Russian citizens there are under no threat from anyone, and that international sanctions against Russia are going to have to be imposed if Russia does not move its troops out of Crimea.
Everybody is absolutely right from their point of view.
What, then, to do?
We have been saying in these from the beginning of this online newspaper’s publication that the problem in the world today is not a political problem, it is not a financial problem, and it is not a military problem. The problem in the world today is a spiritual a problem, and it can only be solved by spiritual means.
What has to happen in Ukraine is that all of the leaders, all of the human beings who are deeply involved in what is occurring there, are going to have to ask themselves a simple (yet remarkable for its simplicity) question: Can we all find a way to be ‘right’ without hurting each other?
It is seem that a civilization which declares itself to be “evolved” would be able to answer that question in the affirmative. Our civilization, however, has not so far been able to figure out a way to do that. We hurt each other. We kill each other. We use “force” — because we apparently know no other way to resolve our differences.
And so, on it goes — our Crisis Civilization moving from one flare-up to another, from one conflict to another, from one killing field to another.
Can we avoid more killing in Ukraine? Can we find a way for everyone to be “right” without hurting each other?
What proposals would you lay on the table if you were a global leader right now? Please offer your ideas below.
Here in the United States there is a commercial for a luxury car model (Cadillac ELR) that has people moving to their respective corners once again. The nasty names have once again started flying..liberal, conservative, right winger, lefty, commie, socialist, anti-American, anti-hard work…and on and on and on.
I would first like to present the text of the advertisement and then comment:
(Man standing looking over his swimming pool)
Why do we work so hard? For what? For this? For stuff? Other countries, they work, they stroll home, they stop by the cafe, they take August off. Off. Why aren’t you like that? Why aren’t we like that?
(Strolls into his upscale home, past his studying children in the den, through the kitchen where he gives a low high five to his wife towards bedroom.)
Because we’re crazy, driven, hardworking believers. Those other countries think we’re nuts. Whatever. Were the Wright Brothers insane? Bill Gates? Les Paul? Ali? Were we nuts when we pointed to the moon? That’s right. We went up there, and you know what we got? Bored. So we left. Got a car up there, left the keys in it. Do you know why? Because we’re the only ones going back up there, that’s why.
(Goes into bedroom, changes from casual clothes into business suit, comes out saying…)
But I digress. It’s pretty simple. You work hard, you create your own luck, and you gotta believe anything is possible.
(Strolls out to driveway, unplugs his electric car and gets in.)
As for all the stuff, that’s the upside of only taking two weeks off in August. N’est-ce pas?
(Winks conspiratorially)
It’s pretty easy to see why there is some polarity here. What’s wrong with “stuff”? Nothing, in and of itself. What’s wrong with working hard? Nothing, in and of itself.
What’s “wrong” for me here, is wrapped up in the illusions of humans as set out in “Conversations With God”, and the illusion that is glaring at me here is the illusion of “Superiority”.
This commercial says that one way is better than another way, not in terms of what works for me vs. what works for you, but in a way that diminishes what works for you. It defines one way of being “American”, as the “right” way…the superior way. It insinuates that other ways of being and doing things, in other parts of the world, are inferior, lazy, not valuable.
From “What God Said” pg. 154-155
Life’s Greatest Seduction
I have learned and I have experienced that there is nothing more seductive in human life than the idea of superiority. …
It turns out that all of us are equal in the eyes of God—a statement that is astonishingly and breathtakingly true, but a statement that the world’s religions cannot accept, cannot embrace, cannot endorse, and dare not suggest to anyone. For all of the world’s religions, and all the world’s political parties for that matter, and certainly the world’s so-called upper classes, depend for their very existence on the notion that somehow, in some way, they are “better” than another religion, party, or class. Take away superiority and you take away that which many people and groups feel is special about themselves.
Superiority wouldn’t be so bad if we did not use it as justification for discriminating against others—to say nothing about warring with others. But the idea of superiority is so ultimately ugly that it cannot produce anything save ultimately ugly results. …”
According to Craig Bierley, Cadillac’s advertising director this ad was aimed at a strictly American audience and, according to an AdAge article “Rather than millionaires, the spot’s targeted at customers who make around $200,000 a year. They’re consumers with a ‘little bit of grit under their fingernails.’ Right up front, Mr. McDonough dismisses the idea the reason American work so hard is to buy “stuff.” What he’s really saying is that Americans work hard because that’s what they love to do.” It is very hard to justify that the ad isn’t about promoting superiority when the product isn’t mentioned once in the text the actor reads, and isn’t even seen in the commercial until the very last few seconds. Further, any ad executive who believes that, in this world of instant global communication, an ad like this is going to remain viewed by only an American audience is either lying or exceedingly naive.
For me, the message of the commercial isn’t about selling a product, it is about selling the lie, which will sell the product. It is asking you to define yourself though outside things, like the car, the house, the pool, the stuff, and view yourself superior to those who define themselves differently, or do not have those things.
And what happens when we begin to view ourselves as superior? We separate. We become us vs. them. “They” no longer hold the same value as “us” and it becomes easier to do harm to another because we no longer believe that in harming that other we harm ourselves as well. We move into a world of justification and rationalization that skews our views and removes us from seeing the total picture of our actions.
This commercial is, again to me, a sign that those who believe in “ours is just another way, not a better way” are being heard. This commercial tells me that the strong appearance of what I do not wish to create means that what I DO wish to create is there, if not fully seen. That the powers that be see the pushback and are pushing harder to overwhelm the pushers with shiny messages intended to divert.
Right now Superiority is producing some very ugly results, and this commercial does nothing but highlight that ugliness, even as it cloaks the ugliness cleverly in the seductions of the current, old, paradigm.
(Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of, and Spiritual Helper at, the global website at www.cwghelpingoutreach.com She may be contacted at: Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)
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Do you think you laid eyes on this little item just by chance…? — Neale Donald Walsch
Worldwide Discussion: The People Join In
‘WE HAVE, BECAUSE OF THESE ILLUSIONS, LOST ALL COMMON SENSE’
Mewabe
The wars and rumors of wars we hear, the global economic collapse, the social unrest and uprisings, the overall fear that is felt by many people are all the symptoms of a very simple problem, which other individuals have addressed before.
I totally agree with Neale and other people’s assessment that the idea of separation is the cause of humanity having lost its spiritual way. Alan Watts spoke of this in the 60’s, and anyone who understands ancient teachings understands this.
This loss of spiritual understanding has led us to countless human conflicts and suffering, but it has also led us to conflicts with the natural environment, to an illusion of not only being separate from but above nature, and of being its masters.
Having created a few interesting technologies has given us an unrealistic sense of superiority over all life, and the delusion that, seemingly able to control nature to some degree, we could live independently of nature while growing our economies and our world population forever, without limits whatsoever.
We have, because of these illusions, lost all common sense. There is anger throughout the world because many feel that governments and societies are not fulfilling their part of the contract with the public, which is to endlessly create new jobs, to endlessly increase standards of living, to endlessly produce consumer goods, and to endlessly make life better than was that of the prior generation.
These things are not happening, so people feel totally cheated. They work hard, go to college, play by the rules, and jobs shrink, resources shrink, standards of living plummet while costs of living skyrocket. Populations are so completely out of touch with nature, which is, ultimately, life, and so totally immersed, mentally, in their social and cultural concepts and constructs, that they blame their governments and demand that they fix the problems that all of humanity has created by living in a state of complete disharmony with, and often in direct opposition to, the natural order or natural law.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is authored by a contributor to this global dialogue who posts here as “Mewabe.” It first appeared as an entry in the Comments section following this newspaper’s last headline item, Here we go again—now it’s Ukraine. That story posed the question: Will humanity’s behaviors of attack and violence continue forever? Is there no way to alter this pattern? It is Mewabe’s thought that a return to Right Relationship with Planet Earth itself must be the first step in changing humanity’s conduct.
The publishing of the considered opinion of contributors to this newspaper’s Comments sections is part of the expanding of the dialogue here, intended to widen the exchange of views among the people in this Global Conversation community.
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Anyone with open eyes could have seen the writing on the wall 2000 years ago. Many Native Americans saw it 500 years ago when the European invader came here and started cutting down the ancient forests and destroying the ecosystem. They understood that such a way of life couldn’t be sustained forever, precisely because they were not under the delusion of being separate from nature, unlike Euro-Americans.
It’s really simple: when you know you are not separate from nature, you plant your two feet on the ground and you take a realistic look around, and you know that you cannot consume more than the soil can produce, you cannot drink more potable water than the earth can generate, you cannot populate more than a given place can sustain, and you cannot discard more than can be reabsorbed by the earth, and you know you cannot discard toxins and other poisons that will find their way into your bloodstream or that of your descendants.
This is called living responsibly, and knowing that responsibility alone, which is an expression of love, respect and appreciation for what gives you life, can give you freedom.
What part of all this is so difficult to understand? Apparently all of it, as humanity keeps asking for more meaningless jobs, more rapid and endless growth, more opportunities to do everything faster, bigger and louder, and more meaningless gadgets and toxic products to buy and discard ever faster.
Until we regain some basic common sense, which means living in balance and harmony with nature in a sustainable manner while understanding that we are not separate from and above nature, there won’t be much hope for humans, and more wars, revolutions, economic collapses, and environmental disasters will come, and at an accelerated rate.
It is important to state that “We are all one”. But at this point, it may be more urgent to understand that we are one with the earth, because if we don’t, we won’t have a place to be all one except in the spirit world.
The scientific journal Neurology has published a groundbreaking study that has rocked our community.
The study found that 500,000 people died in 2010 from causes attributable to Alzheimer’s, six times more deaths from Alzheimer’s than previously thought.
These findings place Alzheimer’s almost on par with cancer deaths, yet Alzheimer’s receives a mere fraction of the research funding dedicated to cancer ($550 million compared to $5.7 billion annually).
Alzheimer’s is a cancer-size problem. Alzheimer’s requires a cancer-size response.
Researchers from the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Chicago found that Alzheimer’s was responsible for more than 500,000 deaths in 2010 – six times more deaths than previously reported by the CDC.
This news comes just weeks after the Director of the National Institute on Aging reported the United States would not be able to fulfill its commitment to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s by 2025 at its current level of funding.
If Congress does not dramatically increase funding for Alzheimer’s research, we will soon see Alzheimer’s deaths rise to one million a year.
The President’s recently released budget request for FY15 flat-lines funding for Alzheimer’s. Now it is up to Congress to lead and to act.
Urge your members of Congress to double the current level of funding for Alzheimer’s research and care in the FY15 budget and to implement a plan to increase Alzheimer’s funding to $2 billion a year over the next five years.
Thank you for your help in using this shocking news on Alzheimer’s deaths to give Congress the push it needs to dramatically increase funds for Alzheimer’s research.
Sincerely,
George Vradenburg
Chairman and Co-Founder
USAgainstAlzheimer’s
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More than 400 leading Alzheimer’s researchers agree that we can prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer’s by 2025 – and it could even be sooner if critical investments and reforms are made. We must SUBSTANTIALLY INCREASE funding for Alzheimer’s research in the next 5 years and we must DRAMATICALLY SHRINK the time it takes to get new, safe therapies to market.
USAgainstAlzheimer’s is a community of enraged and engaged individuals who have been touched by Alzheimer’s disease and are committed to achieving the bold and attainable goal of ending Alzheimer’s.
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Learn more at USAgainstAlzheimers.org
