Archive for the ‘Religion’ Category

>In India, there are an estimated 40 million widows. Ostracized and shunned by both family and friends simply because they no longer have a husband, thousands of them actually trek to the city of Vrindavan as tradition holds that dying there will free them from the karma of returning to such a fate again. They live on the streets, prohibited from re-marriage, heads shaved, wearing no jewelery or any color other than white.
   Some widows of India have begun to reject this condemnation, a creation of someone else’s reality, and by their own thoughts, words and actions, create a new reality in which they can live based upon their intrinsic value as human beings.  
   They are starting small, as with all such movements, by breaking free of the external definitions and limitations placed upon them. They are setting up shelters, growing their hair, wearing jewelry and colors, and daring to laugh and dance.
   The women of India are a wonderful example of how we co-create new realities and bring to us that which we really want. Whether it’s a reality we ourselves have created or one crated by another individual or group, the first step in changing what you’re experiencing is changing how you think about it. The second step is replacing what you have been experiencing with the new thought of what you want to experience. The third step is giving voice and action to your new creation.
   As you embark upon the creation of a new reality, it’s important to remember two key elements: First, that you must focus on what you are creating with all of your attention. Jesus said, Seek and ye shall find.”  He didn’t say “Dabble and ye shall find.”  When you seek, there is a concentration upon that which you seek that has pinpoint determination. To seek is to eliminate from your quest all that does not support your quest.  
   Secondly, know that your emotions are the energy that fuel your seeking. Seek with joy. Heaven and hell are states of being that we create within our own minds and manifest within our own lives. Whether in the thought stage or the action stage, go in pursuit of your creation with a song in your heart and a bounce in your step. Feeling otherwise just means you are not being true to what it is you really want…or who you really are.
   There are so many examples. Moses and the Israelites leaving Egypt, Rosa Parks and African Americans refusing to sit in the back of the bus, Lech Walesa and the Polish people standing for democracy. These and countless others have been way-showers lighting the way for how to create, and co-create, new realities.
   If you want to help the women of Vrindavan this day, it isn’t necessary to contribute money or join the Peace Corps. Instead take some time to create through your own thoughts, words and actions a world where ALL life forms are honored simply because of their inherent value and where joy is the prevailing emotion. 
   In my reality, this approach works.

>Yesterday I got an e-mail requesting that I speak to a group of successful male entrepreneurs in their 40’s. I also got an e-mail from a pro-Israeli political action committee asking that I sign a letter to the President asking the U.S. to stop sending financial aid to the Palestinian government. And then I noticed on CNN that the Israeli government is going to release funds to the Palestinians. 
    All of these are connected. Want to know how?
    The entrepreneurs don’t want me to speak on productivity or sustainability, the want me to speak on connectivity. They want to know how to feel less fatigued and more able to connect to themselves, their wives and their children.  I see this as a direct sign that there is hope for peace in the Middle East after all. 
    Of course, you’re saying to yourself, “Now there’s a leap.”
    Have a little faith, I’ll get there.
    Things change when a majority of people make up their minds, and place their attention and their actions on wanting them to change. 
    Think about it.  What is the likelihood that 15 years ago those same entrepreneurs would have been looking for a guest speaker to help them get closer to their families?  Maybe one…maybe two of them (at the most) might have had fleeting thoughts about the subject. But I’m pretty certain they would not have pursued a solution…and certainly not publicly and in a professional setting. But, at some point enough of them decided it was a vital and necessary path to pursue and so they are acting on it.
    It’s called “the tipping point”…some number within group behavior that when reached creates a change in the behavior of the group. That’s what happened with those entrepreneurs.
    That’s what I believe can happen in the Middle East and elsewhere.
    The political action committee thinks that cutting off funds to the Palestinians will curtail their ability to fund terrorist activity against Israel. Israel, on the other hand, seems to think that showing moderate Palestinians that they are willing to reach out and help them will create allies for peace. 
    I know there are those who say Israel has tried it before and this kind of faith never works. 
    I disagree.
    It wasn’t war that brought the Israelites out of Egypt. It was the contagious faith Moses had in a new outcome. It wasn’t war that made a 2000+ year impact on human consciousness, it was the compelling  faith Jesus had in a new outcome.  It wasn’t war that expelled the British form India, it was Ghandi’s faith in how to prevail.  
    There exists a tipping-point in the Middle East where enough people in the world will place there attention and their actions on peace as the most viable solution. 
    That tipping point could be me.
    Or it could be you.
      Have a little faith.
   
 
   

>I gave my husband a GPS (Global Positioning System) for his car on Father’s Day. Yesterday, he told me that some auto dealers are now giving them away with the purchase of a new car. I have to admit, it is impressive. We drove our daughter to camp this past weekend and the GPS really gives you precise directions, and instantaneous recalculation, should you miss a turn. The one I got him also speaks the directions out loud in a clear, friendly voice.
   Did you know that each one of us is born with an internally hard-wired GPS? It’s called a “God Positioning System.”  
   The GPS for cars (and how it works) is just a mirror image of our own internal GPS. In cars, the basic data has to first be gathered, then input into software that upon your inquiry pulls up the relevant mapping.  If you’ve purchased the higher end model, the system then speaks to you…guiding you in the most direct way to get where it is you have indicated you want to go.  Should you get off track, the system knows it instantly, recalculates the new route based upon your new location, then advises you accordingly. Sometimes there’s a brief delay when it’s recalculating (I tended to become impatient when that happened).   
   The auto GPS, while advanced technology, is rather limited in comparison to the internal GPS.  Basically, the God Positioning System works the same way but with more extras. 
   Your internal system works this way. At birth (or before, depending upon what you believe) data is gathered (the possible places you may go and experiences you may have during your life) then the data is entered into the “software” (your consciousness).  During your lifetime, whenever you want to know how to get to where you want to be (career, values, relationships, health etc.) you simply turn on the GPS (access your consciousness), enter your desired destination, then receive the most direct and beneficial route to getting there. In fact, the internal system even has a friendly and loving voice that speaks to you as well. That voice comes through your own direct channel on the G-d frequency. No need for costly, maintenance-dependent satellites! 
   All you have to do is turn on your system, input the question, await the direction, and listen. As with the auto GPS, there may be a delay in re-calculation within your internal system. When that occurs, it simply requires patience on your part. You can be assured that once you clearly input your desired destination, the route will eventually be provided.  
   Listening is key to either GPS.  No matter how much you spend for the one in your car, or how much you say you are trying to access the one with which you are wired, unless you are willing to get quiet enough to hear the guidance, it’s not possible to benefit from the advanced “technology.”
   The truly amazing thing about your internal GPS is that the data input is being updated and revised instantaneously each second of your life. No waiting for some techie somewhere to acquire street name changes or add new lodging destinations to the existing mapping. Since God is the source of all of the information within your internal system, the latest and best data for your highest good is available at any moment, regardless of external changes to your environment or internal changes to your physical body. 
     I did a lot of research before I purchased the system I gave my husband. There are so many manufacturers, so many models, and such a large price range to choose from.  I probably spent about 10 hours all together.
   You can have the God Positioning System today. There’s only one manufacturer and all the models are free of charge. No shipping or handling costs added in, either.   
    Just turn on the system, ask and listen. 
    Oh, and during times of re-calculation, try and remember that patience makes all the difference.

>    Co-operation is a lot like co-creation.  It takes the combined efforts of two people to blend and successfully manifest a harmonious outcome.  I am reminded of the Buddhist parable where the monk retires to a cave and meditates for 20 years to gain supreme Enlightenment.  Finally, achieving his goal and complete inner peace, he descends from the mountain.  Arriving at the local market place teeming with people, he proceeds to get into an argument with the first person he meets.       
    Inner peace and Enlightenment, it seems, are much easier in a vacuum.
    It’s the rest of the people on the planet who make it all so difficult. Or are all those other people here precisely to challenge our beliefs and require us to live them as well? 
    I suspect that if we were not meant to learn co-operation and co-creation…each of us would have had our own planet.  The mere presence of everyone else must mean something. I suspect that what it means depends upon what we do with it.  If we see everyone else as separate from us and, basically, an intrusion upon our plans and our reality, then the meaning we give to their existence is one of annoyance and distraction.
    If, however, we see them as part of an overall Creation in which we jointly co-operate and co-create new outcomes, then the meaning we give to their existence is one of gratitude and support.
     I am many things, none of which is delusional.  It’s one thing to know all of this in theory. It’s even one thing to believe it deeply.  It’s quite another to put that belief into action, especially where and when our interests and goals differ.
    Perhaps the best way to approach those differing interests and goals is to remember that each of us has patterns of thought and behavior that, like muscle, solidify and become stronger with use and over time. Its takes both effort and time to modify or adapt these patterns
     Simply put, it’s called patience.  We must have patience with ourselves and others as we try and change patterns to better serve ourselves and others.
    I had been listening to some very profound, spiritual tapes this past week and reading a great book on healing through thought. As a result of both, I was feeling very peaceful and grateful for all the spiritual guidance.
    This morning my 14 year old daughter behaved in a way she would like to change, but has not yet been able to master. I responded in a way that I would like to change, but have not yet been able to master. My husband reacted to both of us in a way he is working on changing but has not yet been able to master.
    I felt like the monk in the marketplace and wanted to go back into the cave.
    Instead, I’ll just be patient.

>  The Reverend Jerry Falwell died yesterday and so did Yolanda King, daughter of the Reverend Martin Luther King so I think it’s a good morning to spend a little extra time thinking about G-d, religion and peace. What lessons can we take from the lives of these two powerful men that will serve us in ours?
   Both Reverends had a strong relationship with “the powers that be.”  Reverend Falwell was a moving force for the Christian Right, the Conservative wing of the Republican Party and a confidant with access to the most powerful political figures of our time. Reverend King was a unique political force of his own with ties to the liberal wing of the Democrat Party, an outsider who gained a voice he used to reach out to all people on behalf of the injustices done to his own.
   Both men devoted their lives to the messages of Jesus Christ and could not have done it differently had they set out with that intention.  
   Reverend Falwell was noted for being judgmental and divisive, holding strong beliefs about blame, rightness, wrongness, and G-d’s favor. To the contrary, Reverend King preached the politics of inclusion, the inherent value of every human being, and the importance of the concept of unity among all people.
   The lives lived by these two men, both “men of G-d” need be a lesson and reminder of how in the name of G-d we create, by our behavior and our voices, either harmony and peace or division and war.
   We have learned an enormous amount over the past 50 years about human consciousness. At the quantum level, we have discovered laws operating that defy reason as we know it and in some instances witness occurrences that contradict long held beliefs about our reality and how, in fact, everything appears to be connected to and influenced by everything else in the Universe. I’m sure it’s inevitable that we will come to know, with certainty, that every thought we have and every word we utter impacts our reality and in a very real sense creates the world we live in. 
   If peace is our goal, and G-d is our guiding force, I suggest that the disparity between how these two men of G-d lived their lives and spoke their truth be a guiding lamp unto us all. 
   However, some lamps provide better light than others and thereby enable us to see a bit clearer and a bit farther. So too with the light reflected off these men.
   Reverend Falwell provided us with a dim light that created many shadows and dark places making it difficult to find not only ourselves, but one another. On the other hand, Reverend King’s light still shines brightly, providing a clear and accessible path to oneness and, therefore, peace.
   I don’t know what religious experts or the historical figure Jesus would think or say about this but I know one thing for certain. Reverend King lived a Christ Consciousness directed life and should remain for us an example of how unity is the goal and peace is the way.
   Today, may I suggest that you take Reverend King’s message out there with you and watch how it changes everything you do and everyone you meet.