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illicit, moises naim

When I watched the PBS documentary called ILLICIT I became increasingly saddened. And I wondered why so many people are using all kinds of methods to fill their pockets with millions and millions, at times billions, of dollars at the expense of human beings and our planet? I watched an hour’s worth of talk on money laundering, copied goods transported around the world (including medicines), killings for profit, people used as slaves with no apparent means of freeing themselves, And I thought “the truth hurts” can be applied here. Then I got really antsy as I saw all the confiscated stuff being destroyed, and began wondering about the earth with all the destroyed confiscated stuff being thrown at it. So much was going on in this PBS documentary that it started to become difficult to watch.

The documentary was based on Moises Naim’s book ILLICIT which was named “One of the Best Books of 2005” by the Washington Post. www.moisesnaim.com .

It’s been said many times that the BIG rule of life is to not violate ourselves or others. And though some think that lining their pockets with money gotten by illicit means is okay, it would seem that the Intelligence of the Universe will one day catch up with them. It’s amazing that some think the whole purpose of life is to satisfy their needs with ludicrous amounts of consumption. If they were to look around and see the earth and its beauty, and the way the Energy that created and guides it does so in harmony, tranquility, peace, joy, and if they were to go off by themselves for a time, and recapture the other part of themselves, maybe they’d understand that “conspicuous consumption” is a substandard way of living, and one day they just might have to pay the piper.

The simple truth is that more and more is not the answer. If our hearts are empty, and we don’t allow the beauty of the world, and its people to enter, then no amount of stuff will help.

It’s true that, on a small scale, many of us are guilty of using, or purchasing, copied goods. We think it’s only a small offense, or, it’s so easy, we don’t think about it at all. But . . . “One illicit . . . transaction always leads to another.” -Burke

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john perkins, psychonavigation

Last November 2007 I bought a book at Robin’s Bookstore, the oldest independent bookstore in Philadelphia. Something coerced me into picking it up and perusing it. I had another book in hand, but found myself purchasing and walking out with THE WORLD IS AS YOU DREAM IT Teachings from the Amazon and Andes, by New York Times bestselling author of CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN, John Perkins. I cried as I read many of the passages, and cried even more when I read the Epilogue. If you were to read this book I think you would understand.

In an interview On Spiritual Travel, Shamanism, and Consciousness, with Dennis Hughes, Share Guide Publisher, is written: “John Perkins spent three years in the Peace Corps in Ecuador and then became a consultant to the United Nations and World Bank, then a businessman in my own right. . . .” The interviewer asked him to give a definition of shamanism, he said his favorite short definition is:

“A shaman is a man or woman who journeys to other worlds in order to obtain power, wisdom and energy from those worlds to affect change in this world. When we talk about other worlds, we can use terms like the unconscious or the subconscious – there are a lot of different terms that can be used.”

At the end of the interview he said:

“The shamans like to tell us that Mother Earth isn’t in danger, this idea of needing to save the planet is ridiculous. That human beings aren’t going to destroy the planet. But the planet may just shake us all off like a bunch of fleas. She’s giving us a lot of warnings right now. El Nino as a message is a great gift. Climate change, the fires that have swept through the Indonesian rainforest, the drought which for the first time ever has hit the Amazon, are all amazing warnings. Receding glaciers. . . and so she’s giving us a message and this is a very exciting time for human beings to live in and to react. Because we don’t want to be shaken off. Yet it really doesn’t matter a whole lot if we do get shaken off, for we know that everything shapeshifts. We never die, we never leave. Einsteinian science confirms that matter and enery never leave they just change – they shapeshift. But since we’re getting these messages from the earth, it’s an incredibly wonderful opportunity to be able to respond to the challenge.”
www.shareguide.com
www.shareguide.com/Perkins.html

John Perkins’s organization Dream Change Coalition leads trips to the Highlands of Ecuador to work with the Shuar and Quechua and he gives workshops in the USA and in Europe. On the back cover of the book is written:

…Now these shamans are turning their wisdom and power to the problem of curing a new kind of illness-that created by the industrial world’s dream of dominating and exploiting nature.
John Perkins tells the story of these remarkable shamans and of the U.S. medical doctors, psychologists, and scientists who have gone with him to learn the techniques of dream change. These shamanic teachings have sparked a revolution in modern concepts about healing, the subconscious, and the powers each of us has to alter individual and communal reality.

John has used the knowledge he gained from master shamans, around the world in his successful career as a management consultant, president of a US energy company, and as founder of the Dream Change Coalition, an organization that inspires executives to clean up pollution, reshape corporate goals, and form Earth-honoring partnerships with indigenous cultures. www.dreamchange.org
www.johnperkins.org

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edith wharton

Have you read AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY EDITH WHARTON A BACKWARD GLANCE? I’m not sure how this book became mine, but I started reading it recently. It’s a gentle book to read before sleeping. It’s written lightly – hovering on the surface – at least so far. Edith Wharton was born in 1862, and if you have any inclination to glimpse how the rich lived in New York City, the surrounding areas, and abroad at that period, you’ll like this book. She doesn’t weigh the reader down with problems of any kind, which makes reading before bed pleasant, and yet the book has substance and through her eyes we gain insight into how things were then.

She knew the “important” people of those times, and comments on those associations, always skimming the surface. She appreciated the fact that she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, and her remembrances are light and airy, at least in book form, even when she writes about loss of money, death,, war, etc. However, as a person she was “impossibly fussy” regarding just about everything concerning herself, so says Louis Auchincloss who wrote the Introduction. This is a sentence in his Introduction: “What room was there for the second rate in books, pictures, flowers, excursions, meals, friends, when the first rate was there to be culled?” And in the book she suggests this, more or less, about herself.

The “impossibly fussy” in her possibly gave us her wonderful stories.

www.edithwharton.org
www.edithwhartonsociety.org

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looking outside the box

Kevin Trudeau’s book, NATURAL CURES “THEY” DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT, has sold over 10 million copies. It’s a #1 New York Times Bestseller. It’s also an eye opener. Have you read it? I started to last week.

That said, I don’t want to become a bore again. I used to talk to friends about this ‘n that way of doing things regarding healing, and I got weary of seeing their eyes roll way up into their sockets. Now I understand that just because I like the subject doesn’t mean everybody does. I think I’ve corrected that fault because sometimes a friend will say, “You knew that and didn’t tell me? And I’ll say, “Yes, because you, my friend, gave me the hairy eyeball whenever I talked about looking outside the box for anything having to do with healing body mind spirit.”

There’s magic out there and at times we need to look outside the box, or as someone said, “Get rid of the box.” It’s that simple.

Imagine!

 

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oprah and eckhart and a 10-week online web event

Eckhart Tolle’s book A NEW EARTH: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose was announced as new pick for Oprah’s Book Club, and together Oprah and Eckhart will have online Web classes in order to study A NEW EARTH, “. . . but not as an academic subject or in order to acquire new theories or beliefs.” www.eckharttolle.com

Oprah’s worldwide classroom begins on Monday, 3 March, at 9/8c. It’s a free Web event. You can reserve a seat and find out what you need for the first class at www.oprah.com

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seth, a book; gary renard, more books

After reading SETH SPEAKS and now up nights reading THE NATURE OF PERSONAL REALITY, two books channeled by Jane Roberts, I’ll say this, it’s all really, really intriguing. There was a time when I’d hesitate to talk about a book that was channeled. That’s changed. The information in these books can only enhance one’s life and death. The thing is that this kind of information contributes immensely to a life lived consciously and powerfully, and a death of peace and joy. And besides, if we really sat and pondered all those other things we were taught that tend to stretch the imagination, well, why not this also. www.sethcenter.com

As I walked along South Street recently trying to figure out the lay of the Philadelphia land, I came across the bookshop Garland of Letters at 527 South Street. In front to the side of the entrance were a stack of magazines. I took the one called EVOLVE, and glanced inside. I hadn’t heard of “international best selling author” Gary Renard before reading his article in the magazine. He wrote about A Course in Miracles, forgiveness, death, the Mayan calendar, changes in the world, and there’s more. www.garyrenard.com It would seem that checking out this author can only be a good thing. And he talks about his ‘ascended masters,’ Arten and Pursah. Oh, yes.

In the book SETH SPEAKS Seth also talks about 2012 not being the end of the world, and he elaborates beautifully on what’s to come. www.sethlearning center.org . Gary Renard has a somewhat similar view about this topic which many were concerned about as the 21 century approached.

It’s a sunny, fairly warm day here. Hope it’s that way for you. Enjoy!

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seth speaks

Have you read SETH SPEAKS by Jane Roberts? It’s a book that opens one’s mind to an extraordinary way of looking at our selves, the way we think, the way we live, our world, the universe, etcetera. If you are a searcher and want to delve into other possibilities, this is a book worth considering. If, at the moment, you’re not a searcher, consider it an interesting novel. www.sethlearningcenter.org www.sethcenter.com

This is what’s written in the book about reincarnation: “. . . It is not correct, therefore, to suppose that your actions in this life are caused by a previous existence, or that you are being punished in this life for crimes of a past one. The lives are simultaneous.”

There’s more, lots more.

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karen maezen miller, momma zen

There’s no doubt anymore, autumn is on its way. Last week I saw the beautiful Catskill foliage welcoming the new season, although where I sit the trees are still holding on to their green color. That’ll change soon, too. The humidity is gone, it’s been pouring throughout the past three nights sweeping away last week’s humidity, and a cool breeze passing by actually feels invigorating.

Yesterday someone showed a book to me, and it opened to the perfect page considering the time of year. This is what was written: “Do not be attracted by the sounds of spring or take pleasure in seeing a spring garden. When you see autumn colors, do not be partial to them. You should allow the four seasons to advance in one viewing, and see an ounce and a pound with an equal eye.” -Dogen Zenji, “Instruction for the Tenzo”. The book is MOMMA ZEN by Karen Maezen Miller. I hope it’s alongside all the other books written for new parents; it seems a good balance. www.mommazen.blogspot.com

Ahh, back to autumn.

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joseph murphy, power of your subconscious mind

There’s a book that’s been in bookstores for decades and it seems to click with many people. It’s a book that doesn’t stay in my possession very long. It’s replaced when I find one in a used bookshop. I love used bookshops because they’re full of wonderful surprises. My newest purchase of The Power of Your Subconscious Mind indicates that in 1987 it was in its thirty-ninth printing.

Writers of these kind of books tell readers to first read the book without highlighting, underlining or feeling a need to comment in any way. Let the mind relax and absorb the words. Don’t try to understand it if it’s your first reading. Then read it again and again. Many times we read a book similar to The Power of Your Subconscious Mind and a passage that went unnoticed for a long time suddenly pops out at us. Often it’s at a time when we most need to read these words and when we’re ready to absorb their meaning.

There are always those people who will say, nah, I don’t believe in that stuff, and they go along their way continuing to inflict pain and suffering on themselves, and others. The thing about Life is that if you never try, and just stay the same, you’ll never know. . . . That makes perfect sense. Doesn’t it?

In this book is a wonderful chapter called “Your Subconscious MInd and Marital Problems”. If this particular subject is a concern in any way in your life, this chapter can clarify many misconceptions we’ve managed to accumulate through the years regarding marriage. However, you don’t want to go directly into reading this chapter without first reading and understanding what comes before it.

“But as we rise to higher levels of consciousness-as we attain higher viewpoints of life, then the very laws of nature tend to change. Also the electrical phenomena of life change. The energies of life are different. The norm of living changes. The actual realities of life are different. The limitations become fewer. The very “facts of life” change as we rise in consciousness! This is why miracles are possible. They are manifestations of higher laws which become available to higher levels of consciousness.” -THE ADVENT OF THE COSMIC VIEWPOINT -Bryant Reeve

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manly p. hall

Once upon a time at Quest Bookstore in Manhattan, I discovered the writings of Manly P. Hall. In those days, Quest carried only his booklets and in them he wrote about specific topics. The booklets, writing style, and information were, well, I’ll just say, wonderful. Manly P. Hall was a searcher. He spent a lifetime in the libraries of the world.

I have his book, THE SECRET TEACHINGS OF ALL AGES, next to me. In the front of the book are these words, “This book is dedicated to the Rational Soul of the World.” The back of the book notes, “Manly P. Hall (1901-1990), widely regarded as a sage and teacher steeped in the wisdom of antiquity, was one of the leading esoteric scholars of the twentieth century.” He founded The Philosophical Research Library in Los Angeles, www.prs.org. It has the most extensive alchemical libraries.

In the Forward, Henry L. Drake writes, “This volume reveals that the lore and legendry of the world, the scriptures and sacred books and the great philosophical systems all tell the same story. Human ambition may produce the tyrant; divine aspiration will produce the adept.” And in the Preface, Manly P. Hall writes, “To avoid a future of war, crime, and bankruptcy, the individual must begin to plan his own destiny, and the best source of the necessary information comes down to us through the writings of the ancients.”

How does one describe a book that offers the reader so much? Maybe one shouldn’t even try-only say that learning about the ancient teachings is crucial to our “soul, mind, and body.” In my heart I’ve always felt that it is our inherent nature to soar, if we’d simply agree with ourselves to do so, and move forward in that direction.