Category Archives: Hope

See With the Heart 

Once in a seldom, precious while, I come across a YouTube conversation that makes my heart skip a beat, one which grabs my attention so powerfully that I feel compelled to listen again and again, parsing the content word-for-word to let the message completely register and deeply sink in.

Such was the recent exchange between Dr. Joe Dispenza and Russel Brand, You Can Program People To Do Anything. It lasts less than eleven minutes. But it’s packed with vital questions and exciting ideas. I’ll give you the highlights.  

Spoiler alert. To my mind, the upshot is identical with what my teacher told me from the beginning. Something easy to say. Harder to understand. And even more difficult to actually do. That is, SEE WITH THE HEART. 

From my experience as an ethnology researcher (interviewing people and drawing conclusions from what they say), I got in the habit of transcribing conversations. Because I found that of what’s said, we hear only a fraction. Revisiting, listening word-for-word, tells us volumes about what we missed, and why. 

After the third go-round, here’s the gist of their interview, with an added bonus: my own comments. It’s now a three-way conversation. My input is identified either directly as Me or [in brackets].  

I’ll circle back at end to the basic message. Humanity will evolve by learning how to see with the heart. 

Russel Brand: I believe that in order to significantly change the world, we have to find a way of cooperating.  We have to recognize that people have complementary but very different cultural identities. One of our priorities must be to diffuse the culture war. STOP squabbling about the differences between traditionalism and progressivism.  

ME. Yes. “Unity in diversity.” Focus on Center all share in common rather than on the surface of manifestation. Adherence to the Core is the necessary starting point, lacking which, nothing of enduring value is possible. With awareness of the God-within each and every one of us, all IS possible.  

Russel Brand: In a country as vast as the United States, you will inevitably have communities with vastly different views on a range of cultural issues. But in order to make any progress, we’re going to have to start addressing where real [political/ economic] power is centered.   

Me: And, by contrast, where True, ultimate POWER rests, at the CENTER of the Life Wheel. 

Russel Brand:  It seems to me that there is state power in Washington DC. The pharmaceutical industry exerts a huge influence, both financially and politically. Big tech has the ability to create a surveillance state. There’s a high level of infiltration of big tech by various government agencies.  

What concerns me is the challenge of overcoming a hegemony without a counter-hegemony. [We need a greater counter-balance, one sufficient to tip the scales.] 

The old argument was that the only thing that could possibly defeat free market capitalism is some kind of centrist, state-led, left-wing project. 

But with the fall of the Soviet Union, there’s total suspicion and lack of interest in the politics of the old left. People don’t want to be told what to do by any central authority. 

Now. How do we use these ideas about individual awakening to create and coordinate a decentralized, counter-cultural movement that doesn’t sound like it’s being made-up on the spot by people who are just dream catchers? 

Dr. Joe: If you study the neuroscience of culture, we share the same biology. We share the same brain. We have certain universal traits in common. We smile when we’re happy. We frown when we’re sad. We grab a stick with an opposing thumb. Structure and function are highly related. Those are universal traits.   

Then we have our individual traits that make us unique. How the individual brain is wired is our unique fingerprint. 

Culture is what bridges individuality with universality. [A culture is defined by its prevailing belief system, an agreed-upon set of basic values.]  

For the most part, culture is defined by the past: what has worked over generations. And traditions vary by time and place. 

But look at great people in history who changed their culture. Gandhi, William Wallace, Joan of Arc, Martin Luther King, [Christ].  

They showed people [by their living example of courageous action] that there was an alternative future that they could actually believe or perceive in their mind. 

It’s not easy to do, because you can’t see that future if you’re living by the emotions of the past. [In that state, you walk right by any other option as if invisible, because there’s no neural circuitry in place allowing one to perceive it.] 

What you have to do is, you’ve got to get people out of their resting state. They have to become inspired. [They have to have HOPE.] They have to become enthusiastic — theos — filled with God. 

They have to become motivated. [They have to be stirred. Set in motion. Mobilized.] When they are moved emotionally, then that energy — that positive, uplifting emotion — causes them to see the same future as that leader sees. 

When you get people to see that same future, when they have that same clear intention and they combine that vision with an elevated emotion, you change people’s state of being. 

Now. Get enough people doing that. [Amplify the effect by numbers.] What happens is, you get an emergent consciousness. In biology, emergence is such an amazing thing. When you see a flock of birds flying in the same direction or a school of fish moving together, they appear to be a larger, single organism. 

When you study that principle in biology, you think that there is one leader everybody’s following. It looks like a top-down phenomenon. In fact, it’s not. It’s a bottom-up phenomenon. Everybody‘s leading. Everybody’s behaving in the same way. 

Me: Take, for example, the emergence of Quantum Paradigm leaders, each saying essentially the same thing, but addressing a specific audience in its own language. A short list includes: Dr. Joe Dispenza (who speaks to medical community in the language of science.) There are his cohorts, Greg Bradon and Bruce Lipton. There’s Dr. David R. Hawkins. Tony Robbins. Tara Brach and Eckart Tolle. Marissa Peer and Christiane Northrup. Zach Bush.  Donna Eden and Inna Segal. Nick Ortner and Brad Yates. Mantak Chia and Sadguru. Alana Fairchild & Colette Baron-Reed. Pam Gregory and Bryan Colter. Michael Sandler and guests. Alana Dannan and Michael Salla. Simon Parkes and the Connecting Consciousness community.  

Dr. Joe: This synchronized movement gives the appearance of a larger, unified single organism, one which becomes more sustainable for that species. 

But we have a stigma in our minds. If individuals lead with too much passion, in the end, they’re killed. Whether Jesus Christ, Abraham Lincoln, William Wallace, the consequence of speaking Truth is that you lose your life.   

But the real question is, “What if everybody’s leading?” You just can’t take out everybody. 

Me: Yes! “I am Spartacus.” I am Spartacus.” “I am Spartacus.” 

“I am V for Vendetta.” “I am V.” “I am V.”  Every one of us takes a stand to end tyranny and abuse.  

This attitude/energy is spontaneously, synchronistically arising, especially amongst the working classes and youth in Europe and U.S., as well as in China and Russia. 

Dr. Joe: This is a really important time. [We are at critical mass.] 

The coming emergent consciousness has to be built on principles that people can actually wrap their minds around.  

Right now, the condition of the world, the way things are going, is based on self-interest.  

You can control people when you control their emotions.     

When you control their emotions, you control their attention; and  

     If you can capture a person’s attention, you can capture their energy,  

because where you place your attention is where you place your energy.  

So YOU CAN PROGRAM PEOPLE TO DO ANYTHING  

based on the emotion that they feel.    

And fear is a powerful emotion. 

Fear is abused to lead the general population away from personal sovereignty and freedom, to submitting to an authority figure. 

Me: Healthy, natural and prudent fear has been weaponized to achieve unnatural, ulterior ends – to enslave the masses emotionally, economically, politically. In collusion, politicians, media and big tech control the masses by manipulating their emotions. As a result, many are driven by negative survival emotions – primarily fear juiced by hatred or greed.  

Dr. Joe: So when a new consciousness emerges, it won’t be based on externals [matter changing matter] like diet, crystals, colonics. 

 Me: It will be based on a fundamental paradigm shift, from the materialistic paradigm of empirical science to the holistic, quantum paradigm — the unified field of reality. There will be a shift in basic value systems, away from fear and separation, towards compassion and cooperation.  

Dr. Joe: It’s game time. NOW is when something else –– [deeper, truer] has to be born [re-membered, restored] in human beings that is already INNATE in us. That is the power to organize as a species.  

When we begin to heal one another, inform one another, respect one another. When we begin to shine for one another, stand up for one another, share right information and demonstrate that there are better ways of doing things, the emerging consciousness will arise.  

Russel Brand: I like that answer, Joe. I like it a lot.  

I like that leadership can be shared. Leadership can be cooperative. Indeed, it must be if we’re going to truly create new models. 

And in order to do that, we have to have a shared set of values. And we have to be willing to overcome this current tendency towards extreme divisiveness. 

There is clearly a requirement for us to be able to hold that apparent paradox. In one way, we are insignificant. An individual in limitless space is insignificant. But as a point of attention, all reality is held within my individual consciousness. There is nothing real that isn’t held within the field of my awareness. Therefore, the totality of reality is held within my individual nature. [We are each a fractal mirror of the whole.]  

I like that you talked about visions and visionaries. We can elicit and articulate a shared vision. Then that can be our mandala.   

Me: Exactly. That’s what the archetypal Life Wheel which embodies the Unified Field Theory actually is. A universal mandala. 

Russel Brand: That can be what we head towards together.  

Me: Yes. That which impels humanity towards a better future will be the remembered ability to SEE WITH THE HEART. 

Russel Brand: That’s what I’m really trying to understand. I’m trying to cultivate a sense that you have more to gain from forgiving and loving people on the other end of a cultural spectrum than you have by vanquishing them.  [As Einstein warned, It’s a matter of human survival!!!]

NOW, to be part of this convergent wave of the future, like and share this message of hope to amplify its effect. Let it go viral! I’d be most grateful.

—————————- 

Patricia West is author of The Common Sense Book of Change and Two Sides of a Coin: Lao Tze’s Common Sense Way of Change. She’s currently working on The Phoenix Response: Dying To Be Reborn – in the Same Lifetime. 

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The Qualification That Matters

In Timing Is Everything, I made a request:

For those new to my work, just for now, please give me the benefit of the doubt. Let the ideas stand on their merit. I’ll post another blog soon giving you good reason to trust the validity of what I say.

Here, I keep that promise. 

I start with a quote from Already Enough:

By now, you’re probably asking yourself, “Who is she to say all these things?” In fact, I earlier thought there are others doing related work who are far better qualified in terms of public recognition to offer the Unified Field Theory to the world. Dr. Joe Dispenza, Gregg Braden and Bruce Lipton, for example.

Gregg Braden, in particular, seemed a likely candidate. He left a military complex career motivated by the same dread of nuclear war that drove Einstein. He asked out loud for the one thing which would persuade the world that life is far too precious to destroy in war. And I answered him that the Life Wheel with all its implications is that one thing he’d asked for. No response.

In another video, Braden described physicists having a problem in their search for the Unified Field Theory because they’re unwilling to include the “consciousness factor.” Again, I contacted him. The Quantum Paradim does just that, I said. It includes the consciousness factor and embodies that elusive Unified Field Theory. No response.

So it boils down to the story of The Little Red Hen. Remember Diane Muldrow’s classic children’s story? The little red hen calls for help in planting her seeds. After no one comes forward, she goes ahead and does the work herself. Just so, I decided. I have to plant these seed ideas myself.

On the one hand, does it really matter who the messenger is? It’s the message that counts. If the truth of what I say resonates and the results work for you, the message speaks for itself. It stands on its own merit.

On the other hand, if you really believe that the messenger matters, then truth be told, the best of what I know comes from personal experience.

Which isn’t to say I haven’t paid my dues. I’ve earned the traditional academic credentials to string behind my name. (B.A. from Oberlin College. M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.) I’ve published books. Early years are described in Who I Am To Say.

But in this light, they don’t much matter. In fact, most of what I learned in schools later had to be unlearned.

The qualification that genuinely matters here is that I have a good teacher. A really, really good teacher. And that we have your best interests at heart.

* * *

OA’S CALLING CARD 

As a young adult, my Life Wheel centered around the goal of becoming a worthy musician. Every sector was organized around this single purpose.

Yet never once did I consider earning a living as a violin teacher. The ones I worked with were way too narrow. They trained wrist and fingers. They knew about fingering the notes written on sheet music, but the heart and soul of sound wasn’t their department.

I had to design my own course of learning.

I chose Oberlin College because it allowed me to balance a top-notch liberal arts program with a world-class music school. I didn’t major in music. Instead, I studied violin privately as an “amateur” (a music lover), but majored in world literature and intellectual history.

I wanted to understand the ideas that drove great composers and their patrons. I had to delve into scriptures to feel the devotion that inspired Bach and Mozart.

I needed to know about the physics of sound vibration. I haunted the workshop of a local violin maker to watch how he built and maintained his instruments.

To me, the physical body was a resonant instrument. Tuning it was essential to my calling. Breathing, exercise and personal self-maintenance were integral to my overall vision.

The musicians I performed with in ensembles and orchestras were my friends and family in spirit. We went to concerts together and socialized afterwards at the local pub.

* * *

All that changed when I committed to spiritual practice. Music had become an addiction. To grow further, I had to release it. Go cold turkey.

But by the time I met Old Avatar, I’d reached the end of my rope. I put out a call to the Universe. “Why am I here? If you want me to stay, let me know why!” I was ready. He appeared.

Being a worthy student quickly became the center around which I organized my life. OA had no use for a space cadet on board. I needed grounding. Temporary jobs got me out into the community, where I picked up a broad range of practical business skills to help build a new business.

As a hobby, I took the Book of Change with me wherever I went. I consulted it to think about how the organizations I moved through were run and how things could be done better.

Later, I took a permanent job working the overnight shift at the Wisconsin State Relay Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. In effect, it gave me over three years to read, think and pray during the long, quiet nights.

There was more than a little irony in serving the deaf community. The world at large, it seemed, was just as deaf to so much that’s going on.

And truth is way stranger than fiction. OA is, in fact, a Universal Avatar. This is just one of his universes. From my point of view, in meeting him, I’d won the lottery of life.

Lao Tze describes his influence. “The presence of true masters is only suspected.” His Universal Mind permeates the field. Those open to his magic respond and all is done.

For example, when he needed a better, faster computer, his design spontaneously appeared on the market. Popular movies mirrored his life story. Meditation teachers echoed his MPI standard: “Be AWARE of what you’re doing and why.”

* * *

OA’s way of showing affection was to gently tap the center of my forehead. This blessing always made me smile, received as a kindly reminder to focus. “Get smart.” “Remember who you are.”

When we spoke of commitment, he tapped my heart. His formula was Head + Heart = YES.

Which isn’t to say everything was always peachy-keen easy. Magical times were off-set by opposite and equal challenges. The Relay Center lost its contract. Staff was abruptly laid off. I retired to work with OA full time.

He was absent journeying through “Other Where” more often than he was fully here. It took a toll on his health. After a serious scare, he decided to move from Madison to a rural location. By that time, becaring him was my 24/7 calling.

* * *

The evening before Old Avatar returned home, he lovingly said good-night. Early the next morning, I sat up suddenly in bed, knowing I should retrieve a jewelry case long since entrusted to my safe-keeping.

Later, while roommates panicked after finding him cold, I quietly retreated to open the case. He’d foreseen and prepared for that moment. It was his parting blessing and inheritance.

Among other things, it held a solid gold ring, set with diamond and sapphire chips, engraved with his initials. As things got increasingly tough, I started wearing it on a chain close to my heart to get me through.

Now he speaks to me through all I read. The story of Anita Moorjani’s near death experience confirmed OA’s NDE. At age eleven, he choked on a fish bone and died. During eleven minutes of clinical death, he recovered billions of years of personal memories, as well as the vision of his future purpose.

From Dying To Be Me, Anita’s book, I took comfort in her deceased father’s assurance that his infinite presence is “here, there and everywhere.” Yes. Just so, OA’s presence continues to permeate the field.

Since his departure on June 1, 2019, every day fills, even without planning. I know to go here and there, find this and do that. But it is becoming increasingly clear that it’s time to organize my next Life Wheel.

In reading a Marisa Peer book, I took a hint from the story of Buckminster Fuller being at the end of his rope, just as I was right before meeting OA. Bucky had a mystical experience that pulled him back from the brink of suicide. A voice said to him:

You do not have the right to eliminate yourself. You do not belong to you. You belong to the Universe. Your significance will remain forever obscure to you, but you may assume you are fulfilling your role if you apply yourself to converting your experiences to the highest advantage of others.

Through Bucky’s story, OA was instructing me to structure my next Life Wheel around converting my experiences to serve the higher good.

He was winking at me from the far side again this afternoon, as I had a hunch to look into Buckminster Fuller’s life and connection with Einstein.

I had to laugh when I came across this quote, “We have to work under incredible faith in the Integrity of our Universe.”

And again, “There is quite clearly the manifest of an extraordinary Intellectual Integrity operating in Universe. . .”

Yup. That’s my Universal Avatar, saying “Hello.”

I followed Bucky’s search for Universe’s basic structures and natural patterns, intuitively close to the pattern of concentric circles in the e = mc2 Life Wheel that repeats throughout nature and art:

. . . as we begin to get a little closer to nature, which unquestionably means getting considerably happier, we’re going to find ourselves getting considerably more efficient. And I just wanted you to be aware of that as I talk, and I talk about the biggest kinds of patterns.

Then I found this:

I am gradually exposing to you grand strategies of Nature’s way of solving problems showing you that she has principles that are operating in Universe.

Yes indeed. Bucky was intuiting (perhaps retrieving from the akashic library) the existence of the Laws of Nature encoded in the sadly misunderstood and underrated Book of Change which has served me so well as good friend and advisor.

So, yes, Dear Reader. Please be aware that OA is winking at you through the pages of this humble book.

It’s his calling card, his way of using me as an instrument of hope to bring the world back from the brink . . . one person at a time . . . starting with YOU.

Born For Such A Time As This – IC – 122420

It is said we each choose the time of our birth. We come here for a purpose with a mission to fulfill. In the Bible, for example, Queen Esther’s courageous defense of her people, risking her life to rescue them from destruction, was inspired by sage advice. “. . . who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”

A brilliant commentary on this passage expands on her uncle’s words, making them relevant to each one of us, here and now:

So why did you choose to be here for 2020’s challenges? What is your mission at Christmas time’s blessed reminder of hope, overshadowed by a crisis that threatens everything George Washington and his soldiers fought for as they crossed the Delaware River in the shadow of night on Christmas Eve.

Why am I still here? In Be An Instrument of Light, I offered the answer that works for me. It started with choosing to spend every last cent in my pocket to purchase a small lamp that seemed meant for me:

I liked the guitar motif, but didn’t get the hidden message for quite a while. Then, Click! I should have known. Being a string player, it was tailor-meant for me.

During my musician-yoga years, I’d actually outlined a book, The Body as Instrument: How To Tune It. Did you know that string instruments are modeled on human anatomy? They vibrate the same way we do, which explains our resonance with music. . .

In essence, my guitar lamp was an answer to unspoken doubts about writing, confirming the call to “be an instrument of light.”

Now, let’s look further. Why do you suppose Donald J. Trump, our duly elected President, is in place right now? In a recent interview, the honorable Lin Wood describes the immediate constitutional crisis in exactly the words I’ve used to describe 2020. The nation is fragmented. We’re being “torn apart.” We’re at a crossroads. Wood believes our President is the God-appointed leader qualified to meet the challenge, born for such a time as this.

Putting things in perspective, in the repeating cycles of time, this is not the first time around the historical clock. In the introduction to Two Sides of a Coin: Lao Tze’s Common Sense Way of Change, I wrote:

In Passage 18, Lao Tze echoes the Bhagavad Gita’s premise, confirming the widely-held belief that from time to time, at the nadir of historical cycles, God incarnates in varying places and in different forms, for the instruction and deliverance of troubled truth seekers:

On a smaller scale, closer to home, each of us has the potential to be a hero in some respect, if only by becoming victorious over one’s own negative emotions, overcoming one’s doubts and finding the courage to do what is right.

In accord with timeless wisdom traditions, our President is demonstrating the courage to choose moderation over civil war. He’s shown the wisdom to forgive unjustly harassed citizens at this blessed time of year. Lao Tze had words for such leadership:

On Christmas Eve 2020, the night celebrated as the birth of humanity’s renewed hope, let’s draw the lines clearly. In the US, it’s not about Democrats versus Republicans, nor is it about Americans versus Chinese, Russians, or any of their allies. It’s between freedom and slavery, between lovers of Truth versus treacherous slaves of the dark side. It’s between the Republic and what it stands for versus global communism and all it represents.

President Trump, who honors and serves Christ, is behaving like an epic Taoist master. Walking the tense tightrope of moderation, he’s doing what’s right to both preserve the Republic and avert the bloody, self-destructive civil war our enemies would salivate to oversee.

Wayne Allyn Root has just published a book of praise called Trump Rules: Learn the Trump Rules and Tools of Mega Success and Wealth From the Greatest Warrior and Winner in History! It’s an excellent idea — as far as it goes. But our President’s greatness goes far deeper.

For example, celebrated constitutional scholar John Yoo argues persuasively that the President, with the insight of an historian, is the Constitution’s Defender in Chief.

Yes, he’s fighting to win, but with the fewest physical casualties possible. He’s steering a steady course with the hope of preserving peace and unity, not grasping for personal power. He’s a genius, allowing true patriots come forward and take a stand, while giving sell-out cowards time to show their hands.

FORGIVENESS is the original answer to the question, “What should we be aware of on Christmas Eve of 2020?” It reads:

Through FORGIVENESS, old debts are canceled and harmony is restored. Free yourself from outgrown habits. Don’t be afraid to let go of the past. Releasing tensions will produce health. Mental blocks will be resolved. New clarity of vision will lead to important decisions. Peace of mind will follow. Avoid anxiousness.

Each sentence of this reading is a gem, worthy of a self-standing blog. It applies perfectly to the Christmas message, to 2020’s crisis as an opportunity release past mistakes, and to our hope for a better New Year.

* * *

Advice of Line 5 reads, “Respect from others must be earned. Right actions give self-confidence.”

Neither a bully nor a victim be. Others respect us when we demonstrate the self-respect to stand our ground. This applies equally to personal and political situations. However intimidating terrorist threats may be, acting in spite of fear and choosing to do what is right is the ultimate confidence builder.

When our actions demonstrate that we honor this advice, the line changes to:

ADVERSITY is a test of fortitude. When it cannot be prevented, the wisest response is acceptance. Use times of hardship as opportunities to strengthen character and focus on inner resources. Misunderstandings are likely to occur. Remain calm, take care of yourself and support those who depend on you. Avoid despair.

Again, each line is worthy of careful attention. In sum, the darkest depths of winter is a time of reversals. “Sages know that when critical mass is reached, regeneration is possible.” A light in the night sky appears.

But redemption is not instant. Christ was born when the priesthood of the temple was deeply corrupted. We are again at such a point in time. The potential of restoration has appeared. Perhaps we have been born in such a time as this to fulfill its promise.

Collected posts will be published as The Lessons of 2020: Using the Wisdom of CHANGE to Build a Better Future. Look for it on amazon in January of 2021.

If you’d like a copy of the Common Sense Book of Change, or extras to give others, click here.

To order Two Sides of a Coin: Lao Tze’s Common Sense Way of Change, click here.

Okay, then. That’s all for now. Talk with you again soon. Take care, all.

False Hopes End in Disappointment – IC – 120320

PERMANENCE, the original answer to today’s I Ching reading, offers classic advice. “Don’t hunt for deer in a forest where none dwell.”

On the macro level, we’re being warned that the ever-changing, m=mass surface of the Life Wheel is the wrong place to look for lasting stability. Inevitably, misguided hopes end in bitter disappointment.

Ultimately, the universal craving for truth, unconditional love and safety is satisfied by looking deeper, reconnecting with the unchanging Source within.

On the micro level, this advice applies, once again, to my relationship with Alice — the one who lives in the pure-land boonies. She has a warm heart and good mind. But trusting to a fault, she looks to mainstream media as the authority on currents events.

WRONG. Tragically, she’s being systematically deceived. Brainwashed.

Alice is a proud person. She loudly defends her opinions. Unfortunately, garbage in, garbage out.

Last night she told me her iphone censors “false” information, so isn’t aware of anything outside of what’s allowed. Just as a test, we agreed I’d send her links to alternative news sources. Let’s find out whether her device will read them.

But I woke up at 3:00 a.m. the next morning with more on my mind. Here’s the email I sent:

Hey, Alice. Woke up with the idea to send you the following info.

I premise it by saying I feel a responsibility to prevent friends from being deceived and divided. . . . I know this is a lot to take in. But better now than never.

FIRST, the title “president elect” is empty fluff. Sounds official, BUT it’s a meaningless label pulled out of thin air. It’s a move to preemptively grab power, creating the illusion of a done deal in order get away with stealing an election before anyone can prevent it. Legally and historically, there has NEVER been a “president elect.”

All the posturing and posing is a charade — silly at best, but in the eyes of many, treasonous.

SECOND, only the Electors and finally Congress can decide election results. In claiming to call the race, the AP is usurping power that doesn’t belong to them.

_ _ _

Because media totally censored it, I shared what the President called the most important speech of his life on social media. I’ll share it with you here, along with my comment.

President Trump EXPOSES Voter Fraud: The Most Important Speech of His 1st Term the Media Ignored.

The AP has called the Presidential race for Joe Biden. See more on Google.

Robust safeguards help ensure the integrity of elections and results. Learn more

NB: This is an example of what I said about bad guys pointing the finger away from themselves, accusing the other side of exactly what THEY are doing. They take on the mantle of good guy, when the opposite is the case. They try to confuse the public as to who is who. In fact, Trump is the one risking his life to ensure the integrity of elections. Media and the Biden camp are the ones who are grossly violating that integrity.

It is psychological warfare to flag videos with this AP message, intended to demoralize Americans, get us to feel hopeless and give up. Twitter does similar intimidation stuff. Works against some, maybe. For others, it backfires and has opposite effect.

Media as arm of “big brother” refused to cover most important speech of this presidency, We are not children! It is not us they are protecting with this censorship. You owe it to yourselves and future generations to LISTEN. THINK. and ACT wisely.

PERMANENCE is the original, dynamic answer to today’s question, “What should we be aware of NOW?” It goes through two changes before resolving in the final outcome of ORIGIN, advising return to Source. It begins:

Search for PERMANENCE in the timeless wisdom of all ages. Human events repeat themselves in well-ordered patterns over many generations. Although the actors change, the values they pass on through their examples endure. Nothing of permanent value is ever lost. Live worthy of your heritage. Avoid disrespect for traditions.

Respect applies equally on the macro and micro levels.

Advice of the 4th line reads: “To find what you seek, look in the right place.” The Wilhelm/ Baynes translation phrases it in reverse. “Don’t hunt for deer in a forest where none dwell.”

Permanence of relatively temporary duration, for example, resides in the wisdom teachings handed down over the generations. It resides in the U.S. Constitution, which protects freedom — “if you can keep it.”

Advice heeded, it changes to Promotion:

PROMOTION will come from steady, positive improvement over time. Rising to meet new challenges results in emotional maturity. Advancing on the job puts one in the position to serve those who are in need. Quiet, persistent self-discipline wins the confidence of others. Make the most of opportunities. Avoid hesitation.

What are these challenges? To face fears and overcome them? Quiet the noisy mind and become quiet and clear, so are able to enter into the deeper levels of intuition and light?

And what is discipline? The traditional definition indicates love of wisdom and discipleship to truth teachers.

Do our choices serve others?

* * *

Advice of the 5th line reads “Choose methods by purpose. Visionary projects require creativity and courage.” It’s reminiscent of Solomon’s wisdom, “To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.”

Cleaning out the swamps, first inner and then outer, seems like today’s priority. It’s the only way through to a better future.

Advice heeded, the line changes to Inner Strength:

When difficult situations come to a head, rely on INNER STRENGTH to endure. If it becomes necessary to retreat, do so with courage and self-confidence. Make sure your inner and outer resources are secure. If you must begin a new life, you will have to depend on them. Avoid helplessness.

In early December, 2020, we’re in the eye of the hurricane, awaiting the outcome of contested elections. But we’re also in the midst of a life-changing eclipse season, long foreseen as the reset of the ages. It is a time to go within, reconnect with our inner resources, and demonstrate the calm presence of Inner Strength.

* * *

When the combined advice of two changing lines is heeded, Permanence resolves into the final outcome of ORIGIN.

All people thirst to know the roots their ORIGIN. At one level, learning about family and cultural traditions fills this need. At another level, this quest is satisfied by seeking for deeper knowledge. The vitality of all races flows from a single source which never runs dry. Avoid narrow-mindedness.

At this level, narrow-minded, superficial prejudices fall away. The inherent Unity of the human race emerges.

Again, respect for tradition is indicated. But ultimately, returning to Center is recognized as the enduring source of fulfillment. For the micro application, ask yourself how all this relates to your immediate situation.

Collected posts will be published as The Lessons of 2020: Using the Wisdom of CHANGE to Build a Better Future. Look for it on amazon in January of 2021.

If you’d like a copy of the Common Sense Book of Change, or extras to give others, click here.

To order Two Sides of a Coin: Lao Tze’s Common Sense Way of Change, click here.

Okay, then. That’s all for now. Talk with you again soon. Take care, all.

Light at the End of the 2020 Tunnel – IC – 101920

In late October, 2020’s cosmic symphony is building to a mighty crescendo. Whack! Crash! Bang!

Strident brass and pounding percussion sound off against wailing strings. Mars in martial Aires opposes Sun, then squares Pluto. Windy Mercury opposes moody Uranus, then turns retrograde.

But . . . Let your heart not be troubled. By year’s end, the noise settles down. Dissonance eases back into harmony. There’s a light at the end of 2020’s dark tunnel.

That’s how classic astrologers read the musical score in the sky. So does today’s I Ching reading.

Not that we can take returning peace and prosperity for granted. But it is a possibility IF we have the common sense and courage to admit past mistakes and correct them.

Getting ahead of the story, SHADOW represents the current situation. The sun of our hopes is covered over by clouds. But then . . . dynamic lines change first to PEACE and then PROSPERITY. They combine, however, to issue a challenge.

SUPPORT, the final outcome, warns of hidden risks inherent in abundance. Abuse. Were we to carry forward false, fragmenting beliefs, we would recreate the same old selfish patterns of prejudice and hatred. Repeating inequitable distribution of resources — discrimination along the lines of race, religion, age, gender or whatever – would cause another downward spiral of alienation, separation and conflict.

At end-stage 2020, we face a choice. We can decide to use abundance wisely, with gratitude. Or we can forget 2020’s lessons and squander future hope. To unify or fragment, that is the question. Will we survive or perish from the face of the earth?

What will make the difference? Einstein had the key to the new way of thinking. It was under his nose. For lack of yoga training, he missed it. But now we’ve got the Unified Field Theory. It’s embodied in the Life Wheel, consciousness factor included. Today, we can choose whether to use his formula to build bombs of destruction OR . . shift gears to the quantum paradigm of wholeness.

Hard as it may seem right now, the return of PEACE and PROSPERITY could be lie ahead — with an all-important qualifier.

The I CHING READING

We’re not trained to come to the Book of Change for answers to our deepest questions. That’s why I’ve chosen to bring the book to you in this series of bi-weekly blogs. Through the end of 2020, they’re intended to serve as an introduction, to make what was unfamiliar now familiar.

SHADOW is the initial answer to today’s question, “What should we be aware of today?”

Like the sun covered over by clouds, your hopes may fall under a SHADOW for awhile. You may feel cut off from others,who will not show sympathy for what you have to say. Even when it is best to remain silent, do not give up your ideals. Avoid anger.

A meditative attitude of Stillness, calmly keeping the faith, begins the process of positive change.

Then, line 2 advises: “Turn misfortunes to advantage. Outgrow obstacles that block your path.”

When this is done, the outcome is PEACE, a dynamic we saw earlier on the holy day of Atonement. We’ll see again in December:

“When the forces of nature unite in profound harmony, heavenly PEACE fills the earth. Lives blossom. Prosperity increases. Easy communication makes it possible to understand one another. This leads to cooperative efforts that will be fruitful. Tranquility follows fulfillment of life goals. Accept life’s blessings gratefully. Avoid disorder.

For those who say, “I don’t know how to cultivate inner peace,” or argue, “I have too much on my plate. Maybe later, after . . . ,” I recommend watching Eckhart Tolle’s YouTube video Finding Inner Peace During Stressful Times.

Though of different in national origin, gender, and temperament, he speaks in the same terms as do I. The Life Wheel is implicit in his teachings. Tolle contrasts living an incomplete, unhappy life on the surface with the fulfillment of going deep. The goal of his teaching is to heighten AWARENESS and awaken us to the eternal, True Self.

Next, changing line #4 advises, “If you understand your situation clearly, mishaps can be avoided.”

With more clarity, mistakes can be overcome. As Peace promises, the end result is an increase of abundance:

Use the time of PROSPERITY as the opportunity to benefit as many as possible. Hoarding wealth of any kind hastens loss. Nature acts to distribute resources equally. Therefore the way to prevent poverty is to live modestly in the present. Share wisely, without prejudice. This secures continued well-being. Avoid possessiveness.

Rather than holding tight to possessions, our ability to sustain prosperity depends on using it wisely. Don’t hoard, knowing that unjust abuses of wealth change to opposite and equal poverty. We’re living with the proof of this right now. Let’s not go back to the past, make the future a repeat of past mistakes.

How do we prevent past mistakes? Make it a practice to work with AWARENESS tools so we make better choices in the future. Continue to work with the I Ching, which one astrologer rightly calls a “spiritual GPS.”

There’s also enduring wisdom in the Tao Te Ching. This familiar, world-loved book sets principles of the relatively unfamiliar Book of Change (its foundation) into motion.

It wasn’t easy to choose among relevant examples. Here, just one must stand for the rest. Other (highly recommended) passages offer ways out of madness. Passage 53 speaks to the price paid in 2020 for past mistakes:

Sound familiar?

So. Throughout repeating cycles of history, humanity has been at low-ebb many times before. The bad news is, we forget and repeat the same the same mistakes, over and over. The good news is, there’s a track-record kept by sages who know and can show us the way out of madness.

Deep into 2020’s dark tunnel, we would do well return to this priceless resource of Wisdom. Respect those whose purpose was, is and always will be to lead us into the LIGHT.

Collected posts will be published as The Lessons of 2020: Using the Wisdom of CHANGE to Build a Better Future. Look for it on amazon in January of 2021.

If you’d like a copy of the CSBOC, or extras to give others, click here.

To orderTwo Sides of a Coin: Lao Tze’s Common Sense Way of Change, click here.

Okay, then. That’s all for now. Talk with you again soon. Take care, all.

We’re At Critical Mass – IC Reading – Sept. 17, 2020

When I recently queried the Common Sense Book of Change, its answer clearly wasn’t meant just for me.

I wrote the invocation often used, “Beloved Father in Heaven, thank you for using this book to show me what I need to be aware of now.”

The response was CHANGE. It was qualified by two changing lines which, combined, result in CLARITY.

For those unfamiliar with how and why the magic of synchronicity works, there are plenty of explanations elsewhere. (If you want to know more, however, you’re welcome to comment below. I’ll respond.)

But here, I’m keeping it simple and to the point. Hexagram 49 speaks to the state of planet Earth – its people and ecology– right now. We’re at critical mass.

Worldwide, the pandemic has derailed economies, along with familiar social activities and intimate relationships. In the US, political candidates and supporters hurl accusations and vile insults. Agenda-driven media inflames public fear and outrage. Riots, arson, looting and senseless murders plague major cities.

And nature mirrors this maelstrom. The basic elements of earth, air, fire and water are out of whack too, plummeting countless lives into still further chaos, grief and hardship. On the West coast, forest fires fanned by high winds are charring the land and polluting the atmosphere as far off as the East coast. Along the Southern coastline, incoming hurricanes are flooding the land.

During times of polarizing extremes,

we need the stabilizing influence

of The Book of Change

more than ever.

Working with this enduring, time-tested compendium of natural law brings calm reason and measured hope to apparently impossible situations. It shines clarity on current events, restoring perspective during times of painful confusion and self-doubt.

For example, I Ching Hexagram 49 looks like this:

Even here, a ray of eternal hope remains embedded within dire events. “. . . when degeneration reaches critical mass, regeneration follows.”

Now, between last Easter’s blog and today’s post, it seemed right for me to keep still. But, as my beloved teacher said, “Timing is everything.”

Earlier, in response to the COVID outbreak, I queried what the Book of Change had to tell us about the pandemic. The answer suggested that nothing is what it seems; further, the best response is to focus on the opportunities hidden within immediate challenges – the blessings, however well disguised.

In the interim, much of what was hidden has surfaced. But as US elections approach, we’re reaching critical mass.

Now, the Book of Change reminds us again that even during times like this (which prophets over the centuries have consistently foreseen), a kernel of hope always remains buried within change. Likewise, modern astrologers also predicted 2020’s “deconstruction of the old order.” They see 2021, however, as prelude to positive new beginnings.

According to natural law, like fractals, change repeats on every scale of magnitude, smallest to largest. This means that the same dynamic of chaos experienced by each of us, is also happening at the same time to everyone else, everywhere else. It’s going on globally inside families, small businesses, large corporations, governments at every level, industry and agriculture, the professions of education, health, and law. You name it.

As an example, at the microcosmic level, here’s my unique version of critical mass. Beloved teacher suddenly deceased. After years dedicated to looking after his needs day in and out, I was cast out my home, separated from cared for pets and relocated, friendless, to another city just in time for pandemic isolation. The streets of what used to be a thriving downtown area are deserted. Empty. Feels spooky, like a ghost town.

What’s your version? Your family’s? Your community’s?

I’m not complaining, mind you. It could be much worse. Thankfully I’m safe. There’s enough to eat. But rest assured, knowing that predicted loss arrived right on schedule (although in unexpected forms) doesn’t make it any less devastating.

Ouch. = (

But, being immersed in I Ching wisdom, I know better than to resist, deny or take change personally. Nor do I despair (or should you!) that this dark night of the soul will last forever. A new day will dawn. Always has. Always will.

So, questions which I put to the I Ching remain. What’s next? Where’s this leading? Which choices will lead to the best of possible futures?

Each of us (including leaders at every level) can take hope in this universal law of nature: “. . . after degeneration reaches critical mass, regeneration follows.”

Glimmers of hope . . of regeneration . . are already emerging. For example, prayer groups have been organizing worldwide meditations where members agree to pray together at the same time for peace and healing. Perhaps not coincidentally, peace accords in the Near East have just been brokered by the sitting US president.

Briefly, changing lines in the third and sixth place of this reading support the option of least resistance, building positive community, and being content with doing one’s best. Intentional communities . . . whether online or on the land. . . seem the most likely hope of building a better future.

In this reading, the result of choosing the recommended path of cooperation is #25 CLARITY. In essence, it consists of holding a clear and prescient overview of what has been, what is, and what might be.

I could easily write an entire book on just this one reading. In fact, one on the drawing board — The Phoenix Response: Dying To Be Reborn in the Same Lifetime – will offer much more.

But the purpose of today’s brief blog is simply encourage you. To the extent we can see it, claim it, and work together to bring it into being, there is a light at the end of this dark tunnel. To this end, as #49 advises: Welcome the new. Avoid short-sighted fear.

    Timing being everything — the gift of the I Ching that works like a cosmic clock — this post couldn’t be more perfectly timed.

    After deciding to post again after a dry spell, I checked the calendar. Lo! The 17th of September “just happens” to be the date of a super new moon, a time of unusually powerful, fresh new beginnings. It’s in Virgo, the sign of healing and service. If you’re inclined to believe in divine guidance and angelic support, you’ll appreciate Sarah Hall’s inspired description of the potentials now being set in motion.

    BTW, because no training in my early years supported a belief in angels, they used what I was familiar with to make contact. Mercifully, they’re not that picky. It was fine for the Book of Change to serve as my initiation into meditation and experience of angelic guidance. No problem. It doesn’t seem to matter to them whether they receive the credit. : ) So the book continues to serve anyone, anywhere who approaches universal wisdom with an open mind and open heart.

    Also uncoincidentally, Rosh Hashanah follows close behind on September 19th.. It’s the holiday when the shofar is sounded, calling the faithful to unite and shaking those who sleep into awareness. For those who’d like know more about these dynamics, here’s a link to a website that supplies details.

    Bottom line. From now to the end of 2020, as a counterbalance to current chaos, I’ll be posting IC readings every Monday and Thursday.

    If you’d like to know more about me or the IC, here are links to satisfy your curiosity:

    The I Ching and Me

    How the Common Sense Book of Change Came To Be

    If you want your very own copy of the CSBOC to work with, to answer your own unique questions at your own convenience, or want extras to give others in need of insight, solace and support, it’s available here. : )

    Okay, then. That’s all for now. Talk with you again soon. Take care, all.

    Hope for the Future

    My life quest started with a heart-felt question. A poem, actually.

    Because in early teen years, I felt a growing, uneasy sense of danger. I couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong.

    But something sure wasn’t right.

    So I put ink pen to paper and wrote:

    Poem

    Since then, bit by bit, the Universe has answered my soul call.

    I’m moved to share my story because, as the world becomes increasingly more complicated and dangerous, more and more of us are feeling that angst.

    The time is ripe and ready for the answers I was given.

    This book is my way of paying forward what gave me help and peace of mind. If what I’ve been given to share does the same for you, my journey will be fulfilled.

    Long story short, my searchings led to this answer. The world is suffering from a fatal knowledge deficit. The limited and limiting rules of empirical science cut us off from who we truly are. Public education alienates us from our inborn native power.

    No matter how much we feed the illusion of lack with drug, alcohol, food, sex and violence addictions, we’re never satisfied. We can’t be.

    Because we’re looking in the wrong place to fill the deepest, universal needs everyone everywhere shares in common.

    We’re starving for lack of wholeness. Most of us suffer terribly from the illusion of being cut off from Source.

    We’ve been misled into believing that we’re not enough. We’re not smart enough, good enough, rich enough, attractive or lovable enough.

    Nothing on the surface of the Life Wheel can satisfy that gnawing sense of emptiness and loneliness. No amount of external input can help.

    However, given new and better information, negative beliefs can be changed.

    In truth, we’re already okay in a way that can’t be measured or quantified. It’s simply how we were made. We’re inherently whole and complete.

    “God don’t make no junk.”

    Know Where To Look - sized

    When we become aware of who we truly are, always were and always will be, we reconnect with our original, true identity. We come to Really Believe we were born already enough. At our central, unalienable core, we are divinely perfect.

    When we truly believe and act on that inner awareness, then no one can ever again sell us on the lie that we’re not okay, not enough. It’s simply not possible. And our lives change dramatically for the better.

    * * *

    This excerpt comes from the Introduction of You Are Already ENOUGH! How Would Your Life CHANGE If You Really Believed It?

    It’s the perfect gift of hope for the new year and decade. Now available on amazon.com.