Tag Archives: genius

Choose Wisely, My Friend

THE EXISTENTIAL ISSUE

It is widely held that knowledge is power.

It’s also widely known that power corrupts.

This begs the important questions, What is power? Where does it come from?

For example, Eckart Tolle tells us about The Source of True Power. Consistent with the Quantum Paradigm, he speaks of an inner light that dispels the darkness of ignorance and human suffering.

In Life Wheel context, power takes on new meanings at each, increasingly deeper level. Energy, vitality, emotional maturity, self-mastery and spiritual wisdom are all pieces of the larger power puzzle.

However, in the empirical science paradigm, only the m=mass surface of the Life Wheel exists. The inner levels of e=energy and c=light are ruled out. In this world view, power is exclusively a matter of physical strength, ownership and control. All things — including human beings and other life forms — are simply objects to be owned, dominated and controlled.

From this limited perspective, world-domination wannabes continue to make the same mistake. Like the song, Everybody Wants To Rule the World, emperors of ancient China assumed their country was the Center of the world. Outsiders were mere barbarians to be subordinated.

Not to be outdone, in the name of Christianity, Europeans later conquered “natives” in the Americas, India, China and Japan.

Coming back circle, the CCP now seeks revenge, upping the ante of the vicious circle in spades. Trading on general ignorance of Natural Law, human nature and methods of self-mastery, they play on lust, greed, pride and fear to seduce, compromise and control their enemies.

What misguided rulers everywhere overlook is that civilizations are ephemeral. They come and go on the surface of the Life Wheel while the timeless Source of power abides deep within at the Center.

Real Genius, the 1985 science fiction comedy film starring Val Kilmer and Gabriel Jarret captures the contrast. These heroes not only think like a genius. They ACT like geniuses. Set in competition against each other by greedy professors and military leaders, they join forces instead. Rather than creating a nuclear weapon, they organize a hilarious, world-class prank.

True to the Life Wheel, lyrics of the movie’s background music capture the essence of this story. “Nothing lasts for ever. Turning our backs on mother nature backfires. Creating weapons of nuclear war reflects lack of vision.”

* * *

THE ULTIMATE CHOICE

Since knowledge as power has been abused to selfish, destructive ends throughout history, wisdom traditions must be continuously be repaired and re-visioned to overcome distortions.

The age-old power question remains. Which side are you on? Do you operate from the belief that Might Makes Right? Or from the understanding that Right Makes Might?

As end-stage 2020 is at risk of erupting into orchestrated civil war, the following image and pair of verses clarify the choice before us:

CHOOSE WISELY, MY FRIEND!

In fact, it’s okay – not only possible but wise, to make both America AND China great again, each in their own way. Greatness isn’t an either/or choice.

But believing any country could ever be the Center of the world is a different subject. It’s simply stupid. Obsolete. To place any country or person above others is a mistake that cannot stand. Not possible. Depending on the seriousness and size of that false claim, it ranges from silly to deeply dangerous.

One of countless variations on that mistake is saying, “God is great,” meaning “only my religion’s concept of God is great. Death to all who follow any religion other than mine.”

To repeat: God at the Center abides without prejudice within each and every one of us. The Center of the Life Wheel is the Source of greatness for any and all who hear and honor the voice of conscience.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

Why are truth traditions, including the I Ching, out of fashion? In part, because knowledge is power, a commodity rulers want to hide and hoard to themselves. In pristine form, made widely available, access to Source made possible through wisdom traditions gives power to the people. For example, in the last cycle, Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible, giving it to the people to read for themselves for the first time, was a major leap forward.

At end-stage 2020, truth at every level is being systematically distorted, ridiculed and suppressed to keep ordinary Hobbit deplorables in the dark. Material facts as well as religious freedom are being ruthlessly suppressed.

But two wrongs don’t make a right. Because the venerable I Ching has been forsaken by the Chinese doesn’t mean Westerners should follow suit, imitating disrespect, tit for tat.

Correctly used, the I Ching, serves as a means for reconnecting the ordinary mind with inner guidance and conscience. Too often, people use it to figure out how to get whatever it is they want. Dilutions are endless. For example, The Art of War uses the dynamics of Natural Law to win in conflict. Whether your goal is to protect innocents from harm or to destroy them is irrelevant.

Many corruptions apply I Ching principles to winning in business . . at all costs. For example, Number 10 of The 36 Stratagems is called either Hide a Knife in a Smile, Conceal a Knife Behind a Smile, or Use Kindness to Hide Cruelty. Here’s how it’s done:

Act as if you are harmless or a friend in order to get close. Then suddenly attack.

Give gifts and send formal delegations of friendship. Sign treaties. Host sumptuous parties. Show every sign of respect and concern for them until they trust you completely (or at least enough for you to achieve your goals).

Make friends with their key officials who have important information. Make these more loyal to you (or otherwise bribe or blackmail them) so they will betray their employers.

Plot your moves in deepest secret and unleash them at speed so there is no chance for reprisals, counter-attack or other ways of defending.

Sound familiar?!!!

In such perversions, deceit, back-stabbing and betrayal come highly recommended as “fair game.” In reviewing Strategy 10, it seems the CCP isn’t the only one borrowing from the book to undermine elections. Either Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and media elites have been infiltrated and become weaponized tools of anti-American censorship by communist enemies, or else they’ve voluntarily schooled themselves in the corrupt, business-as-war mentality.

American patriots at end-stage 2020 who have been targeted by exactly this kind of dark-side warfare keep good company with Julius Caesar and even Christ.

How do we protect ourselves and those we care for? Is there a remedy? Of course. Cultivate self-awareness, deeper than deep. Read your Bible. Follow the Ten Commandments. Seek refuge in truth traditions in their pristine form. They trump superficial perversions every time. In the words of General Michael Flynn spoken to the crowd gathered in Washington D.C. on 12-12-20:

We will win the spiritual battle for the heart and soul of the nation. We are in a crucible moment. The Truth will prevail. We fight with faith and courage. We will knock down the Jericho walls of the deep state with light and truth. Truth will always triumph over lies.

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Einstein’s New Way of Thinking – 100320

In Shifting Gears, I called for a new way of thinking.

It begins with a paradigm shift away from empirical science’s focus on the outer m=mass, material rim of the Life Wheel, towards an inclusive Unified Field paradigm.

What does Einstein have to do with all of this?

More importantly, what does all this mean for our everyday lives? How is this shift in thinking demonstrated as changes in attitudes and actions?

Here’s the long version.

In 2014, I published “Einstein’s New Way of Thinking” as part of Rethinking Survival. It has been public knowledge since then, posted on this website by the same name, rethinkingsurvival.com

I had recognized that the three variables of his famous formula plug into increasingly deeper levels of the archetypal Life Wheel. The result is Einstein’s intuited Unified Field Theory, including the consciousness factor.

I was also familiar with the quote where Einstein describes the urgently needed paradigm shift. Here, I’ve taken the liberty of blocking it as poetry. This format highlights each important piece of the puzzle:

Einstein calls for humanity to adopt the world view of quantum physics. Why? Because each of us is an inseparable part of a larger whole. But we’ve fallen into the illusion that we’re separate from the Universe, nature, and other beings. We have to break out of this restrictive mental prison. As a matter of survival, we need to expand awareness, accept how we fit within Universe, and embrace all life with compassion.

Psychologists have taken up Einstein’s call. When I searched on “quantum psychology,” numerous sites came up. Far too many for today’s purpose.

So I’ll keep it simple. Dr. Joe Dispenza is the expert on meditation and quantum reality the world has come to love and trust. In Becoming Supernatural: How Common People Are Doing the Uncommon, he describes the practical benefits everyday people experience in their daily lives as a result of shifting the way they think:

With practice, students produce positive, measurable, tangible effects in their lives simply by shifting the paradigm of their thoughts and feelings.

He explains:

. . . survival emotions such as blame, hate, rage, competition, and retribution have resulted in an endless, unnecessary trail of pain, suffering, oppression, and death. The results have caused humans to live in opposition and conflict rather than in peace and harmony.

But timing is everything:

This is a pivotal moment in the story of humanity where ancient wisdom and modern science are intersecting. . . This is a time in history when we can break that cycle.

How? By changing our internal state of being. The result? A sense of wholeness, connection and unity.

In 2019, I published an edited version of “Einstein’s New Way of Thinking” in You Are Already Enough as this appendix:

APPENDIX I

The following section is lifted whole from Rethinking Survival. It was written in 2014 in the voice of who I was then, quite different from who I’ve now become. It offers another perspective on the same subject. I’ll let it stand on its own because the message remains valid and completes today’s work.

Einstein’s New Way of Thinking

Barring biological deformity, everyone everywhere is born with the ability to Think Like Royalty. Einstein exercised this privilege. Using time-tested methods, with discipline and determination, so can the rest of us. Partaking of our universal inheritance is a matter of individual self-control, not controlling anyone else.

The secret to thinking like a genius has been known for thousands of years. Yogis call it Raja Yoga. “Raja” is the Sanskrit word for “king.” “Yoga” means “link” or “union.”

Modern medical researchers correlate ancient teachings with brain science. Breath control methods balance, harmonize and stimulate the right and left hemispheres of the brain. This links the inward and outgoing qualities of intuition and reason. It unites artistic with mathematical aptitudes. It completes the circle of yin and yang. It makes of a half-brain a whole person. A new Adam.

On rare occasions, it’s possible to get the same results naturally or by accident, without being able to articulate the dynamics that explain one’s good fortune. Both sides of Einstein’s brain, for example, were fully operational.

He was a born boundary-spanner. He was an accomplished violinist and philosopher as well as a physicist. Pipe smoking probably gave him some of the benefits of deep breathing. But to the best of our knowledge, at least in this lifetime, he never took yoga classes.

For most of us, however, systematic discipline and interdisciplinary studies accelerate the process. Why is it so important to link the hemispheres of the brain? What’s the ultimate spiritual benefit? It opens up the two-way street of the “highway to heaven.”

As pictured in the Life Wheel model, it links the outer world of daily experience with the inner world of inspiration and guidance. It results in the ability to both hear and do. It makes philosophers of kings, and kings of philosophers. The best of both worlds are combined to achieve Plato’s ideal of a philosopher-king.

This heightened human ability actualizes the scriptural promise, “With God, all things are possible.” The emphasis is on “with.” For lacking Divine Connection, our human existence continues to remain incomplete, an empty shell of unfilled dreams – a mere shadow of who we could and were destined to be.

The ability to think like a genius isn’t a guarantee that life will always be peachy, however. In his wisdom, God the Father doesn’t always gives his kids whatever they want. We can always ask. But we may not like the answers. Nor, from our limited perspective, can we comprehend them.

But the facts of life remain the same: it’s a two-way street. Living on the surface, blocking out conscience and ignoring the center has awful consequences. So does rejecting the world. There’s hell to pay for turning the responsibility for government over to others. Survival depends on balancing and coordinating the hemispheres of the brain, and on linking the levels of creation.

The Life Wheel model pictures the viable, inward way out of endless revolutionary cycles which only replace one set of tyrants with another. Clever social theories and angry rhetoric make matters worse. On the surface of Wheel of Fortune, attempts at qualitative change are futile. The key is missing. It lies within.

Daily experience is often fragmented and noisy to the point of being life-threatening. Those who intend to survive need to step away from the fray to start over with a quiet attitude of truth- seeking. They must arm themselves the courage to follow wherever their conclusions lead.

This requires the ability to ignore distractions. Cultivating mindful quietness is essential. This is one of the benefits of working with the Book of Change as a decision-making tool.

Atheist intellectuals who depend exclusively on reason are at risk. They’ve forfeited their native inheritance. They’re so busy running around inside their heads that they get no deeper.

By blocking out inner levels with denials, they’ve become deaf to the still inner voice of conscience. But survival depends on the ability to LISTEN! Really listen.

There are many ways to meditate. Initially, dwelling on music, pictures or mantras may help settle the noisy mind. But going really deep requires more. It involves summoning up the courage to quiet the physical senses and delve deeper yet.

Use The Life Wheel a Measuring Stick

The Unified Field paradigm offers a contemporary approach to thinking in a holistic, integrated way. Here are a few basics:

No either-ors. A valid worldview satisfies both head and heart, intellect and intuition. If a belief system offends reason, it’s not complete. If it offends the heart, lacks compassion. or is counter-intuitive, that’s also not the comprehensive, positive way.

No more dividing the world into all good or all bad, white collar versus blue collar, jocks versus nerds, saints or sinners. Humans on planet Earth are complicated mixes of contradictory qualities that surface in different ways at different times over the course of a lifetime. No hero-worshiping. No scapegoating. Give the benefit of the doubt. Give people a chance. Hope for the best.

Keep the open mind, not closed. Relax. Take a calm approach. Work for the pinnacle overview. Work for moderation, with respect for all sides.

Step back from the noisy, conflict-generating approach. Truth-seeking is not a fight or a contest. It’s a search for what’s helpful and hopeful.

Look at the world around you with the fresh eyes of a curious child as Einstein did. Connect the dots. Look for underlying similarities. Ask, “How do things work?”

KISS. “Keep it simple, stupid.” Back to the truly basic, with an attitude of humility.

Thou shalt not adulterate. Don’t accept only what’s convenient and reject the challenging. Don’t tamper with the facts or the teachings, and never ever be tempted to spin (i.e., deceive either yourself or others).

At this point in history, the world’s belief systems have become adulterated, distorted and misrepresented. So accept that familiar, comfortable beliefs are inevitably an admix.

They’re approximately thirty percent TRUTH to seventy parts dross. So make it your responsibility to choose wisely. Cleave to the best. Leave the rest. Never, however, be conned into quitting. Don’t throw the precious baby out with the dirty bath water.

Dig deeper than vested ego interests and nationality-turf. Human survival has no patent rights. Don’t act on the false premise that because knowledge is power, it’s okay to hide it, hoard it, and make people pay out of the nose for your version of it.

Depend instead on the truth written in your heart, into your very DNA. The rest will follow.

Let go of intellectual pride. Release the baggage of fanatical attachments to one’s own ways and aversion to everyone else’s. Think deeper than social constructs. Both divine right and class struggle theories are man-made, self-serving static. They distract away from the heart of truth.

Seeing through the filters of fanatical extremes is blinding. They’re generated at gut level, not from head or heart. So settle down. SHUT UP! Think. Really think. Then ask, “Where am I focused?” If in the gut, look higher. GO DEEP. Like truth-explorers, travel to where the right answers are to be found.

No more us-versus-them, aligning with allies (right or wrong) and rejecting outsiders on the basis of national-political affiliation. We’re all at risk on the same endangered planet. If our misguided ship Titanic sinks, we all go down.

The real enemies are Dr. Who’s alien invaders and their agents. They’re embedded in every land, in every organization and every class, clandestinely working to undermine conscience and steer the human species towards extinction.

It takes a quiet focused mind to recognize who’s who. We’re never alone. But both sides are broadcasting. So be sure you’re tuned in to the survival station.

* * *

What the Generations Share in Common

Before writing on ways Millennials might use an Inner GPS App to decide where they want to go and how to get there, I searched the web for similar posts. There are tons of researched opinions on what Millennials want and need.

Marketers survey Millennials asking what they want to buy, from whom, and why. Business experts list the leadership qualities Millennials need.

But this particular approach is more inclusive. It goes a bit deeper.

Even in a world gone mad, as members of the human species, our basic wants and needs remain the same. On the surface of the Life Wheel, we all need food, clean water, shelter and clothing to survive. Some sleep also helps.

In a civilized world, we need the means to purchase these basics: income and/or a job. Respect in the larger community also helps.

At the middle energy/emotion level of the Life Wheel, most of us want to be accepted and supported. We want to feel secure. We want to enjoy the pleasures of life and, whenever possible, to avoid pain. In sum, we want to share our lives with fellow human beings.

At the innermost level, we crave answers about the purpose and meaning of our lives. We seek value. The boldest and bravest even aspire to know Truth. We want to know what Love IS. We crave unity, the stuff of Einstein’s Unified Theory, but continue to look for it in all the wrong places. (That, however, is the subject of another post still on the drawing board.)

The question here, however, is Where in a high-tech, polarized world gone mad, where the levels of the Wheel are fragmented and out of synch, can Millennials go to fulfill these universal requirements?

world gone mad.sized

Behind Millennials’ bravado and superficial social masks, their woes aren’t much different than they’ve ever been. The Buddha put suffering in perspective by promising to bring a dead child back to life if the grieving parents could find any household in the local village that had not been visited by death.

But of course, they could not.

The recent public revelation by movie star, political activist and philanthropist Jane Fonda translates universal suffering into today’s familiar terms. Her mother, Frances Ford Seymour, committed suicide at age 42 when Jane was 12. Only recently did the facts come out which led to closure. At age 76, to write her memoir, Jane looked up her mother’s medical records. There she found the key to understanding her mother’s behavior. From age 8, Frances had been the victim of sexual abuse.

Nor has life exempted me. My father, William Kirby West (named for his ancestor William Kirby Brewster, one of the earliest pilgrims who sailed from England to the New World on the Mayflower), committed suicide when I was 6. Since the subject was taboo in my dysfunctional family (a mirror of the dysfunctional society at large), no one told me the truth. I grew up believing my heart surgeon father died of a sudden heart attack at age 33. Only when I was 50 did my failing mother finally “remember” the facts surrounding his death.

This isn’t my only personal story. For example, (if you’ll pardon a bad pun), Swami Rama was one of the first to introduce yoga to the West. His front was that a celibate monk who’d taken vows of poverty. But appearances were deceiving.

Behind the scenes, he was a bold-faced hypocrite, liar and sexual predator who betrayed the trust of his students. A Yoga Journal author called his abuse of Tantric teachings “spiritual incest.” Translate: rape. In the hands of this opportunist, the teachings (a priceless heritage) were a convenient “product” that thirsty, naïve Americans wanted. He used them to make himself (for a short while) very rich and somewhat famous.

Oh well. “Something’s lost but something’s gained in living every day.”

The point here is that I haven’t allowed the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune on the Wheel’s surface to define me. Instead, I’ve chosen to live by my mottos. First, “Take the best. Leave the rest.” Second, “Resist not evil. Persist in the good.”

I’ve repeatedly healed – made myself whole again – thanks to my inner apps (in this case, based on the King James version of The Bible and the Chinese Book of Change). I trust that nothing that happens on the surface can touch or change the essence of who I truly AM.

This blessing, the Inner App, is what I would love to share with millennials, as well as the parents and grandparents who dearly wish them well. It necessarily starts with a complete and correct reality map that puts the whole of life into perspective.

Here’s a picture of universal needs, wants and aspirations and the ways many millennials seek to fill them:

MILLENIALS.sized

An aside to millennials. The world of hurt we’re in today was foretold by Christ and foreseen by yogic seers long before that. It has been a long time coming. Today’s mess cannot be taken personally. Nor is it appropriate or helpful to blame your elders. (If you believe in karma, consider that, even if for reasons unknown to you now, you’re the one who picked the time and place of this particular incarnation, maybe to fulfill an important purpose).

Be that as it may, put things in perspective. You think your elders let you down; but they were equally disappointed by theirs. On the opposite side of the coin, each generation of elders continues, for the most part, to sincerely do the best they know how, often in the face of terrible odds.

So let’s cut each other some slack.

Millennials as well as their elders are welcome to come aboard the Inner App project. After all, it’s in everyone’s best survival interests.

For if we taught ourselves to think holistically, in concentric circles, and if we organized / prioritized our lives accordingly, we’d begin thinking like Einstein, like geniuses.

If enough of us tuned in to the universal inner compass and began treating each other with compassionate respect, we’d fulfill Einstein’s dearest wish and start getting along. It might even tip the balance of history in favor of human survival.

Because that truly is what’s at stake.

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A Fresh Start Is Urgently Necessary

I started to pick up here what was started about Millennials and future survival earlier, but recognized I need to back up a few paces. Coincidentally (though there is no such thing, of course) two interesting things happened. First, the internet was down all day. No emails. No tweets. Ahhhh. Quiet. An unexpected relief set in. Would Millennials experience this deprivation (even short-lived) the same way?

Yet, here I sit blogging, trusting things will be back to normal within a few hours. A troubling thought rumbled in the back of my mind. Has something thing terrible happened in Israel? Is this blackout preventing news from getting through? I pushed it aside. Paranoia? It served as a reminder, though, that this relatively comfortable lifestyle might not last forever. It’s a reminder of how precious time is.

The last paragraph of the earlier blog (see wp.me/p46Y5Z-cz) stopped short where I must begin here:

The only chance of winning — ultimately, surviving —

is to demand a new, clean, unmarked deck, one with all the cards.

In other words, make a fresh start based on an accurate, complete paradigm.

Rethinking Survival lists the elements of a Fresh Start in detail. Here are a few snippets.

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FRESH START

After facing up to the inescapable proof everywhere around us that our language and idea pools have been corrupted, what do we do about it? Extreme radical measures call for opposite and equal survival responses. Scrap everything. Back to the drawing board. Clear the decks. Empty the overflowing in-baskets and clutter on the mental desktop.

Religious leaders have abused the teachings, so atheists have been conned into rejecting the fundamentals of the timeless, perennial philosophy altogether. Human authorities have violated their responsibilities, so reactionaries have been conned into making the mistake of rejecting all authority on every level.

Let’s face it. Religious and secular institutions inevitably degenerate. They accumulate baggage over time and drift away from founders’ visions.

So from time to time in the repeating cycles of history, it becomes urgently necessary to sort out what’s worth holding on to and what not. Do a thorough cultural house cleaning. Right now, people everywhere are overdue for a major rethinking of their paradigms.

Start with the premise that we’ve been brainwashed. We’re ensnared in contradictory myths and misconceptions. So approach the work with humility and extreme caution. Accept the possibility that everything you thought you knew is wrong.

Initiate OPERATION RESCUE. One individual at a time, take back our most precious asset: our minds. Like tenacious truth-miners, sift through the mud to separate out nuggets of pure gold. Hold fast to truth. Fearlessly put the rest behind.

Go back to the drawing board. Wipe the slate clean. Start over with a fresh, unmarked deck. Rethink organizations by the standard of the Positive Paradigm. Start with the smallest unit of organization — yourself. Work with what’s possible. Be assured that every little bit helps. “One grain of rice can tip the scales.”

If this seems daunting, remember, the stakes. They couldn’t be higher: the survival versus extinction of all you love. Each contribution affects the whole. Everyone matters. As Einstein warned in “Ensuring the Future of Mankind”. . . “Each one of us would be at fault if the goal were not reached in time. There is the danger that everyone waits idly for others to act in his stead.”10

. . . Here are recommended positive attitudes for approaching OPERATION RESCUE:

ONE

Gird personal determination to win the inner war that matters most. Put pride and old attachments aside. Let the consequences of failing to rescue your mind along with the rewards for doing it motivate persistence.

TWO

Take nothing for granted. Appreciate what you have while you still have it. Remember: it took only nine seconds for one lunatic to blow John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s head away. It changed the world as his family and the world knew it. Two bullets was all it took to extinguish our best hope for the future of democracy and world peace.

THREE

Proceed with equal parts humility, courage and trust. Revisit the basic, important life questions carefully. Scrap the old answers. Shed the emotional baggage and prejudices we all carry from personal experience.

Be willing to look at the world and how one fits into it with fresh eyes. Attachments to familiar beliefs as well as obligations to teachers and family are irrelevant to the TRUTH. So are old animosities. Trust that if old answers were correct and personal loyalties valid, they’ll withstand the test of time.

FOUR

Focus on the values everyone everywhere undeniably have in common. Following Einstein’s example, learn how to “think like a genius:”12

The scientist or the artist takes two facts or experiences which we separate;

he finds in them a likeness which had not been seen before:

and he creates a unity by showing the likeness. . . .

All science is the search for unity in hidden likenesses.

FIVE

Focus on TRUTH. Give it the benefit of the doubt. If familiar expressions don’t work for you, dig deeper. Or try a better approach. But cleave to the life-sustaining essence which sincere practitioners of every faith have held in common from time immemorial. Communicate from that center. And build community from there.

Just as each atom has only one nucleus, in Positive Paradigm context there’s only one core at the center of creation. Logically, over time and in every circumstance, inspired teachings partake of it. If you delve deep enough into the teachings with a sincere heart, you’ll find the same universal source.

. . . Future generations depend on each of us to transcend our petty animal nature. They demand that we draw upon this inexhaustible resource of inner strength to keep the wheel of life together for their sake. In times of great calamities and sorrow, the truly great in spirit will rise to meet whatever challenges may come, sustained by the eternal center within.

SIX

Don’t get hung up on language. Don’t be confused by misdirecting spin. Stick to the facts. Don’t let double-speaking truth-twisters insult your intelligence. If you allow them to play on your worst fears, they’ll manipulate you into becoming your own worst enemy. Have a standard for knowing who’s who. If you refuse to be fooled by name-calling, empty labels can’t stick. Know friends from enemies by the fruits of their labors. Not by their whitewash excuses.

SEVEN

The Danger. Don’t let alien agents define who you are. . . . The hub at the center of life’s wheel can’t be equated with a political center. Quite the opposite. Remember the Karate Kid? Pick one side of the road or the other. Good or evil. Truth or spin. As Mr. Miagi warned, middle-of-the-roaders get “squished like grape.”

EIGHT

The Opportunity. Inherent in endings are opportunities for new beginnings. “After degeneration reaches critical mass, regeneration follows.”15

Just as invaders’ agents work to undermine humanity, modern-day sages are tenaciously working to expose and defeat their schemes. That’s why it’s imperative to cut across false boundaries. Connect with like-minded boundary-spanners wherever they are to be found. If they’re true to the common sense voice of conscience, they’re humanity’s best hope. Heed them. . .

But don’t just sit back, waiting for politicians to wake up. Follow Einstein’s advice. Don’t build another human institution, a conglomeration of internally conflicted governments. Instead, build an international community of like minds. The internet gives opportunities for connecting across limiting, artificial boundaries that Einstein would never have dreamed possible.

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Wow. That’s a lot. I started by staying two interesting things happened this morning. The first was the internet being down. The second? That’s where I’ll have to pick up next time.