What's Happening?

[Summer Wine]

What?s Happening? Do you feel it?

Something strange is going on. We are changing? Evolving? Or being socially engineered for?

I get so angry at language, it is so hard to write words down on this screen that can reach out and make me understood. To tell you what?s happening inside of me, and to see if this strangeness is happening to you.

It is so hard to communicate with each other. I splurt out a post that seems to me to be all the answers to the universe. Unfortunately, they are the answers in MY universe, not yours.

But there is something strange going on, and it?s happening to more and more of us. I ran across this guy?s blog and well the words, the language, just speak oceans of ideas to me. And it contains a little of what I have been thinking about, and trying to find the words or language to share ?

Uncomfortably Numb
The Interactive Newsletter You Never Asked For
Gary's Letter

WARNING: This letter contains rambling, twisting, seemingly discontinuous thought-paths. It may, and most likely will, require more than one reading. The subject matter is extremely self-serving, and for this indulgence the author has made every effort to make clear a distinctly murky set of concepts. It might be beneficial to don your mental work-out clothes at this time. The author extends his warmest regards for providing such a compelling reason to attempt this communiqu?.

Hi Gary,
This is going to be a strange letter. You really surprised me with that comment about a particular late-night phone call back in '88. What do you remember about it? What made you ask about it? Are you beginning to wish you'd never brought up the subject? It's been a lot of fun working on this during breaks over the past week. (I'm scraping forty-eight years of paint and caulk off our home in preparation for a new exterior paint job.) Right now, I'm re-writing this to put a fresh spin on an over-worked essay.

Richard Bach has written a great many memorable lines, but the most relevant at this moment is:
You teach best what you most need to learn.
Sometimes it's painful to realize just how true that saying can be. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to immerse myself in this subject matter again. I really needed a refresher course.

Most people don't initiate this dialogue. Maybe it's a desire to avoid Skocko's rambling delusive monologues. (I do acknowledge the possibility that this is indeed a rambling delusive monologue, but there is also a chance that I am making sounds that have something in common with what's really going on.) Maybe people don't initiate this dialogue because they have little or no clear recollection, or, their recollections have been discolored to make them seem more unpalatable than they really are. It's almost as if something were actually eliminating or distorting these experiences. (Contrast these thoughts with the term, "obviate" as described below.)

What really intrigues me, though, is your timing. Your unasked question is quite literally helping me to climb back onto a rather precarious perch?a very tenuous point of view that I fled from in order to finish my schooling. Early on I discovered that these thoughts made it very difficult to play the role of the exemplary student. Last year, these thoughts began "leaking" back into my conscious mind. I'm kind of proud that I actually finished the last two semesters. It was one of the hardest things I've done in a long time. (I've still got to put on an exhibition of my work in one of the university galleries in November, but that will be aided, not hindered by this perceptual reference frame.)

Back to your unasked question?probably something like, "Now that you've been straight for a while, what really happened back when you called me about finding stuff hiding in the dictionary?" (Is this over-simplified guess even close?) Well, on the off-chance that you considered me a drug-crazed, dildonic idiot (and I sure wouldn't hold it against you if that were the case), I've gotta admit that being straight hasn't diminished the memories a bit (that is, when I put the effort into remembering, and it takes considerable effort to overcome my own lingering doubts and fears). Sometimes I wonder if I'd still believe it all if I didn't have all these notes to remind me. I know how bizarre and unlikely this story sounds, and I was there to witness it first-hand. Regardless, I still have the dictionary, and I continue to re-experience the sensations from time to time.

I liken the experience (back in '88) to a wild ride that took me on ever-wilder twists and turns, leaving me gasping at the metamorphic story that unrolled before me. I just held on tight and fought to keep my eyes open. You know, though, I don't have any idea at which point in the ride I called you, so, I don't have any idea as to the specifics of what I said to you, but if it began with something like:

Gary, something strange is going on.
I gotta say that I believe that's still true. Gary, something strange is going on.

At this point in the original letter I wrote:

"Coincidences" continue to spur me on. Right now, Crosby Stills and Nash are singing Southern Cross on the radio. A line in the chorus goes:
Spirits are using me / Larger voices calling

I believe that line is true (most likely in a metaphorical sense). C S & N probably wrote and sang it without really thinking about it. Kind of like the way we listen?without really thinking about it. Kind of like the way we live...

Immediately after I wrote, "Gary, something strange is going on," a few minutes ago, Eric Clapton's voice rang out on the radio:
How many times must we tell the tale?
How many times must we fall?
We're living in a lost memory

I find a beautiful symmetry in that dual coincidence. Both songs have relevance to what is to follow in this letter.

You ever play "what if?"? It's pretty easy. It's an exercise to stretch the muscles of the mind. In this case, I say, "What if, blah blah?" and you purposefully suspend your disbelief in order to consider what it would mean if "blah blah" were true. This doesn't mean that you actually believe it, but you imagine what it would mean if "blah blah" were true. Does that make sense? Do you want to play? Since the rest of this letter depends on you wanting to play, set it aside now if you don't feel particularly imaginative at the moment.)

Okay, what if I actually did stumble upon another layer of communication?a layer that is hard-wired directly into the human experience?built right into our myths, our metaphors, and our language? What if realizing this enabled me to peel back one of the veils that hinders perception? What if this layer of communication is endemic to creative efforts like music (especially music), literature, movies, and even some advertisements, for god's sake? What if it actually were for God's sake? What if I could hand you a metaphor and an explanation which could enable you to get a feel for the experience without disrupting your life? What if this could help you better understand some of the madness that plagues the human race? What if this layer of communication sought to reach into us and awaken the hero within?the benevolent, loving being that lurks just below the conscious level in most of us, most of the time?

Are you able to imagine that any of this is possible? I hope so, because this is going to be the hardest what if: What if everything thus far proposed is so blatantly obvious that it is virtually impossible to believe?virtually impossible to avoid once you have encountered it?and therefore, virtually impossible to acknowledge?simply because we have been programmed not to believe our own perceptions when an incongruity is revealed to be so blatantly obvious. After all, if it's so bleedin' obvious, why then is it not apparent to everybody else? How could an ordinary Joe like you or me figure out something that's supposedly so clear once glimpsed, but nobody else is claiming to see it?

Sound confusing? Sound crazy? Yeah, well it's easy to dismiss all this as nonsense, unless of course, you have enough trust in me to at least try and resist that reflex. (That was a shameless effort at guilt-tripping you into trying. Sorry.)

British biologist, Lyall Watson:
The paradox has been apparent for some time, but it seems to be one of those things that looms so large and are so blatantly obvious that they are difficult to see.

Does that sound strange to you? How can something loom so large and be so blatantly obvious that it becomes difficult to see? Would it surprise you if this were not only a common theme for many serious thinkers, but that an answer, of sorts, may be found in the dictionary?

Obviam is the Latin word from which both obviate and obvious spring. Everyone knows what obvious means, right? But do you know what it used to mean?

One of the unexpected things I found in the dictionary is that words have meanings that change over time. How about the saying:
The meek shall inherit the Earth.
http://www.ix625.com/un_numb/01gary.html
the rest of letter is here

http://www.ix625.com/un_numb/01supp.html
continued here with supplemental thoughts on re-reading Gary?s letter.

So do any of you agree, that there is something strange happening? There is some secret language buried underneath what we think is really going on?

Go read Goro?s blog for an example. But what is happening?

And me, I ?m just riding the wave, putting little thoughts together here and there, but I have come to the rock hard conclusion that the only thing that is going to save us and our beautiful planet is if we all become ? enlightened. Otherwise we are all gonna die together. A falied experiment.

Now that?s a big word, --enlightened--. And what the hell could that mean?

Kinda rhymes with "rapture" don't it?

[jAnnemarie]

Summer says, "So do any of you agree, that there is something strange happening? There is some secret language buried underneath what we think is really going on?"


Summer

There's definitely something strange happening in my "neighbourhood". Trippy synchronicities galore here. And these meaningful coincidences are on the increase in quantity and quality too.

I love that web site. Thank u sooooo much for sharing it. The synchs were flying just as soon as I began reading it. Here's one:

I started reading the page you linked to. Went upstairs, a song popped into my head. No radio on, nothing. The song was, "Look what they've done to my song" by Melanie. It's a soft, heartfelt lament and I started singing my heart out. Then I got to thinking what that song was really about, and I felt that it meant "look what they've done to (my) life; they've done gone and messed everything up. everythin'gs broken, not working...". Ok, about an hour or so later into reading , specifically Chapter 3, Fresh Thoughts, here's what I read:

"...I think that there's a silent song that beckons us to rise. I think that the composer intended us to discover how to respond to its serene melody, embracing 'coincidences' our partner, in the wondrous dance of life."   

Thank you again lady. Your posts mean a lot to me.

[amide_phaedrus]

It's on...

[kephra]

So do any of you agree, that there is something strange happening? There is some secret language buried underneath what we think is really going on?

Yes, I agree.  What does Linda Moulton Howe call it?  High strangeness I think.

So here's my take on it.  I don't expect anyone to agree with my view, but that's ok.

First, there are two possibilities that everything else hinges on.

1) Consciousness gives rise to matter...
 -or-
2) Matter gives rise to consciousness.

I subscribe to the first, which means we are first spirit bodies who are living in a physical body.  This also allows for other beings in spirit who are not living in a physical body.  Once this view is taken, it opens the door to reincarnation, karma, and a whole lot of other ramifications.  The most important one is that collectively, the spirit world actually created the physical one.  IOW, You and I are the creators, well actually co-creators of the matter world and we have a plan to further evolve our creation.  I believe the spirit world (the beings who are not currently incarnate) is quietly guiding all that goes on here by whispering "inspirations" into the ears of those who will listen.  This is how all the symbolism of events and designs get woven into the fabric of this physical world, the events that Goro Adachi studies and decodes so well.  As spirit, we cannot see the details, and interact very well with the physical.  What we see as spirit when we view the matter universe is a swirling blob of energy.  So a long time ago we started incarnating so we could view the matter world up close in detail.  You, and I are doing that. 

When we enter the physical world as an incarnate being, we are forced to forget much of our spiritual life.  This is a necessity we have agreed to.  A large percentage of us do not remember our tasks that we agreed to do before entering physicality, and our lives pass mundanely.  But in spirit, we knew this, and we built a lot of redundancy into this adventure (thats what we are having, an adventure) so that a sufficiently large number of us would "wake up", remember our mission, and perform it.

Whats the goal?  Some call it the Ascenscion, or moving to a higher vibration, or going to a higher dimension.  We want to move the entire material creation up a level.  We have made two previous attempts at this, and both times it ended in disaster.  The first attempt lead to the demise of Lemuria, and the second to the demise of Atlantis.  Both attempts failed because we did not generate the right balance of Yin vs Yang energy.  Lemuria failed because we developed too much Yin energy.  Atlantis failed because we developed too much Yang.  Hopefully, this time we have it right.  Dr. Michael Sharp describes this very well.

We are almost there.  Spirit has the right balance of Yin/Yang, Male/Female, Light/Dark worked out so that we will have developed enough energy to accomplish the plan.  As the energy level rises, so will the "strangeness".  I sense that the veil is breaking down, the synchronicities are increasing, we are getting a steadier and stronger stream of "messages" to wake us up. 

Yes, the world seems like its completely nuts, and everything is falling apart.  But fear not.  We are all immortal spirit beings.  We all volunteered for the roles we are playing out in this Matrix movie.  Time is short now, and there is still much to be done.  Each of us has to finish balancing our karma, and learn our karmic lessons before the big event (12-21-2012 11:11am GMT).  Every drama has to play itself out before that time.  There must be no unfinished business which means things will continue to speed up to that magic moment.

Of course, if Number 2 above is correct... well..   as Emily Letilla used to say on Saturday Night Live"   "Nevermind".

[jAnnemarie]

I think. Therefore I can. 

[jAnnemarie]

Also wanted to post this cool little ditty that I read on Uncomfortably Numb. It's by The Waterboys:

Spirit

Man gets tired/Spirit don't
Man surrenders/Spirit won't
Man crawls/Spirit flies
Spirit lives when Man dies.

Man seems/Spirit is
Man dreams/Spirit lives
Man is tethered/Spirit is free
What Spirit is Man can be.

[Summer Wine]

That's beautiful. Glad you like that blog AMJ. It really speaks to me.

Found this yesterday and here is part 1 - I like this a lot.

http://www.christconsciousnesspub.com/our%20soul%20connections.htm

Soul Connections

Soul Mates, Twin Souls, Twin Flames,

Twin Rays, Eternal Flames

 

 

Soul Mate

A soul mate is one that you have pre-chosen to work with to help create experiences for the other that will produce soul growth and realization.  Many times they are a mirror that you need to help evolve and awaken your soul. You may be very attracted to them, yet there may be something about them that creates an aversion that you just don't fully comprehend.  Things they do are either wonderful or they really bother you. Many are searching for soul mates at this time to marry, because they think of them as as being perfect mates.  If you believe this to be true then I hope you are ready to be unconditional love.  Because they are here to teach you how to truly love yourself and to be the love that you are.  Which is a pretty wonderful gift if you ask me, but you don't have to marry them to receive the gift.

[Kahotep]

Amj, Great lyrics them... 'tis a great tune too. an Uplifter.

Kephra, Interesting ideas. From a technical point of view, consciousness does indeedy create matter, as it is only through consciousness of physicality that it exists. If there is no consciousness, there is no matter, or certainly there is no way of proving it's physical existance, without the eternal reflector/refractor that is consciousness. A deeper question is; does consciousness 'exist'?

In a scientific mode, there is no way of proving it's existance. It's similar to the particle in Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle: You cannot accurately locate it. Or more scientifically, "one cannot measure values (with arbitrary precision) of certain conjugate quantities, which are pairs of observables of a single elementary particle. These pairs include the position and momentum." (Wiki)

There have been many scientific studies dedicated to locating consciousness and investigating it's physical nature. The conclusion of these studies is that one cannot locate it. The Electromagnetic theories of consciousness are interesting, but are still to be confirmed in an experiment.

My theory is that consciousness is non-local. IOW, it exists, but one cannot precisely locate it at any moment. It is not in the brain. It is not even in this dimension of 3D physical existance all the time. (it might be here long enough so that it can become aware of physicality, but as soon as that is accomplished, it no longer resides in the physical realm) this is why psi is possible. I've been having some success of late with this phenomena, and there is no scientific method of explaining it's existance without relying on some form of 'non-local consciousness' theory.

Summer, ---enlightenment--- is what we all need. As long as we have left in this weird 'reality-matrix' should be enough to learn who we are enough so that we can escape it's negative manifestations and embrace it's positive. Stay + girl 

[Summer Wine]

http://www.firethegrid.com/


humans are lightning rods!


fire it up......................

[kephra]

SummerWine,

What a great idea!.  I put the date in my PDA, and if everything goes to plan, I will add it to the forum calendar next year so anyone can particpate if they want.

[Summer Wine]

Remember to Breathe
In all our hurrying, worrying we need to just stop for a minute and breathe. Take notice of all the beauty and "rightness" that surrounds you. The sun comes up every morning, the birds sing, the insects hurry from flower to flower. And flowers bloom and smile their pretty smiles. Who are we o insignicant creatures that have the audacity to think we are in charge of all that is.

One day if you are lucky, while sitting and thinking of all that is, you might have a miraculous beam of lightning flow down from the heavens that will illuminate you and fill you with the brightest light you could possibly imagine. Ages upon ages men and women have sought this experience and upon finding it tried to put it into a language that makes sense. Language is both a gift and a curse. Words have so many meanings and can be bent in so many ways.

But here is a little truth - The Secret of the Ages. Once only the priviledged few had access to this knowledge, it was kept hidden for many reasons. Some were burned at the stake, or hung. A good reason to only share this knowledge with someone you trust. And a good reason to hide it within parables, allegories, and visions of the gods.........

The one hope of the world is philosophy, for all the sorrows of modern life result from the lack of a proper philosophic code. Those who sense even in part the dignity of life cannot but realize the shallowness apparent in the activities of this age. Well has it been said that no individual can succeed until he has developed his philosophy of life. Neither can a race or nation attain true greatness until it has formulated an adequate philosophy and has dedicated its existence to a policy consistent with that philosophy. During the World War, when so-called civilization hurled one half of itself against the other in a frenzy of hate, men ruthlessly destroyed something more precious even than human life: they obliterated those records of human thought by which life can be intelligently directionalized. Truly did Mohammed declare the ink of philosophers to be more precious than the blood of martyrs. Priceless documents, invaluable records of achievement, knowledge founded on ages of patient observation and experimentation by the elect of the earth--all were destroyed with scarcely a qualm of regret. What was knowledge, what was truth, beauty, love, idealism, philosophy, or religion when compared to man's desire to control an infinitesimal spot in the fields of Cosmos for an inestimably minute fragment of time? Merely to satisfy some whim or urge of ambition man would uproot the universe, though well he knows that in a few short years he must depart, leaving all that he has seized to posterity as an old cause for fresh contention.

War--the irrefutable evidence of irrationality--still smolders in the hearts of men; it cannot die until human selfishness is overcome. Armed with multifarious inventions and destructive agencies, civilization will continue its fratricidal strife through future ages, But upon the mind of man there is dawning a great fear--the fear that eventually civilization will destroy itself in one great cataclysmic struggle. Then must be reenacted the eternal drama of reconstruction. Out of the ruins of the civilization which died when its idealism died, some primitive people yet in the womb of destiny must build a new world. Foreseeing the needs of that day, the philosophers of the ages have desired that into the structure of this new world shall be incorporated the truest and finest of all that has gone before. It is a divine law that the sum of previous accomplishment shall be the foundation of each new order of things. The great philosophic treasures of humanity must be preserved. That which is superficial may he allowed to perish; that which is fundamental and essential must remain, regardless of cost.

Two fundamental forms of ignorance were recognized by the Platonists: simple ignorance and complex ignorance. Simple ignorance is merely lack of knowledge and is common to all creatures existing posterior to the First Cause, which alone has perfection of knowledge. Simple ignorance is an ever-active agent, urging the soul onward to the acquisition of knowledge. From this virginal state of unawareness grows the desire to become aware with its resultant improvement in the mental condition. The human intellect is ever surrounded by forms of existence beyond the estimation of its partly developed faculties. In this realm of objects not understood is a never-failing source of mental stimuli. Thus wisdom eventually results from the effort to cope rationally with the problem of the unknown.

In the last analysis, the Ultimate Cause alone can be denominated wise; in simpler words, only God is good. Socrates declared knowledge, virtue, and utility to be one with the innate nature of good. Knowledge is a condition of knowing; virtue a condition of being; utility a condition of doing. Considering wisdom as synonymous with mental completeness, it is evident that such a state can exist only in the Whole, for that which is less than the Whole cannot possess the fullness of the All. No part of creation is complete; hence each part is imperfect to the extent that it falls short of entirety. Where incompleteness is, it also follows that ignorance must be coexistent; for every part, while capable of knowing its own Self, cannot become aware of the Self in the other parts. Philosophically considered, growth from the standpoint of human evolution is a process proceeding from heterogeneity to homogeneity. In time, therefore, the isolated consciousness of the individual fragments is reunited to become the complete consciousness of the Whole. Then, and then only, is the condition of all-knowing an absolute reality.

Thus all creatures are relatively ignorant yet relatively wise; comparatively nothing yet comparatively all. The microscope reveals to man his significance; the telescope, his insignificance. Through the eternities of existence man is gradually increasing in both wisdom and understanding; his ever-expanding consciousness is including more of the external within the area of itself. Even in man's present state of imperfection it is dawning upon his realization that he can never be truly happy until he is perfect, and that of all the faculties contributing to his self-perfection none is equal in importance to the rational intellect. Through the labyrinth of diversity only the illumined mind can, and must, lead the soul into the perfect light of unity.

In addition to the simple ignorance which is the most potent factor in mental growth there exists another, which is of a far more dangerous and subtle type. This second form, called twofold or complex ignorance, may be briefly defined as ignorance of ignorance. Worshiping the sun, moon, and stars, and offering sacrifices to the winds, the primitive savage sought with crude fetishes to propitiate his unknown gods. He dwelt in a world filled with wonders which he did not understand. Now great cities stand where once roamed the Crookboned men. Humanity no longer regards itself as primitive or aboriginal. The spirit of wonder and awe has been succeeded by one of sophistication. Today man worships his own accomplishments, and either relegates the immensities of time and space to the background of his consciousness or disregards them entirely.

The twentieth century makes a fetish of civilization and is overwhelmed by its own fabrications; its gods are of its own fashioning. Humanity has forgotten how infinitesimal, how impermanent and how ignorant it actually is. Ptolemy has been ridiculed for conceiving the earth to be the center of the universe, yet modern civilization is seemingly founded upon the hypothesis that the planet earth is the most permanent and important of all the heavenly spheres,


and that the gods from their starry thrones are fascinated by the monumental and epochal events taking place upon this spherical ant-hill in Chaos.

From age to age men ceaselessly toil to build cities that they may rule over them with pomp and power--as though a fillet of gold or ten million vassals could elevate man above the dignity of his own thoughts and make the glitter of his scepter visible to the distant stars. As this tiny planet rolls along its orbit in space, it carries with it some two billion human beings who live and die oblivious to that immeasurable existence lying beyond the lump on which they dwell. Measured by the infinities of time and space, what are the captains of industry or the lords of finance? If one of these plutocrats should rise until he ruled the earth itself, what would he be but a petty despot seated on a grain of Cosmic dust?

Philosophy reveals to man his kinship with the All. It shows him that he is a brother to the suns which dot the firmament; it lifts him from a taxpayer on a whirling atom to a citizen of Cosmos. It teaches him that while physically bound to earth (of which his blood and bones are part), there is nevertheless within him a spiritual power, a diviner Self, through which he is one with the symphony of the Whole. Ignorance of ignorance, then, is that self-satisfied state of unawareness in which man, knowing nothing outside the limited area of his physical senses, bumptiously declares there is nothing more to know! He who knows no life save the physical is merely ignorant; but he who declares physical life to be all-important and elevates it to the position of supreme reality--such a one is ignorant of his own ignorance.

If the Infinite had not desired man to become wise, He would not have bestowed upon him the faculty of knowing. If He had not intended man to become virtuous, He would not have sown within the human heart the seeds of virtue. If He had predestined man to be limited to his narrow physical life, He would not have equipped him with perceptions and sensibilities capable of grasping, in part at least, the immensity of the outer universe. The criers of philosophy call all men to a comradeship of the spirit: to a fraternity of thought: to a convocation of Selves. Philosophy invites man out of the vainness of selfishness; out of the sorrow of ignorance and the despair of worldliness; out of the travesty of ambition and the cruel clutches of greed; out of the red hell of hate and the cold tomb of dead idealism.

Philosophy would lead all men into the broad, calm vistas of truth, for the world of philosophy is a land of peace where those finer qualities pent up within each human soul are given opportunity for expression. Here men are taught the wonders of the blades of grass; each stick and stone is endowed with speech and tells the secret of its being. All life, bathed in the radiance of understanding, becomes a wonderful and beautiful reality. From the four corners of creation swells a mighty anthem of rejoicing, for here in the light of philosophy is revealed the purpose of existence; the wisdom and goodness permeating the Whole become evident to even man's imperfect intellect. Here the yearning heart of humanity finds that companionship which draws forth from the innermost recesses of the soul that great store of good which lies there like precious metal in some deep hidden vein.

Following the path pointed out by the wise, the seeker after truth ultimately attains to the summit of wisdom's mount, and gazing down, beholds the panorama of life spread out before him. The cities of the plains are but tiny specks and the horizon on every hand is obscured by the gray haze of the Unknown. Then the soul realizes that wisdom lies in breadth of vision; that it increases in comparison to the vista. Then as man's thoughts lift him heavenward, streets are lost in cities, cities in nations, nations in continents, continents in the earth, the earth in space, and space in an infinite eternity, until at last but two things remain: the Self and the goodness of God.

While man's physical body resides with him and mingles with the heedless throng, it is difficult to conceive of man as actually inhabiting a world of his own-a world which he has discovered by lifting himself into communion with the profundities of his own internal nature. Man may live two lives. One is a struggle from the womb to the tomb. Its span is measured by man's own creation--time. Well may it be called the unheeding life. The other life is from realization to infinity. It begins with understanding, its duration is forever, and upon the plane of eternity it is consummated. This is called the philosophic life. Philosophers are nor born nor do they die; for once having achieved the realization of immortality, they are immortal. Having once communed with Self, they realize that within there is an immortal foundation that will not pass away. Upon this living, vibrant base--Self--they erect a civilization which will endure after the sun, the moon, and the stars have ceased to be. The fool lives but for today; the philosopher lives forever.

When once the rational consciousness of man rolls away the stone and comes forth from its sepulcher, it dies no more; for to this second or philosophic birth there is no dissolution. By this should not be inferred physical immortality, but rather that the philosopher has learned that his physical body is no more his true Self than the physical earth is his true world. In the realization that he and his body are dissimilar--that though the form must perish the life will not fail--he achieves conscious immortality. This was the immortality to which Socrates referred when he said: "Anytus and Melitus may indeed put me to death, but they cannot injure me." To the wise, physical existence is but the outer room of the hall of life. Swinging open the doors of this antechamber, the illumined pass into the greater and more perfect existence. The ignorant dwell in a world bounded by time and space. To those, however, who grasp the import and dignity of Being, these are but phantom shapes, illusions of the senses-arbitrary limits imposed by man's ignorance upon the duration of Deity. The philosopher lives and thrills with the realization of this duration, for to him this infinite period has been designed by the All-Wise Cause as the time of all accomplishment.

Man is not the insignificant creature that he appears to be; his physical body is not the true measure of his real self. The invisible nature of man is as vast as his comprehension and as measureless as his thoughts. The fingers of his mind reach out and grasp the stars; his spirit mingles with the throbbing life of Cosmos itself. He who has attained to the state of understanding thereby has so increased his capacity to know that he gradually incorporates within himself the various elements of the universe. The unknown is merely that which is yet to be included within the consciousness of the seeker. Philosophy assists man to develop the sense of appreciation; for as it reveals the glory and the sufficiency of knowledge, it also unfolds those latent powers and faculties whereby man is enabled to master the secrets of the seven spheres.

From the world of physical pursuits the initiates of old called their disciples into the life of the mind and the spirit. Throughout the ages, the Mysteries have stood at the threshold of Reality--that hypothetical spot between noumenon and phenomenon, the Substance and the shadow. The gates of the Mysteries stand ever ajar and those who will may pass through into the spacious domicile of spirit. The world of philosophy lies neither to the right nor to the left, neither above nor below. Like a subtle essence permeating all space and all substance, it is everywhere; it penetrates the innermost and the outermost parts of all being. In every man and woman these two spheres are connected by a gate which leads from the not-self and its concerns to the Self and its realizations. In the mystic this gate is the heart, and through spiritualization of his emotions he contacts that more elevated plane which, once felt and known, becomes the sum of the worth-while. In the philosopher, reason is the gate between the outer and the inner worlds, the illumined mind bridging the chasm between the corporeal and the incorporeal. Thus godhood is born within the one who sees, and from the concerns of men he rises to the concerns of gods.

In this era of "practical" things men ridicule even the existence of God. They scoff at goodness while they ponder with befuddled minds the phantasmagoria of materiality. They have forgotten the path which leads beyond the stars. The great mystical institutions of antiquity which invited man to enter into his divine inheritance have crumbled, and institutions of human scheming now stand where once the ancient houses of learning rose a mystery of fluted columns and polished marble. The white-robed sages who gave to the world its ideals of culture and beauty have gathered their robes about them and departed from the sight of men. Nevertheless, this little earth is bathed as of old in the sunlight of its Providential Generator. Wide-eyed babes still face the mysteries of physical existence. Men continue to laugh and cry, to love and hate; Some still dream of a nobler world, a fuller life, a more perfect realization. In both the heart and mind of man the gates which lead from mortality to immortality are still ajar. Virtue, love, and idealism are yet the regenerators of humanity. God continues to love and guide the destinies of His creation. The path still winds upward to accomplishment. The soul of man has not been deprived of its wings; they are merely folded under its garment of flesh. Philosophy is ever that magic power which, sundering the vessel of clay, releases the soul from its bondage to habit and perversion. Still as of old, the soul released can spread its wings and soar to the very source of itself.

The criers of the Mysteries speak again, bidding all men welcome to the House of Light. The great institution of materiality has failed. The false civilization built by man has turned, and like the monster of Frankenstein, is destroying its creator. Religion wanders aimlessly in the maze of theological speculation. Science batters itself impotently against the barriers of the unknown. Only transcendental philosophy knows the path. Only the illumined reason can carry the understanding part of man upward to the light. Only philosophy can teach man to be born well, to live well, to die well, and in perfect measure be born again. Into this band of the elect--those who have chosen the life of knowledge, of virtue, and of utility--the philosophers of the ages invite YOU.

[Summer Wine]

Up, down, in, out??

Twirling, falling, hoping. From a very special blog that I visit. His post and a comment left is some of the best medicine anyone could ask for ?

And boy, I needed a dose today. Since the tsunami of 04 and then Katrina and wars, killing, can it get any worse? Seems to just be intensifying, and trying so hard to keep your heart sending out good vibes, feeling love, sending love.

http://awakened1.blogspot.com/

For the past month I have just been sitting back, observing. The energy has been off lately, or maybe its new ones settling, either way I have been on the edge of the seat. There is a lot going on right now world wide. Its sickening, turn on any of the 24 hour news networks and they are literally selling WW3 as a product. And doing stories on Armageddon to add to the fear mongering.

I think one important thing to remember is that things are changing at a very increased rate. The universe catching up to itself. Too many people are focused on the future without worrying about the NOW. I am personally trying to find my balance at this point. We can create the future, it isn?t written yet. We have to realize that the whole point of awakening is to bring in the knowledge from the spirit realm and other dimensions into this one. Into the physical. There are a lot of people who are aware of what is happening. I think its important to ground ourselves and project love energy into the collective consciousness of this planet and do our part to truly wake people up and shed light where it is needed.

So many people are consumed by fear and regret, sleep walking through this life, still looking for that glimpse of light to remind them. This society has become a coma state. Media, Propaganda, mind control, whatever you want to call it, has molded generation after generation of submissive masses. Now we find ourselves in 2006, facing the same problems we as a planet, as a species have always faced. Greed, War, Addiction, where love and peace have taken a backseat to the products and material wealth of this illusionary world. A new product at every turn, newer, better. Now the mass consciousness has been infected with truth, domino effect, critical mass. People are looking at the eternal questions again and have grown tired of the pollution. The spiritual nature is coming back into play and it only takes a trigger event to start the awakening process. To finally realize that "it", the connectedness to the divine, to nature.

We are living in the most exciting times to be on this planet, in this body right NOW. Yea, a lot of confusion, but once you learn to see beyond the illusion and actually integrate that knowledge into everything, it begins to change. We have to be that change, every single one. Non violence is the ONLY way and is the bravest of all action to take in all argument. Knowledge is power and that is one thing no one can ever take away from anyone. It is time to stand up for what is right and just for the higher good of all. We are all one.

So on that note, I AM off for a bit......

And a comment left ?
Alex said...
Enjoyed your article as always. Thought you and others might appreciate this on that I found recently.

We've Been Living in a Dream World

B Y J E A N - C L A U D E K O V E N

"MOST PEOPLE ARE other people," Oscar Wilde once remarked. "Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation." As he so wryly observed, the vast majority of us are not who we've been pretending to be, and the lives we've been living until now are molded according to rules and values that are not our own. Most of humanity is stuck in someone else's discarded chewing gum and has yet to break free.

Unless you have been brave enough to forsake this trap, here is your likely portrait: your religious convictions are those of your parents or community; you root for your hometown sports teams; your political allegiances conform to the party system that society offers; you are an avid observer of the cultural pageantry, like the Super Bowl and the Oscars; your holidays are the standard ones, such as Christmas, New Year's Eve, and Independence Day; you look to your political and religious leaders for guidance and protection; you feel driven to succeed; to make more money, to live a better life.

These are worthy and desirable choices that hold families and societies together. They make you who you are, you might argue. True, but only if you are content with admiring the wrapping and never looking inside the box. If you dared to look, you'd discover how these basic thoughts originate in a fundamental belief formed during the first years of your life: that survival depends on obeying the rules. Children typically bend their perceptions and interpretations of reality to match those of their parents and others who care for them. They find clever ways to please in order to receive attention and belong. As they grow up, the people and issues may change over time, but the initial patterns of conformity remain deeply ingrained in the subconscious.

The price for surrendering to consensus is steep. It is nothing less than the loss of individuality and curiosity. Without these two magnificent attributes, you disengage from the grandness of the creation and implode into the holographic illusion humans have come to call reality. You become one of Oscar Wilde's other people, thinking someone else's opinions and assuming they are your own.

We are trapped in the daily drama the culture and the media feed us: mortgages, sporting events, tsunamis, sex offenders, AIDS, terrorism, global warming, corrupt governments, and economic inequities... all demanding our attention. The matrix plays us like an instrument. A thirty-second news bite can push our buttons. We get hooked and riled, liberally lacing our collective guts with corrosive biochemicals unleashed by our righteous indignation.

This condition is virtually universal. It is also the underlying cause of the world as we know it. People cling so tightly to their personal and social identities that they are blinded to anything that does not validate them. The inevitable product is a world of war, greed, and competition, driven by paranoia and fear.

The way out is easier than anyone might imagine. However, very few summon the courage, for it requires them to leave the comfort of their known world and walk alone, unaided by the crutch of belief and dogma, into the domain of pure consciousness. Most people would rather get caught up in the business of earning a living, raising a family, or helping their community than deal with the unsettling immensity of All That Is.

Yet it seems that all humans are meant to take this epic journey of discovery at some point in their series of lives on this planet. If you choose to walk this path, you will find yourself gaining a new perspective; that of consciousness, where the mind, with its judgments and emotions, ceases to dominate and the heart is your only reliable guide. The great issues of your daily life that once commanded your attention now seem wondrously arbitrary and irrelevant - simply interesting experiences that lasted far too long and became unnecessarily weighty.

You now see the illusion for what it is: a game-board projection designed so aspects of the Oneness can experience duality, fear, and separation. It is no more real than a programmed matrix in a computer game. You and I are merely units of awareness projected into the matrix, defining ourselves by the points through which we view and believing what we see to be reality. Who did the projecting? You. Who is the projection? You. There is only you.

How do you get to this liberating place from which you can see the larger picture?

The cosmic formula of creation is gloriously simple: Attention + Intention = Manifestation. Nothing in the universe evades this law. The reality you perceive is entirely a function of the only two forces at your command: your attention and your intention. Bring conscious awareness to this equation - consciously monitor your attention and intention and what you are manifesting - and everything changes.

Through this ongoing process of self-observation it will become increasingly clear that the part of you that is projected into the illusion is in trouble. This realization in fact marks the beginning of your journey out of the illusion. Once you begin to couple the law of Attention + Intention = Manifestation with the concept of Oneness, you begin to see a completely different picture. You are All That Is. There is nowhere for you to go, nothing to attain, no lessons to learn.

If you buy into the reality that you are an earthbound human stuck in the struggle of life, presto, there you are. If you focus on the part of you that is watching you flounder in the illusion, snap, you're free. It can't get much easier than that. Yet why are so few of us awake?

The written or spoken word can do no more than point the way. And trading one belief system for another accomplishes nothing. The answer lies elsewhere. Waking up is a consequence of induction. Just a few years ago you might have placed yourself in the presence of a guru or master and, through devotion, discipline, or some other practice, gradually assumed some of his or her enlightenment. Now, using the law of A + I = M, you become your own master. By focusing your attention on the part of you that is watching the rest of you floundering in the illusion, you are taking a giant step in restoring control over how your attention is commanded. If you add the intention of reclaiming your essence, you complete the formula that can only result in the manifestation of whatever your curiosity seeks to explore.

The payoff of having been so deeply mired in the illusion that you nearly succumbed is compassion for those still stuck in the matrix, coupled with a large dose of humility. You have learned that the illusion is perfect exactly as it is. The only thing that needs to change is the point from which we view it. Now all that's left is for you to summon the courage to begin the journey home.

? Jean-Claude Koven,

http://www.planetlightworker.com/articles_free/jeanclaudekoven/article3.htm

5:18 AM


 so with that, I wish everyone a good weekend filled with love. peace and happiness to all.

[Summer Wine]

Although this was a very pleasurable weekend filled with joy and happiness. Surrounded by my friends, family and good cheer, I spent this whole day weeping. My heart was rubbed raw and bleeding.

I ran across this picture of the little boy whose body was almost destroyed. His face and eyes filled with fear, shock, horror and pain. And all of that resonated within me to unbearable emotions.




How can we live in this world full of pain? So much injustice, so much horror, so much murder of innocents. All around us each and every day.

It seems that the only way to survive is stay within a trance or dream state and close your eyes and mind to the realities that surround you. Otherwise, if you wake up and see the horror and the carnage, you weep, and weep and weep.

How many years now have I awoken each morning to a new report of bombings, killings, shootings, wars. Seems like every single day of my life. And you become totally desensitized to them. You go about your life, you go to work (usually at something you hate) because from the day you were born, you are already in debt, a slave to the system. You buy, you go into debt, and you keep buying, hoping to medicate all that pain that you hide with new toys, pretty dresses, just like children we are kept pacified. You go along, you live a life that feels like you are free. But you are not. How can any of us believe that we are free and how can any of us believe that freedom is what we are bringing to the middle east?

And one day, you forget to take your pills and something happens. You wake up out of the trance and you can never go back again.

And you see the horror of it all. And now you can no longer rationalize it or ignore it. All the injustices and all the wrongness.

I went to a Luau party this weekend. We had a pig roast. And this year it just made me weep. The guys cooking the pig were talking about how just the day before the pig (pretty much a baby) had been running around the barnyard, laughing and having a gay old time. Then bam, along comes our luau party and his life is over. Put to death, so we could enjoy a pig roast. I?ve never stopped to think about it before, but who am I to have a clue what this baby pig?s life consisted of. I?m sure he joyfully watched the sun come up every morning, enjoyed the bird?s singing, and enjoyed the moon at night. He loved his mother and I?m sure his mother loved him. I can?t begin to understand what my own husband is thinking, so how could I possibly presume to think I know what this baby pig was or was not thinking. Who am I to think that it is just ok to murder him, take away his life so that I could enjoy a pig roast?

And asking these questions is there any answer? The life we lead now is so engrained, how could anything change. And is it just because I have lost my mind? And oh yes, I have lost it. Because how can you not, if you begin to think.

Searching for an answer, how could God allow this? All this suffering? And who gets to decide who suffers? Does it serve a purpose? Can it be changed? Can we ever end this endless cycle?

What can one little person do? And all this time and energy we are spending sitting here chit chatting on the internet, isn?t that a crime? Little children are having their arms blown off and we sit here discussing everything under the sun, but not a damn one of us discusses the absolute horror that human beings are doing this to each other and human beings are doing this to a child. That?s just too raw, and painful, isn?t it?. Cause if you discuss it, you have to de-sensitize yourself and realize that it?s really happening, that little boy is another human being, another soul, and doesn?t your soul cry out in absolute rage at why is this happening, and why are we allowing it?

Do we have any control? And that question only brought more weeping, because I could see no hope of ever having any control. How can I ever make it different?

And then after much weeping I came to the conclusion that there is only one way out of this. Only one thing will work. And it sounds clich?d and silly. But that one thing is love. Love is the only thing that will work. Love is the only power that each of us possesses.

And yes all this endless chit chatting has a purpose. Because little, by little, we are talking to each other, understanding and growing together. This grid of energy that covers the earth is us. Each of us is energy and each of us are needed.

Opening your heart and filling it with love is the true Holy Grail. And the love starts growing and overflowing into hearts that you come into contact with, and the love lights a candle in their heart and they spread it even further. Until one day, all our cups are filled with the sweet wine of love and harming anything or anyone is unthinkable.

That is the only hope.


http://www.plotinus.com/dark_night_of_the_soul.htm
a link I found today called ?The Dark Night of the Soul?.

[annemarie j]

Dear Summer,

I know that little boy. He is the one I think of every time I think of Iraq. I spent days crying after first seeing him. It is obscene what we do to each other. For no good reason. None of this can ever be justified. It never was, and it is not about self-defence. That is the only good reason ever for fighting. And it is also why I do not support the troops. I don't support any troops, including those from here, Canada. Imo, if you support the troops, you support war. The troops too have been had, badly. They are paying for that, in countless tragic ways. I do pity them. Though I honestly wont' say that I sympathize with them as much as I do the citizens, the civilians of Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. For it's only the civilians who really have no choice in all this horror.

Genuine courage is truly rare, isn't it. If it weren't, we would not be fighting these god-awful wars.

All these wars (the ones in my lifetime are the only ones which I can adequately speak about) are mercenary wars for empire-building, for stealing resources, for profit.  Ergo, they are all immoral.

Can any of you imagine living your life without arms, without hands? Never able to touch another person? To hold another person? To type, paint, make something, toss a ball, hit a bat, wash your face, hold someone's hand? Can you imagine your children without --? I can't even finish that sentence.  It makes me weak, sick just to begin to contemplate it. That and more is what we all have done to too, too many.

I'm sorry I can't speak about this rationally, without emotion. I hope it makes some sense. And you're right Summer, I truly believe that it is love, only love that can heal us all. We've got so, so far to go. We have to learn to love. To forgive. To accept all others as equals. To release the hate. To fill our lives with loving, kind deeds, and live by example. Teach the children well, so that they make become loving, not hating, not vulnerable to the hate.

Tidings of love and light to All,

------------


Here's an archived news article on Ali, along with a photo of him after surgery in Britain.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/08/08/1060145865398.html

Boy without arms set for UK surgery

London
August 9, 2003

Ali Abbas, the Iraqi boy who lost his arms in a US bomb blast that killed his parents, flew to Britain on Thursday for artificial limb surgery.

Ali, 13, was so badly hurt that he was given only a 50 per cent chance of survival, and was taken to Kuwait for emergency treatment.

But he recovered sufficiently to fly to London with Ahmed Mohammed Hamza, 14, who was also injured. The boys will be fitted with prosthetic limbs at Queen Mary's Rehabilitation Centre in London.

They were accompanied on the flight by Ali's uncle, and are expected to stay in Britain for at least three months.

The treatment is being paid for by the Kuwaiti Government, and the boys flew in a jet belonging to its Prime Minister.

Ali's father, pregnant mother, brother and 13 other family members were killed when a missile struck their home near Baghdad.

Ahmed lost his right hand and left leg below the knee.

He was reunited with his father just days, after Kuwaitis spent months trying to trace his family.

[Summer Wine]

I'm sorry I can't speak about this rationally, without emotion. I hope it makes some sense. And you're right Summer, I truly believe that it is love, only love that can heal us all. We've got so, so far to go. We have to learn to love. To forgive. To accept all others as equals. To release the hate. To fill our lives with loving, kind deeds, and live by example. Teach the children well, so that they make become loving, not hating, not vulnerable to the hate.

Tidings of love and light to All,

Beautiful words, thank you AMJ.

I think I might be on a vision quest. Strange, "magical" things have been happening to me since I started this thread. Lately, I spend most of my time just sitting outside in my little piece of heaven. I am becoming quite acquainted with all the magic and mystery that goes on with life on a daily basis, and most of the time and sadly we are totally oblivious to all the wonders right outside our own back door. A hawk moved into my neighborhood a little over a year ago. This summer he found a mate, and now they have babies. I find more joy in just sitting and watching them soar and the tenderness that they show to their babies. This morning I opened my front door and laying right there on the welcome mat was a beautiful hawk feather. It brought me to tears. A gift for me.

Then these are the first two articles that surfed their way up out of the internet ocean to me this morning, another gift from the hawk feather, I think.

Hope they speak to your heart, like they did to mine:

?
To End All Wars
by Butler Shaffer

?What if they gave a war and nobody came?? This was one of the better bumper-sticker messages of the Vietnam War years. Its sentiments provide an insight to the question of whether it is truly possible to end the war system.

There is a way to end all wars, and the means of doing so can be stated in the following words: we must learn to love our children and grandchildren more than we do the state. That?s it. No international treaties; no candlelight vigils; no referenda by the electorate; no abstract philosophic doctrines to recite. All that is required to end the wholesale butchery that most of us are eager to celebrate with the waving of flags is for each of us to put the faces of our children and grandchildren alongside the image of the state and ask ourselves: which am I prepared to sacrifice for the sake of the other?

There is a common assumption, the falsity of which is most often revealed in times of crisis, namely, that parents have an intense love for their children. When the costs of protecting and fostering the interests of our children are relatively low, this statement probably finds a great deal of support in human behavior. I would go even further and, consistent with Richard Dawkins? book The Selfish Gene, add that most parents would likely risk their own lives to save those of their offspring. I have seen mother birds fake an injury to themselves in order to draw a predator away from her nest of chicks, a practice as instinctively based as that of a human mother putting her children behind her when confronted by an attacker. What we think of as our ?free will? is not always the product of our conscious thinking, but is often driven by a genetic disposition to continue itself into another generation.

If this is so, what kind of ?crisis? could cause parents to override these natural tendencies to protect their children from harm or death? This inquiry raises the question of ?who? we are. If, as I believe to be beyond all doubt, each of us is motivated by self-interest, ?who? is the ?self? whose interests we are fostering? Is it our protoplasmic and/or egoistic sense of being? Does it include our extended family relationships, and perhaps that of our friends, neighbors, and work associates? In the words of Alice?s caterpillar, ?who are you??

Since early childhood, our minds have been carefully conditioned ? by institutions presuming the authority to train us in mindsets that serve their interests ? to regard our subservience to organizational purposes as an integral part of who we are. In a secular society, such subservience is to the state. This is not simply a matter of being trained to favor state interests over our own, but of learning to have such interests coalesce into a unified sense of self.

It is in this way that we develop ?ego-boundary? definitions of ?who? we are. Such categories go far beyond political classifications, to include race, nationality, religion, gender, ethnicity, lifestyle, ideology, or any of numerous other categories by which we have come to think of ?ourselves.?

In our politically-structured world, most of us have learned to identify ourselves through the nation-state of which we are a part. From this transformation from our biological/egoistic definition of ?self? into a ?nation? or ?state? meaning, our minds become prepared ? like that of a mother bird ? to risk our individual lives in order to protect our enlarged definition of ?self.? It is a mistake to assume that we are ?sacrificing? our sense of self in going off to war: the interests of the nation-state are the self-interests of the person who has identified himself with this ego-boundary. This is what drives the suicide-bomber to destroy both himself and others.

How does one break into this vicious circle of institutionalized and sanctified destruction and put an end to it? We make the feeble excuse that wars will end when ?others? change their ways and decide to quit the practice. But you have no control over others. The illusion that you do is what creates the war system. Since war involves two or more parties, and you cannot control the energies of others, your efforts to end wars is necessarily confined to the withdrawing of your participation in the system.

But how is this to be done? Our conditioning often leads us to suppose that political involvement ? such as working on behalf of candidates ? is the way out of war?s destructive ways. But politics is the war system, whether conducted against domestic or foreign enemies. Believing that you can excise the most vicious and destructive part from the political thinking that spawns it, is like believing you can end cirrhosis of the liver without confronting the addiction of alcoholism. Such an approach is a total evasion of the problem. It is as though ending wars is only a matter of generating popular slogans, spreading the use of bumper-stickers, or erecting international scarecrows to ward off the same forces that underlie all political action.

If you have been conditioned to see yourself as a manifestation of the ?ego-boundaries? with which you have identified yourself, is it not evident that examining your own thinking ? including the processes of your conditioning ? might be a place to begin? Does your very soul insist ? as it was trained to do ? upon maintaining its ?pledge-of-allegiance? commitment to the state? If you consider your existence subordinate to the state?s interests, upon what basis could you urge a higher purpose for your children?

During the Vietnam War years, I recall hearing a few fathers ? themselves veterans of World War II ? expressing shame over their sons who fled to Canada rather than getting themselves fed into the war machine. I also recalled the statement ? whose author I no longer remember ? that a man had a moral duty to not allow his children to grow up under tyranny. What pathetic beings, and what terrible parents, were those men who felt disgraced by sons who regarded their well-being more highly than they did that of the state.

There are few more depraved forms of child abuse than those found in parents not only allowing, but eagerly promoting, the sacrifice of their children to any purpose. This tendency is often brought on, I suppose, by a lack of awareness of the harm faced by the child. Politics feeds and depends upon an ignorance of the costs of its undertakings, a lack of awareness that government schools, the media, and other statist voices have no interest in helping people to overcome. If we were able to comprehend the consequences implicit in our present action, we would be less inclined to act without assessing the costs of our doing so.

If your child wished to participate in military action that others portray as ?heroic? ? an image reinforced by movies starring the likes of John Wayne (who had the good judgment to remain out of World War II!) ? your sense of parental love and responsibility might dictate your taking him or her to visit a veterans hospital or cemetery to see the costs others have borne.

I disagree with those who do not want to see military caskets or the bodies of dead children shown on television. The sociopaths who tune in to Faux News in order to tune out to reality should ? along with other defenders of the war system ? be provided a steady showing of decapitated children, or bodies blown apart by cluster bombs. Likewise, parents whose children are of military age and inclination should be shown photographs of soldiers blown into many pieces by an artillery shell. The purpose of making such pictures available is not to gratify perverted tastes, but to give everyone a demonstration of the real costs of warfare.

It is the essence of responsible behavior for individuals to experience all the costs of undertakings of which they approve. Most of us prefer to hide behind and take refuge in our ignorance. Perhaps pictures of dead and maimed soldiers and children can help overcome this trait, tempering the enthusiasm with which so many people feed their children to the war machine.

How do we dismantle the ego-boundary structures in our mind, and walk away from the citadels of state power? Is it possible for us to discover how to be an American ? or an Australian, Norwegian, or Egyptian ? without attaching existential importance to that fact? If so, we will likely end the divisions between ourselves and others and end our contributions to the war system that is the state. We will then be able to embrace our children and grandchildren with the love we have hitherto given to the nation-state, and no longer be willing to sacrifice their lives in the playing of this insane game.

Perhaps Dawkins? book may help us discover the fact of our genetic commonality with all human beings, an awareness that will help us break down the walls states find it advantageous to their interests to erect among us. By ending the separation between ?us? and ?them,? we may find ourselves unwilling to sacrifice the lives of other people?s children for the ?offense? of having been born in the ?wrong? country, or of parents of the ?wrong? religious views. Can the war system long survive if the anger and hatred generated by political systems were to be dissipated by the forces of love for our children?

August 14, 2006

Butler Shaffer [send him e-mail] teaches at the Southwestern University School of Law. He is the author of Calculated Chaos: Institutional Threats to Peace and Human Survival.

Copyright ? 2006 LewRockwell.com

Butler Shaffer Archives
{/quote]

The Christmas Truce?David G. Stratman

From his book We CAN Change the World: The Real Meaning of Everyday Life

Available at amazon.com for $9.95

 

It was December 25, 1914, only 5 months into World War I. German, British, and French soldiers, already sick and tired of the senseless killing, disobeyed their superiors and fraternized? with "the enemy" along two-thirds of the? Western Front (a crime punishable by death in times of war). German troops held Christmas trees up out of the trenches with signs, "Merry Christmas."

 

"You no shoot, we no shoot." Thousands of troops streamed across a no-man's land strewn with rotting corpses. They sang Christmas carols, exchanged photographs of loved ones back home, shared rations, played football, even roasted some pigs. Soldiers embraced men they had been trying to kill a few short hours before. They agreed to warn each other if the top brass forced them to fire their weapons, and to aim high.

 

A shudder ran through the high command on either side. Here was disaster in the making: soldiers declaring their brotherhood with each other and refusing to fight. Generals on both sides declared this spontaneous peacemaking to be treasonous and subject to court martial. By March 1915 the fraternization movement had been eradicated and the killing machine put back in full operation. By the time of the armistice in 1918, fifteen million would be slaughtered.

 

Not many people have heard the story of the Christmas Truce. On Christmas Day, 1988, a story in the Boston Globe mentioned that a local FM radio host played "Christmas in the Trenches," a ballad about the Christmas Truce, several times and was startled by the effect. The song became the most requested recording during the holidays in Boston on several FM stations. "Even more startling than the number of requests I get is the reaction to the ballad afterward by callers who hadn't heard it before," said the radio host. "They telephone me deeply moved, sometimes in tears, asking, `What the hell did I just hear?'"

 

I think I know why the callers were in tears. The Christmas Truce story goes against most of what we have been taught about people. It gives us a glimpse of the world as we wish it could be and says, "This really happened once." It reminds us of those thoughts we keep hidden away, out of range of the TV and newspaper stories that tell us how trivial and mean human life is. It is like hearing that our deepest wishes really are true: the world really could be different.

 

Christmas in The Trenches - Song

Words & Music by John McCutcheon, c. 1984 John McCutcheon / Appalsong

 

This song is based on a true story from the front lines of World War I that I've heard many times. Ian Calhoun, a Scot, was the commanding officer of the British forces involved in the story. He was subsequently court-martialed for 'consorting with the enemy' and sentenced to death. Only George V spared him from that fate. -- John McCutcheon

 

My name is Francis Toliver, I come from Liverpool.

Two years ago the war was waiting for me after school.

To Belgium and to Flanders, to Germany to here

I fought for King and country I love dear.

 

'Twas Christmas in the trenches, where the frost so bitter hung

The frozen fields of France were still, no Christmas song was sung.

Our families back in England were toasting us that day

Their brave and glorious lads so far away.

 

I was lying with my messmate on the cold an rocky ground

When across the lines of battle came a most peculiar sound.

Says I, "Now listen up, me boys!" each soldier strained to hear

As one young German voice sang out so clear.

 

"He's singing bloody well, you know!" my partner says to me.

Soon, one by one, each German voice joined in harmony.

The cannons rested silent, the gas clouds rolled no more

As Christmas brought us respite from the war.

 

As soon as they were finished and a reverent pause was spent

"God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" struck up some lads from Kent.

The next they sang was "Stille Nacht," "'Tis 'Silent Night,'" says I

And in two tongues one song filled up that sky.

 

"There's someone coming towards us!" the front line sentry cried.

All sights were fixed on one lone figure trudging from their side.

His truce flag, like a Christmas star, shone on that plain so bright

As he, bravely, strode unarmed into the night.

 

Soon one by one on either side walked into NO Man's Land

With neither gun nor bayonet we met there hand to hand.

We shared some secret brandy and wished each other well

And in a flare lit soccer game we gave 'em hell.

 

We traded chocolates, cigarettes, and photographs from home.

These sons and fathers far away from families of their own.

Young Sanders played his squeezebox and they had a violin

This curious and unlikely band of men.

 

Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more

With sad farewells we each prepared to settle back to war

But the question haunted every heart that lived that wondrous night

"Whose family have I fixed within my sights?"

 

'Twas Christmas in the trenches where the frost, so bitter hung.

The frozen fields of France were warmed as songs of peace were sung.

For the walls they'd kept between us to exact the work of war

Had been crumbled and were gone forevermore.

 

My name is Francis Toliver, in Liverpool I dwell,

Each Christmas come since World War I, I've learned its lessons well,

That the ones who call the shots won't be among the dead and lame

And on each end of the rifle we're the same.