14 Aug 2010 @ 18:08
I've had a copy of the book 'Be Here Now' by Ram Dass in my comp for quite a long time .. just waiting for when I became ready to read it.
That time came today ..
I found the magazine The Spirit of Ma'a quite by chance this morning ..
copied here is one of the articles that I enjoyed
The Cosmic Joke
By Heather Fraser
There is no trick to living in the present moment. It doesn't have to be a long, drawn out affair. We don't even need to label it a "spiritual journey." Infact, the term spiritual journey is a ridiculous contradiction. There is no "journey" required to reach the present moment, and the present moment is the only true spiritual or real thing that exists.
It can be accessed immediately. You don't have to take a course to learn how to do it. You don't need a guru to lead you there. You don't need to chant, or "om" or become a vegetarian to experience it. You don't have to shave your head, burn incense, wear crystals, or live a life of renunciation to get there.
And while there is nothing wrong with doing any of these things, if you are doing them because you think they are going to make you "more spiritual" — think again. They will not.
The present moment just is. And it is for everyone if we are willing to simply NOTICE it.
Bottom line is, everybody just wants to be happy, feel fulfilled, and feel loved. We put ourselves through incredible, often painful gyrations in an attempt to fulfill this honest longing within our hearts, when all we need to do is simply feel that longing and let it lead us home.
Home to the Soul…
Home to the present moment…
Home to the Beauty of Being…
This is present moment living, and it is the only place we will ever be able to fulfill our desire for genuine happiness, joy, and love, for the only place it exists is on the inside, and when we are living from the inside, we are living in the present moment.
It is true, that it often takes so many of us an entire lifetime of trips and falls to come to this realization, but that doesn't deem our lifetime a "spiritual journey." A more honest description would be "the deaf, blind, and stubborn ego's tantrum!"
Spirit is right there all the time. The door to our heart's desire is always there, AND it is always open. It is our ego's clever, loud, and manipulative voice that we continue to listen to, which also, unfortunately, happens to still be the mainstream voice of our mass consciousness, though it is changing rapidly now. It isn't hard to see how we have been so easily lead astray from our source…our soul.
Becoming real, becoming natural and authentic, takes an experiential understanding of who we truly are, and who we truly are, is Spirit.
In my own life, it has often felt like living this truth in a world still deeply mired in the ego mind, has been like trying to turn the Titanic. It's been like trying to swim upstream. But what I've come to realize is, that the apparent hardship, exhaustion, and incredible endurance it seems to have taken to reach the Beauty of Being has simply been my ego mind's resistance to walking through that open door which Spirit has been holding open for me since forever. I always had immediate access. No long and difficult journey was ever required.
My ego mind had resisted this, because if I walked through that door, then my ego and soul would become united, become One, and the ego mind absolutely hates the fact that it will no longer be special, singular, in charge, and superior. It will kick, scream, fight, even create illness or injury or accidents in order to remain in it's known and familiar, oh so boring drama-centered world.
What it fails to realize is, that once it crosses that threshold into the unknown and mysterious world of Spirit, it finally feels at home. It finally feels united. It can finally let go, trust and relax. It can finally feel humble instead of special. It can finally feel whole, because the world of Spirit is whole, it is infinite, it is creation, it is everything. It is pure Being, and it is beautiful.
When we make a choice to surrender and let go, when we decide to let Spirit's Will Be Done, when we have finally had enough of doing life the hard way and ask Spirit to help us, it becomes apparently and glaringly clear how, like spoilt little bratty children, we have refused to listen to our parents advice and we suddenly realize how much we have suffered because of it. After that, it just becomes a hilarious cosmic joke, that if we have truly let go and surrendered, we are able to laugh, and laugh, and laugh until we cry at the ridiculous and absurd way we have righteously held onto our immature convictions and illusions of My Will Be Done. As if.
Yep. It's the biggest joke ever told. Don't forget to have a good laugh at yourself on the way home! That's the other thing about living in the present moment…nothing is ever that serious.
"Welcome to the Spirit of Ma'at online magazine. We publish a new magazine each month.
We invite you to explore more than 80 issues of Spirit of Ma'at e-zine on various exciting topics."
For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME.
Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest wars—creating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire. * Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. * Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever. * Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation. More >
Part I -- THE HISTORY BEHIND 2012 -- How time changes consciousness, rare 26,000 yr occurrences, how the RCC ties into 2012, 11:11, solar maximum, 2011 vs 2012, acceleration of creation, the numbers behind 2012, time speeding up, transformation of consciousness, corruption of Gregorian calendar, other 2012 end dates, the New Earth, world chakras, time travelers and 2012, Schumann resonance, alchemy and our solar system, climate change, the photon belt, the I Ching, Mayan astrology, Galactic Alignment, Mayan obsession over time, the cycles of time, the end of a world age,timewave zero
Part 2 -- THE MAYAN CALENDAR EXPLAINED -- Ian Lungold thoroughly explains the levels of creation in the Mayan calendar
Part 3 -- CROP CIRCLES AND 2012 -- Daniel Pinchbeck, David Wilcock, Geoff Stray and Gregg Braden talk about crop circles and 2012
Part 4 -- FEAR AND 2012 -- The roots of terrorism, 911, social engineering, how the few control the many, Illuminati, RFID chips, love, fear and spirituality, vaccinations, aspartame, fluoride, GMO's and Monsanto, government propaganda, mind control, TV mind manipulation, ET help from above, neocons, fear mongering, consciousness and fear, Freemasons, ordo abchao (order out of chaos), 33 longitude and latitude, reduction of stress, the mind and illnesses, the gift of fear, fear and love vibrations,
Part 5 -- DNA UPGRADE? -- the DNA of love and fear, activation of DNA, phantom DNA effect, emotions and DNA, Fibonacci sequence, DNA upgrade, gratitude and DNA
Part 6 -- SPIRITUALITY AND 2012 -- negative prophecies will not occur, synchronicities and 2012, metaphysical phenomena, consciousness shapes reality, left brained versus right brained thinking, suppression of the feminine, spiritual transition of the psyche, seeking inner truth, repression of emotions, intention, how some people may get left behind, the Mandelbrot sequence, thoughts = manifestations, harmonic unity, the miracle of YOU, centering yourself spiritually, torsion fields and consciousness, the power of meditation, opening a channel to your higher self, following your intuition, the power of light, now is the time to expand your consciousness, time travel, expanded consciousness, listening to your heart, the end of a 26,000 year opportunity, research tools, the bottom line
11 Aug 2010 @ 07:57
These images, by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, are some of the only color photographs taken of the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small town populations. The photographs are the property of the Library of Congress and were included in a 2006 exhibit Bound for Glory: America in Color. ... [link]More >
Thirty Books Everyone Should Read Before They’re Thirty
By: Marc and Angel Hack Life
The Web is grand. With its fame for hosting informative, easy-to-skim textual snippets and collaborative written works, people are spending more and more time reading online. Nevertheless, the Web cannot replace the authoritative transmissions from certain classic books that have delivered (or will deliver) profound ideas around the globe for generations.
The thirty books listed here are of unparalleled prose, packed with wisdom capable of igniting a new understanding of the world. Everyone should read these books before their thirtieth birthday.
1. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
A powerful story about the importance of life experiences as they relate to approaching an understanding of reality and attaining enlightenment.
2. 1984 by George Orwell
1984 still holds chief significance nearly sixty years after it was written in 1949. It is widely acclaimed for its haunting vision of an all-knowing government, which uses pervasive, twenty-four/seven surveillance tactics to manipulate all citizens of the populace.
3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The story surveys the controversial issues of race and economic class in the 1930s Deep South via a court case of a black man charged with the rape and abuse of a young white girl. It’s a moving tale that delivers a profound message about fighting for justice and against prejudice.
4. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
A nightmarish vision of insane youth culture that depicts heart wrenching insight into the life of a disturbed adolescent. This novel will blow you away … leaving you breathless, livid, thrilled, and concerned.
5. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
A short, powerful contemplation on death, ideology and the incredible brutality of war.
6. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
This masterpiece is so enormous even Tolstoy said it couldn’t be described as a standard novel. The storyline takes place in Russian society during the Napoleonic Era, following the characters of Andrei, Pierre and Natasha … and the tragic and unanticipated way in which their lives interconnect.
7. The Rights of Man by Tom Paine
Written during the era of the French Revolution, this book was one of the first to introduce the concept of human rights from the standpoint of democracy. More >
7 Aug 2010 @ 08:00
What is this strange reunion,
this homecoming to someone I did not know I had left?
Bittersweet, it’s hard to separate
the joy of returning to myself
from the sadness of missing the one who is gone.
What is lost and what is found are tangled together,
like legs caught in the bed sheets
after a restless night of love-making or loneliness.
The dream of shared desire was a wisp of smoke, a hope,
a mirage I sought to make substantive,
a reality I tried to earn,
having forgotten there is no bargaining for faith or love.
These are by grace or not at all.
Something I am
- some essence, or awareness, or presence-
is watching this woman I am, re-member herself.
Walking on the city street,
I catch a glimpse of my reflection in a store window:
Long hair, full-skirted dress and sandals-
all three white light mixed with silver, mercurial-
fabric and hair floating around me on
the dark heat rising from the black pavement.
And the thought comes: “I feel like myself again.”
I am surprised, and a little shocked.
I did not know I had wandered so far
from who and what I am.
Far enough to have forgotten the fragrance of home-
the warm cinnamon scent
of the place where the animal self
surrenders to unguarded joy,
the place where the heart feels free
to welcome the unfettered passion
for moving quickly or being very still.
I had wandered so long
I’d stopping missing or even looking for myself.
But I longed.
Although even that became muted,
an underwater echo, blue green, and easy to miss.
Each day now a little more of who I am
is retrieved from the ocean floor:
the pleasure of my own cooking-
fresh eggs scrambled
with rosemary, and mushrooms, and sharp cheese;
the feel of silk across the back of my neck,
a cool caress to tender skin,
reawakening the need for touch;
the strength in my legs,
the joy of taking long strides with nowhere to go;
the quiet of the morning,
as I sit facing east just before the sun appears,
and then, the moment when the sun crests the horizon,
my gaze behind closed eyes flaring crimson and gold.
No recrimination for my absence
I am welcomed as the prodigal daughter
Longed for,
Looked for,
Home at last.
"The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions - the little, soon forgotten charities of a kiss or a smile, a kind look or heartfelt compliment."
14 Aug 2010 @ 06:33
9 Aug 2010 @ 07:00
7 Aug 2010 @ 08:00