How to create perfection...

I am often asked just how we can change the world, fix its problems and awaken the masses? The short and simple answer is that we cannot.

What we can do is change OUR perception of the world, fix our problems and wake ourselves. As we work on these things, we will begin to resonate with what we are doing and THAT will attract others of like mind and/or sympathetic goals.

More often than not this is followed by a "why not" or something in that general ballpark. The simple answer is that we can only change ourselves. To attempt to change others inevitably leads to using force in one form or another which is guaranteed to fail -- sometimes dramatically.

The most common flaws in trying to change others usually seem to run as follows:

• When we are "changing" those around us, we have stopped loving and accepting them for the perfection that they are in every moment. They loose a source of love and we tend to start withholding our approval, acceptance and caring till they start living up to our expectations.
  


• In time, we start practicing what I call "Green Stamp Theology." When I was a kid, my mother would shop at stores that gave out Green Stamps. We would collect them and put them into books which could be redeemed for merchandise at a later time.
  
  Sadly we see a lot of this in America today where the traditional religious members are more concerned with numbers of attendance and "saving" others while loosing the point in their own lives. It becomes more of a point system where we attempt to buy our way into the afterlife of our choosing.
  


• If you wish to see perfection, you have to be willing to see it. Passing judgment on anything is to deny that its perfection already exists. Simple as it may sound, if you need something to change, it must not be perfect.

It's funny to me that this very question caused a major philosophical schism in Buddhism in what we today call Theravada [ancient doctrine] and Mahayana [great vehicle] schools. Fortunately, they have handled it very well over the years.

The Theravada school has as its central focus the enlightenment of the individual where the Mahayana school is more focused on the enlightenment of the masses and the tradition of the Bodhisattva, the enlightened teachers. I guess I would fall into the Theravada school generally since I just cannot see how one can take another to the Truth until they have arrived there themselves, not that I am there, but I pass on what I have found to those who ask.

So if you want to change the world, change yourself and the world cannot help but follow. Will it change as fast as you might want or think it should, no... but how you relate to all those things you used to see as imperfections will become new joys to celebrate.

to Start a New Year

Christmas has come and gone and the New Year is just around the corner. It seems like just yesterday that we started this one. Oh well...

Last year started with such promise and turned into what could only be called a major mess, but in retrospect, I needed it.

As much as I was looking forward to what appeared to be a year of prosperity, just once I would like it to be financial... :) I have been finding that there are many things that I have been clinging to that I am in need of releasing.

If the end of this year is any indication, next year should be quite interesting as many new players are starting to arrive on the stage of my life and they seem to be of a different caliber than the past. I am starting to attract like souls who might walk with me, not just new students. Nice change... I love my students, but it is nice to have contemporaries to hang out with, either way I end up learning from those around me, students or otherwise.

So I will leave this short and sweet and just say Happy Holidays to all and may the New Year be everything you want it to be...

Are we becoming schizo?

I sometimes wonder what the differences are between the majority of people and schizophrenia...

We tend to think of schizophrenia only in it's more delusional aspects, but according to the American Heritage Dictionary, it can be defined as:

A situation or condition that results from the coexistence of disparate or antagonistic qualities, identities, or activities: the national schizophrenia that results from carrying out an unpopular war.

Schizophrenia is "characterized by withdrawal from reality, illogical patterns of thinking, delusions, hallucinations, and psychotic behavior." Sounds a lot like what I see going on around us in the mundane world.

As a culture, we tend to be withdrawing from reality into prepackaged televised entertainments or into our own little worlds of Internet fantasy or escape. We have turned off our logical thinking ability to the point where we can be told something we know to be an outright lie and get to the point where we believe it.

I would ask if it is not delusional to think we can continue poisoning the environment we depend upon and not expect there would be repercussions?

Is it not delusional to create fictional entities that are bestowed all the rights and privileges of the citizenry with none of the responsibilities. If that is not bad enough, the courts have compounded the insanity, in my opinion, by declaring the sole responsibility of corporate management to be short-term profit. This means if a decision has the benefit of improving the numbers for this quarter but will destroy the company in a year, they are required to take the immediate benefit.

We now have a new administration coming into power shortly in Washington and what will happen if they do a complete 180 on what they were elected to do? If the last eight years are any indication, not only will we allow it to happen, we will re-elect them in 4 years to continue.

There are so many more examples that would likely get any individual locked up in a padded cell, but the state can convince us is not only in our best interest but absolutely logical and proper.

So it becomes a question of how we begin to escape the insanity that we see around us.

Some would say that a revolution of sorts is needed, but before we start fighting, ask what it is that needs to be changed, what it needs to be changed into and how to get it there. People will kill each other over partially formed ideas so before you start a war, unlike the Bush administration, have an exit strategy or at least a completely formed set of goals that you are trying to attain (Sorry, I just had to go there).

Before you start worrying about the larger picture, take the Buddha's advice and find the place for yourself. If you try to force others into a particular perspective or action that you do not live, you do nothing but show yourself a hypocrite.

If you wish to escape the insanity of repeating the past or what seems may be global schizophrenia, find the source for yourself, call it whatever you might, God, the Is, Mother Nature, Isis, Zeus or whatever. Find your relationship to what is beyond the physical and love that first then the rest will fall into it's correct perspective.

One thing you will find is that you become the second verse of the Gospel of St. Thomas;

Jesus said, "Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will reign over all. [And after they have reigned they will rest.]"

Seek the truth of who and what you are, when you find that you will become disturbed because you will see the folly that the majority are living in but eventually you awaken to the fact that the universe is what we have created as our educational platform.

From our limited perspectives it seems outright terrible at times, it is perfect, a perfect deity could create nothing less. It is perfect for its time and place.

Jesus used to say that he knew "his flock," what he meant was that he was able to identify those who were able to understand his message and technique of delivery. Those who were not ready or not of his "flock" were not to be subdued into submission, but allowed to continue their educational curriculum.

Grow, offer what you learn to those who want to learn but if you have to force anyone to the truth, either you are not as learned as you may think or they will only learn to resent you for it, hence the "pearls before swine" reference.

An Open Letter

I don't know what insanity took over me to actually send this, but I just mailed the following letter to 365Gay.com's submission department, the Human Rights Campaign and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Hello,

I am a life coach and spiritual teacher, not a legal scholar in any sense of the word, but I have been wondering about this legal question ever since I heard about the ballot initiative that became Prop. 8 after the California Supreme Court overturned Prop. 22.

If there is any validity to the questions, I would appreciate if this could be forwarded to someone who could put it to good use.

As you know, in 2000 California voters passed Proposition 22 which placed the following text into the California Family Code as Section 308.5:

Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

This single line of text was overturned by the California Supreme Court as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the California Constitution.

Proposition 8 placed the exact same text, literally, into the State Constitution as Article I, Section 7.5. Now the questions are as follows...

1. Since this line of code has been determined to be in violation, does it cease to be in violation now?
   
   
2. Does it make a difference that this exact code was found to be invalid before it was even qualified as a ballot initiative? I think this may be the first time that a law has been added after being declared unconstitutional.
   
   
3. In what ways would this invalidate Proposition 8 and if nothing else, does this create any kind of Constitutional Crisis since it introduces an ambiguity into the Constitution?
   
   
4. If the above is correct, how does one go about bringing this to the attention of of the Supreme Court, or whatever process this has to go through to have it ruled upon?

I have heard several cases are being brought into the court, but they seem to the same old cases that never seem to go very far very fast. This would seem to be the most direct and expedient path if it is valid.

Once again, if this is of any validity, would you please send it on to anyone who can make use of it.

Thank you,

Robert A. Burgener

We will see if I get any responses...

End of A Season

Tuesday is finally over and we have a new President of the United States.

Congrats to President-elect Obama on a substantive victory. I may not be your biggest fan, but I did vote for you over Senator McCain.

Here in California, there were several initiatives, there are ALWAYS several, to look at and while most were bond measures, and there were a couple that caught my interest.

Proposition 8:

ELIMINATES RIGHT OF SAME–SEX COUPLES TO MARRY. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.

California Proposition 8, a law that is identical to one that was declared as unconstitutional, was passed by a narrow margin. There is a slim chance that it will not go through when the absentee ballots are counted, in California the absentee ballots tend to be more liberal or progressive than conservative, we will see…

If Proposition 8 should pass, there is a question that I have about the constitutionality of it as follows. Last May I wrote a blog entry titled “Same-sex Marriage & the Conservative Right” where I mentioned the lack of difference between previous Proposition 22 which put the exact same text into the California Family Code as Proposition 8 puts into the California Constitution.

The California Supreme Court threw the Family Code law out since they determined that it violated the “Equal Protection” clause of the State Constitution. So my question becomes this, does inserting it into the Constitution make it constitutional since it still violates the “Equal Protection” clause? Some would say yes, but I wonder about what challenges could be made since this text was already determined to be unconstitutional. It’s one of those legal questions that make some lawyers go hmmmm……

The other aspect of Proposition 8 was the campaign that was used to get voters to go along with it. I would have expected the usual “restore traditional marriage” ads of the past, but I did not see one pro-8 ad that dealt with anything other than same-sex marriage being taught in schools. If you did not read anything else about the proposition, one might have thought that Proposition 8 was about educational curriculum.

The initial ad discussed that in Massachusetts a teacher used a book, showing one called “King & King”, and when some parents balked they were told that they had no right to protest the curriculum or to pull there child out of class.

The case itself, Parker v. Hurley, the premise was that they were not notified of materials they found offensive; from the brief:

In January 2005, when Jacob Parker ("Jacob") was in kindergarten, he brought home a "Diversity Book Bag." This included a picture book, Who's in a Family?, which depicted different families, including single-parent families, an extended family, interracial families, animal families, a family without children, and -- to the concern of the Parkers -- a family with two dads and a family with two moms. The book concludes by answering the question, "Who's in a family?": "The people who love you the most!" The book says nothing about marriage.

Where this case fell apart legally was that the law they sued under to block this requires notification and an opportunity to exempt their children from "curriculum which primarily involves human sexual education or human sexuality issues." This has been interpreted as sex education and other related classes. The subject of the class was "what makes a family" which the courts determined did not qualify under this law.

This is not how the case was presented in the advertising for the pro-8 position. Sadly, this is hardly the exception but has started to become the rule as of late. Another good example of this is the so-called Texas Sodomy case where you here the far-right saying that sodomy is now legal in the State of Texas.

If one actually looks into the case, you find that sodomy has always been legal in the State of Texas if you are a heterosexual couple and the law that was challenged and eventually dismissed was only making it criminal for same-sex couples.

I sometimes wonder when we will start requiring political campaigns to actually be direct and honest to the subject. I mean sure there will be some mention of same-sex marriage in schools when it becomes legal, but the proposition has nothing to do with education.

Proposition 4:

WAITING PERIOD AND PARENTAL NOTIFICATION BEFORE TERMINATION OF MINOR’S PREGNANCY.
INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.

This is a situation that required much thought to decide on my vote.

What made this so tough for me was that where there is a certain validity to the idea that not all families are positive experiences for a young girl and it may be difficult for her to discuss an unwanted pregnancy with her family, I also wonder just how much of a right to information the parents have?

In this country, we tend to hold parents as the responsible parties for the actions of their minor children. If a child vandalizes a neighbors property, the parents are the ones who are obligated to reimburse the damages. In some places, if a student does not go to school, the parent can be fined for the truancy.

If we are going to hold parents accountable for the actions of their children, how can we expect them to do this when we keep denying their right to know what their child is doing under the auspices of "right to privacy" for said minor?

How I voted is between myself and the booth, but this was something that made me think.

In case you don't live in California, Proposition 4 did not pass by a 52% to 47% margin.

Silver vs Platinum Perspectives

I am always surprised, not sure exactly why, when my patterns change and I am a bit lost and out of sorts for a while... The current case in point is as follows:

1. My roommate has moved to literally the opposite side of the world, Southern and Eastern Hemispheres.


2. I am back to living alone, though I do have two cats to keep me company...


3. For the start of these changes, my expected support systems have been unavailable and I have been on my own to deal with things.

There is a quote from Mother Theresa on the right column of my actual blog, which my Facebook and MySpace readers cannot see that says;

I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much.

As much as many would be very happy to get onto the self-pity pot, once I regain my perspective, I find it is what makes life interesting.

In many ways, it is like the old expression, "When life hands you lemons, make lemonade." Some would say it is finding the silver (I prefer platinum) lining. This is one of the basic skills that it takes to change a life.

To change a life, one must start with changing how one relates to and thinks about the things around them. If all you can see is the dark side of things that happen in your life, the goodness's will be all but invisible to you.

There are many times when the goodness of a situation may not be readily apparent immediately but in those situations, you just have to be open to the idea that there is something good that will come out of it.

An example from my life was several years ago when I was served with notification that I had been evicted, never receiving anything after the initial "3-day pay or quit" notice. At the time, I was devastated and started to freak out. A few days before, I had been visiting with a friend and we had ended up in his garage and I new that it was empty. I asked about renting it to store my stuff in and not only did I get the storage space, but he also had a spare room that I could rent from him for less than half what I had been paying for the apartment.

Those were blessings enough, but there were more blessings in the pipeline that I was unaware of at the time. Later that year, I became very ill as a reaction to some medications I was taking and could not work for nearly six months. My friend was a God-send in helping me get through it.

One small side note, the eviction also helped me get some people out of my apartment that I didn't have the heart (or backbone maybe) to do myself. The local sheriff's notice of locking out solved the issue for me.

Now I am not advocating that you stop paying your rent or go out and specifically cause some action on the hope that it will work out for the best. What I will say is to find and listen to that small inner voice of intuition and follow the guidance that it gives you.

Inspiration is the voice of your true self trying to speak (or yelling, kicking and/or screaming when needed) to you.

Politics, Religion and I – pt 1.5

I have been kind of procrastinating on doing this second part... I am really not that interested in it.

I also realized that even though I have my issues with both parties and their apparent merger into variations of a single theme, the problem really is not the politicians, the special interests or the corporations. The simple fact is that even though they may pay lots of cash to a candidate, they cannot vote. So in the final analysis, the blame for the current state of affairs in this country truly is the population for their complete lack of involvement.

Those who do not understand, or do not want to understand, the relationship of man and the universe enjoy being victims of the world, you can only be a victim if you choose to be, it cannot be thrust upon you. It can be very comforting to pretend to be innocent victim, but we truly are neither.

The simple truth is that countries get the governments they deserve, not by being good or bad, but by what they allow to be carried out in their names.

As much as many, if not most, people want to blame those in "charge" the simple facts are that the American populace has dropped the ball and may soon find themselves without any voice in the government that originally was of, by and for the people.

If the disenfranchised majority in this country were to get off its backside and would work together as a unit, there could be a complete revolution in this country without a single drop of blood being shed. All the fighting would be in the voting booth and within six years, everything could be different.

Sadly, in this country, we are more interested in voting for our favorite American Idol candidate than political figure.

I am reminded of the story of a young student and teacher talking about the difficulties in finding God when they come to a river.

As they are crossing, the teacher grabs the head of the student and plunges it under the surface. The student starts to struggle for air and after a few moments the teacher releases his student's head.

When the student catches his breath, he looks up at the teacher with astonishment in his eyes, not understanding why his teacher would do such a thing.

The teacher looks at his student and tells him, "When you want God half as much as you wanted air, then you will find Him."

When the American people want change more than they want mind numbing excuses for entertainment, then they will get it. It takes work, but not nearly as much as many feel, first we wake up and then we start to awaken those around us.

So go out and make some noise and start waking your friends and neighbors. Become involved for if you do not, freedom and rights can be taken away from you and many might be surprised just how close we are getting to loosing it already.

Politics, Religion and I – pt 1

This blog is not really about politics, but in today's world, with religion and politics becoming more and more intertwined; I spend a lot of time discussing politics with clients, students and practitioners. I am always reminded of the following line:

When religion and politics ride in the same cart, the whirlwind follows.

Rev. Mother Romallo
"Dune" by Frank Herbert

So lets get into it and see what we can make of things...

First of all, I am neither a Republican or a Democrat, I am what George Carlin used to refer to as a free thinker. I find out as much as I can about the issues and/or the candidates and then make my own decisions.

I will listen to the corporate media in this country for their perspective, but I am quite aware of the fact that they tend to slant their presentations and their coverage based upon their own needs, read financial. I have no doubts that the media in America has a vested interest in politics for both access and financial reasons.

The access can be many things, but one that I became aware of in 2001 was from several friends at Disney who said that the ABC News division had been made aware that if they presented stories that were not in the interest or perspective of the Bush administration, they would find access restricted. What does that mean? Two quick examples...

1. Every media outlet, supposedly, has members in the White House Press Core. While the administration would not evict a reporter from a network or outlet, they may never be called upon to ask questions during a press conference or just very late into it.
   


2. We all see those lovely interviews on Sunday morning and other times with the big players in Washington. What does a network do when they can only get 2^nd or 3^rd string interview?

I think the part of this that bothered me the most was that I have always been a firm believer in the concept of a free press and this was a slap in that ideal's face. It became even more frightening to me after September 11, 2001 and the things that happened in Washington and the media afterwards.

The Republican fall from grace

I was raised in a Southern Baptist Republican home. I was taught many things that have stayed with me until this day and in many ways find myself agreeing with many policies of "conservative" politics. Now before you freak out about this, understand that when I speak of "conservative Politics" I am referring to it as it was by Barry Goldwater, the father of conservatism.

This form of conservatism involved the concepts of self-responsibility and government staying outside of the privacy and sanctity of the home. Funny, the neo-conservatives of today would classify Goldwater as a left-leaning liberal by their current stances.

For me, the Republican Party started to fall out of favor during the Reagan/Bush administration. I became quite aware that many of my friends were getting ill with GRID, as AIDS was called at the time, and the administration did not care. The people getting this strange illness were homosexuals, drug addicts and immigrants; people the Ronald Reagan didn't count as part of his America.

I always found it a touch ironic that he later cut the funding for Alzheimer's disease and the same disease would be a substantial player in his own later life and death. There was a joke (?) that went around for a while that went something like: He forgot 100,000 Americans during his presidency and later forgot everyone else as well. A touch crass, but many people still hold strong feelings about the lack of care by the "Compassionate Conservatives" of the time.

During the Clinton Presidency, the Republican Party continued to show its true colors by spending years and millions trying to remove Clinton from office. The looked into and screamed about every appearance of impropriety. Basically they came across, to me at least, as a bunch of spoiled children that were unhappy they did not get their way.

Later, as a nation, we were told that when President Clinton wanted to do something about Osama bin Laden, that there was nothing to it and all he was trying to do was divert attention from the Monica Lewinsky scandal that was going full force at the time, August 1998. Three years later we would find that the target had been valid.

By the time the current administration came into power, sic, I had pretty much lost all respect for the party as a whole, but I also realized that the party has been co opted by two differing factions with completely different goals, one though was more than willing to manipulate the other. These two opposing forces that seem to have united are the Religious Right and the Corporate Elite, for lack of a better name.

The Religious Right has a morality that is based upon its belief structure and the only aspect of it that gets to me is their attempts to encode these beliefs into the law of the land. I support the privilege to live as one chooses, but forcing others to abide by it is just wrong. Sadly, these people tend to believe that morality is about rules and regulations; if this is the case, then lawyers are the most moral individuals out there.

The other group that has seized power in today's Republican Party is the Corporations and "Special Interests." Now I have no problem with business making its voice heard, but it has been a serious mistake to allow Corporate culture all the rights and privileges of the citizenry with none of the responsibilities or moral ethics required of individuals. Corporations only do the right thing when it is profitable to them; this has been mandated by the Supreme Court in some of their decisions.

I think that the Religious Right is in for a rude awakening when they awaken to the fact that they have been used as a voting block and the "Business" side does not share their morality and will dump them as soon as they become a burden or less than profitable.

To be continued...

Miscellaneous Thoughts for Today...

I recently took a "normal" job, whatever that may actually be, I think of it as a place that pays me on a regular basis for some function that they have need of. I am still in training on the job and am feeling pretty good about it, but the one part of it that is going to take a while to get used to is getting up so early.

As an independent contractor, I could get up whenever I wanted, usually around 7 and take my time getting myself together. With the hours that I am doing during training and likely to continue doing on a regular basis, I could sleep as late as 6, but that leaves me little time for the more important aspects of my morning, meditation.

That's actually what this entry is going to be about I think.


I really enjoy the time I get to meditate and have really enjoyed sharing that time with my roomie, but that is a touch difficult since the roomie doesn't have to get up and I would never ask her to.

Lately, my meditations have been very interesting, not so much for what has been happening, but for what has not.

I tend to start my meditations with a creation of some sacred space and then do a breath channeling through my chakras. It helps me to relax and to place myself into an alternate state of mind.

One of the things that I have noticed about myself is that I get to a certain point and because of previous experiences, I try to "force" myself into a certain state. I'm not real sure how to describe it, but I get to a point where I feel as if I am leaving the body through the crown chakra and from there I can go anywhere.

I guess the part that has been interesting to me has been the recent experiences where I get to the threshold of "stepping out" and basically get stuck. I have found that meditation is a lot like my life in that it works best when I just let it happen and don't attempt to force things.

When I just relax and let my meditation happen, I get deeper than when I do otherwise. I know this is a pretty "duh" statement for many people and to be honest, it is for me as well. But we all sometimes get so far from where we started that it is sometimes helpful to remember those early lessons and see what other interesting and new insights we can glean from them.

---

The image above is one that I use to remind me of the images and colors of the chakras. The base or root chakra is associated with the color red and so forth through the colors and chakras till you reach the third eye which is purple. The crown merges all the colors together for a brilliant white.

Beyond those basics of chakra work, the image also incorporates the traditional lotus designs as well as the Sanskrit characters for more advanced students. I am trying to find an old graphic editing program I had that will allow me to slow the rate of the animation changes.

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I recently had a discussion with someone and the ideas of meditation vs prayer came up. Those who know me know that I don't use the term "prayer" very often. The reason is that when I was young, prayer always seemed like a negotiation with God for what we felt was some blessing that we deserved.

Now days I usually phrase it more along the lines of "prayer is when I talk to God or my Higher Power, meditation is when I shut up and listen for the response."

After years of study of teachers and saints from religions spanning time and this planet, I can tell you that the teachers all tell us that the answers are not outside of ourselves, but within. This is because we are all small sparks of the Creator and can not be separated from that Source.

As the "Course in Miracles" puts so eloquently, God does not judge the minutia of our day-to-day lives but only that which is deserving of judgment, the mistake that we fell into of believing that we were separate from Him and could fall. Everything else is just that delusion playing itself out.

The law of Karma and Newton's Second Law of Motion state, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. All these "sins" we worry so much about are nothing because they only exist in a state of illusion, they are not real. Only that which is real matters and you would be amazed at how much is not real. Like that book titled, "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff: it's all small stuff," when we put things into perspective we can let go of that load we carry around in the name of guilt.

---

OK, I will quit rattling about and go get some sleep. I have a busy day at work and I have more than enough here for you to think about.

Goodnight.

A few little prayers...

A few weeks ago, a friend was telling me about their morning practice and routine of prayers and meditation. I was specifically interested in the prayers that were invoked and thought I would share them with you. My personal favorite is the modified prayer of St. Francis of Assisi (the 2^nd and 3^rd paragraphs).

Father, Mother, Creator, Source, Spirit, God,
I offer myself to You -
To build with me and to do with me as You will.
Relieve me of the bondage of self,
That I may better do Your will.
Take away my difficulties,
That victory over them may bear witness
To those I would help
Of Your Power, Your Love and
Your Way of Life.
May I do Your will always.

God,
Make ,me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.

O, God,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love.
For it is giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in surrendering that we are awakened
Into Presence.

God,
Grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
The courage
To change the things I can,
And the wisdom
to know the difference.

May they bring you as much joy as my friend and I.

How to catch wild pigs...

A friend sent me this, I won't claim to agree with it all, but it definitely is thought provoking...

There was a chemistry professor in a large college who had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab, the professor noticed one young man, an exchange student, who kept rubbing his back and stretching as if his back hurt. The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting Communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new Communist regime.

While telling his story, he looked at the professor and asked a strange question: 'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?' The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said that it was no joke.

'You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming.

'When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four s of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat that free corn again. You then slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.

'Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are trapped. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.'

The young man then told the professor that this is exactly what he sees happening in America. The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tax exemptions, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, subsidized housing, school programs, medicine, drugs, etc. We continually lose our freedoms, just a little at a time.

We should always remember two truths: There is no such thing as a free lunch, and you can never hire someone to provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself. If you see that all of this wonderful government 'help' is a problem confronting the future of freedom in America, you might want to send this on to your friends.

If you think the free ride is essential to your way of life, then you will probably delete this email.

God help us when the gate slams shut!

What do you think?

Growth can be such a pain...

There are times that we have to do things that we may not really want or like, but if we REALLY had to do them, they are for the best and eventually we will see that.

Today is turning out to be one of those days. I have needed to deal with a relationship (business and personal) that has been going downhill for the last couple of years.

The failure of the relationship is no one's fault, over the years we just grew apart and had less and less in common. Personality traits that were only annoying but cute turned into major issues and certain communication issues became apparently immutable.

I should not really call it a relationship "failure," there is no failure in it, just a growing apart that eventually had to be severed for the benefit of both parties. I hope that they will be aware of this in time, if they don't already, and in time our paths may cross again and maybe a new relationship can grow from the ashes of this one, like the Phoenix rising.

What most would call "failure" is nothing but a preparatory for the "success" we crave. Perceived failures are a requirement for success; one cannot exist without the other. It is as Thomas Edison said when asked about his previous failed experiments with inventing the light bulb.

"If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward".

Thomas A. Edison, Encyclopaedia Britannica

It is one of those things that is part of the growth process. The last year or so has been SOOO about growth in many ways from me.

Several years ago, I had a friend who introduced me to Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati who is a follower of the Indian Deity of Mother Kali. My friend began praying to Kali to help her break the bonds that were keeping her from the growth that she wanted. Almost immediately, she lost her job, her apartment and nearly everything she owned. At the time, she thought it was a disaster, how could things possibly get worse.

As time went on, and in a surprisingly short amount of time, she had a new job that she both loved and scheduled her with hours that allowed her to do the things she wanted.A new living arrangement came up in a place with everything she could ask for and a roommate that was of the same spiritual mindset as she. What looked like a disaster was just a clearing so she could be ready for her next step.

While this separation of a longtime friend is going to include a period of mourning, I have to believe that in the end it will be for the best. In the short run, a fair amount of stress has been dispersed with

I guess in this moment, I will have to agree with Mother Theresa;

"I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much."

A warning between now and November 4, 2008

The California Supreme Court's lifting of the Same-Sex Marriage ban and its expected repercussions, both in California and Nationwide this November, reminded me of a joke I heard as a kid...

A farmer was at the market and while passing some livestock, looked down and saw a large, masculine rooster with wonderful plumage and features. The gentleman selling the chickens assured the farmer that the animal of his affection was an excellent replacement for the elderly one he had at home.

The farmer bought the animal and upon arriving home, set the rooster loose in the yard. After a short while, it spotted the old rooster and started to attack and become the head of the flock.

The other rooster may have been old and past his prime, but his intelligence was still sharp. As the young rooster approached he managed to stop him and said, "Listen, you don't have to kill me. I won't get in your way, I just want to live out the rest of my days in peace."

The younger rooster was stopped for a moment, but then asked, "and how do you expect to do that?"

"I'll tell you what I have in mind," the elder went on, "I cannot fight you, so lets do this the easy way and we both can get what we want. When the farmer comes out, you start chasing me around the yard and after a bit, I'll fall down and play dead. The farmer will throw me out and onto the trash heap, voilà, we both win. I can sneak away and enjoy my golden years and you get this lovely brood of hens."

The young rooster thought about this for a moment and decided that it was a lot easier than having to fight this old-timer. So he agreed.

Later that afternoon, the farmer came out of the house and almost immediately, the young rooster started chasing after his elder while squawking and making all sorts of noises.

The farmer seeing this cussed under his breath and went back into the house and grabbing his shotgun, took aim and bang shot the young rooster.

While reloading the gun, the old rooster heard the farmer muttering to himself, "Damn it, third queer bird this month."

Though this blog is not really about politics, the fact is that between the Religious Right (ick) and the Republican Party, both have learned that is much easier to manipulate the public through their fears and hatreds than to take a chance by stating actual positions and take the chance of making a mistake or alienating someone.

The upcoming elections will likely be a PhD in manipulation and the fear of "Radical Muslim" attacks is likely to be brought up and I wouldn't be surprised if we start having changes in the "Terror Alert" system, you remember that do you not? Just before any vote that would benefit the Republican platform and be debated out easily, would be proceeded by the latest raising of the "Terror Alert Level," we spent nearly 3 years being conditioned like Pavlov's dog to do whatever Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld wanted by this technique. It's basic Fear 101.

If this were not despicable enough behaviour, now the Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell clones can spend the next several months going on about how we must save marriage from the homosexual agenda and such silliness.

---

The point I am trying to get across is that no matter what your beliefs, religious or political, expect many people to try and sway your position, including this piece. At least I am honest about it and I am only trying to warn you that others will use much more "knee-jerk" techniques that have shown to be very effective in this country.

Elections and voting in general are serious things, take the time to get more than sound bytes that do not give a complete position. If a political message evokes a strong response, whichever way, look into it, find out who put it out and what are their objectives. Many corporations are going to be gunning for Democrats because they fear the reversal of tax credits and possible increased taxation on some of their insane profits, like the energy companies in particular.

So be awake, be aware and definitely engage your brain, unless you think that those decisions should be taken out of your hands. There are many people and groups out their who are interested only in their positions and don't care about anything else, don't help them unless you agree with those positions.

And so it begins...

A month ago, I wrote about the fact that the California Supreme Court determined that discrimination along the lines of "separate but equal" had been overturned and Same-Sex Couples would be allowed to legally use the term "marriage" and as of 5:01pm today, it has taken affect.


I just finished watching the first same-sex couple in Los Angeles, Diane Olson and Robin Tyler, together for over fifteen years, get married on the steps of the Beverly Hills courthouse where they had been denied a marriage license every Valentines Day for the last eight years they had applied for it.

In San Francisco, the mayor of that city was also performing a marriage of a couple that had been together for fifty-five years; Del Martin, 87, and Phyllis Lyon, 84.

Of course some closed-minded pin-head, not very enlightened of me, but when you hear someone yell "you will be burning in Hell" during a ceremony, I loose my perspective a bit. Agree with it or not, have some respect, but if there is anything that the Religious Right (ick - they are not right and if they would actually read their Bibles, they would know it.) has shown, neither respect for differing opinions or common courtesy can be expected from them, sad is it not?

The part of this whole argument that really gets to me from the, self-proclaimed, moralists is that with all their arguments, they obviously have no idea what a marriage is supposed to be. It's not about the genders of the parties involved, but commitment to become two who come together as one.

May all those in the Gay and Lesbian community that decide to enter into marriage do so for the right reasons, love and commitment, and in time, maybe we can show these closed-minded individuals what a marriage is supposed to be.

Would it not be hilarious if we turned out to be better at keeping marriages together than our Christian brothers and sisters who think we will be the death of marriage?

Happy Birthday... a new year begins

It has been a VERY busy couple of weeks. I had decided to move back to the westside of Los Angeles, back to Mar Vista, after the summer was over when a friend made an offer that I could not refuse. (why am I hearing the theme from "The Godfather?")

I spent the last two week packing up and moving myself and have finally finished that job. I keep swearing to myself that every time I do this that it is the last time and next time I will hire movers to do the labor. I am still recovering but the exercise was good and good for me.

2008 has gotten off to an interesting start as the universe and I get onto a first name basis with each other. I have met some interesting clients as I grow my Life Coaching practice and last month I completed my Reiki II program and am adding that to my list of services that I offer my clientelle.

Reiki, pronounced ray-kee and meaning universal life force energy, originated in Japan in the mid-19th century by Dr. Mikao Usui, a physician and monk. Reiki belongs to what is called energy medicine because it works with subtle energies of the body, believing that disturbances, imbalances, or depleted energy (ki) cause illness. It is an art that is passed from master to student. Reiki works so well with my intuitive nature and has been such a wonderful blessing in my life as both a recipient and a practitioner.

Usually, the month before my birthday is a tough one to deal with, but this year has been actually helpful. My mood has been very high, I found and had a simple move, I actually had a friend help me move the large items with his truck (that's a small miracle as anyone who has truck owning friends knows).

Life is good and, as always, getting better if we will just allow it. So happy birthday to me and may this new personal year continue as one of growth and prosperity.

Peace and joy to all those who would read this and wish me a happy day and/or peace and joy...

Same-sex Marriage & the Conservative Right

The California Supreme Court today overturned California Proposition 22, from the 2000 election, which attempted to define that only marriages between a man and a woman would be recognized by the state.

SECTION 1. This act may be cited as the "California Defense of Marriage Act."

SECTION 2. Section 308.5 is added to the Family Code, to read:

308.5. Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

Of course the traditionalists and the religious right are not going to be happy in the slightest about this and I completely expect that the usual claims that this is going to destroy marriage is on the horizon. I also expect that Pat Robertson will be having a mental meltdown on Friday's edition of the 700 Club, more on him and a few of his recent statements later.

I am sure that the religious right was not taken completely by surprise since they have been gathering 1.1 million signatures to qualify a state constitutional amendment to deny same-sex marriage, Initiative 07-0068.

SECTION 1. This measure shall be known and may be cited as the "California Marriage Protection Act."

SECTION 2. Article I, Section 7.5 is added to the California Constitution, to read:

Section 7.5. Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.

The actual text is identical, but by adding it to the state's Constitution, the current ruling would be trumped.

We could go into the lower arguments that the very people that claim same-sex marriage will destroy the institution also have some of the highest divorce rates and little regard for marriage outside their personal interest, but let's look at a few of the "better" arguments that I have heard as of late.

Pat Robertson has never really been one of my favorite people, but as of late he has developed a near Ph.D. in "hoof in mouth" disease. Here is an excellent example...


Other than the usual fear tactics of what "gay and trans-gendered" people are going to do and the other usual verbal diarrhea, my favorites are as follows with the time marks for interesting places to look.

1:04-1:50	:	Pat feels that maximum of 2% of the population is "gay" and 1% are "lesbian" so it is acceptable to discriminate against this nominal number since they do not make up 10-20%.
2:21-2:47	:	Though he hasn't the courage to actually say it, he feels that marriage is only about reproduction since he has repeatedly stated that when two men or two women can procreate, he would be willing to reconsider his objection to same-sex marriage. This argument has always made me wonder why these people claim this argument when they would never refuse a heterosexual couple the privilege of marriage if they had no intent to have children, by choice, biology or age...
2:47-3:10	:	"The reason we protect marriage is children." OK, so let's change the laws so that marriage is only available to couples having children and dissolve said marriages when the children are no longer at home.

These so called objections are not really arguments, but simple excuses that non-thinking individuals will accept. Pat and those like him are more than happy to condemn people in "cults" for drinking the arsenic laced kool-aid, but when it comes to there own poison laden kool-aid, drink and be happy...

oh yes and "saved."

A Surprise of Change...

The other day I had finished a session in Downtown Los Angeles and was heading home. I needed to get online and I knew a Starbucks not far away on Wilshire and while pulling in, realized that I was hungry and stopped in the McDonald's across the parking lot.

The young lady who took my order seemed a bit confused as to why I would give her $11.15 when my total was $5.40 (I like quarters and larger bills) and handed me seventy-five cents. I commented that I had given her a ten and not a five and after pointing to the receipt that shows she typed $6.15. I was not upset, but I told her I gave her a ten. She got REALLY bent out of shape as if I was trying to rip her off.

The manager was nearby and asked her what the problem seemed to be, she explained what she believed and he asked me, I said it was just a mistake, nothing major. He said he would count the drawer and took it in back. During which my order was readied.

A few minutes later, the manager sent her back up with a stack of singles which I put in my breast-pocket without looking and went on to enjoy my lunch.

A bit later I was listening to KTLK, the local Air America station, and the host was going through a list of things that many believe have been lies and misrepresentations made by the current administration. This list was followed with more complaints about the Bush administration.

Now I happen to agree with many of the things they said and the vast majority of people I talk with would agree with a large part of the lists. What I wondered was what it would take to get people to actually attempt to do something about what their "elected" leaders have been doing in their names.

I do not like be cynical about people, but it seems to be more and more obvious that the American population is completely happy to sit at home and vote on American Idol or Dancing With the Stars. I am becoming more and more convinced that until the issues of the world, their nation or maybe their local town affect them directly will they become involved and even then, they seem happy to just complain if it would take a concerted effort. What a sad statement on the state of the union.

I heard that one of the oil companies was quite surprised that the people of this country are taking the latest collection of gas price increases so easily. People seem to have a very short memory and a willingness to believe what they see on television. Maybe Al Gore is right in his assessment of the population in his book, "The Assault on Reason."

After becoming a touch depressed at the apparent state of things, I came full circle and started thinking about how upset the young lady had become as if I had accused her of trying to steal from me. I saw she had been caught off guard and assumed it was a simple mistake.

I am not so sure now, when she handed me the singles, I didn't actually count them and when I later went to put them in my wallet, there was only four, was she trying to skim from her till? That would be even sadder...

A slow learner, but learning...

I find that if we listen to the world around us, we will always find what we need. A case in point has been for me, my ongoing issues with stressing out about where the things that I perceive that I need are going to come from.

The Law of Attraction will always work on our behalf if we will just let it and not sabotage ourselves, one of my particular specialties...

For example, business has been really slow and the last two months, I have been freaking out about paying my rent. This month, I did it so well that I even manifested a stress related cold-sore for my efforts.

The universe has always provided for me, but when it comes to those major issues, I tend to forget that and get lost in the moment and its concerns. Fortunately, I have made it a point to program my days with the required outcomes so that even when I blow it and get lost, I come out the other side only slightly worse for the wear.

This month, the universe decided to let me stress myself out, it IS only MY choice to do it, until the last moment and came up with everything I needed and a little extra in less than a week.

When will I learn???

Are you controllable?

When I was in high school, I had a teacher for Freshman English names Ms. Butts who became something of a friend and confidant. Freshman English was a full year required class, but starting sophomore year, the students were allowed to choose specific classes that they found of interest.

During the year, it had become quite apparent that Ms. Butts' favorite class to teach was one called "Persuasion and Propaganda." Personally this was not something that I would have chosen but she was so excited in the subject and thought that I would get a lot out of it so I signed up for it.

The reading for the class was George Orwell's "1984" and I think we either read or discussed Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451." Along with the reading was a excellent introductory into the worlds of advertising and subliminal manipulation. It really opened my eyes to how we are tricked by what we see to buy products we may not even need.

Some say that advertising is the art of convincing people that they need something they likely didn't know even existed before hand. My personal favorite quote on the subject is as follows:

"Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket."

George Orwell

I just finished reading Al Gore's book "The Assault on Reason" in which he touches on the subject while discussing the change that has occurred with the distribution of information from print to audio and later video mediums. Scientists have viewed the differing wave patterns in people's brains and what areas are or not activated in the brain's logic centers with differing medias.

In America, at least, we have become largely a nation of peoples who get more information from carefully crafted sound-bites than from actual study about "whatever."

When I was a child, we used to watch the local news to see what was happening in St. Louis and the immediate area then the network news to find out about the nation and the rest of the world. I remember watching films that have since become cultural icons from the Vietnam era when they were first shown on television.

You won't see such things today, in the name of "family decency" or gratuitous violence, but in times like now, when our nation state is at war with another nation state, this should be a nightly segment of more than a quick statement of a couple of IED's and shelling incidents but an in depth statement of what is happening, top story every night until it is over. Making it into an "also ran" is just another form of manipulation, it's happening but you don't want to know to much about it.

Sadly, some executive realized that news was a salable product and that by making it "pop" you could raise ratings and hence charge more for advertising space. There was a time when television news was not about making a buck, but paying the people for the privilege of using the publicly owned airwaves by supplying a service, information.

Now I am sure that Britney Spears' latest meltdown is fun for some to watch, it is not (and never will be) news, so why is something like this the lead story on the network news and why do we let it go on without a comment from the public?

I feel sorry for Britney and her sister as it seems their family has some serious issues to deal with, but it seems REALLY sad that this would be used as ratings gathering fodder when people are dying so that we can have our minds reduced to mush so that this seems of importance.

We could go into the next realm of this discussion, politics, but why, if you want to know about the manipulation of the public by Washington, there are a plethora of blogs and outside news sources that can do it in much more expansive detail than I would ever want to. I'll stick with religion as my subject, spending my life in the pursuit of political understanding would likely have me opening a wrist or two.

I may have my issues with the political arena, but I have to agree with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee when he said "Jesus was too smart to ever run for public office."

The point of this is to start becoming aware of how you can be manipulated to do things you would not otherwise. This is important, if you cannot discern how you are controllable, how can you regain that control?

A basic piece of the philosophy taught here is that we are all responsible for that which happens to us, none of it happens without our express permission, either consciously or not and on a level many of us are not aware of. There are no victims unless one chooses to be.

Part of learning about who and what you truly are is to become aware of how your truth has manifested in the world of your experiences. The past is what brought you to where you are, in learning how and what it was, you become prepared for the next moment.

The Church of Scientology may take a lot of grief for some of their stances on things, but I have to agree with the idea they put forth of the "reactionary" person. We are not really taught as children to question and analyze the world that is put before us. Instead, we have a nearly instant reaction to what is happening around us with no clue as to why we are responding in this way.

Start to look at the thoughts you have, the ways in which you think and continue to ask that deadliest of all questions, "WHY." That one little word can open the most massive doors in the experiences of past present and future. Try it and see what answers come to you, you are likely to be quite surprised in many cases, I know that I was...

My high maintenance Life Partner...

I am not sure, but I think I may have accidentally sold my soul to the devil, also known as the mechanic at the auto shop. :-)

Here is a picture of my '90 Mustang LX (ok mine needs paint and body work...)


I have been having an assortment of difficulties with my car as of late, mainly dealing with the coolant system. They told me when I bought it that there was a leak in it someplace and it has been one thing after another.

1. The heater core
   It turns out that a lot of my original issue was likely this little problem. I made the assumption that the wet floor on the passenger side was from the door that doesn't quite align properly. Turns out that the core had a leak and since it is on the inside of the firewall, wet floor.
   
   My solution? I bypassed the heater core with one of the hoses that connected it to the main system, a temp fix at best since the hose was not shaped for this little maneuver.
   
   
2. My badly patched bypass
   As I said above, I knew my fix wouldn't last forever, but I though it would work for at least a week or two. Good thing I had already been to my local Pep Boys where a very nice Part's Department guy let me rummage through the assortment of hoses so I could find a ½ inch hose with a 180° turn of the appropriate size.
   
   A few days later I was headed home when the car started "smoking(?)" at Beverly Glen/Mulholland and as it was too dark to see anything under the hood and since home was all downhill from there, I coasted the rest of the way and parked it immediately.
   
   The next day I went to see what had happened and I think I must have nicked the hose trying to install it, I had a new pinhole that had been the issue. I spent the afternoon cursing out the car while trying to get the old hose off and the new one on.
   
   Why do they make 8-cylinder engines almost impossible to manipulate around under the hood?
   
   
3. Today's issues
1. The Lower Radiator Hose
   Last Friday I noticed more water coming out of my engine, but this time it was from the front of the engine. Gads!!!
   
   I felt around the radiator hoses and felt a couple of spots in the lower radiator hose. I was not in the mood to deal with this myself today, so I took it to a local mechanic that several friends use.
   
   I figured that I would kill two birds with one stone and get an Oil Change at the same time.
   
   
2. The Water Pump
   I had heard a strange sound under the car a couple of times, so I asked him to check under the car and see if they could find something that may have punctured the hose. Sure, it's only a guess, but worth looking into.
   
   While doing this, they found that my water pump was leaking. It cost me twice as much by itself than the hose and oil change... Eeek!

Now don't get the wrong impression. I am happy to fix the car, thank God that I have the cash in the bank to do it, but it was a bit of a shock, $300.00 total.

Some of the Hidden Blessings in the above...
I guess for a car that I got for a steal and haven't really had to do that much to, I am really lucky.

So instead of thinking that I am upset, I am just venting a touch and trying to realize the blessings that are hidden in the situation.

Where the cash flow issue is frustrating for me, ok ANY time I have to spend money that I am not planning on it's annoying. But with business having been as slow as late it freaks me out a bit. This is one of the issues that I am still working on. I tend to get a touch (right) manic when my cash flow and savings are running low. The universe always works it out, but I still get insane. Maybe that's why I keep going through the lesson again and again.

As of late, I have wondered if I really need a car. Well, in Los Angeles the answer is a fairly well sounded "Oh HELL YES!!!" At least while I am doing on-site computer services and trying to get my coaching working.

I am learning the hard way that I need to let go and just be in the moment, I am quite aware that I am both attached to money, my stability and I am finding myself worrying about my rent for next month when I just paid it 6 days ago (it's due on the 15^th).

These things will continue until I learn the lessons, I seem to bit a touch slow in this area... ;-P