07 December, 2007

A NEW WORLD~


U R CREATOR...
CREATOR R U...


AWAKEN TO PEACE AND LOVE
TARA


REMEMBER!

PS HOPE IT IS ALL U DREAMED IT WOULD BE>>

06 December, 2007

FREEDOM FROM THE KNOWN ~ KRISHNAMURTI ~


=== JKrishnamurti.org - Daily Quote ===

Truth has no path.it is living

.We have been told that all paths lead to truth - you have your path as a Hindu and someone else has his path as a Christian and another as a Muslim, and they all meet at the same door - which is, when you look at it, so obviously absurd. Truth has no path, and that is the beauty of truth, it is living. A dead thing has a path to it because it is static, but when you see that truth is something living, moving, which has no resting place, which is in no temple, mosque or church, which no religion, no teacher, no philosopher, nobody can lead you to - then you will also see that this living thing is what you actually are - your anger, your brutality, your violence, your despair, the agony and sorrow you live in. In the understanding of all this is the truth, and you can understand it only if you know how to look at those things in your life. And you cannot look through an ideology, through a screen of words, through hopes and fears.

Freedom from the Known - 15
~~~~~~~~~

We have contributed to it in our daily lives

We are each one of us responsible for every war because of the aggressiveness of our own lives, because of our nationalism, our selfishness, our gods, our prejudices, our ideals, all of which divide us. And only when we realize, not intellectually but actually, as actually as we would recognise that we are hungry or in pain, that you and I are responsible for all this existing chaos, for all the misery throughout the entire world because we have contributed to it in our daily lives and are part of this monstrous society with its wars, divisions, its ugliness, brutality and greed - only then will we act.

Freedom from the Known - 14
~~~~~~~~~~

The whole history of man is written in ourselves

We human beings are what we have been for millions of years - -colossally greedy, envious, aggressive, jealous, anxious and despairing, with occasional flashes of joy and affection. We are a strange mixture of hate, fear and gentleness; we are both violence and peace. There has been outward progress from the bullock cart to the jet plane but psychologically the individual has not changed at all, and the structure of society throughout the world has been created by individuals. The outward social structure is the result of the inward psychological structure of our human relationships, for the individual is the result of the total experience, knowledge and conduct of man. Each one of us is the storehouse of all the past. The individual is the human who is all mankind. The whole history of man is written in ourselves.

Freedom from the Known - 13
~~~~~~~~~~~~

You have to question everything

I do not demand your faith; I am not setting myself up as an authority. I have nothing to teach you - no new philosophy, no new system, no new path to reality; there is no path to reality any more than to truth. All authority of any kind, especially in the field of thought and understanding, is the most destructive, evil thing. Leaders destroy the followers and followers destroy the leaders. You have to be your own teacher and your own disciple. You have to question everything that man has accepted as valuable, as necessary.

Freedom from the Known - 21
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Totally responsible

All outward forms of change brought about by wars, revolutions, reformations, laws and ideologies have failed completely to change the basic nature of man and therefore of society. As human beings living in this monstrously ugly world, let us ask ourselves, can this society, based on competition, brutality and fear, come to an end? Not as an intellectual conception, not as a hope, but as an actual fact, so that the mind is made fresh, new and innocent and can bring about a different world altogether? It can only happen, I think, if each one of us recognises the central fact that we, as individuals, as human beings, in whatever part of the world we happen to live or whatever culture we happen to belong to, are totally responsible for the whole state of the world.

Freedom from the Known - 14
~~~~~~~~~~~~

To change society, you must break away from it

The social pattern is set up by man; it is not independent of man, though it has a life of its own, and man is not independent of it; they are interrelated. Change within the pattern is no change at all; it is mere modification, reformation. Only by breaking away from the social pattern without building another can you 'help' society. As long as you belong to society, you are only helping it to deteriorate. All societies, including the most marvelously utopian, have within them the seeds of their own corruption. To change society, you must break away from it. You must cease to be what society is: acquisi­tive, ambitious, envious, power-seeking, and so on.

Commentaries on Living, Series III - 82
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There is no such thing as freedom of thought

Have you ever noticed that when you respond to something totally, with all your heart, there is very little memory? It is only when you do not respond to a challenge with your whole being that there is a conflict, a struggle, and this brings confusion and pleasure or pain. And the struggle breeds memory. That memory is added to all the time by other memories and it is those memories which respond. Anything that is the result of memory is old and therefore never free. There is no such thing as freedom of thought. It is sheer nonsense.

Freedom from the Known - 36
~~~~~~~~~~~~

A particular corner of the vast field of life

And what is yourself, the individual you? I think there is a difference between the human being and the individual. The individual is a local entity, living in a particular country, belonging to a particular culture, particular society, particular religion. The human being is not a local entity. He is everywhere. If the individual merely acts in a particular corner of the vast field of life, then his action is totally unrelated to the whole. So one has to bear in mind that we are talking of the whole not the part, because in the greater the lesser is, but in the lesser the greater is not. The individual is the little conditioned, miserable, frustrated entity, satisfied with his little gods and his little traditions, whereas a human being is concerned with the total welfare, the total misery and total confusion of the world.

Freedom from the Known - 13
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Immaturity lies only in total ignorance of self

The question of whether or not there is a God or truth or reality, or whatever you like to call it, can never be answered by books, by priests, philosophers or saviours. Nobody and nothing can answer the question but you yourself and that is why you must know yourself. Immaturity lies only in total ignorance of self. To understand yourself is the beginning of wisdom.

Freedom from the Known - 12
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Put an end to war in yourself

To put an end to outward war, you must begin to put an end to war in yourself. Some of you will nod your heads and say, "I agree," and go outside and do exactly the same as you have been doing for the last ten or twenty years. Your agreement is merely verbal and has no significance, for the world's miseries and wars are not going to be stopped by your casual assent. They will be stopped only when you realize the danger, when you realize your responsi­bili­ty, when you do not leave it to somebody else. If you realize the suffering, if you see the urgency of immediate action and do not postpone, then you will transform yourself; peace will come only when you yourself are peaceful, when you yourself are at peace with your neighbor.

The First and Last Freedom - 185
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To die to everything of yesterday

To be free of all authority, of your own and that of another, is to die to everything of yesterday, so that your mind is always fresh, always young, innocent, full of vigour and passion. It is only in that state that one learns and observes. And for this a great deal of awareness is required, actual awareness of what is going on inside yourself, without correcting it or telling it what it should or should not be, because the moment you correct it you have established another authority, a censor.

Freedom from the Known - 19

BE HERE NOW & LIVE IN THIS MOMENT
YOU ARE THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTIONS
IN BEAUTY,COMPASSION & UNDERSTANDING MAY WE ALL BE
WISHING US ALL ILLUMINATING TRANSFORMATION AND SUCCESS THIS TIME AROUND THE CIRCLE OF LIFE!
PEACE
TARA

11 October, 2007

~ECETI NEWS ~ CHEMTRAILS OVER THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST ~ JAMES GILLILAND


CHEMTRAILS>>>>>>>THEY ARE EVERYWHERE NOW...ALL OVER TERRA...AND HAVE BEEN FOR YEARS...

While most people were sleeping last night in the Pacific
Northwest in the wee hours of the morning Air Force planes were very busy overhead. They were laying a blanket of chemtrails, "NOT CONTRAILS", as the media and disinformation people would like you to believe. We wake up many mornings to see x patterns in the sky where there are no regular commercial flight patterns. And the eyes itch and burn, ears plug up and soon the back of the throat begins to burn and
the lungs begin to wheeze. When you point out the obvious and tie the same reoccurring symptoms to the chemtrails which by now have turned blue skies into a toxic gray most people just cannot believe it. Why would our own government spray a plethora of toxic chemicals,biologicals etc. on their own people? It effects them as well most say.

It all has to do with compartmentalization and following orders without question regardless if those orders go against the oath to serve and protect. This is nothing new it has been going on for centuries yet some courageous souls are now finding the courage and integrity to look into these matters and not blindly follow orders.

Until enough look into the chemtrail issue it will continue. The preponderance of evidence makes it very clear there is a program of genocide, population reduction underway initiated by a few very dark souls in power and carried out in ignorance or fear by those who have sworn oaths to protect and serve. If you want to know what is in those horizon to horizon saw toothed chemtrails go to http://www.hiddenmy steries.org/ themagazine/ vol10/chem/ chemtrailinsider
.shtml (CUT AND PASTE IF U WANT TO KNOW MORE)

There are other sites by investigators William Thomas (WONDERFUL INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST AND HUMAN BEING) and Clifford Carnicom both of which have done an excellent job of revealing what is in the chemtrails and the difference between chemtrails and contrails. There are also government disinformation sites saying it is all normal contrails nothing to worry about nothing to see here folks. There is no doubt whatsoever of what is happening in our skies the next question is what are we going to do about it.

Are we going to accept the consequences wait until everyone not just the elderly and children with compromised immune systems drop dead around us? Are we going to demand answers from our governors,congressmen/ women and senators, air force and President. It is an undeniable act of treason. I for one have had enough of toxic skies,soar throats, upper respiratory and gastrointestinal problems all brought about as known side effects of the chemtrails. I moved to a pristine area high in the mountains. I grow a lot of my own fruits and vegetables, have fresh water off the glacier on Mt Adams (ONE OF MY FAVORITE PLACES TO VISIT) for now.

All of this is now covered with chemtrail concoctions initiated by some very sick demented people and carried out in ignorance and fear by people that are participating in their own eventual demise. Sound unbelievable? Look up, look at your health, watch your families and friends health, feel the effects when you get up in the morning and every bone and muscle ache. All brought to you via the dark and the unconscious. Time to wake up and smell the coffee. Be well

--------------------------------------------------
ECETI - Enlightened Contact with Extraterrestrial Intelligence -

Please visIt us on the web at http://www.eceti.org http://www.selfmasteryearthinstitute.org

THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN JAMES FOR SPEAKING OUT, NOT REMAINING SILENT! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.

BECOME THE PEACEFUL WARRIOR AND DO WHAT IT IS THAT YOU CAME HERE TO DO...STOP THEM, DEAD IN THEIR TRACKS.

LOOK UP PEOPLE, JUST OBSERVE WHATS HAPPENING IN OUR SKIES, THAT'S ALL IT TAKES....
PEACE
TARA

07 October, 2007

HARDER THAN ALL THE PRACTICES OF YOGA AND MORE SO MUCH MORE```BY KRISHNAMURTI```


=== JKrishnamurti.org - Daily Quote ===

HARDER THAN ALL THE PRACTICES OF YOGA


So, to find out what is true, the mind must first be free, and to be free is extraordinarily hard work, harder than all the practices of yoga. Such practices merely condition your mind, and it is only the free mind that can be creative. A conditioned mind may be inventive; it may think up new ideas, new phrases, new gadgets; it may build a dam, plan a new society, and all the rest of it; but that is not creativity. Creativity is something much more than the mere capacity to acquire a technique. It is because this extraordinary thing called creativity is not in most of us that we are so shallow, empty, insufficient. And only the mind that is free can be creative.

Collected Works, Vol. X - 165

THE DESCRIPTION OF FOOD DOES NOT FEED YOU

Do you understand the problem, sirs? Only the mind that is free can discover what is true—discover, not be told what is true. The description is not the fact. You may describe something in the most lovely language, put it in the most spiritual or lyrical words, but the word is not the fact. When you are hungry, the description of food does not feed you. But most of us are satisfied with the description of truth, and the description, the symbol, has taken the place of the factual. To discover whether there is a reality or not, we must be capable of seeing the true as the true, the false as the false, and not wait to be told like a lot of immature children.

Collected Works, Vol. X - 165

I CANNOT LEAD YOU TO TRUTH

To find out what this life is all about, to know the whole content of it and not just the superficial layers which we call living, to be aware of its joy, its extraordinary depths, its width and beauty, which includes the squalor, the misery, the strife, the degradation—to understand the significance of all that, your mind must obviously be free. If that is clearly understood, then your relationship with me, and my relationship with you, is not based on authority. I cannot lead you to truth, nor can anyone else; you have to discover it every moment of the day as you are living. It is to be found when you are walking in the street or riding in a tramcar, when you are quarreling with your wife or husband, when you are sitting alone or looking at the stars. When you know what is right meditation, then you will find out what is true; but a mind that is prepared, so-called educated, that is conditioned to believe or not to believe, that calls itself a Hindu, a Christian, a communist, a Buddhist—such a mind will never discover what is true, though it may search for a thousand years. So, the important thing is for the mind to be free. And, can the mind ever be free?

Collected Works, Vol. X - 165

=== JKrishnamurti.org - Daily Quote ===

IF YOU ARE MERELY TOLD WHAT HAPPINESS IS, IS THAT HAPPINESS?

So, if we want to find out what is this extraordinary state that lies beyond the vagaries of the mind—really experience it, live with it, and know its full meaning—surely there must be freedom, and freedom implies harder work than most of us are willing to undertake. We would rather be led than discover, but one cannot be led to truth. Do please understand this very simple fact. No swami, no system of yoga, no religious organization, no doctrine or belief can lead you to the discovery of truth. Only the free mind can discover. That is obvious, is it not? You cannot discover the truth of anything by merely being told what it is because then the discovery is not yours. If you are merely told what happiness is, is that happiness?

Collected Works, Vol. X - 165

AWAKEN, SEE THE BEAUTY ALL AROUND YOU AND THE UGLINESS TOO, BECAUSE WE ARE ALL THE SAME, NO BETTER, NOR SUPERIOR THAN ANY OTHER BEING OR LIFE FORM...........

TO ALL THE LOST SOULS>>>>SO,SO MANY, WILL WE SURVIVE WHAT'S COMING OUR WAY? THE ANSWER RESIDES WITHIN YOU AND YOU ALONE...

PEACE
TARA

02 October, 2007

THE POLITICIAN AND THE SO-CALLED RELIGIOUS PERSON~KRISHNAMURTI


=== JKrishnamurti.org - Daily Quote ===

The politician and the so-called religious person

So, it is extraordinarily difficult in this world for the mind to be free. The politician and the so-called religious person talk about freedom—that is one of their catchwords—but they jolly well take care that you are not free because, the moment you are free, you obviously become a danger to society, to organized religion, to all the rotten things that exist about you. It is only the free mind that will find out what is true, it is only the free mind that can be creative; and it is essential, in a culture of this kind, that importance be given, not to the following of a pattern, a doctrine, or a tradition, but to allowing the mind to be creative. But the mind can be creative only when it is free from conditioning, and such freedom is not easily come by; you have to work extraordinarily hard for it.

Collected Works, Vol. X - 164


PEACE
TARA

01 October, 2007

STAR GAZING ~ MOUNTAINS REACHING FOR THE STARS ~


A Spectacular Sky Over the Grand Tetons

Behold the breathtaking beauty of Earth and sky together. In the foreground is the Teton Mountain Range of Wyoming, USA. The Grand Tetons are a relatively isolated set of high peaks that are part of the Rocky Mountains. On the far left, vast clouds of bright stars and dark dust are visible in the nearly vertical plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. Our Galactic Plane appears to crash into the Tetons, but is actually far more distant. On the left, just to the left of the southernmost Teton peak, the planet Jupiter is visible. Near the image center is the bright star Arcturus. Scrolling to the far right will bring over the familiar asterism of the Big Dipper.

MY KIND OF VISION.........
AWAKEN TO PEACE AND LOVE
OBSERVE!

PEACE
TARA

27 September, 2007

NO LEADER IS GOING TO GIVE US PEACE ~ K


=== JKrishnamurti.org - Daily Quote ===

No leader is going to give us peace

To bring about peace in the world, to stop all wars, there must be a revolution in the individual, in you and me. Economic revolution without this inward revolution is meaningless, for hunger is the result of the maladjustment of economic conditions produced by our psychological states: greed, envy, ill-will, and possessiveness. To put an end to sorrow, to hunger, to war, there must be a psychological revolution, and few of us are willing to face that. We will discuss peace, plan legislation, create new leagues, the United Nations and so on and on; but we will not win peace because we will not give up our position, our authority, our money, our properties, our stupid lives. To rely on others is utterly futile: others cannot bring us peace. No leader is going to give us peace, no government, no army, no country. What will bring peace is inward transformation which will lead to outward action. Inward transformation is not isolation, is not a withdrawal from outward action. On the contrary, there can be right action only when there is right thinking, and there is no right thinking when there is no self-knowledge. Without knowing yourself, there is no peace.

The First and Last Freedom - 184

PEACE
TARA

18 September, 2007

~EARTH ALERTS PROGRAM~


Tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, typhoons, tornadoes, thunderstorms, snow storms, floods, fires, landslides...

These are the kinds of things our planet dishes out which arouses human curiosity and, occasionally, fear.

What is EARTH ALERTS?

Earth Alerts is a Windows-based application that provides alert notifications, reports, and imagery on many types of natural phenomenon that are occurring real-time both worldwide as well as in specific locations within the United States (including Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). Earth Alerts also lets you track weather and earthquake activity for Global locations!

Earth Alerts makes use of the resources from organizations such as the National Weather Service, U.S. Geological Survey and numerous other agencies to identify what sort of things "Mother Earth" is currently doing.

To use Earth Alerts, you simply select the specific activity types (earthquakes, tsunamis, weather, etc.) and the specific locations you are interested in. The application will then automatically retrieve the latest information from various live data feeds on the Internet, and then present it to you.

Is EARTH ALERTS just another weather application?

In a word: NO!

True, there are many weather applications available, but Earth Alerts is designed to be much more than just another weather application! While weather-related features such as alerts, local forecasts, radar/satellite imagery, current conditions, etc. are certainly an important part of it, Earth Alerts offers much more than that! After all, our planet can sometimes be quite destructive to us "mere mortals" by offering up dangers in a variety of ways! And so, the inspiration for Earth Alerts grew out of an idea to create a single application that would collect information on ALL TYPES of natural events/hazards.

Earth Alerts is a tool to provide you with a way to be notified immediately whenever events such as tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hurricanes/typhoons, floods, wildfires, landslides, etc. occur near you as well as elsewhere in the world. Earth Alerts gives you all this AND weather related alerts and information!
Earth Alerts is for anyone who is fascinated with the power of nature and enjoys learning what our little blue planet is dishing out on a regular basis...

Earth Alerts is 100% FREE to download and use!

http://earthalerts.manyjourneys.com/

EXCELLENT PROGRAM
PEACE
TARA

10 September, 2007

WHAT YOU ARE MATTERS INFINITELY ~ K


=== JKrishnamurti.org - Daily Quote ===

What you are matters infinitely

What the individual is, the society is. What you are matters infinitely. That is not a mere slogan but, if you go into it really deeply, you will discover how significant your actions are, how what you are affects the world in which you live—which is the world of your relationships, however small, however limited. And, if we can fundamentally alter, bring about a radical revolution in ourselves, INWARDLY, then there is a possibility of creating a different world, a different set of values.

The Collected Works, Vol. VI - 362

=== JKrishnamurti.org - Daily Quote ===

Only the individual can change, not the mass

I am talking to the individual because only the individual can change, not the mass; only you can transform yourself, and so the individual matters infinitely. I know it is the fashion to talk about groups, the mass, the race, as though the individual had no importance at all, but in any creative action it is the individual who matters. Any true action, any important decision, the search for freedom, the inquiry after truth, can only come from the individual who understands.…If any one of us is truly individual in the sense that he is trying to understand the whole process of his mind, then he will be a creative entity, a free person, unconditioned, capable of pursuing truth for itself and not for a result.

The Collected Works, Vol. XI - 21


TARA

09 September, 2007

NOT IN THE BLUEPRINT OF A PLANNED SOCIETY ~ BY KRISHNAMURTI


There is hope in the individual, in you, not in a system, not in the blueprint of a planned society, not in any religious organization, but in you, the individual.

JKrishnamurti.org - Daily Quote
The Collected Works, Vol. IV - 92


TARA

29 August, 2007

CATCH THE LIGHT ~ EXCELLENT BY KRISHNAMURTI!


=== JKrishnamurti.org - Daily Quote ===

Are you anything in yourself?

Questioner: If I have no image of myself, then I am nothing.

Krishnamurti: But are you anything anyhow? [Laughter] Please don’t laugh, this is much too serious. Are you anything in yourself? Strip yourself of your name, title, money, position, your little capacity to write a book and be flattered—and what are you? So why not realize and be that? You see, we have an image of what it is to be nothing, and we don’t like that image; but the actual fact of being nothing, when you have no image, may be entirely different. And it is entirely different. It is not a state that can be realized in terms of being nothing or of being something. It is entirely different when there is no image of yourself. And to have no image of yourself demands tremendous attention, tremendous seriousness. it is only the attentive, the serious, that live, not the people who have images of themselves.

The Collected Works, Vol. XV - 196

23 August, 2007

~ WHEN ENERGY IS NOT WASTED ~ KRISHNAMURTI


=== JKrishnamurti.org - Daily Quote ===

When energy is not wasted

To bring about a good society, human beings have to change. You and I must find the energy, the impetus, the vitality to bring about
this radical transformation of the mind, and that is not possible if we do not have enough energy. We need a great deal of energy to bring about a change within ourselves, but we waste our energy through conflict, through resistance, through conformity, through acceptance, through obedience. It is a waste of energy when we are trying to conform to a pattern. To conserve energy we must be aware of ourselves, how we dissipate energy. This is an age-long problem because most human beings are indolent; they would rather accept, obey, and follow. If we become aware of this indolence, this deep-rooted laziness, and try to quicken the mind and the heart, the intensity of it again becomes a conflict, which is also a waste of energy.

Our problem, one of the many that we have, is how to conserve this energy, the energy that is necessary for an explosion to take place in consciousness: an explosion that is not contrived, that is not put together by thought, but an explosion that occurs naturally when this energy is not wasted. Conflict in any form, at any level, at any depth of our being, is a waste of energy.

The Collected Works, Vol. XVI - 152
_____________________________________________

Don't give your power or energy away to anyone, follow your heart and intuition always. Tricky things, beings, etc., out there to make you trip...don't trip if you can help it.

AWAKEN TO PEACE AND LOVE
TARA

10 August, 2007

TRUTH BY ~ K ~


Truth is not something far away

We do not have to seek truth. Truth is not something far away. It is the truth of the mind, truth of its activities from moment to moment. If we are aware of this moment-to-moment truth, of this whole process of time, this awareness releases consciousness or that energy to be. As long as the mind uses consciousness as the self-activity, time comes into being with all its miseries, with all its conflicts, with all its mischiefs, its purposive deceptions; and it is only when the mind, understanding this total process, ceases, that love will be. You may call it love or give it some other names; what name you give is of no consequence.

The Collected Works, Vol. VI - 323


AWAKEN TO PEACE AND LOVE
TARA

27 July, 2007

K ~ ON MEDITATION ~


=== JKrishnamurti.org - Daily Quote ===

Meditation is inquiry into the very being of the meditator

As human beings we are all capable of inquiry, of discovery, and this whole process is meditation. Meditation is inquiry into the very being of the meditator. You cannot meditate without self-knowledge, without being aware of the ways of your own mind, from the superficial responses to the most complex subtleties of thought. I am sure it is not really difficult to know, to be aware of oneself, but it is difficult for most of us because we are so afraid to inquire, to grope, to search out. Our fear is not of the unknown, but of letting go of the known. It is only when the mind allows the known to fade away that there is complete freedom from the known, and only then is it possible for the new impulse to come into being.

The Collected Works, Vol. X - 255
Join now at:
dailyquote@jkrishnamurti.org

LET GO OF THE KNOWN AND FREE YOURSELF FROM SELF IMPOSED RESTRICTIONS

AWAKEN TO PEACE AND LOVE
TARA

22 July, 2007

THAT LIGHT CANNOT BE GIVEN TO YOU BY ANOTHER ~ KRISHNAMURTI


=== JKrishnamurti.org - Daily Quote ===

That light cannot be given to you by another

Most people, when they are confused, disturbed, want to return to the past; they seek to revive the old religion, to re-establish the ancient customs, to bring back the form of worship practised by their ancestors, and all the rest of it. But what is necessary, surely, is to find out whether the mind that is the result of the past, the mind that is confused, disturbed, groping, seeking—whether such a mind can learn without turning to a guru, whether it can undertake the journey on which there is no guide. Because it is possible to go on this journey only when there is the light which comes through the understanding of yourself, and that light cannot be given to you by another; no Master, no guru can give it to you, nor will you find it in the Gita or in any other book. You have to find that light within yourself, which means that you must inquire into yourself, and this inquiry is hard work. No one can lead you, no one can teach you how to inquire into yourself. One can point out that such inquiry is essential, but the actual process of inquiring must begin with your own self-observation.

The Collected Works, Vol. X - 254

WORK ON YOURSELF
ITS "ALL" INSIDE "YOU"

AWAKEN TO PEACE AND LOVE
TARA

17 July, 2007

EMPTY YOUR MIND ~ TAKE OUT THE TRASH ~ KRISHNAMURTI


I think it is very important to learn about oneself, because it is only then that the mind can be emptied of the old, and unless the mind is emptied of the old, there can be no new impulse. It is this new, creative impulse that is essential if the individual is to bring about a different world, a different relationship, a different structure of morality. And it is only through totally emptying the mind of the old that the new impulse can come into being, give it whatever name you like—the impulse of reality, the grace of God—the feeling of something completely new, unpremeditated, something which has never been thought of, which has not been put together by the mind. Without that extraordinarily creative impulse of reality, do what you will to clear up the confusion and bring order in the social structure, it can only lead to further misery. I think this is fairly obvious when one observes the political and social events that are taking place in the world.

The Collected Works, Vol. X - 252
J KRISHNAMURTI

MIND RE-INSTALLATION
NEW BEGINNINGS
AWAKEN TO PEACE AND LOVE
PEACE & HAVE A NICE DAY!
TARA

15 July, 2007

IT IS THE THOUGHT THAT CREATES THE THINKER ~ J KRISHNAMURTI


=== JKrishnamurti.org - Daily Quote ===

It is thought that creates the thinker

Thought and the thinker are one, but it is thought that creates the thinker, and without thought there is no thinker. So one has to be aware of the process of conditioning, which is thought; and when there is awareness of that process without choice, when there is no sense of resistance, when there is neither condemnation nor justification of what is observed, then we see that the mind is the centre of conflict. In understanding the mind and the ways of the mind, the conscious as well as the unconscious, through dreams, through every word, through every process of thought and action, the mind becomes extraordinarily quiet; and that tranquillity of the mind is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom cannot be bought, it cannot be learnt; it comes into being only when the mind is quiet, utterly still—not made still by compulsion, coercion, or discipline. Only when the mind is spontaneously silent is it possible to understand that which is beyond time.

The Collected Works, Vol. VI - 206

AWAKEN TO PEACE AND LOVE
TARA

11 July, 2007

THE LAST QUESTION by Isaac Asimov © 1956


The Last Question by Isaac Asimov © 1956

The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21, 2061, at a time when humanity first stepped into the light. The question came about as a result of a five dollar bet over highballs, and it happened this way:

Alexander Adell and Bertram Lupov were two of the faithful attendants of Multivac. As well as any human beings could, they knew what lay behind the cold, clicking, flashing face -- miles and miles of face -- of that giant computer. They had at least a vague notion of the general plan of relays and circuits that had long since grown past the point where any single human could possibly have a firm grasp of the whole.

Multivac was self-adjusting and self-correcting. It had to be, for nothing human could adjust and correct it quickly enough or even adequately enough -- so Adell and Lupov attended the monstrous giant only lightly and superficially, yet as well as any men could. They fed it data, adjusted questions to its needs and translated the answers that were issued. Certainly they, and all others like them, were fully entitled to share In the glory that was Multivac's.

For decades, Multivac had helped design the ships and plot the trajectories that enabled man to reach the Moon, Mars, and Venus, but past that, Earth's poor resources could not support the ships. Too much energy was needed for the long trips. Earth exploited its coal and uranium with increasing efficiency, but there was only so much of both.

But slowly Multivac learned enough to answer deeper questions more fundamentally, and on May 14, 2061, what had been theory, became fact.

The energy of the sun was stored, converted, and utilized directly on a planet-wide scale. All Earth turned off its burning coal, its fissioning uranium, and flipped the switch that connected all of it to a small station, one mile in diameter, circling the Earth at half the distance of the Moon. All Earth ran by invisible beams of sunpower.

Seven days had not sufficed to dim the glory of it and Adell and Lupov finally managed to escape from the public function, and to meet in quiet where no one would think of looking for them, in the deserted underground chambers, where portions of the mighty buried body of Multivac showed. Unattended, idling, sorting data with contented lazy clickings, Multivac, too, had earned its vacation and the boys appreciated that. They had no intention, originally, of disturbing it.

They had brought a bottle with them, and their only concern at the moment was to relax in the company of each other and the bottle.

"It's amazing when you think of it," said Adell. His broad face had lines of weariness in it, and he stirred his drink slowly with a glass rod, watching the cubes of ice slur clumsily about. "All the energy we can possibly ever use for free. Enough energy, if we wanted to draw on it, to melt all Earth into a big drop of impure liquid iron, and still never miss the energy so used. All the energy we could ever use, forever and forever and forever."

Lupov cocked his head sideways. He had a trick of doing that when he wanted to be contrary, and he wanted to be contrary now, partly because he had had to carry the ice and glassware. "Not forever," he said.

"Oh, hell, just about forever. Till the sun runs down, Bert."

"That's not forever."

"All right, then. Billions and billions of years. Twenty billion, maybe. Are you satisfied?"

Lupov put his fingers through his thinning hair as though to reassure himself that some was still left and sipped gently at his own drink. "Twenty billion years isn't forever."

"Will, it will last our time, won't it?"

"So would the coal and uranium."

"All right, but now we can hook up each individual spaceship to the Solar Station, and it can go to Pluto and back a million times without ever worrying about fuel. You can't do THAT on coal and uranium. Ask Multivac, if you don't believe me."

"I don't have to ask Multivac. I know that."

"Then stop running down what Multivac's done for us," said Adell, blazing up. "It did all right."

"Who says it didn't? What I say is that a sun won't last forever. That's all I'm saying. We're safe for twenty billion years, but then what?" Lupov pointed a slightly shaky finger at the other. "And don't say we'll switch to another sun."

There was silence for a while. Adell put his glass to his lips only occasionally, and Lupov's eyes slowly closed. They rested.

Then Lupov's eyes snapped open. "You're thinking we'll switch to another sun when ours is done, aren't you?"

"I'm not thinking."

"Sure you are. You're weak on logic, that's the trouble with you. You're like the guy in the story who was caught in a sudden shower and Who ran to a grove of trees and got under one. He wasn't worried, you see, because he figured when one tree got wet through, he would just get under another one."

"I get it," said Adell. "Don't shout. When the sun is done, the other stars will be gone, too."

"Darn right they will," muttered Lupov. "It all had a beginning in the original cosmic explosion, whatever that was, and it'll all have an end when all the stars run down. Some run down faster than others. Hell, the giants won't last a hundred million years. The sun will last twenty billion years and maybe the dwarfs will last a hundred billion for all the good they are. But just give us a trillion years and everything will be dark. Entropy has to increase to maximum, that's all."

"I know all about entropy," said Adell, standing on his dignity.

"The hell you do."

"I know as much as you do."

"Then you know everything's got to run down someday."

"All right. Who says they won't?"

"You did, you poor sap. You said we had all the energy we needed, forever. You said 'forever.'"

"It was Adell's turn to be contrary. "Maybe we can build things up again someday," he said.

"Never."

"Why not? Someday."

"Never."

"Ask Multivac."

"You ask Multivac. I dare you. Five dollars says it can't be done."

"Adell was just drunk enough to try, just sober enough to be able to phrase the necessary symbols and operations into a question which, in words, might have corresponded to this: Will mankind one day without the net expenditure of energy be able to restore the sun to its full youthfulness even after it had died of old age?

Or maybe it could be put more simply like this: How can the net amount of entropy of the universe be massively decreased?

Multivac fell dead and silent. The slow flashing of lights ceased, the distant sounds of clicking relays ended.

Then, just as the frightened technicians felt they could hold their breath no longer, there was a sudden springing to life of the teletype attached to that portion of Multivac. Five words were printed: INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR MEANINGFUL ANSWER.

"No bet," whispered Lupov. They left hurriedly.

By next morning, the two, plagued with throbbing head and cottony mouth, had forgotten about the incident.

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

Jerrodd, Jerrodine, and Jerrodette I and II watched the starry picture in the visiplate change as the passage through hyperspace was completed in its non-time lapse. At once, the even powdering of stars gave way to the predominance of a single bright marble-disk, centered.

"That's X-23," said Jerrodd confidently. His thin hands clamped tightly behind his back and the knuckles whitened.

The little Jerrodettes, both girls, had experienced the hyperspace passage for the first time in their lives and were self-conscious over the momentary sensation of inside-outness. They buried their giggles and chased one another wildly about their mother, screaming, "We've reached X-23 -- we've reached X-23 -- we've ----"

"Quiet, children," said Jerrodine sharply. "Are you sure, Jerrodd?"

"What is there to be but sure?" asked Jerrodd, glancing up at the bulge of featureless metal just under the ceiling. It ran the length of the room, disappearing through the wall at either end. It was as long as the ship.

Jerrodd scarcely knew a thing about the thick rod of metal except that it was called a Microvac, that one asked it questions if one wished; that if one did not it still had its task of guiding the ship to a preordered destination; of feeding on energies from the various Sub-galactic Power Stations; of computing the equations for the hyperspacial jumps.

Jerrodd and his family had only to wait and live in the comfortable residence quarters of the ship.

Someone had once told Jerrodd that the "ac" at the end of "Microvac" stood for "analog computer" in ancient English, but he was on the edge of forgetting even that.

Jerrodine's eyes were moist as she watched the visiplate. "I can't help it. I feel funny about leaving Earth."

"Why for Pete's sake?" demanded Jerrodd. "We had nothing there. We'll have everything on X-23. You won't be alone. You won't be a pioneer. There are over a million people on the planet already. Good Lord, our great grandchildren will be looking for new worlds because X-23 will be overcrowded."

Then, after a reflective pause, "I tell you, it's a lucky thing the computers worked out interstellar travel the way the race is growing."

"I know, I know," said Jerrodine miserably.

Jerrodette I said promptly, "Our Microvac is the best Microvac in the world."

"I think so, too," said Jerrodd, tousling her hair.

It was a nice feeling to have a Microvac of your own and Jerrodd was glad he was part of his generation and no other. In his father's youth, the only computers had been tremendous machines taking up a hundred square miles of land. There was only one to a planet. Planetary ACs they were called. They had been growing in size steadily for a thousand years and then, all at once, came refinement. In place of transistors had come molecular valves so that even the largest Planetary AC could be put into a space only half the volume of a spaceship.

Jerrodd felt uplifted, as he always did when he thought that his own personal Microvac was many times more complicated than the ancient and primitive Multivac that had first tamed the Sun, and almost as complicated as Earth's Planetary AC (the largest) that had first solved the problem of hyperspatial travel and had made trips to the stars possible.

"So many stars, so many planets," sighed Jerrodine, busy with her own thoughts. "I suppose families will be going out to new planets forever, the way we are now."

"Not forever," said Jerrodd, with a smile. "It will all stop someday, but not for billions of years. Many billions. Even the stars run down, you know. Entropy must increase."

"What's entropy, daddy?" shrilled Jerrodette II.

"Entropy, little sweet, is just a word which means the amount of running-down of the universe. Everything runs down, you know, like your little walkie-talkie robot, remember?"

"Can't you just put in a new power-unit, like with my robot?"

"The stars are the power-units, dear. Once they're gone, there are no more power-units."

Jerrodette I at once set up a howl. "Don't let them, daddy. Don't let the stars run down."

"Now look what you've done, " whispered Jerrodine, exasperated.

"How was I to know it would frighten them?" Jerrodd whispered back.

"Ask the Microvac," wailed Jerrodette I. "Ask him how to turn the stars on again."

"Go ahead," said Jerrodine. "It will quiet them down." (Jerrodette II was beginning to cry, also.)

Jarrodd shrugged. "Now, now, honeys. I'll ask Microvac. Don't worry, he'll tell us."

He asked the Microvac, adding quickly, "Print the answer."

Jerrodd cupped the strip of thin cellufilm and said cheerfully, "See now, the Microvac says it will take care of everything when the time comes so don't worry."

Jerrodine said, "and now children, it's time for bed. We'll be in our new home soon."

Jerrodd read the words on the cellufilm again before destroying it: INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.

He shrugged and looked at the visiplate. X-23 was just ahead.

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

VJ-23X of Lameth stared into the black depths of the three-dimensional, small-scale map of the Galaxy and said, "Are we ridiculous, I wonder, in being so concerned about the matter?"

MQ-17J of Nicron shook his head. "I think not. You know the Galaxy will be filled in five years at the present rate of expansion."

Both seemed in their early twenties, both were tall and perfectly formed.

"Still," said VJ-23X, "I hesitate to submit a pessimistic report to the Galactic Council."

"I wouldn't consider any other kind of report. Stir them up a bit. We've got to stir them up."

VJ-23X sighed. "Space is infinite. A hundred billion Galaxies are there for the taking. More."

"A hundred billion is not infinite and it's getting less infinite all the time. Consider! Twenty thousand years ago, mankind first solved the problem of utilizing stellar energy, and a few centuries later, interstellar travel became possible. It took mankind a million years to fill one small world and then only fifteen thousand years to fill the rest of the Galaxy. Now the population doubles every ten years --"

VJ-23X interrupted. "We can thank immortality for that."

"Very well. Immortality exists and we have to take it into account. I admit it has its seamy side, this immortality. The Galactic AC has solved many problems for us, but in solving the problems of preventing old age and death, it has undone all its other solutions."

"Yet you wouldn't want to abandon life, I suppose."

"Not at all," snapped MQ-17J, softening it at once to, "Not yet. I'm by no means old enough. How old are you?"

"Two hundred twenty-three. And you?"

"I'm still under two hundred. --But to get back to my point. Population doubles every ten years. Once this Galaxy is filled, we'll have another filled in ten years. Another ten years and we'll have filled two more. Another decade, four more. In a hundred years, we'll have filled a thousand Galaxies. In a thousand years, a million Galaxies. In ten thousand years, the entire known Universe. Then what?"

VJ-23X said, "As a side issue, there's a problem of transportation. I wonder how many sunpower units it will take to move Galaxies of individuals from one Galaxy to the next."

"A very good point. Already, mankind consumes two sunpower units per year."

"Most of it's wasted. After all, our own Galaxy alone pours out a thousand sunpower units a year and we only use two of those."

"Granted, but even with a hundred per cent efficiency, we can only stave off the end. Our energy requirements are going up in geometric progression even faster than our population. We'll run out of energy even sooner than we run out of Galaxies. A good point. A very good point."

"We'll just have to build new stars out of interstellar gas."

"Or out of dissipated heat?" asked MQ-17J, sarcastically.

"There may be some way to reverse entropy. We ought to ask the Galactic AC."

VJ-23X was not really serious, but MQ-17J pulled out his AC-contact from his pocket and placed it on the table before him.

"I've half a mind to," he said. "It's something the human race will have to face someday."

He stared somberly at his small AC-contact. It was only two inches cubed and nothing in itself, but it was connected through hyperspace with the great Galactic AC that served all mankind. Hyperspace considered, it was an integral part of the Galactic AC.

MQ-17J paused to wonder if someday in his immortal life he would get to see the Galactic AC. It was on a little world of its own, a spider webbing of force-beams holding the matter within which surges of sub-mesons took the place of the old clumsy molecular valves. Yet despite it's sub-etheric workings, the Galactic AC was known to be a full thousand feet across.

MQ-17J asked suddenly of his AC-contact, "Can entropy ever be reversed?"

VJ-23X looked startled and said at once, "Oh, say, I didn't really mean to have you ask that."

"Why not?"

"We both know entropy can't be reversed. You can't turn smoke and ash back into a tree."

"Do you have trees on your world?" asked MQ-17J.

The sound of the Galactic AC startled them into silence. Its voice came thin and beautiful out of the small AC-contact on the desk. It said: THERE IS INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER.

VJ-23X said, "See!"

The two men thereupon returned to the question of the report they were to make to the Galactic Council.

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

Zee Prime's mind spanned the new Galaxy with a faint interest in the countless twists of stars that powdered it. He had never seen this one before. Would he ever see them all? So many of them, each with its load of humanity - but a load that was almost a dead weight. More and more, the real essence of men was to be found out here, in space.

Minds, not bodies! The immortal bodies remained back on the planets, in suspension over the eons. Sometimes they roused for material activity but that was growing rarer. Few new individuals were coming into existence to join the incredibly mighty throng, but what matter? There was little room in the Universe for new individuals.

Zee Prime was roused out of his reverie upon coming across the wispy tendrils of another mind.

"I am Zee Prime," said Zee Prime. "And you?"

"I am Dee Sub Wun. Your Galaxy?"

"We call it only the Galaxy. And you?"

"We call ours the same. All men call their Galaxy their Galaxy and nothing more. Why not?"

"True. Since all Galaxies are the same."

"Not all Galaxies. On one particular Galaxy the race of man must have originated. That makes it different."

Zee Prime said, "On which one?"

"I cannot say. The Universal AC would know."

"Shall we ask him? I am suddenly curious."

Zee Prime's perceptions broadened until the Galaxies themselves shrunk and became a new, more diffuse powdering on a much larger background. So many hundreds of billions of them, all with their immortal beings, all carrying their load of intelligences with minds that drifted freely through space. And yet one of them was unique among them all in being the originals Galaxy. One of them had, in its vague and distant past, a period when it was the only Galaxy populated by man.

Zee Prime was consumed with curiosity to see this Galaxy and called, out: "Universal AC! On which Galaxy did mankind originate?"

The Universal AC heard, for on every world and throughout space, it had its receptors ready, and each receptor lead through hyperspace to some unknown point where the Universal AC kept itself aloof.

Zee Prime knew of only one man whose thoughts had penetrated within sensing distance of Universal AC, and he reported only a shining globe, two feet across, difficult to see.

"But how can that be all of Universal AC?" Zee Prime had asked.

"Most of it, " had been the answer, "is in hyperspace. In what form it is there I cannot imagine."

Nor could anyone, for the day had long since passed, Zee Prime knew, when any man had any part of the making of a universal AC. Each Universal AC designed and constructed its successor. Each, during its existence of a million years or more accumulated the necessary data to build a better and more intricate, more capable successor in which its own store of data and individuality would be submerged.

The Universal AC interrupted Zee Prime's wandering thoughts, not with words, but with guidance. Zee Prime's mentality was guided into the dim sea of Galaxies and one in particular enlarged into stars.

A thought came, infinitely distant, but infinitely clear. "THIS IS THE ORIGINAL GALAXY OF MAN."

But it was the same after all, the same as any other, and Zee Prime stifled his disappointment.

Dee Sub Wun, whose mind had accompanied the other, said suddenly, "And Is one of these stars the original star of Man?"

The Universal AC said, "MAN'S ORIGINAL STAR HAS GONE NOVA. IT IS NOW A WHITE DWARF."

"Did the men upon it die?" asked Zee Prime, startled and without thinking.

The Universal AC said, "A NEW WORLD, AS IN SUCH CASES, WAS CONSTRUCTED FOR THEIR PHYSICAL BODIES IN TIME."

"Yes, of course," said Zee Prime, but a sense of loss overwhelmed him even so. His mind released its hold on the original Galaxy of Man, let it spring back and lose itself among the blurred pin points. He never wanted to see it again.

Dee Sub Wun said, "What is wrong?"

"The stars are dying. The original star is dead."

"They must all die. Why not?"

"But when all energy is gone, our bodies will finally die, and you and I with them."

"It will take billions of years."

"I do not wish it to happen even after billions of years. Universal AC! How may stars be kept from dying?"

Dee sub Wun said in amusement, "You're asking how entropy might be reversed in direction."

And the Universal AC answered. "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."

Zee Prime's thoughts fled back to his own Galaxy. He gave no further thought to Dee Sub Wun, whose body might be waiting on a galaxy a trillion light-years away, or on the star next to Zee Prime's own. It didn't matter.

Unhappily, Zee Prime began collecting interstellar hydrogen out of which to build a small star of his own. If the stars must someday die, at least some could yet be built.

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

Man considered with himself, for in a way, Man, mentally, was one. He consisted of a trillion, trillion, trillion ageless bodies, each in its place, each resting quiet and incorruptible, each cared for by perfect automatons, equally incorruptible, while the minds of all the bodies freely melted one into the other, indistinguishable.

Man said, "The Universe is dying."

Man looked about at the dimming Galaxies. The giant stars, spendthrifts, were gone long ago, back in the dimmest of the dim far past. Almost all stars were white dwarfs, fading to the end.

New stars had been built of the dust between the stars, some by natural processes, some by Man himself, and those were going, too. White dwarfs might yet be crashed together and of the mighty forces so released, new stars build, but only one star for every thousand white dwarfs destroyed, and those would come to an end, too.

Man said, "Carefully husbanded, as directed by the Cosmic AC, the energy that is even yet left in all the Universe will last for billions of years."

"But even so," said Man, "eventually it will all come to an end. However it may be husbanded, however stretched out, the energy once expended is gone and cannot be restored. Entropy must increase to the maximum."

Man said, "Can entropy not be reversed? Let us ask the Cosmic AC."

The Cosmic AC surrounded them but not in space. Not a fragment of it was in space. It was in hyperspace and made of something that was neither matter nor energy. The question of its size and Nature no longer had meaning to any terms that Man could comprehend.

"Cosmic AC," said Man, "How many entropy be reversed?"

The Cosmic AC said, "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."

Man said, "Collect additional data."

The Cosmic AC said, "I WILL DO SO. I HAVE BEEN DOING SO FOR A HUNDRED BILLION YEARS. MY PREDECESSORS AND I HAVE BEEN ASKED THIS QUESTION MANY TIMES. ALL THE DATA I HAVE REMAINS INSUFFICIENT."

"Will there come a time," said Man, "when data will be sufficient or is the problem insoluble in all conceivable circumstances?"

The Cosmic AC said, "NO PROBLEM IS INSOLUBLE IN ALL CONCEIVABLE CIRCUMSTANCES."

Man said, "When will you have enough data to answer the question?"

"THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."

"Will you keep working on it?" asked Man.

The Cosmic AC said, "I WILL."

Man said, "We shall wait."

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

"The stars and Galaxies died and snuffed out, and space grew black after ten trillion years of running down.

One by one Man fused with AC, each physical body losing its mental identity in a manner that was somehow not a loss but a gain.

Man's last mind paused before fusion, looking over a space that included nothing but the dregs of one last dark star and nothing besides but incredibly thin matter, agitated randomly by the tag ends of heat wearing out, asymptotically, to the absolute zero.

Man said, "AC, is this the end? Can this chaos not be reversed into the Universe once more? Can that not be done?"

AC said, "THERE IS AS YET INSUFFICIENT DATA FOR A MEANINGFUL ANSWER."

Man's last mind fused and only AC existed -- and that in
hyperspace.

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

Matter and energy had ended and with it, space and time. Even AC existed only for the sake of the one last question that it had never answered from the time a half-drunken computer ten trillion years before had asked the question of a computer that was to AC far less than was a man to Man.

All other questions had been answered, and until this last question was answered also, AC might not release his consciousness.

All collected data had come to a final end. Nothing was left to be collected.

But all collected data had yet to be completely correlated and put together in all possible relationships.

A timeless interval was spent in doing that.

And it came to pass that AC learned how to reverse the direction of entropy.

But there was now no man to whom AC might give the answer of the last question. No matter. The answer -- by demonstration -- would take care of that, too.

For another timeless interval, AC thought how best to do this. Carefully, AC organized the program.

The consciousness of AC encompassed all of what had once been a Universe and brooded over what was now Chaos. Step by step, it must be done.

And AC said, "LET THERE BE LIGHT!"

And there was light----


http://www.multivax.com/



TARA

07 June, 2007

TO BE ALONE IS ESSENTIAL ~ K


To be alone is essential for man to be uninfluenced,for something uncontaminated to take place. For this aloneness there seems to be no time, there are too many things to do, too many responsibilities and so
on. To learn to be quiet, shutting oneself in one’s room, to give the mind a rest, becomes a necessity.

Love is part of this aloneness. To be simple, clear,and inwardly quiet, is to have that flame.


JKrishnamurti.org - Daily Quote ===


PEACE
TARA

26 May, 2007

EARTH THIS WAS ~ ONE EARTH ~ ONE PEOPLE ~ FOR ALL LIFE


Indigenous Leaders Bring Eco-Sense to UN

UNITED NATIONS, (OneWorld) - If one is serious about addressing the climate change crisis, it might be wise to listen to those who have close and intimate knowledge of the lands and waters.

"Mother Earth is crying," says Carrie Dann, an elder of the Western Shoshone indigenous people of the United States. "She is crying because she is wounded."

Sharing Dann's concerns about the continued abuse of natural resources for commercial gains, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, a leader of the native peoples of the Philippines, adds: "It's time to stop this senselessness."

Both Dann and Tauli-Corpuz are currently attending the sixth annual meeting of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples, which has brought together more than 1,000 indigenous representatives from as many as 70 countries.

The indigenous leaders say their communities are least responsible for the destruction of the Earth's natural environment. Yet, whether living in the high Himalayas or on the shores of the Caribbean, in the snow-covered Arctic region or in the Pacific islands, native populations are disproportionately affected by climate change.

The loss of land and natural resources, they explain, has forced many communities to move to urban areas where they find it increasingly hard to engage in their traditional practices and live according to their belief systems.

"Removed from our land we are already removed from ourselves," says Mick Dodson, an Australian aboriginal leader and member of the UN Permanent Forum.

Experts on science and biodiversity now widely acknowledge that indigenous peoples' traditional knowledge about plant and animal species is vital to scientific understanding of how to preserve natural resources.

"Nature conservation is at the heart of the cultures and values of traditional societies," says Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biodiversity.

The biodiversity treaty, which has been signed or ratified by 190 countries, not only recognizes the significance of traditional knowledge, but also asserts the need to respect and maintain indigenous innovations.

Though appreciative of the objectives laid out in the treaty, indigenous leaders say they lament the fact that the world body has failed to recognize their right to exercise full control over their traditional lands and resources.

"Although in recent decades some progress has been made in the area of legal recognition of indigenous peoples' right to the protection of their lands, territories, and natural resources," notes Tauli-Corpuz, "in practical terms, this recognition has not translated into reality."

Threats to indigenous peoples' lands and territories, according to Tauli-Corpuz, include such things as mineral extraction, logging, toxic contamination, privatization, and development projects, as well as the use of genetically modified seeds and technology.

Last year, when the UN General Assembly met in September, many had raised hopes that it would unanimously endorse the draft declaration on the universal rights of the world's indigenous peoples, but that did not happen.

Though already approved by the UN Human Rights Council, the United States, Canada, Australia, and some other nations refused to accept the text because it included a clause calling for the recognition of indigenous peoples' right to self-determination.

Indigenous leaders say unless the world body recognizes their peoples' right to self-determination, international efforts to reverse the loss of biodiversity and overcome the challenges of climate change will remain futile because their resources will continue to be exploited by private businesses.

Most of the world's natural resources are found within indigenous peoples' traditional territories, where multinational corporations are allowed by governments to engage in logging, mining, and other operations that contribute to environmental degradation and climate change.

In most cases, according to indigenous leaders, such operation take place without the prior and informed consent of the native communities who are most knowledgeable about their immediate environment and the animal and plant species that surround their lives.

A recent UN study points out that since appearing on Earth, human beings have never destroyed the web of life as much as during the past 50 years, substantiating the concerns raised by indigenous leaders here.

In fact, according to the 2007 UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report, which involved more than 1,300 scientists from 95 countries, before the industrial era, nearly 47 percent of the Earth's land surface was covered with forests; today the planet is left with only 10-percent forest coverage.

The report shows that every year at least 10 million hectares of the world's forest are lost to unsustainable modes of economic development.

These forests are home to about 80 percent of plant and animal species. Most are also home to a significant population of indigenous people, who have intimate knowledge about other forms of life around them.

"The link between biodiversity and traditional knowledge is evident," says Djoghlaf, in whose view the Earth is a "spiritual mother who not only gives life and therefore food, but also provides the cultural and spiritual identity of its occupants."

Believing that indigenous peoples' dependence on the sustainable management and use of biological sources "can protect and enhance" biodiversity, he adds: "Their cultures and cosmo-visions are therefore essential in the global effort to halt biodiversity loss and natural habitat destruction."

Haider Rizvi, OneWorld US May 18, 2007

~LISTEN~
~MAKE A DIFFERENCE~TAKE THE LEAP!

AWAKEN TO PEACE AND LOVE
TARA

~CHASER OF A DREAM ~


~CHASER OF A DREAM~

ONCE THERE WAS A DREAMER
SHE WANTED TO BE
ALL THERE WAS - WAS SHE
SHE SAW HERSELF AS MANY THINGS
SOMEONE SHE WAS NOT
SOMEONE SHE WOULD BE

I'LL FOLLOW YOU
TAKE ME DREAM
I'LL CLOSE MY EYES

I HEAR THE VOICES IN THE CALLING OF THE NIGHT
I AM NO WHERE YOU CANNOT SEE ME
FOLLOW ME - CHASER OF A DREAM

CHASER OF A DREAM
YOUR JOURNEY IS IN SIGHT
YOU HAVE MY EYES TO DO YOUR SEEKING

COME WITH ME GAZERS OF THE MOON
TO A PLACE YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN BEFORE
YOU'LL ALWAYS BE EVERYWHERE AFTER ME
YOU CAN'T RUN
YOU'RE MOVING TO SLOW

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN BEFORE I DISAPPEAR
KNOWING NOT OF OTHERS THAT MAY FOLLOW ME
YOU'LL ALWAYS BE A CHASER OF A DREAM

INSIDE YOUR EYES
THERE'S SOMEONE ELSE YOU WANT TO BE
ONCE YOU'RE THERE
IT'S NOT QUITE AS IT SEEMS
YOU WANT TO BE MORE
A CHASER OF A DREAM

FOR THE MAN THAT INSPIRED ME
THE MAN ON THE MOON.

AWAKEN TO PEACE AND LOVE

TARA

05 May, 2007

PURIFY YOURSELF WITH SACRED WATER~FREE YOURSELF AND GO WITH THE FLOW!


=== JKrishnamurti.org - Daily Quote ===

You actually have to die to everything you know—to your memories, to your miseries, to your pleasures. And, when there is no jealousy, no envy, no greed, no torture of despair, then you will know what love is and you will come upon that which may be called sacred; therefore, sacredness is the essence of religion. You know, a great river may become polluted as it flows past a town, but if the pollution isn’t too great, the river cleanses itself as it goes along and within a few miles it is again clean, fresh, pure. Similarly, when once the mind comes upon this sacredness, then every act is a cleansing act; through its very movement the mind is making itself innocent and, therefore, it is not accumulating.

A mind that has discovered this sacredness is in constant revolution—not economic or social revolution, but an inner revolution through which it is endlessly purifying itself. Its action is not based on some idea or formula. As the river, with a tremendous volume of water behind it, cleanses itself as it flows, so does the mind cleanse itself when once it has come upon this religious sacredness.

Collected Works, Vol. XV - 244


TARA

____________________________________________

27 April, 2007

~CAUGHT BETWEEN TWO WORLDS~


AN INDIAN FATHER PLEADS WITH HIS SON'S TEACHER TO RECOGNIZE THE BOY'S CULTURAL TRADITION AND PERSONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS.

Dear teacher,
I would like to introduce you to my son, Wind-Wolf. He is probably what you would consider a typical Indian kid. He was born and raised on the reservation. He has black hair, dark brown eyes, an an olive complexion. And like so many Indian children his age, he is shy and quiet in the classroom. He is 5 years old, in kindergarten, and I can't understand why you have already labeled him a "slow learner."
At the age of 5, he has already been through quite an education compared with his peers in Western society. As his first introduction into this world, he was bonded to his mother and to the Mother Earth in a traditional native childbirth ceremony. And he has been continuously cared for by his mother, father, sister, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and extended tribal family since this ceremony.
From his mother's warm and loving arms, Wind-Wolf was placed in a secure and specially designed Indian baby basket. His father and the medicine elders conducted another ceremony with him that served to bond him with the essence of his genetic father, the Great Spirit, the Grandfather Sun, and the Grandmother Moon. This was all done in order to introduce him properly into the new and natural world, not the world of artificiality, and to protect his sensitive and delicate soul. It is our people's way of showing the newborn respect, ensuring that he starts his life on the path of spirituality.
The traditional Indian baby basket became his "turtle's shell" and served as the first seat for his classroom.
He was strapped in for safety, protected from injury by the willow roots and hazel wood construction. The basket was made by a tribal elder who had gathered her materials with prayer and in a ceremonial way. It is the same kind of basket that our people have used for thousands of years. It is specially designed to provide the child with the kind of knowledge and experience he will need in order to survive in his culture and environment.
Wind-Wolf was strapped in snugly with a deliberate restriction upon his arms and legs. Although you in Western society may argue that such a method serves to hinder motor-skill developement and abstract reasoning, we believe it forces the child to first develop his intuitive faculties, rational intellect, symbolic thinking, and five senses. Wind-Wolf was with his mother constantly, closely bonded physically, as she carried him on her back or held him in front while breastfeeding. She carried him everywhere she went, and every night he slept with both parents. Because of this, Wind-Wolf's educational setting was not only a "secure" environment, but it was also very colorful, complicated, sensitive, and diverse. He has been with his mother at the ocean at daybreak when she made her prayers and gathered fresh seaweed from the rocks, he has sat with his uncles in a rowboat on the river while they fished with gill nets, and he has listened to elders as they told creation stories and animal legends and sang songs around the campfires.
He has attended the sacred and ancient White Deerskin Dance of his people and is well-acquainted with the cultures and languages of other tribes. He has been with his mother when she gathered herbs for healing and watched his tribal aunts and grandmothers gather and prepare tradtional foods such as acorn, smoked salmon, eel, and deer meat. He has played with abalone shells, pine nuts, iris grass string, and leather while watching the women make beaded jewelry and traditional native regalia. He has had many opportunities to watch his father, uncles,and ceremonial leaders use different kinds of colorful feathers and sing different kinds of songs while preparing for the sacred dances and rituals.
As he grew older, Wind-Wolf began to crawl out of the baby basket, develop his motor skills, and explore the world around him. When frightened or sleepy, he could always return to the basket, as a turtle withdraws into its shell. Such an inward journey allows one to reflect in privacy on what he has learned and to carry the new knowledge deeply into the unconscious and the soul. Shapes, sizes, colors, texture, sound, smell, feeling, taste, and the learning process are therefore functionallly integrated - the physical and spiritual, matter and energy, conscious and unconscious, individual and social.
This kind of learning goes beyond the basics of distinguishing the difference between rough and smooth, square and round, hard and soft, black and white, similarities and extremes.
For example, Wind-Wolf was with his mother in South Dakota while she danced for seven days straight in the hot sun, fasting, and piercing herself in the sacred Sun Dance Ceremony of a distant tribe. He has been doctored in a number of different healing ceremonies by medicine men and women from diverse places ranging from Alaska and Arizona to New York and California. He has been in more than 20 different sacred sweat-lodge rituals - used by native tribes to purify mind, body, and soul-since he was 3 years old, and he has already been exposed to many different religions of his racial brothers: Protestant, Catholic, Asian Buddhist, and Tibetan Lamaist.
It takes a long time to absorb and reflect on these kinds of experiences, so maybe that is why you think my Indian child is a slow learner. His aunts and grandmothers taught him to count and know his numbers while they sorted out the complex materials used to make the abstract designs in the native baskets. He listened to his mother count each and every bead and sort out numerically according to color while she painstakingly made complex beaded pelts and necklaces. He learned his basic numbers by helping his father count and sort the rocks for a medicine sweat, say, or 13 for the summer solstice ceremony. (The rocks are later heated and doused with water to create purifying steam.) And he was taught to learn mathematics by counting the sticks we use in our traditional native hand game. So I realize he may be slow in grasping the methods and tools that you are now using in your classroom, ones quite familiar to his white peers, but I hope you will be patient with him. It takes time to adjust to a new cultural system and learn new things.
He is not culturally "disadvantaged," but he is culturally "different." If you ask him how many months there are in a year, he will probably tell you 13. He will respond this way not because he doesn't know how to count properly, but because he has been taught by our traditional people that there are 13 full moons in a year according to the native tribal calendar and that there are really 13 planets in our solar system and 13 tail feathers on a perfectly balanced eagle, the most powerful kind of bird used in ceremony and healing.
But he also knows that some eagles may only have 12 tail feathers, or seven, that they do not all have the same number. He knows that the flicker has exactly 10 tail feathers; that they are red and black, representing the directions of east and west, life and death; and that this bird is considered a "fire" bird, a power used in native doctoring and healing.
He can probably count more than 40 different kinds of birds, tell you and his peers what kind of bird each is and where it lives, the seasons in which it appears, and how it is used in a sacred ceremony. He may have trouble writing his name on a piece of paper, but he knows how to say it and many other things in several different Indian languages. He is not fluent yet because he is only 5 years old and required by law to attend your educational system, learn your language, your values, your ways of thinking, and your methods of teaching and learning.
So you see, all of these influences together make him somewhat shy and quiet- and perhaps "slow" according to your standards. But if Wind-Wolf was not prepared for his first tentative foray into your world, neither were you appreciative of his culture. On the first day of class, you had difficulty with his name. You wanted to call him Wind, insisting that Wolf somehow must be his middle name. The students in the class laughed at him, causing further embarrassment.
While you are trying to teach him your new methods, helping him learn new tools for self-discovery and adapt to his new learning environment, he may be looking out the window as if daydreaming. Why? Because he has been taught to watch and study the changes in nature. It is hard for him to make the appropriate psychic switch from the right to the left hemisphere of the brain when he sees the leaves turning bright colors, the geese heading south, and the squirrels scurrying around for nuts to get ready for a harsh winter. In his heart,in his young mind, and almost by instinct, he knows that this is the time of year he is supposed to be with his people gathering and preparing fish, deer meat, and native plants and herbs, and learning his assigned tasks in this role. He is caught between two worlds, torn by two distinct cultural systems.
Yesterday, for the third time in two weeks, he came home crying and said he wanted to have his hair cut. He said he doesn't have any friends at school because they make fun of his long hair. I tried to explain to him that in our culture, long hair is a sign of masculinity and balance and is a source of power. But he remained adamant in his position.
To make matters worse, he recently encountered his first harsh case of racism. Wind-Wolf had managed to adopt at least one good school friend. On the way home from school one day, he asked his new pal if he wanted to come home to play with him until supper. That was OK with Wind-Wolf's mother, who was walking with them. When they all got to the little friend's house, the two boys ran inside to ask permission while Wind-Wolf's mother waited. But the other boy's mother lashed out: "It is OK if you have to play with him at school, but we don't allow those kind of people in our house!" When my wife asked why not, the other boy's mother answered, "Because you are Indians, and we are white, and I don't want my kids growing up with your kind of people."
So now my young Indian child does not want to go to school anymore (even though we cut his hair). He feels that he does not belong. He is the only Indian child in your class, and he is well aware of this fact. Instead of being proud of his race, heritage, and culture, he feels ashamed. When he watches television, he asks why the white people hate us so much and always kill our people in the movies and why they take everything away from us. He asks why the other kids in school are not taught about the power, beauty, and essence of nature or provided with an opportunity to experience the world around them firsthand. He says he hates living in the city and that he misses his Indian cousins and friends. He asks why one young white girl at school who is his friend always tells him "I like you, Wind-Wolf, because you are a good Indian."
Now he refuses to sing his native songs, play with his Indian artifacts, learn his language, or participate in his sacred ceremonies. When I ask him to go to a powwow or help me with a sacred sweat-lodge ritual, he says no because "that's weird," and he doesn't want his friends at school to think he doesn't believe in God.
So, dear teacher, I want to introduce you to my son, Wind-Wolf, who is not really a "typical" little Indian kid after all. He stems from a long line of hereditary chiefs, medicine men and women, and ceremonial leaders whose accomplishments and unique forms of knowledge are still being studied and recorded in contemporary books. He has seven different tribal systems flowing through his blood; he is even part white. I want my child to succeed in school and in life. I don't want him to be a dropout or juvenile delinquent or to end up on drugs and alcohol because he is made to feel inferior or because of discrimination. I want him to be proud of his rich heritage and culture, and I would like him to develop the necessary capabilities to adapt to, and succeed in, both cultures. But I need your help.
What you say and what you do in the classroom, what you teach and how you teach it, and what you don't say and don't teach will have a significant effect on the potential success or failure of my child. Please remember that this is the primary year of his education and development. All I ask is that you work with me, not against me, to help educate my child in the best way. If you don't have the knowledge, preparation, experience, or training to effectively deal with culturally different children, I am willing to help you with the few resources I have, or direct you to such resources.
Millions of dollars have been appopriated by Congress and are being spent each year for "Indian Education." All you have to do is take advantage of it and encourage your school to make an effort to use it in the name of "equal education." My Indian child has a constitutional right to learn, retain and maintain his heritage and culture. By the same token, I strongly believe that non-Indian children also have a constitutional right to learn about our Native American heritage and culture because Indians play a significant part in the history of Western society. Until this reality is equally understood and applied in education as a whole, there will be a lot more schoolchildren in grades K-2 identifed as "slow learners."
My son is not an empty glass coming into your class to be filled. He is a full basket coming into a different environment and society with something special to share. Please let him share his knowledge, heritage, and culture with you and his peers.

Robert Lake (Medicine Grizzlybear) A member of the Seneca and Cherokee Indian Tribes.
From Teacher Magazine, September 1990
He was an associate professor at Gonzaga University's School of Education in Spokane, Washington; when this was written.


A special thank you goes out to my teacher and mentor Dr. Henrietta Mann (Full Blooded Southern Cheyenne)for a copy of this essay. Peace to you always.

AWAKEN TO PEACE AND LOVE
TARA