Somebody Poke Me, I Must Be Dreaming
Somebody poke me: the government of Syria has made the move to block Facebook inside their borders.
According to sources speaking with Reuters, the official statement from officials is that they fear “Facebook could become a conduit for Israeli penetration of our youth”. Critics of the government say that it is really to cut off access to the outside world.
“Facebook helped further civil society in Syria and form civic groups outside government control. This is why it has been banned,” women’s rights advocate Dania al-Sharif told Reuters.
One Syrian confirmed on Digg.com that the block is in fact true, and that when he tries to log onto Facebook he gets the following message:
ERROR
The requested URL could not be retrieved
Requested URL:http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?
Error message: Access Denied
Administrator: webmaster@190.sy
The “official” statement blames it on Israel, but as another Digger bluntly commented:
“Oh yeah, you wouldn’t want Israeli kids and Syrian kids to interact. I mean can you imagine? They might grow up to throw all the old racist, bigoted, war loving politicians out in both counties and actually get along in the future…Can’t f*ckin’ have that man. Gotta keep teaching them to hate each other otherwise who will they blame for all their left inflicted religious, social and economic problems?”
or as another digger puts it:
“It is sooooo typical of Syria to blame everything on Israel when in reality they just want to keep their community as ignorant as possible so they can control it better. just sad.”
or my personal favorite:
“Israel should just send a ‘friend request’ to Syria.”
So Syria can try as hard as they want - and they are definitely trying, including blocking off Hotmail and other websites - but the truth of the matter is that any person who truly wants to speak out and get heard, will always find a way to speak out and get heard.
That’s why it seems to me that dictorial regimes cannot last for long, once the people they seek to control and govern understand that they are the “oneness” that holds such governments together.
Or as Neale Donald Walsch puts it, in his book, Tomorrow’s God: Our Greatest Spiritual Challenge:
This is exactly what has already happened in the former Soviet Union. The people there understood that their solidarity was where the power was, not with the government, and so an oppressive government was ultimately dismantled, because it could not survive. It was glasnost and perestroika that opened the door for this.
The same thing is what brought down the Berlin Wall, ended the regime of Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia, and truncated the reign of countless dictatorial, oppressive governments and leaders.
Dictatorships will never be possible when the mass of the people are educated in, and embrace the basic principles of [freedom] and people will accept nothing less when they realize that freedom is the natural state of all things.
So call me a dreamer, or call me crazy, but I can only hope and pray that the people of these countries will continue to find ways to educate themselves and others, and that the light of freedom will one day shine upon their people.
The Only Message You Ever Need to Send to Anyone
Last night I feel asleep with the following words echoing in my mind, taken from Tomorrow’s God: Our Greatest Spiritual Challenge
You are all messengers, and you have only one message.
“I see you.”
That is the only message you will ever need.
“I see you. I see the real you. I know the real you. I love you. I love the real you.
“you cannot fool me. I know you and I know who you are. You can act in any way that you wish, but I will not change my mind about you. I know who you really are.
“I see you, and I will always see. You cannot disappear, you cannot hide, you cannot change or lose your identity. You cannot be something you are not. You can act as if you are something you are not, but you cannot be something you are not.
“I will always see what you are doing. I do not care what you are doing, because what you are doing is not who you are. I will always see you at the level of being.
“I see you. I see who you are. Nothing that you do can blind me to that.”
That is the only message you ever need to send to anyone. It will heal everything.
The Books That Crossed My Path in India
One of the things that played an important role on my recent trip to India (besides the amazing people I met there - but that’s a whole other post…) were the amazing books that seemed to ‘cross my path’ at just the right moment.
Whether running across them at local bookshops or recieving them for free from random travelers I met along the way… all 6 books seemed to have come into my life just as I needed to hear them most. The sychronicity of how it unfolded was incredible…
I found myself reading 4 or 5 books at a time (most of them I am still reading back home..) quickly jumping from one book to another in sort of a spiral form. It’s almost as if I came across enough information in one book to quickly prepare me for the next chapter in the next book, and then so on and so forth with the rest of them… By the time I went back to continue the first one, I was reading it from a whole new state of awareness, making it that much more clear to me as I read…
I couldn’t have planned it better if I tried.
So anyway, I strongly recommend any of the following books from my own personal experience. However, only you can know if and when the time is right for you. (Click the images to learn more about each one…)
: While buying this book at a Rishikesh bookshop, the owner told me how Eckhart Tolle had visited his shop a few years back and what an amazingly humble man he was. “There was just something about him that is hard to explain,” he said.
: I stumbled upon this book at a local coffeeshop just as my mind was about to explode from all this new information. Instantly I understood that mentally analyzing everything to death (till death) was just not gonna cut it anymore… 
: One of the most open and honest strangers I met on this trip suddenly offered me a copy of this book just when I needed to hear it most. 
: A beautiful soul we met on the trip recommended this book to us, saying that she always keeps it with her inside her bag. This beautifully written novel seemed to combine all the insights that I have been stumbling upon lately into one intriguing story…
: On my last day in India, one of my neighbors dropped by my room to ask me if I wanted this book. Approximately 5 years after finishing Celestine Prophecy, I guess I was finally ready…
: This book literally jumped out at me at another small bookshop in the area, just as I was questioning what my role was in the whole transformation taking place in the world. Strangely, one of the first words I noticed in the book read:Do you think this is happening by chance?
This is not. There is no such thing as “chance. The universe does nothing by accident. This book has come to you to tell you that you can change the course of human history.
You.
Not only the people who run governments or own corporations or lead movements or write books or are influential for some other reason. Not only those people.
You.
You can change the course of human history.
This is not an exaggeration. Please believe me. This is not an exaggeration.
Who Cares?!
A story of a spiritual Zen Master and his disciple:
Every month the disciple faithfully sent his Master an account of his spiritual progress.
In the first month he wrote, “I feel an expansion of consciousness and experience my oneness with the universe.” The Master glanced at the note and threw it away.
The following month, this is what he had to say: “I have finally discovered that the Divine is present in all things.” The Master seemed disappointed.
The third month the disciple’s words enthusiastically exclaimed, “The mystery of the One and the Many has been revealed to my wondering gaze.” The Master shook his head and again threw the letter away.
The next letter said: “No one is born, no one lives, and no one dies, for the ego-self is not.” The Master threw his hands up in utter despair.
After that a month passed by, then two, then five months — and finally a whole year without another letter. The Master thought it was time to remind his disciple of his duty to keep him informed of his spiritual progress.
Then the disciple wrote back: “Who cares?”
When the Master read those words, a look of great satisfaction spread over his face.
– Quoted from “Who Cares?! The Unique Teaching of Ramesh S. Balsekar
All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
Thanks to Lena for pointing out the following excerpt from Robert Fulghum’s book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten:
“All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.
These are the things I learned:
- Share everything.
- Play fair.
- Don’t hit people.
- Put things back where you found them.
- Clean up your own mess.
- Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
- Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
- Wash your hands before you eat.
- Flush.
- Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
- Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
- Take a nap every afternoon.
- When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
- Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
- Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
- And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.
Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.
And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.”
Paris Hilton: A New Spiritual Leader is Born
Barbara Walters reported on a telephone call she had with Paris Hilton a few days ago. Paris told Barbara that she’s had some sort of spiritual awakening and when she gets out she wants to devote herself to different charities and use her so-called ‘power’ of fame for better causes.
Paris said, “I used to act dumb. It was an act. And that act is no longer cute. I do not want to be that person for the young girls that looked up to me. I am 26 and it’s a different time. God has given me this new chance.”
She said her spiritual advisor told her, “My spirit or soul did not like the way I was being seen and that’s why I was sent to jail. God has released me.”
She also said that she has been reading The Power of Now… as have I.
***
Ok, so before you’re too quick to judge:
- It is not uncommon for strong, powerful, successful people to realize that there is more to life than material abundance.
- Celebrities tend to realize this even faster because they have already been exposed to the ultimate fantasy most people have been trying to get to (not just the money and “perfect life”, but also the admiration or recognition that all humans tend to long for) and yet that still doesn’t ‘make them happy’. And so they quickly start searching for answers.
- It is very common for all people to undergo some sort of spiritual revelation when they encounter an event in their lives that really shakes them up. For most people that can be losing their job or getting in an accident, while for people used to getting everything they want in life that could be going to jail (even for a short period).
- I think there comes a time in life when everyone has this spiritual revelation. Hopefully, this happens to you before death. There’s not much point in reincarnation if you STILL don’t know who you are.
- Paris, of course, would not be the only one realizing this. People seem to be waking up wherever you go. These past years and the ones following are leading into the next stages of evolution: trancending the mind.
- If a woman like Paris “awakens”, someone who has such a huge influence on our younger generation (whether you like that or not) and the money or “power” to make a difference, then she can help reach that many more people, taking us one leap closer to the critical mass necessary for the next stages of human consciousness. Now THAT’s Hot.
This is a video of what Barbara Walters had to say about their phone conversation (try to ignore the annoying interruptions of those who haven’t quite “gotten it” yet:
Im interested to see how this will unfold when she gets out…
Be Here Now
I am currently working on learning to finally ’step out’ of my thoughts and realize the underlining of simple ‘being’.
The best person to learn more about this from would be Eckhart Tolle (he has some really interesting lectures
Transcending your thoughts really is the next (and maybe final?) stage of evolution. And the more you learn to transcend your thoughts, the more you are in the moment of just ‘being’. The more often you are completely in the moment of just ‘being’, the more you start understanding what that even means.
In other words, we can either take what I just said and start analyzing it to death (till death) or we can move into the next stages of human consiousness.
It’s up to you.
“Be Here Now” Lyrics
Artist: George Harrison
Remember, Now, Be Here Now
As it’s not like it was before.
The past, was, Be Here Now
As it’s not like it was before - it was
Why try to live a life,
that isn’t real,
no how
A mind, that wants to wander,
’round a corner,
is an un-wise mind
Now, Is, Be Here Now
and it’s not what it was before,
Remember, Now, Be Here Now
as it’s not like it was before - it was
The Secret Life of Plants - A Hidden Stevie Wonder Treasure
I recently cam across a beautiful song written and performed by the legend Stevie Wonder called “The Secret Life of Plants.” It is taken from the soundrack to the 1979 movie “Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants
As Wikipedia describes:
Published in 1973, The Secret Life of Plants
was written by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird. It is described as “A fascinating account of the physical, emotional, and spiritual relations between plants and man.”
Essentially, the subject of the book is the idea that plants may be sentient, despite their lack of a nervous system. This sentience is observed primarily through changes in the plant’s conductivity, as through a polygraph, as pioneered by Cleve Backster. The book also contains a summary of Goethe’s theory of plant metamorphosis.
With that being said, this book is about much more than just plants, and delves quite deeply into such topics as the aura, psychophysics, orgone, radionics, kirlian photography, magnetism / magnetotropism, bioelectrics, dowsing, and the history of science.
It was the basis for the 1979 documentary of the same name featuring the Stevie Wonder soundtrack Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants
Though I have yet to get my hands on the movie, I did come across what is supposedly the end of the movie where Stevie Wonder performs this song. Though the quality of the clip is pretty low, the music, as all of his songs, is simply beautiful.
The Secret Life of Plants - Lyrics:
I can’t conceive the nucleus of all
Begins inside a tiny seed
And what we think as insignificant
Provides the purest air we breathe
But who am I to doubt or question the inevitable being
For these are but a few discoveries
We find inside the Secret Life of Plants
A species smaller than the eye can see
Or larger than most living things
And yet we take from it without consent
Our shelter, food, habilment
But who am I to doubt or question the inevitable being
For these are but a few discoveries
We find inside the Secret Life of Plants
But far too many give them in return
A stomp, cut, drown, or burn
As is they’re nothing
But if you ask yourself where would you be
Without them you will find you would not
And some believe antennas are their leaves
That spans beyond our galaxy
They’ve been, they are and probably will be
Who are the mediocrity
But who am I to doubt or question the inevitable being
For these are but a few discoveries
We find inside the Secret Life of Plants
For these are but a few discoveries
We find inside the Secret Life of Plants
The Ones That Leave a Mark
I was up the other night, thinking about my life, my writing and what was holding me back.. when all of a sudden I stumbled across an old book report I had written back in high school on the Catcher in the Rye, graded by the most influencial teacher I ever had in my life: Mr. George Blouin.
While looking over the paper, I instantly remembered our English class reading through The Catcher in the Rye
Mr. Blouin spoke about the story with passion, challenging us lost kids to face our own phoniness and sarchasm through the eyes of the controversial protagonist, Holden. He would write on the board so fast and with so much intensity, that usually I could barely make out most of his handwriting.
But it didn’t matter - he was getting the message across.
And when the smart-asses in the class didn’t quite ‘get’ it, Mr. Blouin would climb on top of his desk to avoid all the “bullshit that was filling up the room”.
That was Mr. Blouin for you. He was just one of those teachers that was so respected, by so many students, over so many years, that he could pretty much get away with anything and no one would ever say a word. It was an unspoken law.
He was a man that told us the truth and pushed us to think for ourselves. He was the kind of teacher that would literally get furious with you if he felt you were not living up to your potential. He was a man that truly cared about his students’ lives, and it didnt matter to him that he’d given those same exact speeches and introductions to generations of kids before us. He did it again and with the same passion.
So you can imagine why his comments and advice always meant the world to me.
And that night, in the midst of my writer’s block, Mr. Blouin had returned, through this lost and forgotten book report, to offer his words of wisdom once again.
I understand that I came across his words for a reason. I understand that it was meant to be.
What I still don’t understand, ironically enough, is his handwriting:
Any suggestions?
