Category: Philosophy

Is U.S Constitution and Supreme Court Outdated for Constructive Change ? – an Exploration of Public Trust and Social Contract

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Eugene Luther Gore Vidal, one of our greatest intellectual treasures, was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the social and cultural sexual norms he perceived as driving American life. Beyond literature, Vidal was heavily involved in politics. He is boasted John F. Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, amonst others his best friends. He had always said USA is a country founded by rich white wealthy men, FOR rich white wealthy men, the country they wanted was a nirvana for the small percentage of the wealthy, it was never built for majority of the poor. The United States of Amnesia-Gore Vidal (2013) [Documentary] What an amazing, brilliant man who lived life fully; and saw the whole picture.

Written by 55 of the richest white men of early America, and signed by only 39 of them, the constitution is the sacred text of American nationalism. Many Americans have opinions on the constitution but have no idea what’s in it. The book We the Elites: Why the US Constitution Serves the Few – a class analysis of the US Constitution, (Pluto Press, 2022) is an adroit collection of essays exposing the constitution for what it really is – a rulebook to protect capitalism for the elites. Author Robert Ovetz’s reading of the constitution shows that the system isn’t broken. Far from it. It works as it was designed. The misplaced faith of social movements in the constitution as a framework for achieving justice actually obstructs social change – incessant lengthy election cycles, staggered terms, and legislative sessions have kept social movements trapped in a redundant loop. This stymies progress on issues like labor rights, public health, and climate change, projecting the American people and the rest of the world towards destruction.

In this Democracy At Work program – Economic Update: Why The US Constitution Is An Obstacle To Change, Prof. Wolff presents updates on the US banking crisis, plant closing injustice, growing child labor in the US, Biden’s budget’s tax “proposals,” and a new book that shows US homelessness is an economic problem. In the second half of the show, Wolff interviews Prof. Robert Ovetz on how and why the US Constitution blocks social change.

One of the premises within the US political parties is that private capital is to be left to those who are entrepreneurs, and not to go after the profit making. If businesses start being created under a democratic process brought on by the labor that produces the goods and services that creates those profits, the only response to stop would be outright fascism (we already operate under that in way already). Power that be always talk about free enterprise, until that freedom goes from the few to the masses.

The Homelessness is a Housing Problem discussion a very pressing issue offering a case in point about the homeless is an economic issue. Gregg Colburn, an assistant professor of real estate in the University of Washington’s College of Built Environments. Ph.D. in Public Affairs, … and Clayton Page Aldern, a writer and data scientist. They team up to seek to explain the substantial regional variation in rates of homelessness in cities across the United States. In a departure from many analytical approaches, Colburn and Aldern shift their focus from the individual experiencing homelessness to the metropolitan area. Using accessible statistical analysis, they test a range of conventional beliefs about what drives the prevalence of homelessness in a given city—including mental illness, drug use, poverty, weather, generosity of public assistance, and low-income mobility—and find that none explain the regional variation observed across the country. Instead, housing market conditions, such as the cost and availability of rental housing, offer a far more convincing account. With rigor and clarity, Homelessness Is a Housing Problem explores U.S. cities’ diverse experiences with housing precarity and offers policy solutions for unique regional contexts.

In the book Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s urgent mission to bring healing to homeless people Hardcover – January 17, 2023, the non-fiction, award winning author, Tracy Kidder has given new insight into a difficult and disturbing feature of contemporary America: an ever increasing homeless population.  Kidder shadowed Dr. James O’Connell as he treated the homeless of Boston in clinics and from a mobile unit on the streets at night. The powerful story of an inspiring doctor who made a difference, by helping to create a program to care for Boston’s homeless community. Tracy Kidder spent five years following Dr. O’Connell and his colleagues as they served their thousands of homeless patients. It all started when Jim O’Connell graduated from Harvard Medical School and was nearing the end of his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, the chief of medicine made a proposal: Would he defer a prestigious fellowship and spend a year helping to create an organization to bring health care to homeless citizens? Jim took the job because he felt he couldn’t refuse. But that year turned into his life’s calling.

Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor Paperback – Illustrated, August 6, 2019 is written by Virginia Eubanks is an American political scientist, professor, and author studying technology and social justice.  Eubanks launched a powerful investigative look at data-based discrimination and how technology affects civil and human rights and economic equity. The State of Indiana denies one million applications for healthcare, foodstamps and cash benefits in three years―because a new computer system interprets any mistake as “failure to cooperate.” In Los Angeles, an algorithm calculates the comparative vulnerability of tens of thousands of homeless people in order to prioritize them for an inadequate pool of housing resources. In Pittsburgh, a child welfare agency uses a statistical model to try to predict which children might be future victims of abuse or neglect.

Author aruges that since the dawn of the digital age, decision-making in finance, employment, politics, health and human services has undergone revolutionary change. Today, automated systems―rather than humans―control which neighborhoods get policed, which families attain needed resources, and who is investigated for fraud. While we all live under this new regime of data, the most invasive and punitive systems are aimed at the poor. The U.S. has always used its most cutting-edge science and technology to contain, investigate, discipline and punish the destitute. Like the county poorhouse and scientific charity before them, digital tracking and automated decision-making hide poverty from the middle-class public and give the nation the ethical distance it needs to make inhumane choices: which families get food and which starve, who has housing and who remains homeless, and which families are broken up by the state. In the process, they weaken democracy and betray our most cherished national values.

Eubanks offers historical context about the role of the poorhouse in earlier American societies to explain how, through technology, we’ve built a digital poorhouse that is just as abusive and stigmatizing. This is a critical read for anyone who is trying to understand poverty in America and why well-intended technology is only going to be used to exacerbate existing social inequities. “Automating Inequality” is ethnography at its best, on par with Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed” or Matt Desmond’s “Evicted.” This book details how algorithmic technologies are upending basic government programs supporting the unhoused in accessing shelter, providing access to welfare, and managing child services programs. 

With so many school shooting, another topic at the center of debates is Gun control. As a Buddhist, I am strongly against the use of weapon for the danger of violating the precepts of not killing – one of the very important precepts in the Buddha’s teaching. But after these several years of research into American social political and economic system, I can understand why there are also strong arguments about keeping the gun for self protection. Just like Marijuana, Fentanyl and many other additictive drugs, the government did not spend any resources to prevent the usage in the first place – another case of resources misallocation.

One of these arguments came from John R. Lott, Jr., an American economist, political commentator, and gun rights advocate, on his battle with disinformation over gun control! In this book, Gun Control Myths: How politicians, the media, and botched “studies” have twisted the facts on gun control Paperback – July 3, 2020 John brings together an impressive array of data and statistical analysis to argue that much of what we hear in the mainstream media — and from politicians — about gun violence and gun control is incorrect and biased. He has a point – well, several actually. This book should be read by anyone concerned about gun violence and, most importantly, by anyone who writes about gun violence. The book might not change many opinions, as positions in the gun violence and control argument are set pretty hard…but perhaps even those with the firmest-held beliefs will be forced to reflect and think carefully about some of John’s data, analysis and conclusions. They should, if they are truly interested in the truth.

Another book The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America Hardcover – June 1, 2021 Carol Anderson powerfully illuminates the history and impact of the Second Amendment, how it was designed, and how it has consistently been constructed to keep African Americans powerless and vulnerable. The Second is neither a “pro-gun” nor an “anti-gun” book; the lens is the citizenship rights and human rights of African Americans.

The recent instance of a young African teen were shot when knocking someone’s door is an reflection of the deep anxiety of America. Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown v. Board of Education Paperback – November 1, 2006 The author Danielle Allen, a professor of public policy, politics, and ethics at Harvard University, brought focus back to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954 and to the famous photograph of Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine, being cursed by fellow “citizen” Hazel Bryan, Allen argues that we have yet to complete the transition to political friendship that this moment offered. By combining brief readings of philosophers and political theorists with personal reflections on race politics in Chicago, Allen proposes strikingly practical techniques of citizenship. These tools of political friendship, Allen contends, can help us become more trustworthy to others and overcome the fossilized distrust among us. Sacrifice is the key concept that bridges citizenship and trust, according to Allen. She uncovers the ordinary, daily sacrifices citizens make to keep democracy working—and offers methods for recognizing and reciprocating those sacrifices. Trenchant, incisive, and ultimately hopeful, Talking to Strangers is nothing less than a manifesto for a revitalized democratic citizenry.

Why Trust Matters: Declining Political Trust and the Demise of American Liberalism Hardcover Using both individual and aggregate level survey data, Marc Hetherington, an American political scientist, shows that the rapid decline in Americans’ political trust since the 1960s is critical to explaining this puzzle. As people lost faith in the federal government, the delivery system for most progressive policies, they supported progressive ideas much less. The 9/11 attacks increased such trust as public attention focused on security, but the effect was temporary. Specifically, Hetherington shows that, as political trust declined, so too did support for redistributive programs, such as welfare and food stamps, and race-targeted programs. While the presence of race in a policy area tends to make political trust important for whites, trust affects policy preferences in other, non-race-related policy areas as well. In the mid-1990s the public was easily swayed against comprehensive health care reform because those who felt they could afford coverage worried that a large new federal bureaucracy would make things worse for them. In demonstrating a strong link between public opinion and policy outcomes, this engagingly written book represents a substantial contribution to the study of public opinion and voting behavior, policy, and American politics generally.

Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism Hardcover – November 24, 2020. takes on the media’s misreporting on Black Lives Matter, coronavirus, Joe Biden, Silicon Valley censorship, and more. For the past four years, five-time Emmy Award–winning investigative journalist and New York Times bestselling author Sharyl Attkisson has been collecting and dissecting alarming incidents tracing the shocking devolution of what used to be the most respected news organizations on the planet. For the first time, top news executives and reporters representing every major national television news outlet—from ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN to FOX and MSNBC—speak frankly, confiding in Attkisson about the death of the news as they once knew it. Their concern transcends partisan divides. We have reached a state of utter absurdity, where journalism schools teach students that their own, personal truth or chosen narratives matter more than reality. In Slanted, Attkisson digs into the language of propagandists, the persistence of false media narratives, the driving forces behind today’s dangerous blend of facts and opinion, the abandonment of journalism ethics, and the new, Orwellian definition of what it means to report the news. 

With loving kindness taught by the Buddha, with divine principle as our guideline, with a sincre notion that we are all equal at the soul level, everyone of us all can strive to make this World Be A Better Place ! Because in uplifting others, we uplifting our own spirit.

Teachers of Buddhism in the West Share Their Wisdom to Liberation – Becoming the Ally of All Beings

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Buddha once said, “Develop a mind so filled with love that it resembles space, which cannot be painted, cannot be marred, cannot be ruined.” When we relax the divisions that we usually make, the mind becomes like space. This is not something that a fortunate few have the capacity to experience; it is the nature of the mind, which every one of us has the ability to know. In talking about practice, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, a Tibetan teacher, said we practice in order to learn to trust ourselves more, to get confidence in what we know, to have faith rather than doubt. Loving kindness and compassion are innate capacities that we all have. This capacity to care, to be at one with, to connect, is something that isn’t destroyed, no matter what we may go through. No matter what our life experience may have been, no matter how many scars we bear, that ability remains intact. And so we practice meditation in order to return to that spaciousness and to learn to trust our ability to love.

As the Buddha said, “All beings everywhere want to be happy.” It is only due to ignorance that we do the things that create suffering or sorrow for ourselves and for others. If we take the time to slow down and see all the different forces coming together in any action, we will see this desire for happiness even in the midst of some terrible harmful action. That is why we use our mindfulness practice to notice our feelings and to understand them. Through that we can see very clearly that if we are immersed in tremendous anger, it is great suffering, it is a state of burning, of contraction and isolation, of separation and fear. We don’t have to reject the anger or reject or condemn ourselves for it, but rather we can feel compassion for the pain of it. This quality of empathy is also the basis of modern psychological thought on the development of morality. We learn not to hurt others because we understand how it feels to be hurt.

Howard Washington Thurman (November 18, 1899 – April 10, 1981) was an American author, philosopher, theologian, mystic, educator, and civil right leader. As a prominent religious figure, he played a leading role in many social justice movements and organizations of the twentieth century. Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American writer and professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the human experience.

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One of the social psychology is the desire to fit in, one of the most powerful, least understood forces in society.  Author Todd Rose dwell into examples psychological distortions from toilet paper shortages to kidneys that get thrown away rather than used for transplants; from racial segregation to the perceived “electability” of women in politics; from bottled water to “cancel culture,” , we routinely copy others, lie about what we believe, cling to tribes, and silence people, author bring to light some new perspective about the root cause of collective wounds in Collective Illusions: Conformity, Complicity, and the Science of Why We Make Bad Decisions Hardcover – February 1, 2022 . Draw on cutting-edge neuroscience and social psychology research, this acclaimed author demonstrates how so much of our thinking is informed by false assumptions—making us dangerously mistrustful as a society and needlessly unhappy as individuals. 

Path of Parenting, Path of Education, Path of Awakening

Our country’s postindustrial culture has left us to raise our children apart from a community of neighbors and elders. There aren’t many grandparents around – they all live someplace else or they’re off, like most fathers and many mothers, at the office or the factory. There aren’t many uncles or aunts around to take care of the kids when parents become overwhelmed, or to initiate the teenagers (so that they don’t have to seek initiation on the streets), to help them discover what it is to be a man or a woman and a productive member of the community. there isn’t a community of elders from whom we can hear stories and learn practices that will keep us connected with our human heritage, with our instincts and our hearts.

Instead of village elders, American parents have turned to various “experts” and whatever fad or theory they have come up with. In the 1920s an influential school of child psychology actually taught parents that it was bad to touch their children. Several decades later, parents all across America read books that insisted we bottle-feed (not breast-feed) an infant every four hours and that we should not pick up a crying baby but just let it “cry itself out.”

Every wise culture in the world knows that when babies cry, they cry for a reason, and that you pick them up and feed them, or hold them and comfort them. You have to really fight against yourself not to pick up a sobbing infant. Among the less technologically developed cultures of Asia or Africa or Latin America, children are always being held, always in someone’s lap. Children are valued, are included in all family activities – in work, in ceremonies, in celebrations, there is always a place for them.

When children are valued in this way, the whole society benefits. In this spirit, there is a tribe in Africa that counts the birthday of a child from the day the child is a thought in its mother’s mind…. What a beautiful way for human beings to listen to and to comfort other human beings. This is the spirit of conscious parenting, to listen to the song of the child in front of you and to sing that child’s song to him or her. When a child is crying, we need to ask why this child is singing the crying song, what pain or frustration this child is feeling.

Yet the western culture seems to be telling people ignore their instincts, to distrust our intuition. The result is that many children growing up in our society are not bonded to an adult. One of the more painful statements about what we are collectively doing to our children came one year form a teacher named John Gatto who was voted New York City Teacher of the year. At the awards ceremony 1990 January 31, in front of the mayor and the school board and thousands of parents, he castigated his listeners for the “soul murder” of a million black and Latino children- Why School Don’t Education. He challenged the audience to consider the effects of American culture on our children: “Think of the things that are killing us as a nation: drugs and alcohol, brainless competition, recreational sex, the pornography of violence, gambling – and the worst pornography of all: lives devoted to buying things, accumulation as a philosophy, all addictions of dependent personalities, and that is what our brand of schooling will inevitably produce in the next generation.”

John Taylor Gatto (1935-2018): Remembering America’s Most Courageous Teacher. In a collection of essays and articles A Different Kind of Teacher: Solving the Crisis of American Schooling Paperback – January 1, 2002 John Gatto exposes a system designed to promote economic and business interests and advocates a greater emphasis on teaching critical thinking skills. Gatto leaves behind a legacy that inspired thousands of people to challenge the premise on which our education system was built. Gatto’s writing, teaching, and approach to not just education but human flourishing in general inspired us to think critically about our own life and education. He’s one of the most important thinkers in American history—that’s becoming more obvious every day. He’ll be missed dearly.

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Paperback – July 17, 2018 Since its first publication in 1995, Lies My Teacher Told Me has become one of the most important―and successful―history books of our time. Having sold nearly two million copies, the book also won an American Book Award and the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship and was heralded on the front page of the New York Times. Every teacher, every student of history, every citizen should read this book. It is both a refreshing antidote to what has passed for history in our educational system and a one-volume education in itself.

The author of Teaching with the HEART in Mind: A Complete Educator’s Guide to Social Emotional Learning , Dr. Lorea Martínez Pérez is the award-winning Founder of HEART in Mind Consulting, a company dedicated to helping schools and organizations integrate social emotional learning in their practices, products, and learning communities. An educator who has worked with children and adults internationally, Dr. Martínez is a faculty member at Columbia University Teachers College, educating aspiring principals in Emotional Intelligence. Previously, she was a special education teacher and administrator. Learn more at loreamartinez.com Dr. Perez argues that creating better outcomes for your students sometimes means you have to challenge the odds. Academics and standardized assessments aren’t the solution. You need to educate both their hearts and minds. Strengthen your students’ resilience, spark their curiosity for learning, and encourage future success in college, career, and life. Be the best teacher you can be and infuse social-emotional skills into your teaching of any subject.

The average American child watches eighteen thousand murders and violent acts and half a million advertisements. Violence and materialism. We are feeding the next generation of children the very suffering we’re trying to undo in our spiritual practice. with the highest rate of infant mortality of any industrialized nation and millions of “latch key kids,” we have given up caring for our children. An increasing number are raised by day care and TV and smart phones. We end up with a new generation of Americans more connected to TV or video games (often violent ones) than to other people. We will have more Gulf-style wars and violent crimes than successful marriages. Because these children were not held enough when they were young, were not valued enough and respect enough, were not listened to or sung to, they grow up with a hole inside, with no real sense of what it means to love, with no rel capacity for intimacy.

When the Dalai Lama spoke with a group of Western psychologists, he couldn’t understand why there was so much talk about self-hatred and unworthiness. he didn’t understand, because in Tibetan culture children are loved and held. he was so astonished that he went around the room and asked everyone, “Do you feel unworthiness and self-hatred sometimes?’ “Yes.” “Do you feel it?” “Yes.” Everyone in the room nodded yes. He couldn’t believe that this was a culture where people primarily talk about their difficulty with their parents instead of honoring them. Contrast this with the healthy childhoods of the Buddha’s time. The Buddha himself was raised by his mother’s sister (after his mother died) and given all the nurturance, natural respect, care, and attention that every child needs. later, when he left home to practice as a yogi, he had the inner strength and integrity to undertake six years of intensely ascetic practice. The Buddha had this vision of well-being from his childhood to draw upon in his practice.

Parenting is a labor of love. it is a path of service and surrender, and link the practice of a Buddha or a bodhisattva, it demands patience and understanding and tremendous sacrifice. it is also a way to reconnect with the mystery of life and to reconnect with ourselves. Along withe practice of mindfulness there are four other principles of conscious parenting; attentive listening, respect, integrity, and lovingkindness.

The principle of attentive listening means listening to the Tao of the seasons, to our human intuition and our instincts, to our children. do we hear what our children are trying to tell us? it’s like listening to the Tao. How long should we nurse our babies? how late should we allow our teenagers to stay out on dates? To answer those questions, we have to listen and pay attention to the rhythms of life. Just as we learn to be aware of breathing in and breathing out, we can learn to sense how deeply children want to grow.

A measure of respect comes in the setting of boundaries and limits appropriate to our child. As parents, we can set limits in a respectful way, with a compassionate “no” and an explanation of why something is out of bounds. Children learn by example, by who we are and what we do. They watch us what we communicate y the way we drive, the way we talk about others, and how we treat people on the street.v We teach them by our being.

Just as we learn in meditation to let go and trust, we can learn to develop a trust in our children so they can trust themselves. And we shall respect our children’s need for both dependency and independence. Most often instead of listening to them, we impatiently hurry them along. Dependency, insecurity and weakness are natural states for a child. They’re the natural states of all of us at times, but for children, especially young ones, they are predominant conditions and they are outgrown. In an article on dependency in Mothering magazine, Peggy O’Mara wrote:

We have a cultural bias against dependency, against any emotion of behavior that indicates weakness. This is nowhere more tragically evident than in the way we push our children beyond their limits an d timetables. We establish outside standards as more important than inner experience when we wean our children rather than trusting that they will wean themselves, when we insist that our children sit at the table and finish their meals rather than trusting that they will eat well if healthful food is provided on a regular basis, and when we toilet-train them at an early age rather than trusting that they will learn to use the toilet when they are ready to do so.

In the similar vein, Dorothy Law Nolte has written a poem, “Children learn What They Live”: 

If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be shy.
If a child lives with shame, he learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement, he learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise, he learns to appreciate.
If a child lives with fairness, he learns justice.
If a child lives with security, he learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval, he learns to like himself.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship.
He learns to find love in the world.

Service – Expressing Our Practice

Many people tend to think practicing spirituality is about going to a house of worship, a meditation hall, or a quiet spot in nature, and engaging in prayer, meditation, solitude and self-reflection. These spiritual pursuits seem to foster a simpler, more peaceful life in which we might experience greater intimacy and self-worth. But with the many responsibilities of life in the world, we often have precious little time to devote to such practice. When time does permit them, our spiritual yearning is momentarily satisfied and we feel aligned with the needs of our hearts; but generally our spiritual practice remains secondary to our more pressing daily activities.

Is it possible that we are defining our spiritual practice in too narrow a way? Perhaps we have become too attached to a particular form of spirituality – to a specific practice or set of circumstances. If we return to the intention behind our practices rather than adhering strictly to a form that supports the intention, we may discover a new approach to spirituality, one that truly feeds our hearts. Service work is a form that seems to be common to all the sacred traditions of the world. It cuts through all artificial divisions between “spirituality” and “life”.

Elisabeth Kubeler-Ross once said that she never meditated and never wanted to – she found it too dry. but when working with the dying, being intimately present with that person, listening fully and learning constantly, she was as focused as any mediator sitting on the floor and attending to the breath. She was in fact meditating, but her meditation arose naturally from her concern for the dying, not through formal sitting practice. For her, meditation was an expression of her service to the dying.

Spiritual teach Rodney Smith spent eight years in Buddhist monastic settings, both at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Massachusetts and several years as a Buddhist monk in Asia. He ordained with Mahasi Sayadaw in Burma then practiced for three years with Ajahn Buddhadassa in Thailand. He disrobed as a monk in 1983 and, after returning to the West, started working in hospice care and teaching vipassana meditation throughout the U.S. Smith’s many years as a monk in Asia, hospice worker, partnered householder and longtime vipassana teacher inform what he considers pivotal: that without Wise View, our pursuit of awakening will go nowhere.  He openhandedly shares his own struggle in Stepping Out of Self-Deception: The Buddha’s Liberating Teaching of No-Self.

After spending several years on retreat, including a few years in Asia as a forest monk, Rodney Smith began feeling that his practice was becoming dry. Then he discovered that service has a way of transforming our daily life into a spiritual practice. And that discovery has led to serving others as a practice of the heart. Often the shift from helping to serving is only an attitude deep. Service can actually be an expression of prayer, an ongoing engaged meditation. If service work is defined as breaking through the artificial barriers that seem to isolate us form the rest of life, then washing the dishes, dressing, cooking, eating, and showering are not separate from our prayer or meditation. When our daily activities teach us about our relationship to all things, our life becomes an unceasing prayer of the heart.We become less dependent upon specific practices because we are more aware of the interrelationship between who we are and the activity we are involved in. We may participate in prayer or meditation, but we no longer find that these are the only ways to access a spiritual dimension. Your heart becomes as available through a variety of contacts and relationships as it does through sitting meditation. We start being fed from life itself.

Rodney Smith further talked about service in light of waking up and becoming alive. Aliveness is our birthright. To come alive, we must align ourselves with our heart’s desire. We just have to rediscover how to do that. This observation solves the problem of how to practice and fully participate in our lives at the same time. It says that service is not a burden; rather, it defines service as that which feeds our aliveness. The word aliveness implies wakefulness, awareness, and a connected passion for life. We may notice that the essence of aliveness is a pure quality distinct from the actions that spring from it, such as following our desire or avoiding our fears. No matter where we start with our understanding of aliveness, however, through investigation we penetrate to new and deeper meanings of this word. We need to keep redefining the idea, allowing it to evolve beyond what we think it means. in this way, it will always be fresh and new, as our aliveness itself.

When we help someone, subliminally we pass on a message of inequality. In doing so, we diminish that person as a human being. We hold those we help in a fixed perspective and often refuse to allow them to grow. This is because if they grew out of their role, we would lose the contact we need to help. So the difference between serving and “helping” is the difference between being alive and being depleted. Helping is based on sacrifice, not strength. It is giving something to someone for a particular reason. Its intention is self-enhancement at the expense of someone whom we regard as underprivileged. The helper is rewarded by knowing that he or she is better off than the person being helped. We become as dependent upon them as they are on us. Our minds can force another into an unequal relationship, but not our hearts. Genuine warmth cannot exist unless there is equality. Within this profound connection, there is mutual appreciation. Our hearts naturally open in service work. A long time meditation teacher, Rodney Smith teaches program on “uprooting our false identity within our encased narrative and aligned ego structures.”  His approach is built on the The Buddha’s Four Foundations of Mindfulness:

  • First Foundation: Contemplation of the Body. …
  • Second Foundation: Contemplation of Feeling. …
  • Third Foundation: Contemplation of Mind. …
  • Fourth Foundation: Contemplation of Dhammas.

Sometimes at crucial moments in our lives we are presented with new paths, opportunities to grow in ways we never expected. If we have courage to take these new directions, we expand, becoming more than we ever dreamed we might become, discovering ways to live and to die with dignity, with grace. That is the story of Rodney Smith’s life journey. In an interview, Rodney spoke of how Buddhist working with the dying.

Urgency, Contentment, and the Edges of Love

Drawing from many spiritual paths including the Muslim-Sufi and Christian mystical traditions as well as Buddhism, Veteran Meditation teacher Gavein Harrison about transformation through suffering. In a detail personal account of his uphill battle with HIV virus and searching for truth: “What truly is the meaning of death?” “Is there an end to suffering?” He described his commitment to facing and standing up for truth—even when confronting abuse, AIDs and death, in Beyond the Grip of Fear.

Teachers of Buddhism In the West Share Their Wisdom to Liberation – Taking Refuge in the Sangha

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In learning Buddhism, people have been especially drawn to the various technique meditation. But at the core are two of these practices: Vipassana (insight meditation) – the observation of the mind/body process with clear and focused awareness, leading to a deepening of wisdom and equanimity; and Metta (loving kindness) – the systematic exploration of the ability to love, leading to a deepening of concentration and connection. These practices are to ground in the foundation of Buddhism tradition which is to expand an ever-deepening awareness of the triple refuges ( or Triple Gem). The tradition is kept alive through the commitment to insight, moral integrity and compassion of all who practice it. By honestly making that commitment and sincerely practice the path of insight, we can all free our minds of habitual clinging, anger, and confusion. This is a journey of continuously mindful cultivation and practices.

The Triple Gem of Buddhism is The Buddha, The Dharma & The Sangha. If we look closely, the Triple Gems are actually one. The other two gems always exist in each gem. The Buddha is vision, the Dharma is embodying that vision, and the Sangha is sharing or expressing that vision. The Buddha is wise view, the Dharma is meditation and Sangha is wise action. The Buddha is faith or motivation, the Dharma is practice, and the Sangha is intimacy. The Buddha is enlightenment, the Dharma is actualizing of enlightenment, and the Sangha is manifesting enlightenment. The Buddha is wisdom, the Dharma is the truth, and the Sangha is harmonious action. The Buddha is the vision of awakening out of the conditioning of the mind, the Dharma is refuge in the truth of things, and the Sangha is refuge in the recognition that we have company. Each refuge is powerful and essential in and of itself; at the same time they are all connected in a full and integrated path. The Triple Gems are common to any spiritual search, and are ultimately found within our own heart when we are open to looking.

When the Buddha’s first group of disciples reached enlightenment, he said to them, “Go forth, go out, for the good of the many, for the welfare of the many, out of compassion for the world, for the benefit, for the welfare, for the happiness of beings.” By saying this, the Buddha made it clear that freedom should be expressed and shared in the world – through the Sangha, the third of the Triple Gem. Taking refuge in the Sangha means embracing a seamless view of practice that integrates how we are meditating with how we are in the world and then expressing our understanding through wise action and speech. It is living our meditation, and allowing our lives to express the truth. Sangha reveals the gap between ideas and actuality.

In the Buddhist community one way to take refuge in the Sangha is to remember that we come out of an ancient tradition of awakening. The fact that for over two thousand five hundred years people just like us have been walking this path, can help to give us a sense of direction, protection, and confidence in our own capacity to awaken. It can be comforting to remember that everything that we think is so unique and personal to our own experience has been very well documented in the discourses (suttas) of the Buddha. when we read what was written down so very long ago and see that it is our own experience that is being written about, we may gain a sense of strength and unity.

There are many different ways to look at what Sangha as community means, however. Communities have many shapes and forms. Some communities may even seem formless and fluid. Taking refuge in community does not necessarily mean that we are taking refuge in a specific group of practitioners. One meaning of Sangha is the ordained community of monks and nuns. One meaning is the community of those who from beginningless time, have realized the truth. One meaning is the community of all who are dedicated to lives of truth and good-heartedness, who live with the benefit of all beings in their hearts and minds.

The Buddha’s teaching, as expressed in the lives of the Sangha, is never removed from a sense of humanity. The Buddha was a human being who talked abut what it ultimately means to be a human being and to be happy. When we explore Sangha, we explore what supports us, clears our vision, and inspires us, and what protects us in a life committed to wisdom and good-heartedness. To explore the meaning of community and the exhortation to go forth “for the good of the many,” is to explore a quality of compassion that isn’t lofty or abstract or removed from the concerns of people, but is very present and available.

When the Buddha was asked about he different experiences of life – about being a parent, a renunciate, a friend, being sick, being the one who gives, being the one who receives – he said, “Any life at all may be lived well or may be lived wrongly. If it is lived well, it will bring great results, but if it is lived wrongly, it will bring very poor results.” What ever the particular circumstance of our lives, our potential is great when we honor our own sense of purpose, when we bring wakefulness into the different aspects of our day, and when we remember a heartfelt commitment to the welfare of all beings.

In the time of the Buddha, practitioners had to work with the very same difficulties, hindrances, and obstacles that we meet in our minds today. There are descriptions in the suttas of yearning and longing and anger and agitation and restlessness and doubt and sleepiness and dullness and boredom. To remember this can be a place where we can nourish ourselves when we hit dry or difficult spots. Zen master Dogen said that if there is just one log on a fire, the fire will be weak, whereas many logs make a fire strong and powerful. People can help each other by combing their strengths as they practice. This is one reason why we get together in retreat centers. In terms of a lifetime of practice, most of us can benefits from the support of one another. We are dependent on ourselves to practice; no one can do it for us. But at the same time, most of us need support.

The practice of Vipassana (insight meditation) goes against the grain of the culture, we in the West especially need the strength that practicing together brings. The values of the culture in the world at large differ greatly from the values that we uncover and strengthen in our meditation practice. One examples is that in the culture we are generally encouraged to have strong opinions. having strong views is seen as making one more stable and productive, whereas if we don’t have firmly held dogmatic views, we are seen as wishy-washy. When we look deeply, however, we see that attachment to views and opinions narrows our world and limits creative possibilities. Opinions and views are very subjective and are not something to cling to too tightly.

In spiritual practice we begin to question what is defined as success. The dominant culture encourages us to be as busy and frantic as possible, telling us that if we are doing something, we are on the way to becoming someone. The more crowded one’s life is the more successful. The culture urges us to live for the future and values greed and accumulation. But our practice invites us to be aware and present, while letting go of our attachment to fantasy and preoccupation with external things. It is a radical act to do nothing and to sit in stillness. Doing nothing in a meditative sense means keeping the heart still and being completely present with whatever activity we are engaged in: it is an extremely vibrant creative activity. The art of doing nothing, however easy it may sound, requires a great deal of practice and training.

Although wholesome qualities of heart are developed through our own effort, we can get a clear sense of what they look like and how wonderful they are by seeing them embodies in others. Being contact with wise friends points to and strengthens our own latent wisdom, generosity, and compassion. When we are in contact with those who are wise or free, it touches that which we already know within ourselves but have forgotten. Some part of the heart remembers a little bit more through this contact. Our own Buddha-nature gets revealed. When we see that others have changed and have grown into deepening levels of freedom through practice, we see that this path of liberation is also available to us. When we begin to recognize and let go of our competitive conditioning, others can inspire us when they share themselves and the fruits of their practice.

The Buddha clearly valued the presence of wise friends on the path. In the suttras he taught that when a particular quality of hear such as generosity, patience, or concentration needs to be developed, one should try to have contact with others who have already developed that same wholesome quality. The Buddha emphasized the importance of “noble friendship and suitable conversation.” It makes sense. If we want to realize truth and freedom, it’s helpful to be in the presence of those who are manifesting and expressing truth and freedom. It is more than inspiration. On some level it is transmission: we are very much influenced by one another. Although wholesome qualities of heart are developed through our own effort, we can get a clear sense of what they look like and how wonderful they are by seeing them embodied in others.

The people that we choose to be with in intimate ways and as friends have strong influence on our lives. It is important to notice what we base our relationship choices on. Are we being drawn by blind desire or by wisdom? It is a true treasure in this life of attempting to awaken to find friends who will tell us the truth when we ask. It is very easy to find people who will talk behind our backs, but to receive the truth from friends in a kind way is a wonderful gift. We can take refuge in their discernment. We can check our our assumptions and conclusions. Discerning friend can help us examine ways that we habitually cause suffering from ourselves and others. The path of freedom is a difficult one, a path that requires great effort and earnestness. To be in the company of spiritual friends who can help us recognize and transform the inevitable obstacles that we encounter along the way is invaluable. It is hard to walk on this path of awareness without friend gently pointing out our blind spots.

Though wise friendship is an essential aspect of the spiritual path, this doesn’t mean to avoid or insulate ourselves from people who we think do not have the qualities that we aspire to. There is a great deal to be learned form interacting in situations that are not so protected or consciously supportive of our inner development. When we are being challenged in ways that are not necessarily of our own choosing or within our control, life can continue to teach us. We can develop patience and compassion in situations that provoke impatience and aversion, if we are willing to be mindful of our own reactivity and learn to take responsibility for our response. If we can bring these situations into our practice, then we do not have to relate to ourselves as victims, subjugated to the whims of others.

While being part of the Buddhist tradition that began with the enlightenment of the Buddha, we are also part of a much larger Sangha that includes not only Buddhists but also the greater community of those who are seeking freedom and truth. We are part of this greater community simply through our commitment to being awake and choosing not to engage in harmful actions toward ourselves and others.

We are immediately brought into this larger Sangha with our willingness to be openhearted and with our intention to grow in discernment. Taking refuge in the Sangha is not a matter of adhering to a particular belief system or of identifying oneself as a Buddhist. The Buddha didn’t want people to follow him blindly or to identify with what he taught; his teaching is an invitation to know freedom for ourselves.

When we come in contract with others, as we do everyday, we are bound to be hurt form time to time, and at certain times quite a bit. Our first reaction is to cling to our hurt feelings, to our sense of being separate from one another. instead we can bring mindfulness into our relationships with others rather than taking refuge in withdrawal or blame. Perhaps we can take refuge in risking something different from the old familiar unworkable and unsatisfying ways that we all know so well. We can be mindful in relationship and ask: Am I acting in a habitual or mechanical way? When we are up against that which seems unworkable, what does it mean to remain openhearted? To stay open may go against every bone in the body! So taking refuge in eh Sangha also means making a commitment to bringing mindfulness to this rich area of relationship in all its diverse forms.

Taking refuge in our interconnection means that when we hurt another person, we recognize that we hurt ourselves as well. Similarly, when we hurt ourselves, we also hurt others. We may think that we can hurt ourselves and that no one else will be hared. But because we are interconnected, this is never true. Unless we learn to take care of ourselves,we won’t really know how to care for others. If we haven’t learned how to be kind with ourselves, being kind to others is often merely an ideal to strive for. Taking care of oneself also means being willing to acknowledge one’s suffering and then investigate its source. this means to silently observe our suffering without judging or reacting. This process takes a great deal of patience and courage, and we gradually discover an inner refuge through cultivating these qualities. buy training the heart to be steady and equanimous, our confidence grows as well as our capacity to help others. when we remember to bring our mindfulness practice to the complex world of relationship, the gap between spiritual ideals and actuality dissolves.

While we try to be openhearted to everyone around us, we can practice being openhearted to all the emotions, inner voices, and thoughts in our inner environment. Taking refuge in the Sangha means being openhearted with this inner Sangha as well. If we can embrace and accept negative emotions and unpleasant states of mind when they arise, without identifying with them or acting on them, we can begin to trust ourselves and live with greater ease. The practice of meditation teaches us to face whatever is occurring, and this strength of heart and mind becomes a lasting refuge. In the words of the Buddha, “By wise effort and earnestness, find for yourself an island that no flood can overwhelm.” As we find an inner refuge that no flood can overwhelm, we quite naturally become a refuge for others.

Teachers of Buddhism In the West Share Their Wisdom to Liberation – How Government can Deploy these Resources to Remedy Suffering

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After attaining the great enlightenment, the Buddha expressed this verse in his heart (Dhammapada, verses 153-54):

"I wondered through the rounds of countless births,
Seeking but not finding the builder of this house.
Sorrowful indeed is birth again and again.
O house builder! you have now been seen.
You shall build the house no longer.
All Your rafters have been broken,
Your ridgepole shattered.
My mind has attained to unconditioned freedom.
Achieved is the end of craving."

All beings need a refuge, a place where they can find ease or peace. In our day-to-day existence, we are constantly trying to find relief form the torments of the heart – refuge from fear, loneliness, anger, boredom, etc. However, we tend to seek this refuge in outer things which ultimately prove unreliable. This yearning for relief takes many different forms. At times, we try to find refuge in accumulating possessions or through success in our career. Or we try to find refuge in memories or fantasies. Some of us try in alcohol, drugs, entertainment or in sleeping and eating. Without awareness, we blindly seek solace where it cannot be found. And over and over again, we find ourselves disappointed because we are trying to find happiness in that which is impermanent. Through the power of awareness, we begin to realize that a lasting source of ease and comfort can only be found within.

Dr. Gabor Maté, Canadian physician and author with background in family practice and a special interest in childhood development, trauma and potential lifelong impacts on physical and mental health, argues in Modern Culture Is Traumatizing and NOT Normal!, that trying to draw conclusion of human nature from how we live in this society is like to understand a wild animal inside a cage. What we consider to be normal culture that we have here, there is nothing normal in terms of human needs and human potential. In fact, it’s that gap between human needs and human potential and the conditions under which we live now that create so much illness of mind and body, not to mention so much tension, strain, hostility and division in society in general.

Historically, the Buddha’s teachings have been preserved by the monastic tradition, and the term sangha has referred to the community of monks and nuns. Sangha can, as well, be seen in a much more inclusive way to mean all like-minded spiritual seekers. The Buddha, when asked whether anyone who had not ordained as a monk had become fully awakened, replied, “there has not been just one persons. There have been many people who have awakened, who have lived a householder life.” In the original discourses of the Buddha, we see that there all kids of people who practiced and realized the deepest freedom – people with different levels of education, diverse socioeconomic classes, practitioners with big families, both men and women, and even some seven-year-olds. There is a whole group of children who were said to have been enlightened at the age of seven in the Buddha’s time!

The support and encouragement that we receive from the Sangha are invaluable, given the nature and depth of our inquiry. Cultural conditioning, with its obsession with the external, keeps us searching for happiness outside of ourselves. The spiritual path has nothing to do with achievement or attainment or becoming someone special. Because we live in such a competitive culture, we need to be especially mindful of feelings of competition when we practice together. When we compete with one another, we reinforce the discontent that comes form feelings of separateness and in-completion.

Another more expansive way of looking at taking refuge in the Sangha is taking refuge in or interconnection with all beings – whether they are engaged in a spiritual practice or not. We can be aware of our deep sense of a common bond to one another, and can take refuge in being intimate with all beings, if we see through the apparent separation of self and other. The Indian sage Neem Karoli Baba said, “Don’t throw anyone out of your heart.” This means not only seeing our interconnection but living it. Not to throw anyone out means to continue to practice opening our hearts to all beings, even those beings that engage in harmful actions. This doesn’t mean that we approve or condone unskillful actions, or that we can’t say no and set protective boundaries. Boundaries are important if we want to be able to keep everyone in our hearts. There are times when we need to protect ourselves, Situations of oppression or abuse may require throwing someone our of your house to avoid throwing them out of your heart.

Relationship is essential on our path because it strips away our ideas about ourselves. We can be very loving while sitting alone and then become totally angry when we come into contact with someone else. We can have great ideas about being more generous, for example, but then, when we find ourselves in a position to give, we don’t. Thinking about giving can be a lot easier than the actuality, if it means that we have to extend ourselves beyond the range of what we have determined as comfortable. Practice in relationship requires us to examine ourselves with a commitment to honesty, recognizing our limitations and then gently stretching beyond them. it is important to remember that some conflict is a natural part of being in relationship with anyone. Trying to avoid conflict with others out of fear, ironically, prevents intimacy and ultimately leads to greater discontent. We need to learn how to take conflict that arises and work with it skillfully, using the conflict to be more aware of our reactivity and attachment to views and opinions. if our hearts and minds can regain balance in the midst of reactivity and conflict, faith in our practice grow is and we discover a more reliable refuge than avoidance or withdrawal.

In the Book Voices of Insight edited by Sharon Salzberg, cofounder and guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Society and a cofounder of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, introduces to us many great resources to cope with the turbulence and anxiety of our time. The Insight Meditation Society (IMS) is a non-profit organization for study of Buddhism founded in Barre, MA in 1975, by Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, and Joseph Goldstein and is rooted in the Theravada tradition.

In the transition of the Buddhist teachings from Asia to the West, there is an understanding that doesn’t come easily into our culture – the importance of confidence on oneself. Traditional Asian teachings emphasize Right Effort, one of the elements of the Eight-fold Path as reflected in the very last thing the Buddha said to his disciples: “Strive on with diligence.” Meant to be empowering and personally liberating, that message is somehow not understood in the same way in the West. Effort seems burdensome, or even terrifying. We might disdain or dismiss the whole idea that the path demands effort. At the heart of many of these reactions is, I believe, a feeling of helplessness. We might subtly think, “I can’t do it. I don’t have what it takes to ‘strive with diligence; or to bring about a change in my actions.” Sharon Salzbert spoke of her transformation from self-deprecation to self-confidence. Sharon wrote extensively about her teacher Dipa Ma, a Vipassana Buddhist Master Teacher, whose amazing influence to her students on the Right Effort, was always coupled with mirroring to each of her students a powerful sense of their own ability.

Meditation is nothing new. But for many years in the West only monastics, mystics, poets, and Asian Americans practiced it. Now this path of observing life simply and directly has made its way into the mainstream. Partly because of the technological advance of internet make it possible to have wise and direct words of teachers heard, an American meditation tradition has taken root. Buddhism has brought its jewel, the practice of learning by looking within, to a society in need of wisdom to navigate the turmoil of modern world with globalization as background.

In the Buddhist literature, the word kalyannamitta is usually translated as a good, honest or spiritual friend. But is means more than just that. The words “sacred friendship” come closest to describing the depth of connection and commitment, the pure and unconditional relationship, that can exist between a student and a spiritual teacher, as well as between friends. within the wide embrace of sacred friendship, acceptance and forgiveness are what make real intimacy possible. Intimacy rests in the simplicity of being fully present, responsive to what is there in the moment, with no agenda or anticipation. By fully being in the moment we are there in just the right way. We rediscover the mystery of who we are through this interchange of opening and surrender. Such friendships create heaven on earth.

Anchored in the Theravadan Buddhist Burmese lineage of Mahasi Sayadaw since 1974, Steven Smith’s Dharma Talks answer people’s question about how they can integrate the path of self-liberation with the path of paying attention to the welfare of others. His focus is guiding practitioners to do both. The dharmic brilliance is that liberation, the core teaching, creates a deep, transformative experience of who we are, which, in turn, transforms our care for the state of all beings everywhere. Steven Smith also had album MeditationOfTheHeart on Spotify to share for free.

One the great spiritual teacher of our time, Jack Kornfield, spoke of tradition of Ajahn Chah – one of Theravada school of Buddhism. The teachings of Ajahn Chan described two levels of spiritual practice. On the first level, you use Dharma to become comfortable. You become virtuous and a little kinder. you sit and quiet your mind, and you help make a harmonious community. Then the second kind of Dharma, is to discover real freedom of mind, heart, and spirit. This level of practice has nothing whatsoever to do with comfort. here you take every circumstance of life and work with it to learn to be free. Ajahn Chan’s way of teaching combines the ultimate level of Dharma with the practical level. To help us find freedom, Ajahn Chan taught about selflessness, the essential realization of the Buddha’s liberation, in simple and remarkable ways.

Mirabai Bush, Cofounder of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society in Massachusetts, discussed with contemporary thought leaders in Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on Loving and Dying Paperback – June 21, 2022, on social justice, radical self-love, devotional ecology, public and spiritual health and more — framed within the context of the work with Ram Dass. Another book coauthored by Mirabai Bush Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning  presents background information and ideas for the practical application of contemplative practices across the academic curriculum from the physical sciences to the humanities and arts. It is an inspiring report from the frontlines of academe by two quiet revolutionaries. A must-read for anyone who cares about the future of college teaching and who seeks a vision of what it could be. The other author Daniel p. Barbezat, is professor of economics at Amherst College and a former director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society.

In Bryn Mawr College classroom, students meditate before studying the Holocaust, slavery, and apartheid, according to their professor, it helps them “keep the encounter with shared human horror from becoming a kind of vicarious intellectual voyeurism.” Its Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research offers program to Learn mindful self-care strategies and discerning when meditative practices can be  used as prevention vs intervention. Contemplative Arts at the White Lotus Center in Bryn Mawr PA, also teaches meditation and mindfulness-based stress management to individuals and groups, and support people living with cancer or other serious illnesses to integrate a variety of mind body methods into their healing journey. 

Writer Joseph Goldstein who is a prolific writer on meditation and creating life of integrity. He even answers law student’s questions about readiness to learn mindfulness practice. He has several guided meditation programs in youtube including How to Stay Calm while Anxious, Nature of the Mind, and Doorway to Freedom , Conversation on mindfully facing climate change etc.

These are deep and nurturing wellspring of Dharma teachings on sacred journey, sacred friendship, right effort, suffering and the end of suffering, unconditional acceptance, the power of silence and stillness. May they inspire many to deepens their wisdom and compassion and work to relieve the suffering of all being. These resources may very well be taken into consideration in governmental, institutional and school’ reform for detoxification.

Surrender to Higher Self and Awake the Soul

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In my search of myself, I have make many mistakes, lost many times. Each time is my prayer and mind yoga with the Divine that saved me. Astrology also serve as a very useful tool for me to stay in the path. There are Exoteric Astrology (about personality based), and Esoteric Astrology (soul based).

Exoteric Astrology is like a light turned on in a dark room. Turning the light on does not change anything in the room but it does help you to see what is in the room more clearly. Exoteric astrology relates to the roadmap of the personality, and the archetypal traits, and talents of the individual. It’s psychological astrology.

Esoteric Astrology turns the light on and you see your own Soul. The Soul is always there but now you are aware of its presence. Esoteric astrology is an exploration of the inner unconscious and discipleship.

Planet Neptune is the higher octave of Venus. It is a transpersonal (collective) planet. It is the expression in the solar system of the heart of the spiritual Sun. It is the planet most closely linked with the work of the Soul in manifestation and is thus the vehicle for the Christ consciousness, which is indeed at the Heart of Divinity. At personal level, its higher manifestation is compassion, connecting to the oneness of the cosmos, practice non-duality, introspection/meditation, chanting mantras, pay tributes to our divinity, observe sacredness of mind-body-spirit, finding peace from within, loving kindness. When we do not practice the positive side of the energy, we can easily slip into negative traits of escapism, drug addiction, alcoholic, delusion, illusion, fraud, deception, dishonest, deceiving, hypocrisy, treachery, immoral etc. misguided guru, or victimized others and thus creating karma to pay back in the future. Collectively, Neptune is the indwelling Christ Principle in humanity which, when evoked, brings forth these healing properties from mankind. 

The sign of Cancer represents the foundation of creation. Cancer represents the spark of consciousness that is brought forth as the spirit. In Cancer, the influence of spirit begins to make its presence felt and man becomes a conscious personality. Cancer is the fusion of the physical body and the soul. Esoterically speaking, Neptune rule the sign of Cancer and fourth nature house (home and foundations). The US natal Sun, Jupiter, Venus stands. Cancer rules the mass consciousness, and as such, this is ruled by feeling rather than reason. Symbolizing the will of the masses, Cancer provides the experience necessary to awaken compassion and a deeper sense-perception. It is in Cancer that sense-perception is cultivated and fine-tuned. Cancer is concerned primarily with the world of causes where we discover an urge to wake up from the illusion of the outer world. The Moon in Cancer rules our past and past conditioning which represents major negative emotional response patterns inherited from the past. It represents the Prison of the Soul which has us cling to our past. Cancer is a sign of maternal instincts and feelings, and partakes in a nurturing nature.

Esoterically, Uranus rules Libra and the 7th nature house. On this level, Uranus is the spark of ideas that ignite relation, keeps relation evolving, or dooms the relation. The later case is because ideas are not shared or are antagonistic among the partners. Planets in the 7th house are instrumental in relation, partnerships, and interactions that either have or create structure. Uranus is the mental component of this spark. It ignites newness or change in partnerships or relationships.

Globally and personally, this level of Uranus points to the mind as the creative thinking and insight process. “As the slayer of the real,” mind rationalizes, negates, dismisses that which is real and important. Wars, genocide, occupation, abuse, sources of profit that cause disease or impoverishment of others, and such are examples of this. Then there are the personal manifestations of the same. Yet, Uranus is the sky – it is vast, empty of clutter, and thus unobstructed. When human beings understand that “me” “my” “I deserve” “I won’t give” are based in selfish desire and not in clear-mindedness, then the power of clarity is released and can produce new forms of society, politics, business, and relations.

 Libra represents the balance within creation. This sign forces everything into equilibrium. All the experience humanity has collected is laid in the scales of balance and weighed. What’s valuable is kept; what’s worthless is thrown away. The effect of this balance is harmony, developing our powers of discrimination, and bringing into equilibrium the two-sided forces of duality. Libra radiates the law of balance and justice into the three-dimensional world.      Libra is the sign of justice – it governs law, sex and money, representing life in the lower three worlds, the playing field of the personality. These three areas represent humanity’s greatest battlefields. The first aspect of will or power expresses itself in this sign as law~as legislation, legality and justice. The second aspect manifests as the relation between the pairs of opposites~sex on the physical plane of which Libra is the symbol. The astral plane shows itself as money; this is the third aspect and demonstrates as concrete energy. It is literally gold, this the externalized symbol of that which is created by the bringing together of spirit and matter upon the physical plane.  

Libra has three planetary rulers: Venus is the ‘ruler’ at personality level, Uranus is the ruler at Soul level and Saturn is the ruler at hierarchical level.  All three planetary ‘rulers’ of Libra are considered to be sacred planets. Air signs are all about Mastery of the Mind, which shows a deep significance of Libra’s sacred role in the evolution of  consciousness.      

So Neptune is extremely important to the spiritual development of United States (as mentioned earlier, U.S Sun, Jupiter and Venus are all in Cancer ruled esoterically by Neptune). In China’s natal chart, Neptune is in Libra and Uranus in Cancer – the two planets are in mutual reception ( when two planets are in each other’s signs of rulership). And the natal Jupiter, the exoteric ruler of religion/law/judiciary/higher learning is squaring the nodal axis (Libra and Aries), calling for China to make up the lesson in religious/legislature/judiciary practice for fairness and balanced justice. To learn lessons about cooperation, seeing things through another’s eyes, increasing awareness of others’ needs, giving support without expecting reciprocity, creating win/win situations and sharing. And in the meanwhile cultivate independence and self-nurturance, and have the courage to communicate self identity and trust one’s impulses. The lesson learned from Culture Revolution,  Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 are events coming from soul’s calling for deep introspection and re-orientation.

历史学家和政治评论员辛灏年所著《誰是新中國》一書是在對世界近三百年歷史進行全新探討和深入剖析的前提下，對二十世紀中國歷史的一個總回顧和總辨析。它所建立的理論體系，所揭露的歷史真相，不僅從理論與事實兩個方面，對新中國 —— 中華民國，一再遭遇國內外形形色色專制勢力反撲和顛覆的艱難歷史，予以了清晰的論述；還對中國共產黨在蘇俄的長期命令和直接指揮下，對中華民國實行造反和奪權的行徑，及其在革命的名義之下，於中國大陸全面復辟專制制度的事實，予以了明確的論證；特別是它對一系列重大歷史問題所進行的澄清，不僅是對中共史學界和思想界的嚴峻挑戰，而且是對費正清中國現代史觀的深深責難。

辛灏年在【透视中国】辛亥革命与中华民国(上) ， 辛亥革命与中华民国(下) 中谈到，中国的近代史和现代史的划分界线应该是1911年。而这个呢应该说自辛亥革命以后一直到共产党在中国大陆“当家作主”，基本上历史学界是统一的看法。可是中共建政以后五十多年来，在它大、中、小学所有的历史教科书里面都把1919年爆发的五四运动，作为中国现代史的开端。 这样一个划分就等于把辛亥革命、中华民国都划分到了所谓“旧”的时代里面去了。

Esoteric Astrology is a soul-centered astrology. Less concerned with our singular outward personality or what’s going to happen to us in this lifetime, esoteric astrology is about defining our soul’s contribution to the evolution of humanity. It’s taught as a way of healing the relationship between soul and personality. According to esoteric astrologers, in order to reach our highest self and live with soul consciousness, we must transcend our material nature, using our personality as an instrument of soul expression, not the other way around. If this is already sounding a bit woo-woo, that’s because it is. Esoteric astrology originated with Theosophy—or, the “New Age” movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Alice Bailey has wrote more than twenty-four books on theosophical subjects telepathically dictated to her by a Master of Wisdom, initially referred to only as “the Tibetan” or by the initials “D.K.”, later identified as Djwal Khul.

The Theosophical Society is the organisational body of Theosophy, an esoteric new religious movement. It was founded in New York City, USA in 1875. Among its founders were Helena Blavatsky, a Russian mystic and the principle thinker of the Theosophy movement, and Henry Steel Olcott, its first president.

Humanity Have to Live According to Cosmic Order

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Today there is an article talked about AI Develops Cancer Treatment In 30 Days, Predicts Survival Rate. This paper try to persuade readers the evidence of the capacity for AI to transform the drug discovery process with enhanced speed, efficiency, and accuracy, and Michael Levitt, a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry is an enthusiastic supporter of this, as well as big corporations. In my not so humbled opinion, this is allopathy model scare the heck out of me. After the covid-19 vaccination development and still the virus mutate all the time, AI methods is just going to create more virus rather than healing. AI model is one that of arrogant 简单粗暴, deviate from cosmic wisdom. What a pity AI can not treat itself of cancer! What confidence you put on people who do NOT follow the maxim of “do it to others as you would like to do it onto yourself”?

My sucepticle come from my understanding of Traditional Chinese Medicine mechanism, which does not relate so well with chemistry because TCM used organic herbal compounds rather than single non-organic chemical abstracts. Western chemical is based on quantifiable 109 table of elements of the world. This model of worldview separates matter(Yang) and spirit (Yin), causing biased understanding of the human body function. The characteristic of TCM diagnoses is based on balance of Yin Yang and Five Xin (Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal). I believe other holistic treatment like India’s Ayveda and Native Americans energy medicine all follow this kind of approach.

中国著名中医学家、国医大师周仲瑛教授临证六十余载，擅长恶性肿瘤诊治，从“癌毒”辨治恶性肿瘤取得了突出的疗效。周老根据他60年临证经验， 认为癌毒是恶性肿瘤的病机关键，恶性肿瘤的治疗务必以“消癌解毒”为首要。肿瘤病机虽有多端，但概而言之，不外“虚、毒、痰、瘀”四端，四者之间常相互夹杂、相兼为患。 临证根据邪正虚实、标本缓急，或以攻毒祛邪为主，或以补虚扶正为主，或攻补兼施。根据癌毒与痰、瘀、湿、热等病理因素兼夹主次情况，配合化痰、祛瘀、利湿、清热等治法。初期，正虚不显时，以消癌解毒配合化痰软坚、逐瘀散结为主；中期，兼有脏腑功能失调时，可适当伍入调理脏腑功能之品；晚期，正虚明显者，则以补益气血阴阳为主，兼顾消癌解毒、化痰软坚、逐瘀散结等法。

Continue with the idea of cancer derived from toxic not expelled out from body and accumulate over the time causing the Yin Yang out of balance （cell mutation), we notice this phenomenon is manifested in social political economic sphere as well. Human ego’s crave for perpetuate growth, desire with having more, which is not in align with how universe operate. Just observe the four seasons with each season contribute to the development of next one. People have observed when there are no obvious winter season, the plants does not bloom in spring and summer. Before the globalization, different regions lived different life style and pace of growth, allowing complementary space. After Columbus discover the new continent, all the development is exploited on the idea of colonization or expanding territory. The last five hundred plus year witnessed the process of exploitation to Earth resources now verged on exhaustion. That western philosophy was winner takes it all, which build in human’s fight and flight response to life, had now spread to rest of the world with globalization as norm. Human’s insatiable desire keep on taking from the nature without any giving back. But the covid-19 is the siren waking us to our self-destructive behavior. Russia Ukraine war is another loud alarm for impending nuclear war! Humanity HAVE to live their life according to cosmic order, divine principle, or face the danger of extinction, similar to the 9-11 disaster symbolism of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

The recent bank insolvency of Credit Suisse and potential many others accidents waiting to happen. Living on the doctrine of survival of the fittest, the Western mindset is based on that of dominance and predatory, so there no moral condom of either colonization or other similar aggression behavior as organized crime. Industrial revolution, science revolution and now digital revolution are all build on a mentality of dominance for power and control. That is the root cause of WWI and WWII. Weaponize the currency and structured exploitation using finance scheme is evidence of such strategic of state craft. Then eye for an eye response triggers potential of war violence and nuclear war. Confrontation rather than inter-dependence overtake our rational mind.

Iraq war and Middle East wars certain is the manifestation of the American empire’s military power. But American has lost a lot for what it hope to gain. There is no winner in the war. 【苑举正】俄乌战争已进入决战期! 台大教授解密：未来世界格局如何发展？

I still feel the decade of 1960s is the start of current decay we are undergoing. One way of evidence is planet Pluto and Uranus conjunct on 18 Virgo, which is a 127 year cycle. Virgo is the sign of huge shift from individual psychology to social interactions. Coming from Leo of creative, dramatic, complacency and self-center, Virgo is a adjustment before entering into Liberal which is a relationship sign. Virgo promote detoxification, improvement, analysis, methodology, introspection. The 1960s Pluto and Uranus conjunction is close to U.S. Neptune of 22 degree Virgo in the natal chart. And all these three is square to U.S Mars (symbolic of aggression) in Gemini at natal chart. And we can recall beatles, flower love, psychedelic drug usage, Vietnam war, Cuber Missile contention, space exploration… all the confusion, disorientation of high octave planets is long terms effects on collective psyches. Another way is Professor Zheng ShiQiang talking about 《皇極經世》, which indicate 巽 （1924-1983）之蛊（1964-1973）。 Now we have 鼎 （1984-2043）之蛊 （2014-2023）is further decay from the 1960s。

中國最嚴重的問題上不了兩會，習近平真的沒把民眾當回事； 李克強為何漏掉關鍵一段？是故意的還是出狀況？ Compare to France, where the union workers can protest, China’s retirement account has eleven provinces already exhausted their funds. The communist party led government has money to bribe corruptions, throwing money on one belt projects. The peasants were robbed of their lands and force to work in the factories, and now they do not have money for the retirees, because central government had drew all taxes from all provinces, leaving each provinces hang in despair. 专制与时代精神不合拍. 在黑暗的时代不反抗，就意味着同谋。——萨特

If we do not correct our problem, purify ourselves from the toxics, the cancer will take over the body.

There is a Time for Everything

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This post was mistakenly deleted … re-post here.

With internet and global connectivity, we can hardly catch up to have enough understanding with all the developments that seems to all happen simultaneously. Based on universal values and general guidelines for the collectives, we can learn from each other, respect different cultures and spiritual inheritance, but ultimately there are just no one size fits all solutions. In an era of globalization, we tend to dismiss some obvious facts: we have different ideological proclivity derived from different historical background and culture upbringing as well as different political structure and religious/spiritual makeups, in addition to different geographic topography, language characteristic and living circumstances. To the extent of the benefits globalization brings, in the end, it makes each country very hard to implement rules and regulations that are fair to majority of its citizens. People of disadvantaged group tend to bear more of the blows of hardships caused by loss of defined governmental responsibility when the boundary of country line became blurring, especially in the area of taxation, finance and wealth redistribution.

Currently we have Planet Saturn ingresses into Pisces. Some articles discussed extensively the horrors of wars took placed in Europe in 1990s, but my mind tend to remember more about the 1960s. in United States, the most famous being Kennedy’s speech:

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.
My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.

It is rare to hear such inspirational voices these days. People tend to spend their energies in the law suits and fighting without much relevance. We do not understand how international sex trafficking of hundreds of young girls could have taken place in a country hailing for freedom and human rights. We can not fathom how the media cover day to day about GDP and economic data, but do not take time to reflect the ramifications of the criminal case of Jeffery Epstein – an American sex offender and financier. We wonder how state prosecutor can so easily let such an severe sex offender get away with Non-prosecution agreement while hiding agreement details from victims. We are amazed by so many highly educated legal professions would came to the defense of sex predators while turn their head away from those most needed for help. What is even shocking was the government, legal system, powerful media and public were silence with such criminal acts and loss of morality. We are traumatized by the testimony of government officials and social elites dark dealings in these acts. if it is not for the advances of communication tools, we may never have known What really happened on Jeffrey Epstein’s private island? Sure, Epstein was dead, but the damages and wounds to the soul of America has not yet taken care of. The tragedy is not only about the victims, but everyone of us including Epstein himself, may his soul repentance for the bad karma he created!

Times like this reminded us about the assassination of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy and the mysterious death of Thomas Merton. Their death is the death of American soul of conscience and righteousness. Since then, the last half century witnessed the separation of state and church turned United States into a country of world bully and politics of government irrelevance, rampancy of social Darwinism. The Midas touch of Capitalism did not turn the world into gold, but digital revolution had its mind fixed on money, nothing but money. But the Bible says, ” The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.” “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.”

In China, some similar themes had been development. Professor Zheng ShiQiang 曾仕强 who is especially well versed with I-Ching and used it extensively in his teaching, had predicted the pandemic from observation of the hexagram 鼎(1984-2043) 之 蛊(2014-2023). According tot he symbolism, is it not that one way to interpret it is: if we do not reform/purify, we will get pandemic/pollution. What has GDP to do with our happiness anyway? GDP can not answer the ultimate questions, isn’t it? 知命改运的真相：玄学的最大秘密竟是可以“治心”，而不是改命。 个人如此，国家亦复如此。

82歲楊繼繩漫談文革最大贏家 新華社資深記者獨到觀點 不幸的是，文革的最后胜利者还是官僚集团，他們掌握着文革责任的追究权、改革开放的主导权和成果分配权，至今這個結論沒有過時(老楊到處說 楊錦麟論時政) Sadly, while globalization had brought certain extent to prosperity, people had become more materialistic at the cost of spirituality. Corruption, exploitation and suppression had become more severe than ever. Is not COVID-19 a siren for the humanity to live a more somber life? What are the choices we made that really counts towards the ultimate peace and meaning?

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

Talk Out Loud – –  Soliciting Ideas for Drastic Changes 5 – Covid Virus and Side Effects of Vaccines

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According to HIV/AIDS Epidemic Global Statistics, AIDS-related deaths have been reduced by 68% since the peak in 2004. In 2021, around 650,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses worldwide, compared to 2 million people in 2004 and 1.4 million in 2010.

In comparison, reports from Wikipedia indicated a total count of 6,869,759[4] (updated 26 February 2023) confirmed COVID-induced deaths have been reported worldwide. As of January 2023, taking into account likely COVID induced deaths via excess deaths, the 95% confidence interval suggests the pandemic to have caused between 16 and 28.2 million deaths.[5][6]

A December 2022 WHO study comprehensively estimated excess deaths from the pandemic during 2020 and 2021, concluding ~14.8 million excess early deaths occurred, reaffirming their prior calculations from May as well as updating them, addressing criticisms. These numbers do not include measures like years of potential life lost, far exceeding the 5.42 million officially reported deaths for that timeframe, may make the pandemic 2021’s leading cause of death, and are similar to the ~18 million estimated by another study (see below).

Historically, only the 1918 flu pandemic,[6] also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer of the Spanish flu, can be comparable to the Covid-19. 1918 flu pandemic was caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was March 1918 in Kansas, United States, with further cases recorded in France, Germany and the United Kingdom in April. Two years later, nearly a third of the global population, or an estimated 500 million people, had been infected in four successive waves. Estimates of deaths range from 17 million to 50 million,[7] and possibly as high as 100 million, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in history.

Other similar events in history was the Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague)[a] was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causing the deaths of 75–200 million people,[1] peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351.[2][3] Bubonic plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis spread by fleas, but during the Black Death it probably also took a secondary form, spread by person-to-person contact via aerosols causing septicaemic or pneumonic plagues.[4][5]

Today many people in United States had received second, and even third boost shot of vaccination without knowing the long term side effects. Now fourth year into the pandemic, Are we out of the wood yet? We never know. Bitter arguments bickering on where the source of covid-19 came from, We can never be sure from the he-say, sher say. But we all know Covid-19 is a manifestation of the decades long intense contention and huge discord on numerous global social political issues. Looking back, the end of Spanish flu did not clear away anger and bitterness and the social, economic, political tension. the symptoms may temporarily disappear, but the underneath rotten wound has not recover.

The pandemic posts questions like what the meaning and purpose of life? How can we live a more meaningful life given it is so vulnerable? How is our body and mind functions holistically? How is the place of busy hustle bustle way of modern life How shall we arrange our education and medical system to be more meaningful, effective and inclusive in promoting those notions/understandings? How can we empower people for self help to take care of their health and their life?

The pandemic prompts us to think about our relationship with other humans, other races, other nations. And what is our relationship with nature? – the air, the water, the forest? the underground oil? Coal Energy? Nuclear energy? Who owns what? Individual property right? How do we relatively more fairly and evenly spread distribute the risk and cost of pollution over the society/nations? How to calculate pollution cost? How do we charge taxes? How to incorporate environment cost into our calculation of production cost? What is our relationship with this world? Who is to responsible for the ocean pollution, the climate change?

The pandemic forces us to took a intense look at our economy and the way we make livings: Can the consumerism sustain our living? Will the Earth resources support our insatiable for more? What would be a proper way or production and living? How does the large scale production and industrialization astray the society from true life meaning and purpose other than profits for the capitalist? Does the one size fit all globalization and supply chain truly good for majority of the people? Does the unrestrained capital free flow serve justice and fairness? What gives currency its value? Can we continue printing money out of debt?

The pandemic challenges us to think about norms and customs that make up a functional society: what is the right social order? How can we protect family and thus create a loving-kindness environment for disadvantaged and still encourage them to grow into better person ? How can our law and citizen education foster conscience and righteousness?

The pandemic also questions if some our Constitution clauses as well as laws in line with Divine principle? What is more functional structure and system for promoting social mobility and manage accountability? What is the accountability of government? What is the power limit of government officials? Where is the proper individual rights? How can we give proper consideration for all/group and while also integrate individuality (not individualism)? What make Americans think we are superior to other cultures socially and politically? What give American the justification to export our individualist culture to the rest of world and demand other country and culture to convert to our way of governance?

…… and many more questions like that certain are the undercurrents that flowing beneath the virus polluted social political and military atmosphere. How we answer those questions will determine the future of our civilization.

We live in an imperfect world. But it does not mean we should not strive for a better world for each other and for our future generation, think of how the American founding fathers influence the later generation by the rational thinking, law, ethic standard, culture framework. When we think in term of “me” versus “you”, when we regard nature as something to exploit resources from, when our system is built on any variation of colonialism, rather than to partner with; when our happiness is built on having more materially, we will inevitably collide into each other.

…. To be continued

Talking Out Loud – Soliciting Ideas for Drastic Changes 4 – Dr. Villoldo Retreat to Amazon for Recover

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This blog writer have strong confidence with Dr. Villoldo’s methods. For several years I used to have chronic fatigue and low energym with my mind felt clogging all the time. My blood test had indicated very low red cell counts which supposedly a sign of anemia. But I know my situation is more complex than that. Because since a kid, I had always have high ASO indicator in my blood system caused by some sort of chronic inflammation of Rheumatic fever. After I took a handful of over-the-counter nutrients suggested by Dr. Villoldo during a weekend California group workshop, and I gradually felt much better and my mind started to have more clarity.

So let’s continue to follow Dr. Alberto Villoldo on his battle for his very own life (and in a broad sense, all of ours)! Alberto described his body was a road map of the jungles and mountains where he had worked as an anthropologist, picking up the lethal critters that had taken up residence inside him. The jungle is a living biology laboratory, and anyone spend enough time there become part of the experiment. There had anthropologist who had died from the same diseases Alberto harbored. Actually the virgin rainforest of the Amazon is free of most diseases, but to get to it you have to go through filth-ridden outposts of Western civilization. The indios knew better than to foul their nests and their drinking water. Meanwhile, the white man surrounded himself with a sea of garbage and sewage.

The spiritual medicine Alberto Villoldo received from the shamans was powerful, but he had to complement it with Western medicine. The doctors put him on a worm medication – the same type people give dogs – and on antibiotics to kill other parasites. The problem was that the worms themselves harbored parasites, so when the pill killed the worms, they released their parasites into Alberto’s brain, which became very toxic. The situation was dire. Alberto’s brain was on fire with inflammatory agents and free radicals produced by the medication and the dead and dying parasites. He need to detox his brain to avoid going completely mad. The following is his account of the process:

In the Amazon, the shamans welcomed me lovingly. These men and women were friends who had known me for decades. And who knew me better than Mother Earth? She received me as only a mother can. As I pressed my body to hers, she spoke to me: “Welcome Home, my son.”

That night there was a ceremony with ayahuasca, a brew made from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine that shamans use for visioning and healing. I was too weak to participate and stayed in our hut near the river. Marcela( Alberto’s wife) went for us both. ……. Hours later Marcela returned smiling. Pachamama – Mother Earth – had spoken to her throughout the night: “I make everything on the earth grow. I am giving Alberto a new liver. He knows how to heal everything else.” The next day I wrote in my journal: “After morning yoga a luminous bein appeared to me in road daylight. She walked out of the river, and I saw her as if in a dream – a feminine spirit who touched my chest and told me that I was a child of the Pachamama and would live many more years, and that she would look after me, as my work on the earth is not yet done.”

…… My return to the Amazon was the beginning of a return to myself. But first there was an enormous amount of work to do. I had to remind himself: “There are no guarantees here. There is a difference between curing and healing. You may not be cured; you may die. But regardless of what happens, you will be healed. you will not walk out of the jungle into your old way of being.” I could feel the life force draining out of me….. I wiped his day planner clean, cancelling every talk, every lecture, every class. The first speaking engagement I cancelled was in Switzerland, where the renowned Brazilian healer John of God was on the program. I had never met John, but I knew the head of his organization. A few days later I got a call offering me a distant-healing session.

Afterward, I wrote in my journal: “John worked on me with his entities, and I sensed a great spirit at the head of my bed. I could feel a tangle of ropes being removed from my liver, thick fibers being pulled out. Other entities worked on my heart, while still others performed a spiritual ‘surgery’ on my brain. It knocked me out. i could not get out of bed for the next 24 hours.”

From the Amazon, Marcela and I flew to Chile and our Center for Energy medicine, where we conduct intensive workshops. The monastery/retreat is in the Andes, near Mount Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Americas. The mountain is the reason we settled here.It was time for the meeting I had been postponing for so long. I had only one focus now – healing – and I had to be wholehearted about it.

My brain fog and confusion were glaringly evident when I tried to play Scrabble with Marcela. That game became the barometer of my mental health. I could not access words. And then I started losing my sense of self. I panicked: What if I forget who I am? What if I lose my consciousness of self? Madness stared at me from the horizon – I saw it, felt it, breathed it. it sent naked fear into every part of my being.

Ironically, it was fear of losing myself that saved me. over the next three months, I simply observed the madness I was experiencing. the shamans (and Buddhists) have a powerful practice of self-inquiry that starts with asking, Who am I? Then, after a while, you begin to inquire, Who is it who is asking the question? So I began to ask, Who is it who’s going mad?

There was no place to hide. I saw the madness; others saw it. But, as always, there was another side to the pain. The fathomless depths to which my spirit sank were matched by the flight of my soul. I began to understand who I had been since the beginning of time and who I would e after I died. The gnawing fear was matched by divine love. I dwelt in both worlds, belonging to neither. I wrote in my journals: “Buddha left the palace of his childhood after he saw death, disease, and old age. I have lived with these three grim reapers and have struggled to leave the palace of ignorance and arrogance that I built. I have surrendered to the pain and the ecstasy.”

There is no way to adequately describe the place of darkness I reached, but the 16th century mystic John of the Cross must have understood it. From his prison cell he wrote: “There in the lucky dark,/… darkness far and wide; /no sign for me to mark,/no other light, no guide/except for my heart – the fire, the first inside!” I too, was in a prison, with my soul on fire. I had a dream: “I am in our cottage, in a kind of cloister. i am waiting for a spiritual treatment. The healing by water is already done, but the one I am waiting for, the initiation by fire, is not ready yet.”

I was the patient who should have died and now I would have to look death straight in the eye if I wanted to live. i would have to draw on everything I had learned walking the shamanic path: all the healing practices, all the techniques for growing a new body by awakening stem cell production in the brain, heart, and liver.

I called my friend David Perlmutter, a renowned neurologist who was my co-author on Power Up Your Brain. Together we crafted a strategy using potent antioxidants to trigger the production of neural stem cells to repair my brain. What followed over the next months were countless Illuminations to clear the imprints of disease from my luminous energy field, along with intravenous infusions of the antioxidant glutathione to detoxifying ly liver, soul retrievals to recover parts of myself I had lost to trauma, and out-of-body experiences in which my spirit took flight into the buddha fields, the bardos, the heavens. Energy moved, flowed, met obstacles, and flowed again. i was caught up in the highs and lows of fighting for my life. time drifted by like a sluggish river, and I stepped out of it, knowing I had to make friends with eternity.

In my journal I described one soul retrieval: “I strike the drum softly and journey to the lower world to attempt to do a soul retrieval for myself. i know it’s not a good idea. the shaman who treats himself has a fool for a patient. But I know the Guardian, the Inca Huascar, and he leads me to the chamber of wounds, where there is a pool of blood that triggers memories from my childhood of bloodshed in cuba during the revolution. ”

“I find a little boy who tells me his agreement with God is that he will never die, and that is why he cannot leave the hell he is in. i tear up that soul agreement and draft a new one that says, ‘Life and death and rebirth live within me. ‘ the child is happy and joins me. We then discover a ten-year-old body, somber and serious, who explains that he must stay behind to look after the little one. the little one had received lifesaving blood transfusions at the age of two, when he got hepatitis C from a contaminated needle. i tell the ten-year-old that the little one is with me now, and the older boy smiles.”

That night, I had another dream: “I am with friends looking at a grave full of flowers. I am buried there. My friends say I can stay there if I like. But I tell them I won’t need this piece of earth. I see my soul rise from the ground.”

I found solace in my dreams. But in spite of all the spiritual gifts I was receiving, my body still felt wretched. I feared I was exhausting all the life force that remained. This is the energy meant to be used at the end of life, in order to die consciously. As the Bhagavad Gita sys, “Whatever the state of being/that a man may focus upon/at the end, when he leaves his body,/ to that state of being he will go.”

I continually asked myself, Where is my focus? I could feel my mind teetering on the edge of the precipice. A journal entry reads: “Suffering is greatest when you believe you are at the end of your existence and face your annihilation. I have discovered the spiritual world, the continuation of life, and embraced it. Today I told myself, ‘ I’m just going back home. it might be hard – birth was not easy – but I’m going back home.’ I am blessed, for I know the road. I have been shown the way so many times. in shamanic ceremonies I have died a dozen deaths, have seen my body rot and wither, and have gone to the stars. Heaven and hell are both familiar. But just as the spirits did when I was two years old, they’re saying that my time is not yet.”

This time, however, I knew I had a choice. I could choose to remain in the world of Spirit. But the spirits were telling me that my work was not done. I would have to return to ordinary life. My mind led my body deeper into a state of collapse, and then into my ultimate surrender. That’s when I knew that something big was about to happen. But first I had to visit the realm of the dead: ” Marcela and I are at a ferry terminal. There are many people waiting to board. We have a small boat just for us, one that belonged to my father. People help us launch our oat, which I know how to pilot because my father taught me. Not my human father, but the heavenly Father. I am preparing to cross the great water to the land of the ancestors in my own craft, not with all the others taking the ferry. I am making my journey to the land of the dead but not with the dying. i am going with my shaman wife.”

There it was: I had a new mission life – to be a shaman. But wait! hadn’t I answered the call to be a shaman a long time ago? I’d even written a book about it: Shaman, Healer, Sage. But writing a book doesn’t make you a shaman, any more than writing a cookbook makes you a chef or having a spiritual library makes you a spiritual adept. for years I had been a spiritual guide but not a master. i was like the wilderness scout who can find his way through the forest but knows little of the destination. I wrote in my journal: “for years I was like Moses, helping others to the Promised Land but not being allowed to enter myself. Now that has changed. i am already in the Promised Land. I have been allowed entry. And I discovered that the door has always been open, that it was my pride and anger and fear that had kept me out.”

Now Spirit was offering me another lifetime within this one. I was being called to step fully into my destiny, this time without self-importance, without the subtle seduction of worldly accomplishment. The externals of my life might not change, but my attitude had to. A new contract with Spirit was required. I felt liberated. I was free. That night, I dreamed: “I am inside a breathing machine and friends are saying good-bye. i am unable to move or speak, but I am in bliss. they turn off life support. I have to pull myself out of the breathing apparatus to come back to life. i realize I can find eternity without dying. i rip the tube out of my mouth and breathe. I am alive. I understand that miracles organize space-time for healing to happen.”

That was followed by another dram: “I am leading a group on a tour bus. We come to a monastery with many empty rooms. In one room, there are some altars with candles on them. I light a candle, leaving some coins, and then walk down a spiral staircase carved out of rock. As it descends, the staircase narrows. I reach the ground, and as I squeeze through the exit, I realize that the group won’t be able to fit through the opening. The meaning seems clear: I must find another, less traveled path. I need to go alone.”

Again, I was at a choice point. I did not have to stay on earth; I could return home. the last time I had been offered this choice, I was just a child, scared and in pain, but now my fear of the Great Journey had passed.

And then I realized that I did not have to die literally. I could die symbolically. i could stay and heal myself so I could help and heal others. once I made that choice, I began reinhabiting my ordinary senses. I felt my spirit sinking roots into my body once again. Awe and wonder returned, as my brain fog began to clear and i saw that stewardship of all life and the earth was my path.

My return to health lasted more than a year. My good friend Mark Hyman, a physician who wrote The blood Sugar Solution and 10-Day Detox Diet, helped me put together a nutritional plan for healing. it included green juices in the morning and superfoods and supplements that boost the body’s self-healing systems and detox the liver and brain. i completely changed the way i eat.

Today, i am fully recovered. More accurately, i’m beyond recovered. i am a new person. …. My health crisis was more extreme than most. But the fact is, we’re all in a life-and-death struggle with the toxic forces of modern life that throw our health and well-being out of balance. Many of us feel stressed-out physically and emotionally, and wonder why, with all the antianxiety and antidepressant medications and relaxation techniques available, we don’t seem to be able to fix the problem.

Meanwhile, obesity, diabetes, ADHD, autism, and Alzheimer’s’ disease are increasing at an alarming rate. Close to 70 percent of Americans are overweight, and one in three children born in America today will develop type 2 diabetes by the age of 15. Fifty percent of otherwise healthy 85-year-olds are at risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s is being called type 3 diabetes, linked to a gluten-rich, wheat-based diet and a stressed-out brain. And these are just a few of the diseases that are killing us prematurely and compromising our quality of life.

Our ancestors in the Paleolithic era, as well as many of the tribal cultures I have lived with in the amazon and the Andes, did not, as we often assume, lead short and brutish lives. they enjoyed healthier life spans, fewer incidences of warfare and violent crime, and less stress than the people who came after them, including us. What accounted for their health and well-being? A primarily plant-based diet and One Spirit Medicine.

Talking Out Loud – Soliciting Ideas for Drastic Changes 3 – Dr. Alberto Villoldo’s One Spirit Medicine

Posted on by PathFinder

As scary as COVID-19 is, our short memory is once again rolled back to 1980s when crisis of rampant HIV/AIDS virus spreading in the western world in the 1980s by Thrasher’s Book. Here is an account of the HIV/AIDS timeline and history. Things had became so uncontrollable that on May 26 1988, the American Surgeon General releases the nation’s first coordinated HIV/AIDS education strategy, mailing out 107 million copies of a pamphlet titled Understanding AIDS in an attempt to reach every household in America, the largest public mailing in history. Later that same year, President Reagan signed the first comprehensive federal AIDS bill, the Health Omnibus Programs Extension (HOPE) Act, establishing the Office of AIDS Research and authorizing federal funds for AIDS prevention, research, and testing. With on sign of the disease being under check, President George H.W. Bush signed the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act on July 26 1990, allocating over $220 million in federal funds for care and treatment of people with AIDS in its first year. 

Looking back, that maybe just an rehearsal of what to come in the 2020 and after. According to UNAIDS fact sheet: There were approximately 38.4 million people across the globe with HIV in 2020. Of these, 36.7 million were adults and 1.7 million were children (<15 years old). In addition, 54% were women and girls. An estimated 1.5 million individuals worldwide acquired HIV in 2021, marking a 32% decline in new HIV infections since 2010.

What is the root cause of HIV/AIDS virus and Covid-19 infection? Author Alberto Villoldo shared powerful blend of spiritual philosophy and scientific principles woven into the perfection of a practical formula of healing for everyday life in his book One Spirit Medicine – Ancient Ways to ultimate Wellness. Brimming with timeless wisdom, Alberto leads us on a journey of discovery that shatters common misconceptions about us, our relationship to our body, and the world. In doing so he reminds us that the key to our healing lies in our ability to embrace ourselves, and the world, as living, conscious, and connected.

Alberto first shared his personal experience of fell gravely ill during a trip in Mexico for a conference. Apparently earlier during his years of research in indonesia, Africa, and South America, Villoldo had picked up a long list of nasty microorganisms, including five different kinds of hepatitis virus, three or four varieties of parasites, a host of toxic bacteria, and assorted nasty worms. His heart and liver were close to failure, the brain was riddled with parasites. He had a physical collapse which further confirmed by the doctor of brain disease that need best medical care available and immediately get on a liver transplant list. But where to find a healthy brain?

He had two choice, one is taking the flight to Miami where he would be admitted to a top medical center for treatment, another option is the flight to Lima and the Amazon, where he would be in the land of his spiritual roots, go with his wife to lead one of the expeditions working with jungle shamans who have journeyed beyond death. The irony was he had just published a book entitled Power Up Your Brain: The neuroscience of Enlightenment. Prior to these, he had been a best-selling author with 12 books to his credit, a researcher and medical anthropologist with a Ph.D. in psychology, a teacher and healer with a following worldwide. The light body School and the Four Winds Society that he founded had grown exponentially: more than 5000 students had gone through his training in energy medicine or had accompanied him on journeys to the Amazon and the Andes. Felt like it was the last day of his life, he was overwhelmed by sadness at the thought of leaving this beautiful earth. All the test results indicated he is dying, the doctors had even said, ‘You should already be dead.’ Miami was the logical choice. But in that moment he summoned up the courage to put his future where his mouth was – to live what he had taught to so many. Long story short, Villoldo’s return to Amazon was the beginning of a return to himself.

Drawing on more than 25 years of experience as a medical anthropologist – as well as his own journey back from the edge of death – acclaimed shamanic teacher Alberto Villoldo shows you how to detoxify the brain and gut with superfoods: use techniques for working with our luminous energy fields to heal your body; and follow the ancient path of the medicine wheel to shed disempowering stories from the past and pave the way for rebirth.

Today our minds, our emotions, our relationships, and our bodies are out of kilter. We know it, but we tend to ignore it until something brings us up short – a worrying diagnosis, a broken relationship, or simply an inability to function harmoniously in everyday life. When things are a little off, we read a self-help book. When they’re really bad, we bring in oncologists to address cancer, neurologists to repair the brain, psychologists to help us understand our family of origin. But this fragmented approach to health is merely a stopgap. To truly heal, we need to return to the original recipe for wellness discovered by shamans millennia ago: One-Spirit Medicine.

In the West, we’re accustomed to looking to doctors and experts to guide us in our healing, growth, and learning. Our schools, businesses, religions, and government are hierarchical. In the Amazon, however, there are no levels of management between us and Spirit. The shaman—the wise old man or woman—is honored as a healer but is not regarded as superior to other members of the village. The shaman is simply a skilled facilitator who interacts with both the visible and invisible worlds to help restore balance to body, mind, and soul.

The message of One Spirit Medicine is that you don’t need to track down a shaman to find Spirit, or look outside yourself to find health. You only have to look within. That’s where you will receive One Spirit Medicine. Through One Spirit Medicine, the shamans found that they could grow a new body that allowed them to live in extraordinary health. They learned how to switch off the “death clock” inside every cell, and turn on the “immortality” genes that reside in password-protected regions of our DNA. Cancer, dementia, and heart disease were rare. The shamans of old were truly masters of prevention. Here is one comment from a reader with username PuraVida :

Three months later and I’m down another 15 pounds, but BEST OF ALL, my LDL cholesterol and triglycerides are well within normal ranges and my average blood sugar level has dropped. I do not miss carbs or sugars, but I do not deprive myself on special occasions if I feel like a little cake and ice cream. Frequently, people I have not seen in a while ask me how I did it – I cannot recommend this book enough!

….I don’t often read this genre, but I was strongly motivated after my doctor gave me some pretty depressing news – at 64, I was 30 pounds overweight, pre-diabetic, and my cholesterol was higher than ever, despite being on two kinds of statins. A dear friend listened to my tale of woe and lent me an advance copy of One Spirit Medicine she had just received. That was two months ago.

Some things come into your life at the exact moment you are most receptive. I started Dr. Villoldo’s 14-day detox and eliminated bread, pasta, grains, sugar and other unhealthy foods. I started drinking fresh “green juice” for breakfast (not nearly as bad as it sounds!) and eating nuts, seeds, fresh caught fish (mostly salmon, not a big fan of seafood) and fibrous veggies. I cut back on fruit (that was hard) and root vegetables (high in sugar – who knew?), and increased my water intake.

By the end of the detox, I was amazed to find that my “brain fog” had lifted. I honestly thought it was early onset Alzheimer’s, so the relief was enormous. My clothes felt looser, so I could tell I had dropped some weight.

That motivated me to keep at it. I am not a creative cook, and One Spirit Medicine is not a diet book with lots of recipes, so I googled “no carb, gluten-free recipes” and found a LOT of good ideas on the Internet. Following the broad guidelines in the book, I added quinoa (yum), avocado, coconut oil, and food supplements to my diet. Two months later, I have dropped at least 15 pounds and feel more energetic than I have in years. I have a sense of joy and peace that I realize has been missing from my life for a long time.

I have learned so much from this book about how the body functions, and that has helped a lot as well – I have a better understanding of why I need to stick with the program. I’m also getting back in touch with my long-neglected spiritual side, though this is taking a little more effort than the dietary changes. But the focus on shamanism and energy medicine is interesting, and some of the spiritual exercises have been mind-opening.

I am looking forward to my follow-up visit to the doctor and am certain my blood sugar levels have dropped. Keeping my fingers crossed on the cholesterol as well, despite a genetic predisposition. I feel so much better, I can’t imagine going back to my old eating habits.

So, corny as it sounds, I can honestly say this book has changed my life. And for that I am grateful. I hope this review motives others to make changes in their lifestyle as well.

to be continued …….