War and the Uld

The war in Iraq certainly goes directly against the principles of compassion and justice, as all wars do, and must. The rationalizations and justifications are very flimsy and somewhat transparent. The greed is just too gigantic and blatant to hide behind mere pretty words! Politicians will not change during our lifetimes to follow the Way of Love, although, in time, they must.

Those who are obsessed with greed have no room in their psyches for other-centeredness. One thing is certain: We cannot "liberate" others until or unless we are ourselves a liberated and free people!

Re our egroup: Even double Sagittarians need not fear being "caught" or "trapped," for people are free to join and unjoin and join and unjoin as often as they wish. We represent not any particular religion, but the Way of life called the "Way of Love," the "Enlightenment Tradition," "the Love-tradition," or, "mysticism." This is the farthest thing from a cult, as it represents the very best in universal spirituality.
Historically, it is the most ancient tradition of spirituality on our planet. It has included the greatest mastersages of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and various nature-based faiths. Again, it is universal, open to all traditions, and to all people, free of bigotry, exclusivity, and other
imperfections of religion.

We have zero political agenda, and no concrete or conformist dogmas! Freedom in spirituality is the essence of our entire message! We could not be compared even conceptually to any limiting philosophy or, much less, to an organization, religion, or cult! We have nothing in common with any of these.

The uld ("Universal Love Digest") is nothing more than a kind of education-sheet. It can be seen also as a sharing-opportunity on which you can place any psychospiritual idea. This allows others openmindedly to consider it! No hidden traps, trapdoors, or springs, no secret shackles, no limitations, no gimmicks!

But if you choose not to share, that, too, is, of course, okay. But at this present troubled time in our history, the words keep coming back: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing." The egroup recognizes no "nonmenbers," as it is universal. Anyone can send an email anytime. It is not something that you "join," except in the sense that you might choose to "join" a group of friends having fun. It is our way of not doing nothing!

Smorgasbord of Spirituality, and Limited Cult-thinking

From a religious/spiritual overview, in the "big picture," Jehovah's Witnesses are a very nanoscopic cult in the history of religion. It is, to be precise, a split-off from the Second Adventists, itself only a series of very small churches. In the late nineteenth century, they were all predicting the "end" at any moment. Other cults, which did not survive, included the Campbelites, the Millerites, and the Wilburites. The Russelites, which later evolved into the Jehovah's Witnesses, just barely survived their own false predictions. These were many and serious, and marked as the "year of the end of civilization" 1874, 1914, and, later, 1925, and others.

The world's treasure of spirituality is a very rich smorgasbord, a cafeteria with a thousand delicious meals. In the face of such exquisite and delightful infinity, it is difficult to see why, out of fear, a person would allow herself to take the tiniest bite from the smallest vegetable! The exploration of spiritual paths, in all their diversity, is so much more exciting and delighting! What a great joy-- and utter freedom!:)

Love, Fear, and War

The opposite of Love is not hate. It is fear.

As we hear about war, try not to give in to fear. Instead have Faith that all things are working as they should. Do not judge with mortal eyes the tragedies of war. For we know that, in the higher order of things, the earth is being purified of all hateful, fearful elements. Evil, and all those who practice it, must come to an end. The great mystic sage Lao Tzu said, "A violent man will die a violent death." And Jesus agreed: "Those who live by the sword will die by the sword."

Many dozens, even hundreds, of people are dissolving much negative karma, returning Souls to a state of grace. This whole world is evolving towards planetary unity and harmony. These catastrophes are the "birthpangs" of the rebirth of a planetary civilization, still in our future. So, please join us-- all people of peace-- in praying for Wisdom and swiftest resolution to the war. We have no control over the war. But we do have fullest control over our thoughts. We can choose what we want to contemplate, and regularly think about.

Let us vow to fill our minds with thoughts of Love, beauty, and peace. In this way, we can affect the entire planetary consciousness. This kind of regular thinking-- thoughts of heaven, bliss, justice, wisdom, tranquillity, and peace-- can and will heal our planet.

So as the media bombard us with fear and horror, focus firmly, immovably on Peace! Focus with diamond determination on Love! Focus on Light!

There is a battle within your psyche, and in the whole world, between the Mind of beauty and Love and the mind of hatred and fear. By the way that you choose to train your mind, by the thoughts on which you focus most of the time, you belong to one "army" or the other. No one is neutral in this cosmic conflict.

May Peace and Love be with you always! May the Absolute, the ultimate Reality of Love, protect and insulate you from all the frightening dreamimages of maya, or illusion. May Love awaken you from the "nightmare" of the lightshow, the hallucinations, of war!

Visions: Some Notes

Neural connections between brain and eye number in the hundreds of thousands. They are extremely complex, and can be stimulated by a hundred environmental and internal factors. Since your experience occurred right after a cornea-transplant, your fascinating vision was likely connected to several synergistic biochemical and/or anatomical/physiological changes.

Nevertheless, it did arise from the Unconscious-- or your personal input to It. So, what you saw is felt, intuitively, to have been a "memory" from a past life, triggered by some neurological sensitivities. This kind of vision is very rare, and might never occur again.

Historically, there is a wide divergence between mystics and visionaries, even though the two are often confused in modern scholarship. For example, among the Jewish traditions, the "Merkabah" tradition is often misidentified as "mystical." It was not. It was purely and only a visionary tradition, as its literature demonstrates so clearly.

Mystics tend to enjoy visions when they occur, and to learn everything possible from them. After that, though, they tend to dismiss and ignore visions as being of little spiritual value. Visions are always fascinating, and you are right on target to examine yours, and analyze it most carefully. If your memory were clearer-- if, for example, you could transcribe some of the "hieroglyphoid" writing that you saw, it is
possible that you could learn a great deal. Unfortunately, however, as is so often the case with visions, this one does not seem to offer a great deal of useful data. So, your best bet is to thank the great Spirit for it, move on with your life in pursuit of Love, and then, keep your eyes "wide shut" just in case a vision returns!

Overthink and Teflonmind

It is fundamental to the mystical tradition that many, if not most, psychopathologies are either generated by, or supported with, conscious, cognitive thinking. As the Buddhists so well say, "All hells are selfcreated."

What is recommended, for people of both sexes, is "acognitive therapy" -- solving major thought-problems through learning the art of constructive nonthinking. The goal is to create and maintain healthy, Lovebased detachment.

This involves "running the trm ("thought-replacement mechanism")," or repeating a simple, four-syllable phrase, as often as possible, at any time during the day whenyou have an extra few seconds or couple of minutes. It facilitates the discovery of "crystalmind" or "stillmind," which is free of all the pathogenic thoughts. This constructive nondoing can be the best thing you never did! :)

Mystics Among Us

Although people in virtually every century, and every culture, have enjoyed the presence of loving people of the Enlightenment (Love) Tradition, very rarely have these enlightened beings been appreciated for the human jewels that they represent. Indeed, in most Christian, Jewish, and Moslem cultures, they have been feared and despised. Often, these God-possessed and God-reflecting people have been regarded as heretics, and murdered, as in crucifixion. Until a time such as the twenty-first century, and a free society such as that of America evolved, it was downright dangerous to be a mystic!

But now, every day, more people are finding the Way. Planetary evolution is incredibly slow, and is measured in millennia, as one person at a time must change. But it is the irresistible will of the One, the Absolute, that whole planets become enlightened. So it will happen, even though, at present, earth is lightyears from that noble and blessed goal. You and I, and many of our buds and pals-- in fact, the whole Pneumariumfamily and efamily-- are on the "cutting edge" of psychospiritual evolution!

Centuries from now, the Way will be generally accepted and recognized by even the average person. We move towards that fantastically beautiful era with Love and joy in our hearts!:) We know that Love will have the final, and everlasting, victory!:)

Some Visions of the One

God is Love. That might well be the summation of the most important of all mystical principles,and is undoubtedly and literally true. The Absolute does not HAVE Love, but IS love!

But to see the Absolute as ONLY Love, as magnificent as that is, is to reduce It from its incredible, fathomless greatness.

For the Absolute is also cosmic Mind. Check this out:

The only factor that is absolutely real within Mind-- within you and within me-- is cosmic Mind. The only real factor within the galaxies of cosmic Mind is unqualified goodness. And the only factor that is absolutely real within these oceans of goodness is Love.

So, God is the Love-response to self and cosmos, but God is also the cosmic Dreamer. This is the higher Self of traditional metaphysics, the deeper Self of mysticism, the "higher Power" of twelve-step programs, and the Brahman of the Upanishads.

It is Soul, but not just Soul; it is the still much deeper Spirit, oremind, Lovemind, or Superconscious, at the very core of the Unconscious. He/She/It uses your nervous system (senses) to bring your personal cosmos into being.

So, you could say, correctly, that the higher power has two interrelated functions: first, it Loves, lives in and through Love, is Love itself; secondly, out of pure Love for Souls, He/She dreams into being the entire cosmos. These might not be, in a larger analysis, two separate processes, but simply two ways of looking at a single Reality. To the intellectual mind, with its categorizations, it is two ways of understanding the One.

Invitation to Pneumarium Gatherings

To All Members of Our Efamily:

Happy and joyful welcome, my friends, to the ecommunity at the yahoo group! It is an extension of our more physical Pneumariumfamily! Of course, it goes without saying (but it will be said here anyway) that you are always welcome to our physical gatherings. They occur every other Sunday in our garage, in Liberty Township, Ohio. [This is between Hamilton and Middletown, right off Route Four. For directions, please call 513-737-LOVE (5683).] Please keep it in mind, and mark it on your calender! Our next gathering of the family will be on February 6. We do a lot of laughing, and share deep spiritual discussion-- the best of two healing modalities!

Here's how it operates, just fyi: We meet from eleven til two. We have continuous coffee and tea, and share a meal. We break for this, and to talk, from twelve to one. So, the meal is unhurried. At one, we gather for another session, and often close with a visualization that is relaxing and refreshing. So, we spend a total of two hours on solid spirituality.

Someone "new" shows up almost every time. (Usually, the group is les than about ten people, plus or minus a couple, so it's never intimidating.) Groupformat is a combination of q&a, lecture, and discussion. It's all, and always, free! So, y'all come!:)

Myth of the "Indigo Children"

Some are teaching, and some have made it dogma, that the last generation was "born enlightened," fully and completely. These so-called "indigo children" will save the world, says the doctrine. But since it is of no immediate practical use in the spiritual growth-path of students, clients, and friends, we do not, quite frankly, talk very much about it.

When people, societies, and the whole world appear to be in serious trouble, it is the human historical way to "discover" or to invent, some "savior" or "saviors." We often feel unable to change things, maybe even hopeless.

It is in this state that we, as individuals and as a society, become vulnerable to false "messiahs," presidents "appointed by God," saving extraterrestrials, "channeled" extradimensionals, cults, gurus, and a host of other unhealthy ideas.

Of course, we can remain open-minded, studying the world and noticing hat is actually happening. This is the best, most objective, way of testing truth.

If a special group of souls were incarnating now, as a whole generation, to "save the world," born enlightened, we would have everywhere seen evidence of this fact: New kids would be internally disciplined, well-behaved, polite, courteous, giving, generous, filled with compassion. From the start, these would be the most spectacularly loving people in the history of the world. Among average earthlings, they would stand out like giant neon signs at midnight!

Test-scores would be off the chart, crimes and drug-use, sexual abuse, and alcohol and tobacco consumption would grind to a halt. So, even though it is a very attractive hope, the idea that the last generation was a group of "enlightened souls" is not supported by the facts.

Of course, like all others, the newest generation does have the potential for full enlightenment. These kids need to be taught the Way of Love and forgiveness, the Way of interior exploration. By this method, a few will indeed become enlightened. But, I'm afraid that the myth of the "indigo" children is just that-- another myth designed to bring comfort to a world in trouble. It has no solid, objective, factual, or scientific basis.

Like others, we wish that there existed people with special powers, who could have, for example, prevented the 9-11 tragedy, or the war in Iraq. But the "only" Power that we all share-- and, used correctly, It is enough-- is that to choose Love over fear!

Jesus and Enlightened People

Matthew 7:13, 14 was simply Jesus' common-sense observation, painfully obvious, that most Souls are not finding the Way, usually due not to deliberate evil, but to distractions and/or ignorance.

This popular way is the "way to destruction," because it leads not only to the "destruction," although temporary, of inner spirituality and parts of the Soulmind, but also leads to death after death, in life after life.

Jesus recognized as the only real life what he called "timeless life," a state or condition of Mind that occurs with enlightenment. The Greek adjective aionian has often, usually, been mistranslated "everlasting." But Jesus did not promise "everlasting" life as the reward of those who trod his path; he knew that all life is already, intrinsically everlasting. Instead, he promised this special Mindstate of "timeless" being. There have been "few" who have found this path, few of the Enlightenment Tradition, Way of Love, or mysticism, all through the centuries. Alas, after so many centuries, this is still the case.

Self-styled "Psychics"

I'm a "healthy skeptic," when it comes to "psychism." That does not mean that I do not believe in psychic gifts, talents, or abilities. I do believe that they exist. But I also believe that the "real thing" is quite rare.

Most "psychics" take "shots in the dark," and use very general statements ("You are usually a very happy person, but sometimes, not so happy") to squeak by without doing anything really psychic.

I've had a few readings. During them, I am amazingly tight-lipped and silent, and can feel the scorpio-energy from the birth-chart not wanting to reveal any secrets.

Recently, astonishingly, at a fleamarket, of all places, I did have a genuine reading from a lady who did Tarot and got in touch with info to which she had no natural access. It was fascinating! It was a bit easier to believe that she was real for two reasons: she took her time, and she charged only fifteen bucks. Most self-styled "psychics" overcharge, and do not have even the minimal good taste to cloak their greed.

I also, just for kicks, got one of those "auraphotos." The first thing that the lady said was, speaking to my sister, "He almost never spends any time in his body, does he?" :)

Healing Chromovisualization

The method of healing used is chromovisualization. Here's how it works: In a deep altered state, the mind sinks into the deep waters of the collective Unconscious. The first and last names of the person to receive the healing Lovenergy are used as an "access code" to lock your mind onto her, to "open her file" in the inner archives. Then, after her file is accessed, energy is sent from the rainbow-spectrum of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet light. (Some cases also call for white, silver, or gold.)

In most cases, only one color is needed. (Sending two colors is called "bichromatic" work, three colors, "trichromatic," etc.)

In the current case, what intuition says is immediately needed is "monochromatic" red. For the "healee" has a shortage in the red spectrum. Just as people develop deficiencies in vitamins or minerals, they can also develop chromatic deficiencies. A person too frenetic, for example, often has a "blue shortage," but one with no energy has a "red shortage." If you want to join the healing process, and you are welcome, visualize the lady surrounded by a very intense, clear, and bright red "cloud" or light. Call upon the deepest Lovemind to provide the energy, and focus on the Love of your heart; Love is the only healer. It is antidepressant, but also increases circulation to all parts, including the brain, and is also generally invigorating, boosting the energy-level.

Thoughts about War

We did an episode of the radioshow "Heartmind" called "Between Iraq and a Hard Place." In that show, we contended that friendship is a galaxy more important than political views. Others would disagree, and they are, and should be, free to do so. But since friendship is an expression of Love, nothing rates higher. Re the show, and I said this on the show, pro-war advocates will see the show as anti-war, and anti-war activists will see it as pro-war.

It was a genuine, honest attempt to be objective, and to avoid one-sidedness, judging one "absolutely right" and the other "absolutely wrong." Even bush does not have enough data to make solid, good, reasonable decisions, and we are privy to only ten percent of his data. The show was essentially a plea for us not to fight each other in this country over fighting others in other places! It was a call for both sides to lay down the sword of partisanship, stop hating people who hold views different from their own, and come together in unity over the only issue that has ever mattered: Our duty and ability to get along in peace, agreeing kindly and politely to disagree. This thing, unfortunately, some regard as a jihad or "holy war"-- not that such a thing could ever really exist! I have noticed that some seem especially sensitive, and to take every statement personally, regarding disagreement as either a personal slap in the face, or, worse, as treason! But that is only my experience.

As a general spiritual principle, I am of course against war. But what about a "just" war? Fortunately, history allows us to set up clear criteria for defining a "just'" war. (And even that is a term which, as a lover of peace, is already a compromise, in order to maximize elasticity and friendliness.) In order to be a "just" war, a conflict must meet certain criteria. These include:

1) It must be approved by, and occur in harmony with, international law.

2) The war must be fought against ONLY soldiers, who are prepared to die for their cause. It must not kill civilians. (The Iraq conflict has killed 100,000.)

3) The war must result in a measureable, or even obvious, improvement in the social order.

4) The war must be fully sanctioned and approved by the society of the aggressor.

5) It must be an ultimate last resort.

6) The violence of the attack must be equivalent or comparable to the violence expressed by the attacked.

and 7) There must exist no other viable alternative, diplomatic, economic, or otherwise.

In all honesty, I cannot see where this war meets all seven criteria. In fact, it might well meet none of them.

Anyway, for what it is worth, here's just another opinion to throw into the recipe!

I have been rather severely "burned" for taking a peaceful stance. But I cannot possibly blend into a neutral background gray and say nothing. I have lost a friend over this issue; but when he stormed out of my life in selfrighteous anger, masking timid defensiveness and ultraselfconsciousness, I knew at that moment that he was never a real friend.

Spirituality expressed as friendship is much more lasting and important than today's political issues, which will be gone tomorrow, and forgotten soon.

Spirituality and the "Crowd"

All in your life is in the invulnerable and invincible guidance of the Lovemind, and so, you are also learning to believe that everything is for the good. It is good that you are beginning to settle and adapt to your new environment. I spent the first twenty years of my life struggling to adapt selfexpression to a rigid, radically rightwing fundamentalist community. If I had to do that today, I'd probably pop a cork or blow a gasket!:)

Fortunately, blessedly, the being you are inside is totally unaffected by community. Your Soul, and more deeply,the Spirit-identity is absolutely untouched by the people around you-- by their fears, their bigotries, their bitterness, etc.

It certainly helps to have such splendid role-models. You could not possibly do better, spiritually, than Theresa of Avila and John of the Cross. These are magnificent historical examples of the Enlightenment Tradition in Christianity, also known as the Way of Love!

Since you must put on a little armor of the Spirit, but not become untouchable or insulated from community and human feelings, it is crucial for you to do regular spiritual reading. Here, may I make a suggestion?

As you might know, I've written several books on the Enlightenment Tradition. These all can be accessed, free, or downloaded, free, from the website: loveministries.org

Please do access the site asap. Do yourself the greatest favor of internal healing possible, by fortifying your pursuit of the Love Tradition, by good reading. Recommended: the book called Journey to the Center of the Soul: Mysticism Made Simple is a good, thorough intro to the psychology and philosophy of the Way, with many historical examples and quotations. For something a little "lighter," but also deeply immersed in the Way, check out Falling in Love with Yourself: Love and the Inner Beloved.

Overcoming Shorterm Depression

We all, at times, must visit the inevitable nadirs that we come across on our spiritual paths. Fortunately, you are smart, and wise, enough to realize some of the important ways included in the Way out.

These include: Exposure to good reading (the deeply spiritual), improvement in nutrition (leaving out poor dead critters), and personal meditation. One of the best counter-depressive activities is to GET BUSY in the service of Love! Find someone with a need (this is cake) and work to help them find solutions. Get busy with email, phone-calls, visits, and build up your spiritual "family." Act in honest, compassionate concern-- healing in itself.

Working with environment, expose your senses to bright reds and oranges. Use essence of orange as aromatherapy. Listen to bright music. Invite over a friend for tea and conversation. Get a half-hour of good exercise.

There are, in short, many things that you can do to aid the problem of shorterm depression. Remember that the very worst response is inactivity. To "do nothing" will likely make the situation worse.

Of course, implementation is not going to be easy, as it will require discipline.

But the stakes are so very, very high, for what you can lose is your inner stability and balance, not to mention detachment, and joy. This would return you to the role of karma-generating mind, swamping you--perhaps for centuries to come! (This is a worst-case scenario, better than which would be almost any other outcome!)

Might I suggest that you get started immediately (not a nanosecond to lose) with the easiest part of the program, and begin by spiritual reading? My books were written for precisely such psychological emergencies as the one that you are now facing. (This is not an overstatement!) Please begin today to read some good spiritual stuff, carefully, with attention and mindfulness.

Love Is Action!

The meaning of Love is the meaning of life. Love can never be a quiet, inactive, dreaming "warmfuzzy" simply held in the heart. While this great feeling is a part of real Love, Love must be more than a mere feeling. It must express, actually, realistically, and practically.

Fundamentalism, Intelligence, and Humor

Grumpy old fundies hate nothing more than cheerful people-- unless it is intelligent people! They thrive on total mediocrity, and will do anything to promote and strengthen it. (But isn't that "strengthening weakness"?:)

The extremists are terrified that someone, anyone, will shine a spotlight on their weaknesses, and make them expose themselves as the worthless pieces of dirt which they believe, deep down, themselves to be! So, they never welcome those blessed with humor, or with half a brain! (Deep down, they also fear, accurately, that they are also ignorant.) As Lao Tzu might say, The ungifted do not welcome the gifted.

Well, now we can laugh at these limitations. When you laugh, they are no longer shackles capable of chaining you down or holding you back! So, it is suggested that we laugh at them, not harshly, but because their antics are genuinely funny! If you can turn a "hell" into humor-therapy, then victory is yours! The "demonic" (fearbased) are fairly adequate at debate, and condemnation is their stock and trade, but they turn to dust in the face of clear, honest laughter!

So, keep on laughing and growing!

World-enders

The various romps through many species of "prophecy" during the previous couple of decades have been very convincing: People do not embrace "end of the world" or similar views because they make any sense. Instead, they become true believers only when they have given up all hope, for the world, or for their own lives. They are both despairing and desperate.

This kind of worldview appeals to those who want to see a quick "end to all problems," rather than the patient, laborious working-out, or solving, of those real human social and personal difficulties. It is just the 'inner child" screaming for a "quick fix," and then throwing a temper-tantrum when one does not appear!

Literally hundreds of cults and selfstyled "prophets" have, through the millennia, predicted the "end of time," "end of civilization," "end of the world," or something else equally dramatic and exciting! With the inevitable passage of time, they have all proved, and been absolutely proved to be, wrong! Still, even after the predicted "end-time" came and went, with nothing happening, true believers remained in the same cult! People don't follow cult-leaders because they make any sense, or even because they are "right." They follow for other, more childish, needs!

Cults and so-called "prophets" have, nevertheless, still learned a valuable lesson from history. That lesson is this: If you are going to be nutty, and hopeless, enough to predict the "end," make sure that you do not predict it for next week, or next year! This would simply not give your ideas enough time to spread into the heartminds of the gullible! No, make absolutely sure that your "prophecies" concern a time distant in the future. Say that the "end" is going to happen, without doubt, but that it will happen "in a few years." Never predict it for next Tuesday!

People do not enjoy being proved wrong. They like even less being laughed at! Secretly, they want to change the minds of people, and thus, feel that they have great power! This takes time, even as it takes time to fool people. The most gullible will believe that the "end" is coming in twenty-twelve or some other year! Millions believed with all their hearts that the "end" was coming in the year twenty hundred! We all remember the very dire predictions! Many buy into that old, rehashed, recycled idea! There are extremists teaching that the "end" is coming in twenty-fourteen or twenty-eighteen! But they lack true influence, and are usually dismissed, correctly, as fringe-people.

Sacred Work and Money

We have heard the argument recycled, ad nauseum, that if you do not charge "big bucks" for your work in spirituality, Americans will not value or appreciate it!

But I know hundreds of Americans, and also, people from many other countries, who have proved this airy speculation dead wrong! Some of the most appreciative, and spiritual, people on our planet cannot afford to spend hundreds of dollars on their "spiritual health."

Nor has anyone the right to demand that the poor take bread from their children's mouths. This argument about money we have found to be nothing more than a very thin, transparent rationalization to justify greed! So-called "spiritual teachers" are by no means "beyond" greed. Nor are they above resentment, envy, competition, etc. They have come to view spirituality as a "competitive business," and they seethingly resent anyone who does the good public work for free!

But beyond all psychosocial considerations, the real spiritual teacher must consider carefully the pattern of her role-models, the very best: Did Jesus, Patanjali, Kwan Yin, Al Arabi, Solomon, or the Buddha ever set up a "toll-booth" to collect money for their teachings? I don't think so; if they did receive donations, they were just that-- voluntary donations, not elicited fees, charges, or payment for spiritual sharings.

No, these great teachers never acted for money or profit. They acted solely out of Love for the people. To suggest that they should have done otherwise degrades their noble missions and ministries. So, Love Ministries, Inc. has no intention of following the cults, and trying to drain the people out of all the money that the "teachers" can get their grimy little hands on!

This is clearly unspiritual, even antispiritual. In ancient days, the Jewish spiritual people recognized the dangers of too much money, or of "selling" the sacred. So, in their pantheon, they had a "demon of gold." His name was "Mammon," and that is why Jesus said, "You cannot serve both God and Mammon." If the choice is between serving Love, and serving a demon-- and it is-- we will always choose to follow the Lord of Love, in both words and example.

Also, when Jesus threw the money-changers from the temple, the conflict was over this very issue: Is it ever justifiable to charge a "reasonable" price for spiritual treasures? Jesus appeared to be giving a strong, sound "negative."

Not to be fanatics or extremists, we do not condemn those ministries who do charge for their work. But, as far as it is possible (we are poor), we have embraced it as a policy never to charge for our educational spiritual work. This cannot include expensive publishing, but it does include public lectures, personal visits, personal counseling, public seminars, audio-tapes, cd's, telephone-work, email-work, and all the other aspects of our educational ministries. These are all done for solely Love-donations. People donate whatever they can afford, often, nothing at all.

Re-energizing the Fifth Chakra

If you want to re-energize, or awaken, the fifth chakra, a good place to begin, on a practical level, is:

Get a blue light-bulb and "bathe" your head in it after dark, while watching tv, listening to music, or reading. The more spectrum 1 blue (visible light) you have in your field, the more you will attract spectrum 2 blue (chakral energy).

The tm Cult

The tm people have always had a wonderful worldview based on the ancient mystical texts of India. It is sad that they have evolved into a closed cult, whose members feel "chosen" and superior, and whose leader displays the ego shamelessly. That was clearly never the intent of the wisdom of mysticism, in its Indian, or any other, variety. So, while the teachings are often bright and beautiful, the cult itself has been caught up in ego-worship and dogmatism. At this moment, Indian mystics are whirling dervishly in their graves! (Or is that Sufism?:)

The solution to human, and planetary, problems can be summed up in a word rarely used in all the complex verbiage of this self-styled "guru," Love! The tm cult offers to bring peace to whole cities by importing meditators, but they charge from ten to forty million dollars to do it! Isn't that hilarious?

Still, I was very refreshed by the genuinely universal wisdom included in the words of the old cultist. His cult has taken over a tiny city called, I think, Fairfield, Iowa, which has a tiny population. Although every other person in the little berg is an every day meditator, crime has not disappeared even there!

Cure for Some Depression

The phenomenon of moving negative energy to the "wrong target" psychologists call "displacement." The pattern is not at all unusual, and it is fairly well-understood.

Nothing is more fun-- and nothing more healing-- than loving others!

A "solution" to depression is keeping yourself busy. And if your actions-- whether cleaning up the basement or any other project-- can be done in a spirit of Love, this approach can evolve into a true and permanent cure. The worst thing that a depressed person can do is to follow the poor advice of much psychology, and to think (or, mope) about her depression. The best, and lasting, cure, is completely to lose yourself in the Love-service of at least one other person.

So, stay busy, my friend. And, whenever possible, act out of a Love-motive. This will get you in touch with your inner Lovenature or Lovemind, and that is a permanent solution!

Reality

The mystic says, "God is all," implying, of course, that "all is God."

The worldview behind that is: The only absolutely "real" or authentic, independently genuine Reality in the cosmos is Mind. (The "physical, material, external" cosmos is the dream of this Mind; so it is real, but its reality is relative to Mind, or secondary.) The second premise is that, in all the galaxies of Mind, only goodness is real. Mind is intrinsically and axiomatically flawless and perfect

And in all of the bottomless oceans of goodness, only Love is real.

This Mind is Reality. So, by definition, It can have no real opposite. Thus, there is no absolutely real evil symmetric with absolutely real good.

Mind is an extraordinarily complex reality. Mind has many "levels." The only one which is familiar to the average person is the "conscious mind." This is a kind of ultrathin slice "off the top." But "below" this level are millions of layers of the Unconscious, which I have divided into the following levels:

1) preconscious, containing readily accessible data and memories, 2) the personal Unconscious, containing data and memories all the way back to the moment of egobirth, 3) the Soulevel, containing data and memories going back before birth, 4) the collective Unconscious, a shared telepathic link-up held in common, unconsciously, by all sentient beings, and 5) Coremind or Lovemind, an ocean of illimitable, immeasurable beauty, wisdom, Love, and goodness-- usually called "God."

If you are at all interested, this is elucidated in my book Journey to the Center of the Soul, either accessible or downloadable free from my website, loveministries.org

Please do take a minute to checkout this website. I'd love to receive your feedback. You can also order the book onsite, if you are interested. You might find captivating some of the ideas of both pneumopsychology and agapology.

Serenity through the trm

You have a good, thorough understanding of exactly what your difficulties, challenges,and problems are. They are all caused by the fact that you are thinking too much, and too often.

There are two solutions: first, make an inner vow that you are not going to think so much. Your mind is like a store-room containing many things. Some of them are beautiful, but you cannot enjoy them because there are far too many for the store-room's capacity. It is far too cluttered, far too packed. Thinking in its place is a good thing; but too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing.

Second, begin the practice of "thought-replacement." Here is how this is done:

Select a positive, simple, healing, attractive phrase of four syllables. It can be, "I am free, and..." Or it can be, "Does not matter," or it can be any of a thousand others. Make sure that the phrase that you choose is attractive and pleasant, positive to the max.

This phrase is called the "trm," or "thought-replacement mechanism." It is designed precisely to solve your specific problem, which I call "overthink." It is very common.

Now comes the more challenging part: All during the day, when you have extra time, a few seconds here, a few minutes there, do not let your mind just meander aimlessly and wander around in your past. That is the old way, and it is the last thing that you want. Instead, whenever you have any spare seconds, or minutes, start "running your trm." What does this mean? It means that you start turning the trm (the four-syllable phrase) over and over in your mind. Just repeat and repeat and repeat the phrase (trm). Do this as much,and as often, as possible. Remember that your goal is to stop excess thinking.

Stay with the same trm for a year or two, or longer. The longer that you use it, the more powerful it will become. Do not keep changing it. Find one that you really like, and stick with it.

A popular trm is, "I am at peace." But find one of your own that you really like, and use it.

This will, in time, open up the Unconscious. Deep in the Unconscious, there is a Mind filled with profound wisdom, an ocean of Love, incredible tranquillity, bottomless beauty, infinite Love, and immeasurable compassion. This is perfect Mind, and It is inside of you. But thinking prevents Its "coming out," or being expressed in your everyday life. All your life, you have been "blocking" It by too much thinking.

This deep Mind is not only perfect, but has no selfconsciousness, and so is your cure for your shyness as well.

So, choose your phrase (trm), and get started right now. Run your trm as often as possible. It should be your goal to repeat it hundreds of times every day, although counting them would be distracting, and you do not want to do this.

The inner Mind is also, btw, a perfect singer.

In time, you will start to say, "I am no longer John Jones (your egoname), but I am, more and more, actually becoming this perfect Mind."

I know that this sounds incredible, but that is what you will say, someday. But you will never know how miraculously this simple meditation can work until/unless you try it. I call this technique "pervasive meditation," or, "acognitive therapy." It increases skill, decreases selfconsciousness, and gradually transforms your "ordinary" mind into perfect Mind. For It is already perfect, at a very deeply unconscious level. So, do not mistake this for "self-improvement." It is instead "selfdisappearing." For, in time, as your old self, called John Jones (egoname), disappears into this higher Mind, all your problems, hassles, and hang-ups will disappear with "John Jones" (or, whatever your egoname). But YOU will not disappear. Instead, you will become a joyful, radiant, productive, creative being of immense Mindpower. You will become a virtual fountain of Light and Love, peace and happiness, for everyone around you.

Your problems are caused by thinking. Trying to solve them by more thinking (about them) is like trying to douse flames with a flame-thrower. You must put out a fire with its opposite, water. You must solve overthink with nonthinking or unthinking. Pervasive meditation will transform your life. I know because I have been practicing it for many years! You'll love it!

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to drop me a line.

Meanwhile, to strengthen yourself, please visit our website at:
loveministries.org

You can download, or access, free, all of my books on this website.

Detachment Towards Transcendence

The problem of dealing with a difficult relative has been met and overcome in this life.

This donkey has been "blessed" by a very difficult and challenging relative with a decided "superiority" complex. What worked here might not work in your case, but it will be shared, just in case that it might help:

It was soon discovered that the relative was not the problem. And she was simply not going to change. She had a superiorism set in mental concrete. Finally, after much thought and concern, it was realized that she was a "teacher of detachment." This, btw, is a lesson that we often would rather not learn.

It was realized at some point that the only "solution" was to grow into the place where it simply did not matter what she did, said, or thought. This was the only path to peace. For she had a strong knack for always doing the "wrong" thing, making the wrong reactions, usually unthinkingly and petulantly.

It finally dawned that this behavior hurt only because I allowed myself to view it as very important. I realized, gradually, that the actions of one tiny person in this galaxy were not at all important to the galactic Self. This moved me towards the mystical state of detachment called "transcendence." The beautiful techniques of the trm and Teflonmind were used regularly.

I knew that the challenge was this: Grow into independence, detachment, and transcendence. In that elevated altered state, the actions/behaviors of this difficult lady would not matter more than those of any stranger. I really did not care how a stranger behaved, as it was none of my business. But I had to realize that this lady's actions were also none of my business. She was an adult, with her own brain. I needed to simply let go. I needed to grow to the point where her actions did not matter.

This sounds, on the surface, like a withdrawal of Love. But closer examination will demonstrate that it is not. You simply cannot love anyone if her every move seems "critically important" to you. Only with a modicum of detachment is Love even possible. You cannot love a person who has a strangle-hold on your heart. First, unlock your heart.

Experience has shown that pisces-moon people are almost incomprehensible to others. They can be very moody. And the closer that you get to them, the worse the challenges become. Of course, this is just a generalization, and might not apply to any one person in particular. So, a little distance, combined with a deliberate, conscious effort to detach, seems to be your wisest course.

The difficult person will not change. This implies that you must.

Travel.

011405fri

 

Dear Heidi,

 

Your response to the article on travel was very welcome, and it was good to receive it.  The voluntary implication of the article was not that all travel had zero value.  Certainly, anything that contributes to, or is a part of, our spiritual growth is extremely valuable!

 

Travel can indeed make us interiorly richer.  Exposure to new places and new faces is a sign of a healthy, balanced mind-- as contrasted with the unhealthy, antisocial hermit!

 

Culturally and spiritually, we have been enriched by having lived in Guatemala.  That experience really imprinted on the mind the necessity of simplicity, as it is a third-world country, where poverty is great.  (We rented a two-room home for twenty dollars a month.:)  It altered the philosophy of materialism, and committed us to a life of nongreed.  We would not at all be the same people without having had that experience.

 

Our very kind friend Frank has provided many trips to Dublin which have also enormously enriched our life-perspective.

 

These two facts are used to illustrate the fact that we do indeed share your perspective that travel can be good.  The only purpose of the article was to point out that moving your tiny body around this "nanosphere" of a planet does not, in itself, increase your value as a total human being.  We are no "more important" or "better" than the person who has never moved her front gate!

 

Love,

 

Shi

Cults, Masters, and Travel

The entire Christian fundamentalist concept of an "end time" is a myth and a superstition. I have seen this problem from both sides. I was a fundy minister in an extremist right-wing cult. Now, I do lifedesign work to aid ex-cultists, helping them to break the bonds of cult-psychology. Cults are attractive because they offer "answers" to all questions. People often have more than a touch of mystophobia, and want to live in a cosmos empty of all mystery. By stunning contrast, the mystic is a mystophilic, and loves mystery. Now, I use extra caution to stay a galaxy away from anything-- any teacher, group, or movement-- that tries to restrict or regulate individual freedom. I do not respect groups or "teachers" who do not respect individual rights to select what one believes.

Is it a teaching of Astara that the earth has been "destroyed" three times? How can anyone know this? How could anyone ever prove this? It seems that, had the earth ever been literally "destroyed," it would no longer be here. To "destroy" something, by definition, is to obliterate or dissolve it, to remove it from existence. After severe impairment, a system can be "renewed," but it cannot be "renewed" if it has been completely destroyed.

In the larger overview of history, all complex empires have fallen under the crushing burden of their own cultural and economic complexities.

The true mystic has never wanted, ever, to "master" others. A true "master" is never the master of other people, but the master of only the self. A person who has mastered the elements of egotism, ignorance, violence, and other personal limitations is the only true "master." This is because she has overcome her personal dragons and demons.

The "kung fu" tradition is a good example. The phrase "kung fu" simply means excellence. A very good carpenter, for instance, can be a "kung fu" carpenter. A really fine artist can be a "kung fu artist." So, a "kung fu master" is a person who has mastered the excellent art of living. To this mastery, all mystics aspire.

The master is not created by selfimprovement. Instead, the pre-existent inner Master is discovered, and one becomes a human "master" only after fully surrendering to this Mind. A true "master" is an empty mirror of highest Mind, nothing more. So, any claim to being "special," or taking "credit," is out of the question. A real master is marked by never claiming to be a master. You can be absolutely certain that anyone who claims to be a "master" is a fraud!

Human beings such as Jesus and the Buddha set perfect examples of how real masters live. They lived lives of what the Buddha called karuna, and Jesus called agape-- both words referring to compassion, goodness, kindness, and Love. Only the practice of yielding and surrender to the deepest Mind, profoundly in the Unconscious, liberates us from the wheel of life-and-death, or karma. We cannot do this by merely changing our beliefs. The mystic never "lives" on earth, but is jvtp-- "just visiting this planet."

Re the mystics of Tibet: They could do "tricks" such as melting snow, but they did not consider these "powers" to be important at all. Mere "powers" are worthless on the truly spiritual path. All that really counts is self-dissolution into cosmic Mind. In other words, you become all by becoming nothing. You disappear into higher Mind, and then, It speaks, writes, teaches, and acts through you. This is simply an extension of Jesus' famous paradox, "The greatest will be the least." The true master strives to become the "least," and is not the least bit interested in playing games, or impressing other people.

Technology can be either destructive or useful. Some cybertech is very useful, such as that which makes our email communications possible. As in all things, the enlightened do not take any extremist positions. They are neither "all for" nor "all against" technology. Technology is not good or bad in itself, but is a tool that becomes good in the hands of good people, and bad in the hands of the bad. (This is, of course, an oversimplification.)

"Truth," like wisdom, is to be found only in the deepest Mind. You are "plugged in" to that Mind, and so am I. This is why the mystic finds NO VALUE in travel itself. The master does not need to be running around all the time. The great secret has been realized that travel does not enrich your life at all in itself. People who brag and boast about travel are announcing to the world that they are not enlightened. The master Lao Tzu wrote, "The sage can see the whole world without moving the front gate," and this is what he meant. God is to be found equally in your own home as in any "sacred site" in the world. The mystic is not made a microgram richer by travel. So when the master goes to Peru, for example, it is because there are people there. There is nothing, has never been anything, special about Peru or any other place on earth. Spirituality has nothing to do with either geography or history. Instead, it is a "right here, right now" pursuit. People who are impressed by places, who take a "golly gee whiz" atitude towards Peru, Egypt, Israel, Mecca, or any other place, are spiritual toddlers. Spiritually, these people have not even learned to "talk" yet.

Shamans use "spirits" (different levels of the Unconscious) in their work, and these do the actual healing. In the life of the mystic, the Spirit does not only healing, but writing, teaching, speaking, and other "normal" or "everyday" things. In Zen, they say "samsara is nirvana," which means that the highest Mind is found by being an "ordinary" person. Indeed, the true master cringes at the thought that people will admire or praise the ego, which works against spirituality.

Balancing the Brainmind

It is wonderful,and itself therapeutic, when you take and initiate steps to regulate some of your neurochemistry. As you are well aware,neurochemistry is gigantically complex, and it is part of many other systemic functions with which it is interlocked.

You can accelerate your healing by making sure that you get some regular aerobic exercise. A minimum of thirty minutes three times a week is recommended by most trainers and nutritionists.

This increases oxygen to the brain, and the O-two molecule is intrinsic to every major neurotransmitter function! Also, try to make sure that you are getting enough assimilable b-vitamins, often in liquid or sublingual forms. Try melatonin to establish a regular sleep-pattern. Avoid too much sugar and coffee. Try some meditation and/or deep breathing every day.

Continue to work on your understanding of reality, cosmos, and Mind. This can also be enormously stabilizing and settling.

Planetary Evolution

Not only are politicians not at all interested in the practical answers of mysticism and related philosophic systems. They haven't a clue that the "answer" even exists! The closest that they ever come to spirituality is mere religion-- still a galaxy away! It seems that the very best that any human being can do is to seek personal enlightenment, and let the Light of cosmic Mind shine through her. This is a slow process. Destined planetary enlightenment and evolution is even more laborious. But the Mind does have forever, and is in no hurry.

Right at the moment, we are in the midst of one of the most primitive and savage eras of human history, sparked largely by politicians, all hell-bent on a war that will prove to be both expensive and disastrous.

Plans

There is a galaxy of difference between reasonable planning and overplanning. And there's another galaxy between making reasonable plans and then pinning all hopes on expectations. So, we choose the middle path, which is not to reject planning as "bad," or "inferior," but simply to set up tentative plans, but stripped of all expectations of their actual appearance. I would never go to the unhealthy extreme, at any rate, of thinking that moderate planning was either "bad" or "unenlightened."

Plans can be an expression of compassion, created to accommodate the needs of others, not personal ones. Done in Love, planning can be an actual part of your spiritual path.

Genesis, Polytheism, and Pantheism

Re the word elohim: It is an old Hebrew word, and means "gods" (plural).

But in Genesis, it was deliberately mistranslated as "God" (singular). This deliberate mistranslation was used to drive away the troubling specter of polytheism (the worship of many gods). In 1611, when the King James Version of the Bible (still standard in many churches) was translated, you could be burned at the stake for "heresy" (disagreeing with the formal Church). So, any hints of polytheism would have been deadly. So, astonishingly, the first verse of Genesis does not correctly say, "In he beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," but, instead, "In the beginning, the gods created the heavens and the earth."

If our earth is indeed a bio-labatory for a higher civilization, this translation makes much more sense. Also, modern archeological and textual research indicates that the original Hebrews might have been polytheists. Other research implies even that Genesis is not even a document that originated with the Hebrews. So, there are a number of possibilities.

It is certainly possible that forms of the word elohim, or at least its cognates, predate the formation of the nation of ancient Israel, even predating Abraham and the formal Hebrew language. It is very likely an incrediblly ancient word, as it designates the central Mystery of creation and history.

Speculations abound in this, and every other field of metaphysics. There are, for example, a bunch of fascinating theories regarding souls and energy-fields. I do not usually bother with them, as their study usually has little to no value in the practical spiritual life. But of course, they do make a fascinating study in metaphysical speculation. But this is only peripherally related to mysticism, the Center of the spiritual path.

The basic metaphysical speculations of the Cherokee are also interesting. "For example, they teach that stones have a very primitive "consciousness" or "soul." In metaphysics, stones are often used for energy, as the theory holds that they radiate a very subtle life-supporting and mind-enhancing "light" in a spectrum that is
invisible. It is certainly possible that stones have "souls" of a sort. But what is known is this: Animals-- that is, sentient ones (mammals)-- certainly do have souls. The soul (deeper levels of Mind) are what make a living creature sacred. So, all traditions of wisdom forbid murdering mammals for sport or convenience. Human beings are certainly blessed withSouls, although it just complexifies matters to describe the human soul as triune or tripartite.

It is overly simplistic, even naive,to say that "God did not create the universe; he is the universe." This is a very old and dusty idea called "pantheism." Although mystics are often mistaken for pantheists, because they see God everywhere, in each material thing or situation, mysticism is very different from pantheism. In pantheism, "God" is just another word for "universe."

Actually, the "physical" cosmos is the dream of the cosmic Mind, deep in the Unconscious. This profound facet of Mind, called "Creatormind" or "Dreamer," is part of the Spirit. God is not quite reducible, in this primitive fashion, to the material cosmos. When you have a dream at night, it would be foolish to say, "You are nothing more than that dream." So, God is not the cosmos, but the Mind behind the cosmos.

When you dream of a little red wagon and a blue ball, you, as mind, are "in" the wagon and the ball. In this same way, God is "within" everything, for Mind is within all, as the Dreamer of this great dream. This philosophy is the mystical, and has been called "panenthism," to separate it from naive and ignorant pantheism. God both emanates the cosmos and indwells it immanantly. God is not the material cosmos, as in pantheism, but divine Mind or nature is "within" everything.

Dualism, Dreamworld, and High Shamanism

Until we move beyond the oppositional perspective (dualism), our thinking can never be clear, or spiritual. Every "yin-yang" (oppositional) view of the cosmos represents only relative truth. Absolute truth is that the cosmos is a seamless Mind, whole and undivided. It is a mirror of the Brahman of the Upanishads. It is all Buddha-nature, all Christ, all God, nothing but great Spirit (In native tradition, Wakan Tanka or Manitou).

Astara is a very interesting school. It is not a true mystical school, but, like its Rosicrucian roots, a metaphysical one. Of course, metaphysics is fascinating, even compelling. It can be quite profound and true. Its highest forms can lead even to mysticism. Much of it concerns reality (truth). But the ultimate Truth, or Mind, is the arena of mysticism rather than metaphysics.

So, a mystic can be relaxed and open to many metaphysical speculations, but devotes her timenergy to defending none of them. She is neutral rather than dogmatic. She embraces what is good in all schools and religions. The only focus of the mystic is the Ultimate, the Absolute, the Lovemind or Godself that is the very nucleus of the Unconscious mind. Many of the Egyptian adepts, for example, such as the historical basis of the legendary Thoth and Osiris, were true mystics. All the "people from the stars," from every cultural tradition, brought mysticism as their great gift to the human race, and mind. Not only native American and Egyptian, but virtually every other culture, traces its spiritual origins to the "people of the sky," or to "gods and/or goddesses" of some kind.

Do these represent extraterrestrial ancestors or teachers? It is possible, but the mystic has no dogma. So, her heartmind can be open to all; she is an infinite being.

A good example is the set of predictions about the year twenty-twelve. The mystic is completely free from the shackles and chains of being forced into a particular belief-structure. She does not panic, or spend her days and nights in fearful worry. Mystics do not believe in "end of the world" scenarios. Still, even if an entire planet does expire, the mystic continues on her sacred Way! Enlightenment, the only thing that matters, or will ever matter-- that of the whole cosmos-- has nothing to do with time, prophecies, or calendars.

So the enlightened do not get mixed up or entangled with this kind of speculation. For in the entire history of the world, every prediction about the "end" of civilization (and there have been hundreds) has been dead wrong. People love to create "metaphysical soap-operas" in their minds. There is something unhealthy and even perverse in the human psyche that delights in the spectacle of the death of millions, polar shifts, Armageddon,etc., but the mystic will countenance none of it. It is all much too destructive and wasteful. She longs only for the evolution of all sentient beings into an enlightened state. She knows that the destiny of this cosmos is peace, Light, and Love. To quote the famous mystic Paul, God will be "all in all."

Her greater Self is timeless, and she does not waste timenergy arguing about calendars, which are phenomena of the spacetime, or lower, "material and external," world. This is only illusion; it is all a dream.

Re the "aquarian age": Almost all astrologers believe that it has already begun, and is marked by events such as the computer-revolution, travel to outer space, and the United Nations. It is believed to have begun in the 1950's, but this is only a matter of calendars, and again, the mystic is not dogmatic.

Dualism is expressed by the statement, "The universe is real, not a dream." For the cosmos is real, very real. But at the same time, it is a Mind product or dream. The words "real" and "dream" are not exclusive or opposite. For this is to fall from the enlightened perspective into the darkness of dualistic thinking. All mystics agree that the entire cosmos is Mind, plus nothing. But, because Mind is "real" (part of "truth"), so is the cosmos. But its reality is secoondary or relative. To what is it relative? On what does it depend? It exists relative related) to Mind, and its existence depends on Mind. And only Mind is absolutely real.

This means this: If you were to make the whole cosmos disappear, Mind would still remain, exist. But if Mind were somehow to disappear, so would the entire cosmos! In Western psychology, this condition of creation by Mind is called "dream." Light, prana, and ether are but various expressions/manifestations of Mind.

There are two forms of the One, "mental and physical." There are two apparent forms of Mind, but the Mind is essentially, at root, undivided. So even "matter" and the "physical" cosmos are also Mind or Mindenergy in a special form.

Re shamanism: To be a "high shaman" is much different than being a "low shaman." A low shaman knows about tricks, curses, hexes, and a lot of psychic stuff. He or she can usually be bought or hired for money. The low shaman is big on the paraphernalia, and loves to wear bones, claws, and play with lots of dead animals, or parts of them.

But the high shaman respects all life. So, when possible, respecting creatures, a high shaman will usually do ceremonies without using parts of dead animals. A high shaman has no interest in collecting parts of killed innocent animals. A high shaman is always first and foremost a mystic. He or she emphasizes the sacredness of all life, for it is all the One. Anything is possible in a dream. So it is only the high shaman who rises above the phenomenal world into the worlds of inner Mind. Low shamans are always talking about "spirits," "powers," "other worlds," and "secrets." Much of this is nonsense or fiction. High shamans are nonegotistic, and personal "power"means little to nothing to them. In short, they are mystics. They seek to be conduits for the One Power, defined as respect, compassion, goodness-- in a word, ultimate Love.

Nothing Exists but Perfect Lovemind

If you allow distractions to take your mind away from the Way or path of Love, truth, or Light, this creates an over-emphasis on the "separate" self. This self feels very alone at times.

Of course, it can never be. The crux, the foundation, the matrix or skeleton of all error and/or illusion is this illusion that "your" mind is separate from Mind, cosmic Mind. This great and common mistake is called "dualism." It promotes the illusion that some things can exist outside of Mind. Its second illusion is that the Mind has a real "opposite." The ancient Eastern sages said, "God is closer than the breath that you are now breathing in."

But when we begin to think that we are only bodies, only brains, we lose sight of the very basic fact that we are actually nonphysical minds, or Souls. As minds, we are simply dreaming up bodies, and worlds for them to inhabit.

The most foundational teaching of the Enlightenment Tradition is that, in all the worlds, only Mind is absolutely real. Since you partake of Mind, by thinking, by selfawareness, this means that you are also absolutely real. For you are part of the Absolute, Spirit, Lovemind, or God. It is relative to no other person or thing, but is the only Reality in the cosmos.

The only reality in your life is your mind. And in its deeper levels, the Unconscious, it is no longer "yours," but is simply Mind. (This is what we in the West have always called "God.")

So, in all the universe, all that is "really real" is Mind. The mystical phrase, "God is truth" can equally be, "Mind is Reality." That is why a mystical synonym for God is "Reality." And, in all that Mind, the only factor that is "really real" is Love.

Every spiritual journey can be broken down,conceptually, into parts. The first part of the spiritual Way inward is called "the beginning." When you first started on the inner path, you were willing to give it your all, your everything. If somewhere along the way, you lose the vision that made you so happy, enthusiastic, and energetic, the joy becomes boredom, dull and ordinary. The solution? Remind yourself frequently that life, like Mind, is a beautiful miracle! Meditate, and open
yourself, regularly, to the great Source of all joy, the deep Godmind in the deepest Unconscious. Even if you lose your first enthusiasm, it is NOT because you have somehow "become a bad person." It is simply due to the much more prosaic fact that you have allowed yourself to drift from the Way, to be distracted by problems and challenges. You might be in danger of falling into dualism-- the belief that anything or anyone is separate from the One. So, remind yourself continuously that God is in everything-- every object, person, event, and situation. "God is all, and..." could be a helpful trm in pervasive meditation.

To understand this greatest of mysteries, you must remind, and reremind, yourself of these factors: The world is a dream. It is being dreamed up THROUGH, although not BY, your personal mind.

Since it is being dreamed up by a Mind that is Love, everything and everyone in your entire world (all that you know) is dreamed up to serve your deepest Self. The highest gift that Mind can give us is spiritual growth. This is growth in Love-capacities. To do this, It will dream up complex challenges, just as a good teacher of math will provide complex problems for a student for whom she really cares.

When you realize that everything/everyone in your world is dreamed up by a perfect Mind of Love, you will begin to cultivate a state called "allembracing Mind." This is the state in which you re-unify the cosmos as an "allgood" world. In this world, all labels of "absolute evil," "absolute bad," "absolute ugliness," etc., are dissolved and neutralized.

Our reward? We get to return to the inner "Eden," the "Garden of pure pleasure" in the heart! Nothing/noone is absolutely bad; in the end, even karma and maya are the servants of perfect Mind, and of Love.

The enlightened mind never seriously uses such words as "bad" or "ugly," for she lives in a cosmos in which every event, situation, and object is good and beautiful. She has stepped beyond the illusion of dualism. She undoes the damage done by "eating" of the "forbidden fruit" of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil."

Some of this profound metaphysics seems boring, unclear, and irrelevant. But if you can take to heart the one simple fact that is the center of this message, it will dramatically improve everything in your mind and world. So, this is no attempt to flee from problems, but to solve them at their very heart and essence. For human problems cannot be solved unless they are understood in the light of being embedded in philosophy. So, all that you need to remember about this article is this: Even
though you cannot understand it or see it, everything is good because everything serves Love-education.

You probably have many questions. That, of course, is a very good thing. You can find some of the answers to some of them by reading my books, available free online, at: loveministries.org

At that site, the books can be 1) accessed, 2) downloaded, or 3)purchased. Please begin with the book Falling in Love with Yourself: Love and the Inner Beloved. As you read,when you have a question, jot it down and send it along! I am here to serve you.

Btw, the snailmail address is:

Adamaria and Richard Francis,
5100 Liberty-Fairfield Rd.
Liberty Township, OH 45011

In case you need to talk, the number is 513-737-LOVE (5683). Have a bright and beautiful day, and enjoy this magnificent gift of lovely, crisp, brisk weather!

Warning: Beware Potential Cults

As this article is proofread, an apology is appropriate for its length. But it is desirable and necessary to be thorough in matters of spirituality.

From the purely mystical perspective, a number of challenges present themselves in the examination of the words of this "teacher." (His egoname is James Twyman.) The whole thing has a certain cultlike feel about it. But I do not know enough to state this dogmatically, so remain open to future input. It is cultlike only because the man tends to talk far too much about himself and his experiences. A truly enlightened man would never draw so much attention to himself-- much less, make the whole message about himself and his "special revelation."

Perhaps it is possible to be a bit too careful regarding these matters, but it is very much preferable to err on the side of caution rather than carelessness. Also, as is true of so many in our culture, but never true of the enlightened, he seems to think that geography has something to do with truth or revelation. God is, of course, no more present or active in Israel than in your own home or front yard. He even goes so far as to speak of the "energy radiating from that sacred ground," which is really not true. Divine energy arises from the heart, and never comes from "ground." As far as the sites where the events of Jesus' life occurred, they cannot be pinpointed with accuracy, although there are a few confllicting claims. The Spirit of Christ was totally set against any attention being paid to the man Jesus, which was missing the entire point that the same Spirit of Love lives within you and me.

He mentions Jewish and Muslim "sacred sites," and again repeats the statement that there was something special about the "sites." There is no advantage to any kind of "sacred site," but especially not if they originate with these archaic and warbased cultures. These religions have, on the whole, proved to be unspiritual, and land has always meant much more to these cultures than God. Although most are impressed by them, as the whole culture seems enamoured of their mystique, they are more cultural and human paths, legalistic ones, than spiritual. Again, he referred to the "holiness that runs through this holy land." Holiness does not run through "land," but through heartminds. And it is this error that has caused this area to be so blood-soaked throughout history.

He then speaks of his many "psychic children" coming to him. I am usually a bit suspicious of "visionary experiences," especially when a self-proclaimed teacher points so much attention to himself. What are these "psychic children"? (This might be another clue, for a cult always has a lingo unknown to outsiders.) This sounds much like his unhealthy inner "parent" speaking. A cult always wants to give you a "daddy," or wants to be yours!

Another thing: A couple of decades ago, I came into touch, and even studied with, a guy who said that he belonged to a group called "the Emissaries of Light." This might not be the same group; and it might just be coincidence, but this group, back then, was explored and discovered to be a cult.

Some of the language of the letter implies that the guy sees people as divided between the "beloveds" and others. If this is not a cult, it could well be the beginning of one. And what is with this name, "spoonbenders"? To most, this implies an unhealthy emphasis on psychism in place of mysticism. Why did he choose this odd name? It reminds me of the Course in Miracles, which is seriously overnamed; it's as if the book is going to teach you how to engage in the miraculous, which the book definitely does NOT do. They both strike one as mere "p.r." names. He even refers to the "flow of miracles," which certainly plucks the heartstrings of the desperate, the poor, and the sick. But this, too, strikes one as mere public relations, since real miracles are, by definition, extremely rare, and it is seriously doubted that this man is a source of them. He can no more allow miracles than can the book. Both make false promises, the very stock-in-trade of cults.

Of course, it can be argued that life itself is a miracle, etc., but the word is not understood in that way in a religious context.

He then describes an imaginary visualization which has a couple of earmarks of near-halllucination,for he describes "Jeshua" as a "real" man. I don't think that the "man" was 'real,"for he has already admitted that the entire event occurred in his imagination. That fits the dictionary-definition of a "hallucination." Again, if "Jeshua" were real, this man is making an implicit claim to be a true and chosen prophet, for "Jeshua" does not reveal himself, he implies, to just anybody.

He confuses his imaginary experience, probably voluntarily, with reality.

And why the use of the name "Jeshua," if not to imply special, or superior, or at least different, knowledge? (It's a painfully-obvious variation of "Jesus.")

There is some real good in what the man says: For example, his presentation of Jesus as a human person rather than an unreachably high icon is great, as is the recognition that Jesus was not a Christian, Jew, or Muslim. That can really be respected, and it is a little-recognized fact!

Inner alarm-bells and red alerts are triggered whenever anyone claims to know "secrets" about reality. "Jeshua" tells this guy that he is about to reveal "the secrets of heaven and earth" to him. But he never quite says what these great secrets are. This is a common ploy of occultists to keep their readers coming back for more. The truth is, there are never any real "secrets" revealed in such books. Most are not worth the timenergy to read. A mishmash and recycling of platitudes about visualization, positive thinking, and even "love" are recycled. These have been discussed a thousand times before, and do not constitute "secrets." Like many cults, the promises made are glowing, and point to spiritual heights well beyond the actual presentations. What is NOT there, what is merely implied, is richer by far than what is actually there.

It is also suspicious when any person claims to have had divine revelation. This is the claim made by this guy. If you question anything that he says, you are not just questioning a man; you are doubting, even denying, God or Jesus. For the whole "revelation" is claimed to be, not of human origin, but straight from the mouth of God or Jesus! This is the technique of mind-control or mind-influence used by every other cult since the beginning. It marks most of the over one thousand cults now active in the United States. It is a rather pathetic last resort. It is a desperate argument, probably hiding imperfections, to say, "I didn't say [write] that; Jesus [or God] did." Who could validly question that?

To sum up: This article contains only opinion. These statements are not designed to be statements of unquestionable truth. Setting up dogma is not the intent. It is not necessary fully to reject this guy, or his sincerity. This is only a sharing of honest opinion, based on decades (even centuries) of spiritual specialization. We must always be very careful to educate, and to warn, friends, clients, and students about anything that even vaguely smells like cult-psychology, for that can do untold, unutterable destruction to the Soul and mind. The intent is never to tell you what to do or think. But the best path is simply to leave this guy behind and return to the writings of the great mystics and luminaries of history, for reliable, solid spiritual guidance. This one is too full of himself to be of real use in aiding others to overcome ego. Just an opinion, but an educated one that arises from most painful cult-experience!

The Tsunami

We can understand well your vicarious suffering with the horrid tsunami. A catastrophe of this dimension and scope is difficult to impossible even to imagine.

The first question on everyone's lips is, of course, "Where was God?"

In addressing this most important question, the most important thing to remember is that God is not an interventionistic "big daddy in the sky." That is the view of only the spiritual toddler. Spiritually evolved people realize the higher truth that "God is Love." It is up to us, and other compassionate people, to bring God into the situation, right now. God is not in the disaster, but in the recovery. God is not in the destruction, but in the repair. God is not a "rescuer" like the "white knight," "genie," or "fairy-tale" god of the public imagination.

First, all-- each and every one-- of those souls chose that very minute to leave the planet. Second, no one really ceased to exist. Third, the death-experience is more astoundingly pleasant and ecstatically joyful than we can even imagine; death has been seen by mystics as no curse, but as a great liberation. So, instead of bemoaning all the "death," we can learn that that huge mass of souls experienced both bliss and liberation through a joyful Transit. Fourth, all souls must leave this earth. It is only a question of the timing and the manner of exit. There are much more nightmarish ways to leave than a quick drowning. People who have almost drowned, and have been saved at the last minute, tell us that drowning is very quick and painless. You leave the body almost immediately, and there is often no pain, and no suffering. Fifth, many of those souls left behind disease, starvation, poverty, and other aspects of horrific lives; and now, they have been given a new start. They have been dealt a "new hand." Sixth, they are now enjoying the ultraparadise of the Homeworld, described in the novel Luminous Ecstasies and Passions.

That having been said, it is crucial not to "mope," to sit around and allow your head to be filled with thoughts of loss, suffering, and tragedy. Those are mental toxins. The facts just shared are not justifications. They are facts to bring us some comfort in the face of unimaginable disaster. No soul ever leaves the earth at random or by chance. Every soul programs in the very minute of its exit. So, death does not just, as it appears, strike randomly "out of the blue."

The tsunami is designed to awaken new Love, not only in those who left the earth, but in all of us. It presents us with a sterling opportunity to practice compassion.

Love Ministries, for example, has donated a hundred dollars to Unicef, the UN fund giving loads of aid. We are also going to send one hundred dollars to our brother David in India, to support his personal relief-work. It is not the amount that you give, but the spirit of Love in which you give, that is vitally important. For it is only intention that counts in eternity.

CAUTION: Believe it or not, there have been some fake "charities" set up to grab money from the tender and sensitive. Make sure that you give to a genuine, real charitable group that is really going to reach the people. And watch for administration-costs; we want the funds to go to the work, not to administrators. Unicef makes sure that 93% of the funds actually end up aiding the people, and it has a long record to prove it. In David's case, we think that 100% of any donations will go straight to the effort.

Hope that these few words can help you in some of your adjustment to this massive Transit of so many souls. If you still find yourself troubled, practice pervasive meditation ("acognitive therapy") after you have taken practical steps to give aid.

The Real Jesus

It is very easy to see why and how one could be "turned off" by the presentations of Jesus in our culture. Yes, my friend, there is Jesus, and there is Jesus! I will have nothing to do with the Jesus of televangelism, which is part caricature, part clown, and part out-of-control, screaming preacher. I very much prefer the Jesus of history and spirituality-- the tranquil, compassionate, soft, tender, loving, and brilliantly wise teacher.

This Jesus does what he tells us to do-- truly loves his enemies. And that means only one truth: He has, recognizes, no "enemies." He is friends with all sentient beings. He radiates, overflows with, compassion. But he is balanced, and is also sharply intelligent. He is all here, all right now!

As you know, he is the perfect incarnation of the Christ-spirit-- a name for the God/Love-human interface. This lives actively in your heartmind and mine. So, this Jesus is relevant-- stunningly so-- to our every thought, word, and deed. When we embrace the world without negative judgments, when we accept reality as it is, on its own terms, as the Taoist mystics emphasize, we are firmly centered in reality ("truth"). So, any other approach becomes unrealistic, and the mystical Way the very apex or zenith of realism.

To communicate with this "interior Other," this "Beyond within," is never to walk alone. This Jesus is a universal man, a true intercultural mystic. Even the human Jesus of history was rejected by the religious Jews, and so, was not a religious Jew. And he was not a "Christian," for that word had not yet been invented. So, what was he? He was a man who was in Love with Love, and he defied all categories.

He is a platinum role-model. You can become a "Jesus-Christian" without ever becoming an orthodox "Christian." You can be this type of Christian without joining any organized church. And you can also detach from the detestable history of the "Christian" church. This is just one way within the Way, a true form of the mystical tradition. It is a pleasure to join you on this very high, nonreligious, spiritual path!

In the Flow, In the Zone

Re limits: Of course, we all have them, and in wide variety and abundance. The mystic seeks, as an often far ideal, to come into touch with a Mind that is limitless and illimitable, but that, of course, is only an ideal. And even when she momentarily succeeds, her human part (called "human or lower nature" in mysticism) soon reasserts itself, recreating boundaries and limits.

It is only for rare moments that even the mystic of many millennia can come in touch with that omnipotennt Mind that dwells deeply, very deeply, in her Unconscious. So, mystics are almost always "ordinary, everyday" people, despite their moments of true transcendence.

The best creative person, any really creative genius will tell you, allows the gift to appear. She does not force it, or see herself as its origin. The best painter "lets the painting paint itself," the best writer "lets the script write itself." So, the challenge of the mystic is to allow life to live itself, spontaneously and naturally, through her-- without interfering with its natural patterns. To do this, she tries, works hard, to get into a state of Flow, which is effortless cooperation with the One in the Unconscious. Mystics believe that, if we can stay "out of the way," what will manifest is the higher Nature, or Love.

It is not easy to learn to do this, to be in the "zone," and it takes much practice. But it does not stop at simply being in the Zone; the mystic must then learn to live actively out of that inner Space.

Expectation-Disappointment

The amount of disappointment that we feel, in any situation, is largely self-designed. How? Because we suffer only as much disappointment as we allow ourselves to expect.

If my expectation-level is one hundred-- very, very serious and invested heavily-- then, my disappointment will be also one hundred-- very agonizing and severe. But if I can cut back my expectations to a level of only fifty-- if I can teach myself to expect with a power of only half-- then I immediately cut in half my feelings of disappointment.

Even the best, or most spiritual, mind probably cannot cut expectation to zero. And that might not be even desirable. Certainly it is not realistic.

But, if we can, most of the time, with most people, under most circumstances, minimize our expectations of others, and of events, we can also minimize disappointment.

Example: If you ask a teen to do something, and you do not really expect her to do it, then, you feel no disappointment when the job is not done. This works with everybody.

The good news: With a little awareness and monitoring (mindfulness), we can voluntarily remind ourselves to form minimal expectations. Since expectation is the cause of disappointment, and we can control our expectation-formation, we can then regulate the level of disappointment in our lives.

This really does work. Just give it a try, and it will prove itself. The next time that you find yourself expecting certain results, from a condition, event, or person, try to ratchet down the expectation. Then, if it is successful, you can celebrate with as great an intensity and joy as you want. But, if the enterprise fails, you can cut way back on your pain.

This is a good example of practical applied spirituality. Try it, expecting nothing from yourself,and you will see very happy results.

Mental Stress

Much, if not most, of the suffering on our planet has been mental/psychological/emotional. These are sometimes due to brain-neurochemical imbalances, which are, of course, radically affected, even dominated, by changes in the physical body. They can be the result of nutrition, genetics, or other factors.

These impact upon the brain. It is the organ of thought's formulation and transmission, but it is not the origin of thought. Instead, thought originates in the nonmaterial mind, the self. For the self is a mind, not a body.

Most people have gone through that rollercoaster ride. It can be tough, and take you to an interior hellstate. Happily, meditation and/or Love can liberate you from that stress. Visits to these states of mind have all been considered a most valuable part of training in psychology, which cannot be obtained from mere booklearning. This donk went through a three-year stint of general, chronic depression. It has also passed through significant times of anxiety, including panic-attacks. (Some of this has been tied in with brain-nutrition, and some has had other causes, known and unknown.) Cases of social anxiety disorder have appeared, for example, as well. It is almost as if this life has been a psychological smorgasbord, containing every state from agony to ecstasy. Nothing can educate about mindstates as well, or as thoroughly, as having been submerged in them.

There have been no indications of psychotic breaks with reality, but all of the more minor mindstates have been experienced. So, if you would ever like to talk about feelings, please do not hesitate to give me a call, at 513-737-LOVE (5683).

Positivity-vow and Negativity

Many mystics take personal interior vows to fill their minds continually with as much Love, and to repel as much fear, as possible. This article describes this kind of vow. The intent of letters, including emails, is largely self-sharing. A part of good and lasting friendship is coming to know facts and histories of the friend. So, anything shared was not mentioned in order to change your style or content of writing, but simply, as self-expression.

If you want to mention painful, harmful, or negative events in your writings, that is fine. As a psychospiritual advisor and lifedesign consultant, indeed, much of what I hear every day-- from clients, students, and friends-- describes the negativities, hurdles, and obstacles of life.

These must be understood, explained, and analyzed before any progress towards recovery, or growth, is possible. My interior vow was a personal matter only. Its purpose was not to cut off "negativity" from others, but to make sure that, as you said, it does not take over the heartmind and dominate the personal life. One is most immediately responsible for those thoughts and ideas that come from within. It is these that, in the end, can make or break a person's happiness.

The attempt is to fill the whole heartmind with God, or Love, or its resulting joy, as often as possible. This does not mean that the enlightened want to create barriers to, or fences against, communication with others. Often, to aid another, or even to relate, one must share negative memories, thoughts, ideas, and events.

The mystic does nothandle negativity by a "head in the sand" avoidance or evasion. Instead, she carefully studies and analyzes the world, and her reactions to it, learning from everything. So, she must of necessity include much "negative" material in her mind.

But she does not let it take over, or establish a permanent home in her psyche. She refuses to cross the line into a negative consistent mindset, a masochistic relishing of negativity for its own sake. She does not continuously feed her mind with negativity, which is the sustenance of fear, Love's opposite. So, we must be careful never to see it as a "black and white," "all or nothing" situation. One cannot completely avoid negativity; but neither must she fill her mind with it daily or hourly.

The interior vow was not to feed the psyche a regular diet of fear and various negativities. And that is all. To live in the real world, and especially to aid others and the self to a healthy mindset, it is absolutely necessary to consider both the positive and negative events of life. So, please do not take the vow with extreme literalism, or as an expression of extremism. It was never designed to try to neutralize all negativity all the time. But, whenever possible, it was designed to re-mind of the necessity to fill the mind with Love, regularly and consistently.

Suffering and Growing

Life has, for so many, been a virtual study in suffering. The donkeys (bodies) have suffered through a number of critical and serious dysfunctions. The body is the instrument through which we often learn our most important lessons, including sympathy, empathy, compassion, and many other forms of tolerance, patience, and Love.

This is the "hard way" to learning. Earth is the notorious "school of hard knocks." But these events have created interior strength for countless millions. They have also tended to create, or to reinforce, interior detachment. They have also led to death, and the afterlife experience. So, they have taken away the fear of death. So, all in all, despite setbacks, they have had an overall positive effect.

The fastest, and surest, way to inteerior growth is suffering. The Buddha started an entire system of spiritual psychology (more that than religion), by asking the simple but complex question, "Why is there so much suffering (dukha), and is there anything that we can do about it?"

So, Buddhism emphasizes detachment from the material world, and emphasizes that happiness is a completely interior process, unrelated to "external" things and conditions. We are happiest only when we can realize that we have a great Source of joy within, and when we realize that It is independent of material "stuff."

Living with order in a chaotic world, and with reason in an unreasonable one, requires the adoption of good moral and ethical guidelines, which, in Buddhism, is called the "eightfold path." These include such items as "right speech, right action, right meditation," and others.

But beyond,far beyond, those practical suggestions is a very deep realization. It is this: Deep in "your" and "my" Unconscious is a Mind that is all wisdom, beauty, and deep tranquillity. Stillness, as in meditation, is the Way to cultivate our connections with, and realizations of, this deep Mind. This Mind is the true "Buddha," or "Christ."

Coming in touch with It, mastersages such as Jesus have altered the planet. But they, the mystics of history, were not content simply to touch It, or to realize that It existed. They wanted actually to embody It, to become It, in physical incarnation. Jesus was "God" precisely because he was the incarnation of Love, for "God is Love."

These masterteachers all taught that the Way to become enveloped within, absorbed by, this Supermind was Love. So, we call It the "Lovemind" or "Coremind."

The mystic's path is that of "surrender." This means that we stop trying to run our own lives, and instead, turn our lives over to perfect, stainless Love. Trying to run our own lives is analogous to an ant insisting that it run a cybernetwork. This is not something that we must, or can, do. Instead, it is a state of being that we must allow to happen. Again, this is where interior stillness or meditation comes in. For, with practice, meditation leads to a regular, steady state of "stillmind," a mind of vast tranquillity. While not "untouched" by the events of the world, the mystic does often "transcend" (rise above) them, and is not controlled by them.

Jesus said, "You cannot serve two masters." So, we find by experience that we cannot serve both the world and Love. In choosing to surrender to Love, we shatter the shackles that keep us bound always to the world. We get off its maddening rollercoaster, and find an equanimity or even, smoother, more stable plane of being. The crazy heights and depths tend to level off, preventing our plunging into depression or anxiety.

It would take a whole book fully to explain the Way. So, your deep and fine inquiry cannot be completely answered in a single small article such as this. But, happily, I have written books about the Way. If you would like to begin at the beginning, with an intro, I recommend the book called Falling in Love with Yourself: Love and the Inner Beloved. If you'd like a copy,just send your snailmail address to:
rmfrancis@juno.com.

We'd be more than happy to send you one.:)

Sending Pieces to the Uld

Thanks to all of you, my dear friends, for forwarding pieces, from time to time, to be included in the uld ("Universal Love Digest"). But there are some limitations about which you should be informed: We are not allowed by law to reprint material that is already copyrighted-- or, at least, not without written permission of the author(s). This applies to both printed (hardcopy) materials and to ematerials on the web or forwarded through email. This is silly for an ezine as small as the uld, but it is still the law, and we do not want to break it, for reasons of honor and conscience. Often, when we find an article that is irresistible, it can be completely rewritten, and then, used freely, as it has become our original piece and property. But as most people are not capable of this, we usually, unfortunately, do not use articles whose copyright is intact. But thanks very sincerely for thinking of the uld, and we hope that you will again think of us whenever you have any original ideas that are share-worthy.

As a brief reminder, we are seeking fairly short pieces (a few paragraphs) regarding spirituality, psychospiritual topics, personal spiritual experiences, reprinted emails, teachings, miscellaneous spiritual thoughts, and related materials. Please, no "channeled" material, no cult-propoganda, no belligerent or exclusive religion, and no politics.

Thanks very much, with Love,

Richard