Do Not Be Fooled at the Polls

Dear Friends of Mother Earth,

I've just received an alarming email. This Tuesday, when Ohio voters head to the polls to vote in the primary election, Big Tobacco plans to collect signatures to help put their Pro-Smoking Amendment on the ballot!

We must get the word out to Ohio voters - your friends, coworkers, and family - that they might be tricked into signing Big Tobacco's petition at the polls.

Will you help?

Tell 10 of your friends not to fall for Big Tobacco's tricks. Tell them, DON'T SIGN THE SO-CALLED "SMOKERS' RIGHTS" PETITION! Clearing the air is the only way to protect you, your family, and workers from more than 4,000 dangerous chemicals found in secondhand smoke. Not surprisingly, Big Tobacco is working hard to stop SmokeFreeOhio. We want to protect the health of Ohioans, Big Tobacco only wants to protect their bottom line.

You can help!

Tell 10 of your friends NOT TO SIGN THE SO-CALLED "SMOKERS' RIGHTS" PETITION!

Tell Your Friends Now!

Their latest ploy tells me one thing – they are extremely nervous. As poll after poll has indicated, Ohio voters overwhelmingly support clean indoor air. Like you and me, Ohio voters know that secondhand smoke is a serious threat to their health. Make sure this summer you and your friends only sign SmokeFreeOhio's petition--the smoke-free workplace act.

Thanks for helping us stop Big Tobacco!

Sincerely,

Tracy Sabetta
SmokeFreeOhio
*******

Help Save Our Little Brothers and Sisters

Urgent: Over 230,000 More Seals Will Die

The senseless slaughter of 230,000 seal pups began this week off the coast of Newfoundland.

This second phase of Canada’s annual commercial seal hunt takes place off the remote Front of Newfoundland and Labrador, its cruelty usually safely out of sight from the rest of the world. A competitive, reckless environment known to be extremely difficult to regulate and monitor by government authorities, IFAW is at the Front to show the world the truth about the seal hunt. But I need your help to continue documenting the cruelty we have already witnessed in our first days of helicopter observation.

Where have all the seals gone?
The location of the sealing has moved much further north due to the drifting ice. On our first day of observation we saw 10-12 sealing ships attempting to navigate through the broken chunks of floating ice, trying to find seals to hunt.

Climate change is affecting the ice that harp seals depend on for breeding, nursing and resting. It is unclear if the terrible ice conditions have already taken most of the young seals, or whether the seals are simply too spread out for sealers to find.

Either way, it’s not possible under these conditions for the government to accurately assess the current seal population or the true impact of the hunt. To slaughter over 300,000 seals in the face of uncertain ice conditions that may continue for the foreseeable future is beyond irresponsible.

Already, the first phase of the seal hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence took more than 16,000 seals over their quota for this year.

Guns or clubs: the suffering remains the same

Rifles are used to kill 90% of the seals on the Front, yet the cruelty continues. Seals are shot, taken onto the boats, skinned, and then tossed back into the ocean.

We have already documented several cases of seals being shot, wounded, and then lost under the ice. We caught one poor seal on film that slipped into the water after it was shot, struggled to stay afloat, and then finally disappeared under the ocean.

You can see the latest hunt video diaries and audio podcasts here.

Five ways you can help stop the seal hunt

It’s not too late to speak out now and add your voice to the growing international pressure against the seal hunt. We’ve made it easier than ever before for you to make a real difference: simply visit our Seal Action Center for five different ways to help.

And if you haven’t done so already, please consider making a contribution to IFAW to help support our efforts on the ice. The costs of documenting the hunt from the remote and dangerous Front are extremely expensive: from helicopter travel to remote video equipment and connectivity, I need
your help to expose the cruelty being inflicted on baby seals to the rest of the world.

Thanks again for your ongoing support,

Fred O’Regan
President and CEO

P.S. You can listen right now to an audio podcast of IFAW Seal Campaigner Regina Flores as she talks about the opening of the Newfoundland phase of the commercial seal hunt, in which over 230,000 seals will be killed over the next few days.

International Fund for Animal Welfare April 14, 2006
PO Box 193 • 411 Main Street Yarmouth Port, MA 02675
www.ifaw.org

Failure?

Good for those of us in need of a laugh!

1- Go to Google

2- Type in the word "Failure"

3- Instead of clicking "Google Search," click "I'm Feeling Lucky."

4- Look at the first item on the list. Defines "Failure."

5- Spread the word before the people at Google "fix" it.

Well what can i say? It speaks for itself. This is just too funny not to
pass on.

(Thanks to Sandra Grubb)

Another Horror of Greed

Dearest Friends of the Heart,

http://www.colorofchange.org/sudan

It's time for Americans and our allies to take a stand against the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. [1,2] 2] Since 2003, as many as 400,000 Black Africans have been killed[1] and over 2 million Thousands have been driven from their homes, in what the UN has called the "biggest humanitarian crisis in modern history." It's genocide, plain and simple, but no one is doing what's necessary to stop it.

Our voices should be among the loudest calling for an end to the mass murder of Black Africans, and, as citizens of the most powerful country in the world, we have a very real ability to make a difference. Speaking of the genocide in Rwanda, the late Senator Paul Simon said, "If every member of the House and Senate had received 100 letters from people back home saying, 'We have to do something about Rwanda,' when the crisis was first developing, then I think the response would have been different."[3] Voices coming from every corner of America, all with the same message, would have forced Congress and, more importantly, the President, to act. It's a tragedy that there were not 100 people in each district to speak up for the Rwandans who were being slaughtered in 1994.

We can't let a similar tragedy unfold today. Let's take advantage of the opportunity that we have: let's get 100 people in each of the 435 congressional districts in America to demand that our government stop dragging its feet and take decisive action to stop this genocide:

http://www.colorofchange.org/sudan

This week, the time is right to make our voices heard. Tens of thousands of people will march in Washington, on Sunday, April 30th[4], to demand that President Bush take the steps necessary to end the genocide and build a lasting peace. National media will be focused on the horrors of this genocide in a way they haven't been since it began.

The people of Darfur are victims of a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing and murder because they're from the same ethnic group as rebels fighting the Sudanese government. The government has used pre-existing ethnic conflict in Darfur to its advantage, arming and supporting Arab militia (known as Janjaweed) who carry out attacks on rural villages, killing large numbers of civilians, raping and assaulting women and girls, burning and looting homes and communities; they are preventing emergency food, water and medical supplies from reaching refugees. As the situation worsens, the army and the Janjaweed militias are attacking even refugee camps in Darfur and across the border in Chad.

There is agreement that a UN peacekeeping force, with the authority to protect civilians, and the resources necessary to do so, is the best hope to stop the killings.[5] The United States, more than any other country, has the ability to make that peacekeeping force a reality.

But while bush says that he cares about what's happening in Darfur, and even though he and Congress have officially called it genocide, his actions suggest otherwise. – He simply hasn't made Darfur a priority. Why not?

The United States reportedly worries that pressuring the Sudanese government could interrupt easy access to terrorism-related intelligence.[6] The administration would also have to apply real pressure on China and Russia, countries with veto power in the UN Security Council; they rely on the Sudanese for access to cheap oil; and therefore, they don't want to pressure them.[5],[7]

Our government is calculating that it's worth tolerating genocide, and the loss of hundreds of thousands of innocent Black lives, to avoid rocking the boat. But it can't continue to look the other way if we don't let it.

Now is the time to speak up. When we say enough is enough, it changes the political calculus; and it can force our leaders to act. Let's demand that our government take action which sends a powerful message to the international community, the government of Sudan, and, most importantly, to the people of Darfur: we will do everything in our power to end the genocide immediately and to establish long-lasting peace and justice for the region.

Thanks and Peace,
-- James, Van, and rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
April 24th, 2006

References:
1. "Darfur's real death toll" Washington Post, 3/24/2005
http://www.colorofchange.org/ref/sudan_1.html
2. "Q & A: Crisis in Darfur" Human Rights Watch, 3/10/2006
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/05/05/darfur8536.htm
3. "The Secret Genocide Archive" New York Times, 2/23/2005
http://www.darfurgenocide.org/news2.php?article=News/nytimes.htm
4. "Rally to Stop Genocide" SaveDarfur.org
http://www.savedarfur.org/rally/
5. "How the UN Can Stop Genocide in Darfur" Africa Action, 1/17/2006
http://www.colorofchange.org/ref/sudan_5.html
6. "Official Pariah Sudan Valuable to America's War on Terrorism" Los
Angeles Times, 4/29/2005
http://www.colorofchange.org/ref/sudan_6.html
7. "China, Russia bar Sudan sanctions" BBC News, 4/18/2006
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4917970.stm

A New Nightmare of War

*******
STOP the Bunker Buster Simulation in NV and Iran War Plans

This action page is brought to you by the activism of Marcy Winograd, running for Congress in the 36th District of California:

STOP THE BUNKER BUSTER SIMULATION JUNE 2ND IN NEVADA

ACTION PAGE: http://winogradforcongress.com/actions/pnum266.asp

In the New Yorker magazine, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported that teams of American combat troops are being sent into Iran. They are going, under cover, to collect information on military targets (such as underground bunkers). The decision to attack might already have been made.

The Department of Energy is preparing for a 700-ton conventional bomb detonation. This is planned for June 2, 2006, on the Western Shoshone Native American reservation. (The tribe strongly opposes this.) This horror is planned to occur in Nevada. It is a preliminary for the use of actual nuclear weapons against Iran. If launched, a nuclear "bunker buster" would spew harmful radiation, potentially killing thousands of innocent people.

The bush administration seems bent on destabilizing the globe. It would benefit every member of Congress to take a strong stand against a pre-emptive strike on Iran. Bullying Iran, talking about "regime change", and simulating large-scale bomb-attacks in the Nevada desert, will only undermine diplomatic efforts.

Winograd's opponent, Jane Harman, remains non-committal on the subject of US air strikes against Iran.

American intelligence agencies and the International Atomic Energy Agency (I.A.E.A.), agree that Iran ultimately wants to produce nuclear weapons. But intelligence officials and the I.A.E.A disagree on how long it would take for Iran to become a nuclear power.

Critics of the bush administration argue that Iran is several years away from developing a nuclear weapon.

"The United States has adopted a nuclear double standard," says Winograd, pointing out that the bush administration wants to build 125 new nuclear bombs each year. Says Winograd, "If we really want to ensure peace and tranquility for our children and our children's children, if we really want to discourage Iran from pursuing nuclear weapons, then we should honor our commitment to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, denounce the first use of nuclear weapons and model for the world our commitment to reducing our nuclear arsenal."

Winograd also expresses concerns about the military's circumvention of Congress's authority to declare war. "By sending scouts into Iran, to collect data on military targets, the bush administration is preparing for war; and it is undermining the constitutional powers of Congress. Every lawmaker who sits on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees should denounce the bush administration for jeopardizing our national security."

Winograd is challenging incumbent Congresswoman Jane Harman in the Democratic Party Primary, June 6th. During the campaign, Winograd has criticized Harman, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, for not adequately scrutinizing pre-war intelligence analysts' objections to the invasion of Iraq.
http://winogradforcongress.com/niequotes.htm

"I will vote to cut funding for the Iraq war, and bring the troops home," vows Winograd. "I will reject the bush doctrine of pre-emptive war; and I will engage the nation in redefining the meaning of security."

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this message to everyone else you know.

Important Announcement

We here at the uld, Lovelight magazine, "High Spirits," and Love Ministries, Inc., are delighted and excited to announce that the date has been selected for our next grand megasale at the Turtle Creek Flea Market.

Our supersale is slated for Saturday, May 20, 2006, from 9 am til 5 pm.

So, we encourage you, dear friends, to give. Give to others, who can make practical use of products that, for you, have no use. Support the earth through recycling, instead of throwing out old items; though they are useless to you, they might be of some value or use to others. Also, spring cleaning is an opportunity to simplify your life, ridding yourself of useless excess: Live simply that others may simply live.

The "old and useless junk" that you find in your basements, garages, attics, and storage sheds can be of real value to those who might need these things. We will not be collecting furniture, beds, dressers, or other large items. But we will be selling small tables, bookshelves, and other small furniture. And we are most interested in, and actively collecting: books, cd's, small electronics, collectibles, some toys, nick-nacks, and any other small miscellaneous items that are in fairly good shape. (If something needs complete reconstruction, we will not be selling it.:) Jewelry-- and most women have more than they can ever use-- is also an item that is convenient to handle, and which tends to sell well. Also, we will be accepting women's handbags and women's shoes.

But no other clothing, please; even among the very poor, in our country, it seems as if everyone has a couple of leaf-bags full of clothes.

But if you do have any relatively small items in fairly good shape, simple bric-a-brac that is just getting in your way, or taking up space, please let us know, and we will pick it up and take it off your hands. Give to the poor, recycle, and simplify!

Just let us know by May 18, at rmfrancis@juno.com :)

Thanks to you all, for improving our planet.:) Any funds collected will be used ONLY for nonreligious spiritual education.

Love, and Blessings pouring down upon You,

The Love Education Team of Love Ministries, Inc.

Various Faiths and Truth

Many faiths were founded upon the mystical experience of one spiritual being. All mystically-founded faiths do have in common what the Spirit wants-- a form of Love, expressed as compassion, kindness, openness, tolerance, and other positive virtues. Religions need not share anything else in common, for spirituality is Love, and Love, spirituality.

The great ideas of the historical lumanaries get all mixed up with intellectual teachings, and the fight is on! Each has to prove the self "right," and everybody else "wrong." The masters have all made it clear-- in Jewish mysticism (kabbalism), Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Sufism, and Christianity -- that it is much more important to be kind than merely to be "right." In fact, in all, to be loving and compassionate is the only "right" way to follow the leading mystics-- Solomon, Jesus, the Buddha, Lao Tzu, Al Hallaj, Patanjali, and all the rest.

The Spirit has no interest in homogeneity or conformity. That is why all religions are as different as the flowers or butterflies of the field. As stated on the [radio] program, each faith has its own "specialty." Christianity was supposed to be all about Love, Buddhism spiritual psychology, Hinduism the many disguises of the One, Taoism perfect faith, nature-faiths the sacredness of nature, Jewish kabbalism the indwelling (immanent) God, Sufism about deep personal relationship with the interior "Beloved," etc. A perfectly balanced way finds the combination, eclectically, of all faiths to constitute a spiritual and seamless Whole.

Growth continues, of course, and we are never "finished products" while on earth. But having found the reliable guideline of Love has changed everything for the better. And having taught "agapology" (the psychology of Love) for thirty years just reinforces the wisdom of the Way. Contrasting it with closedminded fundamentalism only makes it more beautiful.
*******

Rde's, obe's, and remote viewing

Your inquiry is a fascinatingly profound and necessary one. The "obe's" [out-of-body experiences] are different from the rde's [real-death experiences], for an obe does not, and is not designed to, lead to death. And a "remote viewing" session is different from both, for it might or might not involve an actual obe. It might just as easily occur psychically, all in the head, as in visualization. (Remote viewing has been demonstrated to be accurate, by none less than the skeptical and cynical military.) In a project called "Starlight" (I think), its efficacy and accuracy were demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt. The mechanism of the process is not, cannot fully be, understood within the framework of ordinary psychology. As of now, it must remain in that odd realm known as parapsychology."

When evaluating the rde, we must be very careful of bias. For we have all been deeply affected, on subconscious and unconscious levels, by the avid and arid materialism of our cynical culture. We have been reinforced many times to dismiss anything that seems outside the box. We are taught to feel selfconscious, and even ashamed, to think differently than our peers.

So, one of the best things that we can do is to turn to the professionals, and ask them what they think. In the case of rde, one could make a very solid case for its representing a real, as opposed to hallucinatory, event. And once you experience it, you come back from it with a solid personal conviction that it was no dream or hallucination; for you are wide awake during the whole experience.

This has been proved many times by interactions with others in the room -- for example, in watching or listening to them. This would be impossible in either a dream or hallucination.

Another reason to view the rde's as real experiences is the variability of hallucinations. Give ten people acid, and you will inevitably have ten very different experiences reported. But all the rde's reported have been identical in their core-events. Hallucinations never display such homogeneity, even if caused by the same neurochemical agents or environments.

"Remote viewing events" can be generated, to some extent, by willing them. Rde's, by contrast, occur involuntarily when the body-brain is in severe crisis, close to actual death. The two states have much in common, although there are also a few other details that separate them into different states.

Whether or not you agree with death-survival, you are right: The most important objective is to live a life as filled with Love as possible. I've had a couple of death-experiences, and in one, was given a kind of "tour" of the afterlife, by a volunteer who called herself a "guide for newcomers." Not surprisingly, this produced a book. It is my only work of "fiction," for its adventures were so incredible that this was the only way to present their fantastic contents. (But the book actually contains visionary experiences that, at the time, seemed as real as anything in this world.) If you would like a copy, just send us your snailmail address, and ask for Luminous Ecstasies and Passions: Journeys Into Afterlife. Or, in shorthand, just ask for "leap.":)

When I outgrew the backwards primitivity of the crude materialism of the JW cult, my knowing of the afterlife has given great strength during the passing of loved ones, by which I otherwise might have been crushed. Not only does it provide hope, but it makes possible the eventual solutions of all earth-problems in the vast and immense "someday" of eternity. It does truly make life so much richer and more beautiful when you view the "eye-blink" of this life as part of a much more colossal whole. It removes great stresses and burdens. It promises fairness and justice.

As you know, I believe in reincarnation-- that forgiveness can be total, because we have many lives to work out our problems. This belief is reinforced by its acceptance by most of the people on our planet during most of history, including mystical Jews and early Christians. It is also the only explanation that makes any sense, as so many other, fairly feeble, ideas have been examined at length and in detail.
*******

Politics and Evangelican Fundamentalism

SPECIAL ISSUE: POLITICS AND EVANGELICAL FUNDAMENTALISM

This article is based on, "The Devil Inside: Ralph Reed Hits the
Evangelical Movement in the Gut," by Bob Moser, in the April 17, 2006 issue of the Nation.

Ralph Reed is the "former boy-wonder of evangelical politics" and a Christian Coalition co-founder. Lieutenant governor of Georgia is a position that Reed and his fellow extremists see as a jewel. For it is movement towards still higher positions in government. But their political movement has recently turned into a "living nightmare." Millions of dollars of dirty money was obtained by Reed-- by lying to other evangelicals. For he tricked them into supporting the crooked "Casino Jack" Abramoff. Reed's former extraordinary advantages with Christians have exploded and collapsed disastrously. His economic empire has also vaporized. He does not celebrate new conquests as a politician, as he had hoped. Instead, his corruption is being revealed publicly and nakedly, so that he can no longer hide it. This is "Christian" and rightwing corruption.

Reed formerly transformed the Georgia Christian right into a ruthless political machine. It made possible Georgia's Republican senator. Reed also joined forces with the dishonest Abramoff and Grover Norquist. The latter's Americans for Tax Reform is also smothered with scandal.

Reed is notorious for his arrogance and conceit, as well as his artificial "Howdy Doody grin.” He is described, in the article, as an "incorrigibly boastful, smooth-talking operator." It is said that he "dazzled--and blinded-- evangelical Christians." He also misled wealthy Republican supporters and newspeople.

But now, in his shame, all the accolade and applause are gone. He lives in humiliated embarrassment at the continuing revelations of his thievery. In Nina Easton's book Gang of Five, his first win in politics is shown to have been faked. The article calls it "mass deception." It is suggested that still-gullible followers are awaiting some halfway-convincing explanation for his decline and fall. But even his admissions seem more like self-serving phony religiosity than true confessions.

He claimed to have aided in the prevention of five new casino-operations in Alabama in 1999. He claimed to have been totally opposed to casino-gambling operations. His major challenge now seems to be to find ways to appear, as a loser, to be a "winner." The article calls this attempt "self-redemption." These attempts are accompanied by a masklike "iron-willed smile." He even stooped to paying people twenty dollars and a free hotel room to attend a Georgia Christian coalition convention. This, and similar antics, expose his "mounting desperation."

The Abramoff scandal has coerced him to have to struggle for votes of even Christian conservatives. His "entanglement in the ugliest corruption scandal since Teapot Dome" is spoiling any hope for a decent reputation, soiling his future as well as his past.

Reed was executive director of the Christian Coalition from 1989-1997. He took the "lion's share" of personal fame and other percs for having turned around the uneducated and unworldly evangelical right. He polished and honed it into a restructured "Republican Party machine." While he used to symbolize, even embody, the political power-lust of the "Christian" right, he now represents only many screw-ups that he has made.

His m.o. is the same as that of Muslim and other extremists: He tells people that his causes are their religious duty-- pointed out by Georgia's former GOP House minority leader, Bob Irvin, in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution op-ed. While small groups of activists started as grass-roots gatherings, the movement became quickly organized along exactly the same lines as a church. Leaders at the top are supposed to be blindly trusted to be "good and wholesome" men-- and they are not. So, the "war" can be only as good as its generals; when they are rotten, so is the whole cause. Leaders such as Reed and Dobson have proved beyond any doubt, by their actions, that money and power are so much more important than the people-- or their issues, such as abortion and homosexuality. The corrosive effect on the cause of Christian politics has begun to eat away at its very foundation. Since they are many, they also threaten the Republican Party. As many as twenty percent might not even show for an election, if they are not being positively energized. And they are not; they are being discouraged.

The leaders are crumbling. Anti-gay crusader Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition and right-wing Rabbi Daniel Lapin of Toward Tradition both allegedly took money from Abramoff. He gave them bribes from eLottery. His purpose was to defeat a federal ban on Internet gambling.

But Reed is much more deeply entangled in such lies and bribery. And his "cloak-and-dagger activities" strike the evangelicals like a knife in the "gut."

From 1999-2002, Reed's consulting firm, Century Strategies, set up "anti-gambling" coalitions in Alabama, Louisiana and Texas. These were ostensibly to oppose new casinos. Reed convinced a swarm of pastors, along with national names on the evangelical right-- James Dobson, Phyllis Schlafly, Gary Bauer, Donald Wildmon, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson-- in a series of anti-casino campaigns. Reed established a few "front" groups. They had wholesome names such as Citizens Against Legalized Gambling. They organized rallies, and sent out mass mailings. They moaned and bitched about the evils of gambling. They also flooded legislators and state officials with thousands of calls. These were the same techniques that Reed had groomed so finely in his Christian Coalition days. They were also the same methods that Dobson's Focus on the Family use against abortion. But now, Christians were, in ignorance, serving and supporting gambling. They were doing the will of Abramoff. For his Indian casino clients were spending their millions to defeat competitors.

Reed grabbed more than $4 million in Texas alone. All this fortune, stolen from Christians, was used to organize phony anti-gambling campaigns. It was also spent to intimidate Republican officials. Reed criminally refused to register with the state as a lobbyist-- a criminal offense. He also refused to register for his secret, hidden lobbying efforts on behalf of another Abramoff client, Channel One. This was the in-school network despised and hated by "pro-family" conservatives. (Three public-interest groups filed a complaint against Reed for failing to register his lobbying. He could have been sent to prison for a year if convicted. But because he had manipulated nondisclosure, evasion, and secrecy, Reed managed to wiggle out of trouble on a technicality.
The article continues with the summary, "But the fallout from Reed's 'anti-gambling' efforts has already flattened the once mighty Texas Christian Coalition." The equally powerful Christian Coalition of Alabama has also been sunk by hypocrisy and lying. It had helped Reed "defeat" video poker and state lottery bills (1999-2000). Reed spent $850,000. All this dirty money has now been traced back to the casino-owning Mississippi Band of Choctaws. It has also created political waves. Its most popular champion, "Ten Commandments Judge" Roy Moore, trails by almost thirty percentage points in the GOP race for governor.

Reed has, since the beginning, denied that he knew that Abramoff was paying him with gambling money. But their e-mail exchanges show that Reed knew all along. The records also prove that Reed diverted tribal money through faux Christian-right groups. These included the US Family Network.

He was sneaky. Rather than receive his payoffs from Abramoff, or from the casino-owning tribes, Reed made sure that his checks came from "pure-sounding" sources (money-laundering).

The Abramoff scandals are damning. But the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has exposed a pattern of even more comparable instances. In these, Reed "tapped into his vast network of conservative religious activists" to serve big-money clients. In one example from 1998 Reed concocted the Alliance of Christian Ministries in China. This was ostensibly a group of missionary orgs supporting favorable trade status for China. It was purportedly to benefit efforts to spread the Gospel there. But the alliance turned out to be a phony and diversion. Its sole purpose was to make more money for Reed and his clients. These included Boeing, which hoped to sell $120 billion worth of airplanes to China. Reed's pro-China lobbying was not just dishonest, but hypocritical. Just as he often preached against the "nationwide scourge" of gambling, Reed had spoken out consistently against favorable trade status for China.

The Reed scandals erode evangelicals' confidence in politics. Their reaction is embarrassed silence. Many have been rendered speechless. Bush's staff has struggled hard to keep Reed away from the president. They have worked to avoid a "photo op."

An exception to the silence is Marvin Olasky. He is a longtime Texas adviser to bush. He literally wrote the book on "compassionate conservatism." He, editor of an evangelical right magazine, is
outspoken. His view is that Reed has harmed Christian politics. Reed has "confirmed" that evangelicals are easily pushed around and that its leaders use "moral issues" to get rich. World reporter Jamie Dean has written fearless exposes, "causing a sensation in the evangelical community." Her dogged questioning of Christian-right leaders inspired sharp criticism. This came from the most closed-minded of them all, Focus on the Family leaders James Dobson and Tom Minnery.

Reed's old cohort Pat Robertson said, "You know that song about the Rhinestone Cowboy? 'There's been a load of compromisin' on the road to my horizon.'" Robertson has now grown suspiciously silent on the matter -- perhaps because he knows that the service of money is absolutely required in "Christian" politics. The article says, "It's the very glue that holds together the awkward marriage of Christian moralism and high-rolling Republicanism."

In history, most Christians avoided politics because it was evil and corrupt. That began to change, for so-called "evangelicals," in the 1970's-1980's. That was the blossoming of hypergreed and its
accompanying lying and hypocrisy, when preachers such as Robertson and Falwell joined "pro-family" conservatives. Many began to popularize the notion that it was a Christian's obligation to participate in politics. Their goal was to win! But the only way for them to win was to join forces with secular allies. Through this, what has been called "co-belligerents," they made an effort to remake America into a "Christian nation."

Ralph Reed embraced this "odd new alchemy of godliness and hardball politics." He appealed strongly to the greed-consumed Christian-right. He also attracted the "fat cat" Republican dollar mongers. Reed's "slick style and winning ways" assured that "Christians" could play heartless "power politics with ruthless efficacy." But there was "a dark undercurrent." The Christian Coalition wrestled some minor victories in 1990 and 1992. But it overcame by duplicity and dissembling. It allegedly used churches as political hubs. And it spent tax-exempt funds for partisan political ends. Candidates were told to hide their views of society and programs. The Coalition's Voter Guides distorted Democratic records to make their candidates appear to be "anti-family."

"It's like guerrilla warfare," Reed boasted to a reporter in 1992. "It's better to move quietly, with stealth, under cover of night." Reed's "bellicose comments and shady tactics" created great doubts about the reality and sincerity of his so-called "Christian conversion." (Like Tom DeLay, he told an incomplete and vague story of being "born again." This supposedly occurred in the mid-1980's.) Even Reed's own mother confessed to a reporter, "He [Reed] was going to be either President… or Al Capone."

Reed grossly inflated the Coalition's membership numbers (apparently closer to 600,000 at its peak, rather than the 1.7 million that he claimed). He also lied about the distribution of its Voter Guides. These shoddy and tawdry little books were often found discarded in bundles.

Reed beat a hasty retreat from the Coalition in 1997. He left it to flounder under a tsunami of lawsuits from unhappy and frustrated employees. It also wrestled with federal investigations into illegal ties with the Republican Party. And added to all this was a steadily and steeply declining membership.

Reed got away with multitudes of lies, and a mountain of hypocrisy. Many people turn their heads and refuse to look at the facts, because they think that Reed, despite lies, has done "too much good" for the cause of evangelical politics.

The article continues, "Scandals have revived many evangelicals' old qualms." "My preacher used to say when I was growing up that we ought to stay out of politics because it was dirty. You know, he was right."

The Bible does speak of politics. In the eighth century BCE, it spoke against bribery and corruption in the public square. Isaiah complained, "Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts."

If Reed does win the election for lieutenant governor, it will mostly be due to the sheer tenacity of evangelicals' "see no evil" attitude. The Republican Party has tried everything short of paid assassination to force Reed out of the race. In February, twenty-one out of thirty-four Republican state senators signed a letter publicly urging Reed to withdraw his candidacy. As the GOP's nominee for lieutenant governor, he would drag down their other candidates for statewide office. This includes incumbent Governor Sonny Perdue, who faces a tough match-up in November. There are rumors that Reed will pull out in late April. That is when Georgia candidates officially file for office during "candidate qualifying week." "He's getting terrible press everywhere, and his consulting business is in bad shape."

Maurice Atkinson says, "I believe in grace, but I also believe in accountability."

The article continues: "His biggest problem is not the Christian right but Republican regulars who view him as a carpetbagger," says the DLC's Kilgore. [His opponent] Cagle is trying to capitalize on Reed's national notoriety, regularly reminding folks while campaigning, "I'm not a lobbyist. I don't spend my time in Washington." A 40-year-old businessman and "seventh-generation North Georgian" with the deep drawl and aw-shucks manner to prove it, Cagle makes a vivid contrast to Reed's GQ glitz and accent-free news anchor's voice. His voting record is staunchly right-wing, too, including a near-perfect rating from the Christian Coalition of Georgia. "This isn't an ideological primary," says Kilgore. "Casey Cagle is just as crazy as Reed is." Which means that Georgia voters should steel themselves for Reed to, as he likes to say, "open the bomb bays" in a fiercely negative campaign against Cagle.

Reed also has to make himself look just as authentically Georgian as his opponent, which might be the toughest trick of all. At every campaign stop, in every piece of campaign literature, Reed repeats the new mantra of his embattled campaign: "Growing up in the North Georgia mountains, I learned the values that matter most--faith, family, freedom and hard work."

But Reed did not grow up in the North Georgia mountains. As he writes in Active Faith, "It all began in Miami, where I grew up. My childhood was hardly spent in the Bible Belt." Reed's family didn't move to Georgia until he was in his mid-teens. And when they did, as Nina Easton reports in Gang of Five, Reed was considered a "fast-talking Miami smart aleck" in Toccoa, the tiny mountain town where they settled. Even his best friend there, Donald Singer, remembered Reed showing "no demeanor of civility," his abrasive personality constantly clashing with the native Southerners around him.

At first blush it seems like a mighty inauspicious time for Ralph Reed, friend of Abramoff, to be fudging a fact as basic as where he comes from. But then again, why not? His whole unlikely career has been built on a foundation of fudges and falsehoods. And every step of the way, so far, he has found safe harbor and giddy encouragement in a strange community of politicized moralists who see no evil-- when it's on their side.
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Arsenic in your chicken

Many chicken products sold in the United States are contaminated with arsenic, a known carcinogen, according to a new report by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

Investigators found arsenic in half of 155 samples from supermarkets and in all 90 samples from fast-food restaurants. All the samples were below the tolerance level set by the Food and Drug Administration.

According to the report, arsenic is legally fed to an estimated 70 percent of broiler chickens to kill parasites and promote growth. Its use on poultry farms causes environmental contamination when soils are fertilized with chicken manure containing arsenic, and when other animals are fed chicken litter containing arsenic.

Arsenic is not allowed in organic chickens, and Tyson, the nation's largest chicken producer, claims not to use it. Read the report here or read about chicken and arsenic in The New York Times (free registration required).

To find producers who claim not to feed their chickens additives such as arsenic and antibiotics, visit the Eat Well Guide.

Urge Pilgrim's Pride to Reduce Unnecessary Use of Antibiotics

Don't Support the Evil

"People who heartlessly murder and abuse living creatures for money are demons disguised as human beings."

The majority of chickens raised for meat are confined in sickly and wretched conditions that compromise their health and well-being. But instead of ensuring humane living conditions, too many poultry companies rely heavily on the use of antibiotics to prevent disease - and both chickens and humans pay the price.

Help chickens and people today by urging Pilgrim's Pride, the nation's #2 chicken producer, to reduce unnecessary use of antibiotics.

Broiler chickens normally spend their entire lives standing, foraging, or sitting in manure-contaminated litter, which covers the floors to absorb waste. As the litter becomes increasingly unsanitary, conditions necessitate the use of antibiotics to combat the environmental pathogens to which the birds are exposed.

Bacteria that are constantly exposed to antibiotics develop resistance to these drugs. When humans get sick from resistant bacteria, the antibiotics prescribed will no longer work!

Take Action!

Recently, four of the nation’s largest poultry corporations—Tyson Foods, Gold Kist, Perdue Farms, and Foster Farms—have sharply cut back on their use of antibiotics in the feed of chickens that are not sick. This reduction in antibiotic use was made possible by improving animals’ living conditions and by breeding hardier chickens.

We applaud these corporations for taking an important step to protect human health. Now we need your help to urge Pilgrim’s Pride, the nation’s #2 chicken producer, to adopt a similar plan to reduce unnecessary uses of antibiotics. Urge them to protect customer health and step-up animal welfare by reducing antibiotic use in chickens!

Thank you for making a difference today.

Speak out to Censure Bush

EITHER SPEAK OUT FOR CENSURE NOW OR YOU ARE A BUSH SUPPORTER

Why does george bush feel that he can just laugh off the laws passed by Congress, and even the Constitution itself? He did it AGAIN by attaching a so-called signing statement to the renewal of the Patriot Act. This reserved the right to disregard reporting requirements that Congress had the temerity to impose. Who is going to challenge him? He's not laughing at just the legislature. If you do not speak out now, he is laughing at YOU.

He is laughing at you because you complain about the fact that nobody in Congress has any backbone. And yet, when someone DOES stand up, you do nothing to support her/him, or to encourage others to do the same. He is laughing at you because a million mostly NON-citizens, over the weekend, killed HR 4437 in the Judiciary Committee literally overnight. This is the same Judiciary Committee that will be considering his censure this very Friday. And yet most of you continue to do nothing. Yes, george bush is laughing at you.

CALL YOUR SENATORS NOW TOLL-FREE: 888-355-3588 or 800-828-0498

Was it not enough when george bush defiantly admitted that he had ordered illegal wiretaps of American citizens? He is laughing at you. Was it not enough when george bush signed a law intended to stop the international crime of torture, and then declared he would ignore it at his own dictatorial discretion? He is laughing at you. Was it not enough when he lied in the most pathological way to start a war in Iraq for the sole purpose of aggrandizing his own power? He is laughing at you.

Some say that censure is not enough, that george bush must be impeached. Some go further and argue that he should be tried for war crimes. Is that any reason NOT to speak out for censure as the first step? We have enough participants right now in our OWN network, just the people who will receive this one alert, that if each and EVERY one of us would take just 20 seconds to submit the action page above, there WOULD be a censure of george bush. Since we started doing this, about
the best yield we have ever had to ANY one alert was about ten percent. Just ten percent of you did something as simple and easy as to submit an action page.

ACTION PAGE:
http://www.millionphonemarch.com/censure.php

You are progressives. A couple of Spanish language DJ's in Los Angeles got together and decided to issue a concerted call to action; and they put something approaching a million people in the streets. And the Judiciary Committee literally trembled. Where is progressive radio on this?

[Please listen to "High Spirits" on Saturday, at 8 pm, on wcky 1530 am.]

Why are you not all giving out the toll free phone numbers 888-355-3588 and 800-828-0498 every hour on the hour to call our Senators?... george bush is laughing at you.

You don't always have to draft a lengthy personal comment; just take 20 seconds to submit the form. Take 20 seconds to make a toll-free phone call. Take 20 seconds to wipe that arrogant smirk off his face. Because until you do, george bush is just going to keep laughing at you.

Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed to be ours, and forward this message to everyone else you know.

If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at
http://www.usalone.com/in.htm

ACTION PAGE: http://www.millionphonemarch.com/censure.php

The Poem of Poetry

Since the Immeasurable and Infinite indwells all equally, it is a strenuous challenge in this life to admire egos. Masks can be awesome and radiant; but only the One of hidden Light is true beauty.

The poetic lifts us on the wings of the unspeakable and soars into the unutterable, only hinting at the Beyond within, the interior Other. Still, even so, those flickers imply infinite interior galaxies of secreted wisdom, the tap-in to the Beloved of the sufis. In Love with Love is the ultimate and maximum state of Mind-- sweet, all-encompassing, ecstatic. We long to return to that lost Eden, and, this time, never to taste the fruit of dualism that exiles us from pleasure.

All the cosmos begins embryonically, and is wrapped entirely, within the single thought. Galaxies arise from neurons. Worlds evolve from perceptions. Thus do we make our heavens, hells, and all that is between. Deep profundities are much too profound, chasms of Mind, for the outward reach ever to touch.

Gold is the god-demon that snuffs the candle of compassion from the weary and empty heart. Its glitter is blindness, its wisdom folly, and its pursuit madness. Those who sacrifice eternal Mother Earth on its altar are aliens to their own birth and home. The "slaughter of the innocents" occurs within their hearts every second of time. Blood fills their gold-clad nightmares, and it cries to the Goddess of Love for balance in karma. And their reward shall indeed be theirs, and they will have centuries to assimilate pain, waste, and bottomless loss, as their souls inhabit granite coffins in eternity. Then, in distant times, they too will emerge as butterflies of Light-- gorgeous, photophilic, and aleithophilic forever.

A life stripped of the poetic is but a dried husk, an empty shell, of glory, candles snuffed, stars eclipsed, Love smothered, wonders suffocated. Life without its golden springs is a desert. But the flowers and blossoms of Love are nourished by its underground springs and wells, as its pure crystalline, diamond-pure liquid makes fertile the whole earth of Mind. Mere words are quickly exhausted and depleted by its platinum and emerald miracles. For all poetic life is expression of the Ineffable; thus, it is truest worship-- at the altar of a rose, a rainbow, or a star. It is Reality incarnate, wrapped in polychromatic splendor-- the scarlets, lemon-yellows, and cobalts of the cosmos, spread
out everywhere.

For these are realities of Mind only. It unleashes the single and only Artist in all creation, the goddess within all, She of dark beauty and Lightfilled shining. She is the Goddess of midnight, and of stunning sun. She, delicate and granitic Mind, indestructible, is the only Reality in the cosmos.

She is what mystics mean by "truth." Knowing her is explosive knowing. Becoming her "instrument of Love" is the highest, most thrilling, ecstasy. It is what we were created to do. In apparent solitude, the poetic unites us, for a moment, with all Mind everywhere, from grasshopper and gaslight, to Goddess and galaxy. When we walk the isolated path to interior rooms, we discover that everyone has attended the party, and the guest of honor is none other than the Self, the Goddess.

She is the end of craving, the place of glowing tranquility, untouchable serenity.

Silence is better than casting emeralds and sapphires before pigs, who trample them into the mud of lower mind, mocking their own interior death. But it is life, the life, that deserves praise, accolade, and acknowledgement. It is only the life that desires to disappear into limitless Mind, burned up in the fire of Love, which is the real life. When the sense of the boundless swallows you, you know that you are at home only when you have left home. This star-filled nostalgia blossoms with the light of a candle on a dark midnight. Lighting it in your heart, though it be but one and tiny, surpasses all curses of darkness, which seems wide and vast. To be swept along in obsession with Lovelight is to find our only true place. Making Love to the Self, to the cosmos, is utter closure, the missing pieces of the puzzle of our lives falling so sweetly into place. On the magic carpet of Mind, we soar over the dreamscapes of eternity, and distance and time luminesce and vaporize under its gaze. For you are now the wide open sky, blue and black, and you are the stars and the butterflies floating within it. To die to your self is truly to grow, and there is no development without deactivation
of the little mind, so that the great Mind might emerge, shining and triumphant in its endless Loveplay.

What is a Life Worth?

A single human life is worth more than can ever be measured. It is more valuable than mountains of gold or jewels, or megagallons of oil.

Yet, especially during war, human life is often devalued. Beautiful girls and striking men become mere statistics on a "count of death." Usually, we do not have the courage even to call war what it actually is-- organized mass-murder. A person who is responsible for a war is as morally culpable as a hundred Ted Bundies or Boston Stranglers. Indeed, he is literally a mass-murderer.

Culpability is massively increased when there were viable alternatives to war. Yet again today, we heard yet another announcement of the death of a proud young man. As he bled to death under the hot desert sun, he must have sincerely and bleakly wondered whether his government even cared at all that he had made the utter and ultimate sacrifice for his country. As many as seventy-two percent of soldiers are now against this war. And, as the six generals recently implied, this includes their leaders. As many as eight out of ten Americans might also now be against this bloody and expensive war.

The girls and boys (not truly women and men) are among the very best and brightest that our country has to offer. Now, thousands will never again add a penny to our economy. They will never invent anything new, make any new discoveries, create anything of beauty, wisdom, or lasting social value. They will not create families of Love and communities of peace. They will never love again, in this world, never again laugh, never again play with their children.

Our nation is as sadly and irrevocably impoverished by their many deaths as if we had been savaged by the bloodiest, most ruthless, terrorist. But because they die only a few at a time, it is easy to yawn and ignore the infinite beauty and value of each girl and boy who bled to death on the hot, harsh desert of Iraq. When terrorists kill a few thousand Americans, we are rightfully and righteously outraged, and our ferocity lasts, as it should, for years! But when they are murdered a few at a time by an unfeeling, incompetent, fascist theocracy, we all look the other way. "It's not such a terrible tragedy after all," we manage to lie to ourselves.

I submit that murder is murder, and that this totally wasteful death and murder of our finest young girls and boys is the result of a stupid and incompetent government run by an egomaniac out of control. He cares only about personal power and money, never about human beings. If Iraq has not demonstrated this beyond the shadow of any reasonable doubt, look again at Katrina. Here, in this tragic disaster and utter catastrophe, more than a thousand people-- all Americans-- died of thirst and hunger right smack in the middle of the wealthiest country in the world. Would these fellow human beings-- our sisters and brothers-- have suffered from longterm and repeated neglect if they had been the wealthy oil-executives who are the special friends of the president?

The presidency has been brought into shame by the current pretender. He struts, peacocks, and speaks arrogantly and insensitively of a hideous war of which he is actually proud. He cannot, upon inquiry, manage to think of a single mistake that he has made during his entire administration-- or, his entire life! When challenged on the war, he simply smirks, dismissing all the rivers of blood-- both American and Iraqi-- that he has spilled. But it is not his daughters dying on the desert sands. He brags and boasts of his "Christian" values. But actions speak more loudly than, drown out, mere words. His actions have proved that he values dollars, oil, and power much more than human life.

Being incompetent and inept, he actually boasts of those events and activities that should bring only shame to an honest man. A modern honest person would rather be a street-sweeper than the president, so lowly has he made this formerly honorable and noble profession. He has driven his own office into deep shame and humiliation, and our entire country with it. America used to be the light on a mountain, to guide the world. Now, it is seen as a pool of evil and darkness. Most Europeans view America as the number one threat to worldwide peace and cooperation. Our country, once a leader, is now but a prisoner.

CDs from the High Spirits Radio Program

Dear Friends of the Heart,

We now have available four episodes from the "High Spirits" radioprogram on cd. But, sadly, in order to "break even" economically, we must charge a minimal fee for these, so many of which we have already distributed free.

The cost involved are: 1) price for the cd's; 2) price for the jewel-cases in which we plan to place them; 3) price for special mailer so that they can be shipped without damage; and 4) price of postage.

Unhappily, but inevitably, we are forced by all four of these factors to charge a fee of $9 for the set (four cd's). We are sorry to have to do this, but we are a ministry that is always on the border of running out of funds.:(

We wish for all of you, our dear friends, peace, joy, and interior tranquility and

Love,

shi

Ps: If you feel like it, please call the show. Its numbers are 749-1530, or 877-345-3779. NOTE: You do not have to be listening to the show in order to call in questions of a spiritual, metaphysical, or philosophic nature. Feel free to call between 8 and 9 pm (est) on any Saturday.


All you need is Love.

Suggestions for Receiving "High Spirits" over Radio

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Transmission of our radioprogram "High Spirits" flows out from the radiotower in patterns called "lobes." The pattern looks like a distorted ameba, with rather long "pseudopods" that are the lobes. For this reason the fifty-thousand watt clear-channel station wcky (1530 am) can be picked up in Georgia, if you are in a lobe. We received one call from Columbus, Georgia. But if you are not, you can be much closer, and still not receive a clear signal.

Moving just a few feet can sometimes place you in one. People have also told us that they can receive the station on one radio and not another. Sometimes, it comes in through a car-radio, but, even in delicious springtime, that might well be too inconvenient.:) Just some stuff that you might want to try.

You can also "audiostream" on your computer at wcky.com. One lady did this, and called, from New Hampshire. We wish you the best of luck, and happy listening!:)
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A Genuine Spiritual Teacher

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If you feel a calling to teach spirituality, you have little choice, for tranquility and satisfaction, but to follow it. There is no doubt that the Spirit uses such altered states as coma to touch the great personal Unconscious, even the soulevel of Mind. But the Spirit will teach you exactly when and precisely what It wants you to know. It does not need you dangerously to enter, or try to enter, a coma state. In fact, you do not need to do anything at all, except open your mind regularly through healing and healthy meditation in moderation. (You might also feel directed to work with your dreams, the only "shortcut" in all spirituality.)

As you are already opting to become a teacher, you should be warned about an obstacle that can block, and completely ruin, all spirituality. This is plain ol' greed. Greed silences the interior Spirit of Love, for it resists It. Take much care always to make sure that you are never overcharging for your services. Always choose a price that even poor people can afford. It is obscene to try to "get rich" by "selling spirituality." Spirituality is not produce, and should never be commercialized.

Always try to love only your students, and never "love" money. This nightmarish infection has sickened as many as ninety percent of all self-styled "spiritual teachers." It is rabid among so-called
"Christians," and has also drained energy from so many "new age" teachers. An honest teacher with a good heart should probably never charge more than ten or fifteen dollars for her services, classes, or seminars.

So, beware and be honest in selfinventory.

Re the need for a particular "guiding spirit": You have already been touched by the One, who is the one and only Teacher that a spiritual being needs. As long as you are in touch with this Absollute, you do not need particular "spirit guides," "astral helpers," human gurus, or anything along these lines. This is one of the core-meanings of the celebrated "freedom" of the enlightened.

The Spirit does not teach best by intellect, although It can also use that method. It teaches best by challenging you, repeatedly but consistently, to follow and apply the highest Love of which you can
comprehend. The "best" teacher is not the smartest, but the most compassionate. She has both a deep mind and a bottomless heart, both of which are filled repeatedly and continuously with Love.
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Humortherapy

A Little Humortherapy, sent in by Mick Gallagher.

Warning!

If you receive an email entitled "Bedtimes," delete it immediately. Do not open it. Apparently this one is pretty nasty. It will not only erase everything on your hard drive, but it will also delete anything
on disks within 20 feet of your computer. It demagnetizes the stripes on all of your credit cards. It reprograms your atm access code, screws up the tracking on your vcr, and uses subspace field harmonics to scratch any cd's that you attempt to play. It will program your autodial to call only 0898 numbers. This virus will mix antifreeze into your fishtank.

It will cause your toilet to flush while you are showering. It will drink ALL your beer! FOR GOD'S SAKE, ARE YOU LISTENING? It will replace your shampoo with Nair, and your Nair with Rogaine. If the "Bedtimes" message opens in a Windows 95/98 environment, it will leave the toilet seat up and leave your hair dryer plugged in dangerously close to a full bathtub. It will not only remove the
forbidden tags from your mattresses and pillows; it will also refill your skim milk with whole milk.

Warn as many people as you can!

And if you don't send this to five thousand people in twenty seconds, your right leg will spasm and shoot straight out in front of you, sending sparks that will ignite the person nearest you.

Send this warning to everyone! There's a lot of sadness in our world!

Right now, as you read this, seventeen million people are having sex!

And look at you; you're on the computer! Sad. So sad.
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Reality

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In the mystical Way, the ultimate definition of "Reallity" is "Mind."

Mind is the only real thing in the cosmos. All else is the dream of Mind. The core of Mind is Love, which is why it is the Way of the enlightened and compassionate.

No, we do not "form our own realities" with the conscious mind. This is a very attractive illusion, and many want desperately to believe it. For it implies that they can still control their cosmos. A challenge of mysticism is to give up all control, and to replace this unhealthy desire with faith in the Ultimate or Absolute (Mind). Since It is Love, It will never harm us.

Reality is created Unconsciously by this Ultimate or Absolute (God). But it is altered as the creative force passes through the filter of soul. This adds all the components of our karma. This guarantees that the "dream of reality" will be precisely the one that we need in order to learn our specific lessons.

The idea that the conscious mind can control the world is nothing but wishful thinking. This is a fairy-tale myth. But many metaphysical people cling to it because they mistrust the Mind. They fear It, and live life very nervously, terrified of "negative" thoughts or words.

We can safely think negative thoughts without harming ourselves or anyone else, for the conscious mind is simply not that powerful. Its job is not creation (it cannot create changes in the world), but experience. It is the decision-maker and the karma-maker. That is its whole function.

Jesus said that we cannot change a single hair on our own heads. So, when people start to "blah-blah" about the "infinite power of mind" (meaning the conscious mind), challenge them with this empirical test: Ask them to change the color of a single hair on their own heads. Many will not even try, but if they do, they will not be able to do it.

The world is dreamed into being by much deeper levels of the Unconscious-- the soul and the Spirit. We have no control over these profound levels of Mind. Most people are completely out of touch with these. The Way suggests not only complete "faith in God" (trusting Mind to take care of everything), but also its effortless living. Jesus said that we should become as a "nursing infant." It is absurd to think of a baby trying to manipulate the cosmos. Instead, it simply relaxes completely, and trusts fully, without question.

This total relaxation is to become thought-free. Only if we are free of conscious thoughts can the Power of Spirit act through and within us with fullest freedom (without our interference). This is called the "prayer of silence," or "meditation."
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Fear

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Human nature is part "lower" and part "higher" nature. The lower is dominated by fear, and is much more powerful and developed than the higher in most people.

Fear and Love are opposites. (Hatred is only a form of fear.) Throughout their karmic history, people have feared more than they have loved. So, fear has proliferated and multiplied, while most souls just do not have the same quantity of Love in their histories.

Since the start of human history, many fears, built into biology, served survival, and so, were helpful. But most fear is harmful or damaging, and of no spiritual value. It is one goal of the mystic (although it might take lifetimes) completely to replace all fear with Love: What she now fears she wants to learn to Love. Love neutralizes and vaporizes fear, while fear blocks the free Flow of Love.
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Questions and Angers

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It is a pleasure to be "patient" when important issues, such as understanding and wisdom, are involved and at stake. I will always try to approach any question with unhurried attention and a single focus.:)

You speak in your note of "anger and frustration at The One for being more than I can comprehend..." This is similar to a bee stinging you because he does not understand the human mind. When the bee stings, he dies. He could continue to live if he did not use all this energy to express anger. Anger is energy-draining, and weakens us. In Kung Fu training, it is repeatedly taught that anger weakens you by draining your energy, even though, in the short term, it seems actually to make you stronger. This is because it takes large amounts of energy and expends it within moments. With a little thought, you can see how this drains you in the long run.

The same is true mentally and emotionally. Anger drains us, making us weaker and more vulnerable. Consistent or chronic anger actually weakens the immune-system, for example-- a fact demonstrated by immunology.

You write, "I can stay stuck in my anger or let it go and move on." That is exactly your choice. If you do "let it go," you will have all that extra energy recycled back into your system, to be used and directed as you select. You can use the recycled angerenergy as Lovenergy, kinetic energy (for movement and exercise), emotional energy, dreamenergy, or an abundance of other forces in life.


You write, "I adore the idea of striving to be a being of Love (even in regard to The One)." This is, by far, the supreme challenge of all spirituality. In reaching for this goal, we have set before us ultimate expansion, an endless path, to be a vessel for the Absolute, filled with Her, and, in final fulfillment, to become Her "stainless mirror." There is no more excellent or superb aim for any sentient being.

You write, "That is what I choose to focus my energy upon." This is the most excellent and superb goal of which human beings are capable. And we are capable of this only because of grace, for it is really God within us reaching for a greater vision of Herself, by looking into the stainless mirror of our personal being. This occurs only when our "personal"selves disappear into the One, when we fade as ego into the Infinite, surrendering absolutely everything to Love.

You write, "Beyond that, I will have to let go of the questions for now." No, my friend, you certainly need not simply "let go" of the questions; keep asking them, and we will together seek answers. But you do not want to let them become obstacles to your spiritual growth, your immediate departure upon the spiritual highway. Questions are good and healthy, because they present an active and growing mind. Please just do not allow them to be an "anchor" that pulls you to the bottom. Instead, let them be wings that carry you into the higher skies of Mind.

You write, "As you have pointed out, they are childish and uselessly combative." They can be childish, but "combative" is a word that would not have occurred to me. Now, I can see that they could also be that. It seems that there are questions that might paralyze or petrify you, and questions that will lift you into new areas of wisdom, understanding, and comprehension. Those above the level of human knowledge can be discussed, but not always answered. We can still make "good guesses" re questions to which we might not have absolute answers. That is part of the fun and captivating fascination of spiritual development.

So, keep asking those questions, and never let anyone stop you. Seeking is the first step to finding.
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Divine and Maternal Love
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The great Being of compassion and Love is continuously trying to "shake us awake" from the "nightmare" of every day life. But, unlike an earthly mother, She/He has vowed not to interfere with our freewill lifedesign. So, we are created to awaken as slowly or as quickly as we build into our personal karma. So, divine Love has built into it many factors that mere human Love does not encompass, including some restrictions and limitations. It would be excessively foolish and careless for us to judge divine Love by exactly the same criteria by which we measure human
or maternal Love.

The One also realizes, with crystalline clarity, how much of our suffering is sheerest illusion, and that our only hope for genuine peace and Love is to discover for ourselves what "truth" (Reality) really is.
We behave like arrested and backwards creatures if we allow ourselves to be carried away with our tiny emotions, even human Love, and start demanding what Love "should" and "should not" do, for we are amoebas passing judgment on a Love so vast and so intricate that we cannot even begin to understand Its vastness and immensity. It is not at all accurate or viable to compare this enormous Love to the Love felt by a mother for her child, even though there are precise analogies possible within this framework. (Still others are predictably invalid, however.)
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The Existence of "Evil"
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Outside of mind-created dream-illusion, evil cannot have an absolute existence.

But its relative existence is real. War, child-molestation, cruelty, murder, hurt and harm of all sorts do indeed exist within the holographic world. It is, in fact, the distinction between real mental evil and real mental good that serves as the major guideline of the Enlightenment Tradition. Not that the Tradition needs evil to define good; that is an extreme. But the existence of contraries such as "good and evil" allow us rationally and reasonably to choose the good and reject the evil. So, you are right: One of the more minor reasons for the existence of evil is to push minds towards the good.

Still, the underlying philosophy of the Way is "monism." Stated simply, this is the philosophy that holds that only one Mind actually exists, and that It has no real opposite.

If this is so, and the One Mind is Love, as we mystics hold, we must find out how the hell that evil can possibly serve Love! Happily, this is not quite as absurd as it does appear on first glance. Here is the spiritual chain of events:

We must here go all the way back to the beginning of souls, before bodies or worlds even existed. When individual souls (Mind-units) were emanated (were projected, dreamed) by the One, it was so that they could have fun. For lack of a better term, the cosmos gets "boring" when there is only the One. All that the One has is Mind; He/She, and all the cosmos, are only Mind, and so, filled everyewhere with Mind ("omnipresence"). So, in the Mind, the One begins the great dream.

He/She dreams the cosmos into being. He/She has already willed that other beings break apart, symbolically but never really, from him/herself. He/She is a joyous, playful puppeteer at this time, but
He/She has willed the Mind into perfect amnesia. He/She has exercised the unlimited Power ("omnipotence") to will those other parts of the One to forget that they are "one with the One."

This is all part of the "game" of the cosmos. It is an interesting, and harmless, way to have fun. In Hindu mysticism, it is called lila ("playing"). For innumerable eons, utterly past imagination, the souls play and love each other as cosmic beings of enormous Power, forgetting that they are the One.

Then the dream of the "material, physical" world begins. These superbeings play, pretend, and dream that they are actually creatures of material structure-- "flesh" is what the ancient mystics called it. This is patterned after animalnature.

They play and love together for countless eons. But some fall so far into the dream, and take the dream so seriously, that they actually forget that they are minds at all-- eternal, limitless minds. (This
Hindu mystics called "being swallowed by the serpent of maya.") They forget also that the world is a dream. Like lower forms of life, they become territorial and fearful. While before, in "paradise," everything that was mine and yours was "ours," now, private property emerges as a major illusion. Then the vicious infection of materialism occurs, as a disease. With it, all forms of avidya (ignorance) appear. This major shift of consciousness, falling into illusion as a trap, is described in the gnostic myth as the Goddess Sophia's falling into matter. It is also allegorized as the "Cain and Abel" story in Genesis.

Once people forget their true nature through ignorance, the chain of karma is forged. (Don't forget that the Great Forgetting was also a part of the will of the One, which never loses control, and which is perfect Love). And it is the chain of unavoidable cause-and-effect, founded upon greed-illusion, which naturally creates every form of karma, representing as "evil."

But this evil is not absolute evil. It is not directly created by perfect Mind, but it is permitted as part of the dream. (This is the theological distinction between the "active" and "permissive" will of God. It is still one will, undivided, but manifests in these two ways.) For all evil is "outside" of God; since God fills, and is, all Reality, anything "outside" of this Lovemind must be its opposite-- unreality or illusion.

So, to make a long story interminable-- all evil results from thousands of years of ignorance, error, and illusion. Even genetic factors are included in "karmogenetics." This all is collectively called karma. (The Greek word for "sin," in the Christian Scriptures, equates "sin" with "error," not with evil. So, sin is error, not evil.) But "deliberate error" is impossible, an oxymoron. Also, only deliberate, voluntary, consciously evil behavior (that designed to harm another) creates karma. Mistakes or errors, no matter how abundant, do not create any karma in one who has a pure heart. The interior Christ always and continuously says to those of pure heart, "All your sins are forgiven." At times, only the One knows the difference between "voluntary" and involuntary. That is why we cannot judge the total value of a person based only on her visible behaviors.

In sum, all evil has a cause-- former illusion-based evil. Evil comes back from previous evil, originally generated by ignorance. That is why mystics are so big on the rejection of ignorance. As we strive to replace ignorance with Love, we gently, gradually, incrementally erase all our old karma, lessening or decreasing that of the whole world. But many have not found this lesson, and the world is still filled to brimming, glutted with destructive karma.

Since this karma can be hideous and nightmarish, how can we manage ever to regard it as "good"? As noted, the mystic has a clear-sighted interior sense of right and wrong, good and evil. For this duality, like evil, is real and genuine in this limited world, although neither has absolute existence.

The purpose of karma is to teach Love. People put themselves through some quite ghastly hells of hate, fear, and other non-Love states in order to learn Love. (The state of believing yourself to be outside of, or without, Love is the essence of "hell.") They create enormous and very convincing hellstates everywhere. One of the best, and strongest, ways to teach the value of Love is to allow a person to fall into the illusion that she is without, completely separate from, Love. Then, when she awakens to the reality that she is Love, that Love immerses and saturates her, that Love is in fact the only Reality ("truth") in the entire cosmos, she is ecstatic. she touches bliss, a characteristic of
the Coremind, Lovemind, or God/Goddess.
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Visualization, Imagination, and Control

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No, imagery is not necessarily the "language" of deeper levels of Mind, such as soul, or, deeper, Spirit. As the name indicates, it can also be the tool of mere imagination, which can be partially or even completely conscious.

Even dreams can be highly influenced by the superficial conscious mind-- although they are more likely to emanate from the preconscious or personal unconscious. A very few arise from as deeply as soulmind, and, with extreme rarity, have been recorded as floating up from the deepest level of all-- Coremind, Lovemind, or Spirit.

Some believe that if they "image" clearly and long enough, they can create anything. If someone tells you this, ask her to produce a ten-carat diamond in her hands simply by imaging it. Guaranteed that she will not be able to do so. She will likely argue that such a "manifestation" would take much time. (If so, offer her however many years that she might need for the experiment.) Or, she might argue even that it could be done, but she personally does not have the power. If so, it is her job, since the burden of proof is upon her, to take you to someone-- anyone-- who can do this. Again, she will fail, for there is no person outside fantasy, imagination, or fairy-tale, who can actually perform this task.

For example, a cult-leader named Sai Baba has conned anumber of desperate people into believing that he can make gold coins appear out of thin air. This is anything but original or even smart, for this exact claim has been made, but never proved, for various gurus and cultists around the world, for centuries. Any one of them can, at any time, come into a lab and forever disperse all doubt; none ever has. (Actually, this is a "magic" trick learned by twelve-year-old beginners in magic.) If Sai Baba could do this, he would not continually humiliate himself by always asking-- and often begging-- for money from deluded followers. (He has also been seriously and repeatedly accused of sexual improprieties with young boys.)

People feel incredibly desperate to believe what they want. And what they want to believe is that they are in control of every element of their lives. Or, if not, someone else is (angels, et's, "masters," etc.)

But the perspective of Taoist mysticism is so much more grown-up. It abandons fairy-tales and wishful thinking and faces the real world in courage. It says, "Recognize that you do not control everything, that your ego is not God. Then, learn to live with it. Learn to dance with the cosmos, and find peace. Those who resist the cosmos as it is always create misery." This the superstitious do by trying to convince themselves of falsehoods ("my personal mind can control everything") or by denying obvious reality.

It is a sweet and very attractive illusion that you can have ("create") whatever you want simply by imaging, visualization, affirmations, or formulas. It requires no work, no change of personality, no struggle with profound and complex worldviews. It is the way of the pre-schooler, and that is why it is so popular on a planet such as earth.

Only one problem: It does not work. As long as you are insulated from real life, you can convince yourself of illusion. But when life hands you a lemon-- or a hand-grenade, then you are forced to leave behind pretty fairy-tales and come to grips with detachment, trust in the Flow, and real wisdom.
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Thoughts

Thoughts
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I am delighted that you have shared the sharings between me and [your wife Donna (pseudonym).]. From my side, you are always welcome to these sharings, so that, when I write to her, I also write to you.

Your letter was anything but simple. It contained many parts and subparts, so this response must also be a little complex. I apologize for this in advance. A few syllables simply will not suffice to explore all the mysteries suggested by, and in, your fascinating letter. But here goes:

You start with an important, even crucial, inquiry: How does it serve The One for us to wake up? To answer this, we must remember that the One is Love. It enhances and enriches the expression of theOne, as Her many vessels, whenever a person finds enlightenment. The One finds endless delight-- bliss or ecstasy-- in expressing Love through the many parts of her Mind. The more that beings become enlightened, the greater is Her sense of fulfillment, peace, and tranquility. She touches ecstasy and total contentment by loving through us, and the more that we are enlightened, the more, and the more fully, can She love through us. When She takes over a mind, that by no means "ends the game," for the game is infinite. That only begins the most enjoyable and fascinating part of the game. It has just begun! To see the "end of the game" is simple myopia, a pitiably finite and limited view.

It is also myopic to say that awakening does not serve the One at all. For, indeed, it does. All masters of all traditions disagree that "awakening does not serve the One" [Mind]. They all-- Jesus, the Buddha, Lao Tzu, Patanjali, Al Hallaj, Solomon, and all the rest, stand united in voicing the reality (truth) that awakening is a viable Way to serve the Mind of Love.

How spiritually dull to conclude "game over." That is absurd microvision, since the "game" cannot be exhausted by all the resources of such a tiny planet, in such a nanoscopic lifetime, as earthlife. The "game over" response is that of a shortsighted and ignorant perspective. It is true that the Mind does not want us to run the whole course and end the game of life, but there is no possibility that this can occur on a dustmote of a planet such as earth in the mere eyeblink of a human life. Someone [in the quotation in your letter] has way overestimated the potential of human consciousness.

Also, "What good does it do The One to watch us suffer and personally flop around like this.[?]" It does the Mind no good at all, but it is not the Infinite who is growing because of our experience; it is we who are growing. I do not know who wrote the stuff quoted in your letter, but it seems to blend pure cynicism with ignorance in a harmful and countergrowth fashion.

Your letter continues with a quoted question: "Why are we allowed to demand anything from The One?" We are not supposed to demand anything at all from the Lovemind. Our only appropriate response is to yield or surrender, not to demand.

The next question quoted is this: "Do we have that much influence on The One?" We do indeed influence the Lovemind, in much the same way that a newborn influences its mother, or a beloved creature her beloved companion. Our goal is not mere "influence," but a deep Love-relationship. We love; and Lovemind is influenced by Love, not by our possession of any "personal power," or not due to any weakness on Her/His part.

"A: It is told that at some point we collectively decided that we demanded our "freewill." What is this "it is told..."? Is this writer discussing mythology, legend, scripture? This is totally unclear. At any rate, he has it all wrong: We did not "demand" free will; it was a gift of grace. God, in His/Her abundant compassion, decided to give us free will as a matter of Love or generosity. God's alternative was to create a cosmos of puppets, robots, or "programmed" creatures. Freedom is an odd thing, in that it is a very rare "all or nothing" proposition. If you are "partly free," you are not free at all.

The next quotation says, "We are born without any knowledge of the truth." No way. We are born, and created, with a full understanding of all truth deep within the Mind. For the soul exists deeply within the Mind, and the Spirit exists deeply within the soul. Those who find an adequate spiritual path start to recover and reclaim these memories from the deep Unconscious. (The "higher Self" is soul, and the "highest" Self is Spirit.) So, if we go deeply enough into the Mind, we find that we are not intellectually naked, but that we contain an amazing and varied knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.

"No manual to help us." Actually, we do have several "manuals" or "maps" in the form of the records of hundreds of enlightened mystics since the beginning of recorded history. Some of these have evolved into "scripture," and some have not. But, besides the wealth of the Scriptures of Christianity, very rich in mysticism, we also have the Sutras of Buddhism and Hinduism, the writings of many sages from native American, Taoist, and other traditions. We have entire libraries of guidebooks or "manuals"!

The next quotation says, "Our truth is exactly what we make up in our own minds." This is a disastrous error. It is called, in philosophy, the "personal relativity of truth." It is a major error in both philosophy and spirituality. It implies that truth is an insubstantial, vague, and relative concept. Mystics often call God "Reality" or "Truth." This denies fully, rejects, the simplism and shallowness that each "makes up" her "truth" as she goes along. All mystics reject this unsophisticated notion. Truth is nuclear, core, to all spiritual exploration. So, truth=reality=God=Love=Mind.

"Q: It almost looks like The One can't be hurt by anything we do here at all. Can this be the case?
A: We just might be The One's, or someones giant science experiment. Hey, Mom look what I made. Wow, are these life forms on Earth ever fun to watch. I set up just a few ground rules and it's off to the races. They can do whatever they want but are in reality just reawakening to the fact that they are just me rediscovering myself."

This is a crude and shallow representation of what the cosmos is all about. It is also quite childish and unwise. The great masters have implied that we are more analogous to the "children" of the One than to a "science experiment." What good mother would ever view her children as a "science project"? This writer is cynical because of ignorance, and ignorant because of the absence of Love. This "spiritual" writer does not even mention Love. And Love is spirituality. And as for affecting the Lovemind, yes, we can affect Her/Him, but it is only because She/He wills it to be so, for Love's sake. God is affected deeply by your every tear.

"Q: Could The One be bored out here in the middle of nowhere?
A: The One is thinking, "I'll play a vast and complicated game!" We may just be little parts of The One playing. This thing called "all of life" might just be The One."

This comment is true insofar as it goes. But it does not go very deeply. It makes magnificent, illimitable Mind into a bored adolescent on a sunday afternoon. Actually, Mind is stunningly exciting, thrillingly sensuous, mindbogglingly smart, and is also so many things that we cannot even imagine. Most importantlly, it is a bottomless pool of sheer Love, which never, in its billions of billions of forms and powerlevels, gets boring! This writer has a very superficial, even dull, view of the depths and passions of the Mind.

"Q: Could there be other "The One's" in our universe?
A: Maybe ours is just now at Creator Milky Way High School level."

The form of the question is silly and counter-logical, for the "One" is called that precisely because it is internal unity, unified with all. A "second One" is an oxymoron, impossible, and self-contradictory. The other part of this [the "answer"] is unclear and obscure.

"Q: Why has consciousness on the human level taken so long to develop on planet Earth?
A: Life forms have been here for millions of years, most of the time in dinosaur-like bodies. It's interesting to note that human consciousness has only been around for a cosmic "blink of an eye". What happened all of the sudden, why the giant leap? Maybe we got genetically engineered by some advanced alien life form? Why would they help us? What could be in it for them?"

This answer is inaccurate and a bit absurd. Life has been on earth, not for millions, but billions, of years. And life did not express long, or much, in "dinosaur-like bodies." Much longer, life expressed as unicellular or primitive polycellular forms of various kinds. It is true that human consciousness is a relative new-comer to the scene. It is also probable that our earth was indeed a colony of higher beings, extraterrestrials of enormous wisdom. But it is neanderthalic to assume that these elevated beings are "trying to get something" personal out of life. They simply create life-forms for the sheer joy and fulfillment of creativity. (These beings are the elohim of Genesis.)

"Q: It seems that sometimes we are saved by "a guide" of some type. We sometimes escape disaster by the skin of our teeth. It seems like we get help. Is there such a thing as a "spirit guide" or personal angel?
A: Why would The One make this so? What's the point of "saving us"? If the laws of the universe are at work, shouldn't karma just play out? There should never be a reason to get a "spirit guide saving". The law is the law. Doesn't The One have control of all of this stuff? (I have personally been saved three times in my life and there is no other explanation then I got help, none!) Why didn't the 7 year old kid playing on the beach during a tidal wave get help?"

Obviously, the Mind can "save" a person from death or tragedy whenever It chooses. Sometimes, very exciting events are dreamed up by the Mind; but without changes, these would lead to death. If death at a certain time is not within your karmic pattern, you cannot be allowed to die at that time. Here is the principle: When it is your karmic time to leave the earth, nothing can or will prevent it. But until it is your appointed time, nothing can or must be allowed to kill you. We do not need "spirit guides" or ""guardian angels" to explain this function of Mind, but, if we find these concepts useful, there is certainly nothing "wrong" with seeing Mind in this way. So, contrary to the skeptical perspective of this writer, "God" often does have reasons to "save," or alter the dream of, a person. But, if it is within the karmic pattern (the kid and the tidal wave) God will not intervene at that time.

"Q: Then there's the predestination issue. Can anything we experience here be an accident?
A: No. There can't be any accidents. The universal is in perfect balance. Everything happens for a reason, a lesson. Yes, this is a giant school."

Most of your life is not predestined. You are not predestined in the microevents of your life. The decision to eat a peanut instead of a strawberry is not carved in cosmic granite as a cosmic law. It is the result of free-will choices, as are ninety-plus percent of the decisions of your life. But that which is karmic, like that which is genetic, is predestined. So, there are certain karmic lessons that you must learn, and certain cosmic and karmic teachers that you must meet.

***

Yes, a part of this mind is still very human. This part of the mind-nature was even stronger, much stronger, when young and still very confused. Wisdom does not blossom overnight; and it is normal and natural for a person to get angry at the Incomprehensible.

You know, I just want the whole thing to fit. I want not to be confused about reality? I hate left hanging.
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"Reality" (truth) is what the spiritual path is all about. Mystics have discovered that Reality is Mind, and Mind Reality. And all that is truly real within the galaxy of Mind is Love. So, again, God=Love=Mind=Reality=Truth.

But, aren't you the least bite worried that The One might get mad at YOU since you are trying your hardest to end His game?
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That game is infinite and bottomless, and even when everyone is fully enlightened, that game will only change, never end. It is endless and limitless, without boundaries. If we worry about the game's final state or nature, that is like an ant worried about an event in the most distant galaxy-- a waste of time. We are here to play as well as we can. We are here to surrender to Love, to turn our minds over to Love. Love can never be threatened by anyone who wants to give her life to Love. Love is thus made only stronger. To think that the Lovemind is ever threatened or disturbed by anything that we do (except rejecting Love) is to think as a clown, without a clue.
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