I hear a lot of people say we have to wake people up... convince them of the urgency of this moment... make them realize that the planet is headed for disaster!

But I don't see it that way. Anybody who needs to be woken up at this point is so deeply asleep that they're not the target audience for global activism. We don't need to wake the sleeping so much as we need to harness the energy of those who are already awake. Enough people know we're in trouble; what they want to know is what to do about it.

Human civilization as we know it is like the Titanic headed for the iceberg, whether the iceberg be nuclear, environmental or terrorism-related. The probability vectors for the next twenty years are grim, and our job is to turn the probability vectors into possibility vectors... in other words, we have to turn this ship around.

In every advanced mammalian species that survives and thrives, a common anthropological characteristic is the fierce behavior of the adult female of the species when she senses a threat to her cubs. The lioness, the tigress and the mama bear are all examples. The fact that the adult human female is so relatively complacent before the collective threats to the young of our species bespeaks a lack of proactive intention for the human race to survive.

Yet how things have been has no inherent bearing on how things have to be, and I think we're living at a time when Western womanhood is just a moment away from emerging into the light of our collective possibility. Especially given the relative lack of power - even basic rights - given to millions of women in other parts of the world, we have a particular responsibility to speak up not only for ourselves but for them as well. And we are ready. Maybe not all of us; but enough of us. Western women should be a moral force on this planet. We should not be infantilized; we should not be pretending we don't know what's going on; we should not be giving in to the various and ubiquitous temptations to anesthetize ourselves. Quite the opposite, we should be taking the wheel of human civilization and saying to anyone who will listen: We're turning the ship around, and we're turning it around NOW.

One thing we should all be aware of is the Millennium Development Goals, a set of 8 goals signed on to by all 189 members of the United Nations in the year 2000. The goals are important because they speak to the underlying causes of so many of our most important problems, addressing them on a global level and giving everyone the chance to monitor how we're doing as a species.

The goals are a road map to cutting absolute poverty in half, improving health, getting children in school and reducing disease by 2015. When we think of "women's issues," we should be thinking of these issues. They should be our concern as the mothers of the world, the lovers of the world, and the leaders of the world.

Specifically, the goals are these:

1) Cut Extreme Poverty and Hunger in Half

2) Achieve Universal Primary Education

3) Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

4) Reduce Child Mortality by Two-Thirds

5) Cut Maternal Mortality by Three-Fourths

6) Halt and Reverse the Spread of HIV/AIDS, Malaria, TB, and Other Diseases

7) Ensure Environmental Sustainability

8) Develop a Global Partnership for Development

We are five years away from 2015, the year we are supposed to achieve the Millennium Goals. We are making progress but not fast enough. We need an accelerated sense of urgency from our decision makers. And nothing would make that happen more effectively than for the women of America to learn this information, to take it to heart, and to refuse to shut up about it. No matter what else you're doing to make the world a better place, add a P.S. about The Millennium Goals.

Facts to consider: Putting a child in school is one of the most powerful things we can to do to reduce poverty. An educated child earns more later in life, knows how to keep their own children from dying, produces more food, is less likely to get AIDS, and in the case of boys, is less likely to engage in armed civil conflict. And we already know how to address the problems of AIDS, TB, and Malaria; we just need to do more of it via mechanisms like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria.

So what can you do? You can call or write your Congresspeople (go to http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml) as well as the President, and tell them you want them to actively and substantially support the Millennium Development Goals. Remember: our Representatives get lobbied by wealthy corporations every hour of every day, but the poor of the world have no economic leverage. The only voice they have in the halls of power is yours.

And do more than that. Educate yourself. Look at http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ Use your own platform, or create one. Consider ways to help spread the word. http://www.results.org/ Use Facebook and Twitter and every other way you have of building a buzz about something that could matter to the lives - even the survival - of millions of people. And some of those people might someday be your own grandchildren.

Then, when it's all handled, when 17,000 children a day are no longer dying of hunger; when the ecosystems of the planet are well on their way to restoration; when nuclear bombs are scarce if not completely gone; when females of the world are no longer treated like chattel; and the nations of the world are beginning to achieve a real and lasting peace; then, we can celebrate. But until then, we should mourn. Anyone who's looking at the world and not grieving isn't conscious; but anyone who's looking at the world and not rejoicing in the possibilities for how we can turn all this around, is underestimating what human beings can do. We can learn to love each other. We can be conduits for the miraculous. We can stop playing small and start playing large. We can stop giving in to our weaknesses and start claiming our strengths. We can tell truth to power. We can act like we mean it. We can never, never, never give up. We can be the mothers and the fathers of a new and better world. And all of this is possible because human beings can decide. We can decide to say something. We can decide to write an email. We can decide to step up and participate. But we must decide now... not later. There is no more time to waste.

Below is a an article by Bob Koehler, a journalist for whom I have great respect.

     If you support Congressman Grayson's idea, definitely call your Congressional Representative, tell whoever answers the phone your name and address and say that this is a constituent call. Tell them you hope the Congressman (or Congresswoman) will agree to co-sponsor the bill. THESE CALLS ACTUALLY MATTER.

     To verify who your Congressperson is and get their contact info, go to here. The number of the switchboard at the US Capitol is 202 224 3121, as well.

     Just making the call (if you agree with the idea!) will improve your day.

Marianne

What I have realized here is that the existence of such slums -- home to millions and millions of people all around the world – is a deep obscenity. People are not dogs and they should not live that way. And I have learned for myself what people in the slums themselves keep saying: that just because someone lives in a slum, that doesn't mean that they are stupid. Nor does it mean that they are not good people.

It's one of those things where you knew, but you didn't really know.

As I exited the Kibera slum – called a slum by the inhabitants themselves, by the way – the gentleman next to me and I discussed how lucky we were that we got to leave.

When I entered my high end Nairobi hotel room an hour later -- emotionally and physically exhausted as well as covered in dirt -- I threw myself on the luxurious mattress of a clean and well made bed, relishing the thought of a hot shower to follow. And then it hit me, like a ton of bricks.

The people I had been with all day in the Kibera slums would not be lying down now on a luxurious mattress, nor had they ever. They would not be taking a long hot shower, nor had they ever. They would not be eating a good hot meal tonight, nor had they ever.

And like others I know who have made these trips to the slums of Kenya, I wept.

I defy anyone to go through this experience and be the same person on the other side of it that they were before.

I know that I will not be. I pray to be better.

For ways you can help end poverty NOW, check out www.results.org and www.microcreditsummit.org

-- Marianne

Obviously the issue of poverty is just one issue among many that demand our urgent attention. No matter what form our activism takes, it does something to you – to the subtle fibers of your being – when you stand up fully to advocate for others. I first learned that during the AIDS crisis in LA in the l980’s. There was no way to ignore all the pain and fear around us, but those who responded – with the LA Center for Living, with Project Angel Food and in other ways too– found our lives enriched and blessed for having done so.

The flow of activism begins to occur naturally when we allow ourselves to emotionally absorb the human suffering in our midst. 17,000 children die of hunger each day – every five seconds, a child starves to death somewhere on this earth. Take even a moment to truly consider 1) what it would feel like to die of hunger; 2) what it would feel like to watch your child die of hunger; 3) that so many children each day do die of hunger; and 4) there’s enough food to feed them if that’s what the governments and financial institutions of the world truly decided to do – and you couldn’t remain complacent even if you wanted to. We are moral beings at our core, and we yearn to do what we can to right the universe. It’s not enough anymore to just put “Be the change you want to see happen in the world” on the bottom of your emails and otherwise leave it at that.

So I am already blessed by this trip, just by being on the plane. By showing up. By making the choice to be here. And I am so looking forward to meeting others at the Conference --- four thousand people are here from all over the world --who have devoted themselves so utterly and completely to activities that lift the poor from poverty and get food to those who would otherwise starve.

This woman was a contestant on "Ukraine's Got Talent" last month. She is standing behind a table which is covered with sand. The table is lit from beneath.

There is an overhead camera above the table, and that video is being projected onto the large screen behind her so that the audience can watch what she is doing.

She is telling the story of one of the aerial bombings of Kiev during World War II. You will see one of the famous monuments that stands in Kiev today commemorating those bombings.

Guess who won the competition?

…

It's time to claim our internal powers.

It's time to have a serious meditation vigil for Glenn Beck.

Not only has he indirectly threatened the President ("Either Obama is in danger or we are"). He has even begun picking off Administration officials and smearing them out of office (Van Jones). He is doing this stuff nightly on TV, and he is taken very seriously by millions of people.

The history of my ancestors teaches that ignoring his kind of hatred is unwise. Don't think it will just blow over or go away or become uninteresting to people. Glenn Beck is a psychological and emotional terrorist, and it's time to spiritually quarantine him before he does any more harm. Here's how you do it:

Every day, pray for Beck's happiness for five minutes. Then meditate on this image:

1. See him sitting within a golden egg.

2. See that the eggshell that surrounds him is made of an impenetrable, titanium-like substance. None of his malevolent thoughts can turn into harmful action of any kind, on any level, because they cannot get past the eggshell.

3. See a golden light being emitted from the inside of the eggshell, showering Beck with peace and love and healing energy.

Internal powers are as real as external powers. Using the power of loving thoughts, we have the power to dismantle this bomb before it really explodes. And if enough of us do this, dismantle it we will.

by Jimmy Carter, Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Women and girls have been discriminated against for too long in a twisted interpretation of the word of God.

I have been a practicing Christian all my life and a deacon and Bible teacher for many years. My faith is a source of strength and comfort to me, as religious beliefs are to hundreds of millions of people around the world. So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention's leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be "subservient" to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.

At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.

The impact of these religious beliefs touches every aspect of our lives. They help explain why in many countries boys are educated before girls; why girls are told when and whom they must marry; and why many face enormous and unacceptable risks in pregnancy and childbirth because their basic health needs are not met.

In some Islamic nations, women are restricted in their movements, punished for permitting the exposure of an arm or ankle, deprived of education, prohibited from driving a car or competing with men for a job. If a woman is raped, she is often most severely punished as the guilty party in the crime.

The same discriminatory thinking lies behind the continuing gender gap in pay and why there are still so few women in office in the West. The root of this prejudice lies deep in our histories, but its impact is felt every day. It is not women and girls alone who suffer. It damages all of us. The evidence shows that investing in women and girls delivers major benefits for society. An educated woman has healthier children. She is more likely to send them to school. She earns more and invests what she earns in her family.

It is simply self-defeating for any community to discriminate against half its population. We need to challenge these self-serving and outdated attitudes and practices - as we are seeing in Iran where women are at the forefront of the battle for democracy and freedom.

I understand, however, why many political leaders can be reluctant about stepping into this minefield. Religion, and tradition, are powerful and sensitive areas to challenge. But my fellow Elders and I, who come from many faiths and backgrounds, no longer need to worry about winning votes or avoiding controversy - and we are deeply committed to challenging injustice wherever we see it.

The Elders are an independent group of eminent global leaders, brought together by former South African president Nelson Mandela, who offer their influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity. We have decided to draw particular attention to the responsibility of religious and traditional leaders in ensuring equality and human rights and have recently published a statement that declares: "The justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a Higher Authority, is unacceptable."

We are calling on all leaders to challenge and change the harmful teachings and practices, no matter how ingrained, which justify discrimination against women. We ask, in particular, that leaders of all religions have the courage to acknowledge and emphasize the positive messages of dignity and equality that all the world's major faiths share.

The carefully selected verses found in the Holy Scriptures to justify the superiority of men owe more to time and place - and the determination of male leaders to hold onto their influence - than eternal truths. Similar biblical excerpts could be found to support the approval of slavery and the timid acquiescence to oppressive rulers.

I am also familiar with vivid descriptions in the same Scriptures in which women are revered as pre-eminent leaders. During the years of the early Christian church women served as deacons, priests, bishops, apostles, teachers and prophets. It wasn't until the fourth century that dominant Christian leaders, all men, twisted and distorted Holy Scriptures to perpetuate their ascendant positions within the religious hierarchy.

The truth is that male religious leaders have had - and still have - an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter. Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world. This is in clear violation not just of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, Moses and the prophets, Muhammad, and founders of other great religions - all of whom have called for proper and equitable treatment of all the children of God. It is time we had the courage to challenge these views.

www.ruthgroup.org

Generation after generation, people have fought to get rid of the "....except for"s: except for blacks, except for women, etc. Today, we challenge the latest prejudice to raise its ugly head and seek to repudiate the fundamental American dedication to freedom and equality for all. The idea that there should be God-given life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness "except for gays" is unworthy of our national character.

I do not feel the upset I would have expected to feel about the recent ruling by California's Supreme Court. I don't feel the upset because it seems so clear to me that this issue is already decided in the hearts and minds of Americans. We have a new generation of citizens who can't even believe we're having this argument; for whom the inalienable rights of all people - yes, all people - is such a no-brainer that they are stymied by the fact we're even discussing this. They don't see gays as second-class people, and they don't think they should be treated as second-class citizens. In my heart, I believe that the Supreme Court of the United States is going to agree with them. God loves gay people every bit as much as He loves the rest of us, and the idea that "God shall not be mocked" means that He isn't. God is limitless in His love, and asks that we at least make the effort to be limitless in ours.

---Marianne Williamson

by Julia Ward Howe, 1870

Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

For the real story of Mother's Day womenshistory.about.com

According to Martin Luther King, Jr. there is a power in us more powerful than the power of bullets.

King knew that that power was the power of the Spirit. Call it a religious power, a spiritual power, the power of consciousness or whatever - it has to do with the power of the mind, joined with the power of a Divine Creator.

So don't be fooled when it comes to this conversation about the swine flu. This flu wasn't created on the level of the body, because no disease is. It was created on the level of the mind, and it is there that we will root it out at the causal level.

So does that mean the media shouldn't have reported about the drug cartels? Absolutely not. But it does bear noting that today's media seems to have abdicated any sense of perspective, grabbing always for the most sensationalized, fear-producing angle of any story. And we should try to filter the fear thoughts than can get into our minds as assiduously as we try to filter the germs that can get into our bodies.

If you get this - if you're already grounded in faith (or at least have read "The Secret") - then take an active part in transforming this thing. The Western allopathic medical community is doing everything it can to treat the disease on the external planes, and of course we're grateful for that. But each and every one of us have work to do on the internal planes, to transform the disease on the level of cause as well as ameliorate whatever effects it has already produced.

l) Pray it away. Just pray it away, asking God as you understand Him, the Divine Physician, Jesus or whatever other form of divine imagery works for you. Simply ask that it be removed from our midst.

2) Send love to Mexico. Between what's actually been happening there with the drug wars, plus all the "Mexico is dangerous" thoughts we've loaded onto it over the last several weeks, it needs a major dose of love - the most powerful medicine of all - to dissolve the fear thoughts that have produced this flu.

Do your part. This thing can be turned around right now, and sent back to the nothingness from whence it came. Each of us needs to stop pretending we're powerless, use the power in our hearts and work the miracles we're entitled to. Prayer is the medium of miracles; in whatever way works for you, pray right now.

Of the thousands of people who attended the church, and others I got to know while living in Detroit, most worked in some capacity, directly or indirectly, for the automobile companies. It's basically a one-industry town, as everyone knows.

My main impression of Detroit was of trapped light. Just beneath the surface - and it was a hard surface, no mistake about it - was the spirit of ingenuity and creativity that characterizes the best of America everywhere. But a corporate aristocracy runs that place, not only financially but socially. Their attachment to an old-paradigm capitalist bottom line of short-term economic gain for corporate shareholders no matter what, has kept the rank and file workers under an iron thumb for years But that doesn't mean the rank and file has been happy.


 Detroit is a microcosm of the country; it has all it takes to go in a different direction, once leadership lays down that gauntlet. President Obama has talked about how moving the economy is like turning around a big ship, not a small speedboat. But when you add the element of released creativity through the intention to do the right thing for a change, energies are released that fall somewhere in between the ship and the speedboat.


 Top leadership of an organization does more than call the shots; it invokes invisible forces. It determines in ways both large and small whether people who work for the organization want to get up and go to work in the morning, or whether they wish they could crawl back under the covers and sleep the day away. For all America's talk about whether people have jobs or not, there is a conversation every bit as relevant to our recovery from this economic crisis: whether or not people have jobs that touch their spirits and make them want to work.


 With the shift that Obama's task force is demanding of the car companies now, there is an opportunity to remove the iron hand that has sat on top of Detroiters for so many decades, and release them to their creative best. What I hope he will not do is import a bunch of greens from the West Coast, arriving to show Detroiters how to do what they know how to do and would have done decades ago if someone had simply let them.


 What people want more than anything -- whether they live in South Africa or Kansas, Cairo or Detroit -- is to feel that their lives are part of a meaningful endeavor. Changing the civilization of this planet -- from an institutional nexus that disregards the needs of the earth and its inhabitants in favor of the inflated needs of an economic system now proven bankrupt both morally and financially -- is a meaningful adventure that both awakens the soul and answers to the deepest craving of the human heart.


 What's happening to the car companies is what's happening to the world: not doing the right thing simply won't work anymore. Just moving our attention to that-- in this case, to developing energy and transportation based on sustainable, clean and renewable sources -- will so ignite the creativity and enthusiasm of people in Detroit and around the world, that the transition will in some ways be easier than people think. Institutions move slowly, yes, but the kind of shift we're talking about here is more than institutional or operational: it's spiritual. It gives the genuine thrill that only something aligned with the highest aspirations of the human race can provide, offering people the opportunity to participate in something truly important to the ages. In that intention -- to create new possibilities not only for the car companies, but for the very way we live our lives, treat the earth and treat each other -- lies the potential for a quantum explosion of new opportunities. Detroit can be turned into world headquarters for the development of clean energy and sustainable transportation, releasing light that has been trapped for a very long time. When and if that happens, it will more than shift Detroit; it will help to shift the world.

"Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything. Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God."

--- from Lesson 189, "I feel the Love of God within me now."

Here the Course calls us, as does Zen Buddhism, to radically empty the mind of all it thinks it knows, in order to learn the only things worth knowing. According to ACIM, enlightenment is not a learning, but an unlearning. We have to unlearn the thinking of the world (ego), in order to learn the ways of love (Spirit).

M

What I remember is how kind and gentle she was. I realized her pedigree -- that she was Vanessa Redgrave's daughter -- and throughout our conversation, I silently marveled at her humility and authenticity.

Her death was a reminder of something so deep, I'm not sure any of us has quite put it into words yet. Her mother, her husband, her beauty, her career, her children - put it all together, and she was one of the magical people who had it all.

Just like that. Like a shooting star. She was here, so very powerfully here, and then she was gone.

Richardson had everything we think of as that which saves us from oblivion, yet those very things dissolved into oblivion in one moment on a bunny hill. Reality transformed into no-longer-reality in the blinking of an eye, forcing us to question both the nature of that which is and the nature of that which is not. She who was so alive having been pronounced dead, and she who was dead still seeming so alive, we gazed at her as though she stood at the door. Which she did. Which she does. Which is the point.

I have no doubt that wherever she is now, Natasha's soul is at peace and in a happy place. Yet just as surely, we know that the human agony of those she left behind is beyond description.

Even within their pain, however, I'm sure that those who loved her most can feel the mystery that lay inherent in her passing. I assume there are moments when her husband, her mother, her children, and all those who loved her can feel her arms around them even now. She came from creative people, and to creative types the membrane that separates this world from the world beyond the veil is thinner. Even gossamer. For the artist is a natural mystic, as the sacred is their ultimate calling. A magnificent woman has shed her physical body, bringing to those she left behind a most terrible sadness. But her soul still lives, beyond the veil, and in that realization those who are now most sad may find in time the greatest joy.

When Jesus said "death will be the last enemy," what he meant was that one day we will see that it isn't one. For in spiritual terms, the dead do not die. Whom God hath brought together, nothing and no one, not even death itself, can put asunder. It is not the reality of death, but only our belief about its reality, that ultimately causes us sorrow and pain.

From a spiritual perspective, those who die still live; they simply no longer materialize physically. It's like they're only broadcasting on cable now, and our human sets still only pick up network. But they continue to broadcast, for in God there is no end of run.

As we, the members of the human race, embrace more and more the vision of a life that does not end, our physical senses will expand to match our broadened perception. As it turns out, Natasha Richardson - with all the sweetness and humility that marked her earthly self - had one more credit to her resume, one none of us would have known before. With her sudden and early departure, her life turns out to have been a mysterious teaching. It calls us now to look beyond appearances, and to appreciate the eternity of life. Surely, her greatest line is this: "I am here. I did not die."

May that thought - a Truth that casts out all darkness, even death itself - be a comfort now to those who grieve Natasha Richardson, and to all of us who grieve at all. The veil is there, but it is permeable. And within it, there is a door.

--- Marianne Williamson

Today is a day to cry for Israel. Today is a day to cry for the Palestinians. Today is a day to cry for all of us.

Today is a day of war.

War anywhere, at this point in our history, is an action that threatens peace everywhere. Particularly when it comes to the Middle East. From its spiritual significance to its political significance, it is humanity's hot spot. It always has been and probably always will be. It's where all the rivers of human perspective meet, to become either a cauldron of hatred or an ocean of love.

According to Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, humanity's biggest problems cannot be solved; they must be outgrown. Our task is to create a field of consciousness in which the idea of war has dropped from the ethers.

So how do we outgrow war?

The first thing we do is to accept the possibility that the end of war is possible. In fact, in the words of Congressman Dennis Kucinich, “We must challenge the belief that war is inevitable.” We must embrace the possibility that a world without war could exist.

Secondly, we must mature beyond the belief that the thinking that got us into this mess is thinking can lead us out of it. “The problems of the world will not be solved on the level of thinking we were at when we created them,” wrote Einstein. We must realize that the mortal ego will not provide us with a solution to the existence of war, because it itself is the problem. Notions such as, “The Israelis have a right to defend themselves,” and “The Palestinians have taken so much abuse; what do you expect them to do?” are both insidious drivers of war masquerading as principled stands. They keep us attached to the very duality that is the root of separation and war.

On a spiritual level, our greatest service to both Israelis and Palestinians is to reach for a higher truth within our own minds. An essential principle of metaphysical reality is that all minds are joined; as any of us are drawn to higher thoughts, then all of us are drawn to higher thoughts. As we ourselves embrace a higher truth, we help create an anti-gravitational force field that lifts all minds above separation, hatred and war.

For all our talk about wanting to be the change, how many of us are siding now against one side or the other in the current Mid-East conflict? If you really want to help the situation there, ask God to remove from your heart any judgment you have against the Israelis or the Palestinians. Any thought of judgment you hold is like a gun that you yourself are firing.

The human race is evolving to the realization that what is happening on the level of consciousness both precedes and determines what happens in the world. War is just an effect, not a cause. With the power of our minds, we can move beyond the level of effect to the level of cause. There, and only there, can we wipe out what President Franklin Roosevelt called the “beginnings of all war.”

As Americans, we have a creed --- a set of principles enshrined and institutionalized in our founding documents. First and foremost among them is that “all men are created equal.” Period. End of story. Don't be lured into thinking that either Israelis or Palestinians have been either the perfect innocents or the perfect victims here; such thinking serves neither. The greatest gift you can give to both is to realize that on a spiritual level, Israelis and Palestinians are one. Their only true reality is the reality of whom they are in this moment, freed from any thoughts of the past.

Complexity is of the ego; do not linger there. Of course there is a complicated history to the struggle currently playing out in the Middle East, and that complicated history has significance and relevance for traditional political formulation. So leave that to the traditional politicians. Our task as seekers and purveyors of a higher human consciousness is to move beyond traditional political notions, to a holistic politics that embraces the relevance of psychological and spiritual realities to the political issues of our time. As students of Gandhi and Dr. King, we know that moving beyond the violence in our own hearts is essential if we are to be conduits for the creation of a world at peace. The truly new politics goes beyond mere “post-partisan” hand-shaking and collaboration among former rivals. It takes us to a new kind of thinking as a basis for the creation of a new kind of world.

Traditionalists can call us naïve all they want to. But anyone who thinks that human hatred can simply be bombed away…they are naïve. Anyone who thinks we can continue to tolerate violence on this planet at ever-increasing levels and have such conflagrations not lead to the ultimate cataclysm of nuclear catastrophe… they are naïve. Anyone who thinks that the narrowness of a rationalistic, mechanistic human perspective can lead us out of the hell which that perspective itself has created…they are naïve. And those who see prayer as merely “symbol, not substance”… they are naïve. Prayer is hardly just symbol; it is a mover of hearts, and thus a mover of mountains.

Mountains we now need desperately to move.

Through the grace of God we are not powerless; according to A Course in Miracles, moving mountains is small compared to what we can do. War is at heart a spiritual problem and it can only be eradicated with a spiritual solution….a solution that lies within all of us.

Martin Luther King Jr. said there is a power in our hearts more powerful than the power of bullets. He described Mahatma Gandhi as the first person in the world to take the love ethic of Jesus Christ and turn it into a broad scale social force for good. (To Gandhi himself, non-violence was not just the love ethic of Jesus, but rather the heart of all religion and the heart of reality itself.) On today's geo-political landscape, we see hatred turned into a political force all around us; the politics of non-violence turns love into a political force. The question for any conscious human being, much less spiritual seeker, is, “How can I help do that?” Only the power in our hearts will be able to eradicate the idea of war, then the reality of war, from the experience of the human race.

According to Gandhi, the problem with the world was that humanity was not in its right mind. And arguably, we still are not. War, quite simply, is insane. For those of us who wish to be part of the solution to war - not part of the problem -- it is time to change our own minds, to accept a healing of our own war-like thoughts, in order to create a new field of possibility. Whether dealing with the transformation of the individual or of the transformation of the world, only what is changed on the level of consciousness becomes a fundamental change in the conditions of the world.

For five minutes each day, be a spiritual activist.

You probably already know what to do. Turn off the TV; neither CNN, MSNBC or FOX know the news. They only know data.

Turn off the bright lights. Put down the newspaper. And go within.

However you do it, turn your attention to the God of your understanding. Surrender your own hatred, give over your own wars, and ask that this year you be lifted above the violence that still lives inside your heart.

With your eyes closed, see on one side of your inner vision the Israeli people. See their physicality, their mannerisms, as you recognize them on the material plane. Now see a light within their hearts, and slowly watch that light expand, extending beyond the confines of their bodies. See the bodies begin to fade before the greater light of their eternal selves.

Now with your inner eye look to the other side of your inner vision, and see there the Palestinian people. See their physicality, their mannerisms, as you recognize them on the material plane. Now see a light within their hearts, and slowly watch that light expand, extending beyond the confines of their bodies. See the bodies begin to fade before the greater light of their eternal selves.

Now using your inner eye - your greatest source of power - bear witness to what happens as the inner light of the Israelis begins to merge with the inner light of the Palestinians. Bear witness to the merging of their spiritual selves. Simply watch and focus, for what you focus on grows stronger.

You are bearing witness now to a higher truth, thus using the power of your mind to draw a heavenly truth into material manifestation. In the presence of higher thought forms, lower ones fall of their own dead weight. In the presence of light, darkness disappears. In the presence of eternal truth, temporal lies begin to fall away.

In the words of Dr. King, “No lie can last forever.” The idea that the Israeli and Palestinian people are truly separate, or have separate needs, is simply a lie of the mortal mind. Spiritually, we are all one. Israelis and Palestinians were created by the same God; in Him they are equal and they are joined eternally. Only thought forms have separated them. Thought forms of guilt and separation have been handed down to children born innocent of such lies, generation after generation; those are the true enemy here, not either group of people.

As any of us move beyond the fear-based thought forms of separation and guilt to the truth of our eternal oneness, it becomes easier for everyone else to do so as well. Let's give up the way-too-easy, so-American way of chiding either Israelis or Palestinians for their difficulty in forgiving the past. What both peoples have endured is almost unimaginable, and only the truly sainted among us should even for a minute consider judging either side.

We don't have to; and when in our own right minds, we don't want to.

Use the power of your mind to create a new possibility… a miracle in the Middle East.

As the poet Rumi wrote so eloquently, “Out beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. I'll meet you there.” So go there now. Such thoughts are not just poetry, or even symbol, any longer. In the world that's being born, they're the stuff of a new politics.

No more simply asking, “But what can I do?” Go even further, to “What can I think? What can I pray for? What can I meditate on?” Pray for the removal of all walls that separate any of us from any of us, not only on our earth but also in our minds. Pray for the removal of the guns that still fire within your own mind as you accuse or withhold your forgiveness from anyone. And pray that at this perilous hour, those of us whose lives have not been touched by the horrors of war can be of service to those whose lives have been.

Dear God, please deliver them.
And dear God, deliver us all.