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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

"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.

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.