"His power of thought may fill the intellectual man with pride, and cloud the vision of his true destiny; but reality will take it's revenge when some fortuitous development makes nonsense of the most artful deduction of professors, politicians and psychologists." ~Isha Schwaller De Lubicz

In the past few centuries, the intellectuals of the world have pushed the spiritual and religious out of the limelight.  To some extent, this disdain for religion is understandable since many churches have strayed far from the original teachings of the great prophets that founded them, but the tide is beginning to flow the other way.  It may not seem like it just yet, but it is.  Unfortunately, this does cause many charlatans to jump on the bandwagon and start spiritual schools when they themselves are not enlightened, but just good at creating a profitable business from the teachings they often don't even understand.  There are real spiritual schools though and they are growing larger and stronger everyday as is the whole movement back to real spirituality.  Eventually, many believe in 2012, this growth in spiritulity will reach a critical level and the world will be in for some drastic changes that may blow the scientific dogma of the intellectuals apart.

        

I heard on CNN  about a strange fad in Europe.  Do you think it is smart to punish people for saving money?  While that's what is happening in some European countries.  If you get a speeding ticket, your fine is not a fixed amount but is calculated based on your income and your savings.  Even if your income is not very high, if your a frugal person and have a lot of savings, your fine will be higher.  And we're not talking about 15 euros ( about $20) versus 10, some people have already paid fines under these laws that are thousands of euros.

I created a new wiki-style web site for Rajan Zed.  Not much there yet, but it's a start.

Two big blizzards in the Washington DC area this winter!  Some people think that proves that global warming is a fantasy.  Wrong, just the opposite.  It's at least partly because of the warmer water in the ocean that the storms are growing bigger and carrying more moisture.

I've advised my readers to keep a small digital recorder near their bed so, when ideas pop into you head in the middle of the night, you can quickly record them.  One thing I forgot to mention, even to myself, is to clear out those messages occasionally.  I tried to record a thought a few nights ago and found I had hit the limit of 100 messages and couldn't record more.

The California Milk Board runs ads to convince people in California to buy milk from local farms to help the state economy.  The advertizing agency that runs their campaign is in New Zealand.

In the U.S., a hunter was recently shot by his own dog!  The dog knocked over a shotgun and it went off.

Bruce "Huge Harold" Snowdon, last of the circus sideshow fat men recently died.  He was often billed as weighing over 700 pounds, but was really just over 600.  His last big appearance was in the movie "Big Fish".

Sydney, Australia recently held a naked bike ride to promote environmental issues.  Participants were encouraged to wear nothing but body paint.

        

The candle of thine heart is lighted by the hand of My power, quench it not with the contrary winds of self and passion.

God give us great spiritual power and energy to do His will and help fulfill His plan.  When we let our egos convice us to work contrary to God's will to satisfy our own material desires and passions, that spiritual energy dwindles and may be lost to us. 

        

Here is the Washington DC area, we are getting hit with the second big blizzard of the winter.  Finding things to do when your trapped indoors by a storm isn't as difficult as it used to be.  We have television, computers, DVD players, etc.  But, for those of us developing our spiritual self, are there activities to help in that area?  Yes, there are, and here are a few of them: You can read a good spiritual book such as one that I've reviewed here You can study the Bible, Torah, Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, or other scripture and try to find the spiritual truths hidden within them You can develop or test your psychic abilities by trying to guess what card you will draw from a deck  and keeping track of how successful you are (note:  If you draw 40 or 50 cards and don't get any right, that doesn't mean you have no psychic power, but you may have a kind of reverse psychic power causing you to guess wrong all the time) You can try telling the fortune of yourself or others with a tarot deck You can pray for those who are sick, having money problems or other kinds of bad luck (Yes, it does help you  to pray for others) Practice visualizing your energy centers and see them full of Light or spiritual fire. Get out that DVD or book on yoga or tai chi that you got, but never opened, and start doing the exercises Those are just a few examples, I'm sure you can think of others.  And don't forget to check on elderly neighbors who may need help.

   

        

Creating without claiming, Doing without taking credit, Guiding without interfering, This is Primal Virtue. ~Lao Tzu  

    A truly spiritual person helps others without looking for credit or reward.  She does it because it is the right thing to do.  He does it because that is what God wants us to do.  By helping others without thought of gain or fame, we are following God's Will for this world and His plan to redeem it.  
    So what is wrong with seeking fame and fortune while helping others to grow spiritually?  The problem is that those who do that soon find themselves compromising the teachings to be more popular and gain more fame and fortune.  We see this happening in some of the big churches of today where the spiritual growth of the members is of little, if any, concern, and those are churches to avoid unless you are just looking for a social club to belong to.  They do serve a purpose for those who are not ready for true spirituality, but for those who are, you need a church or organization that teaches spiritual truths without using it as a means to run a highly profitable business.

        

    We all know that our ancestors have a lot of affect on us.  On what we look like, how we behave, and what diseases we are likely to get.  This is all the result of heredity and that which is passed on to us through genes.  But there is more to it than that.  
    Our parents affect us more than other ancestors because they raise, tell us what to do, what to eat, etc.  As I am writing this article (1/30/2010), it is snowing here and I am going to bake an apple crisp later.  Why?  Partly because I like apple crisp but also, because when I was a child, my mother always baked something on days with bad weather so I always want to bake something when it snows.
    But our parents are not the only ancestors that affect us.  We actually have the thoughts and minds, in a manner of speaking, of our ancestors going back many generations within our brains.  Sometimes, without our being aware of it, an ancestor from several generations back will send ideas to our conscious mind and affect our behavior.  In fact, I think that when emotional and mental trauma causes the phenomena known as multiple personality disorder, what is really happening in many, if not all, cases, is that the person is withdrawing from reality and that is allowing a strong-willed ancestor, or sometimes more than one, to come forward and take over.

        

In ancient cave paintings, the artists often painted animals, presumable the ones that hunted, with considerable accuracy.  Yet, sometimes they painted animals that never lived in the area, such as elephants and rhinos painted on caves in Europe, and sometimes they are strange creatures that never existed.     That last category is often blamed on the shaman having hallucinations from taking plant extracts that cause them.  Another possibility is that these shaman were painting something they actually saw when they traveled to another dimension.  That other dimension is often called "the astral plan" by new age groups today who actively try  to go their as the ancient shaman did.  They should be paying more attention to the descriptions of the things encountered there by those shaman:  strange beasts that were part human, part animal; violent spirits that attacked them, biting them and sometimes symbolically killing them in their vision, but not physically.  These are not the kinds of spirits you find when you travel to higher dimensions where angels and Being of Light dwell.  They are the demons of hell and should be avoided.

        

    We have become a society of disposable things.  Almost everything is disposable.  We have disposable razors, disposable pens, disposable diapers, etc.  Even when something isn't sold as disposable, very often it is because of circumstances.  With a lot of electronics, getting something repaired costs as much or more than buying a new one.  
    A few day ago, when I turned on my GPS that is less than a year old, I got a message that the maps were out-of-date and I should get on line to buy an update.  When I did, I found that the price of a new map file is $99 while I can get a new GPS for less than $150.  Under those circumstances, it doesn't make any sense to buy new maps, just buy a new GPS when I need it (personally, I don't use the GPS very often, so I will likely wait another year or more to get a new one).
    It's bad enough for the environment and limited natural resources that we have adopted this philosophy of everything being disposable, but that philosophy now seem to be spreading beyond things to pets and people.  I read recently that in the Los Angeles/Hollywood area of California, the dog shelters have been flooded recently with chihuahuas and other toy dogs as the fad of celebrities carrying them around like a fashion accessory is dying, and along with it, those who blindly follow their lead.  We are also becoming less loyal to friends, employers and other people we deal with.  And worse, we have many who think life is disposable, of no particular value.  That is really sad and it's a situation that needs to be corrected.  And the only way to correct it is the development of our spiritual nature that many have neglected for too many generations.

        

    A few days ago, I found a feather hitchhiking on my pants leg so I thought it would be a good choice for my next spiritual symbols article.  
    A feather is a light, airy thing so it usually represents lightness, rising, the heavens or ascending to spiritual worlds or dimensions.  They can also represent truth and honesty, especially spiritual truth.  The wearing of a feathered headdress, robe or cape represents power and knowledge, especially the power and knowledge of birds meaning the ability to fly above earthly things and ascend to higher realms.  Two feathers together represents the two great forces: Yin and yang, hot and cold, male and female.
A white feather can represent clouds, but can also represent cowardice.  A black feather usually represents something ominous.  A crown of feathers represents the rays of the sun and deities that wear feathers, or have feathers, such as  Quetzalcoatl represent the spiritual sun.  In some Native American tribes, Eagle feathers represent the Great Spirit or Universal Spirit.  When priests and shaman wear feathered cloaks, it represents the ability to travel to other (spiritual) worlds.  Since angels are often depicted with feathered wings (I've explained before that this is a symbolic, not literal representation), feathers can also represent communicating with or emulating angels.

        

For those who believe the tales about it being dangerous to drive while talking on a cell phone, texting, reading a newspaper, or otherwise distracted, a statistic was released recently that shows that 500,000 accidents have occurred and 6,000 deaths as a result of distracted driving (mostly using a cell phone).

I don't really understand the objections from some over the cruise lines resuming stops in Haiti.  They think it's wrong to be sitting on a beach and enjoying yourself while people are still suffering about a hundred miles away.  While I agree that people are sometimes indifferent to the  suffering of others, it shouldn't matter whether it's one hundred miles,  500 or 1000 miles, yet no one seems to be objecting to cruise ships going to the port of Samana, Dominican republic which is the same island,  but a different country, so it's OK.  The ships going to the private beach at Labadee, Haiti are bringing needed money and jobs to Haiti and also carrying needed supplies.  (I labelled the two ports on this map so you can see what I mean)

There are some interesting new stories on the Cosolargy blog.

Also, some great new photos on Roger Weld's Flickr page.

I'm not sure how president Obama is "creating jobs" when his cuts in government spending are causing government contractors to lay off thousands.



"Living is not this tawdry, mediocre, disciplined thing which we call our existence. Living is something entirely different; it is abundantly rich, timelessly changing, and as long as we don't understand that eternal movement, our lives are bound to have very little meaning."  ~Jiddu Krishnamurti