The Gift -- How do you Love?

Today a little bunny rabbit taught me a great lesson about love, and life.

My cats are hunters, and today they brought in a little baby bunny. They “played” with it, and I thought it was dead. I brought it outside and placed it under one of the evergreen trees on our property, safe from any random prowlers. The poor little thing had some skin off it’s hide, and it was obviously in pain. I felt so sad for the little guy, but what can you do? My cat was just playing with it. The cat had no malicious intent towards the bunny, but cats are predators. That’s just what they do.

As I looked down at the injured little bunny, I told the little creature I loved it very much, but I also felt an overwhelming feeling of sadness. I felt like planet earth was simply a brutal place to live, and that mankind has fucked up everything. Our consciousness is so low; we murder and kill and pollute, and there seems to be a large imbalance in the good we do in comparison to the bad. As the dominant species on earth, that destructive consciousness seeps, like water through a sieve, into the consciousness of every other species.

The little bunny opened and closed his eyes, as if to say: “what did I get myself into down here?”

I thought about the bunny all afternoon, and every time I did I felt the same wave of sadness, just like I did with the cat a few weeks back. I knew there was a lesson somewhere, and I asked my spiritual guides –– the guys –– to tell me what it was.
On my way home from my Toastmasters meeting, I suddenly got it.

The bunny was not sad because it was in pain, or because it was fed up with planet earth. That was my thing. It felt my sadness and was sad too, because my vibration overwhelmed it. It was just responding to MY pain.

The bunny was here to learn to experience earth in its joys and its pain and misery. That’s what it was here for. But I couldn’t get it. I thought that the bunny should live in happy bunny land. I couldn’t understand that a spirit might WANT to experience anything less than happiness. Then I realized that my love for the bunny wasn’t really love at all! I understood, in a flash, that love means love for what a thing IS, right now, not what I THINK it should be.

If I had truly felt love, I would have felt joy, admiration and celebration for what it had accomplished and what it was being, in the moment. Even though it was in pain. When I understood that, my sadness just vanished.

Now I know what love is, truly.

Love is the acceptance and the celebration of what someone is being, what someone is experiencing, what someone IS, right now.

That understanding blew my mind, for now I understand better what the Masters have been saying throughout the millennia, and how a Master can confront even the most gruesome evil. For love, which dissolves all things, is something that is so powerful, it can admire ANYTHING. The acceptance and understanding that goes along with this kind of love, I am sure, has healing properties. I’m sure that is the kind of love that allows a Master, like Jesus the Christ, to heal by a touch, or by merely being in the same space.
This profound understanding was a gift to me, and now to you, from a little cat and a little bunny rabbit.

Epilogue

If you are sensitive, then living on planet earth can be excruciatingly painful. Most people would probably laugh at my story. “What are you getting so emotional about a stupid little rabbit? Grow up!” Well ,I am getting to the point where I can see that all life is sacred. I can feel the connection between all living things and God. I am getting to the point where I will not even step on an ant or a beetle when I’m standing at the tee pad playing disk golf. I wait for the little guys to move away before I take my shot.

Fortunately, I play with a guy who understands. My wife understands, and so do all of my friends. That is a blessing, I can tell you that. I am beginning to feel the words “all life is sacred” instead of just knowing it intellectually.

Consciousness created the universe and everything in it. Consciousness created the earth and all of the species upon it, and we are all here sharing experiences and growing together. The little bunny and the little cat taught me that there is no bad experience. It blew my mind when I understood that the bunny wanted to experience what it had at the hands of my cat. I was sad because I could NOT. The bunny and the cat, I realized, were far more evolved than I.

I often rant about the psychosis of the human race and how we have messed up the planet, but now I understand that humans are just like the bunny and the cat. We are here to experience excruciating joy, and excruciating pain; excruciating love and excruciating misery. Because we are the dominant species, we just do this on a grander scale. The two little guys have taught me to be more tolerant toward our species as a whole, and to better accept the activities of my fellow man. For acceptance is love, and love is the only way the human race can transform the planet from the vibrations of hatred and scarcity and war.

You can’t have positive change on a broad scale until you learn to love. And that means unconditional acceptance of the actions of our fellow man, and all life forms.

That’s what we’re here for.

[b]The Still Point[/b] (reprinted from the Spiritual Wisdom newsletter, Jan 2007)

The infinity symbol looks like this:

https://kjmaclean.com/Newsletters/Infinity.jpg[

If you take the Yin Yang symbol
https://kjmaclean.com/Newsletters/YinYang.jpg

and lay it on it’s side, you can trace the infinity symbol like so:
https://kjmaclean.com/Newsletters/YinYang2.jpg

The infinity symbol can also be written as two tangent circles, as you can see from the diagram above.
https://kjmaclean.com/Newsletters/Infinity.jpg

Let us call the left of the infinity symbol the spiritual component, and the right, the physical component.

The black and white dots are just the centers of the two circles. The white dot within the black circle and the black dot within the white circle indicate that the spiritual is contained within the physical, and vice–versa. This is not some meaningless new–age generality! The physical and the spiritual are two aspects of the same unifying Creative Principle.

In mathematics, the infinity symbol also shows up in what is called the Lorenz Attractor:
https://kjmaclean.com/Newsletters/LorenzAttractor.jpg

However it is written, the infinity symbol represents a very important concept. The symbol indicates two energy loci that meet in the middle.
https://kjmaclean.com/Newsletters/Infinity1.jpg

In the middle is what I call the still point. The still point is, metaphorically, the eye of the hurricane. As the strong winds of the hurricane wreak havoc all about, the eye remains serene, yet powerful. The eye of the hurricane is the still point around which the energy flows.

The Still Point merges the combined energies around both loci effortlessly in a singularity, or point of tremendous mass/energy density. The Still Point is a place of perfect harmony, or peace, because energy must pass through it (or around it) without disturbance of any kind. How is this possible? Only through a perfect harmonious matching of wavefronts. Mathematically, a numerical ratio exists which expresses this concept precisely. It is called the Golden Ratio or Phi ratio. If you have ever meditated successfully, you may have reached a place of perfect calm and peace. You have reached your personal Still Point.

By flipping the symbol on end, we place the spiritual above, and the physical below:
https://kjmaclean.com/Newsletters/Infinity2.jpg

A human being is a spirit temporarily associated with a physical body, and perceiving through the limiting senses of the body. Of course, physical matter is not capable of perfect melding and harmony –– and that is why there is always disharmony within it. The denser the energy, the more difficult it is to achieve harmony. That’s why life is sometimes so hard! However, although it is impossible for physical matter and energy to achieve perfect harmony, that is not so for a spirit. Spirit may attain the Still Point because it is non-physical.

The Still Point represents the power of the static –– the non–physical spirit –– to exist serenely within the grosser energies of the physical. When you find your personal still point, you are perfectly balanced between the spiritual and the physical. You can feel your connection to the creative energy of the universe! I remember a concert given by the great pianist Bill Evans. The pianist was playing the most profound music, yet his body was completely motionless. As a listener, I couldn’t keep still I was so excited, but Evans had found his still point and was so intimately connected to creative power that all of his energies went into his hands in their caressing of the keyboard.

It appears that it is almost impossible for any of us to be at the Still Point, for it is a place of perfect balance. The mistake we make is to model our own consciousness on the behavior of physical matter and energy. We have forgotten that we created the universe to be our playground, not our master! This point of view makes absolutely no sense to those who do not understand their spiritual nature, but it is almost common sense for those of us who do. Nevertheless, even with this knowledge we oscillate around our personal Still Point in life, creating tension anxiety, and stress. Tension is a natural part of life, for it leads to exploration of new possibilities, and self–growth. However, sometimes we oscillate so far out of our place of peace that it seems impossible to find it again. By understanding that the physical and the spiritual are two aspects of the same unifying principle –– and not separate –– it is possible to find balance in a world that often seems to be spinning out of control.

The Still Point is within. It is a consideration or property of the spirit –– not the physical universe and all of its hurly–burly activity. When you find your personal Still Point, the world slows down and becomes a wonderful experience, no matter what the events of your life may be!

To understand the Still Point it is necessary to understand the concept of a static. The word static means “1. Having no motion; being at rest; quiescent. Fixed; stationary.” In physics, static means “2. Of or relating to bodies at rest or forces that balance each other.” The brilliant astronomer Tom van Flandern illustrates this concept with the metaphor of a waterfall.[1] A frozen waterfall is static in the first sense, and a flowing waterfall is static in the second sense. The flowing waterfall contains trillions of moving water molecules, the frozen waterfall is motionless.

A native state personality is a static in the sense of no movement. Here we define static as non–material or non–physical –– something that has no moving parts. A static is a creative potential that has the capability of thought, and which can perceive what it has created, somewhat like we do when we dream.

How does the pure static –– Spirit –– interface with the physical world? The static must allow the free flow of movement that surrounds it. Resistance of any kind pulls the static from the Still Point and into the energy maelstrom. The degree of resistance to life determines your level of anxiety and stress!

The spirit has the capability to co–create his or her life, applying the subtle but powerful universal laws that are built into the fabric of reality. The most important step to finding the still point is to believe it is possible, and to understand that the spirit is always senior to whatever is occurring in the physical plane. The spirit, when it becomes too embroiled within the physical, loses sight of it’s own power. Only when the static turns away from itself can it get into difficulty! The Light, instead of illuminating the darkness, becomes entangled within it. We only need remember that the negative gains its power from the positive, and that we create the parameters of our personal existence.

The Still Point is the physical analogy to the pure static of Spirit. As the energy of life moves all around us –– 6 billion of us interacting with each other, as well as the animal, plant and insect life of our planet –– it is possible to find a point of dynamic balance. Dynamic balance is like the flowing waterfall, where all components are allowed to fully express themselves without resistance or prejudice. Attempting to fight or stop the actions of others is a good way to lose yourself and create disharmony in your l
ife.

Let the viewpoints and actions of others slide off you effortlessly, like the leaf that bends under the dewdrop. Create your life in a positive fashion; find the highest expression for your life and create it, every day! Do not fight or resist those whose awareness is less than yours. By your example, be a beacon of positive expression of your own divine creativity.

As the forces of Light (the self aware) meet the forces of darkness (those who have lost themselves) remember that the dark receives its power from the Light. When confronted by irrationality or repellent words or deeds, shine your light upon it. To do this you must look inward and find your personal Still Point. Every one of us has this ability, but we do not often step into our power and exercise it, for we have been taught to fight and beat down opposition. This idea, however, is false and will lead those who follow it down the road to misery.

Those who believe that ‘you only go around once’ are the primary mischief makers on our planet. Such people believe they must scrap and claw and accumulate as much as possible before their consciousness is snuffed out completely at death. If you wanted to enslave a population, the inculcation of such a belief would be a great way to do it! However, this belief is the ultimate lie, for it denies your true nature.

If you live in the United States, you can see how rapidly our personal freedoms are being attacked by a frightened rogue element which conceives that safety must be gained through absolute control. These elements are trying to create the frozen waterfall, by forcing all activities into a rigid mold, instead of the dynamic waterfall which allows freedom and action. Even though this plan is doomed to failure, our resistance and struggle with these forces can only give them more power and create more difficulty for us.

We all signed up to be here on planet earth for the completion of this latest planetary cycle. We must trust in the power of universal laws, which were created by beings of the Light to empower beings of the Light. These laws are invisible to those who create chaos, but the fact is that all are subject to them.

During this crucial period in our planet's history, we must turn our thoughts away from the darkness and toward the Light. The power of thought accesses the subtle, but enormously powerful forces of the universe. These are the same forces that keep the sun converting hydrogen to helium, maintain the planets in orbit around the sun, and which transform the seed into the flower. These forces are far more powerful than the gross forces of tyranny and oppression.

The battle will be won, not in the streets or on the battlefield, but within our own hearts and minds. Thought is invisible, but immensely powerful, and accesses the creative energy of the universe! In order to establish a new paradigm of cooperation and prosperity for the people of earth, we must turn away from the negative and focus on the positive.

[b]Exercise[/b]

Find a quiet place and either sit or lie down comfortably. If the weather is clement, go outside and lie on the grass. Feel your body in the chair or on the floor. Feel the life force flowing through your cells. Imagine earth energy flowing upwards from the earth and into your body, and spiritual energy downward from above. Feel yourself at the intersection of these two energy flows and find your balance. Try to find your personal Still Point.
_________________________________
[1] “… we must distinguish two distinct meanings of the term “static”. One meaning is unchanging in the sense of no moving parts. The other meaning is sameness from moment to moment by continual replacement of all moving parts. We can visualize this difference by thinking of a waterfall. A frozen waterfall is static in the first sense, and a flowing waterfall is static in the second sense. Both are essentially the same at every moment, yet the latter has moving parts capable of transferring momentum, and is made of entities that propagate.”
–– From “The Speed of Gravity” Physics Letters A 250:1-11 (1998). Article available at http://www.metaresearch.org/
cosmology/speed_of_gravity.asp

Current Events

Yesterday I heard a piece of nonsense on NPR.

Commenting on the financial peril of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the NPR talking head said ‘..officials said that bad mortgages will be covered by reserve funds from the Federal Reserve…’

The only difficulty is that the Federal Reserve is not a reserve. It has no funds. The Federal Reserve is a money-creating factory.
The Fed’s liabilities are Federal Reserve Notes. What’s a note? A promise to pay: a certificate of debt. Look on any bill and you’ll see the inscription, “This Note is Legal Tender for all debts, public and private.”

What are the assets of the Fed? U.S. Treasury securities. A Treasury security is a piece of paper from the Treasury that says that it will pay the amount denominated on the security.
How does the Fed pay for these securities? By simply crediting the account of the United States. It can do this because a U.S. Treasury is considered an asset: it is essentially a future promise to pay by the American people, through taxes.

So whenever the government goes into debt, the Fed makes money: the interest payments that the U.S. pays on those Treasury securities. Nice trick, eh? Don’t you wish you could print money every time your debts exceeded your liabilities? And then get people to pay you interest on that self–created money? The interest on the national debt is about $373 billion dollars, and rising every year. This is the money the government must pay the Fed for money we’ve already spent.

But of course, when the Fed creates more money to “fund” the debt of the United States, it creates inflation. Inflation is a depreciating currency brought about by too much currency chasing too few goods and services. Notice I said currency, not money. Federal reserve Notes are not real money, because they have no value. They are backed by nothing except the ability of the government to levy taxes.

So where are the funds coming from that will guarantee the debt created from the sub–prime mortgage crisis? Why, either from taxes, or from the printing and creating of more money. Which one do you bet on?

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will be “funded.” That means, more debt will be created, and that means, of course, more inflation and a further depreciation of our already battered currency. Do you think prices are high now? Just wait until the government gets finished “handling” the sub–prime crisis!

People, never believe newscaster talking heads or politicians, when they talk about funding government agencies. The only honest way for government to get money is through the collection of taxes. But politicians don’t like to raise taxes. So instead, the government borrows more and more money from the Fed, which creates the tax called inflation. Inflation erodes your purchasing power, just as surely as if you had to write the government a tax check.

Freedie Mac and Fannie Mae are known as GSE’s, or government Sponsored Enterprise, unlike the FHA (Federal Housing Administration), which is an actually federal agency, and which is self–supporting. The FHA has strict guidelines for mortgage issuance and the program is paid for by homeowner insurance premiums.

There are basically 3 mortgage finance GSE’s, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and the 12 Hone Loan Banks. The important thing to remember here is that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are privately owned but publicly chartered; this means that the Federal government guarantees the profits of private investors. And when this trust is abused, as it has been during the past decade,we pay the price. Although GSE securities carry no explicit governmental guarantees, in practice all funds guaranteed by GSE’s are covered, because politicians do not want to be responsible for people losing their homes.

The problem is that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have been stuck with bad mortgages. In their greed for profits, bankers abused their mortgage underwriting privileges and left the government to foot the bill.

Freddie Mac is a stockholder-owned corporation established by Congress in 1970 to provide liquidity, stability and affordability to the nation's residential mortgage markets. That’s a fancy way of saying that it will bail out mortgage bankers if they get into trouble with bad loans. Fannie Mae was created by Congress in 1938 and rechartered in 1968 to expand the flow of mortgage funds in all communities.

Unfortunately, greed and abuse by mortgage bankers, and a lack of oversight, has caused the dire financial difficulties at these GSE’s. Basically, what Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do is bail out banks that make bad loans.

Now bad debt is a problem in any legitimate business, so there’s no problem there. However, in recent years, banks have gotten greedy, and sent their mortgage brokers around the country, writing mortgages that they knew were bad. “What the heck,” they said, “we can collect the interest until the borrowers can no longer make the payments. Then the government will foot the bill.” Well guess what folks, the “government” is me and you.

The projected budget deficit for the 2008 fiscal year is projected to be $410 billion. The national debt is over $9 trillion and growing every year. Our current account deficit (exports – imports) average over half a trillion every year. But the Republican and Democratic parties blithely keep borrowing and spending, year after year. The mainstream press thinks this is just ducky. The citizenry has no clue that our government is rapidly going bankrupt, if it has not already done so. I wrote about this in an earlier blog post called “Nero Fiddles While Rome Burns.”

What happens if you max out your credit cards and can’t make the minimum payments? You declare bankruptcy. And that is exactly what will happen with the Federal government. Either the dollar will be “refloated” –– which means it will be lowered in value relative to other currencies (something which is long overdue) –– or the government will announce one day that the 60,000 in your savings account is now worth 6,000. Or $600. Don’t laugh; that’s what happened in the old Soviet Union between 1991 and 1994, when the ruble, which had previously been valued at over a dollar, fell to its low of about one-fiftieth of one cent (that is, one dollar fetched 5,130 rubles). * In 1991, the Central Bank of Russia announced its first great ruble reform: it froze all savings accounts and declared all 50- and 100-ruble notes worthless. This led a Russian electrician standing outside the bank that had confiscated his life savings to famously proclaim, "First there was nothing to buy, and now there is no money to buy it with. In the Soviet Union, this is economic reform." **

Think it can’t happen here? Well, it can, and it looks like it will, unless we wake up and smell the coffee. In 2008, the positions of the U.S. and Russia are reversed. The U.S. is the world’s largest debtor nation, and Russia now has a currency reserve of $413 billion, the largest per capita foreign currency reserve of any major economy, including China’s. ***

You see, we don’t live in a fantasy–land, even though the Republican and Democratic parties think we do. Reps and Dems see nothing wrong with borrowing and spending more every year, creating inevitable economic disaster! Yet the electorate continue to vote them in. It just astounds me. If you ask 100 people about the government’s deficit spending, 50 will just shrug and say, “so what?” The other 49 will say, “oh, does the government run a deficit?” Maybe 1 out 100 citizens really understand what’s going on. I think that’s an optimistic estimate, actually.

An ignorant citizenry cannot remain strong and free. When the government plays fast and loose with your money, you should be outraged. But apparently, it is business as u
sual in the good ol’ USA. People will, apparently, continue to vote Democratic or Republican, rewarding the very people who are destroying our economy and our currency.

All I can say is, WAKE UP AMERICA!

Before it’s too late.
______________________________
* Michael Lewis, “The Capitalist; Ruble Roulette” The New York Times Magazine, August 13, 1995.
** Ibid.
*** Andrew E. Kramer, “The Almighty Ruble,” The New York Times World Business, August 8, 2007.

Weak and strong

What is the difference between a weak person and a strong one?

Some people might say that a weak person is easily influenced by the opinions of others. Others might say that a weak person is always physically inferior.

If we apply the vibrational universe concept we can see more clearly.

When the weak person gets within the range of a passionate person, he or she is easily influenced, because the more powerful vibration entrains the weaker one to it. A person’s physique has nothing to do with it. A smaller man or woman with a strong intention can influence much larger and more powerful men. Napoleon Bonaparte was a short man, yet he was able to lead an entire nation. Gandhi was also a small man, yet he led a nation of 400 million to independence from Great Britain. The key is vibrational entrainment.

Entrainment is defined as the tendency for two oscillating bodies to lock into phase so that both vibrate in harmony. Two pendulum clocks placed on a wall near each other will eventually wind up with their pendulums swinging at the same rate. This occurs because of their mutual influence on one another. However, a stronger vibration will have a much greater influence on the system than the weaker one, so the resulting vibration will be much closer to the stronger. This is called vibrational entrainment.

Vibrational entrainment occurs even when the stronger vibration is lower on the scale of emotion / vibration. It is the amplitude of the vibration ––it’s strength and power –– that determines its influence. Such influence is often called strength of will, or force of character, but boils down to the impact of a person’s intention on the field of subtle energy in which we all live. One may refer to this as “the force” or anything you like, but anyone who has ever been around a person with a strong will can feel the effects on our consciousness.
Weakness has a pejorative connotation, but weakness is simply the failure to decide. When one has not made up one’s mind, one’s vibration is not strong. That is all weakness is. Clarity of thought and intention is brought about by finding a desire and going with it. Desire aligns thought and intent, and creates a strong vibration that aligns others to it.

President Bush, for example, has declared an irrational “War on Terrorism” that has resulted in the passing of legislation that has gutted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He can do this because the universe fully supports all choices. Mr. Bush clearly has strong intent, even though the results are, for intelligent and self–aware persons, nutty.

So weak or strong has everything to do with intent, with decision, with desire. And that is something each one of us has total control of.

The weak one decides that it would be better to get stronger. How does he or she go about this? Why, by attempting to overcome that which is stronger! It’s a natural human impulse. This occurs be cause we are vibrationally stuck in the resonance of the situation we are in. The most familiar and comfortable way out is to start punching against that which is holding you down.

This course of action is self–defeating, but perfectly logical when looked at vibrationally. It is a reflexive, knee–jerk reaction to the problem, which further exacerbates the problem.

George Bush’s War on Terrorism is a perfect example. By fighting terrorism, we match vibrations with it, thus feeding it energy and making it stronger. We do this despite the logic of Einstein, who once said, “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” But this is precisely what the human race does. We do it in our personal lives as well!

What is reality? It is a matching of vibrations. The only way something appears real and solid is when two vibrations are close enough to each other. It’s a fundamental property of this universe. When the dog whistle goes beyond the range of the human ear, we are no longer aware of the sound. When the frequency of light changes from the visible light spectrum to the infrared, we can no longer perceive it.

How do you get strong, if you are weak?

Find something to resonate to that makes you feel strong! A feeling is a vibration, and emotion. It’s a sign that you are connected to a desire. If you go through life feeling little or nothing, it’s because you haven’t found anything to resonate to. Your thoughts are probably vague and unformulated.

Let’s now introduce Joey, a young kid who feels peer pressure to break the rules even when he doesn’t want to. At this point, Joey is in a weak position, for he is confronted by those who have very strong intention. “You are either with us or against us,” Joey is told. Joey understands that life is nuanced, but the characters who challenge him see only black and white. Joey knows that if he chooses to fight, he gets his butt kicked. If he doesn’t fight, he gets his butt kicked anyway!

What should Joey do?

Well, the solution often requires that you utterly ignore the problem that is staring you in the face. Why? Because you are weak there! Young Joey has no interest in roughnecking, so what should he do? Concentrate on his music! That’s what floats his boat, that’s where he feels strong.

“Hah!” You say, “that’s great, but meanwhile he is getting rolled!”

Well look: you don’t get involved in anything unless you are already resonating to it, even if just a little bit. The guy who is looking for trouble will pick out the one guy in the crowd who is afraid, and attack him. Events don’t just happen randomly you know. That’s a deluded philosophy promoted by mechanists, behaviorists, and others who deny their own spirituality.

Might Joey get kicked around a little? Yeah, maybe, but it will depend on how quickly he can get into his music vibe. Remember, when there is vibrational disparity, there is invisibility. You can’t see or hear frequencies that are out of range! The roughnecks only see Joey because he’s afraid, or because he’s vibrationally weak. The passionate person walks proud and tall, he or she is their own transmitter, entraining others to them.

It doesn’t matter how little you are, or how poor. The universe doesn’t discriminate that way. The solution to weakness is to find something that lights you up, and go DO it!

Think about it, talk about it, find as much time in your day as you can for it. You will find yourself growing stronger, and watching as more and more people begin to resonate to you, and come under your vibrational sphere of influence. If you are truly passionate –– not obsessed –– you will be connected strongly to the creative energy of the universe, and you will be acting not only for your greatest good, but for the greatest good of all.

That’s what Joey did. Soon he is playing in a band and his paying customers are the bullies who wanted to beat him up. And now they want his autograph!