After WWII - We will emerge from the darkness

"Yet it was precisely then that the seeds were sown for a different kind of society. There was a deep sense that much needed to be changed. There were too many inequalities. There was too much poverty. The economic crash of 1929 and the depression of the 1930s had left scars that had to be healed. Britain had to become a more caring, cohesive and compassionate society."

Here are five ways I hope an enhanced sense of ‘We’ will emerge from the darkness of the coronavirus pandemic: The Office of Jonathan Rabbi Saks.

What Can You Do?

What Can You Do?

When you wake up one morning and realize

you are in the middle of world war three?

Events fall into place when your elected government

punish you and brag about it as if you are

the enemy and you thought they

were on your side.

You voted for their strength

you dismissed intelligence

thinking it too soft.

And that love of community

betrayed by those who see the world

differently, 

years of indigestible anger

simmering beneath your flesh.

micro-shocks prick your neck

from bold headlines

opinions from people you do not know

that don’t make sense

until the day you are ordered

to stay isolated on that small plot

where you live

and the only brother is not big

but atomized

he’ll snatch a few words

from your facebook page

use what he can and delete the rest.

You are deletable within half a second

and your bank account suddenly shrinks

before your eyes and then you get it.

You get it.

Without a face or a name

you are the enemy.

But even the enemy changes shape.

You choose.

Mindfulness - take care of yourself, take care of your home

Sure there will be a lot of noise over the air waves from now until the people of each nation realize that power is the ability to govern for the greater good.

In Thich Nhat Hanh's book The Art of Power he lays out five spiritual powers — this power from within is a discipline to release ourselves from oppressive  systems since the beginning of history.

They are:

1. The Power of Faith
2. The Power of Diligence
3. The Power of Mindfulness
4. The Power of Concentration
5. The Power of Insight

I have Faith that I am capable of living with integrity and have a right to be here. I don't have to be right all the time, or good all the time - I have the capacity to think about and learn from my mistakes and to observe the integrity of others.

Hanh says there are four aspects of Diligence:- (1) don't give negative emotions a chance to manifest in your mind; (2) calm and replace negative seeds (anger, hate, fear, despair) in your conscious mind with positive ones; (3) always invite good seeds to manifest (love, forgiveness, joy, peace, happiness); (4) try to keep a good mental formation such as compassion, joy, peace, by nurturing it.

"Mindfulness is the energy of being aware of what is happening in the present moment. When we have the energy of mindfulness in us, we are fully present, we are fully alive, and we live deeply every moment of our daily life."

The power of Concentration can lead to a breakthrough, to see deeply into the object of your focus. If we are suffering some ill-health, say a back ache, we can concentrate on that pain and perhaps link it to an emotional event that we have brushed aside.

The power of Insight "is a sword that cuts painlessly through all kinds of suffering, including fear, despair, anger, and discrimination." Hanh goes on to say that an insight is more than a notion and his key teaching is the insight of impermanence. 

Forbes Magazine: 10 Things You Can Do About Climate Change

1 Let Go Of The Old World

2 Face Your Grief...

3 Defend The Truth

4 See Yourself As A Citizen...

5 Move Beyond Fossil Fuels

6 Reforest The Earth

7 Invest In A Clean Economy

8 Use Technology Responsibly

9 Build Gender Equality

10 Engage In Politics

“Civil disobedience is not only a moral choice, it is also the most powerful way of shaping world politics.”

Read the full article here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2020/02/25/10-things-you-can-do-about-climate-change-starting-in-your-head/?

Only One Thing Matters To The Oligarchy

"It is the primacy of corporate power — which has extinguished our democracy and left most of the working class in misery — and the continued increase and consolidation of their wealth." Chris Hedges. The One-Choice Election

Later in the article Hedges writes a list of what should be done. There are choices for humanity. Try to survive. Help others survive. Create places that acknowledge the various gifts of people who have had their self esteem shorn by the no-choice theory.

This is not a to-do list but a non-duality of purpose beginning with the question: to what do I wish to dedicate my life?

Chomsky on Canada

According to Chomsky, “Canadian mining operations are just destroying large parts of the world.” He said that “Canada is trying to take the lead in destroying the possibility of decent survival: that’s what it means to exploit the tar sands, and the gold mining in Colombia, and coal mining, and so on…. That means destroying the world in which your grandchildren might be able to survive: that’s the Canadian idea now.”