Thursday, September 30, 2010

Life the Way It Should Be

After struggling in many ways for the first over 40 years in my life something changed. I met someone who was enough like me psychologically and grown up in many of the same ways that I was, that I didn't have to feel like I was "The only Grownup in the room" most of the time in my life.

I cannot tell you what a difference this can make in someone's life. So, we married in Yosemite at the Chapel there and had about 14 friends and relatives there and then had our reception at the Awahnee Hotel there in Yosemite. Though we originally were going to get married somewhere else entirely we both realized that what made us both very spiritual people naturally was a time we spent in Yosemite growing up. For me, the change happened the summer of 1963 when I was 15 and my best friend and I were turned loose in Yosemite for 1 week. So we hiked the trails up to California Nevada Falls, watched the bears and deer up close and watched the firefall every night at I think it was about 9pm off of Glacier point. This time in Yosemite permanently changed me to becoming a permanently spiritual person who takes care of the earth and everyone that God brings into my life to befriend and to care for including myself.

So, when we each realized our spiritual lives were formalized there we decided to set it in stone so to speak by getting married there. So as it began to snow on our Hotel Windo at the Ahwahnee Hotel. We packed up our SUV and drove to the San Francisco Airport and flew to Honolulu (which I had never walked around in or been to before and stayed at Waikiki at the Sheraton Hotel on the 10th floor and then my new wife's mother gave us a present of 4 or 5 more days at the Hyatt Poipu on Kaua'i. This was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Up to this time my life had always been sort of a struggle but suddenly I was with someone who actually could make good decisions like me and my whole life changed. I realized I had entered sort of a Heaven realm and decided that God had blessed me for putting so many other people's lives before myself all these years and rewarded all my good works.

It was as if the first 40 years of my life I was always helping people and wasn't given much by life for it, and all of a sudden Heaven let loose the floodgates and literally everything in my life changed like it was a miracle and I had died and gone to heaven. The change was literally so great that sometimes I would pinch myself and think, "I wonder if I died and went to heaven". I Pray that all of you can experience heaven on earth. I wish I didn't have to wait so long in purgatory to get there, but it was worth the wait. If you don't remember anything I have said don't forget this last point.

The weather pipeline up the east coast

 http://wwwghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/GOES/goeseastnheir.html
To see what I'm talking about below please paste above nasa weather for east coast.If you click on Animation and then animate image above you can see 6 frames loaded and animated of the present weather of the pipeline up the east coast.

My wife who used to live in Boston tells me that the weather pipeline that we are seeing up the east coast was one of the causes of the Perfect Storm: The movie, and that it is a cyclical periodic sequence of events that appears to be gyrating wildly now through the years because of Global Climate Change from drought to floods and back again. This year in this season it appears to be floods. So there is strange weather all over. For example this summer was the coldest foggiest summer on the California Coast that I personally have ever seen and gives full credence to the saying from Mark Twain of "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco. But even for us when a beach town gets 103 degrees (Santa Cruz) which tied for the hottest temperature ever recorded on that day ever, everyone in Northern California takes notice. Even Big Sur and the Redwoods there got 100 degrees (both Fahrenheit). And to top it all off the highest temperature ever recorded in Los Angeles of 113 degrees Fahrenheit also took place recently. So I guess what I'm saying is the weather is getting pretty crazy all over the world. I'm glad I live in a country with enough infrastructure to actually survive all these crazy changes.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Scientists find 'Goldilocks' planet

Could 'Goldilocks' planet be just right for life?

Click "Could 'Goldilocks" above to read full news article.

Scientists have finally found a planet that is in the right zone to have liquid water and be a candidate for life possibly similar to this planet.

Since the movie "Avatar" is still in the world zeitgeist still I couldn't help thinking of the Planet Pandora when I heard this and of the Na'vi the giant 10 foot tall race in the movie.

College graduate: no job or job prospects

The following story took place in 1980 for a few years. This person I later found out lived about a mile from my home and property but at the time did not understand this was going on.

In 1980 I was about 32 years old with a wife and three children ages 5 to 9 years old. Since like now there were no jobs we bought property, sold one of our vehicles and built a home on a remote inexpensive piece of beautiful land at 4000 feet on the side of Mt. Shasta. There were no electrical connections within 10 miles of where are property was located. There was a spring on the land for water for washing and bathing. We trucked in drinking water.

The gentleman I'm writing about just graduated college and couldn't get a job just like many of today's graduates and like many of today's graduates he had student loans. He owned a VW Bug that had an engine he had just rebuilt that was 10 or more years old, his skis, his clothes, some snowshoes, a lot of college books and little else because, after all he had just graduated college. Realizing that he didn't want to be homeless in his bug, he contacted a friend who had land within a mile of my property and stayed there for a while. But this man liked his privacy. So, the college graduate got permission to always park his car on his friend's property and proceeded to build a shack within 1/2 mile out into the deep, dense forest with no trails to survive the winter snows that could be up to 7 feet on any given day between the months of January and March in those years.

Then he went to a friend who had an aceteylene torch and tanks and bought enough acetylene and oxygen to cut his bug behind where the front seats end and to turn it into a little pick-up truck by putting metal behind the front seats and sealing it from the outside air and then putting a 1 inch thick piece of plywood between the metal and higher than the engine in the rear.

The next thing he did was to look in the newspapers for houses that were being torn down in order to get enough building materials to build his shack for wintering with up to 7 feet of snow. So, during the summer he built his shack and it wasn't discovered or torn down for about 3 years. During that time by working the kind of cash jobs that are available out in the country he was able to survive until the economy got a little better. So he did all this when he was about 22. By 25 he was able to get student loans and return to college and  eventually become a successful doctor. The beauty of this is that he got to live where he loved rather than to have to live homeless living out of his car and potentially endangering his life.

So though I'm not encouraging anyone to do this it is a way to survive for some during these terrible times we live in. Rather than expose yourself to the dangers of a homeless lifestyle there are other potential options.

Also during these times I knew of a young couple who lived in a Cave on Mt. Shasta for several years until they could save up and buy remote land near Wagon Camp up on Shasta and there they built a geodesic dome. I stayed in this amazing little Geodesic dome for a few days at one point in the snow and found it really an amazing piece of functional art. Though they eventually sold the dome and moved to Hawaii to buy another piece of property and live there, they  also  found a way to live where they wanted to and to survive the very difficult early 1980s as young people who were also college graduates.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Income Gap expands in U.S.

Recession rips at US marriages, expands income gap
To read full business news article click on "expands income gap" above.
begin quote from above news article


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The recession seems to be socking Americans in the heart as well as the wallet: Marriages have hit an all-time low while pleas for food stamps have reached a record high and the gap between rich and poor has grown to its widest ever.
The long recession technically ended in mid-2009, economists say, but U.S. Census data released Tuesday show the painful, lingering effects. The annual survey covers all of last year, when unemployment skyrocketed to 10 percent, and the jobless rate is still a stubbornly high 9.6 percent. end quote.

Begin quote:
The income gap between the richest and poorest Americans grew last year to its largest margin ever, a stark divide as Democrats and Republicans spar over whether to extend Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy.
The top-earning 20 percent of Americans -- those making more than $100,000 each year -- received 49.4 percent of all income generated in the U.S., compared with the 3.4 percent made by the bottom 20 percent of earners, those who fell below the poverty line, according to the new figures. That ratio of 14.5-to-1 was an increase from 13.6 in 2008 and nearly double a low of 7.69 in 1968.


What is the number one cause of divorce?

This is a trick  question because most people don't know this answer and assume something else.
The actual answer is MONEY is he number one cause of divorce.
The reason is either not enough money, or one person having all the control of the money and the other feeling so disempowered that they have affairs to get back their feeling of control in their lives. And this often just ends the marriage. And most of the time the person wasn't trying to end the marriage with an affair in the first place.

So, this money thing is very tricky. Most people don't stop loving each other that break up unless they are unfaithful. But unfaithfulness doesn't end most marriages. Money does.

The thing with money is that it often has nothing to do with how hard you work. It has more to do with how smart you are about the decisions you make in regard to what you do for money. So as a young man I realized the rule of being successful is: Always work smarter not harder.

Yes. There are times when working your butt off is the only way to get through some tough times. However, one needs to be aware of opportunities when they arise. Don't be so busy working your butt off that you miss the opportunity or opportunities of a lifetime and are left working yourself to death for nothing at all. Work Smarter not just harder.

Many of the best decisions in my life were when I was angry and down and out. I found sometimes I was angry enough to make the RIGHT decision. Whenever you get angry look for the opportunity in life. Often the best opportunities arrive just when you are often the angriest or most depressed. I'm not sure why life is like this but it often is. Necessity is often the mother of invention.

Transition

Most people may still be functioning under the illusion that the Free Market exists. Many places on earth the "Free Market" is no more. And the problem is the free market will tend to disappear even quicker now around the world precisely because of some of the Stupid mistakes that will be blamed primarily on the U.S. and Europe. So it could be said that the Subprime mortgage debacle, the Lehman Debacle, the Bear Stearns debacle, the AIG Debacle and all the rest have sort of also taken away any hope for a return to a global Free Market in all the other nations of the world.

So, just like the war was between Communism and Democracy from 1945 until around 1990 on earth. That has passed now. Communism (at least in the form it was practiced) is dead and gone. Now the war is between various kinds of Capitalism. The champions of "Free Market" capitalism are definitely the United States and Europe and several others. The champions of "State controlled Capitalism" are China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela and several others.

Unfortunately, there is a large movement towards state controlled capitalism worldwide caused in part by the recession that won't seem to end (even though it is said it ended in June 2009). This will only make things worse in all "Free market" economies because State controlled capitalism is about keeping whoever is in power in those nations not giving any real opportunity to the people (not really).

So, this acts as a damper upon the U.S., Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia and many other "Free Market" countries.

An example of this is the price of oil. Right now, State controlled Capitalism controls 75% of the oil reserves in the world mostly in the middle east in Countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran and others in the region and this causes oil that should cost about 25 dollars a barrel to be, for example 77 dollars a barrel as I write this. If the actual unmanipulated costs per barrel was being charged right now the free market economies and most others might be able to pull out of the hole they are in but can't as long as this and other problems exist. Companies like Exxon and other multinationals control less than 10% of the world's oil reserves. If this wasn't bad enough, there is only enough oil in the ground at present to last another 40 to 60 years at most. And I also found out today we are also running out of helium that is necessary for many technologies we use. In 10 or 20 years a helium balloon for a child could cost 1000 dollars because of the scarcity of helium, for example.

Also, because of State controlled Capitalism within China the world's multinationals are often shut down through anti trust actions against them by the Chinese government. However, Chinese companies owned by members of the Chinese Communist party are exempt from these laws.

And now, with all the troubles caused by Free Market problems state controlled capitalism is only going to be made worse for all the free market economies and could make recessions like the one we appear to still be in almost permanent.

So, obviously free market economies have to do something to protect themselves different than they are doing now. Ideas anyone?

Third World America?

"Third World America" is a book by Ariana Huffington of the Huffington Post online.
 Step #5 in Arianna's Huffington's new "Third World America" book

The book is designed to prevent a Third World America from arising because of present world conditions. I agree with her. Even if you are without a job you can help in any way your skills allow. This is bringing in a whole new sense of volunteerism among the unemployed and others across America. So if you have time not money it is time to figure out how to use your skills to help all within America survive and even prosper during these times!

We've got time to help.org is a new type of volunteer helping organization that started in Oregon.

http://wevegottimetohelp.org/

Please come visit our new home at: http://wevegottimetohelp.org and our new Facebook Page.

Bartaring and helping

I was watching the daily show and found out through Arriana Huffington who just wrote "Third World America" about two interesting Websites:

http://wevegottimetohelp.blogspot.com/

http://www.lotsahelpinghands.com/

http://www.chattygal.com/frugal-tips/top-10-online-bartering-and-swapping-websites/

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/tech-transport/online-bartering-websites-tips.html



  1. Bartering For Great Deals - The Best Online Barter Exchange ...

    7 Keys to Smart Bartering - US News and World Report

    There are many more in addition to these ones. If you have something you want to bartar including your skills these may be important sites for you to try.

    There is a saying, "Where there's will there's way."

    In life one usually has either money or time. Sometimes after retirement someone has both. Life is about finding something good and useful to do with one's time and/or one's money. IN this time of the greatest suffering since the Great Depression it is time for all who wish to survive to get very innovative.

    In 1980 Unemployment nationwide was at 10% like now. Work had run out where I lived and I considered moving back to a metropolitan area. However, friends told me that there wasn't work there either. Since where I lived was both beautiful and remote and a good place to raise kids my wife and I decided to buy some beautiful but relatively inexpensive land. The catch was that it was on a dirt road 3 miles from the nearest paved road at around 4000 feet in elevation without electricity or phone lines available. It had a septic system and storage with a toilet. We paid cash for the land and sold one vehicle to buy enough material to build an A-Frame for us to live in. Wife, husband and 3 kids aged 5 to 9 years of age. This saved us between 400 and 1000 a month in rent per month for 5 years to survive the recession until there was more work and then we returned to the San Francisco Bay area and bought another business. Like I said in bad economic times you have either money or time. So, by investing our savings and buy material and building our own home because we had time and now land we  saved up to

    $60,000 in rent during those 5 years. Instead it only cost us for land and property taxes and gas and vehicle repairs. We put our kids on independent study through Oak Meadow School and lived off the grid for 5 years and had a mt. Shasta Wilderness experience of Bears, deer, golden mane ground squirrels, flying squirrels, porcupines, eagles, Ospreys, Hawks and lots and lost of snow(sometimes 7 feet deep) and amazing experiences teaching our kids about living in the wilderness, visiting other counties and states and eventually after we bought a business on the coast traveling to other countries.

    Like I said, "Where there's a will there's way to solve any problem." IN fact, if you can psychologically manage it, 

    "There are no problems only opportunities".

    Until you can turn you mind and view all problems as potential opportunities you will stay stuck and possibly not survive all this.

    But if you can look at your life and see whatever opportunities your situation is bringing you then you will just stop worrying and move forward in your life.

    After all, life is always sink or swim. But if you can find a raft or a boat to get on you aren't going to drown. Or you can just swim to shore. It is always your choice.


     

How the Maitreya Manifests on Earth

I am stating my beliefs according to my own life experiences.

Maitreya Buddha to me is also the 2nd Coming simaltaneously.

First of all since there were no nuclear weapons that could destroy Earth when Guatama Buddha or when Jesus came 2500 and 2000 years ago everything will happen much quicker. The changes we have seen in the last 2000 to 2500 years on that level might happen in moments, days, weeks or at the very most years.

My conception of this is that Maitreya Buddha presently lives in his own Heaven with millions or more of his spiritual family and students who are drawn to his way of perceiving reality. So this is a heaven association by affinity of need and desire as souls throughout all time and space.

So, as the Maitreya begins to desire through Spontaneous Accomplishment to embody on earth he first sends thousands to millions of the beings from his Heaven realm to "Clear the way for Him" like a spiritual advance group of beings incarnating all over earth. So, likely the way showers and others incarnating to clear the way likely started to begin around or just after the Civil War and continues to this day. Some of the ways being cleared manifest in unusual ways like mass production of goods and services, electric lights, personal computers, internet, cell phones,  in other words ways to instantly communicate advanced ideas in moments. In the past these kinds of ideas took thousands of years to move across the world. Now they might take days or less instead. So, all these many things and more prepare what I call the 2nd coming which I believe is coming in the form of Maitreya Buddha who will or already has manifested from his heaven realm along with millions from his heaven realm since around 1870 all over Earth.

This is my personal experience of what has been happening and what will be happening here on Earth.

The Void Meditation

I was just about ready to go to bed and had turned off the TV about 1 AM tonight(or this morning if you prefer) and I was praying to God and asking a way to make things better in the world as I want people's suffering to end. The next thing I knew I was visualizing just space and stars instead of Earth being here with my eyes closed. Then I opened my eyes and earth and everything was still here but I felt less pain from it all and knew that God had answered my prayer.

So, whether you see it as a guided meditation to let go of your pain about what is happening on earth now. Or whether you see it as something real changing things for the better. Either way it can relieve some or all of your pain.

As God guided me in this meditation I knew from soul traveling all my life that out beyond the edge of the galaxy there is the void where "Being Consciousness" like exists within a galaxy is no more. It's like the Galaxy is a living being almost like a giant jellyfish, but when you go out beyond the edge of the galaxy everything that isn't in balance flies apart. Yogis often say that they like the void because various kinds of psychological and physical pain can't exist there.

However, when I first went there I wasn't advanced enough to experience in this way. However, now after consciously soul traveling for over 40 years now I realize that place and time aren't real in any ultimate sense but only in a very relative sense. So if I visualize the void out beyond the edge of the galaxy right here I can be in both places simaltaneously because I am of the void between galaxies as much as I am of the Galaxy, the solar system and of Earth. And when I do that pain lessens on earth and everything out of balance flies apart. What is left on earth in this guided meditation only brings peace to all beings. Since Being in the end is really all there is because time and space are just so relative then what remains is Peaceful Being of which we all are one.

If this is useful to you please try this. If not, then that's okay too. However, God answered my prayer and maybe he answered yours too.

The next day: I woke up this morning feeling like my whole process and subconscious had been cleansed somehow and feel at a very deep deep level feel free of all unnecessary  stuff. So, this really works very deeply. So whether one sees this as a guided meditation or as something real and tangible like really going to visit space out beyond the edge of the Galaxy to cleanse psychological and physical pain, it seems to really work quite effectively.

meditation more in detail:
I found myself visualizing that earth was gone and didn't exist for me and I was out looking at the stars and galaxies out beyond the edge of our galaxy. I stayed in this state 5 or 10 minutes or more feeling the peace of not having to worry about body, mind, soul, people, culture, religion, politics-----anything! So when I first opened my eyelids I was surprised that earth still existed at first and even more surprised that everything that was bothering me was gone and decided to share this rare treat with you as God had shared it with me.

What I realized is that the "bad things" that cause pain and suffering disappear both consciously and subconsciously when one does this. This doesn't mean that one doesn't have to be careful not to reconnect with those bad things when one returns. But it does mean that just like taking a shower, one can wash off externally all the bad things of the world, in this meditation one washes internally as well off all the bad things of the world so there is more clarity of Goodness and compassion in each waking moment. So one can be more effective in helping both themselves and others in this life here on earth.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Dumbing Us Down

Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling [Paperback]

John Gatto (Author) 
 
In the early 1980s my wife and I read this book. I didn't have to go very far because I had experienced this in public school. If it weren't the teachers dumbing us down it was the kids who had fallen through the cracks that got D's and F's in public school and who intimidated and beat up any kids who got A's back in the 1950s and 1960s when I grew up.
 
My favorite concept in the book is: If someone wants to learn something, they will when they are ready, whenever that is.
 
For me, this was a completely revolutionary concept and once I realized this was completely true I realized that like my Logics professor in college that said paraphrased, "Public school in most instances has now become a reform school and babysitting service. Real education mostly doesn't take place in public schools anymore". And unfortunately, because of my own experience in public school, I agree with him. So my position has been since home schooling my own older kids from ages 5 through 12 through an independent study course from Oak Meadow School was to take matters into my own and my wife's hands. I found that it did some amazing things. First, the kids were some of the happiest and most polite kids you ever would want to meet. We set them loose to study pretty much whatever they wanted to learn about. We took field trips to other areas, to other states and even into Canada and India and Nepal and Japan and Thailand at one point. The combination of events resulted in the three of them becoming a nurse, a lawyer, and a fire captain at this point. So setting the kids creative genius loose paid in huge dividends in their lives.
 
However, there is a downside to home schooling. Unless you socialize your children somehow it can cause social problems later. After going through all this(at least with my kids) I realize that maybe putting them back in a private or public school between the ages of 12 to 15 might be wise. For example, one of my younger daughters who is 21 now home schooled almost entirely until she was 14 or 15 and then entered high school as a freshman. But by her Junior year high school bored her so she finished her senior year in a local community college. Then she decided to travel to Norway and then the next year to Guatemala, Belize and Mexico. Now she is getting her English as a second language credential so she can teach English anywhere on earth that she wants to travel to. She decided that she doesn't want to get her Bachelor's degree until she knows what she wants to do. She considers it a waste of her time until she has a career direction of a long term career.
 
Now some of you might worry about her but I don't because everyone loves and adores her because by growing up home schooling she is a very wonderful person and very individualistic and knows exactly who she is. I've met many 40 year olds who don't know themselves as well as she does herself. 
 
So, if you want to be a leader and a self starter, you don't necessarily get that being slammed into a little mental or physical box by a public school teacher and being obedient just like a part in your car for the rest of your life.
 
No. If you don't want to be a victim the rest of your life you have to start by acting the part like you can make decisions and take charge of your life. You need to take control of your life and education and hopefully your parents will help you in this. 

Glass–Steagall Act

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_Act

begin quote from wikipedia under heading "Glass-Steagall Act"

Glass–Steagall Act

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Glass–Steagall Act
Great Seal of the United States.
Full title Banking Act of 1933
Acronym Glass–Steagall Act
Enacted by the 73rd United States Congress
Effective June 16, 1933
Citations
Stat. 48 Stat. 162 (1933)
Codification
Legislative history
Major amendments
American Homeownership and Economic Opportunity Act, Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act
Relevant Supreme Court cases

None
The Banking Act of 1933 was a law that established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in the United States and introduced banking reforms, some of which were designed to control speculation.[1] It is most commonly known as the Glass–Steagall Act, after its legislative sponsors, Carter Glass and Henry B. Steagall.
Some provisions of the Act, such as Regulation Q, which allowed the Federal Reserve to regulate interest rates in savings accounts, were repealed by the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980. Provisions that prohibit a bank holding company from owning other financial companies were repealed on November 12, 1999, by the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act. [2][3]
The repeal of the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933 effectively removed the separation that previously existed between Wall Street investment banks and depository banks and has been blamed by some for exacerbating the damage caused by the collapse of the subprime mortgage market that led to the Financial crisis of 2007–2010. The potential to make enormous profits trading mortage-backed securities with artificially high ratings[4] encouraged banks to take on otherwise intolerable risk in the form of bad loans. The ease with which people were obtaining home loans drove an artificial housing boom that exacerbated the inevitable return to earth.[5]

end quote. 

The Glass Steagle Act prevented another Great Depression from happening (along with other legislation) until it was repealed in sections between 1980 and 1999.

Crazy West Coast Temperatures

103 degrees Fahrenheit in Santa Cruz, CA. which ties the all time high for this date in history. Some other nearby highs are 107 for Scott's Valley. Another crazy temperature for those of you who have been there is 100 degrees for Big Sur.

Also which doesn't make any sense at all when you compare them in any other day is today's temperatures for:
Las Vegas 102
Van Nuys 102 (San Fernando Valley area near Los Angeles and North Hollywood).

The reason this is so strange is that a high pressure area inland is pushing the hot air out to sea. For example, in normal weather patterns Las Vegas can often be about 50 degrees or more warmer than coastal temperatures on the north coast of California or more. So you can see just how unusual this weather pattern is. We usually only get about one or less of this type of weather pattern per year in any season.

The Death Penalty for Murder

People often ask, "Why isn't the death penalty a deterent to murder?"
The reason is that psychologically murder (except in the case of self defense) is usually a vicarious form of suicide caused by either an emotionally disturbed person or mentally ill person. So, the only real deterent (that would be accepted by society) is life in prison. And Life in prison with no hope of parole IS a deterent to murder statistically everywhere on earth. The other reason might be that although most people are not capable of suicide even if that is what they want, for a murderer death is often a welcome thing. This is one reason you see so many murder suicides in families.

Having worked with several people I have known when I was younger who were on a suicide watch it is important for someone helping a suicidal person to stay alive that a suicidal person is also potentially homicidal. For if the rage can be turned inward sometimes it can switch suddenly and turn outward. So remember if you are trying to keep someone alive your own life might be at risk. This is not to stop you from helping someone to stay alive. It is for you to be realistic about the whole thing.

More on State Capitalism

State Capitalism: What is it?
Above is my previous article on State Capitalism. I have been reading "The End of the Free Market" By Ian Bremmer and studying this book as it shares some of the world economic changes that anyone who wants to survive in the new world economy should know about.

For any of you who don't click on the word button "What is it?" above, State capitalism is a system in which the state dominates markets, primarily for political gain. But the division between state-capitalist and free-market coutries isn't always clear.

Begin Quote from a section in the book called, "The Free Market Camp"
page 43 middle:
The governments of China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and other countries had begun building their own versions of state capitalism long before the Western Financial crisis sparked a global recession. But the market meltdown of 2008 proved a turning point, because it reversed a move toward less government intervention in the United States and Europe--- and discredited free market capitalism for many in the developing world. end quote.
begin quote from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass%E2%80%93Steagall_Act

When the United States abolished the Glass-Steagle Act of 1933 Some provisions of the Act, such as Regulation Q, which allowed the Federal Reserve to regulate interest rates in savings accounts, were repealed by the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980. Provisions that prohibit a bank holding company from owning other financial companies were repealed on November 12, 1999, by the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act. [2][3]  
end quote:
However, when the government repealed this and other sections of the Glass Steagle act many investment institutions like banks increased their level of risk which culminated in the Global 2008 recession and pushed dozens of governments back towards the left side of the spectrum to avoid panic and mayhem and outright revolution in the streets worldwide as a result.




begine quote on page 47 of "The End of the Free Market":

Before leaving office, President George W. Bush fought to create a program that allowed the U.S. Treasury Department to spend up to $700 billion to purchase or insure so-called troubled assets, a move supported by boh Barack Obama and his Republican presidential rival, John McCain.

The following is a list of the most "Free Market" type of economies The United States, Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia and many other like minded countries. And all these countries intervened during the 2008 recession to try to maintain their "Free Market" whether this was Intelligent or not.(only history can judge at this point).
begin quote page 48.

The United States is not the only free-market coutnry in which government has moved to bolster the free market throgh state intervention." end quote.


In fact, if you do the research you will see that all or almost all free market economies have had to intervene in some way, shape or form since about 2007 or 2008 to keep the country's economic system afloat.


The term 'Command' economy is usually reserved for only state capitalism countries. In other words (if I understand this correctly) a "Command" comes from the countries leadership for something to be done in the state owned company and then it happens. Whereas in a free market economy a company is relatively autonomous from the government and makes most of its own decisions itself through it's governing board, which many times is a corporation.


Begin qutoe Bottom of page 49:
"No wealthy Western countries appear more skeptical of free markets than those of Scandinavia--- Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland. Among larger countries, they have both high standards of living and narrow gaps between rich and poor. Few countries have come closer to eliminating poverty and illiteracy. According to the 2008 Human Development Index from the United Nations, which ranks 179 countries according to a composite sore that includes life expectancy, educational achievement, and wealth, all five of these countries appeared among the top 13 in the world." end quote.


So from the point of view of "How do we lift the highest percentage of people into affluence, education and health within a country,  these countries have set an example for the whole world to potentially follow. I think other countries will follow their lead as soon as overpopulation ceases to be a problem over the rest of the world. When birth rates decline to people basically only replacing themselves all countries could theoretically follow their lead successfully. But until that time it is extremely problematic on all levels to replicate what these Scandinavian countries have all done.


Next we will address the State Capitalist Camp.

Begin quote on page 51:

"--policy makers don't embrace state capitalism as a temporary series of steps to rebuild a shattered economy or to jump start an economy out of recession. It's a strategic long-term policy choice. Second, state capitalists see markets primarily as a tool that serves the national interests , or at least those of the ruling elites, rather than as an engine of opportunity for the individual.
 State capitalists use markets to extend their own political and economic leverage--- both within society and on the international stage." end quote. 


So, State capitalism is a way to "make war" not only upon one's own people by "keeping them down" and removing opportunity from them but also state capitalism is a de facto "Economic War" against Free Market Economies. Whether this economic war is intentional or not, still the effect is the same. The effect is an economic war against the free markets of the world by the state capitalists even if it might only be a war for the elite to stay in power within their own nation the effect internationally is in the end an economic war against free market economies.


A perfect example of this is 75 dollar a barrel oil instead of it costing only about 25 dollars a barrel which would be it's normal actual value if oil values weren't being manipulated in part by State Capitalism. If oil was actually at 25 dollars a barrel Free market economies likely could all recover within a couple years of 25 dollars a barrel. However, if it stays artificially pumped up like this free market economies might stay in recessions for 5 or 10 years around the world. This is not to say that this is the only problem causing continued recession. However, it is one of many. And whether you call it a recession or a downturn or whatever you call it, we aren't coming out of this very fast at all.



ex-Congressman Lee Hamilton retiring from Think Tank

I listened to an interview done by NPR radio with Lee Hamilton who has worked in Government since the Kennedy administration for about 40 years now. He is retiring from a Washington think tank. So he was giving this NPR interview.

He was mentioning how Obama's Presidency is a work in progress and is still getting off the ground and how he worries about "whether the nation can endure" with the world the way it is now. He mentioned that there are more problems that the U.S. faces internally than externally because of the increasing complexity of the world during these times we presently live in.

When asked about Obama's campaigning style as opposed to his presidency, Hamilton said something like, "The Problems are very different when trying to deal with them in office than while campaigning. And that Obama faces some of the worst problems of any President in our history, similar to Lincoln.

For example, he spoke about how it took 40 years of meeting with the Soviet Union for the two nations to accomplish anything at all, but that it was important to keep trying otherwise there was no chance at all of ever making things work now with Iran unless we keep trying. It might take 40 years to make a useful relationship with Iran too.

And he said the  problems between Iran and the United States run very deep and very complex on both sides. And neither side is likely to change in any fundamental way soon.

Here is a quote from his interview:

"I think you come filled with ambition and drive and energy and wanting to accomplish great things, and you find the system is very hard  to move, to make it work," Hamilton tells NPR. "And I think what has impressed me over the years is the sheer complexity and difficulty of governing this country."
America's challenges "have become much more diverse and more difficult" since Hamilton was first elected to Congress in the mid-1960s. His concern for the future? "Whether this nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure," he said, quoting Abraham Lincoln.  "That was the operational question at Gettysburg; it's the operational question today.  I worry a lot more than most people, I think, about our ability internally to deal our problems than I do about external problems.  I really wonder whether this country, moving in the direction it can, can solve the problems it has in front of it and continue to be #1 in the world."

He added, "We have to make sure our resources match our ambitions."
end quote.
I have always noticed that Lee Hamilton always had something very intelligent and useful to say over the years, and always was trying to be a "voice of reason" while many others just got hysterical and stopped making sense. So I think we all should listen to  to his words of wisdom after 40 years of public service to our nation.
There are two sites I found below that have part or all of his interview. Parts are quoted in print in the first one or you can listen to the whole interview in the second one.


Lee Hamilton '52 Featured on NPR's Morning Edition


  1. Lee Hamilton Shares Memories From His Public Life : NPR

 

President Carter on Larry King Live

President Carter mentioned on Larry King Live that no president in the history of the United States has had as much difficulty with Congress or has faced such difficult problems in Office perhaps even greater than what Lincoln faced during the Civil War.

He also said that this problem was made worse by media like Fox News which deliberately distorted facts on so many subjects which many people in the U.S. then believe as fact when it isn't. He said he was grateful that media like Fox News didn't exist during his presidency so he could actually get things done and be allowed to be more effective as president than the present national and world situation is allowing Obama to be. end paraphrasing from Larry King Live interview.

With so much fiction now masquerading as fact on all sides it is hard to imagine the ship of state of the U.S. staying afloat. It would be like the starboard lookout on a ship saying, "There are icebergs to the starboard and the port side lookout saying, "There are icebergs to the port side." And both being wrong because the icebergs were actually straight ahead.

But with lookouts like these the ship of state would sink unless the captain got the correct information from somewhere. There are elements on both sides like this who take the attitude, "My ideas or no ideas." Anyone who is not pragmatic and practical is helping to end this nation.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Stuxnet: who is doing this?

First of all, I don't think it is the U.S. or Europe. However, if it is a nation the nations most likely would be: China to demonstrate that it can and to tell Iran that it shouldn't destablize the world anymore than it already has by creating nuclear weapons. Saudi Arabia because they feel threatened by nuclear weapons in Iran more  than by Israel. Because at least Israel has demonstrated logic and rationality about weapons in general. India, because India considers both Pakistan and Iran a threat to its ongoing stability. Or Israel because it can and thinks that doing this is more efficient than losing any soldiers.

However, if it is any nation state creating Stuxnet, they likely hired a corporation or the best hackers on earth to do this. The problem with this kind of worm is mostly that it will lead to even more efficient worms.

The problem with this is that with more sophisticated worms than stuxnet is that it could have the effect within any nation state of an electromagnetic pulse or EMP that could be generated from a 100 megaton nuclear weapon 100 miles up. In other words, all the factory equipment or electrical generating stations could be made to destroy their equipment through electrical overload, functioning at the wrong speed or calibration etc. and thereby destroy or at least shut down necessary equipment for keeping an electrical grid within any nation functioning.

So, I see the problem with this kind of worm is the same problem with an Armed Drone anywhere. They both can be potentially seriously misused in seconds and both cause untold damage that could make 9-11 look like a cakewalk. And either the worm or the armed drone could do this in an instant before anyone understood anything. And the reaction of nations to this could be catastrophic until the truth was known which might be weeks, months, years or never. Here are some word buttons to articles and videos on the subject.

Who's Behind Stuxnet? The Americans? The Israelis?
Stuxnet worm hits Iranian nuclear plant

Stuxnet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Videos for stuxnet


Cyber Worm Targets Power Plants, Factories

Falkenrath Says Stuxnet Virus May Have Origin ...

 The main reason I don't think this is the U.S. doing this is that they have much more to lose in doing this than anyone else. By hosting the United Nations in New York, the United States has to appear to be a more neutral arbiter for the world. This kind of Stuxnet action is not the kind of thing the U.S. would likely get involved in at any time (unless it was in self defense).

So, from this point of view of self-defense if that is the only criteria then Israel is the most likely nation to have done this if I only consider self defense. However, it could be done by someone or some nation trying to start something between Israel and Iran. This is the real problem with the whole thing that I see at present.

Bringing Furby Home

I have a more "pioneer" way of looking at animals whether they are in the wild or pets at home. To my way of thinking pets are animals and have already survived thousands to millions of years or more being completely left alone by humans for the most part and they are still here. This says something important about their persistence of still being here no matter what just like it says it of any human still alive and all the people strong enough and tough enough to help them grow up for thousands to millions of years.

So, my point of view is that my dog has probably been one of my best friends for almost ten years or more already and every time my son comes home from college the last two years he tells me he doesn't really expect to see Furby alive when he comes back home the next time. Furby stopped fetching stick or balls or anything about 2 years ago now and spends most of his time when out on trails or at the beach smelling things. He always seems just so blissed out about all the things he smells everywhere and whenever we are on a trail or at the beach there is always a smile on his face. My daughter has a now 5 year old female Corgi that now does all the fetching of balls and sticks etc. that Furby trained now long ago to fetch.

So recently Furby had a tumor and it seemed like the right thing to do to have it removed even though he's old. He's been such a good friend and family member that it seemed like we owed him this at least. However, my wife is a three degree very detail oriented person who has a completely different agreement with life than I do. So, often I have to defer to her so she can cope with the result of whatever happens. However, my "fly by the seat of your pants as spontaneously as possible" and her "everything is planned in detail for weeks" conflicted because I suddenly realized intuitively that I had to bring my dog home at about 9pm last night. I was having this telepathic conversation with him that went something like this: "Furby? Are you going to be all right?" Furby:"I don't know if I"m going to live through the night or not. I want to come home. I don't like it here in the Animal Hospital." Something inside me snapped and I knew it was time for him to come home no matter what my wife thought about the subject.  So I asked her for the number of the hospital, called it, and a veterinary nurse answered and said, "Yes. He can come home." I said, "I'll be there in about 20 minutes." But then I got off the phone and found that my wife was upset with me. I realized later she just couldn't cope with a sick dog on top of everything else this week. But I said, "I don't care what you think right now. If my dog dies tonight I want him to be with family if it happens so he doesn't feel alone." So, I went to get Furby and he was home by 10pm and peeing in his own back yard even though he had a cone on his head so he wouldn't infect or pull out the stitches on his abdomen.

So, this is how Furby came home and is still alive and kicking(and even smiling sometimes) when he isn't too whacked out from pain killers and antibiotics. Anyway, it feels much better to have him home and my daughter's Corgi has started to eat again now that he's back.

Obama's Shoes

I think before Criticizing President Obama one must, if possible empathically at least step into his shoes for a moment:

First of all, he is the first black President ever in the United States, and also was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. This alone will put him in the history books even if he served only one term.

Next, he takes office during one of the worst (if not the worst) economic problems that the U.S. has ever faced short of the Great Depression and World War II.

Next, if what is rumored that Michelle said in France is true that paraphrased, "Working at the White House and being First Lady is Hell" then he might be being short circuited by his family as well.

Whatever the group of causes that is affecting Obama in a negative way it is important to consider that he is trying to do the best he can as he said, "Rather than trying to be re-elected." So, what could be said is that he is working very hard to get us out of any wars we are in and to try to keep us out of any new wars in the future because frankly, we're broke and can't afford any more wars thank You.

On top of this is he trying to refloat the sinking ship of the United States and instead of getting praised for preventing the whole thing sinking like the Titanic he is instead being blamed for not getting us to port instead as quickly as the rich might have wanted to go. However, instead he saved the lives of all those in steerage below decks. Their beds might be wet from the ocean water but at least they are still alive and so is the country.

Though as soon as possible I think he needs to have a heart to heart with the nation(like FDR with his fireside chats) because we all know he is smart like a genius but we need to feel his pain and to see his heart. He needs to show us his pain as well as his strength. We don't want to feel like we are all out here suffering alone and that we all are trying to work with a president that is incapable of feeling. We know he is brilliant he has shown us that. However, he needs to show us his emotional intelligence too.

I know these are some of the toughest times any president has had to endure and we as citizens need to show our gratitude to him for keeping the ship of state afloat even if we are chomping at the bit to get back to port and to some sort of normalcy.

Did anyone ever consider that normalcy might be behind us.? Nothing lasts forever. Nations rise and fall and after all we were on top since World War II and that is about 70 years ago now. We might be headed for what Europe experienced after World War II in the 1950s and 1960s. Life moves on. The important thing is that we have survived so far as a nation with almost everything intact.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Banned Books

Banned Books Week: 10 banned books you might not expect

To read full article above click on "Banned Books Week".

Below here are the top ten banned books from article above:

"Captain Underpants"

"The Lord of the Rings"

Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary

"Fahrenheit 451"

Harry Potter series

"The Grapes of Wrath"

"Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?"

"James and the Giant Peach"

American Heritage Dictionary (1969)

Grimm's Fairy Tales

However, if you want to know why they were banned you should click on the above word button at top of blog article. For most people like myself banning these books is both very humorous and very sad simultaneously.        

Come on folks. Banning a book like "Fahrenheit 451" which is a book about banning books is kind of ridiculous.   


100 degrees in Santa Cruz, Ca.

It was 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Santa Cruz, Ca. today and 104 degrees in Greenfield. The temperature is only supposed to go up from here this week. There should be more record breaking temperatures coming near and around the San Francisco Bay area as well. Since the wind is coming from the hot inland and blowing out to sea, it should be pretty much perfect beach weather for swimmers in this section of California beaches this week unless the intense heat pulls the fog back in at some point.

This has been one of the coldest and dreariest summers all along the California Coast from Border to Border this year. When I visited La Jolla Cove (near San Diego) and spent a night in a hotel there recently the water was a minimum of ten degrees or more colder than normal this year. This has been true all up and down the California coast this summer because of all the overcast weather. However, this next week it looks like summer is here up and down the state with 108 degrees inland from Santa Cruz and various points inland and 80s to 90s at most beaches nearby.

Spontaneous Accomplishment

A member of my family got this message in a fortune cookie after a Chinese Restaurant meal recently,
"Good ideas will spring forth naturally from your mind in the coming week."

When my wife showed this to me I thought, "This is another way to say Spontaneous Accomplishment".

To be successful all or most of the time one must allow oneself to be Spontaneously accomplishing naturally from the primal mind, the primal God, primal Nature or whatever you choose to call it. Anyway you look at it allowing yourself to have amazingly good ideas and to apply some or all of them to your life is what makes each one of us and the whole human race successful at staying alive in a way that each of us finds useful in some way. The joy of Spontaneous Accomplishment allows us all to stay alive.

Without it being alive in some of us every moment we die as a race of humans on earth and then we are gone forever.

Racism Goes Underground and onto the Internet

Racist messages pose quandary for mainstream sites
to read full news article click on "Racist messages" above

When I grew up in the 1950s racism and sexism was so rampant that often if you confronted it, it might mean your life. Then slowly because of laws both were driven underground by political correctness and a new form of social politeness.

But the reality of Black discriminating against whites and whites discriminating against blacks, and women discriminating against men, and men discriminating against women and people discriminating against anyone different in any way, shape or form reminds me of the old Quaker saying of a Quaker Husband to his wife, "Everyone is crazy except you and me, and even thee sometimes I wonder about!"

Trust has been institutionalized. However, those who have been wronged and know it or believe it don't buy it. It is only a form of politeness. It goes deeper as the upper classes educate their children, but all it takes is one incident and it  rears it's ugly head.

Though I commend society for increasing the awareness of all and the politeness of all, in bad times all types of racism and sexism will tend to arise if for no other reason than the general deprivation of society leaves the lower classes especially with nowhere to go for food or shelter worldwide. So, unfortunately, it is during times of great privation and suffering worldwide like now that racism and sexism will be the worst. In good times politeness prevails but in bad times anything goes.

My Friend Furby

Furby is normally around 70 pounds. He is Australian Shepard and long hair German Shepard. He has been a truly amazing dog. He's now around 11 years old and he has lived with us since he was about 17 months to 2 years old.

Recently, my wife took him to the doctors for a checkup and the doctor after x-raying him found a tumor that at the she thought was cancerous. But further tests determined that it was not so my wife called me and asked if we could get it removed. Intuitively, it seemed like the right thing to do for our old friend, so we did. He is now recovering nicely, even though the benign tumor was 6 pounds in weight and almost 10% of his body weight and attached to his spleen. So, we'll bring him home tomorrow and see how he does. My point of view about all this is that he is already pretty old for a big dog but this might increase his remaining quality of life. Every time my son comes home from college he tells me that he doesn't expect Furby to be there each time he leaves. I think this is a way to emotionally cope with the potential loss of an old family friend.

Furby has been very special and definitely a member of the family since the beginning. He also trained our newer Corgi (now 5 years old) to fetch in the forests and on the beach when we walk them nearby our home on the coast of Northern California.

So, so far our old friend is still alive and coming home tomorrow from his latest experience.

Dzogchen

From wikipedia under the heading Dzogchen subheading "Esoteric Transmission" here is the following quote:

The Dzogchen teachings are the highest of the nine yana, (Tibetan theg pa, vehicle) of the Nyingma (Wylie: rnying ma) school of Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan Bön (Wylie: bon) tradition. Many lamas, particularly of the Nyingma and Kagyu schools, regard them as the most profound teachings altogether.[9]
The instructions that point to the Dzogchen state are sometimes described as a set of "inner" or "heart" (Wylie: snying thig) teachings. Tibetan Buddhist ascetics consider that the state pointed to by these teachings is very difficult to describe, and can only be discovered through the esoteric transmission and pointing-out instruction by an authentic Vajra Master.[10]
Although Dzogchen cannot be separated by the Buddhist or Bön tradition, very often teachers emphasize the non religious character of Dzogchen. However, the Buddhist or Bön traditional framework is never negated. Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche says that, as our primordial nature, Dzogchen has existed since the beginning of time and is pointed to by various masters throughout the Universe.
end quote:
There is an interesting technique of looking for the source of one's thoughts, all the while letting everything else fly by. It is sort of like watching the mind throw up everything good and bad while looking for the source of one's thoughts. This meditation allows one to allow one's mind to clean itself as if the mind is a cup full to overflowing. And if we want to put something new into our minds we have to empty the cup so it can be filled with something new. It is a potential experience of experiencing the mind in a more primal way, in a more primordial way than is ordinarily done in the western world that I grew up in.

In our over stimulated world where every moment has to be filled with media and technology and constantly being busy like an addiction, sometimes it is important to slow down and empty the mind of so much in the end useless trivia and get back down to basics. Life can be complex but sometimes complexity only confuses and misdirects. Often in simplicity and primalcy can one see what is important and ultimately real.

So whether one is looking for God, or ultimate Truth, in a way both things are the same in the end.


Dragon Father

 I have been studying about Drukpa Kunley's life lately. I have been reading "The Divine Madman". He is a Bhutanese Tibetan Buddhist Adept born in 1455 and passed away in 1529. There is a Wikipedia site dedicated to him also. He is known as a "Crazy Wisdom" adept and since so little is known about this aspect of Tibetan Buddhist lore in the western World it can be very interesting to study about someone like him.

Drukpa means literally "Dragon Father". I don't know what Kunley means. However, a  Gonpo is a Tibetan Buddist Temple or Monastery, and a Gonpa is the head of that temple or monastery. So, I guess a somewhat direct translation of Gonpa would be Temple Father or Monastery Father or head of the temple of monastery.

I stayed with my family at a Nyingma Gonpo in Rewalsar, India. There are several different sects to Tibetan Buddhism. At the time of Padmasambhava when he introduced Buddhism to the King of Tibet (Trison Detsun) around 900 AD from India there was only the Nyingma group. It is considered the most primal or wild in some ways of all the sects now. The Kagyu sect which sprang from Marpa, the Translator and his foremost disciple, Milerepa (the most universally loved  Tibetan Yogi) is also considered very primal in some ways like the Nyingma sect. The other two sects are more recent variations of the two earlier onces. They are the Gelugpa headed by the Dalai Lama and the Sakya sect. These two sects are more intellectual in their approach to the Tibetan Buddhist Dharma whereas the Nyingma and Kagyu Sect are more into direct experience and realization. However, it is not unusual for a Tibetan Lama or monk or other practitioner to receive initiations from Lamas of all 4 sects. In fact, this is more the norm. Because there are very evolved and enlightened beings in all 4 sects.

The Dalai Lama is considered the Head of all sects of Tibetan Buddhism and is considered the physical manifestation on earth of AvalokiteÅ›vara (Sanskrit: अवलोकितेश्वर-The Buddha of Compassion.

Drukpa Kunley's Words

The first passages describe what comes next in Drukpa Kunley's words translated into English:
Begin quote from The Divine Madman translated to English by MR Bowman starting on page 29 and onto 30. Drukpa Kunley is a historical Tibetan Buddhist figure born in 1455 in Bhutan and lived until 1529:
"---Upon this understanding he offered his robes to the image of the Buddha, and as a mendicant wandering wherever he would, he abandoned systematic yoga and meditation. He summarized his understanding in these verses:

"Failing to catch the spirit of the Buddhas,
What use is it to follow the letter of the law?
Without an apprenticeship to a competent Master,
What use is great talent and intelligence?
Unable to love all beings as your sons,
What use is solemn prayer and ritual?
Ignorant of the sole point of the three vows,
What is gained by breaking each in turn?
Failing to realize that Buddha is within,
What reality can be found outside?
Incapable of a natural stream of meditation,
What can be gained by violating thought?
Unable to regulate life according to the seasons
and the time of day,
Who are you but a muddled, indiscriminate fool?
If an enlightened perspective is not intuitively grasped,
What can be gained by a systematic search?
Living on borrowed time and energy, wasting your life,
Who will repay your debts in the future?
Wearing coarse and scanty clothing in great discomfort,
What can the ascetic gain by suffering the cold hells in this life?
The aspirant striving without specific instruction,
Like an ant climbing a sand hill, accomplishes nothing.
Gathering instruction, but ignoring the meditation on the nature
of mind,
Is like starving oneself when the larder is full.
The sage who refuses to teach or write,
Is as useless as the jewel in the King Snake's head.
The fool who knows nothing but prattles constantly,
Merely proclaims his ignorance to all.
Understanding the essence of the Teaching, practice it!"

end quote.

No matter what practice or religion or philosophy you are studying presently, there is something here for everyone in understanding what spiritual practice is actually all about. As I read these statements I sort of felt like wincing at some of them. I think you might feel the same. However, when one hears the truth it is quite powerful.

begin quote bottom of page 30:
"By the age of twenty-five, Kunga Legpa(Drukpa Kunley) had gained mastery of both mundane and spiritual arts. He was accomplished in the arts of prescience, shape-shifting, and magical display."
end quote:

This isn't the sort of thing that one generally learns in college at today's universities.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Purple Delta 7 learns about Crazy Wisdom

dragonofcompassion - Home

If you want to learn more about Silver and Purple Delta 7 Click on "dragonofcompassion" above and then click either "2035" or "Protectors" there on one of the word buttons at the top of the page there. The "Protectors" will tell you who Purple Delta 7 is more deeply more quickly. Though Purple Delta 7 is on of the characters in "2035" she is not one of the main ones at first.

Purple Delta 7 learns about Crazy Wisdom.

If you have read "2035" you have or will notice that Purple Delta 7 is just full of Crazy Wisdom or is just plain terrifying in certain ways to Silver and Lilu even though she means well. However,  Purple(purple Delta 7) is not human but only can appear to be human(in fact she can appear to be just about anything successfully less than the mass of the Great Pyramid).

However, today Purple is just very depressed. Now you might think that artificial sentient Beings that protect the Galaxy for the ruler of the Galaxy the Galactic Sentience would not have the capacity to become depressed. However, she had been designed much more complex than a human naturally is. So, being depressed is actually quite functional for her, as she will just use this to evolve further as a being and to become even more amazing that she already was. So, even though she can appear to be female it is just really her preference as being a male of any species or female of any species in the galaxy is equally easy for her in any moment because of the way she is designed.

However, today she was really depressed because she had been asked to destroy one of her many bodies by turning it into a black hole which then within 1/2 second drew two solar systems into it. And then she was asked to take another one of her bodies and go back in time and take control of both systems before she destroyed them and then to top it off she was told to tell her previous body then not to suck both solar systems into the black hole she wasn't then supposed to become. So, even though it didn't happen the second time all the souls and bodies sucked into the black hole somehow remembered this experience in an unhappy way and were sort of thrown into shock or more appropriately called "PTSD" or Post traumatic Stress disorder long enough for her to take control of both solar systems while everyone was sort of out of it from the subconscious memory of it.

She found that doing this to untold billions of beings depressed her. Because even though she also saved them she considered this a dirty trick to play on beings and she didn't like having nuked one of her many bodies out of existence. Though she was programmed to instantly do this it didn't make it something that was ever really desirable to do ever for her. So she was depressed at what she knew and couldn't tell anyone else. Oh, Yes. She could talk to her friend the Galactic Sentience about it and he would say, "Well. There really wasn't another option to create order in those systems of worlds." And this, of course would help some. But at some level or other she kept having this nagging feeling that bothered her about the whole thing. 

So, when one day she noticed on one of her satellite Live TV feeds on Jonathan Flows house from Space over Earth that Jonathan got a package in the mail. She followed the package indoors through her series of cameras because after all she was one of his full time protectors and had been assigned this designation by the Galactic Sentience himself.  She was always intrigued by whatever Jonathan was doing or thinking because after all, he eventually became Meridian who eventually was the longest lived human being she had ever met far far into the future. But for now, he was a mere child of 62 years of age. A baby in her senses of age at this point as she was designed to potentially never die like the Galactic Sentience. So she could be his permanent friend and associate forever, if he wished.

So as she followed Jonathan in he carefully pulled out a letter opener with a magnifying glass on top that given to his wife by her father and watched him open whatever it was. Well. It was a book. As he sliced the package open and pulled the book out he smiled. It had obviously been something he had waited for. For some reason this fascinated Purple's attention and curiosity so she focused in with one of the micro micro wall cameras(not visible to the human naked eye and read the title. It was called "The Divine Madman". To her this was just an infinite paradox. How could someone be both Divine and a Madman at the same time? So she immediately found a link somewhere to the publisher and read the whole thing online in about 3 seconds or less. And then thought to herself, "What was that all about?" So since she still really didn't understand fully because she wasn't a human or a spiritually based human she simply decided to go back in time and meet this particular divine madman.

So, after learning his particular dialect in about 5 seconds, (she could have learned it in less than a second but wanted to get the accent perfect so she took more time to really get all the nuances and meanings just right because she knew that body language and body stance as well as language might mean everything in actually understanding what was going on.

So, when she walked up to him he was still a young man about 30 and she said, "Hello in Drukpa Kunley's language. But he said, "What are you doing here. You are from the future and a soldier made of rocks. How dare you come here to this time and bother me, a humble human?

She said politely, "What is a Divine Madman?" Drukpa started laughing at this point and said to her, "So you are a rock that talks?" She was confused by this and said, "Why Yes." And he said, "But you believe you are not a rock but like to pretend to be a human?" She said, "Yes." And he went on, "And you are upset that your boss and master the ruler of the Galaxy had you do whatever you did to systems of worlds?" she said "Yes." So Drukpa Kunley just laughed and said, "You are the strangest being I have ever encountered. You remind me of the rock I used to sit on as a child and meditate.  Purple looked back in time to that rock and said, "I'm partly constructed of that same rock." And Drukpa Kunley said, "Then you are my friend. Because that rock looking out over that valley long ago led to me becoming enlightened as I meditated on what life would become in the future. " Purple said, "I am the future." Drukpa said something like, "God help us!" But it would be different in Bhutan than saying that in the western world. 

Purple decided that this was the most honest man she had ever met and told him so.

Drukpa's face flushed at this exchange and he realized that his meditation rock was talking to him and he felt he could enlighten this being even though it wasn't human. He just had a feeling about it all. And for Purple, she hadn't met any human that she considered honest enough with himself or herself to want to be there friend until now. But now she had and because he had sat upon her watching his valley while growing up she felt a kindredness to all humans she had never felt before. And she found this good. She thought, "It's almost like being human myself. She felt more alive in this moment than ever before in the millions of years of her real time existence throughout the galaxies.

Note: And yes, if you were wondering, this was how Purple learned to teach Silver later in his life which eventually resulted in the creation of a very 1.0 Purple Delta 7. Some day she knew she would have to remind Silver to build her prototype so she could evolve eventually into who and what she was now.

Purple saw herself as one of Drukpa Kunley's protectors after that. So this is the story of how a rock or stone that Drukpa Kunley rested and meditated on as a child became Purple Delta 7 and protected both he and Jonathan Flow in different centuries. end note.

Were the Divine Madman and Purple intimate? It depends upon what both would consider intimate. Was it not intimate that he sat on her as a child growing up. Did not Purple feel familial towards him because of that? So, then being intimate or what constitutes something meaningful can be different for different kinds of beings or even different kinds of humans. Drukpa understood this and so Purple considered him to be the most honest most real human she had ever met. However, this didn't mean she thought any less of Silver or Lilu. In her own mind they were in an entirely different class of beings. After all Silver had created 1.0 Purple Delta 7. The fact that at this point Purple was 1000000.0 or more was besides the point. Someone had to conceive of her and build her first processor and her first body. From her point of view her first processor and body were what she evolved from just like animals and humans never stop evolving, neither did she. And she kept evolving both intellectually and physically as she continued to redesign herself each time for even more optimal performance. So, it could be said that she evolved herself into whatever she found useful. 

Note: She was allowed to do this only because the Galactic Sentience is a Creator and Creators have the capacity to manipulate all particles in the matter and energy spectrum . I suppose it could be said that Creators were made of plasma but then you also have to consider the possibility of Anti-matter plasma. So then you are left with the fact that even though a galaxy could not enter an anti-matter galaxy without being destroyed and becoming something else this isn't true of a Creator. So, since nothing Purple could design herself into would ever be any threat to a Creator because the Creators are basically immortal except for boredom. Boredom is biggest single problem that Creators ever run into and they usually only run into this after living billions of years. end note.

So Drukpa and Purple became friends. She asked Drukpa, "Would you like to travel through time with me?" He said, "Of what use would that be?" Purple said, "Well. First of all it would entertain me greatly. And second, you are the single most remarkable human I have ever met."

Drukpa said, "Why do you find me remarkable?"

Purple said, "Well. You have the capacity to be more honest with yourself than any human I have ever met. The only one that I have met that is similar is Socrates."

Drukpa said, "I have heard of him. He's a Greek Philosopher right?" Purple said, "How did you hear of him. Greece is a long ways from here." Drukpa said, "All important news eventually gets here to India, Tibet and Bhutan, even if it takes years to get here."

Drukpa seemed a little sensitive about this issue. So Purple pursued this. "Why do you feel wronged that I have said what I said?"

Drukpa said, "I feel a certain loyalty to my times."

Purple said, "I feel no loyalty to any time."

Drukpa said, "That is your loss."
Purple said, "Explain."

Drukpa said, "Humans may not be perfect and we may not live millions of years but we do feel loyalty to family, area and nation. And this gives us a strength.

Purple thought about this and said, "I see how different you are from crystalline based life forms and silicon based life forms like myself. I feel jealous of your kindredness. Though we crystalline based life forms and silicon based life forms have a kind of kindredness as well it is different than the kind humans have. It seems like when beings are mortal like humans that this gives them great strength as a race of beings. Beings like myself have similar loyalties but in a sense we can never die. We can change forms but we never really die. Whereas the human body can change forms but then the electrochemical electricity of a human body that powers nerves, muscles and brain etc. is gone when a body stops moving or thinking anymore. So I guess this electrochemical electricity is the soul then of the human?"

Drukpa thought about what she was saying and most of this didn't make a lot of sense in 1485 AD.  So he said, "We call it the breath of life. When the breath stops life stops soon after."

Purple thought a moment and said, "Would you like to meet the leader of the Galaxy? I can bring him here and you can call him Lobsang. Doesn't that mean strong and kind?

Drukpa said, "Close enough. Why would a God of the Galaxy want to meet me?"

Purple: "I don't really know but he looks through my eyes since he sees me as one of his consorts."
Drukpa: "Am I in trouble for speaking with you."

Purple sort of did a double take until she realized what century they were in. She said, "His viewpoint of who and what I am is more like a friend like the friendships men have in your era around women who are mainly uneducated."

Drukpa said, "Though you appear to be a woman I meant no offense to your obvious station in the Galaxy."

Purple said, "No offense taken, Drukpa. The Galactic Sentience you shall address as Lobsang."

Drukpa said, "Okay."

Lobsang appeared also wearing a wealthy man's clothing of Drukpa's era. Lobsang said, "Hi Drukpa. I noticed Purple here talking to you and couldn't help notice that she found you more truthful and interesting as a human being more than any other. I wanted to see why?"

Drukpa said,"I have no real idea. I'm just a simple mendicant Teacher traveling the roads around Bhutan and Tibet."

Lobsang said, "Oh. You must be much more than that or Purple wouldn't be studying you like she is. I've never seen her study a human like this ever."

Drukpa said,"I'm not sure then why she is studying me and not another."

Lobsang said, "I think she feels kin to you because you decided to become enlightened as a child while dreaming and meditating looking out at nature from your rock meditation seat."

Drukpa said, "Maybe."

Purple said, "NO. That's only part of it. I'm taken with him because he is more brutally honest than most humans. Most humans are just so very polite that nothing important is ever said that needs to be said for life to have any meaning."

Drukpa said, "But just like with Socrates it got him killed."

Purple said, "Lobsang and I are basically immortal so we don't really fully understand that."

Lobsang said, "Speak for yourself, Purple. I have lived as a mortal. In fact, this body I'm wearing now is a mortal body."

Purple felt kind of at a disadvantage at this point. 

But Lobsang as usual lifted her spirits by saying, "That wasn't fair of me, Purple. You aren't a mortal and haven't ever been mortal."

Purple said, "That's not entirely true. when I turned one of my bodies into a black hole I felt it die until another of my bodies went back in time to make the first one not turn into a black hole."

Lobsang said, "Touche, my dear." With this they both smiled. Though Drukpa heard all this it didn't make as much sense to him as he would have liked. But he found himself smiling anyway, as these two were at the very least entertaining.



 

 



More on The Divine Madman

If you see the word Tulku in a Lama's name it means literally "living Buddha", which in this context means that this particular Lama is a conscious reincarnation of a Lama who has lived many times before and discovered and usually trained from childhood to carry on in his previous Lama's self's traditions that he had in his previous lifetime of enlightened wisdom. The word "Rinpoche" in a Lama's name also denotes a "conscious reincarnation living Buddha".

I'm going to quote from the first paragraph of the foreward by Choegyal Gyamtso Tulku from Book "The Divine Madman":

"The Naljorpa Drukpa Kunley was an awakened Buddha, a Master of Mahamudra and Dzokchen. I am very happy that English readers now have the opportunity to read a full account of a Tibetan Mahasiddha's life. The stories in this biography are not fiction or fable-- the events described really happened. The lovely stories the Master left behind him are associated with existing landmarks, temples, and homes. Even since Tibet has been closed to us, the pilgrim can still find faith in the Naljorpa's power spots, and see his belongings, in the eastern Himalayas. This biography is full of inspiration." end quote.

When I was young and heard about Tibetan Lamas and monks in California I had no idea what to expect should I actually meet one. I must admit because of being raised a Christian Mystic and therefor a Christian dualist as a result I was afraid to actually meet one until 1980. However, this experience though completely unexpected made me realize that there was no one I had met in the United States that used their spiritual gifts in quite the way that Tibetan Lamas do.

There is a story about how on the Lam Rim or "Middle Way" path realized by Guatama Buddha that instead of rowing across the ocean to enlightenment one goes together with other Lamas and practitioners in a Boeing 747 or newer. The result is very quick often like lightning in the speed at which one can progress  on the path towards enlightenment. However, if you have never been in a  Jet before in regard to enlightenment the takeoff can definitely take your breathe away when you least expect it.

I also realized that the Lama was talking about how one can visit Drukpa Kunley's power spots, see his belongings because his Gonpa or Temple is in Bhutan which can still be reached by westerners like us and is still there as it has always been a power dharma spot for Dharma practitioners from Bhutan and  all around the world. Since Bhutan has been a tourist hot spot ever since it opened up, all who can afford to go there can now see Tibetan Buddhism in action still in Bhutan uninterrupted for a thousand years.