Great Compassion Mantra (Ani Choying Drolma)

Weekend Astrology Horoscope: October 18-20 2013 Lunar Eclipse

I found an interesting new astrologer on Twitter. Looks like we're entering a "weird zone."


More on lunar eclipses (the 4 "Blood Moons" [!]) that will be happening next year (HT Les Visible):

Guilty! :)

Fibonacci Sequence in Music - Bence Peter Competition

HT: CGimaging

Scientific Studies Suggest Tree Hugging Improves Health Issues

On some level I always knew this was true! :)

Tree hugging improves your health by Matthew Silverstone

Tree hugging, that much maligned hippy generation idea, has now been shown to have scientific validity after all. Contrary to popular belief, touching a tree does make you healthier. In fact you don’t even have to touch the tree to get better, just being within its vicinity has the same effect.

In a recently published book, Blinded by Science, (www.blindedbyscience.co.uk) the author Matthew Silverstone, proves scientifically that trees improve many health issues such as; mental illnesses, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), concentration levels, reaction times, depression and the ability to alleviate headaches.

Countless studies have shown that children show significant psychological and physiological effects in terms of their health and well being when they interact with plants. They demonstrate that children function better cognitively and emotionally in green environments and have more creative play in green areas.

A large public health report that investigated the association between green spaces and mental health concluded that “access to nature can significantly contribute to our mental capital and wellbeing”.

So what is it about nature that can have these significant effects? Up until now it has been thought to be the open green spaces that cause this effect. However, Matthew Silverstone, shows that it is nothing to do with this by proving scientifically that it is the vibrational properties of trees and plants that give us the health benefits and not the open green spaces.

The answer to how plants and trees affect us physiologically turns out to be very simple. It is all to do with the fact that everything vibrates, and different vibrations affect biological behaviours. It has been proven that if you drink a glass of water that has been treated with a 10Hz vibration your blood coagulation rates will change immediately on ingesting the treated water. It is the same with trees, when touching a tree its different vibrational pattern will affect various biological behaviours within your body.

This vibrational idea is backed up throughout the book by hundreds of scientific studies to provide overwhelming proof that tree hugging after all is not such a crazy idea. Not only is it good for our health but it can also save the Government a lot of money by offering an alternative form of treatment that is free.

One report concluded with the following: “safe, green spaces may be as effective as prescription drugs in treating some forms of mental illnesses”.

Wouldn’t it be nice to hear from now on that doctors treat some forms of illnesses by suggesting a walk in the park rather than taking a packet full of pills.

Source: “Tree hugging improves your health,” from NaturalNews

Wave of Love (video)

Amazing Grace

At Carnegie Hall, gospel singer Wintley Phipps delivers perhaps the most powerful rendition of Amazing Grace ever recorded. He says, "A lot of people don't realize that just about all Negro spirituals are written on the black notes of the piano. Probably the most famous on this slave scale was written by John Newton, who used to be the captain of a slave ship, and many believe he heard this melody that sounds very much like a West African sorrow chant. And it has a haunting, haunting plaintive quality to it that reaches past your arrogance, past your pride, and it speaks to that part of you that's in bondage. And we feel it. We feel it. It's just one of the most amazing melodies in all of human history." After sharing the noteworthy history of the song, Mr. Phipps delivers a stirring performance that brings the audience to its feet! - See more

Video from KarmaTube

A Truth That Resonates

by Julian Rose [HT: Zen]

Now we are in the age of Truth. Which means we will come to understand what those who live by truth are saying. Truth reverberates through the ages – it is of the past the future and the present. Truth is timeless.

To find it – we must maintain a line of connection to our past; our ancestors and our great global family. Lines of connection that have formed through the mists of time. It’s about ‘honouring’ this line – and honouring requires a certain state of ‘detachment’.

Wisdom comes with that. It honors, yet remains detached. It respects yet remains aloof. But that respect is all it needs to maintain the line of connection without which life caves in upon itself and all lose their way.

We cannot find ourselves in the future. Nor can we in the present.. unless we have maintained a line into the past.

A tree cannot grow without roots. We are the same. The roots form even before the first shoots appear above the ground. So it is with us.

Our fuel is from below – and when conjoined by fuel from above – forms a center of energy in the present. That is ‘the now’.

We can only ‘Be’ when we have pulled together the strings of past, future and present and then pitched our centred beings into the battle to restore the health of our great planet. It’s health – and our health – are inseparable.

Now please read this Message From the Elders:

Message From the Elders
Rainbow Warriors

There was an old lady from the ‘Cree’ tribe named ‘Eyes of Fire’ who prophesied that one day, because of the white mans’ or Yo-ne-gis’ greed, there would come a time when the fish would die in the streams, the birds would fall from the air, the waters would be blackened and the trees would no longer be, mankind as we would know it would all but cease to exist.

There would come a time when the ‘Keepers of the legend, stories, culture rituals, myths and all the Ancient Tribal Customs’ would be needed to restore us to health. They would be mankind’s key to survival, they were the ‘Warriors of the Rainbow’. There would come a day of awakening when all the peoples of all the tribes would form a New World of Justice, Peace, Freedom and recognition of the Great Spirit.

The Warriors of the Rainbow would spread these messages and teach all peoples of the Earth or Elohi. They would teach them how to live the ‘Way of the Great Spirit’. They would tell them of how the world today has turned away from the Great Spirit and that is why our Earth is ‘sick’.

The Warriors of the Rainbow would show the peoples that this ‘Ancient Being’ (the Great Spirit) is full of love and understanding and teach them how to make the Earth or Elohi beautiful again. These Warriors would give the people principles or rules to follow to make their path right with the world. These principles would be those of the Ancient Tribes. The Warriors of the Rainbow would teach the people of the ancient practices of Unity, Love and Understanding. They would teach of Harmony among people in all four comers of the Earth.

Like the Ancient Tribes, they would teach the peoples how to pray to the Great Spirit with love that flows like the beautiful mountain stream and flows along the path to the ocean of life. Once again they would be able to feel joy in solitude and in councils. They would be free of petty jealousies and love all mankind as their brothers regardless of colour, race or religion. They would feel happiness enter their hearts and become as one with the entire human race. Their hearts would be pure and radiate warmth, understanding and respect for all mankind, Nature, and the Great Spirit. They would once again fill their minds, hearts, souls, and deeds with the purest of thoughts. They would seek the beauty of the Master of Life – the Great Spirit! They would find strength and beauty in prayer and the solitudes of life.

Their children would once again be able to run free and enjoy the treasures of Nature and Mother Earth. Free from the fears of toxins and destruction, wrought by the Yo-ne-gi and his practices of greed. The rivers would again run clear, the forests be abundant and beautiful, the animals and birds would be replenished. The powers of the plants and animals would again be respected and conservation of all that is beautiful would become a way of life. The poor, sick and needy would be cared for by their brothers and sisters of the Earth. These practices would again become a part of their daily lives.

The leaders of the people would be chosen in the old way – not by their political party or who could speak the loudest, boast the most or by name calling or mud slinging, but by those whose actions spoke the loudest. Those who demonstrated their love, wisdom and courage and those who showed that they could and did work for the good of all, would be chosen as the leaders or Chiefs. They would be chosen by their ‘quality’ and not the amount of money they had obtained. Like the thoughtful and devoted Ancient Chiefs, they would understand the people with love and see that their young were educated with the love and wisdom of their surroundings. They would show them that miracles can be accomplished to heal this world of its ills and restore it to health and beauty.
The tasks of these Warriors of the Rainbow are many and great. There will be terrifying mountains of ignorance to conquer and they shall find prejudice and hatred. They must be dedicated, unwavering in their strength and strong of heart. They will find willing hearts and minds that will follow them on this road of returning Mother Earth to beauty and plenty – once more.

The day will come, it is not far away. The day that we shall see how we owe our very existence to the people of all tribes that have maintained their culture and heritage. Those that have kept the rituals, stories, legends and myths alive. It will be with this knowledge, the knowledge that they have preserved, that we shall once again return to harmony with Nature, Mother Earth and mankind. It will be with this knowledge that we shall find our key to our survival.

Source: http://www.sweatlodge.org.uk/messagefrom.htm

Julian Rose is the author of “In Defence of Life – A Radical Reworking of Green Wisdom” to be published in November 2013.
You can visit his web site at www.changingcourseforlife.info
- See more at: http://www.zengardner.com/a-truth-that-resonates/#sthash.82SeUTb5.dpuf

365 Grateful

I've found that when you consciously look for things to be grateful for, it sets your mind in the right attitude to face the day.

Video from KarmaTube

Sand Dancer

"As the morning tide recedes at a beach near Christchurch, New Zealand, Peter Donnelly arrives to go to work. Peter the Sand Dancer, with a simple stick and a rake (and a not-so-simple gift of vision), paints elaborate works of art in the sand while hundreds watch in awe and appreciation." - See more at: http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=1499#sthash.U04mvnsn.dpuf

Yoga Time with a Cute Chihuahua

[HT: Visible]

Ozimandias

I first saw this poem on a video by Peak Crackers. I think it conveys the spirit of these verses, which are timeless.



I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: 'Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear --
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.'

The Nature of Heaven and Hell

[from Comfortable with Uncertainty by Pema Chodron, h/t Ken Lauher]

A BIG, BURLY SAMURAI comes to a Zen master and says, "Tell me the nature of heaven and hell."

The Zen master looks him in the face and says, "Why should I tell a scruffy, disgusting, miserable slob like you? A worm like you, do you think I should tell you anything?"

Consumed by rage, the samurai draws his sword and raises it to cut off the master's head.

The Zen master says, "That's hell."

Instantly, the samurai understands that he has just created his own hell - black and hot, filled with hatred, self-protection, anger, and resentment. He sees that he was so deep in hell that he was ready to kill someone. Tears fill his eyes as he puts his palms together to bow in gratitude for this insight.

The Zen master says, "That's heaven."

Near Death Experiences and the Dark Side

[I know the name of this blog is "The Lighter Side of Jody" but I was impressed with this article and it really belongs here. I know I spend way too much time running from my own shadow. HT: New Heaven, New Earth Pulse]

“To appreciate heaven well, it is good for a man to have some fifteen minutes of hell.”
– Will Carleton

NDE and the Dark Side
By Dr. Rajiv Parti
July 6, 2013

We spend our early lives creating our ‘dark’ side, our shadow. Everyone has one. It is instinctive and irrational and prone to projection: turning a personal inferiority into a perceived deficiency in someone else.

Think of your most embarrassing or shameful moment and you’ll find your dark side. It’s that part you wish wasn’t there, that part you want to hide or forget ever existed, that part you pushed down into your unconscious in childhood. It was often created as part of your coping strategies.

As an adult, your dark side personifies everything that you hate or refuse to acknowledge about yourself. It contains rejected and ignored emotions, situations and phobias. Your dark side is your fear of failure, your extreme shyness, or your sexual compulsion. Or maybe a drug or alcohol addiction, or an aggressive way of dealing with your closest family and friends.

In many cases, if we hate angry people, we lean the other direction and become passive. We let others walk all over us until resentment builds into a pile of impotent rage. This unexpressed energy has to go somewhere — it will either implode and create illness, or it will explode into angry behavior that we will later feel guilty and horrible about.

Similarly, when we put those we admire on a pedestal, we often fail to nurture our own seeds of greatness that we see flowering in them. Looking up to others may prevent us from looking inward to recognize those traits we can’t imagine possessing ourselves.

To get by, we spend a lifetime stuffing unpleasant or distasteful moments into the bottom of our memory bags. Unfortunately, these hidden or lost parts of ourselves, like neglected children, eventually cry out for attention.

I believe that we all have a ‘light’ side and a ‘dark’ side. Each part plays a role in our lives. Stifling one or the other leads to dysfunction and misery. The truth is, we’re all on Earth to evolve. We cycle through different stages and milestones and grow by embracing our whole selves.

To become whole means investing time and energy into illuminating and reclaiming our lost selves so that we can begin to heal. The key is to retain awareness of our dark side without identifying with it. We need to see, with clear eyes, our human failings and weaknesses. We need to feel our guilt and shame. Then we incorporate these shadowy aspects of ourselves into the light. This produces a stronger, wider consciousness than before.

It wasn’t until I had a near-death experience in 2010 that I realized how deeply my dark side was impacting the choices I made and how I lived my life. Up until then, my life had been very materialistic and self-absorbed, devoid of love. I was not practicing compassion or forgiveness towards myself or others. I was especially harsh towards people that I perceived to be lower than me in social or professional status.

While near-death experiences are typically recounted as pleasant and uplifting: visions of pure light, verdant landscapes and dazzlingly clear skies, accompanied by an overwhelming sense of bliss — not everyone has a pleasant or a loving near-death episode. Less reported are the accounts of nightmarish and painfully hellish experiences: terrifying deities, gruesome apparitions, racking and painful torture. These accounts may include a life-review process, judgment or a disembodied state, followed by rebirth into this or other realms for further growth and learning.

During my near-death experience, my first stop in the other realm was Hell. Since going public with my NDE, I have been asked several times, “Why did you go straight to Hell? If God is all unconditional love, should you not have gone to Heaven straight away?”

Unpleasant or hell-like NDEs can be perceived as a wake-up call, a learning experience. And I was in dire need of a wakeup call, I just didn’t know it. I like to think that a negative NDE can be viewed as positive when it results in significant constructive changes in a person’s life, as it has in mine.

Every near-death experience carries with it a message of growth. NDEs also offer insight into the true nature of life. I consider my NDE a gift. It inspired me to see things differently and consider other points of view. It helped me to see many different aspects of myself and then to embrace, forgive, and love what I saw.

Acknowledging that you have a dark side is the key to personal growth. When you acknowledge who you really are — both the good and the bad — you integrate your outer personality and actions with your inner being — your soul.

Accepting that you have a dark side also frees up energy that was previously used to stifle, avoid, and deny dark impulses. Now this energy can be used for other purposes. Just by accepting all the different parts of yourself, you will have access to a new source of personal power.

When you totally accept yourself, you make a big step toward inner completion. By shining a light into the darkness, you invite that which has been hiding to come out. With self-inquiry, you start unlocking long-hidden parts of yourself, creating a life of balance, inner-peace and harmony.

A Message from the Elders of the Hopi Nation

You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour.

Now you must go back and tell the people that this is The Hour.

And there are things to be considered:

Where are you living?

What are you doing?

What are your relationships?

Are you in right relation?

Where is your water?

Know your garden.

It is time to speak your Truth.

Create your community. Be good to each other. And do not look outside yourself for the leader.

This could be a good time!

There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly.

Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water. See who is in there with you and celebrate.

At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally. Least of all, ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!

Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary.

All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

We are the ones we've been waiting for.

Where the Hell is Matt? 2012 (video)

Unlike millions of other people, I was unaware of this update. I love these videos (I think he made a couple of earlier ones), and I thank Carl Herman over on Washington's Blog for letting me know about this one.

New Blog!

I made a resolution this New Year's Day to focus more on the positive. I've tried, and Lord knows it's helped me get through what would otherwise be a frustrating and very difficult time. The bullshit stream is just as constant and powerful as ever, and the smell is getting worse and worse, and sometimes I wonder if this just isn't a war of attrition. I've seen quite a few fellow bloggers kind of fall by the wayside lately, I think they just shrugged their shoulders and decided, "that's it. I've had my say. No one's doing anything about it anyway."

But really, that's not true. I've seen a genuine awakening amongst the general public lately that it'd be easy to overlook if all you did was run around trying to plug up leaks in the dyke that's seemingly holding back a torrent of chaos. You can exhaust yourself that way. But don't lose sight of the bigger picture! That's just what the bad guys want you to do!

I used to think Twitter was a cesspool for mindless chatter about crap that doesn't matter. Now I see that it's more like the Internet in that, yeah, most people operate at a lower vibration than I'm comfortable with, so that's what the bulk of the content is going to be -- porn and stupidity. But unlike Facebook, which seems to have almost been written by the CIA, I'm starting to think that Twitter can be used as a powerful tool for social good. For one thing, I found there are a bunch of kids out there that haven't lost sight of what should be common sense for everybody. People don't turn into murderous terrorists overnight. Jahar Tsarnaiv had a twitter account, and it's pretty obvious browsing through it that this guy didn't have the mind of a dangerously obsessed, murderous terrorist. He was a friendly, laid-back college kid with a good sense of humor. Plus ... I'll admit if I were 14 and I could buy one I'd probably have a poster of him hanging in my room. Or at least my locker.

So now there's an army of young ladies who would otherwise be obsessed over stupid crap that won't matter in five years who have had their eyes opened to the fact that, hey, authority has been lying to them. Anderson Cooper doesn't always tell the truth. Something's really wrong ...

I've been involved in 9-11 truth for a long time. This is one demographic you hardly ever see in the wonkish truth movement. It's really, really cool to see a fresh, new energy of politically awakened people.

So anyway, there's that ... plus I've got a mystical side that doesn't really mesh with my political blog, in many ways I'm too "woo-woo" to be the most credible political commentator, and I know it. I strongly believe in higher dimensions, and that world consciousness is moving closer in that direction by the day. But if you're slightly ahead of the curve, you're going to look like a flake, even though the news on that side is infinitely less depressing. So this is my solution ... I'll just start a new blog where I can indulge in happier musings and still have my "keepin' it real" political blog meant specifically for exposing the ("ugly") truth. Actually, the real Truth is beautiful, but you have to pass through a mucky, thorny, shitstream to get there. Hope to see you on the other side! :)