A Samurai warrior came to a Zen master and demanded, "Teach me about heaven and hell." The master looked at the warrior and laughed, ridiculing him, "Why would you think I would waste my time teaching an ignoramus like you? You are an uneducated buffoon!" The samurai, severely insulted, began to breathe heavily and grew red in the face. Furious, he drew his sword and lifted it to chop off the master's head. "That, sir," the master interrupted, "is hell."
Immediately the warrior was overcome with humility. Deeply grateful for the profundity of this lesson, he put his sword aside, fell at the master's feet, and began to thank him profusely. "And that, sir," continued the master, "is heaven."
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Feel Your Way
This morning after reading my friend Laura's blog, http://antwatching.blogspot.com/, I found myself back on the internet and searching for more information. My first thought when she described her sadness that she was experiencing around her mothers health condition is, "As long as we possess a body, we will experience emotions, and it will still occur no matter what our vibration is spiritually." No matter where one resides on the level of consciousness, one will experience grief and sadness along the way. What we can do though is acknowledge what we are feeling and work with the energy that is present in the moment, and work with a higher level of awareness.
Since Laura expressed an interest in Yoga - an article jumped out at me and I'm sharing it below. I know I will continue to practice these methods of feeling the way, as life experiences present to me an array of situations including the death of loved ones that we cannot escape from. Perhaps this tool will be of help to you as well.
Start with Yourself
By Sally Kemptom
http://www.yogajournal.com/meditation/1158_1.cfm
If you want to practice with intense energies, a good way to start is with your own feelings and moods, and to start small. Stephen Levine once wrote that working with heavy emotional issues can be like getting into the ring with a 500-pound wrestler—if you haven't trained for it, the wrestler will throw you in the first clench. One of the best ways to train for working with energy is to practice during private moments of meltdown.
One of my favorite times for this kind of practice is the onset of road rage. Like many otherwise reasonable people, I have an inner road warrior who emerges only when I'm alone behind the wheel. He's mouthy, cynical, easily offended—a cross between a New York City cabbie and one of those eccentric hit men from a Quentin Tarantino film. There's a lot of energy in this persona, however. So when I notice myself having snarly private dialogues with a driver who has cut me off at an exit, I try to use the occasion for exploring the energy inside my anger.
You can do this too, anytime. First, take a moment to remember one of your characteristic heavy emotions or the last time you were very angry, grief-stricken, or scared. When you've found the feeling you want to work with, here's what to do:
Acknowledge your feeling. Notice and identify the fact that your inner world has been rocked by an intense, primitive feeling. This is especially important when you've been ambushed by an emotion. It helps to say clearly to yourself, "I'm feeling angry," or, "I'm sad," or, "I'm upset." You don't have to analyze the feeling or even think about where it's coming from.
Pause. Stop yourself from acting on the feeling. To do this, focus on your breathing, following your breath as it moves in and out through your nostrils.
Get grounded. When we're experiencing strong emotions, we often lose touch with our physical body. To get grounded inside your body, bring your attention to the sensation of your feet on the ground; if you're sitting, feel the contact between your buttocks and the cushion or floor.
Bring your awareness into your heart. Once you're grounded, find your center in your heart—not your physical heart but your inner heart, the subtle energy space in the center of your body. If you touch your finger to the spot on your breastbone right between your nipples, you will probably find that there's a slight hollow there and even an achy feeling. Behind this little hollow lies your inner heart. Drop your attention into this center, using your breath as an anchor. Breathe in and out as if you were breathing in and out of your heart. Do this for a few minutes.
Explore the energy in the feeling. Once you have found your center like this, focus again on the feeling you are working with. Where is it in your body? How does it feel? This is not an analytical process; it is more of an exploration. You are giving yourself permission to fully feel and explore the inner sensations created by anger, sadness, injured pride, or fear. Feel whether the emotion is hard or prickly in your body. Notice if there's a color field around your mood. Someone told me that his depressed feelings actually feel grayish.
Let go of the story line. At this point, you'll notice that certain thoughts are attached to your particular emotion, thoughts that frequently begin "How could he?" or "I always..." Acknowledge these thoughts and then let them go, keeping your attention on the feeling rather than getting caught up in your personal story line.
Some people ask, "Suppose there is content in my feeling that needs to be dealt with psychologically or practically? Am I supposed to just let it go?" For the moment, yes. For this particular process, it's important to let go of believing the story that your thoughts and feelings are telling you. If you sense that something in these feelings or in the situation that provoked them needs specific action or attention, take note of it! You'll come back to it later on.
Hold the feeling inside your heart until it dissolves into awareness. Consciously bring the feeling-sense of your emotion into your heart. Hold the feeling inside the energy space in your heart. As you do, let your heart space expand, gently and slowly, until you have the sensation that there is real space around your feeling. Now notice what happens inside you, how the energy inside your anger or grief shifts. It might become sharper and more intense for a while, or it might begin to soften around the edges, to become less specific, less prickly or swampy.
It's important to realize that you aren't just trying to make yourself feel better. You are in a process of shifting your perspective about this feeling. Your intention is to explore its energy and to let that energy resolve itself back into its root, into the core energy of every feeling.
When we bring our heavy emotions into our heart space, it is as if we are bringing them into a place where they can be safely cradled. Psychologist Rudy Bauer has a great way of describing this. He says that holding our intense feelings in our consciousness is like holding hot coals in a basket. The basket contains the coals and allows heat to build up so that we can warm ourselves by their fire, but it also keeps the coals from burning us.
In this way, we can harness the energy inside our intense emotions and use it as a vehicle to move beyond our ordinary mind and toward the source, the Self, where we are powered and supported by something much larger than ourselves—something impersonal and yet loving, something that has no content and yet is full of wisdom. Abiding in this place, we understand what Rumi really meant when he said that fighting and peacefulness both take place within God. Whatever the quality of the times we live in, when we know how to enter the energy of intensity, we have discovered a doorway to the infinite. Sally Kempton is the author of The Heart of Meditation. She also teaches Awakened Heart Meditation workshops. (For a schedule, visit www.sallykempton.com.)
Since Laura expressed an interest in Yoga - an article jumped out at me and I'm sharing it below. I know I will continue to practice these methods of feeling the way, as life experiences present to me an array of situations including the death of loved ones that we cannot escape from. Perhaps this tool will be of help to you as well.
Start with Yourself
By Sally Kemptom
http://www.yogajournal.com/meditation/1158_1.cfm
If you want to practice with intense energies, a good way to start is with your own feelings and moods, and to start small. Stephen Levine once wrote that working with heavy emotional issues can be like getting into the ring with a 500-pound wrestler—if you haven't trained for it, the wrestler will throw you in the first clench. One of the best ways to train for working with energy is to practice during private moments of meltdown.
One of my favorite times for this kind of practice is the onset of road rage. Like many otherwise reasonable people, I have an inner road warrior who emerges only when I'm alone behind the wheel. He's mouthy, cynical, easily offended—a cross between a New York City cabbie and one of those eccentric hit men from a Quentin Tarantino film. There's a lot of energy in this persona, however. So when I notice myself having snarly private dialogues with a driver who has cut me off at an exit, I try to use the occasion for exploring the energy inside my anger.
You can do this too, anytime. First, take a moment to remember one of your characteristic heavy emotions or the last time you were very angry, grief-stricken, or scared. When you've found the feeling you want to work with, here's what to do:
Acknowledge your feeling. Notice and identify the fact that your inner world has been rocked by an intense, primitive feeling. This is especially important when you've been ambushed by an emotion. It helps to say clearly to yourself, "I'm feeling angry," or, "I'm sad," or, "I'm upset." You don't have to analyze the feeling or even think about where it's coming from.
Pause. Stop yourself from acting on the feeling. To do this, focus on your breathing, following your breath as it moves in and out through your nostrils.
Get grounded. When we're experiencing strong emotions, we often lose touch with our physical body. To get grounded inside your body, bring your attention to the sensation of your feet on the ground; if you're sitting, feel the contact between your buttocks and the cushion or floor.
Bring your awareness into your heart. Once you're grounded, find your center in your heart—not your physical heart but your inner heart, the subtle energy space in the center of your body. If you touch your finger to the spot on your breastbone right between your nipples, you will probably find that there's a slight hollow there and even an achy feeling. Behind this little hollow lies your inner heart. Drop your attention into this center, using your breath as an anchor. Breathe in and out as if you were breathing in and out of your heart. Do this for a few minutes.
Explore the energy in the feeling. Once you have found your center like this, focus again on the feeling you are working with. Where is it in your body? How does it feel? This is not an analytical process; it is more of an exploration. You are giving yourself permission to fully feel and explore the inner sensations created by anger, sadness, injured pride, or fear. Feel whether the emotion is hard or prickly in your body. Notice if there's a color field around your mood. Someone told me that his depressed feelings actually feel grayish.
Let go of the story line. At this point, you'll notice that certain thoughts are attached to your particular emotion, thoughts that frequently begin "How could he?" or "I always..." Acknowledge these thoughts and then let them go, keeping your attention on the feeling rather than getting caught up in your personal story line.
Some people ask, "Suppose there is content in my feeling that needs to be dealt with psychologically or practically? Am I supposed to just let it go?" For the moment, yes. For this particular process, it's important to let go of believing the story that your thoughts and feelings are telling you. If you sense that something in these feelings or in the situation that provoked them needs specific action or attention, take note of it! You'll come back to it later on.
Hold the feeling inside your heart until it dissolves into awareness. Consciously bring the feeling-sense of your emotion into your heart. Hold the feeling inside the energy space in your heart. As you do, let your heart space expand, gently and slowly, until you have the sensation that there is real space around your feeling. Now notice what happens inside you, how the energy inside your anger or grief shifts. It might become sharper and more intense for a while, or it might begin to soften around the edges, to become less specific, less prickly or swampy.
It's important to realize that you aren't just trying to make yourself feel better. You are in a process of shifting your perspective about this feeling. Your intention is to explore its energy and to let that energy resolve itself back into its root, into the core energy of every feeling.
When we bring our heavy emotions into our heart space, it is as if we are bringing them into a place where they can be safely cradled. Psychologist Rudy Bauer has a great way of describing this. He says that holding our intense feelings in our consciousness is like holding hot coals in a basket. The basket contains the coals and allows heat to build up so that we can warm ourselves by their fire, but it also keeps the coals from burning us.
In this way, we can harness the energy inside our intense emotions and use it as a vehicle to move beyond our ordinary mind and toward the source, the Self, where we are powered and supported by something much larger than ourselves—something impersonal and yet loving, something that has no content and yet is full of wisdom. Abiding in this place, we understand what Rumi really meant when he said that fighting and peacefulness both take place within God. Whatever the quality of the times we live in, when we know how to enter the energy of intensity, we have discovered a doorway to the infinite. Sally Kempton is the author of The Heart of Meditation. She also teaches Awakened Heart Meditation workshops. (For a schedule, visit www.sallykempton.com.)
Monday, November 28, 2005
Girl With Allergy Dies After Kiss
I have just finished reading this article below and count my lucky stars after our own peanut allergy attack with Mitch yesterday.
Girl With Allergy Dies After Kiss
Teen's Boyfriend Had Eaten a Peanut Butter Snack
SAGUENAY, Quebec (Nov. 28) - A 15-year-old girl with a peanut allergy died after kissing her boyfriend, who had just eaten a peanut butter snack, hospital officials said Monday
Christina Desforges died in a Quebec hospital Wednesday after doctors were unable to treat her allergic reaction to the kiss the previous weekend.
Desforges, who lived in Saguenay, about 155 miles north of Quebec City, was almost immediately given a shot of adrenaline, a standard tool for treating the anaphylactic shock brought on by a peanut allergy, officials said.
An autopsy was being performed. Dr. Nina Verreault, an allergist at the Chicoutimi Hospital in Saguenay, declined to comment on the case.
About 1.5 million Americans are severely allergic to even the smallest trace of peanuts.
The symptoms of peanut allergy can include hives, plunging blood pressure and swelling of the face and throat, which can block breathing.
Peanut allergies have been rising in recent decades. The reason remains unclear but one study found that baby creams or lotions with peanut oil may cause children to develop allergies later in life.
About 1.5 million Americans are severely allergic to even the smallest trace of peanuts and peanut allergies account for 50 to 100 deaths in the United States each year. Canadian figures were not immediately available.
11-28-05 14:20 EST
Girl With Allergy Dies After Kiss
Teen's Boyfriend Had Eaten a Peanut Butter Snack
SAGUENAY, Quebec (Nov. 28) - A 15-year-old girl with a peanut allergy died after kissing her boyfriend, who had just eaten a peanut butter snack, hospital officials said Monday
Christina Desforges died in a Quebec hospital Wednesday after doctors were unable to treat her allergic reaction to the kiss the previous weekend.
Desforges, who lived in Saguenay, about 155 miles north of Quebec City, was almost immediately given a shot of adrenaline, a standard tool for treating the anaphylactic shock brought on by a peanut allergy, officials said.
An autopsy was being performed. Dr. Nina Verreault, an allergist at the Chicoutimi Hospital in Saguenay, declined to comment on the case.
About 1.5 million Americans are severely allergic to even the smallest trace of peanuts.
The symptoms of peanut allergy can include hives, plunging blood pressure and swelling of the face and throat, which can block breathing.
Peanut allergies have been rising in recent decades. The reason remains unclear but one study found that baby creams or lotions with peanut oil may cause children to develop allergies later in life.
About 1.5 million Americans are severely allergic to even the smallest trace of peanuts and peanut allergies account for 50 to 100 deaths in the United States each year. Canadian figures were not immediately available.
11-28-05 14:20 EST
Messages from Water
The infinite power of the Universe
has gathered itself to create a world
with true and grand harmony.
Messages from Water - Dr. Masaru Emoto
I have a friend, spiritual teacher and former English professor, who has spent many years traveling to Japan and teaching the Shinto people metaphysical principles. He is also a channel for Dr. Peebles! I am very lucky to know such a grande array of personalities who have inhabited earthly form. My friend William brought back Dr. Emoto's book, "Messages From Water" a number of years ago, and since reading the book and looking at the water crystal pictures, I have since come to view how our thoughts affect our biology, since our bodies contain around 76% water. Dr. Emoto was also intereviewed in the recent release of the video, "What the bleep do we know?"
I have a water cooler in my office which I've nicknamed, "Bubbles". Everytime I add a new bottle to the cooler, I Reiki and attune it for good measure. Often times during sessions with clients and when truth is spoken, it just starts to bubble up on its own and it makes the client laugh.
I hope you'll take a look at Dr. Emoto's work and remember to "Bless" your water each and every day!
I'll be back soon..................
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Nutty Day
Simple Trick For Allergic Reactions -- Even Anaphylactic Shock
Food Allergies - gosh those little monsters that seem to have a life/death rhythm of their own.
Food Allergies - gosh those little monsters that seem to have a life/death rhythm of their own.
This afternoon we finally sat down with Tom Turkey stuffed breasts, the usual fixings of dressings, potatoes, green bean caserrole, and yes the cranberry relish that almost did my daugher's boyfriend (maybe future son-in-law) in!
Everything was going wonderfully smoothe and I even managed to get all the food on the table still warm without spilling any of it. Towards the end of the meal, I asked Mitch if he would like some cranberry sauce and he said yes. As I passed it to him and he put it on his plate, took his first bite, and whoola..........I will never forget those eyes looking back at me and asking if this had nuts in it. Oh my GOD!.............I forgot...............(since he doesn't eat here very often) he is terribly allergic to most nuts - especially walnuts.
While I'm rushing for the Benadryl hoping there is some in the house, only to find there is none, the only thing I could find was some claritin with an antihistamine in it. The odd thing was that just a few days ago, I sent him an email with Dr. Mercola's information on an EFT technique that is easy to learn and often helpful even for one experiencing anaphylactic shock. I should have downloaded the free information, but was busy and thought I would do it at a later time.
I did give him a little Reiki while he was sitting there and he did use a visualization technique for his swollen tonsils. In all my years, I have never been with anyone who had a reaction like this to a food. I kept thinking of that email I sent to him and wondered if this was a message to Pay Attention! :-)
All is okay, Mitch survived and we didn't have an ER run, and I'm hoping that is the last "NUT" case I experience.
I do now have Benadryl in my cupboard after a run to the store, and I think I'll buy a few extra for stocking stuffers.
Still Rockin' Around the Tree and Keeping the Lights On............!
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
Yesterday while posting to Butterfly Maiden and telling her how much I enjoyed her Bee Gee's song that she posted, suddenly the tune to "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" found it's way through the brain canal. Song lyrics can often be those subtle messages that bring through information that one will soon manifest into their experience.
It was several hours later when my daughter arrived home with her boyfriend, walked through the door and promptly announced they were going to put up the Christmas tree that evening. While the tree was going up and we were manuevering through the boxes of ornaments and with the Christmas songs filtering through the house, it was then I remembered the tune in my head that had played earlier and with a smile on face thought, "Yes, this is Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree."
Saturday, November 26, 2005
"These are a few of my favorite things, and now I don't feel so bad" :-)
Julie Andrews just popped into my head as I was thinking of a title for the internet videos I have enjoyed recently, and thought I would share with my friends in cyberspace.
www.GiveMeTheMasterKey.com
http://www.youarelovemovie.com/
http://www.lightmovie.com/
There are days when the words just flow through, and days like today when the cells need to rest.
Hopefully the movies will trigger your "Remembrance" of SELF!
www.GiveMeTheMasterKey.com
http://www.youarelovemovie.com/
http://www.lightmovie.com/
There are days when the words just flow through, and days like today when the cells need to rest.
Hopefully the movies will trigger your "Remembrance" of SELF!
Friday, November 25, 2005
Thanksgiving - Massage of the Heart
At this very moment, I am sitting here with my heart in glee and tears wanting to wander down over this middle-aged face (will think of it as a hot sauna facial). I have just finished reading a most heart-warming story by an incredible woman who lives in Chicago. Laura Young http://antwatching.blogspot.com who truly does rise to every experience that presents itself to her, once again proved that love does conquer all.
It is the day after Thanksgiving, and I as a fellow traveler on this path, am thankful that another human being was able to move through a fear, thus adding to her own healing and the healing of others. As each one of us does our part towards the healing of self, it contributes greatly to the overall healing of this earth. When we can let go of negativity rooted in fear, the energy is transformed all around us and greater light enters into our sphere.
Relationships mirror to us in a variety of ways and bring to us some of the greatest tests of our soul. My own observation of others, and having the personal experiences of different spirits posing in human biology around me to help reflect back to me my own fears and also of theirs, I can only conclude feels like the great human experiment just might be around opening the heart more fully so one can truly live "Heaven on Earth."
As we have agreed to this experiment steeped in duality, and consequently arise and awaken in earth school and recognize that these tests are given to us to learn to forgive not only ourself but others, to understand the roles we play for each other and find ourselves in a compassionate way, perhaps then one is allowed onto the next grade level. After reading my friend Laura's blog today, I would place a bet on it that she has jumped another level! :-)
Bless you Laura and your family, and once again your truthful blogging leaves me humbled. This is truly the Thanksgiving I believed was possible, and it didn't take chopping the head off a turkey, only hot hands, an open heart and willingness to put your differences aside and gently massage the illusion away.
As one rises, we all do!
Buddha your way to love - living only very evolved from the center of your heart.
It is the day after Thanksgiving, and I as a fellow traveler on this path, am thankful that another human being was able to move through a fear, thus adding to her own healing and the healing of others. As each one of us does our part towards the healing of self, it contributes greatly to the overall healing of this earth. When we can let go of negativity rooted in fear, the energy is transformed all around us and greater light enters into our sphere.
Relationships mirror to us in a variety of ways and bring to us some of the greatest tests of our soul. My own observation of others, and having the personal experiences of different spirits posing in human biology around me to help reflect back to me my own fears and also of theirs, I can only conclude feels like the great human experiment just might be around opening the heart more fully so one can truly live "Heaven on Earth."
As we have agreed to this experiment steeped in duality, and consequently arise and awaken in earth school and recognize that these tests are given to us to learn to forgive not only ourself but others, to understand the roles we play for each other and find ourselves in a compassionate way, perhaps then one is allowed onto the next grade level. After reading my friend Laura's blog today, I would place a bet on it that she has jumped another level! :-)
Bless you Laura and your family, and once again your truthful blogging leaves me humbled. This is truly the Thanksgiving I believed was possible, and it didn't take chopping the head off a turkey, only hot hands, an open heart and willingness to put your differences aside and gently massage the illusion away.
As one rises, we all do!
Buddha your way to love - living only very evolved from the center of your heart.
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Why a Turkey - Why not Taco's?
Every year I seem to reflect on the same thought especially around Thanksgiving - why do we continually perpetuate myths to keep up our level of emotional comfort, even if it is just keeping us steeped in untruths. How many of us just go along with the program never asking why? The article below I found this morning written by Robert Jensen highlighting the history of Thanksgiving, but in many ways it reflects the dumbing down process of humanity to think for themselves when it comes to everyday existence, and how easy it has been to program people into a set of false beliefs. Traditions in many ways are just ways to condition peoples mind into robotic thinking, thus stopping the process of living in "NOW" time, where perhaps the energy present is more condusive to greater truth.
Published on Monday, November 21, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
Give Thanks No More: It’s Time for a National Day of Atonement
by Robert Jensen
One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-indulgent family feasting with a National Day of Atonement accompanied by a self-reflective collective fasting.
In fact, indigenous people have offered such a model; since 1970 they have marked the fourth Thursday of November as a Day of Mourning in a spiritual/political ceremony on Coles Hill overlooking Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, one of the early sites of the European invasion of the Americas.
Not only is the thought of such a change in this white-supremacist holiday impossible to imagine, but the very mention of the idea sends most Americans into apoplectic fits -- which speaks volumes about our historical hypocrisy and its relation to the contemporary politics of empire in the United States.
That the world’s great powers achieved “greatness” through criminal brutality on a grand scale is not news, of course. That those same societies are reluctant to highlight this history of barbarism also is predictable.
But in the United States, this reluctance to acknowledge our original sin -- the genocide of indigenous people -- is of special importance today. It’s now routine -- even among conservative commentators -- to describe the United States as an empire, so long as everyone understands we are an inherently benevolent one. Because all our history contradicts that claim, history must be twisted and tortured to serve the purposes of the powerful.
One vehicle for taming history is various patriotic holidays, with Thanksgiving at the heart of U.S. myth-building. From an early age, we Americans hear a story about the hearty Pilgrims, whose search for freedom took them from England to Massachusetts. There, aided by the friendly Wampanoag Indians, they survived in a new and harsh environment, leading to a harvest feast in 1621 following the Pilgrims first winter.
Some aspects of the conventional story are true enough. But it’s also true that by 1637 Massachusetts Gov. John Winthrop was proclaiming a thanksgiving for the successful massacre of hundreds of Pequot Indian men, women and children, part of the long and bloody process of opening up additional land to the English invaders. The pattern would repeat itself across the continent until between 95 and 99 percent of American Indians had been exterminated and the rest were left to assimilate into white society or die off on reservations, out of the view of polite society.
Simply put: Thanksgiving is the day when the dominant white culture (and, sadly, most of the rest of the non-white but non-indigenous population) celebrates the beginning of a genocide that was, in fact, blessed by the men we hold up as our heroic founding fathers.
The first president, George Washington, in 1783 said he preferred buying Indians’ land rather than driving them off it because that was like driving “wild beasts” from the forest. He compared Indians to wolves, “both being beasts of prey, tho’ they differ in shape.” Thomas Jefferson -- president #3 and author of the Declaration of Independence, which refers to Indians as the “merciless Indian Savages” -- was known to romanticize Indians and their culture, but that didn’t stop him in 1807 from writing to his secretary of war that in a coming conflict with certain tribes, “[W]e shall destroy all of them.”
As the genocide was winding down in the early 20th century, Theodore Roosevelt (president #26) defended the expansion of whites across the continent as an inevitable process “due solely to the power of the mighty civilized races which have not lost the fighting instinct, and which by their expansion are gradually bringing peace into the red wastes where the barbarian peoples of the world hold sway.” Roosevelt also once said, “I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.”
How does a country deal with the fact that some of its most revered historical figures had certain moral values and political views virtually identical to Nazis? Here’s how “respectable” politicians, pundits, and professors play the game:
When invoking a grand and glorious aspect of our past, then history is all-important. We are told how crucial it is for people to know history, and there is much hand wringing about the younger generations’ lack of knowledge about, and respect for, that history. In the United States, we hear constantly about the deep wisdom of the founding fathers, the adventurous spirit of the early explorers, the gritty determination of those who “settled” the country -- and about how crucial it is for children to learn these things.
But when one brings into historical discussions any facts and interpretations that contest the celebratory story and make people uncomfortable -- such as the genocide of indigenous people as the foundational act in the creation of the United States -- suddenly the value of history drops precipitously and one is asked, “Why do you insist on dwelling on the past?”
This is the mark of a well-disciplined intellectual class -- one that can extol the importance of knowing history for contemporary citizenship and, at the same time, argue that we shouldn’t spend too much time thinking about history.
This off-and-on engagement with history isn’t of mere academic interest; as the dominant imperial power of the moment, U.S. elites have a clear stake in the contemporary propaganda value of that history. Obscuring bitter truths about historical crimes helps perpetuate the fantasy of American benevolence, which makes it easier to sell contemporary imperial adventures -- such as the invasion and occupation of Iraq -- as another benevolent action.
Any attempt to complicate this story guarantees hostility from mainstream culture. After raising the barbarism of America’s much-revered founding fathers in a lecture, I was once accused of trying to “humble our proud nation” and “undermine young people’s faith in our country.”
Yes, of course -- that is exactly what I would hope to achieve. We should practice the virtue of humility and avoid the excessive pride that can, when combined with great power, lead to great abuses of power.
History does matter, which is why people in power put so much energy into controlling it. The United States is hardly the only society that has created such mythology. While some historians in Great Britain continue to talk about the benefits that the empire brought to India, political movements in India want to make the mythology of Hindutva into historical fact. Abuses of history go on in the former empire and the former colony.
History can be one of the many ways we create and impose hierarchy, or it can be part of a process of liberation. The truth won’t set us free, but the telling of truth at least opens the possibility of freedom.
As Americans sit down on Thanksgiving Day to gorge themselves on the bounty of empire, many will worry about the expansive effects of overeating on their waistlines. We would be better to think about the constricting effects on the day’s mythology on our minds.
Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a member of the board of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center He is the author of The Heart of Whiteness: Race, Racism, and White Privilege and Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity (both from City Lights Books).
Published on Monday, November 21, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
Give Thanks No More: It’s Time for a National Day of Atonement
by Robert Jensen
One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-indulgent family feasting with a National Day of Atonement accompanied by a self-reflective collective fasting.
In fact, indigenous people have offered such a model; since 1970 they have marked the fourth Thursday of November as a Day of Mourning in a spiritual/political ceremony on Coles Hill overlooking Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, one of the early sites of the European invasion of the Americas.
Not only is the thought of such a change in this white-supremacist holiday impossible to imagine, but the very mention of the idea sends most Americans into apoplectic fits -- which speaks volumes about our historical hypocrisy and its relation to the contemporary politics of empire in the United States.
That the world’s great powers achieved “greatness” through criminal brutality on a grand scale is not news, of course. That those same societies are reluctant to highlight this history of barbarism also is predictable.
But in the United States, this reluctance to acknowledge our original sin -- the genocide of indigenous people -- is of special importance today. It’s now routine -- even among conservative commentators -- to describe the United States as an empire, so long as everyone understands we are an inherently benevolent one. Because all our history contradicts that claim, history must be twisted and tortured to serve the purposes of the powerful.
One vehicle for taming history is various patriotic holidays, with Thanksgiving at the heart of U.S. myth-building. From an early age, we Americans hear a story about the hearty Pilgrims, whose search for freedom took them from England to Massachusetts. There, aided by the friendly Wampanoag Indians, they survived in a new and harsh environment, leading to a harvest feast in 1621 following the Pilgrims first winter.
Some aspects of the conventional story are true enough. But it’s also true that by 1637 Massachusetts Gov. John Winthrop was proclaiming a thanksgiving for the successful massacre of hundreds of Pequot Indian men, women and children, part of the long and bloody process of opening up additional land to the English invaders. The pattern would repeat itself across the continent until between 95 and 99 percent of American Indians had been exterminated and the rest were left to assimilate into white society or die off on reservations, out of the view of polite society.
Simply put: Thanksgiving is the day when the dominant white culture (and, sadly, most of the rest of the non-white but non-indigenous population) celebrates the beginning of a genocide that was, in fact, blessed by the men we hold up as our heroic founding fathers.
The first president, George Washington, in 1783 said he preferred buying Indians’ land rather than driving them off it because that was like driving “wild beasts” from the forest. He compared Indians to wolves, “both being beasts of prey, tho’ they differ in shape.” Thomas Jefferson -- president #3 and author of the Declaration of Independence, which refers to Indians as the “merciless Indian Savages” -- was known to romanticize Indians and their culture, but that didn’t stop him in 1807 from writing to his secretary of war that in a coming conflict with certain tribes, “[W]e shall destroy all of them.”
As the genocide was winding down in the early 20th century, Theodore Roosevelt (president #26) defended the expansion of whites across the continent as an inevitable process “due solely to the power of the mighty civilized races which have not lost the fighting instinct, and which by their expansion are gradually bringing peace into the red wastes where the barbarian peoples of the world hold sway.” Roosevelt also once said, “I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth.”
How does a country deal with the fact that some of its most revered historical figures had certain moral values and political views virtually identical to Nazis? Here’s how “respectable” politicians, pundits, and professors play the game:
When invoking a grand and glorious aspect of our past, then history is all-important. We are told how crucial it is for people to know history, and there is much hand wringing about the younger generations’ lack of knowledge about, and respect for, that history. In the United States, we hear constantly about the deep wisdom of the founding fathers, the adventurous spirit of the early explorers, the gritty determination of those who “settled” the country -- and about how crucial it is for children to learn these things.
But when one brings into historical discussions any facts and interpretations that contest the celebratory story and make people uncomfortable -- such as the genocide of indigenous people as the foundational act in the creation of the United States -- suddenly the value of history drops precipitously and one is asked, “Why do you insist on dwelling on the past?”
This is the mark of a well-disciplined intellectual class -- one that can extol the importance of knowing history for contemporary citizenship and, at the same time, argue that we shouldn’t spend too much time thinking about history.
This off-and-on engagement with history isn’t of mere academic interest; as the dominant imperial power of the moment, U.S. elites have a clear stake in the contemporary propaganda value of that history. Obscuring bitter truths about historical crimes helps perpetuate the fantasy of American benevolence, which makes it easier to sell contemporary imperial adventures -- such as the invasion and occupation of Iraq -- as another benevolent action.
Any attempt to complicate this story guarantees hostility from mainstream culture. After raising the barbarism of America’s much-revered founding fathers in a lecture, I was once accused of trying to “humble our proud nation” and “undermine young people’s faith in our country.”
Yes, of course -- that is exactly what I would hope to achieve. We should practice the virtue of humility and avoid the excessive pride that can, when combined with great power, lead to great abuses of power.
History does matter, which is why people in power put so much energy into controlling it. The United States is hardly the only society that has created such mythology. While some historians in Great Britain continue to talk about the benefits that the empire brought to India, political movements in India want to make the mythology of Hindutva into historical fact. Abuses of history go on in the former empire and the former colony.
History can be one of the many ways we create and impose hierarchy, or it can be part of a process of liberation. The truth won’t set us free, but the telling of truth at least opens the possibility of freedom.
As Americans sit down on Thanksgiving Day to gorge themselves on the bounty of empire, many will worry about the expansive effects of overeating on their waistlines. We would be better to think about the constricting effects on the day’s mythology on our minds.
Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a member of the board of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center He is the author of The Heart of Whiteness: Race, Racism, and White Privilege and Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity (both from City Lights Books).
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
The Wonder of It All
http://wonderofitall.com/
I just finished previewing this and feel at peace - oh.......those wonderful scenes and beautiful music that soothe my soul. Off to meet friends for lunch and laughs.
I just finished previewing this and feel at peace - oh.......those wonderful scenes and beautiful music that soothe my soul. Off to meet friends for lunch and laughs.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Indigo Children
http://us.video.aol.com/video.index.adp?mode=2&guideContext=65.73&pmmsid=1432290
http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/us/2005/11/15/tuchman.indigo.children.affl
Indigo Children featured on Good Morning America and CNN. These children are representative of all mankind and the abilities and gifts each one of us has, but for most lay dormant due to a variety of reasons. I have had the privilege of working with a few of these psychic children over the years, and it has always been most rewarding.
Tonight I received a phone call from one of them. When she was 15 she entered my office for a Reiki session and said, "I've been waiting for this all of my life." By the time she was 17, she had completed the second level of Reiki. At 18 she entered massage school and now is fully engaged in her healing practice. Her goal is to do her master's level, is presently engaged to a man from New Zealand whose parents are very metaphysical, and it will be interesting to watch her progress from here on in. She will definitely step into leadership roles and help humanity to further awaken.
http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/us/2005/11/15/tuchman.indigo.children.affl
Indigo Children featured on Good Morning America and CNN. These children are representative of all mankind and the abilities and gifts each one of us has, but for most lay dormant due to a variety of reasons. I have had the privilege of working with a few of these psychic children over the years, and it has always been most rewarding.
Tonight I received a phone call from one of them. When she was 15 she entered my office for a Reiki session and said, "I've been waiting for this all of my life." By the time she was 17, she had completed the second level of Reiki. At 18 she entered massage school and now is fully engaged in her healing practice. Her goal is to do her master's level, is presently engaged to a man from New Zealand whose parents are very metaphysical, and it will be interesting to watch her progress from here on in. She will definitely step into leadership roles and help humanity to further awaken.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Bloggin in the Fog
Getting clear definitely is an inside job today since the outdoor visibility holds out little hope for the eye to venture beyond 50 feet. Yes, it's another day of going within and finding those places and spaces that like to play hide'n seek with the conscious mind. Oh well, maybe I'll just let those nuggins continue to hibernate and do some serious 3D closet cleaning instead.
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