Why, when so many great thinkers and/or spiritual leaders have spoken what is necessary for us to create a world at peace, have we failed to achieve it?

It is because we have chosen to be asleep, unconscious to the possibilities available to us every second of every day.

“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element.

It is my personal approach that creates the climate.

It is my daily mood that makes the weather.

I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous.

I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.

I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.

In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized.

If we treat people as they are, we make them worse.

If we treat people as they can be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.” – Goethe, 1749-1832

If we begin to see ourselves as the solution in any environment, we begin to ask questions that are likely to produce that result. As I began to think about what I wanted to write for this months newsletter, it all seemed very familiar. See Through Our Hands in the May 15th Issue of this newsletter to be found in the blog section of our website.

Whose hands are these going to be if not ours?

The reason things have not changed has to do with the fact that we keep looking to change, fix and alter things, to find a new way of doing, a different approach. All of it has the significance of moving the deck chairs on the Titanic. Where we have to look is in the being nature of things. How are we being toward each other.

How can the transformation of public schools occur without a ground of being of loving-kindness, respect and dignity, where each person is valued and acknowledged for having worth and value as a given?

How can you give what you do not have?

How can a country which has never taken responsibility for, nor apologized for taking this country from Native Americans and enslaving hundreds of thousands of people of color in order to support the southern economy prior to the Civil War expect to be trusted by citizens in third world countries? (Don’t get me wrong, this is a great country. It could be truly great if we lived up to some of its finest principles, daily.

How will the Middle East come to be at peace until all religions give up the need to be right?

Is there any question about what is wanted and needed within every spiritual community?

My Father used to say that legislation arose because companies refused to take a strong stand for ethical management and policies that have to do with people and the environment. Are we willing to risk our positions in order to make sure that happens?

Every category of question that would lead to the possibility of real progress regarding the starving and homeless populations and create the possibility for a truly peaceful planet requires action beginning with us.

“You’d rather do something? But even there we’ve got to make sure that you’re not swinging into action only to make things worse. They’re not coming from love, they’re coming from negative feelings. They’re coming from guilt, anger, hate; from a sense of injustice or whatever. You’ve got to make sure of your “being” before you swing into action. You have to make sure of who you are before you act. Unfortunately, when sleeping people swing into action, they simply substitute one cruelty for another, one injustice for another. And so it goes.

Meister Eckhart says, “It is not by your actions that you will be saved” (or awakened; call it by any word you want), “but by your being. It is not by what you do, but by what you are that you will be judged.”……

It’s not your actions, it’s your being that counts. Then you might swing into action. You might or might not. You can’t decide that until you’re awake. Unfortunately, all the emphasis is concentrated on changing the world and very little emphasis is given to waking up.”- Anthony deMello, Awareness

The pathway to waking up is paved only with loving-kindness.

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A RECENT GRADUATE SPEAKS:

Things I Needed to Know That I Learned in “What One Person Can Do.”

(The following was submitted, unsigned with and evaluation, from which it became separated.)

• Practice self-care, daily; it helps to center you.
• Do your homework, even if it is hard.
• Resist and question what you believe is untrue for you.
• Keep an open mind.
• Tell people you love how much they mean to you on a regular basis.
• Leave room in your life for fun and surprises.
• Take a risk if you think its worth it.
• Do the work you were meant to do – find your true calling and verbalize it to others.
• Leave rooms (especially bathrooms!) better than you found them (same with people, too!).
• Set and keep your own boundaries.
• Practice patience with yourself and others.
• Don’t take life too seriously.
• Think globally, as well as locally.
• Always follow your heart, even if others don’t understand!

May all that is good and wonderful be yours today!

With all my love and every blessing!
Namaste!
Bill

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Sent to me by a very Dear Friend and well worth considering. I think this will be of interest to even those outside the U.S.

CONGRESSIONAL REFORM ACT OF 2010

1. Term Limits.12 years only, one of the possible options below.A. Two Six-year Senate terms
   B. Six Two-year House terms
   C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms
2. No Tenure / No Pension.A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.
4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/11.

The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.