ALL FACADES UNMASKED....
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From: Jonathan S.
Date: Saturday, May 10, 2008, 7:48 PM
Subject: All Facades Unmasked....
Reply to: 263244
ID: 260881

Namaste Matthew (Sandi),

Thank you for sharing your letter with this forum.

Although I am not sure that I agree completely with the overall tone, I do appreciate the thoroughness and clear way in which you point out that ultimately any lasting transformation for our species and world must take place from the inside out.

The expansion in consciousness that you highlight as the necessary shift that must happen for real change to occur is indeed accurate. Superficial band-aid approaches to the problems that we face throughout the world, most notably hunger, environmental degradation, overpopulation, climate change etc. are the external reflection of a " spiritual deficit " that exists within the mass consciousness of humanity at this time in our evolutionary unfoldment.

However, in spite of us being at the 11th Hour (and I haven't yet seen the movie, but am borrowing the title)I am hopeful that we are reaching what Ken Keyes described in his book, The Hundredth Monkey or what Rupert Sheldrake emphasizes in his concept of the " morphic resonance field, " that in fact there are enough of us awakening from within to tip the scales in the direction of the change that will be more than a superficial cosmetic makeover that masks the underlying issue.

Creation and destruction are two sides of the same coin, seen throughout all of the wisdom traditions of the world and beautifully expressed through the Chinese symbol of the Yin-Yang. We are in the dark times, what the yogis are calling the Kali Yuga (As I'm sure that you know since you appear to be extremely aware, sensitive, and contemplative). There is light within the darkness and even though we may continue to go through a challenging birth process, I do hold out that we will experience a collective shift in consciousness as we and the earth evolve together.

Thank you for your penetrating insight into a most crucial issue. Whether the hour glass is half-empty or half-full may depend on each of our individual perceptions. As someone who is making clear the importance of Self-knowledge and the value of meditation, I'm sure that you are aware that the pure consciousness of the Self is beyond any of these perceptual realities and ultimately is the only One who truly knows with detached awareness that we are much more than what we have thought ourselves to be.

I leave you with these words from Rumi,

Out beyond ideas of rightness and wrongness, there is a field, I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is to full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase each other doesn't make any sense.

Peacefully,

Jonathan

---- On Fri, May 2, 2008, Sandi Hunter wrote ---

Those Who Live By Consumerism Shall Die By Consumerism

The following letter is written to Leonardo Dicaprio, narrator and producer of the new documentary film, The 11th Hour. In this movie Dicaprio makes an iron-clad, irrefutable case for the need of global human change, through the words of a legion of many of the worlds’ best thinkers, scientists, philosophers and bio-revolutionaries. The need for a complete re-thinking of how we humans do business, lifestyle and government is shown in great detail. The film demonstrates that without such change, we face mass disaster, starvation and even extinction within just a few short decades. Statistical evidence, scientific studies and insightful thought abound in this great work, one that is nothing short of essential viewing for every thinking person on the planet…

Brother Leonardo,

What you’ve accomplished with this film far exceeds all previous efforts for global change of which I am aware. This masterpiece of modern analysis and honest self reflection ought to be mandatory viewing for all school-children. It should be the subject of focus for every neighborhood and every caring mind. The 11th Hour is perhaps the single-most “humanitarian” and socially responsible act ever committed in the name of the Earth, the natural health of every living thing upon it, and the true good of all people on every continent. The various commentaries of the dozens of intelligent people interviewed in the film, combined with startling photography and statistical evidence, synthesize together brilliantly for an effect which leaves the viewer very much shaken. Were the average person to realize just how close we all are as a species to environmental collapse, they would be truly terrified. Were people to realize just how close we are to the fall of civilization, to the collapse of all those amenities of, “modern convenience” which most take for granted, I wonder how many would take meaningful action?

This question brings me to the purpose of writing this letter, apart from the desire that is, to extend every well-earned congratulation for a job well done. In my extensive experience with public attitudes on the internet and in person over the last decade however, I have not found the kind of caringness about the planet or each other which your film alludes to. In it you said that people from all walks of life and on every continent are, “spontaneously” and en-mass taking a new approach to how they live. They are living in far more environment-friendly ways, it said, and carrying out various projects which address such concerns as global warming, deforestation, soil depletion, over-fishing, pollution and other such concerns. I’d like to actually meet even ONE person who has such a passion for the natural world or for a real quality of life which only natural ways can provide. But I’ll tell you this….I have never met such a person at random in the street or on the internet. In my experience regarding such issues, (as the author of various articles and commentaries on these and related subjects) one should consider themselves lucky to even get the most superficial of replies to such posts regardless of the internet forum, and regardless of the method of presentation. In saying this, I refer to the supposedly most progressive forums, not just the average “Yahoo chatrooms”, but those explicitly dedicated to social change.

What I’m saying is that I don’t believe, as much as I’d like to, that even one person in a million cares in the most superficial way about any of these subjects. I don’t believe that even one person in a million gives much of a damn about ANYTHING, including the inevitable demise of the human race and the mass destruction of nature on this planet. Does that revelation shock you, or is it that you were putting an optimistic face on what is surely the inevitable death of Homo Sapiens? In over 8 solid years of campaigning on the internet on behalf of the expansion of consciousness, the rejection of consumerism as an exercise in insanity, the embrace of nature and natural laws, not once have I had a truly lucid, long-standing conversation about any of these subjects with anyone anywhere in the world, and certainly nothing that even resembled the taking of concrete action. Let me assure you that this has not been through the lack of trying, after the writing of about 200 articles on these and related subjects, and the posting of thousands of comments on various forums.

Such statements about the uncaringness of the public may seem to you and others to contradict what’s really going on in the world. Such statements may seem heartless or misinformed. You may argue that there are in fact countless people who, “really care” and who are, “really doing something” about saving this planet. So lets’ define what “caring” really means. To really and truly care about saving the world, or even just the saving of one’s self by the same token, is a matter of doing what is truly needed. Token efforts and lip service given to causes are decidedly NOT what I’m talking about. To care about putting out a bonfire does not mean throwing one teaspoon of water on the blaze and then walking away with smug satisfaction, only to throw various lit cigarettes in woodpiles on the way home. It means sizing up what is actually REQUIRED by the situation which reality presents, and acting upon it in such a way that has realistic hope of successful intervention. Real caring is not about how people are working to plant trees in Los Angeles to “mimic” nature, it’s about not living in a 3000 square foot house to start with, that took a hundred acres of trees to build, furnish and maintain. Real caring is not about just using some recycled paper towels at the marketplace while creating 50 times more garbage and waste than is necessary to live well. Real caring is not about buying ethanol to fuel your car, when you’ve got two more cars than you need, with price tags and amenities which cost 100 times more than they should have to start with, and which guzzle gas like water through a sieve. Real caring, in short, is not about a subscription to Audubon magazine or using “green friendly” technologies to water your lawn, but in NOT PARTICPATING IN THE WHOLE MADNESS THAT IS CONSUMERISM TO START WITH. Here we are, talking about all these, “potential solutions” to our various grave problems, but spending very little time analyzing WHY THE PROBLEMS ARE THERE ALREADY. They’re there because of the holding of low consciousness by the average person, because of wrong values, because of unthinking follower-ship of the mass media, and because of a widespread lack of self knowledge. Our problems are rooted in endless greed for the sake of egotism, and these attitudes are the product of inner spiritual lack and mental imbalance. If a person REALLY CARES, then they must grapple fully with what has caused such problems to start with, as we now witness them in the world, and then take such action that will fully and realistically remedy them. THIS is what is required of us by our world situation, and THIS is simply the nature of reality. But rare indeed is the person who is even willing to discuss the real bottom line of the modern condition, (greed and egotism) for the sake of re-founding a sane world wherein the higher qualities of the human being may flourish, (truth and naturalness). This and only this is what is meant by “caring”, not token projects that neither address the root of the problems we face, nor find those fundamental solutions which only the unmasked truth can provide. If we’re going to save this world through REAL caring, then we are forced to deal with reality on its’ own terms. We must stop trying to simply address the problems of our own making with short sighted “solutions” and quit causing those very problems to start with. You can’t detoxify a body that is constantly bathing in poisons. The first and best thing to do is to, “not participate” in the poison to start with, and by “poison” I mean all the phony-baloney product-hype of consumerism. By “caring” I mean living in a fashion that is anti-consumerist, one that doesn’t care about, “keeping up with the Jones’” and which doesn’t define “success” through a suicidal focus on a life of wage slavery and thing-fixation, (with or without volunteerism in the local, “beach clean-up”). By caring I mean no longer being a cancerous tumor in the body of the good earth, all for the sake of brand name egotism, and instead living in a manner that is in all ways practical, efficient and SANE.

Also, it is easy to blame short-sighted government policy or corporate greed for much of the worlds’ ills. In a superficial sense, these entities ARE much to blame. But what is a corporation other than a collection of typically greedy individuals who value nothing but egotism and money? What is a corrupt government other than a collection of persons who share essentially the same values as anyone else in the general public? What else is a corporation or a government other than a reflection of the general consciousness of humanity at large? This means that real worldly change is NOT ultimately about a change of corporate or government policy, the re-writing of laws or the petitioning of politicians. Meaningful change is about the transformation, or upgrade if you will, of the consciousness of the individuals who compose these collective entities. This is so because real caring and sane lifestyle are the direct result of an expanded consciousness…they are in fact a BI-PRODUCT of expanded consciousness. Everything we do in life, individually and collectively, is a matter of the level and quality of consciousness we hold each moment. Ignore this fact and all other efforts at social reform are doomed to fail. Observe this inescapable natural law, and regardless of government policy or judicial ethics, we’ll have the necessary groundswell of wise support which can only come from enlightened individuals.

Some of the learned people whom you interviewed were clearly of the mindset that we need to “redesign” the practices and methods of industry. They pointed out that we have such technology as is necessary to save ourselves and this world. I have no doubt that we do indeed have the physical means to save ourselves from extinction, but this is not truly the issue as certain other interviewed persons pointed out. What we have today is not truly a social crisis or a problem in governmental policy…it is a crisis in the individual persons’ consciousness. You could also call this a, “spiritual deficit”, and as one person pointed out, the fractured, disconnected modern condition is just a mirror for the fractured and disconnected inner state of the average human being. Consumerism is not the material utopia it is presented to be, but in fact, a mass mental disorder which has, “replaced” the need for inner honesty and spiritual integrity, with more and more material objects. This is of course not a real solution for anything…material objects are not the true issue of our crisis, and therefore, neither is the means of their production. Saying this does not negate the legitimate need for earth-friendly technologies and lifestyles. It merely points out that the real root of the modern problem is willing participation in a soul-less culture, one that is at odds with nature and true spiritual advancement in every possible way, even to the extent of denying the basic nature of the body and our relationship with all other living things. We even talk about nature as a, “resource” which “provides us with services” as though the function of existence is to serve human needs. Not only is this attitude arrogant, it is incredibly stupid. As a species we are as much at war with ourselves as we are natural laws, and given this, we must first, “get our own house in order” before we can presume to competently get the house of nature back on its’ feet.

When I said I don’t believe even one person in a million honestly and truly cares about any of this, I refer to the inner crisis with which Homo Sapiens is faced. The reason people don’t really care about such obviously important and inescapable issues, is that they are impoverished inside themselves…their spirits are dead, their minds are in chaos and their lives a karmic wreckage that continues to spin out of their control. They have no self knowledge in other words, and don’t even want any. With the average person out of control even of their own minds, bodies and lives, how can they possibly be expected to develop such personal power as to competently address the needed remedies for our world? They simply cannot, and it was a little disappointing to see this point underemphasized in The 11th Hour. THIS is the heart of the issue….outward environmental, government and political change can ONLY be accomplished through an equivalent shift within the personal realm of the average human being. Until then they simply WILL NOT CARE, not even about themselves, and so what we’re talking about here is not a green revolution, or an evolution of technology or method, but a revolution in human consciousness.

Consciousness is improved and expanded, first and foremost, through self knowledge and unflinching inner honesty about ones’ self and the world. Self knowledge shows us that we are in fact a part of nature…our natural bodies contain billions of years of information. It also shows us that as souls, (spirits in bodies) we ARE in fact consciousness, not the artificial titles written upon resumes’. We are awareness itself, not just an awareness of job descriptions, consumer-product images, sales slogans and fashion. We are the embodiment of natures’ wisdom, and our purpose is not endless greed at the cost of all life and limb, but as the functioning, self-aware neocortex of nature itself, as the respectful caretakers of the process of evolution, and the wise followers of natural law. Nowhere in this equation of truth is written the awful lies and falsehoods of the consumer world. It is nothing short of disgraceful to be on the brink of extinction for the sake of egotistical accumulation of plastic trinkets, cosmetic surgery, wars for oil and social posturing. When we dubbed ourselves, “Homo Sapiens” which means, “self knowing” we surely were not referring to the modern age, where the very idea of self knowledge is scoffed at, and the words of Enquirer magazine headlines about, “celebrity cellulite” is idealized as though they were the latest revelation of God Almighty.

In short, I want to reemphasize the point to you, and as a matter of felt, social responsibility, that the crisis so well defined by The 11th Hour is one of human consciousness. We can attempt to quick-fix our constant errors of wrong values as a species through technology or policy, but the bottom line here is that real remedy will not, and cannot come about, through anything less than the improvement of the human being itself. Better machines cannot replace their wise use, as any tool is only as good as the hand which wields it. Better policy cannot replace wisdom and the expansion of consciousness, as policy, like governments, will only decay under the auspices of such suicidal values as greed above all else, and products as a surrogate for love and clarity.

Within these honest realizations lies our duty toward each other and this planet as a whole. Green technology is excellent, but what of the exaggerated demand placed upon the environment and each other by the average “consumer” who imagines that life is only so precious as the next paycheck and what it can purchase? When we have people spending more on their lawns each year as a matter of egotistical image, than the entire gross national product of India, where else can this scenario go but mass suicide? Until truth is valued over shallow image, what else can the human race expect than endless war and continent-wide starvation?

Healthy worlds are the result of healthy people. Intelligent governments and corporate endeavors are the result of intelligent individuals. Wise policy making can only come about from the wise persons who both draft and enact them. If you or anyone else expects REAL social change to occur in any meaningful way, you’re going to have to deal with this essential fact of human existence. It isn’t going to, “just happen” by virtue of special projects or social movements. If meaningful change is going to occur at all before the human race goes extinct, it will have to be the result of the expansion of consciousness of the majority of human beings. Therefore, what is needed now more than ever, is an emphasis upon self knowledge, self realization, meditation and the expansion of THE TRUE SELF. A science of consciousness is key in this regard, one which identifies clearly the true nature of the self, (consciousness itself) and how it can be expanded, upgraded and made more enlightened. Without such an implementation of ancient knowledge of soul, of true self, such efforts as you and others are trying to promote are eternally doomed to failure, and all rhetoric toward the ends of, “saving a brighter future for our children” is just an empty flapping of gums in the breeze.

I want to elaborate on what consciousness is, and what a “science of consciousness” really means, but that is far beyond the scope of this letter. To say that consciousness is, “intent, awareness and energy” and in that combination would be a start, but experience has taught me that nobody really listens to such revelations with a serious ear, until such a time as they get serious about their efforts in meditative self knowledge. Never the less, it is my responsibility to at least leave the door open to this knowledge, and point to where further study about this subject may be found….(see link).

Sincerely, with love and clarity, Matthew Webb World Mind Society Founder http://www.eoni.com/~visionquest visionquest@eoni.com

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