Spreading the Spiritual Virus In my life, I don't want to be a victim, and I don't want to be a tragedy. I want triumph-spiritual triumph-with humility and grace, beauty, elegance, and excellence. . . . Deborah told me that Mother Teresa once said, "You don't have to be Mother Teresa and do it the way I do it. Just do it wherever you are, whoever you are." You don't have to be able to heal or clean leprosy or feed the poor in Calcutta. Whoever you are, just do it in your own time, on your own block, in your own district. Deborah and I can only react and respond to my heart and to her heart. We have been given so many blessings. And so for us, it's a joy to be of service, and we're just starting: we're just rolling up our sleeves. People can really live their truth according to their immediate passion for life. We call it spreading the spiritual virus, and it's very contagious. Carlos Santana Musician who with his wife, Deborah, is a philanthropist and global ambassador of optimism, opportunity, and love

The Zen of Attraction by Thomas J. Leonard

I developed these 14 koans to help me get more space so that I could better apply the 28 Attraction Principles and Practices of the Attraction Operating System. Note: You can take these literally, figuratively or as a place to come from in your dealings. They are simply what works for me.

1. Promise nothing. Just do what you most enjoy doing.

2. Sign nothing. Just do what doesn't require a signature of any kind.

3. Offer nothing. Just share what you have with those who express an interest.

4. Expect nothing. Just enjoy what you already have; it's plenty.

5. Need nothing. Just build up your reserves and your needs will disappear.

6. Create nothing. Just respond well to what comes to you.

7. Seduce no one. Just enjoy them.

8. Adrenalize nothing. Just add value and get excited about that.

9. Hype nothing. Just let quality sell by itself.

10. Fix nothing. Just heal yourself.

11. Plan nothing. Just take the path of least resistance.

12. Learn nothing. Just let your body absorb it all on your behalf.

13. Become no one. Just be more of yourself.

14. Change nothing. Just tell the truth and things will change by themselves.

Copyright 1997 by Thomas J. Leonard. All rights reserved.
------------------------------------------------------------
for more on Thomas, go to http://www.waybackmachine.org/ and type in http://www.thomasleonard.com/

Thanks to Robin at the Spiral Dynamics pod for this: Robin said Monday, 3:54 PM:

 Has anyone else here been following the fallout of Ken Wilber's June 8th Blog post?

 and the follow-up to it..

My response:

Just read it! Fun to see Wilber in his less stuffy state.

I've studied SD in depth. One thing I know about the Yellow vMeme is that anger is one of its hallmarks. Often anger at the sheer blindness and distructiveness of the 1st Tier. It's basically pent up frustration. Understandable.

It looks like Wilber has "Put his anger to work for him", as the psycho-therapists might say. He's angry AND he's used it to unleash a polemic to get our attention - and get forums like this one buzzing about it. Also very Yellow. 

Another thing that therapists often remind us of is that when we list other's faults, we're really listing our own. (There was a funny scene on Huff about this recently, btw)

KW says his critics' work is "spiked with such anger, seasoned with such bitterness, laced with such self-aggrandizement, and drunk so slowly and lingeringly, this draught of deep resentiment."

Gosh, sounds like he's describing himself! ;-)

OK, I can't resist posing my next point (Call me a jerk if you want):

"The Mean Green Meme" is very judgmental about anyone who doesn't agree with it. Could this polemic really be a smoke screen for Wilber's own Mean Green Shadow? Our rejected vMemes take on shadow-like qualities.

I've always thought the phrase, "Mean Green Meme" sounds pretty judgmental, even tho 2nd Tier is supposed to rise above all that.

One thing that I know from coaching many people who are teetering between 1st and 2nd Tier vMeme stacks, is that they may hold very high memetic values, but under stress, they often express their lower vmemes unconsciously.

"Transcend and include" means you've still got 'em and in a moment of unconsciousness, you may fall into expressing something a bit below your true values and even kid yourself that you're actually being conscious. This is linked to what I call Spiritual Puberty (and yes, I do it, too sometimes!)

We're all doing the best we can. Wilber included. Being in the midst of human culture, it's hard for any of us to always have the helicopter view, especially when we're stressed, exhausted or have any of our needs unmet. (Like a need to be respected, for instance) That's got to be true for KW, too.

That's why, as a coach, I believe so strongly in Radical Self Care, because when we are well cared for, we are able to show up at our best much more consistently and for people who are anywhere near the "Great leap forward" between the 1st and 2nd Tier, this waffling can be especially dramatic. Please join my pod of the same name. (OK, I guess that was a shameless plug!)

Copyright, Julia Stewart, 2006

www.yourlifepart2.com

Zaadzsters may love what they find at DroppingKnowledge.com:

Ask Yourself

Asking questions is fundamental to the practice of dropping knowledge. There is no better way to initiate a dialog than with a question, no better way to challenge conventional thinking, discover new viewpoints and stimulate fresh ideas. To promote the practice of questioning, dropping knowledge has launched an international 'ask yourself' outreach campaign, encouraging individuals, communities and organizations around the globe to raise the questions that matter to them and donate these to our website.

Every day one question is visualized on the front page of our site as a daily question ad to be downloaded, linked to other sites and emailed across the globe. Our daily weblog, The Drop, expands on the issues raised by each new question ad, linking to information-resources across the Internet and inviting comments from registered members of the dk network.

Hi Julia,

You're leading the way. 

Perhaps you could email the following, or a variation with the link to the pod.

Imagine yoga studios, temples, community centers, mosques, churches ... and other sanctuaries everywhere setting aside a little time each week for people to come and do a group peace meditation with the intent of cultivating increased coherence and peace everywhere in our global village.

With one person inviting two of their friends, and those two friends inviting two ... there would be one billion people in 30 days sitting in a deepening silence in every area of the global village, opening to the field of all possibilities, where with the simplest of intents ... possibility becomes reality.

In 30 days, with even 100 million people, or much less, change would be given an evolutionary direction from the silence of pure awareness, from that state of Being that we refer to when we greet one another with Namaste.

One seed has the potential of creating a thousand forests ...

With the power of group intent, perhaps weather patterns would change, wars would dissolve, life would begin to blossom in bliss in 30 days or less.

The purpose of the Seeds of Peace Pod is to help in the planting and you are invited to participate.

http://pods.zaadz.com/peace_meditation

One person inviting two. It's that simple ...

Love,

Michael 

The Politics of Consciousness

Television may be our primary social mirror, but it is holding up a reflection that is diminished, distorted, and shortsighted. Consequently, I believe that the most critical environmental problem facing humanity is not a problem with the physical environment but with the electronic environment generated by the mass media. To build a sustainable and compassionate future, we must overcome the cultural hypnosis of consumerism that is generated daily by commercial television. By allowing television to be primarily for commercial success, we are simultaneously programming the mindset of entire civilizations for evolutionary stagnation and ecological failure. Our evolutionary maturity is being tested. Our future as a species may well depend on a new "politics of consciousness" that holds the mass media accountable for being a fair witness and mature partner in our collective awakening.

Duane Elgin
Speaker, educator, activist for media accountability, and author of Voluntary Simplicity and Promise Ahead





Reprinted with permission from What Is Enlightenment? magazine, May-July 2004.
© 2006 EnlightenNext. All rights reserved. http://www.wie.org

Visit http://www.bethechange.org/

 

The man who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the man doing it.

-- Chinese Proverb

I learned this from my friend, Mattison Grey.

Check this out:

http://www.awakeningofafootsoldier.com/

a moving and powerful story..