Soul Views: Social Commentary from the Perspective of the Soul. From Gary Zukav's Blog

THE UPSIDE OF $TRESS

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Zukav) — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:00:00 +0000

Change is not stressful. Resistance to change creates stress. It creates stress frequently and sometimes continually in millions of individuals – stress in the form of anger, jealousy, resentment, despair, and many other painful emotions. The global economic downturn/meltdown/ implosion/catastrophe has temporarily transformed the myriad diverse experiences of resistance to change in billions of individuals into a global shared experience of resistance to a change that no one wants.

It is, metaphorically speaking, a spiritual laser. A laser transforms light waves, such as those radiating from a light bulb,into a single beam of phase-coherent light. The global economic dysfunction has transformed countless simultaneous experiences of resistance to change in billions of individuals into a single phase-coherent experience of stress. We all feel it and we all attribute it to the same cause – the economy. This massive shared experience obscures the underlying cause of all stress – resistance to change.

Foreclosure, job loss, declining investment and home values, disruption of plans to retire, educate children, buy a home, or move are each stressful – changes that no one wants, painful experiences of stress that, shared simultaneously by billions, generate a painful collective consciousness of resistance to change. As stressful as resistance to these changes is, it is not as stressful as resistance to the ultimate change that no one wants and all will encounter. We are all on a journey toward death regardless of how much we resist it, and most of us spend most of our lives resisting it. That means that most of us spend our lives distracting ourselves from the work of bringing our full potential into being and enjoying ourselves.

The dynamic is the same whether the change appears minor, major, or ultimate – resistance to change, not change, creates stress. Every stressful experience – whether it is resistance to a divorce, failure of a business, an illness, economic dysfunction, or death – is an opportunity to heal an interior source of your pain instead of focusing your attention on the external circumstances that appears to be causing it. If you look closely (experience attentively) you will discover that every pain of resistance to change is familiar, an old agony returning yet again, activated by yet another external circumstance. In other words, the sources of your painful experiences, including resistance to change, are internal (not external) and are older than the circumstance that appears to cause them (such as losing your job, or the thought of losing your job).

Healing the interior causes of your pain and cultivating the interior causes of your joy is the creation of authentic power. It begins with directing your attention inward to your interior dynamics instead of outward to exterior circumstances. Every painful experience of stress can help you, if you choose.

That is the upside of stress.

THE BIGGEST ILLU$SION

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Zukav) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:15:00 +0000

An interview with Kenneth Rogoff, Professor of Economics at Harvard and former Chief Economic Advisor for the International Monetary Fund was televised recently on PBS. It is as painful to consider as it is realistic and hopeful. The problem is bigger than many assume, he began, perhaps requiring as much as $2 trillion to fix the banking industry and resulting in a total debt of $8 trillion to $9 trillion by the end of this recession – which could last 4-5 years or conceivably as long as 10 years if adequate action is not taken quickly enough (which happened in Japan). This staggering total debt amount includes lost tax revenue, fiscal stimulus, and bailouts.

It is always difficult for an individual to assess the damage that he has created in his life by the choices he has made in fear rather than love. The banking industry does not make choices in love and the full extent of the devastation its choices have created is terrifying to acknowledge. However, this acknowledgement is necessary to creating differently.

As we take our first steps towards spiritual maturity, we become less interested in blaming others for our experiences and more interested in using them to learn what we need to change about ourselves in order to move into our full potential. For example, when a marriage dissolves, a child runs away, or a global economy becomes dysfunctional we can make choices in fear – and recreate the damage – or in love and create differently.

Distinguishing love from fear and choosing love instead of fear in daily choices is the heart of spiritual development. This distinction, and the lack of it, can be seen on the macro level, such as the economic and foreign policies of nations, and on the micro level, such as the choices that individuals make when they are in power struggles or they feel that they cannot obtain enough, no matter how much or little they actually have.

Predatory lending and predatory borrowing appear to have created the housing bubble and, therefore, the dysfunction of global banking when it burst but beneath these actions lays the impulse to acquire the most, hoard the most, and obtain more without regard for the effects of these actions on others and the Earth. Without, in fact, regard for their effects upon ourselves. The need that exists in each of us to acquire as much as possible for as little as possible fueled those who actually sold mortgages to individuals who were unqualified to buy them, those who purchased mortgages they could never repay, those who packaged these uncollectable mortgages as “securities” and sold them again, those who repackaged those “securities” and sold ownership in the same uncollectable mortgages yet again, and those who bought them – each striving to extract maximal gain. All of these individuals were our proxies, acting out a dynamic in which we all participate and, in the process, reflecting to us what lies within each of us and its impact upon our collective.

This is the biggest illusion – that we are not responsible for our experiences, individual or collective; that we are victims of the actions of others – and it gives birth to myriad more illusions. In the realm of economics it gives birth to the illusion that indefinite (“sustainable”) growth is not only possible and desirable, but also necessary. The sooner we face the damage that we have created and “face the music” (pay the price of fixing it), Professor Rogoff explains, the sooner the economy will grow again. At this point his thoughtful analysis is only one step away from the heart of the matter – from the heart of spiritual growth, as odd as that may sound.

Nothing in the physical world grows indefinitely without killing its host. Indefinite economic growth – ever-increasing gross domestic products – is no more possible than indefinite cellular growth, except the growth of new cells to replace those that die naturally. That is not the economic paradigm. In the economic paradigm, indefinite growth of the organism is necessary to the health of the organism. This illusion has no future, except perhaps some very painful ones. In spiritual terms, “indefinitely sustainable economic growth” is an expression of the fathomless needs of frightened parts of the personality that perpetually strive for the ability to manipulate and control circumstances (including people) in order to feel safe and valuable. In the realms of economics and commerce, that is the accumulation of wealth.

Developing the ability to distinguish love from fear and choosing the former instead of the latter is the opportunity that presents itself continually to individuals and collectives. It is presenting itself to us now in the form of our failed economic system. Utilizing this opportunity will require a cocreation involving all of us that will be as different from previous economic systems as a life of love is different from a life of fear – an economic system that contributes to Life instead of exploiting it. The cocreation of that system and your creation of a life of love are inseparable.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

LOVE v$ FEAR

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Zukav) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:12:00 +0000

The global economic meltdown is activating fear in millions of individuals who, in turn, are activating it in millions more. Cable news channels, always seeking advertising revenue, report the grimmest news in the most attention-attracting ways, which intensifies fear. Last evening, for example, one reported the “horrifying numbers” contained in the latest government report on unemployment. It is important to remember that this kind of news activates fear-based parts of your personality and if you are not aware of them, you will act from these parts by judging, complaining, becoming depressed, and more. You can become aware of them by focusing your attention inside your body and feeling the uncomfortable or painful sensations that they produce when they become active (instead of focusing your attention outside your body on what triggers those sensations). Recognizing this is crucial to well-being, health, and spiritual growth.

The frightened parts of your personality that become horrified (or angry, jealous, resentful, depressed, etc.) at unemployment numbers or anything else have been horrified (angry, jealous, resentful, etc.) before and will become horrified again. They exist independently of the triggers that activate them. Healing the frightened parts of your personality (instead of trying to change the triggers of them) creates spiritual growth. This is helpful to remember the next time a frightened part of your personality becomes active, for example, when you feel fear, despair, helplessness, or hopelessness.

Whether you are watching the news or your home is being foreclosed or anything between, the frightened parts of your personality that are panicked, angry, etc., are the very parts that you must heal in order to free yourself permanently from their painful experiences. You can attempt to change the circumstances that activate them (this is the pursuit of external power) and relieve the pain temporarily if you are successful, or you can eradicate the source of these painful experiences permanently (this is the creation of authentic power).

Keep your eye on the ball the next time a frightened part of your personality becomes active. It is an opportunity to create authentic power. You can challenge it by consciously experiencing the pain of this part of your personality (instead of, for example, distracting yourself) and while you are experiencing the pain of it, choose to do something different (respond) instead of what it habitually does (react). Every circumstance – including declining equity values, collapse of housing prices, failure of a bank, and ongoing credit crunch – offers you an opportunity to create authentic power. This is important to understand because creating authentic power – harmony, cooperation, sharing, and reverence for Life – individual by individual is now central to replacing obsolete social structures (such as education, health, commerce, and governance in addition to financial) that reflect the perception of power as the ability to manipulate and control with new social structures that are built on the values of the soul.

The purpose of the Seat of the Soul Institute is to help you create authentic power. I invite you to visit www.seatofthesoul.com; print out the Spiritual Partnership Guidelines on the home page (and practice them); take a free online course; read empowering articles and interviews; and email me at Gary@seatofthesoul.com.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

A SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE ECONOMIC MELTDOWN

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Zukav) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 05:10:00 +0000

The global economic recession of 2008 did not begin with events that occurred in 2008 but it was triggered by some of them. The most easy to identify were sales of mortgages in huge numbers to individuals who were not (and are not) able to repay them. In this process a phenomenon even more damaging to the fragile economic structure (although Citigroup with $2 trillion in revenue did not look fragile at the time) occurred and was inseparable from the sale of these mortgages – the attempt to remove responsibility for the actions of sellers and buyers.

The new millennia brought with it a new way of looking at mortgages. Previously mortgages were loans that allowed individuals to purchase something of great importance to them (a house) that was way beyond their ability to afford. If the mortgage were not repaid, the lender would have the house to sell and the house was worth more than the mortgage. The home owner looked forward to paying off the mortgage and owning her home free and clear, debt free, worry free. Home owners treasured their homes and lenders were secure in helping them acquire their homes. Borrower and lender knew one another and their relationship was often long–term. That was the old way of looking at mortgages.

The new way of looking at mortgages is different. A home is a source of cash, like a piggy bank, and the money in the piggy bank can be used to buy things that are not precious, such as televisions, automobiles, and clothes. Every month (mortgage payment) money is put into the piggy bank and if none is taken out, it goes to waste. Sometimes the money that is taken out is spent well (such as buying education for children) but often it is not. Eventually all the money in the piggy bank is gone but the monthly mortgage payment is still required. All is the same as before except that the piggy bank and everything in it (nothing) is now owned by a lender. Paying off the mortgage and owning the home free and clear, debt free, worry free, is not intelligent (and usually impossible).

In between the old understanding of a mortgage and the new a brilliant, different, and highly destructive way to make money was created. In the old way of looking at mortgages, lenders obtained a kind of ownership directly in the home that their money allowed the borrower to buy. The borrower was responsible directly to the lender and the lender was responsible directly to the borrower. This limited the number of people who could make money on each loan (the lender). Here was the brilliant idea that emerged: if hundreds of mortgages were purchased from original lenders and put into a pool, that pool could be sliced up and a kind of ownership in each slice could be purchased by many people (investors). The pool is refreshed each month as hundreds of people make mortgage payments on their homes but investors do not own an interest directly in any particular home. They own an interest in a slice of the pool of mortgages. This is the realm of mortgage backed securities.

It is also where responsibility disappears. The borrower does not know who receives her monthly payments (it’s not the banker who originally made the loan – he sold it long ago) and she doesn’t know who or how many investors own a slice of the pool that contains her – or part of her – mortgage). The lender does not know who pays the money that comes into his slice of the pool (and different slices have different values and ratings). The relationship between borrower and lender no longer exists. This is the beginning.

At this point, yet another new, brilliant, and even more destructive way to make money was created. Pools of mortgaged backed securities could be gathered into a pool of pools and slices of the super pool could be sold to yet more investors. Now even more people could make money from the original mortgage. No trace of responsibility now exists between the original borrower and investor. This is the realm of collateralized debt obligations.

One more thing is important. Investors who buy these “securities” (they are not secure) are not always individuals. They are frequently money managers who invest for thousands, or sometimes millions of “small” investors in their funds. People with money in these funds (like most retirement funds) are owners of a very tiny slice (shares in their fund) of a slice of a pool of pools (collateral debt obligation) or a slice of a pool of mortgages (mortgage backed security).

So much money was made by everyone in this structure that some very large banks (such as Citigroup) bought a lot of pools, slices and slices of slices and, like everyone else, found themselves owning “securities” that weren’t worth much, or anything. When investors (the same investors, individual and institutional) realized that, they stopped investing in those banks, too. The value of Citigroup, for example, fell almost ninety per cent!

Why so much money was made by so many people before all of them lost so much is another part of the story, and a very important part. The point of this part of the story has to do with responsibility. The step by step deconstruction of responsibility resulted from an old and familiar understanding of power as the ability to manipulate and control. This understanding of power is now counterproductive to our evolution. It produces only violence and destruction. The amount of destruction that it can produce is visible in Iraq, the global recession, and every power struggle between individuals and between collectives.

The new understanding of power is so different from the old, so startling, transformational, and novel that at first it appears inadequate to be able to affect, much less repair, the deconstruction of responsibility that lies at the foundation of perhaps the worst financial catastrophe in history. Not only is the new understanding able to repair this institutionalized deconstruction of responsibility, it is the only thing that can. The new understanding of power is the alignment of the personality with the soul, the ability to choose consciously, wisely, and assume responsibility for the consequences of each choice.

The gap between the new understanding of power and the old is as huge as the chasm between love and fear, between the economy of scarcity (supply and demand) and an economy of abundance. The global recession that escalated out of control in 2008 is not a cyclic return to economic contraction that will be followed in turn by another economic expansion, although that may happen. It is a birthing pain of a new economy and new social structures that will accompany it.

Far beneath the vast political and economic consequences of a very conservative administration stumbling toward the nationalization of American banks, the implosion of the American consumer society, and the spreading of “toxic” investments around the globe lays a change in human consciousness and evolution unlike any before it. Like a tectonic plate in motion, everything above it is affected irrevocably. That change is toward responsibility, not away from it; toward sharing and away from hoarding; toward cooperation and away from competition; toward harmony and away from discord; toward contribution and away from exploitation.

Reconstruction of responsibility in economic and financial endeavors will follow deconstruction but the story is much larger than that. Both are symbolic of a species–wide change in human consciousness that is dramatically changing individual and collective experiences in challenging and profoundly positive ways and will continue to do so throughout our lives.

THE NEW MEANING OF RESPONSIBILITY

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Zukav) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:54:00 +0000

"Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do or die" is from Alfred Lord Tennyson, "The Charge of the Light Brigade."

I lived Alfred Tennyson’s words before I read them. My need to enlist in the Army while the Vietnam War painfully unfolded, volunteer for airborne training, and then for the Special Forces (Green Berets) was moved by the same impulse they describe – to demonstrate my nobility, courage, and worthiness by blind adherence to authority. I did not question my authority (Lyndon Johnson was President and Robert McNamara was Secretary of Defense). I did not question anything. I was too much in need of validation, admiration, and a sense of value. I held it to be my responsibility to carry out the orders of others, and the responsibility of others to carry out mine. The military gave me a sense of belonging and pride and they were so important to me that the price of blind obedience did not seem repugnant. On the contrary, it seemed necessary.

I do not see myself or understand responsibility the same way now that I did then, but the power of allegiance to a collective cause that validates the individual who gives it is still very much a live energy current – a powerful dynamic – that continues to motivate millions. That dynamic had its place and purpose in our past but not in our present or future. It is the remnant of an evolutionary modality that required the control and manipulation of external circumstances (including people) to insure survival. Survival is no longer sufficient for our evolution. We are changing dramatically and the pursuit of external power has become counterproductive.

Our evolution now requires emotional awareness, responsible choice, intuition, and cocreation. Our deepest hunger, even in the most difficult times, is for a different food. Millions of individuals are awakening – sometimes to their surprise – to a hunger for harmony, cooperation, sharing, and reverence for Life. Their challenge is to create those things in a world of discord, competition, hoarding, and exploitation, a world in which life is a cheap commodity.

The dynamic that sent the soldiers of the Light Brigade on their charge cannot help these people. It can no longer help anyone, anywhere, at any time. Even outside of the military this dynamic continues to exist. Every collective experience of rigidity, righteousness, and common purpose expresses it, for example, the environmental movement with its heroes (us) and villains (Forest Service, lumber industry, mining industry, etc.).

When the underlying, bedrock, can’t-get-any-deeper intention is to manipulate and control in order to feel valuable and secure (for example, to feel superior to people who are not environmentalists/white/black/women/in the military, etc.), the individuals who hold it are in pursuit of external power. When it is to create harmony, cooperate, share, revere Life, and act with an empowered heart without attachment to the outcome, the individuals who hold it are in pursuit of authentic power. Choosing intentions that create consequences for which the chooser is willing to assume responsibility is a responsible choice. Responsible choice was not part of the consciousness of the Light Brigade any more than it was a part of mine when I joined the Army but without it our future, if we have one, is bleak – the continual creation of the painful consequences of intentions to manipulate and control.

Now a new dawn is lighting our sky. This is good news. Soldiers can become co-creators and millions of them are (I am one). “Duty, Honor, Country,” the noble motto of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point that served our survival as a nation in a world that evolved through the pursuit of external power is being replaced with “Responsible Choice, Authentic Power, Life,” a new credo that gives voice to a new human species that evolves by developing spiritually. In this time of transition from the old species into the new, old expressions of responsibility, such as “Duty, Honor, Country,” frequently obscure the emerging understanding – the creation of consequences for which the chooser is willing to assume responsibility. For each of us, distinguishing between the two in the intimacy of our personal experiences (no Priests, Peers, Parents, or President) is a fundamental first step on our new evolutionary path.

In other words, ours is not to do or die, ours is to choose and know why.

ELECTIONS, FEAR, AND SPIRITUALITY

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Zukav) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 22:29:00 +0000

Coming to terms with fear, having the courage to experience the pain and power of it, and challenging it are at the heart of spiritual growth. Without the ability to recognize fear, it cannot be identified. Without the courage to experience it, fear cannot be challenged. Without a challenge, fear grows stronger and more thoughts, words, and deeds are shaped by it. Confronting fear and healing the sources of it is the epic journey that none can avoid, only delay at best. The consequences of fear are painful and the longer its healing is delayed, the more of them are created. The consequences of love are constructive and joyful and the sooner it is cultivated, the more of them are created. This is the spiritual journey in a paragraph. The Christ reduced it to three words two millennia ago – Love your neighbor – but few have been able to follow that guidance because few have the ability and courage to experience and challenge their fears.

Each presidential election in the United States provides more opportunities to look for fear at work and for love at work. The national, regional, and local organizations that form in support of candidates reflect both at different times, but the informing energy of each campaign determines the predominance of one or the other. That energy comes from the candidate. Those who resonate with it – love or fear – contribute more of it and vote in favor of it. Leadership, wise and effective policies, and loyalty to the Constitution are essential for a candidate. If any (or all) are missing, his (her) election will be damaging or catastrophic to the country. Even if all of these attributes are present, the absence of love will prevent every positive potential of the country from coming into being.

The politics of fear is as ugly as it is dangerous. We have crossed a threshold in human evolution. Henceforth, our evolution requires the choice of love instead of fear, harmony instead of discord, cooperation instead of competition, and reverence for Life instead of exploitation of life. The first great achievement of constitutional democracy was to harness conflicting pursuits of the ability to manipulate and control for the common good. The second great achievement of constitutional democracy was to transform physical mortal combat into bloodless contests. The losers live to fight again, to put another army (campaign), strategies, tactics, and weapons on the battlefield.

This great structure is straining under the burden of our new evolutionary requirements (harmony, cooperation, sharing, and reverence for Life) and the next development in governance is not yet evident. In the meanwhile (now), it is for each of us to vote for the candidate that expresses more love in word, deed, action, and policy (and against the candidate that expresses more fear). Whether the structure is constitutional democracy or parliamentary democracy, the same consideration now overrides all others. This is the link between presidential elections and your spiritual growth. In order to recognize love and fear in others, you must first be able to recognize them in yourself. They are not always as evident as they seem. For example, caretaking (manipulating the gratitude of others in order to feel better about yourself) is often mistaken for love. It is fear.

If you think you detect fear in another (such as a candidate), see if you can identify the same fear in you. That is where you can challenge it. You cannot challenge the fear of another or cultivate another´s love but you can challenge your fear and cultivate your love. The new governance will reflect this reality in a fundamental way.

Love cares for others, fear cares for self. Love includes, fear excludes. Love nurtures, fear attacks.

Which candidate are you voting for, and why?

For more information on this topic, see my welcome message, entitled Time to Vote, at the top of the home page of www.seatofthesoul.com.

ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION: A SPIRITUAL ANALYSIS

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Zukav) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 07:11:00 +0000

As the current financial crisis or, as written Chinese allows, opportunity unfolds it deepens in complexity and broadens in scope. The layers of it lay bare to excavation as levels of snow lay open to observation in a snow pit, a stratified story of accumulated precipitation. Our story shows stratifications of greed (don´t jump to conclusions – read on).

First speculation, then subprime (junk) mortgages, then the credit collapse, then the financial implosion (happening big time now), and then the global impact which is generating more strata that we will be able to study in the near future. In the more distant future, the entire picture will change, but the nature of that change is being determined now and not in places that you might imagine, such as the Fed, Treasury, what is left of the financial sector, or central bank boardrooms. It is being determined in the intimacy of your own experience, clothed in the unique circumstances of your own life.

Every physical dysfunction has correlates depicted in terms of traumas, blood tests, MRIs, etc. Physicians assign these correlates the elevated title of “cause” but they are not ultimate causes. They consistently accompany symptoms and therefore appear as causal when perception is limited to the five senses. Large portions of the human population, now estimated to be six billion, are experiencing expanded perception, perception that allows them access to data the five senses cannot provide, and they are experimenting with it. CEOs of large and successful companies have always been known to be intuitive (although current events call that into question). Now hundreds of millions of individuals are realizing in their own ways and times that their lives are more than they thought, that they are more than minds and bodies, more than muscle and tissue, and their experiences are meaningful in significant and important ways.

These individuals no longer depend upon others to determine for them what is valuable and what is not, what is worth their attention and what is not. Often their new perceptions conflict with old values and perceptions – in other words, with fear. In that case neither priest, psychologist, parent, nor peer can ease their discomfort, the essential discomfort of needing to choose – and be responsible for the choice – between fear and love, competition and cooperation, discord and harmony, hoarding and sharing, and reverence for Life and exploitation of life. Our species is becoming “multisensory” (more sensory systems than one), aware of its creative capacity, of its place in a larger fabric of Life, and of its responsibility for what it creates. The choices between love and fear are becoming clearer. Competition, discord, hoarding, and exploitation are choices of fear. Cooperation, harmony, sharing, and reverence for Life are choices of love.

This brings us back to the excavation of our current financial circumstance. Each strata (speculation, junk mortgages, credit collapse, etc) is a construction of greed that rests upon previous constructions. But what is greed? It is a face of fear. Beneath greed lays the pain of powerlessness, the terror of not having, accumulating, or being enough, ever. (If “pain of powerlessness” sounds poetic or flakey to you, ask anyone in the derivative business if it is real or not.) Actually, you can ask yourself. Have you ever experienced the unraveling of a relationship that you thought you could not live without, or a business fail (oops, unnecessary question), or feared losing your home (a terribly painful question), or outliving your assets? Is that painful or not? If you are not aware of how painful it is, you have addicted yourself to over–eating, over–working, drugs, sex, alcohol, gambling, or other temporary anesthetics.

The collapse of the uncollapsable, ruin of the unruinable, and destruction of the indestructible in the financial sector and beyond (way beyond) is symbolic. An old order (not just economic) is becoming dysfunctional. It may be patched together enough (for example, “creative capitalism”) to enable it to function in decline, with periodic lapses, until it is finally replaced but the symbols are undeniable. Many of the possible futures that lie beyond the old order are inviting, although some are terrifying. Which will you choose in the intimacy of your own experience? You are not as powerless as you think.

CITIZENS, CONSUMERS, AND SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Zukav) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 05:46:00 +0000

Three generations ago the United States, involved in a global conflict against the will of most of Americans – until the Japanese government attacked the U.S. Navy in Pearl Harbor – became a role model to the human family of courage, determination, and compassion in victory. Japan and Germany, the causes of World War II, were destroyed by Allied militaries and reconstructed by American largesse to become the most powerful economies in the world outside of the United States until the creation of the European Union and the recent emergence of China, India, and Brazil as nascent economic superpowers.

The men and women of that time were Citizens, charged with the responsibilities of Citizenship, guardians of a cherished political freedom later made more precious by the rise of the Soviet Union and the Cold War. Citizens came to the rescue as Nazi bombs fell on England and Japanese bombs fell on Hawaii, the Philippines, Guam, Wake and Midway Islands, British Malaysia, and Thailand in a single day. Citizens bought war bonds, worked in factories, and labored to defeat the greatest threat to civilizations east and west in human history. Inspired by the defiance of the British, courageous resistance on the continent, and the humiliating loss of so much of the Pacific fleet, Citizens set the intention to work together, do what was necessary to protect themselves and their children, and they did.

Today few Citizens remain. I do not mean old people who lived during those challenging times, but grateful inheritors of that great legacy. “Consumers,” who are often unaware of that legacy, have replaced Citizens who see themselves as responsible for its safe–keeping and further development. A nation of great Citizens, such as the United States and Briton once were, is not the same as a nation of indebted “consumers.” “Consumers” account for 72% of the American economy, and as we are seeing, when U.S. “consumers” increase or decrease their “consumption,” economies around the world expand or contract.

Does becoming a great Citizen inspire you, or becoming a great consumer? Which creates the legacy that you want to leave? Do you care enough about others to create a legacy? These are not questions for Americans only. They are questions for all people in all “consumer” countries. Consumers focus on themselves. Citizens focus on more. Consumers do not think about the effects of their actions. Citizens do. The transformation of consumers back into Citizens now lies at the heart of spiritual development, but not the transformation of national consumers into new national Citizens. It means the expansion of awareness, responsibility, and care beyond nation, culture, religion, race, and sex; the self–creation within each of us by each of us of a Citizen of the Universe whose allegiance is to Life first and all else second, including consumption. Spiritual development and the transformation of a world of waste, violence, and neglect into a world of aware, responsible, and grateful Citizens are not so different. In fact, they are not different at all.

Savior Searching and the U.S. Election

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Zukav) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:55:00 +0000

The 2008 Presidential election contrasts the old and the new, the young and the old, the establishment and the agents for change in the most graphic way since the contest between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, except that the differences today are more stark. Youthful, charismatic, and black vs. old, staid, and white. War hero (of a very unpopular war) vs. brilliant protagonist for change.

Eight years of diplomatic, military, economic, and moral failure have made change attractive indeed to millions of voters, especially the young and the previously disenfranchised. The pervasive perversion of politics into self-serving ends that has created chaos and carnage in Iraq, threatened American democracy, and destabilized the Middle East in numerous and dangerous ways have left a large portion of the American electorate open and eager for a fresh breeze to disperse stale policies and perceptions of a corrupt and narcissistic administration, to bring new life to Washington, the country, and the world.

No individual can accomplish this, not even Barack Obama, the hero of those who long for the fresh breeze. He appears fresh, brilliant, capable, and committed but he is a hero to many and with that come serious limitations. Heroes are icons, not individuals. So are villains. The more that we long for a hero to save us, to transform the United States into a new and unprecedented influence for good and for Life, the more peril we call upon ourselves, and the more danger we create for Barack Obama, or any savior, to fall off the pedestal that we create and plunge from idolization to disparagement. On national, international, and interpersonal levels saviors rise and fall; the rise is always exhilarating and the fall is always painful.

The solution for avoiding this debilitating dynamic lies not with the next President, but with you. It is you who create idols and you who disdain them when they fail to meet your expectations. We are ripe in the United States for this to happen if Barack Obama is elected the first black President and brings to the White House his youth, energy, and devotion. The process is independent of the next President, whoever is elected. It depends solely upon you. When you cease searching for saviors in your life – a wealthy advocate, perfect mate, family, job, car, or house – you will cease searching for a savior for America as well. You will instead assume responsibility for contributing all that you can to the nation and the world that you long to live in rather than waiting for some one to create them for you. You will contribute to one another rather than exploit one another, and when the challenges becomes great and the weight of your aspirations heavy, you will not blame a failed savior for your pain but instead learn from your experiences what you need to change in yourself in order to create the world that you want. You will cherish your fellow students in the Earth school and look upon all of them, including the President of the United States of America, as partners to support and be supported by.

This dynamic is not only American. It is human and the new evolutionary requirement to create authentic power – to become the authority in your life, aware of your emotions, and responsible for your choices – applies now to all individuals in all cultures, nations, races, religions, and both sexes. Every savior search is a step away from the constructive use of your own creative capacity, and denies you the opportunity to exercise it consciously and wisely. Every step into awareness and responsibility diminishes the danger of erecting a pedestal, putting a savior on it, and then bringing him or her down to avoid facing the consequences that you, yourself, have created.

The Price Of Corn And The Soul

noreply@blogger.com (Gary Zukav) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:22:00 +0000

As the flood crest moves south along the Mississippi River, breeching levees along the way (36 in two weeks), millions of acres of US farmland are under water. As many as 5 million acres of corn and soybeans in the Midwest have been inundated. In Iowa alone 83 of 99 counties have been declared disaster areas. According to the Des Moines Register the first half of 2008 was the wettest in Iowa since the 19^th century when record keeping began.

Even before the rains that flooded these fields, US stockpiles of corn were projected to reach a 13 year low next year. Now that the Midwest is just beginning to dry out and crops that will be planted late this year will produce low yields, this bleak projection is not even a best case scenario. This is an extremely dangerous situation for millions of people around the world because the United States provides (provided) 54 percent of all world corn exports! In addition, shortages of soybeans, wheat, and rice were already making food more and more expensive. Shortly after the 36^th levee broke, corn prices hit a record at the Chicago Board of Trade, more than doubling the previous 40 year average.

Most of us who surf the internet can afford to buy food but food agencies around the world cannot and the most impoverished and hungry people in the world depend upon them to survive. Many are not surviving.

What does this have to do with the soul? What does the rising price of food (and oil) have to do with the soul? Does the soul calculate value based upon supply and demand? Does it look for opportunities to buy low and sell high? What does it look for? What does it value? If you could see through the eyes of your soul, metaphorically speaking, what would you make of hungry people in Haiti and Pakistan rioting over unaffordable food while a few individuals profit and millions more watch in sympathy, turn away in pain, or numb them to this brutal reality?

The soul intends harmony, cooperation, sharing, and reverence for Life, all of which are ignored in this tragedy. Hunger produces rage, sharing is scarce, and life is a cheap commodity (although corn and oil are increasing in value). It is easy to see speculators as villains, hungry and starving people as victims, and ourselves as concerned or shocked by-standers, but this perception is inaccurate and unhelpful.

We are never bystanders. What is in the whole is in us, and what is in us is in the whole. The desire to profit from circumstances, any circumstances that prevent food from reaching hungry children and their hungry parents exists in each of us. You can see it in you when you shop sales, bargain with a car dealer, and invest your resources. There are no villains and victims. There are only fellow souls in the Earth school learning the relationship between cause (choice) and effect (consequences of choice) and to distinguish between acts of love and acts of fear. The need to profit at the expense of others is an act of fear that produces destructive consequences. The place to challenge it is in yourself because that is the only place that you can replace fear with love, and the choice of destructive consequences with the choice of constructive consequences.

The soul is not concerned with the price of corn. It is concerned with love.

Are you?