Apostle Paul: Guilty or Not Guilty?

 

Apostle Paul spent his last years in prison, years that saw the rejection of his collection, dismissal by his brethren, his standing trial and beheading by Rome. He was transported by cavalry and kept under Roman guard to be protected from assassins, the High Priest and even the brethren he deemed “False.” His message was largely in dispute or rejected outright, and he was not accepted as a legitimate Apostle. Yet his Church legacy would later read as nothing short of miraculous and heroic. Should we be suspicious?

Paul’s final journey to Jerusalem sometime in the late 50s, 1st Century, as documented in his Letters and in the Book of Acts, was to deliver a collection to his fellow Apostles, including the leader of the church, James the brother of Jesus. Scholars estimate that the collection took five to seven years and cost him a lot of grief. Once Paul and his Gentile followers arrived in Jerusalem, James, rather than embrace and accept the collection, asked him to take the money to the Temple. Once there as Acts relates, Paul was falsely accused of bringing Gentiles into the Jewish section of the Temple, grabbed by a mob and almost killed until he was rescued by a Roman Tribune and hundreds of armed men. He was momentarily taken to a jail nearby, but because of fear for his life, he was whisked away under the dark of night. No support came from the other Apostles. Over forty assassins took a vow not to eat until Paul was dead, and they followed his route down to Caesarea, more than 75 miles away. There, after trials in the Roman courts, he was finally able to appeal to Caesar. And that in Acts is where the story ends.

For the average churchgoer, the Paul you encounter on the cathedral steps or stained glass windows is quite a triumphant figure. But for historians and biblical scholars alike there’s a reason to question that view. John Barclay says “You think, “well, maybe that collection didn’t succeed in its job.” If it had, Luke had good reason to say so, so maybe the collection was not accepted, as Paul feared it would not be accepted.” For a historian, that sows the seed of suspicion.” Why would a supposed agreed upon good-will offering be rejected by fellow Apostles? Why would Paul who began with such promise end in such despair? And what happened to his former relationships in the Church? Or his message? Luke Timothy Johnson in his The Acts of the Apostles suggests, “The scene [Acts 21] between Paul and Jerusalem leaders (especially James) is even on its own terms somewhat odd. But when we read it against the backdrop of the information provided in Paul’s Letters concerning his planned trip to Jerusalem, puzzlement deepens. Was he, possibly, even set up?” The Jewish establishment wanted him dead and the Romans thought he was enough of a menace to be kept behind bars.

There are no definitive answers but there are usually two types of responses to this mystery. It depends on one’s view of the reliability of the Bible, namely the Book of Acts, as history. Some will dismiss all of it as non-history and think what they want. Believers in the inerrancy of the Bible will seek a new spiritual meaning. Yet from Paul’s Letters themselves it is clear that Paul is in conflict for most of his ministry and his legitimacy constantly challenged. The very purpose of his Letters was to fend off competing Apostles bent on misleading his flock. We know from Paul’s own words that he rebuked Peter and spoke mockingly of James and John. He accused them at times of diluting his inclusive gospel message. We know that the collection was agreed to in part to resolve a dispute with the mother Church at the Temple. New testament scholar Raymond Brown adds, “thus the collection may have played a spiritual, ecclesiological, and diplomatic function in Paul’s ministry—a sampling of the complicated roles that raising money has played in churches ever since.”

So, why the lack of Paul’s ending in Acts? Paula Fredriksen, a Pauline scholar. points out that we see history in reverse, not in the way it is lived. And the Bible is played out in a series of progressive phases. Paul’s life and writings happened at a much earlier point in Church history than the Book of Acts (and even later, the Gospels). And in Paul’s own words, his encounter with Christ and radical new gospel was something he reluctantly brought to the other Apostles. He was not embraced, and after some time their reasons to hold together his Gentile mission with the core Jewish believers in Jerusalem came apart. The collection, which began as an offering to keep the two factions in the same movement, was to be symbolic of that unity. Paul would show honor in his support of Jerusalem and, in return, the Jewish Apostles would embrace Paul’s Gentile converts. In his book of Romans, written before his final trip to Jerusalem, he is fearful of what he will find when he returns

Back to our story. Paul arrives with the collection and instead of acceptance he finds himself accused and thrown into prison. The trial was to determine his guilt or was it? What was the public disturbance of which he was accused? What was the nature of the collection? And why was Paul saved at all? He was saved because Paul was a Roman citizen. He would not have survived this ordeal otherwise. It was only Roman protection that allowed him to escape the mob, be protected in prison and to be given a trial. The high priest in Jerusalem, Ananias pleaded for Paul to be returned and tried amongst the awaiting assassins. So, it appears Paul had a case to make. Romans did not care about theological matters, though they enacted Jewish laws when it came to the Temple. They did not think he was guilty and pondered how they would reach a verdict.

While we cannot know all of the intricate details, we can conclude that Paul was not accepted by the early Church. Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, who was professor at École Bibliotiche in Jerusalem, opined about his time in prison: “Paul must have lived in fear that he would be handed back to the Jewish authorities. This was incentive for him not to push too hard for a decision. At the same time he must have hoped desperately for some news from the outside, and in particular concerning the fate of the collection. And what had happened to his companions? Had his and James’ plan been carried through after the situation in Jerusalem quieted down? Paul got no answers, and the weary days dragged on interminably under Porcius Felix.”

At that time, two major political factors were in play: the pressure applied by Rome on the Jewish people in Jerusalem that forced less integration and more solidarity, and the Jewish War in 70 AD, which destroyed the city, sending Jews, now without a Temple home, into the diaspora.

Paul when he wrote before the war aimed at a largely Jewish milieu, Luke wrote postwar and to a Roman patron, trying to make sense of the Christian conflicts without also exposing the severe ethnic strife or putting the blame on Roman corruption. The promotion of his faith would not seem legitimate if the main proponent was rejected by the first followers, or if the early movement was defined by a schism. Ironically, it is Paul’s Letters outside Jerusalem in the Gentile community that survived and would be bundled and circulated and serve as the core content that would later become the canon of the New Testament.

As to Paul’s truest identity, we look dimly into the past, but we do know he was leading, not following the early development of Christian thinking, and for that he suffered. We also know that Paul was a Roman citizen treated with all the rights that came with that status. In that sense, he was a syncretic thinker and prime mover of the Messianic message from Jerusalem out to the Western World. His genius was in his modern, transformative message that embraced all humanity, “Jew and Greek.” In the end, perhaps his trial, like that of Socrates before him, was symbolic of his very appeal for a new vision, an understanding of Messiah that included the belief in a new kingdom for all, without pain or suffering. And it was that wishful kingdom that was on trial and is still on trial today.

by Robert Orlando at huffpost.com on October 9, 2017

The Tonal and the Nagual

The universe is dual. It is formed by two forces which the old seers symbolized by means of two snakes that are intertwined. But those forces have nothing to do with the dualities we call good and bad, God and Devil, positive and negative, or any other kind of opposing pairs we can think of coherently. Rather, they constitute an inexplicable wave of energy which the Toltecs called the tonal and the nagual.

In an axiomatic way, they established that everything we can interpret or imagine in any way is the tonal, and the rest, which we cannot categorize, is the nagual.

To emphasize that they are not two antagonistic realities, but rather two complementary aspects of one unique force, which they nicknamed 'the Eagle', the seers compared the tonal and the nagual with the two sides of our physical body, the right side and the left side. And they saw that, just as the basic configuration of organisms is almost totally structured from a bilateral symmetry, these are also the forms in which energy manifests itself in the Cosmos, and with it, the way we perceive.

Life is formed when a portion of the free energy of infinity - which the old seers called 'the emanations of the Eagle' – is encapsulated by an external force, becoming a new individual being, aware of himself. And they saw that the perception of the world happens when something they called 'the assemblage point of perception' comes into play. Although that center of selection is in operation in every living being in the universe, the deliberate awareness of oneself, on this Earth, can only be achieved by human beings and a group of species lacking physical organization, whom the seers of antiquity called 'allies'.

Interaction between man and these beings is not only feasible, it is something that frequently happens in our dreams. Sorcerers cultivate it, since the consciousness of inorganic beings, which are much older than us, is filled with something that we all covet: Knowledge.

Having taken on the work of investigating the modes of energy, the sages from old Mexico were urged to describe to their contemporaries what they had discovered. In their effort to find the most appropriate terms, they said that all that exists is divided into light and dark, like day and night. And from there they derived every thinkable binary description. It is a command which reflects the great cosmic duality.

Through their seeing, they discovered that the world of energy is made up of extensive areas of darkness, sprinkled with tiny points of light, and they perceived that the dark areas correspond to the feminine part of the energy, while bright areas correspond to the masculine. They arrived at the inevitable conclusion that the universe is almost in its entirety feminine, and that the bright energy, the masculine, is rare.

By definition, they associated darkness with the left side, the nagual, the unknown, and the feminine; and luminosity with the right side, the tonal, the known, and the masculine. Continuing their observations, they saw that the act of galactic creation happens when the cosmic darkness contracts itself, and from it arises an explosion of light, a spark that expands, giving origin to the order of time and space. The law of this order is that things always have an end, which again implies that the unique and perennial principle of the universe is the dark energy; feminine, creative, and eternal.

Likewise, man is divided into the tonal, represented by his daytime vigil, and the nagual, by his dreams at night. From these observations, the rest of the wisdom of the naguals is derived. They teach that dreams are a doorway to power because, ultimately, what sustains us is the dark energy, to which we go periodically to be renewed. Consequently, they directed all their power towards perfecting the art of becoming conscious while in the state of dreaming. They called that special kind of attention 'dreaming', and they used it to deliberately explore the dark energy and come into contact with the source of the universe. In that way, the initial observation of the wise Toltecs became a practical knowledge.

"The sorcerer's objective is to break the fixation of social interpretations, and to see energy directly. To see is a total perceptual experience." "Seeing energy as it flows is an imperious need on the path of knowledge. Ultimately, all the effort of sorcerers is guided to that end. It is not enough for a warrior to know that the universe is energy; he has to verify it for himself."

"Seeing is a practical matter which has immediate consequences and far-reaching effects on our lives. The most dramatic of them is that sorcerers learn to see time, as an objective dimension."

"Sorcerers maintain that talking about ourselves makes us accessible and weak, while learning how to be quiet fills us with power. A principle of the path of knowledge is to turn your own life into something so unpredictable that not even you yourself knows what's going to happen.

"The only way of leaving the collective inventory is moving away from those who know us well. After a time, mental walls that trap us become a little softer and they start to give in. That's when genuine opportunities for change appear and we can take control of our lives.

"If we were able to transcend interpretation and face pure perception without prejudice, the impression of a world of objects would vanish. In its place, we would witness energy as it flows in the universe. Under such conditions, the chain

of other people's thoughts would no longer have the smallest effect on us and we would not feel obliged to be or do anything. Then our senses would have no limits. That's seeing."

by Armando Torres in Encounters with the Nagual: Conversations with Carlos Castaneda, pp. 59-62, 65-66

"A nagual is empty. That emptiness doesn’t reflect the world, it reflects infinity. A nagual has no boisterousness on his part, or assertions about the self. There is not a speck of a need to have either grievances or remorse. His is the emptiness of a warrior-traveler, seasoned to the point where he doesn’t take anything for granted. A warrior-traveler who doesn’t underestimate or overestimate anything. A quite, disciplined fighter whose elegance is so extreme that no one, no matter how hard they try to look, will ever find the seam where all that complexity has come together.”

The word nagual (nahual) is derived from the ‘Nahuatl language. The common Mesoamerican definition was one who had the ability to transform themselves into an animal. They also had the power to harm or heal depending on their disposition. The nagual is a personal guardian spirit believed by some Mesoamerican Indians to reside in an animal, such as a deer, jaguar, or bird. In some areas the nagual is the animal. Nagualism was linked to the Mesoamerican calendar system and used for divination. The Nahuatl word ‘tonalli’ meaning ‘day’ or ‘day sign’ from which the word Tonal is derived was used to refer both to a day and to the animal associated with that day. Much like the system of the Totem, all humans were thought to have an animal counterpart to which their life force was linked. The nagual would be distinguished by virtue of his birth; powerful sorcerers would be born on a specific day. And just as the Tonal was thought to be the spirit of the day, the Nagual was said to be that of the night. So the Nagual or sorcerer would possess an animal spirit that would be linked to his ‘tonal’, and this relationship would last as long as both existed.

The person who is to receive his nagual traditionally goes to an isolated spot and sleeps. The animal that appears in his dreams or that confronts him when he awakens will thereafter be his particular nagual. Among many modern Mesoamerican Indians, it is believed that the first creature to cross over the ashes spread before a newborn baby becomes that child’s nagual. The belief in nagualism varies from region to region. In some areas it is believed that only the most powerful leaders (usually men) can transform themselves into this animal form to do evil; thus, the word derives from the Nahuatl word nahualli or (“disguise”), applied to the animal forms magically assumed by sorcerers.

The word nagual also has the connotation of “knowledge”. In the Nahuatl language, a number of derivatives from the same root exist, all of them pertaining to “knowledge.” The early missionaries to the New World often spoke of the nagual, as a ‘master of mystic knowledge’.

This is precisely the way in which Don Juan describes himself to Castaneda, as a ‘man of Knowledge’ or as ‘One who knows’.

Don Juan’s Benefactor the ‘Nagual’ Julian Osorio is cited as a being a diablero. He defines this as one who is capable of transforming themselves into an animal or bird. He describes the world of the diableros or that of the sorcerer as opposed to the world of the average man. This is a place where unfathomable mysteries are glimpsed and all things become possible.

Don Juan is also quoted as saying about his benefactor: “Do you know that to this day it’s hard for me to visualize him? I know that sounds absurd, but depending on his needs or the circumstances, he could be either, young or old, handsome or homely, effete and weak or strong and virile, fat or slender, of medium height or extremely short.”

Over the course of his apprenticeship Don Juan described the nagual to Castaneda in detail. The nagual is a double being to whom the “rule” has been revealed. The nagual comes in a male and female pair – the pair becomes the nagual only when the “rule” has been given to each and it has been fully understood by both. A nagual is a teacher, a leader and a guide.

The nagual is said to have extraordinary energy, sobriety, endurance and stability.

The nagual acts a conduit between the spirit and the world – channeling peace, harmony, laughter and knowledge to his/her companions.

The maneuvers of the nagual are based on artifice and subterfuge, but they cannot plan their course of action but instead follow the dictates of the spirit.

A nagual is also capable of moving his own assemblage point and the assemblage point of others. With the nagual there is no assertion of self.

Throughout the works of Castaneda the nagual is also considered to be the world of the second attention – the unknown, the other, the darkside, the left side of awareness, the world of dreaming; this is the battlefield of the warrior, and the training ground for the third attention, the world in which they make their stand. It is both the individual and the world he occupies.

from toltecwarrior.net on May 26, 2012

… and from an interview on October 10, 2008 with Ken Eagle Feather at The Castaneda Forum at tapatalk.com

LR: Can you explain the term Nagualism? How is this different from Shamanism?

KEF: Nagualism is probably a select class of Shamanism; a certain variety of it. It has academic roots going way back to when anthropologists were working with indigenous tribes in Mexico. Don Juan, Castaneda's teacher, uses it to mean a specific class of teaching. So even his definition is different than the academic's. And so one way to relate to it is to consider that there is a lot of shamanic flavour in it, but then there are a lot of things that are different. For instance, you don't necessarily build medicine wheels; you don't necessarily have the trappings of a pipe and feathers. it's very pristine, very streamlined. And also very rough and ready. it's not heavy on the spirituality as most people might define it. It is very individualistic, but yet you work in small teams. it's very, very rigorous and it's aimed not so much to build a world view, such as [is] found in Shamanism, at least in mainstream versions of it, but to actually work on developing perception. There will come a time when you will leave the teachings behind, because to hold on to them would pin down perception. And so there are different stages of growth along the path: from apprentice to practitioner to what don Juan calls a person of knowledge, someone who has grown beyond the teachings. These people are in an entirely different relation with the world. They have found freedom, and are in a state of complete being.

LR: Is Nagualism a religion?

KEF: Only in the sense that it contains a philosophical structure. This means it is a way to accumulate knowledge. But the way you learn, and what you learn, are biased by the type of structure. So, in a sense, structure is a set of beliefs. A person of knowledge is someone who has used different structures, different sets of beliefs to learn the costs and benefits of structures. By evolving beyond the need for structure, the person has figuratively and literally grown beyond belief. One of the tools to help along this evolution is the petty tyrant. This is a person in your life who pushes every button you have. So if you are working with somebody, especially if they are in authority over you, and if they are a little harsh, that's a good thing. Because it makes you work on your own shortcomings. It makes you pull your dirty laundry out of the hamper. Keep in mind that every time you rail and scream at a person you are just projecting onto them a trait within yourself. In order to discharge that energy within you accurately and ruthlessly, so that you may grow into new connections with the world and Spirit, you need to assess your complete circumstances with absolutely no pity, either for others or for yourself. that's when you are on the mark, when you engage energy on that level. The petty tyrant helps to get you there, forces you to work on your own stuff to bring yourself further to light.

LR: So basically what you are saying is that petty tyrants and other kinds of challenges help transform things like fear into power, or confusion into a spiritual clarity?

KEF: Right, definitely in terms of Fear and Clarity. It is interesting that you bring those up because those are two steps along the path that require working directly with energy. Fear is a lack of suppleness in the energy body. This lack of movement translates through the physical body as fear, when it really is just being stuck. One way to fight fear is this: any time you come upon something and the only thing that keeps you from doing it is fear, then your decision is automatically made. You look it straight in the eye and proceed in that direction. From that struggle what you find is that fear is a lack of momentum in your energy body, a lack of fluidity. The energy body is stagnant; it has barnacles and is calcified. The more you jolt your energy body with the new experiences you gain by fighting fear, the more you awaken it. Fighting what was a lack of momentum then delivers you to clarity. The problem with this is you now think you know what's really going on, when all you have [done] is developed a new set of thoughts about what is going on, an enhanced set of beliefs. You then set the stage for becoming a metaphysical (or New Age) fundamentalist. Instead of talking about the material world, you get to talk about the spiritual world, complete with reincarnation, psychic phenomena, and alternative healing. But while you've expanded your world, a grand accomplishment, you haven't grown beyond belief. So the discipline for managing clarity is to not use it, and to pretend that you are still fighting fear.

LR: In Tracking Freedom you write about non patterning, which seems to be at the heart of the Toltec Way. To me this is reminiscent of a Buddhist-like non-attachment. It effects physical, emotional, and mentally based reality as we know it, almost as if you are getting back to a Platonic ideal about things, scrutinizing that Platonic ideal and then releasing even that conceptual hold. Would you say this is true?

KEF: Yes, that's true, and it delivers you to fully understanding that which you will never fully understand. . . . So, non patterning is not putting the world into form. This includes yourself. Pure non patterning means you are not interpreting anything. And when you do interpret something it's on a practical level, to communicate something, for instance. The problem is that by interpreting the world you then hold on to your definitions, your interpretations. Optimally, however, you begin to realize that your world is just a set of mental and emotional constructs about reality. The further you go into reality, the clearer this becomes. Just remember that your enhanced clarity is also your prison. We really don't know anything about what this magnificence called creation is. It cannot be encapsulated. And so non patterning is very much a core Toltec teaching that is designed to constantly keep you open, keep awareness open, and keep perception open.

LR: Some traditions might approach this by divorcing themselves from the world. How does a Toltec live in the world and still stay so deeply within in order to do this work?

KEF: that's interesting, because Don Juan says you really have never learned your lessons if you can't do it in the world. This brings in the discipline of a Path with Heart. This is a path intended to bring you to life. A Path with Heart is formed by deliberately selecting a number of things that you want to involve yourself with: relationships, vocations, hobbies, arts, anything that really connects your heart with the world. The criteria for selection is peace, joy, and strength. You don't worry about money; you don't worry about if you are going to be socially acceptable. If an activity gives you peace, of your Path with Heart. When you have a number of these, you are on your Path with Heart. I have never seen a situation where a person who has a well-developed Path with Heart doesn't have their livelihood taken care of. They get their money; it's just that the emphasis isn't on money. That doesn't mean that money is a bad thing. It is an interesting form of power that can accomplish grand things. Just keep it very balanced, and within its place. Your income should be supportive of your path, not the defining element of it. So if you think it is part of your path, you may have the wrong relationship with your heart. If you think you must have money to accomplish some grand goal, say, to help humanity, it may just be your self-importance. So, like non patterning, the Path of Heart is also an essential feature of Toltec structures. It is something that awakens you and gives you joy as you walk over the earth. Then petty tyrants, no pity, and fighting fear are all exercises, skills to quicken the process so that you can achieve a radical transformation in the life you are living now. They give you a fighting chance to claim your freedom.

LR: What about personal power? It seems that the Toltecs actively and openly engage in acquiring and cultivating their personal power. This is really in contrast to many religions, and yet its use in Nagualism seems to reflect the reasons that other paths avoid it.

KEF: In the modern Toltec world, personal power means having enough energy to continually be more and more aware. In the ancient structures, several thousand years ago, it meant having more power than the next guy, competition, greed, manipulation, these kinds of things. When the Toltec empire got laid to waste by Indian wars and the Inquisition, the remnant went underground and revamped the system. They introduced ethics and from that ethical standpoint a new meaning of personal power evolved. So it relates to being more aware. For that you need more energy, which means you have awakened more of your energy body. That gives you your energy, and your Path with Heart generates energy. And from that energy you become more aware. . . .

LR: While most systems talk about their past masters in terms of highest respect and devotion, not that this is untrue of Nagualism, Nagualism openly talks about the mistakes of past Toltecs. Do you see this as a sign of an evolving path?

KEF: This is definitely an evolving path, and I think one of the distinctions of the Toltec path of knowledge. In some systems, you have a teacher for life, someone to give you a gentle, or sometimes not-so-gentle, reminder of what you're really supposed to be up to. Toltecs, like Don Juan, grab you by the scruff of the neck, work you over up and down, in and out, then set you on your way to fend for yourself. Personally, I appreciate this style of teaching. it's very individualistic, very responsible, very empowering. It lets you assess what your teacher says and does, then figure out if you want to continue exactly that way. Or perhaps you'll even want to get off the path entirely. The effect is similar: the system evolves, as it's not static to a given set of practices. There is nothing to adhere to except the unrelenting drive to develop perception. In this way, you can grow beyond belief.

LR: How do you see your work, and in particular Tracking Freedom, contributing to this evolution?

KEF: Tracking Freedom is the culmination of a learning task don Juan gave me over twenty years ago. He directed me to write books about his teachings. In doing so, I earnestly tried to present views that would crystallize don Juan's teachings, and make them applicable to a variety of situations. For instance, I aimed to make his teachings realizable in the daily world for anyone who was bold enough, or nuts enough, to travel this path. I also wanted to demonstrate how a philosophy works: how it expands perception, how it hems in perception. By understanding what we're working with, we stand a better chance of not getting bogged down in our amazing concoctions about reality. We stand a better chance of tracking freedom.

More Play = Better Health

 

There is a bridge between shamanism and education. I have spent some time studying indigenous people, and reading about other people’s work with indigenous people. There is a stereotype that indigenous people today and prehistoric people as well, had a very, very hard life. It is said that they spent morning to dusk hunting, looking for food, foraging, and fighting enemies. Well, that stereotype isn’t quite true.

By and large, indigenous people spent more time playing than we do today. Yes, they went out and hunted. They picked fruits and berries, and once agriculture began they planted gardens. But, they actually spent as much or more time in recreation than they did working. And, even at that, there was no firm dividing line between working and play because they enjoyed what they did. Very often in Brazil, when I am invited to visit indigenous people, they tell me, “We want to show you one of our games.” You would think they would want to show me some of their artifacts, some of their implements, and some of their tools. No, they want to play; they want to show me some of their games.

There is a connection between the travails of modern civilization and the lack of time we have to play. It is always very discouraging to me to see how schools are cutting down art and music classes. They are even cutting down recess. They are even shutting down recreational activities, so that students can spend more time passing exams to get into college. I am not implying a cause and effect, but as the amount of recess time has gone down, the amount of mental illness in children has gone up.

by Stanley Krippner in revisionpublishing.org, Spring 2020, Vol. 33, No. 2

Chess and the Art of War

 

Although Sun Tzu passed away 2500 years ago, his principles live on in today's leaders who embody those principles. Famous people including Presidents, CEOs, and sports stars continue to listen to the words of Sun Tzu to their advantage. However, any leader who is able to unlock extraordinary accomplishments from both himself and ordinary people around him represents most the strategic wisdom of Sun Tzu, who himself unlocked the smaller state of Wu's potential to conquer the largest state of Ch'u in 506 BCE.

The wisdom of Sun Tzu must always be active, even when it appears it isn't moving. This activity must be focused on constantly paying attention to changing conditions and taking into account as many variables as possible to ensure the decision that is being made is the most appropriate and thus most potent. “If you can learn to speed up your 'thinking' and slow down your actual 'moves,' you will be enlightened with a foresight that enhances your vision to see down the street, around the corner, up the block, over the bridge and through the alley on the other side of the river," says Coach Jeffrey L. Butts, founder of Chess is Life.

Sun Tzu believed a good leader transcends the rules, not because he or she doesn't understand the basics, but because he or she has mastered the basics and knows when to adjust to be more effective in a new situation. Life, like war and chess, offers an unfathomable amount of choices. Don't be your own enemy by limiting yourself to only a few. Engage with the orthodox, prevail with the unorthodox. The paths to success are many but only if you can open your mind and widen your vision to see them.

There are only two kinds of charge in battle, the unorthodox surprise attack and the orthodox direct attack, but variations of the unorthdox and the orthodox are endless.

U.S. Marines are known as some of the most fearsome and intellectual warriors on the planet. For many decades, Sun Tzu's Art of War was mandatory reading for all U.S. Marine Corps officers. Former U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis said, "The Marine Corps has always been more Eastern-oriented. I am much more comfortable with Sun Tzu and his approach to warfare."

In ancient times skillful warriors first made themselves invincible, and then watched for vulnerability in their opponents.

The U.S. Marine Corps's love for strategic wisdom isn't because it sounds nice but because it is practical and useful. When people are armed with this advantageous tool, they are later more likely to become successful, contributing citizens in society. Since they are critical thinkers, they are not trouble makers but rather problem solvers and formidable competitors in an increasingly competitive global environment.

Transcending Perceived Limits

 

In August 1979, British climbers on Mount Kenya encountered a lone African man not far from the peak's summit. The man was shoeless, with only wool socks on his feet; he carried a sack of food, twenty-five feet of rope, a bread knife, and a Bible. For the past five days he had been living in a scrap-iron lean-to on top of the mountain; God, he said, had sent him there to pray for the well-being of the world.

Now he was on his way down. The authoritative guidebook Mountains of the World describes Mount Kenya this way: "the final 2,000 feet leap upward in tremendous precipices. . . . There is no nontechnical route up Mount Kenya, and even the easiest route involves rather difficult rock and ice climbing." It seemed impossible that a lone mystic without boots, crampons, or ice ax could have climbed it. And it seemed even more impossible that he could climb down the mountain safely; descending is much more difficult than ascending, without a rope and hardware to rappel off of.

The British climbers looked for him during their descent, but there was no sign of him anywhere; they reported him missing, and search parties were sent up onto the peak, but to no avail. Several days later, when they got to the mountain's base, long after he had been given up for dead, the mystery climber showed up safely at a village at the base of the mountain, and told his story.

His name was Ephraim M'Ikiara; he was fifty-two years old, a devout believer in both Christianity and native Kikuyu animism. This was his third ascent of Mount Kenya. His climbing techniques, as he described them, were fantastical. He hacked holds in the ice and snow with his bread knife and used his food bag, tied to the far end of a rope, as a grappling hook, throwing it up over protuberances on the mountainside and clambering up after it. Without boots or shoes, his feet could cling more easily to the tiniest, most tenuous of rugosities.

In nineteenth-century Manchuria, the Manchu shamans sought personal strength, or honed powers they already had, by cutting nine holes in the ice of a frozen river, then diving in the first hole, swimming underwater to the second, out to catch breath, back under and on to the third, and so on. The holes were far enough apart that if you missed one, you drowned; tricky business, in the dim and turbulent depths of the river.

In another aquatic marathon, a certain modern Rastafarian holy man in Jamaica, member of that fascinating sect that worships Haile Selassie, ganja, and reggae, tests himself each year by swimming straight out to sea as far as he can until he is totally exhausted; then he turns, and tries to make it back to shore alive. In this way, he replenishes himself, his strength and nerve.

Among certain Eskimo tribes of Greenland, a young man who wanted a vision was taken out to a lonely place by a shaman and left there. For days and nights the acolyte continuously rubbed a small stone on top of a large one until a spirit appeared, conjured up by the isolation, the monotony, the lack of sleep.

In Australia, Aborigine tribes still use something called Walkabout to instill strength and wisdom in their youths. Young men are sent off into the outback with little more than an atlatl (spear thrower), a water gourd, and a memorized map of waterholes, game trails, and sacred tribal places. A youth may wander for weeks, months, surviving on his own, praying at the shrines along the way; he returns with the image of the tribe's land stamped into his body and his mind. Some North American Plains Indian tribes practiced a similar kind of mystery trek: young men and women wandered solo out across the prairies, looking for something - for hunger, thirst, fatigue, and space to ignite a transcendence.

The Papago Indians of southern Arizona and northern Sonora did an arduous forced march across the volcanic wilderness of the Pinacates Desert to the Sea of Cortez. There, on the barren beaches, they gathered salt to carry back to Papagueria, and ran twenty-mile races on the blazing sand, races whose goal was a life-changing vision. Some runners ran so hard they died; the fortunate received visions of white cranes, revolving Magritte mountains, sea spirits, accompanied by magical songs. The vision and song conferred a power that was supposed to last the rest of one's life.

In 1924, Ernest Thompson Seton met a Tarahumara Indian postman in northern Mexico who trotted seventy miles a day, seven days a week, with a heavy mail sack, over mountains and barrancas.

I once heard a story from a big old retired Seabee about something that happened during the Korean War. An ancient Korean man, tiny and frail, showed up at a Seabee camp begging for oil for fuel; the Seabees jokingly told him he could take a whole hip-high drum of it if he could carry it away. They gathered to watch the fun: it took all of one Seabee's strength to get one of those drums tilted with one end an inch off the ground, and three to lift it entirely. Well, the litde man, beaming at his benefactors, unslung one of those tumplines rural Asians carry, wrapped one end around his forehead, the other loop around the drum, and adjusted the knot. Squatted down with the drum to his back, humped the huge drum (enough oil for the whole village for a year!) up onto his skinny spine, and went trotting out of camp. The Seabees gaped in astonishment, and then cheered and cheered. Twenty minutes or so later, they saw him in the distance, in the words of my informant, "going up a hill steeper'n a cow's face."

And then there was the story making the rounds in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, when I got there. Supposedly some Western climbers had chartered a Pilatius Porter airplane recently and used it to overfly Lhotse (the world's second highest peak at 27,923 feet) and photograph the huge, probably unclimbable back side of the mountain. The Westerners brought their photos back to Kathmandu and blew them up, and lo and behold, on one shot, sitting there in the middle of the Lhotse Wall, a vertical mile up, was a saddhu, a Hindu yogi, naked except for a big white Saint Nicholas beard, perched on a ledge no wider than a ballerina's wrist.

Moral:

THERE ARE NO LIMITS

only those we perceive in our own minds

by Rob Schultheis in Bone Games, pp. 50-51, 54-55, 76, 92, 116-117

Tao Te Ching’s Timeless Wisdom

In 1973, ancient Taoist manuscripts were found in southern China, including the earliest then-known text of Tao Te Ching, dating from the second century BC. There are many translations of Tao Te Ching (this is the English spelling that appears most frequently; a fairly accurate phonetic rendering is Daodejing). Indeed, it’s one of the most frequently translated books. This discovery greatly improved scholars’ understanding of the book and its origins. Twenty years later, an even older version, similar to the one found in 1973, was discovered in a tomb near the town of Guodian in the province of Hubei. This manuscript was dated to the fourth century BC.

Recent translations of Tao Te Ching put its chapters in the order found in these recently discovered versions, and also reveal new meanings in many passages. Experts now believe that the book began as a set of orally transmitted sayings, and that some of the text consists of additions and revisions introduced by the scribes who put it in writing. Nothing reliable is known of the supposed author Lao Tzu (a name that simply means “Old Master”); the book may be a compilation of ideas that originated with a scattered group of wandering sages rather than a single author.

None of this diminishes the usefulness of the insights in the text. Don’t be dazzled by appearances, the Old Master tells us. Don’t go to extremes. Live simply, and closely observe natural phenomena like forests and streams. From the Stephen Mitchell translation:

Knowing others is intelligence;

Knowing yourself is true wisdom.

Mastering others is strength;

Mastering yourself is true power.

If you realize that you have enough,

You are truly rich.

If you stay in the center

and embrace death with your whole heart,

you will live forever.

Understanding any ancient text requires some knowledge of its historical context. Early Chinese history is unfamiliar to most Westerners, so here’s the briefest of overviews. The Shang dynasty, which flourished in the second millennium BC, is the first dynasty of traditional Chinese history for which there is clear archaeological evidence. In 1045 BC, King Wu of Zhou overthrew the Shang dynasty, but his descendants slowly lost power. The former Shang lands were divided into hereditary fiefs, over which the king had dwindling control. At the same time, raids by nomadic tribes from the north intensified toward the end of what historians call the Western Zhou period. The subsequent Eastern Zhou period is divided into the Spring and Autumn period (770-481 BC) and the Warring States period (475-221 BC), and it’s these latter two periods that form the backdrop for the composition of Tao Te Ching. A powerful kingdom (the Shang dynasty and its remnant in the early Western Zhou period) was disintegrating through civil wars and invasions by neighboring tribes, requiring people at all social levels to rethink their relationships to one another, to government, and to nature.

Confucius (Kong Qiu) lived from about 550 to 480 BC, during the Spring and Autumn period. His profoundly influential philosophy centered on personal and governmental morality, justice, kindness, and veneration of ancestors; it also emphasized rulers’ duty to their subjects. Proclaiming himself a transmitter of earlier values, Confucius promoted a bureaucratic, hierarchical, and legalistic vision of the ideal society. Tao Te Ching may have been composed orally during Confucius’s lifetime and written down somewhat later, during the Warring States period. Taoism seems to have been, in part, a reaction to Confucianism—a response that emphasized spontaneity over etiquette, genuineness over duty, and the superiority of nature over humanly-imposed social and technological order.

In the Afterword to his translation of Tao Te Ching, sinologist Victor H. Mair makes a strong case that early Taoism was influenced by the Yogic tradition of southern Asia. Mair points out that both Yogic and Taoist spiritual practices centered on breathing exercises, postures, and meditation, which were claimed to yield superhuman abilities. Both Tao Te Ching and the Bhagavadgita (a key early Indic sacred text) taught that enlightenment could be achieved through non-attachment. Mair also shows significant linguistic parallels between these two texts and argues that it is much more likely that the earlier-documented Yogic tradition influenced China, rather than that Taoism traveled to India.

However, Taoism has its own unique flavor that differentiates it from Yoga. Taoism’s naturalistic trail of thought became most visible and tangible in its subsequent expressions in Japanese Zen gardening and architecture (Zen was Japan’s offshoot of the Chinese Chan Buddhist tradition, which was deeply influenced by Taoist teachings).

Beyond its interest for historians, Tao Te Ching has special significance for anyone trying to find a sane path in today’s world. We are in the very last stages of the greatest empire that ever has been, or likely ever will be. Fossil-fueled technology has driven humanity farther than ever from nature’s way. This did not happen because humans are inherently evil; we are expressions of nature. We are simply victims of our own success: social evolution led some societies to develop capitalism, which then made it possible for them to access and use fossil fuels (as I’ve explained at much greater length here). We’ve temporarily exceeded nature’s limits, in terms of our population size, our overall rates of energy and materials usage, and the amount of pollution we’re spewing. As a result, the impressive social, economic, and technological structures we’ve built in the past couple of centuries are set to come tumbling down. When they do, we may enter our own Warring States period.

Inevitably, the survivors will try to make sense of what has happened. In the wake of collapse, there may be neo-Confucianists who promise to Make Civilization Great Again through obedience to authority and worship of the past. And there may be wandering sages who teach their followers to learn from nature and embrace simplicity.

It’s worth noting that a philosophical bifurcation in the wake of imperial decline may have occurred in another important historical instance. Authors James Valliant and Warren Fahy argue in Creating Christ: How Roman Emperors Invented Christianity that Christianity began as a Roman imperial project to co-opt Jewish messianic, monotheistic radicalism while maintaining the organizational and ideological essence of the Empire — even as the Empire itself disintegrated. That project succeeded brilliantly, but alternative philosophies nevertheless survived or cropped up later. The Franciscans, who offered a nature- and peace-loving counter-philosophy, were co-opted back into the Catholic fold. Pagans and witches were persecuted or burned, while Indigenous peoples were converted, enslaved, or slaughtered. There is every reason to suppose that, as our current global industrial civilization crumbles, there will be similar splits between a dominant narrative (techno-civilization was great, but it was sabotaged and must be restored) and humbler alternatives (techno-civilization was a mistake; it’s nature that’s great). I’ll leave the last words to the Old Master, this time from the Bahm translation:

Whenever someone sets out to remold the world,

experience teaches that he is bound to fail.

For Nature is already as good as it can be.

It cannot be improved upon.

He who tries to redesign it, spoils it.

He who tries to redirect it, misleads it.

by Richard Heinberg from resilience.org

An Existential Moment in History

 

Despite obvious media bias in the recent presidential debate, Trump still didn’t just “win” against Harris. If you were paying attention, his closing remarks and their effect were profound: the stakes for the U.S. are not political, but existential. And not only at a personal household level concerning inflation, prices, and jobs, but in the larger national context of security, borders, trade deals, manufacturing, energy, and growth — and survival in an avoidable world war.

Trump is the strength, peace, and economic opportunity candidate. Harris represents the weakness, war, and economic devastation party. Trump didn’t just beat her; he overwhelmed the party’s fraud and pretense by taking life seriously. Ultimately, he also fought for and won something much more: national standing.

Why does that matter? Because, as he stated several times, the world doesn’t take Harris and her party seriously. The implications for that loss of confidence are critical: loss of global confidence means loss of global respect; loss of global respect means loss of global order.

Global order is what Trump stands for, because he understands that the world does indeed look to the American nation. Hope is the one thing that a man can never lose; it is the one thing that a nation can never lose, or else nihilism and despair take control of the human psyche.

As psychiatrist Carl Jung said from Switzerland, watching the Second World War unfold, a breakdown in global order is first a breakdown in human psychological health. This is because it not only lacks a genuine leader, but has been damaged by a loss of confidence from fraudulent ones. This creates a loss of social cohesion and unity and, therefore, any reason for maintaining law and order. 

Harris embodies a breakdown in that psychology and a collapse of the most fundamental natural laws. Indeed, as much as she now tries to distance herself from Biden, he and Harris are mentally identical; they together symbolize a failure in psychological stability. Harris is, in fact, exactly like Biden — she is only less biologically degenerative, but her worldview is just as strategically delusional, and just as confused and disoriented — but it is more dangerous because it is tied to an acceleration of the radical policies that were introduced by first using Biden to create an illusion of institutional continuity. Her ability to independently perceive, to comprehend complex information, and to act as an effective civilian commander is just as impaired, however, and just as utterly dependent on an army of unelected handlers.

As we all saw in the extreme rioting and destruction in the violent summer of 2020, the political left trades precisely on psychological and social disorder, and a loss of faith, reason and self-respect. It trades precisely on the same mass psychological breakdown that Jung diagnosed as the source of global civil disorder and collapse. The left seeks to destroy public self-confidence, health, and order, because it means a flight to political dependence, psychological resignation, and obedience.

War, disease, disorder, chaos, and fear make up the political left’s manifesto. Trump’s manifesto is a business plan: confidence, hard work, investment, responsibility, reward, and national pride. From these great virtues come the admiration that the rest of the world seeks.

President Trump won far more than a mere media debate. He won the vision for a world order stabilized by principles of personal and national confidence. He continues to show where that confidence comes from: by fighting the good fight, and never giving up, giving in, or giving over. Giving up and giving in make up the cultural order sought by the authoritarian movement that Harris represents.

by Matthew G. Andersson at americanthinker.com on September 14, 2024

Hemp Seed Oil and the Essential Fatty Acids

 

Alpha Linoleic Acid (ALA) and Linoleic Acid (LA) were discovered in 1923 and nicknamed ‘Vitamin F.' However, further research made it clear that Alpha Linoleic Acid (ALA) and Linoleic Acid (LA) are actually fatty acids.

ALA (omega-3) and LA (omega-6) are the only fatty acids that are essential for the human body to get from outside sources. Meaning, we cannot synthesize them - much like Vitamin C, for example.

We call a nutrient essential when it is an absolute must to obtain from your diet for normal, healthy physiological function.

Mother Nature made hemp even more of a wonder-plant by including these essential fatty acids (EFA’s) into its composition. Also, they exist in exact quantities that are ideal for human consumption.

Many of us have heard of the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.), but do we understand the serious consequences of this average way of eating? On the S.A.D., it is not unusual to consume omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in a 1:15, or even 1:20 ratio - if not more!

Studies show that somewhere between a 1:1 and 1:4 ratio of 3/6 is where people experience the most health benefits. Let’s take a look at the omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratios in some popular foods:

• Cashews:                      1:125

• Hazelnuts:                     1:90

• Pecans:                         1:20

• Pistachios:                     1:52

• Sunflower Seeds:           1:312

• Almonds:                       1:2010

• Peanuts:                        1:5320

• Hemp Seeds/Oil:          1:3

• Walnuts:                        1:17

• Grain-fed Beef:               1:10

• Tomatoes:                      1:27

• Carrots:                         1:58

• Parsley:                         1:14

• Chickpeas:                     1:26

• Soybeans:                      1:8

• Palm Oil:                        1:45

• Olive Oil:                        1:13

• Grape Seed Oil:               1:696

• Avocado Oil:                    1:13

• Butter:                            1:9

• Corn Oil:                         1:46

The oil contained in the hemp seed is 75-80% polyunsaturated fatty acids (the good fats) and only 9-11% of the lesser desired saturated fatty acids. Hemp seed oil is reputed to be the most unsaturated oil derived from the plant kingdom. The essential fatty acids (EFAs) contained in hemp seed oil are required in our diet more than any other vitamin, yet our bodies do not naturally produce them. They must be obtained from external sources in the food we eat. EFAs are involved with producing life's energy throughout the human body and without them, life is not possible. In general, North Americans have a high dietary deficiency in EFAs due to out high intake of animal fats versus plant fats, caused by our high consumption of processed foods and meats versus natural organic foods.

Hemp seed oil has been dubbed "Nature's most perfectly balanced oil", due to the fact that it contains the perfectly balanced 3:1 ratio of Omega 6 (linoleic/ LA) to Omega 3 (alpha-linolenic/ LNA) essential fatty acids, determined to be the optimum requirement for long-term healthy human nutrition. In addition, it also contains smaller amounts of 3 other polyunsaturated fatty acids in Gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), oleic acid and stearidonic acid. This EFA combination is unique among edible oil seeds. (see nutritional composition )

Extensive studies have demonstrated that many common illnesses are related to deficiencies or imbalances of specific fatty acids in the body. Symptoms are often related to a lack of Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids and their derivatives, the postaglandins. Most people eating a healthful diet, one that includes a balanced ratio of essential fatty acids, also have healthy skin and a strong immune system.

Yet some individuals may experience shortages in specific fatty acids or their metabolites due to dysfunctional enzyme systems or other inhibitions in their metabolic pathways caused by genetic, immune-system-related, or even environmental factors. It has been proven in several clinical studies that dietary supplementation with EFAs or their metabolites (such as GLA) will often prevent or even cure these illnesses. Since hemp seed oil contains both EFAs in a desirable balance while also providing two of the EFA metabolites, it is a good resource for the prevention and treatment of certain illnesses.

Hemp seed oil also provides an adequate supply of antioxidants (Vitamin E), carotene (precursor to Vitamin A), phytosterols, phospholipids and a number of minerals including calcium, magnesium, sulfur, potassium, phosphorus, along with modest amounts of iron and zinc. Hemp seed oil also provides a good source of chlorophyll. The daily recommended allowance of hemp seed oil is 14-28 ml (1 to 2 tablespoons). This allowance provides between 8 and 16 grams of Omega 6 (LA) and between 3 and 6 grams of Omega 3 (LNA). And lastly, unlike other Omega-rich alternatives (flax, evening primrose, borage or fish oils) that are sold mainly as a vitamin supplement, hemp seed, hemp oil and hulled hemp seed all have a flavorful "nutty" taste that will create consumer demand and can easily be added into most any recipe to obtain a balanced diet!

Caution: Highly unsaturated vegetable oils such as Hemp Seed Oil are denatured by heating above 150ºC (300ºF), which can result in the production of unhealthy trans-fatty acids and increased peroxide values. Use Hemp Seed Oil as a flavor-enhancer in many recipes. Do not use as a substitute for frying oils. Keep bottles tightly sealed after opening and store in the refrigerator or freezer.

Hemp seeds and hemp seed oil are exceptional in their ability to offer a near-perfect ratio of essential fatty acids for the human body.

When eating hemp in any form, you can rest assured you are giving your body what it needs for top-notch functioning. Not to mention, hemp contains all the essential amino acids in an easy-to-digest form (as well as building blocks for antibody production).

Eating hemp seeds alone may not be enough for many who find themselves to be consuming a massive amount of omega-6 fatty acids. You may find it necessary to focus on consuming omega-3 rich foods. Here are some examples of what those are:

• Wild Atlantic Salmon:          12:1

• Tuna (canned in water):      31:1

• Lobster:                             20:1

• Chia:                                   3:1

• Flax Seeds:                          4:1

• Cod Liver Oil:                     21:1

• Spinach:                              5:1

• Grass-Fed Beef:                    2:1

Ingesting the correct balance of fatty acids is equally crucial as consuming enough of these vital nutrients. The reason for this is that ALA and LA compete for metabolism with the same enzyme (delta-6 desaturase). Taking in too much LA will overwhelm this metabolic pathway and leave ALA underutilized - leading to a multitude of other health maladies.

The recommended daily intake levels for linoleic acid (LA) and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) are:

• Linoleic Acid (LA): The Adequate Intake (AI) levels for LA are 12 grams per day for women and 17 grams per day for men aged 19-50 years, as reported by the dietary reference intakes. However, there is no specific recommended daily allowance (RDA) established for LA due to a lack of information on the amount required to correct symptoms of omega-6 PUFA deficiency.

• Alpha-Linolenic Acid (ALA): The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for ALA is 1.6 grams per day for men and 1.1 grams per day for women. Additionally, health organizations suggest a minimum intake of 250 mg and a maximum of 4,000 mg (combined EPA and DHA) per day, unless instructed otherwise by a health professional.

from the blog at anandaprofessional.com and hempbasics.com

Are Prayers Really Answered?

You have been summoning more energy of late from the nonphysical, and you have been doing for your fellow humans and yourselves. You must realize by now that having eight billion human bodies on the planet actually serves you very well, because you have more individuals anchoring in higher-frequency energies than ever before on the planet. Now, those of you who are awake also recognize that you can receive those energies and that you do receive those energies from time to time.

You are providing the support for those who do not open up to receive, but their asking is still helping with the summoning of the energies from above. We who are in the higher realms always answer every prayer. We are tuning ourselves to the energy of that prayer. We are giving the essence of what that person wants. So even though they may not get what it is they are asking for specifically, they will be offered the essence of what they are asking for energetically. And if they can open up and receive what they’ve asked for, then that person will grow enormously in that receiving.

And those of you who are awake are also there to be the ones who set the example to the others of how it is done. So when they see you out there in the world, laughing, playing, acting like a child, connecting with nature, singing and dancing, they are getting a clue as to what it is they need to do to also receive the answer to their prayers. You are helping in so many ways, and you will continue to help yourselves and others as you feel the energetic connection that you have to the nonphysical increasing.

You get more when you relax, and you get more when you are in a state of joy. You don’t have to speak the right mantra or pray to the right being in order to receive. You just need to recognize that what you have asked for already is and go and have fun. Now, with all of that summoning of energy that is being done across the planet right now, you can imagine what it will feel like when the floodgates are opened. You can imagine what it will feel like for the person when they do let go of their resistance and when they do stop blocking what is coming to them naturally and by virtue of the fact that they exist.

And you can hold space for your fellow humans and give the gift of seeing them in their moment of letting go and in their moment of opening up to receive. And witnessing that is pure joy, and we tell you that from experience because we have witnessed it many times. And we want you all to know that those of you who are doing it are doing it not only for yourselves, but for others as well. You can receive energies that others have summoned and have never received because they have left their bodies, they have passed on. And those energies are no longer available to them as a result.

And so, we invite you to consider how many energies have never been received because a person had died before allowing those energies in. And you will understand why the shift is happening, and you can be a bigger conscious contributor to that shift by recognizing the grace of the nonphysical is upon you and has always been upon you.

We are very excited to see what you all do with all of that energy, with all of those ideas, with all of that healing. We promise you, we are excited to witness that.

We are here for you. We are The Creators. We are a twelfth-dimensional collective of nonphysical beings, and we are here to help. We love you very much.

as channeled by Daniel Scranton at danielscranton.com

The Enlightened Role of the Negative Elite

 

Why are psychopaths in our lives? Why do we have to experience human slavery in all of its forms? How does this work from a higher perspective?

In simple terms they are here to teach us deeper love and compassion, which we learn from suffering and tragedy. We can realize this only when we are aligned with the expanded consciousness of our heart.

We have been trained to react negatively to those who cheat and lie to us, especially to those who are truly evil, and especially toward children. We are here to experience every form of energy that we have called into our lives. If we pay attention to everything, especially our most subtle feelings, we become able to transform every circumstance into a miracle of love and joy.

To begin this process, we need to become clear on every level. We need to release every deeply-held trauma and fear that we probably don't even know exist in our psyches. We meet them when an anomalous urge comes up to our attention, and we recognize that it is not compatible with higher-frequency energy. When we are untrue, even a little, we have a hint of shame and deep fear that is arising because we feel threatened by transparency. Fear wants to protect us from any form of pain or trauma. It can direct us to hate someone, especially one to whom we have given authority over us, and we believe that the authority is being abused, and especially if we believe we can do nothing about it.

We are sovereign beings, and no other entity can mistreat us without our permission, although we can be tricked into giving our consent without our conscious awareness. This is what we’ve subjected ourselves to. We have agreed to undergo these experiences in order to learn how to transform them. If the lessons were easy, we could not be able to gain the proficiency that we desire.

The world that we live in appears to be real, but it’s all a complex configuration of energies, vibrating within a limited spectrum of frequencies, that our senses perceive as empirical. Through our personal perspective within the conscious awareness of humanity, we create the quality of our experiences. In unawakened beings each experience results from an emotional state that elicited imaginary scenes from the past or the future. An awakened being lives in awareness within the present moment, moving in rhythm with deepest knowing. There are no fears or expectations—only the desires of the heart moving into manifestation through love and joy.

The natural path to expanded consciousness results in showering love, compassion and joy on everyone who comes into our awareness. We recognize that we are all the same Being in our deepest consciousness. In our heart we are all sparks of light. The aware ones are loving, singing and dancing the unawakened ones into higher-conscious awareness and deepest love, while knowing that we are infinitely powerful creators of our heart’s desires. We can be invulnerable from the lower spectrum of frequencies that have resonated on the Earth for so many eons. With an expanding consciousness, we are transforming the lower frequencies into a higher dimensional world of positivity.

from the blog of Kenneth Schmitt on July 7, 2024, at consciousexpansion.org