SPIRIT IN MATTERS: Taking a Higher View of Life on Earth
By Dianne Eppler Adams

Vol. 2, No 12– August 27, 2004
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Read online at - http://www.spiritinmatters.com
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FROM THIS VANTAGE POINT...

     Attention! Your Life is Being Created

No one can deny we are living in the age of information - too much information.  We are barraged by TV, radio, the Internet, billboards; you name it. All are seeking to direct our thinking and our choices.  From the most effective pain reliever to the current policy in Iraq, we are flooded with news, views, ideas and supposed cures for the “human condition.”

Yet, do you realize what is being squandering while you are flooded with all this information?  What you put your attention on is critically important because I believe your thoughts create your world.  In fact, what you focus on enlarges and becomes more real.

Even quantum physic is proving that matter is not fixed, but that the observer affects what is observed.  Therefore, in a very real sense, you are creating your life by what you focus on and give attention to.  In this way, you are creating your life, consciously or unconsciously.

With that understanding, it becomes very important that we recognize the power we have to create our world. What we choose to put our attention on becomes a powerful tool for self-improvement.

The kinds of movies you watch, for example, are not insignificant.  You may say, “That’s just entertainment.”  Your psyche reacts to everything you see, even if it isn’t “real.”  When you get to the scary parts, don’t you jump?  Your body imagines you are threatened and reacts.

Do you desire more love in your life?  Do you yearn for a more peaceful existence?  You can create more love and more peace by choosing consciously what you place your attention on.

Begin by removing negativity from your thoughts.  What makes you angry, fearful, or hurt?  Consider removing these things, activities, and people from your environment.  I believe we were meant to find joy and love in life, not pain and suffering.  You can take steps in that direction today.

There’s a song I've sung, the words of which provide great guidance. “Your thoughts are prayers and you are always praying...be carefully what you are praying...”

May you find more joy and love through thinking (praying) consciously and giving your attention to uplifting subjects.  Leave behind what drags you down.

(Your comments are always welcome at SpiritInMatters@aol.com.)
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FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION...

TYRANNY IN THE NAME OF FREEDOM
By Dahlia Lithwick, The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/12/opinion/12lith.html

So it has come down to this: You are at liberty to exercise your First Amendment right to assemble and to protest, so long as you do so from behind chain-link fences and razor wire, or miles from the audience you seek to address.

The largely ignored "free-speech zone" at the Democratic convention in Boston last month was an affront to the spirit of the Constitution. The situation will be only slightly better when the Republicans gather this month in New York, where indiscriminate searches and the use of glorified veal cages for protesters have been limited by a federal judge. So far, the only protesters with access to the area next to Madison Square Garden are some anti-abortion Christians. High-fiving delegates evidently fosters little risk of violence.

It's easy to forget that as passionate and violent as opposition to the Iraq war may be, it pales in comparison with the often bloody dissent of the Vietnam era, when much of the city of Washington was nevertheless a free-speech zone.

It's tempting to say the difference this time lies in the perils of the post-9/11 world, but that argument assumes some meaningful link between domestic political protest and terrorism. There is no such link, except in the eyes of the Bush administration, which conflates the two both as a matter of law and of policy.

It started with Attorney General John Ashcroft's declaration, shortly after 9/11: "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists." This was an early attempt to couple disagreeing on civil liberties with abetting terrorists. And while I'm not reflexively opposed to the entire Patriot Act, two provisions do serve more to quell protest than terrorism.

One section invented a broad new crime called "domestic terrorism" - punishing activities that "involve acts dangerous to human life" if a person's intent is to "influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion." If that sounds as if it's directed more toward effigy-burning, or Greenpeace activity, than international terror, it's because it is. International terror was already illegal.

A second provision, already deemed unconstitutional in one federal court, was used to prosecute Sami Omar al-Hussayen, a Muslim graduate student at the University of Idaho who was charged with using the Internet to offer "expert advice or assistance" to terrorists by posting fatwahs and hyperlinks to a Hamas Web site. He was acquitted by a jury this summer, partly because the judge warned jurors that speech - even speech advocating the use of force or the breaking of laws - is constitutionally protected, unless directed toward inciting imminent lawless action.

An even more pernicious use of the federal law enforcement power to quash protest has been observed at presidential speeches, where the Bush team has used the Secret Service at public events to create "free-speech zones" that keep dissenters away from the president.

In 2002 Brett Bursey, a South Carolinian, was arrested for holding a "No War for Oil" sign near a hangar where Bush was speaking. The West Virginia police reported that the Secret Service had directed them to arrest a couple sporting anti-Bush T-shirts at a public speech this year. And an account by Justin Rood in Salon last week revealed that at a recent rally in Duluth, Minn., Secret Service checkpoints were festooned with photos of men posing some ostensible physical danger to the president: one was a professor active in the Green Party, another a pacifist homeless activist. Both had plans to protest the war during Mr. Bush's visit.

Michael Moore's cookie-wielding Fresno peace activists look almost dangerous in comparison. Without evidence that pacifist protesters plan to violate their own credos and bludgeon the president with their Birkenstocks, the use of the Secret Service to silence them is an abuse of executive power.

Enormous national events will inevitably be terror targets. So will the president. But before we single out the anarchists and the environmentalists and the puppet-guys for diminished constitutional protections - before we herd them into what are speech-free zones - we might question whether they represent the real danger. If we don't recognize the distinction between passionate political speech and terrorism now, it may be too late to protest later.


A WONDERFUL INSPIRING SITE 
Check it out at http://www.bookofnow.com/now


SAN FRANCISCO TAKES THE LEAD IN NEW VOTING METHOD
By Lee Romney, Los Angeles Times, Monday 08 August 2004
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/081004I.shtml

In November, voters will select their first, second and third choices for candidates in city races.

San Francisco - The city that brought the nation beat poetry, free love and sourdough bread now is taking on election reform. With a quiet nod from the secretary of state, San Francisco will soon let voters rank multiple candidates in citywide elections, a system that proponents say would eliminate the "spoiler" problem if used nationwide.

In November, San Francisco will become the first U.S. city to adopt the voting method since a short-lived experiment three decades ago in Michigan.

Under the system, voters will rank their top three candidates in order of preference. If no one wins 50% of the votes when first choices are tallied, the candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated. The second choice of those voters is then added to the remaining candidates' tallies. The process - which some call an instant runoff - continues until a majority winner emerges.

The voting method has been touted recently by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, among others.

It will make its biggest U.S. debut in a city proud of its political nonconformity. It is also a city that has been plagued by election debacles in past years.

Critics worry that the complicated undertaking - which will require the use of separate ballots and software for ranked local races - could lead to voter confusion, election snafus and lawsuits from disgruntled candidates who might be relegated to the back page of long ballots.

But proponents counter that the method is easy to execute, will save money and will give disengaged voters additional incentive to participate.

San Francisco requires majority - not plurality - wins in local elections, so it has relied heavily on costly runoffs that now will be eliminated. Backers say the system also gives voters greater choice - and influence - by encouraging participation of minor candidates. Rather than throw away votes on candidates who are certain to lose, they say, residents now can still be heard when their second choices are tallied.

Most important, proponents say, a successful use of the system in San Francisco's supervisorial elections this fall could lend credence to a push for similar reforms at the state and federal levels.

If so-called instant runoff voting had been in used in 2000, they note, then-Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader could not have siphoned votes from Democrat Al Gore. Instead, Nader probably would have been eliminated and the second-choice votes of his backers tallied, many presumably for Gore.


AN OPEN LETTER OF CONSCIENCE AND CHOICE
To All Spiritual, Metaphysical, Yoga, and Meditation Communities
by Robert Rabbin, Stephen Mitchell, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Dan Millman, Riane Eisler, Tom Hayden, et al.
http://www.truthforpresident.org

There are times in life when we must act. And when those moments come, we must act with our truest heart, our clearest mind, and our noblest intentions.

November 2 is such a time. On that day, we will take in hand one of the tools for social transformation. We will exercise our right to vote, and our responsibility to voice our values and conscience. We will choose a new president and vice president. We, the signers of this letter, after full consideration, careful study, and deep reflection, endorse and recommend John Kerry and John Edwards for these offices. We urge all of you to vote for them. This is a matter of great importance and urgency.

The Kerry/Edwards ticket is not perfect, and we have many serious disagreements with them, especially in the area of militarism and defense spending. But Howard Dean rightfully cautions us to not let perfection become the enemy of the good. In this election, we have two clear choices. By any standard or measure-policy, ideology, humanity, truthfulness-Kerry is better by far than George W. Bush, and Edwards is better by far than Dick Cheney. We believe their cabinet selections and their many other appointments, including to the Supreme Court, will be
better by far than those of George W. Bush. We urge you to register and vote for John Kerry and John Edwards.

There are many reasons to not vote: cynicism, apathy, distrust of candidates, or the conviction that spirit transcends politics and we dare not risk our spiritual brightness by descending into the murky depths of political darkness and intrigue. But these are not legitimate reasons. It is an inappropriate spiritual response to our times to be socially aloof and politically uninvolved. The Dalai Lama encourages us, "Sometimes we look down on politics, criticizing it as dirty. However, if you look at it properly, politics in itself is not wrong. With good motivation-sincerity and honesty-politics becomes an instrument in the service of society."

The self-evident fact of inter-dependence will not allow us to stand on the sidelines of life, to ignore what is happening in our own backyards. We live in society, and society lives in us. This awareness requires responsibility. This awareness requires participation. This awareness
requires expression.

We all know from our studies, practice, and experience that the inner and the outer are more than mirror images of each other: they are each other. There is no separation, no difference, no distance between them. This is why the philosopher J. Krishnamurti said, "The crisis is not out
there in the world; it is in our own consciousness." A flower is not separate from its fragrance.

We have been refining our inner consciousness. We have been purifying our inner consciousness. We have been liberating our inner consciousness from the stranglehold of limiting and hurtful beliefs and images and concepts. For years, we have taken this "hero's journey" to inner truth, freedom, and wisdom in order to become whole and free. But we have not taken this journey for ourselves alone; we have also taken this journey for others and for our world.

It is not just for ourselves that we love wisdom and practice compassion, not just for ourselves that we pursue truth instead of falsehood, not just for ourselves that we ask those fearsome questions that lead to knowledge of the soul. No, it is not just for ourselves that we do this. We do it equally for others. Our very quest for wholeness of being is at its core a service to others. The Kabbalah reminds us, "First we receive the light, then we impart the light. Thus we repair the world." And now it is time to begin healing this world, our world, in the same way we have sought to heal ourselves from the diseases of hatred, violence, and greed; in the same way we have sought to heal our own hearts of anger born of fear, and fear born of separation.

Voting for John Kerry and John Edwards is a positive step towards this social healing. To be sure, it is just one step in a long journey, but one we should all take on November 2.

Signed (as private citizens, not as representatives of any organization):

Robert Rabbin, writer, speaker, creator of TruthForPresident.org
Stephen Mitchell, writer
Rabbi Michael Lerner, author, editor of Tikkun Magazine
Dan Millman, author, teacher
Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice & The Blade and The Power of Partnership
Tom Hayden, author, activist, former California legislator
Sharon Steffensen, yoga teacher, editor of YOGAChicago
Judith Whitson, publisher, writer, lecturer, teacher
William W. Whitson, writer, speaker, retired Army officer
Jonathan Granoff, Esq. (Ahamed Muhaiyaddeen), author, screenwriter, speaker, activist
Larry Robinson, Vice-mayor, Sebastopol, CA
Tami Coyne, author, spiritual teacher
Pamela Miles, founder of Institute for the Advancement of Complementary Therapies
Gilles Marin, author, founder of Chi Nei Tsang Institute
Raphael Cushnir, author, spiritual teacher
Stephen Dinan, author of Radical Spirit, progressive activist
Sandra Sedgbeer, publisher of PlanetLightworker & Children of the New Earth
Connie Shaw, publisher of Sentient Publications
Laurie Schryver, psychic, teacher, progressive activist
Robert Skutch, author
Lee Skutch, psychologist
Kanu Kogod, Ph.D, anthropologist, author, founder of Bridges in Organizations
David Lurey, yoga teacher
Debbie Milam, author, Reiki master, president of Unlimited Inspiration
Rev. Laura R. Davis, co-founder of Wisdom & Wellness Expo, Reiki master
Rev. C.J. Davis, spiritual teacher, Reiki master,
Elizabeth Ann Bloom, president of Here There & Beyond, Inc.
Mary Alice O'Connor, interfaith minister
Amy Kahn, yoga teacher
Gina Rabbin, psychic, life and business coach
Chetan Parkyn, author, spiritual teacher
Carolina Eastwood, author, spiritual counselor
Sister Mary Jude Jun, OSU is an Ursuline Sister
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Love, compassion, and tolerance are necessities, not luxuries.  Without them, humanity cannot survive.  If you have a particular faith or religion, that is good.  But you can survive without it if you have love, compassion, and tolerance.
---His Holiness the Dalai Lama, For the Love of God

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©2004 Spirit in Matters: Taking a Higher View of Life on Earth
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