Possible solutions to the worlds problems

http://www.zengardner.com/hammer-nail/

[h=1]The Hammer and the Nail[/h]hammer-nail.webp

by Robert Cinque
Contributor
The hammer sees only the nail. If it were also a screwdriver, it would be able to see screws, too. But, it’s a hammer and therefore everything that is not a nail goes unnoticed.
The ego sees only what it desires. If it were also a fish, it would be able to swim, too. But, it’s an ego and therefore everything that is not a desire goes unnoticed.
The hammer is designed to drive nails. The ego is designed to get what it wants. There is nothing wrong with this, it’s just that there is more to life than nails and desires.

Nails comes naturally to hammers and desires come naturally to egos. Changing this is impossible.
My point is this: If I am only an ego with a hammer, then I can only nail my desires or desire my nails. However, if I am the one who is aware of my ego and hammer, then my experience of life expands infinitely in all directions and I notice everything, not just nails and desires.
Making this distinction is the beginning of authentic spiritual life. This is because spiritual life is about what is true, not just what is assumed to be true that then becomes a massive context to which everything is now subject.
The ego is an assumption of a separate self that is then overlaid onto life. If I subject my awareness to this assumption, these ego colored glasses, then I will see only what the ego sees.
If I identify with my awareness, then I am open to whatever awareness is aware of, which is a helluva lot more than nails and desires. I’m still aware of them, but am not limited to just them.
Every religious tradition in the world, from Hinduism to the New Age, is based on the assumption of a separate self. Therefore, it is an overlay projected onto life. It’s not about Life, it’s about assumptions about life. It’s the difference between food and pictures of food. If you try to live on pictures of food, you will die.
The Current of Life, the Pulse, the Music, the Passion, the Intensity, the Searing Radiance of Existence is central to Life, not provincial superstitions like ego. It’s understandable that we invent superstitions and project them onto life. It’s understandable, yes, but that doesn’t make them true.
Every religious tradition assumes a separate self that is going from here to there, from earth to heaven, from birth to death. While it is true that lifeforms are born and die, the underlying Reality in which these cycles are occurring is the Real Deal. The fish in the ocean are born and die, but the Ocean remains. Therefore, the Ocean is the True Condition of the fish, not its ideas about itself. The fish would say, “What Ocean?”
In the same way, the ego says, What God? I exist, what I say and what I think and what I want are God. In this way, false gods are overlaid onto Real God, Life God, Reality God, Actual God. Beliefs about God replace God. Now, you’re lost. You’re lost and don’t know it. You’ve got your nose so close to the map, you can’t see where you’re going.
The priests say, “You’re not doing it right.” The doctors say, “Take this prescription and come back in 2 weeks”. The therapist says, “Apply this formula so that you can heal and adapt to society.”
Ho fucking hum. Religious, medical, and therapeutic prescriptions for a false disease bore me. Not only that, they really piss me off because well meaning people believe this shit and are so buried, they can’t even see the bottom of the hole.
“If you repeat a lie enough, everyone will believe it.”
“A lie doesn’t become truth because everyone believes it. A truth doesn’t become a lie because no one sees it.”
The individuated self appears spontaneously in Nature, just like stars, planets and galaxies. These are objects OF consciousness. We are aware OF them. Therefore, consciousness is prior TO them. This means that Consciousness is the Principle of Existence, not objects, not thoughts, not ideas, not beliefs, not “your truth”, not mine, not your ego, not mine.
Now, you ask, What is Consciousness? Your awareness of Awareness enables you to ask this question. Consciousness becomes an object to itself. This is called Manifest Existence, the Universe, the Word become Flesh, the Incarnation of the Divine, the Kingdom of Heaven, the Garden of Eden. Where there is awareness of Awareness, the Nature of Reality shines brightly and illuminates the map to the point where you see that you have been eating the menu for the Meal. It’s the difference between pictures of sex and sex itself. Which do you prefer?
Spiritual life is about Truth, Absolute Truth, What has always been True, not absolute beliefs, dogmatic presumptions, or facsimiles of Truth.
No separate self ever discovered the Truth. Spiritual luminaries like Jesus and Adi Da were not separate selves. They were identified with the Divine Condition. Jesus spoke like God speaks, that’s why he was crucified. He wasn’t a megalomaniac, the separate self was not inflated to grandiose proportions, there was no separate self, only a clear passage for Truth to Radiate.
That’s why he wanted us to contemplate his State and put our attention on It, so that It would duplicate his realization in us. It was never about cultic worship of him, it was about the destruction of the cultist and his or her false presumptions about separateness from Love (God), our Actual Condition. This is true repentance, the renouncement of the false self and its idols, so that Love Intimacy, Heart Communion with Life is possible. Love Communion with Infinite Life is authentic spiritual practice. It’s the difference between a Juicy Kiss and a boring book that doesn’t even have any pictures.
Spiritual life is not boring, is not dry, is not effortful. It takes no effort to be attracted to What is True, Beautiful, and Alive as all things. It’s real time love communion, not brain/mind ideas plastered onto Life. Everyone possesses this ability. It may be buried beneath the rubble, but it’s still there.
Dig it up.
 
Solution is simple and can be found in one of the later X-files episodes. Mulder finds a genie bottle and makes a wish in the middle of a busy city street. He says something like, "I wish for world peace." The genie smiles and says, "No problem." Mulder looks up and everyone in the city is gone, everyone in the world is gone.

This is your only feasible solution to the worlds problems.
 
Eventhorizon said:
Solution is simple and can be found in one of the later X-files episodes. Mulder finds a genie bottle and makes a wish in the middle of a busy city street. He says something like, "I wish for world peace." The genie smiles and says, "No problem." Mulder looks up and everyone in the city is gone, everyone in the world is gone.

This is your only feasible solution to the worlds problems.
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Nonsense

lol

For mulder his hopes were pinned to exposing the government cover up over aliens and to get to the truth...those were his ego desires

So there are perhaps two aspects to solving the worlds problems. On one hand there is what we all collectively do to try and change the whole game for example by how we vote and spend

And then there is what we do as individuals to ensure our personal happiness whilst that larger process is at work; this concerns the changes we make in our own life

For some this would be about finding ways to remain sane in an otherwise insane world

But to say things can't change is to ignore history; they can and do change and are in fact changing right now

So there are things we can try to be a part of to bring wider change and then there are things we can do within our own lives to ensure our health, safety, happiness and wellbeing whilst the wider change is occuring

Mulder was very much focussed on the wider change perhaps to the detriment of his own immediate happiness. For example he perhaps didn't properly notice the awesome woman who was right by his side.....well he did notice her and appreciate her...but he didn't take their connection to that deeper level..however that allowed the ongoing tension between them through the series that was one of the defining aspects of the show

mulder might counter argue this by saying that he derived satisfaction, adventure, excitement and enjoyment from the journey he was on to bring a wider change and that in fact his drive in that process was sustaining him on a personal level

Different things are important to different people. For some the truth is more important than 'happiness' and in fact in pursing it they find that the two are one
 
It was a fantasy show. I believe it was trying to answer a question most people ask and answer it with humor but in a way that would make people think. But thank you for the in-depth response.
 
Eventhorizon said:
It was a fantasy show. I believe it was trying to answer a question most people ask and answer it with humor but in a way that would make people think. But thank you for the in-depth response.
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lol

well you brought it up not me! :)
 
Eventhorizon said:
Solution is simple and can be found in one of the later X-files episodes. Mulder finds a genie bottle and makes a wish in the middle of a busy city street. He says something like, "I wish for world peace." The genie smiles and says, "No problem." Mulder looks up and everyone in the city is gone, everyone in the world is gone.

This is your only feasible solution to the worlds problems.
Click to expand...

Man that is awesome, is that a real episode? I wish I'd seen that.

I wonder what your avatar is btw?

Sometimes when I think of Dune and when in its conclusion it talks about how Dune was created or part of it is maintained as desertified in order to "train the faithful" or something like that it makes me think that the existence and persistence of social problems may serve a similar purpose. That does not make be think they are insoluable just that there will always be some to test the metal of humankind.
 
Lark said:
Man that is awesome, is that a real episode? I wish I'd seen that.

I wonder what your avatar is btw?

Sometimes when I think of Dune and when in its conclusion it talks about how Dune was created or part of it is maintained as desertified in order to "train the faithful" or something like that it makes me think that the existence and persistence of social problems may serve a similar purpose. That does not make be think they are insoluable just that there will always be some to test the metal of humankind.
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Only from one of the best shows ever on TV. Farscape. :)
 
Eventhorizon said:
Only from one of the best shows ever on TV. Farscape. :)
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I know it was revived by the network after I stopped watching it, I'd suspected it was either Farscape or Buffy.
 
Lark said:
I know it was revived by the network after I stopped watching it, I'd suspected it was either Farscape or Buffy.
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Hmmm...you may be talking about when it was cancelled. The show was just too expensive even though it had a huge fan base. So cancelled, fans went crazy and they created the peacekeeper wars to try and tie up all the loose ends. I miss that show but am glad it never sucked as it might have if they ran out of story line.

The xfiles episode with Mulder and the genie is real. Just dont remember which one.
 
Has anybody heard of anything that might help us resolve Fukushima before it gets worse?
 
I reckon if the world recovered its senses and gave heteronomativity the credit it deserves rather than seeking to endlessly validate homosexuals and homosexuality it'd be a start.
 
I think this whole thing has a lot more to do with us learning how to take better care of ourselves, hence why it wasn't stopped in the first place as entities (humans, ETs, spiritual, religious, otherwise) have variously started or stopped other disasters... no, there are definitely physical causes for radiation leaking from Fukushima, and along the lines of other nuclear phenomena, I don't think it has much to do with homosexuality. Trying to homosexually gang-rape angels was Sodom's last straw, not the first or only, and a reread of disasters caused by God and the reasoning behind them might be in order... I can't think of a polite way to describe the face-palming that must be going on over some of this, thankfully God's more understanding than me...
 
Wave of action global protests started today:

www.waveofaction.org/

We Are A Movement Of Movements

The Worldwide #WaveOfAction begins April 4th and runs through July 4th. During this three-month cycle, people throughout the world will be protesting corruption, rallying around solutions and taking part in alternative systems. The new paradigm will be on full display. Studies have proven that it only takes 3.5% of the population taking nonviolent action to create meaningful and positive change. The #WaveOfAction gives all of us who want change a powerful opportunity to #EvolveSociety. Change-makers all over the world will be engaged at the same time in an unprecedented wave of transformation.

On April 4th, there will be launch celebrations at hundreds of former Occupy locations globally. We will honor Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy of nonviolent action and spend the day connecting with allies and strategizing Spring action campaigns. This crowdsourced campaign will become what you, the people, make of it, self-organizing and organically evolving, a new culture will emerge. What are you most passionate about? What are you doing to be the change? Whatever it is, passionately be it in public this Spring. Get together with like-minded friends and have fun with it. We have power in numbers. United we are unstoppable. OUR TIME HAS COME!!

Please use these hashtags ~ #WaveOfAction #GlobalSpring #ReOccupy #BeTheChange

Here is a partial list of April 4th #‎WaveOfAction Facebook event listings. The Worldwide Wave is incredibly decentralized, hard to keep track of everything happening. Please send info for events we have missed to Admin@WaveOfAction.org.

General Listings | New York City | London / UK | Chicago | Boston | Reno, Nevada | Fort Wayne, Indiana | Orange County, CA | Windhoek, Namibia | Philadelphia | Mississippi | Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | Sydney, Australia | Amsterdam | Seville, Spain | Ontario, Canada | Various cities, Germany | Johannesburg, Za | Various cities, South Africa | Lansing, Michigan | 5 cities in Tennessee | Brussels, Belgium | Downtown LA | San Diego | Pittsburgh | Chile

In service to the many people who refuse to use Facebook for organizing, we will be introducing an online organizing platform and tools to help facilitate actions. Stay tuned for more info. Click on map below to find an April 4th location near you...
 
[video=youtube;EYbE9M9yc8A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYbE9M9yc8A[/video]
 
This website contain links to info about how to protect yourself from the coming collapse of the dollar

http://www.wealthreporter.com/sa/fed-employees-trap.html?prcode=PPSIQ349

[h=1]Must Read: Fed Employees Rollout A Bold Idea To Trap The Entire Country’s Wealth[/h]
[h=5]3.24.2014 BY KELLY BROWN[/h]
Free market economists are not going to be happy about this...
A major financial news source just published shocking details about a research report by two employees at the Federal Reserve Bank. The 36-page report applauds the use of “capital controls” in global markets.
If you’re unfamiliar with the term “capital controls,” it’s probably because we tend to avoid them in the United States in favor of a free market economy.
Capital controls are simply laws that regulate and restrict what you are allowed to do with your money by regulating the flow of cash in and out of a national economy. The laws define such things as where you can invest your cash and how you can allocate your assets.
If you take a look around the globe, you’ll see several recent example—almost always from countries experiencing a currency crisis:

  • In Cyprus...some citizens cannot withdraw or write checks for more than €300 per day from their own accounts. These controls were put in place after the Greek debt crisis of 2012 and are set to continue until year-end.
  • In Iceland...capital controls imposed in 2008 have blockaded offshore investors from selling $7.2 billion in assets.
  • In Argentina...citizens must pay an extra tax on vacations abroad.
  • In the Ukraine...recent tensions sparked a series of capital controls. Ukrainians must wait six working days before making any type of foreign currency purchases. In addition, they cannot exchange more than the equivalent of $5,800 USD within a given time period.
You might be wondering… how are these draconian laws “a useful tool for managing financial stability” as the recent Fed paper says?
Well, the Fed research claims that capital controls would protect the U.S. dollar from the effects of rapid cash movements...
Of course, the only countries that are worried about capital controls are those deeply worried about a currency crisis.
According to Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, “Capital controls signal that a country is very worried about preserving its foreign exchange....That means bad things are in the wind.”
For more than 50 years, Americans have never really thought twice about the value of our currency.
But times are rapidly changing. And most Americans don’t realize that the greatest weapon in our nation’s arsenal is not our military might or our education system, but the simple fact that the U.S. dollar is the world’s “reserve currency.” As such, our money forms the basis of the global financial system. And banks around the world hold our dollars in reserve against their loans.
That’s why, for the past few decades, we have been able to print and borrow trillions of dollars, with no real negative impact.
We are the only country in the world that does not have to pay for imports in a foreign currency. We can rack up enormous debts and then print more money.
But this exorbitant privilege could soon expire, because many of the most powerful countries around the world (including China and Russia) are looking for a new world reserve currency.
And when the U.S. dollar is no longer the world’s reserve currency… when we can no longer print money and borrow absurd sums without consequence– we are in trouble.
One financial guru, Porter Stansberry, believes this currency collapse in America is actually going to happen much sooner than most people think. He says that’s how currency collapses happen… gradually… slowly… then all of a sudden. And Mr. Stansberry has an uncanny track record of predicting some of the biggest moves in the economy over the past decade. In 2006 he announced GM would go bankrupt and in 2007 he predicted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would also soon go bankrupt. Both of his predictions came to fruition.
Now Stansberry says the next big collapse could be America’s currency. And even though most Americans think this could never happen… not here…Stansberry believes new laws set to go in place on July 1st 2014 will dramatically accelerate this process.
What is this law that was secretly passed by the Obama Administration… and how will it affect you, your money, and the U.S. dollar?
Stansberry and his Baltimore-based research team have put together a free slide presentation that explains everything you need to know. Get the facts and protect yourself here.
 
I think a great deal of the problems caused in the recent recession were a result of many of middle or small income groups who were dependable as tax payers discovering legitimate tax avoidance schemes which the uber-rich had exploited for a long, long time.
 
Lark said:
I think a great deal of the problems caused in the recent recession were a result of many of middle or small income groups who were dependable as tax payers discovering legitimate tax avoidance schemes which the uber-rich had exploited for a long, long time.
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No it was not the little guy who caused the recession

It was wallstreet and the government which they have taken over
 
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/b...lty-cards-plans-to-go-nationwide-9256656.html

[h=1]Breaking the chains on high streets: A movement for independent local loyalty cards plans to go nationwide[/h]
What started as a regional push to get people shopping locally is spreading across the country, armed with the latest weapons against the chain stores hogging the high street.

Independent shops have been badly hit by the financial crisis, with 18 stores closing every day last year across the UK's biggest town centres. Three years ago, the Government even roped in the television presenter Mary Portas to review ways of reinvigorating Britain's battered high streets, after she concluded that independents had been "progressively squeezed out" by bigger rivals with better access to bank loans.
But there is hope of a revival: by harnessing social media, smartphone apps and a paid-for discount card, two Liverpudlians have launched a movement with more than 5,000 members.
David Williams was walking through the streets of Liverpool with his life-long friend Oliver Press and noticed how: "the fourth Tesco and third Costa Coffee [had] opened up in a square mile of where we live. We knew we had to do something".
The pair, both 23, started a blog about the city's independent traders and, after it gathered momentum, launched Independent Liverpool in August last year. The concept is a simple one: shoppers pay £10 for the discount card for their city, and use the sleek website or the associated app to track down the local traders with special offers for members. Since launching, they've sold around 5,000 cards and have more than 60 independent business owners on board.
One of those is Kate Hughes, owner of the Free State Kitchen in Liverpool city centre, which signed up last September. She said: "For us, it's brought a lot of people to our side of town, which people might not have known about. It's been fantastic.
"There's a really good buzz on Twitter about supporting independents. It's really done what it's set out to do."
And Jeni Wadkin, managing director of Siren, a bar in the city's Baltic Quarter, said the scheme had "helped us to reach a wider market and created a better brand awareness for us. Being a small independent business means that we have a very limited budget for marketing. This means that being promoted through [Independent Liverpool's] social media/publicity is a massive bonus.
"I think the card has generated a lot more awareness of all independents in the city, which is great for all of us."
And now, with a friend in the Midlands, Joe Schuppler, the pair have launched Independent Birmingham, and plan to launch in other cities.
Mr Schuppler said: "Often Birmingham gets a bad press and people do think it's dull and generic. However, on closer inspection, there are so many wonderfully unique and intriguing independents out there just waiting for people to discover them. And that is what we're doing.
"We're not trying to be cynical and say 'all chains are terrible, only visit independents', as that would be impractical. What we are saying is that these places exist and are really amazing, and if you want to try somewhere different or if you feel like supporting the local community and those businesses with a local conscience, then these are the places you can visit, and here is what they are all about."
Mr Williams reckons the scheme could make a big difference across the country. He said: "When we first thought about the card and put the idea out there, the feedback was phenomenal. We think it can make a huge difference nationwide."
A British Retail Consortium spokesperson added: "This kind of co-operation will attract shoppers to high streets and town centres and this is to be encouraged. As consumers are increasingly conscious of how much they are spending, [offering discounts] will become more and more attractive to customers."
 
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