Saul David Raye on the podcast

This podcast episode was maybe my favorite one yet. As I learn how to do this podcasting thing a little better with each episode I can see how some episodes get in a better flow than others. This one was like that. Give it a listen.

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Yogi, mystic, healer and explorer of the sacred multi-verse, Saul David Raye stops by IAH to open our hearts and blow our minds. Quite literally. This episode will challenge everything you thought you knew about yoga and hopefully inspire you to dig even deeper within your own soul.

http://itsallhappeningshow.com/index.php/2015/10/29/episode-14-saul-david-raye/

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New age quote of the week!!

For people who know me well, know that I am the most anti new age, new age guy around. I’m deep in the gestalt but I’m constantly making fun of it at the same time. The law of attraction stuff could go either way for me, not sure I’m completely sold on it.

Anyway, this quote from the Abraham-Hicks channelers (the Law of Attraction folks) dug in real deep for me:

“There will be a time, not so far from now, that you will look back on this phase of your life and instead of condemning it or beating up on it…Instead of blaming or guilting, you will feel appreciation for it, because you will understand that a renewed desire for life was born out of this time period that will bring you to physical heights that you could not have achieved without the contrast that gave birth to this desire.”

 

The Abstention Myth

This post is about why it’s such a huge fatal error to not vote by living under some guise that you don’t want to contribute to the “machine.”

Start by listening to the latest episode of the often-brilliant Duncan Trussell podcast:

Click here to listen

Here’s my response that I posted on his Forum:

Duncan! Dude. It is not an all or nothing game. It never has been. If we live in that world then nothing will get incrementally better. Of course, keeping troops in Afghanistan is not what I want or is it a policy that I support. But if you live in the world where any one single issue takes away from what or who the better candidate is about, we’d be nowhere and get completely screwed. I know that you know Sanders is better than Trump or Cruz. Anyone with a half a brain knows that. And to add to that – stopping the modern neocon Republican agenda is of the utmost importance. There is a HUGE difference in consciousness between Sanders and Cruz – HUGE.

But abstention is not an option either – here’s why. YOU are complicit. If you pay taxes and drive a Mercedes AMG and eat meat and and and…then you are complicit. This is your problem too that you’ve helped create. And you are helping to keep the climate within the middle east in it’s current state by not altering your consumer behavior. We all do that by not changing our behaviors! That’s why the game is rigged the way it’s rigged! We, collectively, have created this mess. I do it too, I’m not being phony holy. I drive a ’73 Nova half the time! My dollars are going to support the machine as it’s currently staged because I’m not all that willing to change my comfort level. I try to make it better on some extent but certainly not enough…these are decisions that we make on a daily basis. You DO have a choice about whether or not to kill people in Afghanistan and that extends simply beyond who you vote for. It’s true that the choice is not a direct one, I agree on that. But we can help slowly push the needle in one direction.

The idea that we simply can’t vote for anyone who has any sort of military agenda isn’t gonna fly. This is the Abby Martin syndrome, who I am not a fan of. Everything is fucked all the time, everyone is corrupt and everyone is a war hawk and if you only knew how it really worked and both sides are evil villain despots….whatever. It’s exhausting. No knows enough to be that cynical – not, me, not you and not Abby Martin.

I look at it as very small victories – Obama is a certain level better than Bush and Sanders is a certain level better than Obama and so on and so on. At least Sanders is provoking a discussion that hasn’t been had on the national stage in a long time and so what, he’s a little off on Middle East policy. but that too is a much bigger quagmire than any of us really understand so I can’t judge him or tune him out because of that one issue. Yes, people will die because of these errors but the alternative is far more dark, scary and vile.

Ram Dass on Politics

“One of the systems we’re part of, of course, is the political system. We may wish we weren’t part of it often, but we are. And all of those people playing with the power of the medium of politics, and its effect on the media and its effect on collective human consciousness, and those people that are addicted to power are there because of us. It boils down to that. That we create a field in which they can play with power, and that power is more or less compassionate. And the political system is a system in which as long as you have a passport, you are a member of it whether you like it or not. You’re part of a government, and your not voting is voting. So there’s no way out. You can’t say, “I’m not going to have anything to do with politics.” You can say it, but you’ve got to watch where you’re saying it from. You may say, “I’m not going to get involved with politics because I am so busy with something else that I think is my dominant theme, and I’ll vote, but I’m not going to put my time into campaigning for candidates and things like that, or issues, because my energies are best used here.” That’s fine. If you’ve thought it through and felt that way and can look somebody in the eye and say, “This is the way it is.” If you’re saying, “I’m not having anything to do with politics because it’s too dirty and because I don’t approve of it,”. Forget it – you are abdicating your responsibility to society. It’s as simple as that.” Ram Dass – 1995

Grace

Grace is a path and a mood of love and service to the divine. Not a destination or a feeling we attain by our own will or desires. If we are steadfast in our unconditional love for the divine then grace will be bestowed upon us like the most beautiful lotus petals that arise from the muddy depths of ignorance.