September 2008 Archives

Continuing the daily themes for peacemakers, today's peace practice is:
Sharing for Peace

Today, share your practice of peacemaking with two people. Give them this information and invite them to begin the daily practice. As more of us participate in this sharing, our practice will expand into a critical mass.

Today joyfully celebrate your own peace consciousness with at least one other peace-conscious person. Connect either trough e-mail or phone.

Share your experience of growing peace.

Share your gratitude that someone else is as serious about peace as you are.

Share your ideas for helping the world move closer to critical mass.

Do whatever you can, in small or large ways, to assist anyone who wants to become a peacemaker.
Please support my intention for peace by going to Intent.com. Then create your own intention to add the power of your intention toward peace in the world. Share this message with all your friends to create a tidal wave of peace for the planet right now.

Continuing the daily themes for peacemakers, today's peace practice is:
Creating for Peace

Today, come up with at least one creative idea to resolve a conflict, either in your personal life or your family circle or among friends. If you can, try and create an idea that applies to your community, the nation, or the whole world.

You may change an old habit that isn't working, look at someone a new way, offer words you never offered before, or think of an activity that brings people together in good feeling and laughter.

Second, invite a family member or friend to come up with one creative idea of this kind on their own. Creativity feels best when you are the one thinking up the new idea or approach. Make it known that you accept and enjoy creativity. Be loose and easy. Let the ideas flow and try out anything that has appeal. The purpose here is to bond, because only when you bond with others can there be mutual trust. When you trust, there is no need for hidden hostility and suspicion, which are the two great enemies of peace.
Please support my intention for peace by going to Intent.com. Then create your own intention to add the power of your intention toward peace in the world. Share this message with all your friends to create a tidal wave of peace for the planet right now.

The urgency that anyone feels, or doesn't feel, about the 2008 election rests on the issue of waking up. Over two-thirds of Americans tell pollsters that the country is on the wrong track. Dissatisfaction with government is rife. Looming crises such as climate change and global recession call for quick action. But if the conventional wisdom sees this as a race against time before the clock runs out, conventional wisdom is wrong. This election is a consciousness race. Either you see the need to wake up or you want to keep sleeping, which means giving in to inertia and denial.

I make this point because there is no bigger reason in 2008 to ask for change than in 2004. Resentment ran high four years ago; failed policies were evident; the war was seen as dishonest and fruitless; corruption in Congress had been laid at the feet of a discredited Republican leadership. But causes for discontent aren't enough. A willingness to change must be found. It wasn't found in 2004, and the same opposing forces are at work this year. They aren't the usual things we blame: the Republican smear machine, district gerrymandering, voter apathy, disgust with politics, and cynicism. Those are basically rationalizations and easy excuses.

The deeper truth is that change is genuinely threatening and isn't accomplished without movement in consciousness. Psychologists are well aware of the threats that change poses.
-- It's scary to give up what's familiar. Habits make life feel safe and predictable.
--The unknown creates vague, unfocused anxiety.
--Suspicion is aroused by the new and untried.
--Inertia is comfortable, movement is uncomfortable.
--Denial "solves" problems by keeping them out of sight, disguising painful truths.
In the 2008 election, McCain and Palin are pleading to all these feelings of threat and turning them into false positives. The free market, which supposedly heals all problems automatically (never mind the national debt, gross income inequality, runaway foreclosures, the threat of worldwide recession, uncontrollable oil prices, and other gifts of the free market), serves as a model for doing nothing in any area and letting things take care of themselves. It works to promote the appearance of change so long as the same people stay in power doing the same things as before. The right wing has fostered delusional thinking and blocked progress since the Reagan revolution, and it increasingly congratulated itself as consciousness slipped lower and lower. The goal wasn't a permanent Republican majority so much as a permanent sleepover.

Obama's wake-up call requires giving up the comforts of sleep, and so millions of voters naturally resist. Reagan showed the way by claiming that he would reduce government and stop runaway spending, while in reality he increased government and the deficit tripled. To counter this reality, the right learned to lull itself with image over substance and falsehoods over truth. Sadly, the tactic worked back then and continues to work today. Which is not automatically cause for gloom. Consciousness does stir at times when history turns the page. The original upwelling of support for Obama came from consciousness, not from issues. In the spring this upwelling seemed unstoppable, but resistance hadn't taken a stand yet. Now we are witnessing, in the rise of Sarah Palin, the full force of "Let me sleep" when faced with a wake-up call. (She trumps even this level of lethargy by adding know-nothing to do-nothing.) If consciousness wants to move, it will have to push resistance out of the way. That's what happens when individuals strive for change, and the same thing applies to societies.

Visit www.intent.com to read more from Deepak Chopra and other prominent voices.

Continuing the daily themes for peacemakers, today's peace practice is:
Acting for Peace

Today is the day to help someone in need: A child, a sick person, an older or frail person. Help can take many forms. Tell yourself, " Today I will bring a smile to a stranger's face. If someone acts in a hurtful way to me or someone else, I will respond with a gesture of loving kindness. I will send an anonymous gift to someone, however small. I will offer help without asking for gratitude or recognition."
Please support my intention for peace by going to Intent.com. Then create your own intention to add the power of your intention toward peace in the world. Share this message with all your friends to create a tidal wave of peace for the planet right now.

   

In light of International Peace Day, I want to share with you seven techniques for developing peace consciousness.

Continuing the daily themes for peacemakers, today's peace practice is: Speaking for Peace Today, the purpose of speaking is to create happiness in the listener. Have this intention: Today every word I utter will be chosen consciously. I will refrain...

An article in the Washington Post On Faith section in response to their question: John McCain and Sarah Palin say it's time to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. Do you agree? What is...

Continuing the week-long practices for peace, today's theme for peacemakers is: Feeling for Peace This is the day to experience the emotions of peace. The emotions of peace are compassion, understanding, and love. Compassion is the feeling of shared suffering....

Continuing the weeklong practices for peace, today's theme for peacemakers is: Thinking for Peace Thinking has power when it is backed by intention. Today, introduce the intention of peace in your thoughts. Take a few moments of silence, then repeat...

War is the plague that human beings bring upon themselves. It is also a plague we might be able to end. On any given day since you and I were born, some part of the world has been at...

An article in the Washington Post On Faith section in response to their question: Are the economy's recent financial failures also moral failures? Are credit and debt religious issues? Do you have faith in the economy? Money lies closer to...

"Running out of time," "losing track of time"--we talk about time as if it were a finite object. But time is a psychological event. What do you think?...

My post a few weeks ago on Sarah Palin acting as Barack Obama's psychological shadow triggered a lot of people. I thought it would be worthwhile to talk about how one deals with the shadow once it breaks out and...

I was just watching a report about the children of the victims on 9/11 reading the names of those who died on that terrible day. I was so impressed that they were so poignant - a boy who looked about...

Sitting with my American-Chinese-Indian grandson I realized he is the face of the "new world." We are going through a wonderful transition and going beyond our narrow ethnic and nationalistic boundaries....

The race has changed, now what? All reports indicate that the Obama camp is rife with confusion about where they stand in the face of the meteoric rise of Sarah Palin and John McCain's ability to bring the Republican Party...

An article in the Washington Post On Faith section in response to their question: Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin recently suggested that a gas pipeline is "God's will" and the Iraq war is "a task that is from God." Are...

Should Oprah have Sarah Palin on her show? Oprah Winfrey this year did something she has never done before. She used her celebrity status to promote Obama as a presidential candidate. Oprah's support undoubtedly brought him incredible exposure. Todays controversy...

While I was waiting to leave for the airport, I started to think about how our emotional exchanges with others regulate our emotional and biological states....

An article in the Washington Post On Faith section in response to their question: Women are not allowed to become clergy in many conservative religious groups. Is it hypocritical to think that a woman can lead a nation and not...

Back to school this year resulted in tears - mommy tears. For me, it began with the closet cleaning to get rid of old clothes and stock up on new ones. Each outfit we packed up brought so many memories...