Bringing two Minds to our Experience

“The symbol is a material representation of immaterial qualities and functions. It is an objectification of things subjective in us and subliminal in nature, awakening us to a perception of the world, which may make us aware of a knowledge contained in our soul.”

Peace Symbol

We bring 2 minds to our experience - the analytical , objective (left brain) and the analogical, imaginative, subjective (right brain). In earlier times, the analogical or subjective brain was predominantly employed. Communication came through story and symbolic image.

Hieroglyphic writing, that is, symbols and images, prompt us to “think” by expanding the implications of the image, rather than constructing an image concept based on components, such as letters together create words. Images evoke within the viewer a whole complex of abstract, intuitive notions or states of being—qualities, associations and relationships which cannot be described or defined but only experienced, similarly to the way we experience music and, of course, art.

~Robert Lawler and RA Schwaller de Lubicz

Freedom from your Inner Critic

We've all heard the voice of the inner critic—that part of us that judges us, shames us, and makes us feel inadequate. "You don't want to give in to the Critic, and it doesn't really work to fight against it," explains Dr. Jay Earley. "But there is a way to transform it into an invaluable ally." With Freedom from Your Inner Critic, Dr. Earley and psychotherapist Bonnie Weiss present a self-therapy approach for uncovering the psychological roots of our self-sabotaging inner voices and restoring our sense of worthiness. Filled with insights, case studies, and practical self-therapy exercises, this breakthrough book explores:

• How to connect with your Inner Critic through the groundbreaking approach of Internal Family Systems (IFS) Therapy
• The seven varieties of the Inner Critic and their positive intent
• Healing your Criticized Child that is hurt by your Inner Critic
• Awakening your Inner Champion—the antidote to the influence of your Inner Critic
• How to transform your Inner Critic and learn to love yourself
• How our self-confidence, motivation, and courage improve when we are free from our Inner Critics

"Self-esteem is our birthright," says Dr. Earley. "And even the most intractable Inner Critic can learn to let go and allow you to blossom." Freedom from Your Inner Critic offers a solution to one of our greatest psychological challenges—so you can reclaim your confidence, freedom, and joy in life.

Link to Sounds True >>

The Fastest Growing Organized Crime in the World Right Now

                          

"Imagine that a mother has to give her young child away to somebody, a total stranger, who is going to take this child far away and she may never see him again. Or imagine a father who has to sell his underage teenage daughter, 12 years old,and marry her to another 17 years old boy in another continent, and he may she never see her again. And the tragedy of that is that even if she was in trouble and needed help and ask of his help, he is unable to take her back. This is part of what we call modern day slavery. And slavery exists, it exists now. In the age of wonderment that is my question: in the 21st century why are we allowing slavery to exist? It exists in a big way. They are at least 27 million slaves in this world today. That is far more than the slaves that were transported out of Africa over a period of 400 years East and West. It is the fastest growing organized crime in the world right now. It is even ahead of drugs. Human beings are being sold, and resold, resold and resold. It fetches 32 billion dollar a year in revenue. The problem with this is that it goes under the name of human trafficking. And human trafficking does not does justice to the kind of brutal and dehumanizing things that slavery brings with it. And we don't see it. It is a hidden crime."

Faridoun Hemani

We need to take Action

A compassionate community will not be achieved only through prayer; I pray myself, but I accept its limitations. We need to take action to develop compassion, to create inner peace within ourselves and to share that inner peace with our family and friends. Peace and warm-heartedness can then spread through the community just as ripples radiate out across the water when you drop a pebble into a pond.

Dalai Lama

Dr. Dan Siegel - On Disorganized Attachment in the Making

                      

Most people are doing the best they can!

Another whom we don't know

A Prayer for the Living



Life, 



Break in me whatever needs to be broken.



Fix my hope of ever being fixed. 



Use me. Draw every ounce of creativity out of me. 

Help me live a radically unique life, forever forging a never-before-trodden path in the forest. 



Show me how to love more deeply than I ever thought possible.



Whatever I am still turning away from, keep shoving in my face.



Whatever I am still at war with, help me soften towards, relax into, fully embrace. 



Where my heart is still closed, show me a way to open it without violence.



Where I am still holding on, help me let go. 



Give me challenges and struggles and seemingly insurmountable obstacles, if that will bring an even deeper humility and trust in the intelligence of life.



Help me laugh at my own seriousness.



Allow me to find the humor in the dark places.



Show me a profound sense of rest in the midst of the storm.

Don't spare me from the truth. Ever. 



Let gratitude be my guide.

Let forgiveness be my mantra.



Let this moment be a constant companion. 



Let me see your face in every face. 



Let me feel your warm presence in my own presence. 



Hold me when I stumble. 



Breathe me when I cannot breathe. 



Let me die living, not live dying.



Amen.



Jeff Foster

Only by those who are peaceful

"The startling truth is that our best efforts for civil rights, international peace, population control, conservation of natural resources, and assistance to the starving of the earth-urgent as they are–will destroy rather than help if made in the present spirit.

For, as things stand, we have nothing to give. If our own riches and our own way of life are not enjoyed here, they will not be enjoyed anywhere else. Certainly they will supply the immediate jolt of energy and hope that methedrine, and similar drugs, give in extreme fatigue.

But peace can be made only by those who are peaceful, and love can be shown only by those who love. No work of love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now."

Alan Watts