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“Where Swami answers your questions, and you will question his answers.”
Dear Swami:
Is it possible to shift the consciousness of a whole country? Are there any examples in history?
Anna Stezia,
Portland, Oregon
Dear Anna:
Well, from what I understand the shift really hit the fan in Atlantis a few millennia back. Of course, that example is a little over the top, not to mention under the bottom. A little closer to here and now, it happened in America in 1776, and being a certain kind of mystic -- an optimystic -- I say it can happen again. Only this time, we won’t need a revolution. It will take an evolution where we the people wake up to realize that we are the leaders we’ve been waiting for. Imagine ... the unarmed forces overgrowing the current system from the grassroots up, a nonviolent evolution where only a few big shots are fired. And here’s the good news: people are already starting to wake up and wise up, and you know what that means, don’t you? The “up-wising” has begun!
Dear Swami:
My daughter came home from college with a pierced lip. Although she is legally an adult and I believe has the right to manage her own body, I find facial piercing "off-putting." She has marred her natural beauty and repulsed potential employers -- first impressions count! Not to mention having that metal ring around the teeth we paid $3000 to straighten. How can I convince her to take the ring out and let her lip heal?
Carmen Leah Greedon,
Montpelier, Vermont
Dear Carmen:
First of all, let’s put things in perspective. What about all the crazy things YOU used to do when you were trying to drive YOUR parents up the wall? People say to me, “Swami, I don’t believe in karma. What should I do?” And my answer is, “Have kids.” You know, this reminds me of when I was a teenager, growing up in a very bad neighborhood in Oklahoma. In spite of being out there in the boonies, we were way ahead of our time. Body piercing was very popular, only we called it “stabbing.” On the other hand, I don’t think Elvis ever sang, “Won’t You Wear My Ring Around Your Lip ... to Tell the World You’re Oh So Hip.”
I can certainly understand your concern about your daughter making the right impression -- out where I live, they call facial piercings “unemployment insurance,” guaranteed to insure your unemployment almost anywhere. So if you really care about your daughter’s well-being -- and you’re willing to take extreme measures to get results -- I recommend shock therapy. Go get your lower lip pierced, and get not one ring but ten! You will look like a 1950 Buick, but I tell you what. Her scream will be the last piercing thing she does.
Dear Swami:
I meditate at least three hours a day, and I have been told that I will achieve enlightenment this lifetime. I hope you don’t think this is a silly question, but here goes: Will enlightenment be boring?
Frieda Mind,
Watsonville, California
Dear Frieda:
First of all, there is no need to be concerned about asking a silly question. I mean, look at who you are asking. Secondly, understand that enlightenment is an internal state and you may not look any different from the outside. As the saying goes, “Before enlightenment, wash dishes. After enlightenment, wash dishes -- but they’re 50% brighter.” No, the key to having an interesting life is finding a worthy purpose and serving others, so here’s what I suggest: Find yourself an unenlightened friend, and vow not to leave the planet until your friend is also enlightened. I call it the “Buddysattva” program, and it’s guaranteed to speed up spiritual evolution by making sure enlightening strikes twice as often.
Beyondanews Update...
The One Suggestion
August 4, 2006
by Steve Bhaerman
There are no sides, only angles -- and when we view things from the right angle, it’s obvious we’re all on the same side.
-- Swami Beyondananda
The three peoples of the Ten Commandments are in one holy hell of a mess.
At a time when we should be mobilizing the wisdom and reverence we share to cultivate miracles, we seem to be creating anti-miracles instead. Last week, an Israeli air strike killed and wounded young children in Qana, the Lebanese village where Jesus was said to have performed his first miracle by turning water into wine. Maybe the Dalai Lama was right when he reportedly joked that if we humans destroy ourselves, that would finally create the peace on earth we’ve longed for
The discourse has reached a new low as the predictable rationalizations come from both sides: “Look what they are doing to us!” and “We have no choice -- they MADE us do it!” From one side, I have received devastating photos of dead children (occasionally accompanied by a toxic anti-semitic screed). From the other comes the “logical” rationalization, “If the Arabs lay down their weapons, there’ll be no more war. If the Israelis lay down theirs, there’ll be no more Israel.”
“The Arabs don’t care about their children! They purposely put them in harm’s way!” is the Israeli war cry. The Arabs, they tell us, celebrate when an Israeli child is killed. The Jews, on the other hand, are sad when they have to kill Lebanese children. Well, guess what? Those kids are just as dead regardless of the intention. And any time people say “we had no choice,” that is already wrong. It is a failure of imagination, and a triumph of fear. It may be a reassuring rationalization inside the state of Israel or even the Jewish community at large, but outside those circles, it’s transparent as hell.
Meanwhile, in the other so-called “religious” camp, we have a scorpionic culture where revenge itself is a way of life and people don’t seem to mind stinging themselves to death. After a century that produced Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama as examples for how to “overgrow” oppression, the best these people can do is blow themselves and innocent civilians up? The Arab world has never done a thing for the Palestinians except set them up as patsies in their oxymoronic “holy war” against Israel
The problem is, this is a tribal conflict, and tribal conflicts never really end, at least not through war. The only way they end is through an upwelling of moral authority from one side or the other or both which say “enough killing and enough dying, there must be another way.” Sadly, there doesn’t yet seem to have been enough killing or enough dying.
The other factor -- the real elephant in the living room here -- is that there is no congruent worldwide authority to stop the fighting and make it stick, and turn the tide toward building the infrastructure of peace. The United States’ interest in the region is purely imperialistic, and this is apparent to just about everyone. Given the Iraqi Horror Picture Show -- or what Jon Stewart calls “Mess-opotamia” -- we have zero moral authority in the Arab world or for that matter, in any world. And while we excuse and justify everything Israel does in its “defense” (emboldening the militarists there, as here) our policy toward the Arabs -- as witnessed by the civilian death toll since we took Iraq out of the frying pan and tossed it into the fire -- seems to be “control burn genocide.”
As for the rest of us -- those who understand the definition of insanity as “continuing to do the same thing over and over and expecting different results” -- what do we do? How do we handle the fear-filled positionality of those trapped on both sides of the issue? Is there a way we can change the level of discourse and help turn a tragic disaster into a worldwide learning opportunity?
The One Suggestion: We’re All In It Together
We’ve had thousands of years to “live by” the Ten Commandments, and looking at history we’d have to sadly conclude that either those Commandments haven’t done the job, or we haven’t. Maybe the whole idea of “commandments” just engenders resistance. Or maybe ten are just too many of ‘em. Maybe a whole new approach is in order, like maybe ... One Suggestion.
Actually, there has been one suggestion throughout history that has been largely ignored: Treat others as you would choose to be treated. When you take every religious path from African Traditional to Zoroastroanism, all of them have the same notion at their root -- some version of the Golden Rule. One major problem with the invocation to “Love thy neighbor as thyself” is that most of us have learned from the cultural “field” to NOT love ourselves, but that is a longer conversation.
The Swami has said there are two kinds of people in the world -- the kind of people who divide people into two kinds of people, and the kind who don’t. At the risk of sounding like the former, I suggest there are two competing worldviews that are rapidly bringing the conversation to a head:
1. We’re all in it together.
2. It’s every man for himself.
While our religious institutions pay lip service to the “all in it together” view, our far more influential commercial institutions worship at the “every man for himself” shrine. We take the Darwinist (actually social Darwinist) credo at face value, “survival of the fittest.” Actually, more recent research in biology tells us that the real “natural law” is “survival of the fitting.” That which best fits the environment, survives. And in the current environment -- a world on the brink of either great disaster or great breakthrough -- “survival of the fittest” doesn’t fit. Why? Because we can no longer afford to spend the energy and resources protecting ourselves from each other.
I’ve been inspired recently working with cell biologist Bruce Lipton on a book where we seek to apply the wisdom of the body to the body politic. Your body is a “community” of 50 trillion cells closely cooperating to bring the world “you” every day. Cells may look different from each other, have different duties and needs, but cells and organs “understand” they’re all in it together for the good of the common organism. They’re in “competition,” only in the original Greek meaning of the word, “to strive together.” Each system is striving together with the others to create health and functionality. In other words, it’s not a normal state of affairs for the liver to invade the pancreas and claim the Islets of Langerhans for its own.
What if we looked at the nations of the world -- the peoples, the tribes -- each as an organ designed to make a unique contribution to the whole? Sound too idealistic? Contemplate the alternative, then. Consider that biology tells us that cooperation engenders greater efficiency, effectiveness and awareness. Or, if you’re into the Scriptures, consider that not even the religious right has been able to twist Jesus’s words into “Blessed are the war-makers,” or “the mightiest armies shall inherit the earth.”
It’s the Behavior, Stupid!
So how do we generate the “moral authority” to stop the killing and cultivate the forces of cooperation? The first step is to make a distinction between people (or “a people”) and their behavior. Justice in its simplest form is applying rules fairly across the board. This would seem simple enough, but we’re conditioned by habit to exempt ourselves from the rules we make for others. A friend of mine who was a private eye in a city we’ll call “Metropolis” once attended a party where high level officials -- including a well-known judge -- were snorting cocaine. My friend had the audacity to approach the judge and say, “Isn’t this what you send people to jail for?
The judge replied -- without a lick of irony -- “Oh, well those people are criminals.”
The first important step -- and this can be undertaken by an alliance of existing peace and justice organizations in the world -- is to come to some agreement as to the appropriate behavior on this “shrinking world that could definitely use a good shrink.” This is a conversation that should be taking place in every town and village on the planet, from exclusive suburb to primitive village. Seriously. We have -- in the form of the World Café and other nonviolent communications models -- plenty of techniques for calling forth extraordinary wisdom from ordinary folks.
In ratifying a “Declaration of Interdependence” or whatever we call it -- from the grassroots up -- we are establishing “new rules” based on the One Suggestion of “We’re all in it together.” This doesn’t mean some sticky co-dependent relationship where the working stiffs support parasites. On the contrary, it infers participation. In the body, there is universal health care and full employment -- truly “no cell left behind.” But every cell must participate.
In contrast to the “death trip” our current regime seems to be on, guaranteeing us perpetual warfare, loss of civil liberties, environmental destruction and growing gap between rich and poor, what if we began to “feed” the “we’re all in it together” paradigm? What would it look like to live for our countries instead of dying for them? What if we declared a new mission for the world, to go along with the “new rules”: We are here on the planet to re-grow the Garden from the grassroots up, and have a heaven of a time doing it.
By what authority would we or could we do this? Well, by the authority of all we know in our heads and in our hearts. Put another way, ancient wisdom and modern science BOTH can’t be wrong, can they?
Moral Authority -- From the Ideal to the Real Deal
What if -- as suggested earlier -- enough people around the world, influential and otherwise, ratified a standard of behavior that would apply universally? What if this were presented to the United Nations -- currently a very flawed institution, but all we have internationally -- as a mandate? These are the universally-applied principles that we the people of the world agree to hold ourselves to.
Would this mean the military would “disappear?” Of course not, not anymore than you would want your immune system to disappear. But the role would change so that resources could be mobilized in times of need or disaster, and so that very targeted operations could be initiated against “sociopathogens.” From time to time, we might expect “preemptive non-force” to fail and a disagreement to degenerate into violence. Or perhaps, a criminal gang needs to be defused and disarmed.
In these cases, there is a need for a completely transparent “police action” to see to it that the malignancy (i.e., toxic behavior in violation of the guidelines a vast majority of humans agree on) doesn’t spread. If you consider the inventiveness of weapons makers, could you imagine “weapons” that temporarily immobilize without doing harm? Seriously. Or humorously, for that matter. What would have happened had Israel dropped nitrous oxide on Hezbollah?
Fundamental to this new world view is the unwavering understanding that war itself is a “racket” good for “absolutely nothing.” At the same time, we must also realize the awesome opportunity -- that we humans have the intelligence, the imagination, and the technology to play and win what Buckminster Fuller called the World Game: “Make the world work, for 100% of humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone.”
So what’s standing in the way? Before we point to a group -- whether that be the neocons or Hezbollah or the “international bankers” or the reptiles from outer space -- we must understand one thing: The overwhelming majority of human beings -- when removed for a moment from fear-mongering manipulation -- would prefer to live together in peace, joy, health and prosperity. Only a deeply-flawed individual would deprive themselves of that future just so they can deprive someone else. For people like that -- hey, where’s Jack Kevorkian when you need him?
So again, what’s in the way? What’s to keep 80% or 90% of humanity from having their way in spite of the small group of pro-death activists? In response to the ominous thought that “the whole world is controlled by just a few people,” I say “Great news!” It means there are way, way more of us than there are of them. Like the classic story of the Lone Ranger and Tonto being caught in an ambush. “Well Tonto,” says the Masked Man, “We’re surrounded by Indians. Looks like we’re done for.”
And Tonto says, “What you mean WE, kemosabe?”
When we the people of the world look at the warmakers and say, “What you mean WE, kemosabe?” it will send a signal to the cosmos that there is indeed intelligent life on this planet.
So what do we do in the interim? What part can we play to bring about that day? First of all, entertain the possibility. One of the deadliest diseases of the spirit we suffer in our postmodern culture is what Michael Lerner calls “cynical realism,” and what Swami calls “smartyrdom.” We are just too smart, too jaded to be hopeful. To avoid the hurt of failing at something noble, to avoid being -- God forbid -- a fool for love, the cynical realist will wink and nod and say, “It’s always been that way, it’s always going to be that way, so I’m going to get mine.” And that’s how those too smart to be a fool for love end up being a fool for evil.
Secondly, let go of your story. Part of the intransigence in the Middle East (and every other region where rivalry has turned to hatred) has to do with people so identifying with their stories -- or their “people’s” story -- that they end up living a surrogate life based on something that happened generations ago. The worst thing about it is that it begets more of the same, and stands as an obstacle both to learning and to making a real contribution to the world.
As a kid growing up in a Jewish family, I was well-immersed in Jewish history (“They tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat!”). Thank God we had no relatives that we knew of who died in the Holocaust, but the horror of that was always real for me, as was the slogan, “Never again!” But at some point in my adult life, the question arose, did “never again” mean never again for the Jews? Or never again for anyone? If the lesson learned and the sacred mission arising out of that horror is never again will genocide be tolerated for anyone, then perhaps the awful suffering has actually made a contribution to the world.
Finally, we need to get off our head trips and join together on the heart trip. Just as surely as heart cells “entrain” to beat together, our individual human hearts are attuned to the same attuning fork. It’s our minds that keep us separated. Now I know some hardheaded paragons of rationality are shaking their hard heads right about now, clucking about how I underestimate the power of reason. Not at all. I’ve seen the power reason has to provide us with all the rationalizations we need -- to act irrationally. Now we need the power of reason to be used in the service of the heart, to generate the yet unthought of solutions that will prevent the unthinkable.
Note: Please feel free to respond to this article, but please avoid sending me material which shows one side is right and the other is wrong. I’ve got files of evidence for both sides. What we need now are creative solutions that can take us to a new level. Send those.
Feed Two Birds With One Scone
If you’re as concerned as we are about the serious condition of this world (due no doubt to serious conditioning), here’s how you can help. To make it easier and less expensive to give the gift of laughter, raise the laugh expectancy on the planet, and create a farce field powerful enough to laugh the current bunch of unfunny clowns out of power, we have redesigned the Fool Enchilada Special to make Swami’s cosmic comedy more affordable. The Fool Enchilada Special includes:
The Swami for Precedent book now with an extended shelf-life through 2008!
Swami’s Tickling the Body Politic DVD, described by raving critics as a “kitschy, kitschy coup!”
Swami’s Supreme Court Jester CD, where he finally reveals his true political ambitions.
His Drive Your Karma, Curb Your Dogma music and comedy CD, filled with studio comedy and hummable tunes such as “Nonjudgment Day” and “May I Have This ABunDance With You.”
His Beyondananda and Beyond: Two Takes on the Healing Laughter CD featuring both Swami and his alter ego Steve Bhaerman on how to stay on the “Foo Ling” path.
His Don’t Squeeze the Shaman CD, early metaphysical Swami remixed with an added feature -- the G-U-R-U Rap Song (“Gee You Are You”)
All for the absurdly low price of $69, which includes domestic shipping. If you were to buy these items individually online, they would cost $112 Act now before Swami gets sellers’ remorse! Just click here and scroll down one line.
Notes From the Trail
If you’re interested in Steve Bhaerman’s spiritual / political “uncommontary,” subscribe to Notes From the Trail. It’s absolutely free, although donations are cheerfully accepted. For a $25 donation (click here and scroll down), Swami will send you an autographed copy of his latest book, Swami for Precedent: A 7-Step Plan to Heal the Body Politic and Cure Electile Dysfunction -- or the CD or DVD or your choice. If you enjoy this mix of current affairs, timeless wisdom and just the right measure of healing laughter, put your money where your mouse is. Subscribe now, and enjoy your gift.
May the FARCE be with you,
Steve Bhaerman
(800) SWAMI-BE
"The American Evolution"
A New Story for a New World
August 15, 2006
Dear Friends,
If you’re like millions and millions of others, you’ve watched events unfold over the past several years and wondered, “Is there intelligent life on this planet?” From global warming to political “hot spots,” the entire momentum of so-called “Western civilization” appears to be on a downhill apocalyptic superhighway to hell. Or as Swami says, “Hey, who needs Four Horsemen when you have One Cowboy?”
For the past few years, both through my comedy as Swami Beyondananda and through more “serious” conversations, I’ve been looking to apply higher principles to what we call “politics,” and I’ve come to the conclusion that the issues we face on this planet are far bigger than politics. Ironically, this world of “dueling dualities” has finally come down to one either/or choice: Do we empower a world where “we’re all in it together,” or do we devolve back into “it’s every man for himself?” In other words, do we go for love or do we go for fear?
I would still be mulling this issue on a purely philosophical basis, were it not for an extraordinary connection I made nearly 18 months ago. I got to spend a weekend with cellular biologist Bruce Lipton, author of The Biology of Belief. In that and many subsequent conversations, Bruce and I realized that we shared similar perceptions, realizations and hopes for conscious human evolution on this planet. The difference is, Bruce has the the scientific evidence to show us how this evolution is not only possible, but inevitable!
The result of our conversation and subsequent collaboration is an exciting and world-changing book we’re calling The American Evolution: A New Story for a New World. We are now at the point in the creative process where we feel comfortable and confident enough to make the project public, as we aim for a publication date in mid-2007.
We are telling you now because we can use assistance in several key areas. But first, more about the project.
The Story and the Mission
The state of our world now might be summed up in a classic biological story about the caterpillar’s metamorphosis into a butterfly. Inside the cocoon, new cells -- called, appropriately “imaginal cells” -- begin to pop up. Initially, these cells are recognized as “not the caterpillar” and are attacked. At some point, there are enough imaginal cells that they begin to communicate with each other and cluster together in communities. Although the caterpillar organism is still attacking these cells, they become stronger and eventually and inevitably, the imaginal cells become the new butterfly.
From the outside and from the “news reports” right now, it’s all caterpillar out there. The good news is, the “butterfly” field is growing in awareness, connectedness and intention. This book is an important part of focusing this field, and in fact noted futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard calls our project “the prow of the ship” that will usher in the new paradigm.
What makes us think we humans will take this unprecedented leap into conscious evolution? Well, necessity is the mother of invention and more and more, reality is becoming quite a “mother!”
We are now at the point where the current dominant paradigm, Materialism, has put us so out of touch with natural law that we are literally destroying the environment we need to live. The good news is we are poised on the threshold of a new integrative world view that weaves together ancient wisdom and modern science, and where humanity itself becomes a conscious, coherent “organism.”
The even better news is that this isn’t just wishful conjecture but based on the latest discoveries in quantum physics and cellular biology. And -- no surprise here -- these discoveries resonate with what spiritual teachers have been saying for millennia, that everything is connected. To quote the Swami, “Einstein and Jesus both can’t be wrong, can they?”
Some of the exciting and empowering ideas we present include:
√ What the Founding Fathers knew and understood 230 years ago that the world is finally ready for today.
√ The four “myth-conceptions” of the Materialist paradigm that have been conclusively disproved scientifically -- and yet are still accepted as “conventional wisdom.”
√ What we can learn from the 50 trillion cell “community” called the human body -- a thriving “economy” under the skin that can boast universal health care, full employment and truly “no cell left behind.”
√ The striking self-similarity between diseases of the human body and diseases of the body politic, and a new “treatment plan” for both.
√ The next stage of human societal evolution, why it’s inevitable, and how we can get there from here.
√ The “One Suggestion,” and why it is the natural operating system for planet earth.
√ The “imaginal cells” that are already emerging, and what we can do to strengthen and intensify the field.
If you’ve ever seen Bruce Lipton in person, or watched his DVD you know what a dynamic, inspiring and entertaining speaker he is. Combine that with my own background in political science, psychology and spirituality (and Swami’s cosmic comedy), and we have the support materials, the touring show, and the potential media attention that can get these ideas established in the world. In addition, our American Evolution website will be a portal to the “imaginal” organizations, people, projects, ideas and activities that will help us -- in Swami’s words -- “re-grow the Garden from the grassroots up, and have a heaven of a time doing it.”
The Plan and How You Can Participate
Our three-step plan for The American Evolution.
1. Complete the book.
2. Develop the website.
3. Create the slide show presentation, media materials and tour.
We have decided for a variety of reasons to self-publish this book in partnership with Elite Books, using the same team and infrastructure that made the Biology of Belief such a huge success (75,000 hard cover copies sold). This gives us creative and artistic control as well as the ability to work on our own timetable. The funds are in place to pay the costs of publication, printing and promotion. However, we need to generate additional funds to pay for the writing process itself. Customarily, a publisher will provide an author’s advance for this purpose. As self-publishers, we have to find another way of raising those funds.
Enter Telecosm. Telecosm is a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation with the specific purpose of supporting transformational creative endeavors. They have generously set up an American Evolution Grant Fund to accept tax deductible gifts to support this project. They are equipped to accept donations of $100 or more (see below).
To expedite the fund-raising process and make it easier to meet our deadlines, we are looking for an individual or individuals with experience and contacts to help us raise the funds very quickly. What is needed for this phase is $33,000. While we are more than willing to get 330 $100 donations if that’s what it takes, we are also willing for it to come “in one swell poop.” All we know for sure is that this project will go forward with the necessary funds. I’ve always been encouraged by the story Deepak Chopra tells about working with the Maharishi many years ago. At one point, someone suggested a very expensive project. “But where will the money come from?” someone else objected.
“From wherever it is now,” replied the Maharishi
So now our task is to get that flow flowing. If you’re one of those who want to help us raise the funds, please contact Trudy now at (707) 525-0778. If you’re one of those 330 people who can make a tax deductible donation of $100 or more, please do that now as well.
Checks should be made out to Telecosm and sent to:
Telecosm
c/o Steve Bhaerman
400 W. Third St., Suite D-144
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
In addition to fund raising, we are looking for a research assistant or assistants to help us gather resource materials. If you’re interested in participating this way, please respond to this e-mail.
If you’re not in a position to make a $100 donation, there are other ways you can help.
• You can go to the Swami’s website and buy your holiday or birthday gifts early.
• You can make a $25 donation to support Notes From the Trail.
• Or, perhaps there’s someone you know who resonates with this project and is ready to support it financially.
There’s an old saying, “No story, no world.” We have a new saying. New story, new world.
Thank you in advance for supporting our practical vision for an abundant and joyful life on a peaceful planet.
Steve Bhaerman
(707) 525-0711
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