“The universe is a complete unique entity. Everything and everyone is bound together with some invisible strings. Do not break anyone’s heart; do not look down on weaker than you. One’s sorrow at the other side of the world can make the entire world suffer; one’s happiness can make the entire world smile.” ― Shams Tabrizi
Radio EarthRites: http://earthrites.org/radio-earthrites/
(From Gwyllm Llwydd.)
By Idries Shah:
The commanding self in Sufi terminology is that mixture of primitive and conditioned responses, common to everyone, which inhibits and distorts human progress and understanding. The book serves to illustrate and amplify Idries Shah’s preceding (over 20) books on sufism.
Born in Simla, India, June 16, 1924
Genre: Philosophy, Religion, Spirituality
Born in India, the descendant of a family of Afghan nobles, Shah grew up mainly in England. His early writings centred on magic and witchcraft. In 1960 he established a publishing house, Octagon Press, producing translations of Sufi classics as well as titles of his own. His most seminal work was The Sufis, which appeared in 1964 and was well received internationally. In 1965, Shah founded the Institute for Cultural Research, a London-based educational charity devoted to the study of human behaviour and culture. A similar organisation, the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge (ISHK), exists in the United States, under the directorship of Stanford University psychology professor Robert Ornstein, whom Shah appointed as his deputy in the U.S.
In his writings, Shah presented Sufism as a universal form of wisdom that predated Islam. Emphasising that Sufism was not static but always adapted itself to the current time, place and people, he framed his teaching in Western psychological terms. Shah made extensive use of traditional teaching stories and parables, texts that contained multiple layers of meaning designed to trigger insight and self-reflection in the reader. He is perhaps best known for his collections of humorous Mulla Nasrudin stories.
Shah was at times criticised by orientalists who questioned his credentials and background. His role in the controversy surrounding a new translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, published by his friend Robert Graves and his older brother Omar Ali-Shah, came in for particular scrutiny. However, he also had many notable defenders, chief among them the novelist Doris Lessing. Shah came to be recognised as a spokesman for Sufism in the West and lectured as a visiting professor at a number of Western universities. His works have played a significant part in presenting Sufism as a secular, individualistic form of spiritual wisdom.
Idries Shah’s books on Sufism achieved considerable critical acclaim. He was the subject of a BBC documentary (“One Pair of Eyes”) in 1969, and two of his works (The Way of the Sufi and Reflections) were chosen as “Outstanding Book of the Year” by the BBC’s “The Critics” programme. Among other honours, Shah won six first prizes at the UNESCO World Book Year in 1973, and the Islamic scholar James Kritzeck, commenting on Shah’s Tales of the Dervishes, said that it was “beautifully translated”.
The reception of Shah’s movement was also marked by much controversy. Some orientalists were hostile, in part because Shah presented classical Sufi writings as tools for self-development to be used by contemporary people, rather than as objects of historical study. L. P. Elwell-Sutton from Edinburgh University, Shah’s fiercest critic, described his books as “trivial”, replete with errors of fact, slovenly and inaccurate translations and even misspellings of Oriental names and words – “a muddle of platitudes, irrelevancies and plain mumbo-jumbo”, adding for good measure that Shah had “a remarkable opinion of his own importance”. Expressing amusement and amazement at the “sycophantic manner” of Shah’s interlocutors in a BBC radio interview, Elwell-Sutton concluded that some Western intellectuals were “so desperate to find answers to the questions that baffle them, that, confronted with wisdom from ‘the mysterious East,’ they abandon their critical faculties and submit to brainwashing of the crudest kind”. To Elwell-Sutton, Shah’s Sufism belonged to the realm of “Pseudo-Sufism”, “centred not on God but on man.”
This is a very unusual New Moon. It is called a Black Moon. This occurs rarely as it indicates two New Moons in one month, the last one was approximately 32 years ago. We more often hear the term Blue Moon which is two Full Moons in a month and seems to happen more frequently.
Traditionally, a Black Moon is extra receptive or feminine and portends a time of great awakening and clarity and often indicates a sharp turning point in a cycle, a very powerful blossoming process that has probably been in process for some time. Astrologers feel that this Black Moon will be filled with positive aspects and plenty of opportunity. The entire week leading up to the Black Moon and the days that follow it, are projected to be extremely positive and peaceful. Great epiphanies, opportunities and even miracles could be experienced. This is a powerful time to manifest all of our greatest dreams, wishes and desires. So pay attention to your feelings and spend some time in meditation concerning your spiritual insights as you are guided toward your higher path.
Jupiter conjuncts this New Moon in Libra, adding extra power to creating boundaries and balance in our lives and relationships. What do you want your relationship to look like? Are you sacrificing yourself and your dreams for your partner? This is a great time to look at the inner workings of and the interplay with your partner and decide what decisions need to be made to create the best outcome. Self-discovery is the imperative now.
Jupiter in Libra also relates to diplomacy as our government negotiates with other world powers.This energy should assist us in softening hard line relationships and smooth out former difficulties. We pray for this softening as many relationships with world leaders have heated up while Jupiter was in Virgo, emphasizing and magnifying the flaws in others and their beliefs. Jupiter in Libra is definitely our ally, personally and globally.
We continue to be involved in the energetic squarebetween Saturn and Neptune. They are opposites. Saturn builds structures and walls and Neptune dissolves structures and boundaries. We are seeing very clearly how many structures in the US are wobbling as the disillusion of toxic structures are being brought into focus. We so desperately need compassionate vision and imagination as we dream of a more peaceful world and a more compassionate country.
Mars moved into the sign of Capricorn on the 26th. Mars is very happy in Capricorn, loving the systems and structure and intensity of the work and achieving goals. It also relates to military activity. Let’s hope Jupiter will temper aggression, and peaceful resolution to conflict will be the goal.
Venus moved into the sign of Scorpio on the 23rd. This is a very powerful, passionate, intense and secretive energy. Venus is also forming a trine with Neptune which can represent fantasy, indicating that the merging of individuals may not be what it seems. This can also represent power struggles and covert activity. Pay attention to your gut vibes as it is hard to see what lies ahead. We are still experiencing the effects of the last two eclipses and the lingering energy of Mercury in Virgoand the retrograde. Mercury, the trickster, is still in play and the illusion of reality (Neptune/Saturn) is pervasive now. Things are not quite what you think they are. Anything can happen. Surprises are in store.
Written by Wendy Cicchetti
PLAN YOUR OWN NEW MOON CEREMONY. Give yourself some quiet time in meditation to see where you need to seed new ways of becoming. List these areas within your life you want to change. What areas do you want to break free from the norm and become more productive and discerning? The NEW MOON is the time to manifest the personal attributes you want to cultivate as well as the tangible things you want to bring to you. Possible phrasing: I now manifest ____ into my life. I am now _______ . Remember, think, envision and feel with as much emotion as possible, as though you already have what you want. Thoughts are things and the brain manifests exactly what you show it in the form of thoughts, visuals and emotions. The Buddha said, and I am paraphrasing, “We are the sum total of our thoughts up to today. ” If we want to be different then we must change our thoughts. “If you always do what you’ve always done then you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” CONSCIOUS CHANGE is the key.
Billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday detailed his ambitious vision to colonize Mars: launching unmanned spacecraft to the Red Planet within the next 10 years as a first step toward establishing a self-sustaining city of 1 million people.
In a 95-minute presentation at an astronautical conference, the founder of electric car maker Tesla and private commercial space company SpaceX outlined his vision for an Interplanetary Transport System that he called the 21st century equivalent of building the transcontinental railroad to California.
And although he admitted he was not good at sticking to schedules, Musk said he hopes that SpaceX will start flying to Mars in late 2022 or early 2023.
“Once the transportation system is built, then there’s tremendous opportunity for anyone who wants to go to Mars to build the foundation of a new planet,” he told an enthusiastic audience at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Although SpaceX estimates that passengers will eventually be able to buy a ticket to move to Mars for about $100,000, Musk did not say how much it would cost to develop his Martian transportation system, only that it will require a “huge, public-private partnership.”
But Musk, speaking less than four weeks after a SpaceX rocket carrying a Facebook-backed communications satellite blew up at Cape Canaveral, said his sole purpose for accumulating wealth on Earth is to “make the biggest contribution I can to making life multiplanetary.”
“Right now, we’re trying to make as much progress as we can with the resources we have available,” he said. “It’s not just a dream, it’s something that can be made real, and I think the support will snowball over time.”
Whether Musk can accomplish his lofty plan remains to be seen, especially considering that it cost NASA about $3 billion to land one unmanned probe on Mars, said Dick Rocket, CEO of NewSpace Global, a Cape Canaveral space industry analytics firm.
But Rocket said Musk’s SpaceX is building a track record of success, even with this month’s explosion. Musk also was able to convince skeptical investors that a sporty electric car could sell.
“You could argue that everything that is disruptive in modern civilization is first considered insane,” said Rocket, who was in the audience. “It’s up to the entrepreneurs and the decision-makers in the public sector to make it sane.”
Musk showed the crowd a four-minute animated video, also posted on YouTube, of a future space flight to Mars. The video starts with some of the 100 passengers crossing a skybridge into a spacecraft at Cape Canaveral’s Apollo 11 launch pad.
After the carbon-fiber spacecraft lifts off and achieves Earth orbit, it separates from the booster rocket, which returns to Earth. The booster lands back at the launch pad, takes on fuel and returns to the orbiting spacecraft. That process might repeat two or three times before delivering enough fuel for the spacecraft to complete its journey to Mars, where it could refuel from previously established fueling stations.
The video ends with the silhouettes of four astronauts as the spacecraft door opens to reveal the Martian surface.
“This is what we plan to make it look like,” Musk said.
Once the first outposts are established, SpaceX could send ships every two years, when the orbits of the two planets bring them close. With ships that could eventually hold 200 passengers, and maybe 10,000 trips, it could take 40 to 100 years to have a “self-sustaining civilization on Mars,” Musk said.
Looking further out, Musk said a network of interplanetary fueling stations, dispensing a fuel based on methane gas, could expand to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. “You can go anywhere in the solar system by planet hopping or moon hopping,” he said.
Benny Evangelista is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: bevangelista@sfchronicle.comTwitter: @ChronicleBenny
That pretty much says it all. This is a handy diagnostic tool. Someone upsets you and you can’t let it go. If you find yourself going over and over the slight, the insult, the rebuke. If you cry about the way someone looks at you or the fact that they did not invite you. Her tone of voice. His call not returned. You may even hear yourself say, “I don’t know why I’m making such a big deal of this after all it was only….and I’m an adult. But I feel like…”
At that moment remember: If it’s hysterical, it’s historical.
And then do what you need to do: Call friends in recovery and blab it out till you cry; start writing some inventory about this kind of issue from your childhood or call your therapist.
Or all of the above.
Inverted totalitarianism is a term coined by political philosopher Sheldon Wolin in 2003 to describe the emerging form of government of the United States. Wolin believed that the United States is increasingly turning into an illiberal democracy, and uses the term “inverted totalitarianism” to illustrate similarities and differences between the United States governmental system and totalitarian regimes such as Nazi Germany and theStalinist Soviet Union. In Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt by Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco, inverted totalitarianism is described as a system where corporations have corrupted and subverted democracy and where economics trumps politics. In inverted totalitarianism, every natural resource and every living being is commodified and exploited to collapse as the citizenry is lulled and manipulated into surrendering their liberties and their participation in government through excess consumerism and sensationalism.
Continued at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
