united in our cause to make a difference--one person at a time

All Lives Matter

July 12, 2016July 12, 20163 Comments

ALL LIVES MATTER!

The past couple weeks has seen much turmoil in my country, the USA. I’ve barely been able to crack a newspaper or a news site without shedding a tear, or at least bucking up, getting ready to feel more pain. Everyone I know is reeling from the violence in our nation. People want to blame. Blame Trump, Blame Obama, Blame Bush, Blame Blame Blame.

My response to anyone who says this to me is, “If there’s anything to blame, in my opinion it’s the way Hollywood and TV depict violence, with such randomness and regularity that we’ve all become inured to it. Violence just doesn’t seem real anymore, unless we become its personal victim.”

And now — most of us are feeling as violated as the victims. True, we’re not dead. We can still breathe. Yet our entire nation, and much of the so-called civilized world, is suffering from a soul-sickness in which violence and fear are on everyone’s mind. And people who see this as just an American problem, they are not as aware, or in denial of the prevalence of the growing trend of violence in our entertainment world.

There is no one thing or one person to blame.

If a friend or random person to whom I addressed my “violence in entertainment” opinion (usually following their more political rant) still wants to talk (most just turn away from me, only wanting a head to chop, a name to blame, a face to spit upon! not a rational conversation) I would then offer what I’m ready to state here, in my public forum.

United, we have STRENGTH!

I named my spiritual blog Lord Flea Sings because I always meant for it to be a place where all of us who care to join in, can sing a song of Love. Sing, as in state our case with joy, with strength, with clear notes, with rhythms that MOVE us. Just like the calypso singer, Lord Flea for whom this blog is named in honor of. So … if you want to join in the discussion, please do. I am curious to hear your point of view. Leave comments below and I’ll respond.

My sense is that the world is in the midst of a huge sea change.

We are at the crossroads of our moral evolution. The computer age has accelerated our growth so much, that … old norms just don’t work for us as well as they used to. Coming from a place of extreme materialism (for decades, since the industrial revolution at the turn of the nineteenth into the twentieth century) humankind is quickly stepping into a new era … the spiritualization of our entire race. One person at a time, it’s been happening for ages. Now personal transformations are happening at a much more accelerated pace, in part, due to the outrage of every human heart that is reacting to the calamities that are happening everyday around us, pushing us to change.

Anger and fear and melt downs are catalysts to change. We who experience these things must change inside, or else we suffer horribly. Some even commit suicide, not able to contend with the insanity of the world. Some retreat into drugs, alcohol, denial, numbing themselves with whatever they can get their hands on. Others — like you and me, certainly anyone reading this — realize that pain is a way that Nature (aka God) has of forcing us to change.

Yes, our world has become more violent. Yes, people are not feeling safe. Yes, the African-Americans of America are sick of being treated with disrespect. Yes, the good Muslims must help herd in the bad Muslims. Yes, most everybody realizes that something has to change in order to make our world a better, safer, more viable place to live. It used to be people were scared of an enemy, like some still are of radical fundamentalism of any sort (evil is color blind and non-discriminatory in regards to race, religion, origins or politics). But now … we have a strain of discontent that doesn’t even have a name, although people are pouring out on the streets in scores this week to bring attention to “Black Lives Matter.” The latest of the unspeakable signs of our society’s silent sickness: Intolerance

To me, the real issue is that ALL lives matter, not just a certain group. Of course I feel for my black brothers and sisters. For years I was one of a handful of whites who lived on an all-black island nation. I know first-hand what it feels like to be singled out, treated differently because of the color of my skin. Even accused of crimes I didn’t commit, because of my race. I’ve been thrown in jail because of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and have had to fight for my own survival because I wasn’t like all the rest. I know what it’s like to be unfairly treated. I know how upsetting it is and agree that change is what’s called for.

But to my mind there is more to this issue of intolerance (of any kind) than what meets the eye.

The Sacredness of ALL LIFE

It really is about ALL Lives mattering. Life itself. All in existence, from the smallest snail to the largest lunar spot, everything in this multiVerse is sacred. But yet there are the masses who still believe life on Earth is a silly game of power, prestige, and who rules who, and who gets to sit on the throne and who gets to shine whoever-is-in-power’s lowly shoes. It may be the final chapter of our color-story in the limelight today (although in the USA with our mixed-race President I don’t see how our black people can’t see the vast improvements since the desegregation of our country, in the sixties). But who and what-kind of person(s) is in power today will change tomorrow, for sure. Power people come and go. What really needs to be changed is something much more basic.

The only really worthwhile change I see that can come out of the current tragedies of black men and women being gunned down, forcibly held, dying in police presence or custody, and the ensuing hatred like the (black) sniper who aimed at (white) police people (how could he really tell with their helmets on?) are all indicators of how much more work we have to do, as a nation of people, not divided by race, religion or any other factors — to accept each and every person as what every single one of us is: a sacred being.

Whether a person acts or even thinks they are sacred, depends on how aware each of us is about our true nature. The more people who make it their pleasure, their personal quest, to become as aware and awake as possible, the more our society gets influenced by so-and-so’s positive energy, instead of barraged by the negative energy that causes more mishaps and tragedies, which then sells more papers, clicks, air time, and catches the attention of greedy Hollywood vampires.

People love to be scared. Look at the crowds at roller-coaster parks. Without fear and vomit-producing twists and turns, lots of people think life is pretty dull. So the drama that unfolds in our real life, on real streets, in real gay nightclubs, and real Bible study classes, and real traffic stops by trigger-happy cops are now re-enacting the thrills that are innately a part of our thus-far-evolved human experience. Most of us love thrills! We love drama. We love … to be scared to death!

Personally, as an artist who writes, I don’t think the censor laws will ever go backward from where they are today. We’ve fought too hard to have the freedom of expression that has become the modern way. And I know for a fact that it was artists (in Lithuania) that singlehandedly started the internal revolution that brought down the Soviet bloc. Creative censorship is considered unAmerican. Un-Freedom of Speech. Un-cool. So the guns and bombs and slashings and accompanying rudenesses that go along with all that mind garbage won’t stop. Hollywood loves violence. There will always be a place for trash. But that doesn’t mean we have to fill our own minds with it. Trash, and violent trash especially makes tons of money, pockets are filled from every slaying, and woe to the producer who comes up with a sweet story of spiritual transformation, without a murder or two, ’cause nobody will come to see it in the theaters. Not yet, that is.

True, there are lobbyists who are out in force, trying to get Hollywood to stop making such sex and violence-themed movies, groups like the Dove Foundation and Ted Baehr, who have attempted for years, to great effect, to introduce more family values into the film and entertainment industry. So let’s face it, the cleaning up of America’s entertainment industry, including gyrating, ripped-lace pop and hip hop and gangsta rap singers, ain’t gonna happen. Dirt and shame and taboos are too much a part of our culture to deny.

What we can do is … each and every individual … is to clean up our own act.

There’s always HOPE

Yup, that’s right. The BIG answer to all this hair-wrenching worry over “Where’s our humanity going?” boils down to “What are you doing about your own life?”

The only thing each of us has power over, is our own individual life, and the choices we make. Of course if we have young children, we’re also responsible for instilling Love and Inner Peace in their own life quests, and prepare them, best we can, for the world that’s outside the comfortable nest we all want to make for ourselves, for our family.

Take a look around you. Are you doing enough? Is your inner life as peaceful as you’d like? Are you able to read today’s news without getting freaked out? Can you see as many positive things happening in the world as there are negatives?

If you’ve assessed your own life, and feel you want more inner peace, more happiness, more joy–then take some action, my friend. There are so many things anyone can do, in this day of YouTube’s abundant offerings from mindfulness teachers (Eckhart Tolle, Depak Chopra, Thich Nhat Hanh, Marianne Williamson, to name just a few of my favorites). If you are unhappy with the state of the world, you can join a prayer or protest group, click on an instructional video and learn to calm your fears, or … go take a walk and look up at the clouds and let go of angry thoughts that you’ve let rule your life.

We don’t have to let heinous actions of others ruin our own lives. We can choose what we do with the strong feelings that injustices evoke in each and every human heart.

That’s the remedy I do when I feel powerless over another’s violent and scary actions. I breathe. I do yoga, meditate, take a swim in the sea, go for a bike ride … garden in my yard, talk with other mindful folks. Anything but go deeper in that feeling of powerlessness. Because I DO have power — over my own self! And I can take action to remedy the severe sadness that each and every intolerant act of one human upon another brings to my consciousness. The action might be … to take no action other than to pray, to meditate, to focus anger into tolerance. That’s a very high form of action.

I don’t deny the hurt. I don’t try to brush it off as “not my problem.” It is a human problem we are all facing. To me the answer, the pivot upon which change revolves, lies within each of our own hearts. To be as true as we can to what we really are, this is the spiritual challenge of today’s scary world. We are all pure spirits wearing a human body … for just a little while longer.

Let’s make the most of what time we’ve got here. Let’s make a difference, and let’s celebrate Love. By focusing on love, acceptance, tolerance, we increase the power of Love all around us. It’s like spreading an atomizing of Love cells wherever we go. Love is a consciousness, not just a verb. Love is a way of life, not just a saying. I have made it a pledge to live from love, not fear. With each day, I renew my pledge. I believe in Love.

I wish I could say the same for the political process, or the power of government to help change society, truly, at its core. I don’t believe governments or political parties have that kind of power. The power of true transformation only comes from the human spirit. I believe it comes from our core, from each of our heart (not the brain necessarily, although that comes in handy when it comes to taking action). The heart of each human being is where we feel the connection of Love. I feel it for everything and everyone.

One Life---each of ours, amounting to the total of all our decisions

the currency of LOVE … our life!

Maybe someday we will have enlightened Hollywood directors and producers who come from their opened hearts and minds, but for now (believe me, I know, I have a close relative who’s in the Hollywood game) money rules. Wherever the money comes from, that’s where Hollywood’s decisions go. Until enlightened artists transform our tastes … violence and sex are still a lot more entertaining (but not forever) so tolerate unscrupulous images and blood-gushing stories will keep coming to our screens. Just don’t watch them and they will … in time … go away.

Just turn off your mind, your screen clicked off to those kinds of choices. Open your screen as you do your heart and mind. Explore the endless possibilities of … an awakened life. It truly is the best show on earth!

lifting ourselves UP UP UP!

Blast Off! Why Suffer? Change!

October 19, 2015October 19, 2015Leave a comment

what to do, what to do…

Today I’m thinking about why we need to suffer. All of us. Not just the poor, the war-torn, the handicapped or the ill. But all of us. And I mean ALL of US. The so-called privileged, the wealthy, the well-born, silver-spooned rich and self-made successes alike. Every single person alive today knows what suffering is. We may have different degrees of it, but everyone who is alive knows what the meaning of suffering is to some degree.

So why is this such a commonality all of us humans have?

In reflecting about my own situations of suffering, the waves of despair I’ve known too well … today I can attest that suffering is a gift I’ve been given. This sounds so pat and dry, but it’s true. Because if we take the angst and hardships dished out to us personally, whatever their flavor happens to be, as a “sign” that change needs to be made, and we act upon that impulse of something needing to be changed—our suffering brings us closer to not only our own personal acceptance of how life can be more pleasant, as it is, but for the entire world to change into a better, healthier, more wholesome place for us all to share. Using suffering as a tool of change is, my friends, what the ancient sages meant when they described what today is called “enlightenment.”

To be in the state of samadhi, or sainthood, or great wisdom is nothing more and nothing less—than accepting things as they are ONCE we’ve had the opportunity to make whatever adjustment is necessary to get closer to feeling comfortable. I call myself a spiritual activist because yes, change must happen. But I believe the answer of social change happens from the inside out: from spiritual transformation. When people’s hearts and minds are open, through the awakening of their spiritual perceptions, then real change occurs. Everywhere. But it all begins with each and everyone one of us, inside our own hearts.

the tiny figure in the wave–is you! Trust the Great Source of all. “It” protects us, keeping us snug in the middle of its tremendous potential energy–never crushing us unless we fail to trust its magnificence. Ride the wave of power…and watch where it takes you

Here’s an example of what I mean:

A close person in my life has cancer. She has gone through many painful treatments to eradicate this cancer, and has been told that a few more years’ worth of treatments, painful and depriving ones, are necessary to do what the medical world has told her will ensure that the cancer does not spread beyond the area where the original tumors were surgically removed. Meanwhile, she eats fatty ham and sausages and doughnuts and sugary food like there’s no tomorrow, not willing to change her diet one iota.

Today there are many books and speakers and survivors of cancer who can attest to the fact that “Sugar Feeds Cancer” and “Alkalize or Die” warning against the acidity of sugar, meats and all-dairy feeding cancer cells, but … does this friend of mine believe it? No! She still indulges in Danish sweets, cakes, cupcakes, cookies, waffles loaded with syrup, and packs on the pounds in between the annual treatments when her diet is strictly limited to vegetables, the procedure the doctors put her through to eradicate cancer cells by introducing nuclear medicine to her system. No one can even get near her when she’s being given the nuclear remedy. Yet … she won’t change her diet.

In other words, she doesn’t believe that food has anything to do with the suffering of having cancer.

She has not heeded the “sign” of what cancer has brought her. She hasn’t made any change in her lifestyle, and only resents her dis-ease. My friend doesn’t think that cancer is an opportunity to change and benefit, and become a lot more comfortable in her body-mind-spirit. Her comfort level of living, is pretty nominal. She’s plenty disgusted she’s been given the suffering of cancer. I’ve tried talking to this friend, but she’s very defensive, and thinks the medical people are doing all that can be done, and she has no power over whether her cancer thrives, or dies. She feels powerless, but for the procedures the medical world promises. She does not see her cancer as an opportunity for personal growth, only a death-sentence.

Another example:

A friend who’s an environmentalist is very angry and depressed, simultaneously, at the lack of support he gets in his conservation efforts. He sees our world on its way to doom, and if it weren’t for his recent commitment to not drowning his misery in booze any more, would probably continue to stay nicely numbed out on a daily basis as he had for decades before his own alcohol bottom, when he finally had enough and embraced sobriety. I’ve tried talking to this friend about how I see the “bottom” our entire world is going through, environmentally, as necessary, and not all-negative. The dire situation our atmosphere today faces due to relentless not-caring by humanity, mostly caused by industrial waste products destroying our protective layer from the blasts of the sun’s destructive rays, fed by the rampant need of over-materialism our modern society is addicted to, in which more-more-more is the only concern of too many. I see this worldwide bottom our world faces as instrumental, and probably the ONLY way that humanity will WAKE UP! in a big enough scale to make a real difference to saving our environment from total destruction. If we weren’t facing such a doom-and-gloomy future, people wouldn’t care about change. The bottom our world faces is the same as the environmentalist faced when his own alcoholism drove him to change his life, one day at a time.

More people are waking up today, thanks to the dire situation we’re in, as a worldwide planetary family of humankind. Thanks to the Internet people know everything about everybody, everywhere. There’s no way we can be in denial anymore, about the depth of pollution, the need to change. So instead of being depressed or angry, as my friend is, what can we do about this … bottom we’re all in?

the GREAT surprise–we are ONE

I know for my own life, I’ve had to suffer tremendously to “get” the lessons I’ve been handed by my own alcoholism and other forms of nihilistic despair. But today, I’m a totally changed person from that woman who used to sing “love it or leave it.” In the past, I was angry enough to pick up guns and shoot, or rob banks … so I ran away to the Third World instead of taking my anger our on a society I was pissed about. I used to wallow in the “poor me’s” … feeling rejected to the point that I thought I had a mental disease I called “rejectionitis.”

Today I understand that I had to feel all the pain of “feeling” rejected in order to grow beyond the pain. I had to bottom out, to want to change. So I started to learn how to have better habits in order to be effective with the work I’ve set out for myself, my spiritual activisim through writing and arting. Before, however, when I was stuck in the “poor me’s” … life was all about me and my troubles, my woes, my little life and what I could do to make it better. Which in my case was to drink more, smoke more, and do more crazy stunts to take me away from my inner pain.

No matter where I go, or what I read or see or hear—it’s the same with every person. We humans suffer. Maybe quietly, in our own personal situations, or loudly, as the politicians and positive thinkers prove, from both camps. No matter in what circle we’re in, we hear about human suffering. There is even a metaphysical theory I’ve often heard that this planet we’re on, Earth, is where spirits are sent specifically to experience pain and suffering. Why? To be given the opportunity to be released from the pain of suffering.

And how do we do that? Either as a single individual who’d like nothing more than to stop feeling mad or sad or depressed, or … as a nation, or an entire community of nations. How do we change our world of humankind? How do we rise above the suffering that seems to be intrinsic with our having been born human?

For me, the answer is now clear as a bell ringing people to church. Yes, the old answer was religion. But today, I believe religion has run its course and we must go deeper in our source of comfort food. Religion has caused too many woes of its own over the ages. And religion seems to have brought us to the brink of another great worldwide crisis that already has resulted in too many people killing one another, trying to prove their religion is best.

Guardian of the People, your God

To me the answer of long-lasting change, is for each and every one of us to bless our personal story of suffering, and use it to go deeper into our own hearts, and find the answer right there, within our own experience of being alive. I found my relief by feeling the deep connection in my own heart with all that exists. Some call this Spirit, but it has many names, as God does: Allah, Dieu, Dios, Great Spirit, the One without the second. The day I learned to meditate was the day I was shown the answer for my own redemption. But … it took decades for me to embrace this opportunity. I had to suffer lots more before I surrendered to the Inner Power within … that each and every one of us shares as well.

When each of us pays attention to the opportunity our own pain brings us, and decides not to numb ourselves with pills or potions or not-caringness (denial), but seeks comfort in the deeper meaning behind all the great religions … that the Mystery of Life (yes, called “God”) is right within us … and can be tapped, felt, experienced through meditation — each of us comes to accept what we cannot change. Our world is changing right now, right here, one enlightened person at a time.

Many notes, one voice

I am doing my best each day, taking my bouts of pain and misery as opportunities to grow closer to the great comfort right within my own heart. Stay aware of the power of the Big Heart, part of the individual heart we all have, through and by which all humans are connected. By accepting that I’ve tried my best to change, both myself and those around me, I am en-light-ened. But whatever I can’t change I lovingly accept. And this, my friend, brings great comfort to any troubled soul. When this happens, we can bless our suffering. Because it brought us to our knees and MADE us change.

With great love, your pal Lord Flea aka teZa Lord

Developing the Willingness to Change

September 29, 2011September 29, 2011Leave a comment

Why do you think the topic of willingness to change comes after Finding the Courage (see the previous Maya post, September 15) instead of before it? I’m asking that to help gather my thoughts. Originally, these chapters-headings came to me in a flash, in quick succession, when I first decided I wanted to write about this subject of change. Without courage, of course, nothing is possible. A person can’t even leave their house without a certain amount of courage to open the door and leave their familiarity, evidenced by the disorder of agoraphobia that many people suffer from.

So yes, courage has to come first!

But this willingness thing is something that is closely tied to courage, yet very different in that it encompasses much more action, much more persistence and daily reinforcements, sometimes hourly recommitments, than what it takes to muster up the initial courage to change that begins our journey of spiritual transformation.

Willingness, at least to me, means that I’m ready to try on different things, maybe many things, until I find those that work better than what I had before, or—at the least, I get to reinforce that my “old familiar ways” work best for me after having given due credit to other methods. Applying this theory of willingness to something simple, let’s talk about, say … how to paint a room.

Some painters think they have the best method; others claim no, theirs is the most effective. In my experience there is always room for improvement in the area of “how to” do just about anything, from peeling a garlic clove to tuning a carburetor (no, I don’t know how to do that!) to applying paint to a surface. But before us now we’re talking about something a little more serious: how to change one’s attitude toward life, the subject of this writing.

For life changes, Willingness means to be open to another philosophy, another perspective, point of view, another creed, another faith even, than what we have been used to measuring our experiences as right, worthy, or true.

Some of us never think about what we believe in. We just live our lives, and do what our parents taught us to do. Others set out to rebel and do everything the opposite of how we were raised. In my case, I was extremely uncomfortable with a lot of rigid social customs, dictates and dogma that I was handed in my parent’s home, and by the particular religion in which I was raised. Another person might never have had any religion, political view, or any formal structure of life-thought introduced to them in their home of origin. But for me, when I reached the age when we all begin thinking about what life is, what its meaning might be or if it even has one, and things like what might happen after death and before birth — the subject of truth, my truth, intrigued me from my earliest recollections.

searching for life's Big Truths

The core of what we’re discussing here in Maya’s Book of Change is what life is all about. Not my life, but your life. Only you can discover what your life means to you. Because my friend Maya is facing the end of her life, battling brain cancer the best she can under the most severe circumstances of impending doom, having received the death sentence her oncologists spelled out to her in black-and-white — all the radiation, chemotherapy, surgeries and other modalities of healing she does, they say to her, only postpone the inevitable demise she’s facing. Unless, of course, a miracle occurs, which I always believe can happen, and of course, so does Maya.

I say these things to remind us about our journey together, how we’re exploring spiritual change here. Sharing Maya’s story is not about pitying her. No, on the contrary. We can celebrate because already, Maya has shown quite a change in her thinking. Today, she is forgiving of what used to be unforgiveable to her. She is detached, where before getting cancer she was committed to her anger and incapable of forgiveness. I credit her change of heart, this radical change of thinking to her having the terminal disease of glioblastoma, the most voracious of brain cancers that fate hands a person.

Currently, four months into her diagnosis, with the large tumor removed, yet knowing the cancer still spreads in her brain like veins in blue cheese, Maya is in a sweet stage of acceptance. Having gone through many weeks of grief, tears, lamentations, and plenty of “why me’s!” she’s now willing to look at the stark reality of her life. Now she can admit, and prepare, for the fate that draws ever close to her. And each one of us, truly, is in a varying degree of the same situation that has befallen Maya: the imminence of our death.

Yet I cheerily say to my friend, “Maybe I’ll die before you do, Maya, you never know! Maybe I’ll get run over by a truck this afternoon, or get done in by a shark attack during my daily ocean swim.” I say these things not to invite negativity into my life, but—to empathize with my friend. Maybe I will succumb to something just as deadly before Maya actually dies of incurable cancer, is what I’m saying to her. Having cancer is no guarantee that her life is definitely going to be shorter than mine, if something as unpredictable and shocking as sudden death, a reality of life, happens to be my destiny.

Just because a person has a terminal disease—call it bum luck or a rotten deal of the life-cards we’re each given by providence—doesn’t mean a person can’t have a good life, a terrific day, week, month, with whatever time they’ve got.

(this is the 6th installment in the “Maya’s Book of Change” series. See August 7, 2011 post on Lordflea for beginning of series.)

Ready, Set — COURAGE!

August 22, 2011August 22, 2011Leave a comment

Chapter 1: Ready, Set—COURAGE!

Pretend that today is the first day of the rest of your life. Pretend that everything you ever thought true, isn’t, and that for the sake of experimentation only, you’re willing to try something new in your life. Why? Well, the payoff I’m promising is stupendous. You’ve heard of peace of mind. You’ve even met people who seem content with whatever life has brought them. You suspect some people, even if you haven’t met them, are not destroyed with bouts of seething anger or crippling anxiety every time things don’t go their way. You actually believe that some fortunate people in our stressful world get by without taking drugs, either prescribed or recreational. But … up till now … you haven’t been one of these types of people.

To you, life seems fraught with perils, dangers, exploitative people, oppressive governments, and toxic situations. You may feel powerless a great deal of the time. For these reasons you may have the tendency to drink, smoke, eat, shop, exercise, work, create drama, or some other unhealthy action in excess. But you don’t believe you have a problem. You just think “This is the way life is.”

You’re probably the type of person who believe that true happiness is rare, and probably just a fairytale. Or for airy-fairy types. Maybe you’re a hardcore realist and don’t believe in God. The first type of person usually doesn’t give the possibility of cosmic consciousness a nod of the head, and the later just hopes they’ll not mess up and get thrown in eternal damnation. Either type, neither one lives in a state of openness and is ruled by fears, whether disguised by intellectualism, philosophy, or religiosity.

Well, I can tell you right now that just by being interested in the subject of this book, “Maya’s Book of Change,” that you’re intrigued with the possibility of being transformed. Change is change. You wouldn’t want to stay the way you are if you’re reading about change. You may not believe change is intrinsically possible, but you’re willing to try that thought on for size and thus, you’re here, with me, reading these words.

getting ready to fly!

Maya is my very sick, terminally ill friend whom I’ve dedicated this book to. Ahhh, but maya is also a Sanskrit word that means, loosely: The illusion this world is, this reality in which we live, the one that is only a play of consciousness, and not what we truly are.

And I’ll tell you right here what we really are.

All beings, living or dead, animate or inanimate, mineral, plant, vegetable, each and every thing in existence: we are all tiny cells within the fabric, the body of a much larger, almost incomprehensible matrix called the Universe. Whether you like it or not, my favorite analogy of what we truly are is … don’t laugh!… like microscopic flea-like critters that live upon a dog. The dog being the Universe in this ridiculous scheme, and the fleas are … well, you get the picture. It’s a stretch, but this is my experience and I’m trying to express something totally ineffable using lame words. Sorry.

Stick around and I’ll share best I can how I came to have this perspective, that is, by the way, not unique. The Oneness, or unity consciousness I speak of, is a very ancient approach to life, one that is recorded in much more esoteric and poetic (but almost incomprehensible) language in the yogic scriptures called the Vedas.

Don’t get me wrong! It’s not a smelly, low-existence being a flea-speck on a dog’s back. No, no no. Being a mere cell in the vastness of the One-that-Is, is what I lovingly, respectfully call being aware of The Big It. On the contrary, it’s quite a relief to know we’re all so connected, so familiar with everything in existence that we—whether “we” is another human or another life form, a plant, an animal, or another spinning gaseous galaxy lights years away—we are all connected. We are All One.

I have proof of this. And you will arrive at the same conclusion too if you stick with this inner journey I’m leading you on.

I know Oneness to be absolutely true, and all other beliefs are … just that. Other people’s beliefs. They just don’t hold up for many of us. Oneness is before religion was invented by man. Oneness will remain if and when humanity destroys itself, either over religious differences or crass indifference to our fragile ecosystem.

a vine of Oneness

By the end of this book you will experience Oneness for yourself. I promise that if you follow all my suggestions and be willing to try, that your life will evolve into one with the daily experience of Oneness that is beyond your wildest expectations of what fulfillment can mean. Better than the most far-out aphrodisiac or euphoric formula for happiness, this Oneness stuff. Guaranteed you’ll throw away your anti-depressants, those anti-anxiety pills, bottles of booze, pizza and doughnuts, and relieving smokes. All your fears and hurdles that keep you from being the most significant person you can, in this lifetime you’ve been blessed with, will melt away when you start experiencing Oneness as your true reality.

The goal of this book is, nothing more and nothing less than to share with you the secret of life, and why life itself is such a gift, and how we can best use our time here, whatever length it might be we are granted to be alive.

One thing we can start by agreeing on:

Life is a gift.

Let’s not waste it.

(This is the 4th installment of “Maya’s Book of Change”)

Make each moment meaningful

November 12, 2008November 12, 2008Leave a comment

Hi friend,

what can i do to make my life more filled with that energy that excites me? that gets me out of the bed in the morning with a bounce and a purpose? for each of us it’s a different thing. i’ve been contemplating what makes ME filled with life’s exciting call to living at the maximum fullness. rather than write it, here’s one of my paintings to interpret it for me.

the Source of All

it is so thrilling to think how we, the United States, has now chosen to show the world, by electing Barack, that we truly embrace tolerance, love of all, and are ready for this next exciting chapter in our great country’s history.

i know i am, and many of you, are happy beyond measure that we’ve broken through a major barrier that separates we humans from each other: thinking we’re so different because of our skin color, or our religion, or even where we’re from. this is a moment time in human history. i’m beyond excited: i simply glow and await what happens next.

accepting our differences, and soaring

who’s to say where the journey will be going? all i know is that change is afoot, and change is GOOD. the only constant in life is change, and a relationship with one’s Truth, one’s Higher Power. everything else falls by the wayside, sooner or later.

that’s my thought for the day.

i must tell you readers of my blog that i’m having a lot of trouble figuing out how to adjust the new drawings i want to share with you. but…in time and with effort, i’ll figure it out. just like all of you with your various challenges. where there’s a will, there’s a way, right? just persevere, and all that is to be will be yours, and ours.

in the Light, your pal lordflea

change…the only constant in the Universe

October 9, 2008Leave a comment

i’m off to cambridge, mass for a fun-filled, information-packed reunion at the revered alma mater of my spouse, and to celebrate life and all its changes with our good friends of many years.

change…the only thing you can count on …

the cycle of life ... consistently changing

i’m thinking how i change … my body … where i am … my moods

and i’m thinking of how the world changes … seemingly so unstable, so vulnerable to outside influences.

and then i think of the one constant, besides change, that i’ve found that gives me great comfort in my journey here:

my deep contact with the Oneness of All — that force some call God, but i prefer Great Spirit.

i am a big fan of the I Ching, called the Book of Change, and written down by Confucious about 4,000 yrs. ago. change has been a familiar comforting essence in my search for Truth. i trust change. i honor change. but i also know that if i’m not flexible, like a young bamboo shoot, and allow change to happen, naturally — i am doomed for diaster.

i don’t know, i just felt like sharing that today.

mom is having a hard time adapting to the change that’s affecting her body. her state of thinking has been altered by this tiny tiny TIA that hasn’t even registered in a CAT Scan. but…change is not her comfort zone.

many people are freaking because of the unprecedently change in our financial world. this is the time for all good people to rely upon nothing but their own Higher Selves. that is the change we’re all challenged to accept.

the steadiness of eternity

in case you’re wondering, this “down-ward dog” person i’m representing here, in sculpture and in black and white penstrokes, is the ancient egyptian goddess named Nut. she represented the passage of the sun across the sky. like the sun, Nut is symbolic of eternal life. always changing, but always constant, and never ending.

i am here with you, and i wish you all a pleasant change, each and every moment of your lives.

now i change places, from st. augustine to boston! always something.

in the Light, lordflea