Tag Archives: economy

Chuck’s Place: Unlimited Growth

Unlimited growth… this baby sprang up overnight!
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Perhaps the one thing the majority of politicians of all political persuasions seem to agree upon is the need for economic growth. This mantra trumps reckoning with the impact of unlimited growth upon the delicate ecosystem of a finite planet.

Last week, moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, in a Washington Post editorial, politely encouraged the President to fund exploration of Mars, seeming to suggest the inevitability of Earth’s inability to house us, a somewhat codependent enabling of the sacrosanct right to unlimited growth.

Perhaps Buzz’s solution of space as the final frontier will come to pass, but I see this as an externalization of the evolutionary spirit in humans, who must turn their unquenchable thirst for growth in a truly sustainable direction.

The Shamans of Ancient Mexico recognized that evolution of the human physical body had largely reached its limits and that evolution for humans was a more subtle energetic affair, in the form of the energy body. Exploration of life beyond the physical body is their outlet for the very human need for unlimited growth.

Those shamans begin with the very pragmatic observation that human beings, in physical form, are beings who are going to die. From this fundamental truth, they propose that all human beings are equal, none escape this inevitable transformative appointment with death.

Though they encourage that all find a path with heart in their journey upon this Earth, their central focus is on cultivating the vehicle of the energy body, that which launches into infinity when the physical body is put to rest. Shamans suggest engaging intent and becoming energy misers to amass the energy for this dimension of spiritual exploration, now, while in human form.

Intent is energetic instruction. Intent is the law of attraction. These are my characterizations of intent. Don Juan Matus said, quite simply, we intend by intending. Intend to dream and dreams come. If blocking beliefs prevent intending, intent is not discovered or cultivated, as we simply manifest the same old, same old. If intent is spent on materialism, it will manifest as such. Intent is not about conscience, it’s about utilization.

To intend to find the energy body with perseverance will result in its discovery. The unlimited exploration of reality and infinity is available to everyone, simply through intending it and having enough energy to go there.

Being an energy miser does not mean being selfish, as the name implies. It does mean refusing to spend one’s intent on illusion. The glamour of self-importance, in all its permutations, the black hole of worry and the fixation of power at the level of the solar plexus, are all poor investments of energetic capital. None of these promote the unlimited growth potential of the journey we all share in common.

Heart-centered truths are good investments in energy body growth and exploration, as the heart does not validate illusion, only true energetic facts.

Robert Monroe journeyed with his energy body into the future of planet Earth, perhaps two thousand years from now. He discovered that though humans still had physical bodies they rarely used them, as they had become masters of the art of intent in their energy bodies.

Everyone is invited to discover, for themselves, the unlimited growth potential at the subtler energetic body level of reality. This is particularly apropos at a time when illusion spills out of control at the denser physical level of reality.

Energetic exploration will only enhance physical reality, as energy is withdrawn from exploiting it and invested instead in furthering its evolution, where we are all headed.

Unlimited growth is indeed at the heart of the human spirit. It’s simply time for a course correction. Plant your seed of heart-centered intent and let the growth begin!

Growing,

Chuck

Chuck’s Place: Dream It Forward

So who says it's so? Embroidered by a Dreamer.

Each morning we awaken to our longest running dream, the world we live in. So compelling and consistent is this dream that we call it reality. In our reality dream, reason has come to be the guiding force, with magic and spirit really believed to exist only in other dreams.

Despite the limitations of reason, it has generated a dream we can count on, a safety net of order and continuity for us to build and maintain our lives on. Currently, our world of reason is under siege by a wily trickster who presents under the pseudonym of economics.

“It’s jobs, stupid; it’s the economy.” And with those words the world goes silent and is brought to its knees in servitude.

This past week I heard a music reviewer, on the eve of the American Idol finale, state that the show had become so formulaic and, despite some strong voices, that formula choked out new music. She herself felt the need to attend a rock concert that night, rather than be bored once again. The economic coup, the other “idol” of our times, has become equally formulaic and boring.

In our own American dream, currently dominating the world stage, a new economic American Idol was anointed this week, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg. At age 28, he is now one of the twenty wealthiest people on earth. How did he get there? Well, his greed and speed launched Facebook initially. Despite dirty tricks at Harvard, he pulled it off. The recent Facebook IPO launch was filled, once again, with dirty tricks, with JP Morgan implicated once again, but Zuckerberg still landed at the top, and truly, that’s all that matters. Right?

Reason and fairness are no match for the “economic need” of the few. And, in the end, all dirty deeds are truly forgiven because, secretly, all is fair in the accumulation of wealth. What matters is getting there—at any cost. That’s the real dream of the economic dream.

We have to frack, to poison the water supply. Why? It’s jobs, stupid! We have to drill in the Arctic. We need more oil. Why? Homeland security and the economy, stupid! We simply cannot limit carbon emissions to forestall global warming, at least not now. Why? It just doesn’t make economic sense. How could we possibly shut down a nuclear industry in these times of economic need?

Ironically, such drastic economic delusions were created by the Zuckerbergs of the world, the Wall Street tricksters, the champions of finance and industry who continuously fool the world to their own wealth advantage. But truthfully, their power remains unchecked because, secretly, we’re all upholding the notion that the accumulation of wealth, through any means, is of the highest value and at the basis of our survival. That American dream, like American Idol, simply chokes out the possibility of other dreams, even one so simple as fairness, sharing, and taking only what you truly need. Or a dream that acknowledges interdependence, a dream that says, “no being left behind.” It takes all of us to uphold the dream.

Time to dream a new dream?

Our reality dream is breaking apart now because even rationality cannot uphold the logic of the economic trickster. Science, a most rational process, is severely checked under its influence. According to the economic trickster, science exists only for its money making potential and should only be funded to serve the market. Education is all wrong. Schools are markets now too; markets for iPads, markets for loans, for online degrees. It’s all about the economy—we need more to survive. Like cancer, that dream can only survive on the unchecked accumulation of more.

The good news is that new dreams are incubating to dream our world forward, as we begin to awaken from our current economic nightmare. Just watch Greece. They’re doing it. They’ll be damned, but that cradle of democracy is learning to just say no, as the trickster—the European/World economy—shakes in its boots. True reality is that there is no debt crisis, there is no economic crisis, there is more than enough to sustain all in this world.

The trickster’s crisis is the crisis of greed, with its insatiable need to have it all—that’s the true crisis of which we’re all deluded. The trickster’s dream insists that we dream its dream and pay homage to survival being based on feeding the insatiable need of its greed. That dream requires all of us, in consensus, to agree to it, to uphold that world. That’s why the markets are terrified at the implications in Greece and France. If Greece leaves the Euro, they break from that dream, and that dream begins a free fall into a nightmare that even the trickster can’t dream himself out of.

The other good news is that we are all dreamers capable of awakening from this dream that’s held us in its grip for so long. In our daily dreams, we can incorporate mindfulness practices to achieve a calm that allows us to dislodge from the frantic fears generated by the suggestions of the trickster hypnotist, found within us, as well as without.

We can dream our lives forward, beyond the constraints of the economic formula into new possibility. We can even dream a world of magic and fulfillment, freed of the delusion that we need to accumulate more. Come on, dreamers, let’s dream it forward!

Dreaming on,
Chuck

Note: A good follow up to Chuck’s blog and the economic dream we are caught in is to watch the movie I AM by Tom Shadyac. If you haven’t seen it, it offers a romp through where greed has taken us and specifically the director himself. In the end, he allows simplicity to take it’s modest yet most appropriate place. Available in our Store, under the movies category.

Chuck’s Place: Sitting Duck Energy

Early last Saturday morning we acquiesced to the real possibility that the predicted absurdity of a severe Nor’easter in October would actually blanket us. An ambitious plan of preparation ensued: shop at Adam’s when they opened, deal with the already fallen leaves and snow, clean the gutters, prepare the snow machines, the generator, etc.

We finish at Adam’s by 8:15 a.m. As we drive cautiously down the exit lane through the parking lot we stop to allow a car to back out of a space while another impatiently interrupts that process, hurriedly slipping into the space next to it. Suddenly there is a loud shout and a commotion and we are blindsided as an SUV pulling out of a space—obviously oblivious to us—rams into the rear side of our car. To make matters worse, the driver then hits the gas instead of the brake, lifting us off the ground!

Sitting Duck

I was completely caught off guard as my attention was focused in front of me. I had no emotional or energetic reaction other than surprise and curiosity. What just happened and what does it mean?

It was 100% evident that we were sitting ducks. We had done nothing wrong. I have no attachment to feeling victimized—that clearly wasn’t the point—I don’t need that lesson. The message was more about the energy that is now upon us. No degree of careful preparation or defense can forestall the inevitable. We were indeed simply sitting ducks. Just like a Nor’easter in October, with leaves still on the trees, we are all sitting ducks. We are all being cornered now by an energy that cannot and will not be stopped.

I watch this energy reverberate now through many dimensions. Occupy World Street finds its way to Greece this week. In an effort to forestall chaotic revolution, Prime Minister Papandreou calls for a national referendum, a vote by the people on the proposed debt deal for Greece imposed by representatives of the 1%. The IMF and the European Union deal-brokers offer Greece 10 years of indentured servitude in exchange for funds to finance its debt.

Sitting Duck Duck

Sitting duck energy is prepared to hammer that deal differently and the banks and Wall Street are terrified of that. Their reaction to Papandreou’s surprise move: How dare he even think of going to the people of this ancient cradle of democracy and risk destabilizing the world economy?

The bottom line as of this morning: even though Papandreou has agreed to pull the referendum and even step down from his post, even though he caved, there is no holding back the energy of now.

MF Global, the as-of-this-week now bankrupt Wall Street investment firm, saw the writing on the wall, as it had overly invested in the “secure” higher interest of European debt. The reality is: the 1% are in trouble and they know it! The markets are in trouble! World economics that catered to the greed of the 1% is in serious trouble—sitting ducks too.

Greece may drop the euro and leave the European Union. Who might be next? Italy? I see a potential cascade of tumbling nations receding into simple autonomy once again. I see a breakdown of world financial interdependence. Greed has had its day.

On a more personal level, I’ve observed sitting duck energy absolutely corner many people this week with very deep truths and challenges—it’s obvious: there is no escape.

Take counsel from sitting duck energy:

Lesson #1: Suspend judgment, it’s not your fault. It’s not personal, though it will expose the deepest personal truths and challenges.

Lesson #2: There is no escape from sitting duck energy, only acquiescence to processing and reckoning with the truth revealed.

Lesson #3: Realign your life with the truths now revealed by sitting duck energy. That means alignment with the truth that it’s all leading to a new, very much needed balance as new worlds form both personally and globally.

Sitting Duck Duck Duck

And that is the final truth to face: a new world is indeed in order; sitting duck energy is making it possible. It doesn’t matter what final decisions Papandreou or the IMF or the European Union or the banks make, the power is now in the hands of the 99% and it is unstoppable because it is fueled by sitting duck energy. And the final outcome of sitting duck energy will be the same no matter what: CHANGE!
—Chuck