Here are some inspirational words from Sixto Rodriguez that once inspired the youth of South Africa. May they inspire all of us as well. From the song “This Is Not A Song, Its An Outburst: Or, The Establishment Blues” on the Cold Fact album.
The mayor hides the crime rate
Council woman hesitates
Public gets irate but forget the vote date
Weatherman complaining, predicted sun, it’s raining
Everyone’s protesting, boyfriend keeps suggesting
You’re not like all of the rest.
Garbage ain’t collected, women ain’t protected
Politicians using people, they’ve been abusing
The mafia’s getting bigger, like pollution in the river
And you tell me that this is where it’s at.
Woke up this moming with an ache in my head
Splashed on my clothes as I spilled out of bed
Opened the window to listen to the news
But all I heard was the Establishment’s Blues.
Gun sales are soaring, housewives find life boring
Divorce the only answer smoking causes cancer
This system’s gonna fall soon, to an angry young tune
And that’s a concrete cold fact.
The pope digs population, freedom from taxation
Teeny Bops are up tight, drinking at a stoplight
Miniskirt is flirting I can’t stop so I’m hurting
Spinster sells her hopeless chest.
Adultery plays the kitchen, bigot cops non-fiction
The little man gets shafted, sons and monies drafted
Living by a time piece, new war in the far east.
Can you pass the Rorschach test?
It’s a hassle is an educated guess.
Well, frankly I couldn’t care less.
I asked Jeanne and all of our guides in infinity for a message of guidance today. Here is what I received.
Now is a time of change…
In order to change and evolve, a concerted effort must be made to constantly remain aware of the actions of the self in the world. In addition, perfection is required in all you do if you are to move the mountains that now stand in your way. Perfection requires a certain amount of attentiveness combined with a desire to succeed in making lasting changes. If one is to do deep inner work, commitment, impeccability, and diligence are needed partners in the process.
Look to the self for what all of this means, for only in working with the raw materials of the self will the necessary issues arise. What do you personally need to work on?
It is so easy to see the problems of others. Take what you see in them and apply it to yourself, for that is how to begin a deepening of your inner process. The imperfections you note in others are the signs pointing to your personal inner work. That which you cannot abide in others must be brought home to the self. This is the first step, to turn your frustrations and worries upon the self and use them to change the self. Change of the self must come first if one is to expect change in the world, so continue to ask the self to confront the issues that remain as burdensome blockages to change.
There is much fear and hatred in the world. When projected outwardly, onto others, no solution is offered. Such projection merely perpetuates an intolerable dilemma. In order for real change to occur you must all be daring now. You must all request impeccability of the inner self, diligence, and hard work.
Prepare the self for difficulties as you would prepare for life itself: work hard, take care of that which requires attention, and guard your energy. Do not be wasteful, greedy, or ignorant of the truth of the self. Do not hide what you know must be attended to. There is no time to waste. The truth must guide you now, on an individual level, as well as on a worldly level.
Impeccability requires acceptance of what is; then work with that. Facing the truths of self leads to honing the ability to change. When you are ready, you will change yourself and your life, but do not wait much longer, for now is the time to enact change. With daring, push the self to change. You will not be disappointed.
America, see this movie, especially as we approach the eve of election. This is what life is really all about: no self-importance, truth, equality, no attachment, impeccability, no holding back, no circumstance more important than any other, no resentment, all in the spirit of love. This movie is an absolute must see. See how the winds of change blow a seed across the sea and blow it back decades later to where it is now truly needed.
For those who are local it is currently playing at Upstate. And after the movie, go home, download his two albums from iTunes and treat yourself to an altered state.
The mind and the breath are inseparable. Control the breath; control the mind.
Slow, full breath creates calm. The fullness of deep, calm breathing releases the staleness and constriction of anger and fear. Racing thoughts dissolve as attention shifts to the breath.
Breathe! Breathe with awareness. Begin by simply directing consciousness to the breath. Notice the breath. No pressure, no expectation, no judgment, just awareness placed on breathing naturally, as it happens.
Next, decide to accompany the breath on drums—that is, count out the beats of an in-breath, as well as its accompanying out-breath. Bring the beats into equality; same count in as out. Always count along.
Ask the breath to deepen into the abdomen. If the body isn’t ready to go there that’s fine. However far it goes is enough. After some time the body may invite a deeper breath, naturally, as it relaxes and opens to more.
Perhaps as the breath goes even deeper, filling and fully relaxing the abdominal region, it moves higher into the chest and upper chest, filling the body to a count of eight. Holding the breath for a few counts before slowly releasing to exhalation, from the abdomen up to the chest on a count of eight beats, allows for deepening relaxation and calm. Perhaps the breath might repeat this process several times, always with awareness of inhaling and counting and exhaling and counting slowly, maintaining a sense of the filling and emptying of the belly and lungs. Notice the calming of the mind as it is led by the calmness of the breath flowing in the body.
Frequent repetitions of conscious breathing sink into the unconscious, creating a reformulated program for deeper breathing, uprooting old habits of vigilance, fear, or anger, habituated in the body in younger years under other circumstances.
Conscious breathing, accompanied by counting of each beat, sinks into the subconscious as a new habit of calm, naturally canceling out unsolicited thoughts that reactively register unwanted feeling states in the body.
Breathe in life!
Conscious breathing changes the mind and the body by grounding us in the present in calm. From calm we are strengthened in our ability to weather the true storms from within and without. From calm we dispel the illusions that have held our body and mind in check. From calm we resume our interrupted journey, returning back to nature, flowing in the calm river of infinity.
We have mice, little gray house mice and brown, white-footed field mice. We have big mice and little mice. One day we opened the door leading down to the garage and found two baby mice, blind and shivering, hunched down on the threshold. They were tiny and supple enough to flatten their bodies and squeeze under the tightly fitting doorjamb. As we opened the door, they scrambled back into a tiny hole in the doorframe. Mother mouse was probably out hunting, hunting in our kitchen right next door no doubt.
Evidence of mice greets us every morning in the kitchen, little mouse doots all over the place, in the sink and on the counters. We leave very little food out, but the mice still come. I had three little red chili peppers drying in a small bowl on the counter. One day I noticed that one of the peppers was missing. The next day all three were gone, taken by the mice. I wondered what kind of mice we really had. They like hot chili peppers?
We hear them running up the walls to the attic. We even hear them knocking things over up there, thumps and crashes that make it sound like more than just tiny mice. When our girls are visiting they see mice scurrying across the bathroom floor. I’ve plugged up the most apparent entryways, but the mice still get in. We feel bad about killing any creature, but we made an executive decision to put out traps. We justified this by saying we’d feed the dead mice to the crows, one creature giving its life so another might live. It seemed reasonable.
Every morning we’d find mice in the traps we’d set out. I’d apologize and thank the mice for giving their lives, and then put them out on an altar-like stone ledge in the front yard. Soon crows would arrive and take the mice. It was a system that seemed to be working, at least on the outside. But inside I began to feel bad. I noticed that I had a swollen gland in my neck. I’d notice it when I was reading, my head bent at a particular angle to my book.
A sudden insight…
The other day—the day Hurricane Sandy blew inland and rattled our windows and shook our house with gusts of wind—I had a sudden insight while standing at the kitchen sink. I realized I had to stop killing the mice. It wasn’t right. As the rain pelted the kitchen window over the sink, I suddenly knew that the swollen gland in my neck was due to this killing.
“I have to stop killing the mice,” I said to Chuck. “Even though I’ve justified the killing, saying that it’s necessary and that I’m feeding the crows in turn, it’s still wrong. I’m absorbing the energy of those dead mice. That’s why I have a swollen gland. It may sound pretty farfetched, but it’s been bothering me for a while now, and I knew it had something to do with something that wasn’t quite right, that something was bothering me on a deeper level. Now I see what it is.”
Last night, I didn’t set any traps. My decision felt right. I had forgotten about my swollen gland, but a little while ago I noticed that it’s completely gone. The message that came in on the storm rattled more than my windows. I got a much deeper appreciation for how we are affected by energy, if we care to investigate ourselves on a deeper level. It’s what Jeanne mentioned doing in her message on Monday, and although I didn’t consciously follow her missive, the storm itself led me to investigate and resolve an issue, as the energy of nature, the storm, awakened a deeper unrest inside me.
The empty altar stone.
The mice came into the kitchen last night. I cleaned up their droppings this morning, but I feel no anger or animosity toward them. They are just doing what mice do.
