Posts Tagged ‘Franklin D. Roosevelt’
Armistice Day, 2020
~ No More War: Quotes and Comments
“And they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.”
~ Isaiah 2:4
“Nothing will end war unless the people refuse to go to war.” ”War cannot be humanized, only abolished”
“You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.”
~ Albert Einstein
“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries.
Without them humanity cannot survive.”
~ Dalai Lama
“We must . . live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” “The choice is not between violence and nonviolence,
but between nonviolence and nonexistence.”
~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Mankind must put an end to war,
or war will put an end to mankind…”
~ John F. Kennedy
“There is no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy.
There is nothing good in war. Except its ending.”
~ Abraham Lincoln
“More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars — yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments.”
~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
“The great question is, can war be outlawed from the world?
If so, it would mark the greatest advance in civilization since the Sermon on the Mount.”
~ Douglas MacArthur
“Thou shalt not kill.”
~ Exodus 20:13
“Does the commandment ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’ mean nothing to us? Are we to interpret it as meaning ‘Thou shalt not kill except on the grand scale,’ or ‘Thou shalt not kill except when the national leaders say to do so’?”
~ Linus Pauling
Armistice Day, 2020 ~ No More War
Dear Friends,
A century ago on November 11th at eleven o’clock a.m. — the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918, an armistice agreement was signed by the combatant Allied nations and Germany to end four years of Word War I hostilities. This historic event was thereafter commemorated by the Allied nations as a national “Armistice Day” holiday idealistically marking termination of “the war to end all wars”.
However, at the outbreak of World War II, the US national holiday name became “Veterans Day”, while British Commonwealth nations changed from “Armistice Day” to “Remembrance Day”. And for decades endless more wars have followed the “the war to end all wars”.
Human societies have advanced industrially and technologically, but have yet utterly failed to stop warring. As American humorist and social commentator Will Rogers sardonically observed:
“You can’t say civilization don’t advance…
in every war they kill you in a new way.”
~ Will Rogers
Although armed conflict is behaviorally as old as humankind, for the first time in our recorded history we are now forced to realize that any more wars will probably trigger a nuclear, ecological, biological, or radiological catastrophe insanely ending earth-life as we’ve known it.
But paradoxically, while human survival is technologically threatened as never before, we concurrently have gained unprecedented technical capacity to sustainably end all human starvation and poverty. And in these critical times of immense suffering, yet immense opportunity, we are awakening to our infinitely unlimited human potentiality.
So as we appropriately honor and remember all those who have been conscripted or enlisted into military services fighting endless wars, let us urgently and lovingly envisage and intend – at long last – an era with no more war on our precious planet.
Together let us join in imagining planet Earth cooperatively ruled bottom-up by humble and compassionate societies, rather than top-down by transnational billionaire individual and corporate sociopaths or psychopaths. And as we so initiate a new era of lasting peace, let us be inspired and guided by the foregoing memorable quotations that any more immoral war is absolutely insane and intolerable.
Thus I propose that – instead of “Veterans Day” – the US again observe “Armistice Day”, in remembrance of “the war to end all wars”, because any more war will be omnicidal. And may we henceforth commemorate the November 11th Armistice Day holiday, with indomitable determination to never again start insanely immoral wars on our precious planet!
And so shall it be!
Ron Rattner
Discovering and Escaping
an Illusory Matrix “Reality”
~ Ron’s Memoirs
“This world is wrought with naught but thought.
Mind is matrix; consciousness is context.”
“Everything we think, do or say changes this world in some way.”
“Love-thoughts bless the world, but fear-thoughts afflict it.”
~ Ron Rattner – Sutra Saysings
“Reality isn’t real.”
“Reality is a holographic theater of the mind.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won.
There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible,
but in the end they always fall — think of it. Always.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
”This earth is nothing but movies to me. Just like the beam of a motion picture.
So is everything made of shadow and light. That’s what we are. Light and shadows of the Lord.
Nothing else than that. There’s one purpose. To get to the beam.”
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
Introduction
After my midlife spiritual awakening I gradually recognized that space/time “reality” is an ego-mind illusion; a thought-created dream-like mirage, from which we can awaken. But as an ardent social justice legal advocate I’ve always been concerned that our world is dominated by psychopathic “leaders” with immense financial, corporate and political power who without conscience or remorse promote their delusionally perceived selfish interests. [See Is the world being ruled and ruined by psychopaths? ]
So I’ve long wondered why the majority of humanity until now have followed and allowed insane and harmful orders and edicts by such “leaders’”. And why our world is thus steadily becoming more and more dystopian and Orwellian.
This memoirs essay-story tells how, only after confinement by recent worldwide Covid 19 lockdown edicts, I synchronistically discovered compelling evidence answering my questions: amazing evidence that our societies and “leaders” are probably afflicted and dominated by subhuman malignant energies or entities which parasitically polarize, divide and exploit humankind, by provoking anger, anxiety, and fear.
Yet it also tells how and why our coronavirus suffering can become a disguised blessing awakening Humanity to triumph democratically over the fearful illusion of unavoidable confinement in an authoritarian and ‘evil’ dystopian world. How we can soon nonviolently escape this mental-matrix confinement, when an awakened “tipping point” critical mass of concerned humans transcend parasitically divisive anger, anxiety, and fear to adamantly resist evil edicts with Truth and Love.
Our “Love-thoughts bless the world, but our fear-thoughts afflict it.”
Thus, President Franklin D Roosevelt presciently told deep truth upon proclaiming almost 88 years ago that:
“The only thing we have to fear is…fear itself —
nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror
which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
~ Franklin D Roosevelt, first Presidential inaugural address
So to join the critical mass of awakened humans which will inevitably end our descent into dystopia, please read and carefully consider the following essay/story.
Background summary
Following my midlife spiritual awakening, I radically revised concepts of self-identity and reality – from being a separate physical mortal, to universal eternal awareness emanating from infinite potentiality. So, for decades I’ve recognized that space/time “reality” isn’t really real, but a thought-created dream-like mirage or holographic/fractal theater of the ego-mind. These insights came mainly from inner experiences, synchronicities, and ancient Eastern teachings, rather than from contemporary media sources.
Upon reclusively living alone after my midlife awakening and traumatic 1977 divorce, I had no computer, no longer watched movies or TV dramas, and only read about spiritual subjects. So I never saw or read about science fiction films like “The Matrix”.
Thus, I didn’t suspect until watching the Matrix movie only a few years ago that metaphorically we’re probably living in a pre-programmed digital matrix. Since then my long-time concerns about psychopathic world “leaders” have synchronistically led to recent discovery that we suffer much earthly immorality and injustice because (as portrayed in the Matrix movie) our illusory mental-matrix is like a metaphoric mental prison, subliminally programmed by unseen parasitic astral energies or entities which dominate, control and feed upon humankind through such “leaders” and sub-human technocratic and psychopathic cultists.
But after I was recently locked down by irrationally harmful worldwide Covid 19 pandemic edicts, I synchronistically discovered numerous authorities supporting the existence of such sub-human astral entities or energies which cause collective subliminal psychoses and afflict many sociopathic, psychopathic and autocratic societal ‘leaders’, transhumanists, technocrats, and bureaucrats who are causing critical and catastrophic world problems.
I’ll hereafter detail reasons for the foregoing conclusions.
Questioning how and why sociopaths or psychopaths can dominate humanity
For many years I’ve felt deep concerns about how insane “leaders” lacking normal human conscience are causing immense worldwide problems and catastrophes. [See Is the world being ruled and ruined by psychopaths? ] Because of such longtime concerns I once wrote a personal letter to the Dalai Lama asking:
“How can concerned citizens become actively engaged in helping our global family transcend critical societal problems fomented by psychopathic leaders lacking normal capacity for compassion and loving-kindness?
His Holiness didn’t answer my letter. So, I assumed that he’d advocate active engagement with love and compassion to safeguard our global family. [See e.g. 2020 Earth Day Message: Compassionate People In An Orwellian World ]
But I’ve curiously continued seeking explanations for societal problems attributable to people in positions of authority who without conscience, empathy or remorse, promote their delusional perceived self interests, amorally and often criminally and violently. [See e.g. The Psychopath/ The Mask of Sanity and The Mask of Sanity by Hervey Cleckley]
And I’ve long wondered why the majority of humanity until now have followed and allowed insane and harmful orders and edicts by such “leaders’”. And why our world is thus steadily becoming more and more dystopian and Orwellian.
Are we living in an illusory computer-generated metaphoric matrix ‘reality’?
For decades I’ve been convinced by inner experience and Eastern wisdom, that our space/time “reality” is a dream-like ego-mind illusion. But only recently did I explore the idea that the Earth and the physical universe we live in might be part of a virtual computer simulation.
Only about four years ago I began exploring the idea that the Earth and the apparently physical universe we live in, might actually be part of a metaphoric computer simulation, even though I’d long been convinced by inner experience and Eastern wisdom, that our space/time “reality” is a dream-like ego-mind illusion.
After learning of billionaire engineer/entrepreneur Elon Musk’s publicly professed belief that the world we know is just a very sophisticated computer simulation, I began thoroughly investigating that idea, already widely known as The Simulation Hypothesis. (Because this non-materialistic theory parallels mystic ideas about our ever impermanent space/time ‘reality”, I’ve called it: “Samsara 3.0”.)
On researching, I soon learned that the theory our virtual “reality” is in fact like a computer-generated digital simulation, has been proposed in science fiction stories, TV and movies for over fifty years. And that many mainstream scientists have now begun seriously entertaining – with some accepting – that what we deem “reality” is in fact like a computer-generated digital simulation.
So, for the first time, I mindfully watched the 1999 science fiction film The Matrix, which depicts a world in which artificially intelligent non-human parasitic entities have enslaved humanity within a simulated reality set in the present world. Later, I learned about and viewed a similarly themed earlier film They Live (1988). Also I heard about and viewed an apt Star Trek video about confronting hostile Archon aliens, and The Truman Show (1999) about subliminal TV ‘reality’ programming.
After watching the films I began researching writings about the legendary mental parasites to which they allude. And synchronistically I found many surprisingly credible and consistent sources (some ancient) confirming supposed existence of such parasitic entities or energies, which prevent human freedom and evolution to spiritual realms. (For convenience I’ll refer to these mental parasites as “archons”, a term used in the Gnostic traditions.)
What are archons, and how do they endanger humankind?
My research has revealed that various enduring spiritual and shamanistic traditions (like Gnosticism, Native American and Hawaiian Kahuna) have traditionally recognized and rejected (as demonic) sub-human parasitic forces, energies or entities devoid of conscience, compassion and empathy.
These forces are attracted to greedy, deceptive, cruel or controlling people and societies already emitting low thought-forms, which they infect or “possess” as vulnerable victims. Whereupon the archons exacerbate and provoke anger, controversy, panic and fear to further polarize, divide and control their human prey.
After some individual and collective victims are possessed or infected, their conscience gradually ceases to function, their spiritual light and life force dims, and they become unknowing and subconscious instruments of demonic darkness.
How archons pre-plan what happens to humans in a metaphoric Matrix.
Only after the March 11, 2020 World Health Organization’s (WHO) irrational declaration of a purported coronavirus pandemic, which was soon followed by extraordinary and unnecessary edicts against normal human activities, and threats of compulsory vaccinations, did I begin to discover overwhelmingly credible evidence that this pandemic had long been preplanned by demonic dark forces. And that the pandemic is insidiously intended as the pretense for a world-changing “new 9/11” era of unprecedented evil domination and control of humanity. (See e,g. COVID-911: From Homeland Security to Biosecurity )
In carefully analyzing incontrovertible factual and circumstantial evidence it became obvious to me that people like billionaire technocrat and eugenicist Bill Gates, with no health or medical expertise, have long-intended to control and depopulate humanity by illegally, unjustifiably and forcibly vaccinating everyone everywhere against fraudulently alleged massive health dangers of Covid-19, with an unnecessary, unnatural and toxic pathogen unquestionably created by humans in bio-weapons laboratories. So I’ve irreversibly concluded, as an expert legal evidence analyst, that the purported WHO pandemic is an evil “plandemic” pretense to intimidate and subjugate humanity.
Moreover, massive evidence already suggests that the pre-planned Covid-19 vaccinations are an immoral subterfuge intended to modify humans’ genes and brains to transform them into robotic trans-human artificial intelligence (AI) cyborgs. Apart from so-called world vaccination and depopulation authority Bill Gates, other influential people like Elon Musk and Ray Kurzweil, a top Google executive, are openly advocating and investing in transhumanist technologies for merging humans with AI, to become ‘Humans 2.0’.
Rudolf Steiner’s predictions and warnings about “spirits of darkness”.
Apart from aforementioned compellingly probative evidence, I recently discovered the following amazingly prescient statements made over 100 years ago by Western sage Rudolf Steiner in public talks about “spirits of darkness”:
“I have told you that the spirits of darkness are going to inspire their human hosts, in whom they will be dwelling, to find a vaccine that will drive all inclination toward spirituality out of people’s souls when they are still very young, and this will happen in a roundabout way through the living body.”
“The spirits of darkness are now among us. We have to be on guard so that we may realize what is happening when we encounter them and gain a real idea of where they are to be found. The most dangerous thing you can do in the immediate future will be to give yourself up unconsciously to the influences which are definitely present.”
“There are beings in the spiritual realms for whom anxiety and fear emanating from human beings offer welcome food. When humans have no anxiety and fear, then these creatures starve… If fear and anxiety radiates from people and they break out in panic, then these creatures find welcome nutrition and they become more and more powerful. These beings are hostile towards humanity.
C. G. Jung’s recognition of humanity’s ‘shadow side’ demons
Throughout much of Dr. Carl Gustav Jung’s distinguished 20th century career as an eminent and acclaimed psychotherapist he recognized and analyzed the unconscious shadow side of humanity. At various times Dr. Jung referred psychologically to the above-described demonic forces which have been known to humanity, individually and collectively, since antiquity.
Here are only a few of Dr. Jung’s apt quotes, made at different times:
“The psychic conditions which breed demons are as actively at work as ever. The demons have not really disappeared but have merely taken on another form: they have become unconscious psychic forces.”
“Possession, though old-fashioned, has by no means become obsolete; only the name has changed. Formerly they spoke of ‘evil spirits,’ now we call them ‘neurosis’ or ‘unconscious complexes.'”
“If, for a moment, we look at mankind as one individual, we see that it is like a man carried away by unconscious powers.”
“When a situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate.”
How humanity can escape our illusory psychic shackles
As suggested by Dr. Jung, humanity can escape dark side demonic afflictions, by consciously recognizing and resisting them.
In The Matrix film a skilled hacker named “Neo“, feels something is wrong with the world and is puzzled by repeated online encounters with the phrase “the Matrix”.
After voluntarily ingesting a revelatory “red pill” offered by wise man Morpheus, Neo awakens to discover that his entire world is an artificial universe created by computers which have imprisoned humans who believe it to be real; that, with countless other deluded souls, he’s existed like a ‘living-battery’ whose body has been energetically charging a computer simulation/dream in a digitally pre-programmed virtual or simulated world – the Matrix. He is thereby drawn into a rebellion against the parasitic captors, along with Morpheus and a few other righteous people who have been freed from the Matrix.
Although there is much truth in the “red pill” Matrix metaphor, our resistance to demonic forces does not require any violent rebellion by a few consciously aware and righteous people, led by a single saviour – the ONE. But it does require collective awareness of our psychologically subliminal and repressed shadow side afflictions by a critical mass “tipping point” of concerned humans.
Our immoral shadow side tendencies, or evil astral entities and energies, are parasitically nurtured and exist only through our negative thoughts and emotions. Hence, by elevating our vibratory fields with consciously compassionate and loving thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, we can transcend the demonic mental Matrix which can’t subsist without negative human energies to feed on.
But bringing the shadow side into consciousness is not as easy as simply ingesting a “red pill’. It will require a dedicated and arduous effort to discover and transcend long-repressed and subliminally inculcated false ideas about our “reality” and “self-identity”.
Since each person is unique there is no collective answer to how we can discover truth about our shadow side challenges. However if we decide to see and be the truth that sets us free, we definitely can succeed in elevating our energies so that they no longer sustain parasitic forces of darkness. No violent rebellion is required, only non-judgmental and nonviolent resistance to dark energies, with our light of inner awareness which illuminates current unconscious darkness.
And we don’t have to become “enlightened” Buddhas to succeed. We can soon escape these illusory psychic shackles, even while we’re still subject to space/time karmic causality. So we can collectively create a democratic and nonviolent “new reality” rather than permit an unprecedented evil era of demonic control over humankind.
By observing and elevating our negative emanations humans can evolve to co-create a compassionately just and benevolent new space/time “reality”
Cosmically our apparent space/time duality/reality is merely vibrating energy, emanating from humans, individually and collectively. And only at elevated heart levels of consciousness, beyond the fearful levels which originated them, can we solve our earthly problems..
As Albert Einstein ingeniously observed:
“What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. There is no matter.”
“Space and time are not conditions in which we live, they are modes in which we think”
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
“Our separation of each other is an optical illusion of consciousness.”
“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”
Thus, we Humans ‘create’ our illusory space/time polarity reality, and its fearful problems, with only our thoughts, behaviors and emotions.
Our fearful thoughts “create” a negative vibratory reality which nurtures parasitic archon forces that afflict us, while our loving thoughts bless us and create a positive vibratory reality which is inaccessible to such psychic vampires.
So by focusing upon and emanating positive energies we can be freed from demonic mental parasites. However, until we become collectively conscious of our subliminal negative thoughts and behaviors, we may be unable to end them.
The coronavirus emergency can be a disguised blessing, awakening Humanity to our deepest caring instincts.
Humanity is a “social species” which has survived and thrived mostly communally and interdependently. And the demonically pre-planned “new normal” coronavirus pandemic crisis of worldwide anxiety, fear and panic is a once-in-a-lifetime ‘fork-in—the-road’ opportunity for humankind to co-create a new and wonderful world of happiness, harmony and health for everyone everywhere, rather than degenerate into a locked-down dystopian/Orwellian “Big Brother” era of unprecedented human control and enslavement by a few psychopaths.
While prevented from pursuing normal activities, billions of people worldwide are observing and adamantly rejecting irrational and unwarranted edicts, fears and ‘lock-downs’, which cause enormous needless suffering. Thus we are remembering and realizing the crucial importance of compassionately caring for one-another. And we are recognizing and rejecting the utter insanity of a tiny few of our autocratic “leaders”, who until now have been allowed to thwart expression and satisfaction of humankind’s primordial need for happiness as Love.
Our unwavering determination to resist undemocratic domination, and to replace such “leaders”, with democratic societies serving people and planet over profits, has been recently reflected by spontaneous worldwide citizen protests of the undemocratic and fraudulent Covid-19 restrictions. Speaking to over a million citizen protestors in Berlin, Germany, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr eloquently articulated our collective resistance by declaring:
“We are not going to let you take our democracy away.
We are not going to let you take our health away.
We are not going to let you take our freedoms away.
We are not going to let you take our children away.”
~ Robert F. Kennedy, Jr – Berlin, 8/30/20
Thus, our coronavirus suffering is becoming a disguised blessing awakening Humanity to triumph democratically over the fearful illusion of an ‘evil’ authoritarian prison.
So awakened, and determined to evolve beyond immoral official fetters, may we nonviolently prevail with timeless Truth and Love.
Invocation
Awakened to our innate infinite powers of Truth and Love, may we be inspired by words of Mahatma Gandhi to remember that despite our lives’ inevitable ‘ups and downs’ our ultimate success is divinely destined. Gandhiji said:
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won.
There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible,
but in the end they always fall — think of it. Always.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
So with supreme faith in our ultimate triumph as Truth and Love,
let us optimistically and unrelentingly resist
all evil autocracies and psychopathic hierarchies,
ever remembering that our destiny is Divinity.
And so shall it be!
Ron Rattner
2020 Earth Day Message:
Compassionate People In An Orwellian World
“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries.
Without them humanity cannot survive.”
“Ultimately, the decision to save the environment must come from the human heart. . [from] a genuine sense of universal responsibility that is based on love, compassion and clear awareness.”
~ Dalai Lama
“In the present circumstances, no one can afford to assume
that someone else will solve their problems. Every individual has a responsibility to help guide our global family in the right direction. Good wishes are not sufficient; we must become actively engaged.”
~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama, from “The Path to Tranquility: Daily Wisdom”
“A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’,
a part limited in time and space.
He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest… a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.
This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.
Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is, in itself, a part of the liberation, and a foundation for inner security.”
~ Albert Einstein ( N. Y. Times , March 29, 1972)
“Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life.”
“Compassion, in which all ethics must take root,
can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces
all living creatures, and does not limit itself to mankind.”
~ Albert Schweitzer
“Look how the caravan of civilization
has been ambushed.
Fools are everywhere in charge.
Do not practice solitude like Jesus.
Be in the assembly, and take charge of it.”
~ Rumi
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience.
We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
We’ve nothing to fear but fright;
fright which hides our light.
For just beyond our darkest fright
shines our brightest light –
The Eternal light of LOVE.
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“God sends hope in the darkest moments.
The heaviest rain comes from the darkest clouds.”
~ Rumi
Ron’s Introduction.
When a reporter once asked Mahatma Gandhi, “What do you think of Western civilization?” Gandhi supposedly replied, “I think it would be a good idea”.
Whether that story is actual or apocryphal, it raises key insights into our allegedly ‘advanced’ societies.
We have undemocratically degenerated into an insane and warlike Orwellian world dominated by criminally psychopathic oligarchs committing mass suicide by ecocide and threatening imminent climate collapse and potential World War III nuclear holocaust which would destroy Earth life as we know it.
Though heretofore there have been seemingly isolated instances of self-inflicted human societal collapses – like that at Easter Island – never before have we confronted such a planet-wide imminent climate collapse. Yet without planet Earth’s favorable ecology, humanity can not survive.
So we must seriously consider whether humans are now ignorantly and unsustainably doing to our precious “Turtle Island” or “Earth Island” what they did to Easter Island. And whether or not we will avert repeating worldwide that disastrous history of ecological collapse.
In my view, our insanely illogical ecological, political and social behaviors are but symptoms of widespread psychological disease – not its cause; that to end this illness we must address and transcend its root cause, rather than merely decry its symptoms.
At the root of our present ecologically omnicidal insanity is a scientifically disproved and long outmoded reductionist, materialistic and mechanistic worldview belief system which sees everything and everyone as solid and separate, while disregarding our non-local common Cosmic consciousness.
We have forgotten what indigenous peoples have always known and remembered – our inextricably interrelated spiritual connectedness to mother Earth and to everything/everyone/everywhere; that what we think we do to apparent ‘others’ we do to ourselves.
“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together … all things connect.”
~ Chief Seattle
Hence to avert calamitous ecological breakdown we must NOW breakthrough to a new and higher heart-centered worldview before it is too late; thereby we can see, solve and resolve our problems from levels of psychological awareness beyond those which created them.
This a crucial time for compassionate people to become politically and socially engaged.
As we commemorate Earth Day 2020, all lifeforms on our precious planet Earth are threatened by potentially imminent ecological catastrophe attributable to psychopathic human behaviors. These are critical times of immense jeopardy and suffering, yet immense opportunity.
Perhaps more than ever before in recorded human history people who are awakening to our spiritual common essence and nature realize not only that humans are collectively threatening our “reality”, but that together we have the capacity to solve and resolve our critical problems from heart levels of human consciousness above and beyond lower psychological states which created current crises.
Hence this a crucial time for compassionately aware people to become politically and socially engaged.
Dalai Lama’s Observations and Advice.
H.H. The Dalai Lama of Tibet wisely warns us that we must act to solve ecological crises and restore peace “before it is too late”. Here are some of his observations from which we may draw inspiration and motivation:
“Peace and the survival of life on earth as we know it are threatened by human activities that lack a commitment to humanitarian values. Destruction of nature and natural resources results from ignorance, greed and lack of respect for the earth’s living things.
This lack of respect extends even to the earth’s human descendants, the future generations who will inherit a vastly degraded planet if world peace does not become a reality, and if destruction of the natural environment continues at the present rate.
Our ancestors viewed the earth as rich and bountiful, which it is. Many people in the past also saw nature as inexhaustibly sustainable, which we know is the case only if we care for it.
It is not difficult to forgive destruction in the past which resulted from ignorance. Today, however, we have access to more information; it is essential that we re-examine ethically what we have inherited, what we are responsible for, and what we will pass on to coming generations.
Many of the earth’s habitats, animals, plants, insects and even micro-organisms that we know to be rare may not be known at all by future generations. We have the capability and the responsibility to act; we must do so before it is too late.
Just as we should cultivate gentle and peaceful relations with our fellow human beings, we should also extend that same kind of attitude towards the natural environment. Morally speaking, we should be concerned for our whole environment.
This, however, is not just a question of morality or ethics, but a question of our own survival. For this generation and for future generations, the environment is very important. If we exploit the environment in extreme ways, we will suffer, as will our future generations. When the environment changes, the climatic condition also changes. When the climate changes dramatically, the economy and many other things change. Our physical health will be greatly affected. Again, conservation is not merely a question of morality, but a question of our own survival.
Therefore, in order to achieve more effective environmental protection and conservation, internal balance within the human being himself or herself is essential. The negligence of the environment, which has resulted in great harm to the human community, resulted from our ignorance of the very special importance of the environment. We must now help people to understand the need for environmental protection. We must teach people to understand the need for environmental protection. We must teach people that conservation directly aids our survival.
If you must be selfish, then be wise and not narrow-minded in your selfishness. The key point lies in the sense of universal responsibility. That is the real source of strength, the real source of happiness. If we exploit everything available, such as trees, water and minerals, and if we don’t plan for our next generation, for the future, then we’re at fault, aren’t we? However, if we have a genuine sense of universal responsibility as our central motivation, then our relations with the environment, and with all our neighbors, will be well balanced.
Ultimately, the decision to save the environment must come from the human heart. The key point is a call for a genuine sense of universal responsibility that is based on love, compassion and clear awareness.”
(From “Humanity and Ecology”, © 1988, The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama)
Ron’s 2020 Earth Day Commentary.
We live in an age of mental malaise; the Hindus call it Kali-Yuga.
Many humans have forgotten and flagrantly transgressed the perennial wisdom Golden Rule of ethics shared by all enduring religious, spiritual, indigenous, and ethical traditions that we do no harm; but that with reciprocal empathy we treat all beings with the same dignity we wish for ourselves, and that they wish for themselves.
Accordingly, our precious planet is pervasively polluted by human ignorance and greed. So
“The more that money rules the world,
the more that money ruins the world.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
We have undemocratically degenerated into insane societies, unconsciously committing mass suicide by ecocide, and threatening nuclear catastrophe.
Unrestrained transnational corporate-capitalism perpetually and unsustainably seeking ‘profits’ is insanely pillaging, plundering, depleting and corrupting finite planetary resources which support Earth life, and insidiously and coercively exploiting countless vulnerable people and creatures worldwide. Thus, billions of people suffer needless poverty, starvation and avoidable disease or death, while a tiny group of privileged financial, corporate, political and religious oligarchs immorally acquire and misuse power and obscenely excessive material wealth, far beyond their conceivable needs.
Life as we know it is imminently threatened by environmental catastrophe or nuclear annihilation, possibly precipitated by criminally psychopathic world “leaders”; people so corrupt and crazy that they are myopically scuttling Spaceship Earth; destroying the life support systems which sustain us; pillaging and poisoning our precious planet’s ecology; and, harming human health, with countless chemically, biologically, and radiologically polluting processes and products – even including foods, drinks, cosmetics, medicines, vaccines and pharmaceuticals.
Even in purportedly technically “advanced” countries, it is virtually impossible now to breath air or drink water which is not in some way polluted by our species. Agricultural soils have been depleted and corrupted. Global weather patterns and hydrologic systems have been irreversibly disrupted by secret government geoengineering and nuclear projects, and other human activities; protective atmospheric ozone is being depleted.
Glaciers are melting and long frozen Arctic tundra is thawing, to elevate ocean levels and release immensely hazardous methane greenhouse-gasses much more dangerous than CO2 emissions.
Though non-polluting and sustainable alternative energy technologies are available and feasible they are suppressed as allegedly “economically” impractical, or “proprietary”, or “government classified”.
No one is protected. From birth (and even prenatally) every person’s body/mind is polluted and threatened by numerous and ubiquitous man-made chemical, biological and radiological materials, many of which are carcinogenic. By “bio-engineering” living organisms, we are even tampering and blindly experimenting with our genetic origins.
Many species are rapidly becoming extinct. Around the world, most insects have disappeared, thousands of birds are suddenly falling dead out of the sky, and countless dead fish and marine mammals are appearing on shores of poisoned rivers, lakes and oceans. Ecologically indispensable marine species are depleted and endangered. Honey bee and butterfly colonies crucial to pollination of food crops are disappearing; nearly one-third of all honey bee colonies in the US have vanished, and Monarch butterflies are becoming extinct. The oceans are polluted with our detritus, and much marine life is threatened. Even remote Arctic polar bears are becoming hermaphroditic because of of chemical poisons dispersed by humankind, and they are threatened with imminent destruction of the ecosystem on which they depend for survival.
So, how should compassionately conscious people live and exist in this Orwellian/dystopian world, in which timeless ethical values are forgotten and flagrantly transgressed? Do we not observe obvious omens of impending catastrophe?
As we “widen our circle of compassion to embrace the whole of Nature and all living creatures”, doesn’t it become morally imperative for us to help solve imminent ecological crises?
If so, how?
Shouldn’t we “become actively engaged” as the Dalai Lama suggests?
If so, how?
Can’t we, with heartfelt common intention and compassionate vision, co-create salutary solutions to the immense challenges facing us?
If so, how?
Optimistic observations and speculations.
Perennially, in the darkest and apparently most threatening eras of rampant world materialism and decadence, there invariably appear synchronistic circumstances to guide Human societies to, “a genuine sense of universal responsibility that is based on love, compassion and clear awareness.”
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won.
There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible,
but in the end they always fall — think of it. Always.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
Moreover, many mystics suggest that everything that happens to us, societally or individually – until we transcend ego’s “optical illusion” of separateness – is in our best interest, because it affords opportunity and incentive to evolve.
So paradoxically, life’s most painful and difficult experiences often prove the best evolutionary opportunities, and biggest blessings, because they most challenge and motivate surrender of egoic misidentification and provide greatest transcendence incentives.
Thus, current turbulent ‘Trump times’ (beyond evoking anger, fear or despondency) can be a great “red pill” awakening opportunity, motivating humanity to at long-last recognize and resolve its current critical problems from elevated intuitive Heart levels of consciousness, beyond those fearful lower psychological states which created them.
Hence we can see present world problems as transitionally arising from inevitable disintegration of a prior reductionist, mechanistic and materialistic scientific paradigm that has become painfully and harmfully anachronous – to make way for a more enlightened and elevated new age that blesses all life on our precious planet and beyond.
Such an elevated intuitive perspective will motivate and enable us to transcend current environmental and political insanity. And it will further our spiritual evolution until ultimately we realize that – beyond our illusory separation from all we perceive – we are ONE spirit eternally encompassing all life, and everything everywhere and beyond.
Concluding invocations.
Let us become actively engaged as a global human family to resolve the immense ecological challenges facing us, not just as a matter of morality or ethics but for survival of life as we know it – “before it is too late”.
Ever mindful of our Oneness with all Life on our precious planet and beyond,
may we act with loving-kindness and compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty – on Earth Day and every day.
Rather than worry or be afraid, may we remember that
“The only thing we have to fear is…fear itself.
– nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror
which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
~ Franklin D. Roosevelt, first inaugural address
“For God sends hope in the darkest moments.
The heaviest rain comes from the darkest clouds.”
~ Rumi
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won.
There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible,
but in the end they always fall — think of it. Always.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
And so it shall be!
Ron Rattner
YouTube documentary about how humans threaten Earth’s ecology.
This is an excellently narrated video documentary, which includes worldwide graphic cinematography portraying many societies: like Easter Island, where humans insanely destroyed one of Earth’s most abundant ecosystems; and Dubai, U A E, which is emblematic of our current unsustainable and obsolete global fossil fuel dependency, threatening historically unprecedented global climate collapse in “ten years”. Please view and share this video!
Fear
“The only thing we have to fear is…fear itself
— nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror whicparalyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Love is what we were born with.
Fear is what we learned here. The spiritual journey is the relinquishment – or unlearning – of fear and the acceptance of love back into our hearts.”
~ Marianne Williamson
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear,
. . . . and the one who fears is not perfected in love.”
~ 1 John 4:18
“[D]eep down, at our cores, there are only two emotions: love and fear. All positive emotions come from love, all negative emotions from fear. From love flows happiness, contentment, peace, and joy. From fear comes anger, hate, anxiety and guilt.”
~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross & David Kessler – When You Don’t Choose Love You Choose Fear
“Love blesses the world; fear afflicts it. ”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“The more you are motivated by Love,
The more fearless and free your action will be.”
~ Dalai Lama XIV
“Fear arises through identification with form, whether it be a material possession, a physical body, a social role, a self-image, a thought, or an emotion. It arises through unawareness of the formless inner dimension of consciousness or spirit, which is the essence of who you are. You are trapped in object consciousness, unaware of the dimension of inner space which alone is true freedom.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
“If you have fear of some pain or suffering, you should examine whether there is anything you can do about it. If you can, there is no need to worry about it; if you cannot do anything, then there is also no need to worry.”
~ Dalai Lama XIV
“Those who fear suffering, suffer from fear.”
~ French Proverb
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life.
A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
~ Mark Twain
“To be afraid of dying
is like being afraid of discarding an old worn-out garment.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi
“Fear of death is fear of life; so
face death to live life.”
***
“You are not a mortal; you are immortal.
So never fear being a non-being.”
***
“Our deepest fears
hide our highest potentials.”
***
“As we lose our fear of leaving life,
we gain the art of living life.”~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“There is a light that shines beyond all things on Earth,
… beyond the highest, the very highest heavens.
This is the light that shines in your Heart.”
~ Chandogya Upanishad 3.13.7
Fear
We’ve nothing to fear but fright;
fright which hides our light.
For just beyond our darkest fright
shines our brightest light –The Eternal light of LOVE.
Ron’s audio recitation of “Fear”
2020 Coronavirus Commentary on Fear
Dear Friends,
Welcome to a “new normal” age of worldwide pandemic panic, anxiety and fear, inculcated by constant false-flag propaganda from corporate media and deep-state dominated bureaucrats. To address such panic I’ve published today the foregoing key quotations, sutras, and brief poem (with mp3 recitation) about Fear.
According to Henry Kissinger, we have just entered a new world-order epoch to be dominated by international “leaders”, because “The Coronavirus Pandemic Will Forever Alter the World Order”. I agree with Kissinger that we have entered a new world-changing epoch. But I vehemently and viscerally oppose his autocratic dystopian vision of a post-pandemic world.
Contrary to Kissinger, I see the psychopathically pre-planned, exaggerated and over-hyped coronavirus emergency as a potentially immense blessing, and not just as a sociopathic pretext for actualizing a long-planned Orwellian dystopian ‘new world order’.
I see corporate pandemic propaganda and unjustifiably restrictive lock-down regulations as awakening and arousing our instinctive caring for one-another, and as promoting a ‘critical mass’ transition from insanely unsustainable transnational capitalist competition for exploitation of limited world resources (with constant wars and needless sufferings), to less polarized and more localized and civilized sane societies, with democratically autonomous and cooperative communities.
Thus, paradoxically, I see this is a time of both immense threat, and of unprecedented epochal opportunity. We can collectively and cooperatively realize an abiding “new normal” epoch of civilized sane societies, fostering world peace and health, with liberty, equality, fraternity and justice for all.
Or we can “forever” degenerate into an Orwellian dystopian world empire, autocratically controlled by a tiny group of malignantly malevolent multi-billionaires who are psychopathically destroying life on Earth, and divisively fomenting unfounded fears of alleged terrorist enemies as their continuing propaganda pretense for unsustainably waging endless wars for obscenely endless profits.
Because pervasive panic and fear precludes us from authentically addressing current challenges, it is crucial that we transcend such fears:
1) In order to skillfully solve our potentially disastrous problems; and
2) For us to deeply reconsider our life purposes and priorities as awakening sentient Earth beings instinctively seeking “freedom”.
As a longtime social justice attorney, I consider current autocratic laws and regulations which place billions of innocent people under unwarranted ‘house arrest’, and prevent them from democratically enjoying innate and personal, political, and economic “freedoms”, to be egregiously unconstitutional. And I urgently advocate universal nonviolent revolutionary resistance to such autocratically immoral health edicts. Such relentless resistance is consistent with Mahatma Gandhi’s inspiring satyagraha life-path, and his perennially wise observation that:
“Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state has become lawless or corrupt.
And a citizen who barters with such a state shares in its corruption and lawlessness.”
However, to fundamentally address the deepest roots of our worldly pandemic panic and fears, I’ve published the foregoing quotations, poetry and sutras about finding transcendental inner “freedom” beyond ego-mind beliefs and concepts. These writings are based upon lifelong experiences and learning, not only on what I’ve discovered since my midlife spiritual awakening.
According to most economists, the widespread pandemic lockdown has probably triggered the most massive capitalist economic depression in world history. I was born on election day November 8th, 1932, during the prior 1929 ‘Great Depression’, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was first elected 32nd President of the United States. Soon afterwards on March 4, 1933, FDR delivered his first inaugural address as an historic national call to action for responding to the country’s then most severe economic crisis, with millions suffering unemployment, starvation and extreme poverty. Perhaps the most memorable line of Roosevelt’s speech was his opening assertion that
“The only thing we have to fear is…fear itself
— nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
During Roosevelt’s presidency, I later witnessed a sane and compassionate “new deal” political response to that previous ‘Great Depression’, with first-time enactment of minimum wage, social security and unemployment insurance legislation, partially paid by taxing the super rich; and establishment of massive federal jobs programs employing millions to do socially needed but privately unavailable work.
Roosevelt’s idea that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” has intuitively intrigued me (since long before my mid-life spiritual awakening). Now, as I approach an 88th birthday anniversary, as an allegedly viral-vulnerable elder, I feel that “the only thing we have to fear is…fear itself” expresses a deep spiritual truth; that our true Self-identity is as ONE immortal, formless and infinitely potential spirit – not as separate mortal physical bodies or their stories.
We now live in a fearful age of mental malaise, in a fear-pervaded society which substantially impedes our destined realization of our ultimate human potential, because fear and loving-kindness cannot coexist; that as the Dalai Lama says: “The more [we] are motivated by Love, the more fearless and free our actions will be.”
These spiritual ideas are expressed (or implied) in the foregoing key quotations, sutras and brief poem (with mp3 recitation) about Fear.
Invocation
I offer these writings with the deep aspiration that they may help enhance our identification with spirit, while diminishing our worldly economic anxieties and psychological fears of bodily disease or death,
thereby enabling us to act skillfully and to Self identify ‘ever more fearlessly’
– as LOVE.
And so shall it be!
Ron Rattner
Happy New Year!
“Imagination is everything.
It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
~ Albert Einstein
“In this wonderful world of relativity,
we are all relatives.”
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“Everything we think, do or say
changes this world in some way.
~ Ron Rattner, Sutra Sayings
“If in our daily life we can smile,
if we can be peaceful and happy,
not only we, but everyone will profit from it.
This is the most basic kind of peace work.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
“You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one”
~ John Lennon, “Imagine”
Solar System
Dear Spiritual Sisters and Brothers –
Children of the Divine –
As fellow travelers on spaceship Earth,
let us welcome this new year not only
as the beginning of another of our precious planet’s
annual revolutions around the sun,
But as the dawning of an enlightened new era.
As Earth revolves,
let us resolve
collectively, consciously and cooperatively,
to compassionately participate together in an evolutionary leap
into an auspicious new age of harmony, peace and joy,
for all Humankind and for all life on our precious planet.
The personal and planetary are intimately connected.
Just as dreamers ‘create’ their dreams,
together we are a ‘dream-team’,
dreaming our world into being; and,
consciously or unconsciously creating a ‘common dream’.
So, rather than just wishing that 2020 be a wonderful year,
or passively awaiting fulfillment of promising prophesies,
let us actively actualize our collective aspiration
for evolutionary transformation,
With peace on earth and goodwill to all.
A resolution can be both a wish or determination to do something,
AND an accomplishment and manifestation of that wish.
So, as a planetary family, let us NOW
resolve to resolve our pressing international and interpersonal problems –
problems that we cannot resolve alone.
To fulfill our deepest aspirations,
let us envision, imagine and see
our precious planet as we wish it to be,
And then – to manifest our vision –
let us compassionately contribute our own unique gifts
from our own unique perspectives,
in our own unique ways.
To help us envision the world as we wish it to be,
embedded below are live video performances by John Lennon
of his inspired and ever inspiring song “Imagine”.
May John’s visionary message
that together we can “live as one”
encourage us to ever more manifest
the immense beauty and compassion
of our true inner nature and limitless potentiality,
and thereby to transcend all obstacles as –
LOVE.
AND SO MAY IT BE!
Ron’s explanation and dedication of this Happy New Year message
As we begin another new year, this is a traditional time for deep reflection on our lives.
For many people these are dark and divisive times, unprecedented in their lives. But current painful world turmoil can be insightfully seen as dark times before an inevitable dawn; times with infinite evolutionary opportunities for societal spiritual awakening and a new era of human harmony and conscious connection with each other and with Nature.
So rather than curse the darkness, let us lovingly light evolutionary candles.
To inspire societal spiritual awakening, the above verses urge that as earthly spiritual siblings we jointly resolve to resolve our critical ecological, interpersonal, and international planetary problems; crises which can be resolved through awakened awareness of how and why our human species has caused them and can cure them.
As passengers on ‘spaceship Earth’, we must cherish and not scuttle it;
we must stop polluting and unsustainably exploiting and destroying our precious planet’s life-forms and ecology, and live peacefully, sustainably and harmoniously with each other and all other life-forms.
Jesus told us: “You are “gods”; you are all sons of the Most High.” [Psalm 82: 6; John 10:34] “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, “Move from here to there” and it will move.” [Matthew 17:20]
Thus, we are reminded that we are not mere powerless perceivers of our “reality”, but a ‘dream-team’ knowingly or unknowingly creating it. So with deep and abiding faith in our collective capacity to fulfill our deepest aspirations, let us join as a global family to envision, imagine and see our precious planet as we wish and intend it to be.
And with such faith, may we cooperatively, harmoniously and lovingly resolve our common crises for our common good, with each one contributing our own unique gifts from our own unique perspectives, in our own unique ways. May we soon reach a tipping point, when a critical mass of Humankind will uplift all human consciousness to resolve the critical mess now threatening us.
Ever mindful of our Oneness with all Life on our precious planet, let us choose to act with loving-kindness and compassion for everyone everywhere. Rather than worry or be afraid, let us remember that
“The only thing we have to fear is…fear itself.”
~ Franklin D. Roosevelt, first inaugural address
“For God sends hope in the darkest moments.
The heaviest rain comes from the darkest clouds.”
~ Rumi
And so may it be!
John Lennon singing “Imagine” live.
