Demand More

It is easy to forget the basic truth that the winner of the American presidential election in November will not be the person who is most qualified.  It will not even be the person who gets the most votes (as Al Gore found to his detriment in 2000).  Rather, it will be the person who wins the most states.

And in order to win the most states, you need to appeal to a majority of voters.  Not an overwhelming majority; the winner-take-all system of presidential politics only requires you to secure 51 percent of each state in order to carry it.

Those are the rules of the game.  And if the campaign of Barack Obama does not change its tactics, and soon, it may find itself losing as a result of the selection of Sarah Palin as the Republican candidate for Vice President.

At heart, Americans are populists, and they love candidates with populist streaks.  They flock to candidates who they can relate to and who speak their language, even if those candidates do not end up winning.  This is the double-edged sword of traditional populist candidates: outside of the elite class, they may have been able to garner popular support, but could never actually win high office.

The history of American politics is littered with the corpses of populist candidates who were indeed a force to be reckoned with, yet who could never master the fact that you had to carry states in order to become president, and not just be popular with the people.   Ross Perot secured 18 percent of the popular vote in 1992 — a stunning figure — but failed to carry a single state; as a result, he was never a real threat to the status quo.

Yet enter John McCain, a seasoned politician, and his choice for Vice President, Sarah Palin.  While many have declared this move a sign of desperation by the McCain campaign, it reflects McCain’s reputation as a “maverick”, and is politically deft.  Like his populist hero, Theodore Roosevelt, McCain is gambling that Palin’s charm and ready ability to connect with average Americans will produce victory.  She is truly an outsider to Washington, which makes her selection a gamble, but also provides that populist appeal that simply cannot be manufactured.

Given the tone and spirit of Ms. Palin’s speech as she accepted her party’s nomination for Vice President, it is clear that she will be a formidable force in this race.  Many American voters, who yearn for a politician who will “feel their pain,” will be attracted her to plain-speaking candor.  She has presented herself as the average mother next door, the hockey-mom who joined the PTA and then suddenly found herself governor of the biggest state in the Union.  This type of caricature will appeal to many people.

In addition, she toes the Republican Party’s line on militarism quite effectively, making it seem patriotic, even maternal, to call for continued war against all enemies.  Obama tried to out-maneuver McCain’s foreign policy expertise by selecting Joe Biden as his vice president, but Biden’s in-your-face mannerisms may be too uncouth to an American electorate that approves of torture so long as it’s in the dark.  Who do you want comforting your children that what we do to terrorists, while abhorrent, is necessary? Americans may prefer the softer features of Palin as such a spokesperson for this attitude.

It does not matter that Ms. Palin is potentially ignorant of foreign affairs or economic theory.  She is not trained in a profession, such as Obama and Biden (both are lawyers).  But this will only help her.  Her lack of credentials will appeal to American voters in the same way that George W. Bush’s lack of finesse appeared to help him against the then stiff and avuncular Al Gore.

In America’s recent electoral history, the importance of capturing the populist sentiment is well known.  Bush won in 2000 due to this appeal. In 2004, the war made this easy — Bush cautioned that as a “war president,” the nation had no choice but to select him once more in order to secure victory in the War on Terror, and the nation complied.

Before the summertime, it looked as if Obama was the candidate who had tapped into the populist spirit.  He ran on his anti-war stance and his outsider status in the Senate.  His internet fundraising is legendary, as well as his ability to bring out young voters.

Now, his populist appeal is in considerable danger.  Obama’s move to the center of the political spectrum following the primaries has not won favors amongst his base who were initially energized by his campaign.  His selection of Joe Biden as Vice President was not the spirited choice many had hoped for.

In politics, experience and intelligence, even charisma, mean little if they do not translate into victory.  And in America, the people vote for those politicians who give off that populist appeal.  Americans are guided by an innocent, almost naive sense that the politicians who connect with them are the ones who will help them.  Sarah Palin gives this impression.

I am not suggesting that Ms. Palin is qualified to hold high political office.  She certainly does not have the academic experience of Obama, nor the political experience of Biden. And like all bona fide populists, she is terribly unpredicable.  There is no way to know how she will fall on a certain issue ahead of time.  This is why populists typically run third party campaigns, and why populists can oftentimes be dangerous — too popular for their own good.  The same charisma that has propelled her to the spotlight may become a threat to the republic itself.  With the people at your side, the power of a politician becomes truly unstoppable.

Nonetheless, there is no test to become President, and no need for qualifications other than to be 35 years of age and born on American soil.  The only test is given out by the people themselves.  In 2000, the people chose George W. Bush, albeit with the help of the Supreme Court.  In 2004, the people once more chose Bush.  Ms. Palin’s appeal to the electorate is a reflection not so much of her own experiences, but the desires of those who will vote for her.  Americans do not want someone they view as an elitist to occupy the highest position in the country, for whatever reason.  If Obama does not realize this now, then his chances of winning will dwindle.  He must seek to recapture the populist mantle back from McCain and Palin in some way, or else he will face defeat in November.

The mind is a thing of such beauty. If you treat it well, and fill it with love, then you will encounter love and beauty wherever you go in this world. If, on the other hand, you clutter it with worry and anxiety, then you create for yourself only suffering.

We have so much power in our lives to change things and make things better. Even when we fall on hard times, when we are experiencing the darkest of midnights, life will offer us opportunities to turn things around.

This is not to say that life is always wonderful, because it is not. There are many painful things in life. Everyone’s experiences in this world are colored with trauma in some form or another. But pain is a momentary thing. It is not pain that produces suffering; rather, it is our inability to deal with this pain, to confront this pain, to challenge this pain and overcome this pain that leads to suffering.

Our minds are capable of so much more. Our minds are capable of creativity, and compassion, and the ability to perceive beauty. Our minds can cultivate love, and see life through the lens of love. No matter the circumstances, no matter where you find yourself, you have the ability to be happy, and to set yourself down the path of finding even greater happiness.

We must learn to observe ourselves. Observation allows us to confront our unhealthy behaviors, the patterns and practices that produce suffering in our lives. We should see ourselves in the third person and really examine our thoughts, behaviors, and ingrained habits that have become so routine and rote that we no longer pay them any attention. These are the things that keep us chained to our suffering. If we are to lose these chains, then we must become aware of their existence.

We observe through meditation. Meditation means to quiet the mind — that’s all. You don’t have to put on saffron robes and shave your head to meditate. You can just sit, and take 10 deep breaths, and relax, and look at your thoughts without judgment. It is hard to do at first, because we are always judging our thoughts, always seeking to label them and put a value on them. But it is much better to just examine your thoughts without any sense of good or bad, right and wrong; just to see what your mind is producing of its own accord.

Then we ask why. Why am I so worried? Why does something bother me so? Why do I fret and fuss about something? When we meditate, we realize how silly our worries are. They are silly because they are based in fear, and fear is never based in reality.

When you sit, and quiet your mind, you will find yourself in the precious moment of the present. In the present, all things are possible. There is nothing in this world that is set in stone, nothing that is predestined or fated to happen. On the contrary, when we act in the present, we write fate in accordance with our will. We become the masters of our lives.

But the present is always overlooked. It is clouded by fear — fear of the past, or fear of the future. We are afraid of the past, because we feel we have committed an error; or we are afraid of the future because we fear a certain outcome. In either case, we are worried about things we cannot change, or things we have no control over. It is this idle worry and speculation that suffocates the potential for action, now, in this moment.

When you sit, and quiet your mind, and find yourself in the present, you will never experience worry or have fear, because you are tuned in to the very center of creative action. You have the power of God with you, because you can change your life in any shape or form. You are neither concerned with the mistakes of the past or the pitfalls of the future. You simply act. This is the state of nirvana, of true enlightenment, because it is a state without suffering — only conscious choice.

We must learn to live our lives with love in our hearts. Love grounds us in the present moment because it destroys fear. You can act out of love, or you can act out of fear. But you cannot act out of both. When you give yourself love, and comfort yourself as a parent would a worried child, then you will find yourself in the present, where all things are possible.

God is love. When you are grounded in love, you will know God. You will see that God is not a bearded man in the clouds, or a thing of vengeance or hatred. Love is encompassing, and God is encompassing. Love is energy, and God is energy. Love is the essence of the human consciousness, and God is the essence of human consciousness.

If you wanted, you could personalize love, you could make an idol and slap a label on it and call it love, and burn incense before it, or build a church around it. You could demand that people in other places worship your idol of love. You could kill them if they did not want to worship your idol. You could do that if you wanted, but it would be a tremendous waste of human energy, isn’t that right? A sad endeavor. This is what people have done with God. It is the same waste.

Today, we live in an age of great consequence. Millennia from now, humans will look on this century as a defining moment for the species. Today, there are wars, and rumors of wars, as well as tremendous changes affecting the environment. The ice caps are melting. The light of freedom dims as nation eyes nation with suspicion. Fear clouds the judgment of even the most well meaning of leaders.

In this context, one can either be afraid, or realize that such fear is meaningless. The first leads only to suffering; the second leads to liberation. Perhaps, in other times, it may have been possible to avoid a confrontation with fear, and to live our lives chained to the wheel of suffering, however unintentionally. But the suffering of today is sharp and its needles affect the soul in deep and powerful ways. Fear can no longer be the answer.

It is a life well lived to teach our children the danger of fear and the causes of suffering. It is enough to teach our children happier ways of life than the ways instilled in us by our parents, and to remind our children to do the same for their own progeny. For we are no less well intentioned than those who raised us. It is enough to merely ask that each generation improve upon the last. It is enough to do this.

All too often, wisdom is found in the most curious of places.

Since the United States invaded Iraq five years ago, tensions between Iran and the U.S. have simmered and then receded, and then simmered again.  Indeed, there have been many points over the last five years in which war with Iran seemed inevitable.

Perhaps if the invasion and occupation of Iraq had been more “successful” from the American perspective — that is, if Iraq had been subdued and made a de facto American territory — American troops may have been in Tehran, and even Damascus after a short stint in Baghdad. 

But the occupation of Iraq was poorly thought out, and remains so.  This is why seven years after invading Afghanistan, and five years after invading Iraq, the United States remains trapped in a hopeless battle against rebel insurgents. 

Yet even with the failure of the current wars, the threat of a new war with Iran refuses to go away. According to famed reporter Seymour Hersh, the United States has significantly increased Special Forces operations in Iran, in an attempt to foment sectarian violence and look for clues regarding Iranian nuclear weapons programs. 

Covert operations are not the only item on the agenda.  In recent weeks, Israel has staged massive war games, insinuating to observers that such activities are a dress rehearsal for an assault on Iran.  Iran has responded to these threats by firing missiles and stating that, “Tel Aviv and the US fleet” would be “set on fire” if Iran is attacked in any way.

How much of this is rhetoric, versus actual threat of war?  This is difficult to say.  Even while saner heads appear to be controlling diplomacy, at least for the moment, certain factions within the American, Israeli, and Iranian governments favor war as an outcome.  A third war in the Middle East would give American neo-conservatives the opportunity to waive the banner of the “war on terror” and cast a dark vision of fear once more on the population, stymieing Democratic Party victories in November and feeding the ever-deafening military-industrial juggernaut. 

In Israel, as well, war would allow the ruling Kadima Party an opportunity to divert attention from a host of domestic scandals that have forced the Israeli Prime Minister to schedule early elections. 

And in Iran, war would allow the ruling elite an opportunity to maintain its grip on power while blaming the country’s domestic and economic problems on outside forces.  As in the United States and Israel, war serves an important purpose of providing a distraction from the real pressing problems of the day.

It is probably fair to say that at this point, war is not the desired outcome of any three of these countries.  On the other hand, none of these countries would shirk from a war, as long as they characterize any war as an “act of self-defense.”  This is not as difficult as it sounds: Hitler famously stated that his invasion of Poland was done in self-defense, and the Germans ate it up. 

And while it may seem stunning that Americans would accept a third war in the Middle East, the power of the mass media to influence the public mood cannot be understated.  If Iran is labeled as a “terrorist threat” and is made an enemy in the rubric of the war on terror, Americans will accept another war.  This is a sad but honest statement of the American public today, and is the reason why Barack Obama (in yet another disappointing gesture of his candidacy) has characterized Iran — a third world nation with no ability to attack the United States — as a “great threat” to the United States. 

At this very moment, making its way through the United States Congress is HR 362 (supported in part by a militant Israeli lobbying group, AIPAC), which calls for an embargo against Iran of “refined petroleum products”, and which would impose a “stringent inspection requirements” on all ships entering and leaving Iran.  Under international law, an embargo against another country is an act of war.   While not calling for war, such a law would make war inevitable.  Passage of HR 362 could happen within the next few weeks.

No doubt there will be further developments in this situation, but it is clear that the United States, Israel, and Iran are playing with fire.  We may not be speeding towards war, but as of now, we are almost certainly stumbling into it. 

We have forgotten how powerful one person has become over the course of seven years.

Today, the President of the United States is the most powerful person in the history of civilization. More powerful than Caesar, the Tzar, or the Fuehrer.

In the course of seven years, the President has assumed the following powers:

• He has assumed the power to spy on any person anywhere in the world, including American citizens, without a court warrant or judicial oversight;
• He has assumed the power to wage war against any nation, without a declaration of war from the Congress;
• He has assumed the power to use nuclear weapons against any nation without a declaration of war from the Congress;
• He has assumed the power to indefinitely detain any person he deems an enemy combatant without judicial oversight, and when confronted by the judiciary and told to cease, he continues to detain as many as 26,000 people in prison ships;
• He has assumed the power through presidential signing statements to ignore the laws passed by Congress and to execute only those with which he agrees;
• He has assumed the power to ignore obligations of international law concerning the rights and treatment afforded to prisoners of war.

All of this, the President has done in the name of fighting terrorism.

There is no “terrorism” exception to the Constitution.

There is no “terrorism” exception listed anywhere in Article II, which details the powers of the President.

The current powers of the President were unthinkable on September 10, 2001. Today, these powers are as accepted as the night sky.

These powers will be given to the next President, who will likely be either Senator John McCain or Senator Barack Obama.

Neither man has made any promise of giving up these incredible powers.

On the contrary, both men have a significant interest in keeping them.

No doubt, both men believe they can handle such power in a well-intentioned manner that will benefit the people.

No doubt, both men will abuse these powers the moment they have assumed them.

Nietzsche once wrote, “When you stare into the abyss, the abyss also stares into you.”

No matter how good a person is, they are oftentimes transformed by circumstance.

It is an old story: the well meaning politician transforming into the tyrant. It is an old story because the nature of power does not change.

Yet time and time again, people believe this politician or that politician will be different.

No, this is not true.

Power does not change. People have not changed. Power corrupts even the best of men and women. The awesome powers of the President will transform the next office holder into something of misery.

It is sad to speak to Americans today. They have forgotten the meaning of liberty. In 2001, they said, “We will invade Afghanistan, and we will be safe.” So they invaded Afghanistan, yet they still did not feel safe. They did not find the perpetrator of the horrible attack that had taken place months earlier.

Then in 2002, they let their President build a concentration camp in Cuba, outside of the law, where people could be tortured and made to sign false confessions. They said, “Let the President do this, it will make us feel safe if these people are tortured and housed in a jail in this manner.” Yet they still did not feel safe.

Then in 2003, they let their President lie to them and say that another country, Iraq, was a threat, that it had nuclear weapons. All lies. So they said, “We have not found Osama bin Laden, we have not secured Afghanistan, but we must invade Iraq, and we will be safe.” So they invaded Iraq, yet they still did not feel safe.

Then in 2004, there was an election and they said, “We still do not feel safe. We are at war. We must re-elect the man who led us into these wars, and then we will feel safe.” So they re-elected their President, yet they still did not feel safe.

And in 2005, they learned that their President had assumed great powers over the last five years, that he had assumed the power to spy, the power to make war, the power to detain, and the power to decide which laws to execute, all in contravention of their Supreme Law, the Constitution. They learned all of this, but they were still afraid, so they said, “We must give the President these powers, or else we will be attacked again. It is OK if he has these powers.” So they said nothing when they learned all these things, yet they still did not feel safe.

In 2006, there was an another election, and they realized they had to restrain their leader, their President. They said, “The Congress will change hands, and things will change.” In 2006, the Congress changed hands, yet things did not change. Things have proceeded on course.

Now, in 2008, there is another election, and they say, “The President will change hands, and things will change.” You see? Americans have still not learned.

In the meantime, their economy is in tatters, their cities are crumbling, their rights and liberties are totally destroyed. This is the destiny of a great nation, a nation founded on principles of democratic governance and republican virtue. It is all gone now.

Senator McCain will not make America safe. Senator Obama will not make America safe.

Only Americans can make America safe.

They must elect people into the Congress who will put limits on the President and demand the return of presidential powers illegally taken.

They must elect people into their state governments who will resist further encroachments of federal power.

They must remember their rights and liberties and sense of virtue and decency. They must be outraged that so much has been taken from them over such a little period of time.

The branches of tyranny are thick and manifold, and they suffocate and oppress. There is the curse of perpetual debt, of inflation without end, increasing costs of living, constant war, greater police presence. Today, the people suffer.

The people must see the root of their problems — too much power in the hands of too few.

They complain about the branches, but they refuse to strike the root.

The greatest threat to America today is not terrorism. The greatest threat is the threat of power, especially the power of the President.

Invade a man’s home, and you have made an enemy of an entire family, or perhaps an entire village. They will fight back.

Apologize, and the hurt will go away. Make restitution. Give it time. The man can become your friend, even after you have wronged him. People are kind on this Earth, and they are happy to forgive.

There is a way to stop terrorism. It is to encourage freedom.

Freedom, like charity, begins at home.

Restrain the president.

End the wars.

Focus on domestic issues, on the economy, on the health of the citizenry.

Return to the rule of law.

Apologize, and make restitution.

Terrorism will go away.

When you engage in thinking, no matter how mundane or profound, you must remember that you are engaging in a profound act of creation.

When a human mind thinks, it is doing more than simply transferring electrical impulses through biochemicals across synaptic channels. Perhaps this is the biological explanation, but it is at most a partial explanation.

The act of thinking is more than just the firing of neurons. Our minds are rich pastures that allow for the cultivation of the soul. With thought, it is possible to reach enlightenment; but it is also possible to create Hell on this planet, for oneself and for others.

Every religion documents the advent of human thought in a way that brought shattering consequences and harsh lessons. These tales are documented in allegory. Prometheus brought the gift of Fire from the gods to humanity; and the result was that human beings became civilized and knowledgeable. But the gods were displeased that man had their Fire, and so they sent Pandora amongst them, who unleashed green, envy, pining, lying and hope — symptoms of the evils of mankind, yes, but also products of that same thought which had blessed them with civilization.

In Judeo-Christian thought, it is written that Adam and Eve existed in a state of innocence in the Garden of Eden. Then Eve consumed the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and shared it with Adam, and the “eyes of both of them were opened” — an eloquent expression of the leap in consciousness they must have experienced! And the Bible recounts that the Lord God was concerned that Adam and Eve had “become as one of us, to know good and evil”, and they were forbidden from ever coming back into Eden. Adam and Eve had become like God, because they could now utilize their thought and divide their consciousness into things that were good, and things that were evil; indeed, according to the Bible, at that moment, Adam and Eve shared the same power as God.

And it is here that we in the West can learn lessons from Eastern thought and religious belief, the traditions of which emphasize the responsibility of the thinker in finding happiness. Many Eastern religions speak of karma, which at heart is a doctrine of the power of thought. Karma relates to the Sanskrit word karna which means “to do.” When you do something, you have already put in place the result of that action. Similarly, when you think something, you are creating your everyday reality, condemning or liberating yourself depending on the thought in question.

In either case, you are directly responsible for your present reality; your present thoughts and actions literally create your future. Through your thoughts, you act as God in your own life, at every single moment that you are alive.

There is a type of mind control that is so effective today because it acts on the way that you think. In past times, you had to chain people up and whip them if you wanted them to be slaves. Today, there is no longer any need for physical chains if you wish to enslave someone. Instead, all you have to do is restrict their thoughts. A person who does not utilize their thinking is a slave. It is that simple — such is the power of human thought.

Many people live their entire lives thinking the same things in life. And, as a result, they experience the same things over and over again. This is guaranteed, because when they think the same things, they plant the seeds for the same outcomes later in life. So you see the person who dates the same type of person, and who is always unhappy, or who takes the same types of job and is always complaining about their work, or does the same routine for 50 years and lives the same boring life. And they find themselves always facing the same outcomes — the same dishonest lover, the same horrible boss, the same boring night after work — never learning the lesson that they are in control of their future, that they can change the future at any time, if they would only think differently.

And we cannot ignore the fact that there are many powerful interests in this world today who profit from the dearth of imagination in the world. There are more than 6 billion people on this world today, but perhaps there are 10 or 20 ideas that govern how these 6 billion people think. This is a total travesty of human consciousness, an insult to our minds, and a pathetic and pitiful example of how humans too often choose self-imposed slavery over their natural freedom. Come, count with me on your fingers the defining ideas of our era — free market capitalism, a handful of established religions, “democracy” versus “terrorism”. A handful of incomplete and imperfect ideas, the sum total of hundreds of thousands of years of human development! How unoriginal our great species has become as a result of the brainwashing of the 20th century, to believe that only a handful of ideas are legitimate or can otherwise define our place in this universe.

We are all so unique on this planet, our minds so powerful, that we ought to have 6 billion ideas about happiness, government and God, and not just a handful. All great nations today proclaim their respect for freedom of thought and speech, yet why then are there so few thoughts that are worth expressing? The right is there, it must be used or it will be taken away. Yet who uses it? No, today instead it is the same old story, the same old belief that you must support this candidate, or you must believe this god, or you must follow this path in life.

The diversity of human experience has not given birth to a diversity of human conscious thought. Powerful forces are to blame for this, yes this is true; but it is also true that those powerful forces are only as powerful as the 6 billion individuals on this planet choose to believe.

Today, I tell you that the same patterns of human experience, the same patterns of human culture — the very same patterns which have produced countless wars, countless deaths, countless atrocities — are at work once more. They are busy today seeding the future wars, the future deaths, the future atrocities, just as they have done in the past. Nothing is different with those thoughts, so it can be no surprise when the outcomes are no different as well. The outcomes will be the same. Hit your head against the wall, it will bleed. Do it once more, it will bleed once more. It is the same with human thought — there is no difference.

So today the old ways of thinking, which have not changed for millenia, are busily at work. Except now we must be honest with ourselves that the backdrop of human activity has drastically changed. The actors are still acting on the same stage, as they have done for thousands of years, playing the same old play, but now the stage is on fire. This is the effect of overpopulation, overconsumption of natural resources, and runaway climate change — unforeseen consequences of constant spreading, constant war, constant development, the ill-gotten gains of apathy and lack of planning.

And what is the reaction to these problems? It is to deny them, or to ignore them — again, an old and very established pattern of human thinking. So we can guarantee that these problems will all get worse, won’t they? A burning house does not douse itself, but only stops burning when there is no more tinder left. So we see the burning house, but turn our backs. How then can the outcome be anything other than further disaster? Is this not clear?

Humanity needs new ways of thinking. Every person needs a new way of thinking, a way that points towards happiness, and responsibility, and freedom, for all three things are exactly the same thing. Happiness is responsibility, and happiness is freedom as well. People shirk responsibility, they fear it because they would rather be licentious, without any concern, without any worry. They act like children. It is fine if you are a child to not have responsibility, but you commit a great waste to your consciousness when you do not employ it thereafter. Employing one’s mind means becoming an adult, and taking on adult responsibilities. When you were in the womb, no doubt it was very comfortable, and no doubt you feared leaving when it was time to do so — but you had to leave eventually. The fetus becomes the child, and the child, in turn, must become the adult. Adam and Eve had to leave Eden, didn’t they? Millions of people today fear the fact that they must evolve into adults, so they live their whole lives like children. What a great waste this is, and an insult to the consciousness that resides in all our heads. And they do themselves a disservice, for in truth such people are never happy as well. They may be drugged or stimulated by physical pleasure, but that is not the same thing as happiness; such people have never known, and will never know happiness.

If there are 6 billion people on this Earth today, then we ought to have 6 billion ways of living, of conceiving of the world. Let the flowers of human consciousness bloom into a billion different spectacles, a billion different wrinkles of the great consciousness that pervades all life, all creation, the entire universe. What is there to fear in this diversity? We fear it because humanity, to date, has no experience with freedom and genuine human creativity. Humanity’s primary experience and primary way of thinking has revolved around death, and slavery, and tyranny. This is why empires rise and fall, republics crumble, and people go to war. History repeats because humanity’s thinking never changes. We are afraid of freedom because we are so used to slavery.

But freedom there is, and its genesis is the mind. Our minds should be supple like the waves in the water, not rigid and set in stone. A rigid mind loses its imagination and its spontaneity; it becomes dead. I have seen too many religious people, of every religion, who cling to their dogmas, and for what? Such people are totally miserable. One should be Buddhist for a day, Christian the next, Muslim on the third day. It is a wonderful thing for the mind to experiment with religion and see how different people see the world. There is no harm in it, you will be redeemed once you come back to your original beliefs, won’t you? Or at least this is what the priests say.

One should be a Republican one day, a Democrat the next, a Marxist on the third day, a neo-conservative on the fourth. Why bother oneself with these ideologies? They have all produced blood, every single one of them. They have all committed acts of terror and murdered children. None are exempt from their own guilt. Why not see what the big deal is?

In doing all of this, one can learn the falsity of all these ideologies and the errors that come about through the repeated use of old ways of thinking. It is time to get rid of the old. It is time for the new to flourish, for the individual to flourish without any concern for ideology or religiosity or political correctness. This is the only hope for human kind today, because it is the path of freedom. And it is only through the exercise of freedom that human thought — and with it, the entirety of human consciousness — can be activated towards its full and glorious potential.

Never forget that with thought, you are in control of your future, shaping your destiny with every waking moment.  This is the responsibility that comes with the gift of freedom, the gift of consciousness.  It is the responsibility of God.  Respect your thoughts accordingly, for they will create either heaven or hell — whatever it is you choose to do with them.

Freedom is more than a political goal. It is a psychological state, as well as a spiritual quest.

When we are born, we arrive into a world where there is little freedom. It is true that the laws of many countries guarantee freedom. But it is also true that such laws are given little respect. If you read the law books of many countries today, you would think that the entire world exists in a paradise, such are the promises bestowed by the state.

The problem of freedom is not a problem of law. A good law is worthless if it is never implemented, if it is never followed, if it is never respected. The problem of freedom is a psychological problem, a spiritual problem.

You see, slavery still exists today, but it has taken on different forms. It used to be the case that slavery was a form of physical servitude. You were shackled and then bought and sold in a market and owned by a master. This form of slavery is close to extinction. People became disgusted with this form of slavery, because they realized that it was inhuman to purchase another person, that it was against nature, against civilization, against justice. So it was gotten rid of.

But slavery still exists today, except that its nature is different. Slavery went into a cocoon and emerged in a different form. Now, more than ever, slavery remains as a mental state.

It is important to understand that slavery has existed on this planet for thousands of years, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years. Throughout history, there have been rebellions against this slavery — spirited, inspiring rebellions that have lashed out against the mental conformity that exists on this planet. Nations have rebelled against their masters, both foreign and domestic, and called for societies based on liberty and equality. People held in bondage have taken up the sword and rebelled against their shackles. There is no difference between the rebellions of Spartacus and the rebellions of Washington, Kosciusko, and Louverture — all these leaders were rebels, motivated by higher principles than the ones shoved down their throats by their oppressors.

But these political leaders stand in the shadows of the great rebels who have brought psychological and spiritual freedom. The Mahaviras, the Christs, the Mohammeds, the Krishnas, the Buddhas — those individuals who have taught that freedom exists here and now, that life can be experienced with joy instead of sorrow, that we are all creative masters of the future — those individuals who have laid the groundwork for a greater evolution in human consciousness and thought: they are the true rebels. And it is the duty of every freedom-seeker to aspire to the greatness of these truly free souls.

When we talk about rebellion, we should not think of picking up a gun. History teaches that every great revolution committed with violence, no matter how noble the cause, has never brought real freedom. The degree of oppression may change, and may even be lightened; but oppression, remains, nonetheless. The grand rhetoric of the American Revolution produced great freedom, but also kept millions enslaved and killed millions of indigenous people as well. The lofty ideals of the French Revolution laid the groundwork for Napoleon and the deaths of millions in Europe. And these are the “good revolutions” recorded by history — how much more dark and terrifying those revolutions committed in the name of tyranny!

Rebellion is a spiritual goal, a psychological goal. Rebellion means to de-program, to examine all of this brainwashing that we have been given and which has been instilled since Day One of existence and discard that which is harmful, that which is oppressive, that which is enslaving. Rebellion means to question everything we have been taught and to accept those ideas, and only those ideas, which lead to joy and happiness.

When you are happy, you are never static. Happiness is always on the move, always pushing forward. When a fish stops swimming, it will die because it will not be able to move the water through its gills, and thus will not be able to breathe. Happiness is always on the move as well, always searching for an expansion of human consciousness, for new ideas, for new creative outlets. When you are happy, you become like that fish that is always swimming in the stream of life, moving from one moment to another in a state of contentment.

We really need to be aware of how much indoctrination we have received concerning how we should behave, act, and think. We are truly brainwashed in so many ways, trained to act as slaves in so many ways. This is the basic reality of society today: the social conditioning we act out on a daily basis, and the conditioning we instill in our children.

Consider just a few examples. Consider our attitudes toward debt. When you are in debt, that means that you owe something to another, that someone possesses power over you. Yet look around and see how many messages there are on how important it is to purchase a home (which requires going into debt), or purchase a fancy car, or have credit cards. To be in debt is to make yourself a slave to someone else, to be under their control. Yet people affirmatively make the choice to be in servitude — this is a strange thing, yet so many millions decide that this is a good idea, every year.

We are told that you must be married. When you are married, that means that you owe someone else your loyalty for the rest of your life. Now, if you are truly in a loving relationship that will last a lifetime, that is a wonderful thing, a great blessing from the universe. But it is a rare thing, as well. Think back over your life and see how many friends and lovers you have had, how impermanent life is, how you have changed over the years. To make a choice to live with someone else, to love someone else, for the rest of one’s life — indeed, to make a commitment that is binding under the law — is a very large choice to make, one that is filled with difficulty. Yet so many millions make this choice every year, never understanding the choice they are really making, never understanding if they will be true to themselves in the process.

It is so important that people consider their religious beliefs. This is a very sensitive topic, but it is unfortunately the case that there is a great deal of slavery in religion. This is because there is so much power and wealth that goes into the institutions behind those religions. When you are a priest, or a head of a religion, you possess power over others, you can make people think anything you want. Such positions, by their nature, attract people who want to have control other people. You think that the power to tell people what to think and believe — indeed, to control the deepest and most precious beliefs of life — is not attractive to weak-minded individuals? Some of the biggest purveyors of hatred today are the priests and the imams who occupy positions of power all over the world.

Now, please understand me, I am not disparaging all priests or all religious leaders, for there are many who are genuinely spiritual and loving people as well. But that is true of every profession: there are good and bad lawyers, good and bad doctors, good and bad teachers. The difference is that religious leaders hold power over others, and such power by its nature is tempting, is corrupting, is enslaving.

And look at all the people who cling so desperately to the dogma of religion. See how filled they are with fear, how they have to follow every rule or else go to Hell, how they live their life based on archaic rules made thousands of years ago. The Earth belongs to the living, does it not? Yet the rules of the dead hold sway over these individuals. Some people will not even associate with other people who believe in different gods, so afraid they are of breaking the rules. Look at the fear of these people. This fear then becomes the seedling of future hatred and ill-will — the seedling of future slavery on this planet.

It is OK to have a religious belief that is not tied to any particular creed or dogma, to conceptualize the universe and God in a way different from others. There is nothing wrong with this.

What is needed now is rebellion. Not the rebellion of a gun, for that will not accomplish anything lasting, but a rebellion of psychology, a rebellion of spirituality. It is a rebellion that calls for people to simply examine what it is they hold true, and why. There is so much that is so beautiful in this world, that is so precious, but too often we fail to see it because it falls outside of our focus. We are too busy enslaving ourselves to certain mindsets or looking for ways to get into debt to see the real beauty of life, the real joy in life.

The greatest gift that nature has bestowed to human beings is the capacity to be free. Liberty is the defining characteristic of humanity. Do we not then have a duty as humans to exercise this liberty? To question what we have been taught? To determine for ourselves what is true, and what is not?

One of the hardest things to realize about slavery is that slavery is an attractive option for many people. In a world of slaves, to be free is a difficult thing. Many people choose the quick and easy path precisely because it is quick and easy, no matter how obvious the shackles. You cannot wake up someone who is pretending to be asleep; and you cannot make someone be free when they’d prefer to be a slave.

But it is also true that as history proceeds, as human consciousness evolves, slavery becomes ever more a thing of the past. There will be a day when all of humanity can exist in a state of true freedom. And we can catalyze this future by instituting an inner rebellion in our own lives. When we exercise freedom in our own lives, then we shine like a beacon onto the world, informing others that it is possible to live another way, to think different things, to act in a manner that is true to ourselves and not to the laws of the oppressor. It is possible to lead by example and show others that freedom is possible, indeed, inevitable, if you only want it.

This is what is meant by rebellion.

Depending on who you ask, anywhere from one quarter to one half of Americans — anywhere from 75 to 150 million people — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder.

If we are to believe these statistics, there are literally tens of millions of people today, or even hundreds of millions of people, who have trouble finding happiness.

America today is filled with so many alienated, struggling people. There is so much loneliness. Even in crowded places, people feel alone.

And there is so much hardship. You have to work very hard in America today if you want any chance of bettering yourself. If you want to have basic necessities such as food and health care, you must pay for those things; they are not provided. If you want to have a stimulating job with good career opportunities, you must take out a loan for many hundreds of thousands of dollars to obtain a diploma that will get you such a job. If you want to own a home, you have to go to areas with little development, places like the desert, to find an affordable piece of real estate.

In what time period has a civilization ever flourished in a desert? This is where America finds itself today.

Why so much hardship and suffering? America suffers because America is no longer free. It is no longer free because America is an empire.

People forget that there are great costs associated with maintaining an empire. An empire needs taxes to fund the military. An empire needs strong police powers — powers such as indefinite detentions and general warrants — if it is to control dissent and maintain authority.

But there is also a psychological cost associated with an empire — the cost of lies. An empire must lie. It must lie continually, to the rest of the world and to its citizens.

For example, an empire has to lie about its reasons for war. Typically, it has to say that invading another country is an act of self-defense, even when this isn’t true. Somehow, the American government convinced its people that the invasion of Iraq was an act of self-defense, despite the fact that Iraq had no economy and no army to speak of. This was a tremendous lie. Even the Nazis claimed that invading Poland was an act of self-defense.

Then there are the lies that come from the atrocities committed by the empire — torture, rape, summary executions. All empires commit such atrocities, and all empires deny they are taking place. Teenage boys and girls fresh out of high school suddenly find themselves armed with the tools of a grand inquisitor.

There are numerous lies in an empire. The government lies, the president lies, the media lies, the politicians lie. There are lies about the state of the economy, the state of the war, the state of the country in general. There is a great cost in having to listen to the lies and determine for yourself what you believe and what you don’t believe. It gets very tiring to have to piece through all the lies.

And when you are constantly surrounded by so many lies, you stop believing other people. You stop seeing the world as a place that is beautiful, because lies are not beautiful. Lies are very ugly. And when you have to go through all this ugliness all the time, everything in life starts to seem ugly.

Is it any surprise that so many people today are so unhappy, and suffering? How can anyone possibly be happy when they must work so hard for so little while being told nothing but lies, over and over? This is a hell I describe, yet this is the reality.

There is no greater joy in living than the joy of freedom. I mean freedom in a spiritual and psychological sense — the two are related. When you are free, you have complete liberty in your thoughts and your actions. You can choose for yourself what you want to do, what you want to feel, what you want to think. There is a great beauty in feeling this sense of control over your life, knowing that the future is yours to mold as you see fit.

This joy is absent today, for millions of people. It is absent because freedom is no longer the concern of America. And this is a great tragedy, because freedom was supposedly one of the main purposes for why America was founded in the first place.

When you look around and you see so many people unhappy today, so many people who cannot live in joy, who have to medicate themselves so that they can get up in the morning, what you are witnessing is a land that is bereft of its freedom, that is swimming in lies and mired in debt.

Today, Americans suffer from their empire. It is difficult to see this, but this is the truth. They suffer from high taxes, they suffer from oppressive government, and they suffer the psychological burdens that must weigh on them as a result of the aggression committed in their name.

I know that the instinct for liberty and joy is so pervasive in humanity that if people could just see the burdens they must go through in their everyday lives to sustain the barbarity of their military government, they would immediately reject all participation with it. But there is a lot of brainwashing that must be done away with if this is to happen.  We have all been so brainwashed since birth to follow authority, to worship the government and the churches and the various noble families who find themselves placed into power over and over again, we have forgotten our instinct to just exist in simple joy.

There will come a point when the hardships are so tremendous, and the suffering so total, that even the most hardened adherents of the status quo will raise their hands to an emotionless heaven and ask for assistance. But assistance will not come from the skies; assistance will only come when that person looks deep down inside and sees how totally used they have been, taken advantage of by the powerful so as to sustain a monument of falsehoods — a monument to empire.

We can seek freedom now, here, at this very moment. Freedom requires nothing more than the realization that we are in control of our lives at every second. When we accept responsibility for that control, we exist in a state of joy because we become the authors of the future.

It is possible for America to be happy again, to throw out the pills and get up from the therapist’s chair and live in joy. It is possible for the entire society to live in this joy. But it will only happen when Americans, individually, take responsibility for their freedom. And it will only happen when Americans end their empire.

If you went to a zoo, and went to the lion exhibit and saw the lions cowering in fear and baaing like sheep, you would think something was terribly wrong.

You would wonder why the lions, with their fierce growls, their sharp claws and their cunning instincts would be behaving so strangely. You would be amazed to see such powerful, energetic animals milling without purpose, afraid to act in their own manner.

When you see people today, you can wonder the same thing. Here is an animal with such capacity for genius, and beauty, and purpose. Yet by and large, such gifts go unused.

Today, people have lost sight of their abilities to shape the future. They have grown accustomed to accepting things the way they are, without any sense that things can change in a positive fashion.

I write this in a world where exploding gas prices, growing shortages in food, and rising casualties from natural disasters threaten to make conditions on this planet increasingly difficult and harsh. It is so easy to look at all these things taking place in the world today — economic turmoil, political apathy, militarism, growing social unrest, climate change and resource depletion — and conclude that nothing can be done.

But this is an answer born of laziness. It is an answer that ignores the fact that the lion can roar if it wants to. We forget that this direction can be changed, if people want it to be change.

Humanity has never before faced the convergence of so many problems at one time. It is not enough that nations still go to war with each other for resources, still threaten each other with nuclear weapons — they do so at a time when ice caps are melting, when there are 6 billion plus people on the planet, when people are starting to riot over food in many places and when oil resources will only be more expensive from now on.

The old ways of thinking — acting like sheep — will not provide any solutions to these crises. Human thinking must advance and evolve to a higher place, a place that allows for more meaningful and lasting solutions to the problems of the present. The lion will have to roar like a lion if it wants to solve the problems it has caused by acting like a sheep.

It is possible to imagine a world with more joy, more happiness, more freedom. It would look very different than our world today. It would be a world where people were taught from birth their true natures, and the power they have to control and shape their futures. The lion would know that it is a lion; and a pride of lions, acting in their true natures, would be unstoppable against any problem, any enemy.

In order for the lion to recognize its true nature, there is one thing it must do. It must confront its fear. It is a scary thing to think that we have more power over our lives than we think. It is scary because we are unaccustomed to thinking ourselves as powerful. The lion who has never roared will be scared to try it out. Yet this is what must be done.

The root cause of all the problems today in this world derive from fear.

If fear can be tackled, then the world will be OK. People will be OK.

And the best place to tackle fear is in your own life. Look at your fears, confront them, lay them to rest. Stop baaing like a sheep and start roaring like a lion.

That will make all the difference.

The toughest task in this world is to confront something that we are afraid of doing.

This seems like an obvious proposition; but if it were obvious, then people would be more willing to face their fears.

I firmly believe that our purpose on this Earth — the reason we as humans exist at all — is to evolve. Not biologically evolve (although that may be happening), but to spiritually evolve. Everyday, our task on this planet is nothing more than to break down the barriers of our own minds and to trek onward into the ever expanding terrain of freedom.

The barriers that stand in our way are the barriers we have constructed ourselves. They are the barriers of fear. These barriers represent the lessons we must learn if we are to move forward in our lives, to find greater happiness and joy.

They are individual barriers. A man who is afraid of his parents will have to learn how to handle them if he is to find greater happiness in life. Or a woman may be scared to confront a past instance of abuse.  One could give a million examples of a fear.  Everyone has something, or somethings, they are afraid to confront, that they would wish would go away. The individual examples don’t matter; rather, it is the fact that such fears exist at all which act as the challenge to individual growth.

Tackling such fears takes courage. Courage does not mean aggression, or militarism. Courage is simply a sense of confidence, born of self-love, that such fears can be tackled. One must carry with him or her the intention to tackle the fear; and, grounded in such intention, one can then confront the fear once and for all and move on with things.
Once the light of courage is cast into the shadows, the fear is minimized, and then goes away forever. The fear goes away because the fear never really existed at all. It was all in your head.

It is the job of leaders to display this courage. This is why we have leaders at all. A leader without courage is a leader in name only. No doubt, the disease of fear can spread rapidly, but courage, too, is an emotion that can be shared with others. And a leader who is filled with courage can be the shining star of his or her people.