Audio Version
I've always cringed at the use of words like cosmic... words that have actual
sociological and scientific meaning that have been criticized and perverted so that the
use of them becomes lost, and, in fact, a source of humiliation for those who use them.
TAO is one of those words. It's pronounced DOW, I think by no simple coincidence, since
our economy is inaccurately measured by the performance of the stock exchange. It's
another one of those strange, confusing perversions of language that trick us.
Ambrosia
- Nice, Nice, Very Nice
TAO simply describes the absolute truth that everything on this planet is
inter-connected. And, it reflects the idea that everything around us is an oracle, an
indicator of something. For example, when trees that have been living in a region for
centuries begin to get burned leaves in the summertime, it means that something is amiss
in the ecological system. That happened this year to the trees and bushes where I've been
living, on the edge of a rainforest.
Have you ever walked into a room where there was a group of people, and noticed that
only one person seemed to be in an aggravated or bad mood, and it affected the mood and
ambience of everyone else there?
We always say that we understand this inter-connectedness. But, we think it only
applies to human beings, and that plants and animals and the air are all subject to a
different set of rules, as if they were expendable, and provided solely to serve human
interests. I don't know if you've noticed, but the fact is, they are finite and they do
get spoiled and become useless or toxic after enough abuse or over use.
Then, we blame it on corporations and politicians and everybody but ourselves for it
occurring. Still, we continue to use plastic because it's more convenient, we use bottled
water instead taking care of our water supplies, and, like with tuna, which we're now told
contains so much mercury that it's poisonous to us - we'll just switch to another food
source until it becomes polluted or extinct. It's a lot easier than correcting the problem
of mercury poisoning.
There's only one problem with that kind of thinking: sooner or later, that poisoning
will creep from one food source to another until it becomes a universal problem. It's
caused scientists to suggest limiting the consumption of tuna. Not too long ago, warnings
were issued regarding farmed Atlantic Salmon. Will shrimp be next?
One comment I thought was most interesting and destructive was a comment made by Ronald
Reagan about trees. He said "If you've seen one tree, you've seen them all." As
if trees were just earthly decorations. In California, Reagan pushed legislation that
stated that if a tree was 18 inches in diameter or greater on lands commonly used for
logging, it had to be cut down, or land owners must pay a tax similar to an inventory tax.
At that time, I was living in Humboldt County, on the Big Bend Ranch a little east of a
place called Maple Creek, which was 175,000 acres of cattle and timberland on the Mad
River, bordering on the Trinity National Forest. It's just across the river from a place
called Bridgeville, a small town privately owned and sold on E-Bay last year.
Just a couple years after graduating from Arcata High School and moving from the area,
I returned for a visit. A great deal of the land just west of the property, a couple miles
east of Maple Creek in a place we called Krettner's place, the land had been clear-cut. It
was so ugly and upsetting, it made me feel like I never wanted to go back and see it
again, even though it had been the most beautiful place I had ever lived. I loved it
there, despite the fact that we had no electricity, phones or the bulk of modern
conveniences people so take for granted. It's truly part of God's country.
Now, despite the beauty that had been destroyed, there were so many other things that
were destroyed along with it. Beautiful meadows, where birds, bugs, snakes, deer, mountain
lions and so many other creatures made their home. I'm sure they all found other places to
live, but, it wasn't the same.
They lost pasture and breeding grounds, many bugs and organisms died, their access to
water was impaired, natural safeguards against erosion were lost, trees that would have
trapped the moisture from the fog of the Mad River were lost. That may not seem like
a big thing, but it meant that the water source for many organisms was gone.
The ability to reproduce pastureland was impaired. All because of the convenience of
clear cutting, and the avoidance of taxation.
You could certainly make the case that the trees were needed to build houses. But,
there are so many other sources of materials available without cutting down trees and
depriving other beings of their homes. Yes, I said beings.
You can use hay bales, plastic soda pop containers, worn out tires, dirt and more.
Though you may think that would be the "poor man's way" of building a home, the
fact is, these kinds of methods have been used for hundreds and hundreds of years.
They cost less, provide better insulation and thus save on energy. In England, the
art of thatching roofs is a sought after skill, and becoming more and more popular all the
time.
People will say, "I can't believe that he's talking about plants and animals as if
they're as important or more important than people." The question I have is
"What makes you think the issues of people and animals are separate and
unrelated?"
When I lived in the hills of Santa Cruz, California, at the end of Lockhart Gulch Road
in Scotts Valley, we had a couple horses and goats and rabbits and pigeons and ducks and
chickens that we raised for food for our family of 6 kids, of which I was the youngest,
but the eldest (and only) son of my father.
There was a big problem, one year back around 1960. People who would tire of their
dogs, or couldn't keep them anymore, would drop them off at the end of the road. We
assumed they thought it meant their animals would be better off running free in the woods.
What happened instead is that a pack of animals would form, and 10-20 at a time would go
around and kill horses and sheep. Finally, when a child was killed, a posse was formed to
track them down and shoot them.
A similar thing happened at a friend's place in Kent, Washington back around 1982. The
game warden came out and set out poison to kill them.
When I lived in Atlanta, Georgia, back around 1993, we had a particularly bad problem
with lady bugs swarming inside of houses, where their natural habitats had been taken over
by low-income housing.
When I lived in the Yosemite area in the late 90's, I had a fox living under my porch,
and a mountain lion living about 100 feet away in the field below the house. One night, it
decided to eat my cat of 15 years, who I rescued. 2 days later, the same mountain lion
spied a woman walking her poodle, and swooped down upon them and took the poodle and ate
it. They hunted it down and killed it.
You would probably think that it was appropriate to kill that mountain lion. But, the
fact is, a housing project had been built in its natural habitat, along with many other
facts that included depletion of its food supply, and the prevention of its access to a
natural water source, which was converted to a resort.
There are plenty of examples of how people encroaching on native habitats have caused
imbalances that we resolve by killing the animals. Or, overcompensation by fully
restricting hunting of animals that promoted disease and bacterial infection, or simple
unfortunate contact between animals and people. There is a big problem in the United
States right now with deer being hit by cars, but the problem is described as a burden to
insurance companies having to pay out millions of dollars to repair cars. Somehow, I don't
think that's the real problem.
Louis
Armstrong - What A Wonderful World
The problem is in the balance of nature.
The balance of nature is also acted out in terms of people who are trying to protect
the environment through conservation, activism, education and what we would call
eco-terrorism.
Extremes occur in many forms. We've heard of groups bombing SUV dealerships and things
of this nature. It's all caused by frustration over the selfish cruelty and mismanagement
of natural resources. And, it's caused by the fact that so many people have become enraged
over so many issues, that it requires extreme action to get anyone's attention.
That enragement is often attributable to divisive and expedient political activity and
pandering to business and financial interests. People who say global warming doesn't
exist, that the melting of arctic and Antarctic ice formations is natural, that the
depletions in the ozone layers are irrelevant, and that the increases in skin cancer and
other diseases is a natural thing that can be overcome through science - they are simply
in denial.
This would be a case where you'd want to ask the magic questions again. Who or what
would gain an advantage by having you think that way? Who would gain advantage by making
you think there is only one possibility? Do I like those things or dislike them?
Are you really willing to get cancer and have faith that science will cure you?
There's a group out there called PETA that is doing some pretty creative things to get
your attention to the way we treat animals, and about the food we eat. I have to admit, I
thought it was a little over the top when they started boycotting Kentucky Fried Chicken
for the way they allowed producers to raise chicken. It included grinding or cutting off
the tips of their beaks so they could keep the chickens in closer quarters, and, since
chickens in close quarters tend to go a little nuts and peck each other to death, the
issue of fewer losses of chickens would suggest this was a good practice. Until you think
about how it would be to have your nose cut off so that we could fit more people in
crowded elevators.
Quality of life of all beings, plants and animals (humans included) affects each other.
You may consider that ridiculous, but there's a reason Kobe beef is so much better to
eat and so tender. They feed cattle great grain, beer and wine, play them music, give them
massages, and then charge people $45 for a hamburger. Why is it so much better?
That brings us to a discussion of the word disease. I invite you to think of it more in
terms of dis-ease. Stress. It causes weight gain, addictions, and chemical imbalances.
I personally have a little birth defect, so I happen to know something about
endocrinology, which in many ways is the study of how hormones trigger and induce chemical
reactions in the human body and the brain.
When the human body is under stress, which is not normal, it produces hormones that
have effects to cause what we might call autonomic or natural responses in the body. For
example, stress causes us to respond by triggering natural bodily chemicals that provoke
us to action for survival/defense and pro-creation/reproduction.
So, when terrorism occurs, our bodies and psyches respond by making men more aggressive
and women more oriented toward nesting. That's why extremes and violence cause us to act
in equal but opposite ways. We become more violent as well, though our perceptions cause
us to believe we are acting appropriately in response to a threat.
Maybe we are, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's healthy for us. And it may cause
us to vote for political candidates who are willing to commit more violence in order to
defend us, which causes more stress and dis-ease among us as well as our enemies,
producing more and more human chemicals that cause us to act in more and more violent and
aggressive ways.
On top of that, add to it the effect of rising unemployment, exportation of jobs to
China, the continued declaration of additional violent threats against us, concerns over
environmental threats, politics that causes you to become angered and divided as friends,
family and nations, and pretty soon you've got a chemical chain reaction that can't be
stopped.
Furthermore, dis-ease leads to medical disease. There are conflicting reports, but some
credible reports suggest that AIDS was originally caused in Africa during the stress of
World War II. There are similar reports relating to the development of SARS in China, due
to the stress of the massive flooding, over-population and economic changes occurring
there in the last few years. Civet cats, a delicacy in China, have been determined
to be a source of the transference of the disease to humans.
Animals, unaware of why their environment was changing, became stressed and developed
disease due to bodily chemicals which cause an evolution of sorts in chemical make-up that
gets passed to offspring. There are many different ways that it occurs, but this is part
of the nexus that plays a part in the development of disease and plagues.
The best book that exemplifies this kind of thing is a book by Norman F. Cantor, called
"In the Wake of the Plague, the Black Death and the World It Made." Sounds
pretty grim, but it's mostly very informative.
What it explains, among other things, is how we believe the Roman Empire fell strictly
due to its corruption and warring activities. If you don't know, the trademark of the
Roman Empire was that they believed they had all the "right answers" about how
the world should be. So, if they disagreed with the way another country operated,
they attacked it and conquered it. The Roman Empire nearly conquered the world with its
state of the art armies and, at that time, high tech armies and weaponry.
We believe that the stories of the gladiators had to do with pure entertainment, but
the fact is, it was conditioning. Their soldiers were required to watch the gladiators in
order to cause them to become indifferent to hate and the killing of other people. In this
way, when it came time to go to war, no one gave a second thought to the hundreds of
thousands of lives that were taken in the name of "liberty and justice".
I truly hope you are beginning to see the correlation of this to what's going on in
America today. Between TV, the bravado of political speeches, and our penchant for war,
there's little difference.
Like I said, we think the Roman Empire was finally conquered by its social
degeneration, but the truth is, it's downfall had more to do with what's going on in
Africa. Because of the wars and corruption of the government, the citizens were forced to
live in a sub-standard agrarian culture where the only thing they had time for was to work
in order to survive. The riches, mostly undeveloped, were committed to making war and
quashing tribal rebellions against governments forcing them to give up their heritage (as
with the Native American Indians), and the people were otherwise neglected.
With all this dis-ease and neglect came the plague. You might now think that the
medical disease was the specific reason for their downfall. Almost, but not quite. What
really happened, as in Africa today, is that so many people became ill and disadvantaged
that it left too few people who could raise enough food and provide care in order to
support an adequate infrastructure. The United States faces the same potential as the
baby-boomers begin to retire, and require more people to provide support and care, in the
face of overwhelming financial burdens that will lead to lack of treatment for preventable
and treatable diseases.
Given the current "plague" of flu we're facing, West Nile Virus, Mad Cow
Disease, Avian "Bird" Flu in Asia... as well as predictions of disastrous
bio-terror attacks, you should be able to see that the United States is vulnerable to the
same kind of potential disaster.
I can tell you, because I have seen what God has shown me, that that is exactly where
we're heading. Not just in the United States, but on a global basis. It causes me a great
deal of distress, and has everything to do with why I have stepped forward at this time.
If we do not put an end to the hostilities that we have generated, 1/3 of the planets life
will be destroyed. And it will not stop there.
We are most certainly facing the end of days right now.
You may say that we're doing what we're doing because people have attacked us. Let's do
a little reality check. These people, these Radical Islamists, did not just suddenly
decide one day to hate Americans and kill us.
Before I continue, I want to make something absolutely clear. I do not condone or
support the creation of Al Qaeda or the efforts of Osama Bin Laden. Furthermore, I am a
loyal American, with global responsibilities, and I would defend America whether we
started the trouble or not.
But, despite what George W. Bush says (in order to incite you to support a pre-emptive
war policy), Osama Bin Laden has issued warning to the United States and other countries,
including its own government in Saudi Arabia, that if we all didn't stop doing things that
harmed the citizens he was trying to protect, that he would commit horrendous acts to stop
us and our allies.
And, despite what George W. Bush says, they have warned us each and every time prior to
making an attack.
The U.S. Government has lied to the American people for years regarding the use of our
military forces in order to coerce and attack any oil producing country that does not give
in to our demands to control their oil, and most other natural resources.
Good people have not stepped forward to end this corruption because they know that if
they did, they would be killed or removed from power it they tried. They believe,
incorrectly, that by retaining their seats of limited power, that they can do more good
than by upsetting the American people with the truth. Personally, I believe Americans can
handle the truth.
I'll take it one-step further. About a year ago, I called for Osama Bin Laden to issue
a statement to the world to fully explain, without terroristic rhetoric, why he was doing
what he was doing. I have no direct contact with him. But, I have the ability to direct
communications to any person or group of people on this planet. It doesn't mean they'll do
what I say, but they hear me. That's one of the tools I have been granted.
He came close to what I requested. What you heard in the news, because George W. Bush
has informed the news media to not publish his full statements, is that Osama was
threatening to send Americans home in body bags. What he actually said was, if you
continue to attack us and harm us, we'll oppose you and send your soldiers home in body
bags.
Many people will be angry for me for saying this. They'll say I've been collaboration
with the enemy terrorists. The truth is, all I'm doing is telling you the truth. There's
overwhelming credible evidence. It's something the U.S. government doesn't want you to
hear, because you would then know that our government has been using our military to
empower corporate control over this nation and the world for nearly a century.
Rico
Youngblood - Alternative Anthems - 01 - There's A War On
They don't want you to know this because you would no longer be willing to support the
wars we have waged for the sake of profiteering and oppression of other nations.
Furthermore, the corporations would lose their political puppets, and the people who live
to attain greater amounts of power would lose their ability to gain that power at the
expense of the citizens they're supposed to serve.
In Myanmar, a place about which our government has issued a multitude of statements
condemning regarding the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi - their democratically elected
female president for over 10 years - the truth makes undeniable hypocrites of our
government. The fact is that the government in charge has cooperated with American oil
companies as they have enslaved and tortured the Myanmar citizens in order to build an oil
pipeline.
I could give you hundreds of examples of how your tax dollars have paid for or
protected this kind of corruption and hypocrisy. The simplest example would be the
subsidization of tobacco producers.
But it's not just on an international basis. What if I told you that if you saw the
evidence about what happened to David Koresh and his group in Waco clearly shows that they
were literally massacred, and you were lied to about what happened in order to make the
government look justified. I've seen the evidence, the same evidence that was presented o
the U.S. Senate. Yet, the Senate issued a statement that government agents did no wrong.
The Black Panthers were a completely non-violent organization doing a great deal of
good for citizens in the ghettos until they were infiltrated by U.S. agents, sent in for
the sole purpose of inciting more aggravated individuals into committing violent acts in
order to cause them to be publicly discredited. You probably believe that the Black
Panthers were just a bunch of violent thugs. There are scores of political prisoners in
prison right now simply because they dared to oppose the corruption and injustices of
factions of the U.S. government.
Ask the magic questions: Who or what would gain an advantage by having you think that
way? Who would gain advantage by making you think there is only one possibility? Do I like
those things or dislike them?
It's like the message of the movie "Swordfish" with John Travolta - it's
about how mis-direction and illusion are used to make you believe one thing is going on
while something else corrupt and destructive is actually occurring. Because you want to
believe the best in people, you take them at their word, even though you know something
isn't quite right. But, you let it happen because you just can't put your finger on it,
and you hope for the best, and supposedly have faith in God and your government - someone
else- to do something about it.
Let me ask you, when you plant a vegetable garden, do you plant it and then simply ask
God to weed it for you? God gave you a planet to tend to. Why do you leave it to someone
else to make sure it's being cared for?
James
Taylor - Dad Loves His Work - 06 - Stand and Fight
Now you're probably thinking "I thought this guy was claiming to be talking about
religion."
The fact is, like Jesus, I have 2 main purposes. 1- to return this planet to God's
original plan of liberty as described in the book of St. John by freeing people from the
economic enslavement of corrupt government officials and 2- to cause people to remember
that the bounty and blessings of this world are provided by faith in and service to God's
plan, and that we need to return to thanking Him and having faith in His plan.
That's not necessarily a religious cause. It is most definitely a Christian cause. It
is the central purpose of nearly every religion regardless of the name they use to
identify God.
There is certainly more to why I am here and rising up at this time. But if these 2
things were accomplished, we would all be given a new lease on life - as if we were born
again.
What does all this political stuff have to do with the TAO of Health and Being?
Simple. Equal and opposite reaction. Natural selection. Survival of the fittest. The
battle between good and evil.
If you went to your neighbor's house and told them you were going to steal their car -
and if they tried to stop you, you might try to kill them. What would you expect them to
do?
Let's put it in a more realistic setting. Genetically modified foods, like corn, sound
like a great idea. They can alter DNA so that plants resist bacteria and disease, bugs and
more. They can cause plants to have greater nutritional values, or, even, glow in the
dark. Really. You might wonder, what's wrong with that?
Let's talk about bacteria and bugs. All the dis-ease and "out of balance"
farming activities have caused them to be more aggressive and destructive. So, as with
terrorism, we create weapons to control and suppress them - in this case, in the form of
disease resistant plants. That does not dispose of them as problems at all, it makes them
more aggressive. Meanwhile, other organisms not equipped with these new weapons, like
civilians in a war, are left even more vulnerable and become destroyed.
It's the same thing as how penicillin becomes less and less effective the more it is
used.
Technology is a great thing. But, when you substitute technology for actually properly
maintaining "the biotic machinery", you actually end up destroying more than you
save. Once the cycle begins, there's little or no choice of turning back. And, if you make
a mistake or the biotics get ahead of technology, you're dead. It's like this year's flu,
for which the flu vaccines did not protect you. They simply hadn't anticipated the need to
protect you from this particular strain. And, no one tells scientists what flu's and
diseases need to get extra attention in any given year. It's all an educated guess.
What's worse on this GM front is that the companies making the seeds don't sell them
anymore, they lease them to farmers. Farmers can no longer grow a crop for the
purpose of creating seed for their next crops. That means that a few corporations have
complete control of the production of food. And, if the seeds they produce get
contaminated or destroyed somehow, you're talking about facing the possibility of a global
famine.
The TAO of Health and Being - it's all about the inter-connectedness of everything on
this planet. Whether it's plants, water, food, people, animals - when it gets too far out
of balance, the infrastructure collapses.
We're very close to having that happen right now. It's beginning to happen in many
places of the world at this moment. And you may be its next victim. It's an extreme
representation of the truth. But slowly, slowly, it is creeping up on us. We can't afford
to have it become an emergency before we start acting prudently and prevent it. You've
heard that said before, and of course it sounds reasonable. So, why don't we do it? What's
wrong with this picture.
If you don't take responsibility for what's going on and oppose it, and demand that
governments and citizens actually start taking care of this planet as if everything God
placed here was important, because they are, then it will do harm. Your children will
suffer. Your life will be shortened. It's simply the natural order of things.
What are you going to do about it? Do you expect someone to just snap their fingers and
fix it all for you? That's not the deal God gave you.
It's like giving a child a toy. If they break their favorite toys, do you just buy them
another one exactly like it, or do you tell them they should have taken care of it in the
first place, and hope they'll learn the lesson and become more responsible for their own
future?
You have to choose to have a planet that works for everyone, just like you have to
choose God. I can't force you to do anything, and, in fact, I have no desire to. Like God,
who feels you have forgotten him and the gifts he's provided, he wants you to decide for
yourself and do the right thing because it makes sense, not because you're forced to. Not
because someone passed a law to require it of you.
Though you may not consider it this way now, what I've just told you is about
possibilities - and the choices you make will mean the difference between the creation of
heaven on earth or the eventual onset of Armageddon. You, yes you, the person reading
this. YOU have to take action, just as each of us must take action in our own ways.
Whatever you feel compelled to do will be the right thing, because that, too is the
natural order of things. It's one of the reasons for the vast diversity of human
interests, skills and behaviors.
How do you feel about that, and what do you plan to do about it? I have no desire to be
your babysitter, and God has no desire to bully you into compliance, like some members of
your government have done to lead you into their trap of control.
Personally, I want to have fun playing on this beautiful planet with you.
But, the choice is yours.
In the end, I'll be fine either way. Can you say the same thing? Are you willing to
take the chance?
I have one more thing to say on this subject.
Neil
Diamond - Song Sung Blue
I was watching TV the other day, and saw yet another ad for anti-depressants for yet
another set of symptoms. For those taking them or considering taking them, and doctors who
prescribe them, have you ever considered the idea that maybe your depression is legitimate
for legitimate reasons, like pain that warns you of a broken bone.
Instead of treating your depression as a malfunctioning brain, which is sometimes true,
consider that maybe there is a legitimate reason to be so sad that only taking drugs that
make you ignore the truth can relieve your suffering. And when that happens, I request
once again that you ask the magic questions regarding why anti-depressants are being
pushed to the public in such great quantity.
Who or what would gain an advantage by having you think that way? Who would gain
advantage by making you think there is only one possibility? Do I like those things or
dislike them?
