Showing posts with label Americans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Americans. Show all posts

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Gambler's Heart

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"I am the utterance of my name."



"I yam what I yam," says Popeye the Sailor Man... The Gambler is actually the archetypal student - this is the person who is all-up-into-it with the books, the studies, the knowledge, the background, the degrees, the doctorates and the PhD's. These people thrive on puzzles, mysteries, science and unknowns. If they are uneducated they still know how to make ends meet through the craftiness of their thinking.

If they have their wits about them, they will understand that LOVE is the answer... Regardless of how protective they may feel about guarding themselves from everyone else. Regardless of the medications they make or prescribe.

Unfortunately, this is the one heart which becomes a big promoter of self-interest. Take a closer look and you will see how desperately isolated this person has become. Without the intention of love behind his or her work, there are attitudes of cynicism and bitterness, humor at the expense of others. Oh yea - and great losses... Because all that upholds this heart is fear-based ego. So the love has to embellish it and keep it strong, or it will devour itself.

In my mind? This image is incomplete without the addition of snake, eating it's own tail. Left to it's own devices, it might have few options but to Beat It or Eat It.


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Madoff sent to jail as furious victims applaud
AP - 03/12/2009 15:16:49
By LARRY NEUMEISTER and TOM HAYS

Careful to blame only himself, a "deeply sorry and ashamed" Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty Thursday to pulling off what could be the biggest, most spectacular swindle Wall Street has even seen, and was sent off to jail in handcuffs to the applause of his furious victims.

"I realized that my arrest and this day would inevitably come," Madoff said in a courtroom crammed with many of the investors he cheated out of billions of dollars.

The 70-year-old financier could get up to 150 years in prison at sentencing June 16 on 11 counts, including securities fraud and perjury. He could also be fined and ordered to pay restitution to his victims and forfeit any ill-gotten gains.

In a long, detailed statement delivered in a soft but steady voice, Madoff implicated no one but himself in the vast Ponzi scheme. He said he started it as a short-term way to weather the early-1990s recession, and was unable to extricate himself as the years went by.

"I am actually grateful for this opportunity to publicly comment about my crimes, for which I am deeply sorry and ashamed," Madoff said in his first public comments about his crimes since the $65 billion scandal broke in early December.

The scandal turned a well-respected investment professional -- Madoff was once chairman of the Nasdaq exchange -- into a symbol of Wall Street greed amid the economic meltdown. The public fury toward him was so great that he was known to wear a bulletproof vest to court.

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin promptly revoked the $10 million bail that had allowed Madoff to remain free since he confessed to his sons three months ago. In ordering him jailed, the judge said Madoff had the means to flee and an incentive to do so because of his age.

The court appearance came as a disappointment to many of Madoff's investors, who hoped to hear him say who might have helped him pull off the scam, and where the money went.

Because Madoff pleaded guilty as charged, without any kind of deal with prosecutors, he is under no obligation to cooperate with them. As a result, some legal experts and others have speculated that he is sacrificing himself to protect his wife, his family and friends.

"He's trying to save the rest of his family," said investor Judith Welling. "We need to find out who else was involved, and we need, obviously, to freeze the assets of all those people involved to help the victims."

There was a smattering of applause after the judge announced Madoff would go directly to jail -- the drab, windowless high-rise Metropolitan Correctional Center next door to the courthouse to await sentencing. But that did not lessen his victims' anger or satisfy their desire for retribution.

"So he spends the rest of his life in jail -- is that justice? People's lives are ruined," said Adriane Biondo of Los Angeles, one of five members of her family who lost money with Madoff. "He's sitting in jail? That's awesome," she said sarcastically. "Where's the money, Bernie?"

DeWitt Baker, an investor who attended the hearing and said he lost more than $1 million with Madoff, said: "I'd stone him to death."

Prosecutors gave assurances they are investigating Madoff's wife and other family members and employees to determine what role, if any, they played in scam.

"A lot of resources and effort are being expended, both to find assets and to find anyone else who may be responsible for this fraud," federal prosecutor Marc Litt said.

In court documents, prosecutors put the amount of the fraud at $64.8 billion. However, experts said that the actual loss was probably much less and that the higher number reflects the false profits Madoff told investors they were making. So far, authorities have located only about $1 billion for investors.

Prosecutors have already said low-level employees in Madoff's New York offices participated by mailing out tens of thousands of phony monthly statements and trading confirmations to make it look as if customers were making money in the market.

Some investors suspect their money ended up in the hands of Madoff's wife, Ruth. She was not in court Thursday. But the mere mention of her name drew jeers and laughter.

In one instance, defense lawyer Ira Sorkin was describing how Madoff had, "at his wife's own expense," paid for security at his $7 million penthouse in Manhattan. Loud laughter erupted among some of the more than 100 spectators crammed into the courtroom on the 24th floor of the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan. There was more snickering when Sorkin mentioned Mrs. Madoff's "small residence in France."

His thousands of victims included individuals, trusts, pension funds, hedge funds and nonprofit organizations. The scheme wiped out people's fortunes, ruined charities and foundations, and apparently pushed at least two investors to commit suicide.

Investors big and small were swindled, from Florida retirees to celebrities such as Steven Spielberg, actor Kevin Bacon and Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax. Many of Madoff's victims were Jews and Jewish charities, which trusted him because he is Jewish. Those cheated included Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.

In court Thursday, Madoff -- a stocky figure, clad in a charcoal-gray suit, with swept-back, wavy gray hair -- said he began the scheme during the last recession, when "I felt compelled to satisfy my clients' expectations, at any cost." He did not put his investors' money into the market, as he claimed. Instead, it was a Ponzi scheme, or a pyramid, in which early investors are paid off with money taken in from later ones.

"When I began the Ponzi scheme I believed it would end shortly and I would be able to extricate myself and my clients from the scheme," he said. "However, this proved difficult, and ultimately impossible, and as the years went by I realized that my arrest and this day would inevitably come."

In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said: "The president is glad that swift justice will happen."

Gibbs said the Obama administration will do everything possible to ensure strict enforcement of securities regulations "and hope that through those actions that that kind of greed and irresponsibility and that kind of criminal activity never happens again."

Before the court hearing, helicopters circled above the courthouse, and federal officers with automatic weapons stood outside. Investors signed in before entering the courtroom.

"I wanted him to see some of the faces of the people he lied to and destroyed," said Cynthia Friedman, 59, of Jericho, N.Y. She and her husband, Richard, said Madoff defrauded them of their life savings of $3 million. They learned it was gone months before Richard Friedman was supposed to retire -- a plan now on hold.

Madoff did not look at any of the three investors who spoke at the hearing, even when one of them turned in his direction and tried to address him. At the hint of a confrontation, a marshal sitting behind Madoff stood up, and the judge directed the investor to speak directly to the bench.

Madoff told the court that he falsely told investors he was employing a "split strike conversion strategy": He claimed he invested their money in a batch of stocks from the Standard & Poor's 100 that closely tracked the price movements of the index. He also told investors that he would periodically pull their money out of the market and put it in Treasury bills. And he claimed he bought stock options to hedge against losses. All of that was false.

Madoff also said that to fool his clients into thinking he was buying and selling stocks, he transferred money from his fraudulent operations into his wholesale stock-trading firm, which he otherwise described as an honest, legitimate business.

Afterward, Burt Ross, a lawyer from Englewood, N.J., who lost $5 million in Madoff's swindle, said: "It's a little bit like seeing the devil."
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Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz and David B. Caruso contributed to this report.


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au·ton·o·my
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural au·ton·o·mies
Date: circa 1623
1: the quality or state of being self-governing ; especially : the right of self-government

2: self-directing freedom and especially moral independence

3: a self-governing state

People who come to America from other countries are challenged to give-up many things, not understanding how it has come about that, Americans are basically autonomous in nature.

Many people come to America in the pursuit of freedom, only to discover this is a Melting-Pot of cultural identities, and religions; a hodge-podge of political views and addictions... A land of spiritual "orphans" so to speak, where many of us have lost connections to our roots, where we came from, what our actual histories are.

Those people coming here from other lands cannot understand why it is we tend to have such disrespect for one another. In the paradigms they are used to, people have things - like family traditions and heritages, deep histories, religious roots that tie them to their families and ways of life. So by not honoring these things in people it is often seen to be a huge signal of disrespect.

We come here for religious freedom... We find, in the process, we often have to change-it-up for something that is more authentic and more spiritual than dogma. This nation was founded on many religions, but is primarily Christian.

In Christian thought, Jesus Christ promoted American possibilities in his teachings when he said "Let the dead bury their dead". Learn how to leave the past behind, especially if it does not serve you. Throw down your fishing nets, and forsake your family, your husbands and your wives. Follow Me.



Americans have had to separate our religious practices from our involvement in government and politics, in order to hang on to our spirituality. From the 1960's onward, we began the psychological act of processing our spiritual paths. The '60's on through to the 90's have been about revolutionizing our personal and sexual identities. If we had not been able to go through this process (which did not happen over night) our lives would still be very much like something from "Gangs of New York".

In many ways American lives are divisive unless we can help one another understand and use the elements of real autonomy to do things like... Create not just one, but numerous communities to belong to.

If you want to wear a veil over your face and work at MacDonald's, you might not get hired. And if you do get hired, and continue to wear the veil and want to practice your religion on the job? You can bet your life someone is going to give you grief about it.

If you want to remain independent of becoming American, yet live in this country and reap the benefits of being here, you may have to change-some-things-up - like your attitude and your beliefs.

If you are stuck in beliefs and traditional thoughts that your wife and your children are your "possessions", and your "tribe" are your true "customers", you might not succeed here.

Beliefs can keep you
in a kind of black-and-white thinking
that may not be serving you.


In America,
beliefs are reduced to being ideas,
and ideas can change.


So can you.

If you want to give all your power-over to your doctors... (Who have been trained that they must convince you they are in "control"...) You just might die.

You do have to have an innate system of values... Something that works at the core of your life to give you the strength, stamina and resilience needed to survive the ignorance and greed of other Americans.

We can learn from foreigners; they have much to teach us about things like respect, gratitude, spirituality. This is the Melting-Pot.

This country has become a place of freedom fighters, at all costs. We believe we have the right to question authority, including government, medical and Biblical authorities.

We have been willing to sacrifice and disown our minds, our bodies, our families, our heritages, our homes, the numerous jobs we've had in the search of something more authentic, more personally fulfilling, more real.

We are Americans, and we are rebels and revolutionaries to the bitter end.

This is why everyone living in America needs to have a basic understanding of autonomy: because it is the basis of our freedom, and without it, we are slaves.


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Infinite
In connection with the infinite,
you will find that everywhere there is center,
nowhere circumference.
But to realize this you must try to live in eternity,
the spiritual world.
- Swami B.R. Sridhar



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Children,
in many parts of the world,
our ancestors left images
of spirals, mazes, and labyrinths like this...
These were left behind for us, the children,
so we could place our hands
on the images and trace our heritages.
So we could walk through
the mazes and labyrinths
to re-member ourselves,
who we are, where we came from,
and understand
our intrinsic abilities to navigate our futures.



Such sacred sites
are not only remembrances
of our connection to Mother Earth,
but also symbolic
of our connections to one another
through our DNA,
and through the cosmos.



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This is the Spiral of the Invisible
Use it to teach yourself how to access the Invisible...

It is difficult, sometimes, for you to read this blog, isn't it, Little One? Are you here because people have only been loving you in little pieces? Am I helping you get strong? I hope so. I am keeping you in my prayers.

Through the process of writing, I'm wanting you to stretch your mind beyond the things you believe in. Getting to this point is a transition area... For, I want to say, everything we know, deduce and understand has come from our black-and-white thinking. And you've been feeling this here, right? Well, you've made it this far! Congratulations!

We have been trained from childhood to think in terms of good/bad, hot/cold, pretty/ugly, nice/mean, happy/sad. So even when we focus on an image like the Spiral of the Invisible? We tend to look at the geometry of the black path, completely missing the white path inside. The white path is The Invisible.

The Invisible is going to teach us how to think larger, grow bigger, expand into sharing, stretch our minds, become more visionary. Keep it in mind, Little Children.



"There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path."
- Morpheus to Neo, from "The Matrix"



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Life is not black and white, but color...




Children, our lives,
especially the spiritual aspects of our lives,
are becoming more of a fusion
of allowing and being,
than thinking and competing.


The Law of Attraction is going to help us get our needs met by using practices such as gratitude and respect for all living beings. In this way, we are able to use Invisible resources, access Invisible informations and do things like travel through time, walk through walls... See with the eyes of visionaries...

If some continue to look at life through the eyes of duality and black and white thinking? That is where some Souls will be confined.

When we feel we are being confined, we are just using our eyes to see as voyeurs. Are you hurting, my friend?

Try and work hard to keep expanding your minds enough to become visionary.


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Do you notice
how your heart feels
when you look at these spirals?



These images mimic the motions of our hearts...

When people suffer with heart conditions, there is an actual repression that goes on inside the heart muscle; it closes in on itself. Deep inside (the spiral of) the heart muscle is a vacuum, which can become tight and constricted, like any muscle. It is the Heart Knot.

That vacuum has to be exercised back into resiliency; it has to be strengthened, expanded outwards, because you see, it feeds the health of your being.



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Someday soon, in the future,
our DNA is going to become a commodity.




Children, if you are reading this,
then know,
it will be our final revolution.


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He who sees himself only on the outside,
not within, becomes small and makes others small.
- The Savior, The Gospel of Mani


The Self
is hidden in all beings,
but is manifest only to those
who have the intuitive abilities
to recognize it.
- The Upanishads


He who experiences the unity of life
sees his own Self in all beings,
and all beings in his own Self,
and looks on everything with an impartial eye.
- The Buddha


He who knows others is wise.
He who knows himself is enlightened.
- The Tao

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Saturday, January 17, 2009

Baby's Heart

The Baby Heart is the sweetest of all hearts...
We see a little bit of ourselves
in the hearts of all babies,

for they are open and innocent and new to life.


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God, thank You for the little babies in our lives...
Help us to give them good homes,
safe places to live and be nurtured.
Help us to have a better understanding
of nutrition and psychological care
for our little newborns.
Show us how
to get to the right resources we need
to empower our little children.
Help us to be more aware
of the need to surround all babies,
new and grown, at whatever ages,
with comfort, love, safety and healing.
Help us to remember
these are the basic needs of all human beings.
Give us understanding of one another
by helping us to see
these qualities in each other.


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I go through my day surrounded by many young adults... I sometimes have to remind myself they are old enough to be my own children. Their worlds have become even more complicated than mine, when I was their age. Sure, they have all the wonderful things modern-day technology brings! But I can see how together, we all get burned by information overload.

Sometimes they don't need to hear what I have to say. Sometimes, all that is needed is a hug, or a pat on the back; a little relief and assurance that things are okay.

We all live in the city... It can be an existence of great paranoia at times, dealing with strangers and random encounters on the streets and buses. Our living spaces have become so tight! If we want some expression or outlet for frustrations, we have to find places to go - and often pay money to do it. I don't envy the young adults of the new millennium.

Young children are brought up in this country to believe we live in a world of entitlement, and that's a lie. We have been given privileges and freedom, and we are required to uphold these gifts in order to enjoy them.

Just because you look cute, and can play games and/or perform well, does not mean you or anyone else is entitled to anything.

If anything, we are living in a time when Americans are being forced to learn about sharing.

We have to work hard to keep our hearts open and free of judgment and the bad attitudes that keep us from connecting with the hearts of others.



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God, thank You for the miracle this week, of bringing Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III, to guide Flight 1549 safely to the surface of the Hudson River!! Thank You for giving him the desire he had from the time he was a little boy, to fly, and the knowledge and experience he was given to become an expert.

Thank You helping all 154 passengers to survive it, standing together on the wings of the plane!
And for allowing the city of New York
show what brave and resilient souls they are to help.
God Bless You All!



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For those babies and children,
the little angels that did not make it through the night, God, I pray that they are in Your Light,
and that their passage to You
was quick, and fast.




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Thursday, January 15, 2009

Here's My Heart







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Here's My Heart, Lord... There is so much change going on, Lord... Each day I feel as if my heart is mutating in time. I feel You molding me, shaping me, shaking the negative chi out of me. I'm trusting in You, Jesus. I wish I could break it down...! I wish I could say what's really on my mind and place it here, entrust it to You, and give it away so I can get clear. Day by day my heart feels more and more like clay... And it's just enough to surround myself with LOVE.

Help Our Hearts, Jesus.




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Jesus, You gave me everything...

You have got to help me break it down; I have so much anger inside. My heart burns for the pain of being human. I am present here, watching how we destroy the earth... Bring cruelty to animals... Neglect and repress our spirits; how we indulge in waste... Treat one another as being disposable!

And that's just the beginning...


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There are many great misunderstandings, much unresolved anger between people because... I think it is human nature for people to hear only what they want to hear. So some people say they are hearing, when in actuality they are controlling, distorting, perverting, and never resolving. Forgive me, for trespassing, Lord...

There is a difference between listening and hearing.


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To really hear someone, you have to listen with your heart.
And
sometimes you have to ask for the same in return.

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We deny our actions,
responsibilities and good intentions, good health.
I am present with You here, God,
burning inside...
Like Fire.


Maybe it's just not me, God.
Some people are not making it, are they?
Some people are getting more than sick inside.
What will the Rapture be?
Tell me, Dear Jesus!
Will it be like some great collective heart attack?


I can see that.



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What is happening to the people? What is going on here, God, that we are hurting so badly?





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Why did you hurt me?
You, who stole from me, lied to me, denied me,
raked me over the coals?
Condescended and abused, leaving me bruised?
You who blamed and presumed,
copped an attitude;
tuned me out,
and

reduced me to begging...?

WHY?



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Y YOU Y

hurt

Me.



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The Root of All Evil

These are just my opinions about being female and living in a "man's" world...

It seems to me American society has somehow forgotten, displaced or erased the immanence of the female species by recruiting us into the worlds of trade, purchasing and functioning as commodities. Somehow we, ourselves, have been misguided... Into thinking our abilities to reproduce and nurture are not useful or important (unless it comes in the form of motherhood). Many of have chosen not to have babies, or are deprived of being able to settle-in with children we could care for because children also need persons such as fathers; and without fathers, it is is very difficult to provide.

So it seems we live in a country where a lot of good things are happening, but we are unable to let good things into our lives. The trends in our country have not done much outside of condoning self-indulgence, self-service, self-absorption and isolation. Refugees come here and join us in a place where a primary pastime is to lick our own wounds, and not take any real action to get healed. Yet, at least, many refugees are connected with community in such a way we Americans might have something to learn.

The problem, the root of all evil is that licking your wounds, and being pressured to do so only results in depression.

The challenge might be to learn more how to relax and be ourselves without hurting others in return?

Instead, we live out each day, year after year with the reality that mistrust, bad people and bad strangers are what threaten our well-being and abilities to function successfully in the world.

Do we, as women, really like the American way of life? I think the answer is no. And that, on a very basic level we are just working very hard to survive. Instead, I would invite you to start thinking about the quality of your life, the people you work for and with, and reevaluate your role in those areas where you are putting your power and energy. If, on a very fundamental basis you don't believe in what you are doing for others, it's time to stop.



Black Madonna, by Larry Contrappo, 1999

The New Era of President Obama is one that invites people to start becoming more than just active participants in their lives, but to learn how to become more responsible to one another (as opposed to "for" one another). We are a very educated country where all people have access to information, tools, and resources that can help and empower them. There are no more excuses for ignorance. From this stand, all people are responsible for their own happiness, and have choices, options, and possibilities in creating that happiness for themselves and others.

Women have an innate understanding of what this means, because we are natural helpers and healers; we are taught from childhood to be big sisters, to care for attend to those in need, to do the mom-thing. Why do we hate it so much?

How many of you contend with jealousy, hostility and bullying from other women? Are we becoming more war-minded? Is being in the world all about injustice? Not being "able" to ask for help when we need it - and get it? Are we not neglected and taken advantage of often?

How is it we are able to hold so much bad stuff inside, allowing and accepting our lives to be reduced to something pornographic? while the media around us exploits the image of the female (and her children) to the extent that we are treated as if we are dogs? or bags of dirt? or something worse?

I would urge you to start asking for help from good people. Start talking to others about the bad things you have been holding inside, the bad things that have been hurting you deep down for years and years. Surely there is someone out there, a professional perhaps, who can help you to start changing some things up.

All your life, you have had people telling you you can do anything. All your life, you have been surrounded by others who can only focus on the bad, and who pressure you to do the same. But today is a new day, loaded with all sorts of opportunities that could help you help yourself redirect the power of your life. We are so very lucky to be here, in America, for this reason!


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