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Gary Zukav for years has
conveyed the most complex insights in language all can understand.
Over and over, he challenges us to see the depth of our potential
in the world…
and act on that awareness.
He is the author of four consecutive New York Times Bestsellers.
In 1979, The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics,
plumbed the depths of quantum physics and relativity, winning The
American Book Award for Science. In 1989, The Seat of the Soul led
the way to seeing the alignment of the personality and the soul
as the fulfillment of life and captured the imagination of millions,
becoming the #1 New York Times bestseller over thirty times and
remaining on the New York Times bestseller list almost three years.
Soul Stories (2000), as well as The Heart of the Soul: Emotional
Awareness (2002) and The Mind of the Soul: Responsible Choice (2003),
both co-authored with Linda Francis, also became New York Times
Bestsellers.
His
gentle presence, humor, and wisdom have endeared Gary Zukav to millions
of viewers through his many appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show,
over six million copies of his books are in print, and translations
have been published in twenty-four languages. Gary Zukav grew up
in the Mid-west, graduated from Harvard, and became a Special Forces
(Green Beret) officer with Vietnam service before writing his first
book. |
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Monday, October 20, 2008
ELECTIONS, FEAR, AND SPIRITUALITY |
 Coming to terms with fear, having the courage to experience the pain and power of it, and challenging it are at the heart of spiritual growth. Without the ability to recognize fear, it cannot be identified. Without the courage to experience it, fear cannot be challenged. Without a challenge, fear grows stronger and more thoughts, words, and deeds are shaped by it. Confronting fear and healing the sources of it is the epic journey that none can avoid, only delay at best. The consequences of fear are painful and the longer its healing is delayed, the more of them are created. The consequences of love are constructive and joyful and the sooner it is cultivated, the more of them are created. This is the spiritual journey in a paragraph. The Christ reduced it to three words two millennia ago – Love your neighbor – but few have been able to follow that guidance because few have the ability and courage to experience and challenge their fears. Each presidential election in the United States provides more opportunities to look for fear at work and for love at work. The national, regional, and local organizations that form in support of candidates reflect both at different times, but the informing energy of each campaign determines the predominance of one or the other. That energy comes from the candidate. Those who resonate with it – love or fear – contribute more of it and vote in favor of it. Leadership, wise and effective policies, and loyalty to the Constitution are essential for a candidate. If any (or all) are missing, his (her) election will be damaging or catastrophic to the country. Even if all of these attributes are present, the absence of love will prevent every positive potential of the country from coming into being.
The politics of fear is as ugly as it is dangerous. We have crossed a threshold in human evolution. Henceforth, our evolution requires the choice of love instead of fear, harmony instead of discord, cooperation instead of competition, and reverence for Life instead of exploitation of life. The first great achievement of constitutional democracy was to harness conflicting pursuits of the ability to manipulate and control for the common good. The second great achievement of constitutional democracy was to transform physical mortal combat into bloodless contests. The losers live to fight again, to put another army (campaign), strategies, tactics, and weapons on the battlefield.  This great structure is straining under the burden of our new evolutionary requirements (harmony, cooperation, sharing, and reverence for Life) and the next development in governance is not yet evident. In the meanwhile (now), it is for each of us to vote for the candidate that expresses more love in word, deed, action, and policy (and against the candidate that expresses more fear). Whether the structure is constitutional democracy or parliamentary democracy, the same consideration now overrides all others. This is the link between presidential elections and your spiritual growth. In order to recognize love and fear in others, you must first be able to recognize them in yourself. They are not always as evident as they seem. For example, caretaking (manipulating the gratitude of others in order to feel better about yourself) is often mistaken for love. It is fear.
If you think you detect fear in another (such as a candidate), see if you can identify the same fear in you. That is where you can challenge it. You cannot challenge the fear of another or cultivate another’s love but you can challenge your fear and cultivate your love. The new governance will reflect this reality in a fundamental way.
Love cares for others, fear cares for self. Love includes, fear excludes. Love nurtures, fear attacks. Which candidate are you voting for, and why?
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| Authentic
power is the experience of fulfillment, gratitude, and meaning.
It is the alignment of your personality with your soul – with harmony, cooperation,
sharing, and reverence for Life. Creating authentic power is the
evolutionary requirement of a new, emerging multisensory humanity – a
species that is not confined to the perceptions of the five senses.
We are becoming a highly intuitive, heart-centered species, and
our previous understanding of power as the ability to manipulate
and control now produces only violence and destruction.
From our new perspective,
external circumstances are symbolic and provide us information
about our intentions, individual and collective, so that we can
change them and create healthy and inspiring symbols rather than
unhealthy and debilitating symbols. The symbols that surround
us – our systems of governance, commerce, education,
health care, science, and military, among others – reflect
the pursuit of external power and are disintegrating. This disintegration
of social (and interpersonal) structures is the product of a profoundly
positive process, not a pathology. This is important to understand.
The thoughts that you
will read here will always support you in viewing our collective
experiences and your personal experiences as opportunities to
create authentic power – to become emotionally
aware, choose responsibly, consult your intuition, and contribute
the gifts that you were born to give to this new and unprecedented
phase of human evolution. |
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Coming to terms with fear, having the courage to experience the pain and power of it, and challenging it are at the heart of spiritual growth. Without the ability to recognize fear, it cannot be identified. Without the courage to experience it, fear cannot be challenged. Without a challenge, fear grows stronger and more thoughts, words, and deeds are shaped by it. Confronting fear and healing the sources of it is the epic journey that none can avoid, only delay at best. The consequences of fear are painful and the longer its healing is delayed, the more of them are created. The consequences of love are constructive and joyful and the sooner it is cultivated, the more of them are created. This is the spiritual journey in a paragraph. The Christ reduced it to three words two millennia ago – Love your neighbor – but few have been able to follow that guidance because few have the ability and courage to experience and challenge their fears.
This great structure is straining under the burden of our new evolutionary requirements (harmony, cooperation, sharing, and reverence for Life) and the next development in governance is not yet evident. In the meanwhile (now), it is for each of us to vote for the candidate that expresses more love in word, deed, action, and policy (and against the candidate that expresses more fear). Whether the structure is constitutional democracy or parliamentary democracy, the same consideration now overrides all others. This is the link between presidential elections and your spiritual growth. In order to recognize love and fear in others, you must first be able to recognize them in yourself. They are not always as evident as they seem. For example, caretaking (manipulating the gratitude of others in order to feel better about yourself) is often mistaken for love. It is fear.
