I'd like to address this post to the citizens of the socio-political region known as "America".  I'm feeling rather passionate at the moment, so please bear with me...this is coming from a caring place.

Folks...it's no new news that your country stands on the brink of economic disaster, and tethered to it, many other countries as well, including the place I reside, called "Canada".  When I hear that the government of "America" intends to bail out various sectors of the economic system - banks, stock market, etc. - with $800,000,000,000 (eight hundred billion dollars), I have to ask...where are they going to come up with that money???  "America" is trillions of dollars in debt!!!  They don't have anything to bail out with. 

I also have to ask, what is the real role of government to a people?  Because I don't see the needs of the people being addressed in this choice to bail out a system that is flawed.  The economy is flawed, and seriously so if it could reach such a state of crisis without it being detected earlier, and without the ability to correct itself.  A better system needs to be implemented, should have been implemented long ago.  The economy doesn't work.

It is also public knowledge outside of "America" that too many of your citizens do not have access to health care or education, never mind jobs, homes, or food.  What is going on here?!?!?!?!?!  Yet eight hundred billion dollars will be spent to bail out a system that does not care about your well-being, eight hundred billion dollars that you and your children are going to be accountable for, because you let someone else decide what is best.  Alas, that someone else doesn't care what is best for you, doesn't even know who you are.

In the face of whatever may come, please remember your hearts.  I am in agony at such an outrage, such a violation of trust and duty on the part of government.  But then, government detached itself from the people long ago, has since treated citizens as a resource, with not much more dignity than "stock" (ie. cattle).  Ironic, isn't it?

There is always a choice...and we can find other ways.  I know for a fact that with that much money, I could organize food, clothing, and shelter for everyone on the planet who is wanting, and could do so in such a way that did not pollute, poison, or otherwise toxify the people or environments where they live.  If I can see this as possible, why can't the government?

Because the government is making a choice also.  Is it really possible that the bankers, stock brokers, business executives, and government officials are really that stupid that they would let something like this happen???  Look more deeply than what the television tells you...the government and the businesses they are intending to help do control the information they deliver to you.

Please remember to care for yourselves and each other, dear people.  The "economy" has forced every institution to put the dollar ahead of whatever agenda they have, no matter how humanitarian.  There is no government any longer, no health care, no education, no law enforcement, or food production.  There is only the business of these things.  And the business of these things requires that the people they were originally intended to serve come second.

Real change can only come when we each choose to be wholly responsible and accountable for ourselves.  Peace to you all...I love you.

The leadership roles of the socio-political regions known as Canada and America are nearing a time of transition.  "Change" has been the buzzword in both electoral campaigns, yet does changing the person who stands in a fixed role really change anything?  A prime minister or president is still a prime minister or president.  Government is still government.  How much change would the institutions themselves allow?

I'd like to try something different.  I'd like to nominate each and every one of you, Canadian and American (and everyone else in the world while I'm at it), to be Prime Minister or President.  How is that for leveling the playing field?  Vote for yourself and everyone wins!  Why?  Because you get to be the leader of your own life.  You become an independent democracy in the world, entirely responsible and accountable for all of your own thoughts, choices, and actions.  Now we get to see directly what our energy and investments are going towards, because we are the ones allocating the resources of time and energy.  When everything belongs to everyone, there is nobody to blame for anything and everyone gets to go free.  There is enough for everyone.  Sure it's going to take some work, but wouldn't that be work worth doing?  Are you in?

Whether you realize it or not, you already are.  Everyone who chooses to vote chooses to let someone else decide what is best for him or her.  Is such a thing possible, that another could know what is best for oneself?  Everyone who supports the present system of centralized authority is voluntarily giving up his or her personal power and giving permission to others to choose for him or her.  Unfortunately, with so many people willing to give up their own personal power and let others be responsible for them, it makes it difficult for people who want to be responsible and accountable for their own lives, since those who function on the personal power of others are using that power to enforce their systems of belief and process on everyone, through threat of violence, incarceration, and ultimately, death.

It's really too bad.

Please consider my offer to nominate you.  I mean it.  I'm happy to explore the subject in-depth if you'd like to explore it too.  It can be done.  In the meantime, consider the suggestion made by Socrates regarding democracy and government:

"True democracy is minding one's own business."

I have been avoiding writing the closer I have gotten to actually launching into a description of my dream.  It has been extremely uncomfortable internally.  And so interesting.  I am presently reading Eckhart Tolle's latest contribution to consciousness, "A New Earth", something I'm sure many people have heard of lately.  It's got some good stuff in it.  Today I just read about ego, and the indicators that point to ego-based thought and action: me, my, I.  I know something has been in the way of connecting fully with my inner vision, my dream in this life, but I haven't been able to see what exactly was in the way, till now.  I'm having a "download" from the Source.

My dream.  I see now that I wish for this dream to be "me"...an extension of my will into the world, a reflection, an externalization of what I feel in my soul (hm, perhaps "at the soul level" would take the my out of there...).  And through that "thing"...people see me.  Such an urgency to be seen, beyond this physical form.  "I" am so much more than this body, these thoughts.  "I" is something we all are. 

Our names are like the membrane that encloses a cell, like our skin encloses our body, like atmosphere encloses the planet, except this is a membrane within the field of consciousness.  But behind the name, there is "I"...what if "I" is the same thing, comes from the same source for everyone? 

Our bodies are made up of billions of cells, all specialized to perform a particular process or set of processes.  They interact with other cells to form more complex systems that support a larger system functioning in more complex and integrated relationships with other systems...this is the body.  Moreso, at the cellular level, we are made up of an even greater host of symbiotic organisms, each of them an individuated point of awareness like ourselves.

So our body, something many people relate to as "self, me, I" is made up of all these points of awareness that make up something larger, me.  Is it so implausible then, given the layers of this process stacked through nature, of awareness building on awareness, to consider that "I" am part of something larger, that my consciousness, my awareness, is like a spark, a signal in a planet-wide species representative of a planet-size nervous system?

When it is said that "We are all One"...could this be what is meant?  Could the combined conscious intention of our entire species be realized through a shift in perspective, from " i " to " I "?  This sounds a lot like what is meant by "the Observer", and the expression, "the oberserver is the observed".

And so the pieces begin to fall together.  Cancer in the body looks so very much like our cities appear on the surface of the planet.  AIDS looks like the moralistic thought patterns and beliefs of "Western Civilization", the body's immune system attacking the body itself...much in the way Western Civilization set out in conquest of the material world, to dominate and possess, through violence and suppression and control.  With it came a belief that has kept the world in the dark and unconscious..."Things are what they appear to be."  Points and patterns of awareness.  Our brains are sending and receiving stations for incredible amounts of information, and we are only using up to 10% of them. 

Nothing is what it appears to be.

Many things have moved through my mind since my last post.  I realize that for all my verbosity, I have yet to get to the actual content of the dream/vision.  I think the reason for that is I think it is important to address the foundation upon which the dream/vision is growing (hence the clever title of the blog).  The external form is always so much more exciting to us people, as this tends to be the place where we interact with whatever it is we're interacting/relating.  It's the flower that gets the attention, not the process that created the flower.  But isn't that where the real miracle exists...in the process?

What's been on my mind then has been the notion of intelligence, and some nodes associated/related to it.  It's been on my mind because, again, as I observe the goings-on of the world immediately before me and at large, a world where our species has risen to dominion over virtually every environment, probed the sub-atomic levels of material organization, created works of inspiring architecture and emotion-inducing art, and so forth, I can't help but think that there is a flaw or distortion in the ongoing expression of intelligence as it is applied to living in relationship with this planet and every level of existence contained on this planet.

For some reason, our intelligence is not self-correcting.  A problem can exist in plain view (like a flower, for example), yet because of a conflict of abstract interests, such a problem may continue to exist unaddressed.  Worse, it may even be perpetuated and expanded.  The infrastructure built around the gasoline-powered automobile is an example of such a flaw in the application of intelligence.  This is not to say that solutions to this problem do not exist or cannot be found.  The flaw does not prevent this from happening.  The flaw keeps the problem happening.

Stepping back from the observation of the activity of people and expanding my vision to include all levels of existence on the planet, however, I noticed that underlying the individual parts linked intricately together into systems from the molecular to the global was intelligence of such thoroughness and incredible application as to leave me awestruck.  I'm not talking about smart bees and problem solving slime molds.  I'm talking about the fact that every single particle is accounted for and has a place in the larger whole!  It's the kind of intelligence that is mirrored by our bodies.  Ironically, the flaw in our own intelligence is mirrored in how we treat our bodies, or in the larger context of societies, how numerous individuals exist seemingly without purpose.

If Nature as an entire enterprise has an intelligence over and above that of the individual parts, where is it located?  Is it the planet itself?  Is it bigger than that?  After all, the organization of the solar systems and galaxies we have encountered with our "extended senses" also indicate a level of connectivity between parts that "chance" seems to inadequately account for.  Our intelligence seems to stop at the boundary between the physical and non-physical/immaterial.  For whatever reason, the invisible threads that connect all parts to all other parts in relationship are not given attention or scrutiny by our intelligence.  What if there is some additional faculty in the human species that has not been developed (at least, not in the majority of the population)?  Could it be called wisdom? 

Edit: I came across a "Thought of the Day" that puts this puts this exploration another way:

Thinking without awareness is the main dilemma of human existence.

Eckhart Tolle

Once again, it's time for this person to sign off...the unfolding continues.

In my previous post, I began laying out the idea that everything in Life exists in relationship.  I also suggested that many of the relationships that the human species is having with the world, from the subatomic level to the global, are not sustainable based on how they currently operate.  I would like to continue this now by talking about process.

Processes are what drives Life along its course of unfoldment.  Again, from the subatomic scale to the global, from the chemical, biological, genetic, and epigenetic strata, process is constantly at work, constantly at play, constantly driving the unfoldment of Life.  (When I say 'epigenetic', I am referring to the processes that exist outside of purely physical, including psychological and cultural processes, as evolutionary biologist Rupert Sheldrake sometimes speaks about.)  Choices are governed by processes.  The efficacy of a process can be determined by its end or ongoing result, its output, and how that output affects the environment it is in relationship with.

It is perhaps worth focusing for a moment on the previous statement, "Processes are what drives Life along its course of unfoldment."  I bring attention to this because I think it is important to realize that "there is never nothing going on".  If I sit in my home and do nothing but breathe, the world within and around me is still unfolding.  My cells are metabolizing, my heart is beating, the phone may likely ring, the mail gets delivered...Life goes on.  The increasingly frenetic pace of Life that many people talk about, this wave of momentum that seems to have happened to time seems to have something to do with the increased level of activity that the human species has engaged itself in.  While we are busy being busy, however, there are a great many things already going on.  Some of those things may be more important than the busyness our species is engaged in.  But to observe these things, these other processes, we need to slow down, to free up enough of our energy and attention to witness what else is going on.

"If we could feel what we are doing to the planet, we wouldn't keep doing it," said Terence McKenna.  Feeling is important.  It is one of the "first principles".  It takes place in the body.  I would like to distinguish feeling from emotion, the principal difference between the two being that feeling arises from within the body, whereas emotion arises in response or reaction to something perceived outside the body.  Describing feeling is generally simple and concise; emotions are extravagant and extensive in breadth and scope.  To get to a place of real feeling, a prerequisite requirement is slowing down.  In particular, it is our mind that must needs slow down.

Taking a look at modern day life in "western" or "westernized" societies, there are no end to the forms of distraction that exist to capture the attention of the mind.  We are enormously distracted.  The more attention we give to things outside of our center, our feeling core, the less we feel.  It's a fairly straightforward equation.  And again, it's not a judgment, just an observation.  It is what it is, it's how things are functioning presently, and the state of the world is the result of that functioning.  Is it good enough?  For some, but unfortunately, not for most.  The equation is not win-win.  Many of the processes at work in the world today do not produce a win-win situation.  There is something faulty in a process that permits billions of dollars to be spent on waging war while billions of people are without access to shelter, food, or clean water.  For example.

(continued in next post)

I'm not entirely sure what the correct procedure is for bringing a dream into reality.  After all, which one is "dream" and which one is "real"?  Why is it that in a "dream", things work?  Why is it that in a "dream", everyone and everything can win?  Why is it in a "dream", all things are possible?  And why is it that in "reality", none of this seems to be the case?

Herein lies the challenge.  Is it possible to bring a dream of systems and processes that work, of win-win relationships between all perceived parts of the world, of an open-ended unfolding of Life...is it possible to bring this into reality?  Or perhaps I should say "our" reality, because there is a perceived "part" of Life that has already achieved this state.  Nature.  Nature has already developed the most incredible technologies, the most advanced and integrated systems and processes, and an open-ended path of unfolding for all of its parts.

Please be aware here that this is not a "tree-hugger" rap.  Nor is this a condemnation of our human-ness.  It does not take scientific credentials to look out - and in - upon the achievements of Nature to see that something incredible is going on, has been going on for more than a billion years.  The marvels that take place from the molecular scale to the planetary are beyond any achievement that has come solely out of the human realm.  It is also important to realize that we are part of it.  We arose out of Nature.  Yet without question, there is something that seems to separate us from it.  Looking out over the present day landscape for most people on the planet can reveal this divisive element.  Mind.  We needn't look to space for aliens.  Look out over your landscape and you will see that the "alien" is already here.  It is our mind.  Mind has created these things that we see around us that stand out from the natural landscape, that function out of harmony with the processes and systems of Nature, that limit and constrict possibilities.

Remembering to negate any judgments about this, it's really quite fascinating to observe.  Our "fall", our descent into the heart of matter has revealed that there is but one heart animating it all.  Energy.  At the quantum/subatomic level, there is no distinction between the energy in a person or a stone, a star or a rubber ball.  Why does this matter?  What does it mean?  In the context of what I'm talking about, it means rememberance.  It means we can return "home", we can return to "the garden".

(I'm not affiliated with any church or organized religion, I'm merely borrowing terminology to help reference things, something that many can understand and identify with.)

When I look out at the world today, when I listen to the things that are going on, I see a lot of things that are not sustainable, I see a lot of things that don't "work".  Through my own life of personal internal work, learning, listening, and direct felt experience, I feel confident saying that this whole enterprise we call Life - and I mean every perceived part of it, organic and inorganic - is a process of relationship.  Everything is relationship.  Every "thing" exists in relation to some other "thing".  There are some terms that are used to describe relationships in the natural world, though I see no reason that they could not be similarly applied to any relationship between the perceived parts of the universe in which we live.  For the sake of brevity, I'd like to question directly the relationship our species is having with the rest of the planet, and beginning to have with whatever lies beyond our atmosphere.  As these relationships slowly degrade and degenerate, our own health as a species is also degenerating.  Look around, it's not a big secret.  It's not a fad of wannabe health nuts.  It's very real and it's happening faster and faster.  Despite this, so far humanity has been unable to change the nature of these relationships it is involved in.  Sadly, the excuses for not doing so are weak and unsubstantiated.  This is because abstracted values like "economy" are assigned greater value than genuine, tangible values like "sustainability".  Again, for the sake of brevity, I would ask that personal investigation be done by each of us to ascertain the validity of the statements I'm making.  Furthermore, I'd like to reiterate that I'm not interested in focusing on this subject in a negative or condemning fashion.  It is what it is.  What I'm interested in are the things we aren't doing, yet have the full capacity to do.

So it's fairly safe to say, at this point, that there are some "problems" on the table.  Problems, challenges, call them what you will that you may find yourself willing to look at them.  I would like to suggest that there are no technological solutions to these problems.  No, these are problems whose solutions are psychological, within the realm of consciousness.  The answer to any problem does not come from outside the problem.  It is within the problem itself.  Ask any mathematician.  My dream, or the dream I have, is problem-solving.  I know that it is already going on, that people and groups around the world are tackling an assortment of different challenges facing them, even facing us all.  With the increasing pace of globalization, as well as a rapidly growing human population, it is more clear that the actions of one socio-political group (ie. country) are affecting all others.

[I need to sign off for right now...Part 2 to follow soon]

It's interesting to see the transition of Zaadz to Gaia, interesting to see the manifestation of peoples' dreams into reality, interesting to notice that my dream has appeared in the world before me, though at present I have no idea how to merge my life with it.  I have been selfishly absorbed in the very mundane details of my life, fretting, worrying, dithering, and dallying, a strange and uncomfortable dance that has taken place around the dance floor, but not on it.

Thankfully, I think that dance has finally ended.  I think I'm ready to sincerely work on bridging the dream world with the real world.  Something has shifted, and I am convinced that it is now possible to make it happen.  I still don't know how, but it has been suggested by many that Life will sort out the details.

I have also been involved with a woman, for the first time in six years.  That has been a dance-within-the-dance in itself.  I have never been one to get casually involved, and the one occasion that I did signalled a low point in my relationship experience to date.  While that may sound all noble and such, it has also meant that a lot of unaddressed and unresolved "stuff" of mine has had a chance to accumulate.  Relationship with this woman has been a mirror of such stunning clarity for me that sometimes I have not recognized myself...traits and patterns that have lived beneath the surface, dormant like seeds, that have since sprouted up in a tangle of flowers, weeds, and assorted unidentifiables in the garden space of our home.

I think I'm finally getting a glimpse of what Love is really like.

So details me-tales, it's time to get to work on dreaming myself awake.  This is the place to make it happen, as I hope to show and share with any here who are interested.  I think it's going to take me a little while to really create the presentation I would like, as the scope of this dream is broad and multi-leveled.  I want to share as much as I can, because while it may be a dream that has grown in me, it is not really about me, but us...all of us...the people, the plants, the animals, the water, the air, and the earth...Gaia.

I'm out for a couple of weeks as I head to the west coast of Canada to attend a week-long "vision quest", based on traditions from the Peruvian Amazon.  In the busyness of day-to-day life, where my attention has been primarily centered, I've found it challenging to ground a very specific intention for this event.  I don't have a lot of questions at this time in my life.  All I know is that every choice I've made through my entire life has led me to this, and so I come to it open, ready to learn, ready to listen.  Life is far greater and far more mysterious than we can ever hope to conceive of...I suppose then I could say that my intent is really to delve into the Mystery ever deeper, to perhaps get a taste of that enormity, though this intent is something that is woven into the fabric of my beingness and drives my life on its journey.  So much more is possible than what I see before me right now, and I would like to know what is possible within this life.

Peace and vision to you all.

Remember that you exist too, and that you can only give as much as you have in you.  Take care of yourself.  Please.

Sober reflections.  What do I need right now?  Of course, I have the usual needs...food, clothing, shelter, and while the current capitalist system controls the physical world, a vocation that provides sufficient income to afford those things.  What's more on my mind though are relationships.  I don't need things, I don't need more external stuff.  I need clarity in my relationships...I need to see and to be seen for the luminous beings we all are.  I need that in my relationships.

I see the pace of things in the world continuing to accelerate.  I see pressure continuing to increase.  It's funny and frightening to hear people talk about their work schedules being from 8 to 5 - or longer.  I remember when talk about work was the usual "9 to 5" routine.  No longer.  There's even less time for Self, and that translates to less time - less quality time - for relationships.  Yet I can't shake the feeling that what is really important and will become increasingly important are the relationships we have with each other.  I see a dissolving of patience and respect, an erosion of essential foundations of healthy, loving, respectful parterships.  I feel my own pain eroding away my own patience and respect for others in my life.  I'm not happy about it, but every relationship grows or dies like any living thing based on what gets brought to it...whether it is nurtured or neglected.  One person cannot keep a relationship alive for both.

What is really important?  Can we carry on this way?  Does anyone else even see it happening, or is this just me?