Random notes - Value of values

My random notes from a recent meditation session run by Stephen Taylor (may my blog make you famous) go as follows:
What is your passion?
What light your heart?
Most of us are a living a lie
Help yourself to become free
Follow your bliss
Passion vs addiction
What is worth doing?
Here's a good one: AS WE RELAX THE GEM STARTS TO GLOW (why is relaxing so hard?)
Looking can get in the way
Cleanliness - means not just washing on the outside but also on the inside, and not just metaphysically but physiologically (great big words) - detoxing makes you more sensitive (found this with salt) and can also mean dropping judgements (one for me to work on)
Meditation = dropping, relaxation, quietness, naturalness and more
Pathway to self knowledge - be aware of the pattern but cast aside all else (garbage)

And finally, the 'value of values' - here they are, all 20 of them from the text of Srimad Bhagwad Geetha (courtesy of Krishna Prasad):
1. Amanitvam
2.Adambhitvam
3.Ahimsa
4.Ksanti
4.Arjavam
5.Acharyopasanm.
6.Saucham
7.Sthairyam
8.Atmavinigraha
9.Indriyartheshu Vairagyam
10. Anahankara
11.Janmamrtyujaravyadhiduhkhadosanudarsanam
12.Asakthi
13.Anabhisvangah Putradaragrahadisu
14.Nityam Samachittatvam Istanistopapattishu
15.Mayi Cha Ananyayogena Bhaktih Avyabhicarini
16.Vivikthadesasevitvam
17.Artih Janasamsadi
18.Tattvajnanarthadarsanam
19.Adhyatmajnananityatvam
20.Jnanam
As I get wiser I may say more about these - referring to my notes of course!

Being active

By active in this case I mean politically. Never has there been a better time in Australia to become involved in politics. It is even interesting enough to talk about socially! Now that we have a system which is not so blatantly lighter grey and darker grey (Labor and Liberals) but has green (The Greens), and shades of black and white (the Independents) we can all say hurray!

It may not work so well in practice but at least the debate will come back into the ring. More opinions will be heard and hopefully stuffy pollies will not assume to know (as Howard always kept saying and sadly, I think, occasionally Rudd) 'what the people want'. No assumptions please. We are all individuals, or independents, and as our independent MPs have shown, we can therefore be moved in mysterious ways.

So the Aussie Federal Election left me exhausted and in a heap once it was finally over. The lapse of time when we didn't know the outcome was a slide into emptiness brought on by an unfamiliar involvement in the affairs of the world (Australia). It was a very personal feeling for me, like what I felt when I graduated and there was a bit of a hole in my life. Then we found out the result, and I felt as elated as the day I graduated. Oh may politics always feel this personal!

Telecommunications and transport

Otherwise known as phone and car - the two hardest things to live without in the western world in my opinion. Even I can't do without them at this stage, yet at one time it was perfectly normal to live without them. I was a young child when we got a phone and car and can't remember which order they came in but suspect it was both at the same time!

I lived without a phone for a week, and when it was reinstalled the first two calls were from spruikers, which made me wonder why I had wanted it back on so badly. I deftly got rid of them, but know now why I wanted the phone back on. So I had the freedom to make contact with the world when I wanted to, regardless of whether the world wanted to contact me.

In the transition to peak oil when there will be implications for every one of us car owners in who knows how many ways, there may come a time when the car is no longer convenient or necessary. Whilst I am keen for that day to come on a number of levels, who can say what other implications are in that outcome, and how it will affect people?

Saving everything

It seems that everything needs saving now - whales, blue fin tuna, sharks, orang utangs, sun bears, the list is endless and that is before you start on rainforests, rivers, wetlands and other natural habitats. It is overwhelming and much as I dip in my pocket, it never seems to be enough. I am almost at the point of saying I don't care, simply because the statistics are so daunting and the task so great.

I went to a Transition Town workshop recently where we did an exercise initiated by Joanna Macy. One person (the future) listened whilst the other (the present) talked about what it was like to participate in saving the world (well not quite, but being part of a movement to bring change to a long-suffering world). Another exercise was to look at someone intently (not easy) and imagine their ancestors standing behind them. Afterwards I wondered whether the American Indians might have done this exercise when looking at the white invaders but in reverse - wondering what the future generations of this people would be like, and what world they would get from their ancestors.

I feel sorrowful that the creatures that least deserve it are suffering first, and the creatures that have brought on this world of turmoil and change are suffering least and will definitely suffer last. Why should it be this way? My neighbour apologised the other day for the inconvenience building next door had caused me. Nice as it was, I keep thinking of the people in Africa who have to walk miles each day... and for what? Brackish water. To survive.

My sole consolation in this world of shifting events is the Buddhist saying: Maybe good. Maybe bad. This great turning (Joanna Macy) may go either way, for better or for worse, and that is what we take on when we are born into this world. But now the world is Eaarth rather than Earth, less friendly than friendly, and we know not what we do or where we are headed.

Climate change skeptics

What do you tell a climate change skeptic? Especially if they are intelligent people?! The CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) both support with statistics that climate change is indeed happening. The BOM has statistics that date back at least 100 years. What more proof do these people want? My real concern is that they might acknowledge that the earth's temperature is changing, but may also think that we have no part to play in this change, that it is a naturally occurring phenomenon. This is a trickier one to argue but there is plenty of evidence to show that our CO2 emissions have contributed to this process speeding it up considerably. People who don't acknowledge this don't want to take responsibility. I understand that we have children and would rather they did not have to undergo this experience, but at the same time we don't know what that experience will be. As the Buddhists say 'Maybe good, maybe bad.' (You never can tell).

Reading up on Ian Plimer in Wikipedia (the lazy person's way I know) he is not as far as I can tell denying that the climate is changing, but is disputing the causes - he says it is due to earthquakes, volcanoes and other reasons. As I said, this gives humans the chance to do nothing about it, and as Ian Plimer is a director of three Australian mining companies, that must suit him just fine. But the fact remains, to dispute with people effectively, you have to read all the literature, both the for and against. I have only read a few 'fors'. Australians may well be renowned for having lazy intellects - no-one pictures Australian dinner parties, cafes or bars as full of animated discussion about politics, science, religion and spirituality (to name just a few topics). It is time to smarten up and speak up. This is a message to myself. Get up! and other like organisations are helping this happen, helping us to care more. It's slow though. Global warming may well be faster.

John Seed interview

Heard John Seed on Radio National tonight talking about deep ecology and our place on the earth. His words were inspiring because he is so clear about unclear things, and makes the point that we can't answer the big questions - it is all hanging in the balance. It is certainly going to be the end of the world as we know it, and possibly the end of we humans. But he makes the point that miracles occur all the time (and gave examples), so anything is possible. The idea is not to be inactive once we find our 'eco spirituality' but to develop our own way of responding to the needs of the planet, which has the disease called humans (as per a cartoon by Lewis pictured). These are my words and probably an incorrect interpretation of what he was saying. I would have to go to a deep ecology workshop to find out more about this style of thinking or rather feeling. He talked about Joanna Macy who is another interesting figure in the deep ecology movement.

Earth Hour

Getting involved. This weekend is Earth Hour, or rather Saturday 27 March at 8.30pm is. Some of us are organising a local event which means I will have to get my newly bought camera (2 months ago) out of its box and try to work out how to take a photo with it! A band will be playing - they are not yet famous so cannot be found on the web but they are called The Dudleys and they are local. All the better. Residents in Grange are invited to bring a rug, candles, food and whatever else to a local park and enjoy the dark that once would have driven them to bed at an early hour, and now makes them turn on lights and watch TV. What do we do outside in the dark any more? How well can we see in the dark? This and other questions will be asked on Saturday night as people prepare to do something out of the ordinary. It is not very challenging as it is only for an hour, but imagine if we all tried to do without something we depend on for a whole day. The car, mobile phone, TV or radio, food, tea or coffee.... How quickly we would feel the effects of not having or using one of these items for a day, on both subtle and obvious levels. Make it longer and so much the better for noticing the effects. Perhaps next year. Meanwhile, we will register a small shiver (right word?) on the Richter scale of acknowledging that the planet has a problem.

A fine balance

I have read another book about India - A fine balance by Rohinton Mistry. It created a mix of emotions in me. On one level it was sad as the characters in the book, who you get to like, don't fare well. But interestingly, they deal with their misfortunes, largely hugely unjust (they are at the mercy of corrupt forces) with fortitude. In fact, as the final injustice is done, the youngest character resigns himself to his fate stoically and with dignity, and you wonder where he gets it from. Perhaps it is in the Indian psyche, because it is a foreign concept to someone whose life as a westerner has been relatively cruisy. Indeed anyone living in Australia would never experience what happens to these people. And the poverty! Bu they shine through. One of the characters, the most fortunate, does not 'survive' mentally and emotionally the ordeal that seems to be life. His life is the easiest of the four characters as his family is not poor - he has money and a good job (in the end) and he is young and goodlooking. But it does not save his mind and body. The message in this book? It is probably about attitude more than anything else, how you deal with fate. To understand what it means to be Indian is starting to intrigue me!