Planet Waves | May 31, 2005 "Nothing I see means anything." That's the first affirmation in the Course in Miracles workbook -- it speaks to the notion that at any given moment we have neither the full facts, nor the clarity of mind or even spiritual capacity to make a complete value judgment about anything. We're urged as spiritual beings to, as Ram Dass puts it, "...be here now." Be in the moment. Be present. Not in the past where nothing can be done to rewrite history, not projecting into a future which hasn't come to us yet. Just ... Be. Here. Now. And, wow! Is that hard to do! Why? The second ACIM affirmation is, "I have given everything I see all the meaning that it has for me." If you think about that for a moment, you'll realize how true it is. How do we do it, then? Stay in the present moment without assigning meaning to everything ... meanings that spring from our own expectations, socio-economic's, religious training [or it's rejection,] emotional self-esteem, personal baggage, fears, yadda ad infinitum? Our "human condition" ... or ... human conditioning? It's in the practice of this "nuetral world" that one gains a perspective about how MUCH meaning we assign -- not that we can get along in 3D without some kind of logical understanding of what we see around us, that's not at question. The more we practice being neutral, however, the more we notice our OWN bias ... and see how bias is epidemic among us all. The more we practice, the more gray we see. The more we grapple with the extreme ends of bias, the more anxious we become to collaborate toward some common ground. The more we practice, the more we come to notice our commonalities, instead of our differences ... and the fears and guilts that separate us. To begin to see a neutral world is a kind of backwards proposition, as Course says, designed to "remove the blocks to love" ... a way of "de-programming" all that we've been taught, to discover what ELSE might be there. Course begins with our perceptions because if we've assigned meaning, then we've CREATED OUR FUTURE ALREADY ... with every thought and projection. If this all sounds too Zen-like and odd, consider -- we spend much of our lives here on Planet Earth teaching ourselves and one another what love ISN'T and getting direct reflections of what we DON'T want. We're teaching ourselves about our human condition -- and it's highest form, Love -- every single moment. It ain't pretty. I mutter to myself, as I open the headlines every morning, "This is what Love looks like TODAY." Truth is subjective, that's the way it is here. I think if we're students of human nature, for instance, we can safely say that one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter ... no matter how misguided the context of violence. The Highest, Brightest Truth is the one that is inclusive, that leaves out no one. Many of us effort for the Highest, but we are handicapped by our programming -- and our traditions. To borrow a snip from an E.J. Dionne article: "Tradition is the living faith of the dead," wrote the great religious historian Jaroslav Pelikan. "Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living." Or, to paraphrase Einstein, we can't solve our current problems with the same mental process that produced it. We need to "see it differently." Below, Deepak Chopra jumped on Arianna's blog today to share some of his thoughts about "seeing differently" -- and what he calls "the official version of reality." I think you'll enjoy it -- it'll make you go "hmmmmmmm!" I've also included a link to a commencement speech that I thought particularly good regarding bias, perception. A speech by Mark Danner to a group of Berkeley grads, below. So, then -- THIS is what Love looks like TODAY! Peace ~ Jude Deepak Chopra -- The Greatest Crisis in the World -- http://www.huffingtonpost.com The following remarks were written for a conference of news people but were judged as too "harsh" or "unfair" to the media. I thought it would be interesting to see how readers -- and fellow bloggers on the Huffington Post -- respond to the same ideas. On a day-to-day basis those of us who don't work for a news organization imagine that a reporter's job must be fascinating because he (or she) is constantly running after the future. The evening news isn't just a string of random events. The future is a mystery, and by gathering bits and pieces of it reporters are on the front line of unfolding the mystery. A new reality is always on the horizon of our television screens. But what if the exact opposite is happening? I often feel that the evening news simply repeats an old reality. Headlines emerge as recycled versions of the same attention-grabbing crises: Natural disaster strikes Third World country. Panic and chaos ensure. New disease breaks out in Africa or Asia. Peace talks break down in the Middle East. Rebel forces approach the capital in heavy fighting. These stories, and dozens more like them, are the prototypes of what is considered news. It would be legitimate to ask in what way they could be called news at all. Nothing becomes real until we perceive it. What I perceive on cable news is that the real crisis that should be covered -- the greatest crisis in the world, in fact -- is the crisis of perception. The current perception I get from the evening news is that the world is dominated by human failure, crime, catastrophe, corruption, and tragedy. We are all tuning in to see how the human mind is evolving, but the media keeps hammering home the opposite, that the human mind is mired in darkness and folly. This schism gives rise to stark contrasts. In the old reality progress comes from technology. In the new reality progress comes from exploring the untapped potential of consciousness. In the old reality disease is a constant threat. In the new reality individuals are learning that they can become healers. In the old reality terrorism holds populations in fear. In the new reality a majority of people have given up the outworn tactics of war and violence. By constantly harping on the old reality as fact and the new as fanciful, eccentric or implausible, the media is using its massive power to fuel the crisis of perception. For example, which of the following stories seems more real to you, more deserving to be called news? A. Muslims riot around the world after allegations that the Koran was flushed down a toilet in Guantanamo. B. Spiritual groups hold a vigil at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem that leads to a sharp decline in Middle East violence. I'm almost certain that at any news organization the first is big news, the second is New Age whimsy. What about the following example? A. Vioxx is withdrawn from the market on fears that it promotes heart attacks in the elderly. B. A man with HIV goes into remission through prayer and meditation. Again, the first is hard news, the second is dubious, false, or a strange anomaly. On the basis of this prejudice against the new reality, the media endlessly trumpets the next new cancer drug, despite the fact that cancer rates have stubbornly remained unchanged for decades, while treating as quasi-hoaxes thousands of spontaneous remissions from cancer that are well documented in medical literature. Yet isn't the real issue something that Buddhists have known for centuries: it is an illusion to see mind and body as separate? Instead of encouraging expansion of awareness, the media treats as news stale medieval religious views that lock us in intolerance. Isn't the real issue another Buddhist insight: My enemy is as fully human as myself? It is in the field of unseen and even bizarre phenomena that quantum physics has totally altered the world, and I would offer that by extending the same discoveries to human awareness, you will find the real future, the real news. There are going to be Einsteins of consciousness, and they will force the status quo to change. Journalists need to keep abreast of human potential as a fresh, ever-evolving picture. Ask yourself, Why do more people in the U.S. turn to alternative medicine than established M.D.s? Why are global communities forming to meditate on a mass scale? Why do millions of people tell the Gallup poll that they have had paranormal experiences such as communicating with the dead? Not because they are foolish or superstitious. Rather, the official version of reality is fraying around the edges, and millions of people have chosen to opt out of the official version of truth. While the news continues to recycle the past, the future is gathering strength far away from the glare of publicity, which is where reality has always been born. ++ What Are You Going to Do with That? -- Mark Danner -- http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0531-21.htm Jude, the editor of Political Waves, is currently standing in for Eric Franics on his daily blog. You can subscribe to Political Waves (our all-politics news distribution list) for free at the link below. You'll receive between five and 10 news articles each day. You may write to Jude with your responses to her commentaries at moderator@planetwaves.net. Political Waves list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/political_waves/