GFP Newsletter - 5/20/2014

UWAIS WAS ASKED, ’HOW DO YOU FEEL?’

HE SAID, ’LIKE ONE WHO HAS ARISEN IN THE MORNING AND DOES NOT KNOW WHETHER HE WILL BE DEAD IN THE EVENING.’

THE OTHER MAN SAID, ’BUT THIS IS THE SITUATION OF ALL MEN.’

UWAIS SAID, ’YES, BUT HOW MANY OF THEM FEEL IT?’

ONCE a learned Mohammedan came to me and asked, ”You are not a Mohammedan, then why do you speak on Sufism?’ I told him, ’I am not a Mohammedan, obviously, but I am a Sufi all the same.’

A Sufi need not be a Mohammedan. A Sufi can exist anywhere, in any form – because Sufism is the essential core of all religions. It has nothing to do with Islam in particular. Sufism can exist without Islam; Islam cannot exist without Sufism. Without Sufism, Islam is a corpse. Only with Sufism does it become alive.

How often are you truly present with another? Eyes locked, listening, focusing on the words said without consideration of what you want to say in response?

How often do you sit attentively with another? How often do you gaze upon another’s visage, studying their features and facial expressions? How often do you choose to be silent and without words being said take note of another’s posturing and body language?

How often are you… present… here, now? How often do you ignore all distractions or create an atmosphere of intimacy? How often do you focus on another living breathing human being when it is convenient for them, even if not for you?

When all is said and done, it all comes down to you and, of course, down to you and Me. All that you fight outside yourself is a ramification of you. There is something within you that roils you. The itch you scratch is always yours.
 
How are you? How are you? This is the question you are dealing with. There is no they, beloveds. Whatever gets in your way, it is something within you that gets in your way.
 
If you are looking for a certain house on Main Street, and someone gives you incorrect directions, it is nevertheless you who looks for the house. It is you who gets lost, or it is you who finds the house.
 
No matter whose party you go to, it is your party. It is your good time or not. The party can be thrown for you, everything well-prepared for you and the other guests invited, and, yet, the party is up to you.
 
Whatever music is played, you are the one who dances to it.
 
This makes life a beautiful opportunity for you, for the life you live is the life you see through your own eyes.

Update: It passed!

ALBANY, NY — Today, the New York State Senate Health Committee will vote on the Compassionate Care Act– S.4406-B (Savino), marking the first time the New York state senate has taken up the issue in years.

The soul does not condemn us.  It is not the God of our fathers.

Soul is the essence of existence and it is free and limitless. It gives all things the freedom to be, to grow, and eventually to know. It is not a judge, but a passive observer of all things.

The soul is the feeling of life, without the judgment and separation of the mind and ego. It has no commandments for us to follow, other than to live, learn, and grow in awareness of ourselves and life by experience.

GFP Note: Just in case anybody needs scientific proof that the U.S. is ruled by the elite, the people have no power in politics, and the mass media is little more than propaganda designed to enforce the status quo:

American democracy is no longer very democratic, according to a new university study (4/9/14; Perspectives on Politics, Fall/14). Instead, it’s dominated by moneyed elites in a process where public opinion has little to no impact on policy. Released a month ago by Princeton’s Martin Gilens and Northwestern’s Benjamin I. Page, the study concludes:

Economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.

The political scientists looked at more than 1,700 policies over 20 years to find out how public opinion translates into policy, and concluded that where economic elite views diverged from those of the public, the public had “zero estimated impact upon policy change, while economic elites are still estimated to have a very large, positive, independent impact.”

Bracing news? The study went viral in social media, but has hardly shown up in the US corporate press. A month after its release there have been no network news mentions, nor has it appeared in the most influential newspapers–the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times.

Read more here: http://www.fair.org/blog/2014/05/16/this-just-in-us-ruled-by-the-rich/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=this-just-in-us-ruled-by-the-rich

Written by Wes Annac, The Aquarius Paradigm

I’ve said before that I think this existence is already perfect, and beyond working to repair this planet and surface/heal our inner demons, there’s little we can do to match this already vibrant reality with the pure states of consciousness we want to reenter.

We have so much joy; so much love and beauty to feel and remember, and for the most part, we’ve been rooted too deeply in the mind to really feel them. No more, I say. Let all of humanity root themselves unflinchingly in the open heart space, because when we do, we’ll realize that this planet offers far more beauty than most of us give it credit for.