Today is Dr. Martin Luther King day a day that holds as many different meanings as there are different cultures, races and religions in this world. Today is a very special day, a day that allows us to remember and reflect on all other days. In our reflection let us remember the only mistakes in life our those we don’t learn from.

Dr. Martin Luther King believed in something so beautiful and so profound he knowingly gave his life so that we would make his belief a reality. What did Martin Luther King believe in? The answer is simple… Dr. Martin Luther King, the man of “big dreams” believed in you and Dr. Martin Luther King believed in me.

MLK, believed that although he might lose his life to help us realize our true divinity and beauty, the gift he had the opportunity to give mankind could only be given by his thought, his word and his action. This man gave everything he possibly could so that we might one day live in a world of peace, love and harmony.

I will admit, I too like Dr. King am a believer. I believe that we as human beings have the capacity to realize we are all the same despite what appears to be many differences. I believe that we are all truly unique we are so unimaginably special that it only takes looking at one of us to realize WE ARE ALL perfect.

Realize our perfection yourself if not on any other day… realize it today.

Today we should all take the time to keep our awareness on the relationships between one another. In our awareness of one another let us find that we can then comprehend together a path in which we can all walk down toward certain peace.

This experience of being a human being on this seemingly one of a kind planet is nothing less than a miracle. We have the opportunity to be so much more. Today let us stop being human beings and let us be “human DOINGS”!

Realize that change begins with you and only you. If you truly want to see peace manifest in this world then take it upon yourself to live your life as peaceful and loving as possible. Let us love one another, let us speak only the truth and let us have complete and unwavering empathy and compassion for our fellow man.

There is a shift taking place in the consciousness of mankind. It is apparent when you see things like an African American man being elected president of the United States. It is also apparent that there is much more work for mankind ahead.

We must continue to dream big like Dr. King, we must insist that peace, equality and freedom be the reality of every person on this planet.

We must set aside the differences like religion, country and flag so that we can unite under one common truth… we are all humans who cry, bleed, laugh, fear and above all love.

Let each day and every waking moment of our lives be a conscious effort to facilitate peace in this world and let love shine eternally when we meet eyes with one another. See into me as I see into you, I see the eternal magnificence of love and the miracle of love realizing itself in every breath we take together.

Let us now move forward one breath at a time, let us inhale the injustice and inequality and exhale love, compassion and kindness.

Let’s breathe, walk and remain in our awareness along the path of peace. From the essence of my being and everything I am, I want you all to know “I see you” and I love you.

Peace to all and may love bring us all together sooner rather than later.

Your friend,

Healthcare reform is coming… healthcare reform is coming!

Okay so wait, I have one question. Does this mean that everyone in America will now be able to sign up for their government sponsored maintenance program? Will we now be able to all have access to any one of our favorite pharmaceutical companies, e.g., Teva and Barr Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, etc?

If this new healthcare reform bill passes that will mean 30 million Americans without insurance today will finally be covered. I suppose you can also say if this new healthcare bill passes the pharmaceutical companies will instantly gain 30 million new customers! Looks like everyone will be able to afford the good stuff now… Adderall, Oxycontin, Prozac, Paxil, Lexapro, Vicodin, Percocet, etc.

Universal healthcare would be awesome however I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. With all the shenanigans going on in the world and in America who has time to read all the fine print? Who has time to really investigate and make sure this is in the best interest of all people living in this country?

If you were to ask me… no matter what Obama or any other person comes up with for healthcare reform, if there is a single cent of money involved then I don’t trust it. Why is money involved with our healthcare system to begin with?

I don’t care what you call it or how many people you say it now covers, if there is money involved then whatever new legislation that gets passed will eventually become compromised by the insidious and ever preset monster called greed. Medicine and healthcare should have absolutely nothing to do with money!

Don’t even get me started on insurance companies! Oye vay… who do these people think they are? The whole idea of insurance especially with regard to healthcare is neanderthal. The fact that we (as a society) swallow this load of crap is a testament to how conditioned we truly are.

We think it’s okay to have to buy/pay insurance so that “in case” something should happen to us the MONEY will be there so we can fix our broken bones, get that liver transplant or HIV medication… this is not the way it should be but still we are silent.

Healthcare shouldn’t be about dollars and cents, healthcare shouldn’t be about the bottom line. What healthcare should be about is providing medication, trained medical staff and facilities to all people from all walks of life for free… PERIOD!

If you want to ask me… how are we supposed to pay the doctors and nurses? You’re clearly not listening. That type of question is from the stone-age, that type of question is something a neanderthal cave man would ask, that is a question that concerns MONEY. The reform in healthcare we need has nothing to do with money whatsoever!

We need to change the way we perceive healthcare, we need to forget everything we know and start over. Heck we don’t even have to start over, it’s not like there aren’t plenty of other countries out there with amazing healthcare programs, facilities and staff. Canada, France and practically the whole of modern Europe has healthcare plans and benefits that simply put us greedy fat pocketed Americans to shame.

If you haven’t seen the movie SICKO by Michael Moore, please pick this movie up next time you’re at Blockbuster or ordering on Netflix.

There are thousands upon thousands of people who die each day because our laws are so bassakwards we don’t know up from down. There are so many vested interest intertwined that it’s going to take a real honest to god miracle for REAL and TRUE healthcare reform to manifest.

I’ll leave you with this. Healthcare reform doesn’t start with the folks in Washington D.C., or with your local politician. The reform that is needed starts with us the citizens of this super-sized consumer nation. We need to wake up!

Health and money shouldn’t have anything to do with one another. We need to snap out of this hypnotic trance we’ve all been under since birth and realize we can take care of one another without big brother keeping tabs and charging us for the privilege.

Good health and quality living are not supposed to be privileges for those who can afford them. Our quality of life and sustained good health are our rights as human beings.

Peace and love to all.

Echo opens one eye after the other to meet this new day. Instantly the previous 5 hours of sleep are given back to him in a mosaic of unexplainable fashion.

Biologically, metaphysically and mentally he has been upgraded for the days tasks. None will stand in his way except for himself, for there is but only one of us.

In seeing this, the prince of darkness & the king of light give a tacit nod and then… I Echo

Wow I just got my mind blown again and… I love it!

Please have a listen to this 8 minute audio clip called, “The Little Garden” from A Course in Miracles. I’ve taken the time to type out the first part of the audio segment because this is the part that really grabbed me and demanded my attention.

I don’t want to over analyze and give you my interpretation but what I will say is that EVERYTHING said here especially in this beginning speaks to me as the truth. Basically what’s being said here is that we “You and I” are God, Love, Light or whatever label or word you want to use. We are it, only we cannot know it and the reason being is we set it up that way!

We are the impossible riddle trying to unravel itself and the only answer is there is no answer. We want to KNOW what we KNOW we KNOW as a result of this wanting to know ourselves or rather us wanting to KNOW “LOVE” we’ve literally become our own worst enemy.

Not to fear however because at the end of the day, decade or century no matter how strong this illusory life presents itself to be in the end… all there truly is, is LOVE.

It is only the awareness of the body that makes love seem limited. For the body is a limit on love. The belief in limited love was it’s origin and it was made to limit the unlimited. Think not that this is merely allegorical for it was made to limit you. Can you who see yourself within a body know yourself as an idea?

Everything you recognize  you identify with externals, something outside itself… you cannot even think of God without a body or in some form you think you recognize.

Listen the body cannot know and while you limit your awareness to it’s tiny senses you will not see the grander that surrounds you. God cannot come into a body nor can you join him there, limits on love will always seem to shut him out and keep you a part from him. Why?

The body is a tiny fence around a little part of a glorious and complete idea… it draws a circle infinitely small around a very little segment of heaven splintered from the whole proclaiming that within it is your kingdom where God cannot enter. Within this kingdom “the human condition” the ego rules and cruelly. And to defend this little speck of dust it bids you fight against the universe, this fragment of your mind is such a tiny part of it that could you but appreciate the whole you would instantly see that it is like the smallest Sun-Beam to the Sun or like the faintest ripple on the surface of the ocean. In it’s amazing arrogance this tiny Sun-Beam has decided it is the Sun, this almost imperceptible ripple hails itself as the ocean.

Think how alone is this little thought that you have, this infinitesimal  illusion holding itself apart against the universe. The Sun becomes the Sun-Beams enemy that would devour it and the ocean terrifies the little ripple and wants to swallow it… listen yet neither Sun nor ocean is even aware of all this strange and meaningless activity they merely continue unaware that they are feared and hated by a tiny segment of themselves.

Please chime in after you’ve read and listened to the audio clip, I’m definitely interested to hear what others have to say regarding the subject matter discussed.

Peace and love to all.

If you’re like me then you probably have a bookshelf or two full of new-age and self-help books all telling you to live in the moment. But when life comes crashing down (presents you with an opportunity) and you find out your boyfriend or girlfriend has been unfaithful or you lose your purse or wallet with all your credit cards, info and cash… what the heck does being in the moment mean then?

Being present is a lot easier to talk about or philosophize than it is to actually do, wouldn’t you agree? Although it is seemingly difficult I think we can all agree that actually being present can make life a joy and blessed movement.

In my experience what gets in the way the most of me being present is the past. The past is such a sneaky little devil, he is insidious, clever and very persuasive. The past acts like he’s your best friend, someone you can depend on, he’s always there ready to listen and give suggestions about what to do in the moment and the future but if you examine closely you’ll discover that the past is a false prophet and truly epitomizes the definition of a pharisee (a sanctimonious, self-righteous, or hypocritical person).

Trippin over the past

Let me paint a picture for you. Imagine your walking down the street in your neighborhood heading to a friends house, in order to make it to your friends house safely and unharmed you need to look forward eyes ahead and moving forward. Imagine if you were to walk down this busy street walking forward but your head was turned in the opposite direction. Also imagine that there’s someone you don’t know walking behind you holding a mirror so you can see whats ahead but as you know everything reflected in a mirror is distorted and backwards… an illusion.

To add to the confusion the person holding the mirror is telling you to turn left, turn right, stop, slow down… your right is his left, your left is his right. As you can see this whole scenario is mind boggling and confusing. Wouldn’t it be much simpler and efficient to just turn your head around and walk forward?

The same can be said for living your daily life. Life is so much more enjoyable and easy if you shift your attention from the past to the present moment.

Lessons from the past

Let us not throw the baby out with the bath water… the past does in fact have valuable lessons for us to learn from but let us not cling to the past or let our past mistakes and judgments color the choices we make today. As I have learned from spiritual teacher
J. Krishnamurti the past is full of knowledge and it is quite reasonable to access that past knowledge to drive a car, cook dinner or solve a math problem but it is quite a different thing when you access the past when meeting a new friend for the second or third time or when you meet a new person from a certain nationality or religion. The past has nothing to do with who your friend “actually is”… and your past experiences with someone from a particular religion, culture or nationality shouldn’t distract you from the person standing in front of you. The sad truth however is that all to often it does.

“Learning about yourself is not like learning a language or technology or a science, then you obviously have to accumulate and remember; it would be absurd to begin all over again, but in the psychological field learning about yourself is always in the present and knowledge is always in the past, and as most of us live in the past and are satisfied with the past knowledge becomes extraordinarily important to us. That is why we worship the erudite, the clever, the cunning. But if you are learning all the time, learning every minute, learning by watching and listening, learning by seeing and doing, then you will find that learning is a constant movement without the past.”

~J. Krishnamurti “Freedom From The Known”

When you walk into your place of work and you see the people you work with everyday… do you see them as they are or do you see them through the filter of your past experiences with them? I can tell you with 100% certainty if people I was acquainted with just a few years ago knew me today they would have know idea who I am. In the past I’ve been a partying, clubbing pill popping, irresponsible and immature raving machine but that person isn’t who I am today… as a matter of fact the two people are as different as day and night.

What I can appreciate however is who I am today. If it were not for my past who would I be? In that respect I give my past the reverence it deserves but I also realize that any emotions or feelings that arise from my past are false and only are relevant to my life if I choose to let them have my attention.

I was listening to a podcast of “A Course in Miracles” and they were speaking on this very subject, I found it quite interesting. The topic of discussion was the past and our emotions that are tied to the past. If you think about it, whenever you are feeling guilty, ashamed, envious or anger all of those emotions only have relevance if you access the past. So for example if you’re feeling guilty about some hateful things you said to a friend in drunkenness or just because you got in a fight… the guilt you’re feeling is arising only because you have chosen to give your attention to the past; if your attention were in the present moment there would be no guilt.

Now lets not blow things out of proportion and assume that just not thinking about your past will lead you to live a happy and joyous life. While it is certainly true life will become clearer and you will find manifesting what you really want in life is a million times easier you still have to be able to look at your past… only you must find the ability to not cling to it. The key to doing this is to have your roots in the present moment.

It’s so much easier said than done… I know, but like everything else practice makes perfect (practice helps you see that everything is already perfect). My practice is a daily movement that is tied together moment by moment, opportunity by opportunity. I’m no saint (yet), I still lose my cool when someone says something to upset me or someone cuts me off in traffic or steps on my shoe but nowadays I’m finding that more and more as soon as I get upset or am shook out of the present moment I’m finding my way back faster and faster.

Sometimes it’s not until I go to sleep late at night and I reflect on what my day was like. Lying there in bed looking over my day I can say to myself I could have handled that better or perhaps I didn’t need to raise my voice of give such an attitude about something so small and impermanent. The blessing here is being able to reflect but not judge yourself, cling or dwell on it. See it for what it is, make a mental note and move on; tomorrow is a new day or better yet the next moment is a new moment.

In conclusion

So moving forward, not looking back let us remember who we truly are. Who we truly are is who we are right now, not who we were ten seconds ago or ten years ago but infinitely right now. Like I said before this is so much easier said than done but I have a suggestion that might assist with the revolution (not evolution) of your mind. Evolution implies something to work toward but once you see love and truth there’s no evolution (nothing to work toward) rather instantly you revolutionize the way you think and act… instantly!

We all know up to now we’ve been slaves to our past, letting our past actions filter our decisions and choices in the present moment.

Who’s to say we can’t use this ability to our advantage?

Accessing the past doesn’t have to always be about the negative or bad, as a matter of fact if you make a shift in your perception you can use this conditioned ability to access the positive moments from your past. If you find that you’re “in the dumps”, depressed, angry or otherwise remember that you’re living in the past and you need to be present. One helpful way to get back to the present moment is to build a mental bridge, a bridge of positivity and love.

For example if you find that you’re dwelling on something that and ex-lover said to you that was hateful choose to remember a loving moment you shared rather than the negative. Doing this is to be used as a tool to get back to the present moment, to bring a smile to your face and love back into your immediate frame of mind.

It is important however to realize even when you do build your bridge back to the present moment, when you’re finally back to the moment you will need to let go of the past even though its a loving feeling, a joyous memory we want to be careful not to cling to it otherwise eventually you’ll want to cross back over the bridge to access the past and as we’ve discussed… life is in the moment. Remember, like Ram Dass says… “be here now”.