Welcome, Guest

A human being is part of the whole, called by us, the universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical-delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive.

---Albert Einstein, 1954

Banning Plastic Bags in India

http://11thhouraction.com/node/3525

This action was posted this weekend on the 11th Hour Action site from India. "Youth’s are dynamically gathered and empowered by JKT to protest against the USE OF PLASTIC BAGS in and around the city, and next action is to stop water pollution that is happened mindlessly around the state polluted by the industries based cheap on the river banks." Location:
241/231 old chennimalai andavar Road Sasthri Nagar Erode , TAMILNADU, 638002 India

Here is an update from 11th Hour Action in Zagreb:

"Dear our friend Leila,
 
I send you official report what's going on in Croatia after 11th hour screening.It seems
that in Croatia araived the darkest hour and we fight against it to make the finest hour
but it is very hurd.
Riot police arrest 23 in night raid on peaceful protest against the destructio n of Zagreb
pedestrian zone. Thay areested and presitend of Green action Tomislav Tomašević on rude
way with for special police ofissers in midle of night.It is top news in Croatia and
public means that police broken thera rules.
 
I please you and ask of you to support the strongest and biggest association on ex
Yugoslavia teritory
Green action (Zelena akcija cro.leng.)  on the way you can and thing is the best way.I
sugest to contact  president Tomislav. He appreaciate you very much also and what you do.
His contact: Tomislav Tomasevic. +385 98 719 253   e-mail: tomislav@zelena-akcija.hr or
siple you can find him on facebook.
Also you can publich this material on your web."

So I checked out their website, for more information on what they are trying to do, go to: 

http://www.zelena-akcija.hr/content/blogcategory/0/531/lang,en/

Andrew HarveySacred Activism

Globe in classroom, New Orleans by Chris Jordan from "In Katrina's Wake" (2005)

I believe we are heading into the eye of a perfect storm, which threatens the human race and a great deal of nature. I think it is extremely important that we all stop denying just how dangerous, insane and savage this perfect storm of crises is, and just what it means for all of us and the world. I think you know what those crises are. There is a holocaust going on that the doomsayers had predicted. There is a retreat among many of the major religions into fundamentalism, which disorders our unity. There is the domination of a kind of corporate magnate who is brutal and addicted to power, exploitation and greed. The mass media, largely owned by corporations, is filling our minds with violence, trash and celebrity trivia, at the very moment where you and I need to be inspired, galvanized and given the authentic information.

There is a lifestyle, which you and I both live, hectic, driven and multi-tasking, which makes it almost impossible for even the most well-meaning of us to have the kind of pleasure and peace in which to hear the voice of the soul that could guide us. When you bring all of these crises together, and factor in the population explosion, what we are looking at is a perfect storm of interrelated crises that are all manifestations of a selective force - human self. This human self has lost the most fundamental connection of all, the connection with the sacred nature of creation and of life. I think it is very important that we all wake up fast, because all those who are not awake now are going to be, very soon. The crisis is not going to relent and it is going to get very much fiercer very soon.

I believe this storm of crises is an evolutionary possibility of unprecendented intensity. It gives us the opportunity to gaze into the mirror of our destiny, and to see very clearly, that unless you and I evolve to the next level of putting our deepest principles and holiest compassion and greatest passion for life into direct, clear. radical action on every level, we will simply not survive. This great death we are living, that we are manifesting out of addiction, greed, extraordinary apathy and fantastic lack of concern for life is also potentially the birth canal of an unprecedented birth. A chastened, humbled humanity, opened at last by tragedy, awakened by the knowledge of the shadow may really claim our innate, sacred consciousness, start acting from our heart and turn apocalypse into grace, nightmare into opportunity, redeem terrible tragedy by gathering together on a massive scale to transform the world.

This crisis is the equivalent on a global scale of a crisis that a mystic goes through at a certain moment on the path. In Christian mysticism it is called the 'Dark Night of the Soul'. In the metaphysical systems of Mahayana Buddhism, it is the shattering of the false or created self. Can humanity see this immense consciousness as a God-sent, God-given, God-ordained opportunity to unlearn all our dangerous attainments? If humanity could settle in the deep ground of divine inspiration and learn how to go through the shattering ordeal with authentic grace, authentic commitment to transformation, then not only will we survive, but humanity will be transformed and born into an authentic divine nature, through the death of the collective false self that is manifesting this great death and wrecking everything. What is there in us that can birth a divine humanity, transformed by tragedy, illumined by shattering knowledge and transfigured by divine grace? What force can give us the power to turn this devastating situation around?

Four years after my teacher Father Bede Griffiths died, I had a dream in which he showed me two rivers. One was a river of fire going toward the sea. The other was a river of even more intense fire. They met at the sea in a glorious, radiant, divine explosion of energy. I heard a voice saying, "These two rivers are the two noblest forces of the human psyche. They are the river of the mystic's passion for God and the river of the activist's passion for justice. When these two rivers meet, a third fire is born that is ordained to transform everything. It the fire of divine compassion and love in action."

The vision gave me a term Sacred Activism and in honour of that I wrote a book. If you believe, as I do, that we are facing extreme danger together with extreme opportunity, I ask you in the name of Buddha to get up at three o'clock in the morning someday soon, surround yourself with the peace of God in whichever way you understand it, and ask youself one question. Which of all the causes in this beleaguered, damaged world breaks my heart the most? Please dare to ask yourself this question, and dare to listen to what your heart says to you. If you do, your heart will reveal to you a sacred mission that belongs just to you, and that will be the deepest and most radiant voice of your soul. You will be given at that moment, an injunction and a direction. What you can do then is to join with other people with a similar heartbreak, and work together in your local community, to do something real about what it is that you advocate in yourself.

I talk about this vision of sacred activism widely, and I am also involved in a way of grounding it in the world called Networks of Grace. These networks are going to be cells of six to twelve people gathered around a heartbreak, or a profession, or a passion, dedicating in their local communities to start a grassroots, radical revolution of the third power; Love in Action. It is the only way we will get a chance for it to work. If we wait for corporations to transform our situation, we will wait until the last tree is burnt down. If we wait for politicians to have a major spiritual transformation and suddenly give millions away and start feeding the poor, we will be waiting for the last animal to disappear. This revolution of the soul in action depends upon you and me. We are getting real about the tragedy of where we are now, the opportunity of where we can go, and the heartbreak you and I feel. When we get real about these things, we are impelled to come together in networks of grace and do something about it. 

The above is the transcript of a talk by mystical scholar, poet & translator Andrew Harvey at the NYC launch of Bhikkhu Bodhi's Buddhist Global Relief project 

 Email your Senators and tell them to VOTE YES on Clean Energy Jobs for America.

There's a clean energy bill sitting, waiting in Congress.

A bill that the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund says "will break foreign oil's stranglehold on our country, reduce carbon pollution, and create jobs right here in America--good jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced."

And the NRDC Action Fund wants you to do something about it. It's simple enough-- visit thisisourmoment.org to email your senators and ask them to pass the Clean Energy Jobs & American Power Act. They even got an all-star cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Jason Bateman and Edward Norton cracking jokes and urging you to do this one, simple thing.

"Flood the inboxes of your senators, it freaks them out," Bateman says. "They don't even know how to use e-mail, then they see a bunch of stuff in the inbox, they know they gotta do something."

Let's hope so. Justin Long even takes off his pants to get the point across.

Watch this great video here.  thisisourmoment.org

SOURCE:  The Huffington Post   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/28/nrdc-clean-energy-bill-ce_n_440104.html

Share this video with a friend and help spread the word.
This should take less than 5 minutes -- here is what you can do:

1. Tell your senators This is Our Moment, by clicking this link

2. Spread the word about this video by posting this link on your Facebook wall

3. Update your Facebook status to "Thisisourmoment.org" so friends will see our video

4. Tweet ThisIsOurMoment.org and tell your followers to take action today!

5. Post ThisIsOurMoment.org on your personal blogs