Rage in India, Hope in Canada; Idle No More, One Billion Rising for the Rights of the Great Mother and All Her Daughters

Ekajat, Blue Tara, Ferocious Protector Goddess, Painted by Shri Ram Bahadur Lama,
Lama Thanka Painting School, Bhaktapur, Kathmandu

We are violating the rights of future generations to have the biological resources that they need. They need pollinators. One-sixth to one-third of all the food we eat is brought to us by insect pollination and those systems are now falling to pieces. We need plankton in the ocean. Plankton provides us half the oxygen we breathe and those plankton stocks are now in trouble because of warming ocean temperatures and ocean acidification. It’s our responsibility as members of this generation to safeguard all these things for our children. Sandra Steingraber, Anti-Fracking Activist Discusses the Connection Between Human Rights and the Environment, Truthout, 12-29-12

Indian police have charged six men with murder, hours after a woman who was gang-raped and thrown from a moving bus in Delhi nearly two weeks ago died in a Singapore hospital ... The announcement came as thousands of Indians gathered to mourn and protest the death of the 23-year-old medical student. The woman, who has not been named, sustained serious internal injuries after being violated with an iron bar during the attack, which took place on 16 December and triggered mass demonstrations calling for better protection for women against sexual violence. Guardian, 12-29-12

Rage in India, Hope in Canada; Idle No More, One Billion Rising for the Rights of the Great Mother and All Her Daughters

By Richard Power

The fatal gang-rape of the young Indian medical student in Delhi, the mass murder of the twenty children in Newtown and the sociopathic efforts to deny the truth of the Climate Crisis; all are symptomatic of the same profound spiritual illness.

The patriarchy must fall. It is sick, and it must fall.

There is no more important cause than this, no more urgent mission than this; if you do nothing else for your world, participate in this effort. The struggle to end violence against Mother Earth is not separate from the struggle to end violence against women and girls. And neither can succeed without the other.

One Billion Rising (February 14, 2013) will shake the Earth; and the Earth will shake the human psyche out of the ghetto of ignorance, and into the temple of its own essential divinity.

Empower women and you will shift the center of gravity on every issue from Climate Change to Gun Control.

In the male-dominated societies of these two millennia, we have cut ourselves off from the fullness of life. The human psyche is pathologically out of whack. It has gone off the rails. It is lost to itself. The balance must be restored. A healing must be undertaken.

In the ancient symbol of the Yin and the Yang, at the center of the swirling Yang there is a drop of Yin, and at the center of the swirling Yin, there is a drop of Yang. The madness that led to the atrocities in Delhi and Newtown originates in the loss of this great balance. Our collective psyche has fallen into a crack in the world made with the blunt instrument of its own ignorance; this crack divides male from female, heaven from earth, human from divine, and light from dark, forcing them into false and warped dichotomies, when in truth they are dynamic aspects of one great whole; each equal, opposite and energized by the perfect tension of having the other at its nucleus. For healing and evolution to take place, women must be empowered and the divine feminine must be exalted.

But there is not only the rage rising from the streets of India, there is also the hope rising from the streets of Canada, because there those with eyes to hear and ears to see are Idle No More. And of course, their actions are being inspired by the vision and sacrifice of a woman: Chief Theresa Spence of the Attawapiskat First Nation. As I write this Chief Spence in the throes of a hunger strike, in a tepee across from the seat of government in Ottawa. She is attempting to compel Canada's conservative Prime Minister to engage in a dialogue about recent legislation that not only threatens Mother Earth but also the sovereignty of the Native American peoples.

Mr. Harper may relent, scared of the political fallout from letting this great leader die. I dearly hope he does. I want Chief Spence to eat. But I won’t soon forget this clash between these two very different kinds of resolve, one so sealed off, closed in; the other cracked wide open, a conduit for the pain of the world. But Chief Spence’s hunger is not just speaking to Mr. Harper. It is also speaking to all of us, telling us that the time for bitching and moaning is over. Now is the time to act, to stand strong and unbending for the people, places and principles that we love. This message is a potent gift. So is the Idle No More movement – its name at once a firm commitment to the future, while at the same time a gentle self-criticism of the past. We did sit idly by, but no more. Naomi Klein, As Chief Spence Starves, Canadians Awaken from Idleness and Remember Their Roots,Globe and Mall, 12-24-12

I have embedded two videos in this post. First, a Democracy Now! piece on Chief Spence and the Idle No More movement; second, a seven minute Eve Ensler/Tony Stroebel film on One Billion Rising. Remember, one billion women violated is an atrocity. One billion women - and men -- dancing is a revolution. Join ONE BILLION RISING at http://www.onebillionrising.org. I urge you to view both of them, and share them with others.

The struggle to end violence against Mother Earth is not separate from the struggle to end violence against women and girls. And neither can succeed without the other. Those who do violence against women, those who slaughter the innocents, and yes, those who finance the denial of the Climate Crisis because acknowledging it would threaten their obscene profits, all of them are cut off from life, from the Earth and from the deepest parts of themselves. All power must be wrested from their hands.

Remember Malala Yousafzai, the fifteen year old who was shot in the head and neck, because she dared to champion the education of girls such as herself, and Neda Agha-Soltan, the twenty-six year old Iranian woman shot and killed in 2009, as she protested the thugocracy's election theft. Remember those twenty little children in Newtown, and that unnamed young woman in Delhi. And yes, remember Gaia Herself, who sustains us all, and suffers us all.

Join One Billion Rising on February 14, 2013. It is a doorway. We desperately need GLOBAL, NON-VIOLENT EVOLUTION NOW!

One Billion Rising


Idle No More: Indigenous-Led Protests Sweep Canada for Native Sovereignty and Environmental Justice


Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of eight books, including Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. Power writes and speaks on spirituality, sustainability, human rights, and security. He blogs at http://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com, and is a member of the Truthout Board of Advisors. He also teaches yoga.

At Every Moment, & In Every Circumstance

Celtic Symbol of the Triune Goddess

Divine intelligence pervades this universe. Human ignorance is no more than its shadow.

Divine intelligence sustains this universe. It enlivens every cell; it informs every creature.

Divine intelligence calls us to reality through every problem, and encourages us on with every opportunity.

Prayer and meditation, authentic prayer and meditation, constitute the human heart's dialogue with this divine intelligence; likewise, scientific inquiry, authentic scientific inquiry, constitutes the human mind's conversation with this divine intelligence.

You can call on this divine intelligence at any moment. It will always respond. You can turn to it in any circumstance. It will always engage. It has no other choice. Gratitude is one of its open doors. Compassion is another one of its open doors.

It is never any further away than your own next breath. It is always waiting for you in the space between one thought and the next.

You will recognize it because, unlike human ignorance, the inter-connectedness of everything is immediately apparent to it, and also because paradoxes are second-nature to it. This divine intelligence is calling us to true freedom (which is a much more mysterious state than we imagine it to be).

Divine intelligence thrives in embodiment. It urges us on to embodiment. Yoga, martial arts and the dance offer path ways into the wilds of divine intelligence. Such journeys of self-discovery are vital to establishing an intimate relationship with it.

And in a revelation, just as in a kiss, for that flash, the "I" and "Thou" become transparent and transposed.

The medicine of life is calling to you. It is offering itself to you at every moment, and in every circumstance. We are never powerless or lost.

Divine intelligence is literally at our fingertips, ever and always. Only our own expectations fail us; only our own imaginations mislead us.

-- Richard Power

 Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril is available now in soft cover and Kindle versions, from Amazon and elsewhere.

Solstice December 21, 2012

Triple Spiral of the Triune Goddess. Newgrange Tomb Entrance Stone (Ireland). Photo Credit: Nomadtales, 2005

This particular solstice is of profound importance. And our world desperately needs such a moment. But it is not an isolated event, it is actually a singularly magnificent peak among magnificent peaks, along a mountain range of change; one that has been forming under our feet for decades now, and will continue to take form for decades to come.

Don't let this moment of profound importance rob tomorrow and the days thereafter of their unique significance. Every moment of every night must become like this one; every moment of every night has the potential to be just as profoundly important both to you and this world.

So whether you are in the North, and experience it as the Winter Solstice, or you are in the South and experience it as the Summer Solstice, open yourself up to it, offer yourself up. Yes, there are wheels within wheels, but the cosmic wheel itself is also turning. And this year, in this transition, you will be able to feel it. You will be able to turn through it, and with it, into a deeper, fuller expression of your own life's truth. And you will also be able to unhesitatingly embrace your role in the deeper, fuller expression of this planet's truth.

Immerse yourself in silence. Bathe in light, swim in darkness.

Breathe in the night sky, sing forth the dawn.

-- Richard Power

 Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril is available now in soft cover and Kindle versions, from Amazon and elsewhere.

Black Hole at Milky Way's Center. Image Credit: NASA/Caltech, 2012

Mapping Primal Reality; Further Notes On A User's Guide to Human Incarnation (Part III: Spandakarikas, Secret Doctrine & Human Significance of Skin)

Spanda-Karikas (Jaideva Singh)

This is the third in a series of seven monthly talks I am giving at the San Francisco Lodge of the Theosophical Society. 

The series includes talks on the four great texts of Kashmir Saivism (i.e., Shiva Sutras, Pratyabhijina Hridayam, Spandakarikas and Vijnanabhairava) as well as other aspects of Yoga, Buddha Dharma and Shamanism.

This third presentation focuses on teachings from the Spandakarikas, and draws further elucidation from H.P. Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine and Ashley Montague's Touching: The Human Significance of Skin.

You will find a link to the first two talks in the series listed below, under "Related Talks." The next talk, Part IV, will be given in January 2013.

Listen to Part III ...

-- Richard Power

Related Talks

Mapping Primal Reality; Further Notes On A User's Guide to Human Incarnation (Part II: Pratyabhijinahrdayam, Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle & Jung's Process of Individuation)

Mapping Primal Reality: Further Notes for A User's Guide to Human Incarnation (Part I, Siva Sutras, Maslow's Hierarchy of Basic Human Needs, October 2012

A User's Guide to Human Incarnation (Part III, October 2010

A User's Guide to Human Incarnation (Part II, September 2010)

A User's Guide to Human Incarnation (Part 1, August 2010)

From Newtown to Darfur, from Sandy to Bopha; As 2012 Ebbs Away, Look to Solstice for New Year, & Hopefully, New Age; Look into Mirror for Leaders

Nicholas Roerich - Serpent of Wisdom (1924)

The number of people killed after Typhoon Bopha struck the southern Philippines has risen to more than 1,000, officials say. With nearly 850 people still missing, the toll is likely to rise further ... The storm displaced hundreds of thousands of people and caused severe damage to property and infrastructure. BBC, 12-15-12

They found alarming losses of big trees, ranging from 100 to 300 years old, at all latitudes in Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, South America, Latin America and Australia ... The study showed that trees were not only dying en masse in forest fires, but were also perishing at 10 times the normal rate in non-fire years. The study said it appeared to be down to a combination of rapid climate change causing drought and high temperatures, as well as rampant logging and agricultural land clearing. Agence France Press, 12-6-12

The worst drought in half a century has brought water levels in the Mississippi close to historic lows and could shut down all shipping in a matter of weeks – unless Barack Obama takes extraordinary measures. Suzanne Goldenberg, Guardian, 12-14-12

A group of elephants near Timbuktu makes an epic journey each year in their quest for food and water. Researchers found that they travel across an area of 12,355 square miles (32,000 square kilometers) in the deserts of Mali, marking the largest known elephant range in the world. Live Science, 12-14-12

From Newtown to Darfur, from Sandy to Bopha; As 2012 Ebbs Away, Look to Solstice for a New Year, and Hopefully, a New Age; Look into Mirror for Leaders

By Richard Power

The life of 2012 ebbs away, and each of us, in our own way, prepares for the Solstice. I write this post to assure you that it will guide us into a new year, and yes, a new age (as inconceivable as that vision might seem at this moment). There is so much to say, and yet in a very real way there is so little to say.

Concerning the slaughter of twenty young children in Newtown, Connecticut, I refer you to the insights of Harvey Wasserman and Chauncey DeGraw:

The Second Amendment does NOT guarantee the right of any and all citizens to own any and all kinds of guns. It DEMANDS, in the name of national security, that we regulate it. NEVER let assertions of the so-called "sanctity" of the 2d Amendment bully you into thinking it guarantees unregulated weapon ownership. It does NOT. Harvey Wasserman, Common Dreams, 12-15-12

Per our national script, there are several questions which will go unanswered...just as they always do. As I wrote about in regards to James Holmes , the Batman movie killer, there will be no soul searching about why white men are committing these violent acts. In the present, mass shootings have been almost the exclusive province of white men. Chauncey DeGraw, AlterNet, 12-15-12

Of course, at this very moment, in all too many places on this planet, there are so many children suffering atrocities, and on such a large scale. And yet, these ongoing narratives, e.g., the slow motion genocide in Darfur, are largely ignored by Infotainmentstan and Beltwayistan, those twisted sisters who control "the horizontal and the vertical."

Camps have become free-fire zones, an epidemic of rape continues to plague women and girls, murders are common, and aerial bombardment of civilian targets has been relentless (see www.sudanbombing.org). Perhaps most tellingly, more than 1 million people have been newly displaced since UNAMID took up its mandate on January 1, 2008; and as has been the case since the beginning of conflict in Darfur, the greatest cause of displacement is violence. The scale of this new displacement has never been acknowledged by UNAMID, which prefers instead to celebrate the small-scale “returns” of displaced persons that are optimistically measured in the tens of thousands. And the engine of displacement—ethnically-targeted violence in camps and rural areas, rape, and land appropriation by Arab groups taking advantage of this displacement—continues to race. Radio Dabanga provides daily updates that find no place in the infrequent and disgracefully uninformed and unrevealing reports from UNAMID. Eric Reeves, 12-1-12

Meanwhile, every child on the planet is growing up into a world that will bear little if any resemblance to the planet which even their parents and grand parents inherited from the generations that preceded them. Because we are, in a very real way, stomping the world as we know it to death with our carbon footprint.

Profound spiritual illness and deep psychological dysfunction have allowed such ongoing narratives of horror to continue exacerbating and unaddressed, from the refuge camps of Africa to the schoolrooms of the affluent U.S.A., and from the devastation wrought by Sandy to the horror wrought by Bopha.

If you had told me twenty years ago, at that that first Rio Summit, that by 2012 global carbon emissions would have increased by around 50%, that 1 billion people in the world would be hungry, that fossil fuel subsidies would amount to $1 trillion a year, I would have been horrified. As Lord Stern states in his latest report, 'The overall pace of change is recklessly slow. We are acting as if change is too difficult and costly and delay is not a problem. The rigidity of the processes under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the behaviour of participants also hinder progress. And the vested interests remain powerful.' I was appalled by the lack of progress, and deeply disturbed by the powerful special interest being exerted in Doha. The fingerprints of corporate interest were all over the COP18 negotiations. As Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy, Union of Concerned Scientists said at the conclusion of the conference: "There were some winners here. The coal industry won here, the oil industry won here, you saw on display the power of these industries and their short term profit to influence the governments of the world. This wasn't an environmental summit it was a trade fair to see who would share the spoils as we drill in the Arctic, produce tar sand in Canada and mine coal in Indonesia for China..." Bianca Jagger, Common Dreams, 12-12-12

Sadly, if you are looking for leadership, don't waste precious time turning to the White House. Look in the mirror instead. POTUS will not lead on our toughest issues (I would be so happy to be proven wrong), but I have hope that he will follow IF a multitude rises up to lead the nation and the species to the threshold of a brighter future, and a new age. How many beings constitute a multitude? None of us can say what number will deliver the counter tipping point we so desperately need. But we can say with great certainty that each of us only has to count to ONE, i.e., ourselves.

Stand up for this new world, in your prayer, in your meditation, in your interactions with others, in your life-style (as much as is possible given your own circumstances), and in your attitude toward the rest of your life. That is all that is required of any of us.

And when you are in need of encouragement, listen to those voices who are already at the forefront of this assembling multitude.

Women knew that the real value of forests was not the timber from a dead tree, but the springs and streams, food for their cattle, and fuel for their hearths. The women declared that they would hug the trees, and the loggers would have to kill them before killing the trees. Vandana Shiva, AlterNet, 12-10-12

Each has a tough-love message for their own constituency — McKibben for an insular environmental movement that's been woefully ineffective on climate; Klein for a left, including many in the Occupy movement, that has failed to grapple with the seriousness and urgency of the climate crisis. Look, they're saying, this is it: science tells us that time is running out, and everything you've ever fought for is on the line. Climate change has the ability to undo your historic victories and crush your present struggles. So it's time to come together, for real, and fight to preserve and extend what you care most about — which means engaging in the climate fight, really engaging, as if your life and your life's work, even life itself, depended on it. Because they do. Wes Stephenson, Boston Phoenix, 12-13-12

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of eight books, including Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. Power writes and speaks on spirituality, sustainability, human rights, and security. He blogs at http://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com, and is a member of the Truthout Board of Advisors. He also teaches yoga.

The Only Road

Nicholas Roerich - Padma Sambhava (1927)

Honesty is the only road that leads to truth. All the other roads merge into honesty before arriving at truth. If you search for truth without journeying through honesty, you will lose yourself in the palace of mirrors. But if you journey deeper into honesty, you will inexorably arrive at the truth of all things. Furthermore, you will only have to concern yourself with how to live in radical honesty toward yourself, because, as Shakespeare promised, if you do so, you cannot be false to anyone else.

And what about beauty? Beauty is not a separate road to the truth. "Truth is beauty," as John Keats promised, "and beauty is truth." Neither the truth of beauty nor the beauty of truth can be arrived at in any sustainable way without first becoming established in a relationship of radical honesty with yourself.

All else just leads deeper into the palace of mirrors. If you drink a reflection of water, you will still be thirsty. If you embrace a reflection of someone else, you will still be alone. Nor does the path of relentless honesty with ourselves lead us into asceticism or isolation; it leads us instead into utter connectedness and an ever-expanding capacity for happiness.

-- Richard Power

 Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril is available now in soft cover and Kindle versions, from Amazon and elsewhere.>

Abode of the Great Peace

Salvador Dali - Oasis (1946)

Fortunate to be alive in this universe, fortunate to be in human form, with all the profound responsibility and potentiality that this mirror image of the divine matrix brings with it.

Fortunate to have heard of the abode of great peace, somewhere along the road. Fortunate to have found that place and entered therein.

Fortunate enough to have come upon it again and again, and to eventually return to it at will. Or so it seemed.

Fortunate, in due time, to have moved into that abode, and have dwelled within the great peace, coming and going of my own free will. Or so it seemed.

Fortunate enough to discover that there is no coming, no going, no inside, no outside, no peace, no not peace.

Fortunate to discover that the great dance is the great peace, and that the great peace is the great dance.

Fortunate to live long enough to tell you this.

The abode of great peace dwells within you, and you dwell within it.

You are the great peace and you move within the great dance. You are the great dance and you move within the great peace.

"Meditate on peace"? OK. But better to meditate IN, OF and FROM peace. "Visualize peace"? OK, but better to RADIATE peace.

Selah!

-- Richard Power

 Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril is available now in soft cover and Kindle versions, from Amazon and elsewhere.>

Truth

John William Waterhouse - Circe Offering Cup to Ulysses (1891)

Truth is naked. It has no shame. Truth is ruthless. It takes everything for its own. Truth is inexhaustible. This universe is merely a reflection of Truth seen "though a glass darkly."

Some among us boast of having "no regrets." There are two kinds of regrets: regrets that look backward and drain you of your power, and regrets that look forward to inform your present and your future. I have regrets, but none that look backward. I carry mine in the ark of my heart, with numerous other sacred relics of this existence. They bless my endeavors.

Truth is the medicine, truth is the magic. It comes to different people in different ways at different times. It may comes from a painting, it may come from a cactus, it may come from an asana, it may come from a moonrise, or from the pre-dawn darkness, it may come from a kiss, or the loss of a kiss, it may come from a dream, or from a dreamless sleep, it may from an utter mishap or a crowning achievement, it may come from the space between two thoughts, or from the space between two breaths. Whatever it uses to communicate itself, however it arrives, it is the truth, and it will liberate you, although, truthfully, liberation is not what most of us imagine it to be.

-- Richard Power

 Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril is available now in soft cover and Kindle versions, from Amazon and elsewhere.>

Gratitude is a Ruthless Path

Vishnu Flying on Garuda (1723-1727)

Vishnu Flying on Garuda (1723-1727)

Some great trees have fallen in the forest of this life, and the beautiful stories that lived within them were lost forever. Lightening fires have scorched much of this wilderness, the smoke and ash still billow in the wind.

And yet, every dawn, this primeval wood stands in salute to the scintillant sun; and at every dusk, it opens itself up to the lusciousness of night.

Gratitude is a ruthless path, my friend, it allows for no exceptions.

-- Richard Power

Richard Power's latest book, Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril is available now in soft cover and Kindle versions, from Amazon and elsewhere.

Choicelessness and the Dancers

Machig Labdron. 11th Century Yogini, Mother of Mahamudra Chod. (Central Tibet, ca. Early 14th Century)

From the moment of "birth" to the moment of "death," joy and sorrow dance together intimately. If you welcome only one of these dancers, you fail to comprehend the Divine Choreographer's vision; if you see only one of them as beautiful, you do not understand the vital elements of which Beauty herself is composed of.

Life is rich with choices. Whether you choose joy or sorrow, your choice is often the seed from which its opposite blossoms. Indeed, many of life's most profound choices are actually choicelessness hidden behind a mask. To love life is to join the dance of joy and sorrow. There is no other viable choice.

-- Richard Power

 Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril is available now in soft cover and Kindle versions, from Amazon and elsewhere.>

The Future Hangs on A Single Golden Thread, and We Are That Thread

Frida Kahlo, Love Embrace of the Universe

The Future Hangs on A Single Golden Thread, and We Are That Thread

By Richard Power

Today, here in Norther California, no war is being waged on us, nor has any climate-crazed Super Storm trashed the infrastructure; we have running water, electricity, gasoline, food, and as bad as the economic disparity is, as deep as the poverty runs, and as high as unemployment really is, many of us are still getting by (even if only barely). But you know what? Here and now, in Northern California, we are just a click or two away from catastrophe and a free fall into chaos. And not just because a mega earthquake is overdue.

We are just a click away from catastrophe and a free fall into chaos because the rebuilding of our infrastructure is being blocked by an insane political ideology that fronts for the rapacious greed of the few, and which demonizes much of what is best in government.

We are just a click away from catastrophe and free fall because this insane political ideology and rapacious greed are also blocking our desperately needed conversion to a green economy.

Such a conversion could rescue us from both the devastation of a 4c planetary temperature rise and our deepening economic insecurity in a single righteous blow.

Although it is encouraging that the most psychologically disturbed elements of the corporatist disorder were denied absolute power in the November 2012 election, we are still in grave danger. Will we continue down the road into the madness of so-called "austerity" instead of further economic stimulus focused on infrastructure renewal and green energy? Will we continue to debate whether or not the Climate Crisis is real, instead of debating how to best mitigate its potentially extinction level impact? Do not be deceived. Psychologically disturbed elements of the corporatist disorder still control the horizontal and vertical in terms of our political debate.

Consider the facts.

A new World Bank-commissioned report warns the world is on track to a “4°C world” marked by extreme heat-waves and life-threatening sea level rise. "Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4°C Warmer World Must be Avoided," (pdf) (eBook version) warns we’re on track for a 4°C warmer world marked by extreme heat-waves, declining global food stocks, loss of ecosystems and biodiversity, and life-threatening sea level rise. World Bank, Climate Change Report Warns of Dramatically Warmer World This Century, 11-18-12

The amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a new record high in 2011, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Between 1990 and 2011 there was a 30% increase in radiative forcing – the warming effect on our climate – because of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other heat-trapping long-lived gases. World Meteorological Organization, 11-20-12

A United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report released today says that countries aren’t doing enough to keep the world from warming 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels ... “Not only are nations failing to close the gap between their actions and the 2 degrees goal,” [Alden Meyer, Director of Strategy and Policy at UCS] said, “but the gap is actually widening.” Union of Concerned Scientists, Third Report Warns that Leaders' Lack of Action Is Locking In Worst Consequences of Climate Change, 11-21-12

Coal plants are the most polluting of all power stations and the World Resources Institute (WRI) identified 1,200 coal plants in planning across 59 countries, with about three-quarters in China [363] and India [455]. Darrien Carrington, Guardian, 11-19-12

And yet Beltwayistan (the U.S. political establishment) and Infotainmenstan (the U.S. mainstream news media) continue to hide from the truth and what it demands of us.

"Cognitive dissonance” describes the response of our political leaders. They know we must quickly curb our addiction to fossil fuels to avoid a climate change tipping point. But they open up the Arctic, or the Tar Sands in Canada, to oil companies that want to squeeze out a few more billion in profits while the going’s good. Kumi Naidoo, 11-17-12

Take a break for half an hour and listen to this dialogue between Bill Moyers and Naomi Klein (see embedded video below, or just read the transcript). And then ask yourself what you can do or how you can be, to make a difference in the weeks and months ahead. The future hangs on a single golden thread, and we are that thread.

Naomi Klein: We have to plan. We can't leave everything to the free market. In fact, climate change is, I would argue, the greatest single free-market failure. This is what happens when you don't regulate corporations and you allow them to treat the atmosphere as an open sewer. So it isn't just, "Okay, the fossil fuel companies want to protect their profits." It's that it's that this science threatens a worldview. And when you dig deeper, when you drill deeper into those statistics about the drop in belief in climate change, what you see is that Democrats still believe in in climate change, in the 70th percentile. That whole drop of belief, drop off in belief has happened on the right side of the political spectrum. So the most reliable predictor of whether or not somebody believes that climate change is real is what their views are on a range of other political subjects. You know, what do you think about abortion? What is your view of taxes? And what you find is that people who have very strong conservative political beliefs cannot deal with this science, because it threatens everything else they believe. Bill Moyers Interviews Naomi Klein, 11-16-12

Bill Moyers and Naomi Klein: How Climate Change Is an Historic Opportunity for Progressives


Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of eight books, including Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. Power writes and speaks on spirituality, sustainability, human rights, and security. He blogs at http://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com, and is a member of the Truthout Board of Advisors. He also teaches yoga.

Mapping Primal Reality; Further Notes On A User's Guide to Human Incarnation (Part II: Pratyabhijinahrdayam, Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle & Jung's Process of Individuation)

Pratyabhijnahrdayam: The Secret of Self-recognition

This is the second in a series of seven monthly talks I will be giving at the San Francisco Lodge of the Theosophical Society. 

The series will include talks on the four great texts of Kashmir Saivism (i.e., Shiva Sutras, Pratyabhijina Hridayam, Spandakarikas and Vijnanabhairava) as well as other aspects of Yoga, Buddha Dharma and Shamanism.

This second presentation focuses on teachings from the Pratyabhijinahrdayam, and draws further elucidation from drawing St. Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle, Sri Ramana Maharshi's Self-Inquiry and Dr. Carl Jung ideas on the process of Individuation.

You will find a link to the first talk in the series listed below, under "Related Talks." The next talk in the series will be given in December 2012.

Listen to Part II ...

-- Richard Power

Related Talks

Mapping Primal Reality: Further Notes for A User's Guide to Human Incarnation (Part I, Siva Sutras, Maslow's Hierarchy of Basic Human Needs, October 2012

A User's Guide to Human Incarnation (Part III, October 2010

A User's Guide to Human Incarnation (Part II, September 2010)

A User's Guide to Human Incarnation (Part I, August 2010)

The Final Days of Fear and Loathing in 2012; "Oh, A Storm is Threatening My Very Life Today, If I Don't Get Some Shelter ..."

Photo Credit: Gary He/Reuters 

Photo Credit: John Minchillo / AP

Unfortunately, Sandy is only the latest in a line of recent extreme weather events that have severely afflicted Americans in the past two years. Other disasters include the most destructive wildfire in Colorado history, record-breaking temperatures across the nation, and severe thunderstorms and tornadoes across the Midwest. Farmers in the Midwest are expecting to harvest just a fraction of their corn and other crops this year, leading to record federal crop insurance payments due to the worst drought in 50 years that plagued two-thirds of the nation. Vicious heat waves, wildfires, hurricanes, and severe storms left hundreds of people dead and injured. These are the extreme weather events that scientists predict will become more frequent and/or severe if the industrial carbon pollution responsible for climate change remains unchecked. Joe Romm, How Does Climate Change Make Superstorms Like Sandy More Destructive?, Climate Progress, 10-31-12

The Final Days of Fear and Loathing in 2012; "Oh, A Storm is Threatening My Very Life Today, If I Don't Get Some Shelter ..."

By Richard Power

No, I don't have anything to say about "Superstorm Sandy."

I have said it all for TWELVE YEARS. James Hansen and Al Gore have been saying it for even longer.

I love New York, it is where I came from, and this is personal. So for the second time, the loud, sooty, crowded, concrete and steel lotus blossom from which I emerged, has been hit horrifically hard, because of bad governance.

It was bad governance, criminal negligence really, that led to the slaughter of the innocents on 9/11. Bush-Cheney willfully ignored urgent and repeated warnings that we were about to be hit.

Likewise, with "Superstorm Sandy." Bad governance led to the flooding of the subways in lower Manhattan, the raging fire in Queens, and the utter devastation in New Jersey.

"Ooh, see the fire is sweepin' / Our very street today ..."

Many millions of people blacked out. Tens of billions of dollars in losses. Bad governance. Political cowardice in Beltwayistan, and moral bankruptcy of Infotainmentstan.

So I don't give a damn that in Sandy's AFTERmath, billionaire NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg endorsed POTUS for re-election, citing the urgency of the Climate Crisis as a significant reason. And I don't give damn that in Sandy's AFTERmath, the cover of Businessweek declared: It's Global Warming, Stupid.

Too little too late. I don't mean too late to mitigate the worst of what is to come; we can still make a profoundly positive shift for future generations. I mean too little too late to earn any respect from me. Not after TWELVE YEARS.

"The floods is threatening / My very life today ..."

OK, I guess I did have something to say about "Superstorm Sandy."

Whatever happens on Tuesday, it will not be POTUS, or Billionaireberg, or Businessweak that will lead; it will be others, like Darryl Hannah, and Bill McKibben (who is earning a Nobel Peace Prize whether he ever wins one or not) ...

How are we in the US and Canada addressing these crises? Not through the co-opted political system, but with heroic acts by the ordinary citizens of North America. People have been putting their bodies on the line and risking arrest in order to protect our future, to acknowledge climate change disasters and to protect access to basic necessities such as uncontaminated water, soil and food. We are seeing an exponentially growing number of nationwide rallies, protests and acts of civil disobedience just to protect these fundamental life support systems. The threats are exacerbated by the looming death throes of an outdated and finite fossil fuel industry struggling to stay relevant in the 21st century, despite its current economic might. It's hard to reconcile the fact that the fossil fuel industry is struggling when their unprecedented profits make them the wealthiest of corporations in the history of mankind, even in this devastated global economy – but the times, they are-a-changing. Darryl Hannah, The battle against Big Energy's rush to ruin our planet, Guardian, 10-31-12

The question Hurricane Sandy really raises, then, is how long Big Oil will be allowed to hold the government of the United States hostage. How long will Exxon-Mobil’s business plans take precedence over the wellbeing and indeed survival of our children? Neither of the two presidential candidates provides great inspiration on this point, though Obama is at least willing to talk about the problem, as when he advocates eliminating some taxpayer subsidies to oil companies. (Romney, for his part, thinks Big Oil has not been favored enough by Washington.) But no president can cross Big Oil in the way that is required to defuse the climate crisis without the help of a powerful and sustained popular movement. If Hurricane Sandy contributes to building such a movement—and McKibben and his fellow activists at 350.org and allied organizations are launching a national tour shortly after Election Day that aims to do just that—America might still avoid the curse of Cassandra by heeding her warnings at last. Mark Hertsgaard, Can Sandy Help Jolt America Out of Climate Change Denial? 10-31-12

Do not mistake my intent.

POTUS must be re-elected on Tuesday. There is no alternative. And I am grateful that Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg agree.

Remember Katrina? POTUS has done an admirable job in the aftermath of Sandy. The Hollow Man and his FEMA would have simply done what Bush and his FEMA did, i.e., exercise malign neglect.

Yes, POTUS has been disappointing on Corporatism and Militarism. But he has been strong on Misogyny, Homophobia and Racism. It is not a principled stand to protest Corporatism and Militarism by rewarding Misogyny, Homophobia and Racism, and if you throw your vote away or don't vote, that is what you will be doing - rewarding Misogyny, Homophobia and Racism.

"Rape, murder! / It's just a shot away ..."

Furthermore, even on the issues of corporatism and militarism, there are profound differences between POTUS and the Hollow Man. POTUS delivered Dodd-Frank (weak as it is) and elevated Elizabeth Warren to the national stage; and in response, Wall Street gave money hand over fist to the Hollow Man. And in regard to Iran, make no mistake about it, if the Hollow Man is elected, we will be at war with Iran within a year, just as we would have been if the shell of a man formerly known as John McCain had been elected.

"War, children, it's just a shot away / It's just a shot away ..."

I do not expect POTUS to lead on the Climate Crisis, but I do know that he will act in response to a strong, broad movement from below. And as much as we have accomplished, the numbers have to be larger than they have been so far.

"I tell you love, sister, it's just a kiss away / It's just a kiss away ..."

Hopefully, POTUS will be re-elected and sworn in, but whether or not he is, those of you who disagree and will vote for Jill Stein instead of POTUS, I assure you, we will be on the same side of the barricade in the days, weeks, months and years ahead.

Consider this concerning Social Security and Medicare ...

We are forewarned and we must act now to make clear that we will block the Great Betrayal and crush at the polls any member of Congress who supports it. Do not concede the phrase "grand bargain" to the proponents of the betrayal. We should heed Camus' warning that it is essential to call a plague by its real name if one is to resist it -- and it is essential to resist the pestilence. "[W]hen you see the suffering and pain that it brings, you have to be mad, blind or a coward to resign yourself to the plague." We must refuse to resign ourselves to being betrayed by Democratic leaders. Our actions must make it clear that we are not mad, blind, or cowards. We refuse to fall for their faux moral panics. It is our leaders who are all too often mad, blind, and cowards. William K. Black, The Great Betrayal – and the Cynicism of Calling it a Grand Bargain, Naked Capitalism, 10-30-12

"A kiss away / A kiss away ..."

Angélique Kidjo & Joss Stone - Gimme Shelter (2007)

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of eight books, including Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. Power writes and speaks on spirituality, sustainability, human rights, and security. He blogs at http://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com, and is a member of the Truthout Board of Advisors. He also teaches yoga.

This is Samhain.

Oweynagat (Cave of the Cats) at the great mound of Rathcroghah (Roscommon, Ireland) The wild cats tamed by mighty Cuchulain emerged from this Sid. And the Morrigan, raven warrior goddess, emerges from it every Samhain, riding in a chariot pulled by a one-legged chestnut horse.

Stoke the bonfires, and set them ablaze. Slink into the twilight. Bathe in the darkness. Set the Wheel of Life on fire, and dance within its whirling shadows. This is Samhain. Celtic New Year. Halloween. Day of the Dead. There are no borders tonight or tomorrow. The "dead" walk among the "living." The "living" walk among the "dead." Yes.

I have not been a stranger to death in this life. I have held the door open for loved ones who had to go, because their bodies had run out of time, and I have watched those I could not save slip through the cracks in their minds, because their sanity had sprung an irreparable leak.

There is a damn good reason Padma Sambhava spent so many years dwelling in graveyards, meditating, and befriending fierce Dakinis. And it wasn't just to realize the impermanence of "life," or even to realize the illusory nature of "death," it was to immerse himself in the immense power that wells up in the space beyond both veils.

This is Samhain. Celtic New Year. Halloween. Day of the Dead. There are no borders tonight or tomorrow. The "dead" walk among the "living." The "living" walk among the "dead." Stoke the bonfires, and set them ablaze. Slink into the twilight, bathe in the darkness. Set the Wheel of Life on fire, and dance within its whirling shadows. Yes.

-- Richard Power

Richard Power's latest book, Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril is available now in soft cover and Kindle versions, from Amazon and elsewhere.

Diego Rivera - Day of the Dead (1924)

The Lexicon of the Lost Language

Dante Gabriel Rossetti - The Damsel of the Sanct Grail (1874)

Sometimes there is so much to say, but no one to say it to, and no words to say it with anyway. Sometimes there is only the next breath, and the next step.

After all, the truth is no more than a precious relic, exquisite, but fragile, carried from one century to the next, by a seemingly endless relay of mostly nameless beings. Meanwhile, in road side stalls along the way, cheap knock-offs are sold for a high price by others who have not yet lost their minds so joyously.

The relay assignment comes upon you unexpectedly. Suddenly, every spoke on the Great Wheel cries out in a lost language the knowledge of which is revealed to you for the span of a moment; and then magically you find an exquisite but oh so fragile relic in your hands.

If this happens to you, all you can do is keep moving forward. Once you have seen and felt that rare truth relic, you could never lay it down or pawn it off.

Sooner or later, someone will arrive to take it from you and to this nameless being you will give it freely, and without hesitation.

But after they have departed into the shadows one step beyond where you stand, you will realize that you are that relic, precious and exquisite, and that you have been carried from one century to the next by a relay of mostly nameless beings, and that the lexicon of that lost language is engraved on the brilliant surface of whatever it is that you have become.

-- Richard Power

Richard Power's latest book, Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril is available now in soft cover and Kindle versions, from Amazon and elsewhere.

Edward Burnes-Jones - The Dream of Launcelot at the Chapel of the San Graal (1895)

300 Million Being Led Off A Cliff, 7 Billion In Dire Peril, 1 Billion Rising - Here Are 3 Dates On Which You Can Make A Stand For The Future

Gustav Klimt, Water Serpents (1907)

300 Million Being Led Off A Cliff, 7 Billion In Dire Peril, 1 Billion Rising - Here Are 3 Dates On Which You Can Make A Stand

By Richard Power

[NOTE: I am honored that this post has also been cross-posted as a Buzzflash Commentary at Truthout.org. Buzzflash and Truthout are great bastions of our progressive citizens' online media, and I am happy to have contributed to them throughout the years we have all utilized the Internet to counteract the dumbing-down and disinformation of the corporatist media.]

The months ahead will offer three profoundly meaningful opportunities to be the change you seek in the world. Here they are in reverse chronological order.

February 14, 2013: One Billion Rising

Plutocracy, like Patriarchy, is a counter-evolutionary force within the collective psyche. It is life-negating. Conversely, the rise of women is one of the principle drivers of the global non-violent evolution we so desperately need. It is life-affirming. Likewise, green energy. The fossil fuel industry is one of the three pillars that the Patriarchy and the Plutocracy stand upon, the others are the predatory banking system and the war racket. This truth is a naked one now. The Emperor has no clothes, and it is an ugly sight to behold. Kick any one of these three pillars away and the edifice collapses. Hasten the rise of women and the edifice is dismantled from inside, because it does not answer the simple test of being nurturing unto the seventh generation. (Oh, of course, there are grotesque exceptions: e.g., heartless CEOs like Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman, reactionary politicians like Sarah Palin and Margaret Thatcher. The phenomena similar to that of Clarence Thomas, Herman Cain, Allen West, etc. But it has always been thus. After all, in his guide book to the Inferno, didn't Dante consign the traitors to the lowest rung of Hell?)

Please view the three minute Eve Ensler film embedded below, and share it with your friends via Facebook and Twitter. One billion women violated is almost incomprehensible abomination; but one billion women (and men) STRIKING for a day - to DANCE in the streets - is certainly an act of GLOBAL, NON-VIOLENT EVOLUTION.

Join us. Be the change. Strike. Dance. Rise.

One Billion Rising
[If you receive Words of Power via e-mail, just clink on the link above to go to the video.]

November 14, 2012: The Dirty Weather Report

The Climate Crisis is our greatest national security threat, our greatest economic threat and our greatest human rights issue; and as insane as it will seem to the future (if there is a future), the four men running for the highest offices in the U.S. government just spent a collective 6 hours of prime-time debate avoiding any mention of it (so did the so-called "journalists" who moderated).

Ironically, the man elected President in 2000, but whose rightful place was usurped, has spent the last twelve years traveling the world, training people of courage and clarity of mind, organizing, and marshaling resources (including his own cable news network).

Yes, Al Gore has earned his Nobel Peace Prize.

On November 14, 2012, you can join us for the second annual 24 Hours of Reality, which will be broadcast live in its entirety over the Internet, and from all around the world, including man-on-the-street reports, music, and most importantly, stories from communities moving forward with solutions.

To learn more, visit the Climate Reality Project. But before you do, watch the video embedded below and then share it with your friends and colleagues via Facebook and Twitter.

Al Gore Announcing 24 Hours of Reality: The Dirty Weather Report
[If you receive Words of Power via e-mail, just clink on the link above to go to the video.]

November 6, 2012: Defeat Romney, Without Illusions about Obama

No, it's not a choice between the "lesser of two evils" (we have no time for such adolescent formulations), this is yet another choice between REASON and MADNESS.

In a recent Words of Power I shared the rational, responsible perspectives of Noam Chomsky and Rebecca Solnit (see Fear & Loathing 2012: POTUS Lets the Messenger of A Monstrous Future Get Up Off the Mat; Meanwhile, Chomsky and Solnet Speak for the True Grown-Ups in the Room); in this post (which may well be my last before election day), I offer you the rational, responsible perspective of Daniel Ellsberg:

It is urgently important to prevent a Republican administration under Romney/Ryan from taking office in January 2013. The election is now just weeks away, and I want to urge those whose values are generally in line with mine -- progressives, especially activists -- to make this goal one of your priorities during this period. An activist colleague recently said to me: “I hear you’re supporting Obama.” I was startled, and took offense. “Supporting Obama? Me?!” “I lose no opportunity publicly,” I told him angrily, to identify Obama as a tool of Wall Street, a man who’s decriminalized torture and is still complicit in it, a drone assassin, someone who’s launched an unconstitutional war, supports kidnapping and indefinite detention without trial, and has prosecuted more whistleblowers like myself than all previous presidents put together. “Would you call that support?” My friend said, “But on Democracy Now you urged people in swing states to vote for him! How could you say that? I don’t live in a swing state, but I will not and could not vote for Obama under any circumstances.” My answer was: a Romney/Ryan administration would be no better -- no different -- on any of the serious offenses I just mentioned or anything else, and it would be much worse, even catastrophically worse, on a number of other important issues: attacking Iran, Supreme Court appointments, the economy, women’s reproductive rights, health coverage, safety net, climate change, green energy, the environment. Daniel Ellsberg, Defeat Romney, Without Illusions about Obama, Common Dreams, 10-18-12

Vote on November 6th, vote AGAINST the Hollow Man and the maniac running with him; vote against them in the only way you can truly thwart them. Vote because there is a difference on who gets appointed to SCOTUS, a difference on whether or not Planned Parenthood gets funding, a difference on whether or not women's reproductive rights are protected, a difference on whether or not GLBT citizens are allowed to live their lives to the fullest, a difference on whether or not women achieve economic opportunity in the workplace, a difference on whether or not the E.P.A. is dismantled, a difference on whether or not teachers and nurses are demonized, a difference on whether or not science is devalued and disregarded, and on and on. And it makes a difference on whether or not we launch another foolish military adventure in the Middle East. Make no mistake about it, you won't ever again see the Hollow Man who just agreed with POTUS on foreign policy in that final debate; the Hollow Man's foreign policy brain trust is led by Dick Cheney and John Bolton, and we will be at war with Iran within one year from the grim, world-splitting day he is sworn in.

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of eight books, including Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. Power writes and speaks on spirituality, sustainability, human rights, and security. He blogs at http://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com, and is a member of the Truthout Board of Advisors. He also teaches yoga.

We Exist, Simultaneously, in Absolute Aloneness and Utter Relationality.

Georgia O’Keeffe, Series I, Number (1918)

We exist, simultaneously, in absolute aloneness and utter relationality. We are utterly alone, and yet we exist ONLY as a sum of relationships. This paradox is the divine reality. Every great wisdom teaching, whether of the heart, or the mind or the belly or the root, is framed within this divine paradox, and built upon a foundational realization of this divine paradox.

Those who embrace it are on the path of realizing the truth of the universe and the self. Those who resist it are also on the path of realizing the truth of the universe and the self; but they are robbing themselves of the richness that is theirs to spend, and the power that is theirs to exercise, and so it is a more circuitous route.

It is as simple as this, at every moment, the choice is ours. It does not matter what choices you have made in the past; they have all brought you here anyway.

It only matters what you choose next. And the same will be true in the moment that follows this one. On and on. Yes.

-- Richard Power

Richard Power's latest book, Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril is available now in soft cover and Kindle versions, from Amazon and elsewhere.

"We Must Learn to See in the Dark" - Future Primitive Gaialogue with Richard Power: Humanifesto, How to "Become the Change You Seek in the World"

Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in An Era of Global Peril from Amazon is available in soft cover and Kindle versions from Amazon

The gods and goddesses do not exist as "separate entities." Nor do the avatars. Nor do you and I. The gods and goddesses are like vortices. You and I are like fractals. The avatars are fractals morphing into vortices. There is no "above" or "below" or even "within." All are the dance of particle and wave, all are the revelation of the Matrix. This era into which we enter now demands great courage, great love, great laughter, great patience, great strength, great cleverness, great silence, and great song. You have access to inexhaustible resources of all that will be demanded of you, otherwise you would not be here now. -- Richard Power, Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in An Era of Global Peril, 2012

"We Must Learn to See in the Dark" - Future Primitive Gaialogue with Richard Power: Humanifesto, How to "Become the Change You Seek in the World"

By Richard Power

The life journey of Joanna Harcourt-Smith is a compelling story that spans the turbulent history of our remarkable era: from growing up in Paris, where she learned to speak five languages, to living the fugitive life in Afghanistan with her long-time lover LSD pioneer Timothy Leary, from writing "Little Green Book"(widely read in Europe during the 1960s) in response to Mao's "Little Red Book" to hosting the Future Primitive podcast series from Santa Fe, New Mexico since 2006. So it should not be surprising that Joanna recently invited me to engage in one of her Gaialogues, this one introducing my eighth book, Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in An Era of Global Peril. In this hour-long interview, we explore numerous issues, including the profound challenges of the Climate Crisis, childhood trauma and the power of the Shamanic path, the long-overdue return of the Divine Feminine, the scourges of sociopathy and corporatism, the vital role of women in that great evolutionary leap forward (that must come soon), as well as practical tips on actualizing Gandhi's exhortation to "become the change you seek in the world."

Future Primitive offers a treasure trove of free podcast interviews with a broad spectrum of over 300 iconoclasts and evolutionaries, from Van Jones, , Charles Eisenstein, Daniel Pinchbeck and global trobadour Fantuzzi to Joan Halifax, Riki Ott, Laurie David and Jean Shinoda Bolen. And I am honored to be in their company.

Make yourself a pot of tea or coffee, and take off an hour to indulge yourself and listen to this Gaialogue:



Future Primitive is a Marion Institute project. And I encourage you to support this shining example of the kind of citizens' media so essential to bringing about the massive, NON-VIOLENT evolution our species and our planet so desperately need.

The Inner Game

Humanifesto is about the inner game; it is about what YOU can bring to this profound shift in the nature of civilization and culture. For that is what our circumstances demand of us. And that profound shift in civilization and culture is impossible without a profound shift in consciousness.

Organized into three sections, "Humanifesto" includes both practical techniques for the journey of self-discovery and a bold agenda for collective social action.

The first section, End as Beginning; Perspectives from Within the Singularity is the text of my un-TED talk. It is a twenty-minute presentation. It tells who I am, where I came from, what I have to tell you, and why you should listen to me. I conceived of this un-TED talk in 2010, and have been working on it since, distilling the message down to its essence.

The second section, Primal Reality, is a series of ruminations, revelations and exhortations on light and shadow and the oneness of all life. These writings are explorations in search of new global language for a new global spirituality (embodied and individuated).

I have also included, as an Appendix, Burning Man 2011 – Primal Culture and Core Civilization as A Moveable Feast, my report on Black Rock City. This remarkable event offers us all some powerful lessons. Such laboratories of living are of vital importance.

Our way of life is unsustainable. We are destroying the natural order upon which we depend for our physical existence. Our governance has failed protect us, or our world, from our own ignorance. Governments no longer serves the common good, they has been subverted to indulge the voracious appetites of corporations.

We are lost. And just as we have lost our sense of oneness with the life of the planet all around us, we have also lost our sense of oneness with the divine reality within us. Neither religious fanaticism nor soulless materialism nourish our beings. Sentient life everywhere calls for a new humanism, with which to redeem the past and rescue the future by revitalizing the now.

We must call upon our primal reality to birth a new civilization from the singularity which we have created for ourselves. Our primal reality is not savagery or selfishness or survival of the cruelest; our primal reality is unconditional love and impeccable clarity of mind. And it is accessible to us here and now. Humanifesto (Y-O-U manifesto) is a guide to how to live and be the change we seek in this era of planetary peril.

Do you know why 350 is the most important number in your life and the lives of everyone you love? Go to 350.org for the answer.

Richard Power is the author of eight books, including Humanifesto: A Guide to Primal Reality in an Era of Global Peril, Between Shadow and Night: The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself and True North on the Pathless Path: Towards a 21st Century Yoga. Power writes and speaks on spirituality, sustainability, human rights, and security. He blogs at http://words-of-power.blogspot.com and http://primalwordsofpower.blogspot.com, and is a member of the Truthout Board of Advisors. He also teaches yoga.