But how many are truly ready for such oneness? Are we really prepared to accept universal connectivity?

What does this mean? Let us stop and reflect on what is involved in being connected universally.

Recently a pastor in Florida was threatening to hold a Koran-burning ceremony on the anniversary of the 911 disaster. What could be more divisive than such an act, an act which has been carried out in other countries to incite a crowd against an opposing people. Thankfully the latest news is that he has canceled these plans.

Often we are not aware how divisive our thinking is. Our society is full of divisive and separatist ideas many of which come from our religious rules and regulations and discriminatory moral values. Have a look at some these:

Do you know anyone divorced? Most likely you do. Do you still accept them as a friend and equal? Certain religious traditions in both the East and the West reject divorcees, in particular when it comes to holding a religious office.

What about the pedophile? Do you know any? How do you act towards such a person? Naturally we act in anger and want to protect our children, and rightly so. But what about the person who has committed such acts? Does your desire for connectivity include him? Or the murderer, or thief, or the drunken driver who runs over and kills the elderly and children? Does your idea of Oneness include them also?

And what about those responsible for the 911 attacks? No matter what your theory is as to who did it, to be at one with the world means to be at one with them.

Think of all the atrocities which you can think of involving human action or error. Wars, massacres, oil disasters, bankruptcies, disease, vaccines, gene-manipulation, fraud, to mention only a few. Are you really prepared to accept all of these criminals and egoists into your Oneness? Or does your idea of oneness include exclusions? If it does it is no longer oneness.

The idea of universal connectivity, of all things being one and connected to one another at a spiritual or energetic level is at the foundation of all of our religions, yet it is the one thing which we use our religions to resist. If we are connected no matter what at a deeper level than our physical awareness and this connection is the same for all beings then our acceptance of Unity must include all people, no matter what their religion, skin color, political affiliation, business, family background, crime, sexual orientation, education, skill, mental ability or whether we like them or not.

Either we are connected or not. We cannot have it both ways. We cannot agree to be a part of the great Spirit Unity and hold others at a distance. Even in our endeavors to keep dangerous people at bay we must still remain in unity with those beings or promote separation.

This is not about letting our criminals go free or allowing dangerous people near our children, but in accepting such people as part of our divine connection to all things. There is no judgment. That’s what the holy books tell us. No judgment, no separation, no race, no creed, no difference. We are all the same. We all come from the same Source and return to the same. At Source we are no different form the criminal or terrorist, the homosexual or abortionist. All is One. All is connected.

What are your feelings about this. Share them here.

Blessings to you whoever or whatever you are.

Jim Murdoch
Founder of Jim’s Network the world’s only online coaching community
www.jimsnetwork.com

As I write David Cameron, the new UK Prime Minister, will meet with Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari. These men will make choices which may result in more death and destruction – OR their choices may lead to peace and prosperity.

Such choices have been made throughout history and have more often than not led to war, death and destruction. Did you know that countries seldom go to war against countries? Mostly it is one leader against another, or a small group of people making decisions to send whole nations to war.

Hiroshima should have been the end of all conflicts. But today’s meeting between Cameron and Zardari proves that the lesson has not yet been learned. Here are the leaders of two nuclear nations meeting to discuss the tensions between them. And the world looks on and waits for the outcome.

Alongside these tensions are the feelings of the masses which are being manipulated by the media. It is amazing how the hatred between Christian and Muslim peoples has risen in a few short years. And while the wars continue in Iraq and Afghanistan we wonder at the reasons behind it as news filters through of big industry fueling the invasions – and at what a price!

Is it really necessary to continue on the road of holding differences and pointing the finger at the other side? Hasn’t the death and suffering of Hiroshima been enough warning, and that of the much greater Holocaust? Are we still prepared to allow our sons and daughters be sent to unjust wars just to fill the pockets of a few with cash? Will we tolerate more death and destruction caused by the choices of a few?

Now is the time to reflect on our past and make a choice regarding our future. And by “we” I mean you and I and every human being on planet Earth. It is time to say “Enough!” The time is now when we each one must make a choice of the future we want on this planet. We must begin to project the world of peace and prosperity we each desire into the world of today. Our combined expectations and beliefs for a better future will influence the world and many are doing just that (e.g. http://www.care2.com).

What are you doing today? Are you going to increase destruction through worry, or are you going to bring peace to your world through positive intention?

I am the founder of the world’s only coaching community http://jimsnetwork.com
Get my concise Self-Help e-book for free http://www.youchangeyourlife.com

Stop being quiet about all this. Speak up. Raise a ruckus. Raise the issues. You might even raise some collective consciousness.

On just one issue, for instance. Why not grow hemp and use it to grow paper? Do you have any idea how many trees just to supply your world with daily newspapers? To say nothing of paper cups, carry-out cartons, and paper towels?

Hemp can be grown inexpensively, and harvested easily, and used not only for making paper, but the strongest rope, and the longest lasting clothing, and some of the most effective medicines your planet can provide. In fact, cannabis can be planted so inexpensively, and harvested so easily, and has so many wonderful uses, that there is a huge lobby working against it.

Too many would lose too much to allow the world to turn to this simple plant which can be grown almost anywhere.

This is just one example of how greed replaces common sense in the conduct of human affairs.

So give this book to everyone you know. Not only so that they get this, but so that they get everything else the book has to say. And there’s still a great deal more.

Excerpt taken from Conversations with God, book 3, by Neale Donal Walsch.

It’s true! Whatever god you adhere to, your understanding of that God does not exist. There is no big ogre in heaven waiting for the next feeble human to step out of line or to disobey his utterances and to strike them dead. Such a god is dead. He just does not exist. People are like that, but not God.

There is no such god who favors one human being over another. A god who sends his chosen ones to wipe out a neighboring nation or who blesses one side more than another does not exist.

Look at your scriptures, what do they say? God rains on the wicked and the righteous. God is no respecter of persons. All men are equal in God’s sight. God is love, compassionate and forgiving. Does that represent the God you have been taught about? Too often we humans portray our weak, jealous feelings onto the Divine Entity who created our world, and we expect him/her to respond in a human way.

Fortunately for us, God is more tolerant than we are, and more patient. God to me is a Universal Intelligence who sees the big picture. He sees the beginning from the end and knows all things. God is also part of you and me. As the ultimate expression of love and light God is also expressed in all of creation, including you and me. That means I am an expression of the Divine, and you are too, as is the enemy across the frontier.

No, it is not God who is dead, but the faulty perception we have of God which is dead. God is very much alive, and alive in every human being, animal, fish and plant. Think of that. When one man kills another, he is killing God! Isn’t it easy to understand why God, no matter in which religion he is represented (or misrepresented), implores us to love our brother and sister, our neighbour and even our enemy. In doing so we are expressing the God part of our being.

What do you think? Is the god of your tradition dead? Or is He/She very much alive in all that you think, do or say?

It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.

We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.

We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensible to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.

Affirm the Charter http://charterforcompassion.org/

My guess is that you want to say “yes” to these questions, but you are actually answering “no”. Why is this? Because institutions are deciding these answers for us. Yes it’s true! In all four of these areas of your life you have not and do not choose. You disagree? Let us explore.

When it comes to your health are you choosing what you put into your body or are you allowing the media, the supermarkets and even your family determine what you eat, or allowing your doctor decide what medications you should be taking? How many of those choices have you truly made yourself. In most cases I am sure you would agree you have taken the common route, the path of least resistance, and allowed society to tell you what to eat and what to do when you get a headache. And most likely if you were eating healthier you would not be having any headaches in the first place.

Making your own conscious choices about what you put into your body can have a positive affect on your health. Observe your body. How does it react and feel after certain foods? Avoid those foods that leave you feeling slack and without energy and choose the food that makes you feel good an hour after you eat it.

What about your time? Are you the master of your own time? Or are you the slave of circumstances and habit? How often do we conform to what others want just to keep the peace? It’s bad enough having an employer where we give our time for the money we earn, but what about the rest of our time? How much time do you take for yourself? It is important to pursue your own desires and dreams and satisfy your own pleasures. This is not to say you ought to ignore everyone else around you, particularly those depending on you. But it is important to get a balance and have time that is only for you.

I bet you think you have control of your money. Well apart from taxes (we’ll leave that one as we all enjoy the benefits of roads, transport and trade etc.) how much of your hard earned money do you spend voluntarily on things you actually want or need? Observe again how often you will buy something because the advertisement appealed to you, or the display in the store attracted you, or even because your friend said this is a must. After you buy it you wonder why or it lies around unused. How much food do you throw away becuase you fell for the big sales and specials and ended up buying much too much food?

So are you really in control of your money? Is your money serving you as it ought to? Are you treating your money with respect, because if you do it will return to you. Setting money aside for later is a big plus and a must. Small amounts mount up and you will be grateful for that years from now. I’m not saying to spend sparingly, that could stifle the flow, but spend wisely, and most of all, make your own choices.

One more thing – have you chosen what you believe in? Now when it comes to religious belief the answer is most likely not. You have accepted the beliefs handed down to you. The same is true about how you are currently looking at life, you got educated and got a job and pay into your pension fund because that’s what you were taught and what you subsequently believe in. But these things are nothing more than belief systems passed down to us. But are they the right things and are they serving us today? We need to take a close look at why we believe things and why we do things in certain ways today. Could it be that you are not meeting with success and not fulfilling your dreams because of restricting and limiting beliefs from the past?

We need to take control of our beliefs and choose what is beneficial and profitable for life and discard all that isn’t.

So are you free? Or do you need to make a few adjustments. Remember, everyone around faces the same challenge, so be gentle.

I believe in our spiritual nature, that we are made up of body, soul and spirit, or the physical, emotional and that something other which constitutes the real you and me, what I call our spirit. It is the connection to a greater Divine Spirit at this level which I believe is the source of all of our power and capabilities.

Think of everything as energy. Ask a physicist and they’ll tell you this is true. Everything in this world, the entire universe is only energy. Matter, the stuff we call physical – the stuff we can touch and sense with our physical senses, is also only energy. Everything vibrates at different frequencies; a rock vibrates a lot slower than water, and water is slower than air, and air is slower than light and light is slower than spirit. The rock, made up of atoms and electrons, like everything else, is really in constant movement. But to us it feels like it is not moving at all, but still and hard.

Even our thoughts are energy. When we think we are in fact sending out signals at a certain frequency. Anything vibrating at or resonating with that frequency will pick up that thought-signal, or resonate with it. This is the basis of the Law of Attraction. Like attracts like. So when we think bad and fear the worst we are in fact drawing those things towards us.

When we think positive thoughts and dwell on our desires which should benefit mankind in some way, we are resonating at spiritual frequencies. We are connecting with the Divine. This is why meditation is so helpful; it gets rid of all the noise of distracting and negative thoughts and allows us to focus our intention, our spiritual frequencies, on the single idea of our desire.

What do you think? DO you have an experience with this inner, spiritual power? Comment below.

“You’re hopeless!” “You can never do anything right!” “Your brainless!” “You’ll never amount to anything!” “You’re a dead loss!” “No one can trust you to do anything right!” A child who hears these things spoken to it over and over again, being repeatedly demoralized and put down, will believe what is being said and live each day depressed.

If you are a parent and you have been speaking to your child like this, then stop now! You are razing your child, destroying their self-esteem and their future potential.

If someone you know is doing this, encourage them to speak words of encouragement. If a scolding is necessary, or even if a nasty comment slips out, let it rest with that. Do not continue to repeat the phrase. There’s no need to make the wound deeper. If a negative scolding or insult is made make an effort to lift the child up with a word of love and appreciation. Speak as you would like to be spoken to.

And this isn’t only for treatment of children, it’s good for dealing with anyone. By ending every communication with everyone you speak with with a positive word of encouragement or appreciation you are raising their self-worth. Not only will they feel better, in spite of any mistakes made, but you will feel better and they will go on to reflect that good feeling to the next person they meet.

What kind of wave do you want to spread, a wave of despair or a wave of joy?

Thoughts are a little like that. They grow old and become lifeless when the flow stops. The thinking behind old ideas becomes lifeless, powerless and out of date. They no longer serve a purpose and need to be replaced with new ideas, new thinking. In short, old ideas, old thinking, stinks.

Too many of us are still living the lives of our grandparents, or even our ancestors. The old way of doing things is what fills our lives. They get us through, just about, but they no longer meet our modern needs. Many of these ideas are religious. We live by the rules, we live by the book, and if it was good enough for grandma it’s good enough for me, my kids and grandkids too. This kind of thinking is stinking and will never improve your future. It keeps you living in the past.

It is time to let go of the past and nurture the new progressive thinking. Whatever is pure and good think on that. If it benefits humanity think on that. If it propels us into a future of peace and harmony then think on those things. Don’t be a stinker, be a thinker.