I regret not paying better attention to the reviewer of the collected set (one book with three parts and no covers). Do buy the books individually for a more distributed appreciation.
This will sound like sacrilege to many, but in my view these three books in combination replace the Bible as the foundation work for the future of Humanity as God in Community on Earth. There is so much common sense in all three books that I am just blown away.
Although I am 10-15 years late in appreciating the cultural creatives, integral consciousness, one from many, I sense an imminent renaissance of humanity, aided by the amoral wickedness of Dick Cheney and those foolish enough to obey his unconstitutional orders. These three books are our manual for re-establishing Humanity in Community.
Book 1 introduces a God who loves us unconditionally, whom we can have faith in, and who does not need to bloated religious bureaucracies of fear-mongering, hate-mongering, sexually-inhibited priests, imams, and rabbis (some exceptions not withstanding).
The bottom line is this: you can live in fear or live in love–unconditional love. Fear is exclusive, love in inclusive.
Here are the notes I kept:
* Core values are truth, patience, open mind, open heart.
* Arts are inspiration and help spirituality grow and be shared
* Feelings are the language of the soul
* God is found in the highest thought, clearest word, grandest feeling
* Receive and embrace God directly, not via false intermediaries
* Knowing, experiencing, being
* Point of life is to remember the One and rewind back from fragmentation
* You, not God, determines outcomes–live the change you wish to see (Gandhi)
* We choose heaven or hell on earth
* Only by accepting responsibility for ALL poverty and other high-level threats to humanity can we resolve them.
* Judgment fragments and lessens community
* There are no coincidences
* You attract what you fear through emotions
* Choose love, end war–Humanity is losing patience (see Blessed Unrest)
* Sex with joy and sympathy is the ultimate form of love
* Money is the ultimate divider, irrelevant to achieving peace & prosperity
* Stop accepting “original sin” and start remembering you are one with God.
* Passion is in the doing
* Freedom is living life without expectations
* When you are so good you no longer need God, this is God's greatest moment.
* Religions that stress damnation are flat out WRONG. Not possible to offend God, whose love is unconditional.
* Priests and others are a major part of the schism of demanding religions.
* Purpose of relationships is to have another with whom you can share your completeness.
* Love is BEING, not fulfilling a NEED.
* God asks that you love yourself and always make the highest choice.
* Act before thinking; emphasize being, follow a calling in life.
* Gratitude in advance–reciprocal altruism, is the highest path.
* Worry can be fatal. Stop worrying.
This is such an extraordinary movie that I watched it twice and then ordered it from Amazon as a permanent part of my library.
Ed Harris moves into the very top ranks of male actors. He is nothing less than brilliant, an Oscar on steroids. Diane Kruger is utterly lovely and talented and surely a rising star of great importance and nuance.
The music is devastatingly perfect, there is so much life in this movie that I am inspired.
“The vibrations are God's breath. Music is God's message.”
Marginal Mish-Mash, Annoying to the Intelligence or Digital Professional
October 7, 2007
Dan Brown
This could have been a great book, but the author chose to mix up a kludge of capabilities, fabrications, and red herrings that in the end do nothing other than irritate the intelligence or digital professional looking for a good read.
The “chapters” are 3-6 page vignettes. The book is totally out of touch with reality and I seriously question whether the author actually had help from two “anonymous” NSA employees.
NSA is cash poor–it does not pay well, all of the money goes to beltway bandits that over-charge for single-point technology solutions and outsourced butts in seats.
There is no 5 story crypto vault. Crypto is the LEAST important aspect of what NSA does–pattern analysis and finding links between specific communications devices is 80% of what they do.
NSA does not run clandestine human agents (at least not legally) and it does not do break & entry, that is done by a special CIA unit that is has been my privilege to help on multiple occasions when I was in the clandestine service.
The NSA translation capabilities are largely software, not hardware.
Navy Commanders are in their 30's and 40's, not “56” and certainly not also Deputy Directors of NSA, a flag officer position generally held by a civilian while the Director is a three-star flag officer.
Bottom line: this book is flawed on so many levels I explicitly do not recommend it to anyone, professional or casual.
Just behind Le Carre at the latter's best (George Smiley)
October 7, 2007
Charles CUMMING
This book is quite satisfying. It is not as good as John Le Carre at his best (the George Smiley series), but on balance, for an author that evidently lacks a professional background in intelligence, it filled time crossing the Atlantic and I could not ask for more.
A few highlights that struck me as worthy of a note:
The author does a good job of depicting the pain and discomfort of car surveillance, but completely misses the most important part: the stench of two human beings and assorted drinks and foods after 10 hours can be quite over-whelming.
He does a good job of pointing outthat historical repression is not forgotten and highly relevant to evaluationg today's events.
He does a fine job of outlining how rogue counter-intelligence operaitons, unsanctioned murders of suspected terrorists, makes the perpetrators no better than those they seek to neutralize. I was among those who signed the letter to Senator John McCain against CIA's practice of rendition and torture, CIA Director Mike Hayden's second violation of the Constitution and his oath of office (the first was his warrantless wiretaps when Director of NSA, a decision since ruled illegal by the courts).
Thee author addresses the questions: how do you fight terror if out of control rogue elements adopt terror as their own tactic?
There are enough Spanish-language phrases to justify the tax write-off the author undoubtedly took for his travels to Spain.
I absolutely love his point toward the end, “the terrorists did not count on the government's covering up.” This is what happened when President Kennedy was assassinated by a CIA-trained and CIA-equipped team of Cuban exiles who murdered our President for his “betrayal” at the Bay of Pigs.
He touches on how 20-30 families control Spain (this is generally true in many countries, in El Salvador they refer to the “14 families.”
Bottom line: decent and recommended. When the author absorbed more professional trade-craft and focuses more on the story line and less on the scattering of tax-deductible Spanish phrases, he just might exceed John Le Carre. I will watch for his future offerings, and plan to buy and read anything he writes in the future.
This is a remarkable book that was given to me as a gift by a Dutch entrepreneur who has himself been exploring the potential for higher energy and good intentions among individuals and groups. Although it has no bibliography, the story that it tells is quite remarkable and quite valuable as illumination and explication of the only viable path for a sustainable future for mankind, diverse species, and the planet.
I list other books below, in several categories (limited to ten hot links by Amazon, sorry), but would hasten to add that if I had to go back in time and read only one book to clarify for myself both the misguided negative energy path I have been following, and the ease of adopting an open good intentions energy sharing path, this is that book.
The bottom line on this book is that faith, blind faith, is not empowering, it is merely a panacea. Consciousness is the real experience; achieving higher consciousness is what the scriptures mean when they say “the truth shall set you free.” At the end of it all, this book encourages all well-intentioned individual to “lead the many to righteousness.”
I will summarize the nine insights to help those who might be skeptical of the value of this book, and would emphasize there is no substitute for “being there” with the book in hand, digesting its message page by page (very well presented by the publisher).
#1 Critical Mass. While the title emphasizes the number of individuals who are reaching critical mass (Cf. Cultural Creatives), the insight is about one's becoming conscious of coincidences that are not really coincidences, they are good intentions becoming manifest.
#2 Longer Now. This title naturally reminds us of Stewart Brand's Clock of the Long Now but is more pointedly about thinking in time in millennium terms, and more specifically, the fall of grace when the church was abandoned for science, and science led to secularity, and neither proved capable of understanding, much less managing, complexity (See also Collapse of Complex Societies).
#3 Matter of Energy. This insight focuses on the need to learn to perceive invisible energy (quantum physics at core, universe is pure energy). See also the DVD, What the *Bleep*). I especially liked the zen-like aspect of this chapter, on the energy that is generated from perceiving beauty in all its vividness, on seeing mini-environments, and on understanding that the physical universe is responsive to our intentions and expectations (See also The Social Construction of Reality, for a more academic approach).
#4 Struggle for Power. At the intermediate stage of development, humans compete for energy rather than realizing that collaborative or collective intelligence can create infinite energy, infinite wealth. Violence results, negative energy undermines the confidence and capabilities of groups (e.g. the five billion poor). This is where most of us are now.
#5 Message of the Mystics. Here the author emphasizes the role of mystical experiences in helping individuals make the leap from the past (see next item) and into a future of high consciousness that is inherently positive, forgiving, open, and engaging. The ability to receive and to give energy in a catalytic way, rather than draining energy in competition, is emphasized, as is the reality that love gives energy, and all forms of love are to be nurtured. The chapter emphasizes that the universe can provide all the needed energy to all without scarcity or competition, provided that mankind evolves to this higher consciousness of collaboration and sharing.
#6 Clearing the Past. In an unexpected twist, this chapter focuses on the family and the eras of parental control over children with good and bad results, generally emphasizing the bad as the parents competed in shaping the child. The author emphasizes the need to clear out the past, recognize the “dramas” that one plays out, and finally, in reconciliation, discover that inner direction and good intentions in accomplishments are all that are required to “live” righteously and happily.
#7 Engaging the Flow. Consciousness allows engagement, empowerment, and interactive evolution, the need to enjoin the negative, recharge often, stay full of energy, and stay in love with all things.
#8 The Interpersonal Ethic. Following up on 7, this insight opens by stating that love keeps us healthy, and that the relationship between stress or lack of love and disease cannot be underestimated. (Side note: I have noticed with interest that the Catholic Church is now teaching that sex after children and menopause is a form of co-evolution of man and wife, and not something to be denigrated simply because children are no longer possible.) This is the most complex and lengthy chapter of the nine. My notes include the need to recognize that fear and hate are based on misunderstanding. The chapter cautioned on becoming addicted to any single source or object of love, and to avoid at all costs treating children as anything other than young adults–eschew the myths and the adult entertainment, and go straight to the truth with children on all things. The chapter concludes by focusing on the need for every person to be fully in touch with both their masculine and feminine side, and emphasizes that love is at its best when both partners are complete in and of themselves, and sharing their completeness with one another. How we approach other people determines how quickly we evolve. Excluding anyone is negative. TRUTH is the common factor for common advancement.
#9 The Emerging Culture. In this final chapter, there is a sense of hope, an emphasis on slowing down, the thrill to be had from intentional interactive evolution (what Stewart Brand long ago recognized as Co-Evolution). This chapter focuses on the critical mass that are now enjoying their first deep intense introspection, on the emergence of the gift economy of abundance, and of full employment as necessary jobs are filled by multiple individuals. Most significantly for me as a proponent of public intelligence (decision support) in the public interest, “Constant exchange of information is our new economic orientation. Stewardship of the Earth will become integral to us all, and we can and should create Heaven on Earth. This chapter concludes that when we succeed, all religions will be clarified and de-conflicted and we will all become “one.”
History
Landscape of History
Fog Facts
Lost History
Cheating Culture
Missing
Voltaire's Bastards
Religion
Left Hand of God
Dowd on Evolution
Faith-Based Diplomacy
Other by Johnston
Wealth
Infinite Wealth
Wealth of Networks
Wealth of Knowledge
Revolutionary Wealth
There are so many others I could list. Let me end by emphasizing that this one book brought everything together for me, and is the first light on my new path toward helping the five billion poor learn and create wealth “one cell call at a time.”
Buy Individual Books in Order–Replaces Bible
