Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate; our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of god that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

[Nelson Mandela, Inaugural Speech, 1994] — Submitted by Birl Martin

Pending topics for our graduate dissertation/discussion series:

June 11 Evolution As a Way to Cosmic Consciousness — John Hopkins

June 18 The Game: Learning the Rules of Life — Bill Ocheltree

June 25 Serving Through Meditation — David Brown

July 2 Mind and The Reality — Sarah Hunt

THE NEW MILLENNIUM COMES

BY SARAH HUNT

hose of us who are now very old and have lived through the passing century here in America have seen two world wars, a great economic depression, smaller localized wars in Vietnam and Korea, numerous conflicts causing great misery in Africa, South America, the USSR, some still going on, the ruthless depletion of this beautiful planet’s resources for personal greed, and the years of fear of nuclear attack have left an indelible imprint on us. Do we want another century like that?

What will occur in the 21st century rests in the hands and minds of those coming into adulthood or are young adults at this time. As they will set the stage for the coming century, it is important that they look back and assess the wrong thinking that brought about those terrible events.

Many of today’s fine young minds are aware that some traditions handed down to them from their forebears are obsolescent. New traditions will come into being. Clear thinking young people will need to be sure that they replace the old ones with those that will lead us into a more peaceful time of growth and understanding.

Technology has given us some great gifts. One is the gift of communication worldwide. For many, the dream of a Brotherhood of all Human Beings has been the golden ideal, impossible as such a thing seemed. Today a person in Claremont can share ideas on life with a stranger in Malaysia. After this communication, they are no longer strangers; they have become aware that they share the same needs and hopes. With such communication, the divisiveness brought about by the different great religions or ethnic tradition begins to lose its hold on individuals wherever they may be. It is a means of replacing divisiveness with understanding. It will take a long time for this change from divisiveness to brotherhood to occur, but this is the first time in history that mankind has had such an important tool to work with. We live in a marvelous time for a new beginning. Let us take full advantage of it.

One of the most important new traditions to build must surely be a respect for all the religions based on the fact that all have their portion of the same truth — although it seems deeply buried beneath dogmas. Another might be that all mankind must take care of our beautiful planet, knowing that Mother Earth will reward us for that care, knowing also that disasters lie ahead if we do not. Other traditions might emphasize the value of a spiritual way of living which really brings more happiness that any other kind of life.

THINKING WITHOUT WORDS

BY WILLIAM OCHELTREE

lear thinking is the diamond lane on the path of understanding. It can whisk you right  through rush hours of the mind – rationality slowdowns, stop-and-go logic and intellectual traffic jams. Notice the path of understanding; there is no path to understanding. Totality of understanding is the collection of way points along a path that has no end. Belief or faith in information provided by another is not understanding. You are the only one on your path of understanding, and there are no road signs, directions or emergency phones. The good news is: no speed limit. This will not tell you how to get into the diamond lane; it only talks about clear thinking that is an access point on the path.

Consider the following. It is a list of ideas. There is a common subject, but each of the ideas is an individual concept. They illustrate the variety of ways in which we think. Look for the differences.

A thing. — The existence of a thing. — The realization of a thing.

The notion of a thing. — The image of a thing. — The name of a thing.

The cause of a thing. — The purpose of a thing. — The effect of a thing.

The "thing" may be any conscious perception. Whether perceived as definite or abstract, things correspond to one of these three categories:

Matter Energy Information

object action relation

substance happening situation

entity event condition

body episode attribute

material occasion state

particle incident location

element occurrence time

None of these is the thing itself. They are only ideas, which themselves become things. Ideas are happenings, expenditures of energy, busywork of the mind. When a thing is first observed there is impulse to call it something, to give it a name. Doing so, we lose sight of the thing and shift focus to words.

Words are only names. We even give names to names: noun, verb, etc. We give things multiple names and use the same name for different things! We characterize words as agents of subterfuge and impugn them as sexist, demeaning, gender-specific, ethnic slurs, insensitive, or "code words" and insist on the use of correct, sensitive, appropriate, approved or acceptable substitutes. As things, words are information, symbols, bits of data used to convey ideas and meaning. The listener who objects to the use of certain words is obviously not perceiving the speaker's thoughts but evaluating only the words by preconceived definitions.

The brain is an object with consciousness and thought as one of its principal activities. Its primary function is receiving data from the sensory system, then sorting, classifying and storing it as information. This state of activity is simply interaction of matter and energy. It is the mind’s eye, the outer eye (the inner eye is the one that "sees"). Clear thinking begins with seeing things through the mind's eye as they are – not as others would have you see them but absorbing as much fact as possible yourself – and accepting without sentiment, evaluation or judgment. Mind is the disposition of information thus acquired. It is the eye of the soul, the inner eye.

It is important that the mind does not interfere with the looking. The mind is often busy during the act of observing, looking for images and blocking the view. This can result in errors and omissions in the information. The mind may help in filtering out distractions and distortions, but care must be taken to maintain awareness.

SUMERIAN CREATION REVIEW

BY JOHN HOPKINS

he biblical story of man’s creation is a much shortened version of an earlier story found in Sumerian clay tablets. The information contained will surprise us if we look at it carefully.

The Mesopotamian texts place man’s creation at 40 shars, or 300,000 years ago. The gods decided to form a adamu. Man was created in a place called bit shimti, or the house where the wind of life is breathed in. After the adamu was created, woman was formed by ti, which translates as "rib" or "life," hence lady of the rib or lady of life.

The creation was done by several steps. We see one of the gods giving the te e ma, or "that which houses that which binds the memory." The god’s blood was also run through a series of purifying baths to start. The tale continues, using a primitive hominid, informing us that the gods must "bind upon it the image of the gods." Here we see a complete story of evolution ending, and divine guidance taking over to create us, part god and part animal.

Words and ideas from this early culture survive not only in religious works but also in some of the scientific terms we use today. The word naphtha is derived from the Sumerian word napatu, or "stones that flare up." The word shekel, as used in the silver shekel, meant "weighed ingot." The word lulu was used in Sumerian times to note a primitive or mixed man – us.

Aside from this story of creation and the word usage of neighboring cultures that had no such technological advancements at their disposal, of interest is the agriculture in this area of the world at that time. We find origins of the apricot and cherry trees, wine and beer making, yogurt, cream, cheeses, and so forth. All of this in a land of Edin (the Sumerian e. din, or "home of the righteous ones," as later legends show).

To end, I would like to relate the following as a possible explanation for the origin of conscious thought within our species. That is the jump from simple consciousness as we see in the animal kingdom to complex reasoning, our gift from the Gods. What follows is from Sumerian writings, circa 3800 BCE: