I just Awesomed all over the Place!!

Posted on December 17, 2016 by Rod's World

I’m reading The Code of the Extraordinary Mind by Vishen Lakshani, founder of Mindvalley. In it, he defines three kinds of happiness:

Happiness from Special and Unique Experiences
Happiness from growth and Awakening
Happiness from Meaning

Chances are we live our life somewhere in between our highest high and lowest low. Researchers call this phenomenon hedonic adaption. Vishen talks of using Blissipline to raise our happiness on a daily basis through three practices:

The Power of Gratitude
Forgiveness
The Practice of Giving

So how do you raise your happiness levels, let’s look at what the world has been saying about it over the years:

1. There are times in my life, I have thought, Why Me!!, now I realize I would not be leading the extraordinary Life I do now without these experiences.

2. Do not give up your happy land for others, you have to live there: Happiness is a warm Gun.

3. The first five statements sum up our childhood until they put us in the system that is meant to educate us. Fight for the right to party to be happy.

4. Not as easy as this classic Banksy image makes it: Letting Go.

5. One ingredient that helps a lot is a simple smile, practice it daily.

6. The Power of Now, not our to-do lists. Eckhart Tolle is the man for this: The Power of Now.

7. One of the practices to achieve number 6.

8. At 62 I am having the most awesome years of my life. I call myself an elder of the conscious community who has not brought the bullshit: Elder Hip Hop.

9. We are visiting that time that is the height of Object worship, captured by the retail industry Christmas has lost it original meaning many decades ago.

10.I have a daily practice to repeat the I Love You mantra in the mirror because I know that this is true but that I sometimes forget: Roar.

11. Go on, you know you can put it in your purse or wallet and bring it out when you need to.

12. How old were you when you were told to grow up and act like an adult, hopefully, it still happens today for you: Dancing Queen.

13. This quote comes from The Maxims of Marmaduke, written in 1908. It is ageless and just as relevant in this century.

14. Forgetting those things that wrecked the relationship will have a greater effect than apologizing or forgiving: Forget about Me.

15. Remember these people: Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford, J.K. Rowling, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Mark Pinkus, Jack Dorsey, Susan Boyle, Abraham Lincoln and Colonel Sanders. All took to at least the age of 30 to find their passions and become successful.

So what is your awesome, never give up on finding it, remember it’s a journey, not a destination.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Something out of Nothing!!

Posted on December 12, 2016 by Rod's World

There is a poster in front of me that is advertising the Goodstart Preston program, on it is written the statement Creativity is more than artistic expression, it’s a safe and engaging way for children to explore their feelings and imagination while developing motor skills and language.

Remember as a child when you had imaginary friends who could be dragons, princes, and princesses or the brothers and sisters you didn’t have. Where has that incredible creativity gone in our more mature life? Let’s have a look at what society has said about creativity over the years:

1. From a conflicted and unhappy childhood, Dorothy Parker rose to acclaim, both for her literary output in publications such as The New Yorker and as a founding member of the Algonquin Round Table. Following the breakup of the circle, Parker traveled to Hollywood to pursue screenwriting. Her successes there, including two Academy Award nominations, were curtailed when her involvement in left-wing politics led to a place on the Hollywood blacklist.

2. I love this statement by Brene Brown, sharing your soul with the world, what a way to describe creativity: You Have to Get Back UP.

3. I thought John Kennedy said this, but it was definitely George. Over his 94 years, he wrote an incredible 60 plays, the best known being Pygmalion, a stalwart of the school curriculums. A little-known fact is that he opposed vaccination back in the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s.

4. Probably my favorite quote maker. Albert Einstein’s work is contagious and I love passing it on: Pass it On.

5. It’s Santa time. How old were you when you stopped believing or are you a survivor?

6. We remain loyal to people but how often do we give up on our gifts because we are told by society they are not the way to make our living: Get Lucky.

7. Fahrenheit 451, one of the most iconic sci-fi books ever written. The novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and “firemen” burn any that are found. The book is named after the assumed temperature at which paper combusts. Thank goodness for Kindle.

8. Paint attracts the child in one because it so bright. But when Danny was around on TV it was black and white. Here is a classic dance routine from his show with Gene Kelly: Danny and Gene.

9. Do you remember those puzzles that were popular where you had to go outside the box. If you solved them you were a creative.

10. A lot of Creatives never make it to their Uni graduation. Here is one of the most famous and his speech about it: Be Inspired.

11. Do you know that most things that are created are after an incredible journey of failure, Edison being the classic example with the electric light bulb.

12. You can Dance if you want to: A koan for creativity: Safety Dance.

13. It’s essential ot remember the last element, have fun on your creative path.

14. I know I have made some awful flub ups because of my unwillingness to let go of my certainty about life I think I’m making one at the moment : Get Back Up.

15. As I mentioned before I thought JFK had made a quote, he didn’t but he definitely said this one. Idea’s are timeless as is your creativity.

So fight for your right to party/stay creative. It’s that part of you which can make the world a better place.

Namaste until next time , my dear friends.

This is Brilliant, You are Awesome!!

Posted on December 9, 2016 by Rod's World

Caught up with the woman who started my blogging career tonight at a publicity do for her book on writing, Use your Words. I did her Gunnas writing course about two years ago and had not committed a word to print before attending. I am now up to blog 187. Here’s a link to her web page, if you ever intend writing your words, check it out: Catherine’s web page.

Cath gave some amazing tips during her talk, one being don’t seek feedback, they are your words, write them and then find a publisher or self-publish. Also, that whoever tells you that writing is easy is bullshitting you, It’s hard.

So what does the world say about the art of writing your words, let’s have a look.

1. I think I have done some things worth writing about. Interrupting the main street of Leningrad to run down with the mayor and the Minister for Sport on a Friday afternoon being one of them.

2. Great books to me are just as visually stunning as a great painting. The images you create as you read the words stick with you as long as seeing the Mona Lisa or Blue Poles : You’re The Voice.

3. People probably think Elizabeth Gilbert sat down one day and churned out the million-selling Eat, Pray, Love. Gilbert earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from New York University in 1991, after which she worked as a cook, a bartender, a waitress, and a magazine employee. She wrote of her experience as a cook on a dude ranch in short stories, and also briefly in her book The Last American Man (Viking 2002). It was not until 2006 she wrote Eat, Pray, and Love.

4. I have probably written as many wrong words as I have words that have ended up in these blogs: Elastic Heart.

5. I stopped writing this blog for three months when I had a thinking block that went something like this: No one is reading it anyway, so what will it matter if I stop.

6. I put Namaste at the end of every blog I write, it means one soul recognizes another. I hope that you can see mine in my writing : Say my Name.

7. We are all organisms, from our pet cats to the curious breed known as writers.

8. The world’s greatest booby prize, perfectionism. At the Gunnas master class, our first exercise was to write for 5 minutes, which was actually 15 which proved to us all that we could write: Hear You Me.

9. Just start your writing, now not later.

10. My 89-year-old mum can still recite William Wordsworth’s I wander lonely as a cloud. It must have filled her heart upon reading it. William got his job done: Daffodils.

11. I don’t know how many times I have thought is that revealing too much Like that I have been hospitalised 6 times for mental health issues, then I realise writing is not about censorship.

12. Motivation follows action, do you give up your designated writing times and word targets, never ever ever: Instant Crush.

13. What people think of your work is none of your business, as long as it makes you a better person, who gives a shit.

14. Write real words, real stories about real people, because that is who you are writing them for.

15. I only found out about Maya Angelou after she had passed. Maya Angelou , born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and was credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.

I say I am a blogger, but am willing to own that I am a writer as well. I think the two words mean the same thing.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

How Poor are You?

Posted on December 5, 2016 by Rod's World

It’s that time again, Christmas traditions around the world have been around for hundreds, if not thousands, of years and continue to change as time passes. Whether it’s Christmas in India or a visit from Pere Noel in France, different customs are celebrated around the world, all emphasising time with loved ones as a priority. How much each person spends on Christmas gifts can differ based on the culture they were brought up in and the traditions they need to uphold. Billions of people gather worldwide to celebrate the festive occasion.

Our tradition is opportunity or thrift shop presents, a sustainable way of gift giving that does not add to the ever growing pile of Xmas presents created each year.

But is this exchange really the heart of giving, let’s see what society says about that:

1. An artist with an extraordinary gift, Pablo Picasso clearly found his, although there are many an individual who would disagree with that statement. His art falls in the love or hate category.

2. Even though it may not happen at the exact moment you do it, realise you are raising the quality of the planet by lifting others on their journey: Great Spirit.

3. Robert Brault is a free-lance writer & author who has contributed to magazines and newspapers in the USA for over 40 years. His short thoughts and observations are quoted on thousands of internet sites each day. Some of his most popular books include Round Up the Usual Subjects: Thoughts on Just about Everything, The Second Collection: Thoughts and Other Writings. You can follow him on his personal blog – HTTP://rbrault.blogspot.in..

4. This is making a huge request of people to receive the blessing involved. It could transform your life : Send my Love.

5. The author of numerous books on success Jim Rohn always included giving in how he told people to attain success. He was not a make a shitload of money for yourself sort of guy.

6. I was in a cafe the other day having my favourite soy hot chocolate and almond croissant treat the other day when an obvious sufferer of mental health problems asked me to buy her a latte. I did and she kissed me on the head and hand to thank me: Come In from the Cold.

7. One of the great books ever written , The Tao Te Ching, along with the Zhuangzi, is a fundamental text for both philosophical and religious Taoism, and strongly influenced other schools, such as Legalism, Confucianism, and Chinese Buddhism, which when first introduced into China was largely interpreted through the use of Daoist words and concepts. Many Chinese artists, including poets, painters, calligraphers, and even gardeners, have used the Daodejing as a source of inspiration. Its influence has also spread widely outside East Asia, and it is among the most translated works in world literature.

8. When was the last time you really felt that you made a difference? You get to say after all: Stand Up.

9. This could be as simple as a smile or saying hello to a stranger.

10. My mother , who was a Brown Owl distilled this in all of her children, I am known as the world’s greatest volunteer: Happiness is Helping Others.

11. I am involved with a Self Development company called Collective Potential. whose target market is 25 to 35-year-olds who have discovered their why in life is not making $100,000 a year. We work with them on discovering their purpose in life tht turns them on again.

12.Bryant McGill (born November 7, 1969) is an American author, aphorist, speaker and activist in the fields of self-development, personal freedom and human rights. He walks his talk : Human.

13. Love in Motion, sounds like a great song title as well as a way to look at life.

14. This beautiful clip covers why giving is an essential part of a healthy life : Give.

15. Probably where the title of this blog came from. You do not need a lot of money to give, as long as you have a generous heart people will get you.

So I didn’t mention gift giving much at all did I, that’s because it is an invention of the capitalist society that is taking over the true meaning of giving. Please don’t forget the original heart-based theme.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Seeing Is Believing?

Posted on December 1, 2016 by Rod's World

I think it’s sad that what we get to see what is happening around the world is war and mayhem reported as news by mainstream media. Why is is it that the great deeds of giving of time and acts of bravery not concerned with killing another human being are not deemed to be newsworthy. What is is that we allow our soul to see on a day to day basis and how do we interpret it, let’s go on that journey:

1. What did Gandhi see on that day he declared in English controlled India we shall be free when there was no evidence for this? What is your vision for your life? Mine is Love and Respect for all, Everyone Included.

2. All of us learn throughout our lives. It starts from the day we are born. It is now recognised that the early years of life are the most important for learning. That’s when the foundations for the future are laid, and when we begin moving down the path that will take us through childhood, the teenage years and ultimately into adulthood. So it takes something to see with new eyes, do you have the strength to do it?: New Eyes.

3. When you sight sees hatred and racism and sexism and agrees that that is what is happening you have lost contact with any religious leaders vision for the planet. because they were disciples of love before we labelled them and stuffed it up.

4. What do you see? Is it the same thing as when you were an innocent child. How often do you get in contact with your inner child. have you forgotten their name?: Hello. Is is me you’re looking for?

5. Lucky for society in regard to the man who said this some people were seeing.

6. John Kabat-Zinn is one of the great doyens of mindfulness. here he is speaking on its benefits: 3 Minutes.

7. How often are we amazed as we get older, perhaps we have stopped doing this.

8. Punks, Bikers, Tattoo wearers, we all know what that means don’t we? Have we stopped seeing life in new and wondrous ways? I say we return to the great wisdom: Beyond Appearances.

9. I am the world’s most crap photographer. I agree with this statement wholeheartedly. Then there is my friend Jac Price, she is extraordinary, here her FB page : Your World In Pictures.

10. Sight is granted to the majority of human beings, unfortunately, it does not come with the added requirement of wisdom for many: The Song of Wisdom.

11. Wouldn’t this be a remarkable way to relate to the people in your life, frigging amazing!!

12. Self-explanatory really.

13.Rumi , also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (Persian: جلال‌الدین محمد رومی‎‎), Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī (جلال‌الدین محمد بلخى), Mawlānā/Mevlânâ (مولانا, “our master”), Mevlevî/Mawlawī insightful words are as poignant now as they were 700 years ago when they were first written.

14. We often blame the rain for our shitty moods, on what we see and say on those days that the weather is not so sunny. A bit pathetic really: I can see clearly Now.

15. Long’s teaching focuses on freeing the individual from unhappiness which he defined as ‘happy today, unhappy tomorrow’. He stated that this fluctuating condition is set in motion and maintained by an addiction to thoughts and the emotions they create. These emotions encourage other thoughts and so a vicious cycle is initiated. We are trapped in this cycle, he suggested, until we follow “the way of truth”. It includes:

constant vigilance in observation of one’s thoughts, emotions, and actions;
meditation to still the mind and connect with life within i.e. what “I” call “me”; “feeling the well-being in the body”;
being, without thought; the next step on from meditation;
getting your life right, taking action in those areas of your life which disturb you because something is wrong.

Do you believe that everything you see is the truth, why is your truth more relevant that the other 7,000,000,000 million truths on the planet? Have a think about that?

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Be the Energy you want to Attract!

Posted on November 28, 2016 by Rod's World

I have not seen the Southern Cross or the Milky Way for a while, this gives away I live in the Southern Hemisphere on our beautiful planet. Seeing that belt of billions of stars put into perspective how large this universe really is, and we are merely one of thousand’s of galaxies.

So why did they put us here alone as is the current scientific belief and what is our purpose, in fact, your purpose in the Universe.

Let’s go on that journey:

1. Talking to the stars doesn’t do it, It makes for a nice date, but it gets very little done.

2. The insights of Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī aka Rumi have helped empower the human race for centuries, here’s a little question from him to you : Poetry in Motion

3. And an insight that supports the universal statement that we are all Starseed.

4. One of the subjects we spend billions of dollars on in courses books therapists, can I really trust anyone, let alone myself: Trust.

5. In 2004, bad boy Billy Fingers Cohen, a homeless small-time drug dealer and addict in a state of drug-induced euphoria ran into a busy intersection and was killed instantly by a speeding automobile. He left behind a grieving sister. For weeks she struggled with grief and tried to make sense of Billy’s seemingly wasted life and tragic death.

A few weeks after his death, William Cohen, aka Billy Fingers, woke his sister Annie at dawn. ‘I’m drifting weightlessly through these glorious stars and galaxies and I feel a Divine Presence, a kind, loving beneficent presence, twinkling all around me.’

Billy’s ongoing after-death communications take his sister on an unprecedented journey into the bliss and wonder of life beyond death. Billy’s profound, detailed description of the mystical realms he traverses, the Beings of Light that await him, and the wisdom he receives take the reader beyond the near-death experience. Billy is, indeed, as Dr. Raymond Moody points out in his foreword, explaining the phenomena we’ve known about since ancient times, an afterworld walker.

6. Yes, you. Those negative thoughts are just wake up calls. Out of the pj’s on with the clothes and let’s rock it: You are a Child of the Universe.

7. I’ll let you work this one out, Buddha was and is a dude. here are nine values places on him, Recollection of nine virtues attributed to the Buddha is a common Buddhist meditation and devotional practice called Buddhānusmṛti. The nine virtues are also among the 40 Buddhist meditation subjects. The nine virtues of the Buddha appear throughout the Tipitaka, and include:

Buddha – Awakened

Sammasambuddho – Perfectly self-awakened

Vijja-carana–sampano – Endowed with higher knowledge and ideal conduct.

Sugato – Well-gone or Well-spoken.

Lokavidu – Wise in the knowledge of the many worlds.

Anuttaro Purisa-damma-sarathi – Unexcelled trainer of untrained people.

Satthadeva-Manussanam – Teacher of gods and humans.

Bhagavathi – The Blessed one

Araham – Worthy of homage. An Arahant is “one with taints destroyed, who has lived the holy life, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, reached the true goal, destroyed the fetters of being, and is completely liberated through final knowledge.”

8. Anyone studying the philosophy of the Universal facts knows the name of Alan Watts, the great interpreter of eastern philosophy : Why Life is not a journey!!

9. Yes, you are that important, every minuscule moment of the day.

10. Here are those stars I mentioned before in their grandeur. We’ll come looking for you in a little while.

11. That sweet soul music of your heart, they can hear it on that planet to the left of Alpha Centauri.

12. Even down the highway to hell would satisfy me : Highway to Hell.

13. Tom Jones called it The Green, Green , Grass of Home. You have one patch you can make bootiful, look in the mirror.

14. I shudder at the power of this statement by Eckhart Tolle, did you realise you were a miracle: You make Loving Fun.

15. And a scientific fact for those moments you feel alone in the big, big universe we all exist as part of.

I didn’t mention where I got the idea for the blog today, from Gabbie Bernstein’s fine book : The Universe Has Your Back.

Namaste until next time my dear f

Everything Matters, Land is Precious!!

Posted on November 24, 2016 by Rod's World

I am currently reading Stan Grant’s book, Talking to my Country, an indigenous reporter who gave a remarkable speech about how his people had been treated for the 200 years of white occupation : The speech. It tells his story growing up black in white Australia, a country which did not count their indigenous as humans beings ILO flora and fauna until 27 May, 1967, it is a powerful read.

So how do we hold country around the world, I have selected some quotes from the new residents and the indigenous residents of the lands that make up the earth, lets go for a wander:

1. François Fenelon (6 August 1651 – 7 January 1715), was a French Roman Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet and writer. His best knowing writing is : A people is no less a member of the human race, which is society as a whole, than a family is a member of a particular nation. Each individual owes incomparably more to the human race, which is the great fatherland, than to the particular country in which he was born. As a family is to the nation, so is the nation to the universal commonweal; wherefore it is infinitely more harmful for nation to wrong nation, than for family to wrong family. To abandon the sentiment of humanity is not merely to renounce civilization and to relapse into barbarism, it is to share in the blindness of the most brutish brigands and savages; it is to be a man no longer, but a cannibal.”

2. Whilst I am not a great supporter of Religious and Political orders, I like the choice of doing good as the ethics of his religion : Losing my Religion.

3. “Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.” Albert’s take on it. What will the world make of white nationalists being appointed to the Trump administration.

4. I was a year off being a draft dodger because I was definitely not going to Vietnam to serve Queen and Country: War, What is it good for?

5. Captain Jack has the privilege to be able to point out the not so good sides of his country and be listened to.

6. An icon of the protest movement worldwide, he believed that land was for everyone: This Land.

7. William Lloyd Garrison (December 12, 1805 – May 24, 1879) was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known as the editor of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, which he founded with Isaac Knapp in 1831 and published in Massachusetts until slavery was abolished by Constitutional amendment after the American Civil War. He was one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society. He promoted “immediate emancipation” of slaves in the United States. In the 1870s, Garrison became a prominent voice for the woman suffrage movement. Back in that time he lived that his countrymen were mankind.

8. For the love of freedom for his country, Gandhi taught his countries citizens the ethos of non violence, a feat that has not been repeated in the history of mankind at the cost of millions of humans : Gandhi Jayati Special song.

9. A fact that most governments forget, that they are not the land of the country.

10. Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included: Already Home, Already Free.

11. Stan talks about his people’s attachment to the land, they do not own it , they belong to it.

12. The beautiful music of Xavier Rudd, I honour that place he talks about his music coming from: Spirit Bird.

13. The so-called winner gets to write history, how much is fact?

14. When your tribe is humankind, and you do this, the planet and the land will have a chance: Stand By Me.

15. Mainstream media has a lot to do with the resurgence of people of this ilk being elected as representatives in Governments. Look up Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party, she can’t spell white supremacist. By the way this was years ago. She was wrong about the Asians, it has now become the Muslims.

So do you live on your land or in a country. Are you Australian, American ot part of the human race? We need a transformation to the latter for the killing to stop and see the rise of humanity.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

Don’t waste a good Mistake!!

Posted on November 17, 2016 by Rod's World

I have been reading a business development book written by Jack De Losa called Unprofessional. I have learned so much from it and after putting it down last night I thought about what sources I learn from these days and what were the ones I learned from during my previous 61 years.

I suppose the first I remember is Enid Blyton, an iconic English children’s writer who has sold over 600 million books, who has been accused of being elitist, sexist and racist in our more enlightened times but her books always had a high moralistic value that appealed to me.

How do you learn in these days of instant gratification? Do you Google it? Are you an old school radio and print media fan? Let’s have a look at how the world looks at it:

1. Three very important ways to look at learning, how many of them do you utilize?

2. There is a saying the day that you stop learning is the day you begin to die, I think that’s what Robert is referring to : It takes two to Tango.

3. I was often referred to as a curious child, I’m not sure which definition they were referring to: eager to know or learn something or strange; unusual.

4. We all come out with the same amount of knowledge, then it is up to our guardians to ensure that we attain a level of understanding that makes us a worthy human being: Absolute Beginners.

5. Sometimes I think whoever invented the examination system of schooling never learned this in their own education.

6. Check out Bill Cosby’s look in this clip : Reeling in the Years. My mum is 89 and still an avid reader.

7. His work includes several of the most popular children’s books of all time, selling over 600 million copies and being translated into more than 20 languages by the time of his death.

8. I wish I had known this acronym back in the day of my formal education. Called into the office and told not to come back because I hated it and never used to go: Feet , don’t fail me Now!

9. Gratitude is one of the great learning traditions, in Melbourne Australia, my home town, we have an FB page : Daily Gratitude Space. Join us and contribute what you have learned.

10. What a beautiful quote, live full out, learn like you were eternal : Eternal Flame.

11. Love my Lao Tzu, Confucious – Guess Who?

12. From the world’s most famous quotes author, The distinguished Anon. Get on the Unstoppable train : Unstoppable.

13. They say that it will keep occurring until you learn the lesson it/they have been sent to teach you. Yes, Life never stops teaching!!

14. It’s always an idea to do something with the learning, or it is really an obsolete practice: Do it like a Dude.

15. There is that part of learning we often try to ignore and wish that it would go away, guess what it doesn’t and yes, they happened as part of our learning.

Being alive puts you in the daily learning academy, do you resist the lessons or grow from this ever expanding life you have been given.

Namaste until next time my dear friends.

Why does this keep Happening?

Posted on November 10, 2016 by Rod's World

The impossible happened, he won. Coming from the shadow world where he made promises he cannot keep because it is no longer the 1950’s, the world is an international stage and you cannot create a future looking back at the world’s past because the one thing you are guaranteed in life is change.

Yet this is one of the core values of mainstream media, that change is bad for the planet. Look at how they relate to alternative energy, entrepreneurship, and rehabilitation of prisoners versus a law and order regime. So let’s have a journey through the shadowlands:

1. In the past few years, I have been exploring why when it got difficult I used to numb out. I discovered the work of Arion Light at The Activation School and have been living a journey through my body and what it takes for me to flourish since.

2. Suan Sontag was active in writing and speaking about, or traveling to, areas of conflict, including during the Vietnam War and the Siege of Sarajevo. She wrote extensively about photography, culture and media, AIDS and illness, human rights, and communism and leftist ideology. Although her essays and speeches sometimes drew controversy, she has been described as “one of the most influential critics of her generation.” Her most famous book is ” Against Interpretation ” : Batata Vada.

3. We are entering the shadowlands when people take the truth to be what they are spewed out on mainstream media. A missing part of it is Fact checking, most of it would have to be taken off the air if that formula was added.

4. I recently gave up drinking, a habit I took up to crush my empathic abilities in my early twenties. Since doing this I can relate to what Joanne is saying, that you can see too far, the reality for people that is hidden behind a mask: Rolling in the Deep.

5. Born and raised in a Hindu merchant caste family in coastal Gujarat, western India, and trained in law at the Inner Temple, London, Gandhi first employed non-violent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community’s struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women’s rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, but above all for achieving Swaraj or self-rule.

6. Author, poet, and essayist Ursula K Le Guin points out that yes, the planet is in balance, we may just not agree with what is going on: Balance.

7. A number of phrases from Tennyson’s work have become commonplaces of the English language, including “Nature, red in tooth and claw” (In Memoriam A.H.H.), “‘Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all”, “Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die”, “My strength is as the strength of ten, / Because my heart is pure”, “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”, “Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers”, and “The old order changeth, yielding place to new”. The latter of these is extremely relevant given the going on’s in the last few days.

8. Remember when you first realized you had a shadow and tried to get away from it, you can’t: Moonshadow.

9. One of the things we used to believe about the planet, that it was flat, no longer true. But a truth is, you cannot touch your shadow. You can accept them and take their power away, though.

10. Ah, the french philosophers, not sure what this means, but they are beautiful words: Shadowplay.

11. I agree with this line from Don’s hit there is not enough love in the World.

12. Sylvia is one of those creative geniuses who chose to take her own life well before the world wished to see her leave it : Sylvia’s poetry.

13. One of the great fallacies of the new age movement is you can just ignore and let go of the shadows in your life. The more you walk away the more powerful they become.

14. What a great sentence by Sylvia recognizing that we must have dark and light in our lives: The Young Ones.

15. I hope Donald remembers this.

We are about to enter a world with the most powerful man using one liners as policy, it will be interesting times. What color do you want the wall to be?

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.

No matter the Situation!!

Posted on November 7, 2016 by Rod's World

I was always considered intelligent at school but was expelled at the end of Year 11 for non attendance. I may have been intelligent but did not consider a formal education the way to honour it. I spent many a day in Year 11 not attending the institution, Eaglehawk High School I had left my parents home to go to.

Many years later I began the education that would fulfil my desires, in the self development field. Through the tenets of Buddhism and Werner Erhardt and Associates I began a journey that I still continue today that will continue to the day I pass to the other side.So what does society have to say about where the fulfilment of intelligence lies, let’s have a look:

1. My favourite bird, the noble owl suits this quote that Henry Ford made famous in the early years of the last century questioning were people allowed to think in an education system that was set up to train clones for jobs that already existed.

2. Being supremely intelligent did not necessarily mean that you fitted in . Here are some unusual facts about Albert: Quirky Albert.

3. Often people who come up with the great changes on our planet are considered quite crazy because how could their idea work or there is no need for that when they first start talking about it.

4. Janis Joplin, one of the 60’s great philosophers, was not known for her answers , she was known for her questioning of society: Ball and Chain.

5. Albert again, he did not shout in life, just kept improving his arguments until they gave him the Nobel Prize for one of them.

6. Or Love, kindness, inner beauty etc. etc. etc: Money.

7. I read recently you should be the dumbest person in the room if you want to be a success, this relates to that.

8. Epictetus was a Greek-speaking Stoic philosopher. He was born a slave at Hierapolis, Phrygia, and lived in Rome until his banishment, when he went to Nicopolis in north-western Greece for the rest of his life. His teachings were written down and published by his pupil Arrian in his Discourses and Enchiridion: Just Do It.

9. They say when you are born 60% of the jobs you will do have not been invented yet, but in our country they are trying to return the education system to a standardised system throughout the country, why would you do that?

10. There is also a fourth these days, artificial which could be seen as replacing one or two of the above: Prince Ea.

11. How can you keep on learning if you are always the smartest person in the room, if this occurs more times than less, then you are going backwards.

12. Your physical looks do not remain the same, we get lines and wrinkles as the years pile on. Your wit and foresight grow over time: I don’t want to change You!

13. I had to include this one, because I am known as the research nerd, research intellectual bad ass has a much better ring to it.

14. Intelligent people will really get this: Pharrell is Happy.

15. I love this quote by Albert, It’s why I rail against the education system that thinks everyone is the same.

Intelligence is a gift we could all participate in when we enter our lives from the womb, we just need to find the right education path. Don’r rely on the one that the system says is the one that will work for you.

Namaste until next time, my dear friends.