Your contribution is a gift to the Community

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Rod's World

The news that has been being reported in my country is tragic at the moment, multiple deaths that are unexpalinable to anyone with a humane heart. it has made me think how does the community recover from such events when they become permeated in our history, Soon after the event an unknown person placed a bunch of flowers in Martin Place as a sign of the deep loss they felt for the people involved, they probably did not know them but they wanted to say i feel for you in some way.

In an amazing outpouring of compassion, thousands upon thousands of people have followed suit and it has simply become to be known as the martin Place Flowers Shrine.

This has brought me to think what options are available to you to mend a broken heart when something unimaginable happens that renders it asunder.

1. Seek professional help.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote sums up succintly the power of what we are thinking about something has over us. When your thoughts start getting dark and are making it difficult to face the day its time to talk to someone who has been trained in releasing the grip those thoughts have on you.

2. Write about It.

They say it is better in than out and if you find it difficult to talk to someone about it then the option of writing how you feel gets it out of your head and on the page. As they say you can’t start the next chapter if you keep on reading the last in your head.

3. Physical Touch.

I find this one difficult when in the depths of thinking life is not great but in following this koan: Physical touch makes you healthier. Hugs, Massages and holding hands reduces stress while boosting your immune system I have allowed my friends and family to help get me back on the path to wellness.

4. Do what makes you Happy.

Be it spending times with friends and family, physical exercise, watching a film that cheers you up, making something, just do a little bit a day if that is all you can do now, and build it up gradually as this will improve your general demeanour.

5. Meditation.

Your vision will become clear only when you can look in your own heart, who looks outside dreams, who looks inside awakes. Carl Jung expresses very well what the benefits of a daily meditation practice are, meditation is just not for relaxation, its primary purpose is to respond skilfully and gracefully to life’s difficulties as well as its joy. There are many forms of meditation available, from calm abiding to chakra focus. Try one on until you find the type that suits you.

6. Spirituality.

Nothing goes away until it has taught us what we need to know – Pema Chodron, A Buddhist nun and profound thought leader of our generation covers it pretty well, if we think we know the answer there is no opportunity to advance by learning the lesson our circumstances are trying to teach us. Spending a few hours a week reading your favourite spiritual teacher can only enhance your understanding of the world.

7. Shake, Rattle and Roll.

Walking is the worlds oldest exercise and today modern medicine. In the days of driving to work and back home again simple exercise like an half an hour walk can transform your life. I started with this and have built up to cycling every where and three sessions in the gym a week.

8. Dancing.

Dancing with the feet is one thing, Dancing with the heart is Another. We all have our favourite music that touches our heart. Put some on and dance to it. As children this was one of our main pastimes, we have just forgotten the enjoyment we get out of it.

Sorry about the break in blogs, busy over the festive season, Namaste till next times my friends.

Why had I never heard of her?

Posted on December 13, 2014 by Rod's World

My friend Laura said to me at the end of May the world is a sadder place, Maya has passed. As the only Maya I knew was our mutual friend who was in her thirties I was much saddened. little did I know that Laura was talking about one of the giants in the field of words that made a difference worldwide Maya Angelou. I am ashamed I did not know of her, reading some of her quotes I actually did but not that she had penned them.

Maya Angelou born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American author, poet, dancer, actress and singer. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and 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.

She became a poet and writer after a series of occupations as a young adult, including fry cook, prostitute, nightclub dancer and performer, cast member of the opera Porgy and Bess, coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and journalist in Egypt and Ghana during the decolonisation of Africa. She was an actor, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. In 1982, she earned the first lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies at Wake Forest University. She was active in the Civil Rights Movement, and worked with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X. Beginning in the 1990s, she made around 80 appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” (1993) at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration, making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961.

It was probably with a pen like this Maya wrote some of her inspiring quotes, here are my favourite fifteen and what they mean to me

1. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

As we are not listening most of the time to remember the words someone spoke its how people touch our hearts that gets in, isn’t it the people who make our hearts flutter that we look forward to seeing again and again.

2. Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.

When you see somebody who is suffering an attack of the blues, don’t give them more reasons to feel that way, always present with a smile wherever possible, it will be returned to you in spades.

3. There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth.

If we were to believe the mainstream media of today, we would think the truth is no acts of kindness take place on the planet only war, famine and disasters. The truth is that human beings in general have good hearts it just doesn’t seems that media barons believe that good news doesn’t sell newspapers unfortunately.

4. What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it. If you can’t change it, change the way you think about it. Don’t complain.

I have noticed I am spending less and less time with my friends who complain about things instead of getting out there and making the difference. Simply complaining never resolved a single thing in my life, actions did. I’m sure it’s the same for you.

5. Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.

Keep your ethics in line with what you choose to do for your lifetime, do not sell yourself short to be someones friend or lover. Self Love and Love of what you do and the actions you take to do it mean you will succeed in reaching your goals.

6. Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.

Never let the circumstances of a failed relationship kill off the possibility of love appearing in your life again and again. Underneath it all lies Love.

7. Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it!

Are we truly prepared to receive and live our dreams. We must be ready to transform our circumstances when our dreams start coming true. We cannot remain how we were our where we were.

8. Everything in the universe has a rhythm, Everything dances.

When you get down to the atom level, of which we are made you see everything is energy, dancing its dance in life, probably why I love 5 rhythm’s dancing so much.

9. I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as ‘making a life’.

I have done many a job that did not turn me on in my 60 years of life, I was doing them to bring the cash in to survive. I hit many bumps and pot holes making my life but it is smoothing out these days. What you do for a living is just as important as who are your friends in “making a life”.

10. I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.

Heart space, I seem to know that when I decide from here it will all work out. When I listen to my mind lots of What If’s and it won’t seem to come up on a regular basis. Keep training in the methodology of listening to your heart, meditation helps.

11. Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for.

Remember to give yourself holidays on a regular basis. Kick back and just relax, don’t save the planet on these days, recoup your energy, every champion deserves a break.

12. If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.

The search for meaning for yourself is on the inner path, the satisfaction in life is gained in service to others. Making lots of Money at the expense of not giving back to the world is soulless and will stunt your growth and success.

13. Success is loving life and daring to live it.

Another Success quote simple in the question it asks, I dare You!!

14. I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn.

That famous quote that says whether you are 20 or 80 if you stop learning you die, never, ever give up the path of learning. As our life changes moment to moment so does what we need to know to flourish.

15. “Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.”

This is one of Mayas poems, it is beautiful in its simplicity, saying that whatever happens in our lives we will still rise.

These 15 quotes came from a list of 480, perhaps everything you say becomes a quote when you are as gifted and insightful as Maya Angelou. I hope that this list of my favourites gives you some insight into the power of her words.

Namaste until next time, my friends.

Take Some Things off The Table

Posted on December 6, 2014 by Rod's World

Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included. This is my core goal, to have this be the paradigm for the world. My core desired feelings are Love, Peace, Bliss H.O.P.E. – Helping Other People Evolve and Abundance. I need to bring all these into play to achieve such an awesome goal. I had two others, To let my soulmate find me and to be a Kundalini Dance Teacher for Elders that have sort of fallen by the way in 2014 so will reassess them next year.

Often we take on far to many goals for the year and set ourselves up for failure in at least a few of them. People have made an industry out of helping people achieve their New Year Promises made on a dash and a prayer at one or another NYE celebration, a lot of them based on wouldn’t life be better if ……, sort of like your personal wish list.

Usually they are the biggies that have been following us around for a lot of our life, weight issues, money issues, relationship issues, you name it they could be on that list. A much more useful practice would be to say Not yet or even, gasp ditch these things that having been hanging around our necks for time immemorial. How do we do such a revolutionary thing when we have been trying our whole lives with little apparent success.

I have put together a list of suggestions and practices that have worked for me over the journey.

1. Your Life is your message to the World, Make sure it is Inspiring.

You have 86,400 seconds in each day, in fact each human has the same exact amount of them a day. You have the opportunity to have the same effect as Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, The Dalai Lama, Oprah Winfrey on the planet. Use them as powerfully as you can, its in what you give not how much you make.

2. None of us can change our Yesterdays, but all of Us can Change our Tomorrows.

The one thing you are guaranteed in life is change, the more we resist it the more painful the trip is. If you want something in your life, unstick the glue that you have formed your identity with, begin with being real about where you are at this moment.

3. It takes only one Person to change your world – You.

I spent years working in Government service because I had an attachment to feeling safe financially. My heart was speaking to me the last five years to get out and fly but I did not listen ending up with severe mental health issues. Since having my career curtailed I have discovered my passion https://www.facebook.com/groups/Interulturalism/ but I had to travel quite a journey to get there. I am so glad I did.

4. You must make a Choice to take a chance or your life will never Change.

Each and every moment of the day we make instant choices, to brush our teeth, to go to work, to eat a meal. We also have the choice to take a real chance that will make a difference in the direction we are heading. These choices are also instant, just that there is a whole lot of dross in our head that tells us why we can’t, don’t listen to it.

5. The Ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones that do.

Who do you spend you time with, I spend my time more and more with people who have these ideas that take other people getting on board to help better the planet. From Little things Big things grow and I’ve got a biggie.

6. There are no Mistakes.

Making the social media airwaves at the moment is this inspiring 2 minute something video by Oprah Winfrey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ3ucnkDOiY pointing to the fact there are no such things as mistakes in our lives only opportunities. Where we live , what we do, who we hang around with, we chose that.

7. I’ve been embraced by a new community, thats what happens when you’re finally honest about who you are, you find others like you.

Spend time finding out who you are at your heart space, when this emanates from you, then they will come. I met two of the people that inspire me in a Raw food shop.

8. Lifes most persistent and urgent question is – What are you doing for others.

Who do you include in your dreams, if your dream is to own a Ferrari or ten houses then when you get them there will still be that missing factor, How have you improved the lot of others, Focussing on yourself in your actions is the booby prize. You can go internal to resolve your issues but it is in what you provide for others the juice lies.

So these are a few of my practices and suggestions. Get Up, Stand Up for your Rights, its up to Us, Because we Can, its our Time.

Namaste until next time, my friends

Give with All of Your Heart.

Posted on November 29, 2014 by Rod's World

I chose to write on this because I recently watched the inspiring Youtube about Narayanan Krishnan, chef turned social worker who gave up feeding the wealthy in his home city to feed the poor and the homeless, he stated that it wasn’t just about the food it had to also come with love for it to have any effect.

They say the heart is home to our soul and the mind is its advisor, more often than not when we follow our heart it turns out for the better versus the supposedly logical or illogical ideas the minds seems to offer up. The heart is the core of our joy, creativity and loving, It is when the heart is touched by a mighty passion that we perform at our best because nothing can stop us from achieving that which we intend to have happen as did the Incans when they built Macchu Picchu so many years ago.

Love is not discussed in the business world as it is deemed to be about making a profit over emotions such as love. Yet What is Love was the most searched question on Google in 2012. The ancient Greeks decided it was too complex to have one type of love and therefore they had six different words for six different types of love. The two most common are agape, love for everyone and pragma, the deep love that develops between couples over time. People do not tend to remember how much they earned over a lifetime but whose hearts they touched and who touched theirs.

A great exercise to strengthen your heart is to for the next 24 hours notice negative emotions when they happen. Behind each negative emotion there tends to be a negative thought. Notice what you are thinking and turn it around, flip it into something more positive. If you hold that negative thought for more than thirty seconds, start your twenty four hours again. This trains you in focusing on your positives, what you do brilliantly and what you wish to do better not what you did wrong.

What is Love to you? To me it often the simple things, the lick of a family pet, the laugh of my elderly mum, the passion I have for Interculturalism https://www.facebook.com/groups/Interulturalism/, my favourite music, the music of the indigenous people of my country, but is also the complex things such as the work of Medecins Sans Frontieres, doctors who work in the most dangerous places in the world to provide medical aid to the victims of war, plague and other disasters providing love to these people which would otherwise be unavailable.

If you are living the life you love you may have worked through these six questions:

What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?

We all had dreams as children as to what we would do and be when we grew up, they were often crushed out of us as impractical and not a way to make a real living. So if you have been given the chance again to relive those dreams what have you chosen.

Is this an action that you would defend and be happy to explain to your parents?

Our major relationships are often with our parents and siblings, they know us the best as they have spent the most time with us. Can you tell your parents with passion what you are up to and have them get it.

Is it making the world a better place?

Self love is important but is what you are spending your time on improving the situation for others, giving them a heart felt service, lifting them up from the place they have fallen down to. This is an important question to have answered to be in love with your life.

When you think about it calmly. Does it feel like the right thing to do?

A lot of people meditate, when you meditate on what you are doing to fulfil your life, does it feel AOK, I should be doing this over anything else, simply the right thing to do.

Does it make you a better person?

If you are operating from your heart space, are you being a better person because of this or are you still the same self centred individual, one would hope not as you have spent the time and effort to investigate what it is that inspires you on a day to day basis.

Will someone else’s life be enriched as a result?

As I mentioned previously you do not remember how much money you have earned when you reflect on your life but who you have touched and who has touched you. As you fulfil your passion remember it is in the giving of your openheartedness that touches and enriches others lives. The focus in fulfilling your passion should be out there, the love of self is the internal quest.

If you give with all your heart I believe you will never work another day in your life, as you will love what you do and you will be living a life of passion.

Namaste until next time, my friends.

Recreate Your Reality!!

Posted on November 22, 2014 by Rod's World

What’s life reflecting back to you? As you travel on your journey is your existence a proud statement about what your passions are. All the great thinkers and inventors changed the current paradigms that existed prior to the acceptance of their ideas or invention. I believe there is a new movement occurring that is changing the planets vibrations for the better and that we will have to go through a near cataclysmic transformation of our existing paradigms before we reach this space.

Throughout history there are continuing examples of empires rising and falling There is a great map of the persian empire from 8000 B.C. to current day that illustrates this perfectly in a soundscape that goes for a minute and eleven seconds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4ORmtZ2Go4, all these emperors and kings and queens imagined they would last for ever yet they did not.

So why do we live our lives like each and every moment is stuck and things will never change when the evidence points to the exact opposite. The market for something to believe in is infinite and our logical minds crave Belief even when it is not healthy for us and shuts down the possibilities available through the recreation of our realities moment to moment.

Each new meeting with another soul is an opportunity to recreate how we relate to the world. They say the greatest gift you can give another is to actually listen, not wait to people finish so you can pass on your own judgement or wisdom. What if you could relate something somebody said to you three months ago in a conversation, I admit to not being too great at this and have to keep practicing the noble art of listening.

I have been recreating my reality in the past few years and have notice that my tribe has changed and that most of the people I consider close I have not known more than three years. I love Albert Schweitzer’s quote –

In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out

It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another

human being. We should all be thankful for these people

who rekindle the inner spirit.

At the tender age of 60 I have done many things in my life, some extraordinary, some flakey. I discover my passion two years ago, it is the ethos of Interculturalism: Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included. I wish to see a world where that is the paradigm we live by. I work at an Intercultural Centre https://www.facebook.com/DarebinInterculturalCentre and have created an open Facebook group for people to get on board sharing this world wide https://www.facebook.com/groups/Interulturalism/?fref=ts . When it gets all too much and I fall into but this is impossible I talk to one of these new friends across the world I have made that believe in the change that is coming and get rekindled each time.

So three questions to assist you in helping you recreate your reality when it starts to weigh you down.

1. Is your perception true ?

– Byron Katie makes this the first question of her inspirational worksheet attached to her transformational process in The Work http://www.thework.com/index.php . If the only person we ask is our selves with our attached judgements and evidence the answers we come up with are somewhat limited.

2. Have you found your passion ?

Bored doing what you do, Many thought leaders say you will never work another day in your life when you discover what you truly love doing. Don’t accept that you have to stay where you are, begin your passion as your hobby and work towards it becoming your livelihood, one step at a time my friends.

3. Who is your Tribe ?

I had a real problem with all my new friends being half my age until I got to see that its about who you really are not how old you are and it was these people who were my soul people and would be the ones who are up to making the difference that is happening to have the new paradigms occur on the planet.

There is no reason to get stuck in a reality that does not empower you, all the tools and people are out there.

Namaste until next time, my friends

Don’t compromise their dignity!!

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Rod's World

Human beings enter the world all newborn, another soul waiting to thrive. The path they take is often chosen by the circumstance they are born in, yet there are exceptions to this rule in each and every land, what separates these individuals from the rest. You often find these people have the guiding light of service for others. This quote sums it up pretty well:

Self love is the inner path but the creation of a dignified person is in how we interact with the world. Can you relate to the homeless person as well as the multi billionaire. Each of these people may be parents, brothers, sisters who have had passions in their lives, they are just demonstrating them in different ways at this point in time. I work at the Darebin Intercultural Centre where our ethos is Love and Respect for All, Everyone included. We had a homeless person who used to sit on our garden out the front. We started taking him a cup of coffee and he now comes to our events because he feels at home and that people respect him there.

The world throws up extreme circumstances to test people’s dignity, Nelson Mandela is famous for retaining his dignity while in prison, he stated that his freedom could not be taken away from him as long as he retained his dignity, he did not surrender it and went on to become one of the worlds great princes of peace and freedom on the planet. The country of Rwanda went through a near genocide in 1994 and the country has set up leadership trainings to restore the dignity of the country http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/about/bgjustice.shtml

What do you take dignity to mean, there is a definition that is widely used.

Proclamations and conventions

Through much of the 20th century, dignity appeared in assorted writings as a reason for peacemaking and for promoting human rights.

“

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status

The declaration being the universal declaration of human rights:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948 at the Palais de Chaillot, Paris. The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled. The full text is published by the United Nations on its website.^[1]

The Declaration consists of thirty articles which have been elaborated in subsequent international treaties, regional human rights instruments, national constitutions, and other laws. The International Bill of Human Rights consists of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its two Optional Protocols. In 1966, the General Assembly adopted the two detailed Covenants, which complete the International Bill of Human Rights. In 1976, after the Covenants had been ratified by a sufficient number of individual nations, the Bill took on the force of international law.^[2]

This is a difficult promise to live up to given the human condition, judgement, indifference, apathy, and selfishness often see it swept aside for the need for self gratification. Working on the inner path of self love places these things clearly in the background and allows for treatment of self and fellow human beings with dignity and respect on a daily basis.

The ethos of Interculturalism, Love and Respect for all, Everyone Included, join in spreading the word https://www.facebook.com/groups/Interulturalism/ and we will see a planet where dignity is one of the premises that people live by.

Namaste to all until next time my friends

Who seeks Asylum?

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Rod's World

I work at the Darebin Intercultural Centre in Preston where we have an Asylum Seeker Lounge which actually means I get to interact with actual Asylum Seekers.

Seeking international protection

The term asylum-seeker is often confused with the term refugee. An asylum-seeker is someone who says he or she is a refugee and seeks international protection from persecution or serious harm in their home country. Every refugee is initially an asylum-seeker, but not every asylum-seeker will ultimately be recognized as a refugee. While they are waiting for their claim to be accepted or rejected, they are called asylum-seekers. The term asylum-seeker contains no presumption either way – it simply describes the fact that someone has lodged the claim for asylum. National asylum systems are there to decide which asylum-seeker actually qualifies for international protection. Those judged through proper procedures not to be refugees, nor to be in need of any other form of international protection, can be sent back to their home countries.

I always ask people who agree with the policy that there are no such thing as asylum seekers who need to catch boats and not wait on the list that never decrease for organisations such as the UNCHR have they ever met an asylum seeker and listened to their stories. There is a great project in Melbourne Australia that tells these stories http://opencity.org.au/ – they cannot use there real names for fear of reprise to their families in their home countries and unfortunately in our country from over zealous government officials but I know several of the people in this projects and having read them it changed my ideas of what and why these people take the dramatic action of boarding a rickety boat that may end up at the bottom of an ocean.

Sara who I know has lost her family because of the repressive laws regarding women in her home country. Highly educated and a translator of books Sara decided to leave after the last books she translated was not allowed to be published because it broke Islamic Law. religion raising its head once again. Women do not have the right to seek leaving their country where Sara was from , so she flew out with the intention of not returning and seeking asylum in a country where women had rights and chose Australia. Sara spent 9 days on a boat after paying $5,000 to a boat smuggler and lost contact with the person who traveled with her from her home country. Because one has money does not mean you are an Asylum seeker, money is not the answer to living a meaningful life.

Mustafa was raped by the Taliban at the age of ten years old for a three month period and has been in Australia and on the same visa for the past five years. He has 8 dollars a fortnight left over after paying his rent which he buys a packet of biscuits and a bottle of drink and recently had to leave his shared accommodation and has been going through the trauma of finding new accommodation on a severely low income.

I recently found a Pledge to Asylum Seekers written by L. Clancy and L. Mariah for Bendigo for Refugees, http://www.pledgetoasylumseekers.org/

Our Pledge to Asylum Seekers

Welcome!

This site is for sharing the Pledge to Asylum Seekers, written by two Australian writers who wanted to create something that would generate empathy, humanity and hope.

We wrote the Pledge to bring some perspective to an issue that has become lost in politics. We hope that it will move people’s hearts, demonstrate the depth of compassion felt by both individuals and groups, and inspire further action.

The Pledge is as follows

To those who come from desperation and despair,

To those who have endured violence and unrest.

To those who have no place of safety,

Who come to our shores seeking sanctuary:

You are Welcome here.

We pledge to the mothers and to the fathers,

We pledge to the children and pregnant women,

We pledge to those tortured, broken and dispossessed,

We will acknowledge you with kindness and compassion:

You are Welcome here.

We pledge as part of the human family:

We pledge as members of a global community:

We pledge as people who have sought and found

A peace and safety such as you seek,

You are welcome here.

As the children and grandchildren of displaced persons,

We will not shirk our responsibilities.

We will Not stand by while your cjhildren are hidden offshore.

We will insist on change to the current system.

You are welcome here.

If you dream of your children living in safety,

Of sharing the hard works and the rewards:

If you long to contribute to a caring and just society

And subscribe to a ‘fair go for all’,

You are welcome here.

Bring respect fellowship and goodwill.

Bring your heart, your courage and your aspirations.

We are fair honest, open-minded and generous,

We greet you in friendship

And you are welcome here.

Signed ___________________

This is for the humans to sign, people who recognize that do not belong to teams, but one human race. Go to the webpage print a copy out sign it and get your organisations and friends and family to sign it and return the humanity to a situation that seems to have lost it at the moment.

Namaste until next time my friend

Its like swimming back to the sinking ship because its Too Cold

Posted on November 7, 2014 by Rod's World

There are hundreds of images of freighters sinking on Google Images but its not the same as a fully rigged ship, the grand masters of the sea during our formative exploratory years entering the murky depths. This is like the statement above that was made at our last session of Raw, there are no limits. I googled it and it seems its an original so kudos to the member who came up with it.http://changemakersfestival.org/event/raw-there-are-no-limits/.

It was prominent during the night and has stuck in my mind ever since, how many times am I guilty of this seemingly foolish practice. If I did not do this ever I would have lived a life full of wonder with no hiccups. But there are many masters modern and ancient who point to the fact that this sort of life leaves you short of a life well lived. If we are always sailing on a flat ocean with no storms how do we know if we have risked our all.

Helen Keller reminds us that “Life is a daring adventure or it is nothing ” Do we remember those days in our lives where we just got up went to work for 10 hours, came home and fell asleep or do we remember those days we spent realising a new possibility that could transform our relationship to life.

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in everydirection, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than youever dreamed yourself to be.”
~ Patanjali – the author of Yoga Sutra

It helps to have a purpose in your live, as Patanjali, the author of Yoga Sutra intimates, the forces that will become available to you are immeasurable and what you will be able to achieve is unimaginable to your mind, it is more located in your heart. My purpose is the ethos of Interculturalism Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included https://www.facebook.com/groups/Interulturalism/ It took me 59 years of journeying through addictions, mental illnesses, Buddhism, meditation and banal Government jobs to get there but it was well worth the journey, I intend to transform the world with your help.

Zig Ziglar is considered one of the greatest American Success coaches and his quote ” People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well neither does bathing – That’s why we recommend it daily ” hits home as to what it takes. Get up, do stuff that has your purpose move forward, don’t expect it to magically happen, being in action is what it takes, the law of Attraction does not leave action out of the picture.

I couldn’t wish to be an astronaut as a child because they didn’t exist, I wanted to be a Ships captain because we used to go down to our Aunty Ruby’s farm outside Leopold and you could see the ships in Corio Bay, I’m not a Ship’s captain, the closest I became to a man of the trades was an apprentice French Polisher, the rest of the time I spent behind a desk. As I said I have found a purpose and I’m sure the child back in Pakenham when it wasn’t on the Metro line would be proud of me.

“I love you, not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.”
~ Roy Croft

Roy Croft is a little known poet who wrote a poem called Love which begins with the above line http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Croft, I believe that this line applies to both friendships, self friendship and other friendship, heck you could probably replace friendship with love if you wished to. You will keep going back to the sinking ship if you do not have both of these in your life, the water will get awfully cold very quickly with out them.

“I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we become.”
~ Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey is loved by millions of women worldwide for her earthy summation of day to day events and is a living example of the above statement. Willing to share it all she is also a disciple of Zig Ziglars statement “You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” So if you do not wish to have to swim back to the Sinking ship take some of the advice that these modern and ancient thought leaders have to offer

Namaste until next time my friends

When we dare to be Powerful

Posted on October 29, 2014 by Rod's World

When I dare to be powerful – to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid or not – Audre Lorde

I read this quote this morning in my friends Thea Westra’s book Time for my Life 365 Stepping Stones, 2843 Life Power Boosters at your fingertips http://www.timeformylife.com. i think this is one of the best daily empowerment books on the market. A page for each day of the year that has a coaching, an action, a challenge, a quote, a clearing, a question and an affirmation on it, it never goes out of date because its not year based but day to day based. The quote called to me powerfully and never having heard of Audre Lorde I googled her.

Audre was a Caribbean-American writer, radical feminist, womanist, mother, lesbian and civil rights activists who believed our life mission is to speak our truth as this is what has let the world get into the situation it has today. Audre died in 1992 but her words are more relevant today than when written. I came across this rather lengthy quote but it is brilliant in its perception –

“I was going to die, sooner or later, whether or not I had even spoken myself. My silences had not protected me. Your silences will not protect you…. What are the words you do not yet have? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence? We have been socialized to respect fear more than our own need for language.”

I began to ask each time: “What’s the worst that could happen to me if I tell this truth?” Unlike women in other countries, our breaking silence is unlikely to have us jailed, “disappeared” or run off the road at night. Our speaking out will irritate some people, get us called bitchy or hypersensitive and disrupt some dinner parties. And then our speaking out will permit other women to speak, until laws are changed and lives are saved and the world is altered forever.

Next time, ask: What’s the worst that will happen? Then push yourself a little further than you dare. Once you start to speak, people will yell at you. They will interrupt you, put you down and suggest it’s personal. And the world won’t end.

And the speaking will get easier and easier. And you will find you have fallen in love with your own vision, which you may never have realized you had. And you will lose some friends and lovers, and realize you don’t miss them. And new ones will find you and cherish you. And you will still flirt and paint your nails, dress up and party, because, as I think Emma Goldman said, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.” And at last you’ll know with surpassing certainty that only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth. And that is not speaking.”

These inspiring words point me towards a call for us all to be in action, saying that its all too hard and not speaking your truth to avoid confrontation will not get it done. We will end up with more and more right wing governments who are driven by warmongers, coal barons, media moguls who have lost touch with the hearts of the people they are meant to serve. They will lock babies and children up in the name of keeping their counties safe, they will let major companies get away without paying taxes and let homelessness run rampant.

So should we take to the streets, only if you believe in it. Each of us has a different vision or passion that gets us up in the morning inspired to face the day. Mine is to have Love and Respect for All, Everyone included be the world paradigm. I’ve started implementing it through my open Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/Interulturalism and this blog. I’ve met people further down the path – Mastin Kipp with his http://www.The dailyLove.com, Danielle La Porte with her inspirational workbook The Desire Map http://www.daniellelaporte.com and Jeffrey Slayter with his Free Humanity movement -http://www.jeffreyslayter.com, each of them has a huge vision that they can speak in an elevator speech and then if you want to know more there is always the opportunity. They all are not silent and speak their truth, I’m getting better at it.

Namaste my friends until next time

Do you make enough requests?

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Rod's World

I have a promise to myself to write a blog every two days but missed out on it as I attended the Free Humanity weekend seminar led by Jeffrey Slayter http://www.jeffreyslayter.com on the recommendation of my friends Miroslav, Belinda, Paras and Mari who had spent the last few months travelling up to Byron Bay to do his courses. Free Humanity was coincidentally free so I instantly had concerns about background selling as I has spent 10 years attending Landmark Forum introductions that were also free.

I hopped on my Electric bike and rode down to Carlton and was surprised by the fact that I knew about a quarter of the crowd, friends from previous events Miroslav and co. had run, showing the faith we have in them, they are such beautiful people after all. After milling around and catching up with some of them we entered the room. Jeff spent an hour or so creating the space for him to led the weekend speaking of his background and his desire for the world to be free for humanity.

Having done this Jeff then moved on to the purpose of the weekend, to free each of us up to be the best we can be in every area of our lives. He made a statement that probably a lot of us had spent years working on our spiritual sides but had not spent a lot of time on learning how to value ourselves and make money from our knowledge. I know for me that this is true and for a lot of people I know in the spiritual field. How were we meant to shift this and be adept in all arenas? Well what occurred over the next two days was not what I expected.

Jeff had us look at areas in our lives where we are focussing on one thing which has put us out of balance with the other side of it, for me it was educating myself in the spiritual world and not focussing on my financial wellbeing. Each of us had our own version of it and Jeff was highly skilled at getting us see what yours was. We would meditate during each session to help clear our minds as health was one of the premises Jeff believes is important in living a vibrant life.

We also created our calling, This includes who you are going to be, what you are going to do, what you will have out of it and what emotion will it generate. Mine is –

I’m going to transform the world conversation to Love and Respect for All, Everyone Included.

I will do this via Social Media through the FaceBook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/Interulturalism/ and my blog I am an Interculturalist at http://www.Rodwill1707.com and having Intercultural Centres set up in every Local community in Australia for cultures to educate each other about the best they are.

I will travel to the six major energy points in the world, have a home in Australia and Costa Rica and I will have a soulmate to share my life with

The emotion this invokes in me is Bliss.

We also did breath work to release our fears from where they were entrapped in our bodies. The person I did this with laughed through the entire process so was obviously releasing something.

So to the final teaching and the reason behind the title of this blog. Requesting versus selling. Jeff intimated that requesting and asking are the two most powerful actions you can take, and that why a lot of us had little money was that we did not request closure for our services and did not value them highly enough. He requested that we learn to sell what we had to offer people and to build vehicles that expressed our talents and spiritual nature. That we not sell out and not do what we love doing. Working a full time job and part time dreams quickly becomes working your full-time dreams but you will never access this if you don’t give it a go. We all have plenty of experiences to teach others or we would not have been at the seminar so he implored us to get out there and start requesting.

Jeff has lots of other courses that cost money and yes he requested we enrol in them, I will when I get out of the financial situation my stories have kept me in.

Namaste till next time my friends.