FAR AWAY IN THE HEAVENLY ABODE OF THE GREAT GOD INDRA, THERE IS A WONDERFUL NET WHICH HAS BEEN HUNG BY SOME CUNNING ARTIFICER IN SUCH A MANNER THAT IT STRETCHES OUT INDEFINITELY IN ALL DIRECTIONS. IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE EXTRAVAGANT TASTES OF DEITIES, THE ARTIFICER HAS HUNG A SINGLE GLITTERING JEWEL AT THE NET’S EVERY NODE, AND SINCE THE NET ITSELF IS INFINITE IN DIMENSION, THE JEWELS ARE INFINITE IN NUMBER. THERE HANG THE JEWELS, GLITTERING LIKE STARS OF THE FIRST MAGNITUDE, A WONDERFUL SIGHT TO BEHOLD. IF WE NOW ARBITRARILY SELECT ONE OF THESE JEWELS FOR INSPECTION AND LOOK CLOSELY AT IT, WE WILL DISCOVER THAT IN ITS POLISHED SURFACE THERE ARE REFLECTED ALL THE OTHER JEWELS IN THE NET, INFINITE IN NUMBER. NOT ONLY THAT, BUT EACH OF THE JEWELS REFLECTED IN THIS ONE JEWEL IS ALSO REFLECTING ALL THE OTHER JEWELS, SO THAT THE PROCESS OF REFLECTION IS INFINITE.
THE AVATAMSAKA SUTRA
FRANCIS H. COOK: HUA-YEN BUDDHISM : THE JEWEL NET OF INDRA 1977
Indra’s net is certainly at work in the Occupy movement. Look closely at this photo from the AP. It’s from London, England, where the Occupy Wall Street movement drew thousands of protestors against the financial systems that have left many cities and countries impoverished, hungry, desperate and are killing the middle class. Over the weekend, , hundreds of thousands demonstrated in the U.S , Europe, and Asia,and this movement is barely a month old.
If you read this quote about Indra’s net carefully, you understand that it’s not just about how each of us is connected, but how the parts reflect the whole – the hologram. Take any small segment of this movement’s gripes – and you see it reflected, somehow, in your own life or in the experiences of people you know. The unemployed, the uninsured, the recent college grads who can’t find work or can only land minimum wage jobs. Or in your neighborhood, there’s probably someone whose home is underwater – where what they’re paying is well beyond what the home is currently worth.
The banks that were bailed out by the government – by we, the people, by our tax dollars – are now sitting on trillions of dollars and are hoarding their money. These are the same banks who are finding ways to bleed you of more money – $60 a year debit charges, charges for checking accounts, and pretty soon, they’ll be charging you to even walk into the bank to do your business.
Tonight over dinner, our 22-year-old daughter, a recent college grad now working a minimum wage part-time job, asked us about the Occupy movement. She’s not into politics, but probably should be. Rob and I tried to keep the explanation simple, and she said: “But if you push against the rich, if you offer resistance to it, then you’re pretty much resisting ever getting rich.”
This is the Abraham/Hicks material speaking, the law of attraction. Rob gave what I thought was one of the best explanations I’ve heard: “The Occupy movement isn’t about taking down the wealthy, but about elevating the other 99 percent, about creating more opportunities for them.”
Her eyes lit up. She suddenly got it.
Back when our fathers were alive and working, you could earn a decent wage as a factory worker, have full health care and a pension. You could buy a home, educate your kids. Rob’s father spent 30 years working for a brewery. When it was bought out in his later years with the company, he lost his pension. Corporate greed.
The official poverty level for a family of 4 in every state except Alaska and Hawaii is is just over $22,000 a year. Can you live on $22,000 a year? Among seniors, the situation is even more depressing. The stats: “In 2008, 3.7 million Americans aged 65 and older had family incomes below the federal poverty threshold. This translates to a poverty rate of 9.7 percent for all persons aged 65 and older. The oldest Americans had the highest poverty rates. In 2008, 11.5 percent of individuals aged 80 and older were poor compared with 8.5 percent of individuals between the ages of 65 and 69. In addition, 30 percent of all Americans aged 80 and older had family incomes of less than 150 percent of the poverty threshold.” Take a look at what economists are saying about the movement.
In our suburban community, there’s a particular corner where the homeless gather daily to panhandle. They usually carry signs that are heartbreaking – and which may not be true. But nonetheless, as you drive by in your air conditioned car, you feel a certain guilt, a remorse, particularly when the panhandler looks middle class, when he or she could be you.
So when Indra’s Net hums and sings with movement, it behooves each of us to pay attention to the particular melody, pleasant or unpleasant, good or bad or some strange mid-place in between the extremes. Indra’s Net really says that we are all in this together and the sooner we get the message as a society, a culture, a species, the better off we’ll be. Perhaps that’s the ultimate message of the Occupiers. They really are the collective voice rising up against the 1 percent that has been in power since the 1980s, when ole Reagan, the alleged great communicator, was at the helm.
Perhaps the Occupiers are our collective conscience.
in power since the 80’s????
Oh yep! That was him! 🙂 Feel free to post it if you want, he is kind of famous around town- TONS of people have been taking his photo. My little social activist.
As a (relatively) young person. This movement means so much to me for so many reasons. I have been very blessed in that I was given a debt-free education by my parents and managed to land a good job (in a small, privately-held company) that has grown with me over the last few years. My company is very generous in that they pay for my healthcare and contribute to my 401K, give me paid time off, and pay me a decent amount of money. However, I do have to pay for my husband and child’s healthcare out of pocket, and with the addition to taxes, this means I bring home exactly 50% of my salary after those two deductions. After we pay rent (1250.00 a month for a 2 bedroom apartment, which is a typical price here in Portland), that leaves me with not a ton left over. Certainly not enough to save for a down payment on a house anytime in the next decade…
A lot of the more conservative criticizers of this movement like to spout things like “They want us to be like socialist Europe!! They are COMMUNISTS!” blah blah blah…
What I have to say to that is that if I am ALREADY PAYING 50% between healthcare and taxes then what EXACTLY to I have to lose by suggesting that perhaps the “luxury” of what I enjoy (heh) be extended to all citizens. Why NOT look at places like Denmark where YES, they pay 50% in taxes, but everyone has healthcare, education, maternity leave, low crime rates, and … (according to Oprah) they are the happiest nation in the world..
So, that is why I am out there marching when I can. My three-year-old can even be seen out there with the Occupiers on Main Street in Portland, Oregon with his little 99% sign.
I can only say that even if this all comes to nothing, which at this point is NOT an option, I would rather have participated and shown my son that he should stand up for his rights than to sit here scratching my head and hoping somehow this government and American ideology will somehow “un-corrupt” itself.
Whew… end rant! :o)
Wow, beautifully said, Jen! Someone sent me a pic of a litte guy holding a 99% sign. I’ll see if I can find it and put it up! Maybe it’s your little guy.
Oh, duh. it WAS your son. Nancy posted that pic. I think I had a brain freeze.
I smell change in the air.
You’re right, Ja! Even though It takes 10,000 progressives to get the attention given to 100 tea party people gathered in a park, it’s happening.
We had a sudden and unexplained power blackout here a couple of weeks ago. Weather was fine, stars were shining. It served as a reminder that we never know how much we appreciate the “creature comforts” provided by electricity until they disappear. All the neighbors were in the yards chatting, and I commented about how awful it would be to go for months without power, as the hurricane and quake victims are doing still. We have hurricane supplies stocked, including a crank-radio and TV/weather station with battery backup, and lots of lighting sources; also a battery-operated fan so welcome in FL. and plenty of fresh batteries for everything. We have a regular landline phone on the kitchen wall in addtion to all the cell phones and the house portables, which go off when the power fails…but the old-fashioned corded phone stays on as long as phone lines are up and running. The power was off for several hours well into the night. One note to folks who stock beans and rice: remember those require a good deal of WATER to prepare, so bear that in mind! Whatever may lay ahead, we can’t go wrong by preparing for the unexpected.
Good point about rice and beans.
Nancy is so right about Cain and the Koch brothers.
I’m also with Vicki here: after our massive blackout in CA, AZ, & Mexico last month, disaster prep has become even more important to us. (I recommend an old rotary dial phone. It was the only thing that worked around here as the cell phone towers went down, too.)
Poverty level is $50,000 in San Diego. Our current income is half that. Our home is $90,000 underwater. (we did not use it for an ATM machine, nor did we take out home improvement loans. We bought in an older, respected neighborhood with no history of losing value.) We are at serious risk of losing our home, which, besides a car, is our only debt.
I have hope that the Occupy movement will instigate some change.
Here’s a good place to get the latest updates on the movement – stories from the people who are there.
https://democracyforamerica.com/activities/647-sign-up-for-the-occupiers-journal?akid=1421.499352.khYNAL&rd=1&t=2
If your income is half of the poverty line in san diego, are there any community services you’re entitled to??
Don’t laugh: we’re entitled to $40 in food stamps.( We aren’t going to apply for them.) That’s it.
Huh? 40 bucks will buy a dinner and a few staples. Wow.
Yet the banksters are raking in their usual haul in bonuses this year.
such an on-point quote and post in the most literal sense – perhaps this is the beginning of that global change a’comin’ – the collective consciousness speaks and acts –
We are most certainly on a roller coaster ride all around the globe as we approach the end of 2012. I have always had the idea that December, 2012, (the end of the Mayan calendar and other significant calendars), doesn’t portend the End of Days but instead, the end of our lives as we know them. It’s a fact that history does indeed repeat itself on a mathematical matrix, across varying timeframes. We have only to peer into the history of this planet and its ancient civilizations to comprehend that some of the greatest, most magnificent eras in the past, eons ago, self-destructed themselves back into their simple origins by greed and mis-use of power. I agree with Vicki about the UFOs, and even go further, having an intuitive conviction that the intra-dimensional and extra-terrestrial entities are walking among us and beside us every day, unrecognizable because they use human facades. I choose to have faith that many of these non-humans have arrived on this planet to assist us. I also have a sense that there is an invisible, terrible war going on adjacent to our third dimension, and that this war is between those who would negatively control the human species to feed their own greed and hunger for power, and those who would save the human species. Perhaps mine is a fairytale pipe-dream, but nevertheless, I think the time is rapidly coming when we shall overcome the tyranny and the oppression illustrated during the French Revolution and other revolutions when the common folks gathered themselves into One Voice and ultimately reigned. The difference for me, currently, is that we have probably millions of Unseen Helpers: those entities who actually seeded this world and don’t want it to be destroyed, and as Ruth Montgomery so succinctly wrote, they are Strangers Among Us….here to help us help ourselves overcome evil and rise above it, to survive.
I’m just catching up on the news. I see the protestors in London have issued ‘Nine Commandments’. Though they may not all be singing from the same song sheet.
1. The current system is unsustainable. It is undemocratic and unjust. We need alternatives; this is where we work towards them.
2. We are of all ethnicities, backgrounds, genders, generations, sexualities dis/abilities and faiths. We stand together with occupations all over the world.
3. We refuse to pay for the banks’ crisis.
4. We do not accept the cuts as either necessary or inevitable. We demand an end to global tax injustice and our democracy representing corporations instead of the people.
5. We want regulators to be genuinely independent of the industries they regulate.
6. We support the strike on the 30th November and the student action on the 9th November, and actions to defend our health services, welfare, education and employment, and to stop wars and arms dealing.
7. We want structural change towards authentic global equality. The world’s resources must go towards caring for people and the planet, not the military, corporate profits or the rich.
8. We stand in solidarity with the global oppressed and we call for an end to the actions of our government and others in causing this oppression.
9. This is what democracy looks like. Come and join us!
I love this! This is hope and change I can believe in. Finally.
!!
Love these “commandments”!
Sounds like common sense to me,it’s about time the sheep realized the wolf is not a good shepherd to have leading the flock about.
But at the same time beware the angry wolf,it can turn nasty when it can’t get it’s way.
Good advice, Daz!
Excellent advice.
On Long Island they have said that the poverty income level is anything under $79,000!
Didn’t the prophets and prophecies say, that before whatever will happen at the end of 2012, that there would be riots in the street and that people all over the world” would take to the streets” ?
I used to really wonder about some of what was said but now with events all over the world including the USA I am wondering. I am concerned that electrical grids will go down and have been making plans in case that happens.
It is rather amazing to see these things playing out, including all of the UFO sightings etc. I think on Whitley Streiber site there was mention that the UFO disclosure might not come from the govt. But from all of them landing all over the world, somewhat like in the movie ” Signs” where no one could dismiss it.
I’m a bit long winded here but things have gotten so out of whack in the world. I think of some of the things David Icke had said about the very wealthy, a world monetary currency (the Euro) and them trying to even get the USA to join, and recently I read somewhere where that has been talked about. It is scary.
I would love to hear what others think.
Wow, $79k?! I agree that things are totally out of whack.
vicki – the electrical outage is something i have felt for some time, too – i’m just wondering what kinds of plans you’ve made in this regard, if you don’t mind my asking – thanks!
Same here, Vicki!
Gypsy some of my plans are, a heater that can run on both batteries and/or propane, a stockpile of batteries all sizes, lanterns ( some use liquid others batteries), water filtration devices, extra canned and bottled water, food supplies- peanut butter, canned fruits and veggies, rice, beans, soups etc. – soap,
An outside grill that isn’t propane, we have a fire pit so am looking into cooking pans like you would use for camping. Solar chargers, solar-battery – wind up radio that has a special weather channel etc on it. lots of flashlights. I have decided to store away old comforters just in case because they could be used to cover open doorways to keep heat in in a room etc.
Hope this helps.
Great list of stuff here, Vicki. Thank you. We have most of these items during hurricane season. Time to restock!
oh, ok, very same thing i’ve begun doing – even though we do have a large firepit/grill outdoors, i grabbed a little fold up grill with its own carrying case for travel or whatever – i’m putting together a box of other emergency things that will be kept in my car at all times – a backpack of emer med supplies – another of food items – another of flashlight, batteries, cb radio, etc] – the thought being that backpacks are easier to grab in a hurry and easier stored in my cargo space – the other thing is to be sure and have waterproof/laminated identification documents – or keep them in waterproof/fireproof containers – and don’t forget at least $100 cash in small bills –
In Florida, trying to escape to anywhere by car would be a nightmare. Clogged roads etc.
oh, geeeee, had i read on down, i’d have seen yours and nancy’s other comments to – backpacks and all! 😉 the bottom line is that these things are needed no matter what – a major nor’easter one year here sent 1000s without power for weeks – banks were closed – travel impossible with ice everywhere – etc – so it’s just a good idea anyway – like having a storm shelter was in the midwest and plains areas when i was a kid –
I think you’re right Vicki. You can’t miss the “signs.” I tend to believe it will be a good thing in the end, but getting there might get a little rocky. I think it’s a good idea to be prepared for emergencies, but keep positive about the outcome.
I am keeping positive, and agree that it could get very rocky. I also agree with math that entities are walking beside us but in another dimension and those “walls”may come down. I can feel them in my backyard and they beckon me into the woods near them but have yet to show themselves to me, although I do think I’ve caught sight of them a few times put of the corner of my eyes in my house.
I also feel and have been told, that myself and my family will be wherever we are supposed to be when all of this happens so I try to be prepared. All of our cars have a survival backpack full of supplies etc.
I’ve been dehydrating food and putting together full bins for our children. We’ve tried to make sure everyone has radios, water filtration, and a stove that runs on white gas or gas from your car. We still haven’t done the backpacks – which was my husband’s only responsibility. sigh
Good reply – It is not about taking down anyone but investing in the potential of all.
In my opinion – the Occupy Movement isn’t anti anything in its message, which is why the journalists can’t get a handle on it. Many of the Occupiers and those sympathetic to their cause have heard about stellar quarterly earnings, followed by layoffs. We’ve all heard the staggering amounts paid for CEO’s to sign on, and to be bought out of their contracts a year later as the company then implodes and thousands of individuals lose their jobs, homes, health care, etc. Greed is a travesty against humanity.
The Occupy Movement does not have a message of “we want our home with 2.5 kids in the suburbs with two cars in the garage.” Instead it’s a rumble of frustration that too many are being denied the potential opportunities to create their own life, how ever that will look. Individual opportunity is being strangled while the old school (Feudal?) structure is hoarding every penny.
My recent spark of hope for change came this week with the upsurge of interest in Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan. It’s brilliant and could be the trigger point if he gains popularity. This could trigger a shift because it will scare the old school energy so bad they may panic and actually start creating jobs in hope Obama is reelected… We will see. 😀
Terri, Every evaluation of Cain’s plan that I’ve seen (except for Cain’s own) show that 9-9-9 creates a greater tax burden on the middle class and cuts taxes for the rich. Sounds like more of the same with a simpler formula for getting the money to the richest folks. – R
Cain is in the pocket of the Koch brothers. That can’t be good for the rest of us.
Just because I’m delighted at a brilliant idea doesn’t mean I think it’s good or feasible. I think Cain’s 9-9-9 plan gaining popularity is what’s needed to terrify those who’ve created the greed machine. There is no way Cain – even if he got the GOP endorsement – would ever be able to implement even one of the 9’s and that’s what I like about it. It’s an idea and it would not benefit the majority of the people. But it would slap a big tax on those protected by loopholes and shelters.
I don’t know who the Koch brothers are. Never heard of them before today.
Terri, They are super-wealthy billionaires who fund the tea party and many right wing political actiions and politicians. They hold conferences in their Colorado fortress and call in Republican governors for strategy meetings. The Koch brothers have been active funding the GOP and moving it to the right for years. But they’ve come to the public’s attention only during the past couple of years.