Virtue Pays

They say that virtue is its own reward.
And that is surely the truth.
But in addition I would propose that in the long run and on average the virtuous have much better lives in every respect.

And that opens the question, what is virtue and how can one attain it?

Not easy being virtuous

but sometimes your conscience will alert you when you are not being virtuous.

for me the simple answer is to take care

take care of yourself
and your environment
the people around you
take care

Short Squeeze

market up a lot this week today 400 points up and I am glad not to be short this market

short sellers take a big risk and when things turn they must cover and it drives prices up rapidly

trading range is the story
seven months of trading range
up and down and down and up never breaking out either up or down

how long will this last?

until there is a clear frontrunner for president and I mean either Obama or the republican

and then which way will it break?
I still expect it to break out to the upside eventually
I see a bull market that should go on for years and give healthy returns

but I am an optimist

but I would be very careful about shorting because the upside breakout could happen any time
in other words
I would not short this market!

Cause

everything arises spontaneously from the infinite void

so actually

there is no such thing as cause

nothing causes anything else

you might say the cause of anything is everything but why bother

everything just is

you might try this

why not a computer?
why not a sunrise?
why not a lover?
why not dirt?
why not crows?

things do not come from why
they come from why not?

Dwolla What's In It For Me?

dwolla is a lovely idea
no credit card and thus no fees just 25 cents per transaction
but what is the incentive for the consumer to go this way?
Right now the consumer does not pay the fees. The business pays the fees.
In fact, the consumer often gets little rebates or bonus points when they use the credit card
plus they get to use the money for free usually for almost a month as long as they pay off the total balance each month.
so right now the credit cards are a great deal for consumers
what would motivate them to use dwolla?
dwolla is lovely for business, but I see no reason as a consumer to switch.

Who Knows?

Lately I have been thinking about how much I don't understand about what goes on. I really don't understand much at all, and I suspect no one else does either.

We are all pretty much operating in the dark. It is frightening, except things generally seem to go pretty well. For our purposes as long as we are out of trouble it doesn't seem to matter what we know.

But suppose there really is some catastrophe looming in the future that will wipe us out. Is it inevitable? No species lives forever.

But our species isn't what is the most important. Our spirit is important. Will our spirit live forever? Will anything live forever? It looks as though nothing will live forever!

Rats or Men?

Stocks have been sinking again.
How low this time? Is this the next leg down? Will there be a crash at some point?
A rush for the exit?
Be calm and remember we live in a community! Don’t be rats abandoning the ship! Be humans who work together to solve all problems!

This is a perfect world.
Supply is infinite.
Let the green grass grow.
Take time for imagination.

Peace Peace Peace

patience

kindness

dialogue

keep talking until you reach consensus

and another thing.....
don't overextend yourself
people tend to destroy their own peace of mind by taking on too much by trying to do too much
as if we are here to do too much
as if the measure of our lives is how many mountains we have climbed
and how big were the mountains

peace will come with simplicity

take a nice deep breath and peace is here right now

Well Paid Public Servants

below is a passage from another website mentioning some high salaries paid by the University of California.
This is definitely the fact that calls for a change of the culture.
$400,000 for Linda Katehi, the Chancellor of UC DAVIS
Almost 2 million each for a football coach and a basketball coach
And are we to be happy because these people have taken 10% pay reductions due to the budget crisis?

So the accusations of greed and corruption have a real foundation.
Public servants should be serving the public for the sake of service, not big pay.
The honor that comes with the position should be more than enough.
And this is a cultural thing. We need to change the culture.
Public service should be about service!










Partly because Katehi was hired at the beginning of the budget crisis, several newspapers reports and some state legislators drew attention to her starting total compensation (salary plus benefits) of $400,000, a [WWW]27% increase over Vanderhoef's compensation ([WWW]WSWS, [WWW]KTVU). [WWW]For comparison, the two highest-paid UC employees are Cal football coach Jeff Tedford and UCLA basketball coach Ben Howland, each of whom has guaranteed compensation of $1,900,000 plus bonuses. Various UC doctors, and several other coaches and athletic directors, had compensation of $500,000 or more in 2008-9. The two highest administrative salaries (as opposed to doctors) at UC Davis are those of Ann Rice ($665,000), the CEO of the medical center, and Claire Pomeroy ($628,000), the vice chancellor of the medical center. Along with other UC's top administrators, Katehi has taken at least a 10% pay reduction in the years following her appointment.

THE .0000000001%

I AM THE
.0000000001%

actually more like the .000000000142857%
but close enough!

remember each of us is

UNIQUE

DON'T PUT US IN BOXES

How Bad Is The National Debt?

sounds really bad at 14 trillion dollars but how bad is that when there are three hundred million of us?
I won't go through all the math but the interest cost comes out to around
$4.00 day per person
that is four dollars a day for every man woman and child in the country
is that something we cannot afford? Is that a total catastrophe that will cause it all to come tumbling down?
Realistically...the answer is...NO!
That is really not such a big problem. That is not really so unaffordable.
If I take my family to the movies the tickets are at least $6.00 and usually more like $9.00 or even up to $12.50.
Parking the car can cost as much as $8.00 or more.
Four dollars a day per person is not enough to break the bank.
So I would argue that things are not nearly as bad as we have been led to believe.

STEADY AS WE GO
KEEP MUDDLING ALONG
WE LIVE IN GREAT ABUNDANCE
WE HAVE MUCH MORE THAN WE NEED

ERIN OLIVA

Erin designed this very cool business card for herself.
I love it!

Healthy Affirmations

starting from the idea that there are some causes of illness in the mind
such as...

desire for attention

desire to get out of work or responsibility

desire for revenge, to hurt those around you

why not? some conditions arise spontaneously and they are just conditions

going along with the crowd, everyone else is sick so I guess I am supposed to be sick!

SO here are affirmations to address each of these potential causes...

I get all the attention I need

I am never over-worked. It is easy for me to say "no" when asked for anything or when anything is expected of me

I forgive absolutely

I accept absolutely everything with an open heart

I see GOD everywhere. Everyone I meet is GOD.

Perhaps "why not?" requires explanation. Elaboration. Everything is. All possibilities do arise.
We make illness or disease from our interpretation of conditions.
Illness is not anything in and of itself. It is only a label we put on a condition.
We tend to call it illness if it puts a limit on our behavior.
Thus, we have symptoms. Are the symptoms the illness?
Pain
Why is pain a problem? Seriously!
Follow this...
pain prevents sleep...
who says you need sleep? who tells you how much sleep you need or when you need it?
pain makes it so I cannot walk...
people can live without walking babies can't walk
pain makes me afraid I will die, you will! we all die and that is OK

this needs to be meditated upon

pain is just information, a message, usually the message says, don't do this or that
stop hurting yourself

whatever the symptom, no matter how extreme, see it as a blessing, see it as information, see it as love, open the heart and accept everything absolutely
then it is not disease
then it is not illness

what is it?
spirit
love
truth
God

that is what it really is

Property

property is work

property is freedom

property is bondage

we never really own it, we are just caretakers

so TAKE CARE
take care

father mother son daughter spouse

here in heaven where all things are possible
we see you now
who you are

mother father son daughter spouse beloved

past present future eternal

saw god wanted mother now see one unity mother and god are one god and mother are one and son and daughter and spouse and father

one
simply one

The 90%

we hear about the 1%
we hear about the 99%

we should not forget

at least 90% of us are doing OK

You would not think that from what you hear
but it is surely the truth

At least 90% of us are OK

isn't that a good thing!
good news!

I would go all the way though

100% of us are OK
100% of us are getting exactly what we need right here and right now

Great Recession?

not here it ain't

we went to Century City yesterday and what a mob scene of shoppers was there!

I had to wait 15 minutes to get a parking space!
It was like a zoo with people wall to wall and I expect some of them were probably buying things!

and Friday night we went to the Peacelink event at the Agape Church
STANDING ROOM ONLY!

And in my little Westside Village neighborhood I see lots of construction going on
lots of big remodels are happening

So it is not true what you hear about the economy, at least here it is not true
Things are fine here
People are prosperous
People are doing well
Fixing things up
Doing the good work every day

Living the good life
Not the end of our empire
Only the beginning
The great new global civilization is only just beginning
and it will be wonderful
and it is wonderful
RIGHT NOW!

Why Not?

Always I have been asking why?

Why the pain? Why the trouble?
Why am I manifesting the hurt and sadness?

Like a little child....why Daddy?

Why is the sky blue?
Why is the grass green?
Why is blood red?
Daddy can answer, but every answer will generate a new question
This sort of process is endless

so asking why is really silly
why is the world here
why am I here
why am I doing this or that

Why not?
WHY NOT?
and it all unfolds...the spirit does not ask why things are bad or good
the spirit creates
the spirit sees the void and asks why not and out pops a flower or a super nova
out of the void comes the cosmos
out of the one comes the infinite
and the question is
why not?

and the answer is
everything

Youth Unemployment

OK there are people who are not doing as well as they would like

does the world owe them a living?

Personally I did not have a regular income until I was 29 years old
and I did not feel established until I was 33 years old
and I was not happily married until I was 38 years old
and my first child was born when I was 40 years old

but I often hear about the suffering of the youth today
how they have trouble finding work
how this alienates them from the community

I think they are impatient. I think they want it all now. I think it is silly of them to be so impatient. I think they should be counseled in patience not in insurrection

but I can't really blame them

I resented the rich when I was young
I resented those with property or accomplishments
but I just did not understand what they had done to become accomplished
what they had done to earn their property

so things really just stay the same from generation to generation
lessons get learned
we grow up
finally we get old
always new people
learning old lessons

Federal Spending Cuts?

the last time federal outlays decreased was

1965

wow

46 years since outlays decreased
but I keep hearing about spending cuts?
where are the cuts?

I think there have been no cuts, only increases for 46 years
and they still talk about cuts
what fools we mortals be!

so in 1964 outlays were $118,528,000,000
in 1965 outlays were $118,228,000,000
for a cut of $300,000,000
three hundred million! wow! big cut!

2010 outlays , $3,720,701,000,000
three trillion seven hundred twenty billion

this amount is more than 30 times what was spent in 1965

I would like to see a real cut again. A year when they actually spend less.
Real people have that happen. Sometimes they spend less, sometimes income goes down and they spend less

but government.....??

Temptation

"Focus on standardized tests may be pushing some teachers to cheat"

this raises a good question
what percentage of people will cheat if they stand to gain and think they will not be caught?

or ask this
what crimes would you commit for a million dollars or how about a billion?

or is it a mistake to set up systems that tempt people to cheat?

I would say that the less temptation the better because crooked people are always around

and yet this headline is very sad, teachers cheating
teaching cheating
teaching the students to cheat

I try to be a good example to my community
I make mistakes sometimes, but I try to keep the right goal in mind

not easy living here in this world with these rules and those temptations

trying to wish them all well
all people everywhere
wishing them all well

REALITY

INFINITE

ONE

morning conversation while jogging

"Good morning!"

"Good morning! How's it going?"

"Good! How's it going?

"REALLY GOOD!" with a very nice smile.

really good around here, really good
really

REALITY!

Prosperity Is Now

we lament the lack of prosperity

when all around are the prosperous

richer all the time

that is the truth

we have prosperity now

it is not relative but absolute

she said,

"SUPPLY IS INFINITE"

and she was right!