Self Improvement Newsletter
Issue # 517, August 4-5, 2008

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* Self Improvement and Personal Growth Weekly Newsletter *
Issue # 517, Week of August 4-5, 2008
Publisher:  David Riklan - http://www.SelfGrowth.com

In this issue:

-- Quotes of the Week
-- Recommended Product of the Week
-- Article:  International Worldwide Forgiveness Day - By Colin C. Tipping
-- Article:  The "Sacred" Meditation Trap - By Thayer White
-- Book Review:  Finding Your Soul in the Spirituality Maze - By Thayer White
-- Brief News of the World
-- How to Subscribe and Unsubscribe from this Newsletter

Current Subscribers - 270,210 subscribers
Removal instructions are listed at the end of the newsletter.


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*** Quotes of the Week ***
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In every difficult situation is potential value. Believe this, then begin looking for it. - Norman Vincent Peale, 1898-1993, American Preacher and Author of "The Power of Positive Thinking"

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. - Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948, Indian Political and Spiritual Leader

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882, American Poet and Essayist

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*** Recommended Product of the Week ***
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*** Article:  International Worldwide Forgiveness Day - By Colin C. Tipping ***
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August 3rd was designated as International Worldwide Forgiveness Day by the visionary Robert Plath. His vision was that it would be a day that would evoke the healing spirit of forgiveness worldwide. He created the Worldwide Forgiveness Alliance in 1996 to empower that vision.

Each year on this date, the Alliance honors people who have made a contribution to spreading the message of forgiveness throughout the world, either by the work they have done or by the examples set in their own lives. You can see the current honorees by going to his website at http://www.forgivenessalliance.org. I was proud to be nominated by the Alliance as a Champion of Forgiveness in 2002 and was honored to speak at their annual event in California.

As a counterpoint to our automatic "God Bless America" parochialism, what appeals to me most about this organization is that its focus is worldwide forgiveness. Their stated goal is to "establish this International Forgiveness Day (not just in America but) in every village and hamlet across the world by the year 2025."

Although International Forgiveness Day just passed, I am hoping you will respond to the call and will wake up feeling an urge to do some forgiveness work. If you do, two questions will arise. First, who shall I try to forgive? Second, what kind of forgiveness shall I use?

No trouble with the first for I doubt it would take you long to find someone in your own personal life against whom you still hold a grievance. To forgive them would be a wonderful gift to yourself and a great contribution to your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Remember, you do forgiveness for yourself, not for those you are forgiving. 

However, since the focus of the Forgiveness Alliance is worldwide, you might think about expanding your vision by looking to see how the benefits of forgiveness could be extended to people around the world. After all, do we not have judgments and grievances about those who are responsible for situations like Darfur, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Zimbabwe, and other such seemingly bad conditions? Are those judgments not just as toxic to us as our other grievances, and from an energetic point of view, don't our judgments tend to keep the energy around the situations stuck? Of course they do.

As far as the second question is concerned, if you really want to make a difference to what is happening in those places, as well as release your own stress around it, then it has to be RADICAL Forgiveness. And that's because it works NOT through the intellect (as in traditional forgiveness where forgiveness is thought of as a conscious choice to let bygones be bygones), but through that part of us that connects us to the quantum field of universal consciousness. I call that our Spiritual Intelligence.

Our Spiritual Intelligence is the part of us that knows the higher purpose in everything that is occurring, which is, of course, the basic underlying principle of Radical Forgiveness -- that there is a Divine purpose in everything. In that sense, what follows is there's nothing 'wrong' happening and therefore, nothing to forgive. (It's a crazy idea, I know, but fortunately we don't have to believe it. We just need to use the tools provided to activate our Spiritual Intelligence. That takes care of the process automatically from that point on).

The way it works is when we do our forgiveness work using the tools of Radical Forgiveness (these are what make it so easy and quick), we automatically make an alteration to our energy field. Then, because we are all part of what Rupert Sheldrake, the English biologist, refers to as the morphogenetic energy field to which all humans belong, our own shift in energy will have an immediate effect on the overall field. Consequently, if just a small number of people were to do a Radical Forgiveness process on the situation in Darfur, for example, they would have an unimaginable but profound impact on the situation in that country. Things would start to move in the right direction. Positive changes would begin to happen immediately. It's an energy thing!

So I invite you during this time of worldwide forgiveness to start using Radical Forgiveness. By all means use it for something personal, but then cast your mind beyond self and even beyond the shores of the country in which you live, to the world 'out there.'

Choose a situation about which you feel strongly. Then 'forgive' all those you see as being to blame for everything that is bad in the world.

This is the only way we are ever going to have world peace and harmonious relationships between everyone. And it really is up to us to create it. By doing the Radical Forgiveness work, we are, firstly, taking responsibility for having created, through our own consciousness, all these people and situations. Secondly, we will be taking back all that we have collectively projected onto these people. Only then will we begin to heal the misperception that we are all separate and need to attack each other. Only then will we stop fighting each other, abusing each other, stealing from each other, and so on.

But we don't have forever to make this choice. The clock is ticking. 2012 is just around the corner, and I believe that we have to make the conscious choice to shift our consciousness from the fear vibration to love vibration by that time, or have it be a very difficult transition indeed. I may be right about this or wrong about it, but I would still ask you to take this day seriously, folks, and join the many amongst us who are already trying to change the world by seeing the perfection in the imperfection.

Happy Worldwide Forgiveness Day.

About the Author:
Colin's Mission Statement: "My Mission is to Raise the Consciousness of the Planet and to Create a World of Forgiveness by 2012."

Colin Tipping is the creator of what has come to be recognized as the most powerful leading-edge technology for personal and spiritual growth today -- Radical Forgiveness. He is the acknowledged authority on the application of this technology to the "healing" of individuals, families, races, corporations, and communities. He is the author of five popular, ground-breaking books:

Radical Forgiveness: Making Room for the Miracle

A Radical Incarnation: Mission - A World of Forgiveness by 2012

Spiritual Intelligence At Work

Radical Manifestation: The Fine Art of Creating the Life You Want

Getting to Heaven on a Harley: A Radical Karma Workbook

Please go to http://www.radicalforgiveness.com to learn more about Colin and other Radical Forgiveness strategies.

Check out the Experts page for Colin Tipping, the Official SelfGrowth.com Guide to Forgiveness.

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*** Article:  The "Sacred" Meditation Trap - By Thayer White ***
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One of the most popular "sacred" traps for most New Age folks is meditation. If someone said that they meditate every day for two hours, the standard New Age response would typically be along the lines of "How wonderful, how spiritual, that is great!"

Consider instead if someone says that she drives her car (make it solar powered in this example) for two hours every day. The response likely would be "What for, why, what do you get accomplished?" There is a clear perception that the automobile is a vehicle for use in accomplishing other things. The vehicle is not the destination. Likewise, meditation is a tool and is not spiritual in and of itself. It may lead to spiritual experiences or it may not.

Meditation, however, is considered the destination by millions of New Age people. So, what does it accomplish for them? They use meditation as a tool for temporarily shedding the tensions, stresses, and worries of everyday life. This tool helps in centering and calming. It keeps them occupied. These folks never "get it" that they are often avoiding important growth lessons by using meditation to make themselves calmer. The reasons why they are tense and stressed are never explored and changed so that these everyday experiences stop causing tension and stress. People use the meditation like a Valium or Prozac pill.

As a temporary fix, meditation is OK, but not as a regular means for avoiding life lessons. Then it becomes addictive and unhelpful. Most people recognize that those who use Valium or Prozac are dependent upon their drug for feeling good. Few recognize meditation dependency. If you are using meditation to feel good, as a tool to have peak experiences, or think it is very important to you, then you are likely trapping yourself in attachment and/or dependency.

The goal of meditation is to help us reach into and participate in the realms of spirit, in such realms to be taught, to be guided, and/or to learn. If we attach ourselves to the form of the meditation or its helpers (rituals, ceremonies, sacred objects, chanting, or drumming), then we have usually limited ourselves to lesser spiritual realms and have often overlooked the overall purpose of meditation.

In "Awakening Spirits" (Brown, 1994), there is much discussion of Stalking Wolf's ideas about both external (objects, rituals, or ceremonies) and internal (bodily feelings, images, or impulses) helpers/triggers used to reach spiritual realms. Stalking Wolf recommended that an important goal was the ability to reach spiritual realms instantly without the need for meditation. Therefore, he taught that we could ultimately discard all helpers (triggers). Is your meditation practice leading you to its abandonment? Or, are you glorifying it and holding dearly to it?

Empty Mind Meditation. This is the most commonly recommended type of meditation. Supposedly, if we can let go of our monkey minds (that jump all over the place), then we will achieve the meditative state of "no mind." I do agree that it is beneficial to reduce the impact of our flitting minds, and I think that this can sometimes result in a slightly better alignment with our souls. However, the underlying purpose for the meditation will be the most important factor in determining alignment. With neurotic-ego-based intent (to feel good, to be spiritual, or to do the right thing), then meditation will become a covering-over process designed to avoid life issues. With such intent, then achieving an empty mind will not produce anything more than a temporary feel-good experience similar to that reached via opium.

Notes: I do not recommend empty mind meditation for those 30% of us who have the top center in their Human Design Chart energized (see Chapter 12). Nor do I recommend subscribing to the following mind traps (Chapter 8): "everything is a mystery," "you can't know anything for sure," or "thinking is not good."

Is Your Meditation Valuable? Your body will actually tell you if you measure tension levels (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate, or extremities' temperatures) over the long-term. Short-term feeling good is a seductive trap that many use to "prove" how valuable the meditation was. Such folks never consider that meditation might be used the way the addict uses opium, as a short-term fix. Opium too will cause our bodies to relax temporarily.

When approaching spiritual realms, I suggest going with a purpose, not as a tourist. Tourists often get excited and have cheap spiritual highs, but they rarely understand in depth the places they visit.

I do recommend some meditation, but only with the proviso that you have a spiritual goal in mind before almost every meditation. That goal would be to receive help, healing, teaching, or guidance for you personally and/or for others. The goal is not to meditate for an hour but to allow space and time for an hour to let spirit flow through you in response to your goal of becoming, for example, less judgmental. Then the visions and images related to your specific goal will much more likely be forthcoming than if you had no goal.
 
About the Author:
Thayer White (earth student, therapist, and longtime New Age explorer) has been following spiritual paths for 25 years, and he has 40 years of experience with personal psychological growth (his own and others'). These decades of experiences have resulted in the evolution of many unconventional ideas about popular New Age "wisdom" and the spirituality maze. Thayer helps you separate the New Age wheat from the chaff in a clear understandable fashion... with his book, "Finding Your Soul in the Spirituality Maze." This book launch comes with free added bonuses! Go to http://www.thayerwhite.com/book.htm

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*** Book Review:  Finding Your Soul in the Spirituality Maze - By Thayer White ***
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This book helps you separate the New Age wheat from the chaff. It provides useful tools for measuring your spiritual development, and it points out long-term paths to your inner peacefulness, not quick covering-over fixes. What three other readers/reviewers have said...

1. "Feeling content with oneself -- something so many people reach for but so often fail to achieve. 'Finding Your Soul in the Spirituality Maze' is a guide for those who wish to attempt the New Age Spirituality path to contentment. Promoting how to align one's mind with the soul's desires, attain peace of mind, and warning what to avoid to prevent the creation of roadblocks in one's path, [this book] is a deftly written guide for followers of New Age and for community library spirituality collections." --Review by Midwest Book Review

2. "There is a serious and continuing need to provide clear, straight-forward books such as this one so that readers can be helped to make out the forest for the trees. Inner Work is a subtle process. This book does not take the mystery out of it, but does help make the journey more intelligible." --Don Riso and Russ Hudson, authors of "The Wisdom of the Enneagram"

3. "An excellent travel guide for the spiritual seeker." --Belinda Gore, Ph.D., author of "Ecstatic Body Postures"

Act now to get free bonuses with purchase (including audio of Thayer describing why the Law of Attraction usually fails): http://www.thayerwhite.com/book.htm

*****
The list price of this book is $17.95. To purchase it from Amazon.com, go here.

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*** Brief News of the World ***
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Positive:

* Golden retriever adopts tiger cubs at Kansas zoo *

A dog at a southeast Kansas zoo has adopted three tiger cubs abandoned by their mother. Safari Zoological Park owner Tom Harvey said the tiger cubs were born Sunday, but the mother had problems with them. A day later, the mother stopped caring for them. Harvey said the cubs were wandering around, trying to find their birth mother, who wouldn't pay attention to them. That's when the cubs were put in the care of a golden retriever, Harvey said. (Click here for complete news story)

* 97-Year-Old Woman Says Cat's Yowling Saved Her from Fire *

A 97-year-old woman says her cat's loud, early morning cries saved her from a house fire. Grace George, of Independence, Mo., said her cat Boo Boo's yowling from an open bedroom window early Wednesday woke her up from a sound sleep. "I got so aggravated," George said. "I didn't know why she was doing that." (Click here for complete news story)

* Futuristic fashions will fight our health scares *

From sensors in workout gear that monitor sweating while you run at the gym, to underwear that aims to detect cancer cells, the contents of our wardrobes have been quietly undergoing a revolution. Over the past decade, there has been a rise in the number of ways that technology is being incorporated into items of our clothing. Trials of smart clothes that can repel insects and mask nasty odours such as cigarette smoke have proved successful and are already being marketed. Last year, a design student at Cornell University designed a garment that can prevent colds and flu and, crucially, never needs washing. (Click here for complete news story)

** For more positive news, please visit http://www.selfgrowth.com/news.html

Other:

* U.S. cities tout merits of less costly 'staycations' *

What do temporary tattoos, 12-foot-tall red pins, trips to Six Flags, and tickets to the Broadway musical "Wicked" have in common? They're all ways America's cities are encouraging local residents to vacation at home in this summer of high airfares and soaring prices for gasoline and food. As many states reel from reductions in consumer spending and sales-tax collection, successful efforts to turn tourism promotion inward could breathe much-needed life into local economies. (Click here for complete news story)

* Total eclipse provides rare delight *

A total solar eclipse was sweeping across Earth Friday, providing a rare sight for people in the upper Northern Hemisphere. The eclipse will be visible in parts of Canada, northern Greenland, the Arctic, central Russia, Mongolia, and China. It will move across the planet in a narrow path that begins in Canada's northern territory of Nunavut and ends in northern China's Silk Road region at sunset, according to NASA. (Click here for complete news story)
 

* World's Smallest Snake Found in Barbados: Discovered Snake is Less than 4 Inches Long and Can Fit on a Quarter When Coiled *

A U.S. scientist said Sunday he has discovered the globe's tiniest species of snake in the easternmost Caribbean island of Barbados, with full-grown adults typically stretching less than 4 inches long. S. Blair Hedges, an evolutionary biologist at Penn State University whose research teams also have discovered the world's tiniest lizard in the Dominican Republic and the smallest frog in Cuba, said the snake was found slithering beneath a rock near a patch of Barbadian forest. (Click here for complete news story)

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