Extravagant title, perhaps. I was reading about the relationship between Russia and Kuwait recently and it struck me that Kuwait was the only arab country with active Soviet relations. Kuwait was actually the doorway for Russians into the Middle East. The Gulf War of 1991 changed all that (Perhaps another reason for the invasion?). Here we are 26 years later and the tide is moving again. Russian companies are looking at the Middle East for business. Many I know have set up operations in Dubai – ease of business, quick money transfers, great relaxed lifestyle, Sun…. But the business of the Middle East is in oil and gas, and Dubai has neither. So to other countries of the region one must look: Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, each with close to 100 billion barrels of oil remaining. Peak coal consumption has come and gone – the coal industry will be dead in 5 years and gone in 10. Oil is not far behind – this year, next year? but for at least the next 10 years primary production of a natural resource will continue unabated. The difference is that now the players are less from the West and more from the East. Their knowledge curve is steeper and faster – they have others’ experience to learn from. So, therefore, the new earth arrives. Russia, China, Asia minor. These are the places for now and the future.
Category: Consciousness
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Starting out 2015 with an Ode to Unity
Today, tomorrow or the next, we will collectively look with our hearts, our minds will be idle. Connecting our third eye through to infinite intelligence, tethering our mind to the guidance of the earth bound resonance we all share from our bodies made from mud, made of this Earth.
This would then become the discussion and preoccupation of the mind: how to improve this connection, this growth, our expansion. This would be the passage for humanity, our quest, our “salvation”.
Then what a vision and a vista will be before us. Then, instant balance would ensue, at all levels, all relationships between all humans, all areas.
Unity.
One.
Everywhere.
Ha! The stronger the mind, the more challenging the quest.
Only when the mind lowers it’s ever vigilant guard, and allows the heart’s soft utterances through to be felt and amplified by this wondrous body we each possess.
Then through all, and as one. Instant balance. Instant full potential expansive life for all species on this but a tiny speck of space dust. A speck of diamond, but a spec no less.
Our minds are brilliant tools. Connect that brilliance to the brilliance of our bodies and soar!
It is all within reach.
All inside each of us.Tether the mind. Release our potential.
Have a happy, happy 2015!
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We are the Russians – Here We Come!
Ever wonder about the psychology of the Russian people?
Let’s look at where they come from.
What are some headlines about Russia as a country? (Just a few, because there are many):
Russia - Largest landmass on earth, and by population density, one of the least populated – only 8 people per square kilometer. Singapore has over 7,500 people per square kilometer.
- With these large unpopulated spaces very generous reserves of gold, oil, coal, gas, iron, nickel, tungsten and so on, where most other countries have piles of dirt.
- A great agricultural base – both in land and farming techniques – for production of organic food 😀
So lots of space for people, lots of space for food for the people and lots of resources for the people to work with.
And what about the people? (Also just a few points, because there are many):
- Never conquered in over 1,000 years, with a contiguous culture throughout that time, layered with incredible fortitude built from a primarily serfdom society.
- A recent memory war that took away 26,500,000 people concurrent with an equally recent memory regime that removed another 20,000,000 souls from the earth. Remember that present day Russian population is only 143,000,000.
- Within the most recent generation an entire society literally thrown onto the street as they moved from one economic system and were thrust into another.
And what is the net result. In one word: Survivors – practical, pragmatic survivors. With a whole lot of resources to apply themselves to.
One can see this in this Inglehart Value Map below. There’s Russia: high on the upper left: High Survival values and high in Secular-Rational values: “what will it/you/they do for me now, today, not tomorrow or after?”
Inglehart Values Map Having a very high “Secular-Rational Value” means the people are very practical, very pragmatic. They are not prone to superstition (or faith without action), though many have deep devout faiths. Compare this to the USA, where a call to align with “traditional values” by any politician, Republican or Democratic – calling for God, or labour or liberalist idealism – will be swept into power with a rambunctious swearing of allegiances and oaths to serve – and die for no reason in strange far off lands – for God and country. In Russia it’s simple: “show me”.
Considering the history of the Russian people, on Survival Values they rank very high also. This makes for tenacity, perseverance, industriousness. No room for BS please.
Lots of good potential in this combination. Driven, dedicated, results focused. A little bit of entrepreneurial training and away they will go.
Have you ever heard of Maslow and the “Hierarchy of Needs”. That helps explain what is behind the Values Map. The idea is as you sort out your base, you can rise up the pyramid to, eventually, self actualisation.
That’s a country for you – on the launch pad.
Maslows Hierarchy of Needs -
Do It Daily!
Bathing daily, eating daily, sleeping daily. Daily is the greatest gift we have to change our lives. Just by changing what we do a little each day means we can change the course of our lives over a life time. Yoga daily, meditation daily, fresh healthy foods daily, positive uplifting people, conversations, events, circumstances, daily. These steer the way to what ever life you want. Do it today.
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Appear crazy, but not be crazy
We drive ourselves crazy when we try to comprehend things beyond our comprehension, trying to make them fit into our own existing paradigm. That’s being rigid. Avoid this crazy. Stretch your own paradigm until it breaks, then you can grab a new one. Then crazy is what you may appear to be, yet you know you are not ;o)
Like this quote from Ernest
Become Superior by Ernest Hemingway -
The Climb Takes Effort
Focus, concentration, endeavour, planning. All of these things are needed to reach any height, obtain any position different to where you are currently.
Realize that anyone who has anything in this life has obtained it through some effort of some kind. Even in supreme creation, what I call creating from a purely meditative state, takes training, discipline and attention to obtain the necessary state of mind.
Everyone has put in some form of effort somewhere, and where they are is defined by the effort they contributed. This is a good reminder.
Those at the Top -
Who Decides Right and Wrong
As you experience more in life you realize that what used to be right for you becomes wrong and visa-versa.
Doesn’t that make you think about those definitions in the first place?
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Thoughts – Matter
Because of how reality works, and because of how our mind works with reality – a synthesizer of reality, of matter – what you put your attention on, what you thoughts comprise of, really, really matters. It really does.
Remember it’s like this: thoughts first, matter second: thoughts matter.
People see only that which they desire and they project their desire ~ OSHO
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When you are ready, what you want arrives
Everything arrives when you are ready for it. You will feel it arrive because you are aligned to it’s arrival, and to its having by you. That means too, that you also can feel when you are not ready for something to arrive. You just feel it. This is a knowing you have.
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It’s all in how we learn…
The best learning is in the field; “on the job”, “through the school of hard knocks”. Getting getting lots and lots of “Nos” is how you work out what is right. The more Nos, the more you learn. This is how nature learns. Go watch it. Watch a vine climbing a fence. It’s kind of funny actually: this is the opposite to how we are taught formally. We are taught to “do it THIS way”, and formally we spend lots and lots of time learning one thing, one skill. If there is one little variation in the reality of our subject, then that learning becomes the WRONG way – it simply will not work. And no skill has been built to see that it IS the wrong way. Even worse, it is wrong to even admit wrong! You have to learn this yourself, the “hard way”, informally. There is only built in you the expectation that it is the right way. What a recipe for disillusionment! Better to start with little knowledge and build a successful path through many, many “Nos”… This is the life.
