I feel like sharing this important news which i've just received from the Arlington Institute:

"Message from John L. Petersen:
For quite a number of years different analysts and observers have forecast the “peaking” of oil – reaching the point of maximum global production – which would be followed by less oil pumped and higher prices. Others, primarily those related somewhat with the oil industry or the government, argued that in the past, technology advancements have always allowed producers to find more oil where it was previously was thought either impossible or uneconomical. Well, they appear to have been quite wrong. In the last six months even mainline sources are now discussing peak oil without smirking and depreciating the idea.

The indicators have been there for some time. Some said that with the Saudi’s pumping the same amount for the last two years (and spurning President Bush’s multiple requests for increased production) it was obvious that the world had peaked. The Mexicans have peaked. The North Sea has peaked. It was only a matter of time before it became common sense.

(...) The jockeying and global manipulations will begin in earnest quite soon, as it becomes clear that the fuel that has given us most of everything we have is rapidly running down. And the price of oil will only increase while alternative energy breakthroughs will amaze. The disruption will be significant. The world will move rapidly toward becoming all-electric. Welcome to the new (energy) age."

Are they going to dig up the Arctic and Antarctica anyway?? Hope not.

After reading Eckart Tolle's A New Earth, and since i'm about to embark on an educational adventure in September (the creation of a pioneering primary school), i shall henceforth and  by means of this blog devote one paragraph per day to reflections on how to best promote presence and awareness in myself, my pupils, and my colleagues. I hope that i shall be able to muster the discipline needed for this exercise ... . :-)

The very first thing that comes to my mind when i think of awakening is my own lack of presence. Since my early childhood i have been a thinking person, imaginative, it is true, but also possessed by my mind, ruminating, wondering, hesitating, judging, ... All his life has he looked away ... to the horizon, to the sky, to the future. Never his mind on where he was, on what he was doing. (Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back). Nowadays my awareness is constantly clouded by thoughts of ecological breakdown, and i'm making myself unhappy with negative energy flowing from the destructive deeds of fellow humans which i seem to seek out from among all the information i receive.
So the first challenge to deal with before even considering teaching others is to develop my own daily routine of exercising presence and non-judgment.

(Illustration: Eternal Struggle by Daroy Lin)

It's weird when you think that every form in the universe is the material expression and manifestation of the same eternal and infinite consciousness. Every stone you touch, every flower you smell, every bird you hear, every human being you talk to is just (just?) a tiny wave rising briefly out of the same mighty ocean of stillness. When you look at me you look at yourself in another guise. It's a powerful truth which links everything together and can help us realize the absurdity of greed and violence.

(Illustration: 'Cosmic Light' by Diana Calvario)

Since reading A New Earth i see our two pets with different eyes. Our cat was born into our family, the parrot was rescued by my wife from a cruel fate with his former owner. Both now share our home and lives, and as non-thinking animals both totally control the present moment, of course. In their quiet (well, mostly quiet) sitting, climbing, moving about they are like flashing signposts reminding me of true being. They express a kind of complete, coherent intelligence unspoilt by thinking and judging. When we silently observe each other, there's something eerie in the air, something ungraspable, a thread of understanding from beneath the waveforms we are, deep down in the Father and Mother Ocean from where all forms emanate. I must and shall use their strength more often, for i now believe they are not just pets ... they are guides.

(Illustration: 'Gaia' by Daroy Lin)

It's difficult to maintain a daily rhythm of note-taking on this subject. Anyway-- awakening requires becoming a well-trained observer of oneself, a discoverer of unnecessary habits subtly instilled by society and the media in the course of time. One of the most harmful of these is compulsive consumption, especially if it supports irresponsible, polluting production processes.
Yesterday at the train station i watched a group of black-orange caterpillars dispersed over the bare stems of a handful of flowers; they were a bit confused, it seemed, for they had eaten all there was to eat. Some were just sitting there, others moved up and down the plant or on the ground nearby in desperate search for more food- but there was none (at least none they could digest). The scene reminded me of humankind today, of the way many of us currently use up our precious resources without looking ahead, until one day things like fish or metal or pollinating insects will be gone, and they (and the corporations that serve them) will act surprised and say: "Oops! But we didn't know ... "
(Picture: cinnabar moth caterpillar, Wikipedia)

My own awakening must be an evolution towards less reactivity and more acceptance of what is. To consider 'otherness' as real, given, and growing out of my Self as much as i (yes, the little 'i'); to observe things, beings, events without categorizing them as 'good', 'better', 'worse' etc.; to let the quiet energy of the Greater Soul flow through me like the Breath of God blowing through a flute, and thus to be 'the salt of the Earth'; those are daily exercises for overcoming reactivity.

(Picture: 'Allow' by Diana Calvario)