This statement my Dr.King, I must say is one of the strongest, most
profound statements that I have ever heard. It made me think, “what I am I wiling to die for?” And, at first, I say to myself “family.” However, with deeper thought, this is even a bit questionable. I think more people, than not (if honest with themselves) would have to ask themselves the same question. One might say, “aren’t there plenty of causes out there worth dying for?” In theory, “of course there are.” However, ask yourself, “if push came to shove, would you truly be willing to die for this cause?” Now, why is this such a complexing issue? In effect, it has a lot to do with the contentment and ultimate disillusionment of person’s in society; It also has alot to do with the individualized mentalities that people in our culture have developed as a result in living in such a selfish society. Essentially, many of us feel that if it does not affect us directly, then “who the hell the cares?” And, if you think about this, this is a very sad reality. There are places, and there was a time in this country, where people die for that which they believe. However, I would dare say that “the land of the free, and home of the brave,” has now become “the land of the things and the home of the selfish.” Consequently, many of us have been greatly disillusioned; in doing so, many of us have trained ourselves to believe that there are already people designated to look out for our best interest, and we’ll let them handle “the do or die issues.” Never realizing that many of the so-called leaders are just as selfish and misguided as their constituents. Moreover, many of them and their positions can be bought for mere trinkets. Problematic? Indeed! Why? Because, ultimately, the decisions, in this case, are not made for the greater good of the masses, but for those who control the dollars. And, what happens to the masses is what is happening right now-The struggles become overwhelming. The struggle(s) become such that dying is the only escape from the present reality.

So, if after all this, there is still nothing that you feel committed enough for which to give your life, ask yourself “What will you live for?”

Carolyn Hall is a doctoral candidate at Clark Atlanta University. She is also a college professor, whom teaches World literature and college composition. In her spare time, she loves to write.

Good and bad habits are tiny daily choices that accumulate. Each choice is a small wire that is woven together with hundreds of other little choices. Eventually these wires form a strong cable. Like a child that grows a tiny amount each day, our tiny choices accumulate without much notice. By the time we realize we have either a good or a bad habit, the habit has us. Most of our daily choices are made automatically without even thinking about them. To change our habits, we first need to be aware of them. Then we need to work backward from the habit to the daily practices that form it. To change the habit, we need to change those practices.

Procrastination is a good example. Putting things off until tomorrow is a popular labor saving device. However, as actor and comedian, W.C. Fields, once said, “there comes a time that you must take the bull by the tail and face the situation.” Failing to face tough situations usually makes them worse. But it’s a habit. The more often we procrastinate, the more natural it is to do the next time. The opposite is also true. If we practice doing those things that we most want to delay first, we find that it wasn’t so bad after all. And everything else that follows is all that much easier.

Our discipline and habits spring from our passion and commitment. I find that when I have the least amount of self-discipline and have the greatest trouble forming a success habit, it’s often because my heart isn’t in it. So to motivate myself, I need to find ways to increase my passion.

For years I told myself how much I hated jogging early in the morning. I would clench my teeth and go for a short run because I knew it was good for me. I complained so much about jogging that my colleagues once bought me a tee shirt complete with handy “Running Excuses” printed on it. Then I started to concentrate on all the benefits of jogging. I paid attention to the smells, sounds, and sights around me. I focused on how invigorated I felt in the shower afterward and how much more energy I had throughout the day. I talked about how much better I felt from the work out. I read articles on the benefits of aerobic exercise. I slowly extended my running distance.

Eventually I came to love jogging. When I broke my collarbone in a skiing accident (I discovered the painful truth of the most dangerous statement on the ski hill “Just follow me, Dad”), I went jogging with my shoulder bouncing painfully in an upper body brace. I either bumped my head too hard in the fall on the ski hill or the habit has me.

Passion is a key leadership element. In a Fortune article on “America’s Most Admired Companies,” Thomas A. Stewart gives direction that applies to every leader in any social, family, or organization role. His advice also highlights a key reason these leaders are so successful. “There is one more item in our list of Things Leaders Must Do, and it’s just what your broker says Investors Must Not Do: fall in love. There are CEOs who slash and CEOs who fix and CEOs who safeguard and CEO’s who build. The great ones do all these things too, but first of all they love. Passion, commitment, ferocity – the traits of lovers are in these leaders.”

Excerpted from Jim’s fourth bestseller, Growing the Distance: Timeless Principles for Personal, Career, and Family Success. View the book’s unique format and content, Introduction and Chapter One, and feedback showing why nearly 100,000 copies are now in print at http://www.growingthedistance.com. Jim’s new companion book to Growing the Distance is The Leader’s Digest: Timeless Principles for Team and Organization Success. Jim Clemmer is an internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, workshop/retreat leader, and management team developer on leadership, change, customer focus, culture, teams, and personal growth. His web site is http://www.clemmer.net/articles.

We don’t need to avenge ourselves; God will do it for us. Here we have an instance of a wise and holy lady who knew how to gently warn a great man that he would be ill-advised to retaliate in kind. Here Abigail exhibits foresight so that David may be spared the painful memories that hindsight would bring to a man of his moral sensitivity.

There are times in all our lives when a prevailing grace becomes a preventing grace; when a friend will remind us that it isn’t our nature to say or do what, in a momentary indignation, we would so like to say or do. The wisdom is in recognizing what our friend has done for us. David did; he realized what this perceptive wife of Nabal did for him and he exclaimed, “Praise be to the Lord, the God is Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. May you be blessed for your good judgment. . .” (v.32,33).

Abigail tenderly cut to the quick of the problem while David was impressionable. Had David committed the sin of getting even, he no doubt would have been pardoned, for “. . .her husband. . .was surly and mean in his dealings” (v.3). Abigail stated, “He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him” (v.17b). But the question arises: which is better, a pardoned or a prevented sin? In David’s case of prevented sin, a family was spared, as well as David’s conscience and future reputation.

The consequences for others and ourselves is immeasurable and incomprehensible. The only law we can rely on are God’s laws when dealing with our feelings about what has happened to us: “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9) and “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).

The accusers of the brethren abound. “Why do you listen when men say…?” We are not even to lend an ear to another’s vicious tongue. “When will talkers refrain from evil speaking? When listeners refrain from evil hearing” (Hare).

For what comfort it can give us, even Jesus was maligned. He was accused of :

1) keeping bad company: “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors?” (Matthew 9:11);
2) gluttony and drunkenness: “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, `Here is a glutton and a drunkard” (Matthew 11:19);
3) of blasphemy: “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses?” (Matthew 26:65);
4) insanity: “When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, `He is out of his mind’” (Mark 3:21);
5) being possessed: “`You are demon-possessed,’ the crowd answered” (John 7:20);
6) breaking the Sabbath: “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath” (John 9:16);
7) treason: “Anyone who claims to be king opposed Caesar” (John 10:20).

In the dark of present-day inclinations to do in every public figure, Joseph Addison’s comment is quite interesting: “There is nothing that more betrays a base ungenerous spirit than the giving of secret stabs to a man’s reputation. Lampoons and satires, that are written with wit and spirit, are like poisoned darts, which not only inflict a wound, but make it incurable.”

Ben Jonson said that “we cut men’s throats with whisperings.” A person bleeds when another repeatedly punctures his or her reputation. What else can we expect? “But he who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity” (Proverbs 21:23). He also keeps another from tragedy.

1. Form/Ignorance-Birth of “I”.

Initially, there is open space/open mind. Then a blackout (trance) occurs, a disruption, causing identification to arise, the shock of birth. We wake up perceiving form, not recognizing that we have created it. We ignore our position as creator. “Ignore-ance” is not stupidityit is very intelligent, but reactive. The perceiver wants to possess the space, the openness is now perceived through trance as form, as possessable. Since space is really just space, at the root, this whole endeavor is futile (therefore, suffering is unavoidable). There are three aspects of ignorance, which are simultaneous and inseparable. (1) Separateness/birth;
(2) A sense of always so, the idea that this is the real state of affairs (positive hallucination), therefore the perceiver must maintain it. This brings about the birth of a sense of awkwardness.
(3) Self-observing ignorance. The perceiver sees the self as other, thereby beginning a relationship with an external world.

2. Feeling.

As perceivers we wonder about our relationship to form. Space is not bare space; it is full of color and energy. Since we’re ignoring the openness of space, these qualities are a tremendous threat to our trance. We are trying to fix, to capture the color and energy of space, to make it solid and manageable. Because such fixation is an illusion, there is a great sense of insecurity about the reality of form. Feeling is a very efficient antidote to that insecurity: it feels real, therefore it is. We ignore evidence to the contrary.

3. Perception/Impulse (P/I).

Perception = receiving information. Impulse = responding to information. This is a rudimentary sorting process of perceived forms. After deciding whether an object is positive (+), negative (-), or neutral (0), the perceiver reacts accordingly. There are only three choices: move toward (desire), move away from (threat/hatred), or remain neutral (stupid/dull).

4. Concept.

The perceiver categorizes the objects of perception as positive (+), negative (-), or neutral (0).
Now the perceiver develops names, rules, and evaluation mechanisms (past/present/future). Perception/Impulse is an automatic reaction to intuitive feeling, but it doesn’t defend well enough our ignorance and insecurity. The intellect is needed to do a good job: it provides the ability to name and categorize. Egoic minding now goes beyond mere reaction and becomes more sophisticated; intellectual speculation arises. The intellect creates ‘I’ and ‘I am’ to encompass all the stuff of the first 3 skandas into a solid mass, an apparently solid self. It confirms and interprets the self. It puts the self into logical situations with a natural tendency toward body identification and survival to affirm the perceiver’s existence (i.e., his ignorance).

5. Consciousness.

The intuitive intelligence of the second skandha, the energy of the third, and the intellect of the fourth, combine to produce thoughts and emotions. A hallucinatory quality arises as we project our version of reality on to the world. Skandhas 1-4 develop very simply and predictably. The fifth skandha is wild and irregular. It creates unpredictable thought patterns. These are our normal state.

Concepts mix with impulse energy to create fully developed emotions, which are a mixture of energy and conceptual storyline (vivid trance!). Since the real world doesn’t fit our storylines, our stories and energies are constantly thrown into conflict with themselves and worldly events. This engenders confusion. Rambling thought arises, as we attempt to maintain the validity of our trance, even when we’re alone. Therefore, we’re always alone with ourselves. Reading things into the world, we become completely immersed in our trance.

The power of the hallucination has a life of its ownit is called the Wheel of Life, the Six Realms of Existence. These realms, with their primary emotional character, can be summarized as follows.

1. Heaven/God Realm. Full of (conditional) goodness, beauty, and freedom. Pride predominates.
2. Jealous God Realm. Having tasted or imagined heaven, you must defend it. (The quivers of fear begin, the intimations of insubstantiality). Jealousy and envy arise.
3. Human Realm. Jealousy makes things get heavier, earthbound. Instead of alternating between jealousy and pride (too intense), there is a more solid, homey feeling. Regular, ordinary, mundane life which satisfies mundane desires. Desire predominates.
4. Animal Realm. Pursuing desire makes you get duller, heavier, more stupid, lazier. You just crawl around and moo or bark, rather than making the effort to enjoy the pleasure of pride or envy. Ignorance predominates.
5. Hungry Ghost Realm. The heaviness gets oppressive, you remember the God Realm and want to get back, but you don’t know how. This generates great hunger and thirstunquenchable/claustrophobicand it builds. Greed predominates.
6. Hell Realm. Continuing frustration results in loss of faith, great doubt, hopelessness, and violent reaction arise. You experience hatred for this nightmare and for yourself. Hatred predominates.

(My eternal gratitude to my teacher, Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, for presenting this material in a vivid, loving, and humorous way.)

©Copyright Jack Elias, 2006, All Rights Reserved. Excerpt from Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP by Jack Elias. Contact jack@FindingTrueMagic.com , www.FindingTrueMagic.com

http://www.findingtruemagic.com/health.shtml

People who live lives of excellence, on the other hand, make excellent choices (I’m not saying they don’t experience setbacks – I’m saying they approach their day differently).

Imagine with me for a moment: what if there was a way to Ignite the Success Forces within you? Would you practice it?

If we knew something about the difference between those who live in mediocrity and those who live, move and breathe in excellence, do you think that could help us to have more success in our lives?

You bet it could.

So, then: How Do We Ignite the Success Forces Within Us?

The answer may seem somewhat hidden, but I assure you: it is not hidden to men and women of success and achievement.

If you want to have real success in your life, then you absolutely MUST move from moment to moment with a SENSE OF URGENCY.

Have you ever seen a boxer accidently bump heads with his opponent and get a cut over his eye?

I have. And let me tell you: once he gets that cut under his eye, he starts moving with a sense of urgency…big time.

Why? Because he knows the referee can now stop the fight at any moment.

You need to start attacking each hour and minute of the day with the same sense of urgency.

If you never made time for your personal vision, or never followed through on your goals to get in shape and lose weight, and I came along one day and put a gun to your head and said I’ll pull the trigger if you didn’t get your things accomplished in the next 4 hours, do you think that would motivate you and make a difference?

Some of you may say no it wouldn’t…but I’m guessing most people would agree that they’d move with a greater sense of urgency.

It is this type of self-motivation that will move you further and faster than you ever did before in your life.

Approach your day in this way and in no time you’ll begin to see a new person staring back at you in the mirror.

Living in a state of urgency tells the mind that you are going to be relentless until you meet with success.

Urgency provides immediate focus to the tasks that must be done. Before you know it, momentum builds and carries you towards achievement.

Waking up at 5:00 am each morning to some would be unimaginable; to me it is my way of preparing to be an effective mom, mentor and business owner.

With urgency, you perform at a higher level of accomplishment.

It becomes unacceptable for you not to.

Urgency creates a reality that anything is possible or attainable and this is where your creative imagination will uncover a way to make it happen.

Approach your day, your business and yourself as though
your life depended on it.

Because it does!

Only you can decide what you would be willing to do.

Decide today and then act on it with urgency. Success will follow.

Enjoy the day,

Laura Roman Lopez
www.pathwaystopower.com
laura@pathwaystopower.com

Keith Matthew and Laura Roman Lopez have been teaching goal-setting and wealth building techniques for 12 years. Visit www.pathwaystopower.com/ns-freeworkshop.html to sign up for a Free 7-Day Success Workshop.

Is astrology a true science? Yes it is, but there are few scientists who understand it. You have to be a pretty highly advanced being to be able to tell the karma of a person and his future. And you can make tremendous karma when you influence a person to believe things that you believe to be true, for if you are an astrologer, for every mistake you have made in your astrological chart you are going to take that karma of the individual. This is not a simple business, so if you consider yourself to be an astrologer, start to consider what you are saying as one astrologer told a friend, “you will be dead in ten years”. Can you imagine a mistake like that? If you tell people that all kinds of terrible things are going to happen to them, it will happen because none of us are positive enough or fearless enough to reject negative ideas or suggestions. We are afraid of the unknown and when someone begins talking about the unknown cautioning us, we are afraid.

You must understand that our whole galaxy or present universe is moving at incredible speeds. Therefore, how are you going to find out the exact planetary conjunctions of a child at birth? Only a master can through his intuition. You see if you are off more than a few seconds you can not have an absolute exact condition.

Spiritualizing astrology is a very complex subject. If your body is very strong and your mind is powerful, and certain destructive vibrations radiate from the stars due to past karmic blueprints in your subconscious mind, and they begin to shed their rays upon you, there will be no reaction at all because you will be impervious to their rays, your shield is strong. How do you develop this shield? Suppose your body and mind are weak at that particular moment and your biorhythms are low and your immunity is weak due to certain transgressions such as wrong eating, lack of exercise and sexual abuse. What will happen? The cosmic rays will have great power to affect you.

There are certain outward protections, such as astrological bangles that have a specific weight, consisting of three metals combined in a pure form of silver, gold and copper. Certain sizes of diamonds can also be effective. Unfortunately, if you are not spiritually strong the radiation will start affecting you in a destructive way when using large stones as a shield. If you are spiritual, you will absorb the radiation and the magnetic shield will protect you. The whole idea is that if you do not protect yourself constantly when you are healthy those karmic laws begin to come to collect bills. Children should learn these laws to be able to take care of themselves. You must reprogram the computer of your subconscious mind with strong positive affirmations.

Astrology is a scientific study of the astronomical influences which comes at certain periods of your life according to the planetary conjunctions of certain planets and time specific magnetic fields, attraction and repulsion. And you are born at the very specific time where specific conjunctions are there and which guide your entire life if you do not control your destiny by willpower.

How can you control your destiny? Take Nostradamus, who with great accuracy could see four hundred years into the future happenings of the world. He predicted the colossal draught which is happening in parts of the world today and all the starvation in Africa. You see, the future is already made, the movie is finished. It is all there on the big screen of this cosmic drama. But you can change your destiny. Fate means that you make absolutely no effort to stop all kinds of things from happening to you. You let yourself sink into the misery of the experiences of life because the moment you suffer physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, you start fighting like a wild animal; then you begin to remember who you are. The soul does not evolve, it must be reawakened. The quicker you learn how to control your destiny the less suffering you will have.
As long as you question whether or not you will win or lose your battles in life, you will keep on losing. Don’t stand still and don’t go backward. Most people are engaged in a tug of war or are stationary. Your will power will determine what you are going to do, not your karma, not your horoscope, not your bad habits.

PART II continues.

This article is an excerpt from my new ebook titled,’How to Sell a Dead Horse.’ For more information about the author and this article please go to: http://howtoselladeadhorse.com
You may reprint this article if you wish and make sure to include the source. Thank You:)

Psychic reading implies the art of reading into a person’s life and mind. It involves use of intuition and deep analysis of a particular problem or a query that is posed by a person. Psychics use several techniques such as psychometrics, astrology, tarot, palmistry, telepathy, I Ching and so on to connect to a higher consciousness, which they believe will have answers to all questions and solutions to life’s mysteries. Psychic readings can relate to a person’s present , past, future, love life, family relationships, ailments, mental stress or tension and general success (or failure) in life. Psychic readers claim they can answer all these questions.

Some psychics offer free psychic reading as a service but this is not common. There are also professional psychics who offer free psychic readings for limited categories, such as health, love, and relationships. Most charge a fee for financial problems. There are some other psychics who offer a few minutes of free psychic reading and then charge for anything beyond that. Sometimes, the first call is given free while the rest of the calls are charged. This is generally used as a promotional offer. There are online psychic readers who provide free psychic reading over online chat.

There are several online psychic readers who provide one or more of such kind of free psychic readings. They can be located using search engines on the Internet. However, many offers of free psychic reading are just a way to attract people onto their sites.

Psychics provides detailed information about psychics, psychic readings, psychic medium, psychic healing and more. Psychics is the sister site of Phone Psychics.

Below you can find a list of all New Moon times for 2006 and their correspondent sabian symbol (for more information about sabian symbols you can visit www.sabiansymbols.com).

Note: all the times listed are GMT UK

29 Jan 2006 14:14 Aquarius 9 degrees 32 minutes
Sabian Symbol: “A Man Who Had For A Time Become The Embodiment Of A Popular Ideal Is Made To Realize That As A Person He Is Not This Ideal”

28 Feb 2006 00:30 Pisces 9 degrees
Sabian Symbol: “An Aviator Pursues His Journey, Flying Through Ground-Obscuring Clouds”

29 Mar 2006 10:15 Aries 8 degrees 35 minutes
Sabian Symbol:”A Crystal Gazer”

27 Apr 2006 19:44 Taurus 7 degrees 24 minutes
Sabian Symbol:”A Sleigh On Land Uncovered By Snow”

27 May 2006 05:26 Gemini 5 degrees 48 minutes
Sabian Symbol:”Workmen Drilling For Oil”

25 Jun 2006 16:05 Cancer 3 degrees 58 minutes
Sabian Symbol:”A Cat Arguing With A Mouse”

25 Jul 2006 04:31 Leo 2 degrees 07 minutes
Sabian Symbol:”A Middle-Aged Woman, Her Long Hair Flowing Over Her Shoulders And In A Braless Youthful Garment”

23 Aug 2006 19:10 Virgo 0 degrees 31 minutes
Sabian Symbol:”In A Portrait, The Significant Features Of A Man’s Head Are Artistically Emphasized”

22 Sep 2006 11:45 Virgo 29 degrees 20 minutes
Sabian Symbol:”Totally Intent Upon Completing An Immediate Task, A Man Is Deaf To Any Allurement”

22 Oct 2006 05:14 Libra 28 degrees 40 minutes
Sabian Symbol:”Mankind’s Vast And Enduring Effort To Reach For Knowledge Transferable From Generation To Generation”

20 Nov 2006 22:17 Scorpio 28 degrees 27 minutes
Sabian Symbol:”The King Of The Fairies Approaching His Domain”

20 Dec 2006 14:00 Sagittarius 28 degrees 32 minutes
Sabian Symbol:”A Fat Boy Mowing The Lawn Of His House On An Elegant Suburban Street”

My name is Dan Ciubotaru and I’m the author of this astrology software.
I’m a romanian astrologer , member of Romanian Astrologers Association and I’m currently based in Bucharest, Romania. My websites are: http://ciuboda.blogspot.com , http://www.astrologydatabase.com and http://www.configurationhunter.com.