Dear members

There are over 5 billion web pages on the internet, excluding a huge number
which have been archived. For the sake of my argument let's overstate the
total to be over 6 billion - roughly equivalent to the total number of human
beings currently inhabiting the Earth. All together these individual pages
constitute the totality that we call the World Wide Web. Individually they
represent a tiny part of a whole but collectively they represent a snapshot
of our society today: how many pages are there on Porn or how to make a
bomb, what percentage educate and inform, which are motivated by good or bad
intent, what truths or lies are being spread and who is communicating with
whom and about what? Changing one of the pages immediately but almost
imperceptibly alters the entire constitution of the www.

Likewise, we humans have the same conundrum - change of the totality
requires shifts on an individual basis which brings enormous responsibility
upon us all. Think of the thousands of years that indigenous people lived on
this planet without overpopulating, threatening and endangering species, and
destroying the environment. They took only what they needed and lived in
harmony with the environment because nature strongly influenced their
spirituality. They lived in harmony because they inherently understood that
if they didn't, the Earth would react or fight back: "The Hopi tribe (Native
American Indian) has a prophecy depicted on rock carvings that describe two
paths open to humanity. The first path is one of materialism, separate from
nature and spiritual laws, and leads to confusion and chaos. The other path
is characterised by the original instructions of prayer in harmony with
natural law. A line that bridges the paths represents a choice between
destruction or living in harmony with creation through honest labour and
spiritual understanding."

The choice is ours to make, for ourselves and the unborn generations -
whilst we consider ourselves superior, more civilized, advanced and
intelligent than those before us, our actions reveal the opposite. A clue to
why this might be the case lies in the differences between organised
religion and indigenous beliefs in regard to how we conduct ourselves. "For
many of indigenous belief, there was an actual fear of going into the spirit
world with the guilt of having done harmful acts to others, to society or to
the animals that provided for you. There was no erasure of deeds done, good
or bad. If they occurred, the result and the memory would be taken into the
spirit world. What happened, happened, and it could not be obliterated. This
was an effective restraint towards harmful conduct while they walked upon
this planet."

If we accept this responsibility then perhaps we can view God as reflected
in all creations and all functions. By observing nature we can get lessons
on how to act harmoniously, learning to forgive and love and to change the
world - "If you pick up a pebble on the beach you have changed the
universe." Our acts, thoughts and feelings are not isolated events. "These
beliefs tie in with metaphysical doctrine. It has also been referred to as
New Age. However, these beliefs have been practiced for thousands of years
and encompass many spiritual traditions. The premise is that the spirit of
God is within everyone and God is that collective spirit."

A movement towards forgiveness (an action) and love (the only emotion -
fear, the counter, being the absence of love) is also good for us
physically. Scientific research has shown that negative thoughts and
emotions create toxic energy in our bodies which lead to health problems.
" At a recent Mind/ Body seminar, physicians stated that hostility is a major
factor in the development of cancer and heart disease." As we march toward
an imminent cataclysm, the trends are scary (see previous newsletters):

• the Mayan's predicted the end of this civilisation in 2012
• species extinction has reached unprecedented levels
• global warming and climate change are rated as more of a threat to
  humanity than terrorism by 2 recent reports (one of which was commissioned
  by the Pentagon!)
• a Scandinavian research report anticipates the depletion of all oil
  reserves by 2012
• Native American prophecies predict a 'Purification' of the Earth from
  which only 'the pure of heart' will survive.
• the dawning of a new age Aquarius in 2012 apparently heralds a move to
  greater individual autonomy
• etc, etc, etc.

Yoga, which originally derives from holy men seeking to emulate animals and
was practiced in forests by these shamans, teaches us to become aware and
mindful of our actions. Perhaps we start to open to love and explore what
spirituality means but most of all: "There is an old native saying that
every step we take upon the Earth Mother should be as a prayer. Now, a
prayer is just a way of becoming really conscious, really tuning in to all
the relationships of everything in existence. To make every step a prayer is
simply to be totally conscious in every act we do. Most of us spend our
waking hours half asleep, only dimly aware of our feelings, to say nothing
of what is going on in the world and of the connections between things.
Whatever we do has a meaning and an affect. We can ask ourselves, if I am
really conscious, what affect will this action have upon creation? How will
it affect me, affect my family and my community? How will it affect the
planet? How will it affect the future and the generations yet to come?"

The process of developing this consciousness is yoga and the individual
breath - focussed meditative movement of the Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga.

Using the mindfulness we acquire through the regular practice of yoga
enables us to change ourselves and the world around us, one tiny step at a
time - it is my belief that this is an obligation, not a choice, and that
the criticality of change is paramount because time is fast running out.

Regards,
Chris and the Moksha team.

"Obligations of Natural Way Followers:

To bring back the natural harmony that humans once enjoyed.
To save the planet from present practices of destruction.
To find and reemploy real truth.
To promote true balance between both genders.
To share and be less materialistic.
To become rid of prejudice.
To learn to be related.
To be kind to animals and take no more than needed.
To play with one's children and love each equally and fairly.
To be brave and courageous, enough so, to take a stand or make a commitment.
To understand what Generations Unborn really means.
To accept mystery in order to end foolish argument over religion."

All quotes in this newsletter are from 'Native Wisdom' by Eagle Man.