Om Yoga Studio

Anne Near is now teaching YOGA in Grand Bend, Ontario, Tuesdays at 10 am:

http://www.om-yoga-studio.com/

http://nearyoga.Blogspot.com

Woohs stream at http://woohs.blogspot.com taps into many streams of thought and action. There is no end to motion, just evolution and unrelenting change, seen or unseen. Energy is motion both in reality and calculation. Take time to rest even though all inside you is always moving. Your massive relative pause gives opportunity for other smaller streams to catch up. Take time to meditate so that you can see with your mind what lies within and beyond.

The Horrors of Speaking in Front of People - Costs and Benefits of Speaking Out

Last evening at the town hall meeting for the CFGG, I was especially struck by hardship cases of the local residents who were adversely affected by the major improvements to the town's services. Every time the village has a major improvement, it is likely that the benefits and costs will be spread unevenly.

I have worked for governments on projects before and I have worked on some infrastructure projects around the world. Before a large project relative to the size of a community's undertaken, there needs to be economic, engineering, financial, technical, feasibility and environmental analyses.

Some people confuse economic and financial analyses. They are almost totally different. These days economic analyses need to be done in conjunction with environmental assessments and environmental economic assessments. These can be also very different. Economists are particularly keen these days to evaluate the costs and benefits of what are termed externalities.

Externalities arise with projects and they can be the undoing of the benefits of projects, for example if a project requires a wood to be cut down this would have externalities for the people near the wood and the creatures occupying the wood. Engineers make bad economists because they don't examine externalities carefully and frequently limit their economics to the effects associated with the price mechanisms.

That the loss of vegetation results in changes that cannot be easily priced or compensation paid means that such aspects are ignored. Waste products are dumped and both people and the environment suffer outside the price mechanism. Most environmental damage occurs outside what traditional economics and engineering would consider as important.

This is at the root of the enormous damage done to the Ontario environment over the past fifty years. Much of the damage is not paid for by those doing the damage. There is a big debt to be paid, but no one is handed the bill. This again is because people are not made accountable for the predictable results of their actions.

Large projects are enormously destabilizing for creatures and people without a voice, the underrepresented population who must ultimately bear the cost of other people's profits and income. That the world suffers from over investment is almost a truism. So much has been created and done in the name of progress which we have to correct.

These environmental and social costs are almost never recovered, but should be. It is just plane wrong that the weak and poor suffer at the hands of those claiming the benefits of so called progress.

Thus, when at the town hall meeting, we heard from at least three people say that the costs of the sewerage project were underestimated, it was good to have this break the surface of people's understanding. If one has any conscience at all, one has to feel for the many less well off people in the community that are harmed by projects others benefit from, but who never pay the full price.

It was good for these people to speak out because they and their families and the families of their offspring will ultimately bear most of the costs. We wonder why some people remain poor relatively. Well this is why. It is the disproportionate distribution of costs to a community so that the real costs fall on those well off and least able to voice their objection. Some, like the forests full of life, stand silent until they are decimated.

Of course, the beneficiaries of large projects, the engineers in fancy vehicles and the politicians want these projects because they are blind to, or put their blinkers on, to the full costs and damages. They would not, I can assure you, want to pay for them out of their own pockets, and it is not good enough to pay token attention to these important costs.

In some other societies, the many externalities must be given greater weight because of the relative numbers of people affected.

It is in developing countries, such as Canada and Quebec where the costs are not reaching the surface of consciousness.

Notice that I did not ignore the externalities of the project of Quebec. Notice I said Quebec, and this is because Quebec is a developing country. It may not have it's independence, but that is by choice. It is a country developing within another country called Canada. It is like the country of Scotland developing within the country of United Kingdom, developing within the country of the European Union.

In societies where social costs are ignored by the beneficiaries, there can come about a violent redress of the imbalance, a restructuring of the playing field, a social and environmental disaster that can be avoided by a more disciplined approach to development that gets everything out in the open on the table and discussed by all those that may participate. Openness and transparency are thus at the heart of democratic progress and development and without openness violence to the environment and to people results.

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

Beautiful Blogspots - Loveology. Posh girl peasant girl travel!

Occasionally, one hits upon blogspots that deserve a special mention for artistic creation. You can't go far wrong with:

http://mila-loveology.blogspot.com/

And, if world travel is your thing!

http://www.poshgirlpeasantgirl.com/

Will ye no think kindly on those who would be your friends! May the sun shine with your thoughts, today, and happiness grow in your heart! May you allow yourself some peace of mind.

Debt and the Filming of the Wuh Lax Series

Over the past year, I have been engaged in taking the first steps towards making a film of the Wuh Lax stories and "The Cosmic Lantern." This is an enormous challenge and theoretically beyond the budget of the most determined independent film producers. I suppose the mistake of a film producer would be to underestimate the vision that The Cosmic Lantern contains.

This is not just a story but a series of stories with enormous potential. It hits at the heart of western civilization with its emphasis on performance above all else. It challenges the audience with the economics of debt which provide an explanation of why otherwise peaceful communities are drawn into war. Examine what is happening in United States right now and you will see the destruction of a society from within because of debt.

Debt management is the forgotten science that will become our futures and will protect us as we deal with a global environmental crisis. Make no mistake about it, debt is potentially the greatest source of misery historically, and it the bane of our modern society. Debt creation brought about the first and second great wars. It brought about the invasion of Britain in Roman times. Debt creation and the slave system attached to debt is what will destroy the fragile but false harmony of the post war period.

When one examines the causes of the second world war, one sees at the heart of it the demands by France for a repayment of war debts. In the case of the first world war, the countries of Britain and Germany got themselves into so much debt building huge ships to destroy each other in gun boat diplomacy that they lost the delicate balance of peace in a mad rush to eliminate national debts by means of conquest. Yes! Debt is the remarkable destructive engine of war and misery.

So! What does this have to do with "The Cosmic Lantern" and a story that focuses on the period of 50 AD. Well, the story about Wuh and his family is a story about how those driven by debt destroy a happy balanced community forever. It is a story of triumph over a horrible period of genocide and enslavement that has remained hidden outside of history for two thousand years.

In the filming thus of "The Cosmic Lantern," there is a desire to make people aware of the forces in the modern world and the potential negative political consequences of debt, which are to destroy all that is valuable and lovable in society. Debt kills. Debt is a monster process that leads to war, to conquest, to greed, and to ultimate destruction of beauty and peace.

Debt is the Anti-Christ, the Armageddon, that threatens to destroy our civilization. If we want to leave in freedom, we must educate our children about the consequences of debt and what it does to societies destroying them from within and destroying everything around them that is wholesome and positive. Being lazy in our attitude about debt will only lead to our own destruction and that of the future of our children and of the earth itself.

Debt and the Filming of The Cosmic Lantern

Over the past year, I have been engaged in taking the first steps towards making a film of the Wuh Lax stories and "The Cosmic Lantern." This is an enormous challenge and theoretically beyond the budget of the most determined independent film producers.

I suppose the mistake of a film producer would be to underestimate the vision that The Cosmic Lantern contains. This is not just a story but a series of stories with enormous potential. It hits at the heart of western civilization with its emphasis on performance above all else. It challenges the audience with the economics of debt which provide an explanation of why otherwise peaceful communities are drawn into war. Examine what is happening in United States right now and you will see the destruction of a society from within because of debt. Debt management is the forgotten science that will become our futures and will protect us as we deal with a global environmental crisis.

Make no mistake about it, debt is potentially the greatest source of misery historically, and it the bane of our modern society. Debt creation brought about the first and second great wars. It brought about the invasion of Britain in Roman times. Debt creation and the slave system attached to debt is what will destroy the fragile but false harmony of the post war period.

When one examines the causes of the second world war, one sees at the heart of it the demands by France for a repayment of war debts. In the case of the first world war, the countries of Britain and Germany got themselves into so much debt building huge ships to destroy each other in gun boat diplomacy that they lost the delicate balance of peace in a mad rush to eliminate national debts by means of conquest. Yes! Debt is the remarkable destructive engine of war and misery. So! What does this have to do with "The Cosmic Lantern" and a story that focuses on the period of 50 AD.

Well, the story about Wuh and his family is a story about how those driven by debt destroy a happy balanced community forever. It is a story of triumph over a horrible period of genocide and enslavement that has remained hidden outside of history for two thousand years.

In the filming thus of "The Cosmic Lantern," there is a desire to make people aware of the forces in the modern world and the potential negative political consequences of debt, which are to destroy all that is valuable and lovable in society. Debt kills. Debt is a monster process that leads to war, to conquest, to greed, and to ultimate destruction of beauty and peace. Debt is the Anti-Christ, the Armageddon, that threatens to destroy our civilization.

If we want to leave in freedom, we must educate our children about the consequences of debt and what it does to societies destroying them from within and destroying everything around them that is wholesome and positive. Being lazy in our attitude about debt will only lead to our own destruction and that of the future of our children and of the earth itself.

The Wuh of Wu

As readers are undoubtedly aware, the author of this blog, AW Lake, is also the author of the very successful book "Wuh Lax and the Cosmic Lantern." The leading character of the book, which is the first of a series of books featuring a large cast of characters, is Wuh Lax, who is a mythological character. I say mythological, but the irony of it is that Wuh is an archetypal hero with a very great presence.

As my stories unfold, the devoted readers of the series will become aware that Wuh, the mythological individual, really does exist on an ethereal plane. This is why the books are aimed at the ethereally challenged. But, I should explained a bit about what is meant by the ethereally challenged? Most of us are ethereally challenged.

Wu-wu is a pre-Taoist state in which there is absolutely nothing. Out of the state of wu-wu comes the Tao. The Cosmic Lantern is a story about the new physics. The ethereally challenged include all those reading in the area of the new physics. Scientists are on the threshold of discovering that the cosmic concept of the big bang has to be re-written through revelation coming from both science and inspiration. In reality the concept of the big bang is as much a mythology of science as it is of religion.

In the beginning, God did not create our universe. There is very good reason. The state of wu, of complete nothingness, is a myth, Similarly while Christian creationism spells the mythology of God creating the universe, the Taoists spell out their mythology which results in Ying and Yang. Both are inspired by man's quest to unveil the mysteries of the universe.

I say this knowing that my father was a Christian minister, a missionary, and a devout believer in a personal relationship with Christ. His reality was based on an inner transformation that he very successfully documented in a series of daily writings and readings. He insisted that one could come to know God through inner transformation arising from what one saw and read. It was the ethereal departure of my father, that brought me to create Wuh and to explore those regions of our existence that are rarely explored because our mythologies about truth get in the way. My father was also a devout student of human nature and knew the secret of dancing with God. This is what wu is all about, dancing with the truth.

Our fate is that we will never know the truth of what has happened or what is going to happen. That does not stop us from creating our mythology of what the truth is all about and then believing our mythology, and indeed experiencing it as our reality. God exists, but God exists in the wu, and is the all pervading essense of being, fullness or emptiness depending on whether your glass is half full or half empty.

Wu is all about attitude, about dancing with God, about dancing with the unknowable truth. From where do I get my knowledge? For many years at Cambridge University in England, I studied the nature of invention and knowledge, how it arose and what happened with it. My studies were focused on knowledge creation as it applied to the science of economics, but that did not stop me from understanding the bigger picture. While a student at Cambridge in the early 1970s , some of my fellow students had a little red book that they carried around with them all the time. They constantly spoke to me about Mao and his words, how important they made them feel.

They had purpose and direction. To them Chairman Mao spoke the truth and they were not going to listen to anything that I said concerning that truth. Instead my response was to give them a book about the Tao, which I said contained more truth than Mao's little red book. Gary Zukav in his book, The Dancing Wu Li Masters, wrote that science and religion are only dances, and that those involved in these enterprises might claim to be seeking the truth but their reality is that they as dancers and love to dance. I invented Wuh, but wu is a magician and a worker of miracles. My task was to let him perform those miracles in the minds of my readers. Aloha and Uweeeee!

My World as told by Wuh Lax in the year 50 AD

I am only a child. I am eight years old. My world of Wookey Marsh is very different from yours. I can only guess at what your world is like. In my world, I have to deal with imminent danger. Each day is an adventure full of wild things happening all around me. I have to react very quickly and see to it that I get myself into a safe place. My sister, who is the same age, disappeared when I was very young. She was kidnapped and then vanished. I never saw her again, and I don't know where she is.

The same thing happened to my mother. My father has spent many years looking for both of them, but has had no success in finding them. To make matters worse, at the time I lost touch with my sister, our country was invaded and we had to go into hiding. I have no way of finding out where my mother and sister are. I think they may be as far as a thousand miles or more away. It is very disheartening and think and worry about them every moment of my being.

To fill in my time, I take long walks and love to ride. I have a small boat that I can use to search for things that live near the water. My boat has a single oar that I can paddle with and that enables me to get around.