We Are All One Music

A Beetle song tells us that “All you need is love.”

Buddha talked of love and compassion.

Jesus spoke of unconditional love.

Religious leaders, world leaders, politicians, teachers, parents, every holy book and each of our hearts tells us to love.

So why do we only see glimpses of love in the world? Environmental destruction continues almost unabated. Unimaginable horrors happen to people every day. Women are still oppressed in most cultures. Children are treated as commodities. Most people don’t love their work.

How can we transcend this apparent disconnect between what we think is right and how we live? Maybe this is the question that the people of the world should stick with until the solution is born.

However in reality, it is up to the individual to solve this problem for herself then live the answer. In that way, love will be spread from person to person and slowly engulf the planet.

I just want to say how surprised I am. I have got about 100 comments over the past few months to my posts and each one has been someone trying to get their business on more blogs or get back links. They have a generic comment but hiding behind it is a link to a site that sells shoes or porn. That is why I haven’t posted public comments so far. I will post comments that are actual comments and not advertizing.

Fear and feeling unworthy, that means, not feeling that you are an integral part of life. I recently read that these are the two most destructive thoughts and behaviors in our personal lives and consequently, for life on earth. Where there is fear, there is no love. If we could feel this deeply, not just as an idea to agree with or reject, but with our whole being, our lives would transform instantly.

That is the message I want to be able to feel, hear and see not just in the coming year, but now, today. For if I say, “I will do it tomorrow,” then tomorrow comes and it is still the same. There is only now to change. That is the challenge I put out to myself and to the world. Have a nice Winter Solstice!

Look, nationalism is a poison. You may not agree, but it is so for me! I see what nationalism has done throughout the world. It has divided people and brought on wars. One of the reasons for war is nationalism, and it is a poison. People know it. When you divide the world into French, Russian, American, Hindu, and so on, that division breeds conflict and it’s poison. You see it, you understand it; but in your hearts, due to your conditioning, you are still French, English, or whatever it is. The moment you see, understand, that nationalism is poison, at that moment the whole thing drops.
J. Krishnamurti from the second talk in Paris 1966

When we understand that we are human beings first who happen to be born in The United States or India or Iraq, then there is the possibility that the world can know peace on earth.

Throughout the day I ask myself, What does it mean to live in the present moment? It seems like such an important question. I hear these words from the great teachers, from healers, from many books, from many people’s lips but the answer remains elusive. Many people offer a technique or a protocol to follow. I watch nature and see that the animals, the birds, the trees, the clouds live for the moment. No worry about the future. No sorrow over the past. Then I notice that I only seem to ask the question when I am suffering. I want an escape so I ask why I am not living in the moment. So that is a clue. Trying to avoid the pain of living in regret and worry I half halfheartedly ask the question. Maybe all these years I am not really interested in the answer, only in trying to get out of pain. Nothing wrong with trying to avoid pain yet the psychological pain is created by not living in the moment. If this seems confusing, it is. After all, not living in the moment, as most of the people of the planet don’t, has created so much confusion and pain. So I wonder if I can ask the question again and just let it play itself out in my daily life without looking having a goal or solution. No technique can help me. No protocol. I am on my own. If I care enough and I can discover love which only lives in the present moment along the way, maybe I will find that the answer is in the question and only I can find it.

I have proposed this question to my students before a discussion and to our surprise, we wanted to prove that our point of view was the correct one. So we didn’t get anywhere in the discussion. How often we get together as communities and we really do not listen to others. We want our own self interests to over ride everyone else. I feel that as a society, we need to address the big issues with this question, Do we want to find out what is right or who is right? We also need to state if we are coming to this conversation as human beings or as Christians or Muslims or Men or Women or Democrats or Republicans or Whites or Blacks. If we are, then we can never listen to others. Coming to the table as human beings may also be the hardest thing any one can do. To drop the labels we live with is not easy. However, if we admit that we have these labels and that they are clouding our vision, that could be a start.

Next time I want to address fear.

I watch this delicate dandelion ball of fluff and seeds waiting for a breeze to scatter the seeds on the wind. I am looking at tiny cow webs laced delicately in the grass. The leaves are twinkling light from the sun. The small swamp has dried out from many weeks without sufficient rain. I hear a neighbor’s child shriek with delight. Somehow there is order, somehow there is beauty.
Now I look at human beings throughout the world. I see children laughing and playing. I see women treated as property and brutalized. I see many living in poverty while in the same towns and neighborhoods there is incredible wealth. I see children used as sex slaves. I see people living on the streets. I see children being abused and then they are taken away from their abusers and treated as if they are the abusers. I see wars fought over power and greed and many being killed and made cripple. I see young men coming back from war and being broken. I see people being made second class citizens because of the color of their skin. Scattered here and there, I see individuals giving their lives to ending one kind of abuse or another. I see organized religions killing and dehumanizing others in the name of God. I see organized religions trying to control the masses with arbitrary standards of morality.
I see the environment being destroyed so we can live where we want and make as much money in the short run. We will live in flood plains, on beaches known to have destructive tsunamis and hurricanes. Then when the tragedy comes, we expect to be bailed out. I see small families living alone in homes that used a tremendous amount of the earth’s resources and took a lot of resources to build. Then in many cases, they are torn down and the resources buried in the ground. I see people eating food that has been grown with chemicals and poisons. I see farm animals living in torturous conditions and then we eat them. I see people living in cities where the air is so foul that you can see the yellow haze from a distance. I see people eating foods that have been stripped of their nutrients.
Is this the society we want our children to fit into? If we loved our children, wouldn’t we end all wars now? Wouldn’t we make ending abuse and poverty a priority? We can get 100,000 people into a stadium to watch a sports event, why can’t we get that many people together to end poverty in each town? How can we live each day knowing that children like ours and being used as sex slaves?
I think we are scared. Scared of losing our little comforts. Scared of standing up for something unpopular. Fear is the driving force.
If we ask children how to solve world problems, I think their answers might scare us. I am not saying that children should rule the world because like us, they are also deeply conditioned. If they are young, racism and sexism hasn’t taken deep root yet. They are still willing to share their resource with others so everything is fairly distributed. However, they are also conditioned by society so you can see it setting in fast.
We are all responsible. Let’s not point fingers at Corporations or powerful individuals. Hitler was powerless on his own. It took the cooperation of thousands of people to carry out his plans. The incredible greed of Wall Street was fueled by greed from the bottom up. Every war is fought by mainly men, thousands of them, who do not question the reasons.
So what do we do? It seems that this question needs an immediate answer, not we’ll do something tomorrow. The future is now. If we don’t change today, then tomorrow will be the same. So these are the questions everyone should ask and demand an immediate answer. We are not asking and hoping another will answer, we are asking and look for the answers inside ourselves. That means you and I need to care deeply otherwise, we won’t be able to sustain the dialog and action needed.
We need to start asking now. Next blog I will address some issues we run into when we try to solve problems together.

*** FRIENDS, FANS, Please Help Me Fund My Next Two CDs, Purchase Them In Advance! ***

I need help from my fans and friends in order to record my next two CDs. I have the songs, voices and musicians ready to go. This last year I have had health issues that have kept me from working in general and recording specifically. As I come out of this health crises, I find myself with very little funds to produce these CDs. Consider helping me by buying these CDs in advance or even buying or downloading the songs from my first CD. One CD is called “Pills, satirical songs that challenge the way we think, behave and live”. The second CD is called, “Turning Point, songs to remind us of the importance of living in the moment and the joy of being alive”. I have put four of the songs on my Youtube page so you can get an idea of the content. Remember that the songs are going to be recorded with musicians and other voices so what you hear on youtube is so you get a taste of the songs. See “donation” link below to make a donation through paypal or you can send me a check at the address below. When the CDs are ready, I will send them to you or you can download the songs from this website. Thank you in advance. Please consider buying several CDs also. A suggested price would be $15 per CD but any purchase would be greatly appreciated. Consider purchasing 10 or more to give out as gifts. You can also purchase or download my first CD “Singing the Earth”. Even if you don’t make a donation, come back to this site to enjoy the songs.

Listen to 4 of the songs that will be on the CDs.

Ants Cleanup

So Fantastic

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Irwin Friedman

We Are All One Music

PO BOX 13572

Tallahassee, Florida 32317

What is it that we need as human beings? Don’t we all need a safe and clean shelter, healthy food, clean water, beautiful natural surroundings and happy human connections and affection? It doesn’t matter if we are born in Africa, Europe, Asia or America. Yet it seems that our behavior makes this planet very dangerous. If you don’t conform to the local social patterns and beliefs you are in great danger. If you are a woman who seeks freedom to express herself, you are in great danger. If you are a man who doesn’t conform to the way men “should” behave, again you are in danger. Many children are told what to do in school and home so they find it hard to think for themselves as adults.

So what is the root cause of this behavior? Is it our rigid belief systems both religious and political? Is it fear? Is it anger? Is it because we compare ourselves with others and in the comparison, we feel we don’t measure up thus creating jealousy?

I am not sure what it is. I do feel that the crisis is inside each of us. The outer world is a reflection of the inner world of each individual. We create the society we live in. We may have been born into it but we keep it going by being fearful, jealous and angry. We cling to our beliefs instead of facts. If we look at it carefully, we will see that when we are fearful, there is no love in our hearts. So the hope for the world is this; if I change myself then I change the world. There are wars between people, genders, nations, families, humans and nature and there is a war going on inside our thoughts. If I can step out of the fears, jealousies, greed, all that is our society, then I am free. Freedom meaning being free inside from everything that thought creates, which is born of fear.

So the main purpose of these postings is to observe and question everything, looking for the truth. Then when we come upon a fact, a truth, and we still aren’t living it, then we question further, why. For example, we may discover that eating white refined sugar is not good for our health. However, we still eat it, so we ask why.