I received the following question today on Twitter:

 How can we determine which GMOs are harmful and which are beneficial?

What an interesting question. We usually assume all GMOs are harmful, as I am so inclined to do, but we do not know for sure. What made you ask this question? I have read in some scientific journals that those who study our planet's history and the cycles of life on earth say that there is no evidence of wheat, barley, rice, etc. prior to the time estimated for the great flood, approximately 10,000 years ago. Suddenly, at the time right after the flood, the eight major grains appeared on earth, apparently through some kind of genetic engineering, scientists surmise. No idea if this is true, but it is fascinating to think about, because if true, we have all been eating GMOs for most of our existence on the planet. . .

A little bit concerned...

Today I received an e-mail with some concerns about our future:

***********************************
Little bit concerned that we are now experiencing a many-sided assault, to wit:
1)    Chemtrail blanket of toxins.
2)    Economic enslavement, strangulation.
3)    Mass mind control, via media manipulation, towards hysteria, fear.
4)    Evisceration of democracy via election fraud, Citizens vs. United.
5)    Deliberate dismantling of labor unions.
6)    Removal of environmental protections and assault on natural environment.

Not wanting to be pessimistic, but just realistic.
***********************************
To all who have these concerns, God bless you. You are alert and consciousness. You are not pessimistic, but you know very well that the observations listed are contrary to our true reality we are to manifest, and you are correct.  You see and know our future, described over and over by Yogi Bhajan and many great spiritual beings, the beautiful saints and sages who have walked among us. You know that our future is bright with the light of a thousand suns from the center of our galaxy, focusing rays of brilliance on our earth at the dawn of this new age, causing all of the old authoritarian regimes to fall away and become dismantled, even as the old leaders, aging and dying, are trying with all of their might to hold on to their dissipating power.

These dying power mongers are telling us about their many assaults, such as those listed, and even more; and I submit to you that they are the ones who are sorely afraid, they are the ones who are making their last ditch efforts in the face of a tide of rising human consciousness that does not recognize them anymore and does not accept their authority any more. As "little bit" concerned as you are, I promise you that the outgoing power elite are a hundred times, a thousand times more concerned, indeed they are sorely afraid of what is to come for them. In millennia they have not ever experienced such resistance that they could not control. They are the ones who are making many mistakes in their haste to patch up increasing holes in their communications systems (i.e. Wikileaks) and betrayal within their own ranks. Their hopeless efforts to cover their losses has resulted in their constant turning against each other. They have no one to trust because they all live in fear of each other now. Believe me when I tell you that your little bit of concern is EVER SO MINUTE in comparison to their exceeding fear and trepidation and uncertainty in which they live each moment, with no reprieve, and it continues to get worse and worse and worse for them.

Everyday, more is exposed and revealed about the scandals and wrongdoing and coverups of the past and present. Even though the outgoing elite may control much of the mainstream media, the free or people-supported underground media  grows stronger and louder and more forceful. The truth is being revealed. Now is the time that all secrets are coming out, all that was covered up and hidden in the past is becoming known and revealed to all. As truth rises, the outgoing power moguls continue to weaken.  The most important thing for us to do is not to be so concerned about their hopeless, last ditch efforts that we spend even a moment in anxiety, but rather focus all of our energy in actions to build our future. Let's focus on standing up all of our systems for the future that directly counter their undermining behavior. Let us continue to grow and maintain our beautiful organic gardens and sustainable energy systems and agriculture. Let us continue to build strong cooperatives to trade our food and wares, to participate in holding our local government officials and our own community self governance systems accountable.

The old systems are failing anyway. The only question is, will we have our new systems in place and ready to serve our global humanity? It will be our local, home grown systems that hold us and protect us in the days ahead, as all of the old systems fail. Transparent self governance, organic gardens, sustainable energy and agriculture, community cooperative trading, social and economic justice for all people---from which true value and prosperity grows without discrimination of any kind whatsoever, these are some of the things upon which it is most important to focus our individual and group energies.

Thank you.
Sat Nam
Love

Gurumeet Kaur Khalsa
Create Inner Peace
www.createinnerpeace.com
www.youtube.com/createinnerpeace

Slander Me Update

I am posting an update to my previous article, because the trial referenced in that article was completed and we are now awaiting the Judge's ruling. I specifically want to update the following words from my previous article:

None of us knows all of the facts, as of yet, everything has not yet been revealed.

Now a great deal of facts and evidence are in and it is so damning. I have always known that the members of the UI board, who, along with their attorney at the time, Roy Lambert, had to go. My question was whether the members of SDS, who were the shield and worker bees for UI, would have to go. I held out a lot of hope they were still going to be with us, they would remember that they are still our siblings. They all have key positions in our yoga training and religious organizations. Once the court rulings are made, there is little likelyhood they will retain their positions. It is really up to the SDS members themselves as to whether they remain Yogis and Sikhs, but there is a long road to walk if they have hope of rejoining their Siblings and Sangat as leaders. Most regretably, I fear we are seeing the beginning of the first split that always follows great teachers who walk among us on this earth for awhile.

All of the evidence is still not in, however. There is considerably more evidence yet to be revealed in the court trial against UI and Roy Lambert that was brought by Bhai Sahiba Bibiji Inderjit Kaur Khalsa, the chief Religious Minister of Sikh Dharma wife of Yogi Bhajan for 52 years. This evidence will finally tell most of the rest of the story, where there are still considerable gaps from the first trial. It was my hope that the three cases could have been merged, but the legal minds who led us in this mammoth effort only wanted to merge two cases, the SD Worldwide case and the Attorney General of Oregon's case.

Following is a link to an article posted right after the first trial.

http://www.altweeklies.com/aan/death-of-a-yogi/Story?oid=4468261

More to come soon!

Beautiful verses of Sant Kabir, a Sufi Saint from India during the late 14^th century, are included in the Holy Siri Guru Granth Sahib, the sacred writings of the Sikhs, along with the holy verses of the Gurus of the Sikhs and various other saints of different religions. One of the topics Kabir wrote about was slander. I had the opportunity to study his verses during a translation project facilitated by Mukia Singh Sahib Guruka Singh Khalsa of the entire Siri Guru Granth Sahib, with about 108 people, with each person translating 10 or so pages. As I worked on the project, I felt compelled to share my thoughts about the relevancy of his words to our current situation. Because of the challenges our American and worldwide Sikh community is facing, with the sale of businesses that many served with devotion for years, and changes in the organizational and administrative structure that many oppose, there is now a court case pending, in which a decision will be made to bring about resolution, or we will settle it ourselves out of court. In people’s processing and discussions of these events, tensions have been high many have spoken with anger. While the acts of the people in control of the money are seen as despicable, their manners and language appear graceful; and those who are the apparent victims or underdogs, sometimes appear emotional, and some (not all) rant and rave and display more immature language and behavior. It does not serve us to dissipate energy and focus in emotional behavior and language. We can do everything possible to bring about justice and corrective action, without being emotionally weak. Whatever resolution is achieved, most of us will still be here, most likely none of us will be killed off, and we will in some manner go forward together into our future. So, ideally we will not say things so damaging that bridges cannot be rebuilt. None of us knows all of the facts, as of yet, everything has not yet been revealed. I hope we will all do everything that we can to verify facts and speak words that are graceful and uplifting to our soul and our group and universal consciousness, as we go about sharing our perspectives and stories and experiences during this period of transition.

Slander Me

Sardarni Sahiba Gurumeet Kaur Khalsa

Slander, slander me, O people, slander me. Slander, to the servant of the Divine Master, is very sweet. Slander is my father, slander is my mother.

If I am slandered, I go to the home of my Divine Master; the Name brings spiritual wealth to dwell in my mind. If I am slandered when my heart is pure, even my garments are washed by the slander.

Slander rendered is my friend; slander is pleasing to my mind. Slander given, slander cancels. Long life slander bequeaths. ||2||

Slander has my adoring love. Slander is my salvation. For Kabir, slander is the best thing. The slanderer is drowned, while I am carried across.

Siri Guru Granth Sahib, Page 339, Sant Kabir

These lines make one wonder, what was happening to Kabir Ji when he wrote these words? We know that as a great one rises, slander accompanies the saint. Once, when a particularly vengeful neighbor of Kabir’s had died, his devotees gathered around him to inquire about his profound grief, saying why would you be so sad by the death of this person who spent all his time slandering you? Kabir replied that this person was washing his karmas and cleaning his slate. He explained that the slanderer is like a janitor or cleaning person. A slanderer is one who goes about and picks up all of the garbage of others and loads it upon his head, until eventually the slanderer is drowned in all of that sludge.

From a psychology or humanology perspective, I have always been fascinated by the phenomenon of slander and gossip and our insatiable human appetite for indulging ourselves in its practice, despite the strongest prohibitions touted in every religion and culture. We simply cannot get enough of gossip and slander, no matter how divine we may claim to be.

When I came upon these words of Kabir during my translation project, I found myself reflecting on the impact this behavior has in our lives today, individually and communally, locally and worldwide. As we transition toward our evolving self governance systems, most of us are pretty numb to how painful it is to be the subject of slander, because it is generally focused on a few individuals. I honestly and sincerely believe that our grasp of this behavior, very consciously and utterly and sensitively aware of every sequence and consequence of our words, is key to achieving the autonomy and transparency we are seeking in our leadership and self governance systems.

In the lives of the saints, I do not know if there has been anyone throughout history who has been the subject of more slander than our own teacher and guide on this path. The Siri Singh Sahib also welcomed slander and always blessed and prayed for those who slandered him. When I would see him do this, so calm, so apparently loving equally those who slandered him and those who served him—I could not fathom how it was possible for him to do it. Most of us, myself included, tend to become indignant when we are slandered. We want to know every detail, who has said it, why have they said it, to whom did they say it? Thankfully we have our teacher’s example to bring us back to our center and know that our reality is within. But to feel gratitude and bless them and pray for them? Most of us have a ways to go before we achieve that light of consciousness. We all spend quite a lot of time disparaging those with whom we disagree. Although we may be washing each others’ karmas… we are evidently carrying around each other’s gunk, so not a lot of progress there! Smarter we would be to stick to cleaning our own karmas, but that is just not nearly as fun.

During the first few years, right after the Siri Singh Sahib’s passing, Bibiji, our Bhai Sahiba, was the topic of many of our conversations, and most of them were not complimentary. I was surprised to see this much venom coming from so many. Why, I wondered were we so eager to listen and spread the rumors without checking the facts? Why did no one come and speak with Bibiji directly, to investigate, to question, to inquire about the facts from her? At one point, I went to Bibiji to ask her, to beseech her really, to stand up, to speak, to write to our family, our Sangat, to address the rumors that were flying around. We all know the drill—it is standard operating procedure for corporations and government—address the allegations, deny the charges. I thought I needed to educate her about this. People have not been told the whole truth, I said, and there have been deceptions. . . I found myself shocked by her reply. She had none of my indignation, she was not disturbed, and she had no interest in my dire counsel. Simply she replied, “In the House of Guru Ram Das, I have no need to defend myself, do not worry.” At the time, I disagreed; I thought it was her job to tell everyone. Yet, over time, slowly, slowly, a few people started coming to speak to her and gradually the rumors that had been spread started dying out. This past January on her birthday, the Gurdwara at Hacienda de Guru Ram Das was filled to overflowing with love and light. Our full Sangat gathered for early morning Gurdwara, and Bibiji came from Albuquerque to greet everyone. Kulbir, her son, came with her and served the most delightful Langer. The day was a milestone in our transformation, I thought. So many I saw there, who only a few years ago had assured me that all of the rumors about Bibiji were quite true. Yet now, they were surrounding her with gifts and flowers. Once again, I was surprised, but this was a good surprise. I was glad to be wrong. It was a lesson for me to learn, once again, about indignation. We can usually be pretty sure our indignation is a false flag, a key sign that we are not consciously conscious.

The Siri Singh Sahib used to talk about gossip or gospel. He told us that telling stories is an essential human behavior. In fact, he said, if we stopped doing it, we would go insane. Gossip is our intelligence network and a form of counseling. We all rely on it. The only touchstone we have is the psyche of our own consciousness with its capacity for self examination versus self deception. Malicious gossip and slander are dependent upon self deception to spread. Those who spread it are self deceived, they repeat stories to repeat the past, conquer the future, define boundaries and territories, and build society based on membership in which they can have power and security as a sign of accomplishment. When we speak unconsciously, we represent our emotions, neuroses, handicaps, shortcomings, and insecurity, all stacked in the unconscious. In our communications we want to win the moment to impress, to achieve immediate rationalization. He said we cannot blame anybody for this. It is in our structure and makeup.

But now, in the Aquarian Age, our gossip must be gospel, based on sunni-ai, our capacity for deep listening, sunni-ai sat santokh gian, so that the complete truth, utter contentment, and genuine wisdom become our touchstone. When we speak consciously, that which we speak happens. We repeat stories to conquer the past, liberate our future, and awaken insight to give birth to the possible. Our future demands that we operate from our sensitivity and intuitive nature. We are active participants in a culture of awareness that serves the power of its vision by our communications, with increasing joy in every action and in the shunia or stillness. That is how we bring our infinite wisdom into the finite reality. We live as human, vulnerable and alive with others, and our communications define our horizon, our vision, our domain, and our true Teacher. As the Siri Singh Sahib taught us in his PhD dissertation, communications are our liberation or condemnation. Sat Nam.

The Householders' Betrayal

Our community self governance system and the management of our resources with integrity and transparency is critical to our survival, but it is dependant upon our personal self governance and individual resources management. The example our teacher gave us to follow, as a “householder yogi,” I believe we have all betrayed. We tend to blame only UI and SDS, but each of us has played a part. I also believe that our effort to resolve this betrayal is critical to the resolution of our struggle to achieve autonomy and integrity in our community self governance and community resources management.

The Householders' Betrayal

Five hundred and fifty years ago, Guru Nanak asked the Siddhi Yogis to share the technology of yoga with the householders living in the world, but they steadfastly refused. The son of Guru Nanak, Baba Siri Chand, himself a householder, took up he reigns as the leader of the Siddhi Yogis and served them until he bestowed that crown of Raj Yog upon Guru Ram Das, the Guru of our beloved teacher. It was nearly 500 years later that one humble Siddhi Yogi and most beautiful servant of Guru Ram Das, answered the call of Nanak to teach yoga openly to the householders. Yogi Bhajan served the householders all the remaining days of his life, and as a householder himself, he simultaneously cared for his family (albeit with considerable sacrifices asked of them), and he made provisions for them to be cared for when he was gone from this world. He openly shared the ancient technology of Kundalini Yoga, never before taught publically, so that we could reap the benefits of yoga while living and working in the world. In thanks, the householder yogis prevented Yogi Bhajan from fulfilling his householder responsibility to his family by denying them the provisions that he left for them. Now, nearly seven years after his passing, and approaching her mid seventies, his wife is still blocked from receiving those provisions. Determinations have been made that the provisions Yogi Bhajan left for his family should be modified, and judgments have been pronounced against his wife and children that they are not deserving of receiving the provisions, and so to this day, his wife stands alone without even a single inquiry, ever, as to how she is surviving. His wife's only option to receive any of the provisions allotted to her was to ask a court of law to intervene, a costly process... and so on her own, she is up against those who have control of all of our family’s financial resources. The householders, to be sure are fighting fiercely with one another for control of those resources, and those same householders most assuredly have made provisions in their own wills to take care of their families, but they have denied their teacher the right to take care of his. Whether his family is deserving or undeserving is irrelevant, for that was for him alone to judge, just as we shall do for our families. You may recall that all of the disagreements that have emerged with UI and SDS started around the issue of Yogi Bhajan's Trust left to his family and staff. I find it is of interesting note that the leaders on all sides have continually said that this issue is of no concern to us, it is only between the Trustees of Yogi Bhajan's will and his wife. In fact, that seems to be the only common ground on which everyone completely agrees. I do not.

Let us cover our teacher. Thankfully, we are all children of Guru Ram Das, the Guru of Miracles, and miracles do happen, but without the help of our Guru to cover us, the karma does not look bright for the families of the householders that Yogi Bhajan came to serve. That karma can be cut if we cover the deficit of denial and help fulfill our teacher's householder responsibility. If we do not, that betrayal is set to be played out with our own families, over and over again.

Kundalini Yoga Classes with Gurumeet

Yoga Classes with Gurumeet

Kundalini Yoga for Radiant Health and Well Being, taught according to the teachings of Yogi Bhajan, PhD (1929-2004) and 3HO (Healthy Happy Holy Organization).

The following classes are currently being held at Northern New Mexico College in Española, New Mexico. NNMC website for more info>>

Monday - 6:00 pm – Yoga for Stress Management
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From September to May Each Year – Aquarian Teacher Training Level 1
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Breaking the Cycle of War

My good friend, Qudrat, a former U.S. Marine, has many military-minded friends who tell him that we have to kill the Muslims in the world because their religion is fundamentally flawed and dangerous for humanity. In a previous correspondence, I had said that this view of Islam is biased and false. Qudrat's friend then sent back the following reply:

. . .If you think that the Moslem world is not a threat to non-Moslem peoples and societies I have enclosed just one insight that you might look at to get some understanding about this threat. . . Also you might want to check out the history of Islam since Mohammad and see if these people that ascribe to the Islamic religion should be thought of as a benevolent religion or society, or perhaps a malevolent one? Please open and read these articles when forming an opinion about Islam!
http://www.tzemach.org/articles/religionofhatred.htm
http://www.tzemach.org/articles/agenda_islam.htm

(NOTE: Be prepared if you click on the above hate-site links - they are not light reading and depict the depths of human depravity when we do not accept we are one human family.)

I then sent the following response, via Qudrat, who is moderating the discussion:

There is no doubt or question that there have been and are despicable, abominable acts and aggressions, horrendous beyond description, as well as plans in the making by deviant Muslim sects to overlay their system of rules and beliefs on others. The only question is, what is the effective way to counteract, obliterate and annihilate these deviant actions? Are our attack on Afghanistan, invasion of Iraq, preceded by the 10-years of sanctions and corrupt oil for food programs, the current troupe surge and planned attack on Iran ever going to work? Have they in any way helped to reduce the growth of radical Muslims? Our attacks, killing thousands, if not millions of Arab people by some accounts, is rather growing the radical Muslim population faster than we can kill them; and it is putting us on the same level of aggression as the Muslims we criticize, and at the same time, we are losing the lives of thousands of our own sons and daughters, and wounding others of our children to live a life of hopeless despair, beyond any chance for healing and a quality life. For many, it is worse than death.

In the history of Muslim aggressions, the most successful response, which effectively ridded the Punjab region of Mogul aggressions during the 1700s were the Sikh forces of Guru Gobind Singh and Maharaja Ranjit Singh (following the death of Guru Gobind Singh). Why were they successful where others were not? It is because of the philosophy of our humanity that Guru Gobind Singh taught. He taught that there is One Creator of the creation and the Creator and the creation are one. He considered that humanity is one vast organism and that any organism at war with itself will perish in self destruction. Therefore, he sought peace and reconciliation at every turn, always, as his first act. As a result, there were many Muslims who sought the protection of his court and many Muslims joined the Sikh forces. Many others kept their Muslim faith, but gave secret support to the Guru’s forces. Guru Gobind Singh believed people should honestly communicate their needs to each other and when they do so sincerely, they will easily find solutions that meet everyone’s needs. That is why he said, “When every peaceful means has failed, it is pious and just to raise the sword”. He always carried his sword to the meeting, as we do, still, today. But that does not mean we skip the meeting. The problem with our aggression, from our side today, is that we utterly skip the meetings. We can resolve much when we sit down together.

Marshal Rossenburg, to whom Sikhs gave the Man of Peace award in 2005, claims that in EVERY dispute he has ever mediated, once each side is able to correctly reflect back the needs articulated by the other side, RESOLUTION is forthcoming within 10 minutes! He guarantees this outcome. He says the problem is, people do not know how to listen to each other with understanding, and instead rely on their ASSUMPTIONS rather than trying to hear the reality. According to Gurutej Singh, who has taught Conflict Management for 27 years to his Akal Security troupes, ". . .every conflict known to humankind can be attributed to a lack of communication. Once we communicate, we can resolve 99.9 percent of our conflicts," he claims. (We will hardly be required to go to war for the remaining .1 percent)

Therefore, I encourage everyone to sit down with our Muslim brothers and sisters, all that we know. Let’s talk. I encourage our government officials to do the same. What are the issues? What are the conflicts exactly? Our media is so convoluted, we cannot even discern what the issues in question are. If you do not know any Muslims to talk with, try reading a few reports from Aljazeera every week or so.

http://english.aljazeera.net/

I am sure you may assume they are only reporting lies and propaganda. I do not doubt there are some, but are there not in our own media, as well? Did you know how many AP and Reuters reports come from Aljazeera reporters? If you check it out you will see how much our news relies on them because their reporters go where no one else will. At the very least, you will see how not just Aljazeera but many other countries' news reports tell exactly what is going on in America with America's leaders, so the world knows well about us, but our news tells practically nothing about what other countries' leaders say about themselves. We only report what our media says about them, but not what they say about themselves. It is very interesting that whenever you talk with people from other countries, ANY other countries, they can always very well articulate the views and positions of most of America's leaders, as well as the leaders of other countries, far better than most Americans.

During war, especially, it is critical they we educate OURSELVES about what the leaders of other nations are saying and proposing, rather than only getting our information from one or two streams of media in our own country. Throughout the history of war, there have always been only those who make and sell the weapons who win. ALL others are losers. That is true of our wars today more than ever. Did you see the movie Troy? It was true in that most famous war thousands of years ago. The movie "Lords of War" really spelled it out. War is about profit.

Some people say the current war is about oil, but that is more of a front because those who want the war, those who are raking in billions in profit from weapons sales, know that people will say, "well we need to have this oil, so the war has to be." As shown in the Lords of War, weapons dealers sell to both sides. Osama bin Ladin gets his money and weapons from his rich family, always has, and no one denies this, and WE supply his rich family with weapons. New appropriations were just approved. Did you see Blood Diamonds? U.S. interests supported those who steel little baby children and turn them into terrorists. This war against the "terrorists" exists because humanity has allowed itself to be used as pawns for thousands of years, allowed itself to be divided and conquered, allowed itself to be abused by believing all of the propoganda that "those others are the evil ones."

Before sending this reply to Qudrat, I asked my friend, Gurutej Singh, for input and he sent the following insight: "There are two ways that those in power can always get the masses to comply with their wishes 1) fear, 2) guilt. Islam and Christianity use both effectively. Fundamentalism in any form is dangerous, A closed mind in any head is dangerous. What is unfortunate is that people are being manipulated by puppetmasters who know how to apply the double whammy of fear and guilt. The only way to overcome abuse is to FUCK your way out of it.
Faith
Understanding
Compassion
Knowledge"

(Gurutej has a flair for theatric effects:) He is an actor and writer, among his many artistic talents.

Now it is a new day and a new way all over the world. There is a powerful shift happening and people everywhere are waking up to see beyond the deception. Check out this lovely project, in process:

http://www.theshiftmovie.com/ (there is a great gospel song at the end of the trailer)

People are realizing it is in their power to choose peace, to choose prosperity, to choose knowledge, to choose understanding, to choose compassion, to chose faith in our very own humanity, our own dignity, divinity, and grace. Our human family everywhere has the same needs and hopes and dreams for our families to be safe, to live in good homes in safe neighborhoods, to eat healthy, safe food and drink clean water, for our children to go to good schools and become educated, and to be allowed to worship freely, as we choose, or not. This is the day that we create a new world, a better world is coming! Sat Nam.