Spiritual Renaissance Elevating Your Consciousness for the Common Good by Dr. Barbara Condron

Spiritual Renaissance

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Spiritual Renaissance
Elevating Your Consciousness for the Common Good

by Dr. Barbara Condron

"In 13 chapters with such titles as Freedom, Quickening, Birth, Awakening, and Initiation, the subject matter is illustrated in two ways. First it is explored in narratives with themes of Universal Truth shining forth and quotations from some of the most visionary people who have walked the earth. Inspiring essays follow each narrative with a current event of the time, extracting a common lesson that illuminates who we are, and arrives at a new way of seeing who we can become.

Spiritual Renaissance is a new way of thinking – where education is bringing forth what the soul knows. To live in a better world in the next millennium will require self awareness and self discipline. From the Eightfold Path of Enlightenment to Pandora's legacy to Benjamin Franklin's 13 virtues, Condron unites the past, present, and future in an illuminating vision of interconnectedness that will transform the way you life your life.

Beautifully written, this impassioned book masterfully captures the global transformation of consciousness as we enter the new millennium. Buy one for yourself and one for a friend!" – Leading Edge Review

an excerpt from

Spiritual Renaissance

Elevating Your Consciousness for the Common Good

Chapter Two Freedom

"Freedom (or this principle of freedom) is the greatest gift conferred by God on human nature; for through it we have our felicity here as men, through it we have our felicity elsewhere as deities."
– Alighieri Dante, Italian poet (1265-1321)

The great thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving."
– Oliver Wendell Holmes, American poet & author (1809-1894)

It is a special time to be alive.

Anyone incarned in the United States during the past 100 years has been witness to the most rapid advancement of Mankind's potential ever known. The outer physical advancements are the most apparent. We entered the century on horses and trains and we exit it in sports utility vehicles and space shuttles. We began with assembly line factories and local general stores and end with service jobs at home or in chain restaurants, department stores, and even auto parts stores. We began with one room schoolhouses and end with the global brain that is the internet's information superhighway.

Progress. In a deeper sense these reflect the quickening of genius that responds to need, inventiveness applied to the good of the whole.

Deeper still is the sense that Humanity – all Homo sapiens, all males and females on this planet – has accelerated its collective soul progression in remarkable ways.
Consider what has transpired since 1900. Technology has brought us all together in ways most of us never imagined. Now, it is as if we all live in the same town, one "global village" as some describe it. What affects one, affects us all.

The philosophers among us say this has always been true for it is a Truth of our universe. We are interconnected. Knowledge of the world we live in reveals evidence of this connectedness with one another. The cure for disease and the spread of it, can circle the globe in a matter of hours. Possible nuclear fallout over Korea or Pakistan will in time affect the atmosphere over Chile and the United States. The strength of family is the cradle of civilization and the disintegration of it, the fall, now as in the past.

In the span of one hundred years we can see the workings of the laws of our universe, of cause and effect, karma if you will, on a worldwide scale. For instance, in 1900, Shintoism was reinstated in Japan against Buddhists' influences. By the end of the century, the 14th Dalai Lama remains in exile from Chinese-occupied Tibet. In a religiously diverse sense, the first Parliament of the World's Religions in 1893 is a small gathering of men, primarily from the U.S. and India; the centennial gathering in this century sees men and women from all religions of the world uniting in the same place with the intent to educate one another about their faiths. The International Church of Metaphysics finds its mission crystallized at this 1993 gathering. A name change reflects the transformation of identity the concept undergoes. While most of the world's religions remain self-consumed, a few are beginning to exchange ideas. These ones are trying to listen to one another, even building friendships. Into this arena of separatism, the Interfaith Church of Metaphysics exists to unite the individual and all of humanity in a quest of spiritual progression by drawing upon the truths that are universal, truths that are described in every Holy scripture the world has ever known.

1900 sees the first trial flight of the Zeppelin while 1998 sees one of mankind's first space travelers return to space at the age of 70 for another celestial trip while others live for years circling the Earth in the spaceship Mir (peace). Airplane travel is as commonplace as bus trips were in 1950 United States. Our capacity to quickly transport ourselves from one physical location to another introduces us to different people and their cultures, thus broadening our understanding of ourselves. Astral travel – from intuitive diagnosis to near death experiences to mind-to-mind contact over thousands of miles of physical distance – spoken of by the great masters of spirit is now a subject capturing public imagination as we stand on the threshold of the new millennium.

In 1900, Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams is published to his contemporaries' scorn. Freud dares to bring what has been unconscious, evenly collectively so, into the light of day. He boldly asks the question every self-aware person will someday ask, "Why?" Throughout the century, the search for the meaning of our dreams will dovetail with man's greatest pursuit – understanding himself and his neighbor. In the coming years self study, self examination, self realization, and self determination will blossom, often conflicting with contemporary religious and scientific thought. Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung will build upon Freud's work, investigating archetypes, universal symbology. Three-fourths of the way into the century the School of Metaphysics will embark upon dream research that will see the fruition of what Freud began.

By mid-century J. B. Rhine's New World of the Mind and Martin Heidegger's Introduction to Metaphysics are opening new lines of thinking. By the '70's, meditation comes to America in the form of Transcendental Meditation founder Maharishi Yogi and nothing will ever be the same again. People are beginning to talk about themselves. The School of Metaphysics begins openly teaching the development of consciousness to people of all ages, from all walks of life, all religious and educational backgrounds in 1973. No longer must one leave the world in order to cultivate spiritual enlightenment. By the end of the century, words like visualization, intuition, and spirituality are "mainstream" and everyone wants to know the meaning of his or her dreams!

In 1900, Max Planck's formulation of the quantum theory begins the journey that will lead to understanding the building blocks of life, the discovery of DNA and genetic science which produces animal clones in several places on the planet. Beyond man's reaching to be like his Creator, is the outstanding advancement that will lead science and religion to intersect, that will place meta with the word physics in more people's minds.

In 1900, American scientist R. A. Fessenden transmits human speech via radio waves beginning a quick ascension to the intricate mass communication network that connects everyone on the planet by the end of the century. A physical means of telepathy and teleportation. A world of virtual reality that will challenge us to determine the value of information and experience to ourselves and our posterity. A challenge that will fuel the desire to move beyond believing to fulfill the need to know.
The signs of transformation are everywhere.

Consider this. What average Americans did for themselves in 1900, we pay others to do for us in 1999. Raising, preserving, and even preparing food. Building houses. Caring for and educating our children. Even cleaning our clothes, houses, and offices. Technology has eased many "burdens", freeing us to have time to do those things we always said we wanted to do.

In the U.S. at the close of the century, almost every household owns at least one car, at least one phone, and at least one television. Almost half have some type of computer.
What is more startling is to hold this in mind while considering a bit of hypothetical mathematics. The hypothesis goes like this.

If we could shrink the entire population of the world to a village of precisely 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same, the composition would be as follows:

There would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from North and South America, and eight Africans.

51 would be female; 49 would be male.

70 would be nonwhite; 30 would be white.

70 would be non-Christian; 30 would be Christian.

50% of the entire world's wealth would be in the hands of only six people and all six would be citizens of the United States.

80 would live in substandard housing.

70 would be unable to read.

50 would suffer from malnutrition.

1 would be near death; 1 would be near giving birth.

Only 1 would have a college education.

No one would own a computer yet.

This puts our incredible wealth into perspective. People in the United States are so very fortunate to live in the one place on the planet where personal freedom and responsibility foster and promote personal excellence and visionary thinking. Our greatest challenge may be the continual investment of talented resources applied for the goodness of all. After all, the alternative is maintenance of, or worse depletion of, our inheritance.

Living in this country, at this time, demands the kind of thinking that is progressive, going beyond accepted limits. It demands imagination, as well as memory and the will power to employ good ideas. It demands the power available to all people, the power of reasoning.
There are times when technology presents us with happenings that cause us to wonder about others, and even ourselves. You know what they are: the murders, the thievery, the adultery, the dark side of mankind. Those profiting from harming others. The picture often painted by media is indeed impressionistic, and it is the opinion of its creator. Often ruled by another challenge to our wealth: unconscionable greed. In this case greed distorts the truth appealing to the baser, animal instincts in man. This too will in time pass.

Above all else the United States' good fortune can be attributed to the desire for and the willingness to change. It is the melding of desire and will that allows and encourages the progress that the world admires and emulates.

One of the brightest points in our technological future will be the increasing employment of it to enlighten consciousness – for visionary education that addresses the whole of Man and all of Mankind.

As it has made our lives physically easier, technology has challenged any limits in our consciousness. It has opened the world. It has given us humanity in our homes. In reality, very few people are like us when the only way we know to identify and experience is with the outer senses. The inner senses bring awareness of interconnectedness. Now, in large part because of the wealth technology has brought us, we must cultivate those inner senses to transcend our limitations.

We must remember where we have come from so we can respond in wisdom to those who are reaching up to us for help.

We must imagine where we can go so we in turn reach up for the guidance of those who have come before us.

We must learn how to look beyond the color of skin or sound of a voice, ceasing to be deceived by appearances. We must look for what unites us without being distracted by our differences.

In this way we can hope to learn how to live the tenets described in every Holy Scripture in the world. Whether tens of millennia ago or a mere century, Truths that apply to us all are universal, existing beyond the time and the space of physical existence. Every individual who has embraced a religious concept has learned the Truth that so well embodies the Principle of Interconnectedness. It is what is commonly called The Golden Rule:

"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."
– Matthew 7:12, Bible, Christianity

"This is the sum of duty: do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you."
– Mahabarata 5:1517, Hinduism

"No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself."
– Sunnab, Islam

"What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary."
– Torah, Judaism

"In happiness and suffering, in joy and grief, regard all creatures as you would regard your own self."
– Lord Mahavir 24th Tirthankara, Jainism
"Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful." – Dhammapada, Buddhism

"Respect for all life is the foundation"
– The Great Law of Peace, Native American Indian

"Be not estranged from another for God dwells in every heart." – Gura Granth Sahib, Sikkism

"Blessed is he who prefers his brother before himself." – Baha'u'llah, Baha'i Faith

"Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain, and your neighbor's loss as your own loss."
– Tai Shang Kan Ying Pi'en, Taoism

"That nature only is good when it shall not do unto another whatever is not good for its own self." – Dadistan-i-Dinik, 94:5, Zoastrianism

We cannot be forced to love one another. The reasoning mind says we must accept love's place in our lives. Not to avoid things undesired or feared, nor to foster a false sense of security or self-importance, rather we must bring love into our lives. Love is the one incentive capable of transforming compulsive, animal man into intuitive, spiritual man. Sooner or later, every individual will be a channel for love. Each will come to embody love in the ways taught by the Buddha, and by the Christ, for love is our true essence and light is our capacity to realize it.

We must learn to love one another because now, at last, we can. We are ready. We are capable of understanding what unites us as a people – the common origin, the common experience, the common destiny.

It would have made a difference in my life had I learned as a child that such Truths are universal. Who might I now be had I been raised from birth with the knowledge that all people are taught similar codes of humanity? What sense of interconnectedness might I experience now? Some may describe the Truth more eloquently than another, but the essence of the Truth remains and is the same. How empowering to learn of the common ground we share with others around the world.

How enlightening to make that Truth a part of the fibre of your being, a part of your thinking so fervently embraced and understood that no man is ever a stranger to you! Technology can accelerate our growth for it brings the men and women of the world to our doorstep. Everyday our physical realm of experience is broadened through television and radio, subliminally demanding an expansion of our consciousness.

We have come so far since the early days of animalistic man, what historically is remembered as less civilized beings. Our collective consciousness has grown since the days of Atlantis, the days symbolized by the Bible's King David and the Mahabarata's Arjuna. Cro-Magnon man realized he could move upright and wield tools with independent juxtapositioning of fingers thus broadening man's experience. This was the impetus forging the evolutionary development of a larger forebrain for storing records of experience.
What followed was remarkable, forever separating man from all other animals on earth. Now man possessed the tools to build the faculty of memory. This was a physical renaissance in mankind's quest to be like his Maker.

This physical renaissance has been dominant for a quarter million years. The capacity to remember is essential for man to move beyond animal instinct. It is also essential in the development of reasoning. The invention of reasoning characterizes the evolutionary development of the human being.

For millennia, our species has aspired to combine memory, will and the most recent development – imagination. Man's proclivity for thinking has produced breathtaking works: the Sistine Chapel painting, Hoover Dam, space probes throughout our universe, the Panama Canal, and sonatas by Bach and Beethoven and Brahms. History has seen enough man-made wonders to record the finest.

_ the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) at Giza is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the World still standing. Estimated time of building 2500 BC.

_ the Hanging Gardens of Babylon built on the banks of the Euphrates by Nebuchadnezzar II as a gift to his wife around 600 BC.

_ the Statue of Zeus at Olympia near Athens celebrated the patron of the Olympic games. Sculpted 440 BC.

_ the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (Turkey) said to have been the most beautiful structure on earth was built 550 BC and destroyed in 401.

_ the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (SW Turkey) was a gigantic, 140 foot high tomb was completed in 350 BC for a Persian satrap (governor). It was dismantled in 1494.

_ the Colossus at Rhodes was a 110 foot statue of the Greek sun god Helios symbolized peace and freedom. Completed in 282 BC, an earthquake toppled it in 226 BC where it remained until Arab invaders dismantled it in 654.

_ the Pharos of Alexandria, the 40-story lighthouse in the harbor of then Egyptian capital Alexandria was for centuries the tallest building on earth. Completed around 300 BC, earthquakes damaged this wonder until in 1480 an Egyptian sultan took the marble from the lighthouse to build a fort for Alexandria's defense.

In time the wonders of the ancient world gave way to candidates of the Middle Ages, nominees from a wider world view: Temples in Aswan (Egypt) and Angkor Wat (Cambodia), the Giant Monoliths of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), the Taj Mahal (India), the Leaning Tower of Pisa (Italy), the Great Wall of China, Gate of All Nations (Iran), and perhaps Stonehenge (England), Colosseum of Rome, and Machu Picchu (Peru) should be considered. The impact is awesome, for these reflect a world of human beings growing and developing. Humanity, wherever it is found on the globe, is experiencing an expansion of consciousness.

The creation of a new list of world wonders is also a testament to the transitory nature of our physical world. The ancient wonders have passed away. So it is with all things of the material world.

Life and death are the means for measuring linear time. The movement of the Earth on its axis and around the Sun, knowledge unknown just centuries ago and still not known by most people on Earth, gives us a means for measuring our experience. It is how the creator is transformed, the beauty and strength and permanence created within, that is eternal.
The manifestation of our desires in the physical world, be they pyramids or gardens, a new car or a marriage and family, are merely the point when we must respond to the acquisition. It is common knowledge that a car depreciates in value several thousand dollars the minute you drive it off the seller's lot. Only in the use of the car can we discover its true value to us, not in the mere ownership. Yet how many people are owned by their possessions? When this begins to occur, the physical renaissance has ended, and the next stage in evolution is past due.

As Shakespeare's Hamlet notes, "There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so." The next renaissance will be one of spirit, one of thinking, one of wisdom.
Those who mate and make a life with another, are those who have made the transition from thinking physically to thinking mentally. They understand the wedding is the commencement of a new life, more than an end to the old one. Their eyes are on the future they will make together. Such couples are visionaries and their lives are a dream in the making. Their love, the people they become, will be their legacy, more than any amount of money or possessions.

Anyone who lives a good, full life knows this secret. Either consciously or unconsciously, they realize that the nature of the physical is change. How we adapt is crucial to our sense of well being and in large part a result of our capacity to love. Hope is essential, but hope alone no longer satisfies a reasoner who has lived many years, seen many things, and like Freud has asked, "Why?"

We stand on the threshold of a Spiritual Renaissance the like of which mankind has yet to experience. This renaissance has been millennia in the making.

The European Renaissance with its glimpse of mind-expanding thought and capability was but a foreshadow of what is to come. As its greatest master, Leonardo Da Vinci, said, "The desire to know is natural to good men." The coming Spiritual Renaissance is the fruition of his insight.

Spiritual Renaissance is the movement in consciousness where knowing supersedes believing.

Where intuition is called upon in partnership with reasoning.

Where genius is promoted and mystical experience nurtured.

Where the consciousness of Mankind advances by choice, not by reaction.

Where the individual comes to realize his sole purpose for existence upon this plane, now or at any other time, is to become compatible to his Maker.

Then, at long last, the Buddha Consciousness, the Cosmic Consciousness, the Christ Consciousness will spread across the face of the Earth in a sea of Enlightened faces.

The Collective Consciousness

The Truth and Nothing But….

I was listening to an interview concerning audio tapes that American President Lyndon Johnson had recorded in the 1960's. An excerpt was being played where the President was being informed that a high-ranking member of his government had just been arrested for sexual misconduct.

Johnson's response was composed, measured, and short. Few words, much detail, as I often tell my students.

A tape of a conversation between Johnson and his wife Lady Bird followed. Lady Bird was explaining to her husband what she intended to say to the press when asked about the situation. Her belief was that he was a good Catholic, he was married with six children, and this unfortunate event could be nothing more than a momentary nervous breakdown from the pressures he was facing.

After the airing of this recording the female interviewer said something that took me by surprise. Departing from the possibility of a thoughtful question or insightful commentary, she slipped into common vernacular saying, "You go, Lady Bird." The '90's slang – meant to show support, acceptance, and encouragement between people, particularly female to female – was so out of place. A modern anachronism.

It may seem odd, but at that moment, with those four words, a visionary perspective was revealed to me. All of a sudden all the pieces of the renaissance puzzle came together.
One of the harbingers of the European Renaissance was what was called the Black Death, the plague. This disease swept quickly across Europe, leaving fewer survivors than it claimed. It was devastating. Yet the effect of the plague was more than a leveling, a balancing of the population. The Black Death changed the consciousness of everyone. The disease was universally potent. It showed no favoritism. It struck young and old, rich and poor, peasant and titled, religious and secular. That reality transformed the consciousness of a people prone to believe without question that their station in life was in some way preordained, out of their control and unresponsive to their desire.

Five hundred years of thinking about free will has indeed changed the face of the earth. As we close one millennium and open the next the "black death" is returning, not as a disease of the body but as a dis-ease in the collective consciousness. The tool for its dissemination is not another life form such as a virus; it is something we ourselves have created – technology. I believe multimedia is serving a similar purpose in the U.S. and abroad as did the European plague 500 years ago.

Since the days of settling in front of a box that delivered pictures and sound from far off cities for four, eight, twelve hours a day to the readily accessible 24-hour Internet and virtual reality, the changes in just fifty years are profound on the consciousness of man. My grandfather used to talk about the things he had seen in his life, from the turn of the century well into the 1900's. Most of what he talked about were the physical innovations, the movements from an agrarian society to an industrial one to a technological one. He personally witnessed the train, the automobile, mass transportation, space travel.

Without doubt it was the communication devices – telephones, radios, and television – that affected collective consciousness the most. These brought two World Wars to our doorstep, as well as space travel and civil rights battles, Miss Americas and football games. They continue to shape who we are and how we live.

Communication devices affect individual and collective consciousness. The information superhighway enables all of us to live in the same city. The same "global village" as it's called. We all live in the same town and we know most of the people in it. Curiously, the virtual town relegates our leaders to being nothing more than the people next door, or at best the class president or town mayor. In this way, the ever-present media has provided humanity with a similar effect that the Black Death produced: leveling the playing field. In all the news events that have united us, from man landing on the moon to the disintegration of the Challenger minutes after take off, from the Scopes trial to the O.J. Simpson one, from President Kennedy's adultery or President Clinton's, media has let us know that generally speaking people are people.

We are beginning to share the making of history as a planet of sentient beings. Diana, Princess of Wales, was like the wealthy, privileged homecoming queen in the global town. We were invited to her wedding and greeted her newborns. Her untimely, early death shocked most people, and the whole town grieved her passing. Mother Teresa's passing was like losing the most committed service giver in the town, the religious elder who cared for the ailing babies from the wrong side of the tracks and would not let the more fortunate forget their presence. The Osama bin Ladens or the Timothy McVeighs of the world are like the town bullies or the leaders of gangs that threaten and terrorize the town. When given a chance to talk about the mayor's peccadilloes or a religious leader's visit to a nearby town, most would choose to gossip about the mayor.

This is exactly what happened in 1998 when network anchormen left Cuba where a Pope was visiting for the first time in decades to return to the States to cover a U.S. President's infidelity. Unfortunately, this is often the level of awareness in our media. The degree to which the media wants to control the line of talk in the town is the degree to which it caters to the darker nature in us all for it becomes ruled by the weakest in human nature. It was this seedier side of journalism that turned me away from pursuing a journalistic career.
Years ago I studied journalism at the oldest "j-school" in the world at the University of Missouri. My original motivation for this area of study was my desire to continue to learn throughout my life. I wanted to constantly meet new people and come to understand them. I wanted to find out why the little old man rides his bicycle down to the corner store every day at a certain time. I wanted to know who he is, what his life has been, what makes him do what he does. That burning desire led me to believe that journalism could be a field where I might fulfill this desire while providing a roof over my head and food on my plate.

Reality did not meet my expectations. Even in the early '70's journalism was beginning to become tainted with corporate greed. Ratings equal popularity equal financial backing was the journalistic equation. Truth took a backseat, or became twisted to mean getting the "goods" on someone. The muckraking, the looking for dirt, tabloid journalism it is called today, was not appealing to me.

Just as the black death was filled with consequences no one wanted to face, so much of what media reflects back to us, like a huge mirror in the town square, is unappealing and unattractive. It continually tells us of man's inhumanity to man, it is obsessed with disease and death, all the while steering clear of the area of our society that seeks to explain, understand, and resolve our pain; religion. In many ways journalism as we experience it is dispiriting and threatening to our very humanity.

Media is man's creation, a response to our desire to communicate, to share information and experience, with the largest audience possible. However nobly intended, the part of journalism that wants to make the news, change history in some way, is the part that has evolved into what we always called in my hometown plain, old gossip. Much of what we hear and see in mass media fails to rise above this level. Too often current dollar-driven news reporting seeks to entertain rather than inform, to excite or shock rather than educate and illuminate. Just imagine what will occur when this great nervous system of our planet, the multi-media communication system, begins giving us more accurate feedback of who we are!

At its best journalism enables us to see the commonalities in human behavior. It reveals that one person's actions are often like another, even midst differences in language or culture. It reports the affects of our actions, and sometimes unveils the truth. Somewhere beyond the intrusive probing of clumsy reporters – the "can you tell us how it feels to lose….your home, your job, your kids" mentality – exists a desire to understand ourselves, our own nature as human beings. Eventually this will lead to a recognition that it is the thought, the intention, behind the act that makes the difference. When this begins occurring the need for a new idealism will be born and the Spiritual Renaissance will come into being.

Media plays a big part in accelerating or retarding the progress of collective consciousness in this direction. The older Masters in the field say that great journalism does not dictate, it does not create the news. Great journalism reports the news, describing what is transpiring. It is meant to be objective, without personal prejudice of any kind. Those who honestly strive for this transcendent state of balance rise above trying to determine outcomes and provide the space for the listener and viewer to draw their own conclusions. Great journalism requires a spiritual mindfulness only beginning to make its appearance in the "you go, Lady Bird" mentality of media of today.

In an unconscious way and in spite of itself, media is ushering us into Spiritual Renaissance because it lacks objectivity. In this world, media seeks to polarize us. One analyst commenting on political opinion polls noted that during the time of the American Revolution – warring with Great Britain for the right to self-govern – one third of the people supported the war, one third were against it, and another third insisted it didn't matter. As far as public opinion goes, that kind of attitude hasn't really changed. It reflects the collective consciousness. It is also reflective of our country and, since the United States is composed of a melting pot of people who have come whether in this century or another from all over the planet, it can be said reflective of humankind. Take any issue, be it political, educational, moral, and you will have the same breakdown of opinion. People on one side, people on the opposing side, and people who are not so much in the middle as they are apathetic or too sparsely informed to know on what side they stand.

The underlying issue facing humanity as a whole is being revealed through the lack of will power of the leader of the most powerful nation on Earth, the first elected United States president to be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors. During his trial, for which he was acquitted of perjury and obstruction of justice charges, most television media repeatedly reduced the import of the cause of impeachment to the level of "lying about sex, everyone does it." The general attitude was "it can happen to anyone…he's one of us…give him a break!" It is interesting to note that many foreign countries have this same consciousness. "What's the problem?" they have said. I would have to say that the consciousness that produces that question is the problem.

The advent of the change of consciousness that is upon us is a transcending of these pairs of opposites not the denial or ignoring of them. This is not apathy. It is the objectivity every great journalist seeks. This is very much what many have envisioned for an evolutionary advanced mankind – a transcending to what the truth is, a discernment of what is universally important and applicable. What is in the best interest of us all. What is for the goodness of all concerned.

It is an interesting turn of events that is noteworthy. What is occurring in the United States at this time on our planet, as has been true since its founding over 200 years ago, is for the rest of the world a microcosm of what can be. Good. Bad. Indifferent.

For many years I have realized the importance of this country. Its government is revolutionary on the face of the Earth. The longevity of the republic is a benchmark for Earth. Our founding fathers were indeed visionaries that did strive to know universal principles, did struggle to apply them in their own lives, and did attempt to the best of their capabilities to create a government based upon those principles that would insure that a democratic republic could endure the test of time.

It is interesting that at this time in the life of that government, media would try to make our government, under the auspices of democracy, a popularity contest. But that is what happens when truth becomes a commodity to be bought or sold, the result of popular opinion or vote rather than an absolute, the reflection of principles that exist with or without us, before and after us. As experience grows in me, I have of late adopted the idea that a responsible media will accept no paid political advertisements and in its place be a forum for all candidates to meet and debate the issues. Often. This simple gesture would cure many governmental ills. It would shine the media spotlight on the individuals and what each represents, so the public at large can choose who best represents them.

The search to know truth must ultimately be independent of opinion. Impossible for a consciousness engrossed in the temporary nature of a physical world, possible only in the open mind of one willing to explore the connections existing in that which is beyond the material, physical world.

Universal Truth exists whether man does or not. Look to nature to find it. Beyond and before man's day as novice creator, truths of the universe existed. Those truths still do.
Understanding how those truths apply to man is what will move us from animal man to spiritual man. Truth is not a matter of public opinion or majority rule, not a function of governmental systems. Nor is it a function of religion, for truth exists whether you believe it or not.

What is truth? How much value do we put on it? How far away from truth have we come?
The concept of Christian forgiveness is far from passive. It requires repentance. Change. Not blind acceptance. Court decisions are often determined by circumstances, rather than Truth. That is not new in our justice system but perhaps in the light of a society becoming aware of Universal Law it is time for that system to change.

Perhaps that is another lesson in this change of consciousness that we are embarking upon. There are indeed absolutes. There are Universal Principles, Laws, Truths, that govern creation as we know it.

What life is truly about is our capacity, individually and collectively, to understand those principles, to harmonize with them, to be guided by them for our own maturing. So we may come to a point of wielding those principles with wisdom. How quickly we will progress when all of our communication springs from this intent.

Through the spirit and body of one person, Leonardo da Vinci gave us a glimpse of what can be. Truly the genius he displayed is present in us all, and now stirs seeking to awaken from its long dormant state.

We stand at the threshold of a spiritual renaissance. Foreshadowed by the European Renaissance centuries ago and only now reaching its fruition in a way that can affect significant numbers of people throughout the planet.

Only now can we have the whole picture fed back to us in flickering images and words of who we are. Only now can we see we are the same, no matter where we are on the earth, no matter who we are. Only now can we realize what those universals are, and that change in consciousness will bring us a renaissance of spirit the like of which no one has seen before.