Tag Archives: Gandhi

How to End Our Global Addiction to War — Conquest — Slaughter


by Rev. Scott Ufford

Why does mankind seem hot-wired to plunge the blade of violence into the heart of hope?

Why our worldwide nonstop addiction to war mongering? Why the spastic twitching of fingers on triggers and death-buttons when we could more profitably reach out to shake hands?

When do we start storing up ammunition to make a Great Peace instead of yet another Great War?

If only answering these hellish questions was as easy as asking them!

But here’s a hint:

Of course, our tales of woe began long, long ago. Everything began long, long ago… Makes it easier to pin blame on somebody else, when today’s bloodbath started before recorded history. Meaning, beyond the reach of our self-control.

Why?

Because nobody can exactly explain, with plain logic, exactly where the milk of humanity went temporarily sour. As a result, the pains of our aggressions and victimhoods lie tangled up in a welter of incoherent emotional records:

“Why did you murder that nation’s leader?”

“Because he tried to kill my daddy.”

“Why did you invade that country?”

“Because we deserved to exploit their oil for them!”

“Why did you jail and kill people of that religion?”

“Because five hundred years ago they invaded our religion’s lands because five hundred years before that we invaded their religion’s lands because five hundred years before that they invaded our religion’s lands before their religion even started, which makes them the devils, you see…”

And so on. And on. Combatants with endlessly different names, faces and histories but with the same blood in their angry eyes. Antagonisms fueled by different excuses and different struggles but fueled with the same pathetic malice.

Different battle plans, weapons. Whether by poisonous gas or ambassadors’ pens dipped in the ink of deceit, it makes no difference. Whether by sharpened sticks and stones or deadly bombs dropped from unseen wings, it makes no difference.

Only the scale of the violence has changed. The false logic that’s led to these slaughters, pretends to remain unchallenged…

Because the secret belief in humanity’s helplessness provides ourselves, our neighbors, communities, countries, religions and races with endless ways to pretend that violence is proof of great strength, instead of weakness.

It justifies our sufferings today.

Faced with history’s innumerable hurts and wrongs inflicted and received in all directions, who amongst us can untangle the karmic mess?

Do you believe mankind was born into sin — just naughty by nature? Or conceived in an ancient alien race’s test tube to create an enslaved race? Or that we grew up soaked through with the moral sense of a blob of algae, just given more complex oceans to spawn in?

Whatever.

The secret spiritual fact is–and I fully expect at least half of you who read past this point to jump from my blog in disgust, never to return, so I give you my full blessing in advance to abandon ship, and appreciate your dropping by–

The blunt facts–explained to me by Spiritual Teachers–are:

We attack others because we want them to love us, to approve us–but we despair of them doing this voluntarily.

At heart, EVERYONE wants to receive kindness. (Have you ever seen even the most vicious, hardened, crazed criminal who didn’t secretly wish for a drop of kindness or compassion to ease his pangs? I think not.)

But who wants to make the effort to GIVE kindness?

Who’s going to give kindness first? Who’s going to break the karmic stalemate with a brave act of Higher Power love? Who’s going to take the challenge and say, “Yes, mutual win-win results are possible here. I’m willing to taking the first step. I’m going to stick with this process. We can work this out, and we can see this through to a success we can both agree to.”

Or will both sides battle to outdo each other in their brutality and waste, only for the “winner” to later dole out a few well-publicized drops of generosity to the loser?

Can you conceive of practical ways, in your own life’s battle-hardened situations, to change the tide of “victory through violence”?

Please meditate on this possibility as if it’s already reality. Imagine a world in which the battles of the past are forgotten in the mutual win-win, forgive-and-forget, heal-and-be-healed world of the near future.

A near future we must begin to call “today”.

Imagine the New Christ Energies can empower you to this peaceful everyday practicality. Ask inside yourself for clear guidance.

Do this and you’ll find your first step.

Imagine the words of ones such as Jesus, Lao-Tzu, Gandhi, Buddha, Mother Mary, Amma, Maitreya, Krishna–all inspire your private world and your civilization into confidence in the power of kindness.

Imagine the sacred blueprint of Divine Code Rule Number One that’s leading mankind–yes, our own bloodthirsty, ravenous, deceitful mankind–up a ladder of spiritual self respect. Our foot hesitates just below the next dynamic step up, wondering…

My friend, please pray for peace. Work and play for peace. Be the peace; through all your own struggles, be the peace you want to see shared across the globe.

Give the world’s children a fighting chance for peace.

You’ll discover that the peace you give is the peace you keep.

God bless you for trying.

-Rev. Scott Ufford Copyright 2011

Heart Wisdom from Teachers of Amma, the Indian “Hugging Saint”


by Rev. Scott Ufford

An Introduction:

Many of us in the West haven’t heard of her. But Sri Mata Amritanandamayi, beloved by over a billion spiritual seekers as Amma, the Hugging Saint, might be one of the most brilliant women to walk the Earth.

I say “brilliant” meaning that in every sense of the words “spiritual”, “intellectual”, “ethical” and “humanitarian”, Amma grasps the needs of her fellow humans. She reacts with decisive kindness.

Are you surprised that the objective of her multifaceted brilliance could be a soft-hearted quality like “kindness”?

Please understand, Amma has inspired legions of volunteers to help bring practical charitable assistance to millions of people worldwide. For people caught in an array of troubles we might justly call “monumental” or “catastrophic”.

Amma has shared her loving wisdom in speeches at the United Nations and the Parliament of the World’s Religions. She champions The International Day of Peace, also known as World Peace Day (November 17th each year). She’s received The Gandhi-King Award for Nonviolence and numerous other honors.

Anyone else in her position of international acclaim, however much deserved–and for her it appears fully deserved–could be expected to glory a little in her accomplishments. To indulge her ego once in awhile. To cast a blind eye on her own faults.

Or, even to slow down on the exhausting job of caring for the endless streams of needy–or wounded–or curious–or faithful–that awash her at every public appearance.

But the truth is, that’s not what Amma’s all about.

Amma has given her heart, soul and life to the most simple task of healing, through hugging, every single person who asks.

Whether for solace, for guidance or for a blessing. Whether yearning for a lost mother’s kiss never given or for a flash of love seemingly poured out from an unlimited Open Loving Heart, they come to Amma.

Crowds of those humblest. Those weakest. Those youngest. Those poorest.

Those close to death. Those broken of spirit. Those broken by material cares or worries. Those tormented by what they could have done, could have been–or by what they have done.

Those yearning to feel the touch of true caring without judgment or rejection.

Those desiring to feel precious moments in the arms of a spiritually awakened master.

…We all have our private stories to cleanse and purge and understand, and overcome and embrace and release–so we can start to live again, better than before.

We all have our secret sacred little ways to find answers, to reach out for help, to gain the strength to help others. Ways to jump-start our untrusting, hoping hearts.

Over seven million seekers, 7,000,000 people just like you and me–or, people completely different on the outside yet strikingly like us on the inside, in their hidden soul needs, fears, tests and aspirations–have found their way to Amma’s motherly embrace.

This alone seems like an unbelievable miracle:

Never has a single one of those seven million-plus souls–no matter how lost, how destitute, how self-destructive or self-inflated or ignorant–never has a single one, from the lowest to the highest, ever seen Amma shake her head “no.” Or been rejected by Amma out of stress, dislike, fatigue…

She welcomes everyone. With a simplicity and mastery of the heart’s unspoken needs.

I, too, gladly received a hug and blessing–called “darshan”, in Hindu–from Amma. Beforehand, she didn’t ask about my religion. Or ask me to “follow” her, or worship her, or pay her. Or in any way, do anything except feel her Divinely inspired love pouring down.

She made me feel as if I, too, was a natural part of that love and could receive and give a bit of that love.

Her hug felt like a lightning-bolt.

But she hadn’t asked me to come to her. I just felt naturally drawn.

As Amma says, “Take one step towards God, and God takes one hundred steps towards you.”

Isn’t that what we really hope is true?

I know you’ll enjoy Amma’s soul-filled website at http://amritapuri.org. Here, Amma’s profoundly moving life story is revealed. She shares sweet spiritual insights as if crystalline waters freely drawn from the purest well.

In the New Year ahead, to maybe help you find your own unique steps, I’ll share valuable, never-before-heard excerpts of talks channeled from “Teachers of Amma”.

Please note:
I’m a messenger, not the source. I don’t claim here or in any writings, private counselings or church services, to have any special spiritual heights or virtues. Instead, I’ve been gifted with sometimes hearing, and sharing, wisdom from spiritual titans and teachers whose consciousness dwells a thousand fathoms over my head.

Let’s close with these honest, direct words of Amma:
“Children, sing from the depths of your hearts.
Let the heart melt in prayer.
Leave aside all shyness and open your hearts to God.”

Thank you for listening to your own heart’s new birth.
It’s happening.

Rev. Scott Ufford Copyright 2010

Revolutionary Spiritual Facts according to Jesus Christ & Mahatma

Recorded by Rev. Scott Ufford

Together Jesus and another Great Soul identified only as Mahatma, spoke these revolutionary facts which cut to the essential truths of our spiritual reality.

Maybe you never thought of your inner relationship with God/ Higher Greater Source in this clear, focused way. If so, you’re in for an eye-opener that can help you disintegrate your fears:

I.

“Fear is a form of worship.

Love is a form of equality.

A true love drives out the desire to fear and replaces it with the pleasure of healthy respect. Whether you like or care to associate further with that respected thing, or not.

You cannot respect any thing simply by observing its outside. By knowing that within this thing is actually some form and reality of godcreation, you move past fearing its outside.

Seeing only its outside can lead you to fear its unknown potential to harm you or to deny you your rightful loving experiences.

The aspect or quality of any thing which induces your fear is an aspect which you believe to be lacking or imbalanced within yourself.

What you fear encountering in yourself, you fear encountering in the world.

Since the world is physically much larger and more capable than your self, you can only remove your fear of the seen world by entering into awareness of the unseen world and the true, unseen reality within all things.

You cannot glimpse these fear-destroying laws of inner reality unless you believe that some wise and capable Source exists, greater than your current awareness of your self.

This Source must at heart be as actively motivated for your well being as It is for any other thing’s well being. The law of innate equality and value must exist for your self as well as for that feared thing.

All inequality is only the result of fear and misunderstanding of the real nature of oneself, as well as of the other.

II.

If you believe that you are meant to remain limited and suffering from the greater aspects of other things, you will experience this until you stop enslaving your self to these fears.

The knowledge that:

You consciously exist, for infinity, in some way;

No physical self destruction can remove this eternal consciousness from you;

Consciousness by definition is always growing and changing and experiencing; and so

Your experience of that helpful, Greater Source self is also infinite;

leads to the constant capability for the progressive removal of your fears of your self, of other things and of that Greater Source.

As all things ease into realizing that everything simply IS, the removal of fear removes all reasons for physical sensations of fearful aggression and fearful victimhood.

The removal of supposed reasons for fears allows your own strengths to emerge from within your hidden unacknowledged self.

As you see and remove your fears, you acknowledge that your help in doing this comes from that Greater Source which is forever available to your self as well as to all others.

As you grow, you stop fearing the fact that you have fears about any given thing, including Greater Source and your self.

You do not need to compete for, qualify for or fear the lack of that help from that Higher Greater Source, since It has no fears of you whatsoever. It sees you perfectly clearly, or at least thinks It does.

III.

You are free to continue seeing and experiencing a clearer and more helpful relationship with that Higher Source.

Any aspect of Higher Source which seems to mirror any of your fearful or unkind or blind characteristics is an aspect which you are free to see past.

Any aspect of Higher Source which seems unwilling to help or to understand, or to behave charitably towards your self, must be encouraged to behave towards your self and Itself in a way more like An Even Higher Source.

{This means you are free to talk to any aspect of higher reality which seems to fail to see you clearly or charitably.}

You are free to reach past these limiting aspects of Higher Source up to that which is good for you.

This way, whether those limiting aspects of Higher Source are only products of your own limited perception or are of Higher Source Itself, your respectful exploration of fear removal puts you in a growing state of awareness and into an inner reality of happiness and strength.

This state will manifest in your physical surroundings to some degree because a realized truth is realized everywhere in your existence.

You will learn to appreciate and enjoy the degree to which inner reality manifests in your outer life. This experience is another form of the loving respect, or at least respect, for your self and for all things—because this verifies that your fear removal is real and working for you.

This is true for the infinity that you and all things exist.

No saint or sage has found clear enlightenment within his fears. The light lurks around, beyond and before his fears. The trail of his fears is a trail of tears in the process of drying up and transmuting into tears of laughter.

You are free to emerge from fear, and so from worship, into love, which is a state of happy equality.

You are free to do this in your own time, at your own healthy pace, in your own unique and necessary way, without any fear of judgment.

All of the results of your efforts combine with all of the results of every other being’s efforts.

Together, you are changing your world and your reality in good ways.

This spiritual evolution is an absolute and revolutionary fact.”

—Jesus Christ / The Mahatma

recorded by Rev. Scott Ufford, 7-15-1997
Copyright 1997, 2010 Scott Ufford
http://www.scottufford.com