Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, and best-selling author. His work includes starting and running ecological businesses, writing and teaching about the impact of commerce upon the environment, and consulting with governments and corporations on economic development, industrial ecology, and environmental policy.

A friend sent this to me and I wanted to pass it on.

Peace,

Curtis

Paul Hawken’s Commencement Address to the Class of 2009, University of Portland, May 3rd, 2009:

“When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was "direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful." No pressure there.

Let's begin with the startling part. Class of 2009: you are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating. Kind of a mind-boggling situation... but not one peer-reviewed paper published in the last thirty years can refute that statement. Basically, civilization needs a new operating system, you are the programmers, and we need it within a few decades.

This planet came with a set of instructions, but we seem to have misplaced them. Important rules like don't poison the water, soil, or air, don't let the earth get overcrowded, and don't touch the thermostat have been broken. Buckminster Fuller said that spaceship earth was so ingeniously designed that no one has a clue that we are on one, flying through the universe at a million miles per hour, with no need for seatbelts, lots of room in coach, and really good food—but all that is changing.

There is invisible writing on the back of the diploma you will receive, and in case you didn't bring lemon juice to decode it, I can tell you what it says: You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring. The earth couldn't afford to send recruiters or limos to your school. It sent you rain, sunsets, ripe cherries, night blooming jasmine, and that unbelievably cute person you are dating. Take the hint. And here's the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don't be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren't pessimistic, you don't understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren't optimistic, you haven't got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, "So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world." There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.

You join a multitude of caring people. No one knows how many groups and organizations are working on the most salient issues of our day: climate change, poverty, deforestation, peace, water, hunger, conservation, human rights, and more. This is the largest movement the world has ever seen. Rather than control, it seeks connection. Rather than dominance, it strives to disperse concentrations of power. Like Mercy Corps, it works behind the scenes and gets the job done. Large as it is, no one knows the true size of this movement. It provides hope, support, and meaning to billions of people in the world. Its clout resides in idea, not in force. It is made up of teachers, children, peasants, businesspeople, rappers, organic farmers, nuns, artists, government workers, fisherfolk, engineers, students, incorrigible writers, weeping Muslims, concerned mothers, poets, doctors without borders, grieving Christians, street musicians, the President of the United States of America, and as the writer David James Duncan would say, the Creator, the One who loves us all in such a huge way.

There is a rabbinical teaching that says if the world is ending and the Messiah arrives, first plant a tree, and then see if the story is true. Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity's willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider. "One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice," is Mary Oliver's description of moving away from the profane toward a deep sense of connectedness to the living world.

Millions of people are working on behalf of strangers, even if the evening news is usually about the death of strangers. This kindness of strangers has religious, even mythic origins, and very specific eighteenth-century roots. Abolitionists were the first people to create a national and global movement to defend the rights of those they did not know. Until that time, no group had filed a grievance except on behalf of itself. The founders of this movement were largely unknown -- Granville Clark, Thomas Clarkson, Josiah Wedgwood — and their goal was ridiculous on the face of it: at that time three out of four people in the world were enslaved. Enslaving each other was what human beings had done for ages. And the abolitionist movement was greeted with incredulity. Conservative spokesmen ridiculed the abolitionists as liberals, progressives, do-gooders, meddlers, and activists. They were told they would ruin the economy and drive England into poverty. But for the first time in history a group of people organized themselves to help people they would never know, from whom they would never receive direct or indirect benefit. And today tens of millions ofpeople do this every day. It is called the world of non-profits, civil society, schools, social entrepreneurship, non-governmental organizations, and companies who place social and environmental justice at the top of their strategic goals. The scope and scale of this effort is unparalleled in history.

The living world is not "out there" somewhere, but in your heart. What do we know about life? In the words of biologist Janine Benyus, life creates the conditions that are conducive to life. I can think of no better motto for a future economy. We have tens of thousands of abandoned homes without people and tens of thousands of abandoned people without homes. We have failed bankers advising failed regulators on how to save failed assets. We are the only species on the planet without full employment. Brilliant. We have an economy that tells us that it is cheaper to destroy earth in real time rather than renew, restore, and sustain it. You can print money to bail out a bank but you can't print life to bail out a planet. At present we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it gross domestic product. We can just as easily have an economy that is based on healing the future instead of stealing it. We can either create assets for the future or take the assets of the future. One is called restoration and the other exploitation. And whenever we exploit the earth we exploit people and cause untold suffering. Working for the earth is not a way to get rich, it is a way to be rich.

The first living cell came into being nearly 40 million centuries ago, and its direct descendants are in all of our bloodstreams. Literally you are breathing molecules this very second that were inhaled by Moses, Mother Teresa, and Bono. We are vastly interconnected. Our fates are inseparable. We are here because the dream of every cell is to become two cells. And dreams come true. In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it. In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe, which is exactly what Charles Darwin foretold when he said science would discover that each living creature was a "little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars of heaven."

So I have two questions for you all: First, can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it, and wonder instead when this speech will end. You can feel it. It is called life. This is who you are. Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those molecules? Hopefully not a political party. Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life inside you, just as in all of nature. Our innate nature is to create the conditions that are conducive to life. What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would create new religions overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead, the stars come out every night and we watch television.

This extraordinary time when we are globally aware of each other and the multiple dangers that threaten civilization has never happened, not in a thousand years, not in ten thousand years. Each of us is as complex and beautiful as all the stars in the universe. We have done great things and we have gone way off course in terms of honoring creation. You are graduating to the most amazing, stupefying challenge ever bequested to any generation. The generations before you failed. They didn't stay up all night. They got distracted and lost sight of the fact that life is a miracle every moment of your existence. Nature beckons you to be on her side. You couldn't ask for a better boss. The most unrealistic person in the world is the cynic, not the dreamer. Hope only makes sense when it doesn't make sense to be hopeful. This is your century. Take it and run as if your life depends on it.” Paul Hawken.

I see a community of spiritually minded souls who come together to share, grow and radiate their energies into the world- each one free to pursue his or her activity and drawn together to better fulfill each individuals purpose. I see us guided to form the new heaven on Earth with others who have the same desire to prove to themselves and others that it can be now. We live together harmoniously, lovingly, peacefully expressing God in our lives and our living. We establish a world where the nurturing of soul growth is the most important activity, where this is the "work" of the individual. There is ample time and opportunity for creative expression in whatever area we choose. There will be no labor and no concern for earning money. All that we need we will be able to express through the powers within. Education will be a process of remembering that which we already know and bring to conscious awareness. There is no disease, no poverty, no crime and no deceit. The world of the future begins now, right here, with all of us. And so it is.





-by Louise Hay, from "Heart Thoughts"

This is reproduced form The Power Path Seminars School of Shamanism. Enjoy!!!
http://thepowerpath.com/what-is-new/the-end-of-manufactured-lack-shifts-to-consciousness-moving-beyond-techno-2.html

The Mayan Calendar is divided between day themes and night themes each lasting for protracted periods of time. According to this now famous prophetic Calendar, November 13, 2008 is the date a year of night ends and a year of day begins. Each day and night has a theme leading up to late 2011 when the calendar comes to the end of its cycle. The theme for the night just ending has been "The end of manufactured lack." At first that may sound a bit strange but if you think about the words it begins to make some sense. Certainly our economy is based on manufactured lack. Most products are not necessary but advertising creates the sense of lack or of need and we end up buying products that we could certainly do without. Not only that, but we live in a throw away society so that no one expects a cell phone, answering machine, or mp3 player to last more than a couple of years. In this brief article we will look at a number of areas covered by the notion of "Manufactured Lack" to see what we are now moving beyond. Certainly this will not happen overnight but the seeds have been sown, the process is started, and the paradigm is now shifting. As the paradigm shifts, the lies and manipulation keeping the older paradigm in place are being exposed right and left.

Manufactured lack is deeply entwined with the Puritan work ethic, the idea that hard work leading to financial success will lead to salvation and a place in heaven. Although everyone is promised financial success showing that God is smiling on them, the reality is that the system creates a labor force who will uncomplainingly slave away so that only a few fortunate ones will be saved. Even though someone works very hard, poverty or a lack of success shows that they just somehow are not smiled upon by God and therefore must be doing something wrong.

This concept underlies American capitalism and has been adopted as a foundation of the Republican party philosophy and policy but certainly has not been limited to that party alone. Unfortunately it has rewarded ruthless ambition, justified greed, and a winner take all philosophy that has led to an unsustainable approach to living on this planet.

Here is manufactured lack in a nutshell:

* Work hard but you won't necessarily end up on top. You will more likely help someone else on their way to phenomenal wealth. You will be rewarded with a basic income allowing you to purchase distractions like television, electronic goodies, and junk food.
* Externals are what count. You will be judged by your external success.
* Others will decide what you are worth.
* Marketing ploys will be based on limited supplies. Hurry or you will miss out on something you didn't need in the first place.
* No one can ever be rich enough, thin enough, and beautiful enough to meet the ideal.
* Standards will be raised to impossible heights so you will be kept hungry.
* Speculative investing will be based heavily on a perception of future lack of supplies.
* This allows unfair manipulation of the market place so that the speculators can win big.
* Competition rather than cooperation is rewarded heavily.
* Psychology runs the stock market because psychology can be manipulated.
* Many good companies fail because their profits are not as high as corporations with terrible ecological records.

Well that is probably enough on manufactured lack although it is a huge topic and there are endless points to be made. The bottom line is that the notion of manufactured lack is based on a total distrust of spirit; it is a paradigm based on the machinations of the false personality, separation, conflict, and suffering. If you doubt this then let us look for a moment at how manufactured lack perfectly suits the seven dragons, the patterns of fear. All dragons take advantage of manufactured lack:

1. Greed: I perceive a shortage. I must stampede and elbow everyone else out of the way to ensure there will be enough for me. Not only that but I must stockpile just in case there is not enough for tomorrow.
2. Self-destruction: Life has no meaning because everything is hard to get and when I finally get it, it has no power to satisfy. *@^*! it.
3. Self-Deprecation: I have very limited love and approval for myself. I don't feel smart enough, clever enough, beautiful enough, rich enough, talented enough. Lack, lack, lack, lack.
4. Arrogance: I don't feel OK. I can't ever be perfect enough for you so I have to criticize you and rave about myself. There are impossible standards to meet and I have to pretend I have achieved them even though I know I haven't. Secretly I despise me.
5. Martyrdom: Somebody always ends up on the bottom and it is me. I didn't get any of the goodies. You got all the good stuff and I secretly hate you for it.
6. Impatience: There is a shortage of time and stuff. Better hurry or I'll miss out.
7. Stubbornness: I have a lack of freedom. I have to hold on to what is mine because I fear you will take it away anytime.

Notice that all of these ways of seeing are based on perceived lack. This lack is manufactured by the false personality and therefore false personality is the author of the economic and social system that has been our paradigm for so long. Now its roots have been cut and it will slowly die. It is quite difficult to think outside of this box yet that is what we must do. Too often when people try, they can only see past ideas. Anything new sounds like socialism, communism, fascism, or what have you. So they cling to what they have had that does not work anymore. These old terms need to be consigned to the trash can if we are to really look at options without prejudice. When the first cars came out they had some characteristics that made them look like horse drawn carriages but they were not. Now we can see how true that is. A Porsche or a Prius is no horse drawn carriage. The future will not be the past if we are smart about it.

The United States, in selecting a new president, has signaled its intention to change the paradigm to meet a new world. The timing of the election could not be more obvious: Elections-November 5, 2008. Change of cycle according to the Mayan Calendar, November 13, 2008.

Let us look very briefly at the new cycle: Consciousness surpasses technology. Our technology has externally copied our inner abilities. Shamans can communicate with each other over long distances telepathically. Telephones, texting, faxes, and e-mail allows for people to communicate over long distances. Shamans also travel with regularity to distant planets. A good example is the Dogan tribe in West Africa whose central spiritual beliefs involve Sirius, a star they know everything about. We now send space probes out to explore other planets and moons. Tibetan Buddhists are capable of generating so much heat in their bodies they are invulnerable to ice, snow, and extreme cold. We create microfibers and light new fabrics to protect us from the cold. Sorcerers can attack people mentally and do great harm. Now we attack with bombs and lasers and do great harm. These are just a few among a great many examples. The point is that we look to technology to produce that which with the proper training we are all capable of doing already internally. Technology is very hard on the environment, very expensive, and not available to everyone. While technology is not going to disappear, it is time for us to understand the inner abilities that it tries to mimic and begin to develop them again.

While technology has improved our lives it has also made us dependent in ways we never were before. The expanding and deepening of our consciousness at this time will help us to grow less dependent and more powerful within. We are going to recognize that while technology can be fun it has not solved all our problems nor has it provided joy and bliss. Only consciousness can provide these.

Finally technology without consciousness is too often used for distraction, manipulation, and control. Technology under the guidance of deepening consciousness will lead us to developments we never imagined before. An example of this is the use of hemisphere balancing sounds that greatly speed up and enhance meditators' ability to experience high states. Another example is the development of computer programs that diagnose imbalanced states in the body and can actually treat dysfunctional conditions. Others are the use of light machines that support deep healing and help raise the consciousness of the body, and styluses that carry the signatures of plants and other elements into the body for comprehensive healing. More of these applications are appearing every day, some truly magical in their helpfulness and far reaching implications.

What we must come to realize is that technology has no value in and of itself. Like our bodies it is just an envelope for consciousness to express itself. Technology, like the body, can be a vehicle for fear, separation, and harm or it can be a vehicle for heightened states of awareness and Spiritual transformation. This new cycle addresses what technology is all about and how we will perceive it in the world that is coming.

This is to say that we are poised on the edge of one of the most dramatic, powerful, and transformational times that this planet has ever seen. We are so fortunate to have chosen to live during such a time of opportunity. There is indeed no lack, only perceived lack derived from fear of change. We would do well to focus not on lack but the cornucopia of possibilities that are now availing themselves through our powerful and infinitely creative imaginations.

Happy trails. Jose Stevens