A Midwest Journal

Hey -- Welcome back!

There’s an interesting point, maybe the last I’ll bring up along this line (don’t worry, I’ve got a new book coming out about Freedom – which is why my posts have dropped off lately…)

We’ve already covered how the Huna principle that we are all connected actually explains the Golden Rule.  Of course, this goes further. It’s again about your lifestyle choices.

As you treat anyone in a vengeful, or even slightly hateful manner, so will your own life contain that slight hint of hate or vengeance.  Too logical, right?

What is more interesting is also found in the above. We are all connected, meaning that what ever you do to someone else – you are actually doing it to yourself at the same time.

Of course, we can then take responsibility for what is happening to us by following all this.  The Golden Rule gives us instruction, a rule. The Huna says why it works that way – and why it’s one rule you can’t set aside or try to break.

All my lamenting about rip off artists was as I was unable to simply let them go. I wasn’t simply releasing on that whole scene. Anything I did which was negative toward them simply came back at me. And like that tar-baby, I couldn’t let go – nor could they.

You’ll see most of the posts about anything to do with these guys have been removed. This is simply so I can move on. It doesn’t relieve them of their responsibilities or what happens to them – it just gets me off their back and them off mine. I’ve tried to help them long enough. But everyone finally graduates from school (or drops out.) The separation is final.

The underlying lesson for me was that I was causing my own grief. And as I’ve pointed out – it takes both a ripoff artist and a willing victim to perpetrate a rip off. Sure, there can be Justice. But the trick is to learn how to love in spite of all.

And the fine point is to know when to move on. You have to be able to look at how the lessons have gone and when you have learned enough along that line.

You have to know when and how to spot a tar-baby and just walk on by.

Because that tar-baby is you. We are all connected. There are no limits.

If you touch them at all, you’re stuck. Don’t think the government is going to get you unstuck, either.

And the only way you can really get ripped off is to believe in their pitch to begin with.

But the trick is to stay far away to begin with – or take some actions now so you don’t have these rip-off artists on your lines ever again:

1. When a telemarketer calls, say “No.” and then tell them to take your name off their lists.

2. Never give a real phone number out online. Period. They don’t need to know. One solution I’d read was to get a cel phone, keep it paid up, and turn off the ringer and message service. (They aren’t legally supposed to be calling cel-phones anyway.)

3. Quit using credit cards. They can send telemarketers your way under their agreements’ fine print.

And once you are done with these internet rip off artists – stay far, far away and never deal in their general direction again (unless you are subpoenaed for legal information in someone else’s case, obviously.)

- – - -

Additional tip: use release technique to get rid of the negative thinking and emotions these guys stir up. One thing you can bless them for – giving you something to release…

Regardless of the graphic there is really only one way to play the game of life. It’s how you win.

Here’s the bottom line – we are each individually and personally here to evolve, to get better, to make the best of life in this existence that we can.

Now, despite all the various “Laws” which have come up over the years, there is only one which is observed by every known religion, philosophic, and deep thinker on this planet – from time immemorial up to the present moment. Because it can be proved by every single person to exist and work.

“You only get back what you give away.”

And this Law governs all success, all health, all the wants, dreams, and desires any human could expect to be, do, acquire, or attain in any life. It governs everything.

For some, this means “Love your neighbor as yourself.” In other, older versions, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

(And there was that famous judge who put an end to the physical interpretation of this by agreeing that they could have their pound of flesh, but they could take only that – no blood or other fluids, nothing else.)

It is the Golden Rule in various versions, the Koran as well as the Bible, as well as ancient Druid texts, Hindu, Egyptian, and even earlier to the oldest philosophies that still survive in remote Polynesian islands.

We are all connected, there are no limits – so this rule says that when you hurt someone else, you hurt yourself, when you help someone else, you help yourself.

If you look at any millionaire, billionaire or better (or worse), you’ll see that their money acquisition was on the backs of making other people rich at the same time. Ray Kroc (founder of McDonald’s chain) made far more millionaires than he could count. Sam Walton’s (Wal-Mart) expanded the sales of his suppliers many times over and was constantly working to improve the quality of life of his customers.

And that is the point to all this. To the degree you want to succeed in business, to get a great amount of income flowing toward you, to have a great home, nice stuff all around you – what do you have to do? What do you have to put your attention on?

The value of the product or service you are giving away.

Now, this doesn’t mean we need to all be paupers. Quite the reverse. The oddest thing is that people won’t value something, won’t really use it, unless they have to give something of value in return. That is really the only reason profitable commerce continues to exist and communism/socialism always fails.

That Rolls Royce or that Cadillac is worth every penny. People will pay more for grass-fed beef which is raised naturally without hormones or excessive growth-producing chemicals – that they know where it came from. They’ll pay several times what it took to create that beef and grow it for the two years it took to get to that size. Several times what they could have paid for that same beef at an auction yard and gotten it processed.

The added value is in bringing that specific product to them in a way they can use it best.

That’s more to our point:

Any business or individual will only succeed
to the exact degree that they help others succeed.

For better or worse, Bill Gates’ billions didn’t arrive without giving a great deal of value to the computer industry and the personal computer buyers. Us, in other words. Take any industry leader and the also-rans. The best, the top of their class always, always gives value in greater quantity than they extract. Sure, there are “other factors” – but that is the key one. (And why Apple and the Linux community hold onto major shares of this market? Even better value.)

Your own success it really just this point:

Whatever it is that you want – help someone else get it, or better, several someone’s. If you want help, help others. If you want to get rich, help others get rich. Want better health? – Work to improve others’ health. There are examples all around of how this works.

The reverse is true – run a ripoff scheme on other people and you can’t hold on to your own money. It’s only temporary. If you want permanent wealth around you – you’ll build wealth for others many times over in advance of your own, or at the same time. Not afterwards. (Ripoff artists and politicians only have to hide when they are hiding something.)

This isn’t a government job, which by definition is always taking something away by threat of force to “help” someone. I’ll dissect government at another time. The deal here: all help is a personal thing. What ever you personally want, you have to help others get it first, or at least at the same time you do. Only then can you really fulfill your desires.

And once you get everything you could possibly want or need? Then just keep helping others learn how to do it for themselves. That’s why all the really rich turn to helping others, even giving all their wealth away (like Buffet, Gates, and earlier, Carnegie, Rockefeller, etc.) Because now that you’re there, what else do you have to do?

And how about those who amassed great fortunes only to die bankrupt — they didn’t follow that Golden Rule. Help others all the time. Every way you can.

That’s the only way out of this human existence we share on this planet at this time. Remember, Jesus said that “Heaven is within you.” And hell-on-earth is just ignoring this one rule.

Your choice.

I’ve been struck recently to the constant problems people face in getting their view of how the world should run as they see it on the inside to what should be, in their opinion, showing up on the outside.

Manifestation, in the view from “The Secret” DVD, is really a lower “harmonic” of what we are talking about here. But the two are so closely related that they are just practically the same set of steps.

The earliest and most clear manual on this came from Christian Larson, and his bestseller “Ideal Made Real”. And my recent (continuing) studies of Levenson’s Sedona Method are simply a finer development. (As are most things I’ve found with Levenson – he simplifies concepts down to primary applications anyone can use.)

So I dug out my old copy of Larson to see what he had said back there in the 1920’s.

And there’s this fascinating tidbit which combines what we know of the Golden Rule (giving before you can get), but is also reminiscent of Wallace Wattles’ “Science of Getting Rich” (taking care with each little bit).

To give does not mean simply to give money, unless that is the best you have; but rather to give your own service, your own talents, your ability, your own true worth and your own real self. The man who lives a real life at all times and under all circumstances is giving his best and the very best possible that can be given.

A real life truly lived in the world is a power, and the person who lives such a life is a power for good wherever he may be. The presence of such a person is an inspiration and a light, as we all know. The man who loves the whole world with heart and soul, and loves without ceasing is doing far more for the race than he who endows universities, and will receive a far greater reward.

We must remember, however, that such a love is not mere sentiment. Real love is a power and will cause the person who has it to do his very best for everybody under every possible circumstance. That person whose heart is with the race will never be satisfied with inferior work. He will never shirk nor leave the problems of life to somebody else; he will go in and push wherever something good is being done, and he will constantly endeavor to render better and better service where ever his field of action may be.

And that is probably closest to what I see as the necessary balance a person has to maintain. You see the ideal intellectually inside you and work to bring this to the outside through your actions – and manifestations. Reach too high in the ideal and you risk frustration. Accept too low in the actual and your life is wasted.

However, Larson continues in this vein – as if reading my thoughts (through a time warp):

On the other hand, when we have faith in people we help them to have faith in themselves, and the more faith a person has in himself the fewer his mistakes and the better his work. When we have faith in everybody and are constantly expecting the best from everybody we create wholesome conditions in our own minds, conditions that will tend to develop the best in ourselves; that person, however, who has no faith in others will soon lose faith in himself, and when he does there will be a turn for the worse in his life.

So this tends to prove what I had discussed with a friend – as I mentioned I was in the middle of this post as a subject. He reminded me of what Huna has as a primary principle – that “There are no limits.” So as you demonstrate faith in others and expect them to have faith in you, as you give your best and expect the best from others, there is no inside and outside.

This is also known as integrity.

So when Hermes Trimestigus said something (on that mystic Emerald Tablet) down the lines of “as above, so below”, which has also been translated to mean “as within, so without” – there is not so much as an iota difference in actuality.

But where we can use this balance is in seeking to ever raise the high limits we’ve set for ourselves as a goal.  This, then, brings new realities to ourselves and to our surrounding world (which are arguably one and the same.)

Old habits die hard, I imagine.

Try this and see – and let me know what you think.

Don't wear your tin foil hat to bed.

Sorry to bring you another quasi-rant today.

I went to check out other blogs about the Quantum Jumping scam and found a doozy – over at Skepacabra. And unfortunately, this “mjr256″ (real name missing from his blog) seems to be more about tearing stuff apart rather than the pursuit of truth – or at least workable truths.

And unfortunately, his slip is showing in the post I linked to above. He’s so skeptical, I don’t know that he knows how the Scientific Method is applied – while he can claim that there is no “scientific” basis for anything that he levels in his sites, particularly Quantum Jumping.

On this blog, I’ve covered why and how it doesn’t work – and how it can easily be made into a scam.  I just disagree with this author’s approach to the subject – since he doesn’t seem to understand that the way you treat others is exactly how you are going to be treated – whether you “believe” in the Golden Rule or deny it. (If you look around for proof, then you’ll find plenty of it – if you simply deny it as a truth, you’ll also be perfectly right. But those who take advantage of it will live far more comfortable, even prosperous lives.)

Such debunkers are no experts in living or in life and so should be taken with a large grain of salt before  you base your lifestyle choice on what they write.

So, here’s the rant-du-jour:

There is a problem with your critical analysis of this – mainly that it’s one of the easiest things to believe = nothing. And criticism really just involves your world with more criticism.

Look, you probably believe in the Government and all that it’s done for you. Well, that belief won’t hold up under your own Baloney Detector Kit. The government is a scam which doesn’t work. Yet people (are forced to) believe in it.

As far as scientific studies, I love the one which said 50% of all scientific studies contradicted the other 50%. (And your baloney detection kit wasn’t applied to their own example of Global Warming, which is disproved by the correlation between sunspot data and recorded temperatures.)

With beliefs, you build your own belief system around you. People cherry pick all day long and only accept things which support their mental habits up to that point. No one is really wrong in this – it’s the way we’ve been set up. Politics is great for blind-siding people this way – by only giving them data which they can use to support their own views.

The conspiracy theorists (like your tin hat above) are constantly ragged on for this – since they are compiling data and proposing conclusions the rest of us would rather not agree with, and so, Believe.

(Like that popular FBI show about UFO’s – “I believe.”)

While you diss people who suspend disbelief, you also diss just about everyone in that category. When you go into a movie theater, if you don’t disbelieve reality for the hour or so of that money, you won’t enjoy it. All scientific method is based on having an open mind about the result – and running impartial tests with double-blind studies to show what results can be achieved.

By blinding and rigidly holding on to only a single set of beliefs, you live in a very boring and increasingly dangerous world – since only you are the one who isn’t evolving and can’t even get your car fixed when it breaks (because you can’t let go of the belief that it’s running just fine.)

Hyper-critical reviews of a subject are great for getting your blog to the top of the standings – particularly if you do it first. However, it doesn’t mean you are actually providing anyone else with any valuable information.

Belief what you will, disbelieve what you will. Doesn’t really matter in the final outcome, does it?

What you and everyone around you is looking for won’t be found by being critical of the entire world around you. These people are known as “bitter” and usually have few true friends. (Who wants to be criticized all the time?)

Treat others as you would like to be treated.

That’s a challenge – if you can suspend your beliefs long enough…

Of course it was inconvenient. I’d left a pallet of paper-sacked seed out in the bed of the truck, with just a tarp laid over them to keep out the dew.

Here it was, sun wasn’t up. Wind was blowing through my open windows as I struggled to cozey down under my blankets. Weather shift, it came to me. Echoes of weather forecasters telling me a cold front was moving in. Meant rain.

And then I started hearing drops. Big ones. Far apart right now, but that could change at any time. So I threw the covers aside and shrugged on some chilled jeans and slightly warmer socks.

Strugging into a sweatshirt, I paused, I wondered if I should start up the computer to check the online radar. But wisely, I thought better as the drops increased their tempo on our barn roof nearby.

Slapped on a ball-cap and stomped into my gum boots as I went out through the porch into the still-dark morning.

Fumbling for light switches, I got a few on while the rain started an irregular cadence of sorts on that tin roof. The tarp couldn’t have blown far, I reasoned, but the bungey cords hung on the dark wall refused to come loose easily, wanting more daylight to loosen their grip.

Finally, I got some free and in the scant light out of the open barn door, I pulled the tarp back over the pallet of seed bags – which towered over my head and out of reach – then got each corner tied into the pickup bed in some sort or fashion, with the whole thing barely snugged tight just as the wind started whipping down the rain in earnest.

After a quick double-check of the tarp against further wind, I pushed back up to the house, stripped off the wet sweatshirt, then pulled on another dry and warmer one.

Only then did I pour my first cup of hot coffee that morning.

- – - -

And this is intuitional living? Well, yes. I knew without thinking that I better get up right now and get that tarp tied down. Sure, this was from experience of not doing so dozens of times in the past and successfully doing so many times less. I knew all about wind and rain and bags of seed gone to mold after they were wet.

Action, in that early morning darkness, was what was needed.

Surely I could have figured that out earlier – even though I basically saved the day that time (we had another inch of rain before that squall was through, by the end of that morning). Yes, I had listened to an idea to get a tarp over it, but resisted another light idea to secure that tarp so it wouldn’t blow off.

When I did listen, it was intuitional living. When I didn’t listen, it was my own thinking tripping me up.

And so my intuition got me to get out of bed, while my thinking almost fired up the computer to make me too late.

Thinking tops action, it doesn’t speed it or guide it. Thinking just screws things up.

That might be condemnatory, because there are a lot of good uses for thinking. But like a calculator, you turn it off when you are done. You don’t point that calculator or punch its buttons in the general direction of every single thing you are trying to accomplish during the day – do you?

Making a cup of coffee – your mind often winds around to other subjects. Making a cup of coffee is only action, requires little thought. Same for cooking a bowl of oatmeal in the microwave. Turn on the timer and think while you wait. Take it out, stir, cook once more (this keeps it from boiling over and having a mess to clean up, doesn’t it?) More thinking, and then you can eat breakfast – which is almost automatic as well.

But if you think too much during the first cooking, you “forget” that you didn’t cook it all the way – and your bananas and milk now are inseparably mixed with undercooked mush. Yuck.

Thinking just gets in the way.

So the obvious solution is to quiet the mind and get the thinking down to a minimum. Turn it on when you do need it and keep it quiet the rest of the time.

Intuitional Living.

Try it.

Use the Sedona Method to quiet your mind and make living more comfortable and efficient.

(While I don’t raise Holsteins, we’ve certainly had some tall grass this year.)

For grass fed beef, you really have just two major profit points – as long as you’re feeding hay:

1. When they’re weaned.
2. When they’re yearlings.

Anything else gets eaten up in the winter hay cycle. While a grass fed beef is only about 22 months old at harvest, it’s gone through at least 2 winters, usually 3. Because you have to add in the 9 months of gestation to the cost – which takes it up to nearly 2 1/2 years.

Cost of hay isn’t just baling it, you also have to fertilize the land it came from, or it won’t produce as well for you the next time (and eventually, you’d only be raising short, unpalatable weeds – or sand.)

So working to finish cattle actually takes the remaining profit out of that last 8-10 months. They are going to put on their final weight, but this is also where they lose their efficiency of gain – each pound of gain takes more and more pounds of forage to achieve. And so the relative efficiency of grain-fed beef, who are harvested at about 14 months. That is, if you have the cheap grain to feed them.

Trying to finish cattle on grass usually means another winter of hay, which is additional cost. Auction prices for beef gets you paid commodity prices, which are as low as buyers can get away with. So your fertilizer cost, plus equipment and fuel, eat up any profit from those last few hundred pounds.

Now Missouri has lots and lots of tough, but tasty fescue grass. So this is why it is one of the top beef-producing states. Mostly, it has feeder or stocker (yearling) calves which are then shipped off to feedlots for fattening.

What’s becoming more popular are grass-finished beef, locally marketed. This is where you get your premiums and the reason for finishing anything at all. When you can jump the final price up above your costs for that last year, you can then simply be able to make any profit you want that the final consumer will pay for.

Example is that while a cow at auction will bring about $800 and your 600-pound carcass will cost you another $300 for processing – this comes to somewhere around $2.00 a pound for the whole animal. Visiting the local big-city market found that just hamburger from a verified grass-fed beef was bringing $5.50/lb. and sirloin steak was $18-19.00 per pound.

Now, that was individually wrapped, USDA-inspected. But it shows that farmers taking over their own market can reap the profit harvest to the tune of somewhere around $3,000 per animal.

Without taking your own marketing into your own hands, you are really stuck with sellling yearlings at auction, your next best profit margin.

To create a sustainable farming solution, increasing profit on grass fed beef at commodity prices is to take out the hay costs – which entails something called mob-grazing. By intensively grazing cattle and letting the land recover (one expert at this says his cows only see the same spot twice a year) – this actually make the grass lusher and means you don’t have to feed hay at all, there’s plenty out there if you ration it during the winter.

The other point would be to get a premium above commodity levels – in other words, quit selling a commodity.

But I’ve got far more to study on this. I sure would like to move onto finished cattle, but there’s going to have to be some changes in order to “mine them them hills” of grass to see more gold.