This article was originally posted as a Blog on MySpace this morning but I thought the material outlined might be appreciated by you all as well...

Enjoy!

3 x 5 = Paradise!

Don't you just love this new math?

The real question though, is what does this equation mean and how could 3 x 5 = Paradise?

The answer is exceptionally simple; 5 represents 5% of something or, as the case were, three different something's;

• Personal Income
• Personal Time
• Personal Resources

Let's say that your average take-home pay is $500.00 per week.  5% of this is just $25.00 or roughly 5 Latte's at Starbucks. But, that same $25.00 could be much, much more if YOU placed it into the right setting.  Just remember, the choice is entirely yours, there is no one single institution, organization or fellowship you "have to" give this 5% to, just so long as you give it and give it freely, preferably anonymously.  One week you may donate that $25.00 to the local Homeless Shelters and the next to the City Dog Pound, followed by a Cancer Hospice and maybe someone you know personally that could use a nice meal or some groceries.  The bottom line is, YOU ARE MAKING A CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIETY AND YOUR COMMUNITY!

Think about this for a second. . . you're just one person, there's got to over 1,000 people just like you living in your area, making the same kind of money and thus, the same kind of contributions . . . that's over $100,000.00 a month going to LOCAL chapters of regional charity groups that are helping others that live in your community area.  Do you have any idea the kind of impact that makes in our world?

I know what you're thinking; $100.00 a month is a lot of money to pull out of one's budget, just to "give it away" to charity. But that's just it, our thinking in this manner is exactly why our world has been turned up-side-down and inside-out; we lost our sense of value when it comes to both, humanity on the whole and what is and is not important.

There's a reason why I equated your 5% contribution to 5 Latte drinks from your favorite Barista.  Fancy coffee drinks are a luxury, not a necessity! Besides, we all drink too much caffeine and sugar-based liquids, why can't we cut back on spoiling our selves just a little bit, so those that can't even afford a $1.00 cup of regular Joe, can have a bit more for the day?

The financial lay-out is but one of the 5's in our equation however.  Unlike certain religious teachings that would ask you for 10% off the top (your gross earnings) we're only encouraging you to take baby steps at first; 5% off the net.  There's a bit more that goes with this, but I'll save that for later. . .

The next factor is time - 5% of the available time we have each week outside of work and sleep.  Out of approximately 60 free hours in our week 5% equates to about 3 hours we can give of our self to local non-profit organizations or even individuals who need support, friendship, special assistance tending to errands, etc.

As a person that lives with physical limitations I can't tell you how much a blessing it is to have those two or three people in my life that are willing, almost at the drop of a hat, to help me get things from the store, make appointments or even clean my apartment.  Then too, there are times when our "togetherness" is something as simple as a trip to the mall and catching a film; But here's the really crazy thing about it all; the fact that I volunteer my time as well.

What goes around comes around, it's just that simple.  So take a deep breath and invest that small portion of your self - three-hours a week/12 hours a month - such a selfless contribution will bless the lives of those you give to and enrich your own life as well.

The final category is "Resource" and that is something that confuses folks at first and yet, it's one of the easiest things to share 5% or more of.

How many shirts, slacks and old shoes do you have in your closet that never gets worn?

What about old Tapes, DVDs/CDs, Text Books, Games, Puzzles, Cameras, etc.?

We all have JUNK and far more of it than we know what to do with.  If we set aside a weekend out of each 3 month period for "house cleaning" we will find a plethora of things that no longer have a functioning role in our lives.  Take a deep breath and toss them into a box and then take that box to the local shelters, hospice/senior's centers, VA Hospitals, Children's Homes, etc.  Give your old things second lives by giving them to people that don't have.

No only does this action help others, it will help you grow and heal your own life in that you learn to let go of the superfluous things weighting you down in life and discover how to place honest priorities onto your possessions.  Most important, the ritual of "cleaning one's house" delivers some awesome psychological benefits that help us overcome depression, anxiety, and feelings of worthlessness.

Yes, there are other kinds of resources as well.  We may be in a vocation via which we can extend services or materials to groups that will help them improve their own situation.  We may be able to assist in fundraising campaigns or community beautification projects.  We may even be able to help sponsor "Green" projects be it a recycling campaign or tree planting, etc.  The only limit as to how you can help through this area is your willingness along side your own imagination.  I promise you that in daring to be creative and put things out there, YOU will be making a terrific difference in our world.

Let me give you an example of "resource sharing" that happened in my own life.

There was a massive "Black Art" Puppet Show featured at the now defunked MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park in Las Vegas known as Kaleidoscope.  Long story short, I ended up with about 75% of the show in that I'd planned on doing school fundraisers with it.  However, life got in the way in the form of both, a job offer and a huger 2,000 mile move cross country.  Attempts at contacting the producers of the show failed so my final decision was to fulfill their original intent - donate the show to charity.  In other words, we gave the show to a non-profit group that would be able to employ these whimsical characters in a way that would spread laughter as well as hope; the stock going to the Shiner's Circus group out of Dayton, Ohio. 

This collection was doing no one any good just sitting around.  Ego-wise it was neat to have, but impractical as well as costly, so I had to place it into the hands of people that would gain the strongest sense of benefit possible, seeking nothing in return!

This is how it works; this is what we must do!

Change happens only when we insist on making it so.  We live in an era in which government, religion and even family seem to have failed and hope has been lost - our "faith" as it were, based on the things in our lives vs. our connection to life and one another.

No, this is not some kind of New Age joy ride, it is a program of action - something we must all agree to do and hold to religiously! It is only by living our conviction and putting our money, time, energy, skills, talent and resources to work at this simple 5% level of action, that the seeds for evolution can take root.

Yes, anyone and everyone can do this, including businesses of any size or function.  You don't have to be an American, just be a sentient being that believes in the goodness and greatness of humankind, our world and whatever that great IS is that's out there, lending to each of us the strength and belief needed to persevere even when times seem their worse and headway nearly impossible.

Join me in this wondrous garden we call the Earth, that we might sew the seeds of genuine prosperity while serving in thought, deed, and prayer as the keeper of our fellows great and small.

Blessed Be!

By P. Craig Browning

To transform lead to gold has been the quest of Alchemists and greed-filled men since ancient times, the elusive truth of it all being that it is the soul of man that must be transmuted, not the carnal elements of the earth. In so many ways it would seem easier to accomplish the former than the latter, given mankind's penchant towards things tangible.  Yet, it could be in fact our "key", understanding this particular weakness found within the human animal and its lust for richness and what the wise one's once scorned as being "the mundane". For it is such things that feed the ego of the possessed and it is the ego we must soothe and appeal to, if we are to shift the harmonics of things in a course more to our liking - a course in which the whole of humankind not only observes but becomes part of said metamorphosis.

Getting "there" will be no easy matter, a task best met by those brave enough to be direct and wise enough to see beyond the boisterous attitudes of such demons.

"Why do I refer to them as ‘demons' or ‘person's possessed'?" you ask.

It is a matter of traditional wisdom that comes from the far east, where those who have turned their back on humanity, even if it be but part-way, are seen as lost souls; the deeper their transgressions, the more selfish and self-righteous their antics, the more demonic they prove to be.  Such beings are no longer seen in the purity of godliness as one would look upon and honor a fallen ancestor that lived and meek and noble life.  Rather, this is a being that has brought shame upon one's family and clan and even nation; a living terror and the incarnation of true evil.

To escape this plight we must begin "at home and within our own being", freeing ourselves from the mantra of "Me, Me, Me, My, My, My" that is so erringly affirmed by the spoiled and undisciplined minded within today's culture. We must learn what it means to be grateful in the simplest of things and how, in the expression of that gratitude, we become empowered over that which may prove of greater challenge in life. As Redfield taught us a few short years ago, we must remember how to see the beauty of it all and in so doing reconnect with the life-force that flows through the whole of nature and ties all aspects of the Universe together, as one.

These are nowhere near "New" ideas; elements within human culture have shared the Utopian vision of this Aquarian time for eons past. There are few prophetic visions in which the restoration of Paradise - heaven on earth - are unknown.  Thus, we must set aside those trivial things that we use as excuses for segregation, embracing that which we have in common with one another.  To do this we, as individuals as well as congregations, but set aside our pettiness; we must cast out our own demons, as it were that we can stand up confidently not with raised voices that demand change, but as living proof that change is happening - the days of transfiguration are manifested, here and now!

Change does not happen at the societal and global level in ways instantaneous, nor will we see the kind of transformations take root in our world by way of political action, picketing, and acts of public disobedience. In all my years working and studying the ways of metaphysics and the esoteric I've yet to find a spell, prayers or curse that is of sufficient strength for opening the eyes of all walking this earth, just long enough for them to see that God's glory can happen, it is real and its just waiting for us to say, "Thank you!"

No, the transition will be slow.  As the wise one's once observed, we must pass through hell before finding heaven and it is this that I fear, we stand upon the threshold of.

I do not say this lightly, nor do I wish to invoke the auspices of my inner-drama-queen when it comes to the ideas of doom and gloom resting upon our horizon.  The sad truth of the matter is, certain events have been set into motion and the time is at hand for these things to unfold and finish playing out. Our obligation is but to plant new seeds and to stand to the side as witnesses of these days, forever remembering how the love of money and carnal prestige brought death, destruction, loss and humility to the whole of this earth. But we must likewise bear witness to the other side of events; how those thought-seeds of peace, love, acceptance and healing that were planted thirty-five and forty years ago haven't just taken root, they are bearing fruit that is not bitter and which no longer makes the stomach sour when ingested. We must pay attention to the fruition of this first harvest and how the seeds from this initial bounty will bring into our morrow the fulfillment of those things we have sought, envisioned and affirmed for so very long.

Magick & Miracles always happen by way of natural law.  This is how it has always been and how it will always be.  When we understand these things we can better understand how to embrace this challenge that lays before us and how, to coin a phrase, to play the right tune for soothing those savage beasts that are so hell-bent on the possession and acquisition of "things".

Lao Tzu taught us long ago the secrets of war and like so many parables of wisdom, we've ignored his counsel.  Yet, if we learn to appeal to the demons of the earth and allow the trappings of our mutual vision excite them as a means to further the illusion of personal carnal glory and obtainment, then perhaps there is hope.

Granted, some would find reason to object to such ploys of manipulation but it is of my understanding that it is best to do as the Roman's do when you visit their domain e.g. to commune with a demon on his/her own grounds one must use their language and the same tactics they would use negatively in an affront against us and society on the whole. We must, as it has been said, "use our opponent's energy against them..." if we are to gain the type of strategic advantage now sought.  This is done by appealing to his/her lower natures in order to find that path towards awakening their higher-self.  Let's face it, Dickens managed to use the language of demons so as to exact such reformation in a greed-stricken fool of man in a single night, why can't we accomplish the same thing within the parameters of a single year's time within our own community?

Mythic Gurus have always been a key for me and how I look upon life.  One of my earliest "teachers" in life was none other than that silly little mole of the Ozarks Pogo of Sunday morning comic-strip fame. In latter years I'd come to learn wisdom and truth from other famed characters of myth and lore such as Charlotte, a love filled spider that had befriended a somewhat bi-polar pig.  Then there was Jonathon Livingston, one of the most determined of Seagulls known to the race.  I always related to him and his adventures and how, through each incarnation he grew in wisdom as well as a sense of purpose, ever reminding us that true perfection is non-existent for in claiming obtainment of it, we have revealed the taint of the matter.

Most recently my guru has come in the form of a young Spanish Sheppard-boy embarking on a life's journey in Paulo Coelho's THE ALCHEMIST (hence the name for this posting).  It is a simple tale filled with proverbial truths and the simplest essence of real life wisdom.  In short, the human animal must pass through the journey in order to better appreciate the blessings that will come to us at the end.  Ironically these treasures are things most typically within our grasp at the on-set of our travels but in their availability we are blinded... that is, until the journey has been undertaken and experience removes the wool from our eyes, the callous from our hearts, and the cotton from our ears. Thus, we stand at a point where we must, if but for a few minutes in each day, embark upon our journey across the desert that we might become aware of the treasures already set before us in life, here and now.

"What's all this got to do with Zaadz and our mission herein?"

I'm glad you asked...

Before we can create the changes we each share and envision we must make absolutely certain that our own house is in order, as they say. This must include letting go of our own self-righteousness and false piety, our acts of ego and the "me, me, me" mantra.  It means that we no longer see ourselves as white, black, red or yellow; rich or poor; gay or straight, etc.  It means that we see ourselves as;

•a)      Before we are anything else that society labels us as being, we are human beings, this is our common ground, our common strength as well as our common truth; nothing else matters!

•b)     We are Spiritual Beings brought into this incarnation for the sake of knowing a physical experience that is designed to awaken within us our true greatness and connection to the ALL (God/the Divine as you know it to be).

Embracing labels regardless of what they might be is an act of displaying difference and though we may not recognize it as such, a catalyst for inciting conflict.  I do not mean this in a dramatic or caustic way, only that our labels and how society has learned to stigmatize everything associated with this or that label, brings about limitations for us as well as them. In a strange little way our dependence upon labels lends to us our own little bitty demon that must be kept in check.  I know this seems trivial, but it is the simpler, less obtrusive things like this that detour us most readily from our primary purpose - to set a living example in how to heal this planet, our communities and humankind as a whole.

I've kind of jumped around here and there but the message should be self-evident; we must lead via action and via the intentional use of simplicity.  There is no need for dramatics, no need for those passé antics of playing the part of the oppressed and persecuted - no room for the victim's card in this new world, only acts of proven responsibility. As Louise Hay used to say, "There is no such thing as a victim, only those that volunteer to play the part" e.g. it is up to us to play the part of leaders, role-models, and guides.

I am a 46 year old GWM that's lived a celibate life for much of the past 16 years.  For most of my life I have dealt with a mysterious on again, off again illness that my family and peers chalked up to be hypochondria only to find out (two years ago) that I'd been dealing with Relapsing Recurring Multiple Sclerosis for a least 20 years if not longer.

I share these few facts about me so that you might catch a glimpse as to what the Zaadz idea means to me and why I feel it part of my own "calling" in life - to go out with my head held high doing the best I can to show people how to be a difference and in so doing, plant the seeds of this amazing crop we are trying to sew, that our new millennium might actually bring about that Utopian world we've all dreamt of knowing for so very long.  My "treasures" as it were, being right here in front of me just as they were so long ago when I took off chasing dreams of being a Star only to have my true affirmation of self rise to the surface; the realization that I am just a simple man living a simple life that has made him the richest person upon the planet (even though my direct income is less than $1,000.00 a month).

Until next we meet...

Blessed Be!