The Story of an Addicted Society:
http://www.vancouveriam.com:80/videos/c8c69b9b3748

Website with great quotes and passages, for seekers of truth and spiritual growth
:)
http://www.katinkahesselink.net/

Question
"What is the most capitalist country in the world and why?
I'm looking for maybe a top three and then your choice for number 1 and why? Try to explain your definition of capitalist so that answers can compare.

Why do I ask - I'm fascinated by the success / failure of economic systems and I'm interested to explore how improvements can be made to current economic systems."

Answer
"United States of America.

No socialised medicine, no equal funding of education. Keep the poor, poor and make the rich richer.

Unfortunately, it is an example of rather bad capitalism, for it is all about self, self, self. A good capitalist society retains the principles of capitalism, but ensures that society takes care of those who cannot take care of themselves.

I'm a capitalist, by the way, but with a social conscience.

Mardy may find this useful, although not a measure of pure capitalism, it is a measure of the ease of doing business in a country - and New Zealand comes out on top. http://www.doingbusiness.org/documents/D...

The following link also has some very good resources if you need to research the question of capitalism further. http://markhumphrys.com/capitalism.html"
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Adam Smith's Lost Legacy
“How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it.” –Adam Smith(founder of capitalism) (Taken from “Theory of Moral Sentiments”)
http://adamsmithslostlegacy.com/2008/05/we-serve-o​ur-self-interests-best-by.html

http://cgi.fark.com/cgi/fark/vidplayer.pl?IDLink=3​953635

"We live in an amazing, amazing world, and it's wasted on the crappiest generation of spoiled idiots"
"Everything's amazing, nobody's happy"
-Louis CK

Adyashanti: What is Enlightenment?
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.​individual&videoid=46209768

“Friend, hope for the Guest while you are alive.
Jump into the experience while you are alive!
Think….and think….while you are alive.
What you call salvation belongs to the time before death.

If you don’t break your ropes while you are alive,
do you think ghosts will do it after?

The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic
just because the body is rotten-
that is all fantasy.
What is found now is found then.
If you find nothing now,
you will simply end up with an apartment in the City of Death.
If you make love with the divine now, in the next life you will
have the face of satisfied desire.

So plunge into the truth, find out who the Teacher is,
Believe in the Great Sound.

Kabir says this: When the guest is being searched for,
it is the intensity of the longing for the Guest that does all the work.
Look at me, and you will see a slave of that intensity.”
—Kabir

-->"I’ve heard from Castaneda and from respectable Buddhists that whether it is a plant or animal, it is still a sentient being, so they have chosen not to be vegetarian. But animals have a nervous system they feel pain and terror. Do you know much about this?"

-->"Yes, plants feel pain and terror also. Recommended reading: The Secret Life of Plants by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird
Eating nothing but vegetables doesn’t make you holier; it just makes you a vegetarian. Here is food for thought:
“Are you looking for me?
I am in the next seat.
My shoulders are against yours.
You will not find me in Stupas,
Not in Indian Shrine Rooms, Nor in Synagogues, nor in Cathedrals,
Not in masses, nor chants,
Not in legs winding around your own neck.
Nor in eating nothing but vegetables.
When you really look for me,
you will see me instantly.
You will find me in the tiniest house of time.
Kabir says: Students tell me what is God?
He is the breath inside the breath.”–Kabir"

"I heard in National Public Radio, and read in some national weekly magazines that new schemes are now being hatched (and already money being misused) by some of the companies being bailed out by the Federal Reserve. It seems obvious then that the first economic challenge faced by our president elect Mr. Barack Obama and his administration will be to clean house.

Bailing out the institutions that caused our present economic woes with their greedy and unethical behavior may be unavoidable, but if the bailout money is given to the culprits; that is, those who personally caused the problems in the first place, we may be headed for trouble, maybe really big trouble. These individuals could be more dangerous to our country than Osama Bin Laden. They can break and bankrupt America. Apparently, they are creating new and more dangerous situations even as I write these lines. And they should be punished and their licenses revoked or suspended. Besides, if we don’t punish and replace the culprits, are we really changing our direction? Please advise me.

Quote of the day: “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you”–Dale Carnegie"

Rio Guzman

"Early this morning I was worrying about something I had done when I realized that the past is gone; it can’t be brought back or fixed. Then I saw what the present moment contained; I almost missed it. I almost missed the bright warm sunlight, the shade under the trees where I had stopped to rest, the cool ocean breeze, the quarreling of birds… In the present all our mistakes vanish. "

Rio Guzman

A worthy leader does not oppress and dominates; he serves and motivates.

7 gateways to happiness on The Happiness Show
http://www.archive.org/details/THS_110_BarbaraHols​teinsSevenGatewaysToHappiness_mpg

Book for girls:
http://www.thetruthforgirls.com/2008/10/16/seven-g​ateways-to-happiness-for-girls-how-do-we-help-our-​girls-walk-through-the-gateways-to-happinss/

This comes from the ancient Hindu text, The Upanishads:



Watch your thoughts; they become words.

Watch your words; they become actions.

Watch your actions; they become habits.

Watch your habits; they become your character.

Watch your character; it becomes your destiny

Has good articles. Just search whatever to learn:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/

Books I recommend (mainly for soul searching):
The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff (sounds lame, but it uses pooh bear as a comparison to the simplicity of the way of the Tao)
The Five People you Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
An Open Heart by The Dalai Lama
Chakras for Beginners by David Pond
The Encyclopedia of Spirituality by Timothy Freke*
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
The Perks of Being A Wallflower
The Catcher in the Rye
The Art of Dreaming by Carlos Castaneda (still reading)

Books to read:
The Meeting of the Ways, explorations in East/West Psychology edited by John Welwood
The Book of Stanley by Todd Babiak
Night by Elie Wiesel
The Davinci Code by Dan Brown
Why is God Laughing? by Deepak Chopra, foreword by Mike Meyers
Buddhism is not what you Think by Steve Hagen
Journey to Ixtlan by Carlos Castaneda
Hardcore Zen by Brad Warner
Notes to Myself by Hugh Prather
The Universe in a single Atom by The Dalai Lama
The Teachings of the compassionate Buddha edited by E. A. Burtt
Ancient Wisdom, Modern World; Ethics for a New millenium by The Dalai Lama
Turning the Mind Into An Ally by Sakyong Mipham
Mindful Politics; a buddhist guide to making the world a better place edited by Melvin McLeod

"I know more than I want to know. It's hell, true hell. If you see too much, you become unbearable."
- Carlos Castaneda

Rudyard Kipling
“If”
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And - which is more - you’ll be a Man my son!