This world is so disturbed, so confused, so caught up in fear, judgment, aggression, competition. It’s all very self destructive. There’s only one way out of this mess. We need to change people’s minds. We do this by staying true to our principles of compassion, acceptance and forgiveness, by being role models of integrity, humility and right action, by demonstrating the power of calmness, the power of truth, the power of love. That is our mission. So go forth and conquer with love. http://forgivetowin.com

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It is my belief in illusions that makes them real. So hypnotized with the belief that I am a body born to die, so identified with my ego, an invention of my frightened Mind, I have forgotten who I really Am: Pure Consciousness. Eternal Spirit. Immortal and invulnerable. With the power of Love within me to create reality. With the power of love within me to move mountains, to turn water into wine, to fill endless barrels with bread and fish, to heal the sick and raise the dead.

http://forgivetowin.com

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In developing countries around the world, girls are denied the freedom to make choices about their own lives. The right to an education eludes 75 million girls; every year 10 million girls are forced into marriage before reaching their 18th birthday; and thousands of girls are still children when they give birth.

Women and girls across the globe are denied choices and opportunities on a daily basis due to poverty and discrimination. Plan UK’s Because I am a Girl campaign is working to correct that. Plan UK strives to highlight the reality of the world’s poorest girls and to help them gain access to education and the right to make decisions for themselves.

“Because I am a Girl campaign works with women and men, girls and boys, to challenge the discrimination that girls face as a result of their sex. We work to challenge negative stereotypes,” says Plan UK CEO Marie Staunton.

Plan UK’s latest campaign centers on an interactive ad at a busy Oxford Street bus stop. Curious pedestrians can opt-in to allow facial recognition software to analyze their faces in order to determine gender — and the ad content that follows.

Females are shown a 40-second Choices for Girls ad that features three 13 year old girls — Bintou, who is from Mali; Sur, from Thailand; and Jasmine, from the UK. As the video displays footage from their every day lives, the girls talk about their dreams and lack of options.

Males are asked to visit the Plan UK website and are not allowed to view the full content of the ad on site. In this instance, it is the men and boys who are denied access, but it’s all for a good cause.

“Although we’re not giving men and boys the choice to see the full ad on this occasion – so we get a glimpse of what it’s like to have basic choices taken away – boys and men play a vital role in helping girls to be all they can be. Men and boys are also invited to join ‘the Plan’ to give girls choices. We look forward to hearing the public’s thoughts at #choicesforgirls,” Staunton adds.

“Millions of girls across the globe are being denied the right and choice to have an education. This ad is a deliberate attempt to raise public debate on this issue…if girls like Bintou and Sur had the same choices as girls like Jasmine in the UK they’d be more likely to stay in school and have greater choice and opportunity in the future.”

Plan UK hopes to raise £250,000 over the next four months to help provide an education to girls living in poverty.

The ad will remain on Oxford Street for only two weeks. Go to choicesforgirls.org.uk to learn more about the ad and about the campaign.

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Amidst all the things we wish to do and accomplish, all the things we intend to set into motion, amidst all of our proactivity and reactivity, all our creating, manifesting, building and amassing, amidst all these things we wish to do today, if forgiveness or some form of it (acceptance, love, tolerance, compassion, grace, generosity, truth) is not embraced as well, is not entwined with all these other priorities and purposes, then there will be the absence of a magnificent synergy that will sooner or later lead you to be disappointed with what you have achieved. All of our actions must be infused with love, acceptance and forgiveness. Unity of purpose is our mission. Unity of function is our goal. Unity of Humanity is the Only Solution. Every day we celebrate the return to One-ness.

Forgive To Win!

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Going out for a morning walking. Plan: To stop the Inner Squawking. Plan: To let my Mind run free. Escape the Ego and there’s nothing else To Be.

Forgive To Win!

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When we identify with our ego, the thoughts we are “thinking” aren’t our real thoughts. They are born of the ego, born of fear. They are not really thoughts, they are delusions, they are distortions of reality. Our real thoughts come from the Truth of who we are. Our real thoughts come from our Spirit, our Oneness, our connection to each other. True happiness is the result of letting go of ego and remembering that we are all One, we are all each other, we are all in this together, that Love is the only thought that has any sustainable meaning.

http://forgivetowin.com

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Anger is a signal device to inform that there is a perceived threat. In relationships, anger is used to emotionally beat up the other person. Best that anger be channeled into calm, effective communication of one’s concerns so that problems can be resolved in such a way that the needs of all parties are addressed and met.

Forgive To Win!

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Unity is a very important theme. It is critical to the resolution of the many problems facing our nation and our world today because without it we will never be able to engage the necessary solutions.

In this election year it’s painfully clear that there are many people with many differences. Many needs. Many perspectives. Many polarities.  Many grievances. Many resentments. Many biases. Many prejudices.  A great deal of intolerance. A great deal of hostility. A great deal of rage and aggression.

We have forgotten who we are. We have forgotten that we originally all came from one Source. We all came from a place of Unity, a place of Universal Acceptance and Love. And then we fell into a dream of separation, a dream of selfish egos competing with each other rather than cooperating, attacking each other rather than living in harmony.

We have lost our way. We have lost our universal identity as a brotherhood of people. So caught up in the distinction of skin color, races and nations, we have lost our true connection with God. And now, amidst all the chaos, the confusion, the rage and the hate, we must find our way Home. We must find a way to re-unite with God and each other before we destroy ourselves. How do we do this?

How do we unify amidst so much divisiveness and venom?

It surely would be a whole lot easier and happen a whole lot faster if we had leaders who made acceptance, forgiveness and love the platform of their party, the priority above all other priorities, the glue holding together their political agenda.

Unfortunately, that’s not what’s happening. When I listen to the various presidential candidates all I hear is what they’re going to do for us. Right now it’s the Republicans, but later it will be the Democrats doing the very same thing, everybody telling us what they’re going to do for us.

No one telling us what WE need to do for us, what you and I, what we the people need to do for ourselves if we want to truly solve our problems. If we want a world where people cooperate and co-exist in harmony, peace and prosperity, we must appreciate that it won’t happen at the level of nations and leaders.

It will happen from the ground up. It will happen first with the choices that WE make, you and I, each and every one of us. The choices we make to be more tolerant, more accepting, more loving, more forgiving, and more generous.

Easier said than done amidst so much anger, grievance, resentment and judgment swirling all around us, so many of us seeing the differences in people rather than the similarities, seeing others as the enemy if they don’t think the same way we do. If they have a different god or a different religion or a different political persuasion, if they’re too far to the left or too far to the right, we don’t just disagree, we demonize them, we label them evil and dangerous, they’re going to destroy America.

All this fear mongering, all this demonizing has got to stop. It solves nothing. It further polarizes people. It makes things worse.

Bottom line: There are too many people with divergent views and needs. For any of us to take extreme intransigent positions and expect the rest of the nation to get on board is unrealistic and counterproductive. We will never have a nation where everyone thinks the same way. We must find common ground amidst the differences. We must find ways to cooperate, compromise and negotiate for the greatest good of all concerned.

How do we do this? One person at a time. One mind at a time. One heart at a time. We do it by example. By role modeling right action. Albert Schweitzer had it right when he said, “Example is leadership.”

Example is leadership.

We cannot rely on our leaders to be the examples of right action. We must be the example. We must be the role models. We must each of us make the personal commitment to discourage the fear-mongering,  the demonizing, the rageful, hate speech about those who don’t share our beliefs.

If we don’t do it, it’s not going to happen. All the divisiveness will defeat us in the long run. Not global warming. Not earthquakes and tsunamis. Not nuclear  weapons. Not terrorists. Our divisiveness will defeat us.

We are the enemy of ourselves when we lack tolerance and compassion, and lash out at those we disagree with. True patriotism means respecting our fellow citizens regardless of their political viewpoints or religious beliefs.

We have been trained to believe in concepts like “every man for himself,” and “kill or be killed” which suggest that we must compete and battle others if we are to succeed and prevail. We have been trained to believe that aggression is necessary in order to survive.

The truth is that we do not need aggression in order to survive. The truth is that we will not prevail, in the long run, as long as we believe we must attack and subjugate others in order to win.

Most people think that “survival of the fittest” means survival of the strongest, the most aggressive, the most violent and predatory. They are wrong. Survival of the fittest in the final analysis will be survival of the spiritually fittest, survival of those who strive to unite rather than divide, survival of those who strive to let go of judgments and prejudices, survival of those who strive to embrace acceptance and tolerance, survival of those who are dedicated to the application of compassion, generosity and forgiveness.

The meek shall inherit the earth.

“The meek shall inherit the earth” doesn’t mean the weak shall inherit the earth. It means those who are humble, accepting and forgiving shall inherit the earth, those who embrace peaceful methods to solve problems, to bridge divergent ideologies, and to find the common ground shall inherit the earth.

We will not survive as a nation, as a people, as a planet unless we recognize that the solution to all of our problems requires a unified approach that embraces trust, compassion and cooperation rather than further entrenchment in the ideology of war and destruction of others as a means to our peace and prosperity.

There is great beauty in the diversity of nature. There is great beauty in the diversity of human beings. But instead of appreciating that diversity and glorifying it, we fear it, we blame it, we scapegoat it, we destroy it… and in the process we destroy ourselves. Sooner or later we destroy ourselves with our fear and our divisiveness. Therefore, it behooves us to find a way to rise above the battlefield, to perceive the world in a different light, so that we can appreciate the foolishness of attacking others.

One way to do this is to consider the analogy of a jigsaw puzzle. Each jigsaw puzzle piece looks different in some way from other pieces, but each piece is inherently the same, in the sense that each piece is an integral part of the puzzle that contributes to the puzzle’s wholeness. Without every single piece, the puzzle is not complete.

It would be irrational and self-destructive for one puzzle piece to hurt or destroy another puzzle piece because the integrity of the whole puzzle, which each piece is ultimately dependent upon, would be damaged in the process.

We are all puzzle pieces. Each of us looks different but we’re all the same. Each of us a piece of the puzzle, a piece of the total picture, a piece of God. When we attack one another, we are being irrational and self-destructive because we are attacking the integrity of the whole organism, we are attacking the Oneness which each of us is a part of.  We are essentially attacking God when we attack any of his children.

And so it behooves us to appreciate the Oneness of Life, that despite differences and diversity, we are all the same, that we were all cut from the same cloth, that we are all part of the whole, that we are all interconnected, that we were all created by God and deserve equally all the blessings of life that God offers, that we need to share our blessings with others, that we need to care about those less fortunate than ourselves, that there is one thing we need to do above all else and that is to treat others as we wish to be treated.

Love ye one another.

This is how we will unify our nation and our world. With love. With acceptance. With tolerance and with forgiveness. This is what we must practice and preach. Love. Acceptance. Tolerance and Forgiveness. This is how we must behave towards each other. This is the behavior we need to role model for our children. Unconditional love, acceptance, tolerance and forgiveness.

We must teach our children well. We must teach our children to recognize their spiritual brothers and sisters in everyone they see, regardless of what they look like, what clothes they are wearing, what country they came from, the color of their skin, the language they speak, or the God they believe in.

We must teach our children and everyone we meet the virtues of generosity, courtesy, consideration, humility and grace.  We must teach our children and everyone we meet to be of service to others, to aid others as best we can, to ask the question, “How can I help you?” rather than “What’s in it for me?”

We must  teach our children and everyone we meet  to find ways to let go of anger and hurt, to see the God in people, the good in people, despite how they’re behaving, to find ways to hate the sin but love the sinner.

We must teach our children and everyone we meet that there is a oneness, there is a wholeness of which we are all a part, that we are all inextricably bound together, that we each have a responsibility to each other, that we ARE our brother’s keeper, that we must exclude no one from our love, that we’re all in this together, that nobody wins if anybody loses.

In this election year and the years to come, try to remember that it is our job not to elect leaders but to BE leaders, to be the role models that our world needs to survive and to thrive. It is our job to find the similarities, the commonalities rather than the differences. It is our job to find ways to unify rather than divide. It is our job to remember that either we all hang together or we will surely hang separately.

Forgive To Win!

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All the candidates on both sides of the aisle tell us what they’re going to do for us. They’re going to lower taxes, and they’re going to create new jobs, and they’re going to… blah blah blah… but what they don’t tell us is what we need to do for ourselves, and what they, as leaders, should be doing as well: stop all the fear-mongering, stop all the demonizing, stop all the rageful, hate speech about those who don’t share the same beliefs. All this divisiveness is what will defeat us in the long run, not global warming, nuclear weapons, or terrorists. We are the enemy of the people when we lack tolerance and compassion, and lash out at those we disagree with. True patriotism means respecting our fellow citizens regardless of their viewpoints and beliefs.

Forgive To Win!

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I don’t know what your plan is for 2012, but this is my plan.  Read it over and see if it makes sense to you.

OK, this year is going to be my first, full year of consciously being loving and forgiving to everyone I possibly can be, forgiving myself when I slip up, learning from my mistakes and doing better the next time.  I AM happy now, but I want to be successful in all of the different areas of my life, and I now know that the way to get there is by being truly helpful to others.

Being truly helpful to others means, to me, to help others become successful in all areas of their lives, too, but not by putting “the cart before the horse,”  thinking that the way to become happy is to first achieve success of one form or another.  Albert Schweitzer said, “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.”  I think he was correct.

I will teach that “the key to happiness is forgiveness” of yourself …by first loving and forgiving others.  And I will benefit because I learn whatever I teach!  To be truly helpful, I must also talk to people, developing a relationship with them, thus helping them get to know, like and trust me, and to treat each person as the individual he/she is.  It is a principle, an eternal truth, that everyone must first forgive in order to be happy, to be truly happy, yet I also realize that everyone has different pasts and presents and different things and people that need to be forgiven.

It is necessary in all of my efforts to be truly helpful to not have a personal agenda, thinking about how someone can help me get what I want because of what I give them. Two reasons to not have a personal agenda come to my mind.  One, the other person will pick up on it and not want my help, and second, my own subconscious will pick up on it, too, and continue to sabotage my success.  Not having a personal agenda is  like “walking-a-tightrope” kind-of-thing to me, and I have been finding it takes practice and time to get better, to not become discouraged and give up too early.  I will continue to meditate on the “Slight Edge” philosophy of success in life.

A crucial factor, I believe, in eliminating my personal agenda is in trusting a Higher Power, The Power, the Power of Love,  whatever you want to call It, to arrange all of the things in my life to “work together for good” when I demonstrate my love to this Power by loving and forgiving all people, individually, with no exclusions.  I haven’t gotten there yet, but just by honestly attempting to do this, I have found that my subconscious mind gives me credit for my attempts and stops its sabotaging ways.

However, this is not the way I have been taught to become successful.  I have been taught to trust in my own efforts and in my own intelligence.  I have been taught that “if it’s to be, it’s up to me.”  Well, now I believe that I have a Controlling Partner in my life Who wants to help me in achieving happiness and success, not that I can sit by and do nothing, either.  It really is a partnership.

Being truly helpful isn’t about helping others accumulate more “things” that are destined not to produce happiness for them, but  helping others to realize who they really are and exactly how to get the happiness they long for by “paying it forward.”  It has been said, “We get what we give in life,” not the other way around as we may have been taught, deliberately or otherwise.

As Zig Ziglar once said, “You can have everything in life that you want if you just give enough other people what they want.”  And basically, what does everyone really want? Happiness, right?  So, first, I will teach people what it takes to be happy.  Then, and only then, can I help them become successful.

Yes, people can become “successful” and not be happy, and we all probably have known such people, but why would anyone want that scenario in life?  Why not be happy AND also be successful if you have the choice?

Finally, I am not, and neither will I be, worried or concerned about my needs and desires.  I  just know and have faith that they will be taken care of by Someone Who cares for me more than I do for myself, and has promised that “all things work together for good” when I love Him and His creations, my brothers and sisters on this planet.

– Bob Turrou

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