|
Dear friends,
Last week we asked you to help us with a financial crisis. We told you that we were short by $6,000 of what we needed just to stay in business through the first week of January, and that we would need another $9,000 to stabilize our financial situation through the end of February.
Since then, you have given almost exactly $6,000, counting single donations and new monhly pledges, so that we now have enough cash to get through the next two weeks. We are very grateful.
As things stand now, we still need to raise at least $9,000 more to get through to the end of February.
If you are interested in the details, we have put online a day's snapshot of the spreadsheet we use to manage the foundation's day-to-day finances that might be helpful.
But there's more to consider here than just keeping us afloat for another month or year
We have found that there is an act of the mind that, once it is pointed out, anyone can do instinctively; an act that seems to snuff out the faint, incessant murmur of anxiety and concern that for most of us runs in the background of all experience.
We believe that the cause of that experience of chronic anxiety and disaffection with our lives is a moment of stark terror that comes without warning very early in life, triggered by the sheer wildness of life.
We believe that a wave of energetic fearfulness radiates outward from that moment of terror and becomes established over time as the default context within which we believe we must live and move and have our being. A context in which life itself is the problem, in which life is to be feared and distrusted. A context that sets our only purpose to be either to conquer or escape this life. A context anchored in the fear of life.
We know from our own experience that when this miserable burden of fearfulness departs, human life begins immediately to come into focus — not as a problem to be solved, escaped from, or transcended, but as our home, where we belong: an endless source of fulfillment and satisfaction, which we are here to enjoy.
The act itself that can free us from that burden of fear involves nothing but a concentration of attention inward trying to get just one split-second conscious taste of the actual feel of you — nothing special, just what you would call by the name me. This act is so simple, so obviously harmless, and so nearly irresistible, that we believe that anyone who hears it suggested clearly and simply enough will almost automatically try it.
Why wouldn't they? Wouldn't you? Haven't you already?
We believe that anyone who tries it will succeed, whether they know they have succeeded in the moment or not. And we believe that once they have done the act — taken the look — they will immediately begin to settle into their own life. They will begin a course of recovery from the effects of the fear of life that will in time drive them sane.
We believe that if enough human beings go sane within a reasonably short period of time, all of humanity might well follow. And when that happens, nothing will ever be the same again.
We want to put these beliefs to the test
Considerable support for what we state here can be found in the growing number of people with a wide range of experience and from a variety of backgrounds who have already taken for themselves this simple act of inward looking, and have come to a fresh experience of life because of it. There are many reports in our Community Forums that attest to that. Even so, we know how hard it is even to consider that the incredible possibilities we suggest here might really be true.
So, we want to put this to the test with a simple experiment that we are calling Just One Look. We are working to bring the suggestion to look inward to get just one glimpse of the simple experience that we all call by the name of me (or the corresponding term in all the languages of the world) directly to the ears and eyes of enough people to ensure that every person in the world will at least hear of it at some point.
We have already begun to focus all our energy on bringing news of this simple and powerful act to the world and we believe that, with careful work, word of this can spread like wildfire throughout humanity. We believe that the development and execution of the experiment we call Just One Look might well be enough by itself to eradicate the fear of life throughout our species. And God knows what we might do and become when we are all free of this burdensome disease.
We have the means to carry out this experiment and see what happens. Given the technology available these days, it would actually be almost a trivial matter to get such a simple idea to be heard by enough people so that we can all find out whether or not there is anything to it. Truth is, even the miserable turbulence of these times is helping to prepare the ground, providing the collective experience we need to make this happen.
This is like nothing that has come before...
This is not a new spiritual, religious, or philosophical teaching. This is not the launching of a new orthodoxy. It is not a new version of anything, and it is not a new understanding of reality, of our true nature, or any other thing — although understanding certainly is well served by its results.
This is nothing but a simple human act that can be perfomed by each and every one of us, individually.
The money we are asking for here is not intended to fund the experiment
The $9,000 more we are asking for will allow us to maintain the level of activity we already provide — the downloads, podcasts, video blogs, forums, Community Center activities, online Worldwide Meetings, online Open House Meetings, private meetings, ebook publishing, and all the rest of our activities — until the end of February.
We know it will take much more than $9,000, and much more than money to accomplish this experiment. But we are confident that as word spreads, what is needed to make this simple experiment happen will come — in the form of money, talent, skill, and technology.
And word is spreading very fast, even with only the means we have at our disposal at this time. Many people have joined us after learning of the experiment from sources that we had not even heard of until now. And almost every day, we are told of new references to us, to the looking, and to the Just One Look experiment that are popping up in surprisingly far-flung venues and contexts.
If you can help us survive as an organized, functional instrument of this work for the next couple of months, we are confident that all else that's needed will come.
Thank you for all that you do.
We know that these are difficult and uncertain times for everyone but if you can, please consider making an instant and secure donation or monthly pledge in any amount now.
For those who live in the United States, there is still time to make end-of-year contributions deductible on the 2011 income tax.
|
