Pioneer Jews of the West

By William T. Hathaway

Amazing but true: The first European settlers in what is now the USA weren’t English Puritans or French fur trappers but Sephardic Jews. Before the Mayflower sailed to America, Jews had fled the Spanish Inquisition and settled in what is now Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Although they were eventually absorbed into the mainstream culture, they built a real Jewish life here.

Who were these first pioneers? What happened that forced them to flee? What did they encounter in this far land? These questions fascinate me, and as I read what little we know about them and imagine their lives, a story emerges: (more…)

The Guru – Live in Your Living Room!

By William T. Hathaway

You can learn to meditate from one of the great spiritual teachers of India, then meditate with him live online and ask him questions – all for free. The first step is to learn his easy technique of Vedic meditation, Jangama Dhyana: https://www.jangama.org/. Then join him Saturdays for a meditation and question-and-answer session: https://www.shivarudrabalayogi.org/en. He transmits a powerful force-field that you access by tuning in with devotion to his voice and picture. Connecting to him will supercharge your spiritual growth and improve your daily life. (more…)

Meditation: a lifeline to sanity in a world gone crazy

By William T. Hathaway

Humanity is in crisis. Our social structures are crumbling. Institutions that had seemed secure are now breaking apart. Politicians are figures of contempt. Once-respected news sources are distrusted. Schools have devolved into internment camps. A dozen war flags rally us into battle. Our punch-drunk planet is staggering on the ropes. People are dropping dead from the virus and from the vaccine that’s supposed to prevent it. Political polarization is destroying friendships. The economy is lurching around, torn by contradictory pressures. Explanations for the chaos abound, but attempts at solutions are stalemated.

However we react to this crisis – by revolutionary action to overthrow the established order, or by conservative action to defend it, or by a simple desire to survive in peace – to be effective we need to maintain inner calm and stability. Otherwise we’ll be swept up in the chaos and become its victim.

Transcendental Meditation is a good way to achieve this inner calm and stability. It’s the most scientifically researched method, and millions of people practice it worldwide. It uses a special technique of effortless, non-concentrative thinking that makes it fundamentally different from other forms of meditation. (more…)

When The End Time Starts Will It End Positively?

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Escaping the Military: Healing the Virus of Violence

From the book RADICAL PEACE: People Refusing War

By William T. Hathaway

RADICAL PEACE presents the experiences of war resisters, deserters, and peace activists who are working to change our warrior culture. A young Buddhist novice contributed this account, which we then revised together. To protect the people who have protected him, he prefers to be nameless.

Back in high school I'd been good at languages but couldn't afford to go to college, so I joined the navy for the language training. They have a program where if you pass an aptitude test, they'll send you to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, for an intensive course that's worth almost a year of college credit. Plus they have an active-duty education program that offers college courses. I figured after my discharge I could finish my education on the GI Bill, and with my language skills, I could get a job in international business.

The other military branches offer programs like this too, but the navy seemed the best way to stay out of the fighting. I was hoping for a major language like Chinese, Russian, or Spanish, but they assigned me to Pashto, which is spoken in Afghanistan and Pakistan. After training, I'd be stationed on a ship in the Arabian Sea monitoring phone calls and radio broadcasts, listening for key words that might give a clue about where the Taliban were, so the planes from the aircraft carriers could bomb them. I didn't think about this last part, though. I was focused on my future. (more…)

Coming Home

From the book RADICAL PEACE: People Refusing War

By William T. Hathaway

RADICAL PEACE is a collection of reports from antiwar activists, the true stories of their efforts to change our warrior culture. In this chapter a mother tells of her son's return from combat.

My son spent a year fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq in Delta Force. It was the worst year of his life ... and of mine. As he told me later, there were times he thought he'd never come home. That was also my constant fear. For 365 days, every time the phone rang I thought it would be a voice from the Pentagon telling me with well-practiced condolence that my son had died a hero. (more…)

Is lasting peace possible?

By William T. Hathaway

The wise men of the establishment are again telling us that hopes for lasting peace are a delusion. They declare that human nature makes it impossible, that war is built into our genes. They point to research by evolutionary biologists that indicates our closest genetic relatives, the chimpanzees, make war. Therefore war must be part of our heredity.

“We’ve always had wars,” they claim. “Humans are a warring species. Without a military to defend us, someone will always try to conquer us.” These assumptions have become axioms of our culture. They generate despair but also a certain comfort because they relieve us of the responsibility to change. (more…)

Report from Germany: Refugees Welcome – Sometimes

By William T. Hathaway

Posted on streetlamps all over Germany are stickers showing fleeing silhouettes with the caption, “Refugees welcome – bring your families”. Some have been blacked out with felt markers or ripped partially away. The Germans have mixed feelings about refugees, as demonstrated in the earlier waves from the Mideast and the current one from the Ukraine.

copyright-free image from https://openclipart.org/detail/201971/refugees-welcome-bring-your-families (more…)

Goddess power to the rescue

By William T. Hathaway

Humanity is now in disaster mode, trapped in three double binds: a choice between war or national decline if we don’t fight, between climate catastrophe or economic collapse if we make changes, between COVID 19 or drastic measures that are supposed to stop it. Threats surround us; chaos and confusion reign on all levels.

Such extraordinary constellations of trauma indicate that massive stress is clogging the collective consciousness of humanity. In the ancient Vedic tradition purging this stress, or karma, is called killing the demon. (more…)

Consciousness is all there is

By William T. Hathaway

As Mark Twain once said, “It’s not what you don’t know that gets you in trouble, it’s what you know for sure but which just isn’t true.”

Humanity is now in trouble because its fundamental assumption about the nature of the universe just isn’t true. The materialist worldview that has dominated science and philosophy for the past 200 years has crumbled. Discoveries in quantum physics have disproven it, but no consensus has been able to take its place. Materialists and idealists have been arguing back and forth for decades.

This lack of shared understanding has repercussions that go beyond the laboratory. Without a consistent, agreed-upon worldview, societies don’t function well. As cognitive confusion spreads, our common basis for problem solving weakens. (more…)