Creativity

“A musician must make music,” wrote Abraham Maslow, “an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must.” In that spirit, the creative journey is the one you can’t not take, the work you can’t not do. But it takes courage to live boldly, a bold heart to become yourself. If you are stuck, you must move. To fuel the journey, to rekindle your love of the work, to make this leap of faith requires extraordinary energy. For creativity is love’s work. And if you don’t love it, it won’t work. And if it won’t work, then it’s time to stoke the fire.

Stoking the Creative Fires – Phil Cousineau

Deepak Chopra – CONSCIOUSNESS – Green Fest 2007

And what the Universe is asking us at this moment is to just be the conduit for a new understanding of ourselves, because all suffering that we have caused on this planet is because we have not understood who we really are.

A human being should be able to change a nappy, plan an invasion, butcher a pig,
design a building, man a ship, write a poem, balance accounts, sing, dance, play,
seduce, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate,
act alone, solve an equation, analyze a new problem, know who he is,
pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die
gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

Robert A. Heinlein

A revolution is called for, certainly. But not a political, an economic or even a technical revolution. We have had enough experience of these during the past century to know that a purely external approach will not suffice. What I propose is a spiritual revolution.”

Ancient Wisdom, Modern World – His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Find books from Dalai Lama on Neoalternative.

Your expression is your user interface and input into reality.

The Age of Stupid is the new movie from Director Franny Armstrong and producer John Battsek. Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living alone in the devastated future world of 2055, looking at old footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?

The film was released in UK cinemas on 20 March 2009. It has been screened in the UK Parliament, the EU, Scottish, Welsh, Swedish and Dutch parliaments, as well as at the UN’s climate summit in Poznan in December 2008. In May 2009 Obama’s think tank, the Center for American Progress, the World Bank, and the American EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) all held private preview screenings for their staff.

The film has a global premiere on September 21st / 22nd, on the eve of the UN General Assembly’s climate session. The Age of Stupid will be launched internationally at the biggest and greenest live film event the world has ever seen; from a solar powered cinema tent in downtown New York, linked by satellite to 700 cinemas in (currently) 50+ countries.

For those who live in a country that will not be showing the film, it might be made available for an internet screening. Please keep updated here. For news, and inspiration on what you can do, please join the mailing list addtolist [at] ageofstupid [dot] net. Let’s be considerate humans.

“Listen to me, please. You are like me, a Homosapiens, a wise human.”

How did life start on this planet that we are privileged to inhabit, and how did we get here carried by it? This is not our planet, this is our home. Can the human family thrive and not merely survive? We can not, if everything around us does not. This is the mirror through which to view the world. HOME is a report of current state of life here on Earth. Let’s re-examine the human condition and gather will to become enlightened and great. We can after all do so much good. HOME is a powerful and at times perturbing journey accompanied by beautiful footage, sound and narration. Another praise to the web of life, and an urgent call for balance.

“The engine of life is linkage. Everything is linked. Nothing is self sufficient. Water and air are inseparable. United in life, and for our life on Earth. Sharing is everything.”

View HOME, and share it.

Written and narrated by David Attenborough, The Private Life of Plants guides us through the plant kingdom from a little drifting seed, through plant’s adult life and to the end of that individual life. Following these, in some cases, hundreds and thousands of years long time scales it is made clear that nothing ever really ends – instead it is being transformed to feed new and younger life. Symbiosis between plants and plants, plants and fungi, and plants and animals is covered, sometimes leaving one wondering where one life, one organism ends and the other starts. Is there really such a distinction?

This is truly an amazing set of documentaries, with beautiful time lapse footage and worth every minute of your time. Watch this if you want to see the web of life in working, singing praises to plants.

The private life of plants 1-6
Traveling

The private life of plants 2-6
Growing

The private life of plants 3-6
Flowering

The private life of plants 4-6
The Social Struggle

The private life of plants 5-6
Living Together

The private life of plants 6-6
Surviving

“They don’t know it, but they’re loosing nature. They don’t see that they’re going to perish. The most important things for human beings are clean air and clean water and the trees and grass that produce them. Everything is being dirtied, polluted forever. Dirty air, dirty water, dirtying the hearts of men.“

from Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams, Village of the Watermills

The Neo Alternative online shop is finally open. Current selection includes organic hand made incense, ethnobotanicals, herbal smoking mixtures and extracts and books on eco-psychology, shamanism, nature inspired topics, sustainable, spiritual and artistic development.

We welcome everyone to visit us and explore and we are open for suggestions and your feedback.