Why are people still fascinated by the monarchy?

I love Democracy, but the monarchs get to wear that really cool head gear.

Well... yeah, I'll give them that. Why not just make the president or prime minister wear one. :wink:

Just the thought of handing George Bush a crown makes me want to lose my lunch.

There seems to be an inbuilt desire for humans to have need of a figurehead. I don't have any great love for the monarchy, but at least they have no real power.
Like GW says, can you imagine the likes of Bush being given absolute power?
He would start bugging his own citizens, setting up secret prisons where people were "disappeared" to, and giving all the juicy contracts to his friends.

Perish the thought.

Democracy? Where? Only in make-believe. (Oh...wait)

The real attraction, as I see it, is to some kind of elitism, whether it be seen as royalty, star status, in-crowd membership, etc. Many people dread the thought of being a "nobody," an insubstantial individual of no consequence. In the art world, industry, even the church we see striving to be "avant garde", "CEO," or "saint" (or some equivalent). It is all part of the need of EGO to deny its unreality.

The point to democracy is to not give him absolute power right? I was just saying that if a person wearing a crown is what people want to see, just make the elected figure wear some sort of headgear to look elegant or something.



We don't even know if that is already happening... The bugging thing is probably happening already.

The Monarchs have been defanged and declawed and put in golden cages. It their opulence and identity thru history that probably fascinates them and the life of security and pomp.

They are a family just like any other.

They have proved they are no better and no worse than the 'common' person what with all their failed marriages and divorcesm, oh and beheadings.

I think they are mainly kept for tourism reasons, its usually foreigners that dont have a monarchy that come over here to see ours.

Im not a huge fan of them but I dont think its fair to get rid of them.
They do a heck of alot for charities and for the countries economy.The have some amazing houses and nice bling which are on view to the public.
I dont know many other people that would allow strangers to walk round their homes.

that's still no answer to what I asked.

It is quite amusing to view the monarchy as real life soap.

The entertainment they give could not be manufactured.

This thread should have a sub-title-The Total Ignorance Thread.

The TIT sounds fair enough to me Spendi!!

Its just a tradition isnt it? And it brings a lot of money to the country...

Id prefer it if the royal familly actually did something though to be honest. I dont like the idea that taxes are paying them 4m a year to sit on the royal asses and attend ceromonies where they basically get worshiped and sung to...

The royals should use their position to do something usefull, like capain against global warming something like diana did... instead of dressing up as nazis or discracing themselves in other elaborate ways, using our money.

I believe both Princes are attending Sandhurst
for military training.....They are not sitting around
doing nothing.

Sandhurst, going to the gym for free.

The Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God and His Righteousness is a Monarchy with God on top, so people feel unconsciously the true meaning behind "human" monarchy...

best wishes from Switzerland

lwwb
Roger


The Kingdom of God

The most important aspect of all your activities is your motive, your goal, the reason why you do things. So much the better if what you do makes you rich and respectable, but that is not what really matters. You may not seem to be doing anything very significant by coming to the Brotherhood, for instance, but every time you come here with the desire to reinforce and spread the ideal of the Universal White Brotherhood, you gain elements that will enhance your future, your evolution, your body of glory. So this is an activity that changes your whole destiny. Blessed are those who understand this truth. You may go for years without seeing the results, but one fine day you will sense that blessings are pouring in on you from all directions.

Human beings treat you according to what they see, but heaven sees your motives, and it rewards or punishes you accordingly. You must look to heaven, therefore, to reward you for coming here to promote the idea of brotherhood. What do you think my reasons are for giving these lectures and meetings? Money? Prestige? anyone else in my position would have given up in despair a long time ago when he saw the negligible results.

Human beings are so fascinated by spectacular achievements in the material dimension that any attempt to get them to dedicate themselves to an idea is bound to fail. They say: 'An idea? What is the good of an idea? That is idiotic. Stupid. I cannot waste time on ideas. I know that some poor wretches in the past lived for an idea, an illusion, but I also know how they ended up, and I have no intention of imitating them.'

Everybody wants a solid, reputable occupation, but there is no divine idea behind that occupation; only money, the belly, sex. Of course, they may be successful, but one day they will see how little all that is worth. When they get to the other side they will be shown their brilliant 'success'. For my part, I shall continue to repeat the same things, to tell you over and over again that you must come here for the sake of an idea and, like the vestal virgins, tend the sacred flame so that it may never be extinguished in the world; so that the Universal White Brotherhood may be established in the hearts and souls of all men; so that this new understanding may prevail. True, this will not swell your bank accounts, but it will fill you with something called hope and enthusiasm, something called love and light.

Make the effort to look into the depths of your own being and you will see what great riches exist there. Every time you come here to sing and pray and meditate, your wealth increases. And for my part, I go home after every meeting full of happiness and gratitude towards heaven, thinking to myself, 'Ah, they were all there again today, as faithful as ever. Yet another beautiful day for the glory of God. The fire is still burning; we must continue to sustain, guard, and feed it.' As I have so often told you, we must never forget that we are not alone. Thousands and thousands of invisible beings are with us, taking part in our work and sending waves and currents into the minds of all the men and women who are capable of receiving them. And what fantastic power these waves have. They form a tremendous whirlwind that rises over our heads and streams out in all directions. We are working to awaken the consciousness of untold numbers of people we have never even heard of. Whether you believe it or not, I know that we have already influenced thousands of beings whom we shall never know and who, in turn, will never know where these currents came from. And we must persevere. One day, thousands of people will come and join us and find in this work the reason for their existence on earth. For it is this work that is our true nourishment; no other activity can give us the same fulfilment. So go ahead. Never give up.

Other activities will captivate you and make you happy for a brief moment, and then the very next moment you will feel that something is missing. You will find true fulfilment only in this work with love and light, only in the work of spreading love and light throughout the world.

Yes, that is what is important: an idea, to work for an idea. Many young people are idealistic, but they do not know what direction to give to their lives because adults have never shown them the way. On the contrary, they tell them, 'You have to look out for yourself in this world.' by which they mean, 'You must be what the world calls ''a success''. You must make money.' You will never hear them advising a young person to work for an idea, a divine idea.

An idea... Yes, meditate on this question. You will say, 'Oh, I see that I shall have to read Plato.' No, that is not necessary; you can understand what an idea is without reading Plato. An idea is a creature, a living being from a very high plane, from the higher world of thought, that comes to work in you and on you. If you sustain and nourish an idea, it will gradually fashion and form you until, one day, you yourself reflect the world of ideas, which is the world of archetypes, the divine world. The great advantage of working for a divine idea is that it contains in itself the power to model and perfect you so that, one day, you become a citizen of its world, of that world in which the inhabitants are called ideas. So we must work for an idea, because it links us to the world above. If there are no ideas working within you like a swarm of bees to bring you their blessings, it means that you are deprived of all that is best.

Of course, as long as you consider ideas to be unproductive, inert abstractions, they will do you no good. This is why it is so important to know what an idea is and how to work for one. Each idea is a living creature, a being of great intelligence and beauty, endowed with clearly defined properties. When you work for a particular idea, it exerts an influence on you and shares all it possesses with you. This is the magical aspect of it, and it means that in spite of your ignorance, in spite of all your weaknesses and imperfections, if you cling to just one idea that belongs to the higher world of light, it will introduce you to all its friends and put you in touch with other beings and other regions. It will bring you heaven itself. This one idea of the kingdom of God puts you in touch with all the kindred ideas that vibrate in harmony with it, so that you end by having everything else as well. This is why Jesus said, 'Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.' Between the beginning and the end of this sentence is a vast area that needs to be explored.

This, then, is one of the most important truths of initiatic science: a single, limited idea can bring you wealth greater than that which it possesses in itself, because it is connected and in harmony with a whole network of kindred ideas. Little by little, these other ideas get to know you, as it were, and as each one possesses some land here or a house there, symbolically speaking, all their treasures become yours - thanks to just one idea. In the higher world, everything is connected, nothing exists in isolation, and you only have to be in touch with one idea from that world to be in touch immediately with all the others. As long as you make friends with one idea, as long as you love and nurture that one and try to draw it to you, it will be your link to all the others, and they too will give you their treasures. As I say, there is a vast empty space between the beginning of this sentence: 'Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, ' and the end: 'and all these things shall be added to you.' And today I can fill this empty space for you.

What I am explaining to you today is not spelled out explicitly in the Gospels. They say that 'all these things shall be added to you, ' but they do not explain that this promise will be fulfilled, not only because there is a special affinity, a magical, magnetic bond between one sublime idea and all other similar ideas, but also because every idea has its representives here on earth who know you. This is why you will be given all the rest. There would be no sense in it otherwise. Why, when you ask for one thing, should you be given everything else? If people do not understand this truth, it is because they have asked for money, for instance, and that is all they have been given. And how paltry that is. They have not been given intelligence, health, happiness, beauty, or goodness. You will say that if you are rich you can buy anything you want, but I do not agree. True, your wealth can bring you many things, but they wil be things such as anxiety and distress. Above all it will attract thieves who will come and rob and even murder you to get their hands on that wealth. Even if you ask for knowledge of beauty, tehy will not bring you all the rest. In fact if you are very beautiful, your beauty can well lead to tragedy, of which you will be the principal victim. 'Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.' This promise is so vast, so sweeping, that at first sight it seemed to you that it could not be true, but now you understand it.
Now let us stay together in silence for a few minutes while we thank heaven for the gift of this Christmas Day spent in the midst of harmony, music, and an ambiance of brotherhood. So many terrible things could happen to us, but we are allowed to be here, safe and well, to rejoice with all the brothers and sisters. How wonderful to be all together. When I get home, I shall continue to thank heaven, to say, 'Thank you Lord for another splendid day recorded in the book of life, another day that has brought us closer to you, for we have been gathered together for the sake of your name and your glory, to feed the flame and bring light to the hearts and souls of all our brothers and sisters.' What could be more marvellous than to live one's life in a spirit of gratitude with a song of praise on one's lips? But even when I say this, you do not believe me. You are so used to the burden of all your cares that if the weight is removed from your shoulders for just one day, you say that something must be wrong, that it is not normal.

This reminds me of a friend I had when I was young, in Bulgaria. He belonged to a group of anarchists, and all his comrades had been shot. He himself was being hunted and was obliged to go into hiding. At the time, I was living near Ternovo with some friends who were also disciples of the Master Peter Deunov. Our house was some distance from the town and was surrounded by vineyards, and we spent our days working and meditating. One day we saw this young boy coming towards us, obviously hungry and very frightened. We gave him something to eat, and little by little, seeing that he could trust us, he began to tell us about himself. He stayed with us for several days, and we had some long conversations together. He found our philosophy astonishing and deeply moving, and he soon began to understand that the state of the world could not be improved by anarchy. Before long he was in a much better frame of mind, for in his heart he was not a bad man; on the contrary, he had great integrity. It was just that he was revolted by injustice, and circumstances had made an anarchist of him. Deep down he was full of love, and this showed in his later behavior.

So this young man decided to change his way of life and join the Brotherhood. I told him, 'If you really try, if you form a bond with this Brotherhood, the authorities will forget about you; you will be the only one of your group to escape death, and everything will change for you.' He believed me; his whole life was transformed and he became one of the best brothers in the Bulgarian Brotherhood. His name was Dimitri Zvesdinsky. He was extraordinarily kind, generous, humble, and loyal, and we had great affection for each other. But Dimitri was so used to going in fear and trembling for his life, he was so used to being in hiding, to never having enough sleep or enough to eat, that when he first knew what it was to be safe from pursuit and torment, when he began to see that people liked him and smiled at him, it was almost worse than before. He could not get over it, could not understand what was happening to him; it was as though he missed his past distress. And you are not accustomed to living in peace. If your cares leave you, you call them back: 'My dear old cares and worries, please come back to me; I feel even worse without you.' And back they come.

So, as I say, let us stay together for a few minutes in silence and peace while we thank heaven because we are well and happy and surrounded by friends, and above all, because we have this teaching, this magnificent ideal.

A few minutes of silent meditation.

And now let me say again that what matters most is the ambience: the warm, fraternal, vital climate of harmony that reigns here. Whether or not you acquire anything significant here in the way of knowledge is secondary; it is the ambience that really matters. This is why all my science consists in seeking ways of creating this indispensable ambience of harmony which is so nourishing. Well, I do not know know whether you manage to nourish yourselves on it or not, but I can assure you that I do. Henceforth, you must pay much more attention to creating this ambience, for it is this that gives us joy, prolongs our life, and makes us happy.

Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

I shall now light a jostick, in order to achieve the ambience, man.