Light of Life Society: Blog
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FeaturedBlog Post
Non-Violent Games Please
100’s of Millions of peoples play online games, most of which include killing something. As per the reports in the following videos, violent games increase aggressiveness; yet they can...
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Peace Portal Project
Peace Portal is a project designed to help fund, organize, and implement associated projects that lead to long term sustainable development. They Provide a space designed to encourage and...
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FeaturedBlog Post
The Transition
"Not only is power in the world changing, but the work of the world is changing as well. Microprocessing has created entirely new horizons of economic activity that transcend...
| Topics: |  Game Concepts |
Access Point Project (APP) connects partners on the ground (such as One Laptop per Child, Inveneo or Room to Read) with a private global commerce platform for empowering the poor to improve their lives by accessing Information Age opportunities such as free education, global marketplaces, social interaction with other cultures, technology, and equal compensation for their labor using private currency.
[This Project is in Phase 1]
- ACCESS (Technology & Communication)
- MARKET SUPPORT (Prosperity Program)
- PARTNERS (Portal Project-Networking)
ACCESS: Access Points seeks to utilize the increasing availability of Information Age technologies with Internet based market opportunities designed specifically to meet the needs of people who are economically dis-enfranchised and whom are regularly excluded from mainstream consideration.
Providing Internet Access is achieved by giving alternative powered ICTs, cellular phones, and donated computers to Peace Partners with a presence already in places of greatest need, or simply by integrating our platform partners with projects already providing Access, such as: One Laptop per Child, Clinton Global Initiative, and efforts of the Gates Foundation among others.
At the most basic level of access, a cellular platform is being designed by Peace partners and corporations, to provide everyone with a PAD.
PAD: Personal Access Device:
The PAD is a FREE (given away) cellular phone with graphical display and Internet access tied directly to a Free Digital Universe (FDU) account. FDU earnings and system guarantee the payment of monthly bills to the Provider by directing ad revenue earnings from each FDU User to the cell Providers account, the FDUMA pays the Provider in the public currency of their choice.
To address economic growth of those living in poverty, particularly in emerging markets where the majority of people subsist on less than $2.00 a day, and for them to grow without further depleting the natural resources of their local eco-systems, will require something entirely new - access to the Information Age.
Through the use of a simple cellular phone device, which can be given away due to the guaranteed monthly revenue streams from the phone Users integrated FDU account, everyone on the planet can have access to the digital globalized marketplace via their Personal Access Device - PAD. With access to the global marketplace new vistas of educational and commercial potential become available, manifesting that potential is the work of Market Support, and Partners.
MARKET SUPPORT: Support, training, and services for accessing digital wealth in local goods and services will be need to supplement technology. Through a Co-op for example, only a few need to know how to use computers; craftsmen can drop off their goods to the Co-op for auctioning, musicians be video-taped as part of a digital creation. Whole communities can prosper even if only a few know how to use the technology.
One of our more innovative support projects called SCALE, charters a co-operative at the local level, a cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations. Working closely with the Prosperity Program, all Access Points are provided a step-by-step plan for implementing a local private community Co-operative, inclusive:
1. A private back-office application for accounting and aggregating of individual community Member funds;
2. A support staff made up of various Peace Partners which help Co-ops with increasing their wealth by doing such things as distributing their digital content, helping them in creating digital content themselves, how to take digital photos of hand-crafted goods and sell them via the Free Digital Market, and other on-line support as appropriate;
3. Distribution networks for the relay, delivery, and tracking of physical goods and services moving into and out of the Access Points.
4. Access to conversion of the private Points of the digital platform into the Co-op Trustees public currency of choice.
5. Help in establishing private regional trading platforms between Access Point Co-ops, with emphasis on attaining regional self-sustainability.
SCALE is a plan supported by volunteers of Ministries, the FreeDigitalMarket, and others. A SCALE Co-operative provides people in the communities access to a local account that can be managed while still allowing each individual to retain individual control over the Members account.
PARTNERS: No one, two, or even ten organizations can challenge our planetary problems alone, a coordinated effort is required by all groups working everywhere, we all need a rallying point; therefore Peace Portal strives to connect complimentary projects with active organizations globally, volunteers, and supporting technologies through its Peace Partners communities. 
Education Partner:
Working closely with the Free Digital University, a partner working to provide equal and free access to educational curriculum at all levels and in all languages, the educational plan aims to put economically poor people at the centre of learning, analyzing and responding to their own situation. PAP therefore places a strong emphasis on developing and strengthening sustainable solutions to stakeholders on the ground.
Economic Prosperity Partners:
Working closely with the Prosperity Program, all Access Points are provided a private sub-community on the commercial platform provided by Prosperity Program that will provide financial assistance for the growth and maintenance of the Access Point. Communities and individuals are provided a private global marketplace where they can offer, exchange, publish, and earn wealth. Peace Partners providing the elements of the commercial platform include;
1. ShareMyBiz
2. ePayCafe
3. Free Digital Market
4. Freebay
Any Peace Portal partners and Projects can help support Access Points with volunteers, .
Feel free to join us in providing positive practical solutions to creating a world with more peace, prosperity, and self-understanding.
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| Topics: | Free Digital Universe |
The Free Digital Universe (FDU) is a non-violent virtual reality that pays people to play games, social network, and share affiliate products; this system is specifically designed so that everyone in the world, even third world Users, can begin to earn into the Internet economy starting from nothing. FDU is a association of charities, corporations, and non-governmental organizations. Corporations are "vendors" who profit from participating in the FDU. 
Global Digital Publishing (GDP) is the “Commercial Host” of a unique virtual reality game called Free Digital Universe (FDU) where players earn real goods and services. GDP earns profits by providing applications for these users through any of five unique business divisions.
Players have multiple options for earning Points in the Game, such as marketing others products, publishing personally authored content for profit, gaming, advertising and more. Each GDP division profits by providing the software applications that enables the player’s choices, thereby serving our users and shareholders simultaneously.
GDP Officers oversee, audit, integrate, and direct the five (5) separate divisions:
1) ShareMyBiz: marketing, website, and cyber shopping malls
2) FreeBay: digital self publishing and affiliate distribution
3) UltraTribe: in-world gaming
4) Hospitality: conventions and travel sold in Points
5) Expedition: Product sold in Points requiring payment in public money[1]
Players are given a website witha built in CyberMall by the ShareMyBiz (SMB) division, from this website players can share information, sell digital content, post images, music, videos, and create blogs utilizing their own Avatar character. Each Avatar is paid with a common unencumbered currency (called a Point) that may be traded for real products, services, and converted into other currencies.
Access to the FDU Game is open to users who have no address or credit card or choose not to use their credit card on-line for reasons of security. Wealth is earned from participating in the FDU Game, Avatars earn Points, which they can use for purchases, and therefore no credit card or personal information is required.
[1] Players may purchase items from affiliate suppliers such as Amazon by paying GDP division 5 in Points, we expedite the public purchase by paying Amazon in dollars, taking a small percent for being the go-between.
The outcomes we hope to achieve include testing a comprehensive Information Age economic model that sustainably addresses extreme global poverty, over-use of natural resources, and unequal compensation in a increasingly globalized world.
The wholistic design is intended to produce an Information Age commerce system that will result in greater wealth and freedom for everyone, even those living in emerging countries, while also responding to ever-growing pressures on our natural environment.
1) Earning digital wealth to increase quality of life;
2) Supporting charitable organizations working for a sustainable future;
3) Exploring the capacity of our human soul in it's relationship to the universe as a living co-creator, using a Game model that is fun, free, and easy; and
4) Easing the transition betwen the Industrial Age and newly birthing Information Age.
1) Sell to Visitors from extensive Affiliate Product catalogs.
2) Sell or Buy P2P at FDU in-world Auctions.
4) Publish your Digital Products for Affiliate Distribution.
5) Play, Create, and Earn enjoying Contests and Games.
6) Share in ad generated revenue from your personal CyberMall
Each new Avatar Soule entering the Game chooses a charitable "Soule Family" from which their unique Avatar Soule derives. As a Avatar increases in Life Force Points from actions in FDU, a over-ride is donated to a charity associated with their Soule Family by the Game Vendors. In this way, each Player Soule automatically helps to fund charities of interest to each unique Player.
This model offers something for everyone in today’s global online economy. In addition, users can choose to remain anonymous, and parents can set permission controls. The main Vendor serving Players in the FDU, Global Digital Publishing, expects to be bigger than eBay, creating a great deal of profit for it's shareholders, and for the charities involved because GDP can access a much greater protion of the Global Population. Our users will make more sales than eBay users, and become more profitable for the reasons elucidated by the following Chart Comparison.
COMPARISON: eBay versus FDU (GDP) Models
| eBay | FDU / GDP Model |
| Users must supply a product if they wish to sell something. Many people, especially in developing countries, have nothing they can sell to enter the marketplace. |
Users may sell other members digitally published products, their own items at auctions, or sell affiliate provided items from suppliers such as Amazon. |
| It is a minimum .35 cents to sell something at eBay, thereby keeping out all whom have no way to enter the digital economy | Users may sell their own, or others, products directly to those visiting their website without start-up, maintenance, or “other” charges. It is free for all to participate as a means to Enter the digital marketplace |
| Userscontract is a legal liability, with the account and all it's contents belonging to the eBay Corporation, andencumbered by the registration of the corporation in (in-corporated) the Secretary of States office. | Users Contract is a Legal Asset with liability limited to their Avatars Digital Account. The natural rights of the living being are recognized in the User Agreement. |
| Users of the system work out the payment method; i.e. paypal, e-gold, check in the mail, etc… | SMB handles all merchant, payment, and remuneration automatically, without fraud |
| You must be 18 years old | No restriction |
| You must have a SSN, IN, or other personally identifying information | Only an e-mail address is required |
| You must provide them with an address, many emerging markets have no address, credit card, or identification | No address required, no identification, no credit card |
| Users are expected to resolve their own disputes, sometimes with the help of eBay staff, at expense to eBay | The FDU platform has a no-nonsense, speedy and fair dispute resolution process; additionally, since SMB suppliers are Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other reliable vendors (as opposed to out-of-garage sellers) – we expect little to no fraud |
| eBay can access approx. 15% of the total Internet marketplace due to the above listed restrictions | Because of “others” restrictions, SMB is the singular solution for over 58% of Internet Users; and has capacity to access 100% of both current and future Users whom come online |
| According to Forbes, eBay is worth $46 Billion. eBay said revenues for all of 2006 were between $5.7 billion and $5.9 billion | You guess whatGDP will be worth in one year? ShareMyBiz Division? FreeBay Division? |
Practically speaking one might equate the GDP platform to that of E-Bay, we each allow people a place to offer something to others, our system is far superior because we take the necessary steps to ensure the integrity of a transaction once initiated. That is we ensure the parties are paid, that receipts or other data are delivered to the parties, that the product is delivered, and that disputes are resolved between parties should they arise. Additionally we offer an affiliate aspect to selling things that E-Bay does not, and we provide each User with a on-line turn-key business of their own.
Social Need The Company is Designed to Full-fill:
GDP will empower many people in third world countries who do not have a credit card or bank account. GDP will free these users from restrictions presently encountered through e-commerce sites such as eBay. Due to the viral nature of the FDU system theough which GDP users are paid, GDP expects to capture a great deal of the third world market.
GDP willempower a new market of users who will emerge from economically depressed countries where computer access is common, such as India, Brazil, and Russia. These users will be at a relative advantage over the users of developed countries because of the difference in cost of living as reflected in currency exchange rates.
“Africa does need debt relief from its crushing international debt burden. But aid and debt relief can only go so far. We are asking for the opportunity to compete, to sell our goods in global markets; in short we want to trade our way out of poverty.” ~ Pres. Yoweri Musuveni of Uganda
“To address poverty, economic growth is not a option: it is a necessity.”~ Mahbub Haq, former VP of the World Bank
“The powerlessness we feel is not a sign of personal failings, but reflects the incapacities of our institutions. We need to reconstruct those we have, or create new ones, for globalization is not incidental to our lives; it is the way we live now.” ~ Anthony Giddens
“Adjustment is the necessary first step on the road to sustainable, poverty reducing growth. Even incomplete adjustment can put countries back on the road to development.”~ International Bank for Reconstruction & Development -1994
GDP was designed to be part of the solution for the very obvious dramatic problems facing our world today. We have a excellent opportunity to become a significant player in the globalized economy by integrating a wealth of services to these emerging markets, and while meeting current market User needs by combining Anonymity, Social Networking, and Affiliate Marketing.
The growing demand for digital wealth, as opposed to wealth based on substance, will increase worldwide, creating a new global economy on the Internet.
Contact a FDU Project Officer by e-mailing to:
Contact GDP by e-mailing to: admin@sharemybiz.com
Join the FDU Community for design discussions at our Open Source Solutions wiki - click here.
| Topics: | Information Age |
Will this be China's global currency?
HONG KONG -- China's fastest-rising currency isn't the yuan. It's the QQ coin -- online play money created by marketers to sell such things as virtual flowers for instant-message buddies, cellphone ringtones and magical swords for online games.
In recent weeks, the QQ coin's real-world value has risen as much as 70%.It's the most extreme case of a so-called virtual currency blurring the boundaries between the online and real worlds -- and challenging legal limits. A Chinese Internet company called Tencent Holdings Ltd. designed the payment system in 2002 to allow its 233 million regular registered users to shop for treats in its virtual world.
Virtual currencies are in use in many countries -- but nowhere have they taken root more deeply than in China.Selling virtual amusement to China's Internet community, the world's second largest, is big business. Tencent, a company listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange and famous in China for its penguin mascot, retails QQ coins for one yuan (13 cents) each, and also awards them for free to top-scoring videogamers to keep them playing. 
QQ's virtual universe is a marketing tool too -- used by the likes of Coca-ColaCo. for promotions. According to one government estimate, the total volume of trading in virtual items in China last year was worth about $900 million. About 45% of that went for items in the Tencent world.Then last year something happened that Tencent hadn't originally planned. Online game sites beyond Tencent started accepting QQ coins as payment.
The coins appeal as a safer, more practical way to conduct small online purchases, because credit cards aren't yet commonplace in China.At informal online currency marketplaces, thousands of users helped turn the QQ coins back into cash by selling them at a discount that varies based on the laws of supply and demand. Traders began jumping into the QQ coin market as an opportunity to make a quick yuan off of currency speculation.
State-run media reported that some online shoppers began using QQ coins to buy real-world items such as CDs and makeup. So-called QQ Girls started accepting the coins as payment for intimate private chats online. Gamblers caught wind, too, and started using the currency to get around China's anti-gambling laws, converting wins in online mahjong and card games back into cash. Dozens of third-party trading posts sprouted up to ease transactions, turning the QQ coin into a kind of parallel currency. 
Here's how the transactions work: A small-time retailer offers QQ coins for sale at her online shop at a discount price -- currently about .8 yuan. Customers then pay the seller yuan through a debit card, money-order transfer or special online payment systems such as Paypal. The retailer then transfers the QQ coins to the buyer's account, like one might do with air miles, or even just gives the buyer access to her own QQ account (including username and password) where QQ coins are stored.
David Liu from Liaoning province started an online shop selling QQ coins a few months ago. He hasn't earned that much off his new side business yet -- "I only make several yuan a day" -- but for now, he's going to keep going. "It's fun and it doesn't hurt to get some pocket money if possible," says Mr. Liu.The rapid rise of the QQ coin has caused angst for the government in China, where circulation and trade of the real currency is strictly controlled. Last month, 14 Chinese ministries and China's central bank together waged a QQ coin crackdown of sorts, calling on companies to stop trading them in order to prevent money laundering. 
"The People's Bank of China will strengthen management of the virtual currencies used in online games and will stay on the lookout for any assault by such virtual currencies on the real economic and financial order," the ministries and bank said in a joint statement.
Without mentioning QQ coins specifically, the statement said that the government will bar users from trading virtual currency for real money, and ordered sites to make a distinction between online credits (like QQ coins) and real money used for e-commerce.Tencent says it never aimed to mint money and says the company doesn't consider QQ coins to be virtual currency. "We agree that we should prevent online virtual money from being used illegally, such as for money-laundering. But QQ coins are not anything like that," says a company spokesman.Nonetheless, Tencent is stuck cleaning up a very real mess. It sued one of the country's top online auction sites, Taobao.com, for allowing the sale of QQ
coins on the Web site at market prices. The case has been accepted by the court and is now being considered.Tencent also responded to the government pressure by cutting the amount of coins users can transfer from one person to another, and shutting down its service for exchanging game wins into QQ coins, drying up liquidity in the market.
Around the globe, a real-world trade has emerged around virtual assets. Estimates vary wildly, but some analysts put the world-wide real-money trade in virtual assets at more than $2 billion, most of which changes hands in South Korea and China.Some virtual currencies are used to buy property, tools and other assets in virtual reality worlds, such as Second Life. Most, however, have been designed to reward gamers and allow them to upgrade their play.
Even though many game publishers technically forbid trading their online currencies for real money, gamers dubbed "gold farmers" try to make money by winning online assets and selling them for cash to less successful players.In January, eBayInc. banned gamers from selling virtual game assets. But a thriving industry of virtual trading sites has filled the vacuum. One of the largest, IGE.com, beckons on its site: "Virtual currency burning a hole in your pocket? Make some real life money selling your currency to the safest and most reputable trading company in the industry."
There, a "Level 75 Tarutaru," an advanced character in the game Final Fantasy XI is selling for $599.99.Economists say virtual currencies work like any other currencies, so long as people trust the institutions behind them. The U.S. dollar, which lost its gold backing in 1971, survives because people trust the U.S. government.
The trouble starts when a virtual currency that isn't backed by a trusted government, becomes linked to a real one that is through an exchange rate. Virtual currency brokers call that RMT, or real-money trade. When that happened to the QQ coin, it effectively turned into a parallel currency operating alongside the yuan, says Yiping Huang, the chief Asia economist of Citibank.The creation of too many QQ coins, he notes, could, in theory, create a surge in China's total money supply, leading to inflation. While few think a QQ monetary crisis is likely, assessing the economic impact is difficult because Tencent won't say how much QQ coin is in circulation.
"If I were a policy maker, I would certainly be very cautious," says Mr. Huang.But so far, though, regulations -- or even legal protections -- for virtual assets are scarce around the world. This week, a Chinese court sentenced a former executive at Chinese online gaming company Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd. to five years in prison for virtual embezzlement. Along with two accomplices, the programmer who was in charge of creating assets for the game Legend of Mir II created his own virtual assets without permission and then sold them for $260,000. He says he plans to appeal since there aren't any laws in China covering virtual assets.
In February, five Chinese Internet companies including Tencent issued a joint statement urging the government to regulate the game-credit and virtual-property trade. "The problem is that the auction sites sometimes serve as channels for the sale of stolen game and instant message accounts," the companies said.Tencent estimated that they could lose tens of millions of yuan every year due to stolen QQ coins and other crimes."One thing for sure is that the regulators want to control the impact from virtual currency, but in the meantime, they don't want to hurt outstanding companies like Tencent, who have been running really well in all other sectors and have been contributing to the economy," says Liu Bin, an analyst at BDA China, a market research firm, "but it could take the policy makers and legislators years to enact a law."
Despite the Chinese government warnings, people continue to trade QQ coins. The new capital controls, in fact, have given them new scarcity value, driving up the price by 70% in recent weeks, says Milly Chen, who trades QQ coins."Over the past months, the system has been getting more complicated to transfer credit, and there is less supply" she says.
Reported by GEOFFREY A. FOWLER and JUYING QIN on
March 30, 2007
| Topics: | About Light of Life |
Life is filled with lessons,
There are no mistakes, just lessons.
A lesson is repeated until it is learned,
others are your mirrors, reflecting back
what you love or dislike about your Self.
| Topics: | Shri Vethathiri Maharishi' |
Introspection means examining one's own self. Man's life is along three angles:
(1) Nature;
(2) Self and
(3) Society.
For a successful and happy life, one has to understand the nature of the three aspects. Introspection is a necessary practice for this enlightenment. In the SKY (Simplified Kundalini Yoga) system practiced and taught by many Light of Life Society Directors, Introspection is classified into five subjects:
(1) Need;
Innumerable desires arise in us in the course of our lifetime. Not all the desires are good and successful and that is the reason we find ourselves in disappointment, frustration and misery from time to time. Mind works at such speed that body cannot keep pace with it. So it is the mind that has to be trained to adjust to the pace, necessity and welfare of the body. If there is no cooperation between body and mind very many troubles would afflict us, Therefore the process of Moralization of Desire is a must for all people who want to lead a better, prosperous, healthy and peaceful life.
Anger strains the relationship between body and life‑force, between life‑force and mind and between individuals and society. The people in family life are losing their happiness and creating pains and miseries for themselves and others because of anger. Anger raises the blood‑pressure, contributes to heart palpitation, trembling of hands, burning of eyes, ulcers in the stomach and so on.
The entire Universe can be analyzed into four principles; they are
When this understanding comes, whatever you see, everything is a part and parcel of Nature. Oneness in multiplicity and. unity among diversity are very clearly realized. This enlightenment will blossom as brotherhood among mankind. Man will understand the needs and feelings of other living beings and lead a life with the three virtues, Morality, Duty and Charity.
Indirectly kundalini can be awakened by devotion, by selfless service, or by intellectual enquiry. In these paths the blocks to the awakening of kundalini are slowly removed.
Occasionally, individuals on these paths will experience a sudden awakening of kundalini but generally because the blocks are slowly and gently removed kundalini-like experiences evolve slowly in these paths.
Broadly speaking there are two radically different direct approaches to awakening kundalini. One approach requires initiation by a guru and relies upon a technique called shaktipat, or "descent of shakti.'' It is variously called: Siddha Mahayoga, Kundalini Mahayoga or Sahaja Yoga (Spontaneous Yoga).
The other approach uses intentional yogic techniques . The styles using intentional techniques include Mantra Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Laya Yoga or Kriya Yoga. Fundamentally the approach of Siddha Mahayoga and the Kundalini Yogas are different. In Siddha Mahayoga the guru awakens the kundalini and after that the core of the practice is the inactive and non-willful surrender to kundalini.
In Kundalini Yogas the will is used to awaken the kundalini and to guide its progress. Clearly these are different approaches. Nevertheless, elements of the each approach occur in the practices of the other. Siddha Mahayogins may use asanas, pranayamas and other hatha yoga practices. On the other hand gurus in Kundalini Yoga may give infusions of shakti to their students to help them at particular points in their practice.
Since every practitioner brings his own unique inclinations and obstacles to the practice of yoga it is very hard to generalize on this point. In terms of actually awakening kundalini gurus of Siddha Mahayoga claim that the kundalini is more easily and reliably awakened by the grace of the guru than by individual effort. In my limited experience I would agree. with this assertion.
While not every long-term student of either practice necessarily shows signs of kundalini awakening it is amazing how many people have had instant awakenings of kundalini through initiation from siddha gurus.
In terms of encountering difficulties along the path the siddha gurus would also claim that fewer problems due to kundalini awakening, such as mental imbalance, are encountered by students of Siddha Mahayoga. Here I think the results are mixed. It seems to me that the guidance of the teacher in either Siddha Mahayoga or Kundalini Yoga is more a determining factor than which style of kundalini practice is employed.
