Daily Wisdom

Solomon was endued with wonderful wisdom, but the world drew him away from God. Men today are no stronger than he; they are as prone to yield to the influences that caused his downfall. As God warned Solomon of his danger, so today He warns His children not to imperil their souls by affinity with the world. 'Come out from among them,' He pleads, 'and be ye separate, . . . and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.' 2 Corinthians 6:17, 18. {PK 59.2}

Kongo Square This Week's Chat with Ananda K. M. Leeke

Hey Y'all

Welcome to my new section of A Choice of Weapons, Kongo Square Chat and I am honored and humbled that my first interview is with Ananda Kiamsha Madalyne Leeke!

Reiki Master, Yogini, Author, Blogger, Poet and most of all just a real cool peeps!

I wrote Ananda online because we both belong to the same online Black Buddhist fellowship group, one of the groups I belong to and study with striving from clarity and greater light and she agreed to allow me to interview her when I first started my blog so I emailed her the questions and thanks to a break in her super busy schedule she finally got back to me. So now, I am going to present the interview but...but...but....first! check out her blog then come back read the interview. Dig!

http://kiamshacom.blogspot.com/

Jaycee: So, do you teach a lot of African American students?

Kiamsha: My students have been African American, Latino, Caribbean, Indian, Jewish, and Caucasian.

Jaycee: Is it equal interest among Men and Women?

Kiamsha: I teach more women than men.

Jaycee: Who stays and who goes?

Kiamsha:Women are my most consistent clients.

Jaycee: What have you found to be the reasons some might stay or go?

Kiamsha: Some folks only need yoga sessions to help them establish a home practice. Others, move from the area or have changes in their lives.

Jaycee: What is Yoga and what is it not?

Kiamsha: I define Yoga as Your opportunity to graciously accept yourself in the present moment. Yoga is a Sanskrit word that means union of body, mind, spirit, hearth, and breath. It is a life practice and philosophy that can help one navigate daily experiences. I am not one to say what yoga is not. I think each person can have their own definition of yoga.

Jaycee: What have you gained from it?

Kiamsha: Yoga has given me tools to surrender my ego, change my habits, open my heart, forgive, tap into my creativity, release stress, navigate change, understand my body’s energy, heal my emotions, release patterns and experiences that no longer serve me, and improve my physical body.

Now for a fun question.

Jaycee: What's the craziest Yoga pose that you've seen or done?

Kiamsha: I have a personal fear of doing handstands.

Jaycee: Did you try it?

Kiamsha: During my yoga teacher training I was able to do one with the support of a teacher and two classmates. It was very empowering for that moment. However, I have not tried it since that time. I am working on my fears now and upper body with the hope of being able to trust my body so I can do the pose again one day.

Jaycee: Why Yoga and not some other martial science?

Kiamsha: I studied karate when I was in elementary school for two summers, but it never appealed to me.

Jaycee: Did Buddhism come first or did Yoga?

Kiamsha: Buddhist meditation came first.

Jaycee: How long have you taught Yoga?

Kiamsha: I have been teaching yoga since 2005 as a teacher trainee and 2006 as a registered teacher. I have been practicing yoga since 1995.

I started practicing yoga when I was 30. I learned about it during an African American study tour to Egypt.

Jaycee: What style do you primarily perform and why?

Kiamsha: I practice Hatha yoga with a strong emphasis on kind and gentle, restorative, and yin yoga. These forms of yoga slow me down and open me up. I am a big fan of sun and moon salutations too. I also love the corpse, mountain, butterfly, goddess, tree, squat, cobra, downward facing dog, headstand, plough, fish, and forward fold poses.

Jaycee: What are some of the main things you see when someone comes to Yoga for the first time? Is it bad diet, injury or spiritual search?

Kiamsha: A lot of my clients are seeking ways to help manage stress in their lives and relieve back, neck, and shoulder pain.

Jaycee: Do you teach the other styles such as Kemetic or Ashtanga and Why?

Kiamsha: I teach kind and gentle yoga. I have included yin yoga and Kemetic yoga poses in my classes. I teach kind and gentle yoga because I believe most folks need to slow down and get in touch with themselves by offering their body kindness, gentleness, and compassion.

Jaycee: What is the main thing you would want to share with someone interested in Yoga?

Kiamsha: Yoga can help you learn more about yourself.

Ok, this may be a dumb question but I'm gonna ask it anyway ok?

Jaycee: If I'm not a Buddhist or a vegetarian can I do Yoga?

Kiamsha: Yes, anyone can do yoga. It is a life practice that has many benefits.

Jaycee: Wouldn't Buddhist practices conflict with my Christian faith or is it non sectarian?

Kiamsha: I am not one to speak about what conflicts with folks’ spiritual practices. I can only talk about my own. I use both Christian and Buddhist sacred practices in my life. I also use African, Hindu, Native American, and other world sacred practices. I attend a Unitarian church because it meets my needs. I also participate in two Buddhist Sanghas because they meet my needs. I think each person has to make his or her own choices when it comes to spiritual and life practices.

Ok, enough about Yoga and religious thought let's talk about something really important! Poetry!

Jaycee: How's the Karma, love Troubadour book tour coming along?

Kiamsha: The tour is headed to Atlanta on July 24. I will be back in DC for a reading on August 13 to celebrate my first anniversary of the book being published. The book promotion process has been intense. I am winding down now so I can focus on completing my poetic memoir which comes out in December.

Jaycee: How long have you been writing poetry?

Kiamsha: I have been writing since I was about 10 years old.

Jaycee: I've seen your videos on You tube and the poetry on your blog! Hey, Y'all check the book out and support by buying and recommending the book.

Jaycee: You got a law degree, studied French and teach yoga now, what have you learned from your law and French studies that helps you as an activist, author, poet and yogini now?

Kiamsha: My law degree continues to provide a strong business foundation for my role as a life entrepreneur. My French background helps me appreciate and understand other cultures.

Jaycee: Thank You, Ananda for letting me interview you. Thank you for A Choice of Weapons Kongo Square Chat!

Now, y'all go buy the Book!

Ananda Kiamsha Madelyn Leeke
Life Entrepreneur l Creativity Coach l Author l Artist l Yoga Teacher l Reiki Practitioner l Radio Host
http://us.mc592.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=kiamshaleeke@yahoo.com l http://www.lovestroubadours.com/ l http://kgyoga.blogspot.com/

Toddler Abused! Court Update!

Written by Cybercast News (CNS), on 07-03-2008 00:41
Favoured, Copied and Pasted from The Los Angeles Sentinel
4
CNS - A woman, her live-in girlfriend and a babysitter pleaded not guilty June 25, to charges of abusing the woman’s 5-year-old son, who suffered injuries that one law enforcement veteran described as the worst he had seen in a 27-year career. Starkeisha Brown, 24, Krystal Denise Matthews, 21, and La Tanya Monikue Jones, 26, are charged with one count each of child abuse, corporal injury to a child and dissuading a witness, and two counts each of conspiracy. Brown and Matthews are also charged with one count each of torture.
The three made their first appearances last week in Compton Superior Court in connection with the charges, and have remained jailed since then. Brown and Matthews — who shared an apartment in South Los Angeles—allegedly beat Brown’s son repeatedly, burned his genitals and other parts of his body with cigarettes and left him to sit in his own urine. The boy was also suspended from a door with his hands above his head and beaten and was regularly forced to put both his hands on a hot stove, causing burn injuries so severe that he may never be able to fully open them, said Los Angeles Police Department Assistant Chief James McDonnell.
“In my time in policing, 27 years, I have never seen anybody with these kinds of injuries that has lived,” he told reporters earlier this month.
Prosecutors allege that Jones burned the boy’s hand over a stove while she was babysitting, and that she allowed her young son and daughter to go with Brown and Matthews to the Department of Children and Family Services to hide the alleged abuse. The women allegedly tried to pass off Jones’ 4-year-old son as Brown’s son when she and Matthews were summoned June 9 to the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, which was acting on an anonymous tip, to discuss allegations that the 5-year-old was being abused. The women, who had also brought along a girl of about 6, believed to be Jones’ daughter, allegedly fled after being pressed about the boy’s identity.
About the same time, police also got involved. A stranger who said he had been told to watch the 5-year-old boy asked neighbors what to do with the child, who appeared ill, and someone called the LAPD. The boy, who was allegedly mistreated over a period of about two years, remains hospitalized after suffering kidney failure due to malnutrition, according to Deputy District Attorney Patricia Horikawa. The three women are due back in court July 22, with a date scheduled to be set then for a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to require them to stand trial.

Copied Courtesy of The Los Angeles Sentinel

I was shocked when I saw the first newscast of this story. I couldn't believe that anyone might deliberately abuse a child in this manner. I kept asking why would anyone do this? When the child's Mama was accused and arrested I then asked, Why, would you allegedly do this to your child? When the whole live in girlfriend and babysitter was revealed I asked, Did these women hate men? All men even if it was their own child? Or were these women just sick period, living together as a group and would have allegedly abused a child, any child or person if given the chance.

Where were social services? The abuse couldn't have happened all at once and evidence so far as I've seen indicates it wasn't. Couldn't we have worked faster? Well, I will keep you updated.

Here's hoping for a fair trail, justice tempered with mercy and a full recovery for the Child.

BE Careful! Be Mindful! Be Prayerful!

Jaycee

The Gospel In 3 Easy Steps!

Step One, When I was Hungry , you fed me!
Step Two, When I was naked, You clothed me!
Step Three, When I was tired, You gave me rest!

The story goes that the man was waiting for someone important to visit and he prepared his home for that visitor, with good food, good clothes and a good place to stay but the man hadn't shown up, in the meantime, a man came and he was hungry so he fed him, another had no clothes so he gave him the clothes he laid aside for his guest, and one came who needed a place to lie down and he accommodated that person.
When his guest did show up. He no longer had the items he prepared for him but the guest stated all these people you helped were me and what you did or didn't do, you did to me.

We are all in this together. What I do affects you and me. We must all get involved and live beyond our own sphere!

Be Mindful! Be Prayerful! Be Careful!
Jaycee

Reverse the Hate! Fight Police Brutality!

Earlier, this week, I watched as the local police made two separate stops of men walking in the neighborhood. First, the officers blocked traffic by pulling the cruiser to a slant. 10th street in Long Beach is a busy thoroughfare but kinda small so oncoming traffic has to swerve around the cruiser. This is dangerous and annoying. This is a vulger display of power that serves no purpose other than to demoralize the community. You know, show em who's in charge! Now, both officers had the young fella empty his pockets onto the hood of their vehicle and have him lean over the hood. It was at least 93 degrees and humid and this young man is searched while his hands are cooking on the hood of a hot police cruiser.

While, this may be standard procedure, I would think it would be tantamount to torture. His hands are burning and the officers are aware the engine is hot! The stop ended with the young fella being released and he cursed the cops as he walked away, black bandanna around his head, shirtless and muscular. He could not have been more than sixteen years old as he walked away with his girlfriend and little sister. He may have appeared to be a gangbanger but so what! A ticket wasn't issued, he wasn't arrested and the neighborhood is full of people dressed in the same style.

The next dude was Hispainic, his bicycle was laid on someone's lawn curb, the police, again blocked the street but sat him on the curb as they searched his contents and ran his id. There were two officers in each case and neither time did an officer move the vehicles out of the way after the person was detained making it easier for oncoming motorists. He wasn't arrested either.

Both young fellas walked away angry with the police. It seems to me that the Police, in spite of all the studies and urban rebellions, AKA Riots seldom implement community policing which has been recommended too many times to mention. Young cops leave the academy and patrol the ghettos growing older and hardhearted. Young fellas grow up watching those same cops grow old and a perfect hatred forms between the two.

We need changes, we need for our local police to live locally. They need to live in the cities they patrol not in some faraway suburb. The Police should implement foot patrols, forcing direct contact with the citizens of the neighborhood. They should know the residents, the business owners, the homeless and the yes, the hustlers. They should be involved with the neighborhood. They should greet the citizens, displaying common courtesies and building relationships. This would combat the hatred which is passed on generationally between everyone. This would help police combat crime as well by being able to spot potential problems and defuse tensions early in the neighborhood.

The current policy has not worked! The community does not help the police. The Police often behave as if they are an enemy occupying army, maddogging people as they pass. This is not hypebole because it happens to me all the time.

US versus Them must end! The Police must become responsive to the community and they must be held accountable. One way for that to happen is by foot patrols and true community involvement by the police. Police should be trained in great customer service, we pay for these services. I for one don't want to pay for my oppression and for someone to abuse me! Police Action Leagues should mentor and sponser kids and community organizations.

And when abuse does occur the police and the local justice system need to take that seriously. Bad cops hide behind their Unions, the blue wall of silence and the public's fear of crime. Community Oversight is important as well. Police officers too should know that crime will not be tolerated!

We can do better, we can break the cycle of hate!

Chime in and let's do something to change our community for the better.

Be Mindful! Be Prayerful! Be Careful!

Jaycee

July 4th! Freedom, Justice and Equality!

I want Freedom, Justice and Equality! I, I, I want it for you and I want it for me!
Gots to Give the People what they want! -The Mighty OJays!
Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, Philadelphia International Records

The Real National Anthem

Lift Every Voice and sing till earth and heaven ring
Ring with the harmonies of liberty
Let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea
Sing a song, full of the faith that the dark past has taught us
Sing a song, full of the hope that the present has brought us
Facing the rising sum of our new day begun
Let us march on till victory is won
Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod felt in the days when hope unborn had died yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet
come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come, over a way that which tears has been watered
We have come, treading out path through the blood of the slaughtered
Out of the gloomy past, till now we stand at last,Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast
GOD of our weary years, GOD of our silent tears
Thou Who has brought us thus far on the way
Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light
Keep us for-e-ver in the path we pray
Lest our feet, stray from the places our GOD where me met thee
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world we forget Thee
Shadowed beneath thy hand, may we forever stand
TRUE TO OUR GOD, TRUE TO OUR NATIVE LAND!

James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosemond Johnson

America, We have two National Anthems, and we live still in two societies, still divided for multiple reasons. Race, Class, Religion, Sexuality, and Political views all show the dividing line clearly. This 4th of July take a moment and think about real freedom and real justice. Take time to remember those that have fought and sacrificed for it. Some wear the uniform and serve without question and some serve in the streets, classroom, courtrooms, hospitals and libraries, fighting for our right to think and believe as we each see fit. Each, faces the difficulties and sometimes derision of others to benefit the people.


Freedom, Justice and Equality are hard earned and must be maintained.
God Bless everyone, this fourth of July!


Be Mindful! Be Prayerful! Be Careful!
Jaycee

Obama's Trojan Policy

Even the Very Elect would be Deceived! St. John's Book of Revelation

After I got off work, I found an article in the morning edition of the Los Angeles Times about Barack Obama and how when he is president he will continue funding the Faith based Initiatives and charities. I found this disturbing. I actually was hoping that he would eliminate funding Faith based charities.

I am a Man of Faith and a political realist. I believe you take my money, you wear my brand! With that in mind, Church and State should remain separate. I believe in that. Let the church do what its commissioned by God to do and the state do its thang and never the two shall meet! They should co-exist as two separate, distinct, bodies working towards the overall goal of helping people. However, the Church has a restriction that the Government does not. If I don't want what the church is offering, IE it's dogma, traditions, and viewpoint I don't have to take it and they can't force it on me. Our Government is elected. This is a Republic and they are bound by the laws of the land, the constitution and the Bill of Rights! They can be recalled, impreached or not get reelected! The Church may or may not have any apparatus to address, the congreagations grievances or desires and/or offer any redress!

The Government has a set of checks and balances installed to combat abuse in it's house. It's called We the People! And WE THE PEOPLE can discipline elected officials and recall bad policies in the courts and in the streets with our vote. We The People do not have that same amount of power in the Church. We can take away the tax exception, We can speak out against them but we can't make the Church do anything good or bad if they don't want to.

However, Churches that accept Uncle Sam's dough are selling off their autonomy. The mandate given to them by their Creator. Again, you take my money, you wear my brand!

How long until the State, emboldened with new power and no checks and balances begins to establish a Theocracy? It's not like this regime respects the Bill of Rights or the Constitution. It's not like they believe in Democracy. Eight years has proven that they don't!

But Jaycee, the money going to Faith based organizations is doing great work! Fact! All faith based organizations did not receive money and equal representation to minister, just the ones Uncle Sam is comfortable with.

Will our Muslim citizens get to encourage and enforce Sharia? Not if it's competing against a Christian Sharia!

So who gets to have a say? Anyone, who pays right? Will the majority rule over the minority? Probably, that's why we have the separation of powers! To give everybody as close to an equal chance as possible.

I accept Christ as my savior but wholly reject the likes of Pat Robertson, James Dobson and their ilk and don't wish to be ruled by them or someone like them. How about you? I think my man Obama, may be a Trojan candidate. He appears to be one thing but inside is a whole nother thang.

Vote what you feel but Obama's and McCain's recent stands are enough to give me pause.

Be Mindful! Be Prayerful! Be Careful!

Jaycee

Stevie Wonder - Power Flower

Oh Yeah!
The Absolute Geeenyess!
Jaycee

Humans, Do Not Breed......

They Pro-Create!

Animals Breed!

Humans, are connected by the essence..

The breath that the God, I AM, used to bring us to life!

We emulate our Creator, birthing from love and passion, new re-generations of ourselves.

To equate the Gift of pro-creation with breeding, and to believe the words are interrelated or more still interchangeable is a mistake,worse still, an affront to our Creator and ourselves!

Be Prayerful! Be Mindful! Be Careful!

JC Williams, Poet, Writer, General Happy Dude!