My apologies for absence these past days. To compensate (?) here's a
longish blog:

Light Switches
There is a current trend that there can be ‘Awakening’ or ‘Realisation’
that comes and goes and finally stabilises after some time (especially
after the practice of this or that ritual). I do not embrace a concept
of ‘partial Realisation’. Nor do the cells of your body!!!

I recognise there is the mind-motivated ‘seeking’
I recognise there can be the stimulus of intellectual inquiry and
investigation. I recognise there can be spiritual experience that
is progressive and cumulative that is, most surely, a process of
self-revelation.

I recognise there is the final ‘Acceptance’ which is often sudden,
existential and irreversible and after which time there can be no
further progress - nor is any desired -toward ‘Enlightenment’.
Once *Enlightened’ you cannot be more or less enlightened:
compare,for example, that your body cannot be more dead, or
less dead - you can’t be dead plus. You do not ‘stabilise’ into
your deadness and there are no ritualistic levels of deadness.

‘Enlightenment’, ‘Realisation’, ‘Acceptance’ are not variable
degrees or qualifications or teacher-authorised standards.
They are immutable, unchangeable aspects of infinite existing.

In my definition of this ‘final comprehension’ (’Acceptance’)
gradual or evolutionary enlightenment is not possible - unless
your mind chooses to make it your own pathway, thus making it
an intellectual as opposed to a spiritual occupation. There are
often very real spiritual experiences in which you KNOW the
‘One-ness’ of all things: such experiences ebb and flow as the
tides of existing within this reality career across the shores of
your consciousness. We touch spiritual realities and then move
away from them, just as the stars are in constant motion within
the galaxies only to re-orbit. We revisit a spiritual reality
at another time - often finding it clothed within another
experiencing.

This is what I call the process of the pathway, the soul’s
agenda of experiencing unconditional lovingness in as
many permutations as is possible.

This process has been increasingly defined as ‘enlightenment’ or
‘awakening’ or even the ‘practice of the presence of
super-consciousness’ (which additionally required, according to
many teachings,the sublimation of the self, or the self-ego).
In fact, much of the modern satsang movement is based upon a
theory of spiritual experience that is trendily called ‘enlightenment’.
So after your spiritual experience has been officially declared to
be ‘enlightenment’ by someone who had their own spiritual
experience declared to be enlightenment by someone else who
once flew over Lucknow(as an example) or visited some previously
unknown corner of some mystic nation - you are then urged to teach
that to others as a doctrine, a discipline, of being ‘awakened’ or
‘enlightened’.

It is the goal of every seeker to enjoy the search! It’s like going to
the supermarket to look for a ‘bargain’ that you can then savour
with absolute delight. The search is even more stimulating when in
a foreign country surrounded by an unknown culture and language.
Such a search appeals to the ‘conditioning of childhood patterns of
learning and social approval’ which are ingrained in our emotional
responses.

Implicit in the notion that ‘enlightenment’ is progressive is that
‘enlightenment’ is a condition, a state - an experiential state.
Whereas, by definition, an experience is transitory, im-permanent.
If you are experiencing something, then it will change - not least
because your subjective observations change Change, constant change,
is integral to fullest life-experiencing. Indeed,what we call ‘life’ is all
movement and change. The absence of this physical movement and
change is what we call ‘physical death’.

Does the sun seek enlightenment? Is not the sun in a constant state
of change and yet it remains the sun?

The mitosis-like permutations of experiencing derive from the soul’s
desire to express this fundamental truth of ‘knowingness’ in every
possible form and manner

Enlightened IS what you are.
Experiencing it’s many aspects IS what you do.

Expressions of uniqueness

52% of the land mass that is Sweden (where I now live) is covered by forest,
or so I understand. Along my pathway of self-knowingness, life presented me
with a sense of isolation within one of these forests, for quite some years.

Accordingly I used to spend many, many hours simply sitting and being
absorbed by the beauty of the surroundings in which I now found myself.
Indeed, it was the hermit-like solitude that allowed me to 'find myself',
an opportunity I had previously denied myself with all my seeking, busy

expressioning of who I thought I was (a synonym, generally, for who we
think other people think we are!)

After quite a long period of time, I started to recognise that I couldn't see
two trees that were the same. Over time I investigated more thoroughly and

was amazed to discover that it was hard to find even two leaves on a tree that
looked the same - when I thought I could find two the same I realised that
they hung in different places on the tree and,therefore, sensed the sun,
the wind, the rain,- their presence in this world - differently.

It slowly dawned on me just how incredibly unique is every single thing in
nature. Never the same sky, never the same clouds, never the same...anything.

This for even the blades of grass that comprise my lawns.

Quote: "When a mind is stretched by a new idea, it never goes back to its
original dimensions." source - Unknown"

How much more so, then,for each and every human being whose spirit
explores in this life's walk all the infinite possibilities of the
expressions of lovingness that constitute the 'One-ness'?

Quote: "The saddest places on earth are graveyards. Not because people are
buried there, but because dreams, talents and purposes that never came to
fruition are buried there. Graveyards are filled with books that were never
written, songs that were never sung, words that were never spoken, things
that were never done.

You have talents and gifts that no one else can offer. There are things you
can do that no one else is capable of doing quite the way you can do them.
Don’t rob this earth of your purpose by taking it to the grave with you.
You see, we all have a purpose, a reason for living, breathing and existing.
We all have unique talents and gifts that were created and given to us to be
shared. Our task is to understand this and figure out what is our purpose."
Mark Victor Hansen

This is the deepest recognition in events like Beslan and WTC (amongst many
others). We have all, all of us, been denied the experience of fully knowing
all those children and adults whose life-presence was stolen from us. Or,
just maybe, our attention has become focused more sharply upon them...and
we have started to understand the wonderful uniqueness and preciosness of
each one. There is also a manifestation of the unity (One-ness) of us all
when we see the world-wide 'togetherness' and empathea that events like
Beslan evoke.

The presence of each one of us is a present to the world, a precious gift.
The challenge of inter-dependence is to recognise the preciousness of each
of these unique presents, is it not? To understand the significance of it.

When we can once grasp this reality our minds and our emotions can never
return to their original dimensions.

One-ness is not a belief system. Not a chosen course of philosophised
comprehension. Not a religious doctrine. One-ness is what is. It is the
reality of existing in this world. The reality of infinite multi-dimensional

lovingness. The multi-stringed dna stranded reality of life.

Losing any part of it is losing a part of ourselves.

Quote: "You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it
within himself." -- Galileo

Learning

Aha! No matter how old we are there is always something to learn
about the 'mechanics of living within this reality'. Nothing to learn about spiritual truths, for we all know those already - but we exist within this 'earthbound physical reality' and we have things we need to learn about this process.

So now I have managed to learn how to activate my 'comments'
section on my blog.

I've done my bit - do you want to do yours and give me some feedback?

ito
Keith

georgy-003

georgy-003
Originally uploaded by In The Oneness.

Shining in the darkness of this disaster are many, many examples
of the triumph of the human spirit

Action-reaction:cause-effect

Georgy survived :)
That strained, troubled expressive faced little 10 year old
sitting in his neat white shirt and smart outfit at the feet of a terrorist in the gymnasium at Beslan. Though unbelievably close to a detonated explosive device, Georgy incredibly survived.That image which echoed around the world of this child, the first excerpt from the filmed sequence inside the gymnasium on the 1st day of the siege, was followed today by the image of a smiling safe, if injured, Georgy whose dignity in the face of such horrors spoke of a spirit that defied annihilation.

In his book "Conversations with God', Neal Donald Walsch speaks of a way to deal with tragedies, a way that is not exactly new - for Zen Masters and many Bhuddists adopt such a methodology. He (Walsch) says of such circumstances that we should ask of ourselves which aspect of our spirit do we wish to reveal, manifest, in this face of this circumstance.

In Georgy, as in so many of the good people of Beslan, we have seen the triumph of the human spirit meet the face of harsh and cruel adversity. Amazing acts of selflessness, of valour and bravery and of straightforward simple human compassion punctuate the grief of this town.

It is the 'grammar of godliness'.

In such terrible circumstances as these, and many other great tragedies that afflict so many corners of this earth, there appears a unity, a one-ness, an empathea, that is the voice of the human spirit singing it's true spiritual song.

It is this chorus that echoes through eternity and is a reminder of the infinity of Love, the indestructability of Love.

posted by keith@one-ness.net

candles_cnn

candles_cnn
Originally uploaded by In The Oneness.

Humanity expresses solidarity with the peoples of Beslan using the symbolism of candles

Candlelight

In yesterday's blog I wrote ""The best of humanity always overcomes the worst.....always."
I am sure there are some readers, whose belief in such a concept harshly eroded by some of life's events, have considerable doubt about the truth of such a statement. Then may I humbly ask you to read the following extracted from Time magazine:

> "Paul Quinn-Judge, TIME'S Moscow bureau chief, has been covering the tragedies and atrocities of the Caucasus since 1996 immersing himself in the relentless pain of the place but never letting it cloud his vision. He has been to Chechnya and its neighboring republics nine times. He was in Grozny in 2000 just after the Russian army flattened it; he's been to the Pankisi Gorge in Georgia, a onetime haven for Chechen separatists and al-Qaeda operatives; and back in Moscow, he was at the Dubrovka Theater in October of 2002, where 170 people died after Chechen terrorists seized the building and took 800 hostages. So when he rushed to Beslan in North Ossetia last week catching a flight and driving through the night to cover the school siege he knew what to expect. "When you're faced with a tragedy of this magnitude, the feeling is devastation," Paul says. "Watching stretcher upon stretcher of kids coming out, dirty, half-naked, sometimes probably dead. It leaves you with a sense of deep emptiness."

Paul's report on the tragedy is vivid, poignant and shocking. His interview with Elena Kasumova, a teacher at Beslan's School No. 1 who survived the siege, is especially compelling. "Talking to someone who has gone through the most hellish experience, and can calmly, lucidly, dispassionately describe what happened is humbling," he says. "She saw the guerrillas do horrible things, yet remembers that one was a pleasant, nice-looking guy."

Most of all, Paul says, it's the heroism of ordinary people especially the civilians who rushed to save children as the bullets flew that sticks in the mind. "There's this fantastic solidarity that comes up in a community that has suffered such a crisis," he says. "I stayed with a family that had two children in the school. They didn't want to talk about it. They were worried, but stoic. Yet they spent their time worrying if I was getting enough to eat." Both children were wounded, but unlike so many others in Beslan last week, they survived. <

.... and they worried about food for their guest. !!!!!

In this one simple, normal,compassionate and caring action this family - in the midst of their own torment and distress - demonstrated why terrorism will never win.

For it is written "out of the lion's mouth came forth sweetness" (and that biblical quote is a very special story).

In the darkest of nights the smallest candle burns so brightly.

This blog extract below was originally written on 16th September 2001
in response to the events at The World Trade Centre in New York.
I guess for the people of Beslan, School nr 1 is kind of their WTC.
Heroism by individuals was clearly shown, sacrifice of self in service
clearly evident. The horror of it all clearly and starkly apparent...
in the ghosted faces of the survivors, in the inexpressably pained faces
of the townspeople, in the aching void deep within that all of us feel
as we are confronted by this merciless, unimaginable circumstance

"The silence of grief
Occasionally in our lives we meet circumstances that so overwhelm our
senses that we are directed into the silence, we walk, as it were, into
a noneness - a no-consciousness.

This past week has been such a time. Not for everyone, for there are
many many who have had little time for the introspective calmness
of loss, they have been too busy trying to rescue...they have set
aside themselves in supremacy of service motivated by astounding
compassion. Their satsang of silent grieving is yet to come, postponed
for the 'now' in the cause of serving their fellow humanbeings.

For almost all of us the need to make comment, to vocalise our
lovingness, was both immediate and urgent. People from all
over the world uniting in a common bond of horror and loss.

It was a time for silence, for observing, for
watching the outpouring of love and compassion that has
been the circumstance, worldwide, in these past days.

Former bitter enemies offering help, allies standing together,
ordinary folks (like me) communicating lovingness in all it's
wonderfully gracious diverse forms.

It has been a time for silence. The silence of that
unrealised hope guiding us into an even deeper silence
within ourselves.

In that silence the voice of LOVE, the tones of togetherness,
have been whispering gently in our existing:

"The best of humanity always overcomes the worst.....always."

Stop! Look! Listen! "

This is not a silence of emptiness. Nor is it a silence of shock.
It is the silence that allows the spirit to communicate, to transmit
love, care, compassion. For Love knows no boundaries:time, space,
physical form - all, ALL are transcended by love.

Beslan_body_bags

Beslan_body_bags
Originally uploaded by In The Oneness.

The Body Bags

He lay there:
a naked,scorched and desecrated memory
of denied youthful energy.
His left arm bent and raised
hand opened as though to grasp eternity.
His tortured physical form
gashed from stomach to chest
and black polythene
was the only bed wherein he found his past-death rest.
He lay with a hundred others, or more,
like flotsam thrown upon a terrorist shore:
He was just five or six years old
and his full-life story shall never be told.
At his side another, perhaps a brother,
a teenager cradled in a black plastic womb
though a gymnastics hall had been his doom.
His left leg arched, a poignant pose,
his kneecap white and fully exposed.
His body not so burnt-blackened as the first
perhaps he died from a gunfire burst.
Next to him a contorted shell
partially yellow clad, told of the hell
that some adult, in flash-illuminated seconds
had seen as the terrified screams of children beckoned
for release from the searing agonies
of the bomb-blasts, bullets and fire so merciless .
As yet, they had no name
they waited patiently for someone to claim
allegiance to their once lived, once loved shape:
for soon death would totally draw it's cape
fully over their once beautiful and energised bodies.
They have no tomorrows
nor must they join the agonised sorrows
in the once green field
where the torn-up earth yields
it's space
a place
where so many are already lain
in this grief tortured town called Beslan.

I never knew any of you
...but how I cry
...how I cry
in sadness for what was done to you.

copywright Geoffrey Groom 6th September 2004

The Shadowed Koran

In his mammoth work 'In the shadow of the Koran', Sayyid Qutb developed a theme of jihadist action, essentially protesting the seperation of state and religion in modern societies, that has become the cancer of the Muslim world. Rogue (terrorist) cells) are eating away at the very bases of the Muslim faith and the Immans and leaders seem incapable of affecting either a cure or a non-regressive treatment. Many have seemed to espouse this concept and echo sentiments of hatred and vitriol themselves, an easy pathway to ego-driven politicised power.

Compare for a moment two other major religious institutions in the modern world. The one, the Roman Catholic Christian institution and the other the Bhuddist tradition of Tibet..

In the last decade we have seen the cancer of child abuse discredit those in authority within the Roman Catholic Church, to such an extent that it is inconceivably difficult to even persuade young men to becomepriests. Almost weekly we read of yet new abuse accusations within this institution on a world wide basis.This 'cancer' has eroded the moral authority of this institution and has revealed itself in dramatically falling attendances and finances in Catholic churches. Furthermore, the authority once wielded by this financially powerful institution has suffered irreperable damage, mortal damage, not because of the actions of a few perverted priests but because of the 'sins of ommission and commission' by those in a superior position whose moral,ethical and religious standing should have been such as to commend 'their faith' to the public. The opposite has occurred, for such was their own lack of these qualities that society,in general, has overtaken them in it's standards. Their opinions, dictates and instructions have lost all authority for their standards did not measure up to the standards of those outside this 'kabal'.

China occupied Tibet. During the initial period of 'transition' it was decided to remove 'the opium' of 'religion' from the people of Tibet and free them into a philosophy of communist restrictions instead.Monastries were destroyed, horrific brutalising acts were forced upon peace-loving, non-violent monks and religious students. The whole apparatus of religious rituals was effectively removed from the public's legal participation. The then leader of Tibet's Bhuddists, the 14th Dalai Lama speaks only of bringing Love, Compassion and Understanding. As far as I am aware he has never spoken with hatred or anger against the communists who caused such mayhem in his own country. As a result of his actions, the Bhuddist faith has grown in respect throughout the world. This singer sang a loving song.

Compare also the methology by which 350 million Indians 'escorted' a dominant imperialist power out of it's country. I am with Ghandi when he said 'an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind'. I am also with him when he said' I am Muslim, Hindu,Christian, Jew, Bhuddist'. To those who truly know the supremacy of the One God's lovingness, there are only dialects of faith in the One God. Dialects, naturally, owe their existence to regional cultural causes and traditions.

The totality of horror that is Beslan marks, in my opinion, the crucial 'litmus test' for the Faith of Islam. The noble insights of The Prophet Mohammed are in serious danger of being substituted, hijacked, held hostage, by an extreme ' jihadist terrorist' dialect that is - in effect - re-writing the Koran in the minds of muslim youth!

Where, in Beslan, did we see the Prophet Mohammed's injunctions against harming non-combatants honoured? Where, in Beslan, did we see the Muslim concepts of tolerance, of compassion of 'brotherly love'? I have personally been the grateful recipient of many expressions of these concepts throughout my life. Though not strictly a 'muslim' I have always been afforded respect for my 'faith' and treated with kindness and consideration by almost every single muslim with whom I have become acquainted. It has been my life experience (and I'm almost 60) that, though often misunderstood and misinterpreted by others, the muslims with whom I have had contact are decent, moral, ethical and highly family-motivated people.When I visited the oldest mosque in New Delhi, for the purpose of prayer and meditation (even if not with a muslim dialect), I was greeted as a 'prince' and escorted around this wonderful testament of faith by one of the top leaders whose graciousness and tolerance were a testimony to his faith. I came as an ordinary westerner and was afforded gracious (traditional) hospitality. I made this visit to show 'solidarity of faith' following the 9/11 tragedy. I felt it important to make my own personal statement that I did not hold all Muslims responsible for the actions of a disinformed few who represented religious extremity.

Which of these mainstream muslims cannot cry tears of shame in their heart when they see terrorists claiming Islamic authority for actions such as Beslan? How is it possible that a faith so deeply characterised by it's sense of family values could possibly condone such an atrocity against children?

Of course, we can argue political points. We can argue aspects of materialism. We can argue that wrongs have been done to many peoples, humiliations, atrocities, 'state sponsored terrorism', we can go on ad infinitum. But these arguments are secular, are of this world and not the higher world of spiritual realities.When children are abused, or slaughtered like animals, in the name of any 'religious justification' or with religious-instutionalised apathy, that religion mortally wounds itself! See Gujarat. See the film 'The Mission'. See the decline of the Catholic Church, even in Ireland! Have the actions of the State of Israelrecommended the Jewish faith to the world? "With God on our side" has been the call of many a politician in this last century, and the call has so often resulted in war. Does that recommend the 'God' they claim? Do we really think that the One God of supreme lovingness solves problems the way that we do???

I cannot bring myself to believe that the ordinary, decent, family-loving muslims that I have known in my lifecan feel anything but distress at actions like World Trade Centre and Beslan. How long before the grim and horrific shadow of Beslan, if unanswered, takes the form of disaffection with their faith? As, in the same way, the black shadow of paedophile abuse within the Catholic church has created mass dissafection when the answers were inadequate.

When the standards of religious institutions fall below the accepted norms of reasonable and humane behaviour in modern societies, the institution loses respect, loses authority, loses!

Thankfully the watershed of Beslan is beginning to create a wave of revulsion that is already stirring the academics, intelligensia, and religious leaders, of Islam into action. David Smith, writing in the English newspaper 'The Observer' (5th Sept 2004) reports as follows:

"While some Islamic fundamentalists in the Middle East have long supported fellow Muslims fighting in Chechnya, such was the barbarity of the hostage takers that few voices spoke in support of the actions in Ossetia. Egypt's leading Muslim cleric, Grand Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, was quoted as saying during a Friday sermon: 'What is the guilt of those children? Why should they be responsible for your conflict with the government? You are taking Islam as a cover and it is a deceptive cover; those who carry out the kidnappings are criminals, not Muslims.'
......and again:
"Even the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's biggest Islamic group, condemned the bloody siege in Beslan. Its leader, Mohammed Mahdi Akef, said that kidnappings may be justified but killings are not. He added: 'What happened is not jihad [holy war] because Islam obligates us to respect the souls of human beings; it is not about taking them away.'
.......and again:
"Abdulrahman al-Rashed wrote an article in the pan-Arab Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper under the headline: 'The Painful Truth: All World Terrorists are Muslims!' Al-Rashed said that Muslims will not be able to cleanse their image unless 'we admit the scandalous facts... Our terrorist sons are an end-product of our corrupted culture. The picture is humiliating, painful and harsh for all of us.'
His extraordinary critique was echoed by Ahmed Bahgat, an Egyptian Islamist. Writing in the pro-government newspaper, Al-Ahram , he said hostage-takers in Russia and Iraq are only harming Islam. 'If all the enemies of Islam united and decided to harm it... they wouldn't have ruined and harmed its image as much as the sons of Islam have done by their stupidity, miscalculations and misunderstanding.' Horrifying images of the dead and wounded students 'showed Muslims as monsters who are fed by the blood of children and the pain of their families'.

These are not my words, but the words of influential Muslims.

There is much that is beautiful, there is much that is loving, there is much that can still promote harmony, peace and a recognition of our inter-dependence within all the major religions. The Muslim faith is no exception to this. Yet all the major faiths, if not very careful, can fall into a politicised darkness of self-justification for actions that are far from the lovingness of the One God.

Any faith that speaks of the lovingness of the One God of us all, any faith that promotes love in place of hate, any faith that expresses meaningful, action-filled compassion in place of bigotry and callousness... any such faith is worthy of respect in this modern, fragmented and often puzzling world.

How can we not all be children of the One God? Do we really think that this all-powerful, all-loving God needs our self-righteous hate-filled actions in order to solve problems? Or is it just remotely possible that it is the differing beauty of our `'religion dialects', when united in harmonious chorus together, that sing the most beautiful song of thankfulness for the One God's lovingness?
We should all be martyrs for Love rather than messengers of hate.

Beware, Islam. The dark, black, lovingless void of the horror of Beslan is casting a shadow of destructive darkness over the beauty and brightness of your light.

In the humility of love I beg you, speak out now. Let the oftentimes silent voice of the muslim majority - decent, caring, tolerant - speak out now against the deepening of this shadow. Let the voices of your leaders and teachers speak out now - and release the Faith of Islam from the insanity of terrorism that threatens it's destruction. There can be no justification for such horrors as Beslan, nor can any be found, to my knowledge, within the Koran.

"A true disciple feels anothers pain as his own".

Shared values of fragile humanity

Mary Riddell
Sunday September 5, 2004
The Observer

Even the living have dead eyes. Cradled in adults' arms, faces smeared with blood, the children of Beslan stare out. Their gaze is focused on a point beyond consolation and beyond childhood. Grown old before their time and burnt by memories no human being should endure, these are the lucky ones.
Today, parents still search hospital wards and mortuaries, hopeful and terrified of what they may find. Others bury those too slow, too scared, too small or too exhausted to escape their assassins' bullets. And westerners, watching the carnage of Number One School unfolding in the media, cannot believe what they are seeing.

It is not the death of innocence, for that myth crumbled long ago. Composers of fairy tales, and charity fund-raisers, have always used children to tell the most terrible stories. Though the purpose has mostly been kindly, the border between generosity and exploitation is frail. The faces of the young gaze out from famine posters or from campaigning adverts warning of abuse behind closed doors. Other children, less anonymous, remind us of the brutality of war.

Kim Phuc, the nine-year-old girl pictured running down the Trang Bang road, ablaze with napalm, summed up the enduring story of Vietnam. Little Ali, the boy with his limbs blown away, encapsulated Iraq. From Darfur to Baghdad, suffering children touch a universal pulse confirming our basic kindness. They touch our consciences but they also salve our fears. Kim and Ali supplied the happy endings craved by adult society.

We may care much too little that children fight wars, or go to prison, or starve, but the victims we do notice confirm that our human sensibilities are intact.

In the past, the lost children have belonged to other people. Not now. The images of Beslan have eroded barriers of distance and bonds of nationality and blood. These, the victims of basest cruelty and purest chance, could be our own sons and daughters. No boundaries remain when a flock of primary pupils who took new books and balloons for the first day of term can stagger, damaged and dying into the playground, if they ever emerged at all. Their parents, families whose politics and troubles we had never known much about, have held up, in their torment, a mirror to our deepest loves and wildest fears.

And yet, the unthinkable was perhaps inevitable. This is an age when war and terror constantly reinvent torturers and victims. Just as Abu Ghraib showed women as monsters, Russia's children illustrate the carelessness of depravity in the week when evil, the most overworked word of the 21st century, came to Beslan.

For all the repulsion, there is some small consolation, too. The vision of parents with their children cocooned in their arms is an emblem of a world of shared compassion and enduring values. But, suddenly, how fragile humanity looks.

The aim of every parent is to forge a world in which their children can find peace. The impact of this crime goes beyond horror for the murdered of Beslan, or pity for the living. We see, in the agony of strangers, the threat to all our tomorrows.

To the children of Beslan and of the world

Please forgive us,
that in our idea-crazed adulthood
we must cover you with blood:
that we must fight for 'nationhood'
or other hate-born idealog
that are not conceived in good
and cover you with blood:

Better that we never grew
and childlike thought that all was new,
friendships blossomed as we played,
for worse a world it is we've made
when all we offer, instead of food
is to cover you with blood.

Perhaps if we would really see
the value of your life-energy
we just might set aside our fears
and clear away our guilt-flooding tears
discard as irrelevant our grand ideas
and wipe away the terror blood,
so you could smile
and peaceful play......

Forgive us,
and through your injured inncocence
help show us the way.

Copywright Geoffrey Groom 3rd September 2004

I guess it's soon time to start up my blog again after the exhausting activities of the last 18 months, as you will see here:

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dormanngkr/album?.dir=/f8ff&.src=ph&.tok=phKr5tBBDtqL1kvG

so, after the fire destroyed our buildings I got busy.

Now, maybe, I can get back to my other 'loves', like blogging

In The Oneness
Confusing isn't it?

Sunday 28th April 2002 09-30 CET
Falling walls
My apologies for my absence from the blog for some time.
I have been exceptionally busy on a project which is concerned
with actions more than it is concerned with words.

All that which is hidden shall be revealed soon :)

The truth of such a statement is alarmingly evident in so
many places in this world today, not least amongst
some powerful religious institutions - and leading this
category must be the Catholic Church, though it is
far from being alone in trying to defend the indefensible.

In a recent article I.M.Churchmouse quoted a
supposedly confidential conversation as follows:

"Forgive me father, for I have sinned"
"Tell me all my son, honour the spirit of confession".
"I have been found out"
"Ah, this is indeed a great sin, the greatest of all."

It has always been the purpose, the duty, the priviledge
of those classified as 'religious leaders' to lead society
in the definitions of the 'higher spiritual purpose, the
higher morality." Thus we are observing how the "arrogance
of power phenomena" and politicising of religious institutions
has been, and is, destroying the mechanism of their control
over the minds and hearts of the people.The institutions are
'imploding'.

This is happening in most major religious institutions, worldwide,
and of course it is all too easy to fall into the trap of being
a collaborator in the destruction of people's faith by attacking
such religious institutions. Though this may have appeared to
some to have been taking place within these blogs.... I ask
you to take the wider view.

It is my perception that 'the lovingness of the Oneness'
is not dependent upon ritual, club membership, financial
payment,...indeed in many ways 'institutionalised religion'
can be unhelpful to the development of self-responsibility and
self-awareness, for so often 'social approval' is a consequence
of 'club membership' even when our activities run contrary to
any reasonable defintion of love.

I believe that what we are witnessing is an awakening of a
spirituality that is far more self-connected, self-aware and
self-policing than the outdated and unloving ancient doctrines
that served less educated and less communicative societies.
And these things did serve in the past. Imperfectly maybe.
Sometimes with hypocrisy that killed - if not the body then
the soul. Other times it was a source of inspiration that
led people to a 'higher self'.

What is happening is not the destruction of faith but the
enlargement of it, the expansion of it. To anyone who has,
even in some small way, been helped to grasp an understanding
of the enormity of the unconditional lovingness that is the
'Oneness' by some religious institution or other....then it has
to be acknowledged that such a comprehension never, ever leaves.

Whereas the contradictions inherent in institutional membership
lead to inner conflicts and repressed guilt/shame - due to the
'social approval' nature of the hierarchical structure of such
institutions....freedom from such 'spiritual imprisonment' permits
the 'lovingness of the Oneness' to expand our awareness beyond
anything we could have thought possible.We become a larger self.

We can loose our faith in a church, a mosque, a temple...as
mechanisms of guidance/instruction/authority/control ---- but it is a
mythical, fantasy "faith" that is destroyed in such a manner.It was
a belief in 'man-made doctrines and creeds', no matter how well
intentioned they may have been in their original form.

True faith explodes into a nucleur-like blossoming of self-awareness
and 'One-ness awareness' as soon as the 'Jericho like walls' of
control institutions, of which we were once 'club members', fall.

To not know this is to have faith and belief in a far lesser 'god' than
is shown in the unconditionality and limitlessness of the lovingness
by the 'Oneness'. There is only one 'club' to which we all belong and it
matters little at which table we sit within that 'club'.

If we do what we feel is right in our heart, do no harm to another by
deliberate intent and live out our existing in this reality we call 'life'
in as much awareness of the interdependent nature of the 'lovingness'
of which we are capable at any given moment in time
(whilst still being a participant in this reality)....if we do these things,
do you think it is coincidence ???

All that which was hidden IS being revealed. "...and do you still not yet
understand?"

return to website...............................http://lo.2ya.com

Sunday 7th April 2002 11-30 CET
Swords -01
"In the end, the only way to have people sit up and take notice is
to let them experience firsthand the problems that result from their
own behavior" These profound words were reported in a recent
New York Times article as having been spoken by a director of
vocation (priest recruitment) in a Roman Catholic archdiocese
in Ireland.
The words were not spoken directly in connection with a criticism or
observation concerning the appalling revelations of abuses,
-financial, sexual and power structured - committed by Roman Catholic
clergy/orders around the world wihin the past 50 years.

No. These words were not spoken in that connection. These words
were spoken in connection with the dramatic fall in volunteers to
become priests. I suspect it was a way of telling even the
drastically reduced congregations (down by two thirds in two
decades) that it they don't have a priest nowadays then it's their own
fault, as no-one wants the job! Few will volunteer to do it
under the terms extant. Maybe, like myself years ago when
considering a similar vocation, few would agree to do
it within the 'politicised and corrupt hyprocrisy of church
government'.

The quoted words however, as so often with spiritual matters,
are a two edged sword - or would be if certain religious institutions
had not considered themselves above societal and moral law. That
there can be 'imperfect members' of any organisation is a fact of life.
That such imperfections can be institutionally 'veneered' is also
a fact of life.

That any religious institution/org suffers tremendously when it
allows it's standards to fall below it's high spiritual ideals, or to
fall below what is considered reasonable and normal behaviour
in any modern society...this is also a fact of life! The unwillingness,
even now, to declare openly it's failings or to report to the
authorities of the 'temporal law' those suspected or 'proven' to
have been involved in such abuses is another nail in the coffin of
church authority. Confession, it would appear, is not good for
the multi-national religious conglomerate 'soul'.

So, currently the Catholic Church and also many other 'religious
orgs and institutions', "are experiencing firsthand the problems that
result from their own behaviour "...having also inflicted incredible
suffering on their 'victims' in the process. The axe is truly to the root
of the 'institutional religious org ' tree, huh?

What is disgraceful beyond words is the hierarchical 'cover-up'
that has taken place in so many of these 'scandals'. It is not enough
that, for example, children have been physically and sexually abused.
The hierarchy of these institutions have further inflicted pain and
suffering upon the soul and emotions of these victims. Some 'clergy'
have raped the innocent, physically. Hierarchies have raped the
victims spiritually.

As another Priest in Ireland, quoted in the same New York Times
article, said, " "The shift (in Ireland) is from the experience of
authority to the authority of experience,"

So to these so called 'christian orgs' , these purveyors of the fear,
guilt and shame doctrines as control methodologies,
I will quote some words of Jesus," Whoever harms one of these
little ones, it would be better for him to have a millstone fastened
around his neck and be cast into the sea." (Matthew 18, vse. 6)

The authority of the experience of the lovingness of
'The Oneness' speaks in every heart and mind. It speaks
only a language of pure, unselfish, open, liberating UN-conditional
love.

It would appear that in many cases this language is better
understood in secular societies than it is in 'religious orgs', huh?
To be expert in the history of the words is not the same as
understanding them in your heart or practising them in your
way of life, huh?

"Behold. How are the mighty fallen."

or another one,

"Throughout history there have been tyrants. For a while they seem
to prosper. But, always, always they fall. Whenever I am in doubt
or discouraged I remember this and I try to do it God's way.
Remember, Always." M.K.Gandhi.

The 'way of The Oneness' is not, nor has it ever been, necessarily
the way portrayed by control obsessed religious orgs!

return to website.......................................... http://lo.2ya.com

March 30th 2002 23-30 CET
Fare Thee Well
Seldom in human history has someone been unexpectedly
called upon to fulfill a destiny as Queen. Queen Elizabeth,
The Queen Mother fulfilled this calling with a distinction
that commanded respect throughout the whole world and
did so for over six decades. Now that's 'regal stamina'.

The warmth and charm of her personailty and character
flooded out to all with whom she came into contact. Her
genuine interest in people was legendary and manifested
in so many, many caring and dutiful actions.

Often we glorify our leaders, those in the forefront of
our governments and countries. With regrettable
frequency, in the last 50 years, our pride has given
way to cynicism and a sense of betrayal as little by
little the truths have emerged.

This 'modern affliction', the 'do as I say not as I do'
philosophy of leadership, never did apply to this most
gracious lady. She retained those values that belonged
to another age: almost chivalrous in her sense of
duty and almost saintly in her integrity. Times change,
yet there are certain qualities of human existence that
are unchangeable - at least if we are to remain
'spiritual entities in this human reality'.

I am an englishman. The Queen Mother, from my
experience, was always a source of pride for every one
of us.

It is not only with a sense of sadness that I hear the
news of her not totally unexpected death, she was after
all 101 years of age. It is also with a sense of quiet
joy. Joy? Why, yes. For she was throughout a century
of human existing a clear example of some aspects which
are noble in the human spirit. I rejoice for the beauty of
her soul and the commitment of her mind and heart.

All change is not necessarily progress.For change
contains within it the challenge to remain true to ourselves,
and progress is that which develops, extends, from that which
already exists. In her living there was a reminder, a
charming, dedicated, dutiful, witty, fun-loving reminder,
that some things never change about some people.

Our respect for who she was can never, I feel, change.
I feel sure that in a century from now historians will
also review her life with loving respect.

Fare Thee Well, Precious Soul.

return to website.......................... http://lo.2ya.com

Monday 18th March 2002
Fees
It's an amazing sight. Whether in the Philippines,
The Caribbean, India, and I expect many, many
other places. A sight that doesn't really hit you
until you become exposed to some of the
financial data relating to the 'sight'.

Some of that financial data is starting to emerge
in places like Boston. Some has already shown
itself with regard to the activities of terrorists
linked to religious orgs. Some is displayed in
fictional form, as in Coppola's "The Godfather"
and even state sponsored institutions have
had data become public as a result of their
share dealings or property investments.Or, as
in Boston, India and many, many other places,
as a result of the depraved sexual activities of
clerics/religious leaders or the inhuman terrorist
aspects inspired by so called 'religious devouts'.

So, what is this sight? It's the sight of
religious orgs 'taking', "accepting",
"encouraging", "demanding"...financial
contributions - from the poor!!! Note, not
giving financial support to the poor, but taking
it from them.

In Coppola's film it happens to be from the 'rich',
but the film illustrates the vast wealth, subtle
power plays and political influence of many of
these religious orgs.These aspects also become
apparent when we see the 'control influence'
many of these orgs can have upon their
members. Ayodha is one example. The Taliban
another. The 'right wing conservative Christian'
movement another. All seek to impose their
version of 'what God wants from you' and
interpret 'Holy Books, Principles and dogma'
within a multinational conglomerate business
framework. Talk about 'anti-trust laws'. Hehehehe,
this is really the meaning of anti-trust - the abuse
of trust!

This control is incredible and often nationally
institutionalised and legalised. One example
known personally to me: A woman married a
person of another 'religious org'. Her own 'org'
didn't recognise the marriage!! Some years later
her husband ran off with another woman. Naturally
his 'unrecognised wife' sought a divorce. Under
the laws of that country, controlled by her religious
'org', a divorce was not possible. Yet, that religious
'org. never recognised the marriage in the first place.
So you have the absurd situation of a divorce not
being possible under the law for a marriage that
was not accepted by the 'org' whose power had
instituted that law in the first place. Catch 22, huh?

Whether a Church or a Mosque, a Temple or an
Ashram.....the sight of the poor "donating under
duress" to help maintain multi-national religious
'orgs' is ....hmmm....sick!

It is actions such as these, from within, that
destroys the credibility of such orgs. Going into
some 'religious org buildings' is almost a similar
experience as going in to a supermarket. This
is an abuse of power, an abuse of respect for
the individual - it is an abuse of the lovingness
that is the energy of 'The Oneness'.

It is these abuses, and many many more, that
are the sand on which these orgs are now built; control.
Control. It is these financial and control considerations
that are far more connected with inter-religious wars
than are principles of lovingness or enlightenment
or faith.

For those of you who have asked what
I mean by the term 'spiritual industry', I
hope this helps -just a little - to clarify the term.

There is an old saying, "Charity begins at home",
so before anyone starts 'giving', 'paying' their
'membership fees and attendance fees' to
multinational religious conglomerates or even the
'local business religious org' they
should stop and ask themselves...."is this food
from the mouths of my children or myself?"
If it is, be sure that "The Oneness" does not
require it from you.

How can there be such poverty, starvation, death
in this world when religious orgs have such wealth?
The one is the contradiction of the other, huh?

For centuries religious orgs have had a mechanism,
a facility, to channel resource from the wealthy to
the poor. They have done so occasionally, when it
suited their political or power based objectives.
They have done so occasionally, but always
conditionally. 'Convert and be fed' mentalities.

Now the time of reckoning is dawning. The failure
of institutionalised religious orgs to live up to
the concepts and standards of 'what they preach'
is clearly becoming indisputably visible to humanity.

It has created a cynicism, a doubtfulness, within
the people and has thus served the opposite
purpose which these 'religious orgs' claim
to espouse. In such a scenario, survival is
not possible. It has created a cynicism that results
in the lessening of people's understanding about
who or what God, 'The Oneness', really is.

Please note:

No payment is necessary to be a recipient of
'the lovingness'.

Unconditional love is what it says it is!!

return to website.................lo.2ya.com

Friday 15th March 2002 23-00 CET
Jeans :)
"All but the simplest kinds of plants and animals inherit two
sets of chromosomes (the diploid number) one set of each
chromosomes from each parent (the haploid number). In humans,
each somatic cell has a haploid set of 23 chromosomes from
each parent, 46 in total.The chromosomes in each set vary in
appearance.However, each has a homologous partner in the
other set, which resembles it in both appearance and genetic
characteristics. A given gene is found on only a particular
chromosome in each set. It's allele is on that chromosome's
homologue in the other set. The alleles are passed on to new cells
during mitosis, the division of somatic cells.
Mitosis takes place as soon as a sperm fertilises an egg.
It continues throughout the life of the organism.Prior to mitosis,
the cell chromosomes make exact copies of themselves. At this
point, twice the diploid number of chromosomes exist in the cell.
As mitosis proceeds, one set of the doubled chromosomes goes
into each of the two daughter cells. Each thus acquires a full
diploid set of chromosomes.The process is repeated again and
again as cells divide and the body grows". Compton's Encyclopedia.

That, I understand, is the 'chemistry' of it, 'it' being physical
individuality. However, as we know from modern neurology,
there's some energy/electricity/charged particles also involved
in this process - within this physical reality.

Many peeps consider the 'soul' or 'spirit' as resident within
the physical form. But, how about if it's the 'spirit energy'
that holds the physical form together from the outside?
How about your spirit is 'coagulated' around your body
and permeates the physical structures with it's energy?

Hmmm.. that would, at least, explain one simply childlike
thought which has always puzzled me, namely, since we
are (is it?) 80% water, how do we stand up? hehehehe

So,at the moment of physical 'conception' the 'spirit energy'
enters into the chemically constructed form. The energy
continues to empower and motivate the mitosis process
of 'real-isation into the physical' as we develop and grow,
additionally surrounding us with an 'energy field'. Some
refer to this as an 'aura'.
As we age, so more of our spiritual energy is displaced
to those around us, interacting within the spiritual
reality that is constrained within the physical reality we
call 'life on earth'. Utilised in the changing of
concept into experience, of theory into practice.
As more spiritual energy is displaced in living,
loving...or even hating...or protecting as
is required within this physical reality, so less is
dedicated to the maintenance of our own physical form.
The body ages. The billions of mitosis formed cells
that have continually and regularly been replaced throughout
our earthly life, start to deteriorate. The 'process' becomes
less empowered with the 'spiritual energy' as that energy
more and more impacts upon the 'surrounding reality'.
We age, we fall ill, we 'die'...as a physical form, a physical,
chemical construction.
Yet, all of this construction was energised from a
'spiritual source'. All of that lovingness was energised,
brought into physical reality, by a spirit energy that...
wait for it...cannot....cannot be destroyed! Dust returns to
dust, yet energy travels on. Energy can be absorbed,
but absorption is only a transmutation, an alternative
useage of energy.
Physical death is not an ending of the energy, simply
a 'transforming', changing, of the expression or useage
of that energy within this, or another, reality.

Now, hopefully, two things will have become apparent
from the foregoing:
1. Such a system of 'self-creation' is incredibly
individualised...no two the same! (if this applies
physically, don't you also think/feel it applies
spiritually?)
2. Such an 'energy expressiveness' is infinite,
it does not end.

Every year the leaves come on the trees. Every
year there are not two trees, not two leaves, the same.
Even when a leaf looks identical to another, it hangs
in a different place on the tree...it senses this reality
differently (whether the sunshine or the rain or the
wind). The process repeats, again and again,
continually expressing the infinity of permutations.

There is room, space, possibility for everything
within the 'Oneness'. Nothing is conditional
upon another thing: there are general rules
to the process within each reality, but all
negatives have a corresponding positive.
So, whether you are 'Big Banged', 'Superstringed',
or simply 'accepting' of the scenario.....
there is one conundrum within it all -
UNconditional is what it means. No limits.
No restrictions. No borders. Other than those
that are required to function within a 'physical
process. So why try to set rules that govern the
spiritual?

Unconditional love is the highest form of
'Spiritual energy', and has no choice - nor
desires any other choice - than simply the
expression of it's lovingness in every possible
mutation. Some call this 'God', some call it
"The Oneness". We are all, mitosis-like,
an aspect, an expression of that lovingness:
a cell within the body of 'The Oneness'.

When someone we love dies ( that is, when
they cease to be within this chemical physical
reality), we are still within this physical
expressiveness and (naturally) we miss the
'mechanisms of this process'. We miss
touching them, seeing them in physical form,
sensing their expressiveness within this
physical reality.

But, hey.....do we stop loving them? Do we
stop sensing them within our spiritual
energy? Are we not always exposed to
the energy of their lovingness...and they
to ours?

To transmute = to change the form or nature
or substance of, convert into something
different.
To die = to change the form or nature
or substance of, convert into something
different.....huh?

If we choose to define 'The Oneness' as
eternal, everlasting, infinite.....then so are
we in terms of our 'spirit energy', for it is
'superstringed' from the same source.
We are an individualised,
precious and essential,
particle charged with that same energy.

Being 'aware' is not simply knowing who,
or what, 'The Oneness' is....
it is also knowing who you really are :):)

return to website................. lo.2ya.com