In these moments the politics of a nation are irrelevant. Devastation

and bereavement on such a scale evoke compassion that transcends

all,all,barriers. Deepest condolences and heartfelt empathy to the

peoples of China who have been affected by this catastrophe.

A student aiding a classmate still in the ruins of a high school in Beichuan County.
Photo: Chen Xie/Xinhua, via Associated Press

if you haven't seen/heard this...you should,hehehehe. Go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJEacTZmd7I

THE ABOVE LINK HAS NOW BEEN REMOVED

so try this one instead

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t-TC-PfDFY

(post updated 5th Nov 2008)

UN-prejudice
I am not sure that I understand all the intricacies of sex-change operation
needs.But then, I am only challenged to accept another person's character
and self-requirements.To be willing to accept the person as they are and as
they seek to be.

It seems as if humanity is really making some progress on the issues of
intolerance and prejudice.As evidence take a look at the truly wonderful
support these young people are giving to another young person:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354426,00.html

Ah, what we can achieve when we set the needs of others as a priority -
even above our own misconceptions, misunderstandings, or simply
lack of awareness.

The Reign of Confusion causes death

Last week, British teacher Daud Hassan Ali, 64, was shot dead in Somalia. His widow, Margaret Ali, said her husband was targeted by Islamists who "believe it is ok to kill any man who was born into Islam and left the faith".

" I was staggered to learn that the Quran does not say anything about punishing apostates and that its proponents use two hadiths instead to support their view. Hadiths are the recorded traditions and sayings of the Prophet which, in addition to the Quran, provide an additional source of Islamic law.
The hadiths which relate to apostasy are linguistically ambiguous and open to interpretation. Distinguished scholars told me that the hadiths actually speak about a death penalty for treason, not apostasy. And even then, they stressed the punishment is discretionary. "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7355515.stm

Oh with what ease we take words and twist,distort or disorientate them to suit our own purposes.In case you misread, I show again:
The Quran does NOT SAY ANYTHING about punishing apostates
??????????????

SALES DRIVE?

In the face of falling revenues, membership, new-priest sign-ups, the VATPRC did what all sales organisations do - they organised a sales drive (otherwise called a Papal visit).

photo Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/Newsweek

Speeches to the UN, at Yankee Stadium, to clerics about child Sex Abuse - all,of course, played to the tune of Vaticanus Harmonius Humilitatus.I,however, would be better able to contemplate the concept of 'sinners becoming saints'. or in this case cardinals becoming popes, if apologies were adequately made for ......Crimen Sollicationus (the present pope was in charge of thee department responsible for the issuance of this)

In the absence of adequate and suitable attention to this 'minor' (as in child) detail, the rest is simply a marketing road show (see duck rolling).

The church still has a very long way to go to catch up to the higher standard of morality currently shown by and in secular society. I doubt it can ever catch up

Duck-rolling,Rick-rolling, God-rolling


IT began with a duck. A while ago contributors to an anarchic internet message board called 4chan started fooling others by luring them to click on interesting-sounding links. The clickers thought they were going to get the latest video game news or pictures of hot babes or celebrity gossip; what they actually got was a picture of a duck on wheels. They had been “duck-rolled”.

Then an idle inspired prankster changed tack and replaced the duck with a video of Rick Astley singing his 1987 classic 'never going to give you up' creating the (so far) largest viral video on the net (You tube hits of 7m last month) - hence Rickrolling.

The whole principle of the prank is to take you somewhere you had not expected to go - whether this is a pleasant or unpleasant experience is entirely subjective.

This kind of reminded me of the track record of so many 'religions'. You 'click on God' and the network ends up taking you somewhere else entirely.

LOVE ROLLING, in the spiritual sense, is absolutely different. The whole purpose is to go where you had not expected to go, do what you had not self-wished to do, be what you had not thought yourself to be (thought being the operative word here).

UNCONDITIONAL LOVINGNESS is the biggest,best,most invigorating trip you'll ever take....when you 'clicked on the life url' you started the networking.

"That which we cannot change, we ignore" Gail Collins, New York Times columnist.

"When you meet a life circumstance that you feel you cannot change,
change your perception of it, change the way you view it. Then,the
'unchangeable life circumstance' has lost it's power over you, it's ability to
frustrate your spirit's pathway by clouding you with emotion.
A good way of achieving this perceptive mechanism is to seek out the
blessing in the life circumstance. Believe it,there always is one hiding
there somewhere. A blessing that reveals more of who you really are,
spiritually, than your consciousness had manifest to you". (gg.gallnas)

One cannot ignore 'earthquakes'. Events which shake the foundations of
one's existence/belief system/concepts.

Aeschylus wrote: "Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God

Quoted by Robert F Kennedy during a speech in Indianapolis in which he broke the news to the unknowing crowd of the assasination of Martin Luther King.

Nearly all peoples,everywhere, dream of a good future for their own children.

Some dream of a fair and just future for everyone,seeing all as brothers and sisters, children of the 'One God'.

In respectful memory of a man with a loving message.

The message lives on.

“Self-discipline is a form of freedom.

Freedom from laziness and lethargy,

freedom from expectations and demands of others,

freedom from weakness and fear — and doubt.”

H.A.Dorfman in "The Mental ABCs of Pitching"

Sometimes, most times, unconditional lovingness creates miracles.
Check out this story.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/03/27/heroes.andersen/index.html

I wish them both well.

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, 'What does love mean?'
The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.
Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.
When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,
'Nothing, I just helped him cry'

“Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected”

M.K.Gandhi

shadows of Divinity

Knowledge is not necessarily understanding.
Understanding is not necessarily wisdom.
Wisdom is not necessarily Love.
For even a small child may be lacking in knowledge, understanding and wisdom...
but exudes such unconditional love
as to render these other things a poor reflection of Divinity.

gg

The ABUSE of understanding - Fitna

As I have commented before on this blog, the 'beauty' of ancient manuscripts is the lack of real understanding of what the language actually meant in the culture of the time. This allows for all sorts of 'misinterpretations and kaleidoscopic conclusions' - giving rise to sectarianism, schism,
dysfunction.


There is no greater threat to the established 'religions' than the proclamations of one of influence who claims to have discovered THE truth about God (as opposed to A truth about God), and then proceeds to 'justify this declaration' with all sorts of ancient texts interpreted to suit the argument.

FITNA is a case in point! 'Anonymous' responded to my blog thursday post on Sat, Mar 22, 2008 at 8:16 AM with :"Fitna doesnt mean "oppression", it means "opposition". The same way a dictator would outlaw and squash any political opposition This is totalitarian theocracy imposed by the sword and it is why Geert Wilders title his movie "Fitna". Muslims try to twist the meaning of fitna to make them sound like victims when actually it is quite the opposite. " (I will post comments that are signed with something more precise than anon and reserve the right to edit any comments I deem especially offensive)

So I thought I better google and check out other meanings of the word FITNA to those I had already assembled: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitna_%28word%29 and this article starts "Arabic word, generally regarded as very difficult to translate", difficult to translate is a euphanism for 'it can mean almost anything".



This is Islamist centrist intellectual Mohamed al-Amara who published a thought provoking, faith enlightening - and storm
surrounded book "Fitna al-Takfir" last year.
You can see some of the turmoil in The Islamic religion's propensity to accept innumerable interpretations of a sura/text/takfir here: http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark/2007/02/amaras_fitna_al.html
and one of the comments on that blog says as follows:

"He is focused on "fitna" - or in-fighting amongst Muslims. He is saying, basically, that it is brother with brother, and brother with cousin against the stranger, i.e. Muslims should not fight amongst themselves and hence weaken themselves vis a vis the West"

In short, there is not ONE Islamic religion,there are many - though there is but 'One God'. As I wrote on thursday:
"In the normal way of old-fashioned politics,if you seek to unite a people - or distract a population from what you are doing - the finest way is to' create a common enemy'. Where 'traditions and sectarian religious concepts are concerned' it is fairly easy to find targets".

Thus we see that the dysfunction of Islam, the 'civil war within Islam', gives rise to attacks upon 'kafir'(non-believers) not because of their non-belief, but because of Islam's inability to define what IT really believes in a universally agreed format.

But,hey, don't just point the finger at Islam here - almost every major religion has divided into warring sects. Even worse, most have claimed 'divine authority' for imposing torture and death upon their victims - like they have played the role of God, taking life (note, they are not so good at the other extreme of giving/creating life).Remember Beslan. Remember Islam Khardykov?

So who to believe? which to accept?
I have a very simple test - if it isn't loving, compassionate, merciful - it isn't from God!

Listen to your heart

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” - Leo Tolstoy (1828 - 1910)Tags: tolstoy, change

Powered by Qumana

Fitna

Qur'an 8:39 says, "And fight them until there is no more fitna [variously translated as tumult or oppression or persecution]Tags: Fitna, Geer Wilders, Qur'an, Koran, Jihad, love

It is not clear to me where this oppression and/or persecution originates. It seems  that there is far more of it in Islamic lands than is imported into those countries. In so many areas, muslim fight muslim for dominance of a particular sect,interpretation,tradition.

In the normal way of old-fashioned politics,if you seek to unite a people - or distract a population from what you are doing - the finest way is to' create a common enemy'. Where 'traditions and sectarian religious concepts are concerned' it is fairly easy to find targets.

Fitna, an Islamic/arabic word meaning 'things than can test the faith' is also the film, shortly to be released on the internet, from the Dutch politician Geer Wilders. It is reported to be not very flattering to Islam.

Beware, Islam, lest in the fury of your anger at this film you simply validate it's argument that Islam is a religion of violence. The muslim friends I have are far from this 'fundamentalist violence' and demonstrate their faith in actions of kindness and lovingness.

Powered by Qumana

Most,initially, come to God out of fear - and meet a concept of God that broadens until eventually many see the enormity of lovingness that called them to a higher awareness - and then come to God out of Love. When this happens, we meet the reality that is God. The metafor of the crucifixion is to remove our fear and open the pathways of love, tearing the veil until we see into the holy of holies, the holiest of truths: Love is all there is.

Tags: God, crucifixion, holy of holies, awarenessPowered by Qumana

The truth of experience

Katherine Anne Porter defined experience as "the truth that finally overtakes you" Tags: Porter, experience, truthTags: ito, oneness

Powered by Qumana

Lewis Hamilton winning the first GP of the 2008 season at Albert Park,Melbourne

Sportspersons, when 'in the zone', have a remarkable ability to remain focused on the challenge. I guess that's what's meant by 'being present', 'being in the NOW'. (picture and text: http://news.bbc.co.uk/ )

Spiritually speaking, there is only the now - for the past is usually a perception-modified memory and the future a concept-dominated expectation. It is reasonable to postulate,therefore, that if we wish to excel in lovingness it becomes an issue of focusing on now. There is no better time, whatever else is happening around us, to define ourselves by our unlimited capacity to love.