As can clearly be seen by the mountains of commentaries and interpretations of 'ancient texts,books,writings', mankind clearly possesses a staggering ability to construct concept upon concept.

As these concept 'house of cards' structures evolve,pyramid-like in their organisation (usually with a poor-little-rich-man at the top who knows best in every circumstance) we begin to see a more refined and sophisticated ability to not only construct concepts, but to have concepts that by all reasonable standards actually contradict the original text/writings. This feat of intellectual gymnastics would normally be called 'lying' except for the very sad aspect that those involved have so totally convinced themselves it is a truth that retreat from this position is akin to total mental collapse/exhaustion.

To challenge the misrepresentations or misinterpretations is only to invoke a storm of indignant,often violent and certainly unjustified anger. Even allowing a margin that perceptions of truth can often be somewhat subjective, there are certain standards of truth which command respect. For example, it was Gandhi who once said "even if you are the minority of one, the truth is still the truth".Yet the context of this statement was a clearly demonstrable wrong that was being challenged in a lovingly peaceful non-violent way.

It is only to wait. Be patient.

Falsehood is a tree that grows which blossoms very quickly and whose fruits soon become a very heavy burden.

....

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Fragmented conceptualisation

It's an amazing age in which we live. You can travel the world and certain standard 'constants' are visible.A universal desire for peace, food, shelter, health is clearly visible

Also visible and audible are the sounds and sights of modern technological communications that give rise to what is euphemistically called 'multi-tasking'

Mobile phones,portable PC's,MP3 player,personal 'soundcentres' all are clearly apparent.

So an interesting article in Newsweek discusses the effect of these 'interruptive' episodes upon brain and cognitive function. You can read it here:http://www.newsweek.com/id/183719/page/1

Perhaps this is why meditation techniques have grown in popularity and useage. Creative,inventive thought patterns require some 'quality time' for concentration.

Perhaps one reason that some people declare themselves unable to enter a state of One-ness is explained by the fact of a lack of a 'concentration centre' in their life.

Focusing on the wonders of One-ness is NOT to be removed from reality but rather it is to allow reality to absorb the self - uninterrupted.

Need of a picture

This blog is in desperate need of a picture right now

This one is part of a series I call 'Frostflowers' taken within 200 metres of my home. If you want you can view the rest of the series HERE  as part of a MONSTER gallery of 840 pictures.

I have never seen Frostflowers before,nor since.

All this beauty that surrounds us,all the time,always changing........

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longevity

People like you and I, though mortal of course like everyone else, do not grow old no matter how long we live... [We] never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which we were born. letter to Otto Juliusburger

Albert Einstein

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the gates to practical compassion

This blog comes to you courtesy of an incredible human tool,an advancement in human progress that I believe is without parallel in human history.

The internet

This also functions for many people with the aid of Microsoft products,which also produce amazing love/hate reactions with some people. Not me I hasten to add.

So a thought to bear in mind about the monolithic Microsoft org is that it's joint founder,Bill Gates and his wife,who run the Gates Foundation, not only made a lot of money from their business endeavours but are now in a scenario that causes them to share their wealth.

Despite the world economic downturn the Gates Foundation is budgeted to spend/allocate $3.8 Billion in this current year in fighting such diseases as malaria.

They are not the only wealthy philanthropists to share their good or well-made fortunes in helping humanity.

We don't have to be rich to share what we have and it's an interesting observation that we all have a compulsion to help others.

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the dilemna of good works

EBay Winners Tell Struggling Atlanta Family: Take the $20G, Keep Your Stuff

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,486128,00.html

Miracles every moment

"Man does not live by bread alone....."

Famous words.Or at least one time they were.They were meant to suggest a spiritual dimension to our existence but would more likely suggest extra sauces,spices and additives to our food nowadays.

Most people know more about a 'religion' or their  favorite sports team or their favorite celebrity than they do about how their own body works.

You could reasonably expect that everyone would at least study their own physical existence - as a direct means of understanding any definitions of God,superconsciousness,etc.etc. I mean, where better to find the answers or experience the 'so called truths' than in our own individual scenario?

Did you know there are approximately 60 to 100 trillion cells in the adult body? Every hour approximately 1 billion cells must be replaced.

So the body is in a constant state of change and renewal. Then how does that affect,influence, 'traditionalist thinking modes' or 'consciousness embedded spiritual concepts'.

Maybe peeps get emotional/intellectual indigestion leading to long term sickness when they reject change,progress,new understandings. An acceptance of change is the only real way to fully accept the miracle of life. I mean, exactly how many of us would want to eat food prepared as it was 2000 years ago with the hygiene standards that existed then,let alone the potentially infected foodstuffs themselves?????

(inspired by an article here)

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choices words

you don't get to choose how you're going to die, or when. You can only decide how you're going to live.

Now

Joan Baez

treasures hiding

Every soul has it's own agenda in life.It is a blessing for the self when we are able to simply accept that reality - and accept it with thankfulness no matter what.

This is the great wonder of love when it calls us to follow it's pathway.We do not cease to be who we thought we were,we just expand in a way that causes us to be almost unrecognisable to ourself. Once we have thus expanded,we can never return to what we were.Once we have experienced the enormous capacity of lovingness, which is the hidden life treasure within, we begin to become fully aware of the great mystery of life. I acknowledge a difference between 'lovingness' and what we may call 'the impulses of the body or the habit of living together'. For is it not a truism that sometimes we have to love enough to allow the other person to follow their own agenda? In truth, is that not what we want - that the other shall find self-fulfillment and happiness? Is that not the amazing phenomena of love?

This is what I mean when I talk of not allowing others to define who we are,how we express our lovingness. If we allow ourselves to surrender to a sense of self pity,rejection,depression because a dream of love has been shattered by a reality of needs - then we deny ourself! We deny the enormity of lovingness that is the universe of our true self.

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It ain't rocket science.....

Israel acts because the world won't defend it

The scenes from Gaza are heartbreaking. But the whole conflict could be avoided if the Palestinians said one small thing

Daniel Finkelstein

"Why, he asked, doesn't Israel offer to give back the West Bank and Gaza? Why doesn't it just let the Palestinians have a state there? If the Palestinians turned it down, he said, then at least liberal opinion would be on Israel's side and would rally to its assistance.

So I patiently explained to this kind, good man that Israel had, at Camp David in 2000, made precisely this offer and that it had been rejected out of hand by Yassir Arafat, not even used as the basis for negotiation. I told him that Israel was no longer in Gaza, having withdrawn unilaterally and taken the settlers with it. The Palestinians had greeted this movement with suicide bombs and rockets. Yet the teacher, with all his compassion, wasn't even aware of all this".

you can read the full article here

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Gaza:will there ever be...

Always the children pay......!

How can it be that once noble religions - having the same traceable genealogy - can still end up justifying the sacrifice of children?

Whether the story of Ibrahim and Ishmael, or Abraham and Isaac - depending upon your Middle East politics and tradition - the message of the story seems quite clear to any thinking,loving human being.

The One God does not require human sacrifice! Never did!

So,how do these kind of "justifications" relate to 'religion'?:

“They have legitimised the murder of their own children by killing the children of Palestine,” Mahmoud Zahar [Hamas leader] said in a televised broadcast recorded at a secret location. “They have legitimised the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people.”

Mr Zahar made his first appearance since Israel launched its offensive. Dressed in a dark suit, he declared: “Victory is coming, God willing.”

I am not debating here the rights or wrongs of the political scenario in the Middle East.

What I am debating is the 'right' of any person to justify 'wrongs' in the One God's name.

With such inhuman absurdities some individuals claim 'religious authority', against a tradition that has stood for thousands of years.

Who needs a God that punishes - when humanity does such an inconceivably brilliant job of it?

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Hsin Hsin Ming -01

When you understand the relationship

of subject and object

thinker and thought

and how they create each other

you recognise that these are not two,but one

Sosan

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Fairness..........?

Following the entry about confused and/or conflicting moral and ethical

standards (Dignitas Personae etc.) I endeavour to attempt to be fair

by now showing this item of news:

It appears that the Saudi court - enforcing Shia law - does not have the right to protect the child either!

Oh dear.You would think that any major religion would by now have realised

the universal repulsion of ordinary people at such activities.

(source:Daily Mail)

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Christmas Myths...the real message

Clearing the record about things like donkeys and wise men doesn’t show us the real truth of Christmas. The power of the Christmas story has little to do with who did what and when. It doesn’t matter if Jesus was born on December 25 or on Flag Day. What matters is that he came into the world as a fragile human being, a baby boy in the care of a teenage girl with a skittish husband. God showed us that humility and grace mean so much more than power and glory. Once we clear away the decorations and the subterfuge, we see God revealed in an impoverished infant. I don’t know the mind of God, but it seems like he was making a point.

from an article by Stephen W Simpson

HERE

Love that phrase 'humility and Grace mean so much more than power and glory'

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"DIGNITAS PERSONAE" or Dignity of the Person

Well, it must be getting near Christmas I guess. How do I know? Not the snow on the ground,that's melted. Not the upsurge in 'help your neighbour' scenarios,that's digitalised. I know because the Vat has come out with a 'pro-life'(translated-extra members::translated - more money) document this last week with the above title.

SUPER grandiose

quote"the Vatican yields to no one in its pro-life commitments. In effect, “Dignitas Personae” is a reminder that there will be no “truce,” no strategic silence, about the defense of human life from the moment of conception.

end quote: source-http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/opinion/19allen.html?hp

NOW THERE'S AN INTERESTING CONCEPT

So, for the benefit of those with short memories excuse me for reminding you of.........

Crimen Sollicationis

as 'Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ' aka inquisition,, Ratzinger's 2001 letter “Crimen Sollicitationis” which clarified the confidentiality of internal Church investigations into accusations made against priests of certain crimes, including sexual abuse, became a target of controversy during the sex abuse scandal

Cardinal Ratzinger is better known as Pope Benedict XVI - the present pope.If you want to read about excommunication for Bishops,et.al, who disclose details of clergy/child sexual abuse to the Police, read it here

http://ito.blogspot.com/2006/05/crimen-sollicationis.html  

Now what was that about specks in eyes?

And what was that about millstones around the neck of those who abuse 'my little ones'?

Truly, I tell you, as a business the Vat may have some time left - but in a spiritual guidance

function,the Vat is drowning!

(this entry dedicated to the memory of Liam Mercier - and all the countless others sexually and/or physically abused by Catholic Priests, the latter of which had their Personal 'dignity' protected for so long by this organisation)

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Eid al-Adha

It was very much a tradition and the expected thing to

do in the society that circulated within the differing 

cultures of those days. Sacrificing your first born or 

your most loved. Human sacrifice.

Ibrahim and Ishmael or if you prefer the other variant

of the story, Abraham and Isaac, enter into this

sacrificial scenario only to discover that the One God

does not require human sacrifice, so a goat is sacrificed

instead.

Of course, there could just as easily be another

interpretation of the events which is no less holy,

namely, Ibrahim(Abraham) understood that it was 

not in the power of a human being to

destroy God's gift of life to another whatever the 

religious or philosophical arguments!

What a problem! To honour tradition or to honour

the sanctity of life.

Well if these stories mean anything at all,they 

most surely mean that to honour a tradition in 

the knowledge that we destroy another God 

given life...... is about as far from holiness and

the One God as it is possible to get.

Upholding tradition has it's limitations in respect

of respect for God and respect for God given life!

Better to sacrifice the cantankerous goat of

inhuman tradition.

Eid al-Adha

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A Christmas poem - Visions 3 - can be found here

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If it doesn't speak of Love

If it says there is something more powerful than Love

If it talks of a vengeful,wrathful,angry God

If it judges,condemns,punishes....

.

then you can be sure that such a book is written about a very much smaller God

than the One God who truly loves without conditions

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Visons 1

My answer to the terrorists.......with special empathy for all those affected

by the atrocities at Mumbai.

"Your eyes are brown,

mine are blue,

his are green

You have good vision, young and fresh,

mine is ageing, blurred a mite,

his is like yours, sharp and true.

You have precise colour seperation sight,

mine is confused on brown and blue hues,

his is genetically perfect.

Behold, the tree.

What do you see?

Do you see differently than me?

If so, is it any less a tree

or greater, maybe?

Behold, your God.

Does it matter how you see?

If you see differently than me?

Does it change the fact of sight

or lessen God's omnipotence that we differentiate?

Ah, but we can philosophise and speculate,

intellectualise and humanise,

from such activity we can grow to love or hate,

We can, ego-driven, minimise or maximise.

It all depends upon our eyes.

Or does it?

Is God any less God

for all our discourse, all our debate?

Is the fact of God

affected by our genetic code

or even indoctrinated load

Is not the fact that we can see

enough of a fact for you and me?

Shall you tell me

I cannot see

because I see differently?

Better, rather, you tell me what you see

for the beauty of your vision

when added to my own

gives extra dimension

depth, colour, form

to that which I have known.

The fact that you can see

does not take anything away from me

but adds to my perception

if you will care

enough to share

and I with you

that which we see as true."

gg

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