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
Friday, September 10, 2004
georgy-003
Shining in the darkness of this disaster are many, many examples
of the triumph of the human spirit
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
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
Thursday, September 09, 2004
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
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.
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.
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
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
Sunday, September 05, 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".
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.
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.
Friday, September 03, 2004
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
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
Thursday, August 26, 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
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
Monday, April 29, 2002
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
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, April 07, 2002
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
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
Sunday, March 31, 2002
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
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
Tuesday, March 19, 2002
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
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
Saturday, March 16, 2002
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
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
Wednesday, March 13, 2002
Wednesday 13th March 2002 15-00 CET
FAQ - 01
Hmm..it appears yesterdays blog has created a little
'wave' of curiosity amongst the two readers, hehehe.
So, here goes with a little FAQ.
1. Why are you so 'anti' religious institutions?
Generally speaking because they deny or deprive
the individual of the God given birthright of free
will by insinuating a degree of 'punishment
orientated control'. The concepts of 'sin, guilt
and punishment' are not valid within a reality
of unconditional love. Or they seek to marginalise
the 'experiencing of the life reality' by infusing
a 'detachment dimension'.
The purpose of this life's walk is, to me, to
experience in a reality what we already know
as a concept.
Religious institutions, generally, seek to control
this experiencing and channel it within their
own perceptions/old dogmas/old doctrines.
I see nothing in this life
that is not uniquely individual; flowers, trees,
animals,birds,mountains,seas, etc.etc. Ergo,
that which seeks to 'conform' you to a
controlled or controllable pattern, whose template
is financial or egotistical, is not from the
lovingness.
2. What do you mean about Christ's words
upon the cross from Psalm 22 in yesterday's blog?
Read it!!!
Does Psalm 22 sound to you like a defeated
rejected servant?
Sounds more to me like a victory cry. Like
a 'I'm on the winning team' kind of statement.
So why, ask yourself, have centuries of
theologians and clerics withheld, or at least not
advertised, that concept from the ordinary people
preferring instead to use the quotation as a
'guilt inspiring mechanism?
HUH?
In the time of Christ's earthly revelation, most
peeps couldn't read and write. The devout
memorised passages of scripture. Christ was
seen, understood, to be a Rabbi. He was, after
all, even as a child to be found in the temple
discussing theology with the learned clerics, huh?
Rabbis just quoted the opening words of a passage
and most peeps knew the rest of it.
Two centuries ago, not many peeps could read and
write in the world. Now many can....but don't even
study the 'Holy Books' with an open mind. If we study
the books, it's usually to 'justify' a position we have
already assumed (or have been indoctrinated with), huh?
So, as referenced in question 1: if you wanna accept all
this sin/guilt/punishment based control hype...then Christ's
words from Psalm 22 are just right for you as they are
generally portrayed....you also can go
to hell after death - where God isn't, huh? Even though
God is all powerful and Omnipresent, huh? Even though
God is all loving - unconditionally loving (for any less a
definition of God is a lesser God, huh?).
If, however, you want to see Christ's use of Psalm 22
as a means of telling us that even death, even
wrongful condemnation, cannot seperate us from
God's lovingness...which will reign supreme...then,
then my friends, then.....
what the hell can you do when after all your
so called 'sinfulness', all your hatred, all your apathy,
all your doubt, all your distrust, all your ingratitude,
all your disbelief...when you've used up all of the
negatives you can find, and God STILL loves you..
no conditions....what's left but to love in return?
Love yourself, love your neighbour, love God.
The trinity! Love you, love you in your neighbour,
love God in you both......no ethnicity here, or
intolerance, or prejudice......it's called 'The Oneness'
God's love, however you wish to define the One God,
is indivisible, unseperable...it cannot be parted from
the whole. You, your neighbour, everyone, all of us..
we also are a part of the 'whole'. For God not to love
you, whoever and whatever you are, is for God not
to love himself/herself/itself. You are an aspect of
the 'lovingness', a dazzling sunbeam from the
One Sun, a spiritual mitosis-superstringed-dna
stranded essence of the lovingness, the unconditional
lovingness that is, IS, the One God.
3. Are you teaching us something?
What is there for lil ol me to teach you that
you don't already know, spiritually? We know the
same - no hierarchy of qualifications - for we
are from the same source.
No, I can teach you nothing.
Nothing I can say means anything.....unless,
unless you already hold that truth within you.
Then, and only then, do you recognise it.
I can teach you nothing. But, we can remind
each other of exactly who..and what..we
truly are, huh? All of us. ALL of us.
Kill another, in thought, word or deed..
and you kill a part of yourself.
Deny another your love, help, compassion..
and you also deny it to yourself.
It's called "The Oneness".
The One God.
retrun to website..................lo.2ya.com
FAQ - 01
Hmm..it appears yesterdays blog has created a little
'wave' of curiosity amongst the two readers, hehehe.
So, here goes with a little FAQ.
1. Why are you so 'anti' religious institutions?
Generally speaking because they deny or deprive
the individual of the God given birthright of free
will by insinuating a degree of 'punishment
orientated control'. The concepts of 'sin, guilt
and punishment' are not valid within a reality
of unconditional love. Or they seek to marginalise
the 'experiencing of the life reality' by infusing
a 'detachment dimension'.
The purpose of this life's walk is, to me, to
experience in a reality what we already know
as a concept.
Religious institutions, generally, seek to control
this experiencing and channel it within their
own perceptions/old dogmas/old doctrines.
I see nothing in this life
that is not uniquely individual; flowers, trees,
animals,birds,mountains,seas, etc.etc. Ergo,
that which seeks to 'conform' you to a
controlled or controllable pattern, whose template
is financial or egotistical, is not from the
lovingness.
2. What do you mean about Christ's words
upon the cross from Psalm 22 in yesterday's blog?
Read it!!!
Does Psalm 22 sound to you like a defeated
rejected servant?
Sounds more to me like a victory cry. Like
a 'I'm on the winning team' kind of statement.
So why, ask yourself, have centuries of
theologians and clerics withheld, or at least not
advertised, that concept from the ordinary people
preferring instead to use the quotation as a
'guilt inspiring mechanism?
HUH?
In the time of Christ's earthly revelation, most
peeps couldn't read and write. The devout
memorised passages of scripture. Christ was
seen, understood, to be a Rabbi. He was, after
all, even as a child to be found in the temple
discussing theology with the learned clerics, huh?
Rabbis just quoted the opening words of a passage
and most peeps knew the rest of it.
Two centuries ago, not many peeps could read and
write in the world. Now many can....but don't even
study the 'Holy Books' with an open mind. If we study
the books, it's usually to 'justify' a position we have
already assumed (or have been indoctrinated with), huh?
So, as referenced in question 1: if you wanna accept all
this sin/guilt/punishment based control hype...then Christ's
words from Psalm 22 are just right for you as they are
generally portrayed....you also can go
to hell after death - where God isn't, huh? Even though
God is all powerful and Omnipresent, huh? Even though
God is all loving - unconditionally loving (for any less a
definition of God is a lesser God, huh?).
If, however, you want to see Christ's use of Psalm 22
as a means of telling us that even death, even
wrongful condemnation, cannot seperate us from
God's lovingness...which will reign supreme...then,
then my friends, then.....
what the hell can you do when after all your
so called 'sinfulness', all your hatred, all your apathy,
all your doubt, all your distrust, all your ingratitude,
all your disbelief...when you've used up all of the
negatives you can find, and God STILL loves you..
no conditions....what's left but to love in return?
Love yourself, love your neighbour, love God.
The trinity! Love you, love you in your neighbour,
love God in you both......no ethnicity here, or
intolerance, or prejudice......it's called 'The Oneness'
God's love, however you wish to define the One God,
is indivisible, unseperable...it cannot be parted from
the whole. You, your neighbour, everyone, all of us..
we also are a part of the 'whole'. For God not to love
you, whoever and whatever you are, is for God not
to love himself/herself/itself. You are an aspect of
the 'lovingness', a dazzling sunbeam from the
One Sun, a spiritual mitosis-superstringed-dna
stranded essence of the lovingness, the unconditional
lovingness that is, IS, the One God.
3. Are you teaching us something?
What is there for lil ol me to teach you that
you don't already know, spiritually? We know the
same - no hierarchy of qualifications - for we
are from the same source.
No, I can teach you nothing.
Nothing I can say means anything.....unless,
unless you already hold that truth within you.
Then, and only then, do you recognise it.
I can teach you nothing. But, we can remind
each other of exactly who..and what..we
truly are, huh? All of us. ALL of us.
Kill another, in thought, word or deed..
and you kill a part of yourself.
Deny another your love, help, compassion..
and you also deny it to yourself.
It's called "The Oneness".
The One God.
retrun to website..................lo.2ya.com
Tuesday 12th March 2002 23-30 CET
Guarantee
I remember meeting a five year old child for the first time,
many years ago, amidst a sense that though I was much
older I was more childish. The child, I shall call him "Andrew",
did not live to be seven years old. He had Cystic Fibrosis
and every day was a struggle that put my own problems
into a thimble of self-obsession. The thing that I most
remember about angelic 'Andrew" was that I hardly
ever heard him complain about his scenario.
Indeed, now I come to think about it, the people that I
remember most during the last decades (apart from my
immediate family) almost always possessed this 'gift'
referred to by Paul when he wrote 'I have learned in
whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content'. There
is something incredibly distinguishing about people
who 'don't have the habit of complaining'.
Enter, stage right, another thought: Last year I was
amazed by the regularity with which a phrase was
addressed to just about anyone that listened by
young people. The phrase 'get a life'. I remember
I joked about this by writing:
"They said to me get a life,
so I got one.
But it was faulty
so I took it back.
I was told I could hand it in
but would have to wait for a new one
OR, I could make the best of what I had
and see if I could get it to work myself."
The pervasiveness of the 'consumer consciousness'
insinuates itself into every aspect of our lives.
Whenever something goes 'wrong' we feel an
automatic conditioned response scenario to be
that 'we must complain about it.'
Indeed, the greater majority of work carried out in
social, psychological and spiritual ministries seems
more to be the work of one in charge of a 'complaints
department'.
'My nose is wrong.'
"I've got freckles"
"My breasts are imperfect"
"No one understands me"
"My ------ hates me"
"Your doctrines are faulty"
"God don't love me cos I'm a sinner"
"It's God's fault"
The consumerist 'rights of purchase' do NOT apply
in matters spiritual. Life is a gift and lovingness
an issue of perception/awareness. Do we complain
at the food we cook ourself, for ourself?
The aspect that is perhaps the worst aspect is simply
that the constant repetition of a 'complaints habit'
gives rise to an addiction to complaints, for such is
our thinking brain structure. This is not to say that
to strive for perfection is a failing, rather that it is
difficult to climb such a ladder if one is always
looking down at the rungs where one's foot slipped!!
The latter does not exactly inspire one with trust
for further upward mobility... huh?
Where dissatisfaction results in progress at correcting
the offending imperfection, then this is surely to be
welcomed, huh?
However, when discontent is simply a malaria-like
breeding ground for yet more discontent, the constant
re-playing of a dissatisfaction rap-disc, the repetitious
rehersal of complaining.....then this indicates a basic
spiritual abdication of 'self responsibility'.
Surely Freud clearly demonstrated the ease with which
we can 'indoctrinate self' into a pattern of irrationality and
fear, to the extent that we became obsessively
dominated by such patterns.
It is amazing in life how so often we can meet
people who, by our own standards, have
mountains of reasons to complain...and yet
they do not. Bet you can think of a few...mainly
people with appalling sickness or poverty.
"All happy people are grateful. Ungrateful people
cannot be happy. We tend to think that being
unhappy leads people to complain, but it's truer to
say that complaining leads to people becoming unhappy".
Dennis Prager
Hmmm... now there's an interesting..and challenging...
statement, huh?
So, full circle. I'm back to my old traditional song,
"Count your blessings
name them one by one
and it will surprise you
what the 'Lord' has done"
What the One God hasn't yet done, in his/her/it's
lovingness toward you, is perhaps a question
of 'self starting'. For free will implies that
nothing WILL be done unless you WILL
that it shall be done......huh?
In Psalm 22 of the Jewish and Christian
Holy Books...there is a formula. When
we are unhappy/dissatisfied/discontented
we serve ourselves best when we remember
all the reasons we have to trust in the
lovingness of the One God. The Psalm
ends with a statement of total acceptance
that the One God will be victorious and will
deliver us from whatever assails us.
The Psalm starts with words that many will
probably know already...even if the context
of their normal useage is not exactly the meaning
the most famous user has been interpreted as
saying...the Psalm starts:
"My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
Hmmm...did Jesus really complain upon the cross,
in the hour of His torment...or was He (in the habit
of Rabbis of the day) drawing our attention to
all the words of this Psalm?
You judge it. Look at the Psalm and see...
was He complaining or was He demonstrating
gratitude and trust ?
In most of the world's Holy Books..no matter
what 'religious label' they wear....there are
common strands, rivers, of lovingness. It's just
that sometimes in the translation, or sometimes
just because we haven't fully understood the
'social setting' of the words....we often can
misunderstand the real meaning.
As Afsana showed (in the last blog) not everyone
who knows the right meaning tells others correctly.
In the matter of complaints versus blessings....
actions speak louder than words.....huh?
return to website......................lo.2ya.com
Guarantee
I remember meeting a five year old child for the first time,
many years ago, amidst a sense that though I was much
older I was more childish. The child, I shall call him "Andrew",
did not live to be seven years old. He had Cystic Fibrosis
and every day was a struggle that put my own problems
into a thimble of self-obsession. The thing that I most
remember about angelic 'Andrew" was that I hardly
ever heard him complain about his scenario.
Indeed, now I come to think about it, the people that I
remember most during the last decades (apart from my
immediate family) almost always possessed this 'gift'
referred to by Paul when he wrote 'I have learned in
whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content'. There
is something incredibly distinguishing about people
who 'don't have the habit of complaining'.
Enter, stage right, another thought: Last year I was
amazed by the regularity with which a phrase was
addressed to just about anyone that listened by
young people. The phrase 'get a life'. I remember
I joked about this by writing:
"They said to me get a life,
so I got one.
But it was faulty
so I took it back.
I was told I could hand it in
but would have to wait for a new one
OR, I could make the best of what I had
and see if I could get it to work myself."
The pervasiveness of the 'consumer consciousness'
insinuates itself into every aspect of our lives.
Whenever something goes 'wrong' we feel an
automatic conditioned response scenario to be
that 'we must complain about it.'
Indeed, the greater majority of work carried out in
social, psychological and spiritual ministries seems
more to be the work of one in charge of a 'complaints
department'.
'My nose is wrong.'
"I've got freckles"
"My breasts are imperfect"
"No one understands me"
"My ------ hates me"
"Your doctrines are faulty"
"God don't love me cos I'm a sinner"
"It's God's fault"
The consumerist 'rights of purchase' do NOT apply
in matters spiritual. Life is a gift and lovingness
an issue of perception/awareness. Do we complain
at the food we cook ourself, for ourself?
The aspect that is perhaps the worst aspect is simply
that the constant repetition of a 'complaints habit'
gives rise to an addiction to complaints, for such is
our thinking brain structure. This is not to say that
to strive for perfection is a failing, rather that it is
difficult to climb such a ladder if one is always
looking down at the rungs where one's foot slipped!!
The latter does not exactly inspire one with trust
for further upward mobility... huh?
Where dissatisfaction results in progress at correcting
the offending imperfection, then this is surely to be
welcomed, huh?
However, when discontent is simply a malaria-like
breeding ground for yet more discontent, the constant
re-playing of a dissatisfaction rap-disc, the repetitious
rehersal of complaining.....then this indicates a basic
spiritual abdication of 'self responsibility'.
Surely Freud clearly demonstrated the ease with which
we can 'indoctrinate self' into a pattern of irrationality and
fear, to the extent that we became obsessively
dominated by such patterns.
It is amazing in life how so often we can meet
people who, by our own standards, have
mountains of reasons to complain...and yet
they do not. Bet you can think of a few...mainly
people with appalling sickness or poverty.
"All happy people are grateful. Ungrateful people
cannot be happy. We tend to think that being
unhappy leads people to complain, but it's truer to
say that complaining leads to people becoming unhappy".
Dennis Prager
Hmmm... now there's an interesting..and challenging...
statement, huh?
So, full circle. I'm back to my old traditional song,
"Count your blessings
name them one by one
and it will surprise you
what the 'Lord' has done"
What the One God hasn't yet done, in his/her/it's
lovingness toward you, is perhaps a question
of 'self starting'. For free will implies that
nothing WILL be done unless you WILL
that it shall be done......huh?
In Psalm 22 of the Jewish and Christian
Holy Books...there is a formula. When
we are unhappy/dissatisfied/discontented
we serve ourselves best when we remember
all the reasons we have to trust in the
lovingness of the One God. The Psalm
ends with a statement of total acceptance
that the One God will be victorious and will
deliver us from whatever assails us.
The Psalm starts with words that many will
probably know already...even if the context
of their normal useage is not exactly the meaning
the most famous user has been interpreted as
saying...the Psalm starts:
"My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
Hmmm...did Jesus really complain upon the cross,
in the hour of His torment...or was He (in the habit
of Rabbis of the day) drawing our attention to
all the words of this Psalm?
You judge it. Look at the Psalm and see...
was He complaining or was He demonstrating
gratitude and trust ?
In most of the world's Holy Books..no matter
what 'religious label' they wear....there are
common strands, rivers, of lovingness. It's just
that sometimes in the translation, or sometimes
just because we haven't fully understood the
'social setting' of the words....we often can
misunderstand the real meaning.
As Afsana showed (in the last blog) not everyone
who knows the right meaning tells others correctly.
In the matter of complaints versus blessings....
actions speak louder than words.....huh?
return to website......................lo.2ya.com
Wednesday, March 06, 2002
Tuesday 5th March 2002 21-30 CET
Ayodha
I love India. I have for most of my life. I held India
in high respect, being an englishman, for the manner
in which India 'escorted' the english colonial power
out of India and gained, re-gained, it's freedom.
Though it seems that for as long as India can still
be divided along 'sectarian/religious' lines it has
not actually gained it's freedom from the
'colonial power games'. It is not, truly, independant.
India is rich with tradition, is immersed in tolerance
for others. This is the India I know and have experienced,
in the land itself and within the many Indians I have met
during my life.
Is this that follows, India?
"When part of the mob reached Afsana's house, she
fled with her five-year-old brother to a neighbor's
house. From the neighbor's roof, Afsana saw the mob
pull her parents from their home, douse them in gasoline
and set them alight. Her four sisters were stripped,
raped and killed. Along the lanes, other houses
were burning.
After a couple of hours, her neighbor said it was safe for
her to leave. It was a trick. In the lane, a pack of men
attacked her. "I fell on the ground," she says, "and I could
see all these people. They were people I knew who lived
around our house." Both she and her brother were splashed
with gasoline but she managed to scramble up and get away,
clutching her brother's hand. Both of their clothes were alight.
When she reached a wall and started climbing up, she lost
hold of her brother. Once on a roof, she looked down and
watched him burn to death".
(Is it possible to read this without weeping?)
This was reported in a Time magazine article. I have edited
out the various 'religious' adjectives, as they mean nothing.
They are supposedly justifications for such actions,
politicised religious justifications. Faith is manifest in
loving actions, not in angry words or hateful deeds.In
the madness of hatred/intolerance the credibility of
religions, as a mirror of God, is murdered.
It wasn't so different in Europe a few hundred years ago.
Or in the way that European politicised religions colonised
South America...and even slaughtered their converts!!
Or Northern Ireland with it's ingrained sectarianism.
So we see the gradual demise of the established
religious institutions of Europe and the failure of
those institutions to answer the challenge of truly
witnessing in totally loving methodologies. We observe
a similar breaking down of 'religious institution power'
in other areas of the world also.
When politics can override faith: when obscenity can
overrule decency....how can any resultant actions
be in any way classified as 'religious'?.
And which of us is wise enough, holy enough,
devout enough to be able to say with total certainty
that this 5 year old innocent who died was not
the new Rama, the new Mohammed, the new
Christ?
It were better that all these so-called 'religious
institutions' were dead and buried than that the
life of another innocent be sacrificed on the altar
of intolerance.I, personally, cannot conceive of any
'holy' site, nor 'holy cause', that can have been carved
with the hand of hatred and washed with the blood of
innocents. The thing that is so ironic is that it
is those who profess such 'religion' that are
killing it themselves, huh? Their silence in
not speaking out against such atrocities is
as deafening as the grave.
How many more stories like Afsana's must we
read before we see, fully, the interdependence
of the lovingness and grasp with both hands
the preciousness of differences?. Each
individualised atom is a statement of
lovingness that emanates from 'The Oneness'.
When we kill each other (in thought, word or
deed), we kill 'the lovingness' inside ourselves!
Little by little we deprive ourselves of the
ability to see the wonder of the lovingness in
everything, and everybody, around us.
Even then, the unconditionality of the
'lovingness' seeks to hold us.....if we
are willing to be held. Afsana does not hate
those who did this. She blames a system
that abused and/or misused the ordinary
people. We can wonder that one so young
as her can have such 'lovingness', huh?
Oh, but how I wish with all my heart that
we could take away her pain and the pain
of so many, so many like her.
return to website.................lo.2ya.com
Ayodha
I love India. I have for most of my life. I held India
in high respect, being an englishman, for the manner
in which India 'escorted' the english colonial power
out of India and gained, re-gained, it's freedom.
Though it seems that for as long as India can still
be divided along 'sectarian/religious' lines it has
not actually gained it's freedom from the
'colonial power games'. It is not, truly, independant.
India is rich with tradition, is immersed in tolerance
for others. This is the India I know and have experienced,
in the land itself and within the many Indians I have met
during my life.
Is this that follows, India?
"When part of the mob reached Afsana's house, she
fled with her five-year-old brother to a neighbor's
house. From the neighbor's roof, Afsana saw the mob
pull her parents from their home, douse them in gasoline
and set them alight. Her four sisters were stripped,
raped and killed. Along the lanes, other houses
were burning.
After a couple of hours, her neighbor said it was safe for
her to leave. It was a trick. In the lane, a pack of men
attacked her. "I fell on the ground," she says, "and I could
see all these people. They were people I knew who lived
around our house." Both she and her brother were splashed
with gasoline but she managed to scramble up and get away,
clutching her brother's hand. Both of their clothes were alight.
When she reached a wall and started climbing up, she lost
hold of her brother. Once on a roof, she looked down and
watched him burn to death".
(Is it possible to read this without weeping?)
This was reported in a Time magazine article. I have edited
out the various 'religious' adjectives, as they mean nothing.
They are supposedly justifications for such actions,
politicised religious justifications. Faith is manifest in
loving actions, not in angry words or hateful deeds.In
the madness of hatred/intolerance the credibility of
religions, as a mirror of God, is murdered.
It wasn't so different in Europe a few hundred years ago.
Or in the way that European politicised religions colonised
South America...and even slaughtered their converts!!
Or Northern Ireland with it's ingrained sectarianism.
So we see the gradual demise of the established
religious institutions of Europe and the failure of
those institutions to answer the challenge of truly
witnessing in totally loving methodologies. We observe
a similar breaking down of 'religious institution power'
in other areas of the world also.
When politics can override faith: when obscenity can
overrule decency....how can any resultant actions
be in any way classified as 'religious'?.
And which of us is wise enough, holy enough,
devout enough to be able to say with total certainty
that this 5 year old innocent who died was not
the new Rama, the new Mohammed, the new
Christ?
It were better that all these so-called 'religious
institutions' were dead and buried than that the
life of another innocent be sacrificed on the altar
of intolerance.I, personally, cannot conceive of any
'holy' site, nor 'holy cause', that can have been carved
with the hand of hatred and washed with the blood of
innocents. The thing that is so ironic is that it
is those who profess such 'religion' that are
killing it themselves, huh? Their silence in
not speaking out against such atrocities is
as deafening as the grave.
How many more stories like Afsana's must we
read before we see, fully, the interdependence
of the lovingness and grasp with both hands
the preciousness of differences?. Each
individualised atom is a statement of
lovingness that emanates from 'The Oneness'.
When we kill each other (in thought, word or
deed), we kill 'the lovingness' inside ourselves!
Little by little we deprive ourselves of the
ability to see the wonder of the lovingness in
everything, and everybody, around us.
Even then, the unconditionality of the
'lovingness' seeks to hold us.....if we
are willing to be held. Afsana does not hate
those who did this. She blames a system
that abused and/or misused the ordinary
people. We can wonder that one so young
as her can have such 'lovingness', huh?
Oh, but how I wish with all my heart that
we could take away her pain and the pain
of so many, so many like her.
return to website.................lo.2ya.com
Wednesday, February 27, 2002
27th February 2002 10-30 CET
Self knowing
Quote:
"If you do not want what I want
please try not to tell me that my want is wrong.
Or if my beliefs are different than yours,
at least pause before you set out to correct them.
Or if my emotion seems less or more intense
than yours,
given the same circumstances,
try not to ask me to feel other than I do.
Or if I act, or fail to act,
in the manner of your design for action,
please let me be.
I do not, for the moment at least,
ask you to understand me.
That will come only when you are willing to
give up trying to change me into a copy of you.
If you will allow me any of me own wants,
emotions or beliefs, or actions,
then you open yourself up to the possibility
that some day these ways of mine might not
seem so wrong,
and might finally appear as right -
for me.
To put up with me is the first step
to understanding me.
Not that you embrace my ways as right for you,
but that you are no longer irritated
or disappointed with me for my seeming waywardness.
And one day, perhaps, in trying to understand me,
you might come to prize my differences,
and,
far from seeking to change me, might preserve
and even cherish those differences.
I may be your spouse, your parent, your offspring,
your friend, your colleague.
But whatever our relation, this I know;
You and I are fundamentally different
and both of us
have to march to our own drummer."
Rerpinted with the kind permission of
Professor David Keirsey:
"Please Understand Me II"
Published by Prometheus Nemesis Book Co.
ISBN 1-885705-02-6
The Keirsey Temperament Sorter test
can be found at:
www.keirsey.com
return to website.............http://lo.2ya.com
Self knowing
Quote:
"If you do not want what I want
please try not to tell me that my want is wrong.
Or if my beliefs are different than yours,
at least pause before you set out to correct them.
Or if my emotion seems less or more intense
than yours,
given the same circumstances,
try not to ask me to feel other than I do.
Or if I act, or fail to act,
in the manner of your design for action,
please let me be.
I do not, for the moment at least,
ask you to understand me.
That will come only when you are willing to
give up trying to change me into a copy of you.
If you will allow me any of me own wants,
emotions or beliefs, or actions,
then you open yourself up to the possibility
that some day these ways of mine might not
seem so wrong,
and might finally appear as right -
for me.
To put up with me is the first step
to understanding me.
Not that you embrace my ways as right for you,
but that you are no longer irritated
or disappointed with me for my seeming waywardness.
And one day, perhaps, in trying to understand me,
you might come to prize my differences,
and,
far from seeking to change me, might preserve
and even cherish those differences.
I may be your spouse, your parent, your offspring,
your friend, your colleague.
But whatever our relation, this I know;
You and I are fundamentally different
and both of us
have to march to our own drummer."
Rerpinted with the kind permission of
Professor David Keirsey:
"Please Understand Me II"
Published by Prometheus Nemesis Book Co.
ISBN 1-885705-02-6
The Keirsey Temperament Sorter test
can be found at:
www.keirsey.com
return to website.............http://lo.2ya.com
Monday, February 25, 2002
25th February 2002 13-40 CET
Raison d'etre
As folks seek 'enlightenment' nowadays, it
seems so often to me that there is great
disatisfaction with life. So, we seek
something better, huh?
That is also the modus operandi of the
'consumer society': it's NEW, it's Improved,
it's got this extra or that extra, it's the latest
technology, it's the most approved version,
it's the most sold!!!! etc.etc.etc.
Clearly, this methodology is suspect! For
as with most new purchases, be it hi-fi or
washing powder, we are often confronted with
an unpleasant fact...we have been the victim
of 'hype' .
When this happens with spiritual methodologies
it leads to considerable unhappiness......
hmmm....is that what folks were seeking in
the pursuit of enlightenment? Happiness?
Hmmmm......"The purpose of our lives is to be happy".
so said the 14th Dalai Lama
Is that what the search for 'enlightenment' is about?
If so, then how do we achieve this 'blissful state?"
Endless meditation? Chanting mantras?
Retreating into 'holy caves' or temples?
Hmmmm...
"If you want happiness for an hour - take a nap.
If you want happiness for a day - go fishing.
If you want happiness for a month - get married.
If you want happiness for a year - inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a lifetime - help someone else".
Chinese Proverb
Or, put another way,
"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
If you want to be happy, practice compassion."
Dalai Lama
Now in my case it may be a very compassionate
action to hide away in a meditative cave for
endless years...thus sparing humanity the
affliction of my thoughts.............hehehehehe
However, it seems clear from all the great
spiritual leaders.....
there can neither be enlightenment nor
happiness without 'inter-action'.
It is the energy cycle of the lovingness,
the ebb and flow of it's compassion,
that is in every single aspect and atom
of existing. Stem the flow = unhappiness,
huh?
return to website............... http://lo.2ya.com
Raison d'etre
As folks seek 'enlightenment' nowadays, it
seems so often to me that there is great
disatisfaction with life. So, we seek
something better, huh?
That is also the modus operandi of the
'consumer society': it's NEW, it's Improved,
it's got this extra or that extra, it's the latest
technology, it's the most approved version,
it's the most sold!!!! etc.etc.etc.
Clearly, this methodology is suspect! For
as with most new purchases, be it hi-fi or
washing powder, we are often confronted with
an unpleasant fact...we have been the victim
of 'hype' .
When this happens with spiritual methodologies
it leads to considerable unhappiness......
hmmm....is that what folks were seeking in
the pursuit of enlightenment? Happiness?
Hmmmm......"The purpose of our lives is to be happy".
so said the 14th Dalai Lama
Is that what the search for 'enlightenment' is about?
If so, then how do we achieve this 'blissful state?"
Endless meditation? Chanting mantras?
Retreating into 'holy caves' or temples?
Hmmmm...
"If you want happiness for an hour - take a nap.
If you want happiness for a day - go fishing.
If you want happiness for a month - get married.
If you want happiness for a year - inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a lifetime - help someone else".
Chinese Proverb
Or, put another way,
"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
If you want to be happy, practice compassion."
Dalai Lama
Now in my case it may be a very compassionate
action to hide away in a meditative cave for
endless years...thus sparing humanity the
affliction of my thoughts.............hehehehehe
However, it seems clear from all the great
spiritual leaders.....
there can neither be enlightenment nor
happiness without 'inter-action'.
It is the energy cycle of the lovingness,
the ebb and flow of it's compassion,
that is in every single aspect and atom
of existing. Stem the flow = unhappiness,
huh?
return to website............... http://lo.2ya.com
Saturday, February 23, 2002
23rd February 2002 10-00 CET
Superglue - postscript
Sometimes I simply write 'what is in my heart' to
write. Afterwards I often wonder 'where did that come
from?", or even if I have the right to 'inflict' my feelings
on others.
Almost always, without fail, when I go into this
introspective self-critical phase, something happens
- one of those 'coincidences' I have spoken about
earlier in this blog.
So I wrote 'superglue' - and today whilst surfing
I came across, was led to, the following quotation
which, out of all the many pages I surfed, hit me
'on the forehead' so to speak.
"People aren't "made" by themselves or by anyone
else: they are released to be what they always were
but had never known they were"
(Archibald MacLeish speaking of Eleanor Roosevelt)
It seemed appropriate to my 'superglue' blog.
return to website...................... http://lo.2ya.com
Superglue - postscript
Sometimes I simply write 'what is in my heart' to
write. Afterwards I often wonder 'where did that come
from?", or even if I have the right to 'inflict' my feelings
on others.
Almost always, without fail, when I go into this
introspective self-critical phase, something happens
- one of those 'coincidences' I have spoken about
earlier in this blog.
So I wrote 'superglue' - and today whilst surfing
I came across, was led to, the following quotation
which, out of all the many pages I surfed, hit me
'on the forehead' so to speak.
"People aren't "made" by themselves or by anyone
else: they are released to be what they always were
but had never known they were"
(Archibald MacLeish speaking of Eleanor Roosevelt)
It seemed appropriate to my 'superglue' blog.
return to website...................... http://lo.2ya.com
22nd February 2002 21-30 CET
Superglue
It's been snowing again and there have been high winds, so
my telephone line is operating spasmodically and even my
mobile phone won't operate. I'm not exactly cut off, isolated,
but it is a reminder of a much acclaimed aspect of
'attaining enlightenment'. Namely, detachment.
There are many and varied methodologies touted by the spiritual
'industry' nowadays for aiding withdrawal from the experiental
and sensing aspects of this existence into a 'higher, loftier,
set-apart' scenario that is being called 'enlightenment' or
'meditation' or 'self realisation' or ....hmmm.....well, I'm
sure you've got the idea, huh?
These techniques appeal to the 'psycho/sciento-intellectual
control mechanism' of the 'thinking brain' in that they profess
an intellectual 'technique', a system that can be learnt and once
learnt becomes a qualification. It's as though folks are
being instructed...and even paying handsomely for the instruction
in the process....that if you study enough techniques, learn enough
quotations, read enough books from these 'masters' or those
'gurus' or these 'enlightened ones'....that all this knowledge
will of and through itself lead you to a doorway that opens
into a club for 'all the enlightened ones'.
Once you 'qualify' , get your 'masters degree' in enlightenment
studies...you're IN.
Forget the fact that, as with all serious study, there is always the
profound temptation to be so absorbed with the new found knowledge
(I said knowledge, not awareness) that the study becomes an end
in itself! It is no longer a means to an end. The 'thinking brain'
is being fed with volumes of knowledge from the four corners
of the earth...and like the amoeba, it multiplies and multiplies
the available 'emptiness' in which to place all this data.
Forget the fact that, generally, a simple human trend is that the more
we become 'qualified' in the eyes of our peer group, the less we seem
to know about such things as humility, unconditional love, simple
acceptance. Indeed, the more we seem to learn the less able we
seem to be to 'accept anything with simplicity'. Hmmm......it's kind of
like having all this data provides us with an inexhaustible armory
of defences against anything we may find unpalatable.Nothing
is more unpalatable to a mind so geared to data-storage, data analysis,
cross referencing, risk analysis, logical perception, doctrinal double-talk,
quagmires of traditionalism, hierarchical progressions, superiority
philosophies........as simplicity!!!!
Things that we are perfectly capable of accepting with simplicity we
are often tempted to turn into a major 'spiritual chess game', huh?
All, ALL these systems, methodologies, techniques....all of them
that seek to remove us from the 'experiencing' into the 'theorising',
.....all rob us of our purpose in being 'in this life'. When we cease to
allow ourselves to 'taste the reality of existing' in favour of some
'pseudo spiritual reality' , we rob ourselves of our real spiritual
intention. For our first intention in being here in the first place
was not to theorise about concepts and doctrines, but to
experience them.
'Truth is not to be believed', for belief is an abstract, theorising,
'thinking brain' scenario (I talk of belief here, Faith is a totally
different thing...and trust an even more different thing!!).
'Truth is not to be believed...it is simply to be accepted!"
And do you think that you are less qualified, or even more qualified,
than someone else when it comes to the matter of perception and
acceptance of A truth? (a spiritual truth, that is!).
"I tell you,whoever will not accept the Kingdom of God (awareness)
like a child, will never enter it". Jesus. Mark c10, v 15
(New English Bible 1961)
"...for it is to the childlike that the kingdom (enlightenment)..belongs."
In short, if you cannot simply accept WHO and WHAT you really
are.....if you cannot simply accept that you already are 'enlightened'
.... then how can you ever experience enlightenment, for you seek
something that is already a treasure within you, yet you neither
see it nor value it, huh? In this 'seeking' we are rewarded with that
which we desire......the thrill, the egotism, the emotional high,
the intellectual satisfaction of.....seeking.
Ah, but 'isolate' yourself from the world and you will see yourself,
some will say. I say, isolate and you see what you wish to see, what
you imagine to see, what you dream to see, what you fantasise about
seeing, for the human brain has an infinite capacity for producing that
which we desire to produce.
It is in BEING and DOING that we experience reality in a material
world. Why else did we come into this material creation?It is by
being active and/or sensitive - even to the movement
of air around a butterfly's wings - that we participate in this
'grand awareness of 'The Oneness', the absolute unconditionality
of the 'lovingness'.
It's so simple. It's so hard to accept because it's so easy.
No matter what we do, or don't do...we can never detach from
'the lovingness of The Oneness'. For we cannot be what we are not!
We can only be what we are...an integrated aspecting of that Oneness.
We are always IN the Oneness and can never be outside the Oneness.
If there is any part of 'The Oneness' that is not enlightened, then it can
only be a 'part of the game' so that another may experience their
enlightenment. For the whole of this 'material creation' is founded upon
the interraction between the negative and positive polarities.
Who, then, is the greater...the one who gives or the one
who receives? If I consider myself 'enlightened' and you consider
yourself 'endarkened', does not your darkness allow my light to shine
brighter, so that I may more fully experience myself? And is not
your 'endarkening' a gift of great love and insight to my 'enlightenment' ?
For you become less than you really are in order that I may
behold who I am
It's so simple...huh?
Simple as 1,2, 3/ ABC. If you can see that your 'endarkening' empowers
my 'enlightening'....then you are already 'enlightened'.....and loving :):)
It's so ordinary it's extraordinary, hahahahahaha
return to website....................................http://lo.2ya.com
Superglue
It's been snowing again and there have been high winds, so
my telephone line is operating spasmodically and even my
mobile phone won't operate. I'm not exactly cut off, isolated,
but it is a reminder of a much acclaimed aspect of
'attaining enlightenment'. Namely, detachment.
There are many and varied methodologies touted by the spiritual
'industry' nowadays for aiding withdrawal from the experiental
and sensing aspects of this existence into a 'higher, loftier,
set-apart' scenario that is being called 'enlightenment' or
'meditation' or 'self realisation' or ....hmmm.....well, I'm
sure you've got the idea, huh?
These techniques appeal to the 'psycho/sciento-intellectual
control mechanism' of the 'thinking brain' in that they profess
an intellectual 'technique', a system that can be learnt and once
learnt becomes a qualification. It's as though folks are
being instructed...and even paying handsomely for the instruction
in the process....that if you study enough techniques, learn enough
quotations, read enough books from these 'masters' or those
'gurus' or these 'enlightened ones'....that all this knowledge
will of and through itself lead you to a doorway that opens
into a club for 'all the enlightened ones'.
Once you 'qualify' , get your 'masters degree' in enlightenment
studies...you're IN.
Forget the fact that, as with all serious study, there is always the
profound temptation to be so absorbed with the new found knowledge
(I said knowledge, not awareness) that the study becomes an end
in itself! It is no longer a means to an end. The 'thinking brain'
is being fed with volumes of knowledge from the four corners
of the earth...and like the amoeba, it multiplies and multiplies
the available 'emptiness' in which to place all this data.
Forget the fact that, generally, a simple human trend is that the more
we become 'qualified' in the eyes of our peer group, the less we seem
to know about such things as humility, unconditional love, simple
acceptance. Indeed, the more we seem to learn the less able we
seem to be to 'accept anything with simplicity'. Hmmm......it's kind of
like having all this data provides us with an inexhaustible armory
of defences against anything we may find unpalatable.Nothing
is more unpalatable to a mind so geared to data-storage, data analysis,
cross referencing, risk analysis, logical perception, doctrinal double-talk,
quagmires of traditionalism, hierarchical progressions, superiority
philosophies........as simplicity!!!!
Things that we are perfectly capable of accepting with simplicity we
are often tempted to turn into a major 'spiritual chess game', huh?
All, ALL these systems, methodologies, techniques....all of them
that seek to remove us from the 'experiencing' into the 'theorising',
.....all rob us of our purpose in being 'in this life'. When we cease to
allow ourselves to 'taste the reality of existing' in favour of some
'pseudo spiritual reality' , we rob ourselves of our real spiritual
intention. For our first intention in being here in the first place
was not to theorise about concepts and doctrines, but to
experience them.
'Truth is not to be believed', for belief is an abstract, theorising,
'thinking brain' scenario (I talk of belief here, Faith is a totally
different thing...and trust an even more different thing!!).
'Truth is not to be believed...it is simply to be accepted!"
And do you think that you are less qualified, or even more qualified,
than someone else when it comes to the matter of perception and
acceptance of A truth? (a spiritual truth, that is!).
"I tell you,whoever will not accept the Kingdom of God (awareness)
like a child, will never enter it". Jesus. Mark c10, v 15
(New English Bible 1961)
"...for it is to the childlike that the kingdom (enlightenment)..belongs."
In short, if you cannot simply accept WHO and WHAT you really
are.....if you cannot simply accept that you already are 'enlightened'
.... then how can you ever experience enlightenment, for you seek
something that is already a treasure within you, yet you neither
see it nor value it, huh? In this 'seeking' we are rewarded with that
which we desire......the thrill, the egotism, the emotional high,
the intellectual satisfaction of.....seeking.
Ah, but 'isolate' yourself from the world and you will see yourself,
some will say. I say, isolate and you see what you wish to see, what
you imagine to see, what you dream to see, what you fantasise about
seeing, for the human brain has an infinite capacity for producing that
which we desire to produce.
It is in BEING and DOING that we experience reality in a material
world. Why else did we come into this material creation?It is by
being active and/or sensitive - even to the movement
of air around a butterfly's wings - that we participate in this
'grand awareness of 'The Oneness', the absolute unconditionality
of the 'lovingness'.
It's so simple. It's so hard to accept because it's so easy.
No matter what we do, or don't do...we can never detach from
'the lovingness of The Oneness'. For we cannot be what we are not!
We can only be what we are...an integrated aspecting of that Oneness.
We are always IN the Oneness and can never be outside the Oneness.
If there is any part of 'The Oneness' that is not enlightened, then it can
only be a 'part of the game' so that another may experience their
enlightenment. For the whole of this 'material creation' is founded upon
the interraction between the negative and positive polarities.
Who, then, is the greater...the one who gives or the one
who receives? If I consider myself 'enlightened' and you consider
yourself 'endarkened', does not your darkness allow my light to shine
brighter, so that I may more fully experience myself? And is not
your 'endarkening' a gift of great love and insight to my 'enlightenment' ?
For you become less than you really are in order that I may
behold who I am
It's so simple...huh?
Simple as 1,2, 3/ ABC. If you can see that your 'endarkening' empowers
my 'enlightening'....then you are already 'enlightened'.....and loving :):)
It's so ordinary it's extraordinary, hahahahahaha
return to website....................................http://lo.2ya.com
Friday, February 15, 2002
15th February 2002 00-25 CET
Cook the SPAM
In the last 6 months it seems the amount of spam
hitting my email boxes has expanded at a rate that
is....incredible (I'll swear it's breeding on it's own!).
HELP!
Well help is on it's way..............
may I respectfully suggest you take a look at a
marvellous FREE programme that really helps
with this problem.....go to
www.mailwasher.net
and I am reasonably sure you will be glad you did :):)
Oh, and is you want an easy-to-use FREE video editor
then have a look at
www.aist.com
and download the 29 MB file for MovieXone 4.0
return to website............................... http.lo.2ya.com
Cook the SPAM
In the last 6 months it seems the amount of spam
hitting my email boxes has expanded at a rate that
is....incredible (I'll swear it's breeding on it's own!).
HELP!
Well help is on it's way..............
may I respectfully suggest you take a look at a
marvellous FREE programme that really helps
with this problem.....go to
www.mailwasher.net
and I am reasonably sure you will be glad you did :):)
Oh, and is you want an easy-to-use FREE video editor
then have a look at
www.aist.com
and download the 29 MB file for MovieXone 4.0
return to website............................... http.lo.2ya.com
14th February 2002 23-45 CET
Truth is not something to be believed...
but something to be accepted
return to website..............................http://lo.2ya.com
Truth is not something to be believed...
but something to be accepted
return to website..............................http://lo.2ya.com
Tuesday, February 12, 2002
12 February 2002 23-15 CET
Hooking Up
Human Beings, being 'social creatures', often tend to 'group'
or 'bond' in associations/peer groups/relationships out of a
need to assert their 'social characteristics'...or even simply
out of a need to feel they 'belong' somewhere.
In it's most accute form this aspect of human psychology
can be simply a statement of profound loneliness, lack of
self identity or sense of low self worth.
So it is that manifestations of this 'characteristic' become
most noticeable in one of two catagories: amongst teenagers
seeking self identity or amongst the middle aged who have either
lost their sense of self identity or perhaps never even found it.
This trend is easily visible within almost every aspect of social
interraction, be it school, college, University or at the other end
of the scale, religious institutions, political organisations and
at the far extreme, terrorist organisations. Most of these
arenas offer a methodology of social recognition and, consequently,
a degree of self-esteem.
A terminology that is current and that illustrates a 'non too
committed' expression of this socialising/self identity aspect
of the human psyche, is this term 'hooking up'. A term that
relates, more especially , to expressions of sexuality that are
often hyper aroused by an alcohol/drug abuse environment.
Whatever is failing in a society, whatever is most vulnerable
to change...and therefore, hopefully, progress, is always...always
first illuminated by the excesses demonstrated within the youth
of a society. If any hypocrisy exists, and contradiction between
law and practice, morality and expediency - every modern society
can depend upon it's youth to highlight the inherent absurdities
of the position.
That is great...but it also does not come without cost!! Progress,
advancement, social awareness, seems always, throughout the
ages, to have been at the cost of so much misery for the young.
Thankfully it seems that the days when the young were simply
'canon fodder' have now disappeared (with the exception of a
few states in the world where even 'child soldiers' of 8, 9 and 10
years old are indoctrinated to commit horrendous deeds).
The disenchantment with long established institutions and religions,
and the consequent failure of these orgs to be of any relevance,
is a result of them sowing the seeds of their own destruction
within themselves. "You can fool some of the people all of the
time, all of the people some of the time...but never all of the people
all of the time", huh?
Nowadays it seems the cost of the failure of these orgs can be
measured by the rise in 'lost self esteem' within our young. They,
apparently, seek 'arousal expression' in methodologies that are
not only statements of distrust and disbelief in those 'old orgs', but
are also as dangereous and destructive as were the trenches of
the Somme!!
Hiding in 'fundamentalism' is as much an escape as cocaine.
Hiding in irresponsibility (to self) is as lethal as alcohol poisoning.
Hiding in the emotional feel good factor of 'New Age' philosophies
and creeds is as brain damaging as Ectstasy.
If we must 'hook up', if we must really try to find the most amazing
'high' available in this life, if we really seek self identity and
recognition amongst our peer group for who and what we are......
then let's understand one simple, basic, essential law....
we only find it within when we truly find ourselves.
Only when we fully, totally, completely comprehend the
phenomenal beauty of just how amazing each individual is
in the total scheme of 'The Oneness'......only then are we
truly 'hooked up', connected, online, kewl!
Only when we see ourselves, respect our own individual
standards, reflect our self-esteem in our caring for and respect
towards ourself and others...........only then are we truly,
amazingly, astoundingly, on the highest 'high' life can offer...
'hooked up' and super conscious to the 'lovingness' that is
ourself.
Hey, when you love yourself it's easy to love others. Hey,
when you are 'in touch' with your inner self you are always
'in touch' with others. It cannot be otherwise, for to really
know one's self is to know 'The Oneness' of which we are
all a part..interconnected, inter-related, inter-netted!!
Oh, way2go Ross, Danny and JJ :):)
return to website....................... http://lo.2ya.com
Hooking Up
Human Beings, being 'social creatures', often tend to 'group'
or 'bond' in associations/peer groups/relationships out of a
need to assert their 'social characteristics'...or even simply
out of a need to feel they 'belong' somewhere.
In it's most accute form this aspect of human psychology
can be simply a statement of profound loneliness, lack of
self identity or sense of low self worth.
So it is that manifestations of this 'characteristic' become
most noticeable in one of two catagories: amongst teenagers
seeking self identity or amongst the middle aged who have either
lost their sense of self identity or perhaps never even found it.
This trend is easily visible within almost every aspect of social
interraction, be it school, college, University or at the other end
of the scale, religious institutions, political organisations and
at the far extreme, terrorist organisations. Most of these
arenas offer a methodology of social recognition and, consequently,
a degree of self-esteem.
A terminology that is current and that illustrates a 'non too
committed' expression of this socialising/self identity aspect
of the human psyche, is this term 'hooking up'. A term that
relates, more especially , to expressions of sexuality that are
often hyper aroused by an alcohol/drug abuse environment.
Whatever is failing in a society, whatever is most vulnerable
to change...and therefore, hopefully, progress, is always...always
first illuminated by the excesses demonstrated within the youth
of a society. If any hypocrisy exists, and contradiction between
law and practice, morality and expediency - every modern society
can depend upon it's youth to highlight the inherent absurdities
of the position.
That is great...but it also does not come without cost!! Progress,
advancement, social awareness, seems always, throughout the
ages, to have been at the cost of so much misery for the young.
Thankfully it seems that the days when the young were simply
'canon fodder' have now disappeared (with the exception of a
few states in the world where even 'child soldiers' of 8, 9 and 10
years old are indoctrinated to commit horrendous deeds).
The disenchantment with long established institutions and religions,
and the consequent failure of these orgs to be of any relevance,
is a result of them sowing the seeds of their own destruction
within themselves. "You can fool some of the people all of the
time, all of the people some of the time...but never all of the people
all of the time", huh?
Nowadays it seems the cost of the failure of these orgs can be
measured by the rise in 'lost self esteem' within our young. They,
apparently, seek 'arousal expression' in methodologies that are
not only statements of distrust and disbelief in those 'old orgs', but
are also as dangereous and destructive as were the trenches of
the Somme!!
Hiding in 'fundamentalism' is as much an escape as cocaine.
Hiding in irresponsibility (to self) is as lethal as alcohol poisoning.
Hiding in the emotional feel good factor of 'New Age' philosophies
and creeds is as brain damaging as Ectstasy.
If we must 'hook up', if we must really try to find the most amazing
'high' available in this life, if we really seek self identity and
recognition amongst our peer group for who and what we are......
then let's understand one simple, basic, essential law....
we only find it within when we truly find ourselves.
Only when we fully, totally, completely comprehend the
phenomenal beauty of just how amazing each individual is
in the total scheme of 'The Oneness'......only then are we
truly 'hooked up', connected, online, kewl!
Only when we see ourselves, respect our own individual
standards, reflect our self-esteem in our caring for and respect
towards ourself and others...........only then are we truly,
amazingly, astoundingly, on the highest 'high' life can offer...
'hooked up' and super conscious to the 'lovingness' that is
ourself.
Hey, when you love yourself it's easy to love others. Hey,
when you are 'in touch' with your inner self you are always
'in touch' with others. It cannot be otherwise, for to really
know one's self is to know 'The Oneness' of which we are
all a part..interconnected, inter-related, inter-netted!!
Oh, way2go Ross, Danny and JJ :):)
return to website....................... http://lo.2ya.com
Saturday, February 09, 2002
Saturday 9th February 2002 19-20 hrs CET
I am my own boss
I am yet to discover, in my own perception of standards, which
is the more distressing and painful sight: that of a young person
seemingly bent on self-destruction or that of an old person whose
body rebelliously imposes the burdens of a prisoner upon the mind
and ceases to be any longer at the command of the will.
In the former case it is all too easy too classify the beginnings
of destructive addictions as being simply youthful experimentation.
Mood or mind altering substances such as alcohol, narcotics and such
seem to be such an established aspect of society that youthfulness
cannot be held entirely responsible for an apparent 'free will decision'
to indulge in them. In this there is nothing new, generation to generation
falls for the same salesmanship. Even large scale education has not eased
this problem: in 'achievement related societies' education has been turned
into a competition sport...with all the attendant pressures, rewards and
sponshorships that go with it.
In the latter case the results of over indulgence in what was the
previously- and still regrettably- accepted norm for addiction, alcohol,
extracts a horrendous toll in suffering - from ulcerated and unusable legs
to a brain that is constantly bombarded with bombshells of haemmorrages
or small clots. The ability to tolerate large quantities is not an achievement,
but a loss, huh?
Yesterday I was reading of alcohol poisoning - the result of home
made spirit sold to teenagers by a much older person - in two 13 year
olds. I have seen, and continue to see many times, the long term effects
of alcohol poisoning - caused by uncontrollable over-indulgence - in older
people.
There is also a 'spiritual addiction' as I call it. It is in the form of uncontrolled
reliance, without test and often without knowledge, on traditions and
'fundamentalist standpoints'.
So, where are we going with this diatribe?
To a simple place... a place that goes by the name of 'self-responsibility'
We have chosen to come into this life, this experiencing reality. So, why, therefore,
do so many choose to opt out of the reality of the experiencing and hide from
it within mood altering methodologies?
It kind of defeats the object of coming here in the first place, don't it???
You know...you know the truth of this. You know it inside. I cannot tell
it to you....for you know what I know and vice versa.
What we can, however, do...as bearers of 'the lovingness'..is remind each
other. Not from a position of superiority or elitism, or even ego, but simply
from the point of view that we are all one.... for true lovingness makes it's
home in the halls of humility.
"a true disciple knows another's pain as his own"
return to website..................................... http://lo.2ya.com
I am my own boss
I am yet to discover, in my own perception of standards, which
is the more distressing and painful sight: that of a young person
seemingly bent on self-destruction or that of an old person whose
body rebelliously imposes the burdens of a prisoner upon the mind
and ceases to be any longer at the command of the will.
In the former case it is all too easy too classify the beginnings
of destructive addictions as being simply youthful experimentation.
Mood or mind altering substances such as alcohol, narcotics and such
seem to be such an established aspect of society that youthfulness
cannot be held entirely responsible for an apparent 'free will decision'
to indulge in them. In this there is nothing new, generation to generation
falls for the same salesmanship. Even large scale education has not eased
this problem: in 'achievement related societies' education has been turned
into a competition sport...with all the attendant pressures, rewards and
sponshorships that go with it.
In the latter case the results of over indulgence in what was the
previously- and still regrettably- accepted norm for addiction, alcohol,
extracts a horrendous toll in suffering - from ulcerated and unusable legs
to a brain that is constantly bombarded with bombshells of haemmorrages
or small clots. The ability to tolerate large quantities is not an achievement,
but a loss, huh?
Yesterday I was reading of alcohol poisoning - the result of home
made spirit sold to teenagers by a much older person - in two 13 year
olds. I have seen, and continue to see many times, the long term effects
of alcohol poisoning - caused by uncontrollable over-indulgence - in older
people.
There is also a 'spiritual addiction' as I call it. It is in the form of uncontrolled
reliance, without test and often without knowledge, on traditions and
'fundamentalist standpoints'.
So, where are we going with this diatribe?
To a simple place... a place that goes by the name of 'self-responsibility'
We have chosen to come into this life, this experiencing reality. So, why, therefore,
do so many choose to opt out of the reality of the experiencing and hide from
it within mood altering methodologies?
It kind of defeats the object of coming here in the first place, don't it???
You know...you know the truth of this. You know it inside. I cannot tell
it to you....for you know what I know and vice versa.
What we can, however, do...as bearers of 'the lovingness'..is remind each
other. Not from a position of superiority or elitism, or even ego, but simply
from the point of view that we are all one.... for true lovingness makes it's
home in the halls of humility.
"a true disciple knows another's pain as his own"
return to website..................................... http://lo.2ya.com
Wednesday, February 06, 2002
Wednesday 6th February 2002 21-00 CET
Digestion
Now I am starting to get more into my 'normal' routines
after my travels and the catching up that an absence of a
few weeks creates. This is not a complaint, simply an
observation, for travelling (especially when it permits
the making of new friends) is a marvellous thing to do.
It's also nice to come back home :) To find the stillness
again. To be in the quietness again. To visit places like
New Delhi or airports like Charles de Gaulle in Paris is
exciting, challenging and stimulating.
That which is most meaningful is often seen clearer at a
distance. Transcendental meditation is founded on this
principle (as opposed to intramundane meditation). Rising
above the normality of existing and looking down upon it
allows for much more of the beauty of the lovingness to
be observed than is usual from a more involved stance.
Being in the quietness of my home, however, allows time
for all the marvellous experiences, all the incredible moments
with new people, to be absorbed and integrated in a manner
that the noise and energy of large cities hardly permits. For
I can view these experiences 'from a distance' and see the wonder
of them all.
Good food should never be eaten in a hurry, so it is with
good life experiences. They need to be savoured, the subleties
and nuances tasted in the soul. Only then can their true flavour,
the richness of their quality, be adequately discerned.
Fast food is ok...and I quite like burgers, hehehehe......but a meal
taken in a meditative manner, absorbed by and given attention to
with the whole person,that's a whole different type of enjoyment.
Loving. Friendship. Caring...these are meals of experiencing that
require time........require stillness from the hectic daily activities.
Only then can the full miracle, the full extraordinary qualities of
these seemingly ordinary things...be fully digested in all their
sumptuousness.
return to website....................................... http://lo.2ya.com
Digestion
Now I am starting to get more into my 'normal' routines
after my travels and the catching up that an absence of a
few weeks creates. This is not a complaint, simply an
observation, for travelling (especially when it permits
the making of new friends) is a marvellous thing to do.
It's also nice to come back home :) To find the stillness
again. To be in the quietness again. To visit places like
New Delhi or airports like Charles de Gaulle in Paris is
exciting, challenging and stimulating.
That which is most meaningful is often seen clearer at a
distance. Transcendental meditation is founded on this
principle (as opposed to intramundane meditation). Rising
above the normality of existing and looking down upon it
allows for much more of the beauty of the lovingness to
be observed than is usual from a more involved stance.
Being in the quietness of my home, however, allows time
for all the marvellous experiences, all the incredible moments
with new people, to be absorbed and integrated in a manner
that the noise and energy of large cities hardly permits. For
I can view these experiences 'from a distance' and see the wonder
of them all.
Good food should never be eaten in a hurry, so it is with
good life experiences. They need to be savoured, the subleties
and nuances tasted in the soul. Only then can their true flavour,
the richness of their quality, be adequately discerned.
Fast food is ok...and I quite like burgers, hehehehe......but a meal
taken in a meditative manner, absorbed by and given attention to
with the whole person,that's a whole different type of enjoyment.
Loving. Friendship. Caring...these are meals of experiencing that
require time........require stillness from the hectic daily activities.
Only then can the full miracle, the full extraordinary qualities of
these seemingly ordinary things...be fully digested in all their
sumptuousness.
return to website....................................... http://lo.2ya.com
Saturday, February 02, 2002
Saturday 2nd February 2002 21-30 cet
Safe return
Back from my travels! India, a most fascinating place. It is the home
of some truly extraordinary people. Warm, friendly, open and with a unique
ability to somehow encourage a higher manifestation of spirituality within
one's self.
Why this should be I am not entirely certain, but I believe there is a
fundamental and very ancient spiritual base within the society. Generally
speaking there always seems to be an atmosphere which is encouraging
to the best in a person. Of course, getting off the plane presents one with the
usual outside the terminal taxi cab hassles that are the hallmark of international
travel amost anywhere in the world. That aside, India has the amazing ability
to always 'present a willing helper' whenever one is needed and most normally
simply as a gesture of human caring without the requirement for payment.
It's an easy place to make new friends, good friends, respectful friends (if you are
also respectful!) and I have made so many new ones on this trip also.
So, to any of them who might happen to read this blog......my heartfelt thanks for
a wonderful trip, for innumerable kindnesses, for unconditional friendship and the
caring that accompanies it. From people who woke in the middle of the night to
wish me 'Bon Voyage', from a man who missed three buses in order to ensure we
would catch ours, for staff at guest lodges and hotels whose friendliness made
us feel like one of the family, for the staff and children at Sinai Orphanage who
blessed us with so many blessings.......... fellow travellers on trains whose
pleasurable company graced our journey. So many, so many beautiful
memories of wonderful people.
It was like an orchard in Autumn, ripe with fruits of lovingness and every place
the trees of life hanging heavy with such an abundance of fruits.
It is said that India is a poor country and by some economic measures
that is possibly true..........but if the character, conscientiousness and
humanity of a people is counted into such an equation, India overflows
with richness.
In The Oneness - no matter where we are - lovingness surrounds us
and embraces us, if we are willing to find the extraordinary in the
ordinary. In India it is so easy, so very easy, to find :):)
return to website................................ http://lo.2ya.com
Safe return
Back from my travels! India, a most fascinating place. It is the home
of some truly extraordinary people. Warm, friendly, open and with a unique
ability to somehow encourage a higher manifestation of spirituality within
one's self.
Why this should be I am not entirely certain, but I believe there is a
fundamental and very ancient spiritual base within the society. Generally
speaking there always seems to be an atmosphere which is encouraging
to the best in a person. Of course, getting off the plane presents one with the
usual outside the terminal taxi cab hassles that are the hallmark of international
travel amost anywhere in the world. That aside, India has the amazing ability
to always 'present a willing helper' whenever one is needed and most normally
simply as a gesture of human caring without the requirement for payment.
It's an easy place to make new friends, good friends, respectful friends (if you are
also respectful!) and I have made so many new ones on this trip also.
So, to any of them who might happen to read this blog......my heartfelt thanks for
a wonderful trip, for innumerable kindnesses, for unconditional friendship and the
caring that accompanies it. From people who woke in the middle of the night to
wish me 'Bon Voyage', from a man who missed three buses in order to ensure we
would catch ours, for staff at guest lodges and hotels whose friendliness made
us feel like one of the family, for the staff and children at Sinai Orphanage who
blessed us with so many blessings.......... fellow travellers on trains whose
pleasurable company graced our journey. So many, so many beautiful
memories of wonderful people.
It was like an orchard in Autumn, ripe with fruits of lovingness and every place
the trees of life hanging heavy with such an abundance of fruits.
It is said that India is a poor country and by some economic measures
that is possibly true..........but if the character, conscientiousness and
humanity of a people is counted into such an equation, India overflows
with richness.
In The Oneness - no matter where we are - lovingness surrounds us
and embraces us, if we are willing to find the extraordinary in the
ordinary. In India it is so easy, so very easy, to find :):)
return to website................................ http://lo.2ya.com
Saturday, January 05, 2002
Wednesday, January 02, 2002
1st January 200...?...2 23-30 CET
Tempus fugits..sometimes
There are times in life when the simple, straightforward
expressions of togetherness, belonging, are incredibly
joyful celebrations of what life is actually about.
Christmas and New Year are such times for us in the west.
There is time for unpacking gifts, time for sharing with family
and friends..time......time to sit in quiet contemplation of
celebrations past, of persons lovingly remembered that no
longer share the physical present with us.
In an apparent forest isolation that is my present life
circumstance...a scenario that I think must have astounded
my friends and family...I am so richly blessed with the
opportunities to 'take time'...to taste the luxury of every
memory of being loved...by so many over such a long period.
So now I always follow a little 'tradition' on New Year's Eve.
I come in through the front door of the house bringing with
me the *New Year* and welcoming it to our home...inviting
peace and increasing self-knowledge to accompany it as
welcome guests. Then I go out through the back door of the
house, letting out the 'old year', but not before I have thanked
it for all the blessings it brought and for all the lovingness it gave.
There is never a year that does not come with blessings. Never
a year that has come without it's close companion..lovingness.
Never a year that I am not deeply thankful that I travelled into
this experiencing existence called life and came into a place where
I was so greatly blessed with the lovingness expressing through
a wonderful..and large...family.
The Aunts, Uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces, brother, sisters in law,
my Mother, my Father...my parents-in-law, my wife...all who through
their experiencing allowed me to express who I am....and despite that,
or just maybe because of that, were still able to love me.
I do not think that any of them taught me 'love'......but I am so very
sure that they all helped me to understand the importance of
sharing 'love'.
For a life that nearly did not exist at all.....my life has been so
profoundly, immeasurably, incredibly---even enigmatically..
illuminated by the sunbeams of lovingness.
I do so hope yours has too.
It's a new day, a New Year.............another opportunity to
find the blessings, count them, bathe in them, be absorbed
by them...shine with them :):)
return to website..............................................http://lo.2ya.com
Tempus fugits..sometimes
There are times in life when the simple, straightforward
expressions of togetherness, belonging, are incredibly
joyful celebrations of what life is actually about.
Christmas and New Year are such times for us in the west.
There is time for unpacking gifts, time for sharing with family
and friends..time......time to sit in quiet contemplation of
celebrations past, of persons lovingly remembered that no
longer share the physical present with us.
In an apparent forest isolation that is my present life
circumstance...a scenario that I think must have astounded
my friends and family...I am so richly blessed with the
opportunities to 'take time'...to taste the luxury of every
memory of being loved...by so many over such a long period.
So now I always follow a little 'tradition' on New Year's Eve.
I come in through the front door of the house bringing with
me the *New Year* and welcoming it to our home...inviting
peace and increasing self-knowledge to accompany it as
welcome guests. Then I go out through the back door of the
house, letting out the 'old year', but not before I have thanked
it for all the blessings it brought and for all the lovingness it gave.
There is never a year that does not come with blessings. Never
a year that has come without it's close companion..lovingness.
Never a year that I am not deeply thankful that I travelled into
this experiencing existence called life and came into a place where
I was so greatly blessed with the lovingness expressing through
a wonderful..and large...family.
The Aunts, Uncles, cousins, nephews, nieces, brother, sisters in law,
my Mother, my Father...my parents-in-law, my wife...all who through
their experiencing allowed me to express who I am....and despite that,
or just maybe because of that, were still able to love me.
I do not think that any of them taught me 'love'......but I am so very
sure that they all helped me to understand the importance of
sharing 'love'.
For a life that nearly did not exist at all.....my life has been so
profoundly, immeasurably, incredibly---even enigmatically..
illuminated by the sunbeams of lovingness.
I do so hope yours has too.
It's a new day, a New Year.............another opportunity to
find the blessings, count them, bathe in them, be absorbed
by them...shine with them :):)
return to website..............................................http://lo.2ya.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)