It’s All Too Much #3
Hello once again and welcome back.
Recently I received an email from a very dear friend, forwarding and telling me of a ‘massive project’ for the enlightening and empowering of its participants worldwide.
The report/invitation from the originator, a young lady from the Commonwealth, depicts a cooperative effort to raise energy on a specified date a few weeks from now.
Well-meaning and enthusiastic in its tone, the message lacked any stated purpose. In what I am seeing as a typical (more or less) New Age-y way, this project seemed to me to be little more than a wheel-spinner. Revving your engine in neutral does not get you anywhere at all. Put the engine in gear, take off the brakes and steer toward your desired destination.
Goal and intention are the reasons for ‘doing’ anything.
Asked if this resonated with me and giving me details on how to participate at the stated date and time and giving massive amounts of information and requirements about facilitators sought for the project, I responded that:
Yes, actually it does resonate with me, but I do have some concerns.
It seems as though there is no clear intention. That is a key to this sort of work.
Raising energy willy-nilly, without a clear goal and intention for it is a poor idea.
(I certainly need a personal lift. And yet there is this devilish disregard within that keeps me back, spinning my wheels.)
I think the preparatory work would best include banishing that which feeds on our energy and intention. The demonic acedia that even brings best intentions to no avail and turns the strongest practitioner into a depressed lost soul (perhaps even off on some inconsequential tangent) is to be withstood and defeated. And then the raising of power and the empowerment of the individual(s) may occur.
Once adequate clearing is completed, (with clear intention) only then can the clear intention of performance be successfully addressed.
Blocking is not sufficient. What is being blocked? Energy is neutral. Intention is what steers energy toward the desired, or, through resistance, toward the undesired.
It must be remembered that you cannot fill a vessel that is already full, and if you keep pouring clear water into mud you get thinner, more diluted and widespread mud.
So let us not only cap the well of bad thoughts, but empty ourselves of them to be ready to receive divine wisdom and the infinite outpouring of energy to heal ourselves and our blessed Planet.
I asked for forgiveness in case I had somehow misread or misunderstood the message. Did I miss the actual point somehow? I am still unsure, because although I reread the message, I still find no point to it other than the desire to ‘raise power.’
Having completed a master program in esoteric studies, and looking back upon that course work, I see the same syndrome. Power. Desire for power. The teacher/guru/instructor/facilitator shared many tools and methods to raise consciousness and to unite the attendees in a circle to empower the group. Yet I do not recall a purpose. This was not a solution-oriented program either.
In fact, I wonder if the energy raised and not sent with purpose, simply fed whatever random event that may have been happening at the time.
On the other hand, the work and teachings, both first hand and via recordings and books of Sandra Ingerman go for solutions. Healing is involved for the Planet. For water, for the environment.
Fundamentally, this is the difference between the New Age movement and Shamanism. Shamanism heals. Pennsylvania PowWow Heals. Working after the manner and teachings of Doreen Virtue, with the ArchAngels and Ascended Masters heals. And New Age makes fluffy-feel-goods.*
I like the accoutrements of the New Age. Good tools. Good crystals, books, cards, etc. But a tool unused for a positive purpose, is nothing more than clutter.
New Age is a starting point. If it is the end point for an individual, perhaps that is what is best for them. Perhaps it indicates huge strides forward in thought, word and deed. If so, terrific! I do not want it to be simply a mental-homeopathic-fluffy-feel-good or an anesthetic. I hope it is not just entertainment.
As we each heal ourselves within and without, we add to the healing of the planet. Think of us as cells in the body of the Planetary Mother. Healthy people, healthy societies, healthy animals, plants, trees, ecosystems. This must be our goal.
This is out intention here in this blog. Although each of my entries states a deficiency or problem within society, I want it always to be solution-oriented. If I do not deal with solutions, PLEASE, call me to task.
The screaming radio talk show hosts are great at agitating and stirring up wrath. I have yet to hear one who is solution-oriented. As this blog grows, I want you all to comment and participate and discuss solutions, and work toward making them manifest. Let’s fix this mess. Okay?
Divine Blessings,
Victoria
*I do not wish to completely denigrate the New Age Movement. It has many fine and useful aspects that perhaps we will touch on at some point. Primarily because many alternative healing modalities have been lumped into the New Age category since they don’t easily fit in with anything else.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Too Much Too Much # 2 July 2010
Too Much Too Much #2
1. Entry # 2: Not exactly as promised, for herein I skip from one tangent to the next, in hopes that eventually, this ongoing blog will cover every issue of importance with which our world currently contends.
2. A warning: Some of you, some who are even near and dear to me, will find cause for disagreement with some of the things within this post. Please refer to paragraphs 22-24.
3. Have we doomed ourselves with our pleasures?
4. Standing in the shower one morning several months ago, instead of enjoying the sparkling pelting of warm water hitting every part of me and the roughness of the washcloth scrubbing away the prior day’s detritus, I found myself anxiously wondering how soon I would be getting the copy of Relentless by Dean Koontz that I had ordered from Amazon . com. He is by far, my favorite fiction author followed closely by Lee Child, Nelson De Mille, Paulo Coelho, Jasper Fforde, Carl Hiasson, Tim Dorsey, and a few minors who appeal to my witchy genre preference. I began the book at work on my break and the very term ‘page turner’ had to have had this book in mind when it was coined, chronology be damned.
5. How can I be so caught up in a work of fiction? Yes, it is an escape from my present not-so-pleasant reality. What, though, is the point of escaping it? It is mine to deal with. I have the tools. So deal. And yet, look at the broader picture:
6. Our society seeks much of its pleasure in fiction via television, movies and books. I know. I work in bookstores trying to make ends meet. Yeah, we have sports for those who prefer that as an escape. Which is truly something I have never tried to understand, although I suppose it is some form of aggression transference, coupled with identity validation through team (read that tribal) identification. Whatever. And then there is so-called ‘reality TV,’ which again pits characters the viewer does not know, but comes to identify with, in situations they either do or don’t imagine themselves in, and attempting to cope and possibly come out on top. Still not too real if you ask me.
7. Are we endangering ourselves with fiction?
8. Allow me to digress.
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (boy his parents had balls to name a child Napoleon, didn’t they?)
The Secret by Candace Byrne
And now a multitude of others, including the Hicks pair have written an array of helpful books explaining, essentially, how what we concentrate on we bring to pass. I have seen it time and time again.
9. As a writer, a transformational alchemist and shamanic and esoteric practitioner, I fully understand the Power of the Word. If only I would persevere and use it correctly at all times. (I also have a mixer, but sometimes I use a spoon.)
Our imaginations may be our greatest gift as humans, but they may be our ultimate downfall as well. As we have learned that moderation in other pleasures is by far the best approach, perhaps reigning in our outrageous imaginations and focusing on what our desired outcomes are would be more in keeping with our desires for the future and the Creator’s plan for Earth.
10. Should we pray about our thoughts? Yes.
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer.”
‘… putting down vain imaginations and…’
11. There are certain books in the stores in which I have worked that make me feel filthy when I have to touch them. Certain authors have made immense fortunes publishing these things and movies have been made. Over time, the impact of reading and seeing the films has subsided in me to some degree, and yet I still feel somewhat befouled by having ‘consumed’ those pages and images. Why do we think we find ‘pleasure’ in fearful things?
12. Such creativity we have at our disposal! Why do we create nightmares?
13. And the media. Oh! Someone please save us from the media. Please. Controlled by money with agendas, desire for power and influence, the ‘news’ media may be the worst of all in fictionalizing the things that are happening day to day. Yes, they ‘report’ what sells which is most often the sensational, the dark, the scary, the bloody and the lurid, and when they look at government, they look not just to appease, but to participate.
14. Formerly a journalist, I left the profession at the booming time of Watergate because I saw how yellow the press was once again becoming. My Dad tells me I should have stayed in and worked to change it from within. I was a young college graduate, ill equipped for such an endeavor had I even seen that as an option.
I think now though, it is up to 'we the people' to change it by refusing to watch, to listen and to buy.
15. The location of the store in which I currently work is in a semi-major airport. My head is pounding with the assault of a news channel blasting at the public and the employees as we are all held captive there by circumstance. There is a contract with the airport bigwigs and a certain notoriously offensive ‘news’ network (which seems to manufacture and sensationalize it’s stories rather than accurately covering events) as well as a famous beverage company and the company for which I work. Within this environment, my creative imagination is seeing scheming, conspiracy and collusion. We in this store have no choice as to what magazines and newspapers we will carry for the public. Displayed most prominently, are nothing but the grotesqueries of celebrities and the liberal and socialist regurgitations of the present popular opinion. Spoon fed welfare and victimization propaganda creates a populace of lost sheep, following the most ardent shepherd, (often a wolf in sheep’s clothing) the most colorful, the most boisterous and pompous of imaginative promise makers.
16. {Not to get too far off track, but further conspiracies I imagine, are the creation of these miniature shopping malls within airport settings, to encourage travelers to be the ‘consumers’ this culture wants us all to be. One particular company has 16 stores within this airport alone. A huge percentage of the local gift and clothing items are of course, produced in China and other Asian countries.
17. For the peace and mental health of all travelers, why not have libraries within airports with reading, viewing and listening rooms. Why so many gift shops? Do the travelers not notice that their luggage gets heavier and heavier and their wallets slimmer and slimmer with each ‘air mile’ collected? How much junk do people need to buy before they realize there is just too much junk in their lives? Yes, a few food court choices are a necessity especially with layovers and delays, but must the prices be double what they are in the outside world? Who is skimming these excessive profits? To their credit, this airport does have a small meditation room. Not a chapel because that would be politically incorrect of course, but at least a meditation room.
18. The fact is, we do consider ourselves in America to be a Judeo-Christian nation. We are a free country and liberty is our middle name. If someone wants to be here who is not Judeo-Christian, that’s fine. Just realize, we are, primarily because we consider ourselves to be. We contain remnants of many fine religious traditions, from the tribal shamanism to the Old Religion and its primary focus on the female aspect of the Goddess, however many ways that is understood and honored, to the various cults and the nearly uncountable denominations of Christianity. We have Buddhists, and Hindu, and yes, Muslims. Did you know that several Islamic persons were participants in the founding of our country? Did you know that Freemasons were primary in the early days of America and that Muslims participate side by side with Christians and Jews in Masonic orders?
19. Hopefully, our Judeo-Christian culture has softened and learned to be less frightfully bigoted against Others, since the burnings of the 1600-1700’s, and yet, we seem to want to obliterate an entire belief system. Islam is not one that most of us include in our comfort zones, and yet, I have known several Muslims who actually seemed like decent people. Imagine that! I do not think that every Muslim mutilates the genitals of girls and women. Strangely enough, some females who cover their heads do so out of a sense of modesty, and a desire to not inflame the lusts of men to whom they are not committed. Some actually think they look good that way. To each his own. There are weirder fashion statements being made on the runways of Paris, New York and Hollywood. Personally, I consider it digression to times best outgrown, but like any attire, humans want to express their identity through what they wear in public.
That may become another topic for another post….. And anyway, Muslim women are not the only females who sport a head covering. Mennonites, the Amish, some Jewish sects, some from an Indian religion whose name I do not recall, and people who wish to stay warm do the same.
20. Anyway, I do not think that each and every Muslim is a Jihadist terrorist, the same as I do not think every Christian is a radical Republican talk show host. Neither is every Pagan a Wiccan dancing nude in a public park. You get the point.
21. You are welcome here in this beautiful country, just don’t try and make us over into something else. You cannot turn a pineapple into a turnip, and why would you want to try? You also have the right to leave. If Judeo-Christian principles offend you, then we will not be offended if you leave. We have the right to offend you if being who we are is offensive to you. Why did you come here? And if you were born and raised here and have decided to be an atheist or a Muslim or something else that does not fit the American standard, then fine, just be quiet about it and if you leave us alone, we will leave you alone. Get over it and get along! And if you are offended by someone else’s private beliefs that do not hurt anyone, what kind of weak-minded brainlessness is that? Maybe we should just clean up the gene pool.}
22. What is wrong with offending someone? Why is it the business of government to keep people from offending each other? Where is our personal responsibility and where is our ability to be kind, to get along, to turn the other cheek, to live and let live? If someone’s intestinal gas offends you, get over it. I’m sure you have farted at sometime in your life too. If someone’s religious beliefs offend you, get over it. You are probably at least that offensive to the other person. So what?
23. Look it up. To offend is not to hurt or to kill. It is simply to be objectionable. So object. So what? Get over it!
24. The only things in this world that should offend anyone are cruelty, abuse, and lack of freedom. Freedom is not free. It comes with the obligations of kindness, of tolerance and of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. Adjudicated criminal behavior is the only thing that should terminate any person’s freedom.
25. Although I can claim a small acquaintance with some of the Eastern deities, I admit to virtually no knowledge of the history or development of any of the Eastern religions. On the other hand, I know for certain that Christianity, Judaism and Islam share a long and bloody reputation as being organizations of long-standing violence, cruelty and warfare, both within and among themselves. This, in spite of all of their claims to peace and brotherhood. (And originally, a common gene pool) To what do we owe this apparent conflict between professed ideals and overt actions?
A gigantic disfunctional family with weird relatives. That's what it looks like.
26. Greed for power, wealth and glory are the fundaments of this oppression and aggression. Fear, ignorance and self-righteousness govern these religions, because regardless of which religion they are, their belief in the Creator has been undermined by duality, the belief in separation, that is, the belief that the Creator can be separate from His/Her creation.
27. I was disappointed to learn that even the Old Religion had grown violent and fallen prey to wickedness in high places prior to its effective demise.
The belief in separation is the underlying cause of all “the ills that flesh is heir to.” A peoples’ obsession to perpetuate and to kill and die for their own little ideas about a Supreme Being and the created world is both illogical and self-defeating.
28. The infinite source and the infinite provision within our infinite Universe, predicated upon an infinite God who has created worlds upon worlds and species upon species, without measure, and has set humankind to provide wise and capable hands-on stewardship, had no intention for said humans to engage in constant conflict, though the choice was given, such being the essence of freedom. Our Divine Source has hoped we would chose wisely, the path of righteousness for His name’s sake, not self-righteousness for self aggrandizement of mistaken premises.
29. The story of Cain slaying his brother, Abel is allegorically accurate in predicating the divisiveness between the Judaic peoples and the Islamics, and of course, Christianity, as the outgrowth of Judaism, inherited the position of opposition to the Islamic imperialism throughout the crusades, and even unto today, which, in my mind, is nothing more than a continuation of the crusades.
30. The main point I wish to make is that rather than butting heads and blowing up buildings and perpetuating warfare, shall we not smelt our weapons into tools of peace and seek a common ground amongst all of us.
Planet Earth is getting smaller, and I for one, would like to live in harmony.
31. Naïve, you say? Yes, I have been naïve in my life. In this, though, I think it is what we are meant to do: to overcome, overcome, until He comes, whose right it is…
32. If there is an enemy, he lies within us, in that dark and hidden place we harbor where we hate and fear that which is different. Regardless of how loveless those around you or those before you appear to be, be the love that you are.
33. Ultimately, each person must admit to responsibility for him or herself. What do you chose? Take it day by day, and if that is too challenging, take it moment by moment.
The great naturalist, John Muir said ‘ even a small bird landing on a stone leaves some impression.’
Contrary-wise, Shakespeare’s Anthony said, of Julius Caesar: ‘The evils that men do live after them, the good is oft’ interred with their bones…’ But I say, each act of blessing goes forth like the waves and rivulets from a drop of rain into the ocean, blessing upon blessing upon blessing, gladdening the heart and lifting burdens we know not of, manifesting a small piece of the infinite and abundant good the Universe offers to us.
34. Working in the final end of the publishing industry as I do, (selling books to real people) I think that an important part of my job should be, and is, to mentally denounce any assumed power of the negative, violent, cruel, and apocalyptic ideas in the books sold, and to mentally affirm the ongoing and outreaching blessings from the books that are sold with positive and beneficial messages. And who am I necessarily to judge each title, each author’s point of view? It is a part of the process to remove my human judgment from the equation, and affirm good in general and deny evil in total. And for myself, when I read things I want to read, for pleasure or illumination, to read with discernment and to deny power or reality to those things that bespeak of evil outcomes, and to allow my thought to rest upon that which blesses myself, and all that I hold dear (which, if you know me, you know includes all life on this planet.)
35. To sum up: Evil is bad. Avoid it. Good is good. Embrace it.
1. Entry # 2: Not exactly as promised, for herein I skip from one tangent to the next, in hopes that eventually, this ongoing blog will cover every issue of importance with which our world currently contends.
2. A warning: Some of you, some who are even near and dear to me, will find cause for disagreement with some of the things within this post. Please refer to paragraphs 22-24.
3. Have we doomed ourselves with our pleasures?
4. Standing in the shower one morning several months ago, instead of enjoying the sparkling pelting of warm water hitting every part of me and the roughness of the washcloth scrubbing away the prior day’s detritus, I found myself anxiously wondering how soon I would be getting the copy of Relentless by Dean Koontz that I had ordered from Amazon . com. He is by far, my favorite fiction author followed closely by Lee Child, Nelson De Mille, Paulo Coelho, Jasper Fforde, Carl Hiasson, Tim Dorsey, and a few minors who appeal to my witchy genre preference. I began the book at work on my break and the very term ‘page turner’ had to have had this book in mind when it was coined, chronology be damned.
5. How can I be so caught up in a work of fiction? Yes, it is an escape from my present not-so-pleasant reality. What, though, is the point of escaping it? It is mine to deal with. I have the tools. So deal. And yet, look at the broader picture:
6. Our society seeks much of its pleasure in fiction via television, movies and books. I know. I work in bookstores trying to make ends meet. Yeah, we have sports for those who prefer that as an escape. Which is truly something I have never tried to understand, although I suppose it is some form of aggression transference, coupled with identity validation through team (read that tribal) identification. Whatever. And then there is so-called ‘reality TV,’ which again pits characters the viewer does not know, but comes to identify with, in situations they either do or don’t imagine themselves in, and attempting to cope and possibly come out on top. Still not too real if you ask me.
7. Are we endangering ourselves with fiction?
8. Allow me to digress.
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (boy his parents had balls to name a child Napoleon, didn’t they?)
The Secret by Candace Byrne
And now a multitude of others, including the Hicks pair have written an array of helpful books explaining, essentially, how what we concentrate on we bring to pass. I have seen it time and time again.
9. As a writer, a transformational alchemist and shamanic and esoteric practitioner, I fully understand the Power of the Word. If only I would persevere and use it correctly at all times. (I also have a mixer, but sometimes I use a spoon.)
Our imaginations may be our greatest gift as humans, but they may be our ultimate downfall as well. As we have learned that moderation in other pleasures is by far the best approach, perhaps reigning in our outrageous imaginations and focusing on what our desired outcomes are would be more in keeping with our desires for the future and the Creator’s plan for Earth.
10. Should we pray about our thoughts? Yes.
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer.”
‘… putting down vain imaginations and…’
11. There are certain books in the stores in which I have worked that make me feel filthy when I have to touch them. Certain authors have made immense fortunes publishing these things and movies have been made. Over time, the impact of reading and seeing the films has subsided in me to some degree, and yet I still feel somewhat befouled by having ‘consumed’ those pages and images. Why do we think we find ‘pleasure’ in fearful things?
12. Such creativity we have at our disposal! Why do we create nightmares?
13. And the media. Oh! Someone please save us from the media. Please. Controlled by money with agendas, desire for power and influence, the ‘news’ media may be the worst of all in fictionalizing the things that are happening day to day. Yes, they ‘report’ what sells which is most often the sensational, the dark, the scary, the bloody and the lurid, and when they look at government, they look not just to appease, but to participate.
14. Formerly a journalist, I left the profession at the booming time of Watergate because I saw how yellow the press was once again becoming. My Dad tells me I should have stayed in and worked to change it from within. I was a young college graduate, ill equipped for such an endeavor had I even seen that as an option.
I think now though, it is up to 'we the people' to change it by refusing to watch, to listen and to buy.
15. The location of the store in which I currently work is in a semi-major airport. My head is pounding with the assault of a news channel blasting at the public and the employees as we are all held captive there by circumstance. There is a contract with the airport bigwigs and a certain notoriously offensive ‘news’ network (which seems to manufacture and sensationalize it’s stories rather than accurately covering events) as well as a famous beverage company and the company for which I work. Within this environment, my creative imagination is seeing scheming, conspiracy and collusion. We in this store have no choice as to what magazines and newspapers we will carry for the public. Displayed most prominently, are nothing but the grotesqueries of celebrities and the liberal and socialist regurgitations of the present popular opinion. Spoon fed welfare and victimization propaganda creates a populace of lost sheep, following the most ardent shepherd, (often a wolf in sheep’s clothing) the most colorful, the most boisterous and pompous of imaginative promise makers.
16. {Not to get too far off track, but further conspiracies I imagine, are the creation of these miniature shopping malls within airport settings, to encourage travelers to be the ‘consumers’ this culture wants us all to be. One particular company has 16 stores within this airport alone. A huge percentage of the local gift and clothing items are of course, produced in China and other Asian countries.
17. For the peace and mental health of all travelers, why not have libraries within airports with reading, viewing and listening rooms. Why so many gift shops? Do the travelers not notice that their luggage gets heavier and heavier and their wallets slimmer and slimmer with each ‘air mile’ collected? How much junk do people need to buy before they realize there is just too much junk in their lives? Yes, a few food court choices are a necessity especially with layovers and delays, but must the prices be double what they are in the outside world? Who is skimming these excessive profits? To their credit, this airport does have a small meditation room. Not a chapel because that would be politically incorrect of course, but at least a meditation room.
18. The fact is, we do consider ourselves in America to be a Judeo-Christian nation. We are a free country and liberty is our middle name. If someone wants to be here who is not Judeo-Christian, that’s fine. Just realize, we are, primarily because we consider ourselves to be. We contain remnants of many fine religious traditions, from the tribal shamanism to the Old Religion and its primary focus on the female aspect of the Goddess, however many ways that is understood and honored, to the various cults and the nearly uncountable denominations of Christianity. We have Buddhists, and Hindu, and yes, Muslims. Did you know that several Islamic persons were participants in the founding of our country? Did you know that Freemasons were primary in the early days of America and that Muslims participate side by side with Christians and Jews in Masonic orders?
19. Hopefully, our Judeo-Christian culture has softened and learned to be less frightfully bigoted against Others, since the burnings of the 1600-1700’s, and yet, we seem to want to obliterate an entire belief system. Islam is not one that most of us include in our comfort zones, and yet, I have known several Muslims who actually seemed like decent people. Imagine that! I do not think that every Muslim mutilates the genitals of girls and women. Strangely enough, some females who cover their heads do so out of a sense of modesty, and a desire to not inflame the lusts of men to whom they are not committed. Some actually think they look good that way. To each his own. There are weirder fashion statements being made on the runways of Paris, New York and Hollywood. Personally, I consider it digression to times best outgrown, but like any attire, humans want to express their identity through what they wear in public.
That may become another topic for another post….. And anyway, Muslim women are not the only females who sport a head covering. Mennonites, the Amish, some Jewish sects, some from an Indian religion whose name I do not recall, and people who wish to stay warm do the same.
20. Anyway, I do not think that each and every Muslim is a Jihadist terrorist, the same as I do not think every Christian is a radical Republican talk show host. Neither is every Pagan a Wiccan dancing nude in a public park. You get the point.
21. You are welcome here in this beautiful country, just don’t try and make us over into something else. You cannot turn a pineapple into a turnip, and why would you want to try? You also have the right to leave. If Judeo-Christian principles offend you, then we will not be offended if you leave. We have the right to offend you if being who we are is offensive to you. Why did you come here? And if you were born and raised here and have decided to be an atheist or a Muslim or something else that does not fit the American standard, then fine, just be quiet about it and if you leave us alone, we will leave you alone. Get over it and get along! And if you are offended by someone else’s private beliefs that do not hurt anyone, what kind of weak-minded brainlessness is that? Maybe we should just clean up the gene pool.}
22. What is wrong with offending someone? Why is it the business of government to keep people from offending each other? Where is our personal responsibility and where is our ability to be kind, to get along, to turn the other cheek, to live and let live? If someone’s intestinal gas offends you, get over it. I’m sure you have farted at sometime in your life too. If someone’s religious beliefs offend you, get over it. You are probably at least that offensive to the other person. So what?
23. Look it up. To offend is not to hurt or to kill. It is simply to be objectionable. So object. So what? Get over it!
24. The only things in this world that should offend anyone are cruelty, abuse, and lack of freedom. Freedom is not free. It comes with the obligations of kindness, of tolerance and of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. Adjudicated criminal behavior is the only thing that should terminate any person’s freedom.
25. Although I can claim a small acquaintance with some of the Eastern deities, I admit to virtually no knowledge of the history or development of any of the Eastern religions. On the other hand, I know for certain that Christianity, Judaism and Islam share a long and bloody reputation as being organizations of long-standing violence, cruelty and warfare, both within and among themselves. This, in spite of all of their claims to peace and brotherhood. (And originally, a common gene pool) To what do we owe this apparent conflict between professed ideals and overt actions?
A gigantic disfunctional family with weird relatives. That's what it looks like.
26. Greed for power, wealth and glory are the fundaments of this oppression and aggression. Fear, ignorance and self-righteousness govern these religions, because regardless of which religion they are, their belief in the Creator has been undermined by duality, the belief in separation, that is, the belief that the Creator can be separate from His/Her creation.
27. I was disappointed to learn that even the Old Religion had grown violent and fallen prey to wickedness in high places prior to its effective demise.
The belief in separation is the underlying cause of all “the ills that flesh is heir to.” A peoples’ obsession to perpetuate and to kill and die for their own little ideas about a Supreme Being and the created world is both illogical and self-defeating.
28. The infinite source and the infinite provision within our infinite Universe, predicated upon an infinite God who has created worlds upon worlds and species upon species, without measure, and has set humankind to provide wise and capable hands-on stewardship, had no intention for said humans to engage in constant conflict, though the choice was given, such being the essence of freedom. Our Divine Source has hoped we would chose wisely, the path of righteousness for His name’s sake, not self-righteousness for self aggrandizement of mistaken premises.
29. The story of Cain slaying his brother, Abel is allegorically accurate in predicating the divisiveness between the Judaic peoples and the Islamics, and of course, Christianity, as the outgrowth of Judaism, inherited the position of opposition to the Islamic imperialism throughout the crusades, and even unto today, which, in my mind, is nothing more than a continuation of the crusades.
30. The main point I wish to make is that rather than butting heads and blowing up buildings and perpetuating warfare, shall we not smelt our weapons into tools of peace and seek a common ground amongst all of us.
Planet Earth is getting smaller, and I for one, would like to live in harmony.
31. Naïve, you say? Yes, I have been naïve in my life. In this, though, I think it is what we are meant to do: to overcome, overcome, until He comes, whose right it is…
32. If there is an enemy, he lies within us, in that dark and hidden place we harbor where we hate and fear that which is different. Regardless of how loveless those around you or those before you appear to be, be the love that you are.
33. Ultimately, each person must admit to responsibility for him or herself. What do you chose? Take it day by day, and if that is too challenging, take it moment by moment.
The great naturalist, John Muir said ‘ even a small bird landing on a stone leaves some impression.’
Contrary-wise, Shakespeare’s Anthony said, of Julius Caesar: ‘The evils that men do live after them, the good is oft’ interred with their bones…’ But I say, each act of blessing goes forth like the waves and rivulets from a drop of rain into the ocean, blessing upon blessing upon blessing, gladdening the heart and lifting burdens we know not of, manifesting a small piece of the infinite and abundant good the Universe offers to us.
34. Working in the final end of the publishing industry as I do, (selling books to real people) I think that an important part of my job should be, and is, to mentally denounce any assumed power of the negative, violent, cruel, and apocalyptic ideas in the books sold, and to mentally affirm the ongoing and outreaching blessings from the books that are sold with positive and beneficial messages. And who am I necessarily to judge each title, each author’s point of view? It is a part of the process to remove my human judgment from the equation, and affirm good in general and deny evil in total. And for myself, when I read things I want to read, for pleasure or illumination, to read with discernment and to deny power or reality to those things that bespeak of evil outcomes, and to allow my thought to rest upon that which blesses myself, and all that I hold dear (which, if you know me, you know includes all life on this planet.)
35. To sum up: Evil is bad. Avoid it. Good is good. Embrace it.
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