flowperson

It's my opinion that cats ARE gods ! flow....

Valleys spread the earth's energies, Mountains focus the earth's energies. My take is this is why people built pyramids in flat places when they had to live there to grow food and hunt in ancient times. Ancient cultures inherently knew the difference because I believe the ability to sense this is built into every person. The problem is that our bodies and minds have forgotten things like this after being conditioned for millenmia by existing in " city state civilizations". Why else would ancient cultures in the Andes, in China-Tibet, and in southeast Asia have worked so hard to build terracing and irrigation systems in mountainous regions so that they could live there so long ago? The ancient Hebrews even held some of their worship practices "in high places" for centuries until the practice was banished about 600b.c. by King Hezzakiah and Ezra "the law giver". By the way, pyramids are a world-wide ancient structural phenomenon. Now they're being found in places like Bosnia and China besides the places we've all heard of before. There's even some belief in pyramids being covered beneath a large lake between Madison and Milwaukee Wisconsin. And in N. Nevada Pyramid Lake is an ancient shoshone sacred place and a big tourist draw. I believe, AR, that the evidence points to the possibility that you possess a very old soul. Remember what I said about G-d having the best time machine ? flow....

You sing so well !! flow....

Homemade chocolate chip from the recipie on the Nestle's bag. Although I jiggle with the formula a little. I use canola margarine and I eliminate the 1/4 cup flour from the 2 1/4 called for and substitute 1/2 cup rolled oats. Oh, and I only use 2/3 of a bag of semi sweet chips and substitute 1/3 cup of milk chocolate chips, Guittard if I can find them. Chewier...mmmmmmmmmmmm... Chocolatey...mmmmmmmmmmm..very fair. Almost time for bed...mmmmmmmmmmm ! I was just kidding about growing chocolate bars and marshmallows...really ! Food engineering isn't that advanced yet, but it's coming, probably in your lifetime. flow....

He he he he he he he he. Just had some cookies and organic 1% milk too. I feel lots better now. mmmmmmmm ! flow....

I believe that my first post was in response to your topamax plea last summer. How's that all going anyhow ? flow....

Pretending is good. Without that literature would not exist. I just pretended that I needed an afternoon snack and am now enjoying some roasted garlic hummus on ritz-like crackers and a pear nectar while listening to reggae with FRENCH lyrics !. Gluttony works ! Go ahead, judge me ! flow....

Look at it this way. If the prince of darkness (and we all know he's not a she and that he's really out there) wanted to create a set of boundary conditions for human behavior such that we would end up punishing ourselves if we habitually exceeded them, then the seven sins would be those. That doesn't make them an evil and dark set of things per se, but if they are used by religious authorities or others to persistently stifle our joyful activities and keep us from enjoying ourselves and our relationships with others, including our own family members, then THAT WOULD BE EVIL. I have watched this happen in the flesh, and my opinion is that this is the root cause of all abuse, and comprises the workings of the dark night of some peoples' souls to try to turn the human race away from a committment to a positive set of beliefs for the future. What do you think this current uproar about torture is all about anyway? Everyone knows that it's wrong by definition, but here we have high U.S. potentates justifying it's employment and use. And ALL of this comes from giving one person an undue amount of power over the lives of others, and that person using that power to impose unfair judgemental standards upon the behavior of others. End of rant ! flow....

Of course it was the Grateful Dead that popularized the concept of shades of grey in the eighties. Talk about prophetic music !! Yes, G-d tests us continually, for sh/he is a refiner, and a refiner works towards the purest and clearest iteration of the substances that sh/he is working with. Seek out the shades of grey and look into them deeply. Identify and define the things that materialize out of the mist. The world will automatically become a better place because of your powers of discernment. flow....

It's not an easy thing to live in the grey zone, but it forces one to use talents for evaluating existence in ambiguous environments that simply are not used much anymore. It's just that these days the world has been made to seem more black and white for us by the media, when in reality it's probably becoming more and more grey everyday. flow....

Fred: I appreciated the whitestone journal article's blending of the Taoist and Christian precepts. Yes, as we grow older we are keenly more aware of the energy we tend to waste, and just what that means to our life force which collectively creates our futures. And by the way, I always referred to the wu-wei principle as "doing-not doing". I have found that when we observe things that are inherently wrong and need fixing or correction and we know that we are not capable of the entire job, it often helps to wait and "not do" while we meditate and pray about the problem. Often it seems to magically disappear before our eyes. MT: I really enjoyed the article that you posted on Sufi philosophy. It seems so true, and for my money is one of the best depictions in symbolic form of how the spirit of G-d seems to come out of nowhere sometimes and alight inside of our hearts. It would be interesting to know if the Army Air Force borrowed upon this for their symbolism back in the day, but of course the red heart was/is absent from theirs, as it also is from Chrysler's and Bentley's. At one time I was inspired to write some Haiku. Or perhaps something else directed me to write it. Whatever the truth of it, the circumstances surrounding my writing of about one hundred and four verses of it were strange and are something that I do not wish to go into here in any depth. But the last verse I received has always stuck in my heart and mind, though this happened some years ago. "The Spirit, like the hummingbird, is attracted to the sweet redness of the heart, While the crows sit in the trees and eat the dead meat in the road." I also compulsively collect odd factiods. Did you know that the first area of the body affected by Parkinson's disease is a small area of 40,000 or so neurons that lie on top of and to one side of the heart? Not the brain, the heart ! flow....

And here I always thought that a perenniallist was a person who plants a flower and expects it to automatically come up and bloom each year. flow....

OK OK OK I have only one thing to say. TOGA ! TOGA ! TOGA ! We all crave a communal camp-out in the wilderness with lots of coffee and solar panels for Fred's gadgets !! And none of us care if mean-old judgemental people call ussins a CULT, even though most of us might sit around in silence all day... but at night... WHOOOO !!! WHOOO !!! I really like SMORES ! Does that mean I'll have to grow my own marshmallows and chocolate bars ? flow....

As far as I'm concerned lust, sloth, and gluttony are inseparable. I could probably easily qualify to be an extra in any remake of Caligula. And, though I'm on the downslope in the indulgence of all three, I savor each moment I allow myself to. My favorite saying these days is that I've got to save my energies for those important and special moments, especially so here in sin city. flow....

Labels are a bummer !!! Just be !!! flow....

Welcome Beautiful Dreamer. Love your signature re: cats. Although I do not have one at present, I well remember my love/hate adventures with them in the past. We hope you enjoy playing word games with the good souls that meet here from time to time. As far as the Patster, I think he might be a prime candidate for the first brain transplant, should that ever be attempted. Judging others is definitely a lost art as MOW pointed out, and good riddance ! In fact most of the cats with which I was associated made more sense than the Rev. Robertson, and they were never on TV and couldn't even speak english. But they were oh so good at getting whatever they wanted from me and my family. flow....

I recently heard a feature on NPR regarding the Dervishes. It seems that centuries of persecution by Muslims who are distrustful of mystic practices have harrassed the Sufi Dervishes to such an extent that the content of their formal whirling programs and chants has been gradually disappearing over the years. There are attempts underway to preserve what content is left and to recover and restore what is acccessable of the original rituals for future generations. It makes one think about just how much of the mystic traditions in all religions have been thrown away just because that sort of connection with the spirit realm is so threatening to others who cannot make it. I believe that this is called jealousy. Very sad ! flow....

We have spiritual meetings here everyday. Y'all are welcome here everyday. We're glad to have you here in word and thought. flow....

I heard a report on NPR today that Israel has disinvited Rev. Robertson's organization from building an evangelical resort in their country. The Israelis were going to donate the land to Robertson's organization for the project, and the land alone has been valued at $50 million. This reaction stemmed from Robertson's observations that Ariel Sharon's stroke was G-od's punishment for his removal of Israeli settlers from Gaza earlier this year. In the Patster's opinion G-d was angered at this action because it effectively divided the entirety of Israel and somehow rendered it a less holy place in G-d's eyes. Duh 'oh !!!!!! flow....

David, well said. I have also had experiences similar to your "sunlight" encounter that moved me to do things that I never realized I was capable of. It's all just such a great mystery. flow....

gm ( I just had to do that ): To paraphrase General Bullmoose, is what's good for gm good for the USA ?. I like Fred would agree conceptually with alot of what you have to say, and welcome the opportunity to read it here. But I also agree with him the we are looking at a soupy boundary zone in these matters that divides science and religion, but that all is getting soupier each day, and I for one believe that that is a good thing. Yes, the universe is a complex amalgam of electromagnetic and electrochemical manifestations, and I have no doubt that we and they continually effect phase changes and transformations upon each other. But, as I have noted elsewhere here I would tend to discuss such phenomena in terms related to complex systems theory and quantum uncertainty. And yes, the example of Jesus to be admired and followed is the one of humble service, and in my mind awesome magic ! Welcome ! flow....

This discussion reminds me somehow of the Lutheran and Roman Catholic Churchs' agreement some years ago to recognize both "good works" and "grace" as the primary goals of a Christian's life orientations. For centuries there was conflict because one believed exclusively in Grace and the other in Good Works; it escapes me at present which advocated which. It fueled bitter animosities over the centuries. In my way of thinking living one's life each day as an believer would be impossible without both concepts. But realistically there are always others who would look at us and judge our activities in an unfair way (in our view) and say that we were sinners. My belief is that missing the mark or sinning, like beauty, is always a matter that is in the eye of the beholder. And I for one do not believe in a concept of original sin or the "fall". That's all just another good myth as far as I am concerned. Or perhaps just a good, ancient metaphor to restrain exhuberant behaviors within the community. Or as Ben used to say, in all things...moderation. But then again, he was also a renowned womanizer and boozehound. flow....

I thought that this article was interesting in several ways, many of which you all have expertly touched upon. But still I was fascinated by this man's obsession to recapture that one moment that he emotionally recalled from his boyhood. This accidently led to his invention of one of the most powerful mind altering substances known. Never having done the trip thing, even though I did live through the 60's as a married observer and young father, can understand the lure of mind altering drugs to people who have been damaged by life to try their use to perhaps "get back" to some past percieved perfectness. In this sense, I can understand his longing to be "one with nature" in emotion and remembrance as long as that longing is experienced as a "good" thing. Oh, by the way, here's another interesting tidbit that may touch upon this discussion in interesting ways. And you all thought that "monkey see, monkey do" was just some old folk wisdom. flow.... http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/10/science/...?pagewanted=all

Welcome, welcome, welcome !!! flow....

AR and Fred I appreciate your metaphors and insights. They move me in powerful ways. I think we are all flummoxed by the abstract nature of modern protestant worship procedures. There are reasons that some time ago I went on and on about the spiritual worship rituals of the ancients. The way I see it the farther back we go in all this, the closer we come to the origins in which G-d instilled truth in the hearts and minds of humans of all kinds and they chose to worship that moment in many, many ways. You might call that the initial conditions of the beginning of a complex system that we call G-d worship. All complex systems are extremely sensitive to the initial conditions of its beginnings, and in the case of religion we are still trying to scope that out through our scientific examinations of ancient places of worship and burial procedures. But one thing is clear these days. Modern church practices are very abstract and mostly mirror the business and trade-oriented world in which we all live, and hence the truth is further hidden from us. Again, there's a reason for the story of Jesus' anger as he drove the money changers out of the Jerusalem temple. I believe that this touches on it. Modern orthodox services and rtituals are extant remnants of the ancient ways, and thus more fulfilling to us in terms of spectacle. They also reflect the celebration aspects of the ancient ways, and also the awe accompanying our realizations that we are in the presence of the spiritual forces. Not much of this happens when we hear a sermon delivered in bland settings by bland people using neutral and bland words. Religion has, from its beginnings, been an emotional adventure when entered into fully and in a committed fashion. That's how televangelists are able to bring in so much money these days. As a final comment I would prefer to use the term transformation rather than transcendance. A transformation is another term that is used in discussing the study of complex systems, and it is sometimes referred to as a "phase change". Ice into water into steam would be a good example of a string of transformations or phase changes. So in the case of religiosity in humans it is easier to understand how the different phases of spiritual belief come to us throughout our lives as we continue to believe and grow through that belief. We are organic beings. So must be our religious beliefs, or they become more false to us over time. To me this is the meaning of being "reborn" in countless ways, countless times over our lifetimes if we are "doing the belief thing" the "right way". flow....