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JAMES' PERSONAL WRITINGS: SLOVING
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7.21.2007

MADNESS: ARGUING VICTORY BASED ON YOUR GYM

Can you imagine?
  • Two Olympic runners arguing who is the faster athlete based on what gym they go to?
  • Two models arguing who is more attractive based on which diet plan they use?
  • Two people arguing who will achieve entrance to Heaven / Joy / Peace / Love / Life based on what church / religion / denomination they each use?

WE ARE DROWNING IN MADNESS.

WE ARE DROWNING OUR CHILDREN
IN MADNESS

IMAGINE YOU FOUND HEAVEN, AND NO ONE WOULD FOLLOW

:-)
IMAGINE YOU FOUND HEAVEN!
The Extacy.

;-(
AND NO ONE WOULD FOLLOW.
The Agony.

YET.

That's how it is with me. So much to do. So much at stake. So little time.

CATALYTIC, CHAIN REACTION. OUR ONLY CHANCE.

Chain reaction! I've been searching for so long for the right concept to grasp the nature of what I believe is our chance.

In studying the monumentally important Peace and Nonviolence essays compiled by Ed Guinan, this term has hit me as right - CHAIN REACTION.

"Only love and sacrifice can engender love and sacrifice. This chain reaction is essential to the non-violent struggle."
from LOVE IN ACTION, Thich Nhat Hanh

"The problem of our new revolution is to find how best to eliminate exploitation, murder, the investment of energy in weapons of destruction—how to provoke chain reactions not of hate and death but of new constructiveness, of new quality of life."

STANDING IN SOLIDARITY: ARE THERE DEGREES?

Are there degrees of turning on an ON/OFF switch?

Are there degrees of pregnancy?

Are there degrees of "enough fuel" to get across Death Valley desert?

In the case of solidarity why is this so; why is ABSOLUTE SOLIDARITY necessary? It is as though there is an on/off switch, or threshold, or quantum orbit within our nervous system that only is "tripped" in the presence of ABSOLUTE, PAY ANY PRICE COMMITMENT. Reflect on your experience and reading and you will come to the same conclusion.

Yes, from the perspective of the "switch" or "fuel tank" there are degrees. From the murderously selfish perspective of a Darfur activist there are degrees. But from the perspective of success / goal achievement / recruitment of a Brigade of PeaceMakers for Darfur, RESCUE AND RESTORE DARFUR NOW ... only ABSOLUTE, PAY ANY PRICE COMMITMENT ... or nothing.

LOVE IS EVERYTHING. LOVE IS THE HOPE.

I scarcely know how to express what I mean. But I stand by this nonetheless:

LOVE IS EVERYTHING.
LOVE IS THE ONLY HOPE.

Now I should qualify. Love is neither of these from the perspective of Pleasure / Selfishness / Disconnection / Exploitation.

But, from the perspective of Global Family / Joy / Solidarity / World Peace / Justice / Elimination of Poverty / Elimination of Suffering - Love is Everything. Love is the only thing.

How can Love be the only thing to Global Family / Joy / Solidarity / World Peace / Justice / Elimination of Poverty / Elimination of Suffering? It is in the same way that opening your eyes is the only thing to navigating across the room; or breathing is the only thing to avoiding passing out in the next three minutes.

Buddhist Nhat Hanh captures this brilliantly in his must read essay: LOVE IN ACTION.

"The usual way to generate force is to create anger, desire,and fear. But these are dangerous sources of energy because they are blind, whereas the force of love springs from awareness, and does not destroy its own aims. Out of love and the willingness to act, strategies and tactics will be created naturally from the circumstances of the struggle. Thus, the problems of strategy and tactics are of secondary importance. They should be posed, but not at the beginning."

It would be a lie for me to qualify this extremist statement:

LOVE IS EVERYTHING.
LOVE IS THE ONLY HOPE.

Everything in my personal, scholarly and professional life of 56 years leads to this conclusion.
I suspect that your experience is the same.

7.20.2007

THE ALMIGHTY SUFFERS FOR ALL GENERATIONS, EQUALLY. UNBORN INCLUDED.

The Almighty Powers, Our Father loves ALL generations, including FUTURE, EQUALLY. No? SO MANY PEOPLE.

This is an incredible revelation for me. I've never before seen it. Current generation, yes. Unborn generations? I just saw it now.

Now that I see this I can much better see my "daily bread," I can much better see how to serve, where, when, and WHY.

There is so much at stake with how we use our lives.

IT IS SO IMPORTANT THAT YOU ARE ALIVE.

MAKE YOUR LIFE COUNT.

MOST PRAYER SEPARATES US FROM THE ALMIGHTY POWERS

It is with desperate sadness, not triumph that I say - the absolute perversion of Jesus' teaching we have achieved is unfathomable.

Prayer is what I am thinking of. The Our Father is said in every "church" service right? "Our Father, who art..." Takes about 60 seconds, right.

YOU CANNOT BE PRAYED BY THE "OUR FATHER" IN LESS THAN 5 MINUTES. IMPOSSIBLE. THE "OUR FATHER" IS A TOOL TO HAVE US LISTEN TO AND HEAR "OUR FATHER" BY USING OUR IMAGINATION TO THE OPTIMUM.

But by belching the words "Our Father...,"
all that anyone does,
instead of exercising the imagination,
WE CLOG AND BLOCK THE IMAGINATION,
ALL THE WHILE TRAINING OURSELVES
AND FUTURE GENERATIONS
THAT THE "OUR FATHER"
IS TO BE USED IN THIS WAY.

IS THERE ANY GREATER VIOLENCE PERPETRATED ON EARTH?
PROBABLY NOT.

"SAVED" FROM OUR "FAMILY" EXPECTATIONS, AS MUCH AS ANYTHING

To say that I don't feel like I'm receiving oxygen after a lifetime of suffocation would be a lie.

In the last year or so, every second, EVERY SECOND OF MY LIFE, day in, day out, week in, week out - feels like finally being "Saved" from suffocation.

So what is the tight cable that was binding my chest, preventing me from breathing?

Few people were / are as blessed as I with their upbringing from the most important perspective - spiritually. My father in the flesh was a Spiritual Giant. But he was far from perfect, far from mature, and he and I existed in the toxic-waste-pool of our society which too, seeped into my pours, and his.

Despite all my blessings,
my Soul, the Almighty Powers within me
have been bound
to the point of asphyxiation
by "family" and "social" expectations.
Now I'm Saved.
I freely inhale the Will of the Almighty.

I weep with joy, gratitude, gladness.

7.17.2007

START LOVING ON YOUTUBE

I just came across these on YouTube:

Analysis of June 11, 2007 Israeli Occupation Protest 08:11
Added: 3 weeks agoViews: 18

Analysis of June 11, 2007 Israeli Occupation Protest part 2 05:54
Added: 3 weeks agoViews: 15

Thanks to Matthew at Univ. MD.

EQUAL IMPORTANCE: YOUR GYM, RELIGION, DENOMINATION

Can you imagine wars between "Gold's Gym-ianity" and "LA Fitness-am?!?!?!"

Well, that is how disgustingly out of perspective is our view of Religions.

We are clear that a Gym is for a purpose - to make our bodies strong and healthy. IT IS INCIDENTAL WHAT GYM WE GO TO.

Same with Religion and Denomination - THEIR ONLY VALUE, IF ANY, IS TO MAKE OUR SPIRITS / HEARTS / COMPASSION / WORLD-FAMILY-CONNECTION STRONG AND HEALTHY.

WHO CARES WHAT "GYM" RELIGION / DENOMINATION WE USE OR DO NOT USE?!??!?!
CERTAINLY NOT THE ALMIGHTY.
THE ALMIGHT ONLY CARES THAT OUR HEARTS ARE STRONG AND HEALTHY - AND ENGAGED FOR THE LEAST OF THESE.

7.16.2007

Hit and thrown by a car, and unfazed

I crushed the windshield on the driver's side, caved in the hood, bounced back in front of the car, sensed the left front wheel coming toward my head, and then it stopped.

It was my fault and I'm very sorry to have ruined her vehicle - a small station wagon for a Florist. However, I absentmindedly walked out against the light across not one, but two lanes of traffic. The first lane apparently was empty giving her a clear view of me. She must have been on a cell phone or otherwise totally distracted.

It was all very fast. My first inkling was seeing a bumper six inches from my knee. At her 10-20 mph it was less than 2 seconds for me to be thrown onto the hood, crush her windshield and bounce back in front of the station wagon aware that the car had not slowed, and interested that my head was about to be crushed. Then the brake was applied.

She was nice, and seemed not be traumatized. Her mind was protected by the cell phone call I suspect. She seemed to want to buzz off and I was worried for her car being in the middle of a busy street so I encouraged her that I was fine and that she should see to her car. It was only then that I saw her poor windshield all caved in.

I'm fine. My ear was bleeding pretty fast but with pressure it stopped.

The point of all this? I am so relaxed; so much submitted to what the Almighty wants of me. So at peace. It's been 8 hours since the crash and there has not been one second when my heart has increased a beat. Not at the time, not since.

What DOES get my heart going is what I can do; what I might be able to influence. The rest is the business of the Almighty; Her concern, not mine.

Interesting.

7.15.2007

TOLSTOY / GANDHI VISION: WE CAN AWAKE TO CONSCIENCE

THE TOLSTOY / GANDHI VISION

From Chapter IX of "The Kingdom of God is Within You," by Tolstoy.
The last two chapters of this book, IX & X
formed Gandhi as a Law student in England.
The following, at the heart of Chapter IX
is the crux.

"Men need only understand this, they need only cease to trouble
themselves about the general external conditions in which they are
not free, and devote one-hundredth part of the energy they waste
on those material things to that in which they are free, to the
recognition and realization of the truth which is before them, and
to the liberation of themselves and others from deception and
hypocrisy, and, without effort or conflict, there would be an end
at once of the false organization of life which makes men
miserable, and threatens them with worse calamities in the future.
And then the kingdom of God would be realized, or at least that
first stage of it for which men are ready now by the degree of
development of their conscience.

Just as a single shock may be sufficient, when a liquid is
saturated with some salt, to precipitate it at once in crystals, a
slight effort may be perhaps all that is needed now that the truth
already revealed to men may gain a mastery over hundreds,
thousands, millions of men, that a public opinion consistent with
conscience may be established, and through this change of public
opinion the whole order of life may be transformed. And it
depends upon us to make this effort.

Let each of us only try to understand and accept the Christian
truth which in the most varied forms surrounds us on all sides and
forces itself upon us; let us only cease from lying and pretending
that we do not see this truth or wish to realize it, at least in
what it demands from us above all else; only let us accept and
boldly profess the truth to which we are called, and we should
find at once that hundreds, thousands, millions of men are in the
same position as we, that they see the truth as we do, and dread
as we do to stand alone in recognizing it, and like us are only
waiting for others to recognize it also."

Hellish world?

Start, "Hellish world" you say?

  • 1 billion people live on less than $1 per day
  • 3 billion people live on less than $2 per day
  • 18,000 children starve to death per day. PER DAY.
  • Darfur genocide continues unstopped.
  • Palestine hell is in year 40.
  • 1 million exterminated in Iraq.
  • Millions of Iraqi's displaced.
  • 100 million in US Poor or Near poor.
  • Etc.
  • 5% of the world's population has the wealth and resource to eliminate the above... and WE DO NOT ELIMINATE THE ABOVE!

HELLISH

TODAY WHAT DEFINES YOU: TASKS OR MISSION?

You know the questions we ask each other (or ourselves):
  • What do you do?
  • What is your job?
  • How do you "make a living?"

Well, what is your answer to yourself - What do you do?

  1. TASK: Accountant, executive, shop keeper, Dr., scientist, architect....?
  2. OR, MISSION: Trying to save the world; end suffering; bring global brotherliness and joy...? And, I do not "make a living; I live a making."

TASKS are "me" and "mine" oriented for Pleasure; prostituting ourselves and teaching our children to do the same.

MISSION is "we" and "thine" oriented for JOY.

"THE MATRIX:" HOW MANY WOULD COME OUT IF THEY KNEW?

"The Matrix" despite its violence remains the single best picture of our existential choice yet created in art:

  1. Do we choose Pleasure at the cost of Divorce / Detatchment / Disconnection from our World Family / Truth / Love / Life?
  2. Do we choose Live / Love / Truth / Joy / Solidarity at the cost of Pain and Sacrifice?
  3. There is no 3rd choice.

How many of us will come out of this "Matrix" when we know of the choice? How many of us will choose to be "Saved?" FRODO DID NOT.

Dickens saw the same problem. I suspect he wrote "A Christmas Carrol" entirely to try to show us, and bring us out. The "Ignorance" Dickens speaks of I am sure is our Blissful Blindness to, Divine Divorce from the "Want" of others:

`Look here.'

From the foldings of its robe, it brought two children; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. They knelt down at its feet, and clung upon the outside of its garment.

`Oh, Man. look here. Look, look, down here.' exclaimed the Ghost.

They were a boy and a girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread.

Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude.

`Spirit. are they yours.' Scrooge could say no more.

`They are Man's,' said the Spirit, looking down upon them. `And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers.
This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it.' cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. `Slander those who tell it ye. Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And abide the end.'

`Have they no refuge or resource.' cried Scrooge.

`Are there no prisons.' said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. `Are there no workhouses.' The bell struck twelve.

Scrooge looked about him for the Ghost, and saw it not. As the last stroke ceased to vibrate, he remembered the prediction of old Jacob Marley, and lifting up his eyes, beheld a solemn Phantom, draped and hooded, coming, like a mist along the ground, towards him.

7.14.2007

WEALTH IS MURDER OF THE POOR

"The superfluities of the rich are the necessities of the poor. Those who retain what is superfluous possess the goods of others.”

"Now we can see how ridiculous it is to define violence in physical terms alone. For a man killed by a bullet is no less dead than a man who has died from a disease resulting from eradicable poverty.
When you stop to think of it, poverty is no longer inevitable; therefore it is intolerable.
It is no more a private tragedy;
it is now a public crime."
William Sloane Coffin

JESUS' WAY IN A HELLISH WORLD: MILITANT BROTHERLINESS

All of the following quotes come from
Peace and Nonviolence (Quotations from),
compiled by Monk Ed Guinan.

"It must be militant, massive nonviolence, or riots." Martin Luther King (not from Guinan's book)
"We have to become twice as militant and twice as non-violent, twice as tough and twice as tender, as only the truly strong can be tender. That’s what we need—a new covenant with God and with Christ for a new kind of manhood. To this new covenant we must devote a great deal of thought."
Willaim Sloane Coffin

"And who will provide what is most crucial of all—example?"
Phil Berrigan

"For until the adversary in power knows that non-violent men are willing to suffer for their beliefs, he will not be truly willing to listen to them, knowing he can count on their ultimate acquiescence to his power if not to his opinion."
William Sloane Coffin

"If men are not willing to practice the way of non-violence with the same kind of commitment and recklessness of cost or con­sequences as they practice the way of war and as Communists work for Communism, clearly non-violence will not work."
A.J. Muste

"Soldiers in the horror of battle offer solemn testimony that life is not a hunt for pleasure, but an engagement for service; that there are things more valuable than life; that the world is not a vacuum. Either we make it an altar for God or it is invaded by demons."
Rabbi Abraham J. Heschel

"Therefore the problem becomes—how to instill convictions strong enough to resist dehumanization in oneself, in others, in structures. How to instruct him in non-violence as a way of life, as mark of the new man, as instrument of human revolution and social regeneration?
"How to teach him the realities of power in all its nuances, from the will to dominate others to the will to exploit whole nations and peoples? How to toughen him SO that one will understand and accept persecution, contempt, ostracism, jail, or death on account of conscience and (above all) on account of the suffering brother’? How to infuse him with such sensitivity to human rights and dignity that one will confront violence in every turn of his life—in himself, in the culture, in the State? How to convince him that Christ’s man must integrate word and act, in full recognition that this might lead him to death, even as it did his Lord?"
Phil Berrigan

"We have chosen to say, with the gift of our liberty, if necessary our lives: the violence stops here, the death stops here, the sup­pression of the truth stops here, this war stops here."
Dan Berrigan

"Non-violence, in essence, means taking a stand in favor of life and refusing to delegate individual moral responsibility to another person or group; it means taking control of one’s life and aiding others in doing likewise. Non-violence is an attempt to find truth and love even in the midst of hatred, destruction and pride."
Ed Guinan

"Peace is the great concept extolling love among men, who discover that they are brothers and decide to live as such."
Paul VI

"Non-violence is meant to communicate love not in word but in act. Above all, non-violence is meant to convey and to defend truth which has been obscured and defiled by political double-talk."
Thomas Merton

"Mere words about peace, love and civilization have completely lost all power to change anything."
Thomas Merton

"Unearned suffering is redemptive."
Martin Luther King

"The luxury of a leisurely approach to urgent solutions—the ease of gradualism—was forfeited by ignoring the issues for too long."
Martin Luther King

"“If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”
Martin Luther King

"Only love and sacrifice can engender love and sacrifice. This chain reaction is essential to the non-violent struggle."
Thich Nhat Hanh

"...Our struggle's purpose... the destruction of fanaticism and inhumanity, which are the real enemies of man."
Thich Nhat Hanh

"By accepting extreme suffering, one lights the fires of compassion and awakens the hearts of the people, as Christ did."
Thich Nhat Hanh

"The task of the non-violent action is to fight the injustice and to liberate men, those who suffer the injustice as well as those who are responsible for it."
Hildegaard Goss-Mayr

"Christ has not only taught this, he has lived it and furthermore has shown some techniques of how to live that force in a specific historical situation. He attacked the status quo of his time, those who betrayed men and were the privileged. He attacked the established Church of his time. He attacked the conscience of its representatives throughout the three years of his public life so strongly that they reacted in the traditional way with violence against him and crucified him.
He was not crucified because he did nothing, but exactly because he attacked the injustice of his time in a very clear and precise way and because he spoke the truth.
But he always respected men.
Neither did he join the established groups of his time nor the guerrilla who operated in Israel, and who wanted to liberate the country from the Roman occupation.
"He showed a new way of fighting evil and he was willing to accept the consequences of his action."
Hildegaard Goss-Mayr

"It cannot be affirmed that the powers that be, in any nation, are actuated by the spirit, or guided by the example of Christ, in the treatment of enemies; therefore, they cannot be agreeable to the will of God; and, therefore, their overthrow, by a spiritual regeneration of their subjects, is inevitable."
William Lloyd Garrison

"It will be our leading object to devise ways and means for effecting a radical change in the views, feelings and practices of society respecting the sinfulness of war, and the treat­ment of enemies."
William Lloyd Garrison

"In entering upon the great work before us, we are not unmindful that, in its prosecution, we may be called to test our sincerity, even as in a fiery ordeal. It may subject us to insult, outrage, suffering, yea, even death itself."
William Lloyd Garrison

"All such as pretend Christ Jesus, and confess him, and yet run into the use of carnal weapons, wrestling with flesh and blood, throw away the
spiritual weapons."
George Fox

"How to provoke chain reactions not of hate and death but of new constructiveness, of new quality of life."
Danilo Dolci

"A complete rejection of the present social order and a non violent revolution to establish an order more in accord with Christian values."
Dorothy Day

"When we fight tyranny and injustice and the class war we must do so by spiritual weapons and by non—cooperation."
Dorothy Day

Militant Non-Violence, William Sloane Coffin

"Now we can see how ridiculous it is to define violence in physical terms alone. For a man killed by a bullet is no less dead than a man who has died from a disease resulting from eradicable poverty. When you stop to think of it, poverty is no longer inevitable; therefore it is intolerable. It is no more a private tragedy; it is now a public crime."
William Sloane Coffin

"We have our own bodies and spirits and the justice of our cause as our weapon."
Cesar Chavez

"When we are really honest with ourselves we must admit that our lives are all that really belong to us. So it is how we use our lives that determines what kind of men we are. It is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives do we find life."
Cesar Chavez

"Therefore, let us render this service in the cause of peace: without measuring the sacrifices, try to prove that truth, love and faith, with the divine blessing, are capable of moving and breaking down the walls of Jericho."
Dom Helder Camara

"Daring to do what is right, not what fancy may tell you, valiantly grasping occasions, not cravenly doubting— freedom comes only through deeds, not through thoughts taking wing. Faint not nor fear, but go out to the storm and the action, trusting in God whose commandment you faithfully follow; freedom, exultant, will welcome your spirit with joy."
Deitrich Bonhoeffer

"Jesus added “as I have loved you,” meaning, “Just as I gave my all for you, you do the same for your colleagues. Dedicate yourselves to this task.” This was his last message."
Buddhist Vinoba Bhave

Heaven on earth (in a hellish world): Militant PeaceMaking

Heaven / Nirvana / Universal Joy are all I or this site are concerned with, ever.

Several models for those who conclude that Blessed, Beastly Blindness to; Divine, Disastrous Divorce from the world's misery is no longer desirable:

Imagine Heaven: Its key dimensions

Heaven / Nirvana / Universal Joy are all I or this site are concerned with, ever.

Dimensions:
  • Property rights
  • Laws
  • Infrastructure
  • Religion
  • Geographical boundaries
  • Time horizon / focus
  • Resource extraction
  • Resource distribution
  • Activities
  • How time is spent
  • What it looks like

Heaven on earth: Property Rights

Heaven / Nirvana / Universal Joy in this Hellish World are all I or this site are concerned with, ever.

Heaven on earth: Property Rights

Imagine the "PROPERTY RIGHTS" among the following folks:

  • A "healthy" biological "family"
  • Holocaust Rescuers
  • On a bucket brigade at a house fire
  • Saving kids at an elementary school after an earthquake
  • Neighbors after a massive flood
  • Jesus, King, Gandhi, Bhave, Khan Ghaffar Kahn

THE "PROPERTY RIGHTS" AMONG THOSE LIVING FOR HEAVEN ON EARTH:

  • All property is owned by all and by none
  • All property is owned by the born and unborn
  • First priority is "the least of these" born and unborn
  • Each individual is a steward
  • Each individual looks to the "Master" the still small voice s/he hears
  • Each indivisual gives the life s/he has to have brothers and sisters here the voice within them too

Heaven on earth: Laws

Heaven / Nirvana / Universal Joy in this Hellish World are all I or this site are concerned with, ever.

Heaven on earth: Laws

Imagine the "LAWS" among the following folks:
  • On a bucket brigade at a house fire
  • Saving kids at an elementary school after an earthquake
  • Neighbors after a massive flood
  • Jesus, King, Gandhi, Teresa, Khan Ghaffar Kahn

THE LAWS AMONG THOSE LIVING FOR HEAVEN ON EARTH:

INDIVIDUALLY AND SUPREMELY -

  • Still small voice within
  • Heart / Love / Agape
  • Compassion
  • Empathy
  • Solidarity
  • Compassion
  • Wisdom

COLLECTIVELY AND SUBORDINATE TO THE ABOVE -

  • ALL JUST LAWS
  • ALL COMPASSIONATE LAWS
  • NO UNJUST LAWS
  • NO UNCOMPASSIONATE LAWS

Dietrich Bonhoeffer captured it divinely: “Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God – the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God.”

Heaven on earth: Infrastructure

Heaven / Nirvana / Universal Joy in this Hellish World are all I or this site are concerned with, ever.

Heaven on earth: Infrastructure


Imagine the "INFRASTRUCTURE" among the following folks:

  • A "healthy" biological "family"
  • Holocaust Rescuers
  • On a bucket brigade at a house fire
  • Saving kids at an elementary school after an earthquake
  • Neighbors after a massive flood

THE INFRASTRUCTURE AMONG THOSE LIVING FOR HEAVEN ON EARTH:

  • Luxuries converted into necessities (the "lady" shredding her dress for bandages)
  • From each according to their abilities, to each according to their need
  • All blessings shared in common
  • All problems shared in common
  • No gap between rich and poor

Heaven on earth: Geographical boundaries

Heaven / Nirvana / Universal Joy in this Hellish World are all I or this site are concerned with, ever.

Heaven on earth: Geographical boundaries

Imagine the "GEOGRAPHICAL BOUNDARIES" among the following folks:
  • A "healthy" biological "family"
  • Holocaust Rescuers
  • On a bucket brigade at a house fire
  • Saving kids at an elementary school after an earthquake
  • Neighbors after a massive flood
  • Jesus, King, Gandhi, Bhave, Khan Ghaffar Kahn

THE GEOGRAPHICAL BOUNDARIES AMONG THOSE LIVING FOR HEAVEN ON EARTH:

Heaven on earth: Time horzon / focus

Heaven / Nirvana / Universal Joy in this Hellish World are all I or this site are concerned with, ever.

Heaven on earth: Time horzon / focus

Imagine the "TIME HORIZON / FOCUS" among the following folks:

  • A "healthy" biological "family"
  • On a bucket brigade at a house fire
  • Saving kids at an elementary school after an earthquake
  • Neighbors after a massive flood
  • Jesus, King, Gandhi, Bhave, Khan Ghaffar Kahn

THE TIME HORIZON / FOCUS AMONG THOSE LIVING FOR HEAVEN ON EARTH: WATCH OUT - THIS ONE IS TRICKY. THE FOLKS ABOVE ARE ACTING OUT OF LOVE - LOVE IS TRUTH AND WISDOM!!!

  • Present
  • Future
  • Infinite Future - Guarding the Unborn, their children, their children's children....

Heaven on earth: Resource extraction

Heaven / Nirvana / Universal Joy in this Hellish World are all I or this site are concerned with, ever.

Heaven on earth: Resource extraction

Imagine the "RESOURCE EXTRACTION BEHAVIOR" among the following folks:
  • A "healthy" biological "family"
  • Holocaust Rescuers
  • On a bucket brigade at a house fire
  • Saving kids at an elementary school after an earthquake
  • Neighbors after a massive flood
  • Jesus, King, Gandhi, Bhave, Khan Ghaffar Kahn

THE RESOURCE EXTRACTION BEHAVIOR AMONG THOSE LIVING FOR HEAVEN ON EARTH:

  • Minimal extraction as required for "the least of these"
  • Minimal extraction as required in protection of future generations

Heaven on earth: Resource distribution

Heaven / Nirvana / Universal Joy in this Hellish World are all I or this site are concerned with, ever.

Heaven on earth: Resource distribution

Heaven on earth: Activities

Heaven / Nirvana / Universal Joy in this Hellish World are all I or this site are concerned with, ever.

Heaven on earth: Activities

Imagine the "ACTIVITIES" among the following folks:
  • A "healthy" biological "family"
  • Holocaust Rescuers
  • On a bucket brigade at a house fire
  • Saving kids at an elementary school after an earthquake
  • Neighbors after a massive flood
  • Jesus, King, Gandhi, Bhave, Khan Ghaffar Kahn

THE ACTIVITIES AMONG THOSE LIVING FOR HEAVEN ON EARTH:

  • SERVICE: They live to serve the least of these born and not yet born (infinite generations)
  • HUMILITY AND EXPERTISE AS REQUIRED BY THE LEAST OF THESE: They live in extreme reverence to the sacredness of their ability to serve
  • REST AND REGENERATION: To the extent necessary for optimal service; LIMITED so as not to interfere with service. Think R&R for the heroic soldier.

Heaven on Earth: How time is spent

Heaven / Nirvana / Universal Joy in this Hellish World are all I or this site are concerned with, ever.

See ACTIVITIES

7.13.2007

Imagine Heaven: What it looks like

Heaven / Nirvana / Universal Joy in this Hellish World are all I or this site are concerned with, ever.

Heaven on earth: What it looks like

Imagine "WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE" among the following folks:
  • A "healthy" biological "family"
  • Holocaust Rescuers
  • On a bucket brigade at a house fire
  • Saving kids at an elementary school after an earthquake
  • Neighbors after a massive flood
  • Jesus, King, Gandhi, Bhave, Khan Ghaffar Kahn

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE AMONG THOSE LIVING FOR HEAVEN ON EARTH:

  • LOVE
  • SERVICE
  • MODESTY
  • INTENSITY
  • SACRIFICE
  • JOY
  • FOCUS
  • WISDOM
  • LOVE
  • SIMPLICITY
  • FRUGALITY
  • HUMILITY
  • POVERTY (think NURSES serving Doctors Without Borders in Darfur; think Amish; think American Indian before the Genocides)

EFFECTIVE RADICALISM IS INFINITELY DIFFICULT

Conservatism fights (with one's life if necessary) to keep things the same. In such a Hellish world this is unacceptable.

Liberality is NOT the opposite of Conservatism, as Liberals tend not to fight for ANYTHING with their OWN lives.

RADICALISM is the counter to Conservatism. Radicals want change so much with their Head and their Hearts that they will pay whatever price is necessary. Think King, Gandhi, Jesus....

Conservatism is EASY! Just hate every prospect for change, and anyone that represents it! NO IMAGINATION OR CREATION NECESSARY!

RADICALISM IS ENTIRELY CREATIVE AND INFINITELY DEMANDING:
  1. THE NEW WORLD MUST BE ENVISIONED!
  2. NEW LANGUAGE AND ARTICULATION MUST BE CREATED!
  3. EDUCATION AND TRAINING SPREAD ON THE NEW WORLD!
  4. NEW TACTICS OF "WAR" FORMULATED WHERE THE FIGHTERS, NOT THEIR "ENEMIES" PAY WITH THEIR LIVES.
  5. NEW ARMY RAISED AND TRAINED.

I CHOOSE JESUS' WAY OVER CHRISTIANITY

These alternatives are not the same. These are two, distinct, mutually exclusive choices.

JESUS' WAY:

  • Love the Almighty
  • Love all humankind
  • Lay down your life for the least of these Jesus' / our family, as Jesus did.

CHRISTIANITY:

  • Profess Jesus Christ your lord and savior that died for your sins; who rose from the dead
  • OR, according to the Nazi Pope - be Catholic, go to Latin mass
  • And all the other dogmatic, dead, murderous, evil, Jesus-excluding crap

Any overlap of Christianity with JESUS WAY (Jesus Word, and His word alone) is arbitrary, random, capricious, incidental, variable, hypocritical, noncommittal and rare.

I CHOOSE JESUS' WAY.

I REJECT AND DENOUNCE AS COUNTER TO TRUTH / LOVE / LIFE
CHRISTIANITY AND EVERY OTHER ORGANIZED / INSTITUTIONALIZED / FOSSILIZED RELIGION TO THE EXTENT THAT IT DISPLACES
THE SOLE AND ENTIRE PURSUITE OF TOTAL LOVE / MILITANT BROTHERLINESS / "WORLD FAMILY" / "WE."

PROBABLY EVERY "RELIGION" CAN BE USED TO ACHIEVE A LIFE OF TOTAL LOVE / LIFE / TRUTH AND THE DEGREE TO WHICH THE INDIVIDUAL USES IT IN THIS WAY - WONDERFUL. THIS IS THE POSITION OF GANDHI AND TERESA ALSO.

"GROUNDHOG DAY." 3RD, DOMINANT FACE OF "SALVATION."

Two faces of "Salvation" (from less than AWESOME Life / Love / Truth) are discussed in FRODO AND SAM. THE TWO FACES OF SALVATION.

A third face can be seen in the movie "Groundhog Day."

This 3rd face is expressed in the highly recommended practice of prayer within the "Our Father," and in particular the parts:

Among the murderous garbage put out by most "Christian" churches is the notion that we cannot "Save" ourselves from selfishness / disconnection from others / Error / Sin.
Groundhog Day shows us the nonesense of this position. The verses above show us the truth that we can and must, if we want Joy for ourselves and others, continually "Save" OURSELVES, Grow, Learn! This is indespensible to "Salvation." It may or may not be helped by deliberate intervention by others, in a "church" for example. Usually such Self-Salvation is dreadfully hurt by such intervention - because almost always it is a mater of the "blind leading the blind" as Jesus cautioned. Those who "see" are one in a million, literally. Beware.
"REMOVE THE PLANK FROM YOUR OWN EYE" JESUS TAUGHT.

7.12.2007

JESUS FAITH WAS REDICULOUS; UNIMAGINABLE - LOVE; ONLY LOVE.

Do you get it? I just did! After all this time and I just got it.

Jesus' total, entire, second by second, minute by minute, in all things, IN ALL THINGS "FAITH" was in LOVE / TRUTH / LIFE; ONLY THESE; NEVER ANYTHING ELSE. NEVER. NOTHING ELSE.

Come on now, see this. What do you and I in this society put our faith in second by second. Is it Love / Life / Truth - the Almighty forces of Our Nervous System / Nature / The Cosmos!?!!?

You and I do what we were taught. We ignore our natural faith in our inborn capacity for Love / Life / Truth. We worship instead:
  • Our mind
  • Our learning
  • Our institutions
  • Our relationships
  • Our "stuff"
  • Our "superiority" over situations and others
  • Experts
  • Elders
  • Bosses
  • Clergy
  • Etc....

Is "Faith" in Love / Life / Truth exclusive of these just mentioned? We think so, but quite the opposite!

Love / Life Truth totally and brilliantly use all resources internal and external for their purposes.

But the opposite is never true.
When we put our faith in anything except Love / Life / Truth these three are fundamentally excluded from our existence.

7.11.2007

Moon explorers first left their "home world"

Especially in the early days of the space program it is true that virtually the entire world they depended upon, their entire safety net, was left behind. They left their old world for a new one. This was a price they had to pay. It was a price they were extatic to pay!

IMPEACH RATZINGER

This is the Pope from Hell from what I can see so far. In the face of Darfur, 18,000 children dying per day, 1 million killed by U.S. in Iraq... what is Christ's Vicar in the news for? Just what Jesus would do:

Pope, Restating 2000 Document, Cites ‘Defects’ of Other Faiths

Ratzinger effect boosts Vatican's cash-flow

Pope Set to Ease Restrictions on Latin Mass: Document Expected ...

This guy is from Hell from what I can see.

FRODO AND SAM. THE TWO FACES OF SALVATION

BORN SAVED: Sam it seems was born saved, presumably by being born into an Otherish family -
  • Otherish, no selfishness
  • Sorokin of Harvard in his study of Altruistic Love, "The Ways and Power of Love," found that most Saints come from profoundly loving families. Fogelman in her study of Holocaust Rescuers found the same. The apple does not fall far from the tree.
  • The "Fall" is NOT inevitable. Our environment does it to most of us.

SAVED LATER IN LIFE: Frodo was not saved from Selfishness / Detachment / Divorce-from-others until the final seconds as he hung by his fingers in the volcano, by Sam's Love, limitless Sacrifice / Otherishness -

  • Frodo was Redeemed, his Otherishness bought back from Selfishness by Sam's Love / Otherishness. Sam's Love was Therapy for Frodo.
  • Militant Brotherliness, my name for Nonviolence is this type of Therapy primarily.
  • This was the aim of Gandhi, King, Jesus.... They had limited success.
  • We cannot afford limited success anymore. We are out of time.

THE OPOSITE OF CONSERVATIVE IS RADICAL, NOT LIBERAL

See EFFECTIVE RADICALISM IS INFINITELY DIFFICULT

DIVINE: THAT WHICH NOTHING IS MORE WONDERFUL THAN

Definition - DIVINE: THAT WHICH NOTHING IS MORE WONDERFUL THAN

The Eskimos have 20 words for snow, different kinds of snow.

We in the states take our most valuable FEW words - Love, Divine - and use them for 2,000 inappropriate things. IN THIS WAY WE BLIND OURSELVES.

LOVE is COURAGE is CONNECTION is TRUTH

LOVE IS COURAGE IS CONNECTION IS TRUTH

As I attempt to understand the mystery of Love this is a big step for me.

LOVE - COURAGE - CONNECTION - TRUTH (as Gandhi used "Truth"- Species specific Morality)
  • are never separate,
  • THEY NEVER HAPPEN SEPARATELY!
  • THEY ARE THE SAME THING NEUROLOGICALLY, OR
  • THEY ARE SO INTERTWINED THAT THEY CANNOT BE UNDERSTOOD SEPARATELY ONE FROM THE OTHER

7.10.2007

THAT FINAL INSTANT FRODO DIDN'T LET GO THE RING

Well, I just can't think of a clearer image of our madness / blindness / craziness. CRAZINESS!

There is Frodo:
  • Swimming in Brotherhood (Sam, Strider, et al),
  • Awash in the suffering of Selfishness / Exploitation / War / Greed (the Ring and its doing)
  • Etc.
  • ALL THE EVIDENCE IN THE WORLD OF THE WONDER OF LOVE / MILITANT BROTHERLINESS
  • ALL THE EVIDENCE IN THE WORLD OF THE HORROR OF SELFISHNESS / EXPLOITATION / DISCONNECTION / WAR

AND YET FACED WITH THE FINAL CHOICE -
FRODO IS BLIND TO ALL BUT POWER / STUFF / SUPERIORITY

WE ARE IN THE GRIP OF SOCIETAL MADNESS / BLINDNESS / CRAZINESS / INSANITY