Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Creation
Abiogenesis - Can Life Be Initiated Without a Creator? - a knol by Zvi Shkedi
"Darwin's theory of evolution is often used as an anti-religious political weapon, to refute the account of creation in the Bible. Learning evolution, in many schools, is connected with denial of creation by God. The following citation from Darwin's book ("On The Origin of Species", 6th edition, p.429, the closing paragraph of the Conclusion) sheds interesting light on this controversy:
Darwin himself knew that life on earth was initiated by "the Creator". Everything else is minor details. As it says in the Bible: "...and He (God) breathed into him a breath of life." (Genesis, ch.2, v.7)
Richard Dawkins, one of the most aggressive anti-creation evolution biologists, admits that life appears abruptly in the fossil record. He says:
The English Professor Anthony Flew was, for half a century, the world's leading authority on atheism. When he learned, in 2004, about the breaking of the genetic code in DNA, he changed his mind and announced that he believes in God as a first cause. The structure of DNA, he explained, was so awesomely complex that it could not have just evolved. It must have been designed and created by God."
"Darwin's theory of evolution is often used as an anti-religious political weapon, to refute the account of creation in the Bible. Learning evolution, in many schools, is connected with denial of creation by God. The following citation from Darwin's book ("On The Origin of Species", 6th edition, p.429, the closing paragraph of the Conclusion) sheds interesting light on this controversy:
"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one."
Darwin himself knew that life on earth was initiated by "the Creator". Everything else is minor details. As it says in the Bible: "...and He (God) breathed into him a breath of life." (Genesis, ch.2, v.7)
Richard Dawkins, one of the most aggressive anti-creation evolution biologists, admits that life appears abruptly in the fossil record. He says:
“We find many of them already in an advanced state of evolution, the very first time they appear. It is as though they were just planted there, without any evolutionary history”. ("The Blind Watchmaker", 1986, p. 229).
The English Professor Anthony Flew was, for half a century, the world's leading authority on atheism. When he learned, in 2004, about the breaking of the genetic code in DNA, he changed his mind and announced that he believes in God as a first cause. The structure of DNA, he explained, was so awesomely complex that it could not have just evolved. It must have been designed and created by God."
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Hanuka - Sunlight, Candlelight
Sunlight, Candlelight
By Mendel Weinberger
Hanukah. The Festival of Lights. It is perhaps the most beloved of the Jewish Festivals. No soul searching, no fasting, no shivering in plywood huts fishing pine needles out of your soup, no breaking your teeth on unleavened bread, no drinking until you drop. Just a few quiet moments with your family sitting around the multi- colored candles singing "Rock of Ages", eating potato latkes (USA, Europe) or jelly doughnuts (Israel), and watching your kids spin the dreidel. Just a few moments of peace and tranquility gazing at the flickering flames in your living room while outside the flashing colored lights, fake snow, and tinsel adorn every storefront and the frantic gift giving season is playing full blast.
You retell the heroic tale of Judah Macabee and his fearless men, the wondrous victory of the weak over the strong, the few over the many, the righteous over the wicked. And of course, you tell of the oil that miraculously burned for eight days. But it is the lights that draw you, that hold your gaze, that remind you of the mystery - the mystery of Jewish history, the mystery of G-d's Will, the mystery of life. As you gaze into the flames, think about light - physical light and spiritual light. Where does it come from? And where is it going?
The sun. Radiant orb, emanating light and warmth. A luminous king who rules the day, shining a blinding light at noon, and a soft glow at sunset, blistering heat in July and a welcome, comforting warmth in January. It is the most consistent element in the world, appearing each day in the east, where is begins its daily march across the sky to set in the west - a symbol of G-d's benevolence. In Hebrew sunlight is called ohr hashemesh (the light that serves). It bursts forth from the sun as a new creation, yet is constantly connected. Sunlight surrounds us, but we cannot grasp it. We feel its presence, measure its heat, harness its power, but we cannot possess it. The light belongs forever to the king - that blinding, blazing inferno hanging 95 million miles up in the sky.
Inside the body of the sun there is no light only essence, an element that defies description. Is it a fire? Yes and no. Is it a gas? Yes and no. It's a flaming sphere of hydrogen and helium that never goes out. In its source, light is without substance, no beginning and no end. But as it leaves its origin, the essence of the sun is hidden, and a new generated light is born. As the light travels farther and farther away from the sun, it becomes limited, defined, and restricted. It can shine through your window but not through a brick wall. Its power can make electricity, heat water, create photosynthesis, and give you a tan.
You can put sunlight through red, green, or blue glass but it won't change the light. It only changes the way you see it. And it certainly doesn't change the sun, because the sun doesn't care how we see the light. Sunlight doesn't discriminate. It shines on the flower as well as the garbage dump, the mountaintop and the valley floor, the righteous and the wicked. Sunlight's one major flaw is that it never, ever unites and clothes itself in the physical world. It cannot. For if it did, it would have to disengage from the sun and that would be its end.
Candlelight. Drawn from primordial fire, the most spiritual element in creation. Forever striving upward to unite with its source above, yet held down by wick and oil. It consumes its fuel with an endless hunger, radiating a soft, friendly glow that dispels much darkness. A light that is a comfort to the lonely, a seductress to the lover, a ray of hope to the downtrodden, and a symbol of the striving spirit to the seeker. As opposed to the sun, fire does unite with physical matter to the point where it needs creation in order to reveal itself. Yet the light produced comes from a higher place. One can possess candlelight as long as it remains connected to its source. Its limitation is that it depends on and is directly affected by the material that feeds its fire.
The sun and the candle - two sources of light holding deep meaning for humanity.
But for the Jew these two symbols hold the key to creation and our partnership in perfecting it. Consider now that sunlight and candlelight are metaphors for the spiritual light that creates and maintains the universe. G-d created the light by an act of tzimtzum (contraction). He so to speak removed His presence and produced a light that could be at the same time connected to Him yet far away from His Essence.
A light that could create worlds but would never be affected by them, could enliven existence yet never unite with it. This light is like the light of the sun, generated from the place of G-d's infinite benevolence, the highest spiritual world of atzilut (emanation). It is the foundation for every world below it including our material world. Like the sun we cannot gaze directly into it, for this would blind us. Yet we can sense its presence, as the spiritual source of our lives and of all creation. It is a power that transcends all limitations, all definitions, all actions, feelings, and thoughts. It is the ultimate Truth of G-d's Being.
This light encompasses all existence, physical and spiritual, from a single celled ameba to an African elephant, from a grain of sand to the planet Jupiter, from the demons and angels to the souls of the prophets. For this source of creation no act of man makes the slightest bit of difference. It is the force of unlimited giving without consideration of a human response. You can be a practicing Jew or an atheist. It makes no difference - G-d's light will shine on you and keep you alive. It is called in Hebrew Ohr Yashar - the straightforward light.
The symbol of candlelight is G-d's immanence. It is how He clothes Himself in creation and reveals himself as the living soul of the universe. This light is forever striving upward toward its spiritual source, yet is held below by the fine thread of material existence. This is the caring, personal side of G-d who desires man's service and regards keenly what we do. For a Jew this service means using the physical world and our own talents and abilities to fulfill His Will.
Giving charity, helping a friend, and keeping the Sabbath fuel the flame of G-d's light and make it shine ever brighter in one's soul and in the world. Eating matzah on Passover, shaking the lulav on Succot, and lighting the Hanukah menorah generate the oil that nourishes this godly light and sends it heavenward to find it's home in G-ds's Being. It is called Ohr Chozer, the returning light, and it is our opportunity to participate in the dynamic of creation.
Most people would prefer to bask in the bright sunlight of G-d's benevolence all their lives and never have to give anything back. But as sure as night follows day, there comes a time - the dark night of the soul - when G-d's kindness is hidden and one must light a candle to see the way forward. In the path of the spirit, lighting a candle doesn't depend on what you know or what you believe. It doesn't depend on your title or position. All it takes is to strike the match of humility and to "do" a good deed, not because you want to, but because this deed will light up your soul and send the flame up to the Throne of Glory. In turn G-d responds with a revelation of something even greater than the light of the sun. He gives you Himself. We serve G-d because He is the source of our life and the goal of our passage through time and space. And in the end there is absolutely nothing else.
The Hanuka lights flicker and sputter out and with a sigh you get back to the business of living. But a trace of memory remains. A memory that is engraved in the Jewish soul - a memory of holiness, of revelation, of service, a memory of where we come from, and where we are going. It is a memory of a nation proud of itself. Don't let it go.
Mendel Weinberger is an English teacher and freelance writer who lives in Jerusalem with his wife and six children.
http://www.jewishmag.com/27mag/candle/candle.htm
Friday, November 26, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
MUST SEE
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=5889
Spirituality in College
latimes.com/news/local/la-me-beliefs-college-20101120,0,2997425.story
November 20, 2010
....for many students, college is a time to develop spiritually in ways that can endure after they've finished school, a new long-term study has found.
"It kind of opens the student's mind," Alexander Astin, one of the study's authors and a professor emeritus of higher education at UCLA, said of the college experience. He called it a period "stimulated by exposure to new people and new ideas."
.... College is a safe haven in which they can explore their spirituality and challenge it.
The spirituality study, launched in 2003, was based on an initial survey of 112,000 American college freshmen, then a follow-up survey of more than 14,000 of the students after they completed their junior year at scores of colleges and universities nationwide. The researchers published their findings in a book released last month, "Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Students' Inner Lives." Astin's co-authors were his wife, Helen S. Astin, who is also a professor of higher education at UCLA, and Jennifer A. Lindholm, director of the university's Spirituality in Higher Education project.
The study found that many students struggled with their religious beliefs and became less certain of them during their college years.
It also found that many young people eschewed the rituals of organized religion but embraced what the researchers defined as the cornerstones of spirituality: asking the big, existential questions; working to improve one's community; and showing empathy toward other people.
"These spiritual qualities are critical and vital to many things a student does in college and after," Astin said.
The researchers also found that students who were more spiritual typically performed better academically, had stronger leadership skills, were more amiable and were generally more satisfied with college.
.....College courses on religious subjects help teach students how to read sacred texts with an intellectually curious eye.....
rick.rojas@latimes.com
latimes.com
Spirituality finds a home at college
Students, searching for meaning in life, often enhance their inner lives, long-term study finds.
By Rick Rojas, Los Angeles TimesNovember 20, 2010
| advertisement |
"It kind of opens the student's mind," Alexander Astin, one of the study's authors and a professor emeritus of higher education at UCLA, said of the college experience. He called it a period "stimulated by exposure to new people and new ideas."
.... College is a safe haven in which they can explore their spirituality and challenge it.
The spirituality study, launched in 2003, was based on an initial survey of 112,000 American college freshmen, then a follow-up survey of more than 14,000 of the students after they completed their junior year at scores of colleges and universities nationwide. The researchers published their findings in a book released last month, "Cultivating the Spirit: How College Can Enhance Students' Inner Lives." Astin's co-authors were his wife, Helen S. Astin, who is also a professor of higher education at UCLA, and Jennifer A. Lindholm, director of the university's Spirituality in Higher Education project.
The study found that many students struggled with their religious beliefs and became less certain of them during their college years.
It also found that many young people eschewed the rituals of organized religion but embraced what the researchers defined as the cornerstones of spirituality: asking the big, existential questions; working to improve one's community; and showing empathy toward other people.
"These spiritual qualities are critical and vital to many things a student does in college and after," Astin said.
The researchers also found that students who were more spiritual typically performed better academically, had stronger leadership skills, were more amiable and were generally more satisfied with college.
.....College courses on religious subjects help teach students how to read sacred texts with an intellectually curious eye.....
rick.rojas@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times
Friday, November 19, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Time and Death
Is Death the End?
Experiments Suggest You Create Time
When I was young, I stayed at my neighbor's house. They had a grandfather clock. Between the tick and the tock of the pendulum, I lay awake thinking about the perverse nature of time. Mr. O'Donnell is gone now. His wife Barbara, now in her nineties, greets me with her cane when I go back to visit.
We watch our loved ones age and die, and we assume that an external entity called time is responsible for the crime. But experiments increasingly cast doubt on the existence of time as we know it. In fact, the reality of time has long been questioned by philosophers and physicists. When we speak of time, we're usually referring to change. But change isn't the same thing as time.
To measure anything's position precisely is to "lock in" on one static frame of its motion, as in a film. Conversely, as soon as you observe movement, you can't isolate a frame, because motion is the summation of many frames. Sharpness in one parameter induces blurriness in the other. Consider a film of a flying arrow that stops on a single frame. The pause enables you to know the position of the arrow with great accuracy: it's 20 feet above the grandstand. But you've lost all information about its momentum. It's going nowhere; its path is uncertain.
Numerous experiments confirm that such uncertainty is built into the fabric of reality. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is a fundamental concept of quantum physics. However, it only makes sense from a biocentric perspective. According to biocentrism, time is the inner sense that animates the still frames of the spatial world. Remember, you can't see through the bone surrounding your brain; everything you experience is woven together in your mind. So what's real? If the next image is different from the last, then it's different, period. We can award change with the word "time," but that doesn't mean that there's an invisible matrix in which changes occur.
At each moment we're at the edge of a paradox described by the Greek philosopher Zeno. Because an object can't occupy two places simultaneously, he contended that an arrow is only at one place during any given instant of its flight. To be in one place, however, is to be at rest. The arrow must therefore be at rest at every instant of its flight. Thus, motion is impossible. But is this really a paradox? Or rather, is it proof that time (motion) isn't a feature of the outer, spatial world, but rather a conception of thought?
At each moment we're at the edge of a paradox described by the Greek philosopher Zeno. Because an object can't occupy two places simultaneously, he contended that an arrow is only at one place during any given instant of its flight. To be in one place, however, is to be at rest. The arrow must therefore be at rest at every instant of its flight. Thus, motion is impossible. But is this really a paradox? Or rather, is it proof that time (motion) isn't a feature of the outer, spatial world, but rather a conception of thought?
An experiment published in 1990 suggests that Zeno was right. In this experiment, scientists demonstrated the quantum equivalent of the adage that "a watched pot doesn't boil." This behavior, the "quantum Zeno effect," turns out to be a function of observation. "It seems,"said physicist Peter Coveney, "that the act of looking at an atom prevents it from changing". Theoretically, if a nuclear bomb were watched intently enough -- that is, if you could check its atoms every million trillionth of a second -- it wouldn't explode. Bizarre? The problem lies not in the experiments but in our way of thinking about time. Biocentrism is the only comprehensible way to explain these results, which are only "weird" in the context of the existing paradigm.
In biocentrism, space and time are forms of animal intuition. They're tools of the mind and thus don't exist as external objects independent of life. When we feel poignantly that time has elapsed, as when loved ones die, it constitutes the human perceptions of the passage and existence of time. Our babies turn into adults. We age. That, to us, is time. It belongs with us.
In biocentrism, space and time are forms of animal intuition. They're tools of the mind and thus don't exist as external objects independent of life. When we feel poignantly that time has elapsed, as when loved ones die, it constitutes the human perceptions of the passage and existence of time. Our babies turn into adults. We age. That, to us, is time. It belongs with us.
New experiments confirm this concept. In 2002, scientists carried out an amazing experiment that showed that within pairs of particles, each particle anticipated what its twin would do in the future. Somehow, the particles "knew" what the researcher would do before it happened, as if there were no space or time between them. In a 2007 study published in Science, scientists shot particles into an apparatus and showed that they could retroactively change whether the particles behaved as photons or waves. The particles had to "decide" what to do when they passed a fork in the apparatus. Later on, the experimenter could flip a switch. It turns out what the observer decided at that point determined how the particle had behaved at the fork in the past. Thus the knowledge in our mind can determine how particles behave.
Of course, we live in the same world. Critics claim that this behavior is limited to the quantum world. But this "two-world" view (that is, the view that there is one set of laws for quantum objects and another for the rest of the universe, including us) has no basis in reason and is being challenged in labs around the world. Last year, researchers published a study in Nature suggesting that quantum behavior extends into the everyday realm. Pairs of ions were coaxed to entangle, and then their properties remained bound together when separated by large distances ("spooky action at a distance," as Einstein put it) as if there were no time or space. And in 2005, KHCO3 crystals exhibited entanglement ridges half an inch high, demonstrating that quantum behavior could nudge into the ordinary world of human-scale objects.
In the Oct. 2010 issue of Discover, theoretical physicists Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow state, "There is no way to remove the observer -- us -- from our perceptions of the world ... In classical physics, the past is assumed to exist as a definite series of events, but according to quantum physics, the past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities."
That night, while lying awake at my neighbor's house, I had found the answer -- that the missing piece is with us. As I see it, immortality doesn't mean perpetual (linear) existence in time but resides outside of time altogether. Life is a journey that transcends our classical way of thinking. Experiment after experiment continues to suggest that we create time, not the other way around. Without consciousness, space and time are nothing. At death, there's a break in the continuity of space and time; you can take any time -- past or future -- as your new frame of reference and estimate all potentialities relative to it. In the end, even Einstein acknowledged that "the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." Life is just one fragment of time, one brushstroke in a picture larger than ourselves, eternal even when we die. This is the indispensable prelude to immortality.
That night, while lying awake at my neighbor's house, I had found the answer -- that the missing piece is with us. As I see it, immortality doesn't mean perpetual (linear) existence in time but resides outside of time altogether. Life is a journey that transcends our classical way of thinking. Experiment after experiment continues to suggest that we create time, not the other way around. Without consciousness, space and time are nothing. At death, there's a break in the continuity of space and time; you can take any time -- past or future -- as your new frame of reference and estimate all potentialities relative to it. In the end, even Einstein acknowledged that "the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." Life is just one fragment of time, one brushstroke in a picture larger than ourselves, eternal even when we die. This is the indispensable prelude to immortality.
"Time and space are but the physiological colors which the eye maketh," said Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay "Self-Reliance." "But the soul is light; where it is, is day; where it was, is night."
"Biocentrism" (co-authored with astronomer Bob Berman) lays out Lanza's theory of everything.
Nocebo
Like the placebo...our thoughts affect our material world, body and mind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo
Four Psychological Fads
latimes.com/health/la-he-psychology-fads-20101115,0,481706.story
A look at primal therapy, Transcendental Meditation, EST, and lucid dreaming.
A look at primal therapy, Transcendental Meditation, EST, and lucid dreaming.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Edgar Cayce on Astrology - an Excellent Explanation
Think on This ...
Then all of these influences astrological (as known or called) from without, bear witness--or are as innate influences upon our activity, our sojourn through any given experience. Not because we were born with the sun in this sign or that, nor because Jupiter or Mercury or Saturn or Uranus or Mars was rising or setting, but rather:Because we were made for the purpose of being companions with Him, a little lower than the angels who behold His face ever yet as heirs, as joint heirs with Him who is the Savior, the Way, then we have brought these about because of our activities through our experiences in those realms! Hence they bear witness by being in certain positions--because of our activity, our sojourn in those environs, in relationships to the universal forces of activity.
Hence they bear witness of certain urges in us, not beyond our will but controlled by our will!
Edgar Cayce Reading 1567-2
This email was automatically generated by the Association for Research and Enlightenment.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Spiritual Conspiracy
A SPIRITUAL CONSPIRACY
On the surface of the world right now there is
war and violence and things seem dark.
But calmly and quietly at the same time,
something else is happening underground.
An inner revolution is taking place,
and certain individuals are being called to a higher light.
It is a silent revolution.
From the inside out. From the ground up.
This is a Global operation.
A Spiritual Conspiracy.
There are sleeper cells in every nation on the planet.
You won't see us on the T.V.
You won't read about us in the newspaper.
You won't hear about us on the radio.
We don't seek any glory.
We don't wear any uniform.
We come in all shapes and sizes, colors and styles.
Most of us work anonymously.
We are quietly working behind the scenes
in every country and culture of the world.
Cities big and small, mountains and valleys,
in farms and villages, tribes and remote islands.
You could pass by one of us on the street
and not even notice.
We go undercover.
We remain behind the scenes.
It is of no concern to us who takes the final credit,
but simply that the work gets done.
Occasionally we spot each other in the street;
we give a quiet nod and continue on our way.
During the day many of us pretend we have normal jobs.
But behind the false storefront at night
is where the real work takes a place.
Some call us the Conscious Army.
We are slowly creating a new world
with the power of our minds and hearts.
We follow, with passion and joy.
Our orders come from the Central Spiritual Intelligence.
We are dropping soft, secret love bombs when no one is looking
Poems ~ Hugs ~ Music ~ Photography ~ Movies ~ Kind words ~
Smiles ~ Meditation and prayer ~ Dance ~ Social activism ~ Websites
Blogs ~ Random acts of kindness...
We each express ourselves in our own unique ways
with our own unique gifts and talents.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
That is the motto that fills our hearts.
We know it is the only way real transformation takes place.
We know that quietly and humbly we have the
power of all the oceans combined.
Our work is slow and meticulous,
like the formation of mountains.
It is not even visible at first glance.
And yet with it entire tectonic plates
shall be moved in the centuries to come.
Love is the new religion of the 21st century.
You don't have to be a highly educated person
or have any exceptional knowledge to understand it.
It comes from the intelligence of the heart,
embedded in the timeless evolutionary pulse of all human beings.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
Nobody else can do it for you.
We are now recruiting.
Perhaps you will join us -
Or already have.
All are welcome
The door is open
~ author unknown
On the surface of the world right now there is
war and violence and things seem dark.
But calmly and quietly at the same time,
something else is happening underground.
An inner revolution is taking place,
and certain individuals are being called to a higher light.
It is a silent revolution.
From the inside out. From the ground up.
This is a Global operation.
A Spiritual Conspiracy.
There are sleeper cells in every nation on the planet.
You won't see us on the T.V.
You won't read about us in the newspaper.
You won't hear about us on the radio.
We don't seek any glory.
We don't wear any uniform.
We come in all shapes and sizes, colors and styles.
Most of us work anonymously.
We are quietly working behind the scenes
in every country and culture of the world.
Cities big and small, mountains and valleys,
in farms and villages, tribes and remote islands.
You could pass by one of us on the street
and not even notice.
We go undercover.
We remain behind the scenes.
It is of no concern to us who takes the final credit,
but simply that the work gets done.
Occasionally we spot each other in the street;
we give a quiet nod and continue on our way.
During the day many of us pretend we have normal jobs.
But behind the false storefront at night
is where the real work takes a place.
Some call us the Conscious Army.
We are slowly creating a new world
with the power of our minds and hearts.
We follow, with passion and joy.
Our orders come from the Central Spiritual Intelligence.
We are dropping soft, secret love bombs when no one is looking
Poems ~ Hugs ~ Music ~ Photography ~ Movies ~ Kind words ~
Smiles ~ Meditation and prayer ~ Dance ~ Social activism ~ Websites
Blogs ~ Random acts of kindness...
We each express ourselves in our own unique ways
with our own unique gifts and talents.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
That is the motto that fills our hearts.
We know it is the only way real transformation takes place.
We know that quietly and humbly we have the
power of all the oceans combined.
Our work is slow and meticulous,
like the formation of mountains.
It is not even visible at first glance.
And yet with it entire tectonic plates
shall be moved in the centuries to come.
Love is the new religion of the 21st century.
You don't have to be a highly educated person
or have any exceptional knowledge to understand it.
It comes from the intelligence of the heart,
embedded in the timeless evolutionary pulse of all human beings.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
Nobody else can do it for you.
We are now recruiting.
Perhaps you will join us -
Or already have.
All are welcome
The door is open
~ author unknown
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Final 2010 Class
Our final class for 2010 will begin Nov. 5 through Nov. 7 in Los Angeles. The class enrollment is full, however you can join us in consciousness if you wish.
The topic is Sons of God vs. Sons of Man and will incorporate Ancient Egypt, Dead Sea Scrolls, Essene Practices, Archeology, Geology with Joel's Principles. This will be the launching of my new work, which I hope will make Joel's message even more profound and practical for all serious students, those devoted to the meditative life as Joel taught it.
As this is my personal work, there may be materials available after class.
The topic is Sons of God vs. Sons of Man and will incorporate Ancient Egypt, Dead Sea Scrolls, Essene Practices, Archeology, Geology with Joel's Principles. This will be the launching of my new work, which I hope will make Joel's message even more profound and practical for all serious students, those devoted to the meditative life as Joel taught it.
As this is my personal work, there may be materials available after class.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Third San Francisco Lecture
"Now, here is a strange thing - strange if it had not been a somewhat similar experience of one’s own - that even the people who saw Lazarus raised from the dead, even those who had been fed in the wilderness, even the multitudes who were healed, didn’t believe at this particular point. They all were willing to walk away. The moment the test came, the trial came, the minute there was something not quite regular, even those who had benefited by this healing work were willing to walk away.
"Now, don’t think for a moment that this applies only to the people of that age. No, it applies to the people of this age, as well. At all times when you enter upon this work as a practitioner, or teacher, or lecturer, remember this: YOU ARE PRESENTING CHRIST – CHRIST LIVING – CHRIST OMNIPRESENT – in Christian language; IMMANUEL, in Hebrew language; TAO, in Chinese language. You are presenting the idea of the very Imminence [sic] [Immanence] of God. And therefore no one can build you up, since you had nothing to do with It except to become aware of It, and then become willing to share It.
"Those who do permit themselves to be built up, to develop into personalities, end up on the cross. There is no way to prevent this because that is the nature of human experience. We should not be here, as we shall see later, to glorify the personal self, since the personal self, whether by taking thought or by any other means, can of itself do nothing. “I can do all things through Christ,” That is true. And Jesus said, “I can of mine own self do nothing.” He knew that it was the Father within who did the work."
- Chapter Three
NY Times Monday Nov. 1, 2010
October 31, 2010
On an Indian Reservation, a Garden of Buddhas
By JIM ROBBINS
“There is something pure and powerful about this landscape,” said Gochen Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche, the 56-year-old Tibetan lama, as he walked down a gravel road on a sunny fall day. “The shape of the hills is like a lotus petal blossoming.”
Richard Gere has not been seen house shopping here — yet. But on the land of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes, a 24-foot statue of Yum Chenmo, the Great Wisdom Mother, has risen in Mr. Sang-ngag’s farm field. Nearby, in his old sheep barn, amid rubber molds and plaster, some 650 statues of Buddha sit in neat rows, illuminated by shafts of light pouring in through broken boards.
It seemed the perfect setup for a clash of two cultures when Mr. Sang-ngag, a high-ranking Buddhist lama, came to this remote part of Montana a decade ago, liked the landscape feng shui and bought a 60-acre sheep ranch. At the foot of the towering, glacier-etched Mission Mountains — not unlike his native Tibet — he and a band of volunteers began building a Garden of 1,000 Buddhas to promote world peace.
The arrival of the exotic culture here in cowboy country, with multicolored prayer flags flapping in the breeze, made some from the Salish and Kootenai tribes uneasy, to say the least.
An unusual land ownership pattern was partly to blame. While most Indian reservations are majority-owned by the tribes, a 1904 law allowed nonmembers of the tribes to homestead land. And as a result, there are four to five times as many non-Indians on the reservation as there are Indians.
Mr. Sang-ngag called his place Ewam Sang-ngag Ling, or the Land of Secret Mantra, Wisdom and Compassion. It turns out that it was sacred to the tribes as well, a place where, oral traditions hold, a coyote vanquished a monster and drove out many bad spirits so the people could live here.
Julie Cajune, the executive director for American Indian Policy at Salish Kootenai College and other Indians began working to build bridges between the tribes and the Buddhists. They suggested that the Buddhists bring traditional gifts, prayer scarves and tobacco, to the tribal council, which they did.
“Many people move here without recognition they are a guest,” Ms. Cajune said. “None of the mainstream churches or the Amish have done that.”
Buddhists in Japan, Taiwan and China have sent money for Buddha statues. The Dalai Lama has agreed to come and consecrate the Garden of 1,000 Buddhas after the project it is finished, perhaps in 2012.
But the patchwork of Indian and non-Indian land holdings within the reservation remains contentious. Some tribal members are worried that groups drawn to the Buddhist garden will buy up nontribal land, driving prices further out of the reach of Indians, and ignore tribal rules and customs.
They point to the case of Amish families who have bought farmland within the reservation, said Ms. Cajune, who is Salish.
“It’s ironic, but many Indian people can’t afford to buy land on their own reservation,” she said. A typical acre for building a home here might cost $30,000 — an enormous amount in rural and tribal Montana.
But Ms. Cajune said there was also an uncanny kinship between the tribal and Buddhist cultures, based on understandings of sacred landscapes, and even notions of honor and respect.
The biggest driver of rapprochement here is a shared history of subjugation and displacement — for the Tibetans, at the hands of the Chinese (Mr. Sang-ngag spent nine years in a Chinese labor camp) and for the tribes, by the American government.
“There is a shared vision of cultures being under pressure and surviving,” Mr. Sang-ngag said through a translator.
The heart of the 60-acre development is the 10-acre Garden of 1,000 Buddhas. When tribal elders came and blessed it, the two groups found they both used juniper and sage as purifying incense for ceremonies, for example, as well as similar prayer cloths and ritual drumming.
After much outreach by the Buddhists, including asking permission from the tribe to have the Dalai Lama consecrate the ground, Ms. Cajune said, “I think local people are feeling more comfortable.”
The sheep are gone from the green hills here now. “They achieved Buddhahood,” joked Mr. Sang-ngag, as he walked through the garden, designed in the shape of the dharma wheel, which symbolizes the core teachings of Buddhism. The Great Wisdom Mother statue contains sacred vases and holy texts. Swords, guns and other symbols of war are buried underneath, to symbolize a triumph over violence.
In the Buddha barn, meanwhile, is a Norton motorcycle, which members here jokingly refer to as the sacred chopper. It will be raffled to raise money to finish the garden. About half the money has been raised.
Last week the Buddhists began planning with the tribal officials about managing pilgrimages to the site, a possible headache for the tribe. “Some people want to keep the reservation a good, quiet secret,” Ms. Cajune said.
But Mr. Sang-ngag says good karma, or spiritual energy, is ebbing from the earth, and the garden will help enhance it. “It’s designed to awaken the Buddha nature” of wisdom and compassion in anyone who gazes upon it, said Lama Tsomo, a student who lives nearby.
A potential cultural clash has become cultural reconciliation. “It’s two cultures honoring each other in peace,” Ms. Cajune said. “That’s a powerful story people need to hear.”
Monday, November 1, 2010
From Third San Francisco Lecture
"Ordinarily in our metaphysical work, and I go back into my own entrance into the metaphysical field for healing and enlightenment, the idea with me then was – “I am a human being, one who knows nothing about God, and I am sick. My desire is to be a human being who knows something about God, and who is well.” And that was the extent or the height of my purpose or intent when I took up the study of Christian Science.
"Since then I have met thousands of people in the metaphysical movements, and I have no hesitancy in saying that for the most part, that was their intent – to bring a sickness to metaphysics, and come out well; to bring a poverty-stricken purse to the study of Truth, and have it prosper.
"In most cases – and this is the tragedy – people seem intent on staying on that level of demonstration: to want all of the good human things of life and to be freed of all the discordant human things of life, and continue merrily on this human way to the age of three-score years and ten, or a few beyond and then pass on as ordinarily mortals do.
"For years and years that seemed to be my understanding of the purpose of metaphysics in this age. And it was only as the years went on, and I saw or realized that we were only materia medica in another form; that we were merely people who healed rheumatism, or consumption, or cancer or arthritis, but with a different method than the doctors used. We prayed, or we knew the Truth, or we did a Daily Lesson, or we did something of that kind and ultimately found that our sinful habit had left us or our disease had left us, or perhaps our supply had grown a little greater. In place of $50.00 a week, sometimes we earned $100.00, and I have known men who even became millionaires merely through the study and application of Truth.
"Wonderful as it is to be a healthy human; wonderful as it is to be a wealthy human if one has enough intelligence to know what to do with the wealth after he gets it; that still is not the goal for those of SPIRITUAL ILLUMINATION. There still remain the age-old questions - “What is Truth? What is God? What is the Son of God? What is it to live the spiritual life?”
"It is very evident that had the Master just gone on healing sick people or feeding poor people, He would have come to his end and been celebrated as a great philanthropist and healer. But evidently He was carrying His particular work further than that, because He was able to reveal to them; “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
"And He followed it up with this verse: “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” There you have the answer to the secret of spiritual living. If you attempt to hold on, through your metaphysical practice, through your metaphysical work to the humanhood into which you were born, if you merely think of your metaphysical work and your spiritual work as a means for becoming a better or healthier or wealthier human, in the end you will find that you will lose your life. In other words, you will come to the same end that all humanity comes to: that is, the grave; some come to it early in life, some in the middle years, and some in very late years; but you know that humanity all comes to the grave. And in coming to the grave they come to a place where they are merely making a transition into a denser state of humanhood that the one they had left. For them, death, or passing on is not an advanced step or a progressive step. Too often we hear in metaphysics, when someone passes on, “Ah yes! But now they are free!”
"That isn’t true. It is true only if one passes on while on a progressive, upward spiritual step. Then, even if one does succumb, through some human error in the form of accident or disease, even that one error, that one failure to demonstrate, will not prevent him from very quickly re-establishing himself on the upward spiritual path. For such as this one, passing on may actually be a release from mortality. The person who really is on the upward spiritual path, even though he fails in one particular demonstration, even though he fails to achieve this one particular healing and passes on from the disease or the accident, even that will not be a barrier to the ascending Soul, to the ascending Consciousness. It will be only a temporary stopping-place, quickly overcome. He will pick up and then that which is often said about those who have passed will become true; for now, at least, he knows the Truth and he is released and is really free.
"Those who have been using Truth merely for some personal end have not yet caught the first glimpse of what the Master meant when He gave us this great Teaching, a Teaching so great that one could take those two verses and probably write a set of books on them, since those books would have to show what really can’t be said in just a few moments – that even good humanhood, even wealthy or good moral humanhood, or healthy humanhood, is not spiritual life.
"Spiritual living is something that does not find any counterpart in the human scale. Spiritual living is entirely a different realm, as different as electricity is from gas, or gas is from whale oil. They are different fields, different levels of consciousness, different types of power. And so material living and mental living are two strata of one thing, and that one thing is materiality.
"But spiritual living is an entirely different universe. We must learn – and He puts it in very strong words, doesn’t He? – “He that HATETH his life…” Well, it doesn’t really meant hate in our sense of the word “hate”. But it does mean he who recognizes that any degree of human living is not the spiritual life; he who is willing to see the human sense of existence fade out of his consciousness, so that the spiritual sense of life can come in – he, then, is ready to be raised into the realization of the Christ.
"This teaching of the Master does not mean that we are to succumb to death and then find Life Eternal. To succumb to death means to get more deeply into death, mortality, materiality. No; it means to begin to die daily, now and here, to those things which we have heretofore considered objects of demonstrations. In other words, let us stop being concerned over whether or not the body is complaining of something at the moment, and being satisfied when the body says, “Oh, I feel much better”, or “I am entirely well.” Let us not be satisfied just because our income has jumped up to $100 or $1000 a week or some sum that completely satisfies our every need. Let us not be satisfied, since that is death to our spiritual development.
"Our work should be the realization of Spirit and spiritual living. Certainly, we will still appear to the world as normal human beings. We will still be so many feet tall and so many inches wide (we hope!); we will still enjoy our food and drink and our automobiles, but the heart will not be in those things. These will just be the “added things”, the comfortable things of daily existence. They will not be the OBJECTS of demonstration; they will be the ADDED THINGS of demonstration, but not the OBJECTS of demonstration.
"Therein lies the entire difference between hating this life and being willing to die out of this life and finding Life Eternal. Just that one difference, wherein we accept ALL the human good as an “added thing” of demonstration, but never seek it as an object of demonstration."
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