Zequatanil

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Everything posted by Zequatanil

  1. To defeat intolerance is by intolerance, however in a way that is more of a ``Buddhist`` approach .Sadly, this is a hard one--for often we are set in our ways. But on the whole--through intolerance and example. Perhaps in some gentler way as opposed to aggression as that begets more opposition. It depends what the intolerance is--we each make our own moral judgements as to what is right or wrong. I would say--one has to be intolerant to intolarance when ethically/morally /philosophically we, ourselfves know that it is wrong. Yes--by tolerating intolerance it undermines the spirit of tolerance--and it keeps perpetuating itself instead of diminishing, it feeds on itself. Yes--it is hypocritical to advocate tolerance when the groups ideas/actions are intolerant towards what I as an individual feel.I would leave the group. However I maybe here misunderstanding the question I can only tolerate what to me is right --because it is my moral compass--thus to me it is wrong to support that which I don`t believe in. I intolerate whatever I feel is wrong according to my belief system. Thus it is all an individual choice, which eventually might or may become the acceptance of the whole or the majority. We change one heart at a time, by one heart at a time--the ocean is made up of individual drops--yet it is one. blessings and peace, S
  2. Only if we were attacked and it was to protect the ones I love--But if I have to be honest about it--NOTHING. I would probably be killed. I have a hard time throwing out a dead plant. blessings, S
  3. The debate of the ages--Evil and Good. Below is the post--Ego versus higher Guidance by Fawzo--to me this would fall under the characteristics of good and evil --ego/evil-higher guidance/good--there are degrees here ofcourse , but this is a general idea about truth as well-- as the author reminds us. To me they are almost the same thing--Universal truth being good/ Deception/lies being evil. From the list below one can go even deeper into levels of evil or good as the list below address the less serious actions but from the list one can extrapolate. I am not supposing that all of ego`s actions are bad, --but we were given free will from God, thus we have to choose. Sin falls into this area, but is more of a Biblical version --basically it is lack of light of God or of Divine Consciousness, Source or whomever that higher power IS--the I AM Presence. Ego vs Higher Guidance (Author Unknown) The more aware we become, the more intuition develops for us. The more we can access our intuition, the faster we grow and change. The key is to understand the language of intuition. How can you tell if the 'inner voice' is Spirit's, other beings, other people's projections or your own judgmental thoughts? The tips below will help you discriminate and discern the TRUTH. Read the list over often and get a strong sense of how to discern higher guidance. Expand your inventory of how you sense the higher or lower information that comes into your physical and non-physical senses. Lower Levels of Information ----------------- Higher Levels of Intuition (Ego) ------------------------------------------ (Higher Self) demand obedience or surrender - suggest, advise, you make your own decisions conflict with one's personal ethics ------- no conflict with personal ethics create fear, negativity --------------- create love, inspiration, empowerment are generalities, long winded ----- are relevant, short, intelligent, unique are conditional ------------------- are unconditional, appropriate, natural appeal to curiosity, ego ----------------- appeal to goodwill, beauty, unity from confusing, competing voices ---------- from still, single knowing voice affirm ultimate authority for itself ----- counsel surrender to higher power require no personal effort --------------------------- need personal effort guidance from subconscious -------------------------- guidance from the Soul emotional desires, glamour ----------------------- higher spiritual guidance benefit the receiver ------------------------- benefit the good of the whole fixed interpretations ------------------------ many levels of interpretation create dependencies --------------------------------- create interdependence promote separation ----------------------- reflect oneness, wholeness, unity are self conscious ------------------------------------- are other conscious affirm mediocrity ------------------------------ promote making a difference reflect a part of the whole ------------------------------ reflect the whole are emotional, mental ---------------------------------------- are intuitive focus on things -------------------------------- focus on essence and values result in loss of self ---------------------------- result in self discovery focus on desires, wants -------------------------------- focus on soul needs address individual --------------------------------------- address community deal with form ----------------------------------- deal with symbols, truths concerned with self will ------------------------------- reflect divine will create victims -------------------------------------- require accountability are sporadic ----------------------------------------------- are disciplined create stress ----------------------------------------- create peace of mind are personal ------------------------------------------------ are impersonal are restrictive ---------------------------------------------- are expansive are particular ----------------------------------------------- are universal are controlling ----------------------------------------------- are allowing focus on self -------------------------------------- focus on others or Soul focus on destination -------------------------------------- focus on process are exclusive ------------------------------------------------ are inclusive are judging -------------------------------------------------- are accepting are scattered -------------------------------------------------- are focused are limited -------------------------------------------------- are unlimited focus on material --------------------------------------- focus on spiritual are reactive ------------------------------------------------- are proactive are concrete -------------------------------------------------- are abstract focus on past, future ----------------------------------------- focus on NOW deal with personality ----------------------------------------- concern SOUL produce inertia -------------------------------------------- generate growth stuff in ---------------------------------------------------------- draw out focus on quantity ----------------------------------------- focus on quality are selfish ------------------------------------------------- are altruistic are superficial --------------------------------------------------- are deep create resistance ---------------------------------------------- create flow focus on lack ------------------------------------------- focus on abundance are static ----------------------------------------------------- are dynamic focus on ME ---------------------------------------------- focus on humanity create illusion ----------------------------------------------- reveal truth focus on work --------------------------------------------- focus on service focus on mine ---------------------------------------------- focus on Spirit use force -------------------------------------------------------- use power focus on effect --------------------------------------------- focus on cause take ------------------------------------------------------------------ give produce fear ----------------------------------------------- experience love --I would add to this list conscience--lack of conscience Personally I don`t believe that there is an outside force that causes us to be evil (devil)--it is separation from God. It is function of ego, the free will. The more evil the more darkness, (evil), or lack of light (God).Those that are perpetrating evil on others are `graceless` if there is such a term. Now--in my view there are multiple layes within the action. As it takes the person who is `doing` and the `person who is the `victim` and their state of being. It maybe--if you believe in re-incarnation be due to karma. perhaps I was a terrible murderer in the past and now aI have to experience what I had inflicted to redeem myself, or if we are talking in a Christian sense--lack of grace due to the blinding by ego, or due to our stubborn wills thinking we know all. It all boils down to lack of conscience, which is the darkness, is the evil--and the evil is proportional to the degree of darkness. Versus good--which is grace, which is love which is the manifestation light, of God. Enlightenment is the recognition of this within soul by the higher self--which is the very connection to God. All religions really say the same thing--just with a different description. Just one more thing about sin--One of the sacraments, the second one-- in the RC faith is --Penance , which is confessing and being sorry for our sins. Now to me it always was --recognizing what one has done and ``getting a conscience about it``. To me it never had anything to do about verbalizing it to my priest and receiving absolution. By the realization one gets connected back to God. namaste--blessings and peace, S
  4. My favourite- “The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you Don't go back to sleep! You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep! People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch, The door is round and open Don't go back to sleep!” Rumi blessings and love, S
  5. I think this has many answers--one would be cultural, then religious. Cultural roots within our society go very deep--it also has much to do between East/West--What maybe morally, ethically acceptable in one is not within an other. Even --like the indegenous people of the world--tribal customs dictate ethical and moral behaviour. In the west we are bound by laws, that are ethical and moral in the eyes of society--also many of us are governed by our religious history and beliefs. Also--as Rev`d Rattlesnake pointed out--philosophical beliefs and teachings.. Also-I think we have come to a point in our eveolution that many things that were morally and ethically acceptable are not. Look at the debate about Joshua and Moses. So--morals and ethics do change with time--to me it comes with more enlightenment of consciousness--or perhaps becoming a bit less material oriented and leaning more towards the spiritual aspects of being. Perhaps we are moving towards the next dimension.
  6. Reveries “When Jesus appeared on earth, he performed miracles and great wonders for the salvation of humanity. And since some walked in the way of righteousness while others walked in their transgressions, the twelve disciples were called. He began to speak with them about the mysteries beyond the world and what would take place at the end. Often he did not appear to his disciples as himself, but he was found among them as a child.” --Gospel of Judas There is a wind, a pneuma, which blows through my heart at times, and it carries seeds which are dropped and planted there, and I want to share something with you about that experience and how it might relate to the first two verses of the Judas gospel. I want to tell you about what that wind has taught me, but to do so in a respectful manner I will have to circumambulate around the center of that certain mystery, which ever haunts me with all that is beautiful. I want to spiral inwards with you towards that center like a hawk circling ever closer towards its prey. There was a time, you see, when like so many others, I ran after my life as though it were trying to escape me, and I could neither hold on to my life then, nor yet could I catch ahold of it. In fact, the faster I ran, the more distant my life became until it seemed that my life had fled from me altogether, and I was left to sit there like Derelicta before the gates of the temple, holding the ashes of my dreams and little else. Like Psyche in search of her beloved Eros I was lead through these calcinations into a bleak and desolate plain where I was greeted by the angels of death, and yet was I ever being infallibly guided by a vision of sounds and scents that returned me to myself again and yet again. There was the ecstatic sweetness of linden blossoms on hot and sleepy summers afternoons, and of lilacs and roses after a heavy rain. There was the sound of church bells on Sunday mornings, and you grew up waiting for them to mark the hours. There was the sound of trains, late at night, and you fell asleep with a delicious shudder at their mysterious rushing as you lay wondering as to where they were going. And you wanted to go with them, following faithfully after an inexpressible longing so powerful that it brought tears to your eyes, knowing that that longing was never to be filled—which, of course, only made it sweeter. At any rate, I eventually came to associated these precious ephemera with the grace of substantiation; with the certitude and security of being embodied within time, and not only within time, but within an infinite ocean of time, stretching back and back and back across the ages. And, not surprisingly, it was my awareness of being situated at the crest of eternity that gave to me my first inarticulate conception of the divine. You could say, I became Saturn’s child, and the contemplation of countless millions of years already behind us and long passed away, to this day gives me the sublime comfort of being touched by the ubiquitous presence of death. That I should be so affected with intimations of the eternal through the most fleeting of sensual impressions strikes me now, that I could actually pause to think about it, as self-evident. The future, on the other hand, had always filled me with atavistic horror. It struck me as being crass, as crude, as base, as decidedly ugly and as unremittingly loud and tumultuous and blinding, utterly void of dignity or value or importance. My consolation against the future was the presence of the infinite vastness of time and the knowledge that it would carry me, and would do so without fail regardless of what that heinous specter of the unspecifiable future could impose upon me. Indeed, I understood this erotically. I was in a romance with time and with death and even from my earliest childhood on, emptying myself through enfleshment—disappearing into the exquisite weight of matter and darkness—proved decisive. I despised the light, associating it with the masculine, and with all that threatened to strip me naked and defenseless, propelling me into the ghastliness of the present, and into the insanity of a superficial dimension characterized by hurry and delusions and the night terrors of a daemon that aspired to wrest us from the numinous by dint of sheer distraction. But this daemon would pursue me without relenting, and if from the moment that I laid eyes on the wonder of Goethe’s Faust I identified completely with the character of Mephisto as well as with Milton’s tragic muse, that I would come to identify Christ with the principle of absolute evil was a forgone conclusion. That this was not in fact an opposition but a mere inversion of the alchemical mythos leading towards the same end never actually crossed my mind. I was impelled by the spirit of Mercurius to fight vigorously in defense of the garden of my heart as Knight errant to Hecate against all that embodied for me the pollution and perversion of the Sun only to find out thereafter, having won through to the sanctuary, that I had slain the Dragon, and not St. George. It goes without saying that the coagulation of full embodiment was far from me. In so far as I rejected the archetype of the savior, I refused the development of a shadow. It would be years before the conflation and commingling of light and darkness were ripened into separation. Meanwhile, I would become the thing I most hated, not realizing that my implacable and insatiable desire to transcend the world belonged to that portion of the spirit of earth that I had rejected, namely the son, and that it was the rejected light of the son that sought embodiment. In short, I had, alas, to go from pursuing my life to fleeing from it with all haste and desperation. My life, however, never failed to catch up with me—to flatten me with its power. It is axiomatic that only those who fight against life until such time as they are roundly defeated and ultimately slain by it are worthy of coming to the feast. Cowards live ordinary lives and die as they have lived—like whitewashed tombs—and stupefaction is their justification, their reward, and the enmity directed against them as they sin against the spirit of life, for people suffer nothing apart from themselves. Such as they are utterly unworthy of the Kingdom of earth in their hearts. Some walk in righteousness while others walk in their transgressions. It is without import in either case. Such as these are salved with such trifles as wonders and miracles, as their eyes are sealed shut to the glory and their ears are deafened to silence and respect. Twelve are needed, through which the Wheels may act upon them until such time as they rise up against life and are definitively slain. For the elect, life ceases to be something to run after or to run away from. Rather, life becomes a garden which unfolds around them as it will, in all of its richness and verdure. And so it is that we become gardeners, and the caretakers of our lives. We become stewards, ever increasingly aware of the fact that it is we who indwell the infinite vastness of our souls, just as trees which live out the span of their years in a forest where there is soil to grow them. And a wind comes and waves through our branches speaking of love and of memory, and the lord comes to us then, even as a child, and we notice him not, for there where wonder is vibrant with grace all wonders must cease. Only reverence remains. And we become infused, steeped in the heart like fragrant tea and with deep stillness and we come to appreciate the star-like magic of simplicity and the hidden majestry of the ordinary—the vicissitudes of worry and care; the poignancy of being situated within a space blessed with the luminescence of time’s long slow passage, which ever brings depth to the fleeting nature of light, like the play of sunlight and shadow on wisterias curtsying against a tossed coverlet, careless as only and ever momentary illumination can be, ubiquitous as sound and smell. For what lies beyond the world is of it, and the world itself points thereto through the countless mementos of other’s lives, like flotsam offered up to the land by the tides of the inner sea. And behold, when time shall end, at the still point of the turning world, you become and ever are the fullness and richness of all that its inexorable flow contained. by permission of Rev.O.H Sarkany
  7. Fawzo-- I agree with you wholeheartedly on this!!--I doubt if any God would embrace or direct killing of its own creation. He would simply do it Himself if He saw fit. Do read some Talmud quotes about killing and how to treat anyone who is not a Jew, including children of three years and a day--most interesting, frightening to say the least--and they are the chosen ones? By what God? Not by my God. I won`t go into it, for it is not a debatable point and I do not want to offend the good Rabbi. And I still stand by the fact of difference about the New and Old testament--Jeshua pointed very accurately to the facts of their delusion. Simply my personal opinion also. blessings and peace , S
  8. Shalom Rabbi Peter-- I do deeply apologize if in any way I have offended you--it was not my intention, and I respect all faiths. Whether I belive truly what I wrote in my post--yes I do. I have studied the Old Testament, as well as the New quiet deeply. I am Christian--but that is my way, others may have an other way, so perhaps that is the reason why I am seeing the things the way I do--for me Jesus is ``the truth, the way and the life`` I do have to admit though I do with all sincerety belive that, I have my own interpretation of the Gospels. But that dosn`t detract from the eternal truth. I would very much appreciate if you would enlighten me as to the way the New Testament is seen by teachers like yourself. Are we--or I as a Christian lost because we believe in the teachings of Jesus--is the Jewish religion the only way? I think I know your answer, but I maybe wrong. How and what do you think? I would really would like to know what you think of the New Testament--I know the Jewish view, have you anything else to add that perhaps I could consider. I would just like to ask one more question--what is it that every religious male Jew prays for every morning--well you may not but many do for it may have faded into history--is that right? Do you think that G-D makes acceptions, has favourites? Would that be a fair G-D? If yes--why? I am Jewish by birth, but a Christian by choice of spirit--however I accept and respect all. No one is lost if they truly believe in an eternal G-D. No--I dont`t mean a Saviour at this point. I am certainly not a Bible thumping Christian, for I believe who ever really believes in their faith fully --is fine by G-D. Again--I have deep respect for you, for Judaism, for our people--thus I am sorry if it offends you. Shalom--blessings of the Lord our G-D S
  9. This is the fundamental difference between the Old and the New Testament--Christianity and Judaism. The Old Testaments portrayal is an angry, vengeful, hateful, wrathful, jealous, warlike God--whereas the New Testament God is loving, compassionate, forgiving, merciful. This is why Jesus came --this was the saving, or rather the explanation of God, of how we should behave--Love one an other like I have loved you. In the Old Testament everybody was killing everybody--even God`s supposed favourite like David. How could this have been God`s instructions--He could have done it Himself. Blood sacrifices--Why? Very illogical to me. If this was the reaL case then maybe the Gnostics have it right--and both Old and New Testament are fairy tales spun by a lesser Creator God--and Lucifer is the savior of mankind as the Gnostics believe.. Before Jesus it was an eye for an eye and such. He said turn the other cheek. Many parables were regarding this love, mercy, acceptance of all people. He was the example of the characteristics of God bible.cc/john/14-6.htm Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. I think it is because of this reason. As for Moses or Joshua--being heros or killers, It depends which side you are observing the situation--for Jews they were heros, for the people they massacred they were killers. Are Palestinian suicide bombers terrorists or freedom fighters? If I am a Palestinian --they are freedom fighters--If I am a Jew they are terrorists. No--I do not think God ever gave the instructions of killing each other, to my mind it was the many writers of the Old Testament that perhaps listened far too often to their ego not the voice of God. But I never really thought that the Israelites were the chosen race. Sorry if I offended anyone. As for any killing, any war, the aggressors--they are all considered murderers to my thinking-- no matter who they are.The only time perhaps that I could have some leniency is to protect one`s self if attacked. But even then I would have a hard time. blessings, S
  10. I shall remember Hilda in my prayers-- also for your family during these difficult times. No matter what we believe--no matter how deep our faith is-- these times are always painful. love, light and blessings ; S
  11. She is Mother of Sorrows because she suffered so much at the death of HER son--and she is always sorrowful because of our behavior towards God. Being the Mother of God, She is known as the Most Holy Theotokos. She is all and through Her all is possible. Thus generally litanies to Her include Her under many, many names as She is acknowledged as the next most important human born person after Jesus in the Catholic faith. The following is one of the most important prayers to Our Blessed Mother: The Memorare Remember, O most loving Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help, or sought your intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, we turn to you, O Virgin of virgins, our Mother. To you we come, before you we stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, do not despise our petitions, but in your mercy hear us and answer us. Amen. blessings of light, S