I remember reading a book, “The Weapon Shops of Isher”. the weapons could not be fired as an act of aggression, they could only be fired in self defense. They worked as a deterrent to war, and against violent crime. It upset the balance of power. I wonder what would help with equality among humans? I wonder what would bring balance to us all? I found some sites that discuss the different views of raising our awareness of Loving, Kind Beings. We are dealing with a shift in economics, a change in our natural environment, resource allocation, a large number of people with little resources, and all those and more are increasing in intensity. We have a fascination with the different inventions brought by technology. We have changed the lives of many using concepts developed out of economics. We have helped people with our understanding of biology and other sciences. A lot of this has happened because we have discovered how to use fossil fuel energy. What we have failed to do is learn, over and over, how to treat each other with respect and dignity. The Wisdom of ancient times is difficult to learn new by each individual as [...]
Looking in the mirror, he noticed the wrinkles around his eyes, reminding him of a river journey with a friend, laughing for days and seeing white wrinkles amid the tan lines. Today, my face is tan and rounded somewhat, perhaps from the beard, going gray around the edges. There is that combination of youth and age that defies our usual indication of time in a body. A smile is often present and there is something about brown eyes that can tighten into a focus when speaking directly to someone. My niece was at a family reunion that I did not attend and she told me my grandmother’s last name meant bent willow, which I find interesting. There is a northern European look about me, heavy set and I think short, or stout might fit. Am I pleasant to look at? Only when I am fun to be around. But my portrait is not that, it is in my song: I’m a child of the desert, hot burning sand And a friend to the buzzard circling the bleaching bones of a man I spent my contemplation under a pinyon tree And a nut fell down and hit me and that’s what [...]
It is night here. I had a dream that I was listening to music at a concert and the music finished. It had been instrumental music with drums and percussion and other sounds that I can’t remember. A musician spoke, saying the concert was over and that he had not said much with words because the music spoke for them. It has been over an hour since that experience and I am awake, still. My mind is overactive, running through a range of thoughts that I can usually avoid in daylight. i think about being unemployed until I can “officially” retire. I think about my part in what we have done to our environment and our world. I think of the worry and fear that permeates our existence, and how much of that is our own doing, our own actions, that we followed so easily. I think of the anger and rage that I see in so many places in the different media, and how easy it is to step into that state of mind. I think that Loving Kindness is a means to overcome all that I find to be negative in my world. In my dreams, I have [...]
I thought that mankind was beyond killing each other over a false sense of God loving one group of people (god enforcers) over the other. Recently a presidential candidate criticized the president’s allegiance to Christianity. Many people believe Islam is anti Christian and therefore have no problem making life difficult for Muslims Other religions are not looking good under the Christians’ microscope either.
In all fairness to Christians, there are a few that are not so easily influenced by the ravings of hate mongers, but it appears there are enough who are to cause major headaches on this planet. Not that other religions are innocent either.
All for the love of a God many do not know.
I wonder how these religions which preach out of one side of their mouths love and compassion while blowing on the embers of hate with the other side of their mouth reconcile their consciences with this kind of garbage.
I can understand how people turn to Atheism. Hell, the God represented by all the religions I have been exposed to, has a tough time being consistent, loving “his” creations one minute and annihilating them the next.
I don’t think God has anything to do with religion. Whatever created us gave us brains. Why give us brains if we are not supposed to use them?
I think questioning dogma, practices, rituals, claims made on behalf of or against and other things would be a good thing.
I know one thing for a fact, we sure as hell do not need a religious war because of extremists on either side of the fence do not know how to live on God’s planet with each other.
On any day the certainty of my belief lasts only as long as I hold to that image. My image of something god-like is simply infinite. The light of stars from millions of years ago shines down through the clouds on this day. That is part of infinity. Another part of infinity are the particles that wave and dance around dust motes, smaller than a mind can think. As long as those two ideas bracket the size of infinity, I can move to the duration, from nano-second to eons of light years. Very simple. Add to it, the unknowable, that we usually ignore, and the unfathomable, that we cannot imagine. It is difficult to keep that in mind. I consider loving to be a decent state of mind to begin to address these concepts.
To think of “religious” people screaming hatred about another’s faith and belief is an ugly dust-mote blob in the infinity of being.