GDW Does Not Communicate In Words

"I said a jigger is like a cup."

(Ellen S Wilds, c. 1962)

The above quote refers to a childhood incident when a servant asked me to explain a punch recipe, in particular to define a "jigger" (measurement for 1 ounce of liquor).  When I said it was "like a cup" I meant that with childish literality.  Perhaps I should have said "it's like a glass."  To me a jigger was a very little cup.  I might have also meant a jigger is like a cup in that both are used to measure liquids.

Language has always been a problem to understanding.  Not only are there many languages, but even in a single language not every word is going to be understood the same way.  I can only draw on my own experience, but when I meditate I feel the presence and sense the intent, but I'll be damned if I can put it into words.  No matter how grand the vision it completely fails to impress when reduced to a verbal description.

This past week we had yet another Rapture Hoax wherein some seriously deluded people gave up their possessions and livelihoods on the word from a South African preacher speaking via Tik Tok.  I remembered the Harold Camping fiasco of 2011.  Camping announced Rapture on 21 May 2011 based on his interpretation of the codes hidden in Biblical texts.  No one asked which texts?  in what language?  in which version?   The Bible may have a lot of great stuff in it, but every syllable was created by humans.  

Perhaps I should have more sympathy for the devout who fleeced themselves in this latest hoax, but no one made them believe this stuff.  They are just hopelessly gullible and hence they are victims.  But their chosen actions in prepping for the Rapture show a serious failure of theology.  Many were convinced they would be ascending physically through the air, so were frantic to be outside so they wouldn't be trapped against the ceiling.  A few were seen standing outside completely naked.   A young black woman filmed herself preparing all the hair care products she will need in the Beyond.

There was general panic over leaving ample supplies for the children who will be left behind, a mother weeping because she doesn't want to be raptured without her newborn, leaving their phones unlocked and of course, off-loading earthly possessions.  During the 2011 Rapture Hoax families quit their jobs and went on wild spending sprees.  They cashed out their savings and the kids' college funds and bought non-sensical things like sportscars and yachts.  Forgetting that they can't take it with them.  If there ever is a Rapture -- a belief I do not share -- it will be spiritual, not physical.

I can not accept that a loving God would choose only 144,000 out of eight billion, dividing families and leaving heartache and suffering in their wake.  Further I think it is perfectly obvious that anyone so certain of their own righteousness is unlikely to make the cut.  No sign of the necessary humility.  Further any mother who worships a deity who would divide her from her baby is asking for heartbreak.

The evilangelical community has never squared the Jesus in the Gospels with their focus on material gain and political power over any faith in god.  Christianity has some excellent principles.  Sadly few are actually practiced.

Meditation Tips

A dear friend recently asked for meditation tips in a text on my phone.  Not really the right medium to share something as intimate and as ineffable as meditation.  My TM teacher likened describing meditation to describing going to sleep.  "You get ready for bed, you brush your teeth and use the loo, you snuggle under the blanket and then ---- something magical happens."

Similarly I can tell you that I meditate by allotting half an hour and finding a comfortable quiet place to sit.  I breathe deeply 2-3 times and gently close my eyes and then --- something magical happens.

Both meditation and sleep are internal mental processes.  It is all happening inside my mind and I have no words to accurately describe what happens next, so like everyone else I have to rely on metaphors and analogies.  

Imagine that there is a shining golden treasure hidden in a secret room under your cellar.  Before you can have that treasure you must clear a path from the top of the stairs through a cellar full of "old stuff" like memories to reach the door that leads to the treasure.

Perhaps I can even loop in the Hedge Maze here.  Perhaps when you clear your cellar of distractions you open a door and enter the Hedge Maze, but at a point a bit closer to the center.  Whenever you meditate you come closer to the center, closer to the treasure, closer to the truth.

For instance, I often liken meditation to being in the ocean.   At the surface it is all very noisy with waves crashing and kids splashing and some damned fool on a jet ski whizzing by.   If you go below the surface it starts to get quiet and the further down you go the closer you are to the source of thought. 

This is one of the earliest images I remember from TM training.  A thought rises from the seafloor and gradually expands until it bursts upon the surface of consciousness.  In meditation I do not focus on the thoughts themselves but their source.

 

So when you meditate at the time and in the place that works for you, sit quietly with eyes closed.  Minimize external distractions.  If your environment is stressful you might play some natural white noise (like ocean waves or a rain storm), but not music.  Your conscious mind tends to follow the music, perhaps even humming along.   Rather than just let your mind drift (which is daydreaming, not meditation) you silently repeat a mantra in your mind.  A mantra can be any word or short phrase that is either completely meaningless to you or is positive to the purpose of meditating. 

 

A TM teacher gave me my main mantra, a Hindu word whose meaning is unknown to me.   I also use phrases like "let it go" or "Peace in" (inhale) "Stress out" (exhale).  It can be anything that works for you.  The point is to repeat it mentally while not focusing on it.  Tricky, I know.  Nigh impossible.  You think the mantra a few times, and then you are off on thoughts.  When you notice that you have drifted from the mantra gently move back to it.  This cycle repeats throughout the meditation session.  Rising and falling thought, like surfacing and sinking through water.

 

In time a regular practice of meditation clears the way through the stored stuff crowded in your mind.  Once there is space your perceptions expand.  You can see value in all religions and all philosophies.   You start understanding the connections between all things in reality.  You also become better centered in yourself and your values.

 

PS:  It is not required that you meditate with a live feline on your lap, but I highly recommend it.  Cats exude a large field of meditational energy.  They are Zen masters.

 

 

 

Normal versus Natural

Many people confuse these words.  Normality is a human construct based on perceived desirable traits as present in the greatest number of people. 

Natural is very different.  There are natural variations in all species, some rarer than others, and not all traits are deemed as positive or even desirable.

"God doesn't make mistakes."

I keep seeing this as a reason to deny differently gendered people their full rights to live and love along with the rest of us.   It is particularly applied to the transgendered because those who maintain God's infallibility can not accept that a person's perception of gender can be different from that person's apparent biology.  The latest statistics puts those who identify as LGBT at around 4.6% in the United States. 

By comparison those who are right brain dominant (ie, left-handed) are 15% while those with red hair are only 2%.  Both of these latter groups suffered discrimination -- often brutally applied -- in the past.

So why do conservative Christians consider all those born with different sexual orientations as being unnatural rather than merely different in the same way as  right brain dominance and red hair?  There are many sexual variants to be found throughout the animal kingdom.  One large-brained mammal known to engage in all manner of sexual activities, including with the same gender, is the dolphin.  For dolphins homosexual expression is a completely natural behavior that does not endanger their overall population.

Why do conservatives single-out LGBT as being "unnatural," but NOT a mistake of the Almighty?

God's faithful followers are a fickle lot.  When things are going well they praise God, but when things are going badly they suddenly turn pagan and blame Mother Nature. But whether you put God or Gaia in control, mistakes happen all the time.  

Switching gears here, let's examine some of God's mistakes afflicting the most helpless in His creation.  My late father was an OBGYN who specialized in high risk pregnancies.  After he retired from practicing medicine he worked as an expert witness in malpractice trials. We sometimes discussed his cases in which the bad outcomes were truly horrific, what Dad termed GORKY babies -- the acronym for God Only Really Knows Why.

So for those of you who believe that "God doesn't make mistakes" -- have a look at what He has been inflicted on fetuses.  Be certain that you look at the pictures carefully because I promise you that the parents involved has seen far worse. 

Neural Tube Defects  (NTDs) are amongst the most common of serious birth defects with anencephaly as the worst of the NTDs.  Most of these babies -- if they make it to birth -- are usually stillborn or die within a few hours to a few days.  A very few survive past that, but can never achieve any semblance of life.  Without a brain they can not feel emotions nor can they feel pain. Their senses have no place to send impressions of the world around them -- thus they do not see or hear.  They do not speak.  They do not think.  If that is life, then that all it is.  The child is merely alive, but can not actually live.

Cyclopia  is exactly as the name implies -- a baby with a single eye, ears usually below the jaw and a proboscis, being a phallic shaped protuberance where the nose should be.  Any pictures you see of such a baby will be postmortem.  This defect is incompatible with life. Nothing more than a waste of the conception which so many deem sacred. 

Parasitic Twin and Fetus en Foetu  Identical twins are rare, conjoined twins rarer still, so the rarest is a mistake that allows one twin to develop normally while the other does not develop much at all.   In a parasitic twin the underdeveloped twin is attached to the exterior of its healthy mate.  In fetus in foetu, the parasite remains inside its host, growing inside the abdomen, the chest or even the brain.

Only one baby has a chance at life.  The parasite does not and may even kill the developed child by straining the system meant to support one life by forcing it to support the extra body mass of the undeveloped parasite.  

There are many more birth defects -- far more than I wish to enumerate here.  Some can be attributed to the mistakes of man -- the use of teratogenic chemicals in the environment, during war, or in medicines (such as thalidomide) given to or substances taken by pregnant women.  Others are simply accidents of nature -- or mistakes of God, if you prefer placing a divine role in everything. 

Science has advanced sufficiently to find that those who express a different gender realize it at a very young age, even if the children do not as yet understand what it means.  That alone removes the aspect of choice that the homophobic opposition stresses must be a factor in those who identify as LGBT.   Science has yet to prove how gender orientation is determined, but rather than make the blind claim that "God doesn't make mistakes" I think we should accept the LGBT as facts of nature -- right along with red hair and left- handedness.

Christianity is a nice religion. It is a great pity that so few people follow it.

 

I should say at the outset that I am an historian, not a Biblical scholar, but then it seems that credentials are not of much value these days.  Conservative politicians are not scientists, but make policy rulings on scientific matters that they clearly do not comprehend.  Neither are these politicians members of the medical profession nor are they experts on female anatomy and psychology, but that has not stopped them from intruding on decisions that affect a woman's most intimate parts and all-important life decisions.   So I feel confident that I can offer my Biblical interpretations that are at least as competent as those made by others.  For those who actually care about such things for my purposes here I am using the King James Version.

So before I could publish this we had yet another Rapture Hoax.  A South African preacher called Brother Joshua had predicted via TikTok the Rapture for 23 September.  And lo! the dawn came and --- yep, burned again.  Who are these people who keeping falling for the same shtick?  Some of them were old enough to remember the Harold Camping disaster in May 2011.  Suddenly this article started to make some sense for me to share.

If there ever is a Rapture (a concept I utterly reject) it is likely that those who assumed they were going are doomed to disappointment.  Here are some of my observations.

HUMILITY

When it comes to humility, today's evangelicals have really lost their way.  They demand the right to witness, to proselytize, and to pronounce God's judgment on the wicked as determined by them.  But the Bible says

¹ Judge not, that ye be not judged.

² For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

³ And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?  [Matthew 7:1-3]

As for public religious ranting -- a cherished right under the US Constitution's First Amendment as claimed by evangelicals -- is also forbidden by the Bible in what is one of my favorite passages:

¹ Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.

² Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

³ But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:

⁴ That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

⁵ And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

⁶ But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

⁷ But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

⁸ Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.  [Matthew 6: 1-8]

Bragging about your own righteousness does not make you righteous in the eyes of God.  How hard is that to understand?   If the Christians would just do what Christ asked them to do it would make this a much nicer world.  

LGBTQ et al

You would think the way conservatives go on about homosexuality that it is the ONLY sin mentioned in the Bible. Yes, the admonition against male homosexuality is very clear

If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.   [Leviticus 20:13]

Again I struggle with the text because I haven't a clue where it came from or how many iterations of this command have existed since the Bronze Age.  One researcher has suggested that the word "mankind" was originally translated as "young boys," making this about pederasty (a common practice amongst many peoples, including the Greeks and the Romans).  

Bear in mind that homosexuality was not deemed sinful enough to make it into the Big Ten, but when it comes to deciding which customers a religious business chooses to serve, they have no concerns at all about serving adulterers, blasphemers, idolators, thieves, murderers,  liars, the covetous and children who curse their parents.  Those sinners get their cakes, but a gay couple wanting to make a loving life commitment to one another are just too vile for the delicate Christian's sense of righteousness.  

Along with declaring male homosexuality an abomination Old Testament laws also forbid wearing clothing made of mixed fabrics, shaving, eating cheeseburgers, seafood gumbo and pork barbecue.  In my life I have never seen a Baptist pass up pork barbecue and Louisiana Catholics love their gumbo.  Usually the explanation is that the New Testament gave followers of the burgeoning Christian movement latitude on the dietary and other restrictions from the Old Testament.  But today's Christians become myopic on this issue of New Testament changes to Old Testament restrictions.  Most obviously in the following

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.  [John 13:34]

This is not a new "hint" nor a new "suggestion."  This new commandment was offered without caveats, exceptions or exemptions.  Christ did not stutter.  He did not wink wink nudge nudge -- you know like He didn't really mean it.  Why is this so difficult for today's Christians to accept?

I am making this argument on Christianity's own turf.  The fact is there is no need for any religious explanation to be offered at all.  Our nation has a SECULAR basis for laws.  In order to continue the traditional discrimination against the LGBT community those who oppose their fundamental right of equality have to offer a secular argument.  So far their efforts have been lame at best.  Consider the following proposed secular reasons to  ban same sex marriage:

(*)  Marriage is for the procreation of children.  And yet many marriages do not produce children.  We do not demand children from those who get married nor do we refuse marriage to those who are unable to have children.   And many LGBTQ couples do have children, both adopted and biological.

(*)   Homosexuality is a choice, therefore not entitled to special treatment.  While science has not yet made a definitive ruling on this question, it has become increasingly clear that sexual identity is far more complex than originally believed.  While very young children may not have the words for it, they are aware of gender -- theirs and others' -- and they know if they are different.  That does not sound like a choice.

In a conversation with my adult son he told me that he knew what he was at age 4 when he first watched Disney's Little Mermaid.  He took one look at Ariel and decided that whatever that was he wanted more of it.  Turns out he really loves independent minded women.  I suspect the same may be true for most children, even if they can not remember the moment when they understood the role of gender in their lives.

(*)   It is traditional and since every culture in the world has always had a prohibition against homosexuality, we should retain ours.  Sorry, folks, but tradition is no excuse for doing the wrong thing simply because we have always done it that way.  We have outlawed a number of "traditions" -- people as property, for instance.  We no longer allow Negro slavery nor do we permit men to market their women to prospective husbands not of the woman's choosing.  Women are no longer denied the vote nor forbidden from driving a car.  We have outlawed child labor, child prostitution, child marriage.  All those things exist elsewhere in the world, but we count ourselves as superior for having done away with them.

(*) And this recent entry in the silly excuses category -- our laws banning same-sex marriage are NOT discriminatory since we do not allow heterosexuals from marrying members of the same gender.   That a conservative politician managed to say that with a straight face astonishes me.  It completely overlooks the fact that the nation's LGBT population are denied the right to marry for love -- something readily accepted as a right for straight couples.

At least on paper and in policy we have to appear to be ridding ourselves of discrimination, intolerance and bigotry.  It has taken the LGBT a long time to come out of their closets, to be seen and to be accepted as human beings with all the dignity and rights accorded to the rest of us.  It is still a fight with the diehards for the status quo, but in time I hope that a person's sexual orientation will be worthy of no more comment than is eye colour.

ON GUNS

But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.  [Matthew 5:39]

So with that in mind we have to ask ourselves -- what firearm would Christ use?   

 

And in recent news we have the assassination of Charlie Kirk on 10 Sep.  The shooter is in custody.  A shooting in Southport, NC on 27 Sep, 3 dead.  The shooter is in custody.  A shooting in Grand Blanc, on 28 Sep, 5 dead, including the shooter.  And that is just in the past month.  Gets repetitious.

 

ON SIN 

One yahoo commenter asked me how I could consider myself a tolerant person if I openly denied Christians the right to be intolerant of behaviors they consider to be sinful and to point out those sins to others.  My answer is that I am tolerant and respectful of other's beliefs provided that they are tolerant and respectful of mine.  Since it is clear that modern Christian fundamentalists are unable to accept any POV but their own we seem to be at an impasse on the issue of tolerance.

 

But when it comes to the matter of sin the Bible-thumpers again have not read what Christ said on the subject.

So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. [John 8:7]

The modern fundamentalist Christian seems to think there is an inalienable right to be cruel to other people based on their perception of sin.  Further many seem to believe that if they don't address the sins they perceive in those around them that somehow God is going to punish the innocent for the sins of others.  It was this tortured logic that led Reverend Pat Robertson to blame the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010 on devil worship performed 200 years earlier.

 

[The Haitians] "were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever.  And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, 'We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.' True story. And so, the devil said, 'OK, it's a deal.' "  

[Reverend Pat Robertson, January 23, 2010]

Robertson, along with fellow crazed Christian Jerry Falwell, also famously linked the 911 terrorist attack with “the pagans, the abortions, the feminists and the gays and lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, (and) People For the American Way.”  

This sort of thinking was prevalent from early times through 16th century Calvinism when people did not understand how bad things could happen to good people and so blamed our secret sins as the cause of God's wrath.  If smallpox raged through the village, it must be because someone was coveting his neighbor's ass.  Most of us have long abandoned believing there is a correlation between catastrophes (both natural and man-made) with God's wrath.

 

Except for Propaganda Barbie who opined that a recent earthquake in Utah was God's wrath for the death of Charlie Kirk.  No, honey, that was Satan throwing a kegger for the new arrival. The primitive brains of fundamentalists are seemingly incapable of thinking rationally.  

More than that, this mindset truly insults the deity they profess to love and worship.  Their God -- the Old Testament Jehovah -- is petty and vindictive, slaughtering the innocent to punish the guilty.  This is not the loving forgiving deity of the New Testament, the heavenly father of Jesus Christ.  It makes me wonder why they consider themselves to be Christian when their actions run so counter with Christ's words.

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. [Matthew 7:20]

Fearing Death

 

“You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.” 

(unknown, but definitely not C. S. Lewis) 

 

When I was a little girl I saw a glossy magazine with pictures of King Tutankhamen's treasure.  And there were pictures of mummies.  I wasn't really horrified until I was at church and we got to the bit about "the resurrection of the body and life everlasting."  The Church was backing the zombie apocalypse?  Eewwww.

Our species has always been obsessed with achieving immortality -- perhaps because we can not accept our own impermanence.  The massive tombs of antiquity, filled with unimaginable wealth, often to the bankruptcy of the kingdom were meant to be passports to immortality.  The fact that most of the tombs have been looted puts  meaning into "you can't take it with you."  

 

We all know death is inevitable, but how many of us truly accept that and understand it?  The greatest gift any faith can give is lessening the fear of death.  Sadly Christianity in particular has focused on scaring the bejesus out of adherents with threats of eternal damnation if they dare have a thought that does not comport with the accepted church view.  Rather than stressing how how to be a good person worthy of Heaven, they have instead stressed that every little mistake and socially condemned sin leads us to the fires.  Christianity never gave me a sense of peace.

 

It was Buddhism that took away my fear of death.  I am actually looking forward to it, but am in no rush, of course.  I don't believe in either eternal reward or eternal suffering.  All the suffering I have every known of was here on Earth in this reality.  Every evil deed ever done was done here.  Because of my childhood in a haunted house, I never questioned that there was something outside of our reality.

 

Losing one's fear of death is truly liberating.  I do not mourn anyone's passing these days, but I do miss them.  It is no longer a crushing sense of loss, but a more bewildered wondering when will I see them again.  I look at my lover, my child, my family, my friends, my cats and know that there is a separation in the future so I appreciate them more while they are here.  

 

The fear of death is the attachment to life.  Buddhism centers on the ideal of non-attachment to everything because all of it is impermanent.  It doesn't mean I don't love, don't feel, don't care.  It just means that when the time comes to say goodbye to someone or something, I make my peace with it and move on. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Root Of All Evil

 

 

 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, 

they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

                                            (1 Timothy 6:10 )

 

 

Before the Industrial Revolution everything we could possibly own was handmade.  Every piece of cloth was handspun and handwoven.  The crockery was made by a potter and the furniture by a carpenter.  Every item was crafted, rather than just produced.   That life accumulation of stuff was often the only inheritance left to the heirs.  The products were made to last, were made to be passed down generation after generation.

 

Now everything for sale is largely cheap and disposable.  Our children don't want our "old stuff." The items only have value if they are valued.  We value many items because of a specific memory or story.  If you know the story you don't really need the object.  

 

Planned Obsolescence is the darling of the manufacturing.  Nothing is meant to last and therefore it doesn't.  Our disposable packaging is an environmental nightmare.  Not only are we throwing more away than ever in our history, but what we are throwing away presents us with unknown dangers as chemicals break down and enter our water and air.

 

The fossil fuel industry is opposed to renewable power out of greed.  If we can generate our own power from local sources, then that ends Big Oil's power over the world's economy.  Again those in power with vast wealth do not want the rest of us to figure out how to live without them.

 

A similar situation arose in the early Christian church with the Gnostics.  Like Buddha, the Jesus in the Gnostic Gospels is proposing salvation by seeking the Kingdom of Heaven within.   No rituals, no magic words, no need for confession and absolution, no need for priests and a church hierarchy.  The Council of Nicaea under Emperor Constantine forced the early church into the Roman mold, producing the power model that still survives today.

 

Under the guise of salvation, the Church ruthlessly enforced the idea of uniform worship.  Any deviation was deemed heretical and thus endangering the populace as a whole because their god was petty and vindictive.  The world will be at peace just as soon as everyone believes exactly what we tell them to.  This made many very powerful and obscenely rich.  It did not, however, do a damned thing to promote Christ's message.  And to this day it still doesn't.

 

The path found by Gautama Buddha (which I believed Jesus learned during his 18 year hiatus from the Gospels) requires no external anything.  The process takes place entirely within the mind of the meditator.  It takes time and patience but is infinitely more rewarding that prayer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Lathe of Heaven

 

"Those whom heaven helps we call the sons of heaven. They do not learn this by learning. They do not work it by working. They do not reason it by using reason. To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment. Those who cannot do it will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven."          Chuang Tse: XXIII (3.0) 

 

I first read this in Ursula K Le Guin's 1971 novel The Lathe of Heaven.    She later admitted that this was a poor translation since the lathe didn't exist in 5th century BCE China.  I don't care.  I like the imagery and this quote has really inspired me.   

 

In particular the line "To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment."   Sometimes when I meditate I feel myself approaching an unseen cliff edge.  I feel giddy and worry that I might fall and be overwhelmed.   Mentally I back away.   I know I am not ready.  When I am ready, I will know.

 

This is where so many religions go wrong.  Humanity has a habit of over-thinking when dealing with the unknown.   It isn't enough that we create some fanciful myth to explain what we do not yet understand (natural disasters, for instance), but then we have to create a system to attempt to control the forces that we absolutely can NOT control.  

 

Instead of seeking the unity of all things, we childishly divide everything into a binary world of good vs bad, black vs white, female vs male and then wonder how a loving just deity could allow all the evil done it its name.  We add layers upon layers of mythical beings, both good and evil.  We create rituals to appease or to ward off those beings.  We demand special clothes and special buildings in order to worship an unseen deity and carry out its unspoken will.   We create officials upon whom we invest power who then tell us if we are doing it right, accepting their condemnation when they tell us that we are going to Hell.  

 

If we could just accept that we do not know what lies beyond and still be compassionate people we would move quickly to the center of the maze.  The point of life is not to be perfect, but to make the best choices given the circumstances.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Control

 

“Religion is for people who're afraid of going to hell. 

Spirituality is for those who've already been there.”      David Bowie

  

My friend Cookie reminded me of this quote recently.  There was a time when I was really religious, but over time I realized that nothing about Christianity made much sense.  Like so many my age we have drifted from religious orthodoxy to spiritual beliefs that suit us better.

 

Simply put, we control nothing but our own choices.  However, for centuries we believed we could influence the uncontrollable by propitiating a deity.  Prayer was thought to have actual power and to this day folks scold when someone wishes ill on another.   If wishing certain people would drop dead worked, don't you think we would have tried it already?

Humanity is on the verge of abandoning religion all together.  Science has done a far better job of answering our questions, allowing us to take a critical view of religion in general.   The problem with religion is the same for all times and all faiths.

Religion was created by men, literally, and they used the tenets of their beliefs to impose control over the masses.   Women and children were property of their male relatives.  Those men are still with us and sadly most of them in the USA are in the Republican party.

Over the past century we have seen rapid changes in every field of endeavor, but in the heart of MAGA they are so frightened of losing control over the lives of others that they are prepared to destroy the world's best hope, the USA, in order to salve their bruised manhood.  Women gained a measure of bodily autonomy with access to contraception and abortion.  And sure enough, the men realized that meant they no longer had control over the women and suddenly both those life enhancing things are being banned.

 

Our former slaves are going to university and becoming well-paid professionals.  So we have to have a new exploitable underclass.  Suddenly migrants who have been here for decades must be deported.  Workers here legally are arrested and deported.  Even US citizens are being deported.  Strange that none of these draconian policies have improved MAGA control over persons of color.

Buddha and Jesus both spoke of reaching a place of inner peace with a mind that accepts the inevitable while decisively choosing the right course of action in any situation.  This we can do through meditation.  We have the control.  Let's use it.

Free Will And The Rise of Empathy

 

"The Absolute likes to play within itself"  

Ned Bittenger, TM teacher, 1977 

 

Another one of those quotes that guide me.  GDW is certainly both omnipresent and omnipotent, but I don't think omniscient applies.  I think GDW has left us with free will and from time to time we make surprising choices.  Everything in our world, good and bad, is part of the game that GDW plays within itself.  Knowing how everything is going to turn out rather defeats the entire point of free will.  

 

We like to think that no matter what happens "the Almighty has a plan" -- but we don't actually know that.   We don't even know if there is an Almighty to have a plan.   I think it is possible that while GDW may not know what is going to happen, there are paths already indicated by past choices.  I rather like the idea that GDW can be surprised by us.

 

I have come to believe that at some point in our very distant past, early hominids were little different from other animals, being both predator and prey depending on the circumstances.  They moved through life based on instinct.  Then there was a magic moment when empathy was exhibited for the first time.   Perhaps it was a male saving someone else's child from a predator.  Perhaps it was a female feeding strangers when food is already scarce.  It is at this point that humankind finally had free will.  

 

And just as Genesis states, it is at this point that humans can choose between good and evil.  It is at this point that we enter the Hedge Maze with free will as to which paths to choose.  And yes, what we can learn from our experiences in moving towards the Center can make us very like gods.  We are made of the flesh of reality animated by part of GDW.   

 

Empathy is what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom.  As long as we are neither hungry or afraid, we can exercise our free will to make considered choices between options.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Idyllic Society

 

 The problem with an idyllic society is that it would be so fucking boring.

Ellen Wilds, 2025

 

And yes, I am sufficiently old that I don't censor my language.  

 

Every religion preaches some sort of idealized version of our lives if only we would just believe what we are told to believe.  We are taught to be good in order to avoid going to Hell.  We are taught that when bad things happen it is because someone somewhere committed some sort of sin at some time and now our loving God insists that we all suffer accordingly because we allowed sin.  A god that denies the living the comfort of burial rituals just because the deceased died by suicide or was unbaptized or married out of the faith is not a god worthy of worship and I have no desire to associate with such a deity.  

 

The simple truth is that religion -- every religion -- is an entirely man-made structure.  All the laws and rules were created by people.  We wrote the scriptures and the Liturgy.  We decided what was and what was not a sin, then said it was "God's Laws."  Self-affirmation.

 

GDW's laws can be found in Science -- in physics, in biology, in medicine, in geology, in astronomy, in climatology.  And yes, slowly science is replacing religion as the source of knowledge about our reality.  As that has happened people have learned that natural disasters are not the result of sin, real or imagined.  Like GDW, Nature just is.  It has no motive and answers to no one.  With religion's grip on our consciousness waning we are free to study other paths to see what they offer.

 

I don't know if an idyllic society is possible, given human nature.  Christianity might have been a start.  However the entire religion with all its strictures was founded by Emperor Constantine on the model of the Roman Empire so a "Pax Romana" was the only plan for the idyllic society promised.  And of course, the Church was quick to point out that no one was really doing the Christ stuff here on Earth, but if we just bear with them we will go to Heaven after we die.

 

This has led our society to focus on the wrong things.  We are fixated by wealth, by power, by clicks and likes.  We want to collect trophies and souvenirs (leading adults to steal sports memorabilia from children).  Our society has become about who can get the most.

 

He who dies with the most toys is still fucking DEAD  

 (Ellen S Wilds) 

 Still can't take it with you. 

 

So what would an idyllic society look like?  Assuming that there is ample motivation to put the needs of the many before the wants of a few, that we accept that all life is connected at the source, that nothing here is permanent and that we do not know what happens after death perhaps there is a way to change the way we think about our world.

 

Buddha told a story about a man who was just miserable in his life.  He was poor, his wife yelled at him, etc.  Buddha took the man to a pond where a lotus flower floated on the surface.

 

"What do you see?" he asked the man.

"A beautiful flower," the man answered.

"Now look deeper," said Buddha, "where does the flower come from?"

The man pondered a moment.  "Well, they grow out of the mud under the water."

Buddha nodded.  "It is still a beautiful flower no matter its origins.  Stop looking at the mud and focus on the flower."

 

We can never have an idyllic society as long we focus on the wrong things.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stories In The Hedge Maze

 

We're all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?  

Dr. Who:  The Big Bang    

There's something magical about this quote.  Billions have lived and died on this planet. It would be unreasonable for us to remember everyone who has gone before.  And yet we do remember stories about people whose lives impacted our history.   This is not just for the famous.  Your surviving  family and friends will carry your story with them.  We still share tales from antiquity and then are amazed that the ruins famed in myth are, in fact, real.

Science has steadily answered our most arcane questions, a role for which religion is ill-equipped.  Science asks a question and then seeks the answer.  Religion starts with an answer and then asks questions that support the answer.  Even so, Science has not answered the question of what happens after death.  And I hope that question is never answered.  

As I pass through the Maze I can feel the tingle of stories coursing through the hedge.  Dao (rather like the Internet) never forgets.  And upon lucky occasion sees fit to uncover a little more of our reality as it has always been.  The stories are guides along the way, self-help books written by humans but with the intent of making things better.

The Code of Hammurabi, The Bhagavad Gita, The Dao De Ching, The Dhammapada, The Abrahamic Texts:  all contain ancient wisdom about being a better person along with parables full of metaphors and analogies.  None is better than another.  None is more wise or more believable than the others.  Some have a piece of the answer, others have got it fairly well sorted.   We should be able to read these for ourselves and decide what is relevant to our current status in the Maze.

Consider that the ideas whispered through the branches forming the hedge influence your choice at a fork in the road.  This is how so many are led astray, making disastrous choice after disastrous choice because of the whispers around them.  This is certainly what happens in cults, where the only stories adherents have are those generated by those in power.  This is why conservatives are so opposed to education because it might expose children to alternate ways of thinking -- which is critical in our mobile society.

As for me I plan to continue my life in such a way that if someday my bio is turned into a book, Florida would ban it. 

 

The Art of Enough

 

 The Art of Enough

At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history.

Heller responds,“Yes, but I have something he will never have – ENOUGH.”

[https://lifeschool.co.in/but-i-have-something-he-will-never-have-enough/] 

Where is the logic behind demanding that the rich give everything to the poor?  (Sounds like the Monty Python highwayman sketch Dennis Moore)  But Buddha and Lao Tzu both stressed ridding oneself of earthly encumbrances, but not to the point of poverty.

 

Buddha famously spent eight years in extreme asceticism.  Then one day he heard a musician teaching a child to play a stringed instrument.  "If the string is too tight, it will break.  If the string is too loose, it will not make music."  From this Buddha sought the Middle Way and it is another central tenet of Buddhism.  The Middle Way is a point of view leading to a balance.  That may be why the idea of a "radical Buddhist" is so wonderfully weird.

 

^"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich 

man to enter into the kingdom of God."  (Mark 10:25)

 

So where is the balance between rich and poor?  If all the world's wealth was evenly divided amongst all 8 billion + people we might get to a society where no one is truly wealthy, but neither are there any truly poor either.  Perhaps it is possible to make sure that everyone everywhere has enough.  And we need to train society that enough is sufficient.  

 

No, you really can't take it with you, and those who can not release their hold on the earthly matters are likely to end up stalled in the Maze between lives and seen by sensitives as ghosts.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Analogies and Metaphors

 

When Words Fail 

I can ask a roomful of people to think of a dog and be absolutely certain that no one will picture the same dog as I did.  Further I doubt any two people will ever think of the same dog, even though we know dogs are real.  So why would any two people think of the same god?  Words just don't mean the same thing to everyone.  Words change meanings when translated into another language or over time.  And words can be misheard, repeated wrong, edited and altered.

 

Language both connects and divides us.  Words are limiting.  They have to be spoken in a strict order rather than conveying the confusion of coincidence.  Everything we try to describe becomes smaller and simpler.

 

GDW does not communicate in words because words are inefficient.   The information that comes from beyond floods in, overwhelming in its depth and complexity.  Some parts will spark into wisdom or into genius, but the spark shrinks in scope when put into words. 

 

Accepting that we do not have the ability to communicate directly mind to mind (oh, to be a Vulcan)  we are left with words, but have to accept the limitations.  Hence when describing the indescribable we rely on analogies, metaphors and similes.  (Just Google the terms like I did)  This is why Buddha and Jesus opted to explain their ideas in parables.  We also rely on images and music to give our minds what is needed to understand concepts too complex for verbal definition.  So I will be adding images created to reflect some of my analogies.

 

And before anyone gets riled that I liken the afterlife to oceans, islands and hedge mazes instead of the classic Heaven and Hell, no one knows what follows death.  NO ONE!   

 

When it comes to talking about religion -- or for that matter, any human interaction -- I see an ocean full of islands.   Each island is separated by the ocean, but the ocean is also what connects them.  

 

 

The ocean is GDW or the Holy Spirit or something equally neutral that surrounds, separates and connects us all.  In this analogy I prefer to focus on the ocean rather than the islands. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zen Gnosticism -- An Introduction

Daoism is What

Buddhism is How

Gnosticism is Why

 

Starting about five years ago I returned to the spiritual quests of my youth, focusing primarily on Transcendental Meditation.  I learned TM in 1973 and have practiced sporadically ever since, but got serious about it after I moved to the mountains in western Maryland.  TM led me to study paths not included in my solid Episcopal upbringing.

 

I read the Gnostic Gospels and compared their message to that of Lao Tzu, Cheung Tze and Buddha.  I learned more about being a true Christian from these Asian masters than I had ever garnered from the standard Biblical texts.   In musing on the value of ancient knowledge I had to acknowledge that we have no guarantee that any ancient text is valid.  All have been translated, edited, re-translated, compiled, re-translated over the past 2500 years.  The Bible may be most untrustworthy of all the ancient texts, mostly because the texts have been declared sacred and not to be questioned -- ever.

 

But not so sacred that the texts can not again be translated, edited, re-translated, compiled, 

re-translated and published yet again.  

 

That is when I realized that I simply no longer accepted anything of European-based  Christianity after the Council of Nicea (325 CE).   While I believe there are some ancient clues in the Bible, I find that there is similar knowledge in all the other ancient works, from Gilgamesh to the Bhagavad Gita.  No single human civilization or culture has a monopoly on Truth.  I believe every form of faith serves a purpose and is part of the greater whole.

 

Just as everyone has their own view of god so does each person have their own spiritual path.  In the hedge maze each must find their own way.  Of course, they can follow the crowd, but each choice at each turning is made by the individual alone.  Be careful whose guidance you accept on your journey.   

            

 

This is an evolving belief system, subject to change as with everything in this transitory life.   I invite anyone who finds this idea interesting to text me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Why Does God Need A Spaceship?

 

 I Refuse to Bow to Needy Gods

 Possibly the only memorable thing about the film Star Trek V was Captain Kirk's (William Shatner) question of a purported Supreme Being.  And it is an excellent question.  Why does God need anything?   We create these all-powerful deities and then we have to spend everything we have to placate, cajole or appease them.  Frankly, it sounds pathetic.

We have had deities that demand sacrifices be made to them, be it livestock, money or human life in order to secure a good harvest or to ward off the plague.  And while one community rejoices that their prayers were answered when the hurricane veered away from them, but then explain why the prayers of the community that was hit were not also answered.

Almighty God, who hast given us grace at this time with one accord to 

make our common supplications unto thee; and dost promise that 

when two or three are gathered together in thy Name thou wilt grant 

their requests.... from a Prayer of St. Chrysostom

 

My mother thought this was the silliest prayer because in any conflict if both sides are praying for victory, someone is going to have settle for 2nd place.  God answers all prayers, but often the answer is "no."  

 

Most of our human devotion to the unseen is based on the ancient idea that absolutely everything was in a deity's immediate interest, so it was necessary to keep that deity happy.  And being human we childishly thought we could just do for the gods what we would like for ourselves.  This is very like getting a present from a four year old whose idea of the perfect gift is a bag of balloons or strings of bright plastic beads.  

 

Because we did not understand the mechanisms of disease, of weather, of geology whenever something bad happened it was because the deity was angry -- because someone somewhere committed a sin or tolerated sins to be committed.  I wish I could say this we have grown past these primitive beliefs, but then in 2017 after the ravages of Hurricane Harvey we had a number of Evilangelicals stating that this was God's wrath against the toleration of homosexuality.  It occurred to me that if God wanted to send a message about gay love he would have wiped out San Francisco rather than Houston.

 

GDW does not need anything from us.  Not golden temples nor constant praise.  GDW requires no acknowledgement at all.  It is entirely up to us how much focus to place on getting through the Maze this time around.  

 

 

 

The Wizard or The Wand

 

Where Does The Power Lie 

This is an age-old conundrum: is the magic in the wizard or in the wand?  If it is in the wizard then why does he need a wand?  If it is in the wand, then you don't have to be a wizard to cause mayhem (think The Sorcerer's Apprentice).  The answer is -- neither.  

 

The power flows through the Wizard and is focused by the Wand.  In the same way we focus our power through significant objects, such as a sacred text, a string of beads or wearing religious iconography.    

  

 

 

The power lies in GDW and hence is part of all life.  Accessing that power requires some directed connection to GDW.  We call it faith. but it is more like trust.  That is why there are so many comparisons to the innocence of children, because of their perfect trust leading to innate faith.  Of course, life quickly robs children of that innocence, but that is the level of faith that Jesus means when he says it can move mountains.

 

Religion tries to create that level of faith in a binary-minded world by appealing to people's fears and hatred rather than to their love and compassion.  Sadly, it has worked for millennia.   Buddha sought to end this cycle and in many ways he succeeded where Jesus did not.   This is because Buddhism is a philosophy rather than a religion.  Buddhism has made me into a better Christian.

 

So when a priest consecrates the Host what is happening?  He is using his inner connection to GDW -- supported by the faith of millions of adherents for centuries -- to manipulate the energy into the wafer turning it into an object of spiritual power.  And this is true of every book deemed sacred, every religious building, every icon, every person who claims a spiritual lineage back to a revered figure.

 

If you were in a cage match with a demonically possessed child what would you choose as your best weapon?  The Bible?  But what if you are a Muslim?  A Thor's Hammer?  Not if you are a Shinto.  Perhaps you would fare better if the cage were in a different location.  If you are Wiccan you want to be in an oak grove within a sacred circle.  

 

The power is just simply there in the objects and spaces we revere.  GDW is what powers all those beliefs. GDW is everywhere, vast enough to encompass all of the gods we humans have worshiped.  No Christian revived after death has reported seeing Krisna and no Hindu has reported seeing Jesus.

As we move away from religious orthodoxy we can open ourselves to the possibilities of a world in which we move in concert with the divine rather than fighting against it in an effort to cling to ancient tales. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Power of Energy

 

You always had the power, my dear.

You just had to learn it for yourself.

 

(Glenda the Good Witch, The Wizard of Oz)

 

An odd echo of "the Kingdom of Heaven is within you," but it follows the same idea.  We have access to inner currents of energy that emanate from GDW.  As we get better control over our minds we can access more of these currents.  The energies within the Maze are the source of every flash of genius we have ever had -- that magical aha moment when all the pieces click into place.  

"And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you,  

If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain,

 Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; 

and nothing shall be impossible unto you."  (Matthew 17:20)

 

And again we are told we have the power within us, but we can not access that power directly.  And for excellent reasons.   Humans can not be trusted with cosmic power.  Look at the mess we have made with the power we have now.

The power of GDW is what we rely on for all manner of rituals.  It is our belief in the power of the ritual that gives the ritual its power.   That may seem to be circular logic, but the basis of everything, of all power is GDW.  That power lies within everyone of us.  When we harness that power we can do miraculous things.  However, GDW can not flow through a tainted vessel and we are all tainted. 

 

Think of it as a light enclosed in a glass lantern.  If the glass is blackened by soot and grime the light can not shine through.  The light is GDW and the lantern is our physical form in this reality.  We have to clean off the glass to let the light shine.  

 

"Let your light so shine before men,

 that they may see your good works, 

and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

(Matthew 5:16) 

 

All religions call upon the power of our inner connection to GDW, even if the religion does not acknowledge directly that is the point of a the rituals.  I will cover this in more detail in my next post The Wizard or The Wand.