A lot of people don't know this...
In the early 1900's,
doctors were divided into two camps:
Allopaths and Homeopaths
These terms don't have the same meanings today, but the former meanings are still useful for understanding the conflict and division that still exists within medicine. Briefly, the homeopathic method is to treat disease naturally in order that the body's immune system may rebuild and defend itself, while the allopathic method is to treat merely the symptoms of disease by using synthetic and abrasive methods.
An example of allopathic medicine that was wildly popular in the Middle Ages was bloodletting. One famous example relates the experience of George Washington, who was bled of half the blood in his body by allopathic physicians seeking to cure his strep throat. When this didn't work, they gave him a 650mg pill of Mercury to swallow. He died the next day.
At the turn of the last century, the conflict between these two schools was at a fever pitch. Allopaths were quickly losing their patients to homeopaths, and the future of medicine looked bright. The AMA (American Medical Association) was created as a brotherhood of allopathic doctors, seeking to defend their methods against the rampant success of the homeopaths.
"... we have never fought the homeopath on matters of principle. We fought him because he came into our community and got the business."
(~ Dr. J.N. McCormack, AMA, 1903)
The AMA, in its mission to destroy the homeopaths, began a sustained campaign to slander homeopathy and its practitioners as "charlatans" and "quacks". Big business was quick to ally itself with the AMA, seeing a source of potential wealth in their methods, as opposed to the homeopaths, whose patients were too quickly cured, and, so, could not remain patients (i.e. paying customers). Once this happened, it was all downhill.
With the help of big business, the AMA was able to take control of the press, and to change the curriculum, graduating requirements, and licensing laws in the medical schools of the time. This all served to drive out the competition -- the true doctors. Allopathic medicine emerged as the victor, and the vast majority of us have been the unwitting victims of this scandal ever since.
For more information,
see the documentary:
Healing Cancer from inside out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xkyMAYmrQY
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the road less traveled by.
And that has made all the difference."
~ Robert Frost
"I had a fast-growing conviction
that a hospital is no place for a
person who is seriously ill."
~ Norman Cousins
"The thing that bugs me is that people
think the FDA is protecting them. It isn't.
What the FDA is doing, and what the public thinks
it's doing are as different as night and day."
~ Herbert Lay
Former Commissioner of the FDA
"The FDA is serving industry rather than the public."
~ Dr. David Graham
Senior drug safety researcher at the FDA
who blew the whistle on Vioxx
"The Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
is largely controlled by the orthodox medical
profession.. and the industries which the FDA
was set up to regulate."
~ Miles Robinson, M.D.
Head of a Congressional Committee
investigating allegations of a conspiracy
to suppress alternative therapies
"The Inquisition is still with us.
It is called The Food and Drug Administration..
The National Cancer Institute.. The American Cancer Society
and the AMA. They are allied together to destroy
innovation in modern times."
~ Robert G. Houston
"We have a multi-billion dollar industry
that is killing people, right and left,
just for financial gain."
~ Glenn Warner, M.D.
"They lie like scoundrels."
~ Dean Burke, Ph.D.
regarding the American Cancer Society
"It is now illegal to find a cure for Cancer."
~ Pat McGrady, Jr.
"[Chemotherapy is] a marvellous opportunity
for rampant deceit. So much money is there to be made.."
~ George Lundberg, M.D.
editor of the Journal of The American Medical Association
"Half of the modern drugs could well be thrown out
the window, except that the birds would eat them."
~ M. HI Fischer, M.D.
"The cure for cancer will not be found
under a microscope. It's on the dinner plate."
~ Dr. Paul Stitt
"Cancer is most frequent
where carnivorous habits prevail."
~ Scientific American, 1892
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Thursday, September 2, 2010
SIN -- The Law of Moses and The Law of Christ
I wanted to say a few words about sin and how Jesus understands it.
Sin is sickness. Jesus says, "They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Mark 2:17) He makes it very clear that sin is an illness, and he is a physician. Yes, he is also a judge, and sin is also guilt, but not in the way we have come to understand these things. His judgment is a medicine, and it can be bitter. But it is not intended to punish us. Rather, to awaken us from delusion. Before we can turn wholly to God, we need to recognize the truth of our condition. The man who knows he is ill will seek a remedy, and the man who knows he is deathly ill will seek extreme measures.
The problem is that we're all sinners, we're all sick. We are surrounded by sin and sickness, and it has become normal to us. We no longer know what spiritual health is; what true goodness is. We think it's something reserved for great individuals; historical figures; saints. We don't realize that we're sick, and that there is healing, so we don't realize our full potential. The truth is, nobody is a saint. Nobody is born a saint, and nobody makes him or herself into a saint. Only God can make a saint. And God is always looking, waiting, and feeling for opportunities to come into our lives, to make us saints. He is knocking on the door, and only wants us to let Him in. The extent of your free will consists in this: That you can open the door.
The subject of Karma is touched on directly in the following passage:
"And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." (John 9:1-3)
This man did nothing to "deserve" his affliction. Nor is he inheriting the sins of his parents (or the "original sin" of Adam and Eve). Rather, he is afflicted "that the works of God should be made manifest in him". I don't think this means that God makes us sick just so He can heal us and show off how great He is. Rather, I think it means what the Zen masters mean when they say: "It is what it is." Everything is the work of God, and everything is what it is simply because God is. God is unfolding. God is all being. Universes collapsing and concrescing. So much infinite power. Holocausts, crucifixions, atomic explotions... but also redemption and illumination.
It is said that the sorrows of this realm cannot compare to the riches of the higher realms. That we may spend thousands of lifetimes caught in this lower energy, but when we ascend, it's all forgotten. I don't know if this is a healthy way of looking at it. I don't think we need to balance good against evil, or try to prove that there is more good than evil. That's irrelevant. First, we must understand that God is. THIS is. For better or worse. And we can rage against it, we can ask "why" and speculate on reasons, -- or, we can just get down to the business of salvation. And I think that's what Christ is about.
Forgive the crassness of the analogy, but its about not spitting into the wind. It doesn't matter if there's a reason for the wind, or a reason why we have to turn away from the wind when we spit. And it's not about commandments, or laws, either. You can spit into the wind all you want. If you want to get spit in your own face, go right ahead. You have carte blanche. Call it "free will".
You see what I'm saying?
Speaking of the commandments...
Paul has some very profound ideas about this. It's difficult, and maybe impossible, to know if he's just explaining and elaborating on what Christ taught, or if he's developing the teaching in a more original way. In either case, he is watering the seed planted by Christ. But here is what he says:
There are two laws. Well, no, wait.. let me put it differently. There is one law, but there are two basic ways of seeing it. Often, things are said in scripture that describe states of awareness, and not hard facts. This is difficult to describe, but I'll try. When Paul says that salvation is through faith, he is not saying that, when we believe in Jesus, God forgives our sins -- not literally. He's saying that, when we believe we are forgiven, we naturally receive consolation, and this heals our spiritual malady on the deepest levels. When we believe Christ took our sins upon him, we no longer take them upon ourselves. It's not about Christ doing anything, really, but it is about Christ convincing us of something. We are being led to reflect upon, and, ultimately, to identify with, the purity of Jesus Christ, which is inside of us, and is our foundation, before the fall; before we got distracted. It is said "we covet what we see", so, we are being directed to look upon the glory of God, and to covet goodness. Not only do we covet what we see, but, we become what we covet. Like moths to a flame -- but not moths; sparks, rather, that somehow are drawn to the flame and eventually merge with it.
But I was going to talk about the law...
There is the Law of Moses, as expressed through The Ten Commandments, which sets forth particular rules of conduct. These are not laws imposed on us, but revealed to us. For instance, the laws of men are imposed, but the laws of nature already exist; by hearing and learning about them, we are in a better position to cope with the natural world. Spiritual laws are much the same. They are meant to rule us, not as a king rules, but as a ruler measures; they measure our progress, or our spiritual health, and show us how we're doing. It's through awareness of the Law of Moses that we come to discover our sinfulness, our weakness, or our illness. But if we focus only on this law and on our sinfulness, we miss the higher reality and our oneness with God. When the Law is used to judge, to punish or reward, to divide and classify people, then it has been corrupted. The fact is, the more we focus on this Law, the more we fall short of it, the more guilty we feel, and the harder it becomes to follow a path of righteousness.
This basically sums up the history of Judaism before Christ.
The stage is set.
Now, enter Jesus and The Law of Grace...
In comes this guy with a radical notion. In order to cleanse ourselves, we must believe that we are cleansed. In order to commune with God, we need to identify with God. It is a state of awareness, which becomes a reality, and IS a reality for the one who is fully present to it, as Christ was. What he is saying is revolutionary and is so offensive to the authorities of the time, because it looks a lot like he's giving a free pass to all the wicked people and saying that nobody is responsible for themselves. The words of Paul in the Epistle to the Romans are even more explicit about this and even more shocking. The idea is that we are not responsible for our condition or for our sin because we are not what we appear to be on the surface. We have been deluded into identifying with the surface, and we have, in a sense, become what we are not.
Romans 7 is worth reading in its entirety, --
(just ignore the tribal prejudices in the first few verses) ;)
http://www.justbible.com/bychapter.aspx?B=45&C=007&V=015
There's a lot in there, but, basically, it sounds like he's saying, "The devil made me do it." And we've all been told that this is the biggest cop-out. It's no wonder there was so much resistance to this teaching, and that it remains so misunderstood. Jean-Paul Sartre writes: "[No man knowingly does evil. In order for me to do that which is evil for me, it is necessary that I simultaneously approve and disapprove of my action. This is impossible.]" Well, it is and it isn't. Paul goes deeper than Sartre when he admits that the will is divided; that there is a deep, inner awareness of evil, and, yet, an unwillingness or inability to conform outwardly with that understanding. In fact, they are essentially saying the same thing, but, while Sartre emphasizes the unconsciousness of evil, and the denial of evil, Paul places emphasis on the emerging awareness. Paul has become aware of the split between his higher and lower natures. He wants to do good, but he "sees himself" doing evil. He begins to identify with a will which is not his own (in an outward sense), but, yet, which is closer to his heart than the very work of his hands.
He speaks of not identifying with works. "Works" comes to mean everything in the world of appearances, but, more specifically, it is what we do. And, even more specifically, it's what we do without God, or apart from God. In a very spiritual sense, it is an illusion, for we are nothing if not united in God; in the depths of our hearts, we are all heart. Paul has touched this truth. He has made contact with his heart, and with the Holy Spirit that dwells and moves within him.
"So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." This is the very definition of hypocrisy, and, yet, it's also the spiritual condition of the person who has honestly recognized and refused to camouflage his predicament, however incongruous it may be. We're generally told that we have the power to do good, and that, if we do not do what we know is good, it is our own fault. But Paul is saying something else entirely. He is admitting his powerlessness and dependence on God, and on the truth which he knows in his heart, and which he wants desperately to conform himself with. He is torn apart. The wheat is separated from the chaff. He dies to the old self, to the outward, egoic consciousness, and is reborn, "born again", or "resurrected" with the inner Christ.
Seeing the Christ in himself, and in others, removes any tendency to judgment or self-righteousness. It allows him to step out of his flesh, out of his sins, and into the light of God where healing begins in full force. It is said that the lower prayer is recognition of man's sin, but the higher prayer dwells on the righteousness of God. Evidently, the former is a necessary step to the latter. Certainly, Paul thinks so, when he says that, "I had not known sin, but by the law," and he thanks the law for showing him what sin is, even though sin, "taking occasion by the commandment" (that is, twisting the law to it's own purposes), renders him full of guilt and more bound up in his depravity.
But, then, it's always darkest before the dawn. There is a wonderful quote by Francois Fenelon which I was unable to locate, but it essentially says that, when we first perceive our sinfulness, it's like seeing thousands of insects, serpents, rats, and all sorts of filthy, ravenous creatures issuing forth from the cave of our soul. It repulses us to discover what has been lurking within us -- but, at the same time, it is also a purging of the evil that has been concealed within us. This is like the revelation of the Law, which Paul says is good, and without which he would never have known good from evil. But dwelling on this, and making this Law supreme can only result in being more entangled in the web of sin. What is clear, more than anything else, is that when Paul ceases to identify with his sin, or his illness, it begins to wither and fall away.
"So is it with this calamity: it does not touch me: some thing which I fancied was a part of me, which could not be torn away without tearing me, nor enlarged without enriching me, falls off from me, and leaves no scar. It was caducous." ~ Emerson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghFgceo0d60
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWF8E0miEks
Sin is sickness. Jesus says, "They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Mark 2:17) He makes it very clear that sin is an illness, and he is a physician. Yes, he is also a judge, and sin is also guilt, but not in the way we have come to understand these things. His judgment is a medicine, and it can be bitter. But it is not intended to punish us. Rather, to awaken us from delusion. Before we can turn wholly to God, we need to recognize the truth of our condition. The man who knows he is ill will seek a remedy, and the man who knows he is deathly ill will seek extreme measures.
The problem is that we're all sinners, we're all sick. We are surrounded by sin and sickness, and it has become normal to us. We no longer know what spiritual health is; what true goodness is. We think it's something reserved for great individuals; historical figures; saints. We don't realize that we're sick, and that there is healing, so we don't realize our full potential. The truth is, nobody is a saint. Nobody is born a saint, and nobody makes him or herself into a saint. Only God can make a saint. And God is always looking, waiting, and feeling for opportunities to come into our lives, to make us saints. He is knocking on the door, and only wants us to let Him in. The extent of your free will consists in this: That you can open the door.
The subject of Karma is touched on directly in the following passage:
"And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." (John 9:1-3)
This man did nothing to "deserve" his affliction. Nor is he inheriting the sins of his parents (or the "original sin" of Adam and Eve). Rather, he is afflicted "that the works of God should be made manifest in him". I don't think this means that God makes us sick just so He can heal us and show off how great He is. Rather, I think it means what the Zen masters mean when they say: "It is what it is." Everything is the work of God, and everything is what it is simply because God is. God is unfolding. God is all being. Universes collapsing and concrescing. So much infinite power. Holocausts, crucifixions, atomic explotions... but also redemption and illumination.
It is said that the sorrows of this realm cannot compare to the riches of the higher realms. That we may spend thousands of lifetimes caught in this lower energy, but when we ascend, it's all forgotten. I don't know if this is a healthy way of looking at it. I don't think we need to balance good against evil, or try to prove that there is more good than evil. That's irrelevant. First, we must understand that God is. THIS is. For better or worse. And we can rage against it, we can ask "why" and speculate on reasons, -- or, we can just get down to the business of salvation. And I think that's what Christ is about.
Forgive the crassness of the analogy, but its about not spitting into the wind. It doesn't matter if there's a reason for the wind, or a reason why we have to turn away from the wind when we spit. And it's not about commandments, or laws, either. You can spit into the wind all you want. If you want to get spit in your own face, go right ahead. You have carte blanche. Call it "free will".
You see what I'm saying?
Speaking of the commandments...
Paul has some very profound ideas about this. It's difficult, and maybe impossible, to know if he's just explaining and elaborating on what Christ taught, or if he's developing the teaching in a more original way. In either case, he is watering the seed planted by Christ. But here is what he says:
There are two laws. Well, no, wait.. let me put it differently. There is one law, but there are two basic ways of seeing it. Often, things are said in scripture that describe states of awareness, and not hard facts. This is difficult to describe, but I'll try. When Paul says that salvation is through faith, he is not saying that, when we believe in Jesus, God forgives our sins -- not literally. He's saying that, when we believe we are forgiven, we naturally receive consolation, and this heals our spiritual malady on the deepest levels. When we believe Christ took our sins upon him, we no longer take them upon ourselves. It's not about Christ doing anything, really, but it is about Christ convincing us of something. We are being led to reflect upon, and, ultimately, to identify with, the purity of Jesus Christ, which is inside of us, and is our foundation, before the fall; before we got distracted. It is said "we covet what we see", so, we are being directed to look upon the glory of God, and to covet goodness. Not only do we covet what we see, but, we become what we covet. Like moths to a flame -- but not moths; sparks, rather, that somehow are drawn to the flame and eventually merge with it.
But I was going to talk about the law...
There is the Law of Moses, as expressed through The Ten Commandments, which sets forth particular rules of conduct. These are not laws imposed on us, but revealed to us. For instance, the laws of men are imposed, but the laws of nature already exist; by hearing and learning about them, we are in a better position to cope with the natural world. Spiritual laws are much the same. They are meant to rule us, not as a king rules, but as a ruler measures; they measure our progress, or our spiritual health, and show us how we're doing. It's through awareness of the Law of Moses that we come to discover our sinfulness, our weakness, or our illness. But if we focus only on this law and on our sinfulness, we miss the higher reality and our oneness with God. When the Law is used to judge, to punish or reward, to divide and classify people, then it has been corrupted. The fact is, the more we focus on this Law, the more we fall short of it, the more guilty we feel, and the harder it becomes to follow a path of righteousness.
This basically sums up the history of Judaism before Christ.
The stage is set.
Now, enter Jesus and The Law of Grace...
In comes this guy with a radical notion. In order to cleanse ourselves, we must believe that we are cleansed. In order to commune with God, we need to identify with God. It is a state of awareness, which becomes a reality, and IS a reality for the one who is fully present to it, as Christ was. What he is saying is revolutionary and is so offensive to the authorities of the time, because it looks a lot like he's giving a free pass to all the wicked people and saying that nobody is responsible for themselves. The words of Paul in the Epistle to the Romans are even more explicit about this and even more shocking. The idea is that we are not responsible for our condition or for our sin because we are not what we appear to be on the surface. We have been deluded into identifying with the surface, and we have, in a sense, become what we are not.
Romans 7 is worth reading in its entirety, --
(just ignore the tribal prejudices in the first few verses) ;)
http://www.justbible.com/bychapter.aspx?B=45&C=007&V=015
There's a lot in there, but, basically, it sounds like he's saying, "The devil made me do it." And we've all been told that this is the biggest cop-out. It's no wonder there was so much resistance to this teaching, and that it remains so misunderstood. Jean-Paul Sartre writes: "[No man knowingly does evil. In order for me to do that which is evil for me, it is necessary that I simultaneously approve and disapprove of my action. This is impossible.]" Well, it is and it isn't. Paul goes deeper than Sartre when he admits that the will is divided; that there is a deep, inner awareness of evil, and, yet, an unwillingness or inability to conform outwardly with that understanding. In fact, they are essentially saying the same thing, but, while Sartre emphasizes the unconsciousness of evil, and the denial of evil, Paul places emphasis on the emerging awareness. Paul has become aware of the split between his higher and lower natures. He wants to do good, but he "sees himself" doing evil. He begins to identify with a will which is not his own (in an outward sense), but, yet, which is closer to his heart than the very work of his hands.
He speaks of not identifying with works. "Works" comes to mean everything in the world of appearances, but, more specifically, it is what we do. And, even more specifically, it's what we do without God, or apart from God. In a very spiritual sense, it is an illusion, for we are nothing if not united in God; in the depths of our hearts, we are all heart. Paul has touched this truth. He has made contact with his heart, and with the Holy Spirit that dwells and moves within him.
"So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." This is the very definition of hypocrisy, and, yet, it's also the spiritual condition of the person who has honestly recognized and refused to camouflage his predicament, however incongruous it may be. We're generally told that we have the power to do good, and that, if we do not do what we know is good, it is our own fault. But Paul is saying something else entirely. He is admitting his powerlessness and dependence on God, and on the truth which he knows in his heart, and which he wants desperately to conform himself with. He is torn apart. The wheat is separated from the chaff. He dies to the old self, to the outward, egoic consciousness, and is reborn, "born again", or "resurrected" with the inner Christ.
Seeing the Christ in himself, and in others, removes any tendency to judgment or self-righteousness. It allows him to step out of his flesh, out of his sins, and into the light of God where healing begins in full force. It is said that the lower prayer is recognition of man's sin, but the higher prayer dwells on the righteousness of God. Evidently, the former is a necessary step to the latter. Certainly, Paul thinks so, when he says that, "I had not known sin, but by the law," and he thanks the law for showing him what sin is, even though sin, "taking occasion by the commandment" (that is, twisting the law to it's own purposes), renders him full of guilt and more bound up in his depravity.
But, then, it's always darkest before the dawn. There is a wonderful quote by Francois Fenelon which I was unable to locate, but it essentially says that, when we first perceive our sinfulness, it's like seeing thousands of insects, serpents, rats, and all sorts of filthy, ravenous creatures issuing forth from the cave of our soul. It repulses us to discover what has been lurking within us -- but, at the same time, it is also a purging of the evil that has been concealed within us. This is like the revelation of the Law, which Paul says is good, and without which he would never have known good from evil. But dwelling on this, and making this Law supreme can only result in being more entangled in the web of sin. What is clear, more than anything else, is that when Paul ceases to identify with his sin, or his illness, it begins to wither and fall away.
"So is it with this calamity: it does not touch me: some thing which I fancied was a part of me, which could not be torn away without tearing me, nor enlarged without enriching me, falls off from me, and leaves no scar. It was caducous." ~ Emerson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghFgceo0d60
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWF8E0miEks
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Rigamortis
silent watcher
so amazed
your eyes are startled flowers
of incandescent rage
crumpled lips
like crumpled page
your mouth is black
as a coffin closed
when you turn the cheek
and turn up your nose
aren't you a funny corpse
rigamortis, playing it loose
we all could follow you
into the grave
so amazed
your eyes are startled flowers
of incandescent rage
crumpled lips
like crumpled page
your mouth is black
as a coffin closed
when you turn the cheek
and turn up your nose
aren't you a funny corpse
rigamortis, playing it loose
we all could follow you
into the grave
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Your Only Obligation
Settle down into the bottom of things.
The scrape of your finger on the page.
The mission of an ant.
In silence, the air is speaking.
The far-away chirp of a cricket resounds.
The soul turns over in her sleep.
Take a breath, and another.
Prayer is not for an appointed hour,
but should mingle in the daily affairs.
Peacefulness will seek you out,
like water through the soil,
establishing itself.
Those who have known this peace
will never go to war again.
Come to rest in the lap of the Mother.
You have been too long in the marketplace,
and forgotten what you went there for.
In the soft grass, lay down your seeking;
let the breeze come to seek you.
By the side of the murmuring stream,
you are watchful of all that transpires.
See your weapons spread out before you;
strange objects without reason.
Once,
you killed your family
to defend your home.
The command of the devil
seemed like your duty.
Now you see your duty in stillness,
present and receptive to the secret charm;
tenderness in the grace of the Father.
The scrape of your finger on the page.
The mission of an ant.
In silence, the air is speaking.
The far-away chirp of a cricket resounds.
The soul turns over in her sleep.
Take a breath, and another.
Prayer is not for an appointed hour,
but should mingle in the daily affairs.
Peacefulness will seek you out,
like water through the soil,
establishing itself.
Those who have known this peace
will never go to war again.
Come to rest in the lap of the Mother.
You have been too long in the marketplace,
and forgotten what you went there for.
In the soft grass, lay down your seeking;
let the breeze come to seek you.
By the side of the murmuring stream,
you are watchful of all that transpires.
See your weapons spread out before you;
strange objects without reason.
Once,
you killed your family
to defend your home.
The command of the devil
seemed like your duty.
Now you see your duty in stillness,
present and receptive to the secret charm;
tenderness in the grace of the Father.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
The Dawn
I walk the fields, now desolate, embalmed in ancient night,
And with me bear the shades and sounds of all that passes,
Dim and bright;
Beholding with a staid, sharp eye, the steady dark dismantled,
Accepted, and encircled, by the newly ordered light.
Rich vales lift up their flowers, soft-colored torches raised
To glory in the simple day,
And sleepy owls overlook, with yellow, dusky eyes
a dawn, whose timid glow, in soft embroidery surrounds
the pale and golden wood.
Fresh tubers, fronds, and rushes stir
To greet the slow, ascending sun;
Their milky frost dissolving, sipped, becomes
The dewy gauze of morning song,
While in myself, the same good stirring;
Fair beauty strikes a chord so bright, as to give censure or give rise
To forms and favors overcast by melancholy's cool respite.
All my senses, chill as bone, now are softened, safe, aroused;
These sinews, hardened by the frost, now are supple,
And bend before the throne.
Sweet loves revive the wearied breast,
To summon up with gentle breath,
This flushed, enamored skin;
Encircling all without,
And all within.
And with me bear the shades and sounds of all that passes,
Dim and bright;
Beholding with a staid, sharp eye, the steady dark dismantled,
Accepted, and encircled, by the newly ordered light.
Rich vales lift up their flowers, soft-colored torches raised
To glory in the simple day,
And sleepy owls overlook, with yellow, dusky eyes
a dawn, whose timid glow, in soft embroidery surrounds
the pale and golden wood.
Fresh tubers, fronds, and rushes stir
To greet the slow, ascending sun;
Their milky frost dissolving, sipped, becomes
The dewy gauze of morning song,
While in myself, the same good stirring;
Fair beauty strikes a chord so bright, as to give censure or give rise
To forms and favors overcast by melancholy's cool respite.
All my senses, chill as bone, now are softened, safe, aroused;
These sinews, hardened by the frost, now are supple,
And bend before the throne.
Sweet loves revive the wearied breast,
To summon up with gentle breath,
This flushed, enamored skin;
Encircling all without,
And all within.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
from: "The First Step" by Leo Tolstoi
I have long wished to write a fairy-tale of this kind:
A woman, wishing to revenge herself on one who has injured her, carries off her enemy's child, and, going to a sorcerer, asks him to teach her how she can most cruelly wreak her vengeance on the stolen infant, the only child of her enemy. The sorcerer bids her carry the child to a place he indicates, and assures her that a most terrible vengeance will result. The wicked woman follows his advice ; but, keeping an eye upon the child is astonished to see that it is found and adopted by a wealthy, childless man. She goes to the sorcerer and reproaches him, but he bids her wait. The child grows up in luxury and effeminacy. The woman is perplexed, but again the sorcerer bids her wait. And at length the time comes when the wicked woman is not only satisfied, but has even to pity her victim. He grows up in the effeminacy and dissoluteness of wealth, and owing to his good nature is ruined. Then begins a sequence of physical sufferings, poverty, and humiliation, to which he is especially sensitive and against which he knows not how to contend. Aspirations toward a moral life— and the weakness of his effeminate body accustomed to luxury and idleness ; vain struggles ; lower and still lower decline ; drunkenness to drown thought, then crime and insanity or suicide.
And, indeed, one cannot regard without terror the education of the children of the wealthy class in our day. Only the cruellest foe could, one would think, inoculate a child with those defects and vices which are now instilled into him by his parents, especially by mothers. One is awestruck at the sight, and still more at the results of this, if only one knows how to discern what is taking place in the souls of the best of these children, so carefully ruined by their parents. Habits of effeminacy are instilled into them at a time when they do not yet understand their moral significance. Not only is the habit of temperance and self-control neglected, but, contrary to the educational practice of Sparta and of the ancient world in general, this quality is altogether atrophied. Not only is man not trained to work, and to all the qualities essential to fruitful labor, concentration of mind, strenuousness, endurance, enthusiasm for work, ability to repair what is spoiled, familiarity with fatigue, joy in attainment, but he is habituated to idleness, and to contempt for all the products of labor: is taught to spoil, throw away, and again procure for money anything he fancies, without a thought of how things are made. Man is deprived of the power of acquiring the primary virtue of reasonableness, indispensable for the attainment of all the others, and is let loose in a world where people preach, and praise, the lofty virtues of justice, the service of man, and love.
It is well if the youth be endowed with a morally feeble and obtuse nature, which does not detect the difference between make-believe and genuine goodness of life, and is satisfied with the prevailing mutual deception. If this be the case all goes apparently well, and such a man will sometimes quietly live on with his moral consciousness unawakened till death.
But it is not always thus, especially of late, now that the consciousness of the immorality of such life fills the air, and penetrates the heart unsought. Frequently, and ever more frequently, it happens that there awakens a demand for real, unfeigned morality ; and then begin a painful inner struggle and suffering which end but rarely in the triumph of the moral sentiment.
A man feels that his life is bad, that he must reform it from the very roots, and he tries to do so ; but he is then attacked on all sides by those who have passed through a similar struggle and have been vanquished. They endeavor by every means to convince him that this reform is quite unnecessary : that goodness does not at all depend upon self-control and self-renunciation, that it is possible, while addicting himself to gluttony, personal adornment, physical idleness, and even fornication, to be a perfectly good and useful man. And the struggle, inmost cases, terminates lamentably. Either the man, overcome by his weakness, yields to the general opinion, stifles the voice of conscience, distorts his reason to justify himself, and continues to lead the old dissipated life, assuring himself that it is redeemed by faith in the Redemption or the Sacraments, or by service to science, to the State, or to art or else he struggles, suffers, and finally becomes insane or shoots himself.
It seldom happens, amid all the temptations that surround him, that a man of our society understands what was thousands of years ago, and still is, an elementary truth for all reasonable people : namely, that for the attainment of a good life it is necessary, first of all, to cease to live an evil life ; that for the attainment of the higher virtues it is needful, first of all, to acquire the virtue of abstinence or self-control, as the pagans called it, or of self-renunciation, as Christianity has it, and therefore it seldom happens that, by gradual efforts, he succeeds in attaining this primary virtue.
http://www.ivu.org/history/tolstoy/the_%20first_step.html
A woman, wishing to revenge herself on one who has injured her, carries off her enemy's child, and, going to a sorcerer, asks him to teach her how she can most cruelly wreak her vengeance on the stolen infant, the only child of her enemy. The sorcerer bids her carry the child to a place he indicates, and assures her that a most terrible vengeance will result. The wicked woman follows his advice ; but, keeping an eye upon the child is astonished to see that it is found and adopted by a wealthy, childless man. She goes to the sorcerer and reproaches him, but he bids her wait. The child grows up in luxury and effeminacy. The woman is perplexed, but again the sorcerer bids her wait. And at length the time comes when the wicked woman is not only satisfied, but has even to pity her victim. He grows up in the effeminacy and dissoluteness of wealth, and owing to his good nature is ruined. Then begins a sequence of physical sufferings, poverty, and humiliation, to which he is especially sensitive and against which he knows not how to contend. Aspirations toward a moral life— and the weakness of his effeminate body accustomed to luxury and idleness ; vain struggles ; lower and still lower decline ; drunkenness to drown thought, then crime and insanity or suicide.
And, indeed, one cannot regard without terror the education of the children of the wealthy class in our day. Only the cruellest foe could, one would think, inoculate a child with those defects and vices which are now instilled into him by his parents, especially by mothers. One is awestruck at the sight, and still more at the results of this, if only one knows how to discern what is taking place in the souls of the best of these children, so carefully ruined by their parents. Habits of effeminacy are instilled into them at a time when they do not yet understand their moral significance. Not only is the habit of temperance and self-control neglected, but, contrary to the educational practice of Sparta and of the ancient world in general, this quality is altogether atrophied. Not only is man not trained to work, and to all the qualities essential to fruitful labor, concentration of mind, strenuousness, endurance, enthusiasm for work, ability to repair what is spoiled, familiarity with fatigue, joy in attainment, but he is habituated to idleness, and to contempt for all the products of labor: is taught to spoil, throw away, and again procure for money anything he fancies, without a thought of how things are made. Man is deprived of the power of acquiring the primary virtue of reasonableness, indispensable for the attainment of all the others, and is let loose in a world where people preach, and praise, the lofty virtues of justice, the service of man, and love.
It is well if the youth be endowed with a morally feeble and obtuse nature, which does not detect the difference between make-believe and genuine goodness of life, and is satisfied with the prevailing mutual deception. If this be the case all goes apparently well, and such a man will sometimes quietly live on with his moral consciousness unawakened till death.
But it is not always thus, especially of late, now that the consciousness of the immorality of such life fills the air, and penetrates the heart unsought. Frequently, and ever more frequently, it happens that there awakens a demand for real, unfeigned morality ; and then begin a painful inner struggle and suffering which end but rarely in the triumph of the moral sentiment.
A man feels that his life is bad, that he must reform it from the very roots, and he tries to do so ; but he is then attacked on all sides by those who have passed through a similar struggle and have been vanquished. They endeavor by every means to convince him that this reform is quite unnecessary : that goodness does not at all depend upon self-control and self-renunciation, that it is possible, while addicting himself to gluttony, personal adornment, physical idleness, and even fornication, to be a perfectly good and useful man. And the struggle, inmost cases, terminates lamentably. Either the man, overcome by his weakness, yields to the general opinion, stifles the voice of conscience, distorts his reason to justify himself, and continues to lead the old dissipated life, assuring himself that it is redeemed by faith in the Redemption or the Sacraments, or by service to science, to the State, or to art or else he struggles, suffers, and finally becomes insane or shoots himself.
It seldom happens, amid all the temptations that surround him, that a man of our society understands what was thousands of years ago, and still is, an elementary truth for all reasonable people : namely, that for the attainment of a good life it is necessary, first of all, to cease to live an evil life ; that for the attainment of the higher virtues it is needful, first of all, to acquire the virtue of abstinence or self-control, as the pagans called it, or of self-renunciation, as Christianity has it, and therefore it seldom happens that, by gradual efforts, he succeeds in attaining this primary virtue.
http://www.ivu.org/history/tolstoy/the_%20first_step.html
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