Lord, fashion my prayer. Teach me what you will, as you will.
I am vain to think I can instruct you in the ways to instruct me.
The heart is a treasurehouse, where the sweetest things are preserved.
In the heart of every sentient being, there is a fragment of the heart of God.
Unless you doubt everything you will believe anything.
Light is not positivity and darkness is not negativity. Light is awareness and darkness is its absence.
The center is wherever you are. If you feel you are in the dark, that is where the center is. Don't move from there. Say to yourself, "I feel I am in the dark". In this way, you shine light on your present. It is not holding the darkness, nor resisting it, but holding a light up to the darkness. Just be aware of it, as it is, and you will see it change.
The soul is only partially dependent upon God for its survival, but wholly dependent for its perfection. The greater our desire for perfection, the more completely we must abandon self-will and wait upon the grace of the Lord.
It is a sign of respect, when entering a church, or entering the prayerful chambers of the heart, to remove one's hat. In the same way, one ought to remove, as it were, and inasmuch as this is possible, one's own self and self-will, becoming receptive only to the divine presence and will of God.
Scripture can only be interpreted by the spirit which inspired it. If you could not have written the Bible, you could not have read it.
In every mind are vain and righteous thoughts, but the vain clamor and crowd and compete for the chief places in the heart, and one must dismiss them, turn them away, in order to discover the better; which are meek and audible only to one who has listened.
Glory to the blessed ones of all religions, and also to the blessed ones who serve God without religious structure. They are proof that all God desires is a pure and loving heart, humbly devoted and entrusted to the noblest impulses of the spirit. Glory to the many forms and names of God, and to the formless and unnamed divinity. Praises to the eternal source of love, hope, charity and healing. God makes saints of Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists, and all who are full of humility and compassion. Boundless is His goodness. Praised be His graces, for ever and ever. Amen.
Wisely was it said, 'There is no companionship with fools.' Silence is a stranger to them, and peace has no part in their conversation. Neither do they speak by turns, but each, desiring his own hearing, clamors over the voices of his neighbors and is not edified. The more fools speak, the more confusion spreads; but a wise man instructs even by his silence.
A downer is someone looking for something deeper.
Give attention to the good, and the evil will swallow itself up.
All artists thirst and hunger for inspiration, and bear their craving like a prayer.
Don't forget music.
It is as if one is standing beside a heavy stone door, and one can hear God calling from the other side of the door, bidding one to enter. Alas, the door is too heavy to open. Still, there, just beside the door, is a set of weights. It appears the only thing to do is to lift the weights until one is strong enough to open the door. But this is difficult. This takes persistence, and persistence is the only true mark of faith. So, instead, we imagine that God has said "Don't come in. You are not ready." Or we leave and go searching for Him elsewhere. And the sound of His voice, still calling us to enter, fades into the distance as we wander off in search of Him. How sad. We ought to know by now that it is not a search. It is a practice.
The sun cooks food as it grows on the vine, on the tree, or in the earth. We call this process "ripening", but really this is cooking. The food is cooked, sun-cooked, when it is ripe (and raw). The truth is, we don't cook; we overcook. This is just one more example of a principle we see everywhere in human behavior. What nature has done, man wants to overdo.
Nothing so astonishes me as the popularity of the belief in an unconditionally loving God who will yet condemn you to an eternity of hellfire for the sin of thinking with your own mind and seeing with your own eyes; that God must be infinitely cruel to be infinitely kind. And nothing provides such palpable proof of the subtle depths to which human foolishness and impressionability may sink. Never imagine that simple men are insensible to paradox, or incapable of holding two contradictory notions in the mind at one and the same time. On the contrary, they have a genius for precisely this!
There is nothing like life in a war-torn country to make one amenable to the sentiments of anarchists.
Truth, like the sun, must not be gazed directly upon.
People always ask me the same question: "If you are against earthly life, why do you not kill yourself?" And my answer is always the same: If you discovered you were aboard a sinking ship, would you immediately abandon ship, or would you first attempt to rouse the other passengers and alert them to the impending catastrophe?
When you reach the point where you no longer need to reincarnate, you will choose to reincarnate "by default", for the sake of others. To transcend the world is not to escape from the world, but from one's attachment and aversion to it; as long as you desire to reincarnate or to escape reincarnation, you remain bound.
War is slavery, and the military man is a whip in the master's hand. A soldier is the personification of misguided service, who murders in the name of peace. He is the tragic figure par-excellence. All the more tragic because he not only dies in vain, but dies while making the world a more violent place. Generally, a brave, self-sacrificing soul without the sense to question the motivations of a government bent on war. And to think how many soldiers consider themselves Christians, as if it were possible to be a follower of the Prince of Peace and a professional killer. Judas betrayed Christ because, like so many, he was waiting for a worldly messiah, who would lead the Jewish people in a bloody revolt against their Roman oppressors. But Christ forbid Peter to defend him with force (when Peter cut off the Centurian's ear), and chose rather to allow himself to be crucified than to resist violence with violence. The entire message of his words, his life, and his death was to return good for evil; love for hatred. This was not some impractical ideal for which he wished to be honored, but an example which he demanded all his self-proclaimed followers to follow. "Why callest me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not the things which I say?" Though I have tremendous respect for the courage and the noble intentions of these soldiers, the fact remains that there is nothing sadder or more absurd than a person wearing a cross and holding a machine gun; praying to Christ while slaughtering the children of God, whom Christ came only to comfort, instruct, and forgive.
Nothing is as controversial, or as twisted, as the truth: Parents give their children cancer-causing poisons, and both the parents and the children think it's nourishment; Doctors torture children who have cancer, and both the doctors and the kids think it's helping; Soldiers devastate whole countries for the cause of peace; Believers in a loving God condemn Gandhi to hell. Any questions?
Are you on the right side of history? Every time period has overthrown and disproven the prejudices of the centuries preceding it. Yet, every time period continues to cling tenaciously to the contemporary models as if they were the final word. What can we learn from this? Only that one should not dare to consider oneself a critical thinker unless one is equally as skeptical of the mainstream as of the alternatives. The methods and models of the future have always arisen, and will continue to arise, from the margins. History has shown that every significant discovery was first disparaged and rejected by the established order of the day. Will we ever learn? How is that, in the face of the sweeping historical perspective mankind has achieved, the vast majority of people still sacrifice their skepticism in the face of a university degree, and embrace cynicism as a response to anything not already approved by the established order? The fact of the matter is that at a university, one is far more likely to be indoctrinated than educated. True scholarship is an independent effort requiring a passionately inquisitive mind. Practically all that is necessary for a university degree is the ability to memorize and to regurgitate the views of the past and present day. In such an environment, progressive thinking is a hindrance, not a help. We must realize that the ability to unlearn is often a prerequisite for the ability to learn. We can learn nothing new when we are fixedly convinced of a falsehood.
Silence is spiritual research.
Consciousness is paternal/maternal. The operations of consciousness are like children playing in a field of awareness. Consciousness watches from the background, tenderly observing the play of consciousness, like parents observing their children at play.
I am not a wise man dispensing his own wisdom, but an inspired man dispensing wisdom which is as much for his own edification as it is for others.
Who is the Mother? She is the one in whose lap we are cradled and tenderly held. She it is who, with boundless love and infinite tenderness, protects our innocence and receives the blessing of our devotion. In this way, we are nurtured, and mature into the saviors of the world.
The New Testament did not arise from the Old Testament and is not a fulfillment of it. The Grace of Jesus Christ did not arise from the Law of Moses. Christ emerged from the lap of Mary, not from the finger of Moses. The Goddess-worshiping cultures of prehistory are the true soil from which the Truth has sprung. She is the first part of the book. How can you understand the second part of the book, if you have not read and understood the first? Conversely, if you only read part one, your understanding remains incomplete. Seed begins in the earth, and only indirectly receives the sun. So, focus on the Mother, and see Christ peripherally. Once the seed has sprouted, grown roots, and pierced the soil of the earth, then it is ready to receive the direct rays of the sun. If it remains in the earth, it cannot reach its full maturity. First the Mother, then the Master. Worship the forms of God until you are ready to worship the formless God. When you have fed upon the wisdom of the earth, you will ascend to receive the manna from heaven. Understand this, and will you understand the mystery of reincarnation.
Rice scattered on water;
stars in the night sky.
Birds shining behind branches;
the moon singing behind clouds.
The moon perched on a cloud.
Birds dart thru branches,
like shafts of light,
shook loose by the wind.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
The Substance Of A Dream
I'm in love with Miranda July. Don't tell my girlfriend, she may not understand. But it's okay to fall in love with a famous person. People do it all the time. You can love them in secret, and it's okay. Because you'll never meet them, your love has the quality of fiction. And you know it's not even them you love. It's some beautiful projection, corresponding more to your own conscious and subconscious wishes than to who they really are. Maybe something in them, or about them, unlocks a door inside you. But the door is you, and everything behind the door is you.
Some people never meet, even when they do. They stand outside each other's doors, knocking. Barely hearing the voices inside. Their destinies entwine, but their souls won't mix. They share bodily fluids like they're sharing emails. Then, I suppose, some people can share emails like they're exchanging bits of soul. Slipping letters through the slots in each other's doors. Sometimes fanmail is like that. You can put so much of your soul into a letter and never know if it was read. Maybe it went straight from the mail into the trash with your soul sealed up inside of it. Scrambling around inside, struggling for air.
Some people, maybe most, live their whole lives that way. Souls sealed up in bodies, scrambling around. Nobody cracks open their chests to pull them out. They write letters to lovers they'll never meet. Lovers who don't exist anywhere but in their dreams. Seal them up and drop them down some dark slot, through a door without a key, into the depths. But those letters always pop back up, the address wrong, and stamped "return to sender".
Some people have entire rooms inside of them, full of unsent letters, because they get the address wrong. Because dreams don't have residences. Dreams wander. They sleep on sidewalks and in random backyards until someone calls the cops and they have to scram. Dreams aren't welcome anywhere. If you met one, you wouldn't recognize it. You'd make something up. Say, There must be some mistake. And shut the door in it's face.
But you can lay in bed, or in the bathtub, with a book. You can read it slowly, and hold it carefully like an ancient letter, dropped from a dream. Tell yourself it was written to you, for you. Because you'd understand it. You'd never dog-ear the pages, or leave it on the radiator to burn and turn brown.
Outside, you could hear the birds announcing morning. They wouldn't break the spell. Only now there would be birds inside the book, and you inside the book. No difference.
And you could even put the book down, close the cover, and still be reading it. Making breakfast like a protagonist would. You had become beloved, a character in the author's mind. Or in a larger mind, which you both shared. Maybe you always had been, but hadn't known yourself. Now there was symmetry. The world made sense, and you made sense, because everything was art. Nothing was excessive. Nothing without form.
This is how you wanted to start your day and every day.
There was never any need to meet the author, or to send letters full of soul. This love was not something you could prove or disprove by dragging it down to earth. Heaven was heaven still. Just because a dream dies upon waking, doesn't mean it never lived. How foolish we can be, in our eagerness to awaken. Is an angel unreal, because she is cloaked in feeling, not in flesh? Is heaven not heaven, when it comes crashing down to earth, unable to support the weight of sins? But purified souls can dance on tippy-toes, and the clouds easily sustain them.
Why do we take such sordid pleasure in squeezing dreams until they pop, like children crushing frogs in their fists? Why do we demand that faith withstand the rash assaults of reason? We don't test crystals with hammers. Yet we test confidence with insults. The spirit which can be broken, we say, never had integrity.
Love is sometimes torn out by the roots, and leaves the heart gaping like broken soil. And someone says, It was never love. It never grew. As if a heart were made of stone, and love could grow from this.
I am learning to carry love, and faith, and dreams, as gently as a bowl of water. To fill my soul to the brim with these, and never spill a drop. The trick is to walk slowly. Being present. Going nowhere.
Some people never meet, even when they do. They stand outside each other's doors, knocking. Barely hearing the voices inside. Their destinies entwine, but their souls won't mix. They share bodily fluids like they're sharing emails. Then, I suppose, some people can share emails like they're exchanging bits of soul. Slipping letters through the slots in each other's doors. Sometimes fanmail is like that. You can put so much of your soul into a letter and never know if it was read. Maybe it went straight from the mail into the trash with your soul sealed up inside of it. Scrambling around inside, struggling for air.
Some people, maybe most, live their whole lives that way. Souls sealed up in bodies, scrambling around. Nobody cracks open their chests to pull them out. They write letters to lovers they'll never meet. Lovers who don't exist anywhere but in their dreams. Seal them up and drop them down some dark slot, through a door without a key, into the depths. But those letters always pop back up, the address wrong, and stamped "return to sender".
Some people have entire rooms inside of them, full of unsent letters, because they get the address wrong. Because dreams don't have residences. Dreams wander. They sleep on sidewalks and in random backyards until someone calls the cops and they have to scram. Dreams aren't welcome anywhere. If you met one, you wouldn't recognize it. You'd make something up. Say, There must be some mistake. And shut the door in it's face.
But you can lay in bed, or in the bathtub, with a book. You can read it slowly, and hold it carefully like an ancient letter, dropped from a dream. Tell yourself it was written to you, for you. Because you'd understand it. You'd never dog-ear the pages, or leave it on the radiator to burn and turn brown.
Outside, you could hear the birds announcing morning. They wouldn't break the spell. Only now there would be birds inside the book, and you inside the book. No difference.
And you could even put the book down, close the cover, and still be reading it. Making breakfast like a protagonist would. You had become beloved, a character in the author's mind. Or in a larger mind, which you both shared. Maybe you always had been, but hadn't known yourself. Now there was symmetry. The world made sense, and you made sense, because everything was art. Nothing was excessive. Nothing without form.
This is how you wanted to start your day and every day.
There was never any need to meet the author, or to send letters full of soul. This love was not something you could prove or disprove by dragging it down to earth. Heaven was heaven still. Just because a dream dies upon waking, doesn't mean it never lived. How foolish we can be, in our eagerness to awaken. Is an angel unreal, because she is cloaked in feeling, not in flesh? Is heaven not heaven, when it comes crashing down to earth, unable to support the weight of sins? But purified souls can dance on tippy-toes, and the clouds easily sustain them.
Why do we take such sordid pleasure in squeezing dreams until they pop, like children crushing frogs in their fists? Why do we demand that faith withstand the rash assaults of reason? We don't test crystals with hammers. Yet we test confidence with insults. The spirit which can be broken, we say, never had integrity.
Love is sometimes torn out by the roots, and leaves the heart gaping like broken soil. And someone says, It was never love. It never grew. As if a heart were made of stone, and love could grow from this.
I am learning to carry love, and faith, and dreams, as gently as a bowl of water. To fill my soul to the brim with these, and never spill a drop. The trick is to walk slowly. Being present. Going nowhere.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
The Song of Raphael ("God Heals")
The heart is a treasurehouse, where the sweetest things are preserved.
Peace, Love, Wisdom, and Purity
are different names and actions of the one God.
God is a healer, and the greatest of healers,
for he is the source and fountain of all healers and all healing.
God heals by leading us into his divine presence.
His presence is a boundless light
which transforms us utterly into light.
Many are the ways by which he leads and heals us.
His peace heals us, his love heals us,
his wisdom heals us, and his purity heals us;
all of these, working together,
alternately and interdependently,
are his tonics.
His peace calms our restless spirits.
His love softens, warms, and opens our hearts.
His wisdom illuminates the way to him.
His purity encompasses and protects these three;
keeping us close to him, and undefiled by lesser things.
How simple, yet how abundant and inexhaustible
are his gifts; which combine to produce and to protect
the perfect health of our souls!
What surer signs could there be of his great love for us?
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
ESSENTIAL Nutritional Information
INTRODUCTION (you can skip this and scroll down to the information)
Less than a week ago I realized I was out of control and it was time for a change. I started eating healthier and it's now been three days on raw foods. Yesterday was only liquids, and today mostly liquids (a salad for dinner). Despite the expected detox/withdrawal symptoms, I'm already seeing profoundly positive changes in my attitude, emotions, outlook, and physical well being. So far, I've already lost ten pounds, had better sex, and felt more awake, more hopeful, gentler and happier than in a long time.
Two years ago, after overdosing on an unfamiliar drug, I landed myself in a coma for a week. While in the hospital recuperating I drank juiced veggies and fruits (which my father prepared for me), and confounded the doctor with my speedy recovery. When I got home, I went raw for about two weeks in order to further recuperate and during that time I never felt better in my life (happier, calmer, more energized). But it didn't stick. I relapsed back into my addiction to toxic foods and self-medicating substance abuse. This happened several times. However, the "false starts" I've made in the past have only prepared me to make the real push, and I'm hopeful now that this time it will stick. Last week seems so long ago, and I feel confident that I have officially entered a new, higher stage in my life. :)
The authorities I take seriously are the ones getting the results I want. It's not a question of mystifying credentials or diplomas on the wall, but of common sense requirements: vibrant health and quality of life. While mainstream medicine is great for treating sudden emergencies (wounds, overdoses, etc.), they know practically nothing about preventing and treating chronic disease. They treat symptoms; they treat the surface, while the disease rises, again and again, to the surface. So I don't listen to fat, pasty, uninspired doctors, who only know how to pump you full of toxic drugs and cut you up. Their methods are medieval, and will soon be widely recognized as such. Instead, I listen to radically fit, joyful, loving, purpose-driven, and energized people who walk their talk.
Here's just a bit of what I've learned:
THE BASICS:
Real Food = RAW Food
There are 3 classes of essential foods: Green Leafy Vegetables, Sweet Fruits & Good Fats
Green veggies build the cells, sugary fruits fuel the cells, and good fats/oils lubricate the cells
(good fats are mostly nuts and nut oils, seeds and seed oils, coconuts and avocados)
[An Important Note: When people think they're craving meat, or animal protein,
they're actually craving fats; this is why giving up meat is so much easier than giving up dairy]
Taken in roughly equal amounts, these 3 types of food (i.e. medicine) lead to optimal health.
Pretty much everything else you put in your body makes you sick and stunts your potential.
Perhaps the best thing to do in the morning is to drink as much as two liters of water, and especially lemon-water, before taking in anything else. This flushes out your system. Lemon is unique for its anionic structure (containing more electrons, or negatively charged ions, than cations, or positively charged ions), which resembles the structure of digestive juices (saliva, hydrochloric acid, and bile). Lemon has a remarkable ability to stimulate enzyme production in the liver, detoxifying and alkalizing the body.
One of my teachers is Philip McCluskey: http://www.philipmccluskey.com/
"Philip McCluskey is a raw food expert who motivates hundreds of thousands of people worldwide to become healthier, happier, and fitter by trading in their standard diet for a raw food lifestyle. Philip’s journey began in 2006, when, at a morbidly obese 400 pounds, he discovered raw food and shed 215 pounds, gaining vibrant health, energy, and a renewed passion for living. His story has inspired countless others who have seen him on CBS’s The Doctors, Jack LaLanne (the Juiceman) commercials, have heard him speak at events like the Raw Spirit Festival, or have followed his journey on YouTube and on his website. He is also the author of three published books, including Raw Food Fast Food."
Philip has lots of great videos on YouTube.
This is him, telling his story and introducing his video blog:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kbKL8KKBJk
If you took the time to read this and watch Philip's video, Thank You. <3
Less than a week ago I realized I was out of control and it was time for a change. I started eating healthier and it's now been three days on raw foods. Yesterday was only liquids, and today mostly liquids (a salad for dinner). Despite the expected detox/withdrawal symptoms, I'm already seeing profoundly positive changes in my attitude, emotions, outlook, and physical well being. So far, I've already lost ten pounds, had better sex, and felt more awake, more hopeful, gentler and happier than in a long time.
Two years ago, after overdosing on an unfamiliar drug, I landed myself in a coma for a week. While in the hospital recuperating I drank juiced veggies and fruits (which my father prepared for me), and confounded the doctor with my speedy recovery. When I got home, I went raw for about two weeks in order to further recuperate and during that time I never felt better in my life (happier, calmer, more energized). But it didn't stick. I relapsed back into my addiction to toxic foods and self-medicating substance abuse. This happened several times. However, the "false starts" I've made in the past have only prepared me to make the real push, and I'm hopeful now that this time it will stick. Last week seems so long ago, and I feel confident that I have officially entered a new, higher stage in my life. :)
The authorities I take seriously are the ones getting the results I want. It's not a question of mystifying credentials or diplomas on the wall, but of common sense requirements: vibrant health and quality of life. While mainstream medicine is great for treating sudden emergencies (wounds, overdoses, etc.), they know practically nothing about preventing and treating chronic disease. They treat symptoms; they treat the surface, while the disease rises, again and again, to the surface. So I don't listen to fat, pasty, uninspired doctors, who only know how to pump you full of toxic drugs and cut you up. Their methods are medieval, and will soon be widely recognized as such. Instead, I listen to radically fit, joyful, loving, purpose-driven, and energized people who walk their talk.
Here's just a bit of what I've learned:
THE BASICS:
Real Food = RAW Food
There are 3 classes of essential foods: Green Leafy Vegetables, Sweet Fruits & Good Fats
Green veggies build the cells, sugary fruits fuel the cells, and good fats/oils lubricate the cells
(good fats are mostly nuts and nut oils, seeds and seed oils, coconuts and avocados)
[An Important Note: When people think they're craving meat, or animal protein,
they're actually craving fats; this is why giving up meat is so much easier than giving up dairy]
Taken in roughly equal amounts, these 3 types of food (i.e. medicine) lead to optimal health.
Pretty much everything else you put in your body makes you sick and stunts your potential.
Perhaps the best thing to do in the morning is to drink as much as two liters of water, and especially lemon-water, before taking in anything else. This flushes out your system. Lemon is unique for its anionic structure (containing more electrons, or negatively charged ions, than cations, or positively charged ions), which resembles the structure of digestive juices (saliva, hydrochloric acid, and bile). Lemon has a remarkable ability to stimulate enzyme production in the liver, detoxifying and alkalizing the body.
One of my teachers is Philip McCluskey: http://www.philipmccluskey.com/
"Philip McCluskey is a raw food expert who motivates hundreds of thousands of people worldwide to become healthier, happier, and fitter by trading in their standard diet for a raw food lifestyle. Philip’s journey began in 2006, when, at a morbidly obese 400 pounds, he discovered raw food and shed 215 pounds, gaining vibrant health, energy, and a renewed passion for living. His story has inspired countless others who have seen him on CBS’s The Doctors, Jack LaLanne (the Juiceman) commercials, have heard him speak at events like the Raw Spirit Festival, or have followed his journey on YouTube and on his website. He is also the author of three published books, including Raw Food Fast Food."
Philip has lots of great videos on YouTube.
This is him, telling his story and introducing his video blog:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kbKL8KKBJk
If you took the time to read this and watch Philip's video, Thank You. <3
Monday, July 11, 2011
Why I Believe The Cancer Conspiracy
"And they say, 'Who is Moloch? Never heard of him' as out in the dark Moloch belches and grows redder and redder and fatter and fatter as he eats the children. Who dares to leave the pool of light?" ~ Allen Ginsberg
If nothing else, please watch the first three and a half minutes of this film:
Burzynski: Cancer Is Serious Business
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa_KhPlvudk
The reason this isn't common knowledge is because 99% of the population just assumes that if this were true it would already be common knowledge. So they never even look at the evidence. The irony here is catastrophic.
As a serious skeptic, and not a person likely to believe in conspiracies, it took a lot of evidence to convince me that there are far more effective cancer treatments than those found in mainstream medicine. I assumed that, if these treatments worked, they'd be all over the news and in every hospital in America. It seemed ridiculous to suppose that this information, if it was indeed correct, was somehow being prevented from receiving the attention it deserved. How could it be kept quiet? Why wasn't it printed in the most respected medical journals, or taught in every medical school? I did some digging and some critical thinking, and discovered that there is a lot more to the big picture than I ever could have imagined. For one thing, more than half a TRILLION dollars was at stake. And in a society with a hierarchical economic structure, where a mere handful of individual billionaires control huge industries, and pull the strings, it's possible to hide just about anything -- even a cure for cancer. At first, I couldn't believe that anyone could be so devious and cruel, but I later came to understand that the traits which make a person cruel, or sociopathic, are precisely those which are necessary to allow him or her to amass a multi-billion dollar personal fortune in a world where a child starves to death every five seconds.
I don't know about you, but every history book I ever read was full of intrigues, behind the scenes dealings, and people in power manipulating their subjects through lies. Hindsight is 20/20. No doubt, you'd find it hard to believe that 9 million people were being murdered in concentration camps in Germany during World War II -- that is, if you hadn't learned it in school and heard it from the authorities you trust. Imagine if you were living in Germany during the Third Reich, and somebody tried to tell you what was going on. You might laugh in their face and refuse to "waste your time" examining the evidence. If you never look outside of that box, all you'll ever know is what's in that box.
Don't just talk to your doctor. Your doctor received his/her education from the very institution that is killing you. He will tell you the same lies he was told. If he knew anything, he wouldn't be practicing mainstream medicine. Listen to the doctors in these videos. Get in touch with them if you can. "Go to the pine, if you want to learn about the pine. Go to the bamboo, if you want to learn about the bamboo." (~ Basho)
Surgery, Radiation, Drugs, Chemo = Medieval. The body needs infusions of vitamins and minerals, and not to be flooded with toxins. The greatest medical invention of the 20th century is the JUICER. As you put less poisonous food into your body (processed and genetically modified food, refined carbohydrates, high-fructose corn syrup, pesticide-ridden, and, yes, cooked foods), and more raw foods and vegetable juices, especially dark leafy greens, you'll be amazed at your uncovered potential.
The evidence is right here for anyone open-minded enough to examine it:
Healing Cancer: From Inside Out
http://ravediet.com/caDVD.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGJYQ5E5T7Y
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Healing_Cancer/70095421?tr
The Gerson Miracle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpVJSnxGw4U
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/The_Gerson_Miracle/7011361
Dying To Have Known
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSlO5WuL4-4
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Dying_to_Have_Known/701107
Food Matters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vxq-ptogg8
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Food_Matters/70123196?trki
Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead
http://fatsickandnearlydead.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv3vEXy_EwU
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Fat_Sick_Nearly_Dead/70173
Eating
http://ravediet.com/whatsinfilm.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wZendyXhU4
When Healing Becomes A Crime
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd3hxJbrBiI
Run From The Cure
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0psJhQHk_GI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O6oqIbfD6s
If nothing else, please watch the first three and a half minutes of this film:
Burzynski: Cancer Is Serious Business
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa_KhPlvudk
The reason this isn't common knowledge is because 99% of the population just assumes that if this were true it would already be common knowledge. So they never even look at the evidence. The irony here is catastrophic.
As a serious skeptic, and not a person likely to believe in conspiracies, it took a lot of evidence to convince me that there are far more effective cancer treatments than those found in mainstream medicine. I assumed that, if these treatments worked, they'd be all over the news and in every hospital in America. It seemed ridiculous to suppose that this information, if it was indeed correct, was somehow being prevented from receiving the attention it deserved. How could it be kept quiet? Why wasn't it printed in the most respected medical journals, or taught in every medical school? I did some digging and some critical thinking, and discovered that there is a lot more to the big picture than I ever could have imagined. For one thing, more than half a TRILLION dollars was at stake. And in a society with a hierarchical economic structure, where a mere handful of individual billionaires control huge industries, and pull the strings, it's possible to hide just about anything -- even a cure for cancer. At first, I couldn't believe that anyone could be so devious and cruel, but I later came to understand that the traits which make a person cruel, or sociopathic, are precisely those which are necessary to allow him or her to amass a multi-billion dollar personal fortune in a world where a child starves to death every five seconds.
I don't know about you, but every history book I ever read was full of intrigues, behind the scenes dealings, and people in power manipulating their subjects through lies. Hindsight is 20/20. No doubt, you'd find it hard to believe that 9 million people were being murdered in concentration camps in Germany during World War II -- that is, if you hadn't learned it in school and heard it from the authorities you trust. Imagine if you were living in Germany during the Third Reich, and somebody tried to tell you what was going on. You might laugh in their face and refuse to "waste your time" examining the evidence. If you never look outside of that box, all you'll ever know is what's in that box.
Don't just talk to your doctor. Your doctor received his/her education from the very institution that is killing you. He will tell you the same lies he was told. If he knew anything, he wouldn't be practicing mainstream medicine. Listen to the doctors in these videos. Get in touch with them if you can. "Go to the pine, if you want to learn about the pine. Go to the bamboo, if you want to learn about the bamboo." (~ Basho)
Surgery, Radiation, Drugs, Chemo = Medieval. The body needs infusions of vitamins and minerals, and not to be flooded with toxins. The greatest medical invention of the 20th century is the JUICER. As you put less poisonous food into your body (processed and genetically modified food, refined carbohydrates, high-fructose corn syrup, pesticide-ridden, and, yes, cooked foods), and more raw foods and vegetable juices, especially dark leafy greens, you'll be amazed at your uncovered potential.
The evidence is right here for anyone open-minded enough to examine it:
Healing Cancer: From Inside Out
http://ravediet.com/caDVD.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGJYQ5E5T7Y
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Healing_Cancer/70095421?tr
The Gerson Miracle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpVJSnxGw4U
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/The_Gerson_Miracle/7011361
Dying To Have Known
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSlO5WuL4-4
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Dying_to_Have_Known/701107
Food Matters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vxq-ptogg8
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Food_Matters/70123196?trki
Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead
http://fatsickandnearlydead.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv3vEXy_EwU
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Fat_Sick_Nearly_Dead/70173
Eating
http://ravediet.com/whatsinfilm.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wZendyXhU4
When Healing Becomes A Crime
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd3hxJbrBiI
Run From The Cure
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0psJhQHk_GI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O6oqIbfD6s
EAST & WEST; Hesychasm & Aristotle; The Schism of 1054
[I apologize for the somewhat disorganized presentation of this information. I'm really out of my comfort zone here, attempting to understand and articulate the particulars of these historical movements, so please forgive the difficulty of the text and any errors I might have made with respect to the historical record. Thank you.]
When we think of the popular distinction between Eastern and Western thought, it is common to place Greece, and indeed everything west of India and north of Mongolia, in the western camp. Because the scholastic tradition, called Western, has its roots in Aristotelian logic, and because monotheism (whether Christian, Judaic, or Islamic) dominates Eastern Europe, Russia, and the Middle East just as surely as it dominates Western Europe and the Americas, the tendency is to lump these areas together, in contrast with the presumably more mystical Near and Far Eastern religious traditions of India, Nepal, China, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia. But this is a mistake.
While I do not know enough to speak of the Judaic and Islamic traditions, both of which do appear to reverence, consciously or unconsciously, the Aristotelian methodology, -- though, like Protestantism, Catholicism, and Anglicanism, they too contain an underground, esoteric strain (in the forms of Cabalism and Sufism), -- I do know just enough to conclude that the champions of Aristotle were not entirely successful in bringing Christianity under the dominion of rationalistic, scholastic, and hierarchical philosophical tendencies.
Too many of us in the West (and I am referring now to much of Europe and the Americas), being somewhat familiar with the Protestant Reformation and the history of the Catholic Church, both of which seem to have sprung from the soil of the Early Christian Church, but which really have their roots, due primarily to the work of Augustine, Barlaam and Aquinas, in the scholastic and rationalistic philosophy of Aristotle, -- too many of us somewhat familiar with Protestantism and Catholicism (and to a lesser extent with the Protestant-Catholic hybrid Christianity of the Anglican Communion, or Church of England) yet remain embarrassingly ignorant of the history of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the development of Christianity to the east of Italy.
More specifically, we have very little, if any, knowledge concerning the Great Schism of 1054, when the philosophical and scholastic approach of Aristotle, which was becoming more and more dominant within the Christian tradition, came up against a much deeper strain of mysticism; one which might, with some liberality, be traced as far back as Heraclitus and the Pre-Socratics, but which, at the time of the Schism, was championed by the Thessalonian archbishop Gregory Palamas and the Hesychasts, or quietists.
This ignorance is remarkable when one considers that the "blindspot" essentially encompasses the entirety of Eastern Europe (including Greece; the birthplace of Aristotle and Aristotelian logic) and Northern Asia, all of which are primarily aligned with (Eastern) Orthodox Christianity, and the fundamentally monastic tradition of seeking God, not through philosophical arguments or scholarship, but, through the meditative experience of the Uncreated Light.
~ Kyriacos Markides, The Mountain of Silence (p.235)
The Great Schism of 1054 epitomized the distinction we now hear so much about, between East and West.
What is essential to grasp is that the form of Christianity which survived within the Orthodox Church has far more in common with the mystical and intuitive religions of the Far East, than it does with the more scholastic and intellectual forms of Christianity familiar in the west. While the former are properly theological, the latter are more typically philosophical in orientation, and it is only by a stretch of the imagination that their doctrines may be regarded as true theologies.
Within the Orthodox Church, the writings of the saints, or Ecclesia, take precedence over any doctrines or mandates produced by more worldly, less mystical, authorities. Orthodox Christians are far more likely than their Catholic or Protestant counterparts to flock to meet holy men and women, often unassuming elders who have been meditating for many years in obscurity. While they do not have a rigid hierarchical structure with a worldly dictator at the top (such as the Catholic Pope), considering Christ the only head of the Church, the clergy that does exist is far more willing to recognize the visions and messages reported by various holy men and women in the laity, despite these people having no clerical credentials, but only the grace of God, to recommend them.
Moreover, the concept of vicarious salvation through faith in the mediation of Jesus Christ, while retained within the Orthodox tradition, is not allowed to eclipse the ultimate goal of theosis, or divinization, as articulated in the words of St. Athanasius: "God became man so that men might become gods."
When we think of the popular distinction between Eastern and Western thought, it is common to place Greece, and indeed everything west of India and north of Mongolia, in the western camp. Because the scholastic tradition, called Western, has its roots in Aristotelian logic, and because monotheism (whether Christian, Judaic, or Islamic) dominates Eastern Europe, Russia, and the Middle East just as surely as it dominates Western Europe and the Americas, the tendency is to lump these areas together, in contrast with the presumably more mystical Near and Far Eastern religious traditions of India, Nepal, China, Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia. But this is a mistake.
While I do not know enough to speak of the Judaic and Islamic traditions, both of which do appear to reverence, consciously or unconsciously, the Aristotelian methodology, -- though, like Protestantism, Catholicism, and Anglicanism, they too contain an underground, esoteric strain (in the forms of Cabalism and Sufism), -- I do know just enough to conclude that the champions of Aristotle were not entirely successful in bringing Christianity under the dominion of rationalistic, scholastic, and hierarchical philosophical tendencies.
Too many of us in the West (and I am referring now to much of Europe and the Americas), being somewhat familiar with the Protestant Reformation and the history of the Catholic Church, both of which seem to have sprung from the soil of the Early Christian Church, but which really have their roots, due primarily to the work of Augustine, Barlaam and Aquinas, in the scholastic and rationalistic philosophy of Aristotle, -- too many of us somewhat familiar with Protestantism and Catholicism (and to a lesser extent with the Protestant-Catholic hybrid Christianity of the Anglican Communion, or Church of England) yet remain embarrassingly ignorant of the history of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the development of Christianity to the east of Italy.
More specifically, we have very little, if any, knowledge concerning the Great Schism of 1054, when the philosophical and scholastic approach of Aristotle, which was becoming more and more dominant within the Christian tradition, came up against a much deeper strain of mysticism; one which might, with some liberality, be traced as far back as Heraclitus and the Pre-Socratics, but which, at the time of the Schism, was championed by the Thessalonian archbishop Gregory Palamas and the Hesychasts, or quietists.
This ignorance is remarkable when one considers that the "blindspot" essentially encompasses the entirety of Eastern Europe (including Greece; the birthplace of Aristotle and Aristotelian logic) and Northern Asia, all of which are primarily aligned with (Eastern) Orthodox Christianity, and the fundamentally monastic tradition of seeking God, not through philosophical arguments or scholarship, but, through the meditative experience of the Uncreated Light.
With Palamas's victory over Barlaam, and by implication over Aristotle, the Hesychasts' beliefs of the path of the Threefold Way survived and were preserved for posterity in ancient monasteries like those of Mount Athos. Interestingly, leading transpersonal theorist Ken Wilber, in his masterful critique of Western thought, claims that Western Civilization lacks a "yoga", or a method of acquiring knowledge beyond the senses and the intellect. Western thought remains therefore trapped within its intellectual and scientific constructs. Wilber, like most transpersonal theorists today, finds this "yoga" in Eastern philosophy and religion, particularly Zen. Nowhere in his work is there any mention or awareness of the Hesychast tradition or the concepts behind the Threefold Way.
~ Kyriacos Markides, The Mountain of Silence (p.235)
The Great Schism of 1054 epitomized the distinction we now hear so much about, between East and West.
What is essential to grasp is that the form of Christianity which survived within the Orthodox Church has far more in common with the mystical and intuitive religions of the Far East, than it does with the more scholastic and intellectual forms of Christianity familiar in the west. While the former are properly theological, the latter are more typically philosophical in orientation, and it is only by a stretch of the imagination that their doctrines may be regarded as true theologies.
Within the Orthodox Church, the writings of the saints, or Ecclesia, take precedence over any doctrines or mandates produced by more worldly, less mystical, authorities. Orthodox Christians are far more likely than their Catholic or Protestant counterparts to flock to meet holy men and women, often unassuming elders who have been meditating for many years in obscurity. While they do not have a rigid hierarchical structure with a worldly dictator at the top (such as the Catholic Pope), considering Christ the only head of the Church, the clergy that does exist is far more willing to recognize the visions and messages reported by various holy men and women in the laity, despite these people having no clerical credentials, but only the grace of God, to recommend them.
Moreover, the concept of vicarious salvation through faith in the mediation of Jesus Christ, while retained within the Orthodox tradition, is not allowed to eclipse the ultimate goal of theosis, or divinization, as articulated in the words of St. Athanasius: "God became man so that men might become gods."
Saturday, July 9, 2011
The Tree of Souls
The Lord was passing through his garden one day and he came to bask, as he often did, in the shade of his favorite fruit tree.
There it stood in the very heart of the garden, in the midst of so many marvelous creations, powerful and tall, and vibrant with the sap of life pulsing through its mighty trunk and its proud, luxurious limbs. Nothing in the world so commanded his admiration nor his care. It was a glorious tree.
Now, the Lord's habit was to pick only the very ripest specimen. So he cast an examining eye over each piece of fruit, to see which would be the one. And as he admired them, each in turn, blessing them so that they might grow confidently into the fullness of their strength, something strange yet profoundly beautiful began to happen, as it always did whenever his divine presence drew near.
All at once, the fruit began to perk up, to blush, and to glow with a curious inner light. As his warm gaze slid over one, and then another, they shimmered gold and rose, and trembled as if to burst. Even when he was not looking directly upon them, they shined and brightened as if to attract his attention, and his love.
This light, the beauty of which can scarcely be imagined, was really a mysterious and ambivalent longing within the fruit; ambivalent because the longing was tinged with humility. Each fruit felt deep within itself that it was not yet ready, not yet ripe enough to be picked. And though each desired more than anything to be chosen, and at times felt as though they would even fly suddenly from the tree, like birds into the Father's hand, -- humility held them close to their perch.
Only in the sweetest fruits was the longing so incredible as to make them bold. Then, even despite the great humility they felt, their attachment to the tree grew tenuous. Yet it was not until the last trace of bitterness had gone from them, that they did begin to fall.
As if responding to the closeness of his reach, the chosen fruit, now fully ripe, broke free from its slender perch, just as the Lord was about to take hold of it, and dropped softly into his open hand. From there it would be carried easily to his lips, soon to merge its gentle spirit with his own.
There it stood in the very heart of the garden, in the midst of so many marvelous creations, powerful and tall, and vibrant with the sap of life pulsing through its mighty trunk and its proud, luxurious limbs. Nothing in the world so commanded his admiration nor his care. It was a glorious tree.
Now, the Lord's habit was to pick only the very ripest specimen. So he cast an examining eye over each piece of fruit, to see which would be the one. And as he admired them, each in turn, blessing them so that they might grow confidently into the fullness of their strength, something strange yet profoundly beautiful began to happen, as it always did whenever his divine presence drew near.
All at once, the fruit began to perk up, to blush, and to glow with a curious inner light. As his warm gaze slid over one, and then another, they shimmered gold and rose, and trembled as if to burst. Even when he was not looking directly upon them, they shined and brightened as if to attract his attention, and his love.
This light, the beauty of which can scarcely be imagined, was really a mysterious and ambivalent longing within the fruit; ambivalent because the longing was tinged with humility. Each fruit felt deep within itself that it was not yet ready, not yet ripe enough to be picked. And though each desired more than anything to be chosen, and at times felt as though they would even fly suddenly from the tree, like birds into the Father's hand, -- humility held them close to their perch.
Only in the sweetest fruits was the longing so incredible as to make them bold. Then, even despite the great humility they felt, their attachment to the tree grew tenuous. Yet it was not until the last trace of bitterness had gone from them, that they did begin to fall.
As if responding to the closeness of his reach, the chosen fruit, now fully ripe, broke free from its slender perch, just as the Lord was about to take hold of it, and dropped softly into his open hand. From there it would be carried easily to his lips, soon to merge its gentle spirit with his own.
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