14 May Kanako IIyama
"Life is a dream, so have fun with it." When we forget it's a dream, it can turn into a nightmare....
14 May The Nature Of Heaven
Scripture doesn't much describe heaven, but it's likely a cool place relative to hell. As heaven is relatively painless and hell excruciatingly painful, heaven is death by freezing and hell is death by fire....
11 May Adam And Eve, Revisited
The Biblical story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is a revealing tale of male/female dynamics. As the story goes, God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden as caretakers. For sustenance, they were allowed to eat anything they desired but the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. In the Garden, all was good for Adam and Eve as they lived naked and carefree. One day, Eve encountered a serpent in the Garden. The serpent is described as the most cunning of beasts, apparently it had legs and could talk. Soon after striking up a conversation with Eve, the serpent convinces her to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil so that she like God would know good and evil. After eating the fruit, Eve convinces Adam to eat it as well. With this new-found knowledge, Adam and Eve came to know the good and evil of sexual intimacy; it felt good but was evil as it represented disobeying God’s rules, like the rules a parent imposes on its child. Presumably, Eve was a virgin and as such their genitals became blood-stained after sexual intercourse. Realizing their bloody genitals would reveal to God that they had disobeyed God’s prohibition, they covered their nakedness with fig leaves. However, seeing their genitals covered, God realized they were trying to hide the bloody evidence of their misdeeds. For their misdeeds, God punished the snake, Eve and Adam. God took away the snake’s legs so it must forever grovel on the ground. God punishes Eve by declaring that the seed of the snake and the seed of Eve will forever hate each other. Moreover, God (apparently believing Adam that Eve instigated breaking God's rules in order to presumably satisfy her sexual desires) decreed that Eve will suffer the pains of childbirth, a consequence of sexual intimacy. God punishes Adam by banishing him from the Garden, where fruits for his sustenance were freely available. Instead, Adam is made to toil the Earth to sustain himself and to support Eve in exchange for sexual pleasures. Essentially, Adam and Eve were thrown out of their parent’s house to fend for themselves. As the snake had legs and was able to talk, the snake must have been Adam’s penis, hanging between his legs and talking through Adam who cunningly acted as a ventriloquist. (That the snake, as above, bore a seed through sperm corroborates that the snake is indeed Adam’s penis.) Moreover, God (apparently thinking that maybe Adam was the instigator) punishes Adam’s penis, forever vanquished to grovel on the ground like men groveling for women’s sexual favors. Thus, it was Adam who tricked Eve into eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, to convince her that sex was a natural act in which they should engage. Moreover, as the seed of the snake and the seed of the woman were decreed to forever hate each other, women and men’s sexual relationships would forever be contentious, based on give-and-take. The story of Adam and Eve, written by men, blames a woman as the root of man's woes, portraying her as a temptress that ultimately lured man to commit misdeeds. Adam’s male progeny have been doing like Adam ever since. While it's unlikely we'll be readmitted to the Garden, perhaps we can get a little closer to it if men take responsibility for their actions....
11 May Messiah
The Bible prophesied that one day God will send the messiah, the soul of God, to Earth to bring peace and resurrect all who are dead. Presently, only the dead who are crazy or have no memory of Earth-life would choose to return to Earth before it is at peace. As the enlightened don't return and more and more crazy beings do return, Earth becomes inhabited by lots of crazy people who bring pain and suffering to themselves and others. Unfortunately, at some point God will determine humans are not worthy of God's soul to realize divine consciousness and will let them destroy themselves as animals. Those of us alive now need work to make Earth more peaceful to encourage the coming of the messiah. This is actually not difficult as messiah is within all of us, though few recognize messiah's presence....
09 May Vinati Singh
"To be loved is like standing in front of a buffet. It means nothing if you are not hungry. To love is to enjoy that buffet...
08 May Love 1
I am strong with my pain but not with yours....
08 May Love 2
I don't know me. I don't know you. Only know us....
08 May Can’t See The Forest For The Trees
Entangled in the now we're oblivious to its beauty which is clear from before and after the now....
03 May Blind Love
Years back, a friend, Joe, called to announce he was engaged and wanted me as the best man at his wedding. Joe was 6'4" and his fiancé, Diane, wasn't noticeably shorter. Physically, they saw eye to eye; otherwise, a completely incompatible couple. Before Diane, Joe was not a pretty drunk for many years. He went sober coincidentally with starting a relationship with Diane. While no longer drunk, as he and Diane were clearly incompatible, he still couldn't see straight. I advised him against the marriage; told him he was better off as a drunk. He said I didn't understand, he was madly in love with Diane. I said that was the problem, love kept him from seeing clearly. It turned into a very acrimonious marriage; screaming and fighting. Yet from a distance it was funny juxtaposing the image of Joe mad about Diane to Joe mad with Diane. They didn't see the humor; exhausted, they finally called it quits five years later. With divorce rates high, there must be many couples like Joe and Diane suffering the consequences of blind love. If not for marriages based on blind love, the number of divorces would likely drop 70%. But divorce rates would rise because there would be even fewer marriages....
29 Apr Confucius 1
"If a man gives no thought about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand." Until it is obvious, it is difficult to see things we haven't first imagined. Imagining dangerous scenarios allows us to see and avoid them before they become reality. While these imaginings are stressful, they are less stressful than experiencing them....