Gwenn Jones. Sorry if I'm being repetitive, but without Gwenn I would never have had the opportunity for a web site/blog. "Thanks" just doesn't cut it, as far as my gratitude goes. She was the sole source that made it possible.
Lance Buffington. A behind the scenes benefactor. Most recently sent money to cover the cost of the domain name registry--just in case I had a change of heart. Also added that if I didn't, to keep the money anyway. Lance was my "go to guy" when I needed critique about the vagary of my writing style.
God. Whatever He/She/It is, It was with me every step of the way. The artists, articles, and pictures that came my way...inexplicable. The timing...exquisite. Flying by the seat of my pants didn't seem to pose a problem for Life.
To the artists...the music in particular was humbling. To uncover talent the likes of Mia Sable, Marie Digby, Snatam Kaur, Deva Premal, Yasmeen Amina Olya...mind-boggling. Even if the posts I produced were worthless, the music was worth the price of admission.
Me. Yep, I get some credit too. Like the little drummer boy in the Christmas tune of the same name, I didn't have a gift to bring that was fit for a king. Like him, I am a poor boy too. So I played my drum (this blog) for him. I played my best for him. Then he (through you, the reader) smiled at me--me and my drum.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT1fA59oH7Q
Thank You. ~WPG
Update: 6:56 AM Wow! Finished my post and went on-line to see the breaking news that Louie Zamperini passed this morning. On November 2nd, 2013, I posted "Unbroken" and selected a couple paragraphs from the book of the same name. The significance is, that post received (BY FAR) the largest number of "hits" of any post in the two years of this blog. (I even called Gwenn to see what was wrong!) Point is, Life apparently wanted Louie and his record setting number of hits in the "credits."
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Schooling God
God needs your input. He/She/It resonates on all levels, but oscillates (vibrates) at a frequency of amplitude. (the squeaky wheel gets the oil) Let me explain.
In the 15th chapter of Luke, verse 1, Jesus is approached by "publicans (tax collectors) and sinners" who wished to hear him speak. There were also scribes and Pharisees there as well, who commented that "this man (Jesus) receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." Jesus then shares three stories, the last one being the Prodigal Son. All three revolve around redemption.
The overriding point of the three stories is that those who already believe and follow spiritual guidelines (pharisees and scribes) should rejoice that those who have been lost are now found. (the publicans and sinners) The way the story unfolds is the younger brother asks for his inheritance early and proceeds to squander it in the most unseemly fashion. ("riotous living") The younger brother hits rock bottom and decides to return home because even his father's servants "have bread enough, and to spare, and I perish with hunger." The father (God) sees him coming, runs out to meet him, "and fell on his neck, and kissed him." The younger son then makes an honest and full confession of his misdeeds ("Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son). The upshot is, the father directs the servants to "bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry."
When the elder son returned from the fields, he heard music and dancing and asked a servant what was going on. Informed that his brother had returned and his father had killed a fatted calf in celebration of his homecoming, the older brother is "angry" and refuses to enter the house. Significantly, the father comes out to talk to his older son, "and entreated him." (entreat; to ask earnestly, beg, beseech, implore) The older son then responds with his grievances: "Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time your commandment: yet thou never gavest me a kid, (goat) that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf." The father then tries to placate the elder son with, "thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." He ends by saying that "this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found." The story ends and we are left to our own devices to decide how the situation is resolved.
Many Christian apologetics make much of the older brother's resentment and bitter heart. Nonsense! If ever there was a place for resentment, this is the place. His anger was justified. And I think this is demonstrated by the father coming out to "entreat" him. I think it dawned on him (the father) that he hadn't fully appreciated his oldest sons efforts. Why hadn't he ever offered a goat to his son so he could enjoy a demonstration of his father's favor, let alone a fatted calf? In strictly human terms, try treating a self-actualized partner that way and see how long they stick around. Taking another for granted over a long period of time is a sure fire way of ending a relationship. No, the truth is, the father screwed up royally. When he heard the elder son's complaints, he could have acknowledge them there and then. He could have said, you are right, I have been amiss. Give me a chance to set things right. But for now, let us come together. Please, enhance your father's joy by joining us.
I am sure, to some, it seems blasphemous to "correct" God. Still, there is biblical basis. After reading the first 13 verses of Exodus, chapter 32, tell me Moses didn't "school" God. Verse 14 says; "And the Lord REPENTED of the EVIL which he thought to do unto his people." As I have said a number of times, I am not a Bible literalist, but believe the Bible is "wonderfully instructive." If there is to be a relationship with God, how can it be a one-way street? If we are to be co-creators, how is it that our voice cannot be heard? If we are valued, would not our opinion be valued as well? It is here, in the crucible of being heard (vibrational rate) the amplitude is established at a frequency where we resonate with God. Another term for this would be "praying." But do not come as a beggar before a king, but as a son before a loving father. And tell your father you aren't interested in your inheritance as much as you are in honoring and celebrating him now, before his metaphorical passing. To do so though, entails validation of loyalty to the degree, at least, as being lost. Call the servants. Send out runners to the neighbors...a second calf is about to be placed on the spit!
In the 15th chapter of Luke, verse 1, Jesus is approached by "publicans (tax collectors) and sinners" who wished to hear him speak. There were also scribes and Pharisees there as well, who commented that "this man (Jesus) receiveth sinners, and eateth with them." Jesus then shares three stories, the last one being the Prodigal Son. All three revolve around redemption.
The overriding point of the three stories is that those who already believe and follow spiritual guidelines (pharisees and scribes) should rejoice that those who have been lost are now found. (the publicans and sinners) The way the story unfolds is the younger brother asks for his inheritance early and proceeds to squander it in the most unseemly fashion. ("riotous living") The younger brother hits rock bottom and decides to return home because even his father's servants "have bread enough, and to spare, and I perish with hunger." The father (God) sees him coming, runs out to meet him, "and fell on his neck, and kissed him." The younger son then makes an honest and full confession of his misdeeds ("Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son). The upshot is, the father directs the servants to "bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry."
When the elder son returned from the fields, he heard music and dancing and asked a servant what was going on. Informed that his brother had returned and his father had killed a fatted calf in celebration of his homecoming, the older brother is "angry" and refuses to enter the house. Significantly, the father comes out to talk to his older son, "and entreated him." (entreat; to ask earnestly, beg, beseech, implore) The older son then responds with his grievances: "Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time your commandment: yet thou never gavest me a kid, (goat) that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf." The father then tries to placate the elder son with, "thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." He ends by saying that "this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found." The story ends and we are left to our own devices to decide how the situation is resolved.
Many Christian apologetics make much of the older brother's resentment and bitter heart. Nonsense! If ever there was a place for resentment, this is the place. His anger was justified. And I think this is demonstrated by the father coming out to "entreat" him. I think it dawned on him (the father) that he hadn't fully appreciated his oldest sons efforts. Why hadn't he ever offered a goat to his son so he could enjoy a demonstration of his father's favor, let alone a fatted calf? In strictly human terms, try treating a self-actualized partner that way and see how long they stick around. Taking another for granted over a long period of time is a sure fire way of ending a relationship. No, the truth is, the father screwed up royally. When he heard the elder son's complaints, he could have acknowledge them there and then. He could have said, you are right, I have been amiss. Give me a chance to set things right. But for now, let us come together. Please, enhance your father's joy by joining us.
I am sure, to some, it seems blasphemous to "correct" God. Still, there is biblical basis. After reading the first 13 verses of Exodus, chapter 32, tell me Moses didn't "school" God. Verse 14 says; "And the Lord REPENTED of the EVIL which he thought to do unto his people." As I have said a number of times, I am not a Bible literalist, but believe the Bible is "wonderfully instructive." If there is to be a relationship with God, how can it be a one-way street? If we are to be co-creators, how is it that our voice cannot be heard? If we are valued, would not our opinion be valued as well? It is here, in the crucible of being heard (vibrational rate) the amplitude is established at a frequency where we resonate with God. Another term for this would be "praying." But do not come as a beggar before a king, but as a son before a loving father. And tell your father you aren't interested in your inheritance as much as you are in honoring and celebrating him now, before his metaphorical passing. To do so though, entails validation of loyalty to the degree, at least, as being lost. Call the servants. Send out runners to the neighbors...a second calf is about to be placed on the spit!
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Evidence of God Conclusion
Mass and energy are both but different manifestations of the same thing. ~Albert Einstein
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0--_R6xThs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0--_R6xThs
Monday, June 30, 2014
Evidence of God Part 3
Like Tristan, we are the children of sadness. Western people are children of inner poverty, though outwardly we have everything. Probably no other people in history have been so lonely, so alienated, so confused over values, so neurotic. We have dominated our environment with sledge-hammer force and electronic precision. We amass riches on an unprecedented scale. But few of us, very few indeed, are at peace with ourselves, secure in our relationships, content in our loves, or at home in the world. Most of us cry out for meaning in life, for values we can live by, for love and relationship.
~ Robert A. Johnson We
The question is, why? Why do we experience poverty when our cup is overflowing? Perhaps Erich Fromm (You Shall Be As Gods) can explain:
"The fiction is thereby created that anyone who uses the concept (God) is referring to the substratum of experience underlying it. Once this happens--and this process of alienation of concepts is the rule rather than the exception--the idea expressing an experience has been transformed into an ideology that usurps the place of the underlying reality within the living human being.
To which reality of human experience does the concept of God refer? Is the God of Abraham the same as the God of Moses, of Isaiah, of Maimonides, of Master Eckhart, of Spinoza? And if he is not the same, is there nevertheless some experiential substratum common to the concept as used by these various men, or might it be that while some common ground exists in the case of some, it does not exists with regard to others?
A concept can never adequately express the experience it refers to. It points to it, but it is not it. (It) is only an approximate expression of the experience. This is necessarily so because no person's experience is ever IDENTICAL with that of another; it can only approximate it sufficiently to permit use of a common symbol or concept."
And therein lies the rub. We have limited our spiritual experience to fit a 2000 year old mold. This mold was constructed in a socio-political environment that has no bearing on life as it is lived today. It has become a diluted ideology that is neither accessible nor potent. So we flounder. We grope blindly for relevancy. We cry out for meaning in our life.
I have said, speaking of God; "I am the Source and I am the Course. I am that I am and all that you are." I wasn't kidding.
A single consciousness, an all encompassing wisdom pervades the universe.
~Gerald L Schroeder The Hidden Face of God
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=848PLy3VXNI
1) In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth 2) And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the waters. 3) And God said, LET THERE BE LIGHT...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15pOr1E6hvc
~ Robert A. Johnson We
The question is, why? Why do we experience poverty when our cup is overflowing? Perhaps Erich Fromm (You Shall Be As Gods) can explain:
"The fiction is thereby created that anyone who uses the concept (God) is referring to the substratum of experience underlying it. Once this happens--and this process of alienation of concepts is the rule rather than the exception--the idea expressing an experience has been transformed into an ideology that usurps the place of the underlying reality within the living human being.
To which reality of human experience does the concept of God refer? Is the God of Abraham the same as the God of Moses, of Isaiah, of Maimonides, of Master Eckhart, of Spinoza? And if he is not the same, is there nevertheless some experiential substratum common to the concept as used by these various men, or might it be that while some common ground exists in the case of some, it does not exists with regard to others?
A concept can never adequately express the experience it refers to. It points to it, but it is not it. (It) is only an approximate expression of the experience. This is necessarily so because no person's experience is ever IDENTICAL with that of another; it can only approximate it sufficiently to permit use of a common symbol or concept."
And therein lies the rub. We have limited our spiritual experience to fit a 2000 year old mold. This mold was constructed in a socio-political environment that has no bearing on life as it is lived today. It has become a diluted ideology that is neither accessible nor potent. So we flounder. We grope blindly for relevancy. We cry out for meaning in our life.
I have said, speaking of God; "I am the Source and I am the Course. I am that I am and all that you are." I wasn't kidding.
A single consciousness, an all encompassing wisdom pervades the universe.
~Gerald L Schroeder The Hidden Face of God
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=848PLy3VXNI
1) In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth 2) And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the waters. 3) And God said, LET THERE BE LIGHT...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15pOr1E6hvc
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