ENLIGHTENMENT

A story told in pictures...

http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/photos/1857726/

Batten Down The Hatches

When you experience radical emotional upheaval, the phrase "batten down the hatches" is a useful metaphor. It implies that everything that can be tied down, secured, or protected, has been. A storm is descending and there is nothing that can be done other than "riding it out." The one positive within the metaphor is that sufficient time has been provided that one can take precautionary measures. Whether those measures are equal to the circumstances is a moot question; we have done all that we can do.

Emotional tsunami's are going to take place. Berating the injustice or devastation they cause doesn't address the work that needs to be done. In the aftermath, the best one can do is to start "picking up the pieces." Overwhelming as it may be, our focus needs to be on what's important NOW. The larger illustration lends itself to food, shelter, and medical aid to those in need. The personalized metaphor to emotional, psychological, and spiritual comfort.

No doubt Life has brought you both sides of this coin. Being devastated, and being an observer of devastation. As in all things, experience guides us. Knowing the emotional wreckage that losing a parent, sibling, husband, wife, child, boyfriend, girlfriend, job or house can cause, we know what needs to be offered. The question then becomes, do we? Or, having survived our own crisis, we shrug off the distress of others because we are too busy, detached, or ill-equipped to see our personal involvement? Whatever decision you reach isn't my concern. But as asked by another man; "if not you, then who? If not now, then when?"

Hurricane Phailin is bearing down on India. (what is known as a tropical cyclone in that part of the world) Landfall will be in the areas of Visakhapatnam-Brahmapur-Puri. As I have monitored the situation, one small blessing has been the reduction of the "eyewall replacement cycle." This simply means the intensity of the hurricane has been reduced from category 5 (the highest) to 4. I will spend a part of my weekend striving to be grateful for neighbor helping neighbor--village helping village--country helping country. The time is coming when we will understand and embrace the reality that we are all in this together.  

Update: http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/phailin-on-course-to-devastate-1/18611884   

Rally Round

Two are better than one; for if one of them should fall, the other can raise his partner up.
~Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

Imagine extending your support unconditionally for the next 24 hours. To anyone and everyone who happens to come your way. The stranger you do not know; the long lost friend. The beggar on the street, the work associate. The unknown neighbor in the grocery checkout line, the family member that you cherish. Your best friend and worst enemy...all receive your wholehearted encouragement.

Life comes at us relentlessly. It tears us up as it wears us down. None are immune. And I ask that you give what you so desperately need. Offer a hand up. The knowing nod. A wink of assurance. The smile of inclusion. Be what you long for...a friend.

"Over the years I've settled on this definition of my immediate family: Its whoever, when help is needed, shows up immediately." ~Robert Brault

Friendship isn't about who you've known the longest...its about who came and never left. ~Unknown

http://vimeo.com/2539741

Reflection

I am an old, superstitious Arab, and I believe in our proverbs. There's one that says, "everything that happens once can never happen again. But anything that happens twice will surely happen a third time."

~Paulo Coelho  The Alchemist

Oktoberfest

This Sunday will mark the end of the traditional period for Oktoberfest. I would encourage you to try and find a beer garden or ratskeller somewhere in your area this weekend. The Germans (Bavarians in particular) certainly enhanced the world with their celebration and wonderful beers. I was fortunate enough in my youth to stumble upon the Phoenix Club in Anaheim, California, and am the better for it. Not only did I learn the "Chicken Dance," but was first introduced to yodeling. It has been a secret pleasure ever since. I simply can't refrain from smiling when a good yodeler goes off. The singing starts at the 1:39 mark.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1z0cbSWfXU

The costumes, brats, beer, and polka's make for sheer fun. Go have some.

http://www.thephoenixclub.com/oktoberfest/

Other Side Of The Mirror

Imagine if you will, a world population of (approximately) 435 million. Of this 435 million a handful of people (at best) believed that the earth orbited the sun. Everyone else (EVERYONE!) knew the truth was the sun and planets orbited the earth. This was beyond question. Not only were biblical teachings supportive of this "truth," but the 5 senses a human being is endowed with made it incontrovertible. The evidence was overwhelming.

That was the state of affairs in the 16th century. Less than 500 years ago. I want you to fully appreciate this. And I want you to contemplate how the rate of information (knowledge) has changed in recent decades. Check out this link...

http://www.industrytap.com/knowledge-doubling-every-12-months-soon-to-be-every-12-hours/3950

Its not what you know now that will be altered in 500 years, or even 50, but 5. And it is going to assault your core belief system. It is going to fundamentally challenge you. How you embrace change will go a long ways determining your well-being. As you dwell on words like flexible, adaptable, versatile, supple and resilient, keep in mind the words from Desiderata; "no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should." Stay open. Be receptive. Trust.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lin-a2lTelg

Reincarnation

When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do the people say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some Elias; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.   Matthew 16: 13-14 KJV

A near exact account can be found at Mark 8:27-28; and the larger context of what is being related is that Peter declares Jesus the Christ (Messiah). Why I stopped where I did is that I have always been fascinated that Jesus and the disciples have this conversation. The matter of fact way in which Jesus is looked upon as someone who had previously lived. The confusion about John the Baptist I can understand...a simple case of misidentification. But Elias, Jeremiah or some other prophet? Why were the "people" so quick to answer Jesus was somebody who had lived before? Was the idea of reincarnation so prevalent in those times?

I was a boy of happy disposition, I had received a good soul as my lot, or rather, being good, I had entered an undefiled body. ~Wisdom of Solomon 8:19-20 Jerusalem Bible

They (the Pharisees) say that all souls are imperishable, but that the souls of good men only pass into other bodies, but the souls of bad men are subject to eternal punishment. ~Josephus, Jewish War II:163 (8.14); cf. JCW p.478, III pp.385-387

The soul, which is immaterial and invisible in its nature, exists in no material place without having a body suited to the nature of that place. Accordingly, it at one time puts off one body which was necessary before, but which is no longer adequate in its changed state, and exchanges it for a second.
 ~Origen, Against Celsus VII:XXXII, WOII p.454

Again, from Origen: The soul has neither beginning or end...Every soul...comes into this world strengthened by the victories or weakened by the defeats of its previous life. Its place in the world, as a vessel appointed to honor or dishonor, is determined by its previous merits or demerits. Its work (actions) in this world determines its place in the world which is to follow. ~Origen, On First Principles, REWA p.36

The hypothesis of Basilades says that the soul, having sinned before in another life, endures punishment in this. ~Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies IV:XII, WCAII, p.176

Say, Lord to me...say, did my infancy succeed another age of mine that died before it? Was it that I spent within my mother's womb?...And what before that life again, O God my joy, was I anywhere or in any body? For this I have none to tell me, neither father nor mother, nor experience of others, nor mine own memory. ~Augustine, Confessions I:VII.9, CSA p.7

I believe reincarnation has been pigeon-holed in the United States. Too many believe it to be "New Age" or "unchristian." Nothing could be further from the truth. At the very least, it was a lively topic of debate 2000 years ago. I am not here telling you that "it is so." What I am saying is reincarnation certainly explains a lot to me. Divine mercy and justice make so much more sense in the framework of reincarnation than eternal punishment or reward based on a single lifetime. Unlike Augustine, though, perhaps we have the "experience of others" that we can draw on to better come to an understanding;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EWwzFwUOxA