Tickle Me Yahweh

God is playing with me. To understand what I mean by this you will have to read All is Vanity (7-4-16) and Interesting or Odd. (8-1-16) The inexplicable keeps happening and it seems as though God wants to rub my nose in it--albeit in an amusing way. The hard part is writing to you about the dynamic. I can imagine your dismissal of my record of events as embellished or untruthful. And that brings me to the undercurrent of why (perhaps) God keeps the inexplicable going. (to reveal aspects of my ego) The initial post (All is Vanity) speaks to the listing of countries as a 'sop to my ego.' It was and I acknowledged it. I confessed my motives. The occurrences since then have been unprecedented--other than the first few months of the blog. (for obvious reasons--every country was new) So here I am (once again) listing new visitors, wondering if you think I am playing games or making all this up. Which is just another manifestation of my ego!

Honduras 8-2-16 Ecuador 8-3-16 Panama 8-10-16 Angola 8-15-16 Tunisia 8-15-16 Cambodia 8-16-16 Albania 8-17-16

ALBANIA--Algeria--ANGOLA--Argentina--Australia--Austria--Belarus--Bahamas--Belgium--Brazil--Bolivia--Bulgaria--CAMBODIA--Canada--Chile--Costa Rica--Columbia--Denmark--ECUADOR--El Salvador--Finland--France--Germany--Georgia--Greece--HONDURAS--Hungary--India--Indonesia--Iraq--Ireland--Italy--Israel--Jamaica--Japan--Kazakhstan--Kenya--Kuwait--Kyrgyzstan--Latvia--Lithuania--Malaysia--Mexico--Netherlands--Pakistan--PANAMA--Peru--Philippines--Poland--Portugal--Qatar--Romania--Russia--Serbia--Singapore--Slovakia--Spain--South Africa--South Korea--Sweden--Switzerland--Suriname--Taiwan--Tanzania--Thailand--TUNISIA--Turkey--United Arab Emirate--Ukraine--United Kingdom--United States--Venezuela--Vietnam--Zambia--Zimbabwe.

Ironic, yes? On the one hand share developments and risk being thought a manipulator or liar; on the other, side-step reality for fear I look ludicrous and the series of new visitors improbable. (at best!) So be it. Nothing is quite as healing as a good laugh at our own expense.

Hold Fast

I know who you are. Those that come here. Sensitive by nature, deep thinker, inconsistent in your application of spiritual knowledge. I know you. And I would ask you to remain steadfast, and true. That despite the bullshit that swirls around you, do not become disillusioned. Or disinclined. Or stumble into despair. Hold fast.

The truth is the political system is bullshit. The truth is the religious system is bullshit. And the economic system, the military system, and any other system one could name...they are all bullshit. But the truth is, that truth is but one aspect of the truth. It is not the whole truth and nothing but the truth--just an element of the truth. Hold fast.

Don't you know if you turn away now we are lost? That if you become discordant and disheartened there isn't any remedy? That the lunacy will prevail? That we will be swamped by their lies, their manipulations, their derision of human decency? Did no one tell you? Did they omit that from your teaching? Hold fast.

Here is what I would ask of you. Continue to be the person you would be. The one with the childish dream of equality for all. The one with the aspiration of a better tomorrow. The one with the naivete to believe they could change the world. Yes, be that. And hold fast.

Here's Mud In Your Eye!

"It rained heavily during the night, and the street is thick with mud. I walked to the Bet Midrash (House of Learning) this morning and stopped to watch a group of little children playing with the mud. Oblivious to the damp, they made dozens of mud figure's: houses, animals, towers. From their talk, it was clear that they imagined an identity for each. They gave their figure names and told their stories."

"For a while, their mud figures took on an independent existence. But they were all just mud. Mud was their source and mud was their substance. From the perspective of the children, their mud creations had separate selves. From the mud's point of view, it is clear such independence was an illusion--the creations were all just mud."

"It is the same with us and God. Adonai alone is in heaven above and earth below, there is none else.(Deuteronomy 4:39) There is none else, meaning there is nothing else in heaven or on earth but God."

"Can this be? When I look at the world, I do not see God. I see trees of various kinds, people of all types, houses, fields, lakes, cows, horses, chickens, and on and on. In this I am like the children at play, seeing real figures and not simply mud."

"Where in all this is God? The question itself is misleading. God is not 'in' this; God is this."

"Think carefully about what I have said. It is the key to all the secrets of life."

~Rabbi Rami Shapiro  Open Secrets

Lion in the Winter

Like a lion in the winter I can hear the summer call
Like a ship out on the ocean made of stone
And sometimes when I get lonely I can swear I hear you call
Oh the nights are cold when you don't keep me warm

And when I first saw you I first loved you
With a song that I sang to the fire in your eyes
But somebody told you that wouldn't be easy
And you carried that lie for the devil to sing

Some sail rivers deep and muddy some sail rivers clear and cold
But the river that I'm sailin' goes to sea
And sometimes I do grow weary sometimes I feel old
And sometimes I wonder if you think of me

And when I first saw you I first loved you
With a song that I sang to the fire in your eyes
But somebody told you that it wouldn't be easy
And you carried that lie for the devil to sing

~Hoyt Axton

Sorry I can't link this for you. (see; youtube Lion in the Winter by FakeApology for the very best rendition) This song is Life's answer to the post A Tangled Tango. It is also an opportunity to tell you that two more newbies came in yesterday and today--Honduras and Ecuador respectively. I mention that because it brings to seven the number of new countries that appeared after the post All Is Vanity. What took (nearly) 13 months between Grinding Gears and All Is Vanity took less than thirty days between All is Vanity and Interesting or Odd. What do you make of that?

Interesting or Odd?

To understand this post in any way, you will need to read All Is Vanity. (7-4-16) Context is provided there. What to make of it I will leave to you. Peru 7-10-16 Argentina 7-13-16 Algeria 7-24-16 El Salvador 7-25-16 Bolivia 8-1-16.

ALGERIA--ARGENTINA--Australia--Austria--Belarus--Bahamas--Belgium--Brazil--BOLIVIA--Bulgaria--Canada--Chile--Costa Rica--Columbia--Denmark--EL SALVADOR--Finland--France--Germany--Georgia--Greece--Hungary-India--Indonesia--Iraq--Ireland--Italy--Israel--Jamaica--Japan--Kazakhstan--Kenya--Kuwait--Kyrgyzstan--Latvia--Lithuania--Malaysia--Mexico--Netherlands--Pakistan--PERU--Philippines--Poland--Portugal--Qatar--Romania--Russia--Serbia--Singapore--Slovakia--Spain--South Africa--South Korea--Sweden--Switzerland--Suriname--Taiwan--Tanzania--Thailand--Turkey--United Arab Emirate--Ukraine--United Kingdom--United States--Venezuela--Vietnam--Zambia--Zimbabwe

You're A Pagan

The simple truth is the 'people of the Book' (Jews, Christians, Muslims) are all pagans. There is little doubt of this. The two holiest days for Judaism (Yom Kippur and Pesach) were confiscated from Babylonian or Ugaritic (Canaanite) religious observances. Christians give up the secret with their two highest holidays/festivals. (Christmas and Easter) As for Islam, the one absolute necessity for any Muslim (in his lifetime) is to go to Mecca and circle the Kaaba seven times. The Kaaba (house of God) predates Islam by hundreds of years. Apparently removing it's 360 idols was all that was necessary to bring the shrine 'up to code.'

Doesn't it give you pause that God was reduced to co-opting PAGAN forms/practices of worship? Wouldn't the highest, holiest days of God (or Allah) be utterly unique and altogether different than those of pagans? Or are we to believe that the forms, practices, and rituals were fine, just directed toward the wrong deity? Is that what we are expected to believe?

Some are sure to say, well how about monotheism? That was the overriding difference between true worship and paganism. Sorry, the idea of monotheism originated in Persia and Egypt long before it occurred to the Hebrews. (see; Zoroastrianism and the Egyptian worship of Aten) So monotheism can't be considered original to the people of the book. No, the fact is, the only distinction between pagans and true believers is what they called their God. That's it. And if you research the subject, you'll see that the original Hebrew name for God was pagan. (El) It wasn't updated until Exodus 3:13-15. (repeated at Exodus 6:2-3)

If the Jewish religion is revealed to have pagan roots, it stands to reason that Christianity and Islam have to be pagan as well, yes? How can the leaf of a tree be inherently different than the branch, or the branch from the trunk? If the trunk is dependent on the root, how can you claim this part divine, this part demonic? Aren't they different manifestations--different aspects--of the same impulse, the same source?

Study the Ugarit tablets. See what you think.

Snagged 'Em!

Algeria showed up between 2:00AM and 4:00 AM last night. I won't pretend it doesn't bring some sense of satisfaction and amusement. However, the truth is, they came and went. (I can tell if a person looks at more than one page of the blog) Which means nothing of consequence happened. My ego got stroked and the ten largest countries by land mass have been 'secured.' But there wasn't a firing of the imagination or an interest in content. So, ultimately, it is a hollow victory. Which is worthwhile only in the context of seeing the ego and it's machinations. Let us use it as such.

"The ultimate aim of the ego is not to see something, but to be something."  ~Muhammad Iqbal