Emily Dickinson (1830–86). Complete Poems.

Part Three: Love

XLV

I ’ve got an arrow here;
Loving the hand that sent it,
I the dart revere.

Fell, they will say, in “skirmish”!
Vanquished, my soul will know,
By but a simple arrow
Sped by an archer’s bow.




"Peace on earth will come

when the love of power

is replaced by

the power of love."

Sri Chinnoy

Success in the affairs of life often serves to hide one's abilities, whereas adversity frequently gives one an opportunity to discover them.

Horace

"Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great."

Comte DeBussy-Rabutin


"He who trades liberty for security deserves neither and will lose both."

Thomas Jefferson

"I am not young enough to know everything."

Oscar Wilde

"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone elses opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."

Oscar Wilde

This text will be shocking to some people, I am sure...

"Religion is poison. Religion is the opiate of the people!" Chairman Mao Tse Tung said this to the Dalai Lama at the end of his visit to Beijing just before China invaded Tibet. This statement let the Dalai Lama know that his country was in DIRE trouble with China.
Mao got it wrong. The true opiate of the people is nationalist fanaticism and "patriotic" fervor. Nothing gives any given public a more hypnotic and misplaced faith in their government than a flag-waving ceremony...it has mass appeal that brainwashes and sedates people into complete faith in their leaders and government. Mao knew this well...it was how he engineered the "Cultural Revolution" in China. It was perhaps the most self-destructive era China has ever experienced. The TRUE opiate of the people. Mao hypnotized an entire nation into destroying its own ancient and time honored culture.
The Nazis knew about this...the Romans also. Pagentry was rampant in those societies. For a specific purpose. Mind control. It is time to view the public pagentry of any given country (even ours...US) with a jaundiced eye. Lift the curtain, see OZ...there is a tiny little man behind the curtain, pulling levers and strings - reading dials and gauges.
Americanism is a poor religion, a poor philosophy, as is any nationalistic bent. Humanitarianism is a better one.
Benjamin Franklin and many of the founders of this country knew this - and they went to great pains to prevent such blind loyalties in their words and deeds. Even in the formation of our government. They warned against complacency.
Nationalist structures are primitive and eventually will have outlived their usefulness in every way to the human race...the same as "patriotisms". Flag-waving and drum beating militarisms are anachronisms from a Napoleonic age, precursors to warfare. Religious structures that support nationalism will not survive - those supporting humanitarianism and enlightenment will replace them eventually. Mysticism and enlightenment are the sources of spirituality, religion creates dogma and doctrine and inflexibility. Law creates punishment and condemnation. The best that we are as a species is how we treat the worst among us. Our prisons condemn us all...
We must reform. Enlightenment tells us so. Traditions, legalisms, inflexible thinking holds back the entire species, the planet, the human race.
The metaphysical sciences (even some of those labeled "pseudosciences" by convention) are the hope of our future, and modern physics has already seen the writing on the wall. The outcome of the experiment is affected by the experimentor....and particles/waves/matter has consciousness and makes choices. Our bodies have "cellular memories" and extended consciousness. Empirical thinking has been soundly challenged by many special problems. The way out lies firmly in the hands of those pioneers like Dean Radin of IONS who are bold enough to espouse metaphysical answers to scientific questions. The realm of physics has almost....virtually no choice, but to begin to address the way the universe actually works - and psychic things are beginning to provide some of the explanations. Newton and Einstein both were metaphysical thinkers, and the origins of our sciences and our religions run into the common ground of enlightenment.
Religion and science tend to make a mockery of inspiration...the mode within the human brain that created them both. Where did the original thought come from? There was a thought, and insight that spurred the inquisitor and the action - and that is the original inspiration and enlightenment. It is the source of all that we do as humans. It is a metaphysical and spiritual well that is all comes from.

We are the human race. It is time for us to grow up and know who we truly are. We need to understand the true source. We need to leave what is no longer useful to us behind us and become a stronger species.

Go to amazon.com/naomiwolf and get the video "The End of America"...interesting stuff! (Naomi Wolf)

Not sure how all the religious stuff here got so out of hand...but I want to get something straight. I believe in my own sense of higher power. Not God as most people describe him or as he has been anthropomorphized (created in human parameters). You cannot ascribe human foibles to the Universal Creator...(insert whatever name you use). That personality would be above all that. It is like an ant trying to get to know a human being. Difficult task starting at the shoelaces...and there would not be many "antlike" or familiar qualities to describe. God defines God...alone. Not us ants.

FYI: (I have started attending meetings at Albuquerque Center for Spiritual Living...a Religious Science (Science of Mind) organization based on the teachings of Ernest Holmes. They are wonderful people. I recommend the centers if you have one in your area, just look for Centers for Spiritual Living on your search engine!)

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead - anthropologist (1901-1978)

"I was brought up to believe that the only thing worth doing was to add to the sum of accurate information in the world."
- Margaret Mead

"If I had followed my better judgment always, my life would have been a very dull one."
- Edgar Rice Burroughs, Llana Of Gathol, [1948]

"So this is hell. I'd never have believed it. You remember all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire and brimstone, the "burning marl." Old wives' tales! There's no need for red-hot pokers. HELL IS--OTHER PEOPLE!"
(spoken by character Garcin)
- Jean-Paul Sartre, "No Exit", [945]

(I have been told that since I believe hell to be non-existent and mythological - not even a Biblical precept...that I now get to visit the place after I die for a certainty!) What was I thinking taking on the fundie pretzel logic?

"Hell"

Basically, there are only three words translated as "hell" in the entire Bible. The word "hell", as we in our time have mythologized it actually NEVER occurs in the entire Bible. It was inserted by the King James translators...and others with the vested interest of controlling the masses through spiritual and literal fear.

The words associated with "Hell"

New Testament (NT) link: www.biblegateway.com/keyword/
(substitute the word Gehenna in each instance that "hell" is used...)

Gehenna (greek)
In the OT, the word for hell is 'ge-hinnom' (hebrew) meaning "Valley of Hinnom." It was a place to the southwest of Jerusalem. This place was once "called 'Topheth' and derived from an Aramaic word meaning 'fireplace.' It was here that some pagan kings practiced human sacrifice by fire (2 Chron. 28:3; 33:6; Jer. 7:31; 32:25). This is probably why in the NT the word came to be associated with destruction by fire, as human sacrifices were once stacked like cordwood there and burned in fiery conflagration. Hence, the "burning forever" in torment concept was most likely formed in relation to this valley. The word 'Gehenna' is found in the NT 14 times and every instance is spoken of by Jesus. In the NT, "gehenna" is an actual physical location, the city dump!
The Jews believed this valley to be cursed, and it was turned into a refuse heap, the city dump. It was a jagged crevasse where refuse was hurriedly thrown, since the land there was not fit for any other purpose. Even in modern times, the organic waste in a dump...if left to rot, may eventually spontaneously combust. Such was the case with this valley outside of Jerusalem. I can imagine it to be the very vision of "hell", with the acrid smoke, and smell, perpetual burning and cursed history. I can imagine Jewish parents teasing their children, "If you do not behave, we will take you out to Gehenna and leave you there." Children may have had the task of helping to carry refuse, and knew the place and its horrors well.
This place was within the consciousness of every Jerusalem Jew, and if they needed a reminder, they simply needed to cast their gaze off to the southwest, and the smoky stench rising from it was clearly visible. It is how the desolate vision of hell came into the modern human consciousness. The rest is pure myth supplied by Dante, Milton, and other writers with apocalyptic views.
"Hell" is a word never in the Bible, and "Gehenna" was the word used - for the smelly dump outside the city gates!

Hades
This word only occurs in the NT, ten times, and corresponds to the OT word "sheol." Jesus uses the word four times: Matt. 11:23; 16:18; Luke 10:15; 16:23. The other six occur in Acts 2:27,31; Rev. 1:18; 6:8; 20:13,14.
It was probably the "subterranean abode of all the dead', in the style of purgatory. It was divided into two departments, paradise or Abraham's bosom for the good, and Gehenna or "hell" for the bad." In particular, in the account of Lazarus and the Rich man of (Luke 16:19-31), it is a place of the conscious dead in waiting.

Sheol
"The Hebrew word Sheol is probably derived from a root "to make hollow," and was seen as the common receptacle of the dead and in the great many places the word appears in the OT, it is referring to the grave. It is a place and is mentioned in Gen. 37:35; Num. 16:30,33; Psalm 16:10, etc. Sheol has many meanings in scripture: the grave, the underworld, the state of the dead. It was supposed to be below the surface of the earth (Ezek. 31:15,17; Psalm 86:13).

These two concepts (Hades/Sheol) are ancient and borrowed from the Greeks and stories and myths back into prehistoric times...to the very earliest memory. The concept of "Purgatory" also springs from them.

Hell is pure mythology, at least as we know it...and is wholly unsupported by the Bible. It is a case of rewriting Biblical statements to support a foregone conclusion. Not one of accepting what is actually written and why.


Tartarus

Tartarus is the lowest region of the world, as far below earth as earth is from heaven. According to the Greek poet Hesiod, a bronze anvil falling from heaven would take nine days and nights to reach earth, and an object would take the same amount of time to fall from earth into Tartarus. Tartarus is described as a dank, gloomy pit, surrounded by a wall of bronze, and beyond that a three-fold layer of night. Along with Chaos, Earth, and Eros, it is one of the first entities to exist in the universe.

While Hades is the main realm of the dead in Greek mythology, Tartarus also contains a number of characters. In early stories, it is primarily the prison for defeated gods; the Titans were condemned to Tartarus after losing their battle against the Olympian gods, and the hecatoncheires stood over them as guards at the bronze gates. When Zeus overcomes the monster Typhus, born from Tartarus and Gaia, he hurls it too into the same abyss.

However, in later myths Tartarus becomes a place of punishment for sinners. It resembles Hell and is the opposite of Elysium, the afterlife for the blessed. When the hero Aeneas visits the underworld, he looks into Tartarus and sees the torments inflicted on characters such as the Titans, Tityos, Otus and Ephialtes, and the Lapiths. Rhadymanthus (and, in some versions, his brother Minos) judges the dead and assigns punishment.

There may be minor Biblical associations with the word Tarturus....in the same vein as Hades/Sheol.

Interesting that all of these concepts are not Christian in any way...but much older ones. I doubt very seriously if Jesus Christ himself taught fear of any of them. The only word he ever used was Gehenna...which was NOT "hell". It was a psychological mindset separated from God's and represented by the Valley of Hinnom, a cursed valley turned into the city dump of Jerusalem! Nothing more! There is NO HELL waiting to burn anyone in torment for eternity! But, if you love suffering and torment and MUST have it in your philosophy and/or religion, knock yourself out!

I am thankful for the following lesson that I have learned.

If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgment of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121 AD - 180 AD)

I come from a very large (six siblings) family with a repressive religious background. It is strange to me how the Bible has so many warnings against being unfair...and judgmental towards others.

Matthew 7:1-2
[ Judging Others ] "Do not judge, or you too will be judged.
For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

Luke 6:37
[ Judging Others ] "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven."

Romans 2:1
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.

And yet, in Western religion and culture, legalism breeds the harshest judgments...of the smallest infractions. As a result, our freedoms are curtailed, because in the karmic way described - our judgments betray us alone. We will find ourselves seen in the same way that we choose to see others. If we see the world as terrorists, we will be seen as terrorists. It works on every level...personal to planetary.

So, be careful how you see and judge others, because one day you may find yourself seen by others; judged in exactly the same way. For exactly the same reasons....

So, I studied the Bible out of self defense...in order to refute the judgments of my father and siblings and the churchgoing tyrants I endured as a child and adolescent. I see now that their judgments were not the fault of the Bible, or God, or Jesus Christ...but of themselves. Judgment is its own reward. Cause and effect is all about intent...and judgment is an intent. The power of thought is more than one might think! Especially to the thinker!

The world is what you think it is. (As a person thinks, so they are)...

The wisest course is to refrain from judgment...so as to refrain from being judged. There is no judgment other than our own.

Follow the four noble truths and the eightfold path...escape suffering and judgment.

I don't know why
The sky is so blue
And I don't know why
I'm so in love with you
But if there were no music
Then I would not get through
I don't know why
I know these things, but I do


I don't know why
But somewhere dreams come true
And I don't know where
But there will be a place for you
And every time you look that way
I would lay down my life for you
I don't know why
I know these things, but I do


I don't know why
But some are going to make you cry
And I don't know how
But I will get you by, I will try
They're not trying to cause you pain
They're just afraid of loving you
I don't know why
I know these things, but I do


I don't know why
The trees grow so tall
And I don't know why
I don't know anything at all
But if there were no music
Then I would not get through
I don't know why
I know these things, but I do
I don't know why
I know these things, but I do

We Belong Together
by Gavin DeGraw

We belong together
like the open seas and shores
wedded by the planet force
we've all been spoken for

[VERSE 1:]
The hammer may strike, be dead on the ground.
a net to my hand, a cross on his crown.
we're done if, who we're undone,
finished if who we are incomplete.
as one we are everything,
we are everything we need.

[CHORUS:]
we belong together
like the open seas and shores
wedded by the planet force
we've all been spoken for

[VERSE 2:]
What good is a life, with no one to share,
the light of the moon, the honor of a swear.
we can try to live the way in which you speak,
taste the milk of your mother earth's love,
spread the word of conscience you see,
we are everything we need

[CHORUS]
We belong together
like the open seas and shores
wedded by the planet force
we've all been spoken for

All this indecision
all this independent strength
still
we've got our hearts on safe
we've got our hearts on safe

someday when you're lonely,
sometime after all this bliss,
somewhere lost in emptiness,
I hope you find this gift...
I hope you find this gift..
I hope you find this gift.

"Learning To Fly"

by Pink Floyd
from "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason"

Into the distance, a ribbon of black
Stretched to the point of no turning back
A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone my senses reeled
A fatal attraction holding me fast, how
Can I escape this irresistible grasp?

Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted Just an earth-bound misfit, I

Ice is forming on the tips of my wings
Unheeded warnings, I thought I thought of everything
No navigator to guide my way home
Unladened, empty and turned to stone

A soul in tension that's learning to fly
Condition grounded but determined to try
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I

Above the planet on a wing and a prayer,
My grubby halo, a vapour trail in the empty air,
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unthreatened by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night

There's no sensation to compare with this
Suspended animation, A state of bliss
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I

[ Pink Floyd Lyrics are found on www.songlyrics.com ]


Winter in America
Gil Scott-Heron


From the Indians who welcomed the pilgrims
And to the buffalo who once ruled the plains
Like the vultures circling beneath the dark clouds
Looking for the rain
Looking for the rain

Just like the cities staggered on the coastline
Living in a nation that just can't stand much more
Like the forest buried beneath the highway
Never had a chance to grow
Never had a chance to grow

And now it's winter
Winter in America
Yes and all of the healers have been killed
Or sent away, yeah
But the people know, the people know
It's winter
Winter in America
And ain't nobody fighting
'Cause nobody knows what to say
Save your soul, Lord knows
From Winter in America

The Constitution
A noble piece of paper
With free society
Struggled but it died in vain
And now Democracy is ragtime on the corner
Hoping for some rain
Looks like it's hoping
Hoping for some rain

And I see the robins
Perched in barren treetops
Watching last-ditch racists marching across the floor
But just like the peace sign that vanished in our dreams
Never had a chance to grow
Never had a chance to grow

And now it's winter
It's winter in America
And all of the healers have been killed
Or been betrayed
Yeah, but the people know, people know
It's winter, Lord knows
It's winter in America
And ain't nobody fighting
Cause nobody knows what to save
Save your souls
From Winter in America

And now it's winter
Winter in America
And all of the healers done been killed or sent away
Yeah, and the people know, people know
It's winter
Winter in America
And ain't nobody fighting
Cause nobody knows what to save
And ain't nobody fighting
Cause nobody knows, nobody knows
And ain't nobody fighting
Cause nobody knows what to save

www.youtube.com/watch