stories

     After reading some doaist stories, I started to chuckle about the over-the-top fanstasical details and characters. I thought, "How can I take this serious!? What a bunch of supertition and hookem."
   In my mormon upbringing, we take our stories very seriously.  Not only do we hear the details and morals of the stories, we hear how the people really existed and it happened exactly it is printed.   This has been difficult for me lately.
    Then it hit me: what did I learn form the story.  It doesn't the quirky characters, the writer's personal/cultural bias, the history, etc. are not the purpose of the story.  Imagine if we couldn't discuss the parrable of the 3 vinigar tasters, because we couldn't agree on the historical facts.  Crazy, right?
   So I guess I'll need to read the Chronicle of the Tao and such again and ask search not for what happened but what is the writer trying to teach me and accept the power of just stories.

Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith

I have been really affected and grateful for these thoughts.  My favorite:
“In ideologies there is not Jesus: in his tenderness, his love, his meekness. And ideologies are rigid, always. Of every sign: rigid. And when a Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith: he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he is a disciple of this attitude of thought… For this reason Jesus said to them: ‘You have taken away the key of knowledge.’ The knowledge of Jesus is transformed into an ideological and also moralistic knowledge, because these close the door with many requirements. The faith becomes ideology and ideology frightens, ideology chases away the people, distances, distances the people and distances of the Church of the people. But it is a serious illness, this of ideological Christians. It is an illness, but it is not new, eh?”
~Pope Francis, taking aim at ideologically obsessed Christians, October 2013
This I can do!  This i strive for. In this, I can have hope.

The whole list:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/12/11/pope-francis-quotes/

Whom do I follow? The little Child within

My message I can teach:
Inside of us, we each have a true spark or core of the divine eternal, listen deeply and dare to follow.

Don't feel compelled to follow tradition, important or holy people, people we love, Budda, or a book.  If your true core leads you there, that's cool and like a great teacher they can help you grow and develop. However, that true core has only loyalty to the eternal and may lead you away from those traditions, people, or books as it is said
"The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao."
     

Buddha and Christ's Grace

If you meet the Buddha, kill him. (逢佛殺佛，逢祖殺祖). —Linj

The buddha is not a person is it a way or a way of living/being.  I think Grace could be substituted. 

If you think you understand the Lord's grace, you need to destroy that image.  Jesus' grace is boundless and can't be set my your definitions.  Destroy that specific idea and embrace more, for the buddha and the Lord's grace would alway is more.

Being in and reflecting on the moment.

... It's very sterile and very misleading to hear about battles only from people who either have already won or at least have already experienced the stability of intermediate victories. It presents a false sense of how hard those battles are. It understates the perilous sense of being in the middle of them. It understates how scary they are. Compare the feeling of listening to a 911 call from inside someone's house while they're afraid a burglar is inside to the feeling of hearing them tell you a week later what it was like that one time they were afraid there was a burglar in the house. The second will give you their reflective version of what happened; the first will give you their out-of-breath panic.


http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2013/10/29/241585887/present-tense-allie-brosh-donald-glover-and-hurting-right-now?utm_content=socialflow&utm_campaign=nprfacebook&utm_source=npr&utm_medium=facebook

atheist's version of The Ten Commandments

I thought these were flexible for all of us. :)

Penn Jillette's atheist's version of The Ten Commandments.

Here's his list:

1. The highest ideals are human intelligence, creativity and love. Respect these above all.

2. Do not put things or even ideas above other human beings. (Let's scream at each other about Kindle versus iPad, solar versus nuclear, Republican versus Libertarian- but when your house is on fire, I'll be there to help.)

3. Say what you mean, even when talking to yourself. (What used to be an oath to (G)od is now quite simply respecting yourself.)

4. Put aside some time to rest and think. (If you're religious, that might be the Sabbath; if you're a Vegas magician, that'll be the day with the lowest grosses.)

5. Be there for your family. Love your parents, your partner, and your children. (Love is deeper than honor, and parents matter, but so do spouse and children.)

6. Respect and protect all human life. (Many believe that "Thou shalt not kill" only refers to people in the same tribe. I say it's all human life.)

7. Keep your promises. (If you can't be sexually exclusive to your spouse, don't make that deal.)

8. Don't steal. (This includes magic tricks and jokes — you know who you are!)

9. Don't lie. (You know, unless you're doing magic tricks and it's part of your job. Does that make it OK for politicians, too?)


10. Don't waste too much time wishing, hoping, and being envious; it'll make you bugnutty.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2011-10-28/penn-jillette-ten-commandments/50978982/1

Doubts are not signs of apostasy, and they should not be suppressed

Doubts are not signs of apostasy, and they should not be suppressed. Where they exist in good faith and sincere intent, they are simply an intellectual manifestation of a curiosity or concern, and as such should be addressed and investigated. Givens wrote:

I know I am grateful for a propensity to doubt because it gives me the capacity to freely believe. I hope you can find your way to feel the same. The call to faith is a summons to engage the heart, to attune it to resonate in sympathy with principles and values and ideals that we devoutly hope are true and which we have reasonable but not certain grounds for believing to be true. There must be grounds for doubt as well as belief in order to render the choice more truly a choice, and therefore more deliberate and laden with more personal vulnerability and investment. An overwhelming preponderance of evidence on either side would make our choice as meaningless as would a loaded gun pointed at our heads.

http://www.connorboyack.com/blog/doubting-your-doubts-before-doubting-your-faith#more-3222

C.S. Lewis: being in the present

C.S. Lewis: being in the present

“Never, in peace or war, commit your virtue or your happiness to the future. Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment ‘as to the Lord.’ It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received.” —from The Weight of Glory

faith=trust

"...handing everything over to Christ does not, of course, mean that you stop trying. To trust Him means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already."

~ Mere Christianity

Don't forget to sharpen the saw.  We get chopping and cutting the problem trees down in our life and it dulls us.  Take the time and replenish. Sharpen the saw :)

Pioneer

I was given a new nickname at Tai Chi on Saturday: The Pioneer.  
I was surprised because that name is important to my religion (which has been tough on me). And as I work through it, a week ago I stumbled on this profound poem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTK-ijA5qYc

music preparation

Here's to the new school year.

Preparation step number one: Acquisition and organization of music

Preparation step number two: Practicing with technology

Preparation step number three: Prepare for the audition environment

Preparation step number four: Final run through(s) for musicians and non-musicians

Preparation step number five: Touch ups with honesty

practice yielding

From my good friend and taekwondo master:  
Justin Zeleski

5 hours ago · 

• today in Sunday school we were studying the subject of trials. (see D&C 121 and 122) I shared this thought and then and thought I'd do so here too.
  
  The best fighters don't jump away from a blow, they know how to deflect it with as little resistance and pain as possible and then react in such a way as to turn a blow into an advantage. My friend Raymond Brown showed me how in Tai Chi by giving into a attack and yielding to it (not resisting) you can minimize the pain involved.
  
  When facing a trial we can apply these same lessons. We must resist the urge to jump away or fight back. We must learn to yield and flow with the attack so that we can position ourselves in a place where we can create an opportunity and overcome them. God gives us so many trials so that we can practice turning our will to Him (practicing yielding) so that when the big blows come, we will not be harmed but will react in the way he, the Master, would. In this way, each trial is a lesson to learn and apply the skills we're working on. Just as there is only one way to learn to block a punch (actually block a punch) there is only one way to really learn how to block a trial...we must face them.
  
  I share this in the name of Jesus Christ...Amen.

  Doctrine and Covenants 121

  www.lds.org

  Prayer and prophecies written by Joseph Smith the Prophet in an epistle to the Church while he was a prisoner in the jail at Liberty, Missouri, dated March 20, 1839. The Prophet and several companions

  had been months in prison. Their petitions and appeals directed to the executive officers and the j...

  
  

  
  

  (Doctrine and Covenants 121 is truly one of if not the most favoriate piece of Scripture.)

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Untested Friendships are Acquaintances

Untested Friendships are Acquaintances

Thank you June Tomkin.  As a missionary in a new area, I made a rash commitment to be at your apartment   I took the first (and incorrect) bus, found out I was only off by a block and (such luck!) it was a big park!  Well...the map said a park. It was actually a jungle/swamp that I doggedly pushed us though (sorry elder holst).  We arrived a muddy wet mess and over two hours late.

And June laughed, feed us, and made it a moment link us together.  I learned to accept help and to use it to make friends.

Don't get embarrassed; get friends.  The best ones will shine in the wet, muddy times.

Patterns

In facts, the Traps we get into are re-enactments of patterns from our childhoods.  This means that as we were growing up in  our families, each of us was exposed to certain rules about living, getting our needs met and interacting with each other.  We learned about men from the men in our families. We learned about women from the women in out families. And we learned about ourselves from the way we were treated in our families.

If we were ignored, we will grow up to ignore ourselves and our needs as adults.  If we were hurt, we will hurt ourselves as adults.  If we were physically or emotionally seduced as children, we will grow up and become wither seducers or victims or both.

We re-enact and repeat the patterns of loving that were formed for us when we were children.  We emphasize patterns here because this is the biggest Trap of all for so many of us.   I look at the specific details  of my adult life and say to myself, "My life is much healthier that Dad's.  Dad was an alcoholic, but I don't drink at all!"

But often the pattern is the same.  While I may not drink at all, I may work compulsively  exercise compulsively or avoid intimacy by watching too much television.  I may be critical, perfectionistic and terrified of having my feelings, just like Dad was.  But because I don't drink at all, I believe that my life is very different from Dad's even though I have re-enacted my family of origin right down to the last detail except the drinking.  Keep this principle in mind as you read this book.

----An Adult Child's Cuide to What's "Normal" by Friel and Friel, p. 12

Martin Luther and Music

"Next to theology, I give a place to music: for thereby all anger is forgotten, the devil is driven away, and melancholy, and many tribulations, and evil thoughts are expelled.  It is the best solace for a desponding mind."

Martin Luther as quoted on December 21, 1824 Wayne Sentinel in Palmyra, New York.

The meaning of life from the Fairy Queen

I am reluctant to destroy this shrine...Sometimes we do what we must.

Live a fruitful life.  Resist evil. Give more than you take.  Help others do likewise.  The rest will take care of itself.  Step away from the Shrine.

----Fablehaven, book 3 page 412

Joy of a Bird

Joy of a  Bird

"To be a bird is to be alive more intensely than any other living creature, man included...they live in a world that is always the present, mostly full of joys."

The God who Weeps

I'm amazed at how pondering the tao still widens my view.

"If vulnerability and pain are the price of love, then joy is its reward.  That was the lesson Adam and Eve learn in the Garden, but the principle was rotted in the heavens.  As surely as the dark gives meaning to the dawn, so does pain give meaning to pleasure, and sorrow to joy.    The lesson of Creation is that the world.  It is in separating the light from the darkness, that God's work of the first day is complete...And He pronounces His work complete, only when He separates the man and woman, then draws them back together in a relation ship of mutuality that gives vitality and fruitfulness to what is human.  All that exists in ou r world of meaning must exist in paired opposition.
      In the Garden story, good and evil are found on the same tree, not separate orchards.   Good and evil give meaning and definition to each other...God's power rests not on totalizing omnipotence, but on His ability to alchemize suffering, tragedy, and loss into wisdom, understanding, and joy.

---The God who Weeps, pg 33-34

Wisdom from my Missionary Trainer

Words of wisdom from my greenie (a new mormon missionary) days.
"Commandment #11: Don't be a Prick!"
"The covenants we take in the temple are serious, everything else is a joke."

I also enjoyed Michael Thoming's recent post about war.

I offer my prayers for the security and safe return of all those who serve in our armed forces. These brave men and women deserve our support as they put their lives in jeopardy to satisfy the demands of the warlike people that we have become.

In 1976 Spencer W. Kimball said:
"We are a warlike people, easily distracted from our assignment of preparing for the coming of the Lord. When enemies rise up, we commit vast resources to the fabrication of gods of stone and steel—ships, planes, missiles, fortifications—and depend on them for protection and deliverance. When threatened, we become anti-enemy instead of pro-kingdom of God; we train a man in the art of war and call him a patriot, thus, in the manner of Satan’s counterfeit of true patriotism, perverting the Savior’s teaching:

“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

“That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 5:44–45.)"

the full text of his remarks can be found here -http://www.lds.org/ensign/1976/06/the-false-gods-we-worship?lang=eng

It is not their wickedness, but their "misery", not the disobedience, but their "suffering," that elicits the God of Heaven's tears.  Not until Gethsemane and Golgotha does the scriptural redord reveal so unflinchingly the costly investment of God's love in His people, the price at which He placed His heart upon them.  There could be nothing in this universe, or in any possible universe, more perfectly good, absolutely beautiful, worthy of adoration, and deserving of emulation, than this God of love and kindness and vulnerability   That is why a gesture of belief in His direction, a decision to acknowledge His virtues as the paramount qualities of a divided universe  is a response to the best in us, the best and noblest of which the human soul is capable.  A God without body or parts is conceivable.  But a God without passions would engender in our hearts neither love nor interest.  In the vision of Enoch, we fine ourselves drawn to a God who prevents all the pai He can, assumes all the suffering He can, and weeps over the misery He can neither prevent nor assume.

---The God who Weeps

It is not their wickedness, but their "misery," not their disobedience, but their "suffering," that elicits the God of Heaven's tears.  Not until Gethsemane and Golgotha does the scriptural record reveal so unflinchingly the costly investment of God's love in His people, the price at which He placed His heart upon them.

--The God who Weeps, pg. 25

Its comforting to me to know that my sorrows can be signs that I care and not warnings that I've erred.

Clearly, to aspire to be God is sin; to desire to be like God is filial love and devotion.

--The God who Weeps

Why faith?

The call to faith, in this light, is not some test of a coy god, waiting to see if we "get it right."  It is the only summons, issued under the only conditions, which can allow us fully to reveal who we are, what we most love, and what we most devoutly desire.  Without constraint, without any form of mental compulsion, the act of belief becomes the freest possible projection of what resides in out hearts.

--The God who Weeps

I love this grown-up faith.  Refreshed honest faith is invigorating.

death by facebook (or wii for me)

We are, as reflective  thinking, pondering seekers, much like the proverbial ass of Buridan.  The Beast in the parable starves to death because he is faced with two equally desirable and equally accessible piles of hay.

--The God who Weeps

I think this neutrality is death by escapism.  Escapism is very powerful and often desirable, but it is a beast that when you feed it, it become larger and more ravishingly hungry. 

Faith is natural

What ever sense we make of this world, whatever value we place upon our lives and relationships, whatever meaning we ultimately give to our joys and agonies, must necessarily be a gesture of faith....James Stephen noted that "in nearly all the important transactions in this life, indeed in all transactions whatever which have relation to the future, we have to take a leap in the dark,...to act upon very imperfect evidence..."

---The God Who Weeps

Why the Tao?

Whether by design or by chance, we find ourselves in a universe filled with mystery.  No picture ever painted fulled explains the cast landscape of human experience.  Science doesn't try to, and religion often fails. But we humans are meaning-making machines.  We are complex creatures of logic and superstition, who crave both clarity and wonder.

     -The God Who Weeps, by Terryle and Fiona Givens

Welcoming Weakness

Having a strength, means having a weakness.

Over my life, I have been frustrated by weakness.  Even the concept of weakness seemed to equal imperfection or flaws.  Flaws that I should fix.  In fact, they were given to me as a type of challenge.  That if I organized myself and truly tried that I would be able to be victorious and the weak thing would then be strong.  Like Captain Moroni purposefully finding the weakest city, knowing that it would be attacked as an easy conquest, and making that city one of the strongest in the nation.

I have no doubt that this is true.  We can improve as in we can become more strong or more stable.
However, this can not apply in all things.  Another truth is that in order for there to be a strength, there must be a weakness.

Martial arts: attacking leaves openings for counters
Economy:  spending money on something meaning denying money from something else.
Plants:   grow in strength and grow in flexibility
Taoist:  day and night, plug in any yin/yang example.
Mormonism: following the commandments, inability to see the exceptions to the commandments  (even Nephi had a hard time with this)

Many weaknesses do not need fixed.  They are simply the yin or yang from our choices that is present now and it will change again soon.

Interestingly, it only when the that yin or yang force becomes controlling, that it becomes an issue.

Martial arts: attacking wildly leaves dangerous openings for counters
Economy:  spending money excessively on something.
Plants:   too much strength and it breaks in the wind.
Taoist:  too much day and its Vegas in the summer, beware red heads.
Mormonism: following the commandments, inability to see the people (looking beyond the mark)
Alma expressed this frustation in making his wish that he was an angel to shake the earth in crying repentance.

We must make choices, this actions remove us from wu chi  into the yin or the yang.
(see: http://www2.nau.edu/taichi-p/images/wuchi.jpg   or Adam, Eve and the garden)

After time with one, I would bemoan that I could not have both.  In fact, we can become choice debilitated by knowing that choosing will make a weakness.

This is a matter for faith.  Trust that in choosing yin; yang will be along soon.  It is the natural response and must come.  Welcome it with open arms.

the miracle of cocoons

This came to me as my intermediate orchestra class has been struggling.  Not the expected struggle of apathy or need to practice, but some students really wanted to do a hard song but some (one very vocal one) did not.


So today had a student print off a bunch of cocoons and post them around the room.
(see:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Monarch_Butterfly_Chrysalis.JPG  )

  The are ratty, ugly, a bit alien looking (as some students said)
and when they asked what they were and why the pictures where around for about the 10th time I said something like:

      I read a lot of children's books.  They frequently tell the book of how a caterpillar turns into a ....(wait for it)....BUTTERFLY! (they all say it together)  However, once the butterfly has come out then, thats the end of it.  Hooray and cheers for the pretty pretty butterfly.
     But seeing the butterfly is not the miracle.  The miracle happens in the cocoon.   A worm-like creature enters it and somehow, by some miracle, the caterpillar twists, turns, grows new limb and changes, indeed metamorphoses, into something completely different!  If anything demands our study or attention is it not the cocoon?

So orchestra (or fellow travelers), this is your cocoon.  It is going to be hard, restrictive, and frustrating but if we work and be smart for it, we will emerge something completely different.  So, to the cocoon!

Character is the aim of true education; and science, history, and literature are but means used to accomplish this desired end.  Character is not the result of chance, but of continuous right thinking and right acting.  True education seeks to make men and women not only good mathematicians, proficient linguists, profound scientists, or brilliant literary lights, but also, honest men , with virtue, temperance, and brotherly love,  Its seeks to make men and women who prize truth, justice, wisdom, benevolence, and self-control as the choicest acquisitions of a successful life.

-David O. McKay, pg 160

Member sof the Church are admonished to acquire learning by study; also, by faith and prayer  and to seek after everything that is virtuous, lovely  or of good report , or praiseworthy.  In this seeking after truth, they are not confined to narrow limits of dogma, or creed, but are free to launch into the realm of the infinite for the know that 'truth is truth where'er it is found, whether on Christian or on heathen ground'

-David O. McKay (& the rise of morden mormonism pg 159)

"No success in life can compensate for failure in the home."

           sociologist J.E. McMulloch

President McKay thought of the parable of the tares to not only be for the church as a whole but as the individual.  That ripping the small (yet disagreeable) things off a person is not only an affront to free agency but leaves the person in a worse place than before.

The only way such a task [judging history] can be accomplished, in the judgement of the writer, is to frankly state events as they occurred, in full consideration of all related circumstances, allowing the line of condemnation or of justification to fall where it may; being confident that in the sum of things justice will follow truth; and God will be glorified in his work, no matter what may befall individuals or groups of individuals.

---B.H. Roberts,
         A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Satins, Century I.

as quoted in the prelude of "David O. McKay and the Rise of Morden Mormonism."

The voice of God I knew was gentle, kind, and deliberate   And that voice was not forbidding me to write or speak, as long as I did so honestly and without malice.  Even if I made mistakes from time to time, as a writer or as a Mormon, that voice would not condemn me.  It would guide me firmly and gently through.

There is no way forward, I believe, but to tell our whole story.  Not the made-for-television version, but the entire very imperfect story, the one that reveals the human flaws of the one who came before us.  THe ones that present Mormons as a people who are earnest and industrious and satisfied sometimes with easy contradictions, sweetly tender and capable of ignorance and arrogance.  A people of sparkling differences and human failings.  A people chosen because we have chosen to be ourselves. A people who are not afraid to tell an unorthodox story full of angels, sacred groves, ancestor pioneers, sacrifice, and longing, because an unorthodox story is what history has given us to tell.
A unorthodox story is nothing to be ashamed of.  It is something that deserves to be shared.

p.185, 188   "The Book of Mormon Girl" by Joanna Brooks
http://joannabrooks.org/

I really enjoyed the idea of the parable of the wheat and the tare as it related to the church itself.  I've always thought of it as us vs. the world and its influences.  I felt at peace thinking the church with all its functions would also parallel.
Excellent honest faith rewarding book.

Truths

1. God's Heart is on Us.
2. Man was with in the Beginning with God.
3. We are that we might have joy.
4. None of them are lost.
5. Participants in the Divine Nature.

---Fiona and Terryl Givens

And through this world, with devils filled, 

should threaten to undo us, 

we will not fear, for God hath willed

his truth to triumph through us.

The Prince of Darkness grim, 

we tremble not for him;

his rage we can endure,

for lo, his doom is sure;

one little word shall fell him.

-Martin Luther, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.

So whats is that one little word???

Don't skip ahead.  Think about what one word is could be.  What word would strike down Evil down?

I thought Righteousness...

Captain Moroni the great warrior/leader must of had it....

 17 Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto ^aMoroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the ^bdevilwould never have power over the hearts of the children of men.

Any guesses?

Fred Rogers believed it was (and I can't think of a more perfect word) that it was:

Forgiveness.

Righteousness gives Evil something to fight/rally against.  How do you fight someone who loves you and with that love forgives? 

It reminds me of working the yearling calves.  As you push them toward the shoot, they will kick, turn, and jump kick.  Trust me, its painful and terrifying.  As my father taught me, you have to hold close to them.  Stick to them like glue as it were.  Its so much hard to kick someone who is snugging next to you.

My mother is the perfect example.  As a young teenager, I wanted to skateboard (difficult, by the way, if your town/hamlet has no sidewalks or smooth roads), anything to rebel and doom myself to the pevilent cowboy/hick culture.  I had the money (from selling a cow) and in the most tough voice I asked my mother to take me to a nearby town that had a skateboard store.  To my horror, she supported me.  She opens the door for me, talks to the skater working the counter and buy the board for me.  I continued to rebel against the hick culture but I knew I could not rebel against my mother.  She held me so close.

Thank you for your forgiveness.

If you practice, you get better.

If you get better, you play with better players.

If you play with better players, you play better music.

If you play better music, you have more fun.

If you have fun, you want to practice more.

If you practice more, you get better…

"I place a good deal of trust in the power of clear, honest thinking; I trust that each person is essentially another version of myself; and I trust that all human beings are bearers of compassion and love (however squelched  layered over, or misdirected their compassion and love might be).  On the other hand, I know that there;s no guarantee my trust is well placed. i know I could be mistaken.  And so I must (I believe) accept questioning by others and also ask hard questions of myself, so as to keep my hubris in check , and perhaps catch and repair errors."
--Phil Neisser

“Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.” -Robert Fulgham


"“You must give up the life you planned in order to have the life that is waiting for you.” – Joseph Campbell

My Teaching Philosophy:

I love learning.

Teaching others is to love learning is the capstone and the foundation.

I love music.

Actively nurture with joy, respect, and humor.

I love changing apathy to passion.

I love having a ridiculous amount of fun.

Define Faith:
Wife: "Trust"
Son: "Belief"
and after reading scriptures "Love".

Pondering about life and the Tao:

White circling black

Blue circling red
water, fire

two raging equals

but we can't live in them equally

or pretend to be balanced on top

Sink and soar

Everything you pick up,
    you must put down.
However,
    by curiously picking up
    and honestly put down,
we find what we always have been.

Rev

from:   http://articles.elitefts.com/training-articles/the-three-teachers/

There were once three immortal teachers named Failure, Mistake, and Consequence.

All students have met them, and all students have learned from them. Some have learned more than others, for these teachers are harsh and can be unforgiving. Because of this, some students are scared to learn from them again. They choose to study under another teacher named Comfort and never take the chance to meet these great teachers again. This new teacher feeds its students pride, which makes the students’ weak in mind, body, and spirit. He also gives them a cloak called Excuse to cover the scars they received from the great teachers. Oftentimes, those from the school of Comfort will laugh at the scars covering their peers because they’ve become drunk off the pride they’ve been fed.

All elders remember the pain and suffering Failure, Mistake, and Consequence bring. Yet, some elders forget the lessons they learned from the teachers, exaggerate their time spent under them, and vow that we are better off without them. However, some elders embrace the scars from their lessons and view them as beauty. They can do this because they believe the scars made them the person they are today. The others believe the scars make them ugly, less than human, and wish they would just go away. Furthermore, some elders try to shield the students from the lessons of the great teachers because of their own former pain and broken dreams. As clever as these elders are, the teachers are even more so. They will always find a way to teach the students.

Do not lose hope, for there are some brave students who become warriors and spend their entire lives studying under these teachers. They are armed only with the weapons of an Open Mind, Resolve, Perseverance, and Purpose. If you come across these warriors, you have three choices: 1) You can choose to help them by offering support, love, and the stories behind your own scars. 2) You can choose to study instead under the teacher Comfort, which allows you to criticize and mock the students for learning from the great teachers, or 3) You can choose to reclaim your weapons, join them, and become a warrior yourself.

The temple has a prayer list.   Perhaps writing a personal one also would be beneficial.

"In times of tragedy, look for the helpers.  They're always there.  Perhaps on the sidelines, but the helpers are always there."


---Nancy McFeely Rogers

"A Doctor without doubt is not a doctor at all; he is an executioner!"
--Hercule Poirot   (from the tv show :)

Doubts are not a weakness to be solved.  Perhaps they can be the Holy Ghost whispering to "Dig deeper here..."

Saying or expressing love, caring, or even appreciation can be very awkward and tricky at time.  The cowboy (rough, tough, and no emotion) culture that we can get trapped in from time to time doesn't help the situation.  How can I love if I am not open (or venerable) to being hurt from the loss of the love.  Here are three ways that Mr. Roger's used to shows affection or care for others:

1.  Sign language:  interlocking the index fingers to show friendship.

2.  The numbers 1, 4, 3 for I Love You.

3.   "IPOY" used as showhand (code) for I'm Proud of You.  Why not create a secret code to make something normal or mundane into something unique?

143,

Rev  

This blog is:

Words that resonate with me and remind me why I love a nickname I've been given: Reverend.

"A friend is more than a therapist or confessor, even though a friend can sometimes heal us and offer us God's forgiveness.  A friend is that other person with whom we can share our solitude, our silence, and our prayer.  A friend is that other person with whom we can look at a tree and say, "Isn't that beautiful," or sit on the beach and silently watch the sun disappear under the horizon. With a friend we can be still and know that God is there with both of us...There is a twilight zone in our hearts that we ourselves cannot see. Even when we know quite a lot about ourselves--our gifts and weaknesses, our ambitions and aspirations, our motives and our drives--large parts of ourselves remain in the shadow of consciousness.  This is a very good thing.  We will always remain partially hidden to ourselves.  Other people, especially those who love us, can often see our twilight zones better that we ourselves can.  The way we are seen and understood by others is different from the way we see and understand ourselves.  We will never fully know the significance of our presence in the lives of our friends.  That's a grace, a grace that calls us not only to humility  but to a deep trust in those who love us.  It is in the twilight zones of our hearts where true friendship is born."
        --Fred Rogers