W8 D5- Energy Profile

In every action and reaction energy is carried across. Every cause and every effect in the loom of Cosmic ‘Nothingness’ works non-stop.

Truth of nature taps from real time energy and it will find itself connected at some point to virtual energy (virtual in the sense it is imaginary but allowed on account of synergy of living among others.)
I shall try to give an example of virtual energy. The small town girl from rural America who is suddenly thrown into a big city has to perform twice as hard in order to stay in the race. She has to dig deeper into herself, grit and tenacity with which her forefathers tried to eke out a living and also draw from her new environment. This in most cases gives an extra dimension to every man or woman who has found his/her goal in life. Something of a ‘second wind’ these winners can tap in the race of life. Truth of nature finds an extra leg in the truth of experience in the potato-sack race, as it were.
Every man or woman has an energy level that is as distinct and one of a kind; It is a recorded history of a life form in terms of energy spent or gained. It may be compared to a tree having annual rings. Analogy of the growth rings in a felled tree is relevant here. Age is determined counting these rings one for every year of its life, which vary in width according to the weather and climate for the year. Energy profile of you and me do not tell a lie and is true; it is indestructible and places each life-form in terms of his or her times where past has its relevance and future one may well decipher in terms of energy level he or she has at her disposal.
Truth of a life-form comes up for comparison with the Absolute. The growth rings are compared against master patterns to establish the felling year. Similarly every action and reaction, which caused energy to expend or gain has Truth Absolute for reference.

benny

W8 D4- War's Monster Child

Angel of Destruction presided over the angels who took sides. Kings of the North had Angel with Illustrious Name (AINA) while the Kings of the South had Angels with Everlasting Glory(ANVER). Down below the kings were out to destroy each other with all their might. Each angel asked favor from AOD on behalf of his client while the rest of the angels were weighing pros and cons. Each had something to say except Angel Bang-up.
After the battle was fought, power over the nations changed hands just as it happened after the WWI. One war engendered several others, each time one new nation came to the fore and it so happened that the whole world had learned the art of war thoroughly.
Angel Bang-up went to the Angel of Destruction and asked for a favor. He said,” Things are not the same after these kings, presidents, generalissimos, warlords and accountants have taken control over the nations. I ask favor that a few stars may be allowed to die?”
“Why stars?” AOD was skeptical.
Angel Bang-up replied,” Stars in their death convulsions send out all their energy pell-mell. Let some beggars mop them up so we shall see war being fought in a new way. It must teach those beggars who gave themselves airs as Absolute Monarchs, Il Duce, Feuhrer, Presidents and Generals what they have set in motion.”
Yes, several stars quietly died in our universe and do we not see war now being waged totally in a new manner? Stateless ragtag bands of assassins, who use a strange mixture of ideology and religion like iron and clay.
Iron and clay? You may ask. Yes, in answer I urge you to read that vision of the Babylonian king in the book of Daniel (Ch.2). The image had feet of clay mixed with iron. Is it not? To those who are interested may I suggest Babylon of old pertains to the Middle East and Iraq in particular?
benny

W8 D3- Investing In Future

A cobbler named Alam Moosa sat daily by the Kings Way and solicited his trade; he had at first a shady tree so he could work comfortably in its shade and chat with his customers while he worked. He thought life was so easy but Majid, the King’s broom-keeper had a quarrel with him. The reason? He didn’t get preference over riffraffs who waited for their shoes to be repaired or shined. So he decided to call on Haroun, the officer in Public Works whose only point of glory was his moustache that when waxed and tipped measured three feet.
Majid one morning called on him and praised him sky-high and asked for a favor. He wanted the cobbler to be shifted to a place where camels were shut up. Poor Alam Moosa cursed his bad luck. But King Haroun al-Raschid one day passing through the way found him at work and asked him to work inside his palace, near the window where he gave audience to the public and heard their grievances.
One day the King having heard so many complaints about the Public Works official sentenced him to be hung. The hapless man before his death passing by the cobbler asked what made him prosper. He said,” My grandfather,. His only glory was his moustache as grand as yours. So he got his neck broken. Before dying he warned me not to make my moustache any grander than what Allah had made it. He also warned, ‘ Just remain unnoticed from man’s envy and pride. So I took the trade of a cobbler.’ Since I obeyed his last words he took care to keep me from all harm.”
Because we don’t see what happens to all those who are dead it doesn’t necessarily mean they have nothing further to do. For example all those energy at their disposal and not used where does it all go to? I suspect they are still players in the infinite framework of Cosmos.
Future is where the present invests in loose changes of energy so death is merely a technicality.
benny

W8 D2- War On Many Fronts

Space is like a pond where every event taking place makes its own ripple. Where it may begin or end is not what you and me can track but we sometimes get to see its effects in part. From where we are positioned. As a terrestrial being.
Who would have thought those Mujahiddeens whom the USA armed and equipped with all the sophisticated arsenals the CIA could deliver covertly (and trained them also, didn’t they?) would be used against them? Their help was for a specific purpose.: to defeat the Soviet hegemony. ( The USA feared USSR much more than a dispassionate look of the ground reality that was warranted.) The Reagan years were a tightrope walk between that age-old fear of Communism and of the Revolutionary Council of Ayatollahs who had taken control of Iran. Little did the President or his men understand what was in the air: these mullahs were only harbingers of something worse and they would be all the more dangerous by the arms and money supplied by Capitol Hill. Capitalism which keeps the very social fabric of America naturally will drive the powers-that-be to concentrate all their firepower to combat Communism or any regime that that stands in the way of their profits (The bloodbaths in Latin America in the 70s and 80s for example).

America against Russia: but this simple equation is enmeshed into so many chains of events that are already developing into discernible shapes. In fighting on one front both factions are feeding many equations to clarify their positions. There is no statesman, however brilliant or sagacious he may be, adequate enough to foresee these in its entirety or circumvent them.

benny

Week-8 All For One, One 4..

Out in the savanna one sultry morning one ape-man stood up and he wanted to scratch himself. The rest in that group saw him do it and thought,” Show-off!” How jealous they became! So far walking on all fours was good for them. Having enjoyed a good scratch our ape-man thought of getting back into the group. Meanwhile all the ape-men whispered to each other to say,” Let us not give him a feeling he started something.”
The ape-man who first walked on two legs upon coming to them exclaimed,
” Fellows, there is much to be said for walking on two instead of four.”
One elder shot back,” Don’t try to teach me tricks. I have been walking on two since I was so little.”
“No you didn’t!”
“Says who?”
While they argued back and forth the rest had found thousand reasons for walking on two. The apes could raid other groups and make a faster get away was one such idea. They also found they could reach out and pluck fruits without stopping their trek. Another thought that give little room for the sun to beat on their backs and so forth.
In short, one small step for man brought thousand giant leaps in human progress. Why? If one could think something new all others could similarly bring variations and such wide applications of one single discovery became their common strength.
Fall of a sparrow or man create a vacuum: the tenor of Queen Victoria’s reign isn’t same for the Edwardian reign. If Victoria represented prudery at its worst, Edward VII was noted for his laidback style. Well, no age continues exactly as the one preceeding or following it. Viewpoints and experience of those who fills in a vacuum being different each must create anew by which
Winston. S. Churchill though he was a good war PM , the British people rejected him in the first post-war elections. For he represented the bleak war years and the people wanted change.
benny

Week 7- Summary

Life Begets Life

During the Creation Varuna, the Presiding Deity in charge of the Cosmic Order called the Air, Fire and the Water and said: “It is Earth I am setting out. How shall it be?”.
Agni wanted the globe to be a fire ball; Varuna made its bowels filled with fire. Air suggested earth should be a pot of incense; so it was. The wind gods blew health and cheer all around.
“Oh I shall water earth so all life forms can follow its course.” The streams watered the land the sea was green and azure blue.
When earth was ready Varuna set it upon a tortoise. The elements were perplexed. “Why a tortoise?”
“All Your suggestions were good and I followed
them.” explained Varuna. “But see how it still wobbles?”
So I let a tortoise to give that stability.” Varuna explained after he was finished.
“Why a tortoise? A mountain would have done better?” “Not for his shell alone,” the Deity interrupted, “stability of earth can come only from the living, even if it be some small creature as this.”
benny

W7 D7- Small But Indestructible

If the fall of a sparrow or a swan can make a ripple that shall go on and on till eternity (or infinity) are we just exhalations lost in mists of time? Or zeros? Of course we may not figure in Fortune 500 or in People’s magazine. But we are part of a wave that shall go on and all that we stood for, and Truth for which we suffered shall connect: Oneness of Things.

Life begets life and all those good examples we initiated shall encourage in some future some life forms that may need a hint or inspiration in their time and place. One says ‘Eureka!’ and like Archimedes of old shall go on to change the world with his idea. How does he do it? Because we inspired him in so many ways (but he may not see precisely as to whom he ought to be thankful) he would have made it possible. So we have justified our lives in the way we stood for truth . Didn’t we?
benny

W7 D6- Our Incompleteness

We are homo sapiens or the wise ones. One mark of our wisdom is to make the most of our finite nature. Time-motion study allows us to avoid unnecessary clutter and we try to save on effort and bother. Another feature of our ability to save time is in the way we focus. Our mind lets us focus on what pertains to us, like we can in a party carry on a conversation with another with all that noise of dinner guests in the background. You may recall the story The House Of Joy. (W2 D6) No two persons see things exactly line for line or comma for comma. Blame it on our finite nature: We all are sojourners of the earth holding a relative position and how we scan absolute position isn’t the same.
(W6 D5-ii)
There was a scholar in Bassorah in the times of Haroun al- Rashid. He was a Hafiz having learnt Koran by heart, an honor which he let all and sundry know. One morning while passing through Potter’s gate he came upon a couple of scholars who were discussing from the Juzw. Being welcomed to join them he went headlong into their debate giving his own interpretations to the words of the Prophet. An ass who passed by pulling a cart of earthenware pots heard the nonsense which the Hafiz palmed off for scholarship. The beast laughed so hard. The cart puller used his stick which was to no avail. The ass went helter-skelter in fits of laughter causing of course lot of damage. The cart puller was beaten by those traders and he went home angry to find his woman in cheerful mood. It made him all the more irritated. He berated her for every fault under the sun. She took her anger out on her son who in turn found the ass who stood there munching some straw. The boy didn’t like the looks of the beast so he let him have a few blows with a stick. He ran thereafter to pick a quarrel with his mates.
As soon as the boy had left, the ass turned to his mate who also had carted the pots the same morning, and said, “ How can you stand there and watch that brat rain blows on my back?” The ass was fuming still. He added, “ I am beaten for no fault of mine?”
In a chain of events each life form will telescope into certain sequences and from differing standpoint, which however does not make the sequence lose its connection.
benny

W7 D5 Unchained Events

“Even the fall of a sparrow must make its ripple in this Cosmos and shall negotiate with every other ripple; but would find its own equilibrium. Oneness of things. Consequently in that interaction every material being, animate as well as inanimate must redefine its position in relation to waves created by a sparrow.”

I quote again my post of yesterday because it underpins a great truth. The key to the working of Cosmos is not an indifferent Nature but life forms are rendered sensitive by Oneness of Things. God is Wisdom and Power. Each of us interact in varying degrees in response to it. But never as robots, programmed to perform in a predictable manner. Let me illustrate it with a story:
Prince Siddharth (who later became known as Buddha or the enlightened One) in keeping with the traditions of the royalty was taught archery at an young age. When Mahirshi Dhanyawad visited the palace, the king wanted to show off his son’s skill to the visitor.
The prince took his bow and arrows and stepped into open grounds. Seeing a swan in midflight he instantly brought it down. The prince sent his attendants to fetch the bird. But Chandal, a boy of lower caste who had reached the spot first felt pity for the wounded bird. Never caring whether the bird was rightfully his or not, he took the arrow out and applied some poultice from herbs. No sooner had he done his job than came the servants from the palace and demanded the bird. The boy resisted and was slapped by them. Before they could do worse the boy’s father came hurriedly and asked pardon for his behavior. What did the father do? He broke a twig from the nearby Neem tree and beat him for his impudence, saying he should never interfere in other people’s business.
The fall of a swan can set a train of events in which a tree may be broken off as easily as a boy who unjustly may be beaten. It can go on and on but if I follow it to its end I might be at it till doomsday. That would be awful is it not?.
benny

W7 D4 - Fall Of A Sparrow

If Satan is such an attitude what would God mean to me? God is absolute and Truth. Oneness of Things to which everything that is true must find it natural level.
Even fall of a sparrow must make its ripple in this Cosmos and shall negotiate with every other ripple; but would find its own equilibrium. Oneness of things. Consequently in that interaction every material being, animate as well as inanimate must redefine its position in relation to waves created by a sparrow. If true for sparrows, so shall for us.
Tailpiece:
Oneness of Things or God draws all events and matter into it. A part of which is done by collective experience and in part, because of material nature that makes up our visible universe.
benny

W7 D3- Who Or What Is...( 2)

A fellow was tirelessly pursued by a blackshape; much to his chagrin it also did exactly as he did. Fearing for his soul he went into a hilly region and the black shape was right behind him. “ Either I shall shake him off or I will be Satan’s prey!” he thought and turned around and shouted,” Satan get off from my back!” His shout was answered in thousand tongues. Wonder-struck he stood still. In the high noon he saw the blackshape had crawled under his feet totally in defeat.
“Hey Satan you are my shadow!” Never again it troubled him.
We make too much of Satan. Why is it? We have always something to talk about? Something to put blame on for all our failings?
Or is it some kind of a diversionary tactic?
Satan is for many as necessary as going to the pub or hanging out with the boys. Satan is an attitude that perhaps helps us to avoid facing up to God and His commandments?
Let us now look at Job’s case.
Poor Job suffered unjustly and to heap hot coals on his misery Mrs. Job had a practical solution. Just blame God and be done with it, she said (Job 2:9). His friends, all of them well meaning of course, were no better. In their eyes Job deserved what he got. More so, in the way he occupied the position of the victim. He could see nothing blameworthy in his past actions or thoughts. Yet why he had to suffer? He was right in a sense. He dealt within his time and place. He erred in excluding his connection with others. Had he seen Truth (as God who later in the book revealed himself out of a whirlwind) he would have revised his stand.
Coming back to my quote: for those who think they must be rewarded for their perceived ‘goodness’ like a handyman on completing of day’s work must be paid, such reversals as Job suffered would indeed seem unjust. Think of Satan not as a being but as a perverse attitude that makes you forget outside your own self and expectations. ‘There is a lot more going on, sir, outside your fence’.

In conclusion let me correct a popular misconception: Nowhere in the Book you find God as the cause for all the evil that visited Job. It was the bad attitude ( Satan I meant, to give it an anthropomorphic form), that stuck its poison into him. What would be that? Collateral damage of living among so many whose viewpoints are so different and often contrary must make the best laid plans of man and mice go awry.
benny

W7 D 2- Who Or What Is Satan?

“Even God cannot be agreeable hundred percent; you see Satan won’t let Him.”
Satan in the correct theological sense is a traducer. He was at it in the Garden (Gen 3:6) putting a false light over what ought to have been as plain as day. He was an accuser, (and even for a story I find it a masterly stroke to make his actions true to his type) and had he been in legal profession think of what his career profile would be! He would have been highly successful, no doubt about it.
But Satan had a serious problem. Everytime he was allowed to approach the Throne of Grace he didn’t see Him as Isaiah saw Him. Instead he came to reproach him for something or other. It was thus he meddled with the life of Job. He accused God of having bought the fear of God (Job 1:9-10) with all the material wealth He could give. In other words His Majesty was maintained by nothing more than a bribe. Yes an accuser he was.
Tailpiece: Prophet Isaiah had a viewpoint (Isa 6:5 ); so has Satan his.
(To be Continued)
benny

Week 7- Oneness Of Things

Time Presses!
How often we find our well meaning words and deeds are distorted and shown to be quite otherwise. For example Marshall Plan was initiated to make the war ravaged Europe find its feet. But there were noises from the Soviet propaganda machinery that the Plan was calculated to wrest Europe from Soviet domination. For any action that we initiate good or bad there is bound to be those whose interests are affected adversely. If we both are angling for filling in the shoes of our boss my success can only be at your loss.
Dr. Arrowsmith tirelessy worked to find a cure for Cholera. Having given his life to research he went on and at the point he was on the verge of a breakthrough he heard the news that another doctor in the same town had found a cure. It was a catastrophic piece of news! While Dr. Schawbs was feted and made much of, Dr. Arrowsmith went down. So he settled for another area where he could apply his hard earned knowledge. He went around villages and towns where people neglected the basic hygeine and taught them to prevent Cholera from spreading. When he in the end was dubbed as ‘the savior of the ignorant’ for highlighing the danger of water-borne diseases some critics though he had purposely tried to steal the thunder of his rival.
When Old Dr. Arrowsmith was told his pioneering work was the result of his envy and spite, he smiled and said,” Yes, one might say so. As for me I just wanted to be relevant.”
Tailpiece: So Marshall Plan came and went through a cloud of criticism: looking back we can say now, ‘Europe is well and thank you’. Where is the Soviet empire now?.
benny.

Week 6- Summary

Least of These
The gods were sure the leech was a mistake: an animal that somehow got out of hand. How well they had thought to the creation of lions and the like! But leech was a problem. There it was and nothing they could do about it.
Aeons later. Atlas holding up the earth developed DVT and somewhere a vein burst. He had his hands full so he asked the leech to do something about it. Of course he stanched the flow of blood and the vein closed itself as by magic. The gods who watched it were unimpressed, ”There is nothing to it. A beginner’s luck.” It was Hera who said, ”Just the same we shall keep him around. Accidents can happen.”
In the business of living a 100 percenter, good or bad is impossible. So what keeps the business going and for maximum good of life-forms are what needed.
By the way what makes you think you know a good man when you see one? If you think you are competent you are taking on the office of God. It is a blasphemy by any standard.

Truth Of My Reality
Who shall decide the truth of my reality? A gothic cathedral with its spire soaring high and clerestory windows letting in sunlight can speak an effective sermon to an eye tuned for it. The riot of colors that the rose window lets in or the harmony of sounds that emanate from the choir underscore the celebration of senses. The mass and form are solid and nothing in its construction show it as an ephemeral setting for ones spiritual needs. Yet in a setting that lays emphasis on its material nature can we not commune with God? Contrasting this with a temple that is left in deep shadows lit only by oil lamps to add to the mystery of worship one may find the presence of God. Does the least attention to our material world increase our spiritual perception? Or is it that in sustained emphasis of our senses that we celebrate our latent spiritual yearnings?
benny

W6 D7 God Is In The Details

A career woman who scrimped and saved her wholeworking life, made enough money to take a vacation. She took a passage on an ocean liner and would have gone round the world but off Java straits she fell overboard. Unnoticed and helpless.
She could not swim but having found a dinghy she safely made to it and clung for life. After a harrowing night and day she made to an island. The whole night on a desolate beach she went on griping how miserable her life was. She cursed her bad luck and all the more because she had walked all her life straight and narrow path, and she was a committed Christian who never missed a Sunday service. Of course she remembered how her rival of her schooldays, who was more beautiful and had all the luck to get boys, who all were well lined. ‘Rose! Rose! God favored Rose who never saw the inside of a chapel. But He made her live on a champagne and oyster diet. And I had to live on food coupons and hand-me-downs.” She cried and cried at the apparent injustice of it.
After she have had a good cry she thought,” If I could get my hands on her I could scratch her eyes out. By the way, where she is now I wonder!”
Next day she found answer to it. She was right on the island having escaped a similar fate some thirty years ago. She had made the island her home and learnt to survive. It was because of her experience and careful ministration that she survived her ordeal.
I wouldn’t say Rose was prepared by God to be of help for her rival for all her ‘goodness’. To make God go through such an elaborate charade to prove His providence on a human being would be an insult to His wisdom.
God equips each to overcome their human failings with the aid of others. Good and bad alike. The one who insisted on her goodness was shallow because she couldn’t see beyond her own narrow interests.
Tailpiece:
The socalled good people can learn from the bad and vice versa. Why? Think of each holding an unique viewpoint as a result of absolute poistion. Of this I shall come back to at later posts. Instead the good pretending holier-than-thou will miss the whole point. It so often happens in life, that it may be the bad who, because of their savviness in areas the self righteous have no idea of, could give a helping hand out of their sticky situation.
benny

W6 D6-Goodenss Me!

Why do the good men suffer and the wicked seem to sail through life?
There is not much of a mystery if you will only concentrate on the way we are connected to one another.
Look at surface tension: It can be in the words of Guy Murchie’ s words,” as the kind of energy that gives exaggerated strength to any interface between a liquid, gas or a solid and enables some bugs to walk on water, imprisons others in a drop… It was first described by Laplace as,’ the cumulative effect … of countless molecular attractions.’" (Music of the Spheres: Houghton Mifflin) In our urgency to be relevant we set off series of actions. These are events piling up onto other events already in circulation. Cumulative effect of the past must skew up carefully built up plans of today. History is replete with such instances that its meaning cannot be lost on any serious student of history.
“The great depression of the ’29 was not perceived while the Versailles Treaty was signed by leading statesmen of the day with an avowed purpose. If their idealism could have had a free run ‘the nations would have beat their swords into ploughshares’. Were they responsible or their noble sentiments at fault? Their actions came against economic and social changes and before long the world was plunged into a more violent conflagration. Truth can be demonstrated by any individual in his actions; and these are events and on their own. If good or bad events are fated alike to undergo subtle changes at every turn what shall man do? Man is only responsible for his life and he shall take personal satisfaction of having been true to his ideals. As a symbol he would also be a pioneer: he would help many others clarify their own positions because he showed how.
Thus morality of man must be judged from his deeds and in response to his times and place so his actions do make sense. In short it bears certain relationship to Truth.” ( extract: The Life of Aesop Part-III preface p. 202-203)
benny

W6 Day 5 Pious Lie, My Foot!

Fuzzy Shapes Of Truth
Sometime in 1532 a friar who accompanied Francisco Pizarro called on Atahulpa, the Inca chief in prison. The friar wanted to win a soul to Christ and the king was sceptical whether the Christian god dealt in stolen goods and retained the service of those who lied their way through in order to get what they wanted. Friar Vincente saw no difficulty with that. He explained, “A soul is the most precious thing before God. So we may tell a lie, a pious lie, so you may win eternal salvation.”
Atahulpa rued the loss of gold and silver and said,” I believed in Pizarro who must be a whoreson to have lied so smoothly. Doesn’t your king punish liars in his kingdom?” The friar defended the conquistador saying he did a service to his master.
“Ah yes, I understand,” said the prisoner gloomily, “ He lied for honor and saving of his own skin.” After a long silence he looked the friar in his eyes to say, “But you told a lie for the sake of God. I do not know which of the two is the bigger rascal.”
We may get confused where the truth ends and a lie takes hold of a whole range of human transactions since we are bound by time and place and have no way of seeing beyond a short range. In other ways we have no absolute standard with which to separate truth from lies. Incas sacrificed humans as much as Christianity is founded on the redemptive sacrifice of Christ. In what way the Inca practise becomes heathen and the other sacred?
Faith is the only criteria we have which is not same as having Truth Absolute.
So shall we leave that office to God and we may concentrate on what is within our power?
Tailpiece:
After Abel was killed God appeared to confront Cain and He said ‘..the voice of thy brother crieth unto me from the ground.’(Gen:4-10) Matter has its shadow, the cries of souls unjustly killed and falsely accused and defrauded. All these must come up against Truth Absolute.

W6 D4 After The Fall

What is this thing called Conscience? Why should we feel pangs of guilt or of having fallen short of the standard? Is it ingrained in our being?
In order to understand it we need to understand where we come from. Our material body is made up heavy elements scattered about by stars in their dying throes. Each of us is recycled out of matter in Cosmos: not a single molecule was created new for the purpose but drawn from every element, that was around since the Big Bang. At that point when matter was condensed to a point we all have had our place. There was no space or time outside that point.
Consider a square drawn on a balloon before it is filled with air. It represents you. Do you not see the square drawn on the balloon stretching out as it is blown to its maximum? The shape has changed but still your place is there. Similarly in an expanding cosmos you may consider yourself as a terrestrial being but your position is represented as it was before the balloon was filled with air. That position is Absolute position.
We are ‘star children’ (as I had stated in my post of W1day 4) and we happen to have made earth our home. As such each of us has a position in terms of cosmos which is called Absolute position. Consequently we have a viewpoint, which is as unique as of everybody else.
If we think we are terrestrial creatures well we are only right in a general sense.
2.
In a musical composition in E-flat for example the tone E- flat is the one towards all other tones seem to be attracted.
In relation to Truth Absolute every life form holds a position. Terrestrial beings that we are and struggling each day for a place in the sun our actions keep referring to it. All our values have time and place but they refer to Oneness which express Absolute Value. What we occupy is a relative position.
Tailpiece: In Christian theology the Fall (of Adam) must be this fall from Absolute position.

benny

News Of The Day

Suicide bomber kills 14 Iraqi soldiers
The terror campaign against Iraqi troops and police appears designed to blunt U.S. progress in creating a stable local force so the Americans can go home. U.S. military officers began noticing the new pattern of attacks last month.(Steven R. Hurst-AP News)
In Iraq and other trouble spots around the world we see a new variant: suicide bombers who are loaned out by Al-Quaida operatives for a cash reward. Merceneries who seem to think,’ if not for me at least my family will be comfortably off with my sacrifice.” A free enterprise as a method of interpersonal transaction bears very much the signature of the west. It has merely bred robber barons as we have seen in the Gilded Age of the last century, whose inheritors are still around plucking even a nickel out of wars that serves the interests of nobody else, even the nations in whose name such inhumanity is perpetrated. These fat cats have made themselves into conglomerates and their hold into the affairs of the nations are entrenched. Naturally where we see wars one after the other we need to ask ourselves: who stand to benefit from this? What are we to assume if a state of belligerence is continued?
Causes are merely smokescreen for self-aggrandizement of some.
In such a case there shall be other variants that could also assume causes and also create battlefields simultaneously in a manner we are not familiar or least capable of sustaining. How on earth shall we safeguard our water is not contaminated or the gas mains that run under the highways do not blow up? How shall we pursue happiness if our very daily lives are booby-trapped by faceless enemies?
These martyrs for a cause or for a bounty are more or less, pendent on irresponsible conduct of nations.
benny

W6 D3 A Unique Style

A child, as soon as he was old enough to hold a pencil, astonished his parents by his drawing skills. None in the family was known to have any connection with art.
‘May be it is all from my great grandfather who was a carpenter.’ insisted the mother as the child began showing great promise. His lines were so perfect that some rich folks in that village undertook to send him to an Art School.
Soon after graduation disaster struck. His good hand, he was a left hander, showed signs of withering. “ An incipient bone disease,” declared the specialist and added, ” it will strike all over, only a matter of time.” The young artist made his right hand take over. It was not easy but it served him as good as his left hand. To his surprise he found that his style was still the same. Years passed by. It became apparent that his feet now were as useless as his hands. He tried for a time to draw with pencil clenched to his teeth and his style as he could see was same as before. In the end he began teaching another his art. When he realized that he was as good as he, he said that he was through with drawing. He said that he was happy because he had found some one whom he could teach; “ he would continue exactly from where I stopped.”
When told that the style of his pupil was totally different, he replied calmly, ” I did not say that he will take me over but my drawing skills.”
A viewpoint
Uniqueness of each is demonstrated in the manner each places his or her emphases in life. One may draw heavily on lives of others but in each case time and place dictates certain adjustments in order to achieve one’s desired results. How one naturally set sight on what is the truth also must give its own uniqueness to a life.
Quick results or truth that endures?
benny

W6 D2 From Beyond The Grave

Truth of action is our way of making our presence felt among the living even though we may have bit the dust.
The anonymous inventor of wheel is dead and gone. But everytime we sit behind the wheel for a drive, are we not connected to the inventive genius of our forefather? His name escapes us but his work endures. Daimler, Ford or anyone who improvises and finds new use for his invention are his inheritors so as to speak? They have more direct connection which must make the relevance of the inventor of wheel endure even this day! Thus the question arises: Do the inventive geniuses ( like Thomas Alva Edison, The Curies to name a few) succeed partly because they receive extra push from the past?
A Wily Sugardaddy
The fellow known as a skinflint, and a sugar daddy died and not a dime went to his own wife who had borne no chilldren to him. Mrs. Skinflint contested the will because the bulk of the wealth went to the twenty- something girl who was the comfort of the old Skinflint.
In the end the Judge settled the matter thus: “ Miss Twenty something bears his child. So isn’t it only natural that he protects his interests?”
Tailpiece: The hard saying of Jesus: ”For whosoever hath, to him shall be given more,and he shall have more abundance…etc.,” (Matt: 13-12) Energy is one such mystery to which I shall come by and by.
benny

Week 6

Man Against Cosmos
Earlier on I had stated that apparent contradictions of our existence owe to Anomaly of Matter. We need to look at Cosmos as a block, a mold from which we are lifted: ‘Dust to dust, Earth to earth, Ashes to ashes,’ to paraphrase the line from our Common Prayer Book.
Cosmos works somewhat like a clock having different parts: only that each part seems to work at cross purposes but taken them altogether the clock still tells the correct time.
Look at the heart of an atom: is it not a desolate waste of enormous emptiness where you have positive charge of proton coming to terms with negative charge of electrons? The space within an atom is as orderly and awesome as Cosmos! In other words microcosmos correspond with macrocomos. Yet where attraction of larger bodies in macrocosmos depends on gravity, within an atom electromagnetic attraction holds proton and electron! (This attraction obeys the same Newtonian inverse-square law that defines force of gravity between sun and planets.)
Such anomaly must hold its secret for the gravity, which governs our Earth while what envelops our body cells,- virtually indestructible, and knit together by practically nothing but surface tension.
What we call life and death are states, which must correspondingly bear a certain relation: since both states are woven out of the distaff of our material form. As sleep and wakeful state.
benny

Week-5 -Summary

Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, the Nobel prize-winning physicist gave a lecture at Harvard last year and he spoke on the subject of associative memory. He used the example of a rose, whose scent might evoke the memory of its color, and went on to reason that it took about three neurons to store the memory of an aroma. Truth of experience which we tap, be it ever so condensed as an instinctive act we can physically experience. ‘Fight or flee’ question of our ancestors in the savannah we reenact: and we know it as adrenaline rush. Such memory must be associated with material nature of matter of which neurons are the carriers.
Aren’t there cases of Near Death Experiences where patients have had hallucinations of angels in white guiding them through a dark tunnel into blinding light? Science may attribute them as a result of frontal lobes of the brain being starved of oxygen. Nearly all those who survived NDE have attested to their life having changed with it. (I am not citing St. Paul’s converson on the road to Damascus.)
Our material body holds a shadow, which must extend far beyond we may put our finger on. Man against cosmos.
benny

A Slice Of Life

If our truth can only be an approximation of Truth, which is absolute is there any safe method by which we may be true most of the time?
2.
I was the Benjamin to my father. Being brought up in a Christian family my personal God has a form so distinct from any other. Just as my view of the world has its own signature distinct from those of my brothers or sisters. Be that as it may my religious essence is validated because I have a life to live. Others can only make any sense out of me from my actions. So it makes sense if I make truth of action of paramount importance. Doesn’t it? So I shall hitch my truth (of actions) to Truth.
Truth has for me a well-defined face and I call it God. Being brought up in a Christian family such an idea holds meaning to me. As an artist if that face should resemble that of Michaelangelo’s God ( Creation of Adam) who shall take me to task? But to all intents and purpose being connected to a painting would not help me in my actions. These should fall or stand for the very truth it holds in relation to the whole.
Decades ago one night I got up with a start from my sleep, struck by the verse with which Moses blessed Benjamin. (I was already familiar with it I must mention here.) It is as follows: “The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him; and the Lord shall cover all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders.”(Deut 33:12) How does one dwell between God’s shoulders? I knew from this who held me in place. The apparent reason for such a mysterious revelation made sense only years later. By that period I had outgrown in my thinking of a Personal God and duly unchurched myself. And when the crisis would strike at me I could escape because of the single article of faith. I was in the plan of God: no matter if it was called God or Motion that keep Cosmos pulsating,- Oneness of Things as I might aver now. What impacted me in such inexplicable manner long ago had like iron entered into my soul.
Thanks to my faith in my place in the scheme of things when the trouble erupted I could ‘with the wings of a dove’ find refuge in love of a woman and my life has never been the same since.
Highlight of my life is in the lowlands’as I would tell my youngest sister after I had found my feet in Holland. Because the revelation from a verse in the Bible and actual event show a lapse of time do I discount my experience as nothing? Before Truth absolute there is no time or space. My faith was all that mattered.
benny

W5D7

Benchmark

Telemachus who was the tutor of Basileus, one day set him a task. The boy of 14 was to take the measurements of a water tank. The tank was of regular shape and occupied one side of the house. Basileus measured the tank as he was told.
He had to set it in the parchment where the house was already drawn in detail. Though he had the size correct he could not place it properly since he had overlooked one important detail: he had not measured the distance of the tank from the main building.
The tutor explained the triangulation method by which he could set the tank true in relation to the known: the house. Later in the evening he said: “knowing the world itself doesn’t make life good or proper. It must be in relation to a fixed point. Truth is that point. It gives every life its proper value.”
Aesop who was present never forgot that lesson. (Selected: The Life of Aesop p.20)
benny

W5 D6

A Stool Pigeon
The day Messiah, The Anointed One, came to Jerusalem the populace welcomed the prince with great jubilation. As a mark of respect the president let all the prisoners free. Rabbi Benn Weiss was there to watch the festivities. While talking with Mordecai the security chief, whose office had become redundant, the rabbi saw how one prisoner on coming across the much dreaded police chief jumped in panic. The security chief commented he was a prisoner who was shut up for revealing the secret nuclear program of the government. “He blew the whistle loud and clear.”he said.
“You mean he told the truth?” The rabbi could not believe it. Later they met one who sidled up to the chief and said,”I have some news to inform. Wanna hear?”
“ Shoo! Scram!” bellowed Mordecai. The rabbi asked if he wasn’t interested in hearing him. “Now I am a free man. I don’t wish to hear from a stool pigeon even if it were truth.”
One statesman ( I think it was Winston S. Churchill) once commented that for security reasons truth must be concealed in a tissue of lies. Would it mean then that a lie has much to be recommended for? No far from it.
Our finite factor shall always trip us up where we wax eloquent over Truth. Today in the face of a perceived threat civil liberties shall be curtailed and you shall be called to dissemble and lie because security of the nation is at stake. It has set a precedent. From it shall follow for any government to raise the bogey of terrorist threat or something else in order to perpetuate its misrule. All these are unjust and pendant on the ‘lie’ let to stand. Every truth we simplify must create a host of lies, which must in the long run cause more mischief and irreparable tear in the national fabric.
The tyranny of the majority is thus a great evil and an antidote which I think, lies with an individual than with the whole. Truth of action thus shall have different emphasis with the nation and with individual. Where are the pioneers who dare to think for themselves?
Hello, Tom Paine here I salute you!
benny

W5 D5

Familiarity Breeds Complacency
A legend that had persisted from the age of Three Dynasties in China related to the existence of a curious Sun- disk. A few who were in the know would aver that it was dropped from the sky. It lay in a forest on the eastern slopes of the H- mountain ranges. It was a day’s journey so Confucius set out to see it, accompanied by his grand son Tsesze.
It was a large monolithic stone, as smooth as no earthly sculptor could have hoped to achieve. There was a large void at the center. As a celestial gift it was beyond words, said the sage. In order to examine it in detail they had to negotiate their way over a series of stones laid across a stretch of shallow stream. At every turn they found that they could see through that opening a changing scenery which was like inspecting a large scroll painting. They stood there awed by the scenic beauty for long.
As darkness fell they realized that instead of looking at the celestial object they spent time admiring the view that reminded them of their own backyard. Before they turned to leave Tsesze asked his grand father,” Is it not curious that had we known that we would spend time the way we did today, we had done better stayed at home?” Later Confucius observed that the nature of life was such that a man was more at ease with what his senses impressed upon him. ‘ It is the obvious that ought to make him think of what made it obvious to him in the first place’.
benny

W5 D4

Gilding The Lily

Our values cannot be said to apply for the infinity; nor can they correspond for the Absolute. As finite beings we have to account for our feet of clay. Like the story of the worm (W4 D6) High Priest Melchizadek may make him sit on the throne with him. But what does he see? Only what he what he wants to see: what is familiar and he is comfortable with.
A finite factor makes out truth in colors. It is false. Half-truth is as bad as truth, which is laid out in unnatural colors. Unnatural in the sense that Truth is white light. So adding anything be it a pious lie or anything else, could only vitiate its absolute value.
Truth of action sets out new directions in terms of our material nature and experience.
Truth of action gives solidity to our lives inasmuchas they are carried over by future generations in some form or other.
benny

Pioneering Spirit-2

How To...
No one is too old to learn. Even this day we can do things differently and for the better. 'Iron sharpens iron' has truth of the commonplace. It is natural. You speak harshly to one who has annoyed you and the other returns word for word in the same way and the result? a quarrel. 'Turn the other cheek...' as Jesus say is a creative way of stopping a quarrel. Truth of action works for the positive and for larger good.
benny

W5 D3

Pioneering Spirit
Albert as a child was abused and terrorized by his drunken father who also burgled whenever opportunity arose. His mother who loved her bottle more than the runt of the family sent him to a school that freely took pupils who were very poor.
The boy was at first awkward in school. But a teacher saw some spark in him and introduced him to good books and also taught him to compete in sports. After school he took a job and he worked his way up from the bottom. Years later he was put in a position of trust in a company.
His fortunes didn’t increase though his good character was well vouched for. His family meanwhile grew and his wants also spiralled. At one critical moment in order to meet a sudden shortage of funds he was tempted.”Do I just ‘borrow’ from company funds in order to meet a debt of honor or ask for time? Finally he decided to pay penal interest than jeopardize the trust of his peers.
Years later in his autobiography he explained that he wanted to break the vicious circle that his father had set him into. He had education and some good examples to go by. So he worked on the good examples as much as he could. Wasn’t it easier for him to take a leaf out of his father’s example and excuse his failures?Albert explained that he thought beyond himself and needs of the hour. As he looked at it had he taken the easy way out of his financial difficulties it would have made it all the more harder for his own children to go straight.
His actions therefore had to be something beyond a recurring mode of behavior that he was familiar with.
Tailpiece: Truth of action makes sense to him and others and also addresses beyond time and space. By striking out new ways to delineate truth we are pioneers in one sense.
benny