W12 D3

Blind Chance ©

Agastya a householder from Tulu desam, who lived in the middle of two constantly fighting neighbors Ambu and Subbu, had enough of his life. He went to Kailas to meditate. He received in due course enlightenment and his mentor asked him to choose a gift. He chose a deity in gold as large as a man’s palm.
“Chance it is called.” The mentor replied as he waved him away.
Before he reached his home he came along a river where one man was about to make a hole in the river. “Don’t,” Agastya ran up to him. “It is chance which brought me to save you.” To his great surprise he was Subbu, his neighbor.
Yogi Agastya gave him his image and said,” Remember Chance has saved you.” Not long after Subbu went on a journey and he carried his image for his protection. While passing through a forest he was waylaid by robbers and was killed. Why for the gold he carried.
The image was solid gold.
As soon as news reached his home Ambu the other neighbor went to the Yogi and fell at his feet and said “Chance which you brought was for my rescue. Was it not?”
Chance has to be explained in terms of total interaction of life forms. Chance being such that it ceases to be merely chance where life foms can build up on chance to their own profit.
Where dinosaurs perished gave the mammals an opportunity to flourish in the absence of competition. Montaigne, the essayist in one of his essays writes to this effect: any man’s gain is a loss for another. The First cause lets both chance and certainty to operate.
Tailpiece:
What motivates the reality of the form whether it be for good or bad must reside in the same reality that drives the system.

W12 D2- On Chance

Premise # 2
“ If series of happy coincidences caused the disparate elements or matter to come as one form due to First Cause, or Chance it must also explain every certainty that hangs from such fortuitous occurrence. .”
If two kings of equal rights and authority rule the kingdom and exercise their authority to cancel each other can the kingdom survive?
OK you tell me life originated by chance; but have you noticed how man has fought his way up from his arboreal existence and onto plains and cities? If life forms could evolve into higher forms, species after their own fashion and march a predetermined path as it were, and pool their strengths collectively there is something that go against the very nature of Chance.
Or is it Chance merely another name given to certainty? Given the wisdom and power that we associate with the First Cause both can coexist.
2.
Is Chance a card up in the sleeve of Life?
Consider the earth some 500 million years ago,-The atmosphere of earth had little or no oxygen at all to begin with. What processes would have gone make it life- friendly would have also led to the building blocks of proteins,- sugars, nucleic acids and amino acids. In such a serendipitous sequence of events creation of a crucial compound called DNA on one hand and mutation on other hand were likely to happen. Life originated with DNA. For all these to happen it may have taken some 100 million years. Uniqueness of dioxyribonucleic acid lies in the fact that it can replicate itself; It also acts as a blueprint for manufacture of amino acids. DNA has only four basic molecules arranged in a particular sequence which specifies how the twenty or so amino acids should be arranged in a particular protein, how much is to be made and when. During the DNA copying process, a fault may occur due to varying reasons but what results out of an imperfect copy of DNA are proteins of different sequence-mutation it is called- giving rise to evolution. Chance is worked into evolution. Mutation is as a result of Ultraviolet rays, gamma radiations and sometimes certain chemicals also could often have interrupted the DNA copying process: all these occurring at the level of genes or a set of genes do not stretch the credulity considering the millions of years it has taken for life-forms to evolve. The main point is that while life-forms got altered DNA itself has remained unaltered.
Such accidents will help us to understand the role of Chance. But is that all there is to it?

benny

Week 12- Problem of Being

Premise #1
“Where a material form is made up to function as one whole, though its parts may have come from anywhere (within an open system or closed), it may be assumed in the absence of precise location of several parts the form be tied to what drives the system. “
Our Man From Flint ©
Our apeman ancestors at first lived as arboreal creatures swinging from trees while a group of antelopes (or their forerunners) grazed right close to them. They called these Wowee- wowee. They were then ponderous and dull creatures. Time passed. Our apeman went into the plains and then farther than they intended as a drought had made food scarce. One day a group of apemen went through a gorge but a boulder rolled down from top and killed a few under its impact. It made the party stop on their tracks; a few took up several splinters from the ground and stared at them with great wonder.
“Where did it come from?” One asked. The one who picked up a piece cut himself because he handled it carelessly. The upshot was that the group realized flint made an excellent weapon. After couple of trials- and hits and misses, they killed their first bison. Years later they went back to the savannah. They were amazed to see Wowee- wowee had trimmed themselves and had become excellent runners. Did their ability to kill animals made antelopes also shape up? Or a violent death by an accident impressed into their minds the potential of flint? There are clusters of ideas chance might tease of a mind sensitized to theorize. Any concept that a mind (given to abstract thinking) would formulate must be drawn from Cosmic Mind. As such how antelopes strike out their direction or a flint stone being invented as a weapon according to the premise are connected.
God doesn’t have to put nodules in rocks in order to test whether man will use it for good or bad purposes. Cosmic Mind fills any system closed or open and every species shall take what they will according to their own particular needs.
benny
Notes:
1.Antelope are herbivorous mammals of the family Bovidae, often noted for their horns. These animals are spread relatively evenly throughout the various subfamilies of the Bovidae and many are more closely related to cows or goats than to each other. There are many species of antelope, ranging in size from the tiny Royal Antelope to the elands. They typically have a light and elegant frame, slender, graceful limbs, small cloven hoofs, and a short tail. Antelope have powerful hindquarters and, when startled, they run with a peculiar bounding stride that makes them look as though they are bouncing over the terrain like giant rabbits.
2. Flint (or flintstones ) is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline silicate form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chalcedony and broadly part of the mineral group known as silicas. Flint is usually dark-grey, blue, black, or deep brown in colour, and often has a glassy appearance. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones.

The exact mode of formation of flint is not yet clear or agreed but it is thought that it occurs as a result of chemical changes in compressed sedimentary rock formations, during the process of diagenesis. ( Ack: Wikipedia)

W11-Summary

Spectral Behavior of Consciousness
Virtual consciousness of salt crystals knows the presence and absorb moisture from atmosphere; oxygen atoms will seek out hydrogen atoms.Yet another type of consciousness comes in play where humans are concerned. When we are sleep our dreams occur during REM phase. If we are asleep why would we want to move our eyes? Our self-consciousness though held in abeyance is taken over by another kind of consciousness: universal experience.
Memory of life forms in any given time and place making do with collective experience is in response to specific needs of them. Notwithstanding these finite modes guiding their actions, another kind all-enveloping Universal experience upholds swallows and humans alike. Cosmic Mind is the repository where the fall of a sparrow or a swallow does not go unregistered. Like the Psalmist who asks.” Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; in they book all my members were written…” Ps.139:16) every life form is part and parcel of the same reality.
Tailpiece: How our mind has access to Oneness is significant but in no way superior to that of a swallow. A swallow has its own key, which fits the Cosmic Mind. We have ours.
benny

W11 D7- Truth of the Matter

Sock eyed salmons leave the sea for landwards during the spawning season. In the month of July they swim landwards along the Fraser River in British Columbia to spawn. All the 10,000 of them has but a single objective. In order to continue their line from dying they rely on their memory. Area for memory located in my brain is a physical reality of my body. The selfsame reality is telescoped into collective memory of our species.
Truth of Nature
A man who was near death because of a weak heart and he underwent surgery. His heart valves were replaced with the latest state- of- art technology could devise. On his convalescence he came to know another one who narrowly escaped death. He said his heart was replaced and functioned with a pig’s heart.
Years later they went on a vacation and they were in the woods and they suddenly stumbled into a boar and the man with a pig’s heart yelled,” Run! “ They just escaped in the nick of time and later he joked,” I didn’t think he had come to renew his acquaintance.” He may had a pig’s heart but he responded like a human being. His truth of nature made him apply his instinct as humans and not as of any other.
benny

W11 D6- News of the Day

Is obesity socially contagious? AP news 7/25/07

If your friends and family get fat, chances are you will too, researchers report in a startling new federally funded study that suggests obesity is "socially contagious" and can spread easily from person to person.

Social ties seemed to play a surprisingly strong role, even more than genes are known to do. The study found a person's chances of becoming obese went up 57 percent if a friend did, 40 percent if a sibling did and 37 percent if a spouse did. In the closest friendships, the risk almost tripled.
"We were stunned to find that friends who are hundreds of miles away have just as much impact on a person's weight status as friends who are right next door," said co-author James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego.
The study was published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine and funded by the National Institute on Aging.
I suspect there exists a kind of social exchange conducted between individuals close to one another even where they are separated by distance. Obesity may be a symptom. Personal space of each can keep in touch with one another that may explain the psychic phenomenon like telepathy. In the absence of sufficient researches done or data available to us one has to take this as merely a possibility and nothing more.
benny

W11 D5- While In Rome...

A life form holds about it a personal space. This space is a facilitator and as such gives mind necessary inputs and something more. It facilitates every life form to handle energy or rather synergy to be specific. Where you and I are negotiating with others synergy is for the taking.
Where brawn or brute force make anyone resist to part with his energy level sell him an idea he will simply beg you his all for its sake. Pharaohs of old did it. Even now we see it happen.
A man advanced in years may hesitate from embarking on enterprises that require great energy outflow. If he has the assurance of working with energy levels of so many it is quite a different matter. It holds the secret of Pharoahs of Old Egypt who went ahead with building pyramids. All they needed to sell to the people was their divinity. An idea. On that hung yet another: how their godly comforts hereafter were ensured meant prosperity for the nation. Once it was accepted building pyramids became a sacred duty of each subject. Now patriotism is touted as though a sacred duty. Thus when a government wants to wage a war that is unpopular how does it sell it to the nation? It calls on your patriotic duty. In the flurry of intense hardsell: be it debating on the floor by lawmakers or catering to visceral level,(- drumbeating and flag waving that are orchestrated before every war) makes suckers out of us. While we send our sons and daughters for overseas what we don’t realize is that those who ask for our sacrifice see to that their own are spared under specious excuse or other.
Tailpiece: The Bill of Rights is a fine document that only an angel could have penned; unfortunately it is the devil who often gets to put it into practice.
2.
While in Rome do as the Romans do, so goes the old saw. Yes the moment we step into the Eternal City our mind transcribes like a shorthand of everything that we need to know. An awareness of the life around us and we can feel its peculiar energy envelopes us. In course of time we are able to work with it and adapt and even make use the thermals for climbing higher in the social ladder.
In touching with personal spaces of so many you are nourished and in the way you exercise your own level of energy you grow with time. Those who live and work in Rome or in Milan must work with the group wave of so many others. This is not the case for one who is in Puglia or in Bari.
Tailpiece: our personal space typifies the quintessence of cosmos. Or Cosmos is represented to us by the inviolate space that defines about us.
benny

W11 D4- A Slice of Cosmos

The birds and animals have survival imperative for which consciousness play an important role. In order to exploit past experience memory is what we rely on. If we do rely on memory to access to the experience of our past a swallow will no less. It can, in order to navigate during its winter migrations, create a mental map, so accurate than we, with our brain being much larger and more sophisticated are able to.
How swallows create a mental map tells all that a swallow need to know. Similarly we interface with the Mind( Cosmic Mind). Cosmos, as I mentioned in previous post is foreshortened to our finite range. A personal space. This personal space one carries about, as one’s birthright is a slice of Cosmos.
2.
Energy fills in what is every void bringing laws of Nature along; in such a close-knit embrace every life in the finite has its rhythm orchestrating with that of Cosmos. Be there a solar flare, sure some develop migraine even before it could have reached the sufferers in real time. All transactions between life forms are transformed into the Mind of Oneness, on a pivot of energy. Even where the parties have contrary views.
benny

W11 D-3- A Personal Space

Oneness made real on account of space: every time we move around we create space around us. Cosmos as far as we are concerned is compressed to an intimate space. A personal space. What would that mean to us? We are shot through with everything that represents our material world. Personal space. Somewhat like your pc where your being just touches energy that is enveloped within that space: you interface with cosmos on your context whatever be at any given place and time. If collective consciousness is the site you want to visit no problem. You bypass configurations that society and culture impose on you and respond. Intuition it is called. You are hard wired for this of which, secretion of adrenaline is but an example.
Every animal has its territory as personal space for any man who will instinctively bristle at being intruded upon. In order to understand you only try moving toward a cow grazing in a field. She will move away since you are violating her space. Every life form carries a personal space, which makes Cosmos real to each. Cosmos is foreshortened in our personal space. It is not infinite scale of Cosmos but our psychological feeling of being hemmed in is what comes over us. We shrink from others coming too close. For all that Cosmos is very much a part of us. We function as if that Oneness holds to all intents and purposes no value to us.
benny

W11 D2- A Contextual Problem

I shall further explain Cosmic Mind from its relevance to us in particular. Our mind is something more than our body and brain combined. ( Eyes look but in order to see they would require specific areas located in the brain. Similar the ears hear words but in order to understand once again the brain holds the key.) Our physical body is all wired, cavities and solids, colloids and fluids are part and parcel of the same reality that describes us. Without lungs or air to breathe what would we be? If you look closer we shall see we are connected and dependent on something else. It can go on and on.
In short our reality hangs on something else and so on. Some of us are susceptible to pollens in the air, and suffer hay fever: a sad reality that in turn owes to the reality of spring in the air. Seasons owe to the way our planet is tilted in terms of our sun. I could go on and on but it is not to my purpose to be a bore.
Can we like Canute of old draw a line to say,’ No more further. You intrude?’
2.
A material universe has invested its matter in life forms: What makes our form has left its thumbprints all over the universe that a life form cannot fail to notice it. A context. It gives us as well as aliens an orientation around which every problem may be solved. This context provides us certain clues to the nature of Oneness. The problem is how efficient are we to make it all work together?
We are used to solve our problems in a certain manner so in order to be used to space living in Mars or Jupiter we consider ‘terraforming’ as an option. By the same token an alien will be constrained to make the Earth adapt to its requirements in order to live here. Yes indeed! Just as we function with the Earth as our context, aliens will need their own context to relate to earth conditions. Aliens as well as the humans exhibit the characteristic of material make up.
A Martian is no more well positioned than man in the context of Oneness. A context is the vehicle for any life form to look closer to its set up.
benny

Week 11- Context is to Know

Mind of Man ©

While visiting caves at the XI mountain ranges Confucius was shown some rock paintings. They were extraordinary in style as well as technique in that those unknown painters went such lengths to hide their art from all. His guide said:" These caves were discovered by chance by some adventurous youths who wanted to make themselves a name by doing something extraordinary. While climbing the mountains they had stumbled upon the cave. Since then it has never failed to draw people from far and wide."
As the sage was about to leave the guide asked: "Why on earth would they wish to hide their art in such a manner?" Confucius answered: "I think whoever did it knew that they would be discovered in time. The master who conceals his thoughts in some symbols seeks another mind as subtle as his to find him out."
*The mind of man expresses itself in order to be understood. His art and language are symbols that anyone who has a mind for it would understand him.
2.
What is Cosmic Mind? For my purpose on hand I may explain it thus: Particular features of our own mind are rendered into a cosmic scale.

Cosmic Mind from the analogy of snowflake (W10 D5), may be understood as a catch-all for the various interactions entered by life forms as species as well as individually. Scrimmage of molecules of water with free-wheeling dust ( conducted under specific conditions) gives each its special form. If we do perceive form of an object and reach our own conclusions we may assume that other species shall evolve their specific modes to understand the same object. How we see a luscious apple and how birds see it are different. Cosmic Mind is to be understood as a framework within which each life form perceives purpose and place in general terms.
benny

W 10- Summary

In The Wilderness ©
Jesus was in the wilderness to be tempted of the devil (St. Mat 4:1).
Firstly he didn’t come in a form we all are so used to . He must have looked like a Jew, in appearance and he would have known his kinsmen and many relations from his father’s side. Especially he would have secured a personal recommendation from a friend of John, his kinsman who was most of the time out. He must have sounded as one who was special and one who could not be refused. No one knows what exactly could have taken place but the meeting offers some interesting possibilities. The tempter must have asked if he really thought of changing the spots of leopards or the color of an Ethiope into lily-white. Jesus wouldn’t be so easily drawn in. So he asks,
” There must be pressing reasons?”
Jesus would have paused and said with concern,” Hold it I have my own reasons.”
Tempter:” Do you think by assuming a form you can speak to man as one- to- one?”
J: “ No, on the contrary. To teach him to look beyond appearances.”
T: “ You are hardly qualified for that. You are almost illiterate and out of depths here you know.”
“ Perhaps you are right.”
The devil asks with concern,” There is plenty of time. Your mission can wait, till the fields are ripe for plucking. These people are not yet ready.”
Jesus: “Yes, this is what my Father also said. His Spirit burns still within me. So I shall repeat part of that conversation for you,” Yes, Jesus patiently narrates his mission of being 'lamb slain before the foundation of time’.
Jesus speaks up,” My Father asked if I wasn’t rushing to be set down as an example. He in fact said,’ what they did to my prophets and saints is in my Book of Remembrance. I leave it to you.. You know what I said? ‘ My example shall go long way when sound of my speech lose in the clamor of the world.’ Tell John if you meet him I can well understand what it is to burn for His word."
" John, whom you so hold highly thinks you have missed the point."
" That is his opinion. These people whom I have come seeking shall follow my call."
Tempter laughs him to scorn and asks if he really believed any one could repeat another’s life as exactly as one was lived.
Jesus replies him to not to go off a tangent, which he rebuts with a touch of annoyance. “ No I did not go off side,” Tempter retorts, “ You shall select your disciples to spread the kingdom of heaven. Will you not? They will jockey for power than imitate you.”
The Son of Man replies,” Take those disciples whom I shall choose for my ministry. Each apostle shall be as human as those whom he brings around. But in whichever manner they are added to the Church, my example would have made a difference. Wouldn’t they?”
Tempter: “ They are lost souls if I may say so. Ravening wolves in sheep’s clothing. Before they can quite catch on little errors on their way. When they think they are scriptural and speak with authority for you, they shall be mentally counting silver gained in the bargain. ”
“ Don’t be too quick to write them off,” Jesus rebuts him,” Many would be lost in this world, yes, here and now.” Jesus explains of other worlds of which no mortal eyes have seen or heard. “My servants shall know where they have erred when the time comes; they shall know they are in need of grace as those who resisted while on the earth. Grace is for all time.” (note: cf. Matt 20:16)
Of course tempter cannot understand it. He still bravely insists of proving him wrong if not misguided. Jesus explains,” After all My Father is the Lord of all worlds. Of Time. It is His responsibility.”
“ If so why waste your time doing miracles before those who cannot understand their true significance? Some may even imitate you and draw great crowd and damn their own souls. Pride made Moses fall. So shall damn so many.”
Jesus replies thus: “ I cannot deny myself because some weak souls may be tempted to use power as demonstrated by me. My example is my essence. Those who use power for their profit shall lose their way as a result. But still they are in the keeping of my Father. “
The tempter falls silent and suddenly he is excited,” Then why let yourself die a transgressor’s death?’ Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. This is not my word. But Law is specific on this point.”
Jesus wearily shrugs and says,” I am from my Father in heaven; also a man at least in flesh. I chose to be man rather, when I had freedom of choice. That is my right. Yes, my own choice.” He excuses himself saying he would need time for himself. The tempter leaves him for a while.
All that he can do is gnash his teeth and mutter, ” Hanging between heaven and earth. What a choice! Aha it is what happens of being two places at the same time. Lord of this universe, Bah!”
benny

W10 D7- Our Personal Baggage

Basil and coffee taken right after each other taste foul. Reason is simple. They have no complimentary molecules and each work to the detriment of the other. On the other hand blue cheese and chocolate complement each other. They have identical molecules, which bring out the taste better.
Each molecule has an attitude. We are a bundle of attitudes, which must partly owe to our material make up. Call it Adamic nature or carnal nature. We may fight them but shall never erase it completely.
As I mentioned earlier chemicals have effect on human behaviour (W9D6). Human pheromones trigger responses from the opposite sex. It is seen in societies where women are close as a group their menstural cycle also synchronize. From such varied observations can we not say our choices are by and large made for us from the way we are wired: socially and materially? Smell or taste is transient; and sensory vitality of that moment shall never be captured. Yet how often we catch a whiff of something in air and we feel nostalgia, triggered by our memory of smell?
2.
Yes we may sublimate our bad attitudes and aggression in ways we never thought possible and we may even pat our backs for doing so. I conquered my old self! Isn’t that a miracle?
Two Neighbors ©
Mr. Bad Attitude was a go- getter. His problem was he could not see beyond his nose. He knew of course which side of his bread was buttered. But to give the devil his due he tried to live up to his reputation that he took no nonsense. Yes he didn’t. His neighbor Mr. Little Guy was affected by his hollering and the way he threw his weight around. He picked up garbage that his neighbor let fall into his yard or let his dog run into his geraniums and spoil the beds that he had carefully tended. Then there was a great revival and I think Billy Graham passed through that area and preached. Who joined the bandwagon first? Mr. Bad Attitude, naturally,- and he became a preacher. If Billy Graham only prayed at the Inaugurals of the Presidents, Rev. Bad Attitude went house to house and caught the ear of old frail women who had so much money and bad conscience of making their riches on alimonies. While Bad Attitude founded Faith (in me) University and bigger became his operations what did Mr. Little Guy do? He became little older.
One day the two neighbors met in Grand Central Station while waiting for their trains. Mr. Little Guy let the lounge all to himself. While he exited Mr. Attitude pointed the fellow to his admirers,” See that fellow there? I pray for his soul still. His salvation.” There were some who said,” Amen!” Only that next moment he died of a stroke and his admirers said he died with a burden for the soul of an insignificant person. It was often touted as an example of Christian ministry.
Is there a moral to this story?
‘He that is unjust let him be unjust still…’(Rev.22: 11)
benny

W10 D6- Accidental Tourists, We

A Dog’s Life ©
One Hatshephut from galaxy CTA #769 ran out of fuel and where did it land? It landed right on Pensacola Dr. and on my neighbor’s garden. It was morning and the place just about starting up. Having got out of its spacecraft all in one piece it came and stood by the curb. It wondered seeing houses all in a row with well manicured lawns in front and fences, it came to life. I am a late sleeper so I was just about to hit the sack when I saw H. Hatsheputs as our canine folklore goes have some weird ideas. One of which from my direct experience must be like running out of gas while flying over Pensacola Drive.
Wowieee! I just found I could sort of understand it. Well, sleep could wait. I just smelled something exciting in the trail it left and Hatshephut saw me coming out wagging my tail. It just stood checking me out. It sort of clicked that I meant no harm. So it watched my neighbor walking his dog out. Hatshephut followed and when it saw the dog peeing in front of a bush it exclaimed, ” Just like back home!”
It must have struck the strange creature so hard that it came closer to say in a series of yells and growls that I could somewhat follow,” Back where I come form we speak to our chief just as it did.’
The accidental tourist did a somersault and asked conversationally, “Is it by any chance a Hatshephutian?”
“ No, a Labrador.”
“Whom it was talking to?”
“Nothing particular.” I replied wagging my tail.
” Ah in that case it must be beating about the bush.” After much prodding it explained, “ We Hateshephutians beat about the bush just like your Labrador but we let the chief get it, - every drop of it, between the eyes. Otherwise our chief may not quite follow our thoughts.”
He asked before he flew off,” What is your handle?”
“ Abram Heinz,” I said rather proudly,” Father of nations and there must be some 70 strains of mutts that owe to me.”
2.
National Research Council recently published “ The Limits of Organic Life in Planetary Systems” and has concluded that other forms of life different from those on earth are possible. Starfish, sequoias, salamanders and the rest of the earth’s residents are all surprisingly similar on the molecular scale.
Our senses of values are merely relevant to our planet.
Look at a nautilus shell and how it builds its shell is on the basis of self- similarity of matter. At first it makes a chamber filled with gas that shall act as buoy and goes on building series of chambers on the preceding one and so on. The first and the last chamber may show more variance than two adjoining chambers. Similarly we may assume values of a planet closer to our planet shall formulate values closer to us than one on the farthest reach of Cosmos.
(If we consider our universe we may as well consider multiverse also as a possibility. Of this point I shall come back later.)
We have our concept of truth and values that only explain our human condition. Similarly weird life forms also shall have their own values. Truth as we understand the term must be where all the values in multiverse agree. Is it a mathematical point; or is it Pure Spirit or Throne of Grace? Oneness of Things or God? Whatever any one may say about it shall remain inconclusive. We are speaking from our middle state, aren’t we?
Benny

W10 D5- A Matter of Form

Within the rimless universe a form may be anything from a pollen to gigantic stars against which our sun is but a trifle. A snowflake has a form while water ( without which it cannot have its being) is formless in that it assumes the form it is contained. It must in itself suggest a matter of form is incidental. Dogs have a form that distinguishes them as species from cats and so on.
Snowflakes could be formed by molecules of water vapor at the freezing temperature from a series of incidents: molecules now spin in a stately rhythm with free- wheeling dust, then scudding topsy-turvy upon other molecules and in the ensuing scramble give each particle of dust a shape. The fact that no two identical shapes are produced in the above process would indicate a certain design out of what must seem chaos. Dance of the molecules has its clear design though tempo may vary. If the crystal is like a composition of ferns it will have six- out pointing leaves; if like a star- fish, it will have six ribs. Out of Oneness what any material form assumes ( no matter whether one considers the form of man or a fish or a fern) has its own specific features. In other words series of incidents which take place in relation to Oneness give matter a form,-made to design as it were.
Tailpiece: A moralist might say Nature needs dust or grit in order to work out her marvelous creations. A speck of dust may be an impurity when it gets in the eye. A speck of dust or earth is a medium and made up of matter. It doesn’t mean evil as a necessary condition.
Benny

W10 D4- Half-Half

Let me draw your attention to the vision of St. John who saw New Jerusalem descending out of heaven prepared as a bride. (Rev.21:10) If we are going to be pure spiritual beings would it make any difference to us if the light of the city shone like Jasper stone , clear as crystal? It seems more to me in the fitness of things spirit of His children shall be as one like flame drawn from the pure Being. Of course I speak after the fashion of man.
2.
Any man who denies his carnal nature by some strict regimen daily needs our sympathy. He may be held among some as a saint. For doesn’t he starve himself or punish his body with whips or by wearing hair-shirt that you and I may never dare to do? Yes, these extraordinary methods have a form of holiness. But what such a total preoccupation with your body and its natural needs leave you? Very little for spiritual matters. Spirit is life and hence natural. Outflow of your spiritual life must envelop those who come in daily contact with you. Perhaps something of others may prompt you to reexamine yourself and correct where warranted. In such give and take you are defining your own place in the scheme of things. Being rooted to where you find yourself and having spread out your branches, (be it your family, neighbors, community etc.,) you are like a tree(Ps. 1:3). In daily negotiations with fellowmen you grow and resonate with the piquancy of your own spiritual life.
Spirit of man requires other fellow men for growth.
How spiritual do you think if all your waking hours are taken up wrestling with your body and its appetites? A ’ saint’ by excessive self- indulgence with one’s own self is merely reinforcing his carnality. He shall not give out any sweet savor of fellowship. I can only say he is a misguided fool and deserves our sympathy.
One Talmud scholar renders the shekina glory of the Lord God as female principle. Our middle state is such that we are reduced to resort to human speech and terms in order to explain the deep things of God. If we would make a mumbo-jumbo of holiness of God by certain ‘mysteries’ we ought to know that the pagans also resorted to such forms of worship in order to make a distinction between the sacred and the profane. We make hymns to glorify Him. However if the hymn must sound tuneful it must adhere to the rules of grammar and musical idiom or form which must equally serve Heavy Metal or punk Rock.
In order to be a pure spirit untainted by anything of human corruption is impossible.
benny

W10 D3- Choosing The Better Part

A skeptic went out after a bitter cold night to dump his trash across the yard. On coming home he saw his widowpane was covered by snowflakes and all he could think of was,” God sent his visiting cards one after the other and I didn’t know it.” Whatever he knew of God so learnt at his grandma’s lap as a child came flooding in. The least I could say is he transcended out of his everyday existence, and across time by such lowly things as snowflakes. His spirit in other words connected with the Oneness of Things.
2.
We let our spirits at times to rise above our quarrels with our fellow men and accommodate one another. We create conditions for peace. This creative spirit in one way aligns us ever so little with God. God is a creative spirit and we enmesh our lives in the way we exercise our spirits for raising the quality of lives around. Our body casts it shadow in the way we put it to work: spirit as a shadow. This is our middle state. Thus our bodies are means for touching upon Spirit that draws all things to Itself. Oneness of Things.
So though we be put to inconvenience or suffer loss for being steadfast to our rights and beliefs we have also gained thereby. Wouldn’t that be something? In dollars and cents we lost but gained in extending our area of reach or defining our spiritual dimension a little more clear. Such exercises conscious or spontaneous make it easier for us like Mary of Bethany to choose the better part. ( Lk 10: 39-42) Martha her sister of course was pragmatic and attending to the needful things that keep a household running. Wasn’t she right in taking on the onerous chores? But for Mary the presence of Jesus being present was too good to be missed. Thereby she let herself soar while Martha was encumbered. (There will always be time for chores and setting the linen folded exactly and place mats arranged neatly on the table. But when we may fix our spirit, our better part so we may bask in its glorious sunshine long after guests are gone well, there is something to be said for Mary’s freedom. )
Tailpiece: If we cannot conceive spirit without the agency of our physical form we may also safely assume God having an anthropomorphic form. A personal God,- it defines our middle state.

W10 D2- The Emmaus Experience

‘God is a spirit’, so said Jesus( St.Jn. 4:24). Can we worship him outside the body? If we all were pure spiritual beings this question would not have arisen. Unfortunately we are corporeal beings first hence the demands of our flesh have their prior claims obviously.
The last chapter of St. Luke gives an interesting incident. On the road to Emmaus a village in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, two persons were busy analyzing the recent events around the death of Jesus and they were joined by the risen Christ ; and they didn’t recognize him. Upon pressing the stranger partook their hospitality. Only when he broke bread during supper they knew who was in their midst.
Breaking of bread by no means can be termed spiritual. Neither expounding on Law and Moses can be considered spiritual. Had it been the case Cleopas and his companion would have known who was the third presence sooner. No their eyes were ‘holden that they should not know him.’ (Lu. 24:16) By a single physical act of receiving the bread we see that the two transcended their physical nature into another dimension.
In our daily lives are we to be condemened as reprobate or worthless because we are not drawn beyond the narrow confines of our body and creature comforts? The mass of men lead quite desperate lives,- while the Church keep plugging in their merchandise hardly engaging the needs of their flock. (LA Archdiocese has to pay some 660 million dollars in sex abuse case according to recent news item. )
Once again let me quote St. John (1 Jn.4:1-6) Being of middle state we may not have time to try every one with whom we have to negotiate here on earth if he or she be prompted by good spirit or bad spirit. In our fallible and weak state we have a sure prescription:‘ We ought to love one another.(vs. 11). The love of God, which the saint here talks about is universal and extends to to all.
Spirit of the Times:
Late Jerry Falwell who is associated with the Moral Majority could get millions of conservative voters registered, aiding in Reagan's victory and giving Republicans control of the Senate. ("I shudder to think where the country would be right now if the religious right had not evolved," he said when he stepped down as Moral Majority president in 1987.)
Since this fellow is defunct I shall not say further than this: had he studied the scriptures well instead of toadying to those who were in power and had prayed in humility God might have worked on his weak intellect. Well, he had no use for such guidance other than what his heart lusted after( Num.11:5). As a result we hear him castigate the US nation a few days after Sept. 11, 2001, essentially blaming feminists, gays and liberals for bringing on the terrorist attacks. He well knew how to cut his speech to please the ignoramuses but not edify the weak and the hungry.
benny

Week 10- Being In The Middle

One man fell into a gutter. It was nighttime and a few passersby immediately ran up to him with concern. Instead of taking the proffered hand he sat there in wonder as though dumb struck. Finally he said,’ there goes the Halley’s comet.”Yes there was something strange indeed streaking across the night-sky.
The moralist who watched the crowd and a man who refused to get up and go remarked to his companion without breaking his stride thus:’ the bad always finds his own level.’ This is how we form our opinions, from insufficient evidences. Much more so in the area of our beliefs. Religion is one area where many seem to be certain what is the correct scriptural position and what is heresy.

St. Augustine And The Heretic.

Aurelius Augustinus of Tagaste, North Africa was won over from his dissolute ways when he and a friend of his were holidaying and they heard a neighbor child singing a refrain,’ Tolle Lige, Tolle Lige,”(Take up and read, Take up and read). He took it up as divine guidance and read from the book of Romans wherein St. Paul’s admonition,” make not provision for the flesh,” made a deep impact to win him over from his hedonistic way of life. At that moment his friend who also heard the child did not think it anything special.
That moment nevertheless was a turning point: one going on to become the father of medieval Roman Catholicism and the other, a heretic. When the latter was at the death- bed the saint went to see him. The heretic resisted a last minute conversion saying that while Aurelius found God whose grace was irresistible he found quite something else. When the venerable Bishop asked him to spell out what he meant he merely quoted his friend’s dictum:” In essentials, unity; in non- essentials, liberty and in all things charity.” When pressed further he said, ” Allow me to die as a heretic; we both were searching for the same- we both, so I believe, found what we searched for. Heresy or liberty? Neither you nor I have time to convince the other as to the opposite. So I shall not, either in this life or in any other.”
benny

Week 9- Summary

God planted a garden eastward in Eden and enjoined Adam to dress it and keep it ( Gen2.15). In the previous chapter we read that God had already given him a command, ‘Be fruitful and replenish the earth, and subdue it.’(vs.28)
Adam while living in the Garden of Eden knew who the maker of that garden was. He was there only as a wise husbandman earning his keep and also the fruits of the whole earth. The command of God ‘Subue it’ didn’t mean any aggressive act from Adam since the Earth and the fullness thereof belongs to God? It certainly didn’t mean he could defoliate the woods and strip rocks and the depths of the earth for precious stones or metals. (It must be a degenerate spirit that compels any man to think he could own a piece of earth absolutely and with impunity disenfranchise the rights of every other species in order to enjoy the fruits of the earth.) His care and industry in the Garden ensured the wellbeing of the earth in general.
After the fall when Adam was sent out of the garden he must have known what it really meant to own property: like the pilgrims of old who staked out claim in New Canaan. See it from the point of view of the American natives. As a French philosopher said,’ Property is theft.’
Adam fell from grace. But the horses didn’t; neither did oxen nor asses. Adam in his fall found new shades of meaning for the words ‘control’ and ‘domination’.
Tailpiece: If Marquis de Sade appears can L. von Sacher-Masoch be far behind?
benny

W9 D7- Of This and That

W9 D7.
A form is a vehicle for self to scan truth. How the humans would do it is different from other species. Man places his emphasis on his intellectual capacity; therefore he shall look at truth as a concept. Truth is absolute, we reckon by our own standard, which need not be the same for other species.
2.
We may allow our imagination its full scope and set out to trace the largest circle and it must be such that falls short of a circle with infinity as its diameter. As life in the finite we can only construct a shape to finite proportions; suppose we venture to traverse the length and breadth of Cosmos what measure we might employ but a finite scale?
Vitality of our life keeps us connected with Oneness and while it give us certain notions, does not make us break with the finite boundaries.
3.
Every terrestrial creature as a life in the finite must regulate its life with the earth as its context. Without the Sun supplying its energy, no terrestrial life-form can hope to manage its activities within that life span allotted to it. At its basic level every life form has a biological clock and a hormone called melatonin, which is triggered by the light of the day; to miss its cues would spell death for creatures.
What of those nocturnal creatures whose strategy differ so widely from those who venture forth in search of food only during the day? Activities of a nocturnal creature may seem to keep out the light of the day. Whether nocturnal or day time all creatures hold their context alike to the Sun.
A finite factor is what gives urgency to our understanding to keep a firm control of time and place.
benny

W9 D6- A Finite Factor

Every experience of matter shows it true to its nature. Truth of nature it must be since its behavior is in accordance with certain laws.
Affinity of matter could be shown as a piece of iron would have for a magnet. Thus even where the ‘affinity’ seems to bring conflict or partialities it shows its nature. Rust that iron develops is an affinity iron has for moisture in the air.
This affinity at the level of atoms when compounded brings its own complexity.
Attraction that man feels for a woman is triggered by phermerones. I shall cite a passage here:
“BY PETER GORNER
Chicago Tribune

Powerful airborne chemicals emitted in male perspiration and associated with sexual reproduction trigger a heightened response in the brains of homosexual men similar to that seen in heterosexual women, researchers reported Monday.
Heterosexual men did not share the brain response to the chemicals in male sweat, according to a team of brain imaging specialists from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
The debate over whether homosexuality is a matter of choice or is inborn makes such research extremely controversial, said team leader and neuroscientist Dr. Ivanka Savic of the institute's Center for Gender Related Medicine.”
Physical nature of man (or life forms for that matter) in terms of his physical components, atoms, molecules tisues or hormones does not remain reduced to the sum of their known characterstics. Oneness of Things gives them to be as one and what with life transcend his own nature and of his own environment.
Tailpiece: In engaging with life or Oneness of Things man acquires wisdom and power.
benny

W9 D5 Our Middle State

In the Royal Prison ©
Young Joseph was put in a prison where he was the only commoner. He was accused of offending Potiphar’s wife who had him put there. He already knew how to interpret dreams somewhat but a fellow prisoner by name Seth the servant of Thoth befriended him and assured him he could profit from him. One morning he said: “The sacred Ibis flew last night to my pillow while I took a peek as the dreams-book was opened (I mean REM phase); and what curious symbols I saw there!”
“ Can you interpret them?” Joseph asked eagerly.
“ Thoth was a bit peeved that I perused the book unasked.” He explained how the sacred bird relented since he loved all those who loved wisdom. “I asked for meaning and Thoth says,’ What didn’t you take it when I explained while you were asleep."
”But I asked Thoth,’Have mercy, how am I to remember what was given in my sleep?’ “
The older man explained to the Israelite,” As soon as I am awake I can only think of eating something bellyful. The prison fare is unpalatable, wish I had a plate of cucumber salad.”
Days later young Joseph asked what was he there for. He replied that Potiphar’s wife commanded him to lay with her.” How could I have refused her? Playing hard to get at with women of such power and fickle mind always ends in tragedy. I submitted to her rather than make a fuss about it.”
Yes, Joseph could understand it. He persisted in his queries.” How come then you are here?”
” Not by Potiphar’s wife! But Potiphar! He caught us in a very compromising situation!”
He moped his forehead,” She talked her way out of it. I’m not his wife. So I was left take the rap!”
2.
We are of middle state. We see dreams but our conscious state drives us to seek what is clear as day. (So Thoth merely draws his wisdom in water and the servant of Thoth must make up his own meaning that may be a hit or miss.)
How Joseph resisted the wiles of Potiphar’s wife or another gave in do not mean much. Law throws the book just the same where innocents as well as the guilty are sometimes lumped together. Do we not see gross miscarriage of justice even this day?
benny

W9 D4
The Cat Who Purred ©
Polly who did a long stint in the service of a scientist could say,’ Show me the proof!’ and “ Meaning?”. She could also curse like a sea-dog. She thought she was exceptional till she came across an alley cat who also thought he was a panchandrum.
” I have lived through nine lives I can’t say where one ends and the other begins.” Of course Polly could not understand his purring. She boasted her skills and pooh-poohed when the cat said,” Meeow!”
“Meaning?”
He purred back,”Selah as in the Book of Psalms. I say that often in remembrance of my life among the angelical host.
He came within a striking distance and when she asked,” Show me the proof!” he just snatched her and said,” In the next world you shall understand me well enough.”
Of course his purring she couldn’t follow.

Limits of Reason

I am reminded of the passage from Gulliver’s Travels where Gulliver was put off by the women of Brobdingnag because their skin magnified may times over did give them in his sight a frightful appearance, that of a lunar surface. (Ch. 5.) The manner of understanding applied in an infinite mode must certainly sound confusing to our intellect; reason is our best guide as far as life in the finite goes. That only explains the human condition.
Truth does not change whether we look at it with the smoke screen of a finite factor or from the side of Life, if that were possible.
Tailpiece:
Abstraction is reality as far the mind is concerned. We may not fathom why electrons, protons or photons behave as they do. We know only from their effects. We touch upon Truth by means of truth of our nature. It means we hold truth in eversomuch as a gut feeling of Truth in its absolute value out there.

W9 D3- A Miracle Explained

Can an ass speak even under extreme provocation? Balaam’s ass must have been extraordinarily versatile to speak. How can that be rationally explained? It is quite difficult but I shall try. Just as I go ape I can be mulish at times. This being the case I shall try to be as charitable as I can to Mr. Ass.
What do we first of all mean by speech? We have languages, which wouldn’t have arisen if not for meeting our particular needs. Man as a social animal. If we assume speech in its general term, representing a mode of communication, the verbal mode is one. Cannot there be non-verbal means as effective as our speech?
Trees speak to us in the way it can take in carbon dioxide exhaled by us. Our dialogue with it is made complete when it returns oxygen to us. Dogs cannot tell us they are in pain or under stress but from the levels of dopomine in its blood we can precisely measure what they experience. In the earlier days before science could come to our help what we would have said? Dogs are dumb animals. Wouldn’t that be a commentary of our inadequacy than the truth?
Miracles are to be understood as such. Similary our inability to crack open the hard sayings of Jesus now would only mean we are not yet there. Not quite. So we should do well in not making a travesty of the intent and purpose of His Word by holding on to some parts of the Book as applicable and overlooking the rest.
The Bible is better translated as the Covenant. A covenant is drawn up between two parties. Between God and us. We are lawbreakers if we arbitrarily break them as we please. No wonder. Jesus explains no one is perfect as God is. ‘ Be thou as perfect as…”
Tailpiece:
The Church which burnt heretics at the stake in the past were as wide off the mark as atheists who reject God merely because their intellect
cannot digest some passages from it.
benny

W9 D2 Creative Spirit

In celebrating life why cannot we depart from the stereotypes and boring litanies of worship? Our worship is like salt that has lost its savor. Why cannot we be like Peter, who out of sheer inspiration saw in his master the spark of divinity. Did he not thereby bind himself to its shimmer and be the inheritor of His mission on Earth? The woman who had an issue of blood for 12 years showed a creative spark because her faith crossed into untrodden areas of worship. (Lu 9:46)
What is our reasonable worship, which is pleasing to God?
Simple: worship that makes your standing with God in a new way. It realigns and gets closer to the mind of God. Worship must be true to my essential self, and must reach out. And distinct too. Like The juggler in the story of Anatole France, who knew how to worship. It was as unorthodox and as contrary to the formulae that the Holy See had prescribed. His worship however had that stamp of his essential self.
God or Oneness of Things is a creative spirit that makes iron feel the presence of moisture in the atmosphere or a candle go out in the absence of oxygen. If matter has such consciousness is it to be wondered at if Balaam's ass see the angel of destruction stand on its way? Or the Bible has got it wrong?
Tailpiece: We, like the prophet are misled by all those material riches and fail to note the danger on the way. We walk the line of our earthly masters (peer pressure) in order to receive prestige among men. At what cost?
benny

King Mutt And Shepherds ©

King Lion weakened with hunger died. A dog passing by said,” Fine state of affairs! I shall now lord it over.” But along came a pack of hounds, which were impressed by the dead carcass and the dog boasted that it was he who killed the lion in a single combat. “ But the lion looks as though starved to death?” The mutt had a ready answer,“Yes we fought for days non-stop and the lion got weakened by the hour while I went from strength to strength.” That convinced them all. So the hounds made him the king.
King Mutt knew he had to survive somehow. So he made the pack of hounds as ministers of the state and went over to a pasture where they had only to be concerned with a flock of sheep. King Mutt thus saved his skin and also his secret: he never had to prove whether he was stronger than a lion. But the shepherds who watched over the flock made the dogs do their bidding. This breed of dogs we know now as shepherd dogs.
Isn’t this how our so-called humilty and conformity to norms work? We like shepherd dogs herd members to conform to its outward observance. Instead of bringing others to the norm that is our essential self we practise religion like the Pharisees. (Lu:18. 9-14)
We keep observances like Pharisees and in our arrogance of our self- assuredness we belittle the publican: do we think for a moment if there be some lesson we could learn from him? No our complacency has eaten into the vitals of our spirit. We are no longer on the level with God.
God makes the sun rise on the good and evil alike. Standing of both the publican and Pharisee were of same distance in the mind of God. It is what Jesus amply illustrates from his parable. One conformed to hyspocrisy and other entered into the Holiest of the Holies.
benny

W8- Summary

Any schoolboy will know that energy is neither created nor destroyed. We have universal laws of Thermodynamics, Energy and so on. For my present purpose I shall merely repeat Conservation of Energy makes us all on a single yardstick: of Time and Space. Whether universe or multiverse, energy makes them all grow and die their deaths as though these were pre-ordained. By whom? We do not know. Just the same we tease religions out of fine candyfloss of our uncertainties. Irony of it is that we call it faith.
Be that as it may we shall not function as human beings if we didn’t start somewhere. If we didn’t think our legs would carry will we venture to walk? So let us test our faith little by little for the purpose on hand. We know this visible universe is a shadow of other worlds. Why, if not for energy? Conservation of energy involves us since have utilized certain level of energy.
How we spent energy as individuals and in context of the whole shall be called to account.
benny

W8 D7- Charity Pays

Every life form is of equal weight in terms of Truth, Oneness of things.
Each of us holds an energy level as any other. Some may never get to employ what is at their disposal for reasons of not their making: a child may be left paralyzed by some unfortunate accident or negligence of another. It may be a war that has made the child at mercy of others. Have you ever thought that he or she may be looking for some kindred spirit to utilize his/her energy level wisely on his/her behalf? All that he or she requires from you is your time and willingness to be a good steward. If in the process you are served and misery of another is somewhat lessened will you not think you have served your sojourn on this earth as a human being?
2.
How do we make sure we have energy level in plenty? The answer is simple. Make your thoughts, emotions, will and action concentrated( not on the so called symbols of success or status) but on life.
The Golden Rule which Jesus taught is equally applicable: think of you as durable as Time and whatever you do here on earth is not lost in the babble of praise of men(It doesn't mean a thing!)or shortchanged by others.
Charity pays her keep whichever worlds you may pass hereafter increasing in knowledge of Truth.
Tailpiece: Oneness of Things holds all things as of equal weight thus if we serve the purpose of the living for maximum good we ought to be rest assured we are more in step with the working of Oneness or God.
benny

W8 D6- Judging Too Soon

Merely because one sets truth of action as one’s basis it does not mean that it is in harmony with all other life forms. If we study history it is amply borne out how power goes not to the good or wise (or those who are by nature and experience competent to lead a country) but to the ruthless, bad and throughly unscrupulous.
Leon Trotsky was far superior in intellect to Joseph Stalin but the wily Georgian was the great manipulator, who as the General Secretary had the Party in his hold. Intellect is nothing; neither is cleverness in the welter of cause and effect. Whether Bush was better than Al Gore or John Kerry doesn’t merit analysis here except the bad image of the Bush Presidency shall make it harder for the nation to regain confidence among the commonwealth of nations.
How one climbs to the top and another goes down may be predicted rather readily than the effect their governance would have on future. Presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 are still fresh in memory so I shall say President Bush won the race but was his presidency a success?
Much as I am disgusted by the Bush Presidency and the values he represents I cannot pass any judgment: success by our standards is an error. So is failure. Why you might ask. We judge too soon. We pass the verdict from a time-space scale those events, which are on a Time-Space framework. All that energy expended by America in terms of lives of its citizens, soldiers have to be conserved: conservation of energy is not mopped up or accounted for in a way we can with any degree of accuracy foretell. So shall we think what we can do to conserve our energy level and replenish our stocks?

benny