The hexagram presents a configuration of circumstances in which a strong element is temporarily held in leash by a weak element. It is only through gentleness that this can have a successful outcome.
in limitation we must observe due measure. If one should seek to impose galling limitations upon their own nature, it would be injurious. And if they should go too far in imposing limitations on others, the others would rebel. Therefore it is necessary to set limits even upon limitation.
A lake (filled with water) is something limited. Water itself is inexhaustible. A lake can contain only a de-finite amount of the in-finite quantity of water; this is its peculiarity. In human life too the individual achieves significance through discrimination and the setting of limits. Therefore what concerns us here is the problem of clearly defining these discriminations, which are, so to speak, the backbone of morality. Unlimited possibilities are not suited to human beings; if these existed, our lives would only *dissolve in the boundless*. To become strong, one’s life needs the limitations ordained by duty, and voluntarily accepted. The individual attains significance as a free spirit only by surrounding themselves with these limitations and by determining for themselves what their duty is.
the tormented body will rebel against excessive asceticism. On the other hand, although ruthless severity is not to be applied persistently and systematically, there may be times when it is the only means of safeguarding against **guilt** and **remorse**. In such situations ruthlessness toward oneself is the only means of saving one’s soul, which otherwise would succumb to **irresolution**. and temptation.
The wind can indeed drive the clouds together in the sky; yet, being nothing but air, without solid body, it does not produce great or lasting effects. So also an individual, in times when they can produce no great effect in the outer world, can do nothing except refine the expression of their nature in small ways.
Saw a man wearing a North Face shirt with a Starbucks jacket and carrying an Adidas bag He was too old to be a brand whore? Hey, who’s the judge here?
“Fury said to a mouse that he met in the house, ‘Let us both go to law: _I_ will prosecute _you_. Come, I’ll take no denial: we must have a trial: for really this morning I’ve nothing to do.’ Said the mouse to the cur, ‘Such a trial, dear sir, with no jury or judge, would be wasting our breath.’ ‘I’ll be judge, I’ll be jury,’ said cunning old Fury: ‘I’ll try the whole cause, and condemn you to death.'”
I keep on puzzling about this (like Alice): what motivates that guy? I mean, what motivates him to buy and wear those branded clothes? And why so many at the same time? I don’t think he knows.
I used to wear Adidas – like a freak. There was a shop on South Beach called Addidas Style, or some shit, and they specialilzed in specialized (Addidan stuff). I don’t do this anymore. Occasionally these days I slip back – like wearing 59/50 baseball hats – bought like 20 of them last year – not only 59/50, but with Boston RedSox and Celtics logos! What motivates me?
Then there was the frightened white girl with her Muslim headware (*hijab*) and presumably Muslim baby. She so frightened that she will be rejected, always has been rejected, until some Muslim guy found her, collected her, implanted his seed. She clinging to some myth or image – that being Muslim is cooler, at least more noticble, than being just another plain white girl. Nothing against her or Islam. The hijab DOES make her look cooler. But it does not maker her cooler, and, why is she trying? She’s not just trying – it means all the world to her, because no one ever told her how to look inside (to find her cool identity). At first the baby was losing i – crying, 6 a.m. in Boston Logan, but then, good mom, got her quiet (safe), cooing, happy.
But all is well us long as we have faith. Without faith there is no meaning – assume there is no meaning, fundamentally, then get faith and you will feel yoursself a part of the greater universe – that someone (the all-in-one) loves you. Your mother still loves you, dead or alive. Your father the same. All your long-dead realitive love you and want the best for you – they always did, but during their lives, they were possibly consumed by fear, manifested and hate and judgement – but neither was true. Every emotion is created solely by biochemical reaction – emotions are feelings, wholly biological. When you die, then, they all disappear. If, while alive, you blocked your adrenalin, you would not/could not get angry. We all take beta blockers, don’t we? We are blocking the hormones, and there is NO OTHER CAUSE for emotions. Except for love.
Why do I say that? Take a moment and figure out what an emotion really is. Start with anger – it’s easy. Somebody says something, and then, all of a sudden, you feel anger. You argue and yell for 20 minutes – and you realize that you have strayed far from “the cause” of the anger, or, you fogot it altogether. The words were not the cause – they were the sensory input, which the brain connected to adrenalin, and produced a physical (literally) feeling – and then you were off! The mind checked out. Only the body kept the feed going.
But love? A feeling? No, a thousand feelings, one of which is hate – you can’t hate someone you don’t love (because it would make no difference to them or you, if there weren’t love). Do you hate Trump? Well, something triggered you at some point, there were chemicals, the dumb brain had to do something, and it settled on “hate” – but is hate the opposite of love? Think about it carefully. Doesn’t hate feel like anger? Or love? Does hate really have a unique quality, or is it just anger, with a narrative context?
I don’t know. But love doesn’t come and go, with a little self-control. The love I know consumes you, mentally, physically, and spiritually. You stutter to define it. You feel it in you and all around you. No text causes it. Nothing that is said or done. Do you ever say “I am in anger with you?” “I am in hate with you?” Right? Feel me? I am in LOVE – in it! Can’t get out, can’t breath. Said Eminem:
“With you, I’m in my fucking mind. Without you, I’m out it”
Ok, it’s “with”, not “in” But tell me what that song is about. Love. All the other things, the violence, the words, the pain, the endless self-pity – all instigate by love, or, love as an excuse? Because all those things come and go, and yet you stay – in love.
May you always stay in love. Open to it. That is faith.
I’ll start with a commonly-voiced question: when does human life begin?
And now I will answer that question: no one can say for certain; or, at least no answer will ever be given definitively. The question could possibly answered, either scientifically, medically, or even morally – but in such a heavy political context, no answer will be accepted – ever.
Now the Law doesn’t have the luxury not to answer this question: the Law is required to make a decision, to the best of its ability, because lives depend on it. Because they Law will always be a “best-effort” proposition: Congress makes laws that are loosely defined, precisely for the reason that real use-cases are required to refine and reform legislation. No one has every presumed, in this Country, that the lawmakers have such wisdom and foresight that they came come up with THE right answer, even after lenghthy debate.
Our Constitution – has Amendments! Yes even the core Law of the Nation was ill-conceived, and required revisions – almost from the start. In fact, the Amendments ARE the Constitution. The original 1787 U.S. Constitution was designed as a structural framework for a government, not a statutory legal code. Its primary purpose was to establish branches of government and grant Congress the _power_ to write legislation (found in Article I, Section 8). There isn’t really any “law” in the original, with the exception of some “rules” – which are definitely binding – but would not in any way be sufficient to govern a Nation. In point of fact, many of these rules are heinous, misanthropic support for the subjugation of the African slave, and, as such should be stricken from the US Constitution, but cannot be, due to the strict forbiddance of Constitutional alterations. Do these surprise you?
– **The 1808 Slave Trade Ban (Article I, Section 9):** The Constitution directly legislated that Congress was forbidden from banning the importation of enslaved people prior to the year 1808, though it allowed a tax of up to $10 per person.
– **The Fugitive Slave Clause (Article IV, Section 2):** This mandated that enslaved individuals who escaped into free states were not emancipated by those states’ laws and had to be returned to their enslavers.
– **The Three-Fifths Compromise (Article I, Section 2):** It established a strict mathematical formula for taxation and congressional representation, counting each enslaved person as three-fifths of a free person.
There is no clause in the Constitution, nor in any Amendment, regarding the beginning of human life. Why is this important? Because there is a clause stating that the US Government, and all its legal powers, are required to defend the Rights of every Citizen. This means that a definition of the scope of “citizen” is required. This definition does not come until the 14th Amendment:
The Citizenship Clause:
> _”All persons **born** or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
Now, there is really no debate, at least with this language, that US Citizenship begins at birth, and the moment of “birth” is presumed self-evident: once you leave the womb. The 14th Amendment goes on to state:
> _”…nor shall any State deprive any **person** of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any **person** within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”_
There exists a possible ambiguity here, as to whether being a “person” could happen before birth, and, if so, then the law of due process would apply to unborn “entities” (for fear of calling them “human beings, as though this were really a controversial notion).
Therefore, the Constitution does not provide any protection for and unborn fetus – only to the mother. According to the Constitution, the unborn fetus is neither a person nor a Citizen. Because the Constitution is silent on when life begins, and ties constitutional rights to birth, the federal government does not have a supreme, unified definition of prenatal rights.
This is not opinion. Please. This is the mess we are left to deal with in our “free” society, and, this is not the only case of Constitutional conundrum – but again, as for the Constitution, there is NO conundrum: the “prenatal entity” is completely unprotected and vulnerable, under Federal Law.
Thank goodness this same Constitution DID provide for States’ Rights, which allows individual States the Constitutional mandate to supply their own definitions, even in contrast to the Constitutional implications. I think it’s easy to see that, in many cases now: marijuana and heroin are still Federally Class C substances, and possession of either would be a Federal crime – a felony, with stringent consequences. However, in Massachusetts, for example, the State Law allows a Resident to buy, use, and even grow, Marijuana (up to 8 plants!) I’ve always thought this distinction between State and Federal is exactly what makes the “united states” possible: human nature surely prevents a heterogeneous population from EVER agreeing on everything, hence, such a society should/must fail. Yet, if variation is allowed between States, it allows the diverse elements to choose a State that aligns with their worldview. In other words, we can all agree to disagree, and we can all live together, yet separately. This is another topic, but a critical one to the survival of our experimental society.
“Fetal personhood” is the legal framework that assigns the rights, protections, and privileges of a born human being to a fetus, embryo, or fertilized egg. Because there is no federal constitutional definition of when personhood begins, this issue is entirely in the hands of individual states. The shift toward fetal personhood alters the fundamental legal subject in these cases:
Comparing the Legal Frameworks
The shift toward fetal personhood alters the fundamental legal subject in these cases:
Legal Domain
Traditional Application
Personhood Application
Criminal Law
Assault on the pregnant person
Homicide or assault of the fetus
Civil Law
Malpractice/injury to the pregnant person
Wrongful death lawsuits on behalf of the fetus
Family Law
Child support and tax status begin at birth
Child support and tax status begin at conception/heartbeat
Property/Storage
Frozen embryos treated as biological property
Frozen embryos treated as legal minors
When States’ rulings begin to mount to such a point that they begin to represent the “will of the People”, there is a chance (and we have lived this scenario) that the Constitution could actually be amended. Recall above the original clauses regarding “slaves” – that a slave is considered 3/5 person – note the use of “person”, not “Citizen” – it took a long time for “slaves” to reach the “status” of person! But then longer for them to be considered Citizens – with rights such as due process, voting, etc. Really. Imagine that! Because you can see it! Blacks and Women have all lived – and died – under this incredible bullshit! It’s been a bloody war, the the bloodshed has been mostly on the side of the victims. How does “three-fifths a person” not resonate with these other maligned and oppressed communities?
To be clear, NONE of this legislation – the “good” or the “bad”- is based on fact. The Science™ is also flawed, or silent, and, in any case, will be overridden by Public ignorance – right? But the conclusion is dire: if these unborn entities are indeed real humans, then we are committing a lot of murders, without due process. That’s the implication of the one side. The implication of the other side is largely inconsequential: no “human being” is ever harmed by abortion, and everyone can get on with their lives. What do you think?
This might be left-field: it’s the way I think (I’ve disccovered). It’s actually thinking, predicated on a corporeal sensation, in three dimensions. I’m reminded of when Aldous Huxley first took LSD. He was disdappointed that he, uniquely, did not see wild surrealstic scenes with millions of colors. In The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley wrote about his mescaline experience in 1953, where he anticipated seeing “manycolored geometries, of animated architectures, rich with gems and fabulously lovely” but the experience focused on external reality. Well, that’s what it’s like being an “intellectual”. I’m not one. I DO see “manycolored geometries, of animated architectures”, but don’t need the LSD. In fact, it’s kind of a “disease” – chronic, I can’t get past it, or around it. Always with the geometries!
Quick plug: A fuller account of Huxley’s mescaline experience can be found on chiwijournal.substack.com.
So this thing gets built inside me, and is tangible. I can find it, and access it. And I get “signals” from it, when the “slots” get filled.
Here’s how I make each week:
Slot Achievement Game – A mind-based achievement tracking system
This program implements a game with multiple fillable slots that track progress toward completing an “engine”. Each slot can be customized with a unique name and assigned an achievement level from 1 to 5.
Key Features:
Multiple customizable slots (default: 5 slots)
Each slot has an editable name field (format: “Slot:”)
Achievement levels range from 1-5 for each slot
Color-coded visual feedback:
Real-time progress tracking with progress bar
Completion notification when all slots are filled
Reset functionality to clear all slots and names
The “engine” is considered complete when all slots have been filled with some achievement level:
What I am doing here is “mocking up” something that I have felt, lurking in my psyche, for quite some time, in order to share it with you. It’s not an “app”, in the digital world. For some people, there have always been “apps” – in the cerebral world – although I don’t use “cerebral” or “corporeal” in my own language. These kinds of concepts belong to a childish, “Western” conception of the human. I tend toward the Vedic teachings, which allow for such mechanisms to be a part of the human experience. In this case, I would term the realm for my inner coding “subtle body”, in contrast, or in harmony with, the physical body:
**Sukṣma-śarīra (सूक्ष्म‑शरीर)**
In the Vedic, Upaniṣadic and yogic traditions the “subtle body” is called **sukṣma‑śarīra**, literally “*the fine or subtle body*.” It is distinct from:
| Aspect | Sanskrit term | Rough English equivalent | |——–|—————|————————–| | Gross physical body | **sthūla‑śarīra** (स्थूल‑शरीर) | “coarse/dense body” | | Subtle body | **sukṣma‑śarīra** (सूक्ष्म‑शरीर) | “subtle, fine body” | | Causal or causal‑karmic body | **karana‑śarīra** (कारण‑शरीर) / **para‑rūpa** (पर‑रूप) | “causal/seed body” |
Terminology I use:
engine: In computing, an “engine” refers to a core, specialized software component that provides specific functionality or “power” for a larger application, much like a car’s engine drives the vehicle but isn’t the whole car. It handles complex, repetitive tasks like processing data, rendering graphics, or running game logic, abstracting away low-level details and allowing developers to focus on the user experience, with examples including search engines, rendering engines, and database engines. Key Characteristics
Core Functionality: It’s the central processing part, handling the “heavy lifting” of a program.
Specialized: Engines are designed for specific tasks, like a physics engine for game simulations or a rendering engine for web browsers.
Abstracted: It often works behind the scenes, providing an interface for other parts of the software without exposing complex internal workings to the user or other modules.
Metaphorical: The term borrows from mechanical engines to signify a powerful, essential subsystem
slot: A slot comprises the operation issue and data path machinery surrounding a set of one or more execution unit (also called a functional unit (FU)) which share these resources. A slot is a computer processor connection designed to make upgrading the processor easier, where the user would only have to slide a processor into a slot.
game: In Wittgenstein’s theory, a “game” isn’t defined by a single set of essential properties but by a family resemblance: a network of overlapping similarities (rules, objectives, skills, fun) linking diverse activities like chess, cards, and ball games, showing no single common thread but rather a continuum of shared features, much like words in a “language-game” gain meaning through their use in specific contexts, not abstract definitions. To understand “game,” one learns its diverse uses and rules within a specific “language-game,” not by finding one universal essence
It’s easier for me to describe myself now, at age 63, partly because I have let my mind wander, and followed it closely. Now that I can “see” it, it doesn’t upset me so much.
not intelligence – intelligence is a complex topic. I adhere to Howard Gardner’s 6 intelligences work (note that my spell checker “corrects” me for making “intelligence” plural). intelligence, as we humans understand it, easily extends to primates, dogs, cats…
intellect, though, is another thing: intellect is to intelligence as musician is to music (kind of – because what is music? what is a musician?) on a basic level, intelligence is the mechanics of solving problems, problems here meaning situations which one wants to alter, to be distinguished from whining on the potty with kleenex about all your “problems”. the mechanical intelligence is essentially unalterable, biological, and every creature possesses it, without acquiring it.
we acquire knowledge, which augments or supplies intelligence. the acquisition of that knowledge is widely varied in its method: some go to endless college, where they intake that which they think will augment their intelligence in beneficial ways – in ways that will allow them to solve specific problem sets. doctors want to solve medical problems. for this, they require medical knowledge.
but of course, intelligence, as Gardner tells us, is not generic – its variance is myriad. you could use a word like “aptitude”, if you fear intelligence types. So, a doctor with tons of medical knowledge, can be terrible at solving medical problems even worse, a doctor can substitute problem solving (intelligence) with sophisticated application of knowledge blocks – not unlike modern AI “RAG” retrievel mechanisms, where by questions are answered by retrieving appropriate text blocks from articles, rapidly, and collating them into actionable from. in AI, this uses vectors – long chains of similarity of ideas, from which the machine chooses “the best”. not to be too esoteric here – you know these people: they are great standardized test takers. there are legends of people who run a racket of memorizing huge chunks of written data, in preparation for competitive tests – even sell their skills on the black market.
But worse yet are those who flood the professions today, completely unequipped to apply intelligence – critical thinking, analysis, synthesis – all words gone by the wayside in modern times. This is the doctor who, in 15 minutes, discerns the type of cancer you have (this, discernment, is indeed a type of intelligence), but then skips the deduction, and jumps to sophisticated code matching, to produce the cause and the treatment of this type (“label”) of cancer that you have. and then they proceed to kill you – because the human body is so complex, as is a modern pathology like cancer, that text retrieval is highly likely to pick the wrong similarity. this is also compounded by the nature of the the texts which are produced today – also flawed by the industrial nature of research and research writing – there is no money in finding the needle in the haystack – in fact, that needle is usually the thing that disproves your whole thesis, and hell, you don’t have time to truly follow the scientific method!
I’ve wandered again. got hung up on widely diversified intelligence, battling with highly specialized knowledge storage and retrieval. what I was aiming at was a dinosaur – the intellectual; the intellect. a dying or dead breed of person who, through rigid social structure, was forced to learn a raft of non-specialized knowledge, for some unstated reason. the opposite of OBE (objectives based education). The “objective” was to become an intellectual – something pretty esoteric, but supported socially. It was part of social selection in the intelligentsia to regularly quote esoteric Heraclitus, in the context of rhetorically complex argumentation, to “win” a likewise intellectual point. mental masturbation, in its most common application.
to this end, one learned Latin, Greek, plus a modern language, and, not just at the SAT level. there were aged task masters, whose claim to position was exactly their pedantry. because you can’t really learn this shit without repetition and rote memorization.
I could take a moment here to talk about Picasso – this painter who is famous for abstraction. Picasso started out in the grueling, pedantic system of classical painting – did hundreds of non-abstract drawings of tables, flowers, etc., with no hope of abstraction – because he was the germinal inventor of abstraction! at some point, he began “cubism” – whereby you abstract simple geometric shapes, from those rigid “classical” 3-point-persepctive drawings. this process evolved into his ultimate abstractions. but none of this could have happened without his being inundated with the entire history of rendering, and forced to replicate it.
so the intellectual is the product of excessive education, an acuity to problem solving intelligence, and, of course, a wild spirit longing for freedom.
When the Spirit moves you. Can be any time, and a great chance that the time will be inconvenient.
yes, we need to be watchful – inspiration chooses its own time, and as it comes, it goes. you won’t remember.
and so what? will generations suffer from the lack of my little musings? my little music? it’s all tolled just a drop in the cosmic bucket, and not a drop will influence the course of the Grand Scheme.
But for the people on earth, for the weak and heavy-laden, your creativity will have a profound effect.
I suppose you’d need to admit that you have lost control, if you intend to read farther…
And what is control anyway? It was always fake, right? I mean, you get the house cleaned, balance your checkbook – and you sit back and say, boy, howdy, I am in control! But on another day, when you don’t get that stuff done, have you lost control? Or, even though you get that stuff done every day, something comes along, like my current favorite – RTO (return to office) – and now you’ve got an hour’s worth of commuting, which you used to use to balance your checkbook, but now, there’s just no time!
So, you say, with exasperation, “there is just no time.”. And so now, you’re not in control?
Well, the Hindus would tell you that’s samsara – it’s a cycle of chasing control, by doing things, setting goals – all the things your society tells you to do to get ahead. But you don’t get ahead – you get further behind.
Last night, couldn’t sleep, and I was reminded of a valuable truth: the reason you are unhappy is because you look for happiness in the future, not in the present. Luckily, at that moment, in the deep dark of night, I was sleeping with my warm furry dog by my legs, and my warm and loving wife by my side, with my beautiful and vivacious daughter asleep in her room down the hall. And so, I was easily able to recount all the happiness that was around me, in my immediate present. And so, was happy, and went to sleep.
Now, there have been times, I tell you, people, when I was totally alone in the night, with no money, no heat, no lovely wife, no dog, and no daughter. So don’t be fooled, or, better yet, don’t be dismayed. Happiness is not counted by the number of blessings. Instead, it’s a kind of contentment with what ever you do have, no matter the number or quantity. Because in those destitute times, I did have a warm bed, and I could feel the world around me, full of wonder, and full of love. But I had to open my mind and heart to feel that, and I had to let the material wants melt away. Not an easy task – seemingly impossible for many.
And again, at my worst times, without even the warm bed, I could always remember that my mother loved me, when she was alive. And that is not the future, nor the past. It’s ever-present.
Hate to put out a spoiler, but, you never had control, if you were busy counting up the things you controlled in your life. Without your knowing, the number of things you will NEVER control loomed like a zeppelin above your resting head. Control is a losing game, probably planted in your mind when you were very young, unintentionally, by a society locked in a battle for control – control as the carrot on the stick, which you will never taste, but always yearn for.
Looked at a different way, as long as you can know the peace of the present, as long as you can feel it, know it, and live in it, then you are indeed in control, and will always be, as long as the contentment with what (little or a lot) you do have is apparent and tangible to you. Peace.
Do I need another – yet another – writing tool, like FreeWrite? Answer is likely NO. While it is critical to write all the time, for many reasons, this is not dependent on the tools. People have written entire novels on the floor of their prison cell.
But this is more easily supported by a common psychological construct of deflection: when a task is difficult, for any reason, or rather, when a practice, involving not-so-diffiult tasks, is difficult to establish, the human (21st Century Western Human) will tend toward buying something, rather than just doing something with the materials and tools at hand. We see it in everything from yoga to music – buy a yoga mat, a towel, special clothing, etc., instead of just getting on the mat, or the floor, or the grass. All these have been done by great masters.
Deflection is the killer. Will swamp you in a boat in a moat circling with a single oar.
Not to say that equipment – finely tuned, correctly engineered equipment – is the problem. It is not. Once deflection is ruled out, good equipment is essential. In music, great players can play well on shitty equipment. Beginners can play on shitty equipment, but can’t overcome the physical barriers on such equipment, as can the masters. The key here is positive reinforcement, because we are talking about the practice, more than the product. In order to establish the practice, the human needs rewards – even the most advance bodhi, no matter what they tell you. We are all creatures, and will remain so until we are liberated by death. Further, there is no shame in being a creature, no merit in disdain of motivation.
Simply, if the music sounds good, or, if the asana feels good, the mind-body will blossom, and motivation will be achieved. A poor instrument will cause psychological pain; an instrument capable of beautiful sound will inspire the player to hunt down the optimal physical application that produces that sound. But this beauty must be experienced at least once, and acknowledged by the player. Oftentimes, this is just a miracle – a happy accident. Indeed, in life, we don’t summon g*d – we are summoned; or, we stumble upon it. We commit a generous act, and get surprised by the return flow or reward – the sensation of oneness with the Lord.
So yes, by all means, get a wonderful Lamy ink pen; get nice paper; and get the FreeWrite. But be prepared for these tools to just sit there and gather dust; be prepared for the ink to dry up. Because the tool is not the maker. The spark, the holy spirit, the tao – whatever you have felt as the origin of creativity – is the maker. Sadly, the maker can’t be bought, and can’t itself be made. We often call it a gift – which must be given, and received. And no amouunt of money or hard work can make it. It must be found.
So much for equality or equity. Creativity is outside the purview of social order. Can’t be legislated into existence, the same way no law or social injustice can quell it: the more the artist is chained and beaten, fingers broken and tongue cut out, the louder the outpouring of creativity.
So, what to do, Dad? I don’t know. But I say: begin with the tools you have, to create the practice. Struggle with the limitations at the beginning. Find the spark, even in the dark. When the flow ultimately smacks up against a technical wall, afford yourself the next-level tech, and see if that re-opens or re-ups the flow. If it doesn’t, it wasn’t the blocker. Back to square one.
Because G*d isn’t a business. G*d is not an old man with a beard, unless that’s how you imagine him. G*d is omniscient – knows everything; omnipresent – everywhere; omnipotent – all powerful. Surely you’ve heard this before. But even the priests, ministers, pastors, who say this in one breath, in the next breath tell you to ask G*d for help, for favors, Christmas presents… The two notions just don’t match.
You don’t need to tell an omniscient consciousness your needs or wants – because “all knowing”.
You don’t need to pray “to” an omnipresent being, because “everywhere.”
G*d is responsible for everything everywhere – your cell mitosis and your cancer diagnosis. “responsible” does not equal “cause.” As far as we know, we exercise freewill. So if you pour garbage into the clean body you were given, G*d lets those cells do their thing. Don’t pray for that to change.
Then there’s G*d’s plan. G*d is also ineffable. Sorry we’ve lost that word through our poor educational system. It means it’s not possible to explain G*d. Doesn’t mean we just don’t know how to explain G*d – it means there is no human with the capacity to explain the Creator of Everything. So, might be smart to stop trying. Anyway, what good would it do you?
These are the building blocks. But the best building block is this: Jesus actually told you how to pray! Jesus didn’t really leave us a lot of information – or, you could say, he left us just enough. First, he pared down the 10 commandments – they weren’t his, and were probably made up by Moses, or the politburo that represented Moses – these “commandments” seem a lot like human laws, and coincide neatly with the Jewish norms at the time. Always gotta be suspicious when some guy says “G*d agrees with everything I say.” Convenient for an authoritarian system.
But totally the opposite of what we said above: free will. No, G*d doesn’t tell you not to do anything. Go for it! And for sure, the human machinery – the way humans work – will deliver to you the consequences of your actions – not G*d.
Jesus said you only need two “commandments”: love G*d with all your heart, mind, spirit. Any questions? And then: “love your ‘neighbor’ as much and in the same way as you love yourself.” And then the kicker: “on (just) these two commands hang all the law and the prophets.” The Jewish Torah is divided into the Law and the Prophets (so is the old testament: Deuteronomy means the (second) law; and all the books with names on them are Prophets). So, this is also a hard thing for us modern dummies: it’s called (in math) a “discreet system.” Means you don’t need ANY MORE RULES than the two I gave you. All other rules you could think of derive from those two, so you don’t need to add them.
Jesus told you how to pray. The Lord’s Prayer. That’s the only thing you need. There are no other prayers in the New Testament – except for a couple of little ones, but again, they are connected with the Lord’s Prayer.
“My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” This is Jesus choking up just before he is nailed to a crucifix, saying, “skip me on this one.” But – and this is the big but – he adds the clause from the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy will be done.” He doesn’t expect G*d to not go through with the great plan, which requires a sacrifice – but, never hurts to ask.
“Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” A prayer-lite for the sake of the Love of the Neighbor. Also – directly from the Lord’s Prayer!
That’s it! No “please give me that bike for Christmas”, or “please let my son get into Harvard.” Zero (0) requests! It’s not Oprah! Not Grant a Wish! It’s like this
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done. Do what you intend to do – not what WE ask you to do. On earth, just like in heaven. Even if you escape earth, the same deal is in heaven for you.
Give us today our daily bread. Ok. Maybe this is an “ask” – except in the original language – Aramaic (remember Jesus was not a Hebrew) – it’s not “daily” – people argue about this a lot, but mostly about the translation from Greek – which is not the language Jesus said it in. Give us today maybe our last meal – ever. Remember, it’s ok and entirely possible that we will die TODAY, and that’s a good thing. “Daily” is really the wrong word, and confuses the whole meaning. Look at what follows: 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them… 34 Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself…
Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Again, back to the “commandments.” First thing is to US: You there! You forgive everybody. Forgiveness is the rule, thy neighbor as thyself. But we can and should ask G*d for forgiveness.
Lead us not into temptation. Again, this is more you talking to yourself – don’t let yourself be led by something else – into something that will harm you.
Deliver us from evil. Not sure on this one. Reminds by of George W. and the “axis of Evil.” Not sure that this was passed down correctly. But ok. G*d does indeed have the power (all-powerful) to quash “evil.” The main point is, it does not mean ” make that car swerve out of the way of my child in the street.” That’s not evil: it’s freewill – your child knows the rules, and still goes out into the street. Something painful might happen. Not G*d’s deal.
That’s it: 1) let it happen 2) get me through today 3) let’s forgive one another 4) let us choose wisely 5) let us choose wisely. It’s a “personal oracle” – a conversation with everything around you, that echos back to YOU. You are G*d, as long as you are Love.
I don’t think many people (Democrats, and a million other American moochers who don’t vote, don’t’ give a fuck) really know who JD Vance is. I don’t really know either, except that I read his book, Hillbilly Elegy, and saw the movie – and really like them both.
Also know:
Investing
In 2017, Vance joined the investment firm Revolution LLC.[63] It was founded by Steve Case, who also cofounded AOL.[63] Vance was tasked with expanding the “Rise of the Rest” initiative, which focuses on growing investments in underserved regions outside Silicon Valley and New York City.[63]
So, in the world of sound-byte knowledge, I am a genius! A know-it-all, because no one wants to know-it-at-all, right?
Now I have also been to Appalachia many times, and not as a sight-seer. I’ve hung out with them hillbillies, drank, and played music. I know ones who died, and many who will die from inhaling heroin, for example. Last year I attended Healing Appalachia, and got my Narcon certification. Talked to a hundred junkies, all of them despised by the elites of our country, ’cause of the way the talk and jes’ lie around all day (sarcasm – it’s hard to spot these days).
Here’s my point: there is no doubt who will vote for JD Vance – lots of poor busted people from the hills, who finally see a guy that could understand him. Will there be the same amount of poor, working class people from Scranton NJ voting for Joe Biden (well, moot point now – but not totally). Will the poor working class people of Scranton ever going to vote for Joe Biden? Did Joe Biden write a book called “Scranton Elegy”, to honor “his people?”
But here’s the other side of the coin: JD Vance is a millionaire now, who went to Yale. He’s got a bit of Southern accent, but, he ain’t going back to Appalachia any time soon. And, while he may take their votes, greedily (why Trump chose him, of course), those people aren’t paying for the campaign, vis-a-vis paying for the Presidency. So is JD Vance disingenuous? I think (my opinion) that he can’t be completely disingenuous. Watch the movie.
The Presidency is indeed paid for. If you think that’s conspiracy theory, you are very, very confused about the fundamentals of American politics, or, you think that Mickey Mouse is not an actor inside a costume at Disney World, or you think that Disney Corporation is all about kids. These are not cynical conspiracies – this is America.
The question you need to ask yourself is: are the Democrats or the Republicans going to change America, to loosen the stranglehold of corporate greed?
