Man About Town

the shivering woman

2011-07-25T16:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon, while walking towards our office after attending Holy Mass, Che-che and I, saw a woman lying on the floor in front of the Blessed Calungsod Hall.

“ Ngano man ni ? ” Che-che sort of grasped.

The woman looked like she was in pain. She was shivering, lying sideways on the semi-wet floor for it was just a few minutes ago since the rain had stopped. It had rained for about an hour.

“Tugnaw man, higda ko.”...she said.

Without doing anything to help, we walked past her as I told her to transfer to a drier spot at the side of the building.

She looked just like all the other homeless ones who sometimes take shelter in that place - the wandering street children, the madmen and women, beggars and scavengers.

Moments past and the unknown woman was forgotten as we went through our own business...Che-che has to finish distributing copies of the Hamiling Parokyano Newsletter to the different chapel communities tomorrow and she has yet to buy milk for her children , and i have to go home to be with my family for dinner.

I couldn’t remember if she was still there when we got out of our office. She might have blended well with the vicinity.

Busy as we were with our own affairs, we didn’t find time to even think of her.

It was just this morning as I was praying and thanking God for another gift of life that the image of that shivering woman crossed my mind.

“ Oh my God ! why didn't we do something?"

Skipping breakfast, I went hurriedly back to the place where we found her. She wasn't there anymore.

I went home carrying a guilty conscience, and it's still with me even as I write this...

rolling stone

2011-05-29T20:49:00.000-07:00

she's all wrap up

in her multi-tasking orgy

but deep from the bottom up

she can't stand all this hurly-burly

she thinks she's fine

she says dont ya mind

she's a modern day rolling stone

she's never stoned but she's got no bone

she can't call anybody her own

she's alone, i tell you,

she's all alone...

begone

2011-05-25T06:02:00.000-07:00

we both concealed the light
and saw things differently
from what they really were

pull the curtains now
open the windows
let fresh air come through
let pure light come in

its about time to break away
from our game and my illusions

awaken my love and go..............

the flow

2011-03-18T15:58:00.000-07:00

and that icy palm

of the saintly immortal

will never be hot again

just because the moon no longer

wants to be kissed by the sun

but his light still shines

on both sinners and saints

he does as he pleases

and knows what he is about

be gone my love

and drink your own secretions

hit the road you sunny

your not as hot as hell anymore

you're on your own now angel moon

may your dim light shine on that crazy cat

you can do it

i told you so

i don't want to remember

i dont want to know

this is the flow

you are still you

this is your world

own it

Minglanilla, Cebu: Historical Notes

2009-09-25T17:31:00.000-07:00

( copy-pasted from POINT CEBU )

( Note: This version of the history of Minglanilla is culled from a website ( pls click above).. The reader may note some differences from another version which I posted here earlier ( see archives, September 9, 2009) where the first parish priest was named Fr. Fernando Sanchez not Fernando Lopez. This version also has the date of the Fiesta wrong. The parish celebrates its Fiesta on August 21 and 22, not August 22- 23. the 21st in honor f the parish's 2nd patron Sr. San Roque and on the 22nd in honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary its patroness, not Sacred Heart of Mary as written below...
As I have learned from the parish's records, the First Parish priest was Fr. Fernando Sanchez, who came from Minglanilla, Spain...
As of this date, the town and the parish still has to come up with an authentic, well researched official version of its history...)

Location: 15.4 kms.
Area: 7,196 hectares
No. of Barangays: 19
Town Fiesta: August 22 - 23
Patron Saint: Sacred Heart of Mary
Places of Interest: Old parish church - classic, neo-Roman in design, Campo Siete forestral area, White caves

Historical Notes

Father Fernando Lopez, Minglanilla’s first parish priest, is credited as the founder of the town in 1858. Nicolas Lopez, Miguel de Burgo and Jose Alonso worked together in the construction of the church and the cemetery. It roads and bridges were built by the same Fr. Lopez together with Fr. Magaz.

There were a number of capitanes who headed the town during the Spanish era. The first capitan was Hilario Castañares. During the American regime when the town headsman was called president, the first to serve as such was Canuto Larrobis. The first to be elected municipal mayor was Gregorio de la Calzada.

Buat was the former name of Minglanilla. It was probably due to the fact that it was the place where early settlers dried (buad/buat) their sea catches. But in 1858, it was renamed Minglanilla by Fr. Lopez, after a place in Spain.

The town suffered setbacks, among them during the Philppine Revolution and World War II. In January 18, 1905, insurrectos burned down its municipal building and looted many houses. This unforgettable and lamentable event is commemorated by a street named 18 de Julio (18th of July). In 1942, its poblacion was razed to the ground by the Japanese in retaliation of the presence of the guerrillas in the town.

A popular legend explains the name of a barangay in Minglanilla. It is puzzling that Barrio Linao is so-called when there is no body of water in this locality. Linao in Cebuano means lake/bay. The legend goes:

It is told that Linao before was a bay, favorite place for Chinese traders to anchor their frigates. At first the natives were afraid of the slit-eyed, fair-complexioned foreigners that they fled inland.

To attract the inhabitants to trade with them, the Chinese left their merchandise on the shore and sailed away. Soon enough, the natives got the wares and exchanged them with precious stones. The barter went on with honest natives always repaying the goods with valuables.

On days, because there was no wind at all, the boats could not set sail. To raise wind, the boat’s captain decided to make his dog dance. This was an act of sacrilege on the part of the anitos or native gods, who sent strong winds, lightning, thunder and heavy rains which inundated the place. The frigates sunk and all the Chinese drowned.

The following day, the bay was no more. Instead, there was a wide plain where Linao stands today.

A big socio-religious event in Minglanilla which attracts not only people from adjacent towns but also from Cebu City and farther, is the Sugat. Sugat in Cebuano means meeting. On Black Saturday night, a public dance is held at the Church Plaza to witness the re-enactment of the “meeting” of the risen Christ and his mother. Their images, borne on richly-decorated carrozas, meet amidst joyous songs and the presence of child angels suspended by wires.

^{Reprinted from the book: Cebu In Legend and History

By: Lavilles de Paula}

new buildings and establishments

2009-09-15T01:53:00.000-07:00

New buildings and establisments are sprouting in town !

Celes the Minglanillero

2009-09-14T17:10:00.000-07:00

They call him Silis, or Celes as in Celestino ? Whatever is his real name , they just call him that...
I use to see him strolling around Plaza Maria fronting the Chuch. I was still in high school when I first saw him and heard stories about him and why he became like that..

He was younger then, in his early twenties.They said he bacame like that because he impregnated a girl somewhere in Mindanao and refused to marry her. The girl resorted to witchcraft to punish him for what he did. That's why he became like that.

He became a familiar character in town, walking alone without seeming to care whats going on around him. Like a hippy. wearing blue jeans and sometimes with a piece of towel hanging above his shoulders, he strolls around picking scraps of food from garbage cans and drinking leftover sofdrinks from customers of sari-sari stores and carenderias.

So familiar were we all of his presence that nobody seemed to mind him at all, behaving as if he's not even there. Being non-violent, he wasn't to be feared. Being healthy looking, he wasn't even to be pitied.. He was just there.

Now, 30 or so years after. he still roams the streets doing the same thing, scavenging for food, walking around without a sense of purpose. A little bit older now, he seems to blend more fully with the place and crowd ...

Celes the madman don't seem to look mad anymore. He goes around without saying a word.
People who know him say he's no longer insane. They say he's trying to maintain his madness to escape the responsibilities of life.... "He's one helluva lazy bastard", they say of him.

Who knows whats on his mind? Who cares? As long as he doesn't hurt anyone, nobody seems to mind . He's just there. He blends well. No need to call the authorities. No need to give him anything. No need to pity him.

He doesn't seem to need anything, even acts of mercy from the religious ones. No need even to pray for him; for his safety, for his enlightenment, that he might receive or continue to recieve the graces necessary for his state of life...or whatever it is they pray for people in need.

He's not in need and nobody needs him. Hes just there.

Celes the madman? Celes the hippy? Someone told me that his family name is Caballero. So, that's who he is, Celes Caballero. But no matter what, he's just plain Celes to me, a Minglanillian, a Lumad Minglanillahanon - a Minglanillero.

Celes the minglanillero, the man who's just there. Simply there.

The Whole Community as Guardians of the Youth

2009-09-12T03:20:00.000-07:00

By: Alan K. Caña

There is a problem creeping within our communities. And because people are taking it as an ordinary phenomenon happening everyday as a product of modern culture, no collective effort is being done to counter it. This problem has been here for years and is prevalent in all parts of the world.

Youth unruly behavior and disorderly conduct such as drug abuse, alcoholism, vandalism, vagrancy, and all forms of destructive actions are driving some parents crazy and disrupting lives of family members and even the whole neighborhood where they belong.

All Barangays in our towns is experiencing these problems. All one has to do to know what is going on is to hang around some street corner store or some corner “lantay”where local residents gather, and listen to what the people are talking about. Mostly one will overhear people talking about their children or gossip about what their neighbors’ children are doing.

Who among your neighbor’s children are “shabu” users? Who is going around with whom? Who is the new “sugar daddy” of the neighborhood’s “syota ng bayan”? Who came home so drunk last night? Who is being imprisoned for stealing? etc…

Look at the surrounding fences and walls of houses and buildings in your place and realize for yourself what gangs and so-called “frats” the young people are involved in. Some of our young nowadays have no qualms in advertising their membership in such groups - groups that promote vandalism, drug abuse, drunkenness, sexual promiscuity and violence.

Do you know of a son or daughter, your own or somebody else’s, who is giving their parents sleepless nights and is causing them endless worries and anxiety because of his/her disrespect for the family and society’s rules of conduct? Are the neighbors helping the parents cope with their problem? Or do you hear snide remarks from other people, un-educated and professionals alike, blaming them of their plight because they are “lousy parents”?

These people are not alone, or perhaps you are one of them ? Literally thousands of parents are trapped in this seemingly hopeless situation. You’ve done your best to change your child’s behavior. You prayed. You have asked for help and even tried countless ways to change yourself, believing what your neighbors, the so-called modern psychologists, the clergy and the educators alike are saying - that “the parents are to be blamed.”

Sounds familiar isn’t it? But will subscribing to this kind of reasoning solve your problem? Will looking for something wrong in yourself, in any way , stop your child from doing what he’s doing now, say, coming home drunk and hanging out with local thugs? The truth is, it won’t. Nothing can be solved by self blaming and finger-pointing.

The problem of some of the youth of today should be seen as a community problem having its roots in modern culture. Being cultural, this needs a communitarian solution .It is within this frame of mind that parents victimized by their kids unbecoming conduct should come together to unite and organize themselves and share experiences, console each other, find solutions, and take a stand against what their children are doing to them.

The principles of communitarianism and networking could apply to this. Parents need to be aware who their children’s friends are, what they are doing and where they usually hang out. Once organized, this Parents Group can help monitor each others children and foster links with the police and other concerned government agencies, the local PTA, NGOs and Church Organizations, to get involved and help their cause.

There is no reason for parents to feel alone in their struggle to maintain order in their families. After all, the whole community gets affected whenever any crime is committed by any of its members. Children who disobey and intimidate their families by rude behavior and of conduct unbecoming of a family member and a good citizen should learn to suffer the consequences of their actions.

Parents organizing themselves as a group, supported by the bigger community will be able to take a stand and say, “enough is enough, because the whole neighborhood does not condone what you young folks are doing. The whole community demands respect.”

This is what it means to live in a community - a community that guides its young to become cooperative members of society. Aptly put by an old saying, “It takes the whole tribe to raise a child”.

,Minglanilla, Cebu

2009-09-12T02:56:00.000-07:00

History

The municipality of Minglanilla was once a part of its adjacent town, Naga. According to the church records, the municipality was founded in 1858 by Fr. Fernando Sanchez, first parish priest. The place was formerly called ‘buat’, A local word for ‘BULAD’ or dried fish. Fr. Sanchez later changed the name to Minglanilla, taken from his obscure place in Spain.

eskina macaraya, road to cadulawan

2009-09-11T21:01:00.001-07:00

This place is locally known as Eskina Macaraya, named after Felipe Macaraya who owned the big house right at the corner of this road to the mountains of Cadulawan... Officially, and known only by a few oldtimers, the road is supposed to be named E. Geonzon Street, but nobody ever calls it that...

The place has been known for other names such as, Eskina ila Tirso, after Tirso Unabia who lived and owned an electronics shop on the other side of the street opposite Felipe Macaraya's house. Eskina sa Patsa, after the name of a local teeenage gang who used to hang around the short riprapped fence sorrounding Noy Tirso's Shop. There was even an attempt by the gang to christened the place Yarok Eskina. Yarok, meaning gulp, because of the group's penchant for drinking... But the name Macaraya stuck, even until now when Noy Felipe is long time gone and his house is already owned by someone else. Noy Tirso is gone too. The Patsa boys have all grown up to becaome grandfathers.

This used to be a quite and peaceful place, except when the local boys got drunk, but the people in the neighborhood did'nt seem to mind, after all they knew who those kids were - their own children and the children of their neighbors !...

Nowadays, no local boys hang around the street corner anymore, the place has become a terminal of sorts for habal-habal motorcycles. We, the old residents of the place, Patsa members or not, have become strangers in our own street. The habal-habal drivers don't even know who we are. They don't seem to mind if we are the descendants of the owners of the parcels of land donated to make this street possible.

Crimes are being commited here. Crimes unheard of in the past such as snatching, robbery, swindling are happening in this once peaceful place....Al of them committed by motorcycle-riding men.

What do the habal-habal drivers think all these?..Do they mind ?

Who are these drivers anyway? Why is the local gevernment allowing them to roam our streets?...And this thing is supposed to be illegal ?

the other (original) Minglanilla

2009-09-11T02:10:00.000-07:00

Minglanilla : mineral baths, mountains and motorbikes

By: Samantha Kett, thinkSPAINtoday , Thursday, August 28, 2008

Little more than a strange-sounding name on a motorway exit sign and virtually ignored in tourism brochures, Minglanilla is not the first place that springs to mind when planning a weekend in the country. However, its numerous attractions, including breathtaking countryside, picturesque buildings and a natural spa concealed by majestic mountain summits, make it an enchanted island among the flame-red plains of central Spain.

The strange-sounding, musical name is thought to have been taken from the minglano (local lingo for pomegranate tree) next to a natural spring in the area. Romantics prefer the legend of a pretty young girl named Minga, nicknamed Galanilla (which roughly translates as ‘handsome young lass’) who was always courted by opulent locals and had the locality named after her.

Although Minglanilla officially became a town in 1505, people were setting up camp there long before. Cave paintings in the Hoz de Vicente near the Cabriel river, discovered 20 years ago, show the Paleolithics were alive and kicking thousands of years before Minglanilla was put on the map.

Throughout the centuries, it was always a calm and pleasant place to settle, with even the Moorish invasion and the Civil War practically passing it by. However, life in Minglanilla has not been all peace and quiet. To compensate for missing out on the bloodshed the rest of Spain suffered throughout history, anti-Franco pro-Republican armies, known as maquis, grew in force in the town at the end of the 1940s and beginning of the 1950s, using the caves for refuge.

The most notorious of Minglanilla’s warriors was known as Manco de la Pesquera, who was so named after losing two fingers of his left hand while planting a bomb which exploded in front of him.

Thankfully, Minglanilla’s harmonious nature wasnot disturbed for long and it is now an ideal location to escape for a weekend and blow away the cobwebs. Admittedly, it has more nightclubs than casas rurales and is within easy distance of Valencia city, but the dramatic surrounding countryside is a walker’s or rider’s paradise.

TRUE OASIS
It may be difficult to believe that anywhere in Castilla La-Mancha – known for its flat, arid, red landscape and generally scorched look, could boast greenery and hills. Yet Minglanilla’s nature reserve, Las Hoces de Cabriel, is a true oasis in the dry, dusty plains.

Located on the banks of the river Cabriel and covering 95 per cent of the municipality, this part of Spain used to be under the sea 170 million years ago. Its impressive rock formations developed as a result of the Europe-Africa collision around that time.

Ravines of more than 100 metres deep, vast canyons and waterways make Las Hoces de Cabriel a green paradise with a spectacular landscape. Not like the rolling pastures of the farnorth but towering mountains with raging white water far below.

Among the dense shrubland and pine forest flanking the river are numerous wild herbs, esparto grass (used for weaving baskets, particularly in Alicante province) and the so-called strawberry tree, whose bright red berries resemble strawberries from a distance.

This part of the countryside is a natural habitat for wild animals including foxes, jennets, squirrels, mountain cats and goats and wild boar with Bonelli’s eagles, golden eagles and peregrine falcons soaring overhead.

TREASURE TROVE
Deep within Minglanilla’s breathtaking countryside are, literally, hidden gems. The huge saline lakes in the pine forest, are a treasure chest of aragonite and quartz.

Known for its revitalising and therapeutic properties, natural mineral salt water eases aches and pains and softens the skin. People have been taking rejuvenating dips in the Baños de Sal since the Roman times.

The nearby salt mines, which were exploited as far back as the Iberian era, are also a major tourist attraction and a small hotel has been built next to both for the hundreds of visitors who come every year seeking a relaxing reak.

CELEBRITY PLAYGROUND
Minglanilla’s charm has, in the past, been a magnet for the rich and famous. The town’s celebrity cast includes Ava Gardner who, on numerous occasions, stayed in the Venta de Contreras, a lovely old cavalry inn and now partly a hotel with one wing due to be turned into a museum. Inside, a collection of major works of art, ancient maps and engravings, antique furniture and mineral stones adorn the premises.

Built in the 16th century by the distinguished Contreras family, part of Minglanilla’s aristocracy, it now has a campsite attached to it and several casas rurales around it with a bar, a shop selling natural mineral products using ingredients from the Baños de Sal, and a riding centre close by.

Despite being turned into a rural tourism complex, the Venta de Contreras and its grounds have not lost their quaint, picturesque allure but retain the olde worlde feel characteristic of a remote country village.

WHAT’S COOKING?
Typical cuisine from Minglanilla is not difficult to conjure up in the kitchen even if you are a culinary cretin.

Given its inland location, Minglanilla’s traditional dishes are mainly based on pulses, meat and vegetables, although there are a few vegetarian options on the menu, too.

For example, pisto con huevos is made by frying puréed tomatoes in a bit of oil, adding salt and eggs and stirring well. Minglanilla-style garlic soup involves frying three or four garlic cloves in oil, then frying some bread in it, adding salt and then water until you achieve the right consistency.

A more filling dish, typical of the area and mainly eaten during Easter week, as the name suggests, is potaje de Semana Santa, a tasty and warming meal made of chickpeas, cod, breadcrumbs, eggs, garlic, parsley, onion, oil and flour, seasoned with salt and paprika. The breadcrumbs, egg, garlic and parsley are made into dumplings that are deep-fried along with all the other ingredients and then left to simmer.

IT ROCKS
An ideal time to visit Minglanilla is on August 15, when the fiesta in honour of La Virgen de la Piedad takes place. A marathon around the town is held for those mad enough to take part while the streets are roaring with the sound of motorbike engines as they hold a race around the municipality.

For those who like to take things a little easier, the colourful parades are fun to watch and there is a cake-baking competition where examples of Minglanilla’s domestic gods’ and goddesses’ wares can be tried and tested.

On September 14 during the festival in homage to the patron saint, Santísimo Cristo de la Salud, a market is held to raise funds for missionaries followed by a photography competition and then open-air concerts and dancing until the early hours of the morning.

Perfect for a relaxing weekend away or well worth the detour en route to the capital, far enough away from life as we know it but easily reached by motorway, Minglanilla is an undiscovered paradise.

You won’t see it advertised in travel agents’ windows and it tends not to appear in the guidebooks – yet once you see it, you’ll wonder why not.

If it’s good enough for Ava Gardner, it must be worth a visit.

Miniature Gehenna

2009-09-10T22:57:00.000-07:00

A small heap of garbage can be seen 2o meters away from corner L. Caña street and the Provincial Highway at the very heart of the Poblacion in Minglanilla... This eyesore has been there for some time now and is being kept from growing bigger by constant burning, looking like a miniature gehenna.

Gehenna, right in front of Nick Velliasencio's Vulcanizing shop 10 meters away from Tita Gwapa.
Why this has escaped the eyes of the local garbage collectors is such a big puzzle to passersby. It's such an inescapable sight that one can't help but wonder if we are paying blind men to collect our garbage...

QUOTABLE QUOTE

2009-06-13T16:20:00.000-07:00

Seek for happiness and you will never find it.
Seek righteousness and you will discover you are happy.
It will be there without your knowing it, without your seeking it.

- Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn

you're not in love with me

2009-06-13T15:57:00.000-07:00

you're in love with a concept.
an image.
a dream.
you're not in love with me.

you dont know me
and its impossible to love someone
you dont know.

No, Im not mad at you.
i can never get angry
with someone i dont know.

Let me tell you this.
unless you come to terms with your illusions
and really try to see the world as it is,
you will never find true love.

dreams are just dreams.
they are not real.
and inventing relationships inside a dream
makes the dream more unreal...

you dont love alan.
youre in love with an image of alan you created.
And no matter how loudly you shout
that name, even in front of my face,
I will never hear you.

The name you're calling
is not real.

It has no soul...

Quotations trom the Dalai Lama

2009-05-23T16:41:00.000-07:00

1. All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives

2. If you have a particular faith or religion, that is good. But you can survive without it

3. If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

4. There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness.

5. Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend - or a meaningful day.

6. Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them.

7. The purpose of our lives is to be happy.

2009-05-16T05:36:00.000-07:00

Simone Weil said in “Human Personality”:

At the very best, a mind enclosed in language is in prison. It is limited to the number of relations which words can make simultaneously present to it; and remains in ignorance of thoughts which involve the combination of a greater number. . . . The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like a condemned man who is proud of his large cell.

LINK

deja vu

2009-05-15T07:31:00.000-07:00

there is no rain there
no longing and no emptiness.
we can do anything
to our heart's desire.

there is only freedom
to love and be loved
in that sacred place
of our dreams.

we have met there
a thousand times before
and will go on
meeting there forever

but today is different
because we have decided
to give flesh
to our imaginings

look around you
everything's oh so real
its alright now
there is nothing to fear

I am here
and you are with me
lets kiss and say hello
this is only deja vu

INNER JOURNEY

2009-05-10T16:53:00.001-07:00

silently in solitude
as I listened to myself
within

gracefully permitting
sopoforic rustle of thoughts
to flow through

I was helplessly
trapped in a whirling eddy
of words.

words building
worlds exploding
quantum leaping

swiftly dissappearing
in unmeasured time
into the void

so taken
by the moment
I felt lost

and as I ease
myself and cease
to hold on

without effort
I returned exactly
at the same spot

where
I was
before

everything
is clear
now

such a good
place and time
to be

everything just fits
no need to change
a bit

2009-05-07T22:51:00.000-07:00

Here is a golden Rule.... Write legibly. The average temper of the human race would be perceptibly sweetened, if everybody obeyed this Rule!

(Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832-1898), British author, mathematician, clergyman. "Eight or Nine Wise Words About Letter-Writing" in The Letters of Lewis Carroll, vol. II, ed. Morton N. Cohen, Oxford University Press (1979).)

another way of saying it

2009-04-06T15:33:00.000-07:00

Here's something I want to share. I Copy-pasted this from:
http://pagaian.org/essays/winter-spring-earth-wisdom

By Glenys Livingstone Ph.D.

Our Mother
Who is with us,
Holy is our Being.
Thy Kin-dom is present.
Thy Desire is felt throughout the Cosmos.
We graciously receive your infinite daily abundance.
May we forgive each other our lack of skill and insensitivity.
May we understand our inner guidance,
and perceive each other’s needs.
For Thine is the Kin-dom, the Power and the Story,
forever and ever.
Blessed Be³.

here's from alan watts

2009-03-26T23:03:00.000-07:00

I've always admired Alan Watts eversince I "discovered" him by reading his book Psychotherapy East and West many years ago. I read that book so many times it became one of my favorites.

That was before I started serving our parish as a catechist and as pastoral worker.

After years of serving the parish it slowly dawned on me that he is advocating a philosophy not in accord with the catholic religion. In spite of it, I kept the book.

But one day as I was reading a book written by a priest associated with the Catholic Charismastic Movement, I decided to throw the book away.

I regretted that act.

Alan Watts is still one of my favorite writers and I value what I learned from his philosophy.

Is he a Buddhist?
Is he advocating New Age Philosophy and Religion?
Is He an atheist?

I think he is none of the above.
To me , he is a sort of an enlightened man.
Someone who uses his mind and senses to follow the way of truth.
He recognizes silence as an essential tool to the realization of truth.
He is at home with the universe. He is in tune with nature and the nature of being by being one with nature.

He doesn't proselytize. He entertains. He facilitates. He guides.

Here is one of my favorite quotes from him:

"Spiritual awakening is the difficult process whereby the increasing realization that everything is wrong as it can be flips suddenly into the realization that everything is as right as it can be.Or better,every-thing is as IT as it can be"

TIME

2009-02-28T14:47:00.000-08:00

Time Flies
Time Creeps
Time Never Sleeps

PLAINLY AS SIMBA COULD SEE IT

2009-02-27T14:35:00.000-08:00

( January 16, 1996)

Motto Perpetuo
A never-ending story
A musical piece by Paganini
A poem by Whitman
With a million dots at the end

A long unpunctuated sentence
With short creative pauses
In between words
Or group of words
By whoever it is who wills
This to be like this

An eternal journey
Towards its beginning
Never ceasing
Forever moving
Flowing

One at a time
Not farther
But closer where
It all began

LIFE !

...

Bungled and botched
Alkie drugie hippie
Quicksilver lazybone
Vagabond good for nothing
sonnamagun

Great one
Yuppie proffie businessman
Straight doctor g-man
Priest lawyer
Respectable man

Does it matter how
One lives
Or if one sags
Or explodes?

LIFE!?

... ...

A place where
The lion sleeps
With the lamb without
Worrying who will
Kill or eat who

Where everyone owns everything
Where everyone owns nothing
All for one
One for all

Hakuna matata
No worries
No responsibilities

Eternal
Ethereal

LIFE!?!

... ... ...
etc...!?! !

Feeling's not Mutual ( or is it?)

2009-02-27T14:17:00.000-08:00

You lay
yourself down
in sweet abandon
thinking I would
relish this gesture
of surrender.

But I know
deep inside
you're thinking
of something else.

Not someone,
mind you.
Something!

I know your minds
preoccupation with words.
Words. Words. Words.

You are making
a poem out of this.

Gottcha!
Frigid woman.
Let's stop this.
Bye.

Prosperity Affirmation

2009-02-19T14:02:00.000-08:00

I am the source of all wealth.
I am rich with creative ideas.
My mind abounds with new, original, inspired thoughts.
What I have to offer is unique, and the world desires it.

My value is beyond reckoning.
What the world needs and desires, I am ready to produce and give.
What the world needs and desires, I recognize and fulfill.
The bounty of my mind is without hindrance or limit.
Nothing can stand in the way of my inspired creativeness.

The overflowing power of … life energy overcomes
every obstacle, & pours out into the world, blessing &
prospering everyone, & everything through me.

I radiate blessings, I radiate creativity,
I radiate prosperity, I radiate loving service.

I radiate Joy, Beauty, Peace,Wisdom & Power.
Humanity seeks me and rewards me.
I am beloved of the world.
I am wanted wherever I go.

I am appreciated. What I have to offer is greatly desired.
What I have to offer brings a rich reward.
Through my vision the world is blessed.
Through my clear thinking & steadfast purpose,
wonderful new values come into expression.

My vision is as the vision of the mighty ones.
My faith is as the faith of the undefeatable.
My power to accomplish is unlimited.
I, in my...uttermost, am all wealth,
all power, all productivity.
I hereby declare my financial free-dom, NOW
and henceforth forever!

Written by Will Bowen, author of "A Complaint-Free World."

http://www.acomplai ntfreeworld. org/

Aldous Huxley

2009-02-10T02:55:00.001-08:00



Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.: Aldous Huxley, Vedanta for the Western World, 1945

GANDHI

2009-02-10T02:55:00.000-08:00


Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

You must be the change you want to see in the world.

Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy.


Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.: Mahatma Gandhi

ayn rand

2009-02-09T23:47:00.000-08:00

“The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see.”

Ayn Rand quote

Jacques Maritain

2009-02-07T04:44:00.000-08:00

Christianity taught men that love is worth more than intelligence.
Jacques Maritain

Adrian Van Kaam

2009-02-07T04:38:00.000-08:00

Many people of good will strive wholeheartedly for peace, mutual understanding, human encounter, world unity, and living harmony. Yet human vulnerability in face of the divisiveness that followed the Fall can never be totally overcome by excellent intentions, marvelous slogans, peace marches and conferences, disarmaments, sensitivity training courses and group dynamics alone. All of these efforts can be helpful. They can provide some relief, but not a cure; they should be put into practice insofar as possible, but they will never be sufficient in themselves to overcome our basic disunity. - Adrian Van Kaam, The Tender Farewell of Jesus pg. 124.

Adrian Van Kaam

2009-02-07T04:27:00.000-08:00

Our life may be imprisoned in functional dispositions. They dim the vision of the spirit. Most harmful in this regard are those of ascendancy over others. To prove our functional potency, we may strive vigorously to outshine other people. This competitive attitude engenders inordinate strife and self-exertion. As a result our bloodstream may be polluted with overdoses of glandular chemicals. Arteries, brain, heart, and other organs may suffer from such surfeit. Disorder results. Problems like these multiply in functionalistic cultures because they are dominated by social form traditions that neglect the unfolding transcendent dispositions. - Adrian Van Kaam (From Formative Spirituality Volume 2: Human Formation pg. 99)

alan watts

2009-02-05T22:08:00.000-08:00

There are certain truths which have to be stood on their heads before they can be noticed at all; in the ordinary way they are so simple that we fail to perceive them, and they have to be complicated in order to be presented for thought and discussion.

2009-02-05T22:03:00.000-08:00

If we wish to free ourselves from enslavement, we must choose freedom and the responsibility this entails.
Leo Buscaglia

THE GESTALT PRAYER

2009-02-05T21:53:00.000-08:00

I do my thing, and you do your thing.
I am not in this world to live up to your expectations.
And you are not in this world to live up to mine.
You are you and I am I,
And if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful.
If not, it can't be helped.

(F. Perls)

QUOTE

2009-02-05T20:53:00.000-08:00

There is no such thing as a 'self-made' man. We are made of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make- up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success." ( George M. Adams, american author)

THINGS TO REMEMBER

2009-02-05T16:45:00.000-08:00

(Shared to me by Nippy, my good friend from kalubihan.ning.com )

1. Anger is a condition in which the tongue works faster than the mind.
(And certainly faster than the heart!)
2. You can't change the past, but you can ruin the present by worrying
over the future.
3. Love ......and you shall be loved.
4. God always gives His best to those who leave the choice with Him.
5. All people smile in the same language.
6. A hug is a great gift: One size fits all, it can be given for any
occasion and it's easy to exchange.
7. We all need to be loved . . . especially when we do not deserve it.
8. The real measure of a man's wealth is what he has invested in Eternity.
9. Laughter is God's sunshine.
10. Everything has beauty but not everyone sees it.
11. Thank God for what you have; TRUST GOD for what you need.
12. If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries of
tomorrow, you have no today to be thankful for.
13. Happy memories never wear out. Relive them as often as you want.
14. Home is the place where we grumble the most, but are often treated the best.
15. Man looks at outward appearance but the Lord looks within.
16. The choice you make today will usually affect tomorrow.
17. Take time to laugh for it is the music of the soul.
18. If anyone speaks badly of you, live so no one will believe it.
19. Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like
stripping your gears.
20. Love is strengthened by working through conflicts together.
21. The best thing parents can do for their children is to love each
other.
22. Harsh words break no bones but they do break hearts.
23. To get out of a difficulty, one usually must go through it.
24. We take for granted the things that we should be giving thanks for.
25. Love is the only thing that can be divided without being diminished.
26. Happiness is enhanced by others but does not depend upon others.
27. You are richer today if you have laughed, given or forgiven.
28. For every minute you are angry with someone, you lose 60 seconds of
happiness that you can never get back.
29. Do what you can, for who you can, with what you have, and where you are.

30. The best gifts to give: To your friend, loyalty; to your enemy, forgiveness;
to your boss, service; to a child, a good example; to your parents,
gratitude and devotion; to your mate, love and faithfulness; to all men and
women, charity; and to your God, your life.

ENNUI

2009-02-02T13:09:00.000-08:00

by: Langston Hughes

Its such a
Bore
Being always
Poor

poems by ella wheeler wilcox

2009-01-07T03:52:00.000-08:00

pls. click
http://www.poemhunter.com/ella-wheeler-wilcox/

Toward a science charged with faith

2009-01-07T03:43:00.000-08:00

http://www.godweb.org/chardin.htm

So Little Time

2009-01-02T01:30:00.000-08:00

So Little Time
by Jose G. Logarta
( p 7)Sunstar Daily,Thursday, December 3, 1987)

So little time
For things I intended;
The verdict has been passed:
My life's almost ended.

I had time on my hands,
But it was so fleeting;
I used it all up
For deadline beating.

The little footprints
On the sands of rhyme,
I shall soon leave behind...
there's so little time.

Reincarnation, Fact or Fiction?

2009-01-01T14:02:00.000-08:00

http://www.istorya.net/forums/spirituality-and-occult/162958-reincarnation-fact-or-fiction.html

The Philosophy of Religion

2008-11-21T23:07:00.000-08:00

http://www.philosophyofreligion.info/theistic-proofs/the-argument-from-religious-experience/

Active Contemplation

2008-11-13T20:40:00.001-08:00

http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewarticle.asp?id=10359

sounds from zen mountain

2008-11-13T20:33:00.000-08:00

http://wzen.org/

Church not fighting evil hard enough, CBCP Chief admits...

2008-11-13T17:43:00.000-08:00

From yahoo news

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/gma/20081113/tph-church-not-fighting-evil-hard-enough-d6cd5cf.html

Extending the Effects of Centering Prayer in Daily Life

2008-11-13T02:34:00.000-08:00

http://www.kyrie.com/cp/extending_the_effects_of_cp.htm

Kyrie Centering Prayer Index

2008-11-13T02:25:00.000-08:00

http://www.kyrie.com/cp/

Mindfulness Meditation

2008-11-13T02:15:00.000-08:00

http://www.meditationcenter.com/connect/mind.html

Centering

2008-11-13T02:10:00.000-08:00

http://www.meditationcenter.com/center/index.html

PRAGMATISM

2008-11-12T03:14:00.000-08:00

hhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatism#Concept_of_truth

ZAZEN

2008-11-12T03:03:00.000-08:00

http://www.buffalozen.org/about/zazen.asp

2008-11-12T02:49:00.000-08:00

Lecture on Zen, by alan watts

http://deoxy.org/w_lectur.htm

Introduction to Meister Eckhart

2008-11-12T02:46:00.001-08:00

http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/REL275/EckhartIntroduction.html

Active Contemplation: Meditation Class: A Mystic’s Journal Entry: November 9, 2006

2008-11-12T02:43:00.000-08:00

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/active-contemplation-meditation-class-mystics-journal-entry.html

The Way of Meditation and Contemplation

2008-11-12T02:40:00.001-08:00

http://www.stolaf.edu/people/huff/classes/religion/Essay.html

2008-11-12T02:28:00.000-08:00

"A certain brother went to Abba Moses in Scete, and asked him for a good word. And the elder said to him: Go, sit in your cell, and your cell will teach you everything."

Wisdom of the Desert, by Thomas Merton

2008-11-11T16:54:00.001-08:00

**One's life is an act with no actor, and thus it has always been recognized that the insane man [person] who has lost his mind is a parody of the sage who has transcended his ego. **The sphere of the Bodhisattva is thus what Gerald Heard call "meta-comedy", a jargonesque and up-to-date equivalent of the Divine Comedy, the viewpoint from which the tragedy of life is seen as comedy because the protagonists are really players. So, too, the lower outcaste, whether criminal or lunatic who cannot be trusted, is always the mirror image of the upper outcaste, the impartial one who takes no sides and cannot be pinned down. But the former retreats from the tragedy of the double-bind because it appears to him to be an insoluble problem. The latter laughs at it because he knows it to be nonsense. When society cannot distinguish between these two outcastes, it treats both alike.
[Paragraphs snipped]

This "knowing where to stop" is more generally called wu-wei, a term whose literal meaning is nonaction or noninterference, but which must more correctly be understood as not acting in conflict with the Tao, the Way or Course of nature. [How could one act in conflict with Tao?] It is therefore against the Tao to try exhaustively, to pin its unceasing transformations to names, because this will make it appear that the structure of nature is the same as the structure of language: that it is a multitude of distinct things instead of a multitude of changing relations. Because it is the latter, there is actually no way of standing outside nature as to interfere with it. The organism of man does not confront the world but is in the world.
Language seems to be a system of fixed terms standing over against the physical events to which they refer. That it is not so, appears in the impossibility of keeping a living language stable. [This may no longer be true. Are computer languages living?] Thinking and knowing seem to be confronting the world as an ego in the same way that words seem to stand over against events; the two illusions stand or fall together. Speaking and thinking are events in and of the physical world, but they are carried on as if they were outside it, as if they were an independent and fixed measure with which life could be compared**

Alan watts

2008-11-11T16:51:00.000-08:00

One of the blessings of easy communication between the great cultures of the world is that partisanship in religion and philosophy is ceasing to be intellectually respectable. Pure religions are as rare as pure cultures, and it is mentally crippling to suppose that there must be a number of fixed bodies of doctrine among which one must choose, where choice means accepting the system entirely or not at all. Highly organized religions always try to force such a choice because they need devoted members for their continuance. Those who rove freely through the various traditions, accepting what they can use and rejecting what they cannot, are condemned as undisciplined syncretists. But the use of one's reason is not a lack of discipline, not is there any important religion which is not itself a syncretism, a "growing up together" of ideas and practices of diverse origin.
**Yet if the main function of a way of liberation is to release the individual from his "hypnosis" by certain social institutions, what is needed in California will not be quite the same as what is needed in Bengal, for the institutions differ. Like different diseases, they require different medicines.

Alan watts

2008-10-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

"..freedom has a twofold meaning for modern man: that he has been freed from traditional authorities and has become an 'individual,' but that at the same time he has become isolated, powerless and an instrument of purposes outside of himself, alienated from himself and others; furthermore, that this state undermines his self, weakens and frightens him, and makes him ready for submission to new kinds of bondage. Positive freedom on the other hand is identical with the full realization of the individual's potentialities, together with his ability to live actively and spontaneously."

Eric Fromm
Escape from Freedom

2008-10-22T20:44:00.001-07:00

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.
Aldous Huxley

2008-10-22T20:42:00.001-07:00

My father considered a walk among the mountains as the equivalent of churchgoing.
Aldous Huxley

2008-10-22T20:40:00.000-07:00

I'm afraid of losing my obscurity. Genuineness only thrives in the dark. Like celery.
Aldous Huxley

2008-10-22T20:36:00.000-07:00

All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours.
Aldous Huxley

2008-10-22T18:42:00.000-07:00

Alan Watts

on FAITH

Faith is a state of openness or trust. To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float. And the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging to belief, of holding on. In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all. Instead they are holding tight. But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.

2008-10-22T18:38:00.001-07:00

Faith is a state of openness or trust.
Alan Watts

2008-10-22T18:34:00.001-07:00

______________________________________________________________________

No work or love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.
Alan Watts

_______________________________________________________________________-

Christian humanism

2008-10-21T19:27:00.000-07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Christian Humanism is the belief that human freedom and individualism are intrinsic (natural) parts of, or are at least compatible with, Christian doctrine and practice. It is a philosophical union of Christian and humanist principles.^[1]

Origins

Christian humanism may have begun as early as the 2nd century, with the writings of Justin Martyr. While far from radical, Justin suggested a value in the achievements of Classical culture in his Apology^[2] Influential letters by Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa confirmed the commitment to using pre-Christian knowledge, particularly as it touched the material world and not metaphysical beliefs. Already the formal aspects of Greek philosophy, namely syllogistic reasoning, arose in both the Byzantine Empire and Western European circles in the eleventh century to inform the process of theology. However, the Byzantine hierarchy during the reign of Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118) convicted several thinkers of applying "human" logic to "divine" matters. Peter Abelard's work encountered similar ecclesiastical resistance in the West in the same period. Petrarch (1304-1374) is also considered a father of humanism. The traditional teaching that humans are made in the image of God, or in Latin the Imago Dei, also supports individual worth and personal dignity.

Selected Humanist Teachings of Jesus

The Second Great Commandment

"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" -- Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31, Luke 10:27 (also Leviticus 19:18)

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’

“Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ -- Matthew 25:34-40

Prominent Christian humanists

SIDDHARTHA

2008-10-21T19:17:00.000-07:00

http://www.indiaparenting.com/stories/greatindians/gi004.shtml

Gautam Buddha

Buddha, means 'the enlightened one'. And Gautam Buddha was one of the greatest religious teachers that the world has seen. His teachings expounded in Buddhism, are immensely popular in Burma, China, Japan and other South Eastern Countries.

Early Life

The Buddha was born in 563 B.C. as Siddhartha to Shuddhodana the king of Kapilavastu in Nepal. His mother Mayadevi expired when he was just 7 days old and he was brought up by his stepmother Gautami. Siddhartha was made to lead a very sheltered life as the astrologers had predicted that he would give up worldly pleasures to follow a different path. The King wanted to avoid this at all costs and so did not let him out of the palace. He hoped that Siddhartha would one day become king.

Life Changing Experiences

When Siddhartha had grown into an intelligent young man, he ventured out of his palace one day, and chanced on a few sights that changed the course of his life. He first saw a very old man who could barely walk, a sick man who was in a great deal of pain, and lastly a corpse. He had never been exposed to pain before, and so these sights had a deep effect on him. His servant explained that pain and death were inevitable.

This made Siddhartha very sad and he started to rethink his life and began to try to fathom the reason of existence. Seeing him so thoughtful, his father decided to get him married and get his mind off such serious topics. He was married to a beautiful princess called Yashodhara, who soon gave birth to a son who they called Rahul.

A Search for Light

Despite this, Siddhartha found no happiness in materialistic pleasures and so left the palace in search of salvation - ' Moksh'. He was only 29 years old. He roamed the country, meeting various sadhus and saints in his search for inner peace. He lived the life of a hermit and underwent rigorous ' tapasya' to achieve his purpose, but still could not understand the meaning of or reason for life and death.

Finally, one day he reached Bodh Gaya. He was very tired and so sat under the shade of a tree. He shut his eyes and was blessed with a divine light. This was the turning point, as he realized the truth is within every human being. The search outside was pointless. After this he was known as ' Buddha' or the enlightened one.

The Right Path and Immortality

For 45 years, Buddha spread his message of a spiritual life. He did not believe in rituals but pointed to an 8 - fold path towards salvation - that of right speech, understanding, determination, deeds, efforts, awareness, thinking and living. According to Buddhism, by following this path one could overcome desires, which were the root cause of grief and misery.

The Buddha died in 483 BC at the ripe age of 80 years, after successfully spreading his message to the world. Buddhism still lives and has a strong following in various Asian countries.

____________________________________________________________________

VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY

2008-10-21T19:05:00.000-07:00

( http://www.greatriv.org/vs.htm )

What is voluntary simplicity?

Voluntary simplicity means doing/having/living more with less--more time, meaning, joy, satisfaction, relationships, community; less money, material possessions, stress, competition, isolation. It doesn't mean depriving yourself; it doesn't mean buying "cheap" and always pinching pennies; it doesn't mean poverty. It does mean wanting what you have, and finding joy in having less; and recovering the connection with other people and with the Earth that alone makes life really worthwhile. (For some suggested reading, see the Voluntary Simplicity section of the book list.)

Voluntary simplicity is a growing movement of people who have realized that happiness and fulfillment do not lie in having more money, or new and bigger things, but rather in the time with loved ones and connection with community. They are questioning the consumer society's insistence that possessions, especially of the newest design and color, are the means of fulfillment, or that any material possession can possibly be "to die for." They are questioning this definition of "normal," by columnist Ellen Goodman:

" 'Normal' is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work, driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for, in order to get to the job that you need so you can pay for the clothes, car, and the house that you leave empty all day in order to afford to live in it."

Benefits to individual and society

The benefits of voluntary simplicity to the individual are great:

More time to spend with family, friends and community.
Less money spent on almost everything.
Less stress in high-paying jobs or commuting to them.
Less worry over possessions getting stolen or damaged.
More satisfaction in learning to do things for oneself, such as fixing and maintaining possessions, cooking, gardening and putting food by, mending and sewing, as well as making music and fun.
Other benefits that are corollaries of these, including more time to read, less ill health, more opportunity to exercise and do satisfying physical work, less chance of getting in an accident on the freeway, and a general reordering of values from a focus on materialism to to a focus on relationships.

But the benefits when people live a voluntarily simple life go beyond the individual and the family. Benefits to society as a whole and to the Earth are significant, and include:

Less pollution from transportation, and less traffic congestion, accidents and need for new roads.
Less environmental impact from resource extraction and manufacturing.
Less need for new power plants and new water treatment plants as people waste less electricity and water.
More community cohesiveness, resulting in less crime and more neighborliness, safer streets and better schools.
More grassroots democracy as people take more interest in how their communities operate.
More ecological restoration as people find simple pleasure in connecting with their local environment and seek to heal it.
A flowering of local culture--music, storytelling, drama, games, poetry.

Voluntary simplicity, as great as its benefits are, is not always viewed in a positive light. Arguments raised against voluntary simplicity and disengaging from consumer society are mostly economic in nature. Here is a discussion of voluntary simplicity and the global economy.

Ways to simplify

Here are some suggested actions you can take to simplify your life. (For more, go to the page on Bioregionalism.)

De-clutter your house. Go through clothes, kitchenware, knickknacks, gadgets, small appliances and other possessions and give away or recycle some. Do this until you feel there is some air in your home, some space between the things.
Try cooking more meals from scratch. This may sound like the opposite of simplifying, since cooking from scratch can take more time and be more complicated than microwaving a meal from a box, or ordering a pizza. However, you can make larger quantities and freeze the extra for a quick meal later. You also can avoid huge amounts of packaging, which is expensive and wasteful.
Ride public transit or a bicycle to get around. If possible, don’t even own a car. You’ll save thousands of dollars every year from insurance, registration, maintenance and gas. And you’ll never have a freeway accident, a breakdown or get caught in a traffic jam.
Buy products with the least packaging possible. You will save money as well as resources and reduce your garbage.
Buy in bulk. Food co-ops have many foods available in bins from which you fill your own container.
Learn to mend clothing, toys, furniture and other items. Sewing holes in shirts and pants can be a relaxing activity. Darning socks and tights is a bit more difficult, but can double or triple the life of these items.
Instead of going to a movie, invite some friends over to play charades, Trivial Pursuit, Scruples or some other game, play music together, or read a play. Storytelling as an art is coming back—anyone can tell stories.
Borrow or rent large items that you don’t use often, such as tools, garden equipment and party utensils. You can even rent a car for trips.
Instead of traveling to faraway places for vacation, look closer to home. Explore the place you live. You will save money on travel as well as accommodations and food, which always cost more at popular vacation spots.
Buy clothes and household items second-hand.
Get off mailing lists. Write to: Direct Marketing Association, Mail Preference Service, P.Ol Box 9008, Farmingdale, NY 11725-9008 to have your name removed from lists rented to catalog companies and other direct mail solicitors. This will reduce your mail, save paper and trees, and reduce your exposure to tempting merchandise. Remember to request that your name not be sold to other companies whenever you subscribe to any publication or join any organization.
Start a compost pile for yard waste and food waste from the kitchen. This may seem less simple than throwing everything into the garbage, but it will help you to waste less food as you become more aware of where it is going, while reducing garbage, which could save money. The side benefit is, of course, a rich soil additive that will make your garden and all your trees and shrubs grow healthier.
Reuse everything you can, from jars and containers to nails to clothing. You will need to buy much less new stuff.
Don’t fall for the new advertising gimmick using the language of simplicity to sell all kinds of things—even $30,000 cars. Simplicity isn’t about having the right stuff. It isn’t a style. And don’t fall for the idea that you need a lot of special containers, boxes, and so on to organize your stuff and thereby achieve simplicity.

Simplicity is about enjoying, even delighting in, a life that is uncluttered in every possible way—physically, emotionally, spiritually—in terms of things, relationships, obligations. But in today's world, with its constant focus on saving time and saving labor, determining what living a simple life means can be confusing. Here is a brief discussion about why simplicity doesn't always seem simple.

Voluntary simplicity study circles: getting support

Living a life that goes against the current of consumer society and, indeed, Western culture in general, can be a challenge. Support is essential--going it alone can be overwhelming.

Fortunately, voluntary simplicity study circles and support groups are popping up all over. Check churches or religious institutions in your area. If you can't find anyone already involved in a study circle or support group, start your own. There are a number of resources available now for groups to use.

Voluntary Simplicity study circle developed by the Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI) and available from Great River Earth Institute in Minneapolis. This course, which is designed for groups of 8 to 12 in workplaces, neighborhoods, churches or other organizations, helps people sort through what simplicity means for them and how it affects the Earth and community. To ask about voluntary simplicity groups in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, call GREI at 612-305-1232 or e-mail us.

__________________________________________________________

2008-10-21T03:39:00.000-07:00

Francis of Assisi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

For the opera by Olivier Messiaen see Saint-François d'Assise.

Saint Francis of Assisi
Saint Francis by Cimabue Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi.
Confessor
Born	1181/1182, Assisi, Italy
Died	October 3, 1226, Assisi, Italy
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Canonized	July 16, 1228, Assisi by Pope Gregory IX
Major shrine	Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi
Feast	September 17 October 4
Attributes	Cross, Dove, Pax et Bonum, Poor Franciscan habit, Stigmata
Patronage	animals, Catholic Action, environment, merchants, Meycauayan, Italy, Philippines, stowaways^[1]

Francis of Assisi (Giovanni Francesco Bernardone; born 1181/1182 – October 3, 1226)^[2] was a friar and the founder of the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscans.

He is known as the patron saint of animals, the environment and Italy, and it is customary for Catholic churches to hold ceremonies honouring animals around his feast day of 4 October.^[3]

Childhood and early adulthood

Francis was one of seven children born to Pietro di Bernardone, a rich cloth merchant, and his wife Pica Bourlemont, about whom little is known except that she was originally from France^[4]. Pietro was in France on business when Francis was born, and Pica had him baptized as Giovanni di Bernardone^[3] in honor of Saint John the Baptist,in the hope he would grow to be a great religious leader. When his father returned to Assisi, he was furious about this, as he did not want his son to be a man of the Church and decided to call him Francesco, in honor of his commercial success and enthusiasm for all things French.^[5]

As a youth, Francesco—or Francis in English—became a troubador and yearned to become a writer of French poetry.^[2]^[5] And although many biographers remark about his bright clothing, rich friends, street brawls, and love of pleasure,^[4] his displays of disillusionment toward the world that surrounded him came fairly early in his life, as is shown in the "story of the beggar." In this account, he was selling cloth and velvet in the marketplace on behalf of his father when a beggar came to him and asked for alms. At the conclusion of his business deal, Francis abandoned his wares and ran after the beggar. When he found him, Francis gave the man everything he had in his pockets. His friends quickly chided and mocked him for his act of charity. When he got home, his father scolded him in rage.^[6]

In 1201, he joined a military expedition against Perugia, he was taken as a prisoner at Collestrada, and spent a year as a captive.^[7] It is probable that his conversion to more serious thoughts was a gradual process relating to this experience. Upon his return to Assisi in 1203, Francis returned to his carefree life and in 1204, a serious illness led to a spiritual crisis. In 1205 Francis left for Puglia to enlist in the army of the Count of Brienne. In Spoleto, a strange vision made him return to Assisi, deepening his ecclesiastical awakening ^[2].

Francis of Assisi by Francisco de Zurbarán

It is said that thereafter he began to avoid the sports and the feasts of his former companions; in response, they asked him laughingly whether he was thinking of marrying, to which he answered "yes, a fairer bride than any of you have ever seen", meaning his "lady poverty". He spent much time in lonely places, asking God for enlightenment. By degrees he took to nursing lepers, the most repulsive victims in the lazar houses near Assisi. After a pilgrimage to Rome, where he begged at the church doors for the poor, he said he had had a mystical vision of Jesus Christ in the Church of San Damiano just outside of Assisi, in which the Icon of Christ Crucified came alive and said to him three times, "Francis, Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins". He thought this to mean the ruined church in which he was presently praying, and so sold his horse and some cloth from his father's store, to assist the priest there for this purpose.^[2]^[8]

His father Pietro, highly indignant, attempted to change his mind, first with threats and then with corporal chastisement. After a final interview in the presence of the bishop, Francis renounced his father and his patrimony, laying aside even the garments he had received from him. For the next couple of months he lived as a beggar in the region of Assisi. Returning to the town for two years this time, he restored several ruined churches, among them the Porziuncola, little chapel of St Mary of the Angels, just outside the town, which later became his favorite abode.^[8]

2008-10-21T03:29:00.000-07:00

Hipster (contemporary subculture)

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In the late 1990s, the 1940s slang term hipster began being used to describe young, urban middle class and upper class adults with interests in non-mainstream fashion and culture. Actually defining what a hipster is can be a difficult task considering the idea that hipsters are thought to exist as a "mutating, trans-Atlantic melting pot of styles, tastes and behavior[s]."

History

[edit] 1940s-1950s

See also: Hipster (1940s subculture) and hip (slang)

"Hipster" derives from the slang "hip" or "hep," which are derived from the earlier slang "hop" for opium.

The first dictionary to list the word is the short glossary "For Characters Who Don't Dig Jive Talk," which was included with Harry Gibson's 1944 album, Boogie Woogie In Blue. The entry for "hipsters" defined it as "characters who like hot jazz."^[3]

The 1959 book Jazz Scene by Eric Hobsbawm (using the pen name Francis Newton) describes hipsters using their own language, "jive-talk or hipster-talk," he writes "is an argot or cant Jack Kerouac in describing his vision of the Beat Generation. Along with Allen Ginsberg, Kerouac described 1940s hipsters "rising and roaming America,... bumming and hitchhiking everywhere... [as] characters of a special spirituality."^[4] designed to set the group apart from outsiders." Hipster was also used in a different context at about the same time by

[edit] 1990s and 2000s

In the 1990s, the term became a blanket description for middle class young people associated with alternative culture, particularly alternative music, independent rock, independent film and a lifestyle revolving around thrift store shopping, eating organic, locally grown, vegetarian, and/or vegan food, drinking local or brewing beer, listening to public radio, riding bicycles, and reading magazines like Vice and Clash and websites like Pitchfork Media.^[5]

Robert Lanham's satirical The Hipster Handbook described hipsters as young people with "...mop-top haircuts, swinging retro pocketbooks, talking on cell phones, smoking European cigarettes, ... strutting in platform shoes with a biography of Che Guevara sticking out of their bags."^[6]

Hipsters are considered apathetic, pretentious, and self-entitled by other, often marginalized bohemian and/or "counter-culture" artists and thinkers as well as poor neighborhoods of color.^[5] sectors of society they live amongst, including previous generations of

In 2005, Slate writer Brandon Stosuy noted that "Heavy metal has recently conquered a new frontier, making an unexpected crossover into the realm of hipsterdom." He argues that the "current revival seems to be a natural mutation from the hipster fascination with post-punk, noise, and no wave,” which allowed even the “nerdiest indie kids to dip their toes into jagged, autistic sounds.” He argues that a "byproduct" of this development was an "...investigation of a musical culture that many had previously feared or fetishized from afar.”^[7]

In 2008, Utne Reader magazine writer Jake Mohan described “hipster rap,” “as loosely defined by the Chicago Reader, consists of the most recent crop of MCs and DJs who flout conventional hip-hop fashions, eschewing baggy clothes and gold chains for tight jeans, big sunglasses, the occasional keffiyeh, and other trappings of the hipster lifestyle.” He notes that the “old-school hip-hop website Unkut, and Jersey City rapper Mazzi” have criticized mainstream rappers who they deem to be poseurs or “…fags for copping the metrosexual appearances of hipster fashion.”^[8] Prefix Mag writer Ethan Stanislawski argues that there are racial elements to the rise of hipster rap. He claims that there "...have been a slew of angry retorts to the rise of hipster rap," which he says can be summed up as "white kids want the funky otherness of hip-hop... without all the scary black people."^[9]

The hipster aesthetic of irony extends to the appropriation of elements of lowbrow or working class identity in an ironic fashion, such as Pabst Blue Ribbon beer as well as the multi coloured keffiyeh "initially sported by Jewish students and Western protesters to express solidarity with Palestinians, the keffiyeh has become a completely meaningless hipster cliché fashion accessory".^[5]

In his article for The New York Times, "Leaving Behind the Trucker Hat," Allen Salkin explores the experiences of two hipsters who moved to Tivoli, New York to work on an organic farm. Those without access to farmland are growing vegetables in their backyards and patios. Hipsters are gathering at the local food co-op to exchange seeds and ideas while gaining an identity with a greater sense of irony.^[10]

BEATNIKS

2008-10-21T03:22:00.000-07:00

History

Author Jack Kerouac introduced the phrase "Beat Generation" in 1948, generalizing from his social circle to characterize the underground, anti-conformist youth gathering in New York at that time; the name came up in conversation with the novelist John Clellon Holmes (who published an early novel about the beat generation, titled Go, in 1952, along with a manifesto of sorts in the New York Times Magazine: "This is the beat generation"). The adjective "beat" was introduced to the group by Herbert Huncke, though Kerouac expanded the meaning of the term. "Beat" was from underworld slang - the world of hustlers, drug addicts and petty thieves, where Ginsberg and Kerouac sought inspiration. Beat was slang for "beaten down" or downtrodden, but to Kerouac, it symbolised being at the bottom and looking up. Other adjectives discussed by Holmes and Kerouac were "found" and "furtive."

Kerouac's claim that he had identified (and embodied) a new trend analogous to the influential Lost Generation might have seemed grandiose at the time, but in retrospect he may have been correct^[1]^[2]

In "Aftermath: The Philosophy of the Beat Generation" Kerouac criticized what he believed to be the distortion of his ideas:

The Beat Generation, that was a vision that we had, John Clellon Holmes and I, and Allen Ginsberg in an even wilder way, in the late Forties, of a generation of crazy, illuminated hipsters suddenly rising and roaming America, serious, bumming and hitchhiking everywhere, ragged, beatific, beautiful in an ugly graceful new way--a vision gleaned from the way we had heard the word "beat" spoken on street corners on Times Square and in the Village, in other cities in the downtown city night of postwar America--beat, meaning down and out but full of intense conviction. We'd even heard old 1910 Daddy Hipsters of the streets speak the word that way, with a melancholy sneer. It never meant juvenile delinquents, it meant characters of a special spirituality who didn't gang up but were solitary Bartlebies staring out the dead wall window of our civilization... ^[3]Kerouac explained what he meant by "beat" at a Brandeis Forum, "Is There A Beat Generation?", on November 8, 1958, at New York's Hunter College Playhouse. Panelists for the seminar were Kerouac, James A. Wechsler, Princeton anthropologist Ashley Montagu and author Kingsley Amis. Wechsler, Montague and Amis all wore suits, while Kerouac was clad in black jeans, ankle boots and a checkered shirt. Reading from a prepared text, Kerouac reflected on his Beat beginnings:

It is because I am Beat, that is, I believe in beatitude and that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son to it... Who knows, but that the universe is not one vast sea of compassion actually, the veritable holy honey, beneath all this show of personality and cruelty? ^[4]

Kerouac's address that night was later published as "The Origins of the Beat Generation" (Playboy, June 1959). In that article Kerouac noted how his original beatific philosophy had been ignored as Caen and others had intervened to alter Kerouac's concept with jokes and jargon:

I went one afternoon to the church of my childhood and had a vision of what I must have really meant with "Beat"... the vision of the word Beat as being to mean beatific... People began to call themselves beatniks, beats, jazzniks, bopniks, bugniks and finally I was called the "avatar" of all this.

(Wikepedia, the Free Encyclopedia)

BOHEMIANISM

2008-10-21T03:15:00.000-07:00

( From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia)

The term bohemian, of French origin, was first used in the English language in the nineteenth century^[1] to describe the untraditional lifestyles of marginalized and impoverished artists, writers, musicians, and actors in major European cities. Bohemians were associated with unorthodox or antiestablishment political or social viewpoints, which were often expressed through non-marital sexual relations, frugality, and/or voluntary poverty.

The term emerged in France in the 1800s when artists and creators began to concentrate in the lower-rent, lower class gypsy neighbourhoods. The term "Bohemian" reflects a belief, widely held in France at the time, that the Gypsies had come from Bohemia.^{( Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia)}

2008-10-17T02:18:00.000-07:00

( Note: This article from Skip Stone is culled from a certain website which I can no longer remember. I copied these as part of my research of the hippy lifestyle...I am not very sure if I got this from the hiplanet.com or from another website... I hope I am not violating any piracy law, since I am creditting this artcile to its original author)

The Way of the Hippy

from "Hippies From A to Z" by Skip Stone

…maybe it’s the time of year. Yes, and maybe it’s the time of man.

And I don’t know who I am. But life is for learning.

Joni Mitchell/CS&N (Woodstock) 1970

What’s a hippie? What’s the difference between an old hippie and a new hippie? Once a hippie, always a hippie? These and similar questions are the source of much debate today. New subcategories like web-hippies, cyber-hippies, even zippies have become fashionable. But what is a hippie and are you one?
To answer this question, let’s see what defines a hippie. Some say it’s the way people dress, and behave, a lifestyle. Others classify drug users and rock 'n' roll fans or those with certain radical political views as hippies. The dictionary defines a hippie as one who doesn’t conform to society’s standards and advocates a liberal attitude and lifestyle. Can all these definitions be right?
It seems to me that these definitions miss the point. By focusing on the most visible behavioral traits these limited descriptions fail to reveal what lies in the hippie heart that motivates such behavior. To understand The Way of the Hippy, we must look at those circumstances that preceded the birth of the hippy movement, the important events that changed our lives, our resulting frustration with society, and the philosophy that developed from our spiritual maturation. el for a profound, invisible, underground, evolutionary process. For every visible hippy, barefoot, beflowered, beaded, there are a thousand invisible members of the turned-on
Hippy is an establishment lab underground. Persons whose lives are tuned in to their inner vision, who are dropping out of the TV comedy of American Life.
Timothy Leary (The Politics of Ecstasy) 1967
My view is that being a hippie is a matter of accepting a universal belief system that transcends the social, political, and moral norms of any established structure, be it a class, church, or government. Each of these powerful institutions has it’s own agenda for controlling, even enslaving people. Each has to defend itself when threatened by real or imagined enemies. So we see though history a parade of endless conflicts with country vs. country, religion vs. religion, class vs. class. After millennia of war and strife, in which uncounted millions have suffered, we have yet to rise above our petty differences.
The way of the hippie is antithetical to all repressive hierarchical power structures since these are adverse to the hippie goals of peace, love and freedom. This is why the “Establishment” feared and suppressed the hippie movement of the ’60s, as it was a revolution against the established order. It is also the reason why the hippies were unable to unite and overthrow the system since they refused to build their own power base. Hippies don’t impose their beliefs on others. Instead, hippies seek to change the world through reason and by living what they believe.

Imagine no possesions, I wonder if you can, No need for greed or hunger, A brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people sharing all the world.
John Lennon (Imagine)

To be a hippie you must believe in peace as the way to resolve differences among peoples, ideologies and religions. The way to peace is through love and tolerance. Loving means accepting others as they are, giving them freedom to express themselves and not judging them based on appearances. This is the core of the hippie philosophy.

…see the whole thing is a world full of rucksack wanderers, Dharma Bums refusing to subscribe to the general demand that they consume production and therefore have to work for the privilege of consuming, all that crap they didn’t really want anyway such as refrigerators, TV sets, cars, …all of them imprisoned in a system of work, produce, consume, work, produce, consume, I see a vision of a great rucksack revolution thousands or even millions of young Americans wandering around with rucksacks, going up to mountains to pray, making children laugh and old men glad, making young girls happy and old girls happier, all of ‘em Zen Lunatics who go about writing poems that happen to appear in their heads for no reason and also by being kind and also by strange unexpected acts keep giving visions of eternal freedom to everybody and to all living creatures. Jack Kerouac (The Dharma Bums) 1958

The hippy movement erected signposts for all to see. Some warn us of impending danger, others direct us towards richer, more fulfilling lives, but most show us the road to freedom. Freedom is the paramount virtue in this system. Freedom to do as one pleases, go where the flow takes you, and to be open to new experiences. This engenders an attitude that allows for maximum personal growth.

If you want to be free, be free, because there’s a million things to be.

Cat Stevens (If You Want to Sing Out)

Our society only permits you one or two weeks a year of freedom to pursue your own agenda. The rest of the time we are slaves to the system. Hippies reject the 9 to 5 lifestyle and therefore are objects of ridicule by those whose lives run by the clock. Programmed people are jealous and resent the freedom we possess. The unmitigated freedom that hippies represent is the greatest threat to any system in which control equals power.

I like ideas about the breaking away or overthrowing of established order. I am interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos, especially activity that seems to have no meaning. It seems to me to be the road towards freedom - external freedom is a way to bring about internal freedom.

Jim Morrison

With all this freedom comes a lot of responsibility. The system does not make it easy for us to survive without sacrificing our values. Therefore we must discover alternative ways to make a living without being a drag on our planet’s resources and our fellow humans. Hippies have pioneered numerous lifestyles and alternative businesses including communes, cooperatives, holistic medicine and health food. We focused everyone’s concern on the environment to highlight our responsibilities to our planet and to future generations.

I’ve been smiling lately, dreaming about the world as one.
And I believe it could be, someday it’s going to come.
Cat Stevens (Peace Train)

Other beliefs that spring from our core philosophy are: an earthy spirituality such as a belief in Gaia (the earth as an organism), the Greens movement (political activism), even shamanism and vegetarianism. These philosophical and political views reflect a respect for nature and the planet as a whole, something lacking in our capitalistic and materialistic societies. The world needs hippies to point out alternatives to the entrenched system and warn of the impending disasters that await us if we don’t change our lifestyles. The goal is not to make everyone a hippie (what would we have to protest?). Rather we can try to influence others by example, through tolerance and love and teaching the virtues of the hippie way.

You create your own reality.
Seth (Seth Speaks)

So being a hippie is not a matter of dress, behavior, economic status, or social milieu. It is a philosophical approach to life that emphasizes freedom, peace, love and a respect for others and the earth. The way of the hippie never died. There have always been hippies from the first time society laid down rules, to Jesus, to Henry David Thoreau, to John Lennon, to you and me. I believe there’s a little hippy in all of us. It’s just been repressed by our socialization process. We need to find it and cultivate our hippie within. Only then can we reach our true potential.

I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost (The Road Not Taken)

As hippies age they come to terms with the same situations all humans must face. Wiser than before, let’s help the younger hippies find a way to save the earth and achieve more freedom than exists in our wildest dreams. Let’s find our common ground, build a worldwide community, and once again let our freak flags fly and become all we are destined to be.

Peace and Love, Skip

2008-10-17T02:08:00.000-07:00

Humanist Manifesto I

The Manifesto is a product of many minds. It was designed to represent a developing point of view, not a new creed. The individuals whose signatures appear would, had they been writing individual statements, have stated the propositions in differing terms. The importance of the document is that more than thirty men have come to general agreement on matters of final concern and that these men are undoubtedly representative of a large number who are forging a new philosophy out of the materials of the modern world.

— Raymond B. Bragg (1933)

The time has come for widespread recognition of the radical changes in religious beliefs throughout the modern world. The time is past for mere revision of traditional attitudes. Science and economic change have disrupted the old beliefs. Religions the world over are under the necessity of coming to terms with new conditions created by a vastly increased knowledge and experience. In every field of human activity, the vital movement is now in the direction of a candid and explicit humanism. In order that religious humanism may be better understood we, the undersigned, desire to make certain affirmations which we believe the facts of our contemporary life demonstrate.

There is great danger of a final, and we believe fatal, identification of the word religion with doctrines and methods which have lost their significance and which are powerless to solve the problem of human living in the Twentieth Century. Religions have always been means for realizing the highest values of life. Their end has been accomplished through the interpretation of the total environing situation (theology or world view), the sense of values resulting therefrom (goal or ideal), and the technique (cult), established for realizing the satisfactory life. A change in any of these factors results in alteration of the outward forms of religion. This fact explains the changefulness of religions through the centuries. But through all changes religion itself remains constant in its quest for abiding values, an inseparable feature of human life.

Today man's larger understanding of the universe, his scientific achievements, and deeper appreciation of brotherhood, have created a situation which requires a new statement of the means and purposes of religion. Such a vital, fearless, and frank religion capable of furnishing adequate social goals and personal satisfactions may appear to many people as a complete break with the past. While this age does owe a vast debt to the traditional religions, it is none the less obvious that any religion that can hope to be a synthesizing and dynamic force for today must be shaped for the needs of this age. To establish such a religion is a major necessity of the present. It is a responsibility which rests upon this generation. We therefore affirm the following:

FIRST: Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created.

SECOND: Humanism believes that man is a part of nature and that he has emerged as a result of a continuous process.

THIRD: Holding an organic view of life, humanists find that the traditional dualism of mind and body must be rejected.

FOURTH: Humanism recognizes that man's religious culture and civilization, as clearly depicted by anthropology and history, are the product of a gradual development due to his interaction with his natural environment and with his social heritage. The individual born into a particular culture is largely molded by that culture.

FIFTH: Humanism asserts that the nature of the universe depicted by modern science makes unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values. Obviously humanism does not deny the possibility of realities as yet undiscovered, but it does insist that the way to determine the existence and value of any and all realities is by means of intelligent inquiry and by the assessment of their relations to human needs. Religion must formulate its hopes and plans in the light of the scientific spirit and method.

SIXTH: We are convinced that the time has passed for theism, deism, modernism, and the several varieties of "new thought".

SEVENTH: Religion consists of those actions, purposes, and experiences which are humanly significant. Nothing human is alien to the religious. It includes labor, art, science, philosophy, love, friendship, recreation — all that is in its degree expressive of intelligently satisfying human living. The distinction between the sacred and the secular can no longer be maintained.

EIGHTH: Religious Humanism considers the complete realization of human personality to be the end of man's life and seeks its development and fulfillment in the here and now. This is the explanation of the humanist's social passion.

NINTH: In the place of the old attitudes involved in worship and prayer the humanist finds his religious emotions expressed in a heightened sense of personal life and in a cooperative effort to promote social well-being.

TENTH: It follows that there will be no uniquely religious emotions and attitudes of the kind hitherto associated with belief in the supernatural.

ELEVENTH: Man will learn to face the crises of life in terms of his knowledge of their naturalness and probability. Reasonable and manly attitudes will be fostered by education and supported by custom. We assume that humanism will take the path of social and mental hygiene and discourage sentimental and unreal hopes and wishful thinking.

TWELFTH: Believing that religion must work increasingly for joy in living, religious humanists aim to foster the creative in man and to encourage achievements that add to the satisfactions of life.

THIRTEENTH: Religious humanism maintains that all associations and institutions exist for the fulfillment of human life. The intelligent evaluation, transformation, control, and direction of such associations and institutions with a view to the enhancement of human life is the purpose and program of humanism. Certainly religious institutions, their ritualistic forms, ecclesiastical methods, and communal activities must be reconstituted as rapidly as experience allows, in order to function effectively in the modern world.

FOURTEENTH: The humanists are firmly convinced that existing acquisitive and profit-motivated society has shown itself to be inadequate and that a radical change in methods, controls, and motives must be instituted. A socialized and cooperative economic order must be established to the end that the equitable distribution of the means of life be possible. The goal of humanism is a free and universal society in which people voluntarily and intelligently cooperate for the common good. Humanists demand a shared life in a shared world.

FIFTEENTH AND LAST: We assert that humanism will: (a) affirm life rather than deny it; (b) seek to elicit the possibilities of life, not flee from them; and (c) endeavor to establish the conditions of a satisfactory life for all, not merely for the few. By this positive morale and intention humanism will be guided, and from this perspective and alignment the techniques and efforts of humanism will flow.

So stand the theses of religious humanism. Though we consider the religious forms and ideas of our fathers no longer adequate, the quest for the good life is still the central task for mankind. Man is at last becoming aware that he alone is responsible for the realization of the world of his dreams, that he has within himself the power for its achievement. He must set intelligence and will to the task.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: There were 34 signers of this document, including Anton J. Carlson, John Dewey, John H. Dietrich, R. Lester Mondale, Charles Francis Potter, Curtis W. Reese, and Edwin H. Wilson.]

2008-10-12T16:16:00.000-07:00

Interfaith Manifesto for Peace

________________________

Because we believe that PEACE IS POSSIBLE.
Because we acknowledge, at our present time, the opportunity to transform the culture of war and violence into a culture of peace and non-violence.
Because this transformation demands the participation of each and everyone of us from every sector, every religion, culture and ideology.
Because we feel the urgency to put an end to the decades-old conflict in Mindanano which has caused the loss of lives, homes and livelihood to Muslim, Christian and Lumad communities.

WE PLEDGE IN OUR DAILY LIVES, IN OUR FAMILIES, OUR WORK, OUR COMMUNITIES, OUR COUNTRY AND REGION TO:

1. “Respect all life.” Respect the life, dignity and sacredness of every human being without discrimination or prejudice to any gender, tribe, religion, culture or belief.

2. “Reject violence.” Practice active non-violence, rejecting violence in all its forms: physical, sexual, psychological, economic, social and political.

3. “Share with others.” Share my time and material resources with others and use our combined resources for non-violent, compassionate action to manifest love and justice among all beings on Earth.

4. “Dialogue and listen to understand.” Always choose dialogue and listening in appreciation of the richness of our cultural and religious diversity.

5. “Protect and heal our mother earth.” Promote consumer behavior and development practices that respect all forms of life and preserve the balance of nature on the planet.

6. “Strengthen solidarity.” Be sensitive to the suffering of others, especially the marginalized and displaced, and exert our full efforts to contribute to building peace in Mindanao where Muslims, Christians and Lumads can live together in harmony and mutual respect for each others’ rights.

WE STAND, UNITED AS BROTHERS AND SISTERS - MUSLIMS, CHRISTIANS AND LUMADS - TOGETHER WITH OTHER RELIGIOUS AND FAITH TRADITIONS AND JOIN THE CALL:

For the immediate stop of hostilities in Mindanao.
For the protection of civilian communities.
For the members of the Peace Panel to go back to peaceful negotiation and dialogue to find lasting solutions to the issues and roots of the Mindanao conflict.
For all concerned sectors to participate in continuous dialogue to reach lasting peace in Mindanao the soonest time possible.

_____________________

2008-10-08T19:02:00.000-07:00

A Useless Life
________________________________________

A farmer got so old that he couldn't work the fields anymore. So he would spend the day just sitting on the porch. His son, still working the farm, would look up from time to time and see his father sitting there. "He's of no use any more," the son thought to himself, "he doesn't do anything!" One day the son got so frustrated by this, that he built a wood coffin, dragged it over to the porch, and told his father to get in. Without saying anything, the father climbed inside. After closing the lid, the son dragged the coffin to the edge of the farm where there was a high cliff. As he approached the drop, he heard a light tapping on the lid from inside the coffin. He opened it up. Still lying there peacefully, the father looked up at his son. "I know you are going to throw me over the cliff, but before you do, may I suggest something?" "What is it?" replied the son. "Throw me over the cliff, if you like," said the father, "but save this good wood coffin. Your children might need to use it".

PROSPERITY

2008-10-08T18:58:00.000-07:00

A rich man asked a Zen master to write something down that could encourage the prosperity of his family for years to come. It would be something that the family could cherish for generations. On a large piece of paper, the master wrote, "Father dies, son dies, grandson dies."

The rich man became angry when he saw the master's work. "I asked you to write something down that could bring happiness and prosperity to my family. Why do you give me something depressing like this?"

"If your son should die before you," the master answered, "this would bring unbearable grief to your family. If your grandson should die before your son, this also would bring great sorrow. If your family, generation after generation, disappears in the order I have described, it will be the natural course of life. This is true happiness and prosperity."

2008-10-08T15:39:00.000-07:00

IN GOD WE TRUST

Those that judge us don't matter

Those that matter don't judge us

2008-10-06T20:09:00.000-07:00

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2008-10-06T20:01:00.000-07:00

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2008-10-06T19:57:00.000-07:00

2008-10-06T19:54:00.000-07:00

Bodhi Tree

2008-10-06T19:51:00.001-07:00

2008-10-06T19:46:00.000-07:00

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2008-10-06T19:38:00.000-07:00

franciscan monk

2008-10-06T19:13:00.000-07:00

lotus of the wandering gypsy

2008-10-06T19:11:00.000-07:00

guitarman

2008-10-06T19:02:00.000-07:00

jazzman

2008-10-06T18:57:00.001-07:00

2008-10-06T18:49:00.001-07:00

2008-10-06T18:44:00.000-07:00

2008-10-06T18:41:00.000-07:00

hippy

2008-10-05T19:05:00.001-07:00

2008-10-01T17:21:00.000-07:00

(do not stand at my grave and weep)

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there; I did not die.

( Author unknown )

2008-10-01T17:09:00.001-07:00

desiderata - by max ehrmann

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.

Take kindly to the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann c.1920