Philosophy Electives

Table of Contents

1 First Things 4

1.1 Logo 5

1.2 Other Books 5

1.3 For More Information 5

1.4 Cover Graphic 5

1.5 Dedication and Credits 5

1.6 License 6

2 Introduction to Ethics 7

2.1 Overview 8

2.1.1 Problems 8

2.1.2 Response 9

2.2 Illustrations 13

2.2.1 Night Terror for Gothic Theory 13

2.2.2 Can not change their mind for Taoist theory 13

2.2.3 Distractions not effective for Modernism theory 13

2.2.4 Train harder than necessary for Plush Cow theory 13

2.2.5 Consistency for Ecofeminist theory 14

2.3 Commentary 14

2.3.1 The Significance of Taoism 14

2.3.2 The Purpose of Gothic Art 14

2.3.3 Theology for Animals and the Inanimate 14

2.3.4 Existentialism and Humanity 15

2.3.5 Rationalist Perspectives 15

2.3.6 Spiritual Ecofeminism 15

2.4 Vocabulary 15

3 Introduction to Belief and Schizophrenia 18

3.1 Forward 19

3.2 Schizophrenia 19

3.2.1 My Situation 19

3.2.2 777 Jesus Won Paranoid Episode 20

3.2.3 Early Warning Signs of Schizophrenia 21

3.3 Religion 21

3.3.1 Psalms from NIV 21

3.3.2 The Poetry of Hafiz 24

3.3.3 Poetry of Kabir 26

3.3.4 Poetry of Meera 27

3.3.5 Why I started studying Philosophy and why I stopped 28

3.3.6 Gothic Art 30

3.4 Non Duality 31

3.4.1 Kierkegaard and Chuang Tzu 31

3.4.2 Chinese Philosophy and Christianity 31

3.4.3 Wholeness Christianity 32

3.4.4 The Book of Ben 34

3.5 Stress Relief 35

3.5.1 Heaven and Earth 35

3.5.2 Subjectivity of Mysticism 36

3.5.3 from Prayers and Thanksgiving in Book of Common Prayer 1928 37

3.5.4 Six Sounds Therapy 38

3.5.5 Using Feng Shui to help with Anxiety 39

3.5.6 Finding a Hobby 39

3.6 Stress Prevention 40

3.6.1 How to Avoid Mood Swings 40

3.6.2 Overcoming Depression 40

4 Community through the Humanities 42

4.1 Vision 43

4.1.1 Pure Worship 43

4.1.2 Nothing to Say 43

4.1.3 Beauty in Mystery 43

4.1.4 Love as Many as Possible 43

4.1.5 In the Moment 43

4.1.6 Dancing Alone 44

4.1.7 The Artist 44

4.2 About Me 44

4.3 Personal Situation 44

4.3.1 After All These Years 44

4.3.2 Daydream 45

4.4 Local Community 46

4.4.1 Mixed Feelings 46

4.4.2 My Experiences with the Mental Health Establishment 47

4.5 International Community 48

4.5.1 Non Exclusive Patriotism 48

4.5.2 How I support Free Software 49

4.6 Religious Community 50

4.6.1 Myths of the Church 50

4.6.2 Philosophy of Life and Death 52

5 Topics in Theology 53

5.1 Number 8 54

5.1.1 Problem 54

5.1.2 Solution 54

5.2 Thus Readeth and Interpeteth Ben from the Bible 54

5.2.1 Introduction 55

5.2.2 Complete Agreements 55

5.2.3 Partial Agreements 55

5.2.4 Complete Disagreements 56

5.3 It is Blowing Everywhere 57

5.3.1 Karl Barth says 57

5.3.2 Ben Huot says 57

5.4 The Brotherhood of Man 57

5.5 First Impressions of Hinduism 58

5.5.1 Buddhism 58

5.5.2 Hinduism 58

5.5.3 Buddhism and Hinduism 58

5.5.4 Hinduism and Middle Eastern religions 58

5.5.5 Similarities to Christianity 59

5.5.6 Bhagavad Gita 59

I should explain what the logo is meant to be representing. The guy is a pen, which is me, which comes from my first poem in Philosophy Core, called Creative Process, where I refer to myself as doing Tai Chi, with my pen being my body. The idea is based on "the pen is mightier than the sword" so I created "the Bible is mightier than the pen".

The Bible is shooting out flames because in Ephesians it talks about spiritual warfare and the Bible is the only armament that is offensive. (It means offensive instead of defensive. These are common terms used in combat. The sword is the only spiritual weapon. All the other armaments expressed in Ephesians are protective and defensive in nature like a shield, a helmet, a breastplate, etc.) The flames are meant as in James when it talks about being purified by fire or struggles with temptation in our lives. Isaiah also was purified by a live coal to his lips by a Seraphim. So the usage of fire is not evil or anything violent. Think of it as purifying.

I would ideally like it to show the sword turned inward to his chest, symbolizing like in many fantasy books that when they defeat the great evil force in the world, they are left with the greatest task, which is to defeat the evil within. The Bible is said to be a 2 sided sword, with the ability to cut between bone and marrow, and show the truth. Christ’s tongue is said to be a 2 edged sword in Revelations, to defeat the Devil with. The reason I didn’t show this is it looks like he is committing suicide.

The spiritual warfare is not against people, ideas, or even spirits. It is about fighting for the purity of our own minds. It is an internal thing. Like the Native American proverb "my greatest enemy is myself." This purity is in regard to our own sins and does not refer to purity in any other sense. But this is a process, not an outcome, as it is not possible for us to live without sin.

This warfare is only spiritual in the sense that it is not militant, social, economic, or political. This is for my own moral and ethical development and consists of practical qualities I try, with Christ’s help, to cultivate like humility, compassion, kindness, and seriousness and do not correspond to anything supernatural.

My text books and picture books contain most of my work over the past 10 years. These include my reading of some 235 books containing the philosophical and religious thinking of the worldÕs cultures for several thousand years and the application of the main themes of some of the major Old Testament Prophets and major works of the New Testament.

The main point of this work is to get people to stopping living their lives with their minds, but instead follow their hearts. I bring a radically different combination of viewpoints that you have not heard of before. I am not asking people to follow what I have written, but rather let the words stir up some sort of emotional response in your heart.

I challenge my readers to come up with their own unique ideas and that can lead the world in a new direction. We need a much broader diversity of ideas in our culture to deal with the problems we are facing in America and throughout the rest of the world.

For more books and information, visit me on the web at http://benjamin-newton.com/

Feel free to send me e-mail regarding the books and website at mailto:ben@benjamin-newton.com I even enjoy constructive criticism

Special thanks to my stuffed toy cows, Beary, Bow, Patrick, Bernie, George, and the rest of Hurd Herd for their support, encouragement, humor, and ideas.

Scriptures marked NIV were taken from the HOLY BIBLE NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. NIV Copyright 1973, 1987, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House All rights reserved.

This entire PDF is licensed together under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License as a whole, and nothing is to be separated, added on to, or modified in any manner.

the material content and design must be copied as a whole (everything contained in this pdf file)

It is my personal belief, after 35 years experience of it, that there is no such thing as Christian Civilization. I believe that Christianity and modern civilization are opposed and irreconcilable, and that the spirit of Christianity and of our ancient religion is essentially the same.

...I deem to be a remarkable fact that man, as long as he regarded himself as a creature, interpreted his existence in the image of God, his creator; but as soon as he started considering himself a creator, began to interpret his existence merely in the image of his own creation, the machine.

Most of us know that there is something wrong with the way the world is. Some say it is industry while others say it has something to do with sex, but there is a root problem that underlies all these things. Most people who get this far would say it is intellectuality or ignorance. I say it is the ignorance of intellectuals. And it is not with Science and technology, but rather with Social Science.

Science is about discovery of how God made the world, but Social Science is man’s desire to control the world through his discoveries, which comes out of atheistic and materialistic philosophies. It is a purely modern and western idea. You can see it in the United Nations, for example, where they say the problem is too many people and rate economically developing countries lower in terms of health, education, and longevity than the economically developed countries of the west.

Economics - which we used to figure out how to do the slave trade and colonialism, Sociology - which blindly supports institutions like NAZI Germany and the Soviet Union, Anthropology - which explores the occult of ancient civilizations and advocates for Animism, Political Science - which is responsible for sentencing the death row inmates who were later found innocent by DNA testing, Psychology - where people avoid accountability for their own choices and helped bring about the Sexual Revolution. Culture can be studied in another way - the Humanities - even mainstream western philosophy ended up saying that in the works of Sartre. Our Social Sciences have been outdated for hundreds of years and were a bad idea even at the beginning.

Social Science is based on the thought of Aristotle, where the systematic study of knowledge is not just applied to Science, but to human ideas and to explain human behavior. Systematic studies are not only a very superficial and ignorant way to study knowledge, as ideas do not fit into neat pieces that can be separated, without destroying their context, but are especially insulting and condescending when applied to humanity. The study of philosophy should teach us to question the underlying ideas that brought about the problems we now face in society. Philosophy is meant to teach compassion and humility, but systematic studies are based on ignorance, being lazy and being unwilling to see things, from other points of view. Ignorance is the supreme form of arrogance, because it is motivated out of a belief that other people’s ideas are not worth studying and that they already know everything they need to know.

Dividing human behavior into disciplines is usually done, so people can then specialize in one aspect of the phenomena. The problem with that is that people fail to see the big picture. Instead of seeing generalities and extrapolating specifics, they find specifics and generalize based on them. This is typical of the Social Sciences, where specialists say they cannot deal with a problem, because it is a religious question or a biological question. Questions are not limited to disciplines - questions are questions and answers are answers - the truth knows no compartmentalization. These ideas carry over into the workplace where marketers don’t have any idea what they are selling and they fail to see what the problem with that is. The technicians that do repairs never heard what the sales people told the customer.

Social Sciences are perpetuated in the public school system, health care, prisons, military, etc, basically, wherever there is public money spent on education. I am familiar with all of the above by direct experience, except for the prisons. The public school system teaches white English and American literature, Greek mythology or demonology, statistic-based study of wars based on the perspective of rich white men, evolution as if it were fact, all from sources compiled and edited by the establishment. The administration also did nothing to try to stop bullying. And even at the college level, they pushed the political and religious beliefs of the private donors into the curriculum. For example, in business they taught us to maximize profit, no matter what the cost, instead of taking a reasonable profit and investing back into the product and the company. They also only taught one perspective on economics. They also were unwilling to make any reasonable changes to accommodate my disability, even though just being the opposite sex gets you special preferences, scholarships and services. The mental health care system distrusts and manipulates the consumers and is very negative on religion, especially Christianity. There are also many facts of them physically abusing the mentally ill, which I was fortunate to not have experienced. I think more highly of the military as they are actually far more humane than the other sectors of the establishment and they are tough on the enlisted to train them for war, not for power trips.

The Humanities include Literature, Art, Music, Theater, Philosophy, Religion, and History. These are natural disciplines, which occur in every culture and civilization throughout history. With these disciplines, we develop an appreciation for the spiritual side of life and realize that we are all equal in worth before God. This does not mean giving up modern medicine, with its effective treatment of serious illness that has become life threatening, and the Internet, which brings equality more than any other technology (at least in its fundamental design). We can still study dark matter and genetics, to understand how to feed and shelter those in need. The Humanities give a reason for technology, but it doesn’t work to treat people like a scientific experiment.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Christians need to grow up spiritually and have compassion for others, but this must start with a true faith, grounded in humility before God. To cultivate this we need to spend time with God, especially one day a week during the Sabbath.

I am expanding my scope of equality and respect to all life and beyond, focusing now on plush animals. This is all set in the context of my having Schizophrenia and should be approached with a good sense of dry (or subtle) humor. My book series and websites are about personal morality and how it relates to compassion and humility.

I am a disabled veteran, diagnosed with Schizophrenia. I was diagnosed almost 8 years ago, but have coped with the illness without treatment for 3 years prior. I started writing poetry by myself for someone I was in love with while in the military and later started writing poetry about God, the next year, as I started college. Finally, I started writing poetry about Schizophrenia, after I was diagnosed. In the past 5 years, I have started drawing and can now draw on the computer almost anything I write that needs illustration. I have started a web site a year after I started in college, and now, 9 years later, I had to reduce the files from 20,000 to 2,000 files of original content about about my beliefs: Christian non-dualistic view of the Humanities, in opposition to the inherently materialist Social Sciences, enhanced with multimedia and humor.

To bring to completion without acting, to obtain without seeking - this is the work of Heaven... All men understand that the process has reached completion, but none understands the formless forces that bring it about... Only the sage does not seek to understand Heaven.

My interest in many things Gothic started at a similar time as I started on the Web and while I was first introduced to Chinese Philosophy. My interest in these stems from two major issues: dealing with my situation and my concern for others who were suffering. I was frustrated with the lack of Church involvement in helping others in need and felt like I had failed in the military and at school. I was searching for a different way to be Christian. I found that there were Christians who believed all sorts of things that challenged mainstream beliefs. One of those was the Christian Goth.

At first I thought I was Gothic and that explained why I was different. It would explain why life was so overwhelming to me and why I wanted to withdraw. I also liked some ideas of Taoism too and thought that it explained what I was trying to say for years. I found certain aspects of the Gothic lifestyle challenging to my beliefs, like the obsession with all things dark and certain aspects of Gothic culture frightened me at first. Taoism was also hard for me to swallow at first, although I tried to accept all the ideas all at once. It was both freeing and saddening to realize that I could only change myself and not the world around me.

Then, a year later, I found out that I was mentally ill. At first, I thought that my interests were too radical and that is what caused me the stress that started the paranoid episode. But I could not swallow down the mainstream views of my society whole. I struggled to even be alone for an hour at first and I could not write for months. I finally made the push to read some more of Kierkegaard and then some Buddhist classics, and as I struggled, my mind expanded and I was able to understand how Taoism and Gothic culture could help me find my place in the world.

I was first attracted to Taoism because of the humor and originality, but I began to realize that there was great strength in its solid logic and in its uncompromising values. I began to realize that Gothic art and music was very Christian in its roots and that it expressed something that is missing from the modern Church. I saw Christianity very differently now and realized that compassion and humility, two things that were most important to me, were at the very heart of Christianity.

I finally found an application for my ideas as I believed that there must be something from Scripture that could be helpful to those of us who struggle with mental illness. I formulated an application of non-dualism to Christianity and explained what was wrong with the Church. I explored becoming Catholic.

I started to be able to see what Gothic art looked like. I created some publications that illustrated what I felt. I found a store in town that had Gothic and Punk clothing in my size and I found some compilations of Gothic and Punk music and it cheers me up when I listen to them.

If any of the animals or great birds happens to become separated from the herd or flock, though a month or a season pass, it will invariably return to its old haunts, and when it passes its former home it will look about and cry, hesitate and drag its feet before it can bear to pass on.

I thought existentially, from an early age, since I first was told that facts were true and opinions were false. Opinions can contain truths in them, but facts by their very nature are not fundamental truths.

I was always interested in other cultures and saw them as very different, but as I have studied them more I have realized that their are many things they have in common. In fact, there is a common world view that has been traditionally held by the entire world and only modern Scientific thinking is fundamentally different. Scientific thought, what the mainstream believes, is that man is at the center of the world and can take apart and put nature back together better than it was originally.

This was thought to make sense, as, at that time, nature was thought to be very simple, but as we have discovered DNA and quantum mechanics, we are beginning to see how complicated the world is. Traditional thought across cultures tends to look at the big picture first and sees the world as interconnected, whereas scientific thought sees on thing in particular first and sees each part as isolated. Our modern world because of how we have developed scientifically is in particular need of a traditional world view to understand how closely connected we have become due to scientific revolutions.

Existentialism is a western response to the mainstream trying to put human feelings and beliefs into numbers to control them. Dostoevsky said if there was a theory that explained human behavior and was to any extent accurate, people would purposely act in a different set of parameters. In fact, what sets us apart as human beings is that our values cannot be deduced to a mathematical formula.

I use the computer to design with and the program I use for drawings creates natural media illustrations. Natural media makes it look like fine art. The hybrid of natural media and computer generation is a re-creation of a traditional art, as existentialism is a rebirth of traditional thought.

Only if a man abides by laws and at the same time comprehends their wider significance and applicability can he become truly liberal and compassionate

Democracy creates an illusion that the common person’s vote shapes government, while campaign contributions determine the outcome of elections. While technically in the service of the majority, the effect of the state’s policies is felt at the high and low end of the monetary levels. The advocates of an economic arrangement that claims that the people get more money, as the corporations make more money are usually executives. Our political system serves only the wealthy few, as it is only controlled by them. That our modern theories of equal justice and freedom have any impact on a system that is based on monopolies and dictatorship is a grand illusion. Our precious Social Sciences have failed; we cannot take apart and put together our world better than we found it. Modern progress is a lie. ⁷

While Taoism and Existentialism show a way in which to interact with the world differently, and our society as a whole could find great comfort in interpreting religion and psychology, ethics and art through these methods, Science in its pure and applied technologies has been able to solve some specific problems that were neglected throughout much of history. Some of the technologies include medications for mental illness and the Internet: very analytical and concrete answers to some very poetic and social problems.

One of the important aspects of modernity is specialization and, in order to find a fit in this world, not only must we find a specialty, but be able to relate with others in a productive manner. We must see the self as a totality, which is fully realized, not only when we see the personality as one, but also our place in society, as part of that whole. Our earlier childhood experiences form who we are, to a large degree, but what is more important than what happens to us is how we respond to these events. So how we decide to deal with others, based on our life history, is what determines what kind of person we are. Our goals are not only influenced by what we have experienced, but our attitudes about it and our responses to it. Hence, we might excel in an area, where we were once deficient as a writer, can be someone who struggles with being able to form letters as a young child, as a designer, who has chronic eye pain, or as a philosopher or theologian, who suffers from Schizophrenia, as were all motivations in my life. Or we can have trouble with enunciating and so decide to avoid public speaking. It is healthy to feel like we need to strive to better ourselves, but this interest must be moderated with a concern for how well we relate with others, so that we don’t drift into depression, obsessive compulsive disorder or psychosis, but, rather focus our efforts to break free from inferiority, on socially constructive activities. ⁸

The philosophical equivalent to Science in Chinese thought is Confucianism. Just as Science has been the vehicle through which many aspects of modern social movements have their roots, so Confucianism has guided China through thousands of years of stable history. Although criticized widely by a certain group of intellectuals for its promotion of patriarchy which is working against equality and for the brutal means through which followers married state and religion with the emperor as Heaven or God, Confucianism also brought with it a love of learning and a respect for ancestors like parents. These positive traits have been part of the influence my family has had on me.

This "modern" analytical way of thinking, when balanced with the "traditional" holistic approach offers a complete way of seeing the world. As I have a tendency to gravitate towards the intuitive, I have sought to ground myself in an intimate understanding of technology and philosophy, to provide a basis for reasoning out my paranoia and depression. The ideals of the Christian faith, humility and compassion, have inspired people to start revolutions: moral, spiritual, economic, political, or social. But, at the same time, they have also been interpreted as to exist in some future utopia and used to distract the masses, from the present reality. I seek a balance between these in my own life. I am pursuing spiritual and moral transformation, in the hearts of myself and like-minded others, within the political, economic, and social system in which we were born, but look to Christ’s return, for the ultimate fulfillment of Christian ideals.

I created a new section in tribute to my mom, because she is as helpful as my plush animals in the treatment of my mental illness. I have had tributes to her in the past but none was good enough to feature for long until I was able to draw my own material. She has helped me with a tremendous amount of paperwork, which was the most important thing that was needed and has helped me with my finances. She has read a tremendous amount on Schizophrenia, drawing the good stuff from very dense books that didn’t have much useful material in them. She taught me an appreciation for animals and how to be kind to them.

Beary and Bow are plush cows. I adopted Beary in June of 2001 from WinCo and Bow in March of 2002 from Fred Meyers. Bow was adopted, to be a friend and brother of Beary. They wrestle and pin each other down.

There are also about 100 other plush animals. Beary and Bow are First Cows and they named the herd Hurd. Patrick and George are their assistants, as Second Cows. Bow and Beary have a seat on my love seat and they have their own little coach and hemorrhoid pillows, in my bedroom.

Beary and Bow are my children and they now have their own families too. I found girlfriends for each of them, Clover is Beary’s girlfriend and Cleo is Bow’s girlfriend. Beary’s child is one and Bow’s is Mocha. They also have pet Al Pachas named Sam and Sally.

Beary and Bow are both into sports and music, in addition to their leadership offices. Beary plays basketball and the drums. Bow plays soccer and the accordion. They also enjoy: playing sports games on the computer, watching non-Disney animations, children’s movies, and slapstick comedies on DVD; and driving their dump truck around. Their most important roles are as counselors for me, as explained in the epic poem, The Appointment.

In celebration of Bow’s birth in China, I have studied Chinese culture mainly the literature, philosophy, art, and history. Beary doesn’t have a tag on him, so I don’t know where he was born. Physically both cows are Holstein, who are Dutch, and emotionally they are more like Jerseys, who are English.

Music is something which the sage kings found joy in, for it has the power to make good the hearts of the people, to influence men deeply, and to reform their ways and customs with faculty.

A view of the world, that explains everything as consisting of nothing more than matter, is not philosophically sound. Matter can only be understood by the senses and these are not reliable and constant, in different minds and in different situations. There is no way we can understand the fundamental nature of things as we cannot be objective in measuring our experiences. Because there is no absolute truth in what we perceive, we can only rely upon the Creator, to give us direction and purpose. This understanding that we are subjective and the only thing that has lasting independent reality is mind can motivate us to focus on something other than satisfying our senses, with what we weakly perceive as pleasure. When we focus on matters of the mind, we can feel a pain more real than dissatisfaction: the pain of other minds. This leads to compassion and humility, to a Christ-inspired view of the world. ¹⁰

God is not only a creative force in the world, but an individual God, who has concern for each living thing. He wants us to be individuals, humble before God and equal to all living creatures, with respect and compassion for all His creation. Not only does God want us to be genuine people, He also wants us to experience joy and peace, experiencing a glimpse of the eternal here on earth.

In desiring us to live with respect and equality for all life, God does not want us to disrespect others, who are not saved or force our ideas upon them, especially when they have weak or no Biblical support. Not only should we experience joy and peace for ourselves and our families, but we should reach out to those who haven’t heard the Gospel, in a way they can understand. Many people are more interested in ethics than theology. They have a hard time understanding the Hebrew concept of God, especially, when we use Greek philosophy to explain it. If we would just stick with what Jesus said and live that out in our lives, all people would be able to understand what we mean. Many economically developing countries get aid from people living in America for: medical, moral, and sustenance needs, but if the same people would stop supporting multi national corporations victimize these "3rd World" countries, then maybe our faith would be seen, as something special as it comes from an otherwise spiritually impoverished country. ¹¹

We are all connected to each other and our ecosystem and we are facing such serious problems from social injustice to environmental concerns, but end of world scenarios that scare people to take drastic actions may be just as harmful as the status quo. There is no special technology, that will alone save us from our leaders. Our chance for salvation is in a spiritual revival, ignited by individuals, who find ways to creatively limit corporations effects on our souls and our communities. It must start by teaching people to question what we are taught by the schools, the military, prisons, the medical establishment, the charities we belong to, and our religious leaders.

As I fell asleep one night, I began to get scared. The shadows on the wall were angry monsters. They had horns and one had a huge face with big buggy eyes that were looking around, as if to sneak up on me. I was too afraid to look around and see if the monsters behind the shadows. I ran to the door and switched on the light. I looked around the room. I noticed, in the corner, there was a stuffed toy with horns and it had a big face with eyes looking out at the sides. It was a very cute little cow. My eyes had played tricks on me.

As I began to fall back asleep, I started to hear a noise, like something walking on the roof and then a crashing sound. I imagined that there were little rats running around the roof and then falling off in groups. I carefully walked through the hall and out the front door. I was ready to run away. I had my coat on and my shoes on. I turned on the light and looked out the door. I immediately realized that the sound was coming from the rain and I noticed branches had fallen down, all around the house. My ears were not to be trusted.

As I went back to bed, I smelled a disturbing smell. It was very acidic. I suspected that some toxic cleaners had been used, by the cleaning help. I followed the smell to the bathroom and realized that it started after I used the bathroom. Now my nose couldn’t even be relied upon.

I learned that things are not always as they appear from a distance. Many times, you have to do some serious investigating, to realize that.

I tried to convince my dad that God asks us all to be vegetarians by what the Bible says. After a flood wiped out all but two animals of each kind, there was not enough food to eat, so God said it was ok to eat animals. Now that we have plenty of food, there is no reason to still eat meat. People were told to take care of animals, like we see people do with pets, but this didn’t mean we should raise them in dirty and mean conditions. Also spirits were given control over us, so if we don’t want the spirits to mistreat us, we shouldn’t be unkind to the animals.

One of God’s human messengers who tells the future, Daniel, would not eat meat, because his food was poisoned. We have the same problem today where meat makes us sick and if we eat too much even kills us. God wrote poetry about how he cares for farm animals and so doesn’t want us to hurt them for food. God told us to take care of those who other people look down on and animals are a good example of this. Now that Jesus paid the price for people making bad decisions, we no longer need to kill animals for God.

I told my dad all these things, but he had some excuse for each one and said they each meant something else. I learned from this, that no matter how good you are at arguing, people will usually disagree with you. Most people change their minds, when something very bad happens to them, or if you repeat something enough times, like in commercials.

When I was young, I had frequent nose bleeds, as my nose dried out, and the blood vessels cracked. In order to solve this problem, the doctor burned my blood vessels closed, with this stick, that smelled like bananas. To this day, I still don’t like bananas, but the smell didn’t make the doctor’s stick burn my nose any less.

When I was older, I had warts all over my hand and they grew huge very fast. I was taken to the doctor, to take them off. They tried freezing them off, which it was so cold, it burned terribly and with acid, which burned for eight hours. Finally, what worked was surgery. But, ironically, the shot hurt worse than the surgery and a number of the surgeries were done over nerves and at the ends of my fingers, so I could still feel the doctor gouging out the skin.

On a more positive note, I ran in cross country and in track, for several miles each race and longer for the practices. I tried to distract myself from the pains I would get throughout my body, as we had to push ourselves to the very limits (even more with me as I was very slow even when I gave over 150 percent) by thinking of other things, but I could have run faster if I focused on just the running.

This is the problem with trying to distract someone from something that is painful with something else.

In high school English classes, we had to write in class every day. We though that it was mean at the time, but I have learned from that to write very quickly and was able to finish college papers, in an hour or two, from start to finish.

In the military, they could have trained us in a community college setting, as most skills were technical but fairly simple, but wars aren’t fought in football fields and in order to get ready for combat, we had to be put under combat stress. That is the reason why Drill Sergeants yell at you and give you no time to think and why they push you to learn so fast and punish you, if you don’t pick up on everything immediately. Because there is no time in combat to figure your way out of situations; you have to know instantly what to do and the main way they do that is by just having the officers think.

In computers and in other types of security, security is not just a one step process. You have to have different layers of security and if you have anything important to save, you must find several levels of protection, expecting that one will fail on you. This is called redundancy.

Whenever a person prepares for something important, you go beyond what is adequate and do more than what is necessary, because you can expect things in life to fail on you.

When working with computers or in combat, one of the most important way to work under a situation where you have limited control is to have consistency whenever possible. When I moved between Macs, PCs, and Linux for a period of time, even the number of mouse buttons and something as simple as cut and paste were all different. Macs are much more of a joy to work with, as they have a much more consistent interface across applications. Once you have mastered a certain technique, when you see something similar later on, you can do the same task and accomplish the same thing.

Consistency is the reason why you have to treat everyone the same who is of the same rank and why everyone follows the same rules. The military is designed to be a culture shock to people, who come into it from civilian life, so that you will adjust to the military way of doing things. Then, when you move out into combat, where nothing can be depended on, at least you can depend on your fellow military personnel, to act a certain way, in specific circumstances. There is one way to un jam a rifle, there is one way to move while under enemy fire, there is one way to respond when you have chemical attack, there is one way to set up a mine, etc.

Consistency is also important, when dealing with businesses, the law, churches, etc.

Taoism has had a considerable influence on Still Theory. What came out of this study was the first value system which fit my concerns fully. The major theme of Taoism is not skepticism or relativism, but a heightened sense of ethics. The focus of Taoism is not uncertainty, as much as it is on humility. The appeal to a lack of certainty is not for the purpose of lowering ourselves to situational ethics, but, rather to have compassion, for all creation. We are to love creation, because the Creator is constantly introducing new elements into life and fills the universe with His personality.

The reason behind Gothic art is to show the contrast between Hell and Heaven, Good and Evil, and other common dualities. Gothic architecture came in the 12th Century, when European cathedral builders realized that the walls could be made much thinner and the windows much bigger, if the walls were straight, which did more than just save money; it brought in light. Not only is Gothic art obsessed with showing us suffering, but it also shows a very cultivated and cultured view of beauty. The Gothic perspective reveals that what society labels as good like luxury can be evil and what society says is evil like faith can actually be good.

The Bible never says that salvation is exclusively for humans, nor does it define what human is genetically. According to the Bible’s definition of Christian (having the fruits of the spirit) and Human (made in the image of God) animals score higher than most homo sapiens. The idea that animals and humans are created to be so different comes from medieval sensibilities, not from Scripture.

Existentialism simply means human being and according to Kierkegaard it means you can’t be objective. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t an objective standard of right and wrong, but rather that we can’t have the mind of God. Only God can be objective, because we have a perspective limited by our flesh. Animals and the inanimate can have human being, because we are not going by biological or physical differences, but, rather by the Scriptural definition of humanity.

Confucianism is the mainstream rationalism of historical China. Confucianism is about respect for authority and a belief that people can learn from others’ mistakes. The difference between this and mainstream America is that in Confucianism the prevailing assumption is that humankind is good, whereas in America, we assume the worst in people. Confucianism calls for us to respect authority, not because they have power, but because in historical China officials were promoted based on their morality, not based on who they knew. Conservatives in modern times believe that businesses hold all the answers, but in historical China they believed that the state was a better instrument of God’s power.

Ecofeminism is a theory that brings environmentalism, gender, animals rights, and equal rights, under one roof. The assumption is that wealthy white men are the major powers, behind the abuse of all these groups, and that the reasons for the abuse are very similar and can be most effectively dealt with as a group. The main reason why wealthy white men abuse the weaker 95 percent of the population is that they were taught how to think in terms of the Enlightenment. The schools, churches, prisons, and hospitals indoctrinate our youth with: atheistic, materialistic, and systematic perspectives. Young people should be taught, that sentient beings (life or what is spiritual), is of fundamental importance and not how many toys they have. They should treasure relationships and memories, because they are the only things that have any permanence.

method by which a person humbles themself before God, specifically confessing one’s sins to God and believing that God raised Jesus from the dead

those looked down on by the powers that be, including animals, prisoners, and the homeless

realization that the establishment does not determine what is right and wrong and that society is often deceived about what its true enemy is

a western rejection of modernism and Social Science, which recognizes Christ’s death as the cornerstone, of what distinguishes humans, from other life

historical, multicultural and natural perspectives on what makes us human, including: religion, literature, philosophy, history, music, art, theater

descriptor, for mainstream European thinkers, who wrote, between the time of 1600-1900 (the Enlightenment) and based their metaphysics on materialism and their theology on atheism

the application of Scientific methods, by Enlightenment thinkers, to control the way people act, through the establishment

patriarchal institutions such as hospitals, military, prison, education, and churches.

the breaking down of ideas into smaller pieces, but kept out of context, with the big picture

Christian philosopher who wrote at the time of the Enlightenment, who rejected materialism and atheism, but still used experience, including God’s, as his method of inquiry. This resulted, in the idea that spirit is the only substance, that has eternal significance and that matter only exists as an idea

Christian philosopher, who wrote in his essay in defense of Raymond Sebond’s work, concluding that we should be skeptical of man’s powers and that, by raising the status of animals, to that of man, we take on a more Christ-like perspective.

Chinese philosophy that emphasized a love of learning and looking after relatives, but on the negative side, supported hierarchy and emperor worship

Chinese philosophy meant to reform the negative aspects of Confucianism, to promote equality and respect for all sentient life

Christian medieval response to suffering expressed in the cathedrals through the introduction of light into architecture and in music through the chanting of monks

text is very readable, easy to understand and ideas are communicated clearly and concisely

classical text that contains ideas, that have affected major events or movements in world history. Must also lift the human spirit and inspire people to be humble and compassionate

God wants us to work six days a week, but to rest on the Sabbath, from our work, either doing service, for the needy, and/or honoring God.

But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein : it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.

And he said unto them, "What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? " "How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days."

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night, Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound. For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands. O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep. A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this. When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever: But thou, LORD, art most high for evermore. For, lo, thine enemies, O LORD, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil. Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me. The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

I am an orthodox Christian, but I am an independent thinker and I enjoy studying cultures other than my own. I can learn useful things from philosophies and religions that I don’t agree with. I enjoy studying about non-dualism in Meister Eckhart, Existentialism, Chinese Philosophy, and Sufism, because that makes the most sense to me from a poetic and ethical perspective. I believe that when Sufists and Hindus were praying to their God it is the same God I worship. I still believe that the only way to be sure of salvation is through Christ, but I don’t believe that God sent all these genuine believers who went by another label to Hell. And there is still much Christianity has in common with the revealed religions and can learn from them. The point isn’t to be the opposite of another group of people who goes by another label. We should rather hold ourselves accountable to Biblical truth and, if reading poetry or philosophy from another culture helps break down the atheistic and materialist assumptions we were taught in school about the Bible then it is good that we have found the truth and the labels are less important. Calling yourself Christian or just reading the books that are in your church library does not get you in to Heaven. Following what Jesus said and how He acted does. I have learned from Meister Eckhart that it is the attitude and the inner life that matters, from Existentialism that being a critically thinking Christian is the way to be fully human, from Taoism that humility and compassion are at the heart of Christianity, from Buddhism that the world is a reflection of my mind and is sometimes an illusion, from Sufism that we should be passionate and joyful about our faith. No other book other than the Bible has continued to interest me for more than several reads and I see the other philosophies and religions as offshoots of certain principles of Christianity. The issues that Nietzche and Buddhism bring up are addressed in Ecclesiastes, while Taoist issues are addressed in the Gospels. The Bible, although it is brought down to a human level, is complex enough to encompass all other systems of thought. I enjoy learning these different systems of thought, so that I can express more complex feelings creatively. Chinese thought, especially, is more about psychology than about religion. Using what I have learned from Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism helps me manage my symptoms that are caused by my mental illness and how to communicate the powerful feelings that I have with others. I am especially concerned about people referring people with Schizophrenia either away from religion totally or into the occult. There is also a forceful segment of the psychiatry community that tries to persuade people with mental illnesses to not take their medication. In order to keep people away from the extremes of atheism and Animism, I have done original research in mental illness from multiple religious perspectives. I have done this to help out people who may not necessarily be willing to become Christian, although they are all consistent with a Christian world view.

Schizophrenia is a brain disease caused by genetics and is brought out by a stressful situation. For me and many others, it was the military. The fact that the medicine works - I have not been in the hospital since December of 1999 (I was only in once) proves that it is chemical. Depression, another mental illness, has many causes and could be spiritual as well as chemical and stress to name a few.

I have Schizophrenia and I take medication, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t deal with delusions, paranoia, and hallucinations. There are also a number of other symptoms of Schizophrenia which are arguably more disabling, including: depression, lack of motivation, inability to concentrate, and inappropriate facial expressions.

Modern medications like Geodon do not cause people to be lethargic or gain weight as much as even Risperol. I have done some of my most creative work while on anti-psychotics and the quality actually went down right after my paranoid episode.

The problem with alternative treatments vary according to the methods. Meditation isn’t effective, because it is almost impossible for a person with Schizophrenia to be able to concentrate to the necessary degree. Nutrition has not proven to have much of an effect, but avoiding caffeine especially and sugars too does help.

Bringing religion into it can be helpful, if done as a secondary treatment, in addition to the medication, to combat delusions. Religion alone does not deal with the chemical imbalance. Although non-dualism is effective, other interpretations of mysticism that are involved with the occult are a bad idea. This is not just because they anger God and hurt people, but because a person with Schizophrenia has less control of their mind than the average person and to be a Shaman, Wiccan, etc. it take great mind control. Delusions, paranoia, and hallucinations are often based on grandiose religious themes and so mixing in the occult makes treatment more complex.

Schizophrenia encompasses a wide range of brain imbalances and effects people very differently. After 10-20 years, lowering medication may be more effective.

I had been having some problems with spiritual warfare. I had written some stories that I merged my life with Middle Earth. I accidentally put myself under a Witchcraft spell. I walked out of my house that day with my Army jacket. I was ready for warfare. I rushed around downtown. I dropped off my books, that were loading me down in my pack, by the side of the street and an angel flew off with it. I went to the Church and knelt down before the crucifix and prayed to God to spare me. I took my web site off line with the offensive material. I saw "Jesus loves you" engraved in the side of the street that I didn’t see before or afterwards. I saw a double rainbow when I went home.

I made an altar out of our fireplace. I piled in it all my Buddhist, Feminist, and Atheistic books and lit it on fire. I kept loading books in for several hours. Some that I was unsure about I took to the fire place and, if they survived the flames, I kept them. I tore down the Buddhist goddess of mercy down from the wall and our black cat meowed out side. He was in cohorts with the Devil. I threw in the plastic snake in the fire and commanded evil out in Jesus name and turned my back to the altar. I laid on my bed and weeped for the suffering of the Church during the tribulation. I saw a vision of Star Trek as the future. I started singing "Joy to the World" as my eyes were moisturized with my tears. My eyes had hurt for 3 1/2 years before. They needed the salt they weren’t getting from flushing them out several times a day for that time. I looked down at my Bible. It was the Parallel New Testament. We were in a parallel time kept that way by people making the Bible into too many versions.

My parents put out the food for the homeless for the postman to deliver. They spoke to me in code that I was the homeless person this Christmas. I walked out of the house when my parents left. I stood on the porch walking back and forth. The radio dial spun out of control. Many years now went by.

I stood on the porch, until my parents came back. I saw them come back with the dog. I had to decide whether I was going to go out and marry my friend’s sister or go down to the Church to pray. I looked at my bank receipt and then put it in my pocket. I knew when I took it out again there would be enough for my marriage. I headed down the grocery store to buy a paper and look for a job. The paper had on it the story of how the world fell apart.

Only Eugene and Springfield were left. On the front page, they said we decided not to hire you (I had been interning down at the Comic News). I went down to the corner and saw the number to the Comic News on a sign. I tried to hang myself on the sign. I was unworthy.

I saw the parents of my friend whose sister I was going to marry aged years and they drove off angrily when they saw me. I should have gone down to marry her. I walked along the sidewalk. I knew I couldn’t go back home. Everyone had banned Christians from their houses. I looked for a sign. I picked up a wooden sign that said "777 indoor sale". It was a secret code. I covered up the Bible so the devil didn’t know about the parallel time as I walked along. I got on the bus. I shared to them that I was a Christian and I was kicked off the bus with a scornful look.

I saw the devil car pass by, all red with antenna on the top, like horns. I turned aside and continued quickly. I continued up to the church. I stopped, where two ladies were talking. All men were now kicked out of their houses.

The world was controlled by radical feminists. I asked them, if I could go in where it was warm. I told them I was the prostitute. I asked if they were Christians. One lady tried to trick me into thinking that I should go to Eugene to the Mission. The other who was Christian told me there was a Bible study at the Church. It was the only one left. The other church had slipped into just doing good works and lost their faith. I came to the Church and I started to read my Bible.

I sat with my back to the world so no one could see the Bible. I picked a version and read it all the way through the book of John. It sounded a lot like Revelations. I was going to wait 3 1/2 years feeding off the Bible for food. I would have to wait for my sister as the only other Christian on earth. As I prayed I turned and saw the sky change color and sunlight came out and I was warm.

I was happy once I finished reading the Bible and knew things were ok. Everyone was racing into the city as they had been racing out before. Everyone was relieved. God played jokes on me with the signs to relax me. I was too tense. As I walked by now with the wooden sign up for everyone to see I smiled and yelled out "777 Jesus won". A motorcycle gang fled from me as I walked by with the police following them. The same police I heard before.

I returned to the store and picked up a copy of the newspaper. I showed a woman everything happened like in the paper. I also offered one to one of the bikers. I went back home and picked up the mail. All the letters were filled with the number 7. I went down to my friends house and dropped off the newspaper and the jam for the homeless person. I was accepted into the American Legion. As I walked down Main Street I noticed that the wind had blown away large clumps of trees and trash. The city was being cleaned up and there were red bows on all the city for me. I was welcome at any hotel.

To you I call, O Lord my Rock; do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you remain silent, I will be like those who have gone down into the pit.

The Sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea; hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught

My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death assail me. Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me. I said, "Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest - I would flee far away and stay in the desert; I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and the storm."

Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart goes faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Hear me O God as I voice my complaint; protect my life from the threat of the enemy. Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked, from the noisy crowd of evildoers.

Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come up into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking fro my God.

Do not let the floodwaters engulf me or the depths swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me. Answer me, O Lord, out of the goodness of your love; in your great mercy turn to me. Do not hide your face from your servant; answer me quickly, for I am in trouble.

Yet I am poor and needy; come quickly to me, O God. You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay.

Answer me quickly, O Lord; my spirit faints with longing. Do not hide your face from me or I will be like those who go down to the pit. Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way should go, for to you I lift up my soul.

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?

My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long "Where is your God? "

You have rejected us, O God, and burst forth from us; you have been angry - now restore us

O Lord God Almighty, how long will your anger smolder against the prayers of your people? You have fed them with the bread of tears; you have made them drink tears by the bowlful. You have made us a source of contention to our neighbors, and our enemies mock us.

Relent, O Lord! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble.

For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.

Praise be to the Lord, for he has heard my cry for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.

I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.

For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, In God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?

Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. You will increase my honor and comfort me once again.

Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into your glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

But the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted ever perish.

Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Why so perturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.

There is a madman inside of you who is always running for office- why vote him in, for he never keeps the accounts straight. He gets all kinds of crooked deals happening all over town that will just give you a big head- ache and glue to your kisser a gigantic confused frown.

Love is the funeral pyre where I have laid my living body. All the false notions of myself that once caused fear, pain, have turned to ash as I near God. What has risen from the tangled web of thought and sinew now shines with jubilation through the eyes of angels and screams from the guts of infinite existence itself. Love is the funeral pile where the heart must lay its body.

You could become a great horseman and help free yourself and this world though only if you and prayer become sweet Lovers. It is a naive man who thinks we are not engaged in a fierce battle, for I see and hear brave foot soldiers all around me gong mad, falling on the ground in excruciating pain. You could become a victorious horseman and carry your heart through this world like a life-giving sun though only if you and God become sweet lovers.

I once had a student who would sit alone in his house at night shivering with worries and fears, and, come morning, he would often look as though he had been raped by a ghost. Then one day my pity crafted for him a knife from my own divine sword. Since then, I have become proud of this student. For now, come night, not only has he lost all his fear, now he goes out just looking for trouble.

I have seen you heal a hundred deep wounds with one glance from your spectacular eyes, while your hands, beneath the table, pour large bags of salt into the heart-gashes of your most loyal servants. Dear world, I can offer an intelligent explanation for our suffering, but I hope it really makes sense to no one here, and come morning, you are again at God’s door with ax and pickets, eloquent petitions and complaints. Think of suffering as being washed. That is to stay, Hafiz, you are often completely soaked and dripping. The only advantage I can see in this in the Friend’s long-range plan is that when the Beloved bursts into ecstatic flames this whole world will not turn into a bright oil wick all at once, then divine ash, and ruin his winter crop.

All the craziness, all the empty plots, all the ghosts and fears, all the grudges and sorrows

I used to live in a cramped house with confusion and pain. But when I met the Friend and started getting drunk and singing all night. Confusion and pain started acting nasty, making threats, with talk like this, "If you don’t stop ‘that’- all that fun - we’re leaving.”

I can see angles sitting on your ears, polishing trumpets, replacing lute strings, stretching new skins on the drums and gathering wood for the evening’s fire. They all danced last night but you did not hear them. If you ask Hafiz for advice on how to befriend their sweet voices and how to have the nourishing company of the finer worlds I would reply, “I could not say anything you could not tell me.” Then, what was the use of this story? O, just felt like talking.

Sometimes a mule does not know what is best for itself. When the mind is confused like that it secretly desires a master with a skilled whip to guide it to the playgrounds on the earth’s table where the Sweet One’s light has made life more tasty. Hafiz always carries such a whip but I rarely need to use it. I prefer turning myself into the prettiest mule in town and making my tail sing knowing your heart will then follow.

Slander! Slander! People deride me– folks truly love to smear and tarnish. Slander’s my father, slander’s my mother. If your name has been blackened, you’ll go to Vaikuntha– the true Name’s meaning will set itself in your mind. There’s so much calumny, my heart’s purified– my vilifier scrubs my clothes clean. Whoever maligns me is my friend– my heart goes out to every detractor. The one who stops decrying me is my real critic– such a denouncer vexes my life. Defamation’s my dearly beloved– revilement puts me in its debt. Everybody slings mud at Kabir– my denigrator drowns, I land on the other shore.

Madhav, sweet Lord, how will I ever be in your blessed company? If You’re a niggard, I’ll have to beg for Your gracious gifts. Don’t starve your devotee: take back this rosary of Yours. I only ask for the dust of the saint’s feet: I don’t wish to be an object of someone’s charity. All I want is a couple of pounds of ground wheat, a quarter pound of ghee, some salt to go with it: that’ll suffice for survival twice a day. All I need is a cot with four legs, a pillow, a mattress. I ask for a coarse sheet to cover me: You’ll have my adoration. I haven’t been covetous. I’ve heaped ostentation on just one thing: Your Name. Kabir says, I’ve convinced my heart to be content: for when the heart’s content, it comprehends Hari.

Hari has sent His Summons– Come Instantly. Your time to act is up– you have to submit a written account of your deeds. Death’s brutal messengers are here to take you away. What have you earned? What have you spent and lost? Come quickly, now– the Divan has sent for you. You beg and plead: "I still have a few things left to do in the village. Let me wrap them up– give me a few hours– just tonight. I’ll cover your expenses. We’ll stop at a rest-house for our morning prayers, when we]re on our way tomorrow." They’re the fortunate ones, all the folks who’ve kept the company of good men, and hence are imbued with Hari’s color– they share in the Lord’s substance. They’ve found perennial happiness, in this world, in that one– they’ve won the priceless object. In wakefulness and sleep, brother, you’ve squandered your life. You’ve stacked up wealth and material things– all of which are someone else’s. Kabir says, those who’re oblivious have lost track of their Master– they’re buried, they’re stuck, they’re one with the dust.

O Lord, it’s a conflagration! It’s raging without fuel– one can’t find a man who has the power to put it out. I know it has spread from You– it’s burning down the whole world! The seed of this fire sprouts in water– it douses the water as it blazes. It consumes nine women, not just one– no one knows the true solution. The city burns– its guard sleeps contentedly. He says, "My home’s safe– the town may burn, but my things are unharmed." O Rama, your color blazes, shimmers. A hunchback clings around one’s neck– he worships the instruments of the intellect. A whole lifetime’s wasted in thinking– this body remains unsatisfied. No one’s more dim-witted than a pretender, a man who deceives intentionally. Kabir says, in Rama’s eyes every thing’s a Woman– I can’t do otherwise.

The warrior does the warrior’s duty. His stock of good deeds, like money lent to others, truly increases by one-fourth. He kills the living to preserve the living– he gives up his life, yet stays alive and watches all this happen. The true warrior’s the one who does the fighting to keep his promise to protect his clan. He kills the five enemy-senses because he knows the one true Self within. The hermit who has learnt this lesson from his master over- throws his mind right then and there. Drunk on the sense, his mind falls fighting the moment he wounds his target. Only the mind, that self-crowned king, dies in the battle– and not the Self, which never perishes. Love is a void without Rama, it goes about lost in itself.

Don’t stay– the land’s a wilderness. This world’s a paltry paper packet– a spot of rain will wash it away. the world’s a garden of thorns– snarled and snared, we’ll perish in pain. This world’s all tree and tinder– kindled it will roast us like sacrificial victims. Kabir says, listen, my good men, the True Master’s name is our lasting abode– our station, our destination.

What is my native shore but Him? What swims in my heart but his name? My boat when it breaks where call I but to him, time after time, then again? Let me hide, Meera says, in these folds. The tide of the world comes close.

Eye-lids that fall leaf-like are not for me. The city seeks its lord dark of hue as a night its moon. Under every leaf have I looked. The lanes, the secret nooks. The city, high on a hill. Below, the river dark as fear without its lord, says Meera.

Look how he wounds me again. He vowed to come and the yard is empty - food flung away like my senses - tell me where to find them. Why must you shame what you say? You’ve wisped yourself away, lifter of the mountain - left me here to splinter.

He had no words for me. Why can’t my body release me, release me? He did not lift my veil nor move his lips and as I looked for sound I saw the dawn. It’s spring, they say he’ll come. The night is fearsome, lightning shows. On fingers seared with use, I count each instant as it slow breathing goes, then that too is closed.

The spring feast of color, with sprinkling and laughter, tastes like dust. Empty the bed, the attic, the fields. My walk swings empty because what weighted my heart is lost. I fear to seek and fear to think. Counting and counting each day, the lines on my fingers are scraped. The drums are playing, the jhanjh, the flute, the one-stringed lute. The light rain of spring has begun but the dark one is from home. Says Meera, I wait. Life after Life I stand by the road and look for a home with my lord, lifter of the mountain.

In Shravan do the clouds rush down until the mind is moist. In Shravan does my hope take leaf - almost I hear his voice. In Shravan four dark drums make war - even lightning hides. Rain frees itself and flees - makes in fretwork coolness - in the breeze it’s time, says Meera, sing, join hands and welcome Him.

When one begins to carry out one’s decision, care must be taken so that everything can proceed in a comfortable, relaxed manner. Too much must not be demanded of the heart.

If when stimulated by external things, one moves, it is the impulse of being. If, when not stimulated by external things, one moves, it is the movement of heaven.

I was always philosophical in nature and challenged assumptions that people made. In Middle School, I did not accept that facts were true and opinions were false; I thought the opposite was true. In high school, I was concerned with ethics: animal rights, government reform, and sanctity of life. To help me decide whether or not the military was right for me, I wrote a research paper testing whether or not democracy was the best form of government - making new democracies was an obsession of the state department as I was briefed when I was back east taking part in a simulation of the US role in Somalia. I decided that I loved the United States not because it was a democracy, but because it was beautiful and it was my country. I was also always interested in other cultures starting in Middle School when we researched about the Middle East to try to bring peace to the region - I studied Israel. I also respected my Uncle Clive greatly and he always encouraged me to think differently and taught me to love culture. My father told me I would enjoy philosophy - he was studying educational philosophy and we got into a discussion about it. I was really bizarre in high school and so a number of people recommended that I read about eastern philosophy. My English teacher talked about how Existential playwrights didn’t have characters or plots in their plays and that inspired me to write short stories where all the elements of the story changed randomly.

Mountains and rivers and the great earth are lit by sun and moon; all that is this light. Therefore it is not only within the body. Understanding and clarity, perception, and enlightenment, and all movements of the spirit are likewise this light; therefore it is not just something outside the body.

My first introduction to philosophy wasn’t a philosophy course; it was in a literature course. I believed, at the time, that literature was the way to learn about other cultures, as we were encouraged throughout High School. My great grandfather was a missionary over in China and so my mom’s side of the family was highly influenced by Chinese thought and culture. So, to understand them better, my bias being literature, and to fulfill my nonbusiness breadth requirement, I took a year of Chinese Literature. I was very impressed by my professor’s knowledge and I liked how the Chinese put so much into so few words. I read the Analects of Confucius and felt very self conscious. I read the Tao te Ching but I felt was sent into a zealous outpouring if spirit about one of the chapters - it was actually just an author’s note. The next quarter, we were assigned portions of Chuang Tzu, and I started laughing immediately. It is amazing that it translates so well across language, culture, and time. Try getting moved that much by Shakespeare or Canterbury Tales. I was told in class that the Chinese followed Confucian teachings, when they were materially successful and followed Taoist teachings when they had failed materially. And I was having some trouble in school at the time. I didn’t know that I was mentally ill until later on. I wrote poems about Chuang Tzu as the Chinese did and then reinterpreted the outlines of Tolkien’s Middle Earth histories according to Taoist concepts. I looked up Taoism on the Internet and realized that there was a connection with computer networking. So I was going to set up my own server. Then my parents brought me back home and I completed credits I was deficient in and raised my GPA over the summer. I needed nonspecific credits, so I saw that Existentialism was offered at the right time and wasn’t full so I enrolled. I got an A in the class, so I thought I was good at philosophy. So, now as a journalism major, I had a free credit and as most the classes were already full - it took me this long to earn the money - I decided to take a course in Beauvoir as philosophy. This class was the final stroke in leading me to my paranoid episode. I tore up the Second Sex and all the papers I had written and felt better.

This heart is dependent on the outside world. If a man does not eat for one day even, it feels extremely uncomfortable. If it hears something terrifying it throbs; if it hears something enraging it stops; if it is faced with death it becomes sad; if it sees something beautiful it is dazzled.

After I had my paranoid episode, I could not read or write for months. Then I decided to read something worthwhile, because I didn’t know how long I would be able to read. I read an abbreviated version of Concluding Unscientific Postscript by Kierkegaard. He talks about how he doesn’t want to be objective. Instead, he wants to be subjective which is exactly what I told my English teacher in high school. I then moved into a group home. Several of the workers there were interested in Buddhism, so I decided to read some, to understand them. I continued to write up what I had learned. I stopped reading part way through the Baghavata Gita. I researched on the Internet the connection between religion and mental illness and almost ended up studying psychology at a Christian college, but I got stressed out. I continued to look for volunteer positions. I eventually gave up philosophy because people got turned off by it and uncertainty led to paranoia. Another thing that kept me on the path was I was told that meditation helped treat the symptoms of Schizophrenia. I researched this on the Internet but it seemed to lead to the occult, so I never did get into meditation. I learned along the way what Christianity is about: humility and compassion.

-action prevents a man from becoming entangled in form and image - materiality. Action in non-action prevents a man from sinking into numbing emptiness and dead nothingness

Gothic art was the first international style and the first to create fashion. Gothic was never a single style; it depended on local traditions. Gothic art was an advertisement of Heaven to come. Many of the forms were based on function, but began to take on symbolic meanings.

The Gothic style gave an impression of lightness and vertical movement. The features were not distinct and the forms exaggerated, to allow for a steep angle of vision. The pointed arch and the canopy serve to make the figures fit for inclusion into the Heavenly framework. Round Romanesque arches represent the Old Testament, whereas the New Testament is represented by pointed Gothic arches. Trefoils and quatrefoils were Gothic shapes. The statues can be identified with emotionally and feelings can be projected on them. The animated images gave people a personal relationship with God, where they felt distant during communion.

The light coming through colored glass symbolized God, as revealed to us in the form of light, but in a dark and mysterious manner. Light also contrasted with the shadows it also created and showed a dualism of good and evil. The walls were associated with this world and were lit by sunlight, whereas the altar was of another world and was lit by its own light, candles.

The Gothic style was most evident in the city. In the city, there was no feudal system, but it was the most policed space. Every architectural element stood for power. Pilgrims would have measured the distance to the cathedral in days. There were bells that told the liturgical time of the day and at sunset they would see the sun shine on the west side of the cathedral. Statues in the sunset light represented the end of times. In the scenes on the church walls, past, present, and future were combined. New Gothic forms were added onto existing structures. Time was measured by sundials, hourglass, and the stars. It was common to have a pictorial calendar, showing what the people did, at different times of the year.

The New Testament events are symbolized in Old Testament events. This was an interpretation of the past that made it significant to current theology. This was not a developmental version of time but one focused on symbols of salvation. The messages are institutional often, rather than spiritual. The characters were shown as if they existed in the present, because they were part of Biblical history too and it wasn’t a so distant a past. Without books available to the average person, the figures had to be arranged in meaningful patterns and with obvious features, for easy memory.

People wanted their own private relics for devotional purposes. Of chief concern were the objects associated with Christ’s suffering. People became fascinated with these symbols of horror. There were books and even jewelry for this purpose. Man was a part of nature. Nature was both beautiful and fallen, depending on how it was depicted. The blooming of flowers contrasted with them decaying showed the doctrine of the vanity of things of this world. The Gothic naturalism is not a uniform style, but the degree of naturalism employed depended on the message behind it. Nature wasn’t symbolizing reality; reality was spiritual. Nature was still seen as made by God, but it was no longer a range of symbols.

The Gothic cathedral came from the tall tree forests of northern Europe. The foliage on the pillars emphasized the upward movement. Nature was considered to be more benign than before in Romanesque art, where people could handle it and be part of it. God could be experienced through His creation. People hung branches and flowers in the church on feast days and festivals, so the carvings had some very material significance. The plants carved were associated with the local countryside and city. Nature was considered to be a magical force. The nobles thought of a garden as a place of love and something to decorate their houses with.

The animals were drawn from real examples, but rather from tapestries, shields, or encyclopedias, drawn to entertain rather than inform, and were represented as universals, not as individuals. The continuous narrative was employed, showing numerous repetitions of a figure to indicate movement.

The world was seen in fragments. Human and animal are always kept distinct. In the monster, they combine. The grotesque is an important element of Gothic art. They are drawn for things that are not appropriate enough to be described, things that were considered unnatural. They are representatives of horrors of the flesh. They also come from folklore. Grotesques are on the roofs of cathedrals, on the edges of illuminated manuscripts, and on the back of church chairs. Gargoyles are one example.

People aren’t drawn naturalistically, because that symbolizes sin. The first humans that were approved to do naturalistically were corpses. Because of the Bubonic Plague, death became popular in art. The artists were showing how life is fleeting. Before anesthesia, people preferred death. These were depicted in the martyrdom of the saints. This was because there was constant war and punishments were public to discourage crime. The naked body engaged in sex was outlawed, but it was ok to show tortured bodies naked.

Mainstream western philosophy is famous for its duality, where people are divided into two groups with the ones in power being in the better group. One of the artificial dualities are mind and matter, but Kierkegaard realizes the absurdity of this, because man is made of both mind and matter.

A more rational division is between living a life for temporal beauty and living a life for God, based on ethics, where each person has some of each. Man exists in time, while God exists in eternity. This is a real distinction, based on humility and taking compassion as a standard, for separate spheres of existence, within each of our own lives. This is similar to how Chuang Tzu speaks of false distinctions in society - society’s duality, especially of good and evil. Its not just opposite like Nietzche said, because the basis is not on trying to be the strongest to survive by competition. The basis is rather on seeing all things as equals as nature/God treats all creatures equally. All are equal because they all are made up of the same thing: broken harmony (matter and mind). The distinctions are between when we use societies standards (aesthetics) and when we use God/nature’s standards (humility and compassion).

Kierkegaard, who finally was nicknamed "Either-Or" on the streets of Copenhagen, was not interested in the Cartesian distinction between matter and mind. He undertook to contrast the aesthetic or pleasure-seeking life with the ethical life; but he came to see that ethical is not enough; the true contrast is with the religious-ethical or Christian life. His world of matter, thrall to indifference - moral indifference? -, where everything belongs to whosoever happens to possess it, is, like the carnal mind, the antithesis to spirit. He sees the gulf, not between matter and mind, but between 1 - man, made up of both matter and mind and existing in time, and 2 - eternity, the home of God and of spirit. This we shall find reappearing almost exactly in Karl Barth.

It is a paradox that Jesus is the way to God. Since we cannot get to God by achievement, the path is one of humility. Humility is a recognition that there is an infinite difference between man and God, and God coming down to our level is the only way that we can reach God. One can only be one with the Tao through spontaneity or non-political action. It is a gift that you are given by the Tao, through separation from society.

Kierkegaard offers this great paradox of faith: Truth is not innate in man, but man has the ability to grasp it when it is presented to him. The Teacher who presents the truth is of absolute infinite importance,-the Godhead him- self, communicating directly with man, revealing the truth in the shape of man. The Teacher has traveled the infinite distance from God to man to reveal this truth. To get God’s truth, he says, you must believe Jesus, the lowliest of men. Today as when Jesus was on earth in the form of man, faith is born of the same condition, "the resolute acceptance by the individual of the absolute paradox."

Man is not be nature evil, but became that way after the fall. Both Confucianism and Taoism, the two major native Chinese philosophies, were both based on the belief that man was by nature good but had become unnatural in Taoism, or not followed tradition in Confucianism.

Always mindful of the dominant view of Chinese people that mankind was not essentially evil, Martin repeatedly reminded his readers that man’s nature had originally been good. Evil in the world, he asserted, did not originate with man’s strange customs or ignorance, but from his deliberate disobedience to God’s command. This initial rebellion caused man to lose his heavenly nature and resulted in a life controlled by sin. Even though man outwardly appeared good, he was not virtuous and needed to be redeemed and related again to God from whom he had been separated by sin. Even the small child, he observed, revealed his inherited tendency to sin. He made it very clear, however, that man was punished not for Adam’s sin but for his own deliberate transgressions.

Jesus died, not so much to fulfill the letter of the law, but to bring about a harmonious relationship with mankind. He died in our place, as the Chinese had a custom where one member of the family could take the punishment for the other member.

Could not God have forgiven man’s sin without the death of Christ? Martin answered that this was an impossibility, since God, unlike man who no longer had a sense of holiness, must satisfy both his mercy and his justice. He illustrated this teaching with a story that Chinese, who emphasize harmonious relationships more than the letter of the law, may have found difficult to comprehend. A Grecian king had ruled that the sin of adultery would be punished by removing the offender’s two eyes. When he found that his own son was guilty, he sought a method that would show mercy and yet meet the requirements of the law. He solved his dilemma by extracting one of his son’s eyes and one of his own. Martin applied this by noting that the “country’s law” permitted a relative to serve as an offender’s “middleman,” and that this was the relationship in which Jesus stood to God and man in satisfying divine mercy and divine justice.

Embracing both theology and ethics, Wholeness Christianity is a way and a reason. This system combines the factual truth of Jesus, as part of a miraculous history and a future of redemption and the expressions of that faith in acts of compassion, done with an inward humility. In this system, we believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and that we should be kind and sensitive, in response to this historical fact.

1. Believe that all creatures are not good enough to enter Heaven, but that they can come in by their sorrow for not following God’s natural laws, because Jesus paid the price for their mistakes.

2. Believe that our faith is only genuine, when we do thoughtful things for those, who are most in need, based on what we are good at.

According to Freud and many other critics of religion, Christians often practice religion with unconscious personal agendas and conscious moral expectations conflicting. Freud and many psychologists see religion as a problem, because they see Christians that don’t change their character and grow internally, but rather develop rituals to cover up their underlying rebellion from God’s will, and deny their real motives to their conscious mind. He believes that Eucharist, Lord’s Prayer, Apostles Creed, Worship Hymns, and other Christian ceremonies are performed by many without concentration or understanding of the meaning. He believes that they are motivated solely by guilt and closely resemble obsessive compulsive disorder. And that Christians routinely project their sin on society, other countries, the devil, or other people.

He supports the claim that many Christians make a one way covenant with God, by doing in excess of what God calls us to do in one area, to make up for the fact that they are living in habitual sin, in another area. Wholeness Christianity is a way back to the heart, or the “Id” of Christianity, where God desires for His people to deny themselves not by giving away all their belongings, doing a certain kind of job, or praying a certain way, but by changing their attitudes and motivations of their souls.

This issue is common to all religions and in some of Freud’s in depth analysis, he used earth religions as examples. I personally know a Buddhist who uses his atheism as a way to cover up his immaturity and is motivated by pride more than anything else. He picks and chooses components of his lifestyle from different philosophies and religions, without understanding the meaning behind the beliefs. He also is in-genuine and inconsistent in his application of Buddhist ethics.

Taoism is an important philosophy, to understand Christianity, because of the metaphysical concept of emptiness and its corresponding ethical concept of non-dualism. Many people think in terms of black and white or shades of gray: either in absolutes or situational ethics. The ethics of non-dualism, on the other hand is about thinking in terms of paradox. In the symbol of yin and yang, the yin has a seed in the yang and vice versa; any time you go to any extreme there is an element of the other extreme. Case in point: communism is seen of theoretically as the opposite of dictatorship, but in practice it is often very similar. If you try to be perfect, you end up being self-righteous; it is better to just act without thinking so much. In a number of not very well understood, but often quoted eastern philosophies, the absolute is represented by the metaphysical concept of emptiness. In Taoism, Chuang Tzu speaks of society always arguing between seeming opposites, by making false distinctions between them. Chuang Tzu is very practical and so applies this to society’s ethical dualism of good and evil, which he rejects in favor of a more philosophically sound distinction between, with what is natural and what is not natural. Through meditation, a practical application of emptiness, a person finds their inner voice and behaves genuinely, without focusing on false distinctions, between natural parts of life, which cause suffering, like seeing death and life, or the useful and useless as being good or evil. Taoist ethics are important to Christianity because they focuses the Gospel, the Psalms, and the Prophets on the main principles of humility and compassion, which are fully realized in Jesus Christ’s humility to be human and compassion to die on the cross. Emptiness keeps people from petty fighting over an ignorance of paradox so that we can see the classical struggles between concepts of: predestination and free will, God being three and one, Jesus being fully man and fully God, good works and faith as each being two parts of an undivided whole. We gain humility because we cannot make theology systematic, we do not think of ourselves as being perfect and act legalistically. The compassion arises out of being at harmony with one another, through contemplation of how we are all part of one another in the circle of life and, from a Christian point of view, through accepting the peace of the Holy Spirit and acting together through His power.

Since my youth, I desired to find a church that was humble and compassionate, but it was hard for me to understand why these qualities were important to me. It wasn’t until I was reading through Jeremiah in college that I realized that God admired these same qualities. It certainly wasn’t anything I learned from the various Protestant churches that I have attended.

But the first Sunday I attended the local Catholic church they talked about how the law taught by Jesus was about love, not rules. This was something I knew of course, but I never heard a Protestant minister say. I checked out their web site before so I knew they were committed to service in areas that really are close to my heart: unwed mothers and the poor. I could have been poor if I didn’t serve in the military before, since I am mentally ill and can’t work. And my dad passed on to my the importance of sanctity of life.

I tried the Catholic church, out of desperation, from not finding any Protestant churches that seemed committed to service. After reading through the brochure, I received from the Catholic church as well as a book on common misconceptions about Catholicism, I felt like I was asking the wrong question.

The question wasn’t why did I turn to the Catholic church, but why did I stay with the Protestant church so long? It has to do with a lot of things I have heard second hand. This is the reason most people stay away from something that would be good for them. It is funny that I didn’t research this before as I earned about Chinese philosophy and Existentialism in college and was open minded about that.

I so far learned that: Catholics don’t worship Mary any more than the average Protestant worships their deacons; the pope doesn’t change theology - he only changes policy; Catholics don’t believe that you have to do a certain amount of works to be saved, but that salvation is a process rather than an instantaneous event (although explained with different terminology is not actually different than Protestants believe).

I have been baptized at an early age for a Protestant - 8. I am born again but I believe there is more to salvation then just accepting Christ as your savior. Not that you can earn it, but that there should be some way to express it. I help others with my money by: wearing simple clothing, using public transportation, using inexpensive software, not eating beef, using used furniture, giving to help those society does not value, not using leather, and using cruelty free shampoo. I have struggled to find a way to volunteer for others with my limitations - currently I help others with my website with the following: Liberation Psychology to relieve emotional pain, Philosophy of Fun to relieve economic problems, Existential ethics to reduce the physical pain of others, Still Theory to reduce spiritual pain, my drawings to provide humorous relief, my photographs to show the beauty all around us, my computer information to help others save money and help others creatively.

But I would like to have my faith and my service connected, so it would be a witness to others. Now that I don’t have to compromise on theology, I believe that I should be part of the same Church that Peter started. I look forward to becoming part of the rich heritage of the original church. I have also started reading about some of the Christian mystics of the Middle Ages and it is exciting and meaningful to anticipate being part of this same church.

God wants us to be genuine and is willing to look past our faults and enjoys our quirks. People who are mean to others and claim they do not sin anymore were never Christians to begin with and will not go to Heaven. God just wants us to admit we cannot be good enough to get into Heaven and let him change us into a nice person.

3. The level of schooling completed by the age of 25 is a foreshadowing of your success in life.

1. The length of time abroad will be a determiner of how many friends you will have.

2. The number of languages you speak doesn’t matter as long as you can afford a tour guide.

2. The product usefulness is only important as it is reflected in the commercial.

4. If one pill makes you feel better, then two pills would make you feel better than that.

2. Movies look much better when they are displayed twice as small on your computer.

3. The prestige of being able to sneak alcoholic beverages into a football game makes it better than watching at home.

4. If you yell loud enough at game shows on your TV they might change their answers.

5. Being able to understand the lyrics to songs usually detracts from the artistic integrity of the performer.

4. A person won’t be able to appreciate the music if they can’t hear it across the entire sound spectrum.

The imminence of God in this picture is stretched as far as can be done. It seems to verge on pantheism. And yet, as close as it may appear "a hair’s breadth" there is an infinitely wide gap between pantheism and what Eckhart teaches. For it is not the created order by itself that is divine. It is the redemptive act of God that transforms fallenness into union with him. What cannot be found in nature and cannot be attained beyond nature can be received from God.

Does the toilet become an altar because it is the polar opposite of the cathedral?

When a person empties himself completely for the sake of God, and he no longer belongs to anyone but God, and he lives solely for God, then he is truly the same thing by grace which God is by nature, and God recognizes no distinction between himself and this person. But now I have said: by grace.

If the serpent was struck a death blow in the head with the resurrection of Jesus

Thus we see that Eckhart is a part of a very small subgroup among those whom we traditionally call "mystics." In fact it has been commonplace over the last one hundred years or so to define mysticism in terms of a "typical mystical experience." In that case Meister Eckhart would not even be a mystic at all. His focus is on something that is real. Subjective experience is essentially irrelevant to this reality.

O Almighty God, the supreme Governor of all things, whose power no creature is able to resist, to whom it belongeth justly to punish sinners, and to be merciful to those who truly repent; Save and deliver us, we humbly beseech thee, from the hands of our enemies; that we, being armed with thy defense, may be preserved evermore from all perils, to glorify thee, who art the only giver of all victory; through the merits of thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O God, merciful and compassionate, who art ever ready to hear the prayers of those who put their trust in thee; Graciously hearken to us who call upon thee, and grant us thy help in this our need; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O most mighty and merciful God, in this time of grievous sickness, we flee unto thee for succor. Deliver us, we beseech thee, from our peril; give strength and skill to all those who minister to the sick; prosper the means made use of for their cure; and grant that, perceiving how frail and uncertain life is, we apply our hearts unto that heavenly wisdom which leadeth to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O father of mercies and God of all comfort, our only help in time of need; We humbly beseech thee to behold, visit, and relieve thy sick servant for whom our prayers are desired. Look upon him with the eyes of thy mercy; comfort him with a sense of thy goodness; preserve him from the temptations of the enemy; and give him patience under his affliction. In thy good time, restore him to health, and enable him to lead the residue of his life in thy fear, and to thy glory; and grant that finally he may dwell with thee in life everlasting; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Almighty God, who hast created man in thine own image; Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil, and to make no peace with oppression; and, that we may reverently use our freedom, help us to employ it in the maintenance of justice among men and nations, to the glory of thy holy Name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O Almighty God, who art a strong tower of defense unto thy servants against the face of their enemies; We yield thee praise and thanksgiving for our deliverance from those great and apparent dangers wherewith we were compassed. We acknowledge it thy goodness that we were not delivered over as a prey unto them; beseeching thee still to continue such mercies towards us, that all the world may know that thou art our Saviour and mighty Deliverer; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O God, who art the giver of life, of health, and of safety; We bless thy Name, that thou hast been pleased to deliver from his bodily sickness this thy servant, who now desireth to return thanks unto thee, in the presence of all they people. Gracious art thou, O Lord, and full of compassion to the children of men. May his heart be duly impressed with a sense of thy merciful goodness, and may he devote the residue of his days to an humble, holy, and obedient walking before thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Six Syllables create vibrations, in different parts of the body, which affect natural healing.

Sit relaxed on the chair’s edge, keeping your back straight, and your head up. Have your feet level on the ground, while having your knees apart a little. Place your hands on your thighs. Breathe through your nose, down into your waist. Let out your waist, when you breathe in, and pull it back in when breathing out. You should breathe out for a much longer time, than you breathe in. Exhale the sound from your waist. After breathing the sound, breathe regularly a couple times, before breathing the sound again.

This sound helps the liver and gall bladder and helps with feelings of weakness. Squeeze together the lips, and say “shoo,” while you breathe out with your mouth opened and fold your tongue up.

This sound helps the small intestine and heart and gets rid of anger. Stretch your mouth wide, and say “haa” while you breathe out. Hold the end of your tongue softly, next to the inner side of your lower teeth.

This sound helps the lungs getting rid of poisons and helps the spleen, pancreas, and stomach, while balancing your temperature. Squeeze together your lips, and say “hoo,” while you breathe out with your tongue folded a little down.

This sound helps with the lungs and large intestine, and also with balance. Hold your teeth together softly, put your tongue behind your teeth and say “haa,” while you pull your lips back.

This sound balances your temperature and helps the kidneys, bladder, and adrenal glands. Squeeze your lips together and say “foo,” while your mouth is a little open and your tongue pulled back and to the mouth top.

This sound helps the circulatory and nervous and with stress, tension, and anxiety. Hold your teeth together, and place your tongue next to your top teeth and say “shee,” while pulling your lips back. Do this 36 times.

According to Viktor Frankl, a person with Schizophrenia needs not worry about what causes each delusion or paranoia, but, rather that he has a disease and that the medicine he takes does the battle for him. He needs to focus on something else, because if he faces the battle head on, his subconscious will overtake him. There is a place for religion proper: when dealing with acute symptoms; but it is also important to work with your hands, to find balance and meaning in life. Craft materials don’t cost very much anymore and can help a person with Schizophrenia to express their feelings, through the arts. And the arts are very interrelated with religion. Music and decorative ceremonial objects are a vital part of the religious experience. Not everyone can write their own music, but handicrafts are a more universal creative medium. I have discovered 5 crafts that I enjoy. You might want to consider one or more of them.

Cross stitch is a type of needle-craft. It is easy to master the several main stitch types and you can get complete kits with the needle, threads and stamped pattern. You also need a wooden hoop. These are available at any good craft store. One of the draw backs is that it requires good eye sight.

There are several brands that work almost identically, but the idea is that you mold this special type of plastic and then you bake it in the oven, at low heat, so that it hardens. It is easier to work with than clay and it already comes colored. You can buy it and books that give ideas on how to make animals and decorations with it at most craft or toy stores. This requires good eyesight, but to a lesser degree than cross stitch, as the sculptey comes in small squares.

This type of work requires a modest investment. To just do small stickers, it will cost you 20 US dollars for the machine, and the cartridge included. To make larger stickers, as well as laminate and make magnets you will have to invest 50 US dollars plus 20 US dollars per cartridge. It comes with a sticker cartridge and idea book. And the cartridges are about 8 feet long of sticky. I bought a Xyron 510 from Joann Fabrics online.

Terra Cotta pots can be used for more than just planting. They can also be used to make animals and decorative containers out of. I found some free designs at About.com and also bought a book for about 10 US dollars from the Craft Ideas online store. You can also likely get some designs at national chain book stores like Borders, or Barnes and Noble. I had trouble finding designs at even major craft store chains. The pots cost 50 cents and up, depending on the size, and can be bought at any craft store.

7. the goal is not to be emotionless, but rather to have control over your emotions

3. when you are disappointed, call on God for a new direction, so you don’t get discouraged

8. choosing to live in hope and joy means not letting the inevitable let downs get you down

14. fear is a normal reaction to change, but it must be controlled like any other emotion

15. confront your depression: ask yourself why you are depressed, instruct yourself, announce your response

Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

She could not confide in anyone, because she did not really have anything to confide. When a person has dreamed, he can tell his dream to others, but what she had to tell was indeed no dream; it was actuality, and yet as soon as she was about to tell it to another to ease her troubled mind, it was nothing. She was fully aware of it herself. No one could grasp this, scarcely she herself, and yet it weighed upon her as a disquieting burden.

Erect was she and proud, mysterious and abounding in thought like a spruce tree, one shoot, one thought, which deep from the interior of the earth shoots up toward heaven, unexplained, unexplainable to itself, a unity that has no parts. The beech tree puts on a crown; its leaves tell what has occurred beneath it. The spruce has no crown, no history, is a riddle to itself—she was like that. She herself was hidden in herself; she herself rose up out of herself; there was a recumbent pride in her like the spruce’s bold escape—although it is riveted to the earth.

To love one girl is too little; to love all is superficiality; to know oneself and to love as many as possible, to let one’s soul conceal all powers of love inside itself so that each receives its special nourishment while the consciousness nevertheless embraces the whole—that is enjoyment, that is living.

She is being transformed within herself. The moment craves stillness; therefore no reflection is to disturb it, no noise of passion is to disrupt it. It is as if I were not present, and yet it is my very presence that is the condition for this contemplative wonder of hers. My being is in harmony with hers. In a state such as this, a girl is adored and worshiped, just as some deities are, by silence.

My relationship to her is like a dance that is supposed to be danced by two people but is danced by only one. That is, I am the other dancer, but invisible. She moves as in a dream, and yet she is dancing with another, and I am that other one who, insofar as I am visibly present, is invisible, and insofar as I am invisible, visible. The movements require another.

I am shaping for myself a heart like unto hers. An artist paints his beloved; that is now his joy; a sculptor shapes her.

I am in almost 30 and have been studying most major belief systems of the world minus earth religions or occult for 9 years now. I have been awarded a doctorate, for my studies, and have developed college level curriculum for a number of topics in theology and philosophy which are now contained in my series of books. I have developed four different websites, showcasing my studies and writing and more recently I have developed visual representations of key ideas.

I believe that the systematic thought, which leads to specialization, from the philosophy of Aristotle, as interpreted by Maimonides, the materialism, that was started by Descartes, and the atheism, that comes from Rousseau are the reason for the exponentially increased suffering of people, over the past 500 years. These ideas are often collectively referred to as the Enlightenment or Social Science. The establishment has always existed, from earliest times and will exist until the end of times, and has operated according to the philosophy of Machiavelli or dictatorship. But, as the establishment used the power of Science to control people, they exponentially increased the suffering of the world, for the next 500 years. The Biblical response is to subvert the ways of the establishment in creative and non-political ways, but still follow its laws. Giving things away for free is a good start.

There are some general skills that I have picked up, from my extensive study of both religion/philosophy and computers. These are two fields, where most people have some very strong opinions, and even amongst people who are required to know about it for their job, know so little about. I have developed the ability, background knowledge, and experience to determine whether or not the person knows what they are talking about, whether or not the information is accurate, what bias the person is showing, what things are not known very well by anyone, things that you can’t get reliable information about. And I can draw information, from many sources, and put together the information in a concise, accurate, easy to understand, and teachable form.

I am a disabled veteran and was diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia almost 8 years ago. I live on my own completely now. I have had only one paranoid episode and have only been in a psychiatric ward of a private hospital. This was when I was diagnosed and I have been on my medicine regularly and have not been in the hospital since then.

I am now working on getting into better shape. I was always thin before I started on my first anti-psychotic, Risperidol. I gained 80 lbs. in 4 months and that is typical for this medicine. Risperidol numbs the nerves in your stomach, so no matter how much you eat, you never feel full. Anyway, I gained more weight, when I lived in a group home, as our food was very starchy. Since then, I have lost 50 pounds, just by changing what types of food I ate and eating less quantity. I am now going to use my treadmill until I can run again. I ran from middle school, all the way through the military, where I ran a half marathon, but I haven’t been able to run since I gained the weight. I am also going to be building up my life force with Qi Gong once I get in better shape.

I love the culture that the University of Oregon brings to Eugene, but I am frustrated by their lack of support for diversity.

I must first explain what I mean by diversity. Diversity does not mean a certain number of women, it does not mean a certain number of people of color, and it does not mean a certain number of international students. The reason why I don’t consider this to be diversity is because we continue to hear that people, who are of a different skin color, are no different than anyone else and that just because someone is a woman that doesn’t make her any different than a man. So if they are the same, how can they be called diverse?

People, who have different sexual preferences, may make the University more diverse. I still don’t see how they are any different than anyone else, based solely on having a different sexual preference. I don’t see why this makes such a difference in opinions, about anything taught in school. To assume that someone is more liberal or of a particular religion, because they are gay or lesbian, doesn’t make any sense and furthermore it is being prejudice to think so.

The real differences, that affect how people live, are income level, disability, subculture they identify with, belief system, and political views. I know that the University actively discourages students of certain income levels, disabilities, and belief systems, by policies that they could easily change.

The University of Oregon charges much more per class, for one class, than they do for a full time course load. This discourages people of a moderate to low income level from attending, as it is common to work while going to school, if you can’t get enough financial aid, to cover your courses, which is common.

The University of Oregon goes to great links, to make sure classes are wheelchair accessible, and to make material available to blind students, but I was refused help for my disability, that the local community college volunteered to help with, before I even asked. We wanted either extra time for testing, oral testing, or a paper in place of testing, as I have no trouble learning the material but just need to be under less stress. Well, the University said that it was the choice of the professor as to whether they wanted to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which applies to the mentally ill too.

The University of Oregon has a tremendous amount of courses, including a whole year of required courses, on western philosophy, but only has one course on eastern philosophy and they claim that they excel in Asian studies. I know that there is a religion major, that includes major eastern philosophies and religion, but why do the eastern philosophies get lumped in with all the major world religions and not get their own courses. I can understand, if they wanted to merge the philosophies and religions courses under belief systems, but why do the eastern philosophies get the short end of the stick?

The University of Oregon, for all its lack of support for diversity, does bring a tremendous amount of positive influence into the Eugene community.

You can see the differences between our sister city Springfield, which borders Eugene, on the east side. Driving or taking the bus down Springfield’s main street, you can get an idea of what it has to offer. Almost every business deals with fixing cars. If their weren’t cars, Springfield would be even more depressed. There are some nice parts to Springfield, like in its northern Gateway end and eastern Thurston end, which I grew up in. But the majority of the middle part of the city is very depressed. A big chunk of the city is the property of Weyerhauser, a multi-billion dollar timber company, whose paper mill can be smelled even in Thurston, when the wind blows that way. This is not to knock Springfield, as they have very different values, but it shows that the University of Oregon brings something different and good to the community.

So how is Eugene different? Eugene had a number of very different parts. One of the uniting factors is the number of small businesses. That is something common to most of Oregon. But we have some really unique businesses, like the Smith Family Bookstore, where people can get used books that are scholarly, which is right next to the University of Oregon and would not exist without it. We also have a number of theatre companies in Eugene, all throughout the eastern and downtown areas. We also have a number of art galleries downtown and we have Maude Kerns art center, which has classes on and exhibits many styles of art. We also have a huge hospital, which is faith friendly, Sacred Heart, and a community college, LCC. We have two Christian colleges, one a Bible college, Eugene Bible College, and the other a liberal arts college, Northwest Christian College, whose students can take courses at the U of O, which they can get credit for at the Christian college. We also have a huge stadium, for football and we have the county fairgrounds in town. We have a lot of unique celebrations in the summer, including the Country Fair and the Eugene celebration. We also have a local minor league of baseball, called the Eugene Emeralds. We have several venues, exclusively for concerts, including the WOW Hall and the former MacDonald theatre. We also have an independent films movie theatre, called the Bijou. These are just a few of the things the University of Oregon brings to town; each of these bringing many wonderful moments of joy and community to the Eugene area.

Today was not a good day. I was the victim of an abusive mental health worker. I have experienced the same thing, with many other people, who work with the mentally ill. They assume that they are always right and the consumer is always wrong. I continue to have to hold my tong and not say how I feel out of fear of retaliation, but they say whatever they feel like, regardless of my feelings and no ones stands up for me. The workers bring up very divisive topics, like politics and religion, and usually say some very negative things about Christianity. Then, when I try to respond, they say I can’t talk about religion or politics. Basically, they are saying only their opinion counts. What I believe is not important, because I was born different than them. I was even told be one of the managers that I know more about mental illness than they do.

"What is Buddhism all about? ” Aside: I only have time for a one sentence answer, but I won’t communicate that to you

"Well, first of all, Buddhism is a form of atheism and is nihilistic. In Buddhism all deities are illusions and...” Aside: Why are they giving me a blank stare? They must not comprehend, but are unwilling to ask the needed question.

"I need help with my VCR; you are good with computers” Aside: I don’t understand him but I don’t want to look stupid, so I am just going to cut him off, in mid-sentence.

"Just hit the input button or tv/video button several times, until you see the TV show.”

"I don’t know how to do that.” Aside: I am not really listening to you because I don’t want to learn how to do anything new. I would rather depend on other people, to fix my problems for me.

"I can hit the button for you then, but watch so you can do it next time.” Aside: I just explained it to you. I guess you weren’t even listening.

"I am so busy with work that I need you to do that for me, but I won’t be around.” Aside: I have no intention of doing that. That would be learning and that scares me.

"Ok.” Aside: I wonder what she does at work. All I see her do is talk to the her coworkers and play games on the computer

I am no longer going to answer any questions about philosophy to anyone who hasn’t first read through Philosophy Core curriculum and answered the questions at the end. Then after looking at the answers, I can tell if they are serious about studying philosophy. Then I will have them read books from the Recommended Reading List and I will answer questions about the books, only after they have read them. The Philosophy Core is based on my reading from 165 mostly classical philosophical texts and my conversations with people of various levels of education over a period of 7 years. I have finally simplified and explained it to the point, that if a person cannot understand it, they are most likely not making the effort, second most likely, they need to learn how to read better, or else they don’t have the ability (the third possibility is very rare).

I voluntarily served my country and am permanently disabled because of my service. This is why I am receiving funds from the Veterans Administration. I am a disabled veteran. I served my country, because it is a beautiful country and it is my country.

Many people see America as being on offshoot of England and based on the Enlightenment and that our closest allies are England and France. They see American history and culture as that of rich white men, as taught in history books and the mass media, that is accepted by the mainstream of opinion leaders. The mass media, called popular culture, is all over the world and is developed by a couple of rich white men, who don’t even pay taxes in the United States. These multinational corporations have nothing to do with America.

I see America as reflected, by the people who live here, currently and I see America as an immigrant nation, except for the Native Americans. The only thing that is exclusively American is Native American culture. When I study about the culture of historic and ancient Asia, this is as American as studying about the the American Revolution, the American Civil War, or World War II. I think that people, who got into America legally, from any other nation and follow the laws are just as much American as people who came over on the Mayflower who follow the laws. Not just those who sell out their culture for popular culture, but keeping their customs, from the countries they came from are just as American.

The really unique thing about America as I have, come to realize, after my service in the military is that we have a goal of toleration for people of different backgrounds and especially of other religions. That is one of the major things I seek to further, in my writings and artwork. This is often referred to as multiculturalism. I don’t see why we need to put up artificial boundaries between us and other countries around the world. We can be seen as doing the right thing, as well as they can be, even if we order our society in different ways, or that they may appear farther ahead than us in some areas doesn’t make us less of a nation. We don’t need to think of ourselves, as the best nation on earth. We are one, among a number of great nations, and we don’t need to be culturally exclusive to prove it.

Most people use a certain amount of software that is free. Much of that software is free, not only in cost, but is done by a community or network of developers, so that the software produced is not controlled by any one organization or company. The value lies not primarily in the cost savings, but in the inherent use of open standards and open file formats, that facilitate the exchange of ideas, especially in the future. As an artist, writer, and philosopher, I value that my ideas, writings, and images will be available in digital form, far into the future, because I publish my work in open standardized file formats and this free software helps drive their adoption.

4. Creative Commons - 50 dollars - develops licenses for sharing content that you own the copyright on

5. Project Gutenberg - 50 dollars - publishes books that have lost their copyright and distributes them freely on the Internet

For the common person, I still get blank stares, even from educated people, when I try to describe open source and its importance to an artist, writer, and philosopher. They understand the philosophy better than they do the software. They are still locked into an 80s mentality, where you have IBM compatibles and Macs, which are are from 2 separate universes and you either are all locked into one, or all locked into the other and you can’t ever network them together or share files. They think they need the program that you created the document with and they only consider something finished, when it is printed out. They are still impressed by being able to change the desktop wallpaper, use attachments, and forward urban legends. It will be at least 20 years, before the average person understands open source, if it ever happens. Basically, we need to wait for my parents generation, to move into retirement homes.

The most obvious parallel for the Pharisees in modern times is the Church establishment

For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him.

Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them.

Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk.

But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Many Christians see salvation as an end and not just a beginning. They absolve themselves of doing any help in the world, because they see the world as corrupt and take the easy answer of letting the world fall apart. They look knowingly at each other and think they are so much better, because they are saved.

This is based on the theology of saved by faith alone, but it is not consistent, even within its own system. If God saved us, because we repent of our sins, then why do we think we are better than others? We are all equally bad and God’s criteria for reaching out to us is just that we humble ourselves before God and consider ourselves equal to unbelievers. If we can’t even do that, how can we consider ourselves to be born again or followers of Christ?

If Christ, who is God Himself, did not even consider Himself equal to God and submitted Himself to the authority of men, then where do we get off thinking that we are better than unbelievers. Often, theologians compare Christ’s descent to being human as equivalent to us descending to being a bug, but this is a gross exaggeration of our worth and gross simplification of God’s glory above man. Christ being born as a human is more equivalent to use giving up our existence permanently.

God is not limited by any thing and He is so far above us that we amount to a grand total of zero in comparison to God. It is a miracle that any of us is actually saved and the effort is almost entirely on God’s side. It is not that our submission to God means anything, but just a rightful understanding of our place in the universe; it is the grace of God that does the work.

It is important that we make a choice, to submit ourselves before God, but this is just the beginning of the path. Just because we can’t get beyond grace, salvation, and faith, does not mean that we do not make the effort to grow. Just because the world is going to end soon is no reason to let everybody suffer, without attempting any way, to help reduce the suffering.

The majority of the Bible tells about how we should live our lives, while on earth. If we really want mass conversions to the Christianity of the Bible, we are going to have to show unbelievers that we truly value life.

For a person to choose a philosophy of death and to totally give up on improving the world is a defeatist mentality. How can we expect to have victory in Christ if it doesn’t start by reaching out to our own communities in Christ reflected love?

The following article, explains how personal salvation and morality are the basis, for genuine humility and compassion.

As long as I act freely I am good and do nothing but good, but as long as I feel the yoke of necessity or human society I become rebellious, or rather recalcitrant, and then I am of no account.

But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.

It is true that our modern society and civilization, in general, intensifies people’s bad behavior, as they are more interconnected. We are also more aware of what others do, as people live closer together, either by technology or location. When people work together, in groups, the leaders get addicted to the power and lose the moral fiber, that supposedly brought them into the position, in the first place.

Many theologians will tell you that if you live in isolation, it is very hard to break God’s law, as most of the commandments involve other people. But all the commandments are based on loving God and serving no other gods and that one you can break, by yourself.

But people commit sins individually. Even if they are leaders or do so in groups, each person is responsible for their actions. And the Bible tells us that we all have an inclination to do wrong and have not met God’s perfect moral standard. Freedom is spiritual, according to the Bible, and is realized, in becoming part of God’s family, by being sorry for our sins and humbling ourselves, before God. Our greatest enemy is not our leaders, but the inevitable outcome of our own free choice.

When it comes to how we act in groups, not everyone who is a part of that social contract is in agreement with everything a leader does. We may find that among our peers we agree, but are divided by our leaders misinformation. There is not the same responsibility, when we are only indirectly responsible and made the best compromise, as we understood, at the time.

Our system of government is flawed, no matter what system we live under, but we can be free spiritually, despite being deluded, in a corporate sense. God meant for us to live together, despite the problems and our leaders will face an account, for what they have done, sometimes in their very own courts, but all of them eventually will be subject to God’s judgment.

God doesn’t call us to be perfect, but, rather to be humble before Him and equal to all other people, and to be compassionate to others. Compassion is an evidence of faith, but humility is the basis. God wants us to grow up and act with love for others, but in His wisdom, not the world’s, but before we can truly care for others, we must first be as genuine in our self reflection as children and look to God as our Father.

Have you always thought that, because Nietzche was a well known atheist, that everything he said is against the Bible and not worth reading for Christians? That is totally not true. Here is a sampling, of some of his statements from, Thus Spake Zarathustra and the biblical response.

He that writeth in blood and proverbs doth not want to be read, but learnt by heart.

Jesus made the ultimate statement in blood with His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead and He definitely wanted us to learn the Scriptures, so that they were a part of us and not just words on a page.

This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them

But the state lieth in all languages of good and evil; and whatever it saith it lieth; and whatever it hath it hath stolen. False is everything in it; with stolen teeth it biteth, the biting one. False are even its bowels.

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

You I advise not to work, but to fight. You I advise not to peace, but to victory. Let your work be a fight, let your peace be a victory!

Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to fight the armies of the aliens.

Everywhere resoundeth the voices of those who preach death; and the earth is full of those to whom death hath to be preached.

And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

Backward they always gaze toward dark ages: then, indeed, were delusion and faith something different. Raving of the reason was likeness to God, and doubt was sin.

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding

The Self saith unto the ego: "Feel pain! " And thereupon it suffereth, and thinketh how it may put an end thereto, and for that very purpose it is meant to think.

Does it matter what the cause of pain is? Does it hurt less, if I understand why? There definitely is a mind-body connection, as that is what all of Chinese medicine is based on, and has worked for thousands of years. I would just add, that there is a spiritual component or relationship to the body, and pain can be spiritual, as well as physical. God can heal people who are physically or spiritually sick.

Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord

Thus speak and stammer: "That is my good, that do I love, thus doth it please me entirely, thus only do I desire the good. Not as the law of a God do I desire it, not as a human law or a human need do I desire it; it is not to be a guide post for me to super-earths and paradises.”

For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another

My brother, are war and battle evil? Necessary, however, is the evil; necessary are the envy and the distrust and the backbiting among the virtues.

From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

What distinguishes the witness of the prophets and the apostles...After all, they were men as fallible as we are...their morality cannot be binding for us...In many things they said...they contradicted each other...With few exceptions they were not remarkable theologians. God’s word is never available to anyone. Gods word is God’s Spirit, who blows where He will.

While I believe that much can be learned from other cultures, in their natural disciplines: philosophy, history, literature, art, music, and theater, the Bible stands as a universal truth and is relevant to all cultures.

The Bible stands up to Scientific analysis and our understanding of the universe. The delicate balance of every condition necessary for life and the complexity of biological structures and chemistry point to a Creator. The Bible also refers to events that can be verified and stands up to historical analysis, better than any other records. Its message meets the psychological needs and yearnings of human being, better than any other printed work.

I can understand other philosophies and literature, because the Bible is a super system, that encompasses all other forms of thought. The poetry of Psalms ministers to our emotional ups and downs better than any psychoanalysis. The best explanation of history is contained in the Prophets of the Old Testament.

The nihilism of Buddha and Nietzche are contained in Ecclesiastes. The ethics of Taoism are more eloquently stated in the Gospels. Existential freedom is best represented in the letters of Paul. Christ’s death and resurrection and His gift of eternal life are the best answers to suffering.

While I am very critical of the way the church compromises to society’s values, there are no grounds for honest criticism of the Bible. The values of the Bible hold man to the highest standards and are yet the simplest and most basic requirements, for interacting with others. God provided a very simple way to salvation, that is not beyond the abilities of the most intelligent scholar or the most simple minded laborer. The Bible is definitely a criticism of the powers that be and our precious Social Sciences, but that means that God really cares. I, as well as God, hold Christians to a higher standard than I do the world, because they know the truth.

While it may take a tremendous effort on our part to unlearn how our society interprets the Bible and get into a fresh way of thinking, reading the Bible honestly in its entirety and praying to God to understand it is all that is necessary. I got all my views from the Bible, before I read philosophy, and there is nothing that is said in other books that is necessary to understand, either the way to live or the way to salvation. I read them to understand other ways of thinking, because I have a love of culture. The works I have based my philosophy on are to counter the atheism taught in schools and bring God’s message to non-believers, in ways they can understand, but the fundamental ideas are just restatements of Scripture.

Many think that Jesus Christ’s message can be summed up, by loving your fellow man, or "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

The fact is that how the Bible defines love, in 1 Corinthians 13, nobody lives up to it, as stated by Paul in Romans 3:10-11 that:

Paul is quoting from Isaiah. The Bible directly says that we do not measure up to God’s holiness. What is considered good, in the eyes of man, is such a low standard that, even in the eyes of the worst criminal, we could not be called good. People, not that long ago, thought it was ok to have slaves and considered women property; people even now think it is ok to experiment on animals and kill unborn babies.

It is true, God created a world in which sin is possible, by giving us a free choice and by creating us as individuals. But not only do we make mistakes, but we actually go out of our way to hurt others and don’t seem to care when we destroy the earth’s resources for ten thousand years in the future. We are producing radioactive waste, and using up our oil reserves. Buying an SUV is not amoral, when we have young men dying overseas, to defend our over consumption. Consuming vast quantities of beef gives us heart disease, which is often fatal and is not a fair use of resources, when other people are growing hungry or don’t receive adequate medical care.

Most fundamentally, Christ’s message was in His birth, death, and resurrection, giving us a perfect example of humility and compassion. When we say we have done nothing wrong, we are not being honest or genuine. More importantly, we are not being respectful of Jesus’ sacrifice or the honor due God the Father. In doing so, we also think we are better than our fellow citizens and don’t really believe in equality. Not only was God coming to earth as Jesus the ultimate act of humility, but He carried out the greatest act of compassion by dying on the cross for our sins, descending into Hell, and raised back to glory and Heaven, defeating death and the Devil. All God asks for us is to accept the obvious fact that we do wrong and ask for His forgiveness, and believe that Jesus rose from the dead (the historical event with the most factual proof and the only rational conclusion to be drawn from how Christ’s body was missing out of the tomb).

The leaf or flower or fruit or water that he offers in devotion, I take from the man of self-restraint in response to his devotion.

Most people are more familiar with Buddhism than with Hinduism, so I will start my comparison there. Buddhism is a form of philosophy that is nihilistic, atheistic, and materialistic. It is an elaborate system of ethics and its ultimate aim is the annihilation of all desire, to the point of having no individual identity. This is because Buddhism is based on the idea that existence in any form always leads to nothing but suffering. Buddhist ethics call for isolation and non-involvement in society. To escape the cycle of rebirths, you have to accumulate no karma, not even good karma, so you are not supposed to get involved, even when others suffer. Although you rely solely on yourself for enlightenment, as the Buddha is in your mind, even the self has no permanent existence and ultimately is just an illusion.

Hinduism is a belief in a God which exists in everything - every sentient being and even in all matter. Enlightenment is obtained mainly by meditation and self-discipline. There are also many others paths, like chanting certain words. If you break from the cycle of death and rebirth, you join with the true Self, which is the ultimate reality. Then you have no personal identity, or rather have found your true identity, which is one with the ultimate reality. Hinduism believes this world was created by the ultimate reality, the true Self, which is eternal.

One major difference between Hinduism and Buddhism is that Hindus believe in God. They actually believe in One God/Reality, but followers worship different aspects of God, depending on how they see Him: Creator, Destroyer, and Preserver. Like Buddhism and most other religions, except for Judaism, Islam and Christianity, Hindus believe in reincarnation. Like Buddhism, there is no set canon like in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.

Like Christianity, Hinduism has branched out and has materialistic and orthodox schools. Buddhism and Jainism are the main materialistic/atheistic schools. Sikhism is a combination of Islam and Hinduism based on the bhakti (devotional/mystical tradition) and a modern school of Hinduism is the Hare Krishnas. Christianity believes God has three major functions, but none of these functions includes any type of sexuality or violence, unlike the Hindu deities Vishnu and Shiva. While you can worship different aspects of God in Hinduism, God the Father is the only one who is to be worshiped in Christianity. Also, in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism God is separate from his creation, while in Hinduism everything has the same underlying reality.

So we are said to be what our desire is. As our desire is, so is our will. As our will is, so are our acts. As we act, so we become.

When he is seen within us and without, he sets right all doubts and dispels the pain of wrong actions committed in the past.

The Bhagavad Gita is the principle philosophical work of Hinduism. It is part of the longest epic poem ever written and is the finale of the poem. Krishna is counseling a soldier, who does not want to fight. First, it says that all things are equal and then it contradicts itself by describing different personality types and tells people they have to do different things to be saved, depending on their situation. The problem with having people do different things to be saved implies that some people are better than other people. The ethics of Nietzche have a similar problem. This leads to the caste system in India and NAZI Germany. The Bible teaches that everyone is equal before God and anyone can be saved no matter what they have done, if they believe that Jesus is God and repent of their sins.