The Gospel According to Saint Matthew attributes nine beatitudes (blessings) to Jesus, the first of which is "Blessed are the poor in spirit,* for their's is is the kingdom of heaven." ( Mother Theresa of Kohlkatta. also a Christian Saint, once called the United States "a spiritual Bangladesh." ...Read more...Collapse )
*I think it is more likely that Jesus actually said something more like "Blessed be ye poor..." refering to economic poverty, as Luke puts it. Nevertheless, spiritual poverty is a valuable idea, wherever it might have come from
*I think it is more likely that Jesus actually said something more like "Blessed be ye poor..." refering to economic poverty, as Luke puts it. Nevertheless, spiritual poverty is a valuable idea, wherever it might have come from
Saturday night i went to Church and had occasion to speak to the friend who had called me about the message from Dianne. I asked if he could see her? Yes. I aked if she spoke aloud? Yes. I asked for exact words? "Call Bob." "I love him." I aked if he had had other similar experiences? Just once, about a month ago. I said, so you haven't heard from Shirley? No -- he looked sad. (Shirley was/is his wife who died shortly before Dianne did.)
My skepticism is on hold. I do believe there is consiousness after "life." But my belief did not include the possibility of an exchange of love notes from one dimension to another. I assumed that people on the "other side" could be conscious of our thoughts and feelings if they wanted to be. But why should they want to be? They are in the real world, we are still in the illusory one. My friend is straightforward and down-to-earth person..He has had this sort of experience once before; yet he talked as if it was the most common and normal experience.
I do not know if my friend's experience was as it seemed to him. Nevertheless, i talk more often to Dianne now. I am more comfortable that she is in a "good" place. I am more aware of he "presence."
Love, peace, and joy to everyone.
My skepticism is on hold. I do believe there is consiousness after "life." But my belief did not include the possibility of an exchange of love notes from one dimension to another. I assumed that people on the "other side" could be conscious of our thoughts and feelings if they wanted to be. But why should they want to be? They are in the real world, we are still in the illusory one. My friend is straightforward and down-to-earth person..He has had this sort of experience once before; yet he talked as if it was the most common and normal experience.
I do not know if my friend's experience was as it seemed to him. Nevertheless, i talk more often to Dianne now. I am more comfortable that she is in a "good" place. I am more aware of he "presence."
Love, peace, and joy to everyone.
I called my neurosurgeon's nurse a few hours ago and got great news. Evidently the doctor has reexamined my last neck x-ray and determined that i should "wean" myself off the brace! No more tests. no consultation, no mention of surgery. So i am sitting here with the brace off and feeling pretty normal for two hours; tomorrow, four hours, etc, in six or eight days i will wear it only at night, then, if all goes well, be rid of it all together, happy, joyous, and free.
My friend, who is neither a kook of any kind nor a medium, called me a few minutes ago to check on me since he hasn't seen me in church in more than 3 months. (Actually, i was there Saturday night, but he wasn't) In the process he mentioned that he had heard from Dianne who asked him to call me. She said she still loves me.
So what do i do with this? Of course, i thanked him and said i appreciated that he had passed on her message. Thankfully, i have overcome my autism enough to know i should not get into an intellectual discussion about whether such messages from the cosmos (or the real world, as i call it) are possible or not. After i hung up i sent a thought "upward" asking Dianne to contact me directly next time. I am pretty sure i know what what the answer would be.
Contact with the Real (whatever that be) is a gift that relatively few of us get. Dianne had that gift, i don't, My friend might have it too. Dianne, on a half dozen occasions of which i am aware, received information that she could not have obtained by ordinary (as i understand "ordinary") means
Well, i am both comforted and skeptical; and i will not close my mind to the possibiliy that Dianne spoke to me through my friend.
So what do i do with this? Of course, i thanked him and said i appreciated that he had passed on her message. Thankfully, i have overcome my autism enough to know i should not get into an intellectual discussion about whether such messages from the cosmos (or the real world, as i call it) are possible or not. After i hung up i sent a thought "upward" asking Dianne to contact me directly next time. I am pretty sure i know what what the answer would be.
Contact with the Real (whatever that be) is a gift that relatively few of us get. Dianne had that gift, i don't, My friend might have it too. Dianne, on a half dozen occasions of which i am aware, received information that she could not have obtained by ordinary (as i understand "ordinary") means
Well, i am both comforted and skeptical; and i will not close my mind to the possibiliy that Dianne spoke to me through my friend.
According to the legends of my people, my first ancestors were intended to be immortal.
( But they screwed it up. ,,, Read more...Collapse )
May all creatures experience love, peace, and happiness.
( But they screwed it up. ,,, Read more...Collapse )
May all creatures experience love, peace, and happiness.
Aldous Huxley invented the word psychedelic in 1957, shortly after LSD became well known, but shamans had been using mind altering substances for thousands of years to induce healing and spiritual and mystical experiences. Psyche comes from a Greek word meaning "soul" and delic from a word meaning "to make visible" Thousands of years earlier the root words meamt "breath" and "shine" or "light."( Read more...Collapse )
Instructions for the Journey
by Pat Schneider
The self you leave behind
is only a skin you have outgrown.
Don't grieve for it.
Look to the wet, raw, unfinished
self, the one you are becoming.
The world, too, sheds its skin:
politicians, cataclysms, ordinary days.
It's easy to lose this tenderly
unfolding moment. Look for it
as if it were the first green blade
after a long winter. Listen for it
as if it were the first clear tone
in a place where dawn is heralded by bells.
And if all that fails,
wash your own dishes.
Rinse them.
Stand in your kitchen at your sink.
Let cold water run between your fingers.
Feel it.
-- from Olive Street Transfer, by Pat Schneider
| More Poems by Pat Schneider | Next Poem >>
Poetry Chaikhana | Pat Schneider - Instructions for the Journey
( Great instructions! Lovely poem! I get hung up on two linesRead more...Collapse )
by Pat Schneider
The self you leave behind
is only a skin you have outgrown.
Don't grieve for it.
Look to the wet, raw, unfinished
self, the one you are becoming.
The world, too, sheds its skin:
politicians, cataclysms, ordinary days.
It's easy to lose this tenderly
unfolding moment. Look for it
as if it were the first green blade
after a long winter. Listen for it
as if it were the first clear tone
in a place where dawn is heralded by bells.
And if all that fails,
wash your own dishes.
Rinse them.
Stand in your kitchen at your sink.
Let cold water run between your fingers.
Feel it.
-- from Olive Street Transfer, by Pat Schneider
| More Poems by Pat Schneider | Next Poem >>
Poetry Chaikhana | Pat Schneider - Instructions for the Journey
( Great instructions! Lovely poem! I get hung up on two linesRead more...Collapse )
Groucho Marx once quipped that he would not want to join any group that would accept him as a member. I am almost as groupless as his quip suggests.( Read more...Collapse )
Love, peace. and happiness to all.
Love, peace. and happiness to all.
In high school one year i had a friend with whom i felt really in sync. We corrected each others' homework and edited each others' essays and always got "A"s. We ran the same races on the same track team and usually came in first and second. (He was faster, but i always ran a better race if he was in it than otherwise. We did stand up comedy skits for assemblies and dances. (He was the Hero and i was the slightly incompetent sidekick -- He was Abbot and i was Costello for those whose memories go that far back) We wrote a contest essay together and might have won had our ideas no been too radical for the judges. Then he moved out of town (and couple of other life changing events occured as well, and i went back to being a nerd. Never had i clicked so well with another human being.
Until today.
I was supposed to make presentation (story) for patients' families at a rehabilitation hospital for alcoholics and addicts. I thought i would be there alone, but lasr night i got an email saying i would be joined by a woman. We met at the hospital. She seemed to know me from previous meetings but i had no recollection of her. I told her that i had forgotten to put in my hearing aids; she just smiled and said she would translate for me. So i made a presentation and she fielded the questions; by the time she finished responding i understood enough of the question to add my two cents - which seemed to me to be worth at least a nickel, and she added something even better-- and so things escalated upward for the next hour. I thought the 13 atendees were very appreciative. Afterwards, i commented on how well i thought we worked together and hoped we could do it again. She said: "Yeah, we were the dynamic duo."
Until today.
I was supposed to make presentation (story) for patients' families at a rehabilitation hospital for alcoholics and addicts. I thought i would be there alone, but lasr night i got an email saying i would be joined by a woman. We met at the hospital. She seemed to know me from previous meetings but i had no recollection of her. I told her that i had forgotten to put in my hearing aids; she just smiled and said she would translate for me. So i made a presentation and she fielded the questions; by the time she finished responding i understood enough of the question to add my two cents - which seemed to me to be worth at least a nickel, and she added something even better-- and so things escalated upward for the next hour. I thought the 13 atendees were very appreciative. Afterwards, i commented on how well i thought we worked together and hoped we could do it again. She said: "Yeah, we were the dynamic duo."
