“XXVI
True instruction is this:—to learn to wish that each thing should come to pass as it does. And how does it come to pass? As the Disposer has disposed it. Now He has disposed that there should be summer and winter, and plenty and dearth, and vice and virtue, and all such opposites, for the harmony of the whole.”
(--Excerpt From: Epictetus. “The Golden Sayings of Epictetus.” iBooks. )
“XXVII
Have this thought ever present with thee, when thou losest any outward thing, what thou gainest in its stead; and if this be the more precious, say not, I have suffered loss.”
(--Excerpt From: Epictetus. “The Golden Sayings of Epictetus.” iBooks. ) iBooks Store: https://itun.es/us/2f5Kx.l
OF LIVING RELIGIOUSLY IN A HERMITAGE.
Let those who wish to live religiously in hermitages, be three brothers or four at most. Let two of them be mothers and have two sons, or at least one. Let the two former lead the life of Martha and the other two the life of Mary Magdalene. 2
Let those who lead the life of Mary have one cloister 3 and each his own place, so that they may not live or sleep together. And let them always say Compline of the day toward sunset, 4 and let them be careful to keep silence and to say their Hours and to rise for Matins, and let them
p. 90
seek first "the kingdom of God and His justice." 1 And let them say Prime and Tierce at the proper time, and, after the hour of Tierce, they may break silence and may speak and, when it is pleasing to them, they may go to their mothers and may ask an alms from them for the love of the Lord God, like little poor ones. 2 And after that, let them say Sext and Nones and Vespers at the appointed time.
And they must not allow any 3 person to enter into the cloister where they live, or let them eat there. Let those brothers who are mothers endeavor to keep apart from every person and, by the obedience of their custos, let them guard their sons from every person, so that no one may speak with them. And let these sons not speak with any person except with their mothers and with their custos, when it shall please him to visit them with the blessing of God. 4 But the sons must sometimes in turn assume the office of mothers, for a time, according as it may seem to them to dispose. Let them strive to observe all the above diligently and earnestly. 5
(--In the ancient collections of St. Francis’ writings found in the codices at Florence (Ognissanti), Foligno, Rome (St. Isidore's MS. 1/25 and the Vatican MS. 7650), as well as in copies of the compilation which begins Fac secundum exemplar, this Instruction is found at the end of the Admonitions.). http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/wosf/wosf10.htmThen, toward considering a better relationship with this world, this cloister:
“Recent developments in philosophy of science and epistemology have led many philosophers to conclude that we cannot draw a sharp line between true and false theories. This is a problem as long as we claim that reality exists in the world, and illusions exists only in our heads. If there is a continuum between true and false theories, at what point should we claim that a theory loses its grip on the world, and collapses back into the head? The pragmatist answer to that question is: all theories and experiences emerge from the relationships that constitute the brain-body-world nexus. But some theories and experiences have an erratic and unpredictable relationship with the world, and thus relate to the world in an equivocal and confused manner. Because all of our theories are imperfect, and none is completely useless, we don’t have to posit subjective entities called illusions to explain why we make errors. We just have to say that some theories have better relationships with the world than others, and science and other forms of inquiry must help us find the best theories we can.”
(--Rockwell, W. Teed. Neither Brain nor Ghost: A Nondualist Alternative to the Mind-Brain Identity Theory. 2005. MIT Press. P. xvii-xviii.) http://www.epistemologyexpress.com/Cite_epist.htm
1.
"Prove yourselves innocent and straightforward, children of God beyond reproach in the midst of a twisted and depraved generation — among whom you shine like the stars in the sky while holding fast to the word of life." (—Philippians 2:15-16)
2.
Only Don't Know, Go Straight!After sitting, psalms, tea and saltines, conversing about innocence (don't know), and straightforward (go straight).
Only Go Straight, Don't Know!
(--Seung Sahn Sumin, Zen Master)
"Be Still and Know that I am God."Curious. "That" I am, God.
14 See how wicked people think up evil;
they plan trouble and practice deception.
15 But in the traps they set for others,
they themselves get caught.
16 So they are punished by their own evil
and are hurt by their own violence.
17 I thank the Lord for his justice;
I sing praises to the Lord, the Most High.
(--from Psalm 7, Good News Translation)
There is absolutely nothing for the just man to fear; the whole of creation serves him. Listen to another promise that God makes him through the prophet: If you pass through fire, the flame shall not burn you, for I am the Lord your God. The just man is everywhere welcome, and everything renders him due service.
(--from Office of Readings, Wednesday 14june2017, Second reading, From a homily on Joshua by Origen, priest, The crossing of the Jordan)
Home is Creator (father/mother)
Here is Christ (son/daughter)
Now is Holy Spirit (participatory relational interbeing)
Chapter 2. The Great Unsaying (p. 25-26)
The unspeakability of the Hebrew name for God (YHWH) has long been recognized, but we now know it goes even deeper: formally the word was not spoken at all, but breathed! Many are convinced that its correct pronunciation is an attempt to replicate and imitate the very sound of inhalation and exhalation. – p. 25
The one thing we do every moment is therefore to speak the name of God. This makes it our first and our last word as we enter and leave the world. – p. 26
There is no Islamic, Christian, or Jewish way of breathing. There is no rich or poor way of breathing. This divine wind “blows where it will” (John 3:8), which appears to be everywhere. No one and no religion can control this spirit. God is as available and accessible as the very thing we all do constantly – breathe. – p. 26
Isn’t it wonderful that breath, wind, spirit, and air are precisely nothing – and yet everything? – p. 26
Just keep breathing consciously in this way and you will know that you are connected to humanity from cavemen to cosmonauts, to the entire animal world, and even to the trees and plants. And we are now told that the atoms we breathe are physically the same as the stardust from the day of creation. Oneness is no longer merely a vague mystical notion, but a scientific fact. – p. 26
(Sonnet 116)
William Shakespeare, 1564 - 1616
Let me not to the marriage of true mindsDay three. Here in Rockport.
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love ’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me prov’d,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.
“Advent Credo” by Daniel Berrigan, SJ
It is not true that creation and the human family are doomed to destruction and loss—
This is true: For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life;
It is not true that we must accept inhumanity and discrimination, hunger and poverty, death and destruction—
This is true: I have come that they may have life, and that abundantly.
It is not true that violence and hatred should have the last word, and that war and destruction rule forever—
This is true: Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, his name shall be called wonderful councilor, mighty God, the Everlasting, the Prince of peace.
It is not true that we are simply victims of the powers of evil who seek to rule the world—
This is true: To me is given authority in heaven and on earth, and lo I am with you, even until the end of the world.
It is not true that we have to wait for those who are specially gifted, who are the prophets of the Church before we can be peacemakers.
This is true: I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions and your old men shall have dreams.
It is not true that our hopes for liberation of humankind, of justice, of human dignity of peace are not meant for this earth and for this history—
This is true: The hour comes, and it is now, that the true worshipers shall worship God in spirit and in truth.
So let us enter Advent in hope, even hope against hope. Let us see visions of love and peace and justice. Let us affirm with humility, with joy, with faith, with courage: Jesus Christ—the life of the world.A half day.
– – –
From “Testimony: The Word Made Fresh,” by Fr. Daniel Berrigan, SJ Orbis Books, 2004.
"I'm love stench my to t nnhanh while last one drips"The fog of being poisoned and the attempt to make sense!
Mass movements, writes Hannah Arendt in her 1951 book The Origins of Totalitarianism, are one of the core elements of totalitarianism. Arendt does not say that all mass movements are totalitarian; to take seriously President Trump’s claim to be the mouthpiece of a movement is not to claim that he is a totalitarian leader or that he is leading a totalitarian movement. He has not mobilized terror, concentration camps, arbitrary arrests, a secret police, and a party apparatus that rises above the state — all of which were essential parts of Arendt’s description of totalitarianism in power. Mass deportation of undocumented immigrants — disgusting as it is — is not the same thing as de-naturalization, imprisonment, and deportation of citizens. Common sense insists that we not abandon reality and imagine that the United States is experiencing totalitarianism.
It is equally irresponsible, however, to ignore the important similarities that the president’s self-professed movement shares with totalitarianism. President Trump has repeatedly asserted he leads “a movement like the world has never seen before.” He has shown a willingness to assert his personal control over reality. And he has positioned himself as a Janus-faced figure who can present one version of reality to his followers and another version to the outside world. These are all characteristics Arendt attributes to leaders of totalitarian movements.
There is always a temptation to rationalize what is happening in politics, to say: this has all happened before. There is a voice in each one of us, wheedling us with common sense, telling us that Trump is simply another instantiation of American populism. That voice is likely correct. But we should be wary of such voices, Arendt warns, for “the road to totalitarian domination leads through many intermediate stages for which we can find numerous analogies and precedents.” (Why Arendt Matters: Revisiting “The Origins of Totalitarianism” Roger Berkowitz, P LARB,)
Let Me Grow Lovely
Let me grow lovely, growing old--
So many fine things do:
Laces, and ivory, and gold,
And silks need not be new;
And there is healing in old trees,
Old streets a glamour hold;
Why may not I, as well as these,
Grow lovely, growing old?
(--Poem by Karle Wilson Baker)
