But I began to dislike the sheep, and they equally detested me. I then said, ‘I am going to pasture you no longer; let those that wish to die, die; let those that wish to perish, perish; and let those that are left devour each other’s flesh!’ I then took my staff, Goodwill, and broke it in half, to break the covenant the Lord had made with all the peoples. When it was broken, that day the dealers, who were watching me, realised that this had been a word of the Lord. I then said to them, ‘If you think it right, give me my wages; if not, never mind.’ And they weighed out my wages: thirty shekels of silver. But the Lord told me, ‘Throw it into the treasury, this princely sum at which they have valued me.’ Taking the thirty shekels of silver, I threw them into the Temple of the Lord, into the treasury. I then broke my second staff, Union, in half, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.(--from First ReadingZechariah 11:4-12:8 ©. Office of Readings. Feast of St Elizabeth of Hungary)Perhaps most stories are stories told about other stories by storytellers who want a story believed.
If you would learn more, ask the cattle,Seek information from the birds of the air.The creeping things of earth will give you lessons,And the fishes of the sea will tell you all.There is not a single creature that does not knowThat everything is of God’s making. God holds in power the soul of every living thing,And the breath of every human body.—Book of Job 12:7-10 [1]
“you know bill, as we grieve this election, one of the most relevant teachings is [ho’oponopono]…..to take back our projections….and own them….and apologize for projecting them…”
"As much as I love ho'oponopono, I’m unsure right now that resisting the rise of a dangerous movement toward political, moral, or corporate fascism is a figment or projection of our individual imagination or depth psychology — or, perhaps it is exactly what we desire.
Sometimes hateful tendencies are actually hateful tendencies, whether they arise from without or from within.
I’m keeping a wary eye on both.
Watching, watching.
Even if the world is a subjective or solipsistic projection, I’m skeptical — given the fractious rupture of the so-called political, media, or any inclusive cultural sensibilities — that a technique that was said to be effective in a psychiatric setting will extend itself to 120+ million (out of 2012’s 218,959,000 +/- eligible) voters (out of a U.S.A. population of 318.9 million, in 2014), who felt that they were casting a vote for a way of life they passionately believed in. Our cross-projections are, perhaps, the new field of battle.
(Where’s Arjuna and Krishna this November? )
Like you, I suspect I carry an unbelief that those who voted differently than I did were doing so with full intelligent, feeling, and honorable haruspication of the results they championed.
Intentions yield variably unintended outcomes.
Nor do all of us want to be forgiven. We want to be right. (Me? Who knows? I’ll soon be done with this polemical election residue.)
As Mercutio uttered three times as he was dying in Romeo & Juliet, we seem, rather, to hear it said to one another from one another: “A pox on both your houses!”
I am open to Morrnah Simeona and Hew Len’s gracious assistance as we go forward.
--b
ps: I hope I’m wrong about everything I write. It would be a great mistake to think otherwise. The new age belief that the individual is the cause of the universe is a burden; and the neoliberal belief that government should advance the common good is an equal burden.
I’d rather we lay our burdens down. Our Christian friends say to give them to Jesus. The Korean zen master says don’t give them to anyone, don’t believe anything about them, just put them down.
There they are. Where’s the ground?
I’m going straight. I don’t know shit!”
I will leave you with these words about what has now happened to America. Someone saw it coming a long time ago:
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.
That was George Washington’s Farewell Address.
A country designed to resist tyranny has now embraced it. A constitution designed to prevent democracy taking over everything has now succumbed to it. A country once defined by self-government has openly, clearly, enthusiastically delivered its fate into the hands of one man to do as he sees fit. After 240 years, an idea that once inspired the world has finally repealed itself. We the people did it.
--(from, The Republic Repeals Itself, by Andrew Sullivan, in New York Magazine 11/9/16) http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/11/andrew-sullivan-president-trump-and-the-end-of-the-republic.html