Coming full circle

[flowperson]

Originally Posted by earl

Some of you folks are definitely of my musical generation. Loved the Eagles-but instead of going totally mellow, you've inspired me to play now the old Santana live album, "Persuasion." Nobody could pick a guitar like Santana-well maybe Hendrix. Not quite up to the last track of the CD-"Evil Ways" yet, but I dedicate it to you gals who've just posted on this thread. earl

Just two names Earl...Ry Cooder, and Leo Kottke. I rest my case on quality guitar work.

flow....

[Saltmeister]

Originally Posted by wil

Incredible stuff, and I don't buy it for a minute. You mean you have all lost that blind faith that allows you to be absolutely positive about things you don't know?

Every one of you has reached a state where you are no longer ready to knock on doors and tell everyone you know the truth and even if they are on the same path as you that their interpretation needs some adjustment and you are there to help??

I'm completely fearful of this state of affairs. And I love you guys!

Disillusionment is the new religion around here. Nobody wants to be stuck eating the same old hamburger. You don't want to be around people who are the same as you. We all want to be different. Rebels with a cause. It's the religion of no religion. We had questions and wanted answers. We heard there were answers in the neighbourhood. If one doesn't have the answers, then what's the point of life? What's the point of living? So of course we found something to believe in.

But then, we found ourselves surrounded by people who believed they had the answers, all of them asserting they had the answers, but each of them having different answers. We got sick of thinking we had the answers. The answer then, was that there was no answer!!! We must all be right or we must all be wrong. But maybe us all being right doesn't mean it's all contradictory. We all have our metaphors and paradigms. These metaphors and paradigms are just ways of explaining universal truths, not the truths themselves (signposts).

But we got sick of religion anyway because everyone was setting up their own signpost. In a world where everyone can raise up their own signpost, banner, flag or bumper sticker, it's just your word against their's.

One or two weeks ago, I actually stopped posting. I decided that I needed a break from holding up my banners, flags and signposts. It's a very time-consuming and expensive job and I needed to cut back on my budget and focus on less time-consuming activities. Besides, since you all have your own signpost, what do you need me for?

Well . . . actually, I diverted my attention on a different kind of ideology, and started looking into what was happening between the U. S., Russia and China (PRC). I started looking for forums of a different kind -- forums on world politics. Ideology is addictive, and if my mind isn't filled with one ideology it's filled with another. The U.S. economy, as you probably know, isn't doing very well. Russia's economy has recovered and is getting stronger. The PRC's economy is booming. Russia and China and starting to have more influence in Asia, Africa and South America. It appears that the U.S. is being sidelined . . . and then there's the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation . . . and with the world reaching peak oil, there's a scramble between the three countries to get as much of the remaining oil as they can from the four corners of the earth.

Peak oil . . . the scramble for oil . . . North Korea, Iran and the Taiwan question. Surveys of people living in the U.S., Russia and China indicated that a significant portion of their populations believe that war was possible in 10-15 years. The New Cold War. It got me thinking . . . when I buy a car, I should buy a hybrid or an all-electric car. Think long-term.

I couldn't help the fact that it was still ideology, but just a different kind. I'm an ideology freak. Just like the U.S., Russia and China needing oil, I need ideology -- an oil of a different kind that drives people crazy. I had reached "peak oil" with religion and needed oil from another oil well -- so I started thinking more about world politics and the three superpowers' scramble for oil. It's the new oil for the engine of my mind. Without it, my mind wouldn't go.

Anyway, if any of you need a break from religion, or are disillusioned with religion, we could always spice up our lives with a talk on superpower politics. Let's become war hawks!!! . . . or maybe just stop posting altogether.

[wil]

Seems the story on the Mother Theresa letters broke about the same time as this thread....hmmmm.....

[Ciel]

Originally Posted by wil

Seems the story on the Mother Theresa letters broke about the same time as this thread....hmmmm.....

And the lunar eclipse............ as the moon draws back the rising tides..........
we live at the cusp of change and greater clarity on the horizon.

. c -

[JosephM]

[QUOTE =Saltmeister]
One or two weeks ago, I actually stopped posting. I decided that I needed a break from holding up my banners, flags and signposts. It's a very time-consuming and expensive job and I needed to cut back on my budget and focus on less time-consuming activities. Besides, since you all have your own signpost, what do you need me for?

[/quote]

Now thats a foolish question. To read our banners, flags and signposts of course. Lets not get selfish saltmeister!

[Muslimwoman]

Originally Posted by Saltmeister

One or two weeks ago, I actually stopped posting. I decided that I needed a break from holding up my banners, flags and signposts. It's a very time-consuming and expensive job and I needed to cut back on my budget and focus on less time-consuming activities. Besides, since you all have your own signpost, what do you need me for?

The occasional nugget of sanity for a start. Did you find any good political forums? Can you PM me some links, I suppose it is time I started to understand the upcoming isues for the Middle East before we get bombed off the face of the earth.

I trust you shall be popping in to rescue us from ourselves occasionally? My arms get tired holding up my banners.

[China Cat Sunflower]

"I wanna be a happy idiot and struggle for the legal tender..."

"...Are you there? Say a prayer for the pretender. Who started out so young and strong only to surrender." Jackson Brown

I feel like a mineralist.

Chris

[China Cat Sunflower]

Actually, I know a lot of things. The smartest, or I should say the most useful things I know can most easily be expressed as proverbs, or wise sayings. Maybe not knowing jack is just a way of saying I've discovered that there are no easy answers. You can't just buy it off the rack. And as Salty was saying, you know...I'm so much more interested in real history and politics- trying to understand where we're at and how we got here, than the more experimental-ideological stuff of my wanna-be a rebel past. Plus I'm a property owner, and that right there will make you think differently. I got to a place in my spirituality quest where I could go no further on general knowledge. You get to these points in life where you realize that you can only commit to so many things, and if I wanted to go further I was going to have to make a huge study commitment... and decide on maybe three things to absolutely obsess over. I can't do that. Like I said I'm a property holder. I've got a lot of interest and time tied up in my family life thing.

So it isn't really about not knowing and just giving up. It's priorities.

Chris

[Paladin]

It seems that I have heard of a tradition in some countries where a househoulder, when his children are older and on their own becomes a sage and spends his time seeking his own truth. Untill then, the grass needs mowing and there are many things that need a persons attention.
So whats the harm of not knowing about the universe or ultimate truth? I think the universe will do just fine if we attend to our chores Chris

[China Cat Sunflower]

oops!

[China Cat Sunflower]

Hi Mark!

Well, I heard about that too. It's kinda like the astrological houses. You start off in Aries with a spirit. Then you get a body and a mind, personal relationships and stuff that's yours. Then you get married, find out about the spirit world and sexuality, travel...and then you should be a pillar of the community kinda uber-householder thing. Later you lead the Israelites to Canaan, give it all away, and die a noble death for the cause. That's the way it's supposed to work. And the classical model is you start out young and have your kids, then when you hit about our age you should have some free time after trimming all your hedges and pruning all your vines and doing your wife to her satisfaction- to contemplate.

After all the sh** that's happened, and getting older like this, I need to find a way to just groove with the program.

Chris

[Snoopy]

Originally Posted by Paladin

Hey Snoopy,
There is a man up in Boulder who has written several books on doing nothing. He has lectured about how at some point we reach the end of our spiritual journey and surrender to the fact there is nothing to do. One of his books had that as its title, and if you hang around a while I might even give you his name and some book titles to look up. Sound like blackmail? Well it is, but MW inspired me to use it.

so spill the beans

s.

[Snoopy]

Originally Posted by JosephM

You know what they say snoop. "Before, chop wood carry water, after, chop wood carry water"

Seriously Snoopy, keep doing 'nothing'. Only difference now is you know that you are doing 'nothing'

Snoopy... "What is This?"

Love and Peace,
JM

Yes this is indeed the question. I have been concerned of late that CR was becoming (by my own actions in part) a hindrance to the maintenance of it. But now I am hopeful that it can (once again) be of assistance.

s.

[Paladin]

Originally Posted by Snoopy

so spill the beans

s.

Here's a website you might have a good time exploring Snoopy.
Doing Nothing

Steven Harrison is an interesting person, good writer and speaker too. There is even a group over at tribe.net that likes to discuss his works. Seems like Boulder attracts quite a few thinkers. Too bad its so expensive to live up there, but I can get up there in about an hour and a half.
Strange that here in the Springs the thinking is more rigid and religious and a nearby city so open and diverse.

[Snoopy]

Originally Posted by Paladin

Here's a website you might have a good time exploring Snoopy.
Doing Nothing

Many thanks. I'll have a rummage.

s.