Newbie

Jamarz · 07-30-2006, 08:24 PM

Hola,
I am new to this forum and the picture I attached to my introduction was taken in Westport, Co Mayo, Ireland in 2000 when I was on a Celtic Spirituality Tour. I live in the USA and my ancestors emigrated from Ireland, Wales, Britian and Brittany, France. I have a deep spiritual connection to the Celts and Celtic Christianity.

I am a liberal minded but theologically conservative follower of Christ who has practiced Zen Buddhism for awhile. I admire and respect greatly Thich Nhat Hanh. His books "Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers and Living Buddha, Living Christ are an inspiration.

I hope to have many interesting discussions here with the CR community. I have recently began to look into the Aramaic Jesus and the implications for Western Theology that has been developed from the Greek texts only.

I am only an interested lay person not a scholar, but I do believe in substantive research, study and reflection.

I also like to have fun, joke around and laugh so as not to take myself too seriously.

See you out on the boards, Jamarz

lunamoth · 07-30-2006, 09:13 PM

Hi Jamarz, Welcome to CR.

Great to have you aboard.

Don't worry about not being a scholar--most of us are not. Not so say that we don't often have some outstanding scholarly posts.

I attend an Episcopal Church; I also tend to be liberal minded and am interested in learning more about theology. The book you mention Living Buddha, Living Christ sounds like something I might like to read.

An aside, I will be going to Ireland this September. I'm there with my husband to see the Ryder Cup, so we will be very much tied down to the Dublin vicinity. However, I would love to visit a Celtic Church while there and take the opportunity to learn more about Celtic Christianity. Can you suggest any places and I could visit, and especially any good books I could read to prepare for the trip? I don't mean a sight-seeing book, but something to give me the history and flavor of Celtic Christianity.

Peace, and looking forward to talking with you more.

lunamoth

Oh yeah, I live in Colorado too. We moved here last December, just SE of Denver.

I, Brian · 07-30-2006, 09:33 PM

Hi Jamarz, and welcome to CR.

Jamarz · 07-30-2006, 10:17 PM

Hi lunamoth,
Thanks for the welcome and I see we are both in the Rockies.

I live about one hour south of Parker in El Paso county on 5 acres of Ponderosa Pine. My foresthaven. So you are headed to Ireland? How wonderful, wish I could sneak along, but alas, will have to wait until next year for my trip to Wales, Cornwall and London to see friends.

First of all, if you can google Steve Rabey and look for 2 books that I think you would enjoy: Celtic Journeys-A Traveler's Guide To Ireland's Spiritual Legacy and In the House of Memory-Ancient Celtic Wisdom for Everyday Life. Steve and Lois live near us and we traveled with them, along with 6 others, when they wrote Celtic Journeys. They were hoping to do more tours but that didn't work out for them.

One of the first places that you should visit is in Dublin-The Book of Kells in the Trinity College Library. You can google Book of Kells and find out all kind of information on this richly decorated illuminated manuscript produced by Celtic monks in 800AD. It contains the 4 Gospels in Latin, in a beautifully rounded Celtic Script and decorated with intricate interlacing spirals as well as human figures and animals. I give this a must see.

See if you can purchase the above books or send me a pm and I can give you more suggestions. Let me know how far you can travel out of Dublin because in just little over an hour both SE and North are some more wonderful medieval Celtic Christain sites.

Blessings, Jamarz

lunamoth · 07-30-2006, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jamarz

Hi lunamoth,
Thanks for the welcome and I see we are both in the Rockies.

I live about one hour south of Parker in El Paso county on 5 acres of Ponderosa Pine. My foresthaven. So you are headed to Ireland? How wonderful, wish I could sneak along, but alas, will have to wait until next year for my trip to Wales, Cornwall and London to see friends.

First of all, if you can google Steve Rabey and look for 2 books that I think you would enjoy: Celtic Journeys-A Traveler's Guide To Ireland's Spiritual Legacy and In the House of Memory-Ancient Celtic Wisdom for Everyday Life. Steve and Lois live near us and we traveled with them, along with 6 others, when they wrote Celtic Journeys. They were hoping to do more tours but that didn't work out for them.

One of the first places that you should visit is in Dublin-The Book of Kells in the Trinity College Library. You can google Book of Kells and find out all kind of information on this richly decorated illuminated manuscript produced by Celtic monks in 800AD. It contains the 4 Gospels in Latin, in a beautifully rounded Celtic Script and decorated with intricate interlacing spirals as well as human figures and animals. I give this a must see.

See if you can purchase the above books or send me a pm and I can give you more suggestions. Let me know how far you can travel out of Dublin because in just little over an hour both SE and North are some more wonderful medieval Celtic Christain sites.

Blessings, Jamarz

Hi Jamarz,

We live in the town of Parker, so we are not too far from each other. Five acres of Ponderosa Pine sounds nice and peaceful.

We live on 1/3 acre, with lots of Ponderosa Pine too.

Thank you for the book suggestion, I'll see if I can get it through Amazon. That's a good suggestion about the Book of Kells. We will not have a car so the only way to see sights out of town would be if we could hook up with a tour. It would have to be inexpensive and short, like a few hours or one morning/afternoon, for us to swing it. The only reason we can do this trip at all is because it is related to my husband's business. I hope some day we can get to the UK and Europe with more time and flexibility.

cheers,
luna

Jamarz · 07-30-2006, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lunamoth

Hi Jamarz,

We live in the town of Parker, so we are not too far from each other. Five acres of Ponderosa Pine sounds nice and peaceful.

We live on 1/3 acre, with lots of Ponderosa Pine too.

Thank you for the book suggestion, I'll see if I can get it through Amazon. That's a good suggestion about the Book of Kells. We will not have a car so the only way to see sights out of town would be if we could hook up with a tour. It would have to be inexpensive and short, like a few hours or one morning/afternoon, for us to swing it. The only reason we can do this trip at all is because it is related to my husband's business. I hope some day we can get to the UK and Europe with more time and flexibility.

cheers,
luna

Well luna,

What a small, small world, we live in afterall.

If you have problems finding the books on amazon, I have another online book seller you can buy it from but I couldn't paste the link until I have posted 10 times. But the name is alibris and if you need more info, just give me a pm. I don't know if House of Memories is out of print and this bookseller does stock hard to find and out of print books.

Hasta Luego,
Jamarz... wow, I can't believe that I join a UK forum and find a neighbor here in Colorado within a short drive, amazing.

flowperson · 07-31-2006, 02:26 AM

If I may interrupt ?

Welcome to CR Jamarz. You'll find lots of spiritual company here !

flow....

earl · 07-31-2006, 03:02 AM

Hi Jamarz. Not only is my name really earl, it's Earl McGee

-top O' the evening ( my time) to you. If you're interested in the Aramaic Jesus, you may find the book, "The Hidden Gospel: Decoding the Spiritual Message of the Aramic Jesus" by Neil Dougla-Klotz interesting. I'll warn you though the fella's a Sufi (which is good in my book

) who reinterprets various Biblical passages' alternative meanings by looking at the Aramaic language equivalents and reaches rather non-standard meanings...ones which would find commonality with the mystical core of many world religions. have a good one, earl

Jamarz · 07-31-2006, 03:20 AM

Hi flow, thanks for the warm welcome. I wish I could swim with the fish in your avatar sea. Feels good just to drift along the current...

Earl MeGee, nice to meet you. Yes, I have read all of Douglas-Klotz books.
I thought that he presents some very interesting ideas. Good food for thought but I do notice that he always qualifies with the words: This may mean......or this could mean..... since we all know that in the Aramaic, one word can have many different meanings. Alaha's blessings to you.

lunamoth · 07-31-2006, 05:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jamarz

Well luna,

What a small, small world, we live in afterall.

If you have problems finding the books on amazon, I have another online book seller you can buy it from but I couldn't paste the link until I have posted 10 times. But the name is alibris and if you need more info, just give me a pm. I don't know if House of Memories is out of print and this bookseller does stock hard to find and out of print books.

Hasta Luego,
Jamarz... wow, I can't believe that I join a UK forum and find a neighbor here in Colorado within a short drive, amazing.

Thank you Jamarz, what a small world indeed.

Paladin · 08-01-2006, 03:18 PM

Hi Jamarz,

Sure is nice to see another liberal in Colorado! I will telephone the other two and let them know we have another in the state

Peace
Mark

Jamarz · 08-01-2006, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paladin

Hi Jamarz,

Sure is nice to see another liberal in Colorado! I will telephone the other two and let them know we have another in the state

Peace
Mark

You mean I am not alone!!! Do you know how hard it is to be a liberal minded theologically conservative follower of Christ in Colorado Springs?

I could write a book.

PS Mountain Springs Sangha ring a bell?

Paladin · 08-01-2006, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jamarz

You mean I am not alone!!! Do you know how hard it is to be a liberal minded theologically conservative follower of Christ in Colorado Springs?

I could write a book.

PS Mountain Springs Sangha ring a bell?

Yes, they meet at Shove chapel, I think on mondays at 6. Isn't there a fellow named Ralph in that Sangha? I used to sit with the Tibetan group there as well.

Peace
Mark

lunamoth · 08-01-2006, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paladin

Hi Jamarz,

Sure is nice to see another liberal in Colorado! I will telephone the other two and let them know we have another in the state

Peace
Mark

You can cut your phone calls in half--I've already heard.

*good to see you around Paladin*

luna

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine · 08-01-2006, 07:02 PM

Zdrastvuitsye, hola, shalom, salaam, Dia dhuit, hej, namastar ji, ohayoo, squeak, meow, :wave: Jamarz.

You "met" me in the Lounge, but I'm officially welcoming you here (along with the :kitty: delegation.)

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine