God and Gulags

Yes, we have

2012-02-15T09:12:00.000-08:00

Eat your vegetables!

Shooting (and other) Stars

2012-01-22T11:47:00.000-08:00

Fleeting Light: The High Desert and the Geminid Meteor Shower from Henry Jun Wah Lee on Vimeo.

Fear and Loathing in North Korea

2012-01-06T11:58:00.000-08:00

Or more to the point: Bow or Die!

A report by Donald Kirk of East-Asia-Intel.com seems to explain the current environment in the post Kim Jong-il, new Kim Jung-un North Korea fairly well.

The rise of the son as "supreme commander" of North Korea's armed forces gives
rise to nostalgia. Already the reign of the father is beginning to seem like the
good old days.

At least as long as Kim Jong-Il was around a certain sense of security
prevailed. South Koreans could be sure, despite "incidents", that North Korea
was not going to stage more than isolated attacks. And North Koreans could be
sure, as long as they suffered in silent acceptance of their fates, they would
not be consigned to the country's vast gulag system or some lesser form of
torture and imprisonment.

Now, as Kim Jong-Un begins to throw his considerable weight around, that sense
of security is gone. The rules are tightening. Families are subject to execution
unto the third generation if one of their members is caught sneaking across the
Yalu or Tumen River borders into China. Authorities are cracking down on private
markets, the lifelines for millions in the starving countryside.

More than anything else, the specter of purge hangs over the populace.

It's begun with confessions and punishment for those who did not mourn
convincingly over Kim Jong-Il's death; those who missed mass weeping and wailing
in cities and towns around the country or who did not seem sufficiently sincere . . .

>>>>>Read more

In sum, North Korea remains the scary place of the worst possible nightmares . . .

북한정치범수용소(The North Korea Gulag) from Minyong Shin on Vimeo.

Grace and Glory

2012-01-02T10:16:00.000-08:00

The Hour of Power goes on (whether in - and of this world) or not:

Church Chat (...the latest) from Crystal Cathedral Ministries on Vimeo.

and somewhere God?

North Korea, with its capital P'yongyang, the "Jerusalem of the East," opens a crack (once more) amidst royal succession and other family matters.

Rev Hyung Jin Moon Visit to True Parent's hometowns in North Korea with EnglishTranslation from True Love on Vimeo.

To put it mildly: Faith remains a mystery.

For what is man (and woman) without [their] God?

And vice versa?

2012: A Whale in Time

2011-12-31T07:40:00.000-08:00

Dreams of new beginnings or great moments, particularly, on occasions of certain mathematical confluences have arisen throughout the few known centuries of man's brief existence.

Augustine's, City of God, Nostradamus' quatrains, the Mayan calendar, various so-called new religious and political movements as well as modern movie manufactured magic have all in some way left either temporary or indelible marks upon the human psyche that both motivate and mystify.

Sadly, on the human level, at least, it would appear that real insight into patterns, principles and guidelines for the purpose of possible better outcomes have remained elusive, despite various individual best efforts whether collectively co-opted or simply, cleverly marketed.

It is hard to be fully human while also being totally happy.
Perhaps it is impossible.

However, as even our animal cousins somehow know, instinctively, inherently, social interaction generates ever more interaction leading to creative adaptations that often astound as well as excite.

Some call such things "love" or even "God" while most organic organisms simply move along their excited way within the greater whole presently enveloping it.

Witness the history of our mammalian cousin, the large whales (cetaceans), as one example of intelligent design and/or creative adaptation gone both forward and backwards.

How to explain such apparently logical, yet epochal and monumental change, except that it happened?

Meanwhile, some say the challenges of adaptation (or "evolution") are so few these days that human beings have simply stopped "evolving" (or put another way: growing).

I hope and pray that such declarations are simply foolhardy hyperbole.

In any case, onward and forward.

And if whales don't do it for you:

Ghastly Protocol

2011-12-28T13:05:00.000-08:00

Perhaps it should come as no surprise, since North Korea is, after all, a FULL member of the 193-nation organization, but U.N. offices around the world have lowered their flags to half-staff in commemoration of the funeral of North Korea's dictator [Dear] leader Kim Jong-il.

U.N. headquarters spokesman Eduardo del Buey said the gesture had been requested by Pyongyang’s U.N. mission and was normal for the funeral of any head of state.

"It’s a matter of protocol," said he.

So which was it, really?

A request or protocol?

And well, "normal" should surprise no one anymore.

Meanwhile, UN Watch, the Geneva-based advocacy group, made note that the U.N. human rights message was "at serious risk of being blurred today" because of the honoring of Kim, who died on Dec. 17.

[Blurred? How about totally irrelevant?]

"Today should be a time for the U.N. to show solidarity with the victims - the millions of North Koreans brutalized by Kim’s merciless policies of starvation, torture and oppression - and not with the perpetrator," the group’s executive director, Hillel Neuer, said in a statement.

Last Thursday, the U.N. General Assembly granted a request from North Korea and held a few moments of silence for Kim, although Western delegations boycotted it.

North Korea’s U.N. mission made a similar request to the 15-nation Security Council, but Western diplomats rejected it. “We didn’t think it would be appropriate,” one diplomat said.

Pyongyang is under Security Council sanctions due to Kim’s nuclear weapons program, which Western officials say ate up huge sums of money that could have been used to help feed North Korea’s starving population.

Historically, the U.N. General Assembly and its Security Council have often been at odds.

Of some ghastly irony (along with the aforementioned protocol) the newest council of the United Nations (under the General Assembly) is the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which replaced the UNCHR in March 2006.

May it forever rest in peace.

Natural Religion and Revealed Religion

2011-12-14T06:34:00.000-08:00

Digging once again into the topic of origins, particularly as mankind is concerned, found myself contemplating the dichotomy of religion today. With so many of us (including myself) having grown up or simply "lived within" a culture formed or at least framed by a "revealed" religion, it might be important, to consider the alternative(s) as well as some historical perspective.

To start with, here is Thomas Paine on the matter of revealed religion:

The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, and the greatest
miseries, that have afflicted the human race have had their origin in this thing
called revelation, or revealed religion. ... Whence arose all the horrid
assassinations of whole nations of men, women, and infants, with which the Bible
is filled; and the bloody persecutions, and tortures unto death and religious
wars, that since that time have laid Europe in blood and ashes; whence arose
they, but from this impious thing called revealed religion, and this monstrous
belief that God has spoken to man?...

And on the impossibility of "Natural Religion" according to (a very young)
William Blake comes this bit of aphoristic poetry:

The Argument [a]

Man has no notion of moral
fitness but from Education.
Naturally he is only a natu-
ral organ subject to Sense.

I
Man cannot naturally Per-
ceive, but through his natural
or bodily organs

II
Man by his reason-
ing power. can only
compare & judge of
what he has already
perceiv'd.

III
From a perception of
only 3 senses or 3 ele
-ments none could de-
-duce a fourth or fifth

IV
None could have other
than natural or organic
thoughts if he had none
but organic perceptions

V
Mans desires are
limited by his percepti
ons. none can de-
-sire what he has not
prceiv'd

VI
The desires & percepti-
-ons of man untaught by
any thing but organs of
sense, must be limited
to objects of sense.

There is No Natural Religion [b]

I
Man's percepti-
-ons are not bound
-ed by organs of
perception. he per-
-ceives more than
sense (tho' ever
so acute) can
discover

II
Reason or the ra-
-tio of all we have
already known is
not the same that
it shall be when
we know more

III. [This proposition is missing.]

IV
The bounded is
loathed by its pos-
-sessor.The same
dull round even
of the univer[s]e, would
soon become a
mill with complica-
-ted wheels.

V
If the many bec-
-ome the same as
the few, when pos-
-sess'd, More! More!
is the cry of a mista-
-ken soul, less than
All cannot satisfy
Man

VI
If any could de-
-sire what he is in-
-capable of posses-
sing, despair must
be his eternal
lot

VII
The desire of
Man being Infi-
-nite the possession
is Infinite and him-
-self Infinite

Application

He who sees the
Infinite in all things
sees God. He who
sees the Ratio only
sees himself only

Conclusion

If it were not for the
Poetic or Prophetic
character,
the Philosophic and Experimental
would soon be
at the ratio of all
things, & stand still,
unable to do other
than repeat the same
dull round over a-
-gain

Therefore
God becomes as
we are, that we
may be as he
is . . .

In other words, infers Blake, God is mostly mystery and becomes [God] as we become [good].

And thank the poet and/or "prophetic character" for ever leading us onward!

For yet more reflection, comes a philosophical work by the noteworthy Scottish philosopher, David Hume, in the form of his "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion."

Modern Year (My) Conclusion:

Perhaps a revealed/natural fusion shall come about - soon - whether through some mysterious or possibly well understood process, whereby the one shall simply disappear and/or become a part of the other - as Thomas Aquinas and so many others have mused throughout the centuries.

So be it.

Willing Recruits

2011-11-29T13:14:00.000-08:00

It may seem odd, now, but the fact is that some 25,000 recruits, initially, at least, did go willingly into the Russian wilderness (laying actual and physical cornerstones, ultimately, for the Gulag system) - in obeisance to the V.I. Lenin-Karl Marx vision of a communist utopia.

University of Toronto Professor of History, Lynne Viola, reportedly "the first Western scholar to gain access to the Soviet state archives on collectivization" writes about it here in a 1989 volume entitled, The Best Sons of the Fatherland, Workers in the Vanguard of Soviet Collectivization.

A rebellion (too late) would come amidst the turmoil of the 1920s and early 1930s.
And that has been documented by the same author/researcher (1998) here.

Lessons learned?

Occupied Requiem

2011-11-15T22:59:00.000-08:00

Of course, it all began long, long ago in a little town called Berkeley.

And the internal, at least socio-political roots, truly are very much the same.

[Except, where's Nixon?]

With tacit-explicit approval from the incumbent leadership, what more is there to protest (and redeem) when you also [apparently] claim to have invented the internet?

As spectacle, diversion and unfinished "history lesson," it seems to be working as even this brief account from Wired attests:

"To [Lee] Felsenstein how the participant[s] and witnesses are shaped by this historical moment may be one of the most consequential effects of the movement."

"One of the effects of the Free Speech Movement, and that outbreak of freedom really, was manifested in the development of the internet," Felsenstein said. "We see the structure of the internet being an open structure, and open structure is what we were fighting for."

There is no unified vision of what Occupy wants, besides a general feeling that the system is rigged in favor of the privileged, though for Occupy Cal, there is a special focus on rising tuition, rising student debt, and continually cut-back school services.

Of course, some (enough?) folks have actually wizened up over the years (and are occupied at home, school, even work other than saving the world).

Not sure about this guy either though:

My dad had a faith (though it could be shaken) that a more just world is possible and that such a change can only come about through people working together and caring for one another. He was never a Marxist, but he loved the iconic statement: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." What I have found most moving and most hopeful in the Occupy movement is the embodiment of this sentiment in images and stories of simple communal living and spontaneous caretaking. I believe my father would have been deeply moved simply to see a broad spectrum of people coming together, laying their bodies on the gears and helping each other face an unjust, inhumane machine.

Nadav Savio is the son of Mario Savio, the iconic leader of the Free Speech Movement.

It must be hard being iconic (feeling you, man).

But say, whatever happened to just protesting fur or the whales?

Distant memories, easily googled and brought forth in vivid, easily digested[?] and encapsulated, multimedia life.

Rerunning, over and over again; whatever.

Thank you, internet!

Thank you.

Gulag Cultural Center proposed

2011-11-10T01:15:00.000-08:00

A brief blurb on that here with several related links of interest.

Meanwhile, in Chechnya -- Damme!

And near the cold, "ecologically unfortunate," lonely Siberian outpost of Norilsk-- Putin (of course)!

From abstracts of February 9-10, 2011 with pictures by Arsen Tomsky:

“Recently Putin visited Norilsk and he promised 10 billion for moving pensioners, 10 for city development and other 10 for something.”

“People are really good, hospital. It’s easy to find a common language. Economy is active, but no growth is noticed and no declines felt, business works.”

History:

The Norilsk (Norillag) uprising was the first major revolt within the Gulag system in the summer of 1953, shortly after Joseph Stalin's death. Estimates put the total number of its inmates over the history of the camp at 400,000, with about 300,000 being political prisoners. According to the archives of Norillag, 16,806 prisoners died in Norilsk under the conditions of forced labor, starvation, and intense cold throughout the existence of the camp (1935–1956).

May such culture never be forgotten and end very soon.

Finally, it seems, that the end for Vladimir Putin has possibly been predestined.

Remains to be seen . . .

Yet more bull . . . unbearably

2011-10-23T03:45:00.000-07:00

While America seemingly spins and falls further into political ignominy, the Russian Bear finds itself still (apparently) longing for its own glory days as master of all that it has (once) surveyed and controlled.

However, Chechnya might actually be too costly for the Russian people to bear much longer.

As for what (more) Putin will (actually) do about any of it; who knows?

Striking his best Van-Damme pose?

For as it is written in the NYT recently:

Resentment over the lavish subsidies paid to Chechnya and other regions in the mostly Muslim North Caucasus to secure loyalty after the war has spawned a movement dedicated to cutting the region off financially.

In war (and market economy), the wise strategist always goes for the supply lines.

Celebrity, too, makes the buying of a kingdom so much more . . . fun (and mae-be, swanky, too dammeit!).

Hilary Swank attended the festive birthday party of dictator Ramzan Kadyrov in the Chechen capital of Grozny a couple of weeks ago, accompanied by a number of other celebrities including martial arts star-turned-take-me-serious-please actor Jean-Claude Van Damme and British violinist Vanessa Mae.

Ramzan Kadyrov (remember my name)

Reportedly, the currently hapless Ms Mae was paid half a million dollars to attend the party and perform for President Kadyrov, who has been accused by human rights groups, journalists, and others of presiding over a regime that routinely participates in kidnappings, killings and torture of political opponents and human rights advocates.

Last week, Ms. Swank, at least, was apologetic (if not also, charitably apoplectic).

May there be fewer million dollar blunders and more million dollar babies in her future . . . and that of us all.

The new future of spirit world

2011-10-17T03:05:00.000-07:00

It is true, that somehow, despite all the BS in the world of religion today, I, personally remain . . . a theist.

Hence, to make that more perfectly clear, here and now, (a dash of RMN with a generous portion of CEH and perhaps some SYM) I'd like to go into some of my reasoning behind that.

As even the great and still living, self-proclaimed atheist Christopher Hitchens would state it (if he were I):

"I think being a theist is something you are, not something you do."

Exactly (or maybe both?).

And:

"I’m not sure we need to be honored. We don’t need positive reinforcement. On the other hand, we do need to stick up for ourselves . . ."

It seems that no matter where one turns, one is bound to get a different perspective. Hence, and simply, I prefer to turn inward, but not to the point of implosion (yet) as many have done; many still do and will do, preventative measures taken to the contrary.

So what has that done for me?

Why, it has provided me with countless pleasures through the voyages of discovery, which apparently, are not the exclusive domain of those who profess "atheism" (or as in Hitchen's case, as I read him; steadfastly defending against all real bigotry, abuse and all other hypocrisy disbursed in the name of [a] religion over reason).

But can one (still, today) profess some level of being "anti-religion" and yet, remain pro-God?

Of course.

The question, however, is one of degree; or as one reads, particularly with Hitchens' eloquence.

Of some passing interest here, The Christian Post also reports that an atheist group calling itself The Clergy Project has formed a support group for "non-believing pastors."

How would one describe a "non-believing pastor"?

Answer: [As one who]"no longer believed what their parishioners thought they believed."

And when is a "non-believing pastor," still a pastor, by the way?

The games never change . . .

*****

Bottomline for me of the church of the new future of the spirit world:

Reality is all very subjective, but in that, there must be some ultimate "Subjectivity" or whatever you may call it/he/she.

One day, who knows when, but one day, it will all make sense in THIS LIFE.
Until then, however, there is always and forever, the afterlife.

In the meantime, let us all try and make the best of it, toward that amazing, incredible, fabulous goal.

"A family on the throne is an interesting idea. It brings down the pride of sovereignty to the level of petty life." ~Walter Bagehot

Raging Bull

2011-10-09T17:45:00.000-07:00

Or ducking and feigning amidst the new occupation "movement."

As an ABC News analysis today has it, "occupation can lead to ownership, whether or not you want it."

Indeed, and continuing:

The spread of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement was met with initial hesitation in both the Democratic and Republican parties. That might be an appropriate response to any protests that aim themselves squarely at the establishment, particularly those with goals that are diverse and diffuse as the current protesters' are.

But a consensus is emerging among Democrats that the "Occupy" movement is worth tapping into, even helping along and joining with in some instances.

. . . in a China shop?

Amazing, er, incredible!

And as New Media Journal's Frank Salvato has it, the reality deserves an even closer examination than that.

By now, no doubt, you have heard about the "incredible" Occupy Wall Street Movement taking place on and around Wall Street; a movement whose organizers claim is "organic" and spreading across the globe, not unlike the so-called "Arab Spring." There are a few problems with this claim, however. First, the movement is anything but "organic." And second, for the most part, the "Arab Spring" has facilitated the rise of radical Islamist factions to the courts of power. Incredible indeed.

The "movement" is incredible for many reasons; incredible in that what we are being asked to believe the impossible or very difficult to believe, via the reporting in the mainstream media and declarations issued from the movement's organizers. Interviews with a credible sampling of those in attendance prove that many participants don't even know why they are there but for it being "the place to be" for the terminally and youthfully disgruntled.

But a closer examination of who is in attendance, who is stepping up to the proverbial microphone and what "the movement" is issuing as a set of "demands," makes the studied eye suspicious that this may, in fact, be the mother of all political "astroturfing" initiatives, just in time to demonize the job creators as "greedy" in the run up to an election where the incumbent, Barack Obama, hasn't an accomplishment to run on.

Too bad, no one has really examined the Tea (or Coffee!) Party very closely at all.
[Admitted sarcasm]

Chalk another one up for the Gulag America chorus, I suppose.

Cuban repression escalates

2011-10-03T00:52:00.000-07:00

And who might be surprised by that?

As The Wall Street Journal's Mary O'Grady writes and Cuban exile bloggers John Suarez and Marc Masferrer amplify:

The nongovernmental organization Capitol Hill Cubans has reported that in the first 12 days of September, authorities detained 168 peaceful activists. These "express detentions" are designed to break up dissident gatherings, which risk spreading nonconformist behavior. Locking up offenders for long periods would be preferable, but the regime wants people like Mr. [Bill] Richardson to go around saying that human rights have improved. The regime is also making greater use of civilian-clothed "rapid response" brigades that are trained, armed and organized to beat up democracy advocates.

Mr. Richardson told me he considers Cuba's record improved because 52 political prisoners were sent to Spain in 2010. Yet exiling promising opposition leadership hardly qualifies as a humanitarian gesture. Nor are gruesome Cuban prisons anything to ignore.

Any hope of protecting these patriots lies in international condemnation."

Meanwhile, look who's talking just a few days ago.
(I wonder if he might be talking about someone who really IS surprised?):

"How kind! How intelligent! Such kindness still has not allowed him to understand that 50 years of blockade and crimes against our country have not been able to bow our people." (Original comments in Spanish by El Jefe via his online diary at the oxymoronic Cuba Debate site here.)

If this is [the result of a strategy of] winning friends and influencing enemies, I think it is time for some new (or refresher) courses on both The Good Book and The Golden Rule.

Nixon's Tombstone

2011-10-02T23:15:00.000-07:00

I spit on your book!

2011-10-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

David Bowie (still with us)

Heroes and the inspiration they give or leave us with, (even after they are gone) are not always what they seem.

In fact, one could easily argue that in this age of creative information clarification and obfuscation, they are seldom so.

Further, bibliophiles and etymologists (whether casual or serious) might take note that the word "inspire" is rooted in the Latin (14th century) word inspirare, from in- + spirare -- which means, simply -- to breathe.

"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Genesis 2:7 KJV)

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."
~Emma Lazarus

In brief, inspiration, whatever the source or form, analyzed and deconstructed brings to the forefront a strange apprehension and often repeated (though seldom spoken) question:

"How will I be remembered?"

Of one modern day hero, the exchange on a new biography (or epitaph) between coach/friend and author/executioner (as excerpted and posited over on a Yahoo Sports blog here) is interesting.

Coach Mike Ditka defending the legacy of Walter Payton:

"If you're going to wait 12 years after somebody's passed, come on. This is the sign of a gutless individual who would do this. Totally gutless who would hide behind that, and that's what he's done."

Journalist Jeff Pearlman defending his craft:

"You are a journalist, trying to paint the full picture. The FULL picture. You have to, in the name of honesty; in the name of authenticity. Otherwise, why have biographies at all? Why look back at the lives of JFK and Ronald Reagan and MLK and Malcolm X and Jim Morrison and Marilyn Monroe and on and on and on? What's to learn … to understand … to appreciate if all we do is turn the deceased into unflawed icons?
What's the point of history, if history can only be approved talking points?"

The greatest ever?

And what's the point of one person's life (be they me, a family member, friend or foe) at all?

After all is said and done, whether passionately, impassively, musically, cinematically, lyrically or just "in your face"; human beings remain a very incongruous and discordant lot.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, whom I've not mentioned much, of late, would surely agree.

For as the somber refrain of old Russian folk of certain (gulag) memory goes:
"Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened."

And here we all still are, whether of the flesh or not.

Good and bad, similar and opposed,

Here we all still are.

Spit, cry, smile or sigh;

for once within our own

grave or pyre,

not one

remains a liar.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

2011-09-11T02:32:00.000-07:00

Who will watch the watchmen?

Today, am reminded of this quote (this question), not simply from popular culture (see: The Watchmen), but, purportedly, from antiquity.

According to the web, the phrase, as it is normally quoted in Latin, comes from the Satires of Juvenal.

In context within Juvenal's poem (satiric) it apparently "refers to the impossibility of enforcing moral behaviour (on women) when the enforcers (custodes) are corruptible" (Satire 6.346–348):

audio quid ueteres olim moneatis amici,
"pone seram, cohibe." sed quis custodiet ipsos—
custodes? cauta est et ab illis incipit uxor.

I hear always the admonishment of my friends:
"Bolt her in, constrain her!" But who will guard
the guardians? The wife plans ahead and begins with them!

[Dear ladies, I love you all, and, especially; I love my wife!]

Context, ever important and ever subject to shifts, personification and emphasis, generally, nevertheless weighs heavily on important ideas.

So on the "Day of the 10th Year After 9/11" - an historically tragic day of certain and epic proportion; who does, in fact, watch the watchers?

Could it be you or I?

I find a Mr. Richard Stallman's essay from October 2001, of particular interest::

"Over decades, external and internal enemies come and go. Sometimes the government protects us from danger; sometimes it is the danger. Whenever there is a proposal to increase government surveillance power, we must judge it not solely in terms of the situation of the moment, but in terms of the whole range of situations that we have faced and will face again. We must use the government for our protection, but we must never stop protecting ourselves from it.

In the United States, we have developed a system to watch the watchmen: Judges watch them in some ways; the public watches them in other ways. For our safety, we must keep this system functioning. When the watchmen are really working for us, they can afford to let us check their work. When they ask us to stop checking, we must say no.

Read it all here.

Quality Pipes

2011-09-09T23:09:00.000-07:00

Daniel Pipes, not everyone's cup of tea (who is?), makes a most astute comment as the occasion of 10 Years After 9/11 approaches and he (along with 29 other writers) is asked by the Center for Security Policy: "Are We Safe?"

In part, says he:

However much politicians, journalists, and academics obscure the nature of the threat and the proper response to it, 9/11 began a discussion about Islam and Islamism that has not stopped. As the years go by and its quality improves, I am increasingly heartened. (September 8, 2011)

Upon much reflection (continuing), I agree.

Let the (quality) discussion(s) continue.

Lost Mystery?

2011-08-25T22:02:00.000-07:00

Not my usual, but the following is an excerpt of an article from the Christian Research Journal by Ronald Nash.

What were the mystery religions?

Other than Judaism and Christianity, the mystery religions were the most influential religions in the early centuries after Christ. The reason these cults were called "mystery religions" is that they involved secret ceremonies known only to those initiated into the cult. The major benefit of these practices was thought to be some kind of salvation.

The mystery religions were not, of course, the only manifestations of the religious spirit in the eastern Roman Empire. One could also find public cults not requiring an initiation ceremony into secret beliefs and practices. The Greek Olympian religion and its Roman counterpart are examples of this type of religion.

Each Mediterranean region produced its own mystery religion. Out of Greece came the cults of Demeter and Dionysus, as well as the Eleusinian and Orphic mystery religions, which developed later.

Mystery Religion - Basic Traits

One must avoid any suggestion that there was one common mystery religion. While a tendency toward eclecticism or synthesis developed after A.D. 300, each of the mystery cults was a separate and distinct religion during the century that saw the birth of the Christian church. Moreover, each mystery cult assumed different forms in different cultural settings and underwent significant changes, especially after A.D. 100. Nevertheless, the mystery religions exhibited five common traits.

(1) Central to each mystery was its use of an annual vegetation cycle in which life is renewed each spring and dies each fall. Followers of the mystery cults found deep symbolic significance in the natural processes of growth, death, decay, and rebirth.

(2) As noted above, each cult made important use of secret ceremonies or mysteries, often in connection with an initiation rite. Each mystery religion also passed on a "secret" to the initiate that included information about the life of the cult's god or goddess and how humans might achieve unity with that deity. This "knowledge" was always a secret or esoteric knowledge, unattainable by any outside the circle of the cult.

(3) Each mystery also centered around a myth in which the deity either returned to life after death or else triumphed over his enemies. Implicit in the myth was the theme of redemption from everything earthly and temporal. The secret meaning of the cult and its accompanying myth was expressed in a "sacramental drama" that appealed largely to the feelings and emotions of the initiates. This religious ecstasy was supposed to lead them to think they were experiencing the beginning of a new life.

(4) The mysteries had little or no use for doctrine and correct belief. They were primarily concerned with the emotional life of their followers. The cults used many different means to affect the emotions and imaginations of initiates and hence bring about "union with the god": processions, fasting, a play, acts of purification, blazing lights, and esoteric liturgies. This lack of any emphasis on correct belief marked an important difference between the mysteries and Christianity.

The Christian faith was exclusivistic in the sense that it recognized only one legitimate path to God and salvation, Jesus Christ. The mysteries were inclusivistic in the sense that nothing prevented a believer in one cult from following other mysteries.

(5) The immediate goal of the initiates was a mystical experience that led them to feel they had achieved union with their god. Beyond this quest for mystical union were two more ultimate goals: some kind of redemption or salvation, and immortality.

Mystery Religion - Evolution

Before A.D. 100, the mystery religions were still largely confined to specific localities and were still a relatively novel phenomenon. After A.D. 100, they gradually began to attain a widespread popular influence throughout the Roman Empire. But they also underwent significant changes that often resulted from the various cults absorbing elements from each other. As devotees of the mysteries became increasingly eclectic in their beliefs and practices, new and odd combinations of the older mysteries began to emerge.

And as the cults continued to tone down the more objectionable features of their older practices, they began to attract greater numbers of followers.

The full article (in PDF form), "Was the New Testament Influenced by Pagan Religions?" lies here.

So has all this toning down, while certainly making some things less objectionable, concurrently washed away that most precious veneer (or substance) of mystery that made the lifestyle, the acts, the works [of true believers] so very appealing in the first place?

Where once, religion (including religious art and music) was the envy (or bane, occasionally) of the scientist as well as the common man; today, the scientist and the clever marketer have become the envy of those who profess and seek to substantiate their moral and/or religious (or spiritualized, if you will) vision.

In the process, somehow or somehere, the appeal to spiritual mystery and majesty, it seems, has been trivialized or abandoned.

At best, perhaps we might hope that such has merely been suspended or supplanted (temporarily?) by the great, worldwide flood of information and the multitude of modern scientific marvels feeding current voracious appetites for greater happiness, personal fulfillment and blind expediency.

With history a constant flux and, at least, seemingly, a neverending inconclusion, can an appealing (mysterious!) science/religion (and vice versa) synthesis or synergy ever fully emerge?

*******************************

Afterthought/Sidebar:

Dr. Frank Kaufmann cites research by Duke University religion and sociology Professor Mark Chaves on the decline in public faith in religious leaders.

Can confidence in the virtue of any one (living, breathing, that is) leader actually translate or transmute into some kind of general or widespread confidence (or public faith) in virtue itself?

And, ergo, can any faith, whether public or private, currently (or ever) truly be described as full, complete or even absolute?

********************************

"It was the experience of mystery - even if mixed with fear - that engendered religion."

~Albert Einstein

"Where mystery begins religion ends.”
~Edmund Burke

Brother, can you spare a dime?

2011-08-02T16:38:00.000-07:00

Debt deals, eternal soul searching, justice wheels unmoving or notwithstanding, we live in very, very troubled times.

So who shall emerge (or lies hidden) as the world's bodyguard?

Can I have another Apple, please?

The United States of Apple: How Jobs & Co. Amassed More Cash Than The Federal Government

Five steps to Being Al (or Triple A or simply A1 [not the steak sauce, but oh, how my poor, depraved capitalist mouth drools right now):

1. Shatter conventional wisdom.

2. No limits.

3. Innovation wins.

4. Design matters.

5. Passion first.

"You only have power over people so long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything, he's no longer in your power - he's free again." ~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Meanwhile, keeping with the Al (or A1) theme today, come these words:

"They are living like parasites off the global economy and their monopoly of the dollar." ~Vladimir Putin

Oops, sorry that's Vlad (Bill).

Via The Telegraph on July 18th.

Way to keep it real, man.

In praise of . . .

2011-06-20T05:31:00.000-07:00

Not all that long ago (1982 to be exact) there was a President who signed a mandate that freed 30 million pounds of processed cheese.

Back then, as part of an $11 billion farm price-support bill, the Government gave away ALL of THAT** surplus cheese to states for distribution to the needy. [!]

Explained President Ronald Wilson Reagan: "At a time when American families are under increasing financial pressure, their Government cannot sit by and watch millions of pounds of food turn to waste."

Well-aged; And sing along here with Keb' Mo'

Giveaways, government and otherwise have long been part of the great American free enterprise/marketing fabric.

Witness the more recent, happy phenomena of Oprah Winfrey and it becomes apparent that altruism clothed in giveaways, great and small, can indeed capture and captivate a MASSIVE NUMBER, however one may care to categorize or describe that.

Elsewhere, less noticeable perhaps, there have been (and remain) ubiquitous examples of such generous marketing of "favorite" (or surplus) things to the public for (even) more evangelical or purported spiritual purposes.

The Gideons (or The Gideons International) founded in 1899 stand as perhaps the quietest and most enduring example of this.

Marking just over 100 years of "freely" distributing Bibles, The Gideons remain a formidable, albeit, often unheralded force for sharing "God's Word" as such "can and does lead people to faith in Christ, and those new Christians then grow by studying their Scriptures and even use them to share their faith with others" in association with the massive, worldwide Presbyterian/Protestant Church community.

As stated among certain frequently asked questions on its website, Gideon membership is open to "Christian businessmen and professional men age 21 and older (or retired businessmen and professional men) who adhere to the core spiritual beliefs held by Gideons. In addition to meeting our professional and spiritual qualifications, potential Gideons must also be recommended by their pastors."

The core spiritual beliefs remain the same distillation of Biblical devotion as ever:

Become . . . a Christian.

May all such enduring devotions, giveaways and quiet crusades, whether utilizing such marketing genius or not, lead the complicated masses of over-brimming humanity to the same conclusion.

Meanwhile, behold, the Imitator(s) -- the Usurper(s)!

Las Vegas Providence from Demian Dunkley on Vimeo.

The message of spiritual salvation as eternal Vegas honeymoon with our friend, The Gulag Messiah.

I'll have my cheese (and . . . a new car!) now, please.
Sometimes a giveaway is just that and the value of the gift remains, as ever, a mystery.

Bhaktipedia today

2011-06-16T09:06:00.000-07:00

Came across this very interesting resource and found this entry (coinciding with a fairly vivid dream myself, earlier) by Swami B.A. Paramadvait, particularly poignant:

Blind faith is confusion. Manipulated faith means that you have lost track by
being misguided by those who are not truthful. You have to give them up in order
to make some real progress. Distorted faith is what you have produced yourself
by your own cheating mentality, by being too attached to matter and sense
gratification. Very often the loss of superior faith takes place by being
involved with activities in distorted faith, such as intoxication.

When you take intoxicants, like tobacco, marihuana, different drugs or alcohol,
even your positive, constructive, reasonable faith may become shaken. But that
is your mistake.

Disheartened faith is something else, which is more or less produced by having
encounters with people who disheartened you. You may have trusted them, but then
you got abandoned. That is of course a very painful experience. You have to go
through this to realize that only the truth, and the souls who are purely
dedicated to the truth, or at least those who are pure in purpose, can provide
healing faith. They have real faith, positive healing transcendental faith. You
will become disheartened when you put too much faith in somebody who does not
have these qualifications. Having been disheartened should encourage you to find
somebody appropriate to put your faith in.

We cannot walk without faith. We cannot even eat without faith. If you ate
something, which gave you a lot of pain in your stomach, then next time you
would not eat it. You would no longer have faith in that food. If something like
this happened, you would not stop eating altogether. You would try to go
somewhere else and get something else. If this something else gave you good
nutrition, then you would put your faith in that type of food. Disheartened
faith in that sense is an aid to finding real faith.

More readings in "perennial psychology" may be found here.

*****

Amidst certain gloom and doom, today I dreamt of a simple, joyful couple, living
in faith and truly sharing that, as reality.

May such dreams, however rare, never fade away . . .

History as pop culture

2011-06-07T07:44:00.000-07:00

Contemplating universal law and other proprietaries this morning, came across this somewhat entertaining (2006-7) take on such from HBO's "Assume the Position [ATP] with Mr. [Robert] Wuhl."
The language may be offensive to some.

And if one cares for more:

Part II is here.

Part III can be found here.

Part IIII is found here.

"ATP 201" can be found here.

All content is subject to copyright and possible removal by Youtube.

Where oneness lies

2011-05-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

Haven't written much lately here though the concept (however clear or opaque), of "God and gulags" remains something of a theme or mantra with me.

In any case, here's a bit of discourse delivered my way this morning, that may be of some interest:

The Healing Shield

2011-03-31T07:03:00.000-07:00

Amidst the horror, the abuse, the absolute evil, and between that, the violent volleys of various wars (versus "not war"), a friend sent me this elegant piece of (partially translated) Cherokee verse.

O'siyo Great Spirit, I am Mother.

I was made by You so that the image of Your love

could be brought into existence.

May I always carry with me

the sacredness of this honor.

Creator, I am Daughter.

I am the learner of the Traditions.

May I carry them forward so that

the Elders and Ancestors will be

remembered for all time.

Maker-of-all-things, I am Sister.

Through me, may my brothers be shown

the manner in which I am to be respected.

May I join with my sisters in strength and power as a Healing Shield

so that they will no longer bear the stain of abuse.

Niskam, I am Committed Partner:

One who shares her spirit,

But is wise to remember never to give it away,

Lest it be lost,

And the two become less than one.

I am Woman,

Hear me "Great Spirit"

Da na da

Niskam = the act of unconditional giving or loving

O'siyo = welcome

Da na da = peace be with you, or go in peace

And lest any forget, The Trail of Tears . . .