Re: What color would you become?

Posted on Oct 26th, 2009 by Zephyr in 50+stars*~Half a century & more on earth

Not sure what it signifies, but it was a toss up between violet and gold, maybe if I had to choose, the gold of sunshine, it's a lovely alive and optimistic colour, I also love... More »

Verse 72 - Living with Awe and Acceptance

Posted on Oct 25th, 2009 by debyemm in Living Metaphysics

72nd Verse When people lack a sense of awe, there will be disaster. When people do not fear worldly power, a greater power will arrive. Do not limit the view of yourself. Do not despise... More »

Re: Water -vision, sound, poetry

Posted on Aug 11th, 2009 by Azyh in The Power of Light

water the wisdom of water consoles my very soul to nature... to flow, steam, freeze to remember, cleanse, carry to pull and dance fall and float to ebb and go where none may follow water... More »

Re: The natural state?

Posted on Aug 10th, 2009 by David in Integral Archipelago

Tom, I was mostly referring to the sort of thing you were saying in sentences like this: A finite neuronal firing sequence or loop, or growing sequence or loop, should be able to produce a... More »

Re: The natural state?

Posted on Aug 10th, 2009 by Tom in Integral Archipelago

David, oops, I meant to ask what you meant by saying experiences are but a "product" of the UR or of structure.  On a similar note, can you expand on what you mean by "effects... More »

Re: The natural state?

Posted on Aug 10th, 2009 by Balder in Integral Archipelago

Hi, David, I have a quick question to interject here:  Are you suggesting that some state experiences/realizations are not AQAL occasions?  Or, if you believe they are, would you say that the right-hand correlates, for instance,... More »

Re: The natural state?

Posted on Aug 10th, 2009 by Tom in Integral Archipelago

David, can you define 'produce' as you used it above?  I didn't use that word and want to know what I'm responding to.

Re: New website and Artwork By Liza Lambertini

Posted on Aug 10th, 2009 by Meenakshi in Dreams of Artists™

Liza, thank you for sharing your artwork with us. I really liked reading how nature inspires you.

Re: What makes your heart SING ?

Posted on Aug 10th, 2009 by Liza in Questions & Reflections: The Group

Greetings I just joined this group!  Love the question! What makes my heart sing?  Being respected and appreciated. Selling my work, networking. Making new friends. Laughing. I love nature and wildlife. Painting/creating.  Photography and writing!... More »

Re: What makes your heart SING ?

Posted on Aug 10th, 2009 by DominiqueK in Questions & Reflections: The Group

The small moments that lead to profound thoughts.  For me, this mostly happens when I'm basking in nature and listening to music.  The most recent time this happened was on Saturday at the beach.  I... More »

Ultra deep field

Posted on Oct 28th, 2009 by nion

From my life. A rather unremarkable moment in the day. A day of the year, in which I would open my eyes on the inside. Moments in that year, where I could sense an undestined... More »

What is easy for you?

Posted on Oct 26th, 2009 by suziesoul

Without a second thought, I find it easy to stop and look at the beauty of nature and marvel at the artist's palette. Those colors in nature are always perfect and blend together as no... More »

How often do you shift gears in life?

Posted on Oct 26th, 2009 by Ashki

Like a child:  I watch, I listen, I participate never loosing the focus on the ball as it is held, thrown, falls to the ground and bounce. All happens naturally, no thought, no desire, no... More »

What is easy for you?

Posted on Oct 26th, 2009 by Just Me

What is easy for you, Nothing naturally. Thanks J.M.

Self and Other - Initial Enlightenment and Zen

Posted on Oct 23rd, 2009 by Ted Biringer

Zen Master Dogen's Genjokoan says: To be actualized by the many things is to allow the body-and-mind of your self and the body-and-mind of other than your self to fall away. When the body-and-mind of... More »

How often do you shift gears in life?

Posted on Oct 21st, 2009 by mysticworld

In every 3 months.It happens naturally. Blessings.

The Difference as Individuals.....how we learn

Posted on Aug 10th, 2009 by Liza

It is amazing to me as I watch a newly hatched butterfly fly for the first time. Experiencing the flowers.   As I observe the butterfly learn, I learn about the butterfly. I learn that upon... More »

Universal wisdom

Posted on Aug 10th, 2009 by Mila

All of nature and the universe is wise when each is its true self/being! So you know who you (we) are - truly loving and wise!

Who around you do you consider wise?

Posted on Aug 10th, 2009 by Azyh

water the wisdom of water consoles my very soul to nature... to flow, steam, freeze to remember, cleanse, carry to pull and dance fall and float to ebb and go where none may follow water... More »

To live is to be free

Posted on Jul 2nd, 2009 by Mila

I feel free whenever I'm close to nature, and that would be most of the time, if not everytime.  Nature is life, life is nature.  To live is to be free. Image source: Jeber Photo... More »

Nature didn't make us perfect, so she did the next best thing - she made us blind to our faults.

And if you are patient - certainly that (huwa) is better (khayr) for those who are capable of being patient. (Koran 16:126) Commentary: In this verse, Allah consoles his patient servants in their trials by announcing that He Himself is the substitute and the replacement of that which they have lost and which was pleasing to their natural dispositions. In effect, being patient consists in constraining the soul to accept that which is repugnant to it. The soul experiences an aversion for everything which is not in accord with its predisposition in the present instant, even if it knows that it will be beneficial for it later on. . . . Allah has thus announced to those who patiently bear the loss of that which pleases them - health, riches, greatness, security, possessions and children - that "He" [for this is the proper sense of the pronoun huwa rendered above as "that" in conformity with the way the verse is usually understood] is better (khayr) for them than that which they have lost; for they know that "He" [who is the Name of the supreme absolutely unconditioned Essence] is their inseparable reality and their necessary refuge, and that the pleasing things that they have lost were pure illusions. . . . He who has found Allah has lost nothing, and he who has lost Allah has found nothing.

His faith is no longer of any use to him. In fact his faith is only useful so long as he is veiled and has not obtained direct vision and evidence. . . . When that which was hidden becomes evident, when that of which he was merely informed is directly seen, the soul no longer derives any profit from that which it believes but only from that which it contemplates and sees. The states, the intentions, the goals which he had during the phase of faith are transformed. This transformation should be understood as purely inner. As to the exterior of this being, it is not modified even an iota. He continues to behave in a way which is acceptable to the sacred Law and commendable according to customs and natural law, engaging in the activities which conform to his situation and his rank among his fellow men.

I never had any other desire so strong, and so like covetousness, as that . . . I might be master at last of a small house and a large garden, with very moderate conveniences joined to them, and there dedicate the remainder of my life to the culture of them and the study of nature.

Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed.

It is assumed that labor is available only in connection with capital; that nobody labors unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow by the use of it, induces him to labor. This assumed, it is next considered whether it is best that capital shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to work by their consent. Having proceeded so far, it is naturally concluded that all laborers are either hired laborers or what we call slaves. Now, there is no such relation between capital and labor as here assumed . . . . Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights

The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all in their separate and individual capacities. In all that the people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere. The desirable things which the individuals of a people can not do, or can not well do, for themselves, fall into two classes: those which have relation to wrongs, and those which have not. Each of these branch off into an infinite variety of subdivisions. The first - that in relation to wrongs - embraces all crimes, misdemeanors, and nonperformance of contracts. The other embraces all which, in its nature, and without wrong, requires combined action, as public roads and highways, public schools, charities, pauperism, orphanage, estates of the deceased, and the machinery of government itself. From this it appears that if all men were just, there still would be some, though not so much, need for government.

All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother. Josiah G. Holland, The Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 23 (1866), and George Alfred Townsend, The Real Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 6 (1867). According to the latter, Lincoln made this remark to his law partner, William Herndon. Lincoln's natural mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, died when he was nine years old and his father remarried the following year. His stepmother, Sarah Bush (Johnston) Lincoln, was loved and respected by Lincoln throughout her life, as evidenced in the many biographical studies of Lincoln. Benjamin P. Thomas says in Abraham Lincoln, p. 12 (1952): "The boy Abraham adored her. Recollection of his own mother dimmed. And in later years he called this woman, who filled her place so well, 'my angel mother.'" The Macmillan Book of Proverbs, Maxims, and Famous Phrases, ed. Burton Stevenson, p. 1627 (1965), comments that the remark referred to Lincoln's stepmother. But the biographers of Lincoln's natural mother claim the remark referred to her: Caroline Hanks Hitchcock, Nancy Hanks, p. 105 (1899) and Charles Ludwig, Nancy Hanks: Mother of Lincoln, p. 84 (1965).

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

From the collection of Lincoln's papers in the Library of America series, Vol II, pp. 520-521. The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battlefield; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

Deep Ecology: Reclaiming our Sanity in a Crazy World

Deep Ecology: Reclaiming Our Sanity in a Crazy World is designed to question how we are living.... More »

Spiral Dynamics

Spiral Dynamics reveals the hidden codes that shape human nature, create global diversities, and drive organizational change.... More »

Sex in R/evolution!

W orking through (and ideally, overcoming) our socially-engrained, ownership-based relationship with relationships, and our love-hate relationship with... More »

Introduction to Multi-dimensional Loving and Polyamory

This pod will be devoted to the exploration of the meaning and experience of living...and loving...in multiple... More »

The Dream Garden

The Dream Garden is a place for anyone interested in discussing and sharing experiences about dreaming, meditation, visualization, dream... More »

11:11 Universal Peace Now

Welcome to 11:11 Universal Peace Now, a pod space for actualizing the peace in our hearts .... More »

PLAY-POD!

PLAY POD! is dedicated to the bright energy and delicious joy of PLAYING - the use of... More »

Co-Creating Reality ~ What Else is Possible? What the Bleep

This Pod is dedicated to fans of the wonderful movie, What the Bleep Do We Know!? which... More »

Attaining Buddhahood in This Lifetime

I invite you to learn about and explore the teachings of Nichiren Daishonin (1222-1282), the founder of... More »

Vegetarian Food for Thought

Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, vegan chef, animal rights advocate, and podcast host of  Vegetarian Food for Thought , offers... More »