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| The Great Virtue Sitting Parlor and Greasy Spoon
Posted: 6/7/2009 1:25:30 PM | Woobs, I'll have to take a picture at some point when it's all trimmed up....and put myself in it so I can keep it up. The problem is, when it's all trimmed up, I look like hell....grass stuck to me etc...lol....
And, for the first time in four or five years, those peonies DID open up...and they're pink! Three big blooms....when I saw the ants I knew they'd open. My joy in that almost makes up for the fact I only got to enjoy the red ones on the other side for two days before a big storm loosed all the petals....and there were probably twenty of them this year. It was gorgeous...
olfactory
I loved you
but you came
smoke wreathed
reeking of animal flesh
in the mirror
of my non perfection
I listed my faults
like a litany
reminded myself
the hardened lava
of your cold sarcasm
carried a hot core
still
the smell rose
to the flood marker
and memories spilled
a capricorn misogynist
whose pores oozed lard
and disdain for vegetables
you were not him
but my nose
and my instinct
would not let go of it
LS 5/29/09
Pummeling
err, sorry I started your new page.... | |
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| The Great Virtue Sitting Parlor and Greasy Spoon
Posted: 6/7/2009 7:21:09 PM | Brizo, my love ~~ you are absolutely welcome, anytime, to open a new page for me. The peonies brought a memory and a poem: thank you!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the litany of joy
comes the single
petal peony
burning like a candle
Soft glow of ember
children at the campfire
of memory, sharing
as shadow deepens
Twenty five ways to
say I love you
Talking till the river silvers
in early light
The world sleeps
the dolphins in their deep
the loving song
And you
at last
in my arms
jjl
Full Rose Moon, 2009 | |
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| The Great Virtue Sitting Parlor and Greasy Spoon
Posted: 6/7/2009 9:22:21 PM | I like to think of dolphins sleeping....even if we don't always see them, we know they're there with their smiles...
And you
at last
in my arms
I'm glad you are in the same place again.... | |
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| The Great Virtue Sitting Parlor and Greasy Spoon
Posted: 6/13/2009 7:06:40 PM | thanks, friends!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
phoebe phoebe
small, but earth shaking
trapped by a clear pane of not knowing
accept my hands, heart struggling
a burst into flight and freedom
leaving me a handful of tail feathers
as you dart to the green
safe into the broad sea of air
jjl
13 June 2009 | |
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| The Great Virtue Sitting Parlor and Greasy Spoon
Posted: 6/15/2009 6:19:08 PM | | Brizo, not the whole thing (still only in hardback when I read what I did read); but she's amazing, and everything she's ever written is worthwhile. Newest one is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle along with her hubby and daughter. | |
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| The Great Virtue Sitting Parlor and Greasy Spoon
Posted: 6/15/2009 7:01:32 PM | Caffienated perfection
many shades of tan and suede
wrap me in this perfect moment
sitting in the corner
24 hours are not enough
for this land of comfort food
yet my dollars sit crumpled
waiting for her apron
as I check the clock
and head for night...
Couldn't help it, my home away from home is a greasy spoon diner and I had to write... Now I'll go, don't want to trample the feet of the seasoned veterans that garner more respect and admiration here amongst the proetic few... Adieau. | |
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| The Great Virtue Sitting Parlor and Greasy Spoon
Posted: 6/15/2009 8:41:49 PM | Wooby I love the new picture of you!
She sailed right on up stream to New York City
Pelicans and dolphins in tow
Passed our lady liberty in the dead of night
The sweet smile of our lady Ravin
Warmly waving to all of us
While docked in a tiny harbour in the middle of nowhere
On a web cam that kept continuous sights on all the sailboats coming in
We spotted her in long red dress and hat
Dressed for a stroll with her sailor man
I hear the weather was rough in spots
The mast toppled, they ran a shoal
The lightening was vicious up on deck
While Dave had to go and baton down the hatches
I need to find out if I can share a couple of her poems
Her mind is always ticking even with steering wheel in hand
She glided like the lady of the mist
With her feet wrapped up in water soaked towels
To keep her cool
I so miss her spirit, her warmth
The little girl in her
Glad she made it home ok
That was a long haul from Georgia to Lake Ontario. | |
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| The Great Virtue Sitting Parlor and Greasy Spoon
Posted: 6/16/2009 12:06:29 AM | Jae, welcome here! Any friend of a greasy spoon is a friend of mine, and I mean that sincerely, lol! I started at about your age, maybe a little earlier, and they're *great* places. Come back, y'hear?!
Autumn, good to hear, and thank you! Life can be out right wunnerful, sometimes, eh?
♥! | |
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| The Great Virtue Sitting Parlor and Greasy Spoon
Posted: 6/16/2009 5:44:47 AM | Brizo, not the whole thing (still only in hardback when I read what I did read); but she's amazing, and everything she's ever written is worthwhile. Newest one is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle along with her hubby and daughter.
I have not read this but will do so
Poisonwood Bible really resonated with me....I grew up in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia ) and was there when the Congo exploded....my father dealing day after day with the flood of refugees who fled the horror......one place I lived was a town called Mufulira on the Copperbelt, about 10 miles from the Congo border.....we left after our house was firebombed...my father stayed on for another year until Independance in 1964 | |
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| The Great Virtue Sitting Parlor and Greasy Spoon
Posted: 6/16/2009 6:15:09 AM | | Pickles, thank you....I never knew that about you....Prodigal Summer is my favorite one, though I love anything she' s written. But that one stayed with me like a green stillness.... | |
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| The Great Virtue Sitting Parlor and Greasy Spoon
Posted: 6/16/2009 11:49:48 AM | | Brizo, ya, that was my impression of it, too. And Pickles, Poisonwood was my first ~~ recommended by a friend who's spent a lot of years in Africa with her husband (former Peace Corps fella) on sabbaticals. . . . (Am also a great fan of Doris Lessing's early work set in Africa ~~ starting with The Grass is Singing) | |
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| The Great Virtue Sitting Parlor and Greasy Spoon
Posted: 6/18/2009 10:41:06 PM | They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate:
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.
They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.
Ernest Dowson 1867-1900
Hey Woobs, what happened? You look like a kid in high school, almost as hot as that Brizo babe.
 | |
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| The Great Virtue Sitting Parlor and Greasy Spoon
Posted: 6/18/2009 10:59:32 PM | Frankly
As before I would like to know:
Is "man" something that some one is or does?
Man is an is-been. Is-beens are adept at having and doing. Some is-beens are
rather smart though in that they do not do much. They tend to sleep in the
afternoon, tell stories, and play games.
#2) Is whether one is a "man" a matter of will?
The will is nothing to is-beens. These people do not separate out
singularities from the soul and hence create structural forms of worship of
them. Only nature exists, and only nature in a sense "wills". The pure life
consists in knowing nature and letting nature be. There are no dualities in
nature, but there are polarities.
#3) do you personally identify as "man" or "woman"?
Some times I am a jaguar. At other times I am a she wolf. In my dreams I may
have no particular orientation, or I may have the orientation of man. In my
external appearance I am a man. I am Jawhn to me who is much more intricate
than any general concept of man or woman.
Shabs du Wah | |
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| The Great Virtue Sitting Parlor and Greasy Spoon
Posted: 6/19/2009 12:23:26 AM | The gaze
The womb that sucks at the universe is dry. It sucks nevertheless. It needs
blood to make it moist again for the seed of God to sprout. The womb needs
blood and spermatids. The egg is waiting there to catch the spermatids of God.
The universe is a womb of creation, but it is dry.
The world is a heart that throbs by uniting what the mind separates as
opposites.
"And we, all the quests of the wedding procession - plants, animals, men -
rush trembling toward the mystical chamber. We each carry with awe the
sacred symbols of marriage - on the Phallos, and another the Womb."
"Ah! let us gaze intently on this lightning flash, let us hold it for a
moment, let us arrange it into human speech.
"Let us transfix this momentary eternity which encloses everything, past and
future, but without losing in the immobility of language any of its gigantic
erotic whirling." [Saviours of God, Nikos Kazantzakis]
Those who come to the knowledge of God do so first as though they comprehend
only a cloud, very dark and unknowing. To obtain knowledge of God requires
hard work. This work culminates in a longing which has to be learned or
developed. Without this longing no knowledge of God is possible.
"When you first begin, you find only darkness, and as it were a cloud of
unknowing. You don't know what this means except that in your will you feel
a simple steadfast intention reaching out towards God." [The Cloud of Unknowing]
To understand and comprehend God only one thing is required. It is to love
God. To love God is to become a saviour of God, and to help God carry on in
creation. To save God is to desire the best for God in the end. God is found
only in the forgotten zones of the ghettoes, left banks, and the abandoned
fields where turnips are left to rot. God is not to found in the affluent
neighbourhoods, but can be found where the lonely, the poor and the despised
are left alone to suffer.
"All rational beings, angels and men, possess two faculties, the power of
knowing and the power of loving. To the first, to the intellect, God made
them is forever unknowable, but to the second, to love, he is completely
knowable, and that by every separate individual."
Therefore this is your occupation. To work for the love of God only via an
active contemplation of the existence of God. The worker has only one
occupation and that is to work for the love of God by contemplation.
"Nevertheless, in this work of loving God, he has no time to consider who is
friend or foe, brother or stranger. I do not say that he will not feel at
times - indeed, quite often - deeper affection for some than for others.
This is only right, and for many reasons. Love just asks that. For Christ
felt a deeper affection for John, and Mary, and Peter, than for many others."
All people are equally dear to God.
"So all are loved simply and sincerely, for God's sake as well as his own."
[Cloud of Unknowing, 25]
When God is loved there is an abundance of gifts that the lover of God finds
in creation. The gifts are freely given to everyone, "irrespective of
merits" and and for those who love God, the contemplative life is a gift.
Therefore:
"Beware of pride: it blasphemes God and his gifts, and encourages sinners."
There are certain 'helps' that can be had in attaining the contemplative
life. They are lessons, meditation and orison [reading, thinking and
prayer]. They are no what the contemplatives relie on for the occupation of
the love of knowledge in God. For the contemplative in love of God:
"Meditation is...the sudden recognition and groping awareness of [my]
wretchedness, or God's goodness. There has been no prior help from reading
or sermons, no special meditation on anything whatever. This sudden
perception and awareness is better learned from God than man."
Whether one experiences 'sweetness' and 'comfort' of both a physical or
spiritual kind are irrelevant to the contemplative. These are 'accidents'
since they may be present or the may not be present. What is necessary is to
have a good will. This is the substance that is necessary, rather the
substance of the pleasant or sweet accident. It is not important whether one
is happy or unhappy in this life, but it is necessary in the large scheme of
things to have a good will. And to be happy with what one has been given by
God. We are God's saviours, and is-beens.
Your heart is your spiritual center. It is where an act of love occurs
uniting the seperated entities that the mind has created. It unites the
warlike with the peaceful. It is the chariot of eros crushing all virtues,
fusing matter and spirit. The heart pumps blood in the womb of the universe
so that seeds of God can sprout once again. The heart pumps blood into the
breasts of God and the milk flows to all sucklings in the universe after
they have left the womb. God's breast get bigger the more the heart pumps.
The heart pumps because of eros, the love of creature for creature, and the
love of the creature for the creator. Unbirdled [the frenulum] eros is
militant love, love that shields the heart from the effects of 'times arrow'.
If things 'sweet' and 'comfortable' come, then welcome them.
"For a love that is pure and perfect, though it admits that the body is
sustained and consoled when such sweet feelings or tears are present, does
not complain when they are missing, but is really pleased not to have them,
if it is the will of God."
What is it meant to be a man? The author of the Cloud of Unknowing
illustrates Manhood with an example:
"The word 'standing' implies a readiness to help. Thus it is frequently said
by one friend to another when he is engaged in physical combat, 'Bear up,
old man; fight hard, and don't give up easily. I'll stand by you."
On the faculties of the soul:
"Your soul has within itself, as part of the natural order, these faculties:
the three major ones of Mind (which includes Memory), Reason, and Will, and
two minor ones, Imagination and Sensuality."
"The faculty of Mind, generally speaking, does no work by itself, whereas
Reason and Will, like Imagination and Sensuality, are faculties that do. All
these four faculties are held and embraced by mind."
"Reason is the faculty by which we distinguish evil from good, bad from
worse, good from better, worse from worst, better from best. "
On the All:
"Who is it then who is calling it 'nothing'? Our outer self, to be sure, not
our inner. Our inner self calls it 'All', for through it he is learning the
secret of all things, physical and spiritual alike, without having to
consider every single one seperately on its own."
Driftline Main Page
Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005 | |
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| The Great Virtue Sitting Parlor and Greasy Spoon
Posted: 6/19/2009 12:24:17 AM | I was wondering then if
reason is simply knowledge derived from the five senses? It was Blake who
criticized the concept that man is "the ratio of the five senses" by saying
that reason creates "mind forged manacles" that "oppress" and dominate
nature in the "satanic mills" where people slave away at reasoning,
classifying, manufacturing, etc. What role does emotion play in enlightment,
and what role does faith have in life generally?
If reason is the sole organizing principle in life, then what value is there
in laughter or comedy for that matter? The absurd based on your ideas is
categorically excluded from a principled life? is it not? | |
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| The Great Virtue Sitting Parlor and Greasy Spoon
Posted: 6/30/2009 9:50:41 PM | is it not???
reasonable to assume
Each to all have a point,in fraction of one's self
there are many sences to most that make no sence at all
seldom one derives a sence in common
WE share the taste that bitter spread
Words becon,views like toast popping up
If I could child one time in life
I would allow You all to see
Everything
Alas I can not
Each and every part of Me is a derivative
Some exculdidid some not
So what I was wanderng
Why are peppers so damn exspensive? | |
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| The Great Virtue Sitting Parlor and Greasy Spoon
Posted: 6/30/2009 10:29:34 PM |   Hey Woobs...! lol...I always miss you...the Most! :) xo
Herbs of Thyme...
parsleys tail....
sage of ryhme...
myrrr of witches veil!
Belladonna ...took me
strawberry pickin...
hell...i didnt know ...
she was a wiccan!!!
We smiled and picked...
and she made me wicked..
lmao...I already had my name picked!
I am a lover of hearts that live in the day...
Believe in the day...when their hearts shown a way...
to Believe in the time ...when love is allright...
and it comes...it comes...like a horse and a drum....
it COMES!!!!! and I wait ...for my destined true fate...
Till it comes! :)
Hugggssssssss Woobs ...Happy Summer! lov ya !:) xo | |
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| The Great Virtue Sitting Parlor and Greasy Spoon
Posted: 7/2/2009 2:24:22 AM | souls ~~ thank you (& blush)
Trulio ~~ Thanks, as always, for your efforts here. hugZ
Shuden ~~ lol! Hi!
AF ~~ Happy birthday moonchild! ♥
Jules ~~ good to have you back. Again. (:grin;)
Druid ~~ Welcome!
Anybody see my muse? | |
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| The Great Virtue Sitting Parlor and Greasy Spoon
Posted: 7/4/2009 12:00:48 AM | //breasts
Yah. All is quiet for now. Wait until later. The war continues. There is no
longer any possibility of a resolution of this conflict which has been going
on. The conflict is not a simple matter of 'tit' for 'tat'; the conflict is
much more immense then any sparing at a distance. It involves the savage
pursuit for minds through this computer, and through books. It is a savage
war for the pursuit of vulnerable and impressionable minds world wide.
The reason that I am here at this computer now is not because of any choice
on my part. I am not free to be here or to leave from here for that matter.
No the reason that I am here is that I have an obligation to be here. To
stand up and help where and when I can. In order to become a militant
objector to this mass movement to enslave minds by savage means, I am
vigilant in spotting any movements in words or deeds that come across my
screen.
I counter mere opinion with sound arguement. For instance, I drafted the
following brief to be posted someday on an alternate discussion list:
The womb that sucks at the universe is dry. It sucks nevertheless. It needs
blood to make it moist again for the seed of God to sprout. The womb needs
blood and spermatids. The egg is waiting there to join with the spermatids
of God [enjoinment].
The universe is a womb of creation, but it is dry.
The world is a heart that throbs by uniting what the mind seperates as
opposites.
"And we, all the quests of the wedding procession - plants, animals, men -
rush trembling toward the mystical chamber. We each carry with awe the
sacred symbols of marriage - on the Phallos, another the Womb."
"Ah! let us gaze intently on this lightning flash, let us hold it for a
moment, let us arrange it into human speech.
"Let us transfix this momentary eternity which encloses everything, past and
future, but without losing in the immobility of language any of its gigantic
erotic whirling." [Saviours of God, Nikos Kazantzakis]
Those who come to the knowledge of God do so first as though they comprehend
only a cloud, very dark and unknowing. To obtain knowledge of God requires
hard work. This work culminates in a longing which has to learned or
developed. Without this longing no knowledge of God is possible.
"When you first begin, you find only darkness, and as it were a cloud of
unknowing. You don't know what this means except that in your will you feel
a simple steadfast intention reaching out towards God." [The Cloud of Unknowing]
To understand and comprehend God only one thing is required. It is to love
God. To love God is to become a saviour of God, and to help God carry on in
creation. To save God is to desire the best for God in the end. God is found
only in the forgotten zones of the ghettoes, left banks, and the abandoned
fields where turnips are left to rot. God is not to found in the affluent
neighbourhoods, but can be found where the lonely, the poor and the despised
are left alone to suffer.
"All rational beings, angels and men, possess two faculties, the power of
knowing and the power of loving. To the first, to the intellect, God made
them is forever unknowable, but to the second, to love, he is completely
knowable, and that by every separate individual."
Therefore this is your occupation. To work for the love of God only via an
active contemplation of the existence of God. The worker has only one
occupation and that is to work for the love of God by contemplation.
"Nevertheless, in this work of loving God, he has no time to consider who is
friend or foe, brother or stranger. I do not say that he will not feel at
times - indeed, quite often - deeper affection for some than for others.
This is only right, and for many reasons. Love just asks that. For Christ
felt a deeper affection for John, and Mary, and Peter, than for many others."
All people are equally dear to God.
"So all are loved simply and sincerely, for God's sake as well as his own."
[Cloud of Unknowing, 25]
When God is loved there is an abundance of gifts that the lover of God finds
in creation. The gifts are freely given to everyone, "irrespective of
merits" and and for those who love God, the contemplative life is a gift.
Therefore:
"Beware of pride: it blasphemes God and his gifts, and encourages sinners."
There are certain 'helps' that can be had in attaining the contemplative
life. They are lessons, meditation and orison [reading, thinking and
prayer]. They are no what the contemplatives relie on for the occupation of
the love of knowledge in God. For the contemplative in love of God:
"Meditation is...the sudden recognition and groping awareness of [my]
wretchedness, or God's goodness. There has been no prior help from reading
or sermons, no special meditation on anything whatever. This sudden
perception and awareness is better learned from God than man."
Whether one experiences 'sweetness' and 'comfort' of both a physical or
spiritual kind are irrelevant to the contemplative. These are 'accidents'
since they may be present or the may not be present. What is necessary is to
have a good will. This is the substance that is necessary, rather the
substance of the pleasant or sweet accident. It is not important whether one
is happy or unhappy in this life, but it is necessary in the large scheme of
things to have a good will. And to be happy with what one has been given by
God. We are God's saviours, and is-beens.
Your heart is your spiritual center. It is where an act of love occurs
uniting the seperated entities that the mind has created. It unites the
warlike with the peaceful. It is the chariot of eros crushing all virtues,
fusing matter and spirit. The heart pumps blood in the womb of the universe
so that seeds of God can sprout once again. The heart pumps blood into the
breasts of God and the milk flows to all sucklings in the universe after
they have left the womb. God's breast get bigger the more the heart pumps.
The heart pumps because of eros, the love of creature for creature, and the
love of the creature for the creator. Unbirdled [the frenulum] eros is
militant love, love that shields the heart from the effects of 'times arrow'.
If things 'sweet' and 'comfortable' come, then welcome them.
"For a love that is pure and perfect, though it admits that the body is
sustained and consoled when such sweet feelings or tears are present, does
not complain when they are missing, but is really pleased not to have them,
if it is the will of God."
What is it meant to be a man? The author of the Cloud of Unknowing
illustrates Manhood with an example:
"The word 'standing' implies a readiness to help. Thus it is frequently said
by one friend to another when he is engaged in physical combat, 'Bear up,
old man; fight hard, and don't give up easily. I'll stand by you."
On the faculties of the soul:
"Your soul has within itself, as part of the natural order, these faculties:
the three major ones of Mind (which includes Memory), Reason, and Will, and
two minor ones, Imagination and Sensuality."
"The faculty of Mind, generally speaking, does no work by itself, whereas
Reason and Will, like Imagination and Sensuality, are faculties that do. All
these four faculties are held and embraced by mind."
"Reason is the faculty by which we distinguish evil from good, bad from
worse, good from better, worse from worst, better from best. "
On the All:
"Who is it then who is calling it 'nothing'? Our outer self, to be sure, not
our inner. Our inner self calls it 'All', for through it he is learning the
secret of all things, physical and spiritual alike, without having to
consider every single one seperately on its own | |
|
| The Great Virtue Sitting Parlor and Greasy Spoon
Posted: 7/4/2009 12:02:07 AM | Yah. All is quiet for now. Wait until later. The war continues. There is no
longer any possibility of a resolution of this conflict which has been going
on. The conflict is not a simple matter of 'tit' for 'tat'; the conflict is
much more immense then any sparing at a distance. It involves the savage
pursuit for minds through this computer, and through books. It is a savage
war for the pursuit of vulnerable and impressionable minds world wide.
The reason that I am here at this computer now is not because of any choice
on my part. I am not free to be here or to leave from here for that matter.
No the reason that I am here is that I have an obligation to be here. To
stand up and help where and when I can. In order to become a militant
objector to this mass movement to enslave minds by savage means, I am
vigilant in spotting any movements in words or deeds that come across my
screen.
I counter mere opinion with sound arguement. For instance, I drafted the
following brief to be posted someday on an alternate discussion list:
The womb that sucks at the universe is dry. It sucks nevertheless. It needs
blood to make it moist again for the seed of God to sprout. The womb needs
blood and spermatids. The egg is waiting there to join with the spermatids
of God [enjoinment].
The universe is a womb of creation, but it is dry.
The world is a heart that throbs by uniting what the mind seperates as
opposites.
"And we, all the quests of the wedding procession - plants, animals, men -
rush trembling toward the mystical chamber. We each carry with awe the
sacred symbols of marriage - on the Phallos, another the Womb."
"Ah! let us gaze intently on this lightning flash, let us hold it for a
moment, let us arrange it into human speech.
"Let us transfix this momentary eternity which encloses everything, past and
future, but without losing in the immobility of language any of its gigantic
erotic whirling." [Saviours of God, Nikos Kazantzakis]
Those who come to the knowledge of God do so first as though they comprehend
only a cloud, very dark and unknowing. To obtain knowledge of God requires
hard work. This work culminates in a longing which has to learned or
developed. Without this longing no knowledge of God is possible.
"When you first begin, you find only darkness, and as it were a cloud of
unknowing. You don't know what this means except that in your will you feel
a simple steadfast intention reaching out towards God." [The Cloud of Unknowing]
To understand and comprehend God only one thing is required. It is to love
God. To love God is to become a saviour of God, and to help God carry on in
creation. To save God is to desire the best for God in the end. God is found
only in the forgotten zones of the ghettoes, left banks, and the abandoned
fields where turnips are left to rot. God is not to found in the affluent
neighbourhoods, but can be found where the lonely, the poor and the despised
are left alone to suffer.
"All rational beings, angels and men, possess two faculties, the power of
knowing and the power of loving. To the first, to the intellect, God made
them is forever unknowable, but to the second, to love, he is completely
knowable, and that by every separate individual."
Therefore this is your occupation. To work for the love of God only via an
active contemplation of the existence of God. The worker has only one
occupation and that is to work for the love of God by contemplation.
"Nevertheless, in this work of loving God, he has no time to consider who is
friend or foe, brother or stranger. I do not say that he will not feel at
times - indeed, quite often - deeper affection for some than for others.
This is only right, and for many reasons. Love just asks that. For Christ
felt a deeper affection for John, and Mary, and Peter, than for many others."
All people are equally dear to God.
"So all are loved simply and sincerely, for God's sake as well as his own."
[Cloud of Unknowing, 25]
When God is loved there is an abundance of gifts that the lover of God finds
in creation. The gifts are freely given to everyone, "irrespective of
merits" and and for those who love God, the contemplative life is a gift.
Therefore:
"Beware of pride: it blasphemes God and his gifts, and encourages sinners."
There are certain 'helps' that can be had in attaining the contemplative
life. They are lessons, meditation and orison [reading, thinking and
prayer]. They are no what the contemplatives relie on for the occupation of
the love of knowledge in God. For the contemplative in love of God:
"Meditation is...the sudden recognition and groping awareness of [my]
wretchedness, or God's goodness. There has been no prior help from reading
or sermons, no special meditation on anything whatever. This sudden
perception and awareness is better learned from God than man."
Whether one experiences 'sweetness' and 'comfort' of both a physical or
spiritual kind are irrelevant to the contemplative. These are 'accidents'
since they may be present or the may not be present. What is necessary is to
have a good will. This is the substance that is necessary, rather the
substance of the pleasant or sweet accident. It is not important whether one
is happy or unhappy in this life, but it is necessary in the large scheme of
things to have a good will. And to be happy with what one has been given by
God. We are God's saviours, and is-beens.
Your heart is your spiritual center. It is where an act of love occurs
uniting the seperated entities that the mind has created. It unites the
warlike with the peaceful. It is the chariot of eros crushing all virtues,
fusing matter and spirit. The heart pumps blood in the womb of the universe
so that seeds of God can sprout once again. The heart pumps blood into the
breasts of God and the milk flows to all sucklings in the universe after
they have left the womb. God's breast get bigger the more the heart pumps.
The heart pumps because of eros, the love of creature for creature, and the
love of the creature for the creator. Unbirdled [the frenulum] eros is
militant love, love that shields the heart from the effects of 'times arrow'.
If things 'sweet' and 'comfortable' come, then welcome them.
"For a love that is pure and perfect, though it admits that the body is
sustained and consoled when such sweet feelings or tears are present, does
not complain when they are missing, but is really pleased not to have them,
if it is the will of God."
What is it meant to be a man? The author of the Cloud of Unknowing
illustrates Manhood with an example:
"The word 'standing' implies a readiness to help. Thus it is frequently said
by one friend to another when he is engaged in physical combat, 'Bear up,
old man; fight hard, and don't give up easily. I'll stand by you."
On the faculties of the soul:
"Your soul has within itself, as part of the natural order, these faculties:
the three major ones of Mind (which includes Memory), Reason, and Will, and
two minor ones, Imagination and Sensuality."
"The faculty of Mind, generally speaking, does no work by itself, whereas
Reason and Will, like Imagination and Sensuality, are faculties that do. All
these four faculties are held and embraced by mind."
"Reason is the faculty by which we distinguish evil from good, bad from
worse, good from better, worse from worst, better from best. "
On the All:
"Who is it then who is calling it 'nothing'? Our outer self, to be sure, not
our inner. Our inner self calls it 'All', for through it he is learning the
secret of all things, physical and spiritual alike, without having to
consider every single one seperately on its own | |
|
| The Great Virtue Sitting Parlor and Greasy Spoon
Posted: 7/4/2009 12:20:50 AM | Polyphemus
Old now, battered; simply
looking for a place to die. Wait out
the last breath.
Unlike your named sake
you eat nothing -- that was
the second self's task, not yours
The fantastic fringe of your ear/nose/antenna
seeks the other. I hope he found you. Now you
come to my back window, like a child seeking its mother
I hold my hand beneath you for measuring
you fall into that hand, home
But it isn't; I have other things need doing
I offer you the window again. You are done with
seeing, holding on. Now, there is only letting go.
What does that last eye see? Nothing, nothing. . . .
I find you a bed of straw, lean near to listen to that
last whisper: Mother, it was wonderful ~~
Thank you.
jjl
3 Jules 2009 | |
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