Newly Released Book:
The Gospel of Truth
The Gospel of Truth is the crowning jewel of Gnostic scriptures, serving a similar position and function as the book of Romans in the Holy Bible. Gnostic theology and the path of salvation according to that doctrine is laid open like a treasure map for the second century reader, and all seekers who have come after. The wisdom found in the text influenced later Gnostic writing. So rich, deep, and powerful are the spiritual ideas presented in this gospel that they influenced Carl G. Jung's concepts of archetypes in modern psychology, thus proving its continuing relevance over a span of eighteen-hundred years. The Gospel of Truth is one of the Gnostic found in the Nag Hammadi codices. There were thirteen manuscripts within the discovered collection. Twelve of them made their way into the Coptic Museum in Cairo and were declared national treasures. It exists in two Coptic translations, a Subakhmimic (a late dialect of Coptic standing between Sahidic and Akhmimic) rendition surviving almost in full in the first codex (the "Jung Codex") and a Sahidic (a Coptic dialect of southern Egypt) in fragments in the twelfth manuscript. A little-known fact is the great father of modern psychology, Carl G. Jung, had great interest in Gnosticism, and went so far as to purchase an ancient codex. Gilles Quispel is a distinguished professor of Early Christianity who was born in Rotterdam, Holland in 1916. As a young man he obtained a doctorate in literature and the humanities and went on to research and teach about the early Gnostics. He describes his first meeting with Jung in 1944 in Ascona, Switzerland and how he gained the help of Jung and C.A. Meier to retrieve a valuable Gnostic text from the black market. This text had been part of a larger cache of ancient documents found in 1945 buried in a jar in Egypt near Nag Hammadi. Scholars consider these documents extremely valuable as the texts were from around the first century C.E. and contained unknown sayings of Jesus including a book titled, "The Gospel of Truth". The lost text was retrieved and named the Jung Codex. It may be of interest to note the connection between the ancient Gnostics and modern psychology. Stephan A. Hoeller wrote, in his article, "C. G. Jung and the Alchemical Renewal," the following: Jung's "first love" among esoteric systems was Gnosticism. From the earliest days of his scientific career until the time of his death, his dedication to the subject of Gnosticism was relentless. As early as August, 1912, Jung intimated in a letter to Freud that he had an intuition that the essentially feminine-toned archaic wisdom of the Gnostics, symbolically called Sophia, was destined to re-enter modern Western culture by way of depth-psychology. Subsequently, he stated to Barbara Hannah that when he discovered the writings of the ancient Gnostics, "I felt as if I had at last found a circle of friends who understood me." The circle of ancient friends was a fragile one, however. Very little reliable, first-hand information was available to Jung within which he could have found the world and spirit of such past Gnostic luminaries as Valentinus, Basilides, and others. The fragmentary, and possibly mendacious, accounts of Gnostic teachings and practices appearing in the works of such heresy-hunting church fathers as Irenaeus and Hippolytus were a far cry from the wealth of archetypal lore available to us today in the Nag Hammadi collection. Of primary sources, the remarkable Pistis Sophia was one of very few available to Jung in translation, and his appreciation of this work was so great that he made a special effort to seek out the translator, the then aged and impecunious George R. S. Mead, in London to convey to him his great gratitude. Jung continued to explore Gnostic lore with great diligence, and his own personal matrix of inner experience became so affinitized to Gnostic imagery that he wrote the only published document of his great transformational crisis, The Seven Sermons to the Dead, using purely Gnostic terminology and mythologems of the system of Basilides. Throughout all of his devoted study, Jung was disturbed by one principal difficulty: The ancient Gnostic myths and traditions were some seventeen or eighteen hundred years old, and no living link seemed to exist that might join them to Jung's own time. (There is some minimal and obscure evidence indicating that Jung was aware of a few small and secretive Gnostic groups in France and Germany, but their role in constituting such a link did not seem firmly enough established.) As far as Jung could discern, the tradition that might have connected the Gnostics with the present seemed to have been broken. However, his intuition (later justified by painstaking research) disclosed to him that the chief link connecting later ages with the Gnostics was in fact none other than alchemy. While his primary interest at this time was Gnosticism, he was already aware of the relevance of alchemy to his concerns. Referring to his intense inner experiences occurring between 1912 and 1919 he wrote: "First I had to find evidence for the historical prefiguration of my own inner experiences. That is to say, I had to ask myself, "Where have my particular premises already occurred in history?" If I had not succeeded in finding such evidence, I would never have been able to substantiate my ideas. Therefore, my encounter with alchemy was decisive for me, as it provided me with the historical basis which I hitherto lacked." In 1926 Jung had a remarkable dream. He felt himself transported back into the seventeenth century, and saw himself as an alchemist, engaged in the opus, or great work of alchemy. Prior to this time, Jung, along with other psychoanalysts, was intrigued and taken aback by the tragic fate of Herbert Silberer, a disciple of Freud, who in 1914 published a work dealing largely with the psychoanalytic implications of alchemy. Silberer, who upon proudly presenting his book to his master Freud, was coldly rebuked by him, became despondent and ended his life by suicide, thus becoming what might be called the first martyr to the cause of a psychological view of alchemy. Now it all came together, as it were. The Gnostic Sophia was about to begin her triumphal return to the arena of modern thought, and the psychological link connecting her and her modern devotees would be the long despised, but about to be rehabilitated, symbolic discipline of alchemy. The recognition had come. Heralded by a dream, the role of alchemy as the link connecting ancient Gnosticism with modern psychology, as well as Jung's role in reviving this link, became apparent. As Jung was to recollect later: "[Alchemy] represented the historical link with Gnosticism, and . . . a continuity therefore existed between past and present. Grounded in the natural philosophy of the Middle Ages, alchemy formed the bridge on the one hand into the past, to Gnosticism, and on the other (hand) into the future, to the modern psychology of the unconscious." This does not imply that Jung believed one could turn lead into gold, nor did he believe or pursue any other legendary trick of alchemy. To Jung, alchemy seemed to represent the ability to combine the lesser interior elements to produce the gold of the spirit. According to Marsha West, Carl Jung has been called the "Father of the re-birth of Gnosticism also called Neo-Gnosticism. Dr. Satinover comments, "One of the most powerful modern forms of Gnosticism is without question Jungian psychology, both within or without the Church." End quote. Edward Moore wrote, "Carl Jung, drawing upon Gnostic mythical schemas, identified the objectively oriented consciousness with the material or "fleshly" part of humankind—that is, with the part of the human being that is, according to the Gnostics, bound up in the cosmic cycle of generation and decay, and subject to the bonds of fate and time (cf. Apocryphon of John [Codex II] 28:30). The human being who identifies him/herself with the objectively existing world comes to construct a personality, a sense of self, that is, at base, fully dependent upon the ever-changing structures of temporal existence. The resulting lack of any sense of permanence, of autonomy, leads such an individual to experience anxieties of all kinds, and eventually to shun the mysterious and collectively meaningful patterns of human existence in favor of a private and stifling subjective context, in the confines of which life plays itself out in the absence of any reference to a greater plan or scheme. Hopelessness, atheism, and despair, are the results of such an existence. This is not the natural end of the human being, though; for, according to Jung (and the Gnostics) the temporally constructed self is not the true self. The true self is the supreme consciousness existing and persisting beyond all space and time. Jung calls this the pure consciousness or Self, in contradistinction to the "ego consciousness" which is the temporally constructed and maintained form of a discrete existent (cf. C.G. Jung, "Gnostic Symbols of the Self," in The Gnostic Jung 1992, pp. 55-92). This latter form of "worldly" consciousness the Gnostics identified with soul (psukhê), while the pure or true Self they identified with spirit (pneuma)—that is, mind relieved of its temporal contacts and context. This distinction had an important career (role) in Gnostic thought, and was adopted by St. Paul, most notably in his doctrine of the spiritual resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:44). The psychological or empirical basis of this view, which soon turns into a metaphysical or onto-theological attitude, is the recognized inability of the human mind to achieve its grandest designs while remaining subject to the rigid law and order of a disinterested and aloof cosmos. The spirit-soul distinction (which of course translates into, or perhaps presupposes, the more fundamental mind-body distinction) marks the beginning of a transcendentalist and soteriological attitude toward the cosmos and temporal existence in general." End Quote (Author's Note: onto-theological is the theology of being. The term was used by Kant. Kant had distinguished two general types of theology: that which comes from reason and that which comes from revelation. Within the category of reasoned theology, he distinguished two further types, "natural theology" and "transcendental theology". Within natural theology, Kant differentiated between "physico-theology" and an ethical or moral theology. Transcendental theology or reasoned-based theology, he divided into ontotheology and cosmotheology.) In August 1957, Jung gave a series of filmed interviews for the University of Houston. The following is part of the transcript of the fourth interview with Dr. Richard I. Evans: "I got more and more respectful of archetypes, and now, by Jove, that thing should be taken into account. That is an enormous factor, very important for our further development and for our well-being. It was, of course, difficult to know where to begin, because it is such an enormously extended field. So the next question I asked myself was, "Now where in the world has anybody been busy with that problem?" And I found nobody had, except a peculiar spiritual movement that went together with the beginnings of Christianity, namely Gnosticism. That was the first thing, actually, that I saw, that the Gnostics were concerned with the problem of archetypes. They made a peculiar philosophy of it, as everybody makes a peculiar philosophy of it when he comes across it naïvely and doesn't know that the archetypes are structural elements of the unconscious psyche." The study of Gnosticism by Jung contributed enormously to the field of modern psychology. Here, in the Gospel of Truth, we have a central and clarion work of Gnosticism. Here, in this small work, we have a chance to look into the heart of Gnosticism, and into our own hearts, as we explore this ancient and mystical work. The Gospel of Truth is not a gospel at all, but a religious discourse, which may wax poetic in places. A gospel is usually seen as a narrative account of Jesus' birth, death, and resurrection. The orthodox view of the gospel, or good news, is found in the death and resurrection of Jesus and how his death redeems the believer from sin and hell. In the common view of the gospel or good news, it is the sacrifice of Jesus, the perfect and sinless man on our behalf, that re-establishes our right-standing with God. The Gospel of Truth is a Gnostic text and according to the standard Gnostic belief, it is not the death of Jesus that frees us. It is the knowledge he brought with him from the realm of Fullness, also called the Pleroma. The Gospel of Truth is written in an elegant, Hellenistic style in which the poetry of parallel statements is used to drive home the meaning of the writer's ideas. The writing is thought to cite or allude to the New Testament Gospels of Matthew and John, as well as 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, Hebrews, 1 John, the Book of Revelation, John's Gospel, the Gospel of Thomas Chapters 22 and 28). In the text, Error is personified and is seen as a Satan like entity. This entity or Power created a fog, such as a mental or spiritual fog, which is ignorance, which keeps us from the truth of the real God. (Author's Note: 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.) Jesus was sent down by God to remove this ignorance. But Error grew angry at this, and nailed Jesus to a cross. The text also proceeds to describe ignorance as a nightmare and how it is knowledge of the true Father that grants salvation, which constitutes eternal rest. (Author's note: Matthew 11:27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.) The world is dark and Jesus is the light that illuminates the path to the Father. In the poetic styling of the gospel, God brings 'fullness' for the 'deficient' and 'inexpressible joy' and the peace that passes all understanding, as discussed in the canonical gospels. Even though the awakened souls still live on earth, they find heavenly joy and rest. (Author's Note: Ephesians 1:18-19 King James Version (KJV) The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power… John 17:14-17 King James Version (KJV) I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.) The theology described above is further taught in the parable of the good shepherd. It describes feeding the spiritually hungry and giving rest to those weary of the material world. Salvation is described as being anointed and becoming perfect or full, lacking nothing and having no deficiency. The text refers to those in ignorance as empty or deficient. The enlightened or saved ones are anointed and they are full jars. Those jars that are empty, the Father fills. The Father sent the son and the son is the image of the Father. This is the meaning of the phrase, "the name of the Father is the Son". That is to say that the Son is the Logos of the Father (Author's Note: 1 John 1-2 King James Version (KJV) That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us…) The Gospel of Truth is a Gnostic explanation, elucidating the sum of various other Gnostic gospels that went before. It is one of the earlier writings on the subject of Gnosticism but must have occurred after several of the earliest Gospels were penned and circulated. This puts the dating of the Gospel of Truth around the time of Valentinus, or somewhere around 140-180 C.E. Valentinus may have written this work. To say the least, his influence can be seen in the text. Valentinus is considered by some to be the father of the Christian Gnostic faith. He first taught at Alexandria and then in Rome. He established the largest Gnostic movement around A.D. 160. This movement was founded on an elaborate mythology and a system of sexual duality of male and female interplay, both in its deities and its savior. Tertullian stated that between 135 A.D. and 160 A.D. Valentinus, a prominent Gnostic, had great influence in the Christian church. Valentinus ascended in church hierarchy and became a candidate for the office of bishop of Rome, the office that quickly evolved into that of Pope. He lost the election by a narrow margin. Even though Valentinus was outspoken about his Gnostic slant on Christianity, he was a respected member of the Christian community until his death and was probably a practicing bishop in a church of lesser status than the one in Rome. The main platform of Gnosticism was the ability of its followers to transcend the material world through the possession of privileged and directly imparted knowledge. Following this doctrine, Valentinus claimed to have been instructed by a direct disciple of one of Jesus' apostles, a man by the name of Theodas. G.R.S. Mead considered Valentinus to be the father of modern Gnosticism. His vision of the faith is summarized by G.R.S. Mead in the book "Fragments of a Faith Forgotten." "The Gnosis in his hands is trying to embrace everything, even the most dogmatic formulation of the traditions of the Master. The great popular movement and its incomprehensibilities were recognized by Valentinus as an integral part of the mighty outpouring; he labored to weave all together, external and internal, into one piece, devoted his life to the task, and doubtless only at his death perceived that for that age he was attempting the impossible. None but the very few could ever appreciate the ideal of the man, much less understand it. "(Fragments of a Faith Forgotten, p. 297) The mainline or orthodox Christian church had sought to eliminate Gnosticism and destroy all Gnostic documents. There were times in early church history that Gnostics were hunted down and killed for heresy, but these texts were saved and sealed by Gnostics as they attempted to preserve some of their most holy books, and thus they came to us with some of the texts still intact. The translation of the Nag Hammadi library was completed in the 1970's and the information contained in the cache' would turn Christianity on its head by revealing an unknown history of Christianity and a fight for control of doctrine and the faith. Among the Gnostic works are scriptures such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, and many others. Gnosticism is an undeniable part of the history of Christianity. By both influence and opposition, it has helped shape what we now know as the Christian faith. The text of the Gospel of Truth was first discovered in the last part of the month of December in 1945. It was found among 52 other Gnostic Christian texts contained in 13 codices or scrolls. The discovery was made by two peasant Egyptian brothers as they dug for fertilizer near their home. While digging in the rich soil around the Jabal al-Ṭārif caves near present-day Hamra Dom in Upper Egypt, they found several papyri in a large earthenware vessel. The find of these codices came to be known as the Nag Hammadi library because of their proximity to the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi, which was the nearest major settlement. The brothers wanted to make money by selling the manuscripts, but when they brought some of the scrolls home their mother burned several of the manuscripts. One source indicates she burned them as kindling, while another source claims she was superstitious and worried that the writing might be dangerous. News of the discovery appeared gradually as the brothers tried to sell certain scrolls. The full significance of the new find was not immediately apparent until sometime after the initial discovery. As more of the scrolls were examined it was revealed that the find included a large number of primary Gnostic Gospels, some of which had never been seen before. In 1946, the brothers became involved in a feud, and left the manuscripts with a Coptic priest. In October of that year a codex, now called codex III, was sold to the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo. The resident Coptologist and religious historian Jean Doresse realized the significance of the artifact and published the first reference to it in 1948. With the death of Jesus placed around 33 C.E., the Christian church was still very young at the time of the writing of The Gospel of Truth. The church was attempting to fix or codify its doctrines and canon. The author of this manuscript seemed to be acquainted with the New Testament books of Paul, John, and Hebrews, and alludes to them in the text. There are also references to many of the New Testament books and no obvious citations from the Old Testament. This is likely due to the fact that Gnostic believed that the Old Testament God was a false and flawed God and the cause of the existence of pain, suffering, and disease in the world. It was the New Testament God of love and mercy that Jesus came to reveal. In Gnostic Christian theology, God revealed himself to man through his Word/Logos and his Son. These are not the same "entities" but are within the same person. Jesus, the man of flesh, was born to interface with mortal men but the true power from above is the Logos, who is the son of the All, the true God, He Who Is. This makes Jesus the perfect guide, teacher, and example for men. Unlike the belief and doctrine that became orthodox Christianity, to Gnostics it was knowledge that freed us from ignorance and thus the entrapment in the sin or illusion of this world. It was knowledge that brought about understanding and through understanding and applying this knowledge there was faith. Ignorance is sin and error. Knowledge is the good news. Jesus did not come to save us from our sins but to awaken us out of a dream state caused by living in this false world. The error of living in ignorance and the error of believing in the god of this world is our sin. Knowledge takes away this sin. Jesus brought the revelation that enables us to understand the concept of the true God, beyond this realm and our sonship in Him. Jesus came to teach us that we were not created to live in this world, but to be the sons and daughters of God. We are not of this world but simply passers by. Like Jesus himself, the awakened or enlightened ones begin to see themselves as a body, soul, spirit combined but not the same. Our bodies continue to live and function on this material realm, but our spirit reaches higher and higher. Passing out of this realm, seeking unity with the true God. "The Gospel of Truth describes three stages on the way of salvation: first, the stage of receiving divine ideas from the Logos and then applying them to purify our lower nature; second, the stage of acting as if the Logos were in charge of our lives, even though many illusions still remain in us; and third, the stage of rest, in which our lower nature is restful because our illusions are largely absent, permitting the Logos to act through us." (Lansdowne, p41) The idea that Gnosis could come from one's own correct understanding took the "church" and its leaders out of the equation of salvation. There was no need of a priest or church to bring salvation through its teachings or baptisms. This threatened the emerging church and its hierarchy. As the orthodox or mainstream church grew and took power it would begin to hunt down and kill Gnostics. History is written by the victors. With Gnosticism declared heresy and Gnostics persecuted and killed, the church set about to eliminate all traces of the old faith. They failed. With the discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices we have rediscovered the broad and rich history of Gnosticism.
Posted by Joseph Lumpkin at 10:55 PM
Advice to my Children's Children
TO MY CHILDREN'S CHILDREN
These are insights I wish to pass on to my children's children. I wish I could have taught my children all of them but some I learned too late. Some of them I whispered into the ears of my children, while others took 60 years to gain enough wisdom to articulate them. Even though I still cannot keep these rules consistently, I know they made my life much better. I give them you, my friends, so that those of you who are still young and lack parents or teachers may use them as you will. Shallow and lacking as they may be, they are a start.
RULES FOR A BETTER LIFE
Be grateful – gratitude is the pipeline to God. Gratitude draws in to itself joy and happiness. Gratitude forces us to let go of past hurts and be thankful for the present. Gratitude brings wonder and surprise. Through gratitude we can see grace.
Be kind – you never know whom you are talking to and you never know when the person sweeping the floor or waiting on your table today will be your boss tomorrow. Treat everyone with equal respect.
Be humble - always know that no matter how good you are at something your abilities will fade and a better person will always come along.
Be peaceful - Move peacefully through life. Do not distract others from their goals or interfere with their peace. Shun those who cause drama and disruption. They will cost you peace, focus and stability.
Be Strong - Even though we walk in peace, there is a time for violence. Stand up for yourself. Do not let anyone run over you. Evil will win if good men do not stand up for what is right. Protect the weak and vulnerable. They have no one else.
Be Smart - Always assume you could be wrong. Start from the place of seeking further information. Keep an open mind. Be open to possibilities you have not yet seen. But do not be easily led by others. Just because others believe something to be right or true does not make it true or right for you. You must define your own path.
Be Improving - Know your strengths and weaknesses – work harder on your weaknesses to make them less weak. In the meantime, hide your weaknesses and show forth your strengths.
Be Inspired - There is part of us that is "inspired" by God. Inspired means He breathed into us. We are part of Him and he is part of us. That means we have the ability to create. We create art, buildings, books, and even other people when we have children. But there is more. We have the ability to create opportunities by our intention. By seeing in our minds and imagination what we want and focusing on our desires we will open up possibilities to reach those goals. So make sure your wishes are not selfish or destructive. See yourself as successful. See yourself prosperous – and then work your butt off to reach your goals. Nothing is free and if you take things without effort it cheapens your worth as a person. Labor, work, and ideas have worth. Know your worth.
Be Loving - Know love. Do not hide for fear of being hurt. The joy will always outweigh the pain. To love you must allow yourself to get close enough to be hurt. There is no other way. Like childbirth, the memory of the pain will fade it you let it, but the memory of the joy remains.
The clarion call of the human heart is to love and be loved. Yet, love must be balanced and uplifting and not toxic or hurtful. Let love be supportive, giving strength and freedom to those we care about and accepting no less for yourself.
There are types of love and it take time to tell them apart. There is love that springs from the soul love that flows from the heart, love that comes from the body. Only age and wisdom will allow you to know the difference. If you should get them confused consider yourself human and learn from the experience.
A relationship with God is the most fulfilling and loving experience a person could have, but a relationship with religion is the most hateful, judgmental and damaging of all. It is more difficult the experience the love and acceptance of God when constrained by the rules and judgment of man. Sadly, it is easier to fall into the rules and judgment of men than it is to reach out to the heart of God. God has one rule. Love and do what you will in the light of perfect love. If you love God and love your fellow man you will fulfill all that God desires. Man has a million rules that no one will ever be able to fulfill. When you fail you will be judged. The trick is to know who condemns you. It will always be someone coated with pride, ego, arrogance, and they will always be blind to their own vileness and shortcomings.
Be Wise - No one is perfect but we hope to sin less and less and have greater periods between sins. Be merciful but do not forget what a person's weakness is. Do not be a fool. Keep enough distance from weak people so that their follies and failures do not affect or reflect on you. There are some people who cannot change. They are the ones lacking a moral compass. They do not feel what is right or wrong. They only want their way. These will be able to lie and convince you because they feel no guilt. These are people who are evil. Evil is difficult to spot. It is cloaked in smiles and flattery, but it always originates from pernicious selfishness. It is without conscious and cares only about itself. It has no thought of the feelings of others. It pretends to care but does not even think of others except as to how they can serve the evil person. Stay away from selfish and self-serving people. Even Satan himself falls into this category, and many people are just like him. It has taken me 60 years to gather to myself fewer than a dozen people I trust completely. Even at this, I feel I have been blessed with the best friends. If you want to know the true heart of a person watch how they treat others who they perceive to be below them or those serving them. If you want to know the true person watch them when things get tough. Between the lightning and thunder the true man is revealed.
Be Fearless - A successful life is made up of taking REASONABLE risks. Never bet the farm. Never try something that will ruin you or your family if it does not work. Take risks to get ahead and try new things if those risks are limited and you can recover if they fail. If you take reasonable risks you are assured of failing at times. Do not let your pride make you hold on to bad directions or choices too long. Do not become attached to them. Let go of them and move on. It does not matter how many times you fail, but how many times you try again. Be resilient.
Be Consistent – Go out of your way to keep your word. The more you do the more powerful your word becomes. There will be those who wish you to bend your word to benefit them. Let your word be as true for one as the other.
Make your plan and stay on the path -
There is a plan for living a good and rich life. You need a good education – a good plan – and a good job, and never take your eyes off the goal. Don't do things that take you off the path.
Always think three steps ahead. Ask yourself how others will react to your words or actions. Ask yourself what the outcome will be. Then ask yourself what the outcome of the outcome will be. If you can do these things you will have a great life because so few people think more than one move ahead.
You must finish your education, land a good job, and only then should you get married. After these things you may decide when to have children. Doing things in any different order will greatly reduce your likelihood of a successful life.
Never be a one trick pony – be able to do many things because the world changes and what you make a living doing today may not be needed tomorrow.
Most problems in life are of our own making - lack of concentration – lack of thinking about the outcome of your actions. Most of the time it is because what clouded our judgment was "SPAM". Sex, Power, Arrogance, and Money. These are the downfall of good people. One day they may be your downfall too, so be forgiving. We all suffer from the same diseases.
Understand that we are all connected in ways we cannot fathom. You attitudes will affect others around you. And the ones affected by you will in turn affect others. And the energies will spread like a mist of love or hate from one person to another.
There are areas of personally space and freedom. Theses are "Yours – Mine - and ours."
Never tell someone how to feel or what to think. Those things are sacred and belong to them alone. Never let anyone tell you how to feel or what to think. Those are yours and just as others have a right to stand up for what they think or feel or believe, so do you have that right. The most we should do is present our case clearly and leave it to the person to change or not. We cannot change another person. Only in the areas of life where you and others have mutual concerns do you have the right and are allowed to argue strongly. Yet, in the midst of the argument ask yourself how much it really means to you and never let winning become more important than what you are discussing.
Changing takes tremendous and constant energy. It is difficult for people to change. If you are a teacher, sensei, or counselor you must apply gentle and constant energy and encouragement over a long period of time to help the person change, even if that person is you. The person must want to change. Even then, it is like bending cold steel, and many times when the strength of will is released the personality has a tendency to spring back.
At every stage of life we think we have arrived, matured, become what we were meant to be. We are wrong every time. We never arrive because we are always learning and changing. Never assume you are fully formed. If you are alive you are not. Also – If you want to know if your journey here is done, if you are alive it is not. BUT – your mission may be accomplished before your journey is over.
Be strong and walk your own path. If you do this and respect others they will call you a leader.
There are great and constant laws in this universe. These laws are how God has created the universe to work. These are my interpretation of the laws I have seen work for me.
1 "As you sow, so shall you reap". Whatever we put out into the Universe comes back to us in some similar form. - If what we want is Happiness, Peace, Love, and Friendship... then you must be Happy, Peaceful, Loving and a True Friend. How you treat others will be reflected in how you are treated. Of course this also has to do with your choice of people, as well as how you treat them.
2 Life doesn't just HAPPEN, it requires our participation. – Very few things happen by chance. We draw things to us. The things that happen and the people in our life reflect what we are inside. If you have several failed relationships they will likely have something in common. A flaws in you and thus your decisions.
3 Because nothing happens by chance we must take responsibility for what happens to us and because of us. Our choices and our attitudes cause our life to happen. If we do not accept responsibility we cannot change the things that need changing. Remember that the masses go in circles but the wise man rises in spirals. History will repeat itself . Over and over the same things will occur in various ways. Most people react the same and make the same mistakes. But the wise person learns each time and each time they act with more knowledge and wisdom.
4 When we change we will see the people, things and circumstances around us change also. Our world mirrors us. Likewise, if you wish to change it is easier to do so after we change our friends and our daily routines/habits.
5 Everyone and everything is connected. Your bad mood, thoughtless deeds, or harsh words will change those around you for the worse and make them feel like you feel. Keep your bad moods to yourself or it will spread and come back to get you. Likewise, your love and respect will spread also and will lift you up as you life up others.
6 Keep your mind focused on better things, spiritual things, things that will cause growth. Most mistakes are made for two reasons. – Lack of focus. Lack of consideration of the outcome of your actions or words.
7 Be here now. Learn from the past but live in the present. Each moment becomes its own world. You cannot fully live if you regret the past or dread the future. Plan. Prepare, think ahead, but live with your focus on what you are doing now. You will get out of a deed or thought what you put into it so put all of yourself in each thought and action. It is your intent that will open the doors of possibility and opportunity. Intend – Want – Work – and Be ambitious creators.
Islam is not a religion. It is a nation of Violence and it is headed this way.
When people come in to a country and set up their own government with their own laws and when they declare with a clear and loud voice they intend to overthrow your country and make it part of their nation, it is considered sedition and treason - unless of course you are Muslim. If you are Muslim our government will pay to import civil war, and they will pay each Muslim very well.
A Fox News report this morning disclosed that the resettlement of Syrian Refugees will cost over $1900 EACH - but it turns out that is just to get them here. There is also the cost we will incur PER MONTH FOR EACH REFUGEE.
According to the Center for Immigration Studies - As Americans continue to debate what to do about the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East, this analysis attempts to estimate the costs of resettling refugees from that region in the United States. Although we do not consider all costs, our best estimate is that in their first five years in the United States each refugee from the Middle East costs taxpayers $64,370 — 12 times what the UN estimates it costs to care for one refugee in neighboring Middle Eastern countries. The cost of resettlement includes heavy welfare use by Middle Eastern refugees; 91 percent receive food stamps and 68 percent receive cash assistance. Costs also include processing refugees, assistance given to new refugees, and aid to refugee-receiving communities. Given the high costs of resettling refugees in the United States, providing for them in neighboring countries in the Middle East may be a more cost-effective way to help them.
The Washington Post Nov. 30, 2015 reported - Once they're here, the federal government has an entire office dedicated to resettling them, making sure they get medical assistance and some spending money ($1,000 per refugee), along with English language and job training. It's called the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and it's housed under the Department of Health and Human Services. The
Washington Examiner 11/16/15 reported Obama plans to bring in 85,000-100,000 refugees, starting with 65,000. Hillary Clinton said she would increase the number of refugees Obama had suggested Even those in favor of taking in refugees, such as the director of Human Rights Watch for the Middle East and North Africa, have referred to sharing the "burden" of refugees, Wonkblog's Ana Swanson notes.
So how much does it actually cost to resettle refugees? The nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures dug through the numbers recently and found that the Office of Refugee Resettlement has $1.56 billion to spend in fiscal 2015 — up from $587 million a decade ago.< A note here: Most of that money — and almost all of the increase — went to funding unaccompanied minors crossing the border from Mexico, which spiked to more than 24,500 in fiscal 2013 and led President Obama to call the influx an "urgent humanitarian crisis." The budget line for processing unaccompanied minors increased from $77.2 million in fiscal 2006 to $948 million in fiscal 2015. Excluding this money, funding for refugee resettlement has increased much more modestly. The rest of the money in fiscal 2015 was split up for traditional refugee resettlement, including medical services and cash (about $300 million a year) and social services such as job and language training (about $150 million a year) among all the refugees coming to the United States — of which an estimated 1,500 to 1,800 this fiscal year are expected to be Syrians.
Next year, Obama has plans to let in 10,000 Syrian refugees. There's no tidy way to break down how much the U.S. spends per refugee, according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement's communications department. The costs vary greatly by state, and the office might receive funds from the Department of State, or use some of that money for people who aren't considered refugees, like victims of trafficking. But here's how the main budget items in resettling refugees break down now with our current count of refugees, courtesy of NCSL. Keep in mind that the United States resettled about 70,000 refugees in fiscal 2014: Paying $582 million a year to resettle refugees is an unavoidable upfront cost if the United States wants to keep accepting refugees.
Islam is not a religion of peace. Islam is not a religion and should be afforded no religious rights .It is a political movement founded on a set of unaltered laws dating back to 700AD supported by a religious book. Islam is a nationalist movement in which its followers are told to conquer and subdue all others and impose Sharia law on the world. It should be considered a nation under a set of laws in the same way our laws are based on Judeo-Christian religious laws and beliefs. The difference is that their laws tell them to kill and enslave everyone else and our laws says to be fair to all. This combination is their invitation to do to us as they did to Europe and the UK. We cannot let this happen for the sake of our children. Obama has become the dreaded dictator and destroyer of nations. We must appeal to those in congress to stop this invasion.
In a plea to his fellow congressmen, Jeff Sessions wrote, " In testimony before my Subcommittee, administration officials confirmed that our government has no access to Syrian government data to properly vet refugees and has no capacity to predict whether Syrian refugees are likely to join ISIS, as have many, for example, in Minnesota's Somali refugee community. On October 22, 2015, FBI Director James Comey confirmed this in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, repeatedly stating that the government does not have the resources and lacks the necessary information to fully vet Syrian refugees, and could not offer any assurances that there is no risk associated with admitting these individuals to the country. Our track record on screening is very poor. My Subcommittee has identified at least 26 foreign-born individuals inside the United States charged with or convicted of terrorism over approximately the last year alone. The barbaric attacks in Paris - an assault on civilization itself - add immense new urgency. As the former head of the USCIS union warned in a public statement more than a year ago: "as we know from the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, from the 9/11 terrorist attacks, from the Boston Bombing, from the recent plot to bomb a school and courthouse in Connecticut, and many other lesser-known terror incidents, we are letting terrorists into the United States right through our front door."
I my opinion, no Democrat should be left in any national office if we are to stop this madness. Learn more about the nature of this great threat : https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Islam-Understand-Prepare-Defend/dp/1936533812/
Hanukkah Didn't Happen That Way -
In Noam Zion's "A Different Light: The Hanukkah Book of Celebration", pg. 244 there is an excerpt that discusses Hanukah and the "miracle" of the oil. In the myth the Jews re-took the temple and kept the eternal flame burning for 8 days, even though there was only enough oil for 1 day. This, as it turns out, never happened. Recent changes in Hebrew schools curriculum have made it very clear that it was improper and unprofessional to teach the story of the miracle of the oil as having any historical accuracy. According to the new standards: "The myth of the oil is bad history, bad theology, and bad doctrine."
Teaching this myth as history violates the basic principles of Reconstructionist, Conservative, Reform, and Secular-Humanist Judaism.
It is more accurate to say this is a fictional story the rabbis told to explain why we celebrate Hanukah for 8 days.
Hanukkah celebrates the fact that a small number of ill-equipped rebels won a war against a mighty force. They were standing up for the freedom to worship God as they chose. After the war was done, they cleaned the temple and celebrated the holiday they'd most recently missed: Sukkot.
As the years passed, the people did not want to forget how miraculous it was that a small band of Jews defeated the mighty Greek (-Syrian) army, and how great the joy was at restoring the Temple. Somehow, to the original story was added the miracle of the oil.
But there is a huge political overtone to Hanukkah. The descendants of the Maccabees, the Hasmoneans, had significantly corrupted the priesthood and they were the nemesis to the rabbis who were starting rabbinic Judaism. The Maccabees were attempting to combine kingship and priesthood. This is against Jewish law. It was this party who began the practice of Hanukkah as a way to celebrate what they had accomplished as Jewish leaders, taking credit for defeating the pagans. The holiday was for their political advantage. In this light it makes sense that the rabbis would tell the story in a way that emphasized God's role as opposed to the Maccabees' role.
The closest thing the Jews have for "real" Hanukkah story is the Book of Maccabees which was preserved via the Christian canon in the Apocrypha of the Bible. It describes a civil war among the Jews. Antiochus took the temple over for pagan rites and defiled it. The story of the jewish revolt against this king is a very messy and bloody event. When the Maccabees headed the revolt and gained political power, it went to their heads and they wished to be both priests and rulers. Thus, they established their own holiday. The people needed something to commemorate the battle they had won and it was convenient for the Maccabees to use it as self aggrandizement
The story, as it is told now is aggadah, a legend that tells us something about the spiritual meaning of the history without necessarily being intended as factual. You can note that traditional Judaism does not take aggadah as fact, but still treasures it.
Over time myth can be mistakenly taught as history. Families do it all the time. So do religions. True or not, these stories inspire and teach spiritual and moral lessons.
Posted by Joseph Lumpkin at 2:29 PM
Islam, Terrorist, and Religious Blackmail
In response to the continuing attacks on innocent people by Islamic terrorists, one is forced to err on the side of vocalism. We who believe in free speech will not be silenced, or even quieted, by religious hate, no matter from which religion it may arise. Running a company and page as I do, I have seen more than my share of religious intolerance, from both Christians and Muslims. Love and hate seem to turn on a dime between the poles of the religious life on one hand and a spiritual life on the other.
In my limited experience with this type of hate, there seems to be Christians who seek truth and those who judge. Most, but not all, Muslims wishing to interact with me have approached with a type of judgement and religious arrogance that does not allow dialog. There are exception, and to these men and women we must appeal.
Since we see few Muslims attempting to control the outbreak of hate and murder within their own religion, we must assume consent of the broader Muslim body to the recent killing and destruction throughout the world. This may not be the case, but the world as a whole is quickly developing this view. The Muslim clergy may condemn attacks after the fact but, to my knowledge, they do not turn in those within their mosques entertaining radical or murderous leanings. One wonders how opposed to the inevitable actions they are. Muslims are killing Christians, Jews, and even other Muslims of differing sects. There is no loud outcry en mass of "moderate Muslims" to condemn the recent killings.
As for Islam as a religion, one must ask, how can a movement conveying this amount of death be considered a valid religion? How can muslims remain silent regarding these events? Why do they not stop the terrorists growing within their midst? If Muslims do not rein in the murders among them there will be a time when anyone claiming that belief will be rejected by free societies.
Anyone believing they must kill others who disagree with their beliefs or "disrespects" (a subjective idea) their "god" has an impotent and false god of a belief system so weak it will fall under the slightest inspection. If God is actually powerful he or she is quiet capable of protecting himself or herself. No one needs to kill for a deity if that deity is real. Yes, once Christian had their time or ignorance.
The crusades were a horrible time, but at that time we had swords and spears. Now we have dirty bombs and weapons of mass destruction. We cannot afford this amount of ignorance in these modern times. Societies have evolved and advanced, all but some Islamic societies, which seem to be stuck, both in mode and method, in the dark ages. Let us appeal to those Muslims who are loving, wise people, to influence others in their faith to show the love of God, and not the hate of religion and to drag the violent minded people of their faith into the modern times, where freedom of thought and speech is held as the cornerstone of advancement.
In closing, I encourage all reading this post to continue to have open and free religious and philosophical dialog, even more so now than before. Do not be muted by hate or threat of violence. If we are quieted, the terrorists will have won. We are entitled to our opinions and points of view - even if they offend others. If we give in to the the cries of foul by those who set themselves up as religious judges we will soon have no rights left, neither to speak or act. Even the way we choose to dress will be stifled by religious leaders, no matter what religion they may espouse. DO NOT GIVE IN TO RELIGIOUS BLACKMAIL.
Christianity and Judaism - Cannibalism, Hocus Pocus, and Blood Sucking - Rituals misunderstood
Most religions have rituals that are misunderstood by those outside the particular faith. When the Catholic church announced the belief in transubstantiation (the belief that the bread and wine became the literal body and blood of Jesus) those outside the faith claimed Christians were practicing cannibalism. Then, when they heard the priests proclaim "Hoc est corpus meum" - Mark 14:22 - 'This is my body' those who ridiculed the Christians claimed they were performing magic, and thus the words "Hocus Pocus" were born.
Now, there is an outcry regarding an ancient rite of circumcision still used by ultra-orthodox Jews. The ultra-Orthodox Jewish practice of metzitzah b'peh requires a practitioner to orally suck the baby's penis to 'cleanse' the open wound following its circumcision, making them susceptible to the virus.
Two more babies stricken with herpes after ritual ultra-orthodox Jewish oral blood sucking circumcision in New York City.
Since 2000 13 known cases of herpes have been contracted from the religious practice. Two deaths and two babies suffering brain damage have resulted Department of health warns there being no safe way to perform the ritual that dates back more than 5,000 years.
The department of health says one of the latest infants to contract the virus developed a fever and a lesion on its scrotum, seven days after the procedure. The boy later tested positive for HSV-1. That virus differs from HSV-2, the genital herpes, which is contracted during sexual intercourse.
'A herpes infection in a newborn baby has the risk of leading to severe illness and death,' Jay Varma, deputy commissioner for disease control at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene told ABC News.
'The reason is that the baby doesn't have the same fully developed immune system as an adult. Instead of staying in the genital area, it extends throughout different organs in the body,' he explained.
He said it's too soon to tell whether the boys will suffer permanent effects.
The identify of the rabbi who performed the circumcision is being withheld by the boys' parents, preventing the health department to step in, they said.
Dangers: Since 2000 13 known cases of herpes have resulted from the practice, two of which suffered brain damage and two others died.
The religious practice that dates back to more than 5,000 years defies warning by the city's department of health which says there is no safe way to perform the oral suction on an open wound.
More modern Jewish practices use a sterile aspiration device to clean the wound or a pipette opposed to the oral sucking.
But some rabbis stand grounded behind the practice, calling it a religious freedom while noting its long history.
In September the department voted to require parents to sign forms consenting to the risks of the practice after the death of two children who contracted the virus through the practice.
The parents of those newly infected boys are said to have not signed those forms.
According to Rabbi David Zwiebel, executive vice president of the Orthodox Jewish organization Agudath Israel of America, two-thirds of boys born in New York City's Hasidic communities are circumcised in the oral suction matter.
The health department claims they've had complaints in past by parents who say they weren't made aware that the oral practice would be performed on their child.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/…/Two-babies-stricken-HERPES-rit…
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