All that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade
can be confiscated in one fell night.

 

You give but little when you give of your possessions.

For what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?

Ghosts

 

The lingering dead are those who are destined for a better world than this one, if they are willing to receive it.

They resist moving on for a variety of reasons. None of them rational.

Those whose lives have included insufficient acts of kindness and goodwill to outweight the evil they have done, or who had done nothing but evil, do not linger here after death. Those that manage it, manage only days or hours, never years.

Because they never believed in hope while they were alive, their hopelessness lingers with them after death. They travel into eternal darkness without protest because they lack the imaginatuion to do anything else.

Not forgetting, on death, they have a debt to pay.
And the collector has no patience for lingering debtors.

 

The Bible is supposed to be The Word Of God.

It is, of course, the edited World of God.

The Catholics had the book locked away in Rome for a thousand years.
How much do you think they chopped up? Changed? Made up?

Holy Men?
The screwed everything that moved, killed anyone who messed them about and fed off the people they preached to.
What would have stopped them doing a quick re-write on the thing?

And they couldn't even do it properly!

Ever wondered why He's a God of vengeance in the Old Testament and a God of Love in the New one?
Why "an eye for an eye" becomes "turn the other cheek"?

And what about the end of it?
"Love me or you'll burn in Hell!"

Sounds like a spoilt kid, doesn't it?

 

What are your personal beliefs on life after death/the hereafter? 

a combination of Buddhism and Christianity.

Positive- If you live a good life you go to the place known as Heaven for an X amount of time could be forever or just for a certain number of years before being reincarnated. During this time you are reunited with god, lost loved ones and your ancestors.

Negative- You simply get reincarnated again and again knowing full well that something better exist that you are being excluded from. 

In conclusion the world in which we live could very well be the negative afterlife for many people. Depending on how bad you actually are you may be given a chance at redemption or you may eternally be trapped in a never ending cycle of deaths and rebirths.




 a Zen Christian.

follow the teachings of both Christ and Buddha to find the path to enlightenment - the path back to God.

Darkness - Song by The Human League

 

Where my dreams are all too clear
Darkness, darkness
Filled with all the sounds of fear
I hear voices (don't turn out the light)
Calling faraway
I see shadows (don't turn out the light)
Moving, changing shape
And the clock stops
As darkness closes in
I hesitate but it's too late
I scream and scream again
I hear colours black and red
I see sounds that fill my head
I'll never read those books again
In darkness
Where my dreams are all too clear
Darkness, darkness
Filled with all the sounds of fear
I hear voices (don't turn out the light)
Calling faraway
I see shadows (don't turn out the light)
Moving, changing shape
Don't turn out the light (don't turn out the light)
Or I'll go over the edge
Don't turn out the light (don't turn out the light)
Or I'll go over the edge
In darkness
Where my dreams are all too clear
Darkness, darkness
Filled with all the sounds of fear
I hear voices (don't turn out the light)
Calling faraway
I see shadows (don't turn out the light)
Moving, changing shape
I hear voices (don't turn out the light)
Calling faraway
I see shadows (don't turn out the light)
Moving, changing shape

The Sound of Silence - Song by Simon & Garfunkel

 

Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence

"Fools" said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming

And the sign said, "The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence"

Darkness

 

In this world there are too many who are willing to see only the light that is visible, never the Light Invisible.

We have a daily darkness that is Night.
We encounter another darkness from time to time and that is Death.
The deaths of those we love.

The third most constant Darkness, that is with us every day, at all hours of every day, is the darkness of the mind. The pettiness and meanness and hatred which we have invited into ourselves, and which we pay out with generous interest.

 

Accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.

And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

 

old people having their slow and careful version of sex -

 you might not want to watch it , 

you who are young and convinced that, when it comes to old age, an exception will be made in your case,

 but they still want to do it.

 

It would not do to tell other people, 

not just because they wouldn't believe 

but because they wouldn't care

 

Atonement was powerful;

 it was the lock on the door you closed against the past

 

Time takes it all, whether you want it to or not. 

Time takes it all, time bears it away, and in the end there is only darkness. 

Sometimes we find others in that darkness, 

and sometimes we lose them there again

 

that's what people most always do with the stuff they can't make out - just forget it.

 

Sometimes there is absolutely no difference at all between salvation and damnation.

 

 yesterday is today's memory 

and tomorrow is today's dream

 

Today is Tomorrow's memory 

 

One day you will ask me which is more important? 

My life or yours?

 I will say mine 

and you will walk away 

not knowing that you are my life

 

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; 

the most massive characters are seared with scars

 

 the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself 

no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams 

 

Questions you cannot answer are usually far better for you than answers you cannot question.

 

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.

 

 if you were to pick yourself apart with tweezers, 

one atom at a time, 

you would produce a mound of fine atomic dust,

 none of which had ever been alive 

but all of which had once been you.

 

You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, 

but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird... 

So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing — 

that's what counts. 

I learned very early the difference 

between knowing the name of something and knowing something.

Addiction

 

The thing about addiction is, it never ends well. 

Because eventually, whatever it is that was getting us high, stops feeling good, and starts to hurt. 

Still, they say you don't kick the habit until you hit rock bottom. 

But how do you know when you are there? 

Because no matter how badly a thing is hurting us, sometimes, letting it go hurts even worse.

 

There comes a moment when it's more than just a game 

and you either take that step forward 

or turn around and walk away.

 

I've heard that it's possible to grow up, 

I've just never met anyone who's actually done it. 

Without parents to defy, we break the rules we make for ourselves. 

We throw tantrums when things don't go our way. 

We whisper secrets with our best friend in the dark. 

We look for comfort where we can find it.

And we hope against all logic, against all experience, like children, 

we never give up hope.

 

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

fear

 

It is life's only true opponent. 

Only fear can defeat life. 

It is a clever, treacherous adversary

It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy.

 It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unnerving ease.

 It begins in your mind, always ... so you must fight hard to express it.

 You must fight hard to shine the light of words upon it. 

Because if you don't, if your fear becomes a wordless darkness that you avoid, perhaps even manage to forget,

 you open yourself to further attacks of fear because you never truly fought the opponent who defeated you

 

It's been said that you haven't lived today unless you've done something for someone who can never repay you. 

But that's easier said than done.

 Because when your life's a mess, it's hard to be much help to anyone else.

 

It's been established that time is not a rigid construct 

 

People choose the paths that gain them the greatest rewards for the least amount of effort.

 

This is why classical thought concerning structure could say that the center is, paradoxically, within the structure and outside it.

The center is at the center of the totality, and yet, since the center does not belong to the totality (is not part of the totality), the totality has its center elsewhere.

The center is not the center.

 

Stars to live by.

Stars to steer by.

Stars to die by.

 

Back on shore everyone was pretty messed up, but the owner/captain was by far the worst off.

He ended up drunk for a week, though the only thing he ever said was "So?"

The boat's gone. "So?" Your mate's dead. "So?" Hey at least you're alive. "So?"

An awful word but it does harden you.

It hardened me.

 

I do not know anything about Art with a capital A.

What I do know about is my art.

Because it concerns me.

I do not speak for others.

So I do not speak for things which profess to speak for others.

My art, however, speaks for me.

It lights my way.

 

Come morning I found the day as I have found every other day--without relief or explanation.

 

Beautiful women are always drawn to men they think will keep them beautiful.

 

I want something else.

I’m not even sure what to call it anymore except I know it feels roomy and it’s drenched in sunlight and it’s weightless and I know it’s not cheap.

It’s probably not even real.

 

Do not wake me from this slumber,

but be assured that just as I have wept much, I have also wandered many roads with my thoughts.

 

Make no mistake, those who write long books have nothing to say.

Of course those who write short books have even less to say.

 

To read" actually comes from the Latin reri "to calculate, to think" which is not only the progenitor of "read" but of "reason" as well, both of which hail from the Greek arariskein "to fit."

Aside from giving us "reason," arariskein also gives us an unlikely sibling, Latin arma meaning "weapons."

It seems that "to fit" the world or to make sense of it requires either reason or arms.

 The greatest of love letters are always coded for the one and not the many.

 

The ruminations are mine, let the world be yours.

 

Here then at long last is my darkness.

No cry of light, no glimmer, not even the faintest shard of hope to break free across the hold.

 

What can I say, I'm a sucker for abandoned stuff, misplaced stuff, forgotten stuff, any old stuff which despite the light of progress and all that, still vanishes every day like shadows at noon, goings unheralded, passings unmourned, well, you get the drift.

As a counselor once told me -a counselor for Disaffected Yought, I might add: "You like that crap because it reminds you of you."

Couldn't of said it better or put it more bluntly.

Don't even disagree with it either.

 

When you're faced with the tough choices, it comes down to you. 

What can you live with? What can you leave behind?

 Right or wrong, you have to decide what you're willing to go down fighting for. 

The choice is yours.

 

Under the cover of darkness people do things they'd never do under the harsh glare of day.

 Decisions feel wiser. People feel bolder. 

But when the sun rises, you have to take responsibility for what you did in the dark.

 And face yourself under the cold, harsh light of day.

 

Biology determines much of the way we live. 

From the moment we are born, we know how to breathe and eat. 

As we grow older, new instincts kick in. We become territorial. We learn to compete. We seek shelter. Most important of all: We reproduce. 

Sometimes biology can turn on us, though. Yeah, biology sucks sometimes. 

Biology says that we are who we are from birth. That our DNA is set in stone. Unchangeable.

 Our DNA doesn't account for all of us though, we're human. Life changes us. We develop new traits. Become less territorial. We stop competing. We learn from our mistakes. We face our greatest fears. 

For better or worse, we find ways to become more than our biology. The risk of course is that we can change too much to the point where we don't recognize ourselves. 

Finding our way back can be difficult. There's no compass, no map. 

We just have to close our eyes, take a step, 

and hope to God we get there.