How the Universe looks from here

By Ciel - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Religion & Spirituality

Thursday, December 20, 2012

It takes a rare courage

to speak truth to power, to choose right over policy, to take responsibility (and possibly blame) over passing the buck. It takes a rare nobility of spirit to work for the good of the many, when that good infringes on one's own personal interests. Instead, we complain, without suggesting solutions; we blame and hand off what power we could have, to some duly elected official, someone more willing to speak out and suffer for it, some God who will kindly, patiently rescue us again from the mess we... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 7:57 AM | add or view comments (10) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Betrayal

It comes up every so often, here in Blogitland, a devastated cry of, How could he? How could she? How could anyone betray me like this? In fact, in a life, who doesn't know betrayal? Such an overwhelming cascade of disappointment, anger, and very personal hurt! For some of us, it links us right back emotionally to other betrayals, other pain, and that puts the current event totally out of proportion: a broken heart is never healed, though we adapt and find ways to put it behind other feelings,... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 8:26 AM | add or view comments (7) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Monday, November 19, 2012

Autism: It probably isn't what you think

Recently, two books have crossed my path, about autism. One is a novel, one is autobiographical. The first is called THE SPEED OF DARK by Elizabeth Moon. Her story is fiction, told by an autistic man. She is qualified to speak with this voice as she is the mother of an autistic son. The second is ANIMALS IN TRANSLATION by Temple Grandin, an autistic woman who struggled through her personal challenges and a world not always helpful or understanding, to achieve a PhD and a career in animal... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 9:24 AM | add or view comments (4) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Beastly!

An aside, to consider The Beast... 666 the Number of the Beast. 664 the Neighbor of the Beast 999 the Beast doing handstands... 696...and backflips... 888 The Beast in a Corset 000 Fat Beast 111 Skinny Beast (666) 666-6666 Phone Number of the Beast Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 12:23 PM | add or view comments (8) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Opera Phantoms

Lurking, whispering, doing their best to distract and seduce... Self-pity... Resentment... Envy... Others, in other masks and guises... They all have pitiable reasons for their existence and their tragic twistings of truth and light, but we do not dare give ourselves over to them, no matter that we understand and weep with them sometimes, and wish with all our hearts to heal them... What does it take to heal them? They would say, "Give me what I ask for and I'll be at peace," but to give them... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 12:45 PM | add or view comments (5) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Body and Spirit -- Part Two: Why We Can't End World Hunger With Magic

It has been recently reported that liberalism and conservatism are personality-driven choices: the more anxious personality clings to the security of rules and order. This personality prefers everyone to follow the same rules, to keep the world more predictable. Being so fear-based, this is a body-driven personality, where Self is identified with the body's imperatives When such a personality looks to the spiritual for support, it is looking at the Divine, however it defines that, as something... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 8:46 AM | add or view comments (2) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Spirit and Body: It's about balance

I've written on this topic before, a long time ago, a long ways back: the difference between physical and spiritual realities, and the futility of trying to manage either one with the truths and solutions of the other. We are human beings: creatures composed of physical matter, that houses spiritual essence. We don't have souls: We are souls, that have bodies. (Someone recently attributed this statement to CS Lewis, but if he said it, good chance he got it from George MacDonald, one of the... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 8:07 AM | add or view comments (1) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Chimpanzee by Nature

I am amused, thinking about chimps making tools to fish snacks out of termite mounds, while I am sitting here making tools to fish lint out of my lap-top. If you've been following this blog for a while, you know already that I see the world of the wild great apes as the world from which we ourselves emerged: creatures breaking free of the simple life guided by instinct and supported by nature's providence. Our essential humanity, that which truly makes us different from animals, is our... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 10:15 AM | add or view comments (11) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Monday, May 7, 2012

Pat's comment to the previous post sparks this one:

I can see the inner child/adolescent/adult model. My dad defined those three aspects thusly: a child needs to be cared for; an adolescent can care for him/herself; an adult is able to care for others. Once we have been all three, we have those aspects, those parts of our selves, that come into play. That's a nice psychological model. Then, there is also the outer Self, the one that is not a 'part' but the source and container of the 'parts.' Child, Adolescent and Adult all influence, but the... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 8:55 AM | add or view comments (2) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Shams-i-Heartsong's blog today inspired this:

That blog quotes a philosophy of 'threes' and states that Unity is the absolute goal, if I understood it correctly. ( http://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/Bowl_of_Saki/ ) There is another 'three' also: the body, the mind/heart, the soul. Some problems, solutions, and philosophies, apply more to one of these parts than to another. Absolute freedom is the ideal of soul, but it is abolute chaos to the body: we drive on roads with curbs, stop at stop signs, obey conventions like all driving on the... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 8:26 AM | add or view comments (2) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

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About this Blog

I've been asking the Universe to explain itself to me since I was about 11 years old. I asked specifically how to reconcile God with Science. Now and then, I seem to tune in on an answer. All that I write here represents not Truth, but what I believe to be true.I have my reasons, and I like to believe, my reason. ///Everything of my own words and/or pictures that I post on Blogit is copyright by CLRedding 1972-present, all rights reserved.///

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