Jim D.

The whole thing is nebulous. I just see a word. The thought about defering to the Universe is momentary. I use to do that with God a lot more. But since I pretty much broken the habit of talking to God, praying to God, petitioning God I just now and then use the term Universe in a way that connotes the harmony of things and the way it all flows. As I have said earlier, much earlier when I first started with the Doa Bums, I just get up and live...and whatever works for me at the time, or setting, I do or say that which is in my best interest. Like a flowing river that hits boulders. Only my boulders are the obstacles of life. Me, I am the tool box with different tools depending on the situation, thought, or doubt. I just need to make sense out of it all sometimes. Sometimes I don't. But you know, no matter what I do the Earth turns, and my days get shorter, and no matter how smart I may have thought I was, or how much control I thought I had, it has only been an illusion and transitory at best, for me.

Who beat Lucifer in the Garden of Eden? Wait, so God is the evil guy here. And he took it out on Adam and Eve for being weak and impressionalbe. I wonder how long it took Adam and Eve to notice the snake slithering around the garden. I don't think that any of the other animals and creatures could talk. Adam and Eve were kind of ill informed by God who could have told them watch out for that one...he is the evil one. I wonder if the other animals had mates? Too bad Adam and Eve got kick out by Michael the Archangel...

I am listening to what sounds like a buzz saw off in the distance.

Back on point: When I am in the mood and trying to appear fluid in my thought and decision making, I defer to the Universe for the answer to my dilemma.

Back on point: If a Daoist is a fundamentalist, he might say to himself it is what it is, and go back to meditating.

If Jesus' tomb was found, or if he was proven to be just like any one of us, a lot of Christians around the world would be bewildered, confused, and lost. That is how it is that the movie "The Last Temptaion of Jesus" was so controversial.

I was thinking about the terms we use for the Higher Power, especifically God and Tao, or Jesus and Buddha. For me, we are using descriptors to identify what we believe in without being religious, Christians, Catholics... For me the issue is the organization managed by humans. It is hard to seperate years of conditioning from what appears to be the essence. For instance, the process of what happens between lighting a match and the ashes it leaves is unknown. Oh, we can explain it chemically, but there is that something that remains a mystery, a wonder that cannot be explained adequately. And so, since we as humans are looking for closure, we assign a name to it like Prime Matter, First Cause, Big Bang, God(s), Tao, Essence, etc. This process makes man feel in control and happy. Question: How did Lucifer get his name? I aways see a group of angels, some good, some bad with a leader. Lucifer use to be a beautiful name, now it connotates Evil and uggliness. So, a guy in an office up in Heaven called Lucifer in and told him that there cannot be two sheriffs in town, and he's got to get out because he has been a bad angel. Lucifer, being passive/aggressive makes an infinite decision to mess with God's creation until the end of time. So, what happens when there are no more humans to mess with? What town does Lucifer go back to to Sheriff>

As a person charged with patients in my care, I am bound by the Hippocratic Oath 'to do no harm." It becomes a legal issue in the act of malpractice when there is evidence of negligent professional activity. I am also have a "duty to warn" my client if I have first hand knowledge that this person may be in imminent danger. I can be held liabel for not following through with the warning. Therefore if I am saying I am a professiona, than I must behave as a professional. In the matter of a Doaist having a dutiful obligation to protect the enviornment, I would say that there is no obligation, or compeling argument that they do so. Now if we look at protecting our enviornment as a moral obligation, then I would say yes, because Daoist purport to say that they are in harmony with nature, or the nature of things. It would seem contradictory to their mission to say it is O.K. not to pick up a piece of paper, or not skim a polluted river, or throw a McDonalds hamburger carton in the bushes. To me, they would be nothing than "the Fool on the Hill."

The question I had at one time when I was looking for a reason to disprove the tenents of Catholicism was to challenge the story where Lucifer temps Jesus at the pinnacle of the temple. Jesus being a God/man and having an abundance of humility would, not im my opinion, come down and go to his apostles and tell them he had beaten the Devil at his own game. And if my hypothesis seems reasonable, I would submit to you this question, who was the person that seemed to have first hand knowledge of this event and where was he in all this? There seems to be a consistant account of this event found in Mathew 4:1-11, and Luke 4: 1-13. But these two appostles do not seem to be there with Jesus as he is being tempted by Lucifer. Now, some Books of the Bible were purposely left out like the Gospel according to Mary etc. so, there may be a missing Gospel still to be found. In my readings in the Knostic Bible, I was not able to find this missing link. However, those in Authority regarding the Catholic Church will encourage you to have faith in the Mystery of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Last night my wife and I threw the coins and consulted the I Ching, and then discussed the results. Today, I am listening to its advice by following through.

Yes, prose is in sequence without meter.

Sagebrush, my analogy of the ant farm could be safely equated with and answered by the Tao Te Ching and what man did to himself in regressing towards the Industrial Revoltion, and thereafter producing their alienation from "the Great Integrity." Last night I was in the mood to write prose. And so I did. I apologize for the confusion.

Is it safe to say, that the energy flow of the wall, the velocity of ball, the movements of my opponent, the speed impact made by my racket with the ball, the pounding of my shoes, the echoes within the small space of the court, the response of those that are watching the game would be energy fields that I as an organism, am picking up. In Tai Chi it is called "listening." I think that energy fields can be measured instrmentally. I am remembering an experiment about accelerating particles and being able to observe this happening. What was neat about it all was the experimenter said that the way the Uinverse was created could be shown in this experiment. But my point is this. There are energy fields all around us, as you pointed out, that seemed to be sensed at a level that is senseless...meaning, we as organisms have become so accustomed to these energy fields as to not be aware of them at all, save something extraordinary like atomic blast or gun shot. An analogy would be wearing a belt that is a little bit too tight because we have put on a little too much weight around the middle. At first there is an awareness, then we get use to it and hardly notice the tightness until we loosen the belt. In Tai Chi, I am aware at first in learning it...I am aware of the Form Practice. But in time, Tai Chi becomes formless and I feel the energy flow within. But lets say as I parry will playing Grasp the Birds tail, I come to close to the tree I am near. Do, I slow down and stop, or stop immediately because I know it will be painfull because the tree's telescoping its compact energy out into the Universe, and I pick up in this energy? Or, do I stop because of my past experience with running into hard objects that caused harm to me? Your feedback please.

People haven't heard from me for the past two hours becasue I have been hiding from the aliens. I am downstairs and the alien ship is above my house. It sends down an octopus tentacle with an eye at the end of it looking for me...just looking for me...ever so slowly...scouting every nook and cranny of my basement that I am hiding in. There behind a mirror I croutch so that it can see only its own reflection. I am wet from fear and perspiration. I am dehydrated so badly my skin has wrinkles where the wrinkles are. I just wish they would turn off the scary music in the back ground, and outside screamers.

It's probably the earing in my right ear that is picking up some kind of extraterestial transmission. Or it could be the rings on my fingers polarizing with the earing. I don't know.

Sionnach, I agree with you. Anthropologically, the better the build of a man the better provider he will be for the woman who wants to have a family. This genetic predisposition seems to have been translated into the better provider a man is financially the more security he can provide for the woman and their children.

It is hard to determine whether I am trying to control the outcome, or it is the Universe guiding me. Does anybody have an example of where the Universe guided them?

I am listening to the ringing in my ears, and the air conditioning fan.

Jeff, it seems to be that I cannot will myself to sense energy. For instance, when I played racket ball I could sense where the ball was, and how it was coming off the opponents racket, how fast, where the court walls where as I moved in and out of position, and how to use the walls and the angle of my shot to my advantage. I just knew...and it happened. I did not have to see the opponent. It was all sensing...Intuitive. Is this what you are talking about?

I do not know how to do this.

The ant farm is enclosed and can be viewed from both sides. Each ant has its own roll to paly. It is innately there. No one is voted in, or volunteered. There are no discussion, or in fighting, or egos involved. There is a leader who never signed up for the job. They have a cemetary to bury their dead, and a nursury to care for their young. They gather nutrients for the coloney, and they dispose of their waste. They have a farm, and they have soldiers. The process of living just is, because they are. What is interesting is that they will no live forever in captivity. It seems that if their boundaries are not boundless they are doomed to stagnation and spiritual extinction. It was man that came up with the idea of selling nature inside of a plastic container. The ants were not recyclable.

I am listening to the last minute 'boomers' left over from those that can't let go of 4th of July. My dog, Sweeper, comes to me. And so, I hear the tap, tap, tap, of her nails against the wood floor. I tell her that she cannot lay across my lap because the weight of her and her head obstructs my ability to type. I say to her playfully, I will wack you in the head if you persists. My wife giggles, gets up from the couch, and moves towards her office to have a cigarette, or maybe check for something on the Internet. Now, I hear her cough slightly as she encourages Sweeper to go down stairs towards the basement where the noise is more muffled and less disturbing for Sweeper. Our sleeping quarters and soon to be her adjacent Yoga room are there. Sweeper too has her dog bed there which is made up of a Yoga sitting matt, a wool blanket I found along the way, a bed sheet rapped around the mat, wool blanket, and over the pillow. Quit cumfffy!

"Feeling the field of energy between you and another person is an import first step in breaking down the local body mind sense of self. First you notice the energy between people you are close to (or attracted to), then everyone, then more broadly your environment. As it expands, one moves from feeling the energy with everything to more being the energy with everything. The really big step is moving from "seeing" (individual - interaction with separate stuff) to "being" (increasingly noticing all as not separate)." Jeff, if only I could once again experience that feeling one with everything as I did when I was 6 yrs. old. I do not know how that occured.

As I watch an ant farm I learn what living in the "Great Integrity" means. I see Wu Wei Wu in practice.

For me cultivation means Spiritual Cultivation. In the beginning it was very difficult. Now in my later years, it has become formless as if I were born with it. In my opinion, Cultivation needs to be tweaked a bit through vigilance and mindfulnes of the inner life and how it is being allowed to express its energy in the outerworld. There was much thoughtfulness and discussion with my mentor in the beginning. But as time went on we met less, and less, only to touch bases from time to time. And now it seems Spiritual Cultivation works me.