Stigweard

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Thank you Snakecharmer for sharing this. I respect your frame of reference. I sense worth in exploring this line so, from your stand point, using Rodgeri's post as a template, how would you structure such a vow?

I am keen to participate. Just as another idea to contemplate, I believe it was James Twyman who would organise mass healing/peace prayers. They found it useful to have a team go to 'ground zero' and have a healing staff imbedded into the ground (like a giant accupuncture needle). Their belief was that the staff anchored and gave focus to the incoming energies.

An excellent suggestion Good for you Rodgerj thank you for posting this. What say those involved?

It really doesn't matter who is lying and who is not. If what I wrote in Post #105 and Post #111 holds true then ultimately we are all lying to ourselves to some extent whenever we say, "They are doing this to me", because, at some fundamental level we ... and only we ... are responsible for our experiences in life. First it may be said that that the conclusions we hold about our existence are the originating intent upon which our life experiences are molded ... and secondly, once said experiences are manifest, it is our choice ... and our choice alone ... as to how we react and interpret our experiences. The fact is that, in nearly every situation, we chose to interpret our experiences in a way that reinforces the fundamental belief system that created the experience and thus our conclusions about our existence are fortified and the self-made illusion is perpetuated. It takes wisdom, awareness, and impeccable sobriety to be able to see through our illusionary patterns and choose the right thread to pull so the tapestry of the illusion collapses. In other words, only when we have sufficiently loosened the fixations of our habitual perception are we able to see the illusion of these fixations for what they truly are ... and only then are we able to take the appropriate measures to collapse these self-delusions in their entirety. Only a mind completely liberated from the prison of such illusionary, self-reflecting shadow-play can truly be called 'Free'. Is there any greater gift of healing then to aid someone in liberating themselves from their own personal source of all calamity and suffering? But as a close friend of mine has said, "We can only point the way, at best provide a stimulus that catalyzes the initial impetus for change, but the real work must be done by them."

I will be direct seeing that you are making moves to depart our lovely scene I am not asking you to 'kiss and make up' ... the reality is that, for whatever turn of fate, you have all arrived at our humble home ... my efforts therefore are aimed at keeping this place in some semblance of peace while the real work of Mak Tin Si's service takes place. So please understand that at no stage am I going to ask anyone here to believe the other person's point of view. It is well and truly obvious that that will not take place. As mentioned above, for the moment, dispute management takes precedence over dispute resolution. My simple request is this ... if any of you, Gossamer, Argentum Corvus, or Snakecharmer, insist on making comment about your involvement with each other then I ask you to follow the guidelines I have suggested. Simple and easy.

Aww shucks cheers matey. I have the easy part though, the 'real' work will be done by the good folks involved. For the moment I am just that annoying back seat driver ... "Are we there yet?" ... "Mom, I gotta go pee!" *takes deep breath*

Cheer Mal ... it is really nice to have both your support and involvement on this

Cheers Mal I know exactly what you are saying ... thanks for the reality check And you are absolutely right, I just felt the need to make the temporary request to limit the 'static' at a crucial junction. It's all good, I have happily placed the talking stick back on the table

To Argentum Corvus, and Snakecharmer... Please be aware that I am not a formal moderator of this forum as such I have no power to delete anybodies posts. I am happy though to guide things in a suggested direction which I firmly believe will achieve true and lasting resolution. A suggestion I have is that, if anyone does violate the agreed upon 'rules of engagement', instead of trying to punish them for such a breach an effort be made to bring any such assertions back within the realm of the said agreement. To Gossamer... As it stands I am 'calling the shots' here just for the moment. We are friends so please have trust in me, I am not asking you to trust Argentum Corvus nor Snakecharmer, I am specifically asking you to trust me. Please also understand that Mak Tin Si's role was never about kicking anyone's ass magically. The intent is to help you with the energy in your sphere, if in the process someone's feathers get scorched as a result of their ill intent directed at you then so be it. But the intent is specifically to help you. It must be said that there is simply no way possible to prove or disprove the actions of anyone involved here. So all we can do is acknowledge that 'something' has gone wrong in the past and examine carefully what can be done now to manifest the resolution we are all aiming for. So under these conditions Gossamer, with me calling the shots, can we have your agreement that: 1. You are still committed to achieving complete resolution of the problem between you all, and 2. That you will 100% abide by the rules of engagement that I have outlined.

Now please excuse me for claiming an unrelinquishing hold of the talking stick for a second but I have added my intent into this situation as such I am claiming my share of the responsibility in this. To proceed with productiveness we need to establish a clandestine agreement on some rules of engagement. Firstly I would like all of us to review carefully the Rules for Fair Argument here in Post #4. Please review them twice. On top of this I would add that, just for the moment, no accusations or blame are cast at anyone. I would like each of you, Gossamer, Argentum Corvus, and snakecharmer, to post your agreement that: 1. You are still committed to achieving complete resolution of the problem between you all, and 2. That you will 100% abide by the rules of engagement that I have just outlined.

Now lets proceed ... To Gossamer... I am quite aware of the real possibility that Argentum Corvus/David is here because of you, but you can rest assured that no actions of ill intent will be tolerated. To Argentum Corvus... Please be also be assured that at no stage, not even for the minutest of seconds, were any magickal workings intended to be 'against' anyone. My intent is laid bare in Post #111, please review this so that you know precisely where I am coming from.

OK ... EVERY BODY JUST CHILL FOR A SECOND ... please I would kindly ask that ... just for the moment ... the only people to post here are myself and the parties directly involved in the situation. Is that OK?

It is vital to point out that noone is at any stage being isolated as being 'to blame' in this situation. Because we are all responsible for being involved in this experience. Even myself and every single member of TaoBums has a share in the responsibility because we have drawn this conflagration here into our humble home. So just as I have suggested to you the question "How is this teaching me to become more whole within myself?" I must also ask this of myself. I know it is a hard request to ask you to put aside the years of trouble. There has been hurt, there has been accusations, there has been unnecessary actions provable or not provable ... but I am asking you directly and sincerely: "Will each of you join with me here and now in this passage of healing and resolution?"

Albion I know you feel hurt, I know you have years of angst toward someone who you have seen as hurting you. Please remember that the intent of this process is not one of casting blame or revenge ... it is about healing. And it is not about trying to 'fix' or change David either ... it is about healing within you that which has manifested this calamity in your life. Take a deep breath and open yourself to the possibility of what I am about to say (and I am saying this for all parties involved in this issue)... The longer you maintain the belief that any part of your world is trying to hurt you the longer you will continue to draw hurt into your life. Even if the issue is resolved with David, if you maintain this established belief you will merely manifest a new 'David'. And try and allow for the possibility that any calamity and any disharmony is merely life trying to tell you something. I suggest to you that life, the universe, Tao, loves you in that it wants you to be whole and is, in every moment, pouring its vitality, its wholesomeness into your life. If we enjoy prosperity and peace it is the Universal benevolence displaying itself through us. If we experience calamity and hardship it is life giving us the opportunity to grow stronger. Wholesomeness is the natural and inevitable process of life. Calamity, in most cases, is caused by the turbulence created when, through our incorrect conclusions and beliefs, we resist the natural life-stream of Tao. If we can allow this awareness to take place then, instead of viewing calamity as something 'bad' which creates even more resistence through our aversion to it, we can create a fundamental quantum leap in our consciousness. Instead of seeking to blame someone or something for every inconvenience and problem, we can embrace the situation by asking ourselves: "How is this teaching me to become more whole within myself? How is this situation revealing to me the false conclusions and beliefs I have about myself and life that is preventing me from greater union with my true innate nature? Where within this situation is the gem of greater self-knowledge that will help me manifest my inherent wholesomeness?" There my friend is the level of consciousness that will transform this situation for you ... there is your path of healing. I sincerely hope that you accept the hand of healing, love, and reunion that life is right now holding out to you all.

Dear gossamer, Argentum Corvus, and Snakecharmer, Most sincerely I want to thank you for becoming a valuable part of TaoBums. You have all had an arduous and unfortunate experience with each other. I am quite sure that, if I was in either of your positions, I would have torn my hair out by now, I can only imagine what it must have been like. Undoubtedly the 'first cause' of the whole calamity would have become blurred with time and feelings of who is responsible is so entangled that it would be like trying to untie the proverbial Gordian Knot. The question I have for each of you is this: "Do you want this protracted dispute to end once and for all?" Because you have before you right now the perfect opportunity to resolve all the spite and hatred and end, once and for all, the cycle of disharmony that you have been experiencing with each other. If this is what you want, I would ask you to post your response below. Just a simple "Yes I would like this dispute to end once and for all" will do. Please try not to make demands or conditions on the other party at this stage. With many blessings to you all,

I would love to gather a collection of parables on virtue. A parable is a brief, succinct story, in prose or verse, that illustrates a moral or religious lesson. Preferably I would like to draw these parables from: ~ Taoist, Budhist, Confucius teachings ~ Stories from and about prominent and well know figures both Western and Eastern in origin. Here is one originally shared by mYTHmAKER: Dr. Arun Gandhi, gandson of Mahatma Gandhi and founder of the M.K.Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, in his June 9 lecture at the University of Puerto Rico, shared the following story: I was 16 years old and living with my parents at the institute my grandfather had founded 18 miles outside of Durban, South Africa, in the middle of the sugar plantations. We were deep in the country and had no neighbours, so my two sisters and I would always look forward to going to town to visit friends or go to the movies. One day, my father asked me to drive him to town for an all-day conference, and I jumped at the chance. Since I was going to town, my mother gave me a list of groceries she needed and, since I had all day in town, my father asked me to take care of several pending chores, such as getting the car serviced. When I dropped my father off that morning, he said, "I will meet you here at 5:00 p.m. , and we will go home together." After hurriedly completing my chores, I went straight to the nearest movie theatre. I got so engrossed in a John Wayne double-feature that I forgot the time. It was 5:30 before I remembered. By the time I ran to the garage and got the car and hurried to where my father was waiting for me, it was almost 6:00. He anxiously asked me, "Why were you late? "I was so ashamed of telling him I was watching a John Wayne western movie that I said, "The car wasn't ready, so I had to wait," not realizing that he had already called the garage. When he caught me in the lie, he said: "There's something wrong in the way I brought you up that didn't give you the confidence to tell me the truth. In order to figure out where I went wrong with you, I'm going to walk home 18 miles and think about it. " So, dressed in his suit and dress shoes, he began to walk home in the dark on mostly unpaved, unlit roads. I couldn't leave him, so for five-and-a-half hours I drove behind him, watching my father go through this agony for a stupid lie that I uttered. I decided then and there that I was never going to lie again. I often think about that episode and wonder, if he had punished me the way we punish our children, whether I would have learned a lesson at all. I don't think so. I would have suffered the punishment and gone on doing the same thing. But this single non-violent action was so powerful that it is still as if it happened yesterday. That is the power of non-violence. by Dr. Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi

Here's one of my life parables... Treasure in the Wilderness Have you ever wanted something so much that you would have done anything to get it but you just didn't know how to get it? My son found himself in exactly that situation. Did any of you ever go camping when you were young? Do you remember going camping? Maybe it was only in your own back yard, that was the best that some of us could do. But if you were fortunate then you were taken out into the bush if you were lucky. I took my young son, Jesse and one of his buddies, Patrick, camping as a sort of "Father & Son meets the wild" weekend. I had planned a whole bunch of activities for them, we learned how to pitch a tent, light a fire safely, cook spuds in the coals, roast marshmallows and I even taught them how to catch fresh water lobsters. But out of the whole weekend the activity that we all remember and laugh about the most is when I put a $50 note in the billy can (an aussie tea kettle made of metal) and I set that billy can on top a rock in the middle of the stream. Now I told them that, for the sake of fun, they couldn't touch the water because it was full of pirahnas, but if they could get that billy off the rock and onto shore then that $50 note was theirs. Now put yourself in the place of my thirteen year old son, how badly would you have wanted that $50 note? So these two young boys became obsessed over how on earth they were going to get that $50 note. They tried everything that they could think of, they got the longest branch they could possibly find and they reached and they streched but that billy can was just out of reach. They tried to hang upside down from overhanging trees without success. For nearly two hours these young lads nearly turned themselves inside out in their attempts to get to that $50 note. I tell you it was the easiest parenting supervision I've ever done. But after 2 hours or so of them trying this idea and that idea and then trying the same ideas all over again, their ideas began to dry up, their enthusiasm lagged, and eventually they gave up. They collapsed defeated on the creek bank and resorted to throwing pebbles at the billy can that had defied all their best efforts. We have all felt like that at one stage or another haven't we? It was about this time that I wandered over to them and said, "What's up lads?" With a grumpy look Jesse said, "Its no use, we can't do it!" "Is that so," I said "Sometimes if what we are doing isn't working then we have to change our approach." "What do you mean?" he said. "Well," I answered,"We can't expect a different result if we just keep repeating the same thing over and over again can we?" "But we have tried everything and nothing works," Jesse protested. "Its impossible!" "Are you sure about that?" I said, "Have you really tried everything?" As I said this I gave a very meaningful look back toward our campsite. Jesse got the hint and, with a glimmer of hope in his eyes he scampered over to our tents and proceeded to turn everything upside down. After a couple of minutes of crashing and banging we heard a cry of victory and Jesse came running back to us with a roll of camping twine in one hand and a set of cooking tongs in the other. Jesse tied one arm of the cooking tongs to the middle of the length of twine, he sent Patrick scuttling across to the other side of the creek via a fallen tree. And with Patrick holding one end of the twine on his side of the creek and Jesse holding the other they hooked the tongs through the handle of the billy, lifted it free from the rock and brought it and their $50 note safely to the bank. Well cries of joy and victory echoed through the bush that day. Jesse and Patrick spent the rest of the camping trip working out how they were going to spend their bounty. And needless to say the first thing we did when we got back to town was to find the biggest and best ice-cream that we possibly could.

Here is more appropriate data: Some high school 8.5% High school graduate 32.2% Some college 16.8% Associate's degree 8.6% Bachelor's degree 18.1% Master's degree 6.8% Doctoral degree 1.2% Professional degree 1.5% Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, March 2005. Compared to the above poll: Less than 9th grade [1.82%] 9th to 12th grade, no completion [3.64%] High school completion (includes equivalency) [10.91%] Some college, no degree [27.27%] Associate degree [0.00%] Bachelor's degree [29.09%] Master's degree [12.73%] Professional degree [5.45%] Doctorate degree [9.09%] Based on current data (acknowledging that the sample size is currently way too small) then we can make the initial suggestion that the Members of TaoBums have an education level that is significantly higher then the national norm.

Comparing the results of our poll to date to the graphic below what assumptions can we make? This graphic shows the educational attainment among the population, aged twenty-five and above, in the United States. The percentages reflect the percent of persons at or above the given level.

Thank you snakecharmer and Argentum for making your presence known here. My heart truly goes out to all of you who have been involved and effected by this 'unfortunate business'. Regardless of the surface details of strife the underlying root is always an initial enmeshment of disharmony and because we are the creators of our own experiences the ultimate responsibility of strife is always our own. In the light of truth that dispells the illusion of seperation between cause and effect there is no way possible for the designation of blame nor the cry of victim. The true and lasting 'cure' for such calamity is a fundamental shift of consciousness to break free of the ilussionary shadow-play of the mind and a reunion and reintegration with the fullness of Self Nature. It is to this end that this healing process is intended. I welcome you to this healing circle. Blessed be

Heya Gossamer, I did get your pm and I have been contemplating how to get around our last couple of hurdles. I will be in contact with Mak Tin Si again over the next few days to see what we can arrange. We are fairly much on the home straight now so you might want to start preparing yourself with the practices I suggested earlier. Cheers Gossamer ... This is so exciting yes?

A timely comment ... Mak Tin Si has had to wait until after Chinese new year to proceed. Apparently the energy is not as auspicious for this type of procedure around this time. I have remained in contact with all parties and are now locking down the final couple of steps