one life

carpe diem! live in the present and enjoy every moment of your life.

Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile.
It is the ultimate anti-depressant.
Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement,
'My purpose is to __________ today.'
Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
Play more games and read more books than you did the past year.
Make time to practice meditation and prayer.
They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.
Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6.
Dream more while you are awake.
Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
Drink plenty of water.
Try to make at least three people smile each day.
Clear clutter from your house, your car, your desk and let new and flowing energy into your life.
Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control.
Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
Eat breakfast like a queen, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid.
Don't believe everything you think.
Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
Don't compare your life to others.
You have no idea what their journey is all about.
No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
Frame every so-called disaster with these words:
'In five years, will this matter?'
Forgive everyone for everything.
What other people think of you is none of your business.
Goddess heals everything.
However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
Your job won't take care of you when you are sick.
Your friends will. Stay in touch.
Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
The best is yet to come!
No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
Call your family often.
Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements:
I am thankful for __________. Today I accomplished _________.
Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.
Enjoy the ride. This is not Disney World and you certainly don't want a fast pass.
You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy.
May your troubles be less,
May your blessings be more,
May nothing but JOY come through your door.

why so much God and poverty?

This will be short.

I just want to ask you a question.

— 0 —

Last week, I had lunch with a wealthy foreigner.

How wealthy? He was earning two million dollars a month. (I’m not kidding.) He was in the Philippines visiting our smaller islands.

“So how did you like your visit?” I asked him.

“I loved it,” he said, “I have never met a more polite, more courteous, nicer people than the Filipinos.”

“Thank you,” I beamed.

But then he frowned. “Bo, I also noticed how religious Filipinos are. I saw the tricycles with signs, saying, “God loves you” and “John 3:16”. There is so much God in your country. And yet there is so much poverty.”

Ouch.

That hurt because it’s so true.

His question reminded me about my visit to Vietnam a month before—and how disturbed I felt.

There’s not much God in that country. It’s been a communist country for decades. But the economy is exploding. And according to statistics, poverty has gone down by a huge 60%! Can you believe that?

One reason: Foreign investments.

Last year, the Philippine’s foreign investments reached a measly $2.5B.

In Vietnam last year, their foreign investments reached $15B.

And do you know what happened this year? From January to July 2008, foreign investments in Vietnam already reached $33B!

Look at China. Another “godless” nation. But poverty has gone down as well. And they’re now poised to be the next Superpower of the world.

Look at Japan. Only 2% of its population is Christian. Many of them don’t even have any religion. Yet their economy has been thriving for decades.

But look at a few South American countries. Like the Philippines, there’s a lot of religion and poverty there too.

So here are my questions:

· Why so much God and poverty in our country?

· Does a certain brand of religion cause poverty?

· Or am I missing something here?

Share me your thoughts below.

Tell me what you think.

from bo sanchez' blog

woman: 2nd class citizen?

Is a woman allowed to speak? Is a woman allowed to lead? Is a woman allowed to have authority over men? Is a woman allowed to hold a position of responsibility in God's church? By the way, which church IS "God's church"? Is it fair to ask that question? Would anyone care to answer it?

Any comments of you Christians and Muslims out there? help me out. assist me in understanding What God Wants with regard to how we should hold womanhood in our society; how we should treat females. And, specifically, what I would like you to tell me is whether you agree or disagree with the understandings about What God Wants as they are outlined above.

Christians, do you agree with the Bible at 1 Timothy 2:11-14? Again, that passage reads...

"Let a woman learn in silence in all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent."

And you Muslims out there...help me out. Should women receive half the inheritance of male members of the family, simply because they have vaginas? Should the testimony of females at court be worth half that of a man simply for lack of a penis? Please tell me, members of the Nation of Islam, What God Wants with regard to all of this. I am asking in all sincerity. I really want to know. I really yearn to understand. Not only what Allah, bless His holy name, wants, but why. What is the reasoning behind all of this?

Or could it be that it is Conversations with God which is closer to the truth about all of this -- and that God wants nothing of the sort?

And you women out there...what do you think? Is this what God wants? And you men out there? Is this what God wants?

The Vatican can give us wonderful guidance on how to treat women. Before I continue though, let me explain something I've learned from a lifetime of Catholicism ...

if the Vatican says it is right and good, then it probably isn't.

Now, regarding these issues, take what the Vatican pontificates, do the reverse, and it will be correct.

I'm not sure that the Vatican is inaccurate about every single solitary thing that it has to say...but I agree with you that its ideas about sexuality, the role of females in the church, and such things as birth control, divorce, and abortion are outdated, outmoded, and outlandish.

Rabia al-Basri, a Sufi saint of the 8th century had this to say, and it is as resonant today as then:

"O Allah! If I worship You for fear of Hell, burn me in Hell,
and if I worship You in hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise.
But if I worship You for Your Own sake,
grudge me not Your everlasting Beauty."

Thank you for that contribution. I shall quote it the rest of my life to audiences everywhere!

I also loved THIS from Albert...

The antidote to fear is nakedness, openness, lightness and direct engagement.

how come there is a God, anyway?

Why does God exist? Or, as a wonderful 7-year-old asked his Mom recently, "How come there is a God, anyway?"

Good question.

In order to answer it we need to get clear, first of all, that God is not a man, or a creature that looks like a Very Big and Important Man. God is not a Super Being, sitting somewhere up in the cosmos, with all the characteristics of a human, only with tons more power. That is not what God is.

We have discussed what God is in this class over the past several weeks. So let us move on with an understanding that God is not a "person." Rather, "God" is the name we have given (in some cultures) to All That Is. "God" is the Essential Energy. God is Life Itself, Expressed.

Does this mean that God does not have Specific Awareness? Intelligence? A Sense of Self? Any Desires or Purpose?

No. In fact, God has all these things.

God is the source of all these things. God is the source of Awareness, the source of Intelligence, the source of Desire, the source of Purpose, and the Only Source of Self.

God IS the Self, Completely Sourced.

Okay, so we're clear. God is not a guy. Not even a big, powerful guy, with good intentions and a fatherly countenance and a huge heart who will do anything for us if we ask Him.

We can imagine God like that if we wish to, and God can form and shape Itself into Just That (just as God can form Itself into a flower, or a shining star, or the person across the room) -- but that is not the Totality of Who and What God Is.

I am emphasizing this point for a good reason. Once we know Who and What God is, we can begin to understand why "God is."

God IS because God cannot NOT be. The answer to the child's question, "How come there is a God, anyway?" is simple. There is a God because there is anything at all. Because God IS everything at all. God is the All of Everything.

To a child I would say: "There is a God so that everything else could exist." But then I would not make the mistake of saying what many parents say next...

"You see, God made everything."

Instead I would say...

"You see, God is everything."

This is where I would begin to change the Cultural Story of Humanity around the question of God. I would start the story with a new first line. I would not say that "God created the heavens and the earth..." I would say that "God IS the heavens and the earth."

I would not tell my children...."Then God said, 'Let there be light'." I would tell my children, "Then God said, 'I am the Light'."

I would tell them that God also said, "All things that are, I Am. Everything that is, I Am. I am the Isness and the Areness. I am not merely the Divine Being, I am the Divine, Being."

Then I would take children to the backyard and point to things and say, "That is God. And that is God. And that is God...." Then i would pick up a stone and say, "This is God."

And the children would say, "Nay-uh! That's a stone." And I woud say, "Really? Well, let's just see..."

Then I would take them into a laboratory, but the stone in half, place a tiny chip of it under a high-powered microscope, and let them see the molecules of the stone moving all around, racing to and fro...And when they said, "Wow! What's that?", I would say, "That's God, moving around to make Itself look like a stone."

Then I would snip a piece of hair from one of the children and place IT under the high-powered microscope. Then I would say, "That's God, moving around to make Itself look like you."

Then I would say, "Do you see? God is All The Stuff That Moves Around to make itself look like everything that you see!"

"Wow!" they would exclaim. "Wow, indeed," I would reply.

how come there is a God, anyway?

Why does God exist? Or, as a wonderful 7-year-old asked his Mom recently, "How come there is a God, anyway?"

Good question.

In order to answer it we need to get clear, first of all, that God is not a man, or a creature that looks like a Very Big and Important Man. God is not a Super Being, sitting somewhere up in the cosmos, with all the characteristics of a human, only with tons more power. That is not what God is.

We have discussed what God is in this class over the past several weeks. So let us move on with an understanding that God is not a "person." Rather, "God" is the name we have given (in some cultures) to All That Is. "God" is the Essential Energy. God is Life Itself, Expressed.

Does this mean that God does not have Specific Awareness? Intelligence? A Sense of Self? Any Desires or Purpose?

No. In fact, God has all these things.

God is the source of all these things. God is the source of Awareness, the source of Intelligence, the source of Desire, the source of Purpose, and the Only Source of Self.

God IS the Self, Completely Sourced.

Okay, so we're clear. God is not a guy. Not even a big, powerful guy, with good intentions and a fatherly countenance and a huge heart who will do anything for us if we ask Him.

We can imagine God like that if we wish to, and God can form and shape Itself into Just That (just as God can form Itself into a flower, or a shining star, or the person across the room) -- but that is not the Totality of Who and What God Is.

I am emphasizing this point for a good reason. Once we know Who and What God is, we can begin to understand why "God is."

God IS because God cannot NOT be. The answer to the child's question, "How come there is a God, anyway?" is simple. There is a God because there is anything at all. Because God IS everything at all. God is the All of Everything.

To a child I would say: "There is a God so that everything else could exist." But then I would not make the mistake of saying what many parents say next...

"You see, God made everything."

Instead I would say...

"You see, God is everything."

This is where I would begin to change the Cultural Story of Humanity around the question of God. I would start the story with a new first line. I would not say that "God created the heavens and the earth..." I would say that "God IS the heavens and the earth."

I would not tell my children...."Then God said, 'Let there be light'." I would tell my children, "Then God said, 'I am the Light'."

I would tell them that God also said, "All things that are, I Am. Everything that is, I Am. I am the Isness and the Areness. I am not merely the Divine Being, I am the Divine, Being."

Then I would take children to the backyard and point to things and say, "That is God. And that is God. And that is God...." Then i would pick up a stone and say, "This is God."

And the children would say, "Nay-uh! That's a stone." And I woud say, "Really? Well, let's just see..."

Then I would take them into a laboratory, but the stone in half, place a tiny chip of it under a high-powered microscope, and let them see the molecules of the stone moving all around, racing to and fro...And when they said, "Wow! What's that?", I would say, "That's God, moving around to make Itself look like a stone."

Then I would snip a piece of hair from one of the children and place IT under the high-powered microscope. Then I would say, "That's God, moving around to make Itself look like you."

Then I would say, "Do you see? God is All The Stuff That Moves Around to make itself look like everything that you see!"

"Wow!" they would exclaim. "Wow, indeed," I would reply.

from Neale's (conversations with God) blog

money

Many humans have been told that What God Wants is for money to be considered the root of all evil. Money is bad and God is good, and so money and God do not mix.

One result of this teaching: The higher one's purpose and the greater one's value to society, the lower one's income must be. Nurses, teachers, public safety officials and those in similar service professions are not to ask to make much money. Ministers, rabbis and priests are to ask even less. Homemakers and mothers, under this guideline, should have no personal income at all. If they want something for themselves, they may ask their husband for a few dollars, or scrimp pennies from the grocery money.

The message here is: Because "filthy lucre" is bad, because money is intrinsically evil, pay must be in reverse proportion to the value of the function performed. The better the deed, the worse the pay. People should not get lots of money for doing good things. And if they're doing something really, really, really good, they should want to do it for free.

Humans have created a disconnect between "doing good" and being well compensated. On the other hand, doing things of somewhat less lasting intrinsic value can produce compensation in the millions. So can illegal activity of all kinds. Thus, society's values discourage noble actions and encourage triviality and illegality. Humanity's watchword is: The higher the purpose, the lower the reward.

This is, many of the world's people believe, What God Wants. is this really so?

from neale's blog

love

Many humans have been told that What God Wants is for love to be conditional. God has made it clear that He loves humans if they do what He wants. If they do not, humans shall know His wrath. They'll be condemned to everlasting damnation.

Some say that God acts with love when He condemns people to eternal and unending torture. With this explanation they seek to preserve the image and the notion of a loving God.

One result of this teaching: Many people are very confused about the true nature of love. Human beings "get," at some deeply intuitive level, that the imposing of unending punishment is not a loving thing to do. Yet they are told that such punishment is a demonstration of the purest and highest love. It's God's love in action.

It's not unusual for human beings to therefore be afraid of love, even as they have been made afraid of God, who is the source of love. They have been taught that God's love can turn into wrath in a flicker, producing horrifying results. This packaging of love and fear in human theology has not been without consequences in human behavior.

Earlier it was said, "Humanity's ideas about God produce humanity's ideas about life and about people." This is profoundly true, and thus, many humans are afraid of and attracted to love at the same time. Often their first thought upon moving into a closer love relationship with another is, "Now what is this person going to want, or need, or expect from me?" That is, after all, the nature of their love relationship with an all-powerful God, and they have no reason to believe it will be any different with a much weaker human being.

There is also the corollary thought that partners in a relationship have a right to expect certain things in exchange for love--that love is a give-and-take, quid pro quo proposition.

These expectations and fears undermine many love relationships at the outset.

Because love and the worst torture imaginable have been linked in the minds of humans as natural activities on the part of God, most humans believe that it's right and proper to punish other humans for their behaviors--just as God does.

In perhaps the most dramatic demonstration of this, many human beings believe that it's appropriate to kill human beings as a warning to human beings that it's inappropriate to kill human beings.

This is, many of the world's people believe, What God Wants. is this really so?

from neal'es blog

homosexuality

Many humans have been told that What God Wants is for sex to be experienced between a male and a female only, and for same-gender sexual interaction to be considered an abomination.

One result of this teaching: Humans for whom same-gender sexual attraction feels most natural have been denounced, vilified, condemned, ostracized, isolated, assaulted, and killed by people who believe they are doing God's will.

The sad account of the killing of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming offers us a now-famous case in point. Shepard, an openly gay freshman at the University of Wyoming, was dragged out of a bar in Laramie by two young men, driven to a deserted road outside of town, tied to a cow fence and beaten so severely that he lapsed into a coma and died five days later.

His youthful assailants were apprehended and sentenced to life in prison, but the Reverend Fred Phelps, pastor of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas was not inclined to let the matter rest there. Every year for the five years following Matthew's brutal beating and death this Christian minister has traveled to Laramie, as well as to Casper, Wyoming, Matthew's birth place, to "celebrate" his death. And, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times by reporter David Kelly, on October 12, 2003 Reverend Phelps brought with him to Casper a granite monument engraved with Matthew's face, followed by these words chiseled in stone:

"Matthew Shepard Entered Hell October 12, 1998 at age 21 In Defiance of God's Warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:32."

It was the Reverend Phelps who also attended Matthew Shepard's funeral and, as the young man's parents, family, and friends stood in mourning, screamed: "God hates fags!"
With this level of clarity as to the Divine Intention and Desire, entire countries have been forced under power of governmental authority and rule of law to obey God's Will in this matter. In some nations the civil penalty for homosexuality is death--burial under a 12-foot concrete wall. In many places civil law has been created making gay marriage illegal. In the United States the president in 2004 personally campaigned to have his understanding of God's desires regarding prohibition of gay marriage written into his country's Constitution.

While certain sexual feelings may be very natural to the persons feeling them, they are not What God Wants, many people say, and are therefore, by definition, "unnatural." A report on October 20, 2003 by Chris Zdeb of CanWest News Service in the Calgary Herald in Edmonton, Canada points to the possibility that the exact opposite may be true.

"Scientists have discovered 54 genes that suggest sexual identity is hard-wired into the brain before birth, and before development of the sex organs," the journalist reports, and goes on to say:

"The findings released today by a team of University of California, Los Angeles, researchers could mean that sexuality, including homosexuality and transgender sexuality, are not a choice."

Nevertheless, the clergy of many of the world's largest religious denominations continue to assert that God condemns such sexual experiences.

Reporter Rachel Zoll of the Associated Press reported on October 7, 2004 that the most influential Anglican leader in Africa--home to nearly half the world's Anglicans--said that the U.S. Episcopal Church has created a ``new religion'' by confirming a gay bishop in New Hampshire, breaking the bonds between the denominations with roots in the Church of England.

Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria also said in an exclusive AP interview with Zoll that he views the head of the Episcopal Church as an advocate for gays and lesbians and no longer trusts him. His comments come less than two weeks before an international panel was scheduled to release a critical report on whether the global Anglican Communion can bridge its divide over homosexuality. The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of Anglicanism; Akinola leads the Anglican Church of Nigeria.

"The Communion is shattered. It is broken," Akinola said. ``The commonality that bound us together is no longer true.'' (More separation in the name of God.)

Zoll's report says that Akinola insisted he did not hate gays, despite his fiery comments in the past protesting the growing acceptance of homosexuality. He once called the trend a "satanic attack" on the church. But he said he could not accept attempts to "superimpose" modern culture on Scripture by ignoring what he said were Biblical injunctions against gay sex.

"I didn't write the Bible. It's part of our Christian heritage. It tells us what to do," Akinola said. "If the word of God says homosexuality is an abomination, then so be it.''

The Zoll story goes on to say that those who support ordaining gays contend Scripture does not ban same-sex relationships, and that there was no understanding in biblical times that homosexuality was, as science is now proving, a natural orientation, not a choice.

Nevertheless, for many of the world's people the afterlife consequence of engaging in such unnatural activities is understood to be everlasting damnation and torture in the fires of hell.

This is, those people believe, What God Wants. is this really so?

from neale's blog

sex

Many humans have been told that What God Wants is for sexual union to be experienced only with one's spouse for the purposes of procreation and the expression of love.

One result of this teaching: Millions of people believe that sex may absolutely never be experienced in any way that deliberately prevents conception, and that while sex is wonderful, to experience sex simply for pleasure with no possibility of procreation is against the will of God and, therefore, "unnatural," immoral, shameful and a giving in to baser instincts.

As with the combining of fear and love in the earlier understanding of God, the combining of pleasure and shame in this construction has produced chronic emotional confusion: wonder, excitement and passion, yet embarrassment, fear and guilt about sexual desires and experiences.

In most cultures the sexual parts of human bodies may not be referred to by name. The words vagina and penis are not to be used in public (except as absolutely necessary in a purely clinical setting), and never with small children. The words wee-wee, pee-pee, or bottom may be used freely. In short, the human culture agrees that the actual names of certain body parts are shameful and embarrassing and are to be avoided whenever possible.

Again, you may believe that the above assertion is a bit of an exaggeration. I assure you it is not. Internationally known columnist Molly Ivins reports in the September/October 2004 issue of Mother Jones magazine that Advocates for Youth, a group working for comprehensive sex education, had its funding for AIDS prevention yanked by the Center for Disease Control, a U.S. government agency, because "young people [in the project's video] used the correct terminology for male and female anatomy." That, said James Wagoner, head of Advocates for Youth, "is absurd. What is the president going to do? Issue an executive order that every man, woman, and child should refer to the penis as a dingaling?"

And, of course, if one cannot speak of certain body parts, one certainly cannot show them. Not even, apparently, to oneself. Yet another exaggeration? I'm sorry to say, no.

So puritanical is the viewpoint on all of this in many places that the following letter could actually appear, without anyone blinking an eye, in over 300 newspapers in the United States on September 25, 2004 in an advice column:

Dear Abby: I went to wake up my 14-year-old daughter today and discovered her sleeping in the nude. Apparently she has been doing it for some time.
Normally she is good about getting up and I haven't needed to enter her room to awaken her. When I asked her why she does it, she said it's more comfortable and she sleeps better.

When I told her I was not comfortable with it, she asked me why, and frankly I could not come up with a good reason other than it seemed "wrong," and fear about what would happen in an earthquake or fire. She questioned how it could be wrong if no one knows--unless they walk into her room without knocking (as I did).

She keeps a long robe next to the bed so she can put it on in case of emergency. (Indeed, she walks around the house in that robe, and I thought she had a nightgown underneath, when in fact she has been naked underneath since Christmas.)
I am still not comfortable with it, but we agreed to abide by your advice. Is it OK for her to sleep in the nude, and why--or why not?

--Worried Mom in San Leandro.

The columnist wrote back that there was "nothing inherently wrong" with sleeping in the nude. "Look at the bright side," she advised the mother. "It makes for less laundry."

As this parent's letter makes clear, many humans feel that certain body parts must be covered and hidden, having been deemed too arousing or too shameful, or both. For those parts not to be covered is incorrect and unacceptable. Indeed, in many places it's actually illegal, with punishments in civil law for those who fail to obey.

Many people believe that sex experienced in certain ways, even between husband and wife, is "unnatural" and therefore immoral. And again, in many times and places, some experiences, although between consenting adults, have actually been made illegal.

Those who wrote such legislation said that they understand that God does not want certain sexual experiences to occur. God sends people to hell for this.

Humans also believe that intensely graphic depictions of sexual activity in photographs, drawings, comic books, video games, television and motion pictures are distasteful, repugnant, disgusting and unacceptable. Intensely graphic depictions of extreme physical violence and killing are, however, entirely acceptable.

Millions of humans believe that sexual energy and spiritual energy do not mix. They have been told that sexual energy is a "lower chakra" energy, and that sexual activity and spiritual clarity essentially oppose each other. Persons seeking to achieve spiritual mastery are therefore advised against engaging in sexual experiences. Some are actually required to remain abstinent.

This is, many of the world's people believe, What God Wants. is this really so?

from neale's blog

marriage

Many humans have been told that What God Wants is for marriage to be an everlasting union between a man and a woman, for better or for worse, for the purpose of propagating the species and maintaining a civil society organized into family units, which supports God's agenda for humanity.

One result of this teaching: In most religious cultures ending a marriage for whatever reason, including mental or physical cruelty, is deeply discouraged, and one major religion tells its followers that they may never divorce, may never remarry in the church nor receive the church's sacraments if they do divorce, and may never marry another person who has been divorced.

In many places and cultures marriage rules are established by religion, then become civil law, limiting and constricting the behavior of marriage partners--and those limits remain in place for life. Chief among those limits is what humans call "fidelity." Human beings living in marriage must remain faithful to each other. That is, they may not have sexual experiences with anyone else for the rest of their lives--not as a matter of personal devotion or sacred agreement, but as a matter of civil law.

This should not be surprising, since, as has just been noted, prohibitions against many kinds of private sexual activity have been placed in the common culture by religions. According to their accounts of What God Wants, human beings may not have sex with anyone outside of marriage, with anyone prior to marriage, and, therefore, should they never marry, at no time during their entire lives.

This is the expectation, and humans are told that the breaking of this taboo can lead to severe punishments, from God and from the social environment.

As a result, marriage is entered into by many young people around the world who are neither ready for such a commitment nor sufficiently mature for the responsibilities attached to it, but who are unwilling to endure any longer the prohibition against sexual experience.

The idea of male supremacy, drawn from the concept of God as male, has a major effect in many marriage scenarios. In some cultures marriage is considered a form of ownership and servitude, with the woman being the owned object--actually paid for with a dowry--and the male being the person served. Even in cultures with less extreme views a wife is expected to be "obedient" to her husband, and to be subservient to him in every way. The man is "the head of the household."

This is, many people believe, What God Wants. is this really so?

from neale's blog

male and female

Many humans have been told that What God Wants is for humanity to understand that God is male. The result is that most people who believe in a deity at all hold this to be true. The idea that God is masculine is so pervasive that it's shocking to the ear to hear God referred to as "She."

Many humans have also been told that God wants men and women to have particular roles and to be treated in particular ways in life, and that He has specified all of this in Holy Scripture.

One result of this teaching: Males are considered superior to females in nearly all of the world's cultures. In some of those cultures this manifests as cultural norms that do not allow females to go to school, to hold jobs of authority or responsibility, to leave the home without being in the company of a blood male relative, or to permit any part of their body to be seen in public, requiring them to be covered from head to toe.

A woman's testimony at Court is worth half of that of a man's--meaning that it requires two female witnesses to meet the test of adequate proof. A woman's testimony regarding a husband's beatings, cruelty, or infidelity will go ignored unless she can produce a corroborating witness, whereas a man can send his wife to death by stoning by simply stating that she committed adultery. His singular assertion is sufficient.

A woman's share of any inheritance is also accepted as being half of that of her brother. The logic behind this is that a man is financially responsible for his family, while a woman is not. This is the identical logic that, in other cultures, blocks women from earning the same pay as men for doing the same work. The fact that a man may remain unmarried all his life and wind up not having a family, or that many women become widows, or that women would not and should not have to concede this role to a man if she were treated equally, is, of course, ignored by this logic.

In some male-dominant cultures female's genitals are mutilated, cut and sewn, in order to deprive them of sexual pleasure and thus reduce the temptation they may feel to engage in sexual encounters other than those demanded by their husbands. In some cases this is seen as a rite of passage rendering female children desirable, suitable, and worthy marriage material.

Other cultural norms reflecting extreme bias against females include the custom of blocking women from becoming clergy in many religions or rising to power and authority in any civil, legal, or business enterprise, or holding any major leadership position in politics or government.

A handful of women in some cultures have overcome these customs (in many cultures they are still not allowed to even try), but always it's a struggle, always it's the notable exception, always it's a steep uphill climb to be accepted in most high profile occupations or powerful or influential roles within the global society.

Katrina Brooks, of Rome, Georgia, U.S.A., knows all about that. According to an account written by Louise Chu for The Associated Press on September 25, 2004, Katrina is a member of the Southern Baptist Church who felt a calling and wanted to become a minister. She enrolled in the Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, Virginia, then found a church that would accept both her and her husband, Dr. Tony Brooks, who was already ordained, as co-pastors. North Rome Baptist Church in Rome, Georgia invited the couple to lead its congregation in November of 2003.

Not everyone was pleased.

A revision of the Baptist Faith and Message in 2000 takes a hard line on female pastors, the AP's Louise Chu reports. The denomination's chief doctrinal statement says that "the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture," citing the Bible at 1 Timothy 2:11-14. That passage reads, "Let a woman learn in silence in all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent."

Two weeks after Katrina and her husband arrived at their new church several of her fellow clergy (all men) called meetings of the Floyd County Baptist Association to discuss the matter. They wanted the association to adopt a position that would, in effect, force the Rome church to leave the association.

This difference in the treatment of the genders is, many of the world's people believe, What God Wants. After all, the Bible says so. And so do the Scriptures of other religions.

from neale's blog

wat's wrong sirma'am?

aga pa gid ko nakabantay sang mga mali-mali ba. on our way to joyplace mao ni ang mga signs nga nakit-an ko. lingaw kaayo.

sign seen along Burgos Street near West Negros University:

NO PARKING BETWEN SIGN

sa wall naman ni sya along B.S. Aquino Drive:

NO TRESSPASSING

PRIVATE PROPERTY

and finally bago maghunong duol sa joyplace:

WANTED LADY BORDERS

hahahahahaha ;-) sadya kaayo akong morning uy, duh!

5 Natural Emotions

Grief is a natural emotion. It's that part of you which allows you to say goodbye when you don't want to say goodbye; to express--push out, propel--the sadness within you at the experience of any kind of loss. It could be the loss of a loved one, or the loss of a contact lens.

When you are allowed to express your grief, you get rid of it. Children who are allowed to be sad when they are sad feel very healthy about sadness when they are adults, and therefore usually move through their sadness very quickly.

Children who are told, "There, there, don't cry," have a hard time crying as adults. After all, they've been told all their life not to do that. So they repress their grief.

Grief that is continually repressed becomes chronic depression, a very unnatural emotion.

People have killed because of chronic depression. Wars have started, nations have fallen.

Anger is a natural emotion. It is the tool you have which allows you to say, "No, thank you." It does not have to be abusive, and it never has to be damaging to another.

When children are allowed to express their anger, they bring a very healthy attitude about it to their adult years, and therefore usually move through their anger very quickly.

Children who are made to feel that their anger is not okay--that it is wrong to express it, and, in fact, that they shouldn't even experience it--will have a difficult time appropriately dealing with their anger as adults.

Anger that is continually repressed becomes rage, a very unnatural emotion.

People have killed because of rage. Wars have started, nations have fallen.

Envy is a natural emotion. It is the emotion that makes a five-year-old wish he could reach the doorknob the way his sister can--or ride that bike. Envy is the natural emotion that makes you want to do it again; to try harder; to continue striving until you succeed. It is very healthy to be envious, very natural. When children are allowed to express their envy, they bring a very healthy attitude about it to their adult years, and therefore usually move through their envy very quickly.

Children who are made to feel that envy is not okay--that it is wrong to express it, and, in fact, that they shouldn't even experience it--will have a difficult time appropriately dealing with their envy as adults.

Envy that is continually repressed becomes jealousy, a very unnatural emotion.

People have killed because of jealousy. Wars have started, nations have fallen.

Fear is a natural emotion. All babies are born with only two fears: the fear of falling, and the fear of loud noises. All other fears are learned responses, brought to the child by its environment, taught to the child by its parents. The purpose of natural fear is to build in a bit of caution. Caution is a tool that helps keep the body alive. It is an outgrowth of love. Love of Self.

Children who are made to feel that fear is not okay--that it is wrong to express it, and, in fact, that they shouldn't even experience it--will have a difficult time appropriately dealing with their fear as adults.

Fear that is continually repressed becomes panic, a very unnatural emotion.

People have killed because of panic. Wars have started, nations have fallen.

Love is a natural emotion. When it is allowed to be expressed, and received, by a child, normally and naturally, without limitation or condition, inhibition or embarrassment, it does not require anything more. For the joy of love expressed and received in this way is sufficient unto itself. Yet love which has been conditioned, limited, warped by rules and regulations, rituals and restrictions, controlled, manipulated, and withheld, becomes unnatural.

Children who are made to feel that their natural love is not okay--that it is wrong to express it, and, in fact, that they shouldn't even experience it--will have a difficult time appropriately dealing with love as adults.

Love that is continually repressed becomes possessiveness, a very unnatural emotion.

People have killed because of possessiveness. Wars have started, nations have fallen.

And so it is that the natural emotions, when repressed, produce unnatural reactions and responses. And most natural emotions are repressed in most people. Yet these are your friends.

These are your gifts. These are your divine tools, with which to craft your experience. You are given these tools at birth. They are to help you negotiate life.

excerpt from conversations with god - book 3

Does God exist?

The world today stands at the brink of its own self-destruction--ecologically, economically, politically, militarily, socially, and finally (or perhaps initially), spiritually.

As civilization's many systems continue breaking down, every person who believes in God has to ask, Why would God allow such a total disintegration of all He has created?

This question produces no answer that makes sense--and so the question leads to a larger question: Could we have been wrong about God all along? Could we have been wrong to think that there ever even WAS a God?

The genesis of this thinking lies in the ideas that we have about God in the first place. Our Cultural Story about God revolves around three major ideas:

1. God is the Creator (In other words, He made us, and everything that is.)
2. God loves His Creations and has an investment in their outcomes (In other words, He wants the best for us.)
3. God can and will use His power to protect and defend His Creations. (In other words, we can call upon God for help with our lives and He will not let us down.)

This is a wonderful mythology about a Divine Being, but the World As It Is sorely strains its credulity. In order to retain its credulity, many human beings have added a fourth precept to humanity's Cultural Story about its Deity:

4. God's Kingdom is not on the Earth, but in Heaven. (In other words, the Earth and all physical life is not especially protected, and God could, in fact, choose to destroy the Earth--or allow the Earth to destroy itself--if that's what it takes to implement God's Larger Plan. There is no guarantee of our physical survival as a species.

This has led to an even further extension of the God Story to include a final idea:

5. God does, in fact, intend for life as we know it to be destroyed as part of the process by which God asserts Himself in our world; the moments when this happens shall be called The End Times--and this end to everything IS what is guaranteed.

It is not clear when these End Times will come (they have been variously predicted for centuries and millennia). By adding this Uncertainty Principle to the God Story, humanity can explain the Always Present degradation of life as we know it, the constant and never-ending struggles that individuals experience as they move through their days and nights, and the seemingly inexorable movement toward ultimate self-annihilation.

Thus, we can have it all: a Life that is difficult and challenging at best, and that is leading, in any event, to its own destruction, and a God who promises us not to worry, that all things will be just fine for those who believe in Him and come to Him (in a certain and particular way).

So we have largely, as a species, set aside the question of whether a God exists (surveys show that the vast majority of people in virtually every culture believe in a Power Greater than themselves, called, variously, God, Allah, Jehovah, Brahmin, Yahweh, Lord, Krishna, and whatever else it pleases humans to refer to It by). We have focused, instead, on why God exists, on what God wants, and on how we can give it to Him in order that we might garner that not-on-earth reward which will cause our unrewarding earthly life to make sense--or at least render it bearable.

Yet while the majority of humans on the Earth believe in some sort of God, not everyone does. And many say they simply do not know one way or the other. And so we have atheists and agnostics, as well as believers.

It is not sufficient to be a Believer, however. One must be the right kind of Believer. If one is the wrong kind of Believer one is going to miss out on the not-on-earth reward anyway.

No, it is worse than that. If one is the wrong kind of Believer, one will be punished. Not only will one miss out on the after-life reward, one will be required to endure everlasting, unremitting, and indescribable torture, anguish, and suffering.

This, in admittedly simple terms, is humanity's Cultural Story about God.

Now along comes Conversations with God to upset the apple cart, to undo all of this and to offer humanity a new Cultural Story about the Power That Is.

This New Story about God turns out to be the oldest story there is, and is imbedded deep within the cellular memory of humankind--which is why millions upon millions of people, when they hear the story, immediately agree with it, often saying things like, "Of course." Or, "I knew this all along." Or, "This is exactly the way I always thought it was." Or, "Finally, someone has said it the way I experience it." Or, simply, "What's new?"

The New Story tells us that there is a "God", or, if you please, a Power Greater than us, but that we have not understood It completely, not grasped Its totality, not understood its Nature or its Purpose or its Function--and that we have incorrectly assessed what It wants.

There is a God, I can assure you. In this, most of humanity has it right. I think we understand intuitively that this must be so. Or maybe we just want to believe in a Power Greater. Either way, we have it right. God exists. And the existence of God becomes virtually undeniable (and imminently more useful) the moment we change our minds about Who God Is and What God Wants.

The most important theological issue of our time is not whether people believe IN God, but what they believe ABOUT God.

what is life?

Life is energy, expressed. Life is not an event or occurrence, but an eternal expression of an eternal process by which energy demonstrates itself in endlessly multitudinous forms. This Energy has no "beginning" and no "end." It is best not to think of this in a straight line, using straight-line logic. Think of it as a circle. Use circular logic. Life always was, is now, and always will be. It turns in on Itself.

Life is the "Isness." It simply IS. It is That Which Is. It is going on Now, and only Now. There is no other time that Life is occurring. And it is occurring, always, Right Here. There is no other place for It to occur. Life is always occurring, and all ways occurring, Here and Now. Everything else is an illusion; a way of separating Here and Now, and of dividing them into parcels of the mind (or, ways of perceiving) called Then and There, Before and After, and so forth. Yet It is all expressing in a Single Moment and a Single Place.

This expression of The Energy that we call Life follows basic principles. These are: Functionality, Adaptability, and Sustainability. All of Life is Functional. If it teeters towards the edge of functionality, it immediately Adapts, thus rendering Itself Sustainable -- and, therefore, optimally Functional again.

There is only One Energy, expressing Itself variously, depending upon the rate of speed - or the frequency -- at which The Energy oscillates. The fundamental and basic form of Energy is the Wave. Energy expresses as waves.

When waves move through what we refer to as space (more correctly, the ether), they vibrate. Indeed, it is this vibration that causes the movement; that is the movement. It would be accurate to say that all of Life is vibration.

Whenever The Energy that is Life vibrates, it makes noise that waves through the ether with the primal sound of om. This is an extremely low frequency rumble that vibrates with massive intensity that impacts upon Itself.

This is the most important statement you will ever hear. I am saying that the effect creates an effect upon itself. Thus, Life is both an Expression and an Experience; both The Creator and The Created.

It would be accurate to say that Life expresses Itself through the expression of Life Itself -- and that Life experiences Itself through the experience of Life Itself. In other words, the Expression produces an Experience which produces and Expression which produces an Experience which produces an Expression -- and on and on and on in a never-ending, circular process in which both the Expression and the Experience are occurring sequentially and simultaneously in the Only Moment There Is.

Thus, Life is sequentaneous..

When you understand this, you understand everything you need to know about Everything.

The movement of Life, its vibration, produces more movement or vibration, which produces more movement or vibration, in ever increasing frequency. This process is called Evolution.

As The Energy that is Life vibrates more and more rapidly, it agitates itself, producing heat. Eventually this heat becomes white hot - creating Light.

One of our mythologies put it this way: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God; and the Word was God. And God said, "Let there be light."

This Light might be called the Physicalization of God, because it can be seen by the naked eye. Yet in truest sense, the All of Everything is a Physicalization of the Divine, because there is nothing that is not physical. All Things are physical, although not in the sense that we have come to most commonly use the word.

In our normal, day-to-day vocabulary, that which is "physical" is generally understood to mean that which can be seen, or at least measured (such as sound, gravity, etc.) In truth, all things -- seen and unseen -- are physical, and some things are more than that. These things are META-physical -- that is, larger than the merely physical. Yet "metaphysical" does not mean NON-physical...and this is a major misunderstanding.

Life is a never-ending experience of physicality, in one form or another. What we call the "spirit" is simply the body in another form. Body, Mind, and Spirit are actually three experiences of the Same Expression, called Life.

EXERCISE #1 - Look around you and see if you can observe Energy vibrating in any form. Make a list of ways in which you notice this occurring.

excerpt from neale's blog

housing operation in Aklan

went for another trip to Aklan. this time we brought along with us a canter filled with nipa and some more goods for distribution. i went ahead with Kim and 3 reps from DMCG Barrio Obrero: Nong Ronnie (president), Biboy (vice president) and Nong Tote (member)

with Nong Tote (right) and Nong Ronnie (left)

we went back to see how Laserna people are after over a month of 'Frank'. some have started to pick up the pieces and have built a temporary shelter, those without roofs and walls have made use of what Red Cross has given them, a tarpauline.

kalooy man ang pamilya nga may mga kabataan. everytime gaulan gasilong sa basa. ang hirap din maghanap ng mabibiling nipa ngayon. kung meron man sobrang mahal na like P700/hundred pieces @ 5ft. long
ang kawayan naman pinakamababa ang P50/each good for haligi ng bahay. ang kilo ng pako tumaas na hanggang P80/kilo ang plastic rattan @ P160/kilo. after what happened di ko pa rin maintindihan bakit di makontrol ng gobyerno ang pagtaas ng housing materials. kaya hanggang ngayon lugmok pa rin ang karamihang bahay kasi wala na ngang pambili ng pagkain o kaya man lang gamot ang mahal pa ng bilihin para ipaayos ang bahay. kaloka!

bakit kaya ang tao gusto laging manlamang sa kapwa? bakit ang hirap intindihin na ang nilalamangan mo kapwa mo, bahagi ng iyong pagkatao, kadugo, kababayan, kapatid, kaibigan? oo andun na ako na tumaas na lahat ng presyo pero sa ganitong pagkakataon ba naman tayo tayo di pa rin magtutulungan? pa'no na lang ang mga taong di makabili ng nipa o kaya kawayan o kaya pako man lang? pa'no na sila?

sana po magising tayong lahat sa katotohanan na tayo'y iisang dugo lamang.