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TJ:

“I wonder what people today would value enough to pledge their honor and their future.

“People receive the government they allow. Dictators never seize power; they are given it. But the sudden coup d’état is much less pernicious than the slow erosion of the collective soul. Whenever we are less than vigilant and more than complacent, when needs and wants take the place of values and vision, then the structures may appear strong but the foundation is unsound. A democracy based on a weakened foundation is more perilous than a tyranny based on a sound underpinning; for the latter can be moved toward democracy without remediation, while the former is just play-acting, and the entire enterprise will need reconstitution. A revolution grows from strong foundations.

“Or, as our friend CT might say, you can’t build a three-tier wedding cake--no matter how grand and pleasing to the eye and palate--on a base of pudding. ‘I wouldn’t say that!’ O yes you would, and pudding is a term used in deference to the ladies present. ‘O.’

“So never judge a nation by its glories, but by its ordinary moments when its truth shines through.

“Today it is sort of like a Napoleon--some substance and some pudding. But if it be tempered again in the crucible of faith, vision, and courage, it can be transformed again into solid rock and suitable mortar. The real test of the Declaration was not its words, but what its words stirred in the hearts and actions of those who heard it. It was batter, baked in the furnaces of passion and reason." (7/4/2007)

"Sandy’s going to corner CT... grrrr... and shake him down for a bone... grrrr. But little does the dog know that CT has talked with TL and it will be a rubber chicken bone. Let’s watch.

"ARF ARF grrr. ‘Good boy’... grrr. ‘Good boy’... snap. ‘O dear, would you like a bone’... ARF ARF. ‘Here.’ F f f f ... grrrr... wooo. ‘What’s the matter, doggie.’ Awooo. ‘Bone got your tongue’... wooo.

"Another day on the other side.

“Now let’s replay it: Woe unto the deceivers, for theirs is the mighty pain of God. Those who hunger shall not be given a stone. Thus warneth the Lord. Is that more believable?

“A central question: Is what we expect more believable than the unexpected. If so, we might just miss the whole point. Expect the mighty God and get a rubber bone-eating dog, and which is more believable. But which will bring you insight. Even though said dog... wooo... seems nothing more than trivial, his unexpectedness is better than the same old same old.

“Why have a Heaven which is just a more perfect Earth, when marvels could entrance you?” (7/7/2007)

"People need to realize that what you want to be true must be intrinsic to a situation and not just imposed. True, there are an infinite number of probable connections across strands, but the only ones that will become realized are those whose qualities are inherent in the strands.

“Now, a road in Ireland could conceivably take you to Des Moines, but not with the strands we are living out. To drive between the two requires strands in which the continents are connected, or the sea is dry or frozen, or one can drive very fast and jump over the ocean. But our strands don’t offer those options. So, while the Dublin-Des Moines car trip is possible, it is not probable in our strands of reality.

“Wishful thinking is thinking outside one’s strands--creative but not grounded. Genius is not a matter of thinking outside the strands, but thinking deeply within them.

“Crusoe is stranded on an island. He sees only his stranded strand, until he is walking down the sandy strand of beach and finds another footprint strand. He could work with those footprints and enlarge his world, or he could dream of the signal flags put up at Greenwich, which would be outside his world of strands and do him no good.

“It’s not in the cards, nor in the stars, but in the strands. Ponder that.” (7/11/2007)

Marky:

"Bonjour. Ah, a day to remind us to never emprison our souls. So many stormed the Bastille, but more failed to storm the prisons of their lives--caught in fear and hatred and abuse and ignorance and blind faith. Had they assailed those, the world would have been better.

“It was not the Bastille that was the problem; it was the system of the less than perfect masquerading as the ideal (Sun King bullshit.) That is always a problem when we think the problem with the system is not also a problem within ourselves.

“CT asks if there were any elves in the Bastille. And I say, mon dieu, ees ee an idiot? But I do know he has freed himself of many chains that shackled his spirit, otherwise he would fear making such comments. Come the revolution, his jokes will be the first to go. We shall put his punchlines to the Madame. ‘O,’ he says, ‘a cutting remark.’ Just a name to drop... but I plunge on.

“No revolution of less than free spirits will ever succeed. Slaves like to change masters, but free spirits accept no masters. This is what we remember today.

“O that my country had the likes of yours. Perhaps ale is better than wine... no no no no. Pâté yes, bacon no. Grits no no no. Sausage gravy... hmmm, it is a sauce.

“So keep the spirit of revolution alive, but do not keep the spirit of the Revolution alive.” (7/14/2007)

"Once again we address the third harmonic of the electromagnetic plane... no no no no... well, in a way. Why are all the theories of spirit physically based. Of course, SP sounds like it, too--atoms to molecules to complexity--but remember always I use that as a metaphor, a model, a teaching tool, something to hang your hat on. Complexity of spirit is not the same as the complexity of a carbon-based molecule.

“The physical gives a hint, a glimmer, a point in the right direction, but it is not it. Nope, not it... you’re it. So, what’s the problem with all the spiritual systems? Nada. But when the spiritual system is subverted to the physical analogy, you got trouble in River City.

“This is the absolute, concrete truth: There is no absolute, concrete anything.

“So, be aware that when you stop an idea and put it into words or symbols, it is now in the mausoleum of human thought. How many pinned butterflies can fly.

“The trick is to see the picture but not be obsessed with the paint. Method means squat with the eternals; methods have to do with what has been. Teach a person the fundamentals of Renaissance painting and what do you get, copies of long ago. But let a person use the media of choice, and something new might happen.

“Why, I ask, would you want a Heaven which is just a better Earth, when you could have it all. People don’t dream too much; they dream too little. I’m pithed out. Pithburgh.” (8/1/2007)

"Energy always flows inordinately when we assume responsibility for another spirit. Mothers are exhausted because of this; novice counselors, and first-year ministers, and people with bad boundaries. When the personal circumstances don’t warrant the exhaustion perceived, then this is often the case.

“So, a person experiences a death and their life seems to move ahead, but they are tired by a life which makes few demands. Look for a link of assumed responsibility with the departed spirit. The reason some talk of taking spirits to the light is not about the spirits, but about them getting to be able to feel free of the assumed responsibility. The dead can get to the light perfectly well unless some living are hanging on. And don’t do us any favors. Know it is you the favor is for! But I rant.” (8/6/2007)

"Choice. Did you say choice, or did you opt to not say choice.

“Choices are fields of rippling meaning which radiate from acted-upon awareness. No one can know and not choose; that is not an option. If you know the possibilities, then what you do is choose, and not choosing is not a choice because it is not an option.

“Awareness removes the possibility of no choice because, in the moment of awareness, everything becomes a system of probabilities which you cannot ignore or mitigate. You know, therefore you have already chosen the field. Some think the issue is the choice of inputs or results, but the real choice is the field of possibilities--just like Lakoff’s windows are more important frames than the choices between the images in the frame. Ponder that.

“In other words, Christians see the world through the Christian lens, which means many choices are excluded from awareness. No, and the big choice is not Presbyterian or Seventh Day Adventist, but the Christian choice already made.

“Once you decide to have soup for lunch, casseroles fall out of the frame... but thank goodness they don’t fall out of the sky... ayeeee. It’s ok, he’s only half-baked.

“I have much more to say but I’ve said too much. Grab your ankles and waddle and quack, but that doesn’t make you a duck! no matter how hard you choose or don’t!” (8/10/2007)

"Grrrrrrrr. As she slept, a nagging suspicion gnawed at her... grrrrrrr. What? O them! Hi. Alarm dog. Without time, clocks don’t mean shit... grrr ARF. Good boy. And I do not sleep, I am just absent--spirit shutdown--because without time, what is sleep? But a quick momentary spirit blip can be awesome! Whoa. It’s juvenating--nothing re about it; takes you forward, not back. Same with physical sleep: You don’t sleep to get ready for yesterday.

“So juvenate. Sleeping to recover would mean you would be tired only from tiring days. It is prep, not recovery. No babies are born asleep; they arrive awake, prepped by sleep. ‘But what about the Einstein effect.’ CT, there is no Einstein effect. ‘O.’ Go back to sleep and prepare to be intelligent. Some life it may happen.” (8/28/2007)

"Let us clarify butter... no no no. Let us clarify energy. When I say energy, I do not mean the E of E=mc² and I do mean it. The E is one expression of energy; it’s the energy expression of your physical world. But it is only one facet of energy. It is the energy which makes your physical world physical. But, just as there are infinite levels of complexity, so, too, there are infinite types of energy... or I should say... ‘don’t say should’... ok, I could say, different expressions of something which you experience in part as energy.

“Your experience is only a part of the whole, and if you think the third harmonic of the electromagnetic wave of higher energy is a key, you aren’t getting what I’m saying: The whole, of which your experience of energy is, not just a hybrid of your experience. Higher vibrations don’t take you out of your paradigm. But higher vibrations do help some explore the limited realities of your physicality. But you are, by being at your level of complexity, stuck with just one face of what you call energy.

“It’s not something we totally understand at any level other than whole. When you get the whole picture, you’ll get it. Until then, you only get the energy, so to speak, which makes your experience possible. Does that mean that even now and there other facets are existing? Now, yes. There, no. Over there, yes. But the one over there is not here or there, but only over there. Each experience of a portion of the whole has its own facet.

“And it’s not called energy at every experience. Energy is only a metaphor which seems like a fact in your world. In fact, hehehehehe, until you are one with All That Is, every fact is a metaphor! Ponder that.” (9/6/2007)

“Energy as you experience it is a different expression--what is needed for what you call reality. What is real for you is what is real for you. You can’t experience that which is not in the construct which depends on that facet. But you will experience it, but not as you but as super-you--you more developed, more complex.

“This [channeling] is just a natural extension of your physical world. Otherwise, why would we need this phone or dreams or sessions. All you are doing is more deeply and widely exploring the same facet. You wouldn’t know another facet if you experienced it, so you can’t experience it. Ah, pith number 2.

“ ‘You can’t handle the facet. You don’t know what it’s like to be a spirit on the edge of facets, patrolling the border with those alien enemy facets just over the line. But it’s spirits like us that let spirits like you sleep safely at night!’ CT, you ramble on. Back to your guard post.

“If we experienced it, we wouldn’t know it because you can’t experience what is beyond your base of knowing. Quick, think of a number system that doesn’t use numbers. I’ve said enough.” (9/6/2007)

"Ok, back to knowing and experiencing. If all possibility is contained in all existence, why don’t we know it all... ARF! ... and that handsome stranger who is standing right here and looking perplexed.

“But having all possibility before us does not mean we know it all, just as having all ingredients before us doesn’t mean we know how to cook the rage dish of 2187. There was a time when folks had grain but didn’t know from flour. Hard to make a cake with wheat berries, but the potential is there. So you have to know something to get the experience of experience. And that’s that. Pack up the show. We’re done forever... or not.” (9/10/2007)

"Covered with pith pits: the kernels of truth that grow in any fertile experience, not reliant on complexity. ‘Aha,’ the wise say, ‘she’s giving us a deep Point to Ponder.’ And the rest say, ‘Huh.’ Ok, I’ll elaborate, illuminate... I’ll regurgitate... barf... ARF. No, barf... ARF. No. Woof. Ok.

“How many, she asked, of the things that are regarded as truth are dependent on the human condition? Probably most, and certainly on the physical condition. But real truth is not dependent on the situation but is transcendent. So for example, ‘all living things have DNA’ is a statement but not a truth--unless you play with definitions so DNA is a requirement of living beings. But if living beings mean the capacity to sustain and enhance oneself... ‘Hi.’ Don’t get him started. ‘Hi.’ Sandy... grrrrr. ‘Bye.’ Wow, he has 2 words. But we continue. What are we, chopped liver? We can sustain and enhance with the best of them... ‘not to mention dance.’ CT!

“There is no ultimate truth in any statement based on conditions. So while it is true that people in the desert are thirsty, that does not mean that people are thirsty. If it only applies to you at your complexity, you can’t say it is universal and eternal.

“Always look at the edges. See if there is an exception or a larger inclusion--like Galileo, who looked at other stars than just the sun.

“If you grow up in New York City, you might think that an egg cream is universal. But ask a tourist and you get a bigger view. Now do the same spiritually. Everyone connected to a specific spiritual path--be it religion or nature or mediumship--should, on a regular basis, explore deeply with a person or spirit of another conviction or practice.

“And so the pith for the day is: Don’t mistake conditionals for universals just because the conditions are yours or seem global. Global is not universal; timeless is not eternal.” (9/13/2007)

"Ponder this: Without time, there are either no interrupting cows, or all of them are. Ponder that.

“Can’t interrupt without time, but then everything is an interruption. Cosmic pith... with maple butter.” (9/18/2007)

"I’m atoning. I’m attuning. And here is the atonal dog... ARF. He’s been so good this year that he needs not atone... wooooof.

“Now here’s a ponderable: Each year the living make amends so they can be ascribed in the Book of Life for one more renewal period with options. But then they die and enter the timelessness. What then? You see, Yom Kippur is about a recognition--not of time, but of timelessness. It is the moment in time when eternity is real in the finite world. It’s not about getting another year; it’s about touching eternity for that sacred day.

“That’s how it started--as one day on which time did not matter: No food to prepare or eat, no work to do, just a glimpse of the eternal. But somebody said ‘What’s the point,’ so they added the atonement crap with the bonus prize of another year and your name written out... plus 6 Ginsu knives and your own plot of desert. But that was not the start.

“One day of timelessness, connecting from there to here. But could you get them to cut out the damn shofars. Doesn’t add squat. I know, custom, and I respect that. But don’t think it’s about shofars and torahs and break-the-fast meals. It’s about eternity and the infinite imbedded in the temporal and physical.

“Like it can’t be just an experience. ‘O boy, have I had experiences.’ CT, we don’t want to know. ‘O.’ Being informed is not enough, we want to get something out of it. It’s about this level, which is about moving through differentiation to connection. Some wise Jew said ‘You have to lose your life to find it,’ but he got reduced to Welch’s and wafers. And again, I mean no harm and respect customs, but don’t let customs obscure the meaning. Ok, that’s good.

“So, have a meaningful atonement, but don’t let it be vicarious. Be at one with yourself... and, ok, your elf.” (9/21/2007)

"I like al fresco. Al’s a great spirit. So, is it different in nature? Where isn’t it in nature.

“People keep assuming it’s nature, but it’s really people’s changed perspectives. I wonder if a forest ranger takes a vacation to Times Square and says ‘Ah, I can relax and see the larger picture.’ To us the sea is the beckoning horizon, but to a sailor it’s work. There is no place in the physical world with more meaning than another... ‘except for that one.’ CT!” (9/27/2007)

“Now about vibrations. Give it up. Same old crap at a higher frequency. [They] make it physical, which is to say reduce it. Such concepts make less out of more.” (9/27/2007)

“It’s like knitting in a tango rhythm while drinking a Mojito on the beach. Even if nothing comes of it, you’ve had a good time. And because you’ve had a good time, something comes of it.” (9/27/2007)

“It’s all about differentiation and connection at this level--complex enough to know difference, but not complex enough to transcend it, and even transcend connection. But I’ve said too much. Next time.

“Why transcend connection? Ponder, compare and contrast.” (9/27/2007)