"Pairs of opposites." It's the mental landscape where there are the good guys and the bad guys. It is the broth of our Western civilization. Right and wrong. Black and white. Like and dislike. Grasping and aversion. Past and future. Praise and blame.
That should be obvious on its face. Just a plain fact. If you dispute that, then please offer a comment. I'm attempting to understand the situation even as I try to lift the conversation away from the infinite circularity of arguing both sides of a worthless coin without any possibility of resolution. Oh, you say, there is resolution. One side wins, the other loses. That's the resolution. As if.
Politically we appear to be in a stalemate situation where each side of the aisle is firmly and unalterably convinced that the other side is wrong; so wrong, in fact, that whichever side in power it would be the end of Democracy, and maybe the world from the point of view of the losing side. Just now we have half the folks choosing one side; the half, the other. No one seemingly willing to budge. And, one side apparently so right about it's position and the direness of the other one winning that it is willing to break norms of decency and even legality to make sure they prevail.
Are we so wrapped up in the argument, like two guys in a street fight, that we don't see what's down the road if we continue to keep raising the stakes to a do-or-die end game? And, by the way, who's calling the game? And, why? Are the propaganda spinners so ignorant themselves that they don't see beyond the game? Or, are they smart enough to spin the game? What's the difference. What game? The difference is that you and me are being gamed.
The game is this: "Taking Sides". Fine for sports. Even fine for politics, when politics is about issues. Now, it's just for power. When you're right, there's really no use discussing. Just need to get your way.
Am I right?
"Forgiveness." It's one of those words we use rather too casually. We're assuming everyone has the same take. Assuming also we ourselves understand what it is. What it entails.
"Love" is another one of those. "I love you!" "I love Sushi!" And then ... recently reading how scientists are looking into "consciousness" in the animal kingdom; using the term, but not in my reading explicating on what is the understood common definition of "consciousness'.
So "Forgiveness". It's been on my plate of life learning for a long time. Not just looking for a complete and accurate definition, a convincing set of words; but for understanding what it is, and how to exercise the choice to forgive.
Forgiveness is a practice. An act of courage.
Nisargadatta Maharaj makes the point crystal clear:Forgiveness is also a letting go. Just what is it do we let go when we forgive? Mostly it seems when we talk about forgiveness we're referring to something bad that we experienced. Most often perceived as being from the hand of another. Too often we throw out the baby with the bathwater. That is, we "move on" from the issue and from the evil-doer. Out of sight, out of mind.
But forgiveness is not just over the bad stuff, but the good stuff too. The world seems to live in a constant flux between grasping for the "good" and pushing away the "bad". It's the ideas we hold on to about just what is "good" and what is "bad" that need to be let go. Why? So you can be present in the moment and look at what's so with a clear eye. Like I already said.
Nisargadatta: "Discover all that you are not — body, feelings thoughts, time, space, this or that — nothing, concrete or abstract, which you perceive can be you. The very act of perceiving shows that you are not what you perceive. The clearer you understand on the level of mind you can be described in negative terms only, the quicker will you come to the end of your search and realize that you are the limitless being."
A Course in Miracles is also a good reference. It's really all about forgiveness. As in, letting go of the past opens the present moment for creative options ... miracles.
ACIM puts it right there from the beginning: "What's Real can't be threatened. What's unreal doesn't exist. Herein lies the Peace of God."
Of course, if you don't believe in God, then fuck all that. Be like that. On your own. How's that going for you, Pilgrim?
Flirting ... then and now —
Jules Duvelleroy's Language of the Fan ...
From Of Human Bondage 1934 ...
The TV screen is a frame. No brainer on that point. Literally, huh? And, the contents we view on that device, and our other viewing devices; also frames.
And, basically, what we're watching is something how somebody who we may or may not even know, how they see it. What is given us to watch. We give credence easily when what is being presented matches our real world experience. Or, are amused, when the presentation is off kilter, or screwballed comedically. And — Alert! Alert! — when biased presentations match our own biases. "Bias Confirmation" is what it's called.
Then there's the more basic framing which has to do with what is made available for viewing. In the Internet Age, this may seem moot since we can just about call up whatever we want at the push of a button. But we do look a lot at content which is based on some other one providing that content. News, for one. SNL even.
And, by the way, the future is soon to arrive where with the proper chip you'll just be able to think it and it'll show up on the screen. Future, future ... think it, and it'll show up in a virtual field right in front of your eyes. And, a word of caution on that wonderful Brave New Word possibility: that chip ... it's a two way street. For the convenience of translating thinking to image making, such tech could ever so easily also reverse the connection and literally put thoughts into your own head. Think about that.
See, right there. That's my frame. A frame that casts things in the light of conspiracy theories. But, consider it. There are machers working as we speak to finagle such chips like that. You heard of Elon Musk? Musk is too ... much. First iterations are for to have the blessings of medical science. What could go wrong. Extend the idea further and imagine where it can go.
Then there's AI.
Artificial Intelligence will give the "thought leaders" the tools to jigger the algorithm to get just the right thoughts into the right brains. Sit back and relax, we know what's good for you. What is that, Big Brother? It's what's good for me! You can see it well enough for yourself. Just go and search something to buy. Darned if some ever so helpful, anonymous techie hasn't jiggered into your frame of view all sorts of ads for just what we know you're looking for. And, you are welcome. Just trying to be helpful. But also let's make a buck whilst we're saving the planet.
The news is a perfect example of unnoticed, subconscious framing. Somebody has to decide what is news, and what of all the news is going to go into the time slots. The NY Times motto: "All the news that's fit to print" says it in plain English. Just who is deciding what's "fit". And, who the fuck are they anyway? And, by what lights are they living their lives, and attempting to influence mine? And, who frames the frame they frame? Who's you Daddy!? By the way, the word "kosher", it means "fit"? If you're a reader of the newspaper of record you might refigure their motto as, "All the news that fits".
Argh! It can give you a fit.
But wait, not only is it a decision on what to present as news, but the biases that editors and their minions process into their presentations are also present. If you don't know what that is, just watch the news. Pick your channel. Quite obviously, there are differences. Politically. And, you can bet also based on unabashed self-interest. That earnest and assertive overly made-up and coiffed with the tight fitting dress isn't just a patriot delivering the news of the day, there's a career on the line don't you know. Compounded by they're quite possibly a bunch of doodoo heads in front of and behind the camera.
So what do we make of all that? Well, I acknowledge that I just did some framing. But, the framing is about framing.
The frame I'm attempting to hold up for your viewing is to suggest up-leveling our awareness to become aware of the framing being presenting in the media. Not to denigrate it. Or, to go on endlessly arguing over what frame is the right own. Choose the frame that suits you. But ... just acknowledge that you're looking with a frame. See it for what it is. That it's there, coloring things. When you do that then you can step out of the frame and be responsible yourself for shaping the frame.
The warring in the world should be enough to suggest that a new frame is necessary. Unless, of course, you like to fight as a way of living. Because, if you do, the guys that make a living from you living with war as the ordained state of things all to happy to oblige.
If the world is as you see it ... and you want to do something about it ... change the frame. Change the prescription on those "glasses". Also, spend some time quietly and unplugged. Not just from the medium and its messages, but from the chatter in you keppe. You know, that little voice going on in your head that we so easily take to be who we are. You say, "There's no voice in my head!" Oh, really. Says who?
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WHERE IS YOUR REAL INTEREST?
If you follow what's presented as "news" in this year of The Lord 2024 you no doubt have witnessed more than a little unmasked and unbridled demonization being served up.
Question is, who does that serve? And, by the way, not just currently, but going on now for a long time.
Witness the 24/7 non-stop assault on Donald Trump by the Dems and their media supporters. The Republicans warnings about "socialism". Biden calling Putin a "butcher", a "war criminal", a " mass murderer". Trump, well, he is past master of the withering put down. The Israeli leadership labeling Palestinians "non-human". Many Muslin countries regarding the US of A as the "great Satan". [Which, by the way, we might want to consider their point of view, not just toss it off as they're jealous of our way of life. In fact, they may just most likely see the West as threatening their way of life.]
Mr. Trump is currently as of this writing, he's selling Bibles. The irony being that the castigation of one's opponents is now ratcheted up to "biblical" proportions. Never mind if it is laughable to you that book even fits in his hands. Donald! What would Jesus do? It's in that $60 book you're peddling.
What are they thinking? If I'm convinced that one or the other of the candidates, if they get in office, it's the end of the world ... then, what would you expect it to look like if a whole bunch of us hoi polloi get that in our heads that that is a possible reality, not just political rhetoric? What do you think a citizenry all cranked up to a fever pitch level would look like out on the mean streets? What are they thinking?
Never mind the global game of chicken in Eastern Europe. Or, the ever escalating carnage and destruction in the Middle East. Just to name a few on a very long list of shit storms going down around the world as we speak.
Oh, you say, it would never get out of hand. You think It is out of hand! Just, maybe, let's assume we can contain it to where it's at, and not on our shores. What could go wrong. So, vote the right one in, and prevent armageddon and the annihilation of Humans and the Planet.
We should be having a shit-in-your-pants moment if we're reading the news these days. But, apparently not. We're all up over who wore what at the Oscars, and who won the awards. And, what's her name and her publicity linked footballer boy friend having been seen holding hands at some swell restaurant. Or, what some high profile twat is wearing showing off so you can get your eyeballs on her "charms". I bet some reading this are more offended by the use of the word "twat" than any of the stuff actually going on in real time. If so, what does that make you? A cunt. Which being offended by that, proves it!
So ... "demonization". What's it good for? Apparently, for votes. Like war, what's that good for? Who said it, "Fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity".
So, Pilgrim, let me ask you this: Are you all wrapped up in the back and forth over who's your "demon"? Who's your Daddy? With all the justifications you've certainly come to on your very own without any influence by the manufacturers of consent with their so skillful propaganda narrative machinations? Are you? That is, so wrapped up at that level of black and white, good and bad, our way or the highway, that you miss the game itself. It is afoot. Missing it, the foot's up your ass. But, maybe it's clenched so tight you forgot that it wasn't there to begin with. Just sayin'.
Never mind for a moment being invested in taking sides. The game itself, not that. The game of "demonization". Just another spin on "Taking Sides". Never mind the justifications. If you can't read this without simply seeing the game itself, then I don't know what will get you out of the game. Games are fine. They are played, then they're over. The game of demonization has an end-game too. And, it ain't gonna be pretty. Maybe not like in sports where we watch then go to other business. The end-game currently on the world collective screen has no winner. And, hell to pay for the losers and the winners.
Time to call the game. And consider playing something where we all can win. Zero-sum is so over. Profit at another's expense. How about a world oriented to service. What can I offer my fellows ... the Planet.
We may be in a moment of "cultural shift". A fin de siรจcle of the Cartesian dualistic game board with which we've been playing good versus evil. Or, as we also call it in this permutation, "demonization". Same thing. Just, the latter, writ horribly large and mortally threatening.
So, you want to consider "cultural shift"? What to do?
Do this: Take stock.
Spend some regular time away from the daily grind and look at what is it that you want in life. What is important to you? What you want for your loved ones; for all every one of us God's children? What ideas do you hold so close? Prejudices? What agreements have you made with yourself, with others, that are set in place?
Do that with no judgment. Just a simple honesty with yourself. Know that all of that, it's based on choices. Some still applicable, some maybe need to be modified or tossed out altogether. Consider choosing a world you would want; not just what some smarty pants or pol climber says you should have and you believe them because they're wrapped in the flag and besides the other guy is a bona fide bum.
You have choice.
Stop playing the game. Start living into your best self. Trust you basic goodness. Maybe even pray.
On the morning of Easter Sunday 2024, Pope Francis presided over Mass in St. Peter’s Square before delivering his Urbi et Orbi message and blessing from the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica in the presence of an estimated 60,000 people.
“Urbi et orbi” means “To the city [of Rome] and to the world.” It is a special apostolic blessing given by the pope every year on Easter Sunday, Christmas, and other special occasions.
Here is the full text of the pope’s blessing:
Dear brothers and sisters: Happy Easter!
Today throughout the world there resounds the message proclaimed 2,000 years ago from Jerusalem: “Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, has been raised!” (Mk 16:6).
This is the amazing discovery of that Easter morning: The stone, the immense stone, was rolled away. The astonishment of the women is our astonishment as well: The tomb of Jesus is open, and it is empty! From this, everything begins anew! A new path leads through that empty tomb: The path that none of us, but God alone, could open: the path of life in the midst of death, the path of peace in the midst of war, the path of reconciliation in the midst of hatred, the path of fraternity in the midst of hostility.
Brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ is risen! He alone has the power to roll away the stones that block the path to life. He, the living One, is himself that path. He is the Way: the way that leads to life, the way of peace, reconciliation, and fraternity. He opens that path, humanly impossible, because he alone takes away the sin of the world and forgives us our sins. For without God’s forgiveness, that stone cannot be removed. Without the forgiveness of sins, there is no overcoming the barriers of prejudice, mutual recrimination, the presumption that we are always right and others wrong. Only the risen Christ, by granting us the forgiveness of our sins, opens the way for a renewed world.
Jesus alone opens up before us the doors of life, those
doors that continually we shut with the wars spreading throughout the world.
Today we want, first and foremost, to turn our eyes to the holy city of
Jerusalem, that witnessed the mystery of the passion, death, and resurrection
of Jesus, and to all the Christian communities of the Holy Land.
My thoughts go especially to the victims of the many conflicts worldwide, beginning with those in Israel and Palestine, and in Ukraine. May the risen Christ open a path of peace for the war-torn peoples of those regions. In calling for respect for the principles of international law, I express my hope for a general exchange of all prisoners between Russia and Ukraine: all for the sake of all!
I appeal once again that access to humanitarian aid be ensured to Gaza, and call once more for the prompt release of the hostages seized on 7 October last and for an immediate cease-fire in the Strip.
Let us not allow the current hostilities to continue to have grave repercussions on the civil population, by now at the limit of its endurance, and above all on the children. How much suffering we see in the eyes of the children: The children in those lands at war have forgotten how to smile! With those eyes, they ask us: Why? Why all this death? Why all this destruction? War is always an absurdity, war is always a defeat! Let us not allow the strengthening winds of war to blow on Europe and the Mediterranean. Let us not yield to the logic of weapons and rearming. Peace is never made with arms, but with outstretched hands and open hearts.
Brothers and sisters, let us not forget Syria, which for 13 years has suffered from the effects of a long and devastating war. So many deaths and disappearances, so much poverty and destruction call for a response on the part of everyone, and of the international community.
My thoughts turn today in a special way to Lebanon, which
has for some time experienced institutional impasse and a deepening economic
and social crisis, now aggravated by the hostilities on its border with Israel.
May the risen Lord console the beloved Lebanese people and sustain the entire
country in its vocation to be a land of encounter, coexistence, and pluralism.
I also think in particular of the region of the Western Balkans, where significant steps are being taken toward integration in the European project. May ethnic, cultural, and confessional differences not be a cause of division but rather a source of enrichment for all of Europe and for the world as a whole.
I likewise encourage the discussions taking place between Armenia and Azerbaijan, so that, with the support of the international community, they can pursue dialogue, assist the displaced, respect the places of worship of the various religious confessions, and arrive as soon as possible at a definitive peace agreement.
May the risen Christ open a path of hope to all those who in other parts of the world are suffering from violence, conflict, food insecurity, and the effects of climate change. May the Lord grant consolation to the victims of terrorism in all its forms. Let us pray for all those who have lost their lives and implore the repentance and conversion of the perpetrators of those crimes.
May the risen Lord assist the Haitian people, so that there
can soon be an end to the acts of violence, devastation, and bloodshed in that
country, and that it can advance on the path to democracy and fraternity.
May Christ grant consolation and strength to the Rohingya, beset by a grave humanitarian crisis, and open a path to reconciliation in Myanmar, torn for years now by internal conflicts, so that every logic of violence may be definitively abandoned.
May the Lord open paths of peace on the African continent, especially for the suffering peoples in Sudan and in the entire region of the Sahel, in the Horn of Africa, in the region of Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in the province of Capo Delgado in Mozambique, and bring an end to the prolonged situation of drought, which affects vast areas and provokes famine and hunger.
May the Risen One make the light of his face shine upon migrants and on all those who are passing through a period of economic difficulty, and offer them consolation and hope in their moment of need. May Christ guide all persons of goodwill to unite themselves in solidarity, in order to address together the many challenges that loom over the poorest families in their search for a better life and happiness.
On this day when we celebrate the life given us in the resurrection of the Son, let us remember the infinite love of God for each of us: a love that overcomes every limit and every weakness. And yet how much the precious gift of life is despised! How many children cannot even be born? How many die of hunger and are deprived of essential care or are victims of abuse and violence? How many lives are made objects of trafficking for the increasing commerce in human beings?
Brothers and sisters, on the day when Christ has set us free from the slavery of death, I appeal to all who have political responsibilities to spare no efforts in combatting the scourge of human trafficking, by working tirelessly to dismantle the networks of exploitation, and to bring freedom to those who are their victims. May the Lord comfort their families, above all those who anxiously await news of their loved ones, and ensure them comfort and hope.
May the light of the Resurrection illuminate our minds and convert our hearts, and make us aware of the value of every human life, which must be welcomed, protected, and loved.
A happy Easter to all!
WHAT SHOULD I DO ABOUT THOUGHT?! "Whatever kind of thought arises, Have the same reaction: ... 'Not me, not my business'. It ca...
