Pat Spells God

~ visual iconography about the true story of the United States of America as it evolves into the 21st Century ~ works of art by an eclectic master artist who is a true patriot of the Planet Earth ~ 

Comments

[LarryO]

Pertinent to the subject of religion and government, Sam Smith has posted an essay here, which begins:

"As far as the government and the media are concerned, the world's fourth largest belief system doesn't exist. By one count, In number of adherents it's behind Christianity, Islam and Buddhism but ahead of Hinduism. Globally it's 85% the size of Catholicism and in America just a little smaller than Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Lutherans put together. Perhaps most astoundingly, given today's politics, in the U.S. it is roughly the size of the Southern Baptist congregation. Another count puts it in third place with Buddhism a distant 6th.

Its leaders, however, are not invited to open Senate sessions. Our politicians do not quote them and our news shows do not interview them. And while it is a sin, if not a crime, to be anti-Catholic or anti-Semitic, disparaging this faith is not only permitted, it is publicly encouraged. The media acts as though it doesn't exist. You'd need an exceptional lawyer to sue your employer for ridiculing your belief in it. Its adherents are repeatedly and explicitly excluded from the category of "people of faith" even though they are among the most steadfast and well-grounded in their beliefs. Finally, if one of its major figures dies, you will probably not read about it, let alone find the president, two ex-presidents and Brian Williams flying off for the service.

So completely is this belief system excluded from our national consciousness that we do not even have a name for it. So let's give it one, at least for this article: shafarism - standing for secularism, humanism, atheism, free thought, agnosticism, and rationalism.

Shafars are 850 million people around the globe and at least 20 million at home who are ignored, insulted, or commonly considered less worthy than those who adhere to faiths based on mythology and folklore rather than on logic, empiricism, verifiable history, and science.

This might be considered just another of the world's many injustices were it not for the fact that the globe is currently exceptionally endangered by a madness driven by false prophets of major traditional mythologies such as bin Laden, Bush and Sharon. Seldom has organized religion been so ubiquitously harmful. Even in our own country the dismantling of our republic and its constitution is being led by a extremist Christian cabal that not only is a political travesty but a mockery of its own professed faith."

It is well worth looking at.

[Roberta]

I admire and bow to the light within any human being who has the courage to be fully human and the wisdom to show up in their own life and live compassion at its fullest - Abe Lincoln - and, may I copy and post your brilliant writing knowledge about Lincoln, on the “Party of Lincoln?”

I am certain that there is no human being on this planet - I have learned somewhere that the count is 650 billion of us now, and this is two-thirds too many for this intelligent life form to sustain - who gets to opt out of compassion.

Thus, I can only surmise that the sweet baby Jesus has noticed the rotten baby Bush to speak words of compassion and yet live actions of no mercy. GWB is the epitome of distorted, corrupted - thoughts, feelings, actions - and his behavior is moving in any direction BUT enlightenment. This is a judgment, but I have to draw a boundary somewhere with this blubbering pile of protoplasm, snarling little twit.

My experience in self discovery has been an interesting endeavor. I have lived on the streets, with no money, food, and in abject poverty, with two children in tow. It was/is a story that I created. I am the author and the publisher. It lasted for approximately eight years, off and on.

Why did I do this? Supposedly it was because I wrote on a piece of paper, according to someone who studied Gurjeiff, to “apply all my powers to achieve and/or attain enlightenment.” Whew, be careful for what one requests from the universe.

“In Search of the Miraculous,” by PD Ouspensky. Interesting read. More interesting is the fact that Gurjeiff was an incredible task master to those he considered “asleep.”

He became a rug merchant for awhile, traveling around Europe, selling beautifully crafted, handwoven, designed carpets. When a woman wanted to purchase one, he dickered with her until she finally caved in and said she would purchase the carpet at the price Gurjeiff insisted. He then proceeded to roll up the carpet and walk away from the sale. The lesson was for this woman and her alone.

GWB has a legacy alright, and I believe it is to ruin his family name. He has already been the unbridled energy that causes chaos and destruction, with no understanding about the grace of subtle energy as order, a necessity born out of chaos. GHWB is no different. “The apple does not fall far from the tree.” Or, alternatively, “do not sit with men who contradict what ye believe in lest ye become one of them.” Lastly, "if the father has eaten sour grapes his children's teeth shall be set on edge."

The “Bush Crime Family” must self-destruct, its entire family tree, in the American stories of those who are historically remembered. This is what GWB signed a contract with God to do. Shakespeare would have loved to have this story to tell!

The deal is with me, I have my own lessons and the biggest is about being patient with myself. My mother was Jewish and my father was Catholic. I got all the martyrdom, guilt, toxic shame, and other forms of baptismal fire that those who think religion is a way to breed perfection, melted into my DNA. But, being the energy alchemist that I came here to be, I am purging my body, mind, spirit, from all that ridiculous cognitive dissonance, also known as "bees buzzing in the brain."

I am a pilgrim of life’s games and I did not come here to play just to win (although I am highly competitive). I believe I came here simply to learn how to master the energy of subtle in this world of gross, dense, physical.

I think, that by doing a rear view mirror of my life, this quest could take a few more life times.

Smiles ;-)

[michael bailey]

Roberta

I love the aphorism and appreciate and admire the depth of your cross-cultural wisdom. Personally I claim no knowledge of anything Zen-like. But I do appreciate the real "stuff" of life.

The use of iconography to support various nationalistic myths is not only damaging to our ability to understand the leaders of the past but is insulting to the memory of the real human beings they were.

Abraham Lincoln is a good example. His deification is too well known to comment on. But it is the man that interests me and your posting reminded me.

The journals of Lincoln's former law partner in Springfield, IL have revealed that Lincoln himself contracted syhplis on a lawyering trip to Indiana, probably in the early 1850s.

Mary Todd Lincoln's insanity is now thought to have been brought on by Lincoln's disease. Throughout his Presidency Lincoln defended and protected her, no matter how bizarre her behavior.

It is hard to imagine the crushing weight of responsibility on Lincoln's shoulders during the Civil War. Add to that the guilt of having caused Mary Todd's illness and, probably, the early death of their son Todd.
Of all his time in office Sandberg says that the only time Lincoln was seen to weep was at the time of the death of his child.

So this icon of American virtue and history is really just a flawed and normal human, warts and all. And like everyone else Lincoln reached deep inside himself to carry on with his responsibilities. At once a wartime President in the real sense and a flawed spouse who lived all his life with the consequence of a youthful indiscretion.

To me, far from diminishing Lincoln's stature, it enhances it. Enhances it greatly.

[roberta]

Mike Bailey, you crack me up and I laugh deep from my being that absolutely LOVES humor; but, you also give me pause to deeply reflect and write . . .

Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen - said, after she contracted syphilis from her husband while living in Africa - and, having to return to Europe to maybe die, which she did not: "To love God you must love the two things closest to his heart -- change and a joke."

What if it is true and God is simply energy and since everything is energy then maybe God has x-ray vision?

Suppose God can see clear through, even those stupid reams of cloth that nuns wear to be pious and holy?

How about, since God is LOVE, then he gets to make love to all the nuns, in their prayers, thus they are never invisible to the God that bathes naked?

Do you think God is laughing at my courage to have some fun with his/her amazing mystery?

Evil is LIVE spelled backwards. Men who do not live, are obviously dying, somehow. Whether this truth is about these poor wretches signing up for the job to cause as much horror, to ease the pain of suffering, that is on our horizon with the end of the age of petroleum, is my question.

I muse over the actions of all of us, human beings or “homo-sapiens,” and I honestly think we came to this planet to learn how to live in harmony. Obviously, we are flunking the lesson.

Harmony with our selves, first and foremost. Without self awareness or self discipline (and the only way to get these is to do what the Zen teachers teach - more on this later), we are not any different than the rocks that have energy, but are quite obviously, still rocks.

The Zen have many lessons which I like. One is about studying or meditating on a stone and being able to know the true nature of man. Because I am a stone carver I can relate to this beyond any words that can be written, here, now.

The other Zen teaching I like is about how to become enlightened. Evidently, they say we must be like water and as it is with water, a stream flows back to the ocean. During its travel it moves around, through, over, many other natural elements and also, debris - remaining true to its nature - water. Rushing, slowing, streaming to the water fall and like one drop of water, becoming individual for a time to know a fleeting moment, or not, consciousness. Then, flowing back into the stream, to the river and finally, home to the ocean. The Zen teachers liken it to knowing insanity in order to know sanity.

I have no judgment for this “League of Evil Gentlemen.” I, myself, have been insane more than once or twice in this life. But, I can say with clear conscience that I have never (during this life) desired the power to lead, control, dictate or destroy. I cannot be clear about anything other than this life I am now living.

The mystical truth of energy is what fascinates me more than even creating my art because it is alchemy, so to speak.

Therefore, I hope these people, who are in charge of the decision making that controls far to much of Mother Earth’s body, and causing us to be extinct as a species, get to come back as a swarm of mosquitoes. Then, they get to really and truly do “hard work” and give their best in serving the food chain of frogs, etc. Finally, I hope they, once pooped out the butt of the frog, get to be eaten by fish or become the maggots they really are.

Perhaps they will learn their lesson?

Again, I dunno.

But, it feels real good to this “ZaZen” to think of “no-mind” and enjoy seeing these people as maggots being eaten and pooped out to be eaten again and again, by our friends in the world of amphibians!

Perhaps I give new meaning to the word evil? I dunno. I have entertained evil thoughts more than once and I am happy my alchemy arts is still in the process of discovery because I would have not been nice to these so-called “leaders of the free world.”

I am alive and while I continue living life I shall do my best to serve humanity, just like you. This much I can be certain of and that is all, for now ;-)

[michael bailey]

Religion? Yes, Roberta, there is a Santa Claus.

When I was a boy I read an essay by Bertrand Russell. Raised as a Christian (there was no alternative) this simple paragraph revealed to me just how silly it is. Poof. Faith gone. Sanity restored.

Here it is: (from memory)

"Not far from by boyhood home in Sussex was a nunnery occupied by an order of pious nuns. So pious in fact that once they had taken their vows they were never again naked. Even in the bath they wore a covering. When asked why, since no man could see them, they replied, 'Oh, but you forget the good God.' Apparently they conceived of the deity as a supernatural peeping Tom what went about peering through convent walls but was foiled by a bathrobe."

Are Robinson, Dotson, Bush et al stupid or evil? That's the question.

[roberta]

My oh my, religion. Why do we not just call it like it is - superstition.

Einstein was an enlightened man. Gandhi, was enlightened, too. So was Martin Luther King, Jr. These great men NEVER tried to wield power over masses of peoples, to prove their own strength as men. Their religion was peace on Earth.

Mother Teresa was a Catholic, even when she died. However, I bet she is of no denomination in the realm of the unseen because there is no such thing as Catholic in the grand scheme of it all, only in the minds of catholic does catholic exist. MT spent most of her life helping the people of India endure THEIR suffering.

Why did not Mother Teresa teach the peoples of India about self esteem and birth control, instead of how to suffer more. Perhaps Mother Teresa thought that suffering was some kind of joy.

Who in the world decided human beings need to accept suffering as a necessary component of religion. It is certainly not my cup of tea.

I like what Einstein said: "I am no genius, I am merely extremely curious." This is my daily prayer. Furthermore, E also said that should we use 100% of our brain/mind, we would turn into the atomic energy that we already are.

Now, is not this an interesting thought, much more rewarding than suffering, if you ask me. I mean, I can go lots of places other than suffering with this idea. For example, I would love to become a humming bird, even for the short life of a joy that is only something I can imagine, now. Flapping my little wings faster than the speed of light. Sticking my long beak into beautiful, fragrant flowers. Sipping nectar, sweet delicious, life. God I love humming birds! And then, to transform all my atomic molecules into a butterfly. Monarchs are my favorite and I want to spin around and around, in and with, a funnel-like swarm of Monarch Butterflies, on my way to Michoacan, Mexico, from Canada, to spend the winter.

"Chang Tzu awakened from his dream and he wondered - was it Chang Tzu dreaming he was a butterfly or was it a butterfly dreaming he was Chang Tzu?" Chang Tzu, "Genius of the Absurd."

To think that these peoples (E, G, MLK Jr., MT) actually walked the earth, during the same cycle of seasons, off and on. So many minds and the synapses of the brain waves with such different frequencies. Distortion, corruption, thoughts-feelings-actions, where does it all come from and where does it all go. How do we become our own God-Self and take the burden off a God that is conjured up to be the worst boogie woogie man in the realm of potential for some and actual for others, “reality;” and/or the Mother/Father that takes care of and prayerfully spoils, rotten, its human beings?

Rescue me! Punish me for I am such a sinner! Screams religion. Please God, greater than I am, punish me for being imperfect and reward me for being perfect.

But, was it not the son of God, Jesus, who said: “I and my father are one.” ???

Wow, what a drag to be God. Maybe God fired itself from the job and that is why things are so fucked up.

I dunno.

Perhaps we should ask Helen Keller, after all she was born normal and by the age of 18 months she was “deaf, dumb and blind,” due to an infant influenza. Book out of print: “Optimism - The Key To My Life.” Helen Keller. Interesting that by the time she was 25, she graduated from Radcliffe and wrote her first book and yet, Helen was still “deaf, dumb and blind.” HK proved that vibrational frequencies (atomic energy) is reality.

Do you think, maybe, she did it herself and took the burden off God?

Religion was invented to dis-empower and my oh my, the brainwashing has worked.

Thank you Mike Bailey for such profound curiosity that dissects the history of men into the mystical - so we can embrace the opportunity of an open mind, and think about heaven, earth and humanity, America, where did it all begin and how does it all fit together - this darkening of the light, “religion.”

rkelly, artist & mortgage broker, All Saints Eve, 11/01/2005

[michael bailey]

It is certainly in all of our natures to desire some small indicator that logic or even something as primal as self-preservation
may assert itself.

The only time that secular values dominated any Western state was for a brief time at the end of the 18th Century in France. That period still shines in human history. But even it got "spun'' into a reaction to the "excesses" of the French Revolution. Napoleon used religion like they all do ... and it has never been seriously challenged since.

One of the greatest deceptions of American history, and one quietly accepted by even those who should know better, is that America's "founding fathers" were Christian men of deep religious faith. (Washington kneeling in prayer at Valley Forge comes to mind ... a wholly contived image which has done more harm than perhaps any other piece of art in human history). The facts are that each of the people responsible for the American revolution and the constitutional convention were firm "enlightenment" men. Each was a follower and believer in the encyclopediasts and Voltaire. Washington was a mason for Christsake. They were mostly all masons and in those days the Masonic Order met enlightenment. At the end of his life. Voltaire was risen to the highest masonic designations.

Of religion Jefferson wrote, "the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter." Even John Adams chimed in, "Twenty times in the course of my late reading, have I been on the point of breaking out 'this would be the best of all possible worlds (Voltarian, no?) if there was no religion in it."

But the whole temple is built on lies and it is hard to change lives that have never had their notions of truth challenged. Add to that the track record mankind maintains of always making the wrong choice; the mindless worship of "democracy," (counting noses as policy) and the usual fear and selfishness and I conclude that it is a bit early to expect anything positive to be on our threshold.

I also think that in our desire to find something good we tend to overemphasize minor events and try to make them out to be bigger than they are. Thus a footnote like 9/11 becomes the main historical event of all time. We react. And we will react again when some minor tragedy happens or it snows more than it should or the face of Mary shows up on a mountain side. (Why never on a sanitary napkin?)

Our best hope is for little pockets of quasi-freedom and enlightenment where the happy few can live out their lives more or less ignored by the demagogues, evangelists and other pests.

There are 8 billion people on earth. The vast majority are sick and hungry and that is all they think about. The rest are frightened of one damn thing or another and seek protection in herd instincts and the false sense humans get by tacitly agreeing to pretend to believe in something that no one of them as an individual would ever believe in.

Cheerio,
MTB