Objectives:  the following 45 allegories, parables and metaphor are intended to create a symbolic frame of reference for the interpretation that follows each. The interpretations provide a conceptual foundation for the topic at hand to be further developed in the seven major dialogues.  NOTE: an allegory is a story in which metaphor is used to describe or or present a spiritual law or principle.  A parable is an allegory that presents a moral position.

The first series of stories are related to the OT/MP paradigm of C/consciousness.  They are intended to have you reflect on your fundamental nature.  All subsequent concepts in OT/MP depend on this fundamental awareness of C/consciousness.  The Master Site Index and Table below will show the relationships of the allegories, parables, and metaphor to the seven major dialogues and the Epilogue they support.

 Reflect on the challenge question that precedes each story.  Then take a few moments to contemplate and reflect after each story before continuing with the interpretation, or going on to the next story.
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Once upon a time there was a large house built of only three rooms, one upon the other. The first room on the ground floor had no useful windows because they were opaque. Evil men and their women and children occupied this room.  Because they could not see outside of the house, they were constantly afraid of what might lie there.  So they obsessively designed and played with weapons of war and the protective tools and toys of power, mastery and control. They knew there were two other rooms with occupants of some kind, because the nature of their habitat required that they provide these unknown dwellers with subsistence and basic materials.

The first floor dwellers sought to learn about their house and the other creatures who seemed to occupy it. They discovered that the second floor room dwellers fashioned their provisions into an unfathomable technology.  The first room dwellers held whoever they were in contempt, but had coveted the benefits of the technology their spies had found there. They constantly tried to intimidate the second room dwellers to force them to apply the technology to fully serve their first floor  needs.  Then they became determined to acquire the technology themselves.  Further, the first room dwellers had the only exit to the outside world.  Except for passing their waste material into the outside world through a special portal, they were unwilling to go out into that fearful unknown.  Perversely, they  would not permit any of the upper level inhabitants to leave the house.

The second room,  had only translucent window that let in some light through which the outer world could only be seen as dim and vague shapes. In this room there were groups of men, women and children who were not evil, but who occupied themselves with argument and debate as they created a sophisticated helping technology. They had a vague awareness of the inhabitants of the top level Third Room, but were unable to enter there. They feared the evil they recognized in the first room, and were constantly debating the problem.  But by the terms of the lease they had accepted, they could not remove them and so they felt constantly intimidated and helpless. They adjusted by denying the evil's relevance to their future.  They either tried to pacify their fears by persuasive arguments, or by generously indulging the inhabitants of the first room hoping to keep them at bay.  Some occupants of the second room tried to remain entirely aloof from them, and even deny the relevance of the first room altogether. While they strenuously debated the issue, they took no serious action.

The dwellers in the second room, being afraid of those in the first room, compensated by harassing the apparently even more helpless Third Room dwellers. Their lease required that they pass the basic subsistence items, such as food and water, into the Third Room which they did, sometimes in an abusive manner. They occasionally tried to enter the Third Room to intellectually tease and torment its dwellers, but failed. This became a kind of sport, but they could never figure out how to fully pass the door's locks. Thus, only the meager supplies and their taunting words could enter. They could not figure out whether the Third Room dwellers were able to leave their room, since they seemed to need so little resources, and no one could leave by the door in the first room even if they could sneak past their middle room.  In accordance with their own values and reasoned frame of reference, the Middle Room dwellers claimed that the occupants of the Third Room led pointless lives and were also helpless to the evil in the first room.  But the occupants of the Third Room did not oppose them and even ignored them. They did not even seem to care.

The men and women in the Third Room were aware of but indifferent to the inhabitants of the first two rooms. They were not interested in what they had found there. They were not concerned about the evil they had witnessed in the first room, nor in the technology, diversions and intellectual preoccupation they had found in the second room. These had no substance for them. So they ignored the intimidation coming from the first room and tolerated the occasional verbal contempt and harassment that came from the middle room. Because their windows were fully open to the light and information from the larger world in which their house existed, they had no need to address the concerns which occupied the dwellers of the other two rooms. Thus they lived their own lives peacefully and simply. They acquired and mastered only those resources, technology, and subsistence they needed to live comfortably. They occupied their time in Mystical discourse with the Intelligence evident in the larger world, which intelligence they realized had created their house in the first place. They had no need to care about the other occupants nor their unenlightened activities.

Then one night in the darkness, the evil men and women suddenly rushed from the first room into the second room and smashed all of its intellectual substance they could not use (e.g. books, records, culture) during which they attacked its helpless dwellers. They killed many and enslaved the remainder to do their bidding. Then they brought in their own children and reveled in the benefits of the technical and material largess they had taken. They ruthlessly used and abused the intellectual slaves they now forced to serve them.

As they prepared to enter the Third Room to attack and kill whoever its its inhabitants were in order to acquire and exploit even its modest material resources, they all suddenly and mysteriously fell fatally ill.  To the last man, woman and child, they all died, both the evil masters and their intellectual slaves. None ever set even one foot in the Third Room.

By dawn of the next day, the tenants of the Third Room were no longer trapped in their House of Three Rooms. They were peaceful, absent the evil threat of the first room, and without the torment of the occupants of the second room.  Since they were no longer trapped by the tenants of the two lower rooms, they freely left the house in which they had been held prisoner and lived happily ever after in the realms of light with which they had maintained discourse while trapped in their House of Three Rooms. Herein lies the key to "The Mystical Paradigm." Herein is the key to interpreting the significance of personal and world events. Herein is the key to the path of survival and personal peace and fulfillment. Herein is the key to creating social stability and harmony within our nation and among all nations of the earth. This is an old story.

Always take a few moments to contemplate (meditate on) each story before proceeding.  Then:

OPTION 1: IMMEDIATELY GO TO THE INTERPRETATION THAT FOLLOWS EACH STORY (Strongly Recommended).
Click here to go to the interpretation of The House of Three Rooms.

 NOTE:  if you arrive at a parable from one of the dialogues, then go to and read the interpretation.  At the end of each interpretation, there will be a link that will take you back to the jump point in the dialogue that brought you to the story.

OPTION 2:  WAIT UNTIL YOU ARE DIRECTED TO SUBSEQUENT STORIES FROM ONE OF THE SEVEN MAJOR DIALOGUES. Begin reading the major dialogues first.

OPTION 3:  READ ALL OF THE STORIES AT ONCE AND COME BACK TO READ THE INTERPRETATIONS LATER.   Least recommended to those who want to gain an effective understanding of the major concepts and ideas of the MP.  Full comprehension  requires developing your  knowledge base in the  systematic manner that results from choosing Options 1 or 2.  

You can go to the top of this page and link to any of the allegories, parables or metaphor displayed in the table, or continue by moving the slider button on the right to immediately read the next story in sequence.    See if you can figure out the point of OT/MP just from the stories.  All 45 allegories, parables and metaphor are on this page.  There is space between each story.

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Do you remember the following dream, or one very much like it?
 

Once upon a time as an infant child emerged from her fetal sleep during birth, she had the following dream. An Angel came to her appearing as a profound radiance. He/she stood before a large shimmering gate beyond which appeared even more radiant splendor. He spoke to her in language that was explicitly clear, yet without words. She felt his most profound emanation of LOVE. "Behold I now reveal to you TRUTH, which if you remember, you will directly experience the GRACE that is accessible to all."

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Immediately there appeared before the infant in place of the gate, a kind of screen that extended from horizon to horizon and above and below.. The Angel said, "Observe these patterns, and KNOW." Instantly, the Angel dissolved into what appeared to be millions of tiny boiling "dots," all diffuse and unorganized.  Yet the glowing presence of the angel's form seemed to persist within this chaos as a subtle Presence.  He appeared as ONE with a variety of passing shapes. The dots first seemed to  organize as waves, dynamic patterns, circles and other structural shapes, and then divide and multiply. Then they transformed, appearing amoeba like, then as tiny blobs of plant like creatures. Then they changed so as to appear as insects, reptiles, and bird like creatures as well as other small animals. There were continuous combinations of shapes and forms of increasingly larger and more complex animals, birds, and beasts. From within the midst of them, a form appeared independent of the others, appearing angel like, but not evolving from any of the ape like creatures she saw.  This unique creature was shaped, as she was to become, as human.  Then there were many more, becoming many beyond counting. Suddenly all of the living forms disintegrated, all dissolving into the roiling ocean of "dots,"--all of this a stunning display.

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And the Angel's awesome voice said gently, "KNOW also this pattern, and hear..." The child listened intently and heard a tone, pure and plain, F above middle C on the piano but ringing with a Cosmic depth. Then it became rich with harmonics, more and more beautiful beyond description. Then there was a second tone, and third. First with dissonance, then they resounded in magnificent harmony. Within this incredible harmony, she noticed a gentle pulsing beat, subtle, and then, anchored to this steady rhythm, there came an amazing variety of changing harmonics. All of this continued until these changes had demonstrated numerous variations of related harmonic possibilities.

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Suddenly, there was profound silence. It was stunning in its absoluteness, but was quickly followed this time by a simple melody, a combination of single harmonic tones and the steady rhythmic beat, and the boiling ocean of dots with their multiplicity of forms reappeared. As though chasing the first,  a second melody was heard, and then a third melody, and even a fourth, all chasing each other while the persistent beat within it remained subtle but increasing in energy, complexity, and tempo. Like the beating heart, then many hearts, the patterns developed into a giant cosmic fugue, profoundly complex yet amazing in its coherence. Then, abruptly-- this extraordinary harmony became so still that the silence itself literally rang with its emptiness.

Then to the transfixed infant's continuing amazement, this musical energy then transfigured itself into a strange new sound, a kind of babel that evolved from the music beginning as crude, bestial, grunts, whistles and screams, and then primitive "shaped" sounds coming from the boiling dots of various animals and human shapes. Then the bestial sounds receded and the human babbling becoming ever more diverse and elegant finally culminating in a vast vocal fugue. The complexity of these human sights and sounds were attached to the growing complexity of the dancing human forms. Dancing individuals were then progressively transformed into villages, towns, cites, and nations of cities--an infinite multitude, a joyous anthem of energy. All were observed as becoming ONE within an earth like orbit, within and behind which the glowing form of the Angel still faintly persisted as once again the forms dissolved into their cauldron of boiling dots.

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Then the Angel said in a voice of all embracing LOVE, "KNOW also this pattern, beloved, and KNOW yourself as ONE with it all" And yet again,  but in the Presence of the continuing Cosmic fugue, the seething "dots" created one person, then two undefined naked persons who emerged and then their hands and feet and bodies took on strange modifications becoming clothing of wondrous variety and elegance. To the infant's astonishment, their hands and feet changed into tools of increasing variety, complexity, subtlety, power and elegance. Their eyes and ears became instruments of strange and wondrous technology. The infant could see through and into the heads of the dancing images, into and beyond their brains which somehow remained connected to the larger patterns of boiling dots. They became transformed into a multitude of strange and marvelous computing technology. These somehow continued to manifest as the dancing persons became united with all combinations of the various technological extensions of their bodies. This amazing scene of constant "becoming" was staggering in its scope and complexity. Yet the Angel remained, a vague but calm and constant form, the ONE SOURCE of coherence, a constant PRESENCE  resonating within and among these dancing shapes and awesome sounds.  Within this spectacle of transforming energy, the Angel was the core of absolute order, peace and harmony. It was the PRESENCE of absolute joy and LOVE.

Then the Angel said to the enthralled infant, "KNOW that all these are ONE!" The ONENESS of it all appeared to be an extension of the Angel's underlying coherence that somehow created, managed and transformed each tiny dot and elemental sound into the progression of stunning displays that amazed the infant. But then... just as this demonstration was reaching the pinnacle of its awesome complexity and joy... to the transfixed infant's dismay, it abruptly began to fade.

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It all faded back into the gleaming presence of the Angel. The clear and ringing voice was fading.  The Angel now seemed to speak from within her as the most overwhelming living Presence of LOVE, "Remember your SOURCE!" it said.  "Never betray your sacred SELF.  KNOW and remember these patterns. Always KNOW and remember the SECRET. The SECRET is that you are of LOVE which IS the ONE with GOD, TRUTH, and the sacred WHOLE.  You are of LOVE, you ARE LOVE and you are to do the works of LOVE."

But the Angel was steadily disappearing.   The music was fading, and the glorious dance was disappearing behind the closing, narrowing gate. Now distraught with growing fear, the infant child cried out to the fading vision in desperation. From her deepest anguish, in a voice without words, pleading, she cried,  "How can I remember all of these things? Help me!"

And then came the first feelings of hunger, hurt, and fear. The infant was lost in an absolute silence, darkness and coma.  It was caught in an overpowering cloak of infinite desperate aloneness. Now there was only a final echo, a final faint reminder, a small, steady, distant, rhythmic beat. These were all that remained of the glorious spectacle--now only an unknown marvelous something. The dear infant child, having already lost the SECRET, then cried out with her first earthly breath, her primal wail of abandonment.

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The "Treasure" being spoken of in this story is central to your happiness, if you know where (how) to look.

Once upon a time a God, (a Lessor God of the GOD of all Gods) and His/Her still lessor gods were discussing plans to create the realms of humankind. Then they could incarnate among them from time to time as a means for further development and purification of their Souls, and for further Spiritual growth and testing of their Divinity. They had agreed that they would need to fashion these earthlings after themselves. But this goal required that humankind eventually be given the key to the sacred Gate. This Gate admits the possessor of the key to all the power and privilege of the intermediate Spiritual realm where the lesser Gods lived and moved and had their Being. To more fully empower their insight, the GOD of Gods, being a perfect teacher, had instructed his lessor Gods to define for themselves how and by what means this Sacred Key could be safely hidden from humankind, those aggressive and disobedient children of their mother, GAIA. This precaution was necessary because if humankind acquired the Key before they had sufficient Spiritual Wisdom, their misuse of that power could quickly destroy their world.

The lessor gods debated at great length how this sacred treasure could be most protected from premature discovery by the races of humankind. They knew its presence would be sensed and sought after. In human terms, they were protecting the ultimate Pearl of Great Price.

One god had suggested the highest mountain, but that was quickly discarded for they knew that humankind would quickly reach there. Likewise, the deepest ocean and even the center of the earth were rejected. Even the moon and stars they knew would eventually yield to human exploration, courage and determination. They came up with many ploys, locks and keys, devices, and locations. But after deep meditation all agreed that none of these would be a certain protector of an audacious humanity's deadly discovery. They all came to their GOD of gods and presented their dilemma. The GOD of gods contemplated and said, "Your struggle has validated my PLAN, behold the solution!"

And so humankind was born into the cosmos through the earthly womb of GAIA, the Soul of the earth. The Sacred Key to the KINGDOM OF TRUTH AND LIGHT was placed within the heart of each person born of GAIA.  There, it could only be discovered through the advance practices of Spiritual devotion where that devotion would have Spiritual dominion over the person's carnal human ego.

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Are you aware of your shadow?  and what it covers?

Once upon of time there lived in the Realms of Light a man who took for granted its ethereal beauty. It fell everywhere in beams of radiant splendor. It was more resplendent than the reflections of gold and silver, more sparkling than the flash of emerald, sapphires, diamond, more ubiquitous than the entire spectrum of the earthly metals and crystal. In the dazzling play of this infinite radiance, there was an accompaniment the Music of the Spheres, perfect harmonies beyond the furthest reach of the human ear, an ultimate perfection of sound. And so in this consummate perfection of SPIRITUAL TRUTH, the man existed.

Attending to his duties was as effortless and perfect as the realm he inhabited. His work provided a profound fulfillment of ultimate joy and satisfaction. But then a strange and terrible thing happened. To his dismay, as he beheld the work of which he was about, he found it had became covered by a shadow, a darkness. He did not recognize the source of this darkness.  The darkness obscured the purpose of his work upon which he had been so joyfully fixed.

The man attempted to move away from the darkness, but it followed him. The more he moved, the more he became fixated on it. He altered his work to make in thrive in the darkness. But the darkness changed to cover it more deeply. He changed his goals but the darkness confused his path. He ran but the darkness raced ahead of him. Though he cursed the darkness, it persisted. At last it, became an impenetrable barrier separating him from his work. He could not find a Soul to explain it to him. Others who were moving within it did not seem aware of it or did not care. They appeared confused by his questions and then ignored him. Now the darkness grew such that it consumed his entire consciousness with frustration, fear, and anger. His work had now become meaningless, but he pursed it more aggressively to recover that lost sense of accomplishment.

Finally the impasse became intolerable, and he was confronted with a choice.  He could accept the darkness and the new rules it enforced, and transfigure his consciousness to understand its significance to his goals. Or he could destroy himself with his hopeless struggle to avoid or overcome it.  At length, the helpless frustration, bitterness and the injustice of it all overcame him. He had tried everything he could think of to eliminate the darkness which had ruined his beautiful realms of Light and the joy of his work he accomplished there. Then the man became totally full of rage. At the peak of his rage, he tried to stomp that shadow that had become his darkness.

But the darkness remained impervious and unresponsive. His mind gone, he kicked and stomped . In the process of his self destruction, while the shadow persisted unchanged, his magnificent work which was the subsistence of his life was smashed beneath his beating fists and crashing feet. At last the man's heart gave out, and his physical strength failed. His anger was overcome with helpless grief, exhaustion, and bitterness, and he fell into a coma. As he fell, his body turned and he saw again the LIGHT, and in a flash there came to him THE KNOWING. He realized that the darkness was his own shadow, his literal self (ego) which had obscured the light of his Spiritual Truth. Because he had been born to earth, he had deluded and entrapped himself in believing that the darkness, an artifact of his senses and ego judgment, was real.   He had altered his goals (work) to accommodate it.

He was stunned at last to KNOW as his earthly consciousness faded, how fully he had accepted the illusion of the shadow and not the TRUTH of the light. His persistence in obsessing on the illusion had brought him torment and cost him the earthly success of his Spiritual work. The diversions he pursued were exactly that. They had finally seduced him to totally substitute material goals at the cost of the joy of Spiritual accomplishment.  As he discovered too late, all he needed to have done at any time  was to accept the shadow as the mere illusion it was, and turn to the LIGHT that was still accessible within him.  The Spiritual work that was his assignment, even though diminished by worldly limits, would have been a blessing to humanity.  Maintaining contact with the light would have preserved his Spiritual perception of his work!  Then he could have Known in TRUTH his actual relationship to the shadow.

Alas! Too late for his enlightenment in this cycle of life. He passed away into the emptiness, and was returned again into the Realms of Light. There, he was cleansed of his illusion, and restored to his sacred work.  Since he had not sufficiently advanced Spiritually during the challenges of his earthly birth, he was returned to the same level of Spiritual unfoldment from which he had been born.  Now restored to the realms of Spirit, he returned to his former Spiritual tasks while he waited to receive yet another precious trial in the material part of the cycle of Spiritual unfoldment.

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Is this story relevant to your ambition, and the journey it has placed you on?

Once upon a time there was a magnificent oak tree that grew upon a lofty mountain top. The view was splendid in all directions, and from hottest summer through bitterest winter. For more than 400 years the tree had grown and thrived. It was looked upon by all the other plants on the mountain as a marvel, for none of them could have survived in such a vulnerable place. They were somewhat envious because, while they could not go to experience it themselves, they had heard as members of the network of life, that the oak had the premier location on the entire mountain. They did not relate to the special challenges and stress that went with the position.

In the last decade of its life, the tree produced an acorn that was very ambitious compared to its brothers and sisters. For as it ripened it listened through its psychic ear that vibrated within the network of life energy.  It heard rumors of even more lush environs where it believed that it could surpass the clearly evident glory of its parent. From its birth place high in the tree, far below and far beyond the place of its birth, it saw an enormous distance spread out, vast, and receding into perpetual mist.  It took no notice of its wild and joyful swinging in the constant winds and storms of the mountain. Instead, as it ripened, it fixed its yearning upon a distant and alien plain, a distant mystery.

The season progressed and the time of its parting came. The little acorn was determined not to be caught and trapped in the familiar soil culture of its parent. At its moment of truth the acorn was released, and as it fell, the ambitious acorn summoned all of its Spiritual power, and directed itself to strike a rock. It took a great bounce which propelled it over the edge of the cliff where it fell a great distance. Then it rolled down the mountainside until it fell into a stream and continued downward, being carried toward the mysterious valley

At one point it became logged in a niche at the side of the book where it might have rotted in the water, but a fierce storm came up and flooded the stream, dislodging the acorn and sending it on its way again within an even greater torrent. Eventually, it reached a far valley and passed into a great marshy plain. Finally, the flood waters which had brought it off the mountain receded, depositing the acorn on top of a marshy hammock.

The little acorn knew its journey was over and quickly took root. But the conditions there were not favorable for oak trees. The tall marshy grass kept it in constant shade. The hot soil and air were always too wet, and the marsh chemistry lacked the special ingredients of its parent earth. But the acorn was hardy, and possessed of tremendous will. It began to grow. In a few years, even in its stunted form, it became a little tree that reached well above the tallest grass and shrubs. Now the oppressive sun scorched it in the boiling dampness. The essential relentless mountain wind which was needed to bend and warp its little trunk to stimulate the movement of the precious nourishing fluids that rise from the earth through its roots were instead little more than insipid swamp zephyrs. They never once reached the fury of a typical mountain storm.

The young little oak knew it was doomed. In this hostile place, even its very success created its early death. Although there were insufficient winds to stimulate its growth beyond that of a small distorted shrub, there was the rare hurricane with its fierce monsoon winds. The tree knew its growing bulk soon could not be sustained in the wet and mucky soil of the swamp. The internal truth of the tree knew it would crash to certain death even before the fulfillment of its youth.

On a rare day when a brisk cold breeze that rarely blew was felt, the misty skies were briefly cleared. In its reaching for the sky, the little tree beheld a far off mountain top that clouds and mist usually hid.  In the spiritual eye of knowing that serves all living things, the tree dimly saw a withered and blasted oak upon the highest escarpment of the distant mountain. There it was, a familiar mighty oak, its dead bulk still commanding the premier spot leaning over the valley from its special point of masterful dominance. Now, too late, the little tree knew.

"I have erred." lamented the little tree. "I have betrayed my appointed place. Would I could be back growing beside my parent. Alas, my misplaced will and the illusion of my self-serving ambition took me away. Now I shall die, unfulfilled, away from the earth that was to be my promise. Instead I will rot in this relentless swamp whose earth is alien to my roots."

But this misplaced life was not a wasted life. In interfering with and betraying its original promise, in the tribulation that followed that wrong choice, the little acorn achieved a higher consciousness and learned about a vast world of potential and threat. Especially, it learned more about its own true nature. It reached a greater appreciation of the benefits of natural harmony than could have been the case in the orthodox and mundane pattern in the life of an acorn  growing beside its parent.  Such was the little acorn's painful lesson in the cosmic nature and purpose of tribulation. Thus, when the cycle of eternal life returned the fallen tree to the swamp in which it had taken root, its expanded plant soul was raised again to a reformed destiny. A higher expression of its Spiritual manifestation was now prepared to be fulfilled as a new and higher order life.

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Is this story more relevant to you than "The Tree That Forgot Its Roots?"

Once upon a time, there was a little tree that began to grow deep in a dismal swamp. It was a cypress tree, and its destiny was to rise to be the most dominant of all the variety of vegetation creatures that lived in the swamp. Its nature was such that it was especially designed to grow and thrive in the hot steamy ecology of the marsh in which it was born. As is a characteristic of all creatures born to their place in the Cosmos, this little tree was born to thrive in what  would be a fatally hostile place for most vegetation. Its roots grew directly from its parent tree, and both were deeply interwoven in the muck of the ever soaked soil. No normal challenge of any extreme of wind could bring it down. Its thickening bark was oblivious to the raging grass fires during the occasional drought while its deepest roots were always nourished by the ever present underground water. Its leaves rejoiced in being alternately bathed in the heat of fierce sunshine and warm embalming rains. As with all living creatures, its Spiritual Truth lay waiting for a something, it knew not what. What else was there but the reality of the swamp? Something.  Even the multitude of animal life that swamp, crawled and flew amongst its roots and branches had no obvious meaning. Yet its central self was restless. It seemed its Spiritual eyes and ears were ever seeking that eternal something.

Then one day, in the peak of its full maturity, it barely survived the tribulation of a rare and terrible hurricane.  Many of its branches had been shorn off and most of its leaves ripped away.  But it had survived a storm that had completely destroyed much of the plant life all around it.  Now the air was unusually cool and crystal clear, as though an apology from nature herself.  For the first time, before it was once again closed from view by the relentless mists of the steaming swamp, the Spiritual eye of the tree beheld a distant mountain top. Upon that peak was a strange plant form, clearly visible in spite of the vast distance that separated them. Recognized the form through its Spiritual Truth, the giant cypress beheld a mighty oak tree. It was lodged strong and steady upon the highest crag of the distant mountain.  Then it slowly vanished behind the enclosing mists.

Within the tree a sacred spark was instantly ignited. Here in its primal consciousness appeared a plant form which seemed to be entirely unlike itself yet similar. Although far removed, vague of form, inaccessible, and wispy, as an ineffable mystery, the evidence of that literal reality was striking. But as the dominant mists of its own natural ecology quickly hid this first glimpse of a larger reality.  The Spiritual truth of the tree stirred, and for the first time it questioned and strove to understand. For the first time, the tree whose material and temporal future appeared forever linked with the swamp, comprehended the possibility of a larger reality. It thus entered upon a restless and relentless path which would eventually lead it recover its own infant soul from the confining realms of material life.

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Are you aware of what you have "forgotten?" How can you remember?"

Socrates has been discussing with Meno, the question whether or not virtue can be innately known, or whether it must be taught.  In the discussion, Plato describes Socrates dialogue with a slave boy of Meno's, who has had no training in mathematics other than the most rudimentary numbering skills. But the boy has been guided by Socrates asking questions so the slave boy accomplished a complex problem in geometry. In the course of this guidance, the slave boy responded with intuitive answers to questions requiring complex geometric reasoning which he could not have known from any prior training. The dialogue with Meno continues with reference to the slave boy's demonstration.

Socrates: And at present these notions have just been stirred up in him as in a dream; but if he were frequently asked the same questions in different form, he would know as well as any one at last?

Meno: I dare say.

Socrates: Without anyone teaching him, he will recover this knowledge for himself if he is only asked questions?

Meno: Yes.

Socrates: And this spontaneous recovery of knowledge within him is recollection?

Meno: True.

Socrates: And this knowledge which he now has must he not either have acquired or always possessed?

Meno: Yes.

Socrates: But if he always possessed this knowledge he would always have known; or if he acquired the knowledge he could not have acquired it in this life, unless he has been taught geometry; for he may be made to do the same with all geometry and every other branch of knowledge. Now has anyone ever taught him all this? You must know about him, if as you say, he was born and bred in your house.

Meno: And I am certain that no one ever did teach him.

Socrates: And yet he has the knowledge?

Meno: The fact, Socrates, is undeniable.

Socrates: But if he did not acquire the knowledge in this life then he must had and learned it at some other time?

Meno: Clearly he must.

Socrates: Which must have been a time when he was not a man [i.e. alive as human]?

Meno: Yes.

Socrates: And if there have always been true thoughts in him, both at the time when he was and was not a man which only needed to be awakened into knowledge by putting questions to him, his soul must have already possessed this knowledge? For he always was or was not a man?

Meno: Obviously.

Socrates: And if the truth of all things always existed in the soul then the soul is immortal. Wherefore, be of good cheer and try to recollect what you do not know, or rather, what you do not remember.

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Have you refused any beggars recently?  Why?

Once upon a time during the darkest period of the middle ages, a man dressed like a beggar attempted to visit the king. He was carrying a precious Jewel and in order to protect the Jewel from the evil ones of the world, he carried it in a special treasure chest, a small, ugly wooden crate that was rough, junky looking, and unassuming in its appearance. The guards noted the beggar's filthy appearance, stopped him, and ask what reason he could possibly have to see the king. He told them that the box he was carrying contained a priceless jewel and that the king would take great and sublime pleasure in having.

But the appearance of the box was even rougher than that of the beggar. The guards mocked him, laughed, and bodily threw him and the chest out into the gutter where he fell heavily into the muck and filth. A young noblewoman, in fine clothing who was riding by at that moment  was spattered by the filth as the baggier crashed into the gutter. But she nevertheless had compassion on the plight of the hapless beggar and resented the treatment he had received from the guards. She ordered her attendants to carry him, clutching his precious ugly treasure chest, to her quarters, and there to bath and feed him. After had been so cleansed, fed, and rested, he asked to see the noblewoman in order to thank her. She agreed and when in her presence, he thanked her and offered her his precious gift, the ugly chest.

She asked, "What could possibly be of value in such an ugly chest?" He said, "It is a precious jewel which when worn opens the eyes of the wearer to perceive the Truths of Reality where all things shall pass for what they are, and not as the sense driven illusions of your mind." But you must accept the gift as offered, for only its owner can wear this priceless Jewel. She looked into the beggars eyes and saw in them a special light.  Unlike the guards, she let her highly developed intuitive sense guide her response. She accepted the gift and wore the Jewel that no other person without an equally developed Spiritual intuition could perceive.

When the King died, then fate seemed to conspire in miraculous ways to bear her to be ruler of her realm.  She identified her key advisors and prince by their ability to recognize and respond to her special Jewel. She was beloved as a  wise and kindly ruler for many decades until, along with the Jewel, she safely departed from the earth plane and all of  its treacheries.

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Yang, the baboon alpha, was at the center of his troop. He was enjoying the largess of his position, the best food and water, and the most desirable females. The most desirable female was Yin who personified all the best in the females of the troop. Yat was his most likely beta challenger, but with the other young males he had been denied access to the largess of the troop and was punished by Yang when he attempted to approach his preferred female. He and all the other contenders had been driven by Yang to the periphery of the troop with the other more dominant but immature males. They spent their time competing with each other and testing themselves to become the challenger to Yang.

Because they lived at the edge of the troop, the Betas were the first to spot the danger. When the leopard came, Yat was the first to detect it, and immediately screamed the alarm and made threatening gestures to attack the leopard. But Yang, true to his status and his duty, quickly rose and raced to the location where Yat was giving the alarm. He ignored Yat and confronted the leopard, challenging it, and delaying its advance. Yat, with the others, only too gratefully took the opportunity to escape the dangerous area. Yang, by his courage, strength, and audacity, managed to delay the leopard until all of his troop were safe, then he too escaped. But he was badly injured in the process.

When the leopard was gone and the area once again safe, Yat realized that Yang had been injured and was in weakened condition. Seizing his opportunity, he attacked Yang and killed him.  The uninvolved omega baboons jumped around screaming, and observed the killing with great excitement. In the brief fights that followed, Yat also defeated the other young males who would dare challenge him to be the new alpha. Thus did Yat become the new established leader of the troop.

As his very first act as the established new alpha, he sought out all the young offspring of Yang who were not large and strong enough to defend themselves or escape, and he killed them. At last he entered as "king" of the sacred ring of power. First he viciously mounted (as in sexually mount) several of the mature but subordinate omega males, and by thus humiliating them, publicly demonstrated and validated his dominance. Then he yielded to lust and indulged himself, using Yin, his long denied female of choice, one whose infant, sired by Yang, he had just killed. In this manner life express itself when it is without the benefit of Spiritual Consciousness. For those with ears to hear, let them hear

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Do you remember experiencing any incident like this?

Once there was a toddler whose entire world was defined by his home and playpen. He was very happy there most of the time because he was regularly fed and cleansed by friendly, loving, god like parents. In between this care there were many toys and baubles in the playpen which he enjoyed.

But then one day, a terrible thing happened to his convenient and happy little world. Another toddler was introduced and the adults left for a nearby room. This intruder, sat briefly surveying the happy world of his "host."  He observing all of the baubles and toys. He immediately decided on the one he wanted. It was the one that was already in the hands of his host. He quickly rose himself up, toddled past all the other intervening toys and baubles, and promptly seized the one in his host's hands.

The host, cried out in outrage over this assault, and a serious struggle ensued. But alas, the newcomer was not only bigger and stronger, he was meaner.  He soon wrenched the coveted bauble from the clutching but weaker hands of his host. Then, fondling the bauble, he plopped down with a smug smile on his satisfied face.

The outraged victim child screamed for the divine intervention of his god parents. They had magically never before failed to protect him and attend to all of his needs. But they had left the room and were not to be seen. The host child then dissolved into rage and tears of heartbreak. His entire happy world had just been violently betrayed. Everything of importance had been lost, there was nothing left of merit in his conscious world, even hope itself was gone. The game was over, and he had lost.

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Do you remember experiencing any incident like this?

One day there were a group of third grade students wonderfully occupied, playing their games on the school playground. One student in particular was leading the group in their favorite game of "pretend." Today they were pretending to be "buffalo" and were running around bellowing as though they were a herd.

Suddenly, as they rounded a corner of the school building, there standing directly in their path was the largest and meanest kid in school, the bully. He stood defiant and literally knocked down their buffalo leader. The bully reached down and grabbed the leader by his shirt and lifted him up practically off the ground.

"I thought I told you to stop these stupid games?" he bellowed. "You're screaming and yelling makes me sick." he continued hatefully. Then he threw the leader up against the building, hurting him. Some of the girls in the group were yelling at the bully. "Stop it! You piece of shit!" one shouted.  Others added a variety of epithets.

But the bully just laughed, because he knew the ritual very well. The girls would cry, some of the boys would complain or threaten in a weak and sniveling way.  But the leader would do and say nothing and accept humiliation.  The bully knew that everyone hated his guts, but he also knew that none of the others would dare to take him on.  At the conscious level he didn't care. He didn't dare to care. He thoroughly enjoyed this temporary moment of torment for his school mates. He turned his words into bullets of hate. He would get the most out of it.

Suddenly the bully heard his name called out sharply by an adult voice. This too was a predictable part of the scenario. One of the girls had run into the school as soon as the confrontation began and got a teacher. The teacher marched the bully off to the office where he knew that he would get a new batch of threats, possible detention, and a note sent home to his mother whom he knew had no real power over him either. She was helpless, as his father had long since chosen to pay child support for the publicly condoned convenience (aided and abetted by "the law") that permitted him to otherwise desert his children and deny them his nurturing presence, influence, and love. This ritual of confrontation was such a consistent way of life that the bully gave it no further thought. He hated the kids in this class for those of his age were already three grades beyond. He enjoyed hurting his classmates and making their lives miserable. Why should he suffer alone?

The students likewise completed their ritual. They cursed the bully, and in empty words rich with contempt they promised each other what they would do the next time he confronted them. Some of the boys then condemned and ridiculed their leader, who was defended by others, and some offered to take over for their leader who "has no guts" to take on the bully. But upon reflection they decided that they would support their leader and give him "one more chance." By the time they had gone through their ritual, the incident was over, so was recess and they were on their way back into school.

The teacher and principle, likewise, completed their part in the ritual. They condemned the Bully, but could not punish him physically on advice of the school's lawyer, so they gave him detention for the rest of the month beginning next day. The Principal wrote a note for the Bully to immediately take home to his mother. As soon as the lecture was over, the teacher went back to join the children in his classroom, the Principal went back to her work, and the Bully, having been sent home, tore up the note and scattering it across the playground as he sauntered off to the local mall.

Now the bully was silent, his face blank, and eyes empty, his guts he dissolved in suppressed screams of rage. He shed dry tears of heartbreak. His entire yearning was for restoration to the faint memory of a long lost happy world of belonging that was once again betrayed. He had no words to express this inner torment.  Everything of importance, his unconscious need for legitimacy and affirmation, remained lost and denied. There was nothing left of merit in his world, even hope itself was gone. The game was over.

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Do you remember experiencing any incident like this?

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a high tech corporation and his principal vice presidents, five men, and two woman, were huddled around a long executive conference table in an elegantly appointed board room. They were earnestly reviewing documents that had urgent implications for them.  As happened to be the case, their corporation had been made subject to a hostile takeover under procedures allowed and even protected under the civil "law."  The papers were the final opinions of their lawyers and financial managers.  The message was blunt. A hostile takeover would be legally successful.

Anger, rage, and despair consumed the board as the implications became clear. There was blame and recriminations among them as to how this could have happened to their company which they had built on their own creativity, courage, skills, and energy. Now they would lose their Corporation and even lose their jobs. The successful raiders were known for such takeovers in order to exploit the cash reserves of successful companies  like theirs. Then they would reap fiscal windfalls as replacement to cover other losses and the costs of corporate warfare. These appropriated funds were devoted to achieve dominance over the wilderness societies in the third world with their emergent but vulnerable capitalist democracies. They thus could apply their plunder to replace other less productive, costly, or failing corporate interests.  They could then write these losses off to obtain additional benefits under the corporate tax laws conveniently contrived for their benefit. While they fueled their aggressive expansionist strategies, they could apply their "paper" losses as massaged by their books to obtain further tax benefits by using such manipulations as are conveniently provided by their corporate owned and controlled government. By such means the raiders were successful in overpowering their competitors in their world wide predatory operations.

The board thus knew that they would immediately be fired and replaced by agents of the predatory winner.  Their beloved company would gradually have its cash removed, its assets sold, its committed, loyal, and talented staff ruthlessly fired to save salary resources, and at last, their corporation would then be placed in receivership, its remaining assets to be sold by the banks who near always gain by such practices.  This is the script that has nothing to do with the myths of free competition in the market place, but which orchestrates legitimized "corporate murder."  By such means the successful raider could exploit the loss.  All of this was legal under the civil law. Even their long time external management consultants who, like corporate physicians, had never failed in the past to assist in restoring them to full functioning, were of no avail. No remedy could be found.

Each member at last accepted the inevitable. They sat in sullen silence.  Their inner worlds dissolved in suppressed screams of rage and invisible tears of heartbreak. Their entire happy world had just been violently betrayed. Everything of importance had been lost. There was nothing left of merit in their world, even hope itself was gone. The game was over.

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Are you free of bigotry, prejudice and systematic bias?

One day an esteemed professor lectured his students about ethical principles for guiding behavior. He noted that not all cultures are as advanced in terms of fairness as are those of us fortunate to be born into civilized America. He takes an example of an aboriginal tribe, and a quaint custom they have for resolving what to do when a hunting band comes on a stranger in the outback (western desert.) There is a dialogue between the stranger and the group in which there is an effort to identify a common ancestor. In this exercise, the group and the stranger may go back as many as 40 generations seeking the common link. When memory runs out, and no common linking ancestor is found, the group kills the stranger on the spot. This the Professor categorizes as primal behavior.

Having finished the lecture, the Professor rushes to a meeting of colleagues who are assembled to referee articles (i.e., select based on objective merit) that are competing for publication in a scholarly journal of which he is a member of the editorial board. Of the stack of candidate articles, all of the offerings were quickly accounted for by acceptance or rejection based on their agreed upon merits, save one. The Professor and his colleagues cannot agree on the merits of one particular article.

Although there are a proper number of scholarly references to accepted authorities present in the work, some colleagues say that the article is incompetent and should be rejected. Others say that the author is creatively putting forward a new paradigm and ought be given a hearing by publishing the work in order for the entire scholarly community to assess its merits. After many hours of heated and evenly divided debate, no decision can be reached. Then the Professor gets out the author's CV (resume.)

The review panel carefully scrutinizes the author's credentials looking for the names of his teachers. They want to see if there is a recognized scholar among his teachers they accept as credible in their field.  After failing to find such a link, the article is promptly rejected.

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Do words carry meaning from one person to the next?

"There was a man born blind. He had never seen the sun and asked about it of people who could see. Someone told him: "The sun's shape is like a brass tray." The blind man struck the brass tray and heard its sound. Later when he heard the sound of a bell, he thought it was the sun. Again someone told him, "The sunlight is like that of a candle," and the blind man felt the candle and thought that was the sun's shape. Later he felt a big key, and thought it was the sun... The [TRUTH] Tao [pronounced, 'Dauww, as in ouch] is harder to see than the sun, and when people do not know it, they are exactly like the blind man...In this way one gets further and further away from the truth. Those who speak about Tao sometimes give it a name in accordance with what they happen to see, or imagine what it is like without seeing it. These are mistakes in the effort to understand Tao."

 In: Su Tungp'o, in "Parables of Ancient Philosophers", The Wisdom of China and India, 1942, Ed & Trans. by Lin Yutang, NY: Random House, Modern Library, P 1067.

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Do you relate to the following experience?

Once upon a long time ago, there was a primitive humanoid creature. Call him "brute" because of his crude and primal behavior. Brute-like behavior is that which is constrained to focus only on the lower order physical needs and capacities. Therefore, this creature was a brute indeed, for he crawled around on his four legs, occasionally running upright, and gathered in a variety of foods for his survival. Serving the survival need was almost his sole preoccupation from the beginning to the end of his short and nasty life which seldom lasted longer than 25 years.

One day, he had found some clams in the shallow water by the ocean where he was rummaging. His hands ached from the effort to pry open the shells and eat the delicious meat. As he rested from his weary task, the brute watched a gull fly over with what appeared to be a clam in its beak. The gull dropped the clam causing it to strike the rocks below, whereupon the clam shells parted and the gull flew down and devoured the meat. In a flash of expanded consciousness, the brute experienced an Ah! Ha!, his first "idea."

Following his burst of "insight" the brute grabbed a nearby rock, and pounded the resistant clam he had been struggling with. Lo and behold, the shell parted. With a roar of joy, the brute swallowed the meat. Then as fast as he could, with joyful bellowing, the brute raced around, smashing clams and eating the meat until his belly was full. Then, in creating a precedent followed to this day, he remembered his mate.

Racing around some more, he crushed more clams, extracted the meat and scrambled off to present as many of them as he could carry to his mate who was picking berries in the nearby woods. He jumped in front of her, imitated the sight and sound of the gull flying overhead, the rock smashing the clam, the sound of his eating, and then he presented her the clam meat. She gratefully ate the meat, and she presented her mate a handful of her berries.

For many weeks, the brute enjoyed his improved fare derived from the more easily extracted clam meat. Now his mate was no conceptual slouch herself. In gathering her fruit, she happened to notice that some berries had fallen from the bush, and gathered into a bowl shaped piece of bark that had fallen from a near-by tree. She had her first "idea." Searching around, she found a more perfect bowl shaped piece of bark, and more effectively gathered a larger contribution of her share of the next meal.

Now one day weeks later, in the early morning, they were sitting in the woods near the beach preparing for the day's activity. Then the she-mate, who was very hungry, had her second idea. In a moment of inspiration, she repeated her mates demonstration of the sound of the gull flying over head, and the sounds of the clam striking the rock, and the he-brute eating. The male experienced a shock of comprehension.  He leaped up and raced off for the beach where he proceeded to smash clams and indulge himself in a full breakfast.

Now the she-mate, expecting her mate's immanent return, did not run off to gather berry's. But she waited a long time before the he-brute had indulged himself and finally remembered her. At last he came back with the clams. The she-brute, somewhat huffily accepted his tardy offering. She began to hungrily devour the proffered clam meat. The he-brute looked around, but to his confusion, could find no berries. He looked at his mate peacefully slurping clam meat. However, berry gathering behavior is considerably more subtle than clam smashing behavior.

He sat in deep concentration, trying to make bush "rustling" and berry "picking" sounds with his primitive voice. His mate, deep into the sensual enjoyment of her long awaited breakfast, did not understand the confused sounds coming from her mate which sounded to her as though he were passing gas from his clams. Alas, the poor he-brute. In the midst of his berry deprivation, he was experiencing our race's first communication problem. In spite of his berry hunger and frustration, he found himself wholly at a loss for words.

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After 10 years, looking back, where did this marriage go wrong?

Recently, in a large community a little girl grows up and is raised mostly by her mother who happens to be the kind of person who gives her daughter all the basic necessities: a comfortable place to live, nice clothes and regular meals. But in her communications, from her daughter's birth, she is very cold, rejecting, manipulative, critical, hostile and makes her attention and what affection there is conditional on the little girl's compliance. This little girl grows up to have a definition of "mother" for whom the referent can only be her experience with her own mother. This "mother" is not just a physical person (denotative referent), but the girl incorporates into her meaning for the word "mother" her stressful, angry feelings (connotative referent) derived from the pattern of rejection she had endured.  In the presence of the symbol "mother," she relives those defensive, angry frightened, helpless and negative feelings that her mother created for her during the years she grew up. That is, the whole referent "mother" must also include the feelings or connotative meaning as well as the denotative "object or thing in the world" meaning.

Now suppose in another part of the community, a little boy grows up and is mostly raised by his mother. Unlike the little girl's mother, his mother is warm, nurturing, supportive, affirming, kind, and caring, and gives unconditional love to her son. His denotative image of "mother" has a connotative meaning that incorporates all the positive affirming and empowering feelings he had toward his mother as he grew up.

Now suppose both the little girl and boy, grow up, meet, date, and then seem to be falling in love.  In the presence of their powerful chemistry for each other, the little boy, now a young man, wants to propose marriage. He wants to pay her the highest compliment he can think of. So he says to the little girl, now a young woman: "I want to be married with you, because I want you to be the mother of my children!" Although he paid her the highest compliment he could think of based on his experience with his referent for the word "mother," what did the young woman hear? What feelings coursed through her nervous system given her connotative experience with her referent for the word "mother?"

"This man wants me to be a mother!?"

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Have you seen this story in the headlines recently?

Once upon a long time ago, a young man came out of Egypt into a far distant mid eastern country. His education had taught him much about his cultural legacy, one aspect of which was the history of the beautiful Queen Nefertiti. Her slender image, and noble history had obsessed him from childhood. It remained with him into his young manhood as the essence of a  most beautiful, cultured, and alluring female being he could ever possibly find or hope to even imagine.

One day after arriving in the far country with its strange language and customs, he stayed with a family helping them with a trade. He felt fortunate as they were among the most powerful families in the land. It happened that a client, also one of the more powerful and well known families in the land, came by with his entourage including his daughter, a beautiful young woman. The young man stared at her in abject disbelief.  He said to himself, "Here is my Nefertiti! I cannot believe my eyes!" and he was profoundly joyful.

Not being able to speak the language very well, he said nothing, but as the guests began to leave he could not restrain himself any longer and cried out with his best use of their language: "You are my Nefertiti!" The woman gasped and screamed, and the men of her family instantly began to shout and yell. They pulled their swords and knives and fell on the hapless foreigner and his company. In the fight that followed, many from both sides were injured or killed.  As the young man lay mortally wounded, a survivor of his host family crawled to him, cursing him.

As he died he learned that what the guests had heard in their own language was an epithet, "Nefertiti" meaning--"the disease infected genitals of a whore." Many generations of killings were to pass until the families were at last decimated and none were left to carry forward the vengeance. The blood feud was finally stilled.

NOTE: Demonstration of a proof that "Words have No meaning" will be found in found in Dialogue 3.

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Is there an intellectual solution to the communication problem posed in the following story?

Suppose there were a cave inhabited by unusual humans who were forced to sit so that they could only look at the wall of the cave and not even move their head to look anywhere else.  Then suppose that there was a light from a fire which was placed behind them so they could not see what it was, but that it cast their shadows upon the wall of their cave.

Then consider what would happen if other creatures were to pass between the fire and trapped humans who could only see the wall. These chained persons could only relate to the creature's shadows they could see, and hear the distorted sounds of the creatures moving behind them carrying their various objects.  The could only hear whatever sound was made, other than their own voices, after it was reflected off the walls of their cave.  Think of the kind of "reality" this would create for these poor trapped humans.

The Plato proposed what would happen if one person were to break away from his bonds in order to turn his head, stand up, and see what was creating the shadows on the wall of the cave.  Plato describes the discomfort of the new "reality," how the fire would hurt the eyes, and blind the escapee who had only seen dim shadows.  He considers how difficult it must be for the escapee to describe to his still imprisoned friends what the new and larger reality "is" -what words could he use that they could relate to?

Then Plato proposes the profound dilemma of what would them happen if the released prisoner could escape the cave altogether.  Imagine the blinding light of the sun, and the real look of objects and creatures only faintly seen in the dim firelight of the cave.  How would he explain that to his still trapped associates?

But with the most profound insight of all, Plato addresses the results should this escapee make an effort to bring this discovery and marvelous insight into TRUTH to his still entrapped friends and insist that they comprehend and relate to it:

Plato says: "Coming suddenly out of the sunlight, his eyes would be filled with darkness. He might be required once more to deliver his opinion on the shadows, in competition with the prisoners who had never been released, while his eyesight was still dim and unsteady; and it might take some time to again become used to the darkness. They would laugh at him and say that he had gone up and come back only to have his eyesight ruined; it was worth no one's while even to attempt the assent. If they could lay hands on the man who was trying to set them free, they would kill him. ...Yes they would."

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Have you noticed this story playing in the world today? in families? in business? in societies?

Once upon a time there was a gentle tribal nation.  Their society was a civilized achievement that was abruptly overrun by hordes of nomadic warriors that appeared from parts unknown. A large number of this highly civilized tribe managed to escape death or the certain oblivion of slavery. They transfigured themselves into a nomadic tribe and fled to find permanent safety. They soon became lost in a vast dessert. They survived their early days in that wilderness because of the strength of their character and their creativity. In this struggle they learned to support each other in loving trust and confidence. They had managed to combine the best of collective support with respect for individual achievement and accomplishment. Thus the tribe had created a mythology and and set of rituals to serve them as constant reminders of this Truth. All of their successes derived from their alignment with the Sacred LAW. They accepted that, as individuals, they were linked as ONE Spiritual TRUTH.  The limits of language frustrated their ability to speak of this in technical terms. They simply Knew.  They intuitively treated each other with the respect and care that was required to live by such Principle.

At one point, they saw two rivers coming together. They decided that since they could not return to their former homes in safety, they would split and explore which of the two forks might restore them to more productive lands. After they had followed the rivers to their respective sources, they would return.  They agreed to return and meet at the time of the second winter solstice.

The first element of the now divided tribe followed the north fork of the river. They quickly found themselves moving upward toward a plateau above which was an imposing range of mountains. Soon they crossed the first range of mountains, and found themselves among vast meadow lands surrounded by precipitous cliffs and tumbling mountain streams. The area was rich in fruit and game. They recognized the possibility of approximating their former life on the high ground by emphasizing shepherding and hunting rather then depending entirely on the agriculture they were used to.

The second element followed the south fork. They eventually found themselves in a long meandering valley that was filled with treacherous swamps, marshes and bogs. But beyond this maze of water, there were large areas of drier ground.  Although still basically swamp, the soil, vegetation and game were still suitable for elements of the kind of life they had been forced to leave.

As the second winter solstice approached, both tribes remembered the commitment to each other which they had made at the fork in the river. While neither had found an environment as comfortable as their former territory, each had found a suitable alternative. Each alternative had the advantage of a natural defense (mountains or swamp) such that they did not have to be so concerned with the nomadic warriors that had driven them out of their ancestral territory.

Both elements of the original tribe approached the fork in the river near the appointed time. But they were distressed to find that the nomadic warriors had already arrived there. Since it would be fatal to continue, both returned to their newly found and developed territories. Each of the two now had separate tribal counsels. Each independently decided that they could not achieve a reunion in safety, and their new geography's permitted excellent defense in event of any further encroachment by the hostile warriors.

After many centuries, time reduced the memories of their original tribe to vague and different versions of the original myths and rituals. These had become altered over time since the split. Eventually, the significance of their common roots, and even the memories of the other tribal element were forgotten by both groups. Finally, the official memory of their common source was lost to even the wisest elders.

Then one day, when a hunting party of the swamp tribe was roaming at the furthest point from their base villages, a terrible cataclysm occurred, and their was an earthquake so profound that even the channels of the rivers and swamp were altered. The adjacent mountains shattered and crumbled. Rivers were diverted,. Old swamps were drained and new ones formed. Then followed many years of extraordinary rains and severe winters.

As it happened, a swamp tribe hunting band mostly survived the first onslaught of the cataclysm. But insurmountable obstacles had been created that denied them their familiar route homeward. At last, because of one mishap or another, only a single survivor found himself following the north fork of the ancient river, the route that the other half of his ancestral tribe had chosen to follow. Soon he was lost among the unfamiliar crevices and precipitous, cliff hanging trails. Nearing death in the cold wind, he was found by a member of the mountain tribe. Since he was alone and harmless, the finders brought him to the elders. In addition to erasing the tribal memories of their common roots, time had also changed and lost their common language. Each of their respective versions had become warped and distorted so that its original expression was unrecognizable. Therefore, there were no common language or symbols that could serve as a platform for communication.  He was viewed as a total alien to their culture.

The swamp man earnestly tried to explain the tribal roots he knew, the vast swamp wilderness, its glorious richness of life, and stable warmth of its climate, and the other advantages that he longed to return to. But the mountain people had no symbolic references for such images and claims. Further, the swamp man recoiled at the common things of the mountains. He hated the eternal winds, the precipitous storms, was fearful of the heights, vulnerable to the elements, and thus quickly became an object of some contempt. Then because he was also vulnerable to their illnesses,  their contempt for him slowly grew.

But eventually, one of mountain women expressed an interest in the stranger. Suddenly among the elders, fear and contempt prevailed over compassion. Their consciousness had become closed to their common origins. The mountain tribe resented the alien's apparent contempt for the sacred elements of their mountain life that had spared them from the invasion of the ancient warriors. So said their mythology to whose literal interpretation they were all slavishly devoted. Eventually the leader of the elders, in view of the facts that were in their limited consciousness, at last condemned the lost soul to death. No alternative explanations or coping actions were accessible in their consciousness.  He was given a small amount of food, thrown into a deep mountain crevice, and abandoned to die.

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Are you "free?"  If "Yes", how do you know?  If "No," why not?

A contemporary student of Buddhism was walking with his Master when he suddenly proclaimed, "I have been patient, but now I insist on having my freedom."

"You cannot be free and be my disciple," insisted the Master

They walked a while reflecting on their exchange, and then the Master said, "But you already have freedom. You can have freedom in various degrees. When  the temperature which gets warmer or colder, you have more or less freedom to remove or add clothing.  So already you have freedom, you are walking, and you are certainly talking."

"But you determine everything I do. I want more freedom, freedom to act on my terms. How can I choose to be more free when you are always telling me what to do?"

The master thought for a while, and then told his student the following story:

Once upon a long time ago, there was a living system beyond the rising sun, a creature that was quite unlike what we are used to here on earth. This life form had no head, arms or legs such as we are accustomed to. In fact, its form most closely resembled what we would call a blot.

However, this "Blot" had the power of thought, and as a matter of fact, what the Blot thought--it got. But it could not think of much. So as it happened one day the Blot was existing in a space, and it saw in the distance what it knew was a food form. Being hungry, it wanted to go there. But it had not enough consciousness to simply think itself there. It had to think how to travel there. Having no arms or legs it thought itself to be a train on a railroad track leading directly to the food form. Indeed, it traveled straight-away on its track and ate the food form--and was happy-- for awhile. Furthermore, it then had "fun" running back and forth on its track which it had thought and which gave it "freedom" to easily move backward and forward, but in no other direction. (So we can say it had one degree of freedom.) Now the blot was doing very well with its one degree of freedom, but it soon became bored in just going backward and forward. Worse, it learned it always found that if a food form or anything else of interest were not right on the track, it was constrained, that is, it could not turn right or left to directly reach it. The Blot had to rethink itself to be "not a train on a track," and then rethink itself again to be a "new train on a new track" leading to the new food form or whatever. That was a lot of work!

The frustration in only having one degree of freedom caused the Blot to think an entirely new thought. (It expanded its consciousness.) The next time it found a food form, it thought itself to be an automobile. Now it could not only move backward and forward, but it could also turn left and right. (So we say it now had two degrees of freedom.) Now the Blot was very happy because no matter where the food form appeared, the Blot could go backward or forward and swerve left or right to get to its object of interest. Now the Blot was having even more fun because it had more freedom and less constraint, and was joyfully driving around on its turf.

But soon the Blot came to understand that there were still many obstacles on its turf. These obstacles (constraints) that it discovered hid many of its food forms and other objects of interest, and made them tough to get to, even with two degrees of freedom. The blot had to achieve a higher consciousness to improve its degrees of freedom. The Blot, being a specialist in thought, soon realized that if it could get up in the air, it could have even more freedom to pursue what interested it. So the next time it got hungry, or bored, and could not find or reach a food form or something of interest, it expanded its consciousness to three degrees of freedom. It thought itself to be a machine like bird, and it lifted itself into the air. Now it could choose to go backward or forward, left or right, or up or down. (That is why we can say that it has three degrees of freedom.) And the Blot was very happy indeed, for awhile.

But now having as much food and fun as it wanted with its three degrees of freedom, it wanted something more...something it could not specify and could not have a thought for.  So it became much like a student of Buddhism who would try to learn that to get more than than freedom to think, one had to surrender to achieve "no thought." The blot wanted the power to achieve ultimate Consciousness. But constant with the paradox inherent in the challenge of being free to enter into Spiritual Illumination,  one cannot reach for enlightenment. Rather, to achieve this ultimate Consciousness, the student must learn not to think."

"Now," said the master, " You see, you have all the freedom you need to choose from within THE LAW. But we can never violate this LAW. So! If you really want to be truly free, stop thinking about it!"

Suddenly the student, who had been concentrating in frustrated contemplation of his master's advice, shouted out.

Look! "I'll show you that I am free!! See! I can choose!!  And before his Master could react, the student leaped into the abyss. But having thus surrendered himself to the laws of gravity, he was quickly smashed to death on the rocks below.

The Master grieved, "Alas!  We were both correct."

...
Are you playing cards with half a deck?  To state it another way, are you trying to cope and prevail over a complex situation you are not intellectually equal to?

Some scientists at a well known advanced engineering design and development company became bored with the routine one day near the middle of the 20th Century, and they decided that it would be fun, informative, and perhaps even useful to build a robot. So they set about their task, and after a many long months, they had a prototype ready to test in their lab.

Being of a practical mind, they had designed the robot to pick up trash that regularly fell on the floor of the lab, and carry it to a trash container. Then came the day of the test, and with great excitement everyone stood around waiting, with "Robie" plugged into its automatic charger, ready to go. The chief scientist threw down some paper. Instantly Robie became "alert" and showing signs of "concern" whirred into action. He disengaged himself from his charger, went beeping around the room, searching for the fallen object. Upon finding it, it swept it "skillfully" into its tray, moved gracefully to the waste container and dumped the paper in it. Then he returned to his charger, plugged himself in, and shut down with a "satisfied" click. The scientists were jubilant. One after another they threw down paper, cups, old glass, and a variety of trash.

Into the midst of this scene a female colleague, knowing of the scheduled test, came to inquire how it was going. "Come in, sit down and we will surely show you!" exclaimed a happy scientist. And so she did, sitting down and placing her purse on the floor beside her chair.

Before the scientists could trash their floor again, to their dismay, Robie began showing signs of "concern." Immediately he whirred into action, beeping and wheeling around the room, he quickly zeroed in on the purse, scooped it into its tray, and to the astonishment of the female associate, accurately deposited it in the trash, went back to his charger and shut down again with another "satisfied" click. The scientists went back to their drawing boards.

...
Are you caught in a similar trap at home, at work, or socially?

A little girl was watching her daddy prepare a roast for dinner since the mother was late from work. He cut of the end of the roast and placed it beside the main portion in the cooking pan.

"Why did you do that, Daddy?" said the little girl. "The pan is big enough for the whole roast."

"Mommy always does that," said Daddy, "And I want the roast to be as good as when she fixes it."

When mother came home, the question was asked of her. "Because my mother always did that." she said confidently.

In the discussion that followed, curiosity led the mother to call her mother, only to get the same answer. Her own mother had always done that.  It happened that great grandmother, though very old and frail, was still alive, and the question was at last brought to her. "Why did you always cut the end off the roast and place it in the pan with the rest of the roast?"

For posterity she answered- "Because the roaster pan was always too small."

...
Have you played out this scene in trying to solve a personal or professional problem for yourself? for others?

Late one night when the Reverend Parson was walking home, he saw in the distance a lurching figure groveling around on the ground beneath a street light. Seeing that the person appeared in need of assistance, the good Parson offered help.

"What is your problem my good man?" said the Parson looking down on the somewhat scruffy and disheveled figure.

Looking up from on all fours with bleary eyes, the figure slurred, "Ah'av seem to 'av losht my house keys!" and he continued to rummage around in the tall grass by the curb under the light.

"Here, let me help you," offered Rev. Parson. Though the drunk said nothing, the Parson hunkered down and began to search through the tall grass and weeds. Time passed, the search progressed in ever widening circles and the Rev. Parson was now sweating along with the drunk. His back was beginning to protest the stooping. Rev. Parson at last stood, stretched his aching back in exasperation and said, "Look, just where exactly were you standing when you dropped your keys?"

"There," said the drunk, lurching awkwardly to his feet, and pointing down the street into the darkness where distant tail lights of a parked car reflected faintly off of the street light. "There, by my car, in front of my house."

"What!" exploded Rev. Parson, you mean you have me up here looking for your keys when you lost them down there in the middle of the block?"

"Of course," said the drunk incredulously, weaving backward wiping sweat from his forehead. "Its obvious that its dark down there and the light is better here."

....
How would you react if you were a visitor to this site?  Have you already participated in such a story?

The Century had just turned, it was December 17, 1900.  The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilber, had left their work in the Dayton, Ohio, bicycle shop and had gone to Washington D.C.   They were attempting to get support from the government for their plan to fly a heavier than air machine to which they had devoted all their heart, energy, and resources.

As sunset was just beginning, they were passing through a place about 15 miles north east of Middleberg, Virginia, and about eight miles south-east of Leesberg, Virginia, and about five miles north-west of the small village of Falls Church.  Falls Church was itself was only about two miles from Washington, DC. The darkening evening was enveloping them, when suddenly they were confronted by strange luminescent individuals wearing garments of silver. While the sight was astonishing, they felt no fear, nor did they need to ask any questions. They were taken to an expansive field nearby and were shown another amazing sight. Although it had no resemblance to the airplane they were then designing, the sight was fantastic nevertheless. They were effortlessly given complete understanding of the implications of the amazing sight, and they were stunned. They were told to enter Washington the next day and assemble on this field as many bankers, investors, government officials, and members of the Congress as they could acquire. They could then explain the fantastic sight to them in human terms. Two days latter, about 50 grumbling but curious representatives of various Washington interests followed the Wright brothers to the amazing pasture.

For some time they walked around in complete confusion and examined what they saw. There, sitting neatly on the ground, row by row, nine abreast almost 20 feet in width, were about 400 elegantly upholstered carriage seats, of a finer than leather substance they knew not what. There were 12 giant donut like objects, larger by far than any carriage let alone its wheel, indeed almost as tall as the tallest men present. These were made of a substance similar to that called rubber which was being used covered the new automobile machine wheels.

There were great stacks of various thicknesses of a dull gray metal. Each sheet many times the area of largest government building's doors, and each stack of these sheets stood towering at twice the height of the tallest man. Also taller than the average man could stretch, were four giant sets of fan like blades, each an incredible work of art, a product beyond the skill of any known machinist.  It was made of hundreds of vanes forged from the peculiar metal. Each fan was affixed to a strange assembly that they estimated must weigh 8,000 pounds (four tons) apiece; and there were twin giant steel like tapered "I" beams more than 50 feet long, and another four almost 200 feet long such that it took two dozen of the strongest to lift. These too were made of the a gleaming silver like steel.

Then there were hundreds of barrels of metal rivets, bolts, screws and fasteners of extraordinary variety, each barrel being such that even the strongest man could barely lift one alone. Then there were reel upon reel of the finest and strangest looking wire similar to the new fangled electric wires that were being strung from city to city. The number of feet indicated on each of these reels combined to indicate that there was enough total wire of various sizes and length as to be capable of being extended more than 135 miles from the site.

Then there were dozens of huge vat like barrels, each of which was brimming with kerosene such as were still used in the rural farm homes, in an amount totaling an estimated 40,000 gallons, a total weight of 320,000 pounds or 160 tons.

Then there were box upon box of strange and incomprehensible instruments and gages and miles of flexible tubing made of rubber like material, and enough gallons of paint to cover two city blocks.  There were panels with dozens of strangely numbered and labeled knobs switches and lights. There were rolls of fine carpet of unknown fabric, and dozens of cupboard doors of the strange smooth material. There were even a half dozen closets that appeared to be elegant outhouses--and on and on. The gazed incredulously at the array of materials and unknown devices such that they covered the space the size of an entire field where the new sport of football was played. All if it was now completely covered by this array of unfathomable products.

Then the Wright brothers directed them to about a dozen strange metal cupboards. They opened the metal doors, proceeded to provide for each a hot picnic lunch with chilled dessert, and from yet another strange container provided all with fresh coffee, tea and milk, a strange tasting punch, and tiny bottles of expensive liquor. They were further amazed that the milk and punch were cool while the coffee and tea were at the same time hot. Even fresh ice was provided for the cold drinks. Then Orville Wright began to speak.

"My friends," he said confidently, "You have had the opportunity to wander around this quiet field for the last several hours, exploring the products you see lying in various stages of assembly. My brother Wilber and I have come here from Ohio to ask your support for our project to fly a heavier than air machine just two years from this date at a place we are arranging near Kittyhawk, North Carolina. We are asking you as members of our community of esteemed bankers, investors, Congress and government officials to support us in this task. The future of your investment is lying here around you as clues to our nation's future in the air.  It has been our most provident blessing to have this material explained to us. Please continue Wilber."

"The material that you see in this field, will in the space of the lifetime of your oldest children, and even some of you, be assembled by the technology that will begin with our simple machine.  This technology will cause this diverse array of parts to be assembled into a single flying machine weighing a total of 400 tons. Then this machine, to be known by the name of "Boeing 747, will begin to move on a concrete road on this very field, extending from where we are to a point two miles to the south. From the time it begins to roll, it will carry the full weight of these assembled parts, including the fuel in these barrels for its four engines which will each be sucking air like a horse, but at the astounding rate of one half ton every second. The oxygen in that blast of air is to be burned by the kerosene stored in those rubber-like bags which are designed to fit into the wings and body of the machine. This airplane machine will have a crew of twelve persons.  You will sit on rows of these seats that will have room for each of you, and five of your friends. Together, these chairs can accommodate a total of almost 400 souls.  Further, everyone's most precious luggage in an amount almost equal to their weight will all safely placed on board this incredible machine.

Then this machine, before it has progressed even one mile of the distance down this special roadway, will have accelerated to a speed approaching more than 160 miles an hour. It will then lift itself into the air at any time of the day or night, and regardless of weather or storm. Then and within less time than the fastest horse could return you the five miles to Falls Church, it will climb to an altitude almost twice that same distance above the earth. From there it will progress westward, racing the sun, at a speed of 550 miles per hour with only the most inconsequential rumble of the engines whose raging sound is lagging well behind the aeroplane itself, and with only the slightest whisper of the wind to be heard inside. During this period with the outside air temperature a constant 60 degrees below zero, you will sit in shirt sleeve comfort, watching special entertainment, or reading by your own private electric light, or listening to world class performers, or talking quietly with your friend or loved one and being served delicious food and beverages such as these you now enjoy.

Then after the space of only four and one half hours, such that by leaving here at 9:00 in the morning, this aeroplane will touch these wheels down on a similar roadway in Los Angeles at a speed of 150 miles per hour before their clocks strike the hour at 12:00 noon, and coming to a halt within a mile, will drive slowly to a special gate, where you and your luggage will disembark to continue, fully rested, with your business or pleasure." He smiled happily and nodded to Orville

"Therefore, my good friends," said Orville matter-of-factly, "What you have seen and heard here ought be more than ample justification for the modest amount of funds we are requesting in order to initiate the development of this admirable objective. One that will begin with our simple flying machine. And so I ask, what say you to this proposition?"

...
Have you been getting secondary clues about a situation that can affect your well being?

Once upon a time ago, in the early part of the 20th century, an advanced race of creatures was exploring the universe and discovered earth. They were very excited, because they saw in their discovery an opportunity to learn something about the origin of their own advanced species. Because of their technological sophistication, they were able to modify one of their own to resemble the human form in every way.

They were also able to install such advanced features as perfect memory, perfect language ability for all the earth's languages, and flawless techniques for integrating incoming data, no matter how complex. Thus equipped, their human specimen was installed with all of the earth's knowledge gleaned from captured members of the human species. Then he was placed in the United States of America which the Techs recognized to be the most technically advanced of the earth's cultures and societies. He was to live and work among the earthlings and at regular intervals, communicate his findings to the mother ship.

For a year, the man from Tech performed his mission flawlessly, learning much and reporting faithfully to his creators. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to the Man from Tech and his designers, a single flaw had been left unrecognized and uncorrected in this otherwise perfect human specimen. This flaw was located in the creatures perceptual (detecting) system. The nature of this flaw was such that the man from Tech was unable to perceive an object when it was moving directly at him at high speed. The object was quite simply invisible. This flaw had no other impact on his functioning until one day he was standing in the middle of a pair of railroad tracks in the great American plains observing farmers harvesting their wheat.

The tracks on which he stood disappeared into a vast distance. As the man from Tech stood there observing the farmers using their primitive machinery, an express train appeared and bore down on him. The farmers noticed the man from Tech, but knowing nothing of him other than his human appearance, they immediately perceived his peril as he stood complacently on the tracks with the train thundering down upon him.

The farmers began to yell and point in the direction of the train. The man from Tech, who felt vaguely uneasy in his innocent self confidence, smiled weakly at the suddenly bazaar antics of the farmers whose words were lost in the distance, but whose wild gesticulations were obvious. "How strange," he mused, "That I have not seen such antics before. Perhaps they are perturbed by that horrible noise which seems to be emanating from their machinery." He uneasily glanced around in all directions, but perceived nothing of the train which was closing directly in on him at tremendous speed.

Now the Man from Tech is in a precarious position. His primary detecting capacity is failing him, and he has only the secondary data in the farmers' "Bizarre" behavior on which to depend. What will he do? Will the man from Tech be smug in his self confidence and year of unfailing successful experience, or will he respect the inconsistencies in his secondary data and make the checks essential for saving his life. If he steps away from the tracks, he achieves two outcomes. First, he obviously saves his life. But second, he learns something important about his fatal flaw that will continue to save his life and make him more effective in the future.

Alas, the Man from Tech was made all too human after all. Smug in his innocent self-confidence, rather than acknowledge the possibility of a flaw within himself and take the steps he needed to check it out, he ignored the inner distress of anxiety telling him that something terribly discrepant was affecting his system.  So he stood his ground.  In order to dismiss his anxiety, he allowed his human ego to attribute the dissonance in his situation to the externals, to the noise of farmers' machinery. He dismissed the secondary warnings of the farmers as "bizarre" behavior because they did not square with his paradigm of reality.  He dismissed the relevance of his contradictory secondary perceptions, and ignored his intuitive concerns for his own safety.  He "stayed the course," remained standing in the tracks, and was destroyed.

...
The following is an important clue why we have violent crime.

Chaim Shatan (a psychiatrist specializing in Vietnam veteran disorders associated with PTSD--Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)  observed that, "Combat brutalization and attendant emotional anesthesia are encouraged by humiliation and maltreatment in basic combat training... leads to unquestioning obedience and dehumanization of victims, buddies, civilians, and combatants alike. The GI's [soldiers] acquired a Ph.D. in 'advanced fear.' ...Alienation and detachment from feelings and people are a natural outcome from the repression of compassion and the inhibition of sensitivity... [survivors report] an 'emotional death,' feeling frozen into stone like gargoyles."

He notes, "In extreme situations, active warfare, death camps- grief threatens the morale necessary for effectiveness in combat and survival. Grief and intimacy are intensely discouraged... trainees are cautioned against closeness... they are prevented by brutalization and 'antigrief' from consummating a normal psychological response to bereavement..."

"When the 'induction phase' of counter-guerrilla training succeeds, the soldier patterns himself after his persecutor [his officers and/or the drill instructor] ...and undergoes a psychological regression during which his character is restructured into a combat personality... surrenders his personal identity to the corporate identity... adopts the paranormal stance of combat as his mode of being-in-the-world... [his]... new 'reality principle.'"

"... The military transfiguration of the personality is completed during the combat phase, a phase of universal terror and counter-terror. All that is needed, according to Orwell's 1984 definition of 'doublethink' is 'an unending series of victories over your own memory,' and 'reality control' is achieved."

"The sensory impressions of an ambush constitute the best way to 'tell it like it is.' ...An ambush often lasts only 15 seconds. 15 seconds during which the darkness and silence are annihilated--in the wink of an eye--by foreboding bursts and flashes of light, explosions, floods of startled and startling sensations and feverish sweating while shivering and cold to the bone. Something with heavy pulsating strokes is banging out a deafening rhythm. You don't have a chance to recognize that it is the beating of your own heart against the walls of your chest. While the frogs and crickets chirp on, you know only a spasm of fear and feel that 'time is compacted' and refuses to move on. There is no past, no future. Each second is like a separate parcel of time. Now you are unable to 'focus' on anything... Old reality is but a line, a tissue, which has been torn asunder leaving no boundaries, no guideposts. Now it is you who feels unreal..."

Then Shatan identifies the ultimate combat terror by associating the feelings of ambush with death. Death everywhere in which the victim is required to cope, to: "embrace the everpresentness of death by wrapping it in yourself... poisoning your sense of self with a reservoir of evil and destructiveness. Only then can inner and outer reality feel real again. Otherwise your perceptual universe is maladapted to your environment, to the vast web of suffering in which you are enmeshed, and you will succumb to sensory dislocation. All that in 15 seconds."

Quoted and paraphrased from:  Shatan, Chaim, 1974, "Through the membrane of reality: 'Impacted grief' and perceptual dissonance in Vietnam combat veterans." Psychiatric Opinion, 11(6), pp 6­15.

...
Do you recognize this child?  parent?

Think of the infant child, its Soul descended from the higher realms of Spiritual energy and information, ready for the work of the earth, passing beyond the end of its first six months of life. Think of its happy little face, its look of wonderment as it first tries to focus and define its strange new world. Consider its engaging smiles of recognition. See it reaching for the newness of its now limited conscious universe. Think of its connection with the "magic energy" of SPIRIT being steadily replaced by its ever growing sense driven attachment to the feelings and things of its ego's world.

Think of this precious little being, a congealing of the universal and cosmic forces, presumably the creation of human Love, trust, and commitment, formed in accordance with the cosmic rules of genetics, a gift to the world with all of its potential, yet wholly vulnerable in its frail but elegant and exquisite physical-mental Temple of Spiritual Promise. Think how it adores and needs its parents, all powerful and provident, the only remaining link to vague memories of its perfect Conscious Unity with the Cosmic GOD. Now it receives with joy these earthly Gods to whose good presence and care it KNOWS it is entirely vulnerable.

Imagine then this infant, as it lies in its crib in the silent darkness in its dream of awakening. The night is hot, the air stifling. Its diapers have not been changed, and a rash is burning in stinging sweat. Though having just been fed, the infant reaches for sleep that does not come. Its whimpers are ignored, and it is becoming desperate for attention. Finally it cries the desperate cry of an ignored infant, its only means of proclaiming its needs and its identity, its only tool for control of its parents. And so the cutting and compelling cry of angry abandonment reaches out into the darkness for its Gods.

Suddenly there is flash of light that floods its senses. There is a beast like screaming, a deep male bellow, or screaming female shriek, with cursing, it matters not... the beast sound is all consuming and terrifying. The shocked infant is pummeled, jerked into the air defined and dominated by the cursing voice, and with a vicious stroke, it is hurled back into its mattress, its muscle, bone, organs and sinew bent and tortured to the full limit of toleration. A hand or fist again smashing its little chest, crushing it into its tiny little body. The knife like and crushing pain is all consuming, a total universe of pain. Its scream shatters the air, exhausting every atom of oxygen from its punished lungs. Its scream echoes beyond any hellish cry of the damned.

Now it's newly emergent consciousness, like the delicate shell of the egg, its only source of meaning for being-in-the-world, is shattered into fragments of its former coherence. Its virgin earthly promise is now and forever defiled by the permanent imprint of the cost of its helplessness. This dear child is now a permanent hostage to exquisite, all prevailing, pain and fear. Its primal scream echoes in the night, mixing and blending into the eternal ether, mixing and reverberating among the never ending and never dying screams of every battered child. Each scream echoes forever in the fearful unknown, crying for Justice.

For the punishing beast responsible, there is now a newly forged and certain lurking Karma, ripening, waiting for the certain time of perfect Justice. This Perfectly Patient, Perfect Cosmic Justice waits to descend upon that ignorant, spiritually debased, and abusing beast parent. Each such child is instantly transformed into a little kernel of hate and rage, waiting for its own adult license that will empower it to act out its own unique brand of vengeance on the world of adult authority that betrayed it.  In a single incident on any given night, helpless children across the world are thus tortured in various degrees and ruined for life while their indifferent society sleeps on.

"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." [Mark 23:34]

The following parables in this section can be related to today's headlines.  Just by reading what follows, and by relaxing your mind in the context of all prior parables, allegories and metaphors, you should be able to connect many of today's current events to the principles that underlay these stories.
...
Have you ever had any part of the following fantasy?

Suddenly a brilliant thought flashed into his rational mind. He thought that if he could only free his brain from its automatic processes that controlled his body's organs, he could set the elements of his own body in competition with each other. Then each organ system would compete so as to amplify all his physical capacities. Thus his latent prowess could all become amplified. By this means, he thought, he could enter at the highest levels of competition and easily prevail over all challengers. Headlines, the triumph of surpassed records, and public glory danced in his mind.

But alas, his brain was connected to all of his bodily organs disciplining them as a carefully regulated set of systems each of which was limited to carry out its assigned tasks in a coordinated manner. He grew to resent and despise this regulation. There was no way he could think of  to free his brain so these organs could compete with each other. He yearned for each to excel as individual achievers and thus promote the goal of ever more wins for his total bodily system, and thus acquire an ultimate glory for his ego.

He ruefully mused on the unlikelihood of such capability ever becoming his. Then a sorcerer happened to come along. "What seems to be troubling you my good man?" said the sorcerer, who already knew the athlete's mind.  After all, that is the business of Sorcerers.

"Alas!" said the athlete," I was just thinking how much greater feats I could perform if I could use the natural laws of competition within my own body. By freeing each part from the oppressive regulatory dominance of my brain, I could inspire all of my organs and limbs to perform to their maximum capacity. Then I can set them in competition against each other. By this means each will be challenged by each other. Each will be driven to perform for the literal survival of the fittest. Then I will benefit by performing with greater success than imaginable because of the amplified combination of their individual efforts."

"It happens that I have in my power the ability to grant you a single wish. Whatever you ask shall be yours." said the sorcerer.

"Yes?!" exclaimed the athlete in hopeful disbelief, "You mean you can grant me that wish? Do so at once!"

"First I must ask you--are you conscious of all of the adverse consequences and possibilities that this new condition might involve? I must tell you that once granted, I cannot take back your wish nor offer you another." The athlete paused, but the fantastic thoughts of achievement, honor, glory and conquest were all that flooded his mind.

"Yes! Yes! I am certain. Please! Free my body from the oppressive regulation imposed by my brain . Let my body's organs compete with each other.  I thrive on competition for success and achievement."

"Very well." said the sorcerer. Instantly, all of the athlete's bodily organs and physical systems were at once disconnected from each other and free to compete with each other for the resources of the body. The sorcerer likewise instantly disappeared, and the athlete was left confused an dazed for he did not notice anything different immediately.  But now his brain could individually command each organ and body system at the direction of the athlete's ego intellect.  It was no longer required to give coordinated commands to each of his organ systems as there was now no way to have them integrate their efforts with any other system in his body.

Suddenly he noticed strange and overpowering urges for each bodily system was now free to act on its own abilities. As a test, he commanded his muscles to run and to his amazement and joy he surely did run faster. He commanded his lungs to increase their cycles of breathing, his heart to pump furiously as it rushed his healthy, energy full blood to the his powerful athletic arms and legs.  But all of the other organs, having been disconnected from the brain, and therefore from each other, were likewise working furiously to compete for the body's limited energy supply.  Because these activities were so complex, his conscious intellect was no longer able to coordinate their efforts effectively.  For a few days he amazed his supporters, ran like the wind, lifted unbelievable weights, and easily leaped higher than his own height.

But the athlete quickly became exhausted after each exertion.  He even fell down in a near faint. Further, he began to experience enormous hunger and thirst. His kidneys drained copious amounts of liquid from his body, he sweat profusely and his bladder filled quickly demanding more frequent relief. He went quickly to obtain additional food and liquid as nourishment. For a few weeks, the athlete rejoiced in his improved athletic prowess. He dismissed as a mere annoyance his ravening hunger and thirst, and the additional nuisance of profuse sweating and frequent stops at the toilet. But soon the athlete began to feel unusually sick in spite of his instant awesome success at successfully achieving feats well beyond Olympic level difficulty. His friends and supporters had watched in amazement, not comprehending what had happened.

Unknown to him at first, the bodily organs were not only performing at their peak in consuming the limited energy resources of the body which served the muscles. But they were also acting as required in the "survival of the fittest" mode.  This mode is dictated by the laws of unregulated competition. The rule is "grow or perish." Accordingly without the coordinating presence of his brain acting through his autonomic nervous system,  each body system was now taking in ever increasing amounts of energy, but using it to expand their own organic system.

In the absence of any connection to a larger regulating ecology as had been the role of his brain and nervous system, their own little mini-brains told them that in order to survive the fierce competition they had detected, they each had to grow larger and stronger themselves. Only then did they feel that the could sustain the competition and survive. The man's heart was now expanding to take more of his limited chest cavity, as it tried to expand the lungs were already competing to dominate and acquire the same space. The liver, kidneys, pancreas, and digestive systems were likewise trying to grow themselves to become more competitive and thus acquire more of the body's energy.

Soon the athlete was mostly feeling exhausted and reduced to eating and drinking simply to fuel the growth of the ravening organs of his body. He quickly gained weight as the each of the organ systems grew larger. Although he was used to physical discomfort as a competitive athlete, the man's initial feelings of discomfort were quickly growing to became unendurable pain. In a few weeks he was bedridden, though still requiring and able to consume food and liquid in enormous quantities.

His friends and supporters who had believed in him and who had supported him in his quest for athletic greatness became confused because they did not know what had happened. While at first they were amazed at his unexplainable successes, now they wondered why they were reduced to bringing him ever increasing quantities of liquid and nourishment. Now they watched in horror as he steadily became grotesquely deformed and obviously in great pain, for while his organs were growing profusely, his slower growing skeletal structure was still limited to nearly its original dimensions.

Each organ was oblivious to the needs of each other. Each one ever more ruthlessly conspired to expand. Each demanded more and more of the body's nourishment, all of which was now applied to growth and expansion. Some organs, no longer being limited by their own natural boundaries began to cross boundaries to consume the adjacent organ system. Soon one critical organ after the other could no longer sustain themselves as there was insufficient nourishment, and they began to fail. Crushed together in the corpulent and now immobile body, the athlete was a picture of ruin. Barely able to breath, grotesquely swollen with tumors pushing out all over his body, he lay writhing in agony during his final hours of life. Finally a critical system failed entirely and the athlete died, not even having survived to enter the next competition, never having run one real race or competed in a single athletic event.

The sorcerer had watched, and smirked. "Too bad, but it happens every time. How stupid they all are. They constantly watch each other die from one kind of cancer after another, whether physical, organizational, or national.  They do not know that as a nation, they are all suffering the early stages of the same malady that has killed this athlete.  They are oblivious to the larger reality in which all that appears good as a result of competition is only a limited and temporary effect. They cannot understand that what is happening everywhere in the Cosmos is the working out of a vast conspiracy of collaboration and cooperation among all the living systems of the Universe, and therefore earth, and therefor humanity.

"Each of the living systems of the earth must by THE LAW collaborate to adjust, to harmoniously serve each other to fulfill the HOLY PLAN for ecological balance and harmony.  Growth must be constrained and balanced within the limits prescribed by THE LAW.  Cancer eventually kills every living system it infects should they, like this ignorant athlete, betray the integrity of themselves as mutual participants in those coherent living systems called Gaia and the Cosmos.  How clear it ought to be that the price of unchained greed and ambition is death.  But, here comes yet another customer!"

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Are you able to find these elements in the current media headlines and stories? Who are the principal actors?

Once upon a time, there was a little world in which four outlaws were born to rule all those who succumbed to fear. The first, a warrior outlaw named "Force" was big, strong, and mean. He bullied and intimidated others to get what he wanted. When he didn't get what he wanted, he hurt or killed those who opposed them. Soon all feared him, but accepted him as a solution to even more appalling uncontrollable fear.

But soon there came another outlaw of a different kind, the evil priest, named "Cunning." He was not as big and strong as the warrior but he skillfully invoked the name of a god, a mysterious higher power that he taught most people to believe in and fear. He pronounced himself as god's functionary and thus seduced the people and caused them to greatly fear his magical powers. By means of his ability to create this terrible intimidation, enough of the people groveled at his feet, such that even the warrior hesitated and often accommodated his bidding. Then the evil priest intimidated and used the warrior as his instrument to hurt or murder those few who did not succumb to his intimidation.

Then came a third outlaw named "Greed." Greed was very clever. He seduced the people in a different way, and promised them every sensual delight, and ego gratification, much of which he delivered. In pursuit of ever more of these promises, even nobel warriors and priests could occasionally be bought. Reveling in their sensual benefits, most residents of that little world were able to overcome their fears and ignore the dominance of the evil warrior and evil priest.

Then came yet another outlaw, the "Entrepreneur," a child of the lineage of Force, Cunning, and Greed.  He disguised himself in many vestments accepted by the society, and which defined him as the answer to their fears. He was the most clever of all. He created a mythology that seduced even those who feared the other outlaws. He designed fear management goals by offering the citizens a path to  absolute power and control. He promised to place them at the top of the power pyramid.  He taught them a mythology such that they could acquire absolute power. He appealed to universal fear and greed.

He promised all that they could have access to all the visible trappings of power his myths had created. By appealing to his supporting mythology he had created, he neutralized the evil priest by saying that it was God's will that men should prosper by competing in his market place. They could actually court God's favor which could be verified as evident in the visible trappings of power and success, a power they could accumulate. Then he conspired to use the evil priest to validate his laws, the warrior to enforce his laws, and greed to perpetuate the myth and enlist others to exploit his victims. Thus did he capture and maintain the people of this little world as his slaves.

Now these four evils continued to competed in this world. The warrior still struggled to rise again. The evil priest looked for any weakness to revitalize his claims. The power of greed amplified the various predatory excesses legitimized as competition. Soon the world became a pit of evil, hurt, fear, and distrust such that for each generations, the cycles of conflict escalated until it seemed that the little world was doomed.

Finally, a champion arose whose name was "Love."  Love had been present throughout, but possessed a nature that would not permit participation in such competition. But Love knew that the solution lie in altering the Consciousness of each of those who chose to serve the illusions that made them a warrior, a priest, purely greedy, or an aggressive entrepreneur. As more and more of the populace recognized and benefited from the power of this Source, they used Love as an inoculation that strengthened them to resist the various forms of evil.

They came to realize that they no longer needed to compete with the outlaws on the evil terms they had set for them to find self validation in the "world." By appealing to the inner Truth of the parents and children of every class, the power of Love slowly but steadily reached to more and more of the little world's population.  Over time this influence of Love diluted or eliminated any desire for them to rise as a warrior, or to exploit the trust given the priest to control and exploit others. The no longer submitted to the threats and appeals of the warriors and priests. They defused and reversed the competitive obsessions of the Entrepreneur.

When the inoculations of Love was finally given very early in each child's life, and modeled every day by their devoted parents and teachers, the power of Love steadily replaced the influence of the evil outlaws with the joy of cooperation, coordination, accommodation, and learning and serving others. Through the faith and determination of the Love infused Spiritual Healers and Teachers, at the 11th hour and 59th minute of Cosmic time, a sufficient number of humanity of the little world had embraced Love as their sole Path. Thus did they cooperate to save their world.

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The following is a snap-shot of predatory capitalism.

Once upon a time, a man took a daily walk which caused him to pass a news stand where he bought his daily paper. Over a period of about two years, he noticed the following sequence of headlines in the business and commerce section of the newspaper:

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Have you recognized any green dressed puppet masters and their ushers lately? There's a bunch of them around.

Once upon a time there was an evil puppet master who toured the world stealing from the innocent children who came to see his magic shows. So great was his carefully manufactured and massaged reputation, that the children of the villages became determined to see this wonderful show long before the evil Puppet Master's arrival.  In order to afford the costly admittance they would do anything to get into the theater. They would even steal from the village storekeepers, and the few coins that comprised their own parent's meager monthly income.

But when the children came to the show with their precious admittance money, they were surprised to find out from the ushers, who were cleverly dressed in costumes like the puppets, that they could be seated without paying, and that the ushers would pass through after the show to collect what ever each child thought the show was worth as influenced by what they could afford. The children were delighted for they were surprised to hear of such fair and reasonable treatment.  For some the possibility of a "free" show danced in their mind sweetened by thoughts of the deserts the coins would then make possible.

Then the show began. As the story evolved the puppet master gave clues that taught the rapt children the secret of the story, namely that the puppets who were dressed in blue were clearly evil and would steal their money. But the puppets who were dressed in green were clearly good. The story promised them that the more wealth they could give, the more goodies would come to them later.  When the story ended, the children cheered. The puppet master told them that the ushers, dressed like the puppets would now pass through the audience. A few ushers were in green, but were actually assistants of the puppet master. Most were dressed in blue and were people recruited from the town.  The town people had arranged special gifts and accommodations for the needs of the children from the money they were to collect.  The children were told to contribute whatever they could afford. Said, the puppet master laughing, "Remember, the more money you give, the more goodies you will get, but be sure to watch out for the evil ones."

And indeed, the children remembered what they had learned.  Grateful for such fair treatment, many generously gave most of their precious coins to the green dressed ushers who also deftly picked the pockets of those children who were withholding their coins.  They suspiciously, mockingly and carefully watched and avoided all the blue dressed ushers even though they were recognized as good and respectable town people.   Then the children waited for goodies that were promised.  None came.  They finally discovered that the puppet master and his green dressed ushers had left town.

After a long wait, they finally left the theater and returned home chagrined.  Then they discovered their loss. They discovered that the green dressed ushers, expert pick pockets every one, had stolen every remaining coin that they had not already contributed.  Then they knew there would have none of the promised goodies from their parents and the townspeople. They suddenly became painfully aware of what failing to give their resources to the genuinely good, blue dressed ushers had cost them.  But by then the Puppet Master and his assistants had long departed and were unreachable  Because they had been innocent children, they had never suspected until too late that while they were overtly cheating and demonstrating their contempt for their own reliable townspeople, it was the puppet master and his green clothed lackeys who were the evil ones.

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Is there anything you covet now, that you would rather be?

Once there was an unusual tree that lived in the midst of a forest by a path and little brook. The spot was frequently visited by human beings with their various technical artifacts, fishing poles, radios, clothing, and so forth. The little tree was healthy and vibrant, growing lush there in its appointed place. But it was not satisfied and yearned to have the intelligence that the human visitors seemed to have, so it could create its own magical technology. One day a wizard came by and granted the little tree its wish. The tree was jubilant and its leaves began to think of ways to have more fun and excitement as they began to create their own technology.

The leaves soon figured out how to process a different chemical, one that created the illusion of being human and having all the technological things that the humans were bringing to that quiet spot. Life was suddenly wonderful. But unknown to the leaves, their chemical that brought them so much joy produced as a by-product, a poisonous enzyme. Each time it rained, this poison washed down from the leaves into the soil, and into the roots that nourished the tree. Unfortunately, the tree had wished for human intelligence. Therefore, the leaves that were zealously making the liberating chemical were oblivious to the nature of the poison and even the existence of their own life sustaining roots. These hidden conditions were beyond their human type consciousness. Therefore they were not aware how their roots served to nourish and empower the leaves as part of the complex whole called a tree.

This ignorance was convenient in terms of their objectives. They were not bothered by knowing the worrisome impact of their products. The possibility of their being connected to the nourishing earth by "roots" was not pursued. The trunk, limbs, and twigs of the tree deferred to the leaves because what the leaves were doing was not their business. They "stayed the course," even though many rumors persisted amongst the leaves that these roots existed as a link to some mysterious nourishing source, and that this source was somehow being damaged, and consequently, the whole tree was being damaged.  They laughed.  The sun and rain were all they thought they needed.  These they could see.

Soon the leaves began to whither under the cumulative effects of the poison. The leaves, still oblivious to the connection between their poisonous activities and the cause of their distress, naturally adopted the human "this too shall pass" mentality. Then they expected that the trunk, limbs, and twigs would take action, after all, they were closer to the alleged root cause of their problems.  But soon there was a divisive blaming among all the various visible parts of the tree as to which part was the cause of their growing distress. Others zealously followed the dictum: "Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die." They produced their liberating chemical in even greater abundance in order to mask the distress of their growing sickness. And so, Life being R.A.W., each part of the little tree remained consumed with exploiting the benefits of the power that they had coveted.  At last, the little tree with its poisoned roots soon perished along with all of its parts.

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Which of the following victims are you?

Once there were four victims to fate, each of whom was given a bag of gold as a legacy at birth, Though it had practical uses, it was a burden to carry and protect, but could be used to empower them with the stuff of the earth that they deemed important.

Scene 1: We find the first victim in the desert lying near death from thirst only a few hundred yards short of his goal, an oasis flowing with life saving water and nourishment. But he has become too weak even to crawl there. He still has on his possession his bag of gold and his weapon such that no one could touch the gold without his permission, or he could kill them. Paradoxically, without these burdens he could have easily managed to reach the oasis. A power broker comes, assesses the situation and asks of the victim how much gold his life is worth. Although the victim pleads, when the victim does not proffer the full amount of gold, the power broker refuses to negotiate and starts to leave. Both the power broker and the victim recognize that the victim must yield up all his gold to live, and he finally puts down his weapon. The power broker takes his gold, and empowers the Victim to reach the life-saving oasis, but he remains otherwise impoverished.

Scene 2: A second victim is served by fate to be born adjacent to the oasis. Thus he has potential access to sufficient water and food subsistence to meet all his survival needs. He too has his bag of gold which is useless for subsistence for there is not one additional subsistence item worth the loss of any of the gold. But because he only lives on subsistence he has no respect among the leaders of his tribe. The power broker, sensitive to this, comes by and makes available to the victim abundant amounts of ego gratification, belonging, affirmation and credibility.  With these assets, leaders would immediately recognize, accept and so give honor and respect to the victim. But the power broker wants gold for the empowerment of belonging, affirmation, and credibility. When the victim refuses to offer more than half, the power broker realistically assess the situation. He concludes that he can do no better with this victim. He accepts the gold and empowers the victim with the ego gratification of belonging, affirmation and credibility . Thus the victim's peers immediately revise their opinions of him and welcome him into their upper society.

Scene 3:  A third victim is been doing well with complete sufficiency in the stuff of subsistence. Being born directly to the oasis of this wealth, he also has adequate amounts of belonging, affirmation and credibility. But even with these resources under control, life becomes boring after a while and he becomes restive. The master power broker, who senses these things as well comes by and offers additional stimulation and diversion. They negotiate on the bag of gold. The power broker realizes that even with only a quarter of the bag of gold that this victim is willing to yield, that sufficient diversions can be had to overcome the victim with debauchery, excess and overindulgence. So the power broker realistically accepts the quarter bag of gold from the third victim and empowers him with an unlimited abundance of diversions and recreations on which he then wastes the rest of his gold. Now this third victim indulges himself into a level of debauchery such that he barely escapes the loss of his affiliation, affirmation, credibility and even subsistence. Upon reflection he admits that his life is empty, pointless and sad. Not knowing what else he can do, he completes the rest of his life as an emotional and Spiritual derelict. He remains confused, unhappy and eventually dies bitter and resentful. He never discovered the Spiritual nature of his mental and emotional distress.

Scene 4: The fourth victim is born to best part of the oasis. He finds himself fully surfeited with subsistence, belonging, affirmation, credibility and a bountiful supply of diversions and recreation. Soon he finds that he is nevertheless bored and mysteriously empty and uneasy. The power broker appears and asks the victim what his needs are. But the victim is confused, and his mind cannot grasp the missing element. Then the wily power broker makes him two offers.

The first offer requires an exchange of half the bag of gold for complete intellectual insight into the affairs of the world in order to completely dominate all others. But the power broker added the condition of demanding that the victim endure work and discomfiting discipline, and the application of intense studious commitment for the remainder of his life in order to attain the promised objective.

"I do not like your conditions," says the victim, "Why should I yield up my gold for discomfort? Who cares about giving up what has already been given me. I like what I've got. What is your other offer?"

The power broker says,

"For the entire bag of gold, I will give you Spiritual Illumination so that all things of the earth will pass for what they are and your true nature will be revealed to you."

The Victim is silent, and then asks, "Well that seems intriguing, but are there any other conditions?"

"You must give up not only your entire bag of gold, but also your concerns for subsistence, affirmation, belonging, credibility, and the entire array of diversions and recreation in which you now revel."

Said the Victim, "You must think I am the fool to make me such an offer. I reject it. Also, the conditions of the first offer are too burdensome and I think I will reject that offer as well.

And so the disappointed fourth victim pondered what to do.  He could purse the acquisition of personal power and control and zealously devote himself to a conquest of the world, or he could pursue the path of diversions. Since he feared the anxiety, distress, and danger required to pursue the golden ring of earthly power to which he would have invested his wealth, he at least avoided for himself the resentment, enmity and hatred of those he would have had to exploit and destroy. He also spared himself the worry, anxiety and stress of retaining his status that such burdens require once acquired.

By avoiding all that stress, however, he chose instead to return even more zealously to trying to overcome his mysterious emptiness by aggressively pursuing his diversions, wasting his entire bag of gold on them.  He thus wasted himself and soon painfully died, prematurely, lonely and embittered, from his various excesses of debauchery and dissipation.

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Where is the PBPMSPS located in the world today?

A number of men and women had arrived to do business at the Power Broker and Power Monger Specialty Pawn Shop (PBPMSPS).  Ego, who was the proprietor, was well known all over the Cosmos and was courted by all.  He owned the gateways to the cosmic "pie" of secular power. He was its long standing gatekeeper and had been in business for a long time. The clients were there because they had heard that the shop had acquired some kind of an ultimate "power chip." There was also a rumor that Ego was at last to retire. Each of his long- standing customers yearned to take over the shop to run its business on their own terms. So they had all arrived to check it out.

Power "Chips" were the medium of exchange that had been used since the beginning of the shop. But their nature had evolved over the years. Each customer brought as a bargaining position, that chip which he thought could be traded in for the most current form of marker chips. These chips, or power markers [definition] were important because they could be traded in to the appropriate gatekeeper to unlock access to that which resolved their every need.  The clients were there and were well known to the shop keeper.  They all arrived to bargain with their respective chips and were prepared to travel to wherever they could do business in the Cosmos.

The pawn broker announced, "I will sell my business to the one of you who can offer the skill required to insure that the power of this secret chip will be maximized now that we have entered the 21st earth century which is the beginning of the "Age of Aquarius." The bidders rose one at a time and each made their offer in order of their arrival at the shop over the long history of its existence:

1. Rambo the Warrior (NOTE: descriptive figures are presented in the interpretation.): "I am the oldest and longest standing customer at this place of business. I offer myself, for I can conquer any and all by the fierce discipline of my indomitable will, strength, and courage. This is the power of last resort. I have noticed that when all else fails, then your pretenders to power always come to me, for I am the ultimate resolver of issues when all your weak, spineless, and manipulative ways fall apart." Everyone laughed which enraged Rambo, but there was nothing more he could offer.

2. Alexandria the Great: "Well that is all very well and optimistic, and you surely were much more organized than the traditional warrior or witch doctor, but we all know what happens to those of your ilk. The lynch mobs control the real power in such cases. But I control vast forces. Look at what I offer, and note that I have already proved my ability to manipulate, dominate, and control the occupants of my vast territories. That is what is needed because I  rule all who dwell there.  I offer the effectiveness of my power through the scale and scope of conquest in the known world of my time.  Think what I could do today. If that is not enough, than I can arrange to have any government overthrown and have my soldiers conquer as much land as you want, and then you will also control all of its people and goods."

3. Tomás Torquemada: "Enough.  The brutal Rambo and his more cunning warrior versions, and people like you Alexandria have long tried to suppress my kind. I too have flourished, but I use the likes of you as my instruments. I offer directly the power of fear and intimidation as I so effectively used during the Spanish inquisition which reached its ultimate expression under my direction. Its use is low cost and very efficient. No expensive and unstable armies.  Surely you understand,"  he said, gloating. His eyes gleamed with pleasure, "I can assure you that once you have a human being held hostage in fear of his screaming nerves, then his heart, mind, body, and loyalty will surely follow. Then all things are possible. Then ask what you will of such a person. What greater power can you ask than that?"

4. Marco Polo: "That is ridiculous nonsense. Populations despise the like of you and wait for the chance to kill you.  I have learned that by controlling commerce and trade, that national boundaries and even their peoples are of no consequence by themselves. You need only offer anyone a product or service they need or want, then you can get them to fall in line very quickly. Dead people don't serve, wounded ones serve ineffectually, and the intimidated are constantly distracted. There is no need to torture people when you can provide them the goodies they want under terms such as I control. With craftsmen and service providers everywhere, land is of no consequence once it serves up its food and riches. My record speaks for itself."  Accept my chip in exchange for the new one, and allow me to take over this shop which after all provides specialty products consistent with my experience in commerce.

5. George Rommel: "Bah! And who controls these lands and their instruments of its production for the taking of all those goodies? My friend Rambo has it right in principle, Alexandria the Great is archaic, but I have modern armies of Rambos. What is more, I have the machinery and production to make either weapons of defense or conquest, and the tools and products that Don Polo would never dare to think of. I don't worry about trading when I can simply take what I want.  Give me the new chip and lets be about it."

6. Andrew Carnegie: "Herr Rommel, that is all very interesting but who actually orchestrates the instruments of your production, even the manufacturing of your weapons? Its a very tidy arrangement I offer. Only a few of my trusted associates are allowed to play the real game of permitting those to succeed who serve us. You will note that we control you through controlling the government and its laws. Without the influence and permission of my personal power networks in the economic machinery of any society, your weapons rust to oblivion, and you have nothing to fight for that is worth your blood. My lawyers, politicians, and banks determine who wins and loses, both in the market place and in the factory, both nationally and internationally. The process is wonderfully complex, and fueled by my well orchestrated myths no matter how outrageous and indefensible they are to truth. The greedy public is seduced. It remains too stupid to even notice let alone care. I only need to have my economic witch doctors trot out pages of arcane numbers, esoteric and contrived theories, and the public and its governments fall down trembling. Then they can be seduced to go about their Super Bowls and other diversions hoping for the best. Now just look around you and see how it I have achieved this by the end of the 20th Century. You want to assess power? I already have it. So give me my chip."

7. Elec Tron: "Ah yes, excuse me but I have only been here once before using the alias Info Mation. My computers are very new, but I have observed, Mr. Carnegie, the manner by which all the decisions are made by you and your associates.  I call them lackeys.  Your decisions are vulnerable and can not be made except through what I control. I own your processed data that becomes the information you require and use to preserve or create and fulfill your arcane "myths," as you call them. It is my power to influence and dissemble, confuse distort and manipulate the awareness of the driveling public that will count profits for you in the future. I also oversee the health of all the production and services business, and all the research that produces the decisions about what and how much of what kind of product is to be made and and sold to whom. I also keep files on your enemies, and--you! Did you know? In fact I know all about all of you! This knowledge and ability I own to manipulate and apply this information solely to suit my whim is the root of my power. It seems to me all of you are passé when it comes to the technological extensions of my information driven personal power."

Then they all started arguing. "Soon you will be crawling back to me." shouted Rambo in a rage, "You always have. You are always forced call in the enforcer to preserve your miserable game whatever it be." But the Pawn Broker said, "Wait a minute, wait a minute! I notice there is someone here who I have not heard from, and she has not been here before. "Little girl," he mocked, "Just what do you dare to put forward as your claim upon this extraordinary new power chip?"

8. Joan Dunne: "Well, you will please excuse me, I am here for the first time having come more out of curiosity, and since I am new to all this, I think I would do better to first  reflect and meditate on what I have learned here today. I will pass on this round of bidding. I have found that I have never had need of any of the artifacts of power about which you men boast. Since I am still a child compared to the rest of you, I will take time to grow to refine and test my Power. I am already given to KNOW and feel that my Power of Consciousness and LOVE is the only real Power. It will define and create the only future that counts, or there will be no future for any of you or your friends.  Then you will all gratefully become my obedient servants.

All the competing Mongers and Brokers were momentarily stunned. Then they exploded into laughter and obscenities. They slapped their thighs and each other's backs, bellowed uproariously, jabbed at each other with loud guffaws, and spilled their drinks."

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Do you have an ethical "gyroscope?"  To what frame of reference is is set?  Is it working?  Do you use it?!

A characteristic shared among those who fly, and survive, is their uniformly profound respect for that part of THE LAW called the physics of flight. Every successful pilot knows that airplanes and their gyroscopic instruments must be designed to be faithful to THE LAW that relates to flight. For this reason, the thrill derived from the successful exercise of the techniques of flying is due to the psychic and Spiritual reinforcement produced by the experience, not just from the physical and mental exercises which are required.

A pilot lives or dies based on his/her faith in, knowledge of, respect for, and adherence to THE LAW that affects flight.   The pilot knows that instant retribution is delivered for any critical violation of THE LAW which acts with implacable certainty. For example, during an approach to landing, the airplane must be properly positioned, configured and adjusted to meet the conditions that the Laws of flight require to land safely. Whether the airplane is landed by visual references or on instruments makes no difference.  THE LAW of flight must be respected and followed.  Failure to meet this test results in instant death or maiming.

There are no exceptions. There may be reasons, but there can be no excuses.  There is no appeal, no second chance.  There is no carefully contrived out.  There are no postponements.  It makes no difference that the pilot who violates THE LAW is a good person, is a religious or Spiritual person of impeccable character and faith, or has never made that important mistake before, will never make that mistake again, or is on a noble mission, or is wholly depended on by multitudes of innocent vulnerable parties, or that the pilot is a loved and loving person.  Neither does it matter that the pilot is connected to political power, whether he/she owns or has stolen the airplane, or owns the airline who owns the airplane, or that his/her father is a priest, rabbi, or imam, or that the pilot is a most powerful person, a dominant power broker and controller of vast estates on the human scale of worldly things.  There is neither punishment nor forgiveness for any action within THE LAW.    There is only accountability as every effect follows relentlessly from its cause.

A negligent pilot is implacably and instantly served up the fruits of his error within THE LAW, and it is finished.

Life is R.A.W. There is always a perfect, patient, and implacable justice in THE LAW.

THEREFORE, A PILOT WHO CRASHES HAS NOT SUFFERED "THE WRATH OF GRAVITY" BUT HAS REAPED THE NATURAL CONSEQUENCES (KARMA) OF HIS/HER OWN ACTION WITHIN THE LAWS OF FLIGHT.  AND SO IT IS WITH EVERY EXPRESSION OF HUMANITY'S BEHAVIOR WITHIN "THE LAW" OF GOD.  HUMANITY IS ACCOUNTABLE FOR EVERY DIMENSION AND ACTION THAT IS A PART OF HUMAN  THOUGHT AND BEHAVIOR.  PERFECT JUSTIC WILL BE PATIENTLY AND PERFECTLY  SERVED.

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Which of the following stages of C/Consciousness unfoldment are you presently at? members of your family? friends? members of your profession? leaders at work? our politicians and other leaders of our society?

Life #1- Mountain Job. Once there was a crude and bestial man who was an early occupant of the American frontier during the period when settlers first advanced into the western mountains. "Mountain Job" was a hunter and trapper who survived by trading his hides at trading posts as they were established on the very edge of the wilderness. He was a rough and tumble illiterate, living on simple subsistence.  He was fearless of anything and anyone. So when he came to town he was feared because of his brute strength and bully determination.  He always had his own way, unless there was someone else there who was stronger and more determined, which wasn't very often. But when in the presence of the stronger constraint, Mountain Job was as nice as he could be. Then one day a stranger was in town when Job began to act out his "Bully" will in his usual abusive way. But this stranger was not only bigger and more determined. He was also crueler. He shot and killed big Mountain Job who, on that very day, had only achieved his 30th birthday.

Life #2- Trader Job, was born only five years later. The trading Post which had been established on the edge of the wilderness had grown with the west so that now it was in the midst of the frontier life. Stories were told of legends like a famous trapper called Mountain Job who had been killed in that very store. Trader Job, the new owner of the trading post, always liked to tell that story for some reason.  Life in general was now fairly stable. Trader Job was basically a law abiding man, but was known to be a hard and ruthless bargainer who liked to cheat the careless in the name of free competition.  Sometimes settlers would be down on their luck, and while he sometimes helped them out, he exercised his price and his caveat emptor policy. Therefore, the only real friends he had were those who needed him for what they wanted. One day, a customer decided that Trader Job had been unfair, and that Job had abused his power as owner of the Trading Post, and this time was once too often. At that time, law enforcement was uneven in the frontier, so the offended customer took matters into his own hands. Since he was angry at Job, he decided he would simply appear at the post and take what he thought was his as the fair recompense for having been cheated, and he was prepared to take it by force. But Trader Job tried to stop him. Then the irate customer applied "frontier  justice" and shot and killed Trader Job who died before he had reached his 40th birthday.

Life #3-: Job Manners, was born. Having been twice shot and thus learned his lesson on the risks of force, treachery, and manipulation, Job was guided to be born as a person who was devoted to promoting social harmony. In view of his violent Karma, he was something of a worry wart, and tried to arrange to have himself and everyone else do everything just right, to be everything to everyone. So while he was desperate to avoid confrontation, he constantly worried and wrung his hands over doing the right thing. But this tactic created a terrible problem for him. Different groups that affected his life seemed to have different expectations. He became very tense trying to do the right thing for everyone. For example, as owner of a comfortable business in the little village that had once been only a trading post, he would try to do the right thing to help his customers who had little money. But then he got in a financial jamb when customers defaulted on their payments. The bank finally got to him and threatened to take over his business when he missed some of his own payments about which he had always been excruciatingly punctual. In all this, his wife constantly raised regular hell about his being a helpless and spineless wimp. Finally Job Manners developed a bleeding ulcer and to everyone's surprise, suddenly died of an undetected hemorrhage at the age of only 48.

Life #4- Sheriff Job, was born. The former trading post was now a thriving town. Job was fed up from his last experience of being worked over by everyone else and he decided that if he didn't get to make the rules or profit from them, he surely would enforce them. So he chose to be born and was drawn to become a sheriff. He valued "law and order" and he loved the rules once he understood them. He cheerily and effectively saw to it that they were enforced. He didn't care to modify the rules or make exceptions. One rule fits all, was his motto, and he was very effective. That is, until a new city council came to town and told Job to stop enforcing laws that, while they were on the books, didn't make any sense the way he enforced them. Now Job was in a constant fight with the council about what the law should be and how he should act. Since he was an elected official, they couldn't fire him, but they began a campaign to have him voted out of office. Job became very angry and bitter. Then one night just a week before the election, when Job was furiously confronting an opposing crowd of voters who were advocating for his competition, he suddenly had a fatal heart attack. He died of rage at the age of 60.

Life #5: Lawyer Job, was born. If the law wouldn't support him, he would take it over in order to manipulate it, and so he became a lawyer. He studied for years, and learned all the intricacies of the civil and criminal "law." He especially enjoyed the study of case histories of turn-of-the-century law enforcement, he loved the law of the old time courthouse and the country sheriffs who had enforced it. Times were simpler then. Now he had to learn about all the exceptions of "the law," which to him seemed time consuming and wasteful. But he also realized the benefits of flexibility. In fact, he made a lot of money, and many more enemies, by being flexible.  That is, by exploiting and fitting the law to the needs of his clients. Regardless of any objective justice, regardless of the cost to others whom he clearly made victims to his clients, he fit the law to serve the needs of his clients. Although often ethically questionable, the legality of his lawyering was unassailable. He thrived in the adversarial cauldron of the courtroom. He had mastered all the techniques for manipulation, domination, and for destroying the arguments of his intellectually weaker adversaries. Whether his arguments or facts were true or false made no difference. The relevance of this to real justice was inconsequential to the thrill of victory. In this, he was wholly indifferent to any larger standard or frame of reference for human justice. One day, after many years of successful practice, with great public boasting of his regular victories, he used a technicality in the law to keep a man who had abused and murdered a young child from being punished.  Lawyer Job was found dead by stabbing three weeks later, only one week before he was to retire at the age of 65.

Life #6: Job Peacemaker, was born. For some reason he was attracted to "The Law" and became a successful lawyer very quickly and without any real effort. But he was immediately uncomfortable when he saw that he often had to advocate for injustce and to harm others in order to earn his living. He soon became disgusted with the workings of "The Law" and how it was actually used as vicious game that more frequently abused the rights of victims than convict the criminal. All of this was making him uncomfortably rich. For some reason he decided that he simply couldn't play the game. His passion for reason and fairness made him ineffectual as a lawyer. Therefore, he soon gave up his practice and became a mediator, a role in which he found he thrived creating win-win outcomes for his clients and their adversaries. He successfully entered political life as a legal reformer. After many years, he was able to help make major changes in the law so as to require adherence to fairness, to evaluate lawyers on their record of win-win outcomes, to enforce the ethical behavior of lawyers, and to eliminate the adversarial process of win-lose. He rejoiced in the realm of the healing principles of mediation which had the potential for producing a win-win for all conflicted parties. He earned many awards for his skill and courage in changing the law and inspiring his colleagues toward ethical reforms. He lived to enjoy a full and peaceful retirement where for some reason, he entered deeply into the study of philosophy, theology, and metaphysics until he died of natural causes at the age of 80.

Life #7: Guru Job.  In this life, which was his last life on earth, he was born to circumstances that nurtured his entry as a child into the Mystic Way. He practiced discipline, patience, Spiritual surrender and acts of Agapic Love as a total life style. He and became a teacher of Principles of fairness,  justice and Love. He was beloved by all whose life he touched until he died peacefully without illness at age 100.  He had become a fully developed Spiritual Adept.  Having passed his torch to his disciples, he passed forever into the Mystical Realms of eternal LOVE where the "peace that passeth understanding" dwells.  From that time, he had no need to be born again into the suffering realms of earth. But as an Avatar, he could choose to be reborn into circumstances where he could function directly as a powerful Spiritual force, as a Builder, to stimulate and guide the Spiritual awakening of all humankind, as so many have done before.

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Are your waiting for your "train?"  How are you prepared to recognize it?  Do you know that you are waiting for a "train?"

Once upon a time ago, there was a little boy whose father took him to town to show him the train station and the trains that regularly stopped there at the dirty factory town where they lived. He wanted to show his son the vehicle that had brought the family from a distant city of many benefits. The little boy was very frightened as they stood on the very edge of the platform as the first train he ever saw close-up roared into the station. It was so close he could almost touch it, its whistle blasting into the very marrow of his bones. He stood in fearful awe because his father had already told him of the train's invincible power and majesty, and it was surely true. He also feared because his father had told him how dangerous a train could be. If he were not careful, a train could even take him away before he was ready to go, and worse, take him to a place of evil.  In the powerful presence of the train, he remembered that warning very well, and he shrank back in fear.

But then his father also told him that the right train provided many benefits. He told his son that there would come a time when he would have to buy a ticket and take a train to return from whence the family had come. He spoke of the wonderful benefits in that big city, a place where there was no suffering, unlike this small town. Instead there were many rewards. But his father emphasized that this was only going to happen provided he took the right train. Worst of all it seemed, there was only one "right" train.

The threat that had dominated his first experience with trains made the evil outcome seem far more likely than any possible benefits that any train could bring. Suddenly his parents were gone, and his relatives told him they had taken their train to the city of desire. How cruelly betrayed he felt to be so abandoned. Now he was even more fearful of all trains because of their potential to suddenly snatch him to the evil place called "The City of Suffering." He wondered which train went to which City, if the train only went to the one city or both, and which city it arrived at first, and how he would know what ticket to buy? Was there really such a thing as a "right" train or a "wrong" train. He worried that even if he got the right train, how would he know when to get off?

Those whom he asked gave him conflicting information. Sometimes they just smiled or gave him silliness. His quest was like a nightmare. So he devoted his life to a study of trains and cities. He tried to find out which train went to which City with what qualities and how to recognize it. He became determined to know all that there was to know about trains. The result was that he became fearfully obsessed, ignoring other important dimensions of his life. Though he sought the information desperately, many alleged facts were inconsistent. He truly wanted to arrange to buy the right ticket. Thus he progressively gave up his useful life in his little town to worry instead over his father's admonishments, trying to do all the right things that would insure that the train he chose would at least not hurt him. He was determined to reach the desired "City of Salvation."

One day after he had become an old man, without his expecting it, he suddenly realized that the train intended to take him to the desirable city his father had always told him about had already arrived in the station and left. In spite of his obsession over his doubts, in his ignorance, he had put off buying the required ticket.  Because the old man had not taken the correct steps to prepare, he had not expected the train to the City of Desire's sudden arrival.  It turned out that the train's appearance was no more remarkable than any of the other trains that came and went. He had not learned what to look for because he had not learned how to look. Thus he did not recognize the train when it had come. So the old man was left alone in the place of his birth. Abandoned and fearing to die there, he bought a ticket for the very next train that entered the station. Then in fulfillment of his worst fears, he found himself being taken to yet another suffering little town with a whole new set of impoverished and frustrating experiences.

As the train carried him to this unhappy new city, in the midst of his disappointment and emptiness, the friendly conductor helped him recognize how his life had been wasted in acts of futility. He showed him how he had deprived himself of the happy journey he had so earnestly sought. He now knew that it was only the quality of the journey as defined within himself, and not the destination that was of actual importance. He learned that the quality of one's life buys the "ticket" that determines the location. His devotion to tasks in service to others in the little town were the price of getting the right ticket. He had been sent to serve the duties fate had placed before him.

In his obsession over finding the right train, he had failed to serve his community effectively, compassionately, and lovingly, and to so act to improve the quality of life for others in the imperfect community where he found himself placed.  Too late he had now discovered that offering acts of devotion was the fee hat bought him the right ticket. Alas! He had learned too late that in the certain Truth of time, he would always earn a ticket on the train of his desire, the one he chose through his actions. He learned that right actions began with his thoughts that would bring him to the station at the right time and place to receive the only available ticket for him, the one he had earned and deserved by his acts of unconditional Love, or negligence, selfless service, or outright evil.

He remembered suddenly that he had received this same guidance before somewhere, but had forgotten. He thanked the conductor and promised himself that he would never forget what he had so painfully learned. But as his train was approaching his new town of opportunity. As had happened many times before, he found himself falling asleep in the dream time, dreaming of impossible possibilities and reawakening in his new city, and into a familiar distressing and depressing confusion.

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To which these brothers do you most relate?

Once there were three brothers, Lust, Eros and Agape [pronounced ah 'gah pay.]  They were the last three men on a planet that was about to die. They were alone on the planet when they came upon the one remaining woman named Tranquility. They followed the pattern of their respective way of life on their dying planet. Agape saw in Tranquility the hope of their kind, her perfection, her soul being the nurturer of all that had been good, the generative source of Love and life, and he adored her. He yearned simply for her acknowledgment, and he sent her his message as to who he was and what he needed to share with her. This was nothing more than the acknowledgment that he and she were ONE in Spirit.

But Eros and Lust also had seen her, and they ignored the peaceful Agape and struggled with each other as to who would possess Tranquility. Eros sought to turn her from the others, and poured out of his soul a torrent of passionate poetry, plying her with wine and delicious meats and fruits, exalting her beauty, extolling the purity of his desire.  He portrayed the depth of his anguish for her and offering his body, mind and yes, even his Soul--he offered his entire life for her affection that they might bring children into their world while it remained.

Lust laughed at all this, for his genitals demanded immediate satisfaction and he was driven to act. First, he solved the competition problem and promptly murdered his two bothers. Then he took Tranquility and sexually assaulted her on the spot. He filled her with his sperm in one quick orgasm of total animal fulfillment. But soon, Tranquility died, without child. Then the planet died, and with it so did Lust and all forms of animal passion.

Then in the higher realms beyond bestial life, where the shades of former lives find their ultimate destinies, Eros and Lust were found to be outside the realm of Spiritual contact with Tranquility. They were forced to only observe her from a distance and know that she and Agape would forever serve each other in Unity as beloveds. Eros took comfort from his suffering in the unrequited purity of his erotic love for her. He thus elevated his Spiritual potential for releasing that torment and was placed on a more favorable planet for the continuation of his Spiritual journey.  But Lust suffered the pains of hell for there was no relief for his urgent needs. He then sought by the exercise of his primal will to restore himself to life on another earth like plane, there to further indulge his bestial desires until a persistent pattern of carnal reverses would at last shock him into his own Spiritual awakening.

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Is anything you're "wearing" causing you discomfort?

Once upon a time there was a young woman named Blanche. She was given the gift of a pair of shoes by a respected, indeed feared, relative of the family. Although the gift was not wanted by Blanche, there were certain norms or expectations about gifts among the relatives. They believed that the wishes of the family should always be followed. Any opportunity to please the family was itself a gift. Wearing the shoes would certainly please this family.

Now these particular shoes were not very attractive. When worn, they did not quite fit. But the rules of the family were very strong. It was more important that the family see the shoes worn than that they fit or appeal to Blanche. They certainly weren't concerned whether the shoes were wanted by her. So Blanche wore the shoes even if they didn't look very good, and even though they didn't fit. That is the kind of rules this family enforced.

But soon the shoes began to hurt, and Blanche wanted to take them off even if the looks of the shoes, which were actually very ugly, could be tolerated. Blanche was so anxious to please the relative that a sense of pride was actually created in enduring the discomfort for the sake of the family's customs. But after a while, there were blisters on Blanche's feet which soon become swollen. She started to limp. She was now forced to see the shoes for their true ugliness. But instead of accepting the reality of the ugly shoes which did not fit, and which she knew were harming her, she instead cried out more loudly to the family for encouragement and relief.  She wanted their permission to remove the offending shoes.  "Look at my loyalty! " she cried, "See how I do what you want! even though it hurts." Although the family heard her words, they had inadequate Spiritual Consciousness to relate to the meaning behind the words, to the visible pain Blanche was feeling.

The family nodded and smiled with approval as she wore the shoes because the family could not feel the pain. They could not mention the ugliness because they did not see the ugliness. Because the shoes had been given by another member of the family, and it was not their own feet that suffered, none of the relatives cared about Blanche's feelings. It was of no consequence to them that she was a member of the family too. The relatives lacked the character defined by Spiritual Consciousness to understand the higher Laws.  Therefore, they blindly followed the family's rules and customs. These were more important than the possibility that higher Rules might exist, ones that served an honorable purpose. So Blanche continued to wear the evil shoes..

Finally, Blanche got so that her feet had become badly infected, and walking became impossible. Now she cried out more loudly to the family. "Look! I am become crippled, but see how good I am, what I tolerate..." hoping she would then be released from her burden. She had been raised to be a person who had no thoughts of her own to think with, outside of what the family would permit or give its approval for. While Blanche's now obvious distress finally made the relatives uncomfortable, the family, being of low consciousness, did not connect these cries with its own perverse rules. In fact, there were some relatives who even called her a "whiner" and a "cry baby." They could not see the ugliness nor feel the pain. That's the kind of family they had become. Then Blanch at length became very sick until her feet, already black with gangrene, began to stink with the stench of rotting flesh.  Worse, the infection had now spread everywhere inside her otherwise still lovely body.

At last she became so sick that even outsiders could see how bad the mess was and they intervened. Being of Spiritual Consciousness, they pitied those who could permit such a terrible thing to happen. They saw nothing honorable in the cruelty Blanch willfully suffered as an act of love and devotion to her family . After all, who would let their own feet rot off their body when they could have easily done the right thing to stop it. But their interventions came too late. At the hospital, the doctors had to cut off Blanch's feet and legs which could no longer be saved.

But, alas, help had even come too late even to save Blanch's life because the infection had by then spread so far that her kidneys, liver and other internal organs were ruined beyond repair. They could no longer serve her body. How terribly she suffered. But in her moment of dying, suddenly TRUTH came to Blanch, although, as is so often the case, it came too late in this life for her to benefit from her insight:

The Law" of any family will often oppose THE LAW of TRUTH when it is absent of Love, compassion, acceptance and nurturing. So is one's fate when you oppose THE LAW to honor a cause that is not honorable and anchored in TRUTH.   But~

Blanch had been given pain by her relatives, and had died in pain the relatives did not feel. Yet they all cried pitifully at her funeral. But they cried for their own selfish selves because their beloved Blanche had gone away. Entrapped by their impoverished Spiritual development, they could not understand how they, the family, its rules, and their Spiritual blindness had killed Blanch, their own dear relative they claimed they loved. They did not understand that

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Is this famous poem about erotic love?  If yes, how? If not, why not?

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The little boy, a toddler, had no language or concepts to speak of his Spiritual feelings.  He had no word for the concept, but his parents noted that he loved flowers and animals.  He did not pick the flowers, but only bent to enjoy their smell and examine them closely.  Alas, his machismo father despised this characteristic as weakness.

One day the Buddha Child arrived home from kindergarten 45 minutes late.  To his worried mother's furious dismay, he was encumbered with an armful of trash he had collected along the route home from school, discarded paper, wrappers and bottles. When he had seen that discarded trash, he had experienced a great Love and compassion for them.  They had done such a kind and helpful service to people in various ways that they should not be discarded in such an insensitive way.  How much more he adored life.  But his mother, herself a gentle and loving person,  in her distress at his lateness, did not quite share those sentiments about the trash, and he was punished and the trash discarded again.

When the father killed rabbits in their yard, as a preschool child, the little Buddha cried and tearfully pleaded with him to stop.  Father was made furious because it did not matter to his son that they were "destroying" his garden."  The Buddha child insisted that there was enough for the rabbits too.   More punishment.

The Buddha Child refused to go hunting, and even when fishing, preferred to sit on the bank and contemplate the living things that made up his surroundings.  His father hated this tendency in him that he pejoratively labeled feminine and he constantly ridiculed and punished it.  From the child's earliest recollections, he felt chronic rejection and condemnation from the father he loved.  For reasons of the sacred PLAN which were beyond his memory, his could not comprehend why his father devoted his relationship with him to mostly sending such hurtful rejecting messages.

Because violence was a hateful thing, the Buddha Child refused to fight the local bully, and refused to fight even in the face of his father's punishment for his "cowardice." His father never understood, nor did the Buddha Child at that moment, that it took more courage to stand up to his father and take his punishment on principle than to fight the bully with whom he at least had a more equal chance of prevailing.  The Buddha Child quickly learned to suffer in silence in the presence of his father's scorn with his mother's overcompensating efforts failing to mediate the distress.

In spite of the Buddha Child's constant childish efforts to earn his fathers approbation and love, he served his dominating and abusive father's will until he was a man.  But his father's rejection continued until the day he died.  For years the Buddha Child was embarrassed and ashamed because he could not live up to his father's definition of a "man," a definition his father had lived by a life of aggression as a predatory businessman, forcing submission and compliance on those helpless to him, and holding in overt contempt those he defined as being weak or stupid.

In his Spiritual sleep, in the face of chronic abuse, the child nevertheless instinctively reached out in abject Love to all disadvantaged living things.  But over the years, without his being aware, the constant frustration of his innate Spiritual Truth caused him to slowly become withdrawn and angry.  Without an awakened Spiritual Consciousness of his place in the scheme of things, his helpless frustration was steadily translated into a sullen, unrequited anger, a seething internal rage and depression.  While his Spiritual Truth prevailed to the extent that he was never violent against others, and was socially cooperative in every expected way, his Spiritual Truth, like a seed in the midst of winter, slept.  But his repressed anger often flashed, and was always evident beneath the facade of social compliance. This conflict created an unspoken discomfort for others who instinctively sought to distance themselves from his incipient anger, and this felt rejection further distressed him.  So the Buddha Child grew up in helpless isolation from any real emotional or Spiritual contact with any other human. But he successfully passed in every other way appearing as a normal adjusted adult.  He did not understand the source and depth of his chronic ache and that these rejections were unfolding tests of Karma.

The Buddha Child never understood his profound gift of Spiritual potential until by the accident of a personal tragedy as an aged man, his own Spiritual Consciousness suddenly awakened.  Like the seed released into the sun, moisture and warmth of a spring time fertile soil, his Consciousness of his Spiritual Power burst into bloom.  Then he saw from that illuminated  perspective that all of these Buddha tendencies were not weakness to be ashamed of, but evidence of his deep unawakened Spiritual potential.  He did not understand in his childhood, that these Buddha tendencies are a Spiritual gift of GOD.  They are the reverberations of lives past in which he had risen to develop those qualities, and because he was sent here to Spiritually serve and more fully mature in a cauldron of childhood emotional abuse.  He became aware that in past lives he had released his anger to harm others.  In this life, although he showed his anger to others, he controlled his anger such that no harm was caused to others.

As an aging adult, he was at last blessed to see the full spectrum of his Spiritual potential in the context of his childhood debasement.  His Spiritual Truth had survived in  a realm of limiting carnal intellect, bestial emotions and values, and still was released by the ultimate liberating power of its natural resurrection. These Spiritual values of a Buddha Child, an "ugly duckling" in the face of  secular and materialist values, were in fact the latent "swan."  These are the highest qualities to which one can Spiritually aspire, the power of unconditional Love.  Then comes the illuminating experience of transformation.

Now I ask you, were you, are you, also a Buddha child?

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Have you met one of these lately?

Many, many years ago, there lived in a particular nondescript city, a rare type of person we will call a "Nullbenign."   On the surface, he was quite indistinguishable from any other of the town's citizens.  He lived near the town center in a dwelling that was key to much of the town's important activities.  Visibly, the man was an ordinary craftsperson who lovingly made and retailed his specialized products and services. His appearance to others was unremarkable for he was as nondescript as his town.  As a personality, he was a "null," like a cipher, a zero. He was neither especially good looking so as to excite any unusual admiration by others, nor was he particularly ugly, plain or deformed so as to be rejected by others.  He simply minded his own successful business while he skillfully and faithfully provided his services for those who could benefit.  Thus he was both accepted by others because they felt comfortable with him and attracted to him in a mysterious way, but at the same time he was largely ignored by the greater community, especially its power oriented members.  He made no effort to participate in the politics or even the social activities of  the town. He preferred to remain by himself with his art and crafts.

There was, however, a most interesting and unusual quality to this man, this Nullbenign.  Such a person has unique qualities that are Spiritually deep and profoundly Mystical in nature.  That means they are not visible to any normal observer. No one in the community knew that he was a Nullbenign. They did not even have a concept for such a being. Because these qualities could not be directly detected, there was no symbol or  label for anyone with his kind of special mystical power.  His closest neighbors and friends were entirely unaware of his special qualities. Even more interesting, the man himself had no awareness of his own nature as a Nullbenign.  He only saw himself as a member of his community, with uniquely developed talent, skills, and a love for others, and for his capacity to offer service. In short, he simply saw himself as an ordinary person.

His town, though unremarkable, enjoyed a harmonious way of life through which all the important needs of its citizens were reliably and continuously met. But as time passed, the authorities who dominated the community's politics, in response to perceived external threats coming from competing communities, developed a restless ambition to grow their town and have it transcend its image they thought to be mundane.  For the first time, they paid attention to the Nullbenign, not because of his special gifts of which they remained oblivious, but because of where he lived.  When they checked out the Nullbenign they found him too nondescript, too obscure. They did not relate to his services. They had decided, based only on the available surface information, that his skills were not useful to their expansive plans. They did not notice that he had a large and faithful clientele such that he lived quite comfortably. Because they saw no special quality in his work, they thus saw no need for his services.

But they decided that they wanted the place he called home to be used for one of their new programs. They wanted to place someone else there to do business in accordance with their idea of what should be happening in that dwelling. But the town's norms frowned on any approach that involved direct confrontation or even negotiation. Frankly, the town's authorities did not want to appear responsible for any overt attack on the quiet Nullbenign which might publicize their embarrassing agenda. That they did not want to reveal their ambition testified to their considerable guilt. So they contrived a plan to force him out by surreptitious means. Then his place could be filled by an acceptable person, one made in their image.

Thus they began a relentless and escalating campaign to discourage the Nullbenign from staying, and force him to leave.  As their town's new program's advanced along with related endeavors, the pressure became even more urgent for them to get rid of the offending Nullbenign in order to use his site for their new agenda.  Their selfish expansionist activities and actions had by then acquired an appeal with the otherwise politically apathetic public who began to fall in line to get their due.  They too began to impose their own pressures on the Nullbenign without even understanding what they were doing or why.

For several years the town's father's steadily escalated their abusive attacks on the Nullbenign. They kept up a variety of political, social and economic pressures too shameful to mention. The Nullbenign became progressively confused and distressed. His efforts to understand and to try to deal with the abuse he was experiencing failed.  He could identify nothing so offensive about himself to justify this treatment so that he could correct it.  He became more and more frustrated and at last he became ineffectual even in using his basic talents. Finally his health was challenged by the constant stress.  He became depressed and impotent to practice his skills. For the first time in his life, his business was in a serious downward spiral, and his technical and artistic skills were becoming less accessible to him. His friends, having observed the hostility of the authorities toward the Nullbenign, did not want to find themselves out of favor with these town leaders.  So even his friends slowly became more distant, and even hostile.  The Nullbenign saw no explanation let alone a solution to his problems.  None of his many good faith efforts to solve them was rewarded or even responded to.

Finally, he could take it no more.  He had looked around and found another town a great distance away.  It had none of the familiar features of the town he had loved and served.  But it had turned on him, was abusing him, and was even destroying his livelihood as well as his health and peace of mind. So at last he capitulated. He accepted his losses and relinquished his once happy home, business, and expectations.  Full of uncertainty and fear, he went to the distant town to try to began his life all over again.  Of course he also unknowingly took his special Nullbenign qualities with him, along with his practical crafts and practices.

The authorities and their followers were jubilant. They seized the Nullbenign's establishment, tore it down, rebuilt it in their image, and installed their chosen craftsperson. Having thus converted it to their purposes they continued with their plans. They now looked forward to having an unqualified success.  But then some unexpected events began to happen.  First, some of the agreements and contracts they had made with others to accomplish essential goals were, without evident cause, repudiated, ignored, or not fulfilled in good faith.  The community support for their events unexplainably began to fall off.  The town father's who had been so unanimous and cooperative with each other in creating and advancing their plans began to fault each other and turn on each other.  External threats became more ominous.  Their town was in distress.

The distress was such that while there was no great disaster, no remarkable crisis, no unusual loss of life, no special destructive event, conditions were steadily becoming sour.  Most of their promising ventures continued to languish or decline without apparent cause.  Life in the town was becoming dysfunctional and empty.  Prior satisfactions and joys of accomplishment seemed to drain away from the citizens. Worse, it was replaced by growing uncertainly, distrust, and overt hostility.  Finally the authorities were forced to give up their expansionist plans. Without success they then tried to find their way back to the beginning when it was pleasant and everything seemed so promising. After a great while they were forced to admit, and accept, that they were irrecoverably lost.  Their town spun in a relentless downward spiral of decline and impoverishment.

During all of this, they never thought about the Nullbenign whose crafts they had dismissed since they only knew him as an impediment to their agendas and the activities that had replaced him.  Meanwhile, in his new town, being the creature of discipline that he was, he slowly recovered his skills and loving capacity to relate to others.  He reconstructed his business and having found acceptance from the town's authorities, began to live his unremarkable life just as before. He had found his new town fragmented, in disrepair, and demoralized.  Its citizens were either apathetic to each other or competing at cross purposes. But after a while, for reasons that were obscure, they had slowly begun to harmonize and discover their complimentary strengths.  As time passed, imperceptibly, the dynamic of his new community became more and more like the promising  circumstances the Nullbenign had recalled in his old community before the persecutions began. He was pleased and gave thanks.  He continued to live out his simple life, unremarkably, as an unremarkable man.  All parties to this story remained oblivious to its underlying Truth.  "Those with ears, let them hear."

...
Can you recognize what this story is really about?

"Buddhists themselves, even of Milarepa's School, recognize as we must, that Milarepa's path being a short cut to transcendence over the limitations of human existence, will be trodden only by the exceptional devotee.  Their evolutionary growth must be adequate to the mighty effort to reach the Spiritual goal far in advance of slowly evolving humanity as a whole. Though very few will have the spiritual fitness and physical hardihood and the willingness to emulate his discovery that the goal is not a mirage, but is attainable... there will be found in Milarepa's Biography the necessary courage to prepare for the first steps upon the path, no matter how long and arduous the path may be, nor how many lifetimes may be required to attain the goal which Milarepa attained in one lifetime because of his superior preparedness." (Page ix, commentary by Carl Jung)

Milarepa, having completed the first ordeal of his meritorious acts, and was thus qualified to select his Guru (teacher), had chosen for his Guru the greatest Lama named Marpa the Translator, a Disciple himself of the great Indian Saint, Naropa. Milarepa approached Marpa to plead for him to teach him the Mystic Truths. Milarepa, had already achieved competence as a black sorcerer, one who commands destructive forces. So, as his first assignment, his Guru had commanded him to destroy a certain village for its evil, after which Marpa had promised to give him the teachings.  Milarepa thus came to serve as an "avenging" specialist in destroying all manner of things with hail storms summoned at his will. The target Village was dominated by offending thieves and robbers whose residents had cheated others of their goods. But after Milarepa had done what he had been told, he was then bitterly criticized by his Guru, and told to go heal the damage he had done, causing Milarepa to later bemoan: "I bitterly repented the fate that had put such accursed power into my hands, making me the means of wrecking vengeance by doing hurt to life and property."

But after having again presented himself to his Guru upon completion of his deed, and accepted his criticism, Milarepa was then assigned to build a house for his Guru's son. Marpa then took Milarepa to a mountain place, defined the spot for the house, and told him to build it "with an eastern aspect [principal side facing east.]" When Milarepa had the house half built, Marpa came and said without apology or explanation, that Milarepa should demolish the building and take the stones and earth back to the place where he had found them. Milarepa, being a good disciple and devoutly yearning to know the Sacred Truths did as he was bid without complaint.

Then Marpa showed Milarepa a different location and told him to build the house on a ridge with a western aspect with a crescent shaped ground plan. Some time later, Marpa returned and seeing the nearly completed house, proclaimed that it would not do, and again asked Milarepa to return the heavy stones and earth to their original places. Then he found a site and commanded Milarepa to build a house with a northern aspect in a triangular shape. Some time later Marpa returned and asked Milarepa why he dared to build a house in such a manner. When Milarepa told Marpa it was his own instructions, Marpa denied having so commanded. He again, offering various conflicts with religious principle that made the house unacceptable, ordered it be torn down again, and the stones and earth once again restored to their original place.

Several days later, Marpa again took Milarepa to a spot. But this place was a location where certain local relatives and elders of the Lama had and had insisted he not build on that spot and made Marpa promise that he would not do so. Nevertheless Marpa said, "Thou art now to build on this spot an ordinary quadrangular house, nine stories high, with an ornamental upper part forming a tenth story. This house will not be demolished; and upon its completion I will bestow on thee the Truths for which thou art pining, and maintain thee while thou art in retreat performing Sadhana (Meditation), providing thee with all needed food and clothing."

But this time Milarepa had brought Marpa's wife, The Reverend Mother Damena, who had provided comfort and consolation to Milarepa over his frustrations with the prior reversals of his work. As the Guru was marking out the lines for the foundation, Milarepa loudly recounted the past misfortunes, and that Marpa had denied giving orders, and said, "...Now once more he is giving me the order to begin building another house, so I pray thou my Reverend Mother, mayest be pleased to act as witness to this present order." However, Marpa simply ignored the demonstration and told his wife to attend to her business while he attended to his.

Now Milarepa was proceeding with the construction, and had used a huge stone brought to him by Marpa's other disciples in jest. But it was of special quality, and he had made it the cornerstone of the house, and was then working up past the second story when Marpa came by. "Great Sorcerer, whence didst thou procure that stone?" Marpa asked. When Milarepa explained, Marpa said, "Well thou hast no business to use for thy building purposes a stone brought by them. See that it is taken out and returned to the place from which it was taken." When Milarepa reminded him of his promise about not tearing down the building, Marpa said, "But I did not promise to let thee employ, as thy workmen, my chief disciples... besides I am [only ordering you] to take out that stone brought by my chief disciples..."

Of course, being the cornerstone, two entire walls of the house had to be brought down which Milarepa dutifully did and restored the stone, which had been found perfect for its place in the wall, to its original resting place. Then Marpa returned and said, "Now thou mayest go and bring back that same stone thyself and set it in the same place."...and so Milarepa obeyed.

Now the relatives of the Lama had been nervously watching the activities at the site, and they became more concerned if Marpa were serious about building there. When they were considering among themselves whether to raise their objection, one of them said, "Marpa is beside himself. He hath got hold of a strong young novice from the highlands, and being possessed with a mania for building, he keepeth the poor young man busy all the time building houses of unapproved patterns on every ridge, knoll and spur round about. Then, when the building is half finished, he getteth the same young man to pull it all down again and carry the materials back where they came from. He will surely do the same in this case too. But if not, there will be ample time to stop him. Let us wait and see."

By the time that Milarepa had reached the seventh story, his body had began to develop ugly sores. Then, when the relatives finally dared to oppose the construction, Marpa mysteriously summoned a body of troops which covered the house and protected it. The relatives were dismayed because they could not determine the origin of the troops, and not only did they decline to oppose the house thereafter, but by that means, they were also sufficiently impressed to become followers themselves of Marpa.

But then when the house was nearly complete, and the time came for sacred initiations, Marpa had said nothing. Milarepa thought, "...since I had succeeded in erecting such an edifice single handed, without so much as receiving a piece of stone the size of a goat's head, a basket full of earth, a jug of water, or a spade full of clay from anyone else, I must surely deserve some consideration."

But when he entered the temple, bowed and placed himself for the initiation his Guru the Lama Marpa, asked, "Great Sorcerer, what hast thou as the offering?" When Marpa mentioned his dutiful work on the nearly completed house, Marpa said, "What presumption! What impertinence!" and he scathingly humiliated Milarepa, struck him, and dragged him by the hair and threw him outside the temple shouting, "...If thou can pay the initiation fees, well and good; pay them! If thou can not, out thou walkest from this Mystic Circle."

Damena, the Lama's wife consoled Milarepa as best she could, soothed his blistering and running sores, and berated her husband for his cruelty. Then the Lama came to Milarepa the next day and said, "Great Sorcerer, thou hadst better cease work on this house thou hast under construction, and begin on another dwelling-house of twelve pillars, having a hall-chamber and a chapel to serve as an annex to the main edifice. When thou hast finished both buildings, I will surely give thee instructions."

Well, Milarepa did has he was bid in completing the annex, but the ten story building remained unfinished, and his back was by then, a single bleeding sore when the time came again for the initiation. Once again he appeared within the temple, a supplicant to receive the Sacred Truths. This time, the Lama's wife, realizing that he still had not had time to procure a fee for the rites, gave Milarepa some offerings to provide the Lama. So when Marpa asked Milarepa what he had brought, Milarepa proffered the gifts provided by Marpa's own wife. Marpa angrily said that these were not Milarepa's gift, but things already brought by others. Once again Milarepa was driven from the Mystic Circle in abject humiliation.

Then follows Milarepa's anguish over what he felt certain was a profound betrayal, and he agonized over the possible reasons. He thought that it was his Karma for the hurtful works upon others that he did as a Sorcerer, or that he had some fatal flaw which the Lama had detected and knew he could never bear the responsibility of a Lama, or that the Lama simply did not personally like him. Overcome with despair he thought to kill himself.

Now Milarepa became certain he was defeated, and he undertook to flee the temple of his Lama. Once again, Damena, who had continued to be a source of comfort and encouragement to Milarepa, being a mystic of her own accomplishments and respecting his commitment, took it upon herself to teach him the secret of meditation, for which Milarepa was profoundly grateful, for it showed him the way to conquer and dilute his profound yearnings. But at length, he could not tolerate the frustration and perceived betrayals of his Guru, and when the wife could not change his mind, nor turn the Lama from his cruel path, she kindly assisted him with his arrangements to leave.

Accordingly, Milarepa at last left the area, found teachings from others, but basically isolated himself in a cave and entered into the profound Meditations. Later, after some time, he was summoned by the Lama's wife to come and receive the initiation. But that too became frustrated due the introduction of error in approaching Marpa. To his frustrated astonishment, yet again because of the improper manner by which Milarepa approached the Mystic Truths, he remained denied. Thus ended the second phase of Milarepa's meritorious acts in his quest for the Sacred Truths.

* [Paraphrased with quotes from: Evans-Wentz, W.V. (Ed), 1928, (2nd Edition, 1951,) Tibet's Great Yogi Milarepa: A Biography from the Tibetan, London, Oxford University Press]

...
Which of the parables most fits you?  In what part of the parable do you identify yourself?

(1) The Incubator

Once there was an unusual kind of incubator which was created solely for the hatching of unique little creatures. The little creatures were kept warm and snug within their shells within their incubator. All their needs were attended to.

But as they grew and became ready for hatching, their cozy little egg become less comfortable. Furthermore they could hear the sounds of other creatures already hatching outside and speaking with each other.

The creatures that hatched from their eggs discovered a passageway, and found they could exit into a wonderful bright light. Their reward for escaping from their shells was for them to also escape the dark confines of the incubator and enter into the larger mysterious world of light.

Back inside the warm and cozy incubator, there were many creatures that did not want to hatch. Some were ignorant and fearful of what lay beyond the confines of their shell. Some were too dull and lazy to undertake the demanding effort. Others believed, because they could hear the sounds of other creatures outside their egg, they did not have to suffer the painful difficulty of hatching. They waited to be let out.

Then one day someone came and turned off the incubator. For the creatures that had already hatched and had escaped into the light--they endured. But those unhatched creatures perished into oblivion. This is another old story.

(2) The Little Bird

Once there were two parent eagles who were mates, and their offspring, only one surviving chick remained in their nest. The parent birds doubled their efforts to insure the survival of their chick. For weeks they brought a steady diet of food, drove off predators, and sheltered the little one from fierce mountain storms.

The little bird grew stronger and stronger. As it grew stronger, it grew more and more demanding. Soon it would beat its little wings furiously and screech demanding ever more food as the exhausted parent brought back their treasures.

Then one day, as the youngster stood squawking and beating its wings, the exasperated parents returned for the first time without food. The confused chick was upset, angry and hurt. It again furiously beat its wings and screeched as loud as it could in fruitless frustration.

The tired parents contemplated their youngster and its thankless display. They discerned within their chick a certain TRUTH. They then abruptly turned and flew away, never to return. The amazed chick waited, and waited, and waited.

Distraught, confused, angry and increasingly hungry, the little chick screeched and beat its wings--but to no avail. Then in desperate frustration, and quaking with fear, it stood at last, balancing upon the precarious ledge that had been its happy home. In a burst of courage summoned from deep within itself, it stretched its desperate wings, and hurled itself into the fearful abyss that it did not know was its natural home.

To its astonishment, the little eagle made an amazing and joyful discovery.  It was created to fly--and it did. For the first time, and forever, it experienced the FREEDOM that was its ordained place in the Cosmos.