Earlier today pundits were kicking around the idea that sending Kofi Annan would be the wise route for a special envoy. Neither Annan nor Amos have pristine reputations but each has strengths that would make them a viable choice for this mission. That is the funny thing about politics, especially on a global level; nobody can wear white to the wedding without telling a big fat lie. Annan is notorious for his coddling of dictators and tyrants and being the head of the UN during one of the most scandal-ridden periods in its history. The Baroness is considered by many to be one of the most corrupt British peers around and has never faced an electorate but risen to power based on internal appointments.

Annan was part of a team that received a Nobel peace prize for their work on the Global AIDS and Health Fund. The Baroness has received numerous awards and accolades for her work in South Africa and other countries on humanitarian missions. Which one is worse?

Neither. But it looks like they are both going to get involved in the Syrian crises but in two very different capacities.

Annan, was named the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, will be working to resolve the crisis. The Baroness will be going in the capacity of securing a corridor for humanitarian aid. If you haven’t heard her interview on the BBC, she does an excellent job of defining what the difference between someone who is envoy to stop human rights violations and the envoy out on a humanitarian issue. The difference, she explains, is that the first envoy has a list of who is right and who is wrong, there are people you do not deal with but may have to negotiate with; the latter envoy, the one on the humanitarian mission, has no right to distinguish between anyone and must talk with all sides – even those that may have perpetrated the worst atrocities because politics are not allowed to enter.

She also goes on to explain the different options. To create a humanitarian safety corridor would require it to be policed by the UN and introduce an outside military presence in Syria. To get all sides to agree to a 2-hour cease-fire each day that will create a safety corridor – requires no military presence.

The thing about politics and diplomacy, as I said earlier, is that no one can wear white. Allegiances and situations are too complex to be adjudged as right or wrong. It is hoped, in her capacity as the Secretary General of Humanitarian Affairs that the Baroness is indeed free of allegiance to anyone – but that is not a realistic expectation. As a Labour Peer, when her time at the UN is done she will return to Britain’s governance. Annan is perhaps, building a career for himself as a crisis envoy – in the end, his allegiance is to himself.

Which is better? Again, neither. But having an awareness of both of their potential failings and bias is what will allow their actions to be guided towards a larger result.

It is, however, hopeful that the effort of intervention in the crisis is coming from the two-pronged approach of intervention and humanitarian aid. The ICRC has been all but crying for help in the humanitarian arena and perhaps, the Baroness with her known allegiances, will carry the weight to arrive at an agreement to provide aid.

Listen to the interview with the Baroness about her potential role

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17146591

c.2012 Cassandra Tribe. All Rights Reserved.

This was not Marie’s first brush with danger. She thrived on covering wars, believing that what she did had purpose and could bring about change. If you have noticed, in the pictures of her, she is wearing an eye patch. She lost that eye to shrapnel in Sri Lanka in 2001. Still she was motivated to continue doing what she believed in. No tribute to Marie would be complete without mentioning her awe of the quiet bravery of the civilians she met in Syria, in Sri Lanka, in every war torn area that she covered.

One of the things I actually managed to leave out of my very long blog about Syria this week is that the violence did not come from the citizens that were protesting. The citizen protests were wholly peaceful. It was the groups outside of Syria that immediately jumped in with weapons and violence. The people of Syria got a little caught up in it, but after increasingly violent crackdowns by the Security Forces, most of them have opted to return to non-violent protests. The majority of what you see on the news is not the people of Syria fighting, but fighters from exiled factions coming in to try to wrest control of the country away from Assad.

This is what…pardon the pun….has everyone up in arms. The Arab League is concerned about these external factions gaining an influential foothold in the country by promoting violence. Civil War, by the way, does not necessarily have to entail guns. It is a far more powerful and shocking image to see non-violent protesters facing down weapons. Shooting and all of that, while not admirably, is the province of those trained to die. In the Western media, because it supports the best in ratings and the old school hat trick of violence, is promoting the image that this is a bloody and violent revolt. It is not, that is being created by external factions that is being created and fueled by the West. As I said in the earlier blog, there is a moral struggle going on between the fading super powers and the rising three about the nature of global intervention.

I have a fellow in my Google+ stream, Ali Alhasani, who is a blogger and citizen journalist who usually covers Jordan and every morning he has been posting (along with the account ‘Syrian Revolution’) a daily stream of news and video from Syria. From Homs. Every morning I am starting my day seeing images that are not shown in the Western, or more accurately, American media.

Ali and the others do this because they know that the West is not really paying attention. We have our Whitney Houstons, our Rick Santorums, our Adeles and Strauss-Kahns to occupy us.

It is not until there were two deaths of Western journalists that people began to notice that something awful and powerful is going on. Two deaths out of the…what was the number I quoted in the blog? Two deaths out of the over 5,000 Syrian citizens and 2,000 military members who have died in Syria so far.

Marie Colvin would see it as a kind of justice that it is her death that has pulled people’s heads out of their respective streams of self and begun to notice what is going on. She was fueled by the belief that she made a difference and that she has. Both in life and in death.

There are more who need emergency aid in Syria than Mlle Bouvier, but if it is her tragic need that gets the West off its duff to secure aid and forget the guns for a minute, so be it.

I am sure no one will argue with the whys of the channel opening for the ICRC.

You can read the blog “Why Syria Matters” at the link below

http://ctribe.blogspot.com/2012/02/why-syria-matters.html

c.2012 Cassandra Tribe. All Rights Reserved.

It is an interesting and strange life that the two of us have together. Spring seems to be arriving without much of a winter and we are transitioning to our warm weather pattern, where she spends most of the day in the yard. The funny thing is, for all my complaining, I am the one that has the problem adjusting to her not being in my business 24/7. Ah well…I was trying to figure out how old she is and I think 6. I am still waiting for the part where she sleeps 18 hours out of the day. For some reason, my animals never seem to reach that stage. It is as if the play switch got stuck at an early age.

It’s funny how things tend to go in waves. I am involved in two things right now that are almost solely driven by proverbs. One of them is the game GO. I have finally started to study it and practice on a dedicated basis. It is a fascinating game. One of the oldest board games known. It is considered to be about 100 times harder than chess but is far easier to learn as far as moves and rules. The odder thing about it is no programmer has yet to create a software version that can beat a human being. There are a myriad chess programs that are unbeatable but there are too many possibilities in GO for play to create a computer player that can trump a high pro dan. Anyway, it is one of my obsessions and I have gotten very into the proverbs that are used to teach strategy and tactics.

One of which is, “don’t go fishing while the house is on fire.” In the game, this means don’t traipse off to another area of the board and start something new when there are battles to be attended too. Apply it to real life and it means much the same thing. Don’t turn to something else when there are things that need to be taken care of.

The other proverb, koan really, that is chasing me around (actually assigned to me) is the Zen koan, “Before the world came into being, was there a Creator?” I think I have mentioned that one before, and the answer, but I am not going to repeat it again.

All of this is well and good until I studied further and came across two other very important proverbs. The first being, “don’t expect to win by proverb” and the second being (Zen again) “The world is so large, why do you follow a bell?”

I have spoken a great deal about duality and balance, of the co-existence of our natures within our persons and these proverb/koan sets reinforce what I have been talking and thinking about. We need our rules, we need our examples, lessons and our teachers…but in the end, it will be what we chose to do that may be uniquely ours that will provide our solutions.

Learn all you can.

Gain mastery, discipline and patience.

Follow the rules.

But be prepared to throw it all out the window in a heartbeat to do what needs to be done.

c.2012 Cassandra Tribe. All Rights Reserved

Unlike the Arab Spring in Egypt and Libya, the matter of intervention in Syria is much more complicated for the rest of the world. For the first time in a long while, even the Arab League spoke out against Assad, first offering a proposed solution that would allow him to step down from power and a multi-identity government to be in place within two months but, Assad having simultaneously agreed to the plan and dismissed it by increasing the violence of oppression, they chose to vote for sanctions. The Arab League even went as far as to call for the UN Security council to intervene. The council, who came up with their own proposal, was rendered powerless by a block veto from Russia and China. No one on the international front, it would seem, has authority or consensus on how to intervene in the growing crisis.

A crisis that has left over 5,000 civilians and 2,000 military members dead. The country, already impoverished after 48 years of “emergency rule” is suffering even more. In a highly unusual turn of events, the Red Cross has spoken out publically to acknowledge they are in talks with all sides in Syria to try to negotiate a cease-fire to allow aid to get through. The Red Cross, in the form of the Red Crescent, is currently the only international aid group present and active in Syria. The ICRC typically makes no comment about the state of any negotiations that they are involved in but the concern is so great that Syria will devolve into a civil war that the ICRC is raising its voice.

There are three reasons that you should pay attention to what is happening in Syria and the international response to it. None of them has to do with oil, let me get that out of the way.

The first is obvious – Syrians have lived and suffered under a dictatorship for far too long. Out of a sense of compassion and brotherhood, one should be at least minimally involved in monitoring the situation. The tactics that Assad’s Security Forces have used to oppress the population are beyond appalling.

The second reason has to do with the last sentence of the paragraph above. In this rising age, there is no room for despotic leaders and gross violations of human rights. There is also a growing resistance to the use of sanctions and force to topple governments. Libya may be the last of the “easy military choices” that we see. The reason for this comes from the fundamental attitudes of what are considered the rising super powers in the world – and no, the super powers are no longer seen as China or the US. The rising power nations are Brazil, India and South America. All of these countries have fairly recent histories of both living under regimes and suffering the process of being “freed” by the traditional western approach of sanction and might. In then having to free themselves from western control, they have preferred to use mediation and diplomacy. These “softer” methods, while seemingly not allowing for as swift a change in a country, do allow that country to change without destroying the economy and causing further human rights violations against the people. The power three are moving closer and closer towards the kind of solid alliance we are also seeing now between Russia and China. While the three have supported the initial UN decision, they did it with a lot of foot dragging. As this triad matures, there will be a radical shift in how the international community responds to crisis and a shift towards viewing human rights violations as a greater crisis then that of economics or military issues. It is in their recent history, it is in their blood. Our (the US) next few presidents better damn well be on the same page or we are going to find our standing and effectiveness on the global stage even further eroded.

The last reason, and this is important, is that both Russia and China vetoed the UN call for intervention. China then went on to proclaim that the West was encouraging a civil war in Syria. This is most likely true, but not well thought out on the West’s part. The Arab League gets why a civil war in Syria would rock the stability of that area – there is no way a civil war would be an “us vs. them” situation but would quickly become a multi-fractioned sectarian war – with Assad and democracy forgotten and old hatreds running high. This kind of shattered standing would destabilize the region by allowing other extremist groups to gain even more presence and power. Rightly, the Arab League wishes to avoid that.

Russia wants Syria stable for two reasons, they are strongly connected to them economically and Syria is Russia’s only strategic ally in the region. She is a necessary point of entry for Russia.

Now China…China on the other hand does not have a whole lot to do with Syria except in one aspect – like North Korea, Syria is one of the few totalitarian regimes left in the world. Both Russia and China have opted out of the growing discussion of the importance of human rights that the rising super three are pushing to the front and are pulling back and stacking up stones in the wall. If there is a totalitarian regime in trouble anywhere you can bet China and Russia are there to help. They have to. In their own countries, they are brutally silencing any dissent.

The world is beginning to divide in two in a way that is not based upon political or religious ideology, not on economics or military protectionism…but on a sense of global morality. There has been no other time in history that the international community has been shaped by a shared sense of right. Not even during World War II. We would like to think that, but the atrocities of Nazi Germany were not widely known when other countries entered the war.

And an even bigger change that is beginning to influence the world is that violence – whether through actual military might or through damage to a nation’s economy – anything that would constitute a human rights violation against the people more than the regime –is becoming unacceptable as a means of resolving crisis.

All of these reasons combine and pose the question to Americans of, “What kind of leadership are we getting ready to vote in?” Are we going to vote for the old guard and lose our effectiveness on the international stage? Or will we choose a leadership that will be able to become a part of the rising unity of power?

What we do and choose to do an international stage reflects how we also approach our domestic problems. Think carefully. Pay attention. We all have a long way to go.

c.2012 Cassandra Tribe All Rights Reserved

So anyway…I decided to do a couple of simple things, most of them centered on google+. I decided not to separate out my connections there into defined circles. Everyone is lumped together – no matter what their views or why I know them. I also decided to circle people who had radically varied views and backgrounds to keep the mix balanced. Then, periodically, sometimes for sh*ts and giggles, I follow their links. Add to this that my search history is all over the map because of the freelancing and at this point, I half expect the “custom” ads to be signs saying, “Please Stop Having an Identity Crisis.”

Mind you. I am doing all this even though I have opted out of the customized advertising. I believed that promise like I believe in the tooth fairy. I pay attention to these things and it is shocking how fast the advertising/spam changes to match my clicks and searches. Anyone who thinks that any of the Internet giants has any interest in protecting their privacy and information would do well to go to cracked.com and read the series of articles on  five reasons to be afraid of google and others. Oddly enough, Cracked Magazine, which I remember as being ridiculous in my youth, has grown into one of the few online sites that has its feet squarely in reality.

But, I digress. All of the above was just to lay background as to why I have been able to sit back and read a myriad of opinions, especially concerning the current US Presidential race. And not just read one or two pieces, but to be able to see clusters of support communication. Democrats, Republicans, Progressives, Anarchists, Conservatives, Liberals, Libertarians…I have people who can’t stand Occupy and Anonymous, I have people who completely support them going in and out of my news stream. It is a very interesting mix. I have begun to enjoy the part of the day when I just get to sit and read everything that is going on.

Here is what I have noticed.

They are all the same. Oh, they may, on the surface, differ in their policies and desires but when you carry the thinking forward about what would happen if they got what they want and how it would be implemented –there is not one difference between any of them.

Not a one of them is concerned with individual rights or freedom of speech for they all use fascistic forms of censorship to block dissenting voices. Not a one of them has any type of economic plan that would bring any real change because all of them have (or are evolving) hierarchical structures that are no different from the bureaucratic machine already in place. Where one group would cut something in one area, they would also raise it in another or worse, have no valid plan for how to support various entities.

The problem with any kind of revolution is that all it does is change the people in the same system. Unless you are completely willing to destroy society, infrastructure etc and so forth – no revolution can become anything different from what it has replaced. If you don’t believe me, look carefully at all the revolutions around the world over the past 50 years and what the “new” societies became.

Does that mean that it is impossible to change the way things are done? No, not at all. But to create change you must first be willing to see where you are similar to what you want changed. One of the old adages is that “bias and prejudice are not to be gotten rid of, but managed.” Just because your group may be just about the same as the group you rail against and want to replace – doesn’t mean you have to strip yourself of that, it means you have to acknowledge it and turn it into a strength.

We are or possess, most often, the very same traits as that which we despise. To overcome these traits we do not get rid of them, but accept them and choose to amplify another trait so that the despised tendency has less priority. To try and get rid of it, impossible – all it will do is act like a slow poison and eventually burst out as corruption and destruction somewhere else in the system.

That is how revolutions go from a light in the dark to the darkness itself. They deny themselves the right to be just like what they despise and in doing so, do their opponent’s work for them as far as destroying their very integrity and existence.

c.2012 Cassandra Tribe. All Rights Reserved.

It gives and takes,

ignores what we believe

and never bothers to explain a thing.

We are left to create stories,

to convince ourselves

we influence currents and tides,

failing to notice how the water within,

bows to the rule of the waves.

Every law we determine to contain the sea,

is washed away, erased from memory.

How tenuous our floating means.

How primitive the steering.

Oars we brush across shallow surface deep.

We glide over what cannot be seen.

Our feet planted wide,

as if on land,

ignoring the cold lap at our feet.

The maps we draw, created from nothing,

in all waking faith we keep,

and plan our course as if the Sea

will obey our dream.

I can see you just ahead of me,

Or are you behind? It is hard to tell

where wakes entwine or break.

We push our boats against currents

that veer and branch away.

While one holds balance in cross tide’s rock,

the other to side sways.

 We touch oars and catching them –

find  a moment’s relief,

until arms tiring, we let go

to drift along, close but apart.

My boat is meant for me,

and yours is made for you,

The wood pitched with memories.

Should we steady and step from one to join,

one would then be lost and the other sink beneath.

Of this puzzle, we winnow no solve.

Yet determined, we steer together,

close but apart on the Sea.

The sun rises and then sets.

Circle each other we still.

Touching oars now and again.

Calling out and listening

when vision fails.

Rain stops. Fog clears. Night lifts

and the sun pours down to mirror the wave.

You pour over charts, sure there is land.

I listen to the wind and try to reveal,

which course it is that we should sail,

both of us looking for a way

to leave this distance between.

We touch oars now and again,

stopping the drift,

and despairing our stories that all love needs land.

On soil firm we encountered.

Lips soft to neck pressed,

on a path worn to sea led,

did darkness become light

and light becomes depth.

Parting we thought with tales of hope,

of stray winds and currents sailed,

to land again and let love’s harvest begin.

Before your boat to horizon met

I found my own and to sea gave,

Following your wake, calling to you to just - 

stay.

Yet catch you not, nor you me

No matter how many ways

we steered to regain.

The Sea, they say, is a woman.

Full of wisdom and guile and passion unchained.

Perhaps that is why our land-tongued stories

Always speak of the unexplained.

Of a Sea that should be feared.

Of a Sea that should be won.

Of a Sea that should be treated

As if it were the Devil’s ground.

We touch oars now and again,

To keep the distance from growing too great,

despairing our stories

and sacrifices to fate.

 We touch oars now and again,

and hold on until our arms give in.

It is the sun.

It is the Sea.

It is this nearness of you

And this emptiness beside me.

It is the gathering storm and the rising wind,

that dares me to think, not of plans made from dreams,

but of what may be another course to weave.

We touch oars and hold tight,

as waves rock our boats with gathering might.

I am calling to you.

I am singing.

The Sea, is a woman full of wisdom, guile and grace.

All to nurture errant child.

The one who won’t listen.

The one who won’t believe.

The one who demands an explanation.

The one who wants to know everything.

She must hide within the language of the waves,

the truth that what was, is not all there is to see.

For all our looking, our charting and plans,

we have failed to see,

we have nowhere to go, for we are already where we need be.

Twined together on currents that snake.

The water surrounding is of what we contain.

Our bones are not of earth,

but of coral made.

We touch oars,

One a top the other and with both hands,

Hold fast to our joining beam.

we step together,

we choose the Sea.

There is no more distance.

Our boats float away.

The world above recedes,

but you

are together with me.

Sinking below the storm we find not end,

but the secret She knows of how to begin.

The world we floated on is nothing more

than a reflection of the real, of what lies below.

The boats we could not share were made from fear.

All the time we were scared of drowning,

we failed to notice we had no air.

Here, beneath the currents,

The sun is strong, the air is sweet

and love, rejoices in our embrace.

How could we have known?

That our boats kept us from the Sea?

How could we have known that life is within the depths,

not above, drifting on waves?

How could we have known?

Except for having loved enough,

we dared to choose the Sea.

c.2012 Cassandra Tribe All Rights Reserved

A monk asked Fuketsu: `Without speaking, without silence, how can you express the truth?’

Fuketsu observed: `I always remember spring-time in southern China. The birds sing among innumerable kinds of fragrant flowers.’

 - – - – -

When winter comes, my relationship with the Mad Kitten shifts. She no longer spends most of the day hopping around the yard and lost in her own world. She is in with me, wanting to entertained, wanting to bond. The first few weeks that it becomes too cold for her to be outside are difficult. She is all in my business and just obnoxious as hell. Then a beautiful thing happens – she mellows and our relationship shifts to this gentle kind of companionship.

Last night, she sat in the middle of the room while I sat in my chair and we talked. I spoke words and she spoke with silence. It last about 20 minutes. The real conversation did not happen until much later, in the middle of the night, when I got into bed, she simply purred and stretched one paw to touch my hand and we fell asleep.

It has been a long strange week. I returned to life after illness only to wind right back up in the ER within days because it turned out the type of antibiotic they prescribed I was allergic too. I had a kind of acute poisoning and now it looks like I may be gifted with a permanent form of Neuropathy. It is a strange sensation to have. I will know within a week or so if the damage from the reaction is permanent. It is strange because in a way, it is a reminder that takes me out of my head and back into my body.

I don’t think that things happen to us for a reason. I think that we find a reason within the things that happen. The experience is making me slow down and take the time to really prepare and be present for something I will be doing in a few weeks.

Before, I could have told you with eloquent words exactly what I was planning to do.

Then, I fell into silence.

Now, I am learning the truth.

c.2012 Cassandra Tribe All Rights Reserved

Angelina Jolie, in her directorial debut, created the film “In the Land of Blood and Honey.” It is an unflinching look at the Bosnian/Serb war that depicts it all – but through the complications of a love story. When news of her choosing this story came out oh-so-long-ago, there was just shock and anger that she would do this. A lot of that shock and anger came from people who were not directly involved in the war. Ummmmm…there was a strong American reaction, I do believe, towards her making it and a lot of hope that she would fall flat on her face. She is after all – wealthy, beautiful, with a solid relationship and an obvious direction and purpose in life. Just the type of person we struggle with wanting to be like and wanting to find out they have some strange, dark demons that make them less than us. We are conflicted about people with identity and purpose.

Anyway…

“In the Land of Blood and Honey” was screened today, in Sarajevo, to an audience of 5,000 people. When it was done and Jolie came out (terrified), all 5,000 rose to their feet and gave her a standing ovation. An ovation for her, in making a very, fine film with a daring story; and I suspect, for themselves, for being allowed to remember without apology. The wounds from that war are still healing, but the war has been forgotten by most because there have been so many others since.

I wonder what would happen if more artists dared to tell stories that allowed the world to re-examine their pain without dressing it up with heroes and monsters? I wonder what would happen if there was more opportunity to be able to revisit our pain and see it from a distance, rather than just look for the next new pain (that is not ours) to prove it was not so bad?

I wonder what would happen if we put less emphasis on forgetting,

And understanding,

And just chose to remember and be….

Would the news be the same today?

c.2012. Cassandra Tribe. All Rights Reserved.

Stress is a funny thing. It can come from all sorts of places. Good and bad stress (eustress and distress) can have the same effect on the body. Learning to control stress is an art form. It can be done, but there will always be times and situations that will introduce you to a new level of stress (good o bad) that you have to learn how to handle.

Stress is a part of balance. It really isn’t good or bad. It is just a part of life.

Recently, I went through an intensely stressful situation that was both good and bad. As a result, my immune system went crazy and I contracted a fairly serious infection. As part of working to get rid of this, I spent a couple of nights in the hospital receiving simultaneous and repeated doses of Morphine, Ativan, Ciprol and Zofron. Needless to say… I was out of my mind.

An unusual thing happens to you when you receive that combination, when your eyes are closed you are in a completely fantastical world that seems absolutely real; when your eyes are open – you realize just how f**ked you are and dysfunctional.

It would be easy to write off what happens when your eyes are closed, but that would be a mistake. You can’t believe anything you see then as real, but what you see in that state can be a revelation.

Here is what I learned while I was in Heaven:

 - all things that happen are a beginning

 - no two people are the same, yet we all are

 - we see and hear that which confirms what we really believe

 - there is a reason why all the Gods in time have thought we needed guidance

I am on my last course of antibiotic (hopefully)and slowly returning to the world. But somehow, I believe it is with different and sharper vision.

c.2012 Cassandra Tribe. All Rights Reserved.

I think, because the majority of my exposure to it has been with followers who – how can I say this? Are not much trained in their own professed belief or even practice is with diligence – it was easy for me to form my opinions. I have begun to think that the source of most of our prejudices stem from our receiving education or having encounters with the people we develop a prejudice against who are ignorant of their own beliefs. I am not talking about the prejudices of the body but of the mind and spirituality. I can think of many people who hate Christianity because they have only encountered “Christians” who are wildly naïve and ignorant when they were trying to find out about that. That is the case with me and Zen and Buddhism. I have only recently been encountering people who are active and faithful adherents, and it has encouraged me to be open to it again. I am reading a great book that I highly recommend, it is old and out of print but you can find it in the public domain, it is called “The Religion of the Samurai.” I forget who wrote it but it really presents a clear picture of the evolution of Zen and Buddhism into the two basic sects – those that use the words to excuse their own failings and those that seek enlightenment. Those two sects, I have discovered, are the basic dividing points of any belief umbrella.

Here is something I have just understood. And it may explain why I am now starting to appreciate this discipline. Zen etc uses a lot of Koans or puzzles that can come in the form of a story or a puzzle. The challenge is to discover the answer. This appeals to me of course because I like puzzles but also because they are both self-revealing and make sense in a broader aspect.

Here are three common ones – and I will give you the answer to them. They are meant for beginners. I will write the puzzle first and then provide a little space and give you the answer.

1. For people who do not know, there is Buddha. For people who do know, there is no Buddha.

2. When the world began, was there a creator?

3. (puzzle story) Nansen saw the monks of the eastern and western halls fighting over a cat. He seized the cat and told the monks: `If any of you say a good word, you can save the cat. No one answered. So Nansen boldly cut the cat in two pieces. That evening Joshu returned and Nansen told him about this. Joshu removed his sandals and, placing them on his head, walked out. Nansen said: `If you had been there, you could have saved the cat.’

Here is a space

Here is a space

Here is a space

Here is a space

Here is a space

Here is a space

1) For people who do not know what spirituality or enlightenment is and are seeking definite answers, there is Buddha to follow and look at and guide them, they must have symbols outside of themselves to believe in as being better than what is within them. For those who have realized that spirituality or enlightenment only provides questions, there is no Buddha, for all symbols are realized to be unnecessary to the process of realizing enlightenment. The trappings are not needed – no chant, no mantra, no symbol, no words, no text.

2) If I am here now and have things to do, and being able to do them doesn’t need an answer to that question, why waste the energy to ask it? Questions must provide a means to action, if not they are distractions from being present and able.

3). Joshu removed his shoes and put them on his head as a sign of grief. For shoes are removed when we enter a sacred space, removing us from the world. What would have been the good “word” was for someone to realize that the world needed to come into the space to save the cat through action – not through right or wrong, but because of a respect for all life that supersedes all rules. The sacred space is necessary, but cannot be constant or we become ineffective. Our very faults in life are what make the sacred living.

Duality. Presence. Connection. Balance. Within all things there is good and bad. Within all things there is no good or bad. Judgment and opinion stems from the self, we must lose the self to be in harmony with all but cannot also survive without the self.  We, in our incarnation must live with that balance, duality and contradiction to fulfill our meaning. That is the beginning of enlightenment, that all things exist in simultaneity and to hold to one choice is to create death.

Headache

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