Tuesday, July 26, 2011

It is the Difference that Counts

Like a snowball rolling down a hill gathering further snow, ideas that have been handed down through the ages have gathered religious meanings and dogma to them on their journey to us. Simple concepts like life, death, sin, repentance, and God have become blurred and muddied, surrounded by millenia and misinformation. It is necessary to clear your mind of all preconceptions before considering the concepts, so that you may hear them as they really are rather than how you've learned them to be.

Life and Death: There are two kinds of life and death discussed in religious texts, the physical and the spiritual. As Jesus is speaking to his disciples and to other people he encounters, he talks about rebirth, life and death in a spiritual sense. Nearly everyone he talks to is so rooted in the physical world that they cannot imagine his spiritual concepts, and they think that he is referring to the physical versions of life, death and rebirth. This is the reason he died and was resurrected - because people could not understand through words what he was saying, he was forced to show them his meanings with his physical body. Sadly, the misunderstandings continued despite his sacrifice.

Along the way, his teachings were misconstrued. As with most great spiritual teachers, Jesus was attempting to explain a very simple yet obscure concept to beings who were blind to that concept. He struggled often to bring understanding that while his terminology described physical bodies and processes, he was in fact referring to spiritual bodies and processes. Imagine that you've found a boy in the wild who was raised by chimpanzees. You are trying to explain biology to him, so as you are preparing a chicken you point to it's various bones and parts in order to compare them to the bones and muscles in the human body. As you do this, the boy only understands that the chicken meat is food and the bone is use full for making tools, the idea that there is bone and muscle within his own body is beyond his grasp. Explaining this to him would be extremely difficult, especially if he doesn't have a grasp of the language you speak as of yet. This is what Jesus experienced in trying to teach humans about spiritual matters, and about the transformation they needed to achieve in order to become like him - to "know" God.

The death and rebirth that Jesus wanted to explain to us is the death and rebirth of our consciousness. We have our soul, and we have our body, and consciousness is the thing that links the two. In killing off the consciousness that we currently have, we cast away all the trappings of our physical world and our prior desires, needs and wants. In the rebirth of the consciousness, we see the world through the eyes of a child, but with our full knowledge and reasoning as adults. In other words, we are mature and innocent at the same time, and this allows our soul to guide us rather than our baser, animal instincts. Through this rebirth we can shut down unnecessary parts of our mind (brain) and light up parts that we haven't used yet. This allows us to become open to higher realms of thought and reasoning, true spiritual awareness and the greatest compassion and understanding one could ever know.


Sin: Thanks to teachings and churches, we have come to think of sin as a generic black mark on our soul. It can be pictured in terms of having a score card taped to our backs that gets a tick mark each time we do something bad. Then, at the end of our lives the tick marks are added up and we either get into Heaven or we don't - or if Christian, the idea is that belief in Jesus will wash the scorecard clean, guaranteeing the door to heaven is open to us. Sin is at times viewed as unerasable, irrefutable, something which follows you around forever and which you cannot escape.

In reading of the Bible with a clear and open mind with no preconceptions, sin is described in a bit of a different way. Sin is an act which has a very distinct result: Sin holds one back from enlightenment (knowing God). Sin is something which affects our own minds far more than it affects anything else, and if we cannot see through and past it, we will become trapped by the sin. Becoming trapped by sin is the true hell - we torment ourselves with the knowledge, regret, guilt, and despair over what we have done and we continue to do so until we can see past it. This is also why forgiveness is so very important - it is the ability to see past a sin and to let it go. It is not God who holds our sins against us, it is we ourselves who do that. The Bible even explains to us that we are incapable of living without committing any sins, and yet people try so hard to avoid sin at all costs. They are so terrified of sin that they trap themselves within it even harder, in their fear. Because they have sinned and they believe that sin is a condemnation to a fiery pit, they repress the knowledge of the sin, further increasing it's hold on them. It becomes a cycle of briefly remembering it, feeling the fear of what it means, the fear of hell itself, and then repressing it again.

Jesus himself tried to release us from this cycle - he said that he died for our sins - he paid the price himself so that we would no longer stress about the things which we had done wrong, and would not trap ourselves in the hellish cycle of remembrance, guilt, denial. Nearly everything that he did was symbolic, and yet it is not understood in it's symbolic sense.

Sin happens, and as the saying goes, there is no use crying over spilt milk. Repenting from a sin is the same idea as learning from your mistakes. We are here to learn how to overcome the physical so that we can be the spiritual beings we were meant to be, so when we sin we should learn from the experience in order to further that goal.

Pride is a very special kind of sin. The other primary sins are mostly externalized - you feel rage out towards others, you feel lust towards others, you feel greedy towards money or possessions, and so on. Pride, however, is a sneaky sin. It creeps up on you when you aren't expecting it, and it is incredibly hard to recognize if it wants to hide. It disguises itself as many other things, things that we have learned to find completely acceptable in our daily lives. Our most common interactions with the outside world are full of pride - we see people as "everyone else" and find ourselves more important. We push people aside, are rude and thoughtless because we value ourselves more than anyone else. We feel bad when passed over for a promotion, or if the person we're attracted to isn't interested, or even when a child is more interested in sitting in someone else's lap. This is all pride - having hurt feelings is result of a bruised ego - a sense of self importance being pushed down by the actions of another person. If we didn't view ourselves as important individual units, none of these things would bother us. We'd understand that the world turns in the way that it turns and chance occurs irregardless of who and what we are. Yet we try to control chance, we attempt to best it at it's own game. This is the pride of the self saying "I deserve more than what I have been handed" and it is an empty pursuit. The drive to advance one's own worth does nothing but separate us and set man against man. It may hold us back from enlightenment more than any other sin because it hides in the very core of our ego.

No man is more important than any other, nor better nor more special. What is important is that each man is unique and brings something special to the universe that no one else has. There is no pride in this, it is the way we were made. No one will ever see life as you see it through your eyes, no one can ever have the identical unique impact on the world that you can. This is the true value of each person and if all attempts of pride and vanity are dropped then this true value can show through. By having pride in yourself you are depriving the world of the true gift you have to offer it.



Sacrifice: Sacrifice is a common concept in many cultures, and can include both human and animal offerings. It was taught to us as a very young people, but by the time of Jesus he scoffed at the idea and declared it unnecessary. In fact, he referred to himself as the ultimate sacrifice, taking the place of the others which had come before him. But what was the point of sacrifice?

Sacrifice, tithing, giving selflessly, they are all the same idea. Humans were taught early on to sacrifice so that they would learn to give freely of their own posessions and animals. It taught that all things on earth belong to God, and that we never truely own anything. It is the finest of the flock, that which is healthy and prized that should be sacrificed, to teach that the best of what we have is what we should be giving away. It is an exercise in faith - if you have only five sheep and you are instructed to kill one and burn it's remains (so that you cannot eat it), you are to take away from the experience that in order to expand yourself spiritually you have to let go of what you treasure in the physical world. Giving your best to others shows that you have faith that what you need will be provided to you, that you have no need to cling to these nice things because you trust that God will see you through even the hardest of times. It is also a reminder that we are all of one family, of one being, and we must share and work together in order to become better.


Cross: Jesus says that anyone who wishes to know God should take up their cross and follow him. Taking up your cross is a direct reference to accepting what life hands to you in stride, no matter how difficult or impossible it may seem. Think about it - for Jesus to have carried his own cross all the way to where he was to be crucified, he was essentially putting a gun in the hand of those who would kill him, and even loading it for them. All they had to do was nail him to it. He himself carried the burden of the instrument of his death. He didn't want to die, but he knew it was necessary in order to serve the greater good. He also taught us to turn the other cheek.

When someone wrongs us, we call for their head. We want justice, we want revenge, we want to feel that we have received retribution. We feel we must fight against all those who would harm us. This is not what Jesus taught us. He taught us that if someone is causing us harm we should allow them to do so, put up no fight whatsoever. If someone is trying to steal a car from you, you should offer them more than just that. If they are trying to hurt you, lay down and accept it. If a storm destroys your home, give it all up and walk away. It's not just about accepting what is coming to you but encouraging and helping it rather than fighting. These actions must sound insane to most people - one of our most base instincts is survival, and yet here we are being told that we shouldn't even obey that basic instinct.

If you think about it in terms of spirituality, it makes perfect sense. Being capable of taking up your cross shows that there is nothing that you fear in the physical world - not even death. It shows that there is nothing you treasure in this world, because you understand that the only true treasure is that of the soul and of God. Walking away from everything you've known and walking away from security of any kind is likely the hardest thing for a person to do - but it is one of the most crucial acts of spiritual rebirth.

If you are clinging to your physical life in any way, you are valuing it more than your soul, more than God. This is not to say you should kill yourself, but that you should let go and allow the flow of Karma to bring into and out of your life anything that it chooses. It's dropping the reigns and allowing the horse to run, and not caring where it takes you because you know that your home is not a place, it is inside your soul.


Demons, Devils, Satan: These things are viewed as actual beings, fanged, horned and even winged or tailed, as metaphysical beings that follow us around and attempt to foul up our lives. They are nothing of the sort, instead these things are inside our minds. They are our fears, our doubts, our anxieties. They cumulatively represent the dark side of our minds - the part of us that holds us back. Casting out a demon is the same as casting out a fear or anxiety. It is disallowing those emotions to have control of you, it is doing that which you fear despite the imagined consequences.

Satan and his kind are described as being tricksters - and fear and anxiety are exactly that. We can be absolutely terrified of something but our mind will convince us of something else. We think we are doing certain actions because we want to, when in truth we are only doing them because we are afraid of the alternatives. Einstein's definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results. This is our daily life! We have hopes and dreams of going places, doing different things, meeting other people, and yet we stay at home, we go to work, we close ourselves off, we drink, we distract ourselves, we do everything the same, day after day. Yet we continue to say "some day I'll move to the beach" or "some day I'll meet mister right", or "someday I'll get around to learning German".

We spend our lives dreaming of one thing, repeating the same actions over and over and somehow expecting that those same actions will lead us in the direction of our dreams. We are all insane, but no one can see that for what it is because it is the normal state of mind in the modern world. We are insane because of our demons - the dark thoughts we carry with us and the fears that bind us. We want to go across the country and take up our dream of being something else, but we are afraid to actually do it because it means letting go of our home, our job, the only life that we have known. So we convince ourselves that our mindless pursuit of security will somehow lead us to achieving that dream. Someday we'll save up enough money or hit the lottery, then we can go live our dream without fear. Without the demons screaming in our head.

Someday will never come, do you know why? Look at the people who are living your dream - people who have all the money that a person could want, people who own ridiculous things and live incredible lifestyles. They are the most unhappy people on the planet, because while they can achieve the things they've always wanted to do, it isn't a challenge. People will tell them that everything they do is wonderful and amazing because those people also want that money and the ability to do whatever they want. The person who is told by others how amazing everything they do is knows that these are empty sentiments because they know that they haven't risked anything to get where they are. They did so while riding a wave of monetary security. Deep down, in a corner of their mind that they never visit, they know that their achievements are hollow and empty, worthless and paper thin. They know this and it taints their enjoyment of what they have. They know that without any risk, struggle or strife, they have accomplished nothing. They haven't fought the odds or worked for success, or maybe at one time they did and it got them to where they are now, and that sense of accomplishment has faded with time. Now they feel hollow and empty again and cannot understand why, they don't understand that one can't sit back and enjoy one's accomplishments, one must give away that which they have achieved and continue making new accomplishments. It is through the strive to better onesself that we find happiness, any manufactured comfort or achievement will bring only emptiness.

These people who have all of this money and power are even more afraid than the rest of us, because now they fear that they will lose it all. It's not making them happy, but they are terrified of losing it. They strive incessently to aquire more because it staves off the fear of loss, and maybe they can find that sense of achievement again if they aquire more and more and more. They may have the most rare bird in the world as a pet, and yet when they look at it they feel a sadness deep in their heart. They may burry it but the knowledge is still there - that their desperate needs have caged a beautiful creature that should be allowed to fly free. Yet another demon to pull them further into fear.




The differences between our understanding of these concepts and the original meaning of them is staggering in some cases, mild in others, but in every instance it affects our ability to truely see the world as it is. Religion has been sculpted and changed over the years to be a beast that breeds fear and misunderstanding, leading to depression, strife, war and death. You need look no further than the above paragraph to understand why - those who have been in power want to stay in power because they are so very terrified of what they will have to face if they lose that power.

We're all afraid of facing the same thing, we all run from it in different ways. We are afraid to face ourselves. Our fears, our shortcomings, our knowledge or the wrongs we have committed. Rather than face them, accept the pain of them and walk forward through them, we stay where we are and cover our eyes to pretend they aren't there. Before long we are surrounded by a wall of these things, and now the only escape is to walk through it despite the pain. When faced with this wall of fears, most people will assume the fetal position and desperately wish it will all go away. They will drown themselves in vice just to make it through each day. Then, one day, if they never face those fears they will die alone. Alone, because no one could break through the wall of fears for them and they didn't have the strength or knowledge of how to do it themselves.


This is why Jesus died symbolically on the cross. He carried the implement of his own death, though it was heavy and he was afraid, and allowed himself to be killed in a most tortuous way. This was his most powerful message to us - that even though what we face seems insurmountable, we will prevail and we will rise from the dead just as he did. There is nothing of this world to fear because there is nothing of this world that is permanent or of consequence.

Monday, July 25, 2011

I've avoided hitting upon this subject for a while, to allow some time to pass and for people to calm down. That includes myself.

Celebrations seemed in order when the news spread that Bin Laden had met his end. Everyone I heard from was happy, excited, and celebratory. People seemed to feel that "he got his" and took some measure of closure and solace from the news that he is no longer walking the earth.

I cannot concur with this sentiment. I won't disagree that he did terrible things and caused a tremendous amount of pain. That is not, in any way, being debated.

What concerns me is that people both wanted him dead and celebrated his death. There is a spectrum of reasons why this is of concern, here are three:

1. The death of any human being - no matter how horrible or cruel they were, is never something to be celebrated. That someone caused so much pain is a tragedy, and to celebrate their death is equally as much a tragedy. People point the finger at him as being so terrible and they feel some false sense of justification for calling for his death and celebrating his death. Truth is, of all the tragedy in the world, none is greater than the one that brings a smile to anyone's face. Delight in pain and death is a very sad thing indeed.

2. No matter how terrible the things that someone has done are, revenge is never justified. You can reason it as much as you like, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and you will never prove to me that there is any virtue in seeking revenge.

3. Karma just got sliced in half. Instead of allowing karma to set the balance and put things right, people jumped up and took the reigns in their own hands. The thing about balance is that it is extremely delicate, and humans know far too little to stick their grubby paws in Karma's business. Don't forget that while mankind views death as some horrible demon, it is in fact also an escape. Now this man no longer fears that he will be hunted down, he no longer fears any suffering, he will no longer experience any suffering, he can never be angry or disappointed again, he can never stub his toe again. While he has been robbed of the joys of life, he has also been robbed of its harshness. None of us is able to say that he got what he deserved - that is something that no human can know, or put into action.

Who is any one of us to say when any other person's life is to end? No matter the reason, no matter the horror or tragedy, there isn't a human being alive who can comprehend the all of existance or who can tell life how it's supposed to work. It's not the place of any human to make these decisions, and it is certainly not the place of any human to worry about what other people are doing. You've caused pain through your actions too - maybe not on a global scale, maybe not by death, but we all cause a lot more pain the world than we are ever aware of.

Next time something like this happens, think about who might be out there that wants your head on a platter, and would do a dance on your grave. It can be a sobering thought, and this world certainly needs more sobriety.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Footprints

I have adored this poem as long as I can remember, yet I never really thought all that much about what it was saying:

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.

In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only.

This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord,

“You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”

The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”



People often site the fact that God allows bad things to happen as a reason that God cannot exist. This is a ridiculous idea, and an arrogant one as well. Why should anyone believe that their life should be easy and free of any strife?

Frankly, a god who takes away all the pain and strife of this life would be doing you a disservice. It is the pain and the strife that teaches us the most lessons, brings to us the full range of experience that this realm can provide. To miss out on that would be to waste your life here, and god understands that far better than you can. Outside of the physical world beings can look in, and they can see the threads and waves that travel from one action or event to the next, they can see cause and causality, karma and change. They see interactions between events of our lives that seem random to us, they can see the full and colorful tapestry that our lives become because of all the interconnections and variations of the moments of our lives.

In this poem, god is described as a truely compassionate AND all knowing being - he neither abandons us during strife nor does he make the strife go away - he does the only thing that makes sense. He comforts, guides, and carries us through the pain, allowing us to have the negative experience that we need but keeping us safe from harm and total collapse, nonetheless.

Asking god to take away the pain in your life is asking god to abandon any hope of your growing into something more than what you currently are. Ask instead for serenity, strength and wisdom to help get you through the difficult times.



*Incidentally, while looking up the poem to reference for this post I discovered that there is a controversy over who actually wrote the Footprints poem in the first place! I saw three different versions by three different authors... you learn something new every day!

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Realization and Revelation

If you do not have something, you cannot lose it. When you understand that you have nothing, it is revealed that you have nothing to lose, nothing to fear, and nothing to hold you back.

-Myi Ri

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Religion vs Teachings

At their core, religions are based on good ideas. The rudimentary concepts are solid - be kind to others, do what is right, humble yourself, and so on. The right idea is there, but the process is all wrong.

Religion takes a simple concept and clouds it with regimen, ritual, symbolism and dogma, creating tremendous misunderstanding among the people who are trying to learn. Because of the way that religions function, people go to church and practice there, then go home and let it all go. Instead of remaining in a state of grace, or at least the state of attempting to be in grace, people return completely to the physical world now that their obligation to God has ceased and they are back on their own time.

What religion attempts to say - that the obligation to God doesn't cease and that whatever you believe should be carried with you both in spirit and in practice - falls on deaf ears. Part of this is because the way religion is taught in the first place.

As is said in buddhism, most people are not living consciously, wandering through their lives almost completely unaware of who and what they really are, and what the purpose of being here is.

So what is it about religion that allows it's good ideas and truths to fall short of the mark?

It is the fear and the dogma of religion itself that binds it from truely hitting the mark. Religion teaches things that are true yet at the same time it teaches them in a way that says that the individual religion is the only one to have truth, all others are wrong. In many cases, other religions are portrayed as out right evil - that it's believers are worshipping Satan and committing sins even if they don't realize it. This isn't every religion of course, but it is pervasive enough that our world continues to be torn by war over religious belief.

The great people of our religions - the teachers and prophets who came before - tell us that patience, kindness, humility and tolerance along with understanding are the keys to truely reaching the state which the religion promises. Why is it that most religous practice seems to throw these keys right out the window? That's where fear comes in - fear of the unknown, fear of the different, fear of poverty, fear of pain and death, fear of the wrath of the creator himself. This fear is what drives the hatred between religions more than anything else. It isn't that their core beliefs - the basic nuts and bolts - are all that different. The basic tenants are the same - but it is the worship, practice, and name of the creator that differs. Misunderstanding is a massive factor as well. In many religous texts, it is said that if someone does a certain act, then surely they will be put to death...

This is assumed at times to mean the creator himself will strike that person down where they stand, and at other times is assumed to mean that man himself should rise up against the sinner... where is it understood that it means a person, by allowing himself to pursue certain actions, is shutting himself off from spirituality - his true nature - and causing spiritual death within himself?

Many ideas within various religions are handled as if they are meant extremely literally, when the likelihood of that is slim. Our religious texts are clearly trying to tell us something extremely important, but with consideration of time, language and understanding. The books had to be written in terms that people could readily understand - a farmer would more easily comprehend the idea of a vinyard and harvest than he would spiritual law and karma, and so the books were written in this way.

Over the years, however, people have read the stories and understood them almost exclusively in literal terms. The twist is that we know the stories mean more than what they say, but since we cannot readily understand their true meaning, we take the literal and work with that.

We have lost our understanding that all of our actions are governed by karma, and that spirituality is the absolute most important aspect of our lives, the one to which the most time should be devoted, above both our basic needs and above all other vain pursuits.


Interestingly, the ideas within Buddhism are echoed in most other religions - but it is only in Buddhism that the ideas themselves are laid out as a path to follow in order to be enlightened. Buddhism seperates the goals and the method to reach them from the stories of those who came before us, handing us a guide to our mission in life in the most simplistic format. Even so, it is not always understood what one is truely seeking.

Other religions share these same ideas, and the figures in those religions who came to earth as humans and were reborn spiritually (Jesus, Krishna, etc) talk about the very same path that Buddhism does.

Jesus tells us to give up our posessions, to humble ourselves, to be innocent like children, and to give freely of ourselves to others, keeping nothing for ourselves. He himself fasted for 40 days despite temptation prior to his beginning to teach, showing us with his very life the path we too must follow. When it is said we are to follow Jesus, it doesn't mean sitting in a church pew murmurring his name as you're tranced by the cadence of the pastor's speech - it means that you do exactly what Jesus did -

You pile all the burdens of your life on your back (your cross), thereby accepting that not only must you endure whatever strife comes your way, but that you actually need that strife to strengthen you spiritually and help your soul to grow and to flourish. This is about embracing the flow of Karma and understanding that you have absolutely no control over the events of your life - to attempt to control anything is vanity and pride.

You deny your physical body (fasting in the desert for 40 days), thereby asserting the power of your soul over the power of your physical mind and physical body. In Buddihism, it is said you should eat only what you can aquire by begging, implying that one would eat very little and beg occasionally only when necessary. This both teaches the soul to impose it's will over the physical, and it humbles the mind to understand that it is no greater than any blade of grass.

You give everything you have - and more - to anyone you encounter, until you have no posessions at all. Then you give your help, your love, and your strength. The idea that we should own even a single thing in this world is absurd. The earth belongs to no one, she is our kind host and we've stolen all of the silver from her cupboards and the jewelry from her safe. We own nothing, and the right way is that we should walk through life and as we need something it will appear, being provided for us by the laws of Karma and of Grace. The need to stockpile serves nothing more than fear. In giving all of ourselves to others, we can learn an incredible lesson... there is no need to fear that you will have nothing left for yourself, as what lies within you is an inexhaustable well spring that opens and pours out the more it is used...

Imagine siphoning gas - if you draw on the tube until the tube itself is full, dump a little from the end into another container and then stop, nothing more will come from the tube unless you force it. However, if you draw from the tube and then place the tube in the container lower than the source, and allow it to remain open, it will continuously pour out. If the source from which it is coming is the size of the ocean, then the cup will run over, water will cover the table, pour onto the chairs and finally begin to flood the ground. There will be no end in sight for a long time, and everyone there will have all of the water they can stand to enjoy. The power that can come from our souls is just like the ocean in this comparison, if we draw from it and draw from it and draw from it, and keep our selves open for more to be drawn, then the power will pour through us unceasingly.

This is the concept least understood about giving to others. People give some and then they say to themselves "I was good, I gave some today, now it's time to be concerned about myself and not about others" but this represents greed, self importance and most importantly, a lack of faith.

If one has faith, then one knows that they need not provide for themselves - so long as they concern themselves with providing for others, the universe will make sure that the one is provided for.

To achieve enlightenment, you have to let go of everything, even to the very protection of your own life. After all, death is an immenent and necessary part of life, and it is only through death that we can ultimately reach beyond this Earth.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Surprising Multitasker

When I say this is surprising, I mostly mean to me. For all I know, you have thought of this years ago and are wondering why I'm just now catching up. But, nonetheless, I'm pretty excited.

It occurred to me today that mason jars have the potential to be an amazing-all-around-multitasker. Here's just the list of ideas I came up with and I'm sure there are more uses I'm not considering:

1. Canning: The classic use for one of these jars is pressure canning preserves, pickles, tomato sauce and the like for long term storage.

2. Freezing: They can be used as containers to freeze anything from leftovers to sauces to broths, so long as air is left at the top and a softer (not solid metal) lid is used to prevent the jar from exploding.

3. Refrigeration: Toss your leftovers in a jar and pop it in a fridge, with the upside that they can be heated in the microwave the next day in the same jar. They are a little heavier than tupperware but the shape can make them easier to transport to and from work or school. They'll also fit and stack neatly in the fridge, and can even be stored in the door.

4. Serving: Eat soups, pastas, casseroles, ice cream and other desserts served in the jars. Can also serve drinks, as some restaurants have proven. Jars can take the place of the "one bowl" idea, as you can serve most foods in jars as you could a bowl, the main exception being foods that need cut apart like steak.

5. Dry Storage: Jars are great for storing dry items, you can see what is in it and the containers can seal nice and tight. They could be used to store anything from flour to pasta to cereal. They can take cereal from storage to serving - grab a jar, pour in milk and eat!

6. Plants: The jars can be used to display cut flowers in water, germinate seeds, make a terarrium with moss, or as a planter for small (shallow root) plants.

7. Tool holders: Jars can be a convenient place to put pens, pencils, etc, or hold kitchen tools like spatulas and tongs.

8. Toiletries/cleansers: If you make your own soaps, dish/laundry detergents, or other cleansers, jars can be a great way to store those as well.

9. Recycled: Jars don't have to be bought new- because they are glass, they can be sanitized and cleaned in high heat. They can be found all over in vintage/thrift stores, at yardsales and many families have been handing them down for generations. Most people are more hesitant to throw away a glass jar than a cheap plastic container, so they are more likely to either be resold or make it to a recycling facility.

10. Decorative: Jars have been a part of vintage and country decorating for some time now, but they can make their way into more contemporary design as well. Being glass and relatively plain in shape, they can fit with almost any decorating motiff and would look great lined up on shelves in any kitchen. There is a trend towards open cabinets or even replacing the cabinets with shelving, and a long row of jars makes a bold statement.

11. Crafts: Ribbons, yarns, beads, and other craft items can be tamed by jars as well, while remaining easy to spot on a shelf.


That's a short list of my ideas, what are yours?

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Our True Impact

I just learned of something I had never heard of before - the Great Pacific Garbage Patch - which is a location that has highly elevated amounts of plastic particulate hanging in the water.

They aren't sure just how big it is, because it cannot be clearly seen from satellite or even from the deck of a boat - the water has to be tested for how much plastic is floating in it. Estimates range up to be larger than the landmass of the US - this isn't a puddle somewhere with 10 dissolved plastic bottles in it, it is an area of sea that is vast and heavily polluted.

For a very long time there have been jokes about baby seals and about the permanent smog cloud that covers LA, so much so that I don't think many people recognize any longer just how serious these issues are. If they are brought up enough and made light of enough, we'll just accept them as the way it is and just keep right on doing what we are doing.

This is a HUGE problem. Millions of people have no idea what the true impact of their daily activities are on the planet - and as the media would have it, they never will! It is a fact that any garbage we throw away is more than humans should be producing - everything we discard should be biodegradable and compostable, and we should be composting it to renew our soils.

Instead, we blindly go about our business as if nothing is wrong, burdening the planet with ton after ton after ton of non-biodegradable plastics and trash that could be recycled into new products to feed mankind's ever growing need for stuff.

As if it wasn't bad enough that we buy disposable products, companies put millions of dollars and hours of effort into creating packaging that has no true use - sure, it gets our attention, tells us about the product and - in theory - protects it until we purchase it, but really it is designed to go to the trash heap.

If the designers have done their job well, it goes to the trash as soon as possible because the faster it sells the more success it has had.



The answers are all so simple: Mankind was never meant to do what we do. Any end of the world scenario that falls upon us... it's our own doing and that fact is inescapable. It's too late at this point to undo the damage which has been done - but it is never too late to stop heaping more damage on top of it. Our current efforts towards environmental repair/conservation are futile at best.

What the Earth needs to be healthy is for humans to give up their highly technological and wasteful society and return to the most simplistic way of life we have ever known - nomadic wanderers who hunt and gather and have no wordly posessions. Yes, we'd have to give up each and every single benefit of our modern lives... but considering the damage we have done, how can we feel that we deserve those benefits?

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

A Single, Unifying Concept

No matter what you believe about life, God and the universe, it is undeniable that certain truths cross the boundaries between different beliefs. The bases of nearly all religions is that treating other people in a fair and respectful way is important, in some religions being the whole of their belief. Just like maya itself, the seperation between science, religion and daily life is illusion.

Long before particle phsyics, the ancients knew that there were three main components of life. The positive, the negative, and the motion or interaction between the two. Called by various names and described in many images throughout time, the concept thrived even when people did not understand where it came from or just how key it is to existence.

In Hinduism, it is known as the three gunas - Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Sattva is pure or positive energy, Tamas is negative, dark or lack of energy, and Rajas is the motion or change between them.

In Taoism, you have Yin, Yang, and the unnammed interaction between them.

In Christianity, you have the Trinity - Father (wise, pure, all knowing), Jesus (Tangible, movement), and the Holy Spirit (intangible, unknown, mystery)

In Paganism, there is a Trinity as well, Maiden, Mother and Crone.

Then there is particle physics, which teaches us about the structure of an atom. With the exception of Helium, the atoms of all matter have equal number of both protons and neutrons in their nucleus. Around the nucleus are electrons that orbit the nucleus. Having more electrons than protons in the nucleus results in a negatively charged ion, whereas having fewer electrons than protons creates a positively charged ion.

The balance within the nucleus is paramount. When you have decay in the nucleus - usually occurring in larger nuclei in which the weak force is not able to contain the large nucleus - electromagnetic radiation is released, also known as radioactive decay.

Protons are positively charged, neutrons are neutral (neither positive nor negative) and electrons have a negative charge. Again we find the three - positive, negative, and that which lies precisely in between the two.

The ancients of the world understood that there are three keys to existance - positive energy, negative energy, and motion. These three factors make themselves known in everything that exists. All of life is cycles of energy - hot and cold, light and dark, nourishment and waste, life and death. There is nothing that escapes this one single truth - and in his earliest wisdom, man was aware of this.