Things that make you go HMMM - Articles - Zimbio

The Benevolence of Spirit

Wed, 13 Mar 2008 11:53:00 GMT

posted by ommeditation
In the New Testament of the Bible, Gospel of John 14:1, Jesus says "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." In this statement, Jesus is revealing the fact that he has overcome the limitations of mortal existence, as many yogis have over the centuries, and is able to help the rest of us in our ascension path. As explained in the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Padmasambhava, the realized beings appear to us at the time of physical death to take us to a pure land (in the astral realm) where we may continue on our path of spiritual awakening (that is, for those who qualify and the common person...not for those who lead totally wicked lives...we all know where they go...). So, Jesus reveals here in this quotation that he has a "pure-land" in the astral world where he will take those who see God in him (usually those who adhere to a literal interpretation of the Bible). For the Hindu, Divine Spirit will appear as Krishna or Shiva or another deity. For the Buddhist, Divine Spirit will appear as Buddha, or another deity in the Buddhist pantheon. So, this shows us the incredibly dynamic nature of Divine Spirit in helping us out of a limited view, and into increasing awareness and enlightenment.

http://www.sacredsyllable.com
http://www.greataffirmations.com

The Concrete Filled Swimming Pool

Sun, 21 Apr 2008 21:53:00 GMT

posted by powerage
Why fill in a swimming pool with concrete?

This is my next door neighbors house. They are married, grown kid. Why they would do this is beyond me, they just lost a lot of money on the value of their house. I really don't care, I'm moving in a month. It is filled with dirt, with the concrete being at least a foot thick.

Oh yea, when my neighbor bought his house across the street, that pool was filled in also, but he dug it out. And it was just dirt.

From what I understand, they did not want a house with a pool. Maybe I'm stupid, but why buy a house with a pool then? Maybe it is for the better. They never took care of it, and it was green a lot. At least for the summer, the new owners of this house will not have to deal with mosquitos.

But still, why not drain it and just have a company fix a thick sheet of Plexiglass over it? Drain it and cover with anything, don't fill the damn pool in though.

Tim

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EARTH FRIEND GEN - Gives the Public more than they want

Sun, 22 Sep 2008 15:03:00 GMT

posted by htbw
Cars were whizzing past one of Ojai's busiest corners when Jennifer Moss decided to do a headstand, clad in only a G-string and flower-shaped pasties.

Why?

"Headstands are good for you!" she said, beaming, as she pulled a yellow smiley-face pillow out of her bicycle's small trailer. With athletic grace, Ojai's "Pastie Lady," a self-described social artist and environmental activist, quickly pulled her legs up to salute her adopted hometown.

Not that this artsy, liberal-leaning city of 8,000 is all that impressed.

In the year since Moss began pedaling her bicycle down Ojai's main street in barely-there attire, she's been arrested twice and ticketed repeatedly for obstructing traffic. Irate parents have asked the City Council to force Moss to put on more clothes.

Now she may face prosecution for public indecency.

"The issue we're looking at is exposure," said Jim Ellison, Ventura County's chief assistant district attorney. "We've assigned an attorney to do some research."

Ojai's citizens, meanwhile, have divided into pro- and con-Pastie Lady camps, venting their opinions in the local newspaper nearly every week.

"Ojai tolerance is not eternal," local filmmaker Leland Hammerschmitt wrote in a guest editorial in the Ojai Valley News, in which he scolded Moss for her "naked narcissism." "You've had more than your day. Go away. Just stop."

But Moss, whose social activism appears to revolve around natural-fiber clothing and the healing powers of water, also has ardent defenders. They say "Earth Friend Jen" is not hurting anyone and that naysayers should leave her alone.

"In the South, they actually embrace you if you are eccentric or even a little crazy. . . .," Dusty Fernandez, an Oak View resident, wrote in the paper. "So lighten up people! Enjoy the view or turn the other way."

The petite, raven-haired woman at the center of the tempest takes it all in stride. Moss, 32, said she has grown used to people's strong reactions to her activism.

"Nudity is natural, but a lot of people are uncomfortable with it," she said rapidly. "It's OK for children to play video games where they are killing each other, and it's patriotic to murder people in a war. But women's breasts in public? You better watch out!"

Moss is quick to say that her scant covering remains within the law. She says she always wears pasties and a G-string (made of hemp). She contends that the tickets and arrests are a violation of her constitutional rights.

"They are charging me with putting on an illegal performance or show," she said of her latest legal entanglement. "I stripped my clothes to speak the truth, but I was legally covered."

Moss may face a misdemeanor charge for taking off her clothes, down to pasties and G-string, outside the city's Catholic church on Easter Sunday, as parishioners were leaving morning Mass.

"She took that opportunity to make her statement, and she appeared nude to most people," said Ojai Police Chief Bruce Norris. "We got several calls."

Sheriff's deputies arrested Moss on suspicion of violating a county ordinance that prohibits exposure of the nipples or genital area in a public place, Norris said. Officers also confiscated a small video camera that her companions were using to record the event.

Moss now says that going to the church was "poor judgment on my behalf."

She chose Easter Mass, she said, because "there are so many bad people who are hurting and destroying the Earth, and many of them are religious people."

Police arrested Moss on a similar charge once before, Norris said, but the district attorney's office decided not to prosecute. Even if prosecutors again fail to move, Norris thinks they will do so at some point. "People make complaints because they find her behavior extremely offensive," he said. "There is a potential to prosecute her eventually for a public nuisance."

The police chief insists that his main concern is safety. Moss is an athletic woman who moves very fast on her bike or on in-line skates down Ojai Avenue, the city's main thoroughfare. Norris said he's worried that Moss might be injured in an accident.

"She's in great shape. I admire her for that," he said. "But I'm afraid something is going to happen to her."

Originally from a small town near Corvallis, Ore., Moss gravitated toward Southern California in her 20s. Her upbringing was too restrictive for her taste, she said, and she wanted to explore her spirituality in a place that would be less judgmental.

She landed first in Venice Beach before making her way to Santa Barbara, holding small jobs along the way. The first time she donned her skimpy bike-wear was in Santa Barbara, where the cops promptly stopped her.

"They were very mean to me," she said. "They treated me like I'm insane."

Moss moved on to Ojai, working for a time as a waitress at a vegan restaurant in Ventura. For most city residents, last year's Fourth of July parade was her public debut. Jaws dropped as she whizzed past startled paradegoers on in-line skates, wearing not all that much more than suntan oil.

Now, several times a week, she pedals down Ojai Avenue on her bike, hauling her trailer full of signs advocating her various causes.

On a recent day, she was greeted by many honks of support and a few whistles.

"We love you, Pastie Lady!" screamed a gaggle of teenage girls in a passing Suburban. But as Moss passed a bus stop, a woman sitting with several children yelled, "You're a nut!"

Earth Friend Jen gave her usual response: "I love you! You don't have to be like that!"

Two middle-aged guys watched her speed past downtown and shook their heads.

"She's got a great body," said one of the men. "But she's crazy as a loon."

"She's a character," said his buddy, "but she's part of Ojai."

For More on GENNIFER MOSS

SPANKADAMONKEY
GENNIFER MOSS NAKED

Ya-ttitude: Things that make you go Hmmm

Wed, 10 Apr 2008 21:08:45 GMT

posted by BennyGreenberg

Hey I just received this email from my daughter.

I agree - too much time on her hands - but it must be great to be just shy of your 18th Birthday and on Spring Break…

Does this mean I should move to Arizona and start that Golden Rule Corporation?

Greenberg:

The name of the family from the descendents of King David in the ancient times of Israel. Ancient Israelian prophets predicted that descendents from the Greenberg family would give birth to the Messiah in the freedomland desert. People today believe that the freedomland desert is in the United States possibly the southwest. The Greenberg Family is the Holy Family and the holders of the Davidic Covenant.

An example of Greenberg is a member of the Davidic Covenant, and a Descendent from Kind David and Solomon from ancient Israel.*

http://greenberg.urbanup.com/2896845

This has been a positive interruption from your hard work; brought to you from your friends with Ya-ttitude! All work and no fun makes - well you know what it makes - so - Take the time to have some fun. You need to understand that a great life is made up of a lot more than work. You need to find time to do things you enjoy, you need to find time to rest and to exercise - both mind and body and you need to find time to just have a grand old laugh!

*cut and pasted straight from Urban Dictionary - I know there are typo’s - but have to leave it as is!

(for those of you who are still lost - it is my Last Name)

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Welcome to our wikizine called "Things that make you go HMMM"

Sat, 4 Nov 2007 00:46:24 GMT

posted by DukeT

Concept:
Religion

A non-Academic
Review

re•li•gion \ri-“li-j€n\ noun [ME religioun, fr. L religion-, religio supernatural constraint, sanction, religious practice, perh. fr. religare to restrain, tie back — more at rely] (13c)
1 a: the state of a religious
b (1) : the service and worship of God or the supernatural
(2) : commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance
2 : a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices
3 archaic : scrupulous conformity : conscientiousness
4 : a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith
re•li•gion•less adjective

The Encyclopedia of Religion defines religion this way:
In summary, it may be said that almost every known culture involves the religious in the above sense of a depth dimension in cultural experiences at all levels — a push, whether ill-defined or conscious, toward some sort of ultimate and transcendence that will provide norms and power for the rest of life. When more or less distinct patterns of behaviour are built around this depth dimension in a culture, this structure constitutes religion in its historically recognizable form. Religion is the organization of life around the depth dimensions of experience — varied in form, completeness, and clarity in accordance with the envisioning culture.”

Weather it be Christianity, Judaism, Islam or any other of the world’s religions, let us start at the beginning and look at religion in it’s formative stages.
In accordance with the thought processes of the times in which any particular religion came into being, it appears that it was the conceptualization of an individual whom had an altering experience and was had insights that others were not privy to. This individual then rose through the hierarchy of that group because he could supply answers or had a close following of selected individuals that never questioned his word on anything.
In the cause of Christianity, God used men like Adam, Abraham, Noah, Moses, Joshua and others down through the years to bring His word to the world, at that time the world was primarily located in the area that we now call Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Israel. Here is where the first recorded incidents took place between the notable belief systems; they were of course the Greeks, the Romans, the Israelites, and the other varied belief structures of the world.
The concept of religion came about to fill a need that was experienced by man due to not being able to, in his limited capacity, explain his purpose. Even at this juncture, man had to have relevance within his situation, which has not changed even today.

But, how could he explain things that are beyond the scope of his abilities?
For example; without using any reference toward a “Higher Being or Divine Intervention”

1) Explain how we have water, true we have the basic parts of water and can with science have the elements in three varied states; liquid, solid, and gas. That is not questioned, but how are these elements combined and held together to make water?

2) Explain how everything on the face of the Earth works together cohesively without the intervention of man, yet when man (the highest form of life on the planet) interferes with Nature, it always runs amok, until man backs away and leaves it alone.

Before man became the cultured, educated, controlling entity he is today, he had the mind of a child and looked on things with wonder and awe. The explanations of that day were simple and to the point. I can imagine the caveman looking at a sprout when winter turned to spring and saying to himself, this was not here yesterday, so what changed? Then looking at the sun and feeling the warmth, again saying to himself “This bright thing is the giver of life” and falling in front of it in awe of this new revelation, and returning to his tribe reiterating his find and saying “I have discovered something”

Then again stating what he believed as truth “The Bright Thing is the giver of life, it feeds us, it warms us, when we are good it returns to us, when we do wrong, it leaves us and the ground gets cold and there is no food. We must therefore recognize the Bright Thing as more than us.”

Ergo a belief system is born, and through this discoverer, comes the dictates of how to edify this new “Higher Being/Higher entity” Thereby religion is born.
Though this is a very highly stylized interpretation of the beginnings of religion, there could easily be a basis of fact in it.

One of my assertions is, religion is the creation of man to edify through action and rules that which he cannot explain.

The concept of a “Higher Being” becomes reasonable when after careful consideration, man, the explorer finally reaches the place where he has seen the true valuation of self in aspects differing from his own interpretive powers, one’s view of self is often overly inflated, and does not always match the reality within which we interact with others.

Each individual faith/belief system appears to hinge on the tenant that it and only it is the true faith sought by God, Allah, Buddha or whomever or whatever resides in the position of austerity given by the group of devotees. The pattern of devotion appears always to be the same, Emotionalism, Acceptance, Fervor, Commitment, and Comfort.

The emotionalism is usually a product of disillusionment with the normal experience that human beings encounter in everyday life, and therefore asking the age old question, “Is this all there is?” which in turn prompts the response of “I do not accept that, there has got to be something MORE!
Within the context of this statement I hope to map the need for a belief system in the life of a Human Being, this will include the Agnostic, and Atheist also.

Please let me know what your views are on this subject.