By Pham Binh via counterpunch.com: http://counterpunch.com/binh06…
Tag: Beliefs
May 22 2008
Belief
Please Note: I first wrote this essay on my personal process of finding belief years ago. It’s never static, it’s not perfect and I make no claim that it is so. It just came out on paper one day and today, after my latest revisit, I decided to share it. I’ve never let anyone see it before. I do return to it ever so often, and it morphs as the moods see fit and my convictions allow. It’s always in flux, just like our world at present…just like me. This is the current version, though I wonder what it will sound like on the 5th of November?
Peace.
At one point in the journey I found myself at the crossroads looking for answers. Actually, I was desperate for them, and equally desperate for console.
You see, I live in this world, too.
A world where programmed waves of broadcast ignorance wash over me with clocklike regularity; this world where “faith-based” truths are bellowed nonsensically as answers to my cries for considerations for serious resolutions; this world where Science so fears to speak up and demand that it’s logic be heard that it will allow the teaching of that which to the very core of its belief it knows to be false; this world where our leaders believe that instilling us with the idea that fear in living life is our only avenue to a secure life, and so a joyful life; this world…
Somewhere in this world I felt there was a wise soul seeking to share wisdom…seeking a student…seeking me.
I found him at the crossroads (echo’s return: He stumbled over me at the crossroads).
Feb 07 2008
Total Loser
I’m such a loser.
Such a total loser.
I’m starting to feel really good about it.
Dec 30 2007
Dennis Kucinich: A peace-seeking idealist to the core w/poll
Washington – To understand the importance Dennis Kucinich places on spirituality, scan his generally spare Capitol Hill office: a white cloth from the Dalai Lama, a bust of Gandhi, and a picture representing “conscious light” – a gift from Brahma Kumaris nuns.
There’s a Tibetan dragon washbowl and, on his desk, two heavy crucifixes once worn by Catholic nuns who taught him and who, he says, “saved my life.”
Sep 02 2007
Nothingness and Being
Someone once asked me what Taoists believe. I don’t know what Taoist’s believe. I can only know what I believe. It’s not like we have churches or need people to tell us what the writings mean. The mental game we’re playing here is to figure it out for ourselves. There is no accomplishment in blind obeisance to someone else’s interpretation. I think I can say that all Taoist are on the same page up to just about here.
The first chapter of the Tao te Ching (loosely, Book of the Way…and yes, we have a book) tells us we are on our own when it comes to interpreting existence. That certainly includes the meaning of the words in the book. Several parts of the book discuss the futility of trying to teach the Tao to anyone else.
But I digress…