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Text of the page (random words):
s limited to carriages but manipulation of wind air and minerals has resulted in anemophones which enable people to speak across distances aerial barges for travel and transport and phosphorions give artificial light among many other inventions by far the most different feature is kenogaian astronomy ouranomony not only do its people believe that the moons sun and planets travel across the sky in transparent spheres as we used to imagine but they know it as a simple fact kenogaians can plainly see the gears that move the spheres and so praise the great artisan for his handiwork broken sprockets and all the story opens with michael s father confiding to his son a seemingly impossible discovery a new star is rapidly approaching kenogaia given the nature of the spheres this cannot be but his illegal telescope confirms his observations and he charges michael to keep this discovery strictly secret since in kenogaia knowledge and belief are controlled by an authoritarian fusion of science religion and psychology and those who diverge too much from established thinking live in dread of being imprisoned and subjected to the horrors of therapy that same evening michael s father is arrested and soon michael learns that the star is bringing a mysterious visitor to kenogaia this visitor oriens appears as a child from an even stranger world michael and his friend laura commit themselves to protecting and aiding oriens while they also search for michael s father and laura s parents who have disappeared fleeing the authorities hart s novel is loosely inspired by a beautiful poem the hymn of the pearl found in the acts of thomas an early gnostic christian writing not to be confused with the gospel of thomas a flowing translation of the entire poem presumably by hart himself is presented as epigraphs for the major parts of the book the hymn of the pearl tells of a child s journey to a strange land to seek a stolen priceless pearl and return it to his homeland hart skillfully uses the essence of the journey as foundation of the plot and avoids the temptation of trying to use pearl too literally kenogaia s spirituality resonated deeply with me and some images are going to inspire me for a long time i believe anyone already on a mystical path will appreciate the rich and profound spiritual themes here but kenogaia is not at all dry hart s wit and humor counterbalances the adventure in delightful ways a comical police briefing made me laugh out loud and reminded me of monty python at their best hart uses his vast vocabulary to skewer villainous and arrogant authorities to great effect those who are familiar with his command of arcane words from his lectures and interviews might wonder if this truly is a young adult fantasy novel but anyone who s cultivated a love for reading science fiction or fantasy young or old should be able to surf the sentences and many readers will find the language as delightful as i did that said kenogaia does have some flaws two minor nits are that michael seems too mature and eloquent to be a thirteen year old their years resemble ours and laura has very little to do that i feel kenogaia needs more editing is a different matter its 420 pages are printed in a smaller than usual type it would be about 500 pages in a more typical size and its story does not support that amount of verbiage many huge descriptive paragraphs could be trimmed and overuse of cross cutting in describing action scenes often fragments them to confusion inundating the reader with tsunamis of detail editing that dying art of eliminating the good to illuminate the best could turn kenogaia from a delightful experience to an unforgettable one but in spite of these quibbles i read kenogaia in a few days and actually found it hard to put down which i haven t been able to say about any fiction i ve read since i read neal stephenson s snow crash last year kenogaia is simply compelling and it satisfies like a great first meal at a new restaurant i hope this book finds much wider readership if you like spiritual sf you re going to enjoy kenogaia dbh if you re reading this thank you for your beautiful work may this pneumatagogue fly kenogaia a gnostic tale david bentley hart angelico press 2021 the bodhisattva vow we all know may 6 2024 may 6 2024 jon leave a comment bodhisattva vow unfortunately is an unfamiliar term to most of us off putting in both its length and strangeness but it s not a strange concept it simply means living to help others and virtually everyone in the english speaking world whether christian buddhist atheist or other has heard at least one version of it allow me to jog your memory let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me let there be peace on earth the peace that was meant to be with god as our father brothers all are we let us walk with each other in perfect harmony let there be peace on earth let this be the moment now with every step i take let this be my solemn vow to take each moment and live each moment in peace eternally let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me elsewhere i ve written about the bodhisattva vow i made in may of 2000 and though twenty four years have gone by it has become ever more important to me the highest goal of my life i try to renew it daily why daily we are brainwashed away from the mind of christ we are immersed with the teaching but become accustomed to ignoring it as we know so few people who take it seriously when children sing this song we think how cute they re singing about peace and within moments shrug off any hint of challenge it might stir with a inner dismissal of idealism it s worth listening to again to take each moment and live each moment in peace eternally this is not only a recipe for the most meaningful life one can possibly aspire to but a dedication to renew the world in love let s do it the music may 15 2021 july 2 2021 jon 1 comment sitting naked on couch coffee in hand bird trilling through window fly buzzing beside ear ringing within ah jon zuck norfolk virginia may 15 2021 what is it like to be alive sam harris waking up app august 2 2020 february 6 2021 jon leave a comment among the multifude of meditation apps available sam harris waking up app is different very different and is one i can whole heartedly recommend without reservation first the overall purpose of waking up is not about finding peace or touching bliss although those things may indeed happen it is about the adventure of discovering the nature of your own mind harris approach is mindfulness punctuated by dzogchen techniques and goes beyond simple present moment awareness into a gentle exploration of consciousness and your mind s relationship to it the goal harris frequently reminds practitioners is never to become a better meditator but to become more present resilient and compassionate throughout the situations of the day secondly although carefully curated waking up has a wide variety of meditative approaches yes harris s daily guided mindfulness practice dominates the app but the practice side of the app also includes meditation courses in the amazing headless way metta compassion meditations zen koans meditative poems from a christian contemplative perspective meditations for children and more thirdly waking up isn t just about the practice there is a theory side of the app featuring conversations a podcast full of interviews with fascinating people with penetrating insights into human nature and cultivating happiness from mingyur rinpoche tibetan lama to leo balbauta blogger to laurie disantos professor david whyte poet and an ever increasing roster of others theory also has lessons a series of insights by harris on consciousness and spirituality the two lessons on free will alone have the potential to change your life and i say that with all seriousness from my own experience waking up also has a feature for tracking days used which helped me truly establish a daily habit of meditation something that eluded me even after 12 years of studying with a zen master in addition you can invite others through the app to join you in a session one caveat please do not check out the daily meditation when you first open the app it will likely feel off putting and not make sense listen to the start here instructions and then go to practice and begin the introductory course after completing that the instructions in the daily meditations will make superb sense waking up is the next best thing to having a spiritual teacher of your own and is an excellent resource even for those who do its subscription price is 100 year which is barely a quarter a day but i find it invaluable it has helped me maintain my mental health during the challenges of the pandemic and i believe to become a somewhat better person get it from the apple app store or google play also see the waking up website the bamiyan buddhas and living as light june 4 2020 june 24 2022 jon leave a comment i found myself thinking about the giant statues of the buddha at bamiyan today they were destroyed by the taliban in 2001 and across the world there was outrage and regret for the loss of monumental works of art timeless reminders of history the icons of a spiritual path followed by millions in her book buddha karen armstrong states that the earliest icons of the buddha were not of something present as buddha images but of what wasn t there such as an empty footprint marking the passing by of the teacher who had lived taught and crossed over the massive empty alcoves in the cliffs are a potent reminder of what had been there unintentionally becoming icons themselves under the older aesthetics much has happened since the giant buddhas of bamiyan were destroyed terrorist attacks and attacks to prevent terrorist attacks revolutions and counter revolutions prosperity and recession protests and repression peacemaking and hope unprecedented travel and unprecedented quarantine these all come and go with effects that also come and go as we too come and go however several years ago the buddhas of bamiyan briefly returned as figures of light see above perhaps the original sculptors would have chosen this medium if it had been available to them then i ll take it as a reminder to try to live as a light is god hidden a letter to a friend december 31 2017 january 29 2021 jon 4 comments a reader in the uk sent me an email recently asking among other things why god keeps himself hidden from the world these were my thoughts in response we often think of god as a person or supreme being separate from creation and following the logic of what personhood seems to convey we might assume god has motives will desires emotions can change his mind and can even be so temperamental as to destroy the world when really pissed off as in the flood story i have come to believe that god s personhood what i call the personal metaphor is just that a metaphor needless to say it is used often in both testaments and jesus himself used it fairly consistently in referring to god but it s important to note that many other metaphors are used in the bible god is a fire a spirit a dove a wind a rock light and love itself and whenever jesus referred to the god as a person he cast that person as father certainly to bring forth god s benevolence the very word persons invites misunderstanding of trinitarian doctrine the latin word personae could mean the characters in a play the dramatis personae in theater programs or even the masks the characters wore god wearing three masks eastern orthodoxy developed the idea of the essence of god as being distinct from the energies of god and maintains that the essence of god is beyond beyond while god is known through his energies and that we may unite with his energies in theosis energy is force and actually i find the force a more useful metaphor for god now not in every way of course i don t believe that the force is generated by living things and obeys commands like in star wars but i do believe that thinking of god as non personal and force like helps me for instance if i were to ask why does gravity keep itself hidden you would probably say it doesn t it s just there wherever there s mass there s gravitation we just need to notice how things act to notice its actions in a similar way i don t believe that god intentionally keeps teachings hidden or himself hidden i ll make a leap now and say itself it is everywhere in all things and discovering god is a matter of seeing things with spiritual eyes of loving god with all your heart mind and soul and loving your neighbor as yourself when we can do those things as jesus said we can see everyone as the child of god and live in the kingdom of heaven which is within us st hildegard of bingen called god haecceitas which means this ness and meister eckhart called god is ness this titles are far beyond personhood as we think of it this is a force beyond forces this is what creates and holds the universe together every planck instant of every second everywhere that is it is everything and beyond everything but more than anything else for our purposes it is love pope francis march 13 2013 jon 5 comments pope francis although it s been a long time since i ve been active in the church i am and will always be a fervent admirer of the alter christus st francis of assisi pope francis almost sounds like an oxymoron st francis abhorred pomp ceremony and virtually everything distracting him from his chosen path of poverty real poverty to find the lord in perfect joy but the pope part is not what this new francis chose it s merely an affectionate customary title not even a spiritual one which all bishops of rome immediately become known by jorge cardinal bergoglio didn t choose pope he chose the name francis that s an impressive choice and a news release from the vatican clarifies that francis chose his name not for francis xavier or any other francis but for the nature mystic of assisi francis in this age of cellphones and facebook of scandals and outrage of global warming and multi national corporate greed i have no illusions that this francis will be the saint of assisi on the papal throne he has his own story his own strengths his own faults he will follow god according to his path and i according to mine but there is something about hearing pope francis that inspires me and more than that realizing that he chose the name francis gives me hope god bless you papa francis may you inspire the world and lead the church in love and wisdom may you be well and strong may you be guided well and listen true may you be an instrument of his peace announcing jedi life october 13 2011 july 2 2021 jon 4 comments dear readers i m happy to announce that jedi life at http jedilife com is now live i m excited about it there are already several complete posts lined up and i m seeking guest posts as well while jedi life is the successor to this blog in some ways it is very different the theme is renew the body free the mi...