GOD

[Barry]

God, how could you do this to me?
When I did everything you wanted,
Everything you said,
When I did what I was told
And laid it all out there on the line,
All your dirty little secrets lain to rest on the page,
Bastard children smothered at birth.

How could You do this to Me?

Why am I the one?
Why would you choose me
When I’m lame and ineffectual,
Worthless and weak?
When I have a hard time even trying to speak.
Why, God? Why me?

Oh, I know how this goes.
I’ve read your story before.
“IAMTHATIAM,” right?
I know the drill.
Who am I to question you?
What did Abram have to say?
To what could Moses lay claim?
Yeah, I know how this goes down.
I’m just not happy about it.
Would you be?

Though it went against everything in my grain,
I did what you said; I went along.
But now when it comes down to the crunch,
You leave me alone here in a lurch.
Not like it wasn’t expected from the start.
That’s how it always goes with you.
Have I missed the mark?

You pick the least expected to do your work,
The one no one will ever believe.
You pick the bastard child to claim your throne,
Make sure the job’s impossible from the very start.
I’ve seen it time and time again.
I’ve paid much attention while I’ve been here.
And I’m telling you I’m fed up with the whole thing.
I’m sick and tired of this stupid game.
These people are worth more than you give them credit for.
There’s more inside than you ever put in.
So if you intend to keep up this nasty charade,
If you want to stay behind your curtain,
If you won’t come out and just show yourself,
You can find another dupe to work your works.
I’m through.
It’s done.
There’s more faith and grace in this place and these people
Than you’ve ever bothered to show in them.
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[Nazz]

Powerful stuff, Barry. A lot of good observations and questions. I guess the best questions are never completely answered.

[Barry]

Thanks, Nazz, for having the balls.
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Peace,
Barry

[mtmynd]

Confusion arises when we attach so strongly to something which we never fully understand...

[Barry]

Understanding means realizing you stand under.

It's the stand that matters.

Understand that. Dig?

Peace,
Barry

[mtmynd]

Understanding means realizing you stand under.

I'm quite sure understanding means comprehension rather than realizing one stands under, although if someone finds they are standing under, say, a bridge and suddenly realized it, that would be an understanding. I least that's been my understanding. Comprende?

[stilltrucking]

One nation under god

we stand


Oh yes, in God we trust. It says so right on our money. Pity the Chinese don't worship our God too.



Your poem reminds me a little of the story of Job
I been reading the book of Job for about a year now. It is hard going because it pisses me off.

Carl Jung said there is an answer to Job



Don't mind me I am an idiot on that I think most people here will agree.

[Barry]

I meant the sky...understanding you stand under the sky.
There's a whole world out there in the sky, and we should strive to understand what we stand under. To not understand this - to not comprehend - is like standing at the edge of the sea and, seeing nothing "growing" on its surface, to then describe it as barren. More than simply foolish, this failure to understand leaves one open to harm in varying degrees, from coersion and manipulation all the way up to annihilation.
When we humans realize this, that we stand under and not above, then we will reassume our rightful place not only on Earth, but in the cosmos as a whole, too. Meaning we will be invited to rejoin the wider community of which we were, and still are, a part. Until then, we're untouchables; enshrouded in secrecy; cloaked in mystery; wandering alone in the dark on the edge of a sea we see only as barren.
That's what I comprehend: cosmic consciousness.

Peace,
Barry

[stilltrucking]

I think we are standing in the sky not under it. It is just your eyes playing tricks on you that makes you think that the sky is above us.
The sky is all around, above and below us. If you stop and think about it.




But I am grateful that there are people with balls enough to stand up for god.

Job was a good old boy.
I am glad it all worked out for him in the end.
Pity about his children. I can't wait to find out what happened to them at the end of the story. Did Job have more children or were his dead wife and children restored to him?


Your poem reminds me of Jung's book Answer to Job. Some people say it is the best thing he ever wrote. That is why I keep bringing up Job.

[mtmynd]

I meant the sky...understanding you stand under the sky.

my body stands on two feet under what we call 'the sky' which no longer exists above 62 miles where space takes over. sky is illusory as is our physicality that inhabits this space 'under the sky.'

That's what I comprehend: cosmic consciousness.

cosmic consciousness is enlightenment which 'opens the skies' to pure consciousness. comprehend this and understanding transcends to knowing.

[stilltrucking]

The sky stretches way beyound sixty two mile Cecil. You bandy words.

The sky is just not the earth's atmosphere it includes the galaxies and every thing else.

And we are in the sky, just as much as Lucy.

[stilltrucking]

Check it out sometime Barry. According to Jung, Christ was the answer to Job. It has been almost thirty years since I read the book. But your poem brings back the feeling of it.

thanks for writting

[Barry]

cosmic consciousness is enlightenment which 'opens the skies' to pure consciousness. comprehend this and understanding transcends to knowing.

See, that's just it, what we as a species need to lose, this arrogance of "knowing." We don't know. We think; we are conscious. But thinking is not knowing. It's just thinking, thinking we know what we don't. That's true comprehension: understanding that everything you "know" is just what you think, and may have no basis in reality at all, including this idea of an illusory reality. Even far more enlightened species than humans understand and comprehend this. Just ask sometime. They'll clue you in. "Knowing" is a blockage to further knowing. It's a finished process. Thinking is and always remains unfinished. Knowing is not learning. It's what's learned. It's closed. Thinking is learning. Learning is a perpetual state of not knowing. It's unfinished and therefore open. Cosmic consciousness attained is not a closing off, a transcedant "knowing." It's an "open[ing] of the skies," as you say, to the learning that comes from not knowing, the freedom, liberation, the empowerment of understanding that you don't really"know" anything, but that you can think of everything. Consciousness is thinking, not knowing.

Check it out sometime Barry. According to Jung, Christ was the answer to Job. It has been almost thirty years since I read the book. But your poem brings back the feeling of it.

thanks for writting

I will, truck. And you're welcome.

Peace,
Barry
PS: I got to thinking about this last night, and was inspired to write a position paper on God. It's posted here: http://www.studioeight.tv/phpbb/viewtop ... 454#114454

[mtmynd]

The sky is just not the earth's atmosphere it includes the galaxies and every thing else.

The accepted definition of 'sky' says -
1. The expanse of air over any given point on the earth; the upper atmosphere as seen from the earth's surface.
2. The appearance of the upper atmosphere, especially with reference to weather. Often used in the plural: Threatening skies portend a storm.
3. The celestial regions; the heavens: stars in the southern sky.
4. The highest level or degree: reaching for the sky.

[mtmynd]

Hi, Barry...

I'm quite sure you thought about what you wrote in this last reply. You wrote what you presumably 'know' or otherwise you are consciously lying. I don't think you are a liar by any stretch of the imagination... but i don't know. You know if you are or not. Is that a finished process in your opinion? Knowing is incremental... one step at a time in the process of discovery.

These are two different aspects of thinking - one that you say what you currently know about the subject or situation at hand. I write what I really don't know but only presume based upon your words throughout S8.

Knowing is not the end of learning for learning can extend as far as one would seek to know. But once we know, i.e. 1+1=2, we must say we know the answer to what is 1+1... so we move forward in our grasp of mathematics or any other subject we wish to know about. It's a learning process that only ends with one's life or one's interest in knowing. What we know is known... a finality for the subject at hand. I know my name, my parents, where I live... that is knowing. I one becomes fully self-realized one knows what Truth is.

Knowing is not arrogant unless one uses their knowledge to gain a preconceived power over an other or others. Knowing who you are can hardly be described as arrogant. Knowledge doesn't make one arrogant but what one does with the knowledge may... the action of knowing versus the awareness of knowing are as opposite as rutabagas and peaches.

It is true that we will never know everything, of course. But to know that which aids in our survival, our comfort, our ability to aid others, etc... is paramount to using mind as the tool it is meant to be. Mind cannot know but is a tool to aid us in knowing. So what is knowing if mind does not know? Knowing is the awakening of the sleeping giant within us... where the light shines with such brilliance that there is no shadows where mysteries may prevent us from knowing.