THE SISTERS DUALITY AWARD ... : 無料・フリー素材/写真
THE SISTERS DUALITY AWARD ... / mrbill78636
| ライセンス | クリエイティブ・コモンズ 表示 2.1 |
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| 説明 | ... the faces are from one face done in pastels by a well known Chinese-American artist in Corpus Christi of Sherry when she was fifteen years old. The duality is my concept of Sherry as my wife and also as the person who led me to freedom spiritually. She is also the person I hope will be led to wellness again very soon.There's also the duality in my life of the Hindu religion and Christianity, the duality of the rattlesnake and the deer, the duality of good and evil. There's so much more I want to tell, but I think I'll proibably put most folks to sleep with the first three paragraphs. The duality of that elementary school teacher who made the Taj Mahal live and the Rev. Dr. who announced to me what I have believed independently for years. Welcome to my world.If you look at the grooves and ridges along the Grand Canyon, or any river bank, you see the places where some rock and soil have withstood the assault of wind and water over a period of time. Survival of the fittest. The strong substance remains and the weak substance is washed away. If you look at the animal kingdom you see the same struggle for survival. Our residential neighborhoods here in Central Texas a alive with deer. The deer are becoming adjusted to urban living because their natural habitat is being gobbled up by strip malls, housing projects and urbanization, required for our human population growth. The people are responding to the deer because the deer are beautiful and graceful and make their yards look attractive. I've fed deer for years and I hope they will survive their loss of habitat. We seldom see a diamondback rattlesnake in the neighborhoods because they have not been cute and cuddly, so have not survived. If we see one, we don't rest until we've killed it. Our children must survive and they certainly come first. Priorities.Life is like a game, or more like a whole olympics of games. The first winner is the sperm which got to the egg first creating each and every one of us. But we're missing the whole point. You have to enter the race or you can't win it. Like the man who prayed to God asking that he win a million dollar lottery. After some months, he rails at God and asks, “Why haven't you answered my prayer.” From heaven a deep voice responds, “You haven't purchased a lottery ticket, yet, idiot!” You have to be there to win. That's why the people with large population growth are winning the survival game; they're simply being there. The Muslim population of Northern Europe is exploding in growth to the point it is predicted Italy will soon become a Muslim nation. Hispanic people now are the majority in areas along the Mexican border. They have increased their population while the Northern European Americans are not even replacing themselves. This is a natural response to specific actions and decisions each group has made. The Hispanics made the decision to be there and the Non-Hispanics made the decision not to. The Muslims are winning in Europe because they came as deer, not rattlesnakes, and as did the Hispanics along the border. There are rattlesnakes in both groups and they have held the process back rather than helping. Of course, there are rattlesnakes in the populations being replaced as well. They tend to help the expanding group with their presence of danger to all.I wasn't surprised when Barak Obama won the presidential election, but I was surprised at the margin of his victory. I had gathered the snacks together, popped the popcorn, had the ice and Cokes nearby and was prepared to stay up until two in the morning watching the election results on TV. I went to bed at nine-thirty, with a look of amazement on my face. I believe I was watching the actions of a population repelled by the presence of rattlesnakes. There are little cells of rattlesnakes all around us.Sherry's career was destroyed by a small cell of rattlesnakes. Here's how it happened. Sherry and I were married almost forty years ago. When we married we moved to Atlanta to take a job I had been offered. That didn't work out. The man who offered the job died only two months after we arrived. We stayed exactly one year and returned to Corpus Christi where I went to work for a paint manufacturing company. Sherry finished her Bachelor's degree in Elementary Education and became a teacher in the public schools. I gladly switched to her church, the Methodist Church when we married. Sherry was a natural at working with people and children. Our church put together three part-time positions and offered Sherry a job as Day School Director, Youth Director and Sunday School Director. She was a sensation at that and several years later she decided she was being called to go to seminary and become ordained. I had become a stock holder in the company I was with and was managing a store that moved over five million dollars per year in commercial and industrial paint products. I could see the handwriting on the wall and knew that the rise and success of this small company was about to take a downward trend, so I resigned, sold my stock back to the company and we moved to Dallas where Sherry enrolled in Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.Four years later she was appointed pastor to two small churches northeast of San Antonio, then five years later to a church in north Austin, four years later to Johnson City where we fell in love with the community, the people and the loving nature of the church there. We stayed nine years. Then Sherry felt she needed a challenge, so she took an appointment to a church in Kerrville, Texas that had a reputation for being very hard on pastors. The pastor before Sherry stayed only a year, before the church leaders asked that he be replaced. Sherry moved in with the idea that love would prevail and that the negativism could be overcome.The previous pastor had been a very fundamentalist soul and told several of the members he believed there were demons in the church buildings and was thinking about having an exorcism. Five years after Sherry took over the church I was ready to proclaim he was correct and I could provide addresses and phone numbers.The first conflict came because some of the members of this “older people” church were telling new families who visited with children they would be much happier at the other Methodist church in town, because they had a program for children. Their complaint was that children left toilet paper on the floor of the restrooms and left hand marks on the walls. Sherry solved this problem by actively seeking families with children, creating a youth program, building a playground and developing a Vacation Bible School to die for. With everyone in Bible times costumes and a virtual Bible times village.The demons continued to gripe, bitch and whine for over five years. Then two of the people Sherry thought were with her in a desire to keep the church providing a friendly place for young people and children turned against her. Their basic complaint was they supposedly believed the Bible was a penal code to be obeyed to the letter. My question to that was, “...so what in the Hell are you doing going to a church with a female pastor?” In the writings of the Apostle Paul, he instructs that the women keep silence in the assembly of the church. Probably the main break came when one of our members wanted to teach a special class on Religions of the World.One of our members, Jim was not only a retired ordained Methodist minister, but had a Phd. In psychology and counseling. Jim came to Sherry and said he'd like to teach a class of about ten sessions, two hours long on the major Religions of the World. Sherry thought that was super and so presented the idea to the chairperson of the churches Education Committee. That person became very negative and said, “We can't even teach our members not to sin, so why are we going to teach them about other religions?” Needless to say Rev. Dr. Jim taught the class, I took it and had a most unusual experience while there. When Jim had explained the basic facts of the Hindu Religion, I told him immediately in front of the whole class, “Jim, that's what I've believed for years, in fact I've always wanted to be a Methodist ever since an old Methodist told me he believed even the American Indian warrior would go to heaven if he struggled to obey the wishes of his Great Spirit.A few months later, Sherry asked the Bishop to relieve her of the assignment to the Kerrville church and she applied for recuperation leave. She was being treated for clinical depression and the added attacks by these new complainers was more that she felt she could handle.This leads to my meeting my wonderful internet friends from India and my posting of the blessing from Lord Danesh.From the internet here is a short statement of Hindu basic belief:I.: What is Hindu Religion? 1. Hindu Religion, often referred to as Hindu Dharma, Vaideeha Dharma and Sanatana Dharma, is the world's oldest Religious faith. It was followed by the ancient civilization of the Indus valley, Ganges valley, Deccan and Cauveri delta, as well as other parts of India all over the Indian peninsula and surrounding areas of Asia. This Faith, known by many names, is followed and practiced in several ways and forms as it was practiced several thousand years back, with very little modifications, though it adjusted itself to the various times.2. There are over 900 million to one Billion Hindus living throughout the world, mainly in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia from ancient times and also the Hindus settled all over the world now. There are also many new converts and followers to this practice in the modern world. 3. Hinduism, is as much a "way of life" as a religion and affects every aspect of life for Hindus from birth throughout their life. It is followed by the devout Hindu in every aspect of life and activity, and not just in a prayer only. II.: Hindu Scriptures and Principles 4. Hinduism, unlike most religions, has no founder and no one scripture. Hindus do not have one "Holy Book" like many other religions, but many texts including the four Vedas along with their Upanishads, called the "Sruti", several Dharma Sasthras or Smrutis, Ithihasas and Puranas including the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. The Bhagavad Gita, or "Song of God", comes as part of Mahabaratha, is an essence of the message of the Upanishads and Hindu Philosophy and is considered to be a guide on how we should live as told by Lord Krishna to Arjuna.5. Hindus believe that as all streams and rivers lead to the same ocean, all genuine religious (spiritual) paths lead to the same goal; worship of every form of "GOD" and celestial forces leads to the same good. So they do not try to convert others to our religion. Each one is allowed to pray and worship to a form or a formless according to one's own knowledge, desire, need and spiritual elevation.6. Hindus believe in One God, beyond form, space and time and beyond human comprehension. They believe that God is Transcendant and Immanent at the same time and will create Itself according to everyones desire and needs to protect the pious, to detroy the evil and establish the Divine Rule of Law and Justice. So, they belive that God will come to them in every form one desires and prays according to one's need and wish. III.: One God in Many Forms and Many Names 7. Most Hindus, needing a form on which to concentrate, worship that one God in different forms, worshiping one aspect of that One Divine Supreme Truth - Paramatma. -- Hindus see God in masculine as well as in feminine forms and also like a family. At the same time, they all understand the True nature of the Supreme. 9. Please understand that many of the sects of Hindus following the various forms of philosophy and worship andvisualize this same Paramathma - the Supreme God - as Narayana [Vishnu], or as Paramasiva [Siva] and Paraasakthi [Sakthi or Durga]. These are the major forms of Paramatma is understood and worshipped by the various sects of Hindu Devotees. 8. Hindu "Gods" are worshipped in the various incarnations, manifestations and forms as created by the supreme God Paramathma for the benefit of the Human creations to easily comprehend Him as He is. Hindus see that One God taking the masculine forms as Brahma - the creator, Vishnu - the protector and maintainer, and Shiva as Siva-Nataraja - the destroyer and re-creator. -- Hindus see that One God in the female forms as Sakthi or Durga, - provider of energy and power, as Lakshmi, - provider of prosperity and wealth and as Saraswathi, - provider of knowledge and intelligence. 10. Here please note that unlike the other major world religions, Hindus also see the Supreme as Mother, including as Sri Meenakshi, as Visalakshi, as Kamakshi and as many other names of Sakthi. He is also seen as Father as in Siva in various forms in several Hindu Temples. -- The Temple in which they are worshipped is not just a congregation hall but a palace of the Supreme God [as the Queen or King]. The dovoted Hindu is able to obtain his or her comminion with the One Supreme God through the prayers to any of the forms as they see that One Supreme in every form or aspect they worship. IV.: Hindu Rituals and Worship 11. Hindu worship takes into account the capacities and inclinations of different individuals. --Types of worship include Ritualistic worship (temple or home), offering (directly or through the priest) flowers, coconut, fruits, incense, flames of oil lamps and camphor, chanting of prayers in Sanskrit (or their mother tongue), etc. 12. Also: Worship through service of one's fellow man (charity) and by one's activity; -- Worship through studying of sacred texts and devotion to the Supreme; -- Worship through meditation with physical and mental discipline and through understanding first the inner self then the divine that is everywhere. -- Worship and prayers are the duties of the human soul to attain Divine protection from the effects of bad karmas and to get guided in the proper path. V.: Hindu Beliefs & Tenets==13. Hindus believe in Ahimsa, or non-violence, which is the basis for the vegetarian diet of many Hindus. Hindus believe non-injury or Ahimsa in all activities which include thought, word, and deed. Hindus believe in Truth and that the Truth will ultimately prevail and protect. Hindus believe in following the Dharma or the divine Law that will protect them at all times.14. Hindus believe in Karma, the law of Cause and Effect. Similar to Christian "As ye sow, so shall ye reap" or "What goes around, comes around." (No such thing as a free lunch.) -- Hindus strive to follow Karma Yoga which is Doing one's own duty without expectation of any rewards for it.15. Hindus believe in reincarnation, or "life after life." (Results may occur in a following life.) Every individual soul returns to earth several times by rebirth to perform proper Karma to purify itself. Once purified by good karma, the soul reaches liberation with no-rebirth. Attachment, greed and lust leads to bad karma leading to grief and further suffering and rebirths to wash off those effects. 16. A goal of Hindus is to achieve Moksha, to be freed from the cycle of birth and death (when the "good" and the "bad" karmas balance.) or to reach Swarga, the abode of the Divine Soul or Paramatma [God] to serve at His feet.So, that leaves me where I am today, looking for a way to combine the beauty of the Hindu religion and the love as taught by the Messiah of Love, rejected by Israel. I'm still working on it, and I'm still having problems with the concept of “loving my enemies.” .... So you see we've put our rattlesnakes far behind us and we're trying to focus on the beauty and tranquility of the deer. I still have an urge to go back and feed the deer. But you can never go back successfully, only forward to the ocean.If you've read this far, you're probably very interested in the Hindu religion. Here's a wonderful site for more reading:www.bnaiyer.com/vidya/vidya-bharathi.html |
| 撮影日 | 2009-06-29 17:04:55 |
| 撮影者 | mrbill78636 , PFLUGERVILLE TEXAS, USA |
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