Happy Easter

A teaching tale on love

Secularist friends, pardon the diversion. I wish to share a teaching tale on love from the book: A Teaching Story from The Unveiling of Love: Sufism and the Remembrance of God by Sheikh Muzaffer Ozak.

Jesus (a.s) and the young man



"Jesus, on him be peace, one day saw a young man watering the garden and he greeted him with peace. The young man recognized Jesus, on him be peace, and said:

'" 'O Messenger of God! Pray for me to the almighty that He may grant as my portion one atom of His love.'

"Jesus replied: 'Know for sure that you could not bear as much as the one atom of God's love you so desire.'

"But the young man insisted: 'In that case, let Him grant me just half an atom of His Love.'

"Jesus, the Spirit of God, raised his hands once in supplication to the Divine Unity: 'O Lord! Grant and bestow upon this youth just half an atom of Your love.' Then he went on his way.

"Sometime later, Jesus, on him be peace, passed that way again; he could not see the young man who had begged him for just half an atom of God's love, so he asked where he was. They said:

" 'O Prophet of God! That young man went away to the mountains and wandered into the deserts. We have no news of how he is and what has become of him.'

"Jesus, on him be peace, prayed to the Almighty and asked for that young man to be shown to him. By divine inspiration, Jesus, on him be peace, was told the young man's whereabouts and he went straight there. Seeing the youth sitting on a steep rock, immersed in contemplation, he called out to him. Far from responding, the young man did not even turn his head and look. Jesus, on him be peace, called out again, identifying himself this time, but again he got no response. It was then that God, the Lord of Majesty and Perfection, vouchsafed to Jesus, on him be peace, this inspiration:

" 'How can one with even half an atom of My love in his heart be expected to hear the voices of men? O Jesus! For the sake of My Might and Majesty, do not suppose that he heard your voice and yet gave you no answer. If they were to cut that young man up with a saw, he would feel no pain. If they threw him into the fire, the fire would not burn his body, and he would not even notice the heat of the flames.' "

Humorous Bloggers inspired by the Kos fiasco






Mad Kane's delightful Kos-ditty is linked here.

Headlines

Houston Chronicle- Former President Carter takes president Bush to task: "President Bush's war was ill-advised and unnecessary and based on erroneous statements, and has turned out to be a tragedy."

Yahoo News- British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says: "The lid of the pressure cooker has come off [in Iraq]. Some of the tensions and pressures which were there, and would have come out in any event, have to a degree been directed towards the coalition."
*My comment: To a degree!? How about the fullest degree? We knew this would come to pass..any fool would know. Why weren't we prepared? Why are we not involving the world community..the U.N? Who can look at the sutuation and truly say we have not been blunderous and foolish... with little regard for the lives and safety of coalition troops? We should have listened to General Shinseki.*

Russian Foreign Ministry report- Russia invoking Resolution 1483, adopted by the UN Security Council- They say the U.S.-led occupation forces should comply with international humanitarian law.

IF YOU'LL ONLY VOTE FOR US ONCE AGAIN.....



--Maybe we won't attack and take over more countries.
--Maybe we won't draft your kid into a chaotic mess of a war.
--Maybe we won't contribute more to the biggest deficit in history.
--Maybe we won't beat out an already-standing record for the most personal bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period.
--Maybe Bush won't try to beat his standing all-time record for the most days on vacation by any president in US history.

--Maybe Bush won't beat the record for his own presiding over the worst security failire in US history.
--Maybe Bush won't beat his standing record for most campaign raising trips by an president in US history.
--Maybe we'll find the 2 million jobs Americans lost and stop the habit of cutting unemployment benefits (as we did for more out-of-work Americans than any other president in US history).
--Maybe Bush will allow press conferences freely (without Dick Cheney as a puppeteer).
--Maybe Bush will stop mocking the glorious strength of the U.S. Constitution and stop proposing unnecessary amendments to the Constitution (as he's done more than any other US president in history when there's a law he doesn't care for).


--Maybe we won't cut health-care benefits for war veterans.
--Maybe we won't give more reason for inciting people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest us. (Like those 15 million people in February, 2003)
--Maybe we won't dissolve more international treaties (are there any left, anyhow?)
--Maybe we won't continue the most secretive and unaccountable presidency of any in US history. What more do we have to prove? We've already "out-creeped" the Nixon presidency.
--Maybe we won't name another oil tanker after Condi.

--Maybe we won't directly bankrupt all 50 states.
--Maybe we won't listen to NeoCons and go off half-assed and order US attacks and military occupations of more sovereign nations.
--Maybe we'll stop rendering the entire U.N. irrelevant and actually show humility and respect toward other nations of the world. (you've got to admit, though, it was cool to have compelled the U.N. to remove the US from the Human Rights Commission and Elections Monitoring Board.)

--Maybe we'll admit we created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the U.S.
--Maybe we won't remove more checks and balances and stop the continuum of having the least congressional oversight of any presidential administration in US history.
--Maybe we'll recognize the World Court Of Law.
--Maybe we'll stop calling anti-war protesters "focus-groups" and recognize them as equals to monied lobbyists.
--Maybe, in the event we're attacked again, maybe Bush won't run and hide.

--Maybe we'll see how, even after the tragedy of 9-11, the U.S. got to be the most resented country in the
world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in US and world history).
--Maybe we'll reverse Bush's systematic removal of more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US history.
--Maybe we'll truly heal our divided country because we see that as it stands now, we're the most divided since the Civil War.



THEN AGAIN.....MAYBE WE WON'T FEEL LIKE IT.
WE WON'T WORRY--WE HAVE DIEBOLD TO HELP US STEAL THE NEXT ELECTION.
SCREW YOU, LEFTIES AND LIBERTARIANS!