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The Vale of Soul-Making

PostPosted: Sat Dec 22, 2018 8:06 pm
by MacCruiskeen
A refugee mother and child, fleeing from murderous oppression:

Image

Kings and Presidents should bow down before them all.

MacCruiskeen » Sat Nov 09, 2013 7:49 pm wrote:
kelley » Tue Jun 11, 2013 4:20 pm wrote:last month i went to italy, just to look at the frescoes, and to visit the giotto chapel in padua specifically. it's one of the most charged places i've ever visited. there wasn't a negative ion in the room, and even after six hundred or so years the message these pictures communicated was clear. it was one of belief, not in god per se, but in the divinity of humanity, which after all was the fundamental message of christianity, and was an absolutely startling thing to encounter at this particular moment when things seem to be speeding towards points beyond reason. this didn't seem a transcendental idea proposed by the artist and his cohort, but rather that of the transmission of spiritual experience as deeply woven into the fabric of daily life, with the intimation of the divine grasped as material fact. i suspect this recognition will help immensely in what i understand to be, if i'm lucky, the last third of my life.


Is the poster called kelley even still alive any more? I don't know. But he or she did a good thing there.

"Call the world if you Please “The vale of Soul-making”. Then you will find out the use of the world." - John Keats, who had 26 years on this planet to make his soul (and did), in a letter to his brother.

So, in the spirit of all the unfamous refugee mothers and children, and kelley and The Consul and Giotto and Shakespeare and Gerrard Winstanley and Bach and Mozart and John Keats and William Blake and Emily Bronte and Rosa Luxemburg and Patrice Lumumba and Martin Luther King and Salvador Allende and Jesus and Karl Marx and "all the lost poets of World War One" (Peter Barnes) and Peter Barnes and George Carlin and Skip James and Nina Simone and Liam Óg O'Flynn and the sweatshop workers of Haiti and the homeless guy I spoke to yesterday -

Here's to everyone who knows that souls are made in blood & sweat and fear & trembling & honest struggle, if at all, and not by pretending that all things and all words are equal, or of equal value to the making of a soul (and a shared world)

Positive ions to everyone present or departed, without exception.

Re: The Vale of Soul-Making

PostPosted: Sat Dec 22, 2018 9:36 pm
by norton ash
Save our souls.

Re: The Vale of Soul-Making

PostPosted: Sun Dec 23, 2018 6:54 am
by Elvis
I'm reading this:

Image

Don't judge the book by the cover, it's much more (and altogether fascinating).

Re: The Vale of Soul-Making

PostPosted: Sun Dec 23, 2018 9:15 pm
by PufPuf93
That is a beautiful OP Mac.

Thank you for a bright spot in this holiday and politcal season on a day RI seems to have gone off the rails.

Re: The Vale of Soul-Making

PostPosted: Sun Dec 23, 2018 10:49 pm
by BenDhyan
Agree with PufPuf, thank you for that Mac.

Re: The Vale of Soul-Making

PostPosted: Mon Dec 24, 2018 9:55 am
by thrulookingglass
Hurrah! God's son is better than yours! Rejoice! Only Jesus can save you. My hands are weak and small. With this one I'm well pleased...the rest of you go and pound sand. Rot in hell homosexuals! Sex is putrid and awful a thing to pursue. Or are we trying to reject dominant 'christian' programming and state God's glory was made for all, not some? Not in this day at least, but the day yet to be lived where none suffer the horrors of war, where none are impoverished, were none lack clothing, where none lack in nutritional requirements and love is meant for all, unconditionally? Kindness is the thread that weaves us together I say. I watched an add on Youtube for UNHCR about a displaced muslim family of Syria. They were grateful for the propane heater the UN relief organization was able to deliver for its all the warmth the world could provide them. But most of all, thank Allah the wife could afford enough cloth to cover her head! Religion is hysteria and you can find grace in it if you like. According to gospel, Jesus also states, "Don't think that I have come to bring peace to this world, for I have come with fire and the sword." Sorry, can't stand the patriarchal power paradigm, but there are some texts that exist that suggest Jesus worship not a male or female god. What we choose to believe in or are persuaded to. George HW Bush was a pillar of a man helping this nation prosper spending his days raising a Episcopalian, scripturally and morally based family, a doting, loving father, or a despot Nazi sympathizer, fascist blood drenched architect of terror, death to the communists/socialist revolutionaries! Oh empire, oh tyranny. Perhaps it should be one another we live for, not the almighty dollar. Greater love is greater security. Exalted sun of god, 'tis your day. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the trash pile that millions of uncompassionate, selfish, lost souls were ignorant enough to leave you. They would have taken it all but they needed day laborers, slaves do the biddings of the master. Life is obedience training. What do you want, an electrical shock or a treat? Oh wailing wall between us and love. Can't see the wood from the trees. A world of peace, a COMMONWEALTH is the greatest legacy we could ever create. Enjoy your new ipad.

Christmas is not a happy time for those without money. Peace be with you my strewed community. Tomorrow I will endure my families torments of how I have failed to earn enough money to live a decent life. 9/11 was the work of Muslim terrorist, Kennedy was killed by a mafia conspiracy, the US stands for freedom, Viet Nam was a regretful but necessary conflict, Watergate wasn't that serious a crime, abrogating our treaties to the Lamanites was divine providence, the Palestinians homeland can be made elsewhere, protesting war is pointless. All those crazy internet conspiracies have gone to your head. I've gifted you a tinfoil hat for Christmas. None teach anymore, they just berate those who don't know. Those we refuse to shelter from harm are OUR misgivings, not theirs. Eyes wide open, eyes wide shut. Knowledge is painful, wisdom sews peace.

Re: The Vale of Soul-Making

PostPosted: Mon Dec 24, 2018 2:49 pm
by Iamwhomiam
MacCruiskeen wrote:A refugee mother and child, fleeing from murderous oppression:

Image

Kings and Presidents should bow down before them all.

MacCruiskeen » Sat Nov 09, 2013 7:49 pm wrote:
kelley » Tue Jun 11, 2013 4:20 pm wrote:last month i went to italy, just to look at the frescoes, and to visit the giotto chapel in padua specifically. it's one of the most charged places i've ever visited. there wasn't a negative ion in the room, and even after six hundred or so years the message these pictures communicated was clear. it was one of belief, not in god per se, but in the divinity of humanity, which after all was the fundamental message of christianity, and was an absolutely startling thing to encounter at this particular moment when things seem to be speeding towards points beyond reason. this didn't seem a transcendental idea proposed by the artist and his cohort, but rather that of the transmission of spiritual experience as deeply woven into the fabric of daily life, with the intimation of the divine grasped as material fact. i suspect this recognition will help immensely in what i understand to be, if i'm lucky, the last third of my life.


Is the poster called kelley even still alive any more? I don't know. But he or she did a good thing there.

"Call the world if you Please “The vale of Soul-making”. Then you will find out the use of the world." - John Keats, who had 26 years on this planet to make his soul (and did), in a letter to his brother.

So, in the spirit of all the unfamous refugee mothers and children, and kelley and The Consul and Giotto and Shakespeare and Gerrard Winstanley and Bach and Mozart and John Keats and William Blake and Emily Bronte and Rosa Luxemburg and Patrice Lumumba and Martin Luther King and Salvador Allende and Jesus and Karl Marx and "all the lost poets of World War One" (Peter Barnes) and Peter Barnes and George Carlin and Skip James and Nina Simone and Liam Óg O'Flynn and the sweatshop workers of Haiti and the homeless guy I spoke to yesterday -

Here's to everyone who knows that souls are made in blood & sweat and fear & trembling & honest struggle, if at all, and not by pretending that all things and all words are equal, or of equal value to the making of a soul (and a shared world)

Positive ions to everyone present or departed, without exception.


Thank you, Mac. kelley, like so many others, including those you've named, is missed. A wonderful expression of kelley's impression of the chapel's atmosphere.

Yuletide greetings, merry Christmas, enjoy the solstice. Sorry I missed wishing our Jewish members a timely happy Hanukkah. Still hoping for a happy new year...

But one thing you and kelley got wrong was the charge of the ions: positive ions affect us negatively; it's the negative ions that are beneficial. Good to remember, although not always true, Positive vibes = Negative ions; Negative vibes = positive ions.

It's the thought that counts.

Blessings, Peace and Love to all.

edit: Everyone would benefit from reading The Heart Sutra: Discourses on Prajnaparamita Hridaya Sutra by Osho

(linked only to exemplify)
[url=https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Heart-Sutra-Discourses-on-Prajnaparamita-Hridayam-Sutra-by-Osho-Paperback/302643962808?epid=915289&hash=item4676fc63b8:rk:5:pf:0[/url]

Re: The Vale of Soul-Making

PostPosted: Mon Dec 24, 2018 8:17 pm
by conniption
Iamwhomiam » Mon Dec 24, 2018 11:49 am wrote:
MacCruiskeen wrote:
...
A refugee mother and child, fleeing from murderous oppression:

But one thing you and kelley got wrong was the charge of the ions: positive ions affect us negatively; it's the negative ions that are beneficial. Good to remember, although not always true, Positive vibes = Negative ions; Negative vibes = positive ions.

It's the thought that counts...


Thanks for taking the time to point that out, Iamwhomiam.

Here's a gift to some from...
off-guardian

Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” at 175

Catte
Published on Dec, 24, 2018

This is an updated version of our 2017 article to mark the 175th anniversary of A Christmas Carol

Image
title page of the first edition of A Christmas Carol, published in December 1843 at the author’s expense

Today we think of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol as a cosy piece of traditional seasonal fare, replete with steaming puds and roasted goose and comfortably easy lessons about not being stingy at Crimbo. But when Dickens wrote his novella in 1843 he was delivering a far more serious – and possibly freshly relevant – warning about the moral bankruptcy of a society that destroys human lives in pursuit of profit.

It’s a fact not much considered, but Das Kapital and A Christmas Carol were both written in the same city, in the same decade – just five years apart.

To those familiar only with the numerous adaptations of Dickens’ tale it might seem absurd to look for any point of connection between these two books. What can a feel-good tale of middle class redemption have to do with a study of the class struggle? But this question only begs to be asked because a lot of the real meaning behind the writing of A Christmas Carol has always been missing from the general perception of this work...

https://off-guardian.org/2018/12/24/cha ... ol-at-175/


All the Best to RI and friends, and Long Live Elvis!

Peace.

Re: The Vale of Soul-Making

PostPosted: Tue Dec 25, 2018 1:19 am
by Jerky
Iamwhomiam » 24 Dec 2018 18:49 wrote:
But one thing you and kelley got wrong was the charge of the ions: positive ions affect us negatively; it's the negative ions that are beneficial. Good to remember, although not always true, Positive vibes = Negative ions; Negative vibes = positive ions.

It's the thought that counts.


Actually, if memory serves me correctly, any overly homogeneous ionization -- whether negative or positive -- tends to cause nausea, headache and other "carsickness" type sensations in individuals forced to endure such an environment for long. That's why it's best to open a window and shake things out, scramble those ions and clear your head.

Cheers!
Jerky

Re: The Vale of Soul-Making

PostPosted: Tue Dec 25, 2018 3:47 am
by conniption
Jerky » Mon Dec 24, 2018 10:19 pm wrote:
Iamwhomiam » 24 Dec 2018 18:49 wrote:
But one thing you and kelley got wrong was the charge of the ions: positive ions affect us negatively; it's the negative ions that are beneficial. Good to remember, although not always true, Positive vibes = Negative ions; Negative vibes = positive ions.

It's the thought that counts.


Actually, if memory serves me correctly, any overly homogeneous ionization -- whether negative or positive -- tends to cause nausea, headache and other "carsickness" type sensations in individuals forced to endure such an environment for long. That's why it's best to open a window and shake things out, scramble those ions and clear your head.

Cheers!
Jerky


...and thank you Jerky for taking the time to be ___(fill-in)____.

Re: The Vale of Soul-Making

PostPosted: Tue Dec 25, 2018 11:56 am
by Cordelia
Imagining, more than material gifts, many could use a metaphorical manger about now.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SnKu1_0WZM

Images and poetry from Mac's aforementioned Blake:

Image

A Cradle Song

Sweet dreams, form a shade
O'er my lovely infant's head!
Sweet dreams of pleasant streams
By happy, silent, moony beams!

Sweet sleep, with soft down
Weave thy brows an infant crown!
Sweet sleep, angel mild,
Hover o'er my happy child!

Sweet smiles, in the night
Hover over my delight!
Sweet smiles, mother's smile
All the livelong night beguile.

Sweet moans, dovelike sighs,
Chase not slumber from thine eyes!
Sweet moan, sweeter smile,
All the dovelike moans beguile!

Sleep, sleep, happy child!
All creation slept and smiled.
Sleep, sleep, happy sleep,
While o'er thee doth mother weep.

Sweet babe, in thy face
Holy image I can trace;
Sweet babe, once like thee
Thy Maker lay and wept for me:

Wept for me, for thee, for all,
When he was an infant small;
Thou his image ever see,
Heavenly face that smiles on thee!

Smiles on thee, on me, on all,
Who became an infant small,
Infant smiles are his own smiles:
Heaven and earth to peace beguiles.

~ William Blake ~

Image

Peace, good will, best wishes, etc.. to all big babies, little babies, members, lurkers, et al... some positive, some negative.

:hug1:

Re: The Vale of Soul-Making

PostPosted: Wed Dec 26, 2018 2:34 am
by Joe Hillshoist
conniption » 25 Dec 2018 17:47 wrote:
...and thank you Jerky for taking the time to be ___(fill-in)____.


... the one pointing out the importance of balance.

Re: The Vale of Soul-Making

PostPosted: Thu Dec 27, 2018 4:54 am
by stickdog99
12 Steps for 12 Apostles


Re: The Vale of Soul-Making

PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2019 5:49 pm
by MacCruiskeen
“The theory of positive disintegration (TPD) by Kazimierz Dąbrowski (1902-1980) is a theory of personality development”:



Dabrowski’s ideas are hard-won, immediately illuminating, and deeply encouraging, so it’s no wonder he has remained obscure and marginal throughout the four decades since his death.

Re: The Vale of Soul-Making

PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2019 6:33 am
by Elvis
I watched the documentary with some interest, thanks.

MacCruiskeen wrote:immediately illuminating

This is true!


I hadn't heard of Dąbrowski or "positive disintegration," but just based on this introduction, the whole concept seems utterly sensible and in accord with healthy human development, brilliant even, an insight of great value.