Crazy Little Thing Called Love

This Thing called love
It cries , In a cradle all night
It swings , It jives
It shakes all over like a jelly fish

- Freddie Mercury

A few days ago I was talking with a friend about.......of all things........the subject of love. I never would have thought I would write a post on this subject, but I guess you never know. I am thankful for our discussion because I have learned quite a lot. The main thing I learned is that too many people are afraid of love. Many people will jump out of planes, go white-water rafting, ride the biggest roller coasters in the world and stuff like that, and not be intimidated at all. But mention the word love and they become petrified and clueless. I believe people are afraid of and don't understand love because they are afraid of and don't understand themselves. Please don't think I am trying to say I am a love expert because I am far from it. I'm just pondering a bit here. Many people mistake love for weakness when in reality I truly believe that love is a strength. Maybe that's the reason why in general, females may be stronger than males, as many so-called love experts have claimed. I tried to explain to my friend that love is nothing to be ashamed of. I tried to tell her that it's not silly to play with love, to do different things with it, like a child would play with clay or something. Paul McCartney surly doesn't think love is silly when he writes :

Love doesn't come in a minute
Sometimes it doesn't come at all
I only know that when I'm in it
Love isn't silly...
Love isn't silly at all

England Dan writes that " Love is the answer". Jimi Hendrix said "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will live in peace". Millions of songs and poems have been written about love but judging by the way the world is today, these artists and poets have not made that much of an influence in transforming atmospheric energy into loving energy. I suppose it's too 'sticky' and 'gooey' for people to be comfortable with love...so I guess humanity as a whole will keep running and hiding from it while the poets, artists, and priests keep profiting from a seeming fairy-tale. It would not surprise me if some day it will be against the law to love someone. It is already starting to slowly happen. The world is turning love into a crime.

Some people spend their whole lives running away from love...from the "center within". Even in the rare cases when people feel they are expressing love, they are mistaking the periphery for the center.......the facade for the pure. The enlightened spiritual guru Osho said that if you love someone on the periphery you will then also hate that person on the polar peripheral position, but if that love comes from within the center, beyond polarity, then it is bliss. People who run away from love are running away from themselves. They have lost their center. After all, isn't the ultimate depth of our core being (our soul) comprised of love.

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So go ahead...take a chance... make someones day a beautiful one by telling or expressing to them you love them.......but before you do, check your local laws and make sure it's not a crime.

Saints And Sinners

.......and they say there's a heaven for those who will wait

some say it's better but I say it ain't

I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints,

the sinners are much more fun...

- Recording artist Billy Joel

If I don't go to hell, who will? If going to hell can save the innocent or wake them up to open their eyes, I'm willing to go there, join my friends and play majong.

- Master Peter Leung

If you're going to be a bad person, be the worst you can be,

because when the cycle turns and balances

you'll be that much more the better.

- Michio Kushi

To hell with the saints

To hell with the sinners

Pass the wine bottle please.

- The drunken Poet

I've seen and heard and read of saints and sinners

and I've even spoken with a few

and in conclusion I must admit

there ain't much difference between the two.

- Andy Nicola

I'm gonna tell a little secret

if you promise not to tell

If you wanna get to heaven

you gotta raise a little hell.

- Popular 70's song lyrics

If you see the face of a saint, tell him to turn around

and you'll be starring at the face of a sinner.

Never trust them two-faced bastards.

- Unknown Poet

Saints and Sinners...what is the difference ?

It is nothing more than walking a tight-rope ...

nothing more than a balancing act.

- Anonymous

A good man is a bad man's teacher.

- Lao Tzu

And the list goes on and on and on. There are some who have not fallen for the deceptive mirage that various institutions have painted. They understand the energetic dichotomies of good-bad, heaven-hell, saints-sinners. Some understand it and know it as two sides of the same coin. If you would like to read a tremendous amount of material on the absurdity of saints and sinners look at some of Osho's writings. If you are a Jesus freak however, you may want to stray from Osho. He doesn't have a whole lot of nice things to say about Jesus.......and he's not all that fond of Mother Teresa either. If you have your own slogan or saying you would like to add...feel free to send it.

Assigning Time/Space Coordinates In Plum Blossom I Ching

In Plum Blossom I Ching Divination the Time and Space aspect can be a very important factor to consider. To divine about an event that occurs in a certain area or time zone it makes sense to use the time of where the event takes place rather than the time where the diviner is making the calculations. So if an event took place in Paris, France and the diviner is consulting in Chicago, Illinois, you would use the time in Paris. You would want to know the longitude of the exact spot and then convert the time to True Local Time. If a specific event is the subject of the divination, that is, if the event was being created by your own specific subconscious, then the the Time/Space coordinates of the diviners location would be used. Let us say a sporting event is taking place in Paris and the diviner is in Chicago, we use Paris coordinates. But if your friend is in Paris and you're wondering from Chicago what they are up to, you would in that case use the true local time in Chicago.

Advertising And Promotion

Today people advertise and promote themselves to the utmost

but ultimately accomplish and deliver little or nothing.

When it comes to words

they are indestructible giants

When it comes to deeds

they are faltering midgets.

I Ching Concerns : Repeated Questions

People often believe that the toss of the coins or separation of the stalks is too random to be considered relevant. They also argue that if you ask the same question more than once and receive different hexagrams it makes the I Ching invalid. To clarify this misconception, we'll take an example. Suppose someone were to ask you, "What is your opinion of Mr. Yang". You answer that he is a nice and quiet type of guy. Now, if the next day you heard rumors in the neighborhood that Mr. Yang came stumbling home drunk at 4 AM with a woman on each arm while his wife was at the hospital spending the night with her sick mother, and someone asks you again your opinion of Mr. Yang...your answer this time is drastically different from the first answer. Perhaps somewhere along the lines of having to do with a womanizing, lousy, drunk. Then you find out it was all a rumor and in fact Mr.Yang was sailing the Seven Seas on his million dollar yacht. Someone now asks you the same question a third time, "What is your opinion of Mr. Yang". You now say what a rich and lucky guy he is to be able to travel like that. In the end you find out that it was Mr. Yang's wife's third cousin who was actually doing the travelling.


You were asked the exact same question three times and you gave three totally different answers. Why ? It is because the information you received after the first question influenced the way you answered the second. The same thing happened between the second and third question. It is the same with the I Ching. If you should ask the same question more than once, the information gained from the first inquiry would interfere with a receptive state of mind causing altering hexagrams. Rest assured that if you asked the I Ching the same question 20 times and you received 20 different hexagrams, the I Ching answered correctly 20 times. This is extremely difficult for a rationally dominated mind to accept or comprehend. To avoid the confusion of multiple hexagrams it is advisable to ask your question or concern only once and concentrate on the received hexagram until you understand the information completely. In this way, you avoid the barriers........the barrier being mainly the ego.

Knowing The Tao

The Tao does not set parameters on right and wrong or morals. If the mind can adopt this procedure it can then get the answer to any situation it is interested in. Many people sternly state that the I Ching or other divination methods cannot be used for gambling purposes , while others say they have successfully used it to make money on stocks. The truth of the matter is that the Tao is not a personality, but an energy. It doesn't know or doesn't care about stocks or gambling or any other name you wish to give a human phenomena. In one sense it can be compared to a cold bitter wind...it responds to a person the way a person responds to it. To the wind it doesn't matter how "good" a person is or how "bad". If a priest is stuck in a blizzard and a thief steals his coat and gloves, the wind would freeze the priest to death and the thief would benefit. The wind has no opinion either way. Only a society calls a thing good or bad....or a saint or thief. The Tao does not discriminate in this way. A Christian or a Catholic or other religion would call this a cruel God....a Taoist would call it pure energy.

A Song for Sammy

Years ago when I used to jog every day, I ran into an old bum who used to get his meals from a garbage dump. I felt really sorry for him. For several months we did not acknowledge each other...I would just run my route and he would search for his treasures in the garbage hoppers. Then one day I stopped at the Italian deli that was next to his stomping grounds that he rummaged about and I bought him the biggest Italian submarine sandwich they had, along with a salad and a quart bottle of natural spring water. When I took it to him he starred at me blankly and wondered what I was up to. I told him the food was for him. He was stunned for a moment and then wiped a tear from his eye. He asked me if I would split the sandwich with him and I told him I wasn't hungry, and so while he ate I sat down on the grassy hill and watched the old man devour his sandwich. When he was finished we talked for an hour and a half. He said that he always saw me running everyday and he always wanted to say something but he was too embarrassed and thought that I would shun and avoid him for the way he lived. From that point, on the days that I would see him we would always wave to each other and he would yell, "How many today", meaning how many miles I was running, and I would say 8. or 10, or 12, or however many miles I was running. Then he would pause and he'd yell, "run an extra one for me". Every now and then before I left the house I would put a five or ten dollar bill in my sock and when I would reach the point where I would see him, I'd run by and throw a five or ten at him and keep running before he would become embarrassed. His name was Sam but I called him Sammy (he liked that) and I had many conversations with him and I enjoyed his company. He had a serene-ness to him that was quite nice.

As the seasons turned into autumn that year I noticed that about a month and a half had passed without seeing Sammy one time. I stopped in at the Italian deli and asked the people who worked there if they'd seen Sammy lately. Then the old woman who ran the place said, "No, that old man is gone. He passed away and we don't have to watch him digging through the trash anymore". She said it almost as if she was relieved. As I walked out the deli I was very distraught and the atmosphere seemed eerie...I was truly saddened by the news. On that day I took the long way home.

When I got home I took out a piece of paper and a pen and wrote the following poem for my friend Sammy.

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A SONG FOR SAMMY

He wears a torn up shirt and pants
and he smells like gasoline
he hangs around the garbage dumps
when times are really lean.

All the businessmen and lawyers
all the people in the crowd
they would all laugh at Sammy
and they all would laugh out loud

Hey there people,
won't you give old Sam a break
he really ain't a bad guy
he just made a few mistakes.

One day I stopped and talked with Sam
as he was starrin' at the sky
his crackled voice began to speak
as he wiped a tear-drop from his eye.

I'm a withered, worn-out, tired man
and I've surly paid my dues
and once I was a wealthy lad
but today don't own a pair of shoes

There's nothing much for me to give
and little I can mend
so I walk the streets and count my steps
and wonder where my day might end.

Be prepared for all your lessons boy
for in this life there's quite a few
and if there's only one thing I could say
this is what I'd say to you :

When you reach for fame and fortune
be prepared to take a fall
and you're sure to lose your precious pride
when they force your back against a wall

Everyone is rushing
everybody's on the run
and they're working hard for ulcers
when they could be lying in the sun

So take a look at me my friend
while you're still young and wild and free
and don't dare let the world do to you
all the things they've done to me.

And to this day I ponder
on the words he spoke to me
and the best that I can hope for
is that he found peace and har-mo-ny.

The Flaw Of Attraction

All the rage today is centered around some ideas put out by some New Age practitioners who have labeled a so-called new discovery "The Secret". It has caught on like wildfire and the mass media is promoting them to no end. From what I hear it was created by a woman (not sure where she's from) and now droves of experts have joined forces with her to get this very important message out to the world. Truth is, they're a little late........like several thousands of years late. This 'secret' that they are slowly revealing to the world has been known for eons by many groups from many cultures. The whole concept is based on 'the law of attraction", "focal intention", "like attracts like", create-your-own-reality, and so on. If you can think it, they say, then you can manifest it....just like that. Hmmmmm. Wouldn't it be nice to bypass Heavens plan and change our destiny pattern any old way we choose. Wouldn't it be nice to over-ride God's decisions and alter them to fit our own desires. Who needs Gods and Heavens when we have the 'Secret'. It's all a bit superficial.

The law of attraction has been preached by many people...Jane Roberts/Seth, Hicks/Abraham, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Gary Zucav, and millions of others. They are all basically saying the same thing and people keep paying them money and making them millionaires to hear the same message over and over. It is strange to note, that if these people really believed that the law of attraction works why are the unattractive, out-of-shape, and unhealthy law of attraction promoters of 10 years ago, still unattractive, out-of-shape, and unhealthy today. Why has the law of attraction not worked for them. Many of the biggest names have battled alcohol and drug addictions and a host of other problems. If the law of attraction worked the way they say it does, the world could be saved in a day. Could it be that all these people are lying.......perhaps we should not be too harsh on them and just accept that they were probably misinformed and got a little over-excited in promoting their misinformed ideas.

I doubt that Pythagoras believed in the law of attraction. I would say that Shao Yung certainly did not buy into it.......unless of course you were a sage. Master Shao believed that things could be created with the mind because the mind can be equated with Tao. But only rare and certain people could accomplish this mind/Tao connection. Master Shao called this person a sage, and he unfortunately states that " I have never seen one with my own eyes". In one of Wayne Dyer's book he is referred to as a modern sage. I wonder if Shao Yung would consider Wayne Dyer a sage ??? If Dyer is a sage then we are seeing something that some of the greatest masters and philosophers of the Neo-Confucian era have not seen. At the time Dyer was called a sage, Dyer himself admitted to having a alcohol dependency problem. This was kept very quiet from the public because it would not look good for the publishers to promote a "Drunken Sage". Does all this seem a bit strange to you.

I would agree with Shao Yung in believing that anyone and everyone has the ability to create their own reality or even to become a sage, but...."amongst men he is one in a billion" to use his own words. It is like saying that everyone has a chance to win the 50 million dollar lottery but how many actually do it...some spend their whole life trying but get nowhere. It is probably much easier to hit the 50 million dollar lottery than it is to alter heavens patterns or to become a sage. The "Secret" crew/cult will very likely accumulate 50 million dollars at the rate they are going...and they don't have to alter Heaven's plan, become a sage, or hit the lottery. They just need to convince simple saps like us.