The religion of murder

Jon

Pat Robertson

Pat Robertson does it again, and this time, people noticed. In remarks on a broadcast yesterday, the Reverend Marion “Pat” Robertson stated that “we” should exercise our abilty to murder a sitting head of state, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Why? Robertson says Chavez would turn Venezuela into “the launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism.”

Communist infiltration? If there was any doubt that Robertson is now losing touch with reality just as he long ago lost touch with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, this is proof.

While the world reacts with shock, I’m simply disgusted. Almost exactly one year ago (on August 20, 2004), Robertson also called for the deliberate killing of a specific person, another cleric who feels murder is easily justifiable, Ayatollah Muktada al-Sadr. When I posted this entry then, I felt like I was alone in opposing him. Perhaps now that people are aware that we have our own ayatollah of hatred in Virginia Beach, we will become more motivated to find peaceful solutions.

And peaceful solutions to our problems will elude us as long as the internal forces in our hearts are filled with hatred, selfish desire, greed, and power-lust. For that, we need to empty ourselves before God.

I hesitate before posting a blog like this when I am calling attention to the shortcomings of another. On one hand, I strongly oppose Robertson’s statements, and I feel obligated to draw awareness to his associations with dictators and mass murderers such as Charles Taylor (see links toward the bottom of this post), yet I am in no way superior to Brother Pat, no matter how vociferously I may oppose his remarks.

Nor do I bear any ill-will to him as a person. I met him once while he was jogging, and we exchanged a pleasant wave. The fact is that I am Pat Robertson, as well as Hugo Chavez, and the animosity which they manifest is no different in its kind nor in its source, than that which I hide or manifest.

I believe this is the reason why meditation is so important. It is the spiritual emptying which allows the Spirit of God to fill and cleanse. It acts immediately upon the heart, and with practice and determination?upon the hidden prejudices, fears, and cravings of the mind.

When one no longer looks at religion as “belief systems,” it’s plain to see that there are only two: the religion of love, and that of fear. God, help me to be filled with your spirit of love.

Superb Translation of Thomas

Jon

I just came across the perfect translation of The Gospel of Thomas. It’s The Gospel of Thomas: the Gnostic Wisdom of Jesus, by Jean-Yves LeLoup, translated by Joseph Rowe.

This is a double translation. LeLoup translated the gospel into French and wrote a wonderful, meditative saying-by-saying commentary, originally published in 1986. Fortunately, Joseph Rowe has now translated the entire work into English. (It strikes me that this process is much like the history of the superb Jerusalem Bible, which also was a French translation first.)

Trust me when I say this is not just another Thomas translation. From the Introduction:

Pope Gregory I said that only a prophet could understand the prophets. And it is said that only a poet can understand a poet. Who, then, must we be in order to understand Yeshua?

Read more!

Aye, i eye “I”

Jon
  • Everybody says “I,” but we foolishly think it just refers to us when we say it.
  • We’re too deaf to hear that “I” is being said everywhere, by everyone, all the time.
  • The First Person is the only One, speaking through all mouths and minds, speaking to itSelf, trying to hear itSelf.
  • Can you hear “I” when i say it? Can we know that we are cells in the I? Can we answer, “yes, i said that?”
  • In Norfolk, Baghdad, Surabaya, and Nairobi. I am. i am beginning to realize it.

Lava Lamp

Jon

Lava Lamp

I feel mySelf.
not my skin,
but my true self,
my life
within me.

Tangible,
like a jet in a jacuzzi,
or the gel in a lava lamp,
life rises, and falls.

Thoughts bubble
and vanish.

And energy rises
and falls.

And night comes,
and goes,

As day comes,
and goes.

and the body peaks,
declines,
and passes.

What remains?
What was before Time itself.

Not nothing,
not something.

This.

I am This,
I am.

I am That
I am.

? jon zuck | norfolk, virginia | august 4, 2005

New Kid on the Block

Jon

Well, I’ve been at my new job for more than a week now, and I’ve got to say I’m tremendously happy to be at Trader. I’m doing work which I excel at, but which is also challenging and stimulating. I’m surrounded by great people.

Yet … I’m the “new kid in school.” I haven’t been in this situation for nine years. I find it hard to get to know people. My previous workplace was a call center, filled with noisy extroverts, and here, everyone’s as introverted as I am. I sometimes feel lonely, like I’m in a library with “cones of silence” around everyone. (Hmm . . . there’s a reason why I was never interested in becoming a Trappist!)

It takes time to make friends and get to know people.

Tonight, I watched the movie Joshua (closely based on the book by Fr. Girzone). Yes, it’s really heavy-handed and somewhat cheesy, as the book was, but surprisingly effective, too, thanks to the great performance by Tony Goldwyn as the title character.

But it made me think. What if I really cared only about loving, and not about being loved? What if I just saw my new workplace as 300 more people to love?

What’s not to love?

Everything We Need

Jon

A thought has been in the back of my mind for several days now, that maybe it is impossible for someone to not have everything they need to do whatever they need to do at any given moment. That?s very much in line with what Kitabu Roshi teaches in his Zen Mushin Ryu classes, but now I?m beginning to believe it.

This morning, I woke up, fed Talbot, and did yoga before anything else. Then spontaneously, I did some standing qigong, and it was a meditative experience for me. Then I did some sitting meditation, ate some fiber cereal with milk and raisins, and showered.

To say I feel better than I usually do in the morning after five hours? sleep is an understatement. What?s scary is that I know this stuff. I know the power of qigong, of yoga, of meditation and good high-fiber meals, but I just don?t do it. It?s like I?m sleepwalking through most of my days, that we?re all sleepwalking, entranced and feeling trapped by our habits, busyness, addictions and distractions.

It?s like a cloud has settled over us, so that we can?t see, can?t think, can?t freely be?but every moment, we have everything that we really need to burst out of the cloud. Believing that we cannot become fully conscious, fully aware, truly free, is the greatest con in the universe. Knowing this, allowing this, and acting from this?well what can I say?

The Muse Has Left the Building

Jon

In Hampton Roads, Virginia, out of 44 films showing in area theaters, only 10 are not documentaries, prequels, sequels, remakes, cartoons or foreign films.

Is this the end of original stories in live-action American films?

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Jon

This book rocks? kicks butt frims. I definitely consider it the best of the Potter series so far, and leads to the possibility that the final book might have a markedly different format from these first six.

Best line:

The Aurors are part of the Rotfang Conspiracy, I thought everyone knew that. They’re working to bring down the Ministry of Magic from within using a combination of Dark Magic and gum disease.

Last Day

Jon

Today was my last day working at the Verizon Online center I’ve been in for nearly nine years. (I’m taking a few days’ vacation before I officially leave the company.) I wrote this poem as a parting gift to all my co-workers:

when gods walked the earth

Why do they say ?when gods walked the earth,?
As though it were so faraway, and long ago?

I do not understand.
For I live in a confusion of gods and goddesses,
Living out the confusion of gods and goddesses,
who cannot remember
in the crazy clapping waves
the urgent hours,
the dizzy days,
who they are,
who they are.

Say I?m crazy, or you?ll go crazy
When I say what I?ve seen that?s made me sane.

You don?t say, “Let there be light,”
But I saw you stop and smile,
And there was light.

You don?t command the winds, “Peace now, be still,”
but that frantic one on your phone
now is calm, now is still.

You don?t set the planets in their orbits,
But twirl a basketball on your fingertip,
and shoot a world out into space.

You say you are not love, you say you can?t give life,
And then gently tuck into bed the one
To whom you give your love, your life.

If we truly saw who we are and what we do
Tell me who would we be, what would we do?
Would we be washed in overwhelm
If our lives turned into light?

Or would cataracts fall from our eyes like scales
That we would see
Blinding whitewater cataracts
Of rushing Godgrace roaring down?

Don?t let the tumult toss you.
Don?t let frustration make you forget.

I cry in your crucifixions,
And dance in your resurrections.
And I bow to you.

©jon zuck | july 14, 2005 | norfolk, virginia