From tariqas-digest-approval@europe.std.com Sun Jul 7 07:25:19 1996 Date: Sun, 30 Jun 1996 10:35:35 -0400 (EDT) From: tariqas-digest-approval@europe.std.com Reply-To: tariqas-digest@world.std.com To: tariqas-digest@world.std.com Subject: tariqas-digest V1 #38 tariqas-digest Sunday, 30 June 1996 Volume 01 : Number 038 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: danae@canada.com Date: Sat, 29 Jun 1996 20:55:34 -0500 Subject: Coleman Barks and Rumi Hello all I am a huge fan of the translations of Rumi by Coleman Barks. I am certain that I once saw someone on this mailing post his email address. I would greatly appreciate if someone could repost his email address for me as well as any other online sources that may provide info or a link to Mr. Barks. or just any information about him in general. You can either post it here in the mailing list or else I would be happy to recieve any email on the matter. My address is Danae@canada.com Thanks in advance Danae ------------------------------ From: Well333@turbonet.com (Jacquie Weller) Date: Sat, 29 Jun 1996 19:25:50 +0100 Subject: Re: A Story of Moses Tanzen said on Saturday: snip...snip...following portion... >Your heart attaches itself again and again to objects. You have >to know how to keep the connection with your origins... Ilahi-Nama snip... >"... trusing in an intermediary." is the lesson? "objects", i.e., theories, >beliefs, people? Pray, let us keep connected to "origins"! - ---------- Yes a good thing to remember. Love Kaffea lalla ------------------------------ From: Well333@turbonet.com (Jacquie Weller) Date: Sat, 29 Jun 1996 20:17:41 +0100 Subject: Apology Dear Steve Rose Habib, and others, I apologize for reacting to the post about personal communication. It is difficult for me to see the other side of this. I have heard there are three sides to every story; your side, my side, and the truth. I will not defend my position and just surrender my Anxiety, misunderstandings, and opinions. Love and Peace, Kaffea lalla. ------------------------------ From: maarof@pc.jaring.my Date: Sun, 30 Jun 1996 12:17:37 +0800 Subject: Re: Apology On Sat, 29 Jun 1996, Well333@turbonet.com (Jacquie Weller) wrote: >Dear Steve Rose Habib, and others, I apologize for reacting to the post >about personal communication. It is difficult for me to see the other side >of this. >I have heard there are three sides to every story; your side, my side, and >the truth. I will not defend my position and just surrender my Anxiety, >misunderstandings, and opinions. Love and Peace, Kaffea lalla. > > Dear Kaffea and friends in the list Here's a story. I find it a sad story (and some may think the ending is rather "cruel") but it is a story that taught me much lesson. It is reported that Maaz bin Malek came to the Prophet and said: "O Messenger of God, I have commited fornication and I have oppressed my soul. So purify me. This is my wish." The Prophet turned him back. On the following day, he came again to the Prophet and said as above. He turned him back for the second time. When he said this for the third and fourth time, the Prophet passed orders for his punishment. A pit was dug for him and he was put therein and stoned to death. (Some said "He had been ruined." Some said "This is no other sincere Tauba like this." The Prophet said: "He has repented in such a way, that if it would have been divided among the people, it would have been sufficient for them") On another day, one Gamedi woman came to the Prophet and said "I have committed fornication, purify me." The Prophet turned her away. On the following day, she came again to the Prophet and said: "O Messenger of God, why did you turn me away? You have thought that as you have turned away Maaz, you will also turn me away. By God, I have conceived." The Prophet said, "Go away till you give birth to a child." Immediately after the child was born, she came to the Prophet with the child putting on a torn cloth and said: " My child is born." The Prophet said: "Go and suckle it, till it comes to an end." When the suckling ended, she came to the Prophet with the boy in whose hand there was a piece of bread. She said: "O Prophet of God, I have finished suckling and now he has been taking food." The Prophet then handed over boy to a Muslim. A pit was dug up to her breast and the Prophet then passed order to stone her to death. Khalid bn Walid threw a piece of stone on her head and he was rebuking her. The Prophet heard it, rebuked him for it and said: "Stop O Khaled. One in whose hands there lies my life. She has made such a Tauba (repentance) that if a collector of Zakat (tax) in excess limit makes such Tauba, his Tauba will be accepted." The woman was then buried after funeral prayer. salam maarof ------------------------------ From: CWoodsong@aol.com Date: Sun, 30 Jun 1996 00:23:14 -0400 Subject: Re: Personal and public discussions >>>guilty for being so personal. Love Kaffea Lalla. Dear one, i don't think anyone was speaking to you. Maybe this has something to do with 'cultural' differences? What is considered rude to one person, may be considered perferctly 'normal' and acceptable to another.... I hope no one is offended by the following quote: I found it very ... interesting. >From the book, /Mad Bear/, by Doug Boyd <>><>><>><>><>><>> "No, you're right -- especially for an Indian. But, in fact, he's got to be one of the most outgoing persons I've ever seen. He makes jokes and engages people all the time-- everywhere. Like when we were in New York City, he was forever coming up with some off-the-wall remark to make people laugh. We'd be going up and down on the elevators and he'd say things like, 'Good heavens! Would you look at my shoes! You sure wouldn't know I shined 'em this morning!' And people would wiggle around to get a good look at his feet and he'd be wearing sneakers. Or we'd get on a crowded elevator and he'd say, 'Twenty-third floor, please.' And everyone would look at him strangely and someone would say, "It only goes up to the twelth floor.' Then he'd politely suggest, 'Well, could you push the twelve and then the eleven? Wouldn't that make twenty-three?' Everyone would look embarrassed, and then we'd laugh. At first I thought maybe he just wanted attention. It took me a while to realize that it's part of his medicine." "Medicine, how so?" "Public social behavior in our culture comes close to being pathological. I've thought that before I met Mad Bear. When I was living in Asia, I got used to seeing people behave communally -- like family -- even in crowds. Little kids on crowded buses would crawl up whatever laps were handy. People would hold one another's packages -- or hold one another, literally, on bumpy roads or quick stops. There's great similarity in the way Indians are with one another -- or the way all traditional people are, for that matter. In our society, we are swimming in a sea of public paranoia and Mad Bear picks that up. Did you ever notice how people act in places like elevators? They stiffen up, hoping on hope that no 'strangers' make the slightest body contact. We don't like people, in general. If they're not not our friends or in some given way associated, they're either scary or yucky. Remember we are talking before about empathhy? That's Mad Bear's Medicine. Empathy..." "... But that's his medicine. He's a bridge maker. I know he's occassionally attended to injuries and illness, but that's not his real work. His real work is relationships. He wants to break this ice, this false isolation that makes us all strangers to one another and makes us dangerous to one another. I think that the real medicine people from now on, I mean the real healer heavyweights, will be working on that level. Anything else will be working on -- what the Indians call -- the tail end of the problem." <>><>><>><>><>><>><>><>><>><>><>> I think i've seen some of those medicine healers here. Brother Jabriel told me just after i met him, and i will never forget... that we could let our hair down, afterall, it's not like we're not related! And dear sister Kaffea has opened a window to her heart through her loving posts about the beloved husband of her daughter! I am honored and pleased to be a part of their lives... They have CREATED commnuity here. We can talk all day about this or that philosophy or idea, but where does that get us? I want to get to the HEART level... If i have offended anyone by holding on over bumpy ground... or being too intimate, i apologize... but i pray we can learn to understand and appreciate one another here... afterall... if not here, where? love to all! woodsong ------------------------------ From: Well333@turbonet.com (Jacquie Weller) Date: Sat, 29 Jun 1996 22:19:18 +0100 Subject: Re: Personal and public discussions Woodsong said Saturday Evening: snip...snip...snip >I think i've seen some of those medicine healers here. Brother Jabriel told >me just after i met him, and i will never forget... that we could let our >hair down, afterall, it's not like we're not related! And dear sister Kaffea >has opened a window to her heart through her loving posts about the beloved >husband of her daughter! I am honored and pleased to be a part of their >lives... They have CREATED commnuity here. We can talk all day about this >or that philosophy or idea, but where does that get us? I want to get to the >HEART level... > >-----I hated to cut this post, because it touched me deeply. Thankyou Woodsong. This post is most comforting to me. Love Kaffea lalla. > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ From: shuja@biruni.erum.com.pk Date: Sun, 30 Jun 96 10:48 PDT Subject: Re: God's Omnicience & Omnipotence <---- Begin Forwarded Message ----> Return-Path: Date: Thu, 27 Jun 1996 15:59:29 -0700 From: "E.Phil Konigsberg" To: "William J. Brown" CC: celestine-l@newciv.org Subject: Re: God's Omnicience & Omnipotence William J. Brown wrote: > If we are of G-d and we are "part of G-d", then if we change does G-d still > remain unchanged? Yes, G-d remains unchanged. Change requires a before and after, linear time, for G-d (to be specific, the Godhead) there is no linear time, just a continuous moment of being, eternity a one moment. Here's an anology. A river, within the river there is life (fish, microbes, algea, etc.), remove the water from the river and everything soon dies. For the universe, remove the vivifying force of the Creator imagine this as the binding energy that holds the nucleus of atoms together) and everything ceases to be, back to pre-big-bang, just G-d and nothing else, no light, no time, no matter. Though we would cease to exist physically along with the universe, we would remain within the G-dhead as we were pre-big-bang, as a distinct pattern of energy bound up with our Creator. Yet the Creator would remain unchanged, on that which he created would cease to exist. Here's another. You're asleep and you're dreaming, in your dream you create beings, characters, situations, things and locations, they are from your thoughts but seem distinct, having their own free-will it seems. Then you wake up and its all gone, for your conscious memory, it never happened, and your psyche is unchanged. Yet for the characters in the dream, it seems as if they changed, that is, things happened to them. For you, you were only dreaming, slept right through it and have no memory of it at all, therefore you remain unchanged. If you didn't dream that dream, or the fact that you did makes no difference. Now, don't ask me about dreams you remember, it doen't fit the analogy, remember that the question is about our changes, if they effect the Godhead, not about dreams. Once again, Underdog saves the day! - -- ??\ /?? ################################# ??| |?? Speed of lighting # ??| |?? Roar of Thunder # ??| |?? Fighting all who rob or plunder # ??\ /?? Underdog... Underdog! # ???????? ################################# ~~~~~~~~ <---- End Forwarded Message ----> ------------------------------ From: jabriel@peoples.net (Jabreil Hanafi) Date: Sun, 30 Jun 1996 00:52:02 -0500 Subject: Lets REALLY get personal I am sooooo sorry Habib but your note has seemed to bring out the juvenile at least in me. First of all regarding your little slam about my note re: I and Thou, being helpful, if it were a little more brief. What you can expect out of me as long as I am allowed to be on this server is to work with a brother or sister regarding soemthing un-revealed until a discovery is arrived at. That is called commitment as both a speaker and a listner. If you were in my living room from time to time we would lock horns. But I ask of you to remember the tension needed as one pulls on a cat gut to make a beautiful sound on a violin. Sometimes tension is needed. Sometimes grief requires being expressed. This after all is not the aniceptic climate of the seminary, yasheva, or school of Islam. Regarding your warning as to the notion that we really do not know one another, obviously that is true. Yet with this new media, though one can wear a mask, they can as well in the world outside of cyberspace. I do not want to just let this go. You have afforded this group a tremendous platform. You have worked now I think for close to two years of allowing these conversations to exist. My brother lets us re-examine the purpose if necessary. My true intent will be to participate, to listen, to take the next step with Tariqas what ere that might be. Habib thank you and thank you again for your work. But please let us also look at your role. The comments to James I think were off track, even if he has been playing a little schlimeel (you know, if I goof enough, will you stop loving me), your comment to me, well my friend by now you know me,for fifty two years I have tried to curtail the duration of my oration but I still remain verbose. If the conversation is moving along with the petty pace of mediocrity let not complain but rather lets stimulate it. Regarding my own accountability all I have to say is that through a morass of personal negativity which I have been battling with I have attempted to bring value to both indviduals and the group with my comments. I have often thought of carrying on conversations privately, and like many of I do e-mail to indviduals on Tariqas in this manner. Sometimes however exposiong one self to the group I think is important since we actually do anyway. Habib thank you again. I am in your service. And it is very clear that you are in the service of Allah. Jabriel - ----------------------------------------- Jabriel Hanafi Pivotal Point Dynamics ------------------------------ From: jabriel@peoples.net (Jabreil Hanafi) Date: Sun, 30 Jun 1996 00:53:14 -0500 Subject: Maroof's story Maroof I accidentally erased your message regarding purification, the adulterer and the Prophet. Maroof I need help with this, this type of story drives me crazy. I mean what does burying someone and stoning them to death have to do with purification, mercy, forgiveness, or compassion? Now one can speak to the idea of Moses and Khider. But these are metaphors I believe my friend. Unfortunately there are those of us who take them literally. Clearly if we close our hearts we are burying in a pit. And certainly we have all sat in the flames of purification. But do you see unless the story is explained properly it can look very tyrannical, very mean, very vulgar. And the Prophet, Peace be upon him was not vulgar. Rather there are the fanatics who have twisted through the Hadiths his actions which present the Prophet in a vulgar manner. These are my thoughts. I need a discussion regarding this. When Siydna Isa in the sermon on the mount said pluck out your eye if it offends you. Well my friend their have been fanatics who have done just that. We need to be very careful I think. And to be frank with you I do not know what we need to be so as to bring out the beauty of Islam rather than the threats and the harshness. I look forward to your reply. Jabriel - ----------------------------------------- Jabriel Hanafi Pivotal Point Dynamics ------------------------------ From: maarof@pc.jaring.my Date: Sun, 30 Jun 1996 14:47:11 +0800 Subject: Re: Maroof's story Salam to Jabreil and others in the list. On Sun, 30 Jun 1996, jabriel@peoples.net (Jabreil Hanafi) wrote: >Maroof I accidentally erased your message regarding purification, the >adulterer and the Prophet. Maroof I need help with this, this type of story >drives me crazy. I mean what does burying someone and stoning them to death >have to do with purification, mercy, forgiveness, or compassion? {...} Yes, it is a cruel story. Sometimes we have to face this cruel story to bring out the compassion in our hearts. The Prophet is full of compassion, but the Law/Rules is always harsh. Maaz and the woman came to the Prophet in public, in front other people, and admit their sins. The Prophet asked them to go away (he is too compassion to know the Law that will befall their fate). But they came back again, and again (knowing fully well and admit that they are willing to face the Law/obey God). So that's the sad part of the story. Maybe others will give other interpretation to the story. About the story of Moses and Khidr, and the man who plucked out his eyes at the time of Jesus, I agree, they are metaphors. I certainly don't want to pluck out my eyes just because I saw a beautiful woman. However I really like to meet someone like Khidr, who is very different from me. salam maarof ------------------------------ From: AMBER K WILLIAMS <102064.3531@CompuServe.COM> Date: 30 Jun 96 03:24:18 EDT Subject: Re: relationships Hi Bob, What I think is that if you use real clear communication like "when you said "X" I felt like "flaming" you and then dig deeper into your process that would be alot less offence and hurt and the message would get across about what and why the person was upset with a direct attack. However I had a discussion about this with my friend Tanzen of Tahoe and he said then it would not be real flaming as we know it. I think flaming has the intent to hurt the other person because one feels offended by something in the post and so strikes back and rationalizes it someway. I think of Jesus and of turning the other cheek. Notice Jesus does not say--just let someone keep hitting you in the same place but by turning the other cheek, maybe we get a more creative and less hurtful way to communicate with each other. I don't like to be flamed--but one does get tougher and can grow from it. So that is what I think. I have enjoyed the personal discussions--It comes from the heart rather than just talking about the heart as though none of us had personal lives or experiences-like we are blank intelluctual slates and all the messy personal stuff is done by and happens to other people. I believe that our personal experiences make us who we are and are important. That is my feeling on this--but I find it always helpful to discuss from a meta view what we are doing on this email. Gratitude to all for your words, Iram ------------------------------ From: abilkhayr@taconic.net Date: Sun, 30 Jun 96 08:28:43 PDT Subject: Re: God's Omnicience & Omnipotence shuja writing about the analogy of a dream says: "and your psyche is unchanged"... It seems to me that the psyche IS changed by having dreams, and in the analogy the question under discussion is whether our changes cause a change in God. So if the analogy holds, then God is changed by our lives, just as our psyche is changed by our dreams. How do our dreams affect our psyche? In one sense, they seem to change the energy; ideas coalesce in new patterns. From another view, they seem to bring hidden parts of ourselves to view. There are of course different types of dreams... There is a notion of being a continuity in change, such as a river: the water is always flowing, never the same, and yet it is the same river. Maybe it is that God changes from our point of view, but not from God's own point of view. - ------------------------------------- Abi'l-Khayr abilkhayr@taconic.net 06/30/96 08:28:43 - ------------------------------------- ------------------------------ From: Frank Gaude Date: Sun, 30 Jun 1996 06:18:15 -0700 Subject: Re: Threshold Society URL (was: Re: Melevi) Hello, everybody! Steve H Rose wrote: > > I believe the address is: > > http://www.webcom.com/threshld/ The Mevlevi Dervish Order sounds like the "turners" here on the West Coast, Likely the same group. From the above Web page: Our main objectives shall be: to promote the truth of Divine love and knowledge through direct, personal experience, to express and share the essential principles of spiritual development, to recognize and develop a true partnership of man and woman, to recognize the unity and interdependence of all human beings and all life, to aid in the practical realization of living in harmony with our fellow beings and the natural world. Our principal means shall be: to develop educational programs in spiritual psychology and practice, to sponsor intercultural retreats in various locations around the world, to publish books and periodicals that further the purposes mentioned above, and to facilitate the travel and exchange between cultures of people of wisdom and knowledge. "through direct, personal experience": now that is sufi! Rumi is a true sport! Thanks, Habib, for the corrected WWW address. peace, tanzen ------------------------------ From: an525@lafn.org (Ivan Ickovits) Date: Sun, 30 Jun 1996 07:00:59 -0700 Subject: RE: Personal and public discussions Hi Nur: There was an encoded tag-along to your message. Don't know if that was your intent or if some accident. Blessings Raqib > > >------ =_NextPart_000_01BB65DF.CBBE9D80 >Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable > >Thank you Habib for posting the statement re. private and public = >discussions.... you beat me to it. I also feel that some of these = >conversations may be moved into the private sphere. It has reached a = >point where, with the number of messages received, I simply delete some = >posts without reading them. There are undoubtedly many lurkers in this = >forum, and I feel it is important that the forum discussions not = >alienate anyone nor tend towards exclusivity via excessive personal = >chat. > >Blessings to all, Nur > > > > > >------ =_NextPart_000_01BB65DF.CBBE9D80 >Content-Type: application/ms-tnef >Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 > >eJ8+Ig8AAQaQCAAEAAAAAAABAAEAAQeQBgAIAAAA5AQAAAAAAADoAAENgAQAAgAAAAIAAgABBJAG >ACgBAAABAAAADAAAAAMAADADAAAACwAPDgAAAAACAf8PAQAAAEsAAAAAAAAAgSsfpL6jEBmdbgDd >AQ9UAgAAAAB0YXJpcWFzQGV1cm9wZS5zdGQuY29tAFNNVFAAdGFyaXFhc0BldXJvcGUuc3RkLmNv >bQAAHgACMAEAAAAFAAAAU01UUAAAAAAeAAMwAQAAABcAAAB0YXJpcWFzQGV1cm9wZS5zdGQuY29t >AAADABUMAQAAAAMA/g8GAAAAHgABMAEAAAAZAAAAJ3RhcmlxYXNAZXVyb3BlLnN0ZC5jb20nAAAA >AAIBCzABAAAAHAAAAFNNVFA6VEFSSVFBU0BFVVJPUEUuU1RELkNPTQADAAA5AAAAAAsAQDoBAAAA >AgH2DwEAAAAEAAAAAAAAA+o4AQiABwAYAAAASVBNLk1pY3Jvc29mdCBNYWlsLk5vdGUAMQgBBIAB >ACQAAABSRTogUGVyc29uYWwgYW5kIHB1YmxpYyBkaXNjdXNzaW9ucwD+DAEFgAMADgAAAMwHBgAd >ABEAGAAEAAYAKQEBIIADAA4AAADMBwYAHQARABAAOQAGAFYBAQmAAQAhAAAAQTQ2MDEwOUREMUQx >Q0YxMTk5REU0NDQ1NTM1NDAwMDAA6wYBA5AGAPQDAAASAAAACwAjAAAAAAADACYAAAAAAAsAKQAA >AAAAAwA2AAAAAABAADkAQHWqcRpmuwEeAHAAAQAAACQAAABSRTogUGVyc29uYWwgYW5kIHB1Ymxp >YyBkaXNjdXNzaW9ucwACAXEAAQAAABYAAAABu2YacaqdEGCl0dERz5neREVTVAAAAAAeAB4MAQAA >AAUAAABTTVRQAAAAAB4AHwwBAAAAEgAAAGdhbGVAc2luZXdhdmUuY29tAAAAAwAGEMMi418DAAcQ >mgEAAB4ACBABAAAAZQAAAFRIQU5LWU9VSEFCSUJGT1JQT1NUSU5HVEhFU1RBVEVNRU5UUkVQUklW >QVRFQU5EUFVCTElDRElTQ1VTU0lPTlNZT1VCRUFUTUVUT0lUSUFMU09GRUVMVEhBVFNPTUVPRlRI >RVMAAAAAAgEJEAEAAABwAgAAbAIAAKwDAABMWkZ1+vezXP8ACgEPAhUCqAXrAoMAUALyCQIAY2gK >wHNldDI3BgAGwwKDMgPFAgBwckJxEeJzdGVtAoMztwLkBxMCgzQSzBTINQNFdxM1B20CgH0KgAjP >Cdk78RnPMjU1AoAKgQ2xC2DgbmcxMDMUUAsKFWIdDAFjAEAX0BGAbmsgEnkIYCBIAaBpYiAzAhAF >wHBvE8ALgGcg0HRoZSATwGET0QnwWwVAGdAuH+AFEHYg0SAVAHBkH+B1AmBpYyBSZAQAY3UEEGkC >IHOmLiNxHwNiZSDQIAeAISBgbyBpdCFwIEnpIgBscySQZgngAyAgcGckISVAJFFvZiBiEbAg6QWg >bnYEkHMg0CMyJEDsYXkj8SRAbycgIjALgOckgSByIZZzcCCAIVIk8H8FQBGABCAZ0ADQIIAiMGHT >H+EooSB3KdIsK6AksPJoIGNudQbQBJAmUgeBzSdQZweRGdBjZSGwCYB3LAAlAACQbQtQJ/ANsGz/ >EcAgkSYiH/IEICwiCGAhMvZhIsAgRG0k0R6wKeEiAK0x0XUiIAhgYhPQZC7h5wOBJ/AKQHJrJzEo >kSBh/wQAH6IswCwAIhIlACVzJLD/JKAzsS7AGXEAcAVAJcMgcnc0UyK6LKBvBUAHQAiQbvsh1B8Q >biyRBbET0CIhJIDGdwsRBCBleGMKQACQ/nYksCfwOuArMDpxLWEuIb8f4CcxAiAHQCbgJdEuCoX9 >CoVCLzAjERzQBCAkgQdA9mwsACTgTghwC0YW8R41zwogPVYKiyKAMzYN8AtV/xRRC/ITUDgwBZAF >QDz8QQ8XQh9DLBjxAEewAwAQEAAAAAADABEQAAAAAEAABzAAT1tzGWa7AUAACDAAT1tzGWa7AR4A >PQABAAAABQAAAFJFOiAAAAAASBY= > >------ =_NextPart_000_01BB65DF.CBBE9D80-- > > > - -- <<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> ------------------------------ From: Well333@turbonet.com (Jacquie Weller) Date: Sun, 30 Jun 1996 07:06:43 +0100 Subject: Re: Mevlevi Thanks Tanzen, and Habib for the information about the Threshold, Turners, Mevlevi. Well I'm going out to coffee soon and to Read Hazrat Inayat Khan this morning. It is my usual morning thing, pour the coffee down, read, and meditate on what i read, and then come home to you and thee. Kaffea Lalla ------------------------------ From: Frank Gaude Date: Sun, 30 Jun 1996 07:31:09 -0700 Subject: Re: Apology Jacquie Weller wrote: > > Dear Steve Rose Habib, and others, I apologize for reacting to the post > about personal communication. It is difficult for me to see the other side > of this. > I have heard there are three sides to every story; your side, my side, and > the truth. I will not defend my position and just surrender my Anxiety, > misunderstandings, and opinions. Love and Peace, Kaffea lalla. Dear one, your beauty, your harmony, is beyond words! You are all sides of the coin of life... the "quality of infinity" is polished by you being you! tanzen ------------------------------ From: CWoodsong@aol.com Date: Sun, 30 Jun 1996 10:35:51 -0400 Subject: more Mad Bear (with apologies for possible overload! :) Mad Bear held up his hand and silently gestured with a nod of his head to call our attention to a little bird that had landed on a flower almost directly in front of us. It was a furry-looking thistlelike blossom, and the bird began picking at it vigorously, flicking it's head to fling bits of fuzz from its beak. "Look at that, " he whispered, leaning back and folding his arms over his large stomach. We watched. "Whatd'ya think he's doing?" he questioned us. "Picking at the flower." "He's doing his duty. Everybody has his part to play, and he's doing his part. He gets his reward -- gets helped himself in the process. But what is he helping out here?" "Spreading seeds." "Right. He wouldn't be doing that if there were no purpose in it. But what do you suppose he thinks? What's his incentive?" "What?" "Nectar. There's tasty nectar down there at the bottom, under all those seeds. He knows it's there, and he's attracted to it. It's all arranged, see? It's a really neat arrangement, and we just see a little part of the picture. I mean, what's that flower for in the first place? What's it's role? That flower's gettin' picked apart, and it'll be gone pretty quick. One day the plant's gone, but it's kind will be around. The ever-coming new generations! But for what? And who's behind all this?" "Devas?" "I got a treat in here for us, by the way. Green tomatoes! I slice 'em up, and I got a way to bread those things and fry 'em just right absolutely delicious! And not only that, but they taste good too..." >From /Mad Bear -- Spirit, Healing, and the Sacred in the Life of a Native American Medicine Man/, by Doug Boyd love to all! woodsong ------------------------------ End of tariqas-digest V1 #38 ****************************