OK, well after two days of orientation at seminary I have to admit I'm pretty exited about my schedule and this upcoming insanity. My big problem at present is that I'm torn between this Life and Teaching of Buddha course at the Institute for Buddhist Studies taught by this awesome old monk Seelawimala, and this RAST-2332-01 (12091) DEATH/JUDGEMENT/HEAVEN/HELL class with this awesome Dominican professor who also teaches way cool film classes, and also fills one of the requirements I need. They are both at the same time. I'll inform you which I choose and of the other one's I'm taking, looks like 12 hours is the normal course load here, but I may just go nuts and take 15 since it looks like it's the same price.
Know what BS stands for in the course schedule at seminary? Here's a hint, there are a whole lotta BS classes. Like BS 1025, Patrisic greek, or BS 1128, biblical Hebrew, or how bout BS-2740-01 (13382) SWEDENBORGIAN EXEGESIS. BS, can you guess?
much love,
Goose Wrangler
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Off to see the wizard
Well today I go to orientation at the Pacific School of Religion at the Graduate Theological Union to begin my 3 year master of divinity program, embarking on a subversive journey that God only knows where will lead. I woke up agitated, already anticipating being at intellectual and spiritual war with my contemporaries. Probably the wrong attitude to begin with for a guy who started the Church of the Open Mind. But I woke up thinking about how religion is so often sacrilege.
If God is perfect and all loving, would he send Satan to test Job? Thinking about this confused and lost old book called the Bible that is followed by so many confused and lost people, I felt lost myself. My school is a hub of Gay and Lesbian Christianity, which itself doesn't make much sense, because even the New Testament has plenty declaring homosexuality somehow morally wrong. I don't believe that to be true, as I'm of the it is what it is opinion; but I do believe in commitment, love, and ideals of purity and truth, (falling short plenty myself to be sure), but if you are attracted to the same sex, then great, God loves you just the same, but anyway, I digress.
To say that God sent Satan is to make Satan part of God, which He is, but only so much as we are part of God, because we Created Satan, not God. We fell from the Garden, we wrote the story, not God. We, creatures of infinite potentiality, got lost, we chose the low road. God is ever present, ever loving, ever true and universal. We are the ones who have limited God, not the other way around. We defined God, like perfect little egotistical imbeciles, when we had even begun by saying that God created everything, including us mortals. But how can mortal define infinite?
They assigned me a young adviser, a professor of art and religion who has only been at the school since the fall. How exactly is she going to advise me through an MDIV program if she has never even been through one? My ego is insulted, but I'm just another mortal, what do I know? How quickly I forget my IT'S GOING TO BE OK rule.
Well, here I go, entering the Matrix. Let's see if I can break it, and crush these limited belief systems and help us escape from all this delusion (of course it's all just in my mind), with my perfect imperfection, street found St. Francis pendant, my two and a half months resistance to a strong taste for wine and herb, my dreams and love for the Jew, my mad love for humanity, and all my own insanity. The lunatic on parade. Welcome to Mindhead, it's a brand new show.
lots of love and aloha,
Goose Wrangler
If God is perfect and all loving, would he send Satan to test Job? Thinking about this confused and lost old book called the Bible that is followed by so many confused and lost people, I felt lost myself. My school is a hub of Gay and Lesbian Christianity, which itself doesn't make much sense, because even the New Testament has plenty declaring homosexuality somehow morally wrong. I don't believe that to be true, as I'm of the it is what it is opinion; but I do believe in commitment, love, and ideals of purity and truth, (falling short plenty myself to be sure), but if you are attracted to the same sex, then great, God loves you just the same, but anyway, I digress.
To say that God sent Satan is to make Satan part of God, which He is, but only so much as we are part of God, because we Created Satan, not God. We fell from the Garden, we wrote the story, not God. We, creatures of infinite potentiality, got lost, we chose the low road. God is ever present, ever loving, ever true and universal. We are the ones who have limited God, not the other way around. We defined God, like perfect little egotistical imbeciles, when we had even begun by saying that God created everything, including us mortals. But how can mortal define infinite?
They assigned me a young adviser, a professor of art and religion who has only been at the school since the fall. How exactly is she going to advise me through an MDIV program if she has never even been through one? My ego is insulted, but I'm just another mortal, what do I know? How quickly I forget my IT'S GOING TO BE OK rule.
Well, here I go, entering the Matrix. Let's see if I can break it, and crush these limited belief systems and help us escape from all this delusion (of course it's all just in my mind), with my perfect imperfection, street found St. Francis pendant, my two and a half months resistance to a strong taste for wine and herb, my dreams and love for the Jew, my mad love for humanity, and all my own insanity. The lunatic on parade. Welcome to Mindhead, it's a brand new show.
lots of love and aloha,
Goose Wrangler
Monday, January 18, 2010
If God Could Talk.
Guys listen I’m sorry. Sometimes it seems like I’ve forgotten about you, but I haven’t. Listen, it’s hard to be everywhere at once. Try to imagine what my job is like, OK. Like try juggling 7 billion lost angels run amok on earth. I mean, it’s not easy. Let me introduce myself. This is I Am. When I introduced myself in Exodus, I was talking to Moses, at the time talking to the Jews. So I was like yea, I’m the God of Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac. The thing is, and this is why it seems like I forget about you sometimes. So the thing is, well, I’m actually everybodys God. I hate to burst any bubbles. But come on. Seriously. I gave you guys Buddha, Jesus, Mohamed, Bob Marley, Krishnamurti. What do you want? Some folk see me as twos and threes, some conceive me as nothing, some even worship me as the devil, but they’re really just worshipping themselves. Truth be told, I’m all over the place. I’m Nothing. Like emptiness. So forgive me if I’m not around all the time to save the day. I’m nowhere. But if you look, you will also find that I am now here. I’m everywhere. But the big decisions are always left up to Mom.
Here are a few updates:
Stop Killing each other! (Jesus Christ, how many times do I have to say this?)
Find the Light within you. Say a prayer. Thank G-d you’re alive.
And I have to get a little serious here. Because it really bums me out when my children don’t play nicely with each other.
I want to talk about Israel, and this idea of a chosen people. Seems to me that somewhere along the line somebody missed the point, and this topic speaks to the broader issue of a divine humanity dividing themselves, and falling into ignorance. This just makes me crazy. In the first place, Israel means “he who wrestles with God.” Jacob was given the name Israel by an “angel of God” who he wrestled with in the night. Why was he wrestling with an angel, you might ask. Well God only knows, and I’m coming up blank at the moment. According to the book, the angel told Jacob to let him go because it was getting to be daytime. Jacob said he wouldn’t let him go till he got his blessing, so the angel gave him his blessing and the name. Why you want a name and a blessing of an angel who is afraid of daylight is beyond me, and Jesus Christ, I’m God. So get real! Now seriously. It’s over now.
I Am loves Jews, but it’s time you started marrying and uniting with your Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Atheist, Agnostic, and Rastafarian brothers and sisters, because you seem to be missing the point. The tribe of Israel is the tribe of Mankind. All people are your brothers and sisters, may all these limited beliefs be damned! All people are the children of God. And you all seem to wrestle with God. Nobody is perfect. Let it go. You guys got the spot at the appropriate time, after the Egyptian affair, and that’s all she wrote. Now share it with your neighbors, and share yourselves. Everyone wants to be the chosen people, and telling them that you are chosen while they are not has not exactly served your tribe well, people pick on the one they are jealous of. But listen ya’ll, they have nothing to be jealous of, I love them just as much as I love you, because they are all your brothers and sisters, they are you, and you are them. This goes for Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Zoroastrians and the rest, none of you are better than anyone else. You are all just trying to articulate the same thing. There is ONE TRUTH, and it is infinite, just like my love for all of you. But you are finite, in these human bodies at least, so you cannot articulate infinite truth, try as you might. So easy does it. Take it easy on yourselves, and on each other. Love each other.
You are all forgiven. The light of God is in your heart. There is only one tribe now. Mankind. All people are my children. I have no name. I AM each one of you. Within you, is Everything and Nothing. I AM BOTH.
The Tanakh is Old News. It’s out of date. As are most all of your books. It’s time for the literature of the ONE. You are all one, and you have figured it out for yourselves with your own science, limited as it is. The people of Israel are my chosen people, and so is everybody else. Israel is not a state on a map. Israel is a state of mind. You are all Israel, and you don’t have to keep wrestling. Just believe. You can’t separate the holy land from the holy land. The whole planet is holy. Get a new name. And if you are going to let an angel name you, let it be an angel who is not afraid of the light. Names are unimportant anyway. The infinite cannot be fully articulated by the finite. Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Rastas and the rest, you are all one. You are all on the same boat. Open your eyes.
Here are a few updates:
Stop Killing each other! (Jesus Christ, how many times do I have to say this?)
Find the Light within you. Say a prayer. Thank G-d you’re alive.
And I have to get a little serious here. Because it really bums me out when my children don’t play nicely with each other.
I want to talk about Israel, and this idea of a chosen people. Seems to me that somewhere along the line somebody missed the point, and this topic speaks to the broader issue of a divine humanity dividing themselves, and falling into ignorance. This just makes me crazy. In the first place, Israel means “he who wrestles with God.” Jacob was given the name Israel by an “angel of God” who he wrestled with in the night. Why was he wrestling with an angel, you might ask. Well God only knows, and I’m coming up blank at the moment. According to the book, the angel told Jacob to let him go because it was getting to be daytime. Jacob said he wouldn’t let him go till he got his blessing, so the angel gave him his blessing and the name. Why you want a name and a blessing of an angel who is afraid of daylight is beyond me, and Jesus Christ, I’m God. So get real! Now seriously. It’s over now.
I Am loves Jews, but it’s time you started marrying and uniting with your Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Atheist, Agnostic, and Rastafarian brothers and sisters, because you seem to be missing the point. The tribe of Israel is the tribe of Mankind. All people are your brothers and sisters, may all these limited beliefs be damned! All people are the children of God. And you all seem to wrestle with God. Nobody is perfect. Let it go. You guys got the spot at the appropriate time, after the Egyptian affair, and that’s all she wrote. Now share it with your neighbors, and share yourselves. Everyone wants to be the chosen people, and telling them that you are chosen while they are not has not exactly served your tribe well, people pick on the one they are jealous of. But listen ya’ll, they have nothing to be jealous of, I love them just as much as I love you, because they are all your brothers and sisters, they are you, and you are them. This goes for Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Zoroastrians and the rest, none of you are better than anyone else. You are all just trying to articulate the same thing. There is ONE TRUTH, and it is infinite, just like my love for all of you. But you are finite, in these human bodies at least, so you cannot articulate infinite truth, try as you might. So easy does it. Take it easy on yourselves, and on each other. Love each other.
You are all forgiven. The light of God is in your heart. There is only one tribe now. Mankind. All people are my children. I have no name. I AM each one of you. Within you, is Everything and Nothing. I AM BOTH.
The Tanakh is Old News. It’s out of date. As are most all of your books. It’s time for the literature of the ONE. You are all one, and you have figured it out for yourselves with your own science, limited as it is. The people of Israel are my chosen people, and so is everybody else. Israel is not a state on a map. Israel is a state of mind. You are all Israel, and you don’t have to keep wrestling. Just believe. You can’t separate the holy land from the holy land. The whole planet is holy. Get a new name. And if you are going to let an angel name you, let it be an angel who is not afraid of the light. Names are unimportant anyway. The infinite cannot be fully articulated by the finite. Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Rastas and the rest, you are all one. You are all on the same boat. Open your eyes.
Friday, January 08, 2010
soft landings
Antonio Banderas writing poetry in the sun
Curled black hair and wires coming out his ears
This was the end of poetic art
Singing reggae music.
The fool had found his stump
Walked up and crunched in
On a blind wagon train
Looking at an orange parking cone on top of a mobile home
It was a miracle.
He breathed in a yellow bicycle helmet and sat alone
A live tree reached out to him
Leafless and kind
Alien lampposts watched over him
And little purple flowers said hello from January California ground
There really is nothing wrong
Banderas thought
It's not my job to save the world.
I'll just stare into this computer screen
And exhale the universe
Curled black hair and wires coming out his ears
This was the end of poetic art
Singing reggae music.
The fool had found his stump
Walked up and crunched in
On a blind wagon train
Looking at an orange parking cone on top of a mobile home
It was a miracle.
He breathed in a yellow bicycle helmet and sat alone
A live tree reached out to him
Leafless and kind
Alien lampposts watched over him
And little purple flowers said hello from January California ground
There really is nothing wrong
Banderas thought
It's not my job to save the world.
I'll just stare into this computer screen
And exhale the universe
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