What book are you reading at the moment?

honestly, i think some of the best books in existence are written for young adults. there's a rawness to the writing, like a skinned knee, that you don't often find in adult books.

i'm reading On My Honor by Marion Bauer. it's about a kid whose best friend accidentally drowns when the two swim alone in a dangerous river. the book describes in gut-aching detail the guilt and emotional nausea the surviving kid feels that this has happened, and how he must go about returning home and telling his parents and his friend's parents what has happened.

good, good writing.
 
I finally just finished reading The Kingdom of God Is within You, by Tolstoy. Tolstoy...why say it in 60 pages when you can use 368 :) .

Anyway, it was interesting, if too drawn out, and many passages really pack a punch. I think that Tolstoy has nailed the heart of Christ's message, it was radical 2000 years ago and it is radical when Tolstoy says it. Underscores how very hard it is to carry out Christ's message, or actually that of the Pentateuch, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Much of the book is a call for individuals to recognize the hypocisy of being a Christian yet supporting a government, and especially a government-run military, that uses force to uphold its authority. Yes, this is the book that inspired Gandhi. It is the ultimate call for universal non-violence rising up in a grass-roots fashion. One squirms throughout most of the book, and our rational mind, used to the comforts and security afforded by state and nation, rails against the message. He's calling for anarchy, our mind says, at least my mind did.

Take thought, oh, men, and have faith in the Gospel, in whose teaching is your happiness. If you do not take thought, you will perish just as the men perished, slain by Pilate, or crushed by the tower of Siloam; as millions of men have perished, slayers and slain, executing and executed, torturers and tortured alike, and as the man foolishly perished, who filled his granaries full and made ready for a long life and died the very night that he planned to begin his life. Take thought and have faith in the Gospel, Christ said eighteen hundred years ago, and he says it with even greater force now that the calamities foretold by him have come to pass, and the senselessness of our life has reached the furthest point of suffering and madness.

Nowadays, after so many centuries of fruitless efforts to make our life secure by the pagan organization of life, it must be evident to everyone that all efforts in that direction only introduce fresh dangers into personal and social life, and do not render it more secure in any way.

Whatever names we dignify ourselves with, whatever uniforms we wear, whatever priests we anoint ourselves before, however many millions we possess, however many guards are stationed along our road, however many policemen guard our wealth, however many so- called criminals, revolutionists, and anarchists we punish, whatever exploits we have performed, whatever states we may have founded, fortresses and towers we may have erected--from Babel to the Eiffel Tower--there are two inevitable conditions of life, confronting all of us, which destroy its whole meaning; (1) death, which may at any moment pounce upon each of us; and (2) the transitoriness of all our works, which so soon pass away and leave no trace. Whatever we may do--found companies, build palaces and monuments, write songs and poems--it is all not for long time. Soon it passes away, leaving no trace. And therefore, however we may conceal it from ourselves, we cannot help seeing that the significance of our life cannot lie in our personal fleshly existence, the prey of incurable suffering and inevitable death, nor in any social institution or organization. Whoever you may be who are reading these lines, think of your position and of your duties--not of your position as landowner, merchant, judge, emperor, president, minister, priest, soldier, which has been temporarily allotted you by men, and not of the imaginary duties laid on you by those positions, but of your real positions in eternity as a creature who at the will of Someone has been called out of unconsciousness after an eternity of non-existence to which you may return at any moment at his will. Think of your duties-- not your supposed duties as a landowner to your estate, as a merchant to your business, as emperor, minister, or official to the state, but of your real duties, the duties that follow from your real position as a being called into life and endowed with reason and love.
Are you doing what he demands of you who has sent you into the world, and to whom you will soon return? Are you doing what he wills? Are you doing his will, when as landowner or manufacturer you rob the poor of the fruits of their toil, basing your life on this plunder of the workers, or when, as judge or governor, you ill treat men, sentence them to execution, or when as soldiers you prepare for war, kill and plunder?

You will say that the world is so made that this is inevitable, and that you do not do this of your own free will, but because you are forced to do so. But can it be that you have such a strong aversion to men's sufferings, ill treatment, and murder, that you have such an intense need of love and co-operation with your fellows that you see clearly that only by the recognition of the equality of all, and by mutual services, can the greatest possible happiness be realized; that your head and your heart, the faith you profess, and even science itself tell you the same thing, and yet that in spite of it all you can be forced by some confused and complicated reasoning to act in direct opposition to all this; that as landowner or capitalist you are bound to base your whole life on the oppression of the people; that as emperor or president you are to command armies, that is, to be the head and commander of murderers; or that as government official you are forced to take from the poor their last pence for rich men to profit and share them among themselves; or that as judge or juryman you could be forced to sentence erring men to ill treatment and death because the truth was not revealed to them, or above all, for that is the basis of all the evil, that you could be forced to become a soldier, and renouncing your free will and your human sentiments, could undertake to kill anyone at the command of other men?

It cannot be.

Even if you are told that all this is necessary for the maintenance of the existing order of things, and that this social order with its pauperism, famines, prisons, gallows, armies, and wars is necessary to society; that still greater disasters would ensue if this organization were destroyed; all that is said only by those who profit by this organization, while those who suffer from it--and they are ten times as numerous--think and say quite the contrary. And at the bottom of your heart you know yourself that it is not true, that the existing organization has outlived its time, and must inevitably be reconstructed on new principles, and that consequently there is no obligation upon you to sacrifice your sentiments of humanity to support it.
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But, perhaps like Tolstoy (who also never gave up his title and lands), I found a bit of relief at the end.

I do not say that if you are a landowner you are bound to give up your lands immediately to the poor; if a capitalist or manufacturer, your money to your workpeople; or that if you are Tzar, minister, official, judge, or general, you are bound to renounce immediately the advantages of your position; or if a soldier, on whom all the system of violence is based, to refuse immediately to obey in spite of all the dangers of insubordination.

If you do so, you will be doing the best thing possible. But it may happen, and it is most likely, that you will not have the strength to do so. You have relations, a family, subordinates and superiors; you are under an influence so powerful that you cannot shake it off; but you can always recognize the truth and refuse to tell a lie about it. You need not declare that you are remaining a landowner, manufacturer, merchant, artist, or writer because it is useful to mankind; that you are governor, prosecutor, or tzar, not because it is agreeable to you, because you are used to it, but for the public good; that you continue to be a soldier, not from fear of punishment, but because you consider the army necessary to society. You can always avoid lying in this way to yourself and to others, and you ought to do so; because the one aim of your life ought to be to purify yourself from falsehood and to confess the truth. And you need only do that and your situation will change directly of itself.

There is one thing, and only one thing, in which it is granted to you to be free in life, all else being beyond your power: that is to recognize and profess the truth.

And yet simply from the fact that other men as misguided and as pitiful creatures as yourself have made you soldier, tzar, landowner, capitalist, priest, or general, you undertake to commit acts of violence obviously opposed to your reason and your heart, to base your existence on the misfortunes of others, and above all, instead of filling the one duty of your life, recognizing and professing the truth, you feign not to recognize it and disguise it from yourself and others.

And what are the conditions in which you are doing this? You who may die any instant, you sign sentences of death, you declare war, you take part in it, you judge, you punish, you plunder the working people, you live luxuriously in the midst of the poor, and teach weak men who have confidence in you that this must be so, that the duty of men is to do this, and yet it may happen at the moment when you are acting thus that a bacterium or a bull may attack you and you will fall and die, losing forever the chance of repairing the harm you have done to others, and above all to yourself, in uselessly wasting a life which has been given you only once in eternity, without having accomplished the only thing you ought to have done.

However commonplace and out of date it may seem to us, however confused we may be by hypocrisy and by the hypnotic suggestion which results from it, nothing can destroy the certainty of this simple and clearly defined truth. No external conditions can guarantee our life, which is attended with inevitable sufferings and infallibly terminated by death, and which consequently can have no significance except in the constant accomplishment of what is demanded by the Power which has placed us in life with a sole certain guide--the rational conscience.

That is why that Power cannot require of us what is irrational and impossible: the organization of our temporary external life, the life of society or of the state. That Power demands of us only what is reasonable, certain, and possible: to serve the kingdom of God, that is, to contribute to the establishment of the greatest possible union between all living beings--a union possible only in the truth; and to recognize and to profess the revealed truth, which is always in our power.

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matt. vi. 33.)

The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity by contributing to the establishment of the kingdom of God, which can only be done by the recognition and profession of the truth by every man.

"The kingdom of God cometh not with outward show; neither shall they say, Lo here! or, Lo there! for behold, the kingdom of God is within you." (Luke xvii. 20, 21.)

THE END.
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lunamoth
 
More Tolstoyan books!

I think Leo Tolstoy's books still resonate with us today and it was good to hear from Lunamoth that he is still pricking peoples' consciences...and packing more than a punch or two.

I've also been reading Tolstoy's "The Law of Love and the Law of Violence" which essentially you can tell from it's title extoll's the principle that

"Believing in the need to oppose evil by violence is merely to provide justification for our habitual vices - of vengeance, cupidity, envy, ambition, pride, cowardice and spite..."

Tolstoy's words are like moral and spiritual bombshells that explode the edifice of the evils of the immoral state and expose it's weaknesses!

Another book I'm reading is the "Gospel in Brief" where Tolstoy divides the life of Christ into sections of the Lord's Prayer. Here he composes a life of Christ that is free from the distortions of Church dogma and ritual.

Late in life, Tolstoy worked long hours in the fields with the peasant workers.

In 1881 he gave up his property to his wife and children:

"...Having children who were counting on my inheriting my possessions upon my death ... in 1881 I gave my heirs leave to dispose of my property as if I were dead. In this way I freed myself of all property ownership."

The Russian Orthodox Church excommunicated him in 1901 for his views.

He began corresponding with Baha'is and wrote: "I am very interested in the teachingsof Bahaism." A recent book entitled "Leo Tolstoy and the Baha'i Faith" was written by Luigi Stendardo describing Tolstoy's interest.

- Art

:)
 
Re: More Tolstoyan books!

arthra said:
He began corresponding with Baha'is and wrote: "I am very interested in the teachingsof Bahaism." A recent book entitled "Leo Tolstoy and the Baha'i Faith" was written by Luigi Stendardo describing Tolstoy's interest.

- Art

:)
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Hi Art,

This is very interesting as I had heard of a connection between Tolstoy and Baha'i before, although no details. Actually, as I read TKOGIWY it didn't seem to me that Tolstoy would have agreed with some of the Baha'i principles. I'll have to find a copy of that book you mention. :)

peace,
lunamoth
 
Luna. interesting book there, I haven't read it but skimmed what you put up. I think people overlook or deny what Jesus really taught. Jesus was a radical, that is why they killed him. He went against almost every grain there was for the betterment of humanity. It is ironic that in spite of what he did and said man has gone and done the opposite. Jesus did not like organized religion and warned against it. Repeatedly he confronted the Pharisees and Saducees of their adherence to ritual and doctrinal rigidity and overlooking the kingdom of God within. But yet in spite of man's attempts to follow him we set the whole thing up all over again. Jesus' message was simple if broken down. Give to the poor, don'rt cling to material things, forgive, love one another, repent of your sins or transgressions, do God's will and obey the commandments. That was it.

I think it just shows our humanity, we are not fully capable of doing these things to perfection, we are inclined to hold grudges, covet, be selfish etc. We can always strive for perfection and by doing what Jesus said we have a shot at it. I think even with communism, the ideal was good but proved to fail because man corrupted that system also. You still had the haves and the have nots.
 
Hi all!

I am re-reading "Church History, in plain language" by Bruce L. Shelley, as well as a Sci-Fi book Titled "All these Earths", by F. M. Bisby. What does one have to do with the other? nothing, and perhaps everything ;)

The Church History was given to me by a very special friend (who is Jewish), but takes particular heart in looking after my well being. :D

Told me he didn't want me to lose sight of who I am, else he'd have no one to argue with...:p

v/r

Q
 
I read The Beast Master by Andre Norton (another loaner from my friends) and I'm reading Mercedes Lackey's Gates of Sleep along with the stuff for the students who need their books read onto tape (I was reading a textbook on juvenile justice Tuesday.)

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine
 
sorry I've heard of the series but never read it but it sounds like Terry Pratchett style maybe you should invest in one of his books.

Has anyone heard of an author called Lian Hearn?
 
I'm reading an interesting book right now called "Evolution, Creationism, and Other Modern Myths: A Critical Inquiry" by Vine Deloria, Jr. Deloria seems to believe that neither theory is correct, and that in fact they are really the same theory, with the only difference that the one uses secular, scientific language while the other uses sacred, religious language. It isn't a distinction that I get, but it makes for interesting reading. He does advocate going back to catastrophism, however. I'm not sure yet where he's going with this, as I'm only about a hundred pages into the book so far.

Oh, and on the fiction side, I'm reading "The Cloud Atlas".
 
I finally picked up How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill and plan to crack the binding on it tonight. :D

lunamoth
 
Just finished Loves Music, Loves to Dance by Mary Higgins Clark and The Killing Game by Iris Johansen (trying to wean myself off of a seven or eight tomes a week habit [and barely succeeding].)

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine
 
lunamoth said:
I finally picked up How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill and plan to crack the binding on it tonight. :D

lunamoth
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May the wind be always at your back...
 
Just finished "A Druid's Herbal for the Sacred Earth Year"

Now in the middle of "Liberating the Gospels" (for personal interest) and "A New Plateau" (for research)

Thinking about picking up "Sense and Sensibility" again, just for a lighthearted bit of fun between the heavy stuff.
 
I just finished reading Wrapped in a Holy Flame: Teachings and Tales of the Holy Masters by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, and I also read a quickie book of hasidic hanhagot, instructional teachings, called God in All Moments. Oh, and I returned to Gershon Hundert's collection of essential texts on hasidism to read something by Gershom Scholem on Devekut, or attachment, as expressed in hasidism, from a modern critical perspective. Now I'm returning to older books I never finished like one on reading midrash, one on Nachman of Bratslav's stories, and some other stuff.

Rabbi Schachter's book I thought was awesome. He was able to speak about the hasidic masters by comparing to other religious figures and other concepts like St John of the Cross and dukkha, and there was something somewhat satisfying seeing him use his experience with peyote to explain one of the Hebrew words sometimes translated as fear that's really more of an overwhelming anxiety. And he was able to put it all into a very modern perspective, relating it to how an older concept could possibly be understood in current times.

The book of hanhagot was awesome too. Short one-page blurbs re-formatted as poetry accompanied by explanatory notes. Something I would want to return to, but in this case I won't be. Maybe I'll get myself a copy.

Gershom Scholem's essay was awesome. He traced the meaning of devekut both before hasidism and how it changed somewhat within hasidism. I'm not good at being critical of books, or maybe I only read what I want to read. Devekut is the idea of attaching or cleaving oneself to God, basically, and while Scholem argues that when Dov Ber of Mezeritz refers to it at its higher level (at another level it is an awareness of God's omnipresence in every moment) as union it could not have possibly meant such a thing in that time and place, in other cultures, or in other places, it may have just been seen as union with the Divine at that level.

Dauer
 
hmmm... what im reading has a long subtitle and cant remember it either at the moment. The title of the book is (transliterating here so forgive me): "Jaadoo ke haqeeqat" by Ghazi Uzair Mubaarakpuri. Its available from Dar-us-salaam. anyway, it means 'the reality of magic'. This is a topic i wanted to read about for a long time but this was a confused thing for many regular people and so much fraud is involved that one doesnt know where to even start thinking about the topic.Finally, one day my brother came home with this book.. its 384 pages.. he read it and said its a blast if you want to get the concept of the thing right. Its a 'for dummies' type book i guess. So, ive started reading it.. on page 164 at the moment. Its clearing up some things.... currently its dealing with the background and what is used and how much of it is just for show and is a complete fraud but, yes, where it actually does do damage and how it is done and there is a short section on the origin of the word 'magic' even. that was interesting. It has talked about how it was used in the past by other civilizations. One thing interesting i came across... there was a mention of a guy in old times who had his head sawed from his body and then would put it back on and be all well. obviously this amazed everyone... this reminds me of that trick i saw David copperfield do in which he sawed his body in half at the waistline and then wiggled his feet and then put his humpty dumpty self back together again. There are 'other' beings involved in actual magic tricks as i understand it. They influence the mind of those watching... thats how the 'illusion' takes place... im drawing an analogy here from what ive read,... the writer didnt mention copperfield and im somewhat reluctant to explain it from what ive read so far as im still in the middle of it and since so many ppl saw it... and probably millions on thier TV screens .. . he might have used something else to effect this particular illusion. The one mentioned in the book is one guy a millenium ago doing this in front of a crowd. There the idea works easily. Not so sure about Copperfield's illusion. Maybe when i get to the end of the book.. i might understand what ive been seeing.
 
Aces High (book II) and Jokers Wild (book III) edited by George R.R. Martin (they are from the Wild Cards series.) The couple who loans me books loaned them to me (I'll probably be able to return them tomorrow.)

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine
 
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