Links to other sites on the Web
For my students:
Some of my favorite quotes
Words...
The power of the spoken word
The power of the written word
Can move mountains;
Can calm the seas.
Transform tyrants
And deliver us the keys
to set the captive free
Centered on Truth and Truest Love,
Backed by deeds of virtue...
When words and deeds are one,
Heaven is unleashed.
Someone encourages us:
"The Pen is Mightier than the Sword."
--Lytton ?
Then you, who are Called...
you, the fruit of your ancestry,
the stewards of the fortune of this generation...
take up arms against a sea of troubles and end them:
through words of Life.
Never be without pen and paper.
For when shall the annointing fall upon you
no one knows.
Be prepared
What are words of Life?
Read:
We have somehow accustomed ourselves to the belief that
art is independent of the purity of private life.
I can say with all the experience at my command that
nothing could be more untrue. As I am nearing the end of my earthly life
I can say that purity of life is the highest and truest art.
The art of producing good music from a cultivated voice can be achieved by many,
but the art of producing that music from the harmony of a pure life
is achieved very rarely
-- Mahatma Gandhi; Harijan, February 19, 1938 (All Men are Brothers, p. 164)
From whence cometh purity?
Read:
And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and
a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;
And shall make him of quick understanding
in the fear of the LORD: and
he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes,
neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:
But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and
reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and
he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and
with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and
faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and
the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and
the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and
a little child shall lead them.
And the cow and the bear shall feed;
their young ones shall lie down together: and
the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and
the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain:
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD,
as the waters cover the sea.
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse,
which shall stand for an ensign of the people;
to it shall the Gentiles seek:
and his rest shall be glorious.
--Isaiah 11th Chapter
But how shall this all come to be, except through Call and Response?
Except that Heaven Calls and "I" Respond. We have in our very design:
a response-abiliy. We can respond.
Who is the "man of calling," but one who will answer the call of Heaven?
Are you not the Man, the Wo-Man of Calling?
The Man of Calling has no heart of his own.
he makes the people's heart his own.
'To the good I am good;
to the non-good I am also good,
for Life is goodness.
To the faithful I am faithful;
to the unfaithful I am also faithful,
for Life is faithfulness.'
The Man of Calling lives very quietly in the world.
People look for him and listen out for him with surprise,
and the Man of Calling accepts them all as his children.
--Lao Tzu; The Tao Te Ching -- Passage 49
And the world is transformed about him/her/them.
When people are educated the distinction of classes disappears
--Confucius
The Superior Man... an aristocracy of noble character, not noble birth.
--Confucius
The kindness of the family becomes the kindness of the state and society
--Confucius
The fulfillment of the individual, leads to the fulfillment of the couple,
to the fulfillment of the family, society, nation, world, Cosmos, and ultimately
to the fulfillment of The Heart of All-in-All and
to the fulfillment of The Original Purpose of Creation:
Love... True, Loving Joy and Happiness.
Human beings fell to a level of love centering on pride and on the self.
That is why only when we have God's original love can we go forward.
Your desire to reach the perfection of yourself
must be stronger than the heart of a young man and woman dating;
only then can you go up to the perfection level.
Unless your love for God digests self-centered love, you cannot go up.
If your love for God does not
surpass the love of a worldly husband and wife,
parents and children, and patriots for the nation,
how can you become the sons and daughters of God?
In order to become the true sons and daughters of God,
first of all, God, the spirit world, and your descendants on the earth
all must praise you.
--Sun Myung Moon -- Blessing and Ideal Family;
"In Order to be Born Again"
The Call is sometimes astounding, and sometimes subtle;
Sometimes compelling and sometimes... repelling, repulsive.
And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight,
why the bush is not burnt. And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see,
God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses.
And he said, Here am I. -- Exodus 3rd Chapter
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and
who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. -- Isaiah 6:8
Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it;
for their wickedness is come up before me. But Jonah rose up to flee
unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and
he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and
went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish
from the presence of the LORD. -- Jonah 1:1-3
Even Shakyamuni (Siddhartha, The Sage of the Shakya Clan),
upon attaining enlightenment (Buddhahood), despaired of teaching a dull
humanity the profundity of what he had found. What caused him to change his
mind and preach? Elevated beings, we are told, (particularly Brahma)
from the spiritual world, reminded him of the efforts of buddhas before him.
-- Niwano's Shakyamuni Buddha
Abraham was not a Jew, nor yet a Christian;
but he was an upright man who had surrendered (to God), and
he was not of the idolaters.
Lo! those of mankind who have the best claim to Abraham
are those who followed him, and
this Prophet and those who believe (with him); and
God is the Protecting Friend of the believers.
-- Qur'an Surrah III, 67-78 -- The Family of Imran
For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose.
-- Romans 8:28
Called,
To do a work;
Let us be wise as serpents,
harmless as doves.
With your spirit settled,
accumulate practice day by day, hour by hour.
Polish the two-fold spirit "heart" and "mind," and
sharpen the two-fold gaze "perception" and "sight."
When your spirit is not in the least clouded,
when the clouds of bewilderment clear away,
there is the true void.
Until you realize the true Way,
whether in Buddhism or in common sense,
you may think that things are correct and in order.
However, if we look at things objectively,
from the viewpoint of laws of the world,
we see various doctrines departing from the true Way.
Know well this spirit; and--with 'forthrightness' as the foundation
and 'the true spirit' as the Way--enact strategy broadly,
correctly and openly.
Then you will come to think of things in a wide sense and,
taking the void as the Way, you will see the Way as void.
In the void is virtue, and no evil.
Wisdom has existence, principle has existence, the Way has existence,
spirit is nothingness.
Twelfth day of the fifth month, second year of Shoho (1645)
--Miyamoto Musashi Book of Five Rings
Reconciled one to another,
The Scholar, the Samurai,
and the Man of Calling.
In harmony, in unity, we are
The center of the New Heaven and the New Earth.
Never be without pen and paper.
For when shall the annointing fall upon you
no one knows.
A scholar without a pen is like a samurai without a sword
--Carlton Johnson (Social Anthro -- KMLA 1998)
Be prepared.
Links to other sites on the Web
My Favorite Gandhi
Blessing and Ideal Family
True Romantic Love
Isaiah 11
In Search of the Heart of Lao Tzu
Surprised by a calling
© 2000 carltonj@hotmail.com