Done

Flocks

For years I've held the idea of complexity in nature arising from very simple rules in my mind and, I suppose, my heart. I am often in awe when I watch a flock of pidgeons flying outside my bedroom.

This is particularly striking as I find the beasts themselves fairly objectionable. But in a flock in flight they are beautiful.

God in the News

There are a dizzying number of stories in the press about God this week. What with it being holy week for the Christians and the approach to Passover for the Jews it's hardly surprising.

These stories by the nature of the News media bring us 'new' information about God--a newly discovered gospel according to Judas, an op-ed piece in Sunday's NY Times noting that God and politics are by their natures mutually exclusive, and an article from Salon.com discussing all this madness surrounding "The Da Vinci Code."

In honor of Jesus, the last first. The Salon article exposes a lot of the hokum surrounding Brown's Code and reveals that the book upon which it was 'inspired'--Michael Baigent's "The Jesus Papers: Exposing the Greatest Cover-Up in History--is even worse. He suggests reading James Tabor's "The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth of Christianity" as having a stronger tether to the earth. Tabor speaks of the creation of Christianity in the very earliest years of the Church as a struggle between Paul, whose religion is what we now call Christian, and that put forth by Jesus's family headed by his brother James, which has faded away.

I would love to know what was lost.

Keeping Your Evil

The Bhagavad Gita contains one of the most illuminating ideas I've ever found. It states that the Creation--all the physical and metaphysical worlds--comprise three characteristics called Gunas: Satwa, Rajas and Tamas. Satwa is that which conducts consciousness, Rajas that which reflects consciousness and Tamas, which absorbs it. These characteristics are always present and always interacting with each other. Strengthen one and the others will reassert themselves. I've found this formulation descriptive of my life's experience.

Springtime perturbs the balance.

What does this have to do with evil?

Stay tuned ...