Jack
I Listen.

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Poetry

It’s easy to forget that we have perfection in our hands when times are rough. Richard Matheson spent a lifetime writing horror and dark fantasy, to end up his masterwork as one of the greatest love stories ever told. Why did it take so long? Love is so hard to express, even for the most sensitive of us. Passion is so much easier. This is why we are barraged by “love stories” that are nothing more than sex driven fantasies. In the rare instance that passion and love meet, we find something truly great. Something that transcends words. The love story is now even harder to tell, and it can become downright scary.

As writers, when we find this kind of extraordinary relationship, our first instinct is to run. We want to run because for the first time in our lives we have no words to describe what is happening to us. It’s confusing, we stumble, we fall. We falter. You see, in running, we can understand, in words. The only way we really understand anything.

With love comes fear, but hopefully passion and love together can offset our natural fear of loss.

In Matheson’s What Dreams May Come, the main character has to come face to face with not only his greatest fear, but also the greatest fear of the majority of mankind. Is that what makes it so compelling? It is definitely what makes it ring so true in the hearts of so many.

By using this novel, I’ve skirted myself(safely around), for now, the subject of my own feelings and fears. Eventually I’ll face them down, as Matheson, and so many others have, finding the strength in their constant growth.

Jack.
I Listen.

Fragments
#5
What Dreams May Come

We stood in the forest, as the rain fell in sheets. Odin grabbed me firmly by the arm. “They still do not live by the basics! Why do you continue to teach further?”

“All-Father, I cannot make the people listen. I can only give them the light to see the way. I am but a torch in the darkness. I cannot be more.”

“You can be more, and you are more! You have sacrificed yourself on Yggdrasil! Pluck an eye, and give it to my Ravens, and we are one. But I understand. There is a reason the people do not listen. You are trying to break at that core. I see. Let us hope you can. Let us hope together that Fenrir does not have to be raised.”

Odin turned and walked away fro me, in the pouring rain.

**

So, today we are going to take ideology a little further. We are going to talk about the nature of ideology itself. You see, much like the shamanic ideas I talked about in the Developmental Theology series, ideology varies from person to person. It is individual. You decide what is real and what is not. You decide what can happen and what cannot. This makes things very interesting.

Having read that, you may wonder why I would even try to teach a class on ideology, if it is something that each person decides on their own. Well, that reason would be to help you fully develop an ideology that is still individual, but is in a healthy agreement with what we need as a functional world. I don’t think there are many people that could look at our world as a whole, and call it functional, or healthy. We have to change things. And we have to do it fast.

How can we change the world? By changing ourselves. If we become more healthy and responsible people, the world gains. So, to do that, we must first try to understand the mind. The hardest thing man has ever faced. And the way we are going to do that is by learning about ideas, and how to develop them into a working ideology.

We’ve talked about examining our thoughts and actions. We’ve seen that even Saint Augustine believed that if rational thought contradicted scripture, it was normal and reasonable. It is important to pay attention to our thoughts and actions and examine the why. It is also important to not be tied down by books or teachings.

Now we have talked about the importance of the individual, even on the global level.

Remember, each man must find his own path.

Jack.
I Listen.

Basic Ideology 101

Battle #3
Odin Appears and Individuality is Examined.

“It not infrequently happens that something about the earth, about the sky, about other elements of this world, about the motion and rotation or even the magnitude and distances of the stars, about definite eclipses of the sun and moon, about the passage of years and seasons, about the nature of animals, of fruits, of stones, and of other such things, may be known with the greatest certainty by reasoning or by experience, even by one who is not a Christian. It is too disgraceful and ruinous, though, and greatly to be avoided, that he [the non-Christian] should hear a Christian speaking so idiotically on these matters, and as if in accord with Christian writings, that he might say that he could scarcely keep from laughing when he saw how totally in error they are. In view of this and in keeping it in mind constantly while dealing with the book of Genesis, I have, insofar as I was able, explained in detail and set forth for consideration the meanings of obscure passages, taking care not to affirm rashly some one meaning to the prejudice of another and perhaps better explanation.”

– Saint Augustine of Hippo: The Literal Interpretation of Genesis 1:19–20, Chapt. 19 [AD 408]

Saint Augustine’s ideas on the nature of truth and science are essential to modern understanding and have influenced many great teachers and philosophers of all ilks.

-Jack
I Listen.
I do that Travel thing sometimes, too.

Basic Ideology 101

Lesson #2
Saint Augustine and the Reconciliation of Science and Scripture

Let’s break away these walls and join each other.  I am no more teacher than I am student.  Richard Bach once wrote, “We teach best what we need to learn the most.”  Nothing could be more true.  So, here I am, on the cusp of something extraordinary, and I want all of you to join me.

Some secrets may change hands.  Life may transform as we evolve both physically and spiritually.  The adoption of technology to the shaman’s path is of utmost imprtance.  The shaman can no longer be just about nature.  The shaman has to grow with the culture, and the culture is growing rapidly.  Never has the shaman had the chance he does now.  The chance to be everywhere at once, literally.

As saplings we all start, but soon we grow into trees that devour our surroundings.  Be the oak tree.  Give something back for what you are taking.  Do not be the weeping willow, who takes all of the water it can, but offers nothing in return.

It’s time that we began to think globally.  There is more out there than your own backyard.  Jump for it.  Strive for it.  Become other worldly with me.   We cannot forgive those you have never reached for something greater.  The fate of mankind is in each of your hands.  Can you make it better?

-Jack
I Listen.
I Travel.

Loki
Developmental Theology 089
Lesson #44

“So Billy I’ve lost control…”

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Tags: theology, philosophy, ideology, religion, ideas, thought, happiness, people, nature

Enter the Hanged Man.
Loki Liesmith is Jack Lhasa, as well as many other people.
Holy Zombie Jesus!
I’d like to think the best of me is still hiding up my sleeve.
I was born in the back seat of a Greyhound bus, rolling down Highway 41.
Falling down, to you, sweet ground.
I want an easy plateau, some place to rest my head.
I wish I was a fisherman.
“There is no problem so big that it cannot be ran away from.” – Snoopy the Dog
You don’t have to hide.
Dreaming is everything.
Forget as much as you can.
Listen harder.
Run. Fall.
Drink. Find.
Hope…

I run a few continuing series on this blog. Here’s some info on what they are, and why they are.

Developmental Theology 089.
– This is a series that covers the very basics of philosophy and religion. I like to think of it as practical knowledge for the modern man. Attributed by Lesson #. This series is now complete.

Basic Ideology 101
– A continuation of the thoughts expressed in DT089. Focusing on the nature of ideas and the power that they have in our lives. Attributed by Lesson #.

Internet
– A series of articles about my experiences with this Ubuntu, Vista, OS X, and the social web. Attributed by phase. I seldom do these anymore.

The Cost of Magic
– This is my novel. My magnum opus. It centers around a reluctant hero, who somehow always seems to get forced into saving the world. Attributed by Section #.

Monday Updates
– I try to do these every Monday. Just an update on my life, work, writing, in general. Attributed by date.

-Loki.
-Jack.