As long as we realize what we as humans in a society have in common and how interconnected everything is, we can disagree on other things (celebrate our differences) and have our little vices and addictions. As long as we act on responsibility and shared values, we can have social cohesion. As long as we respect ourselves and fellow humans as sacred souls on a sacred journey, as Gods, we can work towards world peace in a highly spiritual way.
These quotes were selected due to their complementary nature to my mission statement. They represent Truth, a Holy quality in reality. Though we live in a relative world, a subjective and existential world, some Absolute Truth slips through the cracks of the Afterlife into ours. I got some funny stuff in here to keep you laughing, because laughter is the language of the soul.
Books:
Conversations with God
Can you simply agree that on some of the questions of life the mystery is too great for even you to solve? Why not hold the mystery as sacred? And why not allow the mystery to be sacred, and leave it alone?
We are now trying to do the impossible, which is to speak of the unspeakable. It is what religion seeks to do. Have you ever looked down into a high powered microscope, and seen pictures or movies of molecular action, and said, “Good heavens, there’s a whole universe down there. And to that universe, I, the now-present observer, must feel like God!” Have you ever said that, or had that kind of experience?
Yes, I should imagine every thinking person has.
Indeed. You have given yourself your own glimpse of what I am showing you here. And what would you do if I told you this reality of which you have given yourself a glimpse never ends?
Explain that. I’d ask you to explain that.
Take the smallest part of the universe you can imagine. Imagine this tiny, tiny particle of matter. Now cut it in half. What have you got?
Two smaller halves.
Precisely! Now cut those in half. What now?
Two smaller halves.
Right. Now again, and again! What’s left?
Smaller and smaller particles.
Yes, but when does it stop? How many times can you divide matter until it ceases to exist?
I don’t know. I guess it never ceases to exist.
You mean you can never completely destroy it? All you can do is change its form?
It would seem so.
I tell you this: you have just learned the secret to all of life, and seen into infinity.
There is no end going up, any more than there is going down…There is no end to smallness and no end to bigness.
All of it is God, and there is nothing else. You cannot not be. You can change form all you wish, but you cannot fail to be. You can only fail at not knowing Who You Are, and in this failing, experience only the half of it.
That would be hell.
Exactly, yet you are not condemned to it. All that it takes to get out of hell, to get out of not knowing, is to know again.
HOLY SPIRIT = INSPIRATION = CONCEIVE
FAHTER = PARENTING = CREATE
SON = OFFSPRING = EXPERIENCE
The son experiences the creation of the fathering thought, which is conceived of by the Holy Ghost. What you experience changes what you conceive. It is a cycle. Can you conceive of yourself as one day being a God?
In my wildest moments.
Good, for I tell you this: You are already a God. You simply do not know it. “Ye are Gods”
The evolutionists and the creative scientists are both right. How can that be? Well, it is possible for two theories to be right simultaneously, they don’t have to conflict with one another!
Things Fall Apart:
Just the other day I was wondering:
Is anyone willing to admit that people they loved have died fighting for something that is now unnecessary?
Can they learn that their loved ones did not die in vain, but in accordance to the inevitable fact that they didn't know any better, but now all must be forgiven and we need to admit that they fought for a cause that is now in the way of world peace?
"if a child wash his hands he could eat with kings" – Things Fall Apart
by removing the dirt of the ancestors you can have a chance of a different future, each one builds his own fame. (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_five_proverbs_were_in_the_novel_things_fall_apart)
God has answered me.
Music:
The second half of Lupe Fiasco’s CD Lupe Fiasco presents The Cool:
Yeah the first half was alright, but I heard such deep soulfulness in the second half I was moved spiritually. I realize now that Lupe Fiasco and Lil’ Wayne are revolutionaries just as much as Blackalicious and Saul Williams are. They are just playing devil’s advocate in their songs by representing the fact that we cannot disassociate ourselves from the evil in the world. But “it’s never me against the world” as Lupe so greatly put it. I was moved to tears by that line. It was the perfect antithesis to Tupac’s claims of “me against the world”. That should have been the last song on the CD, not the one about girls; that last song seemed out of place.
Nonetheless I now recommend Lupe Fiasco’s new CD to everyone in the world as relevant and spiritual sound, as long as you are smart enough to recognize where he is being sarcastic and playing devil’s advocate. He is like a great screenplay writer- his characters and their perspectives and stories are reflect reality but a reality ignored by a large part of society. The misfits, the rebels, those on the margins of society. I canonize this album and as Lupe. He is up there with Nas poetically; okay, he still needs years of experience to get to where Nas is at, but just listen and you’ll see that his album has moments that recall the best tracks on Illmatic. He truly represents our generation, as does Lil’ Wayne. With instant classics such as “Little Weapon” and “Streets on Fire”, hopefully this young Muslim rapper catches on.
Sample verse, this one on ignorance:
“I'm fearless now hear this I’m earlessAnd I'm peerless which means I’m eyelessWhich means I’m tearless which means my iris Resides where my ears is which means I’m blindedBut I’ma find it, I can feel its nearnessBut I’ma veer so I don't come near like a chicken or a deerBut remember I’m not a listener or a seer so my windshields smearHere you stare I really shouldn’t be behind this [wheel] Clearly cause [of] my blindness”- from “Dumb It Down”
Defiance, Ohio:
This band may sound like Against Me!, Johnny Hobo and the Freight Trains, Mischief Brew and [insert now-getting-old angsty folk musician here), but their lyrics are something else. Check out the lyrics to these songs:
“I Don't Want Solidarity If It Means Holding Hands With You”
let's stop this talk of privilege because the songs that we sing are as much a product of our privilege as the clothes on my back and the phone call i made to my mom last night. let's stop this talk of action because action comes easy it's the moments just before that are hard, when I’ve got to get my voice and my fist on the same page as my heart. let's stop this talk of “them” because the things we find deplorable in politicians, CEOs and cops are the same things that will tear ourselves apart. and let's stop this talk of words because words like dishonesty selfishness and greed aren't as distant to us as we'd like to believe.
so please, the next time you're smashing the state, don't go breaking my heart. because i know that when we pick up the pieces, the only thing left will be the same empty rubble that's made up every revolution that I’ve ever known to make me believe and lose faith in humanity in the same empty breath of hot air.
they say that the beauty's in the streets. but when i look around, it seems more like defeat. I’m afraid that this fight that we're all caught up in will make us the same as that which we oppose.
so please, the next time you're smashing the state, don't go breaking my heart. but I know that we can pick up the pieces and build something new, something different. that's not like every revolution that I’ve ever known that can make me believe and have faith in humanity and we'll all breath a breath of fresh air.
Me:
It’s not the cops or the CEOs or Bush that is the problem- we as a society enable this behaviour. Every time I hear “fuck Bush!” I want to say “fuck you!” and then I realize to say “fuck you!” would mean to say “fuck me!”
Changing the world starts by thinking about what chemicals and toxins you put in your body. It starts by thinking also about what toxins you poison your mind with- words of hatred and fear and that creep in your mind. It’s not just about what you take, but what you give. Your words are powerful. Your actions are powerful. What is your carbon footprint? Your karma footprint? Your energy- positive or negative? By pissing off someone because you’re pissed off, by scaring someone because you’re scared, are you helping? By setting a poor example for your peers, for your family, for kids who look up to you that you don’t even know, are you not continuing misery in the world? Be conscientious about your life.
“Petty Problems”
In Columbus they were shopping on the first day, the first official day of war. It's so easy being oblivious, and it's easy being self-absorbed inside of 80 different stores and coffee shops. the whole world's not like yours. There are many kinds of problems, not all of them are like your or mine. But I forget that all the time.
Oh drama, are you all in my head? My problems aren't really all that bad. So distracted by the things that I don't have. How sad.
Our petty problems we add them up and we dwell on them half of the day. Our petty problem we add them up and they always get in the way. Our petty problems so American so caught up in our own little worlds ...
Christian Scott’s CD Rewind That is beautiful, reflecting the Divine inside Scott. Songs like “Rewind That,” “Lay in Vein,” “Caught Up,” are all winners. But nothing compares to “Like This,” one of the greatest songs I have ever heard. It’s groovy, slow jazz from the young (he’s around 24) New Orleans native Scott’s trumpet that often incorporates angsty electric guitars, but mostly has soulful, heartbreaking or more than beautiful grooves.
Bob Dylan
“To live outside the law you got to be honest”
Bob Dylan “Absolutely Sweet Marie”
There are no police you can turn to if you live outside the law. You got to have a code, some values, some convictions.
Codes to live by in the hood:
Honesty, loyalty, trust and respect- Carmelo Anthony
Just don’t ask me to live on my knees- Bodie on the Wire
Poems of the Week:
“Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll
(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)
“Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought --So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back.
"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy!O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy.
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.”
Twillig and the Slithy Toves would make a great band name.
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow woodand sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveller, long I stoodand looked down one as far as I couldto where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,and having perhaps the better claimbecause it was grassy and wanted wear;though as for that, the passing therehad worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally layin leaves no feet had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to way,I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --I took the one less travelled by,and that has made all the difference
“Anthem” by Saul Williams
We are in need
Of an anthem
A song that carries
More than melody
That can be yoked
With water supply
And that which
Strengthens spirit
When crossing
Wind-ravaged terrains
That were once cities
That were once dreams
Lend me a trumpet
Show me
How to press it
Against my lip
Show me
Where my fingers belong
Show me
How to use it
We are in need of an anthem
Dear Lord,
Use me
When the storm remains distant
We are heroes of complacency
Puffed chests and swollen pride
We hate ourselves in ways
Only the deepest love could recognize
When the storm remains distant
There is no such thing as Us
There is only dollar and dynamite
Gunpowders and fiery God
The churches are filled with women and children
The men pray only in case of emergency
We worship a foreign truth
Only death will stamp our passport
When the storm remains distant
There is no afterlife
Most die unborn
Most live unloved
Disappointment takes on new names and costumes
The future is stillborn and disfigured
The womb becomes an airtight safe
Darkness swallows darkness
When the storm remains distant
Nothing is as is
Songs are opiates
Sleep is the burial ground of dreams
Happiness is a lie
Sex is where love is not
When the storm remains distant
We are unreminded and dare to forget
School is a fashion show
Violence is comfort food
Family is nothing
And nothing is real
When the storm remains distant
Nghs are free to be niggas
Niggers, black, you name it
Anything but one thing
Everything but nothing
Even with a shitload of platinum
Wrapped around his neck
Like a southern tree gone petrified
Screw face pearly gate mouth
Tangled nectar of the stars
When the storm remains distant
Stars are retired drug dealers nicknamed God
Rapists with pretty voices
And anyone but anyone who shines
When the storm remains distant
The sun is flawless in its magnitude
The heavens reflect breath of angels
The people bask in themselves
The storm is forgotten
When the storm is forgotten
The waters though the rise,
Fail to threaten
The people though they march,
March backwards from ashen to ashen
Whiplash, car crash, cash money
Some nghs eat diamonds for breakfast
Pursue cheap labor, enslave God
When the storm is forgotten
Poets are meteorologists
Behold, a farmers almanac
The sheep wake up and congregate
The litany begins
When the storm is forgotten
The struggle ends
May the storm never be forgotten
-- Saul Williams
Magazines:
Reader’s Digest
Theme: Real-Life Miracles
Listening to music versus making music:
“Before, you’d see guys with their iPods on, listening to music, staying away from everybody else,” says Sergeant Karsnia. “But when the guitars came, people got together. We’d have four or five guys playing guitar, and 25 others laughing and singing”.
Kenneth Maryboy:
“My grandfather taught me that you learn to be a man and a warrior by sharing and by keeping promises”.
Erika Orlando:
The power of intuition and prayer with an open, peaceful, fast working mind in the midst of searching for a missing boy at the beach with the boy’s panicked parents nearby allowed her to receive an image in her mind of a hole in the sand. She scanned the sand for a depression, found one, and began digging; alas, she found the boy buried and alive.
Ask Laskas:
There are different types of friends. Some we trust with out innermost secrets. Then there are those who a blast to go [out] with.
A teasing remark should be based in fact and should depict a quality that the other person is aware of and, most important, feels good about. Making a joke about my brother’s big nose is funny because he loves his big nose; making a joke about my friend’s recent eight gain is not funny unless she actually wanted to retire her skinny jeans. Comedy has an edge but shouldn’t cut a friend.
Lead by example.
All In A Day’s Week:
Seen outside the window of a camping shop: “Now is the winter of our discount tents.”
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