moment

"forcing them to listen to Gilbert Gottfried, Fran Drescher, and Bobcat Goldthwait sing covers of Bette Midler's "Wind Beneath My Wings" and "Some Day My Prince Will Come"...from the tinny quality of a mobile phone's speakers instead of a surround sound stereo." ---- I never realized, how vicious you can be!

In its purest form; it is Truth. Truth never changes or can it be modified. Truth exists despite the vagaries of time and cultures, though it often gets submerged by the ashes of ignorance. Cosmic rays/dark matter/gravity were discovered and not created and so it is with meditation.

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them - that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like. -----Lao Tzu

To be more childlike, you don't have to give up being an adult. The fully integrated person is capable of being both an adult and a child simultaneously. Recapture the childlike feelings of wide-eyed excitement, spontaneous appreciation, cutting loose, and being full of awe and wonder at this magnificent universe. ------Wayne Dyer

I read Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 at nine years old, it was a particularly difficult time in my life,, and that book fundamentally altered, my view of the world. I will always be thankful to him for that!

" Do the mods exist to enforce polite rules and social etiquette, or are the policies and mods here to keep this place actually safe from all types of predators and disinformation that could lead to people getting hurt?"

"Be good to each other; don’t be good to each other - whatever. Just follow the rules."--Exactly! No enforcement beyond the rules. No complete thread shutdowns, no stretching of the rules, to loosely cover tenuous perceptions of PC violations. That is what is needed to keep this a vibrant open forum.

“Instead of resisting to changes, surrender. Let life be with you, not against you. If you think ‘My life will be upside down’ don’t worry. How do you know down is not better than upside?” ― Shams Of Tabriz “A life without love is of no account. Don't ask yourself what kind of love you should seek, spiritual or material, divine or mundane, eastern or western…divisions only lead to more divisions. Love has no labels, no definitions. It is what it is, pure and simple. Love is the water of life. And a lover is a soul of fire! The universe turns differently when fire loves water.” ― Shams Of Tabriz

As a child Shams-e Tabrizied was different. His own parents thought he was retarded. Then one day Shams told them the story of the duck’s egg that was found by the hen and hatched. The hen raised the duckling with her other chicks. One day they walked to a lake. The duck went right in the water, Shams said to his parents, “Now, father and mother, I have found my place. I have learned to swim in the ocean, even if you must remain on the shore.” Shams was Rumi's teacher. Shams was a great sage.

We need to honestly evaluate ourselves constantly, because our balance is a moving target.

Your loss to this forum would be a grave mistake for all, including yourself! Few have have contributed as much to this forum as you have and possibly no one has in such a short period of time. Yet, you would also lose much, not having contact here, with people like myself, who truly care for you. Then there is the fresh blood coming in, that needs strong direction and you give that with the knowledge to back it up. I am impressed with your growth lately, in that, you are moderating yourself, while growing stronger in your own defense. That is one hell of a balancing act! The mods have a very tough job and they are trying hard to make connections (this continuing and improving dialogue shows that). I think that in the future though, some types of PMs, (that MAY have led to unnecessary scrutiny and actions by mods) should be scrutinized more closely, as indirect attacks that have nothing to do with actual rule-breaking.

General Chiune Sugihara The Nazi regime began tightening its chokehold on Europe, Japanese Consul-General Chiune Sugihara and his wife Yukiko watched with increasing concern as Lithuanian Jews were persecuted, driven out of their businesses, and forced away to "labor camps." Finally, Sugihara decided enough was enough, and set out to bring the Jews of Europe onto Japanese soil and out of Hitler's reach. The Japanese government, however, didn't approve of the idea, and shut down Chiune's request to issue visas for the fleeing Jews. In response — and in true Liam Neeson fashion — Sugihara essentially told them to shove it, and began to write the visas by hand. He and his wife ended up writing what some estimate to be around 6,000 visas for Lithuanian Jews, an incredible feat that's even more unbelievable when you compare it to Oskar Schindler's record of 1,200 saved through his work program. The last foreign officials to remain in Kuanas, Lithuania, save for a Dutch consul, Sugihara and his wife worked round the clock, issuing close to 300 visas a day and distributing them to the refugees who gathered outside of the Japanese consulate gates. When Sugihara was finally ordered to leave, he continued to write visas and throw them from the train as he departed, and left his official visa stamp with one of the refugees so they could continue his work in his absence. It is estimated that he saved nearly all of the people who received visas, and after arriving in Japan, the Jewish refugees called themselves the Sugihara Survivors in honor of his bravery. So why hasn't his story been broadcasted like Schindler's? Unfortunately, Japan was still operating under the samurai code of honor during this time, and to defy a superior was considered unforgivable. So rather than award their comrade for his contributions to the war, he was removed from his government position and forced to live in dishonor until his death in 1986.

Witold Pilecki Witold Pilecki Photo: Wiki Commons Nazi concentration camps were one of the most hideous and disturbing tragedies to arise out of the second world war, but few countries were aware of their existence before the Allied liberation in 1945. Fewer still had any idea what atrocities were taking place within their gates — which is exactly why Wittold Pilecki, a Polish resistance agent, decided to see the inside for himself. How'd he do it? By getting himself arrested and sent to the worst death camp of them all: Auschwitz. He gathered intelligence inside Auschwitz and sent it to the underground Polish army for two years, enduring brutal conditions and near-starvation to detail Nazi execution and interrogation methods. When the Allies continued to put off any aid (some even accused him of exaggerating his reports, according to NPR) he broke out of the camp and escaped. Pilecki continued to gather intelligence throughout the war, and didn't let up afterwards either, though now it was against a different government — the Soviet regime in Poland. Sadly, Pilecki was later captured by the communists, arrested for espionage in 1948, and issued not one, but three death sentences. The communists also wiped his name from the public record after his execution, and no accounts of Pilecki's bravery were known until after the fall of the Berlin wall.

Thomas Clarkson The activist who was edited out The name William Wilberforce is synonymous with the abolition of British slavery, but it was Thomas Clarkson who instigated the cause. In the years before the slave trade was outlawed, Clarkson gathered evidence to show the inhumanity of conditions by sneaking onboard slave ships. He became a target for rich slave owners who tried to assassinate him and shut down his campaign, way before Wilberforce even heard of it. It was only when Clarkson realised he needed someone in government to help him that the young MP got involved, and the men became great friends. But after Wilberforce’s death, the politician’s sons wrote a biography claiming Clarkson was just a hired hand who carried out errands for their father. Their book became a key source for historians and the myth that Wilberforce acted singlehandedly was soon settled as fact.

Standing alone and unchanging, one can observe every mystery, present at every moment and ceaselessly continuing-- This is the gateway to indescribable marvels. Lao Tzu

Absolutely! Good continuation. Thank you!

I feel peace, I feel love, I feel joy, I feel the tears well up in my eyes every single day, in the oddest places and times. It sometimes happens in front of strangers and I am no longer embarrassed or try to wipe them away and damn; it feels good!

It is all around us; "tap" into its' joy!

I

Good god! from cynicism to sadism!

Too much cynicism there for me.