Category Archives: ART

Paintings, photography, aesthetic objects, beautiful communication, and anything I consider to be art, artful, artistic, artsy or whatever.
Art is subjective. It is a quality of communication can be contributed to by the viewer through empathy or agreement with its creator.

LAOTZU, IS THAT YOU?

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LAO-TZU, IS THAT YOU ?

Without seeking, one may know all under heaven;
Without finding, one may know the way of heaven.
The wise man knows without searching,
Understands without thinking, accomplishes without acting.

To know when one does not understand is a virtue;
Failing to know that one does not understand is an error.
One becomes more perfect each time an error is corrected.
But One who knows but does not act accordingly, does not know

Be honest with those who are honest. Also be honest
With those who are dishonest; thus is honesty attained.
All beings as basically good. However, prevent those who
do evil from harming others for even they are basically good.

What separates goodness and badness ?
What difference is there between yes and no ?
What distinguishes beauty and ugliness ?
Front and rear join in the center.
Being and non-being are a circle of decision.

The way of heaven conquers without war,
Speaks little but answers well, is always present
Without being summoned, is not rushed but is well planned.
The wise man is skilled in all of his undertakings.

He who is skilled at counting needs no counting devices.
He who is fluid in speech needs no script to guide him.
A man of skill practices skill and conquers reality.
A man who fails practices failure and is conquered.

Walls form and support a room, yet the space between them is most important.
A pot is formed of clay, yet the space formed thereby is most useful.
Action is caused by the force of nothing on something,
just as the nothing of spirit animates the flesh.

One suffers great afflictions because one has a body.
Without a body what afflictions could one suffer?
When one cares more for the body than for the spirit
One becomes the body and looses the way of heaven.

He who looks will not see it; he who listens will not hear it;
He who gropes will not grasp it.

___________________________

Poem “Laotzu is that you?” from “PAN-GOD OF THE WOODS” by Lawrence R. Spencer. Copyright © 2011. All Rights Reserved.

Photo was taken on April 21, 2010 in Bohinjsko Jezero, Radovljica, SI  © 2010 Mitja Kobal-Cwithe @ www.fotohikari.com

 

TOUCH MAGIC

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first fifteen livesClaire North (a.k.a Catherine Webb and Kate Griffin) is a Wondrous Witch of Word Wizardry! Her books have to be read. No description or comment is worthwhile;  Magic is what it is…. Magical.

After reading her book “The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August” I became an instant addict and life-long worshiper. Travel between past lives – without amnesia –  is not a familiar idea on Earth, but made all too real in this eloquently imagined and written masterwork.

touchTouch” is a masterwork of insight, descriptive observations of spiritual phenomena that can be envisioned only as fiction. “Touch” describes the ability to instantaneously transfer oneself as a spiritual entity from one body to another — to possess and control it — without harming the “owner”. The reality of being a “ghost” with the ability to “jump” between bodies is told in the context of an exotic-murder-mystery-international-action-thriller that sets a new standard for the genre and for literature! As an enchanted fan of Clair North, I am “touched” and possessed!

~ Lawrence R. Spencer,  Author and Editor

BURNING BOOKS

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libraryalexandriaI recently re-read a book from my personal library about the destruction of the greatest library of antiquity in Alexandria, Egypt, The Vanished Library, by Luciano Canfora.  Because I write books, I also read books.  Books are a gateway to intellectual and spiritual freedom.

Although my personal library shelves contain only several hundred volumes, it is estimated by various sources that the Library at Alexandria housed tens of thousands of scrolls amassed by Ptolemy that were added to the sacred library of Ramses II, Pharaoh of Egypt!  (c. 1300 BCE)   At the time of it’s destruction there were reported to be more than 45,000 hand-written books, gathered from all of the civilized word — translated into Greek — and housed in a single building.

In 640 AD, this priceless library was burned at the order of Muslim Caliph Omar.  When the general of his army asked the Caliph what to do with the books of the library, the Caliph responded:

If their content is in accordance with the book of Allah, we may do without them.  If they contain matter not in accordance with the book of Allah, there can be no need to preserve them. Proceed then, to destroy them.”TRINITY COLLEGE LIBRARY DUBLIN

At that time the city of Alexandria had 4,000 public baths.  The water for the baths was heated by underground stoves or furnaces.  “The books were distributed to the public baths of Alexandria, where they were used to fuel the stove which kept the baths comfortably warm.  ….It took six months to burn all that mass of material.”  Only the writings of Aristotle were spared from the flames.

As has so often been the case in the history of Earth, religious fanaticism — the enemy of knowledge and freedom — was the cause of destruction of precious accumulated knowledge, technology and wisdom recorded by literate scientists, mathematicians, artists, philosophers and scholars.  The modern destruction by the United States of the priceless Library of Baghdad, the burning of books and burying of scholars under China’s Qin Dynasty, the destruction of Aztec codices by Itzcoatl, the Nazi book burnings, the Spanish Inquisition, and many others psychotic episodes serve to keep humanity stupid, superstition and enslaved by ignorance.

However, in 2013 we live in an age of unprecedented information access.  There are thousands of libraries all around the world.  The internet is a vast library of information that contains nearly every book that has ever been written!  (Of course there are huge numbers of “heretical” books that  have been burned by Caliphs or Nazis or hidden in the Vatican library or the Smithsonian Institute.)  However, in spite of intellectual terrorism, superstition, religious fanaticism, and government mind-control agendas, we are living in an unprecedented age when books are freely available in abundance!  All we need to do is read them.

Here is a WONDERFUL website wherein you can visit many of the truly magnificent libraries around the world!

http://www.beautiful-libraries.com/index.html

HOW TO SPOT A PREDATOR

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PREDATORS

This is how to detect a the most common human predators (i.e. the predators that feed on the lives of human beings).  Just because the predators “LOOK LIKE” human beings,  do not believe their lies and tricks!  They are NOT human beings.  They are a completely different species of creature, similar to vampires.  They have no soul, no conscience,  no ethics, no remorse.  If you encounter one of these creatures there are several actions you can take to avoid being killed and consumed by them:

1) run away  2)  avoid contact with them 3) call a pest exterminator 4) report the menace to animal control 5) move to a country that does not allow them….  ( oh, it’s too late because there are not countries that are free from them any more.)   🙁