Tag Archives: life

EPHEMERAL MAN

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

ETHEREAL MAN“Think continually how many doctors have died who often knit their brows over their dying patients, how many astrologers who had foretold the deaths of others as a matter of importance, how many philosophers who had discoursed at great length on death and immortality, how many heroic warriors who had killed many men, how many tyrants who had used their power over men’s lives with terrible brutality, as if immortal themselves. How often have no whole cities died, if I may use the phrase, Helike, Pompeii, Herculaneum, and innumerable others? Go over in your mind the dead whom you have known, one after the other: one paid the last rites to a friend and was himself laid out for burial by a third, who also died; and all in a short time. Altogether, human affairs must be regarded as ephemeral, and of little worth: yesterday sperm, tomorrow a mummy or ashes.”

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, The Meditations

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus — 26 April 121 – 17 March 180 AD) was Roman Emperor from 161 to 180. He ruled with Lucius Verus as co-emperor from 161 until Verus’ death in 169. He was the last of the Five Good Emperors, and is also considered one of the most important Stoic philosophers.

During his reign, the Empire defeated a revitalized Parthian Empire in the East: Aurelius’ general Avidius Cassius sacked the capital Ctesiphon in 164. In central Europe, Aurelius fought the Marcomanni, Quadi, and Sarmatians with success during the Marcomannic Wars, although the threat of the Germanic tribes began to represent a troubling reality for the Empire. A revolt in the East led by Avidius Cassius failed to gain momentum and was suppressed immediately.

Marcus Aurelius’ Stoic tome Meditations, written in Greek while on campaign between 170 and 180, is still revered as a literary monument to a philosophy of service and duty, describing how to find and preserve equanimity in the midst of conflict by following nature as a source of guidance and inspiration.

BREAD OF LIFE

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

“Much like Leonardo da Vinci, I worked intermittently on this single painting over a period of many years, never satisfied that it was finished, and continually improving upon the original.  This painting is my personal Mona Lisa, my daughter, Maria.  

We had a live-in servant for many years, named Tanneke Everpoel, hired and paid by Maria Thins.  She did all of the “heavy labor”, as it were: cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, carrying water, tending fires, and a myriad other chores, including helping with the children.  However, the expense of paying her wage and room did not include standing for endless hours, day after day, while I painted this portrait!  My daughter, Maria, was lovelier and much more readily accessible for the task of standing for this portrait.

It is argued, convincingly, that the immortal painting by Leonard was his own self-portrait as his own, feminine  reflection. What man, or woman, regardless of sexual preference in a given lifetime, has not inhabited the flesh of ten thousand bodies, some human, many not, through  a nearly infinite cascade of galaxies, stars and planets come and gone.  Is not survival a nearly infinite game, in which we interchange ourselves as the players of many parts?

Leonardo kept his portrait with him all his life.  He never considered that it was complete or perfect.  Nor did he ever intend to sell it.  How could one sell a most cherished reflection of himself?  It is more meaningful than one’s own body, which only disguises the inner self, the essence of spirit that animates the fragile flesh.  In fact, a body hides the reflection of the soul!  How can any substance, especially that as rude and fragile as meat, reveal the inherent qualities an immortal nothingness?  Indeed, it is the fundamental challenge and the most formidable task of an artist to reveal it!

The name given to this painting by others, “The Milkmaid”, is a sacrilege!   It rivals the incomprehension others have for Leonardo’s personal masterpiece.  Yet, how can anyone truly understand that a painting is meant to reflect the  essence of an immortal being, seen through the eyes of another?Vermeer on iTunes

She is painted with angelic colors: blue, gold and white, in contrast to the menial nature of her station in life.  From her issues, for me, the Milk and Bread of Life.  Life is embodied in her and through her.  Women, are the source of children, the source of energy, the source of care.  There is no more vital responsibility for any being who plays the game of life, than to confront dreary daily tasks.  To humbly make the daily loaf.  To soak that bread, mix and soften it with milk, make it warm and feed it to a teething child.  Survival is made of such things.

In those days I viewed life as idyllic.  My dreams were more real than reality.  All things were a possibility.  Tragedy could not find me.  Until it did, of course.  Even when we lost a child, which we did with several, my wife, Catharina, remained resolute in her Faith.  God guided us.  He did what was best.  We knew not why and need not question His purpose for us. 

I have no such faith in predetermination.  A loaf of grain, clean water and a bed was my fare.  Time and a place to paint, uninterrupted, were necessities.  My love, shared with wife and family, was the staple diet of my life.  I assumed, as a Fool who knows not his own mortality, that they would endure, even when I was gone.”

_______________________________________

Excerpt from the book VERMEER: PORTRAITS OF A LIFETIME, by Lawrence R. Spencer

DOWNLOAD THIS BOOK FROM
http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/vermeer/id443800993?mt=11 

SHERLOCK HOLMES INVESTIGATES LIFE AFTER DEATH

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Arthur Conan Doyle’s son, Adrian, is interviewed about this father’s 35 year investigation into the subject of  life after death. (1968)

“Any truth is better than indefinite doubt. It was easier to know it than to explain why I know it. If I were asked to prove that there is a life after death, I might find some difficulty in it, and yet I am quite certain of the fact.”

— from the new book by Lawrence R. Spencer, SHERLOCK HOLMES – MY LIFE

Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

LIVING BEINGS

Republished by Blog Post Promoter

DEAD BEINGS ARE ALIVE

Excerpt from the book 1,001 THINGS TO DO WHILE YOU’RE DEAD, by Lawrence R. Spencer:

“PRETEND YOU ARE SAINT PETER  AT THE PEARLY GATES PASSING JUDGMENT ON PEOPLE WHO WANT TO GET INTO HEAVEN. (See Footnote) [i]

A lot of people die every day. Recent global estimates of deaths are as follow: 53 million people die each year, 146,357 people die each day, 6,098 people die each hour, 102 people die each minute.

Simple arithmetic, based on these figures, makes two things apparent: 1) a lot of people die 2) at this time, a lot more people are being born than dying. In fact, there are 128 million births per year. That’s 353,015 births per day or 14,709 births each hour! The numbers get larger every day.

One good theoretical question to ask is this: if each soul or spirit gets only 1 body per lifetime, (even if every single one was reincarnated) where are all of the extra spirits coming from?

If you read the book ALIEN INTERVIEW, as suggested earlier, the answer to this question is covered there.

PRETEND YOU ARE THE DEVIL AT THE GATES OF HELL COUNTING YOUR NEW RECRUITS.

The Gates of Hell must be a very, very busy place. Think of the paperwork! Historically, killing each other has been the second most popular pastime on Earth. (Apparently, having sex is number one.) In fact, in all of recorded human history there has been only 11 years when a war was NOT being fought somewhere on Earth.

Either way, tons of people arrive at the Gates of Hell for a good reason, i.e. murder. It probably won’t take you long to figure out that Earth IS Hell.

For example, during World War II about 70,000,000 people were killed in only 4 years! Here are a few more statistics concerning man’s favorite sport:

105 Million: Total 20th century war deaths

100 Million: Africans killed by “good” Christian Europeans during the African slave trade

90 Million: Native Americans slaughtered by “good” Christians, i.e. European invaders

60-80 Million: Murdered by Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong and his minions

40 Million: People slain by Genghis Khan and his minions in Asia

30 Million: Slaughtered in the Taiping Rebellion (See Footnote) [ii]

30 Million: Deaths caused by Joseph Stalin and his minions in Purges / Famines in Communist Russia

30 Million: Deaths caused by minions of Mao Tse Tung due to Famines in Communist China

Etc., etc., etc..

This makes your job of handing out punishment for the sins of those arriving at the Gates of Hell pretty easy: tell everyone to go back to Earth and try not to kill so many people next time — including all the other life forms on 1001 THINGS TO DO WHILE YOU'RE DEADthe planet! In fact, dare them not to kill anyone or anything.

This situation raises an odd question: if more than twice as many people are being born each year than are dying, “Where are all the spirits coming from that are creating the global  population boom on Earth?”

Fortunately, as suggested earlier, the Top Secret transcripts published in the book ALIEN INTERVIEW answer this question also.”

Support independent publishing: Buy this book on Lulu.

________________________________________

FOOTNOTES:

[i] Saint Peter The pearly gates is an informal name for the gateway to the Heaven of Christian belief. It is inspired by the description of the New Jerusalem in Book of Revelation 21:21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate being made from a single pearl.

The image of the gates in popular culture is a set of large, white or wrought-iron gates in the clouds, guarded by Saint Peter (the keeper of the “keys to the kingdom”); those not fit to enter heaven are denied entrance at the gates, and thus descend into Hell.

[ii] The Taiping Rebellion was a widespread civil war in southern China from 1850 to 1864, led by heterodox Christian convert Hong Xiuquan, against the ruling Qing Dynasty. About 20 million people died, mainly civilians, in one of the deadliest military conflicts in history.

Hong established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Chinese: 太平天囯 pinyin: Tàipíng Tiān Guó), officially the “Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace”, with its capital at Nanjing. The Kingdom’s Army controlled large parts of southern China, at its height containing about 30 million people. The rebels attempted social reforms and the replacement of Confucianism, Buddhism and Chinese folk religion with a form of Christianity. Troops were nicknamed the Long hair (長毛, pinyin: cháng máo).

The Taiping areas were besieged by Qing forces throughout most of the rebellion. The Qing government defeated the rebellion with the eventual aid of French and British forces.

In the 20th century, China’s communist leader Mao Zedong glorified the Taipings as early heroic revolutionaries against a corrupt. More recently, a total rethinking has occurred in China on the destruction that the rebellion had caused to the Chinese nation, plus the dangers of radical religiosity.