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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Some New Stuff I Recently Got Into [read, write, talk, love]

Received the new issue of  "In Communion"  the journal of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship.

Also received the new issue the journal "Christian Apologetics" in the mail. 
Excellent journal / magazine.  Find it & read it, lest you be a chode!

Just finished reading "From the Ashes of Sobibor" by Thomas Toivi Blatt.  Supposedly a true story about a Jewish kid who escapes from Sobibor work camp in Poland, in 1943 or so.  He's on the run all over Poland dodging Nazis & Polish & Russian Partisans who are unfriendly to Jews.  Him & some other random Jews who are homeless & stateless, hide out in various barns, silos, & haystacks.  As well as forests, woods, cellars --abandon buildings--you names it he's squatted there.  Very fast paced story & book.  There is an added interview that the author conducted with one of the head guards from the camp, done in 1983.   The German military officer served 16 years in prison & was filled with regret over what allegedly went on in this & other work camps, or concentration camps as they are also called.  In some ways the author seems to relish in continually bringing up atrocities & alleged mistreatment that may or may not have gone down that way 40 years earlier.  World War II was terrible--for everyone, NOT just Jews, Gypsies, or Jehovah's Witnesses.  German & Polish civilians had a horrible time, especially towards the end of the war.  Yet it is the Jews who are usually in a position of power, with the media and various governments, so they can push the books, movies, TV shows, magazine articles, etc, about the "German Holocaust™ of European Jewry."  It's as if the Jews call the shots in the public's everyday lives!  OK OK, I'm not some Neo-Nazi or total conspiracy buff (tho I do follow many of the alternate historical theories laid out by minds more brilliant than mine) but I now know that there is WAY more to this holocaust™ story than meets the eye!  Especially after learning that in fifteen countries it is a FELONY to ask questions about 
the official holocaust™ story line!  Why in the heck does truth need to be protected by prison
time?!??!  Well, this is fodder for many many more posts.  Just read this book if you happen to
find it somewhere for free.
Published by Northwestern University Press. ♥


*Also watched "The Amityville Horror" from 1979 with Cheryl the other night.  Such a damn good movie.  But I kind of stick to what my friend Deacon Dave said recently:  he doesn't watch movies like this because he knows the evil one is all too real.  Sometimes movies, books, music, or other art
in this vein can be a sort of "doorway" through which Satan or any of his demons can creep into one's

mind, body, or life in general.  I don't want to come off as some sort of 'holier-than-thou' Bible thumping, closed minded, scaredy cat, but maybe Deacon Dave's message is worth paying attention
to?  Lord knows I've done things MY way for a long long time.  And look where it's gotten me! ♥
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
-----> [Edit 1/28/2013]  Strange to re-read a simple post like this, where I mention watching a DVD
  with Cheryl, me now ex-girlfriend.  I've been missing her for the past several months, and we have
  been talking, emailing, and texting each other.  She says she would like to try to be friends first,
  to maybe start over that way & then see where that leads.  Then maybe we can get back together,
  she stated.  However, she has turned me down, all fifteen times that I've asked her out over the past
  three months.  She even sent me an email telling me the CORRECT way to ask a woman out, and
  told me, "feel free to use this advice on me or any other woman!"  So I asked her out the way she
  suggested was proper, and she IGNORED my request!  LOL, then I reminded her that I had asked
  her out, and she claims to have FORGOTTEN that I did so!  LOL, I've never been fed such a line 
  of utter bullshit, lies, and disrespect in my entire life!  I was slack-jawed as I read her email explain-
  ing this to me!  Seriously, I've been rejected & ignored before, but I think this one takes the cake!
  LOL!!!  Obviously she thinks I'm retarded & has absolutely ZERO respect for me!  So, I am now
  following the advice of my spiritual advisers & supportive people in my life: I just CANNOT even
  be friends with her at this point in time.  I'm not supposed to have ANY contact with her whatsoever.  She is toxic for me, and I DO NOT deserve this kind of bullshit or pain or lack of respect.  It's hard for me to do, because I thought I still loved her.  Turns out that I wasn't really in love with her, rather I was afraid of being alone!!!  I am worth much, much more than anything she can provide for me.  So I've had to move on, and perhaps at a later time we can be friends.  But at this point, anyone around me who treats me the way she has been treating me is NOT my friend.  Yes, 
I'm sad.  Not too sad, now that I see things in a different light, but a bit heartbroken.  Oh well, it will
pass, it always does.  Besides, she's not a millionaire, nor a beauty queen, (her words not mine) and
I'm quite confident that I can do much, much better. ♥

Checked out from the public library yesterday: "The Lost Sutras of Jesus: Unlocking the Ancient Wisdom of the Xian Monks" by Riegert & Moore.
"Lectio Divina" by M. Basil Pennington.  He wrote "The Monks of Mount Athos" which is a great book.  We'll see how this one turns out to be.
"The Eastern Catholic Churches: And Introduction to Their Worship & Spirituality" by Joan L. Roccasalvo.
"The Jesus Sutras" by Martin Palmer.  Good stuff.

Also wanted to mention some other books I'm currently reading very slowly, and probably won't finish for another year (as is my m.o. I read maybe two dozen books at once...little by little.)
"Gates to Buddhist Practice" by Chagdud Tulku.
"The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers & Mothers" by Wilson - Hartgrove.
"Praying the Word: An Introduction to Lectio Divina" by Enzo Bianchi.
The winter 2010 - 2011 issue of "The Journal of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives."
"A Tree in a Forest: A Collection of Ajahn Chah's Similies" edited by Dhamma Garden.

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Thomas Merton & Buddhism, & What I'm Reading--


"The Wisdom of the Desert" currently reading.

Also: The Catholic Hearth --various issues of this beautifully & artfully put together Catholic 1/2 sized journal, put out by The Neumann Press.

"Pure Land Pure Mind"  translation by J.C. Cleary. I love love love this book about Pure Land Buddhism.  Pure Land is the most prevalent form of Buddhism on the planet, but one of the least practiced in the West.  It has some similarities to Zen and can thus be practiced alongside Zen Buddhism.  I received many Pure Land books in the mail over the summer, and none of them have let me down.  As a matter of fact, I've got reading material to last me well into 2013!!!  Thank God for generous Buddhists!

And this reminds me of some of the Thomas Merton books I have that talk about his affinity for Zen Buddhism and Buddhist & Eastern religious practices in general.  Good stuff, get in to it!