Awww look at little Plantie! he thinks it's springtime. Aww :-)

And here is Little Sprout. i know the seed came from plantie, i'm positive. maybe it was the milkman... i don't even have a milk man, so i should have suspected something when he showed up that one day...

don't worry, i'm going to find out very soon what kind of plant Little Sprout is...he's actually starting to form bark already, and he's got a few flowers starting. he's only a few months old!

perception is delusion

i think the biggest enemy to us is misconception. ever see the movie ''the labyrinth?'' in that movie, david bowie (the goblin king) is contact juggling a crystal ball, and he says to hoggle (a troll-looking feller) ''give this to Sarah.'' he tosses the ball to Hoggle and it instantly becomes a peach. like, he was incapable of understanding it for what it was. it turned into something he could grasp the moment it became his.

i think that's what happens to us all the time. the moment any truth becomes ours, it is instantly down-graded by our own limitations. maybe that's why love is so different to so many people. no one knows fully what it is because no one can know it fully.

i wonder why hate isn't as different to very many people? why is it so hard to define love, but very easy to define hate?

it's like there's a principle of love, but not one of hate. like there's a principle of harmony, but none of dischord. there's a principle of truth, but not one of lies.

then each person has their own version of truth. like each person is carrying around their own shard of a mirror. what they see in that mirror is not false, but it's not accurate because of all that it leaves out. we can't behold a virtue in its fullness as we are now, limited beings.

like chuck missler was talking about two dimensional characters on an overhead transparency: if they looked at each other, all they would see is just a straight line. if you put your finger down between them, they would perceive a miracle. if they looked at us, all they would see is cross-sections of us. just like, us, three dimensional beings when we perceive time, the fourth dimension, in cross sections. we see it as it passes by, but we can't behold the whole thing. ''we can't remember tomorrow'' as chuck said.



and in another journal, this same entry got some comments:

Perception is altered do to our experiences. We are defined by our decisions we have made in life. People struggle with defining love because they haven't experienced it. True love is far deeper than our minds can wrap around it. Hate however, we have all experienced, we have all felt the dischord and strife in life. This is because sin is a part of us all. Love however, when sought out and captured, covers a multitude of sin. We just as people haven't grasped a hold of that concept. How can someone love me enough to erase all the hate? The only answer I know to relate it to, is the love of Christ. That is the true meaning of love. When someone embraces that, and understand that love is unconditional and has greater depth than hate, we can bein to define it.
-magen

''but now we see dimly, as in a dull mirror, then, we shall know fully, as we are fully known.'' ...and it's been a while, but i'll take a stab at somewhere after first corinthians 13.

i say ''perception is delusion'' because (from earlier entry) suppose we were walking in a park, and we both observed a flag, flapping in the wind. you might say ''the wind is moving around the flag.'' and i might say ''the flag is moving in the wind.'' [[we're both right in what we assert, but wrong in what we deny. the ''river of truth'' flows straight between what each of us has said.]] (borrowed bracketed material from Chuck Missler...i guess i'm guilty of ''bracketeering'' :-D )

in other words, to define something like love, truth, etc., we capture it in our own distorted view. our perception is delusion.
-me


Any perception outside of our own perfect perception IS delusional. Hatred is the easier road to travel because it doesn't leave us feeling vulnerable. Vulnerability brings out our true intentions. Most people have poor intentions, thus shun the idea of love even when it falls in their lap. I don't believe we are limited beings. I believe that we live without limitations. We must first find the fortitude to acquire the focused vision in our minds, the will and persistency to endure error, and the energy to make it a reality. The only limitations you have are those that you put on yourself. Limitations are akin to viruses to a computer. Just like the elephant at the zoo. You see those little baby elephants held there to that stake and chain. Years and thousands of pounds later they are still stuck to that same stake and chain. Why? Could they break away if they tried? ABsolutley. At some point, they were convinced that they cannot break away from it. We are all held down in similar beliefs. It is up to our minds to rid ourselves of these beliefs. Just because we do not have the conciousness to comprehend something doesn't mean that it can't happen. Excellent commentary, thank you for posting that.
-matt



I like your analogy about the elephants. There are many ''chains'' that hold down mankind, chains that can be broken easily, but ultimately, it's the belief, not the potential of a person, that determines where they will go. ''imagination triumphs over desire'' It is foolish to hold onto damaging beliefs, I agree.

However, I disagree with the idea that our perception is flawless. If perfection were to change, it would no longer be perfection. Any deviance from perfection is imperfect. If our perception is perfect, then how is it that we all see different things?

We all see different things, so at best, we have to conclude that not everyone's perception is not deluded. Which single person has perfect perception, if no one sees things precisely the same as another person? Who will define love in the exact same way as this one person?

Hate is easy to define and easy to grasp. People have so many differing opinions on love, and for the most part, they're all correct in what they assert, but wrong in what they don't. Why is love so complex? Why do we all have different ideas about it? We can't all be totally right when someone else says something that we missed, but is also true. It would seem we've been handed a very lovely, perfect thing, but all we can make of it is something confined to the scope of things we're capable of understanding.
-me



EDIT:

perception is often times defined by experiences, but experiences, in truth, are defined by perception. why can we not define love? it is because we cannot perceive love. why can we not perceive love? it is because love is beyond the grasp of the constituents of our perception.

perception is the combined product of:

1. imagination
2. expectation
3. belief
4. feeling

that which you visualise, accept as truth, and expect, feeling its completion, that is what your perception is b/c that is what will be manifested in reality, for you. (example: About 40 years ago, Dr. Joseph Murray cured himself of sarcoma, when no doctor could help him. He used this very principle to do it. Several other examples exist, such as curing paralysis, blindness, and various other deformities of the body and the mind; but in the interest of space, i won't cite them here. If you doubt these conclusions, then cure yourself of one of these things, apart from the principle of ''the doctor dresses the wound, but God heals it.'')

William James, father of modern psychology said this: ''we weep not because we are sorrowful, rather, we are sorrowful because we weep.''

• it is what you believe, essentially, that becomes your experience.
• you perceive the things that you have already believed into existance.
• not everyone believes precisely the same thing, and therefore, not everyone perceives in the same way or the same things, as others.

to me, someone else might be creating truths that are not at all true. likewise, i might be creating truths that others know to be absurd. how can such a paradox exist so universally, unless all human perception is just a fabrication?

What, then, is good? What is bad?

It still remains that there are principles to one thing, yet no principles, save the lack thereof, to other things.

There is no principle of disorder. There are; however, intangible, unreachable principles of love, truth, and ''good'' (the last one might seem like a stretch, but contemplate the idea of ''a higher lesson.''), just to name a few. I will expound on love, but any of these concepts can be switched in place of the word love:

1. Love MUST have come from something we don't understand fully.
2. Love MUST have come from something that understands love COMPLETELY.
3. If love were our own, we would KNOW IT FULLY.

• As it is, love is just ''a peach.'' That is, love (as we know it) is the best we can imagine it to be.
• Love, really, is better than, or more accurately, ''more than'' we can imagine.

Maybe we're just viewing love in our limited dimension, like we view time. If so, does love has cross-sections to us, so we can only feel one KIND of love for one person at a time? like, the love for a partner and the love for a friend are very different to us.

• Maybe, love is a miracle that we cannot understand, like two-dimensional figures on an overhead transparency, looking at a three dimensional object between them both. They have no ability to percieve all three dimensions, so one says ''it is long'' (but not wide or deep) another says ''it is wide'' (but not long or deep)
• neither view is wrong, but they can only grasp things in a limited way. Everything beyond that gets ''truncated.''

How can i perceive love when all i have are senses that work in 3 dimensional existence?

1. There is a key ingredient to love that we are missing.
2. We see it in our dimensions as something that is less than what it really is.
3. Love came from something not confined to our limited dimensions.

It's Little Plantie! Awww...

ever since the days started getting shorter, plantie wasn't getting hardly any sun. he had a bad enough spot to begin with, since all those pine trees were being uber tall to compete with one another, and blocking out the sun for poor little plantie.

so, i got one of those little plantie lights from lowe's and started him on it right about the start of november, and here is his progression:
(click on the thumbnails to see the bigger pictures)

november 15th, he'd been under the light for a little over 2 weeks, and he'd already started ''reaching'' towards it.

here he is, december 6th, obviously loving the light. i hadn't seen 'im doing this well since the full sun he got in CA, or that big patio door at mom's house :-)

just one week later, those flowers had turned into peppers! but little plantie wasn't finished.

January 20th, plantie changed colours!

i'm so proud of that deep red he's gotten them. it's so pretty! :-D

and this little guy is the product of one of plantie's peppers. one seed out of that pepper ''made it.'' it somehow lasted from the end of may all the way up to about the middle of november, when it started to sprout. look at 'im. awwwww! :-)

''you will have 6 bad months and 6 good months''

whatever is pure, noble, excellent, of good report or praiseworthy, think about such things.

what you feed thrives, what you starve dies.

as a person thinks in his or her heart, so will they be.

you've probably heard all these things before, but put them all together, and they point to an astonishing implification: whatever you habitually dwell on, that is what you are. a thought in the heart is a belief--any thought, no matter how small.

don't feed the bad ones, like the saying ''don't feed the bears,'' pretty soon the bears may come after you for more food and devour you. don't even aknowledge their existence by denying them.

just feed the good ones and you won't have any time, any room, any ability to give any power to, any of the bad ones. that's why they say ''smile, it'll make you feel better,'' and ''laughter is good medicine,'' b/c at a most basic level, smiling/laughing gives your subconscious mind a message to find a reason to keep smiling, since smiling is so thuroughly attatched to positive emotions. William James is responsible for one of my all-time favourite quotes: ''we weep not because we are sorrowful, rather, we are sorrowful because we weep.''

contentment is a rectifying of the inner self, not a collection of outside things. i know it does sound like it's ''easier said than done.'' but it's much easier than one might think.

xmas rant

I'm not attacking people! I'm attacking the ignorant ideas that keep Christmas alive.

Halloween is celebrated by ppl dressing up as things they wouldn't ordinarly dress up as, doing things they wouldn't ordinarily do, and doing all kinds of celebrating, JUST because it's Halloween.

April Fools' Day has people pulling pranks and practical jokes on others, and it's acceptable then. It's April Fools' Day! People expect that kind of stuff then!

Christmas is celebrated in the same way, with the same reasoning, the same "temporary mindset." JUST because it's Christmas. Or am I wrong? Then why do we do it only ONE time per year, why do we buy gifts for EVERYONE we know, as though they all simultaneously crossed our minds? I'm not attacking people, I'm attacking Christmas.





When you were little, and someone gave you something good, food, a present, whatever, and you forgot to say ''thank you,'' but your folks nagged you ''Ah! Did you say 'thank you?''' Then you say ''thank you.'' Those are the worst expressions of gratitude. You had to be TOLD to do it.

I've had some beef with Christmas for quite a while now, and it's finally becoming clear to me exactly what the reasoning is.


Here's what I'm taking about:

Q.: Why do you get people gifts for Christmas?

A.: ''Because it's Christmas! you're supposed to!'' =-O you see?




It's as though getting them a gift wasn't MY idea, Christmas nagged me into it. The ''planned-out-day'' of the year, where we all ''do the Christmas thing'' gave me the idea. I had no chance to think to do something like that on my own. Not that I'm seeking recognition for it, but it is IMPOSSIBLE for such an idea to have come from ''the goodness of my own heart!'' Christmas beat me to the punch-it whispered in my ear ''give gifts to everyone you know, be kind, be joyous, spread peace!'' And now I am just copying what Christmas dictates. Good person or not, it's impossible for any of that to be my OWN idea!

My beef with Christmas is not that it's ''commercialized.'' It is so much more than ''a fake holiday.'' It removes all chances of a person being truly giving; yet we do it, we give to everyone we know, in spite of the fact that we're just doing what we're told! How does that show anyone anything?


I mean, it's all been done before. I'm not trying to top Christmas, but what good is it to give a gift like that, if your genuineness is not even your own?

''Not my own?! How DARE he make a claim like that?!'' Okay, my mistake, you actually celebrate Christmas every day of the year. You are exempt from anything this blog post has to say.

The very idea that I'm getting a gift for EVERYONE i know, testifies to the fact that I'm doing it NOT because these people all simultaneously crossed my mind, but b/c something else convinced me to get a gift for everyone. And supposing for a moment that it was my own idea, from the goodness of my heart, why is it ONLY one, planned-out time a year? It's almost like it's PLANNED out....



no other time of the year gets people to act the way they do on halloween. like ''omg! it's halloween! what are you gonna be??'' or ''geez, what are you, crazy? this ain't halloween!'' people don't normally act that way. it's halloween that gets them to do it. it's acceptable then.

and no other time of the year gets people to act the way they do at christmas. like ''omg! what do you want for christmas?!'' or ''wow! this is just like christmas for me!'' ppl don't normally act that way--they're surprised when it happens out-of-season. it's christmas that gets them to do it. it's accepted then.


Now, Halloween, that's something different. the celebration of that usually entails costumes, trick or treating, and halloween parties. fine. it's a good idea to plan out ONE day a year for this stuff to happen, that way EVERYONE knows when it's supposed to happen, so we don't have ppl like, ''doing the halloween thing'' in the summer or whenever. This sort of thing SHOULD be confined to a planned out date, well in advance, just as it has been.

in god we fussed.

i just got this foreward about some new coin that's going to be circulated in the united states that is devoid of the sentence ''in god we trust.''

that got me thinking...for one thing, i think this email was totally bogus. sounds like someone just wanted to see how many christian conservatives they could get panicked about that.

but suppose it were legit? first of all who would be surprised by this? like wow...how could you NOT see this coming? ''in god we trust'' is a misrepresentation of a major portion of the population. many people simply don't want that kind of banner for themselves. and if it's enough for some people to gripe to get ''in god we trust'' ON the money, then it's enough for some people to gripe to get it removed.

this nation is scarcely a christian nation, anyway. it would be a more accurate representation to have that removed from the money, or to have something non-christian on the other side of the currency.

so now, we have one group of people forcing this slogan to be on our money, and we have others who don't like it.

so, what if we put ''atheism is our following'' on money? that would get the christians angry, but the athiests might not be opposed to it. so, an athiest message, or a christian message? an umbrella statement for the whole united states. who's right? the christian is, of course ;-) done and done. wow...why should we even vote, when just one guy can make the decision like, a million times faster?

but there's another angle to address. the christian has a ''commission'' that they are to fulfill, which is basically to proselytise those who are not already christian.

when a christian gets to heaven, is God really going to ask ''did you petition to keep 'in god we trust' on money? 'cause if not, you don't get in.'' God is more concerned with what we become, and how we treat others. Jesus even said, in regards to money ''whose inscription is this on the coin?'' they said ''ceasar's.'' then he said ''then render to ceasar what is ceasar's, and to God what is God's.''

really. why not just let it go? all that's accomplished by tightening their grip on this matter is:

1.) perpetuating the tensions between themselves and those who actually don't trust in God (which is counterproductive to their ''commission'')

2.) showing everyone else that they are the kind of people who will ''strain out a gnat, only to swallow a camel.''

3.) putting a logo on money that God doesn't even care about. (oh, i could see it now...God asks you ''so, how many followers of christianity did you convert?'' then you answer ''well, none, but i DID get ''in god we trust'' put back on the money. and that's what really matters. i had to offend quite a few of your children down there to get it back, but i'm sure you're pleased with the end result.)

and just seeing how many people put their names on that petition, it's like they're fighting, as though losing this ''battle'' would be the worst thing that could ever happen. hey, chill out. you're not ''winning any souls'' by keeping the slogan on the money, you're just showing a rather ugly side of yourselves by fighting this with so much intolerance.

and while we're on the subject of intolerance, this is the same thing with same sex relationships/marriages. the fact that you're intolerant of it is not going to convince anyone who is homosexual to become heterosexual. the more you push, the more you hurt people, offend people, and generally get people to dislike you.

and finally, some might say ''well, christian faith is what our country was FOUNDED on!'' no, it wasn't. freedom of religion was actually the reason this nation was started, and more accurately, ''freedom from religious oppression.'' keeping that idea in mind, putting ''in god we trust'' on the money seems to say ''freedom of religion, yes, as long as you're christian.''half the signers of the delcaration of independence were deists and/or masons/freemasons. same thing as those who signed the constitution. (http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html , http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Psychology/mashist.htm , http://deism4u2xplore.tribe.net/thread/03ef5d80-932c-436a-a3fb-eecf70645e62)

so now, we have people who are actually taking the idea of freedom of religion to the bank. the joke's on them and ''in god we trust'' is the punchline.

but you know who's right? you are, mr./ms. Supporter of ''in god we trust'' on currency, because

1.) whenever there's a difference in opinion, your opinion is the one that matters.

2.) you're a christian, and our deist/mason forefathers wouldn't have it any other way.

3.) if those other religions don't like it, well they can just move out. go somewhere else. b/c if there's ANYTHING this nation stands for, it's religious freedom. ;-)

okay, so, this is where we're at:
1.) love your neighbours who are heterosexuals. check.
2.) be ready to fight tooth and nail to keep ''in god we trust'' on our money. check.

click-REEE!

i've always wanted to invent something, you know? though, i wouldn't want to like, revolutionise the toilet. Thomas Crapper invented that. i wouldn't want ppl saying ''aw maaaan, hurry it up in there! i gotta take a HUGE helfer like, right now!''

and now, some random pics from work...

he gets up early in the morning to shed his protective husk of tires which he weaves anew each night.

Employee should be able to demonstrate proper tire mounting proceedure.

our goal: to be the BEST.

atta boy, rich!

rim job.