(a note to my Beloved, Sacred, (JW) Brother Joe; also note, the first selection, top of this web site, above, as:
)
)
[NOTE: Joe is a devout JW who I had the privilege of meeting, I don't know, five years ago, when tapped by St.Thomas, at his request, I was taking his 10 hours every day at the then, 28 year vigil at the White House. Though our discussion on that day, Joe's and mine, was entirely respectful, deep, and thorough, I never expected to hear from him again. Would you? Would you expect a devout JW to wish to continue a dialogue with me? ROFL!
But we have remained for all these years in a sacred, deep, respectful, open dialog for all these years. And each time we have spoken, it has been a mystery to me that we did, that the dialogue was continuing, but it has. About a week ago I received an e-mail from Joe that was sort of the e-mail I expected after our first dialog years ago, and after each of our dialogs since - tho I couldn't have predicted the exact content.
Joe clearly, surely, accurately, respectfully, Lovingly, HARSHLY... laid out a lot of things that he had heard from me over the years (including on this blog that he has faithfully followed, with OUTRAGE at times, I'm sure, brave soul) that I considered central, and preceded in this email to say, with complete respect, that everything I thought was ABSURD (my word).
And then he said in some detail what he believed. And that enabled me to reply, in a fairly long and detailed e-mail, that in total love, respect, amazement... That I found everything he said in that e-mail totally ABSURD! And further, that though it was clear he loves me, and I love him, I could see no bases for either of us spending more time in our dialogue.
Well, amazement again, this morning I received an e-mail reply from Joe. It was fairly long. But what I recall it saying was, in summary, in total - I love you, and I will not leave you at a time that you are facing death. :-)
Following is my reply. (now, I'm crying.)]
ps: Update about 10 hours later after the note below. ROFL (google it, if you don't know):
http://jesusgodgoodetcnjay.blogspot.com/2013/08/cancer-update-oncologist-no-longer.html
[[
DEFINITIONAL NOTE: "LOVING:"
* "Love is that which cannot remain passive in the face of Suffering." Teresa of Calcutta.
* "Universal Family." Loving
* "Laying down your life for our global neediest; servant of all; doing unto others ALL...." Jesus
* "Agape," the Greek word for the Love Jesus spoke, taught, Lived, died... to return us to
]]
...........body - email reply to Joe .............
Well, amazement again, this morning I received an e-mail reply from Joe. It was fairly long. But what I recall it saying was, in summary, in total - I love you, and I will not leave you at a time that you are facing death. :-)
Following is my reply. (now, I'm crying.)]
ps: Update about 10 hours later after the note below. ROFL (google it, if you don't know):
http://jesusgodgoodetcnjay.blogspot.com/2013/08/cancer-update-oncologist-no-longer.html
[[
DEFINITIONAL NOTE: "LOVING:"
* "Love is that which cannot remain passive in the face of Suffering." Teresa of Calcutta.
* "Universal Family." Loving
* "Laying down your life for our global neediest; servant of all; doing unto others ALL...." Jesus
* "Agape," the Greek word for the Love Jesus spoke, taught, Lived, died... to return us to
]]
...........body - email reply to Joe .............
Joe, I am immensely stimulated by
our recent dialogue...
Out of respect for our differences, so Divinely revealed in our last exchange, I thought of sharing none of it with you. Out of respect. I thought of trying to pick and choose. I'll do neither. I'll just make available to you what is in my mind, my Soul, and you can read all, none, or pick and choose.
1. About 5 hours after I sent my last e-mail to you, a full day before you replied, the following popped into my mind, and I thought of sending you a PS. But I decided not to. What occurred to me at that time, and this was really important to my own thinking, was that of all the sentences I wrote to you in that long e-mail, they could all have been replaced by just one of them. The sentence that could have replaced everything else that I wrote, and have still, adequately, expressed the entirety of what I Care about in the world, have hoped for in the world, have faith in, Devote my every breath to ..., Can you guess? Lol. It was the sentence where I said -
Out of respect for our differences, so Divinely revealed in our last exchange, I thought of sharing none of it with you. Out of respect. I thought of trying to pick and choose. I'll do neither. I'll just make available to you what is in my mind, my Soul, and you can read all, none, or pick and choose.
1. About 5 hours after I sent my last e-mail to you, a full day before you replied, the following popped into my mind, and I thought of sending you a PS. But I decided not to. What occurred to me at that time, and this was really important to my own thinking, was that of all the sentences I wrote to you in that long e-mail, they could all have been replaced by just one of them. The sentence that could have replaced everything else that I wrote, and have still, adequately, expressed the entirety of what I Care about in the world, have hoped for in the world, have faith in, Devote my every breath to ..., Can you guess? Lol. It was the sentence where I said -
'I Care about loving a trillion times more than anything
else.'
Everything else I said in the e-mail, I think, was just a
restatement of that one central factor in my life; that IS my life. I
Care about loving one trillion times more than I Care about anything
else in the universe.
2. Hours before your e-mail of today the following popped into my mind [all the ideas that I value just pop up that way. Godsend? I pray so. ] - "paradigm." You know the concept, probably better than I do. As my mind involuntarily pondered how two, well intended, informed, diligent... strivers for the Truth could see the world so profoundly differently
.
It became obvious to me that this feature, (Paradigm forming) ,
necessity, trick, of the mind must be at work in you and me And our
profoundly different view of the Truth. In a room full of people that
have never seen the picture above, if they are asked, without them
talking among themselves, to contemplate the picture, and then to say
what it is - some will say old woman, some will say girl, and almost
invariably they will be fiercely angry at those that see it differently, near OPPOSITE,
than they do!!!! Incomprehensible!!!! Absurd!!!! Blasphemy!!!! LOL.
2. Hours before your e-mail of today the following popped into my mind [all the ideas that I value just pop up that way. Godsend? I pray so. ] - "paradigm." You know the concept, probably better than I do. As my mind involuntarily pondered how two, well intended, informed, diligent... strivers for the Truth could see the world so profoundly differently
And this explains many if not all of our wars.
And some thoughts that have occurred to me since receiving your most recent e-mail below:
3. I think that all the preventable suffering in the world is due to one factor, and one factor alone, regardless of how it might be stated:
And some thoughts that have occurred to me since receiving your most recent e-mail below:
3. I think that all the preventable suffering in the world is due to one factor, and one factor alone, regardless of how it might be stated:
...putting
anything, anything, anything... within a trillion layers of the
priority of Being Loving. All, all, all, all preventable suffering is a
result of this error. This is the substance of all, all, all, Sin, Error.
4.
It is so clear to me that this was Jesus' teaching (#3 here),
that this was his Gospel, this was His good news - that all, All, ALLLLLLLL... needless
suffering on earth would be solved by this one
thing - Placing loving at a trillion times higher priority than
anything, than everything else.
And even better, for each INDIVIDUAL person -
...if no one else on earth did it, but just one person did, that one, individual, person would instantly enter heaven on earth.
And that has been my life experience- totally, completely, exactly, entirely, intellectually, historically, religiously, experientially, absolutely.
...if no one else on earth did it, but just one person did, that one, individual, person would instantly enter heaven on earth.
And that has been my life experience- totally, completely, exactly, entirely, intellectually, historically, religiously, experientially, absolutely.
And it is pointed to by the words and lives of all the
people throughout history for whom I have admiration, which is how I've found it, re-discovered it (we're ALL BORN knowing it; and our culture destroys our knowing it, within months of our birth, now). "As you do unto
the least of these you do unto me." "They will know you buy how you
love..." "The greatest among you is the servant of all." "Do unto others
all that you would have them do unto you." "The good shepherd lays down
his life for his flock." "There is no greater love than to lay down
your life for brother." The parable of the good shepherd. The parable of
the woman who put in two
farthings, more than all....
5. Your e-mail to me below was such a surprise. Such a joyful surprise. Such a nice gift. Maybe it should not have been seen by me as such a gift. I mean, obviously I can't be sure of why you sent it. Not that I try to be non obvious to you, anymore than you try to be non obvious to me. But we are, clearly, non-obvious to each other. LOL!
6. Not being in your head, as I do not have the benefit of being, I cannot know whether the following is true or not. But that you sent the e-mail below, and that you sent ME, a blasphemer (LOL) the e-mail below, it makes me wonder: is Joe's belief system really that different from mine? What belief system? That loving is one trillion times more important than anything else on earth. That what ever God is, that what is one trillion times more important to Him or Her than EVERYTHING else, is that we be loving. That to God: us being loving, is one trillion times more important than what we call him or her, or if we call him or her anything at all. One trillion times more important than any individual or collective religious belief, tradition, dogma... that we hold, OR THAT WE HOLD NONE AT ALL.
7. So if my understanding is that being loving is one trillion times more important than anything else, than EVERYTHING else, does that mean I think nothing else is important? Well, if so, I sure am wasting an awful lot of my life -studying, writing, advocating, sacrificing.... :-)
8. But I suppose the only two things besides loving that I find important are:
5. Your e-mail to me below was such a surprise. Such a joyful surprise. Such a nice gift. Maybe it should not have been seen by me as such a gift. I mean, obviously I can't be sure of why you sent it. Not that I try to be non obvious to you, anymore than you try to be non obvious to me. But we are, clearly, non-obvious to each other. LOL!
6. Not being in your head, as I do not have the benefit of being, I cannot know whether the following is true or not. But that you sent the e-mail below, and that you sent ME, a blasphemer (LOL) the e-mail below, it makes me wonder: is Joe's belief system really that different from mine? What belief system? That loving is one trillion times more important than anything else on earth. That what ever God is, that what is one trillion times more important to Him or Her than EVERYTHING else, is that we be loving. That to God: us being loving, is one trillion times more important than what we call him or her, or if we call him or her anything at all. One trillion times more important than any individual or collective religious belief, tradition, dogma... that we hold, OR THAT WE HOLD NONE AT ALL.
7. So if my understanding is that being loving is one trillion times more important than anything else, than EVERYTHING else, does that mean I think nothing else is important? Well, if so, I sure am wasting an awful lot of my life -studying, writing, advocating, sacrificing.... :-)
8. But I suppose the only two things besides loving that I find important are:
A. Staying loving,
B. Becoming loving -
....As A. and B. apply to me, as they apply to everyone born, and to be born.
....As A. and B. apply to me, as they apply to everyone born, and to be born.
9.
And that if I, or God, or you Joe, or anyone... care about religion, that A and B are the entire and
only, ONLY valid, Godly, reason why. That the only right reason, 100% of the Right
Reason for caring about Religion, the only reason God would care about a
right religion, or that you or I or anyone's belief system, is:
....that it does or does not, is optimal or
suboptimal, in making and keeping an individual or a group
-loving!!!!!
That's it.
10.
And therefore, getting religion right is immensely important to me, to God. But not for itself!!!! Never, for itself!!!!!!!!! Never one nanosecond, one breath... Religion is
NEVER important for itself!!!! Religion is Only important because, if
we ever got religion right, it would be instrumental to what religion,
and everything else, has so far failed to do -
....reliably, predictably,
effectively, powerfully, consistently, broadly, universally:
A. Make us all Loving,
B. Prevent us from not being loving.
Brother Joe, thank you for stimulating all these thoughts. I'll treasure them forever. I'll be posting them, shortly. Thank you. Thank you for helping me toward this Divine clarity!
Your brother forever, no matter what. Loving
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