ZETETIC2012

Psalm 23

2008-10-03T10:52:00.000-07:00

23:1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters. [1]
3 He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness [2]
for his name's sake.

4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, [3]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely [4] goodness and mercy [5] shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell [6] in the house of the Lord
forever. [7]

Inversehalo "more Pregnancy help"

2008-08-01T08:37:00.000-07:00

from the inversehalo site:

"We are expanding a vital portion of "Project Pythos" in order to help pregnant women and their future children...."

contact : inversecharity@gmail.com

the Obsession with the Self...

2008-07-19T08:34:00.000-07:00

"Today we live in an involuting civilization, a civilization of separateness, a world dedicated to the concept of struggling with the parts of itself, a world obsessed with the illusion that the self has parts. We must overcome the belief that Self can rise up against its own nature, or that spirit is fragmentary; for that one man should compete with another is as senseless as that the fingers should fight the hands to which they are attached, or dissent from each other as to their individual supremacy."

Manly P. Hall, Lectures on Ancient Philosophy.

Mother Teresa on Abortion

2008-05-23T11:54:00.000-07:00

"But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child - a direct killing of the innocent child - murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love, and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even his life to love us. So the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love - that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts. By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion. "

The Secrets of the Self: by Muhammad Iqbal

2008-05-21T17:41:00.000-07:00

The luminous point whose name is the Self
Is the life-spark beneath our dust.
By Love it is made more lasting,
More living, more burning, more glowing.
From Love proceeds the radiance of its being
And the development of its unknown possibilities.
Its nature gathers fire from Love,
Love instructs it to illumine the world.

p. 29

Love fears neither sword nor dagger,
Love is not born of water and air and earth.
Love makes peace and war in the world,
The Fountain of Life is Love's flashing sword.

The hardest rocks are shivered by Love's glance:

Love of God at last becomes wholly God.
Learn thou to love, and seek to be loved:
Seek an eye like Noah's, a heart like Job's!
Transmute thy handful of earth into gold,
Kiss the threshold of a Perfect Man! 1

illuminating the real truth

2007-12-06T05:57:00.000-08:00

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." – C.S. Lewis; Is Theology Poetry?

Inversehalo's war on occult coffee (Starbucks)

2007-10-30T11:51:00.000-07:00

The members of the local anti-atheism movement,INVERSEHALO, are taking on the cross to fight occultism and paganism against none-other than Starbucks coffee. Their propaganda campaign of "Don't Drink Satan" logos and informational packages for interested readers will be distributed throughout Jacksonville and St. Augustine.

Aramal Malik, is quoted as saying, "Occultism and paganism are the roots of corruption in our society, and with every breath I take, I will torment and destroy them."

That seems like a pretty tall order from a seemingly aged U.S. veteran, but Mr. Malik lives up to his words.
Check out their signs and materials.

-Alen H. Seivro, new Zetetic member

The Perfect Man, and the Perfectly Free Man

2007-10-03T06:30:00.000-07:00

CHAPTER III.
CONCERNING THE PERFECT MAN, AND THE PERFECTLY FREE MAN.

"The Perfect Man is he who has fully comprehended The Perfect Man. the Law, the Doctrine and the Truth; or, in other words, he who is endued with four things in perfection; viz. 1. Good words; 2. Good deeds; 3. Good principles; 4. The sciences. It is the business of the Traveller to provide himself with these things in perfection, and by so doing he will provide himself with perfection.

The Perfect Man has had various other names Other titles applied to him. assigned to him, all equally applicable, viz. Elder, Leader, Guide, Inspired Teacher, Wise, Virtuous, Perfect, Perfecter, 1Beacon and Mirror of the world,Powerful Antidote, Mighty Elixir, ’Isà the Raiser of the Dead, Khizar the Discoverer of the Water of Life, and Solomon who knew the language of Birds.

The Universe has been likened to a single person, of whom the Perfect Man is the Soul; and again, to a tree, of which mankind is the fruit, and the Perfect Man the pith and essence. Nothing is hidden from the Perfect Man; for after arriving at the knowledge of God, he has attained to that of the nature and properties of material objects, and can henceforth find no better employment than acting His business. mercifully towards mankind. Now there is no mercy better than to devote oneself to the perfection and improvement of others, both by precept and example. Thus the Prophet is called in the Corán "a mercy to the Universe." (Cor. cap. 21, v. 107.) But with all his perfection the Perfect Man cannot compass his desires, but passes his life in consistent and unavoidable self-denial: he is perfect in knowledge and principle, but imperfect in faculty and power.

Perfection not incompatible with Power.There have indeed been Perfect Men possessed of power; such power as that which resides in kings and rulers; yet a careful consideration of the poor extent of man's capacities will shew that his weakness is preferable to his power, his want of faculty preferable to his possession of it. Prophets and saints, kings and sultans, have desired many things, and failed to obtain them; they have wished to avoid many things, and have had them forced upon them. Mankind is made up of the Perfect and the Imperfect, of the Wise and the Foolish, of Kings and Subjects, but all are alike weak and helpless, all pass their lives in a manner contrary to their desires; this the Perfect Man recognises and acts upon, and, knowing that nothing is better for man than renunciation, forsakes all and becomes free and at leisure. As before he renounced wealth and dignity, so now he foregoes eldership and teachership, esteeming freedom and rest above everything: the fact is, that though the motive alleged for education and care of others is a feeling of compassion and a regard for discipline, yet the real instigation is the love of dignity: as the Prophet says, "The last thing that is removed from the chiefs of the righteous is love of dignity." I have said that the Perfect Man should The Perfectly Free Man. be endued with four things in perfection: now the Perfectly Free Man should have four additional characteristics, viz. renunciation, retirement, contentment, and leisure. He who has the first four is virtuous, but not free: he who has the whole eight is perfect, liberal, virtuous, and free. Furthermore, there are two grades of the Perfectly Free—those The two grades of the Perfectly Free. who have renounced wealth and dignity only, and those who have further renounced eldership and teachership, thus becoming free and at leisure. These again are subdivided into two classes; those who, after renunciation, retirement and contentment, make choice of obscurity, and those who, after renunciation, make choice of submission, contemplation and resignation; but the object of both is the same. Some writers assert that freedom and leisure consists in the former course, while others maintain that it is only to be found in the latter.

Those who make choice of obscurity are actuated by the knowledge that annoyance and distraction of thought are the invariable concomitants of society; they therefore avoid receiving visits and presents, and fear them as they would venomous beasts. The other class, who adopt submission, resignation and contemplation, do so because they perceive that mankind for the most part are ignorant of what is good for them, being dissatisfied with what is beneficial, and delighted with circumstances that are harmful to them; as the Coran says, "Perchance ye may dislike what is good for you, and like what is hurtful to you." (Cor. cap. 2, v. 213.) For this reason they retire from society equally with the other class, caring little what the world may think of them. The eminent Sufis are divided in opinion as to which of these two courses is to be preferred."

Oriental Mysticism, by E. H. Palmer (1867)

Christians fight with Apollyon

2007-09-28T11:29:00.000-07:00

King James Version: Revelation Chapter 9

1 And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
2 And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
9 And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
12 One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

FIGHT BACK WITH INVHALO!

2007-09-27T06:38:00.001-07:00

1st Corinthians

2007-08-09T11:53:00.001-07:00

13:1If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don't have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. 13:2If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don't have love, I am nothing. 13:3If I dole out all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don't have love, it profits me nothing.

13:4Love is patient and is kind; love doesn't envy. Love doesn't brag, is not proud, 13:5doesn't behave itself inappropriately, doesn't seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; 13:6doesn't rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 13:7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 13:8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with. 13:9For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; 13:10but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with. 13:11When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things. 13:12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known. 13:13But now faith, hope, and love remain--these three. The greatest of these is love.

Shadow People

2007-08-03T08:27:00.001-07:00

In Praise of Living in Peace

2007-07-31T11:21:00.000-07:00

"How wonderful it is, how pleasant, for God's people to live together in harmony!
It is like the precious anointing oil running down from Aaron's head and beard, down to the collar of his robes.
It is like the dew on Mount Hermon, falling on the hills of Zion, That is where the Lord has promised his blessing-life that never ends."

Psalms 133:1-3

Justice and Righteousness

2007-07-30T11:20:00.000-07:00

Thus Says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, nor shed innocent blood.

Jeremiah 22.3

Lo! God enjoins justice and kindness, and giving to kinsfolk, and forbids lewdness and abomination and wickedness. He exhorts you in order that you may take heed!

Qur'an 16.90

The Names of the Spirit

2007-07-28T10:50:00.002-07:00

Names for the Holy Spirit:

Counselor; Comforter; Baptizer; Advocate; Strengthener; Sanctifier; Spirit of Christ (not the same as the spirit of Christ); Seven-Fold Spirit (Rev.); Spirit of Truth; Spirit of Grace; Spirit of Mercy; Spirit of God; Spirit of Holiness; Spirit of Life. Symbolized in OT and NT by (l) breath or wind; (2) fire; (3) water; (4) oil; (5) light; (6) a dove.

2007-07-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

False Prophets

2007-07-27T06:56:00.000-07:00

"If they deny that their prophets have taken gifts, let them confess this much, that if they be convicted of having taken them, they are not prophets; and we will adduce ten thousand proofs that they have. It is proper, too, that all the fruits of a prophet should be examined. Tell me:
does a prophet dye his hair? Does a prophet use stibium on his eyes? Is a prophet fond of dress? Does a prophet play at gaming-tables and dice? Does a prophet lend money on interest? Let them confess whether these things are allowable or not. For my part, I will prove that these practices have occurred among them."

Apollonius.