Dear new and old friends,

Someone, I expect it was Uncle Taz's nephew, sent me an invitation to
join this conversation list yesterday. So I did, and I thought I would
now introduce myself, and make a few comments. I've read the first 100
e-mails in the archive, and didn't want to pass by those struggles to
understand the world, without adding from my own experience and
thinking.

As a side note, the movie Charlie was not based upon something written
by Ray Bradbury, but upon a short novel called Flowers for Algernon
(Algernon being the mouse that was experimented on before the human
being was), which was written (I had to Google this) by one Daniel Keyes
[ http://www.danielkeyesauthor.com/algernon.html ].

That minor point aside, I'd now like to add some comments to the
conversation about Islam.

In my thinking, I try to distinguish a religion, whether Islam,
Buddhism, Christianity, whatever, from the life and biography into which
an incarnating spirit has entered. We are, on the Earth, star-children,
each and every one of us. We've come from our star, and entered into
life accepting our Karma (ordained and agreed to suffering as recompense
for past and future deeds), Fate (those new trials that come given that
each biography is always an ongoing shared creation - it would be empty
were others not part of it) and Destiny (that which we ourselves can
make into Art out of our life, and which is neither Karma or Fate, but
our own individual invention).

In order to experience this threefold life pattern and potential, we
choose at the Midnight Hour, in the company of Higher Beings, to live
out our biography within a particular time, culture, language, religion,
and related and necessary companions (family, friends and enemies -
these last are crucial for they are often our greatest teachers). What
this means is that Islam is no more crucial to the biographies of those
who have chosen to incarnate within its influence than was/is
traditional Catholicism or Hinduism.

It is context, but not essence.

Moreover, in our time, in the Age of the Consciousness Soul, it is
precisely the dead and dying aspects of these religious traditions which
the individual star-child is meant to encounter and struggle with in
order to have the possibility of finding personal spiritual freedom.
These cultural contexts exist precisely and only for the purpose of
providing us with a certain tension, which our developing I-am needs to
meet and grow within.

So as regards to Islam, there are two aspects to it. One is tradition,
and found in the Koran and other teachings. The other is what the
individual star-child does with it, out of their own humanity, and which
we can only know through personal meetings with such individuals. Our
imagination cannot supply us with knowledge of the second, or lived
Islam, which individuals manifest, any more than our imagination can
supply us with knowledge of how an individual and particular Catholic
chooses to live out their humanity in the context of that tradition.

The fact is that Christ has given to all egos, all star-children, the
same nature in the I-am. When we meet the Thou, in whatever
circumstances or context, we meet that about which Christ said:
"Whatsoever ye do to the least of these my brethren, you also do to me."

warm regards,
joel

for those who may be new to me
Shapes in the Fire: http://ipwebdev.com/hermit/index.html
Outlaw Anthroposophy: http://ipwebdev.com/hermit/otlwa.html
some thoughts on the nature of public life and an offer of service:
http://ipwebdev.com/campaign
Celebration and Theater - a People's Art of Statecraft:
http://ipwebdev.com/celebration