"Give up learning and put an end to your troubles" Lao Tzu.
Agreed Farkel.. Tao Te Ching is an amazing little book, all written by a man, who, as tradition goes, did not even want to write it, was just trying to "Get away from it all"
my journey out began with this and other ''eyeopening" internet sites [thank you simon].
i have since read ray franz's two books and greg stafford's "dissertations".
although i am very grateful to have found out that my years of questions had a solid base and i now see the wts for what it is, i have decided i need more positives in my life.
"Give up learning and put an end to your troubles" Lao Tzu.
Agreed Farkel.. Tao Te Ching is an amazing little book, all written by a man, who, as tradition goes, did not even want to write it, was just trying to "Get away from it all"
basic meaning
basic meaning
a new sun is rising, and it is, for you, a time of great transformation.
Pleasuredome,
There are aparently a lot of different opinions about "Amen" as used in prayers. As a Hebrew word it means something like "So be it". (interesting enough, many Rosicrucian and Masonic ceremonies end in "So Mote it Be") Jesus being a Jew, used it, but his calling himself "The Amen" is a bit odd. Is he saing "I am IT" or perhaps "I am Amen"? Muslims also say Amen but I dont know much about their reasons. Then again Allah might well stem from Allat (sp?) a Arabic moon deity similar to the Vedic God Soma. (The Fertile Crescent was where religious traditions really came to meet.. Mithraism, Zororastrianism, Vedic, Egyptian, Hellenistic, native Canaanite, Babylonian, etc ad nauseum.
Personally, I think Amon-Re has secertly been giving Vedic Hinduism a run for the money as the longest going religious tradition. We've been throwin the Sun in our prayers right along with the Son. :-)
Way to go Sun! A god you can see (till your retinas burn out)
my journey out began with this and other ''eyeopening" internet sites [thank you simon].
i have since read ray franz's two books and greg stafford's "dissertations".
although i am very grateful to have found out that my years of questions had a solid base and i now see the wts for what it is, i have decided i need more positives in my life.
"All beings, O Arjun, are unmanifest --- invisible to our physical eyes --- before birth and after birth. They manifest between birth and death only. What is there to grieve about?" Sri Krishna speaking to Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita
The Gita's been very thought provoking for me. Its available for free at www.gita4free.com
has anyone read the "left behind" book series?
http://www.leftbehind.com .
yizuman.
Worshiping the kind of god in "Left Behind" and other fear tactic propganda is rediculous. Who could love such a destructive monster. It makes Satan look like a misunderstood Che Guevara by comparison. I wonder what Jew, Hindus and the rest of "etc." think of this $hit.
oh jehovah, lord of creation, god of armies, .
please help the sacramento kings defeat the jazz of utah tonight in salt lake city.
certainly you being a god of all things you admire the full-court press.
I have to bypass the savior on this one. I have it on good authority Jesus is more of an East Coast fan.
or maybe some are austrian?.
im not trying to offend any german people that may be on this board and if i did i apologize because that was not my intent.
but i do think that some do have a need to be in control.
You fools! The Governing Body are only Northern European (except for Brother Token), in their fleshly bodies, not in their true spirit form. The Governing Body come from a planet orbiting the star Alcyone in the constellation of the Pleidies (just draw a line to the right of Orion's belt and you will hit it), where Jehovah lives, except when he vacations in San Diego. Sheesh you people don't study your Golden Age very well.
oh jehovah, lord of creation, god of armies, .
please help the sacramento kings defeat the jazz of utah tonight in salt lake city.
certainly you being a god of all things you admire the full-court press.
Oh Jehovah, Lord of Creation, God of Armies,
Please help the Sacramento Kings defeat the Jazz of Utah tonight in Salt Lake City. Certainly you being a god of all things you admire the full-court press. Please keep the humble Kings from falling into the half court shenanigans of Malone and Stockton. If you just want to, fill Vlade Divac's heart with courage to take the occasional shot, because we both know he can be a more dynamic center then he was last night. I don't have any money riding on this one, as you know, it's just a personal thing. And please, oh lord, help Chris Webber to overcome any residual back pain. Allow the humble team from Sacramento, who are in awe of your awesomeness to keep a closer guard on Cheaney who is starting to hit a rhythm. I ask all these things humbly oh and help the sick and poor people.
Amen
basic meaning
basic meaning
a new sun is rising, and it is, for you, a time of great transformation.
Pleasuredome,
The WTBS had a certain liking for the winged-disk of Ra. Don't know why. Then again JW's (and most Christians) invoke Amen-Ra at the end of every prayer, unknowingly.
"We ask all these things in Jesus' Name, Amen".
basic meaning
basic meaning
a new sun is rising, and it is, for you, a time of great transformation.
Pleasuredome,
I don't want to seem like a conspiracy nut, but as a student of a Rosicrucian order, I must admit I have seen many signs that the Witnesses have been influenced in their development by someone who had at least a little contact with one of the RC groups. The tetragrammiton is imporatant in RC symbology. Al of this information is of public record among the RCs. Here is an explanation of the symbollical importance IHVH has in the western esoteric tradition: http://www.crcsite.org/tomb.htm (an informative, candid site by the Confraternity of the Rose Cross). www.crcsite.org also has a lot of information on other symbology as well. You don't have to agree with it, and most of it is in the historical perspective, but it is still interesting reading.
Other things which are interesting is that in the 1870's, Rosicrucian activity was fairly high in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania had a Rosicrucian activity going as far back as the colonial period, but in 1879 Societas Rosicruciana Civitatibus Foederatis was formed. This order, unlike most, requires it's members to be Masons (and of 32nd degree.) It still exists but is very small, with only a few hundred members, compared with a claimed hundreds of thousands by AMORC.
The larger Pennsylvania group of interest would by the one with the Beverly Hall headquarters at Quakertown, PA. Fraternitas Rosæ Crucis, www.soul.org. Here is a picture of one of their buildings.
notice the symbol over the door. This group formed in 1912 (and reformed in 1919, I think) and is still around today, although from what I hear they are beyond the mainstream. The problem for trying to link Rosicrucianism with the Bible Students/Watchtower, is that there is no real homogenous Rosicrucian group. There are many groups, some of which only last a little while. Some are public, others are not. Some are religious and others are less so. On top of that, some are Christian oriented, others are Masonic, others are Golden Dawn, while still others like AMORC have become more "New Age." Many have bogus claims.
I am just speculating, but I believe that the Witnesses have had ex-Rosicrucians among their members back at the beginning. Russell was starting a whole new side-branch of Christianity and he needed symbollism. He used what he had in stock, symbollically, but developed his own teachings. Rutherford, by comparison was an iconoclast (and a drunkard, womanizer, and general bastard). Since then images keep cropping up. Ray Franz hasn't mentioned any kind of initiatic ceremony among people at the top in WTBS, so I would think that possibly people in the writing and art department are just doing their own occult research in the name of looking for things to print, or else some of them are first genreation witnesses with a prior background in western esotericism. This would be likely. I know several elders who were formerly masons.
i'm not unduly worried about contracting sars, particularly as the chances of getting it are remote.
there's plenty more threatening illnesses around that aren't remote, but leastways i can have some control over these far more dangerous diseases by how i conduct my lifestyle.
look at this from today's sunday times: .
Odds are better that you will get lung cancer, if you smoke, but probably not tomorrow. World infrastructure is sort of designed to handle these events.
We're going to have a 100% mortality rate no matter what, but SARS has the capability to be another Spanish Flu. That is a big deal, which is why its important that it is handled quickly.