Best wishes to a friend who may have pneumonia.
Wow, what a week that was! Short but busy. There was another long fire call yesterday. Someone had flicked a cigarette butt and well the wind and the dry grass/bush did it's job. We were there for 6 hours, then cleanup. Just as we cleaned my tanker another call came in. Someone had fired a flare and it lit up a long section of highway. Luckily I didn't have to go to that one.
We were a good crew, some new people and some old. I was officer on the truck, but I also operated the pump. We were on a lighter truck with four-wheel drive, we were putting out hot spots in the field to the West of the fire. Then we went to cover the bush from the South side. The smaller tankers are great, when you learn their idiosyncrasies.
There was one asshole tree, grrr. It was like a torch when we sprayed water on it. Once the flames were out though, the inside of the tree was still hot ambers. This was like a squirrel condo, it was hard wood too. I had a new guy on a porta-pack and i was chopping places for him to spray. it was fun. Raining today, so I am sure the fire is out. Fires in the bush are different than fires in a house, they get into the peat moss and smolder for awhile.
Two nights this week I didn't have to cook supper. After a certain amount of time working a fire, dinner is billed to the fire. Pizza - it goes down great when you are starved.
I am even sorer that the other day. I have booked a massage on Monday, never had one....at a massage place before. I booked an hour.
Remember on Palm Sunday I mentioned the Catholics streaming out of the Church in a procession? Well I found out from a person who has been to a certain island nation, that this is common at Easter. Little impromptu parades everywhere at Easter. It causes a traffic disaster of epic proportions. They laughed when I described it. All the person in Edmonton from that island nation go to the Basilica to cleans their souls after a week of sinning. The basilica is like a power flush.
I have a date tonight, I think. It is more of a first meet, this guy hit on me on the net and he is coming soon to meet me at Starbucks. I have decided it is what it is. Headed to O'Byrnes for a Guinness.
Zen is the path to Enlightenment, some people confuse Zen and Buddhism. Zen is The Way (Tao). It can be a part of Buddhism, but it is not the only part and not all Buddhists are Zen Buddhists. Confused yet? Taoism is probably the oldest religion or way that there is. The rules are similar to all religions. The goal of 'The Way' is to find enlightenment in it's many forms. The attached poster with Bishop Tutu would be a Zen saying. Ecclesiastes 3 in the Bible is a zen saying 'To everything there is a season.....'
The Baha'i have combined this with Prophets. they look for potential prophets on the planet at any given time. Prophets can be found by their Zen sayings, I believe. Although that is a dangerous supposition, a truth can be a negative as well. So a person like Rush Limbaugh could manage to utter a zen saying - Yin/Yang.
Maybe I will do a theology program, so I can get a degree in it.
I spoke to one of the people that was affected by the chopping, he is thinking of opening his own immigration consulting company. We have worked together for 2 years, he is at a higher level than I am and we work together well. I know it could screw up my pension, but, immigration consultants make at least 2 times my salary and I can live wherever I want. Just thinking.......
My information about Zen indicate that it is a Budhist sect. The way Sufism goes with Islam, and Qaballah with Judaism. I don't know of an equivalent Christian corespondence. Maybe some of the orders were at one time but got washed out by Xtian politics.
ReplyDeleteSomething I have been studying lately shows Hindu texts that pre-date anything any other "religion" seems to have including Judaism and Taoism. My own experience also indicates the only true path is the one you discover for yourself, through inner spiritual work. You have to have experience. The Tao that can be named is not the Tao.
Geez, have to use laptop to get to comments. I agree there is a sect called Zen in Buddhism. I do not think that Zen is trapped within the cup known as Buddhism. The concept is larger than the religion.
ReplyDeleteI only went by the last research I had done, on the oldest religion, Taoism, I am sure that there are older religions.
In my post on inception I think I brushed up against, this, but you opened the door to tie the two together. If God is the smallest thing on the planet who occupies almost everything, don't want to say ALL as there is a chance there is a radical ion out there not controlled by God. To continue, if God is at inception of though in humans, then there has to be a form of 'The Way' from the beginning - meaning there has to have been some kind of code. Taoism's basic tenets are the same as the 10 commandments, they just pre-date them by a long time. They just weren't delivered to a man standing on top of a mountain in a lightning storm.
I just read Genesis 1, a little too simplistic for me, maybe setting the parameters of faith, for the rest of the tomes. Ah, but the Council of Nicea was smart, they had another witness to the beginning, John 1.1 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.' This even pre-dates Genesis. I am sarcastic about the Council as there, 325 years after Christ's death started the real problems with Christianity. Ever get 300 people to agree on anything?
So anyway, inception fits in with John's statement - so John's statement could be said to be enlightened. I am sure that there are lots of gems in the Bible, to give it some credence for the amount of BS that they are wrapped up in.
But we do agree that the true path is within each and everyone of us. We all have a relationship with God. I wonder what strife is going on inside people that have chosen to ignore their inner light and listen to the 'expert light' coming from another, i.e Billy Graham or Pat Robertson. He should be build their light, not his.