Munchkin has charged me with the honorary task of posting our two-hundredth post and filling it with some lofty thoughts and ideas that free us from the feeling of mundaneness engendered by three inches of rain every night, not having fixed the pump yet, mud, mosquitoes, no-see-ums, botless flies, doctor flies, termites and the constant growth of tropical bush — Green Hell…ehm…I mean Paradise!

Before I start, however, I want to share the happiness of having found and reconnected with a long-lost, medical school classmate with whom I shared some of those awful times:

Here I go:  Let us take today to realise that all religions have at least one common commandment:  “Thou shalt not disfigure the soul.”  This is a powerful and empowering statement and it gives me hope and comfort when I ponder upon it:  it reminds me that we are all in the same boat as collective Humanity; allowing me to feel and behave as an equal with my fellows; with compassion and understanding regardless of which books we read and study in our search for freedom.  I believe that we can all meet with the common belief that there exists a Divine Essence in the universe without having to kill, crush and destroy each other trying to prove the supremacy of our personal thoughts to others.

This next one is a blatant paraphrase from the Liturgical Manual and Commentaries of the Orange Catholic Bible:  People, finding no answers to the ten thousand religious questions now apply their own reasoning:  All men seek to be enlightened.  Religion is but the most ancient and honourable way in which men have striven to make sense out of God’s universe.  Scientists seek the lawfulness of events.  It is the task of religion to fit man into this lawfulness.

Another paraphrase that follows nicely:  Much that is called religion has carried an unconscious attitude of hostility towards life.  True religion must teach that life is filled with joys pleasing to the eye of God, that knowledge without action is empty.  All men must see that the teaching of religions by rules and rote is largely a hoax.  The proper teaching is recognised with ease.  You can know it without fail because it awakens within you that sensation which tells you this is something you’ve always known.

I dedicate this quote from Bomoko’s Legacy to those of us that feel that our problems will be taken away by somebody else:  “You who have defeated us say to yourselves that Babylon is fallen and its works have been overturned.  I say to you still that man remains on trial, each man in his own dock.  Each man is a little war.”

I find this quote from the O.C. Bible enlightening when I neurotically rationalise and justify my bad behaviour:  “Any sin can be ascribed, at least in part, to a natural bad tendency that is an extenuating circumstance acceptable to God.”

And finally, to end on a note that reminds us to be mindful of that little voice in our heads which often gets us into plenty of trouble (22 Kalima):  “Whether a thought is spoken or not, it is a real thing and has powers of reality.”

…”Would you like fries with that!!” 😉