Blogs from another World

Why from another world? Well, I often feel like a stranger here, on Earth; like a transient visitor who cannot quite figure out what is going on with our world. Perhaps that is why many of my books have metaphysical overtones.

Sue me!

As for blogs, I write them because more people read them than any of my books—and this in spite of the fact that, upon request, I am willing to offer any and all of my books for free. A request sent to my email (mailto:stan@stanlaw.ca) will reward you with a coupon for a free download. Or downloads. Plural. All I ask in return is a short review on the Amazon.

Alas, you seem to prefer blogs.

Of course, the blogs are shorter. Perhaps like an aria, without being forced to listen to the whole opera. On the other hand, my books have chapters, and those are split into paragraphs. You might like to think of them as many blogs glued together. Would that help?

It would help if you liked the subjects that fascinate me. The genre. I write about Human Potential. About what we can achieve when we try. Or even in spite of ourselves. I write about that potential is resting in us, within each one of us, waiting to be discovered. Acknowledged. Recognized. Only then it can swell into a magnificent conflagration. Or spread out into an endless ocean. Or reach the stars. It’s all up to us.

Read my books and you’ll find out.

I’ll tell you what. Try one and we’ll see. I present you the whole spectrum for you to choose from. And remember, they won’t cost you a penny, or a cent, if you reside in North America. And the choice is your. Remember that Smashwords offers downloads to you computer and/or just about any electronic devise you can think of. You have more than 30 books to choose from.

Enjoy!

http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/stanislaw

PS. Tell your friends!

The Good, the Bad and the Indifferent

During the months preceding the elections in the great country south of our borders, I was amazed at the passion of the Democrats, and by their efforts to protect the rights of the (relatively) poor, perhaps even the indifferent. They did so bearing full wrath of the Republicans, who have proven on many occasions, with many public statements, that anyone who is against their policies is anti-American.

Amazing!

As an example, the friends I have outside the States recognize the Fox News as a source of daily humor. This opinion was broadly supported by great many of my FB friends who are very much US citizens. Not one of them took the news channel seriously. And yet they, the newscasters, insist on making a public spectacle of themselves, seemingly unaware of the effect they have on many people.

The Democrats, on the other hand, within a mere four years, managed to restore the respect, which the USA held throughout the world, yet which was virtually lost during the Bush years. Perhaps they managed to do so by showing respect for other people’s views, without treating them all as ‘anti-American’, just because they disagreed with them.

My problem is that, at heart, my sentiments lie with a group that has no hope of ever achieving hegemony in the States, a group called the Libertarians. In my insignificant way I support the concept of limited, constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, honest money and many other aspects of Libertarian philosophy, though never at the expense of helping those which are in need. What I do not support is ignorance replacing common sense, rudeness replacing politeness, lies replacing the truth, hate replacing love, and other unfortunate traits which seem to have become dominant in the political environment.

I am sure there are exceptions. Yet the majority of my Republican friends seem completely oblivious to the observation mentioned above. Not so the Democrats.

Yet there are also men in the USA who have little to do with any of the parties mentions, who try to restore real democracy to their Great Country. Men like Chris Hedges, who, as an example, asks his compatriots to sign a petition to “Take profit out of war”. 

Perhaps the best example of the enigma that exists south of our border is Warren Buffet, who although a billionaire supports the Democratic cause. I am willing to bet all I have that he (like me) is also a Republican at heart. It would be a shame if he could not follow the dictates of his desires for reasons created by the media or, perhaps, some poorly chosen politicians.

On the personal side, my own paradox is that most of my friends south of the border are Republicans (or were friends until they read this), and they in no way support the image which their media had created for them. They are the nicest, friendliest, most generous people. They just choose questionably characters to lead them.

Pity!

Or, perhaps, it’s all just a DELUSION. 

[Ask for coupons for FREE downloads at stan@stanlaw.ca]

The Two-Edged Sword

We all get so much help from the Universe that most people, yes, most, feel compelled to create a wonderful god in their own image and likeness to justify the munificence that most of us experience.

And this in spite of the way most of us live.

Many of us tend to overeat; we don’t exercise; we breathe polluted air (which we have created); we cut down on restorative sleep short; we drink alcohol—often to excess and… yet, we continue living. When we can no longer cope with the consequences of our actions, we go to quacks—pardon me—physicians, who treat our symptoms but seldom if ever the causes of our self-induced delinquencies.

Let’s face it. The vast majority of us abuse the generosity with which the Universe endows us.

And when we can no longer cope with our physical condition created by our persistent peccadilloes, we blame others. Always others. Why didn’t the government tell us that we shouldn’t eat so much sugar (red meat, white flower, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes-cigars-pipes, etc., etc., etc.)? How were we supposed to know?

Eve had given us an apple to know good from bad. Why didn’t we listen?

That’s a parable. ‘Eve’ symbolizes our subconscious, our soul, the place where we store our knowledge acquired over millions of years. If human race survived to this day, that only means that we, the human race, had the knowledge to survive, before we had learned to treat symptoms rather than correct the root of the problems we create.

Linus Pauling (1901-1994), the only double Nobel Laureate, was the first to notice the dangers of relying on ‘medicine’. Since his time, a small group of physicians have joined the cause. Dr. Andrew Weil, Dr. Alan Fuhrman… there are a few others.

And yet, the Universe continues to support us with air, food, drink, and all other necessities of biological survival.

Nevertheless, in a world that is set on automatic (see my blog “Innocent”), the generosity of the Universe is a two-edged sword. While it supplies us with seemingly inexhaustible amounts of food, energy and other items, our superb immune system extends our life beyond our due. In fact, thanks to our immune system, long life is no longer a blessing. Rather it looks very much like punishment for our abuse of that generosity. We spend the last years paying for our errors. Dementia, Alzheimer’s, a variety of cancers…

This can be avoided if we learn to listen to our subconscious.

PS. The long promised historical novel, Peter and Paul, is finally published on Smashwords. For now you can download it for FREE. Please let me know if you enjoyed it with a brief review. Your input is important to me. 

[Ask for coupons for FREE downloads at stan@stanlaw.ca]

Generosity of the Universe

Sometime ago I shared some thoughts about the benevolence of the Universe. There I did little more than scratch the surface of reality. Now I wish to go further—into the realm of incredible, magnanimous, indescribable generosity of the Universe.

Yes, I am still talking about the same reality, our temporary home-away-from-home. Our real home is our state of consciousness, but when we peek outside, open our eyes, or perhaps our hearts, just a little wider, we cannot but be amazed by the gifts which the Universe bestows on us in a truly flabbergasting generosity. Suddenly we find ourselves in awe at the beauty that surrounds us.

First, there are the flowers.

Some colors are there, I am told, to attract various insects, supposedly to propagate its life. But if so, what is the butterflies’ excuse for competing with flowers with their plethora of carefully designed colorful patterns?

And talking of patterns of colors, did you ever dive into the Caribbean sea? The colors are mindboggling!

Yes, we are surrounded by an abundance of beauty.

And after we’re through admiring the symphony of hues and shades and pigments that fill us with euphoria, there are trees, and rock formations, and even shapes created by fleeting clouds. And then there are the sunrises. And as you sat after a day’s work bathed in the beauty of a sunset, did you ever watch a kitten play?

Or a puppy?

Or a deer peeking at you from behind a bush?

Or… ah yes, and sometimes—though this is much more subjective—even your own child at play?

And still later, did you gaze at the night sky that inspired thousands of poets?

 The question is why? Why such generosity? Is it but a foretaste of the heaven that awaits us?

Well, that’s precisely it.

The question remains why, and more precisely how, did the Universe supply us with such an abundance of, surely, gratuitous beauty? And what is perhaps an even greater mystery, what makes us aware of those gifts?

Unless…

Unless, at some unfathomable depth of our psyche, of our consciousness, we, you and I, are its creators; are the creators of both, the beauty and of our ability to appreciate it. Unless even here, on Earth, we are all but trying to recreate the heaven that is eternally waiting for us to return. There, some say, the same beauty is multiplied manifold. And its sole purpose is to make us happy.

One thing is certain. Anyone sensitive to beauty, whose heart is not filled with gratitude is missing out on his or her perceptions of reality.

And one day, we shall all return home to enjoy the fruit of our labors. You can get a foretaste of it in my novel: NOW—Being and Becoming. You might enjoy it even as you enjoy the beauty of the Universe around you. Well… almost?

[Ask for coupons for FREE downloads at stan@stanlaw.ca]

The Symbolism of Immortality

I’d referred to my Dictionary of Biblical Symbolism in a number of my blogs. But recently a strange thing happened. During recent weeks the sales of the Dictionary on Amazon Kindle equaled the sum total of all my other books put together. For some reason, people seem to yearn for biblical knowledge.

I find it particularly strange, as it is not an easy book. Most aspiring writers, (and this includes lovers of scriptures and scholars alike), who tackle any subject touching on the Bible, try to explain their version, their meaning of the scriptures.

I refuse to do that.

Since I insist that the bible is not a historical novel, not even a historical saga concocted by inspired scribes over the ages, but rather a compendium of knowledge on matters of consciousness, which people gathered over thousands of years, I leave it to each individual to find his or her own truth. What I do offer is a relatively short key to the understanding the symbolism, and an attempt to translate a few thousand words, which have never been translated into English.

There is a reason why the Bible is steeped in symbols.

Some time ago, a wonderful person named Emmet Fox (1886-1951), wrote a number of books in which he adamantly insisted that the Bible had been written by relatively simple people for the illiterate, simpleminded masses. As such, the need for learned scholars to explain the simple words is completely redundant. Fox went as far as suggesting a number of reasons why symbolism, employed in the Bible was necessary to protect their conclusions over the ages. It is also probable that symbolism, which seems mysterious to us, may have been perfectly obvious and understood in biblical times.

Fox’s contemporary, Carl Jung (1875-1961) asserted in his own writings, that the archetypes of symbols are ingrained deeply in our collective unconscious. Once given a key, we can all recognize them as a means to reach within our own subconscious, what the scribes called nephesh’s, or animal souls, to discover the truth.

The Dictionary (available on Amazon Kindle and on Smashwords) is intended as just such a stimulus to awaken the knowledge, which resides within all of us at the deepest levels of our psyche. Knowledge that we need to claim our immortality.

Enjoy!

The Paradise Within

I mentioned this subject before. I am still trying to reconcile our conscious with our subconscious mind. It has been said that, “heaven is within you”. Assuming that heaven is a state of consciousness, then only the subconscious and the unconscious qualify to respond to that claim. And, rightly or wrongly, I cannot but qualify the unconscious by that which is not, or at the very least which is not, as yet, manifested. By being no more than, perhaps infinite, potential.

Thus, the subconscious answers to the claim of the heaven within. Of course the religionists will object to this thesis on ‘invisible’ grounds, and the atheists on purely literary. The first group cannot make any money out of something that is within us, (they have to externalize ‘god’ to become intermediaries), and the latter on the grounds that if they cannot touch it, or smell it, or make an equation about it, no matter how absurd, they do not recognize it as real.

Well, I am free. Although it is often hard to see, there is a line between religion and science that gravitates towards sanity.

There is a peculiarity about our (physical) reality that needs mentioning. While we always remain individuals, i.e. we all manifest a completely diverse image of the reality we claim as our own, here, on Earth, we have to navigate between the countless realities created by other people, as different from ours as ours are from theirs. Such other realities are often in complete denial of our own conclusions. Hence, different religions, different political parties, interests, and even the way we regard abstract forms such as the many arts.

This helps in our learning process.

When we leave our bodies, however, be it in a lucid dream or through an OBE experience, or when we do so permanently by what people call dying, we no longer face such diverse disparities. Only our own reality prevails in all that we experience. In a way, we finally see the truth about ourselves. Thanks to the consequences of our behavior pattern and creative activity in the dualistic (physical) reality, we can finally see what we really are. Often we don’t like it much. Thus, we come back, through the process of reincarnation, to try to improve our image of ourselves.

Sometimes we succeed.

If not, well, we just try again. And again. And…

If you wish to be amused on a lighter note, you will find it in Beyond Religion II, Essay #27, Heaven. 

Primary Needs

Since I retired from my profession, I embarked on a turbulent trek in search of reality. I always suspected that our senses do not communicate the truth to our brain, our mind, not to mention to our consciousness. They don’t even seem to satisfy our emotions. Can a god be so ungodly as to allow suffering of little children? Well, nature allows it even as we do. We even practice it. Aren’t we supposed to be ‘gods’?

I found that I didn’t like the reality I’d inherited from most of my predecessors. Yes, not even from my parents. Hence, I embarked on my search.

It seems, that my readers participated and continue to participate in my search. To date, it took 14 novels, 7 non-fiction books, and a number of other publications, to show me where my readers’ needs lay. As of this blog, at least on the Amazon, they are buying exactly 3 times as many of my non-fiction books as fiction. I think my readers are missing a great deal, because my novels illustrate how my philosophy works in practice; but… I’ll take what I can get.

Of one thing I am sure. I do not, nor did I ever wish to upset the apple cart that my readers are dragging adamantly towards their grave, which many of them seem to equate with oblivion. If they continue to read my stuff, then, sooner or later, they will accept that, whether we like it or not, we are all immortal. This premise alone sets me apart from many literary shades.

Perhaps that is why people seem to search out my non-fiction books. Their hunger, their thirst, is made evident by their choices. The one consolation I can offer them is that there is no one, no one in the whole world, who will discover the true reality by reading other peoples’ books. Don’t get me wrong. The books will help enormously; I’d read hundreds, probably thousands of books. But ultimately if we don’t launch our own ship, our own consciousness, on the waters o life, the truth will elude us.

Absolutely no one can skip the journey. In many ways, the journey is all that really matters. Why? Because each one of us creates a different reality and only all of them, combined, approximate the Whole. We might overlap in our conclusions, share many traits of the heaven we are creating for ourselves, but make no mistake. We are individualizations of the Infinite, and as such it is this individuality that must add up to the Whole—not just hung on to It.

Try it. You’ll see.

Peter and Paul did it, although each of them travelled a completely different path. As you and I do. Yet… the Whole, by Its very nature, is but One. And that brings me back to my new historical novel Peter & Paul. It is heavily based on fact. Like my non-fiction. It is yours to enjoy. And for a week or two, you will be able to download it for free. 

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