View allAll Photos Tagged Finality
My first freebuild for LCC. I would have liked to have built this with a more bleak tone to match the story better, but alas I am lacking in brown and dark green foliage, so I had to make do.
Cold was the wind that howled through the forests of Lenfald. And a bitter cold it was, that blew down from the North and cut to the bone, an unfamiliar chill, alien, and strange, all but unknown to the kinder wilds of Southern Lenfald.
It was in this numbing draft that a man strode through the wood. Quickly, but with a silence possessed only by those native to the landscape, he continued on his path, seemingly impervious to the unnatural gale.
It was then that a sound was heard, barely audible against the screeching of the wind. A simple snap, as if a twig or banch had fallen victim to the unceasing gusts. What would have been dismissed by most was not lost on the man, as he turned to face the source of the aberrant noise.
A young boy stood there, not much older than 17 by the look of him, axe and sword ready in hand. He shook, though not from the cold, and the axe fell from his unsteady hand, as if he were unsure why it was ever there.
"You-you're him aren't you? The one hunting us."
"Aye." the man replied, unmoved by the fear in the boy's voice.
"I- I'm not like the others, I don't mean any harm! I just needed the coin- my sister, she doesn't have anyone else..."
"Doesn't matter boy. You've a price on your head now. To me, and all the rest of the world, you're a dead man." A grim finality echoed through the statement.
The wind continued to shriek through the forest as the man moved forwards towards the terrified lad, a solemn purpose to his step.
"Please, you can't do this, don't do this- I can't leave her behind, I CAN'T" The lad yelled in fear, tears streaming down his fact as he swung the sword wildly toward the approaching reaper.
It was over in seconds. A sidestep, and then a short painful snap was heard, and the cries ceased. The boy gazed down in horror at his now-broken arm, his fast-chilling hands still grasping the hilt of his father's sword as it now seemed to sprout from his stomach.
Strength failed him then, as he stumbled backwards, trying desperately to form some intelligible words, as if to leave the world with some memory that he had been there, that he had existed. It was nothing the man hadn't seen before, and he watched as the lad's features changed, from shock, to anger, to sadness, and finally fear, as his eyes glazed over, and a final, ragged breath left his body.
He left him there, at the foot of some long-forgotten statue, a stone guardian long since fallen into disrepair, the blood still pooling over the forest floor. Cold was the wind that blew that day; Colder still was the heart of the hunter.
------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES -------------------------
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, FOREVER! Through Faith in Jesus!
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.
My THANK'S to all those who have taken the time to view, fave, comment or share my photo's with others. I really appreciate it! ❤️
"...There was no road back. Ended for him, with the sharp and clean finality of the closing of a door, was the time of his dark roots, like those of a pot-bound plant, could not be left to feed upon their own substance and nourish their own little self-absorbed designs. Henceforth, they must be spread outward--away from the hidden, secret, and unfathomed past that holds man's spirit prisoner--outward, outward toward the rich and life-giving soil of a new freedom in the wide world of all humanity. And there came to him a vision of man's true home, beyond the ominous and cloud-engulfed horizon of the here and now, in the green and hopeful and still-virgin meadows of the future."
~Thomas Wolfe
(my favorite author)
Crimson Dawn, Natrona county, Wyoming.
youtu.be/0fjJ0Yi-2F8 Trailer Updated
The Mutara Nebula battle is perhaps the greatest space battle in all of cinema.
www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GPzE7...
Starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Ricardo Montalban, Walter Koenig, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Bibi Besch, Merritt Butrick, Paul Winfield, Kirstie Alley, and Ike Eisenmann. Directed by Nicholas Meyer.
The year is 1982. It has been thirteen years since the original Star Trek has gone off the air. Three years ago, Star Trek: The Motion Picture hit and while it was a financial success, it was grossly over-budgeted ($46 million) and criticized for being too long, too boring, and too god damn weird.
So they slashed the budget down to a quarter of the previous film and removed Gene Roddenberry from the lead creative role. Instead, they made Harve Bennett, a new Paramount producer who had never seen an episode of the original series, the figurehead in getting a second Star Trek movie off of the ground. What we have here is a perfect storm of things that should create a terrible movie.
So it’s no small miracle that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is not only good, but is easily the best Trek movie that’s ever graced the screen. Bennett threw out a lot of the esoteric trappings of the first film and the team brought on board, including director Nicholas Meyer, were also unfamiliar with the Trek universe. Gone were the kitschy 60s/70s outfits (many of the costumes from The Motion Picture were altered and dyed to make the new uniforms). Also gone were the abstract threats. Pulling out a villain from seemingly random in the original run of the show, Wrath of Khan was going to be as direct and reductionist a sequel to the show as was possible.
This new look of the concept of Star Trek recast the Federation as a much more military organization. The uniforms were more naval. The ships more complex and more delicate. The Enterprise became cramped and bustling, crawling with incidental crewman running a myriad of tasks. What Wrath of Khan did was turn Star Trek into a naval warfare movie in space.
I imagine most people are already familiar with the basic plot of Wrath of Khan. Khan Noonian Singh (a chesty, magnificently hammy Ricardo Montalban), a genetically altered egomaniacal superman from Earth’s distant past, has been marooned on a planet for 15 years after a run in with Kirk and company during the original run of the show. The USS Reliant, looking for a barren planet to test a new terraforming device (sprearheaded by an old flame of Kirk’s and his heretofore unknown son), encounter Khan and his crew of survivors who quickly proceed to capture the Reliant and use it to exact revenge on Kirk.
What happens next is a series of intricate cat and mouse submarine battles cast in a sci-fi setting, great Shakespearean scenery chewing by one of film’s greatest sci-fi villains, and a great personal sacrifice by one of the most enduring pop culture characters. It’s great stuff, full of high drama and brilliant character beats, serious but not ponderous, clever by not showy, the textbook case of less is more.
What other movie has the gall to cast its two opposing leads in a situation that never brings them face to face? Kirk and Khan taunt and challenge and curse each other from across the reaches of space but never share a single scene. What other movie has the restraint to limit itself to the quiet predatory climax in an obscuring nebula? Both ships blindly gliding by each other in silence, one mistake away from annihilation? Wrath of Khanis as tense as any thriller, cast in a familiar franchise turned into something vital and exciting by fresh talent and fresh ideas.
But you know all this, so let’s start at the beginning, where the truly special ideas in Wrath of Khan lie. From the start we’re introduced to a younger group of Starfleet cadets, competent and ready, in a training simulation of the infamous no-win Kobayashi Maru scenario. Saavik (Kirstie Alley before she became a lazy tabloid joke) is being groomed as Spock’s protegee, commanding the Enterprise in this simulation, causing everyone aboard to die by her actions.
James Kirk, now an admiral and instructor, chides Saavik about her approach to the scenario. Kirk is, to date, the only cadet who ever defeated the test, meant to train cadets the reality of sacrifice when command leads you to no sure victory. Kirk’s legacy is already well established as the man who has cheated death countless times, a man who doesn’t believe in no-win scenarios.
Yet we open on a Kirk in darkness. He’s bored and aging at the academy. He accepts gifts from his closest friends begrudgingly on his 50th birthday. To Kirk, all this is a defeat, a quiet retreat from the adventure he always considered his right. Which is why when the Enterprise receives a distress call while on a training mission, Kirk takes control of the ship and steers her towards the science outpost where Khan lays in wait.
What the film so carefully does is lay open the truth that Kirk isn’t quite the man he used to be. He’s not as fast, but he’s not as rash. Confronted with a son he didn’t know he had, he’s left to wonder just how many opportunities his lifestyle has made him forsake. As much as command is about making the decisions day to day, it is about the decisions left at the wayside.
It is when all hope is lost that Kirk reveals to Saavik how he beat the Kobayashi Maru–he reprogrammed the scenario to allow him to win. Saavik protests that it was cheating, Kirk retorts with the fact that he got a commendation for creative thinking. And in the depths of the battle between Kirk and Khan, spanning across space between two men wrapped up in their own legacy, Kirk cheats his way to victory again.
But this time he doesn’t escape cleanly, as the victory costs him the life of Spock. For Kirk, who had the galaxy as his plaything for decades, the realities of the choices, the realities of life looming behind all the adventures, come crashing down around him. When asked after Spock’s burial among the stars how he feels Kirk replies “I feel … young.” It is the risk and the finality that provides the spark of life, not the adventure itself.
What Wrath of Khan manages to do is to humanize what was quickly becoming remote and abstract. Star Trek was never about the aliens or the adventure so much as it was about what it means to be human. At the best of times it remembers its better self, and brings that to the forefront, and becomes something more than the fandom or the slightly silly space western it was originally conceived as. That is what makes Wrath of Khan so singular, and so special.
One of Chico's Landmarks is the famous Madison Bear Gardens. Known for the famous Bear Burger and fries, state wide.
------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES -------------------------
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, FOREVER! Through Faith in Jesus!
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.
My THANK'S to all those who have taken the time to view, fave, comment or share my photo's with others. I really appreciate it! ❤️
------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES -------------------------
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, FOREVER! Through Faith in Jesus!
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.
My THANK'S to all those who have taken the time to view, fave, comment or share my photo's with others. I really appreciate it! ❤️
"When you kill something, anything- it dies." Free, new, brilliant feature length carbon offset created film 'Home' - about the environment......................................
.................................................................
Only available full length online & free by it's makers until July 15th, please for me, watch this film & tell your friends to watch it..
"We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate. The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being. For this purpose, HOME needs to be free. A patron, the PPR Group, made this possible. EuropaCorp, the distributor, also pledged not to make any profit because Home is a non-profit film. HOME has been made for you : share it! And act for the planet.
Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Good Planet Foundation President
HOME is a carbon offset movie
Subtitles : www.goodplanet.org/I...
The movie will be available until July 15th."
youtu.be/0fjJ0Yi-2F8 Trailer Updated
The Mutara Nebula battle is perhaps the greatest space battle in all of cinema.
www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GPzE7...
Starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Ricardo Montalban, Walter Koenig, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Bibi Besch, Merritt Butrick, Paul Winfield, Kirstie Alley, and Ike Eisenmann. Directed by Nicholas Meyer.
The year is 1982. It has been thirteen years since the original Star Trek has gone off the air. Three years ago, Star Trek: The Motion Picture hit and while it was a financial success, it was grossly over-budgeted ($46 million) and criticized for being too long, too boring, and too god damn weird.
So they slashed the budget down to a quarter of the previous film and removed Gene Roddenberry from the lead creative role. Instead, they made Harve Bennett, a new Paramount producer who had never seen an episode of the original series, the figurehead in getting a second Star Trek movie off of the ground. What we have here is a perfect storm of things that should create a terrible movie.
So it’s no small miracle that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is not only good, but is easily the best Trek movie that’s ever graced the screen. Bennett threw out a lot of the esoteric trappings of the first film and the team brought on board, including director Nicholas Meyer, were also unfamiliar with the Trek universe. Gone were the kitschy 60s/70s outfits (many of the costumes from The Motion Picture were altered and dyed to make the new uniforms). Also gone were the abstract threats. Pulling out a villain from seemingly random in the original run of the show, Wrath of Khan was going to be as direct and reductionist a sequel to the show as was possible.
This new look of the concept of Star Trek recast the Federation as a much more military organization. The uniforms were more naval. The ships more complex and more delicate. The Enterprise became cramped and bustling, crawling with incidental crewman running a myriad of tasks. What Wrath of Khan did was turn Star Trek into a naval warfare movie in space.
I imagine most people are already familiar with the basic plot of Wrath of Khan. Khan Noonian Singh (a chesty, magnificently hammy Ricardo Montalban), a genetically altered egomaniacal superman from Earth’s distant past, has been marooned on a planet for 15 years after a run in with Kirk and company during the original run of the show. The USS Reliant, looking for a barren planet to test a new terraforming device (sprearheaded by an old flame of Kirk’s and his heretofore unknown son), encounter Khan and his crew of survivors who quickly proceed to capture the Reliant and use it to exact revenge on Kirk.
What happens next is a series of intricate cat and mouse submarine battles cast in a sci-fi setting, great Shakespearean scenery chewing by one of film’s greatest sci-fi villains, and a great personal sacrifice by one of the most enduring pop culture characters. It’s great stuff, full of high drama and brilliant character beats, serious but not ponderous, clever by not showy, the textbook case of less is more.
What other movie has the gall to cast its two opposing leads in a situation that never brings them face to face? Kirk and Khan taunt and challenge and curse each other from across the reaches of space but never share a single scene. What other movie has the restraint to limit itself to the quiet predatory climax in an obscuring nebula? Both ships blindly gliding by each other in silence, one mistake away from annihilation? Wrath of Khanis as tense as any thriller, cast in a familiar franchise turned into something vital and exciting by fresh talent and fresh ideas.
But you know all this, so let’s start at the beginning, where the truly special ideas in Wrath of Khan lie. From the start we’re introduced to a younger group of Starfleet cadets, competent and ready, in a training simulation of the infamous no-win Kobayashi Maru scenario. Saavik (Kirstie Alley before she became a lazy tabloid joke) is being groomed as Spock’s protegee, commanding the Enterprise in this simulation, causing everyone aboard to die by her actions.
James Kirk, now an admiral and instructor, chides Saavik about her approach to the scenario. Kirk is, to date, the only cadet who ever defeated the test, meant to train cadets the reality of sacrifice when command leads you to no sure victory. Kirk’s legacy is already well established as the man who has cheated death countless times, a man who doesn’t believe in no-win scenarios.
Yet we open on a Kirk in darkness. He’s bored and aging at the academy. He accepts gifts from his closest friends begrudgingly on his 50th birthday. To Kirk, all this is a defeat, a quiet retreat from the adventure he always considered his right. Which is why when the Enterprise receives a distress call while on a training mission, Kirk takes control of the ship and steers her towards the science outpost where Khan lays in wait.
What the film so carefully does is lay open the truth that Kirk isn’t quite the man he used to be. He’s not as fast, but he’s not as rash. Confronted with a son he didn’t know he had, he’s left to wonder just how many opportunities his lifestyle has made him forsake. As much as command is about making the decisions day to day, it is about the decisions left at the wayside.
It is when all hope is lost that Kirk reveals to Saavik how he beat the Kobayashi Maru–he reprogrammed the scenario to allow him to win. Saavik protests that it was cheating, Kirk retorts with the fact that he got a commendation for creative thinking. And in the depths of the battle between Kirk and Khan, spanning across space between two men wrapped up in their own legacy, Kirk cheats his way to victory again.
But this time he doesn’t escape cleanly, as the victory costs him the life of Spock. For Kirk, who had the galaxy as his plaything for decades, the realities of the choices, the realities of life looming behind all the adventures, come crashing down around him. When asked after Spock’s burial among the stars how he feels Kirk replies “I feel … young.” It is the risk and the finality that provides the spark of life, not the adventure itself.
What Wrath of Khan manages to do is to humanize what was quickly becoming remote and abstract. Star Trek was never about the aliens or the adventure so much as it was about what it means to be human. At the best of times it remembers its better self, and brings that to the forefront, and becomes something more than the fandom or the slightly silly space western it was originally conceived as. That is what makes Wrath of Khan so singular, and so special.
------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES -------------------------
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, FOREVER! Through Faith in Jesus!
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.
My THANK'S to all those who have taken the time to view, fave, comment or share my photo's with others. I really appreciate it! ❤️
------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES -------------------------
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, FOREVER! Through Faith in Jesus!
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.
My THANK'S to all those who have taken the time to view, fave, comment or share my photo's with others. I really appreciate it! ❤️
------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES -------------------------
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, FOREVER! Through Faith in Jesus!
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.
My THANK'S to all those who have taken the time to view, fave, comment or share my photo's with others. I really appreciate it! ❤️
------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES -------------------------
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, FOREVER! Through Faith in Jesus!
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.
My THANK'S to all those who have taken the time to view, fave, comment or share my photo's with others. I really appreciate it! ❤️
This is some art I did for Wendy and Lisa. I shot their pictures in a freight elevator with one little lightbulb. The title of the album is after a line from a Joni Mitchell song called "Hejira". Dunno if this will be included in the packaging or not.
I'll leave you with those lyrics for the week- while I go relax at the beach.
And you can hear their excellent first song "Balloon" from their upcoming album right here:
I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away
There's comfort in melancholy
When there's no need to explain
It's just as natural as the weather
In this moody sky today
In our possessive coupling
So much could not be expressed
So now I'm returning to myself
These things that you and I suppressed
I see something of myself in everyone
Just at this moment of the world
As snow gathers like bolts of lace
Waltzing on a ballroom girl
You know it never has been easy
Whether you do or you do not resign
Whether you travel the breadth of extremities
Or stick to some straighter line
Now here's a man and a woman sitting on a rock
They're either going to thaw out or freeze
Listen...
Strains of Benny Goodman
Coming thru' the snow and the pinewood trees
I'm porous with travel fever
But you know I'm so glad to be on my own
Still somehow the slightest touch of a stranger
Can set up trembling in my bones
I know - no one's going to show me everything
We all come and go unknown
Each so deep and superficial
Between the forceps and the stone
Well I looked at the granite markers
Those tribute to finality - to eternity
And then I looked at myself here
Chicken scratching for my immortality
In the church they light the candles
And the wax rolls down like tears
There's the hope and the hopelessness
I've witnessed thirty years
We're only particles of change I know, I know
Orbiting around the sun
But how can I have that point of view
When I'm always bound and tied to someone
White flags of winter chimneys
Waving truce against the moon
In the mirrors of a modern bank
>From the window of a hotel room
I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
Until love sucks me back that way
This video shows how beautiful the surf is at Pacific Grove, California beaches. I used to hang out along this coast with my wife of over 56 years, while we were dating as teens, back in the day. We still love it and make the trip as often as we can. We can't walk the beaches as we once did, because my wife isn't in the best of health these day's, and uses a walker these days. However she does seem to be getting stronger, and who knows, maybe we will again some day?
So we reminisce of day's gone by, as we sit and reflect on our youth and the beauty of the scene before our eyes. And make new memories daily. I still love photographing wildlife of all kinds in our great state of California, the golden state. Enjoy, we have MUCH to Thank our creator and savior Jesus Christ for, as we walk and talk with him. I hope this gives you still more reasons to thank and glorify him because of all your many blessings as well.
Oh, and this will give you some insight to what me and my bride have been up too during the last week. More photos to follow, meanwhile Enjoy God's gift to the world.
------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES -------------------------
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, FOREVER! Through Faith in Jesus!
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.
My THANK'S to all those who have taken the time to view, fave, comment or share my photo's with others. I really appreciate it! ❤️
I took these shots from my front yard.
------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES -------------------------
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, FOREVER! Through Faith in Jesus!
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.
My THANK'S to all those who have taken the time to view, fave, comment or share my photo's with others. I really appreciate it! ❤️
About the Book
Dejan Stojanović, Sunce sebe gleda, Književna reč, Beograd, 1999
By statement: Dejan Stojanović.
Series: Biblioteka Pismo
Source records: Library MARC record
Library MARC record
Language: Serbian
Dimensions: 21 cm.
Pagination: 157 p. ;
LCCN: 00279202
LC: PG1419.29.T587 S86 1999
Subject: Poetry
THE SUN WATCHES ITSELF
The second collection of Dejan Stojanovic's verse, "The Sun is Watching Itself," is covered by a metaphysical and philosophical veil. Eleven segments are connected by these two abstract approaches and by such key images as a circle, suggesting infinity, and silence, reflecting space and eternity. The circle serves as a powerful symbol and a device of the perpetual in this poetry: "the end without endlessness is only a new beginning," claims the poet. Thus, one of the poems bears the title "God and Circle," symbolizing the perennial search for an exit and the eventual finding of one, which only leads into another circle and to continuous evolution. This prompts Stojanovic to pose the question "Is God himself a Circle?"--implying that God is endless and ever present.
Although concise, the poems convey in a powerful and specific manner messages from the triad circle-God-eternity, connected by man's destiny and the poet's concept of human life and origins, and of the universe itself. In other words, microcosmic observations lead to macrocosmic revelations and didactic conclusions. The poems seem to teach us what is obvious in the context of common sense, often surprisingly remote to the modern man.
In terms of style and format, the author has a coextensional approach; he uses relatively simple expressions and words in an interplay of brilliant meanings that bring about highly complex but easily readable structures. If elegance is represented by simplicity, then these are some of the most elegant verses imaginable; unadorned verses that are a source of beauty and wisdom.
Stojanovic's perceptions of light and darkness, of fantasy and reality, of truth and falsehood present us with a circular format of infinity and resurrection.
The format has its logical beginning and end. "The Sun is Watching Itself" begins with poems dedicated to God and the universe, then descends from the metaphysical to the philosophical, focusing on more ordinary such us the symbolic meaning of a stone, a game, a place, silence, hopelessness, and the question "Is it possible to write a poem?" Stojanovic's collection might well serve as an affirmative answer to this question. The poet has taken us on a long journey from God and universe to our everyday world. We all seem to be a part of a circle, says the author, searching for the eternal in the universe, only to realize the finality of life on earth. The poet's message is doubly effective for its extraordinary, soul-searching content and its reflective, powerful language.
-Branko Mikasinovich, Washington, D.C.
WLT World Literature Today, A Literary Quarterly of the University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma
Volume 74, Number 2, Page 442, Spring 2000
SOLARNI KRUG ISTINE
Već sa prvom zbirkom ("Krugovanje") Dejan Stojanović je kvalitativno značajno postulirao svoj poetički credo i simbolički kompleks tako da uz pomoć njega može uspešno da se prati obimno koncipirana celina, kontinuitet i preokupacije, drama pesničkog stvaranja u borbi za istinu i traženje smisaonosti kroz kreaciju u zbirci "Sunce sebe gleda." Kroz poetičku prizmu narečenih zbirki jasno se sagledava i poetsko "vjeruju" Dejana Stojanovića koje bi bilo najbliže Nastasijevićevoj misli da bi trebalo prožeti se poezijom, a ne samo dodirnuti je. Pesnik sa prvom zbirkom prihvata izazov, koji još bolje značenjski produbljuje u drugoj; odricanje od moderne koja je sama sebi svrha, opredeljujući se da pesničkim simbolima iskaže univerzalnu dramatičnost.
Pesnik, i kada je osećanje slobode u njemu jedna od osnovnih dominanti osećanja sveta, ne može se oteti utisku da je još samo jedna karika u lancu potvrđivanja i nastavljanja volje onih spodoba koje iz dubina nebića izlaze na svetlo dana, zauzimajući sebi svojstvena i primerena mesta u hipokriziji, oportunizmu i egocentričnom konformizmu naših dana. Otuda je u poeziji Dejana Stojanovića put ka suštini i istini poetički i smisleno lociran "s druge strane vida" ("Krugovanje") dok se formalno poigravanje smislom reči—koje na planu metafizičkog usložnjavanja povlači razgranato poigravanje značenjem—prepliće sa nepomućenom verom u pročišćujuću ulogu reči. Profetska uloga poezije u prizivanju i ovekovečavanju kataklizme totalitarnog sveta daruje ontološki pečat postojanja svemu; u rekombinacijama i specifičnim međuodnosima i višnjoj harmoniji između stvari iz fundusa očiglednosti. Osluškivanje pulsacija bića izjednačeno je sa osluškivanjem večnosti koja vaskrsava u poetskoj matrici saznanja o nepreglednosti i, u isto vreme, uniženosti bića u odnosu na apsolut, ciji je pečat jasno utisnut u svakodnevnu pojavnost. Samim tim kategorije vanljudskog počivaju u metaforama i slikama sveta koji se atomizira u supstancijalni praelement smisla; u prapočelo, odakle se ponovo vaspostavlja pod blagotvornim utiskom i oblikom pesme.
Poniranje u nemušte i tajinske zone bica, osetljivost i pažljivost u građenju lirskog subjekta, imaginativni spojevi prepuni duhovne osetljivosti, od velike većine pesama zbirke "Sunce sebe gleda" stvaraju univerzalne simbole poetski rafinovane imaginacije, fantazijskih obasjanja i pazljivo odabranih folklornih rudimenata pamćenja izniklih iz našeg tla. Jezički senzibil uvodi nova značenja u poznate relacije; svetlo i tama—oportuna simbolika sna, pretvaraju se u okolnosti stvaranja, tišina prerasta u dinamično stanje unutrašnje molitve, a istina, kroz potrage za njenim ontološkim parametrima—preispitivanjem nutrine, postaje samosvojno stanje izopštenih i jurodivih umova. Upravo takvo posedovanje istine, kao unutrašnjeg osećanja i kao istupa iz sebe, u poetskom ludensu Dejana Stojanovića povlači irinijske i sarkastične linije pevanja; asketskog izrugivanja svetu materije, hipokrizije i prosečnosti, suprotstavljanja istine jedinke (bića) "istini" mase (kolektivnog zla utemeljenog u ne-bicu). Pozicija čoveka samca jeste pozicija pesnika u odnosu na, do obezličenja multiplikovan, organon vaskolikog sveta.
Stišani tonovi gradacije simbola, stvaranje specifične hijerarhije, traženje sebe u drugima i drugih u sebi, elementarizuju u ovoj zbirci jedinstvo kruga kao alegorični pečat apsoluta i istraživanja beskonačnosti i konačnosti zemaljskih dana. Između reči i glasova, katalizatora duhovnog i uzvišenog, apsoluta i smisla postojanja, sugestivno i simbolički redukovanih stihova, do širokog narativnog zamaha, utkana je čitava ova zbirka. Ova poezija je sva u jeziku i sva od jezika. Put Nojeve barke jezika jeste njeno apsolutno znanje kojim plovi kroz žamor i bure nerazumevanja, neshvatanja i reči iz kojih je iscureo smisao kao pesak iz klepsidre sveta čije dane prepune iskušenja intenzivno proživljavamo.
-Petar V. Arbutina, 1999.
PESNIK PRED OTVORENIM VRATIMA
Dejan Stojanović, u poslednje dve godine načinio je pravi podvig: objavio je šest knjiga. Osim jedne, sve knjige pesama.
Stojanović je pesnik koji traga za savršenim pesničkim oblikom jer istovremeno traga i za apsolutnim smislom čovekovog postojanja.
"Krugovanje" (1993) je naznačilo Stojanovićev pesnički put, a nove knjige—"Sunce sebe gleda", "Znak i njegova deca", "Tvoritelj", Oblik, uz treće, dopunjeno izdanje "Krugovanja", zaokruzile su njegovo dosadašnje pesničko delo. U "Razgovorima," Dejan Stojanović je sabrao intervjue koje je početkom devedesetih godina vodio sa veoma istaknutim srpskim i stranim stvaraocima, u Beogradu, Parizu i Čikagu, a objavljivao ih je tih godina (1990-1992) u magazinu "Pogledi". Nije mala stvar naći se oči u oči sa piscima kakvi su Alek Vukadinović, Momo Kapor, Nikola Milosević, Žak Klod Vilar, Sol Belou, Stiv Tešić, Branko Mikašinović, Čarls Simić i Nadja Tesić, ili sa slikarima Petrom Omčikusom, Ljubom Popovićem, Milošem Šobajićem, Savom Rakočevićem. Umeti sa njima razgovarati na visokom, dakle njihovom nivou, postavljati im odgovarajuća, za svakog od njih dobro promišljena i pronađena pitanja, koja otključavaju brave i njihovih dela i njihovih ličnosti, to je posao koji zahteva veliko i veoma rznovrsno znanje. Nije, onda, čudo što je za ovu knjigu Dejan Stojanović dobio nagradu Matice iseljenika i Udruženja književnika Srbije za intelektualni angažman.
Knjiga pesama "Krugovanje" bila je objavljena prvi put 1993. godine, a zatim je doživela još dva izdanja, 1998 i 2000. Pesnika iz Čikaga srpska javnost je doskora poznavala samo po toj knjizi. Poznavala i cenila, što se može zaključiti iz sažete ocene Aleka Vukadinovića: "Specifičan, iznenađujuće originalan, izvan tokova kolektivno negovanih senzibiliteta i pomodnih trendova. "
I poznati američki pesnik, Čarls Simić, ima laskavo misljenje o prvoj Stojanovićevoj knjizi.: "'Krugovanje' je knjiga u kojoj sam u potpunosti uživao. Obilje lepih kratkih pesničkih formi." Ne iznenađuje ovakva Simićeva ocena, jer on kao stvaralac i prevodilac Nastasijevića i Pope zna šta je lepota kratke pesničke forme. Zato je i važno to priznanje kada ono baš od njega dolazi, a pogotovo što se odnosi na nešto sto je bitna karakteristika Stojanovića kao pesnika: za njega su reči sakralni znaci, pa se on prema njima i odnosi sa krajnjim poštovanjem, odgovornošću, uzdržanošću, koja je na samoj granici straha:
Kada bismo utvrdili
Koliko je važno da se nešto kaže
Mozda nijednu reč ne bismo napisali
("Isto")
Ali strah ne sputava pesnika. Razmišljajuci o svojoj poetici , Stojanović se prisetio majstora nad majstorima, Betovena:
"Samo praznina kad gleda / Uvek isto vidi". Praznina može da vidi samo prazninu. A čovek kada gleda vidi čoveka—mada ni njega nije lako videti, pogotovo sagledati. Pesnik, međutim, gleda kroz čoveka i vidi ono što vide pravi stvaraoci, umetnici i duhovnici—tajnu. Stojanović je, pored ostalih, napisao i dve lepe pesme o tajni. Prva "Tajna" kao da je od ovoga, čovekovog i prirodnog sveta:
Bogata i daleka
Ti nemo čekas
Gde se kriješ
Daj znak
Primi u goste
Morem opasana
Nehajna—sebi dovoljna
Nećeš da otvoriš vrata
A druga tajna, u pesmi "Tajna i istina", kao da je ona koja je u vezi, pored drugih, sa jednom, najvišom istinom, istinom nad istinama, u vezi sa samim izvorom života i postojanja, sa istinom Tvoritelja:
Ima mnogo tajni
Nemoj ih sve rešavati
Ima mnogo istina
Samo ka jednoj teži
Sve istine iz jedne dolaze
U pesmi "Blago izvora", iz tog istog ciklusa "Betoven i smrt", u knjizi "Sunce sebe gleda", Stojanović se ponovo vraća sličnoj slici početka svih početaka, ishodištu svih ishodišta, izvoru svih izvora:
Ne propusti da vidiš
Kako se cveće Suncu
Galeb vodi raduje
Primi ih u sebe
Gledaj kroz mrak
Sanjaj kroz svetlost
Ka jezgru
Iz kog si na put krenuo
Pored apsolutnih, svemirskih "vrata", Stojanović ne zaboravlja ni čovekova vrata, na kojima se, ranije ili kasnije, ugleda smrt. I ta se pesma, "Betoven i smrt" odlično uklapa u ovaj ciklus u kojem se ukrštaju simboli izlazaka i ulazaka:
Smrt je na vratima
Kaže Betoven
Da li da mu verujemo
Možda se i nije šalio
Možda je stvarno video smrt
Oči im se srele
Njemu nije imao ko da kaže
Da zaključa vrata
I da mu je rekao, Betoven ih ne bi zaključao. Nije ih zaključao ni Stojanović. Srećom po sebe i poeziju koju piše drži ih i on širom otvorena.
Sreću mu se oči sa smrću, ali i sa svetlošću.
-Aleksandar Petrov
Amerikanski Srbobran, Književni dodatak, decembar 2000.
Table of contents:
NEBOKRET
Prva Tišina, 7
Vrh i dno, 8
Omeđen beskrajem, 9
Vetrenjača, 10
Sveti plam, 11
Tačka, 12
Vasiona, 13
Cvet svemira, 14
Jesi li ili nisi 15
BOG I KRUG
Dan svemira, 19
Nebo i krug, 20
Istina kruga, 21
Bog i krug, 22
NEBOHOD
Kiša apsoluta, 25
Oblak I, 26
Oblak II, 27
Svetlost i mrak, 28
Obmana, 29
Mladi starac, 30
Večnost i trajanje, 31
Večnost i večnost, 32
Nula, 33
Brzina, 34
Beskraj i kraj, 35
MESTO ZABORAVLJENO
Ognjište, 39
Bajka i kraj, 40
Paradoks, 41
Božji šegrt, 42
Varka, 43
Čvsrta zemlja, 44
Bog je zauzet, 45
Zvezda u travi, 46
Slovo njegovo, 47
Mesto zaboravljeno, 48
Vatra, 49
Povratak, 50
KAMEN I REČ
Gde prestaje pesma, 53
Reč, 54
Prva reč, 55
Kaman i reč, 56
Slaganje reči, 57
Skrivene reči, 58
Reči nekazane, 59
Priče, 60
Hipnoza reči, 61
Nekoliko reči, 62
Ista priča, 63
Misao II, 64
Laž, 65
Istina i laž, 66
Sokrat, 67
Umor, 68
Nova reč, 69
ŠTA POSLE
Nemost, 73
Ili, 74
Pitomi zvuk, 75
Tamo i ovde I, 76
Ništa, 77
Svetiljka, 78
Ovako i onako, 79
Šta posle, 80
Vitez, 81
Vitezovi, 82
IGRE
Ne, 85
Rat, 86
Stvari, 87
Prevara, 88
Cirkus, 89
Visočanstvo, 90
Patuljak, 92
Virus duše, 93
Vrednost i promašaj, 94
Produži dan, 95
Igra I, 96
Igra II, 97
Igra III, 98
Razmišljanje naljućenog, 100
MOŽE LI SE NAPISATI PESMA
Da li postoji Bog, 103
Uvreda I, 104
Božji sin, 105
Hrist, 106
Glava, 107
Život, 108
Blesak tišine, 109
Dobrotvori, 110
Može li se napisati pesma, 111
Predah, 112
BEZIZLAZ
Oduzetost, 115
Nasamo sa sobom, 116
Ako, 117
Tamo i ovde II, 118
Apsurd, 119
Uvreda II, 120
Podvala, 121
Misao o nama, 122
Pitanje suncu, 123
Seansa, 124
Stara klupa, 125
Vrt , 126
ZVUK TIŠINE
Šapni mi svoju tajnu, 129
Mera borbe, 130
Jednostavnost, 131
Empatija, 132
Put, 133
Pakao i raj, 134
Miris polja, 135
Lek, 136
Zrak, 137
Dan, 138
BETOVEN I SMRT
Izlaz, 141
Tajna, 142
Tajna i istina, 143
Blago izvora, 144
Možda, 145
Betoven i smrt, 146
Isto, 147
EPILOG
Pakao, 151
DODATAK
Solarni krug istine, Petar V. Arbutina, 155
Beleška o piscu, 158
By statement: Dejan Stojanović.
Series: Biblioteka Pismo
Source records: Library MARC record
Library MARC record
Language: Serbian
Dimensions: 21 cm.
Pagination: 157 p. ;
LCCN: 00279202
LC: PG1419.29.T587 S86 1999
Subject: Poetry
Clara and Elise’s Morning Ritual
The morning sun filters through the lace curtains of their shared bedroom, casting soft golden hues over the ornate vanity where Clara and Elise sit side by side. The room is filled with the scent of talcum powder and French perfume, an elegant yet oppressive reminder of the rigid expectations imposed by Aunt Matilde.
The Beauty Routine
With a resigned sigh, Clara dips a fresh razor into the porcelain basin filled with warm water. “I swear, I shaved just yesterday,” she murmurs, dragging the blade over her calf. Elise, already tending to her own legs, smirks. “And yet, here we are. Aunt Matilde would inspect us with a magnifying glass if she could.”
They move in synchronized precision, removing every stray hair from their legs and armpits before carefully plucking their eyebrows. Each wince is accompanied by a quiet curse, followed by laughter at their shared suffering.
Elise leans closer to the mirror, applying a thin layer of powder to her fair complexion. “At least let me do your eyeliner,” she insists, turning to Clara. “You always make one side thicker than the other.” Clara relents, closing her eyes as Elise glides the liner over her lids. Their makeup follows the same strict formula: perfect brows, flawless skin, a dusting of rouge, and finally, the bold red lipstick that is their signature—whether they like it or not.
Clara, holding up the nail polish bottle, raises an eyebrow. “Matte or glossy?”
“Glossy, of course,” Elise answers. “If we must suffer, we might as well shine.”
Dressing in Elegance, Dressing in Chains
With their faces perfected, the real ordeal begins: getting dressed. They pull on their lace-trimmed slips before stepping into their girdles—tight, stiff, and utterly unforgiving. Clara exhales sharply as Elise laces up the boning at her waist. “If I pass out at Café Flore, be sure to catch me.”
Elise chuckles but groans as she adjusts her own girdle. “I’d rather let you fall and use the opportunity to loosen mine.”
Stockings are next, held up by garters that snap into place with a crisp finality. The swish of silk against their skin is one of the few luxuries they enjoy. Finally, they slip into their tailored blouses and pleated skirts, fastening every button, smoothing every wrinkle. Their gloves slide on last, a final touch of sophistication—or, as Clara puts it, their “prison cuffs.”
A Conversation in the Mirror
Clara spins around, admiring her reflection with a mix of pride and exhaustion. “Do you ever wish we could just wear something simple? A light summer dress, perhaps? No corsets, no stockings, just… freedom?”
Elise sighs wistfully, adjusting the collar of her navy blazer. “All the time. Can you imagine? A soft cotton dress, bare arms, no heels digging into the pavement. We could actually breathe.”
“But no,” Clara continues, mockingly straightening her posture. “Aunt Matilde insists that ‘a lady is nothing without discipline.’”
Elise smirks. “I’d love to see how disciplined she’d be in this girdle.”
The Final Inspection
Just as they are about to leave, the inevitable arrives. Aunt Matilde sweeps into the room, her eagle eyes scanning them up and down.
“Turn around,” she orders. They obey, standing still as she adjusts a button on Elise’s blouse and tugs at Clara’s hemline.
“Lipstick?”
Clara presses her lips together. “Red, as always.”
“Nails?”
Elise raises her gloved hands before removing one, revealing glossy, scarlet perfection.
Aunt Matilde nods approvingly. “Good. At least you still understand the importance of presentation.”
She steps back, finally allowing them to leave. As they descend the stairs, Clara mutters, “One day, Elise. One day we’ll step out in whatever we please.”
Elise smiles. “And when that day comes, I’m burning my girdle first.”
The Journey to Café Flore
As soon as they step outside, the constraints of their outfits become all too apparent. The tight girdles restrict their movements, forcing them to walk with small, deliberate steps. The stockings cling to their legs, the gloves make their fingers slightly numb, and the high heels send a dull ache up their calves with each step.
Clara shifts uncomfortably, adjusting her skirt. “I swear, this thing is trying to suffocate me.”
Elise nods in agreement, attempting to stretch her spine but hindered by the rigid boning of her corset. “It feels like I’m wearing armor, but at least knights got to ride into battle. We’re just going to a café.”
Despite their discomfort, they notice the effect they have on those around them. Men tip their hats and glance appreciatively at their poised figures, while women regard them with admiration—or perhaps envy. Their strict and elegant appearance commands respect, and even Clara has to admit that there is a certain power in their meticulously crafted femininity.
As they continue down the boulevard, Elise catches her reflection in a shop window and stops for a moment. “You know… I kind of understand it now.”
Clara raises an eyebrow. “Understand what?”
Elise smooths the lapel of her blazer and straightens her gloves. “Why Aunt Matilde insists on this. Look at us. We look… perfect. Impeccable.”
Clara glances at her own reflection and, for a fleeting moment, sees what Elise means. The way the fabric hugs her figure, the elegance of the perfectly matched accessories—it all exudes an air of sophistication and confidence.
She exhales and shrugs. “Maybe. But I’d still kill for a breezy cotton dress.”
They share a laugh and continue their walk, still bound by the constraints of their attire but now seeing it in a slightly different light. By the time they reach Café Flore, they no longer simply endure their outfits—they carry them with a newfound sense of grace.
my first form of liquid painting was on abstract spiritual forms in motion.
i finished that series in 1999 after a show in which no one seemed to be intrigued by the essential qualities of what our eyes show to us.
i switched over to REAL representational art.
but i kept the NOT GALLERY aspect of my work pretty strong -- using way more black, only tints and shades and full chroma colors. i painted my feelings with the colors i chose.
and "my feelings" weren't intended to be my own.
i love classical ideology.
form and beauty and also our modern understanding that the 1 percent is fetish and nazi/fascist by its nature.
so i'm not into perfection as much as the idea of things that are just obviously better or trying or engaged or activated.
arguments about perfection are weird.
why do people like to fight so much?
my eyes tend to see all things as rather ordinary and i want to show off the simple things i find, to revel in their nature and then to figure out an expression that suits the two -- the object itself and my attitudinal relationship with it. for me, more than ambiguous emotional terms, i favor HEAT and MOTION as the aspects of light that i choose to focus on.
because my life is so interlapped with photography, i am both a camera and a painter, a robot and a brain, a drone and brighter magick user.
i can't help this double nature and like prince said, you'd better know your dark side and your bright side and if they can get along and you end up bright, that is the path of the philosopher guide.
so if that's you, now is the time!
RISE up among the people.
use your intelligent power to untangle the ropes of darkness!
but i digress.
so through and along my urban and townsy journeys -- santa barbara, seattle, san francisco, santa fe, san diego, amsterdam, manhattan -- i eventually found my way to flowers.
they grow in the front yards of the people's homes wherever i walk, or in buckets at a florist shop along the street or a grocery store. the beauty of flowers is everywhere.
and flowers are a reminder that everything dies. but it can be beautiful.
and we cut flowers for their beauty.
for me, roses are wanton.
they are my third form/series of liquid paintings.
the second one, and the most explored/exploded, is the exploding rainbow dahlia.
and where roses are wanton and vain-glorious (really, i had no idea!), the dahlia is like a swiss community with its order and its architectural phenomenon.
my exposure to dahlias was limited before i arrived in san francisco. i had painted orchids, peonies, chinese rose, birds of paradise, cala lilies, california golden poppies, and tulips.
but dahlias and the rainbow seemed like they were made for each other. that those TWO THINGS were US. that we, as people were just like dahlias in the way we ordered and constructed our lives. the dahlia with its form for capturing and storing light and moisture, and the exploding rainbow with its blatant and broken spectrum of blasting color.
so i floated those dahlias in space where a million things were happening all at once. everything as one moved into a constellation. i added multiple sided die and glinty bits of ambiguous crow candy for the eye.
vanity and selfism, the star charisma of the rose's nature -- that of desire and death masked as finality -- was just another form of circustry in this new unexploited world of die and glinty, treasury bits spinning and rolling and falling through space, into space, as space. hitting and colliding, forcing loss and explosion and aiding decay.
and there was a war in these pieces which forced them into a liquidity.
that war was between the clarity of stasis and our fascination with movement.
the impressionists, aided ENTIRELY BY THE USE OF THE CAMERA, had learned that aperture values that the camera's limited technology could exploit at the time had shown new essentials.
aperture values taught the impressionists that they could DELETE things from the environment to increase the imaginative suggestibility of the viewers mind.
for example, if i have my focus on the nostrils of a racing horse and progressively blur and fade out the clarity as the horse goes away through foreshortening, the horse's nose will seem MUCH closer to the viewer and more three dimensional than it would if the receding part of the horse were in perfect detailed clarity.
people like manet realized even further, using the same deletion technique of the intelligence, that a glove could literally look MORE glove-like with just three strokes of a brush. indeed, that the SUGGESTION of a glove was infinitely more powerful and perfect to the impression of the piece than an actual glove ever could be.
so in my liquid painting, i envisioned a human circus as exploding rainbow dahlias. our vanity and self-love; our beauty and our grace; and our aging and exploding.
all with dreams of promise, jewelry in the sky, and an unending ability to NEVER grasp much of anything.
and we are constantly coming in and out of focus in our own lives, a living constellatory fascination with ourselves and others creating patterns and habits and occupations.
and that rabbit hole lasted for several years.
it started in 2010/11 as a discovery process and eventually ended up producing over 6,000 images of that world. enough to create an app that could endlessly recreate the world imagined.
and the goal was to document every conceivable color pattern that the human eye could see.
and i think it worked.
it also led to the conclusion of the PIXELWITHIN theory.
which i have elaborated over on torbakhopper's news outlet, lol. the merkaba is a beautiful thing!!
so now the rose.
sometimes slutty, sometimes regaling and proud. sometimes curvy, sometimes more than curvy or with torn edges and hot little shadows.
england had a war over roses.
just like the u.s. had a war over rubber. just kidding. it was all about democracy and partiotism.
and roses are more likely to cause trouble than dahlias.
dahlias are all about the community as a metaphor.
there is a fundamental "coming together" about dahlias.
whereas, honestly, roses are all about falling apart.
this large group of examples are all different now. just like the other forms of liquid painting, CHANGE is a part of the game.
------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES -------------------------
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, FOREVER! Through Faith in Jesus!
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
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Rufous Hummingbird
------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES -------------------------
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, FOREVER! Through Faith in Jesus!
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.
My THANK'S to all those who have taken the time to view, fave, comment or share my photo's with others. I really appreciate it! ❤️
------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES -------------------------
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, FOREVER! Through Faith in Jesus!
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.
My THANK'S to all those who have taken the time to view, fave, comment or share my photo's with others. I really appreciate it! ❤️
1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
(Psalm 19:1-2)
------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES -------------------------
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, FOREVER! Through Faith in Jesus!
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.
My THANK'S to all those who have taken the time to view, fave, comment or share my photo's with others. I really appreciate it! ❤️
MUST BE SEEN IN BLACK BOX - Press 'L'
Seen in 113 pictures in 2013 #19 - Depressing or sorrowful
As the date for demolition of this beautiful church draws near, reality and finality of the decision has recently raised the emotions of parishioners. A war of opposing views has struck a chord, not only with those who where for and those against; but in the hearts of the hearts & minds of the individual members.
This building has been the center of people’s lives for 90 years, with the time of the chapel preceding it from 1904 until it burned to the ground in 1924, the parish has been together for 110 years.
A church is a part of one's life from birth until death, and affects the very character of community. It cannot be easy to say, 'Let's demolish our church.' As a parish, this must be the toughest decision they have ever faced. It’s a conflict of traditions, attachments, and emotions, versus hazards, costs and practicality. And, the conflict is presently being felt by every member & every family in the parish.
It is easy to say, 'Let's build a church'; but to destroy a building that has seen countless services, baptisms, confirmations, weddings& funerals. For over one hundred years, the members have stood side by side learning & sharing Christian values, praying together, singing praises to God & helping one another in every aspect of religious & secular life.
I am one of several photographers who have loved this church for its aesthetics & beautiful folk art architecture. It is beautifully designed & sits in a wonderful landscape, playing with the sun's light & the architecture's shadows the way photographers & artists love. Spaca has been a wonderful source for artist inspiration and many of us have learned a great deal about our craft, from photographing it.
Over the past few years, we have enjoyed documenting the Spaca Moskalyk throughout the seasons & feel the loss that the demolishing of this building will bring. But, our loss is not that of someone whose family history is embedded in the Spaca’s history & symbolism.
The members of this parish have been very gracious to us & shared stories of events regarding this church. We hear their pride. We feel their attachment. Our hearts are with them, hoping this will soon pass & they will remain strong together, as they have in the past.
The Lever House, 390 Park Avenue, NYC
by navema
Acrylic ink on adhesive vinyl, dimensions variable; Lever House Art Collection
Barbara Kruger's bold and ambitious installation covers the entirety of the Lever House's vast windows, both inside and out, in addition to the floor. Using letters, many as high as seventeen feet, Kruger creates phrases that emote situations, interactions, and thoughts that occur throughout ones lifetime. Borrowing from mass media's high-volume graphic punch, her black-and-white text questions the viewer about power, gender roles, social relationships, political issues, consumerism, and individual autonomy and desire.
The exterior surfaces announce, "Know nothing, forget everything, believe anything," "Plenty should be enough," and "In violence we forget who we are" (a quote from Mary McCarthy). On the interior walls, reading clockwise, she continues with the declarative phrases, "If it screams, shove it, "If it vomits, starve it," "If it sees, blind it," and "If it laughs, choke it. If it cries, drown it. If it sighs, shame it. If it loves, buy it. If it moves, f*ck it."
The pronounced verticality of the Helvetica ultra-condensed typeface accentuates the vertical thrust of the window mullions, the mass of the skyscraper, and the erect stainless steel columns. On these columns, Kruger has applied phrases that read vertically rather than horizontally and that complicate their readability: "The globe shrinks for those that own it" and "Between being born and dying." Kruger completes the total transformation of the lobby space by covering the floor with sentences that read from opposite directions: "You make history when you do business," and "A rich man's jokes are always funny."
This new work is an immersive installation that transforms the iconic Lever Lobby into a textual array that zigzags between declaration and doubt, between threat and tenderness. Its the in-between that inserts itself into the brilliantly edged heart of architectural modernism and speaks of the space between the event and the everyday. Kruger's installation addresses the stroller and the task driven, and suggests the complicated terrain of this site, a piling on of power, ambition, pleasure, laughter, contempt and the finality of it all. As she has stated: "I think what I'm trying to do is create moments of recognition. To try to detonate some kind of feeling or understanding of lived experience.... I try to deal with the complexities of power and social life, but as far as the visual presentation goes I purposely avoid a high degree of difficulty."
- - -
Barbara Kruger was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1945, and studied at Syracuse University, the School of Visual Arts, and Parsons School of Design, New York. Her work is in the collections of major national and international museums, and she has recently had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Palazzo delle Papesse, Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and Mary Boone Gallery, New York. The artist lives in Los Angeles, where she is a professor at UCLA, and New York City.
Much of Kruger's graphic work consists of black-and-white photographs with overlaid captions set in white-on-red Futura Bold Oblique. The phrases included in her work are usually declarative, and make common use of such pronouns as "you", "I", "we", and "they". The juxtaposition of imagery and text containing criticism of sexism and the circulation of power within cultures is a recurring motif in Kruger's work. The text in her works of the 1980s includes such phrases as "Your comfort is my silence" (1981), "You invest in the divinity of the masterpiece" (1982), and "I shop therefore I am" (1987). She has said that "I work with pictures and words because they have the ability to determine who we are and who we aren’t.
Kruger's words and pictures have been displayed in both galleries and public spaces, as well as framed and unframed photographs, posters, postcards, t-shirts, electronic signboards, billboards and on a train station platform in Strasbourg, France. For the past decade Kruger has created installations of video, film, audio and projection. Enveloping the viewer with the seductions of direct address, her work is consistently about the kindnesses and brutalities of social life: about how we are to one another.
For more info, visit: www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/feminist/Barbara-Kru...
----------------------------- JESUS ✝️ SAVES-------------------------------
SALVATION THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST - ALONE!
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."
❤️❤️ IT'S ALL JESUS AND NONE OF OURSELVES! ❤️❤️
16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the SALVATION of everyone WHO BELIEVES: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel a RIGHTEOUSNESS FROM GOD IS REVEALED, a righteousness that is by FAITH FROM FIRST TO LAST, just as it is written: "THE RIGHTEOUS WILL LIVE BY FAITH." (Romans 1:16-17)
16 KNOW that a man is NOT justified by observing the law, but by FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be JUSTIFIED BY FAITH in CHRIST and NOT by observing the law, BECAUSE BY OBSERVING THE LAW NO ONE WILL BE JUSTIFIED. (Galatians 2:16)
1. Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2. BY THIS GOSPEL YOU ARE SAVED, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4. that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5. and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8. and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
9. For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11. Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed. (1 Corinthians 15:1-11)
7. Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9. I am the gate; whoever enters through me WILL BE SAVED. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10. The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:7-10)
1 Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. 2 For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 3 Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. 4 Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
5 Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: "The man who does these things will live by them." 6 But the righteousness that is by faith says: "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 "or 'Who will descend into the deep?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: 9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11 As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Romans 10:1-13)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so WE might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
So you'll KNOW, and not think you're to bad for God to love. The Christian LIFE isn't about how good WE are, because NONE of us are! It's about how GOOD JESUS IS! Because JESUS LOVES US, so much he died in our place and took the punishment for all of our sins on himself. The wages of sin is DEATH, and Jesus took the death WE so richly deserved for us and died in our place. The good news is, there's no more punishment for sin left. WE, you and I were all born forgive as a result of the crucifixion of God himself on the cross that took away the sins of the whole world. All we have to do is believe it, and put your Faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. That my friends is REAL UNCONDITIONAL LOVE! YOU ARE LOVED. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️
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© All Rights reserved no publication or copying without permission from the author.
بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
Translated from the Arabic, the exegesis of 55 Verses from the Tafseer e Jilani by the Saint of Saints, Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani (ra),
the Master of all Spiritual Masters.
The Night of Ascension
From Al Yawaqeet Wal Jawahir by Imam Abdul Wahab Shuhrani (ra);
The Journey of Ascension from Sidrat ul Muntaha to the meeting with Allah is the climax of the travels that night. From this point on a new state comes about. Before him was a Realm of Nur, Divine Light, which were revealed everywhere. The manifestations of Allah’s Attributes and Essence had made alight the Realm of the Unseen. The guest of the Throne, the Mercy of the Universe (peace be upon him), Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him) was made to enter this Realm alone.
First, one by one, he was made to pass through each of the veils of Allah’s Names and with each passing, he was soaked in the essence of each Name. In a state of wakefulness, as he absorbed the quality of each name, Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him) felt slightly dazed as one might expect to feel in a moment of aloneness.
As soon as this state came upon his blessed heart, he heard a voice;
قف یا محمد ان ربک یصلی
“Stop O Muhammad (peace be upon you)! Indeed, your Lord will approach you (to welcome you).”
The Journey of Ascension up to this moment was a journey of love and honour. From this point onwards began the the journey of union. This is where the guest of the Throne reached Qaba Qausayn;
1. and 2.
ثُمَّ دَنَا فَتَدَلَّىٰ
Then he approached and He came down.
فَكَانَ قَابَ قَوْسَيْنِ أَوْ أَدْنَىٰ
Until He was at a distance of two bow-lengths away or nearer.
Surah An-Najm, Verse 8-9
Tafseer e Jilani:
Summa dana: Then he, Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him), went nearer to His Lord…
Fatadalla: And He, Allah, came towards him with an inseparable attachment through love, the type of attachment being like an embrace, such that…
Fakana: it became, that nearness …
Qaba Qausayn: like the distance between two bows, which were the bows of Al Wujoob, The One who is since forever and Al Imkaan, the one who exists because of Him, both preserving the dignity of being The Worshipped and the worshipper.
Au adna: Or even less than that (distance of two bows) because the Nasoot, all things that have to do with the world, of Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him) became fana, dissolved, in the Lahoot, the Realm of Nur, Divine Light. And after that whatever happened to the person of Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him) is whatever happened, or however close he came, he came (no one knows).
Qari Sahib: Note two things; First the verse plays out the Hadith Qudsi, “When a person walks towards me, I run towards them.” Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him) approached, Allah came nearer. Two and most magnificent of all, the words in the Quran are not the same for to show that approach towards each other. For the Prophet (peace be upon him), it is dana – coming close. For Allah it is tadallah, which Ghaus Pak (ra) is translating as ta’allaqa – an inseparable attachment through love.
Hence it was revealed;
3.
فَأَوْحَىٰٓ إِلَىٰ عَبْدِهِۦ مَآ أَوْحَىٰ
So He (Allah) revealed to His Servant what He revealed.
Surah An-Najm, Verse 10
Tafseer e Jilani
Fa auha: So He, Allah Glory is to Him, revealed and inspired directly upon the heart…
Ila abdi hi: of His Servant, as The One who is closer to His Beloved that his own nafs, self.
Ma auha: what He revealed from Divine Recognition and Realities and unveilings and witnessing, poured upon him from His Own Self, Glory is to Him. All of which was pure from the methods of (hearing and seeing) for a human being in the world. So he (peace be upon him) saw what he saw and Allah Subhan Ta’ala unveiled what He unveiled.
Subhan Allah!
Al Yawaqeet Wal Jawahir: The point of that demands attention here is the distance is not specified exactly to two bows but in fact, the ambiguities around distance and nearness were all dissolved and made to disappear by the word adna, or less. The only distinction that remained was that one was Allah, there is no deity except Him, and the other was His Beloved Servant, Huzoor Pak (peace be upon him). One was the Creator, Khaliq and the other the created, makhlooq.
It is to be noted that the conversation then between Love and His Beloved (saw) in those moments of aloneness were not revealed to anyone. No one knows anything about anything of the words exchanged between them then. Except that which Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him) himself shared that when he met his Lord of the Universe, His Lord said to him, “
السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكَ أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ،
Peace, the Mercy of Allah and His Blessings be on you, O Prophet (peace be upon you).
السَّلَامُ عَلَيْنَا وَعَلَى عِبَادِ اللَّهِ الصَّالِحِينَ
Thereupon the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said,
“Peace be upon us and the Righteous Servants of Allah.”
Pir Mehr Ali Shah Sahib (ra) speaks to the meeting at the Night of Ascension in his most famed na’at Kithay Mehr Ali Kithey Teri Sana;
بے رنگ دسے اس مورت تھیں
وچ وحدت پھٹیاں جد گھڑیاں
The One without form and colour appeared in his (the Prophet’s (peace be upon him)) being,
when in their union, they became united.
دسے صورت راہ بے صورت دا
توبہ راہ کی عین حقیقت دا
This being (of Nabi Kareem) guides the Way towards the One-ness of Allah.
No, in fact, he guides towards His True Reality.
پر کم نہیں بے سوجھت دا
کوئی ورلیاں موتی لے تریاں
But this is not comprehensible for those without inner eyes,
so only the fewest amongst the few imbue such meaning.
4. Amongst countless bestowings, the only Favour
لَقَدْ مَنَّ ٱللَّهُ عَلَى ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ إِذْ بَعَثَ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًۭا مِّنْ أَنفُسِهِمْ
يَتْلُوا۟ عَلَيْهِمْ ءَايَتِهِۦ
وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ
وَيُعَلِّمُهُمُ ٱلْكِتَبَ
وَٱلْحِكْمَةَ
وَإِن كَانُوا۟ مِن قَبْلُ لَفِى ضَلَلٍۢ مُّبِينٍ
Indeed, Allah has bestowed a favour upon the believers, when he raised in their midst an apostle from among themselves,
to convery His Messages unto them,
and to cause them to grow in purity,
and to impart unto them the Divine Writ as well as wisdom,
where as before that they were, indeed, most obviously, lost in error.
Surah Aal e Imran, Verse 164
Tafseer e Jilani:
Laqad Mannallahu: By the Name of Allah, He bestowed a great Favour…
Ala al Mo’mineen: upon the ones who are sincere…
Id ba’atha fi-him: when he raised him, the Prophet (peace be upon him)), from amongst them for their guidance…
Rasool an: as a Messenger to be their Murshid, guide, who was brought up…
Min Anfusihim: in them to guide them with different types of guidance.
Yatlu alihim: First of all, he recites to them (the Quran) and makes them listen…
Ayati hi: to Allah’s Verses, which indicate towards the One-ness of His Essence.
Wa Yuzzakihim: Secondly, he purifies them from the evils whisperings of Satan and those desires that lead one astray from the Path of Allah’s One-ness.
Wa Yuallimuhim: And thirdly, he teaches them…
Al Kitab: the Book, which explains and clarifies to them the means to cleanse the overt, the zahir, as well as everything which is related to the apparent world.
Wa: Then fourthly he teaches them…
Al hikmat; the wisdom that purifies their inner being, the batin, from the inclination towards anything other than Allah, (both people and things), and which connects them to Sidrat al Muntaha, the Lote Tree, near which is Jannat ul Mawa, Heaven.
Wa in Kanu Min Qablu: And they were before the unveiling of these four stations…
Lafi Dalalin Mubeen: in clear waywardness and severe humiliation.
At the end then Ghaus Pak (ra) prays: “Ya Allah! By Your Bounty, save us from the sleep of those who are heedless.
Ameen!
Forgiveness and Mercy
5.
خُذِ ٱلْعَفْوَ وَأْمُرْ بِٱلْعُرْفِ وَأَعْرِضْ عَنِ ٱلْجَهِلِينَ
Keep to forgiveness (O Beloved (peace be upon you) and enjoin the good,
and turn away from the ignorant.
Surah Al Araaf, Verse 199
Tafseer e Jilani:
And when their state is such and their insistence upon this purpose (of denial and being wayward);
Khud il afwa: Choose always (and make your habit), O Messenger who completes the Message (peace be upon you), the path of forgiveness and softness. And turn away from anger (of the type of being upset with someone when you can exercise ability to do something about it) and becoming hard, because this is in line with the affection of the status of Prophet-hood.
Wa’mur bil urf: And enjoin them with good deeds, calling them to the Way of Allah, with wisdom and softness of words, that nation in which you see the possibility of being guided, with the light of Prophet-hood and Closeness (with Allah).
Wa aa’rid ana jahileen: And avoid the ignorant, who are stubborn. And if they argue with you, argue with the in the best way. Indeed your Lord knows well which of them is astray from His Path and He knows well also who is guided among them.
The First Hadith taught to Would-be Scholars:
الرَّاحِمُونَ يَرْحَمُهُمُ الرَّحْمَنُ،
ارْحَمُوا أَهْلَ الْأَرْضِ يَرْحَمْكُمْ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاءِ
The Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم said:
Allah, The Compassionate One has mercy on those who are merciful.
Show mercy to those who are on the earth, He Who is in the Heaven will show mercy to you.
Man is a creature of haste
6.
خُلِقَ ٱلْإِنسَنُ مِنْ عَجَلٍۢ ۚ
Man is a creature of haste.
Surah Al Anbiya, Verse 37
Tafseer e Jilani:
Khuliqal Insaan: Man was created, amongst all living creatures,…
Min ajl: as the one who craves the most haste in goodness and badness as if he was made from impulsiveness.
7.
وَيَدْعُ ٱلْإِنسَنُ بِٱلشَّرِّ دُعَآءَهُۥ بِٱلْخَيْرِ ۖ وَكَانَ ٱلْإِنسَنُ عَجُولًۭا
And human beings pray for things that are wrong (as often) as they pray for things that are good. And human beings are ever hasty.
Surah Al Isra’a, Verse 17
Tafseer e Jilani:
Wa: And overall, amongst the behaviour that is disliked, worldly and ugly…
Yad ul insaana: Man prays, being hasty (in his inner and outer being)…
Bi sharre: for that which is not good for him, so comes along, with that (prayer), that which he does not know about its evilness and its harmful consequences.
Dua’ahu bilkhair: (while he is) liking that which he is asking for as if it is good for him, due to his hastiness.
Wa kanal insaano: In Man’s nature is created haste (for himself) and he demands haste from others about that which he is inclined towards, even though it is detrimental for him.
The Marriage Equation
8.
وَمِنْ ءَايَـٰتِهِۦٓ أَنْ خَلَقَ لَكُم مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ أَزْوَٰجًا لِّتَسْكُنُوٓا۟ إِلَيْهَا وَجَعَلَ بَيْنَكُم مَّوَدَّةً وَرَحْمَةً ۚ
إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَـَٔايَـٰتٍ لِّقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ
And among His Signs is that He created for you from yourselves mates so that you may find tranquility in them.
And He placed between you love and mercy.
Indeed, in that surely are Messages for a people who reflect.
Surah Ar-Rum, Verse 21
And it was necessary to go deep into the meaning of a word for an institution that most in the world now regarded as “failed.”
Tafseer e Jilani:
Wa min ayati-hi: And one of the Signs that show His Majestic Authority (is)…
An khalaqa: that He gives to you in your control…
lakum man anfusikum: from your species and like you…
azwajaa: spouses, so that you do more than them in affection and inclination and give them regard to create the love. In fact, Allah has given you control over your spouses…
li-taskunu ilayha: so that they are your home and your refuge and you love them completely and you increase your offspring.
Wa: And like this is another wisdom…
ja’ala bainakum: He placed between you…
muwadda-tan: which is special and pure, love, that which arises only and only because of Allah’s Secrets, in a manner that cannot be comprehended what that love is and what its state is, why it exists and how it came about.
Wa: And His Perfect Wisdom which created from the zygote a child and it comes from the love.
Rahma-tan: A child like you who will keep your name and faith alive.
8. Commentary on the same verse by Hazrat Muhyuddin Ibn e Arabi (ra) for all people.
وَمِنْ ءَايَـٰتِهِۦٓ أَنْ خَلَقَ لَكُم مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ أَزْوَٰجًا لِّتَسْكُنُوٓا۟ إِلَيْهَا وَجَعَلَ بَيْنَكُم مَّوَدَّةً وَرَحْمَةً ۚ
إِنَّ فِى ذَٰلِكَ لَـَٔايَـٰتٍ لِّقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ
And among His Signs is that He created for you from yourselves mates so that you may find tranquility in them.
And He placed between you love and mercy.
Indeed, in that surely are Messages for a people who reflect.
Surah Ar-Rum, Verse 21
Wa min ayati-hi: From Allah’s Actions and His Attributes, which cause to join towards His Essence by recognizing and traveling the paths of spirituality…
An khalaqa lakum min anfusikum azwajaa: He created for the souls, the arwah, the nafs, the self, as their spouses…
Li-taskunu ilayha: so that the soul is inclined towards the nafs with muwaddat, (a special and pure love, that which rises only and only because of Allah’s Secrets, in a manner that cannot be comprehended what that love is and what its state is, why it exists and how it came about), and the soul takes effect from it and effects the nafs in turn.
Wa ja’ala bainakum muwadda-tan wa rahma-tan: And between them is unconditional love and tenderness so that the nafs loves the light of the ruh, the soul, and its effect upon it with acceptance, embracing its influence. Which makes the nafs remains calm from anger and become purified.
Then Allah sends His Mercy upon the nafs in the shape of the qalb, the Seat of Recognition of Allah, according to capability and capacity resulting from obedience. The nafs becomes guided by the blessing of this merciful qalb, learning its etiquettes and becoming joyous.
In turn, the soul loves the nafs by leaving its effect in it and shines its light upon it. Then Allah gives it the blessing of the qalb, soft and affectionate. The soul gains exalted ranks by the blessing of this qalb, because of which the soul gains perfection.
Inna fi dalika al la-Ayaat: In all of this are the Divine Attributes and Perfection
Li qaumi yatafakkaroon: for those who reflect, in their selves and in their souls and upon that which is their intrinsic nature, (the nafs), and that which is sent down upon them, (the ruh).
It was the part of the verse with the word muwaddat in it that was most captivating. Both the nafs and the ruh, the base self and the soul, communicated and understood each other though the qalb. So without the knowing, the recognition of God, the two would always remain alienated. Anger would eventually turn into rage. Calm would transform into ever increasing restlessness;
Wa ja’ala bainakum muwadda-tan wa rahma-tan: And between them is unconditional love and tenderness so that the nafs loves the light of the ruh and its effect upon it with acceptance, embracing its influence. Which makes the nafs remains calm from anger and become purified.
Then Allah sends His Mercy upon the nafs in the shape of the qalb, according to capability and capacity resulting from obedience. The nafs becomes guided by the blessing of this merciful qalb, learning its etiquettes and becoming joyous.
In turn, the soul loves the nafs by leaving its effect in it and shines its light upon it. Then Allah gives it the blessing of the qalb, soft and affectionate. The soul gains exalted ranks by the blessing of this qalb, because of which the soul gains perfection.
Subhan Allah!
Iblis throws down the gauntlet
9.
قَالَ رَبِّ بِمَآ أَغْوَيْتَنِى لَأُزَيِّنَنَّ لَهُمْ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَلَأُغْوِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ
Iblis said, "My Lord!
Because You misled me, surely, I will make evil seem goodly to them in the earth and I will mislead them all.
Surah Al-Hijr, Verse 39
I studied the verse with my teacher;
“Let’s go back a little,” said Qari Sahib.
The context of the verse is that Iblis said the line above after he was given the leeway to do what he wants by God. Which he asked for.
قَالَ رَبِّ فَأَنظِرْنِىٓ إِلَىٰ يَوْمِ يُبْعَثُونَ
He said, "O my Lord! Then give me respite till the Day they are raised."
Surah Al-Hijr, Verse 36
Thus he is granted time to do what he wants. Now let’s look at what Ghaus Pak (ra) says about the exegesis of verse 39 where he vows revenge by misleading and making evil seem good;
Tafseer e Jilani:
Qala: Iblis said, taking an oath to exaggerate his point…
Rabbi bima Aghwaytani: I swear upon the Truthfulness of your Authority, which has been the way through which You have mislead me and made me wayward, and made me fall from those high exalted ranks I possessed, and made me exit from between my beloved ones and my brothers (the angels)…
La uzzayanna lahum: I will beautify their deeds which are illegitimate and make them appear as good all their negative actions.
Fil Ard: and I will make them deluded so they will pursue all kinds of wrongful deeds and all types of crimes and those sins that their nature is inclined towards naturally.
Li Ughwayannahum: and I will mislead them, all of them collectively, so that none of them will be safe from me, anyone who has nafs Ammara.
Basically everyone!
Hazrat Najmuddin Kubra (ra) in the Tafseer e Jilani:
“You had made the behaviour of your nafs overpower the attributes of your qalb, which is the Seat of Recognition of Allah. This is because your good deeds were only for display and to claim good repute. Your purpose in following in the footsteps of the nafs was to receive things from this world that you thought would benefit you and showing truthful regard for your Lord was not your intention.
Still, he delivered you from painful punishment (for such acts) so that you would only desire to seek the Pleasure of Allah and occupy yourself only with His worship (by being mindful of Him at all times). If you were thus granted, due to His Mercy, advances in your spiritual ranks, don’t become stuck in them. Instead, move forward and continue to seek union with the Status and Stations of Allah’s Essence until you achieve success in reaching them.”
Ghaus Pak (ra) in Al Fath Ar Rabbani:
“What I say to you, listen to it through the ears of your qalb, the Station of Recognition of Allah in the heart, and remember it and bring it into practice. I want you to speak to me through the tongue of your qalb and be sincere in your deeds, such that you reach a point that I look at your state and say to you, ‘Well done!’”
“Remember! Makhlooq, creation, is the veil over your nafs, ego.
And your ego is the veil over your qalb that prevents you from recognizing your Lord.
And your qalb is the veil over your batin, the inner being.
So as long as you remain stuck with people, you will not be able to see your nafs.”
10. Iblis as attached as an associate
وَمَن يَعْشُ عَن ذِكْرِ ٱلرَّحْمَـٰنِ نُقَيِّضْ لَهُۥ شَيْطَـٰنًا فَهُوَ لَهُۥ قَرِينٌ
And whoever turns a blind eye to the Reminder of the Most Compassionate,
We place at the disposal of each one from the party of Iblis as their close associate,
Surah Az-Zukruf, Verse 36
Tafseer e Jilani:
Wa mayya’shu: and the one who turns away physically as well as from the heart…
An dikr Ar Rahman: from the Quran, which explains for this person the way to imaan, faith and irfaan, Recognition of Allah, due to excessive lustful desires and attractions for the senses which are worldly…
Nuqayyad lahu: We give control and power over him to…
Shaytan an: Iblis and his party, who misguides him, and seduces him and whispers doubts into his heart, and destroys him.
Fa huwa: Shaitaan then becomes…
Lahu Qareen: attached to him forever, beautifying for him that which is sinful and that which is wrong and makes him deluded into believing those things until he makes him enter into the fire which cuts and deprives him from Allah’s Mercy.
11. Following in the Footsteps of Satan
يَٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ لَا تَتَّبِعُوا۟ خُطُوَتِ ٱلشَّيْطَنِ ۚ
وَمَن يَتَّبِعْ خُطُوَتِ ٱلشَّيْطَنِ فَإِنَّهُۥ يَأْمُرُ بِٱلْفَحْشَآءِ وَٱلْمُنكَرِ ۚ
وَلَوْلَا فَضْلُ ٱللَّهِ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَتُهُۥ مَا زَكَىٰ مِنكُم مِّنْ أَحَدٍ أَبَدًۭا وَلَكِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُزَكِّى مَن يَشَآءُ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌۭ
O you who believe!
Do not follow in the footsteps of Shaitaan,
and whoever follows in the footsteps of the Shaitaan then indeed, he commands the immorality and wrongdoing.
And if it were not for the Grace of Allah upon you and His Mercy, not one of you would have been pure,
but Allah purifies whom He wills.
And Allah is The Hearer of all things, The Knower of all things.
Surah An-Nur, Verse 21
Tafseer e Jilani:
Ya ayyohalladina amino: O ye who believed in in the One-ness of the Maker and His Attributes and in Prophethood and all the Messengers and in the Shari’a which is for everyone and beneficial for all in terms of creating moderation in manners and rituals among Mankind, the reason behind you having faith, imaan, is that you go against your nafs, the base self, and your desires, both of which are from the force of Satan, the one who misleads and the one who takes away from the Path of Truth.
La tattibi’u khutowaat e Shaitan: Don’t walk in the footsteps of Satan and don’t follow his lead in the distribution of vulgarity and your love of sins.
Wa manyattabi: And who so ever amongst you, O believers, follows…
Khutuwaat e Shaitan: in the footsteps of Satan, the one who leads astray and entraps, he becomes astray and trapped.
Fa innahu: So indeed he, Satan…
Ya’mur: commands the one who follows him and considers him his leader…
Bil Fahsha: to be lewd and immoral in ways that go against nature and the laws of the faith…
Wal munkir: and to become a refuser of modesty and the Quran and the hadith.
Wa lau la fadullahi alaikum: And were it not for the Bounty of Allah upon you, who is the Protector for the correction of your states…
Wa Rahmatu hu: And His Mercy, which is in abundance and encompasses all His Servants…
Ma zaka: there would be no one saved or purified or made sincere…
Minkum ahadun: from amongst any of you from following in the footsteps of Satan…
Abadan: ever, for as long as you live, because following him has been placed in your nature (just as goodness has been placed in it), and following him appears beautified for you and readily accepted by your nafs…
Wa lakinn Allah: But Allah Ta’ala, the One who manages the affairs of His Servants…
Yuzzaki: inserts sincerity and purifies them from the traps of Satan and his evil promptings…
Mayysha: whom so ever He wills, by virtue of His Wisdom and His Control by which He forms the human being…
Wallahu: and He is fully Aware of what is in the overt and what in in the hidden…
Sami’un: He the Hearer of the words (of everyone)…
Aleemun: and the Knower of all backgrounds and all intentions.
The Hadith:
قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ
مَا مِنْكُمْ مِنْ أَحَدٍ إِلَّا وَقَدْ وُكِّلَ بِهِ قَرِينُهُ مِنْ الْجِنِّ
قَالُوا وَإِيَّاكَ يَا رَسُولَ اللَّهِ
قَالَ وَإِيَّايَ إِلَّا أَنَّ اللَّهَ أَعَانَنِي عَلَيْهِ فَأَسْلَمَ فَلَا يَأْمُرُنِي إِلَّا بِخَيْرٍ
The Prophet of God (peace be upon him) said, “There is no one amongst you except that next to him is an associate from the Jinn (who propels him towards sin.)
The Companions asked, “O Messenger of Allah! Even with you?”
He replied, “And even with me except that Allah helped me against him and he surrendered so (now) he doesn’t say order me towards anything except goodness.
Sheikh Nurjan, one of the most important living Masters of the Naqshbandi Silsila:
“The Auliya Allah – the Friends of God – and their disciples receiving training from them teaching this, ‘Live a life because someone wants to know if they are Mukhlis, sincere. Are they just Muslim and they accepted religion, any religion because whether you are Jews or Christians or Muslims, these are all titles, are you one who submits your will to the Will of The Almighty? For then you become Muslim, the one who submits their will to the Will of the Divine.
Then you come to the next maqam, station, which is to be a Mo’min, a believer. And Allah says, ‘Don’t say you believe, just say you accepted.’”
Iblis spares no one:
Imam Raazi (ra) was a Persian polymath, Islamic scholar and a pioneer of inductive logic. He wrote various works in the fields of medicine, chemistry, physics, astronomy, cosmology, literature, theology, ontology, philosophy, history and jurisprudence.
He was one of the earliest proponents and skeptics that came up with the concept of Multiverse, and compared it with the astronomical teachings of Quran. A rejector of the geocentric model and the Aristotelian notions of a single universe revolving around a single world, Al-Raazi argued about the existence of the outer space beyond the known world.
“When he was on his deathbed, Iblis came to the Imam (ra) to give his last best effort to make break his faith, take it away from him.
With this in mind, Iblis asked him a question, “You spent your entire life in seeing the Signs of Allah and loving Him. Did you ever recognize God?”
The Imam (ra) replied, “Without doubt Allah is One.”
Iblis said, “Where is your proof for it?”
Imam Fakhar al Din al Raazi (ra) gave him a daleel (an argument as evidence). Iblis, once the Ustad of the Angels, dismissed the argument. The Imam (ra) presented a second case. He defeated that as well. The conversation continued until the Imam (ra) had given 360 arguments and Iblis had dispelled all of them. The Imam (ra) became gravely perplexed and started to lose hope.
Imam Fakhar al Din al Raazi (ra) was the disciple of Hazrat Najmuddin Kubra (ra), one of the most favoured disciples of Ghaus Pak (ra). Hazrat Najmuddin Kubra (ra) could see the whole incident unfolding before him from afar.
He was performing ablution and during it, he called out to his disciple, “Why don’t you just say, ‘I have brought faith upon God without any argument.’”
Who is the one saved from Iblis
12. The ones who rely solely on Allah
إِنَّهُۥ لَيْسَ لَهُۥ سُلْطَـٰنٌ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَلَىٰ رَبِّهِمْ يَتَوَكَّلُونَ
Indeed, there is for him (Iblis) no authority over those who have believed and rely upon their Lord.
Surah An-Nahl, Verse 99
Tafseer e Jilani:
Inna hu laysa hu sultan an: Indeed he, Iblis, has no ability to capture and overcome…
A’la lladina a’mino: the ones who believe in the One-ness of Allah and have certainty in the truthfulness of Allah’s Books and His Messengers and the Day promised and that which will be given in reward that Day.
Wa; And along with this
Al’a Rabbi-him: they rely on their Lord and no one else from the sources and means of day to day life and…
Yatawakkaluna: they surrender and they entrust all their matters to Him for sure.
And also:
13. Iblis admits his helplessness before the Sincere
إِلَّا عِبَادَكَ مِنْهُمُ ٱلْمُخْلَصِينَ
Except the sincere among your worshippers.
Surah Al-Hijr, Verse 40
Tafseer e Jilani:
Al Mukhliseen: The Sincere are the ones who have saved their necks from the noose of the nafs e Ammara (the lowest self of three). They are the ones who are content and steadfast, standing firmly on the Station of seeking the Pleasure of Allah and surrendering.”
Tauba - Repentance
14. Except he who repents
إِلَّا مَن تَابَ وَءَامَنَ وَعَمِلَ عَمَلًۭا صَلِحًۭا فَأُو۟لَٓئِكَ يُبَدِّلُ ٱللَّهُ سَيِّـَٔاتِهِمْ حَسَنَتٍۢ ۗ
وَكَانَ ٱللَّهُ غَفُورًۭا رَّحِيمًۭا
Except he who repents and believes and does deeds righteous,
then for those will replace Allah their evil deeds with good ones.
And is Allah Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
Surah Al-Furqan: Verse 70
Tafseer e Jilani:
Illa man taba: The one who repents over his wrongful deeds made by wrong decisions, and return to Allah regretful for them these deeds which rendered him in a state of loss and harmfulness. When he returns to Allah ashamed, in fear of His Punishment, declaring his nafs to be the liar, making it feel ashamed, sighing and feeling sad about that which has passed in his life...
Wa: and along with all this…
Aamana: he believes in Allah’s One-ness and strengthens his repentance by renewing his faith, imaan, enjoining it with sincerity, and keeping other believers safe from committing sins against the faith, (so overall; He renews his faith, believing, sighing regretfully, for the times when he was committing sins and not being a Mo’min)...
Wa: (again) with repentance and renewing of his imaan…
Amila amilan salihan: he does good deeds, based on sincerity in that faith and that repentance, knowing of its certainty and recognition of those good deeds.
Fa ulaika: So these are the fortunate ones who repent and return and are accepted by Allah. Only these are the ones who…
Yubadilullahu: Allah, Al Hakeem, The Wise One, Al Muslihu, The Reformer, changes the states of His Servants, after He gives them the ability for sincere repentance and a truthful return…
Sayyatihim: (He changes) their bad deeds committed before their tauba, repentance, into…
Hasanatin: good deeds afterwards. This is such that Allah, by His Bounty, erases their sins which have been written on their records before their repentance (before Him), and in exchange he writes for those sins, good deeds.
Wa Kana Allahu: And Allah is The One Well Informed of the secrets of His Servant and of his sincerity.
Ghafoor-an: He is The Forgiver, the One who lets go their sins no matter how major they are after they have come with sincere repentance.
Rahim-an: He accepts with His Mercy their tauba and forgives them their sins.
It took us two classes to translate the verse and I saw myself in only the first three words; illa man tab - except he who repents.
15. The one who repents is extended forgiveness
فَمَن تَابَ مِنۢ بَعْدِ ظُلْمِهِۦ وَأَصْلَحَ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَتُوبُ عَلَيْهِ ۗ
إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَفُورٌۭ رَّحِيمٌ
But whoever repented from after his wrongdoing and reforms, then indeed,
Allah will turn in forgiveness to him. Indeed, Allah (is) Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
Surah Al Maidah, Verse 39
Tafseer e Jilani:
Faman ta’aba: So the one who repents and returns towards Allah sincere (in heart), in fear (of reckoning)…
Min ba’ada dulmihi: after he transgressed boundaries set by Him …
Wa aslaha: and reformed themselves with repentance (by returning towards Allah with sincerity) for the corruption that they have brought upon their own nafs (self) by disobeying Allah’s Orders.
Fa innallaha: Indeed, Allah is Al Musleh, The Reformer of all states of His Servant.
Yatubu alaihi: And Allah also turns towards Him and accepts his tauba, repentance, after giving him the ability for that repentance.
Innallaha: Without doubt, Allah is the One who is Al Muyassir, the One who gives ease in all matter for His Servants…
Ghafur an: He is the Forgiver of all their sins.
16. Repent and reform
إِلَّا ٱلَّذِينَ تَابُوا۟ مِنۢ بَعْدِ ذَلِكَ وَأَصْلَحُوا۟ فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ غَفُورٌۭ رَّحِيمٌ
Except those who repent from after that, and reform[ed] themselves.
Then indeed, Allah (is) Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
Surah Aal e Imran, Verse 3
Tafseer e Jilani:
Illaladina taabu: Except for the ones who were repentant amongst them in this life.
Min ba’ada dalika: then after this, they who had turned away from the faith and become astray…
Waslahu: then reformed their state with repentance and sincerity of the heart, seeking forgiveness, expressing regret upon that which they did…
Fa Innallaha: Indeed, Allah is Al Muwwafiq, the One who gives the ability for the tauba,
Ghafur-an: concealing their crimes…
Rahim-an: Affectionate, letting go of their mistakes.
17. From Darkness into Light
ٱللَّهُ وَلِىُّ ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ يُخْرِجُهُم مِّنَ ٱلظُّلُمَتِ إِلَى ٱلنُّورِ ۖ
Allah is the Protecting Guardian of those who believed.
He brings them out from the darkness towards the light.
Surah Al Baqarah, Verse 257
Tafseer e Jilani:
Allahu: The One who is the Gatherer of All Attributes and All Names…
Walliulladina Aamino: He is the Friend of those who bring faith upon Him. He raises them, according to His Qualities and all that He encompasses (which is everything)…
Yukhrijjuhum min adulumaat: and brings them out of the darkness, which is the darkness of their nature and darkness of their doubts (of possibilities) and all other darkness…
Ilan Noor: towards the Light, crystal clear, His Pure One-ness, free of dust and all other associations.
18. The strategy of Satan is weak
إِنَّ كَيْدَ ٱلشَّيْطَنِ كَانَ ضَعِيفًا
Indeed, the strategy of the Shaitaan is weak.
Surah An-Nisa’, Verse 76
Inna kayda Ash Shaitan: Indeed the plotting of Shaitan, as compared to the planning of Allah and His Response to his cunningness…
Kana daeefan: is insignificant and without influence.
The Delusion of the World
الدنيا ظل زائل
The world is a shadow, disappearing.
Maula e Kayinaat, Hazrat Ali (ratu)
19. It is all that it is
وَمَا ٱلْحَيَوٰةُ ٱلدُّنْيَآ إِلَّا مَتَعُ ٱلْغُرُورِ
But is not the life of the world anything except the enjoyment of delusion.
Surah Al-Hadeed, Verse 20
Tafseer e Jilani:
Mal Hayatud duniya illa: In the eyes of those who are ahraar, free before their Lord, who are detached and not bound by their desire or will or need or anything else, who have reached the rank of ae’tabar, certainty and istibsaar, witnessing by the eye…
Illa Mata ul ghurror: according to these ahraar, the life in the world is an illusion that deludes and is false like a mirage. And the one who is caught in that deception and starts indulging in whatever is in the world, then indeed, he become deserving of destruction and ruin. And is rendered deprived of the Peace in Allah’s Closeness and the Tranquility of His Presence.
20. Wealth and children are trials
إِنَّمَآ أَمْوَلُكُمْ وَأَوْلَدُكُمْ فِتْنَةٌۭ ۚ
وَٱللَّهُ عِندَهُۥٓ أَجْرٌ عَظِيمٌۭ
Verily, your wealth and your children are a trial, and Allah - with Him is a reward great.
Surah At-Taghabun, Verse 15
Tafseer e Jilani:
Innama amawalkum wa auladakum fitna: Without doubt, your wealth and your children are a trial great and an intense test for you. So it is incumbent upon you to not show-off because of them. For they are both a web of Satan’s party and ropes by which they (appear to) entangle you because the party of Satan and their ropes, (both of these), want to stop you from Allah’s Path by beautifying your wealth and children for you and making them beloved for your hearts so you become occupied by them both, so you are withdrawn from the company of the Mukhliseen, the sincere.
Wa Allahu inda hu ajrun azeem: Allah has the greatest reward for those who are sincere, who keep away from focusing on anything other than Him at all.
21. All is an adornment
إِنَّا جَعَلْنَا مَا عَلَى ٱلْأَرْضِ زِينَةً لَّهَا لِنَبْلُوَهُمْ أَيُّهُمْ أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًا
(Truly we have made all that is on Earth as an adornment for it)
that We may try them, as to which of them is best in their deed.
Surah Al-Kahf, Verse 7
Tafseer e Jilani:
Inna ja’alne ma ala alardi: Without doubt We created upon this Earth three basic things; animals and humans, vegetation, and buried treasures. And Ee created whatever else comes from this Earth; different tastes and different lusts, which are physical or fantasy.
Zeenatal laha: These are adornments for it that make it (the world) beautiful and attractive…
Ayyuhum ahsan amlan: to see which of them (Mankind) has the best deeds and these deeds are the ones which are completed with true guidance and reflection by detachment from the world. And the absence of focus towards it and staying away from its enjoyment which is an illusion. And staying away from the distraction it creates and its lusts which bring with them all kinds of pain and difficulties and desires. It is these wishes which in turn cause different sins and crimes.
It is then imperative that in this world then one lives in a single room and wears a single outfit and eats simply, for everything else is just debris which is transient, which inherits sinfulness and trials.
22. Listen, obey, spend
فَٱتَّقُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ مَا ٱسْتَطَعْتُمْ وَٱسْمَعُوا۟ وَأَطِيعُوا۟ وَأَنفِقُوا۟ خَيْرًۭا لِأَنفُسِكُمْ ۗ
وَمَن يُوقَ شُحَّ نَفْسِهِۦ فَأُو۟لَٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُفْلِحُونَ
So be mindful of Allah as much as you can and listen (to Him) and obey and spend,
it is better for your selves.
And whoever is saved from their own greed, those are the successful ones.
Surah At-Taghabun, Verse 16
Tafseer e Jilani:
Fattaqu Allah ma astata’tum: So be conscious of Allah as much as you can and make Him your Protector for yourselves from the delusions Satan inserts and the trials that come due to him…
Wasma’u: and listen carefully the Words of Allah with the ears of surrender and acceptance…
Wa ati’u: and obey His Commands and stay away from what He forbids and don’t become disobedient from His Orders at all.
Wanfiqu: and spend from that which Allah has given you. Allah has made you His Vice-regent so obey His Order (to be obedient) and to seek His Pleasure and do all that He Commands, especially sacrifice and spending…
Khairallakum: is best for you, in this world and will be a treasure for you in the next life. And the greatest benefit of this spending is that it will save your nafs, self, from the dishonor and humiliation of miserliness.
Wa mayyuqa shu’ha nafsihi: And the one who was saved from stinginess of the nafs by giving and spending…
Fa ulaika: these are the ones who are fortunate and the ones who personify the attributes of large heartedness and generosity…
Hum ul muflihoon: and they are the ones who are rendered successful by Allah with great rewards and the highest ranks.
Subhan Allah!
23. The ones who spread vulgarity
إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ يُحِبُّونَ أَن تَشِيعَ ٱلْفَحِشَةُ فِى ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ لَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌۭ فِى ٱلدُّنْيَا وَٱلْءَاخِرَةِ ۚ
Indeed, those who like that immorality should spread among those who believe, will have a punishment painful in the world and the Hereafter.
Surah An-Nur, Verse 19
Tafseer e Jilani:
Then said Allah as a warning to all peoples;
Inna: Indeed the mufsideen, the ones who spread harm and those who transgress His Boundaries…
Alladina Yuhibbuna: they are the ones who love, from the wickedness of their inner beings (the batin)…
An Tasheeh’: and they exhibit and spread…
Al Fashiha: vulgarity that is considered ugly by the reflecting mind as well as the Sharia’ (Islamic Law)…
Filladina Amano: amongst those who have belief i.e. amongst the Mo’mineen.
Lahum: For them is the punishment for the publishing and distributing (of such material)…
Azabun Aleem: which is painful and scary…
Fi Duniya: in the world physically
Wal akhira: and in the Hereafter with flames of fire.
24. Man is a Transgressor
كَلَّآ إِنَّ ٱلْإِنسَنَ لَيَطْغَىٰٓ
أَن رَّءَاهُ ٱسْتَغْنَىٰٓ
Indeed, Man surely transgresses all bounds,
whenever he sees himself to be self-sufficient.
Surah Al-Alaq, Verse 6-7
Tafseer e Jilani:
And so Allah says admonishingly;
Kalla inna al insaana: Surely Man, who has been born from the lowest of the matter (smelly earth, sperm) and then given the highest ranks which reach the zenith of dignity and praise…
Layatgha: he transgresses all the limits set by Allah and assumes arrogance before Him, forgetting the original lowly materials of his creation.
Ar ra’ahu: For he thinks he is all in all, assuming that on his own…
Astaghna: he is self-sufficient and becomes careless about Allah and thinks that he needs nothing from Him. He becomes prideful with His Servants, and walks on this Earth arrogantly because of the debris which he has collected from this world and its transient attractions.
The End of Al-Araaf – from the Tafseer e Jilani
In those days, I was reading Surah Al-Araaf from the Tafseer e Jilani. Ghaus Pak (ra) starts and ends each Surah with an address. The first, the beginning, is for the ones Chosen by Allah, the extraordinary. The end is for the rest of us, the ordinary. When I reached it and read what Ghaus Pak (ra) said to me, the reader, I was struck by how it was always all about Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him);
“O one who turns their direction towards the Qibla of Ahmed (peace be upon him) and who intends to reach the destination of the One-ness of Allah through Muhammad (peace be upon him)! It is imperative for you to…
May Allah give you guidance towards the the Straight Path and enjoins you to the Station of Tauheed.
…turn your attention towards the states of your qalb, the seat of recognition of God, and remember what is in it from your Lord’s as gifts, through investigation and quest for these treasures, whilst avoiding that which places you in doubt from the dust of obscurity of others, so that you reach the standard of receiving admonition and trust.
That you do it in a way that the evil prompting of the plotter, Satan, does not come into your heart. Nor the betrayals of the world with their deceit and unfaithfulness. None of this will be achieved by you except with remembrance through Allah’s Book which has advice and information and history. So obey the commands it orders and forbids and reflect on its overt secrets and the unveiling of its wisdom and its hidden secrets.
It is incumbent upon you that if you want to receive true guidance from the Book, you have to enjoin yourself with the ahadith of Rasool Allah (peace be upon him). Because the ahadith are meant to explain it, reveal the secrets and signs in it, and make clear that which is ambiguous in it. The ahadith will give you the security you need to have true belief and secure you from slipping and turning away from guidance. It is the ahadith that which take you, according to your capacity, to the path of One-ness.”
25. The Guiding Friend
مَن يَهْدِ ٱللَّهُ فَهُوَ ٱلْمُهْتَدِ ۖ
وَمَن يُضْلِلْ فَلَن تَجِدَ لَهُۥ وَلِيًّا مُّرْشِدًا
Whoever guides Allah and he is the guided one,
and whoever He lets go astray then never you will find for him a protector,
or a guiding friend.
Surah Al-Kahf, Verse 17
I studied the verse form the tafseer of Ghaus Pak (ra) to see what he meant by “guiding friend.”
Waliyan: A friend, who helps him in his affairs by interceding for him, so that the friend can save him from the waywardness that is naturally present (in all people in the nafs). And he delivers him from the punitive consequences of what the nafs will bring upon him.
Murshid an: The friend is the one who shows him (the way of the Sharia’) and guides him (through the path of spirituality) towards the Straight Path.
Imam Maalik (ra) said;
من تفقه ولم يتصوف فقد تفسق
ومن تصوف ولم يتفقه فقد تزندق
ومن جمع بينهما فقد تحقق
The one who follows Fiqh, Islamic Jurisprudence, but does
not purify the heart,
so indeed he becomes a fasiq, defiantly disobedient.
The one who purifies the heart and ignores the laws of Jurisprudence,
he becomes a zindeeq, of the disbelievers.
And the one who gathers them both, indeed he attains
certainty and arrives at the truth.
As someone who tends to pay little attention to the Sharia, I was amazed; I could become a zindeeq, a heretic!
26. Those who are Mindful – the Muttaqi – are reminded
إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ ٱتَّقَوْا۟ إِذَا مَسَّهُمْ طَٓئِفٌۭ مِّنَ ٱلشَّيْطَنِ تَذَكَّرُوا۟ فَإِذَا هُم مُّبْصِرُونَ
Indeed, those who are mindful and conscious of Allah, when touches them an evil thought from the Shaitaan,
they remember Allah and then they are those who begin to see things clearly.
Surah Al-Araaf, Verse 201
Tafseer e Jilani:
Then said Allah reminding His Beloved (peace be upon him);
Innalladina ittaqau: Those who are conscious and mindful of Me amongst My Servants, they are in a routine such that…
Ida massahum: whenever touches them and tries to overcome them…
Taifun: the sender from Satan who awaits and encircles their hearts…
Min Ash-Shaitan tadakkaru: they remind themselves of what they been commanded to do and what is forbidden for them from Allah…
Fa idahum: so in the same moment, due to the remembrance of what has been commanded and that which is forbidden…
Mubsiroon: they become able to differentiate the placement of the sins and therefore become careful of them and come into the Refuge of Allah from those things that put them into false illusions about Him.
27. When anger is stirred
وَإِمَّا يَنزَغَنَّكَ مِنَ ٱلشَّيْطَـٰنِ نَزْغٌ فَٱسْتَعِذْ بِٱللَّهِ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ
If an evil suggestion come to you from Satan stirring you (to blind anger),
then seek refuge with Allah. Surely He is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.
Surah Al-A’raf, Verse 200
Tafseer e Jilani:
Wa Imma Yanazaghannaka: So if reaches you whispers which then disappear, thus placing you in a state of disruption…
Min Shaitaan: it is from Shaitaan, who influences you physically through the organs which cause anger and stokes the ego in a way that is only ignorant creating a false sense of dignity…
Nazghun: causing doubts and delusions that persuade you to become angry and take you out of the state that you have been ordered to stay in, which is tolerance and softness of behaviour.
Fasta’iz billah: So come into the Refuge of Allah from these entrapments and return to Him from these doubts and this plotting. He is with His Glory Enough to protect you from his evil and treachery.
Inna hu: Indeed, Allah is Pure from everything that is negative…
Sami’un: and is the Acceptor of your prayers,
Aleem: and the Fulfiller of your needs.
Said Maula e Kayinaat, Hazrat Ali (ratu);
إِذَا قَدَرْتَ عَلَى عَدُوِّكَ
فَاجْعَلِ الْعَفْوَ عَنْهُ شُكْراً لِلْقُدْرَةِ عَلَيْهِ
Whenever you gain power over your adversary,
keep practicing forgiveness,
out of gratitude (to God), for the control you gained over them .
28. The Wickedness and Goodness in Us
وَنَفْسٍۢ وَمَا سَوَّىٰهَا
Consider the human spirit and who perfected it.
Surah Ash Shams, Verse 7
Tafseer e Jilani:
Wa nafsin: Allah takes an oath upon the spirit that receives nourishment from His Names and Attributes, which is revealed in all forms which are named (by Him). The spirit comes into the organs (in these bodies), both higher (the angels) and lower (Mankind) so that everything can gain benefit from the remembrance of their origin and their true purpose of existence.
Wa ma sawaaha: And He takes an oath on Himself who made this spirit, meaning He made it moderate and created it as a compound fitted with the influences of the higher (heavenly) and the lower (earthly) elements.
29-31: To succeed or fail
فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَىٰهَا
قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَن زَكَّىٰهَا
وَقَدْ خَابَ مَن دَسَّىٰهَا
And He inspired it (to distinguish) its wickedness and its righteousness.
Indeed, he succeeds who purifies it,
And indeed, he fails who buries it (in darkness).
Surah Ash Shams, Verse 8-10
Tafseer e Jilani:
Fa alhamaha fujuraha wa taqwaha: So He inspired it (the nafs) to both, wickedness and mindfulness, according to that which is placed in it from the forces of heavens as well as of the Earth. Then He burdened it according to what it can bear so that the one who is truthful can be differentiated from the one who is false, and the astray from the guided, and the denier of Truth from the believer, completing the wisdom, which is rooted in certainty, which reaches the Essence of Allah and which reflects the Dominance of His Power.
Qad aflaha man zakkaha: Indeed he was successful and prosperous due to the success He prospered by receiving from Allah the highest ranks…
Man zakkaha: the one who cleansed his nafs from the vileness of the world and from the possibilities of the demands of its desires and its lusts.
Wa qad khaba: And he was in a loss and ruined himself…
Man dassaha: the one who prevented the nafs from reaching its higher level (from Ammara, corrupt to Mutma’inna, content) and made it wayward. He did this by persuading it to be disobedient and sinful, which was done due to the demands of its base nature, its lustful desires and the wickedness of the world. This persuasion is what makes it deserving of different kinds of losses and deprivation and humiliation.
Maqam al Ummiya – The Station of being an Ummi
Tafseer e Jilani:
“Amongst the 124,000 Prophets and 313 Messengers, the maqam, station, of being Ummi is specific to only the Last Messenger (peace be upon him). Never before has the word been used previously for any Prophet or Messenger.
The Meaning of Ummi: The word Ummi is derived from the word umm which means origin or source or root. So Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him) is Ummi because he is the origin of everything. For example, Mecca is called Umm ul Qura because it is the origin and first of the cities. The Quran is called Umm ul Kitab because it is the base and source of all the books.”
32. Those who deny the Afterlife
إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ بِٱلْءَاخِرَةِ زَيَّنَّا لَهُمْ أَعْمَلَهُمْ فَهُمْ يَعْمَهُونَ
As for those who will not believe in the life to come – behold, We made their own doings appear goodly have unto them, and so they stumble blindly to and fro.
Surah An-Naml, Verse 4
Tafseer e Jilani:
Then said Allah according to His Sunnah everlasting in His Book:
Innaladeena la yu’minoon: Those who do not affirm and testify that…
Bil akhirati: there is an Afterlife, out of pride and out of stubbornness…
Zayyana: We make good…
Lahum a’malahum: the ugly, the evil and the worldly acts for them and we give them time for a while, such that they become deserving of the worst punishment and the worst end.
Fahum: So these people because of Us giving them this time, they are intoxicated in their addictions and their waywardness…
Ya’mahoona: wandering in a state of bewilderment, proud, showing off of their luxurious lives and their blessings.
33. The Guided and the Astray
أَفَمَن زُيِّنَ لَهُۥ سُوٓءُ عَمَلِهِۦ فَرَءَاهُ حَسَنًۭاۖ
فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُضِلُّ مَن يَشَآءُ وَيَهْدِى مَن يَشَآءُۖ
فَلَا تَذْهَبْ نَفْسُكَ عَلَيْهِمْ حَسَرَتٍۚ
Is, then, he to whom the evil of how own doings so alluring that he regards it as good?
For verily, Allah lets him go astray who wills to go astray, just as he guides him that wills to be guided.
Hence, O Allah’s Habeeb (peace be upon you), don’t let your sorrow over them destroy you.
Surah Fatir, Verse 8
Tafseer e Jilani:
A faman zuyyana lahu soo’u amalihi faraahu hasanan: Does the human being think that Shaitaan, Satan, has made his sinful deeds for him attractive, when in fact they are entirely wrong. This happens because of his false beliefs and wicked thoughts, so how can he be like the one who is in fact good in his matters and his faith? Can it be that the two become equal and deserving of the same reward? Never ever!
Fa Innallaha: The One who possess all Honour (Al-Mutazziz), who has Supreme Authority and Majesty, who controls all He wants…
Yudillu: He makes (some) wayward from the Path of Tauheed, according to His Wrath and according to His Majesty…
Mayya sha’: those of His Creation who are disobedient, sinking them in waywardness and making them lost…
Wa yahdi maayya sha’: and He guides and gives guidance (to others), for indeed, this is what is asked for as help by them first of all. This (Decision) is a function only and only of Allah’s Will and His Choice. Nothing is allowed to interrupt that or become involved in it in any way whatsoever.
Fa la tadhab nafsuka: So don’t exhaust yourself, O Beloved (peace be upon him), and don’t be a cause of your own extreme anguish and torment…
Alaihim: over the ones who are astray, though you love for them guidance and wish it for them…
Hasaraat: feeling sad for them and sorry for them, pining over this wish of yours for them again and again feeling that sorrow for them, layering grief upon grief because of their waywardness and refusal to accept guidance.
Then in repeating the meaning again Ghaus Pak (ra) says for emphasis:
“For that person who thinks his sin is goodness and thinks the deed is good for his nafs and believes it to be correct, all the time being unaware that it is in fact falsehood. This is the reason he has turned from the Right Path, thus totally distancing himself from guidance.
And you, O Beloved Messenger (peace be upon him) who completes The Message, will you torture yourself over them in sorrow wondering all the whole; “Why don’t they accept guidance and why don’t they bring faith?” Indeed, Allah makes astray those He wishes to make astray and guides those He wishes to guide. So don’t feel badly for them.”
34. Allah has full knowledge
إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلِيمٌۢ بِمَا يَصْنَعُونَ
Indeed, Allah has full knowledge of what they do.
Surah Fatir, Verse 8
Tafseer e Jilani:
In Allaha: No doubt, Allah is The One is watching all states…
Aleemun bima yasnaoon: And He knows everything that they do. He will give them the result of their evil and wrongful deeds, so don’t belabor yourself for them over that which they are missing in instruction and guidance.
35. The Reward of Amil Saleh – Good deeds
مَنْ عَمِلَ صَلِحًۭا مِّن ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنثَىٰ وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌۭ فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُۥ حَيَوٰةًۭ طَيِّبَةًۭ ۖ
وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْرَهُم بِأَحْسَنِ مَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ
Whoever does righteous deeds whether male or female while he is a believer, then surely We will give him life, a good life,
and We will pay them their reward to the best of what they used to do.
Surah An-Nahl, Verse 97
Tafseer e Jilani:
Man amila: The one amongst you who does deeds…
Salihan: the deeds that We accept and that make you accepted by Us…
Min zakiran: by the men amongst you…
Au unthawa: or the females, in the state that they are…
Huwa: during the performance of the deed…
Mo’min: (if they are) believers in the One-ness of Allah, testifying to His Books sent upon them and His Messengers, obedient to all that which The Last Messenger (peace be upon him) brings, wanting increase in their ranks from Ilm ul Yaqeen, Knowledge of the Truth, to Ayn ul Yaqeen, Witnessing of the Truth, towards Haq ul yaqeen the Truth of the Truth…
Falanuh ya yanna hu: We, Allah, surely give them life after the death of their worldly needs and lusts and when they withdraw and become detached from their animalistic instincts by their will and choice,
Hayatan tayyaba: We give them a pure life with actual purity which is eternal, without the stain of death (for it is everlasting) and loss, which is devoid of the ill of expiry and finality, which is cleansed of all grudges and ills (of the heart) which are connected to the overt life (in the world).
Wa lanajzeeyannahum ajrahum: and We will give them the reward of their deeds and their patience which they exercised against fulfilling the demands of their base self in their overt life…
Bi ahsana ma kanu yamuloon: with the best and most abundant of rewards for their deeds which they performed when they traveled towards Us, wanting of the union with Our Pure One-ness.
36. Each soul earns its doing
لَا يُكَلِّفُ ٱللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا وُسْعَهَا ۚ لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَعَلَيْهَا مَا ٱكْتَسَبَتْ ۗ
Allah does not burden Allah any soul with more than its capacity to bear.
For it is every good that it earned, and against is every evil it what it has incurred.
Surah Al Baqarah, Verse 286
Tafseer e Jilani:
La Yukallifullaha: The Allah who guides towards Him does not place any burden…
Nafsan illa Wusaha: upon any soul more than it can bear i.e. except that which it can bear, according to its capacity and strength and capability, which He set in His Ever-Present Knowledge for this purpose. So this makes clear…
Laha Ma Kasabat: that the soul will only be rewarded for its virtues and good deeds according to the capability of its nature.
Wa Aliyha Maktasabat: and it will be held accountable for that which it earns from its wrongful deeds, due to following the powers of the nafs, self, as much as follows it because it is the abode of all degeneration.
37. Allah is the Protector
وَٱللَّهُ يَعْصِمُكَ مِنَ ٱلنَّاسِ ۗ
And Allah will protect you from the people.
Surah Al Maidah – Verse 67
Tafseer e Jilani:
Wallahu: The One who safeguards every state of yours (O Beloved (peace be upon you))…
Ya’simuka: and protects you…
Min: from the harm of…
An-naas: people and that which they plot to kill you and hurt you. And Allah will defend you against the injuries they want to inflict upon you with His Power and His Majesty.
38. So be patient, O Beloved (peace be upon you), for you are in Our Eyes
وَٱصْبِرْ لِحُكْمِ رَبِّكَ فَإِنَّكَ بِأَعْيُنِنَا ۖ
So be patient with your Lord’s Judgement for you are, indeed, in Our Eyes.
Surah At-Tur, Verse 48
Tafseer e Jilani
Wasbir: O Messenger who completes The Message (peace be upon him)!
Li Hukmi Rabbika: By the Order of your Lord, be patient with these people who are malevolent. Since He gave them time till the Day of Judgement and you will be amongst them, He gave you the strength to be steadfast on the different forms of vexation from the pain and difficulties they create in you. So don’t become hasty in inciting His Anger towards them so that He may destroy them and don’t fear their plotting and betrayal towards you.
Fa innaka: For indeed...
Bi A’yunina: You are in Our Special Safeguarding and Our Surrounding and Our Fortress. We are Enough for you and your grief and difficulty that comes because of others’ malice, We are Enough for you. And don’t pay any heed to them and don’t care about their wickedness and their deceit. And don’t move away from Us because of them and their enmity towards you.
39. What is a spouse for Ghaus Pak (ra)?
قُلْ أَؤُنَبِّئُكُم بِخَيْرٍ مِّن ذَٰلِكُمْ ۚ
لِلَّذِينَ ٱتَّقَوْا۟ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ جَنَّـٰتٌ تَجْرِى مِن تَحْتِهَا ٱلْأَنْهَـٰرُ خَـٰلِدِينَ فِيهَا وَأَزْوَٰجٌ مُّطَهَّرَةٌ وَرِضْوَٰنٌ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ ۗ
وَٱللَّهُ بَصِيرٌۢ بِٱلْعِبَادِ
Say, O Prophet (peace be upon you), “Shall I inform you of what is better than all of this?
(‘This” being he enjoyment of ˹worldly˺ desires—women, children,1 treasures of gold and silver, fine horses, cattle, and fertile land.)
Those mindful ˹of Allah˺ will have Gardens with their Lord under which rivers flow, to stay there forever, and pure spouses, along with Allah’s pleasure.”
And Allah is All-Seeing of ˹His˺ servants,
Surah Aal e Imran, Verse 15
As a single person I looked up the word azwaaj specifically. I knew Ghaus Pak’s (ra) tafseer of the word would have something for me as well.
Wa azwaaj: Deeds and states
Verses 40-55 continued on flickr.com/photos/42093313@N00/51684479886/in/dateposted-...
my first form of liquid painting was on abstract spiritual forms in motion.
i finished that series in 1999 after a show in which no one seemed to be intrigued by the essential qualities of what our eyes show to us.
i switched over to REAL representational art.
but i kept the NOT GALLERY aspect of my work pretty strong -- using way more black, only tints and shades and full chroma colors. i painted my feelings with the colors i chose.
and "my feelings" weren't intended to be my own.
i love classical ideology.
form and beauty and also our modern understanding that the 1 percent is fetish and nazi/fascist by its nature.
so i'm not into perfection as much as the idea of things that are just obviously better or trying or engaged or activated.
arguments about perfection are weird.
why do people like to fight so much?
my eyes tend to see all things as rather ordinary and i want to show off the simple things i find, to revel in their nature and then to figure out an expression that suits the two -- the object itself and my attitudinal relationship with it. for me, more than ambiguous emotional terms, i favor HEAT and MOTION as the aspects of light that i choose to focus on.
because my life is so interlapped with photography, i am both a camera and a painter, a robot and a brain, a drone and brighter magick user.
i can't help this double nature and like prince said, you'd better know your dark side and your bright side and if they can get along and you end up bright, that is the path of the philosopher guide.
so if that's you, now is the time!
RISE up among the people.
use your intelligent power to untangle the ropes of darkness!
but i digress.
so through and along my urban and townsy journeys -- santa barbara, seattle, san francisco, santa fe, san diego, amsterdam, manhattan -- i eventually found my way to flowers.
they grow in the front yards of the people's homes wherever i walk, or in buckets at a florist shop along the street or a grocery store. the beauty of flowers is everywhere.
and flowers are a reminder that everything dies. but it can be beautiful.
and we cut flowers for their beauty.
for me, roses are wanton.
they are my third form/series of liquid paintings.
the second one, and the most explored/exploded, is the exploding rainbow dahlia.
and where roses are wanton and vain-glorious (really, i had no idea!), the dahlia is like a swiss community with its order and its architectural phenomenon.
my exposure to dahlias was limited before i arrived in san francisco. i had painted orchids, peonies, chinese rose, birds of paradise, cala lilies, california golden poppies, and tulips.
but dahlias and the rainbow seemed like they were made for each other. that those TWO THINGS were US. that we, as people were just like dahlias in the way we ordered and constructed our lives. the dahlia with its form for capturing and storing light and moisture, and the exploding rainbow with its blatant and broken spectrum of blasting color.
so i floated those dahlias in space where a million things were happening all at once. everything as one moved into a constellation. i added multiple sided die and glinty bits of ambiguous crow candy for the eye.
vanity and selfism, the star charisma of the rose's nature -- that of desire and death masked as finality -- was just another form of circustry in this new unexploited world of die and glinty, treasury bits spinning and rolling and falling through space, into space, as space. hitting and colliding, forcing loss and explosion and aiding decay.
and there was a war in these pieces which forced them into a liquidity.
that war was between the clarity of stasis and our fascination with movement.
the impressionists, aided ENTIRELY BY THE USE OF THE CAMERA, had learned that aperture values that the camera's limited technology could exploit at the time had shown new essentials.
aperture values taught the impressionists that they could DELETE things from the environment to increase the imaginative suggestibility of the viewers mind.
for example, if i have my focus on the nostrils of a racing horse and progressively blur and fade out the clarity as the horse goes away through foreshortening, the horse's nose will seem MUCH closer to the viewer and more three dimensional than it would if the receding part of the horse were in perfect detailed clarity.
people like manet realized even further, using the same deletion technique of the intelligence, that a glove could literally look MORE glove-like with just three strokes of a brush. indeed, that the SUGGESTION of a glove was infinitely more powerful and perfect to the impression of the piece than an actual glove ever could be.
so in my liquid painting, i envisioned a human circus as exploding rainbow dahlias. our vanity and self-love; our beauty and our grace; and our aging and exploding.
all with dreams of promise, jewelry in the sky, and an unending ability to NEVER grasp much of anything.
and we are constantly coming in and out of focus in our own lives, a living constellatory fascination with ourselves and others creating patterns and habits and occupations.
and that rabbit hole lasted for several years.
it started in 2010/11 as a discovery process and eventually ended up producing over 6,000 images of that world. enough to create an app that could endlessly recreate the world imagined.
and the goal was to document every conceivable color pattern that the human eye could see.
and i think it worked.
it also led to the conclusion of the PIXELWITHIN theory.
which i have elaborated over on torbakhopper's news outlet, lol. the merkaba is a beautiful thing!!
so now the rose.
sometimes slutty, sometimes regaling and proud. sometimes curvy, sometimes more than curvy or with torn edges and hot little shadows.
england had a war over roses.
just like the u.s. had a war over rubber. just kidding. it was all about democracy and partiotism.
and roses are more likely to cause trouble than dahlias.
dahlias are all about the community as a metaphor.
there is a fundamental "coming together" about dahlias.
whereas, honestly, roses are all about falling apart.
this large group of examples are all different now. just like the other forms of liquid painting, CHANGE is a part of the game.
------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES -------------------------
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, FOREVER! Through Faith in Jesus!
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
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CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.
My THANK'S to all those who have taken the time to view, fave, comment or share my photo's with others. I really appreciate it! ❤️
------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES -------------------------
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, FOREVER! Through Faith in Jesus!
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
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CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.
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MAIN:
The following entry compiles three independent Primal Deities:
• Bunorp'Gatt: Being a moderately powerful Serpentine-Class deity of distinctly masculine personality, Bunorp'Gatt is (in)famous as the being responsible, along with his "prophet" Emenoneme, for the brief yet infamous Sertrophian Civil War, while also being indirectly responsible for making possible a certain other, much later calamity. Bunorp'Gatt surfaced on Sertrop's Oumpather-populated island-string subcontinent in Age 528, "recruited" Emenoneme in Age 529, founded the "Ring of Revelations" "sect" (cult) in Age 531 and subsequently used it to spread subversive "teachings", specifically targeting the authority of the Labeiqers, which facilitated tensions that eventually caused Age 535's violent conflict. Bunorp'Gatt wielded, as his key instrument of sowing discord, the black tome now known as the Obliviconium, labelled by the Primal Deity as the "Ultimate Testament"; he claimed to have been previously banished from the Prime Galaxy before reforming as a result of his cosmic isolation and subsequently making his way back towards the populated galaxy over a period of centuries, discovering the magical book along the way and determining to share its contents with God's peoples. Given what the true nature and origins of the "Ultimate Testament" would eventually be revealed as, we can only assume that this account is more-or-less factual. This is, of course, excluding Bunorp'Gatt's allegations of benevolent intentions, which were ultimately admitted by the deity himself to have been a sham, with him in fact having no idea what the tome actually did and his machinations having been committed with no practical intent other than to cause general chaotic unrest, a goal that tends to be shared by many of the most insidious Primal Deities. Yet despite his true nature boiling down to utter insanity, Bunorp'Gatt was notably very adept at upholding a masquerade of apparent good-naturedness and benign sensibility, hence his initial success in gaining a large following. Though his defeat in Age 535 did not occur under any special ceremonies that would have ensured his destruction as permanent (a controversial and rarely-practiced imposition of finality even concerning evil spirits), Bunorp'Gatt has not been encountered at all since then, even when the Obliviconium came back into play for the final time more than two centuries later. On a somewhat related note, the tendencies of the Oumpathers, whose kind constituted most followers of the "Ring of Revelations", to sympathize with Primal Deities have not particularly declined since their dealings with him despite the negative precedent set by them.
Like most Primal Deities, Bunorp'Gatt's physical form consists of an inconsistent mixture of both mineral-like and organic tissue-esque supernatural materials, with the latter category of matter being much more prevalent in his case, at least as far as his outer, visible body is concerned. Despite his Serpentine nature, he was known to usually stand completely upright upon the base of his semi-segmented tail, though this may have been in large part for show given that most of the deity's recorded sightings consisted of him standing publicly before his followers. He bears/bore a number of clustered, jaggedly pointed crystal-like structures upon his dorsal, which were eventually discovered, based on Emenoneme's notes recovered by the resourceful Peaco upon the "prophet"'s killing, to be very vulnerable, concealing a weak patch of flesh and effectively constituting Bunorp'Gatt's "weak point". This was exploited to great effect during the final raid against Bunorp'Gatt and his remaining followers, even allowing Sertrophian forces to physically restrain the deity for an extended length of time, a feat whose successful infliction upon a Primal being is nigh-unheard of. Bunorp'Gatt's durability value is estimated at around 30,000.
• Ren'Nohdam: A modestly potent Idol-Class deity of neutral gender, Ren'Nohdam is an object of worship for multiple circles existing on planet Namyufefe, of which the deity has been a permanent resident for all of recorded history (that is, since well before Age 0 Relative), including many Hernolall primitives as well as a few Yunstoxars residing on the fringes of their race's society. Its body is small in scale but very well-developed for a Primal Idol, possessing both arms and legs, albeit with the latter being useless and just for looks, as well as secondary appendages in the form of tentacles which in this case emit from Ren'Nohdam's "elbows". It has two, likewise quite distinctly-developed, Tiki aspects, being one of the few Primal Deities with any attached Tikis at all to bear this number of them instead of three. Ren'Nohdam's Tikis are known as "Bliss" and "Scorn", and ostensibly each have minds of their own, being able to freely talk even in seeming opposition to the will of the deity's main personality, though given the very nature of Primal Deities it is unclear how much of this apparent Tiki-independence is genuine as opposed to being a sinister act. The Bliss Tiki is known for emitting from its mouth a unique form of gas that acts as a potently ecstatic drug for Ren'Nohdam's faithful, while the Scorn Tiki effectively embodies the deity's aggressive and malicious sides but serves little regular-basis purpose while its affairs are going undisturbed, though it is known to be able to breathe flames. The overall bodily durability value of Ren'Nohdam has been measured as approximately 25,000.
In Age 603, Ren'Nohdam was destroyed by a radically God-zealous Yunstoxan sect under pseudo-ritualistic conditions which they believed would annihilate the deity permanently but were clearly not legitimate, given its return and enactment of murderous revenge with the help of its followers during the following year. These events stand as the most violent in which Ren'Nohdam has ever been involved, and violent indeed though they may have been, considering the histories of a majority of other Primal Deities, this actually speaks a fair deal for the deity's relative peacefulness. Ren'Nohdam is in practice a nonaggressive entity, whose lust for power and worship is sufficiently limited that it sees no necessity in conquest or particularly insidious mass-brainwashing, and its overall agenda is not destructively malicious. Granted, no Primal Deity has any true moral compass, and Ren'Nohdam's non-threat status can in large part be attributed to the convenient circumstance that is the existence of the simple-minded Hernolalls, who form most of the following that keeps its ambitions satiated.
Concerning the ritual routines of Ren'Nohdam and those in its service, the deity is very fond, and rather demanding, of animal sacrifices that occur before him on a regular basis, is noted as an advocate for and expert in the recreational use of psychedelic drugs, and is also somewhat perverted and, to this end, bisexual (which only makes sense given its own lack of a distinct gender). It tends to spend most of its time hanging out around the settlements of its followers, between which it has programmed for itself a teleportation circuit encompassing all such villages, while occasionally venturing out into the wilds for mysterious and surely strange/nonsensical personal reasons. Ren'Nohdam is generally not welcome among most parts of mainline Yunstoxan society, and it, again thanks to its limited lust for power which is largely satisfied by Hernolalls, usually abides by this.
• Oli'Pomma: One of the most famous Guardian-Class Primal beings, Oli'Pomma is a legendarily-renowned figure in many cultures, including for artistic representations in fiction, and has been encountered numerous times on a variety of worlds, with every octant of the Prime Galaxy facilitating at least one confirmed sighting. Oli'Pomma's unique form is that of an oversized humanoid whose body is composed nigh-entirely of mineral-type, rather than seemingly organic, corporeal material, though as with all Primal Deities' bodies it is ultimately neither natural living tissue nor any identifiable, externally-extant variety of stone, but rather a magical and alien construct of solidified Primal Energies.
Like other "Guardians", Oli'Pomma's chief attribute exists in the form of a powerful artifact weapon inextricably linked with his essence and relinquished upon his "death" at the hands of a worthy challenger. In his case, his massively powerful stone fists, known as the Diamick Dukes, are the artifact(s) to be sought after, though their presence upon Oli'Pomma's body is not one and the same with their mortal-usable form, which is/are smaller and appear(s) via transmutation from the whole of the deity's felled body upon his defeat. Being magically form-fitting so as to be usable by almost any race and possessing a weight, or relative lack thereof, which it would be impossible for any humanoid-made, non-magical version to have while maintaining the same striking power, the Diamick Dukes are the most powerful weaponized gloves in existence, and are known to drain spiritual willpower from those struck with them in addition to inflicting standard trauma. To date, at least seven mortal individuals, three of them mutants, are known to have acquired and wielded the Diamick Dukes.
Oli'Pomma's power level rests near the low-end compared to other Primal Deities, and even among other Guardian-Class deities, who tend to be weaker than most of their non-Guardian counterparts, he is not particularly strong in terms of energy projection, although resilience by virtue of a prominently stone-like body is one major strength of his, with the deity possessing a durability value resting upwards of 12,000. He is also very cunning and levelheadedly competent, which can make up for his lack of brute strength, especially considering the insanity exhibited by many a more unhinged Primal Deity. Furthermore, given that he technically wants to be temporarily "killed" from time to time so that his power may be harnessed by those worthy of taking him down, which is seen as an "honor" replacing standard worship in the minds of Guardian-Class deities, the balance struck between Oli'Pomma's limited raw power and his savviness in utilizing what power he does have could easily be considered an ideal one for his agenda.
On the specifics of Oli'Pomma's particular mode of operation: the deity summons himself to random planets, where he usually takes up post in hard-to-reach yet conspicuous places such as inside caves, upon mountaintops and at abandoned ritual sites. If no one finds him, he will remain waiting there for a maximum of five years before leaving to seek attention elsewhere, while if and when he is discovered at a given location, Oli'Pomma will instruct his finder(s) to spread word of his presence and thereafter await challengers for a subsequent period of one year before departing if not bested by a worthy artifact-inheritor within that time. He is, in practice, strictly a neutral being, not aggressively attacking anyone who does not wish to fight him with the exception of those who discover him but openly refuse to divulge his location to the local public, which Oli'Pomma takes extreme offense to.
SECRET BONUS (RIGHT):
The Multiversal Septet:
• Emitter of Prophetic Nullification
• Ring of Intervention-Exemption
• Hyperblade of Existence's Cessation
• Idealizer Goggles
• Multiversal Puzzle Box
• Film Reel of the Cosmos
• Projector of Conjured Realities
------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES -------------------------
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, FOREVER! Through Faith in Jesus!
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.
My THANK'S to all those who have taken the time to view, fave, comment or share my photo's with others. I really appreciate it! ❤️
------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES -------------------------
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, FOREVER! Through Faith in Jesus!
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.
My THANK'S to all those who have taken the time to view, fave, comment or share my photo's with others. I really appreciate it! ❤️
JESUS ❤️ SAVES
Grace and Peace be yours FOREVER in Christ Jesus.
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.
My THANK'S to all those who have taken the time to view, fave, comment or share my photo's with others. I really appreciate it! ❤️
Lake Oroville, Dam and Spillway.
View of the top of the dam. We used to be able to park all along the top of the dam, but you are now no longer allowed to park or even stop on the dam. I guess we are now fortunate to be allowed access to the dam at all.
------------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES-------------------------------
SALVATION THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST JESUS ALONE!
❤️❤️ IT'S ALL JESUS AND NONE OF OURSELVES! ❤️❤️
1. Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2. BY THIS GOSPEL YOU ARE SAVED, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4. that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5. and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8. and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
9. For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11. Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed. (1 Corinthians 15:1-11)
7. Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9. I am the gate; whoever enters through me WILL BE SAVED. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10. The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:7-10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so WE might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
So you'll KNOW, and not think you're to bad for God to love. The Christian LIFE isn't about how good WE are, because NONE of us are! It's about how GOOD JESUS IS! Because JESUS LOVES US, so much he died in our place and took the punishment for all of our sins on himself. The wages of sin is DEATH, and Jesus died that death for YOU and I. The good news is there no more punishment for sin left, we were and are all born forgive as a result of the crucifixion of God himself on the cross that took away the sins of the whole world. All we have to do is believe it, and put your Faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. That my friends is REAL UNCONDITIONAL LOVE! YOU ARE LOVED. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
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© All Rights reserved no publication or copying without permission from the author.
youtu.be/0fjJ0Yi-2F8 Trailer Updated
The Mutara Nebula battle is perhaps the greatest space battle in all of cinema.
www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GPzE7...
Starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Ricardo Montalban, Walter Koenig, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Bibi Besch, Merritt Butrick, Paul Winfield, Kirstie Alley, and Ike Eisenmann. Directed by Nicholas Meyer.
The year is 1982. It has been thirteen years since the original Star Trek has gone off the air. Three years ago, Star Trek: The Motion Picture hit and while it was a financial success, it was grossly over-budgeted ($46 million) and criticized for being too long, too boring, and too god damn weird.
So they slashed the budget down to a quarter of the previous film and removed Gene Roddenberry from the lead creative role. Instead, they made Harve Bennett, a new Paramount producer who had never seen an episode of the original series, the figurehead in getting a second Star Trek movie off of the ground. What we have here is a perfect storm of things that should create a terrible movie.
So it’s no small miracle that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is not only good, but is easily the best Trek movie that’s ever graced the screen. Bennett threw out a lot of the esoteric trappings of the first film and the team brought on board, including director Nicholas Meyer, were also unfamiliar with the Trek universe. Gone were the kitschy 60s/70s outfits (many of the costumes from The Motion Picture were altered and dyed to make the new uniforms). Also gone were the abstract threats. Pulling out a villain from seemingly random in the original run of the show, Wrath of Khan was going to be as direct and reductionist a sequel to the show as was possible.
This new look of the concept of Star Trek recast the Federation as a much more military organization. The uniforms were more naval. The ships more complex and more delicate. The Enterprise became cramped and bustling, crawling with incidental crewman running a myriad of tasks. What Wrath of Khan did was turn Star Trek into a naval warfare movie in space.
I imagine most people are already familiar with the basic plot of Wrath of Khan. Khan Noonian Singh (a chesty, magnificently hammy Ricardo Montalban), a genetically altered egomaniacal superman from Earth’s distant past, has been marooned on a planet for 15 years after a run in with Kirk and company during the original run of the show. The USS Reliant, looking for a barren planet to test a new terraforming device (sprearheaded by an old flame of Kirk’s and his heretofore unknown son), encounter Khan and his crew of survivors who quickly proceed to capture the Reliant and use it to exact revenge on Kirk.
What happens next is a series of intricate cat and mouse submarine battles cast in a sci-fi setting, great Shakespearean scenery chewing by one of film’s greatest sci-fi villains, and a great personal sacrifice by one of the most enduring pop culture characters. It’s great stuff, full of high drama and brilliant character beats, serious but not ponderous, clever by not showy, the textbook case of less is more.
What other movie has the gall to cast its two opposing leads in a situation that never brings them face to face? Kirk and Khan taunt and challenge and curse each other from across the reaches of space but never share a single scene. What other movie has the restraint to limit itself to the quiet predatory climax in an obscuring nebula? Both ships blindly gliding by each other in silence, one mistake away from annihilation? Wrath of Khanis as tense as any thriller, cast in a familiar franchise turned into something vital and exciting by fresh talent and fresh ideas.
But you know all this, so let’s start at the beginning, where the truly special ideas in Wrath of Khan lie. From the start we’re introduced to a younger group of Starfleet cadets, competent and ready, in a training simulation of the infamous no-win Kobayashi Maru scenario. Saavik (Kirstie Alley before she became a lazy tabloid joke) is being groomed as Spock’s protegee, commanding the Enterprise in this simulation, causing everyone aboard to die by her actions.
James Kirk, now an admiral and instructor, chides Saavik about her approach to the scenario. Kirk is, to date, the only cadet who ever defeated the test, meant to train cadets the reality of sacrifice when command leads you to no sure victory. Kirk’s legacy is already well established as the man who has cheated death countless times, a man who doesn’t believe in no-win scenarios.
Yet we open on a Kirk in darkness. He’s bored and aging at the academy. He accepts gifts from his closest friends begrudgingly on his 50th birthday. To Kirk, all this is a defeat, a quiet retreat from the adventure he always considered his right. Which is why when the Enterprise receives a distress call while on a training mission, Kirk takes control of the ship and steers her towards the science outpost where Khan lays in wait.
What the film so carefully does is lay open the truth that Kirk isn’t quite the man he used to be. He’s not as fast, but he’s not as rash. Confronted with a son he didn’t know he had, he’s left to wonder just how many opportunities his lifestyle has made him forsake. As much as command is about making the decisions day to day, it is about the decisions left at the wayside.
It is when all hope is lost that Kirk reveals to Saavik how he beat the Kobayashi Maru–he reprogrammed the scenario to allow him to win. Saavik protests that it was cheating, Kirk retorts with the fact that he got a commendation for creative thinking. And in the depths of the battle between Kirk and Khan, spanning across space between two men wrapped up in their own legacy, Kirk cheats his way to victory again.
But this time he doesn’t escape cleanly, as the victory costs him the life of Spock. For Kirk, who had the galaxy as his plaything for decades, the realities of the choices, the realities of life looming behind all the adventures, come crashing down around him. When asked after Spock’s burial among the stars how he feels Kirk replies “I feel … young.” It is the risk and the finality that provides the spark of life, not the adventure itself.
What Wrath of Khan manages to do is to humanize what was quickly becoming remote and abstract. Star Trek was never about the aliens or the adventure so much as it was about what it means to be human. At the best of times it remembers its better self, and brings that to the forefront, and becomes something more than the fandom or the slightly silly space western it was originally conceived as. That is what makes Wrath of Khan so singular, and so special.
Where did you come from. Are ya friend or foe?
------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES -------------------------
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, FOREVER! Through Faith in Jesus!
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.
My THANK'S to all those who have taken the time to view, fave, comment or share my photo's with others. I really appreciate it! ❤️
my first form of liquid painting was on abstract spiritual forms in motion.
i finished that series in 1999 after a show in which no one seemed to be intrigued by the essential qualities of what our eyes show to us.
i switched over to REAL representational art.
but i kept the NOT GALLERY aspect of my work pretty strong -- using way more black, only tints and shades and full chroma colors. i painted my feelings with the colors i chose.
and "my feelings" weren't intended to be my own.
i love classical ideology.
form and beauty and also our modern understanding that the 1 percent is fetish and nazi/fascist by its nature.
so i'm not into perfection as much as the idea of things that are just obviously better or trying or engaged or activated.
arguments about perfection are weird.
why do people like to fight so much?
my eyes tend to see all things as rather ordinary and i want to show off the simple things i find, to revel in their nature and then to figure out an expression that suits the two -- the object itself and my attitudinal relationship with it. for me, more than ambiguous emotional terms, i favor HEAT and MOTION as the aspects of light that i choose to focus on.
because my life is so interlapped with photography, i am both a camera and a painter, a robot and a brain, a drone and brighter magick user.
i can't help this double nature and like prince said, you'd better know your dark side and your bright side and if they can get along and you end up bright, that is the path of the philosopher guide.
so if that's you, now is the time!
RISE up among the people.
use your intelligent power to untangle the ropes of darkness!
but i digress.
so through and along my urban and townsy journeys -- santa barbara, seattle, san francisco, santa fe, san diego, amsterdam, manhattan -- i eventually found my way to flowers.
they grow in the front yards of the people's homes wherever i walk, or in buckets at a florist shop along the street or a grocery store. the beauty of flowers is everywhere.
and flowers are a reminder that everything dies. but it can be beautiful.
and we cut flowers for their beauty.
for me, roses are wanton.
they are my third form/series of liquid paintings.
the second one, and the most explored/exploded, is the exploding rainbow dahlia.
and where roses are wanton and vain-glorious (really, i had no idea!), the dahlia is like a swiss community with its order and its architectural phenomenon.
my exposure to dahlias was limited before i arrived in san francisco. i had painted orchids, peonies, chinese rose, birds of paradise, cala lilies, california golden poppies, and tulips.
but dahlias and the rainbow seemed like they were made for each other. that those TWO THINGS were US. that we, as people were just like dahlias in the way we ordered and constructed our lives. the dahlia with its form for capturing and storing light and moisture, and the exploding rainbow with its blatant and broken spectrum of blasting color.
so i floated those dahlias in space where a million things were happening all at once. everything as one moved into a constellation. i added multiple sided die and glinty bits of ambiguous crow candy for the eye.
vanity and selfism, the star charisma of the rose's nature -- that of desire and death masked as finality -- was just another form of circustry in this new unexploited world of die and glinty, treasury bits spinning and rolling and falling through space, into space, as space. hitting and colliding, forcing loss and explosion and aiding decay.
and there was a war in these pieces which forced them into a liquidity.
that war was between the clarity of stasis and our fascination with movement.
the impressionists, aided ENTIRELY BY THE USE OF THE CAMERA, had learned that aperture values that the camera's limited technology could exploit at the time had shown new essentials.
aperture values taught the impressionists that they could DELETE things from the environment to increase the imaginative suggestibility of the viewers mind.
for example, if i have my focus on the nostrils of a racing horse and progressively blur and fade out the clarity as the horse goes away through foreshortening, the horse's nose will seem MUCH closer to the viewer and more three dimensional than it would if the receding part of the horse were in perfect detailed clarity.
people like manet realized even further, using the same deletion technique of the intelligence, that a glove could literally look MORE glove-like with just three strokes of a brush. indeed, that the SUGGESTION of a glove was infinitely more powerful and perfect to the impression of the piece than an actual glove ever could be.
so in my liquid painting, i envisioned a human circus as exploding rainbow dahlias. our vanity and self-love; our beauty and our grace; and our aging and exploding.
all with dreams of promise, jewelry in the sky, and an unending ability to NEVER grasp much of anything.
and we are constantly coming in and out of focus in our own lives, a living constellatory fascination with ourselves and others creating patterns and habits and occupations.
and that rabbit hole lasted for several years.
it started in 2010/11 as a discovery process and eventually ended up producing over 6,000 images of that world. enough to create an app that could endlessly recreate the world imagined.
and the goal was to document every conceivable color pattern that the human eye could see.
and i think it worked.
it also led to the conclusion of the PIXELWITHIN theory.
which i have elaborated over on torbakhopper's news outlet, lol. the merkaba is a beautiful thing!!
so now the rose.
sometimes slutty, sometimes regaling and proud. sometimes curvy, sometimes more than curvy or with torn edges and hot little shadows.
england had a war over roses.
just like the u.s. had a war over rubber. just kidding. it was all about democracy and partiotism.
and roses are more likely to cause trouble than dahlias.
dahlias are all about the community as a metaphor.
there is a fundamental "coming together" about dahlias.
whereas, honestly, roses are all about falling apart.
this large group of examples are all different now. just like the other forms of liquid painting, CHANGE is a part of the game.
my first form of liquid painting was on abstract spiritual forms in motion.
i finished that series in 1999 after a show in which no one seemed to be intrigued by the essential qualities of what our eyes show to us.
i switched over to REAL representational art.
but i kept the NOT GALLERY aspect of my work pretty strong -- using way more black, only tints and shades and full chroma colors. i painted my feelings with the colors i chose.
and "my feelings" weren't intended to be my own.
i love classical ideology.
form and beauty and also our modern understanding that the 1 percent is fetish and nazi/fascist by its nature.
so i'm not into perfection as much as the idea of things that are just obviously better or trying or engaged or activated.
arguments about perfection are weird.
why do people like to fight so much?
my eyes tend to see all things as rather ordinary and i want to show off the simple things i find, to revel in their nature and then to figure out an expression that suits the two -- the object itself and my attitudinal relationship with it. for me, more than ambiguous emotional terms, i favor HEAT and MOTION as the aspects of light that i choose to focus on.
because my life is so interlapped with photography, i am both a camera and a painter, a robot and a brain, a drone and brighter magick user.
i can't help this double nature and like prince said, you'd better know your dark side and your bright side and if they can get along and you end up bright, that is the path of the philosopher guide.
so if that's you, now is the time!
RISE up among the people.
use your intelligent power to untangle the ropes of darkness!
but i digress.
so through and along my urban and townsy journeys -- santa barbara, seattle, san francisco, santa fe, san diego, amsterdam, manhattan -- i eventually found my way to flowers.
they grow in the front yards of the people's homes wherever i walk, or in buckets at a florist shop along the street or a grocery store. the beauty of flowers is everywhere.
and flowers are a reminder that everything dies. but it can be beautiful.
and we cut flowers for their beauty.
for me, roses are wanton.
they are my third form/series of liquid paintings.
the second one, and the most explored/exploded, is the exploding rainbow dahlia.
and where roses are wanton and vain-glorious (really, i had no idea!), the dahlia is like a swiss community with its order and its architectural phenomenon.
my exposure to dahlias was limited before i arrived in san francisco. i had painted orchids, peonies, chinese rose, birds of paradise, cala lilies, california golden poppies, and tulips.
but dahlias and the rainbow seemed like they were made for each other. that those TWO THINGS were US. that we, as people were just like dahlias in the way we ordered and constructed our lives. the dahlia with its form for capturing and storing light and moisture, and the exploding rainbow with its blatant and broken spectrum of blasting color.
so i floated those dahlias in space where a million things were happening all at once. everything as one moved into a constellation. i added multiple sided die and glinty bits of ambiguous crow candy for the eye.
vanity and selfism, the star charisma of the rose's nature -- that of desire and death masked as finality -- was just another form of circustry in this new unexploited world of die and glinty, treasury bits spinning and rolling and falling through space, into space, as space. hitting and colliding, forcing loss and explosion and aiding decay.
and there was a war in these pieces which forced them into a liquidity.
that war was between the clarity of stasis and our fascination with movement.
the impressionists, aided ENTIRELY BY THE USE OF THE CAMERA, had learned that aperture values that the camera's limited technology could exploit at the time had shown new essentials.
aperture values taught the impressionists that they could DELETE things from the environment to increase the imaginative suggestibility of the viewers mind.
for example, if i have my focus on the nostrils of a racing horse and progressively blur and fade out the clarity as the horse goes away through foreshortening, the horse's nose will seem MUCH closer to the viewer and more three dimensional than it would if the receding part of the horse were in perfect detailed clarity.
people like manet realized even further, using the same deletion technique of the intelligence, that a glove could literally look MORE glove-like with just three strokes of a brush. indeed, that the SUGGESTION of a glove was infinitely more powerful and perfect to the impression of the piece than an actual glove ever could be.
so in my liquid painting, i envisioned a human circus as exploding rainbow dahlias. our vanity and self-love; our beauty and our grace; and our aging and exploding.
all with dreams of promise, jewelry in the sky, and an unending ability to NEVER grasp much of anything.
and we are constantly coming in and out of focus in our own lives, a living constellatory fascination with ourselves and others creating patterns and habits and occupations.
and that rabbit hole lasted for several years.
it started in 2010/11 as a discovery process and eventually ended up producing over 6,000 images of that world. enough to create an app that could endlessly recreate the world imagined.
and the goal was to document every conceivable color pattern that the human eye could see.
and i think it worked.
it also led to the conclusion of the PIXELWITHIN theory.
which i have elaborated over on torbakhopper's news outlet, lol. the merkaba is a beautiful thing!!
so now the rose.
sometimes slutty, sometimes regaling and proud. sometimes curvy, sometimes more than curvy or with torn edges and hot little shadows.
england had a war over roses.
just like the u.s. had a war over rubber. just kidding. it was all about democracy and partiotism.
and roses are more likely to cause trouble than dahlias.
dahlias are all about the community as a metaphor.
there is a fundamental "coming together" about dahlias.
whereas, honestly, roses are all about falling apart.
this large group of examples are all different now. just like the other forms of liquid painting, CHANGE is a part of the game.
MONOLOGUE OF HISTORY, right side of the central diptych of the West Wall, which may be read in its entirety below.
STUDIO SECTION 2008-2009
East Wall: Calvary--Donors With Crucifixion
West wall: Self-Portrait As A Young Artist
Middle: Il Passetto
2008-2009
Wood, wood mâché, metal, gesso, modeling paste, acrylic, graphite
Each of the six diptychs measures 8' x 8' 1"
Over all dimension for exhibition: 40' x 40'
Collection:
Toledo Art Museum
Toledo, Ohio
STUDIO SECTION 2008-2009 is an extension of the “non-specific autobiography” realized and examined by Robert Cremean in VATICAN CORRIDOR, A Non-Specific Autobiography. It consists of three parts: East Wall: Calvary—Donors With Crucifixion, in which the artist gives unprecedented voice both to Gestas and to Dismas who were crucified with Jesus; Il Passetto, the corridor in which he makes a metaphoric exposition of the treatment of women by the three “hats”: the helmet of the warrior, the mitre of religion, and the bowler of commerce; and West Wall: Self-Portrait As a Young Artist in which “the young artist” is addressed verbally and metaphorically through three monologues: the Monologue of Art, the Monologue of the Artist, and the Monologue of History. Listening to the conflicting and diametrically opposing views written on the diptych behind him on the West Wall is the bust of the young artist who looks with an inscrutable gaze through the horrors of Il Passetto to the horrors of Calvary on the East Wall and at the Donors, aloof and blinded to the controlled chaos behind and in front of them.
These are but a few of the ideas and images contained within STUDIO SECTION 2008-2009. As in any work of art, the viewer may create his own world out of the images, metaphors and words confronted therein.
Monologue of History
I will create you. Defer! Defer to me. Hear my voice. It is loud with knowing. From its intelligence all things shall be judged. I am history. Hear my voice! I will define the who and the what of you...the right and the wrong—that which is and that which isn’t and the shoulds and the shouldn’ts of it all...all that presents itself to the formulae of my discerning eye. If you neither present yourself nor court my favor, then you do not exist. It will be as though you have never been...and so, perhaps, you haven’t. You do not signify. You signify nothing, not even a footnote within my pagination. If you seek silence then that is your reward. The future will not contain you. I make nouns out of verbs, pruning and paring the edges of chaotic enterprise to make concise patterns of hearsay and heresy, boundaries and time spans, hierarchies of significance, winners and losers, that which is and that which isn’t. I am a tyrant without parallel, compassion or appeal...witness, judge, and jury of my self-creation. I, too, am God, rivaling Art through persuasion of the intellect. I make nouns out of verbs. From my voice springs the reality by which actualities are formed, languages spoken, morals and mores ingested, wars fought, treaties signed, boundaries drawn and cultures authenticated. I am history, consensus, the tepid shallows of human necessity. I do not pretend to the passion of Art but I do claim its containment...Through my hands all things passeth....My mastery over such threats of chaos must not be questioned. I am History but without consensus, my abiding strength, I am history, a linear theory of reality. Art history is my crowning achievement. Look to my hierarchies. Look to my battlements. My logic is above reproach...that which was determines that which is (in retrospect) what will be. Survival is the only norm and this, too, is true of history. For my survival, the past must control the Now. For those who view me as a simple chronicler of fact, let them look again. I, too, am verb made noun. My participation is active in the affairs of men. Let me channel your desire and guide your hand. Only I can make you unforgotten, your works, cherished, your name revered. Is this not why you labor? Of which you also dream? Honor me. Let me channel your desire and guide your hand. If you thwart me, or try to thwart me, it will be as though you had never been. I will cast my light elsewhere and your shadow will cease to stain the cultural scrim. You did not spring from the forehead of Zeus. Your influences are obvious and undeniable—or so I shall proclaim. You have no resources to pit against my defamation. I will fold you into oblivion. I know you hear me for this is history’s loudest greatest threat to all artists. You are not unique. Think of your predecessors. Think of your peers. Who do you love? Of whom are you jealous? These lie within you as whores and succubi....Your studio is a battleground on which your mortality is fought. I can smell your competitiveness. It is pungent with envy. Do you seek fame? Would you kill for it...push aside others to claim the light? How hungry are you? Are you stiff with ambition...erect with desire? How great is your need...how large your talent? How hungry are you? History is a religion of comparisons worshipping the advent of first appearance and from thence the waves and ripples of influence unto entropy and beyond. I thrive on clarity and have no qualms about dismissing that which clouds my mirror. I worship straight lines and obvious connections and if it is necessary to strip away that which irritates or confounds conclusion—so be it...and though it is impossible to alter my course, I am not immutable. Whatever I record as was is, and must be viable in the ever present Now. In no other way can the never existing future be contained and the Now impervious to chaos. How clever was Man to have invented time—to have created me. Survival is always the norm and my Isness conspires, as you, young artist, must conspire. If you do not believe in me, if you do not believe in time and its linearity linking past, present, and future, then you are my enemy for you threaten my significance, my essentiality, our survival. I shall create you aberrant, consigning you and your works to nihility. What do you wish to achieve? Why would you deny me and yourself consummation? History encompasses art. What births this sense of separation? Would you place art outside of history? This temerity will destroy you. You have barely begun and already you tempt destruction...and this you shall have if you proceed. I will prune you like a twig, disappear you as though you had never been. Do not thwart me. Do you fear competition? That is my entelechy. Competition is the essence of survival and history is the recordation of triumphs and losses—winners and losers. Which frightens you most, young artist, the responsibility of winning or the freedom of losing? Art would ask of you martyrdom. Art history asks only that you present yourself for judgement. Do you fear judgement? Culture-makers will deem your viability and I will reify their judgement. Of all the conjunctive histories submitting themselves to man’s idea of himself, war religion, politics, etc., history is the one true artifact. Based on inventive and creative principles of manipulation, art history is a manufactured product of amoral construct...a deadly serious game of oxymorons and malapropisms. If you do not play the game, your refusal is deemed derelict and you are judged inconsequent to your time...and rightly so. My isness, history’s essentiality, is to enforce a clear and logical sequence from source to infinity maintaining past, present, and future in consensual alignment. It is your responsibility, young artist, to fulfill my purpose. My concept of time is unassailable. It is linear without exception or deflection, concrete and irreductible. If errors are made or lapses incurred, time’s decisive speed of linearity incorporates everything within the gestalt as just and accurate. I build on what is there...and this is history’s truth. History cannot be wrong anymore than it can be kind. You are what you are and what you are is how you are perceived. History can record no other. I move on with or without you. Individual artists are of little interest to me. Their lives are either messy or intemperate or staid or boring; both are tedious and unserious recordation...gossip and hearsay. I am dedicated to movements and metaphors, comparisons, and contradictions, hierarchies of influence, what came first and what came after with attendant pulses and repercussions—hot beginnings and tepid endings and all the mediocrities that lie between...These, however, are for lesser ambitions. I use culture as culture uses me—for authenticity. And, finally, it is the marketplace that uses us all. Only Art escapes this accommodation...not so its artifacts which are pimped, and trafficked, and hyperbolized to enhance value. I cannot control response. Culture cannot control response. We cannot prove that Art exists. My linearity excludes personal metaphysical transformations. If I trespass into subjective territory, I forfeit disinterested authenticity. I become a novel, a fiction, a curiosity and shall be judged as such. Everything that is produced by Man is an artifact: war, religion, science, art, and all tangencies. Man in his entirety is an artifact. He has invented his gestalt and I, history, am his most valued invention. I record him as he wishes to be seen, a self-portrait of magnificent proportion. Only Art defeats my deception. Through response and transparency, my facting becomes another false reality...I cannot record the transformations of Art; these lie within the mysterious seclusion of human Desire. The interior of a responder’s bourn is wordless and unwordable and of no consequence to the tides and turnings of history. It is for me to finesse the lumbering, laboring, linear repeat that bears my name: changing a boundary here, a revolution there, a white genocide for a black, a religious persecution with a religious persecution...the sameness grows progressively challenging to create empathy and involvement in such a large audience on such a small planet. Since 8/6/45 the final act of all intervening dramas share a sense of penultimacy and hackneyed conclusion. Since 8/6/45 it is I who have lost significance, however spectacular and world shaking my recordation. Human life has devalued all life and has become the most terrifying predator the world has ever known. Young artist, you are living in an age of miracles! What is this seeming indifference, as though it does not matter or as though 8/6/45, the birth of Death, has not occurred...Your culture’s retreat into entertainment and commodification bodes ill not only for the furtherance of art but for the furtherance of human significance. If you view yourself and your work insignificant, this is how art functions as the reflection of your time. It is cynical and miscreant. I will record this culture because I must record this culture. This is my isness. This is history’s isness...But I am become corrupt. I am a whore like any other which can be bought for fun and profit. Science has created our ending and in our conclusion we rejoice in our liberation. Finally all life is equal. The lion shall lie down with the lamb. Absence will envelop us all without distinction or prejudice...no ark to intervene and no arc to announce a new beginning. All pain will cease, all dreams end, and I, history, will be no more...no more linkage of a past that may not have been to a future that will never be...while silence, like ash, settles on the orb. I can only wonder at the ignorance of my inventor. Did he not see the possibility that everything that he is or would ever be was self-determined? Did he not sense that the swelling of Desire was his and his alone—as we now know as we try to avert finality. Why did he not heed Art’s counsel? At what point did his obsession blind his eye to the horizon? At what point did his obsession with infinity blind his eye to the horizon? At what point did his fear blind his eye to the horizon?..This obsession with possession and control has brought him to penultimacy. He has slain me and destroyed his metaphors leaving the actuality of all things to the ultimacy of absence. Soon not even pity will exist, or anger, or resentment for his blindness. He exists now as a broken whisper with three words left to utter: Destroy it all. And these words will be uttered; eventually they will be uttered for I, history, must deliver one final repeat. It cannot be denied. In conclusion one can only contemplate finality. I record only what man wants recorded and only the past can be recorded. I am pro-active only in repeat. I cannot prohibit. I cannot contain or restrain...only art history holds that conceit and I hold art history in dubious regard...It is meddlesome and unauthentic. It messes and muddies about in artifacts and commerce, inventing movements and romanticizing events in a desperate delusion that nothing has changed to alter the linear coordination of art’s impulses and isms...But it has severed art’s connection to a continuum before 8/6/45. Art criticism is lateral without depth of judgement. Clearly its current metaphors do not measure up to the past. Desire has been ripped from its Now. We are left wanting and waiting. We are in hiatus. We are diminished.To pretend that art history’s current crop of cultural artifacts should be judged as artifacts of Art is at best a culture in denial and, at worst, intellectual dishonesty bordering on fraud. It is a culture in name only based solely on activity and semantics. Art history traffics in celebrity and money...Was it always so? If I were to investigate the other histories in my gestalt would this be true also?... But all of my other histories create continuums based on verbs or adverbs of practicability: war, religion, commerce, medicine, sports, travel, clothing, cooking...but only artifacts of art can retain their nowness to conflate time...Only artifacts of Art can alchemize nouns into verbs. As you have observed, young artist, birds shit where they shit making no distinction whatever, be it the bronze head of Holofernes or your own, a grassy knoll or a pig sty. The human species’ capacity for killing is much the same as the pigeon’s indifference toward shitting...Look to war for that indignation...or to commerce for its treatment of the poor...or religion for shitting all over everything. Fortunately, my recordation is for man’s eye only. Whether he ends by shitting all over himself is of no consequence to me. He has postured me, disinterested—and so I am. In truth, I have grown weary of repeat. I have known the ending from the beginning but only since 8/6/45 have I known that I would not record it. Young artist, your culture-makers have, through manipulation of semantics and celebrity, simulated a climate that cannot subsist. They create stars without firmament, weight without gravity, time without history, an airless space of pure denial, an indulgence for fun and profit. This is a climate of preparation...a carnival...a dress rehearsal for absence. Young artist, why do you labor? Your fervency is obscene, obsessional. Do you hope that you have misread my dictums? What has been set in motion will complete itself. Your isness will end without witness. There will be no one to mourn nothing...a perfect double negative to crown mankind’s achievement. Total eclipse. Nothingness. My final repeat will occur for there is nothing to stop it. History will end in silence.
[1:29 am, 10/10/2022]
Manhattan Diaries
Rack: I am performing one of the weirder OCD tasks known to peeps. Transcribing my iCal daily activities into my preferred Manhattan Diary ©. So I’m living the past as if the present. Making me bat shit crazy. Caught up to early summer 2022. It’s merely a record of a day’s bones. Why I do it I DO NOT KNOW. Maybe a dementia fence. These things I have shored against my ruins. Hahaha
Ruin: I dreamt of 'diaries' last night, and woke up convinced to keep one. I do anyway, keep one, I mean. But I want to make it something else too, a 'dear diary' type 15 minutes each morning, before 'beginning' to write. Yes, I see the contradiction there. They are the same thing. It appears you have your bones, but I would warrant that you have much more than that. Scrape dearest, scrape.
Joni called it "chicken scratching" in 'Hejira':
“Well I looked at the granite markers
Those tribute to finality to eternity
And then I looked at myself here
Chicken scratching for my immortality”
I have been OCD-ing on these terrible e-mails of ours for yonks, scratch, scrape, dig, erecting that “dementia fence”, I have even spoken of it as that (in a way), that external memory on the desk you might inherit, if only you can keep your ol' bones together a little longer, you resilient hog!
Sinéad broke my heart. She's not a writer, but then neither am I. I understood her 'madness' completely, it was the only sane response, so her craziness works. Bless her!
But there's something great about learning to forget too, living to forget, even. I guess the trick is getting to that point where you just remember the right amount. The details can bewilder if there are too many. Your diary entries might be the right amount, they sound sparse. "Some common synonyms of sparse are meager, scanty, scant, skimpy, and spare". Take your pick. I would love to be able to commandeer one of those words, but that’s not in this fool's nature, it seems. Spare me a skimp, would ya?
Just got me (as we say there) Corona prik (as they say here). The nurse couldn't believe I was 68. I told her "Celts don't Craic". If only, spoken by a pox-ridden corduroy-faced withering eejit. How we laughed. It was all done in that foreign ‘teanga’ (Gaelic both for tongue and language) spoken here too, except for me 'Blacks don't crack' appropriation.
Another disease held at bay, 'Twas a great morning what was in it, to be sure, to be sure.
I do love your ruins.
Rack: I will read the Sinead autobiography. Yes, "madness" makes perfect sense. I completed the transcribing yesterday, and it is not all for naught. It gives one excellent insight into the apparently irrational tide of moods and behaviours. Like a drone shot of one's patterns. There is two of me. The me goes back and forth between the two and I appear to have no control of who I end up lodging with. There is the good me. And there is the bad me. I feel as if this split is some kind of trauma response and not merely the affliction of an astrological sign. It's not a split personality or schizophrenia, it might be a tad bipolar (or a bi tadpole), but I need for the two to reconcile, I think. Finally. Or maybe give up on the bad me and the good me and just rustle up the me.
Have been resisting my Covid shot, haven't had one in a year, though I did have the lurgy itself in January. Will do it next week before travel. Foggy has finally been diagnosed with long Covid. It ain't no joke. It's as if all his ailments and his aging has been accelerated. Anyway, he has started to get some medical help. His mobility is fairly bad. I am putting off making a decision about our future. About our whereabouts. I really am ready for a change and the idea of what I need to do is sort of coming into focus, slowly. That old survivor is crawling out of the ditch waving her cudgel at death and dwindling funds. I am currently dog sitting in Brooklyn Heights and doing that old thing of taking comfort in the splendour of other people's wealth. And getting paid for it. Handsomely.
Current view: The Hudson and Downtown Manhattan loiter behind the trees.
Have an excellent Indigenous Peoples' Day!
Ruin: Fecking great! This is going to take an email to answer, tomorrow.
Minutes later: But I can't really wait. Getting dinner ready here, have about five minutes until the oven part is ready. This sounds like the beginning of storytelling. I say beginning, but you have been doing it for over 30 years, no longer than that. I know it didn’t begin with our meeting, all your life, I suspect.
I knew it was there in your diaries, all that obsessiveness, all that secret doing, just annotating the day. That's it. It's what Ernaux does too, by the sound of it. I am waiting for her memoir (‘The Years’) to arrive in the next few days. I am sure yours are wonderful, or at least contain those seeds of wonder. You use a few words beautifully, as opposed to my purple vomiting. I accept my vomiting; I even chew it and re-swallow it. Anyway, I will collate everything you send, everything you write, as I always have, so it's always there (from my loving and twisted perspective).
Your biggest fan! (Creepy, huh?!!!)
Ruin (and Rock).
Rack: ♥️
🎈
♥️
I know, just like Kathy Bates in ‘Misery’, I am your number one fan. Talking of schizophrenia, Rock thinks you’re kind of special too. I am not at all sure which of us will be running riot in this new ‘Amsterdam Diary’ of mine (or his). You’ll excuse the occasional skirmish as we battle each other for supremacy, putting me somewhat in mind of another Bates, going by the name of Norman. Quarantine is a wondrous thing, allowing for the possibility of being liberated from having to run through the boreens of Manhattan with yours truly on a screaming/laughing scavenge, taking no prisoners, not at all, at all. The natives are now safe, I am glad to say, and my running/laughing/screaming days do appear to be over at last. Sitting/laughing/and virtual screaming I can still manage.
I am amazed, and thrilled, to hear you can still run, even hike no less, and you enjoying this lurgy for 15 years longer than me as well. The boreens of Connemara, why I never! Yes, your resilience is amazing. I can only put it down to your gene pool, intrepid female WW2 fighter-plane engineers, artists and poets, and the gift of not having any reception from the dreaded RTE up on your escarpment, overlooking the “greatest city in the world”, dirty old Baile Átha Cliath. Wiki translates that as "town of the hurdled ford". How the hell did you ever un-hurdle? Being somewhat hobbled, hurdling wasn’t possible there for me. I only began to learn to hurdle after I got my wild-goose wings. But maybe that’s something I recognize in you too.
How did you keep up with the price of heifers on the Hill of Howth? ‘Mart and Market’ segued seamlessly into ‘The Angelus’, the workaday norm across the whole of Ireland, except on that rock of your flowering deviance. You lucky cnut, I cannot tell you how jealous I am, was and will be. I know you were down the garden playing with fairies, you told me about them. Why do I imagine you eventually realised you could pull the wings off them?
Sinead was away with the fairies too. She still is as far as I can see, thankfully. I watched her being interviewed by Gay Byrne, that stalwart of the dreaded RTE, whilst reading her book. She mentioned these interviews a few times in the book, so I found some on YouTube. The problem was there to be seen, as clear as day, the catholic patronisation of something it didn’t understand, or was in denial of, blindness brushing up against clarity. Her tragedy was plain to be seen there too. I hope she survives. But then do any of us survive? She has left a true legacy, and although I don’t really listen to her songs, I do like the timbre of her voice, both in how she sings, and how she writes. She is unabashed. I have found that the bashed often are.
Can I ask, who ever told you that whatever you did would never be good enough?
That question is so ‘bald’, I am just going to leave it at that. You know me about getting to the ‘crux’, you mentioned it, so I am prepared to risk all and ask it.
I know that you know the answer.
Rack: Ruin, Sorry to have fallen off the astral plane of communication. Am stricken by a filthy cold, which feels far worse than vaccinated Covid. Laying low. Feeling mentally good in spite of the colonization by mucus. Was dog sitting in Brooklyn Heights for 9 days and boy is it glorious to be home. Again, I am reminded how our modest home provides everything we need. If only there weren't 4 flights of stairs and a wandering population of slightly threatening homeless zombies outside our door. Hope you and ‘Hem Binnen’ are well. Will write soon when the mucus recedes. Xoxo
Ruin: Take your time, fall comfortably, we know where each other is. No pressure at all. Get better ❤️. Is, are, whatevs.
I feel quite dreadful myself, quite worn out. I am just presuming it's HIV and the drugs working their exhausting magic. Afternoons are worst, from about 2 until 6, after that I seem to revive a bit. This has been going on for years, so I presume it is just how it goes. Regardless, I am writing. It's where I am happiest. ‘Hem’ is exhausted a lot, feeling his eighty years. It is what it is.
We, you and I, are doing well with this lurgy, you especially. Whoever thought we would see our sixties? I didn't. It feels very much like 'pacing' from here on in.
Annie Ernaux feels like getting hit in the stomach. I am starting a second book.
Rack: Yes. I can’t read too much of Ernaux at once. Intoxicating. Interesting to read that passage about AIDS. I feel as if the French did AIDS their way, different from here in the US. I suppose lead by Hervé Guibert’s completely fearless exposure of himself as he was dying, in literature and images. I’m so glad he’s getting attention again. He saved me in those early days. As did other writers.
Sorry you’re feeling without energy. It’s a horrible feeling. I am off for my annual ultrasound of liver and other parts tomorrow. I always assume there will be a death sentence when the results come in. Never gotten used to it. As Bob Dylan would say.
Delighted you are happy writing. What a wonderful gift late in life.
Rack (AKA Bob):
“And I've never gotten used to it
I've just learned to turn it off
Either I'm too sensitive
Or else I'm gettin' soft”
‘If You See Her, Say Hello’
Bob (AKA Rack)♥️
Ruin: I will re-absorb Mr. Dylan and his Wallabees (listening now, as compunction, and devotion, would have it).
This time thing, relative to what you can absorb is something else. I am starting on the second Ernaux volume, 'Getting Lost'.
In the first she wrote an almost 230-page memoir with hardly a mention of the 'I' word, miraculous in itself. This new book begins with "I phoned the Soviet embassy in Paris". We both know who she is hunting, you having read her ‘Simple Passion’.
I love her 'I' already.
I feel myself to be pronoun friendly, welcoming them all, willy nilly. It is my intention to utilise the bejaysus out of all of them, even. Youth seems to know this instinctively, and I sort of admire them for it.
Rack: I like the piece about Esposito Road a lot. And the gansey episode is great. Hard to write funny, but you do. Your telling of a tale is very adept. 💪
I am off to have my innards ultrasounded. Now that it’s here the dread is receding. xo
Ruin: I moight© be finding me© vice©.
-Ish
Enjoy your innard inspection.
That's a beautiful, and true, Rilke quote you sent to me.
[9:58 am, 19/10/2022]
Ruin: It's all a bit too much, I am trying to get to 'us'. I mean beyond childhood, beyond the abuse. It's intertwined, but I want to leave Ireland behind, to move on, at least as much as I can. But I am not there yet. I have to explain why my mother was innocent first, stupid but innocent. Perhaps more ignorant than innocent. I never wanted to write a 'memoir'. Oh well.
When do you get your results? Going by your usual energy level you sound good to me, relatively healthy, I mean. But what the hell do I know? It's good they do that yearly ultrasound though. I think we project good health onto people we care about, for fear of facing the possibility of anything else.
The thing I love about the new Ernaux book, 'Getting Lost', is that it is simply unadorned diary entries. It is the same story as the one you read, 'Simple Passion', about her Russian lover, but without the self-consciousness of turning it into a 'story'. It's raw, funny, and quite sexy.
Somehow, I want some of that rawness of us writing to each other. I will, hopefully, get there.
I am also looking at Jacques Testard's earlier forays into publishing 'experimental' fiction, that edge of now, in this compendium of his called the 'White Review'. You will know of him as Ernaux's English publisher. The NYT did a rather interesting piece on him, relative to the fact that in 8 years or so, under the auspices of the 'Fitzcarraldo Editions', a small outfit of, now, 8 full-time workers managed to publish three Noble Prize winners.
I respect that diligence, in a publishing world that appears to be as convoluted as the art world, which I once found myself floundering in, was. There would appear to be some integrity there, and a willingness to perhaps take risks.
I want to put more of you in the writing.
I love that Rilke quote you sent me, particularly that: "But you must also have been beside the dying, must have sat beside the dead in the room with the open window and the scattered noises.". We have both sat there, and been blessed and enriched by that experience. We will get the opportunity to pass that on, hopefully.
Goal: To pay it back, even.
I somehow feel that the writing is also the beginning of that paying-back ritual.
I want it to be like a diary somewhat, or these WhatsAp exchanges, like conversations almost in real time.
Ruin gingerly pressed the 'escape' key, and the past simply disappeared, and reappeared rackedly© transformed.
9th December 1998
Dear Ruin,
Writing. It's raining, very conducive indeed. I realise that only this can make me happy: writing not rain. Though I'm partial to both.
My infected nasal cavities make for such sweet explorations. Oh to fish out a big green one or a bloody red clot and then to be able to breathe a little freer. Intoxicated by my sinusitis.
The season unleashes a Martha Stewart-like domestic craftiness fervour in me. Have finished our tree (a Beckettean flaming minimalist thing) and am about to embark on baking a thousand mince pies. Perhaps it's the Protestant in me. Will you indulge me when you are here and do a little gold leafing around my bourgeois bathroom lamp? I'll pay you. I was going to do it but it would end up a mess.
I am off to get dripped later, actually a high point of the week. Something wonderful about having the supposedly abnormal condition of illness normalised by a room full of the infected. There is safety and power in numbers. Is marginalisation merely maths?
Excited that you will be here in 10 days.
Much love,
Martyr Stalwart (AKA Rack).
Ruin: I have a very vague memory of gold-leafing the base of that lamp, that Christmas in Manhattan.
I like the curly-pigged, gender-fluid, scribe(r) on the cover of the compendium. He/She could be us, at a stretch.
My first freebuild for LCC. I would have liked to have built this with a more bleak tone to match the story better, but alas I am lacking in brown and dark green foliage, so I had to make do.
Cold was the wind that howled through the forests of Lenfald. And a bitter cold it was, that blew down from the North and cut to the bone, an unfamiliar chill, alien, and strange, all but unknown to the kinder wilds of Southern Lenfald.
It was in this numbing draft that a man strode through the wood. Quickly, but with a silence possessed only by those native to the landscape, he continued on his path, seemingly impervious to the unnatural gale.
It was then that a sound was heard, barely audible against the screeching of the wind. A simple snap, as if a twig or banch had fallen victim to the unceasing gusts. What would have been dismissed by most was not lost on the man, as he turned to face the source of the aberrant noise.
A young boy stood there, not much older than 17 by the look of him, axe and sword ready in hand. He shook, though not from the cold, and the axe fell from his unsteady hand, as if he were unsure why it was ever there.
"You-you're him aren't you? The one hunting us."
"Aye." the man replied, unmoved by the fear in the boy's voice.
"I- I'm not like the others, I don't mean any harm! I just needed the coin- my sister, she doesn't have anyone else..."
"Doesn't matter boy. You've a price on your head now. To me, and all the rest of the world, you're a dead man." A grim finality echoed through the statement.
The wind continued to shriek through the forest as the man moved forwards towards the terrified lad, a solemn purpose to his step.
"Please, you can't do this, don't do this- I can't leave her behind, I CAN'T" The lad yelled in fear, tears streaming down his fact as he swung the sword wildly toward the approaching reaper.
It was over in seconds. A sidestep, and then a short painful snap was heard, and the cries ceased. The boy gazed down in horror at his now-broken arm, his fast-chilling hands still grasping the hilt of his father's sword as it now seemed to sprout from his stomach.
Strength failed him then, as he stumbled backwards, trying desperately to form some intelligible words, as if to leave the world with some memory that he had been there, that he had existed. It was nothing the man hadn't seen before, and he watched as the lad's features changed, from shock, to anger, to sadness, and finally fear, as his eyes glazed over, and a final, ragged breath left his body.
He left him there, at the foot of some long-forgotten statue, a stone guardian long since fallen into disrepair, the blood still pooling over the forest floor. Cold was the wind that blew that day; Colder still was the heart of the hunter.
------------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES-------------------------------
SALVATION THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST JESUS ALONE!
❤️❤️ IT'S ALL JESUS AND NONE OF OURSELVES! ❤️❤️
1. Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2. BY THIS GOSPEL YOU ARE SAVED, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4. that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5. and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8. and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
9. For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11. Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed. (1 Corinthians 15:1-11)
7. Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9. I am the gate; whoever enters through me WILL BE SAVED. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10. The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:7-10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so WE might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
So you'll KNOW, and not think you're to bad for God to love. The Christian LIFE isn't about how good WE are, because NONE of us are! It's about how GOOD JESUS IS! Because JESUS LOVES US, so much he died in our place and took the punishment for all of our sins on himself. The wages of sin is DEATH, and Jesus died that death for YOU and I. The good news is there no more punishment for sin left, we were and are all born forgive as a result of the crucifixion of God himself on the cross that took away the sins of the whole world. All we have to do is believe it, and put your Faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ. That my friends is REAL UNCONDITIONAL LOVE! YOU ARE LOVED. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK ON THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE.
My THANK'S in advance to all who fave and/or comment on my photos I very much appreciate it! ❤️
© All Rights reserved no publication or copying without permission from the author.
While the men are out fighting over the prettiest hens, the hens are betting on whose going to win...
------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES -------------------------
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, FOREVER! Through Faith in Jesus!
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.
My THANK'S to all those who have taken the time to view, fave, comment or share my photo's with others. I really appreciate it! ❤️
Dang, would you look at that, and I thought he was after crawdads...
JESUS ❤️ SAVES
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, FOREVER and EVER.
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.
My THANK'S to all those who have taken the time to view, fave, comment or share my photo's with others. I really appreciate it! ❤️
Saying goodbye to the Silver Explorer cruise ship, our home for 10+ days during our Antarctica trip, and its qualified team. This crew knew what it was doing, and that was valuable.
After having gotten used to using this exact same door a dozen times for stepping out into exhilarating views of panoramic watery landscapes, and for getting into and out of Zodiacs, the door looked very different on land. Just functional and matter of fact. Perhaps it was underscoring the finality that our journey to a fantastic place had indeed come to an end, and it was time to return to a very different reality.
As we disembarked the ship, we boarded the waiting buses, which took us to downtown Ushuaia, and then to the Ushuaia airport.
When I started publishing our photos from Buenos Aires in mid March, I had no idea I would be uploading over 800 images over a period of nearly four months! I have organized them into four albums, the biggest of which of course, is Antarctica.
When I get the time to plough through these again, I will try to create a smaller summary album with some of the more memorable images from Antarctica.
I am also a big fan of black and white. I have converted some of my images from the above into B&W, and I will keep converting more over time. I'm putting those in a separate album:
All images best seen on a color corrected retina display
There is much controversy today as to whether or not Jesus Christ was and is GOD or just a good man or perhaps a prophet. For those wanting to find scripture evidence of the fact of the deity of Jesus the Christ, I submit for your consideration, Paul's epistle to Titus. One of but many examples.
There is of course much more scriptural support, and if you'd like to see more, please say so in the comments section. And I'll be happy to supply more evidence from God's Holy Word, the Bible.
However had Jesus not been God, his sacrifice on the cross would not of had the power to take away the sins of the whole world. It would have been just another mortal dying a horrible death. Also no one else could raise themselves from the dead, after having spent 3 day's and nights in the grave, but God alone. The Life that raise Christ from the dead, has the power to raise you and I from our condition of Spiritual death as well, if we come to saving faith in his Finished work for us. If we but put saving faith in Jesus Christ who is GOD.
And isn't it comforting to KNOW that it is the GRACE of God that causes us to say NO to unrighteousness! Not the Law, touch not or taste not, but God's Wonderful Grace. Because we know how much he loves us, and we don't want to do anything that could possibly hurt the one that has loved us perfectly and given himself for us, that we might live. We've so much to be thankful for... † † †
It's all Jesus and none of ourselves.
------------------------ JESUS ✝️ SAVES -------------------------
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ, FOREVER! Through Faith in Jesus!
10 The thief comes only to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY; I have come that they may have LIFE, and have it to the FULL. (John 10:10)
Jesus came to bring spiritual LIFE to the spiritually dead and set the captives FREE! FREE from RELIGION, ERROR and outright LIES, so they might serve THE LIVING GOD! In SPIRIT and in TRUTH!
For the best Biblical teaching in the last 2 centuries! Please listen to and down load these FREE audio files that were created with YOU in mind. It's ALL FREE, if you like it, please share it with others. ❤️ ✝️ ❤️
archive.org/details/PeopleToPeopleByBobGeorgeFREE-ARCHIVE...
CLICK THE LETTER "L" TO ENLARGE THE IMAGE.
My THANK'S to all those who have taken the time to view, fave, comment or share my photo's with others. I really appreciate it! ❤️
For this supremely entertaining episode of Room 205 director Michael Reich and set designer Tamarra Younis worked with director of photography Jeffrey Peters and editor Forrest Borie to create an arresting video triptych of a Victorian rose garden, brutalist architecture and negative white space. From finery to form to finality...this might be one of the finest episodes we've collaborated on yet.
BIO
Jonathan Weinberg, Jessie Clavin, Brian Davila and Renee Adams formed Cold Showers in late summer 2010, (with recent addition of Chris King supporting on guitar). Their pop songs are shaded by darker overtones, offering despairing minimalist lyrics that bring a sense of a bleaker tomorrow, today. The dreamy, angular and sometimes aggressive guitar work, layered with primitive percussion and low flying synthesizers coalesce in a driving darkwave sound. Satisfying influences from Ultravox and Savage Republic to Joy Division, The Pixies and Los Angeles-era X, Cold Showers create the ideal soundtrack to fall in-and-out of love.
COMPONENTS
Video
• YouTube: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC4EEUwd7e4mJP95FYMXRYeHgJdRgQ7sZ
• Vimeo: vimeo.com/album/2241901
Photos
• Flickr: flic.kr/s/aHsjyvFAz1
Music
• SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/goincase/sets/cold-showers-at-room-205
CREDITS
Executive Producer
• Incase: goincase.com
Producer
• Arlie Carstens: disastercasual.typepad.com
Director
• Michael Reich: videothing.com
Set Designer
• Tamarra Younis: union-of-art.net
Camera
• Michael Reich: videothing.com
• Forrest Borie: vimeo.com/forrestborie
• Jeffrey Peters: vimeo.com/user2059918
• Arlie Carstens: disastercasual.typepad.com
Editor
• Forrest Borie: vimeo.com/forrestborie
Photos
• Arlie Carstens: disastercasual.typepad.com
Performing Artist
• Cold Showers: facebook.com/coldshowersband
Management
• Life or Death PR: lifeordeathpr.tumblr.com
Room 205 Theme Song
• Cora Foxx: theheapsf.com