Looking in the Mirror
Spiritual Revelations for those seeking Humanity in Humans ~~CordieB.Archive for With Liberty and Justice for All
A Spiritual Riddle – by CordieB
My creativity has been at a stall here of late. Perhaps it’s the zoids and pain killers I’ve been taking… In any event, I don’t seem to be able to focus long enough to write anything, so, I thought I’d share something I wrote some time ago. . . Blessings to all of you….
Photo courtesy of Jason McKim and is licensed under the Creative Commons
I can be cold as the bluest, hottest ice
And hot as the bluest, fiercest fire. . .
I’m a false reflection of a conceptional misconception
Whatever your limited or infinite mind’s desire
You listen to my loud, yet gentle vibration
You believe me fully with no hesitation . . .
You see me with all colors of the beautiful rainbow
Is that really all the colors? Will you ever know?
Only if you can let me go. . .
I’m young and younger, black and blacker
Smart and wise. A genius. A true catalytic cracker
Beautiful, and most beautiful – is there really such a thing?
Breath in the melody that I most wonderfully sing!
I can be red, yellow, or indigo blue
Although I’m real in essence, I’m never the truth,
I’m at your worst, completely false;
Incomplete at your best; a simple impulse.
I can be joyfully sorrowful and sorrowfully glee, too.
But, whatever I am, I’m always completely real to you.
Do you feel me! Do you get my point!
Do you smell my noise? Can you hear my funk!
Can you see my darkness? Can you touch my light!
Can you smell my vision? Can you taste my sight!
Can you smell the painful pleasure,
Can you taste the agony of the estasy?
No matter what, I’m always YOUR reality;
I am in you and you are in me.
If you change your perspective.
I’ll change mine– as your’s reflective.
I am oh so evil, and yet so kind
The world would be nothingness if I were blind.
But, maybe not-how dare I say?
And now I lay me down to pray . . .
I pray that you free me every then and now
From your dear self, for this I vow . . .
Will free you from hypocrisies
And all the false analogies. . .
From judgements, prejudices, anger and hatred …
These no longer exist, once I am emancipated.
My negation gives you insight, free and clear
Of a far away place that is yet so near
If you could release my blessed curse and damned grace
And move beyond object, time and space
For that brief moment in that sphere
You’ll sense a unity so crystal clear
Even beyond your limited, infinite imagination
Who am I, I am simply . . .
(click below for riddle answer)
The Shadow of Human Nature
http://biewi.deviantart.com/art/The-Shadow-Demon-13541045
Excerpted from The Book of Secrets, Deepak Chopra.
In 1971, students at Stanford University were asked to volunteer for an unusual experiment in role playing. One group of students was to pretend they were prison guards in charge of another group who pretended to be prisoners. Although it was understood that this was make-believe, a jail setting was provided, and the two groups lived together for the duration of the experiment. According to the plan, everyone would play their roles for two weeks, but after only six days the prison experiment had to be terminated. The reason? The boys, chosen for their mental health and moral values turned into sadistic, out-of-control guards on the one hand and depressed victims of exorbitant stress on the other. The professors conducting the experiment were shocked but couldn’t deny what had occurred. The lead researcher, Philip Zimbardo, wrote: "My guards repeatedly stripped their prisoners naked, hooded them, chained them, denied them food or bedding privileges, put them into solitary confinement, and made them clean toilet bowls with their bare hands." Those who didn’t descend to such atrocious behavior did nothing to stop the ones who did. (The parallel with infamous acts by American prison guards in Iraq in 2004 prompted Zimbardo to bring the Stanford experiment back to light after more than thirty years.) There was no extreme to which the student guards would not resort short of outright physical torture, Zimbardo mournful recalls, "As the boredom of their job increased, they began using the prisoners as their playthings, devising ever more humiliating and degrading games for them to play. Over time, these amusements took a sexual turn, such as having the prisoners simulate sodomy on each other. Once aware of such deviant behavior, I closed down the Stanford prision."
Where did this runaway abuse come from? For comforts sake, we usually say that it exists in a few "bad" apples," but the Stanford experiment suggests something more disturbing: Evil exists in everyone as a shadow, for the person is a counter to the shadow of evil, of course, and if we return to our list of shaping forces on consciousness, each person would exhibit a different map of influences. But if you are fortunate enough to have made choices on the good side of the equation, you must still acknowledge that the shadow exist in you somewhere.
The shadow was formed by the same everyday situations that shape our consciousness, and it is released by new situations that parallel them. If you were abused as a child, being around children can bring up those old memories. The Stanford experimenters devised a list of conditions that cause people to do things we’d call evil, or at the very least alien to our true selves.
For further reading, go to Evil is Not your Enemy, Part I or Evil is not your Enemy Part II
Have a super weekened!
Sweet Revenge Turned to Eternal Regret
- Troy Anthony Davis, Execution Stayed on Tuesday by U. S. Supreme Court, Let Us Pray Justice Prevails!
Sweet Revenge Turned to Eternal Regret
His breath so shallow; he could not talk
I gazed into his coal, cold black eyes
He’d finally face well deserving demise . . .
For killing the man I loved so much . . .
..the wife I can no longer see, no longer touch
…the child who brought all my earthly joy banished
Due to an evil man; soon rightfully before my eyes vanquished
I felt my blood flow warmly through my veins with sweet revenge
Closure! My love one’s death finally avenged . . .
Two years have passed since the revenged death ejection
Of the man convicted solely on witness recollection
Seems evidence proves the man who walked the mile
Was not the man who stole my joy; my love, my smile
With hatred, I watched an innocent man die in vain
Funny, his death never brought closure or eased my pain
I still recall that young man’s mother’s scream
Agony in heartbroken eyes, such as I’d never seen
The pain of unjust reality literally took her breath
When her innocent son was sentenced to death
Her agony leaves me feeling numb, emotionally wrecked
Sweet revenge has turned into eternal regret
~By CordieB
Fellow writer, Paisly has taken on a brave effort to bring our attention to the many executions that have taken place and continues to take place in the United States in which the evidence is based soley on eyewitness testimony, cohersed testimony, and false evidence; many, many of which are later proven by DNA evidence to have been wrongly accused. The statistics are staggering. Statistics show for every seven executions, one Death Row inmate has been exonerated. Although guilty individuals may receive stays; it takes extreme evidence to the contrary to be "exonerated." This figure will increase, as more and more people are convicted of capital crimes, proponents push for speedier executions, and legal help becomes less and less available for those who are accused of committing capital crimes.
Like Paisley, I have been quiet to this complicated issue we face; as it has never really effected me personally. However, as a human being; a person who speaks and writes of unity, love, and freedom; I can no longer sit still without speaking out. As a free nation, I feel it is barbaric that we, the Home of the Brave, Land of the Free, could actually be putting innocent men to death. Also, like Paisley:
Looking in the Wrong Mirror
Vivian Deborah Stephens is a bad, blessed and highly favored mother, wife, educator, and author. Below is a sample of her beautiful poetry taken from her latest book, "Deep Water in a Shallow Well."
The central thing
You need to understand is
That God sees you—right now.
In all the beauty and splendor
That He created in you…
And not through some haze
Or smoke and mirrors
Which distort and diminish
The value of your being!
Stop measuring yourself
by man’s perverted standards
Of beauty, brains and worth.
Man only manufactures scales by which
He can benefit himself…
T he measures he employs
are vain and superficial.
No wise man can
Accurately access the value of another.
A person’s true worth isn’t gauged
By external valuations.
Neither can the shepherding of souls
nor the donation of goods,
alter your stature and importance in God’s eyes…
To Him, you’ll never be any greater
than you are at this very moment!
Learn to see yourself as God sees you— A reflection of himself .
You were not created to be a carbon copy of the world—
But, you were endowed with qualities
Crafted and uniquely suited for your divine purpose.
And if that’s not
What you see
When you’re looking at yourself…
Then, you are looking in the wrong mirror.
Vivian Deborah Stephens
Photo, entitled, "Generations." Courtesy of 
Looking in the Mirror 