.......
Serious Thoughts on
Laws and Leadership
Cora E. Cypser
Published by KIM PATHWAYS
Copyright 2006
ISBN: 978-1-892063-17-4
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CONTENTS
The Earth Is Alive-----1
The Thought Layer of The Earth----2
Oscillations-----3
Criminal Justice-----4
The Reason for Laws-----5
Woe to The Legislators of Infamous Laws! ---6
Rain-----7
Against Stereotyping-----8
Animals as Humane-----9
How Deer Talk----10
Fill Souls with Joy-----11
Leadership-----12
Great Souls-----13
Uriel The
How Buddha Suffered-----15
Three Steps Out of Trauma-----15
Sad Facts (2005)-----16
The Wars our Leaders Wage? -----17
Who Is My Neighbor? -----17
Diseases of our Flesh-----18
The Birthing-----19
Healings-----20
Circumcision of The Spirit-----21
How To Rule The Earth-----22
Soldiers and Peasants-----23
The Spirit in All of Us-----24
Voting Problem-----25
The Donkey and The Elephant-----26
Spirea-----26
Difficulties-----27
The Spirit of The Messiah-----28
Builders-----29
Symbols -----30
Warriors and Mothers-----31
The Task Given to Adam-----32
Into The Wilderness-----33
The One God Has Many Names-----34
Before Abraham Was-----35
Folk Heroines-----36
The Sacrifice of The Lamb-----37
What Is Earth For?-----38
Exclusivity-----39
Brotherhood-----39
Prayer for Group Solidarity-----40
Our
Equality -----43
Ordained by God-----44
Consistory of Women-----45
Rape-----45
Up-Side-Down World-----46
On Community Guidance-----47
Proclaim Good News-----48
Failure of Our Species-----49
Search Out The Truth-----50
The Education of Our Children-----51
Threats-----52
Sharing-----53
Meteor Shower in December-----54
The Responsible and The Abusers----55
We Are to Help Each Other-----56
The Age of Aquarius-----57
Governments-----58
An Energy Exercise-----59
Myth of The White Bird on The Chinese Plate-----60
The Commitment -----61
Personal Renewal vs. Restorative Justice-----62
Evangelization-----63
The Word of Haggai-----64
Treatment of Prisoners-----65
Risking The Welfare of The Earth----66
A Time for Forgiveness-----67
Does God Hear? -----68
One Man or The Nation? -----69
Thanksgiving-----69
Tiresome Tyrants-----70
We Must Be The Change----71
Planning for A Positive Earth-----72
On Forgiving Terrorists-----73
The Pleiades as The Feminine Side of Divinity-----74
Venus at
Is Death A Destroyer or A Transformer? -----75
Blundering on The Budget -----75
The Poor Are Safer -----76
The Gifts Given to Us-----76
Cycle of Rebirth - Recycle of The Holy-----77
Transforming The World-----77
The Immigrant-----78
The Malignant Egophreniac-----78
Renewing The Mind-----79
The Call-----79
All Life Is Connected-----80
Hagar Weeping in the Wilderness---81
Alpha and Omega-----82
Judges, Be Fair-----82
Those Traveling in Boats-----83
Tsunami Thoughts-----84
Fireworks over
Information on
Terrorism and Abuse-----86
How to Fight Today's Battles-----86
Psalm 23-----87
Sonnet of The Spheres----87
The Good We Do-----88
Gate to Heaven-----89
Connections-----89
Observe, Feel, Note Needs, Requests-----90
An Historical Review-----91
Did You Know?----93
Why Women Can't Rule-----94
Give Fort Benning Back----94
Chains Will Be Broken ----95
Serious Thoughts
On Laws and Leadership
Cora E. Cypser
Variation
on Matthew 5:44
Love your
enemies
and pray
for those who persecute you,
so that
you may be expressions
of the
Great Compassionate Spirit.
The Earth Is Alive
Often when we think of the
word, ALIVE
we picture a living human
being.
We can admit that animals also
are alive
but we do not credit to
animals
the "educated"
aliveness
that we allow to ourselves.
We admit that trees are alive
but we do not credit trees
with "thinkability".
Trees are big and mice are
small
but we seem to feel that human
beings
are just the right size to
think.
We might express our belief as
"Humans have reasoning
souls."
Now the earth is much bigger
than us
and who is to say that such
largeness
excludes the ability to reason
or to have a spiritual
component?
After all, the earth contains
all of us
and if you put all our
spiritual parts together
you obtain what Teilhard de Chardin called
the "thought layer of the
earth".
1
The Thought Layer of The Earth
If I am to describe the
thought layer of the earth
I must bring it down to size
so that you and I can
understand its workings.
We are too small to understand
the minds of bigger elements
than us
such as the mind of God.
Perhaps as being of the earth
we can make questionable sense
of what the earth is all about
but surely there will be
vast errors in our reasoning.
The thought layer of myself–
how to describe it?
I have my ups and downs.
Just as surely as I have an up
I can predict a down.
The earth is similar.
Earth has her hideous wars
and interspersed are periods
of peace.
There are times of famine and
of plenty.
For every bad, there is a
good.
These oscillations are the way
of earth.
So can I say, "The earth
thinks thoughts like me;
has ups and downs like me;
the soul of earth is like the soul of me"?
2
Oscillations
However much time the process of new understanding, new love, new
security takes, the process must never be abandoned ... Joan Chittister
The pendulum goes swinging
back and forth.
What goes up must come down.
Actions demand reactions
yet at some point energy runs
out.
Governments come into power
and fade away.
Death overtakes the military
horde.
An untried generation takes
the stage.
Humanity evolves, goes blindly
forward.
Some human thoughts pierce the
sublime;
some fall quite low.
I must remember that when days
are sad
that joy is coming soon
is breaking in
like sunrise in the spring.
So too with earth.
There is wide room for
renaissance–
for feeding all the earth
for giving human rights to all
the people
for making earth a pleasant
home
for all God's creatures.
3
Criminal Justice
The way the criminal justice system treats criminals is criminal.
The words we use describe the
way we act.
Our actions often are too
militant.
Laws oscillate from punishment
to rehabilitation.
So when we see how humans
torture fellows
we must remember that such
deeds begin within
that unkind acts are birthed
within the mind
prompted by other unkind acts
or words or pictures.
It's easy to debase a little
child calling him evil
or to label the adult as
unforgivable.
How blind we are!
How selfish we become
when we protect our own.
We smugly make our laws
to describe our human rights
the right to own our home
the right to educate, to vote
the right to oil to drive our
cars
and heat our homes
the right to own and use a
gun.
Unfortunately, such
self-preserving laws
often deny the rights of
others.
In consequence, our justice
courts
are prejudiced against the
lowly
and bow before the powerful and wealthy.
4
The
Reason for Laws
The Son of Man [the
human being]
is master of the
Sabbath.–Luke 6:5
“Law, it would seem, is
set up to work on the side of those who
wish to enslave the
soul.” The Gospel of Mary of Magdala by Karen
King.
Laws must be made to help the people
not
enslave them.
The Sabbath law gave slaves a day of rest
much needed by them.
The turning of the earth upon its axis
is orderly and to be much admired.
Folk copied time as marked by moon and sun.
The phases of the moon divided into quarters
combined with the sun's horizon solstice
settings
helped make a seven day week.
The order of the spheres passed down to earth
and influenced the ways of human beings.
Some laws are made for purposes of order.
No one set down the rules enforcing love
but busily listed punishments
which only serve to make for hatred
and encourage further violence.
Make laws that lead to love and restoration!
Make rules fulfilling earth and human beings!
5
Woe
to The Legislators of Infamous Laws!
-to those who issue tyrannical decrees
who refuse justice to the unfortunate and
cheat the poor of their rights. - Isaiah 10:1
Unilateralism is not a gospel tradition.
The gospel advocates human security
as opposed to national security.
There is no need for a standing army
ready to overrun a neighboring country.
There is no need for a representational
government
eager to please the rich and oppress the poor.
Daily our government makes choices of death or
life
by the way it allocates money
by the way it regulates food and drugs.
There is no need for having political leaders
who do not understand
higher expressions of human consciousness
or the need for justice for all persons.
Dressing politicians in velvet robes
does not make them wise.
6
Rain
Droplets of rain
pattering on windows
setting the tree leaves
chattering
droplets prancing on roof tops
with clattering heels
droplets gathering as storm
rain
dashing, dancing
from gutters to ground
racing to the puddles
pacing a graceful design
through indifferent dust.
We are the rain.
We are proclaiming spirit
like storm rain gathering
holding our banners high
having our thoughts blow
wildly
in a Kairos
wind
as we pace out a graceful design
before indifferent legislators.
7
Against Stereotyping
It is against human rights to
label someone as violent
and thereby take away his
right to a good name.
93.2% of those incarcerated
under
are minority Black or Hispanic
but they are no more violent
than you or I.
Some politicians have agreed
to label those involved with
drugs as violent.
Who is more violent–
the one who names another
disgracefully
or the one who is so labeled?
Let us all speak
kindly and compassionately
to one another.
Then there will be
less violence in our world.
In a just and peaceful world
we will care for the needs of
our neighbor.
8
Animals as Humane
I do not think dogs
practice prejudice.
Black dogs and tan
all settle down together.
Orange cats and
black can come in the same litter.
Albino tigers are
accepted by their mothers.
So why do human
groups exclude the different?
We come in varying
shades, shapes, and sexes
which influence us
to poor reactions.
We have evolved by
feeling threatened by unknowns.
Machiavelli,
about 500 years ago
proclaimed
the end can justify the means.
John Humbach
calls inflicting suffering wrong.
"It
is to be avoided
unless
it is an inseparable and unpreventable consequence
of an
action that is honestly meant
as the
most humane alternative that the situation presents,
giving
due regard to the interests of everyone affected.”*
Machiavelli
would doubtless have approved
of the
28,000 bombs rained down on Iraqi civilians
with
the accompanying collateral damage
if a
peaceful and united Italian society was the outcome.
The Humbach theory would see the
and the
treatment of Iraqi prisoners as excessively violent
and
that restorative justice practices such as mediation
would
have been a more acceptable solution.
Restorative
justice is a system that responds to wrongs done
by
using reparative practices
instead
of reacting with simple punishment or retaliation.
Surely,
the animals are more accepting of others
and
more naturally restorative than many political leaders.
*John Humbach of
9
How
Deer Talk
An uneducated king will
be the ruin of his people. - Ecclesiasticus 10:3
Woe to you, country,
when your king is a lad. Qoheleth in Ecclesiastes
10:16
The mother deer communicates her wishes to a
fawn.
She visualizes him as napping
while she leaves to feed, and then returns.
When we talk, we can hear sounds
but we do not see the thought train
traveling from mind to mind, in human kind.
Thoughts are invisible in deer and man.
They are sent from patterns in a brain.
They transfer by vibrations to penetrate
another brain
and register some similar patterns there.
But different brains interpret variously.
A thought that pleases you
may deeply offend me.
What happens when the fawn becomes defiant?
What happens when a teen believes he knows it
all
when the young are not educated to be peaceful?
Be wary when the prince has a childlike mind
and his advisors have dollar signs in their
eyes.
The male fawn has exploratory genes
that lead to disobedience. The ruler waging war
is making use of a backward and medieval
process.
10
Fill
Souls with Joy
So how does Spirit work?
This living, moving, swirling that we cannot
see
can leap from mind to mind, body to body
can leap across the universe
can slide into the past or push the future
can bind all minds with tangling threads.
Do you believe that we have souls to fill!
To turn these souls
from hatred to compassion
let's put our lips to song
our hands to clapping
feet to dancing, stamping
for we are brothers, sisters
of the stars, the sun, the moon
and of each other.
Hold hands up high
and shout out praise to God
who sends good things to earth
making the lame to walk
helping the blind to see.
willing the prisoner set free
and having all the world experience
the saving power of spirit
flooding
into souls.
11
Leadership
Some follow leaders.
Some follow gods.
Some turn their fallen leaders
into gods.
What are the gods anyway?
Are they dreams of what the
human being might become?
It is impossible to know all
about God.
Those who think they know how
God thinks
are misled.
Some turn loving communities
of people
into religious groups
who forget what it is like to
love
and turn to hate
and vandalize outsiders.
Some oust women.
Some formalize caste systems.
What is the church?
What is community?
What is the place of empathy?
How can the human love another
human
as he loves himself?
12
Great Souls
Some souls are filled with
Spirit!
How is this?
Each soul being a part of One
Great Soul
reflects such greatness in the
plans it makes
to guide its fellows onward to
fulfillment.
You can tell a great soul
by the words she speaks
by the thoughts she thinks
by the deeds she does.
The great soul is filled up
with qualities of God
and thus resembles God
and can be known as godly.
This does not mean the great
soul is all just
and will never suffer harm.
Survey the universe!
Observe how stars go rattling
from the sky
and disappear in the abyss.
Some leaders are promoted to
the heavens
and are translated into angels
by their followers
who judge with human judgment.
Only All-knowing God can tell
just who is saint or sinner.
13
Uriel The
The name Uriel means "Light of God" or "God is my
Fire."
(I Chronicles 15:5)
Who is wise enough to be trusted
with knowledge of the stars?
Uriel
is mentioned twice in Chronicles
as counted among the sons of Aaron and Levi.
He was the first named of the priests of Israel
a son of the obedient Kohath
congregation
This chief of priests who ruled
with his one hundred and twenty kinsmen
dwelt in a sun-filled palace.
Priests used the gems of Urim
and of Thummin
as aids for seeking out perfected truth.
These precious stones residing
on the breastplate of the high priest
indicated the divine will by a preternatural
brilliance
or through rotation or movement
as in a divining rod or dangling crystal.
Who is wise enough to be trusted with truth?
Uriel,
as one of the foundations of the Hebrew Midrash
is described as standing on the left hand of
God
where he ministers to the wandering.
Newgrange
in
where Uriel communed
with spheres and angels.
Can it be that a material temple
is accompanied by a spiritual energy
and that Uriel still
ministers to those needing wisdom
in a spiritual place of golden fire?
Do
saints return to help us on our pathway?
14
How Buddha Suffered
Alas for you who laugh now; you shall mourn and weep.–Luke
Do great men suffer?
Of course the Buddha suffered.
He did not merely sit in
meditative mode
and dream sweet dreams of
peace.
He agonized the whys of
poverty and pain.
He processed kidney stones in
anguish.
These kidney stones are
preserved
in shrines throughout the
world
as memorials to his suffering.
His thought is preserved
throughout humanity
to be remembered as a prelude to nirvana.
Three
Steps Out of Trauma
Culled from an article
in the National Catholic Reporter
by a prisoner on
Centering Prayer
First, empty your mind, so goodness can enter
invite the goodness through quiet
and through the repetition of a meaningful word
(thus forming a relationship with God).
Next, group meditation or prayer
on a calming short reading, with responses
(thus forming a relationship with others
in the presence of God).
Then, a teaching on forgiveness
in which we accept the common humanity
and
problems of all around.
15
Sad
Facts (2005)
There are one billion cases of malaria .
Three million children will die this year
of this preventable disease.
Wear red! Remember the dead!
Our 84 billion dollars for war in
one billion African lives every year.
More than 2000 American soldiers died in
with 16,000 wounded. How many traumatized?
100,000 Iraqi citizens dead plus many more
wounded.
How many traumatized and provoked to
counter-terrorism?
Wear red! Remember the dead!
Remember four women martyrs in
Remember 70,000 in the Salvadoran civil war
and millions from poverty and civil war in
four million dead in the
86,000 dead in the earthquake in
five hundred dead in mud slides in
2,000 from the terrorism of 9/11
20,000 from terrorism worldwide
30,000 killed by handguns in the
42,000 in
30,000 tsunami victims
10 million AIDS victims.
Wear red! Remember the dead!
Also remember 2.3 million incarcerated in
All these, our fe