A Rosh Hashanah meditation and sermon at the end of the liturgical year. A return to our mountain home in Switzerland, and some whitewater kayaking lessons in North Carolina. See earlier blogs for a discussion of ‘our mountain homes’ mountain areas, Colorado, California, British Columbia in North America.
Figure 1 Entrance, going up some steps, to the door of 3000 Drummond St. from the yard
Most Christians teach that the traditional Christian Church Twelve Days of Christmas mediations are to be studied between December 25 and January 7. However, if you are like me you may be somewhat suspicious that the Bible mentions that the Shepherds were in the fields (during the cold weather of winter), tending their flocks during Christmas. If this is the case you and you are studying the traditional Torah portions during the time of the High Holy days in September and October you might want to supplement your studies with Twelve days of teachings about God’s gifts to us the time after Simcah Torah. This assumes His One and Only Son was born during this time in the fall. You can go to the Jewish Christian prayers subdirectory at http://www.yhwhschofchrist.org/prayers/index.cgi and mediate through the postings there. You will find additional references and links to mediations in the prayer directory there. And, there are links interconnected to this site at http://www.ourprayergroup.blogspot.com and the postings back in the http://www.yhwhschofchrist.org/prayers/index.cgi directory: 1) http://bit.ly/sixdaysofcreation, 2) http://bit.ly/TenCommands, and 3) http://bit.ly/11TrueDisciples.
There are about 20 trees surrounding the house, which makes for a lot of raking of leaves in the fall (usually about 60 garbage bags full). But, some of the sweetest sounds from all types of Southern U.S. birds also make the yard there home. And, waking up meditating and listening to them out in the front yard in the early morning makes it worth keeping the trees.
Thanks to Ms Amy-Jill Levine of Vanderbilt Divinity for taking time out, last weekend, from what I am sure was a busy schedule, to discuss with us the Rosh Hashanah teaching I sent her by way of several emails. Thanks to my dear departed cousin Christine Harrell who sent me the Amplified Bible with all the wonderful cross-references of verses, Torah and New Testament, 15 years ago before she passed that helped me find Biblical Truth in order to respond to Ms Levine’s criticism of my thoughts. Thanks to Robin Edwards who showed up last November to clean my house during the year. Thanks to Larry and Treman who volunteered to help me put up political signs for my campaign for the Missisippi Legislature and to Lisa and John who let me have a fund raiser in their restaurant,and to my neighbor who showed up to talk about it and to all those who voted for me.
Some Rosh Hashanah thoughts:
“Lift up your heads O gates, and be lifted up, you ancient doors..That the ruler of glory[the Lord strong and mighty] may come in” Psalm 24
“Whether a man be rich or poor, his glory is in the fear of the Lord.”
“There is no riches above a sound body, and no joy above the joy of the heart.”
Jesus son of Sira
“He who gives charity in secret is greater than even Moses.” Talmud
Who is like unto You, our Lord, who teaches us Wisdom and provides us with Spiritual Understanding? Jewish prayer service
“On that day [Rosh Hashanah], the Lord shall be One and His Truth shall be One.”
Jewish Rosh Hashanah prayer service
“Thou art God and there is no distinction ‘twixt Thy Godhead and Thy Unity, Thy pre-existence and Thy existence.” Union Prayer Book, Rosh Hashanah service
“If you can’t find God inside of the present moment He is still inside of the Human Heart.” Dr. Andrew W. Harrell
“Finding Jesus just takes one step, believing in He and God with ever-lasting Faith…being Him takes a lot of steps and a whole lifetime.” Dr. Andrew W. Harrell
“The beginning of pride is when one departed from God, and his heart is turned away from his Creator… Forgive thy neighbor the hurt that he has done thee, so shall thy sins also be forgiven when thy prayest.” Jesus Son of Sira
“Your Words are a Tree of Life to them that hold fast to Them, and the supporters of Them are happy. The ways they teach are ways of pleasantness, and all their paths are of peace.” Union Prayer Book
“May the Father of Peace send Peace to all who mourn, and comfort all the bereaved among us.” Union Prayer Book
“Happy is the people that know the joyful sound [of the Shofar]. They walk, O Lord in the Light of Thy Countenance.” Union Prayer Book
“The End of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” T.S. Eliot (Four Quartets) as quoted by David Eisenbud and Joe Harris in their graduate mathematics text on the “Geometry of Schemes” [Schemes are abstract, possibility real, generalizations of Varieties in the mathematical area of study called algebraic geometry…Varieties are generalizations of manifolds which are sets of points {locations in space}…Manifolds are generalizations of sets of points in space and time which can occur in 4 dimensional Einstein space time…. 4 dimensional Einstein space time is a set of abstract points, possibility real, which can occur in 3-dimensional Newtonian space at different times.]
A Rosh Hashanah sermon for the years 2014-2015:
How a Leaf, fallen on the ground from a tree,
can be the most beautiful thing in the world in God’s eyes.
A Christian/Jewish Rosh Hashanah Teaching
There is a Jewish teaching, usually given on the Ten Days of Repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. A rabbi was asked during these days what is the most beautiful thing in the world to God. He replied, “You see that young man or that woman over there… the most beautiful thing to God in this world is that leaf close by them. And, why is that? Normally, Jews in Temples and Synagogues do not kneel but bow down during prayer services*. And, isn’t a beautiful woman or a handsome man, a magnificent temple or a worship sanctuary to him prettier than that leaf to God? No, the Rabbi said because they are people and buildings and even though people and buildings are beautiful to God, when He looks inside of them the places in which we have been and done noble deeds left behind in their lives are more beautiful still in God’s eyes. And, that leaf was the place where that young man or that young women knelt down and repented after studying the Bible during the year, remembering the promises he had failed to keep, the harsh and unwarranted words, the mistakes he had made trying to accomplish his goals, the wrong judgments of others he allowed to stand after he knew they were wrong.
What is the Christian interpretation of this teaching?
To know God’s only Son Jesus Christ, as our redeemer, is the most beautiful thing, I as a human think we can know here on earth. To worship Jesus is to know this. But, in God’s eyes, the circumstances left behind from our past and which can recur again in our futures in order to allow it to happen again are what is really beautiful to Him. For when and where we confess our mistakes asking for His help are things and places associated with those things that are important also. They are a very important part of what allows Him to understand how to help us and also allows us to know who we are and who He is.
And when we teach others the importance of doing this, we can bring hope to places it wasn’t there before. As a Christian practicing Judaism and looking back on what out of the Old Testament has helped me be a better person in God’s eyes it is clear to me that the efforts I have made in the past, regardless of whether they have seemed to work at the time, to be obedient and patient in practicing Christianity and Judaism are important. And, it is not just the theology that I believe enables my salvation in Christ, as a Christian, but also what or who helps me find out what I am going to see as beautiful (or worship) in the future is based on are also an important legacy I leave behind to help others.
Of course, this beautiful place, this leaf may be located at different locations in world for different people.
For Abraham it was a sacrificial altar he was instructed to go up to on Mt. Moriah. For Jacob it was the well at Bethel were he lay down and opened his heart and mind to God in order to give him a vision that involved being able to ascend and descend up to Heaven and back down on earth.
For the Buddha, it was the Aswatha tree where he made the decision to sit down under in a lotus posture, calmly observing his breathing and practicing good thinking and right mindful action until enlightenment came.
And, for Jesus Christ, I know it must be the Cross ([sic] capitalized in order to emphasize its divinity) on a hill next to a ugly area outside of Jerusalem where he allowed those he was trying to help to crucify him.
And, for God, why is this simple leaf where an ordinary person knelt down and repented as beautiful to Him as the Cross on which His Only Son Jesus Christ died. That is because God knows a most wonderful Truth that if just one ordinary person repents and does this the whole World is saved again, just like it was when Jesus did it for us then. Yes the World is already saved because Christ has already come to us and participated with His Father in the most wonderful life ever lived. And, yet when He comes again inside of any one of us, it happens all over again. This is an important thing to understand and know about for us and the wonderful fact of a living divine reality that we can share with God. This Divine reality for us and of us and which we can know thinking along with God and others is that in order for this to happen we do not have to die on the Cross again like Jesus. All we have to do is repent individually and ask for God to have it happen for us in our own less dire situation.
Unfortunately, not many Christians and also Jews don’t understand this. We don’t understand that one of the most important ways we can help others is to change our-self. And, the way to change ourself is to let God help us know that we can help others by repenting of our unbelief in the possible goodness of what has already happened. By repenting, praising God for this reality and our knowledge of it, and changing our attitudes about it and others involved in the experiences and what it means to all of us we are changed. And it becomes a shared reality with God and for our-self that all of us have a part in. We all have a part in it and in creating it because by knowing and understanding it we can take steps to right any wrongs we may have let happen we are changing our-self and hence eventually others. Even if it seems we did not do anything wrong ourselves. God can help us in this if we keep our hearts and minds open to different ways in which it might happen. In this way we can go backwards in order to go forward in the future.
PHOTO TAKEN OF A SMOKEY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK AND CHEROKEE INDIAN RESERVATION WHITEWATER RAFTING LAUNCH SITE AREA NEXT TO A SITTING AREA OUTSIDE THE “CHEROKEE COFFEE SHOP” IN THE CITY OF CHEROKEE NORTH CAROLINA. OCONOLUFTEE RIVER. THERE IS A JAPANESE TYPE ZEN GARDEN OF IRREGULARLY SHAPED ROCKS, FLOWING WATER AROUND THEM, ISLANDS, AND SOME BRIDGES. THERE IS ALSO A STAGE FOR PERFORMANCES IN THE SHOPPING CENTER THE COFFEE SHOP IS IN. FOR THOSE CHEROKEE WHO BELIEVE THE CREATION OF THE WORLD OCCURRED (IS OCCURRING) IN THESE MOUNTAINS THIS WOULD BE A GOOD PLACE TO MEDITATE ON IT DURING CHRISTIAN JEWISH HOLY DAYS. ON THE DRIVE TO THE PARK VISITOR’S CENTER FROM THE COFFEE SHOP THERE IS “PAUL’S” RESTAURANT ON THE LEFT, SERVING DINNER, AND “PETER’S” SERVING BREAKFAST ON THE RIGHT,
THE RAPID FLOWING NANTAHALA (WITH CLASS 3 AND 4 RAPIDS), RUNNING FROM FONTANA DAM DOWN WEST OF BRYSON CITY, THE TUCASEGEE THAT GOES RIGHT THROUGH BRYSON CITY RUNING SOMEWHAT SLOWER AND SAFER TO PADDLE, AND THE OCONOLUFTEE RUNNING SOMEWHAT LOWER ARE ALL GOOD RIVERS TO LEARN PADDLING.
YOU CAN TAKE GUIDED LESSONS FROM THE NOC (NANTAHALA OUTDOOR CENTER) THE NOC CAMPUS WITH ITS KAYAKING SCHOOL, RAFTING, MOUNTAIN MEDICAL SCHOOL, RESTAURANT WITH SHERPA FOOD, 8-STAGE ZIP LINE THROUGH THE TREE TOPS, IS ALSO A WONDERFUL PLACE IN THE MOUNTAINS IN THE SOUTHERN US TO SPEND THE JEWISH CHRISTIAN NEW YEAR HOLY DAYS.
It seems clear to me that our beliefs are what give us faith that God’s Truth will someday appear inside us and others. But, it is also clear to me that our habits formed from the repeated practice in the same repeated surroundings and circumstances of studying God’s words in the Bible, the Torah and the New Testament (not necessarily having to be in a Church because God sees what we do whatever we are, whether we are standing or kneeling next to a leaf in a forest or sitting in a pew in a beautiful and comfortable Church building), praising Him in all circumstances, being a giver and a forgiver rather than a taker and a hater are the keys that often allows Him to help us better.
*Some twenty years later I was thinking about this teaching as it relates to the section in the Aleinu where it says:
on page 134 of ‘Tachanun and Concluding Prayers’ Edited by Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman. ‘We bow down low [Chorim v’ maysh:taychaym] in grateful acknowledgement before the king over the kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He.’ Did Rabbi Hoffman translate this prayer wrong? For, isn’t it possible this passage in the Aleinu refers to earlier prophecies by Isaiah “ I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness and shall not return that unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue swear allegiance” chapter 45:23
See also Rom. 14:11 Phillipians 2:10,1 Hebrew 6:13 in the New Testament.
It also occurred to me that the rabbi might have meant it in the sense that as predicted in the New Testament book of Revelations in the end times Jerusalem will be a ‘city without a church’… It will be a city where different churches and synagogues aren’t allowed to teach people how to worship God differently than the way that allows them all to worship Him together. It will be a city where we are all taught there is one way we can all know God’s Truth (because He is One and His Truth is One) and that way may be different for different people.
Figure 2 A group of two black and one white boys, on the corner of Drummond and Realty [Reality] Street, learning to ride a bike in the exact stop at this location I did about 60 years ago. Although it was about 50/50 in population distribution then, when I was growing up Vicksburg was a pretty segregated city. There were black and white schools, black and white swimming pools, black and white movie theaters, black and white restaurants. Now we are not only half and half in population but also in the way we do things and live together.
Some of the Torah and Haftarah readings for Rosh Hashanah morning service:
I Samuel, Chapter ii, 1-11, Isaiah chapters 1,5,6,42, 45, 61
We include here a discussion of the first one. Apologies for any mistakes in the transliteration of the Hebrew. As I said in an earlier blog several years ago, I believe and follow the key teaching in mathematical logic of one of the definition’s of truth taught me in math graduate school forty years ago, “Truth is invariance under change of notation.”
For some different translations see, ‘The Third Ode, a Prayer of Anna, the Mother of Samuel the Prophet’ from ‘The Psalms, According to the Seventy’, by Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Boston MA, 1974, also ‘The Amplified Bible’
Also, I referred to “Etz Hayim, Torah and Commentary” by JPS Jewish Publication Society
Haftarah (prophetic) teaching for 1st day of Rosh Hashanah Hannah’s Song
1 Samuel 1:1-2:10
This portion from our Holy Scriptures (which starts the Old Testament story of the Kings of Israel) is set aside for the reading of the morning service of Rosh Hashanah. So, it must contain wonderful and important teachings. What are these teachings? The Torah portion for Rosh Hashanah speaks of how Abraham was required by God to offer up his son Isaac for possible sacrifice to God. It is possible that these prophetic verses were provided to us to record how God can give help to those of us who have dedicated our lives to God and are faced with the situation that, our prayers for the salvation of our sons and daughters don’t seem to have been answered like Abraham’s were. The portion speaks about the experiences of God’s maid servant Hannah (somehow the name gets transferred to the term “hand servant” in the New Testament when Saint Mary’s story is told).
Hannah’s name means the grace of God, the Love of God that gives. What are these experiences?
Like Sarah who bore Abraham children when he was 100 years old, and Mary(the Mother of God) who bore God His Son Jesus, Hannah bore God inside of Elkanah Son of Elihu. His wife Peninah gave him Chafni and Phineas as sons but Hannah gave her husband ten spiritual children (see * which correspond to the 10 uses of the divine name YHWH in these passages. The divine names of these children are contained in these verses as she calls upon the Lord of Hosts for help. )
Firstly, according to Jewish tradition in one significant verse Hannah was the first to call God the Lord of Hosts, “She made a vow and said, “ YHWH Saboath, if You take of the suffering of Your maidservant, and You remember and do not forget Your maidservant, and give Your maidservant a male offspring, then I shall give him to YHWH all the days of his life, and a razor will not come upon his head. She vowed that her Son would be a Nazarine like the Old Testament judge Samson and like Jesus Christ God’s only Son.
Also in this portion Hannah calls upon God’s name in several ways.” What are the ways she prayed to fulfill this vow to God and the basis upon which she has a right to expect a reply or answer to her prayers?:
Since Mary and Joseph were practicing Jews it is possible that both of them had studied these prayers in this passage many times during New Year services in those days, at those times. Mary’s song in passages familiar to us from the Gospel of Luke contains similar expressions of petition and thankfulness to God for answering her prayer to be given a Son to be called (named) according to Isaiah’s prophecy Immanuel (Jesus Christ).
Some photos taken on 2015 REI hiking and camping trip in the Great Smokey Mountain Parks by hiking buddies Samantha Suttles, Robin Wilson, Melissa Wilson, Frank Shirley
The Book of Samuel Chapter 1 and 2:
*she called on, as well, the five of her own human sons with him and the two of Peninah that survived 1Samuel 2:21
Samuel 1:15
(1) confession of previous mistakes and prayer for unmerited help…I have
poured out my soul before YHWH
( v’ ehsh’ph’ach et n’ph’shay l’ph’nay YHWH) (rf. Genesis 19:34 Amplified Bible)
I Samuel 1:17
As I add to this blog praying it during Rosh Hashanah-Yom Kippur 2015 I am confessing my sins by praying the Rosary and contemplating Jesus Christ’s soul being inside of the Pope as the Holy Spirit has directed Him to visit us in the US and our “King” President Barack Obama on Yom Kippur 2015.
A good reference for praying the Rosary prayers with a Rosary is “My complete Prayerbook, Edited by Bart Tesoriero which is sold in many Catholic Bookstores. The process starts off with
1) making the sign of the cross [I assume making the sign of the horizontal cross, the sign of the second coming of Christ, of Saint Andrew is acceptable here],
2)Then we pray one “Our Father[The Lord’s Prayer]” on the first bead and three Hail Mary’s on the next three beads for the virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity [Love]:
“Do what is most hopeful[to follow God more clearly], believe what is most faithful [to see God clearer and to speak words with more love]” twitter posting Sept. 17, 2015
and
3)finish with a Glory be ” Glory be to the Father, the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.” Amen
As Christian Jews we pray to a Trinitarian God. To see some Jewish Old Testament interpretations of
the Trinity as we contemplate appearing before Three People [God, Our Father, and the two archangels Michael and Gabriel who are the arms of God] during the evening Kol Nidre Yom Kippur service continue to this discussion later on in its prayer for thankfulness during its sixth intention.
4) We then “announce” [speak affirmatively] the first Mystery, the annunciation which occurs in corresponence with the virtue Humility occurring. pause for a moment, to think about it, Then pray Our Father on the large bead, then Hail Mary’s on the smaller beads, and finish with a Glory Be. This is one decade.
5) Continue in this way until you[we] have prayed all five decades.
The five decades of “mysteries” are grouped into the “Joyful Mysteries”, “Luminous Mysteries”, “Sorrowful Mysteries”[ in which Jesus is bearing the Cross, walking with us as we confess our own sins following while following along with our remembrance of His Life as it has and will manifest itself in ours, “The Glorious Mysteries”.
The realization of how each of these mysteries is manifesting itself in our lives is a wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit.
note: If you will follow the reference given above you will undoubtably note that this procedure only counts up to forty mysteries. Maybe some of the mysteries are meant to be repeated, or we are to leave room in our experience for more, not given in the book. I have not been able to figure this out. Up to this point in my life this is a mystery itself.
Someone may point out that these mysteries occur historically during Passover during the Liturgal year and hence are not appropriate for praying at this time, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur when we are celebrating “A beginning in an end, and an end in a beginning”. I do not agree for I believe at this time we are thinking from a more eternal spiritually viewpoint in time than “elsewhere” or “elsewhen” in the year.
Another beautifully detailed view of the multicolored fall vista of the sky, mountains, vegetation to the SouthEast from the Charlie’s Bunion’s peak. Our REI group hiked here the last week of September, 2015. Photo credits are to Frank Shirley. You can see a lot of dead Hemlock tree caused by the severe drought last summer in the Great Smokeys. Also, there is what is called a “bald” area on the top of some of the peaks. According to guide Samantha these areas could go back to the earlier settlers who cleared them to graze animals on.
(2) prayer for overall awareness and individual in )becoming aware…YHWH
remembered
(l’chay Shalom v’ELOHAY Israel y’tayn et shelteach or in English ELI
answered ‘Go towards peace. The God of Israel [El} will grant your request)…
V’yeezach’reeh YHWH)
I Samuel 1:19
“ Elkanah knew Hannah, his wife, and the Lord [YHWH} remembered her.”
Amplified Bible
(3) prayer for purposefulness…we shall appear before YHWH,
(l’ph’nayach YHWH)
PHOTO OF ANOTHER WHITEWATER RAFTING SPOT ON THE OCONOLUFTEE RIVER. IF YOU LIKE TO HIKE YOU CAN ALSO DAY HIKE IN THE GREAT SMOKEY MOUNTAINS ALONG PORTIONS OF THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL. THE SMOKEYS ARE PERHAPS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE IN THE APPALACHIANS DURING THIS TIME OF YEAR. LEAVING YOUR RENTAL CAR AT THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE OCONOLUFTEE VISITOR CENTER YOU CAN DRIVE UP TO THE NEWFOUND GAP (CHARLEY’S BUNION TRAIL), CLINGMAN’S DOME (HIGH POINT OF THE SMOKEYS), THE CATALOOCHE CAMPGROUND (BOOGEYMAN TRAIL). THE REI ADVENTURE TRAVEL COMPANY HAS 3 AND 5 DAY GUIDED TRIPS FOR THIS.
I Samuel 1:20
“named him Samuel [heard of God], because she said, I have asked him of the Lord [YHWH]”
Amplified Bible
(4) prayer of petition…may YHWH fulfill His word
(af y’kam YHWH et dabaru or alternatively the phrase means—but, may YHWH
fulfill his word)
Because I have asked Him of YHWH
(Me’YHWH sh’altayav .. the name Samuel comes from a shorten version of the
Hebrew words Shaaol Me El, requested of God)
Our September 2015 hiking group going through the class IV rapid section of the Nantahoula [it are normally class III but this week because of the 4 inches of rain the previously days, the river was running very high and fast. Nantahoula Outdoor Center rafting guide Levi is steering in the back, REI guide Samantha is just in front and to the right of him, Robin and Melissa are next in front, them myself in the black hat and Frank Shirley, looking away, and sitting in the bow. We didn’t have much time to get ready to enter the waves head on. A lot of fun. One of our group fell in and had to be pulled up back into the raft. Two days later Andrew Koch and I white-water river kayaked in two small boats the whole 12 mile section [except this class IV part] the raft had just gone through and I fell in twice. It took about 30 minutes to right the kayak, swim to the shore, and empty the water with Andrew’s* help.
(* By the way Andrew Koch may not know what his name means in Jewish German. In regular German Koch means cook.
I Samuel 2:1
“My heart is established in the Lord [YHWH], my horn is exalted in my God [YHWH], my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies, I am glad in Thy salvation.
In these prayers we are praying with Hannah, whose soul and spirit an earlier part of the soul of Saint Mary, whom we pray with in the Rosary prayers. The soul of Mary, having the whole superconscious divine “Mind of Christ” in it comprehends the soul and spirit of Hannah, even as the soul and spirit of “The Lord God of Hosts” has in it and comprehends the souls and spirits of all the other Saints and Angels.
If you are a Christian Jew or a Jewish Christian you may be interested in how is Hannah soul different than Mary’s?
Mary’s soul has a crown on it, and twelve stars [as described by John in the Book of Revelation].
As we have explained in an earlier blog written during our Vanderbilt alumni trip to Tanzania, Ms Lynne Brown’s [Spiritual Director of Unity School of Christianity’s Silent Unity Prayer Group] sixteen prayer steps culminate in a spiritual prayer state of with seed Samadhi or unitive contemplative concentration of “Oneness with God”.
Hannah has a spiritual “horn” in her soul, as the statute of Moses has in it as discussed below. This does not mean that she is not also a Queen of Heaven, or that Moses is not a Saint. This refers to method of contemplative prayer that she learned from the Jewish priest Eli, Father of Samuel, that culminates in a nir-vitarka and nir-bija [meaning without word and without seed in Yoga Sanskrit terms]…[like Buddhist pray for in order to attain salvation through discriminative knowledge of the “freedom” of our souls and spirits from the world and other parts of God’s creation]. This is not knowledge that God is One without a second, dwelling in us as described above but “twofold” knowledge of how He and we exist eternally as separate and unique individuals.
Both kinds of this superconscious divine knowledge can be had through Yoga [see our discussions of the sutras of Patanjali posted on the YHWH School of Christianity website for more details of the differences and steps we can take, with or without God’s help [although I would advise with His help] to attain knowledge of these powers, gifts of the Holy Spirit [see the discussion on the website posting of James Freeman’s Unity school of Christianity Yogic breathing denial and affirmative prayer steps to attain the “Glorious Mysteries listed in the Rosary” as a “descent of the Holy Spirit” flowing from the top of our spiritual bodies downward] and authorities to understand them.
“my heart exults and triumphs in the Lord [YHWH]; my horn (my strength) is lifted up in the Lord [YHWH}” Amplified Bible
I Samuel 2:2
“For there is none holy as the Lord, for there is none righteous as our God, and there is none holy beside Thee.”
“there is no rock like our God” Amplified Bible
(Ayn Kadosh chay YHWH chay ayn bhayaayn bheel’tehach v’ayn tzor chay Elohaynu)
(For there is none as Holy as the LORD and none beside YOU, and there is no
Rock life Our God)
(5) prayer for integrity in all her actions and henceforth God’s actions….she
brought him to the house of YHWH (Beth YHWH)
YHWH is a God of knowledge (alternatively, of thoughts)
(v’lo neet’chanu ayleelot: kehshet geboraum chataym)
Deeds are counted by Him, the bow of the mighty is broken
I Samuel 2:3
“Boast ye not, and utter not high things unto excess, nor let boastful words of pride come forth from your mouth.
“For the Lord [YHWH} is a God of knowledge, and a God that prepareth His own ways” Psalms, according to the Seventy.
(El Daat YHWH)
(6) prayer for thankfulness….For this child did I pray; YHWH granted me my
request that I asked of Him
I Samuel 2:8
“For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s[YHWH’s]. He has set the world upon them.”
Etz Hayim
( Khay l’YHWH m’tzaykay Eretz for the LORD YHWH’s are the pillars of the
earth…refers to two columns of righteousness [ or more precisely the two columns of following the beginning of righteousness and following our faith in that righteousness at a later time] that the archangels Gabriel and
Michael stand guard with flaming swords of Truth in front of the Northern and
Southern entrance to the garden of Eden and also the Ark of the Covenant
inside of the Holy temple in the Holy Land wherever God dwells with us on
earth)
God, with these two human angels [Gabriel and Michael] sitting on the left and right side of Him when He is enthroned in us during the Kol Nidre, Yom Kippur Jewish Christian service, become “Our Father, Our King”
The Holy Day intentions of the Aveinu Malkeinu prayer during these service as seen inside of the eighteen Amidah prayer intentions of the more frequent yearly prayers become specially effective during these Holy Days, as God is more merciful to those of us who confess our sins and ask for help as outlined in the ten intentions of the ancient, primary Book of Samuel of Christian Judaism.
“Gracious giver of knowledge[Be gracious and answer us]” “Honaiym hadaat”
“He who desires repentance[return us in perfect repentance]” “Haratzeh b’t’shovah”.
“Who forgives abundantly [forgives and pardons]” “Hamar’veh le’ s’lach”
“Redeemer [second coming of Christ] of Israel” “Goayl Israel”
“He who heals the sick of His people Israel [sending complete recovery]” “Ropha holy amu Israel”
“He who blesses the years [and keeps the chronology of the Bible]” “M’baruch haShanah” Please Inaugurate upon us a good year
“Sounds the Shofar [Raise high the pride…the horn of Israel” T’keyha b’shofar
“Restore…remove us from sorrow [and sin]” haShayvah..hasayr mm’nu yagosen” “Nullify all harsh decrees against us
“He who breaks enemies [remove…or transform… every foe and adversary**]” “Shover ay’vaym”
“On the righteous, may your compassion be aroused” “Ayl hazadakim…y’chamu na rachmanach.”
“Raise high the pride of your anointed [Hannnah’s prayer for her son Samuel and his descendants, David, Jesus Christ…]” “Haram keren meshiach”
“Who causes the pride of salvation [eternal life] to flourish[ Hannah’s prayer]” “Hatzemach land jeshoach b’kerov”.
“Hear our voice[Hannah’s prayer]” “Shema kolaynu.”
*Yom Kippur-Its Significance, laws, and prayers” Menorah Arts Publishing
** important note…one way to do this is for our former foes and enemies to become our friends which we can help the process of this happening by loving them as our self.
RIVER WALKING AREA IN SWITZERLAND ALONG THE BEAUTIFUL WALKING ROUTE THAT OVERLOOKS THE ANGEL WINGS PEAKS AND THE JUNGFRAU COMPLEX OF MOUNTAINS THAT MARK TWAIN DESCRIBES IN HIS BOOK, “A TRAMP IN EUROPE”
Kings 2;1
(7) prayer of thankfulness… my pride was raised through YHWH and my mouth
opened wide against my antagonists, for I rejoiced in Your salvation
I Samuel 2:3
(8) prayer for fulfillment of the prayer through understanding of the mind of
Christ….YHWH is the God of thoughts (El Daat YHWH)
I Samuel 2:6
“The Lord[YHWH] slayeth and engendereth life. He bringeth down to hades and he bringeth up again.”
Psalms, according to the Seventy [A Greek Orthodox Monastic Prayer Book]
“The Lord maketh poor and enricheth, He bringeth low and lifteth high again.”
“He raiseth the pauper from the earth, and from the dunghill doth He lift up the poor man to seat him with the mighty of the people, and He maketh him heir of their throne of glory.”
Psalm, according to the Seventy
“The Lord[YHWH] deals [with] death and gives life, casts down to Sheol and raises up.”
Etz Hayim
(9) prayer for expectation of an answer because God has a right to our
universal submission to His will and hence we have a right to expect each
other’s help in being His instruments of peace and fulfillment among us all …
YHWH brings death and gives life, lowers to the pit and elevates.
impoverishes and makes rich, humbles and exalts, and raises the needy from the
dust)
I Samuel 2:9
“ He will guard the feet of His
Godly ones” Amplified Bible
“He guards the steps of the His faithful, But the wicked shall perish in darkness.”
Etz Hayim
I Samuel 2:10
“He granteth his prayer to him that prayeth, and hath blest the years of the righteous man. For the Lord [YHWH] will weaken his adversary, the Lord [YHWH] is holy.”
Psalms, according to the Seventy
He humbles and exalts.
(YHWH maymyt v’m’chyehh morayd Sh’aol vyayl: YHWH moraysh v’maashyr moshphyl
af moroman: maykym maafar dal mayash’pot yrym ehbyot )
“The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; against them will He thunder in heaven. The Lord
Will judge all peoples to the end of the earth; and He will give strength to His Kings and exalt the power of His anointed.” Amplified Bible [cf Luke 1:46]
I Samuel 2:10
“The Lord[YHWH] hath gone up into the heavens and hath thundered; He will judge the ends of the earth, for He is righteous. And He will give strength to our kings, and He will lift up the horn of His anointed One.” Psalms, according to the Seventy
“The foes of the Lord shall be shattered; he will thunder against them in the heavens, the lord will judge the ends of the earth, He will give power to His king, and triumpth to his anointed One.”
Etz Hayim
(10) prayer for final judgement and justice for us all and removal of
obstacles and the neutralization and rendering ineffective of those who have
continually hurt (in ways that seems to be unrecoverable) or are contining
to hurt the fulfillment of our just aspirations in accord with God’s will….O
YHWH, may those that contend with Him be shattered,…and may YHWH judge to the
ends of the earth (y’din YHWH aph’may eretz
v’y’ten az l’malachu v’y’ram kdeem meshiach), may He give power to His king
and raise the pride of His anointed
Figure 3
Side entrance to the backyard of my house at 3000 Drummond St. in Vicksburg, MS shows hydrangas and one of my two fig trees.
Figure 4 Backyard of 3000 Drummond St.
The back porch was built in 2012 at squirrel level, and the gazebo was built in 1989.
The nation state of Switzerland (according to the UN there are certain conditions nowadays that areas have to satisfy in order to be ‘states’), like that proposed two centuries ago, US Southern States constitution, is a confederacy. It was converted to Christianity by traveling Irish priests and 1st founded as a nation state in 1291. It was, in fact, composed of three confederacies. It is one of the world’s oldest democracies, being such for 700 years now. Our tour group of Cal Berkeley Alumni was told several times by different lecturers that if you ask somebody in the country who is the president of Switzerland’ they probably won’t know. The reason is that this position is rotated out of the standing legislators in the Capitol and there is a lot less of a political compaigning on television and in the various sub-states or cantons, throughout the country for the seat. The legislature has 46 members and the executive branch 7 ministers and 1 chancellor. About half the country, in the eastern part speaks German,and 1/3 in the west speak French, and a smaller part in the southeast speaks its own Valois language. Germany is sometimes called jokingly by its citizens, ‘the big canton’. The nation for almost a century now has declared itself officially ‘neutral’ as regards world political alliances. Maybe this is one of the reasons the League of Nations, after WWI, and the United Nations after WWII decided to locate its 2nd headquarters in Geneva. Germany tried to take it over in the 1930s but was unsuccessful. And, also Russia had designs in the 1940s and 1950s on it. But, due to its well equipped and well-trained Swiss Army (Switzerland requires by law each citizen to donate part of the year for universal service in its reserve forces) they didn’t make much progress. Individual members of it can keep there own weapons in their houses to facilitate a quick ‘call to duty’. There are 15 airbases of the Swiss airforce in the country which in addition to defense are used for mountain rescue operations.
See the interesting book by John McPhee, “La Place de la Concorde Swisse’ for a good read and more information on this.
According the first lecturer, on our trip, the owner of the Alpen Sherpa hotel in Meringen, who has served in the Swiss Army: ‘Since before WWII there has been a history of bad banking in Switzerland’. But, ‘It is almost impossible for a U.S. or foreign Citizen to get a Swiss bank account nowadays’ and not pay taxes at home. Later in the trip this statement was contradicted by a Russian taxi-driver taking me from Villars to catch the return flight from the Geneva airport. He said he was pretty sure that all it took was enough money. Since I probably don’t have near the amount he was thinking about I won’t need to open one.
Figure 5 And now some photos from a beautiful medieval town, Lucerne, in Switzerland and in some real mountains in Switzerland…pictures of a few of the places that our CaL Alumni group visited last August.
Since the precision of Ms Christine’s itenerary was so important in allowing our group to accomplish its goals I duplicate it here.
Wednesday August 13 (I arrived a day early as usual in order to have enough time), Thursday arrive in Zurich take the Swiss Central Railway train from the airport to Meiringen and the Alpin sherpa Hotel. Welcome reception at the hotel on Thursday.
Friday Explore up the Magisalp which is situated above the town by cable car, the Aare River gorge, and take the cable car partway up Reichbach Falls.
Saturday Use 5-day Railpass to go to Lucerne and explore its medieval town’s splendor spires, house facades, and sail lake Lucerne in an excursion boat… admire the forested plateus and meadows of its shores.
Sunday Lecture on the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche was one of the most thoughful atheists of the 19 th century. Since the details of his metaphysics contradict my [our] own I will not reproduce them here. They argue for a theory of spiritual salvation occuring and recurring within the wordly realm we live in and based on our acts that we do and without need of any help of Our God. However, several important points were made in the talk. Nietzsche, although his philosphy may have given Hilter some comfort, was not an anti-Semite. Later on in the day a few of us took the Railpass and went to Mt. Pilatus. Mt. Pilatus has the same name in Latin as Our Jesus’ crucifier. However, it was named thus by the ancient Romans because the shape of its peak is like a hat for the Roman word for hat is Pilate.
I did not know this. The mountain can be accessed from the north arriving either by train or boat and cable car up the mountain is the steepest cable car ride in the world. You can come down the opposite side using another beautiful cable route, take a Lucerne city bus to the Lucerne train station and return by the daily train to Meiringen the same afternoon.
Sunday night the guide asked for any volunteers to go paragliding. I had not planned on this but the opportunity seemed too good to miss. About five of us out of the 28 raised our hands.
Monday August 18 We took the train to Interlocken, which I had visited this city after an US Army work tour in Germany in the early 1980s. Since I was there in the early 1980s the size of the city has doubled but has the same beautiful view of canyon sides and mountain tops as then. We transferred from there to Grutschalp overlookoing the beautiful alpine valleys and meados of the Lauterrbrunned Valley. I was to find out how beautiful after we jumped off the side of the Shutthorn there right next to where the “base jumpers” take off. It was spectacular. If you don’t want to paraglide you can enjoy the flower trail at Allmendhubel which is also there. Of the three mountains in the Jungfrau comples, the father is the Eiger, the Jungfrau is the daughter. According the legend it was said to the locals by the Father, “If you can get (walk) around the mountain you can have my daughter.” During this day’s trip the question came up (someone asked it while we were going up the cable route to the mountain top) “What is the purpose of life.” I said I believe that the purpose of life is to bring heaven on earth, just like what we as Christians and Jews pray for in the Lord’s prayer given to us by Jesus. As Christians we believe that heaven on earth already exists to some extent and that we are all working toward bringing more of it down to earth. I also believe that if you really want to find Jesus today to help you, you can find him just like the early Christians did 2000 years ago, as a “liberal outsider”. As Christians we do not believe like Buddhists that we have to do all the work either by ourselves or by our ‘sanga’ to find enlightenment in this way, but that God helps us when we meet him in these situations. And, in addition, we believe that he helps us find salvation for our souls, we also have redemption, justification, and santification (in that order roughly) that he helps us with in these situations of dying to ourselves and being reborn in Him. We have a God, we believe he exists, and therefore instead of having to take a thousand different lives in order to reach our goal He can help us reach it in just this one life. But, we can be reborn, not just as a mind, but also as a body, and He is in the Church also.
PHOTO OF ANOTHER WHITEWATER RAPID SPOT ALONG THE OCONOLUFTEE RIVER WHICH FLOWS THROUGH THE INDIAN RESERVATION TOWN OF CHEROKEE NORTH CAROLINA
Tuesday We used our 5-day train pass again and went all the way to Bern, Switzerland’s capitol which Goethe has called the “most beautiful he had ever seen”. There are 130,000 residents with 400,000 total if you include all the suburbs. The River Aare, whose gorge we went through outside of Meirengen flows into the Rhine from here and goes all the way down in the North Sea. The statues in the city center are in commenaration to the heroes of a famous battle in the 16th century in which Switzerland was save from French invaders. We walked around and I visited the Einstein house where Dr. Einstein grew up and lived with his family while he was a patent clerk for the Swiss Government.
I bought an interesting book (Einstein: Decoding the Universe published by Thames and Hudson) there which had some other lesser known parts of his life story. Dr. Einstein teachs us that there are actually four dimensions of space and time in the world, not just the three of space. I believe that God created the World out of nothing, using sound and four steps and five- dimensions. What are the four steps or ‘padas’ in Sanskrit as they are called? They are thought in the material world, the thought in the astral world, the thought in the causal world, and the Holy Spirit reverberating as Param-Brahmin, or Creator God, back in the first three. Why are there five dimensions? There are five dimensions because there are four steps and in order to separate these four steps we must have five dimensions to think about them. If one wants to think about four-dimensions of space-time and one dimension of matter together then we get thought to have thought together in these five dimensions in what Hindus call the Maha or greater world of loka of divine tantric creation inside of wisdom and knowledge of our spiritual bodies.
Here is a more extended meditation on this I wrote this Rosh Hashanah. You might want to see earlier blogs also where we have parsed out a detailed translation of Genesis chapters 1 and 2.
Why and how God created the integers along with the universe
Why is our God One? He is One because we need to have peace in heaven and on earth.
How can we have peace in these two worlds? We can have peace ‘with’ God in heaven, and we can have the peace ‘of’ God on earth.
Why are there three places we can live with God, heaven,earth,and the astral world of the in between? Because we can have peace in each of the two worlds by themselves and together
And salvation is God knowing this, a subject (Him), an object (us)and a knower (us being in Him, and us and Him being as His Son).
Why are there four steps of thinking, up to heaven from earth (ie four letters in God’s name (y h w h)? Because if there are three places we can live it takes four heavenly thoughts, heaven thinking about itself and the three ways we live.
Why are there five dimensions in God’s creation? There are five dimensions, because, it takes five dimensions placed in between the four steps. in order to comprehend them as one place.
Why are there six days in which God and His Son worked in order to create our one world (universe)? Because we, as His Son, and He counted being in Himself and ourself in the five dimensions as six ways of existing. And there are six days, because, redemption is God and being in Him, knowing our salvation (a three-fold knowing) and knowing that we and He knows this (another three fold knowing).
And, why does Our God and His Son rest on the seventh day? He does this in order to give us time to understand this (that our salvation and redemption has already happened) in ourselves and in ourselves dwelling in Him.
CLASS II RAPIDS ON SPOT ALONG THE OCONOLUFTEE, A LITTLE UP RIVER FROM THE RUN NATATAHOULA OUTDOOR CENTER RAFTING TEACHER ANDREW KOCH AND I NAVIGATED THE RAINY MORNING OF OCTOBER 14, 2014.
If one meditates on the in and out breath thinking about the words Hari OM one participates in the creation and destruction of the Universe represented as wisdom and spiritual understanding inside of God’s mind and our minds. If one considers spiritual reality or Brahmin as consisting of one 1) will, 2) consciousness, 3) love, 4) knowledge, 5) action then one has five dimensions to think about. It is important to note here that reality or ‘Brahmin’ is not all there is. In addition to reality we have God. God is of the nature of self-existent, omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. Because He is omnipresent he is omnipotent. Because He is omniscient He is omnipotent. And, because He is these three and also Himself He is Self-Existent. Then if One adds two more dimensions for the expansion and contraction of what we are thinking about, with God’s help, One gets the seven dimensions of the seven days of God’s creation as explained in the 1st chapter of the Book of Genesis in our Bible.
Since reality, or Brahmin as we have defined it, contains consciousness and knowledge as well as what we have called ‘Param-Brahmin’ one might want to know the difference between these two types of consciousness and knowledge. Param-Brahmin is called the ‘higher knowledge’ in the Upanishads and is our knowledge about knowledge which dwells in ‘Brahma Loka’ or what we Christians call the Heavenly realm of God’s Holy Spirit, when we intuit it correctly from Him, dwelling inside of the top three chakras in our spiritual body. Param-Brahmin is goal-oriented knowledge that we reason backward from in a series of logical statements starting from a heavenly goal we are trying to understand or reach inside of our own human knowledge. Lower Brahmin or lower reality contains our object oriented knowledge in which we forward chain our thoughts starting from sense experience in the world.
One quote out of the book Decoding the Universer caught my attention so I tweeted it along with my thoughts on the subject:
“There is no non-faith that makes a person not a Jew” Albert Einstein Yes, but faith is important. and God has a lot to say about this. Yes [see above]
Another interesting site in the plaza next to the City Church in the courtyard was a fountain with a statue of Moses in it with horns on his head and facing opposite the Church’s façade of Saint’s involved in the Christian Final Judgement. There is a set of tablets in his hands on which the Ten Commandments are written backwards. On the right façade of the Church entrance are the sheep, there is a Cross of St. Andrew there. On the left are the goats. Which are you, you do not know until you get there. But, having a separate fountain across the courtyard for Jews, did not seem right to me. For, after the institution of Our New Covenant, I believe that Moses is a Saint and has no horns on his head now. However, in Deuteronomy the fifth book of the Torah (which we Christian Jews do not call the Old Testament), there are some important passages about blessings and curses. Saints do not curse any body, and neither does God, I believe, so what is going on here? I have asked the following quesiton of the person called Albert Einstein on Twitter:
• “Hello thanks for the follow I am curious why the Moses statue in Einstein Swiss home courtyard has horns on it? I thought Moses was a Saint? “
I hope I get a reply.
Wednesday August 20 We travelled by train again to Interlocken and then to Grindelwald and back to Meirengen by postal bus and walking. Along this route we pass by the spectacular Jungrau Mountain Complex of the Jungfrau (German word for virgin), Monch and Eiger Mark Twain mentions the beauty of this hiking route in his nineteenth century book “A Tramp Abroad”. On the hiking route down from the top of the pass above Grindewald where the bus let us out to walk there is a beautful mountain stream route you can follow down the the Rosenlauf falls and Glacier gorge. It is a refreshing experience in the middle of magnificent mountain landscapes. The Rosenlauf falls are the higher falls on the same river that empties into the Meirengen Valley from the Reichenbach falls. It requires a little huffing and puffing to get up the 250 steps to the top of the falls from the hotel where we had lunch.
Thursday August 21 We packed up and took a bus westward to the Gstaad Glacier 3000 site and on the Villars and the Hotel du Golf and Spa from there. The cable car up to the Glacier 3000 site offered breathtaking views of 24 mountain peaks including the Jungfrau complex we had just left, the Matterhorn, and the tallest peak in the Alps Mont Blanc. There was a Glacier walk and nice restaurant to eat at up there.
Friday Dr. Chytry, Rhodes scholar at Oxford, gave his talk on Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire and the European Enlightenment in one of the lecture rooms of the Hotel du Golf next to the spa there. And we had a wine tasting of wines from an Italian family who has vineyards there in Switzerland. Geneva, where Rousseau was born, but later forced to move from, was originally ruled by Church bishops and the Duke of Savoy (owner of Chillon Castle built at the strategic mountain pass chokepoint into Switzerland from Italy). At the time of Rousseau lived, it had a population of about 20,000 people who were manly descended from French Protestant refugees. Bern, then and still is, the center of Catholicism in Switzerland . They had rioting in 1734, unrest in 1767, and a revolution in 1798. Voltaire wrote his famous and intellectually influencial encylopedia in 1744. Rousseau was one of its major contributers. He never taught in a University, but earned his living in Paris, after being forced to leave Geneva, by copying music for his well patrons, many of which were women. There in Paris he was introduced by his patrons to some of the most important figures in the European Enlightenment. On of his essays was about the problematic nature of the arts and sciences caused by the few jobs available for those interested in these areas in Paris then. In 1762 he wrote his important influentail book entitled the “Social Contract” the most important political science book since Locke’s Treatise on Government. And, in 1761 one on the theory of education of children. Geneva and Switzerland is still, after Rousseau a center for some of the best schools in the world. Our guide in Geneva explained to us that this is why so many Russians, spies and others, came to live in Switzerland (our own famous US spy Mr. Richard Helms was educated in Switzerland for example, you might want to read his book, ‘A Look Over My Shoulder’). *
I do not agree with many of the statements of Mr. Helms in his book about the CIA not being witting of what Oswald was doing and planning on doing in the days and months leading up to the assassination of JFK. After the new releases in 2017 of transcripts of Angleton, who was working for Helms monitoring of Oswald as verified by Jane Romans a secretary to Angleton and described by Jefferson Morley in his book CIA and JFK new facts and also his books on Winston Scott and Angleton it seems very possible that the CIA was grooming Oswald to make an attempted assassination of Kennedy in Dallas then use his leftist background supporting pro-Castro groups in New Orleans to support another invasion of Cuba and removal of Castro. At the very least through monitoring him with the Polish oil geologist informant de Mohrenschidlt, friend of Bush who was may have been keeping Nixon in on it they nurtured and helped Oswalt decide to do it on his own.
I would highly recommend reading all of Morley’s books.
And, a famous English spy author, whose book ‘The Night Manager’ was on our groups’ reading list has said he learned to speak foreign languages in Switzerland. During the Tsarist period the wealthy intellegentsia did not want to send their children to Paris to be educated because of the radical politics there, but decided on Switzerland as the best place for them to learn foreign languages. Rousseau may have contributed to starting all of this by trying to cultivate the importance of sentiment and emotion in social life. He believed that a tutor should not try to teach children, but only guide them. I was fortunate as an undergraduate studying at Vanderbilt to have one of the best math tutors in the world, Dr. Peter Neumann, of Queen’s College Oxford, who was visiting along with the rest of his mathematical family the Vanderbilt U. mathematics department in Nashville that year. He tried this approach on me to teach me abstract algebra and group theory. Back to Dr. Chytry, he it turns out, Dr. Chytry shares with Nietzsche a belief in the importance of the study of creativity for intellectual advancement and a belief in the importance of the ‘charismatic’ in accomplishing leadership. I asked Dr. Chytry about Rousseau’s theories on epistomology. He answer was, ‘As far of the intuitionistic side, he got a lot of it from Descartes and the rest he took from the English Empiricists’. In 1802 the Helevetic Republic was created. In 1814 the Congress of Vienna expands its area. In 1848 it was, along with other cantons formed into the Swiss Confederacy. Dr. Chytry, it turns out, was Bill Clinton’s basketball coach when they were both Rhodes Scholars at Oxford. “I didn’t think much would come of him then”, Dr. Chytry volunteered as a comment to me at the departure dinner. Voltaire, on the other hand, as I have said elsewhere on Twitter and this blog made the famous statement “God is a hypothesis of which I have no need.” My reply to this statement is “What hypothesis do you use, Mr. Voltaire, in order to have a basis for the rational self-existence of believing in yourself if you do not use that of God?” Nietzsche as discussed above had a theory of eternally recurring life based on self-existence in the world. But, as Dr. Mortimer Adler has pointed out in his book “How to Think About God” and others before him, that is Dr. Adler, have also, the world is contingent and does not have self-existence as a fundamental part of the definition of it. In mathematics and computer science it is possible to have what is called recursive funtions (and even the computer itself which was shown by Alan Turing) which can self-generate themselves and think rationally somehow. However, it was also proved by the famous Princeton logician Dr. Godel, that any such machine does not have the potential to solve all the problems we human’s can pose. Therefore, why substitute a soul for us based on a theoretical machine that cannot answer as many problems as we might be able to? The only reason I can see is if we are discouraged, fearful of having to trust a higher power, and fear our true divine selves so much we want to destroy what is good and already inside of us (God) by not believing in Him. Look around you, I think that you will find that this situation is not that uncommon among those trying to understand things.
Saturday We went to Geneva a worldwide capitol of peace and explored the fascinating buildings of the League of Nations and modern day headquarters organizations of the UN there. A young Russian man who lives there gave us a nice walking tour of the Old Town which included John Calvin’s famous church up on the hill overwatching the town where we started the Protestant Reformation. I had been there two years ago as part of a tour of the SuperCollider Research facility outside of town where world class physics researchers were verifying the existence and pinning down the energy of the Higgs Boson (the so-called God Particle of modern high energy theoretical physics).
Sunday After returrning to Villars took the bus down the hill and the train again to reach Montreux a beautiful town which is a jewel of the Swiss Riveria (towns along Lake Leman). Once there we took a boat ridee= to the Chateau de Chillon an enthralling medieval castle which Lord Bryon wrote a famous poem. It is built on a medieval route through the moutains from Italy which has been used as a strategic defensive point for the rulers of this Canton for a milleniun.
Monday This day we took the same route to Montreux and then another train from there up to the fascinating city of Gruyere and the Medieval Castle there which is a center of study of ancient music. I bought some CDs. Nearby is the world a famous Nestle’s chocolate musem (the most visited tourist attraction in Switzerland). After touring how chocolate is made I bought some special chocolates for a few of my friends here in our little town on the Mississippi River.
Tuesday We drove south and to the east by bus to Zermatt a small village at the base of the Matterhorn. From there you can taqke a cogwheel railroad up to the top of the Gornergrat area which is full of rocky gorges, glaciers, waterfalls, crystallline lakes up at 10,000 feet or so.
Wednesday We explored around Villars and had our group farewell reception. I decided to stay an extra day and play golf at the hotel’s course which is located up the railway to the mountain top sitting above this enjoyable and beautiful little town.
Friday August 30 Returned home by way of Geneva, Amsterdaam, Atlanta, Jackson, MS.
Figure 6 Lauterbrunnen valley, jump off point for paragliders. One of the first members of our volunteer jumpers group thinking about what’s going to happen next.
These para-glider chutes are what is called a ‘ram air chute’, made of two layers knitted together to form a airfoil. Because it forms up in the shape of a horizontal airfoil it can be steered just like an aircraft wing. Ordinary parachutes are circular and half spherical and are much harder to steer. The US Army developed these types of chutes for an improved capability of insertion of its Special Forces troops behind lines and to enable better air-drop resupply units. When you add a GPS unit and remote controller servo you can fly up to several tons of critically needed resupplies into troops or civilians launched from two miles up and maybe 12 miles away. And, in addition, you can have it remotely guided into a precision targeting area (such as 40,000 starving Yazidi’s needing help and located in the recent Iraq ISIS Singar mountain resupply and rescue operation battle areas.
OurPrayerGroup has been praying for the Iraq Christians and other people living there for about 9 months now since Bishop Andrew White, the Episcopal Bishop of Baghdad made a visit to our friend Tommy’s Methodist church in Vicksburg, MS. He has explained the dire conditions and situations there for Christian believers.
Figure 7
Airdropping is the most expensive way to deliver resources, so “Its’ a last resort” says the head of International logistics at the British Red Cross. The first packages were dropped from Royal Air Force aircraft in the last weeks of August.” The packages included 1200 ‘LifeSaver Cube’ water-filtration devices that remove viruses, parasites and bacteria from water. One cube can filter a liter of water in about 80 seconds, and can hold 5 liters. Also in the package were 240 solar lanterns. These combine a portable light source with a phone charger. A day in the sun provides enough power to use the light for about 15 hours and a phone for 2 hours.” The New Scientist August 26-22, page 17.
So far (as of late August 2014) about 4000 Yazidi have crossed the Iraqi border into Syria. “Those arriving are extremely dehydrated, and some have war wounds” says Paul Donohoe of the IRC (International Rescue Committee).
In general as Christians we should turn the other cheek but not always. God depends on us to be his representatives to uphold justice and righteousness in the world. We cannot just turn the other cheek in all situations and avoid war that way. After World War I groups of nations tried to establish peace solely through negotiations at the League of Nations in Switzerland. Looking back on it we can see that this solely idealistic theory of statesmanship and politics cannot work only by itself. We need strong Army and Navy’s in order to insure that those with the ancient and well thought out and rational philosophy that ‘might makes right’ cannot rule over us.
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Tandem pilot Fabian, from AirTime Paragliding, helping me guide us down to the valley by the para-gliders ropes. Those interested in participating in this sport themselves can find more information about it at the URL http://www. airtime-paragliding.ch. Up on the mountain for takeoff we started walking, then running down the slope and then all of a sudden we were ‘AIRBORNE’. As opposed to jumping out of a plane then opening the chute later, the chute was deployed first and its airfoil directed into the thermal wind coming up the mountain slope before we started running off the cliff [yes, the cliff]. It has some simple hand controls 1) if you lift your hands up the chute goes faster, 2) If you pull them down you go slower, 3) if you pull one by itself, it will go in that direction.
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Figure 8 Mountain top area near the Matterhorn, a short train ride, up from Zermatt.
A good book chronicling the history of mountain climbing in Switzerland is “Killing Dragons, the History of the Alps” by Fergis Fleming. Our group explored the mountain passes within 5-day central railway pass distance from Meringen in the Bernese Oberlland. This included the Jungfrau complex of the Eiger and its two partners the Black Monk and the Jungfrau or Virgin out of Interlocken, Lauterbrunnen , Grundelwald (where I went para-gliding off the Shutthorn). The Eiger was said to be unclimbable and several people lost their lives trying to do it. In 1937 two Germans and an Austrian were trapped in an avalanche on it. The current record for climbing it now is 2 hrs and 47 min. Mt Pilatus is a Sunday afternoon boat ride out of Lucerne. And, it has the world’s steepest cable car lift up to the top. The next week we travelled west to the Glacier 3000 day trip out of Gstaad up the Diablerets, along with day trips to Geneva and Gruyere. The Glacier 3000 peak is one of the hydrographic centers of Switzerland. To the north the water coming down from its glaciers forms the Rhone river flowing into the Baltic Sea and to the South its glacial waters flow into the Mediterranean ocean. And, the last part of the trip we visited the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc out of Zermatt, which we visited by bus trip and train from Villars.
In our postal bus trip and day hike down from Grunewald to Meringen we saw the “angel wings” peaks named from Gertrude Bell, one of the first Swiss women mountaineers.
Figure 10 The ‘Angel Wings’
Mountain peaks called the “angel wings” along the mountain pass road from Grundewald to Meringen. There is an important verse in the Books of Genesis and Deuteronomy about the ‘arms of God’ or the ‘strength of God’. “I AM the Eternal God, and underneath are the Everlasting arms.” Deuteronomy 33:27 This verse, along with its companion verse “ Be still and Know that I AM God” can be used as affirmations and two-fold meditations, speaking for the Holy Spirit beginning to realize itself inside of us from the top or beginning at the top chakra of God’s Kingdom of Heaven dwelling inside of our spiritual bodies down to the bottom or root most chakra which represents Earth. The two angels represented by these two verses are Gabriel and Michael in that order. If you are interested in large rocks named for “angels” you might want to see the previous postings in this blog from our mountain home at “angels landing” rock in Zion National Park, US where Our Prayer Group had a Christmas vacation hike in the snow.
Figure 11 Another spectacular view of the mountains surrounding the upper area above Zermatt.
Figure 12 The Matterhorn
In the Zermatt valley and the village of St. Nicholas below these peaks Christmas is celebrated at Advent instead of December. This tradition also developed in some places in Germany.
Figure 13 Flowing brook next to the route of our mountain hike down on from the pass from Grundewald back to Meirengen.
Mark Twain in his book, “A Tramp Abroad” describes hiking along this route from Meiringen to Interlocken. The whole trail starts above the Reichenbach Falls and is very uphill. We took the train to Interlocken, then Grundewald and hiking downhill back to the RosenLaute falls which are the falls above the Reichenbach falls.
Figure 14 Rosenlaute Falls, up above into the surrounding mountains and glaciers in the direction of Reichenback Falls which are in Meirengen.
Beautiful Rosenlaute Falls, with an attractive pool of cold splashing mountain water halfway up, which you can reach by proceeding up the steep and winding mountain roads from the famous Reichenbach Falls just outside of Meringen, Switzerland on the way to Grundewald.
Figure 15 View from hike up Rosenlaute Falls steps.
Looking down on the falling water passing through a natural stone chute as viewed from climbing up steps as it comes down the falls into the creek below.
Figure 16 Dr. Chitry, me, and some of our Cal Berkeley Alumni friends and guide Christine.
Pictures are those in our Cal Berkeley alumni group that made it up the 250 steps to the forested plateau area above top of Rosen-Laute Falls. From the left fellow para-glider Lorrain Bozeman, Beverly Hills CA, Dr. Bharathy Nair (both Bharathy and her husband Vic who was also on the trip are retired physicians think of how much good this family must have done to help us all), Vero Beach FL, guide and itinerary planner extraordinaire, Christine Guyot of Poitiers France (Christine is fluent in French, English, German, Italian and Chinese and also speaks Spanish and Dutch), Josef Chytry Professor of Critical Studies and Humanities College of the Arts and Managing Editor of the Oxford Journal of Industrial and Corporate change at the Haas School of Business Berkeley Ca (Joseph teaches course in Ancient Greek Culture, the Italian Renaissance, the European Enlightenment, Modernism and Post-Modernism and has a Doctorate of Philosophy in politics and European intellectual history from the University of Oxford England, myself, lawyer Sheldon Jaffe of LA, Thomas Hannen, former wrestler and salesman, Cal Alumni 64 of Huntington Beach, CA.
Other Cal alumni and family on the trip were Paul and Roni Melmed, Cal ’70, Bob Lee of Rancho Palo Verdes CA, Ayris Hatton and Allan Kipperman of Kentfield CA, Sue Burnett of Petaluma, CA Sally Doolitte of Petaluma CA, Hazel Eshleman of Walnut Creek CA, Diane and Philo smith of Laguna Beach CA, Charlene and Jim MacDonald of Newport Beach, CA, Marc Bozeman, Nancy Jaffe, Dr. Vic Nair, John and Sarah Rebelo of San Diego Ca. Chung-Cha Ziesel of Irvine Ca.
Figure 17 Piles of rocks are the mountain climber’s way of providing guideposts for future climbers up the same route that tells you the direction to go from here. I have benefited from finding them along the way when I was uncertain which path to take, in the California Sierra and Shasta area, Canadian Rockies, California Rockies.
Piles of stones placed above the 250 steps you have to climb to reach the top of Rosen-Laute Falls. I placed one there and it’s where we took a group photo of those who made the hike up to celebrate
Figure 18 Another view of the Matterhorn
Picture of the Swiss mountain, the Matterhorn, which guards over the villages in the Zermatt Valley of Switzerland.
My prayer during this trip for the group as we travelled through Switzerland toward the end of the Jewish Year 5774, the year of Our Lord 2014, and Rosh Hashanah 5775(according to certain ways of calculating time and prophecy, the Biblical basis for which from the Book of Genesis was discussed in an earlier blog) was:
“May Peace be with as we share our thoughts together about these mountains and travel safely to the high places associated with them in our past, present, and future.”
“May Our God uphold and support His Biblical (The Torah and the New Testament) prophetic Truth inside of us all that ask him for help and need to know Him.”
“May He Bless us and Keep us near Him, eternally and in time, if we so freely choose to have Him dwell inside us, with us, for us, and helped by us and others.
Figure 19 A beautiful cable car ride going up and above the clouds in the Swiss Alps
View of the cable car going up to the Glacier 3000 area at one of the highest points in Switzerland and a hydrographic center of Europe. It is from this point that the waters of the Rhine flow down to the North Sea and Baltic in one direction and down to the Rhone and Mediterrean in the other. Had a nice talk with Paul Medmed, one of the Jewish members of our group here about what happens when you visit Israel and go to the Western Wall of the Old Temple as a Christian practicing Judaism . He said they have Rabbis there who question you about your beliefs. And, they do not believe it is possible to be both a Christian and a Jew. Of course, if you believe Jesus was a Jew [see previous blog for some historical and scriptural arguments for this] it is an affront to Him to say that it is not possible to do this. For He has already done it. Back to the Rabbis at the western wall, according to Paul, if they know the Rabbi who gave you Bar-Mitzah you will be immediately accepted and taken off to a synagogue and taught the seven-blessings required to study Torah. See elsewhere earlier on this blog for Hebrew-English translations of these blessings. Since I do believe it is possible to be both a Christian and a Jew (for instance we have the Jews for Jesus group and also my group with might be called Jesus for the Jews). I asked Paul if this belief of not being able to believe in Christianity as a Jew precluded him from believing in a Messiah. He said that Orthodox Jews believe in a Messiah for the Jews who has not come yet. I then said I do not share this belief because that would mean there would have to be two Messiahs, Jesus Christ and someone else. And, I believe that there is only One Messiah and One Son of God. Because God’s Son’s soul exists eternally and as the same person throughout time it would be impossible for Him to be more than One. God is One, His Son is One, and their Holy Spirit is One in us both in terms of being Jewish and Christian. The current Catholic Church and the current Rabbinic authorities have made Judaism and Christianity something very difficult to practice and believe together. But, it is not impossible. For we know that Jesus himself read and studied and spoke some Hebrew (see previous blog) and did it. So, I do believe in One Messiah for both Jews and Christians and the fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah’s wondelful teachings for both groups. If you believe in Jesus Christ why wouldn’t you be both a Jew and a Christian… if He was and still is?
Figure 20 View of the medieval Gruyere Castle courtyard and former peasant villages below.
Figure 21 Stately, classical marble architectural design of the connecting area between the former League of Nations buildings and current UN HDQTRS in Geneva.
The two connecting buildings of the Old League of Nations and the New United Nations Headquarter halls at Geneva, Switzerland from the outside, looking toward Lake Leman. The Old League of Nations was funded and established by a group of nations (including the U.S.A.) which believed in an ‘idealistic’ theory of world politics adopted by Woodrow Wilson. Some people say part of the reason for World War II was that this theory did not take into account the points and rational arguments made by people like Machievelli in the Italian Renaissance and later Clausewitz in Germany about the need for practical strategies in governing people. Although its secondary headquarters are in Switzerland, Switzerland was not a member of the United Nations until 2002. The reason is that Switzerland had declared itself officially neutral in world politics and if you are a member of the United Nations you cannot always be neutral you have to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in some situations.
Figure 22 The Hall of the Great Assembly, Genevea UN HQTRS.
The great assembly hall of nations in UN headquarters, Geneva. Some of the main humanitarian conferences of the UN here in Geneva deal with how all of us and get together to uphold and support disarmament, basic human rights (the U.N. has defined in along with its charter an expanded list of human rights that is somewhat more comprehensive than our own U.S. Bill of Human Rights) and world peace, noble goals indeed and well worth a lot of our attention, funding, and planning support. UNICEF, the United Nations Children Fund is also headquartered here in Geneva. In general, said our guide, the Geneva headquarters deals with ‘soft politics’ and the New York headquarters with ‘hard politics’. Thus the New York headquarters is the one that dispatches military representatives for ‘peacekeeping operations’ in troubles spots when places are at war like the Middle East has been recently and the Balkans were in the last decade before now. Currently, in New York there are about 10,000 people on the payroll of the UN and also about 10,000 in Geneva. The percentage that each country pays to support the UN is voted on by its General Assembly. Dag Hammarskjold said that “The UN is not an organization to bring the world into paradise, but to keep it out of hell”.
In coordination and cooperation with the discussion in the recent National Public Radio Program (NPR) on the Roosevelts and the memory of them I include below Ms Eleanor Roosevelt’s fine publication which resulted from and enabled by our country’s fighting against the tyranny of those who would deny these rights and her husband and a lot of us helping to win WWII, and her chairmanship of the committee founding the UN’s basic documents”
PREAMBLE
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,
Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
Article 1.
• All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2.
• Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3.
• Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4.
• No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5.
• No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6.
• Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Article 7.
• All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Article 8.
• Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9.
• No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10.
• Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 11.
• (1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
• (2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
Article 12.
• No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
Article 13.
• (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
• (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Article 14.
• (1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
• (2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 15.
• (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
• (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
Article 16.
• (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
• (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
• (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
Article 17.
• (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
• (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Article 18.
• Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 19.
• Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20.
• (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
• (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Article 21.
• (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
• (2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
• (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
Article 22.
• Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
Article 23.
• (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
• (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
• (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
• (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Article 24.
• Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Article 25.
• (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
• (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
Article 26.
• (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
• (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
• (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
Article 27.
• (1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
• (2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
Article 28.
• Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
Article 29.
• (1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
• (2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
• (3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 30.
• Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
Figure 23 The Court of International Justice HQTRS in Geneva with beautifully painted brown and gold wall murals.
The Hall of Court of International Justice and Human rights inside of the old League of Nations building.
This magnificent brown and goal mural was created by a Spanish painter and depicts stages and aspects of our human struggles for human rights and justice. A picture on the ceiling (unfortunately not shown)
try to show how to get out of war through brotherhood and solidarity (a very noble undertaking).
The League of Nations was created after WWI by those nations winning the war in order to try and prevent all future wars. It didn’t succeed, but thank the good Lord it is still trying.
