The Three Temptations

"If you want to know me,

ask me not how I take my tea,

but rather ask me how I wish to live,

and why I don't live as I wish to live."

~ Thomas Merton

The Sins of the Fathers Are Visited On Their Sons

Each generation has its own challenges, temptations, trials, and hardships. Usually, they all get caught in the same trap. What one sucker fell for, there are a million others waiting in line. Each of them thinks they are 'different', that they are 'special', but in the end they prove to be just another batch of clones, stamped out in the same mold. Punched out of the same genetic dough, by the cosmic cookie-cutter. And, here you are, oblivious to the ongoing drama...

"If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread" 

Do you believe in magic? Do you think God is magic? Or, even the Devil?

Not even the Almighty can operate outside of the Laws of Nature... It would be hubris, in its most extreme form, to believe that you can act otherwise. 

Remember the little baby in the cave? What was it? He is born in silence, poverty, simplicity and purity. Silence is Golden. Are you too dim-witted to follow the twists and turns of my thought?

The first principle is: To live in harmony with the Universe. That is the 'price' of admission. You cannot be a Son of God and believe that you can operate outside of the Iron Laws of Creation. Remember, God cannot be separated from Creation. The Universe is One.

By what right do you command? The Ego blocks the receptacle, no power can come through the conduit. Your power comes from the Universe acting through you, when this happens you become the Will of God.

You must find new answers to the bad choices of your people, and show them a different way of living. The worker must earn his wages...

"If you worship me, all this will be yours"

What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and losses his soul in the process?

I take what I need to live. Anything more is superfluous. Possessions are chains which bind us tight. On the Golden Path we must travel light, and have complete freedom of movement.

All of the evil and ugliness in the world comes from selfish greed. All pain and suffering comes from the ego. All this is dust in the wind. An illusion. You can never possess the world, but, if you are lucky, you can learn to live in it...

Remember how they 'catchee monkey'. They put a banana inside the cage, and when the monkey grabs a hold of it he will not let go. He wants that Goddamned banana, he's got it right in the palm of his hand... or, does the banana have him?

"If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here"

Yeah buddy, just do some really fucking stupid shit and see what happens... Pull the pin on a grenade and stuff it down your pants. See if Legions of Angels will come to save your ass. But, don't bet on it. The Universe doesn't suffer fools.

Remember those 'Iron Laws'? Well, gravity is one of them. Mess with the bull and you're gonna get the horn...

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes the game gets rained out. Mistakes are OK, as long as they don't kill you. But, you have to find the courage to move on, and seek different solutions.

“Get away from me Satan, I'm looking for something else!”