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Tuesday, March 5, 2002

Due to the problems with Yahoo! and the delays in posting, the few posts
that did make it through to NDS were somewhat contentious save for one
notable
piece by Mr. Katz. Jerry has always been good company so this editor
just
has to include him in with some other nice folk and gentle thinkers.
Jerry Katz
(from NDS)
I see compassion as being. Isn't that the most compassionate thing?
Everything else is simply a gesture. Gestures could be understood.
When fully understood to their core, there lies compassion. There are
no
compassionate acts, as such. There are gestures that have motives which
could be understood. When understood to their core, there is compassion.
Compassion is a stillness. It's not an act. Acts arise out of compassion
and they
are labelled 'compassionate', 'nice', 'selfish', 'saintly', and so
on. By
imitating the labeled act, one is not knowing compassion as being.
However, such imitation would place one closer to the core of all gestures,
which is compassion. Spiritual systems, such as Buddhism and Sufiism,
have
extraordinarily beautiful and elaborate systems to bring one to the
core, which is being or compassion. Even NDS has such a system. Thank
God we don't know what it is!
"
Leo Tolstoy
(link given at end of quotes)
Leo Tolstoy on the Law of Love
                  
"A Christian does not quarrel with any one,
              
does not attack any one, nor use violence against one;
           
on the contrary, he himself without murmuring bears violence;
           
but by this very relation to violence he not only frees himself,
                   
but also the world from external power. "
                               
Leo Tolstoy
                 
" War is so unjust and ugly that all who wage it
           
must try to stifle the voice of conscience within themselves."
                               
Leo Tolstoy
              
"The evil committed by man not only weakens his soul
                      
and deprives him of true happiness,
                           
but more often than not
                     
falls back on the one who commits it."
                               
Leo Tolstoy
                
"Eventually institutional violence will disappear,
                       
not as a result of external action,
                
but thanks only to the calls of conscience of men
                      
who have awakened to the truth."
                               
Leo Tolstoy
              
"Every man, in refusing to take part in military service
                       
or to pay taxes to a government
                   
which uses them for military purposes, is,
             
by this refusal, rendering a great service to God and man,
            
for he is thereby making use of the most efficacious means
               
of furthering the progressive movement of mankind
              
toward that better social order which it is striving after
                         
and must eventually attain."
                               
Leo Tolstoy
Tolstoy delineates the following five ideals and commandments of Christ
expressed in the Sermon on the Mount:
     1) have no ill-will against anyone, but love
all; don't even offend with a word;
     2) complete chastity, even in thought;
     3) live only in the present and don't worry
about the future; don't swear and
     don't promise;
     4) never use violence nor repay evil with
evil, but suffer insult and give up
     possessions; and
     5) love our enemies and those who hate us
by treating them as ourselves.
For Tolstoy these commandments are to be practiced now, and they will
be followed by higher ones on the path to perfection. These teachings transcend
the social conception of life which may be limited by exclusive love of
one's family, tribe, nation, race, or even humanity. These and socialistic
brotherhoods are based on the love of personality, but the Christian love ever expands because it is based on the love of God.
Einstein
Einstein on Peace in the Atomic Age
           "Every
thoughtful, well-meaning and conscientious human being
                       
should assume in time of peace,
                    
the solemn and unconditional obligation
                  
not to participate in any war, for any reason
             
or to lend support of any kind, whether direct or indirect."
                              
Albert Einstein
            
"The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything
                         
save our modes of thinking,
               
and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe."
                              
Albert Einstein
                  
"Mankind's desire for peace can be realized
                  
only by the creation of a world government."
                              
Albert Einstein
Jesus
Jesus and the Early Christians
                       
"Blessed are the peacemakers,
                  
for they shall be called the children of God."
                                  
Jesus
                      
"But I tell you: love your enemies,
                        
do good to those who hate you,
               
bless those cursing you, pray ,for those abusing you,
             
so that you may become sons of your Father in heaven."
                                  
Jesus
            
"Shall it be held lawful to make an occupation of the sword,
              
when the Lord proclaimed that he who takes the sword
                       
shall also perish by the sword?"
                                
Tertullian
                
"For we no longer take up 'sword against nation'
                       
nor do we 'learn war any more,'
                       
having become children of peace,
                   
for the sake of Jesus, who is our leader."
                                  
Origen
Women and Peace
                    
"If nonviolence is the law of our being,
                          
the future is with women."
                             
Mahatma Gandhi
                    
"Our function is to establish new values,
             
to create an overpowering sense of the sacredness of life,
                        
so that war will be unthinkable;
                    
so that when international disputes arise,
           
even of the most grave character - when lives have been lost,
                  
when our rights have been clearly invaded -
            
we shall not turn to wholesale, deliberate destruction of life
                    
as the means of settling those disputes,
               
of avenging those deaths, of asserting those rights."
                              
Crystal Eastman
                       
"As women entered into politics
                 
when clean milk and premature labor of children
                        
became factors in political life,
               
so they might be concerned with international affairs
                     
when these at least were dealing with
           
such human and poignant matters as food for starving peoples
              
who could be fed only through international activities ...
           
There might be found an antidote to war in woman's affection
                  
and all-embracing pity for helpless children."
                               
Jane Addams
                
"Love is the measure by which we will be judged."
                               
Dorothy Day
               
"Feminism can help women respect their own power.
              
Nonviolence can help them use their power effectively
                     
in a way which maintains that respect
                          
and extends it to others."
                              
Jane Meyerding
             
"Experiment with nonviolent struggle has barely begun.
                 
But in a world in which traditional violent battle
                        
can escalate into nuclear war,
                 
it is an experiment that is absolutely necessary
                        
to push to its furthest limits."
                              
Barbara Deming
"
And for those who love space stuff:
http://www.nasa.gov/gallery/photo/index.html
interesting link at: (also the source for the above quotes)
http://www.san.beck.org/WP1-Chinese.html
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