"I am not diminished nor am I exalted by anything. I am what I am"

January 25, 2005

n a message dated 1/23/2005 12:28:28 PM Mountain Standard Time,

kochu1tz writes:

> I am not dimished with anything nor am I exalted by anything. I am what I

> am.

I agree with this!

There is a saying: "To the pure at heart, all things are pure."

Also in the bible, Jesus says "It is not what goes into a man that makes him

holy, but what comes out."

Also, the fruit falls not far from the tree and "you shall know a tree by

it's fruit"

They say, the most advanced shaman knows it is unwise to criticize Any

Person's Cosmology.

I find it not only unwise, but bad manners.

I feel the strong feelings about Liquor, or other and fringe practices,

reminds me of a funadmentalist Christiam fear of Satan. Demon Alcohol.

Whatever.

The eucharist revolves around wine, and either the wafer is dipped in the

wine or a tiny sip is taken.

Wine is just a drink. Fruit ferments on the ground when it lays under the

tree in the warm air. Birds drink it when they eat fermented fruit. Sometimes

the birds get full -- intoxicated -- on fermented berries from a big bush and

get intoxicated chirping wildly until they settle down.

To live in fear of anything in such an extreme that one thinks it is evil, is

I think a sign of deep fears about one's own worthiness. There is a way to

be holy and that is to avoid "tainted" substances and project all one's

unholiness into the substance and then stay far away from it.

there has to be a "system" for how to keep "evil" at bay.

I think this is one of the lowest levels of spiritual evolution, to act this

way, and to live in relation to the natural world through Fear and seeing Evil

and Demons and Impurity at every turn.

To the pure at heart, all things are pure...

I agree with what Kochu said about not being diminished by things.

I feel it's FINE if somebody wants to Abstain from any substance or practice,

but to fear it and/or despise it and/or make it into the

symbol/container/definition for evil, is childish spirituality.

Peace,

Cathie

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