We are a go. Please visit the main thread at the syllabus.

To cultivate happiness, we have to create a conducive conditions.

The two greatest enemies of happiness are uncontrolled desire and attachment.

I am aware that it is really not possible to live without desire and attachment, but it is possible to control them through understanding. It must be understood that what these emotions, in their uncontrolled state produce, is not really happiness but a disturbance in the mental equilibrium which deceives one into thinking that it is happiness.

Play dramatic Verse The Terrible Consequences of Sin
Characters—Adam, Eve/Woman, Voice of God, Angel with him, Cherub,

Archangel—in the Garden of Eden

In the garden of Eden
Adam and Eve had it all
a paradise home, no lease
countless fruit trees to feast
animals they subdued short, tall, big and small.

Now the serpent
more cautious than all the animals
approached the woman in
a private conversation.

Serpent—did you notice the tree
in the middle of the garden?

Two birthdays this week (that I know of) Jayne (Serendipity), sept 5, and Lonnie, sept 9.
Happy birthday to you both and sorry any I've missed.
cheers
Jess

This is to let anyone who is signed up for the workshop, but not yet on the main thread to please join us. Because Rula and I have a full roster at this time I have decided not to wait until the start date of Sept. 7, but to begin tomorrow on the third.
See you there.

"All problems of existence are essentially problems of harmony. They arise from the perception of unsolved discord and the instinct of an undiscovered agreement or unity".

Sri Aurobindo

Nothing should be out of sync - everything should be part and parcel of a well nit synchronicity, operating from a deep inner dynamic.

This comes from active and energetic engagement of the consciousness - a permanent interplay between the two.

Had Jesus Chris just recanted what he stood for, he could have escaped death but he didn't. Instead, he accepted death - a death that was violently and viciously thrust upon him.

Joan of Arc at first retracted her claims to the visions she had in exchange for life but later, retracted her retractions and was sent to the stake to be burned.

Stan has given me the go ahead to run a workshop I have wanted to hold for some months now.
In "Dramatic Verse" I will be inviting participants to write and critique what is known as "Closet Drama", a monologue or play (in verse or otherwise) that is meant to be read and not performed.

is a whore best left a virgin

those who live in the moment
only have a moment to live
but it seems a far better fate
then to live the guarded life
for that one moment has already been lived
and life is but a struggle to remember it

I have a new Japanese poetry Renga workshop idea in the works.
The objective and theme is "bird behavior." "Birds of a Feather" is the title.

The subject is to write a Haiku about the behavior you notice in birds.
Then write a Couplet, as I've done below, to make the poem a Tanka.