Outer Lightness » In the name of religion » July 2007

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In the name of religion (3 unread)

• 

  Tagged Yet Again

  Posted: July 24th, 2007, 7:31am EDT by Bishop Rick

  Tags:    [edit]

  Gee thanks Julieann
  
  10 weird things about me.
  
  1. I only have 1 tonsil
  2. I was born with 6 fused vertebra making up my tailbone which adds stress to that region, and consequently I suffered a ruptured disc in my late teens. After surgical removal of the disk, my 6th and 7th vertebra fused together making it difficult for me to bend over and pick things up. I have to squat down (which is recommended anyway).
  3. When I was in the MTC, I used to translate Elvis Presley songs into French and saranade the Sister Missionaries....yea I know.
  4. My left foot is flat-footed, right is normal.
  5. I have scoliosis between my shoulder blades. You can't even notice this without an x-ray but it does cause one of my shoulders to not sit flat against a wall. Sounds like I have alot of problems, but I don't notice any of them.
  6. I once had poison ivy so bad that I had to take steroids to heal. I was mowing a rental property that my family had just bought. It was about 95 degrees outside and I was wearing shorts. I mowed over a large patch of weeds that turned out to be poison ivy. I'm sure my pores were totally open and exposed since my legs were swollen and purple for over a month.
  7. (Graphic Warning) When I was a teenager, I was hunting with some friends and was walking thru some bushes and tripped. Turns out the bushes were really overgrown barbed wire, and I had cut my arm wide open in 3 spots. Right under the palm of my hand I had a slice wound that hit an artery and squirted blood if I bent my hand back. I also had a puncture wound in the middle of my wrist that just missed an artery. You can see how the scar is just left of the artery. And the 3rd ripped the skin back a size of about a quarter, just like pealing an orange. It didn't bleed at all, but I could see my veins and my tendons moving when I moved my fingers.
  8. The skin rip wound was repaired by cutting away the flap of skin and stretching the skin closed with internal and external stitches. It happened to be next to a freckle which has now stretched with the scar, so I may have the world's only straight line freckle.
  9. The middle 2 toes on both of my feet are webbed.
  10. When I was younger, I could sing base, tenor, alto, and soprano. Unfortunately those days are gone.religion theology
• 

  I've Been Tagged

  Posted: July 18th, 2007, 3:06am EDT by Bishop Rick

  Tags:    [edit]

  We interrupt this study of Jesus comparisons to fulfill the requirements and responsibilities of being tagged. 8 random things about me:
  
  1. I met a relative of mine at a family reunion in Alabama, who was 102 years old (this was in 2000) and who's father fought in the Civil War...on the side of the south for those who wanted to know. As you can imagine, her father was older when she was born, and he died when she was a child. But meeting her gave me a direct link to a civil war vet.
  
  2. My father used to sing in a barbershop quartet in Arkansas. Elvis Presley came to town and his opening act had to cancel at the last minute. My dad's quartet was one of the groups tagged to be a possible replacement opening act, but it didn't happen. They were that (thumb and pointer held closely together) close.
  
  3. I have eaten frog legs...and many other crazy foods.
  
  4. When I was 16, I was in a huge Raft Race on the James River in Virginia. In the middle of the race, the rope holding the barrels and boards together loosened when wet, and our raft fell apart. We all grabbed a barrel ($20 deposit per) and started swimming. Of the 6 of us on the raft, only 2 finished. I was picked up in the middle of the channel by the coast guard so I was not one that got to finish. I was pissed, because I could see the finish line.
  
  5. I have had a gun pointed at my head from 3 feet away, by a guy I went to high school with. 2 years later he went to prison for killing another classmate's father. He was arguing with the driver of the car I was in, but they were arguing thru the passenger window and I was the passenger.
  
  6. I went to a prominently Black high school, so I know what it is like to be a minority...trust me, it is not the best experience.
  
  7. I was a dancer (along with my date) in the audience of a Rock and Roll show being filmed in Utah. It was pretty cool seeing a bunch of 60s and 70s Rock n Roll legends on stage. Each song would take multiple takes and they always told the audience how to react...very interesting and fun.
  
  8. I love peanut butter and banana sandwiches.religion theology
• 

  Who is Jesus? Part II

  Posted: July 3rd, 2007, 10:21am EDT by Bishop Rick

  Tags:    [edit]

  Jesus and Buddha
  
  1. Both Buddha and Jesus were baptized in the presence of the "spirit" of God
  2. Both went to their temples at the age of twelve, where they are said to have astonished all with their wisdom.
  3. Both fasted in solitude for a long time: Buddha for forty--seven days and Jesus for forty.
  4. At the conclusion of their fasts, they both wandered to a fig tree.
  5. Both were about the same age when they began their public ministry:
  Buddha was twenty nine years of age
  Jesus was about thirty years of age
  6. Both were tempted by the "devil" at the beginning of their ministry
  7. Buddha answered the "devil": "Get you away from me.
  Jesus responded: "...be gone, Satan!"
  8. Both experienced the "supernatural" after the "devil" left:
  For Buddha: "The skies rained flowers, and delicious odors prevailed [in] the air."
  For Jesus: "angels came and ministered to him"
  9. The multitudes required a sign from both in order that they might believe.
  10. Both strove to establish a kingdom of heaven on earth.
  11. According to the Somadeva (a Buddhist holy book), a Buddhist ascetic's eye once offended him, so he plucked it out and cast it away.
  Jesus said: "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out, and throw it away;"
  12. "Buddha taught that the motive of all our actions should be pity or love of our neighbor. Jesus taught: "Love thy neighbor as thyself...love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you"
  13. Buddha said: "Hide your good deeds, and confess before the world the sins you have committed."
  Jesus said: "Beware of practicing your piety before men to be seen by them” and "…Therefore confess your sins one to another…”
  14. Both are said to have known the thoughts of others:
  "By directing his mind to the thoughts of others, [Buddha] can know the thoughts of all beings."
  "But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said: `Why do you think evil in your hearts?'"
  15. Both were itinerant preachers with a close group of trustees within a larger group of disciples.
  16. Both preached that their disciples should renounce all worldly possessions.
  17. Both had a disciple who "walked" on water
  18. Both met a woman at a well (remember, so did krishna)
  "One day Ananda, the disciple of Buddha, after a long walk in the country, meets with Matangi, a woman of the low caste of the Kandalas, near a well, and asks her for some water. She tells him what she is, and that she must not come near him. But he replies: `My sister, I ask not for your caste or your family, I ask only for a drought of water.
  "There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her: `Give me a drink.' For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to him: `How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?' For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans"
  19. Both received similar receptions:
  For Buddha, "The people swept the pathway, the gods strewed flowers on the pathway and branches of the coral tree, the men bore branches of all manner of trees, and the Bodhisattva Sumedha spread his garments in the mire, [and] men and gods shouted: `All hail.'"
  "And they brought the colt to Jesus, and threw their garments on it; and he sat on it. And many spread their garments on the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields"
  20. Both had a close figure trying to betray them:
  Buddha – Devadatta (a cousin)
  Jesus – Judas (an apostle)
  21. Both told their disciples to continue the ministry after they were gone and they would be with them always.
  22. When Buddha died: "The coverings of [his] body unrolled themselves, and the lid of his coffin was opened by supernatural powers."
  When Jesus died: the stone blocking the entrance of his tomb was rolled away.
  23. "In the year 217 B.C. Buddhist missionaries were imprisoned for preaching; but an angel, genie or spirit came and opened the prison door, and liberated them."
  "They arrested the apostles (of Jesus) and put them in the common prison. But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out"
  25. Both men's disciples are said to have been miracle workers.religion theology