This is mainly for beekeepers. Many of you are being bombarded with negative messages from the media concerning Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and rampant Varroa infestations. True, these are problems but not everywhere and not to all beekeepers. In fact one of the positive things about it is the increased and noticeable public awareness as to the value of bees particularly in pollination. Just one example, over 80% of the world's almonds are grown in California and the commercial beekeepers migrating their colonies there have been hit severely. This sort of news starts to ring bells even with the most complacent joe-public.
Just as the UK was hit badly by Isle of Wight Disease in the early years of the last century so it will be seen that this too shall pass! Already serious attention is being given ( albeit in far too small numbers) to breeding varroa resistant strains. Some research into CCD is being carried out despite government complacency on both sides of the Atlantic.
What causes CCD? Actually there is no clear answer to this question but there is no doubt it exists. For sure I don't know the answer and I doubt whether any average beekeeper can steal a march on the scientists and find one. To paraphrase the Alcoholics Anonymous prayer - so let's try to change the things we can change.
Let's all look more closely at Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and non-chemical solutions to things like varroa. It seems resistant varroa will always triumph over chemicals unless you kill all the bees at the same time. IPM is not all icing sugar and mesh floors. Educate yourself. Also look up Demeter Beekeeping on the Web - I find it fascinating.
Remember it may be a hard-hearted attitude to see an advantage in other people's misfortune but less beekeepers means more opportunity for those of us who stick to it and work harder at maintaining as healthy stocks as possible. Recently I have seen increases in the price I get for my honey due to a perceived shortage and also heightened realisation from the public as to what exactly they will be missing if the bees die out (or beekeepers simply throw in the towel). At a time when others are preaching doom and gloom and the wimps are running for cover, it's time to expand. Get your head out of your derriere and go out there and spread your beekeeping empire still further. Sorry about this tired old expression but its true -when the going gets tough; the tough get going.
Sue and I now have four allotment sites for apiaries - expanding from two in the spring. We have closed down one country house small apiary due to distance and a pragmatic view on cost-effectiveness. You too can find new sites, we can show you how just talk to us.
More about this soon!!
Apianus
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
Monday, 22 September 2008
Saint Sue lands on Planet Addiscombe
Been a bit busy lately and very enjoyably so. Sue's Aunt Sue arrived for an 11 day stay last week. She is a real treasure - an American lady with a great sense of humour and a very gentle attitude to life.
Sue and I have been showing Aunt Sue the sights. Aunt Sue's nickname in the family, "Saint Sue," comes about because she is very religious and has a genuinely saintly demeanour. This is charming but can occasionally cause problems if like me one allows the occasional expletive to emerge unchecked from one's lips in the odd unguarded moment of frustration. However so far I have not completely blotted the Apianus copybook. To avoid complication I will refer to Saint Sue as Saint Sue and the younger unsaintly Sue as Sue-chan.
I've discovered that Saint Sue is the roving ambassador from the Republic of Essex Junction, Vermont. She is great at making friends wherever she goes and rarely has a bad word to say about anybody. She sometimes wanders off and all you have to do is look for a smiling face or two where she will be spreading the ambassadorial good will. In a moment of quizzical curiosity Suechan asked her if she actually loathed anybody and she said "no" as if the word had never occurred to her.
I was greatly amused in Bath Cathedral when she "visited with" (ie. got talking to) a lady chaplain. Standing some distance away I murmured to Suechan that she was probably trying to convert the good chaplain to Catholicism.
At Stonehenge Saint Sue "did" the rock-pile whilst Suechan and I stood like East Berliners outside behind a chain-link fence both being too tight-fisted to pay the admission charge. As Saint Sue wafted past us on a narrow pathway I offered to take her photograph against the backdrop of the henge for which I would only charge her five dollars. She replied that she had "visited with" a Canadian couple (naturally) and they had already taken her photo with her camera - and had also wanted five dollars.
We have had a lot of fun and I will be genuinely sorry when Saturday comes and we have to take her back to Heathrow for her ascent.
None of the above is an excuse for the fact that we have been rather lazy with our allotment plots in the last few weeks and we will have to really knuckle down to some hard work. One of our numerous empty excuses is that we have been waiting for both of us to get our scythes and find out how to work them.
So the two Sues and I went to South Petherton in Somerset after staying one night at a B&B in Glastonbury. The Scythe Shop is in a converted potato store on a farm and is run by Simon who is a gentle, rather absent-minded man with a life subscription to Oxfam's clothing club. He was the man who taught me in Brighton. He provided Suechan with a scythe and a short instruction session. She was just as delighted as I was with sheer peacefulness and satifaction of using the scythe and since then can't wait to come round and scythe your lawn for you. Simon stated his crusading intention to convert the whole of London to scything and consign a million lawnmowers to the great horticutural scrap-heap destined to bury some unattractive eyesore like, for example, the current occupant of no 10 Downing Street.
I could see Suechan's eyes glaze over at the thought and wait with considerable curiosity to find out just when she will single-handedly bring about the re-structuring of Croydon and Bromley in the said crusade. This year Penge - next year, who knows, Washington DC?
Apianus
Sue and I have been showing Aunt Sue the sights. Aunt Sue's nickname in the family, "Saint Sue," comes about because she is very religious and has a genuinely saintly demeanour. This is charming but can occasionally cause problems if like me one allows the occasional expletive to emerge unchecked from one's lips in the odd unguarded moment of frustration. However so far I have not completely blotted the Apianus copybook. To avoid complication I will refer to Saint Sue as Saint Sue and the younger unsaintly Sue as Sue-chan.
I've discovered that Saint Sue is the roving ambassador from the Republic of Essex Junction, Vermont. She is great at making friends wherever she goes and rarely has a bad word to say about anybody. She sometimes wanders off and all you have to do is look for a smiling face or two where she will be spreading the ambassadorial good will. In a moment of quizzical curiosity Suechan asked her if she actually loathed anybody and she said "no" as if the word had never occurred to her.
I was greatly amused in Bath Cathedral when she "visited with" (ie. got talking to) a lady chaplain. Standing some distance away I murmured to Suechan that she was probably trying to convert the good chaplain to Catholicism.
At Stonehenge Saint Sue "did" the rock-pile whilst Suechan and I stood like East Berliners outside behind a chain-link fence both being too tight-fisted to pay the admission charge. As Saint Sue wafted past us on a narrow pathway I offered to take her photograph against the backdrop of the henge for which I would only charge her five dollars. She replied that she had "visited with" a Canadian couple (naturally) and they had already taken her photo with her camera - and had also wanted five dollars.
We have had a lot of fun and I will be genuinely sorry when Saturday comes and we have to take her back to Heathrow for her ascent.
None of the above is an excuse for the fact that we have been rather lazy with our allotment plots in the last few weeks and we will have to really knuckle down to some hard work. One of our numerous empty excuses is that we have been waiting for both of us to get our scythes and find out how to work them.
So the two Sues and I went to South Petherton in Somerset after staying one night at a B&B in Glastonbury. The Scythe Shop is in a converted potato store on a farm and is run by Simon who is a gentle, rather absent-minded man with a life subscription to Oxfam's clothing club. He was the man who taught me in Brighton. He provided Suechan with a scythe and a short instruction session. She was just as delighted as I was with sheer peacefulness and satifaction of using the scythe and since then can't wait to come round and scythe your lawn for you. Simon stated his crusading intention to convert the whole of London to scything and consign a million lawnmowers to the great horticutural scrap-heap destined to bury some unattractive eyesore like, for example, the current occupant of no 10 Downing Street.
I could see Suechan's eyes glaze over at the thought and wait with considerable curiosity to find out just when she will single-handedly bring about the re-structuring of Croydon and Bromley in the said crusade. This year Penge - next year, who knows, Washington DC?
Apianus
Tuesday, 9 September 2008
So Beans'n'beans, what's that?
We are beekeepers and we are particularly conscious of current problems with bees world-wide. We think that spreading the word about the almost irreplaceable function of honeybees as well as bumblebees and other insects in pollinating crops is essential because of serious lack of concern (through lack of information) by the world at large. So that's one thing we do.
One way to improve the situation - if only slightly - is to get more people and particularly younger people to keep honeybees. This is why we decided to start a beekeeping school. If we can get a few people seriously into beekeeping after each Course we will be more than pleased. We are also able to offer information visits to schools and organisations to talk about beekeeping and also to talk about the decline in the bumblebee population and what people can do to help.
The beans part revolves around our other interests which include horticulture and particularly fruit trees - you could say "born to prune" is Sue's motto. She can't pass an apple tree without mentally giving it the once over and deciding what she could do to help it. We have succesfully given the kiss of life to one neglected orchard this summer and we are improving our knowledge all the time. Planned learning opportunities include two courses we are more or less committed to attend - Advanced Pruning ( Blackmoor Nurseries in December) and Renovating Old Fruit Trees (Brighton Permaculture Trust in January.) We have already done some courses on grafting fruit trees and basic pruning techniques.
We are lined up to get scythes and I am attending a course on Saturday this week in Brighton to teach me how to use one. This will have a number of benefits. Firstly in this time of huge hikes in fuel prices it will save us money on strimmer and mower petrol, secondly when we are "strimming and mowing" around the beehives, we should now be able to do this without having to dress up to the nines in cumbersome bee-suits and thirdly it's fun and it's healthy. I'll let you know in a few days how the course turns out.
Its apple harvest time right now and we have literally dozens of apple and pear trees. We need to gather these in and dry them or juice them or simply store them correctly. All of which I'll pass on to you in due course.
Apianus
One way to improve the situation - if only slightly - is to get more people and particularly younger people to keep honeybees. This is why we decided to start a beekeeping school. If we can get a few people seriously into beekeeping after each Course we will be more than pleased. We are also able to offer information visits to schools and organisations to talk about beekeeping and also to talk about the decline in the bumblebee population and what people can do to help.
The beans part revolves around our other interests which include horticulture and particularly fruit trees - you could say "born to prune" is Sue's motto. She can't pass an apple tree without mentally giving it the once over and deciding what she could do to help it. We have succesfully given the kiss of life to one neglected orchard this summer and we are improving our knowledge all the time. Planned learning opportunities include two courses we are more or less committed to attend - Advanced Pruning ( Blackmoor Nurseries in December) and Renovating Old Fruit Trees (Brighton Permaculture Trust in January.) We have already done some courses on grafting fruit trees and basic pruning techniques.
We are lined up to get scythes and I am attending a course on Saturday this week in Brighton to teach me how to use one. This will have a number of benefits. Firstly in this time of huge hikes in fuel prices it will save us money on strimmer and mower petrol, secondly when we are "strimming and mowing" around the beehives, we should now be able to do this without having to dress up to the nines in cumbersome bee-suits and thirdly it's fun and it's healthy. I'll let you know in a few days how the course turns out.
Its apple harvest time right now and we have literally dozens of apple and pear trees. We need to gather these in and dry them or juice them or simply store them correctly. All of which I'll pass on to you in due course.
Apianus
Responsibility and God
Meaning of Non-Dualism:
“Non-Dualism is the orientation that there is one absolute reality without a second, and that each of us, although an individual person, is one with that reality, just as a wave is not separate from the ocean”. (Centre for Non-Dualism.)
Yeah, well, that’s California for yer. But what if there is something in this that you don’t have to give all your money to and wear a flimsy white bed-sheet and eat nothing but lentils?
In a sense, if you apply this concept to “religion” you believe there is no separation of yourself from God (don’t worry if you don’t believe in God – in spite of what “religion” tells you HE doesn’t care whether you believe in HER or not – but it suppose it’s just as well IT believes in you.) This leads to some interesting thoughts. Christianity, for example, is a dualist belief, since it envisions God (the Trinity or otherwise) as being a separate entity from the individual. Therefore things like the concept of Original Sin are valid since God is free of sin and we are not. But if you believe that you are inseparable from God than you cannot sin because God cannot sin – ditch the Original Sin; ditch the guilt. That’s quite a shift, isn’t it? I truly believe there is no such thing as Original Sin, it’s just a scam devised by the religious elite/priesthood to keep you in your place and keep them in the sweet lifestyle which is the real reason they joined. Moses must have had a wicked golf handicap.
Non-dualism can be expressed as a philosophy more than a religion. It is similar to a religion because it is a belief; it is not knowledge, i.e. nobody knows whether it is true or not. On the other hand non-dualism does not insist on a narrow interpretation of the word God; it could also be expressed in many other ways as the Universe, Love, The One, The Divine and so forth. All that the prophets, sages and mystics have received are flashes of Truth emanating from their own Spirits. Sometimes their “revelation” is perfect as received; sometimes their Ego has distorted it. Sometimes other people e.g the seven Councils of Nicaea filtered out whatever made THEIR Egos feel uncomfortable, e.g. the Gospel of St Thomas, their descendants reinforcing THEIR Egos by inspiring persecutions like the Albigensian Crusade and the Inquisition.
Ho’oponopono, the Hawaiian teaching says that we are inseparable from “Divinity” and that as part of Divinity we are the Creator. Therefore we are responsible for the world around us and if it (they, that insane person, that car, that President) needs healing it is within OURSELVES we should focus the problem. Sounds a bit whacky? Okay here is a documented case to get your head round.
Dr Ihaleakala Hew Len is a psychologist. He went to a mental hospital and over a period of time healed so many patients they closed down the “insane” wing. Think about that for a few moments because it is a bigger deal than just a few words on this sheet of paper/blog/whatever. It cannot be faked; it really happened – therefore we KNOW rather than BELIEVE something is going on here. What is more Dr Hew Len did not see one single patient face to face. The hospital had a savagely bad reputation, it had huge staff problems – those who did actually stay there for more than a short time had a high level of absenteeism and lived in dread of going to work. Physical attacks were frequent and one member of staff described walking with his back against the wall every time he entered the ward.
What the Doctor did was to read each patient’s file and then go deep inside his own sub-conscious and HEAL HIMSELF because he believed through Ho’oponopono that HE was responsible for the world around him and that the problem was with HIM. It worked, whackos walked, ward went out of business.
Another non-dual system or philosophy is “A Course In Miracles” (ACIM). It is a system which holds that we have never become separated from God; we have simply formed a belief that we are separated. We are essentially Spirit in a body which has no meaning except as a tool for learning lessons based on our mistakes in the so-called past (there is no past; it is simply a perception to explain the present). Those mistakes lead to “action replays” where the same problems keep coming back – in somewhat different forms mostly. I’m sure you’ve muttered ‘not again!’ or had a feeling you had been there before. ACIM postulates that we have a chance to deal with them so that they do not recur. If successful, this leads to a concept of collapsing time; that is to say it cuts out the continual repetition of the problem, it brings realisation that there is only the Now and shortens the process whereby we can recognise and full accept our unity with the Divine. It also leads to the interesting conclusion that there is no death, simply that the Spirit, which is invulnerable, moves on and no longer needs the body. I have long believed from personal experience that the body does not control the mind therefore the mind does control the body. This is particularly useful in dealing with personal health. The healing power of the mind itself is so unbelievable, i.e illogical – i.e. denied by the Ego - that we needed to invent drugs. Then somebody observed, probably by accident, that patients healed when a mistake was made in medication and the patient was healed despite the treatment being wholly ineffectual.
Instead of accepting this and denying the Ego, this led to the idea of placebos. It is not weakness of mind that allows the placebo effect, because even though your Spirit may not always be able to get through the clutter in your mind to tell you this, your Spirit KNOWS it is a placebo. Placebos are only a reminder that it is your mind (Spirit) that is healing your body. How else can you explain that they work if your inner consciousness KNOWS they don’t? Your true inner mind, your Spirit, cannot be fooled by the world outside because it/you created that world, so it knows about the placebo and therefore the illness should not be affected by it.
You may ask why I am spending so much time talking about placebos but you need to ask yourself this question. If placebos (i.e devices that have absolutely no “drugs” in them) can have the same effect as a so-called proven drug treatment then obviously nobody really needs the drug! Simple? Why would that not work? Because the Ego is telling you that hundreds of brilliant chemists and scientists and millions of pounds/dollars have been spent on vital research into an effective drug, therefore the drug heals. WRONG! The drug is not healing you at all. It suits the Ego at that point for you to BELIEVE the drug is healing you but if it did not suit the Ego the drug would NOT heal you. Hey! Drugs don’t work every time – not exactly Breaking News, hmm? See how dangerous the damned Ego is?
Can you imagine the power this gives you over sickness if only you could stop your Ego from being a Doubting Thomas? Can you imagine how wonderful it would be to take away all fear of death itself if only you could stop your Ego from convincing you it is the end of all things? Most Religion is a palliative answer. It says only believe in God, the guy with the white beard, and the world to come and your death will seem like the beginning of another adventure when you JOIN God?
Actually there is no death and God has never been separated from you (your Spirit)! Geddit? Forget death, it is irrelevant because the body is irrelevant. The Spirit cannot die – it is only the Ego that wants you to believe in death – THE EGO WANTS YOU DEAD to prove it is right!! It’s like a bloody virus, folks. It wants to kill you even if it dies itself. Grasp that one simple concept and truly grasp it and you will never fear death again. I accept that even if you urn out to be the holder of the Guinness Book of Records entry for longevity you will be parted from your body one day, that is not death and your Spirit knows it. Go on, I dare you to tell your Ego to go screw itself.
The fact is that denying the Ego is probably the one greatest challenge we have. The process starts with Forgiveness. The process is not about forgiving others because YOU are responsible for the world you/your Ego has created. Forgiveness starts and ends in you. Now that really is a problem getting your head around, isn’t it? Read that sentence again. Some b*stard is giving you a hard time and you have to forgive you? Yup, that’s what I said. It took me a long time to get MY head round that becuase the Ego kept telling me 'this is too hard, don't bother with it, have another beer.'
Flash back to Dr Hew Len – he “cured” the patients by forgiving himself. Actually what he did was to focus the following words into a tool to connect with an inner space in his mind – ‘I love you, I am sorry, please forgive me, thank you.’ This “cancelled out” (sorry to keep putting quote marks around things but language is particularly inadequate is describing these ideas) all past thoughts/guilt and brought about a state he calls Zero Limits, i.e. no limits on the mind’s power. Still sounds like mumbo-jumbo? Yes, I too almost threw the book across the room when I read it but the nagging thought kept coming back to me – just a minute, what about all those raving nutters he healed without even seeing them? Mental note : Forgive me, shouldn't have said 'raving.'
At this point you are probably thinking one of three things. (a) this guy Apianus is on something (b) this guy Apianus is onto something or (c) this guy Apianus is an utter pillock. Well I’m on LIFE which is cheaper than weed and much more fun, I’m onto the fact that Ego is sneering at my attempts to beat it and if I am a pillock, why are you still reading this – unless you are just as big a pillock as you think I am?
My honest belief is that for almost all my life my head was stuck in a pile of manure with occasion glimmers of light seeping through. I don’t believe I have been given some Divine revelation like some latter day saint (oops, did I just say that?)just that my Spirit is managing to overcome my Ego’s attempts to keep me in the dark. My life is all a learning experience and it will be until the day I make my Transition and probably beyond and for that I’m grateful. It doesn’t take away the fact that now that I am in a state of radically different belief I can’t believe how successful Ego has been in keeping my inner eye closed all these years. The film “The Matrix” comes to mind as a scary parallel to reality. What if the Machine (Computer) ie the Ego has been keeping all of us occupied whilst it rapes our Spirit?
If you want know more about ACIM look it up on the web. It is NOT a cult or a California whacko-fest and they are not after all your money – neither concept of cult or cash has any meaning.
AND ...I don’t expect you to run out into the street and start waving your arms and shouting that everybody must conquer the Ego until the big white van with the pretty blue lights draws up and they cart you off. All I ask is that you take a sneaky look at the way Ego is telling you that I am talking crap and then think about all those lucky people who had Dr Hew Len as their healer. Yeah? Hmm? Bye-bye for now.
“Non-Dualism is the orientation that there is one absolute reality without a second, and that each of us, although an individual person, is one with that reality, just as a wave is not separate from the ocean”. (Centre for Non-Dualism.)
Yeah, well, that’s California for yer. But what if there is something in this that you don’t have to give all your money to and wear a flimsy white bed-sheet and eat nothing but lentils?
In a sense, if you apply this concept to “religion” you believe there is no separation of yourself from God (don’t worry if you don’t believe in God – in spite of what “religion” tells you HE doesn’t care whether you believe in HER or not – but it suppose it’s just as well IT believes in you.) This leads to some interesting thoughts. Christianity, for example, is a dualist belief, since it envisions God (the Trinity or otherwise) as being a separate entity from the individual. Therefore things like the concept of Original Sin are valid since God is free of sin and we are not. But if you believe that you are inseparable from God than you cannot sin because God cannot sin – ditch the Original Sin; ditch the guilt. That’s quite a shift, isn’t it? I truly believe there is no such thing as Original Sin, it’s just a scam devised by the religious elite/priesthood to keep you in your place and keep them in the sweet lifestyle which is the real reason they joined. Moses must have had a wicked golf handicap.
Non-dualism can be expressed as a philosophy more than a religion. It is similar to a religion because it is a belief; it is not knowledge, i.e. nobody knows whether it is true or not. On the other hand non-dualism does not insist on a narrow interpretation of the word God; it could also be expressed in many other ways as the Universe, Love, The One, The Divine and so forth. All that the prophets, sages and mystics have received are flashes of Truth emanating from their own Spirits. Sometimes their “revelation” is perfect as received; sometimes their Ego has distorted it. Sometimes other people e.g the seven Councils of Nicaea filtered out whatever made THEIR Egos feel uncomfortable, e.g. the Gospel of St Thomas, their descendants reinforcing THEIR Egos by inspiring persecutions like the Albigensian Crusade and the Inquisition.
Ho’oponopono, the Hawaiian teaching says that we are inseparable from “Divinity” and that as part of Divinity we are the Creator. Therefore we are responsible for the world around us and if it (they, that insane person, that car, that President) needs healing it is within OURSELVES we should focus the problem. Sounds a bit whacky? Okay here is a documented case to get your head round.
Dr Ihaleakala Hew Len is a psychologist. He went to a mental hospital and over a period of time healed so many patients they closed down the “insane” wing. Think about that for a few moments because it is a bigger deal than just a few words on this sheet of paper/blog/whatever. It cannot be faked; it really happened – therefore we KNOW rather than BELIEVE something is going on here. What is more Dr Hew Len did not see one single patient face to face. The hospital had a savagely bad reputation, it had huge staff problems – those who did actually stay there for more than a short time had a high level of absenteeism and lived in dread of going to work. Physical attacks were frequent and one member of staff described walking with his back against the wall every time he entered the ward.
What the Doctor did was to read each patient’s file and then go deep inside his own sub-conscious and HEAL HIMSELF because he believed through Ho’oponopono that HE was responsible for the world around him and that the problem was with HIM. It worked, whackos walked, ward went out of business.
Another non-dual system or philosophy is “A Course In Miracles” (ACIM). It is a system which holds that we have never become separated from God; we have simply formed a belief that we are separated. We are essentially Spirit in a body which has no meaning except as a tool for learning lessons based on our mistakes in the so-called past (there is no past; it is simply a perception to explain the present). Those mistakes lead to “action replays” where the same problems keep coming back – in somewhat different forms mostly. I’m sure you’ve muttered ‘not again!’ or had a feeling you had been there before. ACIM postulates that we have a chance to deal with them so that they do not recur. If successful, this leads to a concept of collapsing time; that is to say it cuts out the continual repetition of the problem, it brings realisation that there is only the Now and shortens the process whereby we can recognise and full accept our unity with the Divine. It also leads to the interesting conclusion that there is no death, simply that the Spirit, which is invulnerable, moves on and no longer needs the body. I have long believed from personal experience that the body does not control the mind therefore the mind does control the body. This is particularly useful in dealing with personal health. The healing power of the mind itself is so unbelievable, i.e illogical – i.e. denied by the Ego - that we needed to invent drugs. Then somebody observed, probably by accident, that patients healed when a mistake was made in medication and the patient was healed despite the treatment being wholly ineffectual.
Instead of accepting this and denying the Ego, this led to the idea of placebos. It is not weakness of mind that allows the placebo effect, because even though your Spirit may not always be able to get through the clutter in your mind to tell you this, your Spirit KNOWS it is a placebo. Placebos are only a reminder that it is your mind (Spirit) that is healing your body. How else can you explain that they work if your inner consciousness KNOWS they don’t? Your true inner mind, your Spirit, cannot be fooled by the world outside because it/you created that world, so it knows about the placebo and therefore the illness should not be affected by it.
You may ask why I am spending so much time talking about placebos but you need to ask yourself this question. If placebos (i.e devices that have absolutely no “drugs” in them) can have the same effect as a so-called proven drug treatment then obviously nobody really needs the drug! Simple? Why would that not work? Because the Ego is telling you that hundreds of brilliant chemists and scientists and millions of pounds/dollars have been spent on vital research into an effective drug, therefore the drug heals. WRONG! The drug is not healing you at all. It suits the Ego at that point for you to BELIEVE the drug is healing you but if it did not suit the Ego the drug would NOT heal you. Hey! Drugs don’t work every time – not exactly Breaking News, hmm? See how dangerous the damned Ego is?
Can you imagine the power this gives you over sickness if only you could stop your Ego from being a Doubting Thomas? Can you imagine how wonderful it would be to take away all fear of death itself if only you could stop your Ego from convincing you it is the end of all things? Most Religion is a palliative answer. It says only believe in God, the guy with the white beard, and the world to come and your death will seem like the beginning of another adventure when you JOIN God?
Actually there is no death and God has never been separated from you (your Spirit)! Geddit? Forget death, it is irrelevant because the body is irrelevant. The Spirit cannot die – it is only the Ego that wants you to believe in death – THE EGO WANTS YOU DEAD to prove it is right!! It’s like a bloody virus, folks. It wants to kill you even if it dies itself. Grasp that one simple concept and truly grasp it and you will never fear death again. I accept that even if you urn out to be the holder of the Guinness Book of Records entry for longevity you will be parted from your body one day, that is not death and your Spirit knows it. Go on, I dare you to tell your Ego to go screw itself.
The fact is that denying the Ego is probably the one greatest challenge we have. The process starts with Forgiveness. The process is not about forgiving others because YOU are responsible for the world you/your Ego has created. Forgiveness starts and ends in you. Now that really is a problem getting your head around, isn’t it? Read that sentence again. Some b*stard is giving you a hard time and you have to forgive you? Yup, that’s what I said. It took me a long time to get MY head round that becuase the Ego kept telling me 'this is too hard, don't bother with it, have another beer.'
Flash back to Dr Hew Len – he “cured” the patients by forgiving himself. Actually what he did was to focus the following words into a tool to connect with an inner space in his mind – ‘I love you, I am sorry, please forgive me, thank you.’ This “cancelled out” (sorry to keep putting quote marks around things but language is particularly inadequate is describing these ideas) all past thoughts/guilt and brought about a state he calls Zero Limits, i.e. no limits on the mind’s power. Still sounds like mumbo-jumbo? Yes, I too almost threw the book across the room when I read it but the nagging thought kept coming back to me – just a minute, what about all those raving nutters he healed without even seeing them? Mental note : Forgive me, shouldn't have said 'raving.'
At this point you are probably thinking one of three things. (a) this guy Apianus is on something (b) this guy Apianus is onto something or (c) this guy Apianus is an utter pillock. Well I’m on LIFE which is cheaper than weed and much more fun, I’m onto the fact that Ego is sneering at my attempts to beat it and if I am a pillock, why are you still reading this – unless you are just as big a pillock as you think I am?
My honest belief is that for almost all my life my head was stuck in a pile of manure with occasion glimmers of light seeping through. I don’t believe I have been given some Divine revelation like some latter day saint (oops, did I just say that?)just that my Spirit is managing to overcome my Ego’s attempts to keep me in the dark. My life is all a learning experience and it will be until the day I make my Transition and probably beyond and for that I’m grateful. It doesn’t take away the fact that now that I am in a state of radically different belief I can’t believe how successful Ego has been in keeping my inner eye closed all these years. The film “The Matrix” comes to mind as a scary parallel to reality. What if the Machine (Computer) ie the Ego has been keeping all of us occupied whilst it rapes our Spirit?
If you want know more about ACIM look it up on the web. It is NOT a cult or a California whacko-fest and they are not after all your money – neither concept of cult or cash has any meaning.
AND ...I don’t expect you to run out into the street and start waving your arms and shouting that everybody must conquer the Ego until the big white van with the pretty blue lights draws up and they cart you off. All I ask is that you take a sneaky look at the way Ego is telling you that I am talking crap and then think about all those lucky people who had Dr Hew Len as their healer. Yeah? Hmm? Bye-bye for now.
Sunday, 7 September 2008
First Day of Blogging
Here we are....it's a Sunday morning and it's raining for the nth day. Here is the beginning of our blog for bees'n'beans. We are Sue and Mike and amongst other things we are beekeepers. We are also into allotment gardening, fruit tree and orchard renovation, grafting, scything, earth ovens, chickens and stuff like that.
Mike is in the first throes of retiring and wants to spend lots of time beekeeping. He's also putting the final touches on a book about frugal living and steering towards self-sufficiency in the city. Sue is an artist and is into mosaics and painting; her latest projects include hand-painted designer t-shirts.
Things are building up into a new life-pattern for us which includes a beekeeping school for people who want to take a straight-forward course to give them essential knowledge. We will be running a basic course in the spring and if you are interested, get back to us for more info. We are also working on a number of other bee projects including a half-day intro session and an intensive course designed for a group.
Bees'n'beans can be contacted at beesnbeans@yahoo.co.uk .We are in South London (Croydon) and n case you are wondering - apianus has nothing to do with Mike's posterior, it means "lover of bees."
apianus
Mike is in the first throes of retiring and wants to spend lots of time beekeeping. He's also putting the final touches on a book about frugal living and steering towards self-sufficiency in the city. Sue is an artist and is into mosaics and painting; her latest projects include hand-painted designer t-shirts.
Things are building up into a new life-pattern for us which includes a beekeeping school for people who want to take a straight-forward course to give them essential knowledge. We will be running a basic course in the spring and if you are interested, get back to us for more info. We are also working on a number of other bee projects including a half-day intro session and an intensive course designed for a group.
Bees'n'beans can be contacted at beesnbeans@yahoo.co.uk .We are in South London (Croydon) and n case you are wondering - apianus has nothing to do with Mike's posterior, it means "lover of bees."
apianus
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