Two years ago I was in Berlin to attend the bi-annual familiy reunion appropiately held in this, my ancestors' town. Here and then I departed on the venture The Dates and Numbers of Humanity , which later, on account of readers' reactions, received the sub-title Or The Kingdom In You and, which, not long after was followed by the text Angry with Israel. Why? And, Who Pleases Him Today?
There and at this time I began with a visit to the Kulturkaufhaus. But read for your self...
christine sander
the dates and numbers of humanity
or the kingdom. in you.
preface
when I returned to europe after fourteen years in u.s.a., i, for all practical purposes, forgot all i had experienced in the american born-again movement.
much like with the horses, which, while i was in america moved into the background of my mind and, back in europe, again soon fully occupied me, any thoughts of church or christian movements vanished.
it was not until some fourteen years later, this time not acting on affect as when getting involved again with horses, but on a voice inside of me, i felt compelled to return to questions of faith.
to be more precise, after years of mostly horses, intersperced with three semesters of economic history and one semester business administration, I began again to apply myself to questions of faith. this time not in the personal context of how to believe or in the context of church history, but in the context of global economy and the modern world.
the outline for the following paper i somewhat hesitantly put on paper during one of the many mornings devoted to my research of equine biomechanics. a project i enthusiastically embarked on in the fall of 2001.
was it the result of my first little, as yet waivering step of obedience? in his grace the subsequent summer 2004 developed into a year of extraordinary personal restitution, of cheerful emotional turmoil, a year to learn and grow. a time during which the foundations for equine design (2005) was laid.
by the time fall arrived, however, the call to start work on my new project was loud and clear. and so i began, unprepared, for obviously, a research into the physical foundations of riding does not exactly provide information on global economic developments.
the results. please see yourself.
this paper represents a rapid research into my mind, assisted by you know who, as concerns the history of humanity. which, contrary to common believe, is fully structured and 'knowable', if one can accept the fact of a creator.
this fact became more obvious yet in the follow-up paper 'angry with israel. why? and who pleases him today', which holds bits and pieces of information, to answer the thirty-six questions raised in this paper.
both papers provide an intellectual basis, from which to proceed to renewal.
introduction
leaving the hotel, stepping into the air of berlin. a hint of sea, of sand, of fir trees. most of all, however, asphalt, exhausts – smells of the city. encompassed by the routines of urban dwelling. flat. labor-some. human. only the brief thought of one who loves me leaves a spark.
what is missing? access to the internet does not substitute the awareness of migrating birds. rolling tires not the sound of my feet walking in the sand. the noises of the city not the rustling of the wind as it passes through the trees. the murmur of water, the snarling, squeeking, crawling of creation.
and yet, here today are the dates and facts that i need to understand this world. its past and present. the things i want to know.
how do i close the gap between the god-made me, my body, as it is and what it tells me, and this man-made world? a world in which nature and culture no longer meet. ruled by technology without apparent purpose, goal or sense.
here now, in the city of my forefathers, i begin my research of humanity. its parameters are simple. on one hand: how did this world start? how many years ago? with how many people? what was their make?
on the other hand: how is this world today? what happened. what is the prognosis. in numbers. in physiological facts. each man unavoidably moving between arrival and departure in this, it can always only be his world.
what do i expect from this research? what do i want to achieve? information on the creator’s intentions. orientation. proper conclusions.
man, made to master this world: should not the information this research searches be at his fingertips at all times?
i. antiquity
a.1. no danger-free zone
first the placement of an order. a book on world population (isbn 3-89691-582-7). “most likely nothing exists in writing. possibly at the .statisches bundesamt. or the cd-rom .länder der welt....the microsoft world enzyclopedia, maybe”.
then, in rudolf augstein, jesus menschensohn (jesus, son of man, history of receptions and reactions...), page 426... 'which forces... created a symbolic figure of the dimensions of jesus christ (i add: first name jesus, like james or dave, title christus, like saviour)... are these sources depleted today?...in response to which needs did the gigantic epics of jewish and christian scripture develop?'
good introduction, i think, for my point of departure. not the participation in modern theological discourse, coming to terms without actuality, in a supposedly danger-free zone, is the purpose of this research. no, taking the creator by his word, wanting to know what’s up and how it came about. this will not be possible without numbers and dates, statistics.
a.2. the origin of distrust
no – i did not ask myself, are these questions proposterous? my walk with him started like this: with a direct approach. 'lord, if you exist, you will succeed to let me know'. the answer was not long. his reassurance ended a search.
why should humanity not know its beginnings? in dates and numbers. why in fact was the continuity of this knowledge broken?
doing a study in lawrence o. richard's, the word bible handbook i took the following notes.
'adam and eve (created in the image and likeness of god) were not content. tempted by god's enemy they chose disobidience. they were not smart enough to take god's warning (...you will die...) for real.
the result. previously unknown feelings (guilt and shame) shown in hiding, being afraid of god, accusing each other. all three the practical signs of having departed from love'.
there are but small steps from breaking the bonds of love, to covering up, to dishonesty, to the habit of withholding information. when they happen, then, what happens to honesty, fairness, sincerity, genuineness, openness and frankness?
tolerance, understanding, acceptance, respect, restraint. at best. there is a difference between the immediacy of love and systems of getting along.
a.3. a world ruled by markets
next gehrke. yet another author who does not afford history a beginning. at least a few early dates are mentioned. 8.000 b.c.: domestication, growing population density (!?), conflicts. 4.000 b.c.: clima changes. 3.000 b.c.: sumerian records speak of the development of human know-how and technical skill.
then schmoeckel. renumerates the fact, that europe and much of asia originally spoke one language, the language of the kurgans, a people living in the central asian prairies at around 4.500 b.c.. that, when the kurgans in four large moves distributed themselves all over europe they found people already living there.
in his introduction the author relates that contemporary knowledge of early human history can be likened to a few flashes of light in a vast ocean of darkness.
enough for now. i order a book about the sumerians and enlist for a new title. brief preview of three further titles (genetic studies, prayer/brain and gender studies) and then a break.
at glenfield's, kitty corner to the kultur-kaufhaus, merino sweaters in beautiful colors are, due to pending renovations, marked down to half price. that is how i will be seen in the upcoming winter season: in merino sweaters. nutrients for my shoulder-length almost white hair and then, sipping ‘cafe latte’, i begin to read emma brunner-traut, die fünf großen weltreligionen (the five great religions of the world). what a pleasure: the book, coffee and berlin, all in one.
a.4. world religions and declarations of faith
judaism, christianity, islam, hinduism, buddhism. a first check leads me to the statement: christianity, at its core, is about love. i am looking forward to the author‘s argumentation of this point.
i get to know that hinduism is the religion of the indian subcontinent. named by its islamic neighbors. that it cannot be characterised by one single word.
humanism and communism, as declarations of faith, as well as confucianism and taoism, as further religions, are not dealt with. none-the-less this books strikes me as trustworthy. fair and intelligently done. it will occupy me.
a.5. hellenistic and christian thought
noteworthy: yesterday, reading in a standard volumn about luther i rediscovered melanchton. the fact that, with a change in thinking about christian faith (not as the leadership of the church, no, as the freedom of the individual being the message at its core), antiquity returned.
question 1. who is able to inform on the development of universities in reaction to luther’s reformation and melanchton’s work in the then western world: germany, england and france.
the german bishop walter kasper speaks in his contribution to brunner-traut of the synthesis of hellenistic thought and the message of jesus of nazareth in the early christian church.
viewing an exhibition of greek antiquity at the gropiusbau in berlin winter 2002, just at the time my research into the physiology of horse and rider (its parameter: is the horse made for riding ?) began, i saw depictions of riders, which gave a first hint of completely different approaches to riding than those commonly used today.
my question (is the horse made for riding?) was directed towards the christian creator. i ended up with greek sources!?
such cultural correlation i had not been able to make during a brief excursion of theological studies in washington d.c (a laborsome, discouraging task). there were, in the seminar library, no greek sources or any hints referring to them. reason or the result of a general loss of knowledge: the drawers of its modern distribution? sufficient reason for me, to end these studies.
at dinner the enjoyment of declared friendship, the sense of security it provides. good food and a glas of riesling at an italian restaurant in kreuzberg.
a.6. from adam to noah
i remember the day, after leaving my theological studies, when, sitting, in search of truth in the corner of a cheap small velvet sofa by the front door of our suburban washington home, i discovered a set of concrete dates and numbers in the christian bible (genesis 5).
like a lightning a thought, which was quickly implemented. i marvel at the preparation of these data for adding. it was not difficult to find out, that according to these dates 1.056 years elapsed between the creation of adam and the birth of noah.
could this information be truth? could it possibly be taken literally. was the obvious question.
a.7. from noah to christ
the new testament provides further chronologies which supply information on a time frame of human history. one is the geneology from noah’s son sem to abraham (luke 3:23ff). another the three times fourteen generations from abraham to jesus (matthew 1:1-17).
how many years do i estimate for one generation to turn these dates into numbers?
if i count an average of 50 years per generation, the ten generations from sem to abraham amount to 500 years. the fourty-two generations from abraham to jesus to 2.100 years. when i add 1.056 i arrive at 3.656 plus the time that elapsed from the birth of noah to the birth of his son sem (i estimate 50 years). i thus arrive at 3.705 b.ch. as a date of adam's creation.
this number provides a time frame. question: how does it relate to other presently known dates and numbers of humanity?
back home i continue to work on my husband's labtop. sitting at the kitchen table of our norman home. the sound of wind as it passes the open window and pushes the burgundy curtain which replaces a door. all is calm. i hear a horse in the stable, calling.
it will be a challenge to do the anatomical alphabet and dates and numbers of humanity simultaniously. there is but one creator. he knows why.
at ten o’clock in the morning i feel my blood pressure rise. why? my request is to be a kid with a father.
a.8. archeological means and methods
the other day, still in berlin, i read alexander v. humboldt's quote, '...danger... to become the care taker of my own research. after all i want to go further, do different things...'. i can only agree. don’t neglegt to finish, though!
marcel brion, la résurrection des villes mortes (die frühen kulturen der welt), 1959, discusses the interaction of archeological results and early written sources, which - once deciphered and translated - only together paint a vivid picture of ancient historic times.
unfortunatly he rarely involves himself with dates. i read 'the clay of a vase from the 5th or 4th century b.c. displays the thumb of its maker'.
concerning research in early chinese history he states, '...give up knowledge assumed secured, as soon as new digs prove errors - be it only as the result of one broken piece of clay - ... view truth always only as the truth of a moment, that at any time can be expanded on, improved upon or set aright...'.
question 2. who can do an outline of chinese history, an evaluation of its present political and economic situation and its future role in world economy.
a.9. the concept of grace
in context of chinese history:
in the apostle paul's letter to the galatians, written in 50 b.c. i read, '...astonished...you are so quickly turning to a different gospel - which really is no gospel at all'.
in the footnotes of the oxford niv scofield study bible the comment, 'the test of the gospel is grace. if the message excludes grace (oxford english dictionary. grace: the unmerited favor of god), or mingles law with grace as the means, either of justification or sanctification, or denies the fact or guilt of sin which alone gives grace its occasion and opportunity, it is a 'different' gospel, and the preacher...''...let him be eternally condemned'!
strong words, directed towards persons who know and convert god’s good news of freedom from this world; its systems of thought, its appearant short comings. what about the vast majority of humanity, that does not know and can not hear this message?
these good news are the report of god's dealing with what went wrong with adam. these news luther rediscovered some 1.500 years after the fact. is translation gave rise to printing. it is, today, well distributed all over the world since.
obvious question: how does today's catholic church view the issue of grace as the only access to salvation? is there a catholic church in china today?
question 3. who can summerize the role of grace in the modern catholic church? what do the greek and russian orthodox churches say?
again, at 10 o'clock in the evening, my blood pressure rises. why?
a.10. first summary
do i dare to summarize what i have written so far?
- a.1 and a.9.
it looks like the central theme of the gospel is not love, but grace. grace, however, born by love. god’s unmerited favor: with it man recognizes the fact of human sinfulness. it enables him to takes responsibility for his own actions and motivations.
in other words. we can pass by neither adam nor christ. each man is a new creation. first physically, genetically determined. then spiritually. subject to his grace.
what should i do? ask god to forgive my sins and to change my (on account of adam’s and eve’s wrong decision) inevitably sinful nature to a clean new one.
in the day-to-day: jesus christ, god as man, is reported to paint the picture of a man who’s body - after a visit to the baths - is clean. walking home there remains the need to clean feet.
i suppose this is why ‘...forgive us our sins...’ is part of his model prayer. condition and result of a new nature and a new life: ‘...as i forgive those, who have sinned against me...’.
what is spoken of? is it not peace? is it not breaking with the ways of this world.
- a.1. and a.3.
this, our western world is full of material and intellectual goods. full of freedom to get, do, say, think what we want.
life in the city differs from life in the country. the internet will play an increasing role in connecting the both.
- a.2.
god has an enemy. it was he who tempted the very first humans. it is he who has authority to impact mankind since. he has, does and will tempt humanity to walk in his ways. he causes fear, distrust, hate, lack of confidence...and so on. and...he knows how to keep man busy. his tool is disguise. that is, why man generally is not aware of him. the result of his influence, however, is obvious to all.
- a.2. and a.4.
there exists one humanity. it has many different languages, colors, religions and confessions. man is mortal and subject to decay.
- a.5.
friendship towards man and obidience towards god make life on planet earth liveable.
- a.3. and a.6. and a.8.
the continuity of historical knowledge is broken.
- a.5.
historically, in the western world, schooling has produced its best results in the context of greek and christian thought.
question 4. who can write a history of schooling upcoming generations in asia and africa?
ii. details
b.1. the origin of community
in our snail-mailbox this morning frank jöst, bevölkerungswachstum und umweltnutzung ( world population and utitlisation) and helmut uhlig, die sumerer. ein volk am anfang der geschichte (sumerians. a people at the beginning of time). good, research can start.
unfortunately jöst soon leaves the path of scientific research and begins to tell an interesting story. let’s see, if i understand the underlying facts correctly?
a people called sumerians (a synonyme for culture) appears at the end of the third millenium b.ch. (remember minus numbers degress backwards) out of no-where in the region of mesepotamia and, according to current historical knowledge, set up the first human culture. they are capable of reading and writing, of math and science, of basic skills to farm the land and build cities, of setting up governmental structures.
their written records confirm the information we read in genesis, of a people with greatly extended life expectancies before a great flood. they confirm the report in genesis, of the intermarriage of celestral beings and human women. their children the ‘heros of old’. confirm the flood. the buiding of a ‘tower of babel’.
b.2. modern evolutionist thought
now, all of this fits together neatly. but what about the archeological finds of earlier human history? of the kurgans of central asia, for instance. dating back as far as the eights millenium b.c.?
obvious question, since nobody lives to tell the story first hand: how are finds from archeological digs dated? brion, in his 1959 publication, reports of several methods, among them the radio-carbon-method, short c-14. is it possible these and other methods, which may have developed since, are erronious?
question 5. what are the latest archeological means and methods to date ancient finds?
and what about the other side of the story. darwin and his followers, attacking human historicity, denying humanity the creation in god’s image. opting for evolution, with no explaination for the intellectual abilities of man in distinction to those of the monkey.
question 6. who can summarize today's darwinist thinking and the history of evolutionist theory; give a picture of their impact on the modern science?
today it rains. the development of my blood pressure occupies me. i notice it rise, but then also sudden drops. why? it seems to return to normal when i go riding.
b.3. population calculations
i went to see a friend. dealing with the great c. ‘last night’ she said, ‘it felt like dying’. does she know about grace and its results in the human body (...who believes in me...streams of living water will flow from within him (john 7:38), for instance)? is prayer enough? shouldn't she herself know.
for but an instant astonishment overcame her ‘...i was better all of a sudden...’ before god’s enemy stole the revelation of the source of power.
next i will do population numbers. intelligent estimates of past and future. it is obvious that in population growth one plus one can be anything from three to twenty. none-the-less it should be possible to calculate, starting from todays statics, backwards to one. and thus also arrive at an approximate number for the beginning of humanity.
are writings of other earliest cultures available?
question 7. who has insight into other early civilisations and their written records?
what are the dates of origin for genesis, the first book of the old testament. who is its author?
my blood pressure rose to 180/135 after setting up appointments, the vet arriving to inspect fiona’s lameness and my former apprentice, coming with the newest developments of our soft no-saddle, all at the same time.
b.4. piesthood and doing god’s will
what is this thing about doing god’s will? you mean there actually is someone, who not only cares, but has a defitite plan, part of which i am?
this raises the question of predestination.
before attending to and answering this question in a further study, there remains the immediate implication: you mean, even the choice between jelly and jam. complete surrender?
this i can do only with complete love. here we go again. the background and the purpose of grace is love. fellowship, that is, uninterupted close contact, give and take, constantly, continuously.
without end? i believe so, but honestly, this concept blows my mind. i may have to reserve it for a future state of me.
for the time being:
‘so from now on we regard no one from a worldy (bodily) point of view. though we once regarded christ in this way, we do so no longer. therefore, if anyone is in christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! all this is from god, who reconciled us to himself through christ and gave us a ministry of reconsiliation:...not counting man’s sin against them.’
did paul, formerly saul of tarsus, ex-member of the jewish high council, know what he spoke of, when he wrote this text in 57 a.d.?
in search of the author of genesis, i read in williston walker, a history of the christian church about jewish society after the conquest of jerusalem by nebuchadrezzar in 586 b.c., ‘...the hereditary priestly families were the real aristocracy of the land. in their higher ranks they came to be marked by political interest and religious indifference’. i add: indifference to their calling: holiness, a heart set apart.
‘the high-priesthood in particular became a coveted office by reason of its pecuniary and political influence... associated... a body of advisers’. interesting, the similarities to religious-political-economic structures in christian history.
i keep on reading. the jesuits, catholic reaction to luther’s reformation. in fact a reformation of the catholic church: hierarchy, discipline, warfare agains evil, emphesis on the keeping of the law as means of salvation.
my thoughts: a rebirth clothed in uniform? without prophesy and promise. mystical piety on one hand its inevitable result. the preparation for colonialism on the other: yet another child born after the child.
question 8. who can summerize the role of prophesy in jewish-christian scripture in the past, on the present and for the future.
b.5. second summary
time for recollection.
a. the sumerian texts, much older than the old testament, yet only rediscovered in the 19th century, confirm all incidents reported in the first chapters of genesis.
b. methods used to determine the age of archeological finds need inspection.
c. the creationists verses evolutionist debate?
d. population growth in reverse may also provide an approximate date of the creation of adam.
e. the practical aspect of christian life: doing the will of god.
f. men translating priesthood (that is, the call to mediate between god and man) into worldly power.
b.6. planet earth
still in search for the author of genesis i read in pat robertson, evangelist in the american born-again movement and one of the first men to use electronic media for christian mission, the secret kingdom, ‘the law of reciprocity... give and it will be given to you...’.
i will have to check on what became of this mission. i keep on reading. much of what he says sounds like jesuit approaches to world domination. is that what he meant?
in halley’s bible handbook i run across a map of the world as seen from about above marocco. from this point of view the location of garden eden does indeed look like the center of the world, if one imagines the world without the altantic ocean; that is america not seperate from europe and australia not seperate from asia and africa.
i read on and find quite a number of approaches to the dating of creation; additional sources of information both in the old and new testament and in other ancient literature. the conclusion in approximates: adam 4.000 b.c., the flood 2.400 b.c., the tower of babel (the beginning of different languages) not indicated, abraham, that is the source of the jewish people 2.000 b.c., moses and the jewish law 1.400 b.c..
i ride the tall, black thorough-bred mare secret taboo, recovered from damages she occurred in the racing industry. every kid’s dream. a sense of flying, of humanity riding its horses on the surface of this planet earth, for milleniums: a sense of well being.
b.7. the man moses
apparently it was moses who authored genesis, or men under his direction. moses, a son of abraham’s family in the lower nile region during the thutmose regency in egypt, came - through circumstances the like of which have again and again determined the direction of human history - to grow up in the center of contemporary political power.
he none-the-less identified with the slave fate of his greatly multiplying family and – at mature age – becomes their leader and mediator with god. in this task he was assisted by his brother aaron.
question 9. who can provide information on other world civilisations at the time of the thutmose reign in egypt.
quote from halley’s bible handbook. ‘in ur, abraham’s...city, ...indeed in every important city in babylonia, in connection with schools and temples, there were libraries with thousands of books... it was a period of great literary activity...’. and, ‘for a thousand years before the days of moses (does he mean, from the time of the flood?) the literary profession had been an important one, not only in babylonia, but also in egypt’.
question 10. who can supply information on book making in antiquity? who were the readers?)
am i correct to view the young moses as a cultured man in highest political power? well read, intelligent, informed. and yet a man of conviction, of rush temper. a man set apart to become god’s friend; to trust and walk with him.
b.8. bases of ecomomy
now then: only about 1.400 b.c. moses, or his men, recount, in the context of writing down the law, which god gave to abraham’s decendents, the beginnings of humanity. brief, without much of a story line. we do not know, is it oral history or revelation.
question 11. who can date the gilgamesh epos and summarize what it tells about creation.
reading this text today, 3.400 years later, something strikes me. 'let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air...' does this refer to ship and aircraft building?
is this indeed a command to develop and explore, as humans have, do and always will? the author of footnotes in the oxford niv scofield study bible states, ‘this is the divine magna carta for all true scientific and material progress. man began with a mind (and a body?) that was perfect in its capacity for learning, but he did not begin knowing all the secrets of the univers. he is commanded to ‘subdue’, that is acquire knowledge and mastery over his material environment, to bring its elements into the service of the race’.
question 12. from which root comes the word that was translated 'subdue' in genesis?
it brings me to the point that originally, before adams downfall, food was provided. man was not made to labor over issues of food. even today, world population greatly expanded, not quantity but distribution is the issue.
so, man not only reads and writes. he is made for science. the development of speed in engines on and above the ground, in the water, the internet? to share in work processes, to trade. not to forget: he, also, can sing, dance, swim, ride, make pictures and music.
b.9. language
man can think. and speak. he can communicate his thinking – and his emotions. to quote the german bankier herrhausen, “ what a man thinks, he must also say...”.
he can speak in more than one language. what happened when men built a tower to reach heaven? was man’s pride the basis of god’s decision to confuse their language. what exactly happened. did each one of them have to redevelop his lingual ability. adding word to word?
pentecost. men speaking in tongues. the foreigners visiting jerusalem. each understood the message of salvation in his own language: god reconfirming the good news on the language level.
words. check points of reality. if a word exists, the thing it stands for must exist. like zero or eternity, like salvation. words. corner stones of communication.
question 13. what is known about the interaction between the human brain, the content and the pysicality of language?
that day, when in the late afternoon my blood pressure rose to 180/135 i adopted a new policy. in the evening, after all is said and done, i turn off my computer and all other appliances and, in the calm of my appartment, walk from one end to the other praying in tongues. my blood pressure now has steadied at 140/100.
b.10. visual arts and music
man can sing. how did this come about? the ability not only to speak but to sing and to make music. with his voice, his hands, his body: to harmonize. to write music down, delop its scales, its styles; expand on the mastery of its physics.
and why does moshe feldenkrais in bewußtsein durch bewegung. der aufrechte gang (conscious thought through movement. walking upright) say,
“(i translate) ...find, that he can sing. and that opens door for other abilities in other fields, which to possess he to this date did not even dream of.’
man can make images. in the before mentioned exhibition of ancient greece, greek philosophers looked into my face. roman pictorial art exceeding all that picture making has produced since.
technology. still and moving pictures. records of man’s mind. and in modern art the separation of means and meaning causing the loss of skill.
why did god command, not to make an image of him. why, “when you right eye bothers you...tear it out...” why are we not to use the ability to see and to make images at certain times. it tells me of the power of the image and its impact on the mind of man.
no summary this time. before the continuation of this text we need population checks. one at the time of christ, that is the time of the roman empire. one at the beginning of our time, after the thirty-year war in europe, for instance. one at the end of world-war ii, and one of today. and a projection for this century.
iii. our time
c.1. from christ to luther
in search of german sources in france i visited the german goethe institute in paris. a wholesome experience to get my feet back on the ground.
on the way home a realisation. death always pending, life is too short for anything else but love. why hold resentments; why not forgive; why not let the light of love rise once and for all.
next week a medical check, visit german bookstores, see the hairdresser and attend to business in aix-la-chapelle.
intersection anatomical alphabet. moshé feldenkrais understands the human body to function in the forces of planet earth. he distinguishes intentional from automatic control. automatic muscular systems counteract the forces of earthly physics and override man's intentional control in moments of danger. human will hinders automatic control.
the vertebra of man is made to be like a column in greek architecture. vertebra upon vertebra. body strength originates in the center of the body (its very center the reproductive organs); distibutes without losses into the limbs. harmonisation of intentional and automatic muscular control expands consciousness; liberates that which is typically human in the human: disease dissapears.
feldenkrais' texts do not serve the reader. they are notations of his thoughts. they open only with doing. their relevance to riding is obvious; to eternity also.
in search of truth i read, ' ...some...will not leave this world without seeing the kingdom of god': so the kingdom of god is physical, can be seen on earth...!?
i read on. '...jesus (god as man) took peter, john and james with him and went on the mountain to pray. as he was praying the appearance of his face changed (how?), and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.
two men, moses (did he not die at a good old age?) and elijah appeared in (the same physical state) glorius splendor, talking with jesus. they spoke about his departure, which he was about...to fulfill...at jerusalem'.
question: what happened to this truth in the world during the 1.400 years of recovery from the institutionalisation of faith in the catholic church.
and in addition:
question 14. who can supply information on the arabian world from abraham to luther?
personal support: '...instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest...'. and, '...i am among you as one who serves...'.
c.2. islam-hinduism-budhism
paul pleads and reasons freedom. he juxtaposes mt. sinai in arabia and jerusalem, in what today is israel, with a new jerusalem 'from above'.
hagar, abraham's and sarah's egyptian maid, who conceived abraham's child naturally stands for mt. sinai and jerusalem. sarah, abraham's wife, wo conceived abraham's child supernaturally (she was past childbearing) stands for a new jerusalem 'from above'.
cross-referencing genesis 29:1. '...sarah saw... (hagar's son)...mocking...(her son...and said to abraham, "get rid of that slave woman and her son…,(he) will never share in the inheritance of my son isaak".
the matter distressed abraham greatly because it concerned his son. but god said to him, '...listen to what sarah tells you...i will make (hagar's) son into a nation also, because he is your offspring'.
do i misunderstand something? is this about arabs and jews? or is it about the standing of a man and his woman with god?
concerning the free, the supernatural, the promised life lawrence o. richards says, 'the holy spirit is unmoved by sinful cravings (temptation is not sin). thus, if we follow the spirit's lead and live in the strength he provides, we will not "gratify the desires of (our) sinful nature"'. (galatians 5:16-18).
in the original text. '...if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law'.
further down. '...the fruit of the (holy and almighty) spirit is love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-contol. against such things there is no law'. yes, that makes sense.
further down. 'god cannot be mocked. a man reaps what he sows. the one who sows to please his sinful nature will reap destruction. the one who sows to please the spirit will reap eternal life'.
man still has adam's choice. we choose with whom we walk. free to decide for freedom.
question 15. what do the great religions islam, hinduism and budhism say concerning sin, freedom from sin, freedom to choose and eternal life?
jesus did not plead. 'let the dead bury the dead, you go and speak my words...a new thing...', he said, and 'do you still not understand...?'. he turned over the tables of the money merchants...! there was another drive in his doing. 'i am the vine, you are the branches'.
thank god humanity is literary! a difficult chapter to write.
c.3 cultural developments world-wide
this universal message was not cultural, political or economic. it speaks to the individual human. since its first broadcast recipients have multiplied. dimensions changed. the message addressed to an estimated 300 million humans on planet earth at the time of christ. is it unchanged for the soon to be expected 9000 million? how many people have lived and passed away since?
in one of the gospels, reporting the good news, i read, '...the disciple whom he loved (!?) stood nearby ...and...he said to his mother...,"...here is your son…"': a story of love. is world history in its essence personal? each man a kingdom; the king uses access only with permission, unlike the virus.
question 16. what exactly happens when a man decides to accept god's grace toward him? who can put his experience in words?
man not only reads and writes, is made for science, the development of speed in engines on and above the ground, in the water, the internet; shares in work processes, trades. can sing, dance, swim, ride, make pictures and music. lives in houses, eats, drinks, takes care of and enjoys himself. multiplies. loves. hates. belongs to a culture.
he is made to be god’s friend.
home alone. finally i eat. from my husband's freezer. hear the french chansons which held us over last winter. waiting for the gulash to heat, i begin with cheese and wine (this is france). food and alcohol penetrate my body and cheer me up.
lonely i give thanks. minute to minute. second to second. instant to instant. i not leaving eternity (that realm of neither short nor long time: timelessness) out of sight. soon we will have to heat the wood stove again.
what will happen to all these people, who, in many different cultures, each culture at its own state of development, daily eat their daily bread, since day one?
are they all registered, each of them known by name? the unlovely. unpleasant. ugly. the disabled. incapable. desperate. drug addicts. murderers. whores. children living in the streets. the proud. those seeking power. the fearful? each one of them made. is each made to subdue the world?
walking down champs d'elysee. dropping into one of the chic cafés. wearing bautiful clothes. enjoying the priviledges of social standing and a monied world. there are many aspects to culture. god's enemy does not sleep. the root of culture is to cultivate.
c.4. cross-cultivations
once asked by the ruling priestly class, when the kingdom of god would come, jesus (god as man) replied, “the kingdom of god does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘here it is,’ or ‘there it is'.
because the kingdom of god is within you”. this statement was recorded by a man named luke and is found in the gospel of luke, chapter 17, verses 20 and 21.
this, in essence a transfer of power, touches the political. while i write this sentence, the votes of president bush’s second election are counted. he wins the election with votes from the bible belt. history revisited !? and the war goes on.
there is no need to grasp for power on planet earth because a priviledge to be free and do right personally, inter-personally, socially and politically exists. in the kingdom of god, within.
not that we can fully understand this. delivery from evil, however, becomes a tangible reality. working for a declared, transparent master also.
what happened after the confusion of languages? did then men finally begin to distribute all over the world? did races and colors in the human race develop in consequence?
question 17. what is known about the genetic background of race and color in humanity.
in the 400s b.c. the armies of a young greek man of high social standing and thorough education, riding a horse named bukephalos, conquered north africa, the middle east and what now is iran and irak (then persia). also entering india. in consequence greek culture was distributed all over ‘the then known world’.
question 18. of exactly which counties consisted the so called ‘then known world’. what happened culturally, politically and religiously in the ‘then not known world’
this young man alexander, entitled ‘the great’, is reported to have felt led by god. he died at the age of 33 in the 400s b.c.. with the fall of the roman empire in the 400s a.d. and resulting migrations, what happened to the world?
question 19. who can supply information on world-wide migrations and their results 400 to 1.200 a.d.
in 1.200 a.d. northern european crusaders besieging jerusalem found themselves in a highly developed arab culture. the consequent transfer of goods and knowledge comprising, among others, such divers things as mathmetics, coffee making and the arabian horse changed europe and prepared it for world dominance.
parallel vast, ancient, non greek-based civilisations existed in china and indochina. why does china, today again on the move towards world domination, give up its unique non greek-based culture in the process? who initiates and controls such developments?
c.5. population growth
my brother (the second of four) did not hesitate to call me crazy. population growth can not be dealt with as i suggest. too many of its factors are unknown. no mathmatical format exists for this type of calculation.
enter population growth in google. a lot of information comes up. population at christ's life time. developments since. a sudden, amazing increase at the beginning of our time.
my idea does not leave. perhaps do a linear calculation for the time just before the beginning of our time counting backwards? going back to two. should also indicate a time frame for creation.
and going forward, how did world population develop and what is its prognosis? is it possible to calculate total numbers of humans on earth. this might be for instance. the total number of humans who lived on earth before the beginning of our time is one quarter (just a thesis) of world population since.
or, on a day x (sometime in the next centuries) more human beings will live on planet earth at one time than at all times before together (also only a thesis). is it safe to say, that, because of the nature of human reproduction, one day this planet must be too small for humanity?
there are options. two generations abstination from reproductions would close to eliminate the human race. but would man manage the economic, social, personal changes?
when, one day, christ returns not to suffer but to conquer, he will be seen from one end of the sky to the other. that is, i suppose, going around the globe one or several times. which percentage of humans total will see his appearance?
peter, in his second letter to fellow believers wrote in about 66 a.d., some 33 years after god as man was translated into heaven before his very eyes, 'we did no follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power...(we saw)...on the...mountain.'
he continues with a statement about the nature of prophesy. '...understand, that prophesy does not come about by the prophets own interpretation.... ...origin not in the will of man, ...men speak from god as they are carried along by the holy spirit.'
paul adds in his letter to the corinthians, '...for your encouragement'.
c.6. third summary
c.1.
governments do not support culture.
the jewish physician and physiologist feldernkrais understood the make of man in respect to the physical forces of planet earth.
peter, john and james see jesus transform and meet with moses and elijah. both appear in the form jesus was temporarily transformed into.
this jesus, god as man, says, ‘i am among you, not to be served, but as one who serves’.
c.2.
paul adresses the root of enmity between jews and arabs.
paul outlines a new ‘walking with the spirit’.
c.3.
question. is the message of freedom today, 2.000 years later, unchanged ?
the root of culture is to cultivate.
c.4.
a transfer of power to within exists.
the origin of languages, races and color in humanity.
the expansion of greek culture in antiquity.
the transfer of arabian culture to the northern hemispher in the middle ages are the basis of northern europe’s subsequent preeminence.
china and indonesia are non-greek-based cultures.
c.5.
a sudden increase in world populatation at the beginning of our age.
question. it is possible to estimate total numbers of humans on earth?
which percentage of total humanity will see the return of christ?
the nature of prophesy: direction and encouragement.
c.7. from luther to today
out of the blue accusations. god’s enemy does not sleep. some do not detect his lies. hard for accuser and accused alike. there is but one solution. forgive as you are forgiven.
‘...long ago by god’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. by these waters ...the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. by that same word the present heavens and the earth are reserved for fire...’
was this common knowledge when peter, in 66 a.d., made this statement. how did he know? how could he be so sure?
he continues, ‘but do not forget one thing, dear friends. with the lord a day is like thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day.
he juxtaposes time and eternity (timelessness) when he speaks of the future. did he anticipate the number of humans that in a distant future would populate plantet earth?
underlying his writings is a correlation of grace and man's new nature to new heavens, new earth. and man's corrupted nature to the destruction of this heaven and this earth.
today we know that world and univers are infintissimal. they expand towards the outside and the inside. in due times a key to this as yet mind blowing fact may present itself.
what is easier? what more promising? to follow a just and appointed eternal king or an elected president in the current ruling system. on which basis does the electing body choose. who is there to choose from? is the current system still appropiate to the tides of our time?
a word of explaination: one reason that so much of the new testament enters this text is simple. the book is at hand. the subject matter is relevant to the questions i ask. it permits me to leave the realm of religion and moral and allows me to present highly political information.
another reason. i do not know as yet how to tackle the facts at the root of our modern world. the seemingly irresolvable intertwining of energy, production, trade and money. the governmental reactions. the environmental aspects and health care issues. the media. all in the context of ever persisting distrust and growing population numbers.
preparing i read well informed statements of forgoing generation. it is obvious. this is a time to rethink.
c.8. colonialism – capitalism – democracy
a call to understand the work of the holy spirit today. why me? prone to sin. not patient. not disciplined. always wanting more. marked by all that is human in the human.
2.000 years have past since he replaced god as man on earth. pentecost 34 a.d.. god no longer speaking to but one (the chosen) nation through single men. available to all. speaking to all.
how did humanity change from essentially agrarian societies and vast empty spaces on earth to specialized economies and sprawling cities?
well-being then and now. connectedness. irrespective of economic and religious borders. healthy or sick. obidient. ready to meet the maker. clean and led by the holy spirit?
luther translated what is 1.339 pages in todays niv oxford study bible from latin into german in eighty days. that is almost seventeen pages per day. no weekends off.
historical development. ruled by a ruling class verses ruled by markets. assuring the daily and the special needs (to be fed, clothed and housed, stimulated and have someone to touch?). governing principal now as then. seek your own good.
an odd couple, hegemony (want for land) and christian mission ruled the world in transit from monarchy to democracy. the deploration of what has come to be called the third world. the transfer of its capital into the first (european) and second (north american) worlds. today there exists, on a completely different level, an equally odd couple: healing and the pharmaceutical industry.
question 20. who can outline the major moves of colonialism world-wide?
underlying rulerships at work largely unnoticed. the unidentified master of lies. and the declared master, represented by the holy spirit. the first invisible, but for the result of his actions. the second personal, seen as in a glas darkly. man's transformation pending.
god’s surprising command. submit to the rulership of this world. follow the leading of the holy spirit. be free. cast your burdens on me. don’t forget to sing, be joyful. don’t be ashamed to be mine.
money. in essenence not a value. a means to exchange goods. has become a value in its own right. subject of trade. a means to make money.
question 21. who can identify the means and methods of modern currency control, of world-wide money management, official and inofficial.
money. representative of the gross national products. including money trade profits. and black markets. distributed in the industrial nations. moving back and forth between companies. deposited in investments. across national borders. pulsating. ruled by the world’s governing principle. seek your own good.
question 22. who can outline the role of the stock-market in 21st century economy?
the bodies elected to assure communal good. what are their guiding principles? much has happened since a king riding his horses on sandy soil developed modern statehood.
question 23. who can outline the ideas of friedrich the great in the context of the prussian state and the conversion of their meaning by the nazi regime.
how and where does the holy spirit lead?
question 24. who can outline the results of the holy spirit’s leading world-wide.
there is a changed definition for haves and not-haves. between the physical and the intellectual. personal freedom or the lack thereof. this planet earth has not lost its beauty. its incompehensible detail. its promise.
my husband’s small dog calls at the kitchen window. our home's too small for him. it's monday. sitting in what’s now mrs. rollo’s cafe we discuss what i have written. in paris military hospital two hours by train from here our friend receives a pace maker. be calm! understand the work of the holy spirit.
i look at my left hand. lift it. stretch and turn it. after three disabling injuries in the course of four years it is today more fit than my healthy right hand. and remember. small seeds grow into big trees.
c.9. science and technology
in 1633 the italian galileo galilei finds himself accused. accuser is the jesuit bellarimino, declared a catholic saint in 1930. for finding out. the world is not flat. heaven and earth not separate. the place where humans dwell not the physical center of things. how could he be so sure? he developed a telescope and looked at it.
in 2004 marcel reich-ranicki (der spiegel. nr.42, 2004) recalls a comment on elfiede jelinek's book 'lust'. '…(fact)…that the male body expands to intrude other bodies. whereas female bodies are the ones intruded into.' no mention of sex as the basis of procreation. the human body's exceptional physical reaction to it. the response devotion. assurance of loving double parenthood. elfriede jelinek, nominated nobel-prize winner 2004.
between these dates our time, modern history, expands. reformation. counter-reformation. the age of reason and enlightenment. reorganisation. industrialisation. globalisation. underlying, the development of science. its result technology.
it began with processing clay, wood, skins. metal, quarz, pigments. with braiding, weaving and building. the sources of energy wood fires and the strength of domestic animals. treatment of stone. the necessary math.
subject. populate the world. eat and drink. clothing, housing, transport. widen the horizon. well being. sharing work processes.
it continued with optics. the discovery of the univers. the development of maschines. the source of energy coal. the subject. turn work processes over to maschines. man now working at their beat.
it continued with chemistry. the development of artifical fertilizers. man-made materials. the aircraft. sources of energy oil, gas, electric and atomic power. industrial processes begin to act independly. not demand but the capacities of industrial production ruling the markets. environmental pollution.
and the computer. the ability to tackle large amounts of data. the internet. the handy. spacecrafts. satelites. the subject still eat and drink. clothing, housing, transport. widen the horizon. well being submitted to work. machines and computers bring on unemployment. off time not always free time today. man slave of his invention.
question 25. who can provide a history of science and outline the major scientific developments today?
question 26. who can do a history of fuels and energy sources and present today's major alternative energy sources?
question 27. who can do a history of labor, labor unions. their present and future impact? the future of work and employment.
shared work processes are availabe today in science, production and building, trade. in a broad spectrum of service sectors. corporate and governmental administration. communication. work in art and culture. sports.
in all of this man remains unchanged. intellectual and storage capacities are activated. have they expanded can no longer be verified. affection still calls the beloved. the beauty of nature and the meaning of art still touches man. well fed still is happier than hungry. love still better than hate. health better than sickness. man continues to understand himself as the center of the univers. rightfully so, for so he is created.
normandy. next weekend changes to winter time. this morning 8:45 a.m. the entire sky is bright pink. forecasting rain.
c.10. world-wide production
and yet, today the sun shines.
what is this about predestination? are all called? are those who hear and take hold of eternal life. who sense the need to be cleaned. predestined to hear and act?
and those who do not hear? do not take hold of eternal life. do not sense a need for holiness. follow their conscience. try to do their best.
our choice. a word to hang on to. love story pending. someone wants to catch my heart. am i like zacharias who, because of his small stature, ran ahead, climbed a tree to lay eyes on the 'miracle man' some 2000 years ago? and then the 'miracle man' calls him!
he who thought all up. who chases fear from man’s heart. judge, ruler, benefactor. searches man, calls him, justifies and glorifies him. is himself a servant. too much to be believed…. true only when experienced. surprising to all who follow this world’s motto.
natural (mineral and biological) and man-made resources (largely based on oil) are the basis of modern economy. skill its means. national interests and personal greed its limiting factor.
modern transport, energy trade and human mobility have liberated the location factor. the exception cheap labor. ein- und ausfuhrbestimmungen, steuererhebungen, schutzzölle serve national interests. regulations and administrations often slow and cumbersom.
question 28. who can estimate the annual cost of the world-wide shifting of goods?
the inherent adversity of industrial production (large investments require large markets). the predominant use of oil as raw material and source of energy. characterise modern economy.
skill in industrial production grows. traditional skills and full employment pay. this circumstance, the maldistribution of wealth and the cancellation of the generation contract lead to a loss of meaning for man. soon every second person in the northern hemisphere will be older than 50, single and unemployed. the young and the poor have difficulties to enter the work force.
the return to smaller units. in the work force. in economic structures. improvement of general education. the revival of proven traditional skills along with the development of specialised new skills. free markets for both. the use of alternative energy sources. all sound like a dream.
c.11. world-wide markets
communication. information. literature. the media. advertising.
literature tells. media at best follows facts. advertising. means of information and seduction. producer to consumer. missing is the information on what lies ahead. on the planing phases. the intentions and goals. of the mighty. are ruled by whom?
and what about publicity? diplomacy?
law comes after the fact. in the realm of illegality. ugliness and stupidity are not forbidden. aggression neither.
what happened to beautiful fabrics. the artfully finished garments typical of the third world? replaced by cheap stuff initiated in the first world? what do these artisans do today? who profits from this world-wide loss of quality.
question 29. who can outline contemporary trade restrictions.
what happened to farming. seeding, cultivating, harvesting. replaced by genetically improved seeds and chemical fertilizers. grown on fields large enough for large maschines. was consumer demand at the root of this change?
what happened to living in the natural rythm. sleep at night. live and work in the day. rest at the light of fire. world-wide. today the surface of the earth is criss-crossed by tracks, pipes and cabels. encompassed by electronics. by pulsating data.
what happened to life, lived in its time. and death, when the time to die has come.
food products in a standard central european super market are produced where? how much of them is food, how much packaging? what happens to the packaging? how much is nutrient. how much preservative and coloring? how much is local produce? naturally (biologically) grown?
question 30. who owns and control food production today?
sitting at my work place. thinking. how many steps of effort, parts and work processes went into the make of my computer? how many people (physically and intellectually) worked on it. what are their names? where do they live. how are they organised? how do they feel. what are their hopes, fear and expectations. do they love, suffer, live gladly?
the same questions are true for every piece of furniture and equipment in my house. all furnishings, my clothes, my shoes, my cosmetics. my cds and dvds. why am i so completely seperated from the men and women who contribute to my comfort?. why do i know nothing about them, their work. the organisational and administrative structures who bring these products into my house.
who controls these structures? what happenes if they should ever get out of control? who rules over coincident.
bruce chatwin in was mache ich hier (what am i doing here) about his father charles chatwin, '…blue eyes…firm and calm…eyes of a man, who never knew what injustice meant. (these eyes) never tempted him to do anything wretched or evil'.
encompassed by fourty-five horses. more on the other side of the fence. protect me from man's wounds and vanities. who is it that condemns? the priviledge and power to do good? do i have it?
a special chapter in world-wide markets. insurance, reinsurance and rentenkassen. additional banking to assure health care, support for disaster and income at old age.
question 31. who can give an overview of the nature and dimension of insurances, reinsurances and rentenkassen world-wide. the task sharing of government and business. its inherent risks.
c.12. the people of the world (awaits completion)
a chapter to reflect, that at this very time people of all stages of development live on planet earth.
that apparantly to god neither beauty, not wealth, neither know-how, nor success, neither possession nor social standing, but only the wish to be straight with him seems to count.
a chapter that also reflects on the often insensible interfaces between old and new worlds, agrarian and industrial developments, the mounting danger of sprawling second and third world cities and the effects of the uncheck oil-based only economies of the world.
and that despite all these ‘irregularlies’ man still gets up in the morning, goes to bed at night...that apparently god does indeed have ‘...the whole world in his hand’. the division of labor between god and man. the disabilitating hinderances of sickness and the presence of evil.
c.13. modern world distrust
bruce chatwin about ernst jünger, soldier and respected author, ‘(my translation)...among his reading was the bibel, bartebly by melville and trost der philosophie (council of philosophy) by boethin. he sleeps in a reed hut, in a sleeping bag covered in red silk. on his 45th birthday a seargent brings him a bottle of wine, a small bouquet of violets tied to its neck.’
marion dönhoff about helmut schmidt in zivilisiert den kapitalismus (civilize capitalism). ‘(my translation)...the young schmidt reflects on historic development and finds out, that the development of classes in society has not happened according to the communist manifesto's preview. not owning the means of production constitutes power – see the powerlessness of stock owners in relation to the might of the heads of large companies. that in fact a new class of functionaries and burocrats has come about, which threatens society.
question 32. dear gräfin, exactly how do functionaries and burocrats threaten society today?
take in any hemisphere, climate or area of religious influence one square meter of land. everywhere will you find the same forces at work. wanting to live and wanting to kill.
take the human organism. its skin white, black, brown or yellow. in each you will find the same forces at work. wanting to live and wanting to kill.
wanting to live, to love, to know. easily done in an atmosphere of trust. and yet there are the cains and there are the abels.
a leaf. carelessly droping from the tree. carries the mark of perfection.
galatians 5:19, ‘the fruits of the sinful nature are obvious: ...hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissention, factions... envy...’. technology in service of such motivation has become a powerful threat. a prooven means of killing and destruction.
wars between nations. do we not have better things to do?
and on the other hand the meek. ‘...my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness’. ‘if i was of this world, my servants would fight’. ‘don’t you understand, that at my wink heavenly hosts...'
the fear of want. of death.
and what about this need to be in? the fear to be out? the want to identify? at the risk to outclassify.
what about the deeds of the first world towards the third world? the terror which now calls terrorism. technology at its fingertips. the role of the second world.
and what about the jews? their blessing turned into their curse. the ancient nation. at the centers of decision making in money, in science, in music, art and literature. condemned and yet not lost.
question 33. who can supply numbers concerning the categories, quantities, distributions and expense of weapons in the world today?
question 34. who can outline the actions of declared and undeclared warfare on planet earth today.
who disguises the lies of this world’s master?
am i glad to be a kid with a father.
conclusion
i must apologize for the brevity of this closing chapter. to me the underlying facts of modern world distrust have become more than evident and i will not violate my reader’s ability to think and conclude himself.
think. believe. are personal priviledges. action their result.
to undo today’s intertwining of money and production, work sharing and technology holds the risk of chaos. its continuation also. i dare not think of any large scale actions in either direction.
safe is the turn to the renewal of human nature. a change in spiritual hemishere. forgive as you are forgiven. be delivered from evil. be honest and straight. turn to him. as the basis of life and action on planet earth. as the basis of a new order of things, when the time for it has come.
renewal entails a faith factor. god can turn nothing into something. this fact makes, if believed, hope a thing of reason. the basis for trust.
are my questions answered? writing this text in search of historic truth and an evaluation of the present and future situation of planet earth, i was surprised by the constant presence of the eternal now and here. with him lies the answer.
'don’t try to do the bill without the proprietor', goes a german saying.
question 35. who can outline modern healing practices and the role of the pharmaceutical industry.
question 36. who can outline the interaction of goverments, economy and banking in a global world as we see it today?
continue to look for truth. understand. dare to think of safe alternatives. remains my motto. is my call.
continued...
christine sander
angry with his israel. why?
and who pleases him today?
preface
i finished ‘dates and numbers of humanity or, the kingdom. in you.’, as early as late in november 2004. having noted the very first sentences during my stay in berlin in september of that same year. that is, a german and an english version after only ten weeks. when it was finished i was surprised.
surprised to have done it. to have sorted out the world’s major developments in respect to historicity, world-population and economic development. to have done it, for starts, to a minimum, that is, my then current state of information and my intellectuell capacity to ask questions. conclusive presentation pending.
i should not have been surpised, for he who calls provides.
even more suprised i was, that this paper, which indeed had required a concentrated effort on my part, but not any further far reaching new and additional research, puzzled its first readers as too complex and too far reaching. my obvious question after this unexpected reaction: who will be the readers of this paper?
reflecting on how to continue this, in my thinking and to my hope, possible basis for an out-of-this-world comprehensive and new information service for anyone who really wants to know, i faced questions of proceedure.
and, as in my initial research on riding previously, i again opted for an assembly of relevant materials to
- answer the thirty-six questions formulated in dates and numbers of humanity,
- gather additional relevant information,
- speak to others with more information, practical experience (which i, regrettably, have so neglected in the earlier years of my life),
- have the time to think, rethink, correlate and draw the proper conclusions.
and, having begun this work, piles of books now mount on my tables.
in proverbs 24:13 i read this promise
‘eat honey, my son (my child), for it is good;
honey from the comb is sweet to your taste.
know also that wisdom is sweet to your soul;
if you find it, there is a future hope for
you
and your hope will not be cut off.’
introduction
why not present a picture of god’s character as documented in the two great collections of commonly called 'religious' literature?
the old testament: record of god, abraham and his decendants. and his prophesies regarding this and a new creation.
and the new testament: god wooing man.
why not present in this text also the evolving research to answer the questions of ‘dates and numbers of humanity’ and of ‘how to ride the horse’.
text
... and god said, ‘let there be light,’...(genesis 1:3)
... and god said. ‘let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.’ (genesis 1:7)
... and god said, ‘ let the water under the sky be gathered in one place, and let dry ground appear’. (genesis1:9)
... then god said, ‘let the land produce vegetation...’ (genesis 1:11)
... and god said, ‘let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night...’ (genesis 1:14)
november 11, 2004
my first weekday in paris. on the 6:47 a.m. train from bayeux to st. lazare i dare a first attempt for question 35: ‘outline modern healing...’.
preface. definitions of well being, its loss and reestablishment. what is healing? what is health?
1. ancient asian techniques
2. spontanious healing
3. pasteur-enderlein and the pharmaceutical industry
4. homeopathy verses surgery
5. geopathology and its effects
6. physics and feldenkrais
7. the genetic options
the english bookstore w.h.smith (subwaystop concorde. the corner of rue de rivoli and rue cambon).
in the english ‘literary review’ of november 2004 i find on page 39 a.c.grayling’s review ‘a theory to believe in’ of marek kohn’s recent publication, ‘a reason for everything’.
i quote a.c. grayling, ‘the outlines of evolutionary theory, and of the story of its discovery, charles darwin and alfred russel wallace, are familiar. much less well known is the story of the complexe debate which has surrounded the question...a story of controversy and disagreement which continues...’
after lunch at our friends' house (operation survived. adjusting to the pace maker on the low, medication on the high end of heart control. and medication's secondary effects) i leave the ‘literary review’ and return to the bookstore.
shelves full of books on science and its history. attempts to correlate the findings of science and the believes of the christian faith.
helpful: a well done chronology of break-throughs in science from earliest beginnings. closing statement in the article ‘ ‘, dealing with darwin’s impact on modern thought, ‘...leaves room for hope for those of us who think otherwise...’
text
... and god said, ‘let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky’. (gen 1:20)
...and god said, ‘let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock (domesticated animals), creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.’ (genesis 1:24)
...then god said, ‘ let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ (genesis 1:26)
...god blessed them and said to them, ‘be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it...’ (genesis 1:28)
november 20, 2004
riding
the new riders all encounter a common problem. the effects of bending the horse before it is made straight. result. horses slow down or rush. they begin to resist.
my assistant and i have worked up the correlations of the human nerve regions to the vertebrae of the horse from c1 up to th1.
absolutely amazing. we test them in riding daily. results are hampered only by the limit of human ability. to be straight. concentrate. remain calm and in the rider’s seat.
today i am tired!
too many things at hand call for my attention.
beware the thorns and thistles...!
the evening sky yesterday was full of color. grays. cold, warm, neutal. some light, some slightly darker.
a line of yellows, oranges, reds. white and bright light in the background.
don’t forget the maker. follow him. don’t try to lead him.
text
...then god said, ‘i give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. (genesis 1:29a)
...and to all beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground – everything that has the breath of life in it – i give every green plant for food.’ (genesis 1:29b)
...and the lord god commanded the man, ‘you are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it, you will surely die.’ (genesis 2:16)
november 21, 2004
this text, this literature from which i only quote god’s voice, impresses me today as it did on first reading some thirty years ago.
if only i could have been there.
if only i could fully understand.
gymnastics restarted. early in the morning, lying flat on my back. legs in the air. left and right functions even? stomack relaxed.
breathing deep?
arms up. stretching fingers, hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders. stretching toes, feet, ankles, knees, hip joints. one by one. slowly. all smooth?
soon the body takes over and trains. it knows better than my mind what it needs.
crazy, these riders. but these are obvious first steps towards harmony.
text
...the lord god said, ‘it is not good for the man to be alone. i will make a helper suitable for him.’ (genesis 2:18)
...but the lord god called to the man, ‘where are you?’ (genesis 3:9)
...and he said, ‘who told you that you are naked?’ have you eaten from the tree that i commanded you not to eat from?’ (genesis 3:11)
22. november 2004
my third weekday in paris.
the day i visited the goethe institute on avenue d'inea. i ended up sitting at d'alize/gare st. lazare in the middle of rushing people reading feldenkrais, 'bewusstsein durch bewegung, (consciousness through motion)'.
only last night, riding zola emile out at dusk. i realised. something changed in my riding. feldenkrais' first excersise.
learning to sense the forces of planet earth. standing relaxed. moving like a tree in the wind. left to right. forward. backward. rotating.
no so easy.
until automatic and intentional controls are distinguished. in riding a changed sense of balance. of the effects of the upright human vertebral column on the horse.
something else became clear.
want activates intentional control.
raises my blood pressure.
do activates automatical controls.
normalises my blood pressure.
all tests normal since.
surprising at age 55 and after my medical history.
not long ago. a day my blood pressure went to the sky. an unusual experience.
looking for access to our hinterlands. in a chemin. i lost my footing. my balance. and dropped into a mud hole.
sitting, sinking, the automatic controls of my body activated and i found myself standing. at the edge of a hedge.
automatic emergency functions!?
text
...then the lord god said to the woman, ‘what is this you have done?’(genesis 3:13)
...so the lord god said to the serpent, ‘cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! you will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
i will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel. (genesis 3:14)
november 24, 2004
th1 to th12 in the horse and the rider.
again coordinate with amazing perfection.
as the rider turns his trunk at th10-11 (that is, the level of his lowest full ribs) he indicates to the horse his direction. the rider's legs at the horse's 10th (inside) and 11th (outside) ribs complete the horse's bending. which the turning of the rider's trunk began.
here a puzzle.
these are automatic controls. rider to horse.
they function if the rider is straight. relaxed. and even in his sides. if he is not. he will use intentional controls in what he will call aides (!?) to correct the results of false expressions of his body.
what will the horse think of him?
text
...to the woman he said, ‘i will greatly increase your pain in child bearing; with pain you will give birth to your children.
your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’ (genesis 3:16)
...to adam he said, ‘because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which i commanded you, "you must not eat of it",
'cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
it will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
by the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground; since from it you were taken...(genesis 3:17ff)
...and the lord god said, ‘the man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. he must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.’ (genesis 3:22)
november 26, 2004
left sides.
the nerves of mine are effected after a fall many years ago. leporello's after a fall at six months. most horses' because of their natural slant. made worse by the breeding of a longer, faster horse.
two days ago leporello's medication arrived. to treat the results of poor castration.
fear of pain raises the level of no-adrenalin? leporello unable to move or exploding!
five products. in a mobil coutchuk crib i carry them to his stable. today both my shoulders hurt.
for many weeks the forth toe of my left foot pains me walking. pain running up the tendon from the outside of my left ankle.
no left hand canter with leporello. counter action horse to rider?
and. lacking mobilisation. no straight horse!
will the stress on my shoulders effect my left side? improve it?
allow us to canter left hand? eventually.
consolation from afar.
udo bürger, chief veterinarian of the kavallerie-reitschule hannover between the wars in 'vollendete reitkunst (riding perfected)', 1955, 'why, by nature, in most living creatures the right side supercedes the left in respect to dexterity, we will most likely not be able to discover...'.
live is lived in great detail.
not all obvious. not all easy.
text
...then the lord said to cain, why are you angry? why is your face downcast? if you do what is right, will you not be accepted? but if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires you, but you must master it.’ (genesis 4:6)
...then the lord said to cain, 'where is your brother abel?' (genesis 4:9)
...so the lord said, 'what have you done? listen! your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
when you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. you will be a restless wanderer on the earth'. (genesis 4:10ff)
...but the lord said to him. 'not so; if anyone kills cain, he will suffer vengence seven times over.' (genesis 4:15)
november 28, 2004
in marek kohn, 'a reasons for everything' (this is the book i saw in the english literary review, nov 2004) i find the following statement.
'adaptation could mean a number of things.
(a) it might mean that god had designed all the features of living things for the best.
(b) it might mean that organisms adapted themselves to their conditions of live by behaviour or physiological responses, that such adaptive changes then where inherited by their descendants.
(c) it might also mean that organisms could be shaped by internal forces which guided their evolution along adaptive lines.
when darwinism eventually prevailed, however, these possible meanings were discarded. the darwinian concept of adaptation by natural selection was what remained'.
in the mid-1900s b.c.. in the context of population growth. artificial fertilisers only just evolving. darwin and wallace interpreted natural selection as ‘the struggle for existence’ and ‘the survival of the fittest’.
why did they not take into account the many symbiotic effects in nature, in society?
too bad their limited view was sucked up immediately and became the ruling doctrine of the 20th century.
a century of technologically supported world wars.
of unchecked developments in all aspects of life on planet earth including population growth.
its motive. the fittest survives.
a lie.
text
...the the lord god said, 'my spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years'. (genesis 6:3)
...so the lord said, 'i will wipe mankind, whom i have created, from the face of the earth - men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air - for i am grieved that i have made them'. (genesis 6:7)
...so the lord said to noah, 'i am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. i am surely going to destroy them and the earth. (genesis 6:13)
january 16, 2005
checking my book shelve for further information, for opinions from the creationist’s and the evolutionist’s point of view i find publication which i first read many years ago in america.
an informative and well argued text, a reflection on the many ways, the nature of the ‘biblical’ god is expressed in creation, in our universe.
i quote from my summary.
the biblical basis for modern science,
by herny m. morris (1984)
basic premise:
scientific inquiry depends on the premise of order.
implicit in this pemise is a correspondance to human experience that bears witness to and agrees with the existence of such order.
the premise of order and its reflection in man’s mind, do, strictly speaking, require a leap of faith, for they are, strictly speaking, not provable. they are the unprovable premise upon which creation and human perception are based.
trinity:
the god of the bible is a tiune god – one god in three persons: the father, the son and the holy spirit.
the idea of a trinity, the fact of a god-as-man, and the representation of this god-man in present-day creation through the holy spirit, are basic believes of the christian faith.
‘...the nature of the creator is evident in his creation...’(romans?). and indeed, the triune god seems very well represented in creation, in a universe, marked by the ‘three-some’ space, matter and time.
space has three dimensions (length, width and heigth). time comes in three forms (past, present and future) and matter consists of energy, motion and form.
in addition, throughout the universe, we see the reoccurring interrelaton of source, manifestation and meaning.
text
...so make yourself an arch of wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch in and out. (genesis 6:14)
...this is how you are to build it: the arch is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 1.5 feet of the top. put a door in the side of the arch and make lower, middle and upper decks. (genesis 6:15ff)
...i am going to bring flood waters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. everything on earth will perish. (genesis 6:17)
november 26, 2004
how did noah get the animals into the arch?
and, surely, he was unable to get the fish of the deep sea.
maybe the adaptionists, even darwin were right after all. only misjudging the time frame of creation's evolutionary abilities.
do 4.000 years suffice to develop the multitude of species existing today? on the ground and in the air.
was a coming and going of species previewed? part of god's plan for planet earth. or another result of adam’s wrong decision? or was ‘everything’ there from the start, diminishing ever since.
and the animals in the arch.
how did he keep them from eating each other?
did they, in the pre-flood era, still eat green plants only?
what happened to the manure?
reading genesis 6:20 again a few days later.
here is the answer to ‘how did noah get the animals into the arch’? they came to him! and the fish in the sea? were not destroyed in the flood. is that one reason for the amazing diversity of form in fish?
today it rains.
text
...but i will establish my coveneant with you, and you will enter the arch - you and your sons and you wife and your son's wives with you. you are to bring in the arch two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.' (genesis 6:18ff)
...you are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.'(genesis 6:21)
seven days from now i will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and i will wipe from the earth every living creature i have made’. (genesis 7:1ff)
december 1, 2004
question?
were there no seasons before the flood?
and what about rain?
genesis 2:6, ‘...but mist came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground...’ seems to indicate another type of climate.
without seasons. without rain.
text
...then god said to noah, ‘come out of the arch, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. bring out every kind of living creature that is with you – the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground – so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in numbers on it.’ (genesis 8:15ff)
...the lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart, ‘never again will i curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. and never again will i destroy all living creatures as i have done.
as long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will never cease.’ (genesis 8:21bff)
december 3, 2004
question. did god not give all seed-baring plants and all fruit to man for food. and green plants to the animals?
and here another answer. how was noah able to get the animals into the arch? because animals did not dread man yet.
i guess they probably did not eat each other yet either.
question.
why was the aroma of a burned animal pleasant to god.
what constitutes an offering. what a sacrifice?
what about the sanctity of life in light of these killings?
riding.
albert einstein. jew and physicist. was celebrated 2005 in the einstein year. faz december 1, 2004, ‘...the existence of atoms...the nature of light ...theory of relativity...the formula e=mxc/2.
...as respected professor...second strike of genius...a general theory of relativity, that is the theorie of the force of gravity.’
will have to look up. did the jew, physicist and physiologist, moshe feldenkrais, and his famous compatriot and college working a generation before him, albert einstein, hold views in common? on the force of gravity. on provisions in the body for it.
the theory of gravity.
how to be consciousness of the muscles made in man for it. man’s automatic controls.
which the horse reads instantaniously.
observing a struggle. waiting for life to win. again.
i do feldenkrais’ first exercise ‘moving like a tree in the wind’.
today all horses moving with perfection.
leporello cantering left hand.
text
...then god blessed noah and his sons, saying to them, ‘be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.
...the fear and dread of you will fall upon all beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. everything that lives and moves will be food for you. just as i gave you the green plants, now i give you everything.’(genesis 9:1ff)
...but you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.
and for your lifeblood i will surely demand an accounting.
i will demand an accounting from every animal.
and from each man, too, i will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. (genesis 9:4ff)
...whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of god has god made man. (genesis 9:6)
...as for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it. (genesis (9:7)
december 4, 2004
and so, here now, only after the flood, the final end to paradise.
question upon questions.
give account for my lifeblood, for the lifeblood of my fellowmen? meaning. do not commit suicide? do not kill?
so even for animals. and. what about war?
and deeply, really? the call not to shed blood. because we are made in the image of god! and yet. the blood of god-as-man, was shed some 2.400 years later, with his permission?
increase. to which limit?
text
...then god said to noah and to his sons with him,
‘i now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you – the birds, the lifestock and all the wild animals, all those who came out of the arch with you – every living creature on earth. (genesis 9:8ff)
...i establish my covenant with you: never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.’(genesis 9:11)
december 5, 2004
the rainbow was new. the clouds as well?
frightening to noah and his family?
the open sight of the sun. the shadows.
no longer only day and night.
but seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter.
the rainbow. reassurance after the trauma of the flood.
text
...and god said, ‘this is the sign of the covenant,...a covenant for all generations to come: i have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.(genesis 9:12)
...whenever i bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, i will...remember the everlasting covenant between god and all living creatures of every kind on the earth. (genesis 9:14ff)
...so god said to noah, ‘this is the sign of the covenant i have established between me and all life on the earth.’(genesis 9:17)
december 6, 2004
this is the last of god’s statements recorded in the old testament before the history of the jews begins.
review of dates.
the old testament is believed to be written by moses (or his men) in about 1.500 b.c.
the call of abram, later abraham, 2.000 b.c.
the flood about 2.400 b.c.
creation about 4.000 b.c.
source of information. haley’s bible handbook.
to compare.
the sumerian gilgamesh epos. earliest written historic source. believed to be written about 3.700 b.c. according to modern chemical dating. after a flood. confirms the report of genesis, chapter one to eleven.
december 7, 2004
the record according to the old testament.
genesis 5:1ff.
adam. at 130 has seth. plus 807. dies at 930.
seth. at 105 has enoch. plus 807. dies at 912.
enosh. at 90 has kenan. plus 815. dies at 905.
kenan. at 70 has mahalalel. plus 840. dies 910.
mahalalel. at 65 has jared. plus 830. dies 895.
jared. at 162 has enoch. plus 800. dies at 962.
enoch. at 65 has methuselah. plus 300. at the age of 365 he was no more, because god took him away.
methuselah. at 187 has lamech. plus 782. dies 969.
lamech. at 182 has noah. plus 595. dies at 777.
noah. at 500 became father of shem, ham and japhet.
noah was 600 years old when the flood began.
the flood lasted 150 days. two years later.
genesis 11:10ff.
shem. at age 100 has arphaxad. dies at 500.
arphaxad. at age 35 has shelah. dies at 403.
shelah. at age 30 has eber. dies at 403.
eber. at age 34 has peleg. dies at 430.
peleg. at age 30 has reu. dies at 209.
reu. at age 32 has serug. dies at 207.
serug. at age 32 has nahor. dies at 200.
nahor. at age 29 has terah. dies at 119.
terah. at age 70 has abram. dies at 205.
adding from adam to noah. 1.486 years.
adding from noah to abram. 392 years.
three times fourteen generations are told to have elapsed from abraham to christ.
in approx. numbers. 42x50= 2.100.
review of dates.
the call of abraham. 2100 b.c.
the time of the flood. +392+100= 2.592 b.c.
the creation of adam. +1.486= 4.078 b.c.
these dates vary with the number of years one chooses to contribute to a generation in the time from abraham to christ. the above calculation bases on 50 years for one generation.
text
...the lord said, ‘if as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan will be impossible for them. come let us go down and confuse their language, so they will not understand each other.’ (genesis 11:6)
december 8, 2004
is the text we read in genesis 1 to 11 historic or literary truth?
how many people existed at the time of noah, that is just before the flood?
at the time of the tower of babel?
at the time of abraham?
how was the flow of information among early inhabitants of the earth organized?
before the flood. after the flood. after the tower of babel?
how did population growth develop.
how many children, approximately, did women in the pre-flood era bear? one per year? that is 300? 400? 500?
and after the flood. still 100? 150?
genetically? how can from one set of genes, adam’s, all of humanity come? without signs of damages caused by inbreeding?
and an obvious question. did the egyptian pyramids originate in the pre-flood era?
text
...the lord said to abram, ‘leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land i will show you. (genesis 12:1)
...i will make you into a great nation and i will bless you; i will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. (genesis 12:2)
...i will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you will be cursed; and all peoples on earth shall be blessed through you.’ (genesis 12:3)
december 9, 2004
connect to christ. the message of salvation. the good news of reconciliation.
my husband asked. why do you write this text? why do you sit at the kitchen table every morning.
put this text into my ibook. and. when i come to fix lunch at noon. read it to me?
well. i thought this was obvious.
to connect to christ.
to find out and, in doing so, tell the story of humanity. of creation and salvation.
what is religion? is this religion? is the story of salvation religion?
or fact.
was jesus christ. who often referred to the old testament concerning himself. the one he said he was.
obviously. i have the choice. to believe what i want.
and given the choice. i have. after much consideration. and. after checking out my options. decided. that.
this story is more interesting. more appealing. speaks more to me. than the corny stories of the gilgamesh epos. the theories of hindu faith. the ideas of buddha. the islam rewritings. leave alone the believes and practices of more primitive people, ancient and modern.
having grown up in an atheists’ household.
i know the feeling with nobody there to call upon.
i have seen the abyss.
my parent’s fights and struggles.
my father’s unhappy, early death.
and. the stuggle continued and still goes on.
how god in plural. walks in the garden of eden
and cries out, ‘where are you, man?’
his disappointment. the fact that. from my feelings. i can draw conclusions on god’s feelings.
appeal to me.
and if all is not true after all?
my response.
it still is better to have believed than not.
it is good to know this message of reconciliation.
after i typed these words into the computer i went riding.
later it occurred to me. maybe i should take another approach.
not so personal. one among soon 9000 million.
more formal. according to the rules of accepted discourse.
lay out the pros and cons. forget not the scientific aspects. steven hawkins. the dinasours.
better yet. keep your mouth shut.
acknowledge the ways of the world. go. decorate your christmas tree. shop. join the small talk.
don't mention. christ.
be peaceful. loving. discreet.
and yet. there is something compelling about the truth. something that lasts longer and goes further than the rest of life.
text
...the lord appeared to abraham and said, ‘to your offspring will i give this land.’ (genesis 12:7)
...the lord said to abram after lot had parted from him,
‘ lift up your eyes from where you are and look north, south, east and west. all the land that you see i will give to you and your offspring forever.
...i will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring would be counted.
...go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for i am giving it to you.’ (genesis 13:14)
december 11, 2004
pinochio.
if i remain firmy seated on the no-saddle. stretch and synchronize the turning of my lowest full ribs at th10/th11 with his back.
keep my legs at the 10th and 11th ribs.
put my heels down. never ever touching him to push on.
he lifts himself up and begins to flow. telling me a secret. which to discover i have set out.
text
...after this, the word of the lord came to abram in a vision: ‘do not be afraid abram. i am your shield, your very great reward.’(genesis 15:1)
...then the word of the lord came to him: ‘this man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.’(genesis 15:4)
...he took him outside and said: ‘look up at the heavens and count the stars – if indeed you can count them.’(genesis 15:5)
...then he said to him, ‘so shall your offspring be.’(genesis 15:5b)
...he also said to him, ‘i am the lord, who brought you out of ur of the chaldeans to give you this land to take posession of it.’ (genesis 15:7)
april 17, 2005
there is this observation again. of the horses setting me back. in the soft no-saddle. which has no rim in the back. when they begin to get strength and go forward.
the same is mentioned in the paper about the caprilli seat. that seat discovered by a young italian officer. at the end of the 19th century. in response to the faster rectangular horse. which so often is warped in its frame.
to me it requires analysis.
in the no-saddle i remain seated. my seat bones. no longer touch the horse between th12/13. but somewhere further back. in the area that has no nerve correspondance. to the rider’s body.
the horses reponds by lifting this area. they do not seem bothered.
to me the rider. it provides another sense. which corresponds to forward only. that is. as long as the horse is pushing forward. setting me back. we are going forward only. collection and bending have to wait. and i do not need the functions. in my body. which work only. when i sit supright and stretched at th12/13.
does the caprille seat. normally done in traditional saddles. which distribute the riders weight from c. th9-15. have the same result. of moving the rider’s weight. on the horse’s backbone back. if yes, exactly how?
is it better. or not as good. for horses. especially young horses? to use a traditionally stiff saddle. better or not as good for the rider of the forward going horse? in jumping?
what happens in respect to making. and keeping the horse straight?
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...so the lord said to him, ‘bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.’(genesis 15:9)
...then the lord said to him, ‘know for certain that your descendants will be stangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.(genesis 15:13)
...but i will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great posessions.(genesis 15:14)
...you, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age.(genesis 15:15)
...in the forth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the amorites has not yet reached its full measure.(genesis 15:16)
...on that day the lord made a covenant with abram and said, ‘to your descendants i give this land, from the river of egypt to the great river, the euphrates – the land of the kenites, kenizzites, kadmonites, hitties, perizzites, rephaites, amorites, canaanites, girgashites and jebusites.’(genesis 15:18ff)
december 12, 2004
four generations. fourhundred years.
makes sense when people reach the age of two-hundred.
how many years passed from the building of the tower of babel. to the time when god called abram and asked him to leave ur?
150? 200?
abram’s home town ur, in his time, a cultural center with temples, schools, libraries...
humanity developing mightily and at good speed?
god gave the land between nile and euphrates to abram and his descendants by the promised son isaak.
the tribes living in the ‘promised land’ then.
did they follow the command, which god renewed after the destruction of the tower of babel.
‘go and inhabit the earth’?
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...when abram was ninety-nine (that is, thirteen years after hagar, the egyptian maid, bore his son ishmael, of whom was prophesied: “he will be a wild donkey of a man...’), the lord appeared to him and said, ‘i am god almighty; walk before me and be blameless. i will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.
(genesis 17:1ff)
...as for me, this is my covenant with you: you will be the father of many nations. no longer will you be called abram; your name will be abraham, for i have made you a father of many nations. (genesis 17:4ff)
...i will make you very fruitful; i will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. i will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your god and the god of your descendants after you. (genesis 17:6ff)
...the whole land of canaan, where you are now an alien, i will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and i will be their god’. (genesis 17:8)
december 15, 2004
riding out on secret taboo. the big black powerful english thoroughbred mare. i noticed a new reaction.
if i stretch my left back muscles across the dt. ‘dermatomes’ l1 to l5. she stretches her muscles across l1 to l5. same side. thus bringing the croup to the right side.
a small yet distinct move. both in me. and in her. after that. in the canter her back came up. unlike before.
today i tried the concept on pinochio, mira, leporello and zola emile. they all liked it. they all responded exactly alike. swinging the croup to the side. that is, going to bend in the ribs of the flexible middle section of their vertebrae.
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...then god said to abraham, ‘as for you, you must keep my covenant...(this is the covenant)...you are to keep: every male among you shall be circumcised. you shall undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. (genesis 17:9ff)
...for the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner – those who are not your offspring. (genesis 17:12ff)
...whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. my covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant (genesis 17:13)
january 7, 2005
these past more than twenty darkest days of the year i made a mistake.
i forgot to trust god. and felt aweful. and yet. his grace was sufficient for me?!
today i am back. ready to train my horses.
as i write. i watch. on arte. an extraordinarily beautiful film of china.
oh, the shape of these mountains!
of baby dromedars and falcons. of small chinese horse’s and their rider’s.
sitting on them exactly as we do. out there under the wide open skies.
and longing strikes. of another. a more generous.
a yet wider open world.
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...then god said to abraham, ‘as for sarai, your wife, you shall not call her name sarai, but sarah shall be her name. and i will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings and peoples shall come from her.’ (genesis 17:15ff).
...but god said, ‘ no, but sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name isaac; and i will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.
...and as for ishmael, i have heared you; behold i will bless him, and will make him fruitful, and he will multiply exceedingly. he shall become the father of twelve princes, and will make him a great nation.
...but my covenant i will establish with isaac, whom sarah will bear to you at this season next year. (genesis 17:19ff)
january 14, 2005
i do not understand the implications, for instance, of the temple (neither the one in heaven, nor its earthly copy) that, built by king solomon in ....a.d., stood in jerusalem until it was destroyed in ....b.c.
is the knowledge of this temple, its layout and design, its customs, rules and regulations (taken the fact that it was build to duplicate a heavenly reality) still required knowledge today?
is this temple not part of the law. the law which jesus, god-as-man, said, is only a shadow of the good things to come (and that have come since?). only a shadow, not the thing itself.
and yet i would like to understand.
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...and the lord said to abraham, ‘why did sarah laugh, saying, “shall i indeed bear a child, when i am so old?” is anything too difficult for the lord?’
...and he said, ‘no, but you did laugh’.
january 20, 2005
there is, on one hand, this exhileratingly, infuriatingly lovely, and yet, mysterious person. who, speaking of life’s issues, aims at over-throwing the physical, the ‘worldly’ world, on one hand, and yet seems to aim at establishing an emotional ‘human’ world, which both satisfies and sanctifies, on the other.
a man (seperated from me through time, made known to me in literatur, and known to me through the presence of the holy spirit) to touch, to hold on to, to love. to walk with and speak to. to admire and be loyal to. one such man for all of humanity.
and then there is this other ‘persona’, or better yet, ‘circumstance’ (much harder to grasp), a kind of ‘state of existence’ referred to as the ‘word,’ by and through which all things that exist, exist, and are held together.
a ‘cosmic glue’, so to speak (or shall we say an ‘omnipotent magnet’), that keeps things in place and in proper relation to each other. on all physical levels, from the smallest particle to the largest solar-system. gravity as a person, so to speak.
and then there is this ‘warrior’, a person made of something lighter than light, that will come to this orbit to bring justice and, again (after the devestations of the flood) destruction, before the arrival of a new order of things.
god, how can man, with his limitations, grasp these three, so very different concepts, of just one of three concepts of you: the son? what is man’s proper practical response, to these concepts and to the many practical things that this exhileratingly, infuriatingly lovely, and yet, mysterious person taught?
i am afraid god, i will need help to deal with these questions.
and to transport their answers.
his immediately answer: ‘remember, kid, all is well’.
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...and the lord said, “shall i hide from abraham what i am about to do, since abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth shall be blessed?
...for i have chosen him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the ways of the lord by doing righteousness and justice; in order that the lord may bring upon abraham what he has spoken about him.
...and the lord said, ‘the outcry of sodom and gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. i will go down now, and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry, which has come to me; and if not, i will know.’
(genesis 18:17ff)
january 21, 2005
this dark, stormy, exceedingly long winter night, i happened upon another of my ‘american’ books. it is the small volumn ‘a grief observed’ by the english author c.s. lewis, which, writing it, helped him to deal with the loss of his beloved wife after only four years of happy adult marriage.
i must thank god for this little book at just this time, although there is no bereavement through death involved in my case.
i quote from page 81 of 89.
‘when i lay these questions before god i get no answer. but a rather special sort of “no answer”. it is not the locked door. it is more like a silent, certainly not uncompassionate, gaze. as though he shook his head not in refusal but waiving the question. like, “peace, child; you don’t understand”.
can a mortal ask questions, which god finds unanswerable? quite easily, i should think. all nonsense questions are unanswerable. how many hours are there in a mile? is yellow square or round? probably half the questions we ask – half of our great theological and metaphysical problems – are like that.’
and on page 83.
‘and, more than once, that impression which i can’t describe except by saying its like the sound of a chuckle in the dark. the sense that some shattering and disarming simplicity is the real answer.’
page 85
‘...it’s the quality of last night’s experience – not what it proves, but what it was – that makes it worth putting down. it was quite incredibly unemotional. just the impression of her mind momentarily facing my own. mind, not ‘soul’ as we tend to think of soul. certainly the reverse of what is called ‘soulful’. not at all a rapturous reunion of lovers. much more like getting a telephone call or a wire from her about some practical arrangement. not that there was a ‘message’ – just intelligence and attention. no sense of joy or sorrow. no love even, in our ordinary sense. no un-love.
i had never in any mood imagined the dead as being so – well, so business-like. yet there was an extreme and cheerful intimacy. an intimacy that has not passed through the senses or the emotions at all.’
‘....wherever it came from, it has made a sort of spring cleaning in my mind. the dead could be like that; sheer intellects. a greek philospher wouldn’t have been surprised at an experience like mine. he would have expressed that if anything of us remained after death it would be just that. up to now this always seemed to me a most arid and chilling idea. the absence of emotion repelled me. but in this contact (whether real or apparent) it didn’t do anything of the sort. one didn’t need emotion. the intimacy was complete – sharply bracing and restorative too – without it. can that intimacy be love itself – always in this life attended with emotion, not because it itself is an emotion, or needs an attendant emotion, but because our animal souls, our nervous systems, our imaginations, have to respond to it (to love) in this way? if so, how many preconceptions must i scrap! a society, a communion, of pure intelligences would not be cold, drab and comfortless. on the other hand it would not be very like what people usually mean when they use such words as ‘spiritual’, or ‘mystical’. or ‘holy’. it would, if i have had a glimps, be – well, i’m almost scared at the adjectives i’d have to use. brisk? cheerful? keen? alert? intense? wide-awake? above all, solid. utterly reliable. firm. there is no nonsense about the dead.
when i say ‘intellect’ i include will. attention is an act of will. intelligence in action is will par excellence. what seemed to meet me was full of resolution.’
c.s. lewis concludes the desciption of this experience with the question he poses to his dead wife, ‘...come to me when i too am on my death bed’. ‘allowed!’ she says...
i must thank god, and c.s. lewis, and who ever else is responsible, for this text at this time. it greatly encourages me that at least one other human being, and if only this one, shares my thoughts and inclinations. and more so, to find him spell out what, only in the process of his spelling out, comes to the foreground of my thinking. even if it has existed in my mind, as a living breathing reality, from day one.
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...so the lord said, ‘if i find in sodom fifty righteous within the city, then i will spare the whole place on their account.’
(genesis 18:26)
...and he said, ‘i will not do it on account of the fourty'.
(genesis 18:29)
...and he said, ‘i will not do it if i find thirty there’.
(genesis 18:30)
...and he said, ‘i will not do it on account of twenty’.
(genesis 18:31)
...and he said, ‘i will not destroy it on account of the ten’.
(genesis 18:32)
febuary 3, 2005
these exceedingly dreadful, cold winter days 2005 i find it hard to focus on anything, also on the nature and message of christ. i just put the finishing touches on (it may only be the first part of) ' how to ride the horse' , so one reason may be the brain power writing this book took up. and not riding due to bad weather doesn't help either.
something interesting, funny almost, occurred these cold winter days, thinking, writing, not riding. my body reorganised. and much against my expectation, it was especially the lower right leg, that apparently needed it.
the reorganisation began with penny-size inflammations at the place the tendons attach to the wrists and to the ellbows. while this was going on and the inflammations changed, very methodically, to the middle of the tendons between wirsts and ellbows, a similar thing stared in the lower legs. resulting in several big inflammations in the right lower leg. one needs to consider, that i broke my right foot several years age. it may have been a result of that fracture and the subsequent period of limping. in any rate. the reorganisation is done. today all is well again, as the last traces of these inflammations disapear. what it all means? i have no idea. it must have to do with the feldenkrais lessons. forcing them, maybe, inattentivly.
at the same time my heart hurts, suffering from loneliness.
to level the thing: these miserable winter days, the pains of reorganization in my body, the concentration on writing which, after all, is still new to me, and this nagging longing to never feel lonely again, i thought of something.
i began to list the character and call of jesus as reflected in his statements recorded by luke. not a listing of what he said, but my summary of what i think he expressed in these statements. for sure, some of my evaluations are off, but this summary helps me to focus on him. whose life and life's expression so interest me. a project soon again abandoned. and helpful yet. it became the preparation for 'renew-anew'. a website retelling the new testament in modern terms.
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…but god came to abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, 'you are as good as dead because of the woman, you have taken. she is a married woman'. (genesis 20:3)
…then god said to him in the dream, 'yes, i know, you did this with a clear conscience. and so i have kept you from sinning against me. that is why i did not let you touch her.
now return the man's wife, for he is a prophet. and he will pray for you and you will live. but if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all yours will die'. (genesis 20:6ff)
march 10, 2005
the loss of a friend. writing, telling, sticking to the truth. will be more difficult now. no longer so obviously. necessary.
as i sit. emotions rise. and a tear slowly moves down my face.
i wonder if not time has come. to learn a lesson. and be healed.
to understand the suffering of the soul. be healed of it. once and for all.
and not long after. i began to understand the faith. that tells the mountain. to through itself into the see.
this frustration. with our world. the way it is. ruled by the corporate world. how it eats elites. how it turns around itself. for money. an equivilant mistaken for the real thing. for value.
going for strange goals. purposefully creating a modern. stupified. society. void of purpose. forgotten the one who multiplies the loaves.
so how to continue. without this friend. lost to the corporate world. i so distain. how speak to a stupified people. one of which i might be also, after all. how make sense of this emotional mess?
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…but god said to him, 'do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. listen to what sarah tells you, because it is through isaak that your off-spring will be reckoned. i will make the son of your maidservant into a nation also, because he is your offspring'. (genesis 21:12)
…god heard the boy crying, and the angel of god called to hagar from heaven and said to her, 'what is the matter, hagar? do not be afraid. god has heard the boy crying as he lies there. lift the boy up and take him by the hand. for i will make him into a great nation'. (genesis 21:17)
march 13, 2005
and i came up with the idea to begin a 'campaigne renew-anew' directed towards the corporate world.
learn all about ceos and cfos, their new dynamic interaction. about marketing, brands, customer equity. missing still the information on why what is produced where. the obvious discrepancy between the one, the manager level and the other, the production level. two worlds seemingly unrelated? where, how do they interface?
i know. only a provocation.
i should begin the analysis of the corporate world in my own household. which goods fill it? where do they come from. do they relate to my needs. do they fulfill my needs?
the corporate world is about products as much as it is about a communal work effort, organized in a particular authority structure, geared towards profit. acting on customer demand? not really. simultaneously maniputating this demand.
in this process common sense. and the interrelation of participants seems to have been lost. and with it rule has left man’s hand. question? which percentage of products and services existent today satisfy human need. how to define human need.
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…some time later god tested abraham and said to him,
'abraham!'. (genesis 22:1)
…then god said, 'take your son, your only son isaak, whom you love and go to the region of moriah. sacrifice him there as a burned offering on one of the mountains i will tell you about.' (genesis 22:2)
…but the angel of the lord called out to him from heaven, 'abraham! abraham! do not lay hand on him'. (genesis 22:11/12)
…he said, 'do not do anything to him. now i know that you fear god, because you have not withheld from him your son. your only son. (genesis 12:12)
march 13, 2005
an interesting experience sitting on the horse today. looking at something and sharpening my eyes on it. focusing. the horse goes straight-away towards the thing my eyes are sharpened on.
after the reorganisation of my muscle systems (see febuary 3, 2005) i timidly, and not immediately, began to learn feldenkrais' next exercise: de-stressing the autonomous muscles, de-stressing false unconscious muscle activity. not clear to me which is which (this was the question. which i was unable. to answer. in 'how to ride the horse').
the result. my original problem. a curvature of the spine at th9 (that is at the height of the diaphragm). reactivated and began to hurt.
solved instantaniously by one of the zilgrei excercises. yet another modern movement. respecting the human vertebra. adding breathing technics. geared toward the relief of pain.
both feldenkrais and zilgrei speak of an interrelation in the human. of muscle systems and the activity of the eyes. and yet, how did zola now. which way i was looking. what made him follow me, sitting on his back, in the direction i was focusing? a wonder.
and yet. it makes sense. that the horse. made for man. automatically should go into the direction. the rider looks.
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…that night the lord appeared to isaak and said, ‘i am the god of your father abraham. do not be afraid, for i am with you; i wll bless you and will increase the numbers of your descendants for the sake of my servant abraham’. (genesis 26:23)
…the angels of god were ascending and descending on it. there above stood the lord and said, ‘i am the lord, the god of your father abraham and the lord of your father isaac. i will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.
your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. all peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. i am with you and will watch over you whereever you go, and i will bring you back to this land. i will not leave you until i have done what i have promised you. (genesis 28:12ff)
march 18, 2005
the uprighness of the spine. achieved by tucking under the sacrum. also causes the shoulders to drop.
turning the upper body. in the spot. the diaphragm attaches to the vertebra. the turn. becomes easier. more fluent.
an improved sense of balance. a detension of autonomous muscles (the feldenkrais exercise, i am just beginning). make for improved body language. verified by the horses. loud and clear.
now it is only a race with time. to make the horses better. i am starting the shoulder-in.
time to work on the questions of ‘dates and numbers’. time to answer them. not to forget a didactic to teach riding. to young professionals. who will. as a result. hopefully. do their job. more in line with how the horse is made. in their efforts to train them.
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…then the lord said to jacob, ‘go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives and i will be with you’. (genesis 31:3)
…the angel of the lord said to jacob in a dream, ‘look up and see that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled or spotted, for i have seen all that laban has been doing to you.
i am the god of bethel, where you annointed a pillar and made a vow to me. now leave this land at once and go back to your native land. (genesis 31:11ff)
…god came to laban, the aramean in a dream at night and said to him, ‘be careful not to say anything to jacob, either good or bad’. (genesis 31:24)
march 22, 2005
an interesting breeding theory. jacob followed. to get the best of laban’s. his exploitative father-in-law’s animals. on agreement. all colored animals were removed from laban’s stock and became jacob’s possession.
jacob continues to herd laban’s remaining stock. he took poplar branches and marked them. peeling off stipes of bark. and placed them in the watering troughs.
as the animal came in to drink. mating at the troughs. looking at the branches. marked with stripes. they bore off-spring marked with stripes.
he then proceeded to put the marked branches only before laban’s strongest, healthiest animals. receiving strong healthy colored stock. to keep for himself.
where these different times. people still living to a good old age. creation still young? interesting that just the eyes should have done it?
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…the man (whom jacob wrestled with) asked him, ‘what is your name?’
…then the man said, ‘your name will no longer be jacob, but israel, because you have struggled with god and with men and have overcome’.
…but he (the man) replied, ‘why do you ask my name? (genesis 32:27ff)
november 15, 2005
(more than half a year later)
after this last entry i wrote several more entries reflecting on various subject matter relating to riding, economy and the history of creation. but they were lacking in interest. the type of writing that repeats instead of telling.
so, i cut them. full well realizing, that it had been my plan (and in a sense a contract) to record the ‘…and god said’ statements of a text, which is referred to as the old testament. this contract i violated when i continued to make personal entries but omitted to enter the real information.
why did i not continue the ‘…and god said’ statements? for one, i, again, encountered the presence of this man, who replied, ‘why do you ask my name?’ on the other hand, the text, now working up to joseph in egypt, and to moses, leading the jewish people (the people of god) out of egypt.
and with it, this text begins to tell the story of humanity. a story which i know, just from looking around and watching the news. what remains is to understand the law. for, after all, not one dot of the law shall be removed or become invalid.
One needs to understand, that….this man, who answered ‘why do you ask my name’, came to fulfill this law, in grace.
Postscript
spring came, riding restarted and with it the time to write came to a griding halt.
editing, illustrations and translations of a text about the elements of riding continued throughout summer and… continues still. as did plans to formalize the ideas for a research of the history of creation.
simultaniously i am begin to seek partners for a school of equitation, which, to avoid performance parameters, may well continue as scientific research. and, who knows, we may discover how the uprightness of the human vertebra, the so called horse’s tail within the human, and riding relate. and doing so shedding light on a fundamental issues in the creation of man.
and again god’s humor strikes me. the unity of horse and rider, the ideal of the centaur. man and horse being one. the perfection of human/equine nerve correlations is signified by what looks like a horse’s tail in the human spine. one more of a thousand proofs of creation. for those who have the eyes to see.
why is god angry with his creation? and, who pleases him today? i leave the answer to you, my reader.
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