365 Meditations on the Kolbrin: Soul Call Series, #2

By Scott Brooks Jr.

     My first book, A Soul Call from Prison:  How Yoga and Taoism Cured My Crises with Cocaine and Christianity, covered how I survived 23 years in federal prison using various forms of meditation to cope with the experience.  There, I quoted passages from an obscure book that provided me with many answers I had been seeking.  This scripture revealed God in a way I could understand.  The words were like a ringing bell rousing me from a deep sleep.  It confronted and conquered, the contradictions and paradoxes, I encountered with religion as a child.  It provided insight into my suffering, showed me how to start a spiritual quest, and gave practical advice for feeling better.  Most importantly, it inspired me.  It did then, and it continues to every time I pick it up.  The Kolbrin might be the best scripture you've never read.

     For those receiving their first exposure to the Kolbrin, I feel a father's joy in watching his children unwrap gifts.  The world deserves to know about this book, and I hope my small effort will shed light on it.    I modeled 365 Meditations after the Daily Bread magazine format, which features Bible verses and accompanying lessons, along with instructions, stories, inspiration, and commentaries.  The Daily Bread is designed to help the reader start each morning with a spiritual mindset.  Reading a section fortifies you to face the day's hardships.  Likewise, this book has been divided into short sections.  Each one takes a passage from the Kolbrin and reflects upon it.  The book covers meditation, its importance and how to implement it.      

     This book is for the newcomer or backslider to spiritual life.  It gives daily insights for one to draw closer to a spiritual awakening. This book will show you how to get started, offer a helping hand when you feel down, and motivate you when you feel lazy.  You can read it all at once, in chunks, or place it in the bathroom and read when you are guaranteed a few minutes' privacy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: A Look Inside Personal Growth LLC
• Release date: Jul 11, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215718704

Scott Brooks Jr.

Brooks used various forms of meditation to survive 23 years in federal prison.  During that time, he found much inspiration from the collected works of the Kolbrin.  He hopes his writing will help his readers through any ordeal they face.

Book preview

Day 1

Book of Wisdom: 1:1 :  The only way a man can become awakened spiritually is to know his true nature and to strive for communication with the Spiritual Realm.  This can best be achieved by meditation, or perhaps 'mindfulness' expresses it better.  This is a state of conscious awareness of all the potentialities within man; the ability to cut off all material disturbances and to bring the spirit into harmonious relationship with a higher, more compatible realm.  It means gaining complete mastery over all material impulses, urges and desires.

Today, we begin our 365-day journey.  It will require you to investigate the nature of spiritual practice.  What is it?  Why is meditation important to it?  You will learn that some sort of meditation practice lies at the heart of all True religions.  With your daily reading, I challenge you to set aside fifteen minutes for meditation.  By the end of the year, work towards one hour per day—either, sitting once for sixty minutes, or twice per day for thirty minutes, each session.

Throughout the book, I will suggest different techniques to try, but for now, let's keep it simple.  If you already have a method you like, continue with it.  Just do it more frequently, for longer periods.  If you're new to meditation, try this:  Sit still, in an upright position, and follow your breath.  You can do it in a chair with your butt slid forward on the seat.  Don't lean against the back rest.  Sit on a pillow or place a blanket underneath you, to raise the hips higher than the knees.  This will alleviate strain on the lower back.  If you already have a meditation posture—like:  cross legged, full lotus, on your back, or standing, use that, or you can experiment to find your comfort zone.  Just make sure you can stay awake, if you use a prone position.  (Refer to Figures 1 & 2)

Keep your mouth closed and breathe through the nostrils.  Use the mouth only when you're congested.  Watch the breath as it enters and watch it as you exhale.  Taste it.  Feel it.  Stay present with it.  It's simple.  Continue to bring your concentration back to the breath every time you realize you've lost focus, or a new thought arises.  Fixate on the breath's sound as it swirls in and out.

Why not give it a try right now?  We'll talk more about it later.

Figure 1:  Meditation Seating Options

Day 2

Book of Morals and Precepts 36:5:  Joy and sorrow are inseparable companions, one reveals the other.  They enter your life together and thenceforth keep the watches with you.  Always one remains by your side, while the other sleeps.

Buddhists use an analogy to describe emotional fluctuation.  It also applies to the disturbances in concentration that occur while meditating, but it equally relates to how the mind alternates from periods of joy to sorrow, and back again.  They represent these shifts as crests and dips on a graph.   

All lives shift with ups and downs.  The mind and body strive to balance these fluctuations with a return to equilibrium.  Obviously, we seek fast relief from the sorrowful periods, but even joy can upset balance.  Think about how intense excitement has a sort of manic quality to it.  The more animated the happiness is, the more, false it feels, and the bigger the letdown, when it doesn't provide lasting satisfaction. 

Bipolar disorder's symptoms emphasize how a person can crash from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other, from manic periods down to suicidal depression and back. When someone goes through a joyous time and starts to return to equilibrium, he or she has to dip below the line to an equally inverse degree, before rising back towards evenness.  Meditation teaches one how to refrain from magnifying the highs and lows.  The experiences are endured without intensifying them.  So, the dips and crests get smaller, and the wave line begins to resemble the equilibrium line.

Long-term meditators understand that the best way to live is to ride the Z-line.  This comes through constant effort at sitting, thinking, and living in the present moment.  When happy times come, practitioners smile and enjoy them, but they don't jump and scream like the person who just heard his name called on The Price is Right.  When darkness comes, they face it with courage, but they don't roll on the ground and cry, like the guy who just found out he's the baby-daddy on Maury.  They treat life experiences the way they've learned to treat thoughts in meditation.  They watch the joys and sorrows arise and sink without undue attachment.

Day 3

Book of Wisdom 11:8 :  When men are half-hearted in a cause or indifferent about the achievement of its objective, they are denied a true leader.  If the leader is blind, he and those who follow him will end up in the ditch.  The true leader is a man to whom all who follow him can look up in every way.

This sounds like part of Christ's Sermon on the Mount:

And he spoke a parable to them:'Can the blind lead the blind?Will they not both fall into the ditch?A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.'Luke 6:39-40

The crossover and parallels between the world's great scriptures are abundant.  I often wonder how some of the same metaphors, parables, and wisdom ended up in different writings, from various cultures, separated by oceans or thousands of miles.  Obviously, through economic trade, information traded as well, but Truth is universal.  Many of these ideas become self-evident to the spiritually aware.  No matter where a person lives, they have the ability to access the same Source as everyone else.

Day 4

Book of Morals and Precepts 61:11:  Prayer, as it should be, is followed by a profound peace, a spiritual uplifting and a feeling of inner quietude, as though a cool clean breeze sweeps into the spirit, strengthening and reviving it so that clear thinking follows naturally.

More often than not, meditation will leave you in a similar mental state; however, if at times, especially in the beginning, your practice makes you feel worse at the end of a sit than you did at the beginning—Don't worry!  In the beginning, anger or other unresolved feelings may simmer below the surface.

Many people are numb from the constant stimuli modern humans experience.  Television, music, internet, sugar, caffeine, alcohol, or worse, all work to cloud subconscious feelings, by changing body chemistry or distracting lucidity.  A beginner might not be aware of the heavy emotions waiting for an opportunity to express consciously.

When you meditate, the process gives those negativities an opportunity to vent.  The emotions become more visible, easier to access, and your subconscious seizes the moment to clean itself.  If this happens, you might cry for no reason or feel unjustified, murderous rage bubble, from what seems like nowhere.  When this occurs, don't magnify the pain by feeling guilt.  Just try to be present, while understanding you're not a bad person or a failure at meditation, and allow the dirty feelings to work through you.

I've seen tough guys in prison start blubbering like women watching a Nicholas Spark's movie, with snot bubbles and squeals only dogs can hear, when they hit an emotional release in meditation.  It's a healthy thing to experience.  It allows toxic emotions to be shed and is as cleansing to the mind as an enema is to the bowels, but you may need a shower after both.

Day 5

Book of Morals and Precept’s 36:12: As a man is less aware of perfect health than of the slightest malady, so does the greatest joy move him less than the smallest sorrow.  Man is the slave of pain and the plaything of pleasure.

What a great reminder to practice gratitude.  I never truly evaluated the things I had until suffering entered my life.  Before my arrest, I had a long list of complaints and grievances.  My anger simmered like five-alarm chili in a crock pot.  I believed the world hadn't furnished everything it owed me, but I had an easy, loving childhood and never known real pain before incarceration.

Prison provided me more time for self-reflection than most people could ever understand.  When I looked back on life, I began to recognize the love support and opportunities I had squandered—or wasn't able to enjoy—because bitterness and entitlement had been in the way.  I also saw that, while I couldn't retrieve the things and people I had lost, I could try to be more grateful for what was in front of me.

I reviewed my life and listed the things I felt blessed for having.  The funny thing about constantly looking for reasons to be grateful is that once you start, you never run out of them.  When your heart is inflated with gratitude, it makes it so much easier to bob, like a cork, on the waters of adversity.

Day 6

Book of Lucius 8:2 -3:  "Within the seed of man, there is the life potential which has an affinity with the life breath impregnating the Lower Sphere.  And this, when two complementary life pulses unite, causes generation of life.  The new being grows within the womb by dividing within itself into particles too small for the eye to see, and these arrange themselves so as to form a copy of the model contained in the soul-seed.

Nature composes the body in the likeness contained in the soul-seed, according to the law of affinity, and each new being attracts or repels certain elements and conditions according to its destiny.  Affinity and destiny act in such a way that no two persons are compounded and blended alike.  Everyone is different, down to the smallest particle of his being.

Watson and Crick get the credit today for the discovery of DNA and its double-helix structure, but it sounds like someone else really deserves the honor.  This passage—written by a druid in England, before the second century of the Common Era—shows our ancestors held this knowledge in a time long before modern man.  These amazing people had some understanding of genetics and cell mitosis.  In many ways, these people had more knowledge than society gives them credit for having.  They certainly had a better understanding of how one should live his or her life, than most people today.

Day 7

Book of Morals and Precepts 38:10:  Of what good are gold and silver when an abundance cause so much wickedness?  Have they not stripped countless women of their virtue?  The metals the Great God placed in the bosom of Earth to save man have become his master, but blame not the metals, for they of themselves are neutral. 

Greed can overcome reason easily.  I had little qualms about selling marijuana.  I believe the federal government will legalize it eventually, but when I started slinging, I knew the risks.  My greed overcame all fears of potential consequences.  My conscience didn't bother me when I moved ecstasy and pills, either.  So, I understand the lure money has on people. 

Black Elk, a participant at Little Big Horn, spoke about the white man's greed for gold in his book, Black Elk Speaks:

We camped a while to eat, and then went up the Smoky Earth, two camps, to Robinson, for we were afraid of the soldiers up there.  Afterward, I learned that it was Pahuska [Long Hair.  Lakota name for General George Custer] who had led his soldiers into the Black Hills that summer to see what he could find.  He had no right to go in there, because all that country was ours.  Also, the Wasichus [white men] had made a treaty with Red Cloud (1868) that said it would be ours as long as grass should grow and water flow.  Later, I learned too that Pahuska had found there much of the yellow rocks that makes the Wasichus crazy; and that is what made the bad trouble; just as it did before, when the hundred were rubbed out.  Our people knew there was yellow metal in little chunks up there; but they did not bother with it; because it was not good for anything.[1]

As an old man, the shaman recounted his sadness over a lost way:

As I told you, it was the summer of my twentieth year (1883) that I performed the ceremony of the elk.  That fall, they say, the last of the bison herds were slaughtered by the Wasichus.  I remember when the bison were so many that they could not be counted, but more and more Wasichus came to kill them until there were only heaps of bones scattered where they used to be.  The Wasichus did not kill to eat; they killed them for the metal that makes them crazy, and they took only the hides to sell.  Sometimes, they did not even take the hides, only the tongues; and I have heard that fir-boats came down the Missouri River loaded with dried bison tongues.  You can see that the men who did this were crazy.  Sometimes, they did not even take the tongues; they just killed and killed because they like to do that.  When we hunted bison, we only killed what we needed.  And when there was nothing left but heaps of bones, the Wasichus came and gathered up even the bones and sold them.[2]

SHOULDN'T WE LEARN from the past? Blue Fin Tuna will face the same fate as the buffalo if change isn't made.  A single fish fetches tens of thousands on the sushi market, causing them to be rapidly overfished.

I challenge you to think of one small way you could get by with less.  Even better, find a way to share a portion of your abundance with someone else.

Day 8

Book of Morals and Precepts 52:8:  When you savor the delightful ripeness of fig or orange, covenant with it in your heart, saying, 'This life that dwells in you I absorb into my body as a sacrifice at the altar of life.  As you were sacrificed to me in the name of life, so shall I sacrifice to life.  The tree that would have been your resurrection shall grow within my spirit and bring forth the fruit of benevolence and joy.  The delightful fruit which would have been your offspring shall grow to maturity as fragrant thoughts within my heart.  The sweet perfume which would have been windborne from your blossoms shall flow from my lips as the nectar of kindness and affection.  You have not been destroyed wantonly but joined to a greater stream of life.

Various cultures and religions have all spawned methods for blessing food.  When you say grace, you create a perfect pause, a time to take note, an opportunity to realize your needs are being met and to feel gratitude for that fact.  It shapes a positive mind-set before you dine and aids digestion.

Most Buddhists lean towards atheism, but they still engage in a unique way of blessing their meals.  They stop for a few minutes before eating and think about all the energy that went into providing the food on their plate.  They visualize the soil supporting the seeds, the sun and water sparking growth, and think about the labor from the farmers and harvesters.  Buddhists ponder every step necessary to fill their bellies:  transportation, processing, preparation, all the way down to the poor schmuck stuck with dish duty.  Ultimately, they appreciate the tremendous energy required to feed a person.  Once they've created that mind-state, they smile with thanks and eat.

Native Americans also bless their food in a unique way by contemplating their place in life's wheel.  As natives harvest herbs, vegetables, and fruit, they apologize to the plants for any injury they cause.  They tell the plants they only take what they need to survive.  They also promise that one day, after their own deaths, they will return to the soil and provide nourishment for future plants.  Native tribes use a similar approach when taking animal life.  They believe they have a responsibility to not take more than they need and to feel reverence towards the life sacrificed to nourish their own.

Find a personal way to be thankful for the way your needs are met.  Taste every bite, chew it well, and stay present while you eat.

Then, when you're done, if you have the talent, salute the chef like a proper Frenchman.  I recommend belching, Thank you, it was delicious.

Day 9

Book of Morals and Precepts 2:34:  A word of encouragement to a man in distress is of more value to our God than loud praises in His temple.  He does not take all and remain mute.  He seeks not gifts with no purpose, or wasteful sacrifices.  What can man give that will add to his glory?  What thing fashioned by man could benefit the One God who by taking thought could create a universe?

I've never been good with giving compliments, patting backs, or being a shoulder to cry on.  Today, I find myself in the position of helping men who become vulnerable when they reach a point in their meditation practices.  Sooner or later, pent emotions get released.  These guys are hardened convicts and alpha males.  Most feel uncomfortable being so exposed with me, as we talk about stuff arising during their practice.

The main thing this experience has taught me is how much we are all alike.  It defies race, upbringing, culture, and environment.  We all hurt in the same ways and are seeking freedom from similar pain.  We want to feel accepted, appreciated, understood, and loved.  There's nothing more important for a human to realize than his connection to others.  It's the only way for compassion to grow.  Hate is the child of separation.  Communing with our fellow man is the best way to commune with God.

Day 10

Book of Morals and Precepts 34:23:  Truth is not with man, nor of the Earth.  It is with God alone, and when man sees Truth in its purity, he will see God.

A Zen parable, making frequent appearances in kung fu movies, shows a prospective student sitting across from a master.  While the teacher pours tea into the student's cup, the newcomer gives the monk an exhaustive speech concerning his spiritual background.

The younger man says, "I've read various books on Buddhism and memorized the Heart Sutra.  I've attended several yoga retreats and meditate daily.  I think I hold a pretty good grasp on the concepts of practice.  I don't eat meat and try to treat others kindly.  I just need you to fill in a few gaps.  I already understand...."

The man pauses mid-sentence as he realizes the master is still pouring tea, even though it spills over the rim, onto the table.

Master, my cup is full.

The master sets the kettle down beside the cup.

You are correct, and the full cup can receive no tea.

A person on the spiritual path needs freedom from previously fixed notions about God, Truth, and metaphysical wisdom.  The only way to learn is to open and let go of all immediate expectations regarding outcome.  The best experiences that have come to me in my practice arrived as surprises.  Setting a timeline, or believing you already know the answers, will block you from the very things you seek.  Never forget that we are all works-in-progress, each an incomplete masterpiece. 

We do not have to know all the answers, because something bigger is always guiding, supporting, and instructing.  Accessing that help only requires getting quiet and listening.

A person, on the path, has to be hungry for Truth, as it is, not as he or she wants it to be.  From that uninhibited state of open acceptance, wisdom arises, and it shakes a person's world view.  So, be ready.

Day 11

Book of the Britain 6:11:  Have faith, for this is the child of study and diligence, if, however, adopted by incredulity or apathy, it becomes a useless thing.  Faith is not an excuse but an expression of hope.  If made the refuge of the gullible, it is a thing of little moment.  Faith is the spear of the wise and the crutch of the foolish.

Compare that to the Bible: 

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  For by it the elder obtained a good testimony.  By faith we understand the world were framed by the Word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of thins which are visible.  Hebrews 11:[3]

THE WRITER THEN GOES on to cite examples from the Jewish patriarchs, showing how they lived by their faith.  In every case, their faith required bold action to gain favor in God's sight.

Belief alone is useless.  More is needed than faith in God's existence, or speaking the occasional prayer, and expecting that alone to bring you a rewarding spiritual life.  Faith should be action's catalyst.  It should motivate one to improve, to become a better person, to pray and meditate regularly, and to engage in service.  If faith is used in this manner; then, it will spur you towards experience.  Faith becomes moot when after receiving True interaction with the Divine.

Day 12

Book of Gleanings 15 :51:  Ask yourselves, 'What am I?  What is real within myself?  What comprises the whole man?  Can it be that I am truly no more than this fleshy thing, the petty, immature, unstable being balanced between futile unearthly ideals and carnal cruelty and lust?  Or am I something greater which is undiscoverable by mortal senses?  Am I really akin to something divine and glorious from which source alone could have come the ideals and virtues which transcend the mundane needs of earthly existence?'  Ask yourselves, in the solitudes, and perchance you will not go unanswered.  I am the God of Silences.

If you've asked these questions, you know something is missing from your life, and you have made the first step on the spiritual path, even if it was unintentional.  Dissatisfaction with material pursuits and a jaded disappointment with the endless chase for pleasure, these are the driving forces causing us to seek depth and understanding.

Sooner or later, we recognize that filling our closets with new clothes, our driveways with fast cars, and taking extravagant vacations don't provide the lasting joy we expected, as we schemed to get them.  We're left with this feeling of, What next?  The money never provides the joy we thought it would.  sure, it has merits, but it also has limits in giving life meaning.

Many feel the need to chase after that one thing they think will fulfill them.  Politicians seek power.  Musicians seek fans.  Writers seek readers.  Athletes want to win.

We can put so much into chasing these things.  Sadly, many fail to realize wealth, recognition, or whatever else they craved, and they end feeling like losers.  Maybe even more disturbing is the realization made by those who achieve their goals, only to discover the glories sought to be short-lived, and the longing that inspired the chase, unfulfilled.

But, the good thing about reaching this point is the soul searching that may follow.  It starts with questions like:  Why am I here?  What is my purpose?  Is there a God?  How can I find meaning?

Day 13

Book of Manuscripts 19:5:  Today, men seek to gather where they have not planted, they desire the increase but disdain the effort.  They seek to benefit through the toil of others, and unproductive tongues move vigorously, while skilled hands are idle.  Men must learn that no more can be taken from the storehouse than was placed there.  Where are the men of self-assurance, the men of straight tongue, of constant speech, that were known of yore?  Today, if an ass were king men would bray.

I read a recent poll that asked people what they thought would make them happy.  The overwhelming majority wanted wealth.  When asked how they planned to acquire these riches, some hoped for a winning lottery ticket, but the majority were waiting for an opportunity to sue.  They thought picking lucky numbers a long shot but believed winning a lawsuit to be more realistic.  (Ouch, carpal tunnel!  Those bastards at Apple will pay for this!)

Is that the new, American dream?  What happened to our inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs?  Has society become so degenerate?  Today’s left-wing agenda seems to capture this sentiment and has put our president in the White House through it.  Biden has made unrealistic promises for free health care, student loan forgiveness, benefits paid to illegal aliens, and countless other freebies to create a dependable voting block that can no longer care for itself. 

That stuff would be great, but who would pay for it?  Our country is already thirty trillion in debt.  Shouldn't they fix Social Security and Medicare first?

It's so strange that, while Russia, China, and Cuba slowly develop capitalist economies, the United States has begun to look at Socialism as the greener side of the fence.

Day 14

Book of Morals and Precepts 4:32:  To what end would you live longer, to do the things you have not done or repeat the things you have already done?  What you have been unable to do will be done by others, and does not man experience repetitious pleasures with decreasing enjoyment?  Would you increase your knowledge or develop your skill?  Who, then shall teach you more than is to be learned On Earth, or where on Earth can practice carry you beyond perfection?  He who would go further must go to a higher place of instruction.  The works done on Earth pass away and the fruits of man's labor are reaped elsewhere.

This highlights mankind's hatred for change.  We get comfortable and complacent.  Women stay in abusive relationships.  Employees trudge through dead-end jobs.  Prisoners even get used to incarceration.  Inmates become the most stressed during their final six months before release.  There is too much uncertainty.  The world changed while they were inside.  Think about this:  I had a pager clipped to my waist when I was arrested.

This verse makes an interesting point.  What if life on Earth was simply a training ground?  What if this experience was nothing more than preparation for something greater?  It makes me wonder what religion's objective is?  Is religion just something to provide comfort in the face of death's uncertainty, or is it the best road map for the journey to come?

Day 15

Book of Morals and Precepts 55:9:  Strive to reflect credit on your father and on your mother, and if you fail in this, then bring gladness to their hearts and contentment to their spirits.

I've been a failure at this most of my life.  I'll never eradicate the shame I've reflected on my family's name.  No matter what good I accomplish throughout the rest of my days, my past wrongs will overshadow it.

I, once, carried that shame as a heavy burden.  I used it to inflict the self-punishment I felt I deserved.  One day, I woke up and realized I didn't owe that to my family.  In fact, they didn't want me to suffer.

I had used shame as my defining characteristic.  I carried it all the time, and the drag of it prevented me from altering course, from the past's pull.  I believed that a deep part of me was evil, and that belief made it true, in the sense that it prevented me from doing good.  As long as I held the belief that, what I used to be was what I would always be, I had no power to change for the better.

When I finally forgave myself, and let go of yesterday, the newly acquired freedom allowed me to start doing good, in my life and for others.  Since then, I have tried to live in a way that would make my parents proud.  It seems like an impossible thing to do from prison, but you have to work with the circumstances life gives you.  If not, you'll never accomplish anything.

Day 16

Book of the Britain 4:2:  After our Lord died, having been hung on the cross outside the city walls of Jerusalem, Joseph of Abramatha took Mary, the mother of Jesus into his home until John could make suitable arrangements.  Then he was called Guardian of the Lady, which title became confused in Britain with that of Guardian of the Sacred Vessel.

This points to the research by Michael Baigent, Henry Lincoln, and others, in their book Holy Blood, Holy Grail, research made famous by Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code.  Although here, the Kolbrin equates the tale with Christ's mother, instead of Mary Magdalene.

The word for sacred vessel, in Latin, was San-greal.  San, in Latin, as in Spanish, means holy and is also used as the prefix for a saint.  In British folklore, this was translated as Holy Grail, and later became misunderstood as the cup of Christ.  Legend then developed that Christ's cup from the Last Supper had survived.  Supposedly, King Arthur organized a search for it, believing it possessed magical powers.  (Monty Python's realistic docu-drama brought much needed research to this subject.  Just watch out for flying cows.)

Holy Blood's author believed the original Latin to be inaccurately translated, by dividing the syllables incorrectly.  They sliced it like this:  Sang-real.  The new meaning became royal blood.  The authors speculated that the Knight's Templar discovered evidence in Jerusalem, proving Jesus had a daughter.  They alleged her descendants founded the Merovingian kingship in Gaul.  They further claimed Mary Magdalene and Jesus lived as man and wife.

No one today could ever definitively prove this, and personally, I don't think it matters whether Jesus had children or not.  It doesn't diminish his teachings, and being a parent is a tremendous learning experience for humans.  Shouldn't we want our spiritual leaders to be wise in all facets of worldly life?

Day 17

Book of Gleanings 15 :4:  Men approach me in fear, they come to me with servility.  They beg forgiveness for their sins and request My help in worldly matters.  To sing my praises is their excuse for coming into places made sacred unto Me, but they come wanting something, be it only reassurance.  With this attitude towards Me, do you wonder that I remain mute before their pleas?  Bring Me no more vain offerings of flesh and blood.  For such wastefulness of life is an offense to the God of Life.  What benefit do I derive from all your feasts or festivals?  Give me dedication and effort, that is all I ask.

God doesn't rate high on many minds until we're in that proverbial foxhole, or sitting across the desk from a grim-faced doctor, or answering the ringing phone at 3:00 AM, or in my case, standing shackled before that black-robed, gavel-pumping, life-changer.  We want God when we get caught, get sick, get exploited, get left, get hurt....  We run to God when we are too big to run to our mommies.  We show God our booboos expecting kisses and consolation.  We live our lives with an almost unconscious expectation that God has certain duties He must fill on demand.  And if He doesn't?  Well, could anything prove more conclusively that He doesn't exist.

There is nothing wrong with turning to faith during crisis.  Sometimes it's all we have, but building that foundation takes time. Trying to form that relationship when the walls start crumbling, might not work.

Now is your chance to start building that foundation.  Do it while no tempest rages.  Establish a spiritual practice.  Build it up now, and it will support you in those times when life's wind rattles the windows.

Day 18

Book of Origins 9:10 -11:  "Many ask, 'For what does the warrior fight?'  It is not for fickle wealth and encumbering possessions, for these the grim warrior rarely gains, and what puny things they are against his glorious life!  It is not for illusive freedom, for of all men, apart from slaves, he is the least free.  It is not for his gods, for they if they be god powerful require no champion, and if they do are unworthy to be gods.  It is not for mocking justice, for the disciplined warrior obeys unquestionably, even when the command in unjust.  It is not for any fair city or cherished family, for so often these betray him.

This was the answer given when I, in my questioning youth, asked the same question of the Battle-master, and I still have none better.  A man fights because it is the inbred nature of men to fight, and this is true, for it is only through strife that he becomes a man.  A man lacking the human fighting spirit would be as unnatural a creature as a woman shunning motherhood.  This goes against human inclination; yet, true men do not despise these, for the nature of men and women is wide and varied and there is a place in life for all.

This passage highlights the stark differences between this society's values and those belonging to our country today.  I think about soccer games where no one keeps score, tag-free recess breaks, and participation trophies; and I can’t decide which is better.  We want children to feel special and accepted.  We want to protect them from harsh reality, as long as possible, but when do we start preparing them?  We don't want to create little war-mongers, but have we made the right choice?

Young men commit mass murder with increasing frequency.  What causes these rampages?  It seems to be occurring with boys just reaching maturity.  Have they been sheltered too much?  Were they never taught how to cope with limitations and weaknesses?  Did they never learn how to deal with losing, failing, and finishing last?  Did the absence of these coping mechanisms cause life's realities, thrust upon them in adulthood, to seem unbearable?  I don't know for sure, but I wonder.

Day 19

Book of the Silver Bough 1:13:  Scriptures need interpretation, for they conceal more than they reveal.  They are never just what they appear to be on the surface.  If a particular scripture proclaimed that fire actually gives out cold instead of heat and that the sun really sheds darkness instead of light, the shallow-minded person would turn from it in scorn.  But this irresponsible and thoughtless attitude cannot be applied to scripture, and it would be much wiser to assume that the scripture intended to convey a meaning and message quite different from the superficially apparent one.  Scripture cannot be treated like entreating and valueless literature, therefore delve deeply and diligently.

Yoga means union.  Its most mundane definition describes yoking an ox to a cart.  Hatha Yoga, the most popular form, practiced in studios throughout America, unites the mind and body, by combining rhythmic breathing with synchronized movement.  In its highest permutation, yoga aims to unite the individual with God.  A Oneness occurs.  The little self disappears inside the Big Self.

Hindus believe many paths to this highest union exist.  Bhakti Yoga refers to the path of devotion.  The Gopis were milkmaids who loved Krishna.  They achieved liberation through their worship.  They connected to Him through their hearts and their sexual desire for Him.  Karma Yoga focuses on exemplary living.  The practitioner becomes selfless, doing good and serving others.  All the great saints, from every path, offered service like this.  Rasa (Kingly) Yoga uses meditation, or another esoteric vehicle, to perceive the Divine. 

This passage, from the Silver Bough, pertains to Jnana Yoga.  Jnana employs the mind's introspective powers.  The Stoic philosophers, in Greece, were, in effect, Jnana yogis.  This path attempts to follow the mind's thoughts back to their Source.  Zen koans aid this method, but studying scripture also applies.  Scripture, written by enlightened masters, provides a road map.  It shouldn't be lightly read.  It needs to be probed and prodded until every secret has been excavated.

Day 20

Book of the Britain 3:55-56:  "Jesus answered, 'There will be an end to the beginning and men will know this by the spirit of the times.  Men will no longer be as brothers, nor will they be manly.  Women will be as men and men as women.  Adultery will not be condemned, nor will fornication, therefore these will flourish.  Men will not honor their homelands, and there will be no discrimination among them, nor will they maintain the purity of their races.  Fathers will not be honored, nor mothers respected, and children will be raised to be wayward.  Perversions will be encouraged and criminals will mock the law.  There will be incest and rape and it will be unsafe to walk abroad.  Floods, famines, droughts, and earthquakes will cause death and destruction:  Strange sicknesses will smite the people and there will be a denial of God.  Babes will be slain in the womb.'

"'Men will lust after the wives of other men and marriage shall lose its meaning.  Women will go to the marriage table unchaste and with deceit in their hearts.  Their husbands, creatures of pity, will hear the mocking voices of laughing men.  Priests will defile their altars with their impurity, and the rulers will be held in little repute.  It is not God who marks the end days, but man who lives as though setting a