The transforming chairs of a 'Wandering Gypsy Nomad Philosopher'

The secret of life is that every soul by its nature is an Asman or Akasha, an accommodation, and has in it an appetite; and of all that it takes it creates a cover which surrounds it as a shell, and the life of that shell becomes dependent upon the same substance of which it is made.

The Hindu name for capacity is Akasha. People generally think that Akasha means the sky, but in reality it means everything. Everything in its turn is an Akasha, just as all substance is a capacity; and according to that capacity it produces what it is meant to produce. By studying anatomy one will find that the organs of the senses are all capacities according to their construction; and when that capacity is clogged, broken, or in any way troubled, then that organ of sense does not function properly.

-Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Sufi

PATIOS

My Contractor's Office under a Mulberry Tree next to the alley, Summer 2007

I chuckle with thinking that I packed up all my books and replaced them with my trusty shovel and pick ax during this transformational time of my life. I have a good friend that was raised in Afghanistan until his high school years during those times of the Russian invasion. He now lives out of state and when he calls to check up on me, he used to always call and ask, "Have you found your cave yet?" and then laugh. I would respond, "No, all the good ones in Afghanistan are now bombed". And, bombed would be an appropriate description of the way my little Ashram looked for some time.

Bedroom patio in front of my house 2007... now with my veggie garden next to it.

A 'Before and After' snapshot looking towards my Veggie Garden area ... my squash got carried away this year and ate my bedroom patio!

Three Ashram dogs in Summer 2010 conclude the Caretaker screwed up with the squash too close to their Morning Sunning patio.

patio

1818, "inner court open to the sky," from Sp. patio probably from O.Prov. patu, pati "untilled land, communal pasture," from L. pactum "agreement" (see pact). Another theory traces the Sp. word to L. patere "to lie open." Meaning "paved and enclosed terrace beside a building" first recorded 1941. Patio furniture is attested from 1969.

I can chuckle with the thought that PATIO FURNITURE was invented in 1969 back when I was in college maybe attending a draft card burning bonfire taking place at the University of Missouri. This English language system that I was born into never fails to amuse me.

The English term PATIO meaning 'paved and enclosed terrace beside a building' in contrast to an inner court is essentially recent having its linguistic birth in 1941 and by 1969 an industry focusing up patio furniture merchandising hits the streets as Vietnam war protesters were also hitting the streets. A story of outside furniture being replaced by patio furniture brought forth from my interest in etymology.

furniture

1520s, "act of furnishing," from M.Fr. fourniture, from fournir "furnish" (see furnish). Sense of "chairs, tables, etc.; household stuff" (1570s) is unique to English; most other European languages derive their words for this from L. mobile "movable."

I once would ask, just WHO invented chairs? No doubt one of those questions that my little mother used to say would drive her nuts. Growing up the furniture in the livingroom of our family home only represented something that my 3 brothers were always fighting about. There were good chairs and bad chairs and my oldest brother always won the best chair. The best chair being my father's recliner that would have to evacuated as soon as his truck pulled into the driveway.

Hazrat had a very good teaching story involving a chair:

Another thing is that you may not be innocent as the child is innocent. The child, if it has a diamond brooch and a thief wants to take it, will give it and not know what it is giving. You should be like the king in a story which tells that a king was sitting in his room in which were carved chairs, made like tiger's heads. The eyes of the tigers were diamonds and very beautiful. The king went to sleep. When he awoke, he saw that a thief had come into the room and was stealing the eyes of the tigers. The thief said, 'Hush! Don't tell anyone I am stealing the diamonds.' The king was much amused at his boldness and confidence, saying this to the king from whom he was stealing. So, knowing that he was a thief, he let him take the diamonds.

You should not do a kindness to an undeserving person, thinking that he deserves your kindness, for the next day you will discover that he does not deserve it, and you will repent. You should do a kindness to a person knowing that he does not deserve it. Then your kindness is very great and there is no repentance.

-Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Sufi

In 2008, I mailed via the mailman the following picture I 'cut and pasted' in one of my many Newsletters to family and friends. The three dogs primary function in the Ashram is to amuse the Caretaker as perhaps the thief amused the king in the above story with the thief and his boldness and confidence. The Ashram dogs also assist me in the designing of my paths. Watching dogs expressing their own unique beingness finds similarity to my watching birds or plants express their own unique beingness.

Humans disclose an innate instinct to mess around with Nature and dogs bear witness to this. Just as my building a pond on a backyard with a slope down to the alley. I can chuckle and say that the dogs have a linguistic connection to the Ashram pond:

pond

mid-13c., "artificially banked body of water," variant of pound "enclosed place" (see pound (n.2)). Jocular reference to "the Atlantic Ocean" dates from 1640s.

pound (n.2)

"enclosed place for animals," late O.E. pundfald "penfold, pound," related to pyndan "to dam up, enclose (water)," and thus from the same root as pond. Ultimate origin unknown; no certain cognates beyond Eng.

ENCLOSED PLACE

rahm - Arabic rahma: pity, compassion, forgiveness; sympathy, understanding; divine mercy. The root r-h-m also indicates womb; that which provides protection and nourishment, and that from which all of creation is brought into being.
Glossary for The Spiritual Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan
http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/mv_glossary.htm

The English language with its NOUNS and VERBS functions well for property ownership, however, it essentially sucks rotten eggs for transmitting the finer understanding of our own beingness expressed in an earthwalk as human.

As a little girl as I used to sit on a pew with my parents in the old hometown Presbyterian church, I perceived it as interesting that adults were so focused on where they would go after they die, yet showed no interest in where they had been before they were born. I did learn that was one topic that I shouldn't bring up when I sat on my little chair in a Sunday school class. Being a 'twinkling in my parent's eyes' just didn't cut it when I was a child and it was very apparent my teacher did not plan on our discussing that particular topic and was more focused upon our coloring pictures for our parents. SCHOOL and TEACHER comes in all shapes, varieties, colors and flavors, also.

No one knows what is a person's inner religion, his inner conception. And one will find many true souls whose heart is enclosed in a kind of hard shell, and no one knows that the very essence of God is in their heart, as the outer shell is so hard that no one can understand it. That is why a Sufi from Persia said, 'I went among the pious and the godly and was so often deceived; and I went among those who were looked down upon by others and among them I found real souls.' It is easy to blame, it is easy to look down upon someone, but it is difficult really to know how deep someone's soul is.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Sufi

A WOMB is an ENCLOSED PLACE as is a pond or a dog pound and as is my childhood Presbyterian church building. WOMB is one of those terms that I personally classify as NOT being gifted the English language from an etymological root from the Latin language system within the ancient Roman Empire.

womb

O.E. wamb, womb "belly, uterus," from P.Gmc. *wambo (cf. O.N. vomb, O.Fris. wambe, M.Du. wamme, Du. wam, O.H.G. wamba, Ger. Wamme "belly, paunch," Goth. wamba "belly, womb," O.E. umbor "child"), of unknown origin.

My own physically manifested Ashram is my WOMB, an ENCLOSED PLACE wherein I not only survive, but also thrive.

asman - Farsi آسمان āsmān: heaven; sky, the celestial orb, the canopy of heaven. In esoteric terms, this is often used much the same as the Sanskrit akasha, to describe capacity or accommodation (see akasha)
Glossary for The Spiritual Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan
http://wahiduddin.net/mv2/mv_glossary.htm

Persian (local names: فارسی, Fārsi IPA: [fɒːɾˈsi]; or پارسی, Pārsi IPA: [pɒːɾˈsi], see Nomenclature) is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Armenia, Iraq, Bahrain, and Oman.

The Persian language, whose native names are فارسی Fārsi, Pārsi, Dari or Pārsi-ye-Dari (Dari Persian), can be classified linguistically as a continuation of Middle Persian, the official religious and literary language of Sassanid Persia, itself a continuation of Old Persian, the language of Persian Empire in Achaemenids era. Persian is a pluricentric language and its grammar is similar to that of many contemporary European languages. The Persian language has been a medium for literary and scientific contributions to the eastern half of the Muslim world.

Persian has had a considerable influence on neighboring languages, particularly the Turkic languages in Central Asia, Caucasus, and Anatolia, neighboring Iranian languages, as well as Armenian, Arabic and other languages. It has also exerted a strong influence on South Asian languages, especially Urdu, as well as Hindi, Punjabi, Sindhi, Saraiki, Sylheti, and Bengali.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_language

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..Entry not finished ... have a GMO with my 3 adult daughters (Girls Morning Out)

Our own personal LEXICONS in the Age of Specialized Online Dictionaries

JOURNEY

Why should life be called a journey? Because there is a change in nature and a change of experience. One goes from one experience to another, and that is also the meaning of the word journey: going from one place to another, passing from one experience to another. The whole of the external life is nothing but a succession of experiences, one after the other, night and day. That is why it is called a journey.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan

Today I find myself within the Age of Specialized Online Dictionaries ranging from maybe Auto Mechanics to Zoology. Then I can chuckle and think that this particular Age is determinate upon the power grid and library funding. Ours is a culture stuffed to the brim with experts, specialists, authorities on most anything you could imagine, even your imagination! I even am walking in a nation with experts, specialists and authorities on the word AGE. However, only YOU will be the TRUE expert, specialist and authority on YOU. You are like a tree growing on your own unique mental soil.

true

O.E. triewe (W.Saxon), treowe (Mercian) "faithful, trustworthy," from P.Gmc. *trewwjaz "having or characterized by good faith" (cf. O.Fris. triuwi, Du. getrouw, O.H.G. gatriuwu, Ger. treu, O.N. tryggr, Goth. triggws "faithful, trusty"), perhaps ultimately from *PIE *dru- "tree," on the notion of "steadfast as an oak." Cf., from same root, Lith. drutas "firm," Welsh drud, O.Ir. "strong," Welsh dronderw "true," O.Ir. derb "sure." Sense of "consistent with fact" first recorded c.1200; that of "real, genuine, not counterfeit" is from late 14c.; that of "agreeing with a certain standard" (as true north) is from c.1550. Of artifacts, "accurately fitted or shaped" it is recorded from late 15c.; the verb in this sense is from 1841. True-love (adj.) is recorded from late 15c.; true-born first attested 1590s. True-false as a type of test question is recorded from 1923.

*The above etymological entry discloses why in my own past I would launch myself into an adventure in learning upon the word English term DRUID. The English term TRUE finding its etymological history in the PIE Proto-Indo-European, (the hypothetical reconstructed ancestral language of the Indo-European family. The time scale is much debated, but the most recent date proposed for it is about 5,500 years ago) dru- "tree" on the notion of "steadfast as an oak". From an online Webster's dictionary:

DRUID: One of an ancient Celtic priesthood appearing in Irish and Welsh sagas and Christian legends as magicians and wizards
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/druid

I do not minimize the statement that etymology has been a long-time interest and hobby of mine since that high school graduation gift of my trusty old Webster's with its brief etymologies next to words and a small encyclopedia in the back. Little did my now sister-in-law and now deceased older brother know that a gift of a dictionary to a younger sister bound for college would be one of the most treasured possessions of this woman now over the age of 60 years old. That dictionary is currently down in the basement of my Ashram in a box with its cover being partially eaten by a chinchilla and one of my personal stories that I just can't make up.

It is frequently said that the DREAM SYMBOL of GOING DOWN STEPS such as into a basement, may speak of a journey into your unconscious mind.

The mind is the soil upon which, in the form of thoughts and imaginations, plants grow. They live there; but, as they are continually springing up, only the newly created plants are before one's consciousness, and those plants and trees that were created before are hidden from one's eyes. Therefore, when thoughts and imaginations are forgotten, then they are no longer before one and one does not think about them anymore. However, whenever one wishes to find a thought that has once been shaped, it can immediately be found, for it still exists in the mind.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Sufi

itinerant

1560s (attested in Anglo-L. from late 13c.), from L.L. itinerantem (nom. itinerans), prp. of itinerare "to travel," from L. iter (gen. itineris) "journey," from ire "go" (see ion). Originally in reference to circuit courts.

itinerary

mid-15c., "route of travel," from L.L. itinerarium "account of a journey," from noun use of neut. of itinerarius "of a journey," from L. itineris (see itinerant). By late 15c. it meant "record of a journey;" extended sense "sketch of a proposed route" is from 1856.

.... Yet there is a part of life from which this life of changes has sprung; the life which is everlasting, which is eternal, the life to which all things return; and that life is the goal. Therefore, life is not only a journey; it is a goal. The goal is the stable part of life, the source of life; the manifested life called creation is the journey.

In this way we see that there are really two journeys. There is the journey from the goal to the life in the world, and there is the journey from the life in the world to the goal. And both journeys are natural. As it is natural to go forth from the eternal goal, so it is natural to go from the changing life to the life which is unchangeable.

-Hazrat Inayat Khan

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..Unfinished Entry

Thanksgiving Morning in my Ashram - HARVESTING MEANING

Thanksgiving 1999 prepared in my tiny apartment at age 49. At the time of my transition from HOUSEHOLDER STAGE to that 3rd stage of Life that Hindu's term "Vanaprastha" or the Hermit Stage

A snapshot taken from my father's fishing dock, of a place that lives in my memories and is given the name THE LAKE.

However, whenever one wishes to find a thought that has once been shaped, it can immediately be found, for it still exists in the mind.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Sufi


Sitting on my own mother's lap in my childhood home on a Thanksgiving Day now existing in a Daughter's memories. In those time when her Name was Mommy and she called me Her Windy Lindy and my last Thanksgiving before learning how to be an Older Sister and how to protect my toys. In the last years of my mother's life she said I had just not ever stopped asking questions.

People, places and situations is a term that I started to use back when I was in my middle 30's now decades ago in the middle 1980's when I was focusing upon my huge memory task of my Backwards Chronological of my Life. The Memory Task ended up involving an actual ream of typing paper. My 4 now adult children would attest to their mother's chair describable as having piles of books next to it in those days of my library cards and overdue book fines.

My children at that time would be describable as adolescents and pre-adolescents when I had been studying the topic of MEMORY and gave myself the assignment to learn to walk both backwards and forwards through the memories of my day before going to sleep at night. And at that time, I added the additional task to HARVEST MEANING FROM THE DAY I JUST EXPERIENCED.

My little mother had spoken so frequently of the busyness of her own life with my 3 brothers and I when we were living in our parent's home. She had said that she would look back and there were decades that were like a blur. Prior to my HUGE memory task I termed my BACKWARDS CHRONOLOGICAL OF MY LIFE TO AGE 36 the decades of my life could only be describable as jumping from the frying pan into the fire and then repeating that behavior repeatedly.

I have created pathways to individualized seating areas in my backyard of my physical Ashram or my physical spiritual shelter so to speak and those PATHS hold meaning to me. I have a seating area I call my BIRDBATH PATIO with a sculpture of two ducks on the base of the birdbath.

There was almost two years that I lived with my then aging parents in the apartment of the garage my father had built next to their own retirement lake home when my mother's health had been failing very swiftly. In the early Spring, I had purchased two mallard chicks in a farm store in Yankton, SD about 12 miles from the lake where my parent's had retired. By summer they had transformed into my SWIMMING BUDDIES that would go down to the lake with me for my swim. I would float in my inner tube with two mallards following me around.

One of my younger brothers with his SWIMMING BUDDY. SWIMMING BUDDIES was a tradition up at the Lake where my parent's had built their cabin when I was young, and expanded it into their eventual home. This younger brother has a tattoo of a broken heart on his arm.

Those two mallards provided my aging parents such entertainment and it warmed their daughter's heart to watch my mother laugh that last summer of her life when she and my father would sit on their outside swing on Summer evenings. My parents would sit on an old metal swing that was the actual swing they had sat on during their courting stage before their marriage in in 1947 and they would frequently bring up memories of those times in their lives that last summer of my mother's life.

One of the greatest accomplishments of my life is to be able to say that during that time period of living UNDER MY PARENT'S ROOF AS THEIR GUEST prior to my mother's death that I did not speak one word I had to regret when I watched them both be subsequently buried.

The MOUTH has been frequently called by mystics a MYSTERIOUS CAVE or CAVERN with an entrance accommodating food and water that enables our physical presence on this earth and also an entrance for sounds to be emitted out into the physical plane of our existence in the form of the WORDS we speak with the help of our TONGUE. Years of your life can be devoted to focusing upon what I term the energy transformation abilities of the central nervous system wherein your brain is its primary organ.

tongue

O.E. tunge "organ of speech, speech, language," from P.Gmc. *tungon (cf. O.S., O.N. tunga, O.Fris. tunge, M.Du. tonghe, Du. tong, O.H.G. zunga, Ger. Zunge, Goth. tuggo), from PIE *dnghwa- (cf. L. lingua "tongue, speech, language," from Old L. dingua; O.Ir. tenge, Welsh tafod, Lith. liezuvis, O.C.S. jezyku). The substitution of M.E. -o- for O.E. -u- before -m- or -n- was a scribal habit (cf. some, monk, etc.) to avoid misreading the letters in the old style hand, which jammed them together; and the spelling of the ending of the word apparently is a 14c. attempt to indicate proper pronunciation, but the result is "neither etymological nor phonetic, and is only in a very small degree historical" [OED]. Meaning "foreign language" is from 1530s. The verb meaning "to touch with the tongue, lick" is attested from 1680s. Tongue-tied is first recorded 1520s.

lingual

1640s, from M.L. lingualis "of the tongue," from L. lingua "tongue," also "speech, language," from Old L. dingua, from PIE *dnghwa- (cf. O.E. tunge, Goth. tuggo "tongue," see tongue). Altered by assoc. with lingere "to lick."

The expression HOLDING YOUR TONGUE is frequently easier said than done. To become MASTER of your tongue is a job lasting a lifetime and a job we can't delegate to someone else. We hold personal accountability for the THOUGHTS that have existence within us as we hold accountability for those energy objects that can slide over our tongues and transform into sound objects projected outward.

How can man explain the ultimate truth, the idea of God? Whenever it has been attempted, it has failed; it has made some confused, and it has made others give up their belief. It is not that the one who tried to explain did not understand, but that words are inadequate to explain the idea of God. In the East there are great sages and saints who sit quite still, with lips closed, for years. They are called Muni, which means 'he who takes the vow of silence.' The man of today may think, 'What a life, to be silent and do nothing!' However, he does not know that some by their silence can do more than others can accomplish by talking for ten years. A person may argue for months about a problem and not be able to explain it, while another, with inner radiance, may be able to answer the same thing in one moment. The answer that comes without words explains still more. That is initiation. -Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Sufi

Prior to living around my parents when I was in my 50's, I was then perceiving my own 4 children with the name ADULT children being individuals that had entered the PEER GROUP of adults at the time of their own high school graduations. When I was over 50 years old, my own parents perceived their 4 CHILDREN would always be just that ... THEIR CHILDREN with emphasis on THEIR and I chuckle with the memories of hearing them say, "where did we go wrong?".

I once told my little aging mother that she didn't do anything wrong, the stork just delivered the wrong daughter, I was to go a few houses down" (a thought stolen from Clarissa Pinkola Estés, and her book Women Who Run with Wolves). Her response totally surprised me when she looked so serious and said emphatically, "NO you were just the right kind of daughter and the stork didn't make a mistake". As I frequently say about my own 4 children, CHILDREN COME INTO THE WORLD TO TEACH THEIR PARENTS LESSONS OF LOVE. And, then I can chuckle and say, also lessons on patience, tolerance, etc.

teenager

derived noun from teenage (q.v.), 1941. The earlier word for this was teener, attested in Amer.Eng. from 1894, and teen had been used as a noun to mean "teen-aged person" in 1818.

Two of my daughters as TEENAGERS, and a brother taken at my parent's home at the Lake amongst some of my Dad's flower beds. This was a visit that my daughters were shown by their Grandfather his seeming obsession with his concrete mixer. At this time of his life, he was pouring concrete down at the lake around his fishing dock. Down by the lake you will see a big Heart in a concrete wall, with my parents initials carved into it. My parents remained to their last breathes, two people totally in love.

The American culture lacks RITES OF PASSAGE. I chuckle with the memory of my of old WWII Marine father when I was living at the lake and I asked him one of my strange questions. I told him that the word TEENAGER had been invented in 1941 and I was wondering what they were called prior to that date. Without pause he responded, "Damn Kids". As the mallards were my SWIMMING BUDDIES, I was my father's CONCRETE POURING BUDDY, my mother had given him a new cement mixer for his 70's birthday because he wore his old one out.

When I was in my 50's, my father finally taught me the fine skills of mixing a batch of concrete with the amount of water, sand and concrete mix to make the desired texture. It was my job to mix up the batch, put it in the wheel barrow and take it to the forms that he would construct and he would do the finish work. My father was not know for giving compliments and I cherish the memory of him telling me that I was one of the few people that could "make a good batch of concrete". Once when delivering my wheel barrow full of concrete, I told him that making a batch of concrete was like making pancakes and not having to read the directions to get the right consistency - and I laughed attempting to make small talk. Small talk was not my father's specialty when we were on one of his concrete projects. Those concrete projects wherein I was the assistant always involved something that would be for my mother. Such as the attached picture displays the parking that my mother would use when she would get in and out of the car for her doctor's visits and her rides.

That BIRDBATH patio has so much meaning to me. That will frequently be the patio that I chose with my cup of coffee to contemplate memories of my parents that enabled me to experience this Life Adventure in this form that can carry so many Names, such as Daughter.

My old WWII Marine father on what he called "His Chopper" with my oldest brother's son at the Lake.

Thanksgiving Day reminds me of my father. He frequently spoke of his birthday once always being on Thanksgiving Day until FDR changed the day for Thanksgiving. But he never talked about how his mother had died on his birthday when he was 10 years old and he remained in Chicago with his father when his younger sister and new baby brother returned to his maternal grandparents that were living in a rural town in Nebraska (my hometown). His own father died a little over a year later and he had experienced carrying the name ORPHAN in Chicago during the 1930's during those times now called the Great Depression. Today is one of those years that Thanksgiving does not fall on my father's birthday. He never liked his birthday celebrated and I knew that was the day his mother died, however, he gave himself permission to celebrate Thanksgiving Day.

When I was staying with my parents at the lake he did mention the memory of Chicago when he was living in someone's home and it was his job to chop wood, and one Christmas he watched the other kids get presents and he had none. I think he was trying to explain to me why he got so upset when my brothers and I tried to give him gifts. Right after sharing that difficult memory, he then quickly added "I never have liked getting presents" and I knew not to bring up that subject again. My father would be so pleased with the homemade cards my daughters would send their grandparents and he would have them sitting on the table where they would eat and look out of their big window at the lake.

My father and I spent several hours one very cold Nebraska day at that window watching with our binoculars while 4 bald eagles were fighting over what appeared to be a literal dead duck on the frozen ice of the lake. It was a scene worthy of a television special. Special memories my father and I shared.

When my father was in his second year of high school he returned to Nebraska to help his aging grandparents that were raising his sister and brother after 9 children of their own. I carry so many fond memories of his grandfather, the man that is called Gramps in my memories. Gramps' bloodline enable my father's sister to be a card carrying member of the DAR due to being related to two US presidents, both the Adams in American history. My father found a job digging up trees in a nursery owned by the local doctor, while finishing high school and subsequently graduated as Valedictorian and also Senior Class President. He would say, "You can't blame your parents for the way you turn out".

My father served in the Pacific Front during WWII with an amphibious group and was called a FIRST WAVE MARINE. His best buddy was killed next to him in hand to hand combat with the Japanese. The ONLY thing I recall my father saying about his war experiences while growing up was, "You never forget the smell of rotting human bodies".

When he returned from the war he had wanted to become a minister, however, my little mother continued to tell that story even in her last years about how she told him she "didn't want to be a minister's wife". He then went on to receive his degree in Botany and Plant Pathology at Fort Collin, Colorado and built the largest greenhouse under glass in Nebraska being sold in 1970. I chuckle, so many memories and so little time.

It was my memory work that enabled me to retrieve such precious childhood memories of riding with my father in his old pickup truck to church with him on Sunday mornings. My father had always taught Adult Sunday School at the Presbyterian Church of my youth (he had been an altar boy in the Catholic church in his own youth). My mother and 3 brothers would come to church services later and it was my father and I that left for Sunday school. I got to hold his big black Bible on my lap.

I was about 11 years old when my father 'got mad at those in the church' that made my mother start teaching a class on Sunday mornings. I recall him saying that she had enough to do with four children and that is when he bought a boat and the family started to go camping on Saturday nights and Sunday. It was very shortly that he built the family's cabin at the lake. I recall my father talking about how Nature was also God's church and growing up, my father didn't say alot and when he did I always listened.

My father also had a florist shop attached to his greenhouses when I was growing up. I was a teenager helping my mother deliver flowers to a funeral at a local church. We were setting the flowers up around the casket and I asked my mother "where are all the cards" on the arrangements and sprays we were delivering. My mother responded very casually that there weren't any, no flowers had been ordered for this elderly ladies funeral so my father just wanted to make sure she had flowers. Evidently this elderly lady had been one of his customers and had loved flowers. I recall my father saying once that men should give their wives flowers BEFORE they died. On Thanksgivings that I am a guest, I try to bring flowers to the hostess and it is also my silent attempt to HONOR my parents since it is so difficult to travel to always decorate their graves.

Thanksgiving reminds me of my father whose ashes are now co-mingled with my mother's in an Urn that they are jointly buried within. My mother and my father were SOUL MATES.

My parents wedding day in June of 1947. This was the little trailer I was brought home to from the hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado in 1950 at the time of my birth while my father was attending college in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Memories come in an assortment of flavors, shapes, sizes and textures. I could describe the interlinking of memories using a spider's web as an analogy with the intertwining threads.

It would not be an exaggeration if one called the mind a world; it is the world that man makes and in which he will make his life in the hereafter, as a spider weaves his web to live in.
- Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Sufi

Sufism originated from the ancient school of Egyptian mysteries, a school which existed even before Abraham, the father of three great religions: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Those who know Sufism from superficial writings, and, sometimes, from translations of the Arabic or Persian literature, are apt to think that Sufism is the mystical side of Islam. In reality, it is not true. Sufism existed before Mohammed, before Jesus Christ, before Abraham.

It is true that the mystics in the world of Islam are called Sufis, but that does not mean that "Sufi" means the mystics of Islam. For instance, the green color is the national color of the Irish, but that does not mean that everybody who dresses in green is from Ireland. The green color existed even before people inhabited Ireland.

http://www.appliedmeditation.org/About_IAM/Sufism.shtml

MIND means: the creator of thought and imagination.

The mind has five aspects, but the aspect that is best known is that for which we use the word 'mind.' Mind means: the creator of thought and imagination. The mind is the soil upon which, in the form of thoughts and imaginations, plants grow. They live there; but, as they are continually springing up, only the newly created plants are before one's consciousness, and those plants and trees that were created before are hidden from one's eyes. Therefore, when thoughts and imaginations are forgotten, then they are no longer before one and one does not think about them anymore. However, whenever one wishes to find a thought that has once been shaped, it can immediately be found, for it still exists in the mind.

-Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Sufi

I received what I personally call my Hazrat Book when I was in my middle 30's. This a book if I had on a desert island, it would still take me multiple lifetimes to actually finish studying and I am NOT exaggerating that I wouldn't even get done then. This is a man that spoke, "every leaf on a tree is a book" on multiple occasions throughout that huge book of his compiled lectures and teachings. Compiled by those close to the man and not a book he sat down and wrote. There are quite a few other books out there with Hazrat's teachings, but I have found I kept returning to my giant book. Holding your breath for an easy to read listing of the "5 Aspects of the Mind" is the demands of an American accustomed to being spoon fed the information that is overseen by the hardened Institution of Education in our culture.

psyche

1640s, "animating spirit," from L. psyche, from Gk. psykhe "the soul, mind, spirit, breath, life, the invisible animating principle or entity which occupies and directs the physical body" (personified as Psykhe, the lover of Eros), akin to psykhein "to blow, cool," from PIE base *bhes- "to blow" (cf. Skt. bhas-). The word had extensive sense development in Platonic philosophy and Jewish-influenced theological writing of St. Paul. In English, psychological sense is from 1910. (Emphasis mine)

mind (n.)

O.E. gemynd "memory, thinking, intention," P.Gmc. *ga-menthijan (cf. Goth. muns "thought," munan "to think;" O.N. minni "mind;" Ger. minne, originally "memory, loving memory"), from PIE base *men- "think, remember, have one's mind aroused" (cf. Skt. matih "thought," munih "sage, seer;" Gk. memona "I yearn," mania "madness," mantis "one who divines, prophet, seer;" L. mens "mind, understanding, reason," memini "I remember," mentio "remembrance;" Lith. mintis "thought, idea," O.C.S. mineti "to believe, think," Rus. pamjat "memory"). "Memory" is one of the oldest senses, now almost obsolete except in old expressions such as bear in mind, call to mind. Phrase time out of mind is attested from early 15c. To pay no mind "disregard" is recorded from 1916, Amer.Eng. dialect. To have half a mind to "to have one's mind half made up to (do something)" is recorded from 1726. Mind-reading is from 1882.

Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Sufi earned great popularity and fame in the West during his travels (from 1910 to 1926) in the U.S.A., U.K. and Europe and 1910 is a date coinciding with the use of Greek term PSYCHE in a psychological sense and Khan was not ignorant of ancient Macedonia with Alexander the Great. Hellenization is a term coined by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen to denote the spread of Greek language, culture, and population into the former Persian empire after Alexander's conquest.

The above etymological histories also disclose the terms MIND and PSYCHE share a common linguistical root in ancient soil and the culture bringing forth the language of SANSKRIT. Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Sufi had an in depth knowledge and understanding of this ancient language, and was yet able to also speak the English language as well as many other.

Sanskrit

1610s, from Skt. samskrtam "put together, well-formed, perfected," from sam "together" + krta- "to make, do, perform." The first element is cognate with Eng. same; the second is from PIE *k(w)er- "to make, form" (related to karma).

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MENTOR

mentor

"wise advisor," 1750, from Gk. Mentor, character in the "Odyssey," friend of Odysseus, adviser of Telemachus (often actually Athene in disguise), perhaps ult. meaning "adviser," since the name appears to be an agent noun of mentos "intent, purpose, spirit, passion" from PIE *mon-eyo- (cf. Skt. man-tar- "one who thinks," L. mon-i-tor "one who admonishes"), causative form of base *men- "to think" (see mental). Related: Mentored; mentoring.

We each find ourselves in our assorted colored flesh coverings in unique environments of people, places and situations. It is said that even grown siblings all raised under the same roof by the same parents will carry memories of childhood wherein you could think they had been raised in different houses. In a nation that stretches from the Atlantic ocean to the Pacific ocean there exists a multiplicity of subcultures within the primary culture that could be loosely defined as American Culture.

American English (variously abbreviated AmE, AE, AmEng, USEng, en-US, also known as United States English, or U.S. English) is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of native speakers of English live in the United States.^[2]

English is the most common language in the United States. Though the U.S. federal governmentde facto language of the United States because of its widespread use. English has been given official status by 28 of the 50 state governments. has no official language, English is considered the

The use of English in the United States was inherited from British colonization. The first wave of English-speaking settlers arrived in North America in the 17th century. During that time, there were also speakers in North America of Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Norwegian, Swedish, Scots, Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Finnish, Russian (in Alaska), and numerous Native American languages.

When I graduated from high school in 1968 my older brother and girlfriend who then became his wife, gifted me a Webster's Dictionary with etymological entries next to words and a small encyclopedia in the back. I once stated that if I had the choice of one book on a deserted island to provide me entertainment, it would be that Websters that was gifted to me now in my basement in a box and totally worn out.

For example, the English term MENTOR is disclosed to have been seen in writing for the first time in the year 1750. I could flip back to the brief encyclopedia and check out what was going on in the year 1750 to provide a type of historic backdrop for the birthing of a new term into my own spoken and writing language. I perhaps could have found that this is the year given for the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and also the year that Galley slavery was abolished in Europe.

A galley slave was a slave rowing in a galley. The expression has two distinct meanings: it can refer either to a convicted criminal sentenced to work at the oar (French: forçat or galérien), or to a kind of human chattel, often a prisoner of war, assigned to his duty of rowing.

History of humanity will disclose that SLAVES came in a great multiplicity of colors of flesh. Our own American legal system imported from the British Isles with a language system of English specializes in the definition of the word PROPERTY.

Personal property, roughly speaking, is private property that is moveable, as opposed to real property or real estate. In the common law systems personal property may also be called chattels or personalty. In the civil law systems personal property is often called movable property or movables - any property that can be moved from one location to another. This term is in distinction with immovable property or immovables, such as land and buildings. Movable property on land, that which was not automatically sold with the land, included for example larger livestock (wildlife and smaller livestock like chickens, by contrast, was often sold as part of the land). In fact the word cattle is the Old Norman variant of Old French chatel (derived from Latin capitalis, “of the head”), which was once synonymous with general movable personal property.

In the early 1980's I personally recall my own emotional response to seeing my four children names set on on a PROPERTY SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT that was filed with the court with divorce papers. Seeing my children names on a legal document along with furniture, cars, etc., is a memory I may only described as leaving me totally disgusted and repulsed with the modern American legal system. The term PROPERTY will not slide over my tongue with total ease.

When I personally refer to Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Sufi (July 5, 1882 – February 5, 1927) as my own MENTOR you may be assured that particular English NOUN was not casually chosen. The English term NOUN has its own etymological root system traceable to the written language of the Roman Empire, Latin. ROMANCE languages such as Latin and French for example, have their linguistic root growing in the cultural soil of ancient ROME, not in some romantic love story.

noun

late 14c., from Anglo-Fr. noun "name, noun," from O.Fr. nom, non, from L. nomen "name, noun" (see name).

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I.E. Indo-European, the family of languages that includes most of the languages of modern Europe (English among them) and some current and extinct ones in western and southern Asia. All are presumed to share a common ancestor, PIE.

PIE Proto-Indo-European, the hypothetical reconstructed ancestral language of the Indo-European family. The time scale is much debated, but the most recent date proposed for it is about 5,500 years ago.

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ASHRAM is derived from an ancient Sanskrit term meaning PROTECTION

In all aspects of life, wherever we find protection, its motive is always love, and no one can have trust in any protection, however great, except the protection that love offers. If a giant were to frighten a child, the child would say, 'I will tell my mother.' The strength and power of any man is too small in comparison with love's protection which the mother affords her child. Love can heal better than anything in the world.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan

The word ashram is derived from the Sanskrit term "aashraya", which means protection.

PROTECTION - its motive is ALWAYS love

In all aspects of life, wherever we find protection, its motive is always love, and no one can have trust in any protection, however great, except the protection that love offers. If a giant were to frighten a child, the child would say, 'I will tell my mother.' The strength and power of any man is too small in comparison with love's protection which the mother affords her child. Love can heal better than anything in the world.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan

PROTECTION

PROTECTION provides a very good example of a word that got taught to those conquered on the British Isles after 1066AD (Norman Conquest). Linguists provide OLD ENGLISH to define the English language as written and spoken between 450 - 1100 AD. The Old English word for protect was beorgan to be replaced with PROTECTION with etymological roots into Old French, the language of the Conquerors.

protection

late 14c., from O.Fr. protection (12c.), from L. protectionem "a covering over," from protectus, pp. of protegere "protect, cover in front," from pro- "in front" + tegere "to cover" (see stegosaurus). The O.E. word for "protect" was beorgan. In gangster sense, "freedom from molestation in exchange for money," it is attested from 1860. Ecological sense of "attempted preservation by laws" is from 1880 (originally of wild birds in Britain).

It one makes the decision to attempt to follow the spiritual teachings of a person you have chosen as your MENTOR* you will take efforts not to be careless and assume your previously understood meanings for words will be the one that he carries.





Easy to read definitions can swiftly be found in this age of information. Wikipedia for example, discloses the following:

Ashram (Sanskrit/Hindi: आश्रम) is a religious hermitage. Additionally, today the term ashram often denotes a locus of Indian cultural activity such as yoga, music study or religious instruction, the moral equivalent of a studio or dojo.

Hermitage: Although today's meaning is usually a place where a hermit lives in seclusion from the world, hermitage was more commonly used to mean a settlement where a person or a group of people lived religiously, in seclusion.

The Christian admonishment to "be in the world, but not of it" provides food for thought and a subject of contemplation that could consume years.

The Desert Fathers were hermits, ascetics, monks, and nuns (Desert Mothers) who lived mainly in the Scetes desert of Egypt beginning around the third century CE. The most well known was Anthony the Great, who moved to the desert in 270–271 CE and became known as both the father and founder of desert monasticism. By the time Anthony died in 356 CE, thousands of monks and nuns had been drawn to living in the desert following Anthony's example—his biographer, Athanasius of Alexandria, wrote that "the desert had become a city".^[1]

The Desert Fathers had a major influence on the development of Christianity. The desert monastic communities that grew out of the informal gathering of hermit monks became the model for Christian monasticism. The eastern monastic tradition at Mt. Athos and the western Rule of St. Benedict both were strongly influenced by the traditions that began in the desert. All of the monastic revivals of the Middle Ages looked to the desert for inspiration and guidance. Much of Eastern Christian spirituality, including the Hesychast movement, had its roots in the practices of the Desert Fathers. Even religious renewals such as the German Evangelicals, the Pennsylvania Pietists, and the Methodist revival in England are seen by modern scholars as being influenced by the Desert Fathers.^[2]

Early Christianity is commonly defined as the Christianity of, roughly, the three centuries (1st, 2nd, 3rd, early 4th) between accounts of Jesus' resurrection (circa 30 AD) and the First Council of Nicaea (325 AD).

In this time in history, speaking of being in the world and not of it and you could likely find people thinking you were talking about space aliens infiltrating our human populous. A child as a student in our elementary schools adds the English word WORLD to their vocabulary bases and it will be word on their spelling tests. Such child will perhaps learn about the WORLD by a globe or in a science class teaching upon the solar system. Public education is divorced from religious education in our current American culture.

It would not be an exaggeration if one called the mind a world; it is the world that man makes and in which he will make his life in the hereafter, as a spider weaves his web to live in.
- Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Sufi

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