666 @ MindSay 
june 6 2006
I had to admit to a sentimental attachment to the precepts. It had taken my friend John, in his version of Gaskin’s version of Suzuki’s version of Buddhism, four years of arguing with me just to persuade me that telling the truth—in the sense he meant it—was even possible. Then—once I committed to it—that scrupulous attention to listening, to meaning, and to honesty educated me in the power of silence; and, when the marvels of consciousness made me fear for my sanity and wonder if I might get so lost that I could hurt somebody, it was the principle of nonviolence that unlocked and opened the door to heaven.
Now in my email to Billy just the recollection and recording of these past events ignited in me a kind of hysteria in which I felt like crying and laughing at one and the same time.
Buddhist practice—my own amateurish version of it—had consisted of twenty years of my trying to regain and to maintain my ordinary beginner’s mind and to let go of the wonder and the awe and the private, personal subjective experience to which I had remained attached.
In the years after I left Fayette I told almost no one—I learned the hard way that trying to communicate it was counterproductive because the "I" kept getting in the way—yet still on the inside I felt like the poor woman I'd seen on television who could convince no one that she really had been abducted by aliens from another planet, transported to another realm, and then been released and returned to her normal life here on earth.
“You have to let it go,’ Billy told me.
That I knew.
I had tried and tried and tried.
Thanks to Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind and to Ruth’s nagging I assumed responsibility for our dirty dishes, our laundry, our grocery shopping, recording our checks, mowing the lawn and, my favorite, shoveling snow. My cheerfully doing what many still considered women’s work—the dishes and the laundry—amazed my wife’s sisters and mother, but the pride I began to take in it Ruth demolished by reminding me that no one had ever praised her for doing those chores.
Even more important, in the twenty-five years since my tour of heaven, not only had I not saved the world I had so far as I knew not saved one soul. I had become neither famous nor rich nor—outside of one little town of two thousand people—even notorious.
I knew now that in that same spring when I had celebrated the end of the war and the return home of the last American soldier from Vietnam and had spent one full year staggering from wonder to awe to joy and back again Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge had murdered two million people in Cambodia. The record of Haing Ngor—A Cambodian Odyssey—sobered me. While I had imagined the imminent coming of the peaceful and harmonious world commune, the prisoner Ngor stared at the dead foetuses cut from the abdomens of pregnant women and hung by their necks. This was the reality of communism on the other side of the world:
[The guards] brought a new prisoner down the line of mango trees, a pregnant woman.... She begged them to spare her life.... They tied her wrists around a tree not far away from me, then tied her ankles and left.Though I felt in 1975 that I understood everything and that the great historical pendulum of yinyang had reached perigee in horror and in war and had begun to swing back to peace and to love, still the wars continued—in Southeast Asia, in Latin America, in Grenada, in Nicaragua, in Honduras, in Ecuador, in Panama. As a child in Cambodia, Ngor had been raised and educated as a Buddhist. Ngor survived imprisonment and torture in Cambodia and emigrated to the United States; in 1986 he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Killing Fields, the stunning movie of the Cambodian revolution; and in 1996—in an irony I have again come to understand as truth—Dr. Ngor was slain in Los Angeles by members of a street gang.
Later a new interrogator...walked down the row of trees holding a long, sharp knife.... He cut the clothes off her body, slit her stomach, and took the baby out. I turned away but there was no escaping the sound of her agony, the screams that slowly subsided into whimpers and after far too long lapsed into the merciful silence of death. The killer walked calmly past me holding the foetus by its neck. When he got to the prison, just within my range of vision, he tied a string around the foetus and hung it from the eaves with others which were dried and black and shrunken.
Each tree in the orchard had its prisoner, and each prisoner had a different means of punishment or death.
Dixie currently feels:
Bored
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Quote of the day:
"Eee, imagine if some Christian came in here now? They'd try to EXCORISE your Playstation!"
- Adam
And this came about, as I was playing Haunted Tomb on Spyro 3 - and the game crashed just as I was charging a glass jar.
My gem number had froze in the top left corner - 5666.
With 666 supposably being the number of Satan - who's existance, I still question from time to time - Adam blurted that out, and I proper laughed for ages.
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As we go...
Adam's been here since 2.
It's now half 10.
He's staying the night. - For the first time in our 10 year friendship.
He's got this DS hacking cartridge, which you can download games onto.
He says he'll never have to buy any of the games again - because he's cheap. :P
So far, I reckon he's downloaded about £390 games today.
And the cartridge itself was only £40. :)
Rofl, he's complaining that I'm advertising his piracy.
Oh well, such is life. :P
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So today, whilst he's been sat beside me playing on his DS - I've been giving my 12-year old Playstation some hardcore time.
So I've had a shot at Spyro 3 - and gone from 8% to 77%.
I've done the first 5 missions on Hogs of War.
I had a quick go of Final Fantasy VII and mastered a few Materia crystals.
I'm getting the urge to play some Harvest Moon: BTN.
Best bargain I ever got - only £7.
Though, Pikmin was £8.
But Pikmin's nowhere near as good as BTN. :)
I've done another 10 battles on Mt. Battle on Pokémon Collosseum with Emily the Espeon and Volvic the Typhlosion.
They're both on level 82 now.
But Mt. Battle is so strenuous and boring - I just want to rip my skull out after a while.
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So Emily...
You asked me to blog - and here I am.
I don't really know what to say. :)
Well, as I mentioned to you - please let us both stop dwelling on the crappy past.
I try to forget things that have happened in my past alone - so can we put everything that's happened in our joint-past behind us?
All the tripe things, of course.
Let us not forget some of our wonderful moments...
- The day we started FoG...
- FoG's first anniversary...
- Christmas 2007 - our first VC...
- New Year's Day - the candy cane caper. :)
- And how can you forget the "I want an Echo...", before falling into my door and manically laughing?
Can you remember?
We laughed at every little thing....
- We still do.
We were always there to comfort each other...
- We still are.
When we'd had a crap day, one was always there for the other....
- We still are.
We'd share our secrets, share our feelings, share everything with each other...
- We still do.
We promised we'd always stay by the other's side...
- We still will...
We might have matured Emily...
We've gone through all the tough times together...
We've made it through, we're still alright...
We're older,
We're wiser...
And our friendship is so much stronger.
Good. Bad. Mysterious. The number 666 and the number 777 are ones Christians, mystics, magicians, and even some Pagans attribute special meaning to. It is assumed by many that #666 is all about the Devil and those same folks consider #777 to be the number of God. No matter what side of the spiritual fence you're on, I'm sure you've wondered what the big deal is over these numbers. It also begs to be said that most people don't have a clue about the true meaning behind these numbers. Even those who swear to their God that what they think is true, have not done the research or collected the historical symbolic information about the folklore of these numbers with an un-biased nature. In this article, I will attempt to try to narrow the meanings down to come up with an educated guess about the hidden meaning and connection between these numbers and propose my own prophetic vision about the psychic vibrations behind July 7, 2007.
First, why is #777 so special? And why is #666 supposed to be evil?
The following assumptions concern the number seven hundred and seventy seven:
* The Christian concept of God created the Heavens and the Earth in seven days
* Any number in the power of three is considered a "trinity" number and trinities are considered holy
* If 666 is bad, then 777 must be good since it's more than a triple six
What makes the number 666 the supposed evil counterpart of number 777:
* The number 666 is the identifying Number of the Beast found in the Book of Revelation 13:18 (King James translation): "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."
* 666 is believed to literally refer to the Roman Emperor Nero whose name, written in Aramaic and valued at 666 using the Hebrew numerology of Gematria. Nero was often regarded as a Beast by many.
* 666 is representative of man being created on the sixth day according to the story of Creation in the Bible and making this a trinity number it has been suggested that it is the number of man succumbing to nature as a beast.
* The fear of the number 666 is called hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia (try saying that six times!) and supersition surrounding the number 666 is the cause for many unfortunate accidents and events in the Western world.
* In other cultures, such as the Chinese, 666 is considered very lucky and welcomed as a good omen because in their language 666 sounds like "things going smoothly!"
* 666 has been the inspiration for a lot of great heavy metal songs.
* 666 and 777 have been especially lucky numbers for Aleister Crowley, the famous Occultist who often referred to himself as The Beast because the letters of his name in Hebrew sum up 666. The number 777 is also the title of a book Crowley wrote.
* 666 is NOT officially used by REAL Satanists because to use that number is to be siding with the Christians about the Messiah. Jesus Christ is the true author of the number 666 (in other words, he's the guy who brought it up in the first place) not Lucifer. Real Satanists do not use 666 to mock God and those posers who use the number to intimidate other people are just fools.
(for more crap on 666 refer to my post from last year: Are You Ready for 666?
The real truths behind the number 777:
* 777 represents luck. To get these numbers on a slot machine in a casino means money! (duh!)
* 777 comes from the Kabbalistic diagram of the Tree of Life; a mystical concept used to represent the nature of God and Creation. On the Tree of Life there are 10 Sephirot (enumerations that are the ten attributes that God created through which he can manifest in the physical and metaphysical universe) and 22 paths which interconnect the various Sephirot. Following these paths and Sephirot is a mystical concept called the flaming sword which has the Gematria (numerological value applied to each letter in the Hebrew alphabet that, once calculated correctly, can give hidden meaning to each Hebrew word) of 777. The Hebrew letter zayin has the number 7. Zayin means sword. The number 777 literally means 'sword, sword, sword'. There are many other words and phrases that equate 777, many of them not very holy.
* "777 and other Qabalistic writings" is a collection of papers written by Aleister Crowley. It was edited and introduced by Dr. Israel Regardie (founder of the Golden Dawn), and is a reference book based on the Hermetic Qabalah which also forms the basis of the Western Magical tradition that influenced just about every occult movement formed since the 19th century. The title refers to a lightning flash descending down the diagrammatic worlds of the Tree of Life looking like three "7"s.
* In numerological divination, 777 is: 7+7+7 = 21 and 2+1 = 3. 7 is a number of introspection, planning, invention, and insight. It is most often related to religion because of that root meaning. A number that appears as a double or triple, like 777 or 33, is considered a "power" number and the root meaning of the single digit number has been increased. The number 777 is particularly auspicious because it triples the power of seven, however just like the meanings of Tarot cards, every number has both positive and negative vibrations. The negative side of the number 777 is pure escapism, introversion, and strict religious tradition. Since 777 equals a 21 which equals a 3, the number 777 has a foundation in creativity, action, and expression. The Karmic Challenge of 777 is 21 which is one to successfully obtain knowledge about the world and its people.
* No where in the Holy Bible is there a mentioning of the number 777 representing God. The number seven is significant and powerful, but tripling that number doesn't increase the original meaning of seven in the Biblical sense.
My intuitive feelings about 777:
*** Based on the information I've compiled, and on my own intuitive impressions, it seems that the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventh year will be one that many, on the surface, will consider lucky, but in truth the numerlogical vibrations of this number will bring significant challenges and spiritual quests. People will be either be abandoning or adopting extreme fundamentalist ways of thinking -- the challenge is holding on to tradition while also trying to be open to new ways, a particularly tough balance to achieve for newlyweds who have chosen this day to be their luckiest one but will soon find it a vibration that will bring tough choices and challenges dealing with fidelity.
*** Religion will be a deep factor in the lives of all -- whether or not you believe or practice a religion, the way others believe and think has the potential to free the mind or oppress it. More "fluffy" thinkers will believe that the number 777 is about angelic forces and that this day will mark a significant milestone in the spiritual salvation of the world. However, I tend to see it as a much darker indication that religious fundamentalists in the world will continue to wage their wars in the name of God to the point where more and more people will begin to reject religions that ask followers to committ divine vengence and ritual suicide. The "true" apocolypse will be one that ends the belief systems that many zealots depend on to avoid reality.
*** The true Anti-Christ will be using the number 777 as his trademark and will most likely proclaim himself to be a Christian!
Whether or not you believe in the hidden meanings of numbers, you can't deny the cultural effect they have on people of all walks of life. My other, more mundane, prediction for 7-7-07 is that it'll end up being another ordinary day like 6-6-06 was last year!
Here's the astrological forecast for today's vibration:
The enthusiastic Aries Moon forms a first quarter square with the sensitive Cancer Sun, emphasizing the difference between how we feel and what we express. We react emotionally, yet withhold any outward display. A spiritual Sun-Neptune biquintile can be confusing as it encourages us to further detach from the real world. Nevertheless, our imagination is quite rich with metaphysical treasures if only we are willing to explore these hidden realms.
revcathian told us about this a while back. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that he’s made it to the “big time.” Yes, friends and neighbors, you can read about our new savior, Jose Luis de Jesus Miranda, here:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/16/miami.preacher/index.html
Don’t get too excited about getting your tattoo just yet, though. Jesus clearly taught that anyone coming after Him would be a fake. When Jesus comes back, it won’t be to Florida. No offense to Floridians intended, but He will come from heaven, and He won’t need CNN to announce his appearance.
And I don't think He'll have a 666 tattoo on his hand, either.
Just scars.
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