Monday 13 June 2016

MONDAY 13th JUNE 2016 08:09 BST

Read my book - ENLIGHTENMENT FOR ORDINARY FOLK
 

Also available - EMOTIONAL MANAGEMENT FOR ORDINARY FOLK
 
WISDOM, HUMOUR, AND LOTS OF OTHER INTERESTING STUFF CAN BE FOUND ON MY PINTEREST PAGE and FACEBOOK PAGE
TO FIND OUT WHAT I DO, CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE

1. ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

13th June 1525: Martin Luther marries Katherina von Bora
Katharina von Bora, was one of 12 nuns Luther had helped escape from the Nimbschen Cistercian convent in April 1523, when he arranged for them to be smuggled out in herring barrels. At the time of their marriage, Katharina was 26 years old and Luther was 41 years old.

On 13 June 1525, the couple was engaged with Johannes Bugenhagen, Justus Jonas, Johannes Apel, Philipp Melanchthon and Lucas Cranach the Elder and his wife as witnesses. On the evening of the same day, the couple was married by Bugenhagen. The ceremonial walk to the church and the wedding banquet were left out, and were made up two weeks later on 27 June.

Some priests had already married, including Andreas Karlstadt and Justus Jonas, but Luther's wedding set the seal of approval on clerical marriage. He had long condemned vows of celibacy on Biblical grounds, but his decision to marry surprised many, not least his most fervent supporter John Melanchthon, who declared it reckless.

Luther and his wife moved into a former monastery, "The Black Cloister," a wedding present from the new elector John the Steadfast (1525–32). They embarked on what appeared to have been a happy and successful marriage, though money was often short. Between bearing six children, Hans – June 1526; Elizabeth – 10 December 1527, who died within a few months; Magdalene – 1529, who died in Luther's arms in 1542; Martin – 1531; Paul – January 1533; and Margaret – 1534; Katharina helped the couple earn a living by farming the land and taking in boarders. Luther confided to Michael Stiefel on 11 August 1526: "My Katie is in all things so obliging and pleasing to me that I would not exchange my poverty for the riches of Croesus." 

2. TODAY IN MY LIFE
Blogging
Housework
Meditation
Me Time
Supper
Missus Time

Twitter Followers = 2,260 (up 2)
Never-followed unfollowers eliminated = 1

@KinkyLadies1
Followed unfollowers eliminated = 1
@BernardSchaffer
New Followers followed back = 1
@factocube,
Spammers not followed back = 3
@waHanniboom, @RyzinskiRafael, @Shirleyjaus

3. TODAY'S SELF-OBSERVATION
I've been having a somewhat self-indulgent time of it recently! I have to say I have no guilt about this at all - life is for living! Fortunately when it comes to hedonism I am not insatiable and can only be distracted for so long before I am fully satisfied and yearn to return to routine and discipline. 

Within my self I am fascinated at the YinYang balance of forces at work, a dynamic ever-shifting balance, a microcosm of the universe itself. Even more fascinating, my consciousness can lift itself right out of this avatar and observe it objectively.

I have for a long time been contemplating the nature of consciousness itself. I was for some time a follower of Peter Russell who argues that the fundamental nature of the universe is consciousness. I now find myself questioning this view - it's too "nice" and comforting an idea. I am still on board with the idea that everything is ultimately one thing (Nondualism) but I no longer believe that one thing is consciousness. I think that the one thing is waves of potentiality, which in the case of life have coalesced into nodes of varying degrees of consciousness. 

I do believe that through human avatars, the universe is becoming more conscious, and in time, via these avatars, may come to fully understand itself. Consciousness is, it seems to me, the product rather than the nature of the universe, as much as I would love to continue to believe the former. Consciousness requires many things to interact harmoniously at once, so I no longer believe it was there in the first place - waves were.

This of course begs a question to which I have no answer - why do waves wave? As human beings I think we need to learn more Physics before this question can be answered.

4. TODAY'S QUESTION FOR YOU
Are you living life in the most fulfilling way possible?

5. TODAY'S WEATHER IN BRADFORD
In brief
Mainly dry and cloudy, but light showers can be expected late afternoon/early evening

Details

















Moon





Weathertrack














Air Pressure
1002 millibars and falling slightly

6. TODAY'S ONELINER
Dyson backing Brexit really sucks! :D

7. NOW THAT'S FUNNY!
Anjelah Johnson on getting married and not being a lesbian

8. TRIVIA
Pigeons can actually remember humans by face - If you chase one away, it will avoid you during later encounters.

9. ZEN WISDOM
You can change yourself by the simple act of intently observing yourself.

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