Jack’s Winning Words 9/21/15
“I might look like I’m doing nothing, but in my head I’m quite busy.”  (Spirit Science)  I saw a  non-medical diagram of the brain which showed some of the things that go in that important 3# organ—vision, balance, behavior, movements, sensation, skill, emotion, speech and so much more.  How does all of this happen?  Philosophers have discussed whether the soul resides in the heart or the brain.  What do you think?  What is it that makes you, you?    ;-)  Jack

FROM RJP IN NAPLES:  Resides in the entire being. heart for feeling head for understanding and utilizing that feeling. Remember that old song " Heart & Soul"?====JACK:  I didn't know that Dean Martin was a philosopher.  The wedding ring is put on the 4th finger of the left hand, because the vein in that finger goes directly to the heart.

FROM FACEBOOK LIZ:  the soul is neither... it is a separate "organ" that is not physical. ====JACK:  There is a philosophy which says that the soul is breath (pneuma), that which gives life to the body   Maybe you're a pneumatic!

FROM HONEST JOHN:  The spirit (soul) of a person is your "whoyouareness".    Buber does the best job of defining that.====JACK:  Is there really an answer to the question, "What is man?"  Is it not a question which raises other questions, rather than giving answers?  Who are you, John? ====JOHN:  What is man that Thou art mindful of him?  And the son of man that Thou dost care for him?  And yet Thou hast made him a little less than the Elohim.====JACK:  I never took Hebrew, but I suppose you mean that man is not God.====JOHN:  The Elohim were the "host of heaven". ====JACK:  That's interesting, because the definitions I looked at gave God, or gods, as the meaning.====JOHN:  It is a plural and means "gods".     Which translates to the host of heaven

FROM TARMART REV:  "What is it that makes me, me? ... people like you!!  It all begins in our hearts, I believe.  “Into my heart, into my heart  Come into my heart, Lord Jesus  Come in today, come in to stay...  Come into my heart, Lord Jesus!”====JACK:  I remember learning that song as a teenager.

FROM ME IN NEWPORT BEACH:  The values shaped by family and character developed by beliefs and life experience.  (My visceral response to your thought provoking question).  Marilyn and I are returning today from our first ever visit to good friends now living in Jackson Hole who are life long Christian Scientists.  The husband is also one of my favorite law partners who, with his wife, are regular readers at their weekly services.  Have you thought much about the healing beliefs as inspired by Mary Baker Eddy?====JACK:  Yes, I have examined the life of MBE and how she came to form the Church of Christian Science.  If someone were to ask me if they should join that denomination, I might answer in a different way than if they had asked about that church generally.  Since none of us has a complete understanding of the will and works of God, I would hesitate to be critical someone who finds satisfaction in the way that he/she "understands" God.  I would tend to steer clear of the one who "has all of the answers."

FROM MICHIZONA RAY:  The mind is to soul as the brain is to the body. The brain is an organ of the body that is designed to serve the body. The mind is designed to serve the soul. The spirit is to the soul as the heart is to the body. The heart is an organ that is designed to serve the body. The spirit is designed to serve the soul. Jesus said the "words I have spoken to you are life, and the body profits nothing -- because the body is temporal, and the soul may exist within the eternal heavens as that which is temporal seals its fate of death. As "life" leaves the body (which is comprised of matter from the earth) the body returns to its rightful origin: the earth. Similarly, the soul, with mind and spirit, returns to its rightful origin the presence of God.====JACK:  The heart, the brain...in fact, the entire can be physically examined.  There are even ways in which the mind can be quantified.  If the soul is as "breath" to the body, it, too, can be measured.  We say that when a person stops breathing, they are dead.  Having said that, I see the "soul" as a religious term which is that link between the Creator and the person he has created.  It transcends death...living on.

FROM BB IN ILLINOIS:  I think the phrase is pretty funny as well as thought-provoking.  How oft do we appear to sit or stand idly when in fact, plenty is “going on”?  I think soul transcends heart and mind/brain.  In with and under?  Seriously, unconfined by our physical form, now and….later? ====JACK:  I tend to go along with that, save with some further explanation.  How do you describe that which you cannot see, touch or put under a microscope?====BB:  Who wrote the analogy about wind?  At one point I thought the Trinity analogy of gas-liquid-solid served well and then read a diatribe against that method of explanation suggestion that it’s more like the valences of the protons, neutrons and electrons in an atom…in constant movement with one another yet, of a whole.  I find it difficult to think too  hard along those lines.====JACK:  Regarding "all knowing" critics and their diatribes... I like the words of Socrates, "As for me, all I know is that I know nothing."

FROM CHESTER THE GOOD:  The soul rests in the heart and the brain puts it to work. What makes me me is family and friends.====JACK:  Who we really are is a subjective thing.  "Sticks and stones may hurt the body" but the soul is damaged (or enhanced) by things other than sticks and stones.  Family and friends are extremely important to many people.

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY: This describes me to a tee!  Many times I just sit in my Lazy Boy and contemplate everything...ie.  Blessings, health, grandkids, kids, etc. etc. etc.  I guess you could say it's continually praying.   The soul resides in my heart and mind.  It feeds my heart and comforts my mind.====JACK:  One of my favorite hymns is "Be Still, My Soul,"  sung to the music of Finlandia, written by Jean Sibelius.
Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side.
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change, He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future, as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart,
And all is darkened in the vale of tears,
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears.
Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay
From His own fullness all He takes away.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord.
When disappointment, grief and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past
All safe and blessèd we shall meet at last.

Be still, my soul: begin the song of praise
On earth, believing, to Thy Lord on high;
Acknowledge Him in all thy words and ways,
So shall He view thee with a well pleased eye.
Be still, my soul: the Sun of life divine
Through passing clouds shall but more brightly shine.

FROM MOLINER JT: AMEN !! Yes, God has been there and He does provide !!====JACK:  God shows in unexpected places and at unexpected times.  Brother Lawrence wrote (The Practice of the Presence of God) of how God came to him while he was scrubbing pots and pans in a monastery kitchen.

FROM AW IN ILLINOIS:  Thanks.   My  variation  of this  was:   When you are old (retired) even when you are doing nothing you are doing something..====JACK:  At age 59, Satchel Paige was the oldest person to ever play major league baseball.  As a relief pitcher, he sat in the Kansas City bull pen in a rocking chair, with a nurse serving him coffee.  When he was on the mound, the fans sang, The Old Gray Mare.  Did your congregation sing that to you on your retirement day?

FROM AA IN WB:  if i knew the answer, i would have gotten an automatic "A" in world history from professor Milton Kovenski.  What makes you, you?  different from anyone else.  no one in our class got the automatic "A" and only five over the 30+ years of Professor Kovenski's tenure.  What ever answer you come up with, may be right, however, i wouldn't be able to tell you if you are correct.  JACK:  When G-d made you he threw away the mold.