under the blue flag with its golden stars. It may be for that reason that the eurozone decision-makers decided to make an example of Cyprus. They knew that it was puny. They believed, probably correctly, that it would have to obey. They hoped to show the world, which doubts, that they mean what they say.
But the exertion of such power is a very ugly thing. When you see it exerted you also see who is accorded respect and who isn’t. In this case, ordinary depositors have been disrespected and parliamentary processes have been bullied into giving the “right” answer. Cyprus is capitulating not out of euro-patriotism, but out of fear.
This is NOT European “solidarity” but coercion.
In all this long euro-crisis, Britain has rightly held aloof, but at the same time urged the eurozone to deepen and strengthen itself. This is inconsistent reasoning. If tiny Cyprus can be so much trouble in building the great euro-Empire, what does that say about the likely harmony of the ultimate whole? -
... and IT IS of course a fact that ITALY and ROME are, and wish to remain, part of that harmony.
As Jeremy Warner has recently stated - "Monetary union is many things, but above all it is about free movement of money and a uniform value wherever it is spent. When these functions are disabled, then you cease to be part of a single currency."
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id that we can, too.
This leads us to three vital practices that help us connect to these Three Faces:
The 3rd-person Infinite Face is accessed through reflection ABOUT the Divine.
The 2nd-person Intimate Face is accessed through devotional prayer TO God.
The 1st-person Inner Face is accessed through meditation AS God, the realization that I am one with God.
In reflection, we contemplate the glory of creation, from quarks to the infinite cosmos. We think deeply about the Unmanifest as well as the manifest world. This can move us into praise, worship, awe, and mystical immersion in all of nature itself. This is the home of nature mysticism.
Prayer has a long, traditional and mystical history in Christianity as devotion, conversation, and communion with God, frequently addressed as a deity form. Prayer is often expressed by spoken or inward mental words addressed to God in a 2nd-person, personal way. It can also involve chanting, dancing, glossolalia, and other devotional forms. Prayer is the home of deity mysticism.
Meditation, in an integrally-informed Christian framework, focuses on the progressive quieting of the mind, leading to detachment from all forms and a realization of our nondual True Self, our Oneness with God, I Amness. While Christian prayer focuses on our relating to God who is the Divine Other, Christian meditation centers on our identification as God - I am one with all that God is. We may think of prayer as operating in the subtle realm of forms, while mediation ventures into the causal realm of formless emptiness (or “fullness” as we may also experience it). This is the home of formless mysticism.
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Added by Michael Grove at 7:45 on September 19, 2013