Glacier Bay in Alaska
In summer of 2007, my wife and I went for an Alaskan Cruise. The cruise ship started from Vancouver (Canada Place) and northbound to Whittier in Anchorage. The cruise is wonderful. You can eat as much as you can, 24-hours a day. The ship is very steady – big ship and not crossing any ocean. You don’t even know you are on board the ship if you don’t look out of the balcony. You jog three rounds around the ship, you have covered a mile. The ship has 18 levels, four night clubs, one theatre, five swimming pools (one heated and enclosed), number of jacuzzi whirlpools, five restaurants and one buffet restaurant, shopping areas, photo studio, etc. Activity rooms available for the very young to seniors, even for those on wheelchairs. This ship has a capacity for 2000 passengers.
This cruise to Alaska has given me an opportunity to Reflect on Life. It reminds me of the Five Elements. I found some notes in the Internet on the Five Elements…
The Five Elements, according to eastern philosophy, are the fundamental components of the Universe. The Five Elements are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water.
Going to remote areas, where population is zero in the Glacier Bay and Fjords, you have to respect the Five Elements around you – though the obvious around us in the Alaska bays & Fjords are the Wood (the forest), Earth (the mountain) and Water (the Fjords, Bays Rivers, Streams, Ocean, etc). Beneath – Metal (especially Gold) and Fire (Plate Tectonics), the causes of earthquakes.
Within the Bay and Fjord proper, you have the tranquility, calmness, peacefulness and serenity – mother nature in its total equilibrium – the Five Elemental energies in balance. You can also called it, God’s creation.
Read more …Wikipedia – The Five Elements
Hee Kuan wrote: Hi hewlee, enjoy before we are returned into the five elements!! There’s the one other important element that you didn’t mention … i.e. our “spirit” (soul?). Where do you think it’ll go to?
Contemplate/reflect on that please and advise.
Some say to heaven (or hell), some say there is no such thing as a soul!.
Meanwhile, you are doing the right thing, enjoy the “present”.
Someone recently sent me an attachment that said: The “past” is history, the “future” is a mystery but the “present” is a gift, so enjoy it.
hewlee wrote: Hi HK, There is a choice before we finally return to the Elements. You can choose Earth or Water – probably after going through the Fire.
The sixth Element – the Spirit (Soul), yes, peace of the environment around us is not complete, if we do not have peace of the mind (balanced mind or spiritual strength, I think). Look at all the conflicts we experienced around us and around the world.
I am no expert in The Five Elements Theory. My understanding (knowledge/opinion) is mainly obtained from the Internet. Below are some of the findings:
The Five Elements are being applied by many people in many ways. There are even the Chinese and Japanese Philosophy of the Five Elements. Other applications include Chinese Astrologly, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Laws of the Yin & Yang, Feng Shui, Acupuncture, Martial Arts, Tai Chi and Qigong Meditation, etc.
SP wrote: Hi hewlee, it is very cold on board? Must be.
I like this discussion of the Five Elements and the question HK raised. Do you really think we have a choice to return to which element? If we reason that we do not have a choice coming here, it also reasons that we do not have a choice going there, wherever “there” is. Correct me if I am wrong, the concept of the Five Elements was developed by the ancient Chinese to live in harmony with Mother Nature. If that is the case, and when you know your element, through a very complicated way of calculations, you could live in harmony with the other compatible elements in Mother Nature? What if I don’t know my element and the calculations, and just lower my mental exitation, could I also not achieve a similar peace of mind and be in harmony with my Creator? (I would rather not believe Mother Nature “created” me. Other “Mother”, may be.)
HK raised the question of the soul and to where would you think that go? Back to the “Other Mother”? You have ascribed the soul to the Sixth Element. Could you enlighten me on this element? Or is it an element? Is Spirit an element? What about the Wind? Is that counted as the same element as Spirit? The Wind goes where it blows, but who is blowing it? Some say the Wind is the Spirit of God. What do you say?
There is a final element, if you would call it an element. And it is Light. Where is Light coming from? The sun? Or is light as we know it, is more than meets the eye? Ponder these questions and see if we can find some answers.
John Lee wrote: …hi hewlee Great pictures and so glad you can take time off to enjoy the beauty of creation. With respect to your question, see if what M R de Haan, M.D. said makes sense to you.
Genesis 2.7 says “The Lord God formed the man from dust of the ground”. “We are the clay”, reckons the prophet Isaiah. Scientists centuries later have noted that the chemical constituents of the human body do, in fact, compare with the chemistry of clay. Chemically, the body of man differs not a particle from the earth out of which he was taken. The human body consists of about 85% water (hydrogen and oxygen), calcium, sodium, iron, nitrogen, phosphorous, arsenic, and a large number of rarer elements.
Genesis 2.7 also says that “God breathe into man and he becomes a living being.” The breath of God is the Soul of man. When we die, the breath is taken out of our body. The Soul comprises our Spirit, our intellect, our personality and our will. The body dies (from dust to dust), but the Soul lives forever. Someone has said that “Death is the last chapter in time, but the first chapter in eternity”.The Soul, upon the demise of the body passes on to eternity, an eternity with God or an eternity without God.
The Soul is the most precious part of our being, which is why the bible says “what does it profit a man if he were to gain the whole world but loses his Soul”.Our Soul is so precious that God sent his only Son to die on the cross as an atonement for the sins of man. John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life”. The Son of God became the Son of Man to change the Sons of Man into Sons of God. This is the wonderful news of Christ and the cross.
Unfortunately, not everyone can accept the concept of “free” salvation. We have to “earn” our way to heaven, they say. The bible is very clear that we cannot “buy” our way into heaven. Our righteousness is like dirty rags. Only through the shed blood of Christ – the unbelmished Lamb of God -can we gain the salvation for our Soul. Salvation may be free for us, but it was costly to God and it cost Christ the anguish and the painful death upon the Cross. The cross of Christ -to those who are perishing – foolishness; but to those who are being saved – it is the power of God.
Ponder upon this my deaar friend and enjoy the time with your family.
Blessings.
Pingback: North to Alaska «