Consider the subject matter, and proceed with caution at your own diacretion.
I was born into the church, and also into a family with a multigenerational history of abuse. I was socially crippled by the pressure to proselytize as a child. I was not allowed to interact with people outside the church, and friends inside were faking it to maintain 'ward family'. I had autism, and adhd already from birth. Church docteine provided my abusive and neglectful mother with all the tools she needed to both abuse her kids, and make sure there were NO trusted adults who could intervene or report her. Honor thy father and thy mother. She taught my brothers to bully the shit out of me, and as we grew older they chased off anyone who dared to even think about saying hello to me. The church's mysogynist rhetoric allowed them to justify their behavior.
Neglect and abuse made me vulnerable at school. I was dirty, sick, smelly and bedraggled all the time. I was abused outside of the home twice due to negligence. I now have chronic urinary issues from bathrooms kept in absolute filth, and infested with e-coli. In the turmoil, I never learned to divide and acquired a permanent learning disability in mathematics. I spent almost all of middle and highschool alone in a special ed classroom(different school) because no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't stop the bullying, and my education needed to happen with or without friends. I couldn't interact with my immediate family in my own home, because being in the room with anyone but my father would result in being screamed at and demeaned in only a handful of minutes. I spent all but an hour or two a day most of the time alone in my room, and it only ever got worse. A child needs 6hrs a day, minimum, of socialization to grow healthy. I had 10% or less of that for 20 years.
It should be improving now, but it isn't. Instead, I eventually escaped, but not on my own terms. I had 3 days to find a couch to sleep on I would be homeless, all over owning a 2$ box of instant coffee. The word of wisdom. Almost as soon as I was out, the plethora of undiagnosable symptoms were joined by a new, and uniting symptom; dissociative flashbacks caused it all to coalesce into a CPTSD diagnosis
Now, I'm agoraphobic. I cannot take out my own garbage because life taught me that the only safe place was my teeny tiny 150sqft bedroom. Three years out, and i finally have paratransit so I can go places without the massive barrier that "going outside" is. There was a time in my life when all I wanted to do was be outside exploring nature, hiking in the backwoods, and playing in creeks. I haven't enjoyed sunlight and the smell of dewy grass in years. My entire world is a cat, disembodied strangers in voice chats, and a 300sq foot studio apartment. Occasionally I venture out into the alien planet around me for exposure therapy, to acquire basic necessities, and go to college classes if I absolutely have to. I have catatonic fits and dissociative episodes, memory loss, time loss. I'll need a service dog. There's no gaurentee I will ever fully recover, and it could take more than a decade to to achieve functioning adulthood.
The church, and my mother's influence, severed my connections with just about everyone I ever knew and loved. All but two of my entire extended family sided with my abuser, and shunned me like they were supposed to for being an antimormon lesbian sjw agent of satan. Of those two, only one was genuine. The other was like my mother, and attempted to love bomb me and take advantage of my distress. Forget making new friends, I've tried and tried and tried. I either never learned to make friends because of the church's iron grip on outsiders, or forgot how in the 7 years I've gone without. My only success has been online, a whopping 3 people, and that isn't enough. I haven't been touched by another human being in months. That's actually an improvement, because before I hadn't been touched by another human being in 5 years.
Dating prospects? Hahaaaa that's a funny joke. Who the hell would take on someone who is a one way ticket to medical debt, who can barely take care of herself and finds a walk around the block a major accomplishment? Get real. If I ever get into a serious relationship, or even married, I might just have to start believing in god again. I won't, though. Any God that creates a world that can be as cruel and unforgiving as this one on purpose has to have some serious metaphorical balls to ask me for my respect. He couldn't do it, his royal omnipotent asshole would clench, quiver, and retreat right off at hell's gate in fear. His pride couldn't handle knowing I would only spit on his Jesus brand sandals for the offense.

Posting here cuz I don’t know where else to go. It’s a bit of a rant but I need some support.
TLDR: I found out today the court is granting my TBM ex wife’s motion to take the kids and relocate in another state. I’m so heartbroken, I’m physically Ill and beside myself.
After I left the church had a year long divorce and custody battle that ended in a trial. I was awarded joint physical and legal custody.
Fast forward three years and my ex wife remarried some out of state. She wanted to take the kids to another state, so we had another year long court battle that needed in a trial.
She told the court she wants the kids to live in a nuclear family. She doesn’t like my “lifestyle choice”. Apparently being a bisexual man in a long-term committed relationship with a man isn’t valid because 1.) We aren’t married and 2.) It is homosexual.
She has been extremely homophobic over these several years. And yesterday my oldest son told me he had a crush on a boy…. So now he is going to spend more time with crazy TBM mom being raised in all those toxic teachings of the church. I’m so worried about him.
I’m will be going from 50/50 joint custody to 1 weekend a month and 6 weeks in summer. What the fuck!?
To make matters worse, I will now have to pay $1,700 a month in child support so they can live with mom in a other state. I’m already living paycheck to paycheck as it is, and I would have been completely under water once student loan payments kick back in, and now they are adding in this extra child support. Did I mention she doesn’t work because her husband makes $700k a year?
How is this fair? How am I going to survive? I can’t eat, i can’t sleep. I don’t know what to do.

Hi guys! Sorry for my English, this is an automatic translation. I have read many posts in this community. I read about the balance, about the offers of the players. Many people want to make changes to the game, but few offer their specific ideas. I decided to write a petition to the developers to bring all the problems into the game. Please support me and express your thoughts. This is the first part. I have a lot of ideas, and they won't fit in one message.

1. We need to redo the existing maps. I and many experienced players know the existing maps by heart. I know the location of the chests where the scraps of cards are stored. I know where the final battle will take place and where the Ancients are. I know where you can find a lot of items, and where looting is useless.

Playing as a demon, I even know where the survivors can start. The medieval map is the scariest if the survivors experience a growing fear at the beginning of the game, but they are in a cemetery or in the ruins of a palace. If there is no fear, then they are in the Castle. If the fear is growing slowly, then they are in the northwest.
All the cards need to be redone, you need to add new places for chests, for the location of scraps of cards. The locations should be the same. For example, the Bluff Road Bridge location is very small, there is only one chest, one place for part of the map and almost no items. It surprises me that the survivors are so adept at jumping over windows and fences, but they can't step over a fallen tree. If the developers slightly change the old locations, add several buildings, places for chests, so that the survivors spend more time searching, this will immediately give the demon a bonus, and it will be more interesting for the survivors to play. Experienced players have studied the old maps, and they need to make changes for a change.

1. We need new maps. A lot of people talk about Elk Grove, but we don't have a map of Michigan (season 1 of the series). I see the following places in it:

- Abandoned mansion (where Amanda's partner was killed)
-ValueStop Supermarket (where Ash, Pablo and Kelly worked)
-Airstream trailer parking
- Kelly's parents' house (with grave and cross)
-Street and bookstore
- The Western Moose Diner (where Amanda tried to arrest Ash)
- Rancho Brujo
- Rebel camp
- The forest (where Kelly and Pablo hid from the rebels)
- Bunker (where Amanda and Ashley were sitting)
- The Cabin in the forest (The Knowby Cabin)
I know that Noble's hut and El Brujo's hut are already in the game, but I don't see anything strange in the fact that these locations are repeated. And these locations can be redone, for example, the Brujo Ranch in the series - it's not like the El Brujo hut in the game.
​
Map of Elk Grove. (Season 2)
- Trailer Park in Jacksonville
- Police station
- Hospital with morgue
- Stadium
- Elk Grove Street
- The local bar where Ash competed with his father on the bull.
- Ash's parents' house
- Sawmill (its advertisement flashed in the series)
- Sewer (where Ash and Ruby met)
- A hut in the forest
- Kenward County Asylum (in my opinion, it should consist of two or three locations like Kantara Castle)
​
Map of Elk Grove. (Season 3)
- Auction House (where Ruby comes for a book)
- Rubin's office
- Brock Williams Hardware Store
- Sperm Bank
- High school (in my opinion, it should consist of two or three locations like Kantara Castle)
- Church and funeral home.
- Ambulance station
- Coffee shop (was in the dark world)
- Ash's parents' house
- Prevett mansion
- The Knights of Sumeria Headquarters
- Military base

Hello, I wanted to share something interesting I found along my online journey in the neo-pagan site of the internet. I'm very much interested in history (Indo-Germanic/European history), Ancient languages and I'm a very open, curious person. So no wonder I ended up sooner or later in a neo-pagan Yoga bubble. And I thank God that I could find my way to the Church before I started some serious demonic worship.
If you read in the comments of neo-pagans like The Golden One, Dharma Nation, Survive the Jive and the like you will find two argument regarding the conversion of the Anglo Saxons.

1. Charlemagne forced their conversion by the sword
2. or that the Anglo Saxons were fooled by the lie that Jesus was a warrior god in the style of the old Germanics, which can be proved by the poem "Heliand" from 830

Now, good. I've ever just heard pagans talking about this poem and why couldnt it be true that there was a poem making Jesus an Anglo Saxon styled warrior king? Just yesterday I googled this poem and it's one of the most beautiful things I've ever read. And guess what? It's actually a summary of the New Testament in the form of Old Saxon poetry. It's absolutely in line with the NT. You can read it fully in English here https://www.hieronymus.us.com/latinweb/Mediaevum/Heliand.htm
Yesterday I was browsing on thegoldenone.se* and he wrote following lines about the poem:

Jesus as a Warrior-Lord
Throughout the book, the author discusses Germanic literature. He presents the Old Saxon poem Heiland (meaning saviour in Old Saxon). The epic verse was composed around 830 by a poet-monk (or perhaps an ex-warrior, as noted by Murphey in the book The Heiland). Flowers says the following about it:
‘It is a retelling of the story of the life of Jesus in Germanic alliterative verse. This is not a translation of the gospels, but an original composition that allows the poet to recast the Christian myth in almost entirely Germanic terms. Jesus becomes a warrior-lord (OS drohtin) with a retinue of twelve warriors who fight against Rome.’ Stephen E. Flowers – The Northern Dawn. Page 104.
Presenting Jesus in a way that was attractive to the Germanic peoples was a key to success in introducing Christianity in Europe.

What is interesting for me is - like I said before - just online pagans seem to write about this poem. It is a bit sad for me that pagans take this beautiful and glorious part of our Catholic history and present it as something pagan. Probably, no one of them has ever read the poem since they just quote other people referring to this poem. Like me never reading it before yesterday :D
Also Saint Bernard is used for the propaganda. He quotes him:

‘Whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. What a glory it is for you to emerge from the battle crowned with victory! But what a greater glory it is to win on the battlefield an immortal crown… What a truly blessed condition, when one can wait for death without any fear, yearning for it and welcoming it with a strong spirit!’ Saint Bernard – De laude novae militiae
The Crusades were, one could argue, more of a Pagan (i.e. an expression of the Indo-European spirit) than a Christian undertaking. The Crusades could actually be a good example to emphasise the extent to which Christianity had been transformed in Europe.

Okay, I think there are also other quotes of Saint Bernard, which would come to my mind but wouldnt look that aestheticly pleasing on his blog ...

“Neither does he bear the sword in vain, for he is God’s minister, for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of the good. If he kills an evildoer, he is not a man killer, but, if I may so put it, a killer of evil. He is evidently the avenger of Christ towards evildoers and he is rightly considered a defender of Christians. Should he be killed himself, we know that he has not perished, but has come safely into port. When he inflicts death it is to Christ’s profit, and when he suffers death, it is for his own gain. The Christian glories in the death of the pagan, because Christ is glorified; while the death of the Christian gives occasion for the King to show his liberality in the rewarding of his knight....

https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/incontext/article/bernard
All in all, it makes me very happy to have discovered the poem. I would say it makes me sad that our history is being twisted and used but on the other hand that's normal in today's media world.
What are your thoughts?
I wish you good last fasting days and a well preparation for Easter :)
EDIT*about the author I want to say that I think he is a kind person, just very obviously I dont agree with his view on religion and spirituality.

I mean that in the nicest way possible to the artists lol. I'm not trying to convert the wife from yeehaw to DnB because that's an up shit creek without a paddle battle, but in the car she doesn't insta skip all that generic stuff that made the radio over the last decade or so. I've tried koven, Mollie Collins, Ruth Royall and VOE thinking lady vocals might be the key but it seems the only ones that stick are the ones mentioned below (mainstream).
Off the top of my head I'm thinking stuff like, High Contrast, Rudimental, Florence/London GrammaEd sheeran/Adele remixes, Andy C, Sigma, That new Goddard song. Honestly I'd go so far as to say a little bit of dubstep/edm generic Calvin Harris/Avicii/Cinema (skrillex) or flume/Luude/Lee Mvtthews might pass as we're from down under.
We're out and about atm and I need a rest from her sad farmer music for the long drive home, all help is appreciated thankyou.

For context; I played Sorc (~lv22, initially easy mode then upgraded up one difficulty when it was too easy) and Rogue (~lv9) on a 3000 series Ryzen 7 and a 3060 gpu with Windows 11 x64.

Starting off with the great

• Art direction is fantastic
• Spells and skills feel great
• Combat still feels slick
• Cinematics team is still one of the best
• I appreciate that its got an M17+ rating
• Mark as junk is a welcome improvement for inventory management. I kinda wish there was more marking types (mark as junk, mark for scrapping, etc)
• Storytelling has definitely stepped up from the Saturday Disney villains of Diablo 3
• Never had a crash!
• I like the revised potion system

I'll start with what could potentially be fixed by launch

• Rubber-banding issues when walking between areas. I kept running into invisible walls and then bounced back to a previous spot when walking between two areas. Most notably the Kyovashad and Eastern Gatehouse/Cathedral of Light.
• An annoying delay after talking to an NPC while the camera pans, preventing you from choosing the next dialog options. I'm a bit of a lore junkie and playing it for the plot.
• Can't always skip dialogue with characters? Couldn't seem to find a pattern with it.
• Subtitles on movies are buggy. Doesn't go away after words are spoken or de-sync within a minute.
• The (dungeons?) felt too too big, overstaying their welcome. I had moments that I was so bored while backtracking that I actually dozed off at the computer.
• Big bosses seem to be mainly damage sponges. The one at the end of Act1 took forever with 2p, despite the pattern not deviating much other than attacks speeding up a bit.
• If I'm playing solo, please for the love of Akarat pause the damn game when I press ESC. Coming back to a dead character after having to run off and do something on a moments notice isn't fun.
• I can see textures loading in as cutscenes play.
• Why can't I right-click and teleport to someone in my party? The friend I was playing with was genuinely angry about it
• It's too easy to miss waypoints. Could we automatically activate them once we step foot into a town?
• Camera zoom levels of the gameplay area (this has been discussed thoroughly by others already)
• Comparing off-hand damage tooltips seems buggy (off-hand skull showing me +1 damage, swapped off-hand showing me +13 damage). How could they both be better than the other?
• Every cellar I went into was the same hallway/room. Did I just have awful RNG?
• My basic lightning arc attack was one-shotting mobs. Chain lightning destroyed everything it touched. The iconic frozen orb spell? Merely tickled the enemies...
• Exit dungeon button is useless whenever I reach for it. Dungeon map doesn't always have "leave dungeon" or leave area. I don't always want to TP back to town.
• I keep pressing "E" by accident during a battle and it is always followed by panic as chunks of my HP are taken out. Remapped it to backspace
• Performance is steady for the most part, but randomly stutters for a few moments.
• Consider unlocking the skill slots for the earlier levels as we gain more skills. What's the point of letting us unlock multiple skills if we didn't have the ability to use them in slots?
• Sometimes pinned locations on the map will show you a red line path that isn't valid

Post-launch improvements?

• Character designer has so little options compared to Lost Ark. The interface to create your character felt really clunky too (eg. left/right buttons instead of a gallery)
• If I was somewhat bored with the "increased drop rates" during beta then I'm not really looking forward to the launch drop rates
• Only realising it now after the beta had finished, I never noticed the music in the game. Is there even any music?
• For a game that was touted as Diablo+MMO I found very little reason to interact with strangers, and even if I wanted I found it very difficult to figure out how.

Things that stop me from buying but unlikely to be fixed, ever

• No offline mode for console. I am not paying a monthly subscription fee to PSN/Xbox to play Diablo solo.
  
• The story-telling mechanisms used are cheap. D4 is too much "telling", not showing
  

-- Over-use of holograms to re-tell events
-- Neyrelle's mum is having the time of her life following Lilith around. Why on earth does she spend so much time leaving diary entries on stone tablets?

• The plot/dialogue is an insult to the intelligence of the M17+ audience. I found Dead Cells had a more intriguing way of telling a story than Diablo 4.

-- After gruesome scene where priest is killed in church, Lilith speaks to guy in hoodie, "Now our true work begins" - that last line cheapened the whole scene. Would have maintained a more menacing tone by ending with "Go to the Dry Steppes and proceed with preparations".
-- Our character is drugged and abducted after their first meal, escape and hours later happily agrees to enjoy a meal with another total stranger (Lorath)
-- A grave danger has been unleashed upon this world, we need to hurry! But first, carry this token around in the snow to a few altars. Then seek blessing from our living Angel. Oh he didn't approve? That's ok, I'll bless you anyways lulz
-- Nobody in town seems surprised by my discoveries about the big baddie. They all seem to be ahead of any developments, why cant they just save the world themselves?

• The world feels TOO big? I felt fatigue looking at the map and thinking about how much walking is required before a mount is unlocked. Parts of the game felt like a walking simulator (could just be a me-problem)
• Sorc skill-tree seems too linear, felt more like a skill-stick.
• Missing the feeling of building a character the way we want and having items supplement that build, rather than the other way around. Most notable after playing D2R prior to D4 beta.
  
• Why no local co-op for PC?
  
• I feel nothing towards the MMO aspects of the game.
  
• I feel next to nothing towards the story of the game.
  
• I thought my friend was lying about how much the game costs (too damn much)
  

Thanks Blizzard for the D4 open beta, but I have now confirmed that the franchise is no longer what I crave for in an ARPG.
This is really sad for me as I always saw Diablo 1 as the genre defining game and Diablo 2/LoD/D2R as the gold standard that every game aspired to be. Hundreds of hours sunk into D1/D2LoD, not even including the time on creating fan apps (mobile app for Runewords) and D2 mods. D3 was ok, RoS fixed it up but the ARPG genre now has alternatives.
Diablo 4 is a decent game. I want it to succeed and I'm sure many will enjoy it thoroughly, but it's not for me.

There are many people reading this who are not connected to a Buddhist community because there are "no Buddhist centers in my area". The good news is that in the post-pandemic world, this is no longer an issue. The goal of this series of posts (Online Temple w/ Livestream) is to showcase Buddhist centers that have an online virtual presence. These are not online-only temples. These are actual Buddhist temples with a local presence that just happened to have an online/livestream service via Zoom software or Youtube. Anyone anywhere in the world can 'attend'. You can now be a part of a Buddhist community.
<><><><><>
Karuna Buddhist Vihara
https://www.karunabv.org/calendar.html
Chanting, Meditation, and Sutta Study Wednesdays at 10pm (Eastern) and Saturdays at 1pm (Eastern) via Zoom with American Buddhist bhikkuni (nuns) in the Theravada Buddhist (Pali-based) tradition from Karuna Buddhist Vihara http://www.karunabv.org/
Karuna Buddhist Vihara (KBV) was founded in 2012 as a neighborhood monastery where Theravada bhikkhunis live, where women train to become bhikkhunis, where meditation and Dhamma teachings based on the Pali Canon are offered to the public, and where traditional chanting and ceremonies are conducted. KBV is incorporated as a non-profit, tax-exempt Buddhist church in the state of California. Currently, KBV has two residents: Santussikā Bhikkhuni and Cittānandā Bhikkhuni. They currently live at the new hermitage property in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Northern California.
The intention at KBV is to strive as diligently and energetically as possible for the realization of Nibbāna and to help as many people as possible to improve their lives and do the same. As the citta (heart/mind) develops in sīla (moral virtue), samādhi (meditation) and paññā (wisdom), mettā (loving kindness for all beings) and karuṇā (compassion) blossom as well. At KBV, the intention is to share these qualities and this experience along with the example of living a simple life. The inspiration for this way of living has been the many good monks and nuns that the residents of KBV have lived with and learned from over the years, as well as the Buddha himself.
To that end, the nuns at KBV study the suttas, the Vinaya and the Pali language and practice the Noble Eightfold Path with diligence. In the past, at its Mountain View location, KBV held public weekly chanting, meditation and sutta study sessions, daylong meditation retreats and other Dhamma programs, as well as traditional Buddhist observances, such as Vesākha Pūjā and Kathina. Although we have now moved to the Santa Cruz Mountains, the bhikkhunis, still offer these same programs online and meet with people for spiritual counseling on request. They also offer meditation instruction, Dhamma talks and retreats for a wide variety of groups outside of KBV.
Since KBV began, the community of participants has steadily grown and is uniquely diverse with people representing a very wide range of ethnicities, ages and backgrounds. The common theme is interest in traditional Theravada teachings from the Pali Canon as practiced and presented by ordained monastics in English as they relate to modern Western culture.
With more bhikkhunis, the range of offerings and services for the public will expand according to their strengths and interests. This might include such things as a youth program, Pali classes, Qigong classes, or regular tea and Dhamma discussion meetings, and would include regular morning and evening meditation sessions open to the public.
After the big, unexpected change of acquiring the hermitage property in 2019, the vision for KBV has shifted slightly. The hope is to develop the hermitage to accommodate 5 monastics and up to 5 lay people staying at the property at any given time. With the peace and energy of an old redwood forest to reside and deepen their practice in, the bhikkhunis will have the opportunity that the Buddha instructed monastics to seek in order to make progress on the path, and consequently provide improved teachings to the public. The hermitage property will also serve as a peaceful haven for lay guests to practice and participate in the activities and daily schedule of living at a monastery.
​In the spirit of continuing to be accessible to those who are interested in what KBV has to offer, the intention is to open a meditation center in town somewhere in the South Bay once it is safe to have meetings in person again. We are hoping for office or retail/commercial space that will provide enough parking and amenities for everyone who would like to come for any of the programs. However, with the cases of COVID-19 still on the rise and no foreseeable end in sight, the focus for now will be developing the hermitage's facilities. The search for a suitable location for the meditation center in the South Bay will continue as the pandemic allows.
Our mailing address is: P.O. Box 887 Boulder Creek, CA 95006
Hermitage: (408) 354-3305 Cell: (650) 556-6427 [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
<><><><><>
To find more Buddhist communities with online/virtual services, go to Vihara
If you want a local Buddhist community and believe there are some near you, use this guide to help you find & select a good one.

Strength

Striking

• Kicks down a door⁵
• Flicks an eraser into Shirou hard enough to flip him out of his seat⁵
• [Tiger Dojo] KO's Fujimura with a kick⁵

Other

• [General] Beat Mitsuzuri in every kind of physical test except lung capacity⁵
  • Mitsuzuri is skilled in martial arts and the archery club captain
• [Lifting] Drags Shirou by the neck⁵

Durability

Blunt

• Gets crushed by Berserker⁵
• Punched by Kuzuki⁵

Esoteric

• [Electricity] Zapped by an Einzbern Castle trap⁵
• [Mental] Resists Berserker's immobilizing aura⁵

Endurance

• Ran for an hour⁵
• Her Magic Crest physically won't let her die⁵

Speed

Agility

• Climbs a tree⁵
• Jumps out of an alley as fast as Lancer (most likely hyperbole)⁵
• Jumps down a flight of stairs⁵
• Covers a few meters in a leap⁵

Movement

• Avoids Shinji⁵
• Barely dodges Lancer's charge⁵
• Dodges one attack from Saber⁵
• Easily hits back 120kph-traveling baseballs⁵
• Dodges Dark Sakura's Shadow projectile⁵

Reaction

• Blocks Illya's reflected blast that Illya couldn't react to⁵
• [Limit] Gets blitzed by Kuzuki but manages to mitigate the damage of his punch by jumping back⁵

Travel

• Moves as a blur⁵
• Dashes with "Saber-like speed"⁵
• Blitzes Sakura⁵
• [Bad End] Moves between Shirou and Berserker's sword⁵

Magic

General

• Archer says she's the strongest Master⁵
• A normal magus would pass out after summoning a Servant⁵
• Shirou believes she is approximately six times the mage he is⁵
• Caster admits that Rin forced her to try a little⁵
• Has 500 units of Magical Energy, with her lifetime cap likely at 1000⁵
  • However, she can only use 80% of that
  • In Heaven's Feel, her capacity is 300
• Has the same amount of Magic Circuits as Sakura⁵
• Would beat Sakura 10/10 times in a magecraft battle⁵
• Skilled at transformation of power⁵
• Her attribute is 'the five elements'⁵
• Keeps her magical energy stored in her hair⁵

Azoth Dagger

• A ceremonial knife⁵
• Shirou using it punches it into Kirei and kills him after releasing its magical energy⁵
• Shirou using it lands the final blow on Saber Alter⁵
• After infusing all of her gems into the Azoth Dagger, it has a hundred times Shirou's Magical Energy capacity⁵

Bounded Field

• Sets an alarm system on her house⁵
• Puts a soundproof barrier up that traps Shirou in a classroom⁵
• The max size of her Bounded Field is equivalent to a classroom⁵
• Puts up a soundproof Bounded Field that could keep a missile detonation silent, supposedly⁵

Command Spells

• Makes a Command Spell with a wide limit affect Archer to the point that he drops a rank if he goes against her orders⁵
• Warns her if she's being watched by another Master⁵
• Feels Archer die⁵
• After giving her two Command Spells, Saber destroys the Grail mass⁵
  • This blast also tore apart the remains of Shirou's Unlimited Blade Works

Defense

• Her Magic Circuits protect her from theoretically getting melted by Rider's Bloodfort Andromeda⁵
• Blocks Illya's reflected blast⁵
• Doesn’t seem affected by Caster’s gas⁵

Familiars

• Has an owl familiar⁵
• Created a jade bird familiar⁵

Gandr
Properties

• They're high-caliber pistol strength⁵
• Shoot at sonic speed⁵
• She makes them stronger after Shirou calls her fat⁵
• Would give a normal person a cold for two days⁵
• She can lower the intensity if need be⁵

Usage - Objective

• Cracks a stone wall⁵
• Leave fist sized burn marks⁵

Usage - Scaling

• Defeated a group of Dragon Tooth Warriors without taking any injuries⁵
• Goes through the walls of a classroom⁵
• Destroys a classroom with rapid fire shots⁵
• Breaks Rider's chain⁵

Gear - Jewels
Properties

• Places her blood into gems to form magic bullets⁵
  • Her family is especially good at this
• The magic she puts into them is dyed in the jewels' attributes⁵
• She can melt them⁵
• Can store others' magical energy in gems, or things that aren't magical energy⁵
• Jewels are the most compatible storage space⁵
• She's the only one that can convert her gems⁵

Pendant

• Holds the equivalent of ten years' magical energy⁵
• "Pretty much anything is possible with the energy in this"⁵
• Saves Shirou's life after Gae Bolg pierced his heart:⁵
  • What she did
• Gives Shirou one final burst of energy to swim up⁵
  • The wound threatens to reopen, but this could be a property of Gae Bolg⁵

Top Gems

• A topaz with a wind spell is strong enough to level a house⁵
• Her ten ultra gems can each create the equivalent of an A-Rank attack⁵
• Three max-power gemstones have enough power to blow away a mansion⁵
• Freezes Berserker's arm⁵
• Melts Berserker's face with five max-power gems⁵
  • Gore hits Shirou, who is 10m away
  • Pierced his spine
  • Takes one life
• Resisted Berserker crushing her by placing one of her max-power jewels on her stomach⁵
• Cancels out Caster's wind and electricity spells, these of which were capable of roasting the entire church basement⁵
  • If she was only defending herself, the jewels would be able to protect her three times before breaking, but because she's defending Shirou, it breaks after one
• Boosts her top gem attack with another top gem to amplify their power⁵
• With two gems protecting her, wades through the mud of the Grail, though the gems apparently do not help⁵
  • It was a 30m journey
  • Shirou believed he could take one step into it and would instantly die, and just looking at the stuff would make one fall unconscious
• Wading through a lake of fire would be no problem with her jewels⁵

Gear - Other
The Blade of Zelretch

• The original one brought down Crimson Moon⁵
• Utilizes over 100,000,000 units of Magical Energy⁵
• Destroys Sakura's shapeshifters⁵
• Shreds her arm muscles with every swing⁵
• Blows it up⁵
• It’s an heirloom that harvests magic from infinite parallel universes⁵
• Shakes the foundation of a cave⁵

Other

• A book that shows the parameters of a Servant to its Master⁵
• An ether cluster⁵

Magic Crest

• Initiates a spell that lets Shirou give his Magic Circuits to Saber⁵
  • This digitalizes Shirou's consciousness
• Transfers it to Shirou, which has a side effect of letting him see her memories⁵
• Puts a portion of it on Shirou to dampen his magical energy, in order to protect him from the Shadow and the terrible influence Archer's arm has on him⁵

Medicinal

• Gives Shirou painkillers⁵
• Treated her own wound from Kirei⁵
• Knows how to heal a girl who had her life force drained⁵
• Applies styptic and painkiller to Shirou's arm wound⁵
• Healed Shirou's dead nerves, and has flesh-replacing ointment⁵
• She heals at 7x the usual rate if buried alive on her estate's land⁵
• [Limit] Can't heal the wound made from Saber running Shirou through⁵

Power

• Puts enough oomph into her Gandr to make them immediately effective⁵
• Has enough mana for Saber to fire an Excaliblast twice⁵
• Could create a spell superior to the Matou worm pit after six months⁵
• [Limit] Can only drain, not erase, Rider's unactivated Bloodfort Andromeda⁵
• [Limit] Freezing Grail mud is beyond her level⁵
• [Good End] Provides Saber with mana after the Grail's disappearance⁵

Prestidigitation

• Fixes Shirou's window⁵
• Can hide her presence⁵
• Knows "the popular spells"⁵
• Increases the volume of her voice over the phone⁵

Senses

• Hears her living room clock while in her basement⁵
• Senses Archer's magical energy⁵
• Extends her consciousness to search for her watcher⁵
• Feels Shirou watching her from the bottom of a skyscraper⁵
  • Shirou is only using a little amount of magical energy to do this
• Intuition tells her Archer will lose to Lancer's Noble Phantasm⁵
• Senses Berserker's arrival⁵
• Senses that Ryuudou Temple is no longer drawing in magical energy⁵
• Senses the main sigil for Bloodfort Andromeda is on the first floor while on the fourth floor⁵
• Feels "some humanity" in Shirou's Bounded Field⁵
• Sees Einzbern Castle when Shirou can barely make it out⁵
• Can tell Gilgamesh's true nature simply because he seems rich⁵
• Knows how far Caster is above her in terms of potential⁵
• Her instincts are as good as Sakura's⁵
• [Limit] Can't sense that Shinji is a Master because he doesn't have Magic Circuits⁵

Bad Ends

• Created a jelly trap for Shirou⁵
• Immobilized Shirou with a bad cold thanks to a Gandr shot⁵
• Wipes Shirou's memories of the Holy Grail War⁵
  • Does it to Fujimura too
  • Takes Shirou's Command Spells
• Releases Shirou from Caster's prison⁵
• Puts a geas on Shirou that makes him follow her orders for as long as the Grail War lasts, which prevents him from keeping her from killing Sakura⁵
• [Tiger Dojo] Her severed head can fly⁵

Other

• Emits a wave of enmity infused with magic⁵
• Contracts Saber⁵
• Keeps Archer's presence hidden completely within the bounds of her house⁵
• Figures out Shirou's element is not of the usual five⁵
• Could give herself Mystic Eyes to force Shirou to fall asleep⁵
• [Limit] Can't use projection⁵

Skill

Martial Arts

• Beat up Shinji⁵
• Whoops Caster in a physical battle⁵
• Can last a minute against Caster⁵
• Beats up Shirou with a pillow⁵

Other

• Cooks good Chinese food⁵
• Falls asleep standing up⁵

Intelligence

• Calculates the distance and speed she's falling⁵
• Analyzes Lancer's tactics⁵
• Knew what happened to Shirou and Saber⁵
• Anticipated Berserker's movements⁵
• Found Bazett's secret base⁵
• Can tell how old bloodstains are⁵
• Finds the general area where Einzbern castle is⁵
• Performed neurosurgery⁵
• [Bad End] Placed a trap in the path she knew Shirou would take⁵

Misc

• Forces the student council treasurer to take a week off⁵
• Sucks at rock paper scissors⁵

Hollow Ataraxia Stuff

Semi-canon
Strength

• Throws a punch in 0.2 seconds that might have fractured Shirou's cheekbone^HA
• Smashes a phone^HA

Speed
Agility

• Climbed Fuyuki Bridge^HA

Movement

• Throws a punch in 0.2 seconds that might have fractured Shirou's cheekbone^HA

Magic
Gear - Jeweled Sword

• Botched an attempt to create a Jeweled Sword by herself^HA

Gear - Kaleidostick

• The Kaleidostick can download skill sets from parallel copies of its wielder^HA
• Teleports Shirou into a dream world^HA
• Brainwashes Rin^HA

Gear - Other

• Creates a potion to suppress her Magic Crest^HA
• Has a chest with unlimited space, in which time flows differently^HA
  • While inside, one can make phone calls to different universes
• MIPS^HA

There are many people reading this who are not connected to a Buddhist community because there are "no Buddhist centers in my area". The good news is that in the post-pandemic world, this is no longer an issue. The goal of this series of posts (Online Temple w/ Livestream) is to showcase Buddhist centers that have an online virtual presence. These are not online-only temples. These are actual Buddhist temples with a local presence that just happened to have an online/livestream service via Zoom software or Youtube. Anyone anywhere in the world can 'attend'. You can now be a part of a Buddhist community.
<><><><><>
SokukoJi Buddhist Temple Monastery
https://sokukoji.org/
Grand Rapids - https://sokukoji.org/about-sokukoji/visit-sokukoji/grand-rapids/
Kalamazoo - https://sokukoji.org/about-sokukoji/visit-sokukoji/kalamazoo/
Traverse City - https://sokukoji.org/about-sokukoji/visit-sokukoji/traverse-city/
Battle Creek - https://sokukoji.org/about-sokukoji/visit-sokukoji/battle-creek/
SokukoJi Buddhist Temple Monastery
33 Anderson Ct.
Battle Creek, MI 49017
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TIPS
You might have to try a few times or for a while. While you can find that "perfect" place on the first few tries, think of it also as "dating". There are different ice cream flavors of Buddhism. So try a few places and keep going until you find one that best suits you.
And when you do find that "home" temple, you sense a connection with this community, sign up for their newsletter to get updates, contact them by email and ask about becoming a regular attendee or a member. You might want to officially become a Buddhist in which case, ask them for a Refuge Vow ceremony. As a member of the temple or center, support your temple and monks with generous gifts, donations, or volunteer work.
Ultimately, going to the temple is not enough, you want to be an active member of the sangha. Ask them for any temple-led courses or programs. Ask how you can help. Regularly connect with your dharma friends and teachers to learn more about the Buddhist life.
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FAQ
Question: Wait, there's so many. What tradition/sect do I choose?
Answer: As a beginner, you don't choose. Try them all. Do that for sometime. Then naturally you'll gravitate more towards what you have connection with.
If you find any issues, scandals, or controversies with the temples/centers above, please let me know.
If you find any of these temples to be your "home", consider supporting them through generous donations.
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Question: Okay, its my first time, what exactly do I need to do.
Answer: As a beginner, don't worry about it. Just attend.
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What's different about this list?
Unlike many lists online which include a lot of frauds, cults, and controversial abusive groups, the list you have here are carefully selected. It filtered out all these problematic groups. Giving you only with the legitimate authentic Buddhist communities that are faithful to orthodoxy.
With that said, even if a school or sect is authentic, this doesn't mean that individuals or the leadership within are upholding Buddhism faithfully. In that case, you will still need to do your own due diligence to observe for any warning signs or red flags.

Epistle Yah'ahQoB [“YHVH Follows”, Jacob, James]   INTRODUCTION  

“… a Christian revision of a Jewish work.” (Easton, 1957, TIB p. XII 21)ⁱⁱⁱ
 
In Greek, Hebrew, and Latin the title is one form or another of Jacob (Iacobi, Ιακωβος [Yakobos], יעקב), but not in English. I read somewhere that James was substituted because Jacob was too Jewish. Even allowing for the torturous etymological path by which Yah'ahQoB is transmogrified into James (J [a sound that does not exist in Hebrew] for Y in Jacob was the first step, lord knows where they got the M an S) and even Pedro (retaining not a single consonant), the question remains, why is it that New Testament references to Old Testament Yah'ahQoB are Jacob, but New Testament characters are James in the King James Version? It only now [3/28/23] occurs to me that it may have been to flatter the king!  
James’ epistle is so Jewish that Clarke cites Talmudic sources for nearly every verse. The Interpreters’ Bible posits a preexistent Jewish “Book of Jacob” adapted to a Christian audience; rather than point out Jewish antecedents it highlights the less numerous Christian accretions. The traditionally ascribed author, James the brother of Jesus, remembered as pharisaically Jewish, ridicules Pauline rejection of the Torah.  
James, as is also the case with “certain other epistles, toward the close of some Pauline letters... and in Heb. [Hebrews] 13 [has] “sequences of sayings-groups and isolated sayings arranged with little apparent logical order… this form was very familiar in the contemporary Hellenistic world, where similar somewhat miscellaneous collections of general moral instructions were widely employed in teaching ethics. If these instructions were phrased throughout in the third person such a collection was called a ‘gnomologium.’ But if the second person (singular or plural) was employed, so that the teachings were addressed – either actually or as a literary device – to an individual or to a group, then the collection was termed a ‘paraenesis.’ And in James we have a perfect example of a paraenesis…  
While James is a paraenesis, as a whole and in all its parts, in many sections another highly specialized contemporary literary form is also evident – the form known as the ‘diatribe.’… for the present purposes it may be described adequately enough as copying the style of a speaker engaged in a lively oral debase with an opponent. Among ancient writers on ethics who use the diatribe form Epictetus is particularly notable; among Jewish authors the thoroughly Hellenized Philo often employs it. In the New Testament, Rom. [Romans] 3:1-8 illustrates the form admirably.
…
The fact that the Epistle of James is written throughout as a paraenesis, with frequent employment of the diatribe, shows that its author must be sought among those whose literary associates were with the Greek rather than with the Hebrew world. For the antecedents of true prose paraenesis among non-Greek-speaking Jews are so scanty as to be virtually nonexistent.
…
On the other hand, the content of James, as contrasted with its literary form, belongs unequivocally to the Hebraic-Christian, and not to the Hellenistic world…. James, as we have it, is unambiguously the work of a Christian author, whose rhetorical training was Hellenistic but whose religious background was firmly Hebraic.  
Can the ‘James’ whose name stands as writer at the beginning of the letter be identified with any of the other New Testament characters bearing the same name? Of these there are three (not including the James of Luke 6:16): the apostle James, who was the son of Zebedee, the second (very obscure) apostle ‘James the less’… and ‘James the Lord’s brother.’ Attempts to identify the author of our letter with either of the first two now belong only to the curiosities of the history of interpretation, but the theory that the third James was the author has held sway for many centuries.  
He appears in Mark 6:3 (Matt. [Matthew] 13:55) as one of the four ‘brothers’ of Jesus – the others being Joses, Judas, and Simon, of who we know only the names. The exact relationship implied by ‘brothers’ has been, and is still, the theme of often embittered controversy as among three alternatives: children of Joseph and Mary, children of Joseph by a former marriage, and cousins. The details of this controversy are for the purposes of this Commentary unimportant.
…
Even if the actual author of the epistle was not James the Lord’s brother, does the content of the writing represent the special type of Christianity of which James was the recognized champion? Or in other words, does our letter teach a Jewish Christianity?  
By ‘Jewish Christianity’ here is to be understood the ideal taken for granted in the declaration of James and the Jerusalem elders in Acts 21:20-25, where a sharp distinction is drawn between Jewish and Gentile believers. There are ‘thousands’ (literally ‘myriads’) of the former and they are all ‘zealous for the law’… so zealous are they, indeed, that they treat as an incredible slander the report that Paul has taught Jewish converts to forsake these customs; they ask him – and he agrees – to show publicly ‘that there is nothing in what’ his enemies have been saying about him, and that he himself lives ‘in observance of the law.’  
For Gentile Christians, on the other hand, no such observance of the ‘customs’ is required; it was sufficient for them to keep the four ‘necessary’ point laid down in Acts 15:28-29 (and repeated in 21:25); if they kept these, all would be well with them. From the standpoint of non-Christian Judaism this was a miraculous, even an incredible, concession – this admission that Gentiles might be dispensed from virtually all observance of the ceremonial law and yet be regarded as inheritors of salvation. But the concession was very far from complete. It meant that in every Christian community in which there were former Jews and former Gentiles there were two sharply distinct groups of believers: those who continued to observe the Mosaic ceremonies and those who disregarded them. And – this is the important point – the former regarded themselves as representing a higher and more complete type of Christianity than the latter. In particular, the Jewish Christians simply took for granted that the seat of authority in the Christian church was in Jerusalem, the heart of Jewish Christianity…
…
[Paul] refused absolutely and passionately to admit that the high ecclesiastical rank of James and the other pillars carried with it any corresponding spiritual authority. Their rank was given them by men, not by God, and so was to Paul a matter of utter indifference (Gal. [Galatians] 2:6, 9). Therefore not only were commands from James destitute of any real binding power but – as when he forbade Jewish Christians to eat with their Gentile brethren – they actually might be commands to commit sin, so that all who obeyed him were sinners (Gal. 2:11-21)!
…
Paul’s depreciation of the authority of James finds rather more than a vigorous echo in Mark, whose narrative depreciates James himself. A portion of Mark’s depreciation has been more or less mechanically copied by Matthew, but in a softened form. Still less of Mark’s depreciation has been copied by Luke, and in a still more softened form… But the Fourth Evangelist, to whom the freedom of Christianity from all Jewish legalism was an axiomatic dogma, goes not only beyond Mark but beyond Paul: James, far from being a ‘pillar,’ was one whom ‘the world cannot hate’ – in poignant contrast to its hatred of Christ (John 7:7). Here John is writing at a time when the Christians were so nearly universally Gentiles that their freedom from the ‘worldliness’ of the Mosaic ceremonies was assumed as a matter of course. So far had this concept progressed that the (comparatively very few) Jewish believers who still clung to the ceremonies were now regarded not only as reactionaries, but as dangerous heretics against whom relentless war must be waged; compare, e.g. [for example], Ign. [Ignatius] Mag. [Epistle to the Magnesians] 9:1, where keeping the Sabbath instead of ‘the Lord’s day’ is denounced as a deadly sin. And this conviction must have been immeasurably intensified by the Roman persecution of Christianity. From this persecution the Jewish Christians, because of their ceremonialism indistinguishable by the Romans from other Jews, were exempt, since at least outwardly they were members of a religio licita; [lawful religion] ‘the world did not hate them’ as it hated the church at large.
…
… while in the battle against Jewish Christianity much the most important figure was Paul, it by no means follows that rejection of Jewish Christianity involved acceptance of all that Paul taught… The letters of Paul, the great Apostle to the Gentiles, bulk so large in the New Testament that it is easy for us to think that all Gentile Christianity was Pauline. It was not. When the author of II Peter says of Paul’s letters that ‘there are some things in them hard to understand’ (II Pet. [Peter] 3:16), he speaks not only for his own and later ages but for the apostolic age as well. When Paul taught that for Christians circumcision was wholly needless, that Gentile believers were every whit the equals of their Jewish Christian brothers, this doctrine was avidly adopted. But the intricacies of the logic by which he attained this conclusion were quite another matter. When he wrote ‘Christ is the end of the law’ (Rom.10:4), he wrote a phrase that bewildered many. Surely, they reasoned, Paul could not mean Christ has put an end to the law ‘Thou shalt not kill’ or ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery.’ And similarly with the phrase so basic in Paul’s thinking, ‘We hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works of law’ (Rom. 3:28). Surely, men argued, Paul could not possibly teach that if a man’s belief is orthodox, his conduct does not matter.  
Of course, in both instances they were perfectly right; Paul meant nothing of the sort… A famous saying of Harnack’s (roughly paraphrased) states the facts not unfairly, ‘No one in the second century understood Paul but Marcion – and Marcion misunderstood him!’ This saying is, to be sure, not wholly correct; B.W. Bacon observed succinctly that it should read, ‘No one understood Paul but John – and John did not misunderstand him!’ But the genius of John, like the genius of Paul, soared far beyond the reach of the rank and file of contemporary Christians.  
The consequence was that Paul’s teaching was brought into the comprehension of ordinary believers by the explanation that by the ‘law’ Paul meant not the moral but the ceremonial law of the Old Testament.
…
To come now finally to the question at issue: Is the Epistle of James a technically ‘Jewish Christian’ work? Undoubtedly very much of its material is taken from Jewish sources… But this fact does not make it ‘Jewish–Christian’ in the polemic force of the term any more than its occasional use of traditional Stoic-Cynic ethical teaching, and its use throughout of the Stoic-Cynic literary forms of paraenesis and diatribe, make it a Stoic-Cynic treatise… Nowhere is there the slightest hint of two classes of Christians – the cardinal tent of true Jewish Christianity.
…
In the last decade of the nineteenth century … a French scholar [L. Massebieau] and a German scholar, [Friedrich Spitta] working wholly independently, published almost simultaneously conclusions that were identical. Both maintained that the epistle was originally a purely Jewish writing which has been converted into a Christian work by an editor who merely added ‘and of the Lord Jesus Christ’ in 1:1 and ‘our Lord Jesus Christ’ in 2:1. Both writers stressed in support of their theory the extraordinarily difficult grammatical problem offered by the Greek genitives in 2:1 … a problem solved at once by the theory of the interpolation. And they argued further that if this interpolation is accepted, a corresponding interpolation in 1:1 may be inferred; especially since 1:1, as it now reads, contains language unique in the New Testament… Then, since these two occurrences of ‘Jesus Christ’ are the only explicit Christian terms in the letter, the remainder, they argued, not only represented a use of Jewish tradition, but was Jewish tradition and nothing else.
…
… a generation later Arnold Meyer … [n]oting that in Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew, ‘James’ and ‘Jacob’ are the same word … saw that if the Christian ‘interpolation’ in 1:1 was recognized as such, the original opening words could be read “Jacob, a servant of God, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion: Greeting.’… And for a letter from Jacob to the ‘twelve tribes’ a well-known biblical precedent was provided by Gen. [Genesis] 49, where Jacob addresses the ‘ancestor’ of each tribe in turn…. Meyer undertook to demonstrate that similar references to the twelve tribes can be detected in James.
…
But even if Meyer is correct in his contention that a ‘Letter of Jacob’ forms the basis of James, it by no means follows that he is equally correct in contending that the former can be recovered by eliminating minimal Christian additions in 1:1; 2:1; 5:12; and 5:14. He seems vastly to have underestimated the contributions of the Christian editor. This appears most vividly in the long section 2:14-26 on the relative value of faith and works. … Not only is the general trend of the argument in 2:14-26 one impossible in Judaism, but the details of its wording show that the argument is directed against a non-Jewish opponent – an opponent who can be identified definitely as Paul… Only one conclusion appears to be possible: 2:14-26 was written not by a Jew, but by a Christian.
…
Nor is 2:14-26 the only Christian passage in James.
…
If this is correct, we have the solution of a difficulty in Meyer’s theory for which he has no satisfying answer. If the ‘Letter of Jacob to the Twelve Tribes’ was really virtually coextensive with James as a whole, we should expect to find the tribal allusions fairly evenly distributed throughout the work. But this is precisely what we do not find.
…
Meyer notes, to be sure, that no one writing paraenesis would tie himself down to a rigid outline; it is characteristic of paraenetic style that it permits of all sorts of apparently unmotived digressions. …. Yet the digressions never bulk very large; there is no adequate basis here for accepting the almost grotesque assumption necessitated by Meyer’s theory, that more than four fifths of the entire work is irrelevant to its plan!” (Easton, 1957, TIB pp. XII 4-11)   END NOTES   ⁱⁱⁱ The Interpreters' Bible The Holy Scriptures in the King James and Revised Standard versions with general articles and introduction, exegesis, [and] exposition for each book of the Bible in twelve volumes, George Arthur Buttrick, Commentary Editor, Walter Russell Bowie, Associate Editor of Exposition, Paul Scherer, Associate Editor of Exposition, John Knox Associate Editor of New Testament Introduction and Exegesis, Samuel Terrien, Associate Editor of Old Testament Introduction and Exegesis, Nolan B. Harmon Editor, Abingdon Press, copyright 1955 by Pierce and Washabaugh, set up printed, and bound by the Parthenon Press, at Nashville, Tennessee, Volume XII, The Epistle of James [Introduction and Exegesis – Burton Scott Easton, Exposition - Gordon Poteat], the First and Second Epistles of Peter, The first, Second, and Third Epistles of John, The Epistle of Jude, The Revelation of St. John the Divine, General Articles, Indexes   An Amateur's Journey Through the Bible