The Zoo Fence - A Commentary on Life and Living

The Zoo Fence is a non-denominational, non-sectarian, independent commentary on issues of interest and importance to seekers in search of the Truth about themselves -- their Nature, their Reality, their Universe, their God. Here, you will find articles, guest columns, prayers & meditations, letters, stories, artwork, cartoons, and other stuff, all of which you can consider by clicking on the menu items on our Home Page. Among them are:

Consider This! · A series of short essays in which we explore reality, religion, the spiritual process, assorted New Age and New Thought subjects, health & healing, and life generally. The first selection there, called The Simple Way, offers a quick overview of our philosophy and path. First-time visitors may want to start with that. To go there now, click HERE

Anna's Page · An assortment of spiritual considerations in the form of essays, articles, letters, suggestions, recommendations, or whatever, all emanating from the clear mind and expansive heart of a very determined seeker. Go now

The Quiet Room · A place of prayer and meditation, this is the site's most frequently visited feature. Whatever else may seem the circumstances of your life, here you are never alone. Go there now

Letters · Letters to The Zoo Fence -- postal, e-mail, and remarks left in our Guest Register -- on a variety of spiritual subjects, and our responses. Go now

The Gazebo · Here we present spiritual ideas or concepts that are more or less still "in process", thoughts we are working on (or, more likely, thoughts that are working on us!). Some may be a little off the wall, so go there prepared. Go now

Open Forum · As its name is intended to suggest, this feature of The Zoo Fence is a space where visitors to The Zoo Fence can express their views, share their experiences, ask & answer questions, or simply think out loud. Even just read what others have written. Go now

Ampers&nd · Here we present selections from the work of the world's great teachers. We have featured Swami Vivekananda, Kahlil Gibran, Unity's Reverend Wayne Manning, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Elsa Joy Bailey, J. Krishnamurti, Jack Schwarz, Bo Lozoff, Walt Whitman, Dada Mukerjee (writing about Neem Karoli Baba), Angela Passidomo Trafford, J. Vaughn Boone, the Dalai Lama, Sri Swami Rama, Ken Wilbur, Sri Nisargadatta, Richard Rose, Mark Twain, UG Krishnamurti, Ibn 'Arabi, and Ramesh S. Balsekar. Currently, there is an essay by University of California professor Stephen Cox. Go there now

Open Space · An assortment of written material, including essays, poetry, and journal entries, contributed by visitors to The Zoo Fence. Go now

Eco-Consciousness · This page is about the planet, its inhabitants and environment, and what we need to know and do about them. There are some nice "eco-links" here, too. This is a relatively new feature on The Zoo Fence, and just beginning to take its shape. Go now

December Card · Here, every December into January, we share some of the joyful messages sent to us by visitors to The Zoo Fence over the preceding months. The rest of the year, we leave the page in place, but with no links to it, except this one. Go now

Links & My Space! · Links to a variety of other interesting and like-minded sites. Go now

Walking with Theophyle · The continuing antics of "Brother Theophyle", a fellow seeker on the path to Truth, who, we hope, will remind us all to laugh at ourselves. These are available as graphic cartoons and in text version. Go now

Definitions · Explanations of what we mean by some of the words we use. Wherever such words appear on the site, they will be hyperlinked, and by clicking on them, you can jump directly to their definition, find out what we mean, and then jump back to continue reading. Some visitors have told us it was helpful to browse through these definitions during their initial visit, because doing so gave them a preview of our mindset. Go now

Here's A Thought · On a pop-up accessed from the "Here's A Thought" icon on our Home Page menu (near the top right of the page you probably just came from), we offer brief thoughts and ideas gathered from various sources that we hope will be inspiring, uplifting, intriguing, entertaining, or otherwise useful. We change them frequently, and archive them here. Go now

Integral Health · Here we offer a variety of perspectives on health-related matters of interest to spiritual seekers (and others). As you consider the material you find here, please remember always to talk with your physician before making decisions about any program of diagnosis, prevention, treatment, or health maintenance. Go now

Take Off Your Shoes · In 1981, we published a book called TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES. It takes its title from God's command to Moses to "take off your shoes for you are standing on holy ground" (Exodus 3.5). This book explores the true nature of our reality, and the ways in which each of us can effect immediate, positive change in our lives. The full text of this book is now available on The Zoo Fence. Go now

The Cranberry Tales · We call these, "children's stories for adults, too". They were originally published by us in hard copy in a very limited number in 1989. When they first came out, Downeast Libraries wrote, "This collection of short stories about animals living on a farm in rural Maine is notable for its lack of cutesy and condescension to the child reader. It comes out somewhere between the Brementown musicians and E.B. White, and that's not a bad neighborhood." We hope you will enjoy them. Go now

A Continuing Fiction · We describe these as "the stories of a middle-aged American male person coming to the realization that there is no such thing". Go now

The Sacred Riddle · Here we consider, in a variety of formats, the fundamental mystery of life, which we call The Sacred Riddle. Go now

In The Beginning · This is the full text of our book "In The Beginning", which is subtitled "The Eden Conspiracy Unveiled", and in which we explore the why of the created universe. Go now

In addition to the full text, we have posted two individual excerpts from this book, one addressing The Fall and another about The Last Supper. Descriptions of those appear immediately below this paragraph.

The Fall: Catastrophe or Conspiracy? · This is an extended excerpt from our book IN THE BEGINNING (for the full text, see here). In this selection, we suggest that mankind's understanding of The Fall as reported in Genesis and other traditions may be mistaken; and that The Fall was neither an error nor a sin, but part of God's Plan. Go now

The Last Supper: This Bread, This Body · This too is an excerpt from our book IN THE BEGINNING (the full text is here). In this piece, we suggest the betrayal of Jesus by Judas at the biblical event commonly referred to as The Last Supper may not be what it appears, and that in Truth far more was going on there than has met most eyes. Go now

The Blog · An internet blog entitled "And the beat goes on" where we ventilate a variety of ideas, theories, and arguments on "worldly" topics, by which we mean subjects that do not specifically relate to the spiritual quest, path, and process, all the while recognizing and acknowledging that there is nothing which does not so relate! Go now

Art Gallery · Here are a collection of very beautiful paintings that ask nothing of you but to be there. If the philosophy and spirituality of the rest is more than you bargained for, you may want to jump directly here. You will also find a link to a graphics-free page, describing the artwork in text alone. Go now

Gnocchi · These simple line drawings named after the Italian dish appear here and there throughout The Zoo Fence. (A gnocco is a kind of Italian dumpling.) There is a list of them here. Go now

Flags over The Zoo Fence · Here we are delighted to display the national flags of visitors who have signed our guest register or otherwise informed us of their home country. Go now

Books & Videos · Here, in association with the internet bookstore Amazon.com, we offer a selection of books and movie videos that we like very much and we hope our visitors will enjoy. Go now

Thisenthat · These are links to a variety of "non-spiritual" (as if there were such a thing!) sources that we hope visitors will find useful and interesting. There are also a couple of games. Go now

Selections & Sources · Scattered throughout The Zoo Fence are an assortment of brief quotations and other selections. Here we list them. Also on this page are citations and references for items that appear in The Quiet Room and on other pages of The Zoo Fence. Often, where we offer a quotation by someone else, clicking on the letter "Q" beside it will take you to this page for its source. Go now

Site Search · With the help of the folks at PicoSearch, we have a full search capability at The Zoo Fence. Simply, go to our Search page, enter a word or set of words, and if it's on The Zoo Fence, PicoSearch will find it! And list your search results in context. While there, check out our other internet search boxes (there's one for kids too!). Go now

Copyright Permissions · Virtually all of the material, text and graphics, that appears on The Zoo Fence is protected by Copyright or Trademark provisions in law. Here you will find information about that, and about copying stuff from the site. Go now

Technical Stuff · Virus alerts and some other stuff that takes only a few minutes to read but which may avoid hours of headaches. Go now

Awards · Here, with much gratitude, we display awards that have been granted to The Zoo Fence by others. Go now

Miscellanea · This feature is essentially a catchall, a space where we put anything that does not seem to belong in any of the spaces mentioned above but which we are nonetheless moved to share with visitors to The Zoo Fence. Go now

Before you proceed any further, please consider the following "DISCLAIMER" very carefully: We have no credentials that you too do not have. We are simply spiritual seekers writing here on the basis of our own personal experience. In effect, then, what you find on The Zoo Fence is an expression of personal opinion based upon personal observation of our own lives. Please read it as such. If any of it is of any use to you, we are delighted. But please do not mistake it for authoritative guidance or advice on any subject. We neither wish to, nor are we qualified to, issue anything like that. While this disclaimer applies to everything on The Zoo Fence, it applies all the more to the material at Integral Health concerning any medical, psychological, nutritional, self-help, or any other health-related issue, program, therapy, or regimen. As regards those kinds of questions, we urge you to consult a licensed health-care professional before making any decisions or taking any action. As regards everything else on The Zoo Fence, your best guide is your own common sense.

The Zoo Fence is a product of The Laughing Cat, founded by two renunciate seekers, husband and wife, who consider themselves to be monks, and in fact who sometimes refer to themselves as the Monks of The Sacred Riddle. They are intensely spiritual, but not necessarily religious in the common sense of the word. That is, they are far more interested in finding the Truth and then realiz-ing it (making it real in and as themselves and their lives), than they are in where they find it. They have, and they belong to, no organized group; there is no hierarchy, no identifiable structure, no membership, no boundaries, no secret handshake. These are simply two ordinary people who, in their words, "left the world" in the mid-1970s to live a life in search of Truth. (For more about "The Sacred Riddle", please click here. For more about our perception of the difference between "spiritual" and "religious", please click here.)

Why "the zoo fence"? One night in 1974, in a fishing camp on the windward side of Molokai, in the Hawaiian Islands, one of us had a dream about publishing a journal called "The Zoo Fence." The name probably originated from the practice of the Honolulu Zoo to allow artists to display their art work on its fence in Waikiki; but beyond that, who knows what the subconscious meant by the phrase! In any case, it made sense in the dream, and when, more than two decades later, The Laughing Cat decided to issue a newsletter, the choice of a name seemed already to have been made. (For one interpretation of the name, please see the item "Why the zoo fence?" on our Letters page.)

If you would like to make The Zoo Fence your browser's home page (and we hope you will!), please click here for instructions.

If you have come to The Zoo Fence by following a link from another site, you may be caught inside one of their frames. To address this problem, we have placed "frame

escapes" at the bottom of many of our pages, like the image at right. Clicking on it will extricate you. If you are not sure whether you are caught in a frame, click there anyway. The page will simply reopen. To see what it might look like to be caught inside another's frame, click here.

Finally, before you leave, we would appreciate your taking a couple of moments to sign our "Guest Register," and letting us know how you fared here. If you leave your address (e-mail or postal) we will add you to our mailing list. We generate very little mail, but we will inform you of major changes to the site, and from time to time perhaps of other things. (Rest assured, we do not share or in any other way exchange our mailing list with others.) If you have a question or a comment, please leave it there, or send it to us by e-mail. Whatever medium you choose, we will get back to you promptly. To go to our Guest Register now, please click here.

Thank you for visiting. We hope you enjoy yourself here. We wish you joy and love in everything you undertake.