Religions are a powerful concept in human mind that evokes communion, brotherhood, love, creed, belief, culture, devotion, ecclesiasticism, faith, godliness, reverence, observance, persuasion, sanctity, veneration, worship, pietism and theological questions, but RELIGIONS are also used as illusion, delusion, deception, chimera, misconception, mirage to create fogginess, unreality, surreality and fanciful images of negativity, fear, violence, coercion, monopolization and destruction of human collective mind to enslave, make it feel guilty, sinner and to arrest into a permanent conditioning jail. Thanks Dr Ali for your eye opening posts on Islam's dark patches.
The rest of these discussions are extremely bright and illuminating. I am learning a lot. Thanks to Carlan, Mountain woman and all other contributors to this great forum.
The only true words I have ever spoken are "I don't know."
I hope that the Thinkers.network staff will soon be able to solve this annoying interjection of scrabbled symbols that pollute this site too often lately.
I read what was written here earlier but that has been covered over with scrabbled symbols.
It seemed to be written by a person who felt that the Muslim religion was asking their religious faithful to always take pride in their being Muslims and they should not be ashamed of their religious beliefs no matter what atrocities and no matter what crimes were being committed or addressed to their religious brothers and sisters and the poster felt that that was nearly impossible for he or she to commit to outwardly and inwardly.
I think that all religions ask their followers to take personal pride in their teachings and in their ceremonies and in their holy leaders. I think that all religions have people in them that most of us would like to have as neighbors and friends and I think that all of them have people in them that are insane and over zealous and overbearing and would not want to live with them in any capacity because of the fear that they would someday turn their destructive attitude and might against them and theirs.
The poster was saying that they felt that the Muslim did not add constructively to the betterment of human kind as did followers of some of the other world religions of this world. I cannot answer to that statement. I do know that all man-created religions have since any of their beginnings hindered to a greater or lesser extent the progress of the human condition for its own betterment. I know that if it were up to the world’s religions founders that we would be all back in the stone ages and we would all be living in the age of sacrificing humans and beasts and other things to those ancient man-created gods and spirits. I do know that if it were left up to many of our world’s religious leaders that they would like to see all of the people’s of this world returned to be completely subservient to their religious hierarchy, bar none of them.
Religions that have a false or man-created God at their head are religions that are impediments in the way of the rightful path for the betterment of all of mankind everywhere. There is no religion that has added in anyway to human progress that I can think of. The only progress that has added to the overall wellness of the human condition worldwide has been caused and accessed by the human creativeness that has struggled and fought with mind and good sense against the tyranny of every and all religions over the last ten of thousands of years.
Without the humans capacity to think outside of his and her religious upbringing we all still would be living in caves and out on our plains and deserts as do the animals and insects do.
I know that there are millions of you out there that believe that we should go back to cave dwelling days of yesteryear and live under those old religious tyrants and give up all of the conveniences of our lives that we live with today but as for me I like in-door plumbing, and television, and automobiles, and air conditioning, and washing machines, and fast food restaurants and thermostat controlled furnaces. And, if were again left up to our religions leaders I am sure that we would not have ships, and airplanes, and hospitals and researchers and scientist and aerospace engineers if it were in their religious hands. Yes, I think that there exist many of you that would like to live in a tent on the desert and would like to give up your computers and your TV sets out there so that you could spend all of your time praying and staring at religious statues and listening to religious leaders tell you all day how much sin you are surrounded by and how much sin is in your own heart and that if you do this and do that that someday you will go to that place out there and you will have all that you can ever wish for: gold, money, pretty women and handsome men, and all of the food and all of the sweet candy and cakes your mind can think on but while here on this earth you must give all of yourself including your money and your children to this one and only grand world religion of ours. But someday you will attain shear ecstasy from our God but here you must pray and you must do as we ask you to do and you must live without so that we can live with all of those things that you are living without. Blessed be you and yours and me and mine well we are going to have our supper and live the life of ease. Have a blessed day!
Please read the following websites which are run by people who used to be muslims. It will help you understand the lies that are told to us by the media and by muslims.
http://www.apostatesofislam.com/
http://www.faithfreedom.org/
That last bit, Carlan, the swing and the swinging are fine - is a fine bit of poetry. I was transported to the porch swing... even thought I could smell the cigar...
The swing and the swinging are fine. The only change at this time of the year is that I removed the cushion and I have taken to smoking those small cigars out there in the late daylight hours. I find that blowing smoke and watching the ash growing and falling off and the red end glowing dimly and more brightly interesting. Oh, I don’t inhale I just suck and blow smoke and I find that somehow a meaningful analogy for my internal and external thinking, I suck it in and blow it out! And, like smoke my thoughts drift off and eventually settle as a gray dust that is unrecognizable as anything but nasty old dust. A word to the wise: If you don’t smoke, please, don’t take it up, now. It (the smoking) is bound to harm you or kill you in one way or another way and that is a proven medical fact.
Mystics, thank you for thinking kindly about me. Perhaps, if enough people find me to be that “nice” guy that you say that I might be that that somehow will make be believe it, too, someday.
You have a nice humility Carlan, and lots of times you reach some accord. I think I am a little more feisty than you, I am sure you are a nice guy in real life too... how is the swing chair going?
Interesting, Thinkers.net, graphically speaking I would say your site is trending upward and your broadening base concept is expanding quite well. I can remember your site a few years back and what I liked about it then and what kept me interested in it was that it was a site where I could write about anything that came to my mind. I could write hundreds of words that I felt could better explain my views and my thoughts. I liked the idea that I was able to make my words available globally an idea that to an ordinary, not very well educated, financially dependent fellow like me sounded extraordinary to say the least. Your site made it possible for me to grow my horizons for myself limitlessly and opened the living world of humanity to my grossly limited mind. I tried a few other sites but gave up on them because of the limits they put on me and to me those sites were not serious sites where serious thoughts could be discussed with passion and without it. Your site has made it possible for me to gain some virtual friends the world over and for that I am greatly gratified.
I am not the friendliest of fellows here on this site nor am I that sort of fellow in real life. I am not particularly what I would describe as a nice fellow but I am a caring fellow, which means I am a fellow that is sincere. I read what is said and then I sincerely go over the words and the possible connotations and the direct meaning of those words to my mind and then I sit and go over each line until I feel that I can write or not write to that subject or to that person. I do not try to belittle or otherwise put down anyone in anyway, however, I sincerely attempt to get my point of contention or my feelings about a subject or about the person posting a particular subject as exactly as I can. I fail completely some times and only succeed in driving off people and dissuade others from fully participating in these postings, of that, I am ashamed. I am ashamed because I know that unless I can see the thoughts of all of you people that are out there and out there thinking thoughts about these various subjects that I will always be more ignorant than the most ignorant person out there. I abhor ignorance, especially, my own!
Ignorance, how you still continuously cripple my very soul!
I agree about Suresh, Mystics. He livened things up around here and it was challenging to have his energy mingling with ours.
You are all beautiful people. A strength of this is the small community we create which transcends cultures. A weakness is that sometimes I/ we seem to discourage people. I wish Suresh had persevered... its just I could not keep pace and was gasping.
Thinkers Net thanks for your info. Are you able to tell us a little more about yourself .. for example where you are, what value base you have...
Mysticdream,
Freely write without looking back; let the Spirit within guide you. Be proud and confident; dreams mystically happen!
You are right Carlan I have a suspect mind.
And sometimes the procress... ie you type and correct and see it before you... and then fail to press the final button or skip elsewhere into the debate.
Dear Carlan and friends of thinkers.net
You may not believe but yours and other friends thoughts reach a very wide network of people around the world. The feedback issue is questionable but usually the feedback is very limited for 99% of visitors are readers. Most readers who randomly or routinely read the posts possibly like to read but find it hard to post. Many of the threads and pages are like ezines, blogs and opinion pages but they are viewed and read almost daily by thousands of readers from all walks of life.
We have had since last 10 years online over 1000 to 40000 visitors a day and on an average about 12000 since 1998. Most of the visitors hit the literary search and directory pages. Since there are large volumes of pages the visitors hit most pages by random or by specific key word searches. We have had a very active literary search upto 1999 but we could not update the features on constant basis for lack of funds. During end 90s We had a few proposals to get lucrative sponsorships from large media companies but we declined as this is one of the only thinking sites that is free, independent from shackles of large media and special interest groups that actually control the world media, internet and every bit of human activity.
It is better to be a small butterfly that can go freely anwyhere than the toe or tooth of a large gozilla using jumbo jets.
From 1994 to 1999 we have had many ups and downs with bulletin boards and most were lost; but since 1998-99 they seem to be robust, in order and without any interruption. Only about 10% of the visitors or about 1200 on an average day, actually hit the discussion pages but soon we may expose them to a larger audience by linking.
You may use http://thinkers.net/talk and you will find on left menu a search feature only for pages on discussion boards. You may click on New Messages or Search to find a recent or past article posted.
One can also register for free to get all or selective threads posted messages by email.
If you ever need any help just post a message anywhere and we will edit, delete or fix the post, page, thread or topic etc. It is your site. You can direct and drive to any direction that you all desire.
Mystics, I would be honoured to receive your article. Please send it.
Carlan, maybe you should look to see if there are any groups meeting at a university or college nearby. I have one or two people who discuss these matters with me but not with the focus and regularity that we have here. I am very grateful for this forum.
In my small self-fashioned daily life I only bump into “regular” people, that is, ordinary people, people mostly like myself. A few neighbors, some relatives, a few shoppers, the paper boy, the mail carrier, my dentist, my barber, my doctors, and you folks out here on the net. I don’t seem to meet up with those kinds of people that are interested in talking about quests of any kind except here. I sometimes think that to actually meet with someone face to face to talk over his or her viewpoints and opinions of a particular nature would be interesting but those meetings don’t seem to be in my life’s likely occurrences at present. I am still waiting for some person to come up to me and ask me if I am the Carlan that they read on the Thinkers.net and would I be interested in talking with him or her a bit about some particular subject or other. Perhaps, such an occurrence will happen to me sometime today?
I envy you folks that are able to discuss with real face-to-face individuals some of these topics that we discuss here on the net. I think that each of your lives are made somehow richer and more fulfilling when you can actually see and hear a person that is genuinely interested in talking directly with you. Unlike me whose thoughts and whose words go into a machine and then into space where a few people may or may not pay any attention at all to them and only a rare few of them acknowledge at all that they had any effect on them whatsoever. I often think that perhaps 10 to 17 people worldwide actually read what I put here on the net because if there were a greater amount of people that lived close to me (the population of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania is over 10 millions of people) that one of those people would come to me and ask me what I thought about this that or the other thing. But, that does not happen nor should it for that matter but if it did I would be certainly very astonished.
Yes, I would agree that if something does not seem to serve my wanted end that something would not be high on my priority list of something that needed immediate attention, however, at some few other times if I believed that that something would not serve my wanted end but would be very beneficial in serving the ends of someone that I respected I would move forward in dispatching that something quickly and wholeheartedly.
Mystics, I’ve sometimes written my thoughts to this site and could not find them for some days only later to discover that my words were planted just where I put them, however, where I put them I could not acutely remember. I misplaced them was all and they showed up but not where I thought that I had put them. We put so much in so many different locations that we forget where we really do put them at times. What I’ve found is that the site works very accurately and precisely but our minds are always suspect. If you do post something and cannot locate it ask us to help locate it for you and I am pretty sure we together will find it for you somewhere in all of this semi-controlled confusion.
Maybe you are both right.
Sometimes my messages on here go astray.
I tried to say to you guys thanks for your encouragement, Unga and Carlan too.
Last week by serendipitous events I met with one of my theological professors... he listened graciously to an account of my ministry.
In a way he sent me out.. his expertise being theology ie thought about God. He is a good man...
I have tried to encourage thought about God. I am a little heretical... and suggested that the Bible was a dated document and increasingly difficult to reconcile with the ongoing pilgrimage of secular people seeking to discover and interpret God's will.
I told him I am a secular evangelist! Iwould rather share my journey, its success and failures than be an expert preaching and trying to reconcile "the Bible" to the experience of my peers.
I intend to email him, a summary of Paul Simon's theology as perceived by me as an example of a fellow 'secular evangelist' who probably had less contact with the institution than I do/ did. I think you will find Simon insightful, in the sense that he shares the journey of those estranged from the establishment, engages in liberation theology, and writes with an empathy for 'the homeless' and those searching for a more just world.
When I finish it, I would like to send it to you Al. And if others are interested I will send it to you. Belive me it will be stimulating... just to consider the communication of a pop star about his existential search.
In the meantime this is the conclusion I have come to. There was a theologian called Bonhoeffer who spoke of a 'religionless christianity'. Bonhoeffer was German, and lived during Hitlers time. He was a social activist and plotted to kill Hitler. He failed and was executed. As I understand it, 60 years ago he suggested that 'religionless christianity' equalled a secular living where God was no longer relevant in understanding the meaningful decisions of life. He suggested that God had been driven to the perimeters of existence.
I think he got it wrong. I will be suggesting to my theological professor that secular man still wrestles with the question of God, but increasingly finds the institutional claim to be the incarnation of Christ to be irrelevant.
I think that you guys have a sense of the sacred, but a growing suspicion of the institution.
Al (or others) if you would like, I will send a copy of what I write to the professor. For me this is a very significant moment, when I put my thought 'on the line."
Mhmmm. Very well said, Albert. Got me thinking, though: we are also using our version of the Divine to further our own agendas (personal growth, enlightenment, deeper connection to all). I think practical spirituality, whether rooted in a specific religion or not, is the norm for those who bother thinking about the issues at all. As to the religion vs. open spirituality bit, how about assessing a tree by its fruit?
I am meeting online and offline (in the flesh and blood world) more and more people who have diverted their energies from religion in favor of attention to spirituality and connection to God.
I have an new acquaintance and growing friend whom I spoke of earlier. He is the folk artist. His father was a southern baptist minister. Now the father is the minister of a non-denomitional Christian church. Although he is has many traditional Christian beliefs, he says that many people use the Bible to their on ends. They attend "buildings" on the weekends and think that has earned them some sort of eternal salvation.
I think that many people in the world take their religion and the literature that accompanies it and use it for their on ends to advance their own causes as they see fit.
I also think most of the people who use this blind, deaf, and dumb approach to spirituality wouldn't know God if God bit them on the ass.
I tell you. God is talking all the time through many media. The problem is we are all talking at God and asking for things so constantly we can't hear it.
If God is ever prone to nausea, I believe from the bottom of my heart, that God is sick to his stomach of "our" religions .... not God's.
This is one of the thought provoking pages ever seen on the web. How precise, clear and enlightening. I just stumbled this site once again after a few years and find the discussions very refreshing and challenging. Keep it up. Will get back soon.
Jerry,
This world is yours, what a mind, what love.
Keep telling the world.
Jary.
I would like to express my opinion about how I fell what I fell reading these things that only faith can explain. Three years ago I was unemployed, looking for a job which I could have enough for food. A friend of mine told me that in the Bible I would find out the answers for my questions. No matter how far away I was from God. He is always next to me ready to cover me with his eternal love. From that time on my life had got another sense. I became full of the grace by his great mercy. I’ve got two part-time jobs, and have free time to read about wisdom of GOD.
Hi,
I was also tricked in the TM thing by a friend ten
years ago.I have never practised it because i always
felt there was something funny about it,especially the
keeping everything a secret and not knowing what the
teacher sang at the "initiation".
So after 10 years,3 months ago i searched on the
internet and i was very shocked to find out that it
had everything to do with Hinduism.The whole
"initiation" was well described on many webpages.I
also saw "my personal mantra" which is 'aima'.
Imagine "Maharishi" constructing hundreds of really
personal mantras a day.That would be the perfect
example op Creative Intelligence.As far as we know now
there are only a few,so even his own teaching failed
to lead him to creative intelligence.
As i sad earlier,i was very shocked,and i am mentally
still a little bit knocked out.
After reading the many articles i came to one
conclusion that the TM thing is merely a huge MONEY
MAKING MACHINE.The absolute secrecy is to keep the
MONEy MAKING MACHINE oiled.
No one told me anything.I experienced it myself that
they are big liars.They use plentiful of suggestion to
make sure you do as they say.KEEP IT A SECRET.
I also read in articles(former ex TM teachers),that
the mantra someone gets,is given by the age he/she
has at the moment of initiation.Check out this
scenario:
If a person for what reason(lost his mantra,as a joke
etc.) does the initiation again after let's say 10
years at an other TM center,without mentioning the
former initiation,he ends up with 2 mantras.Which one
is the best????.2 personal mantras????? please.
I think this is one fact out of many others why the
TM "technique" has no valid leg to stand on.
Anyway,i'm glad i never did it(maybe tried 2 times).
Who knows by now i would have ended up with
tranquilizers if i had practised it.
I still can't imagine that a nobody calls himself
spiritual leader,"discovers" a "teaching" and succeeds
in surrounding himself with brilliant scientists to
cover up the mumbo jumbo with scientific reports.
If you put this on your webside,this one is for
"Maharishi" :
"Maharishi",you're the greatest con man of the
century.
Brilliant A+.Thanks for swallowing our wallets.Thanks
for shocking people.Thanks for damaging peoples
brains.
I hope Jezus forgives you and may you expirience a
"deep and everlasting cosmic rest" after you die.
regards,
Robert
I love this site.
Ruben Chapter 1
Ruben Chapter 1
1 I can remember in the akashic ashes of the past sitting beside the master. 2 His aura was so strong, bright like the sun. 3 His voice sometimes like the sound of rain, and sometimes like the sound of waterfalls. 4 For his words transcended the multitudes for generations of believers to come. 5 He taught the very meaning of the letters and vowels of the divine Hebrew Alphabet the language of his father.6 His every caress was blessed from the divine. 7 Conceived in the alchemy of the Holy Spirit. 8 He choose to incarnate as a man in order to show us the love, glory and most important the mercy of his father our creator GOD. 9 For he was present with his father when he said let us make them in our image. 10 And he shall come again when all humanity will be lifted from the sin of flesh. 11 But not before he who will beguile many. 12 The enemy of mankind who will deceive and say he is the son of GOD. 13 Look for the signs brethren. 14 If you are not free from your carnal body and there is one who would have you believe that he is Messiah. 15 Be strong remain a virgin for that is the AntiChrist. 16 Do not let him in your mind if your brain is still in your body. 17 For all the diseases and ills of mankind will be lifted.18 When he returns we will ascend to the next level a new earth age where the select will partake in the fruit of the tree of life and understand the love of our father and be washed of our temptations and trespasses. 19 But not all will be there by the masters side. 20 You must praise your self and your father by doing righteous things. 21 Not by actions in the contrast of your fathers word. 22 Do not limit yourself to mans description of GOD. 23 Find him in yourself by looking inward. 24 For we are all sons and daughters of God and God is everything. 25 I can remember a time when all the animals and trees spoke the same language and of all the elements man had the loudest voice, so it will be again when the son of man returns. 26 Mankind has forgotten the value of the present moment for truly the richest gift our father who art in heaven has given us is free will. 27 Do not let your will be driven by the lower emotions that crawl on their belly like snake, hate, envy, greed, jealousy, and most of all fear. 28 Instead lift your heads and your hearts and soar like an eagle, rejoice in high emotions like love, kindness, generosity, and most important hope. 29 Every day with the candle of GOD burning in our hearts is a good day 30 Woe to yea sinners who indulge in the very things taught to us to be wrong. 31 I pray thee use your ears to hear and your eyes to see and repent for your sins and never look back for if the lord has heard your pleas for forgiveness and forgiven you, yea should forgive thyself and not contest the lord's infinite mercy. 32 Honor your selves as an individual expression of GOD.33 For we are part of the infinite creations of the creator, Our Celestial father . The I AM THAT I AM. GOD
AMEN
Written by Rev. Mario Ruben Denis
OSHO TALKS ABOUT COPYRIGHT
"Things can be copyrighted, thoughts cannot be copyrighted, and certainly meditation cannot be copyrighted. They are not things of the marketplace."
Nobody can monopolize anything. But perhaps the West cannot understand the
difference between an objective commodity and an inner experience.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has copyrighted transcendental meditation and just
underneath in a small circle you will find written TM -- that means
trademark!
For ten thousand years the East has been meditating and nobody has put
trademarks upon meditations. And above all, that transcendental meditation
is neither transcendental nor meditation... just a trademark.
I have told Neelam to reply to these people, "You don't understand what
meditation is. It is nobody's belonging, possession. You cannot have any
copyright. Perhaps if your country gives you trademarks and copyrights on
things like meditation, then it will be good to have a copyright on
stupidity. That will help the whole world to be relieved... Only you will be
stupid and nobody else can be stupid; it will be illegal."
Om Shanthi Shanthi Shanti Chapter 26 Question 1
I have found that when things of interest to me are going well, life seems good and well worth the living. At those times, I feel that I am safe and secure in both my physical and mental well-being. I feel confident and pleased with myself and with my beliefs, too. God is good and God’s blessings are all around me. The world is very pleasing and I’m very happy to be a part of the grand scheme of things. Live and let live! Be happy! If life hands you a lemon just make some lemonade. Be grateful for all things and everything! However, when things go terribly wrong the euphoria desist, immediately. The “why me?” comes quickly to mind. My faith in God and in myself dwindles and fades. My ability to accept things the way they are, atrophies greatly. I become bitter and selfish. I become jealous and ungrateful. When someone says to me, live and let live, I say why? Give me a lemon and I’ll throw it back at you. Be happy, go to Hell! Thank God, for what?
Most days, my wellbeing is located somewhere between the two above extremes. My goal is to try to bias life’s situations favorably toward the euphoric side of life. But, at the same time, I’m always trying to keep in mind that many of life’s most serious dramas are not in my control at all. And, often I must accept those things as they are, like them or not. However, those things of which I can control I do control to the best of my ability. Some things important to me are simple things. They are things that I have or that I do which I enjoy having and doing. (I will not bore you with what they are) One other thing that I do is that I try not to allow someone or something to be in control of my life. Of course, God, the government, some of my very close family members, and the place of my employment are patently always controlling my life as they will. But, I don’t allow gossip, innuendoes, hearsay or a medium of any kind or form to dictate to me as to what I am going to do or not going to do as I live my life. I won’t allow myself to listen or watch any particular radio, internet, or television program. I never believe the hype as advertised. I don’t believe anybody is born or was born whose feces does not or did not stink. Neither, do I believe that if you do not believe a certain way you and your soul are destined for absolute destruction, nor, do I believe in saints and angels. Saints are always of one religion and angels, for the most part, are portrayed as white and pretty of figure and face. Both saints and angels are absurdities! But, I do believe that there exists and there existed good people who did and are doing good things for other less fortunate people than themselves located all over this world. I, also, believe that somehow, someway for every good deed that one does in this life that contributes to the wellbeing of somebody else that person will gain by that act of kindness in their next realm of consciousness. I try to be that good person. But, I am not always that good or that kind. When I know I’m not as good or as kind as I think I should had been I write it off with my catchall phrase, “what do you expect from me, after all, I’m only human!” Then, I move on.
I think we must make our lives as good as we can make them by taking an active part in doing those things necessary which will bias our lives in the direction we want for our lives to go. Agreed, we all have to contend with the all to obvious out-of-our-control situations which present us with many obstacles that we cannot prevent or control, however, those things that we can control we must control aggressively and passionately. Don’t be afraid to live your life as you want to live it. Be bold, not stupid. Make sure your thoughts are your thoughts and not someone else’s. Don’t believe all the hype! Don’t be cynical but be skeptical and ask questions so as to give yourself a better understanding of any thing or any situation. If unsure ask questions, if real sure of yourself ask even more questions. Then, act! Become a player and participate in those clubs and organizations that you care about and if you can’t be anything but an observer, well, be the most active observer you can be!
In response to what Greg wrote on November 15th, I
want to say that much of what Carlan has said is
correct. But, I wanted to add to Greg, trust your own
doubt. Trust yourself, but don't be attached to it.
Trust where your are in your sense about God. Your
best guide is your own honesty. Don't become
satisfied or attached to any state, but rather use
your honest feelings--your doubt, your level of faith,
your current sense of the "concrete" and "mystical",
etc.--to take you deeper. Listen to everything and
weigh it for yourself. Your sincerity will always
help you to reveal what is true. Your honesty will
guide you further and deeper, but always from this
place where you are, from this now and here--this No/
Where.
And, this goes for your metaphor of knocking on the
door and wondering if anyone is home. Sometimes God
shows God's home by giving you an empty house.
Sometimes God lets you come inside to a party filled
with friends. Sometimes the house vanishes. But,
whatever the response, it is the response for you and
it is always what you need.
But, it is perhaps most important to keep on knocking
and not to expect a particular form. But, listen very
closely to anything that happens when you knock.
There is always a response and by contemplating the
variety of responses you receive, you will learn your
self. Use your honesty to measure the feedback. Look
closely at your mind and feelings. These are how you
can learn. Trust yourself, even when you doubt
yourself. Trust your own doubt.
Search, but don't forget that finding is just as
important.
"When I decided to stop the searching and begin the
finding, I realized I had been at my destinations all
along."
God is not a finished deal anymore than any of us are.
God includes us All and each of us. And, in that way,
God is finished. Including everything and all of time
and space, the past, present and future are one.
Perfect.
Most important, trust your sincerity. It is your
finest guide to where you are. It is where your
reaching hand touches God reaching.
"To transcend does not mean to go beyond; it means to
be right here, right now." We should transcend by
looking at the plate of food we make and set before
ourselves. God is there. Where we set each step as
we walk. God is there. Where and how we throw our
garbage into the trash bin. God is there. We consume
God and are consumed. We give and are given,
everything. One is All and All is O
It seems you want what most of us want from God and that is a personal relationship. And, it doesn’t seem to be to much to ask. In fact, many people have openly expressed that they do have a “personal” relationship with God. The kind of relationship most of us would envy. Are these people delusional? Probably. But, it’s the way they need to cope with what they are trying to cope. It works for them. It could work for you!
Personally, it is the way I cope with this big old mysterious world. This world of which I have very limited personal control. A world which teaches me to be grateful for the little seemingly insignificant things and leery of the great big seemingly significant things. A world which fills me with wonderful desires and at the same time bluntly shows me that most of what I desire will not be fulfilled. A world which produces the beautiful, the desirable, the ugly, the unwanted, the ingenious, and the monotonous and over time, puts a shell over each and cajoles me into guessing which is which and snickers at my pathetic attempts of thinking I really know which is which. Forgive me for rambling. So, after many humbling personal experiences I turned from the worldly to the spiritually attuned. I turned from the “concrete” to the mystical, from the illusions of this life to the possibility of a magical realm, to be. I turned to God!
Is there life after death? I, certainly, don’t know. I often times think that there isn’t, but a lot of the time I hope that there is because when I hope like that, is when I am happy to think that someday I might meet my dead family members and my dead friends. It’s nice to think that my deceased dad will again pat my head and my deceased mother will hold me close again. Will it be that way? We will all find out some day, won’t we. But, till then, we’ve all got to wonder about this, that, and the other thing.
You say you are the kind of person who needs to know things for sure, so, I’m afraid if you insist on remaining with that mindset you are destined to be disappointed most of your life. I am not saying you are wrong in thinking as you do, but when it comes to wondering and discussing things of the spirit world it seems it would be better to allow your mind to apply less human reasoning and less analytical deducing. The things of the spirit world are better able to be conceived by those people who can take themselves out of themselves. They can virtually eliminate their own self interests and this world’s illusions and open their minds to possibilities greater than themselves. Once you reach this point God’s grace will allow you to enter the next enlightened realm. Then, you will experience a real change. A change that will take a lot of getting use to by yourself and by all of those people who knew you before the change. A change that will not always seem good but a change that will be good unto itself. You will be a better person. You will worry less. You will better accept those things you cannot understand. You will be a person of God!
I want to know if there is a God because I wonder about meaning and purpose and destiny...not philosophically... but concretely;I can't be at peace if I don't know one way or the other; Do we survive death? Hedging my bets by adopting a "theological con- struct" doesn't seem wise or healthy to me. The only "out" in this situation would be the gnostic path of direct experience,and barring that; a rigorous agnosticism. It's kind of like knocking on the door of a house and no one answers,though you sus- pect no one is home, you can't help wondering,,, "Maybe they're home, but can't hear me, or maybe they're just temporarily indisposed,etc.
I think I'am like many people today...I kind of envy those with faith while at the same time wondering if they are deluded. I'm not so cynical that I think that people of faith are worshippers of a Santa Clause God... maybe some...but many are ardent seekers who often to my amazement...display the kind of transcend- ance that I dream of.
Time is just time to God on high
He created time for the sigh upon the neigh
Look not unto to the east but to the west(sunset)
For there upon a cloud is Jesus christ waiting
For you to come to him on bended knee
Plea....That's what God is all about-not u and me-but three---hang on tight, God is just right. He will talk to you if you open up your arms and let him in.
Touche'--prophetb
Go to a church where God is alive--dont be a pew warmer---clap those hands--show some life!! Holy Ghost Fire is what its all about--shout!