Atheism

Spiritual Testing & Report Card

Published on by Jim

After reading this article on Huffington Post titled The Ten Spiritual Transmitted Disease I started to wonder how one can get a spiritual check up.

I wish there were a way to test myself (or others) for their spiritual growth or evolution.  When I heard of the ‘stress testing’ that the banks had to go through in the recent financial crisis I wondered if there was any type of ‘stress test’ that people could go through.

For me, spiritual evolution is reflected in one’s ability to appreciate, enjoy and love what life offers.  One of the greatest challenges people seem to have is their fear of judgment or criticism, which is why I like the idea of a panel or group of people testing or judging me to give me a stress test.  I would like that because I am always alert to the possibility that I am deceiving myself in some way.  I watch for this because I have seen so many other so called spiritual people who have ended up deceiving themselves in some way or another.

But then again I could be deceiving myself in my assumption that being judged by people is a good stress test of one’s spiritual evolution. I might like that because I have mastered the skill of not reacting to people’s words so the judgments of people would not harm me, but I might be very challenged if a tornado came into town and swept away my home, something I have never experienced.  I have had things stolen from me and I felt I did pretty good at keeping the light when my motor home was broken into and my computer was stolen, or when my bike, which I truly loved, was stolen a month later. But what if I lost everything and could not replace anything because I lost everything, including my ‘nest egg’ of reserve money.

So I wonder what others think would be a good way to examine oneself or another to test their level of consciousness.  I recognize that the nondualist will challenge the language here wondering ‘who’ it is that is being challenged, but I recognize they do this because they just do not ‘get it’ when it comes to playing with the illusion of duality, which is what this exercise is all about.

So please, share your thoughts.

The Happy Atheist

Published on by Jim

It has long been attested by religious people that one needs a god to be happy or to find joy and love in life.  The reality is far from this.

The atheist can be as happy or even happier and have more joy and love than a theist if they recognize that happiness, joy and love is what they want in life.  Any person who recognizes that our emotions are a product of our ways of thinking AND our habitual physiological (emotional) reactions will then practice those positive emotions until they have perfected them.

The theists are taught that happiness, joy and love (God is love) are outside of them or come from outside of themselves so they are always lead to believe that these positive emotions or states are only available under certain conditions, conditions that can be used like carrots on a stick to manipulate and enslave the them.

Of course, not all atheists are happy people.  Many if not most atheists are very materialistic and think that happiness, joy and love comes from material things (pretty much like religious people).  Yet the atheist has the advantage of not being dictated to by some deity flying around in the sky, they can go after whatever makes them happy without worry of the opinion of that deity.

So again, the atheist has a better opportunity to find happiness, joy and love than the theists.

Beyond Nonduality II

Published on by Jim

In my personal spiritual evolution I turned first to the eastern traditions because I had seen the corruption of the western traditions and the eastern traditions offered me a way to find inner peace and not just some nebulous concept like salvation.

After finding some degree of inner peace and the clarity that comes with it I turned to the western traditions and read about Saint Theresa’s “Dark Night of the Soul”, which I was now more prepared to deal with because of my skills developed via the eastern traditions.  Because of my study and seeking I was getting very depressed as I saw though the ideas and beliefs I had had from childhood and seeing that they were just my wishful thinking and not reality.  This depression was really a ‘dark night of the soul’ in which I truly felt abandoned by God, Consciousness and/or life itself.  There did not seem to be any real reason to continue living.

Around this time I read a book titled, “The Experience of No Self” by a former Catholic nun who was documenting her own spiritual evolution and process. In this book she talked about how she spent twenty years in the Dark Night of the Soul.  Since I was experiencing what she described I was even more depressed as I pondered that I might be stuck in this dark place for twenty years.

Yet, at the same time I was also studying Zen and it was showing me that all the negativity I was experiencing was just thoughts in the mind.  When it finally dawned on me that my depression was just a product of my thinking, just thoughts in my mind, I laughed at myself for making the thoughts so important.

With this laughing I realized I was immediately out of this dark night experience, my laughter being the light that was shined on my reality for me to see again.

Of course I would fall back into my negativity and fall back in to that pit of darkness, but eventually I would realize what I was doing to myself and again laugh at myself and my thoughts thus popping me out of that dark pit and depression and back into the light.

Every night I would set and watch what was coming up for me in my mind and in my body.  When I would go into this thinking that produced depression or negativity.  I would sometimes get caught up in for a while in the thinking and depression until I would catch myself seeing what I was doing to myself and would laugh at my silliness.  The laughter would feel so good I just dwelled in that feeling until I was tired and there everything would drift back into rest, equanimity and a deep inner peace.

This process made it easier to get to equanimity than if I was just trying to get to equanimity, for the very trying itself worked against my intention.  The more I tried to get out of negativity and into equanimity the more resistance and negativity I experienced.  I realized later that it was my effort or will that was creating the tension within my body/mind that I was experiencing as negativity, pain and suffering and keeping me from the equanimity and clarity I was seeking.

I realized that by going beyond equanimity from the negative into the positive emotional states and then resting in that positive state thus allowing the body/mind/human instrument to relax and drift back to a place of equanimity and inner peace allowing clarity which enable one to see the truth that permanently sets them free to enjoy and love ALL that life has to offer.

Beyond Nonduality

Published on by Jim

I went to talk by a nonduality teacher this week.  He was pretty good as nonduality teachers go (I have heard many teachers of the nonduality persuasion talk and ply their trade).  I have studied the teachers of old who started the modern nonduality movement, I even meditated on Ramana’s bed in the ‘cave’ in India that he gained his enlightenment.  [Ramana is founder of the modern movement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramana_Maharshi.]  I know the verbiage or dogma of this philosophical tradition.

As I sat there and listened, particularly to the questions of the audience, I could not help but feel sad as I realized how primitive this method was of dealing with the challenges that people have in their lives.

Obviously, people go to spiritual teachers looking for something, something they do not feel they have.  This sense of lack or the emotional pain they feel is a negative in their life and they are looking for a release from that negativity.  Spiritual teachings and teachers are there to help people find that release from the negativity.

Eastern traditions talk a lot about the end of suffering with the goal being equanimity or inner peace.  Yet, equanimity or inner peace is not what we want, it is only the half way point in our journey.

I can hear it now as the those who see themselves as nondualists read that paragraph above they will ask, “Who is it that seeks this goal, who is it that is on the journey?” But this is all part of their method, to question the idea that we are the doer of anything.   A nondualist questions their assumptions as to their own identity, which traditionally people think of as something that is separate from something else.  For the nondualist there is no separation, they think of the self as infinite and eternal, without form or substance.

The value of this nondualist way of thinking is that when thoughts come up that produce negativity, like the idea that we are going to die, they quickly replace that thought with a thought of non-attachment to the form that dies or incurs some form of loss. Thus diminishing the pain of the contraction of fear and negativity that is the conditioned habitual response most humans have.  The nondualist is not trapped in a negative thought form of concern about what happens to them in the future, after death or so one.

This is all good as far as it goes.  Nonduality is replacing one way of thinking, one philosophy (or theology) with another philosophy (or theology).  It is true that the nonduality way of thinking is an improvement over the traditional dualist way of thinking, but it is still very archaic system for dealing with negativity.  I can see better ways of getting human where they want to go.

Through conditioning the human instrument has learned to react to these thoughts with either contraction/tension or expansion/relaxation.  The eastern tradition tries to introduce a different reaction, or should I say LACK of reaction to thoughts that we have habitually reacted to with contraction.  They try to get us to stop reacting and just be still.  Of course this is very hard, for the very effort to try and stop creates or comes from contractions itself.

What I have seen and what I now do is that I recognize that all this is just thoughts, electro-chemical impulses traveling along the neurons of the brain.  When we recognize that a thought is just a thought and cannot hurt us, it is only our reaction to the thought that causes us harm, then we can directly address the problem of our reaction.  A reaction of contraction (fear based), if held,  is experienced as negative.  Holding on to any idea is just holding our contracted state and that creates a sense of being trapped in a negative state.

We can address this ‘problem’ directly by just practicing relaxing around all thoughts, thus releasing the sense of being trapped in a negative state.

Here is where the eastern traditions are handicapped in their effort to help people release, for they are ONLY seeking to release people from the sense of being trapped in the negative state.

The reality is that we do not want to just be released from negativity, we want to have positive experiences and by practicing positive responses to thoughts we excel PAST equanimity, PAST inner peace, toward a richer, more positive life experience.

We do this by practicing appreciation, joy and love at any and all thoughts we experience.  We stay constantly aware that they are JUST thoughts, electro-chemical impulses traveling along the neurons of the brain and nothing more.  We stay aware that we have a choice about how we react to those thoughts and that we can enjoy the process of thinking, thus creating a positive experience from all thoughts.

This is not a new idea, I am only articulating it in a new way.  I see this idea expressed in many tradition like those that say there is no way to happiness, happiness is the way.  Also in the traditions that teach people to love God or to love one another and to even love our enemies.  All of these traditions are encouraging people to PRACTICE a positive response to thoughts.  It does not matter what you are thinking about, whether it be God or some person or some future or whatever, if you respond to that thought with love or some other positive emotion then you will experience life as positive.

When a person has the capacity or skill to UNCONDITIONALLY love all that life has to offer then they will experience this world as heaven or nirvana and it can be said that they are ‘enlightened’, for they can lighten up and be light-hearted about thoughts of everything that life offers.

From my experience I do not want to ALWAYS practice this.  I actually find value in the negative experiences of contraction to thoughts.  It is those negative or painful reactions that motivate this stupid piece of meat that I call Jim Freedom to get up off his lazy and/or cowardly ass and do something.  But when Jim is tired or sees no way to do anything constructive then he can just sit back and practice his joy and love in heaven or nirvana.

There is value in the equanimity or inner peace, for with equanimity and inner peace we gain clarity that enables us to see the truth that permanently sets us free to fully enjoy and love all that life has to offer.  So I am not saying that we NEVER should allow equanimity only that we do not need to seek equanimity through philosophies or beliefs.

In summary, why go to all the trouble of all these philosophies and theologies?  We really do not need them to get us where we want to go, we can go directly to the positive by just recognizing the thoughts for what they are and recondition ourselves to have positive experiences by practicing positive emotions.

Jesus’ Democratic God

Published on by Jim

It is obvious that Jesus saw the corruption that came from the belief in the God of Abraham, a idea of God that is tyrannical which unscrupulous people use to intimidate and enslave people with keeping them trapped in a paradigm that was and is unhealthy for them.

The God of Abraham was the Creator and Ruler of the world, “out there” or up in the sky some place; distant from people, separate from people.  This God of Abraham, being the Creator and RULER of the world could therefore dictate to the people what HE wanted (God had to be a he because that protects the patriarchal privilege of men).  IN ADDITION, and more importantly, God could assign certain ‘special’ men to tell the people what He, God, wanted.  Of course, this gave those special men great power and privilege in the world.  In so doing, this God of Abraham was justification for all the forms of slavery, most of which still exist today.  The appointed leaders are to be the masters and everyone else is to be the slaves.  Of course, these so-called appointed leaders who create the rules and tell the world they are appointed by God to be the master over the rest of humanity.

Today we can still see that the Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam are violent, abusive to themselves and others and the planet or environment as a whole.

Obviously, Jesus could see this long ago and that is why he felt the need for a more democratic vision of God, a new idea of God, a gentler, kinder more loving vision of God.  Jesus could see a truth that lesser men could not see, a truth would set people free to love ALL that life offered, a truth that WE are all gods, part of and not separate from the Universal Consciousness or Spirit that primitive people call God.  We are the ones who can choose not to give our power away to other people.  We are judges who decide what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong.  We are the ones that define what sin is and what sin is not.  We are the ones who define what is God.  Even though the religious people of Jesus’ time saw him as a massive sinner, Jesus did not see himself as a sinner or separate from God.  He saw himself as one with God, which he called his Father.  And Jesus said that he saw us all as one with God, that God is within us and we are within God, we are not separate from God.

This “we are all one, we are all part of God” idea is a more democratic idea of God than the autocratic God of Abraham.  No one person or group of people would have dominion over another.  Jesus’ idea of God would do away with the lording of parents over their children, clergy over their congregations and kings or political rulers over the masses.  No longer are the rulers “out there” some place, but WE are the real rulers.

Of course, the ruling classes would not want to see an idea of a more democratic god prevail in society, for they would lose their power and privilege.  So they had to stop Jesus by whatever means became necessary.  That is why they had him arrested, tortured and killed, not just to stop Jesus but also to discourage anyone from following in his example.

Jesus tried to bring about a paradigm shift, one that the ruling classes did not want to happen, and that is why that had to kill him.  However, the ideas that Jesus talked about did not die with him; they started to spread.  Because of this, the ruling classes hired Saul of Taurus to find a way to destroy the movement that Jesus had started.

Saul tried everything he could, he killed and persecuted the followers of Jesus but that only seem to strengthen them.  Then, one day, on the road to Damascus Saul got a brilliant idea, it was so brilliant that it almost blinded him.  He envisioned that he would change his name to Paul, join the follows of Jesus and call himself an ‘apostle’ or leader of them.  Then he would bring those gullible enough to follow him back to “sound doctrine” by which they could be controlled, manipulated and enslaved.  His plan was near perfect, for it worked brilliantly.

Paul got people, including the other apostles, to worship Jesus as someone special, as God incarnate.  In so doing, they were pushing Jesus up on a pedestal so high that people could no longer see Jesus as an example of what they could be but only as an idol worthy of worship.  The people learned to say that Jesus’ teaching were ok for him, he was God, but we are not; thus rendering Jesus teachings no longer valid.

The spirit of the Antichrist wanted to create a movement to ensure that people would never follow Jesus or examples like him.  They were calling Jesus the Christ so when Paul created his movement or religion became known as Christ-anti or Christianity, which is what it is called today.  However, as Jesus said, nothing is hidden that shall not later be revealed.  It is time to expose this Antichrist movement for what it is, there to support the ruling classes and to keep people slaved.  The last thing this antichrist movement wants is for people to think and act like Jesus, to be the part of God that they are.

Remember what Jesus said, “It is not those who say lord, lord to me, but those who do the will of their Father in heaven”; the kingdom of heaven being within us.  Today, Christians will honor Jesus with their mouth but their heart is far from him, they think so differently than he did.

The ruling classes want us to think that God is out there and we are here to serve God.  Jesus said that if you have known him you also know his Father, and then he said, I come to serve and not be served.  When a person identifies as being part of God then they realize that all the rest of humanity and even all life is part of them.  Therefore, they will do unto others as they would want done unto themselves, for they ARE the others, just as Jesus pointed out when he said, as you do unto the least of them you do unto me.

You will never hear any Abrahamic tradition followers say anything like that.  For them, the God of Abraham is the master and we are to be the slaves. That is what we get from Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

It is time for humanity to take it power back and to awaken and realize that WE are that democratic God that Jesus was pointing out and he demonstrated for us the freedom to love that being God brings to anyone open enough and courageous enough embrace.

Do We Need a Soul?

Published on by Jim

I wrote this article many, many years ago but I thought I would re-post it on my new blog.

We have a soul, so we have been told.  We must believe that we have a soul.  Belief in a soul is only an intermediate step between what we want and what we have.  It is a practice created to assist us along the way.  But, the belief in a soul, like any artificial creation, eventually gets in our way.  This belief becomes a burden.  When we look at why we choose to believe in a soul, we must ask ourselves what we are making important.  What form (our ‘self’) do we worship?  Are we practicing idolatry?

When no form, no idol, not even our soul becomes important to us then we are perfectly free to live life.  When we have nothing to lose, we are free to follow our heart.  We have nothing to fear so why not love.

One of the “Principles of Truth” is that the truth shall set you free.  Therefore, that which does not speak of freedom is not of the truth.  Does our definition of soul trap us or limit our life experience?

When we ask a question, we expose our doubts, our weaknesses, to the world.  Any corrupt and manipulative person could use this to control and manipulate you.  If a person were fearful then they may ‘answer’ you with a concept that creates a controlling fear in you.  Such is the idea of soul.

The idea of a soul does have its value.  It is a relative point or perspective.  For example, one person has a certain size foot and a second person has smaller size foot.  The first person’s shoe is not right for the second person.  The second person’s shoe is not right for the first person.  Yet this does not make the shoes either right or wrong in themselves only as they are relative to the person’s foot.  A third person comes along who has no feet.  Neither the first  nor the second person’s shoe will “fit” since they have not feet.  The question is not relative for the third person has not position.  For the third person there is no right or wrong shoe.  Therefore, truth is relative to the position that is seen from.

Right and wrong, good and evil require a datum, a point of focus, a reference point.  For humanity, the datum is the self or soul.  As long as we are human, we will have the datum of self and soul.  When one awakens and realizes they are infinite, they recognize they are not limited to a self or soul and hence they are free of datum.  Without datum there is no right nor wrong, no good nor evil.  Without self and soul, you are free to love and appreciate all that is.

BUT, (and this is a BIG but) prudence is necessary for survival.  When you get to understand that we are not going to survive this thing called life, we wonder why worry about it.  The worrying destroys the quality of the life experience.  It is the concern for our “self”, our body and soul that creates the fear and erodes the joy and love.

The whole truth is that for a whole life one is aware of both the desire to be prudent and the desire to be free of worry and concern.  Too much of either will be self-destructive.  Too much prudence will erode the inner quality of life.  Too little prudence will destroy the body through which we experience life and without which we would not have the opportunity to enjoy and love life.

What does it mean to have no soul or self?  It means that we no longer think of our “self” or soul as important, which is perfect humility.  It means we no longer concerned with protecting the illusion we call our “self”.  When we have experienced the truth of the absence of permanence or realness of self or soul, then its temporariness becomes insignificant.  We become insignificant.  If we are insignificant and unimportant then we have nothing to lose in life.  We become free to experience all that life has to offer.

Of course, we will also recognize that if our soul or self is insignificant then so is everybody else’s soul and self.  Then, only the quality of the play of life becomes important.  The only real question remaining is, are we enjoying or loving life?  Hence, the fulfillment of the scriptures is to love.

When we no longer have make the self or soul important then we have broadened our mind, we have expanded our awareness, we have gone beyond the body and mind, we have “denied thyself” completely.  Now we can go on to something greater, much greater.  We go on to infinity.  Now there is no end to the true Self, and there was no beginning.  Now you have eternal life, with no beginning or end.

No amount of thinking can release us from this question.  It is only when we come to the breaking point will we willingly let go of the question.  It is in the peace and stillness that comes after letting go that gives us the clarity to perceive the perfect truth that will set us perfectly free.

This creates a dilemma:  How much of all the thinking that comes from philosophies, theologies, doctrines and beliefs is too much and how much is not enough.  The answer, we cannot possible know.  Here is where we get the opportunity to jump with faith.  When we realize that life, soul or self is less important than getting peace from the question, then we will be free.  Then we will let go of the questions.  Then we will be free to enjoy and love what is.

There is no need for a limited concept of soul.  Nor is there a need for limiting ideas of life after death and reincarnation.  The truth shall set you free so that which does not speak of freedom is not of the truth.  If there are aspect of our concept of soul that create limitation in our minds then that aspect is not based on truth or reality.  If we feel trapped in our destiny by our acts or karma then we have based our feelings on untruths.  If we have an expectation based on our belief about soul, life after death or reincarnation, then we have trap ourselves in our belief.

Do we have a belief that something or anything we do here in life will affect what happens to us when we die?  Are we afraid that we might go to hell or reincarnate as something less than desirable because we were a bad little boy or a bad little girl?  If we have these beliefs then we are dealing with an untruth in our concept of soul.

Where did the concept of soul first originate?  We will probably never know absolutely, and it does not really matter who started the idea, but we can imagine how somebody might of come up with the question that soul became the answer or solution to.  We all have asked ourselves at one time what is to become of us when we die.  It is this question, and the doubt that it produces, that motivates a person to seek to know their destiny.  With this question, one has to create a language for answering it.  The word soul is part of that language.

Yet, if people were to seek to understand themselves, this would force to ask them where this question came from.  What was the motive for asking this question in the first place?  Eventually in our exploration of ourselves, we will discover that what we really want is not answers but peace from the question.  This does not take away from the natural desire to understand and communicate that understanding.  It is the sense of needing an answer, the neediness, being negative, that motivates us to seek release.

So let us imagine that the word soul was created as a way of sharing our understanding of reality.  It is difficult for a person to imagine his or her own nonexistence, for if we did not exist we would not have a reference point for our perspective.  How could a person imagine the future if their being did not exist in some form or another?  How could a person conceptualize the future beyond death if they did not exist?  Such thoughts are seemingly impossible to comprehend.  Therefore, from this perspective of difficulty in comprehension we wish to create an easier way of perceiving the future beyond.  We wish to create an easier way dealing with our discomfort with these difficult and seemingly impossible thoughts.  So, we create the concept of soul.  We create the idea that we are an entity, a being, which would exist beyond the existence of our body, a being that did not end with body’s destruction or death.

Once we know where we came from, we will know where we are going.  Where were you before you were born?  If you believe in reincarnation then I ask you where were you before the universe was created?   What was it like to be there?  What was your experience before you had the reference point of the human experience?  Again, seemingly impossible questions; impossible maybe to answer given our limitation of language, but not impossible to understand.  When you stand at the beginning you shall not taste death.

 

I am God

Published on by Jim

I love life and all that it has to offer.  Nothing is impossible to me.  I love judgment and criticism.  I love to judge and be judged.  Judgment cannot hurt me it can only awaken me should I fall asleep.  I love to push buttons and I love to have people try to push my buttons.  If I react with less than love then I am asleep and it is only an opportunity to wake up, or, I can choose to stay asleep. 

The worldly will tell me I am not God.  I only smile, for their darkness has no power over me.  I have overcome the world and its ability to darken my light.  And I love the worldly as they try to bring their darkness upon.    I can choose to stay in the darkness and sleep or I can wake up to the light. If I submit to darkness it only means it is time for me to sleep.

Does God sleep?  God does EVERYTHING for everything is God.  God is in everything and everything is in God.  There is only one, separation is only an illusion.

Does God change?  God changes and does not change.  God is inclusive of change and is outside of change. 

Why be God?  God is love and God loves.  Who does not want to love all that life has to offer?  Who does not want to enjoy all that life has to offer?  Yes, there are those who are too afraid to love all, so their fear will dictate to them that they do not want to be God, to be love and to love.  They are just those who are still in the darkness and asleep.  As the light starts to shine on them they will start to awaken and want to be awakened.  As those of us who have awaken to who we really are start to shine our light then those in the darkness, those who are asleep will start to yearn for the more light and to be the light. 

We can all be the light of the world.  We can all be God.  To the awakened there are no limits, all is possible. 

Oneness and Separation

Published on by Jim

In the beginning was the idea that there was separation within the Unified Field of Consciousness. Before the idea of separation came into being there was no beginning and no end, there just was Consciousness. But without the illusion of separation there could be no drama to enjoy and love, and there could be no joy and love, so imagination happened and “we” came into being and that “we” existed as separate beings just so we can have the drama of life.

Some of us have forgotten that there is no “we”, there is only “I”, as in I am that I am. Without awareness of the non-duality reality we imagine that our dramas are real and that creates needless suffering and misery. So the part of ‘we’ that is awake has always tried to tell the part of ‘we’ that is not awake to be aware of the “I AM” that is One and All. To do that sometimes we would say, “Know God” and other times we would just say ‘wake up’, but always it was just part of the ‘we’ telling the other part of ‘we’ that all is ok, all is perfect just as it is.

And part of the beautiful and perfect drama is our attempt to wake each other up. It is part of the love that we came for, loving and caring enough to make the effort to try and wake each other up.

Thank God for the delusion separation, for without it there cannot be love.

I Killed Myself

Published on by Jim

Dead, gone and forgotten.  My “self” is dead. I no longer have to defend it. I no longer have to worry if it is going to heaven or hell or what karma or sin it has or if it will reincarnate into a bat.  It is dead; I killed it.

Boy, what a difference a dead self makes.  Of course, it does not mean that there is not worry for this piece of carcass known as Jim, but the carcass is just a tool, a vehicle, a toy to be played with until it is worn out then thrown away.  “I” do not have to worry about it anymore because “I” am dead.
You might ask, “How did you kill yourself if you are still here?”  Well, “I” am not here, the body is.  “I” am dead.  At least the part of Jim that thinks of himself as a body or a separate being with beginning and end.

I killed myself by looking for the self.  Eventually I saw that the self is just a thought, an electro-magnetic impulse traveling around the brain/body mechanism.  When I fully let go of focusing on anything, particularly the sensations in the body/brain, then the instrument relaxed, let go and stop creating any more impulses, including the impulse known as ‘self’.

Of course, acknowledging that this happened was another impulse which brought back the original impulse of self.  HOWEVER, the power of the idea or thought known as “self” is broken and has diminished ever since.

It is wonderful being free from the grip my ‘self’ had on me.  No longer is there worry about ‘my’ career.  Karma and sin have no meaning.  Since “I” am no longer important then ‘my’ world is no longer important.  Hell, I can now see that nothing in the manifested universe is important so why worry about anything.  It is all here just for the fun of it.  All is meaningless (unless I want to play with meaning and create meaning for it).  All is vanity.

Even writing this is vanity, but it is also a lot of fun.
Now I am free to enjoy and love ALL that life has to offer.
Yet, habits are hard to die and the habit of thinking about my ‘self’ is strong.  Sometimes there is forgetting that the self is not real and I go back to worrying about it.  Usually I wake back up by myself but sometimes it take a true friend, one who really cares about me, to stun me back awake by confronting my silly idea that I am real or important or that I matter or that anything I could ever do mattered or that anything anyone could do or has ever done could really matter.

Sometimes a go a long time before I wake back up.  In those times, I wish I had more friends who really cared about me enough to jolt me back awake.  So I have dedicated my life (Oops, there I go again, like it is ‘my’ life in the first place, silly me) to waking up others so that they can wake me up when I fall asleep, AND, so they can fully enjoy and love ALL that life has to offer.

Wait, OTHERS?  There I go again, thinking there are ‘others’ in the universe.  How can that be if “I” have no beginning or end, I am infinite and all-inclusive.  In infinity, there is no ‘other’ so there are no others.  Ah, then I am not waking up ‘others’ so they can fully enjoy and love ALL that life has to offer; I am waking the REST of me up to fully enjoy and love ALL that life has to offer.

Phew, that was a lot of work.  Ah, but it is worth it.  What greater gift can I give to myself (and all there other ‘selves’ of me out there) that to wake up to enjoy this perfect world and universe?

Does anybody want to join me?

Atheists

Published on by Jim

I find that atheist tend to “throw the baby out with the bath water” in that they reject the god concept while missing the underlining REASON for creating the concept of god. The etymology of the title “Holy Bible” shows that it means Health Book; meaning that it was a primitive attempt by primitive people to share what they had learned that was healthy for the mind, body and society. Atheists tend to miss this all together.

But one of the unhealthy aspects of religion is the belief in a personal creator god that rules the universe, for this belief in that leads to wars, torture, murder, terrorism and all kinds of suffering in the person, in society and for the planet itself.

So I feel that the idea is to get people to focus on a healthy DISCUSSION of OUR ways of thinking and our lifestyle choices and away from the superstition of theism.

Unfortunately, theists do not seem healthy enough to look at deep issues like this, so how do we get their attention, or how do we circumvent their unhealthy efforts to reach the youth of the world or those who would be open to it?

I want to raise the level of debate in the world but I am not sure how to do that, short of writing a book about it and going on the speaking trail.