Decisions, Blame and Joy

So much to do, so many decisions to make and questions about it all. What to do next, what direction to take, which road is the one I want to be on and is it what it appears to be?

This is my current place in life, I expected it, I think I actually wanted it and now I have it, woo-hoo!

Do not get me wrong, I am not complaining about it, much, but one thing I realized on my trip was the answer for a question that I have been asking for many years and I often hear from friends, family and clients, "What am I supposed to be doing, what direction should I be going in?" Personally, I tend to throw in the "G" card as if it makes it a more valued question and not just the bigger excuse it really is.

On rare occasions, I find that the Universe has a specific plan set up for an individual, usually it is about following a general path of character and the one thing so many of us, myself included, seem to hate; making a decision.

Some of us like to get the opinions of others and then internally shift any responsibility or blame onto those who we listened to, God gets this one a lot I am sure...  LOL

Simply put it is all our choice and our decision to make, everything, every day.

What we forget is that, as Joseph Campbell used to say, "Follow your Bliss!" Your bliss is your Spirit passing along what is the correct answer, and only becomes problematic when we ignore it.

One thing to be aware of, bliss is not always what brings the easiest or happiest path in the short-term, in fact I find that from the short view it is often the harder and more painful of the options, at least at first. Most often it is the fear we have placed into our decision making process that causes our next step to seem so difficult.

I am in one of those places right now, I want to pursue my writing; both the Spiritgeek in general, like this blog, and the work with people in one-on-one settings, but I also need to come up with that lovely stuff called cash which seems to push toward getting a more traditional job, at least in the short-term.

So while I stall in making my final decision, not really final as I can always change it, I am working on both paths to see where they both may lead in the next week or so. I am actually open to either as one appears to be more direct, but the other may just be a way of taking care of other things that I may need before the other is quite ready.

So what am I going to do? I will know soon enough, I have been getting my personal little signs, I call them my déjà vu moments so I am reasonably comfortable with where I am and what I am doing. I find my inspiration to be a great help and am SLOWLY learning to trust it.

I know that joy is mine and that all things are perfect for their time and place and as much as I like to think otherwise; that includes me. If it includes me, it includes you as well!

ॐ शान्तिशान्ति
Robert Allen

Should Religion be Abolished?

A friend of mine posted an article on his Facebook page earlier about how the self-proclaimed caliphate Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, is beheading Christian children.

Sadly the article's source was from a "Don't Tread On Me" website, so I am not sure just how accurate the "Christian" part is as these groups often marginalize the facts to make it more offensive to their audience. Groups like ISIS are usually nondiscriminatory in which infidels, anyone who doesn't believe the same way they do, they assault and kill.

Another friend who has become quite anti-religious due to behaviors like these and others in the name of the local "god" has often asked if maybe we should abolish religion in general as it seems to be the cause of so many of these atrocities in the world today.

I say no, not because I support any of the hateful and despicable things that man is capable of doing to his fellow man, but for two basic reasons:

1. The Truth of religious text and practices is still there, even when people manipulate and destroy the original intent for their own selfish and manipulative reasons.
   
   
2. The problem is not Religion, it is just the tool that is being used to justify and validate the evil in the hearts of these people. Take religion away and they will just find some other way to make such atrocities "OK" in their minds.

Survival of the original "Truth"/Message

Śhruti (श्रुति), the Sanskrit name for Scripture or Holy Texts, seems to hold on to its core Truths even when people and organizations attempt to change it for their own purposes; we find it in many traditions. 

I have spoken with several Imams that are sickened and disgusted with how the Quran and the Sunnah/Hadith are manipulated by many of their brothers to become this current cesspool of hatred and violence we have seen through much of the Middle East in recent years. Yes, the documents allow for fighting and such, but have you looked at the Old Testament and some of the things that it calls for and justifies? But these are things that I find have more to do with the cultural contexts of the places and times for which they were written and never actually intended to be the laws for eternity.

The Jewish Torah has laws and rules that are designed to explain a moral life from the perspective of the tail end of the Bronze Age, about 3500 years ago, from an Egyptian/Nomadic point of view. The Christian New Testament does the same thing from the time and culture of the Roman Empire and the Quran, and particularly the Sunnah and hadith, are the Arabian culture of the Seventh century.

On a personal observation, I have always found the Abrahamic traditions to be interesting in that they all find it necessary to deify some aspect of their founder or the founder's principles and the following prophet/teacher tends to decry the deification.

Tradition	Deified Aspect
Judaism	The Law of Moses
Christianity	The Founder/Teacher
Islam	The Culture of the Prophet

No matter how much manipulation has been done, the core Truth of the documents is still there and can be gleaned by careful study and contemplation thereof.

Religion is not the problem

If I thought for just a moment that the destruction of all the world's religious documents and the disbanding of the practices would solve the world's problems for even as little as five minutes, I would jump on the bandwagon and lead the burning parties myself. The hard reality is that it would be a waste of time and energy on all fronts.

Religion is not the cause of the problem, it is the scapegoat used to justify and proselytize one man's judgment and hatred for another while attempting to authorize it by calling it the "will of God."

If there were a way to remove religion from the equation completely, you would find no change, other than the validation used. Knowing most of man, I would suspect that gender, orientation, cultural ancestry, financial status or any number of silly ways we humans find to break ourselves up into "Us'" and "Them's".

By using Religion, the manipulators convince us that "God is on OUR side" so it is not only justified, but the right thing to do. The operative word above is "manipulators"; they are not concerned with anything but their own goals and objectives and the means are only the theater by which they project them upon the masses. If you took the "God" out of the equation, do you honestly think those who want power or control would not find another way to acquire it?

from Mission San Fernando

I have people who want me to write more while I am on this trip, I am trying, but the simple fact is that after you have trudged 12-15 miles while carrying 45 pounds of "stuff" in your pack and, strangely, there have not been that many places to plug in and get online near my daily stops, it is hard to write, little less get it out.

I am trying some new things, my blog has an app, why does that scare me?

Most of my writing has been in a little journal app on my iPhone.

The other part is that this first two weeks has been extremely tough and painful and I don't want to come off as a whiny child (trust me, I have been one a LOT this week).  My feet hurt, well duh! I have noticed that my legs and butt are looking amazing, too bad that I now have too much skin on them, maybe it will tighten up (please please please).  The rest of my weight loss is out of my face and my gut seems to be about normal for me (DAMN! LOL).

Other than the gut part, I expected the rest. This is a huge transition for me.  I have been a fairly sedentary type of guy living in the usual LA way, TV, driving, pretty much an easygoing lifestyle.

I have been surprised by how little I actually miss certain things:

• I do not really miss TV, I thought I would; God knows I spent enough time in front of it.
  
• I am not really missing the banal BS conversations that make up the majority of Angelino-speak.  When I talk to people, they are actually interested in what I am saying and I am interested in their words.
  
• My feet hurt from the walking, but I do not really miss driving and definitely not missing traffic and the insanity that passes for "safe driving".

Not so surprising is what I do miss:

• Showers - regular showers
• Nice bed with sheets
• Climate controlled environments
• Sleeping lying down - see below...

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Guerrilla Camping

One of the things I am getting used to, especially the last few days crossing Orange and LA Counties is what I refer to as Guerrilla Camping. This is the art of finding places where you can sleep at night without being harassed or, in some cases, arrested.

When looking for a place to sleep, you want something out of site, not particularly well lit (not a problem for me as I have the straw hat) and someplace the cops will either not see or not care.  I spoke to LAPD last night about this and their response was that even in public space, other than parks, as long as no one calls to complain, they really don't worry about it.

Parks are a different story as they often have posted hours, so after those hours you are officially trespassing. Even then, unless they have some reason to go in, the odds are that you are likely ok, but it is a risk.

I have noticed that the police do not seem to bother you for sleeping in public spaces at night if you are upright. I am learning how to sleep sitting up with my pack behind me. The toughest part is that after a while, your butt really hurts because the ground tends to be hard and uneven, so it wakes me every hour or so to shift, oh well...

The one thing that I have become aware of is the great mystery of sprinklers. You never know if and when they are going to go off and the last thing one wants is everything one owns soaking from a poorly timed sleep session.

The other night I had found this space and was so tired that I almost did not worry about my tarp. I had bought this tarp for under my tent, but it has been more useful for this than anything else...

The way this works is like this, I open up a little less than half of it (I should have bought a larger one) and put my pack in the fold and then take the rest over the pack and then over me.  I sleep on one end of it and the opposite end acts like a blanket of sorts. 

So the other night, I set this up and at 5:00am, suddenly I heard the dreaded sound of water heading into the sprinkler system. Thanks to having taken the time to set it up, my boots got a little wet and that was basically it, I and everything else was dry.

The other aspect of Guerrilla Camping that takes some getting used to is something close to public bathing.  When you do not have anywhere else to clean up, you clean up where you can, park restrooms are not the easiest to work with sometimes, but water and walls are about all one really needs, assuming you brought a washcloth and a towel.

Am I spotless? Oh Hell no! I am reasonably clean and feeling like I might actually pass for something akin to civilized.

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So this is the practical things I have been dealing with and I think I have at least a passing grade.

On a more metaphysical/Spiritual level, I have been practicing a form of walking meditation that allows me to be somewhat conscious of what is happening around me while focusing on my meditation.  I'll write about that later.

I have some other things that I am working on, this trip has been something of an eyeopener when it comes to some of the contradictions that make up our society, but that is going to take a while to write the way it should be, give me time...

Blessings all!

Robert

The California El Camino Real in June

I have been trying to figure out how to notify my friends, family, clients and readers about my upcoming life event.  I have never really been much of a PR type, so I guess I don't really think much about such things.

I wrote a letter to a dear friend and when a couple of others read it, they both seemed to think it explained things very well.  The person who it was sent to has promised to give me a detailed response on Monday, so I am waiting for that...

So I am copying a slightly edited version here, leaving out personal information only, I hope this explains what I am trying to do and why I will be a little out of touch for the next 6-8 weeks.

For those who would like to help financially, please click this button:

Blessed Be!
ॐ शान्ति शान्ति

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Hey ---,

Got busy running errands and trying to finalize details for my trip.

I started looking for a job, but was having difficulty figuring out more about what I wanted, other than NOTHING in the Limo biz… LOL It became fairly apparent to me that I was really just looking for something to do until I figured out what I really wanted. The only thing I really wanted was to follow my Spiritgeek path and try to reconnect with what seems to have gotten lost over the years.

Now that I think about it, I have realized that I didn't loose it, but I suspect that I put it away for safe-keeping while I explored this world from the perspective of the majority. I've always suspected that we are most often so unhappy because we never really learned to be happy. There's a certain amount of truth in that, but I have also come to realize through the last 25 years or so that we are addicted to our misery and we, obviously, do not have to be. So for me, it is now time for me to reclaim what I have put away and figure out how to pass that along, or determine that I am barking up the wrong tree and find it is only a symptom of the real problem, possible…

The first thing that I need to do, is to shed this addiction and the persona that it has created and return to the "I" (pardon the awkward grammar but I suspect you know what I mean). The opportunity has presented itself and I just "know" that I need to do it now, or it will never happen. I started getting hints from the Universe, the largest being a resurgence of a long-held wish to just walk, get away from everything that I have allowed myself to be addicted to, it's like heroine really. I have thought about walking across the Southern US for years, planned half-a-dozen routes from LA to Ma's Ashram in Florida. I would still like to take that trip, but I fear the first 1000 miles of desert to start, especially in the Late Spring and Early Summer.

The El Camino Santiago in Spain, the Way of St. James, made several appearances in my life from books to television mentions. If you are not familiar with it, it's a 500 mile trek across Northern Spain that has been followed for over a thousand years. If I had the money, I would like to have walked the El Camino Santiago, so I figured that until I can, I would do something a bit more local, it will just have to wait till later. I was going to just walk up the coastline when a friend recommended doing the Mission Trail Friar Serra took with the California Mission System he founded from San Diego to Sonoma.

I'm going to document the trip and stop at several related places along the way, SRF's Hermitage in Encinitas, the Mother Kali Temple in Laguna and other religious and spiritual locations on the way and currently plan to end my journey in Nevada City, CA about 150 miles Northeast of Sonoma at Ananda Village, founded by Kriyananda, a student of Paramahansa Yogananda. That part has not been decided on as of yet.

--- has offered to help me monetize the trip if I document it. As he put it, "Do this to reclaim your life, then let's allow it to pay for your life." So I have help on that part.

There are a few benefits for doing the Mission Trail, I have a stop every few days, the longest gap between missions would be about 3-4 days so I can check in regularly even if no other locations present themselves en route.

I really need some time away from "my life" and the more I think about it, the more I am looking forward to it. I expect it to be one of the most difficult and testing things I have ever done, but I'm open to the Universe making it a bit easier at its discretion. LOL

The putting together of the resources has been an interesting experience in guidance from above. I have bought several items for the trip and just picked up the one that seemed or felt right. I started to get some "buyers remorse" since I was putting my life in the hands of some of these items, so I started researching them. I have been consistently blown away with how fantastic the reviews on the items have been, all high praise from people who camp and hike regularly. You would think I actually knew what the hell I was doing…

Also, several other "hints" have presented themselves to me as of late. Nearly everyone that I call family is having an exodus from Los Angeles and I have been ready to go elsewhere for a while, just no idea where that would be. I am still contemplating that, but a couple of possibilities have presented themselves already.

On a more practical note, I know this sounds insane. We are taught to be part of a system that I have never really been a part of, just playing the game and it has gotten extremely tedious. If I honestly thought that I could be what I know I have within and still be as integrated in traditional life, I would be more than happy to do it, I suspect it would be much easier on my feet.

I have been trying to do both for several years now and have just been feeling more and more trapped in what I know to be false.

[...]I suspect it should only be a few months, the walk is going to take about 2, unless I run into a collection of spiritual adventures along the way and I suspect that I will land on my feet if I am truly following Source.

Spirituality vs. Religiousness

In today's world we see many anti-religious sentiments, like Bill Maher's "Religulous" amongst many others, and as much as those on the receiving end like to bitch about it, can anyone really blame the detractors of (so-called) Organized Religion? Religion, by definition, is about "re-linking with God/Deity/Source" and becoming better people for it, but most seem to use it as a justification of their general antisocial behavior to anyone or anything differing with their way of doing things.

I ran across this on Facebook and thought it was an excellent example of why I am perceived as tough on organized religion. Sadly, this is not limited to Christianity, I see similar trends in Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, etc.

Pastor Jeremiah Steepek (pictured above) transformed himself into a homeless person and went to the 10,000 member church that he was to be introduced as the head pastor at that morning. He walked around his soon to be church for 30 minutes while it was filling with people for service, only 3 people out of the 7-10,000 people said hello to him. He asked people for change to buy food, NO ONE in the church gave him change. He went into the sanctuary to sit down in the front of the church and was asked by the ushers if he would please sit in the back. He greeted people to be greeted back with stares and dirty looks, with people looking down on him and judging him.

As he sat in the back of the church, he listened to the church announcements and such. When all that was done, the elders went up and were excited to introduce the new pastor of the church to the congregation, "We would like to introduce to you Pastor Jeremiah Steepek." The congregation looked around clapping with joy and anticipation. The homeless man sitting in the back stood up and started walking down the aisle, the clapping stopped with ALL eyes on him, he walked up the altar and took the microphone from the elders (who were in on this) and paused for a moment, then he recited:

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ [editor: Matt 25:34-40]

After he recited this, he looked towards the congregation and told them all what he had experienced that morning...many began to cry and many heads were bowed in shame.... he then said....Today I see a gathering of people......not a church of Jesus Christ. The world has enough people, but not enough disciples...when will YOU decide to become disciples? He then dismissed service until next week.......Being a Christian is more than something you claim. It's something you live by and share with others.

Notes:

Highlighting, color and italics are mine

According to Snopes.com this is likely a fabrication and I remember a similar story about Thomas Jefferson and a hotel before and during his presidency, but the point is still valid.

To make matters worse, this lack of real spiritual growth in religion has become infused with politics, not only here, but also several  places around the world. Here is just one example of how this pseudo-religiousness is poised to destroy a country.

Since "God is on their side," freedom seems to have lost its meaning in the United States. "American Freedom" is slowly becoming the enforcement of one groups ideas overall and if the whole doesn't like it, well tough; or, we call it a "War on Christianity."

"Christian Sharia - The Dangers of an American Theocracy" (unpublished essay)
Robert Burgener
Freedom is about making one's own choices, taking responsibility, and dealing with the resultant repercussions and consequences.

If you believe that:
Same-Sex Marriage is wrong, then you should marry the opposite sex
Abortion is wrong, then you should not have one
Premarital sex is a sin, then you should live in abstinence till you marry
etc...
Point to ponder:

Many people think that morality is following a set of rules and regulations, if this is really the case, then lawyers are the most moral people on the planet (When you finish swallowing what just came up, give it a good thinking).

Becoming Human from Homo sapiens

I find the basic concepts of evolution to have some interesting aspects, especially when it comes to certain behavior patterns of Homo sapiens. Yes, I could use the term "Humans", but to my mind, Human or humanity is a state of mind and being, not a scientific classification of species (did that piss you off? Good, act human and earn the name).

So, I guess I should start with an explanation of what the difference is between Humans and Homo sapiens, since it is easier to discuss genus Homo and species sapiens, let us start there.

Scientifically, genus Homo, Latin for man (gender-neutral), includes several descendants of the Australopithecine, predominantly separated from one another by the size of the skull's brain cavity. Modern man, specifically species sapiens, Latin for wise, has been quite the evolutionary success, well, at least until recently...

To me, human and humanity are terms that identify the ability to go beyond a singular "me, mine, and our" mentality and see beyond the needs of only the groups that one associates with. To give you an example, ever see the movie "A Beautiful Mind"? One theme is what is called the "Nash Equilibrium" which is simply the theory that there are times when "every man for himself" does not lead to a maximum result, but a cooperative approach would lead to better chances of success.

To put it another way, if Ayn Rand would find it dubious from her perspective of "Objectivism" and its current incarnations amongst the Conservative Right where they would say yes on Sunday, but no the other six days, it is likely to qualify as Human.

“Human: That which recognizes and applies Spirit as a guiding principle to the biological entity that carries many aspects of earlier states.”

Robert Burgener

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So from an evolutionary perspective we have inherited many "norms" that seem to be inborn into our natures. We want to be accepted by the majority, we have a bit of a herd mentality, we follow the leader, we often strive to pound our round "originalness" into the square hole of the norm.

Just how much of that is inborn and how much of it is cultural, I cannot say. In the vast majority of cultures we find originality somewhat discouraged, so I am inclined to think that the cultural aspect is just a continuation of the evolutionary trait.

Presuming the evolutionary concept, these traits make perfectly logical sense. Traveling in groups, cooperation, and not standing out make survival much easier for the individual. We are no longer running from predators that want to make us lunch. These traits are becoming less valuable to the whole and in many ways they are becoming stifling and potentially detrimental to the future growth of Homo sapiens as a species, evolution continues and older traits may need to be discarded.

It is inevitable that at some point awareness should surpass that whence it came, it will involve changes and if one lesson from evolution is more prevalent than most, it is our dread and near hatred of change.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“You were born an original. Don't die a copy”

John Mason
It is becoming time for Homo sapiens to begin to assess the past and begin the process of awakening to the awareness that is inevitably the future unless we wish to devolve as a species. Though it is only my personal opinion, I suspect that this is a process that we need to get onto quickly, we appear to be creating potential damage and it is likely to take substantially longer to undo what we have already done.

Syria, 9-11 and Growth

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”

“A man's memory may almost become the art of continually varying and misrepresenting his past, according to his interests in the present.”

George Santayana
In our own national pride and belief in American Exceptionalism we refuse to look up from our narrow view of the world and realize that we just cannot fix the world. Oh, we can punish, maybe we can slow the problem for a moment, but create a long term solution, not with guns or rockets, troops or covert missions.

The problems of the Middle East have been brewing and stewing for hundreds, if not thousands, of years and the festering of what started as local issues has become a collection of cultural hatreds that can only be solved by the people involved.

Look at the aftermath of the Iraq war, peace is not really known there, Shia and Sunni are still fighting, cultural minorities are hardly safe and welcome in the country, was this the goal of all those years of blood on our hands as a nation, is Iraq better than it was before?

Now we have Syria. We are banging the war drums and it is beginning to look like the politicians may just give the go ahead, will it solve the issue?

Bashar al-Assad, presuming he authorized the chemical attacks, has shown that he is a desperate man and is not interested in any kind of justice. You can attempt to punish men like that but they just get more desperate, and desperate men are capable of atrocities that our minds cannot wrap themselves around.

Sadly, as much as I mourn the loss of life that has and is likely to come, if you hand power to someone else without them being actually ready and prepared, you have not solved the problem, at best you have put a Band-Aid on it. The problem will return in a cultural conflict, it cannot do otherwise.

It seems that if power is handed to someone, they are rarely aware of just what a potentially dangerous and deadly responsibility it truly is. Sadly it takes going through the crucible to burn away the lust for power and make one appreciate peace, not pretty, but true. By going through the crucible, the emergent leader(s) are in a much better place to know the value of what they do, their friends and comrades were sacrificed to "win" the goal so the power has an extremely personal value.

When countries like ours insert themselves into the conflicts of others, especially cultural ones, we create an illusion we like to call stability, but our history of cultural insertion has not shown that we make good choices. Our people who supposedly "know" what they are doing actually come off in the rear-view of history to appear something akin to gullible.

Just because someone supported us in fighting their battle, does not mean that they are the leader that needs to rise, or that they have any interest in following the path that we would want them to, not that I find that to be a particularly brilliant motivation. Look at our history of imposed leadership in the Middle East, the Shah of Iran (that turned out well), Saddam Hussein (another success).

We like to say that our involvement is over the support of Israel, and somewhat it is, but if we take an honest look, it is about money as oil. What is really sad, is that about a hundred years ago, the people of the region felt, 'Americans were seen as good people, untainted by the selfishness and duplicity associated with the Europeans'^[1] and now we have become the selfish and duplicitous.

I like to think that under all the greed for oil, that part of it is that as a nation we see a collection of our fellow humanity in pain and are just clueless how to help them, but instead of sitting back and figuring out the big picture and actually creating long-term solutions to the benefits of the residents, we see a place where we can charge in like General Custer and in our pride just make it worse.

Every time someone talks about the US entering some country's civil war, I think of an old "Doonsebury" cartoon from the Vietnam era. B.D., our pro Vietnam War Conservative has managed to get lost in the rice paddies of a foreign country and be taken prisoner by Phred, a Viet-Cong "terrorist". In the strip I am thinking of, they are discussing the early years of the war and B.D. just is not getting why Phred doesn't see American involvement into the war his way, so Phred asks him, what would he think if the Vietnamese had shown up in Gettysburg and started handing out chocolate and chewing gum?

Now we have Syria, as much as the questions being asked are about chemical warfare and the response that should be made, once again America is threatening to react instead of thinking. For sure the Military-Industrial Complex is lobbying hard for the war, war is BIG business. What frightens me the most is that being so close to the anniversary of September 11^th, can our slow minded politicians separate the two? I would love to be able to say that I am sure they will make the right decision, but now all I can do is hope.

What is that decision? That is the question. Do we really currently know enough about what we are getting into? Are we seeing, or can we see, the big picture? What happens if we take the path being placed before us and President Assad does it again, are we ready to go round two, or three or all out war?

Large chunks of the Middle East are going through amazing growth now, it is violent and painful to be part of and to watch. If we have any hope of lasting success in the area, I think we may just have to sit back and let them do it, on their own, without big-brother walking in and forcing solutions that they are not ready or willing to accept. Left to themselves, they will likely come to them on their own. Can we have the faith, that as human-beings, they will learn an extremely hard lesson on their own, as it should be.

Footnotes:

1. Fawcett, L. (2005) The International Relations of the Middle East UK: Oxford University Press p 285

Labor Day, The Secret, and Today's Labor

Monday, my usual day off, but it is also one of those Monday holidays, Labor Day (sorry Phyllis, it has nothing to do with childbirth), so I figured my schedule would get trumped, so far no, strange events are afoot!

I have five or six partial blog entries I could finish up and make a quick and easy dash to the beach having finished my Monday duties of finishing and publishing an entry on Monday. I guess I could postpone the entry till Tuesday since it is technically a Federal Holiday in the States. Ha...

It has been a very intriguing week, I have been so humbled by what a reminder that the Universe will take care of us if we will just give it the opportunity and stay the "f" out of its way.

Last week, I preempted my usual writing with the eulogy for one of my cats, Ms. Birdie, she passed the following morning about 10. I am sad that she felt it necessary to leave, but knowing that Spirits tend to travel in groups so I will see her again in another of her lives. Spirit is not constricted to linear time as is most of consciousness, so she may actually be in my life already, I may have to watch over my shoulder, she had vicious claws that drew blood on more than one occasion.

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I have had this idea for a book running around in my head for a while, I had started writing it but really did not like what I was getting, it was boring as bat-shit (such language, shame on me...), but I had an inspiration as to this new scene and realized that it would make the coolest opening.  So I wrote it up, edited it about 40 ways from Sunday and sent it to a select group of friends to see what they thought.

My proof-reader, aka the Grammar Cop, sent me a collection of edits, some of which I had done already in a later rework, several liked, but questioned, a reference to Danny Kaye from a personal favorite 1955 film. The one thing that was most relieving was that EVERYONE said one thing in common, "what happens next?" That is exactly what I was looking for.

The story has been coming out in scenes, somewhat disjointed and randomly dispersed, a kind of wordy jig-saw puzzle. I knew basic plot lines and the general direction of it, but I really had no idea what direction to go to put it into order, in steps the Universe.

I stopped by this neighborhood thrift store and was going through their abysmal DVD selection when I came across a phrase that caught my attention, "Hero's Journey". Was ist das?

I turned out to be a three CD (one disk missing, but what do you expect for $2.00) recording of "The Hero's 2 Journeys", a lecture on story analysis based on Joseph Campbell's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces". Now I have been a huge fan of Joseph Campbell ever since I first saw "The Power of Myth" (sorry the link is for the book and not the video, Amazon doesn't have the DVD? Who'd have thunk). I have used "The Power of Myth" as a study aid for years in my studies of comparative-religion, but that it was actually about storytelling and its structure had completely missed me.

Interesting side-note, I have had a DVD rip of "The Power of Myth" for ages from the local library's collection, but the disks were so badly scratched that it was nearly unwatchable in places. About the time I started thinking about this story, I had just bought a copy of it from an online dealer and had been watching it again and still did not get that my answer for structure was right in front of me. It is amazing how blind we can be at times...

Note to any copyright detectives reading this:

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I have a standing policy, if I make a dub, copy or rip of any copy-written materials, if I watch/listen to it four or more times, I will buy a copy as soon as I find one, otherwise it will eventually be erased.

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I, like many people, are fans of the Law of Attraction, it has become a big industry in the last few years, films like "The Secret" and "What the #$*! Do We Know!?", as well as more books than I care to count, including my own "10 Secrets to the Secret" (which I will publish if I ever get it to a place that I am willing to put my name on--long story).

One area that many people seem to miss is that the Law of Attraction can be, but rarely is, instantaneous. On occasion, the manifestation of ones dreams and hopes are pretty quick in their arrival, but I find that more often then not, you are given inspiration what directions you need to go in to bring about the manifestation.

For example, you might want to manifest $7,000,000, now it is possible that you may just win the lottery with that ticket you bought (even with the lottery you have to put action into it; buy the ticket), but more likely you will start receiving ideas and inspirations that give you an actual charge to contemplate.

Lynn Grabhorn, in her amazing book "Excuse Me, Your Life Is Waiting: The Astonishing Power of Feelings", calls it "the warm and fuzzies"; when you are being given an inspiration toward some goal you are trying to manifest, whenever you think about it, you get a warm and fuzzy feeling. My personal experience is that you get the "warm and fuzzies" even when you really do not want to do "it", we so often want to get to the end without taking the journey, but the growth needed for the destination is in the journey.

So while I work on my new journey of writing my story with its "Hero's 2 Journeys", start on your own Hero's Journey and may you be blessed with whatever you manifest for you and yours. This is your Labor for today.

P.S.
     I did find a copy of disk 3 so I have the entire lecture, no worries!

A Eulogy for Ms. Birdie

OK, this is not the blog entry I was planning to write today, I will finish and publish it later, but today, I am in a dark space, I saw it coming, but I ignored it, we all tend to.

There is one thing that we all tend to avoid, the passing of friends, loved ones and family. Many do not accept the idea that pets can be friends, loved ones and family, they obviously have never loved an animal that does nothing but love you back, even when you probably do not deserve it.

My oldest, Ms. Birdie, is on her way to her next life.

I find myself going through all the questions about what to do, how to react, what to respond as we all do when these times come up. It is a fact of life, as Wayne Dyer quotes Deepak Chopra:

“Life is a sexually transmitted incurable decease”

All living things in time pass to be returned to the star-stuff of which their bodies are made and Spirit continues to advance on its journey of education and experience on its way back to Source.

I ask myself if I should do this or that, what is most helpful, what is respectful and appropriate? My two girls are the closest thing I expect to ever have in the realm of children and at my age, possibly the closest thing to a lover.

I have a good day and they are waiting for me to share it, I have a bad day and they are waiting to help me get a grip and give me an outlet for whatever I need to expel.

It is a shame that people spend so much time "not loving", it is such a gift. I am currently working on an inspirational piece and in one of my notes I was contemplating the difference between angels and humans;

Angels are designed around Service at their core while Humans are designed around Love. For an Angel, fulfillment is found through the performance of whatever task has been handed to them. Humans find fulfillment through the manifestation of the Love that is at their core.

I spend so much time writing and talking about how much time and effort we put into judging EVERYTHING! Imagine how much joy we would have time for if we lived life like our pets, loving everything and just being what we are at our core?

Oh, I know that the religions like to tell us that we are evil at the core, that darkness is our nature, and that God will only love us if we live by ideals that even most of his teachers (little less their followers) can live up to. Even Jesus has his moment of doubt, look at the Garden of Gethsemane. If that were not enough reason to question the "official" proponents of the assorted gods of hatred, sadly, that is where a lot of the followers are taught to take their religion.

Love just is, it has no strings attached, no rules to be followed, no "things" that earn it, it is eternally free and is not only abundant, but in unlimited supply. The more of it that you give away, the more that it will find its way back to you and the more avenues you allow it to enter, the more unique places you will find it.

Like a pet who is at the door, love just wants to be let in, love will never desert you, it will never turn its back on you, only you can turn your back on it and I think the biggest travesty is that those who should be telling you this, instead, hold it out like the gold ring on a carnival ride. That is not love, that is a power grab.

So Ms. Birdie, please forgive me for those days I was not the loving being that you were so trying to teach me to be. Thank you for spending such a large piece of your life trying to get through my hard-assed head and thank you for sharing my life, know that you go with love.

Is Gay the new Jew?

Not long ago, while DOMA and California's Prop. 8 were being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, there was also a collection of stories in the news from around the world, same-sex marriage bans, criminalization of saying anything pro-gay and in some places, the possibility of being imprisoned for life for being honest about it in one's own life. Russia has since declared open season on gay men.

About the same time, I saw a collection of stories that asked the question, "Is Gay the new Black?" The population of Americans of African Ancestry sometimes come across as if they hold some unique history of suffering in their past, similar to speaking with Jews about the Holocaust, as if only 6 million Jews were killed and not 5-6 million non-Jews as well. We really seem to love and take pride in our pain.

While I was working on the previous blog entry, "Judas Iscariot & Adolf Hitler", I was really re-awakened to how the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler used longstanding cultural hatreds to persuade people to do and allow despicable things to be done to others.

I am often amazed at the things people are willing to justify to validate their need to demonize those who think, feel, believe or love differently then themselves. There seems to be a nearly pathological need in the human ego to be right and to make others conform to its view of rightness.

While thinking about the one and hearing about the other, I started to compare the three: Black, Jew and Gay. In many ways I found them to be surprisingly similar from a "haters" perspective.

All three have collections of people who deny their personhood because of aspects of themselves, the hated, are not in control of; yes, it is possible to convert your religion, but Germany was interested in bloodlines and you can deny your sexual orientation, but I cannot imagine that is ever a happy and fulfilling relationship for either party.

From the specific view of the fight for civil rights, Black and Gay have many similarities, but I think in many ways, Jew and Gay are much more in alignment. Race, somewhat cannot be hidden. A light-skinned person may choose to pass for whatever reason, but most do not have that option open to them.

Jew and Gay are both things that in the "predominant society" can be kept quiet and hidden away into those secret places, both require a statement of self to make others aware.

Both have suffered from cultural and historic misunderstandings and persecutions for standing up for who they are. In many places, it takes serious personal strength to admit to those around you what you are, and if you come from a more Orthodox background, to wear the clothing that will mark you as an outsider, how much less to be a "girlie-boy" and just be what God made you.

The lies of Jewish persecutors have ranged from the ridiculous to the laughably insane, with the need to demean another to justify the hatred and invalidation of another; Christian babies are slaughtered for their blood for Jewish religious rituals, get real. Homosexuals have likewise been slandered in the need of an unquestioning majority to justify the ability to validate bashing; Gay men cannot procreate so they must recruit your children. Gay men cannot be near small boys as they will want to molest them, but the fact that most men on boy sexual assaults take place by self-proclaimed heterosexual men.

As far as Germany goes, in the concentration camps, Jews were given the golden Star of David to demarcate them from the other populations, but in the hierarchy of the social structure, as much as the Jews were hated by Germans and other prisoners, there was a group of lower status, they wore a pink triangle to show them as homosexual.
Either way, Black, Jew or Gay, the simple fact is that "if you can hate one, you can easily hate another" (if you know who said that, please let me know) and yet:

“If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us.”

Herman Hesse
I often wonder what aspect of race, religion or orientation triggers within ourselves and what place that self-love/loathing inhabits? I firmly believe that to be truly human, will eventually require each of us to look within and find those self-loved spots that we have been taught to feel shame for that allows us to deny personhood to another, whatever the reason.

“In a world filled with hate, we must still dare to hope. In a world filled with anger, we must still dare to comfort. In a world filled with despair, we must still dare to dream. And in a world filled with distrust, we must still dare to believe.”

Michael Jackson

Fear and Laughter in the Apocalypse

I grew up in the Southern Baptist Church on the northern edge of the Bible Belt, St. Louis, Missouri.  Sometime in the late 70's, I was introduced to the Christian Apocalypse films and then in '81 the Jack Chick tracks and comics (I still read "The Crusaders" series on occasion), and the "End of Days" writings of authors like Hal Lindsey with his "The Late, Great Planet Earth" and other such media.

What is the Christian Apocalypse?

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The basic theology of the Christian Apocalypse is that the prophesies of the books of "Daniel" and "The Book of  Revelation" with a spattering of other verses from around the Bible that foretell the end of the world and the beginning of the new kingdom of Jesus for a thousand years.

If you read any of the "Left Behind" Series or saw the films (the first was pretty good, the second was OK, but the last one SUCKED) then you have some background in the Apocalypse as they did tell the most popular view of the Christian End of Days.

In short, you have the following events taking place:

• The Rapture - the followers of Jesus will be removed from having to experience the seven years of the tribulation. (Some believe that the rapture will occur either 3.5 years into the seven years or later)
• The rise of the Beast/Antichrist a world leader who ushers in a one world government
• Signs a peace treaty between Israel and its enemies for seven years
• The Beast will rebuild the Jewish Temple then blaspheme in it by declaring himself to be God
• The above-mentioned peace treaty will fail after 3½ years
• The armies of the world will meet on the plain of Megiddo, often called the Battle of Armageddon, and attack Israel to end mankind, except...
• Jesus will have his Second Coming and save mankind, set up his kingdom for 1000 years and have the Day of Judgment for all mankind

Apocalyptic Fear

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People frighten me more than the idea of the apocalypse or the end of the world, actually. What does frighten me though is the collection of people that think if they destroy the planet enough, they can hasten the Second Coming.

Somehow, I really doubt that it works that way, but I have heard a few preachers allude to it, which would explain so much of what we see in the world around us.

Many self-proclaimed Christian Republicans fight tooth and nail to remove all restrictions on business and any type of oversight on environmental destruction. It is very likely that a lot of this mentality is just good old-fashioned greed, but I cannot help wonder what stops a person from destroying the world around them when they believe that their God will rescue them from dealing with the repercussions of their actions, frightening thought that.

Apocalyptic Laughter

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One of the more humorous and interesting trends in popular Christian Apocalyptic stories is the idea that in Post-Rapture society, those Christians that were not "real Christians" and those who accept Jesus during the Tribulation will be social pariahs. One of the best examples is Cloud Ten Pictures 4-films series "Apocalypse" where they are constantly referred to by the masses as "Haters".

I find this label of "Haters" for the Christians to be humorous when one looks around at the world of today and we see, self-described Fundamentalist Christians hating anyone and everyone that they do not agree with while trying to create a Christian Theocracy to enshrine their beliefs as the law of the land (yes, it is a bit redundant).

I am so often saddened by the behavior of (self-proclaimed) religious people and the directions they choose, or are guided toward, to show their faithfulness. We see those who claim to follow a teacher that taught Love demonizing others for having the audacity to love in a different way. We have people willing to kill others for every perceived slight, no matter how small, of a teacher or prophet. The saddest to me are groups that teach their children to kill themselves and others in the name of God for their faith.

So I wonder sometimes if these authors are actually making a statement about the failings of their churches or if they are just oblivious to why people might look back and ask if their religion should be abolished?

A Constitutional Preamble for the 21st Century

Today is the 4^th of July, also known as Independence Day.

Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Wikipedia - Independence Day (United States)
Sadly, as the years have gone by and the dumbing-down of the masses has continued, Independence Day is quickly becoming the American equivalent to "Cinco de Mayo" with bar-b-ques and fireworks. Yes, I do know that Cinco de Mayo is not the Mexican Day of Independence, but in the U.S. it has become the Mexican equivalent St. Patrick's Day, basically a reason to get plastered, but since it is a federal holiday many get holiday pay for it.

As much as that is somewhat to be expected, what is actually much more sad is that the promise that many aspects of the foundation of the United States foretold, freedom, justice and this wonderful experiment in Representational Democracy, is in danger of falling to the wayside in the near future.

As a nation, there is what appears to be a very dangerous formula in the works and the outcome would be the destruction of the shining beacon that is the potential for a nation.

I was recently re-reading Baird T. Spalding's "Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East" and I was touched by how one of his guides on the trip was so enamored with the United States and its promise to the world for the future.

In recent years though, we have been witness to a fundamental shift in how America runs and the goals for which it appears to be pursuing, sadly from my perspective, they are as "Un-American" as anything Joseph McCarthy would have come up with.

I could go into detail on where we stopped being President Lincoln's vision of a "government of the people, by the people, for the people," and his belief that it "shall not perish from the earth." We have allowed ourselves to become a government of the Rich, by the Powerful Media Conglomerates and for profits at all costs without even thinking about the consequences of these changes.

So I have decided that the Preamble to the US Constitution, which was ratified nearly 12 years after the Declaration of Independence and is the highest law of the land, should be modified to address the view of those who have been given the country on a silver platter as follows:

We the [Rich and Powerful] People [and Corporations] of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union [for the protection of our profit margins], establish Justice [based on Christian Sharia], insure domestic Tranquility [through mind-numbing mass media], provide for the common defense [against the proletariat], promote the general Welfare [when we absolutely must or their labor is needed], and secure the Blessings of  Liberty  [Profitability] to ourselves and our Posterity [only], do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America[, Inc.].

How “Religion” can save the world

The current destruction of the world as we know it IS actually due to our turning our backs on Religion and/or God.

OK, I will be the first to admit THAT is something I never expected to write, but in some ways it is very true; though not in the way most people think of it.

How many times have I heard some "Hellfire and Brimstone" preacher go on about how the decline of America is due to our lack of reverence to God and our evils in allowing such things as abortion and homosexuality (kinda sounds a lot like Rev Phelps and his cast of [self-censored]). Sadly, he and his like in Christianity are not alone as we have all heard it from certain angry Muslim teachers as well.

“Just look at your life, everything is backwards, they call darkness light and light darkness. Abomination is overflowing just as it was in Sodom and Gomorrah.”

an unknown Street Preacher
Similar statements are heard from many of the world's religious fundamentalists and though not as they meant it, surprisingly true and accurate. Things are backwards, we spend our lives ignoring the Truth within ourselves and instead chase after money and things that cannot and will not make us happy in the long run.

Malcolm X really summed up a lot of this reversal in his quotes:

“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”

“If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”

I find it funny that from a Jewish Mishnah (traditional scriptural interpretation) perspective, the Sodom and Gomorrah portion is right on target, but not because of "the Gay Agenda", but do to the hardness of men's hearts and the crime of Sodom and Gomorrah according to the Mishnah was the violation of the Hospitality Code, caring and compassion for others.

Whenever the times get tough and it becomes more difficult to get by, we try to figure out why, it is human nature to search for answers. There is always someone out there that has no issues with creating a "wicker man" for you to throw your hatreds at, to pile all your frustrations into and set ablaze to take them away.

The ego of man is one that will happily look outward for another responsible party instead of looking within and taking on the truth of what it has created.

So just how is it that turning our backs on religion and/or God/Source may the cause of the destruction of the world around us?

Those with a smaller world view, are inclined to say that the difficulties of the day are a collection of punishments from this judgmental deity that seems to take great pleasure in collecting the evidence to condemn its creation to an eternity of separation and damnation. Now this is just my not so humble opinion, but what a harsh place to live, no wonder they tend to be so angry.

A basic central tenet of all "Religions" is that there is a higher ideal that mankind can and should strive for and through one way or another can achieve. Though by turning our backs upon this idea, we become selfish and myopic onto our own lives and concerns and often do not care about how our actions affect the rest and this tends to make us extremely short-sighted in the long run.

This is the seed by which our destruction will be brought forth if we do not awake soon. The destruction of the world will not be the punishment of God on his creation, but the aftermath of OUR lack of forethought and attention.

As an example, we have a world economy that is based on something completely unsustainable, petroleum; a finite resource that we cannot create in a lab that poisons our environment and may eventually make this planet unable to support our life form.

Without even going into the whole "Global Warming" argument, we are knowingly poisoning ourselves, if you don't believe me, let me ask you this: "Would you sit in a running car in your garage with the garage door closed? Of course not, you know it would kill you." So you know you are putting poison out into your ecosystem that you NEED to survive.

This is only one of an insane number of ways we are setting ourselves up for our own self-destruction, and we do it for such silly reasons, like money, convenience and just not beng willing to be bothered.

We live in a collection of cultures that have always felt reasonably safe due to physical distance from the "other". With the birth of modern information and communication technologies, those barriers of safety are quickly disappearing and many are panicking. If our interactions were just limited to "Cultural Contamination" it would be one thing, but we have entered a world where the actions in one place can have direct consequences on the opposite side of the planet.

Has Religion and/or God/Source given us a way out?

When you sit down and look into the teachings of the greatest teachers in history, Krishna, Moses,  Zoroaster, Lao Tzu, Buddha, Confucius, Thoth/Hermes, Jesus, Muhammad, Guru Nanak Dev and Bahá'u'lláh, they all share something in common, the expression of a higher state, called ethos, morality, spirituality and/or God.

Religions are the codification of the teachings that are left by the founder in an attempt to keep them alive, but sadly, those who come later rarely understand the original source and the teaching goes from a living expression of Truth and into traditions, theologies and dogmas.

When ego becomes the driving force of religion, Truth is put aside for numbers, power and glorification.

Religions relate to God/Source in the same way that facets relate to a diamond, every facet shows you the glory of the whole, but the whole will always be more than any one, or collection of some facets. Yet we are willing to judge, condemn and kill in the name of our particular facet.

Underneath these schools of thought is a general idea of interconnectedness of all of us to each other, to all life on this planet, the cosmos and eventually to Source, Deity or God. This is where our self-imposed separation has begun to manifest our destruction.

The hypocrisy of judging

When I watch television or read the news, I am so often saddened to see just what a judgmental people we have become. Sure, we have always judged one another, but as of late we seem to be seriously more vicious in our attacks.

We judge one another on a wide range of areas, race, gender, orientation, religion, financial status, education, clothing, speech, body-language, etc...

I take a lot of heat from my Christian friends (yes, I still have some, the ones that know its not personal). I am often accused of being anti-Christian, I am not. I tend to ride them tough since they are the dominant religious group in the United States. Riding Muslims hard would work if I lived in Saudi Arabia or some place that is an Islamic state, but in today's America the point would be completely missed by most.

Here is an example of one aspect of where Christianity is failing I think:


I will be the first to admit that I have some serious issues where it comes to the Westboro Baptist Church (frightening that the church's homepage is the "GodHatesFags.com" site). Surprisingly, my biggest issue with them is not their strong dislike of homosexuals or their completely tasteless tactics of protesting, but the use of their children in their protests. Hate is something that has to be taught, Denis Leary put it so well:


What chance do these children have to be anything more than their parents? I do not even want to think about the pain and anguish that one of their children will go through if they grow up and find themselves to be LGBTQ.

What does the Bible say about judging and the law

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One of the most famous quotes from the Christian Bible on this subject is the King James Version of Matthew 7:1; "Judge not, that ye be not judged", but look at what follows it.

7 Do not judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourselves.

2 For just as you judge and criticize and condemn others, you will be judged and criticized and condemned, and in accordance with the measure you [use to] deal out to others, it will be dealt out again to you.

3 Why do you stare from without at the very small particle that is in your brother’s eye but do not become aware of and consider the beam of timber that is in your own eye?

4 Or how can you say to your brother, Let me get the tiny particle out of your eye, when there is the beam of timber in your own eye?

5 You hypocrite, first get the beam of timber out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the tiny particle out of your brother’s eye.

Matthew 7:1-5 (AMP)
My experience is that this is proven true by the realization that what we dislike and hate in others, hence judge as wrong, are nothing but the reflection of what we dislike and hate within ourselves. No, I am not accusing the members of the Westboro Baptist Church of being homosexual (gay men everywhere are breathing a large sigh of relief).

Some say that we dislike and hate what we do not know and that causes fear, but I think that is more a response to our sense of lack in knowledge and experience and most people hate having fear within themselves.

People like the members of Westboro and sadly others who are just looking for justification for their distrust of anything different often use the Law of Moses and the Levitican Code as their weapon of choice.

They almost always pick and choose which parts are valid, the parts that address themselves are overlooked; their favorite foods (bacon, ham, shrimp and lobster), the availability of cheap cool clothing from Walmart (mixed threads), cheaper meats (non-Kosher), touching the skin of dead pigs (football), etc. My personal favorite is that I have yet to meet the Christian man who has the balls to put his wife out during her monthly menses.

It has become the common belief that the Law of Moses is there by God's direct intent, literally the will of God, but Jesus tells us that is not necessarily the case:

8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

Matthew 19:8 (KJV)
So we know that parts of the law are there by the knowing of Moses, not by God's decree, how do we determine which is which?

The answer is a few chapters away, Jesus not only tells us the basic framework for all the law , but gives us a direct key to its implementation:

35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,

36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Matthew 22:35-40 (KJV)
emphasis mine
If you apply the Law through the filter of Love, you will never use it as a tool of destruction against another, how would you honestly bludgeon your brother to death in the name of love?

Science vs. Religion

There has recently been a resurgence of the argument between those of a Religious bent and those who are more Secularist.  When I was a kid it was purely a Science vs. Religion argument of Evolution vs Creationism, in recent years, the moderate religionists have re-framed the argument as Evolution vs Intelligent Design.

As far as I can tell, Intelligent Design is basically Creationism expressed in such a way as not to refer to a specific religious character, the God of Abraham, Jesus and Mohammed.

This is hardly a new concept in the ongoing battle of Science vs Religion.  In the Christian world, this has been going on since the Second Century with Tertullian vs. Origen.  At some point it was decided; that which could be seen or studied would be in the realm of Science and that which could not would be the realm of Spirit and by default the Church.

As science developed from the 18th century onwards, various views developed which aimed to reconcile science with the Abrahamic creation narrative.

Wikipedia: Creationism
We could go on and on with the history of the observed conflicting with the beliefs in many cultures and religions throughout history, not really what I want to do, but Wikipedia offers a good place to start here.

A Different Perspective

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I look at this "battle" and cannot help but giggle since I see the need for one or the other to be right and the other to be wrong to be nothing more than an expression of the Ego.  What if there was a way for both to be right?

When I read Moses' creation story in Genesis I am truly impressed with just how close his history is with what Science says in the Theory of Evolution, not bad for someone who lived 3200 years ago.

Science and Religion are not really in conflict, because in fact their true subjects of study are completely different and not at odds.

Science is the study of how the Universe is put together, the laws that apparently underline those structures and how they interact with one another.  Science is the realm of actual history, what actually physically happened and how it occurred.  If you want to insert the concept of God into Science, it only would be "How he did it."

Religion is actually the study of why.  Why would a Benevolent Deity go to all this trouble, what is the point?  The historical questions that often get written about for these explanations most often are based on tribal mythology and allegorical explanation, not fact.  Now many Religionists are going to take offense at this, I have attacked the inerrancy or the infallibility of their Scripture.

So to me, and those like me, Science explores how this amazing thing we call reality is structured and put together, Religion explains the why and seeks to help me to re-engage with that higher part of myself called Spirit.

A Defense of Religion

I happen to be a fan of Bill Maher, I think he is fun and entertaining. I recently re-watched his film "Religulous" and also ran into a short series of interviews with Bill Moyers "on Faith & Reason", as well as a few other items and it started me thinking about the current views of many people regarding organized religion and what many religionists likely view as the new "War on Religion."

About the same time I ran across the following cartoon which really sums up the issues that many non-religious people have with organized religions and their followers:

Let's be honest with ourselves, Religion in many ways has asked for the harsh eye that has been placed on it in recent years. Religion has been used to justify every darkness that lies in the heart and soul of man and the more that one looks into it, the easier it becomes to question if Religion has any validity in the world.

Believers think that they are following the will of God as they see it, as such, they are not usually willing to negotiate their positions.  This is actually fine, believe what you will and act on it in YOUR life, and that is where most religionists lose the game.

Green Stamp Theology

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People often try to spread the truth of their beliefs into the world and try to persuade others to act in accordance with what their religion teaches. There is often a problem with this in that those who are so busy "spreading the word" are not often as diligent in their practice of the word, I call this "Green Stamp Theology."

When I was a kid, my Mom would shop often at certain stores where they would give you "S&H Green Stamps" with each purchase. You would take the stamps and fill the books with them and then go to the redemption center and use them to buy items, an early customer rewards program.

As a theology, it works this way, it doesn't matter what I do as long as I can get   X   number of people to believe the way I do, I can buy my way into the eternity of the chosen. If you ask them, they will nearly always deny this, but this is the outcome of their actions.

Where Religions Lose It

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I recently heard an interesting statement;

Religions are grand, lofty ideals.
Religious followers, now that's something else.

Fortunately, the problem is not the religions, but the followers. OK, I know you are wondering how this works...

We will use Christianity in this example, but it works for any religion.

Jesus taught a philosophy that made sense to him. He understood what he was trying to pass along to his followers and particularly his disciples. From the writings that have come down to us, I would say that John "got it" more than any other, at least from his writings.

Sadly, the many generations that followed have not understood it, but have done their best to keep it alive.  For the most part, they succeeded, the Gospel of John has survived 1800+ years and is still available to read and study today, now as to if the current interpretation of it has anything to do with the original, that may be another issue (thanks a lot Irenaeus).

As time goes on, those who understood the teacher passed on and left those who understood less and less of the original teaching. This is just the way things go, as time goes on, the teaching becomes a tradition and then a dogma. Once it becomes dogma it is etched in stone and any that attempt to reinterpret it are viewed as anathema.

Add to this the insertion of Ego that inevitably comes along, the teaching becomes "The Teaching" and sooner or later it goes from being a presentation of Truth to the "One and Only Truth" with all others being false gods and lies of whatever form evil takes, in Christianity it would be Lucifer, the Devil.

Religion's Saving Grace

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Fortunately, there is a saving grace for religion in general, for those who truly seek it out and sift through all that gets piled on top of it, the original truth that was expressed by the teacher is still there. This core truth is often buried under dogmas and theologies, tradition and canon but to those who would search, they will find Truth.

⁷Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
⁸For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Matthew 7:7-8 (KJV)

Jesus said: "Recognize what is before your face and that which is hidden from the you will be revealed to you. For there is nothing hidden which shall not be made manifest, nor buried which shall not be raised."

Gospel of Thomas saying 5
This is the saving grace of Religion, if Truth is there, it will remain forever.

Time and tradition may pile on many things to the original source but if you will engage your heart and spirit and be willing to be a touch of an archeologist in your studies, you will reveal the Truth underneath. Turn your brain on, it was given to you for a reason. Pray and/or meditate on your studies, inspiration will almost always follow and point you in the right direction.

Religion is not really about "others" out there, but about YOUR relationship to the Creative Source of the Universe. It is your job to grow within that relationship, let others concern themselves with their growth.  Feel free to share knowledge with those that want it but never enforce your thoughts, beliefs or otherwise onto others, there is more than plenty of examples of how quickly that will fail in the world around us and sadly they are collectively called Religion.

Semantics in Salvation

In my world, where I spend a lot of time studying and discussing different Religions, I am so often amazed with just how much semantics play into the discussions.

If I talk about "The Secret" or the Law of Attraction to my Christian friends, I am speaking the words of Satan and guiding people into Hell since I am discussing how to manifest in one's own life.  Now not every Christian believes in it, but many teach what has become known as the "Prosperity Gospel" which is actually nothing more than the Law of Attraction expressed in Christian terminology.

I find it so funny when I have a religious conversation with a Christian and the central theme against another religion is that the practitioners do something, that "works" play a role in their attainment of salvation in whatever form they believe in.

In Buddhism you meditate to find Nirvana within, in many religions one performs rituals to the idea of deity to show devotion and to focus on the ideal. These actions take one to a point where they are completely focused on the goal, preferable growing in their relationship with God, but as in all human activities, they tend to be more mundane like paying the mortgage or getting the kids into college.

Christianity believes that salvation is a gift from God, nothing you can possibly do has any affect since we are all such terrible sinners. The place where I cannot help but giggle is that the individual must make a choice, they must choose to follow Jesus, they must choose to follow through with that decision and grow within that relationship they have chosen to establish. Lastly, most would say it is in your best interest to study the Word and become stronger in one's walk with the Lord, yet another action that likely should be taken.

Sounds like an awful lot of action is involved and my "works" through all the day-by-day and often moment-by-moment choices to pursue and follow my chosen walk with God seem instrumental to my salvation.

The grace of Salvation is not some ring you grab off a hook on a carousel, but something waiting for you to accept willingly. In "A Course in Miracles" they say that there is actually only one sin, to believe that we are separated from God and all these other "sins" are nothing but the manifestation of that one incorrect thought.

Sin means to miss the point or target, forgetting our relationship to Source is what we have forgotten, all the teachers have told us this, it is OK to believe in it and yourself.  It is not possible to grow in your relationship with the Creator if you deny you are part of the creation.

American Fantasy #1 - The Republican Party Supports Christian Values

I really have no interest in writing about politics, as far as I'm concerned George Carlin got it right years ago;

Poli: Latin for many
Tics: Small blood sucking creatures

In today's world though, politics and religion have become so intertwined that to talk about the one requires thinking of the other (just where did Separation of Church and State go?!?).

In some ways, I guess the current religio-political nightmare has shown some improvement; in the election of John F. Kennedy it was wondered about electing a Catholic and now we have a Mormon running and making it through the "Christian Litmus Test" (that may have more to do with the Mormons being overwhelmingly Republican and voting in line with the Christian Right than with Christian acceptance).

The Creation of the Modern Neo-Conservative Republican/Christian Alliance

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In the late '70's and into the '80's the United States the influence of Francis Schaeffer [ Correction: where Francis Schaeffer was also instrumental with these Christian Leaders, I meant to reference Paul Weyrich ] began to grow within the Christian Right and he has often been referred to as the Father of the Modern Christian Political Movement. He is often credited by many of the "players" of the movement such as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and Gary Dobson as a major inspiration.

When I think about the union of these two groups, I have always wondered about what a strange set of bedfellows they make. Both are absorbed in value systems that seem on fundamental levels to be at odds with the other.

The Republican Party has been solidly a pro-business party since 1896 in the eyes of many. As a party there is the fundamental belief that business should be given a freehand and as little interference from government as possible (a dangerous idea to my view if you have no consequences for bad behavior).

This view has laid the fundamental groundwork for two financial crashes, though some say the Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression may have also been manipulated into being by the supported business interests of the party, greed often appears to run hand-in-hand with many of these policies.

The Party's stance on Personal Responsibility is another area where they seem to be at odds with the ideals of the Christian theology. I agree that people should be responsible for themselves as much as possible, but even with the best planning and intentions, things can go wrong and a safety net to help one recover would seem to be in line with Christian values.

The business policies of the party the last few decades has been such that many people have been forced out of their jobs and yet the party feels no compulsion to help them through the transition, seeming to take a "it's their own fault" attitude. The more extreme members seem unable to see any link between the policies and the results.

The Riding of Christian Voters for Republican Aims

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With the underlying core values of the party of late, I have always thought that unbeknownst to the Christian Right, the Republican Party has been taking them for a ride. Many members of the party may subscribe to Christian Values, but the aspect of the party that is all about business, money and corporate culture are only interested in the voting blocks, not the issues if one looks at how they run their businesses. My Dad often said that "actions speak louder than words" and in this case, what are their actions?

• Closing employment opportunities here and shipping them where they can basically get away with slave wages
• No regard for those that have been harmed by their actions
• Destruction of resources in the name of profit and little to no regard for the damage caused
• Negligence in their operations where it was in the interest of the "bottom line"

The people who operate in such a fashion likely find the Christian Conservatives easy bedfellows, the vast majority of things that the Christian voting blocks ask for cost little to nothing. The Christian voting block is not asking for money to feed the poor, educate their children, supply health care, redress the damages caused in the service of business' bottom-line (you would think those who follow a teacher who says things like; when you feed the poor, you feed me, would want these things).

In the last few years we have seen that these voters will often vote against their own best interest in support of candidates that are clearly owned by the business interests. If a candidate does not cut the financial mustard, they are accused of being pro-choice, anti-Israel, pro-gay rights or same-sex marriage. The "dog and pony show" kicks into high gear and sadly the voters drink the Kool-Aid with a smile on their lips and a song on their heart.

So I repeat, I do not think that the Republican Party leadership is Christian any more than they absolutely feel they have to be so they can manipulate a large block of votes on election day. I have noticed several leaders of the Christian Political Arm starting to admit to thinking the same thing.

So look at the actions of the party, outside the realm of religious thought and see if it truly supports the philosophy that Christianity teaches. See if the party will support you when you cost it money.

Many people consider Fox News to be the voice of the Republican Party,  a friend of mine recently told me that that is an illusion. Fox News, in his opinion, is the mouthpiece of Corporate Culture and the Mega-Rich and will drop the Republican Party the moment the party is no longer in step. Is it possible that the Republican Party feels the same way about the Christian Right?