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.

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.

Respect, not Tolerance

In today's world, we are often told that tolerance is a good thing, I disagree. Tolerance should be a good thing, but as I see it, there is an inherent judgement in the term that the dictionary definition only hints at.

Tolerance

1. capacity to endure pain or hardship : endurance, fortitude, stamina
   
   
2. a: sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one's own
   b: the act of allowing something : toleration
   
   
3. the allowable deviation from a standard; especially : the range of variation permitted in maintaining a specified dimension in machining a piece

Merriam-Webster.com
When we talk about people being tolerant of others, we are usually referring to the second definition, to have sympathy or to indulge, do you not see a judgement in there? Both imply that you are allowing something lesser than yourself or position. When we say Group A should tolerate Group B the implication is that Group A is right and the other is lacking but must or should be allowed.

Strangely, this often requires the members of Group B to make use of the first definition, to endure the scorn of Group A.

Recently, in the fields of Politics and Religion, we often see the third definition employed in an attempt to negate the need for the second definition. Group A believes it has the truth or some perceived standard that should be enforced upon the rest (not that they often live up to it themselves).

So what is the alternative?

²Respect - verb

1. a: to consider worthy of high regard : esteem
   b: to refrain from interfering with <please respect their privacy>
   
   
2. to have reference to : concern

Merriam-Webster.com
When others disagree with your positions, beliefs or lifestyle, do not judge them to be inferior to yourself by tolerating them, but respect them for what they believe.

In the gospels of the Christian New Testament, Jesus said to love those who persecute you, fantastic idea though rarely practiced in today's world. You cannot love something or someone you do not respect, so tolerating others is to demean them.

You may not agree for whatever reason, but not only is that difference what is supposed to make the United States so great, but if you respect vs tolerate their opinions, you leave an open space to discuss those differences. What an idea, an opportunity to learn, to grow and to better one's self through expanding your frame of reference.

So Respect differences, not Tolerate them.

Loving an Opposing Inspiration

Earlier today, I ran into someone on Facebook that I had not heard from in ages, Joni Eareckson Tada. Now it turns out that it is really more of a fan-page as she does not actively participate from the look of it.

When I was a kid, I ran across the book "Joni" which touched me in a way that few books ever have. It is the story of a young woman, Joni Eareckson, with everything ahead of her that has a diving accident one summer and ends up a quadriplegic and her coming to grips with that and the skills she found after-wards. I was so impressed with her artwork that I used to own a piece many years ago.

I had the pleasure of meeting her in 1981 during my great Southern California adventure that I have written about in the past.

One of the things that surprised me was the near immediate response that I received from several friends that were shocked that I would "Like" her since she is a signer on the Manhattan Declaration, a call for assorted Christian members to not comply with laws against their religious beliefs in areas like abortion and same-sex marriage. I believe that I had heard about it on the news, but I did not pay it any heed, why should I?

One of the areas that the Christian Right has never understood is that a law saying such things may happen do not require you to partake in them. I have always found it somewhat laughable to listen to people who act as if legalizing same-sex marriage means straight men are going to be required to do so or that Roe v. Wade is going to force women to have abortions.

We seem to have developed a culture in this country where if someone disagrees on any one subject, especially a hot button topic, that we are supposed to shun them and disavow any knowledge, friendship or support. I will not do it.

I have found Joni to be a shining star in my life who made me rethink many things in my life over the years and a pillar of strength when I have had tough times, no matter how bad, I still have functional arms and legs.

One of the pieces of the book I have always remembered was a place where Joni's power-wheelchair tipped over in a parking lot and she scraped her face quite badly. Her reply was something like; "why my face, the only place I can feel?" I have had days like that where it was like why this one thing when it was so important, at least in that moment.

I may not agree with everything she thinks and may even be diametrically opposed in some, but that will never take away from the respect I have for her in so many other areas of her life.

Many of the friends that responded badly felt that I had betrayed them, I would say that I have proven my worthiness as a friend in that I will stand by them when they do something I disagree with, it will take more than one thing to get rid of me.

I would say that it is more Christian to show love and compassion for someone against you on some issue than many self-proclaimed Christians offer to those who differ from them. It is easy to love someone who is always with you, but it takes a bit of work to get beyond some disagreement and still be there for them. I believe Jesus commented on this when he talked about loving ones enemies.

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To Joni,

My heartfelt appreciation for your story, your beautiful artwork and for making a young man feel welcome when the opportunity presented itself nearly 30 years ago.

My prayers and hopes, along with Reiki healing energy, to help you get through this troubling time with your recent diagnosis.

Shanti,

Robert

Living in and out...

There is an expression that is usually used as an insult to "pop" Christianity that goes something like; "If Jesus were to come back and saw what has been done in His name, He would not stop puking"; sometimes I know what this means...

About ten years ago Jeremy Sisto did a television miniseries called "Jesus" that I was extremely impressed with. It opens with assorted scenes from the last 2000 years of soldiers going to war in the name of Jesus, the dying calling out His name and such in a dream that Jesus is having before His mission actually begins.

Later when Lucifer visits Jesus before the crucifixion in an attempt to dissuade him from going through with it, we return to the opening montage scenes with Lucifer going on about how the people will not get it, it will be a waste of time, and what they will do in the name of Jesus.

I sometimes wonder if the Prophet Muhammad makes such an issue that he is only a prophet in an attempt to avoid what Christianity had done to Jesus. At the time of Muhammad, Christianity was coming out of a collection of ecumenical battles over Jesus' nature(s) as both man and God; the process of His deification was pretty well cemented.

Have you ever seen the movie "Monty Python's Life of Brian"? The first time I saw it was at the Tivoli Theatre in St. Louis' University City. There is a scene in it where Brian's followers are bickering over the sacred relics, one group is revering the "Gourd, the Sacred Gourd" and the other group has the "Sandal, the Sacred Sandal".

Some friends came over for a little party the other day and gave me an example of something that is the nightmare of any teacher. We had a conversation that went something like this:

F: What is the importance of the Spirit in everyday life?
S: (pause to gather thoughts)
F: He shows us that meditation and contemplation is important before speaking.
S: The Spirit is our source, so if we try to live without it how can we truly claim honesty in our lives?
F: He shows us that the answer is withing so he answers questions with questions to make us examine our own hearts for the truth.
S: Why are you doing this to me?
F: He points out that our intentions and motivations are important to understand our questions.
S: Oh, God help me!
F: He tells us that we may call upon deity for protection.

ad nauseum

Now I know my friends mean it as both a joke and as a way to poke at me. I do not take myself that seriously, but in the directions that I am going, it is likely that in time there will be those who will do this.

I see it happening to teachers ranging from Wayne Dyer to Deepak Chopra and especially with religious teachers like Paramahansa Yogananda, Swami Prabhupada and Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati. The students tend to infer and interpret into what is said, even when the teacher is outside their "teaching" and just living as happened with the Prophet Muhammad and is encoded into the Hadith.

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I guess the point I am trying to make is that no matter who the teacher is or what the teaching is, there is a point where one has to go from listening and interpreting what the teacher says and implement the teaching into one's life.

As much as I love to teach, know that I and EVERY teacher is also a human and we are not intending to teach at every moment. Remember that a true teacher lives what he teaches, so attempt to overlay their teaching over how and what they live.

I teach that Spirit is the core of my "self" and that this body is the vehicle of that Spirit and should be enjoyed. You may find me out having a drink, dancing (or as close as I get) or any number of activities, some of which you may not find congruent with what I teach, trust me it is and if you wish understanding just ask, I will try to explain it. But PLEASE do not interpret some "holy" message into everything, I will get annoyed and you will miss the point, I can nearly guarantee it.

To respect an adversary...

There are times when we really are given a glimpse into the world around us, as well as within ourselves, and get the chance to look at what it is that we respect and expect of ourselves, even when it takes you into strange places.

I recently heard about Barbara Walters' "10 Most Fascinating People of 2009" special which showed one of those apparent cultural inequalities that pop up on occasion. We hear about them, the glass ceiling for women in business, racial inequalities and similar issues, but Barbara really threw one in the face of her viewing audience.

On her special, she had an interview with Lady Gaga where there was a picture of her kissing another woman, no big issue, Madonna and Britney Spears kissed, Jessica Biel has and have you heard of Ellen DeGeneres?

I was later saddened when she interviewed Adam Lambert as the tone was completely different. Sure, at the AMAs he groped a female performer and kissed a male musician, but I've seen girls get groped and I've seen guys get kissed, why does it become raunchy and lewd when two guys kiss? They didn't seem to have a problem as far back as the 80s when we saw two guys kiss on Dynasty. Shame on you Barbara for not being even-handed in your presentation.

Sadly, not only did it really show me one of these cultural inequalities and decrease my level of respect for Barbara Walters, but it got me thinking about why I was losing that respect and exactly what I respect in others as well as myself. The big one that hit me was conviction and that's when I thought of "him".

There is a gentleman that I truly despise, for both what he says and how he says it, but I cannot help but respect him for his conviction to what he believes. The person at the center of this mental and moral dilemma is Pastor Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church, most infamously known for his GodHatesFags.com website and his church's protests at the funerals of Matthew Shepard and military dead.

I took a look at the GHF site for the first time in a long while and am glad to see that they apparently hired a web designer and modernized the site. It's about time...

So let's get into the guts of my issues with Pastor Phelps.

1. I completely disagree with his position on Homosexuality and I won't get into the particulars of my thoughts on his and many other interpretations of the Bible (I have gone through this in the last 2½ years on the blog so you can find it).
   
   I will say this, I am not a Jew and according to the Apostle Paul there is no requirement for me to be bound by the Law of Moses to follow Jesus.


2. Pastor Phelps believes in a theology called Absolute Predestination which states that there are those who come into the world, destined from birth to find salvation and the rest of us are outright ineligible.
   
   It is easily used to separate the "chosen" from the rest, I believe in a God that would at least make salvation available to all his creation.


3. I don't know if it is still on the site or not, but there used to be the following statement which tore through my heart and soul.

   God doesn't hate you because you are Gay,
   you're Gay because God hates you.

   I once sent them a question asking if Absolute Predestination was true and I'm already damned by God, since he made me gay, why deny me any semblance of happiness before my God ordained eternity in Hell begins?
   

As much as I might think he does the term Christianity a severe disservice and is a fountain of hate, I cannot help but respect his tenacity to stand up and be ridiculed (deserved or not) for what he believes.

There is a line from "The American President" that is so very appropriate for this discussion...

America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight.

It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.

You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the "land of the free".

It is like the Indian Upanishads say about people and religions; there are 400,000 types of people all at different levels of spiritual evolution, no one religion will ever speak to all of them. This is why I always teach that no matter what form of religion or spiritual practice, as well as none that you might have, respect the differences you find around you as all learn at their own pace.

A true spiritual practice is about personal growth! Like it or not, ALL people are on their path of return to the source and will learn in their own time and pace. If you find yourself as a High School student, you don't hate the 3^rd grader for not knowing Shakespeare, you help him learn from where he is. Be that sign post for all around you.

A Small Begining to the New Revolution

"...where Life and Spirit become One!™" Practical Lesson #1

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Is Hell freezing over? We actually seem to be having a change in the weather here in Southern California...

The day is overcast and there is something like a 40% chance of rain today and nearly a guarantee for tomorrow. God knows we need it, but I and everyone who thinks about such things is concerned about the burn areas, no coverage and 4" of rain makes for soup and mudslides.

On occasion, I go on about the press and it's apparent lack of real news and the dumbing down of America.

When I was a kid, we used to watch the local news for, oh my God, local news, weather and sports. Afterwords the Network news would come on and give us the National and Inter-National stories for the day.

Now maybe it's just LA (somehow I doubt it) but the lead stories this morning were the latest collection of killings and robberies and "Storm-Watch '09." The joke about Los Angeles is sadly true, "LA is the only town where a light sprinkle get a 'Storm-Watch'."

The other day I heard a headline that went something like; "State Study Determines Danger of Landslides in Recent Burn Areas." Someone actually spent tax dollars to determine this? No wonder we are broke in the State of California, which reminds me of the story "Will California be the Country's First Failed State?"

Do you ever wonder why you hear about Government cutting the funding for Education and then they complain that the students are either dropping out or failing to pass their courses? Hospitals and Social Care programs lose money then more people enter the uninsured rolls and get the majority of their health care in emergency rooms (THE most expensive way of dealing with issues). What outcomes do you expect?

Why is our nation loathe to have business and the more successful pay an equal share with what they tax me? Remember that story a few years ago of an executive that actually announced that he was somewhat ashamed that he paid less in taxes on his 6 or 7 figure salary than his secretary did on her 5 digit one?

Every time someone mentions raising the upper level tax rates, the claim of unfair tax increases for this group gets voiced. Here's a little research project for you, look at the tax rates of, oh say, 1980. You will find that the tax rate on all income over $88,000 for a single individual was 50%, today the top rate on the IRS rolls is 35%, period (by the way, the maximum corporate income tax is 38%, at least till you get to 18,333,333 when it drops back to 35%) these numbers are from IRS instructions for 2008 1040 and 1120 forms.

When this subject and others like it come up I tend to hear all sorts of bitching about them, but I rarely hear anything constructive, little less relatively solution oriented. So here are a few ideas that could be the basis of a beginning to correct these issues. Lets start a new American Revolution of awakening the masses and striking terror into the hearts of the power brokers...

   EDUCATE Yourself   
My more paranoid and/or conspiracy theory friends and acquaintances believe that the failure of the educational system is a deliberate attempt to keep the common folk from uprising since they are/will be to stupid to do otherwise.

In this age of the Internet and nearly unlimited information, you can become a PhD in nearly any subject you please without spending a lifetime in school. Sure, you need to be careful as far as verifying the validity of information you find on the Internet, but, trust me, so does the information from TV and Radio "Talking Heads" as they nearly all have "their" perspective and biases (does anyone REALLY believe Rush Limbaugh is truly an objective individual on his show?). As I have discussed previously, even our institutions of learning are not exempt from excess posturing and biases by professors, no matter what your perspective.

   Make your voice heard   
I'm not talking about just showing up at protest marches, but writing and emailing the decision makers in their respective fields. Write the News Director of your local TV stations and express your disappointment at the lack of REAL news on the program.

Contact your elected Congress and House of Representative members. I hear people complain about the money and power of the special interests in Washington, but they only have money, YOU have the votes that keep them in office and trust me, THEY know it.

   Show your support financially   
In today's world of Corporate Culture and Bean-Counters that do nothing but look at the bottom line, hit those you disagree with where it hurts, their pocket books!

I, for example, think that Walmart should offer both full time hours to their employees and health insurance. As it stands now, they expect the public to pick up the tab since they will not offer much of any health-care benefits. They say that it would raise their costs and then the prices they charge the consumer, so explain Costco which offers excellent wages and an excellent benefits package and they do not have nearly the volume of Walmart.

The defeatist will say, how can my little financial protest stop these major corporations and though by yourself it cannot make much of a dent. But, imagine if millions were to join you? How many people walking away from company X and shopping at company Y before company X gets the message? 100,000? 1,000,000? As the expression goes, "it starts with ONE" be it a step or dollar.

   Start with yourself   
In all of these, the point starts with a single focal point, YOU! The simple fact is that the power is yours and only you can give it up.

Do you know how ice forms? A single crystal will form and that starts a chain reaction as more and more crystals form adjoined to the first. The big picture will take care of itself, but you have the knowledge that you are doing your part, others will follow.

   On election days, GO VOTE!   
My mother used to tell me that America is a great country and asks so little of us, it really only asks that we inform ourselves and make our voice heard on election day.

Here's something you might find interesting, in 2004 George W. Bush was re-elected by a 51% vote amongst the estimated 61% of registered voters that cast ballots (he called this a mandate, gads!). Some estimate that only 60% of people who are eligible actually are registered, that means about 18-20% of the people who could have voted actually voted for Bush.

Think about this, if the people who are dissatisfied with government today could come together and vote as a block to support REAL reform in Washington, it would only take 6 years to perform a complete overhaul of the Federal Government. Talk about a bloodless coup!

People may have to let some of their personal issues take a beating in the short term, but try voting for substance, vote for the big picture; reclaiming the government of the people, by the people, and for the people back to the people.

Sadly, people tend to be a bit like lemmings, they will follow the crowd off a cliff until someone offers another alternative. Stand up and offer that alternative!

The world truly is what we make of it and if we wish to sit on your butt and just whine about "it going to the dump" and refuse to do something about it, then I say shut the f' up if you are unwilling to be part of the solution. Doing nothing makes you just as responsible, but are you REALLY going to be happy with what you are responsible for?

By the way, I hear people throwing around the word "fascism" and tend to think of the fanatical cult of one, like a Hitler or Mussolini. Mussolini once defined fascism as follows:

Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power

So the gauntlet has been thrown down, put up or shut up, and decide what is more important to you. If you want government to be more responsive to the people than to business and special interests, get off your ass and do something.

All good actions are never in vain, so I ask you to consider these simple ideas and consider joining this small beginning to the new revolution.

Free Speech vs Hate Speech

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is where one will find the guarantee of Freedom of Speech . In recent years, the question has been raised as to what roll and to what extent the government should play in it's legislation of "Hate Speech" laws. Let's use a recent example.

Oklahoma State Representative Sally Kern originally became known to me a year or so ago when she declared "I honestly think it's [homosexuality] the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam..."

Well the other day she was at it again when she made the following declaration as part of her new signature drive on the "Oklahoma Citizen's Proclamation for Morality".

WHEREAS, this nation has become a world leader in promoting abortion, pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse, and many other forms of debauchery; and

WHEREAS, deeply disturbed that the Office of the president of these United States disregards the biblical admonitions to live clean and pure lives by proclaiming an entire month [June 2009 as 'LGBT Pride Month'] to an immoral behavior;

The proclamation also declares the federal government "is forsaking the rich Christian heritage upon which this nation was built."

As would be expected, a crowd of less than happy protesters made themselves heard shouting things like "shame on you" and "hypocrite." She felt that the protest was "...a wonderful demonstration of intolerance." All I can ask is did she READ what she was proclaiming?

My favorite was the response of Pastor Paul Blair of the Fairview Baptist Church who said:

They don't feel like we should get involved and interfere in what they are trying to say, we had hoped they would show us the same respect.

Are they kidding? These pronouncements were made in the Oklahoma State Capitol and they expected what, humble silence?

When was the last time you had an LGBT protest show up at a church picnic or a funeral? Does the LGBT community stage protests in front of their Churches and decry the perversion of Jesus' teaching or the hatred spewing forth from many pulpits in America? Maybe they should... Hmmm...

I was taught, by Southern Baptist parents, that to stand by and say or do nothing was to lend my support and sadly most churches say nothing about the insensitive, little less the absurd, that is carried out in the name of Jesus.

Chuck S. Thornton, the Deputy Director of the ACLU Chapter of Oklahoma responded:

I think it's very unfortunate, frankly, I haven't seen scapegoating like this since pre-World War II Germany. She blames all these things upon a great moral crisis...but nowhere in this parade of horribles does [she] mention greedy Wall Street executives or government regulators who were asleep at the switch.

Now I expect that comparison to Germany and the term "scapegoating" to be taken poorly by her and those who think like her. So let's ask if such a statement would be justified or an overly dramatic one.

Scapegoating can be defined as a practice by which angry feelings and feelings of hostility may be projected, via inappropriate accusation, towards others. Another description would be the creation of an "us" versus "them" mentality where the "them" are the cause for all the woes that the "us" are blighted with, the "us" tend to be beyond reproach and have little to no fault in the situation.

...[They have] achieved... the ability to control and manipulate the mass media to their own advantage.

LGBT school children were openly ridiculed by teachers and the bullying of LGBT in the playground by other pupils went unpunished.

Oh wait a moment, that first quote wasn't Rep. Kern, it was Adolph Hitler from "Mein Kampf" and the second was taken directly out of an article on Jews in Germany during the rise of Hitler between 1933, when the Jews had become the "Untermenschen" - the sub-humans, and before the Krystalnacht of 1938, I just replaced the words "Jews" and "Jewish" with "LGBT". If you watch and listen, you hear many LGBT students reporting this exact behavior today.

There will always be those who cannot see the difference between disagreeing on something and using Hate Speech.

Pat Robertson and other "religious" leaders are perfectly welcome to say that they do not agree with the LGBT community, Same-Sex Marriage or abortion but when you instill hatred and incite people to violence against another then you have crossed the line from Free Speech into the realm of Hate Speech.

I disagree completely with the "traditional" interpretation of Jesus' teachings that have come down to us from Catholicism and into the assorted Protestant movements, but I would never deny those who believe it the benefits of society or suggest in any way that violence of any kind be directed towards them.

Hate Crimes are the fruit of Hate Speech and those in positions of influence need to be specifically careful to make sure that when they disagree with any group or idea that they take care so as not to incite those looking for an excuse into rash and deplorable behaviors toward those that are on the other side of the argument.

I think Eric Holder, the U.S. Attorney General, summed it up beautifully before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week when he said;

One has to look at the unfortunate history of our nation. There are groups that have been singled out, that have been targets of violence. We have to face and confront that reality.

and

Hate Crimes victimize not only individuals but entire communities, perpatrators of Hate Crimes seek to deny the humanity that we all share regardless of the color of our skin, the God to whom we pray or the person we choose to love.

Imagining is not just for John Lennon

-- Imagine --

I have been a fan of this song for most of my life, but it wasn't until much later that I actually sat down and listened to the lyrics.

I think the first time was probably when it was the closing credits of "The Killing Fields" which really struck me hard. The movie exposed me to a visual representation of just how vile mankind can be to others.

The great teachers through history have all addressed this from one perspective or another, but the simple fact is that when you view yourself as a separate entity, cut off from everyone and everything else, it becomes second nature to dehumanize the "others."

I have Christian Fundamentalist friends who call me a "New Ager" for discussing the union of all living souls, but if they would actually look at their scripture, they would find out that Jesus used it as a fundamental paradigm in his teachings, in other words, there is nothing new about it.

One example that comes to mind is when Jesus addresses the disciples in Matthew 25:40, telling them:

Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Now to many this is not going to prove anything to them as far as unity of all creatures, but if nothing else it points to the idea that dehumanizing ANYONE, especially the least of these, is in opposition to what Jesus was teaching.

I sometimes wonder about what it is going to take to waken the vast majority to its actual in-humanness in its actions toward the rest of the people in this world. We seem to be pre-programmed to separate and tag anything and everything into groups and those other than ours are to be invalidated. We have a cultural perspective that says Hitler was terrible, but other than the numbers game, are the majority of us really any better?

Be it gender, race, religion, orientation, nationality, et al the simple fact is that there is only one race of (semi) intelligent beings on this planet and that race is human, aka homo sapiens.

Those who have read the mini biography on my website are aware of the "Great Experiment" and some of the interesting things that became apparent.

Start with being aware that whenever you judge someone else, what you are really doing is judging some aspect of yourself that you may or may not like, depends on the judgement.

Start relating to the world around you as if there was no difference between "them" and "you."

Become aware of the eternal part of yourself and start relating to things from it's perspective and you will no longer have to imagine a better reality, you will have taken the first steps at creating it.

How to create perfection...

I am often asked just how we can change the world, fix its problems and awaken the masses? The short and simple answer is that we cannot.

What we can do is change OUR perception of the world, fix our problems and wake ourselves. As we work on these things, we will begin to resonate with what we are doing and THAT will attract others of like mind and/or sympathetic goals.

More often than not this is followed by a "why not" or something in that general ballpark. The simple answer is that we can only change ourselves. To attempt to change others inevitably leads to using force in one form or another which is guaranteed to fail -- sometimes dramatically.

The most common flaws in trying to change others usually seem to run as follows:

• When we are "changing" those around us, we have stopped loving and accepting them for the perfection that they are in every moment. They loose a source of love and we tend to start withholding our approval, acceptance and caring till they start living up to our expectations.
  


• In time, we start practicing what I call "Green Stamp Theology." When I was a kid, my mother would shop at stores that gave out Green Stamps. We would collect them and put them into books which could be redeemed for merchandise at a later time.
  
  Sadly we see a lot of this in America today where the traditional religious members are more concerned with numbers of attendance and "saving" others while loosing the point in their own lives. It becomes more of a point system where we attempt to buy our way into the afterlife of our choosing.
  


• If you wish to see perfection, you have to be willing to see it. Passing judgment on anything is to deny that its perfection already exists. Simple as it may sound, if you need something to change, it must not be perfect.

It's funny to me that this very question caused a major philosophical schism in Buddhism in what we today call Theravada [ancient doctrine] and Mahayana [great vehicle] schools. Fortunately, they have handled it very well over the years.

The Theravada school has as its central focus the enlightenment of the individual where the Mahayana school is more focused on the enlightenment of the masses and the tradition of the Bodhisattva, the enlightened teachers. I guess I would fall into the Theravada school generally since I just cannot see how one can take another to the Truth until they have arrived there themselves, not that I am there, but I pass on what I have found to those who ask.

So if you want to change the world, change yourself and the world cannot help but follow. Will it change as fast as you might want or think it should, no... but how you relate to all those things you used to see as imperfections will become new joys to celebrate.

What are we and Why?

There is an old question that I got asked in philosophy class that is reasonably close to a koan from the world of Zen, "Can God make a stone so large that He cannot move it?"

What if this is the wrong question? What if the right question is, "Can God create a puzzle and/or riddle that is so complex that, as of yet, He has not solved?" And if that is not enough heresy for one day, I would add, "What if we, people as well as creation, are the attempt to solve that puzzle/riddle?"

Generally, I tend to think of the relationship between God and His creation in less than philosophical Gordian knots, along the lines of, as explained so eloquently by Neale Donald Walsch, God knew Himself to be the totality of all that was, is and ever would be, but the knowing of something and experiencing it are completely different. Creation is the attempt of God to turn datum into experience.

Now, to some, this is absolute heresy, I tend to feel sorry for these people since they usually have a view of the relationship of man and God as being nearly diametrically opposed. The view of separation between creator and created seems to manifest in forms of societies that end up bullish and uncaring in their assumed relationship to the creator as "the chosen."

Why is it that we cannot look beyond our little egos (OK, not so little in many cases)? If we take this view of God as a diamond and all the differing ideas about God are just different facets of the same stone, we are left with all our descriptions of God being like the story of the blind men who start fighting over what an elephant is since they all have experienced different pieces and not the whole.

Imagine the joy that would come from the acknowledgement that not only is our view and belief right, but also the plethora of views from the Haitian Vodoun Mambos and Houngans, to the Islamic Imams, through the Hindu Brahmans, to the Buddhist Lamas and Arhats to the Christian Popes and assorted ministers and preachers, wouldn't that just be amazing to experience?

Note:
Thanks to J. Michael Straczynski for reminding me of this with Dr. Franklin in Babylon 5.

...it ain't for sissies

I have been out of the limo company now for nearly 2½ months and while being quite busy, I have also become aware of several things to be looked into and learned about and/or from.

Change, it ain't for sissies
A friend of mine watched me have some toaster waffles a while back and thought it a touch odd that I would cut them into 8 pieces before I would eat them, 4 bisecting cuts into a circle. From my perspective, it seemed logical in that I tend to read while eating and cut my food for easy access while staring at my book. My friend found it of interest and commented that my life had been so out of control for so long that this was possibly a small routine that gave me the feeling of control.

At the time I did not really think about it much, but since leaving the limo company, I have begun to be confronted with the fact of just how much of a creature of habit I really have allowed myself to become.

Another friend commented recently that they thought it would be good for me to "step out of my comfort zone." Let me tell you, when you go from being a slave to a job for 10 - 16 hours a day and 6 or 7 days a week to self-employed and completely responsible for nearly every dime you make, I am so far out of my comfort zone that I would be surprised if they are in the same dimension.

After taking a break for a couple of weeks, I became nearly paralyzed with fear and anxiety about what I was going to be doing. I am still dealing with these to an extent, but at least I am not feeling physically ill every morning.

Blazing an Independent Path, it ain't for sissies
I have always been reasonably comfortable that the Life and Spiritual paths I have followed were off the beaten track but have become aware of just how difficult it can become when a philosophy goes from something you believe in and is tested by actually living it. Some philosophies come along as easier than others to follow but mine is not easy, but once I realized that I was missing my previous patterns more than actually fearing the "process", it got easier.

I am a firm believer in the Law of Attraction, but I still find myself limiting it by trying to dictate how it will manifest. As an example, with this change in work from employed to "gainfully unemployed," I have set certain goals that I want to reach regarding the amounts of cash I want to make. The first few weeks, nothing happened and I was starting to freak-out about my finances, or apparent lack there-of.

I tried to meditate, but I was such a nervous wreck that I wouldn't have heard Gabriel blow his trumpet, little less the quiet still voice of inspiration. I had to relax as much as I could and realize that all was actually perfect and would come unto itself. It took a little longer and I resigned myself to the idea that I was going to have to take a job, at least temporarily, and suddenly I received a few calls for computer services and a short-term contract that not only paid my bills in a week, but next months as well.

It reminds me of an old Indian story, told many ways, but here's how I tell it.

Narada, the musician of the gods, was walking along a path when he came upon a swami that had quite obviously been sitting and meditating in this spot for many years.

The swami noticed Narada and asked what he was up to.

"I am on my way to see Krishna and play a beautiful song for His enjoyment."

The swami asked for the following favor, "When you see Krishna, would you please ask Him how much longer I must sit in meditation before I find Realization and need not return to this world of sorrows again?"

Narada agreed and continued on his way. A little later, he came upon a young neophyte who was having some difficulty holding his concentration and when he saw Narada also asked for the favor of how long he must meditate before finding enlightenment.

Once again, Narada agreed and went on his way.

Much time passed and Narada was again on the road when he came upon the aged swami.

The swami asked if Narada has spoken to Krishna and asked his question.

Narada responded, "My Lord Krishna says that in 4 lifetimes you will reach Realization and return home to Him, never to return."

This answer infuriated the swami who thought it grossly unfair that after his many lifetimes of devotion and meditation that he would still have to bear 4 more lives.

Narada continued on his way and after a while came upon the neophyte monk who also asked if Narada had finished his previous journey and what Krishna's response was to his inquiry.

Narada looked up into the tree over the young monk and said, "My Lord Krishna says that a lifetime for every leaf in this tree it will take for you to reach enlightenment."

The young monk looked into the tree and said, "Well at least it is a finite number and there are not that many leaves in this tree." At this point the young monk started to return to his meditations when The Lord Krishna appeared with his eagle, Garuda, and asks the young monk to join Him in heaven.

The young monk, surprised at such a glorious offer, asks "how could this be? I thought I had many lives to go first."

Krishna is pleased at the question and tells him, "To sit in meditation and ponder upon Me would take you many lifetimes to reach enlightenment, but in your heart of hearts, you were so surrendered to My will that you were willing to submit, and for this, you may return home now."

This ancient story reminds us that of our own will and efforts, we will eventually learn the simple fact that it is through surrender that we find our goals put before us, we cannot make them on "our" schedule and when we try, we make the wait even longer by the delaying that which is already waiting to come to us.

Traveling Life Alone, it ain't for Sissies
Like most people, I have the wish for someone to share my life with as a partner and friend. A spouse, life-partner or at least a significant other.

In those times when we forget that we are never truly alone, it is so easy to become lost in the appearance that there is no one to share it all with. When we become aware that we are never truly alone, unless you believe that God is not omni-present, it becomes obvious that "aloneness" is only an illusion of our forgetfulness.

When I get lonely, all I have to do is remember that since I am a small spark of God, I can never truly be alone unless I want to project the illusion. Remember this simple fact and know that aloneness will never be a problem again if you are willing to see the truth.

Re: Time - "You Are Not My Friend" Essay

I have been house/cat sitting for a friend of mine and along with the fact that I love her cats, I get the added bonus of getting to look at her Time Magazine when it comes in (I don't usually read enough of it every week to make it worth subscribing to). Today, the October 15^th, 2007 issue came and on the back page (pg 82) there is an Essay by Joel Stein entitled "You Are Not My Friend" which got me thinking about a few things.

As you know, I recently finished getting Spiritgeek.com up and running. One of the first things I did was send out a notice on MySpace using their "Post a Bulletin" to all my "friends" asking them to take a look at the site and give me their comments and suggestions.

Well, either my "friends" are not friends or no-one actually reads the bulletins, I'm guess the latter since everyone I talk to directly did not remember getting the post, including the great goddess of my received bulletins since she sometimes sends 2 or 3 a day.

So, back to Time magazine. The essay goes into how all these online "social" networks after a while can take up an awful lot of time and energy trying to keep up on. What really caught my interest was the following:

But really, these sites aren't about connecting and reconnecting. They're a platform for self-branding. Old people are always worrying that r blogging and personal websites and MySpace profiles are taking away our privacy, but they clearly don't understand the word privacy. We're not sharing things we don't want other people to know. We're showing you our best posed, retouched photos. We're listing the Pynchon books we want you to think we've read all the way through. We're allowing other people to write whatever they want us on our walls, unless we don't like it, in which case we just erase it. If we had that much privacy in real life, the bathrooms at that Minnesota airport would be empty.

Joel Stein

It makes me wonder if I have been going about MySpace and such the wrong way,. I don't expect these people that I meet to invite me to Sunday brunch the next time I am in town, but unless "friends" are strictly about the numbers then is there a real point?

I cannot speak for anyone else, but the start of the final paragraph is more about how I choose my "friends":

Until we can build some kind of social network where we can present our true, flawed selves--perhaps some genius can invent something that takes place in a house over dinner with wine--I say we strip down our online communities to just the important parts.

Joel Stein

I get tons of requests for my "friendship" from girls who want me to look at their sexy photos which tells me they haven't actually looked at my profile, it plainly states that I am gay, so I refuse them and on many occasions mark them as "spam."

If you want to be my friend, it's actually really simple, have something, anything of value to say or do. Write something of interest, have a thought or two bouncing around in that skull of yours or write and sing a new song with your band, just be something other than cyber-waste.

Any takers? You show me your flaws and I'll show you mine...

Connectedness and Why I do this...

I am amazingly tired today for some reason. I got plenty of sleep and thought it was pretty sound, I didn't wake up or anything, but today, I am completely wiped, so I will make this pretty short and sweet. It was meant to be a thought anyhow.

Yesterday, I was driving to LAX and say a bumper-sticker that made me think... It said, "Remember you are unique, just like everyone else". Just slightly profound.

The main thing that I wanted to make a note of was something I was thinking about after watching something this morning. I finally found a copy of "Joan of Arcadia Season 2" and have started watching them.

I'm just on episode 5, where the school is having elections for Student Body President, etal. Joan starts helping the geeky guy that fired her in first season from the Yearbook staff. He is running and you know that a guy who has a 40+ page "Mission Statement" is doomed to failure when up against the Drama Club princess and the most popular as well as hottest jock in school.

Someone in the "hot jock" camp finds out that geek-boy's father is in prison and makes sure that everyone is aware of it, so Joan decides to go after a little dirt of her own and while following him around school, catches him with the biggest drug dealer in school. But the two are not together for the sale of illicit substances, it turns out, but to have a private moment together and a quick kiss, they are a couple? Joan and her friend manage to catch this kiss on a cellphone much to the terror of the guys.

The plan goes through a few permutations on how to disseminate this tidbit of information, but at the last moment, Joan realizes it would be wrong and refuses to use the information.

Later that evening, Joan and her mother are talking about things and this all comes out to which Joan comments on how every time she thought about the guy, all she saw was his fear and terror and how it made her remember that on some level we are all connected and wonder why it is so difficult to remember this fact.

We call ourselves Christians (to be Christ-like), Muslim (one who submits) and a whole host of other traditions, religions and beliefs. With all these paths and ways of reaching God, why do we forget the goal so often and show the deepest sides of our spiritual depravity, it's no wonder that Christians are of the belief that mankind is inherently evil and no good can be found within him.

I've commented on it before, but once again I will state that all the religions have a common belief in the idea that everyone is an eternal spiritual entity that is only inhabiting this physical form for a short time and continues on after death in one way or another. Shame we can't remember this simple fact and make it our starting point, just imagine how our view of the world would change and how we relate to each other.

I have spent the majority of the last few years trying to shift my perspective from the common source, focused on "me" as the center of the universe, to one of relating to EVERYTHING from a view of spirit that is just visiting and have watched the world make some wondrous changes around me. I am nowhere near being able to stay in that state of mind all the time, but it gets longer every time I stumble.

How would your life change if you viewed everything in your life from the perspective of your soul's entertaining drama and not as the reality we take it to be? When we change this view, the world changes with you and you find that what was SOOO difficult earlier looks more like what it says in the Bible about the time coming when people will see the Devil for what he truly is and ask "is it one such as this that caused the kingdoms to tremble?"

By Their Fruits...

This has been an interesting few days while I contemplate writing this piece or not. I want to since it really pulls into the light how what I (as well as many others) have found to be true the things I have come to believe, but it is quite likely to be taken by many as a direct attack, which in some ways it probably is.

I go to a video store called Record Surplus that has a habit of getting videos before they are released. The other day, I picked up "The Celestine Prophecy" which is expected to be released on December 19. For those who are not familiar with it, it is based on the book of the same title by James Redfield.

One of the central themes of the book, in it's "Insights," is to become aware of the apparent coincidences that occur in our everyday life. Because of this and the other book that I just finished reading, I felt that I was getting a definitive answer to my question as to writing this.

The book that I just finished is Neale Donald Walsch's "What God Wants : A Compelling Answer to Humanity's Biggest Question" which I think is fantastic. A quick read that will definitely make some ideas rattle around in your brain. The book is basically divided into three parts;

1. How our previous views of what God wants have affected our cultures and manifest in the day-to-day world.
2. What God wants, it's quite direct and to the point! ( ;-P )
3. How this new view of God's wants will manifest in the future world.
   

This piece is in the same vein as part one.

In the Gospel of Matthew, we find the following as part of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount":

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Matthew 7:15-20 (KJV)

My thoughts lately have been to look around me and see what "fruits" are going on around me, both personally and otherwise.

They say that the definition of insanity is to do the same things as you have done in the past and expect a different outcome. It's funny in a way, we as a race will do some of the most innovative things ins the name of progress, but in our personal lives, we can be completely "insane."

On a personal level, for example, is my current job as a town car driver. Now, I love my job actually, I meet some fascinating people and most of the time I make decent cash, but I am quite aware that it is a dead end where advancement will require the death of another. The fact is that, though I enjoy it a lot, it will never take me where my life seems to be pointing me. I could very easily play it safe and stay right where I am but how long will it take for that path to become a rut and then a grave, once it is deep enough?

We tend to follow the rules, a good thing usually, but when we intuitively know that there is something missing and we need to change our direction, we find it difficult to outright terrifying. I have been thinking about changing careers and going into what is called "Life Counseling" and nearly everyone who knows me thinks I would be very successful at it. When I looked into it and found out what it actually was, I realized that this is what I've been doing for my friends for years, but for free (can I send out bills for previous years? Hmmm).

The predominant world view that we really need to look into is how we view God and our relationship to Him/Her, the idea that we are separate entities. Our religions tell us that God is away in His/Her heaven, passing judgement on our every action and, depending on which one(s) you follow, how to get to heaven or out of the wheel of life.

What are the fruits of these beliefs? Jihads, crusades, feuding factions, the destruction of lives and our planet.

A really good example is Bill Moyer's "Is God Green" piece. It is about a schism in the Evangelical Christian denominations about how the future of the planet and our involvement in ecology should be. Some believe that God's gift of dominion of the planet to man is justification for the wholesale rape of the planet's resources and environment. Others believe that stewardship requires man to be more considerate of the repercussions to planet and the future of mankind.

In Iraq, while there is more than this going on, the fact is that unless the Shia and Sunni learn to co-exist, little less both get along with the Kurds, the chances of a valid nation ever coming together and surviving is about as likely as the moon being changed into green cheese. Most people don't realize that a fair number of the Middle-Eastern nations were created by the European world after the collapse of the Persian Empire and that solidarity of the individual groups is next to nil.

On a personal level, our belief in separation places us in the position of making ourselves into hypocrites on a fairly regular basis. We claim to believe in this Supreme Being who will care for us, once we've made peace and the proper atonement's, but since we are "alone" in our daily existences, we don't live it and actually spend a fair amount of our existence living in exactly the antithesis to our "claimed" ideals.

Our religions believe in the supremacy of their preferential manifestation of God or teacher and declare all the others as liars and charlatans. This leads to warring and hatred and is not doing anything to bring the followers closer to any Godliness. I've always found it of interest that the only religion that has never fought a war of aggression in the name of it's teacher/founder is Buddhism.

To wrap this all up, the point is that we need to become initially aware that we are eternally linked to God and that our separation is an illusion of OUR creation, not his. After we know this, then we start to live our lives based on this premise and that starts to make changes in every other aspect of our lives. Guilt and fear fall away and freedom in the knowledge that all can be right in the world if we will just start to be aware of our interwoveness (is that a word?).

There will be those who say that this is dangerous because it is different from the current norms. The current norms are doing such great things for the masses of hungry, hateful, judgemental people?

Others will say that this would be anarchy, it is possible. Any good thing can be misused to the detriment of those around. The fact is that those who would misuse it to justify selfish behaviors would do so no matter what is taught or thought. As long as spiritual children are needing lessons to grow from, they will get them and deal with the messes they create. There seems to be a growing number of people out there that want more from their lives than shat they were taught as youngsters and these are methods to explore and experience.

I have a challenge for you...

Try putting some of these ideas into practice in your everyday existence and see what happens. When you walk down the street and see a homeless person, instead of passing a derogatory judgement on them, say to yourself; "There I am living outside the norm." When you see someone who has been abusing drugs and is paying for it, say something like "There I am exploring chemical substances." Pass no judgement, for to judge others doesn't just open us to judgement as Jesus said, it IS to judge ourselves since we are all part of the whole and there is no separation but what we make in our minds. From there do most our problems spring. See what fruits you develop...

The Primer pt 1

To understand some of the view and expressions made here, I guess it would be helpful to give an introduction to a variant world view and express some basic ideas that I don't really want to have to explain every time that I use them (I probably will to some degree, but here is the best place to find the bare-bones basics of the view expressed here).

This is a general summary only, details will be given in later pieces that I have to sit down and write. Most of the examples used here are Christian unless otherwise stated. Not that I have anything against Christianity, but I live in a nation that claims to be a Christian one. Since that is the majority of my audience, I'll address them in particular. My friends of other religions though, find me just as pointed at them when we discuss them. Remember, all the paths lead to the same destination, God and Truth.

Table of Contents

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Religious Foundation
God and Man
What is Sin?
Scripture References

Religious Foundation

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I seem to get accused of being a Secular Humanist by many religious adherents (particularly by more fundamentalist individuals) but as I understand the term, it is definitely not an accurate term for myself in that as a "Secularist" I would deny the existence of God or a Higher Power as well as anything supernatural, which is completely incorrect. I guess you could say that I might be a Religious Humanist in that I do believe in God and that which is beyond the physical (super/supra natural) but have become disillusioned by traditional "organized" religions.

There is truth in ALL scripture and religions and to exclude any one of them would be a mistake. The problem comes from the codifying of theologies and dogmas that exclude anything outside of their positions. For example, I was brought up a Southern Baptist (Christian) and those beliefs do not accept the Pentecostal (Christian) idea of "Speaking in Tongues" though the Pentecostals find it to be a "Gift of the Spirit". If found "Speaking in Tongues" in my house, I would have likely found myself in the office of either an exorcist (or the Southern Baptist equivalent) or a psychiatrist's office. Imagine what the response would be if I found Nirvana or found spiritual bliss through the Hari-Krishna Maha-Mantram...

When you get past the inserted egos of the followers and later teachers, strip out the cultural contexts and actually look at the subject of what teachers like Jesus, Buddha, Krishna and many others were teaching, you find they are all talking about the same things from different perspectives or angles. Jesus and Krishna are so similar in many of their teachings, that I wouldn't be surprised to find Jesus had read the Bhagavad-gita (Jesus did grow up near major trading routes coming to and from India). Buddha doesn't worry about teaching about afterlives and heavens or hells, he just concerns himself with finding our true natures and experiencing life from that place.

Now with the above stated, do I deny the "deity" of Jesus or Krishna (some of the followers of Vishnu believe Krishna to be the incarnation of God's highest self) or were they just good to great men and teachers? That question is a lot more difficult to answer because of how we use language. To Christians, Jesus is the human incarnation (they don't call it that) of one aspect of the triune of God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). In the way most Christians would mean the previous question, my answer would be "No" in that I don't see Jesus and his teachings as out of the grasp of the day to day person. Mainly because I see all people as part of God, just some are more aware of it than others, hence Jesus. So, from my perspective, the answers are Yes (because we all are aspects of deity) and Yes (since they spent their lives passing on knowledge).

I have several friends who have coined the term "Hindu-Buddhi-Christ" to describe my personal path as I see amazing harmony in their namesakes: Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma), Buddhism and Christianity. My personal view of my religious path could be called jnana-yoga after the idea of searching for knowledge.

God and Man

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We are told by our elders that God is omnipotent and omnipresent. If this is correct, then the idea of separation that prevails through the majority of our religions, that God is outside our experience and reach, cannot be accurate and the idea that many people hold that God cannot be in the presence of sin is either wrong or our view of sin must be.

God is that which permeates and activates God's creation of thought that appears as the world around us. Paramahansa Yogananda put it beautifully when he said that creation is like a movie in a theatre, the illusion of light and form are projected upon the "screen" which is God. The screen can exist without the projection, but the projection would cease to be coherent without the screen and it would not be a movie without both.

The idea that God cannot be in the presence of wrongness is not supported in scripture. After Adam and Eve "sin" by eating of the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil", God speaks to them as if He were unaware they had sinned. In Job, there are scenes with the Devil in Heaven, apparently at the Throne of God, talking with God about Job. God speaks to Cain (a murderer), Noah (a drunkard), Moses (a murderer) and a whole host of prophets; their sins never seems to get in the way.

Mankind is the child of an eternal entity that can be seen in everyday events, if we are willing, and heard from in every moment if we will just open our ears and hearts to listen. As the children of God, we are part of him, inseparable.

What is Sin?

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When asked, most Christians will tell you that Sin is either an old archery term that means to miss the point (accurate, but not for the reasons they think) or to go against the will of God (like that could be possible).

The first definition is correct but not because God said not to eat of the tree, but in what happens immediately afterwards. When you read Genesis, you find that the very first thing that happens after Adam and Eve eat, is that they become body conscious, they know they are naked. God even plays along and asks who told them about their nakedness. It is in this that true sin is shown. Not the eating of forbidden fruit (I suspect God set that up for other reasons) but in the forgetting of our true natures and our delusional fixation of the physical and corporeal. It is in forgetting our souls and living for our bodies that we are born into sin, not some pending judgment from on high.

The predominant world view that we are all under the watchful eye of a most high deity that watches and assesses the goodness or badness of every thought and deed comes from an idea that says we are separate from God. Because we believe that we are separate, we do God a disservice by bringing him down to our level of petty judgments, conditional love and general vindictiveness fit more for a bad Hollywood movie than an all powerful deity.

Scripture References

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How does one choose from the plethora of Sacred Writings out there? The nice thing is that unless you want to, you don't have to. The secret is in the understanding of how it's particular representation of the truth is expressed. The Bible's Old testament (Tanakh: Torah, Prophets and Writings) is written from the perspective and culture of early Semitic nomadic tribes and there descendents. The Qur'an, the specific culture of the 7th century world of Arabia. The Bhagavad-gita is placed in the region of India and Buddha around the 5th century BCE.

Where I look everywhere for knowledge, the scripture I use most often are the Bible (KJV), The Bhagavad-gita, Upanishads and Bhagavata-Purana (Srimad-Bhagavatam) and the discourses of the Buddha (mainly the Sutta-Pitaka, for it's antiquity, and the Vinaya
for it's age as well in the early pre-differentiated status of its creation).

If I were to be dropped on a deserted island, I would take the Gospels of Matthew and John, the Yoga Sutras & the Bhagavad-gita. With those, I could still find the truth.

Talking During A Run This Morning

It's early and already today has shown itself to be another clue in the change of employment. I picked up a passenger who was absolutely sweet and we had a lovely conversation about the purpose of creation en-route to LAX.

Some of the topics were (most of these will eventually make it into later entries and the website, when I get a chance to put it all together...).

The Purpose of Creation

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Neale Donald Walsch, in his "Conversations with God" series puts it better than anyone I know when he says, God knew himself to be the totality of all there is, creation is God experiencing himself as everything. To which I add, knowing something and experiencing it are two completely different things; for example, when you were a child, your mother told you not to touch the stove, it's hot and will burn you. Now you had that piece of data, but after the first time you actually touched it and had the experience of being burned, it was quite a bit more than a piece of datum.

Speaking In The First Person for God

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In the Gospel of John and in several other scripture, we find teachers speaking for God in the first person. In John, we have "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6) and in the Bhagavad-Gita, we have Krishna saying "If you become conscious of Me, you will pass over all the obstacles of conditioned life by My grace. If, however, you do not work in such consciousness but act through false ego, not hearing Me, you will be lost." (Bg 18:58). Both are claiming to be capable of saving others themselves.

Traditionally (on both sides) we tend to inject our own egos and pride and claim ours as THE one and only truth and the other as a lie or falsehood. What if, instead, both are true? How could that be? Maybe we all have the ability to save each other, possible but questionable, or (my personal belief) they are speaking on behalf of something greater than their physical appearance. In Christianity, we call it the Holy Spirit and in Hinduism, param-atma (the great soul (literally) the aspect of God which permeated His creation).

Omnipotence and Omnipresence

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If God is omnipotent and omnipresent, then he can't separate himself from His creation, to do so would cause it to cease existence. We are given freedom of choice to make our choice and part of that allows us to deny the existence of God. If God were to do likewise, deny the existence of, say, me, I would cease to exist and no one would likely remember that I was ever here, uncreated (I know a few people who might consider petitioning God on this one).

I'l come back to all this later. I need to go back to work...

Race, Simple Minds & Who Benefits?

I was listening to Randi Rhodes on the radio a little while ago and she was going on about race baiting in American politics and government. She was ranting about how race is being pursued as a dividing factor and that the talking heads as well as the empowered politicians are using race to collect votes.

She had the right idea on part of it, racism is a way to make people feel better about themselves when they have done little to nothing to improve themselves. Race is such a simple thing to use to judge others as well as gender and in many cases sexual orientation and religion with their sometimes obvious accoutrements.

Why is it that we no longer teach our children to succeed and to find pride in their achievements. We are so busy teaching our children to be cogs in the machinery of society and what power we teach our children seems to be mainly in victimhood.

When people want to feel better about themselves and are not educated in how to improve themselves, eventually they will look for something obvious to use as a basis of judgment. Race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, marital status and the such are easy in many cases to use, especially when you don't know anyone fitting in group X.

Funny thing about it, is that while we spend so much of our time splitting ourselves into little groups and fight amongst ourselves, what's happening in the big picture?

The fact is, there is only one race on this planet, the human race. When we stop our silly infighting and start working together, we can get something done. So, why are we being lead to follow this simple mindedness? Who stands to benefit and what are they up to?

Remember that we are ALL children of God and the worst of us is just as valuable as the best and the best are no better from God's perspective than everyone else.

God, Man, Messiahs & Perverts

You ever look at the world and the people in it and wonder just how everything got so screwed up? How did man (to use the Genesis version) go from making the mistake of eating the forbidden fruit to teetering on the edge of self-annihilation?

In recent times, we in the United States hear a lot of rhetoric, both political and religious, about Fundamentalist Islamic Suicide Bombers. How do you create someone who not only thinks killing themselves is such a great idea that they plan it, but convince them that they are doing God's will?

I have read the Quran and while I don't consider myself to be an expert by any fancy of imagination, I can't see where it justifies this teaching. Sure, it talks about martyrdom and the blessings and after death benefits of it, but I don't see what is being taught to the young in parts of the Middle East in it.

A couple of years ago I read a translation of a service, given by I believe Yassar Arafat's Imam, where he started with a story of a young 14 year old boy walking up to him and proudly proclaiming that in 4 years, when he was old enough, he was going to be a martyr via bombing (implied). If that wasn't tragic enough, the Imam was actually proud of his youthful zeal and enthusiasm. So, for these people who wish to blow themselves up in the name of God as they understand Him, I have a question:

• You made the choice to become a bomber
• You made the choice to strap the explosives to your body
• You made the choice of the location to do it in
• You made the choice of when to do it
• You made the choice of how to kill as many as you might
• Where is God in all this?

As far as I can tell, this is all you and no one else. That's not God's will, it's yours! The simple fact is that you have decided to become a murderer and suicide and just because you do it with God's name on your lips, doesn't change jack, the Quran is quite explicit about the penalties for both.

Yes, I have a serious issue with these Imams that teach the young, dissatisfied and vulnerable that suicide, even in the name of God, is a career choice. Martyrdom is something God puts before you and you choose to accept or not.

But, this isn't about being anti or pro anything, it's about how we messed it up.

When you look at the core messages of the Teachers who claim to have messages from God or a technique for finding God from within, people just can't help but twist it to their sick little definitions of God to the exclusion of all others.

I am not a particularly strong fan of organized traditional religion, though I do understand it's intent. You can have a body of teaching and many examples of it in action, but for it to pass from generation to generation, you need to give it a form that can be explained or experienced. The problem is that the form tends to become more important than the purpose. A friend told me a story that illustrates this.

The abbot at a Buddhist monastery, high in the mountains had recently received a large group of young men to start their education as monks. He noticed that while the young men were enthusiastic and devout in their subjects, they seemed to be lacking something. After thinking and meditating on it for a while, he realized that being young men, they needed companionship and friendship, so the abbot took it upon himself to acquire a small puppy, which he introduced to the young acolytes.

Life in the monastery became more satisfying for the young men and the puppy slowly grew in size and love for his new home. The only problem with the arrangement became obvious when the young dog started attempting to play with the students while they were in temple and practicing their meditations.

To solve the problem, a stake was planted in the courtyard near a tree and it became the practice to tie the pup during meditation times. Now at first the pup didn't really care for the idea, but in a short time it became habit and all was calm.

As time went on, monks left the monastery and new acolytes entered as well as teachers leaving and passing, including a few abbots. Eventually, the dog had become long of tooth and finally passed on. This threw the monastery into a near case of chaos, since it was apparent to all that a new dog must be acquired immediately, since everyone knows you can't meditate without a dog tied out front of the temple.

Now this simple little story isn't much unto itself, but it illustrates a trend in religion throughout history. What starts out as a suggestion or an idea, after a while becomes tradition and then potentially ritual and cannot be changed by us mere mortals.

We do the same things with our teachers as well, look at Jesus as an example. Jesus was a good Jewish boy brought up in a less than ideal side of town, but he was blessed with an insight into both people and God and he later spent the last 3 years of his life being hounded by those who wanted to ride his coattails and those who were threatened by the "new" teaching that he was giving, the miracles probably didn't help on either of these fronts.

So what happened to him? His followers turned him into a god and put him on a pedestal so high that most of his teachings became inaccessible to the common, mere mortal, people and to incur his displeasure was a sure ticket to everlasting punishment by his father. Strange that none of this is referenced anywhere in his teachings.

I had a discussion with someone a while back about the Gospel of John regarding this (OK, I've had this discussion on many occasions). I was saying that John is probably the most misquoted and misunderstood book since the need of the people to insert their own egos into the expressions of the teacher. For example, what I think of as the most misrepresented verse in the Bible, John 14:6 "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

Now a little context here... Jesus and his disciples are in a room and are preparing for the last supper. Judas has just been given his charge to go quickly about his task and Peter has sworn his allegiance and been told he will betray Jesus three times before the cock crows. He then goes on to calm the disciples and tell them not to worry, that he goes to prepare a place for them and they may join him. Thomas asks where this might be, since (once again) the disciples do not understand what Jesus is talking about. Jesus' response is this verse, followed by "If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him."

This verse, John 14:6, is usually taken to be an egocentric statement of deity, but if that was the case, the following verse wouldn't be necessary.

I've always found that John was the disciple who got it. John is writing about the teachings of Jesus and seems to assume we are aware of the context. If you insert the ego that most people do, then Jesus is in direct opposition to most of the rest of the Gospels where he shows himself to be the most humble. What is happening here, as happens in other scriptures as well, is that Jesus has so aligned himself with God in the form of father that he speaks his teachings in the first person for the father. Jesus does this throughout the Gospel of John. In John, we have a definitive split between Jesus, the man, born of Mary and raised as a carpenter's son and Jesus, the Christ, who is aligned with the will of God.

How can one man be both without being crazy? One is the man, as we all are and the other is the will and spirit of the man aligned, not with his own ego but the will of the creator. This is what Jesus is pointing to us throughout his message, the Christ is within each of us and we are able to bring it into manifestation.

Some say that this is Gnosis, it is! Gnosis is just the idea that there is a knowledge that we must find, the truth of our creation, and that it is our responsibility to follow where that leads us which is eventually back to our souls and their direct relationship to God the Creator.

Sin, to miss the point, is exactly this. It's not the eating of the fruit in the Garden of Eden against the stated will of God, but what happens immediately after the eating, Adam and Eve forget their divine nature and become completely deluded by their bodies and the nakedness of them. They miss the point of what creation is actually about and become lost in the illusion of it.

So, the question becomes; if that's the case, why would this not be the teaching of the Church? You can't control people when you tell them they hold all the cards in the game and God just wants you to play them.

There is a very good historical example of this, reincarnation. Very early in the history of the Church, the idea of reincarnation is brought into question, many attribute this to Origen though there isn't a lot of evidence to support this. If this were as much of a cut and dried question as many state, this would have been quickly answered and been done with. This was actually debated for around 300 years before the official church policy was decreed. Now depending on whom you talk to, you get different reasons as to why the final removal of the idea was placed.

1. The church father's, knowing the vulnerability of man, removed the doctrine of reincarnation so people would not be tempted to misuse it and figure that since they have many lives, they can enjoy this lifetime and work the next. Of course the chances are, they would be doing this for many.
2. If people knew that they had many lifetimes and that salvation wasn't decided in a short time, the church would be impotent. The ability to sell indulgences and claim to stand in the place of God on Earth would be laughably ridiculous and the ability to control would be naught.

We could go on and on in the search for examples of this in many (read most) religions and the problem is not in the scriptures and teachings, but in the egocentric natures of the people and organizations that propagate them.

God gives man the truth through teachers and messiahs and we pervert it.

I find it amazing how in our expressed ignorance of the subject, of soul and spirit, we still insist on claiming exclusive knowledge of the correct path and way that God had intended from the beginning. I find that if I come to scripture and interpret it from the universally agreed point in all religions, that we are eternal spiritual entities who only inhabit these bodies temporarily, that the scripture all point in the same direction and have a universal teaching.