My reason for reflecting on God was due to the early influence of a spiritual yearning sparked by a Mennonite youth fellowship group. I remember the reason for falling out with the Christians was due to the error a few young men have with self-will. This led me to make statements which led me astray. As well, there was influence from my parents to choose them over the youth group.
I am attracted to Christianity because that community is sometimes outside of the mainstream of society, due to group dynamics motivated by aversion to "worldliness".
Worldliness means knowing the ways of the world. In contrast, godliness is living a God-centered life. This is a life-long quest, yet few people know of it.
Of the people who know of it, only a few of them dare follow it, for it is a strait path i.e. each and everyone of them who enter heaven pass through a narrow door that represents the Christ.
Even though I am a human being, subject to error, my belief in God does not mean I am perfect or holy, only that my actions sometimes center around God and other times, around the world.
Thus this is a personal conviction which is based on a spiritual belief in God, tempered by my Buddhist upbringing. For the Buddhist concept of the Absolute closely resembles the Christian Heaven, which the closest the faithful gets to God that any person can imagine.
Although God has no physical form, my faith in a high power helps rationalize the Godhead thusly:
"I fear God out of respect for all sentient beings. Therefore I am fearless before the world."
Recently edited: January 28, 2014 0727H
Originally posted: January 12, 2011 0140H
Showing posts with label new age. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new age. Show all posts
20101227
Being a New Christian in these Latter Days
Being Christian isn't solely about the Bible or what's true in it. It's more about learning fear, being essentially respect for the one true God, first and foremost.
Then it's about Jesus, but none of that absolutist talk about Him being the Door, and to hell with the rest of the sinners. Rather, it's about being a religious polyglot with a willingness to give Jesus new clothes to wear so that no faith shall reject Him.
Any Christian who won't do that, and pretends such a thing would water down a faith, has forgotten about the first church when Peter heard from God how to preach to the Gentiles when the Jewish fanatics oppressed them.
How else do you think Constantine the Great went over to God? It wasn't just his mother's doing like with Augustine; it was also due to his father's pagan roots which helped him see a new vision of God as the rock of the Eastern Roman Empire.
Likewise, the Christians of the new age in this post-modern world are no sinners by seeking a wider audience through the many flavors of faith before them.
For this is Maranatha for the 21st Century, and Matthew Fox speaks to all people.
Revelations Just a Metaphor of the Afterlife
"But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death" —(Revelation 21:8, KJV)
Revelations is a metaphor - any modern-day prophecy about 1000 or 2000 years misses the point of the message there. As well, Revelations does not directly state that sinners who don't repent are going to burn in hell forever after they're dead.
Personally, I'm heterodox on this point in the Bible, and take the quote to mean that sinners who repent will be purified like gold in Purgatory. YMMV
In fact, after mentioning the second death briefly, John's vision turns to a new heaven and a new earth, which too is metaphorical about the Afterlife for repenting sinners.
As a new Christian who had not been exposed to church-going as a child but as a teenager, I am uncomfortable with the church setting because it has a cookie-cutter commercial aspect to it. As well, I'm not one to use the Lord's Prayer because it ignores the healthy approach of forgiving oneself for those trespasses and overlooks acceptance of others, too.
Rather, like the repentant sinner in the parable, my favorite prayer is the Sinner's Prayer because it is to the point:
"Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!"
Revelations is a metaphor - any modern-day prophecy about 1000 or 2000 years misses the point of the message there. As well, Revelations does not directly state that sinners who don't repent are going to burn in hell forever after they're dead.
Personally, I'm heterodox on this point in the Bible, and take the quote to mean that sinners who repent will be purified like gold in Purgatory. YMMV
In fact, after mentioning the second death briefly, John's vision turns to a new heaven and a new earth, which too is metaphorical about the Afterlife for repenting sinners.
As a new Christian who had not been exposed to church-going as a child but as a teenager, I am uncomfortable with the church setting because it has a cookie-cutter commercial aspect to it. As well, I'm not one to use the Lord's Prayer because it ignores the healthy approach of forgiving oneself for those trespasses and overlooks acceptance of others, too.
Rather, like the repentant sinner in the parable, my favorite prayer is the Sinner's Prayer because it is to the point:
"Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!"
20100510
How I Cope With Death
As a personal with an open mind and familiarity with spirituality, I look at death with a sometimes unorthodox view about it. After almost dying at age 8, I will not claim to have been deeply changed by that experience because of youth and ignorance.
Rather, the life changing experience happened after a traumatic injury in 2004.
My personal philosophy about the dead goes like this: Once the dead go to heaven, their souls return to God. Having been wiped clean of their earthly existence, they become the pure and immaculate souls they originally were at the moment of creation by God.
I am influenced by Tibetan Buddhism, and use the word "soul" to be similar to the Three Minds. Additionally, the Japanese concept of kami has influenced how my unorthodox view of the soul.
This personal philosophy first came to me in the week as I laid in the hospital after suffering the traumatic injury in 2004. The hospital chaplain had inspired me speak of this unorthodox view of the soul, which arose spontaneously during a conversation we had.
People cope with death with the way they feel most comfortable; some people silently grieve, others cry, and still others avoid it. No two people have the same reaction to death and dying. All of it is the normal part of grieving.
How I cope with death since then is most likely a normal reaction to death.
Four years ago, my best friend Frank M died in May 2006. Then his best PM died the following year in January 2007. And finally my dad died in May 2007.
Since I'd lived with Frank from June 2005 until his death, it's affected me deeply. Using what I'd learned from Buddhism, I have coped with his death as best as I can.
One way of coping I used was to tell Frank when he was alive that in my heart he will become a bodhisattva, which is the Buddhist term for angel or saint.
Another way of coping was to idealize Frank and later, PM. At one point in the year following P's death, I even briefly considered Frank and P as the archetypal Lover and Beloved, reborn in Heaven.
My father's death has led me to idealize the first four years of my childhood.
As I continue to internalize my memories of Frank, Paula and my father, everything I remember about them will be idealized as perfect and whole.
This is all done out of respect for the dead.
Reference:
The Three Minds: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul#Buddhism
Lover and Beloved: http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/Rumilove.html
Rather, the life changing experience happened after a traumatic injury in 2004.
My personal philosophy about the dead goes like this: Once the dead go to heaven, their souls return to God. Having been wiped clean of their earthly existence, they become the pure and immaculate souls they originally were at the moment of creation by God.
I am influenced by Tibetan Buddhism, and use the word "soul" to be similar to the Three Minds. Additionally, the Japanese concept of kami has influenced how my unorthodox view of the soul.
This personal philosophy first came to me in the week as I laid in the hospital after suffering the traumatic injury in 2004. The hospital chaplain had inspired me speak of this unorthodox view of the soul, which arose spontaneously during a conversation we had.
People cope with death with the way they feel most comfortable; some people silently grieve, others cry, and still others avoid it. No two people have the same reaction to death and dying. All of it is the normal part of grieving.
How I cope with death since then is most likely a normal reaction to death.
Four years ago, my best friend Frank M died in May 2006. Then his best PM died the following year in January 2007. And finally my dad died in May 2007.
Since I'd lived with Frank from June 2005 until his death, it's affected me deeply. Using what I'd learned from Buddhism, I have coped with his death as best as I can.
One way of coping I used was to tell Frank when he was alive that in my heart he will become a bodhisattva, which is the Buddhist term for angel or saint.
Another way of coping was to idealize Frank and later, PM. At one point in the year following P's death, I even briefly considered Frank and P as the archetypal Lover and Beloved, reborn in Heaven.
My father's death has led me to idealize the first four years of my childhood.
As I continue to internalize my memories of Frank, Paula and my father, everything I remember about them will be idealized as perfect and whole.
This is all done out of respect for the dead.
Reference:
The Three Minds: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul#Buddhism
Lover and Beloved: http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/Rumilove.html
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