Last Sunday morning I experienced what I first considered to be a nightmare. On close examination by a religiously conservative audience, it might be considered an attack by the devil.
In the major part of the dream, I was given the ability to morph into a troll with a magic club due to a deal made with the devil, in exchange for my soul, instead of fame and fortune as most mortals are apt to do.
While in troll mode, I would cause mayhem but was never caught because of the magical powers of the club. Victims felled by it were not able to describe my troll-like features because of a spell placed on them.
Were they to describe the troll, the police might probably ignore them, since no human being looks like a troll. Thus, the club helped prevent identification and prevented embarrassment to the victims.
Soon I often morphed into troll form to the point where I replaced an extra in a science fiction film. Because I was a troll, I was supposed to have a speaking part in the production of this particular episode.
However, when the actor asked the question, "What is a shillelagh?", I explained without thinking, that my club is such a device, which renders mortals with amnesia to prevent embarrassment when explaining their injuries.
Naturally I was fired, because the actors then had to ad-lib the appropriate reaction rather than do a retake of that scene, since the movie was going over budget.
Later on in this dream, I also experienced the devil who had come to take my soul to Hell. As soon as he touched me and freed my soul from my body, I awoke with a start and muttered a curse under my breath.
Of course, I was no ordinary troll but an Irish troll known as leprechauns. My apologies to keepers of Irish mythology and traditions!
Apparently in this dream, I had sold my soul to the devil to have the power to change into a leprechaun at will and then sought fame and fortune.
After reflecting on this dream, it may have been due to the 5HTP health supplement that I had been taking during this time. When the 5HTP dose is converted to serotonin in the brain, the result will REM suppression and REM "rebound" just before awakening with a clear memory of the resulting dream.
Since my supply of 5HTP ran out, I have forgotten most of my dreams by the time I awaken from sleep almost every night.
Originally posted on Oct 23, 2014 at 1:04 AM
Reference:
What are the effects of 5HTP on dreams: http://dreamstudies.org/2010/04/19/what-are-the-effects-of-5-htp-on-dreams/
Showing posts with label soul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label soul. Show all posts
20141013
The Mystery of the Soul (testimony)
We thank the Father for this personal revelation by the author.
In the olden days, it was thought that God helps place the soul in babies after conception from the premortal world. Today we know that the soul is actually passed on by man and wife in marriage during Es-ee-eks e.g. procreation creates a living human being who is also a soul.
There is no ghost in the shell. Or so the secularists have propagandized.
Most of the Bible says the body dies and goes to the grave, and the soul goes to Spirit World.
The secularist's conception of procreation conflicts with the religious idea of a soul leading to the pro life vs pro choice debate.
However, the Bible is silent on the soul as a separate entity save for the implication of eternal life if you choose Jesus as Savior -- which actually is when the Holy Ghost becomes pals with your soul and helps develop you into the spiritual being you become after living a spiritually rich life.
Overall, the soul is fully developed at conception but is awakened spiritually by action of the Holy Ghost on a person's life after baptism.
In the name of Jesus Christ I believe this to be true.
Amen.
In the olden days, it was thought that God helps place the soul in babies after conception from the premortal world. Today we know that the soul is actually passed on by man and wife in marriage during Es-ee-eks e.g. procreation creates a living human being who is also a soul.
There is no ghost in the shell. Or so the secularists have propagandized.
Most of the Bible says the body dies and goes to the grave, and the soul goes to Spirit World.
The secularist's conception of procreation conflicts with the religious idea of a soul leading to the pro life vs pro choice debate.
However, the Bible is silent on the soul as a separate entity save for the implication of eternal life if you choose Jesus as Savior -- which actually is when the Holy Ghost becomes pals with your soul and helps develop you into the spiritual being you become after living a spiritually rich life.
Overall, the soul is fully developed at conception but is awakened spiritually by action of the Holy Ghost on a person's life after baptism.
In the name of Jesus Christ I believe this to be true.
Amen.
20140913
Outer Darkness and Inner Light
Here are my thoughts on Outer Darkness, which might seem heretical to the orthodox Mormons, who believe it to be a place rather than also a state of mind. The Inner Light of the soul that God created is incorruptible, even when a human being is cast into Outer Darkness by his apostasy through acts of rebellion (sins).
Outer Darkness consists of the behavioral and mental negativity such as hate-love, happiness-indifference, sadness-indifference, anger-kindness, jealousy-equanimity, lying-sincerity, miserly-generosity, lust-chastity, and other dualities.
God is the author of good-and-evil, which is not a duality but complementary opposites, for indifference is the true evil. Thus all things are neutral in essence until MAN judges some of them good and their true opposites evil.
This is why acting amorally is evil and acting morally is good.
However, neither acting good or evil but indifferently is a greater sin than picking either good or evil. Choosing devil over God is only a sin when you worship the devil and forget Jesus is lord of us all, but acting devilishly in ignorance is forgiven when you repent of it.
In the final analysis though, Outer Darkness is like wearing black: when you shed the darkness through prayers of earnest repentance, your Inner Light shines.
Outer Darkness consists of the behavioral and mental negativity such as hate-love, happiness-indifference, sadness-indifference, anger-kindness, jealousy-equanimity, lying-sincerity, miserly-generosity, lust-chastity, and other dualities.
God is the author of good-and-evil, which is not a duality but complementary opposites, for indifference is the true evil. Thus all things are neutral in essence until MAN judges some of them good and their true opposites evil.
This is why acting amorally is evil and acting morally is good.
However, neither acting good or evil but indifferently is a greater sin than picking either good or evil. Choosing devil over God is only a sin when you worship the devil and forget Jesus is lord of us all, but acting devilishly in ignorance is forgiven when you repent of it.
In the final analysis though, Outer Darkness is like wearing black: when you shed the darkness through prayers of earnest repentance, your Inner Light shines.
20140414
I Believe in a God Unlike the Christian, Jewish and Muslim God
I believe in a God devoid of anthropomorphic qualities that is called the Absolute.
If we have souls, then after death no soul is turned away from return to the Godhead.
For the universe has infinite capacity for these souls because they pass on to another dimension where no soul is limited physically.
Though no soul can have sex because souls can not get pregnant. There is also no need to eat because you are never hungry for physical sustenance.
However, you have to listen to a sermon until God calls to you, "Time to be reborn, pilgrim!"
This dimension is known as a Pure Land but is separate from the many other Buddha worlds called Pure Land of Bliss and their respective Buddhas.
On death, everything will be explained to you: the fallacy of good and evil is merely a tool to separate the monotheistic people who practice dualism from the believers in the Absolute who strive for the non-duality called Shunyata.
Indeed, the Christian Heaven is the closest monotheistic equivalent of the Absolute. For all Buddhists, the Absolute is the closest to God that the faithful attain.
Though Amida Buddha would urge the bodhisattvas reborn in the Pure Land in his sermon to return to the earthly plane to help other lost souls find their way to his Pure Land.
Note too that all souls are finite aspects of the Godhead which itself is almost infinite.
YMMV
Originally posted: October 26, 2012 1256H PDT
If we have souls, then after death no soul is turned away from return to the Godhead.
For the universe has infinite capacity for these souls because they pass on to another dimension where no soul is limited physically.
Though no soul can have sex because souls can not get pregnant. There is also no need to eat because you are never hungry for physical sustenance.
However, you have to listen to a sermon until God calls to you, "Time to be reborn, pilgrim!"
This dimension is known as a Pure Land but is separate from the many other Buddha worlds called Pure Land of Bliss and their respective Buddhas.
On death, everything will be explained to you: the fallacy of good and evil is merely a tool to separate the monotheistic people who practice dualism from the believers in the Absolute who strive for the non-duality called Shunyata.
Indeed, the Christian Heaven is the closest monotheistic equivalent of the Absolute. For all Buddhists, the Absolute is the closest to God that the faithful attain.
Though Amida Buddha would urge the bodhisattvas reborn in the Pure Land in his sermon to return to the earthly plane to help other lost souls find their way to his Pure Land.
Note too that all souls are finite aspects of the Godhead which itself is almost infinite.
YMMV
Originally posted: October 26, 2012 1256H PDT
20140406
Life Is All Smoke and Mirrors (satire)
Nothing is either good or evil. There just is Yin and Yang. All good and evil is is just smoke and mirrors.
Yet Westerners love to delude themselves by believing good and evil have been here from the beginning. The only thing that is here from the beginning is the Tao.
When humanity becomes extinct, the Tao will remain. Then a new champion will arise take our place.
My bet is on the cockroaches...
Thus all of creation is neither solely good nor solely evil. Instead, all of it but the balance of Yin and Yang, dark and light as one.
This is why it is impossible for me to accept Christianity or even Islam completely. Christianity makes it seem as good and evil pre-date Creation. If you're not good enough for Islam, then the Fire is your destination. It all seems black and white to the ʍuslim.
However, by not being Jewish or Christian, but somewhat touched by the Quran, ɪ still am going to spout words that would get me stoned in the Middle East, mainly because I have outed myself as an unbeliever in strict Muslim eyes and an apostate to Christian and Jewish ideals.
However, it is all an illusion, this concept of good versus evil. For in each of us is the potential for great evil and also great good.
Few of the religionists will grasp my meaning, because they take sides on the concept of good and evil, falsely tainting it as "good versus evil" which is a fallacy if one believes that "forces of good" and "force of evil" predate humanity.
Each of us creates by our actions good or evil, depending on whether each act leads to confusion or to understanding.
In Buddhism, it is said that evil is the result of actions that create confusion and pain. All good actions result from creating conditions that favor peace and understanding. It is impossible to be a goody-two-shoes, because when you least expect it, your good actions might result in suffering for other living beings.
One of the Buddhist precepts is about not killing a living being. Bacteria are living beings, but if we do not kill them with antibiotics, then we might end up dead. This is why we wash our hands.
Yet killing a living being is against the Buddhist precepts. However, because a bacteria is causing us harm, we allow ourselves the right to defend ourselves to kill it. Once ɪ continue my thoughts on this topic, the line between good and evil becomes fuzzy. It is no longer a question of black and white anymore.
Good and evil exist together. You cannot have one without the other. They are not opposites; they are complements.
In my opinion, the same applies to the Absolute and the Void. They coexist to form Space. Yes, I am saying being and nothingness coexist to form the whole universe, reality and unreality, the whole existence, and life as we know it.
Therefore the end of the world story of all evil being consumed by Fire is only half the story of that time, because the brimstone is a clue that the Fire cleans everything of the darkness that is Evil. Once cleans, the goodness of all souls God create remains to return to him in the Absolute. This is known as returning to the Godhead.
Only the wise will understand what I just said. Those people who think ɪ am babbling, their understanding is limited.
This is why it is best for you who understand to just forget what I just said. Truth like this only sounds like babbling but is known to the depth of the souls of the wise.
Originally postedː ʍarch 31, 2014 03ː18 PDT
Yet Westerners love to delude themselves by believing good and evil have been here from the beginning. The only thing that is here from the beginning is the Tao.
When humanity becomes extinct, the Tao will remain. Then a new champion will arise take our place.
My bet is on the cockroaches...
Thus all of creation is neither solely good nor solely evil. Instead, all of it but the balance of Yin and Yang, dark and light as one.
This is why it is impossible for me to accept Christianity or even Islam completely. Christianity makes it seem as good and evil pre-date Creation. If you're not good enough for Islam, then the Fire is your destination. It all seems black and white to the ʍuslim.
However, by not being Jewish or Christian, but somewhat touched by the Quran, ɪ still am going to spout words that would get me stoned in the Middle East, mainly because I have outed myself as an unbeliever in strict Muslim eyes and an apostate to Christian and Jewish ideals.
However, it is all an illusion, this concept of good versus evil. For in each of us is the potential for great evil and also great good.
Few of the religionists will grasp my meaning, because they take sides on the concept of good and evil, falsely tainting it as "good versus evil" which is a fallacy if one believes that "forces of good" and "force of evil" predate humanity.
Each of us creates by our actions good or evil, depending on whether each act leads to confusion or to understanding.
In Buddhism, it is said that evil is the result of actions that create confusion and pain. All good actions result from creating conditions that favor peace and understanding. It is impossible to be a goody-two-shoes, because when you least expect it, your good actions might result in suffering for other living beings.
One of the Buddhist precepts is about not killing a living being. Bacteria are living beings, but if we do not kill them with antibiotics, then we might end up dead. This is why we wash our hands.
Yet killing a living being is against the Buddhist precepts. However, because a bacteria is causing us harm, we allow ourselves the right to defend ourselves to kill it. Once ɪ continue my thoughts on this topic, the line between good and evil becomes fuzzy. It is no longer a question of black and white anymore.
Good and evil exist together. You cannot have one without the other. They are not opposites; they are complements.
In my opinion, the same applies to the Absolute and the Void. They coexist to form Space. Yes, I am saying being and nothingness coexist to form the whole universe, reality and unreality, the whole existence, and life as we know it.
Therefore the end of the world story of all evil being consumed by Fire is only half the story of that time, because the brimstone is a clue that the Fire cleans everything of the darkness that is Evil. Once cleans, the goodness of all souls God create remains to return to him in the Absolute. This is known as returning to the Godhead.
Only the wise will understand what I just said. Those people who think ɪ am babbling, their understanding is limited.
This is why it is best for you who understand to just forget what I just said. Truth like this only sounds like babbling but is known to the depth of the souls of the wise.
Originally postedː ʍarch 31, 2014 03ː18 PDT
20140103
Eternal Life (satire)
According to the Bible, Jesus defended adulterers, fishers, lepers, tax collectors, and the poor.
Yet the rich elite only know the Billy Graham version of Jesus who promises immortal life in exchange for money made through the hard work and suffering of all walks of life, be it the poor in Africa, the middle class West or their upper class fans.
However, God only offers life eternal (John 17:3), which has nothing to do with immortality.
The verse in question is:
"And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."
Knowing the only true God, and especially Jesus is the one God has sent, is the knowledge that lives eternally in the heart of Christians. This verse is presents eternal life as metaphor for knowing God and Jesus is the savior of Christians who believe in him.
Thus eternal life has nothing to do with a living soul that is granted immortality.
What might the purpose of pushing the propaganda about immortality accomplish in Christianity? Quite possibly, it may attract superstitious people who believe in miracles and especially in immortality.
However, the concept of an immortal soul is a pagan concept borrowed from Plato. In the early church, neo-Platonian philosophy was introduced to better understand God, Jesus and man's relationship to them.
Most Christians will reject the concept of an immortal soul, and refrain from using the quote I gave above out of context.
As well, church doctrine fails to mention immortality because knowing God and that Jesus is his messenger are the sole tenets on which to base the faith of Christians.
If I know this as a Buddhist, then I wonder why a few Christians cling to the nonsense that eternal life implies "immortality of the soul".
Yet the rich elite only know the Billy Graham version of Jesus who promises immortal life in exchange for money made through the hard work and suffering of all walks of life, be it the poor in Africa, the middle class West or their upper class fans.
However, God only offers life eternal (John 17:3), which has nothing to do with immortality.
The verse in question is:
"And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent."
Knowing the only true God, and especially Jesus is the one God has sent, is the knowledge that lives eternally in the heart of Christians. This verse is presents eternal life as metaphor for knowing God and Jesus is the savior of Christians who believe in him.
Thus eternal life has nothing to do with a living soul that is granted immortality.
What might the purpose of pushing the propaganda about immortality accomplish in Christianity? Quite possibly, it may attract superstitious people who believe in miracles and especially in immortality.
However, the concept of an immortal soul is a pagan concept borrowed from Plato. In the early church, neo-Platonian philosophy was introduced to better understand God, Jesus and man's relationship to them.
Most Christians will reject the concept of an immortal soul, and refrain from using the quote I gave above out of context.
As well, church doctrine fails to mention immortality because knowing God and that Jesus is his messenger are the sole tenets on which to base the faith of Christians.
If I know this as a Buddhist, then I wonder why a few Christians cling to the nonsense that eternal life implies "immortality of the soul".
20131224
Debunking The Metaphors of Permanence (satire)
Theists got it wrong about God being a metaphysical divine being that exists in reality.
God is a Germanic adjective that translates as "good". Therefore "god" means "all that is good," and does not represent a real divine being.
Instead, the divine being is a anthropomorphic metaphor made in the image of man. Thus the phrase "man is made in the image of God" is actually a declaration of humility designed to control the ego lest a person think himself a god due to a perverted egocentricity known as egomania.
Instead the line in Genesis which declare mankind to have been made into the image of God actually means that all human beings are born basically good. It does not refer to an actual divine being, contrary to the dogma of the monotheists.
Rather God is a metaphor for all that is good in humankind.
As for the soul, there is no soul that is permanent and immortal, for the only living soul is that of the body-mind.
Likewise, just as speculation about gods is moot, so too is speculation about the afterlife.
However, the cult of Amida Buddha is based on a metaphor about wisdom and compassion (endless life of compassion and endless light of wisdom).
In the context of Buddhism, "endless" actually implies a long moment in time that begins in the distant past and ends in the distant future.
Likewise for the terms "forever", "immortal", and "never": "Never" represents an ideal reality; "Immortal" represents an ideal state; and "forever" represents an "infinitely" long time. For these terms are but metaphors of permanence which represent abstract reality as opposed to physical reality.
In the abstract world, everything lasts forever and God exists. This world is a metaphysical one, and thus is not tangible in the physical world.
Even the adjective term "infinitely" is an abstract term that implies an ideal reality in which an object lasts forever. In reality, the term "infinite" is inaccurate because nothing in reality lasts forever. Indeed, "infinite" actually means an indeterminately long time which eventually ends.
Therefore, "life eternal" does not represent "immortal soul", for "pneuma" as the soul is not the same as "life".
Nor does "eternal" equivalent in meaning to "immortal". "Eternal" refers to a state of eternity, which still represents a very long time that eventually ends, and is vastly longer than human life itself.
"Life eternal" then does not mean human life is eternal when you place your trust in Jesus. Rather it subtly says "the Christian way of life values family;" and your progeny bring you "life eternal" e.g. you and your descendants as Christians bring you life eternal.
It's not about immortality; it's about human propagation. Immortality thus is a metaphor for such propagation.
For the metaphors of permanence which the monotheists use, be it "immortal soul" and "life eternal", actually are euphemisms for human propagation and thus guarantees "life eternal."
Only in the abstract world does God and the terms which represent an infinitely long time exist. They are actually reified (made to exist as a material thing) by the mind alone. Even when monotheists say "God exists", what they really mean is that their belief in God reifies the abstract thing called "God".
Monotheists deny this interpretation, and claim that in the beginning, God existed. Thus the abstract world is assumed to have pre-existed before the creation of the physical world. Only if the mind is made real by reified beliefs can it become a permanent object which is a separate object from God. In the physical sense, they do not exist as physical objects. Rather, the mind and God are both abstractions of what we call "the mind".
To a materialist, such abstractions do not exist outside of the mind. To a Buddhist, speculation about such abstractions are moot. The mind still exists even when my concept of it refers to an abstract term called "the mind" that is reified until the mind has a purported physical existence, even though it does not.
When a person is asleep or dead, the physical world does not exist. Yet there are some people who believe Dreamtime is the true reality. Yet the world of dreams is akin to the abstract world, because once awake, they both do not exist.
Thus it is possible that the beliefs of the monotheists puts their minds to sleep, and they awaken to the abstract world within where their God exists along with His heaven and hell that He created.
At the same time, what the previous sentence means is, the monotheists are asleep to the physical world and the worldliness that arises from living in this reality. They only know of God as depicted in the Bible. Yet monotheists live in their own Dreamtime and know not of the physical world.
No one can awaken a Christian to the reality of the physical world, because his beliefs isolate him from true reality. He only sees the reality of his own making, which is but a benign delusion that allows him to function in the real world without being tainted by worldliness.
Through his prayers and rituals, the Christian purifies his soul. I only object to the non-Christian concept of the immortal soul that a few foolish Christians accept as true though it is not Biblical. Instead, the conception of an immortal soul is blasphemous within context of the Bible.
On this point, both the primitive Christian and I do see eye to eye regarding the reification of an immortal soul as blasphemy. In Buddhist thought, such a soul violates the principle of no-soul, that all is impermanent in the physical world and nothing lasts forever. Christians who cling to such a concept will then argue that "life eternal" implies an immortal soul. This is a fallacy because a soul is only alive for a limited time, from birth to death.
As well, the adjective term "eternal" is not a synonym of "immortal". As I stated before, both terms refer to the cycle of human life and human propagation. Thus "eternal life" refers to the propagation of human life and "immortal soul" refers to human generations of one's ancestors and descendants.
Thus have I debunks the metaphors of permanence that delude the monotheists. For the truth is, nothing exists forever. Yet to a Buddhist, this frees him from permanence. The resulting freedom is the liberation of the consciousness from the detritus of the material world.
Throughout his liberation from such delusional metaphors of permanence, the Buddhist will come to realize that anything is possible, even a world of impermanence. For impermanence makes the material world possible. Indeed, the physical world is always in flux.
God is a Germanic adjective that translates as "good". Therefore "god" means "all that is good," and does not represent a real divine being.
Instead, the divine being is a anthropomorphic metaphor made in the image of man. Thus the phrase "man is made in the image of God" is actually a declaration of humility designed to control the ego lest a person think himself a god due to a perverted egocentricity known as egomania.
Instead the line in Genesis which declare mankind to have been made into the image of God actually means that all human beings are born basically good. It does not refer to an actual divine being, contrary to the dogma of the monotheists.
Rather God is a metaphor for all that is good in humankind.
As for the soul, there is no soul that is permanent and immortal, for the only living soul is that of the body-mind.
Likewise, just as speculation about gods is moot, so too is speculation about the afterlife.
However, the cult of Amida Buddha is based on a metaphor about wisdom and compassion (endless life of compassion and endless light of wisdom).
In the context of Buddhism, "endless" actually implies a long moment in time that begins in the distant past and ends in the distant future.
Likewise for the terms "forever", "immortal", and "never": "Never" represents an ideal reality; "Immortal" represents an ideal state; and "forever" represents an "infinitely" long time. For these terms are but metaphors of permanence which represent abstract reality as opposed to physical reality.
In the abstract world, everything lasts forever and God exists. This world is a metaphysical one, and thus is not tangible in the physical world.
Even the adjective term "infinitely" is an abstract term that implies an ideal reality in which an object lasts forever. In reality, the term "infinite" is inaccurate because nothing in reality lasts forever. Indeed, "infinite" actually means an indeterminately long time which eventually ends.
Therefore, "life eternal" does not represent "immortal soul", for "pneuma" as the soul is not the same as "life".
Nor does "eternal" equivalent in meaning to "immortal". "Eternal" refers to a state of eternity, which still represents a very long time that eventually ends, and is vastly longer than human life itself.
"Life eternal" then does not mean human life is eternal when you place your trust in Jesus. Rather it subtly says "the Christian way of life values family;" and your progeny bring you "life eternal" e.g. you and your descendants as Christians bring you life eternal.
It's not about immortality; it's about human propagation. Immortality thus is a metaphor for such propagation.
For the metaphors of permanence which the monotheists use, be it "immortal soul" and "life eternal", actually are euphemisms for human propagation and thus guarantees "life eternal."
Only in the abstract world does God and the terms which represent an infinitely long time exist. They are actually reified (made to exist as a material thing) by the mind alone. Even when monotheists say "God exists", what they really mean is that their belief in God reifies the abstract thing called "God".
Monotheists deny this interpretation, and claim that in the beginning, God existed. Thus the abstract world is assumed to have pre-existed before the creation of the physical world. Only if the mind is made real by reified beliefs can it become a permanent object which is a separate object from God. In the physical sense, they do not exist as physical objects. Rather, the mind and God are both abstractions of what we call "the mind".
To a materialist, such abstractions do not exist outside of the mind. To a Buddhist, speculation about such abstractions are moot. The mind still exists even when my concept of it refers to an abstract term called "the mind" that is reified until the mind has a purported physical existence, even though it does not.
When a person is asleep or dead, the physical world does not exist. Yet there are some people who believe Dreamtime is the true reality. Yet the world of dreams is akin to the abstract world, because once awake, they both do not exist.
Thus it is possible that the beliefs of the monotheists puts their minds to sleep, and they awaken to the abstract world within where their God exists along with His heaven and hell that He created.
At the same time, what the previous sentence means is, the monotheists are asleep to the physical world and the worldliness that arises from living in this reality. They only know of God as depicted in the Bible. Yet monotheists live in their own Dreamtime and know not of the physical world.
No one can awaken a Christian to the reality of the physical world, because his beliefs isolate him from true reality. He only sees the reality of his own making, which is but a benign delusion that allows him to function in the real world without being tainted by worldliness.
Through his prayers and rituals, the Christian purifies his soul. I only object to the non-Christian concept of the immortal soul that a few foolish Christians accept as true though it is not Biblical. Instead, the conception of an immortal soul is blasphemous within context of the Bible.
On this point, both the primitive Christian and I do see eye to eye regarding the reification of an immortal soul as blasphemy. In Buddhist thought, such a soul violates the principle of no-soul, that all is impermanent in the physical world and nothing lasts forever. Christians who cling to such a concept will then argue that "life eternal" implies an immortal soul. This is a fallacy because a soul is only alive for a limited time, from birth to death.
As well, the adjective term "eternal" is not a synonym of "immortal". As I stated before, both terms refer to the cycle of human life and human propagation. Thus "eternal life" refers to the propagation of human life and "immortal soul" refers to human generations of one's ancestors and descendants.
Thus have I debunks the metaphors of permanence that delude the monotheists. For the truth is, nothing exists forever. Yet to a Buddhist, this frees him from permanence. The resulting freedom is the liberation of the consciousness from the detritus of the material world.
Throughout his liberation from such delusional metaphors of permanence, the Buddhist will come to realize that anything is possible, even a world of impermanence. For impermanence makes the material world possible. Indeed, the physical world is always in flux.
20130316
Unconditional love (loving-kindness)
While greatly treasured, unconditional love can only be shared with all sentient beings, lest the dragon within us hide all our feelings and emotions while we live in social isolation.
Thus, the goal of all self-actualized people is to be sociable. This goal is a guide, an ideal for which we strive. Some of us have a lot of friends, while other people have only a few friends or none at all.
Even so, that should not stop anyone from trying to sustain the sharing of unconditional love.
This is no quest of intellect, but the journey of the heart!
Original post: December 23, 2010 0744H
Update posted: March 16, 2013 0035H
20121114
Human Barbie Doll Teaching Job Exposed
Valeria Lukyonova, the Russian girl who is a Barbie Doll, is back in the news. According to the Daily Mail, she got a modelling contract with V Magazine.
As well, she is a teacher at the School of Out-of-Body Experience (OOBE) in the Ukraine.
Using Google I found the school run by Michael Raduga, a person who would evoke "tin-foil hat" insults from skeptics.
Think New Age. :p
One of the UFO people is skeptical of him too because he declared that OOBE is a mental state he calls "The Phase", and mistook that to mean their abductions are "all in their head".
However, their cognitive dissonance may have occurred because he debunked UFO abductions in Russia. UFO people take it personally since their abductions are more real than their daily lives. o_0
As far as I can tell, the OOBE people accept Raduga's explanation of OOBE up to a point. However, they hold onto preconceptions about OOBE which deny that it's "all in the brain."
All I will do to sum this all up is to debunk the assertion that there is only one reality, which we know as real life (RL).
As well, there is also an inner reality (the mind). Indeed, the mind is the sixth sense according to Buddhist thought.
Therefore, the UFO abductions are real to the people who experience them, and it would be impolite to call them "delusions" because of their strong denial and unwillingness to accept a psychological explanation for the phenomenon.
Furthermore, it is equally impolite to deny that the Phase described by Raduga works. If it works for 1 person in 5000, then it works.
After all, scientists have discovered that microtubules in human cells remain "alive" after death, and are purported to be the closest thing to the soul.
However, this too is a theory, and so is Raduga's Phase.
Valeria Lukyonova is however real.
20110207
AA Journal Entry: January 11-25, 2011 - Two weeks of Confession and Spiritual Healing
Tuesday, 11 January 2011, 10:20 AM
IMHO, at the root of all my issues is the social conditioning known as never say "No" to others in need.
Yet, to avoid saying "No", often I will stay at home.
Actually, after careful reflection, the reason why I stay home as a recluse has to do with a blatantly honest picture of myself as physically imperfect.
In contrast to this self-perception, I have concluded that a pure heart-mind implies a perfect soul, the concept of which was gifted to me at age 16.
So I had worked at perfecting my mind from an early age, despite the errors which crept up into my life due to shaming.
Age 1, I was hit in the head by my brother with a hoe. My crime was not yielding his fair share of the sandbox on my family's property.
Age 2 or 3, pressured into lighting a match by my brother, I nearly burned the barn down. Both my brother and I suffered for this.
Yet I was innocent then.
Because of those errors' effect, I acted out. Perhaps it was out of a sense of shame that my youth was a descent into madness.
If I defied my mother, then she punished me. I was constantly blamed for anything wrong that happened at home.
Then there were incidents outside of the home which eventually helped me to learn that my acting out would lead to harmful repercussions.
If it weren't for learning to read and write in public school, and for computers later in life, then I might have been in a sorry state.
Today I have learned the wisdom of non-action clearly. While thoughts may come and go, this body remains, another day older and deeply indebted to the mercy that God has shown me through His creation.
Even though each person is equally capable of great good or great evil, I view my currently life as balancing out the innocent evil done as a child.
Tuesday, 11 January 2011, 10:50 AM
Dear Lord, help me to see my life with the innocent eyes of a man redeemed by God's gift of salvation. I knew that You walked by my side as a child to help me realize today that my life before majority was innocent of guile.
Sunday, 16 January 2011, 2:49 PM
Since God has been with me since the day I was born, then my soul has been with me since then.
Soul is an abstract thing which I should take care not to reify unnecessarily, lest my understanding of it be muddied, rendering a fallacy of which I'll now explain.
The fallacy is that the soul is an object which is precious due to the process of reification, which means to make it a personal object which is more valuable than my life and the world around me.
Reification is also called hypostatization.
Tuesday, 25 January 2011, 4:43 PM
Life moves in mysterious ways, for which only God knows the reasons.
20110109
Repentance (Poem)
Repentance bears fruits both sour and sweet:
Sweet redemption ferments one
Who gives vain promises to God again,
While vict'ry turns sour.
If he who errs tries again,
The marks he's made might cause him pain
With goals set higher than his aim.
When he attains each goal within his reach,
A lesson he has learned:
Keep one's aim within one's reach.
Within one's reach is one's sacred heart;
Close to one's heart, the precious soul.
Touched by God, this spark has lit anew
Forgiveness so divine.
When she succeeds in her life
By learning much from each failure,
Her goals may be set much higher
Until she makes the mark with great success.
Having learned her lesson,
With modesty shall she thus confess:
"All the sins that lead one to regret
Bring that soul to repentance,
Until, once again pardoned by Him,
One comes closer to God."
Sweet redemption ferments one
Who gives vain promises to God again,
While vict'ry turns sour.
If he who errs tries again,
The marks he's made might cause him pain
With goals set higher than his aim.
When he attains each goal within his reach,
A lesson he has learned:
Keep one's aim within one's reach.
Within one's reach is one's sacred heart;
Close to one's heart, the precious soul.
Touched by God, this spark has lit anew
Forgiveness so divine.
When she succeeds in her life
By learning much from each failure,
Her goals may be set much higher
Until she makes the mark with great success.
Having learned her lesson,
With modesty shall she thus confess:
"All the sins that lead one to regret
Bring that soul to repentance,
Until, once again pardoned by Him,
One comes closer to God."
20100421
Seeing God and the Soul Through a Buddhist Lens
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.
Regarding my personal philosophy about the soul, it transcends the dualistic concept of a soul existing apart from the body.
I use it to reconcile the Buddhist concept of oneness and unity with God as Creator of the soul.
God, within context of my personal philosophy is closer to the Hindu concept of God, where He is both the Creator and the Created.
As for the soul, it is consciousness-genius, the "incorporeal mental processes" which continues after death.
However, Buddhist philosophy teaches that the soul has a finite existence. In its place is Buddha Nature, which is the karmic fruit of Amida Buddha's vows to become a Buddha.
Thus, God as Creator of the Buddha is part of the Buddhist concept of oneness and unity.
Personally, I do not see God as separate from the universe, the world and all life.
For my view of God is closer to panentheism than to Deism.
However, the Buddhist view of God as the Absolute transforms panentheism into the philosophy that the divine is in all things.
For everything in the cosmos is Buddha.
References:
Buddhist concept of oneness and unity: see Net of Indra
Deism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism
Hinduism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism
"incorporeal mental processes": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul#Buddhism
Net of Indra: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_of_Indra
Panentheism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panentheism
edited 20121114.220211
20070418
The Myth of Sociopaths As Soulless
Intellectualize it all you want, she says, but conscience is based on love. It's only a heartbeat from there to conjecturing that conscience — "the nexus of psychology and spirituality" — is science's name for the soul. Since her professional qualifications do not permit her to make pronouncements on metaphysical matters, Martha is skittish about coming out with it, but it's apparent from this equivalence that psychopaths must be soulless. Science has no cure for such a thing. -- Paul Kiel, review of The Sociopath Next Door, by Martha Stout
While conscience is based on love, that love hints at "having a soul." However, to define "conscience" as "the soul," Kiel is muddying the waters.
IMHO the soul is that which is constructed by God, and loaned to a person at birth. By age 4, when the child has the theory of mind figured out, the soul has all it needs to develop conscience in the mind.
Thus conscience is "a sense of obligation ultimately based in an emotional attachment to others". Yet it is formed by the mind in response to both verbal and non-verbal cues.
Philosophically-speaking, a sociopath does have a soul. However, his soul is "obscured" by an ignorance about the ramifications of his inaction - given that all people are at heart good, and that evil is the result of inaction of inherently good people.
Likewise, it is possible for a sociopath to develop a conscience, but it takes longer for him to develop one than other people.
It can also be added that sociopathy is like a form of autism in that all the lies and manipulation obscure the sociopath's ability to empathize with other people.
Just think of it as a moral autism, or what the Buddhists call spiritual ignorance.
Thus sociopaths are not soulless.
While conscience is based on love, that love hints at "having a soul." However, to define "conscience" as "the soul," Kiel is muddying the waters.
IMHO the soul is that which is constructed by God, and loaned to a person at birth. By age 4, when the child has the theory of mind figured out, the soul has all it needs to develop conscience in the mind.
Thus conscience is "a sense of obligation ultimately based in an emotional attachment to others". Yet it is formed by the mind in response to both verbal and non-verbal cues.
Philosophically-speaking, a sociopath does have a soul. However, his soul is "obscured" by an ignorance about the ramifications of his inaction - given that all people are at heart good, and that evil is the result of inaction of inherently good people.
Likewise, it is possible for a sociopath to develop a conscience, but it takes longer for him to develop one than other people.
It can also be added that sociopathy is like a form of autism in that all the lies and manipulation obscure the sociopath's ability to empathize with other people.
Just think of it as a moral autism, or what the Buddhists call spiritual ignorance.
Thus sociopaths are not soulless.
20051231
On experiences of a physical or spiritual nature
On experiences of a physical or spiritual nature:
“...Anything we experience as being in us, and which we see can also exist in wholly inanimate bodies, must be attributed only to our body. On the other hand, anything in us which we cannot conceive in any way as capable of belonging to a body must be attributed to our soul. Thus, because we have no conception of the body as thinking in any way at all, we have reason to believe that every kind of thought present in us belongs to the soul. And since we do not doubt that there are inanimate bodies which can move in as many different ways as our bodies, if not more, and which have as much heat or more […], we must believe that all the heat and all the movements present in us, in so far as they do not depend on thought, belong solely to the body” (AT XI:329, CSM I:329).
Regarding the necessity of the recognition that the physical body and the phenomena/noumena that is the mind co-exists with the spiritual essence (the soul):
"We need to recognize that the soul is really joined to the whole body, and that we cannot properly say that it exists in any one part of the body to the exclusion of the others. For the body is a unity which is in a sense indivisible because of the arrangement of its organs, these being so related to one another that the removal of any one of them renders the whole body defective. And the soul is of such a nature that it has no relation to extension, or to the dimensions or other properties of the matter of which the body is composed: it is related solely to the whole assemblage of the body's organs. This is obvious from our inability to conceive of a half or a third of a soul, or of the extension which a soul occupies. Nor does the soul become any smaller if we cut off some part of the body, but it becomes completely separate from the body when we break up the assemblage of the body's organs” (AT XI:351, CSM I:339)
Despite the immateriality of the soul, because the mind creates it, it exists.
Descartes' error here is that by the time he wrote The Passions of the Soul, Europe had rediscovered much of the Latin and Greek philosophers' theories regarding the soul.
As well, priestly kingdoms run by Jews influenced by the Essene may have been conquered by Roman armies so as to ensure Pax Romana.
Indeed, a Greek philosopher named Plato first wrote of the soul, and it was incorporated in Christian ideology due to the Greco-Roman influence on Jewish thought , first with Alexander the Great's conquest of Asia Minor and the Middle East, and later with the establishment of Pax Romana, the schism into West and East Roman Empires with Rome and Constantinople circa 325 CE.
Thus, by the time the Dark Ages fell over Europe circa 500 CE, the widespread chaos due to plagues and bands both of marauding invaders and local hooligans, the dynamics of civilization and religion almost came to a standstill.
Yet the pagan idea of the soul was later incorporated after Peter's later mission to introduce the Christ to Gentiles (non-Jews) due to the violent martyrdom (death by stoning) suffered by early Christians by Jews.
So, the soul of which Descartes speaks was inculcated from birth by the Catholic Church, after 500 years of earnest monks illuminating the Bible...
“...Anything we experience as being in us, and which we see can also exist in wholly inanimate bodies, must be attributed only to our body. On the other hand, anything in us which we cannot conceive in any way as capable of belonging to a body must be attributed to our soul. Thus, because we have no conception of the body as thinking in any way at all, we have reason to believe that every kind of thought present in us belongs to the soul. And since we do not doubt that there are inanimate bodies which can move in as many different ways as our bodies, if not more, and which have as much heat or more […], we must believe that all the heat and all the movements present in us, in so far as they do not depend on thought, belong solely to the body” (AT XI:329, CSM I:329).
Regarding the necessity of the recognition that the physical body and the phenomena/noumena that is the mind co-exists with the spiritual essence (the soul):
"We need to recognize that the soul is really joined to the whole body, and that we cannot properly say that it exists in any one part of the body to the exclusion of the others. For the body is a unity which is in a sense indivisible because of the arrangement of its organs, these being so related to one another that the removal of any one of them renders the whole body defective. And the soul is of such a nature that it has no relation to extension, or to the dimensions or other properties of the matter of which the body is composed: it is related solely to the whole assemblage of the body's organs. This is obvious from our inability to conceive of a half or a third of a soul, or of the extension which a soul occupies. Nor does the soul become any smaller if we cut off some part of the body, but it becomes completely separate from the body when we break up the assemblage of the body's organs” (AT XI:351, CSM I:339)
Despite the immateriality of the soul, because the mind creates it, it exists.
Descartes' error here is that by the time he wrote The Passions of the Soul, Europe had rediscovered much of the Latin and Greek philosophers' theories regarding the soul.
As well, priestly kingdoms run by Jews influenced by the Essene may have been conquered by Roman armies so as to ensure Pax Romana.
Indeed, a Greek philosopher named Plato first wrote of the soul, and it was incorporated in Christian ideology due to the Greco-Roman influence on Jewish thought , first with Alexander the Great's conquest of Asia Minor and the Middle East, and later with the establishment of Pax Romana, the schism into West and East Roman Empires with Rome and Constantinople circa 325 CE.
Thus, by the time the Dark Ages fell over Europe circa 500 CE, the widespread chaos due to plagues and bands both of marauding invaders and local hooligans, the dynamics of civilization and religion almost came to a standstill.
Yet the pagan idea of the soul was later incorporated after Peter's later mission to introduce the Christ to Gentiles (non-Jews) due to the violent martyrdom (death by stoning) suffered by early Christians by Jews.
So, the soul of which Descartes speaks was inculcated from birth by the Catholic Church, after 500 years of earnest monks illuminating the Bible...
20051122
On God and souls
Since God's greatest creation is the soul, each soul is pure in every way.
He loans out the soul to each of us when we are born, only to have it returned to Him when we die.
Through one's life experience, each person collects karmic debt which -- like dust on a mirror -- obscures the view of the soul as pure and clean.
So, what about evil souls?
Evil is more like a dark shell that covers a person's soul, the darkness being the fears, the guilt, and the suffering caused by an originally conscious decision to remain apart from God's mercy.
For the soul, being God's greatest creation, is also His most precious.
It cannot be touched by spiritual darkness and evil itself, for the soul contains the inner divine light which comes from God.
Through love, fear and anger can be controlled through mindful effort and carefully wielded by each of us for the welfare of us all.
Likewise, love helps shed light on darkness, bringing the wisdom needed to abandon evil.
And this love is inspired by God's love for all His creation.
He loans out the soul to each of us when we are born, only to have it returned to Him when we die.
Through one's life experience, each person collects karmic debt which -- like dust on a mirror -- obscures the view of the soul as pure and clean.
So, what about evil souls?
Evil is more like a dark shell that covers a person's soul, the darkness being the fears, the guilt, and the suffering caused by an originally conscious decision to remain apart from God's mercy.
For the soul, being God's greatest creation, is also His most precious.
It cannot be touched by spiritual darkness and evil itself, for the soul contains the inner divine light which comes from God.
Through love, fear and anger can be controlled through mindful effort and carefully wielded by each of us for the welfare of us all.
Likewise, love helps shed light on darkness, bringing the wisdom needed to abandon evil.
And this love is inspired by God's love for all His creation.
20050630
Conquering passion (poem)
Think of passion (kama)
as the source of the dust
on the mirror or the fog
on the window of the soul.
By just sitting,
wake the rational mind
from its slumber
and control the heart.
By just sitting,
blow away the dust
on the mirror,
and wipe away the fog
on the window.
When passion is quenched,
all that is left is bliss.
as the source of the dust
on the mirror or the fog
on the window of the soul.
By just sitting,
wake the rational mind
from its slumber
and control the heart.
By just sitting,
blow away the dust
on the mirror,
and wipe away the fog
on the window.
When passion is quenched,
all that is left is bliss.
20040828
Panentheism Revisited (poem)
Panentheism Revisited
I. First Truth
When one part of it hurts
The whole universe hurts.
Yet only rarely does humanity
realize the role of suffering
is to shape the human spirit wisely.
Always awake, enlightened, truly whole,
the whole universe is infinite
to this fool, yet is the source of life,
atom by atom, molecule by molecule.
II. True Joy
When one part of it rejoices
The whole universe rejoices.
Then, humanity may only feel joy
as spontaneous, the spark of freedom
to appreciate life as it is.
From the universe came the soul pristine,
the gift to seed in this mortal coil
at birth, only to be returned at death,
to the infinite, pristine and unchanged.
III. Illumination and Enlightenment
When one part of it illuminates
The whole universe is illuminated.
Here and there, wisdom slowly ebbs and flows
with the human tide on this grain of sand,
sometimes seeing the whole universe.
Through love and compassion, the wise support
with kindness their equals, the foolish,
sharing the wealth of the infinite,
securely complemented with prudence.
I. First Truth
When one part of it hurts
The whole universe hurts.
Yet only rarely does humanity
realize the role of suffering
is to shape the human spirit wisely.
Always awake, enlightened, truly whole,
the whole universe is infinite
to this fool, yet is the source of life,
atom by atom, molecule by molecule.
II. True Joy
When one part of it rejoices
The whole universe rejoices.
Then, humanity may only feel joy
as spontaneous, the spark of freedom
to appreciate life as it is.
From the universe came the soul pristine,
the gift to seed in this mortal coil
at birth, only to be returned at death,
to the infinite, pristine and unchanged.
III. Illumination and Enlightenment
When one part of it illuminates
The whole universe is illuminated.
Here and there, wisdom slowly ebbs and flows
with the human tide on this grain of sand,
sometimes seeing the whole universe.
Through love and compassion, the wise support
with kindness their equals, the foolish,
sharing the wealth of the infinite,
securely complemented with prudence.
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