Zen and freedom amongst the caged minds

[TooSicKs]

Those enslaved in the mind, that is.
I don't believe in god, allah, buddah, shiva, ganesh, rael, satan or any religion personified. Does this make me non-religious? I've found throughout my experiences and life, that the way to achieve enlightenment is to define exactly what enlightenment itself is. To become divine all is requires is a definition of divinity. If i try to follow another's path of enlightement, i'm simply follow in the footsteps of others instead of living life for myself.

What i do believe, is that the world we know, and existence itself is such a dynamic environment, constanly changing, that any religious beleif is negated by time itself. Adaptation. Beliefs chain the mind while ideas free the mind.

Zen buddhists almost got it right i believe, except for some details that in essence still amount to a belief in something. Enlightemnent, true personal discovery, is a different thing for each individual. The only thing i truly believe in is life itself, because that is the only thing i can be confident exists. I am a biological mechanism composed of matter, i have some grey matter inside my skull, and i am completely free to utlize the power of the highest intelligence known to exist, because i posess that intelligence, or at least i percieve the world that way. By realizing i am not obligated to any thought, i free my mind from barriers imposed by rules of religion, and even rules of so called reality, and therefore am free to create and adapt my individual belief of existence, from day to day if necessary.

I thought about writing a sort of book of religion of freedom, but that in itself would constitute hypocracy, since written word used in such a way is merely a way to freeze time, and prevents the forward progression of personal expansion of the mind.

There is one rule though:

Live until you die


Havign said that, it's up to each of us as an individual to define what life is. I know i will die, and i don't need a fairy tale of heaven, paradise, or reincarnation to face that. Death is death, siple as that, but for now we're on this side of that equation, do your best to simply live.

I used to feel lost for a while, like there was something missing from my life. I couldn't believe in the "invisible man in the sky" theory of god, because if i did that, i'd simply be submitting to someone else's interpretation of life, and would be cagng my mind inside someone else's ideals, and would be denying myself the freedom to have truly independent thought. Only recently in the past few years i relaized what was missing. It was the fact itself, that anyone else's beliefs to me were pure bullshit, because it took that person having a breakthrough in thought which can never be put into words. Many have tried, and because of it we have religion.


Once you get the idea of the uncaged mind, you begin to understand that truth itself is false, and that it's all a matter of perception.

Peace

[ubik]

Freedom of thinking, but it doesn't mean that verybody else is "wrong" (" mark because there's no sucj thing as right and wrong, it depends on the perspective too much) but there should be some rules, for one I'd say the same thing as in every religion do not kill... and that's about the only limitation that is important if we take "kill" in every form, literaly or thearaticaly etc.

[Digit]

"What i do believe, is that the world we know, and existence itself is such a dynamic environment, constanly changing, that any religious beleif is negated by time itself. Adaptation. Beliefs chain the mind while ideas free the mind. "

excelently put man. i tried to put across the same sentiment elsewhere, but this sums it up far better than i managed to.


additionally.
Once i find it again toosicks, i'll pm u an addy for a page on my own "religion". you'll understand once you read it why i am reluctant to make it comonly accesable for public veiwing.

[TooSicKs]

Originally posted by ubik
Freedom of thinking, but it doesn't mean that verybody else is "wrong" (" mark because there's no sucj thing as right and wrong, it depends on the perspective too much) but there should be some rules, for one I'd say the same thing as in every religion do not kill... and that's about the only limitation that is important if we take "kill" in every form, literaly or thearaticaly etc.

I believe that the concept of "thou shalt not kill" however is stated, yes, is a moral obligation, but simply by making it a rule of belief must mean that a belief system exists, and even killing should be taken on a case by case basis.

Example, some years ago i had a near incident with some individuals who were prepared to kill me, they had guns drawn and were taking cover trying to ambush me from behind a door. I grabbed my SKS assault rifle and took up a hidden sniper position. I held my fire, and fortunately the attempt was botched and they aborted mission. At that time i feel "thou shalt not kill" did not apply to me, as i was facing imminent end by malevolent force armed with 9 millimeters hunting me. I refuse to kill in anger or desparation, but if it comes down to survival, that's where i draw the line. I had a bead drawn for a clean head shot on the forward position individual advancing on me, and had that 9mm come around to my position with intent, sorry, blam, goodbye. I refuse to surrender my own life for moral principle to one who is intent on causing my death.

BTW these individuals could be classified as terrorist/assasin/hitman and i was alone guarding a government facility in which certain groups had a very high interest for strategic ops.


I've learned some hard lessons about life and death livin' in the ghetto tho, and have had "finger on the trigger" type circumstances where i was prepred to unload my 12 gage into the thug ass punk who was hunting me in my own neighborhood. I was young then, like 16, but i percieved a threat and i was prepared to kill to ensure my survival, if that meant wearing all black and stalking the back alleys with a 3" slug chambered ready to put in work, so be it. I wouldn't have felt bad about it either because earlier in th evening, said thug had fired at me and missed, not by much, bullet grazed inches from my head. I never found him, and when word got out that i was "hunting" he disapperaed.

But by far, the most "wrong" anyone could be is killing in the name of god, that's just manifestation of evil in itself.


As i have said, about adaptation, if the world is firing at you, fire back, shoot to kill, and mainly because if someone tries to kill me when i have not threatened them, they cease to be human or alive in my perception, and therefore i'm doing no more than stopping a piece of misguided meat from taking the life of someone still living (namely myself in the first situation involving the assasination attempt). They are a flesh robot programmed by society, by their boss/commander/mission director or whatever motivated them to become an instrument of destruction.

Fortunately i've never had to take the life of another, but it's been down to the point where i've had pressure applied to the trigger and was a shallow breath away from followthrough for a headshot on an advancing "enemy"

Having said all that, yeah, shit can get ugly quick, and no matter how high your moral ground i don't think you'd surrender to international thugs whose only perception of you is as a target to eliminate.

Oh yeah, and i'll be damned if i'm gonna die because someone else's fucked up ghetto bullshit or paramilitary objectives require it, i've seen too many of my friends get blasted over useless bullshit, my cousin recently got done by his childhood friend over like $20, took 10 9mm's in the back by his friend, after 2 in the chest at point blank range with no warning. It's a pretty violent world out there.

[TooSicKs]

Digit, thanks immensely for sending that link. I read it and i feel ya.

Basically each of us are our own existence, and we have our own mecahnism of perception, therefore if such a thing as religion is to be valid, the basis of it must come from within your own being, not the words of others. Living by a code of ethics, rules, and ritual that no longer applies.

Think about this:

Blasphemy. To say or even think that god (of whatever name) could be wrong, and it is a sin against that god to wuesion the existence of such, the perfect catch 22, damned if you do, damned if you don't, 6 of one 1/2 dozen of the other. Either way you're fucked if you have beleif in the first place. Fucked if you undoubtedly follow "the word of god" because then you have become a slave of the mind. If you believe, and you question, then you have "sinned", and you have enslaved yourself in your own mind by your own beliefs.

Peace

[ubik]

Well killing for survival is acceptable but if everyone could understand (I know that it's sometimes impossible to "not to kill) that killing is "wrong" then there wouldn't be a need to survive by killing the thread. That stuff you wrote and have been trough is horrible and I'm glad you're still alive and hope that nobody dies because of gang activity (well it's an utopia but hope should be kept).

[KraziHare]

I think it comes down to a conflict between personal discovery (religion) and institutionalized faith (organized religion).

If most Christians went out of their way to be like Jesus Christ for example (whether or not Jesus actually existed) I'd actually consider being Christian, if not through faith then through practice. But sadly the world isn't like that and as TooSicks said religion becomes perverted through time, a kind of theological entropy occurs when people who could never understand the value of coming to your own conclusions try to force their own shortcomings on others as they can't imagine life being anything but what any particular holy book says. Even worse is when people directly and purposefully use others' blind faith for their own means.

I've heard some say that one of the pillars of civilization is Christianity. But I don't see how that could be true as such organized faiths don't allow for things like progress for the sake of progress or questioning of authorities, without which we would be no where.

Good post TooSicks

[TooSicKs]

Exactly krazy, if JC were alive today "christians" would probably try to have his "damnned hippie dope-smokin ass" arrested for loitering or some inane bullshit like that.

More people have needlessly killed and died for their gods over recorded history than for any other reason. Some of the most horrific manifestations ofd evil have been carried out by devout and faithful. This has led me to the conclusion that the idea of god is where the true "evil" lies.

I refuse to take part in any religion ainly for that fact, that i wish not to be associated with any beleif system that causes such acts of horror.

How many more people need to be murdered in the name of god before we figure it out? probably most of us, when a holy war goes thermonuclear.

I'm not saying at all that you don't have to beleive in god, if belief in god is your aeroplane, then fly like a birdy, just don't drop bombs on the "unbeleivers" if ya know what i mean. My perception of existence negates god, yours may create god, and if you really beleive then it is real to you, but think about it, if god is really benevolent, would he not want you to pursue a good life of peace and happiness even if it means going against what is suposedly "his word" that was written by humans and translated so many times that the true mening if there ever was one is lost through centureis of misintrpretation.

I think if there was a truly benevolent higher being his "word" would resemble something like:

"Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes!"

Peace

[KraziHare]

Originally posted by TooSicKs
"Be excellent to each other, and party on, dudes!"

Peace

^^^ the ultimate wisdom

[Digit]

if i may just inject a little more wisdom through ironic quote...

"They train their soldiers to drop fire on their enemys, but they won't let them write FUCK on their airoplanes because it's obcene!"
- marlon brando's character "Kurtz" in the movie Apocalypse now.

the world is full of good intentions distorted and mislead through layer upon layer of hypocracy. where does all this hypocracy come from?

...the organised religions that in one hand hold a message of peace and kindness to all mankind, and in the other hand, a bomb and a gun for all those who do not see things the same way. thats where it comes from.

[Meanie Greenie]

this planet is screwed because of minds like toosicks,and digit. stop trying to be someone else, i mean there is already a james bond and a marlon brando on my block. maybe you should just live instead of eating mushrooms and thinking there is a whole legion of bad guys tryn to get you with 9mm pistols from behind that door! how many assisins could there be behind that door? grow up,,pull up your pants(nobody likes to see your underware!)

[Digit]

hahahaha.

if i thought like you think i think, i wouldnt be running around spouting my mouth off all the time.

i've forgotten the name of the game... that sega light gun game... u know the one... anyways. in answer to your question, you can hide 327 bad guys behind a single plant pot... a door is biggerm so there could be... MILLIONS! lol

[TooSicKs]

Originally posted by Meanie Greenie
this planet is screwed because of minds like toosicks,and digit. stop trying to be someone else, i mean there is already a james bond and a marlon brando on my block. maybe you should just live instead of eating mushrooms and thinking there is a whole legion of bad guys tryn to get you with 9mm pistols from behind that door! how many assisins could there be behind that door? grow up,,pull up your pants(nobody likes to see your underware!)

???

[Digit]

i think its his way of discrediting the paranoid conspiracy theorists toosicks

thing is... i'm neither paranoid or a conspiracy theorist.

[TooSicKs]

He can't discredit me, as i have not yet achieved credibility in the first place haha.

Yeah, i'm not paranoid, i saw "stuff". I've worked intel ops, surveillance, i've even designed some of the "hardware", From what the low level classified docs contain, it scares ya to think what's in the upper "echelon" has in the files.

Have you ever recieved threats from the gov't? Well unitl the N$A approaches you and "tells" you to dicontinue your search for supposedly public records, then you can never understand. When they have you followed, when they follow everyone you contact, when they stake out your residence, read your emails, wiretap your phones, and call to threaten you, then you can come on here and tell me how "paranoid delusional" i am.


There's "layers" you could never imagine.


Peace