I seem to swing between seeing things in one of two ways. That I cannot judge what people really do, certainly cannot base what I think about those I do not experience on information reported by the media who often have an agenda in what they say. I see that many people are far more awake then seems obvious at first glance, even though many others remain as asleep as they have always been, but all is still exactly as it should be. AND . . . The fact that because many are still caught inside the same old illusions, which they choose, want, will not consider looking at any other way, keeps the world in the state it's in, even though it does seem to have made a shift towards the positive, there is still a great deal of negative constantly working to nullify it. Both are real. Both depend on perspective. But because I don't hold any belief, I don't decide one is realer than the other. I don't decide to prefer to believe this over that. I can still become quite passionate sometimes, as DD can, about what still seems so far away, so much still to be done, and feel almost a sense of hopelessness that it never will. This can have the effect of making me want to let go of the world as I do not see any point in running around banging heads that have already decided they know. But I keep coming back to accepting things as they are for a reason. Not saying individual attempts at making things right aren't exactly what we need to change things, but every life is unique, and every person's trials within it unique to them. For those who are wanting to save the planet, find new fuels . . . you know, change the big stuff, the scientists, when not part of some big corporation who's main aim is to satisfy the shareholders, it comes down to each man and woman doing what they know to be right. Re-using, recycling, avoiding buying things they have no real need for in the first place, etc. Attempting to live our lives in good conscience and not looking to judge the way another seems to be. This should actually be the role of religion in many ways, which is meant to be a light for the masses, had it not become (or perhaps always was) so corrupted by the egos who run it. For those who do not do well individually in this area, or for those who are looking for someone to save them, according to their religion, they need something to feel good about, something that will make them stop and re-evaluate their lives. Forget about just concentrating on getting the latest phone they don't need and take stock of what really matters. The idea of a saviour makes sense when looked at from this perspective - not to come and lead and stay and keep doing, so we no longer have to, but to inspire and reveal, then leave in a way that forces people to choose to act on what they've experienced. The Jesus story is exactly that. Had he stayed around longer and not had a violent death, more and more people would pilgrimage to see him, as they do now with our various holy men around the world. It wouldn't have been long before the Jesus organisation grew, that in needing to sustain itself, moved from simply living on the donations that the grateful naturally gave, to a more structured acquisition of wealth so as to sustain it.
As always, love your thoughts. I think there are some well-adjusted people of different beliefs/religions.They are the ones who are naturally grounded in who they are even without their belief. The more extremist, the less secure I tend to think. Human nature unfortunately is always looking for identity. and religion is the easiest way to find it....a 'group' to belong to...kind of like a gang, but obviously with-hopefully-more positive outcomes. There are many many churches and places that do real good in the world. Its the bad ones that make the religious groups stand out as corrupt. I mostly associate the worst Christian one as Catholic-it seems to be the first one that really gave religion a bad rep..lul. Then theres the whole Islamic fundamentalist groupthink..that's taking humanity to new lows daily. Today they kidnapped a group of girls from a school in Nigeria.....now there you can talk about the detriments of religion. Makes me sick. Animals wouldn't treat each other like that. It IS really hard to stay hopeful about the human race when you think about the ways we haven't evolved. ..i.e.lack of acceptance.
i had a vision once about the way we are shown things by the wold round us...... how they always seem as you mentioned to take the most negative perspective available...... and how there is always more there to be seen..... always what they left out when deciding what we need to know..... how so many stories we are presented with could be told from another view...... or several..... i cant stop seeing the mass of organized religion becoming more and more of what their book warns them of..... these organizations becoming "the world" they are following...... all the while ignoring the spirit which has always been with them.... if their savior shows up on the seen.....i cant help but feel it will be to call them out from under the men they are following..... to show them they were always meant to stand and grow individually....yet together..... not by just doing as other men tell them to do... yet by finding what has always been with them..... and opening themselves to it..... to think one has it all figured out....is a great way to make sure you learn nothing new..... these visions have shown me many things along my way.... somedays they bring me closer to everything around me ....and some days i couldnt be farther... acceptance..... first they ask that i accept myself...... before i can accept those i find along my way.....to accept myself at times i like me just fine.... at times i am not so easy to get along with.... yet all thse bit are part of the whole..... this balance i seek is not simple to maintain.... especially when the world is out there all the while convincing people it has the answers...... when we havent even started really asking the best questions yet..... when they believe they have it figured...... they create tons of limitations on a thing beyond their understanding...... fuck.....just accepting that i cant see it all from here is a step in the right direction..... losing the need to be right all the time.... fuck...what is right today may not feel so tomorrow....
Trouble is, sometimes we think we really do see it from here - at least it seems that way in the moment. When that happens, it can be hard to hold a mindset that this is just what I see right now. It takes but a moment to create a new belief, and sometimes a lifetime to let it go again. Sort of explains why some seem so closed to seeing things any other way, especially if they've believed it so for a long time. Belief and the ego quickly intertwines, making one need the other, so that belief becomes part of the ego, and who wants their ego threatened by anyone else's? The fundamentalist can't accept that what they see is just their perspective - there don't appear to be many individual fundamentalists out there. Usually, where there's one there's more. Once there are enough it become self-perpetuating, as each reinforces each other's feeling of being right. Having never been one of these I can't say I know what it is to feel that strongly about something and know others are wrong, but there are times when I do find myself feeling I'm right about something or other, which I imagine might be similar. I may be right, but I prefer to be open to seeing it another way. How can I ever know anything unless I'm prepared to consider anything I think I know?
Great post DD.. That is why, beyond just believing there's Something, I respect the Buddhist 'Way'. The emphasis is on improving understandings of the Self-that it is just a construct- discarding an ever present hinder of the ego, not being fearful, and showing compassion and love. It's more of a way of life/philosophy. It's all about acceptance in so many ways. Very insightful-They put in great faith- I guess it is-on what Buddha thought but they don't see him as 'God'. "Gripped by fear men go to the sacred mountains, sacred groves, sacred trees and shrines".
Yes, they don't make it into a religion or don't have to anyway. To see another's way as having value is a good way to see the world, even if you don't have to follow it to know that. I can never really know what someone gets out of what they believe, I can only see the way they appear to be and how I feel around them. I must say that those who live that kind of life, a more philosophical, find your own way but here's an idea if you need one, kind of way, seem far more balanced than those who practise other things.
Definitely how you feel when you're around someone is a big requirement...if all you feel is a sucking out of your energy-or whether a balanced even keel. Maybe all that feeding off each other creates a kind of instability. 'Find your own way' sounds a lot like 'Seek and you shall find'. *I love it when synchronicities happen-This came this morning after I had posted that^^ in my mail: Above all else, we need to nourish our true self-what we can call our buddha nature-for so often we make the fatal mistake of identifying with our confusion, and then using it to judge and condemn ourselves, which feeds the lack of self-love that so many of us suffer from today. How vital it is to refrain from the temptation to judge ourselves or the teachings, and to be humorously aware of our condition, and to realize that we are, at the moment, as if many people all living in one person. And how encouraging it can be to accept that from one perspective we all have huge problems, which we bring to the spiritual path and which indeed may have led us to the teachings, and yet to know from another point of view that ultimately our problems are not so real or so solid, or so insurmountable as we have told ourselves. -S. Rinpoche
It's a lot easier to come to terms with a reality where we deny certain aspects of it. It's like that condition where we forget really traumatic events from out past, especially our early childhood, I forget the term if there is one. However, the problem with doing this is the fact that by our very nature we learn from experience. If we choose to experience something that isn't all that pleasant for us, we can learn how to handle it better the next time around. If we deny the reality, we don't learn and we get stuck repeating the same mistakes over and over again. And each time we repeat them, they don't become any easier to deal with because we haven't learned how to deal with them in a more positive manner. In effect, we create our own hell that we are doomed to repeat again and again until we are ready to accept what it is we experience.
I think the term is 'repression' -could be wrong-it could also be -'the act of suppressing'. And yes on the experiencing-getting out of that is called 'therapy' haha