There is an aspect of Christianity that is right in line with
Buddhist, Tibetan Dzogchen and the Hindu non-duel spiritual traditions.
True Christian Mystics such as St John of the cross
experienced God, Divinity, and Grace…
It’s referred to as Christ consciousness.
The Buddha and those so inspired to become enlightened
experienced God, Divinity and Grace and they call it
Enlightenment.
Tibetan Bon Buddhist that practice Dzogchen
experience the same thing and they call it
The great perfection.
Hindus of various traditions experienced God grace and divinity and they call it
Brahma conscious.
All these Traditions occasionally use
myth magic and miracles as metaphors to help explain
the affable nature of what God is…
and…
the inseparableness of our true self with Grace divinity God and all that is.
But
they don’t base their whole tradition on myth magic and miracles
like the mainstream Christian religion does.
Most of these traditions indeed begin with heaps of myth, magic, and miracles…
But over the millennia…
they transcended those early naive aspects and used them a metaphors
to help explain the ineffable aspects and concepts of ‘Such’ things
that we have no experience with in this ‘Here & Now’.
True…
many of them have variations, ‘schools of thought’, or denominations
that do take their myths, magic and miracles as the literal truth.
but,
mainstream Christianity exclusively demands that their myths, magic and miracles
are to be taken as the literal truth.
When I studied most popular theologies
it was obvious that when creating a religion, they must include
myth magic and miracles
and for them to be taken as the literal truth, or
you would not have a successful religion or denomination.
This requirement was still very much in place in the 1800’s
when the Morman religion was first created.
The need to have a biblical connection to myth magic and miracles
inspired Joseph Smith to come up with his ridiculous
‘Golden Scrolls’ fairy tales…
again…
Insisting these fantasies were to be taken as the literal truth…
but back then… the people demanded it.
Note:
He never showed anyone those scrolls.
He did show some fools plates that were covered with cloth…
Of which he never took the cloth off.
Folks must have been easily duped back then.
A lack of critical thinking is a required part of
believing the unbelievable.
In the Christian religion, along the way, they made a conscious choice
to play into people’s desire for myths, magic and miracles.
In doing so it created a dead end a roadblock and a diversion
From actually experiencing God, Enlightenment, moksha, Brahma Etc…
In fact,
it is highly discouraged to attempt to do so.
The myths, magic and miracles made up in the Bible
are completely man made up fantasies which do not even attempt to
metaphorically teach a reasonable lesson towards Christ consciousness.
For example
with your modern critical thinking mind… consider
the Tower of Babel myth…
How God, the all-powerful was completely terrified that
a group of archaic men could build a tower of sticks so high
that they could reach heaven and not need God to get there…
rendering God, the all-powerful Almighty… powerless.
So,
The all knowing, all powerful ‘god’ gets upset, angry, vengeful…
All of the vile poisonous egoic perspectives that all the other traditions Practice
Not to do…
This ‘god’ does all that, gets pissed off and smites all the tower builders
with a bolt of divine lighting that makes them all start babbling in
brand new, never before spoken languages.
This misleading story does a great dis-service to children that have to
un-learn this misperception of how all languages were formed.
If there truly was such a thing as a ‘sin’…
misleading children would qualify.
Now that story may have resonated with the worldview of archaic people
over 2,000 years ago but
the fact we’ve built skyscrapers way higher than that begs the question:
so does that mean God is terrified even more?!? …
of course not.
There simply is no such personification of “God”
as it was projected to the archaic world view
of over 2000 years ago.
The great flood myth that was supposed to have flooded the entire world…
that story again would have impressed the archaic people over 2,000 years ago
but now, with modern science,
it’s completely proven by historical geography
that the world was never completely full of water
at a time when humans and developed animals existed
or even fish lived in the ocean.
The best that records can indicate that once upon a time
there was a river that may have flooded.
The closest guess is that a localized event that may have inspired the myth
often point to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flooding the Mesopotamian Valley.
Perhaps there was a rich man, perhaps a king and his name may have
sounded something like Noah.
Noah could have had a big raft, like some did back in those days…
It was traditional back then to bring their cattle and livestock
up or down a river for market
and then use the raft to bring supplies back to the farm.
When a big storm came along he may have put his prized animals on this raft
but he certainly didn’t get two of every species on this raft
and really…
Could you imagine getting two penguins from the Antarctic
to come all the way to the Middle East?
What did they feed the Predators... Purina Predator?
There are some ultimate truths in the Christian religion
however
instead of teaching that one could actually understand their ‘True nature’
and experience Grace Divinity and God themselves …
Which is only through a process of Deep contemplation, meditation,
and the wordless Wisdoms that come from the insights of this experience
can manifest this ineffable subject matter be learned…
and it’s not through words…
they chose the distracting myths, magic and miracle rout…
and never transcended to include those in their teachjings as metaphors
to help explain the ineffable nature of concepts that are
beyond anything in this life to compare to.
The Tao says
that which is written or read cannot be the Tao.
The Tao teaches the philosophy of “The Way”…
The fundamental, ineffable principle that is
the source and natural order of the entire universe.
Bible speaks of
“the Word”.
Which references ‘Jesus’ to be the ‘word’ of God.
Different approach but still is basically pointing toward
the ineffable nature of ‘Such’ things.
A good start but then goes directly into the myth aspects.
The message of Jesus is very profound
and a lot of good messages come from that story…
and in fact,
the people that were creating the first writings
about someone that would later be named ‘Jesus’
was using the characteristics and spiritual practices
of real spiritual mystics of that time.
however
there is absolutely no physical evidence he was ever
a real person born on this Earth …
Even the name Jesus didn’t appear in the original writings
that were to become the basis of the bible…
And,
Jesus didn’t even get his supernatural powers of healing, walking on water…
For another 400 years.
But that’s another part of the myth aspect of the religion.
Which again,
Should not negatively affect the good message of the ‘Jesus’ story…
So,
Why go to all the trouble of demanding this myth to be the literal truth
in these modern times…
This often causes the people of higher education and deeper critical thinking
To leave this child like naive religion.
The mythic literal aspects of this religion
is the leading inspirations for atheism.
It is important to understand the people who were creating the elements
that were later become the Bible, were actually basing a lot of their information
on true real life mystics that were very similar to the other spiritual mystics of that time
and still in practice today.
The sad and disappointing elements of the Christian religion is
they’ve abandoned the ultimate truths and chose to create a religion
that would appeal to the archaic mindset of those from over 2,000 years ago
and never update that perspective with time and human evolution.
Any good philosophy, society or tradition that sustains or expands itself
is based on the ability to transcend and include.
If you’re an intelligent person over 2,000 years ago and society figures
you’re the smartest person in the world and you’re going to write down
the smartest person in the world’s worldview on a document and
you’re going to tell everybody
don’t get any smarter than this, don’t look any deeper or farther or wider,
don’t look for any more truth, don’t look at anybody else’s opinion or facts logic and reason this is the ultimate thing and keep worshiping and believing the same thing over and over…
This is a self defeating mode for any organization.
In the Tantric philosophies, it is taught that,
by the time this document is written and read…
it very well already be outdated.
When something truer, wiser, more complete comes along…
It is expected to burn the old “sacred” scriptures and doctrines
and transcend to the newer ones.
That is why the Christian religion these days misses the opportunity
to teach the Ultimate Truths through the personal experience with
God, Grace and Divinity…
it’s not about even trying to understand the ineffable concepts of
Grace Divinity and what is referred to as God,
for God is a concept that is beyond the understanding of anyone
using just their traditional analytical contemplating brain functions.
It’s beyond mere words… and the mind.
What amuses me but also deeply saddens me this how
so many people so proudly state how strongly are into God
and yet
they ignore the many different ways one can actually learn more about
what is the concept of God, what is my relationship to God, what is this life all about
and what could the ‘here after’ be all about.
Rather than find the volition and inspirations to aspire towards these subject matters
that they spend their whole life boasting on how much they’re into all these things
but yet
cannot even lift a finger to find out for themselves by personal experience.
They would rather take the word of an archaic misogynistic man that lived in a cave
who came up with this story so long ago
they thought the Earth was flat,
the entire universe which is round revolved around this Flat Earth.
women had no rights, slavery was perfectly normal and
they didn’t even know where the sun went at night
and that’s the logic and depth of what people base their entire lives believing…
or
misbelieving.
Ken Wilber the most prolific contemporary human psychologist
that studies human societies and the human element of
what makes a functional sustainable Society,
what is required to be a creative fulfilled human…
his observations are:
the people will choose their religion or spiritual tradition or
their philosophy or psychology worldview or outlook on life
all based on the psychological growth development that they are at.
A good healthy psychologically balanced human will always be
transcending and including
learning and growing at each stage of life.
Life has many stages but when they choose to stop the train
and permanently settle for a lower stage and call that
their station of life
they stay at that station the rest of their life.
Call it Divine free will or just your human volition
whatever it is that inspires one to keep seeking higher stages of
human and spiritual growth development
or
just get off the train at a lower level of human growth development
call that stage their life’s total ambition and they’ll stay stuck there
for the rest of their life.
Most people don’t even get introduced to the non-dual Spiritual traditions
which pursue the same aspects that
St John of the cross pursued practiced abided in
and ultimately gained the experience of Christ consciousness.
This state of consciousness considered to be
the highest state of consciousness a human can attain…
is very rare…
Significantly less than .1% of 1% can be considered fully enlightened.
Significantly less than 5% of the population
even has a vague idea what enlightenment means.
It’s not that becoming enlightened or experiencing the higher states of consciousness
is impossible
it’s actually quite possible and quite reasonably attained through
an earnest practice and dedication to experience the full fruition of the path.
No it’s not impossible and it’s easier than one would think,
it’s just that in our country these concepts, practices and the idea of
experiencing this…
is never ever introduced to us in our normal upbringing …
even as adults in our society.
For those that are attached and feel strongly about the Christian perspective
I urge you to dig deeper.
Dump the distracting dogmas and doctrines
and learn the practices of how to connect to Christ consciousness.
Learn about Father Thomas Keating centering prayer
and integrate that into your practice.
cac.org › daily-meditations › centering-prayer
This is a meditation technique that’s very similar to the Buddhist and Hindu Vipassana
in which one meditates for 10 hours a day.
The Chrisitian Centering Prayer differs slightly by
interchanging between reading the scriptures contemplating on it.
Then sitting with it in silence…
and repeat 10 hours a day for 10 days.
This is similar to how St John of the Cross had is ‘God Realization’
and went on to write about the experiences of his
‘Insight meditations’ in his book:
“The Dark Night of the Soul”.
This is potentially a psychological challenge because
the path to Self-Realization breaks down everything one previously thinks they are…
the ego-mind-body.
St John was a pioneer of this with the Christian perspective.
Hindus and Buddhist had been doing this for millennia.
These days,
with the current information and proper teachings…
The ‘Dark night’ aspect is more like a liberating dream…
than a nightmare.
Which is way it is important to
transcend your shadow issues the moment they arise…
I support anybody to believe or misbelieve into whatever they want
as long as their belief doesn’t end up disentrancing or harming others.
Trump supporting “Christians” do indeed harm and disenfranchise
countless millions of people each day.
They ignorantly support the antithesis of what their religion is sincere about…
The 10 commandments and the message of Jesus.
These are some of the scriptures that point out how
tRump supporting “Christians” have violated their own bible
and the message of Jesus:
Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 are widely mis-interpreted.
Genesis 23:4
Exodus 23:9 (ESV)
Deuteronomy 10:19
Leviticus 19:33-34 (ESV)
Deuteronomy 27:19 (NIV)
1 Chronicles 16:19-22
Job 29:15-17
Psalm146:9
Jeremiah 7:5-7
Ezekiel 47:22
Zechariah 7:9-10
Matthew 5:43-44
Matthew 25:35
Matthew 25:40
Luke 10:27
Acts 10:34
Romans 12:13
Romans 13:8
Colossians 3:11
Hebrews 13:1-3
3 John 1:5
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Christian’s that support tRump have abandoned the message of morals of their own religion
When a religion or spiritual tradition talks about an ‘Ultimate Truth’...
a Spiritual teacher from the north, south, east, or west will put these ineffable teachings
in their own words based on their ethnic and geological perceptions …
all different traditions… but all pointing toward the same ‘Ultimate Truth’.
This is the main factor in determining if they are presenting ‘Ultimate Truths’…
or just pushing their own isolated doctrines and dogma and unsubstantiated myths.
The Christian religion could have been just a different flavor of the similar theme
of the non-dual traditions but
since they chose to go exclusively for the Mythic literal aspect
with dogmas and doctrines that derail and create a dead end towards
actually experiencing the ineffable nature of divinity Grace … AKA… Christ Conscious
and what they refer to as ‘God’.
Yet, instead, they typically do not offer a Path beyond
a naive mythic-literal perspective.
With the traditional message:
“Don’t attempt to experience this personally for yourself”…
Just take our word for it, have faith and just… believe.
And even though they brag about how much they’re into God
they can’t lift one finger to understanding the concept they so loudly boast about.
And then
they have the arrogance to go run around bragging about how blessed they are
and how pathetic the rest of the people are that are worthless sinners in their eyes…
It’s akin to a third grader going into postgraduate College room telling the professor that he’s going to hail because he’s too stupid to understand that Bob Square Pants, a cartoon figure is the saving Messiah… Duha!
Albert Einstein points out that most religions
is like a child with a shoe box of intelligence
and they expect to fit the entire universe of wisdom into that little box.
It wasn’t that Albert Einstein was an atheist …
he simply could not buy into the naive childlike perspectives of
mainstream religion’s view on Grace, Divinity and the concept of God… Yet…
He is in awe of the mystical ‘order of things’…
There’s no physical evidence that
Jesus was ever a real man alive in this earth
however
the Buddha is over 700 years farther back in history
and yet
they have his written texts, letters, documents…
they know about his family tree, the family business,
what his father did for a living, what his grandfather did for a living,
and the life story of Siddhartha Gautama the Buddha.
A profound correlation is
nobody worships the Buddha like a god.
Buddha is a title that just means enlightenment …
His teachings are to liberate one from
the ignorance of not knowing their true self
thus
eliminating the pain and suffering that most will inherently endure in this life.
Regardless that the character Jesus was made up …
the message is no less important.
And the difference between the Buddha,
which is not meant to be worshiped like a god
and Jesus which is intended to be worshiped….
Those are subtle but significant differences and in the long run
if all the elements were in place with no distracting dogmas and doctrines
and man made up myths magic and miracles distracting from
the ultimate wisdoms of obtaining Christ consciousness…
There is certainly a path a Christian can take to gain the full fruition
of what that religion was originally based on before it got modified…
not by the hand of God but
by the hand of misogynistic power-driven men,
hell bent on creating a political power of Church & State backed by the fear of God.
The power of church and state became
the worlds most powerful military weapon.
And thus,
Taking it farther and further away from teaching of
how to understand and concepts of your True Self, God and Divinity.
Since the religion chose to go that direction
it derailed and created a dead end for true aspirants
to find the ultimate fruition of Christ consciousness.
also,
the myth that the bible was written by the hand of “God” …
when an earth bound regular man or a group of men wrote it.
At best,
They were ‘divinely’ inspirited’…
But that leaves a whole lot of speculation.
There can never be any proof… that “God” came down,
picked up a pen and wrote bible without anyone witnessing.
Thus,
One must have ‘faith’ in the ‘belief’ that this myth is the absolute literal Truth…
Realize what a religion is, and what it is not.
It is a ‘belief’ system…
One must have ‘faith’…
There can never be knowing.
One can have very strong ‘faith’ and really, really believe…
really hard…
But,
It is simply a ‘belief’ system.
In politics…
The ‘cult-like’ demagogue politicians have been psychologically brainwashing
‘we the people’
for many decades using military grade psyops techniques
that don’t just take advantage of the mentally vulnerable…
It’s so effective that even reasonably intelligent people
that at least strive to be objective and use critical thinking…
get brainwashed after so many years of this ultra-Reich-wing propaganda…
consider…
the Christian religion has been at it for over 2000.
In either case,
the victim is convinced that they have come to these perspectives
through their own free will and intelligence.
When they are told they may have been brainwashed…
They will spontaneously react with
Denial and deflection.
I’ve witnessed this live and in person in real time…
When you pose a question or a statement
that their rational minds know better…
But
Goes against the programing they’ve been exposed to…
You can witness a sort of brain fart… a visible glitch in their psyche…
They take a pause…
Eyes tend to glaze over…
Often drool appears at the left side of their mouth like a confused dog.
A left head tilt which sends information to the right hemisphere of the brain
for an advantage for better understanding.
It is pointless to continue a conversation with a tRump supporter with any
facts, logic, morals, virtues or anything essential to
the sustainability of the human condition…
It’s like trying to teach a pig to sing…
It will just waste your time…
And annoy the pig.
Transcend and include…
There is no one religion or spiritual tradition
that has all the answers or the perfect ‘Path’.
Each tradition,
if it is a reasonable one,
will point toward the direction the aspirant needs to take their Practice.
Ultimately,
there is no words, no sacred scriptures, doctrines or
even the words of Enlightened Masters can say,
that will grant you the Ultimate Wisdoms…
This must be experienced.
It is often stated:
“Buddhist practices make me a better Christian” …
By diversifying one’s perspectives…
helps deepen their connection to their main faith or religion.
Even in the non-duel traditions
there are aspects in the various ‘schools of teachings’ or ‘dominions’…
that must be taken with a grain of salt… or… taken for what it’s worth,
finding the higher meaning…
Or just plain ignored….
Transcend and include.
Keep the good shit and flush the turds!
If one is unfortunate to be stuck in one ridged religion
or even a non-duel spiritual tradition…
If you are vested by a lifetime of dedication and service to that religion
or even a non-duel spiritual tradition…
It is almost impossible to transcend to a higher, deeper, wider, wiser wisdoms
if that’s not already included in that religion or spiritual tradition.
For a number of years I studied the teachings of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche,
a Tibetan Bon Buddhist and Dzogchen Master.
I learned the very deep aspects of ‘The Great Perfection’
and countless meditation practices that still inspire my practice today.
They still teach about karma and reincarnation.
There is many misunderstandings about both.
Tibetan monks are experts about death and what comes after.
They wrote the famous books interpreted as:
The Tibetan Books of the Dead…
They speak about the dying process, death and the ‘bardo’,
the period between this life and … whatever comes next…
They have that process very accurately documented…
Right up to when the body flatlines…
Personally,
In my humble and perhaps naive perspective…
What comes after that can be much more about
speculations and projections…
However,
The Dzogchen Masters, and the masters of many other spiritual traditions
that consciously approached the dying process lucidly…
Manage to tell their disciples:
“Nothing changes”.
This is a profound statement.
Consider that the main state of mind one practices for many years is:
Abiding in the very present ‘now’ moment.
The phrase:
‘Be Here Now’, has profound meaning in that simple statement.
When one spends many years abiding in “Pure Awareness” …
Then takes that awareness into the higher states of human consciousness
during “Insight meditations” …
Where there is no thinking, no physical sensations…
Just… Pure Awareness.
This is what they mean:
“Nothing Changes”.
Whatever comes after this life…
This is the essence of it.
The Ground of your Being transcends into this Pure Awareness.
In fact,
There is nothing anyone can do the mess this up…
Everything is:
Always Already Alright.
Nothing needs to be learned or practiced.
But,
To liberate yourself from the pain and suffering inherent in this life
caused by the confusion of being ignorant of one’s True self…
Becoming Liberated, Self-Realized or Enlightened
in this life
is the highest accomplishment a human can achieve.
There is plenty of lazy or misleading aspects of various spiritual traditions.
Take for example:
The Buddhist ‘Pure Land’ tradition.
Amitabha
It is similar to the shallow end of Christianity
with its own versions of myths and distracting ‘faiths’
that one can simply pray or petition a ‘god’ or deity
to be blessed with a rebirth in the “Promise Land”…
Like Christian’s ‘Heaven’…
An imaginary place where one can then effectively become enlightened
and transcend to “Nirvana” …
Which is a completely misleading and distracting perspective.
Nirvana is not a place one can go to…
It’s just a perspective one has that
liberates their confusing ignorant perspectives.
Consider:
The Tibetan Bon tradition has the maturity of
over 18,000 years of unbroken lineage.
Up to about 400 years ago, the tradition was:
One master, one disciple, one lifetime.
This was to make sure the teachings remained pure.
It has since then transcended to an expansive form
to allow more to learn this precious practice.
In a way, they do ‘transcend and include’…
It just takes a very long time.
18,000 years of unbroken lineage sounds impressive,
But,
Consider what the world view was waaaay back then.
The tradition began its formation and went through countless aspects of
‘Transcend and include’.
At first,
what most anyone today would obviously consider myth, magic and miracles…
Back then, that’s all they had.
People didn’t know what thunder and lightening was…
But it must be angry ‘gods’.
Over time,
as their world views evolved, so did the teachings.
The myth, magic and miracles that once formed the core teachings
became metaphors to help teach the ineffable nature
of what once was considered…
‘god’.
Then they learned how to become ‘Self-Realized’…
The same evolutionary Path was in play with the Hindu Vedism Dharma traditions.
What once started with obvious forms of myth, magic and miracles…
along with outrageously imaginative deities and various ‘god’ forms…
Eventually transcended by including those older myths and ‘gods’ into a more
metaphoric teaching tool,
again to help explain the ineffable nature of “God”, or Brahma, as they refer to it.
So,
today you’ll find, even in these non-duel traditions,
wild far out images of blue deities, deities with many arms, legs, eyes…
and so on.
Each one was created and evolved to way to teach a higher meaning.
Most modern aspirants appreciate these metaphoric teaching methods
and are not caught up with the initial appearance
and thus
deepen their Practice – Sadhana and understanding.
However,
Some people of all these non-duel spiritual traditions
belong to a lineage or tradition that keeps them believing the
myths, magic and miracles are the literal truth.
Typically in the more remote areas that are not modernized.
Ken Wilber:
My favorite contemporary philosopher of human development points out:
“People are attracted to religions, spiritual traditions, or philosophy & psychology….
Based on their depth of human growth evolution.
Somewhat like cavemen could only project that there must be
gods of lightning and thunder…
Then,
a wee bit more evolving and ya get the Tibetan Bon gods, the Hindu gods, the Greek gods, throw in the native Indian gods, the Hawaiian and Polynesian gods,
then somewhere in that timeline…
the Christian god.
Then,
Transcend all of that imaginary sky god projections and
take the non-duel Path to its fullest fruition and become
‘Self-Realized’.
After what typically is nearly a lifetime of earnest effort and Practice…
When the effort required to stay with
‘one-pointed’ focused concentration awareness stabilizes…
There comes a point in which the intense effort
dissolves into a new phase of the Practice…
The effortless practice.
The object of meditation transcends from a physical aspect,
typically the breath, but could be
an object, a candle or repeated mantra…
And becomes an objectless subject of awareness in meditation…
It becomes the essence of love, joy, bliss, rapture…
Certainly… ineffable.
During these very deep ‘Insight Meditations’,
a higher consciousness is experienced.
And even that description has to many ‘words’…
There no longer is the meditator doing the meditation.
No longer a dualistic perspective of being the one
experiencing the experience…
There is just … the experience.
No thoughts, no physical sensations…
The ‘Insight’ aspect slowly comes to mind
hours, days and sometimes weeks later.
Where the analytical mind can contemplate
the wordless Wisdoms of Higher consciousness.
One aspect of this experience is profound sense that,
whoever you thought you were…
Whatever you thought about ‘yourself’ that called all the shots and was in control…
Becomes profoundly disembodied.
In a timeless moment,
one goes from feeling the presences of “God”…
To realizing their True ‘Self,
to experiencing the inseparableness of both of
what you once considered yourself… and
what you once considered…‘God’.
To a knowing there is neither…
yet,
both.
This is Self-Realization, Enlightenment, Moksha, Liberation,
The Great Perfection, all is Brahma, Buddha conscious, Christ conscious…
this list of labels goes on across all the non-duel spiritual traditions…
‘You’ become ‘at one with it All’… except…
“You” become … no more…
All is one, and one is all.
Everything is Always Already Alright.
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