Spirituality: now that’s a commonly used word, but I suspect few who use it are communicating a specific message to their listeners. In fact, I would venture to guess that if 10 million people used the word simultaneously, no two would be able to explain its meaning or to convey identical ideas to another. How am I allowed to make such an assertion? Simply stated, seemingly no two people have the same understanding of spirituality.
Just ‘google’ the definition of spirituality and you will get a litany of rambling, ambiguous verbiage but literally nothing of concrete nature. It is impossible to describe something the nature of which you don’t understand. Just as I have defined the essence of God in my book ‘Wilderness Cry’, I have defined the essence of spirituality in my newly released book ‘Peace in Spirituality’.
So, if those same afore mentioned 10 million people read and comprehended ‘Peace in Spirituality’, they would be able to speak about spirituality with one voice. Furthermore their listeners would be able to comprehend with ‘one ear’—that is real communication—everything else is misinformation and disinformation.
In my last post, I noted that Hindus and Buddhists were committed to understanding the meaning of existence, and, if possible, to understanding the nature of the ‘existence giving’ principle, if any. Without benefit of any scientific information, they were severely hampered in their quest—that did not deter their determination.
Abraham and his descendants, on the other hand, identified ‘their’ god—he was theirs’ and theirs’ alone. They fashioned him directly after their own image and likeness. He had created the world—he ruled it like a king sitting on a glorious throne. He was totally separate from his creation and lorded over it with a ‘heavy hand’. His ‘subject peons’ were at his mercy. Sometimes they made him happy and he showered them with gifts of many sons and animals. More frequently they made him angry as his resultant wrath demonstrated. It soon became evident that the only way their god could be ‘appeased’ was through the sacrifice of their goods and animals.
Those sacrifices had to be ‘perfect’ and for that reason a ‘High Priest’ came into being. Not only was he the only one allowed to offer the sacrifices, he was the only one who could provide the perfect specimens to be offered. Of course those specimens didn’t come cheaply. The High Priest had to be paid, and a ‘pretty penny’ at that—so the High Priest got richer and the peasants got poorer.
Do you see how god operates?—just like the Israelites who designed him. You might say ‘what’s that got to do with spirituality?’ And I say everything. The Jews eventually got to talking about a Holy Ghost, but didn’t have a clue as to who or what it was. The Hindus and Buddhists recognized that possibly such an entity existed but, likewise, couldn’t quite put the puzzle together. The Israelite imagination of god precluded any possibility of their ever knowing the Holy Spirit. The Hindus and Buddhists suspected it was there but didn’t have an understanding of how.
Guess what, nothing has changed till now. I have, in fact, defined the essence of spirituality in no uncertain terms. For more than a year, I have repeatedly called for the recognition and acceptance of the World-wide Communion of Spirituality. For greater understanding, please read my little books ‘Wilderness Cry’ and ‘Peace in Spirituality. Press releases and video trailers of each attached.
906242_Press Release for Wilderness Cry
Press Release for Peace in Spiritiality
Have you ever wondered why and how two of the oldest philosophies/religions in the world came to be? More importantly, have you ever considered the ultimate concepts contained in those philosophies ? While I do not know, with certainty, about their origin and development, it seems likely to me that they were a direct attempt to understand the basic meaning of life, and at the same time, discover the nature if its origin. While the Abrahamic religions were busy bargaining with their god, and offering sacrifices to him, the contemplative far-easterners were desperately trying to understand if such an entity actually existed, and, if so, in what environs.
My research tells me that the contemplatives were way ahead of the sacrificials who had dreamed up a scheme of power and control right out of their own playbook—that is to say, they manufactured a god patterned directly after their own possessive, egotistical selves. Their god was theirs alone and could not be shared with anyone.
Can there be a greater thrill? I’d vouch to say that no one, who professes an Abrahamic religion, is any closer to God than any Hindu or Buddhist who ever lived. We, each, are loved equally by our Perfect Loving Creator, with no one possibly being more favored over another—there are no such things as higher places in heaven.
COMMUNION: in its usual sense this word means ‘a coming or being together’ in either body or spirit or both. It is generally used in a religious or spiritual sense–for instance we frequently hear of ‘the communion of saints’–more often we are presented with the sacrament of Eucharist which is commonly referred to as ‘Holy Communion”. The latter terms typically are used by the ‘sacrificial’ Christians–Catholics, Episcopals, Lutherans, etc.
a ‘perfect sacrificial offering’ to a vengeful God as an appeasement.
rose by any other name is still a rose’.
CONTRADICTION: the word itself mean a saying or statement that seems contrary to the reality or truth of another statement. Contradictions are a ‘dime a dozen’ in our everyday lives—may are readily resolved and many go totally unresolved. I want to address what seems to me do be a direct contradiction between Christian prayer and a direct quote from Luke’s Gospel.
referring to—it was a common practice.
Religion and Politics: It is a universal statement, ‘our constitution demands separation of church and state’. I doubt seriously if many people know what that means. I suspect that the framers of the constitution designed it so that no religion could take over our government and thereby become a Theocracy.
clearly see. That definition leaves nothing to the imagination. Similarly, it abolishes forever all of the mythology, superstition and deceit associated with religions of all kinds. It shows that physical miracles are an impossibility; likewise it proves that any concepts of purgatory or hell are irrational. It shows that the Perfect Love of God pervades all—nothing can be rejected. Only by the prejudiced minds of men are we rejected. It shows how unloving (unjust) our legal system has been from the beginning.
I am convinced that Jesus was the most brilliant human to ever live. In spite of being illiterate, He recognized many important clues about God. He saw that everything in this universe was evil by virtue of its selfishness. Without any scientific knowledge at all, to say nothing of ‘particle physics’, Jesus reasoned that the spirit of God was in everything. Yet everything was made perfect, and maintained perfect by a Perfect God.