TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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THE RATIONALE FOR CHOOSING SCIENTIFIC FACTS OVER THE EMOTIONAL INTOXICATION GENERATED BY RELIGIOUS / SPIRITUAL FANATICISM:
While Religion and Science Are Not Always Incompatible, Logic and Reason and Wisdom Make Clear That If a Choice Between The Two Is To Be Made, Only One Choice Is the Sane Option
To study the history of humankind's belief systems, from their earliest ancestors to modern day humans, one common strain is evident:
humans either have no concern with truth and / or absolutely hate truth (specifically "their own personal truth" which reveals all of the false personas which they have been assigned or have assumed and which they believe actually define who and what they are).
Maharaj: "Once you are convinced that you cannot say truthfully about yourself anything except ‘I am’, and that nothing that can be pointed at, can be yourself, the need for the ‘I am’ is over'."
All personalities have hidden agendas, including all of the agendas which are hidden from the persons taking those personalities to be real. Moreover, the lack of interest in "relative facts" (such as you are not "A Super Spouse," you are not "A Super Employee" or "A Super Employer," etc.).
Additionally, the lack of awareness of "universal truths" and the belief in lies cannot be compartmentalized; thus, they are so commonplace that they permeate every aspect of the lives of the billions of non-realized persons on the planet. The result:
Humans have long accept the lies used to explain happenings when persons lack the scientific understandings which can explain natural events which persons think are supernatural events, resulting in the acceptance of dreamed-up myths and superstitions, flawed explanations, and the taught fear of eternal punishment should one question the teachings of supposedly holy men or supposedly holy books.
Maharaj: "To find truth, you must not cling to your convictions; if you are sure of the immediate, you will never reach the ultimate."
Persons hate any facts which run counter to the false information they believe to be true.
Person hate scientific facts if their disprove their religious or spiritual beliefs.
Persons hate facts shared by friends or relatives or acquaintances if those facts challenged their distorted political views or their distorted views about the way things should be in their relationships.
And persons hate any truth that is shared by a therapist or counselor or psychoanalyst or guru which does not align with their positive views about themselves or their negative views about partners or mates or "the world."
As some visitors know, my occupations which involve the analysis of the results of enneagram personality testing as well as my occupation dealing with the offering of financial counseling have me working with counselors in the U.S., Australia, and points in between.
Nothing sends clients packing as much as a healthy dose of the not-especially-flattering facts regarding their "personal, relative issues and conditions and distortions."
Maharaj: "A spark of truth can burn up a mountain of lies. The opposite is also true." That is, the absence of truth can build a mountain of lies.
As noted here over the years, "Yes, the truth can set you free, but it's going to piss you off first."
Thus, Christians who respect the pope and claim to believe that the process of choosing a pope is controlled by divine guidance nevertheless balk when he clarifies their false beliefs regarding "Gehenna" and "Hell," trying to end that dualistic belief as warned about by Yeshu'a (Jesus) when he said that "Dual-minded persons are unstable in all ways."
[In fact, Gehenna, the basis for the concept of "Hell," from the Hebrew "Gehinnom," was nothing more than a small valley in Jerusalem. Gehenna was initially where the garbage collected from Jerusalem was burned, was where some of the kings of Judah sacrificed their children by fire, and was where some of the enemies of the Jews were burned. The city employed men to keep the garbage fires burning 24 / 7. Hence, the concepts of "eternal flames" and "an actual geographic place" where their God of Abraham would send bad people to be punished for eternity. Pope John Paul II called for "an understanding of Gehenna in order to end the false belief in an eternal hell."]
The original location of Gehenna:
The lies regarding Gehenna and the concept of Hell have likely been used more than any other tool by religious leaders in order to try to intimidate and to try to control the thoughts and words and actions of their followers.
What happens when a pope makes clear that the heaven-hell duality is a lie? The "followers" stop following, at least they stop following that particular lead, but they cling to the rest of the dogma-based programming and conditioning which suits their personalities' agendas.
They speak of the "Good News" that their Christ brought and that they claim to share, but that piece of supposedly "good news" they reject.
When one comes up with an ego-state or a concept, there will always follow the lies which lead to a dualistic upgrading or a dualistic downgrading:
If the belief is that "there is this world" populated by both good and evil people, then there must be another better world for the good people to go to in the end and there must be another worse world for the bad people to go to in the end.
If the belief that one is a perfect spouse and has a totally-flawed spouse and if a counselor's comments affirm that bogus belief, that person will be in for the long haul with the counselor; but if that bogus belief is challenged, then therapy will come to a screeching halt.
If one does not understand the scientific facts which make clear why a particular hurricane followed the path it followed, and if one is attached to a dalai lama who says a hurricane struck land and "destroyed a city because of the negative karma of the people there," then they're all in with bogus beliefs about karma and about universal forces at play which are forever balancing and rebalancing karmic rewards and karmic punishments.
Maharaj: "You separate, you evaluate, you judge and condemn. In the
name of truth, you destroy it."
Next, humans are driven by the seeking of rewards and benefits, so the non-dual, Nisargan pointers to truth are anathema to most.
Maharaj: "If you expect any benefits from your search, material, mental or spiritual, you have missed the point. Truth gives no advantage. It gives you no higher status, no power over others; all you get is truth and the freedom from the false."
Finally, there are no "truth-tellers" because, in fact, the truth can be known but cannot be stated. On the other hand, a guide or counselor or analyst can point one toward truth by pointing out the lies which are believed. Once those obstacles are out of the way, then the understanding of truth and the understanding of the functioning of the totality can manifest.
To be continued.
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Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "God," the "Son of God," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns.
THE EXPLANATION
If looked at as nouns, they point to illusions and are, therefore, a total waste of time to even discuss; if looked at as verbs which are resulting in certain sane but rare behaviors among humanity, then they are worthy of some attention during the relative existence.
Meaning? There are members of certain groups who say things such as "My concept of God in the past was of a weak God, an absentee God, A Santa Claus-type God, a mean, punishing, vindictive God, etc. Today, I am in close contact with a loving and caring God whom I worship and praise and glorify and give thanks to."
The reply to that usually goes like this: "If you are in contact with a God that wants to be worshipped and praised and glorified, then you're dealing with someone like yourself - a narcissist - and hanging out with narcissists will never bring an end to your narcissism (that narcissism evidenced by the fact that you think you are "godly").
Next, in the phrase 'loving and caring God,' any supposed God that truly had her or his act together would tell you that the totally irrelevant part of that phrase is 'God' and that the only part
"That is, a non-narcissistic god / goddess would say, "I care not an iota about being worshipped and praised and glorified by you or anyone else. How arrogant and insecure and needy would I have to be to want that? Forget the man-made, dreamed up noun 'God' and focus on the 'God as a verb' understanding and then go forth and let loving and caring be verbs - not adjectives - and let them generate the act of love and the act of caring and let those actions manifest through you."
Yeshu'a (Jesus) and Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis were spot on:
"No one shall ever see 'the kingdom of heaven.' It is within"
and
"Heaven and earth shall fade away."
and
"Heaven and hell are not geographic places but are states of mind, nothing more than concepts dreamed up by men"
and
"There is no hell."
