Spirituality

[whollyheretic (deleted)]

I think that what passes for spiritual these days is actually religious.

With the belief that Somebody Else will do the hard and dirty work of rescuing mankind, New Age ideas are clearly derivative of christianity. It is an updated christianity, in which damnation is abolished and niceness is now the answer to all circumstances. But contradict their personal version and immediately oneself is an outcaste - so ideological insularity is still going strong, despite the addition of re-incarnation and karma.

I reckon the New Age movement originates from the inscrutable players described in John Keel’s book UFOs - Operation Trojan Horse. For those who want to pursue my meaning in this, I will privately email an excerpt of his summary.

So many earnestly spiritual persons turn into tyrants once they figure you are hooked into relationship. Setting rules and demanding compliance is tyranny, irrespective of any pretext of spirituality. This is not how things were in the old ways.

In matters to do with Spirit, authoritarianism is the destructive opposite of pragmatic skepticism.

Scientific skepticism is an essential skill in exploring beyond physicality (ie Spirit). Those who enter the Beyond without the necessary mental skills are overwhelmed by confusion, and often retreat to religion as if it were a life-raft without a paddle.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think we had no word for spirituality. Such a word is like trying to put god in a box. Wisdom - yes. But “spirituality†would have been seen as an absurdity ; trying to pre-make decisions in circumstances that are not now.

We cannot abdicate responsibility by following rules. Our allegiance and our responsibility must be renewed in every moment, or we become mere automatons.

Traditionally, if somebody did something silly or selfish, we ridiculed them - which is a lot more fun than tyranny. And we all could participate in preventing stupidity without making a rule for absolutely everything.

Yes. We had rules. Rules that were proven to protect both the tribe and its individuals. But very few rules. Instead of the threat of punishment, we had incentive. We strove to be wisest, to bring the best understanding forward, to avoid ugly speech and action, and to be generous contributors. That spoke of our love of Spirit far more convincingly than mere obedience to orthodoxy.

[whollyheretic (deleted)]

Perhaps the noblest of virtues, compassion is in itself a fine thing.
But religion turns it to poison by making it the answer to everything.

Same with other virtues - in the appropriate place, they are noble and beautiful.

But make believe that virtues are an escape tunnel from hell,
and virtues become empty, synthetic, forced.

Blind virtue is a formula for inappropriate response to a circumstance,
perhaps even forming the basis of yet another tyranny.
After all, the most convincing deceptions are fabricated from truth.

For example, compassion for a psychopath can mean that individuals who need killing
continue to cruelly deceive and manipulate,
undermining all trust between the people.

And there is a deeper note to compassion - a personal dimension.
To have compassion means you wish the other person to be like you, to be in your virtuous shoes.
Questionable because it has an element of self-importance.

An alternative to compassion is to let individuals be,
thereby indirectly supporting them in what they are.
To let them stand unassisted means that you trust them to to find their own way to clarity.
Then the triumphant insight will be entirely theirs, rather than diluted.

So. Beware the accepted meaning of all things. Even virtues.

[whollyheretic (deleted)]

`VALUES

Values define us as individuals,
and collective values define the culture in which we live.
These defining principles, these values, have a power that is understood by few.
Values determine attitudes, and attitudes steer our decisions,
ultimately defining what we become.

If we want to own the life we find ourselves in,
and dare to seize the freedom to think for ourself,
it is of the utmost importance to choose our Values diligently.

Values that will not betray us.
Values we can safely trust.

Today, our traditional values no longer define the people as once they did.
The people were overwhelmed by a force that intended to destroy our culture.

And now, those who overwhelmed us are in turn being destroyed
by their own values, values of selfishness and arrogance.

So undisciplined in their values of selfishness and arrogance,
that the consequences of commercial excess
may deprive all species who dwell on Earth
of a homeland.

Values matter !
And self-interest is not enough !
Selfishness ignores the consequences to others.

By ignoring the consequences of their actions,
those who are ruled by a narrow idea of self-interest
are actively setting a living precedent
on how their own life may be used.

What we wish for others . . . comes around.
Mankind has treated the Earth as expendable,
and in so doing, we have made ourselves expendable.

And what of the other players in the destiny of mankind ?
Even those who prey on mankind would be made poorer by our extinction as a species.

One of the things that worry me about New Age thinking
is that its subscribers are both passive and docile,
as if it were a virtue to allow the Unknown to manage our affairs.

Much better to create our own new age values,
to create an unique home-built Age of Human Evolving.
A stabilising development, in which mankind’s awareness is cultivated
and in which social values evolve rapidly and soberly.

We are accountable for our values - they steer the path into our future.

Packaged Fastfood Values from who-knows-where
are a lazy person’s abdication of our responsibility to the creator,
our responsibility for what we bring home after our adventure on Earth.

The best starting point for the sobering of personal aspiration
is in the values that were developed and proven for thousands of years
among the tribal peoples of North America.

Our traditional values of personal engagement with Great Mystery,
of sober enquiry and sophisticated generosity,
of determinedly striving for impeccability.

[spiriteyes777]

`THANKS BROTHER FOR POSTING DOWN THAT SPIRITUALTY INFORMATION AS I DO APPRECIATE THE READING I AM AGEING GRACEFULLY AND RETIRED FROM 35 YRS OF CHILD CARE JOBS IN DAYCARES. WOMANS CRISIS SHELTERS AND FEW GROUP HOMES . IN ALL THE WORKING DAYS I WOULD SAY A LOT OF YOUTH ARE NOT INTERESTED IN ATTENDING ANY CHURCH . THEN ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN SOME ADULTS ARE FLOODING THE POW WOWS TO FIND OUT MORE OF ANOTHER SPIRITUALISM

[whollyheretic (deleted)]

RESPECT

You will get less respect than you hope for.
Respect has shrunk, as people become less skilled in practical tasks.
Aretha Franklin may have demanded it,
but the essence of respect is based in achievement and values,
far more so than in the noble character of others.
With respect, Aretha’s lyricist was paddling a barbedwire canoe.
Believing something does not make it so.
Un-earned respect is mere politeness.

Just in my lifetime, I have seen our society change
from having been through a depression
(sharing was a significant part of many people’s survival),
and gigantic wars that demanded courage
and provoked a lot of sincere thought about personal and social values.

Today, I see nations of cowards,
with fashion and self-interest as their decisive criteria
(such grotesquely impoverished social values).

Nations of cowards ?
Allowing the safety apparachix to replace freedom with obedience - 4FUXsake!
By comparison with the Londoners facing Hitler’s blitz,
the reaction to 911 (a pinprick by comparison) is cowardly hysteria,
only 50 years after the British showed us true national courage
against a formidable enemy that was comparably demented and genocidal.

Fear and alarm is relentlessly taught on television.
Every televised entertainment flares with dirty deeds & horrorific consequences.
It’s not safe out there, in the world as they portray it.
And those who model themselves on TV personalities are so cowardly
they dare not even venture so far as the most basic authenticity.

TV has replaced the Church,
in having a daily grip on the attention of all but a handful of heretics.

But the implicit message is basically unchanged :
Believe our stories, our licenced description of the world, or be alone and friendless.
Effortlessly choose an empty TV hereafter, the perfect reward for an empty TV life.
Average TV addicts watch 4 hours a day of this spiritually & mentally-toxic drivel.
As a piece of social engineering, such a message could hardly be more destructive.

The predictable consequence of patronising leadership is a plague of stupidity.
Just look around.

The only antidote is to learn to think clearly.
Not somebody else.
Everybody !
Each of us !
You !
Yes ! You there !
The one with dismayed disbelief on your face !
You too !
Think Clearly !
Hah !

The Creator is an Atheist

[cerulean (deleted)]

`Very strong, thought provoking posts Sir.
Id like to pick up on an idea...lets expand the TV /media into sumliminal and open message/command transfer. If people were truly aware of what is going on in this field, I would predict a revolution.
Some 20 yeard ago, a mind operated invalid chair was designed, build and tested with success at the Imperial College London. Yes..it was mind operated. With 70 % success. The point is, in order for this to be possible, one needs to identify the point of interfase and quantify the neural responses.
When you can do it one way....ie to send a command readable by the instrument, you can also work it the other way.
So here comes the question concerning the TV, radio, telecom systems, electromagnetic polution.....If there was a way to influence the masses with any or all of these......would The Corporations let that chance go? Well, the truth is, we would never know. Not many of us anyway........And those that did know...would anyone listen to them?
Afterall....it so easy just to switch on that TV and go with the flow.....

[zoeloulou31 (deleted)]

`HI I am new to this forum so forgive me if this post goes out wrong! soz!
I live in england and i am on my own path to find out what spirituality means to me. I was brought up Protestant Christian and went to various Churches. I stopped going to Church as the one I was attending was Evangelical but because I was young I really didn't know what that meant! It was only when they started missions to other countries to convert people in India and Israel to Christianty that I realised I didn't like that! I believe everyone should be free to choose their path! I am still searching today. I got into New age spiritualism stuff and reading magazines like 'Spirit and Destiny' I then got interested in pagan and witchcraft which was fine for a while until I started using witchcraft for the wrong reasons! (spells here and there) After that I went back to Church and have read about other religons.I looked into Hinduism and Sikhism, read about taoism and jain. Almost became a buddhist then almost converted to Islam, considered becoming a Jew started studdying Kabbalah then went back to church. I'm interested in Shamanism but these days it is everywhere. You can do a weekend course for x amount of money blah blah blah! but it made me realise most of these new age psychics and mediums and shamans that offer this healing really have no idea what it means to be a shaman they treat it like its something everyone can do which I dont believe! Look at psychics there are hundreds of them saying we can all become psychic if we tune into our higher self and whatever! reading and finding out things for myself has given me a healthy attitude towards spirituality I no longer want to seek a guru or religon that I can depend on I want to find my own way! and im still looking I might never find it the closest I have found is in Don miguel's Toltec books, but I am not a Toltec but I can learn from his books. What I do know is to be grateful everyday for what I do have and to try as hard as possible to live in the moment. to sit and be still once in a while to look at the sky and listen to the birds and sit in the park and just be! and respect everyone and whatever their religon or spirituality is as long as they can respect the fact that I am still on my journey and havent found that 'aha' moment yet!