from my Taurus talking points

Some spiritual traditions recognize the wholism of the universe, dark, light, and hues between. The Abrahamic faiths, those who follow the usurping deity who needed to threaten his flocks as the One and Only Holy Father in the Sky, thought to reject the "dark" or "grey" as the territory of an anti-God. (Though their God still gets them to smite at His command.) It is a warrior religion, in which the other needs to be painted black for proper ritual sacrifice. The prophet Jesus did attempt to deliver a message of reaching out to each other, helping rather than warring. Once he died, those who claimed fame through their association with the Holy Son got to twist his message to suit their power seeking purpose.



Where we supposedly have it over chimps and "the state of nature" is our ability to create beyond our immediate situation thus that we can speak not only of biological evolution, but also cultural evolution. The hope is that we are evolving toward a more enlightened, less violent, state. Part of that process includes studying behaviors, making up our theories, looking for better methods of promoting positive social interaction. Or, of course, we could just find more efficient methods of violence and kill us off. Do we have an idea of what kind of mechanism is involved in how that decision is made?



I trust that the universe is unfolding exactly as it should. I don't trust that this has anything to do with my goals or good.



I am fascinated by the concept of a collective unconscious acting as fixative for an agreed upon reality. It occurs to me here that there could in fact be infinite existing possible realities, each anchored by its own collective.



the present opens without promises
maps can only agree with minds
no longer than their past
chance is made for taking
take up dance enjoin with
dancers
embraced in ecstasy unaware
of time or space


People going into an experience with needs/expectations of spiritual or "cosmic" enlightenment often over-react, whether from psychedelic use, charismatic guru use, or other means. If we take the experience as simply itself, we can learn much about ourselves. It's not the method, but the desperation with which it is approached or the need for belief which is invested. Why are people so often so desperately in need of this kind of quick fix for their lives? Why not enjoy the journey?


You believe in god because it makes you feel good to do so. So long as you don't act on malevolent suggestions ascribed to the deity, more power to you.



The war mentality, the us/them mentality, the idea that hostility can breed anything other than more hostility, is ruining us.


There is no need to postulate a nothing preceding something. For Creationists the pre-something was god. "God" may be a useful place saver for a concept as yet unexplored. However, there is no need for conscious Creator pre-something non-nothing. We can postulate a universe always existent and ever changing. Or something else.

could it be that no god wrote a bible -- these are literary works of earlier man based on what he thought he knew? could it be that all the spirit world exists as another dimension which touches ours? could all the stories be true in the sense that myth is truth made into stories for easy travel through time and space? could it be that maybe we don't know the whole story, have mistaken what we thought we were told, and/or have yet to get to the punchline?